MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 273: Volkanovski vs Korean Zombie Storylines | The Weekend In Boxing | Ep. 285

Episode Date: April 4, 2022

A big time episode 285 of MK is HERE. The boys begin previewing UFC 273 and discuss all the major storylines. Plus, they look ahead to an active weekend of boxing, including Erickson Lubin vs. Sebastian Fundora and GGG vs. Ryoto Murata. (9:30) - Volkanovski vs. Korean Zombie (33:30) - P4P List if Volkanovski Wins (46:40) - Best Outcome Saturday Night? (52:30) - GGG vs. Murata (66:00) - Boxing Lookahead (88:00) - DM's from Donks 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

I know it's not the 1st of April, technically it's the 4th of April 2022, but on this day, Monday the 4th, this is when the huge combat sports month of April officially kicks off. Welcome everyone, it is time for morning combat and I am only one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas, I join you from the capital of the status unidos right here in washington dc joined by the vice roy of connecticut got a pretty decent tan that or i'm turning pale and dying which is also possible but he's my friend and yours it's brian campbell hello co-host oh yeah luke i'm ready i'm ready as you said uh fight season begins now luke the rasslin they had their time over this weekend, sort of the basketballers, the basketball, excuse me, and now it's time to get ready

for just a kick-started, loaded spring fight season. April is off the charts for boxing. Of course, we got UFC 273 this Saturday. It'll be a big part of our show today. Luke, I'm ready. Look, this is why you lift them weights in the offseason, Bill Parcells once said, Luke, okay? For this time right here, okay?

Let's do it. You're going to get the best. You're going to get the very best of BC, except for the time I'll be on vacation. Then you'll get nothing from me, Luke. Then we'll get the very least of him. Of course, as you mentioned, though, UFC 273 is Saturday. We're going to start digging into the main event.

We'll start working our way through the card throughout the week on the main event. We'll start working our way through the card throughout the week on the shows here today. Obviously, we'll dig into Volkanovski and Korean Zombie, but there is a slate of boxing this weekend as well. Triple G is back. Ryan Garcia is back. We have Lubin Fundora on Showtime,

plus Michaela Mayer is back on ESPN, so we have a lot to get to. Thumbs up on the video if you are watching on YouTube. If you are new, you got to hear from the Gilbert interview or the Volkanovski interview, welcome. We do this three times a week, 11 a.m. in the East. Subscribe if you haven't already. There's our socials you can see below on the screen. If you're listening on podcast platforms, do give us a nice review.

BC, did you have a relaxing weekend as we kick off this very busy month of April? Yes. Yes, I did did my family is very ill though and uh so it was relaxing from the sense of doing nothing but you know trying to care for people look i'll tell you what four people in this house three of them are really sick and only one of them is drinking ag1 every day so you do the math okay i'm serious i'm serious right you do the math but also you've been eating at establishments that have probably fortified the immune response from your body

against communicable diseases. Perhaps your family is a little behind the curve in that way. Yeah, they have healthier livers, though. So it's a give and take, Luke. That's how it works. But hey, you may also be coming to us today for the first time because you drove down M4 in Londonondon or m6 roundabout in liverpool wherever the hell they put up those billboards because luke you may have buried the

lead that this is the best sports podcast on this planet and in fact luke prove me wrong check the receipts okay ask colleen wolf thank you a lot of people like oh BC's BC's gonna lord this over us for the rest of our time watching this show okay probably true yeah probably true yep all right so if you're if you're new here Showtime is a label that pays you can go to Showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not go to something else with your life we've got a merch store in fact you can see BC wearing some of that merch although today is the last day i think for the old inventory so you can go to morningcombat.store you can get all kinds of good stuff there um get it while the getting is good including 20 off 20 off right now final time it ends this evening so

uh you ever wanted some of this great shit in your house now it's time to get it for cheap okay uh okay fair enough and i think that's it bc except the for our new sponsor which is nord vpn which is funny enough that they're our sponsor because i've actually been using them as a guy who travels internationally and wants to protect my data you know what i'm saying so i can get on all the sites that i'm not supposed to get onto. But no, in all seriousness, I've actually used this product long before they came around. NordVPN. BC, are you new to NordVPN? I'm new to it, but it's pretty fantastic. And NordVPN also offering this brand new feature to the desktop apps, Luke, that provides threat protection and to take your digital security to the next level.

You know, Luke, I'm a little bit of a noob when it comes to all things technology. So anyone that can get my back in this regard, I'm there for you. So you put on the NordVPN app, you can put it on your phone, you can put it on your desktop, lots of ways you can do it. And of course, it protects you from malware,

from intrusive ads, all different kinds of stuff. Yeah, just make sure you have the most up-to-date version of the app on your device. Go to the shield icon, switch on the threat protection button, Luke, and then, you know, it's like having a bodyguard out in these streets. All right, so you can grab your exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com slash combat or use the code combat, of course, combat's going to be with a K, to get a huge discount off your NordVPN plan plus free threat protection

plus one additional month for free. It's completely risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. And along with amazing cybersecurity benefits and getting the ability to access streaming services in other countries with no extra cost, NordVPN now comes with a free anti-malware feature which protects your devices from malware, malicious ads, and phishing sites. Luke, this is a lot of tech jargon. Don't tech talk me, bro.

What the hell does Nord actually do for me? When you sign on, whether you're overseas or not, I think the way you put it is pretty good. It protects when you connect to something. it protects your computer from being attacked it protects your experience from again those intrusive ads from places tracking you from putting software in your computer it just is a level of protection so you can safely and securely stream all of your favorite places go to what you want to go without worrying about what kind of bugs so to speak you're picking up along the way that's it not bad not bad it's a great protection yeah i already use it i literally

have been using it for years so um i can't recommend it enough i i genuinely use it okay bc with that out of the way let's get this party started we began with ufc 273 and again we're going to be going over parts of this card throughout the course of the week but let's start with that main event now i did speak to alexander volkanovski we'll get to that in a second i don't want to start with just the audio bc i want to start with a question with a question for you we know of course that the title is on the line and so by itself there is an enormous amount of significance there but in asking you to kind of remove that from the equation a little bit to the extent possible tell me perhaps in a different way what is on the line between

volkanovski and korean zombie because while the title is probably the most significant thing it is not the only part of this equation what else is there yeah and and look it's hard i'll say this luke this fight was was a last minute situation max holloway pulled out i think the problem was you know canceling what would have been that trilogy that a lot of people have been waiting for, hoping for, especially if you did not think Volkanovski was the right for a winner in either of the first two fights, very close. You have to watch it. You know, you get the joke. You get the joke. Okay. So look, I think it's natural to look at this and go, oh shit, those betting odds are pretty wide. And I don't think this was helped in a last minute scenario at all by Max Holloway suddenly being healthy and saying, you

know, he'll be on standby. I mean, in a better case scenario, Luke, no disrespect to the TKZ, but you'd kind of say, okay, thanks for filling in, but we don't need you anymore. Let's do that trilogy anyway. But that's not going to happen, Luke. And the reality is this fight, at least on paper, not expected to be totally super league competitive with Volkanovski as high as minus 770 on some websites at the moment. But is there deeper storylines? I think there is, Luke. But maybe more for the Korean zombie. Because when you look at his journey. I actually have the opposite opinion.

So go first. This is interesting. Yeah, I was going to say this. You look at his journey, Luke, and there's been ups and downs, and there's been learning lessons, and I think the Countdown show did a really nice job of showing you that here's a guy who really

came to be known because of the two Leonard Garcia fights, one in the WEC, one in the UFC after the merge, and he was known as this all-business, straight, straight ahead, brawl, see who's the last man standing type of guy. His evolution from that has really been, you know, remarkable.

And some of that meant taking the two years off for the mandatory military service in South Korea, which ended up being a three and a half year gap. But when the Korean zombie came back, Luke, the proof was in the Putin, as the legend Floyd Mayweather would say. It was one systematic knockout after another, sending guys like Moicano and Frankie Edgar to the side of the road. Did he have an almost an unlucky situation with the Ayer Rodriguez?

Yes, a fight that he was seemingly ahead on and on his way one second away from winning. And he had that hiccup. And certainly, Luke, he had a level out moment against Brian Ortega. But if you look closely at where the Korean Zombie is at age 35, and I think in particular that decision win five rounds over Dan Ige to put him in position, to be in position in the bullpen should they need him. Luke, you have to say this about the Korean Zombie. He has constantly, sometimes under the radar, evolved his game. Yes, he's always going to be known for big power. He's always going to be known as a blood and guts warrior if the fight should get there. But he's a much more calculated killer these days. I think the Ortega fight really showed him that he's going to have to be at a higher level if there's one more run in him. While this run seems somewhat accidental given the Holloway opening, here's still a chance, Luke, for potentially the best ever version of Korean Zombie in what would probably be his last legitimate chance of

becoming a world champion here. And I wonder, Luke, I wonder if we're sleeping a little on him because of the situation, because of how great Alex Volkanovsky has been, because we all kind of would rather have Max Holloway and don't really need this fight. And then you look at the betting odds when in reality, it's been up and down and on the way to get here. But if you look at Korean Zombie's performance against Dan Ige, the mix of wrestling, hard striking, not just throwing punches for the sake of it, the calculated nature of how he moved, the five-round stamina. I saw a guy who might not be, you know, you can argue he might be the most ready he's ever been in his career to do the most damage right now. And is it an uphill climb

against Volkanovski? No question about it. But Luke, storyline-wise, we're not even talking about Korean Zombie. Really, we're not. We're talking about the greatness of Volkanovski, or when are we going to do the Max fight. You have to wonder, sometimes after the fact, we go back and look at the clues or whatever. I'm not here to make a case, necessarily, for the big upset on Saturday night. I'm here to tell you this is a great spot

for the Korean Zombie to be in with almost no pressure, and I think a very subtly improved game in certain areas that, Luke, if this is his final shot, I think we're going to get the best swing possible that he has. I think I agree with a large part of that. I mean, if they've got Volkanovski at minus 700, that feels extreme, to be candid with you. And you know what?

The return of the Korean zombie, listen, Brian Ortega beat him fair and square. Obviously, he hit him with that sort of somewhat low percentage spinning back elbow, but it landed. He threw it with intention. It worked.

It was accurate. When I say low percentage, I mean, you just don't see a lot of high-level fights. When I say high-level, number one contenders, top five in the division, you don't see a whole lot of those

with these included where it works on another top five kind of guy it does happen it's just relatively rare still Brian Ortega beat him fair and square and I think we can all say that that just was he was better he was better that night the thing that gets kind of marred is if you look at his last let's say one two three four five six seven fights he's lost three of them so like okay he's been a little bit more up than he's been down but not by much but it's not all that revealing the last the first of those losses that I mentioned was Jose Aldo against 2013.

You could throw that out because then he had a four-year absence. I'm not saying it doesn't matter for the overall evaluation of his resume as my daughter should be in the park by now at 11.15 and she's not. The point I'm trying to make here is since he came back, he knocked out Dennis Bermudez inside of half a round, or just about out of half a round. He was beating Yair Rodriguez. Now, again again Rodriguez threw

that with intention and it landed and it counts that's just the way it goes but you know you go back and you watch that fight who was winning that literally up until the last second it was Korean Zombie so if you just take out that Rodriguez loss which I know you can't do but just try to imagine a world where he throws it and misses it and then Korean Zombie gets that win then he has the knockout of Moicano then he has the knockout of Moikano. Then he has the knockout of Edgar. Loses to Ortega. Okay, fine. But to your point, then rebounds against Ige. And rebounds against Ige by just being super well-rounded and smart.

Great timing on his strikes, as you mentioned. Going to the wrestling game, his timing on the wrestling was, I mean, just perfect. There's no doubt that this guy from 2017 on is much better than the 2013 version backwards. I would argue though, that it's probably still not enough, but to the point that you're, you're more broadly raising, it's an action fight. It's an interesting fight and Korean zombie deserves to be taken seriously. Yeah. And that's really the point I'm trying to make here is that I crapped on this fight too, especially after Max revealed that he's healthy. And it's like, oh, you know, bad case scenario. Does Korean Zombie really, you know, has he really earned this? Well, not really. And is this a matchup style-wise that will do him any

favors in any situation? No. It's style-wise. That's why Volkanovski is minus 700, minus 770 on a lot of these score books or sports books. But Luke, you know, when you fine-tooth comb it like we just did, dude, you can't underestimate what he learned against Ortega. And I'm not saying Dan Ige is on the same level of Volkanovski, but would you go as far as saying as a poor man's tryout for this title fight, you know, I kind of like in hindsight going back and looking at that matchup and seeing, you could argue that did prepare him properly for this it's still not not a style matchup that's going to favor him but if we get a more technical patient Korean zombie would he have to rely on the

big counter shot yes would he have to avoid getting his front leg chopped up absolutely but he's in he's in a he's in more of that puncher's chance than I think this whole situation likes to tell you. So that's sort of my lead storyline coming in is, look, this is his chance. Second time, you got to give him credit. These are two different versions of him. He already got to the top of the ladder in the first version by just being a straight-ahead warrior.

And Luke, let me ask you this question in hindsight. He loses that Jose Aldo title fight before the long layoff largely because of the shoulder injury. Was he on his way to losing that regardless and when you look back on that that is one of Aldo's less impressive performances I remember when that fight was over and there were a lot of folks kind of wondering at the time like wasn't that pretty close and then they interviewed Aldo he was like yeah no I knew I was in control I didn't like he gave no he gave no credence to the idea that that fight was closer than just sort of a walk in the park,

and I think that outraged people. However, I will tell you something, though, and this will be hard to imagine for people who might be newer to the sport or don't remember it this way, but I distinctly remember it this way. Aldo was not revered by the hardcore fans in 2013 the way he is now, even though he's much later with more losses. In 2013, he was something like pre-champion Adesanya, where people were like, you know, he kind of cruises, or maybe even champion Adesanya, the guy who fought Romero. Remember the criticisms that were made about Adesanya against Romero, that he just leg kicks, he doesn't do anything, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

There was a lot of that with Aldo. He's barely beating these guys, he's not that good, da-da-da-da-da. And so part of it, there was a magnification, an over-magnification maybe of the Korean zombie's chances in a fight. But I'm trying to say I take more of a middle ground. I think Aldo was very much understating it. I think there was a lot of anti-Aldo fervor

that was somewhat overstating it. But it probably was true that Aldo was in command, but it was a little bit tight along the way. It should be noted that that's true as well. Is that critique in your eyes because of that Mark Hominick fight from two years earlier, which started to form an anti-narrative against Jose, that great fighter, best in this weight division, on his way to being a Hall of Famer, but fades late

and sort of showed a... I mean, he almost got in trouble, Luke. Mark Hominick had a softball inside his forehead, and Jose almost sort of faded away and took a lot of big strikes there. It did take him a while to sort of massage off that little stain on him. And look, is it unfair? Yes. But when a guy is on a run like that, I think that's why we're so hypercritical to Floyd Mayweather's every misstep

and that one time that guy punched him. And you know what I mean? It's's it's hard to find a clause there but to be fair Aldo did come back after that Hamek fight and you know I mean he finished Chad Mendes he he beat Frankie Edgar he beat Kenny Florian um yeah but there here's the difference here's the difference this is why Aldo was critiqued because he was the WEC champion. Listen to his WEC record. Alexandre Franca Nogueira. For folks who don't know who that was, they used to call this guy Pequeño Nogueira, and he had one of the most vicious guillotines ever in the sport.

Truly a guillotine master. Aldo knocked him out inside of two rounds. Jonathan Brookin, TKO. Rolando Perez, KO. Chris Mickle, TKO. Cub Swanson, TKO. Mike Brown, TKO. Manny Gamburian, KO. t jonathan brookins excuse me tko rolando perez ko chris mickle tko cub swanson tko mike brown tko manny gamburian ko the one decision was the one against uh uh faber who he beat the fucking balls off of it was not even remotely close then he goes to ufc and it's a decision

against hominick a decision against florian the quick knockout against mendez but some thought you know maybe it was you know it was just it didn't mean a whole lot. That was the argument at the time. Anyway, hominic decision. And again, he didn't look that great in it. I know you already went to that one. Sorry. Then Frankie Edgar, that was a good one. The Frankie Edgar was a good one.

And then he had the chance on Jung one. But there was just, there was an argument made that, oh, the WEC hardcores have overstated how good a guy like Aldo is. And that's proof is that he was butchering people in WEC and then letting them go in UFC when in fact the situation was more complicated. That's fair. Well, look, he had some moments. I mean, he did land some big shots against Aldo. Maybe he's on his way to lose that fight, whatever.

But let's give him the respect of taking that long time off and coming back better than ever. He's a young 35 physically in many ways, Luke. And, you know, final point, recircle is, I think if you're a Korean zombie, you're in a very good low pressure spot here. But Luke, at the end of the day, storyline wise, it makes for a nice romantic setting. Is there a realistic world in which he makes this, you know, look, Brian Ortega ended up in the long run

losing a largely one-sided fight against Volkanovski, even though I tried to make an argument that that was my fight of the year because it was so exciting and dramatic and Volkanovski was forced to show, you know, so much of him in that fight. And let's give him that credit. Is this all just romantic storylining here, Luke,

for an inevitable ending come Saturday night? I think so. I think that Korean Zombie is not on Volkanovski's level. Now, in saying that, I recognize that MMA is chaotic and Korean Zombie is a very efficient and technical, more than just a boxer, but he's a great finisher on top of that. But BC, we were talking about storylines, like what else is on the line here?

The belt is the most significant thing. But I'm going to add one more. I think that if Volkanovski wins and listen very carefully to the words i'm saying think of volkanovski wins and let's say you know very clear whatever that means like there's no doubt that he was the better guy fans will need to at least start wrapping their head around the idea that volkanovski with that win over k Zombie puts himself as pretty close to Max's equal in terms of featherweight champions. And I want to tell you why. If you look at the list of featherweight champions, Aldo is still your most successful featherweight champion. Seven title defenses and he held the belt for 1900 days across two different, basically two different organizations. But more than that, right? Because these seven defenses are only inside the UFC. It actually goes back

further than that. Now, Max Holloway beat him twice and then had three title defenses. So one of them was the Aldo, two was Ortega, three was Frankie Edgar. He held the belt for a total of 925 days. As it stands, Volkanovski is at 838, so less than 100 away, and this will be his third title defense, which means their numbers are almost on par with each other. Now, I grant there is a big difference between them, and this is, to me, the biggest difference. When Max took the title from Aldo, he had to do it twice, and he did it back-to-back, and he stopped Aldo with strikes inside the third round both times. By contrast, Volkanovski had two very close fights against Holloway, and for that reason, I can understand why fans will still say Max would be a little bit ranked higher than him in terms of greatest featherweights of all time.

But I would caution you, though, if he gets this one, he's almost certainly going to beat the 925 day part, which is not the biggest one. But he will then be facing a fourth title defense, which Max does not have. And BC, it could just end up being that that fourth title defense, if he gets it, happens against Max himself. What I'm trying to say is maybe the Korean zombie fight doesn't actually allow volkanovski to lap max but it puts him so close that he begins territory where if he's successful in the subsequent fight there can no longer be debate about who's the second best featherweight of all time yeah i love the the potential storyline there you know just like look i've been on that fence i've been on that side of the fence excuse me of saying even though holloway lost twice even though you can keep asking the question of saying, even though Holloway lost twice,

even though you can keep asking the question of, God, how many more times does Volkanovski have to beat Holloway until the UFC stops asking him to? I think it's a necessary fight for many reasons because of how close those first two were. But I just don't think Volkanovski is quite there yet. And I think a lot of that, Luke, comes down to two reasons. One, Holloway had to take a longer route than you should have to finally secure that first title shot. He had to just win and keep winning and extend that win streak.

What was it at its peak, Luke? I mean, it was ridiculous how long he had to go. Yeah, I'll look it up. He became a standard bearer. I know Tony Ferguson had a similar run of late of you're just like, how many more does he have to win? But, Luke, when I look at that three-pack of fights in a row, he faces a former

champion in Pettis for the interim title and kind of violently stops him. I mean, just beat the bags off him. But Luke, the two knockouts of Jose Aldo, you know, still prime Aldo, still top of the featherweight mountain, recovered from the one punch loss to Conor McGregor, still that guy. He not only beat him twice, Luke, Aldo came in both of those nights basically saying with his body, you know, with his body language, you're going to have to stop me from coming forward. You're going to have to kill me.

And Max did that twice in a row. Luke, that tends to be the tiebreaker when we compare great fighters and what they've accomplished. Yes, you can go, well, technically it's this many title defenses, but isn't it, if there needs to be a tiebreaker, it's not only facing better competition, but having finished them, having left no doubt. The fact that we still have doubt about that second Max fight is the only reason why we're banging the drum so hard for a third one.

You can say that's unfair because not every fighter is going to be a knockout fighter. But Max is not a knockout fighter in theory. He's not a one-punch guy. He's a volume-wear-you-down guy. And he beat the shit out of a still kind of hatted Anthony Pettis and prime Jose Aldo. Well, the Pettis part, I mean, he was wrecked trying to get down to that weight. But, okay, to answer your question, it was a 13-fight win streak that he went on, which is better than Volk's. Volk's win streak

in the UFC is at 10. However, that's all 10 of his UFC fights. For folks who may not remember, he is undefeated in the UFC. He only has one loss dating back to 2013 in Australian FC5. That's it. Look, both great fighters. That's why we want to see it again. That's why we need it.

It's unfortunate. It's weird. This is a great card on Saturday. It feels like a main event that it's like we don't need. Is there anything else you think Volkanovski can gain? And I say this, look, we're splitting hairs. We're being hypercritical. But that's what you do when someone's at this point.

I mean, I'm already seeing people on Twitter going, does the wind make them the greatest featherweight of all time? I mean, like, this is kind of where we're at right now. So if we are splitting those hairs, Luke, historically, am I on the side of underrating or overrated Alexander Volkanovsky? Underrating. I've consistently underrated him,

and he's come over the top and won me over. He won me over against Brian Ortega in a way that, I don't want to say I didn't think he had it in him, but it was so dramatic that you're like, oh shit, you know, even if you're trying to be a critical hater of Volkanovski, what the frick else are you going to say for that performance, for him going to that deep in the water and getting out of two chokes, including that first one and just putting it on him. That did a lot, Luke, for his long-term critical respect, even from the Blood & Guts Machismo fans.

Is there anything actually to gain here more than just securing the third Holloway fight and keeping it going? So this is why this conversation is instructive, because remember, Max had that long win streak. Then he not only beat the greatest featherweight of all time, he did it twice and both times via stoppage. It was a true, no doubt about it, here's the crown coronation moment.

Even if you thought at UFC 212 when he went up the first time, Aldo had an off night, he had another chance to do it again, and again, Max finished him off inside the third round. So it was this real, Max had this momentum from this incredibly long win streak, and then he beats the greatest featherweight of all time in dramatic fashion back-to-back. Volkanovski does not have that, no doubt about it. And it's not just the nature of the fact that he had these two very close fights with Max versus the fact that Max had these two very dominant finishes versus Jose.

He had that other momentum he was riding. Alexander Volkanovski has snuck up on fans right he kind of came a little bit out of nowhere beat Mendez beat Aldo a lot of folks don't remember even remember the Aldo fight but it's one of the most brilliant performances you'll see from an elite featherweight at any point in UFC history and then he goes and does what he does he kind of just came around without that momentum without that fan favoritism so he has to go and earn it you're asking what else is on there not only does I think this get him very close to maybe not quite at max's level, but very, very close to it. Not only does it do that, but if he can get a dominant

win over a very celebrated figure, I think that that might hurt some people's feelings. But if he does it showcasing his skill, like there's a gap between you and me. Like when someone crosses someone over on the basketball court, breaks, breaks the ankles, they go slide. And then you drain the three. Yeah.

That might go a long way towards building some of that momentum after the fact that Max had built for himself, riding into the title fight. That's fair. That's fair. Look, can we quickly, we should transition to point number two.

Well, I know it was a topic of conversation with you and Volkanovski, and it was a very good interview about how underrated and thorough and just dominant that Aldo win was. In hindsight here, and this is only a critique at Aldo, not Volkanovski, because Volkanovski disarmed him to a level that I think Jose Aldo, tell me if I'm way off, who was in his last fight of the deal at that point, I think he was just sort of like, yeah, no mas, fuck it.

I'm going to go the distance here. I'm not getting knocked out by this guy. I can't figure him out. And I don't know if there's enough motivation for me in this moment to risk it all to try to figure it out. Meaning, Luke, that same spirit Aldo had in the two Holloway fights, which, you know, they were title fights, rightfully so. He didn't necessarily have that day. This is not a referendum on does Jose Aldo have that warrior spirit in him. I mean, look what he's done since then.

He's gone all in, cut a weight class, and is still, you know, an elite guy, more or less, writing name more than elite. But you get my point. Did he say no moss in that fight against Volkanovski? I would just say this. I tend to think sometimes conversations around fights revolve, or I should say move in this direction, where we're like, what about their motivation?

What about this, that, and the other? And I don't want to say that they're not important. In fact, sometimes they can be the very most important thing. So I don't want to diminish it. But at the same time, I tend to feel like a lot of those conversations happen because we're not okay we're not really having them around what actually happened in the fight we're not really addressing what the skill gap is i'm just going to like reveal the truth here alexander volkanovsky

when he fought jose aldo was just better like by a mile like i mean i'm not gonna say aldo was you know getting his ass kicked because that's not true but in terms of the gap that volkanovsky was able to put on him with movement and then able to strike and get out of the way, Aldo was simply outmatched. And I think folks need to really noodle what that means. When you can do that to a guy like Jose Aldo, it's not just that Aldo,

was that his level best effort? I don't know. It wasn't his level best effort against TKZ. He still got the win there. But we really need to like if you've not gone back and watched it you need to volkanovski was just better sorry the max fights i realized were a little bit closer this one was not not at all and so yes could there have been motivation issues i certainly cannot in any way diminish that could there have been

anything else i don't know about sickness foot injury who the hell knows but just watching the tape dude volkanovski beat him fair and square like it's not it's not difficult to score that fight at all and when you're that good I think that should be the story out of him Luke I think he beat the fighting spirit out of him in that fight I think it was a wake-up call to to to how great this fighter is but you're you're saying everything other than what the main story is Volkanovski was better period that's the story there you don't believe that i think he i think he forced the great fighter to weigh the risks who was in the last fight of his deal and go oh fuck it i'm not i'm not gonna get knocked out by this guy no no volkanovski was just better he was just better

i really yeah but look you're disagreeing with the spirit of my question to make that happen to make a great fighter be like yeah fuck it like remember rigandau versus lomachenko yeah i'm saying that was so obvious that he was just like fuck this you know i'm just trying to tell you that i saw something and i'm letting you know but let's give volkanovsky credit he's the one that made that happen okay yes fair enough all right uh let's go to point number two here bc we stay with volkanovsky but the conversation shifts a little bit this is one you're better at having than i am so of course i will start with you as well point number two if volkanovsky wins in the main event of ufc 273 and again let's say whatever that means he's rightful winner whatever that means would he then be a

threat to kamaru usman's top ranking at the pound for pound list? I don't think so, but I think he is getting closer. And I think we have to have this discussion right now about not dissimilar to the discussion we had in trying to compare Volkanovski and Holloway's featherweight title reigns. I mean, Luke, do you think it's fair that finishing can sometimes become the ultimate decider? Because Volkanovski and Kamaru have had similar runs in the fact that they came onto the scene in the UFC, had to put together a bunch of wins under the radar, and then made that slow but steady move to becoming champion and never been beaten in this organization. And now they're in the winner's circle here of the top three pound for pound but there are levels within levels Usman's evolution to becoming a finishing fighter under

Trevor Whitman has been the difference where I think you know has it coincided with Jon Jones taking a long time off and under the rules of how we do pound for pound Jon Jones should be off the list because of the long layoff uh yes but Kamaru has I you know, the timing again with Habib walking away, perfectly put a gap between him at number one and however you have them in the next few spots, Adesanya and Volkanovski. Luke, can Volkanovski close that gap in your eyes without doing the exact same thing? Because if you are going to hyper critique Volkanovski at all, you'll go to the lack of finishes. But it's not by lack of trying, and it's not by lack of firepower. So does he have to kickstart this conversation

with a finish of Korean Zombie, and is that the fair tiebreaker in these discussions that you're trying to compare greatness? I would say I agree he doesn't pass. He's currently sitting at three, right? So one would be Kamaru. Two would be Adesanya. Again, we don't vote on these.

These are just what the rankings are. But I tend to think it's pretty accurate. And then Volkanovsky's sitting at three. Does beating Korean Zombie, which would give him his third, I believe his third title defense. Does that put him in the same, let me pull this up here just to quickly.

Does that put him in the same place as a guy like Adesanya? Who's already got like what four or five title defenses, something like that. Now, granted, we're not just merely counting that, but I'm just pointing out this, the level of seniority at the top of the game.

Plus Adesanya is full-on undefeated in MMA I don't think that there's enough here for me to say that it would leapfrog him uh nor even get close to Kamaru who I think has even more time in among champion and even more title defenses I think he's got one more than uh Adesanya so no structurally there's not enough there but again getting back to the first point BC even if he can't really jiggle that part loose although maybe some voters will put him number two I think that is it may be potentially on the table I think this could go a long way towards solidifying what I think there's still a little bit of reluctance to admit I think people think he can like you know he can out people, but he's not really a better fighter, or maybe he was against Ortega, but that there's this pervasive sense that something is

missing with him, that they haven't quite connected to him yet. This might be one of those performances, even if it can't really substantively move him around the pound-for-pound list, given who is ahead of him, it certainly solidifies him among the pantheon of the, not the all-time Rushmore, but the current Rushmore, that he is deserving. You have to pick the top four fighters in the sport, one, two, three, four. He's already there, I recognize,

but I think there's a little bit of reluctance that he's there. This would, I think, affirm him there with much more fan and community enthusiasm about his place, about his future, and about what he brings to the game. Could he pass Adesanya with a stoppage win here as the firm number two? He could because, what, Adesanya coming off of the, what was Adesanya's last fight?

I can't even remember anymore. Colby for Kamaru. It was, what about Whitaker? The Whitaker fight, which was a really close one. But that was his fourth title defense. It's a little bit different. I recognize what you're saying, that there is certainly a capacity there.

BC, can I throw to the audio here that I have from my interview with Volkanovski? Because this is sort of the one thing I want folks to understand. I did an interview with him. It was supposed to be BC's, but he let me have it. So thank you, BC. I appreciate that. We all know It was supposed to be BC's, but he let me have it. So thank you, BC. I appreciate that. We all know the size of your CKB, Luke. So you're just helping a friend out, right?

I appreciate that. But the point I wanted to make here is I really want people to begin to at least, if you haven't already, entertain the idea that Volkanovsky does something that is pretty novel among even elite fighters, which is that he forces you to make decisions, a bunch of them, but then he changes all the patterns behind them. So you can never really get a firm read. You can't tell if he's coming or going high or low left or right. There's what this angle, that angle he's constantly switching and it just creates this processing overload that they can't manage. He calls it scrambling their brains. I don't know of a lot. All fighters use trickery, right?

I'm going to faint and then go high. That's all of it. But he puts all of that together in these large chains that make breaking it very difficult. Here's he and I talking about it. Again, I know you guys like to dive deep in it. But someone like Aldo was a good example, and I think you will appreciate this, where he's so well-trained,

where every movement, you know, he's always in the perfect position. You know, like, you know, you move an inch to the left, he's going to have to, he has to adjust and be that perfect. You move an inch back, he's an inch forward. You know, he's always forward. He's always there. He's always where the range is comfortable at. The base, he's grounded, he's powerful, he's balanced.

He's always there. So it's very hard to get him out of position. You know what I mean? Because he's always adjusting. But it was something that we used against him, knowing that if I go somewhere, he has to adjust. And he's not even going to mean it. He's just going to do it as a, you know,

that's just going to be a part of a, that's just how his system works, you know what I mean? I move to the left, he has to adjust. So as he's moving to the left, I'm getting him as he's going, getting to that spot and things like that, you know what I mean? So that was a good example of, you know, calculated that, you know what I mean? So that was a good example of, you know, calculated movements, you know what I mean? So I'm doing these movements to keep them busy,

not giving them time to, you know, keep him time. This is for Aldo specifically because, again, you stand in front of him and let him work. He's obviously a counter punch. That's why he's always powerful. He's always in the perfect position. But I just wanted to always get him out of position, which was hard. But that's why you have to keep him moving and then go.

I think you use this term of in between steps. Half beat is my favorite term. Is that your term? Yeah. So like, you know, just things like that. That was a good example of using. Okay. That's it.

That's it. Yeah. You get the idea there. He's playing... Those are the cheeky moments where he was like letting you know, I'm as big a fan of you, LT, as you are of me. Yeah, that was nice. It's always nice when you get that kind of validation,

which I appreciate. I'm hoping for that from Ioana one day, just so you know. I hope that for you BC but the point I'm trying to make here is I hope folks understand he's playing on a level that a lot of other elite fighters aren't playing on think he needs to the spirit of this question BC I think you would agree with this he needs a bigger body of work at the championship level to really rival the ones and the twos a couple guys ahead of. But what he's doing is the ingredients that's going to put him there

if he can keep going. No, no doubt about it. And, you know, I brought up the heart and the will that he showed in those trepid situations against Ortega to say there's really nothing left to criticize. Luke, there's really nothing left to criticize. There's only to appreciate. Obviously, you've been a day one guy

in picking up how much he's playing chess against guys playing checkers, and a lot of it is the momentum coming out of City Kickboxing Gym and the cerebral way that those fighters are mixing together

the physical with the mental in such new smart ways. But Luke, when you watch the countdown show, and I know this isn't a new development, but is he no longer with the gym or is he at a satellite gym with one of the coaches? What is his current coaching situation? Uh, he's still with his old coach. He never left him. His name is Joe Lopez, but he has added on a CKB element to it. I think Brad Riddell has done a lot of work with not just him, but there's a bunch of guys that have done some good work with him. So he's not in one or the other.

It's both. And so I think camp to camp, depending on the opponent or the availability or whatever, they kind of mix it. That's my best understanding. Does Eugene work his corner ever anymore? We're going're gonna find out i think he did for the last one so we're gonna see we're gonna see okay uh either way either way you're seeing a a next level fighter that that's proving the haters wrong in every category are we seeing though the beginning of a new trend luke i know we've had these discussions before about sort of what's coming out of this gym but is this specific fighter who's different

than adesanya and different than hooker and and you know uh magic mike or whatever the hell that guy's name is um what's the guy's name carlos no the other guy the other guy. The other guy. Blood Diamond? Blood Diamond, there we go. Mike Mateta. Yeah, there we go. Is this a new, I don't know, new version? I mean, is he one of one? Is this a sort of new prototype of a fighter that you could see more fighters trying to copy and emulate? Yes.

I mean, I was asking him about his style and when you think about why it works, why does it work? And so one answer is obviously you're just forcing all these computations on you that you can't make. Cause he's changing the answer every time. That's one of it. But then you ask yourself,

okay, well what's the hardest part about pulling that off? Partly remember that style is good for landing and getting out. It's not, if you have a very high level opponent in front of you, it's not good for like scoring big damage and getting out it's mostly a lot of like you know leg kicks jabs and that kind of a thing which in the end matters but it can be hard to like get that off but so I think cardio is a big part of it the other part is and this is maybe the ckb part again I don't

really know I'd have to talk to the coaches more in detail like we talked about you see him talking about the movement there we got into this conversation where he's like, I see so many fighters who are out of range and they do all this movement and it doesn't mean anything. You're not, you're not, you're just wasted motion, wasted cardio.

They have, you have to be a very good salesman of a fake for your real thing to work. And so part of it is yes, good cardio. Part of his understanding fight mechanics and everything else. I think the other part of it is you really have to have, you have like fainting is a skill, not just you do a lot of it is, yes, good cardio. Part of it is understanding fight mechanics and everything else. I think the other part of it is you really have to have, like fainting is a skill. Not just you do a lot of it.

You have to be a good salesman of it. It has to be convincing for it to be effective. And so I would say that's a pretty big part. And I don't want to always just associate CKB with fainting, but I do wonder to what extent motion, fainting, has been a combined game plan from his old coach Joe Lopez with perhaps some of the newer influences around him. Yeah, I mean, it does show you how great Max Holloway had to be to make that second fight so close because at this point,

you're going to have to out-chest the chestmaster to beat him. And, you know, the threat of a submission, an iron chin and will like Ortega had is not going to be enough. And, you know, some of these other guys who think they're completely well-rounded tacticians, if you're not on his level, it's not going to be enough. So normally you'd say, okay, so maybe Korean zombie is a good opponent for him because here's a guy who can just flip the chess table and board upside down and go domino motherfucker. But he's also not really that fighter anymore. and trying to do that to someone like Volkanovski, you

play into the trap of his web. Outside of what Max did in that second fight, which I thought was just enough, because let's not forget Volkanovski made the adjustments and came back and rallied and sort of controlled the championship rounds of that fight, that if you scored it to Max, you kind of had to score it for him up front.

We haven't seen you know an opening yet on how to be a blueprint yet on how to beat max and luke to be fair i mean not max alex and to be fair there are very few people in the world who seem to have the skill set and mindset together to do that short of catching him with the big strike that we haven't seen coming yet all right let's go to point number three here bc and i'll pitch it right back to you we stay on volkanovsky oh this is the last of our questions so it's a very simple one if volkanovsky wins that presents a whole series of opportunities for us and significant results if korean zombie wins it's a whole different scenario although again there could be a rematch but my question to you is as follows BC what's better for the division for

not Max I'm sorry Alex to win or for Korean Zombie to win I don't think there's an actual right answer there but if I may and I know you hate when I do this, bring up pro wrestling booking when talking about

how to UFC matchmake, but to act like... Luke, did you just have a seizure? Are you okay? Oh, okay, okay. Sorry, Luke. But Luke, to act like the UFC and Dana White

doesn't use this type of spirit in their matchmaking would be, you know, would be missing the point here. They do. So what's the most exciting way for this to happen? TKZ to pitch a monster upset here. Max Holloway to swoop in next and potentially win the title from him. And then you do the Max versus Volkanovski trilogy with Max coming in as the champion. Suddenly the dichotomy is split upside down and puts even more worth on that trilogy fight. That's the best storybook way to book big fights and get us to there.

But the odds don't tell you that's most likely. And should Volkanovski just win? Luke, we're going into that trilogy regardless against Max. And it will be a big deal. It will be, you know, for rightful control of this era and this weight class and, you know, potentially making their claim to be the best ever at this weight division. So either way, Luke, I think we're getting there. We're going to end up with Max versus Volkanovski for the belt a third time. So, you know, there's no one else coming on that's

going to crash this party to make that any different. Yeah. I mean, I guess we'll see what happens with Zabit and everything else. The thing I would argue is, I actually think it's better if Volkanovski wins. Clearly, clearly, I mean, if you ask the Korean zombie, he would probably, in his team, they would tell you the opposite. They would tell you it's much better if he wins, fresh matchups, blah, blah, blah. And again, it wouldn't hardly be some

crime. If he's the rightful winner, then he's the rightful winner, and that's all you can do in MMA. But it would be weird and I think unfortunate if there is a sense of a lack of resolution or even after 10 rounds between Max and Alex that that's not resolved a third time but to the point BC whether it happens for a title or not I actually think it's more important that it happens on the title grounds because either max reclaims or i should say affirms his spot as the number two guy or um and you know i don't know why is he number two

he beat aldo twice right but aldo's larger successful body of work is better at featherweight that's the whole point anyway introducing the new mcspicy from mc 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. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card,

the credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Neither here nor there. If Max loses to Alex a third time, then you have this sort of reality that you had three chances and you couldn't do it.

But more to the point, it would be that fourth title defense that I referred to earlier, and it would be against the guy. Not only would the four put you above, but the fourth would happen on the back of the guy that's kind of holding you from that position. It would at least allow him. So either way, BC, the reason why you want that position it would at least allow him so either way bc the reason why you want that for a title is that is the clarifying answer uh to who is ranked behind aldo all time at 145

you know you're still asking a question of who's number two but i still think that that's a valuable question and having it happen on the title grounds to me is more historically significant right but both scenarios i laid out for you are on the title ground so me is more historically significant right but both scenarios i laid out for you are on the title ground so i think if you're going to argue what would make their third fight the biggest possible stage i think you go the pro wrestling route and go what if the zombie did upset him then what if max took the title from him and then max is the champion going into the third volkanovski fight i think that's the only way you make this even bigger if you had that control. You don't.

It's not likely. Either way, Luke, if Volkanovski wins a third time against one of the all-time great fighters in Max Holloway, that's the best possible way he can shut down all of these arguments, all of these conversations, and start knocking on that door of the upper room, the goat room, right? And find out if there's a chair at the table for him. So it's going to be fun.

This division is still very filled, very exciting. I hope Zabit comes back to mix it up, but either way, this should be interesting theater, even though it's not what we chose for Saturday night. Yeah. And the last thing I'd say on this too is, well, something of a slightly different point. I guess the only thing for me that I think about with this contest is if Korean Zombie wins, what do you do? Okay, BC, let's say, last thing on this, let's say Korean Zombie wins and he wins in a way that is decidedly, like it was one-sided, right? Like, oh, Jesus Christ.

Do they do an immediate rematch again like does volkanovsky get back to that place or does the fact that the two fights with max holloway cost him so now he has to get back in line to go get where he wants to go all right let's do it the matt sarah way because that's kind of what this upset would be right now given the run volkanovsky's on okay if he matt sarah's him meaning we knew Matt Serra had that in him, but it was very unlikely. And so I think you go right to Max. He is the he's the name of this division, the face of it. And Luke, again, that's where you're you're you're just just juicing up the storyline.

You go right to Max for the title shot. He's ready. He's healthy. Let's do it. He was already in line for Volkanovski. But, you know, can you lose either way? No. But you're not there's no chance they're going to the rematch of TKZ and Volkanovski. But, you know, can you lose either way? No, but you're not. There's no chance they're going to the rematch of TKZ and Volkanovski. No, they're calling the star who's in the bullpen waiting, Max Holloway. You better believe that.

All right, let's go to point number four. We move to boxing. And again, for folks being like, what about Gilbert Burns and Hamzad? What about Aljo and Peter Yan? Yes, we're going to get to all that in deep detail throughout the course of the week. However, we start now for point number four

with Triple G, who is back in action, BC. He's now 40, I believe. He has not fought in something like, I think it's his longest layoff, maybe of his career, but certainly a long layoff either way. He takes on Ryoto Murata. This will be on Saturday on DAZN. I think the time is like one in the morning, though,

because, of course, it's going to be on native time in Japan. BC, a couple different questions to get to with this one. Let's start here. How likely is a Murata upset over Triple G? Stylistically he seems like the kind of guy who's going to give Triple G his best chance to win. He's kind of a blood and guts fighter himself. Decent puncher. Maybe not on the level of triple g triple g though older didn't have his last two showings against derby and chenko and smirzetta whatever the guy's name was not the best showings in the world is murata really a dog here that you can imagine getting his hand raised so on paper no but the fact that this fight has been somewhat unnecessarily delayed by both injury, the pandemic, mostly the pandemic. But the fact that we're pushing this off so far and the fact that Triple G has fought now just once in like 36 months will be 40 the day before this fight happens on Saturday.

And, Luke, I think this fight, the main card airs around 5 or 5.30 a.m. Saturday morning, Eastern Time. I'll double check. So this is like breakfast with Wilma then here in Japan. But here's the deal. You kind of touched on it. Where Triple G has gone since the conclusion

of the two-fight series with Canelo Alvarez just, what, three and a half years ago, it wasn't the ending or the twilight we would have thought for him. He fights Sergey Darin-Vanchenko

in a fight of the year contender in Madison Square Garden, an alt-right brawl in which Triple G gets a somewhat disputed decision in which look, he didn't look like the freshest version of himself. Then he takes a long time off. Then he fights Zerometa

and he mops him up, knocks him down all over the ring. But between those two fights and the Steve Rolls fight in between, which was just a soft touch to come back for Triple G, it seems decided that he's slowed down now. For him to keep up that kind of offensive threat that he does, it's taxing, it's power punching, but it's reliant on the speed to set up and get in those combinations.

He doesn't seem to be exactly the same fighter anymore. If you look at his quotes leading up to this fight, Triple G's saying, look, I've never been 40 before. I don't know what it's going to feel like in those combinations. He doesn't seem to be exactly the same fighter anymore. If you look at his quotes leading up to this fight, Triple G saying, look, I've never been 40 before. I don't know what it's going to feel like in that ring. Could me keep fighting on at this level at 40 end up being my downfall? It could be. I mean, he was very honest with himself in that regard. I think if you look at Ryota Murata and ask yourself, okay, what is his threat? What can he actually do? Well, he's not so fast, Luke, so he's not a pure boxer. He's not a one-punch knockout threat, so he's not known as that. But he's an aggressive boxer who gets inside on you,

and to his credit, goes after it. And if you look at the two men to have beaten Murata, they've both come in the last four years, and he avenged both losses in the next fight to regain either the WBA interim title or the full WBA title that he eventually got. And the most impressive was the two-fight series with Rob Brandt, in which he was upset the first time by decision, but came back and absolutely left no doubt in the second round and stopped him with big punches. Luke, he fights in a straight line. There's not a lot of thrills to it.

But Murata looks to get inside, find the opening, and he is an accurate counter puncher. And when the opening's there, he goes after it. So if Triple G is only 75% of the great Triple G we knew, Murata's got a chin and he's got a backbone. This could not only be a brawl, but the fact that we're doing it, you know, in the circumstances we are with so much time spread out and our emotions sort of going, yeah, I don't really care about this fight. Well, we haven't seen him in a while. And oh, by the way, the prize of a third fight with Canelo Alvarez this fall, seemingly on the line here as GGG looks to unify middleweight titles. And then if he fought Canelo a third time, he'd have to go up to 68. There is trap fight, fun fight potential in this matchup. You wouldn't really love Murata's chances because I don't think he has the firepower to stop Triple G.

But Triple G has been visually declining with age at a pace, Luke, that I think is faster than we anticipated. And you can't discount, he didn't go through two wars with Canelo, especially in that second one. He went to war with Derevyanchenko. One of these days, he's going to show up old, Luke. I think you have to hope it's not this time if you like the spectacle and big event of him getting that third chance. I don't love that third fight,

but especially for those who watched the first two and feel like Golovkin got a raw deal going 24 rounds and not having one of those scored for him on any of the judges' scorecards. Lofkin got a raw deal going 24 rounds and not having one of those scored for him on, on any of the judges scorecards. I, yeah, I think you, you'd, you'd like to see him not show up old on come Saturday in Japan, Luke, but we are asking a lot of him here, you know, with the long time off with the location, there is that sort of hint of, if you can't finish this guy, he's going to keep coming.

Is there the one shot in the Death Star that can be the implosion of Triple G? We've never seen him succumb to blows. We've seen him take big shots. Look, he's taken monster shots from Danny Jacobs, even Curtis Stevens in that blowout. He's taken the best shots his opponents have had, shook his head, shook it off, and came forward like a cyborg. One of these days, that's going to go, and it's going to go fast. I don't think the money's on it happening Saturday morning, but can you create a scenario in which there's a lot of trap elements here? I think you very much can. Yeah, so for folks who are

wondering what the appropriate time is to begin, I'm actually seeing conflicting reports, so I'll just say this. According to DAZN's own website, the time for the eastern part of the United States will be a 5.10 a.m. start to the card, with the main event ring walks happening at roughly, they say, 8.10 in the morning eastern time on Saturday. So that'll be 1.10 p.m. Greenwich Meridian time. Shout out to all those Greenwich fans we got out there, Luke.

Anyone in the middle of the Bering Sea on the international timeline, okay, adjust your schedules. Thank you. Yes, also the point I want to make here is this is my read on this bout. There's just, there's no, okay, to your point about Triple G's chin,

he's fought almost 400 rounds and never tasted the canvas. That includes both amateur and pro. I mean, just the, and you mentioned some of the big shots he took. 400, he had what? What do you have? 400 fights. Yes, what am I saying?

Yes. Not rounds, 400 fights. Yeah. Almost, almost. I think it's like 393 or something like that. Almost 400 fights, not rounds, pardon me, where he has fought between amateur and pro and never been knocked down. Something truly incredible.

However, my best read on this BC is you kind of already stated this, but this is what I'll say from someone from my perspective who doesn't have as much experience with Murata, although Triple G have been watching for some time. Namely, the idea that this is winnable for Murata, who's 36 himself, not exactly a spring chicken, is banking on the idea that Triple g is inexorably in some form of decline and that that vulnerability makes it more competitive than the triple g we have

previously known who is more or less capable of weathering anything murata would otherwise be able to throw is that a fair assessment absolutely it absolutely is a fair assessment it's it but i don't know. There's another element in there, Luke, you know, triple G cut part cut ways with Abel Sanchez, who was the trainer of record throughout his entire, you know, run that began with, you know, coming to America in 2012 on HBO and suddenly becoming this overnight knockout sensation. This, you know, Mike Tyson from Eastern Europe in a way where he smiles, you know, he smiles outside the ring and destroys people with one shot inside of it let's give him credit Luke you got a

Nike Air Jordan sponsorship you know he had he had he had all these he he became a very big deal had a little bit of bad look at the top was avoided for a long time had the bad scorecards against Canelo well he cut ties with Abel Sanchez in pretty disruptive fashion over not wanting to pay the same percentage to his trainer once Triple G started making that big time money, that DAZN money. And let's remember, if you don't, when DAZN launched and they threw the vault at Canelo, they threw a hundred million dollar deal also at Triple G under the guise of we're going to build our streaming brand off of getting, at that moment, what you could have argued was boxing's most coveted pay-per-view fight, a third fight between these two. Only a lot's changed since then. They've never gotten the ring to each other, against each other, because of all the difficulties in the Golden Boy versus Canelo deal that they had with Dizon.

All the headaches that we know up to that point. He brought on Jonathan Banks, Luke, as a new trainer. You know, the trainer who was with Vladimir Klitschko after Emmanuel Stewart died and I didn't like what I saw I didn't you know even though he mopped up some Zermatta in that in that stay busy I think Jonathan Banks is trying too hard to make him a calculated boxer who works off the jab and here's the deal when trip what made Triple G amazing in his prime was the fact that he was a destroyer who had such a strong amateur background that to get inside, he's using such incredible technique and his punches are always, you know, so hard, on balance, at the right point, never puts himself in the wrong position, never overextending technically he's a master yet he puts the pressure on you he cuts off the ring and has destructive power that he just takes you out when he finally met people who couldn't take

who could take the power to some degree when danny jacobs got up off the canvas and went the distance with him in madison square garden look that ended a what 23 fight ko streak like something ridiculous then he goes to you know killer fights with Canelo. I think somewhere along the way, he's tried to evolve into too much of a boxer. And when your skills deteriorate, I don't think that's the best game plan for him. I'm not saying you got to kick Jonathan Banks to the curb and bring back Abel Sanchez. I'm saying you got to bring back the spirit of who you were against Abel Sanchez. And you may have to come to terms with this fact. I'm older.

I'm slower. But the power is the last thing to go. I need to get inside of my opponents. I need to make them taste my power right away. And I need to not F around that Murata shows up with a big chin, big balls, and somehow goes the distance at home against me and has a chance to upset me on the scorecards. I got to go in there and be that triple G from 2013, 2014, and just get this motherfucker out of there so I can set up that big bank against Canelo. And whether he's too old, Luke, to actually cash that in and get the biggest victory of his career or not, the only way I think

he's going to get there is by being the old triple G. Enough of this boxing shit, enough of this, you know, too technical or too slow. You are too slow these days for that super elite level. Go out there and remind us against Murata exactly who you are. All right. But then that leads to the natural question, BC, on everyone's mind here. If Murata wins, however unlikely that may be, does that fully destroy the possibility of a Canelo triple G.

Now Canelo has to do his work against Bivol. So let's assume for a second he beats Bivol, which is no walk in the park. And by the way, man, I even, you know, Bivol might just win that outright. But let's say for a second Canelo wins and Murata wins. What's next for triple G then? Look, if he gets beaten clearly, that's a big nail in the coffin. That, you know, not that you need to retire tomorrow, but look, you're done on the elite level.

Ryota Murata at his best is not on Triple G's level. It's not happening. So, you know, he would have to, is there any scenario in which a Canelo fight still happened? Well, maybe if Triple G got robbed on the cards, and maybe if they ran it back right away, and then maybe you still put this fight together at this fall. But no, Luke, for the most part, it's survived to advance here.

He's going to have to win this. And I think, look, to make that third Canelo fight big and get people like me stop talking about the fact that he's going to be 40 and that he doesn't look like the same Gennady Gniewicz Golovkin that I once fell in love with, I think he's got to go in there, like I said earlier, and knock this guy out. like the same you know Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady Gennady wanting to fight him hardly at all especially if he gets dusted by Murata which again I don't think is likely but it could happen certainly it's all if he gets dusted by Murata the fight's off Canelo barely wants this no chance right Canelo barely wants this here here's what I'm going to give Canelo some credit he's always said what else do I have to prove against this guy like

like okay if you if you didn't believe he won the any either of the first two which I didn't and if you believe there's conspiracy involved in the first one, then maybe you still want this third chance at redemption. But from Canelo's standpoint, he's basically going, I hate this guy. He's accused me of steroids a million times. He's always talking shit about me. I don't want to reward him with the money. But, Luke, the fan was so large for this that this is Canelo saying,

okay, look, this is arguably the biggest fight I can make on this side of the tracks with DAZN. I'll do it, fans, if, this is arguably the biggest fight I can make on this side of the tracks with the zone. I'll do it, fans, if you really want it. If Triple G ain't even close to the same Triple G, Canelo's not picking, you know, he's not accepting this. All right. Let's go to now topic number five, which is a bit of a boxing weekend beyond just what Triple G is doing.

BC, a few places we can start. We'll talk about the Showtime fight in just a second, but I do want to get to Instagram star because really the last 16 months, he's been a little bit more of that than anything else. Ryan Garcia is back against, I'm going to call what is basically an opponent. He's supposed to beat good fighter, Emmanuel to go, but not, not one that I think is really again, if Ryan Garcia is Ryan Garcia should not have a whole lot of trouble with, but BC, he has changed trainers for folks who may not know this fight's at 139 a

catch weight not 135 pounds um he is this seems to me like in every way bc new weight class new opponent obviously new opponent but you know new trainer new sort of whole new situation really this is a bit of a reset moment for ryan garcia So fine to take things easy to start here, but is there anything more to this story than just the Ryan Garcia reset? Yeah. Well, I think that Ryan Garcia reset is the story, but I think there's a lot more layers than we're really looking at. So on the surface, Luke, based on accomplishments and name value, was this the fight you wanted for Ryan Garcia? No, he was in contracts to potentially fight Jojo Diaz, which would have been a hell of a fight. We saw the fight that Jojo Diaz gave Devin Haney instead last fall.

It was a strong performance and a loss. Ryan, you know, canceled that for a few different reasons. I'll get to in a second. We didn't want him coming back against a guy who were like, who is this guy again? But here's two things I'll say about Emmanuel Tagore's chances and why this fight is more interesting than you may realize one luke i'll say it i'll culturally appropriate this guy's from akra ghana luke that's a city in africa which has produced one boxing hammer after another from you know uh from i corte to joshua claudy to az Clotty to Azuma Nelson, to any time you get a guy and you go, I never heard of him, oh, he's from Akragana,

okay, this guy could fight. And we know potentially about Ryan Garcia's chin, which is the biggest issue about him. And when you mix that, Luke, with all of the factors coming in that are questions against Ryan Garcia, look straight up, the kid's going to have a lot to answer for on

Saturday, Luke. It's not just the 15-month layoff. It's not just the wrist surgery. It's not just the mental health break that he took by canceling that Diaz fight and then subsequently sharing, and this is serious, I'm not downgrading it, that he considered suicide and that there was a lot going on. Luke, he's fathered, I believe, multiple children on the side. And he's got, you know, there's been some personal blowups on Twitter. Ron Garcia, you know, there's a drama around him. Now you add in, he leaves Team Canelo amid Canelo questioning his work ethic publicly. He drops the reigning trainer of the year, Eddie Reynoso, for a very strong trainer and

veteran, Joe Goosen. But Luke, this is really the main topic I want to get into here. Even if you separate all of those potential distractions and questions that need answering, and there are a lot, there's physical ones, there's ring rust, there's mental, emotional balance and all that. Changing trainers to such a high powered offensive coach. If you don't know who Joe Goosen is, watch Diego Corrales' comeback against Jose Luis Castillo. Watch John Molina's great comeback on Showtime against Mickey Bay in the final round to get the knockout. He lights a fire in his fighters and gets them coming forward full steam ahead. You could argue Ryan Garcia needs anything but that.

He's coming off his biggest victory of his career against Luke Campbell. But with that being his biggest victory, right? Seventh round body shot, knockout, spectacular cinema drama, he wins. You know, he got dropped and he got dropped hard by a non-puncher early. If you're looking at Ryan Garcia's game critically, offensively, he's A++. The hand speed, the combinations, the gunslinger mentality to go after it. But there, in my opinion, are still strong questions about the head movement, the defensive nature of what he does. So Luke, when I chatted with him a couple weeks, you know, when this fight was first announced, of course, we played the sound of this, hey, Oscar thinks you should fight Canelo, all that BS.

Let's put all that BS to the side. Let's talk about the actual fighter here. I think he's got a lot more questions to answer than we realized coming into this fight. And this is how I sort of set up the question of him of, look, I know you got Joe Goosen and that's great. I love me some Joe Goosen, but how much are you looking at the criticisms against you regarding your defensive vulnerabilities and how much will that be a focus now with this new trainer heading into this comeback fight? Let's see what he had to say. Yeah, I don't think about defense at all, right? I think that defense, I'm just kidding. I mean, you know, you gotta, you gotta be honest with yourself when it comes to certain situations.

And I've looked over the Campbell fight and things in past, you know, fights that, you know, they're just little technical things that I could work on real quick. You know, they're not like major problems, right? It's not like I don't have a good sense for the ring, you know, or I get hit a lot. You're not really seeing that. You don't ever see me busted up in my face. You've never even seen me really go a lot of rounds. I mean, Campbell hit me with a good shot,

but people make such a big deal about my defense. Like, all right, well, we'll see what happens, you know? I know that I can make these adjustments, and I know that what really matters when you're in that ring is sense of range and timing. That's what really matters. You know, you could have your gloves up all day, but as a good fighter, I can see those little windows of opportunities that people don't see, right? So i could count a million times on how many times floyd mayweather's hands were down or canela's hands are down or everybody's hands are down

muhammad ali might like we could go all day talking about wow his hand right hands down or his left hands down at the end of the day it's what how do you feel in the ring where can you do you have a good sense of experience in the ring when to pick up that hand or when not to pick up that hand? There's so much more to this game that people just don't understand. And guess what? I'm working on all that. I like that answer.

How much do you think I'm overplaying this? Because you saw the Luke Campbell fight. You know the upper bound limits of who ryan garcia could be as a finisher and obviously a crossover breakthrough star i know that when you're that popular with 8.7 million instagram followers you're going to get a lot of hate is the the the hate justified from a critical standpoint standpoint um no i mean hate no uh but i think skepticism is well placed i mean one thing we didn't even bring up is he trained he changed trainers obviously from eddie reynoso to uh gusin but do we remember canelo dropping all those hints in the media being like this guy just needs to train more he needs to be more we brought up all that and it's eddie reynoso but

we brought up all that i mean if you have the number one fighter in the world saying that luke there might be some fire to that smoke yes certainly i mean but but here's the thing with all of that it's like did garcia change trainers because what gusin was telling him sounded more appealing to him about what kind of approach made sense for him? Or did he change because Goosen was the very best fit to understand him and then elevate him to the next level? Like, in other words, maybe taking on and having an honest auditing of some of the things that go right, some of the things that go wrong. How do we make this all work in a straightforward way? And I just feel like if you're feeling those life pressures from injury, from celebrity, whatever, from perhaps distance from Canelo and the camp you were in and everything else, and you go to Goosen,

this just feels very different to me than Tyson Fury changing trainers from Ben Davison to then Sugar Hill Stewart, right? Because there he had the draw, which was the poor performance, or relatively not on par performance, up to his capability. And he was looking for a very specific upgrade to his style, something I need, I don't quite have,

that I need to round that corner. This feels like it's not that. On the other hand, BC, if getting a fresh look and a fresh start is exactly what he needed, maybe all's well that ends well too like maybe staying with Reynoso wasn't the best fit for a mental health standpoint especially if you're a stablemate granted I you know Canelo's probably giving some tough love there I don't know maybe he wasn't in the mood for some tough love maybe that's not exactly what he needed everyone says oh that's the responsible thing you need to be

listening to that but if you're having different kinds of struggles that's not great for prize fighting more generally but it may not be what he needs right now i guess what i'm trying to figure out is bc i don't know what that move to goosen really says about the underlying conditions of garcia's competitive ability i don't know if he did it as a port in the storm or if he did it for vanity purposes, or if it was a real strategic call to maximize himself for this next stage of his career. I guess we'll see. He's going on record saying,

you know, Eddie's too busy, which Eddie's got a big stable of big name fighters. And that happens when trainers become celebrity trainers. He wants more focused one-on-one attention. If that's the case,

obviously this is a strong move, but you also wonder, did he no longer want to play Robin to Canelo's Batman if Batman's going out there like Canelo did last September? Or October? And tell the media, hey,

Ryan Garcia's got all the talent, but I'm not sure if he works hard enough to maximize it. You have to believe that was the crack. That was the beginning. And Canelo's doing tough love, like your point point to try to say, Hey, this kid really needs to put it together. You know, he doesn't have that like Amir Khan, who has similar offensive firepower to Ryan, but every single fight, someone found that one shot to bring the Death Star down, you know, in the big moments.

So I think this all adds up to bring more theater to what, to your point, is set up to be a comeback, look good performance, only he's going to be in there with a real lion. So if there's holes in his game, you wonder if Tago can find that, Luke. Either way, look, Ryan Garcia is going to be in there with a real lion. So if there's holes in his game, you wonder if Togo can find that, Luke. Either way, look, Ryan Garcia's going to be big-time theater every time

he fights. That vulnerability, that air of vulnerability's going to linger. And Luke, he may be, he may show you more flaws than positives and still come away with a knockout win because that's the gunslinger he is. Alright, now, we also go to Showtime, which has a uh very more than respectable actually

a pretty important fight at 154 pounds when erickson lubin who i believe is 26 years old that's right takes on sebastian fundora who's 24 years old six foot six basically the towering inferno himself bc true or false winner of this contest gets the winner of charlo castagno 2 i want to say it depends because here's the reason why charlo castagno 2 is for all four titles may 14th on showtime uh rematch of of their their disputed draw from the first time around but let's not forget tim zu just became the number one contender for brian castño's title. And if this fight right here, Lubin versus Fondura is for the interim WBC title, which is held by Charlo, meaning they become the number one contender for Charlo. So how it all plays out is going to be interesting. But if you're Erickson

Lubin, Luke, who we both know is such a good looking young fighter, a boxer and a puncher can do a bunch of different things. You know, his only loss was that first-round knockout, destructive loss to Jermel Charlo five years ago. He's 7-0 since then, and he's one by one climbed that ladder and beaten all the other names. It's not only a good story if he gets past Fundura and Charlo gets past Castaño, and then his victory for winning this fight is a chance at all four belts and to redeem the only loss

of his career. It would be a compelling matchup. I think the biggest question, and tell me if I'm wrong, because we both watched Erickson Lubin in his last fight, went in there against Banana Rosario, Jason Rosario, the former unified champion, and dude, he had to walk through some hell to get that finish via body shot.

Is the chin issues that Lubin showed in the first Charlo fight a lingering concern? Or is it just style based and he got sucked into a war there? The one thing you can say about Sebastian Fundora, who is Lubin's opponent on Saturday, is he may be six foot six in the toweringferno, but he gives away that height and reach almost instantly, and he's looking to brawl with you. This is going to be interesting theater, Luke. You can argue this is the best boxing match of the weekend in terms of matchups,

in terms of what's at stake. Look, Golovkin's in a middleweight title unification match, but Murata, we don't think of as world-class elite. This is going to be a very interesting test, and at the end of the day, yes, I think Lubin would deserve the next test because he's beaten so many contenders to get to this point.

This is a real good fight on Saturday. Yeah, I mean, to your point, yes, Triple G's a big star, and obviously it's a setup for the Canelo fight and unification and all this kind of stuff. But at 24 and 26, both of these guys, depending on where you look in the rankings for both Lubin and Fundora, are both inside the top five, some inside the top top three so we're not talking about chumps here we're talking about very good very young fighters in a very competitive matchup and that's see this is really the interesting point to me bc with fundora who just sort of acts like a canopy

over his opponents but gives away the the the reach and whatnot he seems to like the style i don't know how good it is for him but anyway anyway, he likes to do what he likes to do. This, to me, is a fight that a guy as talented, as slick, and as good of a puncher as Lubin should win. But to do that, it's not going to come quickly. He's going to have to be disciplined and clever and defensively sound through at least the first six rounds, BC. And then I think he can begin to open up perhaps a little bit more once the

fight has sort of settled into whatever pace it's settled into. But if he doesn't do, you and I both know from Dora is going to try to overwhelm him with volume. He's going to try to overwhelm him with, by smothering him to a degree. So this is really, to me like a big test. I don't know if it will test his chin.

It could test his durability over the course of a fight. If he he's not careful but it's not like one punch durability in that sense but it to me it's a bigger test about is lubin the guy who if we know the very best guys in this division could do it but is lubin the guy to thread the needle where the opponent's going to give you open targets but it could also come with you being made a little bit more vulnerable as well. How do you attack that vulnerability without making yourself, which is always the operative condition, but here it's so glaringly, like this is the condition. This guy's going to give it to you.

You've got to lay into him and find a way for him to be on the defensive as you do better work, more quality work, getting in and out of range and not letting him sort of envelop you as the way he likes to do it. It's a bit of a boxing IQ test for Lubin, who I do think does have good fight IQ, but this is a real clear moment in his career to, to attest to his actual full on 12 round ability. Look, I think Lubin's the better athlete, the better boxer, and in a one punch scenario, I think he's the bigger puncher. I also think he's

had much better experience in terms of beating bigger names. If you look at Fandora's resume, he had that draw with Jermonte Clark, who's a, who's a good fighter in himself, who was, which was very disputed. And he's coming off a decision win over Sergio Garcia, which Lubin told us himself when we interviewed him that, you know, he didn't think Fandora won that fight. Yet with that said, Luke, you look at DraftKings, minus 110 for Lubin, minus 110 for Funfara. So Vegas, and by the way, Vegas has, if you're looking for comparisons, Vegas has Ryan Garcia as a minus 1450 favorite over to go. They've got Golovkin as a minus 700 favorite over Murata. They have this one as minus 110 on DraftKings on both sides.

So they're showing you that the potential vulnerability is there. And even to do what we think Lubin needs to do, he's going to have to go in harm's way to do that. So it should be interesting. But let's throw to some Lubin sound here about why he thinks, forget Tim Zhu, forget everybody else. If he gets a win here, it's Charlo Castaño winner or nothing. I think this fight right here, you know,

it separates me from the rest of the pack. You know, I've been doing a champion's job. I'm being top contender after top contender. You know, they put another one in front of me. It's my job to go in there on April 9th and take care of business so that I can separate me from, you know, just those contender guys and, you know,

those guys that are, you know, just getting there and coming up. You know, I feel like I'm in a position where I could take full advantage and become champion and fight one of the champions out of, you know, Brian Castaño or Jamel Charlo with the rematch. But, you know, first I got to take care of business on April 9th. And, Luke, we all know what is at stake, you know, in the storyline potential with Charlo. And you remember that 2017 fight, Lubin came in at just,

well, God, I mean, what was he at that point? 21 years old? You know, he had gone, he was a top amateur, but he decided not to follow the path of the 26 Olympic team. He turned pro as a teenager in 2013. Mike Tyson was his original promoter. Like there were big things planned for him. I think you have to say Lubin has corrected what went wrong, but let's not forget when he went in there, Luke, in 2017 against Jermell Charlo. It was one looping power shot

in round one and that fight was over. It was an absolutely beautiful shot. We know what it would mean to him to get Charlo a second time. Let's hear his thoughts on how much he's still thinking about that one. I feel like there's a lot of things I did wrong. I feel like I had a five-week camp. I didn't camp the same way I'm doing now.

Just certain things. I went out there and really didn't have too much of a game plan. Just wanted to get the KO win. I wanted to knock him out. I wanted to look tremendous and become a star that night. But, you know, God got other plans for me. He had other plans after that night.

And, you know, we're putting the plans into full effect right now. You know, I got with Kevin Cunningham. I still got my longtime trainer, Jason Galarza, still with me. That's family forever. But, you know, we just joined forces with Kevin Cunningham. And, you know, we've been on the road since. And I don't plan on stopping. By the way, Kevin Cunningham, not only known for being a great hard-ass coach,

known for taking southpaws like Devin Alexander, Corey Spinks to the highest level. So, Luke, this is going to be some good theater on Saturday, and I have to close with this. What makes this 154 division so great, not only is it deep as hell, not only is everybody under the PBC banner for the most part, including Tim Zunow, but, Luke, they're all a little vulnerable. We're going to see a lot of parody.

We have no idea what Charlottesville 2 is going to look like. And we have no idea whether it's Lubin, whether it's Tim Zhu, whether it's Jared Hurd coming out of nowhere again. Julian Williams. We have no idea who's going to be

the champion one year from now. I love that. I love that about this division. All right. Last but not least, BC, I don't have a ton of thoughts on this, but we do. It should be noted.

Michaela Mayer is back in action. This will be on ESPN. She takes on, I think, Jennifer Han. By the way, Han's last fight was a... Han, Luke. Can you put some respect on the Han family? All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Han, Han, whatever.

She was the boss on Enter the Dragon. Her last decision loss was to Taylor, Katie Taylor. This is a semi-interesting fight. WBC, IBF titles on the line. I guess Han used to be an IBF title holder. Anything of super significance here? Well, look, top-ranking ESPN is really committed to making

Mikayla Mayer a star. She's a unified world champion now. She's coming off, Luke, a legitimate Fight of the Year contender last year against a fighter named Hamadouche. Rewatch that fight. Ten rounds of absolute war. And I think what's important for Mikayla Mayer is we know she's a good athlete and a very good boxer.

Comes through the U.S. Olympic system. You know, Al Mitchell, the longtime Michigan-based U.S. boxing coach, is her trainer. She's got a tattoo of his name on her hand. I mean, she is a solid boxer. But she had to go in there against Hamadouche and really prove that she's a fighter at the same regard. Expect Han to try to press her in that regard. And Han, by the way, is the brother of A.B. Han, who was a middling 154-pound contender-ish fighter over the last decade. But Luke, at the end of the day, I think this is a good tryout,

because in the women's game, we know Katie Taylor's going to fight Amanda Serrano April 30th. And it's the really the biggest women's fight of all time for all four titles at 135. It really is number one and two pound for pound. But Michaela Mayer is trying to crash that group and she's close enough in weight where it's not out of the question. If she beats a fighter here who Katie Taylor just recently beat and look great doing it and can look great as well. You wonder if she can be propped up as a potential opponent for the winner of that fight. I know everybody's on different networks, but in women's boxing, there's only so many elite fighters. And if they're close enough and wait, you have to believe they're going to go out of the way to fight each other like

Serrano and Taylor are doing come April 30th. So I think Michaela Mayer is continuing to be somebody to watch as not only the star potential, she's a broadcaster for top rank. When she's not fighting, she's had some crossover love from a lot of people. You've got to earn it in the ring, though, and, Luke, I think she's got that dog in her. So this should be a fun fight to watch. And there you go. That is the boxing weekend.

So a huge MMA weekend, a huge boxing weekend in B.C. Right after that, next week, we have the two amazing Bellator fights. We have Nemkov versus Corey Anderson. We have Patricio Pitbull versus AJ McKee, too, on that Friday. And then that Saturday, we've got Spence versus Ugas. And it just keeps on going after that. So it's about to get busy, folks. But that is it for us, BC, at least in terms of asking each other questions.

It's time now for DMs from dogs. All right. BC, here we go. First things first from Ryan Wilson underscore films. Is it fair Colby isn't ranked inside the top 15 pound for pound? Over the last several years, aside from the Burns-Lawler differences and competitive fights against each other, Colby and Usman have wins against the same people in mazdal woodley and maya

it seems strange that usman can be the pound for pound number one he says no issue with that but that colby is left outside looking in bc what say you good sir yeah i agree with that i currently have him i think like 13th in my cbs top 10 UFC pound for pound and the, you know, others receiving votes category outside of the top 10. His only losses, you know, of memory following that Worley Alvarez scare early was the two Usman fights. And, you know, Luke, he, he fought Usman better than really anybody else at this level. So, and by the way, when I mentioned sometimes that you could make a case for him in the second Usman, I'm not making that case. I thought Usman won that. I'm just saying that

when you rewatch that fight, you look at the scoring, I get why some people are trying to make that case. Yes, I think he's deserving in that 10 to 15 range. I think he thoroughly beat Masvidal. I think he's looking to cash in and get his biggest fight possible as he can, Poirier, whoever he can get. And I think he's still of that class Luke it's just unfortunate when you get somebody who's this good potentially great in an era and they got one of the all-time greats ahead of them that that's just bad luck it's bad timing yeah I don't really understand this argument a whole lot it's like who's I understand the point that they're pretty close in nature and one is number one and one is not even inside the top 15 and so that asymmetry is a little hard to understand okay I think that's a reasonable question for sure but BC this is not super hard to figure out Kamar Usman has two wins over the

number one contender he has a stoppage win over the number two contender and he has a win over the number three contender he hasn't fought four or five which is Luque and Muhammad I guess we'll get to that next Colby has none of that he has no wins over anyone in the top five no fights against anyone in the top five his only win uh related to that would then be number seven jorge masvidal and then sean brady neil magni michael kiesa hamzat jeff neil ling li jing lang santiago panza nibio and shafkat raghmanov yeah there's a real good explanation for it. One deserves it and one doesn't. There might be not much of a difference in their fighting ability, but in their record, there is a pretty big difference

in terms of quality, relevant, meaningful wins. Well, I mean, I think what they're asking, and I couldn't really read the question because, you know, our producers put a whole paragraph at the bottom of that screen there, but I think the spirit of the question was, I don't think he's top 10 right now now especially not coming off the loss to the champion but should he be in the you know others receiving votes should he be in this larger window of top 15 top two absolutely luke he's one of those guys on the outside looking in in my opinion now that's a crowded field that

also includes glover to share who's a champion that also includes you know some of those guys who don't have belts but are in my top 10 like a justin gaethje a max holloway you know, some of those guys who don't have belts, but are in my top 10, like a Justin Gaethje, a Max Holloway, you know, Robert Whitaker, who's right. I'm probably on the same level as Colby as well. When you consider he's kind of in that same circumstance, although he is a former full champion. So yeah, we do. Should we respect his all, you know, his game right now as pound for pound ish? Yes.

Does he deserve to be in the top 10 at this moment? No. End of discussion. All right. From TJ underscore Padro. I guess that's how you pronounce it. I don't know. A better question for you than me.

If Errol Spence wins against Yordenis Ugas, does he have a case for number one pound for pound over Canelo Alvarez, BC? At this moment, no. And I think, look, we were in a weird spot about three years ago where I thought it was the most amount of boxers in the top 10 who had a case for number one, pound for pound. It was five, maybe even six, right? Before Lomachenko lost to Teofimo, you had like Fury, Usyk, Lomachenko, Crawford, Spence, Inouye, Canelo. Like you had so many guys

who could make a case for number one. It was like the most wide open I've ever seen the pound for pound debate. Canelo's closed that debate with what he's done, with moving up and knocking out Kovalev, with, you know, becoming the undisputed champion at 168, with taking on everybody, every style and doing it. I don't think Spence can do that. If Spence beats Terrence Crawford for all four belts, which should be the next fight and could be the next fight if he beats Ugas, then that's a different story, Luke, because what Errol Spence does have going for him, despite the time he's missed because of the accident and now the eye surgery, is in a welterweight era where we can't get the best to fight the best enough, he's fought everybody he possibly could and he's beaten them, right? From Sean Porter to Mikey Garcia to Danny Garcia. I mean, he's just, you know, one after another showing you how great he actually is. If he beats Terrence Crawford and becomes the welterweight of this era, there's a debate

there with Canelo, but we're not there yet. All right. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, here's the ranking that ESPN has to understand that there might be, you know, intentional or otherwise. There could be some top rank bias. Here's why I bring it up. This is from December, so it's not the most current one. Maybe you could shift it around a little bit.

But they've got Canelo at number one. Fair. Two, they have Terrence Crawford. Three, Noya Inoue, the monster, who of course has the rematch against Donair. Donair coming up. Usyk, who may be rematching joshua we'll see how that goes five they have fury six they have spence seven taylor eight lomachenko nine

estrada 10 gervonta i like that six placement that feels a little low no i believe i have spence at two i've previously had him at three. Him in a way of switch spots. Look, if you have Crawford above those, it's not a crime. If you have Crawford even, look, to be fair, if you made a hipster case for Crawford at number one because he's just so dominantly ahead of the field, it's a hipster case. I don't think it's right. But when I put Spence and Crawford together,

I have to lean on what Spence has done at welterweight and what Crawford hasn't due to the availability of opponents. But has Crawford looked more spectacular and dynamic at times? Yes, but you have to wonder sometimes, is that the matchmaking or is that the dog inside him? Hey, you know the best way to fix that, Luke? Let's have them finally fight each other, okay, for all four belts, please. But, you know, Ugas has a chance to upset that conversation completely. And also, you know, Keith Evans.

Okay, so let me ask you this. Okay, I don't know if we're ever going to get Spence versus Crawford. But let's say, let's say, let's say Crawford Science PBC, Spence not only beats Ugas but looks really good doing it, like typical Spence or whatever that means for you. Would the winner of Spence Crawford, if they fought, have a claim at number one? Absolutely.

I just told you that. That would be a different conversation. Absolutely. i guess i misunderstood your point sorry about that anytime two of the top four pound for pound fighters are fighting each other at the same time yeah you beat another guy in the top three or four you make the leap you know and it's it's so rare when you can do that by the way let's not forget when andre ward and sergey kovalev fought a couple years back in their first fight they were both right there in the top three pound for pound. When Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather fought, it was one versus two, but it's rare you get that. But, Luke, I think we're going to see Crawford versus the winner of this next.

I really do. I think we're at that moment. Okay, if it's Ugas, are we more likely that Keith Thurman slides in, maybe, given the PBC control? But if Errol Spence wins April 16th, I'm the most confident we've ever been that they make the fight happen because Terrence Crawford has nowhere else to go because the comments from Spence this week in his media days and stuff is saying, look, that's the fight I want next. It's the fight we're going after. There's no other reason this is not happening, right? And even Derek James, who I interviewed on our show, said, look, I want this fight more than anybody, but don't

you agree this fight makes the most sense because we've waited long enough already to wait until all four belts can fight each other. Yes, I agree. Next step, Ugas. We'll see what happens after that. All right. From adugs123, I agree with this person. The Gilbert Burns interview was fantastic.

Can all fighter interviews be in person from now on, Brian Campbell? That's our, that's okay. All fighter interviews, no. There are times when for, you know, journalistic, populate this show, populate stories on our website. If we get 15 minutes with somebody in a, in a, you know, in a rotated set of, you're going to take it, right?

We got Volkanovski. You think we're going to turn down 15, 20 minutes with Volkski over zoom no but luke behind the scenes of morning combat with all the momentum we have from sponsorships to awards are we in the process of ramping up our interview game damn fucking right we are we're coming on we're coming on okay so you know we can't share a lot of details but suffice to say that our bosses saw the Gilbert Burns interview and everyone is very happy with the results of it, including us. We enjoyed doing it and it turned out great. Yeah, you should expect.

I mean, every time, BC? No, I did the Volkanovski one on Friday over Zoom, which is fine, but not my preferred. But will you see more in-person interviews? I would say that the the meteorological forecast bc looks sunny yeah i mean all all of the other mma shows come and take a listen try talking trash and we come with our smith and wesson luke okay you know what i mean we're we're absolutely coming on right now if you guys didn't notice if harold howard has never entered your your data banks and i think we've got the momentum mixed with the uh the the deep pockets

and in the confidence of those above us that uh yeah all right luke hey you want to fly to new zealand and talk to adesanya look i can try to make that happen behind the scenes okay yeah my goal is still i've told showtime this and they kind of balked on my idea but this is my idea and i've told everyone this before i've told the story a number of times so just i'll make the cliff notes condensed version i one time went to panama to visit some of my wife's relatives and there's a restaurant in panama city panama uh run by roberto duran in fact it's called duran's the food at this place is terrible it's a borderline inedible however that's not why you go why you go is because number for two reasons one it, it's a monument to all things Roberto Duran.

I mean, it's got newspapers when he was on the front page, and there's a highlight reel on all these TVs of all of his biggest hits and his belts and trunks. I mean, if you're a Roberto Duran diehard and you've not been to his restaurant, you're just missing out on everything. But the bigger point is that he's there all the time singing karaoke with people. You can just go and do it. it's not hard to see him so i pitched showtime on sending me and bc to panama to go sing karaoke with roberto duran and they did not seem very moved by my idea by my idea bc

but i think it'd be a winner yeah i'm with you i'm with you we should recreate the movie salvador with james woods and hop in a car and just drive there luke okay i don't know if you can do that but all right uh at adam underscore chambers 90 what current show are you guys watching what about ubc what are you watching okay good great question great besides red tube um i'm in love with the 40-something drama called The Million Little Things on ABC, which is taking different shape a little bit. My wife and I watched that together. Luke, I watch a lot of All-American on The CW. Do you watch that show?

I don't even know what that is. It's about a high school football star trying to leave the ghetto and make the college dreams and pros come true um you know i don't want 10 to what oh sorry the big the big ones look the big ones marvelous miss mazel mrs mazel the four seasons finally coming back around a little bit everyone's waiting for the second half of season four of ozark which is a little bit coming you know i love me some mandalorian but um those are my big hits luke what are you into you're probably into something trashy as shit.

No, the only one I really have time for, given everything I'm working on, is I just started. I literally wasn't watching any show up until this weekend. That's a true statement. There's only one episode out, but I started Moon Knight on Disney+. First episode was good. I mean, a little bit weird. But first episode, oh, you know what?

That's not true. I'm lying. Sorry. I did start one more on Friday night. I started Peacemaker on HBO Max with John Cena. Very good. The guy who made that is the guy who makes Guardians of the Galaxy, and he made the last Suicide Squad, not the bad Suicide Squad, James Gunn.

John Cena's really good in it. The show's pretty funny. I'm only three episodes in, but it was a fun little watch. Alright, and I'm waiting for Ted Lasso to come back on Apple Plus like everybody Luke. Oh, did you watch on Apple Plus, Luke, the damn The Morning Show with

Jennifer Aniston? I've not seen a single moment of any program on Apple Plus. It's good? It's really really damn good. They got a new one now with Jared Leto playing the guy from WeWork. It's good? Oh, it's really, really damn good. And they got a new one now with Jared Leto playing the guy from WeWork. It's fantastic, Luke. All right. Okay, last but not least, is at cool, I think it's double underscore Mike.

That's when you really know they mean business. Hey, Luke, how do I get my wife to stop calling me BC during times of intimacy? I don't know, like maybe please her. Well, Luke, the effects of BDE, it has secondhand smoke effects, Luke, okay? You know what I mean? It just, you know, the thing is like your wife's won't want you. They'll want more BC.

So, you know, I'm a one-man woman, Luke. So, you know, clean up your marriage bed, people. Okay, please. All right. Well, with that raunchy question, we now move to BC, and frankly, maybe one of my favorite segments of the show. It's time for your shit, BC. Set us up.

Yeah, so here's the deal. We got a really good batch today, okay? Okay, are you talking big? You're talking real big. I am talking big. We'll see what happens. We scour the globe, the internet, the world, highs, lows, good, bad, ugly, in between,

in combat, sports, and beyond. Sometimes that beyond involves elder abuse and drunk chicks.'s called have you seen this shit that's my favorite luke we don't have we don't have a lot to react to but some are already calling this the combat sports knockout of the year for 2022 just four months in it came from cage warriors over the weekend we have two angles manny akpan luke have you seen this shit i did dude look at this stuff sit and then bop oh man dude what do you even call that it looks like some kind of capoeira kick or a spinning heel kick he just kind of balances on his hand. I don't know. You'd have to ask a Taekwondo expert who might know better.

But it's the same principle that a lot of guys, including McGregor, use. They stand to their left, and they want to get you. A lot of people want to get away from his left, so they move away from it. But as they move away from it, he just does a – Shavkat Rachmanov does it too. They do a spinning back kick or a turning back kick into the direction they're moving away from their power hand. He was moving away from the guy's power hand i think that's what i have to go back and look but it seemed like it was a similar thing so he just whipped

around and caught him but the accuracy of that and the timing of that is the balance sir dude the balance to generate that power to be able to land that the accuracy i mean it's just dude that's a morning mortal kombat street fighter move right there, right? Yeah. He moves away from the power hand and then just walks right into the kick. But the way he set that up is, and the execution of it is crazy. Athletic Luke WrestleMania 38 hit Dallas. I'm going to focus just on one man who had a impressive debut.

Logan Paul teamed up with the Miz to take on Ray Mysterio and his son. I don't know if you saw this shit, but here's the big move, the big moonsault from Logan Paul. He's got the charisma. And then he hit it. Luke, he had a variety of high-flying moves. Was he a little raw? Yeah, but for a celebrity?

Dude, he looks like he could do this. And suddenly they had Jake Paul on the pre-show on Sunday saying he wants to do this too. Luke, they're kind of perfect physically and mentally for this. Really, really. Yeah, they're actually, I would say, I got to say, in all honesty, I'm not doing a bit. First of all, I mean, listen to this. The kid's athletic.

He is athletic. Is he a world-class athlete? No, I don't know if he's all that. But he's definitely a big, strong, athletic kid who trains hard and probably puts a lot into it. Already, he's got that whole entertainment sort of outrageousness factor. He's able to work. Then you marry that with some actual professional wrestling ability.

It seems to me I could be wrong. I don't know shit about professional wrestling. You guys will have to tell me. But it seems to me he can go a lot further in that than he can in boxing. I mean, he can only do a couple of know weird things left that seems like you might have some real territory to mine i agree and i don't have the tape to prove it because it was like late last night but pat mcafee had a match luke and dude he's a he legitimately can not only as a physically good wrestler but gets the mental side dude he might have gotten the biggest pop of the

night and that's like compared to stone cold and and a bunch of others like they went ape shit for him but here's uh one lesson logan paul does need to learn and luke in in uh in pro wrestling and steve austin taught it to us many times dta brother don't trust anyway look at this luke after the win the ms just just turning his back on his partner luke oh skull crushing finale luke i watched the two nights you know i can't watch wrestling anymore it's largely bullshit there was a bunch of feel-good moments but i don't think it's i think i've grown i've grown out of it again luke and i think you're going to be happy about that i think you are i'm very happy about the less we can talk about this the better okay all right let's go to boxing luke in england this week savannah marshall one of the top five pound for pound

fighters and women's boxing who's angling for a bout against clarissa shields and they talk some heavy trash after luke look at this ko against famke herman oh it's coming oh my lord jesus that was tell me one-hitter quitter. You don't see that type of power in women's boxing. You don't, Luke. You really don't.

Dude, you rarely see that. I mean, it's not unheard of, certainly in the men's game, but even men knock each other out like that is not so simple to do. She can thump, man. That's ridiculous. Her and Shields have a lot of history. This could be a good feud that they're building towards in terms of a women's fight to get behind

definitely so good knockout there Luke we've got more nominees for KOs of the week and they come from outside the cage in the ring let's go to the men's room for this one let's serve this guy some cake some urinal cake Luke look at that wow yo how did you lose uh you know that

part that catches all the leftover urine yo i hit that yeah i kind of pulled this ball hair out of my teeth afterwards wow look he kicked off his shoe you got to tie those shoes before the fight i keep saying this if you don't know how to fight and 99 of you watching don't know how to fight don't do it don't fucking do it. You're going to take an L and have your face in a pile of urine, or I should say a fucking pool of urine. So congratulations. Here's more advice. If you are in your college dorm room and you get hella drunk and high

and suddenly you think you're tough and somebody's got two sets of boxing gloves and they go, let's F around. Don't do it in this day and age of camera phone, Luke, or you're going to look like this next guy i mean look how tempting was it at william and mary in the frat house to do shit like this no we wrestled because you know then you're gonna find somebody who can actually throw a punch and then you're gonna be looking up oh this guy has no concept of like maybe i should put a glove next to my chin oh we're doing spinny shit now wow again we just go back to the idea that the amount of board honkies is just unbelievable yeah look at

these two this is great that's it's good form though on that spinner i mean yeah it's not bad i guess i mean for a dorm room he definitely took the outside step correctly. Yeah, wow. Alright, let's keep it going. Let's go to the track, Luke. A hell of a knockout on the track this week. You'd be surprised, bro. What the f... What happened? So these two were running to the finish line in this

looks to be at least an 800 or a 1600 kilometer race. And the one guy came up behind the other, if we can see it again is this some sort of crime of crime of passion wow crime of passion that i hate crime what is that jesus that's assault brother that shit ain't legal i'll tell you that much but uh love to hear the story hey luke you ever try to play a prank on somebody who was just not willing and then got KO'd for it? Definitely the first part.

Not so much. Ooh. Yeah, dude. These little fucks who do this at Home Depot. Yeah. Every time they get their ass beat, I never feel sorry for them. This guy, probably a Vietnam vet, probably like, you know. Yeah.

Oh, I mean, it doesn't matter who you are, Luke. That guy's taking you downtown. Look at that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, everything about his technique is terrible, but he is much larger than that little nerd. Yeah. And so, when I see stuff like this happening, like someone getting their comeuppance, I just keep moving. I'm like, yep, I'm off to aisle 14. Y'all can

have fun in aisle 12. Have a good day. Luke, we often play sound of Mike Tyson on the show because he fills the soundbite so well. Let's check out this discussion from the Hot Boxing Podcast with Jamal Charlo. Oh, I know this riled you up. You said, hi, you slapped him five. What was it like? One of these fighters, like Benavidez, you saw him out in public.

I don't see him out in public. If he was right there, it's going to be outside. He be outside like that. He be outside. Yeah, for sure. He be outside. In case for sure. He be outside. In case they do see each other. We not know.

Me and my twin brother not known for like, oh, you can just come up and just say what you want to say to, you know, me and my brother. Just, you know, it's smooth. Get away with it. It probably be a fight right there. I love that. Like, but we ain't finna like, you know, like talk about it. We don't gotta be like. I like that.

Soon as you see that, then we all we already locked in. Luke, you could tell from the line of his questioning and I know we played sound from the same interview on a previous episode, that Tyson's like scouting up Jamal, wondering if he's really about that life, wondering if he's really for real, set up that question of, okay, what

would happen if you saw him in person? And dude, he's just like, yeah, man if he's really for real, set up that question of, okay, what would happen if you saw him in person? And dude, he's just like, yeah, man, that's what I'm talking about. You know what I'm saying? That's some Lions-only shit right there, Luke. Dude, he's like clearly instigating them and like borderline cheering himself for it. You and I could not get away with that,

but old Iron Mike, he can ruffle a few feathers, you know? Absolutely. Love to see the joy that that brought him. This brought potentially you and I a lot of joy. I can't tell you how many people DM me this sparring video from ATT in Coconut Creek, Florida, Luke, involving Joanna Young-Jaychick and Valerie Lorena, Luke. Iron sharpening iron here.

Potentially. There we go this get you um excited about these two fighters helping each other grow luke not really this seems like pretty straightforward sparring and they look like they're doing things in particular for a very specific sparring related purpose rather than just outright going like they're taking turns on purpose okay luke sorry sorry sorry i thought i thought this could interest you i guess we'll move on hey wholesome video of the week luke dan hooker finally has made it back to his family down under reuniting with his daughter following the lengthy quarantines and extended training camps i mean luke you're a girl dad this is just some good shit right here Quarantines and extended training camps.

I mean, Luke, you're a girl, Dad. This is just some good shit right here. Yeah, that's the best. That's the best. There is nothing like that, let me tell you. Luke, I know it's been a rough stretch for Hooker. Four or five losses against some very elite foes, switching divisions,

but this kind of puts all that in the rear view, dude. Okay? Yeah, man. Well, you know, you still have to think about your future, but this kind of puts all that in the rear view, dude. Okay? Yeah, man. Well, you know, you still have to think about your future, but God bless Dan Hooker, and I'm glad he's back with his family. And just the amount of sacrifices that guy has made, like, I really hope he can find a way to get back to winning because when it comes to, like,

did you cross every T and dot every I, in terms of effort, he certainly has. In terms of what he is willing to be sacrificed he there's just no denying it um yeah so i hope there's a way to make it all work luke we all know you were a lieutenant marine sergeant or something like that whatever that means but is this that's a nonsensical description of nothing you were a lieutenant is this a standard operating procedure in the Marines, Luke? If you need a tripod for your gun?

Well, I wouldn't call it standard operating procedure, but the grunts will do a lot of stupid shit with their time. That is for sure true. Okay. Is there any kickback on that weapon right there, Luke? Because if there is, it's going right in the old... There's not much recoil in that. All right. You know, but this is... you know, Marines, listen.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone when it comes to doing incredibly stupid shit while in your Marine Corps time. This is merely among the pantheon of greater stupid things that we do, so. All right, indeed. Hey, let's go on to a huge week for internet drinking sensation, Ronnie Deutsch.

Luke, you know this fella from New Hampshire. This guy can put it down. Him mixing your two favorite things, getting blasted and working out, Luke. Is that a real pull-up? Would Phil Sims be okay with this? Nope, that's a zero. He doesn't go down all the way.

It's a zero. But I appreciate the effort at uh instagram foolishness uh barstool has been picking up his videos a lot lately luke they should just hire this guy alt right right yeah i don't know i don't know what anyone is waiting for look at this absolute glorious weirdo drinking beer in the least purposeful way imaginable but yet yeah with all the same splendor of a peacock fully spreading its wings. A 6'5", former, I think, D3 basketball player, good old Ronnie Deutsch. Deutsch also took on that contraption where they put six bottles of Corona and you drink it at once, Luke.

Good Lord. I've never seen this. Can we go full screen? First of all, this John C. Reilly tank top he's wearing is just next level. But, dude, he just took down six brouhahs, Luke, in about six seconds. Dude, that is... Why isn't he running for office so we can vote for him? I don't understand that.

Before he dies, can we make him famous and rich at this point luke this guy's incredible yeah he's an american treasure and if the secret service isn't already guarding him we need to make sure that they do all right luke it's time for rate my rate that tat will smith edition yes the slap heard around the world luke let's go to this first one. Would you call this Prince Fresh or what here? That's okay. That's okay. Okay. The hand is a little weird.

Some of the shading on the face is a little weird. But in general, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. All right. Speaking of that slap, Luke, a lot of people memorializing it on their skin already. Your thoughts on the craftsmanship here? Can you blow? Okay. Not a great tattoo, but not a terrible one, all things considered.

It looks very Mr. He-Boss to me, Luke. Yeah, I mean, it's not great. I mean, it's bad, but it's kind of funny, actually. It's kind of funny. And finally, Luke, we all love the Bad Boys movie franchise, but do you love it enough, Luke, to put it on your thigh? Your thoughts on this choice? Can you zoom in, Gaff?

Yeah, well, the tattooing is just a lot of heavy black and gray. And that's a new tattoo, it looks like. Well, it's hard to tell how new it is. It looks like it's a little new, which means it'll lighten up when it heals. In general, I would say that's a very strong tattoo. But I would not want that at all. I have to say, this is so common in tattooing to the point where i don't think people think much about it i don't really love the idea of getting a bunch of faces on your body i actually find it a little bit creepy but people love it they love getting faces on there

so yeah here you go damien the donk he likes getting little girls hung on his chest luke that's uh well if you remember correctly the hair on her hanged body from her head was covering her face. So a little bit different, I guess. Now boarding row eight of Delta, Luke, let's go to the, I guess they call this a vacuum bong. Look, either way, this is probably what you should be doing right now. Oh, my God. Jesus, take the wheel and take me away forever. I don't see how you come out of that in one piece.

Is that a child right there? What is it? Dude, everyone's like, you got to go to Peru and then, you know, go into the mountains and have a shaman and do a bunch of stuff. No, man, you don't need any of that. You just need a few engineering potheads and uh one of these and it'll take you to the exact same place yeah wow uh let's go on to our next uh related item i think they call this the human hookah luke could you survive this full rip this is what you do if you have a lot of friends and a lot of weed luke okay you get together you make the human hookah but i don't know if you're surviving this luke

so is this what they do on january 7th yes yes this is how they come down luke wow dude that guy must be so high underneath that like just i I don't understand why we can't do this. Will someone please help me figure out a way to go do this somewhere? I'm dying to do it. Luke, if peeing your pants is cool, call me Ty Tuivasa, apparently. Let's go to this video. Firstly, I want to shout out to all my people from the area. Panthers!

And also I want to let you know, everyone, I woke up, I pissed the bed. Everyone's pissed the bed before. SJ, FTA, We keep on going. The Penny Panthers! I mean, that's not exactly Miles Davis, Luke. Maybe we could get him in training camp? Why are we doing this? of all again i'm not going to give any details but let he who's without pissing in someone's bed cast the first stone

what i will say is what i will say is the thing i took from this was my man was up in the morning drinking it looked like champagne right out of the bottle i have to tell you you want to get the worst hangover that the human body can experience drink champagne to get there you know you can have a glass or two or whatever dude i one time saw a fraternity brother drink three of those like back to back to back like you would a beer you know and that may i mean i can't even tell you the level of pain and discomfort i watched him go through as a consequence of that so and that was by 10 a.m. look so I love Ty Tuivasa posting party videos drinking out of shoes but you know this is a little too close a little too a little TMI here Luke okay listen let he who is without urinating in someone's bed I'm gonna say it one more time I don't know if I put that in social

media though let's keep it going though hey Luke I got one more wholesome video for you. Check out this bear just joining the group of friends and acting like he belongs. Oh, snap. He's like, over here, over here, I'll be your friend. Yeah, you know, everyone's like, oh, you know what? Bears are our friend. And then you go over there thinking you're Mowgli from the Jungle Book, and they fucking rip your head off and feed that shit to the little cubs.

He caught that. You ever been on hibachi and they throw the vegetable at you, Luke? He caught that first time. Do you know I've never done that? I've never done the hibachi thing. Yeah. Wow. You're missing out, Luke.

Okay. I know. Everyone raves about it. I've never done it. All right. Are you ready for some football? A Monday night party luke we got frank and alan dan let's go to the uh oh they're bringing out the field goal team

can we go full on these gaff we got to be able to see what's happening i love spring break that's a chick they just hit right in the face, Luke. In the face. Okay, okay. You know, maybe I oversold these, Luke. I had a lot of momentum coming into this segment, but it feels like a one flat tire after another. Let's go out into the field here, Luke, at the pitch.

It's footy time for the team picture, but check out number 69 trying to join as a drunken fan. This is great shit. Oh, yeah. That's an open field tackle right there. Dude, it looks like Zinedine Zidane hit him. Who is the guy running across? Some security guard.

Speaking of getting run over, though, Luke, though this isn't Faces of Death, but check out how tough this guy is. Are we about to witness a homicide or some shit? Oh, fuck me. Oh, shit. BC, this, okay. Okay, so remember in the morning you played the hasselhoff gif yeah okay oh fuck fuck what the fuck all right guys so me me recording my show with no sound was me running

into this dude but then you were the guy that drove the van over him and then back you know luke i just want to let you know after uh after we won that award i did look into how much a david hasselhoff cameo video costs turns out 600 was too much luke okay but that would have been if we could get him to take his shirt off that would have been epic luke okay dude okay that would have been so good i would have no choice but to compliment you. All right, Luke. Check this chick's reaction time. Is this wife material?

What the fuck? No, that's not real. That's not real. That's not real. She scooped that up like it was a brown ball. That's not real. That's not real. That can't be real. That's not real that's not real that's not real that's not real that can't be real no way otherwise yeah she's wife material at times a thousand but no that's not that's not i can't that has to be somehow doctored luke here's your real ko of the week in full disclosure

i laughed till i cried 17 times i watched it that many times it's almost like holloway volkanovski too luke let's watch these guys try to move a couch without too much brains oh you fucking apes No, no, dude. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, my God. Yes. Wow. Yeah.

All right. Dog. Okay. So I've done stuff like this. This is, I mean, you know, I don't know what part of the world this is in, but this is where you need two tall friends. Yeah. That's what you need. Not some guy who just rolls shit off the top of a roof

without handing it to someone. And then you've got geriatrics in this fucking, you know, Vespa horsepower fucking truck, and then you're just killing the elderly. I mean, what the fuck are we doing? That looks like Hendo Bisping won, Luke. That's vicious right there. Lord, it's terrible.

I got two pieces of sound on the way out. The first one is Brock Lesnar being interviewed by Joe Tessitore on SportsCenter days out from his unification match with Roman Reigns, which was the main event of Sunday's night two of WrestleMania. Let me guess, something about the COVID vaccine being terrible or something? I can feel it in the air right now. You can feel my mood. I can feel your mood.

I'll swell this room right up. Oh, it is swelling up right now. It's palpable right now. I'm coming. I'm just going to come as hard as I can. i mean look it's swelling you know i mean it was the room was swelling up this is why you can't live in the woods away from people for that long you know didn't he live in like the wilderness like not around any other folks yeah he's He's on a farm of two million acres. This is why you need vecinos.

You know what I'm saying? Neighbors. This is why you need them. If you're not used to talking to people, you just go out there and be like, I just want to fucking jizz on everything. You know what I'm saying? I'm happy. I don't think that means what you think it means.

Not quite Harold Howard, Luke, but he is coming on just the same. Wow. And finally, Luke, this was the NCAA Women's Championship game. I'm not sure if you know this, but ESPN did a Peyton Manning Brothers type setup where they had Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi give an alternate broadcast with some

celebrity special guests. I believe this was UConn versus South Carolina, if I'm not incorrect. Let's check it out. It's so simple. It's a game of inches at the same time, so those simple things's so simple. It's so simple. It's a game of inches at the same time. So those simple things are not always so simple. It is. It's a game of inches.

Ask the Cox. Ask him. And they're taking those inches. Do you take those inches? Absolutely. When you're on the court. My God. Look, as Tarazi said, ask the Coxcks speaking of the south carolina game cocks wow

wow luke well in fairness the cocks would know i mean yeah yeah that's the shit for the week luke uh that's great that's all that's great that's good no it was good it was good i still didn't see You know what would have been great was the second angle of the furniture moving and watching that old man bite it. It's hard to get real excited in 240p. You know what I'm saying? I need to see that in 720. In 4K, that'd be magic.

All right, Luke. All right, BC, time for odds and ends. Time for odds and ends. Good stuff. What do you got? All right, nobody wants to hear this, but here's the deal. I did watch WrestleMania. I picked and choose. It didn't make me want to come back.

I got this to say. I think they overplayed the old guy thing way too hard. Everybody's all fired up about Stone Cold Steve Austin getting a match Saturday night against Kevin Owens. He's 57 and a lot of kick punch and beer drinking and oh, it's great. Like, no, not at WrestleMania. Steve Austin had done such a great job protecting the fact that he hadn't had a match in 20 something years and wasn't going to because he's old and injured and then somehow got lured into this and i know it's supposed to be good

time nature for people and yeah kevin owens sold his ass off but steve austin's different meaning he should have been better than this just like sean michaels should have been better when he came back two years ago bald and vince mcmahon on sunday night luke should have been better than this just like sean michaels should have been better when he came back two years ago bald and vince mcmahon on sunday night luke should have been better than this when he came back in his mid-70s and took the worst stunner ever from stone cold and we did the whole beer guzzling act all over again i did see this didn't he have to reach for it like nine times oh god and here's the deal like vince mcm man has has purposely kept him off tv on a full-time basis because he hates the way he looks as an old guy even though he's before this year but still been ripped did you see him two years ago luke he was on the cover of muscle fitness i mean he was

ridiculously ripped for early 70s like must be taking the most designer shit you ever heard of dude he took his shirt off last night and had a impromptu match with pat mcafee and not only was it gross and slow and ridiculous dude his musculature was just old i mean look you see that guy's balls he's old look i felt bad for him it was in the words of doug stanhope his balls probably sag like the cheese when you're pulling away a slice from the pie and then all that space that's probably his balls right now i'm just saying somebody should have stepped in and Q&A'd that. Not QAnon'd it. Q&A'd it and said, maybe this is not a good look for you or for us at this point. But I'll close with this, Luke.

The one positive I did take out of the two days of WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, and I know nobody cares and that's fine, but Cody Rhodes had a prodigal son comeback story. Of course, he left WWE because he didn't want to do the Stardust character anymore six years ago. Went on the indies, helped star AEW, really was the face of the revolution. And then out of nowhere made this leave and leap back to WWE. Only he did it on his terms. He had a match with Seth Rollins and Luke.

The reason why this was the best match of the weekend, the best storyline coming from WrestleMania was it was the most real here was Cody Rhodes doing what we all have wanted to do. You leaving Vox and coming back and winning all this money and making all these awards and me doing the same for me as PN and being like, this is how it was supposed to have been done. Me betting on me being me, not what you want me to be. It was a wholesome,

heartfelt moment. It was a wholesome, heartfelt moment. It was a fantastic top-shelf match. Credit to Seth Rollins for selling all that. And even though Cody's a little bit rough at times in an elite match in terms of moves and technique, as a performer, he's A+. Luke, this was the first night in Cody's entire career where I felt like he was Dusty's son. He's Dusty Rhodes' blood son, but he stepped into that. This is a move Dusty would have done.

Being an opportunistic businessman at the key moment, knowing your value, maximizing it. Shout out to Cody Rhodes. I felt it in the feel spot to see you go on that turnaround. I'm not into the game anymore, but I will tune into what he's doing, the American Nightmare. Love him or hate him, Luke.

He came full circle and bet on himself, and it worked. So it was very, very good to see that. And, Luke, he fought. He wrestled in a style which could have been 1978 Memphis at the Mid-South Coliseum or Greenville, South Carolina in 83 at Starrcade. It was that old-school pro wrestling style that I get into. Enough wrestling on this show.

Thank you. Sorry, sorry. Yes, I agree. I agree. Volkanovskis were going to win. I wrestling on this show. Thank you. So, sorry, sorry. Yes, I agree. I agree. Volkanovskis, we're going to win. I agree. I agree.

Okay. Sorry, I had to be a shithead about it. I apologize. All right. For my odds and ends, I was just pretending to be asleep, BC, just to stick it to you. Sorry. But I don't really mean that.

All right. BC, for my odds and ends, for the folks who don't care about wrestling, how about this? Did you see the executive compensation packages for Endeavor's two top executives? Listen to this. Endeavor executives, by the way, just crushed their 2020 numbers. In 2021, Ari Emanuel, who heads Endeavor, made a pay package of $308 million, which, by the way, I should note, is, according to the Wall Street Journal, not only tops all Hollywood executives, it's also the highest figure for any CEO in the S&P 500. BC, listen to this. SEC filings also show that Endeavor executives received massive paydays in 2021 with similar stock grants. Chairman Patrick Whitesell, 123 million.

Endeavor's Patrick Mark Shapiro, 42 million. CFO Jason Lubin, 18 million. Chief Communications Officer Christian Muirhead getting 12 million as well. I just want to point out, BC, that there's a lot of ways in which I'm not arguing that they should not be compensated. In fact, even hundreds of millions. They had a great year. They're the top executives.

Of course, they should be rich. They will be rich. All of this is in every way kind of some way fine, except when you realize that just between the two top executives, if you just took in their salaries, that's more than double the entire roster got paid in 2021. More to the point, more to the point about this, it just remains kind of weird to me that we have these ways in which we pay most people, including top executives, that have nothing to do with the deprivation arguments that those same UFC executives employ to keep fighter pay what it is where we're splitting show and win where we're like well we got to keep them hungry to get the most out of them we don't employ any of those rubrics or taxes or sort of ways in which we organize pay to do any other form of any other elite pay in this entire industry, frankly. And so it just sort of

shows this is not a claim that it should be X amount less or a Y amount more. Rather, we structure pay for all those people without any of those same considerations, because of course the consideration that you should split it between show and win or however you want to split it in those ways is just an arbitrary way to lower pay to keep it at 17 that they don't employ for any of themselves so it's fine that they're rich it's fine they made a lot of money i just want to point out that the reasons why fighter pay is low the arguments that they make they would never employ for themselves and why they have different jobs the reasons why you would employ them still don't make any sense it's just to keep fighter pay low so yeah i mean these should not be the guys being you know on record at the stock meetings explaining

how well we do or don't pay our our fighters when i mean what what did what did our our uh what did manual make what was the total 308 mil 308 million in one year yeah okay what if he took i'm not asking a successful man to take a pay cut but what if he took 100 million of that and put it back in the fighter pay uh would that fix the problem luke i mean would would 100 million be enough to fix the problem i mean i don't know i don't know what fixing the problem even looks like anymore but i would say this you'd probably see a lot less complaints i mean people like all day to complain no matter what i don't know i'd like to test that theory i really would the biggest the biggest problem is there's no middle class in ufc fighter pay and the the bottom level gets paid like peanuts they can't even afford to do a training camp but even if they kept the structure of the have and have

not to keep everybody hungry and just said when you get to the championship level you're making five million a year no matter what and you're're set for life. Thank you for your hard work and all the brain you gave to this. They don't even do that, Luke. You know what I mean? They got it. They got it, Luke. I mean, could you imagine?

I'm just saying, they did a great thing. They've done, they deserve to be well compensated. It's just these infantilizing arguments that people employ because they want to argue fighting is different, and therefore we have to put in these mechanisms to actually lower pay to get better performance. Matt Brown was talking about it, but you really think that splitting Matt Brown's purse is going to get more out of Matt? Matt Brown's going to give you 100% no matter what, at least for senior fighters.

It obviously makes zero sense. And I'm just pointing out out they put these things in there and they say oh fighting is different that's why we have to pay differently when you don't see those uh mechanisms employed anywhere else in any of the industry or frankly really any other industry because it's obviously quite nonsensical it doesn't work at all and so i'm just pointing out not that they don't deserve to make enormous riches. They do. They deserve to be enormously wealthy, but they would never employ these kinds of things because it's just obviously a scheme to keep pay low. No less, no more.

Just call it what it is. And if you're wondering on a comparison, Roger Goodell was set to make just shy of, I believe, 64 million last year to run the NFL. And the highest paid player, Aaron Rodgers, did make 50 million. Luke Deshaun Watson, 46 Mahomes 45 so at least it's closer keeping I mean what's I mean try to compare Emmanuel or Dana White or White cells take home to what Conor McGregor or anyone else in the upper upper upper UFC elite it's not even close and dude there's bootlickers out there being like this is biting all of this is different in end, they get 17 to 18% by design because probably it's going to see what the courts decide.

Probably because it's a monopoly and they can. Again, I'm just so tired of having been in fight sports as long as I have and watching this as long as I have. Seeing these arguments leveled at fighters about why their pay should be lowered when they're just absurd on their face that no one employs anywhere else um pay them what you want or you know but at least make an argument like we pay you this low because we want to keep most of the money that's that's the argument that's the argument the beginning and the end of it that's the argument so all this other bullshit just toss it out all right thank you that's our show uh bc bc we have a bunch of stuff coming this week so we're gonna have the wednesday BC. We have a bunch of stuff coming this week. So we're going to have the Wednesday show.

We'll have a Friday show. We'll see what happens with your participation on the Friday show. But we also, I think it's coming out tomorrow, BC. I could be wrong about this. It's coming out soon anyway. I'll get the exact date on this. The Spence Ugas preview that I did. I brought back Dissected.

And we're going to have a Spence Ugas preview. Not a total preview. Just a couple of things to look for in either direction. So that's coming out as well. Any interviews coming out that we should be aware of? Yeah, I'm going to chat with Demetrius Johnson of One Championship fame, Luke.

Very good. Very good. All right. So there you have it. So take that shit, Luke, okay? No, that's great. DJ's a great fighter. He's a good interviewer. I look forward to watching it. I want to ask him if he's going to be on The Apprentice Season 2, Chalk Tree Edition. He might. He might. I don't know. There you go. There's all our socials.

You can follow us there. Showtime is the label that pays. You can check us out at Showtime.com. You get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. MorningCombat.store. Folks, this is the last of it. This is the last of the run. If you want anything from there, you've got to go get it. We're going to overhaul the entire thing so go get it morning combat.store 20 off on existing merch ends at midnight tonight so you have to go do that um let's see of course thanks to nord vpn

for the sponsorship and bc any final thoughts um no thanks i'm good i'm good all right there he is for for the viceroy of connecticut brian campbell for c, for Showtime, for Malka, I'm Luke Thomas. We'll see you guys on Wednesday. Until next time, may all of your games be loyal.