MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 270: Ngannou-Gane | Moreno-Figueiredo 3 | Amanda Nunes | Bud Crawford | Ep. 253

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

On Episode 253 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian are back to talk UFC 270. Which Fights are they looking forward to the most? What are the biggest storylines heading into Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane? Reports are out that Amanda Nunes will be leaving American Top Team. Is this the right move for her? The boys discuss Terence Crawford's lawsuit against Top Rank. Does he have a case? The guys close out the show with Quick hitters, HYSTS and Fan Submissions. You won't want to miss this episode. (10:20) - Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane Storylines (30:50) - Rest of UFC 270 Storylines (41:20) - Amanda Nunes leaves American Top Team (51:10) - Terence Crawford Files Lawsuit against Top Rank (58:20) - 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  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, Reveille, dogs Look at us now, tip to tip This is our life, this is our passion That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Married a Glock to the clip

We are impossibly sick We are the atrocity that carried the mosh to the pit. Hello everyone, it is the 19th of January, 2022, and it's time for Morning Combat. My name is Luke Thomas, I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the nation's capital here in Los Estados Unidos, but I am also, as always, joined by the viceroy the prince of Connecticut my friend in yours it is senior dragon ball bag I just made that up it's Brian Campbell hi Brian how are you buddy yeah yeah wow hey Luke uh you know great to be back in the live setting great to be back on this side of the light i know you had that nice cute little rap lyric to open

the show about how sick we were i thought hippo laws would prevent you from telling the people that i just gramby rolled out of that covid deadlock i didn't i didn't i didn't mean it that way how did you bring it up yeah there's that too all right no cauliflower dick for me luke i made it through but it was it was uh it was difficult. But shout out to all the other COVID survivors out there. Great to be back. I know, Luke, we hit people between the eyes lately with some pre-taped magic and we got more to come. And somehow, Luke, I've heard some, have you heard the complainers slip through there? They're like, oh shit, another day without a live episode? Man, this show's really gone downhill. Do you guys have any idea how good that shit is we did with Chuck Mendenhall? I mean, come on. That's better than a live episode. What were we going to say? You got a post-fight show, at least for me, on Saturday night.

Then we did the Monday resume review. And then Tuesday you got a fucking pregame. Like, what else were we going to say? I guess, Brian, if you want to weigh in on Cater versus Jikadze, the floor's yours but other than that like what the fuck are we missing i'd like to i'd like to weigh in on your blood stream during that uh post fight show but that's you know okay can i be honest with that real quick no one's gonna believe me but i'll give you i on my mother i will swear swear to you the truth

okay people thought i was high as fuck off delta eight gummies on that post-fight show. Here's the reality. Earlier that day, I was definitely, definitely high as balls on gummies. And I know my eyes were red and I was tired, but it's true. I swear on my mother. I actually was a little bit past that point. I was actually on the come down. Oh, okay.

So yeah, I thought you were going to try to like redeem your brand and your job be like guys i had an allergic reaction you're like no i actually was high as balls just before that not at that time you know hey luke how first of all first of all if people didn't listen luke can we just put ourselves over resume review with francis and gano and chuck mendenhall check it out on morning combat or youtube.com slash morning combat and how about that pre-game preview where we did a little real talk with Chuck on the couches Luke um we're hitting people right in the ball bag with great content and do you want to tease this other shit we got going I don't want well we have we

so we told you guys when we were up there last week, we did the Monday show and then the Wednesday show, but we did a lot of stuff in between. You've seen two of those pieces already with the resume review and, of course, the pregame preview. We have one more for you. We have a video clip where I think we're about to share here. Welcome to a new segment on Morning Combat. It's called High Court. I'm farting. He's out of order. This right court is not good.

Welcome to the High Court. The latest segment on Morning Combat's award-winning show. There you have it, BC. We do stupid shit and get paid to do it. That comes out this Thursday. That's tomorrow. This Thursday, youtube.com slash morningcombat. And Luke, just to be completely up front,

the high in that reference has really nothing to do with THC. Necessarily, it's more about upholding the levels of the law uh that's all i can say about that segment luke it's either i've said this to you over text it's either the best thing we've ever done or we just jumped the shark and we had a good run so we'll see what that what that feels like that'll be different by the way the topic for high court won't necessarily be related to like fight week stuff so look for that one to be slightly. That'll be different. By the way, the topic for High Court won't necessarily be related to like fight week stuff. So look for that one to be slightly different. That'll be out tomorrow.

Okay, as always, if you're watching on YouTube, thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe. If you're listening on any podcast platform, whether that is Apple or Spotify,

whatever it may be, leave us a nice review there if you are so inclined. Of course, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see the lower thirds there about places to give us follows on social and our entreaties about podcasts.

The email, morningcombat at gmail.com. That's for Wednesday's Dead Wrong. Excuse me, Wednesday's Fan Subs, Friday's Dead Wrong. Always be sure to get those in. Showtime is the label that pays us. Give them a consideration. You can do it for free. Showtime.com, 30-day free trial.

If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you may move on to do something else with your life and of course bc what do we got going on at morningcombat.store i'm wearing some new merch so are you look at this oh oh shit look at this yeah we just talked to uh rj dragon master our merch maven luke who's who's on a great run i mean we told him luke we'd run him out of a job instantly if he turned on us. But right now, you can go to morningcombat.store, get this great shirt. The one Luke's wearing, I don't think it's ready, but here's the great news. Next Wednesday, a week from today, we are launching a whole new line of stuff that Luke

and I sampled. We did a little photo shoot last week in Jersey City. It's some good shit coming your way. So get on there today. You can pick up this great. Luke, does this look like a sphincter on my chest or the logo of our show? Either way, I think it'll hit with our audience. We could maybe use that one the next time we go to Cleveland.

We could put some steam around it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. You get that. Yeah, you're right. But, Luke, we got, you know, it's great. Look, I think our merch is catching up with our personality. It But Luke, it's great. Look, I think our merch is catching up with our personalities. It definitely is.

Okay, well we do have a Wednesday show to get to. This will be a fun show today. So, because we did not have a live Monday show today, we're going to get to our five major topics, plus we're going to do fan subs, plus BC has a special edition of Have You Seen This Shit? Yes has a special edition of Have You Seen This Shit? Yes, a Wednesday edition of Have You Seen This Shit? Plus fan subs, plus our discussion.

We have a lot to get to. BC, you ready to go? Yeah, and you asked me what I... I'll give you 10 seconds on Cater. I was wrong, and good Lord, Calvin Cater. Y'all must have forgot. Yeah, your boy BC forgot. Well done, sir.

That absolute New England savage, Luke. By the way, what grade would you give Chikadze's performance? It turned out in the end, we did not know this. We were wrong, both of us. It turned out he was overmatched, but I still am pretty high on him. What about you? Yeah, I mean, look,

tell me a great fighter who hasn't had that early loss to sort of check himself and give you the opportunity to adjust but luke i don't score this that high though i mean i know he's still hung in there and was competitive and had moments but he got handled across you know all five tools and going from the three to five round distance sometimes exposes that in you uh i i fear the beating you took luke for sure but i get what you're saying there was still some some things to like within it but to me this is a a step down because cater was that good man i mean dude he humbled the shit out of that guy based on what you saw from cater here in terms of his five round performance right in a winning case, the one against Max was not so great,

do you think he would have beaten Zabit had that fight gone five rounds? You're a fucking fraud. Are you kidding me? He was absolutely going to win that. Dude, I love Zabit. Look, Cato looked good in that Zabit fight, especially late in it, Luke, okay?

Zabit's different. He's built different. I'm going to stand on that hill holding the zabit flag until the oncoming army takes me out topic number one let's start here francis and gone who versus cyril gone is of course the main fight this weekend main fight this month really although belt or should be noted is having a heavyweight title fight later this month. So you're seeing some heavyweight interim and major title unification on both sides of the equation here. But as it relates to UFC, BC, we've got some clips from our friend Shaq. We'll get to those in just a second. We've done a lot of previewing of this fight. So the main question I want to ask you is, ultimately, we know what this fight is about. it's about unifying the heavyweight and

the interim titles i think bc is having uh i think he just sharted or something i'm not sure what's going on over there but the question is like what beyond that give me like 30 seconds luke talk amongst yourselves for like 30 seconds well you go plug something in so there's a question about what more um what really is this ultimately about is this a Is this a grudge match between former training partners? Does this really decide who the actual best heavyweight in the world is since Jon Jones and Stipe are not there? When you think about this fight, BC, and I realize you're still scrambling over there,

what do you think of as the operative way in which you understand this fight? When you frame this fight to someone who doesn't know what ultimately is on the line or what it's about how do you explain this to them so i like this question luke because i don't have like a knee-jerk response reaction of one topic or one you know narrative painting narratives that that covers this whole thing because there's so many great elements that make it so great from the backstory to what this could define for the future of the division to Ngannou's contract situation I mean we are over flooded but if I want to answer your question by saying what do I think is the one storyline that edges above the rest for me or the best way I'd sell it to somebody

as you asked you know to a casual fan why should I care about this fight you know I don't put a lot of stock in the unification bout we talked a part of it we talked about that it's just you know whatever but this is a style contrast between two guys really you know in their absolute primes that both appear that they could like we talked about in in the pregame preview with, the winner of this could go on for like a five-year run and not lose at heavyweight. The winner of this fight could be the absolute face and future of the division, yet their opposite style

clash is coming together of the most violent destroyer this sport's ever seen against, really, the one guy with the perfectly fueled to disarm that style. mean just you look at central casting in terms of style you could not get better than what we have right here because there's nobody as dangerous as in ghanu really in all of combat sports you know maybe outside of when deontay

wilder was on that run but there's nobody else on this planet who you could really favor over francis at this moment beyond it beyond gone I mean like okay John Jones we're trying to figure out what he'd look like gone's that only dude that can do this that to me at the end of the day Luke is the best way to sell the fight and the biggest reason why I'm so giddy entering Saturday not just oh I love MMA here's a great fight no like this feels like it's like something like however it ends the the ramifications from that are going to be like this fight is one versus two at heavyweight whoever you want to say is one and two depending on you know obviously Francis is

ranked well above that because he's champion but in your mind is this between the two best heavyweights on earth yeah Yeah. Yeah. I mean, until we see John Jones, we, of course, when 1000%, we just, I think,

you know, I love steep. He's accomplished everything. I've counted them out a million times, but how could you not say, I think it's probably one versus two in heavyweight. Although it's a little hard to say, cause we don't know exactly how steep a matches up with gone.

Although I would favor gone to win. And certainly you see, but it didn't do all that great in the rematch. But the thing that stands out to me about this fight that I really want to exactly how Stipe matches up with Gon, although I would favor Gon to win, and certainly Stipe didn't do all that great in the rematch. But the thing that stands out to me about this fight that I really want to talk about, BC, is a lot of the, even Dana White recently, I forget where he did it, maybe it was on Jim Rome's show or somebody else's, maybe it was with Presidente over at Barstool, but Dave Portnoy, but he had basically said like, this is technician versus physical beast. And even Fernan Lopez, who has coached both of these guys has said that, but I really don't like the framing of that. And I'll tell you why I don't like it. Both directions. Number one,

Cyril Ghosn, yes, obviously is as technical as everyone makes him out to be and is certainly as smart as everyone makes him out to be, but's a physical fucking beast too he doesn't rely on it it doesn't show all the time it's not this ever-present fear he's going to lord over you but certainly to the extent that he need it he needs it to make his game work he brings it to life conversely when you talk about francis and gano there's this discussion about his physical attributes and it should be be noted, BC, yes, they are as real as advertised. He is just so punishing. A puncher, he's the most punishing puncher in MMA I've ever seen. I think that's pretty fair to say. But at the same time, when you just look at what he's done, especially in that second Stipe fight and the levels of which he has raised his game, it just seems to me that brawn versus brains, while it's an easy way to

describe this, and I can understand as a sales point where you might go to that uh lacking of a nuance kind of convention but it's just not the reality of this fight I mean yes in the end I think if Cyril Gunn wins he's going to win on his smarts but I don't think if Francis wins he we see he obviously at any point if he lands clean can win on his physical attributes but I think if he does land clean on a guy like Cyril, it's because of the smarts that he would have used, the technical and strategic applications he would have used to find that clean opening.

And I just don't want that to get lost. Yeah, I think what I want to say off of that is, let's be fair, this isn't Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder, where if you're Wilder, it's like Fury's be fair this isn't Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder where if you're Wilder it's like you know Fury's got to be perfect for you know every second I only need to be perfect for one because Ngannou's better than that and I think we saw that in the Stipe rematch but it's still at its at its basis is that as well and you mentioned Gon's size which I think is in his bulk and his strength would you say that's as undervalued

to to what makes him this elite and this great in the same level that like john jones's reach at light heavyweight john was already like the greatest of all time and he's so great in so many areas but that reach advantage just made him like extra special hard to to destroy that might be the case for gone because even though I don't look at him as a finisher, despite knocking out Derek Lewis and dominating him, um, it's really like, you're not going to, you're not going to body him in the clinch. You're not going to mall him on the ground, six, four and a half and built like Anthony Joshua. I mean, that's a real sneaky part of what makes it hard to just dismiss him.

Even if you're picking Ngannou, to just dismiss, you know, Gon as anything short of... Also, the last thing I'd say on this, BC, the thing that stands out for me that I just don't want folks to lose, it sounds a little silly, but I do think it's true. How many times can you say you're watching a heavyweight fight between at least arguably number one and number two and both guys have abs i mean seriously you just don't see guys who are in this kind of athletic shape

yeah who are also this well trained this developed into their careers as heavyweights who look like this and i don't mean just look as like oh they cut their carbs to look a certain way on a poster. No dude. They're athletes to the point where when they just train normally. They get fucking shredded. You don't see a lot of heavyweight fights do. Where the poster is both dudes. Looking like comic book characters.

You get special fights sometimes. When that happens. You get one of those on Saturday. Yeah. What you're saying is this saying Paul Buenotello. That's what you're saying is this ain't Paul Buenotelo, Luke. That's what you're saying right there. Would you say that this is, you know, I can pronounce things, Luke, you know, however I want, okay, first of all.

Second of all, does this matchup remind you of, like, 2003 Tim Duncan and Cyril Ghosn against, like, prime the year 2000 Shaquille O'Neal, Luke? This is what it kind of feels like right harrison do you remember when was it was it elijah one and shack who had the one-on-one bet for taco bell or some shit remember that i don't know about the taco bell tie and i just know they did a commercial in the 95 finals one thing but you're right dude that's exactly i think that's a great comparison where shack was just this fucking force of nature and Olajuwon obviously tall

athletic and everything else but what had it was just so smooth and clever and could shoot from the outside and all kinds of stuff uh yeah it's funny that's a that's a great way to compare it by the way and we'll say Francis uh we'll talk about this more on Friday when we talk X's and O's slight reach advantage two inches inches. You think that matters? Yeah. Again, gone with the sneaky-ass long arms, too. Luke, you know what I love about this fight from the standpoint of you and I debating it ahead of time is I feel with no hesitation, I can say publicly,

that you underestimate how great Francis Ngannou might be if that night against Stipe in the rematch is not an aberration. Like, he might, like, you know, I'm telling you, this guy might be the biggest nightmare combat sports has ever seen, and I don't think you get that. And on the flip side, I know you think I can watch tape of Cyril Ghosn and just not hear Jimmy and just not know what I'm seeing. So it brings together so many different sides of the fan bases based on what your style

and flavor and your taste is. I mean, this is, you know, a hundred mile an hour heat against, against a hard breaking ball. This is, I love this shit, Luke. I love it. Cause I think you, Luke, I think you fucking missed it, bro. I think you missed it, dude. And God is going to go in there.

Spoiler alert for Friday's preview and knock this guy the fuck out. Whether he does it dominantly or whether he does it almost by accident, Luke, he's a feral beast of the highest genetic order. And oh, by the way, Luke, he has calluses on his shoulders and back from being fucked around.

So you know what he's been doing all this time? Training like a beast living in Brett Okamoto's old house, not giving a fuck, Luke. He's got to come out there and destroy this guy. Is he really living in Brett Okamoto's old house? That's my BC casual take of the year. Is he living in Brett Okamoto's old house? Luke?

Yes. I think they don't like that publicly. In fact, I asked Francis about that during an interview, and he no-sold me so hard that I had Mikey Mormal, our producer, edit out the question and answer afterwards. about that during an interview and he he no sold me so hard that i had mikey more my producer edit out the question and answer afterwards it was um you know he did by the way francis did the interview from his car that day too so it was just weird when you do it from cars and then you open them we can hear the beeping that's always a great time uh another thing i want to talk about this fight here bc uh between these two let's talk about what happens if they win. Who is, or maybe it doesn't matter, who is more likely with a victory to pull Jon Jones out of retirement

or whatever the fuck you want to call this, or is the answer it doesn't matter, he's going to be gunning for the winner? Okay, the answer might be it doesn't matter. Not only is he going to be gunning for the winner, but it just makes the most sense business-wise. Jon's been out too long. If Jon wants big money, fight the champion for the winner, but it just makes the most sense business-wise. John's been out too long. If John wants big money, fight the champion for the big money.

So that may happen anyway. But, Luke, I think what's interesting is it might also depend on how they look and how it happens because if Francis wins, that's the most amount of money John can make right now, short of fighting Conor McGregor, right? I mean, that's a monster fight. Even if people think you and I have overblown the pay-per-view potential, I saw some people commenting and saying, hey, guys, DC versus Jon Jones 2 struggled to sell 900K.

Yeah, that's still a fucking home run by any measurement. True, but it was a different time, different situation and circumstance. But my point is this. If Ngannou wins, he's the biggest prize. So it may happen. But could John say to himself, if Nganou destroys Gon, hey, maybe I'll come back against Stipe first. You know what I mean? It could be. What if Gon wins and wins a decision and we hail him as, you know, he tamed the beast, but he doesn't look dangerous. And Jon Jones can see that and go, oh, I could figure that out. It kind of depends, Luke, but, you know, money will probably dictate it

more than I'm afraid of this guy or let me strategically plan my debut around this. Before we move on from this, I do want to talk about Francis because if Francis wins or loses, there's a whole lot of different permutations that could develop, and all of them have pretty significant implications. So let's start with the reality be here bc let's say francis wins wins you know if not dominantly like there's no question about who won by the time he gets his hand raised kind of a scenario does he resign uh or what does he do how does that how does him winning affect his future okay so we are both under the working assumption based on either facts or educated takes by the john nash types that if francis wins he get the championship clause

will kick in a certain number of uh of automatic extra fights is that true yes okay i believe that's true they've changed some things recently but historically that's been true i think if he wins luke it's like 95 that he returns to the ufc there would still be need work to be done not only on negotiating a new deal but i think even further on the ufc showing some sincere interim good faith to franc, meaning this. Francis wins. We'll say, okay, we'll sit down. We're going to get you a new deal. Let's figure it out.

But Francis really wants certain things, Luke. One of them seeming to be that boxy match, which we can debate ad nauseum whether we really think Dana would work with Bob Arum and make a Tyson Fury versus, you know, Francis thing that would make a lot of money but would be weird and Francis couldn't win it. Or is there just, you know, some bag of cash that they can give him in the interim that just makes everyone happy? I say that because I really believe, Luke, that winning cures everything. It cures locker room issues.

And financially, I think if Francis goes out there and knocks him out, he's in another tax bracket already because of that, right? He will have completely fulfilled every inch of his potential in this short term right here. So he's going to demand the money. He's going to get it. Everyone's going to be happy. We'll move forward. It's really about the loss, Luke, to me over everything, you know, can they still, if he loses, could they still promise him enough to where he goes? Yeah, this is still my best move. Or how angry is he? I'm not sure, Luke.

All we get are, you know, interviews in which he's talking generally about it. Dana saying he ran into him at a steakhouse and he repaired everything. I don't know about that either. Okay, I generally agree with your analysis about what happens if he wins. But the one that gets more interesting is what happens if he loses. Now, again, I'm not going to say he gets, you know, completely demolished. But let's say in the end, Gon wins and everyone basically agrees the right guy won.

Now what happens? What is your best sense of things? Because, right, you have to ask yourself, what is the best chance for Francis to make the most out of 33 to, let's say, 37, 38? Is it staying with UFC or is it doing something else? Or do you even think, is there a scenario, BC, where he could leave UFC and then go back?

Some people have done that. That has happened before. But it happened in a very different kind of era. What's your sense? Like UFC, folks may not know this, UFC had a huge beef with BJ Penn back in the day. Because he, I think, was champion. They wanted him to defend it. He said, fuck it, drop the title, and then went to K-1 anyway.

And then he was brought back at a later time. So they have had that. But Francis just seems like they're in no man's land right now. Well, let me ask you this. Let me follow a certain carpenter and answer your question with a question by saying, is there a level to how Nganou loses, to how he looks in defeat that could alter the power of his brand into free agency where that he would be smart enough to identify that and say, you know what? My best course of action might actually be steep a trilogy. Try to lure John Jones or, you know, whatever in terms of transitioning out. What if he gets completely solved by gone and he gases out

and he struggles to make the finish line for a wide decision loss? He may have to come back, Luke, right? I mean, you're always going to get money from a Bellator or a PFL, but can you get everything and the potential of everything you're looking for? Well, he could get the boxing potentially with that. I mean, if you lose, right, A, the interest in a potential Tyson Fury fight, however remote that might be, that goes away, right?

So you have to win for at least that to be on the table. And is it even really plausible with a win with UFC? Like, are they really going to bend over backwards like they did for Conor that one time for Floyd? I mean, that seems unlikely as well. I just don't know. The thing you have to ask yourself

if you're Francis here is, again, he's 33, I think, or roughly. He can probably go to about 37, 30. He's 35, Francis? He's 35, Luke. You don't have to wait till Friday to get dead wrong. You've been saying for a week he's 33, Luke.

Let me just verify your fucking fake news. All right, he's 35. You're verifying all the donks. So whatever. Even then, where are you going to go for the next five years to make that kind of money? Unless you can really blaze a path that hasn't been blazed before, where you do the celebrity kind of thing, where maybe that's an option for you. You could do it, but the reality just remains,

where are you going to make the majority of your money? Unless he's got a really careful plan, the let me ask you this luke let me ask you this is there a lane in which he could become kind of a fade or in a sense that let's say he goes elsewhere okay does boxing does trailer try whatever but inevitably he'll end up doing mma let's say he goes to bellator wins the heavyweight championship and just like okay, does boxing, does trailer try, whatever, but inevitably he'll end up doing MMA. Let's say he goes to Bellator, wins the heavyweight championship, and just like destroys everybody, like Bader, Rumble, Moldavsky, I mean, whoever they can put at him. I mean, just destroying people.

Can he in short time sort of develop this Fedor Mysterious must-see but not in the UFC reputation that could either fuel a big money return or just be enough on its own to be like you know what I'm in control of my destiny I've made the right if he gets audited it's kind of hard I think if he loses but there's something redemptive about it it's not that big or it won't be as big a deal I mean here's the thing that you got to remember about Francis dude even if he gets audited by Cyril which which again may not happen, but let's say that he does, dude, it's not like we don't know if he can beat anybody else. This is not some Marlon Marais situation where once your style is kind of figured out,

it's hard to know exactly who you can beat at that point. We already know who he can beat. The answer is probably everybody else, right? It's everybody else. So then you have to ask yourself, if you lost to a guy, what does the loss tell you about your chances here and what the best situation is? Because there can be a situation where he loses controversially and still decides to go, knowing that there's just a fresh set of opponents he can box on CBS or whatever, some situation they could invent for him. It's very, very complicated about what could happen here, depending on the nature of a win or a loss and how those things look. I just mean to say, he's in a

many ways an enviable spot, in many ways an unenviable spot, given the uncertainty in the battle with the promoters and where the money is in combat sports and what kind of access he actually has to it. You know? I think that's all fair. Real quickly, to close that point,

I know if Francis wins and if this boxing thing ever did take shape, let's say Disney got involved and was like, look, Dana, we need you to do this. Francis versus Tyson Fury, even with a four-ounce glove, look, okay, you'll see it. There's something there to see, but nobody's going to be excited. Would you be a lot more excited just from a competitive standpoint if it was like Deontay Wilder against Francis Ngannou?

Yeah, or even somebody else. Well, I won't say even Joshua, but I'll say like a Ruiz or something like that where you know that Francis has a pretty good chin and he can hit hard. That might be valuable. Against Tyson Fury, it's like, dude, what the fuck is the point? You're going to get demolished. But yes, that would change things a little bit for me. But, you know, top rank has Tyson.

Top rank doesn't have Deontay. Top rank doesn't have Andy Ruiz. Top rank doesn't have a lot of these guys. So we'll see. Y'all out on break. Y'all a prick. Shut the fuck up. All right, topic number two.

The rest of the UFC 270 storylines BC we said this on I'm not sure how much more we can say about it honestly this co-main event it's a great flyweight fight I think most people expect Brandon Moreno to win but there is not a lot of buzz about this fight whatsoever I think the hardcore the hardcore seem to respect it I don't see people shitting on it but i don't see people like up in arms it's a great way to say it either you respect it because you know what you're gonna get and it's in all that but and i'm not saying this to devalue figurato because i'm going to bring up a figurato question in a second to show you how much i'm not devaluing here but

like there's a you know a working narrative that like okay ufc might feel like this is the time to kind of cash out the extreme value of the 125 main eventing version of figueredo and brandon morito is coming and it's the they're going to get action even beyond that selling point luke i want to ask you this it's not getting the love it deserves it's also not a fight that that is needed it's got some Kamaru-Mazudal-2 feels to a smaller degree. But are we overlooking this part of Davis and Figueiredo's chances? The Henry Cejudo factor. Now, do you remember when Zhongwei Li brought in Henry Cejudo for her last camp in the Rosary match?

And, you know, it was sort of like, Hey, look, hipster, sneaky storyline here. What if the combination of Suhudo and, and the captain, Eric Albaracin can, you know, really fill the missing holes in a Trevor Whitman type way, but almost in reverse. And Luke, we kind of saw that you, you can make a strong case that Whaley beat Rose in the rematch. And she sort of filled some holes and rounded out her game it could this be that fountain of youth drink not that he's old that Figueiredo could he could need to to be a larger threat in this rematch in this trilogy bout than we're realizing he's 34 and at 125 that's if that's yeah that's old that's old for that age yeah you're right you're right in december turned 28 he just turned 28 i mean you have to ask yourself rightly these guys fought when they fought moreno and figuerito they fought the first time in december of 2020 back when he was what 26

uh or around that moment then they fought in june of 2021 so they fought about seven months later give or take and the difference between them was extraordinary. In just seven months, look at how much better Brandon Moreno was. He is at the point where he is entering, or he may be at, but certainly at the very beginning stages of his true physical prime in MMA. And you're seeing evidence of, in quick succession, right? We've talked about these guys at 26, 27, 28, where they get better so much faster. If you're 34 and 125, you can definitely change tactics and you can pick up a couple of different things along the way. That part is true.

But you are more or less at the technical peak of what you're ever going to become. That is about as far more or less at that weight class as you are going to go. That's not the case whatsoever for a guy like Brandon Marino you already saw the progress you have much more in front of him I like Brandon Marino big and I think a lot of people kind of expect that based on the fact that whatever else we've said and on top of it BC you know this a lot of MMA trilogies whoever wins the second one usually decides the third I don't see why it'd be any different well I want to hold that thought hold that thought for one second you didn't answer the core of my question, though, beyond saying rightfully that Moreno should be the

favorite. And to some degree, you could even go further and say, man, he might even finish him quicker. I don't know. But you don't think the Cejudo-Albaracin factor means anything here? I mean, I didn't answer it directly, but I sort of did. The answer would be, do I respect the abilities of someone like Henry Cejudo and Eric Albarracin yes of course I do and I thought that there was a real noticeable difference in Zhong Wai Li to your point absolutely take it seriously this is not something where Brandon Moreno could just show up and win no matter what he does I don't believe that I think he's going to have to earn it I don't think necessarily he will finish Deveson quicker I just don't think that the outcome will necessarily change a little bit different but what I would say to the question about suhudo yeah dude i think you can do a lot but at age 34 how much can even the very best coach

on earth do for you the answer is some the answer is potentially enough to change your fortunes but not much is the answer there's only a little bit they can do for you once you get to that advanced developed stage and and i just you have to realize that. To your point on great trilogies in boxing and MMA, we don't have like stats in front of us to prove it, but I would guess to your point that the fighter who wins the second fight historically has a larger percentage of winning the third, which is part of what Figueredo's up against

along with the age and the fact that Moreno's a stock that's rising. But I'd like to see the specific percentages in big fight history of someone who got finished in the second fight and then came back to win the third along with regaining the title at 34 this would be huge for a sort of like figurato's legacy and all that look this would be a monumental task if you come back from getting finished and then you beat the younger person who's on the rise yes there trilogy no doubt about that that would be absolutely fucking huge if he did if they did that shit they might fight a fourth time to be honest with you i mean we might

start getting i mean who has that ever happened am i forgetting somebody that got finished in a rematch and then won the third fight who am i who am i forgetting someone getting finished in the rematch and then winning the third fight rampage rampage i think getting finished in the rematch and then winning the third fight. Rampage? Rampage, I think, got finished in the rematch with Vanderlei and then won the third one. It can happen. And that was monster gap of years between two and three, correct? Huge gap.

But it technically has happened. Yeah, yeah. So that, right, right. That alters things, yeah, for sure. I mean, look at Chuck andters things yeah for sure i mean look at chuck and tito luke luke look at chuck and tito right c luke stop looking at chuck and tito michelle perrera versus andre fialo on this card do you give a fuck at all i mean look i care for michelle and every fight now we debate is is he taking it as serious as he did in that one what was the fight luke where he took it super friggin ass serious and looked like a welterweight killer which fight him for being boring in the nico price contest yeah yeah i might have done

that luke um obviously we want to see a balanced but you know the the whole thing here is luke he's running out of time because i believe he's older than we think but at the same time there is an angle here for him to make a run if he can find that balance but i think since that luke and maybe fighting nico price brings it out of you um i've seen him you know dip back into the drugs a bit here luke i i'm not i'm not convinced that he can stay sober enough to bring out the best within himself, Luke, because he gets so high on performing, like me, Luke. Right? Really. Like me. I'm a red light type guy, Luke. I don't mean the red light

district. I mean, you know, I could be on my deathbed, but you turn that camera on, Luke, and I'm bringing it. Luke, right now, I'm bringing it. But the point is, I don't know if he's of that same ilk, you know, in this regard. Can he pull back at the right time, Luke? Can he sober you tell me luke tell me right now take it on saeed we've talked about this a big fight for cody stamen who by the way has lost i think three of

his last four no he's lost his last two and had a draw against song yadong so he's two one and one in his last four or excuse me one two and one um so he's gonna be need-1 in his last four. Or excuse me, 1-2-1. So he's going to need to be on the right side of things. The prelim card, you've got Adolfo Vieira back against Wellington Turman. Not that interesting. Hayoni Barcelos is pretty good against Victor Henry. The one that stands out, we've talked about it. It's now a replacement fight.

Ilya Toporia taking on now Charles Jourdan. You've got to love Charles Jourdan. Short notice against maybe the top rising prospect in all of this division. Great prospect himself, by the way. Love this from the Canadian. I'm really glad that Topuria made it back on the card, Luke, because this card's been ravaged by COVID. It is.

Alexi Olenek and Greg Hardy were supposed to be on this card. It got moved for undisclosed reasons to... Then they got Sergey Spivak in there, and then Hardy got hurt. Now it's going to be at 272, Greg Hardy versus Sergey Spivak. So that's fun. I'm trying to look at the rest of this card. There's not a whole lot on it, bro. Well, Luke, I've got to ask you a key question about the rest of this card.

To be fair outside of the title fights it sucks i'm not saying it's all the ufc's fault but are you getting with this narrative that you see show up in the in the comments or the message boards or wherever these keyboard warriors like me uh hang out luke um that the ufc is trying to f uh you know trying to f uh in ghanu either way and just say okay just in case, you know, trying to F Nganou either way and just say, okay, just in case he, you know, wins and thinks he carries the ball around here. Yo, dude, this pay-per-view tanked. Is there anything to that, Luke?

Because they do water down the Conor pay-per-views because they know Conor will sell. I don't think that they would ever intentionally sabotage their own pay-per-views. However, they're not going to go out of their way to do him any favors either right when they they probably plan to have certain cards that are pretty big and certain cards that are not pretty big that's all strategic that has nothing to do with francis or whatever but i also believe that they put francis on the cards where they know they're not going to give him a lot of help to make him more money like they're not going to put francis on a conor mcgregor card they're not going to do him that solid but they're not going to be like hey let's fucking ruin ourselves and the just

to stick it to francis no they're not going to do that either so look in terms of of dirt bag techniques just absolute outright like they like you said they wouldn't sabotage their own brand if they did it that's a straight up dirt bag technique that i'm sure gets done a lot in business but given the history of d and the Fertittas, and now, of course, with the new owners, do you think that's happened way more than we already know or think? Or do you think it's a little bit overblown, the idea that Dana and Brass are so big on themselves

that they'd straight-up do this to a fund? I mean, from the stories I've heard, there's a lot that they'll do to stick it to someone. But, like, tanking their own show? I've not there's a lot that they'll do to stick it to someone, but like tanking their own show. I've not heard that. I've heard of every other thing. I mean, they have the right makeup to pull off moves like that, though, Luke. It's not a real distance of personality in that.

I just don't have the proof. I don't know. The UFC doesn't strike me as the type to light their balls on fire just to stick it to somebody else whatever that would mean uh oh oh they are luke i mean i once started in a four minute video yeah but it got deleted for a reason all right so there's that um the point being is i just don't think it would get to that point but one never knows exactly all right topic number three b number three, BC. Let's move on from UFC 270. Let's talk about this one. So it was reported by... I want to make sure...

I do... I do... I do... Hold on. Read this gentleman's work on Twitter when I can translate it. But I want to point out this. Globo Combaches' Rafael Mourinho reports that the lioness, Amanda Nunes, is leaving ATT to start her own gym in the South Florida area. BC, is this big news, small news, or we don't quite know what it means news?

Well, the answer is we don't quite know yet because there's other points of interest that need to come out that could decide more, including seeing her fight again to see if that was just a one-off aberration in the way that Amanda imploded against Juliana Pena. But, Luke, it has the potential to be really big if you are willing to tie in this factor that Kayla Harrison may be coming on over to the UFC. And we've seen whether this factors in or not. You know, Coach Dan Lambert of ATT said publicly a million times he doesn't want them to fight each other they you know although they're gonna have to if they're in the same you know so promotion so from that standpoint could I talk myself into some kind of like John Jones versus Rashad Evans type teammate exit you're gonna go with them over me it could be who knows but I know that we saw a report just

yesterday from Ariel Hawane even who who says you know PFL looks to be the favorite to re-sign Kayla. That felt very well-timed and strategic from my point of view. You know, it could be true and they could be about to sign it, but that looked like it was a PR move, just the same, to maybe try to tie something up. But if Kayla Harrison's going to the UFC, then this is going to say a lot. This is a big say a lot. This is a big deal, Luke. And I think in general, it's still a big deal because of the really poor performance she just had and whether that is a realization of what's going on with her or whether

that was just a really bad night at the office. And she's taking Nina with her. On the surface, Luke, you're leaving the dream team. On the Lou, you're leaving the dream team. On the surface, you're leaving the best team in the game right now. So that can't be a good thing, right? It depends what coaches she takes with her. She's had a really strong bond with a few of them, including but especially Conan Silvera. I'd be curious to see if Conan goes with her because Conan has been – Conan's son, who's, by the way, one of the top prospects in all of MMA, trains at ATT. Conan has been the

backbone of that gym for as long as it's been around, quite frankly. So that would be interesting. He's like the Papa Bear, Luke. I mean, he kind of like is the heart and soul of what, even though I've called him Brazilian Shrek before, Luke, and you've gotten mad at me,

he's a great guy. So the question is like, does he go too? I don't know how that goes. I mean, there's a lot here, right? So how much of this is related to the loss specifically? I mean, it's been pointed out that when folks don't really realize this, when she first moved to Florida, actually, let's back up a step. She first started training when I went to the gym. I don't think a lot of folks know this.

I don't know if she trained directly with the Miller Brothers, but she trained in the Miller Brothers gym when she first got to America up in New Jersey. Uh, I had that told to me by a lot of the different people who were actually at that gym. Then she left and went to MMA masters after her first loss or her first, huh?

She lit Luke. She lived at MMA. A long time. She was like down on her luck, Francis Singano style trying to turn this around. She had a loss to Kat Singano and then switched it around and then went to ATT and it's been more or less, you know, not last fight notwithstanding, pretty smooth sailing. I mean, she's obviously done quite well for herself. So is she leaving because it's a combo of the fact that she lost and it's Kayla going to UFC or has nothing to do

with Kayla and it's strictly the loss. There has been, by the way, a few departures from ATT. Hearts know exactly what that means. A lot of coaches have left. We have Phil Daru who left, Dean Thomas who left. You know, fighters come and go. That's less of an issue. But I really wonder if there's something else. There's a lot of moving parts to the story. Then the last one, dude, it's about Amanda. I mean, you know, listen, she had a kid, dude. A kid will change your focus in life and it will pull you in ways you're not you know anticipating and she's beaten everyone she was supposed to again last fight notwithstanding but beats all the greats of her generation who knows where her fucking head is at if this is even a good decision for her i have no

idea we'll have to see but but the amount of unknowns are high but the amount of questions just as high. Luke, how does an ATT who, you know, there's a lot of great gyms. It's not that it's ATT and everybody else, but, you know, they're winning the awards. They seem to be the all-star gym of the moment. How do they avoid being like a Jackson Wink where you're the hot one of the moment and suddenly you have all the resources and everyone's coming to you? And then inevitably when that happens and you get great success, some people will leave and you get diluted a bit.

How do they avoid? Maybe the better question is how do you stay at that top when that inevitably is going to happen? This is the issue about how they run their gyms. I'm a little bit the wrong guy to ask, but I can tell you what I do know. Part of, and Rashad can probably speak to this actually because he was part of the early exodus that happened around this time. It was initially that there around this time it was initially

that there was this group of people at jackson's so it was diego nate marquart eventually gsp keith jardine right some of these original albuquerque folks jardine recruit who say again condit see carlos condit was not original jackson's guy. Carlos Condit started across town at Fit NHB and then eventually went over. But the long story short is that it was a relatively small group, a dozen or less, that was known as Jackson's, right? That was that group, and it was all the famous UFC fighters. And then they brought in Jon Jones eventually. But Jackson's model has changed.

Now they have dorms that they've built. They've become a much bigger thing. People come, people go. Greg Jackson, I'm not even sure how much he coaches anymore. So that initial band of like, you know, nine to a dozen UFC fighters that just ballooned into something else, the model changed. And you heard Don Cerrone talk about the puppy mill that was there and why he left and everything else. Cerrone probably one of the original ones as well. ATT never did that.

ATT may in its original days under Ricardo Laborio, it might have been a smaller group, but basically from early, early stage, they had dorms from an early stage. They were much more of a gym where it was like, let's get as big as possible. People can come, people can go. It's okay.

So they've weathered this storm that a lot of other gyms couldn't, where it was like, okay, AKA is John Fitch, it's Koscheck, it's okay so they've weathered this storm that a lot of other gyms couldn't where it was like okay aka is john fitch it's koshek it's kane it's like five other guys and then that's it no one else can be aka att was never that way att was we're fucking enormous we're always going to be enormous people will come and go we'll have a giant core staff get what you get like what you like and be on your. And so they've been able to play the levels a lot easier over time. Luke, what do you think is most important? Because the real answer is it all matters.

But for a gym to go from being good to great and being the gym of the moment, is it the fighter quality or is it the coaching and then also the culture? Again, the answer is all of it but what do you think is the most important because sometimes what makes these gyms so great is like you mentioned with that original uh jackson wing group you just get a special group of six seven eight guys who are all going to be great fighters at the end of the day and they push each other and it feels like oh my god this gym's amazing but it really just may be we have a special class sort of like how my high school class lu Luke Naugatuck, class of 96,

we didn't make it in life, Luke. But all the other classes have all these great superstars and athletes and good-looking girls, and I don't know what they put in the water in 1978, but we didn't get out of first gear, Luke. The special thing with ATT is, one, Florida cost of living is low, right? So there's that. I think, two, it just has everything, right? It's like, why would you leave somewhere to go to ATT is one. Florida cost of living is low, right? So there's that. I think two, it just has everything, right? It's like, why would you leave somewhere to go to ATT?

Probably because under one roof, you can get coaching, strength and conditioning, world-class training partners. If you want to come, you can come. If you want to leave, you can leave. There's just a lot of benefits to it. It just fits a lot of different people's lifestyles by being very accommodating in terms of what their facilities and human resources offer. But remember, folks don't realize this, so there used to be this term in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

called Crianche. It's spelled C-R-E-O-N-T-E, Crianche. And it comes from a character who was on a Brazilian soap opera back in the day, but it used to be somebody who would train at a gym and everyone's like, we're family. And then they go to a new gym and they're like, oh, you trader. You're a crayon. That's what they would call you. You don't hear that a lot anymore. They don't buy a lot of these jujitsu gyms. Some of them still do it, but a lot of them don't buy into these like old school. Like once you're with us, you're fucking family. That's it. No, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I think just ATT offers a really

helpful situation to a lot of fighters, but it's transactional. Like, you pay your dues, you show up, you get what you get. You can make relationships if you want. And if you don't like this, fuck off. You can go do something else. It's flexibility. It's great. Pound that sand.

Yeah. Yeah. Now, Luke, I couldn't help but notice, speaking of great gyms, that you're wearing the Factory Town MMA MK t-shirt that I believe will eventually be on sale. So I was thinking like, you know, great gyms need a backbone, but sometimes they need two brains. You know, they're better than one and two all, you know, a Jackson and a Wink. Would you be willing to come in with me on Factory Town MMA and be the, you know, I'll handle the marketing and the business side. But you are the coach, the technique giver.

And, you know, like Jackson and Wink bringing their own things, you know, I'm looking for hard-nosed factory-type, you know, grinders, and you could bring in all the Latin BBLs you want. So it would kind of be the best of both worlds mixed together. I don't need to leave MK for that, but if that was a real job, I would leave MK for it. That's a real thing. So that's that. We'll have to see what happens alright topic number

four BC this one I don't know what to say about it I look to see what other lawyers were saying about it people seem to think it's frivolous but Terrence Crawford who is no longer with top rank has in fact sued them and sued Bob Arum for what he claims is

religious I'm is racial discrimination. Crawford has alleged many things, not limited to breach of contract, as well as fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, and claims Arum and Top Rank failed to follow through on promises, for example, to secure a unification fight with Errol Spence, and that he is nicer to white and Latino fighters and went out of his way to sabotage him because in fact he was black. BC for a guy like Bob Arum who's been promoting black

fighters since the mid of the 20th century when Jim Crow laws were still in effect. I have to tell you I don't know what to make of Crawford because we haven't we haven't we haven't seen the evidence yet so we should we should be very clear about that but I'm a little skeptical about this lawsuit what do you think um I won't yeah so obviously the lawsuit seems to be not a joke but you know an FU some sort of like leverage situation for PR or even just to get back at Bob from team Crawford. We can debate the sort of motive on that, but yeah, you know, you saw Muhammad Ali's daughter, who's the mother of, uh, you know, Nico Ali Walsh, this top rank, I want to say prospect, but really he's just a sort of like a reality TV star at this point in terms of the fights they roll them out in, you know, say, obviously look at Bob's history with, you know, black fighters and great success with Muhammad and they loved each other.

Like, like is Bob Arum a racist? Is this real? No, there's enough reason to say it's not. But I think the other questions are along with what's the true motive of this lawsuit is, is Bob a cantankerous asshole to everyone? You know, and yeah, absolutely. You know, has Bob given up on fighters at certain points, like Guillermo Rigondel when he promoted them,

right at the peak of Rigondel's biggest win ever against Nonito Donair? What did Bob do on the stage at Radio City Music Hall afterwards to me and the other boxing reporters complain that Rigondel will never sell with his style? That's at the peak moment where Bob could have grabbed the mic and was like, you don't know what you're seeing. This is brilliant amateur boxing. No one's ever been this great. He's the next Floyd Mayweather. Like you could have done something like that. And Bob just shat on him.

Okay. Well that's happened to Rigondel and Crawford. You could argue Luke kind of got shat on in key moments as well. When Bob tried to make a public point about how Terrence doesn't sell and we've lost money on him. Does Bob go too far? Yes. He's an old bastard, Luke. He's got a long history of going too far, but is it necessarily race fuel? It'd be hard to prove that. And I don't believe that. But Luke, what's the reason then? Because you can't win this lawsuit. So what's the reason? Is this a PR stunt to get Crawford's name out there as he looks for free agents? Because I don't know if you saw this.

Tim Smith, who sort of, you know, works for the PBC. And in some degree, since Al Heyman doesn't speak to the media, Tim Smith can sometimes become a mouthpiece for the PBC. Former boxing writer, great guy. But he did an interview, and I'm not sure which podcast. And I don't want to, could have been the PBC podcast, but where he talked about, Hey, you know, can we make Spence Crawford if, if Crawford comes to, to PBC and even he Luke delivered that same, like, well, I don't know, man, Terrence just doesn't sell lines. So again, that could be public, you know, jockeying to, to get ahead of it in the potential negotiation, but it's a, what do you think's the true motive of why they would

one is he's an idiot and his lawyer is an idiot so there's one that's that should by the way that there's a lot of lawsuits these days where you can just attribute it to that so let's be clear about that that's one possible the other possibility is he's not an idiot but he believes through one of these mechanisms he might be able to get some extra money that was entitled to him. So, for example, one of the things that's a big issue for him is that, let's see, the suit claims that when Crawford signed to fight Ejigia, forgive my pronunciation,

Kavalios, yes. Kavaliowskis. Yeah, just call him Mean Machine Luke. He's Lithuanian. They even included a $900,000 payment if Top Rank didn't, in good faith, offer Crawford about with Spence by the end of 2020. They're claiming that that didn't happen so that he is therefore entitled to $900,000.

I don't know. We'll have to see exactly if that's true. So maybe there's a little bit of money. The other thing that kind of leads me to wonder is Crawford knows he's not going to win. He's going to lose money. But if they can get to a point where, A, he can embarrass Bob, or even more importantly, get to a point of discovery, like not settle, right?

Because if they settle, he gets money. Not settle, get to a point of discovery where he can now share public emails or texts. And Bob is like, Blackfiders don't sell. I'm not making that up or something, right? But if you get texts or emails where Bob is saying racial shit, that could be interesting. That could be interesting.

I mean, look, Bob can always argue correctly because the numbers don't lie in terms of pay-per-view buys that Terrence never became a brand. And I know that they were, Top Rank was always upset that he wasn't willing to do as many interviews and try, put it out there. He's got a very quiet personality. You know, his talent speaks for itself to a large degree.

But I don't think Terrence was always his best advocate for becoming a star. So they can always lean on the numbers side of it. But racially fueled, again, it would be really hard. It's like, dude, you think that the issue about why you guys didn't do good business together is because Bob hates black people? I don't think that's the best explanation. You know, I think Bob hates a lot of people. Some of them are probably black. Bobby hates Terrence, too, to be quite honest with you.

I don't think he hates Terrence. Like, if Terrence made him money, I think he'd love Terrence. I don't really think it's got shit all to do with that. Look, there's a reason why Bob and Don King, to a lesser degree, because he hasn't been a major promoter in the last decade or so, but there's a reason why Don King and Bob Arum were on top for so long and are still in it, and we've seen so many celebrity names come and try to be boxing promoters, Luke, and lose a lot of money or big-time investors and lose a lot of money.

Bob and Don King, they only see green i mean seriously and they're they're they're they're goal i'm not saying their goal is to screw everyone over but why have so many people why have so many fighters you know represented by don king ended up suing him their goal is to make as much money as freaking possible off of anyone of any color they are caught through swinging corporate raiders luke they are just of the of the reptilian level you know as mike tyson famously once said of don king um so it is not it's never about uh you know skin because the only the only time skin color comes in for them is whether they think they can sell certain you know race or or background i'm not saying that people in boxing aren't racist. Like, there definitely are racist people in boxing.

But that's an exhausting proposition. Like, if you hate minorities and you like boxing, that's a hard, that's a contradiction right there. I don't know what you're supposed to do with that. But anyway. All right. We go now to quick hitters. BC, I know, in fairness, I think both of us are, but certainly perhaps a little bit more you than me. But again, we're all on board with this one.

There are reports that Stevenson, Shakur Stevenson, is going to have a title unification. At least they're working on a title unification against Golden Boys. Well, sort of, previously anyway. Eddie Reynoso's Oscar Valdez. And Oscar Valdez, fresh off of controversy from PEDs, but part of the Eddie Reynoso's Oscar Valdez. And Oscar Valdez, fresh off of controversy from PEDs, but part of the Eddie Reynoso-Canelo team. BC, how close is this?

How good of a fight would it be? Well, just to your point, trainers aren't linked with promoters. Eddie has a bunch of big-name fighters. This is as good as it gets. Luke, bring that shit to me, as Pedro Serrano once said. Like, yes, do we need to see this fight right here? Hell yes. I think just today, Mike Coppinger has been all over the 3SPN saying that they came to turns on financials. It's looking like April 30th in Las Vegas. Luke,

this is a big time fight to unify belts at 130 because, you know, I'm of that original core group of people that is now becoming a small village, Luke, and I'm happy to see this, that truly believe Shakur Stevenson is on his way to becoming the pound-for-pound king of this sport. We've compared him not to overall Floyd Mayweather, but to younger, pretty boy Floyd Mayweather in terms of his actual ability. No one's pushed him to the level where he's had to show everything yet, but he is something freaking special, and he's going in there against unbeaten Oscar Valdez, who along with rightfully being clouded due to the failed drug test last year in his second fight, which he fought anyway,

and it was controversial. Don't forget, he knocked out Miguel Burchell for the knockout of the year to move up in weight, to win a title in a second weight class against like that division's boogeyman. Nobody had beaten Burchell. He was taking out everyone. And Valdez is coming, Luke. Here's what's great about this, Luke. We need these type of fights. But also, even if Valdez is everything he can be,

this still may end up looking like Floyd Mayweather against Diego Corrales, or Floyd Mayweather against Arturo Gatti, because Shakur might be that special, Luke. So we're going to find out if Shakur's very good, or if he's great. They need to do something for you. So I'm going to go and rant here for just a little bit. The next piece we have, BC, you kind of alluded to it. I didn't see the report. I don't know what you told me about it, but there was at least some indication that Kayla Harrison could be headed back to PFL, which we had initially discussed after her last win, her last fight, that, well, where else are you going to go and win million-dollar tournaments

over people who can't athletically touch you at all? And so if she stayed at PFL, it would hardly be the worst situation in the world in terms of prize fighting. In terms of legacy building, that's where things get a little bit dicey because where are you going to go to get the best opponents to make your legacy what it's supposed to be? BC, are you in agreement with me that A, going back to the PFL, it certainly would not be the end of the world. She would still make a handsome reward for herself.

And at the end of the day, that might just be the name of the game. But just knowing Kayla the way that we do, she features very briefly in our, our documentary from the night in Vegas, where we're at the award show. We talked to her briefly there. I, I, I, I can't imagine. She loves, loves the idea of going back to PFL. Also, there is maybe a way to suggest that the report is a little premature. Yeah. So again, I think that report that came out is just, you know, negotiations publicly. But it's interesting because could she potentially make the most money with PFL? She might be able to. But we think she's wired in a way that you tease that she wants it now.

She wants to find out how great she can be. That it's a little bit more about the glory and the challenge and the sports side of it with her. And granted she has been paid well. So it's, you know, she's won a couple of million dollar tournament. So it's not like, you know, she's, she's on the other side of the hill, but that it might be more about that than, than the crazy, crazy generational money that she, that everyone's chasing rightfully so. So in that regard, Luke, I think UFC is still the favorite, you know and if it wasn't ufc i think it would have to be bellator i've heard no no rumblings that bellator

is close in this i have no idea if scott coker and company have talked to her obviously i think they should but you know at least that would offer you a chris cyborg fight which would seem to me to be the the perfect sort of appetizer to say are are you ready for the Amanda Nunes level? But Luke, because Nunes just lost, now there's more questions, which again leads me back to saying it's still probably the best time ever for her to go to the UFC right now and go in there and find out how great she is. So I think she's going to end up in the UFC, Luke, at the end of the day. I really do. Why would she sign with PFL over Bellator? Is the idea that with PFL she could make more money because of the $1 million tournaments? I would have to think that it's a financial decision.

We don't know what network PFL is going to yet for their free agent for their next season. I do wonder if there was, I mean, look, you're going to try to sweeten the deal no matter who you are. I wonder if there's anything related to whatever network it's going to go on, what type of other opportunities. I'm not saying like, you know, could she get her own sitcom? I just mean, I wonder if that could be part of the sweetening of the pot if it did come down to PFL versus Bellator. Interesting. Like, Luke, what if Vox was like,

hey, Luke, I know we've had our ups and downs, but, you know, bro, if you'll leave BC, not only, you know, is it a stupid amount of money in your dream amount of money to just say, fuck you to everybody, but, you know, we'll also give you first-class travel, a massage at every hotel, you know what I mean? B.C., B.C., I'll eat a bullet on live TV before I ever go back to Vox. You know, my level of hostility for them. We'll check your oil for you, you know what I'm saying, my level of hostility for them is extraordinary.

They fucked with my career for a very long time. They did their best to try and ruin it. Fuck those motherfuckers is my answer. They can offer me, they can wheel me in a billion dollars and put me in a blowjob fucking deciding contest where I'm the judge. Wow. Not going to happen.

Wow. Dude, I refuse to even set foot in their fucking building. Just burn the village, sir. You know what I mean? No, fuck those losers. Pieces of fucking shit. I mean, look, this is a personal matter, not for public access. You're throwing your shit out there.

I had a lot of caffeine this morning and you got me fucking angry bringing it up. I mean, am I on Facebook with my high school classmates right now? I shouldn't know about your marriage falling apart. You know, I got, you shouldn't tell me, you know, on Facebook, you know what I mean, Luke? No, I don't. All right. Uh, from, uh, Bellator news. The only thing I found curious about this BC is not the fight itself. I like not the location I like. Not even where it's being broadcast. Showtime, which I like. It's just in May. I didn't quite get the announcement happening in January.

Great fight. Yaroslav Amisov, who for folks who may not know, is the existing Bellator welterweight champion and a very good one at that. He is going to take on Michael Venom Page in London, I believe Friday, May 13th. Let me double check that right now. BC, I love this fight, but why are they announcing it five months early?

Yeah, I love this fight. And by the way, it is the fight that should have been. But this is what should have happened. Congratulations, Bellator, you did that. Normally when we see this length, it's like, oh yeah, and they will coach the ultimate fighter. So, Luke, I don't know. There's no ultimate fighter right now in Bellator, but I don't know what type of reasoning beyond just let's get it on the books

and let's start getting people really excited. And maybe, Luke, did you say London is the site? Yes. Friday, May 13th, it'll be at the SSE Arena Wembley in London. Again, we haven't spoke to higher ups at ViacomCBS. I'm not speaking out of turn here, but maybe that means, Luke, that's going to be a tentpole card for Scott Coker, similar to Bellator MSG, which was a big deal.

Maybe it will be one of those, Luke, and you're just trying to start the early drum bashing to get people noticing. Here's the reason why I'm skeptical. I definitely think they're going to feature a lot of their prominent uk talent on that that seems that seems quite right but remember when that when you when bellator goes to overseas i mean when any promoter goes to overseas markets they're obviously trying to mostly cater to that market but this will air live on showtime the same spike tv where they're going to air the shit late at night they're going to air it live so it's going to air i think domestically around three or four in the afternoon east coast time

hard to put a tentpole event for an american product basically um at that time even though this all right what if you did this fight what if you did this and again i'm being creative here i don't have knowledge what if you took this fight and you matched it up with A.J. McKee versus Pitbull Part 2 and you aired it on CBS? I mean, that'd be huge. But you're still airing it Friday on 2 or 3 in the afternoon, 4 in the afternoon, 5 in the afternoon. Well, maybe that's a Saturday. Do you know it's Friday?

No, it's a Friday. It's a Friday. Okay. So it's just a little tough. Great fight. Love the fight. Just a little bit interesting about why they announced it so early uh okay andre arlovsky is going to take on jared vandera ufc 271 boy they keep giving arlovsky all these dudes who who are uh i don't know about jared we'll have to see but typically not up to par and he just

fucking schools him with this new style that he has yeah we'll see what happens they think they're getting soda popinski luke but they're getting years worth of uh of technique and smarts i can't believe he i can't believe he repaired his like he had one of those chins that like you you don't you don't last anymore because you're gonna get knocked out 10 consecutive times if they left you if they let you he appeared to have one of those chins luke and he's turned that that around i mean it's we've already been down this road of praising him but it's really incredible that he's even in this gate a true gatekeeper situation dude i mean he had a a shootout of a fist fight i remember watching his shootout of a fist fight i want to say it

was live but i remember years and years and years ago against fucking Pedro Hizzo. You know, Pedro Hizzo is an old coach now. And Andre is, granted he was younger than him at the time, but like, you know, he's still out there doing this shit. It's unbelievable the amount of career longevity he's had because he's reinvented himself. Dracar Close taking on Brandon Jenkins on April 16th.

Drakkar Close has been a pretty good fighter, but hasn't really quite ascended just yet, so we'll have to see what happens there. BC, we just got a fight on April 23rd, if you care at all. The bigger one, though, that I care about BC, this one I thought was kind of interesting. Kaitlyn Shukagian, she just won and said after that fight, that was her last fight on her contract. You're like, oh, she was trying to test free agency.

Not really. Quote, this was the last fight on my contract. And usually when you have one more, they renegotiate your contract. Chukagian said at the post-fight press conference. Quote, so when they offered this fight, I'm like, oh, I'm up for renegotiation for a new contract. And they were like, no, we want you to fight this one out. That doesn't necessarily mean they're going to cut me, but it ain't good news. Hopefully with this performance, I'd like to think that they want to keep me. I want to stay. BC, she is a perennial top five contender in this division.

She can't be the champion. We recognize that. Also, she is the first UFC fighter to 10 wins, 10 UFC wins with no stoppage. But dude, she is a very high level competitor. Would it be a mistake for the UFC to let her go? She's also tied for the most wins with Valentina in division history after this one. Would it be a mistake? It depends here, Luke, because Dana White went on to say, oh, that's, you know, Mick Maynard handled that, the matchmaker, that's his contract, that's his deal. But Mick declined to offer a fight until, I think, until they wanted to see the result.

Meaning, look, if Shukagian lost in this one, Luke, she was going to be out of the title picture. It's going to be hard to make a case for her to turn back around and win 3-4 in a row and get back into it. They might have just let her go. Now, I think you do have to resign her because she's got three straight wins all against top five opponents. I know that speaks more to this division not being loaded. But, Luke, I don't think they wanted to go out of their way to overpay her. She's not really marketable.

Her style is consistent and tough, but I think it's lacking the oomph to win a title or even really be a threat for a title, even in this shallow division. So I think they're willing to let her go if they have to. Obviously they are. You saw the move they made. It shouldn't be right democratically. But look, OK, she's won three in a row because she's technically longer and better than all of these girls. But there's no storyline for a Valentina rematch.

I mean, she got handled. I mean, look, they all get fucking handled by Valentina at the end of the day, okay? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? They all do. But there's not a lot there marketing-wise. That's tough to say.

I don't mean to rip on somebody, but it's the truth. I mean, tell me if you think this comparison is accurate. She is something akin to the women's division, Phil Davis, right? Where she is quite good, and she is going to beat very good fighters. Probably not the best one. In fact, we know not the best one. We've seen 10 rounds, for example, of Phil Davis versus, not Moldovsky, but the light heavyweight champ over.

No, the light heavyweight. Oh, Vadim Nemkov. Nemkov. Vadim Nemkov. We've seen 10 rounds versus Nemkov. Phil ain't better than him. We've seen enough evidence between Valentina and although Phil versus Nemkov is closer,

but you get the idea. She's not the best person in this division. She's fucking good. Dude, I'll say this, man. Dude, that was a good win. By the way, that was a good-ass win against Maya. She gritted. That was pretty gritty, Luke. Yeah, and and here's the thing a lot of times what they

used to do was if they didn't like you like if you're a john fitch type they waited until you lost one where they were like oh okay we're just not gonna we're just gonna release you from your contract here they waited her to finish one out but she won dude she's winning listen i understand like it may be better for other parts of their promoters to get top-ranked talent in their organizations. It's good to see that move around a little bit. But it's bad to see someone this talented, who, granted, has not made an impact with fans.

I mean, it's just fair to say. You know, can't keep their roster spot despite high achievement. I don't really like that. I don't like the message. That looks bad. If she was top 15 and they got whatever, that's fine. Dude, she's top five. It's not okay by me.

I mean, UFC has so much financial control and leverage where they don't have to make moves like this just because it's the smart move financially. They could still keep the competitive bubble as fresh and pure as possible because if she went to PFL or Bellator, she could be a title favorite right away. You know, she's an interesting player in those divisions.

But, I mean, have you seen this before at this level? It's rare when you see this type of, I mean, I guess it is a John Fitch similar type situation. Yeah, pretty close. All right, that's it. Time for you to take over, good sir. Oh, yeah, this is what we do every Monday. But, Luke, you know, I didn't do a live show monday you know how that works but you know i scoured the globe for the good and the bad the ugly the in between and combat sports and beyond it's called have you seen this shit oh now luke uh it's been a week and a half we got some good shit today uh gaffney

our great producer who who pulls the kernels of corn out of this shit told me he uh he popped a few times luke all right you ready i've i was born ready ready we'll see you tomorrow night uh ufc fight night in vegas luke the first finish of 2022 in the octagon goes to debutant vlachislav Borshev. Hey, Luke, forget the name. Let's call him Slava Claus. How about this body shot on Dakota Bush, brother? Yeah, the body shot was great, and then I don't know what the fuck you call this,

but that shit ruled. Oh, yeah. Luke, he won us over with the interview, with the dance moves. I know he had a nice win on the Contender Series to get to this point. Is he a Mr. Faber guy as well? I'm not sure.

Okay. Okay. I think he is Luke. Um, he looks to be interesting. I mean, look, it's one fight, but he looks to be an interesting player, but speaking of his dancing, Luke, let's advance the slide. Uh, he really, he really won Twitter on this night and it was the first fight of the main card after like four or five decisions.

He comes out. He finishes. He's got it. Whoa. It was like electric boogaloo over here, Luke. That's how you step into your moment, bro. All right? Let's go to the next one.

You know what? These white guys, man, they can – we all know they can dance, you know? Yeah. I got more dancing video if Gav wants to hit that. No, I'm teasing. He actually looks pretty good. Look, he had more. He had more moves.

He had more moves. No, seriously. That looks, I bet that's way harder than he makes that look. You ever tried this? No, I don't. I'm not in touch with my origin cultures on this level. This is not as good as what I think it's called like the Les Ginka dance or whatever it's called that,

uh, that a Shevchenko does, but it's pretty good. I like this one. Yeah. It's great. Wow. This guy's great.

Uh, Luke, the main event, let's not forget that a lot of people pass in this picture around Giga Chikadze's face after running into Calvin Cater in the hospital. Can we zoom in? Luke, this looks worse than fade or against Bigfoot Silva.

Yeah. I mean, look at cater space too. Not that bad. You know, this looks worse than Fedor against Bigfoot Silva. Yeah, I mean, look at Cater's face, too. Not that bad. You know, looks like he had a rough practice. That's it. I mean, good God, Luke. And the shirt and the shirt of Giga Chikazi, too. Like, look at that thing. Just fucking... I mean, when I look at pictures like this, I got a lot of nerve cracking jokes ever about anything.

Anthony Smith, I love you, brother. I mean, look, these guys are... These guys go to hell and back for us to be employed, Luke. I mean, this is I love you brother I mean look these guys are these guys go to hell and back for us to be employed Luke I mean this is ridiculous I'll say this I just I don't agree with you know when fighters try to intimidate media about criticism but I will say if you're media you should look at pictures like this and stare at it a long time and let that inform your judgment about losing fighters and what you should say I mean even cater like he kind of you know he went through it as you mentioned i mean he had a he had to walk through some shit to win the fight in this fashion yeah although he is definitely this is not the look of his face after his last

fight i can tell you that that's for sure also on this card luke brazilian featherweight joe anderson brito got himself fired up by pulling almost a gus farad here into the wall you into this luke gus farad dude that guy used to take dumps and then send samples of it to labs to test what was in it to make sure that he had all of the you know whatever supposed to be in his system was in there he that guy's a fucking maniac. What do you think about this Brazilian named Joe Anderson, Luke? I think it's probably I could see a Jovanderlay coming, a Joe Nog. I don't know if I like the name because I

read it and it looks like Joan Derson. You know? Yeah. It's weird. Yeah. Alright. Luke, we haven't seen the spirit, though, of energy and aggression since this Dan Severn lookalike decided to take on the punch machine head

first. Let's roll the videotape. Oh, wow. Oh, wow, Luke. Yeah, I mean, you got a walking start, fuckface. This is not impressive. Luke, is this guy a good hang or is he a liability? No, he sucks. This is the kind of guy who gets too drunk

when you tell him not to, and then ends up getting tased on TikTok. Fuck this guy. And then he throws up in a sink at Malco. Yeah, we've got guys like that on our team. Just the fucking worst. Luke, I don't know if you watched UFC Embedded this week, but episode one, Inside Brett Okamoto's Old Home, had a lot

of talk about the size of Francis Ngannou's feet on this massage table, Luke. Do you think it's true what they say about, you know, feet size and hammer and sickle size, Luke? His feet are messed up. Did you notice that?

I looked them up. They said they're only size 12 and a half. Those look like Shaq Fu right there, Luke. He'll stomp a guy with that. But you see how his toes go like this? See that? How they open? Well, he's getting a massage, Luke.

I mean, he could be in mid-orgasm at the moment for all we know. No, no, no. His shoes have damaged his feet. That's what has happened. But those can't be 12 and a half because I wear a 13 or 14, and I've seen him in person, and he is fucking enormous. Dude, I rewatched the Stipe rematch yesterday. How sneaky was that left high kick that Ngannou landed?

And Stipe was just like, oh, my God. Like, what are you doing? I know. Dude, Stipe looked like his hair got – he blocked the kick, but it landed so hard that it redid his hairstyle god damn want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam what about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space now you can with partial shares from td direct investing you can a tour of outer space. Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing,

you can own part of your favorite companies. Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share. It's a piece of cake. Learn more at td.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you. Good shit right there. All right, Luke, top-ranked boxing was in Verona, New York. Whether you watched it or not,

light heavyweight champion Joe Smith Jr. defending against late replacement Stefan Geffrard. See, I heard, I didn't watch this fight, BC, but everyone who did told me Smith did not look that impressive. Is that true? Yeah, you know, I didn't watch it yet, but I've heard that same breakdown where he was a little bit slow and tactical early. Look, Luke, he's getting there against a late replacement, as we talked about.

He's a puncher, Luke Joe Smith. He still works full-time, like chopping trees down, Luke. He's like a union worker when he was trying to become a boxer. Guy's a hard worker, but he did throw his name into the Canelo sweepstakes afterwards. Does he have a chance, Luke?

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Alright. Also on this card, Luke? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right. Also on this card, Luke, check out Abraham Nova working out in the locker room with his own mascot. This is like the Jake Paul robot all over again, Luke. Dude, this is some Burger King commercial shit. And look at him coming out. Look at that beard, Luke.

He's got like a a dyed yellow beard he's basically a creative fighter on ufc4 it's great i will say i we always talk about how like the pageantry in boxing is so much better than the pageantry in in ufc typically mma but certainly ufc but then it's so weird when people put this much effort and then you see him walk out and there's five people in the arena oh come on oh that's not fair luke look look look there's no one there dude it's verona new york do you know how cold that lonely ass area of the state is luke out there like keep moving to verona new york everybody great place it's one of the saddest casinos i've ever been in luke all right let's

keep it going oh you know what does have that paché that you're looking for, Luke? That attaché. What word am I looking for? Panache? Panache, Luke, is when celebrities put on the boxing gloves and show us their form. Let's see what Snoop Dogg entered into the overall lexicon here, Luke. Your thoughts? He's got a nice southpaw one, too, right? Well, look at the uppercut.

I mean, you you know it's whatever okay you know for a for a rank amateur who is not an athlete yeah it's not bad rate is formed from one to steven a smith let's advance the slide well wouldn't it be steven a smith to like i think i well it depends on what you know depends on your interpretation of this art luke and the donkey if you're trying to punch the floor and the ceiling at the same time, this guy's got you. Nobody's talking about his old school video game there. Is that Galaga, Luke?

Oh, that's funny. He's just randomly in a hotel room. Is that Galaga? No, that's something else. I don't know about you, but I prefer celebrities who really know how to bang, Luke, when it comes to hitting the bag. You know what I'm talking about? Speaking of banging, check out 45-year-old Todd Grisham who celebrated his birthday by putting this video out, Luke.

Wow. Dude, he's working that bag, right? Yeah, he is. The old H2O bag. Giving it some, giving it some, some. Where is this, by the way? I don't know. It looks like a cruise ship.

I don't know. He does cover Glory Kickboxing, so it could be like somewhere beautiful in europe for all we know luke but uh but that's that's actually you know what you know what he could put a shirt on though he like when you look like that you know you at 45 we don't look like that luke so would we no we don't we don't i'm not saying we post countless instagram photos listen i'm not saying he looks bad. That's not what I'm saying. But, you know, it's not one of those situations where, like, he has to be shirtless.

You know what I'm saying? He's shirtless a lot, you know. I mean, to show off the tats. Remember he got in, like, absurd shape like a year ago, and we were like, I don't know, dude. I'm going to have to. Is Memo Heredia in your corner? I mean, what's going on right now, you know?

What's happening? Boxing fans will get that joke. That's funny. All right. Luke, let's keep it going. Speaking of celebrity friends doing big things, how about this guy, Brendan Schaub of Thick Boy Studios fame, bowling a strike while keeping his child up in the other hand, Luke?

Is that Boston right there? That's pretty good. I hadn't seen that. Nice work, Dad. I like that. It's not the other hand, Luke. Is that Boston right there? That's pretty good. I hadn't seen that. Nice work, Dad. I like that. It's not easy to do, Luke. I mean, there's zippy masks on, but, you know, who cares? Okay.

All right. All right, Luke. He texted me. He texted me last night. I actually texted him back today. He was a great supporter of our brand, and we wish him well, Luke, on his own. Yeah. He did that as well.

He actually texted me because, for folks who may know um we we should just say it outright we have a lot of the below the belt followers on instagram the instagram's gonna move him over and um so there's a he put out a video for us that he recorded before he left showtime to let everyone know to keep us around i a thank you brendan i really appreciate that and b i also appreciate the text last night he wished us well and so um i was very happy to see that i'm still willing and able and want to do a uh tiger thick whiskey like taste test with him or not on the air we got there i've been thinking about this you poo-pooed my idea and i don't know why there are so many celebrity boozes at this point we could easily do this as a recurring segment.

Just in MMA, you got the rare stash that's now out from, what you call it, from Dustin Poirier I want to try. You got this. I still want to try the Terramana tequila from The Rock. Dude, to be fair, it doesn't even have to be alcohol, Luke. If they'll send it to us, I'll, you know, I'll. Yeah, that's true. I'll just say nice shit.

Why not? All right, Luke. Speaking of our famous friends, also MMA junkies, Mike Bone showing a weird flex with this pic of how empty his airline flight was. Luke, probably due to COVID as he's exiting the great nation of Canada. You know what I'm thinking when I see this picture, Luke? You know, no options to get a little handsy, right? You're out of luck, bro. Sorry. Mike Bond has hooked up with a girl, legitimately,

who is so far out of his league, it is impossible to tell the story with a straight face. You just can't believe that a Kermit the Frog voiced Zero like this. Why? Okay. Okay. All right. I had fun clowning on him.

That's aggressive, Luke. All right. That's, you know, a lot, you know. I like to be mean to him. You know what? I do want to shout out, Luke, and I think or I hope I haven't seen the final, final rough cut yet of our great Morning Combat documentary part sixary part six that the uh less than jake the documentarian says uh could be ready in like a week luke you know we've seen some of it can we

say something right now i know i'm cutting you off on this but it bothers me a little bit he is taking way too long with this bro art takes takes time this is all him by the way it's all him get that dude the awards was was last month motherfucker i agree that it should go out as soon as possible. I agree that. But I just liked, look, you were the first time ever, bro.

Normally you shit on all of these. Like it's the episode one, season one of Oz. Right. And like, but the thing, this time you actually started a text chain. We're like,

yo, Jake, like, let me get that. Let me get that doc, bro. You done yet? Let me see it.

Look, you normally cannot be bothered episode six episode six is so good that i only have the first two-thirds of it we haven't even seen the last third of it so all they have is the first two-thirds it was so good i showed it to my wife and my wife thought it was amazing to the point where now she wants updates on when this is coming out i've never i've never showed her any of the other docs. I showed her this one because I thought it was so good, and she agreed.

Hell hath no speed up of a due date than a BBL. They're getting fired up. I like that spirit. All right. Yes. Whatever it takes. The point I was going to make, Luke, was I'll say this. We were told, you and I didn't really realize because we were in the moment,

but when we won that award, spoiler alert, we're an award-winning show, the eruption from the audience behind us, which were our brethren in the media, Luke, to be fair, it was humbling to see that type of noise. And again, we're patting ourselves on the back here, but to see them that invested, our brethren in this game, and Luke, you know firsthand whether we're patting ourselves on the back here, but like to see them that invested our brethren in this game. And Luke, you know, firsthand, whether we're the the whether we're right or wrong, it's easy to get caught up in some journalist BS in this petty game. I mean, it's you know, we're all we're all going for it in terms of fame and money and journalism and fun and all that. This was like a pure moment, Luke. So shout out to Oscar Willis, Mike Bone, Brett Okamoto, Sean Elshadi, all those brothers.

They sold for us, Luke. They sold. Although Brett was really, he was quite drunk behind the scenes. Yeah, I mean, Brett may not have realized what we were actually doing at that point. But yeah, yeah. He was like, oh, free bar? Okay. Which is weird because tell me if I'm wrong here, I'll call out Brett.

Even though he lives in Vegas, he's hard to corral i want to hang with brett all the time he's kind of hard to corral see i don't know i've never corralled i've never had to corral brett i usually just run into him in places and we we chat but he was behind us at the mma awards and i want everyone to know i don't know if he remembers that because my man had a fever at that point wow wow i like that there's a subtle little like hey just, just so everyone knows, I don't chase friendships. That's what you kind of really want. No, no, I like Brett a lot, but I don't go to Vegas and I'm like, hey, what's everyone in town up to?

I don't know. All right. Hey, Luke, you know what time it is? It's Dagestan basketball time. Yes, Luke, my hero and should be yours, Zabit Magomed Sharapov making Instagram for these basketball tricks. Check him out, Luke. Oh, shit.

Yo, dude, perfect, bro. Dude, perfect, indeed. This is actually one of the lead goal scores for Liverpool. This is Mosola. Oh, you're telling me that's not my hero, Luke? Is that what you're telling me? So first, Zabit can't beat

Jeremy Stephens in a five-round fight, and now this isn't him luke okay yeah pretty sure this is not i'll have you know luke that dagestan is a hotbed for basketball in fact here's footage of one eagle habib nurmagomedov luke check out him nailing this half-court shot after some filthy traveling to set it up did you see this shit luke motherfucking steph curry and got shit on this on on fucking habib i mean luke it took like a 10 step setup to heave that shit right there it's the euro euro euro euro step yes you just keep stepping well luke if you're wondering where habib got his skills on the hardwood here's his shirtless dad abdulmanap just fucking mauling fools on the court watch this luke dude god blessed and rest in peace to this fucking hero of men can i just tell you this is how i want my life

to look in the next 20 years i want to be visibly i want to be visibly way more overweight than everyone around me, and I want to beat the shit out of all of them. And be shirtless just because you can? And be like Todd Grisham, unnecessarily shirtless, but unlike Todd Grisham, hard to look at. No, Luke, this isn't footage of Charles Oakley from the 90s, but it's pretty damn close. Of course, Luke, if you're looking for file footage

of whether basketball in Dagestan is a real thing, yes. Here's footage of Zabit and Habib as high school teammates in the caucus conference finals, Luke. It gets a little physical, bro. I don't think what you're saying is the truth, but I do like this. It gets a little physical out there on the Dagestan. I love that they make them wear singlets. Dude, shoot the ball. Look, that's not proper form at all luke but uh the next one has to take the rock to the oh god look at

that luke uh shoot a high c guy come on everybody knows that luke the next one you're speaking of proper check out the form on this one oh holy fuck this luke this is probably i was there for this i'm i'm in that i'm in that audience right there oh look at back then 2016 mcgregor everything he throws up is going in luke you know that yeah this is just before the eddie alvarez fight and he was a man on fire basically i mean his form is awful but it's a lot better than like even Mayweather and Pacquiao. They both think they're ballers, Luke. They're pretty gross in the celebrity games. Yeah, his balling skills are not great,

but he fought his ass off that week. Yeah, he did, Luke. Luke, you know how much I love the Pennsylvania Gas Station sheets? Not Wawa sheets. I love their schmuffins and their schmegels. Well, Luke, let's go to this sheets. In fact, I their schmegels. Well, Luke, let's go to this sheets. In fact, I've taken sheets with more integrity, Luke,

than the cleanliness of this hoagie that got dripped in Grundle sauce for a bit, Luke. What are we doing here, bro? Man, if you guys knew what was in that area of me and I did this, you would fire me. you would fire me you would fire me if i knew what i love shoplifting yeah yeah that's um shoplifting is so fun it's one of the funnest things you can do now wait he went outside the underwear does that retain the integrity of the of the sandwich luke by by going no not not in my dungarees good lord i got germs the size of turtles in mind all right luke i had a i had a um old moment talking to the malca staff last week in jersey they couldn't believe that luke i was old enough to have worked at mcdonald's back when they still

sold pizza in uh in 1995 luke so shout out to me being an old piece of shit but luke uh i wasn't there when they had the McDonald's ketchup fondue. I would have been into this. What do you think about this, Luke? I'm not going to hate on that. Yeah, that's pretty bad. I'm not going to hate on that. I think if you're going to eat food.

Remember when Trump got in trouble because he fed the Clemson Tigers all McDonald's and shit? And then you looked at the spread and you were like, listen, I'm not saying I would do this at the White House house but i ain't turning down this food uh trump should have gone all in he should have had the ketchup fondue next to the big macs that would have been elegant yeah that would have been elegant no doubt about it uh be honest luke on this next one what is the the fact that someone got me in a vulnerable moment i mean look at the ass crack on that guy luke you could you could put a susan b anthony down there you could put saka juwia down there luke wow yeah you could mean, you could put his bag down there. He should just put his bag in his ass and then just call it a day.

You could help the old chimp with the vomits, you know? What do you think they gave that chimp? Like, I don't know. Poor guy, Luke. Poor guy. All right, let's keep it going. They gave him proper 12. Yeah, indeed, indeed. Luke, I think this tried to set a record for the most

times uh dm to me but i think people are starting to call this the fremont street massacre luke mess with the jacko so many times get the jajuts luke your thoughts on this well yeah i gotta say old mj not a not a terrible job at all actually dude he Dude, he's a smooth criminal, bro. Yeah, he is a smooth criminal. I know you've been waiting to say that. He definitely, it looks to me like has maybe trained before. Not very high level, and he's not very good, but he definitely is not totally unaccustomed to training. Yeah, but to use the gi like that, Luke,

I mean, to use the cravat shirt like that, Luke, that's smart right there. No, it's pretty good. Is that a bulldog choke? Am I watching Askren Lawler right here? No, you're watching Pat Melletich, Carlos Newton, yeah. Yes. That is a bulldog

choke, yes. See, I know, Luke, sometimes I know my shit, Luke. Although for a real bulldog choke, you want to have your hips in front of you so you can lean into it, but, yeah. Well, Luke, the next one and they say we're washed uh check out this luke uh power washer one karen nothing oh fuck yes fuck this this is me rolling around the ground when i haven't wiped properly i'm just like

luke what are the odds this is florida what are the odds a ten thousand percent yeah all right speaking of florida luke it is a different place uh it is luke uh x games has hit the everglades look you just need to adapt to your surroundings you know that's what they've done down there so i did this once not with an, but with a king snake. Do you know what a king snake is? No. King snakes are actually good snakes. You would like them.

They're giant. They have black. You'd love them, BC. No, no, hold on. They have like white or yellow rings. I can't remember on their body. Not many of them, but they're largely black. But they kill rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, I think.

They kill poisonous snakes, so you actually want to keep them around. But they can be a little bit alarming because they're huge and they look menacing. There was one in the road, and it had been run over by a car, and I thought it was dead. And so I ran over it with my bike, and then it snapped at me with its last bit of life left. So I felt kind of bad running over it, but I was 14. What are you going to do? Rattlesnakes and cottonmouth. I that luke that could be the uh i had two cottonmouths fall into my fucking canoe once ever told you that no i was gonna say that could be the tagline for a dilla shaw o'malley pay-per-view no dude i one time was uh canoeing in um in south georgia

north florida and what what often happened is in certain parts of the of the of the area the the cotton mouths will rest on tree leaves to catch sun and and and get some sun and uh i was on the canoe with a guy who was disturbing them not intentionally but he was trying to get something and then two of them shits fell in the canoe right in front of me two poisonous fucking cottonmouths. So I had to leap out of the canoe into water. I didn't know what was in there. Oh, God.

And then slowly guide the canoe to the shore, turn the canoe over, and then wait for those fuckers to go back into the water. It was not awesome. It was not awesome. I've caught, or we as a family have caught four snakes, I think, since moving into this house in the finished part of the basement. How'd you catch them?

Well, Reggie Jackson, that cat, my best friend on this earth, Luke, he won't catch them, but he'll scout the shit out of them, Luke. He'll know at all times when they're in the building. And, yeah, Grandma one time just came out and stomped on it. Grandma's, they're impressive. Yeah, they are old school in that regard. I had a question. About the Cottonmouths? I think it was, yeah, I forgot it.

We should probably just move on. All right, Luke, let's go to the playground. Yeah, I could have saw that one coming, Luke, right? Yeah, all right luke uh let's go to the playground yeah i could have saw that one coming luke right yeah all right well luke finally someone effed around and combined your two favorite things luke punching and booty so so i i know this woman this is the woman on the left you guys yeah of course yeah you know her i'm sure yeah her name is vivi winkler she's brazilian and she has maybe the most unreal barrier you've ever seen in your life and that's her trainer who she is often in videos with did you also work out while watching this clip luke uh in a manner of speaking oh god oh wow oh i was gonna reference that weird comment we were like no bc it's a nice snake you'd like it i was like did you did you get that from the uh rocco so freddy netflix doc no no no no

all right well all right look i don't know where else to go but a double ko to the nuts right Did you get that from the Rocco Sofretti Netflix documentary? No, no, no, no. All right. Well done. All right, Luke. I don't know where else to go but a double KO to the nuts, right? Let's do that. Oh. Oh. Oh, no.

Oh, God. Wait a minute. I saw the one in the red hit the one in the black. But wait a minute. Go back. Go back. Let me see this. Turn into Fedor Mitryon, Luke.

Yeah. Oh, the ref is kind of obscuring it. But yeah, both guys just said, fuck it. Let's just kill each other in the balls. this turn into a fade or Mitri own Luke yeah oh the ref is kind of obscuring it but yeah both guys just said fuck it let's just kill each other in the balls yep yep well Luke here's footage of you crop dusting the fine

folks in first class on the way to your middle seat and coach as we exit this week shit look did you see the joy on old Schwarzkopf's face right there wait a second wait a second I don't understand he just lit a firework he didn't fart yeah but that's what it's like, Luke, when you walk by first class

and then you get that grin, you know, because they can't go anywhere. I was waiting for some guy to come by and just totally let one rip, but no. No, it was more of a metaphor. It was metaphoric, Luke, in that regard. Yeah. Euphoric, even. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

I get it. Luke, that's all the shit I get. All right, well, you didn't have any drunk chicks or elder abuse so that was a solid c plus oh wow wow all right luke that's uh oh don't we have another segment that i'm q being here let's do it time for fan subs all right i gotta i gotta find them luke i'm not well prepared for this part of the show all right well as everyone knows morningcombat at gmail.com that's the the place to go. You send us your fan subs. We get them in. And then we roast you on the show.

And then the fans roast us on Friday on Dead or Wrong. You know, Luke, I'm still figuring it out. Hold on a second. I'm glad you came prepared, dude. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, just, you know. All right, here we go. So, yeah, Luke, every Wednesday our people send us pictures of shit,

and Mikey Mormile, our great CBS producer, usually just puts them all on without checking them, Luke. It's called fan-sufficient. He gets so bitter when we say that. All right, Mikey. Am I looking at the right? Yeah, I am, Luke. All right, Mikey. Am I looking at the right? Yeah, I am, Luke. All right.

Wow. We'll just edit this out afterwards, Luke, this awful moment. All right, here we go. We start off, Luke from Frank. Hello, Luke in BC. All the inebriated producers of MK. My name is Frank, and I'm coming to you degenerates from Chicago. I have a meme and a selfie for you.

Here's the selfie, Luke. Shout out to MK 1.0 merch right there. Okay. That's old school right there. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Yeah.

That's fair, Luke, right? Yeah. You know, that's fair, Luke, right? Yeah, you know, that's life. Yeah, some people like the cinematography, Luke. You know, it is what it is. All right, Todd says, hey, good morning, gents. We all know that BC is absolutely desperate for a masculine doppelganger to boost his midlife status. Obviously, Brian's hat isn't enough to get Randy Couture into the conversation,

but can anyone verify where Brian dennehy was around nine months before brian campbell was born todd from san diego chiming in luke you see anything i don't know this seems a little bit much dude you have more of the grumpy cat frown you know, Brian Dennehy, no one ever talks about him. Real underrated, Luke. Remember, did you ever see FX? I love that shit in the 80s. Agreed. But this is a stretch. Yeah, it's a little bit of a stretch.

Jack says, how you doing? I'm from Melbourne. Luke's Indian brother here. I thought I should point out with this photo that the Call Me Crazy fonts with the MK Fist logo looks awfully similar to the blowjob emoji. I'm sure that's an inside joke between the graphics guy and BC. I hope not that inside.

Keep up the good work. Is that a real emoji, the one on top? Luke, I'll use the laughing, the crying one, laughing until I cry one, and sometimes the explosion one, but that's about it, Luke. Maybe the 100 once in a while. What do you use, Luke? I bet you do weird stuff because I'm sure when you text your Colombian relatives, it's all emojis, Luke.

No, most of my relatives are in-laws speak English. No, it's not a language barrier. It's like explosion of emotion and love. No, I usually use the thumbs up, the fire, the crying, laughing, that kind of shit. Do you ever use the eggplant one? Is that supposed to be the one for hog? Yeah, you're damn right, Luke.

All right. I don't tweet a whole lot of hogs. Yeah. Here's Zahidi says, 10 minutes after i submitted my previous picture i watched mk's 2021 greatest hits and i was embarrassed disappointed when i saw the sexy pottery scene from ghost photoshop with the donks had already been done i'm still proud of my version so i'm submitting a remix um Yeah, look, that's disturbing. That's really disturbing, yeah.

Dude, I haven't been that thin since high school. Look at that shit. Yep. I look way too comfortable in your arms there, Luke. Yeah, I got to say, your smile is very disturbing. Yeah, I don't think so. Kevin says, here's a couple quick memes. The Anthony Smith is a bit meta of a meme

and may fly over Brianrian's head first of all says quick hitters mk when there's nothing interesting to talk about i mean look quick hitters is a small batch of news right we have been leaning on it pretty heavily of late yeah that's probably fair all right all right and the second, what do you got? What are you going to make fun of me? Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a deep cut right there. That's funny. That's funny.

You got to watch the show to do shit like that. That's why you got to appreciate these, man. You know? Yeah. These are some P1s right here. Some prime pieces of shit. Jose A. It's Jose Alfonso from Brazil, Luke.

He's always here. Just wanted to say thanks for the amazing content. Congratulations for YouTube being the best MMA podcast around. It's great to see Luke happier than ever. I agree with that. And Brian getting in good shape. Well, the holidays took that away from me. You guys are my personal heroes. Yes, I have incredibly

low standards. This meme is based on the totally non-existing curse. That's it. Now Luke can go take a dump. Luke, what is he saying here? Nothing coherent? I mean, he swung big, Luke, but he met yeah he may have come up empty yeah oh i guess we're doing a resume review on so i like shavkat rakmanov so the idea would be our

next resume review no i mean i get it it's not that i don't get it i just think um it's yeah it's just a bad joke yeah yeah yeah i'm Yeah. I'm sorry. I mean, thanks for the effort, though. Don't mean to roast this guy, Luke. You know, Jose Afonso. Great guy. You know, never met him. Never met him. There you go.

All right. Two more. Luke Tyler's got a couple of photos from the 412 here. Whatever that is. That Georgia Luke 412. I'm not sure. As a fellow football fan. Oh, that is fucking righteous.

I'd hate to see luke turn his back on his team due to names so i have a solution unfortunately bc it doesn't have a hog in the name i prevent i present to you the washington washed i already sent dan snyder the picks and my arrest record i should fit right in with the washington football culture luke is this guy tyler on to something here? He is very much on to something. I hate that organization, and everyone a part of it is garbage. So I like this.

All right. Those are his two photos, right? Also, Andrew has two photos. Oh, wow, there's a second one, Luke. That's an interesting idea. That's something right there. Okay. Let's go to Andrew. Got some memes for the mk crew all

day every day love the show guys all right let's see what you got all right i you know okay you know i mean i love this bc jokes about midget nun porn while speaking in a racist accident. What racist accident did you speak in, BC? I think when I did the stereotypical Asian MMA announcer one, with respect, but, you know, it got mis-strewn, Luke. Mis-strewn. Mis-strewn. Yeah, did it mis-strewn?

Was it an accident that it was mistrone yes it was a it was an uncomfortable situation and an unfortunate one thank you next slide is that it oh the last one luke uh yeah that's pretty good that's pretty good pretty good job right there luke uh luke i saw you um i saw you memeing yourself when you said you've now watched in contu more times than uh holloway volk 2 yeah in english and spanish like like 50 times or more in english 50 times or more in spanish it's crazy i mean that shows some real self-awareness to make fun of oneself luke i applaud that.

I guess. Yeah. Well, that's all the shit they submitted, Luke. That's all the shit we got. All right. Well, you ended it on the least anticlimactic note. Well, the most, I should say. Anticlimactic note imaginable. So that's nice.

Okay, BC. Well, we should remind folks tomorrow, High Court. High Court will be out tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that. Plus, friday we're going to get everyone ready saturday there will be the fights i'll have a post fight show it'll be fun we have a lot so keep it locked here on morning combat thumbs up on the video hit subscribe if you're watching on youtube give us a follow on the socials morning combat's name is consistent everywhere and then uh we have slightly different names bc and i between twitter and instagram uh as i mentioned morningcombat at gmail.com for friday's dead wrong at this point

you can get those in showtime.com for a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can bounce you see all the merch there morningcombat.store and yeah that's it tomorrow on the lookout me chuck mendenhall bc high court it's gonna be fun it's gonna be a lot of fun luke thank you to everybody who sent their stuff into morning combat at gmail.com i'm sure luke referenced that hey look are we still up at uh best sports podcast.com i think we're still in the running for the the uh best combat sports podcast of the year and i think look i checked that they have like a running scoreboard. We're in first place.

Hey, all right. When's the voting stop? I have no idea. But our fans can definitely help us win a second major award at sportspodcastawards.com. You do a quick sign up. You don't have to put your credit card information down or anything weird like that, Luke. But, you know, then you just vote, all right?

All right. fair enough. So there's that. And I think that's it for today. So I want to thank everyone for watching. I want to thank Malka, Showtime, CBS Sports. Oh, you know what you didn't do? We had some sound we were going to throw. Maybe we'll save it for Friday.

You really just... Do we really need it? I don't really need it right now. All right, you're just like, you're like, fuck this, bro. Yeah. It's okay. We don't have to play it uh okay so we'll play some of that on friday we'll get you ready for the fights on friday it'll be a ton of fun

watch high court tomorrow for brian i'm luke until next time may all of your gains be loyal