MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 272 Recap: Covington Beats Masvidal | RDA, Mitchell Win | Boxing Recap | Ep. 273

Episode Date: March 7, 2022

On episode 272 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian recap a WILD UFC 272 where Colby Covington took down Jorge Masvidal. Plus, Rafael dos Anjos dominated Renato Moican and Bryce Mitchell impressed in a win over Edson Barboza. The boys also breakdown all the big boxing events from the weekend, including Chocolatito beating Julio Cesar Martinez and Jose Ramirez defeating Jose Pedraza. (4:00) - Colby Covington Dominates Jorge Masvidal (21:25) - Rafael Dos Anjos (32:10) - Bryce Mitchell (41:10) - Chocolatito Defeats Julio Cesar Martinez (46:00) - Jose Ramirez defeats Jose Pedraza (52:00) - Dm's from Donks (68:50) - HYSTS (92:00) - Odds & Ends 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

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. You hear that? Ugh. Paid.

And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month. Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, 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. Ooh, better late than never.

Let's put it that way. Sorry for the delay, but we are here. Monday, UFC 272 post-fight to talk about some Ramirez, Pedraza, some Chocolatito. A whole lot to do. Hello, everyone. This is Morning Combat, and I am merely one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas. I join you from the capital of Estados Unidos right here in Washington, D.C.,

joined by the viceroy slash prince of CT, Connecticut, my friend and yours, Big Beige, Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian Campbell. Luke, I've just been told through my earpiece by our bosses that they will be capturing that before the start of the livestream meltdown that you had on our staff and selling it as an exclusive mk nft luke okay so somebody out there can own we can be the sole owner of that uh wow luke wow well i mean you're sitting there playing you know armpit farting noises while my devices don't work and i can't connect and I can't even talk to the guy who can help me connect because BC is like

looks like you know the adults are trying to speak yes okay I got a little frustrated I am sorry about that but I was trying to get to the show on time but here we are BC I'm happy to be here UFC 272 will lead the show today but as I mentioned we got a lot to get to plus your your questions on DMs from donks we're gonna see BC's have you I mentioned, we got a lot to get to, plus your questions on DMs from Donks. We're going to see if BCs have you seen this shit. We have a lot to do. So thumbs up on the video if you're watching on YouTube. Please hit subscribe for our new subscribers.

Welcome. We do this three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11 a.m. in the East BC. For the folks who don't know, what is available at our merch store, morningcombat.store? Well, it is St. Patrick's Day season, Luke. So if you go to morningcombat.store. Well, it is St. Patrick's Day season, Luke. So if you go to morningcombat.store we have

a brand new exclusive line of our MK-themed St. Patrick's Day. Drink them up. Have a great time. I believe we even have, you know, a little art to look at here to wet the palate, to tease you, to tickle around the North Rim, if you will, Luke.

I think we have that. Do we have that? Let's see that if we have that. I know that we do not have that. I was promised we had that. Anyway, morningcombat.store. Go check it out. We got new stuff, and it's fantastic. There you have it.

And, of course, Showtime is the label that pays. Go to Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand, but you get everything on there, including what's ever available on demand. So that's always good stuff there. You can email the show, morningcombat at gmail.com. That's forever and ever.

If you want to reach us for fan subs, dead wrongs, anything else. And yeah, BC, I think that's it. You ready to get the show started? Yeah, let's rock. Let's give them everything we everything we got left luke okay let's just empty it let's empty the tank all right topic number one here and again last apologies for the delay here we go topic number one bc i did the post fight show so i can't wait to hear what you have to say colby covington basically dominates jorge masal en route to a unanimous decision. I think he had a 50-45, a 50-44, and a 49-46, but that basically tells the story of the fight. BC, overall impressions of the fight, and then specifically,

what did you learn about Colby Covington in this contest? Yeah, look, in the end it played out how we all thought was certainly the most likely outcome. It's why the betting odds were that way with a 3-1 favorite for Covington who had the freshness advantage and certainly most importantly that stylistic advantage it was right in some of our ways we predicted and look at it coming in in terms of what version of masvidal it would be but it went to script for the most part and what i learned is that colby covington is still very much at age 34 of the true elite of

this game right in that same category in my opinion with the Max Holloways Robert Whitaker's uh Dustin Poirier's right now who are some of the best UFC fighters who are not champions at the moment uh right on the edge of the top 10 pound for pound make smart adjustments showed his toughness in that little hiccup in round four which is which is probably going to be more of a conversation on what Masvidal didn't do after that moment. But I'm still seeing a very complete fighter, Luke, in whether you love him or you hate him, but it's set up for you to hate him, to be fair.

That pivot, which he laid the groundwork during fight week of the, you know, I hate Dustin Poirier too, guys, don't forget that. That instant pivot afterwards shows he understands, Luke, where he's truly at. He's not going to get a third shot at Usman anytime soon. So you need money fights. And if he can continue to like this Masvidal fight to fight guys who, you know, a little bit older, not as well-rounded,

his cardio, his wrestling, what makes him great is very much the top of the sport, Luke. You know, those categories, cardio his wrestling what makes him great is is very much the top of the sport Luke you know those categories uh cardio wrestling he knows what the hell he's doing and he's rounded out his game enough to make sure there were no you know there were hiccups but there was no problem at the end of the day the calling out of Poirier you you seem to believe that that is you know designed to get a big name fight, right? And to sort of stay relevant by virtue of that. Do you think that the UFC will make him fight the winner of either Luque versus,

who's he fighting here, Bilal Muhammad, or the winner of Burns versus Chemaev? Where does Colby, because listen, Poirier, I don't know if he's going to take that fight. He might, we'll have to see, But there's a decent chance he doesn't. So where does that leave Colby? If you're Colby at 34, you know you're still the best you've ever been. This is where the physical and the mental and the experience comes together. This is the best version of Colby Covington right now. He knows his window is closing, though, Luke.

And I don't think it's advantageous for him to go back to the ladder and go through the top two or three guys to try to just get back into the conversation of an Usman fight. He needs to stay on the outside looking in so that if Usman suddenly retires or moves up and wait, or if Chumaev just kicks the damn door in, suddenly Colby's still right there, almost to be fair in a Ioana type situation where there's big gun just waiting, but he doesn still right there, almost, to be fair, in a Ioana-type situation where there's a big gun just waiting. But he doesn't have to sit out, Luke, him planting the seeds for a Poirier fight, him knowing that if he can just keep throwing out that bait at the McGregor types, you know, at the Diaz types, the guys that he knows could make him big fights.

I can't see him losing any of those in this, you know, greater BMF sort of gray area between two divisions here. But I wonder though, what your spirit of your question was, what if they try, you know, what if they try to push him into it, the UFC, I, you know, you saw Dana and Colby didn't even shake hands on stage at the ceremonial weigh-in. And, you know, you know, from Dana's comments that, you know, he's like, look, Colby's an asshole. You know what I mean?

Like he's a great fighter and we, we deal with him and we make it work. But, uh, you know, I don't know because I think they're realized they'd have to be, if the UFC, they'd have to be smart enough to realize that he may not be an, a premier pay-per-view brand, but he's building and has built now two fights with Usman. And now this one, you know, a legitimate following. I don't think you'd want to stuff that if you're UFC and force him back into some kind of number one contender fight. I think that you can make this type of fight that we saw him

against a fan-friendly action guy a few times over, Luke. My read on this, BC, I don't wonder if you agree, is it's the old press conference. Was it Singletary? No, that was I Want Winners, but it was they are who we thought they were. Dennis Green it was the old press conference. Was it Singletary? No, that was I Want Winners. But it was they are who we thought they were. Dennis Green it was. Yeah.

That's right. Yes, yes. They are who we thought they were. You know, Jorge was probably the better striker, although at times certainly the volume and pressure on the feet from Colby snuck through. But it was really obviously, as we know, he had six of 15 takedowns. In the fifth round, he had four minutes and 34 seconds of control time,

really putting it on him in that fifth and final frame, getting two of two takedowns, right? Just on him like white on rice. And there were these other moments where he got dropped briefly in the fourth. Obviously, I think Masvidal had a decent second round. But in general, the fight just kind of played along the path where it's like they probably know each other really well uh colby is going to be the better wrestler and will grind out positions on route to a decision victory that was relatively ho-hum that's exactly what you got i do think we

saw a couple of new wrinkles from colby on the ground where he would play in guard not really try to pass and then do more ground and pound that has been something that has plagued him a little bit against lawler he had almost no ground and pound. That has been something that has plagued him a little bit. Against Lawler, he had almost no ground and pound because he was so worried about controlling position. This time, BC, I felt like he managed different positions that gave him different tools in different scenarios. That's better than being one note about it all the time. So I did see some growth, but I just, I mean, here's the thing.

We had talked about this before the fight. He didn't have any wins over anyone existing before Saturday over a current top. I think you've 10 or 15 ranked a welterweight. Now he does have one. He is 34. He's the best he's ever been. It's just,

here's where I can't come. I can't, I can't decide what's going to happen or I can't figure it out. I think there's a strong chance. Yes, of course. Listen, Poirier could take the fight,

but I have a feeling he wants to deny Colby that. And by the way, that's a terrible fight for Dustin Poirier. I don't like his chances in that one. I listen Poirier could take the fight but I have a feeling he wants to deny Colby that and by the way that's a terrible fight for Dustin Poirier I don't like his chances in that one I think Poirier oh and those those early odds were like minus 400 Covington I saw that were posted yesterday yeah I mean that might be even generous to be quite honest with you Colby's bigger and has that skill set we just saw so for me the thing is it's like did Colby have a great strong performance not a doubt about it. He looked really good. He deserved that victory. Clean, easy, minus a couple of hiccups here or there.

But I guess there's still these questions about me. I assume the guy who gives Kamaru really sort of takes that de facto number two spot. But there's this new, entire, fresh wave of welterweights that Colby has not really put his hands on yet or vice versa. And I think that remains unresolved. Absolutely. And look, if Tremayev wins his next fight, you know, I think he should get the title shot. And I've said that you could already have given it to him, which is somewhat, you know, people, okay, I get it. But, you know, don't be crazy.

But I really believe that. If it doesn't go that direction, if Kamaru beats Leon Edwards and then tries to either take a little bit of time off or whatever, if you end up seeing Chemaev versus Colby Covington, Luke, that's going to be, I mean, that could be another number. Even though I'm saying, hey, Colby,

I don't think you have to go back to the well and try to become the number one contender because I'm not even sure there's an appetite for a third fight with you and Usman. You know, go stay a pay-per-view trash-talking action guy, even though you're, you know, really cringe. I mean, I don't mean action guy because he fights to his strengths. You know, it's like I wrote a story about it on CBS Sports yesterday. It's like, you know, it's not the Mayweather thing exactly. You know, Mayweather would bark and get you mad at them but then have these brilliant defensive, you know, kind of boring-ish

at times victories. But, you know, there's some smoke and mirrors in that with Covington of making himself feel like he's a bigger brand than he actually is. He's smart at that. And as much as I'm saying hey go back and just make money and just make big fights if they if if it's not next for usman versus chamaya

for any reason chamaya versus colby is i mean god luke that's a that's just a hell of a damn fight that would tell us so much in so many ways about both it really what or a Gilbert Burns fight a Gilbert Burns fight would tell us a lot too to be honest although I grant that the Shemya of one has a certain mystique to it that we couldn't ever really ignore last question on Colby then we'll talk about Maslow for a brief moment in your mind where does he rank among most popular active ufc fighters you're talking about colby yes in terms of their potential pay-per-view brand yeah like whether they're saturday how or their value is he their value and look there are different kinds of pay-per-view values a side and b side you know as opponents colby's largely playing the opponent role up to this point and you can even argue even

though he was the higher ranked guy which is why his name was first in the promotion i didn't realize a lot of people uh you know came at me and updated me on that so thank you um is he now an a-side i think is an important question and if you do consider him a potential a-side i don't know look before i answer your question he seems to have the formula down at how to be a great B-side, right? Like, match him with anybody. He'll trash talk the shit out of them. He may end up, you know, probably winning because he seems like, you know, he's not fighting guys on the equal level

if he's going to stay in this lane. But in that regard, it's Conor, number one. Is it John Jones, number two? Izzy's up there. Izzy. Kamaru's popular. You've got certain guys like Poirier or Holloway who need the right matchup.

They need that right dance partner. But given that Covington might be, I mean, you can make the argument that Covington's the best pay-per-view B side of the moment. Like he's the number one guy in that category. Yes, I think that category. Yes. I think that's probably accurate. Whether he remains to be the number two welterweight,

uh, over time, I guess we'll have to see. Let's talk about Jorge Masvidal BC. To me, this was really, I mean, I guess you could say this about the knockout loss to Kamaru,

but it was so not, you know, I didn't have it instantaneously, but the fight was relatively short. This was the first time where, okay, granted the guy had to fight Colby Covington, who is potentially the second best welterweight on the planet.

We all know how good he is. I thought Jorge looked a little bit old. Not terrible, not over the hill, but he was wearing it physically in a way where I don't know that he ever positionally it didn't look the same, but just from body language, speed, nimbleness, the ability to scramble through, he just looked like he was 37, was to play a again not the determining factor but playing

a factor bc do you agree and where does he go from here it's hard for me to disagree based on how i perceive it because it's it's related to that it's just sort of like luke like did i expect a better version yeah i mean i predicted them i, look, it's not likely, but I just have this feeling. And there were moments in this fight, even though this fight goes down as a one-sided fight, there were particular moments, and we sort of nailed it, right? The fourth round punch in which he dropped Colby to a knee briefly, and it's like, dude, follow that up, mixed with, I thought he won the second round. I thought he had moments in both rounds one and three where it wasn't enough to win a round or make that argument. But you're like, if he can keep making these adjustments or stay in that lane, there's something here. So all of that was true. I think he did put in the best training camp he knew how for this version of him. He did have a good mix of explosiveness with trying to set it up, but there was no next level magic to be had.

And I think more importantly, Luke, he doesn't have the stamina for five-round championship elite level fighting, and certainly not at this point. And when I mentioned I think he had the best training camp, he knows how to have. He's a guy, even with that 2019, which now is like this aberration moment where the perfect version of him came form luke and then it's easy to mythologize that and overrated of course and i didn't even think he should have won the fighter

of the year that i thought it was out of sonia but you know that's not to take away from him here you get the point is um i think that's always held him back, Luke, from really getting to that highest level. I'm not sure he ever truly figured out how to get the best of him physically, stamina-wise, cardio-wise, so that there's never a question. And I know that's hard for a guy like him who lives and dies with the explosion, and that's going to pull at your gas tank. But especially in that fourth round, to not know pull out your gas tank but especially in that fourth round to not be able to follow up on the moment that you wait for you set up that moment

the whole damn fight and and he he had nothing to to to pour on that luke uh it's disappointing because he did come in with the eye of the tiger i thought but the the fuel wasn't there this this this sort of this this particular moment that jorge's in reminds me a little bit of the pre-explosion Jorge, where, granted, he had a bad loss in the one prior to this, and then this one was pretty dominant. So in some ways, the losses look worse. In fact, that's the point I was going to make. The things that troubled him before are still troubling him. Now, granted, we're at a more elite level,

so I don't think that the old guys who used to trouble him if they were still around or whatever would still do that. Or, you know, if he had the skill set back then, it wouldn't be the same. But I'm saying, like, as he's graduated through, yes, he's gotten better, but the challenges have gotten tougher. So that problem, while he has, I'm sure, worked diligently to address it, it still kind of holds him back, which is these grapplers who just are relentless with it.

They don't necessarily sub him out. They don't necessarily beat him up too bad, but they definitely neutralize him. And he just looked neutralized. And then this is the difference, BC. In previous fights, he looked neutralized, but there was a little bit more scrambling, a little bit more activity, a little bit more hustle.

This time, that part was missing too. Again, give credit to Colby for taking it out of him, but it just felt like he was wearing it in ways i hadn't seen him wear it under these kinds of conditions previously uh yeah i would agree with that luke and and and you wanted more from him you wanted him to take that ultimate chance and risk pouring it all out to win and you know it, it, is it the, is it the lack of elite level stamina that held him back from even trying that? Or was it an unwillingness, Luke? I'm not sure. I saw that unwillingness in the first Usman fight and I was hypercritical, even though it was a short camp and he had that built-in excuse. I don't see, you know, the second Usman fight, he seemed more

willing to let it go. And look, you just saw what happened. You ran into one of the greatest fighters of all time, to be fair. I didn't see that mindset that is needed to create the Askren moment. You know what I'm saying, Luke? I mean, I'm asking a lot of this guy for this moment. But this is probably, if we're being honest, the best fighter Jorge's going to fight for the rest of his career. He'll make bigger fights, maybe more fans. You know, McGregor, I mean, he's always going to be

a sexy guy to throw in with anybody. But this is probably the last great fighter that he will have fought, and I don't know if he gave himself the best chance to win, Luke. You're talking about that fourth round or whatever round it was. Was it the fourth? I'm talking about the fourth, but...

It was the fourth, but I'm saying saying while it's easy to just say oh i didn't have the gas i don't know if he had the desire to to risk it all and try to finish him there it was it was too safe in the end it's interesting i mean he certainly regretted it in his post-fight comments he said that he thought after he heard him like that that he didn't want to just jump in because he thought colby was going to shoot on him and he didn't want to give it up. But in the end, he let the guy off the hook. And he was right about it.

He was like, it's only about a five-second window where I had to pounce. And he didn't. And he ultimately paid for it. Last thing on this, and we'll talk about the co-main event, BC. Do you think that does Masvidal's loss, it hurts his stock. But I did see an interesting wrinkle, which means people think because his relative ability has declined, that it makes a Conor fight more likely

because now Conor has a better chance against him than maybe he did previously. Agree or disagree? Absolutely. Absolutely. And a lot of people are like, well, if Masvidal is showing you at 37 that he's not of the elite level anymore,, he got pretty close in 2019. He got above it. I thought, but then, you know, why would he sign a brand new contract? Well, he's going to be so again, he's going to be so damn marketable against everybody. And it's going to go in the

predictable arc. You know what I mean? There's going to be fights in the beginning that he can win and in big fights that he's going to be a part of where he may not have a chance and it's selling his name. And then eventually he, you know, as long as he'll stay, big fights that he's going to be a part of where he may not have a chance and it's selling his name and then eventually he you know as long as he'll stay he'll he'll be a great guy to match against guys coming up that you really need to test and um i think in the in the short period luke there's a few different potential pay-per-view bangers i mean it's not just you i mean you know the nate rematch we may not have this massive appetite for it but that's that's a fan-friendly fight to make as well. It certainly is.

No doubt about it. So we'll have to see what happens next. And what about him and Poirier, Luke? No? Him and Poirier? I think they're boys. I don't think. Nah.

I mean, it could be a big fight, to your point. Yeah, but they are too close. You're right. Too close. Too close. I don't think they want it. So we'll have to see. All right.

Let's go to the co-main event, BC. Rafael dos Anjos took on Renato Moicano, Grandin Moicano, four or five days notice. Had to travel from South to North America. It was a tough assignment, and it only got worse from there. That was an absolute shellacking. Now, credit to Moicano in a level of tough that is difficult to describe.

Nearly gets stopped in the third. I couldn't believe that they came out for the fifth nearly get stopped there referee mark goddard says you got 30 seconds to turn this around before i call it but he still fought the entire 25 minutes again uh made a decent account of himself in the fifth all things considered but it was it was no way he was going to win bc should that fight have been stopped yeah it should have been it really should have been because he had already proved his point. Look, I got it wrong in predicting that Moikano would get the upset here, but what I didn't

get wrong was predicting that Moikano would, even with the challenges of this being a five-round fight on short notice, which, you know, it makes no freaking sense why this was a five-round fight under any circumstance, really. I mean, even the Nate Diaz one shouldn't have been, to be fair. Yes, there are certain mean, even the Nate Diaz one shouldn't have been, to be fair.

Yes, there are certain fights, especially number one contender fights that sometimes you do wish could have been five rounds. But this wasn't necessarily that when you add in the short notice. But even with that, Luke, I was brave enough to pick him because I felt like he knew this was his moment. So when you've got a wild horse like that, a guy that has so much pride and is willing to go through it all, the fact that they made him, to be fair, you know, you could even argue, as big of this reward would have been short notice, pay-per-view, co-main event, beating a legend like RDA,

you know, you can make a couple leaps in the rankings. Wouldn't it have even been worth it to land that Fury rally in the late fifth? And I know there's certain, you know, tougher Just Bleed fans that bleed fans that are like well see the fact that they didn't stop it you know we almost created this crazy ending and that justified it it didn't justify it the body language was in the scary mode it already been concussed and you could have stopped it i think two rounds earlier during that flurry uh where his head snapped back and And by the time we got to where the deformation of the face and the eye, and then you add in that cage side doctor. And I don't have his name at the moment, Luke, and I'm not here to, you know, absolutely

crap on him because that's a tough job. And he's been a high profile one for a while. But to just almost throw his hands in there and be like, yeah, you know, that's cool. You can do what you want, you know, to the ref and basically say, I don't really have a recommendation for you. That's really what he said without saying it And basically say, I don't really have a recommendation for you. That's really what he said without saying it. You know, I don't really care, really. You know what I mean?

You want to go with it? Go ahead. I'm going to put all the pressure on you, Mark Goddard, which it just doesn't make any sense. That's a role with deep responsibility, Luke. And he was just too ho-hum about it. And Luke, I, look, the guys on the broadcast nailed it. That fifth round flurry

from Moikano was only really possible because RDA showed humanity and took his foot off the gas and didn't want to essentially take a chunk out of Moikano's career in a fight that was already decided and I think you know I think Moikano got pissed and he could smell that and that's

why you sort of had that finish the way it was but um damn dude no this shouldn't happen luke there were there was at least three i thought can't turn away moments of it needs to be stopped right now and when you once you get up to you know one you missed it or you wanted to be an exciting fight we're up to three we're up to this guy may not see again if this keeps going i mean what are we doing i just don't understand how we get to these positions what what are people looking at where they're like, I'm not sure what to do here. He nearly gets stopped in the third.

The fourth round, for the most part, wasn't a battering up until like the very end of the fourth round, in which case he was a battering, because that was when he got sliced open and further demolished. And he goes back out for the fifth, and the doctor's looking at him and looking at him and looking at him. And I don't know what the right answer is in all these cases. I'm not a medical professional, and I'm not a licensed referee.

And I think Mark Goddard was trying to do something, because he was like, you know, the 30-second warning and whatnot. But, dude, it's just I can't believe we keep having to have these conversations event after event after event. The level of risk analysis here by corners consistently at the elite level in mixed martial arts is poor. BC, we're going to talk about it later. Choco Letito fought on DAZN over the weekend and his opponent, Martinez, I was thinking about the Pedraza fight.

But Martinez, dude, threw halfway through that fight, and by the eighth or ninth round, he's not cut. I mean, he's losing this fight pretty badly, but he's not cut. He hasn't been dropped. He's firing back at least somewhat. They consistently talk in that fight about whether it needs to be stopped. Let me explain something to you, folks. The level of abuse that Martinez took

in that fight relative to Moicano is a minute fraction, a minute fraction. And even in boxing, they were like, I don't know, man, this one's looking bad for him for different reasons. Not that it was necessarily an epic beating, but that Martinez just really had no hope for victory. MMA is a little bit different. And I understand BC making a different calculus about chances because MMA is so volatile. However, if you nearly get stopped in the third, you lost the fourth, you have just one round, the doctor's giving you the old evil eye, the referee is telling you you have 30 seconds, letting the fight continue to that point, what purpose could it possibly serve?

The guy came in on five days notice from South to North America, five-round fight, granted upperweight class or whatever it was, catchweight 160. Dude, his chances of winning that were slim to none to begin with. After the third and after the fourth,

it was infinitesimally small it is not rational or frankly all that ethical to send him back out in the fifth yeah yeah i i disagree that his chances of winning were were as low as you say because he's a extremely talented guy no he didn't get the proper training camp but like i mean and you know we saw the depths of what he's made of. And obviously that was the scary part, but I don't blame his corner, even though they were wrong because there's so much emotion built into that, that that's why we have the extra fence right around the lion cage. That's why we have the doctor and the commission and the referee. So, you know, it felt like as a, a team they failed moicano you know and that's why

there's blame to go around i don't think that's fair i guess my point is bc you've been around as long as i have we're roughly the same age man not just in boxing and mma how many times have you seen guys take fights like not exactly like this but put in situations where a fight should have been stopped and it wasn't it was brutal or whatever and then later on in their career they're like maybe it should have been stopped and a lot of times those guys don't have the money at the end moicano by the way express and clear about his need for more money his his like burning desire to finally have some big paychecks he got half of one here i don't know if the ufc took care of him in the after the fact i guess we'll have to see dana said at the press conference dana basically did a

bc without saying it with dana was like hey john nash uh yeah we're gonna we're not gonna tax him on it we're gonna give him a giant bag probably three of them just filled with cash i mean look that's what i mean not only for keeping the show on the road but good god man yeah good good and he needs time off too man the guy has taken brutal knockouts before too that's the other part it's like dude just what chance does someone have even as talented as Hanato Moikano when you've got an experienced super skilled opponent beating the fuck out of you through four rounds it's it's irrational to send them out one last thing on this piece and we'll move along which is this is the point I made on the post fight show everyone keeps saying well the corner knows them best and the corner knows them best right the corner does know them best we don't know them better than the corner but clearly it is obviously true at this

point that that knowledge of that fighter and that relationship to that fighter it is not sufficient to make more informed and credible choices about when to throw the towel and in fact it biases them in the opposite direction towards their strengths away from their weaknesses absolutely in some cases the emotions too high or just the look this is my boy a lot of you know a lot of times the father trainers are the ones that that that pull they'll throw the towel the latest right you know and there's a lot of you know it's a lot of emotion there but again that's why you have the built-in uh fence around it by the way rda luke still just a fucking legend. And the fact that he did seem to show his countrymen some mercy in round five, I mean, that's just the chef's kiss to like, that's a real man right there, Luke. And by the way, if you don't think he was showing mercy,

go look at the fourth and fifth round of what RDA did to Pettis. Let me tell you very clearly, RDA was putting his foot on the brake on this one. Last thing on RDA BC where is he in this division because that was actually a good win I mean it was you know wasn't what it's supposed to be he doesn't get the physique quality win but he did what he was supposed to where is he I would say he's in probably one of the top positions where if a you know a title opportunity falls through somebody gets you know COVID or somebody gets whatever that that he's going to be the call for emergency,

which is obviously not a bad place to be into cashing big paydays. But, you know, he said that after he'd love a title shot next, it's not what he's going to get. It depends, Luke. He's showing you that he's still in a form where you just don't need to make legend versus legend fight. Like he might be one more win away from a real title shot, not a last minute one, not a last-minute one,

not a, hey, former champion, we love the name. He's still playing. He's still in the game, Luke. So I don't want to see him against the Tony Ferguson level. I want to see him against somebody right freaking there. Off the top of your head, what would make rankings-wise the best matchup here, the smartest matchup, if you are looking at it as that way, that like, no, he's still, you know, one of the three or four best in this division at the moment?

Chandler. Chandler. Chandler is ranked fifth. He's ranked sixth. That might change a little bit. Seven is Ferguson. Eight is Hooker. You could do Hooker, but you would be going backwards at that point.

God, RDA and Chandler. Oh, eight is Hooker. You could do Hooker, but you would be going backwards at that point. RDA, Chandler, oh my God, Luke. That's like in wintertime when you step into the hot tub. Snow's coming down, and it's like, oh my God, this is going to be great, but it's so cold. And then you're like, oh shit, that's everything that I want and bc true or false that's a different fight if it's five rounds versus three rounds right that's a much more winnable fight in either direction if you expand it out to main event level yes yes that's a great point and no matter how many rounds you set it for that first one's going to be the best thing that ever happened to you, Luke.

So just get ready, all right? All right, fair enough. We go now to the feature fight of the UFC 272 main card. How about this? This guy was the biggest standout performer to me on the entire main card, Bryce Mitchell. He handled Edson Barbosa. He had a 30-26 to 30-25 on one of the cards,

and I can't say I necessarily disagree with that. BC, he went four for four on takedowns. That's the most efficient and the most takedowns Barbosa's ever given up in a UFC fight. Khabib did that, but had to get, I think, 13 attempts to do it. Now, granted, Khabib had a lot more ground and pound than he did, which explains the ability for Barbosa to move, but either way you look at it dude he made smart decisions he executed on a game plan he stayed out of trouble he took minimal damage he dropped barboza and completely controlled him on the ground dude bryce mitchell's a star is he not he just made the leap you just saw it you know and and damn he's got the motor and he's got the technique and the craft, but he's got something special in the intangibles department.

And I think that we are me personally, I own a little bit of an apology. Look that, that, that I had never interviewed him before. And that interview he did with Ariel Hawane was, you know, headline producing for a reason, Luke, it was aggressive. It was, you know, it's a man standing up for his beliefs which which you you know you may or may not have respected but it it was it allowed me and a lot of people to paint a picture of who this guy might be but yet i'd heard everyone say oh no this kid is is incredible a gentleman like you know this kid is a genuine person i think the the build-up to the fight

meaning his fight week interviews and unfortunately we didn't get the chance to connect at the end. Um, and the post fight, you know, press conference, uh, if you, if you listen to it, this is, he's an interesting human being Luke, but I think he's solid and, um, yeah, nobody, you know, there's, there's a side to him, right. But I think, you know, for, for where he needs to be emotionally to climb this ladder and take on the killers that are there, given his age and relative lack of experience against the elite level. Now we're starting to get there. Right. But, you know, relative lack of it. He's got a he's got an old soul poised to him, Luke. That is that is really a big part of why he can go in there and execute a performance like this, knowing that Barbosa is dangerous at every second. But knowing also he's have to put a pace on him to wear him out and take away that danger.

And he did it. He did it perfectly. And in Barbosa, I think you're starting to see him go right. You know, the little bit old man came out of him. Unfortunately, lack of output was really the thing,

you know, they talked about in the broadcast too comfortable to stay on his back. Some of that true, but it made it easier because Bryce Mitchell was was going for it, Luke. And, you know, got the camo trunks and and at least he's showing us that there's a few different sides to him as a person. And I think a lot of that is also what makes him a great fighter, Luke. Yeah, I mean, the guy has his own ideas about the world that don't align with mine but that's probably true you could say for almost every single UFC fighter they see the world quite differently than most of us and so you know uh that's sort of a different conversation but when it comes to the fighter I

I just don't know what people could possibly and not that he's a perfect fighter no fighter is, but that was a sensational performance, BC I had people saying that this was a set up fight for Bryce Mitchell, are you fucking people insane? Number one they were ranked 10th and 11th so by virtue of just that I think Mitchell was the 11th by the way

so just by virtue of that you often see guys who are right next to each other paired, moreover let me explain something to you. If you think that never before in UFC history have so many fighters routinely declined fights, we have it on pretty good authority that it's now more than ever. And so that makes it difficult to find fights. Now, I don't know exactly the origin of this one, how much they had to play games with it. But BC, while I grant, I'm in complete agreement with you that Barboza definitely showed some signs of age and a little bit of shop warningness but the point is

in terms of the level of ability it was clear that bryce had not fought someone as credentialed who has was as battle tested against the very best before even if there may have been on paper some stylistic advantages that's why you didn't get a finish it's actually hard to do that against a guy like barbosa even though some have the point i'm trying to make here is bc this idea that like he was gifted an opponent to look good in is fucking stupid no and i mean totally insane did you hear the sound of those first couple leg strikes that barbosa opened the first round with that mitchell afterwards was like look my game plan was to check those and after that first one there you know there was not going to be a need to ever try that Mitchell afterwards was like, look, my game plan was to check those. And after that first one there, you know, there was not going to be a need to ever try that again. I mean, like,

like that was just do this. Come on. But again, Bryce Mitchell had to show us that he actually is looking to be potentially a great fighter in order to control somebody like Barbosa like that. Cause if he wasn't that good Barbosa's in that fight and you know probably has a conversation on the scorecards at the end of it I absolutely agree with that speaking of Barbosa this is probably I don't know if any one fight BC represents the end I mean there's no end until he decides to hang him up but what I'm trying to say is you look at this performance, you look at the move down to 145.

I just, he wanted to go to 145 to get a title. And Jose Aldo went down to 135 and obviously is in a very different circumstance down there. I appreciate that Edson Barboza has wrung out the sponge to get all the water in it. But BC, I think it's out of water. The idea at this point that he can make a title push at 145, I just don't think there's any evidence for it. Now, that doesn't mean he has to retire tomorrow or he's some kind of scrub.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying if your goal is title, I just don't see a viable path for it. No, no, it's not going to happen. And look, this was that opponent that was coming up that was going to tell us that. And we learned it. And it is what it is and you know it's like he's not retiring tomorrow but i often think of like what would what is the legacy of a guy like this like he's so damn well respected

barbosa because he's fought everybody and he's always been game as shit i mean that seriously that beating he took against abib luke like that was one of those like is this necessary should we keep you know what i mean like that was just ridiculous but reinventing his body reinventing his game if he wanted to just uh keep doing it because he loves it and you know maybe bank the biggest paydays you could probably get which is what happens when you build a name at the end of your run um moving back up to lightweight there's a there's a lot of fun action fights you can make luke if you really wanted to and you can take take an easier fight brian special's a lot of fun action fights you can make, Luke, if you really wanted to. And take an easier fight. Bryce Mitchell's a tough fight. Don't take fights like that.

Take an easier fight. Because Barboza can still beat guys at this level. That seems to me true, but just not guys like Bryce Mitchell. That is not true. Can I say something, Luke? I just want to see your reaction. Maybe I'm a genius, or maybe you're just like all right bc you know you're a lot of talk and and edson barbosa versus conor mcgregor at lightweight

it's fun it's fun it's fun barbosa's barbosa's you know he could get tagged with the big punch that's the only thing for him there but the leg kicks there's a lot of fun fights for connor connor never has a shitty fight right never that didn't make you didn't get horned up from that that did that was that was like of all the possible choices that's not my top five see that's so interesting so that's like a like an eastern eastern european woman on instagram you're all right, for some people, maybe. You know, BC, maybe. But, you know, give me that LBB. You know what I'm saying?

Yes, the old LBB, the famous LBBs. Okay, last thing on Bryce Mitchell, BC. Here's one thing I just want to point out. A lot of times we get these characters in MMA from all different parts of the world and all different parts of the country, and people love them for their character. And you should, if that's a thing that appeals to you

or not, if not, whatever, you can make a choice. But the one thing that should be put on Bryce Mitchell, again, as a fighter, you better put some respect on him, not just because he's good. He has a very modern skill set. He's not just out there winning with old farm strength and determination.

No, he's winning with the very best practices of modern grappling, changing up between upper and lower body takedowns, chaining them together, advancing to mount, working through all these things, but what the very best guys are doing in terms of best practices. I'm not saying he's the best grappler, but I'm saying his game much more closely mirrors

what the very best are doing than what all the other guys are doing, and I hope people understand that. Did you just take a shot at brock lesnar did i did i did i pull that hair out of the soup luke did you uh i think you're just inventing things i mean come on luke you know i'm saying like don't don't don't be smirch that guy luke i mean that penis tattoo sword on his chest it's coming for you luke okay yeah i'm desperately concerned all right for the rest of the ufc 272 card we'll have it on extra credit here after the show number four bc chocolatito got back to action against julio cesar martinez via unanimous decision now first things

first chocolatito 34 years old this was on the zone boy he beat the fucking brakes off of Martinez I give credit BC to Martinez for trying to put rallies together especially in that 12th round not even rallies but maybe just flurries you know just to just to kind of fight back a little bit with whatever way he could but dude this was a master craftsman behind the wheel of a steamroller and there was nothing Martinez could do a how impressed were you and b what specifically does this win set up for Gonzalez which is chocolate yeah to answer your final question first is just to say like this shows he certainly still got it at 34 but this gets him right back to what this fight should have been, which is, you know, a monster fight, the trilogy with Juan Francisco Estrada for all the belts there, or maybe even a third dance with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.

Now that Chuck Latito is, it's just in a different place. Now this, this twilight tour, I told you ahead of time, you know, watch this fight and, and savor it,

savor what this man is giving us at a time in a career where, where in this division you're, you're, you're done, you know? And the fight was great to watch, even though it became one sided, the spirit that, that Martinez shows,

they were talking up his, his like elementary school playground fight ability. And that's how he got his nickname, the iron boy, dude, he still fights with that same exact spirit they're like yeah all of his classmates were like he's made iron we can't keep him away from from just mauling us and tearing us to pieces dude he's reckless he's the form he

throws is all over the place but he brought the the huevos even though he had a lot of weight problems that almost canceled this fight um and you you know, you have to wonder if he was extra drained. Even though he's the guy moving up in weight from 112 to 115, you wonder if the next morning weigh-in he had to do to keep this fight from getting canceled just zapped him out even more. But he was going to be game, but it was also going to be the perfect canvas for Chocolatito to show us his artistry. Luke, he's not as quick as he used to be.

His power isn't as massive here at this weight class, Chocolatito, as it was in the smaller weight classes, although he can still thump. Tell me if I'm wrong. Dude, he's a joy to behold. This is an artist. This guy's... His craft, timing, technique,

IQ, I mean, it's... He's just a classy dude. A proud Nicaraguan, a classy dude. Like, I love this man. Remember when Tommy Heinsohn would be like, I love Walter, talking about Walter McCarty, boner from here to Hanover, Mass, Luke? I got that for Chocolatito right now, okay? I'm rock hard with emotion.

I love this man. I don't quite feel these same sexual urges however what i would say is i share all of the general enthusiasm dude if you are an mma fan and you have access to this fighter you're a dazone customer you are only cheating yourself if you don't watch nobody loses except you if you don't see this guy he is beyond special. And again, as BC indicated, he's not even necessarily, in fact, he's pretty much post-prime at this point, but he's still so good,

you just can't believe it. Watch how many times, BC, he actually pushes Martinez back and forces Martinez constantly out of position loosely. So when he's even throwing those flurries, there's nothing behind it because he has no stable structure. Meanwhile, the Sergio Martinez the commentator talk constantly about the footwork and the balance of uh of Gonzalez dude he is constantly in he is in good position putting his opponents out of good position forward pressure angles the whole nine yards and dude I've never seen a guy that's never I haven't seen a guy in a long time stand, guard like this, right in front of his opponent, motherfucker, right in front of his opponent,

and make them miss constantly. We're not talking making guys miss at mid-range. I'm talking making guys miss at close range, at phone booth range. And he did it over and over, and then would counter offense on top of it. Dude, Martinez, this fight turned at the 44 second mark of the first round and Chocolatito never looked back if you don't watch this guy you have only yourself to blame you are missing out on a master craftsman yeah who can still do elite work and if you get thirsty for more watch the Estrada rematch from last year

arguably the fight of the year and watch those two fights with uh sirisa kent so wrong beside that first one a thriller of a bloodbath but uh luke great to see him get his moment let's make the big fights let's keep it going all right point number five the other boxing event took place on friday night interestingly this one didn't have maybe quite as much buzz but ended up being a much more competitive affair than i think even you and i thought bc so jose ram, he did get the win, that part win as expected over Jose Pedraza. However, I would say it was pretty competitive. Pedraza was game.

Ramirez had enough tricks, BC, to get it done, true or false. So answer that one for me. And then tell me, does this performance to you inspire confidence about his chances to reclaim a belt at 140? It really does. But what I love about it, and it's really, it's perfect that this is who Jose Ramirez is because he's so honest and humble and hardworking

and, you know, all those superlatives. Like the guy you want, like, growing up in the house next to you or to date your daughter. Like, he puts that off and it's he had to kind of walk through some stuff like this was a close competitive fight it's him purposely not not accepting a soft match you know he's going right back in there gets a top contender after you know 10 months gone lose his first loss getting kind of handled in a close fight by a guy who just proved in josh taylor to be that much better than him uh we were asking a lot of him and not only was this fight great to watch and I'll get into that in a second Ramirez having to get hurt briefly a couple times having to make

so many key adjustments and then Pedraza damn you got to give this guy credit coming on in rounds 11 and 12 and while Ramirez did feel the heat, the way he closed round 11 after getting tagged up early, like, yeah, Luke with Josh Taylor exiting this division, he might be the guy right now that now the titles will end up having to be sort of vacated and go off into different directions in the galaxy. And we'll have to start all over again at rebuilding matchups and trying to

get back to an undisputed champion. But I wonder in some mythical pound for pound ranking of those who are at 140 right now, not necessarily counting the guys that we think are moving up soon. Ryan Garcia, Tank Davis. I think I like him. Number one,

again, just slightly above Regis pro gray. Wow. You know, a couple other very strong names that are, that are, that are still here and, or,

and again, that are coming because Luke, the difference still here and, or, and again, that are coming because Luke, the difference between, Oh, sorry. My, my closing point about the humility after the fight for him to say, look,

I'm not gonna lie to you. I got nervous for this fight. Like it, you know, in, in this guy packs that arena in Fresno and he represents the people of that Valley hardworking Valley and it embodies them. And,

you know, they pack that arena. That, that was a big time fight atmosphere it embodies them. And, you know, they packed that arena. That was a big-time fight atmosphere. And he admitted, Luke, you know, it was threatening to be too much pressure for me to come back and improve it all over again. And the way he did prove it, though, Luke, he's known for kind of being responsible,

but being kind of straight ahead behind his high guard, and then he's creative with the combinations. He's adding so much more to his game. And you can see it. And he's got one of the best trainers in the game in Robert Garcia. But there was much more layers to what he does. For half the fight, he made Pedraza the natural counterpuncher sort of come at him, which was brilliant because Ramirez would close the distance with pressure, but then hang

there and counter Pedraza. And then, you know, no counter puncher likes to be consistently countered. And it was a constant sort of switch game of them making each other adjust, but Ramirez's adjustments were better. This was a competitive and close fight, but he's still the guy, Luke, I saw arguably the best version of him, even though he had to overcome a little, you know, he had to, he had to shake off a few big punches late in the later rounds. Yeah. I don't have much to add to that, except I thought the exact same thing as you.

It was Pedraza gave a really good account of himself, but fighting. If you go back and look at the highlights, for example, you just consistently or play it fast forward. What you'll consistently see is, you know, with obviously a couple of exceptions here or there,

long stretches of the fight with Pedraza along the ropes. And he did impressive work there, BC, I thought, given the circumstances. I just thought if Ramirez is going to be able to back you up, even if there are some counter-punching opportunities there or whatever, and he did have his own moments, that was just too much of a metaphorical and literal back foot to beat Ramirez. That was not the best game plan to beat Ramirez,

or at least not the one that I thought he could have. Yeah, I don't think that was a winning strategy beginning to end. However, the success he had with it was still quite admirable ultimately. I just thought Ramirez did enough of the dance leading to have Pedraza follow, and that made the difference over time. Is that a fair assessment? Yes, it is. And this was a Jose Pedraza fight, which means like it's so hard not to fall in love with him as a fighter

because he's so smart and calculated and sneaky. And, you know, he embodies that nickname of the sniper and his counter punching ability and he's game as heck. But Luke, as you sort of warned coming in he does sort of level out when he faces the you know elite level competition and in some of those fights you want you only you know he's one it's like you're he's one of those guys like man

if he just did a little bit more if he was a little bit more busy and active right but i think what makes it frustrating to watch him is he's so damn elite or close to elite in a few different categories. But every time he tries to be great, he finds out he's just short of that. He's a very good fighter with some great tendencies. But, man, he can't get over that highest hump. And he made Ramirez work, and he was still landing big shots late like we talked about. And I thought Andre Ward was very critical of his strategy, but very fair too.

It was a very good night on the mic from Andre. But this was the perfect test. I mean, this is a tough ass test, but Ramirez passed it. Luke, I want to say one more thing. It's easy to think Ramirez is overrated, and I fell for that for a long time because he doesn't have fight ending power, and he's not like a pure boxer.

He's sort of this aggressive hybrid of smart boxing under the pressure fighter category but his intangibles his iq he's really fucking good i mean like you know he he's ready right now to get right back on the horse uh so i can't wait to see what happens these were uh to your point i like the point you made which was he he didn't necessarily change a shit ton round to round. It was tiny little adjustments about what kind of space to give, what punch to select, when to throw, what set up to use,

yada, yada, yada. And so on in there. And he had to slowly implement it against the Pedraza who was also trying to play that game with him. This was a real, I mean,

we always overuse this constantly, but that was a real chess match, man. That was a real chess match where these guys constantly having it was one move after the other right it was that close to being my favorite type of fight high speed chess it was more in that category it wasn't an all-action fight but there were great adjustments great skill toughness crowd environment this was a very fun i was entertained as heck watching this so uh a shout out to everybody involved there.

All right. That is it for our top five. It is now time for you to ask us questions. It is time for DMs from the diggity. Don't we do these every Monday? You can email us a morning combat at gmail.com of course, but that will actually, that's for Wednesdays and Fridays.

We put up a post on Instagram. Excuse me. We put up a post on Instagram. Excuse me. We put up a post on Instagram every Sunday. Morning comment on Instagram. And then the producers pick five of those questions. All right, BC, here we go first. At the underscore or underscore the Gibsonator, another underscore. If Dustin Poirier beats Covington at 170, does that put him in a title fight?

I guess, BC, I guess. 100%. That's the formula for how a star navigates the UFC, you know, political matchmaking pay-per-view scheme. Like, that's the best way to do it, right? Yeah, I mean, Colby Covington's, he's still the number one contender, Luke, you know? Okay, gun to your head.

No BS, gun to your head. Does Poirier take that fight? Like, make a call. No. No, does he accept it or win it? Which one do you ask? Does he accept it? So I'm glad you brought that back up

because I meant to make this point earlier. I like what you said. Oh, maybe he would just say F you, Colby, and not give him the payday in the fight and the opportunity to sort of, you know, be a bastard and do it on a large scale against his wife and child. Uh, but I think it comes down to what are Poirier's options in the moment. If Poirier has a bigger pay-per-view fight to make, he's going to make it. But I think Poirier would be willing to do it knowing that there's real, you know,

real necessary motivation in there to want to punch this guy right in the damn face. And also it's going to move, it's going to make him money and that's i think where poirier is not in some selfish you know way but you know he's a he's a humanitarian in a lot of ways too but i think that's what he's chasing big fish if colby's the biggest fish of the moment i think he takes it luke i do think though the the concerns you showed about how bad of a matchup is for the for poirier are are legit absolutely legit i mean he's colby's bigger, and then Dustin was joking on Twitter the other day about some pain that I think was like some tweet had gone viral, like, giving birth is the most pain a human can suffer,

and he quoted it and be like, you ever been choked out from the back twice in two title fights? You know, just sort of saying like the pain of that, not like the literal pain, but the significance of it really bothered him. Yeah. You know, you would imagine Colby's not like the literal pain but the significance of it really bothered him yeah you know you would imagine colby's not like demi and meyer from the back but he can get there and he can threaten with it oh no man it's a bad fight for you our producer mikey mormel reminded me that dustin did give that comment where he said he wouldn't let colby

make money off of him and that he would fight colby outside of the ring for free and you know and i get that this is something that rightfully Dustin as a man is like, no, F you, but I also think he's a businessman, Luke. So that's the point of that. From at custom props one, would it benefit the UFC to make more non-title pay-per-view main events with their stars like Diaz, Masvidal, and Conor, and then stack pay-per-view cards with multiple low-selling champions.

In other words, make three title fight pay-per-views with low-selling pay-per-view champions. What do you think? All right, so what he's specifically asking, and it's not that we don't ever see non-title pay-per-views, it's just rare in this era, right? It used to be a thing that happened a lot more when there weren't as many options

or weight divisions or what have you but um specifically putting non-title attractive fight pay-per-views grudge matches whatever have you all action fights and putting title fights below it yeah i think that would be a smart move and they've gone what they've gone against that right they never want to you know the title fight always has to be a top at the end so that's the part it's like from a commercial standpoint would it make sense to put let's just make something up uh diaz masvidal too put that at the top of the card and then put somebody like shevchenko who is obviously well respected but not like the biggest sales uh store make a ton of sense it would make a and it's surprising they don't already do that

because they make a lot of decisions that we debate on this show whether that was controversial or not fair or whatever they the business always wins out luke you know they always figure out what's best for business in a very mcmahon like way you know what i'm saying that's all true i don't disagree but here's where i'm at bc it's like dude what's wrong with the ufc business in terms of their ability to succeed? Basically nothing. They're killing it. If anything, they're a monopoly, right?

They're bordering on it, depending on one's perspective. They are the 800-pound gorilla in this industry times 1,000. So the question you have to ask yourself is, what is it to be gained by doing that? Yes, there is something to be gained. And it's not even to say that if they did a Diaz-Masvidal 2 and then Shevchenko as the co-main or something that Shevchenko wouldn't also benefit.

But there also is something to be said for respecting weight class champions and giving them their due as people where, yes, we might suffer a little bit on the sales end by how we position who's on cards and where, but we are going to honor what these champions mean to us by giving them preeminent billing. I would hate to lose out on that. I could understand this argument if the business was suffering,

but they're killing it, so why do that? With that ESPN deal alone, this is pretty much a non-starter, right? Of course they make aggressive pay-per-view main event decisions to make the matchups even like that's why you would see olivera mcgregor for example you know this year if if the stars align or what have you i mean it's why it would make a lot of sense but um yeah they don't need to and i and i miss those days do you true or false luke and dana is what he is what he is i mean dana's is dana white is entertaining as shit Whatever you want to say about him,

when he's on the microphone, it's a thing. You watch it. Of course, that's part of why he's so successful. I don't know where I was going with that, Luke. I fell right off the side of the cliff. All right. Did you take the eighth Delta flight on the way here? I wish I did,

though. I wish I i get the extra leg room to uh find my find my brain again but uh you know hey we had a good run we had a great run for as long as it lasted bc from at tj underscore padro padro do you guys believe jalen turner could be a contender at 155 seems like he is huge for the division. So far has looked great on the scale and is just effing people up. Think he's a problem for a lot of guys. BC, his wins to date, he has two losses to Luque and Frivola. The Frivola one was by

decision. He got finished by Luque, but he has a win on the contender series. Callan Potter, Joshua Cooley-Bow, then it starts to turn up a little bit. Brock Weaver, and then his last two, Uro Shmedich, who is very good, and then of course this last one jamie malarkey what do you think bc um i think i remember what i was going to say about taking a white luke that um it's a great show i think i just forgot again luke yeah yeah we're on a great we're on we're

on we're on a great i was gonna say did you miss did you miss the old hungry desperate dana that's what i was gonna ask did you miss the guy that still would do some questionable things but it was about elevating the sport and the brand and like do you miss that guy it's like there's still a good part of that guy in there of course i mean they're they're monstrously successful but he's not fueled by that anymore luke he's still fueled by fuck you but not exactly like that yeah not exactly like let's make the sport look the best in all circumstances you know i had five red bulls this morning kind of thing uh that part is probably missing but dude if you've had this much success it's just not possible to maintain that kind of you know

fucking game seven bottom of the damn right and you'll burn the shit out too you'll burn luke i have moments where i burn out too i'm like man i yeah you know i can't i can't keep this up at this level can i and then you know are we the dana and lorenzo is that who we are why why do the do the uh no i won't make that joke i can't i can't make that joke they'd remove me all right luke uh you asked me about jalen turn. The tarantula looked fantastic. What was the spirit of the question? Is he a future title challenger? Is that what you're asking?

Yeah, what do you think? What's his upside, basically? Stop sitting on your aeroplan points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in aeroplan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out.

Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at AirCanada.com. Conditions apply. This fight was a great step forward in extending that luke i'm not fully convinced yet but this is like oh he's not just some attraction now because his nickname is tarantula he's got weird spiders crawling all over the the videos that we see luke the guy is guys actually talented and explosive but you are seeing the techniques start to come together the game planning he's on his way there luke i still want to see him prove me prove me right though yeah exactly here's the thing he is 26 years old

26 let's pump the brakes everybody we don't have to rush him anywhere i'm not saying that the the spirit of the question necessarily says that but anytime we're like oh man this young guy looks really good we're all of a sudden like well who could he beat he can probably be beat lots of guys but let's get him to a point where he is doing it systemically he is doing it carefully he is doing in a planned and coordinated manner because if you ask me these wins that he has they're nice but he does have those two losses granted to a very very very good vicente luque and that was you know in 2018 four years ago and the the case but I was gonna say the case of his last two no those were much better opponents and he dispatched with both of them as well so it's the last two that tells you he's really beginning to turn the corner but BC you know we still need to see a little bit more of him tested later in fights what happens if guys

don't fall into traps and he's in the third round what does his cardio look like he's 26 so he looks awesome but there's a lot of time left before we really have to ask broader questions about that was an aggressive opponent who who brought a little out of him so it was good to see that for sure luke uh what can the fans hope for on um extra credit today jalen turner we're going to talk about we're going to talk about kevin holland as well kevin holland quietly had a very good performance, albeit it took a little while to get going, but once he did, he was all in.

We're going to talk about Sergei Spivak, Marina Rodriguez, lots of folks, so be on the lookout for that later today. All right, at underscore, why, did you have a question? No, I just like to advertise our stuff. I want people to buy it. I'm not going to watch it. I'm people to buy it. You know, so I want, you know, I'm not going to watch it. I'm sure it's going to be great, though. You know what?

I actually believe you this time. All right. BC, this one's all for you. How does Tim Zoo do in his American debut? And do you see little brother Nikita's pro debut? Nikita will be making a brief appearance in Have You Seen This Shit? very shortly. There are reports out there, Luke, that Tim Zhu's gonna

headline a Showtime card against Terrell Gaucher. I know that Showtime is gonna unveil the full schedule this week, and you see some of these potential reports or whispers, and it's looking strong, but dude, this is Tim Zhu's moment.

I mean, that's a tough opponent, and it's tough to do this, to fly over. But this is the right time to do it. Let's make it an event. Let's make it a spectacle. And, yeah, I think you've got to favor him to win. I think he's going to show you what he has in the moment. I just can't wait to see what Terrell Gauthier makes him show, because, you know, that guy can – there's a couple times where times where like you thought he was better and he found a plateau but then there's

other times where you know gaucher let his hands go and he's got that amateur background like no man that guy has a tough ass out so this is a great matchup in that regard where we're going to find that out but if i'm going to guess whether tim zoo shines or not right now the stocks on tim zoo shining let me ask you real quick for for folks who are more familiar with his father and they may not know too much about Tim Zou, give me like the 22nd pitch. What is it about Tim Zou that excites you so much? Well, first of all, just the way he attacks to the body with the left hand and the hooks is impressive and aggressive and it stands out and his dad was a boxer puncher but a guy who can bang but his dad was a little bit more on his toes darting in and

out tim's solid and i don't i mean that not only in the stance in the way that he attacks works behind the jab very very good technique but um his temperament luke is is seems to be uh something special there. And that's not a surprise if you grew up as the son of a Hall of Famer and you probably traveled with him and idolized him and went to every event. I mean, this should feel normal for you. And it seems to feel very normal for him. And sometimes that doesn't matter in the end.

And sometimes that gives you a reason to be so confident when you haven't seen him prove it yet. And then last but not least, we see, at RossRusty, did you guys see the new Batman movie? And also, which is both of your favorite Batman movies? BC, what do you think? I did not see this new one, Luke, have you? That everyone's talking about?

No, I had Violetta duty by myself. My entire family is in columbia well my one side oh yeah dude so and you saw that when you had your technical meltdown this morning i think it was very fueled by by poor sleep and over parenting it was like yeah i've not slept much in a few days so i'm like like i was i wouldn't have been surprised if you were like you fucking kids listen to me you know i mean i wouldn't have been surprised if you were like you fucking kids listen to me you know i mean just been like you know i mean you were like daddy pants and gaffing me but that's fine i'm sorry bc i'm sorry bc i was i was frustrated i was frustrated okay i

apologize formally i mean that uh your favorite batman movie is what dude you remember we did the homework on mk mk kovat homework on uh the first dark night luke yes or did we do it on the second one i think it was the first one was with the scarecrow second one was with uh was it uh yeah because i had seen the second one was the the heath ledger joker the second one that one luke that one is untouchable but i haven't seen them all and i'm not like an aficionado so i'm just kind of talking about outside my ass a little but my ass has been been places so luke yeah i mean i'm not yeah am i yeah wow hey what happened to the twitter account morning combat no context because that would have been

perfect for that yeah yeah okay sometimes we stumble into a hole like baby jessica luke and you know it happens right that's a deep damn that's a deep people know the baby jessica reference these are like 80s and 90s kids references that we all did that i don't think any of our fucking audience knows yeah i was gonna say for i will say that's why that's why they haven't shut me down for those john bonnet jokes luke that's why okay nobody know where you get so many more nobody knows like john bonnet who's that was that some kind of french waiter who is that uh what i was gonna say was bc two things one i've not seen the movie although i find it weird that every new generation tries to make batman darker and grittier than the last one. It's like, you don't have to do that, but okay.

I'm with you. The Heath Ledger Dark Knight is probably the best one. I will say, honorable mention to all of the animated Batman movies, and there was one that was done by a Japanese firm that makes, it sort of does like, it's like an alternate reality where Batman and Joker are in like 19th japan and they're shoguns and uh samurais and they're sort of fighting for control that one was actually weird but very interesting and cool so check that one out and um and fast and the furious tokyo drift i think was

the best one so i'm not i don't i'm not surprised look okay you know what i'm saying dude i mean that was that was a great movie, dude. That was a great movie. Is there anyone on Earth who, A, likes the Fast and the Furious movies in a real way, and B, passed high school algebra? Does that Venn diagram overlap at all? Does it have a January 6th connection?

Oh, all right. I don't know about that, Luke. All right, can we show shit yet? Yeah, let's show your shit, BC. We're done. What connection? Oh, all right. I don't know about that, Luke. Can we show shit yet? Yeah, let's show your shit, BC. We're done. What you got? All right. We scour the globe, the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly,

the in-between in combat, sports, and beyond. This one's called, Have You Seen This Shit? You know who is back from the park and banging on my door. I don't know if you can hear it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You hear that? She's like, I need to see Uncle Gringo's glasses now.

That's a good deterrent, Luke, right? You should send all of her prospective boyfriends to me over Zoom. Yes, yes. I can't believe this is the state of my life. Mia Moore, I'm working. Yeah, all right. Hey, Luke, we start at UFC 272 in Las Vegas. Cowboy Oliveira getting his johnny walker on

in the prep point i know cowboy's done this before luke but um i'll tell i could tell you with with with probably a good deal of accuracy he fucks look you know what i'm saying doesn't he have like 79 000 children or something i don't know but that's uh who was it dude who was the guy who played for the jets was it cromarty who had like 10 kids or whatever yeah yeah that's a that's a yeah that's a yeah he's the he's the chromarty of the of the ufc just like a fuckload of kids man he's got a white condoms you'll be talking kevin holland on extra credit but after this hold on hold on i mean this is a stupid fucking one here we go oh boy oh boy you want to make a bunch of noise come on oh you're coming on hey tuki if you're coming on come on come here come here come say hi to everyone that you're interrupting my day i love you very much

come say hi oh you don't want to say hi look how sad she is hey Tuki Tuki Tuki you want to see Uncle Gringo's glasses again she hates you bro yeah alright

oh there she is Luke Luke. That's great. Go ahead. We got, yeah, yeah. We don't have child abuse on Have You Seen This Shit this week, so we should be good, Luke. You want me to beat you up? You want to go to the park? Splash pad, Luke.

She wants the splash pad. Let's keep going with the show. I'm sorry about this, BC. I have just no choice because there's no control over godzilla there's there's a wow wow uh luke kevin holland got put in a uh choke at the end of round one i've never seen this before like no no i'm good i'm good luke i'm good the arm was an arm in rear naked choke those can work by the way but it's very difficult yeah kevin holland always always showing you that, that the swagger. I like it. He was so swaggery Luke that after his victory, he did.

He pulled the tie to Yvonne or no, it pulled the Derek Lewis. Excuse me. Put some respect on that and removed his cop and, and, and tossed it to a, to a lucky fan Luke. That is beyond disgusting. I mean, what are these people doing? I'm going to drink out of your shoe and then breathe out of your cup. I mean, if, if, doing? I'm going to drink out of your shoe and then breathe out of your cup. I mean, if I was going to say if somebody gifted you that,

knowing that you're a huge UFC fan, like if Tony Ferguson, Luke, remember when Tony – I'll be back. No mas. I can't. This is just – it's just what is happening with my – No, no, no. Okay. All right.

I mean, we're stuck here. I'm stuck here. This has been my weekend. I'm stuck here. i'm stuck here this is my this has been my weekend i'm stuck here yeah okay okay look uh this is i haven't i haven't slept this is what i've been doing for 72 hours yeah yeah you know i forgive you for yeah this is uh okay all right luke um i don't know if we're appropriate anymore but uh lu, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. Did you see Tim Elliott hold the glove of Tagir Ulambekov, which really pissed off Coach Habib, Luke? Yeah, dude, that's insane. I mean, you can grab the glove, obviously, on the top of it, and you can grab your own glove, which people don't realize you can't grab someone else's glove like that.

That's what Joel Romero did to Tim Kennedy. This is part of the Hainato Moikicano ending luke where he he got pretty angry i believe tell me if i'm wrong that moicano who threw blood all over and vehemently pushed back the uh the cut man and the commission members um i think he was mad that he thought rda was taking it easy on him luke and he didn't want to get embarrassed that way he He wanted to be, he's like, you know, end me. You know what I'm saying? It was very Obi-Wan episode four at the end, Luke. It was more like Anakin at the end of episode four, to be honest with you.

Anakin was Vader at four, Luke, okay? Oh, at four, yes. What am I saying? I'm in at three. Sorry about that. All right. All right. Hey, Lukeke let's keep it going brian boom keller friend of the show did not get the win against good lord uh another new margaret medoff who looks like a future champion but he did get

the spinning back fist bump from bruce buff for your thoughts luke let's see um that stuff's a little played out to me the fighters love it and i guess if they love it that's great i don't seem to think it's all that interesting okay okay luke uh real okay uh luke real is gonna recognize real even backstage at ufc 272 here's a nfl and partying legend michael irvin posing with kamaru usman uh lu Luke, we couldn't last 10 minutes in Michael Irvin's after-hours world in the 1990s, Luke. I don't think we could last 10 minutes in his after-world now. No, no, no.

I mean, can you imagine the kind of parties and the things he's seen and done? Everyone's like, why is he so happy all the time? I don't know. He's lived a marvelous life, and he's wealthy. I mean Everyone's like, why is he so happy all the time? I don't know. He's lived a marvelous life and he's wealthy. I mean, wouldn't you be? Got a great TV job. Yeah. Kind of like an ambassador

to the sport. Yeah. Revered hero of America's most popular game. There it is, Luke. All right. DAZN Boxing from San Diego. Luke, just three months after the life-threatening motorcycle crash and spine surgery. Shout out to ring announcer David Diamante returning to work way faster

than I thought was possible. Well done, sir. Didn't he break like seven or eight major bones or something? I guess not. I don't know what happened to him. I mean, he turned this around insanely quick, so a lot of determination in that fellow. So congrats.

Luke, on this card, unbeaten Diego Pacheco with a brutal KO2 of Jank Pilana. Did you see this shit, Luke? Only on replay, yes. Oh, my God. Oh, golly. That was some Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrison shit on the way down. Damn. He had his hands down, and this dude just let him have it, right?

He steps in. Let's see what he's going to do. He faints, goes over the top, and then steps through, almost switches stances with the left hook. Yeah, he collided. But, Luke, on the same card, this one might even be better. Did you see Mauricio Bronco Lara, who, of course, had that two-fight series and that upset of Josh Warrington,

beating the buzzer to end the round to finish off Emilio Sanchez. I did see this one. This one made the highlights too. And this one could have been... I was surprised... I mean, look at this. He hangs on here and then this dude just lets him. Look at that body punching.

Good lord. Alright, I'll walk you down. Yep, finish him. Bop, bop, bop. Oh, God. All right, I'll walk you down. Yep, finish him. Bop, bop, bop. Oh, shit, dude. Dude, that's got to be the KO of the year. Holy crap. Dude, it happens in MMA a little bit less so, a little bit more in boxing,

but these ones where they fall backwards but their knees are in front, like they're the knees over toes guy that is that is that is always a vicious knockout uh gaff can we go full screen here we talked about the legend chocolatito roman gonzalez and my love for him let's just admire his work for a second no not only the soft footwork but that you know he won't even always throw full speed luke to get off these four or five punch combinations and everything is accurate and he's moving and he's never i mean just a master and dude watch how often he put again watch how often he's in position and how often he pushes like this martinez out of position even if he doesn't land he pushes him out great shit great shit from the legend here luke let's

go to the hardwood rough moment for uh former nba player shabazz muhammad on this breakaway in the filipino basketball league oh boy that's uh yeah i mean you're not supposed to wear our free throw shooting contest it's not more glorious than this yeah yeah you're not supposed to wear the cedric sabalis blindfold during the game luke. That's not good at all. Alright. Hey, what a week for Canelo Alvarez. The first face-off, Luke, of his May 7th

light heavyweight title bout with Dimitri Bivol came out at the kickoff presser in San Diego. And Luke, you can see the very legitimate size difference as we talked about. Bivol a very legit 175 or unbeaten great boxer, but this is stylistically

going to be a very interesting challenge. Bivol, to me, a little bit smaller than Kovalev. I thought Kovalev was taller than Canelo in ways that Bivol was not. Obviously, Bivol's bigger, right? But wasn't Kovalev a lot taller? A lot taller,

but he chose to box to stay safe rather than punch against Canelo, which was Kovalev's calling card, which made that fight. So kind of weird, but yet a great victory for Canelo. Also, Luke, let's go to the sound here.

You remember I had Oscar De La Hoya on this show and you can listen to that interview at youtube.com slash morning combat. And he did say, yeah, you know, the Canelo Ryan Garcia beef, we're gonna settle in the ring one day three to four years from now at 165 pounds they asked big red luke

oscar del hoyo said that you and ryan garcia could potentially fight in the future just that's yucking he's yoking look that they're just that's just just yoking but uh um canelo's a badass hey don't yoke about that my my wife talks just like that so it's it's all right bro it's good daddy janky is one of my favorites daddy janky old here's old yakis yogurt and look at these two uh these two boxing lovers here promoter eddie Hearn putting his arm around Canelo. This is totally aimed at Oscar. This could be us, but you play him, right? Yeah.

Eddie Hearn is tall as shit, by the way. Dude, he's 6'7". People forget that. He's a dashing gentleman, Luke. Like I said. He's tall as fuck. Yeah, he is. All right.

And finally, Canelo exiting the parking lot in his 2019 Bugatti Chiron, which he purchased, Luke, for $3.04 million. Now, BC, is this nicer than my 2015 Mazda CX-5? By a bit, Luke. I mean, good. What does it do? Does it fly? You paid $3 million for it, Luke. What the hell does it do?

Does it have a slushy machine in it? I mean, come on. Dude, I mean... My wife one time... You can do this. You can pay to drive a luxury automobile around a racetrack. Have you ever done that? I haven't, but it sounds fun as crap. It sounds fun

as balls, except... This is before the weight game, too, by the way. I couldn't fit in a McLaren. I was too tall for the McLaren. So they put me in... What did they put me in like a porsche uh i think dude driving one of those cars versus the shit they sell on the side of the road at some dealership they're not even in the same league of machine it's it's a completely different experience i can only imagine i mean you like by rule, don't you have to get blown if you're driving this car?

Like, I think that's just a rule. I think that's the law. I mean, look, the package is very Luke in terms of the accessories, but I think that is the, uh,

I need you off of that. I need surround sound. I need, uh, Yokohama tires and I need to get blown consistently. Yeah. I mean, for 3 million Luke, you Luke, it might be justified.

All right. Hey, Luke, some people don't have that money. In fact, some can't afford a can opener, Luke, but no can opener, no problem for this legend of the game. There you go. Yeah, this man isn't a hero, and if they haven't given him the Congressional Medal of Honor, I don't know why.

I don't understand it, but wow, right? That dude has definitely seen some crazy shit in his life. Yeah, absolutely. Where was this? I don't know. I don't know the details. I want to have him on the show, Luke, to be fair. All right?

There it is. There it is right there. All right, Luke, can I ask you a personal question? Have you ever surfed before? Poorly. All right. Well, have you ever surfed a D before, Luke? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Oh, yeah. That surfboard is hilarious. And he's got stickers on it too he's like yeah i ride this every week yep rocco surf shop bought it right there yep oh wow luke okay and wholesome news the lex the impaler next to ron john's surf shop yeah luke i got some wholesome news uh cindy craven was finally made a legitimate woman by her longtime boyfriend, Charles. And here's their engagement announcement. Look. Yes, she was, Luke. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Bang. Yes. Look at her. Look at her, too. She's like, yep. It says it right there.

Yep, you're damn right. Wow. Okay, Luke. Big week for pro debuts in the squared circle of boxing there, Luke. Nikita Zu, the son of Kostya, brother of Tim, like we talked about, wins his pro debut, second-round knockout. Luke, he had taken five years off to go to college, but he is a four-time amateur in the past. He's 27 years old.

And, look, you don't typically face a world beater in your pro debut, but there's his brother cheering him on. He looks like he belongs, Luke. I think he belongs here. Yeah, I mean, your pro debut, you're fighting, as you like to put it, the guy who drove the Uber there. You're not really fighting the very best, but you're not supposed to. i mean your pro debut you're you're fighting you know the as you like to put it the guy who drove the uber there you're not really fighting the very best but you're not supposed to it's your pro debut yeah you know that can that that agent fellow opened with his teeth that's who you're fighting but hey nikita nikita zoo is probably at right now

we gotta follow him look every step of the way okay all right let's do it all right uh luke 2020 olympic silver medalist Richard Torres Jr., the heavyweight, made his pro debut on Friday, just 22 years old, and he just needed two rounds to dispose of Adam Nelson. This was good shit. I mean, this was a bit of a donk fest. I mean, Torres looks like he actually might be interesting to follow, but the other guy was, I mean, this was regional MMA,

but, you know, obviously it's not. It had all the, you know all the Benny Hill sketch of... I mean, look at him. He's just sort of getting turned here, and it's just a show. Yeah, just need a half-dressed nurse running away from Benny. That's what this needs. And then a me too, probably. I like how that dude's entire brand is now impossible

in the year 2022 yeah yeah yeah he's like he's like harvey weinstein's you you stole everything i work for mother like hey bill cosby you know what i mean like come on bro it's like dude you know if you didn't grow up with benny benny hill as like uh on your comedy central or tv it's hard to explain the dude's brand was sexual harassment and chasing women around all day long that's what it was we used to get it uh late at night on w wpix 11 out of new york was like the greatest regional cable channel of all time because all they ever played was like charles bronson movies and shit like that all the time um that channel would play benny hill at like 1 a.m on the weekends and And like as a little kid, you'd run into that.

You'd be so fired up, Luke. Okay. Luke Torres could handle himself in the ring. He looked pretty decent. But did you see him with the Rubik's Cube? They claim he's also a magician and he builds rockets. I'm not making this up, Luke. There it is.

Wow. I got to say, someone was telling me he was close to the end stage when he did this. I don't know because I don't play with the Rubik's Cubes, but it looks pretty fucking fast to me, bro. Yeah. And, dude, we've all left around with one. I mean, I don't. My brain doesn't work that way, Luke, and I don't think that surprises you one bit. No, I don't think that it does.

Although, look at the traps on this dude, too. Good Lord. Those things touch his fucking ears, man. He's coming. He's coming. We'll find out what he's made of. Eastern Europe loop, it's like regional MMA. It's just a different place.

Check out this fight training sequence, which involves a bear, Luke. Bro, look at this bear working on his triceps. Fuck y'all. He's trying to look good in a tank top in the summer. Don't be policing what my bears do. These other two, I don't know what the fuck they're up to, but the bear is the star of this video. I want to be clear about that.

Speaking of Europe, wild weekend of boxing results. Hold on, last thing, last thing. Just further proof, BC. I don't care if you live in Russia, United States, Canada, wherever. People who live in the forest, yo, they're different, bro. They're completely different people. Well said. Very, very well said.

All right, Luke, did you see this headbutt? I don't know the fighters. I don't even know what country. But this has been going all over. Oh, there's the fighter names right there. Oh, shit, Luke. Dude, what was that? Ill uh illegal that's what that was okay yeah holy shit that was just blatant well luke uh got a little wilder here i don't even

know if this is the same show but this other video is making the rounds i'm i'm gonna guess you're up the fan getting involved oh hell yeah this these must be people who live in the forest as well and then look at that they got oh royal rumble luke over the top hogan wins unbelievable where the fuck is this how about that security taking care of that shit bro yeah here he comes in the ring the two boxers like what the fuck and he's talking shit and then they just whoop chuck his ass out oh yeah and you know everyone wants to everybody wants to get their shot in on this donk yeah absolutely look all right uh t-shirt of the week time luke finally finally somebody has the balls to tell the truth

i mean you know as you always say how can i criticize that luke if i've you, you know, as you always say, how can I criticize that, Luke, if I've, you know, you know what I mean? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, my friend. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Luke, I'm not into slap fighting at all, but a lot of people cared about this Logan Paul thing. Did you see this KO, though, and Logan Paul, the promoter's reaction? Good Lord.

There's Arnold. There's Todd Harris of the wec luke yeah yeah this is not i mean look at schwarzenegger sitting down just like what has happened to my life i love schwarzenegger he's my hero but and he put this at the arnold and i get that he's trying to experiment if you don't know what the arnold is it's like the biggest bodybuilding slash weightlifting slash powerlifting expo in the world. Luke, it's got an amateur wrestling vibe to it too, though, right? Here's what's funny.

Strikeforce used to put on events in Columbus, Ohio, where this is traditionally held, on the same weekend. There would be like an MMA Arnold crossover. They have stopped doing it. I don't know why or whatever. WWE used to do that too and try to link up with it as well yeah i like how the slap fighters look like they're wearing uh venom kits too by the way look at that yeah dude they're look i don't like every combat

sport i really don't like the slap shit luke slap sticks it started out as like a weird thing they did on radio stations back in like the late 90s early 2000s and it just took on a life like this which i don't quite yeah i mean it's just it's it's it's really stupid it really is all right luke proud dad alert look if you don't have much to brag about luke and one day you'll be you're probably already bragging to every person you meet because look tuki is that incredible luke i'll give her that but uh check out this dad at the airport. Just telling it like it is. He is proud of his girl. Congrats, Melinda.

Out of prison yesterday. Start parole today. She made it, Luke. She made it, okay? Bro, is this guy the biggest dad who ever dadded? He's got the wrong size shorts on. He's got socks up to his calves, which by the way, it's okay. He's got the key size shorts on yeah he's got socks he's got socks up to his calves which by the way it's okay he's got the key chain hanging off the side shirt tucked in with a belt from

1993 there's definitely a key to a basketball gym on that on that roll of keys and luke there's an emily whitmire tattoo on his left forearm you know it turns out wow probably and look at his sneakers he definitely got those at the worst place to ever buy sneakers, much to the chagrin of his child. Yeah. Yeah, this guy's on that belt buckle is doing a lot of work right now. A lot of work. He's happy, Luke.

Okay. His daughter's free. We talked about Eddie Hearn being 6'7". Luke, he put on the gloves last week against Matchroom Sports CEO Frank Smith. And look at the towering Inferno Eddie Hearn go to the body here. Are they doing no head punches? What are they doing? Oh, shit. Yes.

Just body wear. Oh, he's not getting up from that. Frank Smith not getting up from that. I mean, you know, my man's got the worst haircut on earth and, you know, I'm not going to judge, but he's got a few extra LBs on him, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Are you impressed by Eddie Skill at all? I mean, it's not Stephen A. Smith.

I'll tell you that. No, I'm not impressed. Okay, okay. Okay, Luke, a couple more to end it. Luke, this week in marijuana, let's end with this, okay? First of all, I've got what I think is the world's first four-foot blunt. Luke, your thoughts? Oh, I mean, put it in my veins.

Yes, that gets the world star stamp on that screen, absolutely. I wouldn't care if this dude had COVID. He could blow all that smoke in my face. That's quite all right. Well, Malka and Showtime have come together, Luke, for your birthday, and they are going to gift you one hit of this, Luke. I don't know what you call it there. The full frontal treatment here, Luke? You could not handle this. you um one hit of this luke the uh i don't know what you call it they're the full fit

the full frontal treatment here luke you could not handle this i'm like a cat who has seen a squirrel for the first time if you don't do this for my birthday you're but sir it could kill you i hope you're damn right yes i certainly hope yeah yeah he went out doing what he loved yep that is unbelievable though wow wow okay that's all the shit i got this week luke that's's great. Pretty good, BC. Pretty good. All right, with that in mind, we have time for odds and ends. What do you got? Anthony Joshua has finally announced the new trainer. It didn't end up being the sexy pick we thought it might

as he did kind of a tour of the world of the biggest trainers in boxing today. He ends up picking his longtime assistant, Angel Fernandez, who, to be honest, Luke, I don't know really much about at all beyond the name, so we'll see what kind of effect that has. But, Luke, it's it we're obviously in such a weird time because of the the Russian invasion in Ukraine. And God, the courage of these elite Ukrainian boxers who are just going, you know, just going for it right to the front line and manning up and arm and all that. It's like it's weird it's like i don't even know what you know i mean it sounds stupid to say like what the heavyweight division you know looks like in the next 18 months because you know who sticks the the champion he's got three or four belts but

you know he was on that cnn interview and uh you know the the announcer had gotten uh the question asker had gotten trolled for basically saying you know when do you think your rematch with Joshua will take place? And he's like, I don't care, you know, never. Like, you know, my country, my God, my family, like, you know, like, holy, of course, you know? So it will be interesting, Luke, just in that regard, because, you know, yeah, Tyson Fury's going to fight Dillian White, but I don't know what the future brings for Anthony Joshua or that rematch or what

have you it's it's obviously wait and see and so many more categories way more important than heavyweight box yeah last thing on this by the way i tweeted it out last night you can still see it on my timeline there was i you know it's hard to know what information is accurate coming from there i mean do your best we're all trying our best but there was a video of a captured russian soldier sort of explaining his view that, like, here's what we thought we were going in. We had some reason to think that, you know, maybe we didn't exactly understand it,

but they basically believed that the Ukrainians were waiting to be, this was what he said, that they understood their job as a humanitarian act and that Ukrainians were waiting to be liberated. They weren't totally sure, but that was their general orientation. And he said the first time he was really jolted awake at how untrue that was, he says his two favorite boxers, and he mentions them by name, were Usyk and Lomachenko.

And he said when they joined the resistance, he was like, oh, oh, right. Like, this is not at all what we thought it was. But he mentions them by name in this video. So if you haven't seen it, again, you know, who knows what's accurate and whatnot. But it was an interesting piece of content to say this. this um put it mildly i'll put it that way anyway yeah dude um holy holy holy crap luke it's uh it's rough luke and by the way uh not related at all

but kind of related first i wanted to make sure are you going to do umar and irma gamedov in your extra credit because that guy deserves a lot of talking about i am i am yep and number two um the marina morose moment you know being from ukraine in a very emotional speech and i'm glad they gave you know joe even gave her the mic and was like go for it it was great but uh what do you feel about some of the russian fighters you know getting booed because it's like you know not habib they didn't boo i mean yeah but like these guys aren't on the front lines trying to uh trying to make this war happen so um i know these are just ordinary people i don't i don't i mean again i go back to the famous story during bodog fight when trevor prangley fought yuki kondo i think in philly or somewhere like that and uh the whole crowd was chanting

usa usa and but the problem is trevor prangley is from south africa they just couldn't tell so that was always a fun little thing i don't try to get to racism racism yeah look i got it's like you're cheering for the white guy just because he's white uh it's a little bit of a problem but okay um we'll have to see what all that well that happens there my quick quick odds and ends they put this on the broadcast i wouldn't have otherwise known about it but drake the hip-hop artist from canada uh bet 275 000 bc on masvidal and then lost it on the bc isn't there a drake curse where i guess like he was like supporting like duke or unc or whoever and they

would lose and then he'd show up to like some other sporting event they would all fucking lose and the mcgregor and he lost to mayweather boy our producer mike is saying kentucky basketball alabama football there was oh that's right because he's also like he's also like a bandwagon fan we're like i mean he's not a bandwagon fan for the raptors because he's from toronto i guess but uh for like the american teams he just gloms on to like the big winning programs or whatever yeah anyway he's a celebrity that's what they do celebrities are leeches to hot winning teams and and rubbing their star against it luke we know that shit all right bc what team what sports team if one sport if you if we if this show just blew up and we were like you know 10 times bigger than joe rogan pockets bigger than you could ever imagine

and there could be one sports team who could offer you season tickets for life who would it be that you take it from great question luke okay college and pro or just pro college and pro um i guess i bought the boston celtics would be my pick but i was considering penn state football luke but i don't really want to spend that many days in happy valley though you know yeah i won't go there i will not go there no not not because of that no i will not go there not because he's like hashtag sandusky um yeah i would i i would have liked to have picked the commanders but they're just so awful i can't i would probably go with uh the wizards even though it's not really an inspiring choice uh all right bc that is it for us now are they reminding us we have a top of the morning

collection i believe this is the merch collection bc yeah this is a part of our our saint patrick's day package at morning combat dot store that rj uh dunklecracker that has so you know expertly curated luke and put together you know he doesn't clear the shit with us but it works luke i saw that onesie you could outfit your child in an mk saint patrick's day onesie today luke and the bibs as well and you know I can't throw a stone at kids for wearing a bib anyway, Luke. I spilled food on my shirt right out of my mouth every meal, probably every meal, Luke. BC, we find out that stuff is on the store by going to the store.

We don't ever see mock-ups. We don't ever see ideas. We just see results. That's why I'm saying RJ's throwing like a perfect game right now. He's like Doc Ellis on acid just slinging curveballs right now and it's working you know it's like also we need to take some new pics with us posing in merch because i look fat as fuck in all these photos and i've lost a lot of weight since we took i was skinny then i put on another you know a little bit here luke uh but yeah after you know getting covet and hurting my back and just being an old old

bitch hibernating in the winter luke which is really my mo it's my survival move luke you know it's but uh they should sell bc yoga pants because your bitch ass does yoga on the regular we do we have the white sweatpants with the uh with the mk logo on those are comfortable as heck all right but i don't know reminder morning combat that store you can go there showtime.com is the label that pays 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can do something else morning combat at gmail wednesday's fan subs friday's dead wrong anything else you need to reach the show about that's how you do it and of course people be on the lookout luke the showtime boxing announcement i think even in the next 24 hours is is look like it's going to be a big roll

out with a lot to talk about uh you know i'm sure on wednesday show luke i got my traveling schedules getting in the way i can't be on wednesday's morning combat show so you're going to be on showbox on friday correct yeah that that was literally the only flight that gets you eventually from harford to rapid city so uh yeah so uh have fun there yeah deadwood deadwood baby all right i'm coming i'm coming for you yeah all right so there you have it thumbs up on the video hit subscribe leave a nice review on the podcast we'll be back on wednesday be on the lookout for more interviews and extra credit coming your way as well for cbs for showtime for malcolm for bc i'm lt we'll see you guys next time

and until then may all of your gains be loyal