MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 271: Adesanya-Whittaker 2 | Lewis-Tuivasa | Amanda Nunes | Ep. 262

Episode Date: February 9, 2022

On episode 262 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian look ahead to UFC 271: Adesanya vs. Whittaker 2. What are the biggest storylines heading into the rematch? What should we be looking for when Derrick Lewis faces Tai Tuivasa? What other fights on the UFC 271 card should we keep an eye on? Next up the boys discuss Amanda Nunes' recent comments. How do these comments impact their thoughts heading into the second fight? The boys close out the show with Over/Under and Fan submissions. 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, reveveille, 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. It's the 9th of February, 2020, and it is time on this hump day for morning combat that was really

awful the way I did that and pretty gross uh hi everyone my name is Luke Thomas I am merely one half of your hosting duo duo I join you from the capital Los Estados Unidos right here in Washington DC joined as always by the viceroy the prince until Glover Teixeira loses the title of Connecticut, my friend and yours, it's Brian Campbell. Hello, Brian Campbell. Luke, welcome back to MK. This is my favorite place to be. I love it.

Luke, should we – I'm like, how many more seconds on this show should we waste before we announce that, you know, Bengals starting quarterback Joe Burrow, probably the coolest guy ever, follows us on Instagram. I mean, that's not a bad development, right? That's a pretty great development. The question is, do we DM him and say, give us 60 seconds of an interview if you win the Super Bowl?

But then if you do that, A, he won't do it, and B, he'd be like, if you lose, we don't give a fuck anyway. See, I was thinking differently. I was like, okay, how do I work him into Celebrity Wheel of Death? How do I make that happen you know is there a fee involved yeah are you so so this okay we've talked about this before before you were kind of like you didn't care about cronky being a horrible owner in sports because you wanted to make some stupid american point about european soccer yeah let's back up a step because that's because that's

what men do luke okay come on that's what that do, Luke. Okay? Come on. That's what cucks do. But it's okay. Here. Riddle me this. Now that Joe Burrow follows us on MK, you've got to be rooting for the Bengals on Sunday, right? Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

Icky Woods, Boomer Esiason. Okay? Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Let's do this. All right. All right.

Very, very good. I mean, I didn't give a shit until this, Luke, but now, yeah, yeah, right? All right, listen, whatever it takes, whatever it takes. As always, if you're watching this on YouTube, as most of you probably are, thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe. If you're listening on a podcast platform,

please give us a nice review and a nice like, whatever you may do for us in a positive way for us on that podcast platform. By the way, we skipped this last time, BCR. Maybe I did. I don't remember.

I think you did it on Friday. Folks should head over to the sports podcast awards, go to sports podcast, awards.com. That's awards, plural and vote for old MK as the best combat sports podcast. Now I know we were in the leaderboard situation before BC. Do you know what the situation is as we speak no uh i have stopped checking it because i want to be surprised either

way but it's tough competitors luke you're talking about ariel hawani of the mma hour you're talking about chris jericho you're talking about some european boxing pods that get a lot of views in the uk uh this is a fight luke but the the thing about MK is you know we may have no business getting up from that body shot but we well we will we might we might we might just go wire to wire and take this one too Luke let me ask you that so we like you could say that in terms of like a head punch what's the most miraculous thing you've ever seen someone do in terms of getting up Tyson Fury against Deontay Wilder might fit that bill. That was one of the more miraculous things I've ever seen. What's the most impressive, like dude got drilled with a body shot, got dropped, but

then got up and fucking just performed. It just so happens that I love this category, Luke, and love this exact moment, which can happen in boxing. The most extreme I've ever seen it was arturo gatti in the first mickey ward fight i believe it was round nine which is the greatest round in my opinion in boxing history in which uh god he went and now you have to understand mickey ward was a left hook fight finishing specialist like he was that guy journeyman action guy who sometimes could win fights he was losing badly by finding that liver with one shot.

He catches Arturo Gatti with a fucking home run shot, Luke. And Gatti not only gets up, right, but he's just wearing on his face how much that freaking hurt him. Like, I mean, he's just like, like, you're like, this guy's no business standing or functioning right now. And then he goes on in that round to rally and turn the tables on an exhausted ward. So that's legendary stuff. But Luke, 2013, you remember Darren Barker from the UK when he won a middleweight world title against Daniel Geel? Oh, I remember Daniel Gil, yes. Just days after Barker's brother had died, young and tragically, Barker gets dropped in Atlantic City in the midpoint of that fight

by a killer body shot by Gil. And Barker would later say, as he's there on the canvas dying and paying to the body, that the ghost of his brother appeared and was like, get up, in his mind. And he got the hell up and won that fight. And, you know, it's one of those, like, you don't get, you don't hear people talk about a lot, but it was one of those like, holy shit. You know, it's kind of big moments where you're just like, damn.

Yeah. That's like when the average old soccer mom sees her kid trapped under a car and then out of nowhere, she just has fucking He-Man strength that can pull up the car and get him it's like that it's like that's probably explains jorge masvidal's 2019 luke it might it might uh we have a lot he's just staying that for a whole year though but you know uh but he was possessed certainly we have a lot to get to today including storylines for ufc 271 in grand and full detail we'll talk about some storylines not just from the main and the co-main event. We have some Amanda Nunes news to get to,

some true-false, some over-under, some fan subs. So no time like the present. I want to remind folks, if you haven't tried Showtime, I don't know what you're waiting for, but you can still do it, Showtime.com. You can get a 30-day free trial. It's not just live TV, that's everything on the app. If you like it, keep it.

If not, go do something else with your life. You can email the show for Friday's Dead Wrong. I'm sure we have plenty of those lined up. MorningCombat at gmail.com will be the email for that. Shoot us anything. And, of course, for today's fan subs, although it's a bit late to get them in for today, but we can get them in for next week. And what else, BC? Oh, merch.

MorningCombat.store. Do we have – I see you're wearing old merch with the hoodie, but new merch with the hat. Bit of a mixed message no i mean that that represents the fact that i can somehow stay so hip to today's culture but also be stuck in the 90s luke i'm a walking contradiction all right all right fair enough but if you want to get some gear morningcombat.store i'm sure as the year progresses we'll have some new stuff uh okay bc with that out of the way i'm ready to get the show started. So let's get going. Topic number one, we talked about the major storyline that we were following for the

main event this weekend, which is just about as good of a main event as you're going to get, especially for rematch considerations. Israel Adesanya taking on Robert Whitaker, the one we have paid attention to before. I don't want to revisit. Let me start here, though, because I saw this bubble up in the social media conversation and I found it a little bit insane, but it is worth talking about because I guess everybody else is. There is at least some kind of a movement. I won't say that it's the predominant amount, but there does appear a little bit of noise that people wish to replace Anderson Silva's greatest of all time status in the middleweight division with Israel Adesanya, given that he is the current

champion and of course has done really well for himself. Do you think that that is a fair thing to do or not? I don't think it's a fair thing to do when you end up comparing them against each other. And this just happened to happen in our CBS Sports Slack message group, you know, with our writers and editors in the past few weeks where someone offered the same idea like you know that adesanya might actually be close and then uh our own brent brookhouse went on a run of showing point by point about why he's not even freaking close at all but luke overall we got a problem with in problem with me saying that there's a problem is that i'm people like me are a major part of this problem.

We're out of control on calling people goats, next in line, you know, all this stuff. And it fills great podcast debate time. And I love it. I get high off that catnip, right, of being like, oh, crap, you know, that's a bunch of title defenses in a row. Good God, how close is he to knocking on old Uncle Andy's door? But I wanted to do that with Woodley up the chains against GSP, people are already doing that with Usman

you know, Amanda Nunes is the GOAT, but if she loses, that person now automatically the GOAT, yeah, it's a lot of stuff, it's gotten out of control, Luke they were cute brown, like mogwais to begin with, and I loved it but we fed that shit after midnight bro

and uh and these gremlins are out of control did anything i just say make sense yeah but i guess this is the thing i'm trying to figure out i'm in agreement with you right so which is to say the following in short i don't know if anybody likes Israel Adesanya more than me, except for his parents. Like, I have been a believer in him from his first fight in the UFC on, including against everyone saying he was overrated and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've been like, none of that has changed. I still have an extremely high opinion of Israel Adesanya. And I have to cop to the fact that people have asked me, like, what's a big thing you've ever been wrong about? I was one of those fucking dumbasses early into the run of Anderson Silva in the UFC being like, well, you just wait till Dan

Henderson and Matt Lindland get here and they're going to show you what's up. And of course, he never fought Lindland, but that would have been a massacre. And he did fight Henderson and he fucking submitted him pretty quickly. Like I was totally wrong about Anderson Silva. I was slow to take up to him in certain ways. So putting that in context, the idea that what Adesanya has done, which is incredible. I mean, he is a phenomenal champion. It's not really all that close to what Anderson did. I'm sorry.

It's just not. So this is my question to you, BC. I don't even think this is very debatable. Anderson's record at middleweight, I mean, let's be clear. Israel's on a great run and certainly seems poised to do great things. Maybe we'll overtake him. You certainly couldn't rule it out. But I guess what I'm wondering is BC, where did this even start? I don't just mean, some corner of the internet, some idiot did it. But I guess what I'm saying is,

don't you feel like, you're the boxing guy, right? Here's my question. Don't you feel like in MMA, we don't honor our history, even recent history, nearly as well as we do in boxing? Oh, absolutely. There's no doubt about that. I mean, we're ridiculously quick, as I just mentioned, to jump all over who's next and all this stuff. Why is that? Declaring everything.

It's like it in general for that whole rant I went on about the Gremlins where it's, you know, fun podcast filler, and then it just becomes regular speak, and then suddenly it overtakes. But the reason why that happens in this case and in a lot of the cases is fair. Adesanya's an all-time great, Luke. Like, he hasn't finished authoring his story, but ability-wise, yes.

He's a freaking all-timer, unique, special freak of a talent like Anderson Silva was. Maybe not as extreme or as advanced in some of the categories that we're comparing him on but you know he's got a chance at the end of the conversation to be up there with those all-time greats and when someone's ability level is screaming that so loudly you get you get you get drunk on that wine luke okay you know suddenly you're getting a little handsy by the end of the night you're like you know your wedding rings off i mean i get you can get luke and then you're teaching you're teaching english in france yeah

shout out to david a wow like when they put that guy away luke wow unfortunately they'll have all this footage of it. You know, they'll just, yeah, you know, wow. Okay, but why is boxing better about honoring history? Why? Because boxing is stuck in the history. Boxing, to be a boxing fan today, to be really fair, and boxing's great. This past year was great.

Boxing can be great. But to survive in the ups and downs of the politics and boxing and the ridiculousness of disorganization, you have to be stuck in the past. You have to be loving reliving fights or debating in the barbershops or podcasts, you know, about, is this guy comparable to that guy? But in the end, Luke boxing is the only sport that has aged in reverse. it really is where we look back on the legends and go unless there's a ridiculous size gap unless you're trying to you know match make in your mind tyson fury versus rocky marciano where he's like okay he's like a foot taller than him um the guys from the past are considered better than today like the

sports aged in reverse because people aren't as diehard about coming up and training it at the younger ages. So that's why boxing is just sort of trying to just keep the past as for relevance today. But I guess I have to flip that back at you. Why is this new fan base of this new sport, MMA, just so aggressively waiting for what's next? Is it the feeling that the sport is evolving so fast

that the guys in the past wouldn't be able to keep up in a reverse boxing type deal? There's a lot of theories about it. Like, you know, to what extent has the UFC, they're much better now about honoring their history, but historically that has been a weak point for them, especially because a lot of the bigger been a weak point for them, especially because a lot of the bigger stars,

like, for example, Couture, sued him, and then they have this really awful relationship. So there's partly that. We don't want to even associate with him because of how things ultimately turned out. But here's the bigger one for me that I just can't get past. Again, I don't know if this explains all of it, but this is just kind of where I keep noticing it. To me, if you were a reasonably sober observer of the career of Anderson Silva and that run he had

in the UFC, and then you watch Adesanya, again, you're going to come away being like, damn, these two fucking guys are unbelievable. But it's just pretty obvious that Adesanya hasn't done enough yet to get to that level. So what I'm saying is, if you watched both, I don't know how you could come to that conclusion. What we know about MMA fandom is that it has extremely high turnover. Some people last a long time, but a lot of people, they have this intense passion for it, and then they kind of get out of it,

either through age or other things or what have you. I just think you have a lot of new fans. You have a lot of new fans who can look at what Silva did on YouTube or Fight Pass or look at his record on Wikipedia, and they certainly might have a lot of new fans. You have a lot of new fans who can look at what Silva did on YouTube or Fight Pass or look at his record on Wikipedia, and they certainly might have a reverence for it, but they don't really get what he did in real time. I think if you watched it in real time, answering this question becomes a lot easier. And so with this turnover that we keep having in MMA,

remember boxing fans just kind of hang on and hang on and hang on, but MMA has this real infusion of new faces all the time and especially through fandom i just don't think they're super aware of it uh i think it's a great to make some improper calculations yeah and it's a great point and and also the point you mentioned about the ufc's reluctance to honor its package its history today through like video packages and stuff i mean that speaks loudly luke because these news fans aren't being educated in a like embracingly loving way because obviously of the divide of zufa buying the company at that point and everything you know dana and lorenzo made after

that they just look at as as their own baby but like did you see that black history month thing that ran on the commercial at the last uh card where they showed marie smith you know winning the heavyweight championship becoming the the first African-American. It's a great moment. And I and I freaked out at first seeing it like because UFC never does that. They never, you know, the the SEG or Meyerowitz and Art Davies era. They don't they don't ever. They really don't look they really don't ever.

And compared to any other sport, they're like delinquent about it so I guess that that has to play a major role I think it does play a role let's talk about the fight itself BC now you spoke to Robert Whitaker I want to get two of these clips here going in just a second but let me ask you a question first how did you evaluate him when you when you talked to him and after it was over and you had a sense about where he's at, did you get the sense that he's in the kind of place to put himself in a winning position? Absolutely. That's the biggest takeaway by far.

Because, Luke, you know my strategy in trying to get a guy like that with that personality in this specific moment of his career to open up and lower his guard. Like, obviously it's not exactly apples and oranges comparison to a fight of how Robert Whitaker fields. My questions compared to how he's going to field the striking prowess of, of Adesanya. But Luke, with that said, he was in control of where he's at mentally in such a purposeful, prepared way because of the lessons he learned from the the promotional

build to their first meeting which is something he's going to talk about and it was it was overwhelming how how much he seemed to have that uh mindfully under control in a way that that you know he's gonna have to prove in the case but in a way that i think would only support him uh entering this one let's play the clip this is ro is Robert Whitaker describing for him what went wrong the first time he fought Adesanya. Well, you're refurbished in so many ways, and I give you a lot of credit for that. So how much are you carrying like revenge, retribution as sort of your motivating factor? You're normally so, you know, poised to be fair. I mean, you've got that championship medal.

But this one's got to be different, man. You've got to have that extra chip on your shoulder to want to avenge this loss to this man. No, and you see, I think that's the biggest change, is that there isn't a chip. There isn't any of that revenge sort of drive. I'm just, it's just another day in the office. I have the same mentality. It feels the exact same as the last three fights. And, uh, yeah,

I'm going in there just to, to get my work done. Okay. So then what was your mindset? The first fight, were you like, I'm going to, I'm going to show this kid. I'm going to get, I'm going to teach him a lesson. Yeah, that that's exactly how it was much to, yeah, that's how it was. It was, it was, it was personal. It was, um, it was much to yeah that's how it was it was it was it was personal it was um it was about yeah it just it got too much it um you know it started to consume me the fight started consuming me the the media started to get to me and and everything just started building up

it's so interesting that yeah he says that this way bc it's a great interview and by the way here's what i would ask you on top of this now in the end it might be a wash but i would argue see if you agree the fight not being in australia not being in new zealand not being in front of his countrymen i'm sure some will travel or whatever if they can but it's in houston it's fairly neutral territory that might benefit adesanya to some degree can, but it's in Houston. It's fairly neutral territory. That might benefit Adesanya to some degree. I definitely think it's going to benefit Robert Whitaker. I think that's a great point because it's something I hadn't really factored in into the, I don't want to say excuse-making,

because no one's making excuses for that Whitaker loss, but to just try to understand why it happened. We certainly always point to how high and hard he had been running physically and mentally and the fatigue that he carried from that and the injuries and the, you know, canceled fight with Gastelum and just said, Luke, that he was so out of whack mentally. It wasn't just exhaustion that he, he allowed himself to get caught up in the mono Emano part of this, which if you look at Whitaker's history, at least once he got, once he moved up and weighed and got to this elite level, he's been rock solid in all of those categories, you know, mental toughness, just every every the way he carries himself

everything so um it is interesting I don't I don't think I look back on that first fight and thought maybe that was the main reason fair enough we have one more clip here I want to play actually you know before we get to that let me add one more note here's why to me it's like this fight's going to be so different it's like Whitaker's not just talented in some kind of general sense he is a very clever smart thoughtful fighter you saw him take his time very patiently for example in the rebound fight against Darren Till we talked about it before he was just executing against Cannoneer but Cannoneer kind of rallied a little bit late and he had to figure out a way to do it and then you know just sort of keeping a pace and really just outclassing Kelvin Gaslam

all of these performances and you can go before that as well but certainly those since the loss all indicate what we already knew high ability high functioning not a in those cases doesn't make hardly any mistakes and I thought he made a bunch of mistakes in the fight with Adesanya which tells you a Adesanya is a great fighter but also that Whitaker he was just uncharacteristically hurried and aggressive and like it was he was Derek Brunson himself the old version of Derek Brunson and that's why it's like dude I don't think he's gonna do that again that doesn't mean he'll win necessarily but by itself uh that was a big tell now that people's bank commercial that somebody had played through their laptop into our stream,

I didn't get to hear the last 20 or 30 seconds of you, but I think I know where you're going. Fair enough. Well, either way, it doesn't matter. But let's go to the next clip. Whitaker also talked about the changes since Israel Adesanya. Both of them are not the same fighters they were the first time around. What does Whitaker see differently in his opponent? This is what he told Brian you look at this fight I see the ways that you have improved or evolved in your win

streak since the first out of Sanya fight do you think he has added enough through wins and losses in that same time to to keep up with me and my skill set? Yeah, I mean, you develop pretty quick, man. I don't think... I think my skill sets are much more diverse than his, and I think I'm a better fighter. I do. I honestly do. Otherwise, I wouldn't be fighting him if I didn't have that confidence and belief that I can beat him. And, yeah, you know, I look to showcase that on the weekend he's a badass luke

that's what i love that's part of what i love about this incredibly great fight is is i love both the the characters of both their personalities the way they project themselves they're they're obviously you know drastically different drastically different but But I love both these guys, man. And I really think you're on your way to seeing both of these guys turn into all-time greats when it's all said and done. So this is a special moment because of that. Let's follow up on Adesanya here for a little bit. He told ESPN's Brett Okamoto that he was actually kind of bored

with the last year. I guess he was pretty hyped beating Apollo Costa. I don't know if it was 2020 or 2021 at this point. But in terms of the Marvin Vittori fight, he even said he was halfway through just kind of bored with it all. Now, I do think he trained hard. But anything to that in your mind facing Whitaker again? I realize Whitaker is the apex predator of all the contenders that we are aware of.

So your motivation should be different. But given that revelation, what do you make of that as it pertains to Saturday? I look at that more as just cocky swagger and basically saying without saying, but also kind of saying that, you know, he didn't think guys like Vittori or even Costa had a chance of beating him. Obviously, he prepared and trained hard and knew what they were going to bring to the table. But it didn't motivate him on the same level that obviously a Whitaker does. And he knows how good Whitaker really is and can be, and will probably be different from the first fight given all of those circumstances we mentioned. So, um, I don't read too deeply into that, but I, I gotta kind of take the whole narrative of this and point it back at you, Luke, because you understand how to sound's game almost as well as anyone else. Has he evolved as much as Whitaker has since their first fight? Or if he hasn't,

does it even matter in the end? I don't think he has retooled the same way that Whitaker has. Whitaker kind of hit the reset button and then began to rebuild his game in a more concerted thoughtful layered kind of way not from scratch per se but it was a real reordering of things he stuck to what he was good at but he brought in all these other elements which he was also good at but kind of neglecting and that takes time to really weave that in in an accessible way uh minute to minute in a fight for Adesanya though it would people just like to imagine he hasn't he's not as good as he is or he hasn't gotten better do I think his striking really changed between the first fight in this one no I mean he's gonna be you know more or less as good as he's always gonna be with that

but I do think that in his defensive wrestling which I've talked about at length against the fence it's lights out out in the open it's a little bit more doable but even then at against middleweight uh wrestlers and grapplers you saw that in the vittori fight for example everyone thinks so if you're gonna get him down you can just lay on him well if you're 205 230 pounds whatever on fight night jan blachowicz is maybe you can get away with that but if you're not that big it's actually going to be pretty hard and vittori's a big fucking guy a huge guy and he couldn't get it done either. So what I think is, do I think the things that were strong about him changed? No. Do I think his weaknesses got less weak?

I absolutely think that. And folks are going to be, you know, I don't know who's going to win, but I definitely think you're going to see evidence of progress. How about that on both sides? Yeah, and it's still the same great matchup of why the styles, you know, flash so perfectly in terms of what we'll get into on Friday's show is that you have the completely well-rounded Whitaker against the,

the, the guy who's one superpower is so dynamic and so ridiculous that you love this type of matchmaking. I love it. But Luke, before we get off out of Sonny completely, I didn't, I didn't know how to sort of frame this, but

it was interesting. I don't know if you saw that Eugene Behrman of City Kickboxing was on Submission Radio Down Under, I think in the last 48 hours, and they teed him up with a question kind of saying like, do you think Adesanya really gets promoted to the level of like

how good he actually is in his star potential by the UFC and Eugene gave a very telling sort of no answer answer in which he was just sort of like yes but I can't talk about it at all right now because of these specific times and he was like very tight-lipped and then Luke this morning we get that tweet uh that Aaron Bronstetter put out there that says uh per a release from Paradigm Sports Adesanya signs a new multi-fight deal with the UFC, making him, quote, one of the top paid athletes in the history of mixed martial arts. That's fairly significant news, Luke. Do you think any of the timing and that weird no answer plays into it?

That's a great question. I don't know. I don't know I don't know it was weird for me there was a while there where I thought Adesanya was going to turn and pop as a popular attraction sooner than he actually did now I think he has at this point um so you know better late than never but it did take a while for that to sink in so I don don't know about that, but I would ask this question to UBC. If he just signed this deal where he's going to make a ton of money, whatever that ends up being, does he stick around at middleweight? Here's another part of the story. A, he lost to Jan Blachowicz, but B, on this card, as you well know,

is a number one contender fight between Kananier and Brunson. Brunson, who he already beat, so if Brunson wins, it would be yet another rematch, just a third or whatever in a row. Does he try his hand at 205 again? He will, and I think he also has to, legacy-wise, if he actually cares about that thing we debated earlier of whether he actually is in potential to one day take Silva's spot in terms of the GOATness and the greatest middleweight of all time.

Going to second division and contending for and winning a championship, which Silva never really attempted to do, that's how you get one up on Anderson Silva's long stretch of consistency in the win streak and obviously the dynamic nature of how he won those. So yeah yeah completely all right we'll have to see what happens on that let's talk about this co-main event here a little bit if we can Derek Lewis taking on Ty Tuivasa you spoke to Derek Lewis we'll talk about that in just a second BC what what in your mind is the predominant storyline here is it you know

new power trying to unseat old power? Is it just a bunch of big dudes who can throw down and that's what Houston fans love? What is the story here? It's kind of all of that at the same time in a weird way. Like obviously, uh, this is, you know, two attractive heavyweights who fight in insanely attractive style. And it also kind of makes sense in the rankings to find out, know all right Tai Tuivasa with this win streak are you really a player god let me go go f with the black beast I mean it it's a little bit of that too it's aggressive matchmaking and Luke obviously you can't not mention that uh Tuivasa revealed in the past week that he was like hammeredly drunk on the phone when they

pitched him the Derek Lewis fight and he claims that was the only reason he kind of just like jumped at it. But, you know, he woke up the next morning, was like, all right, I guess I'm I'm fighting this. But, you know, it's it's it's Derek Lewis returning home to Houston. And there's this sort of weird redemption potential within that, given that he just looked awful against Cyril Ghosn in Houston. So and he claimed he would never fight there again. And so it's kind of all that which comes together. looked awful against Cyril Ghosn in Houston. And he claimed he would never fight there again. So it's kind of all that which comes together.

But at the bottom line, it's also just good marketing and matchmaking to put two bangers in there against each other. No doubt about it. And I would also just say we can't lose sight of this fact. I remember when, I guess it was Robert Whitaker headlining. I don't remember, but it was Robert Whitaker, one of the headliners. Then it was Taito Iwasa on the card and Megan Anderson. And the UFC was trying to make this big Australian push. It was in a U.S. market.

Don't lose sight of the fact you have a Kiwi versus an Aussie, and then in the co-main, you have another Aussie. There could be a situation where no matter what, the oceanic region looks like a fucking million bucks here. But let's go back to Derek Lewis. He did have the rebound win against Chris Dawkus, region looks like a fucking million bucks here oh yeah but let's go back to Derek Lewis he did have the rebound win against Chris Dawkus a knockout win set the record for most knockouts in UFC history for a single fighter having won he talked about about though what went wrong in

the gone fight why is that relevant the gone fight was in Houston here we are back in Houston let's see what old Lewis had to say. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. And scene. Well, we love you for your honesty when you're talking about the, you know, ups and downs of your own fight game, all of that. When you fought in Houston last time, I mean, look, it's either a blessing to fight in your hometown or maybe for some people it's a curse because of the pressure. It just didn't look like Derrick Lewis in there against Cyril Gunn.

What happened, Black Beats? Did they slip you the black pill beforehand? What happened? It was just a lot of pressure I had going on. Just a lot of stuff I had that I, that I've been dealing with, at least for 15 years. That day was the same day I got released. And so it was like I put a lot of pressure on myself. Yes.

A lot of stuff that was going on. So I just wanted that day to be real special. And I just choked. Now, when you saw Cyril gone, then lose to Francis and gone and were you like, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm choked. Now, when you saw Cyril Ghosn then lose to Francis Ngannou, were you like, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm talking about, motherfucker. No, not at all. It's like, I guess

you could say Francis did a game playing where I wanted to do a couple of my fights before, like try to wrestle a guy. But whenever I'm in there, I don't even think about wrestling. All I'm thinking about is trying to knock him out. That was more introspective than I expected there. Is he basically saying that the redemption angle of returning home to Houston,

15-year anniversary of getting out of jail and turning his life around, that he almost paralyzed himself with pressure by building it up and making it this big thing. And then when it came time on the stage, he froze. And obviously, you know, Cyril Ghosn's been freaking awesome as well, Luke. I don't want to be that. The thing is, Ghosn's going to be a tough fight on your best day, you know. So for me, it's like that was a hard matchup for him no matter what and

i realize a lot of fighters a lot of athletes they want to tie in so and so died it's the anniversary of this it's a celebration of that it's the birthday here blah blah blah and they try to win you know weave their winnings or their competition into those life moments and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't i tend to think that there might be something to that right going back home and you know being the the guy who did himself proudly and, and, and turned his life around and did amazing things showing that, uh, on a night where he wanted to, and maybe he got, got in his head a little bit, but I also think gone. It's just, you know, he's a tough fucking guy to beat, especially on the feet like that. Right. Um, but okay. This one, I don't know what to do. Here's what it says on my notes. It says

Lewis on shoeies and autographs. You want to set this one up? Yeah. So look, you know, I didn't just come out and say, hey, Derek Lewis, what do you think of shoeies? Because he's been doing interviews and just being like, man, that shit is so gross. So I didn't pitch it to him in the end, Luke, but I thought he should come up with like something to counter that. Maybe like, like call it like a bag of shit. And there's like a one in five chance that it's actual shit

in there, and you know, like throw it out to the crowd after he wins or something, I mean that's gotta be the only way you can counteract how gross a shoe he is, and for anyone to oh, you know, BC, that's funny talk but we watched you, you know, shoe a shoey on that live show yes, Luke, but I wouldn't let

you know, five men spit in it you know, wait, M.'t let you know five men spit in it there's nothing you know wait m cocky over here you know why i'm not i don't you know come on luke that that's next level gross all right so let's throw to derrick lewis's thoughts on the top that's a good point uh we've heard you let's throw tomorrow ad nauseum now since this fight's been announced your opinion on shoeys and i love to to see that, you know, you think that shit's gross, like the rest of us drinking beer out of some used shoe. I'm thinking, though, you might want to, like, how do you beat the king of gross?

You got to top it. You got to come up with a Derrick Lewis move that's even grosser. What do you think? Nah, nah, I can't do nothing like that. Nah, I'd say I'd take my cup off and drink beer out of that. That's as far as I'd go. Well, you know, following your knockout of Chris Dawkus last time out, you did toss said cup to the crowd as a souvenir.

Did you ever find out who won that gift, who caught it? Oh, yeah. The guy had said that he's coming to Houston, actually, to watch me fight, and he wanted me to sign it for him. Now, look, you know, if you get famous enough, maybe you can sign a boob or two.

You've never signed a cup, right? Oh, I never signed a cup. No, I never signed a cup. I signed plenty of titties. And I'm no cup. No, I never saw him. I saw him plenty of titties. And I'm no cup. Oh, that's why. That's why. They didn't point out my wife.

She don't need to hear all that. No, she doesn't need to hear about where Ronda Rousey's at or anything. We got to respect those grounds. What a joy. What a joy to behold that man. i've signed a lot of titties that's good stuff that's good stuff so luke you think two of us has got a chance or what what do you think i don't know can you imagine how much different my life would be if i could say to you straight faced i've signed a lot of titties in my life yeah I think that yeah I think they would have built momentum in a certain lane

and you would have just kept going down it Luke you know yeah uh this to me is a really interesting fight Derek Lewis is a guy who we've seen him when he beat Curtis Blades but and he beat in Ghana we all know the story but you know Francis appears to be the very best one in this division. Gone just a step or two behind for the moment. And then Derek Lewis is kind of after that. He beats just about everyone else behind that position. So if you can beat Derek Lewis, you at least not only get a crack at that, it kind of tells us what your real place is. Tui Vassa has kind of fashioned himself as someone who's, you know,

sort of chubby and gregarious and drinks beers out of shoes, but actually is a pretty talented fighter when he wants to be. And he looks like he really wants to be. This is going to be a big test of what has the last year slash two of difficult training environments, what has that really done as he's ironed that process out and gotten better at it. We've talked about it before. How old is Tui Vassa? 28 or 29? 28. Doesn't turn 29 until March. So old is Tuivasa? 28 or 29? 28. Doesn't turn 29 until March.

So soon here, but still not even fucking 30. He is daring to be great. He's trying the Brian Campbell experiment. And so far, for the most part, it's been pretty good. Luke, what is the ceiling potential? Look, we talked earlier about the multi reasons that this fight is so attractive or why it was booked, but like,

you know, you can't like the main storyline really is, is tied to a Vasa good enough to swim on this end of the pool. But because of the marketing potential of just the crazy guy character, drink beer out of shoes, you know, Australian and living it up. Like he can get a lot of mileage out of that.

And obviously you can get even more if he's like a title contender. If he knocked out Derek Lewis and did the shoe, he had topped the cage, you know? And I mean, is he an overnight like global star? I mean, what happens next? Man, he might be, he might be. I'm trying to think of the last guy at heavyweight who was kind of similar where he was really really good not the best guy but also a fun loving crowd favorite

I don't know who that would be most of the time the guys at heavyweight have been super serious Kane was super serious so was Brock to an extent, less so now. But at the time, JDS was really intense. I'm trying to think. Dude, Noguera was intense as shit. Fucking crazy intense. So like, you know, it was always this real hardcore, who's the baddest man on the planet. Here comes Taito Iwasa. I don't know if he's the baddest man, pretty close, but even if he's not, he has this completely unique lane. So to your point, not only is this their potential in that huge market that the UFC has been steadily building over time in Australia and New Zealand, but on top of that, he has, if he can really get good,

I think that's what matters to me, BC. I don't think he has to be the very best heavyweight, although we'll see what happens over time. But he's got to be good enough and relevant enough, and then you add in this sort of bubbly, weird side. I do think it could take. He's almost like prime cowboy. Almost.

Well, that's why this next comparison makes the most sense, and shout out to our producer, Mikey Mormal, for texting it into us. Who's the last guy that we saw that kind of fit this character? Roy Nelson. Yes, of course. That makes a ton of sense, and I think we forgot to mention Roy the last time we had this debate as well. Do you think Todd Duffy could have become that?

Like the big, you know, big, dumb looking guy who could just come out there and flatten people? Like he, there was a spark for a moment there. I do like Duffy, but then he lost to Overeem and I think the kind of derail thing and to Mir. No, because Duffy was always built like a fucking Terminator, you know? Whereas Taito Iwasa is formidable, to be clear. But, you know, he'so ivasa is formidable to be clear but you know he's not going to win any bodybuilding contests well people are going to say shane carwin luke people will probably say shane carwin but he didn't have the personality to match that and also he was real muscular too um and was a division two wrestler i think memory serves so he he is something of a

unique moment in heavyweight young guy full, full of personality, totally bubbly, a little bit crazy, but can actually fight a little bit. Now we're going to get to that side of things that tells us just not that this is the final arbiter, but at least a good measuring stick of where he is today. I will say, to beat Derek Lewis, what Taito Iwasa has to do is, could he land a big punch in a wild exchange and that close the show? Seems like he could do that with anybody if he really wanted to but that's you know a 50-50 proposition at best for Tai Tuivasa to win he's got to show a dedicated strategic implementation in a disciplined way over time if he does that that would be huge man that's not just beating Derek Lewis. It's a new way of fighting that could take you very far.

So I think we just laid out the two possible lanes of like perfect case scenario for Taito Iwasa on Saturday. And that's true. But Luke, how about this? One of the biggest factors of potential derailment for him that he's got to prove he can get past is while we would never look at Derek Lewis as a technician or, you know what I mean? He's an elite brawler, right? We never look at him as, as a lot of those things. He has obviously had to develop some pretty high level survival skills. You know, like think if you make basketball terms, think of the old veteran who's kind of half dirty and sort of, you know, uses physicality to kind of cheat. Lewis has enough of that veteran-ness that that's part of the thing that could potentially stop Tuivasa

from implementing a game plan. No doubt about it. And Derek Lewis, he's certainly going to have something to say, but Derek Lewis has beaten better fighters than Tai Tuivasa has, by far. He has a much better resume. And so with that experience and with that ability, I think Tuivasa has something of an uphill climb here. But here's the thing.

Derek Lewis kind of already pretty popular, at least to the American audience. 37 years old, not ancient, but not a ton of time left at heavyweight. And so the bigger upside, in terms of at least growth potential is going to be on the Tui Vassa side, which is why I think they're making this fight at the time they're making it. But Derek Lewis, I think he's the favorite and probably should be.

Yes, because I think that key question that you have to ask yourself is, do you think Tui Vassa could win a full-on brawl against Lewis? Not one punch him do you think if this turns into a shit fest in an amazing beautiful disaster of of strikes that he can stand in there against that kind of firepower I just don't believe that yeah that I don't know that I'm much more skeptical about I don't think he can outbrawl Derek Lewis. Again, over time. I just don't believe that. But Derek Lewis, according to our friends over at Caesar Sportsbook,

a minus 190 to Tui Voss' plus 160. So pretty close odds, although Lewis obviously getting a bit of the nod. Dude, that's too close. Isn't that too close? Derek Lewis, like you just talked about sort of the line he's drawn for himself where he's proofing he's better than even the Curtis blades level. And that's a pretty high level heavyweight.

I don't know, dude, that that's, that's even with to Evasa being a gunslinger, he has way too much to prove for him to be that, that short of a, of an underdog right there. Yeah. I'm sorry. Those are, those are interesting odds. I mean, if you like to Evasa's upside, that's a, this is a great moment to get in on it, no doubt about it. But I do think it's rightful that Derek Lewis has the favorite designation there.

I just think what he's done and what he's proven, he's just proven more to this point than Tui Vassa. But that's what makes the fight so exciting. I can't wait. BC, as we wrap up here on UFC 271, is there any other storyline on any other fight on the card we did indicate there was the number one contender feel about canon air and brunson you could talk about that or is there anything else on this card no no we hit canon air and brunson well and we're

obviously going to preview the x's and o's in detail on friday that's a great great elite middleweight fight to maybe produce the next title contender but there is a lot of interesting storylines up and down on this and look obviously that women's flyweight bout between Roxanne Mataferi and KC O'Neal will get us talking, rightfully so, in a few seconds, about what this means for Roxanne Mataferi's legacy and who she was and what she has given to this sport for so long. KC O'Neal is pretty damn good, Luke. And she's only 24 years old.

And this is interesting matchmaking in a lot of ways but she has like star potential and then she told that story on the MMA hour about waking up without a tooth and because she was so drunk in Mexico and it was like the hangover and then she had to get you know have a sober 2022 that that only added to the badass reputation that was pretty nice I have to admit. How did you lose a tooth? I'm not entirely sure, but I think I know. We should party.

You and I should party together. Yes, that's a great one. I would actually point to a couple of other ones which I thought were kind of interesting. Whoa, whoa, you just jumped right past, you know, we love your Roxy. Have a great exit. Here's my first memory of her.

I didn't mean to. Yes, I talked about it a little bit on social media, but you're right. Roxanne Modafferi has been here. I remember when Sherdog did a brief documentary on her when she was a translator in Japan. She used to live in Japan. They showed her little tiny apartment that she used to live in,

I think in Osaka or Tokyo. And she was a big feature there and a staple on the Japanese women's scene when that was the more dominant scene in the sport but of course she was a pioneer I think I think she fought with hook and shoot and some other places she's been around forever she is impossible to dislike I mean not everyone has to like the personality but you just sort of ask who brings a joyful spirit a unique energy to the sport and everything else. It's her, it's her times a thousand. And also one of these people who, you know, pretty fair to say wasn't born with Usain Bolt athletic genetics, but has just really, really dedicated herself to getting better.

And I thought made a very strong case for herself as a talented, super good professional and had a very, you know, in her own way, I think a very distinguished and commendable, at least career. Well, look, there's a, there's a whole lane and reason why she'll be so memorable. Historically that, that plays into her personality, how kind and nice she is, how kind of oddball quirky she is and all that. But don't want that to to shine over what she accomplished in the longevity in the reinventions not just taking you know a certain talent level and getting the most out of it but who she was in her twilight from the upset of macy barber to actually fighting for a ufc title and that inaugural uh flyweight bout against nicoano. She fought for Invicta titles, coming up short by split decision.

Don't forget, Luke, she lost seven fights in a row between 2010 and 2013. That's usually enough to run somebody out of the sport. And then she arguably had her greatest moments after that to get to what I just mentioned and what she's become in the ufc which is just a tough ass gatekeeper but in the in the in the in the nicest possible way of of what she brought to these divisions and then not really a gatekeeper because she got to the title level so yes she's quirky and kind and amazing on that side but what she did in the cage certainly uh justified everything just the same and luke i did match up my weirdness with hers one time um i think it was

before the barber fight at ufc media day and uh interviewing her as a wild ride luke because i you know because she'll throw as many curveballs back at you as you attempt to slide in on her and then you know you get to a point where you're like i don't know her motivations anymore i don't know where this is going she has great wins too by the way i mean here's just her wins but she fought everyone but here's her wins valerie letourneau shana dobson uh mk superfan emily whitmire um uh she beat ponen yeah she beat my magumi yabushita twice marlowe's coonan she beat uh andrea lee twice deanna bennett she beat barb honchushita twice, Marlouis Koonin. She beat Andrea Lee twice, Deanna Bennett. She beat Barb Honchak, who was one of the top early female fighters. She beat Macy Barber.

She beat Antonina Shevchenko. Dude, she did fucking good work. She had old guy at the park with two knee braces who just comes down there and just posts up all over those young kids, you know, and just like throwing in hook shots and, or, you know, just,

just doing grimy old man shit. That was her MMA game in the second half. And it worked like it worked very effectively. And also Luke, I don't think anyone's more worn more fabric, you know, into a, into a cage than her.

She had like, you know, yes. Who wears, who wears more fabric, Moda Ferry before a UFC fight or those divers who wear chain mail to go into feeding frenzies with sharks?

I mean, it's Kobe Bryant level with the arm and leg sleeves. I mean, she's in there to tumble, Luke, okay? God bless her, dude. She's been a great, great member of the MMA community. My wife got to roll with her one time, a couple times actually, when she was visiting in Vegas.

She said she was actually pretty good on the ground, really good as a matter of fact. How did, Luke, considering I have been indecent proposal by Anderson Silva, but didn't say yes to that, how did you end up with this transaction? I didn't roll with her.

My wife did. Okay. No, no, no. My wife is a corporate event planner planner so you can imagine both of us independently end up in las vegas for work a lot me for fights her because that's where tons of conventions are right uh so she had was planning some convention i don't even remember what it was at this point and then one of her off days i think she went down to syndicate and she said moda ferry was the only one there and she she asked if Modaferri wanted to train. Apparently she did, so they trained together for that day.

Luke, you know the picture you just painted of your wife being ballsy as hell, Luke? I mean, she just knocks on a random MMA gym and goes up to said legendary pro, and is like, hey, you want to, you know, like, you know, I guess the shooting range on the first date is very well justified here, Luke. So it was funny.

My wife didn't know who that was. But now she knows and now she loves Roxy. But this was several years ago. She didn't know who she was. She was like, I found this lady. She seemed really nice. Her name was Roxanne. We rolled.

I'm like, Roxanne Modaferri? She's like, I don't know. So then I showed her a picture. I'm like, this person? She goes, yeah, that was her. And I'm like, you just rolled up to the gym and did it? She's like, yeah, she was really friendly. I was like, person she goes yeah that was her and I'm like you just rolled up to the gym and did it she's like yeah she was really friendly I was like okay sweet awesome um so there you go I'll do my fun little story with Roxanne Modaferri I would also point out on this

card BC a couple things to look out for at a lightweight bout it doesn't have a prominent placement even a little bit it's buried on the early prelim card and even then is not the main event Alexander Hernandez taking on Hanato Moikano. Moikano and Hernandez were two guys with a ton of hype when they came to the UFC. In part, Hernandez, he beat Dariush and Aubin Marcier, whatever his name

was. Olivier Aubin Marcier in back-to-back fights or some shit. Whatever it was. He blitzed through the door and all of a sudden, and then he tried the day drinking Don thing, and he's had to retool. He had some wins in his last contest, or had he won in his last contest.

Moicano was this next thing at featherweight, but, you know, was just a little bit behind some of the other guys. So he moved to lightweight. These guys are trying to, like, reset their career because they're still kind of young. That's a tough-ass fight for those guys. Really like that one.

Because, you know, specifically Moicano, he has yet to really establish himself at lightweight beyond more than this is an experiment i mean he's young enough he's only 32 and he had some very very good wins at featherweight and you know between ultimately sort of alternating wins and losses in his biggest fights i don, is the jury still out on whether this move is going to make sense for him? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Without really knowing what the cut to 145 did to him,

it's hard to answer this question because, you know, you can make 145 at 28 and then you try at 32. It's going to be a lot harder. So we just don't really know the answer there. It's just that, like, on tape, you look at Moikana, you're like, wow, man, this guy can do a lot. Like he's, he's pretty well-rounded. He's pretty talented. And then he just came up short. The Korean zombie rolled through him, but you know, I always go back to this. He was beating Brian Ortega up until the last second. Ortega pulled out a last minute submission out of nowhere, but Moikana was

beating him thoroughly. And I'll never forget. I was in the backstage this was the uh the week where John Jones told me he was my best friend it was so it was um Jones Cormier too right that's what it was and so I was in the back where they bring all the winners and they brought uh they brought Brian Ortega back and Henner Gracie was with him he could barely walk he was sit there and I remember he sat and he went he just let out the sigh like like he was suffering. So credit to Brian Ortega for getting that win, but, dude, Moicano gave him the business for the majority of that contest. So he's a talented guy, but hasn't been able to get over that hump,

and this is a really curious and interesting fight. Now, to be fair, he's actually 2-1 since going to lightweight. Obviously, the loss was to Rafael Fazeev, and that's a tough ass out. He's got two submission wins in there, not against call-home names, but I'm interested in both sides. Look, Hernandez is fun, Luke. Fun fighter. He is a fun fighter. Even the retooled version is still a pretty fun one. Last thing I'd say, small note, something to pay attention to.

I think I count at least two other fighters from City Kickboxing on this card. Dude, Blood Diamond diamond get in on this blood diamond is one but also carlos olberg who did well in the contender series and i made his debut and didn't do so great but this is i think a chance to get back i'm just pointing out i have heard fighters say and see that their losses of their teammates doesn't affect them i've seen the opposite where the losses did affect them so obviously not the biggest factor to pay attention to but something to not lose sight of heading into that main event all ckb super fans are focused on this one for sure luke uh no quit luke what would be like

okay if eugene barrowman came to you and he's like look we think you're the best and we know you fucking love us bro we know We know that. We know that. We got you, right? And then they're like, all right, whatever they pay you at Morning Combat, we'll pay you a dollar more than that per year. Come over to City Kickboxing. Run our PR. Run our website.

And host our daily podcast. You know what I mean? No. Luke, would you sell out because you just love them? I mean, you just love. Luke, you got an Anthony Smith levelith level love for them no and i respect that i don't want i don't want i mean i love those guys you're right i do i think very highly of them no i want no part of that i don't want to run someone's fucking website i don't want to i don't

want to pitch media on how great the fighters are yeah but they might let someone else gene not happening bro okay not on that not on that all right topic number four here bc let's talk about something else that made the news the ufc had a presser and so there was a big to do about it amanda nunez will now be the coach opposite uh uh what's her face juliana pena only the champion wow or the upcoming respect on the champ sorry i had a brain fart sorry uh. The upcoming season of Ultimate Fighter, but Amanda Nunes made noise a little bit differently. She was asked about why she changed camps. A couple of things she points to.

One, a knee injury. Quote, I couldn't do much jiu-jitsu or wrestling. I felt it in my warm-up on fight night. My body, especially my arms, everything in that camp was arms. I was only doing boxing. I was only doing upper body. When I was warming up, I was like, this is not how my body is. I've been in the game a long time. Five years

without belt. Five years without. My body has never felt like that. I want you to react in just a second. The other one, though, was Whoa, hold on, Luke. Let's react now. This is big. Okay, go ahead. This is big if you, and again, this is always going to look like taking, you know, shade

at Juliana Pena, but it's not. But if you're of the is always going to look like taking you know shade at juliana pena but it's not but if you're of the belief like i was that that just wasn't amanda nunes in that fight you know obviously pena's ability to gas her out in that first round on the ground played a big role not saying that but we saw amanda implode gas out and really kind of tap before the choke was ever even in if you want to be hyper critical but it's true so to hear that she had legitimate knee injuries and now this is her decision but felt pressured not to to not pull out because she had just pulled out ahead of the august original date because she had covid this this justifies a lot in terms of potentially repairing some of that aura she lost.

Sure. It's just, it's excuse making to some, to me, there's your answer. There's, there's the key that fits the hole. I actually feel like, I actually feel like, dude, I think this is actually totally reasonable. What she's saying. If you're as good as Amanda Amanda Nunes, are you and I to be under the impression that every time she goes out there, she felt like a million bucks or something pretty close to it. Nagging here, nagging there, but really whatever. No, probably not. She probably had, we know about the sinusitis that she was had to pull up from for the,

for the rematch with Shevchenko, but it was bad enough. She would do it. She didn't want to do that anymore, so she felt pressure to continue. So that was one. I remember when Amanda Nunes got fucking roasted for pulling out of that fight last minute. And now, you know, she's the goddess, which she should be, but I'm just pointing out.

Dana said she'd never headline a card again, Luke. That's what Dana said. Right, right. So the hat to weigh on her. Plus, if you could get away with beating people. Dude, I mean, she was beating them all in the first fucking round. So what you're really saying is, because look, you know, Daniel Cormier's back was effed up when he defended against Derek Lewis,

but decided to do it given the matchup, you know, and the style contrast. It's happened before, but she thought this is the right opponent to come in if I have to cheat a little if i have to take a chance this is the right opponent because the same thing that we said ahead of time was true pain you hadn't beaten anybody impressively enough or name value enough to give you the belief that could have happened so i do see how this could have happened because but the thing is luke how much should we stigmatize the idea of consecutive pulling out of a fight if it's both warranted to your health?

Just like Kane shouldn't have fought JDS the first time with a knee injury that bad, but probably with no leverage felt pressure because it was the kickoff card of the Fox-UFC relationship and it was going against the Pacquiao pay-per-view and it was live and free, and he took it and he lost. That mentality you don't see much anymore. Do you think she felt she painted herself into a hole? I mean, like... The thing is with MMA, the thing is with MMA is

way more injuries than with boxing, right? Because you have knee tears and you're wrestling and you're doing everything else. It's way more. All these guys, these old fighters who do boxing, granted, they're not doing it at the elite level, but they're all like the difference in training in terms of the weight on my body, so to speak,

is just significantly less. And if you're a headliner, you've got to make a call because if you're the double champ, you're the GOAT, you have a call to make. You know you're better than most of your contemporaries, probably all of them on your best day, right? But you're injured, and yet you owe, or you might feel like you owe the fans and the promoter, or you at a bare minimum, you don't want the negative consequence that comes with pulling

out. So you're only going to pull out if you just cannot perform whatever. A lot of times, you're just going to take risks. The question you have to ask yourself is if every UFC headliner pulled out when they had a medically justifiable reason to do so, how many fights would fall through? I got to tell you, BC, I don't want to know the answer to that question. And to be fair, you know, there have been certain stretches in the last decade where that had become a problem. Remember 2012, around that era?

Remember again in the 2014-15 area? It was like, you know, it became a thing on twitter to say oh ufc can't you know yeah and you know and it obviously hurts business as a fan you don't like it either but man that's a tough decision to make and and again i think she saw the odds in terms of who she's fighting but but you know one thing she didn't take into account juliana pena's fighting spirit and that's why she ended up winning it and it was impressive and i'm glad she's having her moment i think this adds more angles certainly to the storyline of them coaching against each other and then the fight at the end of it which gives amanda more

than enough time to to figure everything out um yeah but we got more amanda quotes to talk about here well i was just gonna say the one thing i would add is this is the way to understand it about amanda nunez or any elite fighter this is why prep and peaking is so critical because this is the point you can apply it to this fight you can apply it to the next one is there a difference in overall ability that we have seen between Nunes and uh Peña yes of course but the question is if someone is somewhat compromised they don't have to be that far down as long as their competitor is having their best night and i would argue that pena dude she stood in the fucking pocket and she slugged

with her pretty impressively i gotta say backing her up at times by just eating a punch and then delivering one back and maybe it was as hard maybe it wasn't this is the point all it takes is for one elite competitor to be not at their best and for a contender to have a great night, and they are either equal or the contender will pass. The margin for error is fucking thin at that level. And so when you have a knee injury and we have COVID and all this other shit, yeah, it's going to fuck you up. And she didn't want to pull out, I understand,

but it probably cost her her title in the end. Here is the other coach, the other speaking of the coach here's the other quote you wanted to get to on who will coach her moving forward she indicated at this presser it was no beef with att she just wanted her own thing bc in boxing everyone who is an elite fighter has their own thing canelo has his own thing whoever has anthony joshua has his own thing and they build around that mma fighters have to wait till they own thing, and they build around that. MMA fighters have to wait until they have more money before they can build that. She's got it. This is, to me, in no way an indictment on ATT, from what I can tell anyway. It's just a recognition she has

graduated past that level of training, that kind of training, because of who she is. Here's what she says. Actually, that was something I want to do different too, but the coaches used to be different at American Top Team. It's Kami Barzini. He used to be the wrestling coach when I got there. I started training wrestling with him at ATT, but he ended up leaving so I trained with Mike Brown and Roger

Kroll. Roger was at ATT too. It comes from that. It comes from the ATT anyways. They're not there, but I'm pretty sure the coaches at ATT really have amazing moments that they'll always remember talking about with her as well so partly it was having the freedom to associate with who you want to associate with you're not dictated to by who the brand has an association and also it seems reasonable yeah it's very reasonable especially because the two coaches she's replacing att with her former att coaches so a, you know, relationship built at a very key time.

But also, Luke, and I'm not saying this was 100% fueling or 50% or whatever, but some percentages also. I'm Amanda Nunes. I'm the greatest of all time. And I'm just another cog in the machine of this super team, ATT, that turns people out, you know, turns these killers out left and right. And some of that comes in shared coaching time and shared publicity, all of that. And then when you look at, you know, when someone has a Trevor Whitman or somebody with a small, very small stable, you get a much more intense.

Maybe it makes you feel like you're the one, Luke. That's all we want to feel like at the end of the day, right? That's why we're going to bounce you from this program's hashtag producer credit all right uh in general though i have to say you know you know me about the feelings about the first fight with nunez and pena i i don't take nunez as a weak person i don't take her as a malingerer i think if she says she had these injuries i'm extreme dude if you can't give the benefit of the doubt to the greatest women's fighter we've ever fucking seen who can you give the benefit of the doubt to not not just that luke like she wilted like she doesn't do that she doesn't do that you know what i mean like she hasn't had stamina issues since the very since her

last loss before that to Kat Zingano. And it was like, that changed her. It took her a while to build up five round stamina to out dual Shevchenko, but you know, she got there. So no,

she wilted in too many ways. And we do have to also mention she hadn't had to make 135 in two years. So now she's hurt and can't do the same cardio build. And you know, nothing about this was easy, Luke, but you're right.

She took that gamble and she lost, and now we've got a rematch that's worth getting fired up for. So it may have worked out, you know, the best for everybody in the end. Whenever we do, like, predictions, or whenever anyone does predictions, what do we always do? We always try to imagine each fighter as their best self

and how do they pair. Amanda at her best self, truly dialed in, no injuries, fuck COVID, all that nonsense. She's feeling great. Dude, she's going to be pretty hard to beat. But the reality is by the time they get into the cage to compete, they are routinely lesser versions of their best self, sometimes dramatically so.

And that debate, who's going to win, is a completely different debate than who the very best are in this abstract sort of idea. All right, BC, last but not least, topics true or false. So here is the topic. Kamaru Usman is going to get, apparently, hand surgery. So here is my true or false. According to his manager, Ali Abdelaziz from Dominance MMA,

he confirmed it to ESPN. True or false, Kamaru Usman will fight on International Fight Week to defend his welterweight title. I'm telling you that that seems to be true from what you hear about his intentions of what Leon Edwards' team is saying, and that would make sense for that to be the next title defense. I'm a little bit more shaken up at the not- for work images of the surgery that Dana tweeted out of. Like, you know, Usman's hand opened up.

Like, I wasn't prepared for that with the coffee on the scroll in the morning, you know, on IG. But outside of that, Luke, yeah, man, he wants to—God, Usman wants to be great, Luke. I mean, he wants to be freaking great. I really think he's maximizing the last couple years and fights he has left and looking at the options. And he's a smart dude, Luke. Very smart guy. rewards he deserves all right more true or false uh here's my i'll read it to you and then i want to ask you the question nick maximov or maximov i don't know how to pronounce his name properly he has called out hamzat chamayev quote he said this to ariel over at the mma hour uh comes out fighting all these little ass guys but i'd like to fight him next he tries to call out nate and nick it's like fight me then we're both in the same boat but why are people scared of him you know what i'm saying he hasn't fought any wrestlers he's a wrestler but he hasn't

fought any wrestlers so I'm like what the fuck he's fought MMA fighters and I'm a martial artist who can wrestle I just made the record for takedowns in my second UFC fight in my second UFC fight I was the co-main event so who else is doing that true or false Nick Maximoff will usher in an epic beating of world-renowned proportions if he takes a fight with Hamzat Shumai. Oh, wow. Look, all signs are pointed true, unfortunately, but I would tune in every week to hear you do more Stockton speak.

I was really enjoying that a lot. Yeah, Luke, dude. I'm in low-die, bitch. He's got day one 209 fever right now. I mean, he's feeling it. But, look, he's a good 1209 fever right now i mean he's feeling it but look i he's he look he's a good fighter he showed that it was a you know it's not the it's not going to be the eye-pleasing win but i mean he shut down punale he's soriano i know soriano fell awkwardly and hurt his leg in that

fight and it it played a role no question as he gutted it through but uh man maximoff's got that diaz level want for the smoke luke okay so we're gonna find out uh gonna find out if he can sit on the end of that cypress hill uh have you seen this shit gun and take in that entire waste of weed air luke and just you know can he hand can he put the face mask and backpack on and handle it you know what i'm saying all right can we move on to the last true or false by the way every time someone tweets me about Yaroslav Amosov, it's Yaroslav Amosov every fucking time now. Okay, but he is going to be defending his title against MVP May 13th in Bellator, London.

Here's the interesting news. Co-main event was announced, welterweight as well. Former champ who has been on a rough run, Douglas Lima, is going to take on a guy that Rashad Evans has been in our ear about now for a while, Jason Jackson. Now, Jason Jackson has been fighting a lot of 175 catchweights. He fought Semtex and some other guys, but this will be at 170. BC, true or false, Jason Jackson is going to defeat Douglas Lima on May 13th.

Wow. Wow. Wow. You know, it's in play given the the losing streak for lima and the direction things are here to you know appear to be going are they going crazy rapidly well we're going to find out with this fight and it's because for for douglas lima to dial it back and beat you know a a fighter this confident on such a good streak who looks very strong and has learned, you know, from his missteps up until this point.

I don't know. Luke, he did rely on wrestling the last time we saw him, you know, in this slide that he's on, Douglas Lima. It looked like he was more willing to kind of not lay in prey, but strategically use his offensive wrestling more than when he was on that striking run of kicking holes in people's legs. I don't think that works even against this, you know, in this fight. I don't know what to expect from this one, because here's what I would say.

It gets back to the Nunez and Pena debate. Douglas Lima, at his best, has done better work than Jason Jackson, matter of fact. He beat Rory McDonald right but I don't know what kind of Douglas Lima we got right now because he has been in a tough stretch now he's not fighting chumps but at the same time he hasn't he just and the part about ABC is not that he was like he had these gritty performances and he's like close split decisions he just didn't really show up at times or too late or whatever it wasn't there was

something missing a little bit Jason Jackson and I say this as a compliment we say this in the Marine Corps that dude is full of vinegar and piss he is looking for the kinds of accolades and card positions that Douglas Lima has been enjoying and this is his chance to get it co-main event plus the weight class you're fighting this dude in, the title is being held one fight above you. You would imagine if Jackson wins, I don't know about Lima, but if Jackson wins, he probably is going to get a title shot against MSOB or MVP, who it ends up being. So these are big fucking stakes for a guy who has not been in this position.

And again, I want to say it one more time, dude. Rashad Evans, true or false, another one. He has been in our ear about Jason Jackson. Absolutely. And the guy's shown shown some next level hunger in there luke and i think he's figuring out how you know how to how to enter with the right mindset and strategy in some of these these higher level fights and this is that it's like i want to i want to believe luke because lima's three fight losing skate is only against

great fighters and one of them he moved up in weight to fight gay guard and you know he did lose by split decision against mvp i i know it was wrestle heavy a little bit boring but he did turn the tables and i mean he's he could just kind of at 34 bounce back from whatever funky was on but i just didn't see that the spirit left in him against mvp even with the strategic move to the ground, Luke, I just didn't, I just didn't see that, that, that flame anymore, man. I agree. I really wonder about that as well.

So we'll have to see, but that is it for the top five topics. Good, sir. I think it's, it's time for your next segment. Yeah. Yeah. Luke, what do we do on Wednesdays to fill time? We say, say BC come up with a damn segment. So Luke, this one is popular from time to time. Let's see if it falls flat on its face right now. I present to

you 10 different numbers. You tell me from the shit I'm telling you, Luke, is it over or is it under? Oh, I like this. I like the graphic too. Yeah. Yeah. that's well done there from the uh from the mk malco team there shout them out uh luke we start off here number one the number we're talking about is 1.5 one and a half the total number of ufc or bellator mma fight cards that luke thomas will attend in person in 2022 i attended dude since i've partnered with you and by the way i'm very happy about this but since i've partnered with you i attend way more boxing than i do mma okay so are you saying if i attend one bellator and one ufc that counts total number that would be two yeah total number we're already one month down so i have 11 months to do it um

i'll say over i'll say i'll go to because i feel like they're gonna make me go to one mma fight this year ufc fight and then showtime will probably make me go to at least one bellator yeah i'll say two i'll say i love that you're like you know they'll they'll make me do it they'll do they'll bring a lawyer over if the motherfucker if they didn't make me my chances of going are fairly low you know you'll be at international fight week after we win that podcast award luke and then yeah you know or i don't know if connor how many ufc events did we attend you attended i only attended the i i only oh i went to two ufc events i went to no i went to the one i just went to the connor trilogy fight well you came during you came to win the award I went to the one. I just went to the Conor Trilogy fight with Duncan. That's it.

You came to win the award during the fight. But I didn't apply to credentials and I went home that Saturday morning. That didn't really count. That was a Lithuanian exit from you. You told me in advance what you planned on doing, but it was very in line with my people. My poor wife needed some help. I had to get home.

That's fine. If Conor fights a second time, dude, you're probably there too. I gotta with over here i gotta go i'll take the over i'll take the over all right here we go number two the number is five and a half 5.5 the amount of top 10 ufc welterweight fighters that you would bet money on would lose to number 11 hamsat chamayev if they fought next okay so we're at welterweight, not middle. Okay, let me pull that up. Hamzat is number 11, over-under on five and a half. On how many fighters I think he could beat?

That you would bet money on Hamzat winning. Okay, let me look at this. Wow, that's a good question. Man. Okay, I'll go one, two. Are you going to say the names, at least for entertainment value? Fuck no. They're going to come killing me.

Hell no. Three, four. Fuck no. They're going to come killing me. Hell no. Three. Four. Five. I can give you five. Oh, the under. Hold on. Let me see.

Let me see. Hold on. I'll give you five. I'll take the under. I can't go with some of these names just yet. I'm not saying that I can affirmatively conclude you can't beat him, but I can comfortably say five.

We don't know what's going to happen when he gets into that side of the pool, but God, can I not wait? Yeah. I guess the under, I would have bet on the over here. All right, number three. Here we go.

The number is one, Luke. The number of scantily clad women hired to appear in Colby Covington's various interviews and online skits who he actually also had intercourse with. I'll take the under for sure. Oh, wow. Yeah. No, I don't think any of that has resulted in in in buns. I think that's a strictly transactional like on instagram

than be about you know you think he he could have pulled suave or been like look me up and you know listen i'm sure he's laid pipe in you know wonderful places that i could only dream of but i'm just saying as it relates to the instagram stuff no i don't i don't i think that's uh i don't take i don't take that too seriously. All right, moving on. The next number in question here, Luke. 2.8 million. Okay.

Ready? The minimum guaranteed purse that Francis Ngannou would be willing to agree upon per fight to re-sign with the UFC. So if it's a minimum guarantee, he gets pay-per-view points, it hit three potentially four yes but he would be no matter who he fights he would be guaranteed 2.8 million i think he'd resigns i do i think that would not be a maximization of his money but it would be a lot more than he's been getting by orders of magnitude, quite literally.

And on top of that, he would avoid any kind of lengthy court battle or whatever the fuck. You know, if you're guaranteed to make basically three a fight, that's not what you should be making, I grant, but it solves a lot of problems for him and gets him pretty close without having to go to battle with a promotion. And he doesn't have to fight in a sport that's not his first sport. He can still fight in MMA versus boxing or whatever. So, like, you know, here's the thing you have to ask yourself. Okay, BC, what is the actual – they make Francis versus Tyson Fury.

And ESPN promotes the fuck out of it. UFC says, you know what, we're going to fuck. How much does he make? What if Disney calls up and is like, we have a shoulder platform to run around with this. This is the biggest fight in combat sports history. The killer at heavyweight in boxing. It's the killer at heavyweight in MMA.

They could casual fan the shit out of a landscape of coverage with enough ad money to make this just ridiculously big. Three million buys? Oh, that's still the under. What would Francis make for that? Fifty million? Yeah, 40. Guaranteed 40.

40, 50? Something like that? Yeah, yeah. So then you have to ask yourself, okay, I could make more in one fight than I could make in 10 with the UFC or whatever it ends up being, but how many fights do you have after that, right? So, you know, there's a lot of competing issues here,

but to me, if I was Francis, and I made, let's say, I could reasonably conclude, conclude right that i could make i'm going to throw out a number here 75 million which i know is insanely high i would take that and then just quit working the rest of my life i'm like not only am i not gonna bubble like not bubble like not if i was francis i'll be like not only am i not fighting mma again i'm not fighting any of you bitches again yeah I'll see you on the, on the mild deves with,

with fucking, you know, a drink in my hand. Fuck off. Here's what's interesting though, is like, is that going to be the, the make or break on him?

Resigning? Meaning if they gave him this type of money and he was, well, if the money was right, the 2.8 profile, let's say that was right. What about the must allow me to do boxy match clause you know what i mean what about that if that's the deal breaker he

leaves because look he really really wants this fight and while yes the money and the that you know maximizing everything he's he's worked for all the all the sweat hours he put in to become this fighter he could get the full pension in that one fight, as you mentioned, no question. But look, I think a lot of this is he really thinks he can win that. And it's really like, no, I'm going to, you know, you only get one chance in life to do this kind of history. I believe I have a puncher's chance of winning the boxing heavyweight title. And I'm going to go out there and show you that I do.

Like we always, we, every time this fight gets breached we're like oh okay okay you know what I mean even with Tyson and the four ounce MMA gloves we're still like yeah your question is really interesting because you know he's playing with unknown so for example if the money was the same 2.8 guarantee plus pay-per-view points on top um but you could only reasonably conclude that at maximum your take home against Tyson Fury would be 20 million that changes the deal a lot that is a very different deal at that point um so I don't know what he would do in that case you have to just ask yourself what is the actual upside with the Tyson Fury fight how much can you actually make and if he could make a fuck ton,

he'll go. If he can make a lot, but the UFC is wanting to come up off their pockets a little bit. I think it, I think he stays for sure. He stays very interesting. Very interesting. All right, let's keep over undergoing Luke four and a half, 4.5, the number of top 10 ranked UFC heavyweights who you think could dunk a basketball right now. Okay. So let me look at UFC heavyweights who you think could dunk a basketball right now? Okay, so let me look at the heavyweights. Francis, do you think he could dunk? I think he could dunk, right? Oh, he could hammer that down, Luke, okay?

All right, so Cyril Ghosn is number one ranked. We've seen Ghosn do it, so we know he can do it. Steve Bamiotis was a pretty good athlete. He could dunk, right? He's like 6'2". Yeah, yeah. He's 6'2 and jacked in a world-class athlete. I think he could dunk, yeah. Okay, Derek Lewis cannot dunk. I don't know if he can grab the net.

Dude, he's a freak athlete too in his own way, though. Yeah, but does he have ups? I don't think he has ups. If you put money on it, I think he's dunking the ball. He's dunking the ball, Luke. Okay, all right. So for me, I'll go two so far. Curtis Blades, he could probably dunk, right?

He's actually a little taller than me. Yeah, I bet he would. I bet Blades windmills. I bet he's, yeah, yeah. Okay, five easy call. Volkov, I mean, that motherfucker's head height with the rim, that giraffe. So yes, he could dunk. Six, Rosenstreich, no chance he can dunk.

No chance. Zero. I'm going to say zero for him. Yeah, he seems very heavy, but I don't know. I don't know. Probably not. Seven, Chris Dawkus. I don't think so.

I don't think so. I don't think so. Number eight, no chance. You know what, Dawkus? Prove us wrong, all right? Send in the video to morningcombat.gmail. If he can dunk a basketball, I'll recant everything. Eight, Shamil Abdur-Rakimov.

That dude can jump hamburger high. No chance he can dunk. No chance. No chance. Okay. Number nine, Marcin Tybura. He ain't dunking anything. Not happening.

White men can't dunk, Luke. Not happening. Ten is more interesting. Ten is Tom Aspinall, who does look like a pretty good athlete to me. White guy from the UK, he's not dunking. Great fighter, he's not dunking the ball. Little guns from France. They got Rudy Gobert.

He gave everyone COVID. Dude, so that four and a half is way too low then. It's the over. Yeah, I'll take the over. I'll take the over, yeah. I think you'll be right on that. Okay, here we go, Luke. Number three.

Number three. The amount of times the combination of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, and Alexander Usyk will fight one another before they all retire. Could we have the four kings at heavyweight right now in this era? I'll take the under, for sure. I'll take the under. All right, so we think we're getting AJ Usyk too.

That'll be the first one, right? Yep. And then after that, I think it falls apart. And then Fury versus the winner is still going to happen at least once, right? So that's two, but that's still under. Do we get AJ versus Wilder under any circumstance? AJ would have to be desperate, I think. I think if he loses to Usyk, it increases the chance.

But here's the problem. We don't even know if Wilder is retired or not. He kind of indicated he was halfway in the bag. So he might not even be a player here. I don't know if Fury will fight Usyk, because we just don't know how that's gonna i'm gonna take the under i'm gonna take the under for sure i i'm gonna take the over part of it is hope because for it to not be the over like boxing shit has to be like

heavy strong in the next few years luke you know i mean heavy i hope not not. I mean, it's very possible. Damn. Damn. All right, Luke, 57,000. The number of our 105,000-based MK subscriber group who either did or at least would have been willing to storm the Capitol steps on January 6, 2001. It's got 57,000 seems like very much an undercount i think it's i think it's closer to you know uh 99 of that 105k like if it was just proximity like they're like you know i'm not going to drive 800 miles for this but if i was in that town yes i would have been there yeah yeah then then the number goes up to nearly everyone that's 37 000 is a conservative estimate all right all right luke got 2.5 two and a half the number of russian or russian former occupied born fighters who will be ufc champions at the end of 2022 when when when it's

new year's eve and it turns over to 2022 two two and a half is your over-under on the defending Russian or close enough born Kazakh-Ukrainian. So we can count former Soviet satellite states? Yes, yes we do. If you got some kind of Soviet on you, Luke, we're counting it, okay? Can you pull up the question one more time? Let me see it one more time on the on-screen graphic. Two and a half, the number of Russian or occupied-born fighters. Who will be UFC champions.

Yeah, I mean, I think if you count wider, like Bellator and PFL, it's going to be a huge number. Okay. Whoo! Now, we already have one. So, are we counting Shevchenko? Well, then you would say she's going to be a champion when this year closes. Yes, if you're counting that, then that's one.

Okay, so that's one. Okay. So that's one. Wow. This year when it's over, I wouldn't count Volkov because I think he's a little bit too far behind. Peter Yan, that's two. As our Gaff, our producer, as wisely noted. So we would just need one more? Yes.

You got to take the over. So tempting. You um gotta take the over islam mahachev you gotta take that over right good call yes i will take the over i'll take the over could could be coming on for all we know i'll take i'll take the over i like that i'll take the over it's a good one oh i think are there a thing freeze you there i'm there i'm there i'm there i'm there technical difficulty let's do all right two more let's close it out here forever come on but but it's it's epic though i mean it's freaking epic luke uh 15 million the amount of cash dana white could physically produce in 24 hours from his own accounts if he was arrested for a high profile felony and needed to make bail

i'll take the over i think he has way more liquid cash than that way more that's a look that's an insane amount of liquid cash even for a rich guy dude a buddy of mine was trying to buy a house here in the city and he's a lawyer like this is not a poor guy And he bid on a home, you know, not a cheap home, and lost the bid because the person who outbid him paid it in cash all in one go. There is some stupid money floating around out there, and Dana White probably has a nice chunk of it. Luke, he's going to run for governor of Nevada

and then eventually president one day. Probably. I want you to remember that I was the first one a year ago who said that out loud. Yeah, he won't win, but yeah, probably. Nostradonkis over here. By the way, Nostradonkis has predicted in concession, Luke, succession, not only that Francis Ngannou would wrestle to win, but that Strickland would win a decision.

So, you know, maybe this is the new streak, the new curse. Maybe I'm just struck by lightning in my sleep luke and uh you know my circuits are back all right here we go people still doing the curse thing now that francis won i hope they can't be right yeah i mean canelo killed the only debate is if francis or canelo killed that's the only debate all right look the final one is one and a half 1. All jokes aside, the amount of calf strikes Justin Gaethje actually was from putting Habib in peril at UFC 254. Gotta take the over. Obviously it was hurting him.

Obviously we know Justin Gaethje can do phenomenal work. But to really hobble and hurt and change the game, I think three or four is probably where he would have needed to end up. One or two, certainly impactful. not enough for a guy like that. By the way, as much as years from now we'll be like, remember when Ngannou won that fight with a contract dispute and a torn MCL? Remember when Khabib won that fight with a broken foot and another injury on another part of his leg, and he was retiring?

Damn, dude. Damn. damn i miss him it was great for the game uh by the way in case you haven't heard yet godzilla has returned from downtown tokyo to now terrorize mkville so yeah all right uh luke do you want to uh close with uh fan subs here let's see what they got let's see what the fans got, morningcombat at gmail.com is the call out there. This is where you send us pictures and stuff. It's weird. It's fan submission. I like the segment.

When this segment is good, it's really good. It's feel good. And when it's bad, it's really bad. It's like ribs. Barbecue ribs, Luke, I only eat them if they're elite, okay? Like some guys are like, I'll only get a prostitute if it's in elite. Dude, I cannot remember the name of the place, them if they're elite okay like some guys are like i'll only get a prostitute if it's in a dude i cannot remember the name of the place but when i was in houston for the uh dota 5000 kimbo fight

because i've done very important work in my career i um jeremy botter who lived in houston at that time he may still live there uh he took me to some barbecue place that only like only has a certain amount of meat each day and when they sell out that's it they close they're done right and then when you when they open there's a line out the door he knew the owner so we got to skip the line it was him me i think mike jackson remember the guy who fought cm punk oh yeah him me mike jackson and i think sean el shadi was with us although i could be wrong about that but either way, that was some of the most unbelievable barbecue I'd ever had.

It's like there's that, and then everything else they call barbecue is some cheap imitation. When you get it real, whether it's in Memphis or Austin or wherever you go for your, like, no, these guys do it real, it's, oh, God. By the way, have you been to Memphis? No, I want to go to Memphis and Kansas City just for the barbecue. I'll take the crime and all that stuff too. I've been to Memphis once so I don't I cannot hardly say that

I've got it figured out but I didn't love it that much and also Beale Street is a not as good as well I mean they're both for a certain kind of person but so it's not like six six street in Austin no and it's definitely they say it's close to Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It ain't. It ain't. It ain't like that at all. Yo, Bourbon Street in New Orleans is pretty insane, Luke. It's pretty nuts.

Yeah. And for a while, it was Frenchman Street where the locals went, but I'm told that that's no longer the case. But Frenchman Street was cool, too. All right, Luke, from Danger Mouse is our first one. I have Donks greetings from God's own country of south yorkshire hoping that one day i'll message to see my art live you'll manage yes first time you change the schedule second time i'm back what happened what happened fingers crossed i'll be home for this one if you even show it this is

the reality of how bcc's food mk all day every day corporate needs you to find the differences uh what does that say i can't read uh they're the same picture yeah that's great that's fantastic that hot dog is fucking gross by the way so let me see but it's got ketchup mustard mayo and then relish on top well let's say i'm not a relish this just gives you an insertion to mention how columbia's hot dog game is money okay it's money right i didn't say anything nope but i want you an insertion to mention how Columbia's hot dog game is money, Luke. Okay? It's money, right? I didn't say anything. No, but I want you to. I want to try it.

I want to try that. I think you're making fun of me because you think I'm full of shit. Because my liver won't let me. My liver just bailed on me, Luke. You know what I mean? By the way, Dying Fetus announced they're going to have another tour April. Since you bailed on the Cannibal Cor corpse concert like a fucking pussy that you are you get another chance in april to come down to baltimore to watch that with me so go fuck sorry luke my mic was messing up yeah if we good now you can

hear me well i it wasn't i wasn't hearing you luke let's keep it going here uh did i hit something okay it's good now this from norman who is bill of bill and Jen fame. Okay. Greetings from Bill and Jen and Megan stew, the puppies. This was in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. There's a waterfall behind us that you can barely see. We're spending the winter in Austin. So we haven't been posting as frequently, but anyway, we're going to UFC two seven one in Houston. Holy crap.

Hope to see you there. At least I can give you guys some real THC oil. Not that delta a bullshit that's for pussies wow i mean did bill just step up his game right there with this with this submission look bill talks a lot about what he's gonna do for us you know and i appreciate the merch stuff but until i see said thc oil it's all caps sir i appreciate him wearing our our original we got to get him some new merch because he's a he owns I appreciate him wearing our original. We got to get him some new merch because he owns all, I think,

of our 1.0 launch. We should find an address somewhere, some P.O. box he can pick up in the middle of nowhere, America. That'd be great. All right, thank you, Bill, for that one. Let's keep it going from Connor. Hola, Burrows. I'm a P1 donk.

I've been loving the 270 content. Great to have you back in the studio here's to more awards more live shows and more bb it's art jerry well done not bad not bad pretty good i think he has a second one apparently my notes are wrong he may not have a second one you blow it up there it is exactly better that is better that is that's good well done well done there connor all right that guys are becoming a regular in these parts uh this one's from nathan what up donks uh got some pictures here with my beautiful girlfriend kelsey we'll be the judge of that

nathan and my sweet mk merch which she got for me for christmas at the honda center at 270 Got some pictures here with my beautiful girlfriend, Kelsey. We'll be the judge of that, Nathan. And my sweet MK merch, which she got for me for Christmas at the Honda Center at 270. It was our first live MMA event, and we had an absolute blast. Luke, you mentioned in your post-fight show that when Velasquez beat Lesnar at the Honda Center, it drew a huge contingent of Hispanic fans who seemed to have a deep... Yeah, dude, it's in Southern California. It's Mexican boxing territory, of course. Yeah, dude, it's in Southern California. It's Mexican boxing territory, of course. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, he mentioned that several dozen Mexican flags in attendance.

Moreno got the huge pop. Mexico chants on and on. Amazing experience. Look, I'd have to say, those fans sold out for Moreno. So our buddy here, Nathan, who's not doing too bad in all things life, you know, he probably had a, it's probably a, Luke, UFC live crowd experiences do produce life-changing experiences.

They do. They do. Also, these might be the only two MMA fans on earth who wear masks. Yeah, I think that's why they were in the last row. I think they got pushed back. But thank this guy for representing us. And Luke, let's not bury the lead again on Bill and Jen.

They're going to be there at 271 in Houston this Saturday. Do you think, you know, Bill splurged since he doesn't have to pay a mortgage anymore, right? You know, he's living in that RV. Do you think Bill splurged and bought, like, right up front Tom Brady seats and is going to wear that MK merch right next to Dana, right? Like, right on him you know i mean i wish but no i think he probably is sitting in the bleeders all right all right uh apparently every time i move luke my mic is cutting out uh this one's from tyler from the 412 in pittsburgh

last year ended so beautifully with you two donks taking home the award. But the award hangover is strong. Between one of you donks not being on air, constant audio issues, and overall poor performances, I have to suggest you put down the Delta 8s and get your focus back. Wow. Luke, is this a... Was this an intervention that needed to happen here, Luke? It hasn't been the strongest start to the year.

However, however, however, I am quite confident that when the year has wrapped, we will have looked back on it quite fondly. But it's a fair criticism. I am. I tried the Delta 10. It wasn't too much different than the delta 8 but it was different but the homie and i had to show off the mk drip at the wings game red wings game thanks for keeping me entertained at work i always ignore my job to watch you guys oh look at these guys luke i mean you asked me what's the over under on capital stormers i mean what the how could you fucking

ask that you're the guy on the left the guy's left in the gym shit on nancy pelosi's desk i mean just look at these two what do you think the guy in the beard's college name was like nickname in the dorms you know it was probably like like shithouse or something awesome right he's probably the guy behind the hoagie farts uh instagram yes yes i would agree with that i would agree. In all seriousness, thanks to these two for by the way, I'll say this. We're talking about good seats. Bro, those are six seats for the hockey game. Those are six seats. Yeah. Gaff believes the guy on the

left looks like a fat version of Jake or maybe it means the guy on the right. Sorry. I mean, he kind of looks like Jake Rosenberg. Our fantastic documentary. I'm looking at this. I'm like, wow. Go back.

Go back real quick. Go back. I'm looking at this dude on the right, and I'm like, wow, man. It comes out your mind. Let himself go. Jesus. Oh, come on. That guy, I think he's posing for us, Luke.

He's like, you know. I know. I like to tease the viewers. I'm just teasing. That's all I'm doing. In all seriousness, thank you guys so much. Thank you so much. Peter slides in and says,

here's three pics from my work trip to NYC. Had an awesome time, but of course I had to spread the word of MK by wearing some of my favorite gear. First is a selfie at Central Park with my MK beanie. Nicely done. Second is me rocking the tie-dye shirt in front of the Statue of Liberty.

And yes, BC, I'm wearing a side bag like a real man. What? Yeah. Wow. Bro, I got another one of those when I was in Columbia. I got another one. It's even better than the last. It's probably leather.

Look, really, like, you think you're ahead of the game, but really it's like just the new fanny pack, right? I mean, that's what it is, Luke. Yes, here's the thing. I can't. This is true. I literally cannot make any more choices because I don't know what's up or down when it comes to being cool. However, however, what I have noticed is some people who appear to be cool are doing it.

But more to the point, it's very functional for a dad so here's what i would say go fuck yourself how about yeah yeah welcome to my midlife crisis that's i'm right with you luke uh he also wore this uh yeah he this guy wore our shirts he did great okay he had pizza pizza there he is real real new york city pizza that guy had luke yeah i do i do miss new york pizza new york pizza is awesome it is pretty damn awesome. Here's Will, a longtime listener, first-time subber, but I'm a day one MK fan, literally never missed an episode except for maybe a boxing interview here and there. Here's a pic of me at Bellator.

The numbers tell us that. Yeah, wow. Here's a pic of him in Phoenix at Bellator 273. His wife bought him the tickets for their first wedding anniversary last november that's awesome that's great uh the shirt came in handy for wiping his tears when big tuna took that hard l also couldn't resist going tip to tip on my way out of the arena all right this is the dumbest show on earth from will a fellow mathlete just smart enough to resign before high school wow look he just that's nerd on nerd crime right there you know what i'll take

i mean it's not even dead wrong but i'll take the l all right uh ben says uh no this is uh oh apparently this guy sent in a caption that you can't read on the air but luke here's us as the island boys dude look at those tattoos i mean what are they gonna do in 10 years i don't know right i you know they're that would you rather you know burn out or fade away luke they're they're going for the first option the hair you can just shave it and like your money right you just be fine but those tattoos bro and i'm pro tattoo and even i'm looking at those being like wow man y'all made a tragic mistake i'd love to get mr he boss's reaction of these guys even he would be like yo those tattoos are

kind of fucking busted uh we got scott sliding in he says they'll never learn on this meme, Luke. I mean, here's the thing. This is a true story. I got up early today. I've taken three dumps before today's show. I feel like I'm fine. I feel like I'm fine. Oh, boy. Yeah, Luke, that was an unscheduled, you know,

I was going to burn my urethra. And, you know, I derailed the conversation. All I can do is apologize to my people to have a better handle on that. What do we need? MK Depends next on the merch store. Luke, we close with Jason saying, Jay from Boston, back for the sixth time.

I wanted to start by giving a shout out to LT for the content he dropped while away in Columbia. LT, you truly are an expert in this field and your analysis of the opening segment was riveting bro I watched Encanto again this morning do you understand how much of this movie I could break down just like I do that shit is that a

MK homework project review yeah there you go next with a tear in my eye it's finally time that we pay our final respects to the MK curse and lay it to rest with a tombstone this guy designed. It's crazy that the Connor review dropped on 121.21 and Francis officially ended the curse on 122.22. Whoa, really? Wow.

I didn't know that. Is that true you guys shook up the mk mma universe for 366 days and a phenomenon like this will never happen again 20 years down the road when mk is still on top the true day one donks will always remember and reminisce about the curse and last but certainly not least there was a clip sent uh of a woman boxing another woman's backside a few weeks ago. L.T. then went full predator mode on us. The speed at which you were able to identify the derriere of V.V. Winkler was no different than the predator hunting down green berets in the jungle.

Wow. Oh, gosh, that's well done. You know what I have to say your honor guilty as charged oh those are your fans so well we got good we got good people out there luke you know i mean i mean yeah yeah i noticed all the comments uh i did read the comments in the video where i my first show back and everyone was like luke was in bbl heaven bbls must have been everywhere this was amazing for him and i'm like true true true true true all true there you go all right well that is it for us today bc i want to remind everyone to go to sports podcast awards.com give us a vote be cool about it

i know you know you're like already voted for you guys one time but the thing is we need more of them so please do that and if you have we greatly appreciate it uh showtime is the label that pays us so go to showtime.com you can get a 30-day free trial if you like it that's live programming plus everything on the app which is great if you like it keep it if not go fuck yourself um morning combat Combat. Wow, that escalated. That escalated quick. We went from sand to just, you know, yeah. Just eat a bag of dicks.

All right. MorningCombat at gmail.com, of course, is the email. The store, morningcombat.store. Like and subscribe on YouTube, whatever platform you're listening on, on podcasts. Please give us a nice review as well if you're so inclined. BC, any final thoughts before we head out? Oh yeah. Uh,

youtube.com slash morning combat will not only give you the full, uh, versions of course, of the Robert Whitaker and Derek Lewis interviews. Don't sleep on your boy BC chant with Anthony Pettis. He's not only going to be back for season two of a PFL, but he is of course going to promote the, the,

uh, the, uh, what is it called? The Showtime FC first show he's going to have on UFC fight pass this weekend. So Luke going up and down, talking about this guy's legacy,

reliving the bangers he was in, you know, talking about the Showtime kick and why no one's been able to replicate it. Although Luke, Luke, Pettis thinks ready for this. He thinks is a beat is the only active fighter who could pull that off in the middle of a big fight as impactfully, the Showtime kick. What?

Because it just so happened the day I interviewed him, rewatched Zabit versus the guy, the featherweight who's calling Pettis out right now, Jeremy Stevens. And Zabit attempted a showtime kick, but the angles really weren't right, and Stevens wasn't in full range. It kind of touched him partially. And then that day, Anthony Pettis was like, the only guy who's going to be able to do that in a real high-level UFC fight is Zabit one day. So, yeah.

Okay, that's a no. Anything else you want to say? you want well look you can't just shut that down it's possible i have to i have to respect that all right anyway those interviews are available also i talked to uh prime time himself chris colbert who's going to be uh headlining a showtime boxing card uh coming up in just a couple weeks. He's very good. He's very good. He's a great boxer, but also he's a fun, fun interview. So check out all those interviews and bonus clips that we do over there at YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. And to see all that stuff easier, just hit subscribe.

You know, panhandling, hanger honors. Like, just hit subscribe already. Don't be a taker. Don't be a taker. Be a giver. And give back. hers. Like, just hit subscribe already. Don't be a taker. Don't be a taker. Be a giver. And give back. Yes. All right.

For Malka, for CBS Sports, for Showtime, for Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas. This has been Morning Combat. We'll talk to you guys on Friday. We'll get you ready for everything. And until then, check out all the interviews BC indicated, youtube.com slash morningcombat. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.