MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 266: Shevchenko-Murphy | Diaz-Lawler 2 | Teofimo Lopez | Manny Pacquiao | EP 206

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

On Episode 206 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell look ahead to UFC 266's co-main event between Valentina Shevchenko and Lauren Murphy. Nick Diaz has asked Dana White to move the Robbie Lawler rematch to middleweight. The guys break down Teofimo Lopez Jr.'s comments to them about triller. The guys also discuss the state of the heavyweight divison in boxing and close out the show with quick hitters. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a show hosted by two mediocre losers where we talk about combat sports. Hello, everyone. It's Morning Combat. What day is it today? It's the 22nd of September. It's 2021. I'm Luke Thomas. It's Brian Campbell. And we are here. Yesterday was one of the most productive, important and saddest days in combat history. I mean, we we shot a lot of good shit. We were involved in the midst of all these boxing, breaking news, breakdowns, Canelo Alvarez, all that good stuff. And then you and I hit the

rooftop to film a special gift to the people that's coming out later this week. And it was all washed white dads from there. More on that to come later in the show, but you're wondering, why is BC wearing this, what did they call me when I walked in? So I didn't know that this was the name of this garment here.

It's called a drug rug because it's got the Grateful Dead logo on it. And, of course, you could not like the Grateful Dead if you were actually sober. Actually, the dead logo has nothing to do with the name, Luke. It's more like if you wore this in high school, you did drugs, you know? That's really what that means. Yeah, but it's like where you did drugs. You did drugs in like a sad place. Yeah, like the back of 7-Eleven where the homeless guy lived.

Like no one who did drugs at a party with hot chicks wore that. It's the guys who were like huffing gas in their dad's garage. I'll tell you what, in a factory town, the guys who wore these were also heroes. I'll just go that far. Wait, heroes to you or like genuine heroes? Hey, heroes work here, by the way. We got a chance to party with some of these schlubs behind the camera. Their names are Delta and Eight.

It's great. They're fun to hang out with. All right. I'm like, is our cameraman the MVP for what he put into our system, or did he fuel the downfall yesterday? I think he, well, we can't really blame anyone at this stage, can we? We are adults. We are adults.

Hey, we do have a loaded show for you today. We're going to get a little head start on UFC 266 this weekend, reacting to the Canelo Alvarez-Caleb Plant press conference brawl. Teofimo Lopez was on this show in the last 24 hours. Had some big things to say, some big news on Nick Diaz and other little assorted goodies. Luke, there was never a better time to like this video, to subscribe to what we

do here on MK on the March to 100K. It's not just if you're new here, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern on the YouTube's live shows. It's the bonus shit we give you at youtube.com slash morning combat. Big time interviews. Check out Canelo right now, Teofimo Lopez. Okay, the plant will be up later. Resume review, Nick Diaz, biatch. That's right. And then we have the special video that we shot yesterday, which will be out either later today or tomorrow. We're not quite sure about that yet. So, you know, anyone who said, hey, MK, you're getting a little washy the last two months. You know, all they do is talk about the Paul brothers.

You know, they're fighting each other. Right, I mean, we did. You know, yeah, all that was true. We had some bills to pay. You want to see our number one seller in merch right now on MorningCombat.store? MorningCombat.store. This fantastic I Love MK mug, you can get that for your coffee table and beyond. And we have a special deal for you today.

Luke, you want to tell the folks about it? We have a code for you to use right now. Live right now. It's called Live10. L-I-V-E and then the numbers 1 and 0. Live10, 10% off your purchase. By the way, they should know what our top sellers are. You can see the graphic here.

Number one is the I Love with the Donkey MK. That's our number one seller. Number two, Factory Town MMA t-shirt. In two days? In two days, that's our number two seller? I like how it's never number one, but always number two. That's a great thing. And then number three, the Morning Combat Fight Club tee,

which is now available, as you can see over there. BC and I got our own of those yesterday. Who does number two work for? Okay, please stop talking forever. So the special discount, by the way, will be live until 2 p.m., 2 p.m. Eastern time today. Speaking of interrupting, I interrupted Luke one time on Monday's show. First time in a long time, okay?

Long time. People, I'm like, sorry, Luke, I've got an incredible joke about a hooker. I've got to insert here. And this guy's vagine started to flare up. I didn't complain. We got a lot of complaints. Now people on social media are coming after me, alright? Relax. Don't try to bottle

this art. Relax, you're fine. Drug rug. Okay. With that out of the way, if you also want to try Showtime, you can do that. Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you may certainly go pound sand. We will do some fan subs today, and we'll do Dead Wrong on Friday. But to do that, we need you to email us whatever you have.

MorningCombat at gmail.com. MorningCombat at gmail.com. And you know what? I have to get our DraftKings read, BC, because we are good partners with DraftKings. Because DraftKings is the official betting partner of what? The NFL? And UFC. Of what?

UFC? So here's the deal. You like putting a little action on top of your action, if you know what I'm talking about? Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app today, and you are going to need a specific special code. Combat with a K. For what? I don't know. For NFL bets, what do you get?

$200 for making a $1 bet? UFC bets? Luke, you want to bet UFC 266 this weekend? How about $150 in free bets by making a $1 bet on a single fight? If you think the resume review curse is real, it is undefeated at 6-0,

then Luke, I think you're picking Robbie Lawler this weekend. That's right. And so here's how it's going to work. As we know, UFC 266 is coming up this weekend. New customers, if you will get $150 free to bet, if you just bet $1 on anything related to UFC

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is not available in your state, you have two options. You don't have to read that. One, move to Connecticut by October. Or two, get involved with the DK Daily Fantasy Contest, the chance to win $1 million. MK and DK,

what a combination. I stopped right there. You got it exactly right. All right, BC, you ready to get this started? Let's do it. Alright, topic number one. So BC and I, or I think it was actually BC's idea and it's a good one.

He wants to focus in on the co-main event so we can do a little bit of things differently on Friday. Make sure everything gets its proper attention. So as we know, the UFC Women's Flyweight title will be up for grabs in the co-main event on Saturday of UFC 266. Reigning champion Valentina Shevchenko will defend her title against upstart Lauren Murphy. For the sixth time she'll be defending her title. For the sixth damn time. That seems quite fast already. In two years.

I cannot remember the last time I ever heard her getting injured or having a fight being cancelled or something. She seems always ready to go and prepared. Okay, BC, you actually spoke to the both of them. I know we have some clips for BC, you actually spoke to the both of them. I know we have some clips for them, but since you spoke to them, both of them,

and this is kind of a fight you had your eye on for a while, set this up for me. What is the best way to think about this fight? What kind of chance are you giving Lauren Murphy? Or is this, as most people presume, just another Valentina shift? Look, it's not that I don't love the Lauren Murphy story. I do.

She's a grinder. She's a late career bloomer. She's won five straight. And when you look at the way in which she started her UFC career, having gone just two and four, you wouldn't have expected this. Have some of these been hard-fought split decisions that could have gone either way, like

her last fight with what? JoJo Calderwood was her last victory, correct? I believe that's correct, yes. There's been a few of those type of feelings. But she's getting it done. She's surviving and advancing. But Luke, it would be hard to pin this as, let me come on here and find that specific road to victory for Lauren Murphy against Valentina Shevchenko. It's because Shevchenko is not just, you know, the flyweight of the moment. Luke, I'm sorry, what was I arguing drunkenly last night? That she's at worst, what, at worst the third greatest fighter

in women's MMA history? Valentina Shevchenko? Well, you wanted to put her ahead of Cyborg, which is a separate debate. But see, she's certainly in the pantheon of greats, although you are kind of forgetting some pioneers. Oh, I don't forget shit. Megumi Fujii and some other ones as well. So the point is, there's a reason why the betting odds are so insanely in Valentina's favor. I think what hurts Lauren Murphy's public chances,

in terms of us talking this into being a fight, is we thought the last title defense in April, in which Valentina Shevchenko welcomed former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade would be, with the punching power of Andrade, Luke, tell me if I'm wrong, the toughest title defense at 125 to date for Valentina. Luke, I rewatched that round and a half last week.

Crucifix, domination, elbows, and Valentina basically saying, oh, you guys don't think I can wrestle on the same level that I can do everything else, including wear tattoos of firearms on my midriff? Here's this. Luke, her wrestling was off the charts. If she did it with that type of ease to Andrade,

it is clearly hard for you and I to make a strong case for Murphy. But let's give Murphy her close-up. I did get a chance to catch up with her, as Luke mentioned, in the past week and a half. And Luke, the one thing that she wasn't all in on is the idea that she's some accidental title challenger, that she stumbled into it, or that this is some rocky story. Let's see where Lauren Murphy's head is at entering this big one on Saturday night.

A little bit of both. I've been the underdog so many times in my career, like so many times in my career. I think I have 19 fights I think 19 and I've probably been the underdog for like 17 of them yeah something I mean I don't know what the numbers are but something like that and so uh I feel a little bit of both like okay here we go I'm the underdog again that's okay felt this many many times. And also like, like we were talking about, like, I believe in myself.

I believe in my team. I believe in the hard work that I've put in and my job that night is to go out there and carry out the game plan that my team has come up with and fight to the best of my ability. And I'm just going to focus on that. And when I focus on those kinds of things, when I'm just staying focused in the moment, I don't think about like, what does everybody else think about me? What do they all think about the odds? Like, I wonder who bet on me. You know, I don't know. I just, all that stuff is very external. It's

kind of out of my control. And so I just try to stay focused on what I can do and stay focused in the moment. Let me spin it to you, to be fair to her, you don't want her coming out and being like, well, I'm the underdog. I'm not supposed to win this. You want the confidence of saying, I'm supposed to be here. I've won five in a row. This is my moment. This is my time. But, like, can we cut through that?

What is the right, if this is the right posture to have entering a Valentina Shevchenko fight, what is the right game plan for Murphy to have so she doesn't turn into what everyone else has been in these five title defenses at this weight class against this robot that can just take you out in every category? Is there something Lauren Murphy can do that we're not thinking about that can make Saturday Night interesting?

Potentially. I mean, I understand her argument for why she does not, she doesn't want to be viewed as some kind of charity case, right? Partly she wants to be viewed as some kind of charity case, right? Partly she wants to be viewed as the rightful challenger, which I think even people who don't think she has a great chance still view her as the rightful challenger. She has won the fights that she has won in a very, you know, yeah, some split decisions, but an impressive run overall

in the totality of the body of work. And I get that at the same time, though, she does have to sort of reconcile with how we were introduced to her. It is true that she came to the UFC as an undefeated. Technically, she had won the Invicta Banthaway Championship. And then she lost her first one of her three. And then she lost total in her first six fights. She went two and four in that.

Like for a long time, she was obviously on the bad end of things. And maybe she didn't get lucky in some of those, BC. But since going two and four, she's undefeated. She figured it out. She got right. And that is what's really pushing her, not just that she's accumulated these wins, but the overall body of skills she has shown. To answer the question more directly, listen, man, I think we can all agree if you let Shevchenko

have the space and time, so time on the clock as well as the space, and the two can be related to that, to make calculated decisions and set traps and define the terms of the fight in the way in which she likes to, you do not have a prayer. You do not have a prayer. You cannot win that kind of a fight with her. What you might be able to do, and I don't know if Lauren Murphy can pull it off, you kind of box a brawler, brawl a boxer. I think you have to make it a little bit uglier.

I think you have to overwhelm her with offense so she can't get going with the traps, with the decision-making, with all the things she does to lure you in. Lauren has called herself, in my interview with her, the most well-rounded fighter in the game. I think you can certainly argue maybe Valentina fits that title, but I almost wonder if that's a bit of a detriment to Lauren Murphy. What she does great, Luke, is she's well-rounded and she's tough. But I think she might need or would have want to have possessed right now an elite level talent

in one specific lane. Like Andraj, she came up empty. I thought she was going to have a chance to test the chin, make Valentina have to go to plan B or C.

Luke, we didn't get that far. But you'd admit Andraj had the one-punch power, had that fight going a little differently to make it interesting. What Lauren Murphy can't do is the extreme of being Jessica Ion, just running into traffic and saying, I'm going after this. There's got to be some, I mean, there's got to be some nuance to how she can sort of pick, this is my best strategy, because if you make

Valentina the counter-puncher, she's too accurate, clean, sharp, and smart, like she was against Holly Holm back at 135. And if you come after her, we've seen what happened. It's such an uphill battle that it's crazy. I mean, you look at her turnaround. The invention of this 125-pound division, I think, was a great thing for Murphy as well like it was for Shevchenko and a lot of these fighters to figure out, yes, this is her perfect weight. But Luke, she's in there against a historic figure in Shevchenko.

There's no getting around that. So I don't know what to tell her. If she had DM'd me and said, look, Beastie, you know, tell me what I need to do. This is my point. Reschedule the fight, Luke? Yeah, this is my point, that you can't, she will never beat her if you're like, okay, we're going to stand at boxing range and try her hand there, or we're going to stand at kickboxing range and try her hand there,

or we're going to get on top, and we're just going. Or we're going to stand at kickboxing range and try our hand there. Or we're going to get on top. And we're just going to sort of, you could potentially make an argument for getting on top and then working a ground and pound game. But, dude, her takedown defense has gotten really good. Plus, we saw she subbed Peña off of her back as well, if memory serves. Or at least, yeah, I think that's right. Yeah, so even that's not a great place. To me, you have to go in there and level change, connect with her,

absolutely unload in tight spaces, and then break off and just kind of start this weird, unorthodox way of overloading her with volume, essentially, to win. I don't know how else you can do it. The only one who had any kind of success in these six fights in this division for Valentina, including the title win over Joanna Young-Jacek, is Jennifer Maya, right? And she did have that one dominant strength in that one dominant area. Don't know if Lauren Murphy can even replicate

that level of success in this one. Luke, when Valentina's been so active, and she has, and she's showing up for each title defense, you know, a guarantee on the clock date every three, four months, and she's getting dominant wins, it's hard to say, okay, what's the storyline this time around for this great fighter? Should she just stay on this route and keep piling up title defenses and

keep, you know, cementing how we remember her? Is it time right now, if she goes out there against Lauren Murphy and does what we expect her to do, I expect her to get a finish in some form, okay? I expect that now of Shevchenko. It doesn't always happen. Liz Karmouche decided to kind of go the other direction and Shevchenko's like, okay, this is the road we're going down in this fight. But let's say Shevchenko gets the finish. Should she be getting pound-for-pound number one votes over Amanda Nunes, even though Nunes beat her twice because of the fact that now Valentina's in a separate division, she's dominating the level of competition?

That's a tough one. That's a tough one. That's a tough one, because I thought she won the second fight with Nunes. And those are her only two losses in the UFC. And her only other loss, by the way, was against Liz Karmush on the regional level when there was a cut and there was a bad stoppage by the referee.

Right, which they already fought again. She's never really been handled. Let me just say this, though. Here's an interesting thing that's happening. She is... We're talking about Valentina. She is alternating decisions with stoppages. So Priscilla Cachuerra,

she stopped her, then had a decision against Ioana. Then she head kicked Jessica Ai, then she had a decision against Karmus. Then she stopped Shukagian, but had a decision against Maya. Then she TKO'd Andrade, which means if Paz is prologue, she's actually due for a decision against Lauren Murphy, which by the way, wouldn't be the craziest thing.

Lauren Murphy is tough. She's tough. She's a veteran. She doesn't make a ton of mistakes. That's not an easy out for Valentina Shevchenko, even if you think that she's probably going to win. And again, the likelihood is. Where would it put her?

Man, it's a tough question. Because what you're saying here is you can make a case, correct me if I'm wrong, the argument would be that Shevchenko, while having the losses to Nunes, has overall produced something at a lighter weight that is more impressive and we know she can go up a weight class and have an impressive run there as well. You could say the same for Amanda at 145, but 145 is not as deep as 125 to 135. So that would put the argument back in favor of Shevchenko. I still go with Nunes just based on the amount of Ws over the legends.

I mean, the argument against it is that Nunes is a two-division champion, not one, that Nunes beat her clearly in the first one. Close fight. Shevchenko figured something out at UFC 196 and made a run in round three, and you wonder if that was five rounds, could it be different? But it's still a clean, clear win for Amanda, and that head-to-head should matter to some degree. Obviously, the case for it is the fact that you and I both believe

Valentina won that second fight or at least deserved something better than the decision that she got. You also could say, well, what level of competition is she facing at 125? Look, the competition seems to be getting better for Valentina than we originally thought. And, oh, by the way, Luke, at 35 and 45, you know, Cyborg and Holly Holm notwithstanding, it's not like Nunes has been facing all killers. I mean, there's been Jermaine Duran to me. And so there's certainly a somewhat equal level of competition in that regard. What you and I, I think, I'm going to speak for you, love about

Valentina is she's polite. She's an ambassador for the sport. You nailed her as named her, nailed your name, nailed your naming of her as one of the top Freudian as well. Yeah. I cleaned up quick though, as one of the top baby faces, you know, heroes,

good guys in this sport, good, you know, females and all that. But she can also be stunk old Luke. Let's hear her take on how this fight is going to play out. What do you have to focus on the most in what she brings to the table to get the victory? I would say she's a well-rounded fighter.

She's like a MMA fighter. She knows everything. And she's kind of like good wrestling, good ground game, good like stand up game. Everything fine. But the other things that who she faced, this is kind of like different. So, yeah, it's different. And I'm here not only to give like not just uh give it like credits to laurian i respect her i know she's a dangerous opponent but uh my mission is go there and destroy her it's not quite uh i must break her but it's not that far from that ice cold is what it is ice cold yeah dude she's her success is not accidental it's just not She is always on weight.

She lives in the gym. Her lifestyle is almost, you know, she's not like secluded, but it's so directed towards all things preserving her life around being a professional athlete. Who does this? To her point, she's been doing it for much longer than most of her peers. She appears to be genuinely a better athlete anyway than many of them. And she's committed to this in ways that no matter how much you care about it as an opponent You can't be given how she lives her life. She has no children. She has no Significant other that I'm aware of she just lives this

I mean the training camp she had for this which she details my interview if you want to check it out on YouTube is She was not basically a houseboat with her sister, who's her top training partner, and her oldest sister, Antonina, and of course her coach, Pavel, who doesn't always get big-time credit despite his success with her having started training her when she was age five, you know, at a lower instructional level. They lived in that boat, Luke, went around the state of Washington, stopped at towns, went into local gyms and worked there, and then just went back on the boat and worked. I mean, like, it's a weird setup. And I said, you know, is that different?

Is that distracting? Would you ever want to do it again? She goes, do it again. I do that every training camp. And if you follow her on IG, Luke, and I know you won't admit it publicly whether you do or not. I don't. She lives a travel network lifestyle,

and it doesn't affect her. In fact, it seems like it fuels her. So that's wild. To close, Luke, you can't talk about Valentina without talking about Amanda Nunes, as we already mentioned. You know the rhetoric every time you bring it up to her is, look, one of these days, eventually, we'll get that fight. So I wanted to say, are you sick of waiting on saying one of these days? Because it would seem like, what are we waiting for? Can we do that third fight already? Can we

do this historic thing? Let's tee it back up to Valentino one last time to hear her thoughts on this. But do you ever get frustrated with that and say, hey, Dana, can we just do it this year and get it over with, please? Because I know I'm going to beat her. I mean, come on. I mean, what do you think? 2022 is the year?

I don't have his personal number. That's why I cannot call him and say that all right all right i don't know i mean i feel like you're getting better and she's she's staying the same but i i feel like if you know you guys fought a third time it might be your best chance it's gonna be what time is it now it's time to find Nunez no okay you know I'm ready for this fight whenever it's happened I'm here I'm here like right here all right look first of all the chemistry is undeniable on screen right there but you know like you and I have in a lot of ways too but uh you do you believe that does she not have Dana White's

number she can't text him do you believe this I do believe that yeah yeah I do believe that okay she might have like Mick Maynard or Sean Shelby's number but she ain have Dana White's number? She can't text him? Do you believe this? I do believe that, yeah. Yeah, I do believe that. She might have, like, Mick Maynard or Sean Shelby's number, but she ain't got Dana's, no. Because it's inevitable. When do we see it? When do we see the third fight at 135 to determine who's the greatest of all time? I don't think we do. I don't think Amanda's

got any incentive to take it. I think that, obviously she has her own fight coming up, but I think she's focused on a lot of new parts of her life, like her burgeoning family and her daughter and then the relationship she has with her wife and everybody else. Like, I think that a door has closed. I think what's going to happen is Nunes probably will get out of the sport

before Shevchenko, and then I think what Shevchenko is going to try to do is a little bit, I'm not comparing, here's what's interesting. I don't think that a John Jones DC comparison works in the same way as a Shevchenko and Amanda Nunes, because I do think that Shevchenko beat her the second time. But in the sense that you had a guy like Cormier able to change weight classes for different reasons and different circumstances, but then get some glory from that and then capture another one in John's absence, you might get something a little bit like that, I think, where upon her removal from the sport, she becomes not just a pound for pound best woman right now, but will add to her case over time. Yeah, that's fair. Final note, there's a lot of people saying, well, maybe the Amanda fight doesn't

need to happen. Maybe Weili moving up from flyweight is the one. Ioana moved up from flyweight and maybe it was a style problem. Maybe it was the fact that Valentina had already beaten her three times in Muay Thai. She had nothing for her in a lot of ways. She didn't have the power to really... I mean, strawweight. Strawweight to flyweight.

Excuse me on that. Do you think either Rosanna Mayunas, the defending champion, or Weili or Zhang Weili can give her anything at 125 if they wanted to? Star White to Flyweight. Excuse me on that. Do you think either Rosanna Mayunas, the defending champion, or Wei Li, or Zhang Wei Li, can give her anything at 125 if they wanted to? No, I think she's too big. I think they're talented. Yes.

I think they're very talented. But I don't... One thing you just have to reconcile with Valentina Shevchenko is everyone talks about her mindset. Everyone talks about her skills

and they're tremendous. Do not lose sight of the fact that she is a very physically strong athlete, which is why she does not get overwhelmed at 135. She can absolutely hold her own there. And against 125ers, she tosses them around like ragdolls. So I think a 115er coming up, like a Rose.

Rose can fight her ass off. But if someone's that physically big, it's just going to be a bit of a problem for her. I wonder if Tatiana Suarez long-term can be that challenge. We'll find out. Lauren Murphy's chance is Saturday, Luke, as we roll on. All right. Point number two, speaking of Saturday, let's talk about some news that broke yesterday.

And we don't really know what to make of it. Maybe it means nothing. Maybe it means everything. It's the mystery of Nick Diaz. It continues. So I think Ariel Hawane was the first to report this, but Dana White admitted it after yesterday's contender series, namely that Nick Diaz wants

his fight with Robbie Lawler, yes, the one that's in, what, two, three days at this point, to be a middleweight fight, not a 170 fight. Now, you might be asking why he wants that. I don't know why he wants that. It's obvious. It seems obvious, right? Well, okay, they don't want to cut the weight. That part is true.

They're both older. If you're both in a position where you don't have to cut the weight, why should you? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. But first, we're waiting on Robbie's camp to agree. The fact that they haven't immediately agreed kind of tells me that they probably will, but that they're not super pleased about it, number one.

Number two, BC, it's not like even with the weight cuts, even though he's older, that Nick Diaz doesn't have a good gas tank. So let me ask you, why is he bringing this up this late? I don't think it's for mind games, because I don't think he has the intentionality to play them. But does it signal a worry for you, or is this just Diaz being Diaz? Well, look, we can't lie here. A guy who's 38, coming off of a six-year layoff,

and we documented it in resume review, and it might actually be our best edition of that, separate from the cosmic elements of cursing, that Nick Diaz has put a lot of mileage and scar tissue on an incredibly fun action star career, that Luke, what we saw at the tail end of his career that was most disturbing, I think from the Condit fight through GSP through Silva, was I don't think he wanted to be there anymore overall.

So what does this tell me on a final cut during fight week? Hey, you know what? I don't know if I want to go through this cut anymore. I tend not to look at it as a super negative because what are your expectations of this fight? It's two old guys on the way out, rekindling a rivalry 17 years in the making. It's a great footnote.

It's an attraction fight. It's, I compared it to like the, you know, Guns N' Roses going back on tour, Grateful Dead reuniting. You're like, man, I got to see Nick one more time. In that regard, Luke, let it just be open weight for all I care. You know, neither of these guys are going to spin off of this to some type of level of title contention, or we really, really don't think that's possible. This is an attraction fight under that dome. Whatever, bro. I'm not going to dig too deep on, well, maybe Nick doesn't want to be there. He had plenty of time to sit out and get his mind right, get a lot of things right, get his, you know, spirit, body, all of that. He's going to come back, Luke. Whatever

he's going to have, he's going to have. This is maybe different than when Conor came back from the layoff against Cowboy, and he wanted to do it one A-class up, and Dan's like, all right, bro, go ahead. I'm not going to make you cut down. That wasn't on three days' notice. That's a little bit different. Yeah, this is a different scenario. But, Luke, you don't have high expectations that this fight is anything more than a nostalgic exhibition, do you?

Not too much more, no. There is a chance that Nick Diaz will be able to recapture some lost magic. I think that's certainly possible. But to your point, it would be almost impossible to look at a win here for either of them as some kind of title-implicated event. It's just so far removed from that still. I think the prudent way to look at this, BC, is probably like you can't make too much out of it. The Diaz brothers, they are famous for this. No, not the changing of weight classes last minute.

That's not it. Or that, you know, they don't come prepared. They almost always come quite prepared. It's an issue of, to me, it doesn't make a lot of sense to try and read the terrain of his decision-making. It's probably right. He probably started the wake-up process and was like, fuck this, this sucks, I don't want to do it.

Let's just see if we can get out of it fine. But the late notice of it, I wouldn't signal to me that like, oh, did Diaz do enough road work and prep so that he actually couldn't cut down to 170 and the signals that he is not prepared for the contest. I would be very strongly cautioning against that. To me, these guys live a little bit by whim. They change plans all the contest. I would be very strongly cautioning against that. To me, these guys live a little bit by whim. They change plans all the time based on a new set of circumstances. This is probably in line with that more than any kind of potential pre-fight red flag about preparatory levels. Or predatory from where I come from. It is kind of interesting to me, though, that like, you know, to their own detriment, they never

pulled out of fights due to injury. In fact, I say to their detriment because when Nate Diaz fought Rafael dos Anjos, he was kind of banged up in that one. Probably should have taken it and just did. If you're as in shape for a welterweight fight as you should be,

it's funny that they didn't want to cut any weight. He should have been close to the 180-ish mark anyway by the time he showed up on fight week. That part's a little strange to me, to be candid. But strange is the brand right now. The mercurial nature is what we love, sometimes loathe. I mean, I watched the first half of the countdown show between the two of them, and it was great to see Nick look into the camera and be like, you know, I left a lot of almost basically saying I left a lot of money on the table through the years by just not being good on the mic and not wanting anything to do with it. And just being like, you know, they showed all of his great one liners.

We're like, you know, a sideline reporter's got his question teed up and he's just like, yeah, it was a good fight. And it's like, all right, you know. So it's that's the brand. Does this change the fight? It doesn're just like, all right. So that's the brand. Does this change the fight? It doesn't change it at all. As long as Robbie's team is okay with it, to me, it's going to be what it's going to be. I have low expectations from the standpoint that one or both are going to look credible.

Would I like some fun action and even a little sloppiness mixed in, which seems inevitable? Yes, I do, Luke. I had said to you this week that if this could look like Robbie Lawler versus Ben Askren, meaning there were dramatic twists and turns, was that fueled by both starting to be a little past their prime? Probably, Luke.

But I think if you can get a little dramatic back and forth, the spirit of that prime Nick Diaz run when the defense wasn't there and he's just coming after people, I'd like to live that again one more time as long as it can be done safely. Are there implications to the win, which is to say this, okay, title shot seems insane, but if the fight's now at 185, are people going to be saying, let's say Nick looks good? Not like great, but like good. Like, okay, wow, he looked good.

Are they going to be saying, put Nick in there against Till, put Nick in there against Adesanya, put Nick in there against some fun bangers at middleweight as opposed to what we were thinking which was the 170 track. I want to put a pin in this because you'll see a topic close to this resurface later in the show, but I don't have high expectations even with a win for next future. I'll ask you later on if you have the same.

I want to close on this topic with this, Luke. Sometimes people call you out for not having fun. That you look at this curse resume review and you're just like, yo, fuck them, fuck all those people that put all those comments about how dare you guys do this to Nick, man. I don't read them.

There's no sustained curses, bro. There's not. But Luke, the six fight evidence that we have built up, look, you know, we're putting the mugwies into the world. If they turn into, you know, you want to feed these motherfuckers after midnight, you want to pour water on them, they're going to turn into gremlins, right?

Like all I do is give you that opportunity. What do you think the curse, what do you think it says about the curse if Nick extends to 7-0 after we picked him? What does it say about it? Nothing. You smell like bologna and fentanyl. Alright.

Alright, great. I haven't interrupted you once, though. You're doing great. You're doing great you're doing great alright so let's go to point number three so BC set this one up and we interviewed him yesterday Teofimo Lopez Jr.

ok if you fucks folks if you fucks either way if you haven't paid attention to this I don't know who else to say it the guy's fight date

with Cambosis has been moved what five or six times threatening a fifth time threatening a fifth time it wasreatening a fifth time. It was supposed to be on the 5th. They moved it to the 4th of October. Before this, in June and August and everything else.

Now they're talking about moving it to the 16th. So we actually had Teofimo Lopez on and asking him. Remember, he is with ESPN. He is with Top Rank, but they didn't want to put on a fight with the amount of money he was asking, so he went to a purse bid. And Triller picked it up for an exorbitant amount. Six million plus for this fight. But they have not staged

this fight in over 18 months of attempting. And there was a COVID pullout, there was a threat of moving the fight to Australia. It wasn't all Triller, some of it is him, but yeah, they want to move it to Australia, now it's back in New York. Okay, there's a lot of problems with it. BC, just before we go to some of these cuts, what was your assessment of this? I thought

he was frankly rather nice about it, given how much they've kind of dicked us around more to the point though, he let Triller have it to even say something that I didn't think he would say, which is he's not even sure that they want to stage this fight anymore, which by the way, it's not the craziest thought considering they're on the hook for him for an amount of money.

That is three times more than two times what the next closest purse bid was. When this purse bid happened, it was a time after Triller's success with the Mike Tyson fight, then with Jake Paul and Askin, where they're just trying to disrupt the market. Askin, Askin, ask for Askin. They're just trying to disrupt the market, Luke.

And they did that with this $6 million purse bid win. But at the end of the day, it's not that overly marketable a fight. George Cambosos Jr. from Australia is unbeaten. He's hungry, but he's a mandatory opponent. And even though Teofimo is a rising star and just beat Lomachenko in that close fight, the buzz was, let's get that Lomachenko rematch going, or let's get Teofimo against the other stars.

This may have been the wrong fight to throw all that money at, although it's because of what you talked about, the way that he asked for more money in his minimums, top rank didn't want to give it to him. It's a rare situation where the hole opened up for a purse bid and Triller took it. But Luke, let's be honest about what the tea leaves. We're not saying this, but what the rumor mill was. When

this fight was canceled originally in I think it was June, because Teofimo had a positive COVID test, you were seeing some pretty recordable boxing folks on Twitter being like, I think this is fake. I think this is a fake test. And Triller just is realizing, unless we have some type of shit show to pair

with this to sell it, we may be taking a huge loss on this. We don't know. This is not going to sell. So that's why you've seen constant date changing. It was a $20 pay-per-view during the week on a Tuesday night. Now it's a Monday night $50 pay-per-view. Now they on a Tuesday night. Now it's a Monday night $50 pay-per-view. Now they're trying to move it two weeks later to Brooklyn

and pair it up with a rap battle for a Triller vs. shit. And at the end of the day, you know, Teofimo's putting his, drawing the line in front of him, and that's what he did yesterday when we had him on. It was just like, enough of this shit. I've got to stand firm. And Luke, I thought this was an incredible interview, and I appreciate Teofimo standing up to our direct questions.

I encourage everybody to check it out beyond these sample clips. But I didn't expect for him to come this hard against Triller when he basically came out, folks, and said this in response to our questions. Cut one. To be honest, I could only – there's certain things that sometimes I have on my mind. However, I try to steer away from the negativity of that. I think it's honestly just something that they're trying to find a way out, you know, for whatever reason, for whatever reason that's on them.

You know, my whole thing is I'm an athlete that, that brings a lot of entertainment into the sport, you know, so, and that's why they had brought me into their platform. You know, the whole thing now is just trying to figure out these things. You know, October 4th, Madison Square Garden is where we're staying at, you know, and if this is something that they try to forfeit, you know, then we have the people of DAZN and ESPN to come back on board. Luke, it's a wild situation.

For him to come out and say, I don't think Triller even wants to put on this fight anymore, it's interesting. He was as direct as possible. We were as direct as possible in saying, do you regret going down this road with Triller, even though it helped him get a better deal with top rank? It helped him, to a certain degree, stand out and say,

I am in control of my career at age 23 and no one else. How many people in this situation do you think regret that the fight still hasn't gone on and we still don't know when or if or where it's going to go on? This is the funny part about Bob Arum. And listen, I'm not saying Bob Arum or any sort of promoter or anybody in the boxing business who's been around for a while is above reproach. I mean, there's plenty of very fine, legitimate criticisms you can make of entrenched boxing powers. But, dude, if they are entrenched,

there's probably at least some good reason for that in terms of how they understand what boxing shows make, what makes them work, what makes them not work, and how to keep this whole thing running afloat. Triller, quite obviously at this point, does not. I understand what Lopez did at the time. It's easy to second guess it now, but at the time he was coming off that major Lomachenko win. Remember, Lomachenko was also repped by top rank and Bob Arum and everybody else. They wanted a

rematch and Lopez and his team were like, no, we're moving on. Here comes Triller. Say, we're going to give you all this money. He looked like a genius at the time, BC. We're like, wow, he bettered himself to win and look at what he got. But at the same time, this should be a lesson for all fighters in the game. Obviously you can give a chance to whoever you want if you feel comfortable with the circumstances, but look around who has been doing this the longest. I'm not saying they're not dirt bags, but they're probably smart dirt bags and they know how to make money. Yeah. There's no question about that. So the other big part of our chat with him is about his future. If he's going after undisputed, undefeated, four-belt, 140-pound champion Josh Taylor,

provided he beats Cam Bostos, then I am all for Lopez taking that on. But like we talked to him, Luke, and you and I both sort of pressured him with the same type of questioning, when you come out here, Teofimo, and you say, I've already wrapped everything up at 135. I've already accomplished everything. The knee-jerk reaction is, bro, what are you talking about? It's okay for you to say, I don't know if I want to give Lomachenko a rematch. I'm moving up in weight. But for you to suddenly switch gears on Lomachenko and then not be actively trying to seek big fights with this group of the four princes, as Karen Mulvaney calls them, of Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis. What is that saying about, you know, his intentions? I thought he handled our questions well. He was also very slick and studied in his response. And he also went the hell after

this group of bright, young, lightweights. Let's throw to the videotape. I'm down for whatever. You know what I mean? I've always been the type to always go for these guys. You know, these guys always called out Lomachenko but never stood up to the plate. You know, so that just showed me something in them that I know, and that is that they don't have 100% trust in themselves. They have doubt.

And when they have doubt, that means they have fear. And when they have fear, that's when I go into that other mode. You you know i'm the same beast but a different animal when i'm in that ring um and those are the things you know i'm just trying to push on more and more so for these guys um because these guys are honestly fucking up my sport to be honest you know they are they talk all this and they do all this but they don't fucking push. They don't. Everybody's just talk. They talk it, but they don't walk it. You know, and this is the things that I just try to I'm just trying to push on forward for myself and for the sport, you know, is that if you're going to talk and you're going to call me out, I better see a fucking contract the next day. You understand what I'm

saying? You know what I mean mean but these guys just call out and talk and talk and talk they want to use my name they want to use the clout because that's what they do they all clout chase and and that's what it is they fake it till they make it and by the time they make it they're so fake that they don't want to take the fights uh tough words from a tough man and there's more in this interview if you want to check it out of him just going at people was it enough to justify i mean he's trying to say i'm the bigger draw of all these guys or at least i think i am you have to come to me now he's saying i've tried to go to them no one's picking up the phone do you believe him is it the right move to just say hey i'll move up and wait

and they're gonna have to follow me if they want this i will say given that he really sort of sought out the lomachenko fight for a while and while and what he was able to do in that fight and everything with it. I'll give him the credit in saying that I'm sure if those fights were offered to him under even reasonable amounts, he would take it. Like, I do think he is that guy. But it is very simplistic to present the disputes that happen between entrenched powers in boxing as simple as a contract was there, I wanted it, they didn't.

It is always more complicated than that. And so it's easy to bash your opponents that way because it makes you look good. And again, I do think he would sign up to fight any of those guys. I literally believe that. But it's never that easy. And just to close on what's going to happen with this Triller thing, he did tell us. We actually don't know what's going to happen with this Triller thing. We don't.

But he did tell us if it all falls apart, that's fine. ESPN and Top Rank will put this fight on and we can handle it that way. And also, George Cambosos basically told Triller, I'm not flying from Australia to the States until you have a cemented date down. I'm not going to do one or the other. And the IBF backed Cambosos in that regard. So finally, there's some adults again in the boxing room standing up.

Hey, remember when they were going to revolutionize the boxing model? Remember that? I was like, let me get this straight. The Hey, remember when they were going to revolutionize the boxing model? Remember that? I was like, let me get this straight. The argument is that Triller is going to revolutionize the boxing model because prior to them, no one thought to burn money by putting musical acts in between fights. Really, that's the idea that's revolutionizing them, you fucking idiots?

Look, you want to go down the old guy route, and Ryan Cavanaugh was on the Ariel Helwani show and saying Holyfield's going to fight again and you guys were wrong. He slipped and all this just long-form bullshit. You want to go the circus route, stay the circus route. Stay out of the real boxing lane is my take, but we'll see what happens. But Luke, that was

not the biggest boxing story of the day yesterday because as soon as we wrapped up with Teofimo on set, not too long after you and I hosted the back end of the Canelo Alvarez-Caleb Plant press conference ahead of November 6th. Luke, that shit got hairy, bro. It got super fucking hairy. So yesterday, of course, was the formal announcement November 6th from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Caleb Plant will take on Canelo Alvarez. This will be for

the unification of super middleweight. That's 168 pounds. It's a big fight. No one's ever unified in that weight class before, or fully unified, I should say. And if he does it, it would be huge, huge business. But of course, prior to even yesterday's presser, there had been words. We've been covering the story here on this show. You guys remember Oscar Valdez, who popped and was still allowed to fight. He's in the same team as Canelo. They have the same trainer in Eddie Reynoso. And Caleb Plant took to Twitter about a week or two ago to just blast Team Canelo, blast Eddie Reynoso,

blast Oscar Valdez. It was Nick Diaz being like, everyone's on steroids. Everyone's on steroids, basically. And so when they finally met face-to-face yesterday, dude, it got ugly. It got ugly. And that probably is fair to say. I'm not some genius.

I know how to run press conferences. There should have been someone in between them. I think it's fair to say. Can we show the full screen here and show you if you missed it? So there was a lot of talk face-to-face about Canelo's response to the drug issues. But it was really when Caleb Plant reportedly called him a motherfucker, Luke, that Canelo's translation of that from Spanish to English, he thought it was a mom joke,

and he told us afterwards in our interview, no one disrespects my mom. And then, Luke, after this shove coming up from Canelo, if anyone's missed it, watch it now for the first time. So he shoves him to watch this slip and right from Canelo. Okay, okay, okay. A cut under the right eye of Caleb Plant. Luke, it was this close to going too far where the fight could be jeopardized.

Luckily, we still had the pressure. We seemed to still be having a fight. And afterwards, Caleb Plant's like, it's a surface-level scratch, guys. It's not a deep cut like you all tweeted out and reported. For his sake, I hope that's true. Caleb Plant also, overnight, you know, his mother died a couple years ago. She had a lot of problems. She was shot by a police officer.

And he said, why would I ever make a mom joke? You know, this was misinterpretation from Canelo. However it was set up or handled, Luke, you can't lie. This raised the intensity of this fight. It's going to raise the attention on this fight. It's already a busy night in combat sports with a big UFC card at MSG. But Showtime's back in business with the number one name in the game. And we

have a personal rivalry, which as you and I talked about in the post show yesterday after this press conference went down, when was the last time you saw a Canelo opponent? Okay. Triple G had a couple one-liners, but get to this level where they're crossing that line and getting in his face and pushing him and throwing punches.

I mean... You and I have both seen a lot of canelo face-offs i've never seen that i've never seen that with him but if you think about it's kind of funny at 168 how it's gone it starts with rocky fielding who was just a i mean you know in terms of canelo opponents was just a guy basically and then it got a little bit a lot more serious with callum smith but he was still very professional and gentlemanly and it was still you know above board and everything you saw a little bit of that go away with Billy Joe Saunders. Billy Joe Saunders kind of saying some things. He talked that shit, yeah. Being cheeky, as they might say, a little bit.

And now it's just gone full out, this is your rival. Calling him a drug cheat on Twitter, to his face, at the press conference. He has made it rather personal, I must say. Things always get lost in translation. And obviously calling someone a motherfucker doesn't mean he actually thinks he bangs his own mother, which does not need to be spelled out. I just did anyway.

But the point being is, obviously he didn't say that. I mean, I'm hosting a show on a drug rug, so who am I to judge anyone right now? But Luke, let's say this. Because we ended up getting a chance to interview both fighters afterwards, and check out our Canelo Alvarez interview specifically right now on the Morning Combat channel on YouTube, we had to wait.

We had to do something in the business called vamping, which we are just experts at filling time. 52 minutes. They gave us a pile of shit lemons, and they were like, make some shit lemonade. And I thought it tasted pretty good, what we made. I did barf later. More on that to come. The point in our vamping in that that I tried to make was I thought this was a victory for Caleb Plant.

I thought he was like, yo, I might be the crazy guy here, but I'm trying to show you that I'm not afraid of you. I'm trying to show you that November 6th, unlike your other opponents, this is going to be a real fight because I'm coming for it. I'm bringing it. I need to show you that right now. And I think it was a thumbs up marketing wise for people to take it serious. But the overwhelming response I saw on social

media, though, was like, yo, this clown plant, it's already 10-6 Canelo after what we saw. He not only cut you, he not only clowned you, he not only all this. Do you feel that way? I don't know that I, again, I'm never one of these guys who goes to the press conference and was like, who won the presser? Because I've seen Floyd lose a lot of pressers and then win a lot of fights, right? It's just the way that it goes.

Okay, but I will say, we talked about this yesterday. I do feel like if you're Caleb Plant, A, if you feel that way, then say the way you feel. If you think he's a drug cheat, then say that, right? You never want to censor fighters. And I do think that Caleb Plant having concerns about Canelo, I don't know that that speaks for the majority of boxing fans, but I do know it speaks for a certain kind of boxing fan who probably like that Caleb Plant is advocating for the cause and the way in which that he is. I do think that part is true. And

again, if that's the way he feels naturally, fine. Also, as we said before, being the nice guy against Canelo doesn't do you any favors. He will not take any more mercy on you. If he's going to win, it will just go that way. Why not just go in there and be antagonistic? See what that gets you. And again, on top of it, if you feel that way, you want to be antagonistic, you want

to assert that you're the man, do that. I think though what's driving this BC, and he said it as well, when he had his chance after everything calmed down to then speak at the lectern, what he was saying was his address was to people who had been criticizing him this whole time. And a lot of athletes do this, but he had like a singular focus the entire time speaking about it. I think this guy feels like the boxing world feels like his success is accidental. He probably feels like Canelo doesn't respect him.

He probably feels like Canelo got ahead of him because he is a drug cheat. And if he wants to take drugs, he could be up there. He could be that guy. But he doesn't do that because he feels he's a man of principle. And so he wants to send a message to himself, to the world, and to everybody else about his actual place in this whole entire hierarchy. Yes, I believe they're guilty, and I hope they're burning hell. That was some brimstone out of you. I like that. The problem is that you can make a very clear argument for Canelo that Clem Biderol from Tainted Meat in Mexico

is actually super well documented across athletes. We should order some of that. Dude, at this point, dude, why are we not taking steroids? We are fucking pathetic. Morning Combat's special segments usually involve us drinking too much and then throwing up afterwards more to come on last night's events. But we should get more into the PED side with our MK Spend House.

Fucking A. What are we holding on to? By the way, if you're wondering about documentary 5.0, donkey-mentary. Dude, you've been lying to them about that.

I have been, but Friday. Guys, Friday. All right? Less than Jake, Friday. Friday, okay? It's coming. It's the fifth chapter in this.

It's going to be intense. All right. So, Luke, I believe that Caleb Plant put out a stronger front than people realize. Canelo told Mark Raymondi of ESPN who covered it live on the scene afterwards in Beverly Hills

that he already thinks he won the fight. Canelo does based on what happened. Caleb Plant stepped to him and Canelo countered. He already believes he won the fight mentally, physically and all that. We're going to find out. I just think that whatever chance you gave Caleb Plant coming in,

again, you could read what happened yesterday as this shows you he has no chance. Look at him. He's desperate. Or you can read it as this is going to raise his game up to an even higher level. Maybe this is what he needs to do

to look in that mirror and get himself fired up. Let me ask you this. It's interesting. We haven't seen the fight yet, but I'll ask it this way. You have Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, Billy joe saunders and now caleb plant yes is there a chance in your mind that the caleb plant fight could be the best of all of canelo's title unifications in this weight class uh i believe it has the chance to be the best entertainment wise because i believe

what we saw yesterday shows you that caleb Plant is going to be willing to lose dramatically if that's what it takes. I mean, when you come at Canelo like that, you're going to have to bring a different mindset into the ring. Because, look, Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, I mean, they never stopped trying, but they were never in that fight. And Billy Joe Saunders, once he got his face broken, was just sort of like, I'm out of here, and I don't begrudge him that. I'm not saying I necessarily know

that Caleb Plant is better or more tougher challenge than those three. And some of that is what we haven't seen yet from Caleb. He had looked great in taking the title from Jose Uzcategui. Then he had three more or less showcasing title defenses. We have not seen that. Can he raise his game?

All I'm saying is I'm more jacked up. Luke, you and I were sitting here watching that and I was like, I was that dude in the crowd at white man. Can't you? I'm like, yeah, yeah. Get that shit. Yeah. I think, I think it doesn't serve you at, we said this before. It does not serve you to be his professional partner. Like we'll just be great buddies. It will not spare you if he's going to win. It's like you and I, everyone wants us to be life partners and go tip on tip. Yo, I hate, I go, yo, I'll tell your ass to your face what I think of you, Luke. No, you won't. No, you won't.

And you love me anyway. Okay, let's go to point number four here. We stay with boxing's heavyweight division. By the way, this is a huge week for boxing, too. We just saw all the pressers and whatnot. And also, we should tell the audience, BC, we will probably be in Las Vegas for the Canelo fight, not in New York for the UFC fight, although we will have UFC coverage on the ground while we were in Las Vegas. Full coverage. So don't think we won't. coverage on the ground while we were in Las Vegas. Full coverage.

So don't think we won't. We have some big plans for that. Speaking of the heavyweight division, as we know, Anthony Joshua is back, ladies and gentlemen, just days away. How good is Saturday going to be when you can warm up with Usyk versus Joshua and then go right into the prelims and everything else for UFC 266? It's going to be great.

Okay. But BC, you kind of want to focus on the fact that we have Joshua, Usyk, Wilder, and Fury. They're going to fight within about a month's time. October 9th is the trilogy for Fury and Wilder. So you essentially have a final four. Right. So which of the top boxers have the best chance at being undisputed next?

In a perfect world, right? Joshua and Usyk are going to fight this Saturday. Two weeks or so after Fury, Wilder, three. The winners then would fight, what, spring of next year? And we would have, for the first time in the four-belt era, an undisputed heavyweight champion. One face, one name, one division. I mean, we came close with Vladimir Klitschko, who had three or four titles and was like the recognized guy. But there was always that one title floating around.

This is what we want in the sport. Now, will we get there? Will we have that? Boxing has a lot of shenanigans. But when you look at the four here, Luke, and I also want to keep two other names in the conversation. Dillian White, who probably has next after these four, is the next toughest, highest rated guy. And Andy Ruiz, who's still a bit of a wild card. I think Luis Ortiz had his time.

He's gone. I think Robert Heleneas, Adam Kovnatsky, I think they're a step down. But I think there are six heavyweights right now active that have a say in this. And specifically of this Final Four, who's going to come out on top and have the best chance of being your undisputed champion in 2022 and finally fulfill this, right? One man, one name. The odds are going to tell you it's Tyson Fury. You are going to agree with that, correct? Six foot nine, undefeated.

We saw what he can do to Deontay Wilder. You know, walked through hell the first time to outpoint him, stuck with the draw. Walked him down and stopped him in the second one. If AJ and Fury were fighting today like they were supposed to in the original plan, I would have favored him there. Who gives you the best

chance, though, if Fury's our betting early favorite in this, to upset that apple cart? Who would give fury in the finals of this unofficial tournament the best chance at breaking these plans in becoming your undisputed champion by next year the the wild card for me has always been and remains you know I've never given you stick much of a chance in that way but if for me the wild card has always remained uh wilder while there's always remained the wild card he is not a better boxer than anthony joshua he is not a better boxer than tyson fury that part we we sort of know

definitively but he just has a kind of historical power that is fight altering on a moment's notice it carries late and to the extent he can lay a glove on someone, he can win. It's just as simple as that. He barely landed a glove on Tyson Fury in the second fight, which is why it partly went the way that it did. He is coming out here, and BC and I have been paying close attention to it. Who was in his camp?

Otto Wallin? No, he had Robert Heleneus in as his sparring partner, so the 6'7", who's going to be on the undercard. Why is that relevant? Why is that so important? Because, you know, Wilder's camp has always been in Alabama. He had Jay Diaz. He had Mark Breland, obviously, for a while until he unceremoniously dumped him.

But I don't think that was, like, looked at as a top-level extreme elite camp in which we're constantly bringing in the top names. It was more of, like, what people from the outside looking in were like, a lot of yes men around Deontay Wilder. And I think the difference is he's now got a different trainer in Malik Scott, his old friend and former foe. Still got Jay Diaz in the camp. Now he's bringing in Don House, a very well-respected guy. We know him as a UFC cut man, but also he was the trainer of Bermane Stiverne when he won the heavyweight title from Chris Areola. And then he lost it to Deontay Wilder in their first fight that went to a decision. He's bringing in smart minds.

He's sparring with the right people. He seems to be focused on going to the body. He has a crazy look in his eyes. He has a crazy-as-shit look in his eyes. And I've always said if he can recreate how crazy he was in that Bermain-Stiverne rematch, that first-round finish when he just came out there and let his hands go, if he's going to be different and more dangerous and crazier, it's not out of the question that he can get an upset of Fury

and to what you're basically trying to say. The odds will tell you Fury's going to come out on top. The odds will probably also tell you that AJ's going to be the guy standing across from him, and if they meet for the Undisputed Championship next year, that's a monster fight in England and beyond. I mean, that's a crossover, get everybody from every other sport fan

and bring them in, you've got to watch heavyweight boxing again type of fight. I'm not sure why they may not end up in that though. Seriously. I'm not talking myself into this. This guy's freaking scary and he has a callous built up on him. And he's telling himself that everybody in his camp from Fury to Mark Berlin have been cheating him. And this costume he wore was the reason he lost. He's telling himself a lot of bullshit to con himself into believing that no one has ever faded him or can fade him, and that's who you need to be if you're going to be the gunslinger

of the heavyweight division. So it's going to get interesting, yet for all this talk that we're doing about Fury and probably AJ or maybe Wilder, dude, Usyk's a live frickin' dog on Saturday. Why? Because AJ is still perceived what he's always been, a big star with big power who can box, yes,

but vulnerable, Luke. Andy Ruiz got to him on the worst night mentally of his career. Other people have rocked him at times, but Luke, I think what made AJ's run, and he has the best resume of them all, let's be honest, the title defenses he's had, the names that he's beaten, you've got to give AJ his flowers. He is the most decorated heavyweight all, let's be honest. The title defenses he's had, the names that he's beaten, you got to give AJ his flowers. He is the most decorated heavyweight at the moment, without question.

But he's been vulnerable along the way. Like, even Carlos Takum hurt him with a jab. And, like, you know, he's had to sort of bite down and hang on, and he got dropped against Klitschko and got up and finished him. And, you know, there's some, like, there's certainly some things that you look at that with respect. But I think he can be had by a puncher.

I also wonder if Usyk is the perfect rare boxer. Why is Tyson Fury special in this era? Because nobody that big and long and that quick with that mind boxes and moves like that.

Usyk is smaller, but nobody moves in boxes like Usyk. It's funny. Rafe Bartholomew, a guy I love and respect who shows up on this show every once in a while on the Boxing Hardcores,

you and him both presented me the same thing that I hadn't thought about. Okay, BC, you're an Usyk guy. If you're believing that he's going to win against AJ, if that's where you're going to end up predicting, and we'll find out on Friday which way I'm leaning, do you think it could happen by stoppage? Is nobody talking about this fact

that maybe because Usyk is so accurate, even though he's not known for big power, and that AJ fades in the second half of certain fights, I'm just telling you all these facts to show you that it's not a foregone conclusion that Usyk is the one entering this finals of this tournament. Luke, could you want

to be in a better spot if you're a fan of heavyweight boxing right now than this right now? It's like, wake up everybody. We got players with personalities that are all vulnerable to a degree, maybe with the exception of Fury, even though Fury's vulnerable because his personal life may go off the rails. He plays

down to the level of his competition. This is a fun-ass time because everybody has enough flaws to make any matchup fun. This is where I want to be. We just need these fights to take place. The only concern I have is, let's say Usyk wins. Rather than there being a full-on unification, so let's is, let's say Usyk wins. Rather than there being a full-on unification, so let's say Fury

wins and then Usyk wins and it ends up being Fury-Usyk or whatever it is. It won't though, right? Because if Usyk wins they're going to make the Joshua rematch. History would tell you that's probably true. Right. So the unification seems a little bit... Like Andy Ruiz, you're going to have to try to beat him twice, right? Right.

It's interesting. Although Usyk probably, if he does beat him the first time, won't come in 7,000 pounds the second time. No. Are UK fans, though?

And we have a lot of them. Shout them out. Look, we have fans all over the globe, okay? It's the home of boxing. They think we're big Fury nut-huggers. We are.

They don't think we give AJ the respect he deserves for what he has accomplished. How do you respond to that? Don't think it's a credible charge. If you like AJ, like him. If you think he's better, say he's better.

I don't know what the evidence would be that he is a better boxer than Tyson Fury. I don't know what that would be. He's a finisher, though. AJ's a finisher. Great. Not a better boxer. Nope. Not a better boxer. Maybe a better athlete.

Big damn star. Big, huge fucking star. He knows what he's doing. And he just signed, by the way, with Eddie Hearn. It was also big news yesterday on a busy boxing day. A lifetime contract. Well, I mean, come on. That's like saying I signed a lifetime contract with my wife. Yeah, you just get divorced later. Luke, a lot of people are pressuring us to sign a lifetime contract.

You're signing a prenup, bitch. That's what you're doing. I'm making you sign a prenup. You and I are always one bad show or argument from this creation. We still have one more quick hitter's topic to get to. Let's burn through here very quickly if we can. Speaking of boxing, this one I thought was kind of weird. Did Manny Pacquiao retire or did he not?

If you ask Manny Pacquiao retire or did he not? If you ask Manny Pacquiao, he says he's retired. If you ask people in charge of his affairs, they say he's not retired at all, BC, as Manny Pacquiao retired. So this is really weird. So here's the direct quote that is making this difficult that all the outlets are running with. Pacquiao talked after announcing his goal to run for president next year in the Philippines, and he's an underdog in this regard, but it's still huge news for the, what, 43-year-old? Whatever he is. Whatever he is. He said, my boxing career is already over when he talked to the Tony Talks YouTube channel.

It's done because I've been in boxing for a long time and my family says that's it. Enough. I just continued to box because I'm passionate about this sport. Luke, everybody ran with that headline and basically said Pacquiao claims family pushes him into retirement. I'm done. I'm done. Yet MP Promotions, Pacquiao's promotional company run by Sean Gibbons is the head there, a longtime boxing guy. Luke, they're coming out one after another to Coppinger, Dioli, to all the big names and refuting it and saying, no, Manny will decide in October whether he's actually done. I've never seen it before where they're saying,

despite what the fighter himself has said publicly, the fighter himself hasn't decided. Like, this is bizarre. Like, this motherfucker doesn't know. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's a little, you know. Some still wonder, as we talked about the other day, the other show was,

is Pacquiao potentially using the idea of a Ugas rematch to fuel more votes as the hero coming back? I wouldn't put it past him. He's long been a... Okay, but if you want to... Do Filipinos really care if Pacquiao beats Ugas? Or do they care if he just beats some schmo and then makes him look like a dumbass and he gets raised and exalted just for being a winner? He doesn't tend to do things small, though.

But I get what you're saying. You almost want him to do the crimes of an old name and just bring in somebody who's not good. Just find some MMA fighter in Triller and go make some cash. It's interesting. He's been a longtime senator and that hasn't stopped him. I know being a president would be, you would think, a different type of time commitment. You know what I mean? We're not seeing your boy Donald Trump in the ring, although he did threaten on that

Triller broadcast to take out Joe Biden. Along with Andy Silver? This is weird. This is interesting. But that's our first quick hitter. What else you got? Second of all was our producer wrote that it's Triller. It is not Triller.

But the Riddick Bowe versus Lamar Odom fight is off. Thank fucking God. Alright, here's what happened. It's the celebrity boxing. Celebrity boxing is the promoter, and it was, they're just beyond gross. They were booking Riddick Bowe, who has, I mean, less than zero business, being involved in even an exhibition, frankly, at

this point. Let's say something honest. Riddick Bowe, at age 28, was completely washed right like we're talking he's 54 55 and so like this is a crime for october 2nd in south florida um thank you though that there's somebody stepped up so the association of boxing commissions condemned it lots of people condemned it although the florida commission sanctioned it with which they're just unbelievably gross people nevertheless the amount of pushback caused the promoter to rethink things.

They put out a tweet, I think today, saying that due to pressure and the Bo family and his business people not being honest about the state of his health, you knew about this. Everybody knew about the state of his health. Celebrity boxing trying to pass the buck to Bo's team.

And maybe Bo's team is probably guilty. They may have sold him a bad deal of goods. At the same time, dude, you had a moment to do due diligence before you announced it. Don't pass the buck now. And it's bad timing coming off of the Evander Holyfield in the same state. Bad sort of PR that came out of that Triller event. Damon Feldman

is the promoter of celebrity boxing. He was the brother of the BKFC. I like David Feldman. David Feldman. From BKFC, I think he's a good promoter. I don't know what his brother is doing. So the co-main event will still be going on, Paulie Malignaggi versus radio host, TikToker, Corey B.

But the plans right now is that Lamar Odom will stay on the card in the main event against a, quote, different celebrity. Yes, hopefully somebody who is not in that kind of condition. I'll leave it at that because I don't want to say anything bad about Riddick Bowe. Last but not least, BC. BC, did you play baseball growing up? I did. What position did you play? I floated,

but at my best, I was a first baseman. I did some time in the outfield, too. Yeah, I did most of my time in the outfield. I had a decent arm when I was a little bit of a kid. That's all good. Couldn't hit for shit, but I could throw with one hop. The only quality I had was I needed an adult-sized cap each year because the shape of my head is like I've got this large thing in the back.

I had a seven and a half inch cap on my fitted at age 13. Okay. I had a fucking melon. I was seven and a half when I was in eighth grade, and I went up to seven and five-eighths in high school. I mean, I have an uncle who had an eight. People always... My dad's a seven and a quarter. My mom was a seven and an eighth, I have an uncle who had an 8. People always... My dad's a 7 1⁄4.

My mom was a 7 1⁄8, and I had uncles who were up as high as 8. Boy, you got some Neanderthals in that family. I just think we're really intelligent, you know? Well, we got plenty of room for a brain. I don't know what's filling it up, but the point being is that we got some big-ass melons, too. But Conor McGregor didn't really play in a game,

but he did throw out the first pitch at, I believe it was Wrigley Field, where the Cubs are famously playing. I believe we have footage of it. We've got a couple different angles here. Luke, is this 50-cent level bad? Can we go full screen on this, Maniche? I need to see this, okay?

I need to see this shit. Brett Okamoto on the tweet here. That's a tight suit, first of all. Oh, boy. Okay. Just a bit outside, Luke. Wow. Dude, that's John Wall bad. That is, yeah. I mean, remember when Conor was at MSG for 205, and he was shooting jump shots, and he like rattled one home, and it looked weird and awkward? This is way worse. Is that a thong suit? Yeah, I mean, could your pants be tighter? I mean, what are we doing? Also, would you throw out the first pitch? I mean, it's a nice suit. Is that a thong suit? Yeah, I mean, could your pants be tighter? I mean, what are we doing?

Also, would you throw out the first pitch? I mean, it's a nice suit. It's a very nice suit, obviously. Would you throw out the first pitch with the jacket on, with the suit? No, you should have taken it off. Right? I feel like that's sort of... You've got to give George W. respect in that first game after 9-11 at Shea Stadium

when he threw that strike wearing the bulletproof vest. Man, fuck that war criminal. I don't care about him. He belongs in the Hague. Okay, not the best. Not the best attempt I've ever seen. Well, look, everyone that's ever done it has said it's way harder than you realize. Of course it is.

Of course it is. Because the distance is far. You're up high on the mound, don't forget, right? And, I mean, that's a far-ass distance. Okay, but did Conor McGregor practice? The thing is, what they tell you to do is forget your wind-up, you're not a pro. Just focus in on just

lobbing in a strike. That's what they tell you. Dude, all you gotta do is just get it to the catcher. Because if you try to throw a strike, it'll be in the dirt. And if you if you're an asshole, it'll be in the crowd, like that just happened. And if you're 50 cent, it'll be like backwards. It'll be like over there. You know who, remember Simone Biles did like a backflip into it?

Well, she's special. And then there's like these Asian women who do the backflip and they throw it while they're upside down. It's a strike. It's like a party trick. I've seen that one too. Yeah. I've seen that too. Those are the real stars of this operation.

I feel like you just got to get it to the catcher. As long as the catcher can reach without having to leave the seated position. Yes. That's all you got to do. Francis Ngannou, we played it on Have You Seen This Shit? He threw a sidearm into the dirt for a big dude.

He just sort of was like... Wait, the dirt as in the pitcher's mound? No, like the grass in front of him. It bounced in. Did he fucking spike it? Jesus, how did he hit the dirt?

I don't think he grew up playing baseball, Luke. Yeah, I don't think baseball's too big in Cameroon. Okay, that's it for this. So BC, I don't want you to forget, before we move on, we need to talk about my testicles. Oh, boy.

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Definitely Luke, but you know what else is important according to the script? Keeping your jewels smelling nice so when you get the package that Manscaped sends you. There's so many insults I want to say. It also comes with the Crop Preserver Ball Deodorant. And, Luke, I'll tell you what. It works. Yes. And how about the Weed Whacker, which, by the way, is painless, does the job of getting the ear hair out and the nose hair out. All of that is ready for you guys.

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probably have Billy go here under their scrotum. Are you talking about Antoine from Alaska? Yes, reaching down to their knees. You need this, and I can get you a deal where for every $5, they'll take one off, and then they'll send it to you for free. What are you waiting for? Yeah, just do that shit. Aside from being federally indicted.

I mean, if you're in the game, still do that shit. Thank you very much. Luke, I've got to be honest. People thought, mostly because you proclaimed it to be true the other day, that we would have a live Wheel of Death here in the studio today. I did proclaim that. What happened? Okay, a couple things happened.

Number one, the wheel— You backed out is really the answer. Well, number one, the wheel's not even on this coast. Somebody left it out on the West Coast. Okay, but that's true, but the producer said he could get you a wheel, so that really wasn't a limiting factor. Number two, what they don't realize is, for as much as I get made fun of, Luke,

for the long intros, it takes a couple hours to form these questions, and last night... Doesn't need to. Last night, you and I recorded a special piece of business on the rooftop here in Jersey City with our brethren, our beloved... Can we say the name out loud?

People have seen this already? Yes. Chuck Mendenhall was back. We broke things down UFC 266 style like men do last night, okay? You want an X's and O's preview? Come back on Friday when this nerd brings his stats out. You want to break this fight card down like men do? That's where we were last night, okay?

Paper bags and all. So I didn't have time to put together wheel questions. Luke can really do it right. So if you can't do it right, should you bastardize it? No. So what are we going to do instead of Wheel of Death? We've got another segment for the second time ever, Luke, the first time with Aaron Bronstetter. It's called Call Me Crazy.

Oh, God. Luke, I've been... By the way, you can buy... Apparently, you can buy this T-shirt on our website, the Call Me Crazy T-shirt. I didn't approve that. Luke, here's the deal. Sometimes I have some interesting takes,

but sometimes I'm onto something. So I'm going to read you five different takes, thoughts I have on the world of combat sports, and I want to get your honest take of whether my 9-11 theories are way off or whether we need an investigation with these opinions are these sincere opinions or are you doing a bit they are sincere opinions okay holy jesus all right Luke Oscar de la Hoya the 48 year old boxing hall of famer who narrowly avoided a Vitor Belfort did you see what he said today

he said he would offer Floyd 100100 million for a rematch. Where is he going to get $100 million? Luke, can you stop interrupting me so I can read about the $100 million? I did raise my hand, though. Sorry. Okay, Luke. So Oscar, Luke, just days after getting out of the hospital and beating COVID to avoid the fight with Vitor Belfort, and we wish Oscar well, he was caught by TMZ in the after hours in a club with his girlfriend. He was doing some karaoke singing and they caught him afterwards. He said,

I endured five days of hell in that hospital. But he also said what you just alluded to, that he has a backer of some kind that has $100 million for Oscar to fight Floyd a second time. Of course, they fought in 2007, my wedding day, one of the, still, to this day, what, the second or third biggest fight in the sports history. Luke, no one actually believes that Oscar has that money, to be honest with you, nor that the public would be all that interested in a rematch

at this point. But call me crazy for a second. Floyd at least picks up the phone when Oscar calls and says, you got any receipts? Is this $100 million for real? Does Floyd get out of bed for this news? No.

No. He does not get out of bed for this news. No. $100 million. As Nolan, our sound guy, said yesterday, shout out to Nolan, by the way. He would kick your ass, dude, first of all. But second of all, $100 million is still $100 million for an easy night out.

I'm sure Floyd has no respect for Oscar. Zero. Thinks he's more of a clown than he ever was. Correct. Doesn't believe in him physically in this comeback that he wants. You're telling me he's not even picking up that phone, bro? No, no. He might ask Leonard Ellerbe to pick up the phone. He's not picking up that phone. You're not getting Floyd

anywhere near a table or a phone call until several people have even determined that this is, you know, not merely remotely possible, but like very, very doable, in fact. And even then, dude, beating De La Hoya for 100 mil, why would you fight De La Hoya, who would be at least something of a kind of challenge, especially for Floyd's diminished skills relative to how they used to be and whatever he still got. That's still a reasonably tough challenge.

You could make maybe half that and then fight somebody you could just walk fucking right through. Why would you take even a challenge where there's a real possibility you could lose for that kind of a purse? No, there's no chance he would ever do that. Okay, and not for $100 million? Maybe $400 million he might. All right, call me crazy.

I think he's taking that phone call. Number two, Luke, at age 38, of course, Nick Diaz returns from a six-year layoff inside the Octagon this weekend. Luke, you know his teammate Gilbert Melendez, of course? He told the Fighter vs. Writer podcast this week that if Diaz wins on Saturday at UFC 266, quote, he's in title contention. Everyone's going to campaign to fight him. Now, Luke, with all due respect to everyone in this situation, one can call me crazy,

but suggesting Nate Diaz might be in the title contention and that... Wait, Nate or Nick? Nick, I'm sorry. I apologize for our resume review when I said Nate a lot. I did catch myself each time, but I did say it a lot. By suggesting he might be in title contention by sending Robbie Lawler to his fifth straight defeat, call me crazy, that's the most absurd thing I've heard surrounding this promotion this week.

That's pretty absurd. However, call me crazy, BC, but let's say he beats Lawler and looks like he did beating BJ Penn. Let's just say. Okay, he's not going to do that, but let me give you an in-between. Do you remember when Nick, this is Nick,

do you remember when Nate came back from his layoff against Anthony Pettis, where we weren't sure what to believe, and then we're like, oh, shit, Nate's still got it. What if there's a middle ground version of that for Nick, where it's not the BJ fight, because he still had it in the BJ fight, but he still has something, and he finishes Robbie a second time. There's going to be absolute arms race of people ready to fight him. So then you're supporting what Gilbert's saying. A little.

The one part he is incontestably right about is if Diaz wins and looks even remotely good doing it where fans have a good feeling about it, whatever that means, everyone and their brother from 155 to 185 and even beyond are going to be calling him out because they like the style of probably fighting him especially the ones who are ground operators who feel like they could take him down without much issue right that kind of a thing they are going to be all over it that part is true and what that might lead to is a potential matchup not for the title but for a fight that gets you much closer to the title than you ever thought so like a bmf with masvidal

something like that some kind of in-betweener that's fucking huge and if you won that well then or a fight that gets you much closer to the title than you ever thought possible. So like a BMF with Masvidal. Something like that. Some kind of in-betweener that's fucking huge. And if you won that, well then, that's a slightly different conversation. Okay. That is possible. The theory of this question is the whole title contention thing that makes me upset. Like, I don't know how the UFC could book Nick against Usman, even if Nick beats Lawler.

Usman would do terrible things to him. Maybe maybe with Conor's sliding stock right now, maybe that's, maybe that, you know, or Maslow, maybe those are the fights that are still money fights, still the big deal. They're not freaking title fights. You can't do that. No, I don't think you can do that. All right, Luke, number three.

Despite having played a big role in training camp as a mentor for Caleb Plant, former pound-for-pound king in boxing Andre Ward shut down rumors of a rivalry with Canelo Alvarez by telling FightHub.com on Tuesday, I don't have a history with Canelo. There's nothing more to preserve or

be worried about, end quote, related to the work he's doing in Caleb Plant's camp as like an advisor, mentor, in all that regard. Luke, there's a... Call me crazy, but Andre Ward at age 37, five years retired, and a future Hall of Famer,

last fought in 2017 at 175 against Sergey Kovalev. He's the only fighter at 175 or below that I believe, whether you're a hipster or not, that from a betting line, you could consider a possible favorite

to defeat Canelo Alvarez. Call me crazy. You are crazy. There are two other names I would add to that list easily. First off, Dmitry Bivol. You would put, from what you said, 175 on Canelo.

Yeah, but would you make him a betting favorite against Canelo on the run Canelo's on? I might at least consider it. I think it's probably pretty close. And then the one I would for sure make the favorite is Baterbiev. There is no doubt in my mind he would be the favorite. He is significantly bigger.

He fucking packs absolute hammers for fists. He is a very talented boxer. He is a little long in the tooth in terms of his age, kind of get things going here a little bit late for himself. But no, he is a monster of a hill to climb. I absolutely would favor him to win that contest. Dude, if Canelo, think about what we're saying here. If Canelo can go up and beat Bivol, you'd be super impressed. Dude, to go up and beat Biterbiev would be fucking historic. I don't want to lie. Like, six or nine months ago when we even talked about this idea. You dismissed the idea.

We were of the idea of Canelo will never do that. I just think the destruction that he's put on, like a Callum Smith, a Billy Joe Saunders, if he does that to Caleb Plant, I don't know, even Beterbiev, who, by the way, looked human in his comeback from an injury and a year-long or two-year layoff in his last fight,

I still think you're going to end up seeing Canelo as the betting favorite. What about specifically on the Call Me Crazy angle of Ward? Could Ward that far removed be a betting favorite? Because I think he's the only one with the size, IQ, versatility, and just pure craft. He'd give Canelo trouble. I think he'd give Canelo trouble in the sense that he's certainly just as smart of a boxer, if not smarter.

So there's that. The thing that would potentially keep Ward from being the guy with the favorable odds, although I agree with you, it could go in his direction too, but the one thing that might keep Canelo as that betting favorite is just the amount of questions that are raised

with a five-year absence. With a five-year absence, it does make you wonder what is there. Certainly he's not taking any damage. You're not so much worried about that, but can he physically perform under a guy like Canelo, who we have seen his power carry to 168? He is a physical force, even if it comes in a slightly smaller package in that sense. So that would tilt the scales.

But I agree with you. The numbers would be interesting to look at. You would get some very close odds. Ward's been off for four years, but if this fight happened, it would be five years by the time we would see him there. Luke, call me crazy number four, future Hall of Fame

running back, Frank Gore. You know that guy, right? Yes. He told NFL.com this week that despite rushing for 16,000 yards throughout his 16-year

NFL career, he's a free agent and he's been training for one of two scenarios, getting picked up by an NFL team for one more run or becoming a pro boxer.

The 38-year-old running back said that he has signed with noted MMA agent Malky Kawa. Okay. And has spent the last five weeks in, quote, full tilt boxing training. Luke, call me crazy, but this sounds like a really bad idea. I know that it fits in well with what we're doing right now in this era of celebrity boxing, but I feel like the bubble's bursting.

He can't be serious about, at 38, making a real run. He's got to be talking just crossover celebrity, unless you can get Nate Robinson back in there. Well, I'll say this. We both thought kind of privately that the guy who fought Chad Ochoacinco in Miami was going to deal him.

Was going to put a hurting on him. And he did drop him. Brian Maxwell. Brian Maxwell. But it didn't end up really going that way. In fact, Ochoacinco did pretty well, especially early. Kind of faded down the stretch. But okay, it was a three or four round contest. He ended up doing fine. I think you could imagine

a guy like Frank Gore doing something in a similar vein. But like, A, oh, I'm a free agent dude. Who wants a 38-year-old running back in the NFL? I mean, get out of town. No chance. And more to that point, that doesn't mean though that you're not probably a good athlete for a very narrow thing. What I would say is, if I was

his advisor, clock's ticking to get one of these. Because these kinds of fights are going to go out of favor, I don't know how soon, but when they do, they're going to get one of these. Because these kinds of fights are going to go out of favor, I don't know how soon, but when they do, they're going to be gone. So you're saying you should probably fight Lamar Odom on October 2nd and get your money now? Big. Yo, Maniche is saying our producer...

Can the audience hear you? Oh, okay. No, no, no. No, no, no. It's fine. Maniche, our producer, Corey, said that Frank Gore was at the last, what, Jake Paul fight? Yeah. And he looked good. Well, of course he looks good.

He's an NFL player. Yeah, but he's not getting picked up for a reason. Let's be real about that. All right, Luke. One more call me crazy. Yo, be honest. Call me crazy, but we got way more drunk collectively last night with Chuck Mendenhall than you ever hoped, dreamed, or imagined we might be on a weeknight in New Jersey

in which one of us immediately after filming threw up in a sink in front of all of his coworkers. And another one of us sprained his ankle on a sidewalk and threw up in a Mexican restaurant that's right bathroom and then clogged the toilet with it that's right and then was told to just walk home in the rain and we did Luke you and I have made fun of ourselves for years we're not lying about who we are as 43 and 42 year olds but call me crazy last night was pretty sad it was a dark moment and this shows history that was uh as bc said earlier we were chuck liddell in the third tito fight i mean just a cool breeze could have knocked us over we are just pathetic well you woke me up with a text this morning that was

basically like what's that scene in cool runnings where he's like sankha you dead and uh hell here's the exchange where luke's you know i'm like you, you know, I'm alive, but I'm dead. And then Luke's like, you know, I'm glad we did that, but I'm not doing anything close to that again. And I, too, am too old for this shit. This is our actual sex shame, yes. And then I'm like, you know, I do feel like Ben Askren after the Jake Paul fight. Yes. And, Luke, you feel like him after the Lawler fight.

The Lawler fight where he got slammed and then pounded. You know, I kind of look like Ben after that Ma Street off fight right now. And I feel about as healthy as Askren after the Ma fight when he retired. Yeah, Luke. Sorry, Ben. So most of our staff mates here who, you know, you're going to find out in the fifth doc when they see the reported scenes of our, you know, that frat party that broke out in the Indians box that I wasn't all into.

You know what I mean? These guys, this is like a regular. You're the most frat-tastic guy I know, which is so funny. Mark, the camera guy, it's a regular Tuesday night for him. I mean, he was pressuring us to put drugs in our system earlier.

You know what I mean? He's a pusher. Let's just be honest about that. There's a guy, Phil, he's got a bag full of seltzers. You know what I mean? There's some questionable folks. A.K.A. fentanyl and oxy.

When our lead producer, when our Tom Hanks from that thing you do, Snidey, when he rolled in this morning and was like, BC, I feel embarrassed for you right now. Yeah. Luke, that was, so, you know, the proof will be in the pudding, as Floyd says, when this video comes out. We, I have to, I can't party anymore. I mean, I can go to parties or something, but I can't party anymore I mean I can go to parties or something But I can't party anymore

I'm just a sad old thing Just euthanized me already You threw up in a sink It was like a public sink In like a workforce kitchen And like as we're walking by You're like oh wait hold on one second So what happened was I was standing against the wall

And I started coughing Because I was coughing And I won't say why. And then I could feel it come up, and I swallowed it, and I'm like, no, I'm good, I'm good. And then I could feel it. I'm like, uh-oh, this is going to happen. So I held my mouth so I wouldn't spray it everywhere, and then I went to the sink and barfed. Now, here was the funny part about it all. It wasn't a huge barf because I didn't have hardly anything in my stomach at that point,

but it was bad. Of course you would find a way to make this analytical somehow, Luke. No, no, I'm going to work my way through this because BC made some fun of me, but not a ton. Because I've been there, right, bro? Well, it wasn't because you're empathetic. It's because the hammer then came down on you because you started walking to the restaurant, which, by the way, our staff is like, yeah, it's down the block. Motherfucker, that was the way, our staff is like, yeah, it's down the block motherfucker.

That was the baton death March. That was the longest walk to a restaurant in human fucking history. Okay. BC in the back, BC in the back is like, are we there yet? Yo, just, he couldn't believe how far away it was.

Mikey, a headline for that clip. And I turned my ankle. Somebody was like, yo, you hear that crack sound? That snap was against my ankle. Like I, I sprained the shit out of my my ankle. Somebody was like, yo, you hear that crack sound that snapped? I was like, yeah, it's my ankle. I sprained the shit out of my drunk ankle.

So we get to the restaurant finally because it did exist and then it was good and then I noticed BC is kind of quiet. Now he's not saying a whole lot. He was sitting, dude, it was salsa verde. It's not fucking spicy. Anyway, he goes to the bathroom and is gone for a while.

I was discreet. And he came back and he goes, I'm so ashamed. I'm so full of shame. I just vomited everywhere. It's on my shoes. I think we need to go. We left soon after. Well, some parts of that story are true.

Not all of it. Did you vomit in the bathroom of the next restaurant? I was very discreet, though, okay? I was. You're wearing shoes from 1974 because you barfed on your other ones. I think we should end this segment. I really do.

I really do. Yeah, we're pathetic is the answer. It's up to us as a people to start making some changes. I hear. I haven't seen the draft yet, but I heard Doc 5, that's the theme, about you and I maybe looking in the mirror at ourselves. All right, let's look at these fans up, shall we?

All right. Morningcombat at gmail.com would be your home to send in your shit every week. So please stop DMing it to me. Stop tweeting at me and going. A lot of people, Luke, they tweet at me. They go, I have no idea how to get this to you guys, so I'm just going to leave it here. Bro, do you watch the show when we say morningcombat at gmail on every single episode and tell you that's where you send it to Mikey Morms? Okay, here we go.

Number one, Luke, this is from Antoine. That's got to be our boy from Alaska, right? Yeah, this is the one who needs the ball deodorant. He says, hey, Luke in BC just bought a 19... He is a candidate for ball deodorant. Just bought a 1987 Ford Ranger for 25 cents and I'm moving farther... Blow it up on the screen, Corey. Farther north into Alaska.

Just had to seal the deal in this MK hoodie. Many more deals to be sealed in the merch this winter. Don't know if you heard, but they finally sentenced the Q Shaman. They did. The guy from the actual ride. So for now, I'm all in the clear.

Love you guys. Keep up the good work. Dude, how many women did Ted Bundy murder in that car? Can we blow it up? Do we have full screen options here for this guy, Antoine? Yo, they say for 6'8", he's got like Kevin Nash pro wrestling hair. Look at this guy.

Yeah, he definitely has got a, he's a low-rent Aquaman. Yo, I did ask him over DMs, bro. I was like, bro, what's the tail like in the 50th state? Yeah, what'd he say? The 49th state.

And he sent me a couple picks. Not gross picks, but just like, you know, just this is what the fair is like. And how would you grade it? I mean, you know, for Alaska, this guy's active, alright? He's very active out there. For Alaska? Yeah. I mean, I don't have high expectations

you know, I mean, come on. Okay. He should probably buy the lawnmower, right? He definitely needs that lawnmower. I guarantee you his balls just look like they're just a disaster. Alright, we got one from Cap underscore YouTube. We got two photos. What the fuck is this? Here iske a mad reimagined i look like mclovin wwe2k20 i love when they make us luke

this is cap underscore youtube who made me with the bde outfit now he's got you with the hawaiian bc shirt on yep the lifting gloves yep the jeans and the wal sneakers, Luke. This is great. I mean, there's, first of all, what happened to this? Okay, there we go. First of all, the weightlifting gloves are really the most offensive part of this, I have to say. Also, the fact that I look like, you know. You look pretty jacked. No, I look like McLovin's fat uncle. This is the worst. Dude, do we have anything else from this guy related to this? Do we have a video or something? No? Oh, he did put out, I think on the Reddit page, they put out a video

of you and I wrestling and stuff. It's interesting. Alright, Chris slides in and says, when your mother-in-law extends a last-second babysitting offer, you snap that shit quick, whether you're dressed for the occasion or not. I represented Merch 2.0 on the cobbled streets of Glasgow with pride. Glasgow.

Go. P.S. Although I may be a pasty, white, bald MMA fan, I can confirm that I am fully vaxxed and was at home with my family in Scotland during the events of January 6th. That's hilarious. Can we go back to full screen? Look, this guy, Chris, he looks like he's been in the gym, right? Now, wait a second.

Does he have Merch 1.0? He does. But he's got it in Scotland? I think that is available on our 2.0 site. So it looks like the 1.0 launch, but it's like a holdover. And, you know, Luke, as you can see. You were going to make a comment about the woman. I knew.

No, I was going to. I knew. I was going to. You were going to ask me, what do you think about her tinkle? Her knife. It was not the direction I was going. I was just going to. That's a 1,000% direction. I just going to shout out our guy, right?

You fucking dirtbag. Do you think I don't know you? Wow. Okay. I know. Look at Phil. Phil's just like, I'm playing Mahjong on my phone. Fuck off.

We're going to pass by the sink later. I'm going to check that shit out. All right. Thank you, Chris. Keep up the good work out there in Glasgow. All right? Glasgow. Steven slides in with three photos. Hey, Chris. Keep up the good work out there in Glasgow. All right? Glasgow. Steven slides in with three photos.

Hey, guys, here's a photo of me rocking some 1.0 merch while trying to keep my son from pounding sand with his entire body and ending up on Have You Seen This Shit? Also included a throwback of him checking out an episode of MK. Yeah! Look at that little guy. We're going to poison his brain. I love that kid.

And one of him attempting the toddler equivalent of an Atlas stone lift at my dad's gym in Northern Virginia. Oh, he's in Northern Virginia. Okay. To humor Luke. Much love from Steven, the dad, and Emilio, the son, in Georgia. Luke, I hate it here just as much as Luke did, says Steven. Yeah. Well, he should because Georgia sucks.

Like Armand Sarukian and Luke Thomas, this boy named Emilio will be raised in Georgia. Bro, look. Zoom in. Does the little one have Crocs on? Yes, he does. Look at that king. Oh, yeah. He's like BC.

He's got a diaper and Crocs. What makes that lift more impressive is that that's a full diaper. That's what makes that lift way more impressive. Get that shit, Emilio. Yeah. We were rating Emilio Estevez's best non-Mighty Ducks role yesterday. I was talking about that. I think of that garbage movie where he was a garbage man,

and then somebody else was like, yo, yo. Breakfast Club. Breakfast Club. Young Guns 2, though, bro, right? Next fucking slide. All right. This is from Roloff. He says, BC and LT, Christmas came early this year.

Dude, look at this prom king. Can't wait to rock the BC shirt in person. Unfortunately, the girlfriend already said. Dude, do any of the people who watch our show comb their hair? This is what his girlfriend said about the shirt. I would pay with my life if you ever wore that out in public. He says he thinks that she's just afraid of the B-E-D-E that the shirt gives. Love the show from Roloff. No, Luke,

I was not in the nation's capital on January 3rd. Did you comb your hair with a potato, Roloff? I don't know what country Roloff is from, but Luke, he is the perfect representation of who should buy this shirt. Yeah, basically. I love Roloff. It's really tailor-made for people like him. Yeah. Hey, he said he has a girl, though.

He's got a girlfriend. He might. He might. Okay. Yo, shout out to Chris and his girl, right? Is it one of the ones from Alaska that Antoine is sharing, or how's that go? Shout out to Antoine, the big dog, I call him, okay? Yeah. All right, we got one from Ben.

So proud of you boys getting the DraftKings and Manscaped treatment. You know when a YouTube channel has reached a level of success when the Lawn Mower 4.0 is advertised. That's right, guys. When can we expect official MK condoms from Ben Jay? MK condoms? We're not worthy of this meme, right? When was the last time you used a condom? I don't know if I ever have, Luke.

I mean, I am from a factory town, Luke. I did tell you about that friend I had who just burned his way through New York City in the aughts. And his dad was a doctor, so he would get the clap and then call his dad and be like, Dad, I got the clap. And he would just prescribe him drugs and he would go get the drugs for him. These are one of those episodes that I hope no one that I love is watching. Well, good news is no one that I love ever watches. Luke, me as Wayne and you as Garth, that kind of works.

It works a little bit. Your look is a little bit better than mine, but it's okay. All right, Michael says, I'm normally a fan of BC's art, but episode 203's edition of The Wheel of Death

was more Monkey Christ than Mona Lisa. For all I know, BC may still be reading one of his multi-part questions, but please, for the love of that is all holy,

end that segment. It's dead, BC. Bury it. And this is my Steven Crowder meme. If you did more homework, Luke, you could have avoided this. Y'all laugh at that.

That thing has haunted me. Those decisions have haunted me. All right. Thank you, Michael. Very well done there. Francis says, Hi, guys. Big fan from Sydney here.

Luke has been flirting with the idea of getting on that TRT. Here is a look at him four years from now rocking his new physique. No, I would never wear on that TRT. Here is a look at him four years from now rocking his new physique. I would never wear clothes that are cool. So you can put that out of the fucking thing. You think that guy bangs, right? Um,

something. Ben J says, I know the Step Brothers poster has been done on fansubs before, but I just had to after Rashad called you the angry Step Brothers on CBS Sports HQ. The pic of you guys used in the edit came from the first ever pic posted to the MK Instagram almost two years ago to the day. In the comments, someone referred to our boy BC as a Yahoo and needed to be gone. 104

weeks later, the partnership is stronger than ever and that Yahoo has his face on some tacky looking yet highly desired Hawaiian shirts. So you're doing something right, BC. P.S. Sorry, Luke, for the overly homoerotic bulge-to-bulge pic that I did. Probably won't happen again. No promises, though. This picture here, you look like you're from the Smesh factory.

I do, I do, yes, yes, yes. And I look like I've been hosting piano night concerts at the Flamingo since the 70s in Vegas. I mean, what kind of look at this? We'll be skipping our next fan art because it was the Nirvana cover of Nevermind. You and I as babies with the dicks touching. Our staff was like, that was the first time our staff took a stand since I tried to show that circus performer dying. Hey, let's watch a guy get eaten by a snake.

Yeah, yeah. They were like, I don't think we can show death on this show, but, you know, dicks, we can show plenty of those. Hey, speaking of dicks, bro, you know who's back this week? Dickles, the MVP of this segment. What? Dickles is back with four photos. He says, hey, MK, happy to see you guys back in the studio.

Here's four submissions I hope you enjoy. The first one, Luke, some say it's a fighter's worst nightmare, a resume review done by MK. Let's hope the streak is broken. That's funny. I laugh. It's funny. That's a good one. Next one's called Foot Healthing. This is leaked training image of Luke doing foot strengthening. Splay Queen. Instead of

Slay Queen, I'm trying to get my toes to splay. MK Doc, a summation of the MK docuseries in one gif. BC arting all over himself. That is you. That is absolutely you. You disgusting. Look at that face

afterwards. That tickles good. You gotta give him credit, Luke. Art. This one's called BC Luke Topography. All jokes aside, MK is the show I look forward to most week. So as a thank you for all the hard work that is put into the show, I made you both a typography poster design.

If you cover one half with your hand, you will see BC's face, and if you cover the other, you'll see Luke's face. But together, you make a powerhouse of combat sports analysis delivered with pure dad bod energy. We look like some guy who's been in a car accident whose side of his face doesn't work. No, we look like some guy who's been in a car accident

whose side of his face doesn't work. So Dickles says if you zoom in, you can see all the MK references. Can you full screen this shit, please? Look, look at that. Booty Latinos, dead wrong wash. He says congrats on 200 episodes. Here's to another 200.

Keep it MK strong all day long. Your boy Dickles. Thank you. Thank you, sir. There you go. Thank you for that shit. Good job. If you want to send those around, we do them on Wednesday.

MorningCombat at gmail.com. MorningCombat at gmail.com. Send your dead wrongs there for Friday as well. Luke and I will be back at home, though, after this three-day stand in the bomb shelter. Yeah. Let's see. What do we have left? So be on the lookout.

We have a Caleb Plant interview coming out that we did. We have the video that we shot with Chuck Mendenhall. That's on the way. Friday, we will give you... What are we calling that? I'm not sure yet. So Friday, we will have a preview of the new doc. So Friday, we're not releasing the new doc. We're putting out a teaser trailer. Here's what I think

is going to happen. Friday's episode of MKU will get a teaser trailer, and later that day, I think our doc five is going live, brother,'s episode of MKU will get a teaser trailer and later that day I think our Doc 5 is going live, brother. Okay? So lots of... You want to see the inside scoop

on Luke and Ariel? Check out Doc 5. Well, it's... You're not going to get much of an inside scoop. But... You haven't seen the cut yet. Okay?

I will make sure that it's not in there. The first cut is the deepest. Yeah, after that we'll have to talk about what's edited. I will say this. I hope the fans,

once all the content is out, we appreciate you all. I hope that you guys appreciate us coming up here on Monday, Wednesday, Monday through Wednesday, I should say, and trying to record a bunch of extra content. We should say, BC, thanks to all the members of the crew who stuck around late last night. A lot of Andy Kings in here, right? A lot of Andy Kings.

Just a lot of guys ready to go. Take one for the team. Take one for the team, dude. You thought Tristan was trying to kill you all week, but he did pretty good this week. He did great. He did great. Love that guy. And then, you know, some other people gave us fentanyl, and then some other people, you know, had seltzers and a fucking weird-ass bag.

Yo, if shit ever went, you always say, BC, yo, you keep making those Rumble jokes, bro, one of these times, someone's going to show up in person. You are a tempting thing. Yo, if it happens on set and our boy Nolan's there, bro. No one ain't going to help you. Yo, those power crystals. Those power crystals, bro. Those things. Dude, Nolan is going to watch you take an epic L.

Yo, Nolan is about that life, okay? I like how you're like, I'm just going to go point to, you know, the muscle for help over here. I'm not going to worry about my own consequences of my own actions. No, in all seriousness, we hope you guys appreciate some of the extra stuff. It is coming out. And thanks to the crew and CBS and Malka and everyone who made the last three days possible. If you're getting caught up in everything Luke mentioned, plus

Teofimo Lopez interview at youtube.com slash morningcombat, Canelo Alvarez interview, resume review with Nick Diaz, our seventh edition. We are 6-0 so far. We'll see what happens there. Doc Friday, new merch. You still have until 2 p.m. Eastern today to use our merch code LIVE10 to get 10% off

not only our new line of Factory Town MMA items, this best-selling mug right here. There's like a tie-dyed hat. There's a lot of good stuff. And the new Fight Club shirt. Shout out to our guy, RJ Dunkelmaker, the new merch guy. He's fantastic. Well, why don't you tell the folks what you used to call him? Oh, RJ Grundleman.

I think that's actually his real last name. And then you called him Grundlemaker for a time as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To his face, by the way, which was just decidedly awkward. But it's okay. Yes, please like the video. Subscribe if you haven't already. The Road to 100K still continues.

And by the way, we will have a post-fight show for Saturday afterwards to cover all the work and the fights themselves from UFC 266. We'll have coverage of Joshua and Usyk. We have a lot of stuff coming your way. How clutch was Chuck coming back into the family last night? He was pretty great, dude. I love that guy. Except for all the vomiting later.

We were a little aggressive against him physically, though. During the clip, you were like, yo, BC, you need to take your hands off of him. Well, you know, you tried to basically mount him. I don't know what else you want me to call that.

I was making aggressive points about Saturday's card because we preview that shit like men do. More like drunks. But, you know, there is this, you know, maybe, yeah,

oh, also DraftKings. Yeah, so here's the deal. As I rumble and stumble my way through here. You want to make picks for UFC 266? You want to pour a little action on that action? How about this deal if you use our special code on the DraftKings Sportsbook official betting partner of UFC app? Yep.

If you put $1 on the table to bet a UFC. For new customers. For new customers to bet a UFC 266 fight. And by the way, Lawler over Diaz after resume review, I'm just saying, $150 in free bets. Guys, that's a deal right there. That's MKDK understanding, real, recognizing real

and trying to bring you into this shit, alright? Yeah. There you go. So, we are offering you free money to go bet. All you gotta do is lay down one on UFC 266 for new customers. DraftKings will give you $150 bucks free. So there you have it. I'd like to see you

in this shirt one day. Why don't you just stop being Mardi Gras ratchet, which is what you are, in your drug rug. Okay. Alright, for Mr. Bologna and Fentanyl, for the whole crew here, for Malka, Showtime, and CBS Sports, stay tuned. Lots more coming your way. Live chat tomorrow,

Friday's show, and then everything else thereafter. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.