MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 275 in Singapore | Figueiredo-Moreno 4 or Kara-France | Fabricio Werdum | Ep. 283
Episode Date: March 30, 2022On Episode 283 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian discuss the announcement that UFC 275 will be in Singapore headlined by two title fights. What are the guys thoughts? Next up the guys discuss Deiveson ...Figueiredo calling for Kai Kara-France instead of Brandon Moreno. Who deserves the title shot? The final topic they discuss is Fabricio Werdum announcing he is retiring from MMA. The boys close out the show with Truth or Trivia and Fan Submissions. (11:30) - UFC 275 (35:50) - DeivesonĀ Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno 4 or Kai Kara-France (44:30) - Fabricio Werdum (58:00) - Truth or Trivia (78:00) - Fan Submissions Morning Kombatā is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.Ā Ā For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat Ā Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat Ā Ā For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store Ā Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
March is almost over, which means April 1st is around the corner,
which means the worst day in online comedy is close.
I don't know what that has to do with today, but I just felt like bringing it up.
Hi, everyone. It's Morning Combat, your award-winning podcast
that puts out excellent Gilbert Burns interviews.
I am merely one half of your hosting duo.
My name is Luke Thomas. I'm in the capital of Estados Unidos here in Washington, D.C.,
joined by the Viceroy of Connecticut himself.
It's Brian Campbell.
Brian, people seem to like the Gilbert Burns interview.
You know, I think, Luke, they seem to love it, okay?
And while I would like to take credit alongside you,
as well as our great staff at CBS Sports and Showtime and Mall Club
for putting that together, it takes two, or in this case, three to tango.
And shout out to Gilbert Burns, who, what are we,
a little bit more than a week away from UFC 273
when he takes on Hamzat Chemaev.
What an introspective, humble, candid,
you know, like you don't get fighters opening up like this.
It's rare, and I was very happy to take part.
So youtube.com slash morning combat.
Please check that out.
Indeed.
I'm glad to see people liked it.
We hope you, if you haven't checked it out, I don't know what you're waiting on.
And, you know, a lot of people were like, oh, you were hyping it up.
You were hyping it up.
And if you look in the comments, they all say that the interview delivered.
I was not telling lies about it.
It really is that good.
And again, to your point, credit to Burns, man.
Like we can ask all the questions and we can have, you know, we can try to put them in the mind frame to do that stuff,
but they have to do it themselves in the end of the day, and he did in the most incredible of ways.
So we really appreciate Gilbert's time, and can't wait to see that fight.
As it relates to today, we'll talk about some news and some notes, a little bit of MMA, a little bit of boxing,
and then we're going to have a little fun.
What are we doing at the end of the show?
I know that you have crafted something.
What are we doing?
Yeah, well, in addition to fan submissions,
which is always a big hit on Wednesday Hump Day,
today, Luke, for the first time,
you sit in the chair and play a little segment
that we've only done twice before,
both times without you, called Truth or Trivia.
Okay.
So I either have to tell you the truth about something
or I have to do a trivia question?
Is that the idea?
Well, you know, the title might be a little misleading.
It's more like you have five trivia questions coming your way.
Everyone you get wrong and they're gettable questions, but everyone you get wrong, you have to answer a very personal question that I'm sure you don't want to answer.
It's got the spirit of of of Wheel of Death, but you do have a chance to work your way out of it, if you know what I mean.
All right, all right.
We'll see what we can do.
So we'll play that here as well today.
So thumbs up on the video if you're watching on YouTube.
Welcome to all the new subscribers that are here.
There's a few hundred of you.
We're glad to have you here.
So thank you for joining us.
We do this Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11 a.m. in the East.
Now, BC, which should be noted, though, usually the Wednesdays and Friday shows are a little bit more crowded.
There's nothing on
the calendar this weekend other than regional box is there anything more than regional boxing
because it's only regional MMA yeah it's a it's it's an off week so to speak there's a two-night
Wrestlemania this weekend that I know you don't care about Luke and there's also of course the
NCAA tournament men's and women's so I you know everybody sort of conspired together to take the
weekend off Luke and when you look at how obscenely loaded the month of April is in combat sports,
MMA, and boxing, it's a nice little, you know, calm before the storm that's coming.
Okay?
All right.
Fair enough.
Let's see.
MorningCombat at gmail.com is the email for the show.
If you want to email us for Wednesdays, fan subs, or anything else, including Friday's Dead Wrongs, that's the place to do it.
Showtime.com is the label that pays.
You can get a 30-day free trial if you like it.
You can keep it.
If not, pounce hands.
Go to Showtime.com to set all of that up.
And then we have merch.
Now, BC, this is my understanding of the merch deal, right?
We're going to have a whole new wave of stuff coming in.
So there's a big sale on the existing inventory.
You can get it at morningcombat.store. My understanding is that'll be all the way through the weekend and then all
the way through Monday, but Monday at midnight. So Monday rolling into Tuesday, the sale, what is
it? 20% off on everything that goes away? Look, don't wait. Okay. Monday night is the end of this
sale. And when that sale's done, that shit's getting taken off the website. So if you've
always eyed something, right? A mug, a hat, something, right,
you know what I mean, something with high T, unlike this hat, apparently,
according to our staff, you can get that for 20% off right now
at morningcombat.store.
It's a great time as we spring clean our own closets for you to add something
to yours.
So please do that.
Check it out.
All right.
There you have it.
BC, I should also note
that well actually question did you start your day with a little ag1 yes luke using this fantastic
wrestlemania cup that i picked up in new orleans a couple years ago um i poured poured that one
scoop of liquid green in there and luke i'll tell you what okay i'm not good at being healthy but
i'm trying.
And I know there's a lot of other people out there in our fan base like that.
You want something that doesn't taste super healthy to start your day?
A little tropical taste, but makes you feel clean, makes you feel good, gives you nutrients, immune-supporting type products.
It's so easy, Luke.
One scoop each morning in your cup, pour in the water, mix it up,
and you know what? You start your day the right way, unlike a lot of you out there who are
grabbing that coffee roll and overdosing on coffee to start the day. I see you.
I usually start my day with liquor and lean, but if when I'm not doing that, it's AG1, folks. As you indicated, it's one scoop. It's a tablespoon mixed with water.
You have 75 different high-quality vitamins, minerals, all kinds of stuff for probiotics.
And again, it's just that, not a big-ass bag of pills and everything you have to take five times a day.
Super simple, super easy.
Look, I don't eat a lot of vegetables.
I'm trying, Luke.
I'm trying to get there.
But this really helps supplement a lot of vegetables. I'm trying, Luke. I'm trying to get there, but this really helps supplement a lot of things. It's not just your diet, but the special blend of
ingredients support your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, your
recovery, your focus. It also helps with aging, Luke. There's some scientists that have figured
this shit out. You want to talk about a shortcut to success this is a great way to to get
there all right it's lifestyle friendly whether you eat keto paleo vegan dairy free or gluten
free it contains less than one gram of sugar no gmos no nasty chemicals artificial anything while
still tasting good you can take it with you on the road i travel with it often and you want to
talk about the cost less than three bucks per day you're investing in your health. And, oh, by the way, it's cheaper than that cold brew habit, that vape habit.
I could go on and down the road, but I won't, Luke.
We all got a lot of habits.
Let's start getting habitual with AG1.
Taking Athletic Greens as a small micro habit with big benefits,
it's one thing you can do every single day to take care of yourself.
Yeah, and it's got over 7,005 star reviews.
So Athletic Greens is trusted by many leading health experts,
including Tim Ferriss, Michael Gervais.
I'm told Joe Rogan uses it.
Luke, I'm told that, okay?
I'm told that.
Well, I'm telling you I use it.
Right now, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system
with convenient daily nutrition, especially heading into the flu and cold season.
It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day.
That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out
for your health. You want a little bonus on there? If you act now by going to the website,
athleticgreens.com slash morning combat, here's what you're going to get. One year free supply
of immune supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. They,
they throw a little extra in there.
It's going to be worth it for you.
Give it a try.
All right.
All you got to do is visit athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat.
Again, athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat to take ownership over your health
and pick up your ultimate daily nutritional insurance.
Okay, BC, you ready to get this going?
Yeah, let's just have fun today, Luke, okay?
It's a slow week.
It's hump day.
Oh, Luke, one more thing before the people get what they need here.
Tomorrow, Thursday, March 30th, 4 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.
No, no, no, today's the 30th.
Time out, time out, time out.
Today's the 30th.
You mean the 31st.
Okay, I'm typically off, Luke.
I'm typically a day late, a dollar short.
Thursday, tomorrow, March 31st.
If you go to YouTube, look up Sports Podcast
Awards. They're having their live ceremony
4 p.m. Eastern. A lot of you remember
we put out the call to vote for us.
We don't know if we won it, but we were up
for Best Combat Sports Podcast
of 2021 against the likes
of Ariel Hawane, Chris Jericho,
on and on. There's a lot of heavy hitters on this
list. Tune in to find out if we win
and what do you get if we win?
Find folks at CBS Sports.
They did promise if we win this award, we're going to find out tomorrow.
How about a live show in Vegas, International Fight Week, okay?
You want to be there?
You want us to drink out of your shoe?
Heck, I'll drink out of someone's underpants, Luke.
Is the podcast of my daughter screaming and banging on my door,
is that up for any awards at this award show?
You should arm her with pots and pans when she sits outside your door, right?
It's great.
It's fantastic.
It's just, dude, how many times do I have to ask people to please not let her do that?
And then they just ignore me.
It's my life.
Okay, let's start with topic number one, BC.
It's a smaller topic, but it's a bit of an interesting one.
So check this out. We got news yesterday. In fact, I did get the release from one, BC. It's a smaller topic, but it's a bit of an interesting one. So check this out.
We got news yesterday.
In fact, I did get the release from this, which I typically do not do.
UFC doesn't send me everything.
But UFC is going back to Singapore.
Now, they were there before.
I think it was like the...
I think Dong Hyun Kim fought Tyron Woodley on that card.
Tarek Safedine against Hung Yu Lim.
I believe that's right.
Something like that.
In any case, UFC 275 is going back to Southeast Asia.
And it's going to...
Oh, Jesus Christ.
I mean, you've got to be kidding me.
It will mark UFC's first pay-per-view in championship title bouts hosted in Southeast Asia.
Now, on that card, BC, we already know Glover Teixeira is going to defend his title against Yuri Prohachkov,
a hotly anticipated light heavyweight title there, title bout.
Valentina Shevchenko is going to take on Ty LaSantos.
And now on that card, Marvin Vittori versus Robert Whitaker.
BC, we had talked about the need for UFC to not necessarily travel anymore.
This is not the 2000s or the 2010s where they had to kind of take the show on the road
to sort of give people proof of concept of what it meant
and let them see the experience for themselves.
Certainly there's always a benefit to traveling,
but what do you make of them going to Southeast Asia,
the home of one championship, in June and bringing a pay-per-view with them?
I was going to bring that up to you and say,
how much is this a counter move?
Because, look, we don't talk about one a ton on this show.
And I found in the last 24 hours that some people took umbrage with that,
that on Monday's show we didn't break down.
We should talk about that for a second.
Okay, go ahead, though. Go ahead.
That we did not break down 1X in great detail
or any detail on Monday's Morning Combat.
Now, look, to be fair, we were trying to save some extra bullets
for that great spinoff show we do called Morning Combat Extra credit in which you went ham on all things mighty mouse rod tang road tang wrote
rotang uh but here's the deal luke one does make noise a lot of our viewers believe one is the
second best global mma promotion and and some of the they also believe luke that you and i sometimes get too caught up in
the one apprentice championship chatri this card was viewed by 14 billion people press releases
and that they got something going there is this ufc car promote you know promoting trying to
invade that territory or is this just a spot they haven't hit too often i'm not really sure but
here's the the best thing i'll say about this card and the UFC's effort here. They're coming out big. I mean, two title fights
and a third fight, meaning Robert Whitaker against Marvin Vittori that has huge stakes and a lot of
interest. This is a damn good card that they're putting out. So they're certainly not throwing,
you know, some crap against the wall in a new part of the world and trying to stir up some
interest or business. They're coming for it.
Now, our producer, Mikey Morimawa, reminding us that you mentioned
they've been there before.
It was UFC Fight Night 162, and it was Damian Maia, Ben Askren.
Luke, who could forget that slugfest between those two?
Was the other one Macau?
I think it was. Yeah, I think it was.
Let me double check that.
Maia and Askren were trading punches like it was two drunk guys behind a bar.
Look, it was great.
But look, here's the deal.
This fight card matters.
It's a big-ass deal.
I want to ask you this, Luke.
What elements of this is just, oh, here's a part of the world that we haven't really conquered yet?
Or what element of it is, oh, you think one's hot?
We're the best in the business business and we'll show you that probably there's a little bit of we want to go and then um not just do something in that market
like here's the thing if if the only other show there and uh by the way tyron woodley versus john
kong kim was in macau i'm going to check the tarik safadine one what was that one when he fought
hung you limb that was in a singapore as well i I was right. Sorry. Suck a dick. There you go. That was in
January of 2014 in
Marina Bay, Singapore. Who are you
offering to SAD? Is that me?
Mikey Mormyle? Yourself?
Just the world.
Just the world in general.
Just me against the world. The point I'm trying to make
here is, it's not the strongest
pay-per-view in terms of the
pay-per-view drawing names, but what it is, is it's not the strongest pay-per-view in terms of the pay-per-view drawing names but
what it is is it's a step up if the there might be other more than those two shows let's assume
for just a second that it's just these two shows those are fine shows in Singapore but are they
meaningfully better than a one show I mean you could argue that it has more high-ranked talent
on it probably top to bottom than a one show might have, but in general, it's not a substantive upgrade over what one can do more or less.
This is, while not their very top tier kind of pay-per-view, it is a step up beyond what
one can do.
One cannot say that they have arguably the world's best light heavyweight.
That's debatable because we know what Vadim Nemkov is over in Bellator, but certainly
one of the world's best light heavyweights defending his title against another one of the world's best light heavyweights.
And certainly they cannot say that about Valentina Shevchenko
having the best 125er.
And they certainly cannot have, I don't know if there's anyone,
well, DJ's pretty good, but not many guys on all of the one roster
as good as Robert Whitaker, and that's a super important fight
for the middleweight division as well.
Could you slow your roll on limiting Valentina to the best 125er?
Luke, she's the pound-for-pound best women's fighter
in the game right now,
and on her way to becoming
the second or third greatest female fighter of all time.
Okay, you heard that right here.
Okay, fair enough.
I mean, she's obviously an incredibly special talent,
but that only just serves my point,
which is one can't really match that kind of thing.
Now, one has been in that market a lot longer.
They cater to that market more nimbly, I would argue.
They probably have a lot more fighters from that part of the world,
not just Singapore, but the surrounding Southeast Asian nations.
So in that sense, they do different things.
But this seems to me like the UFC feels like a need.
They need to get into Southeast Asia more.
It is a growing market, not just in China, but outside parts of it.
But they can't go over there just doing,
hey, here's the UFC show and some good fights and some good fighters.
That's a fine thing.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But if you really want to assert your presence in that market, you've got to go a little bit higher.
This is one thing that was always kind of interesting, right, BC?
If pay-per-view was always going to be something that was predominantly North American,
and it still is, well, it used to be almost exclusively North American.
Now it's still predominantly North American.
But that equation is changing somewhat with all of the UFC's other contracted revenue.
I want to make a point here.
This is why title fights outside of North America are pretty rare, or at least sort
of Western time zones.
They're pretty rare, right?
Because if the majority of your buying audience is in those time zones, putting them in the UK or putting them wherever
can create some difficulties in terms of maximizing buys. UFC learned that a little
bit the hard way in some of the early efforts of going to Abu Dhabi and whatnot. Some of those
shows did well, but it probably hurt, it probably dampened some of the enthusiasm.
There's a couple of exceptions, Habib at Fight Island against Justin Gaethje. You get the idea.
But even then, to maximize pay-per-view sales,
you have to go there.
But if you have some ambitions to go
and really reassert your brand
in a certain sort of geographic territory or market,
and you're not as hobbled by the pay-per-view money necessity
because of all this other contracted revenue,
it allows some flexibility for title
fights to be removed from North America and then put them in other kind of global hotspots
catering more to local markets.
That's a great thing for those folks.
And I think in general, probably a great thing in the long run for the totality of MMA, if
less so for North American audiences.
And isn't there a, to be candid and fair, a shit ton of money in Singapore?
Yeah, I mean, Singapore doesn't do poorly, yes.
They're quite wealthy. Well, look, I gotta
say, Luke, this is, okay, this
might not be a top-tier pay-per-view,
but this ain't no fight night.
This ain't even an in-between pay-per-view, if you ask me.
Maybe you disagree. Look, Glover Tashara
at Yuri Prohaska is like a damn
good fight, and you get Valentina
in a title defense that's, in theory,
potentially tougher or at least more interesting and exotic
than she typically faces.
And you get the return of Robert Whitaker.
They kind of brought it here, Luke.
No, no.
Understand what I'm saying.
I'm not saying it's a poor quality card.
I mean, just the three fights alone would get me to buy it.
Like, done.
Easy.
No problem. What I mean to say is, in terms of bankable star power for a pay-per-view
event, this would not compare to what you would get if you had, you know, somebody who we know
for a fact moves the needle in terms of pay-per-view buys, list whoever you want. These people are the cream of the crop, quite literally in many ways.
Certainly Valentina, chief among them in terms of talent.
This card, it looks like it's already being built in a great way.
I'm okay with it.
I just want to be clear.
If they put this, let's say, in Texas somewhere, it would do fine, but it probably wouldn't
do all that great in terms of pay-per-view sales.
So why not move it around a little bit and then reassert yourself in a market
you haven't been to in a long time.
And frankly,
never in this way,
those other Singapore shows,
while important,
they can't claim that they had this.
This is a ratcheting up.
I want to talk to you quickly.
Now that we're talking about this UFC two 75 card,
look,
the early odds on the main event presented by our friends at DraftKings
is Glover Teixeira, the champion, as the underdog,
which I think we assumed given the dangers of this
and his late career resurgence.
But, you know, he ain't young, Luke.
Plus 155 as an underdog.
Yuri Prochazka, minus 180.
Are you surprised in any way
that it's not wider in Prochazka's favor?
You know what? No.
Because I think everyone realizes Prochaska probably should be favored
and is exceedingly dangerous and unpredictable,
which makes him hard to know what's going to happen.
And what's one thing you can say about Glover Teixeira,
perhaps on the critical side?
The critical side would be that he
gets hit a little bit. His head movement's not super great, which is why he's been dropped in
multiple fights, and he's been hit a lot, and he gets, I mean, Gustafson jabbed him up when they
fought. On the other side, though, the reason why I don't think the odds are as far apart as you
might imagine is, in many of those those cases when Glover got dropped he
rallied you know what I mean like Glover is as tough as shoe leather dude and he is as experienced
as any champion that we have arguably in some ways probably more dude Glover Teixeira you know he is
he is vulnerable and I think those odds speak to that vulnerability. But he is also perseverant and clever.
And when he gets rolling, then that avalanche really begins to pick up speed as he begins to take over a fight.
So it's hard to say exactly what's going to happen.
Prochaska could drop him in the first round, 30 seconds, and then move along his day.
And that would surprise no one.
Even it would be exciting.
But Glover Teixeira has shown an unusual late career, not just resiliency, but understanding how to fight in a way that caters to that resiliency.
Almost like he knows he has to have a part of his game built in when he gets dropped.
Like, what are you going to do when you get dropped?
And he works through those scenarios.
He's one of the better ones at getting hurt and then hanging on.
Would you go as far as calling Glover, obviously the king of Connecticut, good lord, sorry Apathy.
By the way, Apathy has a new song out today, and it's a banger.
Oh, I'm going to check that out, because I support people from my state.
Sons of Godzilla, produced by Seelance.
Willie Pepp, and Steve Young, and to Bucky Jones, and Chad Dawson, all the heroes from my state.
But my point was, would you go as far as saying
Glover has secured Brazilian Bisping status?
Ooh.
Well, I don't want to speak for Brazilians, so I don't know.
But you're asking this like...
Hmm.
That's a tough one.
That's a tough one.
I don't know.
You know what?
Pretty close.
Here's the thing.
It's just that Bisping took... not just, he didn't just lose, he took some beatings along the way,
Glover's taken some beatings too, but like with the eye, and you know, getting dropped against
Anderson Silva, and having to get back up, I mean, he had so many blood and guts, trench warfare
fights, Glover has had, he's had some of those too, to be very clear.
But I don't know if he's had it quite to the same extent as Bisping did.
Maybe that's me romanticizing Bisping's career.
I'd have to go back and look and really think about that more.
So I would say he's got something pretty close.
But I feel like Bisping had more of this tortuous weight,
tortuous weight, tortuous weight,
and then everything just lifted off for him thereafter.
Also, also, remember he got to go back to England and then everything just lifted off for him thereafter also also remember
he got to go back to england and then fight dan henderson it's not like they're going back to
brazil and giving him you know i think a fairly winnable fight brahachka is tough as shit you
know and you know semi-related to this luke but not fully but look you know obviously glover by
getting i say brazilian biz ping because you put that capstone on the end of your career and it suddenly makes everything you did
before that, you know, seem better. You've rounded it out. You've reached your full potential. You're,
you're immortal. You're a UFC champion. Where do you think he fits in though? You can't speak for
a Brazilian fan because you're not Brazilian Luke, but we know they love, they love them. Some Jose Aldo,
some Anderson Silva, some big nog, right? I mean, there are, there are like Mount Rushmore legends
in Brazilian MMA fandom, you know, and in the, in the great lore. I mean, these, you know,
Brazilian jujitsu is the foundation of the sport from the Gracies. Is Glover kind of an afterthought in that?
Or do you think he's finally creeping up
in terms of that upper core of most beloved
from that great country in the sports history?
I would say if you want to get to Aldo,
and you mentioned Big Nog.
Dude, Big Nog, that's hard territory for anybody.
I mean, you're asking a lot.
I would say this.
Winning the title, I think, made everyone except, you know,
Jan Blachowicz happy and his team, and you can understand why.
But you've got to defend it a couple of times, I think,
to get to a more premier status.
Winning it, of course, is insanely premier.
But the level you're talking about,
I mean, dude, those guys, you know,
Big Nog and Aldo, that's Hall of Fame territory.
Is Glover in Hall of Fame territory?
I don't know that he's in Hall of Fame territory yet,
even though he's had a very respectable career.
So there's some work to do.
I'll tell you what, he beats Prochocka,
who would be the next after that?
Like Rakic, maybe, or something like that, right? We'll see. Or maybe Ankhalaev. You go out there and you beat Prochocka who would be the next after that like Rakic maybe or something something like that right we'll see or maybe Onkaliev you go out there and you beat Prochocka and then you beat
Onkaliev while not the biggest names you know at 42 or 43 you're beating guys like that that
then the conversation begins to turn a little bit so he's he's got to a point where I think he can
see a territory that's achievable and it's pretty far away, but I don't think he's there quite yet.
Do you disagree or do you think he's there?
No, I agree. I agree.
I think, you know, look, he's never been a flashy guy.
He's never been a guy.
Look, he's had some very respectable wins,
but he doesn't have maybe outside of this victory over Blachowicz
for the title and the way that he sort of put on this late career run.
He hasn't had these memorable memorable all-time great moments
in brazilian history and by the way we should obviously put amanda nunes in that category
for everything she has accomplished but you know maybe he just passed baron baral on the all-time
most favorite brazilian legend list and that's something luke okay all right i mean it's you
know he certainly passed betch cohea with that win okay yeah he he did but you know he beat like
you want maybe you want to appreciate
this but like there were some brazilians i grew up with that had or when i grew up watching mma
anyway that um that had an outsized role that i don't think that glover's already passed for
example hanato sabral maybe he goes by the name of babaloo babaloo for a time i mean everyone kind
of knows him because he lost i think it's pronounced Babalu, Luke, just to be fair, okay?
It might be.
Because you would have skewered me for that mistake right there.
I mean, that's like Todd Grisham with Sakuraba that time.
I mean, come on, Luke, okay?
Well, no.
He didn't even know...
Todd Grisham didn't even know who Sakuraba was.
Babalu?
I mean, I followed Sobral's career pretty closely, but...
Don't forget Vonderlei, too, before you're bringing out Babalu.
Okay.
Can we put some respect?
Okay.
But that's the difference, but that's the difference.
Vanderlei, Vonderlei, whatever he is in that pantheon of the upper elites of all Brazilian
MMA fighters.
Right.
Wouldn't you agree?
Like that dude was a champion in pride, you know uh came to ufc a little bit later in his
career but was you know as recruited as anybody else was ufc was dying to get that guy and he
had some big fights here but that yes he's in a different state i'm talking about ones that are
maybe a tier down from that in terms of how they're celebrated i don't know if my zoom froze or what
y'all tell me but yeah can they still hear me because i haven't even gotten into the uh
into the reminder that little nog was sub sub-elite, Luke, okay?
Yeah, here's what I was going to say.
What about the...
God, there's so many Brazilians that are just a tick down from that.
Did they lose me?
Am I back?
Where are we?
Where are we in this fucking show?
I don't even...
We're back.
Okay, all right, we're back.
Now, Luke, would you blame these quick...
Very quickly, would you blame these technical difficulties
on our stand-in technical director today, Long Island Luke,
whose dad is from Australia, who apparently...
Whose dad is, in fact, Australian.
Apparently, this man, Luke, directed Monday's show,
and they didn't tell us until after the show.
It was like a bait-and-switch type thing, okay?
Yeah.
Anyway, hold on.
Adding to that list, is there a difference in how Brazilians might view,
or even MMA fans view, if we're ranking Brazilians,
an Anderson Silva, who was a middleweight champ,
from a Murillo Bustamante, who was also a Brazilian champ, a UFC champ?
Is there a way in which they level those out at different places?
Yes, I do do i don't think
they're in the same place so you're asking me where is glover glover's a little bit more in
that bustamante territory less the anderson silva to close out on the talk of brazilians we beloved
although he never won a ufc title you know who's a forgotten badass luke marco huas marco huas
a legend in the game a legend in the game.
A legend in the game.
You go back and watch his early UFC fights, which was early UFC.
He was ahead of the game, dude.
Hey, is the show on today?
I don't even know if we're still live, Luke, okay?
I don't know what's going on anymore, okay?
This is great.
This is fantastic.
Is it my Wi-Fi or yours?
Who's the problem here, okay?
And what other scenarios do you make this face?
That's what I want to know.
Yeah.
I love that I insulted Long Island Luke,
and he's like, oh, you want to mess with me?
I'll just turn the show off.
Okay, that's great.
I know, record scratch.
Everything comes to a stop.
Look at that shit.
Look at my stupid face.
It looks like I'm hiding walnuts in my cheeks.
Would that be worse?
That's great.
All right, all right.
BC, any thoughts about that we talked
about the co-main event uh valentina shevchenko taking on tyla santos tyla santos doesn't have
quite the same record obviously who does but pretty good one and on top of that you know
while ranked fifth is heading in there with a lot of momentum absolutely and she has i think
and we said this when when we originally heard about this fight, compared to the type of contenders that Valentina has largely faced,
given the lack of depth in this division and the lack of, I want to say this politely,
like everyone that Valentina faces, for the most part, they're good, but they're not great.
Like, you can't carve out a path to victory.
I think Talia Santos, and by the way, she may straight up get dominated
like Jessica Andrade did, like grossly dominated,
because Shevchenko's just that great.
But I think Talia Santos, at the very least, brings youth, power, size,
brings a certain mix of plus intangibles
that isn't in the same category of a Jessica Aya, a Caitlin
Chukagian, a Lauren Murphy.
You get my point there, Luke, right?
You get it.
Okay.
It's fair.
I made a fair point.
Okay.
It's, you know, but I'm excited about this fight, you know, but for all we know, Shevchenko
is just going to walk through it.
Although Jennifer Maya gave her a little bit of problems.
And I know that, you know, that Manon Farrow is coming on, okay?
Did you hear her call out, Chukagian?
Did you hear that shit, Luke?
I did.
Any thoughts on Vittori versus Whitaker?
I got to tell you, I love this fight.
Whitaker is obviously, I think, fair to say, a lot more skilled than Marvin Vittori.
But as we've also talked about, Vittori is quietly getting better and better and better.
I think he has some issues in terms of putting up enough offense on opponents
to get the round to really turn in his favor
or even really approach finishing scenarios,
at least as it relates to the elite of the division.
But he's a big, strong kid, super young,
big for the weight class, much bigger than Robert Whitaker.
I love this fight. I think it's great.
I mean, I love it.
It's just that... You think it's great. I mean, I love it. It's just that I think
Robert Whitaker's going to house him.
Now, is Vittori bringing a tough challenge?
Yes. Here's my point. Vittori beat
Paulo Costa. It was
close, but he beat him.
Because I don't think Paulo Costa's going in the right
direction long-term in terms of
his focus and game planning and all that stuff.
He's, he's, he's living life, you know, off the rails at the moment, it seems.
But Paulo Costa versus Robert Whitaker is a sexy ass fight.
This ain't that Luke.
Okay.
I'm not going to talk myself out of Vittori being competitive here.
And I'm not going to reiterate that maybe Robert Whitaker beat Adesanya in the Rumi match.
But, but I think this is the proper setup for Robert Whitaker
to come back and remind us how great he is.
But this is why we fight them, Luke, okay?
Because Vittori has surprised me a few different times along the way.
It would surprise me if Vittori won,
but that I think he's worthy of an opportunity like this, yes, I do.
I absolutely believe that.
I think Robert Whitaker is the more skilled fighter,
and skills tend to win fights,
but you got to fight him.
That's why you put him out there.
We'll have to see how that goes.
So to the point,
we'll see what else they add to this card, BC,
but just that alone,
remember when you were a kid,
if the album had three good songs
that was good enough to buy?
There you go.
It's good enough to buy right there.
I remember my dad would be so critical
when I was in middle school.
I'd go down to Strawberries.
Remember that CD and tape store, Luke?
Strawberries?
That's a Connecticut special.
We didn't have Strawberries.
Yeah, me and Young Glover were there all the time.
And, you know, I'd buy.
I remember specifically I bought the Lemonheads' It's a Shame About Ray,
which is just a phenomenal 90s, like, alternative post-punk sort of record.
And my dad going, how many songs you know off that?
I'm like, well, they got that Mrs. Robinson video on MTV.
It's great.
He goes, if you don't know at least three songs on that,
is that really a good purchase?
Is that really a good use of your money?
I remember him saying that, Luke.
And you know what, Pops?
You know what, Dad?
It was a great purchase, and I still stand by that today, okay?
Thank you.
How many times have you cried from emotional joy
at a Toad the wet sprocket
concert no i i didn't go down that lane but i do stand by evan dando and the lemonheads and i think
most people of my age would would agree with that luke how many times did you write love letters to
your crushes listening to jars of clay by the way i'm not going to pull a jay erin until you shine
down to the greatest band of all time but if jars of clay pops up on Sirius XM I don't turn the channel Luke okay judge me all you want I I do I definitely do uh okay oh no no
sorry I was thinking of the fray for f jars of clay I was thinking of the fray I stand by the
fray Luke okay how about rusted root send me on my way Luke did I ever tell you that story about
well when I went to a Rusted Root concert
and never made it in because I drank 11 and a half Zimas in the car ride
from Naugatuck, Connecticut to Hartford in the car ride,
which is like 40 minutes, Luke.
I drank 11 and a half Zimas.
Wait, no.
Did you drink 11 and a half Zimas,
or did you do the 11 and a half Zimas with the gummy bear slash Jolly Rancher?
We didn't have that access. We didn't have that access. So I spent the night in a, in a North
Hartford gas station throwing up for hours, Luke. Okay. Do you know how dark that night was? I mean,
do you have any idea how just, I remember the guy behind the glass, the cashier was like,
you don't want to be here. This is not a place to hang out. Yeah. This is, that was, you know,
Hey Luke, we've all had those nights, right? you could argue that in in over the span of your career this blip
on the radar this morning combat is similar to that you know what I'm saying Luke I mean this
is like you know do I really want to be here you know what I mean yeah you ask yourself that time
all the time Luke you know I certainly do all right topic number two this is an interesting one
Devison Figueredo doesn't want to fight Moreno anymore.
He wants Kai Kara France.
He said on Instagram, quote,
Dear Dana White, I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunities
that you have given me, my family, and my country.
You know that I would fight anybody, anytime, anywhere.
That being said, I want to fight Brandon Moreno for the fourth time
because I know this is what the fans want.
Until his team crossed the line with racist comments, calling me a monkey
and even going to the extent of photoshopping a monkey's face on top of mine. You know what I'm
talking about, Raul Arvizu. I'm not sure who that is. When all this happened, I went on a campaign
to stop racism and prejudice in my city where it is predominantly Indians and blacks. I mean,
I think it's who's against, uh,
as the UFC champion of the world.
I want to,
I ask you to consider my wish.
I wish to fight the next contender in line.
Kaikara France,
who has earned his spot.
Hashtag.
We are one hashtag.
Stop the racism.
Uh,
okay.
BC.
Is there racism here?
Should he fight Kaikara France instead?
Yeah.
First of all, one love here, Luke.
When he says Indians, is he talking about Native Americans or your home country?
I think indigenous Brazilians, if that's what you're referring to.
Look, no one's going to, you know, if this is true,
I didn't see this meme of a monkey's face on there.
Hold on, can I add one more detail?
Yeah.
So as I understand it, what Brandon Moreno was saying was that one of his,
they were on, like, Instagram Live, and they were playing with Instagram filters,
and you know how the filters come up where you're, like, a rabbit or a monkey or whatever,
and he claims it's just a misunderstanding from that.
Yeah, I mean, look, it's a really bad look regardless.
Is it enough to get the UFC to pull Moreno from the fight
and go in a different direction?
No.
It's not at the end of the day.
Now, look, if anything, it's going to give Dana White more fuel
to hype up this fourth fight and go,
oh, not only is this one of the greatest all-action rivalries in UFC history,
but now we've got hate.
Now we've got hate to circle in there,
like when Conor was calling out Habib's wife and his
religion. I mean, look, this is, this is the fight game. This is what happens. It sucks. But I want
to ask you, Luke, do you take Figueredo at his word? And I don't, I don't mean that, you know,
insultingly. I mean, like, do you think he's really upset about this and it's true? Or do you think
he surprised a lot of us by at 34 winning back the title, avenging a stoppage loss,
a one-sided one against a younger, higher-ranked fighter on the come-up.
Do you think he's just more trying to play a card of saying,
why don't we delay this a little bit because this guy has my number.
I've had his at times, but he's got mine as well.
Let's go in a different direction to a guy who maybe I think I can beat better.
I don't say that to try to say that he's making this up.
I'm saying is that any part of his...
I'm devil's advocating you, Luke.
Yeah, I think there might be a little bit of that.
A little bit of that.
Here's what I mean.
I definitely think he is tired of fighting him, right?
I mean, fighting a guy four times, no matter who you are, that sucks.
And usually when they fight four times, it's a little bit more spaced out
than it has been for them.
These guys have been just all over each other,
quite literally, the last two years,
or however long the time is.
So he probably is sick of it and doesn't want to do it,
but is kind of doing it because that's what the fans want,
which he basically said.
And then this comes around, and you know how fighters are, man.
They're like the most sensitive people on Earth,
which I understand.
It's an occupational need to a degree. And then they'll find any seemingly, you know, sometimes
innocuous slight to be like, man, fuck that guy. I think it's probably just that. Like, is there
racism there? I mean, for folks who don't, you know, yeah, like people, yes. Let me just tell
you, South America is, I mean, they are dripping with racism down there.
They're a lot in denial about it, but trust me, it's there.
So could it be a role?
And I'm sure, by the way, that has a guy like Devison Figueredo probably faced some racism from,
and also just class issues in South America, which are tied into race issues.
Has he faced some? Probably, probably.
I tend to think, though, what it more looks like from an evidence-based standpoint
is that he just doesn't want to fight this guy, not because he's scared.
Hell, he just won.
But because he's sick of it, Kaikara France is new.
And Kaikara France, I think, at least in Figueredo's mind,
and that may not be the reality, but in his mind,
I think he thinks that that's an easier fight, and why not?
Yeah, fuck it.
Yeah, and I think i agree with that
and that's that's nothing against the the base of this being a shitty move racist oh yeah like
if this is all it sucks it's not a good look for anyone but uh sorry devison money's gonna win out
the uf i mean look look at the end of the day... I do have a question for you, though, but go ahead.
I was going to say, this fourth fight, if it's even pretty damn good,
these guys are making their history right here with each other.
They found the right dance partner to get into the history books and be remembered.
So UFC's not going to run away from that.
And also, Luke, even with Figueredo just winning,
I'm telling you, Moreno's going to be the betting favorite here and he for the ufc is still a long-term piece to make that
move to mexico that they've tried a bunch of times and really haven't been able to completely
change the the the foundational you know boxing crazy fandom and and cut like they made some
grounds and moreno being the first first Mexican fighter to win the title was
huge for them, right?
If he regains this, Luke, Moreno's
going to be a folk hero, because the only
thing that we love more in sports
than one of our own, wherever you're
from, winning, is losing and then
coming back and winning. So, yeah,
at the end of the day, Figueiredo, the fourth fight's going to
happen, but I do support you.
If this really happens.
This is a shitty move.
Let me ask you this question.
And you may say he doesn't beat either of them.
But I'm going to ask it this way.
Let's say Kaikara France is next.
Seems like he could be. We'll see.
Who does Kaikara France, in your mind, have a better chance against stylistically?
Deveson Figueiredo or Brandon Moreno?
And again, if your answer is he doesn't beat either of them, fine.
But who does he do better against?
Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's.
It looks like a regular chicken sandwich,
but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.
McSpicy.
Consider yourself warned.
Limited time only.
At participating McDonald's in Canada.
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. I don't think I have an argument either way.
Do you?
Because they're all elite.
They're all great fighters.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, I would say that if Figueredo is undisciplined,
that's a better fight for Kaikara France than Moreno.
But I would say if Figueredo is disciplined,
the Moreno fight is better.
It's something like that.
No, you're right, because, like,
are we past the time frame of saying
that every time Figueredo goes to the scales
and tries to cut weight that he's, you know,
he's rolling the dice?
Or, you know, I just, I don't know if he's rolling the dice but i just feel like you only have a finite amount of those left in you right you have a finite amount of weight cuts
to 125 that are going to enable you that you can even a make and be perform on probably a handful
of them left so that's where i and is this the one where it just all falls apart?
Who knows?
And if you're the UFC, Luke,
if you don't put this fourth fight in Mexico,
what are we doing here, right?
What are we doing here?
I don't,
here's what,
this is the thing I don't understand going back to topic number one, BC.
Didn't Dana be like,
hey, we're only going to go to places where,
you know, the COVID rules are not all that strict, which is his prerogative but dude singapore i mean i'm not sure what the current
state is but relative to what's happening here they're far more strict about it so if you can
go to singapore can't you go can't you go to mexico like i mean i'm not entirely sure about
columbus right we just went to columbus? We just went to Columbia. Yeah, I don't think, unless major changes happen,
I don't think that's a problem.
I mean, look, I get there's logistical challenges,
but Dana's made a history of pushing through those logistical challenges,
and you don't need C-level Kane to tell you that this is the fight to do in Mexico.
Like, if you want to have an explosion in Mexico
and give your home country guy a chance here to make himself a legend,
dude, this is the fight.
That's it.
Or how about this?
How about this?
Take that fight to Brazil.
I'd be happy with that.
Put it in the hometown, guys, or near hometown anyway.
Why not Brazil?
Yeah, why not?
He's the champion.
I also don't disagree with that, yeah.
All right.
Topic number three, BC.
This one came out of left field a little bit.
I mean, I guess it didn't.
It must have been slow rolling.
But it came out of left field yesterday when it hit the news cycle.
Fabricio Verdum is basically done. He's basically retired. I know he spoke to Guilherme Cruz over at
MMA Fighting, and he spoke to a couple other places as well. Here's what he says,
talking about MMA, I think it's hard for me to come back because it's more dedication staying
two, three months in the United States.
And I'm living in Brazil for a year and three months now, he said.
If there's a boxing match, I'd do it.
To sum it up, boxing, yes.
MMA, no.
It would need to be an out-of-this-world offer to make me stop doing what I've been doing right now.
And, of course, he was scheduled to be in the 2022 PFL season.
That's out.
BC, your reaction?
Okay, here we go.
One of the great Brazilian martial artists of all time,
and that's a true statement.
Fabricio Verdum is calling it a career, it seems like.
What do you have to say about it?
Yeah, I'm not surprised given that he's 44 years old
and had that medical situation which pulled him out of the PFL there.
He had the no contest and didn't look great, Luke.
I mean, to be fair, he hasn't looked great in a while, right?
To close off his UFC run, there was a lot of time off.
Wasn't there a USADA instances as well, Luke?
Yes, I believe so.
He had a two-year break between the knockout loss to Alexander Volkov
and the split decision loss to Alexey Olenek,
which he just didn't look like himself in that fight.
So he gets a sub win over Alexander Gustafson at
heavyweight to close out his UFC run. But look, you know, where's Alexander Gustafson right now
as well? So I'm not surprised, but it's funny. We just had that discussion about where's Glover
putting himself in the all-time great Brazilian ranking. Damn, we always sometimes forget where
Fabricio Verdum belongs in that discussion. And yes, he's another guy who's not overly flashy, right?
I mean, you know, he'll throw a boomerang at a guy,
but that's about it.
But man, has that guy had a great career, Luke.
You talk about one of the most underrated great careers.
I'm not surprised that he's calling it quits now.
I think he actually should.
But he has two of the most impressive and memorable,
and in some cases, unlikely victories of all time,
being the shocking sub of Fedor at that point in the Strikeforce Grand Prix,
and then, of course, the upset of Kane in Elevation in Mexico.
I mean, look, there was, if I'm not mistaken,
there was a point after he beat Kane where people like Joe Rogan were arguing maybe this is the greatest heavyweight of all time.
That's right.
Dude, his record is remarkable.
I mean, we're not even talking about the fact that this guy was a multiple-time black belt world champion, right?
I think Gi and no Gi.
I believe that's right.
I think he won it at 80.
Yeah, I mean me listen to this. At ADCC 2009, gold medal in the plus 99 kilo. 2007,
gold medal. 2011, silver. 2005 and three, bronze. 2003, Sao Paulo Open, he had a silver. Jiu-Jitsu
Championships, 2004, gold in his division. 2003, gold in his division. 2000, gold in his division.
Pan Ams, he won it in 2001, 2002 and 2000, both open
and his own weight class, so he's in the
gi and out the gi, a multiple
time world champion, listen to his wins
in MMA, right
he beat Gabriel Gonzaga, Tom Erickson
who back in the day was this sort of giant man
a wrestler, Roman Zentsov
most folks won't remember this name, but trust me
I remember this fight very closely
John Olav Einemo, this huge Norwegian guy, fucking monster.
Dude, Verdun beat him.
Alistair Overeem, Alexander Milianenko, Gonzaga again, Brandon Vera, Antonio Silva, Fedor,
Roy Nelson, Mike Russo, Big Nog.
I remember when everyone was like, yo, Big Nog's got better jiu-jitsu than Fabricio.
I'm like, are you out of your fucking mind?
No, he does not.
Not even close.
Travis Brown, Mark Hunt, Cain Velasquez, Travis Brown again, Walt Harris, Marcin Tybura, and then Gustafson.
Dude, he put it on people, and he did it for a couple of decades.
Pretty goddamn impressive.
When he beat Mark Hunt, that was for the interim heavyweight title, and he finished him.
He finished him with a knee.
In Mexico City, that's right.
That was some vicious shit right there.
So a true legend.
By the way, he's very good friends with our boss,
Karen Portley of CBS Sports, who previously worked for the UFC,
and they became close.
I approached Verdum at a UFC event one time,
got my phone camera phone, and was like,
hey, you know, my old boss Karen great
guy what do you have to say for him and then Fabrizio went on a uh a tirade of swears against
him look I guess that's how friends get down you know that's how you and I talk to each other uh
more or less that's how we talk to each other and you know he had noteworthy losses too I know he
doesn't have the most unimpeachable resume but like the highs were pretty goddamn high. I mean, dude, he really, if you think about it,
in two key intervals in his career,
he completely shook up the heavyweight division, and he made the crowning of who was supposed to be the greatest of all time
kind of impossible, at least in the moment that he was there.
When he beat Fedor, I'm telling you, nobody saw that coming.
Nobody saw that coming.
And the Cain Velasquez one, I guess, was a little bit more predictable, but not so.
I should also point out that Verdum is a bit of a linguist.
He has done cage side color commentary in Spanish.
I actually had my wife listen to it.
I was like, how good is his Spanish?
She was like fluent.
Like, you know, you can hear a little bit of his Brazilian accent in the back, but he
is like a great commentator, as a matter of fact. Not just able to do it, but able
to do it quite well. He's been
a talented guy for a long time.
I don't know if you know this. Do you know the story of how he got into
jiu-jitsu? No.
He was
like a lot
of guys in their teen years, fighting
with another guy over
a girl.
He got put to sleep, I think, in front
of the girl he was either dating or trying to date by the other guy who I think had known at least
some jiu-jitsu. And he was so bothered by it that he was like, I'm going to go learn that. And it
turns out he ended up being a multiple-time world champion in and out of the Gi. Just a remarkable
sort of series of events that pushed him there. Not without blemish, not without controversy. He
also took money from Ramzan Kadyrov.
We should say that.
But on top of it all, as a fighter and as a competitor,
where does he belong among the Brazilians?
I guess you should ask them.
But as far as I'm concerned, I think he's one of the best to ever do it.
I put him on the same.
Actually, I would put him above Jacare, given what he was able to do.
Pretty amazing guy.
The amount of heavyweights who have two wins
as important as the two he had over fedor in that version of kane at that point can you name any i
mean like the like those are those are two of the greatest wins in heavyweight history legitimately
legitimately yeah truly truly and then and beating um you know g Gonzaga twice and then beating ā
here's the thing.
He does have that loss to JDS when it was JDS's UFC debut.
Remember that?
The uppercut and then Verdum just implodes like a building that's been ā
an old stadium that the city is demolishing.
So he's got some of those noteworthy losses,
but it was honestly a thrill to cover his career it really
was he did a lot of great things and you know if it by the way he made his debut bc in june of 2002
dude that's when i graduated college look at me look at me he's still far up until today or
anyway or whatever still fighting it's time it's time time out time to call it a day time to call it a day that guy's been through some wars no question about it and um look i'm i have to apologize
to the people i'm sorry that i can't clear my throat here okay i'm sorry it's okay bc uh last
but not least this is something that you have been like not teasing but kind of teasing as a
theoretical thing you know just something wouldn't wouldn't it be cool if this happened?
Well, now it has happened.
This came to us from Michael Benson, BC.
He has reported that it's been announced Nohoya Inoue is going to fight Nonito Donair again
in a WBA, WBC, and IBF bantamweight world title unification.
This will be June 7th at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.
BC, why is this such a big deal?
This is incredible.
It's not that we didn't know both wanted this rematch
and that it wasn't possible.
There were some promotional network issues
that were getting in the way potentially.
But now that they're going to do it,
that they're going to do it in the damn Saitama Super Arena,
if you didn't see their first fight,
it's one of the greatest boxing matches of this century.
And that's not hyperbole.
We all thought aging old legend, future Hall of Famer,
Naoa, I'm sorry, Nonito Donair was going to get demolished.
And if you don't know Naowa Inoue, the monster,
I have him number two on my pound-for-pound list.
He's won titles in so many different weight classes so early in his career,
carried the power up, a great boxer, but just devastating power.
And that fight a couple years back against Donair,
I mean, you want to talk about both guys gutting it out,
both guys just leaving everything they have in there.
Donair gets dropped early and you think, oh, you know, it's what we thought it was.
And then Donair just keeps coming back.
And he ends up breaking the eye socket early in the fight of Inoue.
And they just go to war the rest of the way.
It went to the scorecards.
It was just an insanely amazing fight for just the
the sure will of two legends and the fact that they're going to run it back a couple years later
after donair continues this ridiculous late career surge like you have to understand nonino donair
won like he was almost unbeaten for a decade there. He got as high as pound-for-pound number, I think it was three,
behind Floyd and Manny back when he lost to Guillermo Rigondon in 2013.
And after that, you know, we kind of thought, okay, that's his mountaintop.
He moved up not one but two weight classes,
got knocked out a couple times against big-time sluggers.
Then late in his 30s comes back down to weight divisions to bantamweight
and is just this killer and he's smart and he's crafty and the fact that he went in there against
this absolute monster literally in naioa nue and put on that performance and then came back
regained a title went on this run where he was like legitimately in the fighter of the year
discussion last year with two big knockout wins to gain a title and now wants to go back in there and do this again against a guy
who's on his way to becoming one of the all-time greats in the monster neo in a way this is
everything you love about this sport if you did not watch this fight the first time around you
will not be disappointed if you go check it out um i don't know what network this is going to be
on luke i don't know what you know the going to be on, Luke. I don't know what the promotional situation's involved.
I just know this is a boon for boxing fans.
Thank you to these two for running this back.
You're always going to have to favor Inoue with the age difference and all that,
but Donair's not done, and this is a special coda to a legendary career.
The first fight, is that available on the DAZN archives where did that one I believe that's
where it aired right in the stateside anyway I don't know about overseas it was a part of that
world boxing super series tournament I believe you can still catch it which by the way did you
like their Muhammad Ali trophy the one that kind of spins a little bit or is like a it's like a
screw that's in the shape of a trophy kind of it's hard to explain I did at first yeah I like
it actually that's actually one of my favorite combat sports trophies.
I like it.
I agree.
And, you know, when Richard Schaefer,
he was a part of that first announcement of this tournament series
that they came out with, you know, we were kind of like,
oh, cool, name it the Muhammad Ali Trophy.
Who cares?
But the history of that WBSS, World Boxing Super Series,
which is now defunct, but they put together, Luke, some incredible,
I mean, that cruiserweight one where alexander usik beat you know uh gassiev and beat uh myris brightest and they were all amazing
fights wasn't there a good one with uh with ward and arthur abraham as well that was the showtime
super six tournament that that that aired that's right previously that's right this was a single
elimination the world boxing super series but we also saw it at the one Ford division. We saw Rougarou take job on Josh Taylor.
The whole point is it brought people from different networks and promotions
together and champions face champions and in divisions that weren't getting a
lot of global fanfare.
We got to find out who was actually the best because the best fought the best.
So that legacy of that series really holds up firm.
All right.
Well,
that will be June 7th.
I can't wait.
Cannot wait for that.
I mean, Luke, dude, the April calendar is just stupidly sick in both sports.
I mean, don't forget that April 15th, Friday night, we get Pitbull, McKee, too, and Bellator.
And then the next night in Dallas, we get Spence Ugas on Showtime pay-per-view.
But, dude, then it's like Tyson Fury versus Dillian White the next week in front of 100,000 people.
And on April 30th, to close the month, we get Amanda Serrano versus Katie Taylor at Madison Square Garden
for the biggest fight in women's boxing history.
On the same night, Shakur Stevenson takes on Oscar Valdez to unify titles.
And, Luke, we just found out that Shakur Stevenson has agreed
to take less money for this fight, to gamble on himself,
because he felt this was the only way they could really make this fight
was if he brought down his price.
And he says it's the last time he's going to do it.
I mean, again, two unbeaten champs.
What a time.
What a time to be alive right now.
Not even talking about the UFC schedule that month either,
which is just tremendous too. So April is going to be alive right now not even talking about the UFC schedule that month either which is just tremendous too so April is gonna be busy folks get ready all right that's it for
our rundown BC I hand the baton to you let's get get on with the torture I guess oh the one other
thing Luke I don't know if you care about it Kelvin Gastelum has a new opponent for UFC 273
right or no it's uh Dreskis Duplessis Du. Duplessis, I think is how you pronounce it. Who was a hammer so far in UFC from what we've seen.
South African guy, right?
Yeah, yeah.
He brings it.
It was originally supposed to be what?
Who was the original?
Nasura Dean Imavov.
Yes, yes.
Visa issues in the way.
Out of MMA Factory.
Who's fucking very good.
All right.
We're going to get to fan subs in a second, but we've played this game before with Chuck Mendenhall.
We also played it solo with myself and the producer, Gaffney Pierre, a guy that we love here.
Oh, I bet you played by yourself solo.
You're damn right.
But, Luke, this is the first time you're doing it, so here's the breakdown on what this is.
All right.
The Wheel of Death is designed at, you know, getting you to talk about certain topics in combat sports or what have you that you don't want to.
Truth or Trivia is a little bit different. i'm going to give you five trivia questions each one that you get wrong you have
to answer a personal question that i'm sure you don't want to be talking about it's an interesting
segment luke it's a fair one in my opinion and it's called truth or trivia truth or trivia
look at that graphic yes that's pretty good i like that it's nice
all right luke each question you get right you don't have to answer
a personal attack number one luke besides misha tate at ufc 168 who was the only other fighter
to make it out of the first round against ronda Rousey and her 14 fight MMA career.
So we're talking like anything strike force or regional or whatever.
Okay.
So not Zingano.
Definitely not Sarah McMahon,
not betch.
Oh, Holly.
Holly was round two, correct?
Good poll, Luke.
Good poll.
Holly Holm is correct.
UFC 193 in 2015.
See, I thought I would catch you sleeping on that, Luke.
I did.
No, I remember she went back to the round, and I was like,
this is going real bad.
Yeah.
I don't know what's about to happen here, but this ain't looking too good.
Edmund told us she's doing great, though. He just wanted a little bit more head movement, Luke. Okay. All don't know what's about to happen here, but this ain't looking too good. Edmund told us she's doing great though.
He just wanted a little bit more head movement.
Okay.
All right.
Shout out to a thousand memes were born.
Armenian MMA royalty right there,
Luke.
Wow.
You won't get that personal.
That would have been a,
that would have been an interesting one.
All right.
Let me ask you a question.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
So is the truth question attached to the trivia question?
In other words, if I get the next one wrong,
can you pick either of those truth ones
or only the truth one associated with that question?
Only the truth one associated with it.
Okay, so this, look, if you get on fire with the trivia,
this is going to be a boring segment, Luke, okay?
We'll see what happens here.
All right, well, you know, I woke up early today,
so I'm on my third cup of coffee.
We'll see how this goes.
Number two two everyone knows
you love city kickboxing and head coach eugene barrowman out of auckland new zealand more than
you love anything else in this world not named your family power lifting bbls and eating uber
eats up to a full hour after it has arrived at your hotel room and is already cold so according
to ckb's Wikipedia page,
they currently have eight active UFC fighters in its stable.
Name seven of them.
All right. Obviously, Adesanya, Volkanovski, Brad Riddell, Carlos Olberg, Blood Diamond.
The handsome Carlos Olberg, yes.
Did you say Blood Diamond?
Blood Diamond.
Oh, you got five, Luke.
You got five, bro.
Oh, Kaikar, France, and Shane Young.
Wow.
Wow.
How about that?
How about that, bitch?
Actually, is Shane Young on the roster?
I'm not even sure if he's still on the roster.
Is he still on the roster?
Do you want to show off and get the last one?
Get the eighth one?
Hold on.
Okay, who am I missing?
Yeah, let me see if I can get this one.
Give me a hint.
Give me a hint.
He loses a lot lately.
Oh, Dan Hooker.
Yeah, all right.
Dan Hooker.
All right, all right. Wow, look who dodged another like dan fuck that that's a
terrible way to put it yeah this personal question was going to be about your marriage so you're
probably happy all right so fuck you and your attempts keep my wife's name out of your mouth
bc all right pop trivia question number three i'm sure the fans won't love it luke but later next week i'm leaving
for vacation which coincides with my son's april school break and if anyone knows about taking
vacations including the multi-week kind when you have an award-winning show i mean i took
10 days you fucking oh but okay you luke thomas over the past 32 months of Morning Combat's existence,
one of our seats have been filled by eight different replacement hosts.
Name them all and note these must be MK-branded shows
shot either in our studio or on Zoom,
so Paul Pierce, Pauly Malinagy, and Brendan Schaub don't count
since those were Showtime boxing-related events.
Okay, so Shaq, Shaquille Majorey.
Yes.
Aaron Bronstetter.
Yes.
Old Oscar from MacLife.
Yes.
Old Rashad Evans.
Yes.
Chuck Mendenhall.
Five for five, Luke.
I have to get three more?
Yes.
Oh, that's what...
It's about to get tough.
Now, this is a case where either you're out or I'm out.
Correct.
Okay.
Let me think here.
There's three more? There is, Luke. we had a great history in this show you know
is this like a i mean i named chuck right i got i got ice man already you got him does
aljaman sterling count he does yes he does luke that was an mk branded show two more six that's six um jesus this is tough give me a second give me like 10 seconds
i don't know i don't know the other two wow you finally we get some truth in here the correct
answer is luke where rafe bartholomew my old boxing buddy yes and dan canobio of inside box oh that's right
that's right fuck fuck all right all right you got me you got me there we go luke considering
you called me a mongoloid on the air as recently as our interview with gilbert burns both of us
have been in the crossfire of countless insults aimed at each other throughout
this show's history. In fact, you not only regularly disrespect me and my brain damaged
existence, but you've even been known to throw a few shots at my savior every now and then. And
Luke, I've forgiven you. So as respectful and loving as I can be with this, why in the damn
hell was it a drunken David Hasselhoff video that caused you to finally snap on me?
What was it about that ill-timed and juvenile joke that cut so deep?
I only ask, Luke, because being real with you,
it hurt me to know that I could hurt you that accidentally and that easily.
Okay, so it wasn't, I mean, first of all, when you say I snapped,
where did I snap?
In Fort Lauderdale. In Fort Lauderdale. Did I really, I lost my I snapped, where did I snap? In Fort Lauderdale.
In Fort Lauderdale.
Did I really, I lost my cool by telling you how I felt?
Like, that's not snapping.
Snapping is like what Will Smith did.
That's snapping.
To be fair, we've apologized and moved on.
I just want to know, what was it about that stupid video that got you that upset?
Yes, the joke, there's nothing wrong with the joke.
The joke is totally fine.
It was just that. that got you that upset. Yes, the joke, there's nothing wrong with the joke. The joke is totally fine.
It was just that.
Trying to get my studio going for my personal channel has been, I'll just be candid with you,
it's been a bit of a disaster.
There's a lot of things that that office does for me
that are quite good.
There's a lot of things I did not,
it's my fault I didn't scout properly
and now I don't know how to solve those problems.
The good news, of course, all told is that it's only a six month lease. So in the end,
it's not like some financially, you know, uh, devastating blow, but you know, um,
I'll just tell everyone what the audience wants to know. That room costs 1300 a month.
Just, yo bro, what kind of money are you making from CBS? No, no, I don't, it doesn't come out
from my CBS money. It only, I, my youtube business stays a youtube business so any money that comes in or out
is just a function of what happens there i don't ever touch anything from cbs so the point i'm
trying to make here is um you know i'm trying to get everything going again and i don't have
anybody to blame but myself like there's nobody else to blame but
between like the lack of sleep which is really an ongoing problem and I'm naturally a little bit
error prone with that sort of stuff I've been making like up all night early in the morning
efforts to like make I've made like production checklists and everything to make sure everything
was right and in fact while the home studio or whether whether the away studio is the one that
has the problems typically my home studio is the one
where things are pretty much in order.
I mean, yes, errors happen,
but they're a little less common here
because I have all of my major equipment
all kind of already set up.
That was a new process.
But you compound all the difficulties there.
And then I got up one morning
because I knew I had to travel for it.
We were going to Fort Lauderdale.
And I wanted to make sure we had a good UFC London extra credit
because there were so many good fights. And I was super tired. And I got up again and I wanted to make sure we had a good UFC London extra credit because there were
so many good fights and I was super tired and I got up again and I recorded the whole thing and
even at home I had fucked it up no here's why it was so painful it is very difficult for me to
accept and I have to of course um just how relentless the errors have been for so long
and like what that says about my attentiveness to detail and solving
those problems and the part that hurts the most is I cannot blame anybody else I can only blame
myself and I was just despondent because I was so tired I had already recorded it and then you
had sent that folks don't know he had sent that gif as a text and I had sent a very like gee thank
you BC kind of like you know stop here, kind of
I thought it signaled to please stop here
and then you did it on the show
the joke is fine, there's nothing wrong with the joke
it was just that I was
I was really down on myself when
you put that up and
I didn't need it at the time
that's all. Well, like Chris
Rock's ignorance regarding the
alopecia related to Jada Pinkett Smith, Luke,
I didn't realize that was that deep of a struggle for you.
And again, I apologize.
We're cool, dude.
We're cool.
We're boys.
It's fine.
I want you to know and I want the audience to know.
I know the joke was fine.
I was just really upset at myself.
And I felt like, obviously, every time.
Here's the thing, dude.
When you do one of those errors and it's a live chat or anything else
you're so exposed
you're just so exposed and flapping in the breeze
and I wish I could
point fingers
oh they did this to me but they didn't
no one did it to me
it sucked, that morning really really sucked for me
I am sorry to compound that Luke
and I'm glad we've moved on from this
okay thank you for being real for the people okay and i do regret that time i made that off-handed
joke about that joke on our show you know yeah the joke is the joke there's nothing wrong with
the joke all right luke trivia question number four we are nine months away from the 10-year
anniversary of the final strike for strike force card on Showtime in Oklahoma City,
which was the final straw in Zufa purchasing the brand from CEO Scott Coker and folding it, more or less, into the UFC.
At the time of its closing, Strikeforce employed champions in seven weight divisions. Heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight,
and on the women's side, featherweight and bantamweight.
Name six of the seven reigning and defending champions
at the time of Strikeforce's demise in 2013.
Well, would you count Cormier?
Because he was given a belt for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
I would not count him because there was a defending heavyweight champion at that time who was not part of that.
Gil Melendez was the lightweight champ, correct?
That's one.
Nate Marquardt was your welterweight champion.
Incorrect, Luke.
Didn't he ice?
Didn't he ice?
He fought in the main event of the final card and lost his title.
Tyron?
Nope.
This will count as your one wrong answer because I gave you a latitude.
Dude, I don't know.
I don't know.
Tariq Safedine defeated Nate Marquardt in the main event.
What about Luke Rockhold?
Was he still the middleweight champ?
Correct.
And so now they have a light heavyweight champ or not?
They did have a light heavyweight champ.
Was it Hendo?
Yeah.
All right, Luke.
Look at this rally right here.
All right, so how many have I gotten right?
Three or four?
You got three, and you need three more. Okay, so they had a heavyweight champ at the time so let me think so ovary
correct wow you might get this luke two more all right on the women's side
uh so they had a featherweight and a and a bantamweight champ correct so featherweight
must have been cyborg right yes okay so i need to get one more what what's the what's the non-male
category or what's the male category that i've not got yet i got lightweight welter you missed
welterweight which was tariq safadine so the only thing you need left is women's bantamweight
oh i guess it must have been rousey right right? Rousey, yes, correct.
Luke, you survive.
You don't have to.
Dude, this was going to be a good truth question too.
Damn it.
Gotcha, bitch.
Luke pulls it out of his a-hole.
All right, Luke, final question on Truth or Trivia.
Let's see if this segment comes back.
Luke, it's up to the people, okay?
All right, Luke, you may not realize it,
but on April 7 7th 2018 something happened in
the ufc that has never happened before or since a reigning ufc champion and a reigning interim
champion from the same division were stripped of their titles on the same day due to inactivity
and injury less than an hour before a new
champion was crowned in a vacant title bout.
This is a five part answer because it's your most difficult and final
question.
Name the division.
This took place in name,
both the champion and interim champion who were stripped name,
the two fighters that fought for the vacant title that night named the
numbered UFC pay-per-view event
and name the city this is five different questions and name the city that it took place in i'll
reread the parts that you need to think about april 7th 2018 defending champion and defending
interim champion stripped on the same day and two others fought for the vacant title now wait a second when you
say let me let me ask a question here when you say stripped were they both stripped or was one title
dissolved well when a interim title is stripped it means it's dissolved so both the champion and
the interim champion in the same division were both stripped
and two new fighters fought
for that title on that night.
Look, it's the fifth one.
It's going to be the hardest, okay?
It's going to be the hardest, Luke.
Okay, so this has got to be the lightweight division, right?
That's correct.
So you've got one part of it right.
Okay.
All right.
Put the question, put the lower third back up on the screen, please.
It's not going to help you, Luke.
It might.
It might.
Was this in New York City?
What city are you going to claim that this was in?
Because this is part of the guess, Luke, okay?
I'm saying, was it in New York City?
Could you be a little bit more specific on New York City?
Brooklyn. Correct. Correct. Correct. That's two of the five that you got right here you're building it luke you're building something now the other three parts are i have
to get who the who the the two people strip were and then who the new champion was who were the two
people that fought for the vacant belt and separately who was the main champion stripped and the interim champion stripped so this has got to be oh you got to get the ufc numbered card as well so you got three more
elements to this loop okay okay there's no chance i'm gonna get the number how about ufc 242 is that
right that is not correct luke not correct okay so i'm gonna have to do the i want to see if i can
get the rest of this um it's got to be habib and like connor getting stripped or connor and dustin i can't quite recall
the details let me stop you there you're correct connor mcgregor was the defending regular champion
he was stripped due to inactivity that night right right now who was the interim title holder that was stripped due to injury that night?
Well, he fought Al. He was supposed to fight Max, and then before that,
oh, Ferguson. Tony Ferguson
got stripped because he tripped on the court
at Fox. And who did Habib
defeat that night for the full time? Al Iaquinta.
It was supposed to be Max Holloway, and it ended up being
Al Iaquinta last second.
Hey, well done, except for you got the card wrong.
UFC 223 in Brooklyn, New York.
All right, I'll do your stupid trivia, even though that was insanely difficult.
Okay.
Luke, this is the hardest.
Can I ask any question I want, Luke?
Yeah, you can ask anyone you want.
Just, you know, don't kill me, please.
All right.
Well, I got two here that I really want, but we'll see what happens.
You can pick the one you really want.
I'll give it to you.
It's Wednesday.
In an alternate universe in which you were both single and not an MMA journalist,
imagine you won a UFC fan charity auction providing you as the winner
with the chance to go on one date, which includes dinner,
attending a movie or concert, and a nightcap of drinks
with any active
UFC female fighter who would you pick Jesus oh Jesus what are you doing I'll tell you that or
name the three most overrated UFC fighters today Luke it's either yes please spare me that one
because I'll get killed um you know what you will actually like this pick and the reason why I can
make this pick is because I've halfway not even, a quarter of the way kind of did this
in a totally platonic and normal way.
I would say, you know, if you're single, whatever,
I'm just going to pick somebody who I know would be a really fun time.
A really fun time.
You're avoiding the spirit of this question.
I am absolutely avoiding the spirit of the question.
I'm going to do that the entire way.
Angela Hill is where I'm going to go.
Angela Hill.
Angela Hill, I think, would be the most fun of really almost anyone in UFC,
but certainly on the female side of things.
She seems like a grand time.
I would love to do something, you and I with her, something fun.
Something, you know, some type of morning combat.
She lives in San Diego or whatever.
She's from this area.
She grew up in PG County.
And, yeah, I met her mom because she came back to, I did, it's like a symposium here a couple years ago before the pandemic.
And she showed up and then brought her mom.
Her mom is as lovely as the day is long.
You can see where she gets, you know, her spirited worldview from. So, yeah, Angela Hill then brought her mom. Her mom is as lovely as the day is long. You can see where she gets her spirited worldview from.
So, yeah, Angela Hill would be my answer.
Well, I think she's a worthy answer on both sides of the spirit of this question,
although I think a lot of people at home thought you were going to go BVL, Luke, okay?
Listen, I'm not trying to get in trouble with your ridiculous line of questioning,
and I kept it professional.
I kept it professional.
Okay, a lot of people.
Oh, look at our production team wrote Valerie Lareda. No, I will keep my answer what it professional. I kept it professional. Okay. A lot of people. Look at our. Our production team wrote Valerie Lareda.
No, I will keep my answer what it is.
I will say Angela Hill.
All right, Luke.
Wow.
There were some beauties for the truth questions, but I'll give you credit.
You got four or five trivia questions, correct?
No, three or five.
But the last one, you came pretty damn close.
Pretty close.
Pretty close.
Not bad.
Not bad.
That's it.
That's it.
It's called Truth or Trivia.
Let's keep it rolling luke every wednesday morning combat at gmail.com is your email address
to send us pictures of you wearing our clothes your ridiculous memes whatever you got this is
your time to shine on our show it's called fan submission fan submissions we've got mail all right we've got
male listeners mostly too luke okay that's i mean that's a fact right there yeah baby number one
this is paul sliding in here's a pic of me rocking some sweet mk merch on the top of the great sugar
loaf mountain in county wicklow ireland love the show keep up the good work look i didn't even know
we sold we sold a blue uh 1.0 shirt do you did you know boy look at look at the tan on this irishman
wow look do you have any recommendations for this guy regarding the gym or no no he's doing all
right but you know no mysteries about where he's from. Yeah, wow, that's a nice view. I didn't know they had mountains in Ireland.
Am I ignorant on that?
Yeah, well, you know, I don't know if they have,
you know, the Himalayas or something like that,
but they certainly have rolling landscape.
Luke, do you have any MK plans
for when I'm on vacation for a week?
Dude, I barely know what I'm doing today.
Are you kidding me?
I'm like, no, I haven't thought about it for two seconds.
Thank you very much.
Tyler says, hey guys, P1 here from Chicago.
Love the show, all of the great content.
It's been inspiring to watch the two of you grow
and refine your craft while still maintaining the dick jokes
and similar art to make the show great.
Here's me in my day one MK merch at the shooting range. No, I didn't
bring any BBLs. I'm attempting
to wife this time, but you never
know. Eagerly looking forward for
that January 6th merch line
and much love to the whole team. It's
Tyler P. Luke, this
guy has been, he knows
what a curl is. I'll tell you that much.
Do you think he
stormed the steps with Pat Miltage?
No, he's way too
well kept together to do something like that.
Can you
full screen this? Let me see.
Let's see. Yeah, he didn't
bring his target back. I'd like to look at it.
The firearm there is on the left. Charging handle
brought to the rear.
Yeah, he looks like
a normal human being, which makes me wonder why he listens
to our show yeah he's got a strong beard too i'm not coming on to him luke but i think this guy's
coming on you know what i mean he looks like he's ready to take over the world i'm proud of him all
right tyler yeah very well done uh victoria says oh we got a female hi luke and brian thought this
could be added to the tip to rip gallery jelly babies in the UK are getting it on.
Thanks so much for your wonderful show,
Victoria and David.
Dude,
you just have to look at this moment right here and be like,
what have I done in my life where someone sees a gummy bear like this and
thinks they're touching dicks.
I got to go tell my favorite podcast.
Yeah,
Luke,
we've built something special right here. right uh tyler again i don't know
if it's the same tyler i think the matrix glitched this week the first time was when bc tried to keep
the show moving the second was when bc took the old bitch way out and wouldn't make a pick what
the f i thought you were the alpha and had that bDE. What is he talking about? What did I not pick, Luke?
Did you not pick a winner for one of the fights?
I don't know.
Did I not?
I don't remember.
Oh, wait.
You know what?
We did pick.
So last weekend was what?
UFC Columbus.
We did make a pick for the main event.
I don't know if you made a pick in the Grasso fight.
I think you may have skipped out on that one.
No, I told you the lead pipe lock was Grasso by Decision,
which I was wrong.
I think it was... No, I picked Escarov over France.
I don't know, Luke.
I don't really know.
Yeah, I don't know.
But he says,
Lastly, I'm starting the MK record label,
and the first album is the death metal album called Hey Fuckos.
The first single is
Get the fuck off my coffee line with your old bitch order.
All right, Tyler. Hey, they say he has two more photos is that true um long island luke is that true let's let's
see let's see when bc passes on making a pick for aly allen versus hooker oh that's what it was
but always calls lt a bitch for not making picks yeah i guess i guess you didn't uh uh lay down a
pick on that
one i got a long line of putting my putting me on the line okay luke hey fuckers i might get that
tattooed on my forehead that'd be great that'd be fantastic uh we got ben sliding in he says
here's a simple one that might do well well we'll be the judge of that ben uh can we blow this up uh luke you know what i would have okay this he's saying it's me
you know what i would have done uh i can't read it what the fuck does that say if we would have
gone to on ig or whatever oh if we would have gone the... What? What? Can our producer tell us?
He's trying to make a point that I would have fucked up.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, they're talking about your technical difficulties, Luke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's fair.
I mean, I can't say it's not fair. It's completely fair.
Okay. All right.
Thank you very much. I mean, I don't know how much I'm laughing
at that joke, but I am acknowledging it comes from a place you're crying on the inside at least yes i'm more
weeping uh and then trying to smile but it's fair it's fair game all right tom says hi donks had to
send this after hearing bc butcher the world famous strongman's name this is luke trying to
coach bc to pronounce any name that isn't Cletus McFactory Towns
as his brain races his liver to be the first organ to give up the ghost.
Wow.
Wow, Luke.
Wow.
The Mountain?
The Mountain.
Half Thor?
Half Thor.
Bjornsson?
Bjornsson.
Okay.
Half Thor Bjornsson.
Bjorn Thornsson.
I guess I did do that, Luke.
Yeah.
Wow.
Sorry about that, guys.
Luke, I got DM'd by a couple MK fans.
I want you to answer this legitimately this legitimately they go hey bc you guys always peddle showtime
jake paul boxing pay-per-views our way what about jake paul versus thorn bjornson in a boxing match
luke seriously who you got in that one it's funny you bring that up because i follow the mountain
on instagram and uh today he posted that KSI who I guess is this
other the dude who fought Logan Paul or whatever I guess he's famous because he's a YouTube thing
or whatever I don't I don't I don't know what he does that makes him famous but whatever he said
he wanted to box the mountain and and and Bjornsson uh uh like reposted it was like what do you guys
think about this so I don't know about Jake Paul fighting the mountain,
but KSI looks like he wants dibs.
Well, look, dude, here's the deal.
Jake Paul, he's proven it.
Also, if Jake Paul or KSI boxes them,
I just want to be clear that I don't care.
So there you go.
Yeah, but I legitimately want to ask you,
we know Jake Paul has, look, he's a better,
he's like the best celebrity fighter of the moment. He's has look he's a better he's he's like the best celebrity fighter
of the moment he's young he's strong he's big and to be fair he's fought aging mma fighters who are
a couple weight classes lower than him do you think he has the boxing skill to avoid
getting sent to hell by bjorn thorson well i mean here's the deal it's like the mountain is a great
athlete and he's strong as balls, obviously.
But how fast is he?
He's not that fast.
No, not that fast.
So I don't know.
I mean, that would be one of those things.
I'll tell you what.
If this was 2003, we would know the answer to that question because Pride New Year's Eve would be, or K-1 even, would be putting this on.
If you guys have never seen Hoist crazy versus akibono i think live live in japan it did 50 million viewers you know something yeah
something insane uh so keep that in mind like um you would have seen it you would have seen it but
we'll see how it goes i'm sure jose canseco versus uh hong man choy was the co-main event
he came out with the bat and then just fucking ran for the entire year.
Just laid down.
Just laid right the hell down.
Worse than Houston Alexander against Kimbo, Luke.
Worse than that, all right?
Hey, don't you besmirch.
Kimbo's most legitimate MMA win.
I'd like to run into Houston one time and buy him a drink
and then get the real story, Luke, okay?
Isn't he a radio DJ out of Nebraska?
Or maybe Houston, something like that?
Oh, really?
Is he?
All right.
I always liked him as a fighter.
I just don't understand why he was so timid in that fight.
When he was fighting or either right in the middle of it or right at the end of it, he
was a radio DJ in, I believe, Nebraska.
I don't know what he's up to these days, but he did it at a time.
Also, be careful how you talk about Houston and Alexander.
That dude will fuck you up.
Oh, you're talking about like the Will Smith, Chris Rock thing?
Just keep going?
Like, you know, you might find yourself outside of Poppy Steak
getting a little bit too careless.
That's a fair point.
By the way, did you see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's commentary on Will Smith?
He sent that dude to hell.
No, what'd he say?
Oh, you should read it.
Like 10 different people on my Facebook timeline posted it.
He just took a very educated turn against will and
said that basically will hijacked and stole the thunder away from black people from women from
like any any broke down across the board why what will chose to do push forward all these negative
stereotypes that we've worked so hard to overcome i mean kareem's a smart guy i just feel
like it's not that hard to figure out a rich asshole decided he was entitled to be a rich
asshole and uh everyone wants to make it about something else it's like this is just what elite
rich people do in this country they do whatever the fuck they want that's true uh connor is here
with one n he says what's up bopp couple of movie-inspired submissions for your enjoyment this week.
To BC, I find your lack of shake disturbing.
Start prepping that ship properly before AG has a lawsuit on their hands.
Luke, I did catch a floater the other day, and I regret that.
It's not a great representation.
Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, director,
gimmick, or clinic, whatever his name was.
Yeah, who was that guy?
Dude, that guy used to choke the shit out of people.
For Luke, after the Hasselhoff bit,
it felt like he was going to go full DC Sniper 2.0,
love the podcast, may all of your fans be capital stormers.
That's the falling down.
Look, we have, Web web scream designed a falling down poster
we have it framed ready to go in our studio
is that one up or not I don't know
if that one is up but that might be well my favorite
is the one that he did for predator my second
favorite one would be the web
scream falling down one although you could this one's not bad either
you can blow it up yeah yeah
web screams is a little bit more you know
definitely made can you guys read what it says on
on the caption next to his body?
I can't read that.
The adventures of an ordinary man at war with technology.
That's true.
That's very true.
Yeah, and then by the way, it says,
falling down a tail of technical difficulties.
The only thing that would make this better is if I had a Mac laptop in one hand
and then like cords in another hand. Maneech, can the people hear you when you talk maniche they can't
maniche maniche yeah i agree with brian completely on this from now on man when you want to speak
i'm happy to hear you speak i want the audience to hear it too i really wow looks like say to my
face you know stand up you got to be selective don't be like jay where you're
like a stray cat that i left milk out for once and now i can't fucking get rid of you you know
you got to be sparing about it but we want to hear from you yeah yeah well your music is better than
jay's so don't worry about that but yeah uh this is from alexander as a black coffee fan i agree
with luke on this issue these suburban moms need to get their milkshakes elsewhere luke and fans arguing about
i love how they put the q anon shaman next to me that is fucking great that's who i feel like i'm
behind in line when i hear the shaking upside down up my balls you know kind of orders so luke
while your starbucks rant was epic and i loved, there was some rumbling behind the scenes.
I won't name which MK producers, but they were like,
I've gotten coffee for Luke.
He gets coffee like a bitch.
It's got to be two Splendas.
So Luke, you put off this tough guy.
I only drink black coffee.
Why am I in the Starbucks line with the soccer moms?
I've never asked for a lot.
The most I've ever asked for in terms of a
production of an order
is just a red eye
which is just a shot of espresso in the coffee
it is true that after they bring it to me
I might put a couple Splendid in just to
sweeten it off
like it needs to be goat's milk
it needs to be warm
I don't put milk in my coffee
I don't ever put milk in my coffee
I don't order lattes i don't do any of that shit never never never never not true lies
you like your coffee yeah look i got coffee here i don't know if you can see it or not but
what does that look like here what does this look like to you looks like bang energy drink luke oh
there it is oh wow look at that mixology over here that nice work luke yeah now it tastes like mountain dew
imagine if you spilled that all over your keyboard and sparks came up look that'd be a great mk moment
all right that's great uh tom says we've got a live here's the problem with my with my epic
meltdowns they make people laugh and that's fine but like i never get to take something i can then
put you know on like a reel on instagram or Instagram or TikTok where the ship's on fire.
I could use, I could
repurpose that.
All of my fails are just sad.
There's nothing fun about any of them.
This is Tom.
He says, live look at Athletic Greens.
Let's see what's going on here.
So, Athletic Greens
is the dog and all the bullshit we do to each other
is uh is the is the fire huh yeah yeah i'm sure ag1's like wow we really picked okay in fairness
about the covid i mean here's the people ask me have you ever had covid i don't know i don't know
which is to say i have never tested positive for covid and I've never had a bizarre illness that looked like COVID.
The last one was the one that looked the closest
and I took two rapid tests and two PCR tests.
They all came back negative.
Are they failed tests?
I have no fucking idea.
But all I can tell you is
I've never tested positive for COVID,
but I could have had it.
You're like 2013 Vitor.
You're like,
I never tested positive for this shit, right Luke? It was it. You're like 2013 Vitor. You're like, I never tested positive
for this shit, right, Luke? It was legal.
I'm just trying to tell you.
Listen, everyone's going to get
COVID. I'm due for COVID if I haven't
already have it. But in fairness,
I took a shitload of tests last week
and none of them came up COVID positive.
Luke, our final submission is from another
Adam. Dude, we got a lot of Adams. A lot of
white Adams on this show, right?
We need more.
No eaves.
Actually, I'll leave that alone.
Yeah, we need some more eaves.
Don't touch that.
Don't touch that garden, you snake.
Don't touch that garden of Eden.
Luke, he says,
Donks, after this Friday's episode,
and Luke again asking something that BC had literally just stated,
I just had to know what the deal was.
Luckily, YouTube has put out new technology
for super ultra premium members that can
show you a streamer's desktop
for a nominal fee. Without
further ado, here's the real reason why
Luke is not listening to BC.
Battle Axe here, Luke and Joanne
Wood. The odds, though,
have Grosso minus 255
under DraftKings as the favorite, plus
205 for Joanne Wood.
I'm with you.
Like, okay, my first thought is, and my last thought is,
this is a fight.
I'm sorry, you may have said the odds.
Did you read the odds on Yes. On this one?
One more time for me, if you could.
Hell yeah, Luke.
Okay.
The best part is I used to follow that person on Instagram.
Oh, wow.
She's like a weather person in Mexico City. You're like, I've actually made love to that lady in my mind many times.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. yeah, yeah.
I won't say that's my desktop, but sources tell me it could be my Instagram feed.
We'll have to see.
All right, Luke.
You often don't listen to me.
A lot of people in my family do the same thing to me, Luke.
I've spent a lifetime.
I try, I try.
You know what the problem is?
I have three monitors up, and it's just way too much.
It's a little bit overwhelming.
What episode was that?
Because I looked like Rock Lobster.
Dude, that was like last week.
Yeah, I looked like a piece of shit there last week.
Luke, those are our fan submissions.
Thank you to all of our fans.
MorningCombat at gmail.com.
Some people think this segment's worthless, Luke.
I think it's the best segment we do.
I love that, especially when they're good.
That last one was really good, although he didn't put the apostrophe
between the E and the S on my name, so that's kind of funny.
But when the jokes are good, I like them.
The AG1 one was good.
The Darth Vader one with you.
Joking on the fucking AG was really good, actually.
Our trusted Showtime producer and really one of the true fathers of this show,
Matt Snyder, has texted in to out himself
as the one who was making fun of your coffee orders.
He says he only said Splenda, which is low tea.
Wow, Luke.
Wow.
You low tea having bitch.
Listen, I'm not asking anyone to drink coffee the way I drink it.
All I'm pointing out is when I get in line,
I'm not the reason the line is slow. I drink it. All I'm pointing out is when I get in line, I'm not the reason the line is slow.
I'm not.
It's the house frowns
who live in this area,
Annandale and Rockville,
in their vans trying to get
a Baskin Robbins fucking Sunday.
Chevy Chase, Luke?
Chevy Chase, Maryland?
Is that a good place to raise a family?
Chevy Chase is an extremely nice area.
Yeah, super nice area.
Luke, I think that's our show for the week and i and i definitely want to put this out there because we we made
people vote so many times we said look if you want us to win another award here's your chance to do
it we're gonna find out tomorrow may 31st march 31st 4 p.m eastern on youtube if you look up
sports podcast awards i think luke there's someone
from the nfl network hosting the broadcast one of the personalities there yes and uh it's going
to be live and we're going to find out along along with you folks and luke uh we're up for
best combat sports podcast of 2021 so best of luck to us maybe we'll get that live show in vegas
i don't know look Look, predict right now.
What's going to be the main event of
IFW July
2nd or 3rd or whatever the hell it is
this year?
Kamaru versus Leon?
Maybe?
It's not going to move me, dude. I wonder if it's Adesanya
or Kananir. I like that fight
more than Kamaru
Edwards, but we need something big, dude. Like a Conor? I mean, i don't know if connor's gonna be ready for that it's july right
like by the way a lot of people saying in response to the rant we went on about like hey ufc piss or
get off the pot with nate diaz that ufc is waiting uh for connor to come back to do the trilogy and
then let nate go do you know like, dude, every time someone does,
like, for example,
I had someone ask me a question
on one of my live chats,
being like, you know,
now that it's been firmly established
that MMA media has made money
off the backs of fighters,
how about starting up an insurance fund for them?
I'm like, let me see if I understand this.
You think that people who, in many cases,
are not many MMA media, and if you're in many cases lucky to make 50 to 60K doing that job, in many cases, you think those are the ones profiting off of fighters?
Or is it the multi-billion dollar company that keeps 80% of the revenues?
Are they the ones that largely profit off of this so i guess the point i'm trying to make is there's a lot of uh misunderstanding about who's responsible for what around here
yeah yeah you're damn right okay you're not lying um uh luke um we got another show on friday what
do you want to do we do what the fuck are we gonna we should talk about this what the fuck are we
gonna do on friday because there's nothing to talk about.
We barely got through this one.
You want to do MK Homework Encanto Edition, Luke?
What's going on here?
I'll say this.
Okay, I'll let you pick.
How about this?
I'll give you a choice of three movies.
I'll give you a choice of three movies, okay?
Oh, wait, wait. Before you do that, did you see what our producer Mikey Mormile just pitched?
Oh, yes.
Okay, how about this?
So BC and I, BC was the first one to be like, there ain't shit going on this weekend.
So he was right.
Then I looked it up and I was like, yeah, BC's completely right.
So what we're going to do, we're going to try.
We're going to steal from the king and the sting, all right?
Send us a video question of yourself or whoever's asking the question.
Send it to morningcombat at gmail.com.
And I'm going to put a stipulation on it.
Has to be 30 seconds or less.
I don't want a fucking two-minute thing.
No, no, no.
Dude, I'm telling you.
Go 60.
I'm telling you.
Go 60.
All right, all right.
We'll allow 60, but not a second more.
Not a second more.
60 seconds or less to get your question in.
Morningcombat at gmail.com.
Throw the graphic up one more time if you can there, Australia and Luke.
MorningCombat at gmail.com.
If you show your prick in the video, dude, you're gone, okay?
Yes, I mean, if you start beating off at it, I'm going to be like,
BC, why are you still sending me these videos?
I'm asking you to stop.
Do that, and we'll just answer a bunch of those maybe on Friday.
Okay, but back to movies BC
are you in for something
a little bit off the beaten path
a little bit foreign languagey
what do you think
where are we on this one
you're going to make me read subtitles Luke
I thought Encanto was in English
it is in English although there's some of it in Spanish
the problem with watching Encanto
is that there's a couple of things
that I would love to show you that I can't.
But, okay, so I'll give you...
Encanto is one.
I will give you...
How about another one?
ParaĆso Travel is another one.
What the hell is that, Luke?
A guy illegally immigrates to America
and then gets lost
and has to just find a way to live
oh I saw that it was
Tom Hanks stuck in an airport
I saw that it's much better than that
I'll go that one
oh
what's a third one I could go to
really make you just dig deep into the crate
Matt Snyder and I are stuck in
70s neo-noir right now,
Luke. I wish you would go there. I really do.
I can give you some Kurosawa
films to watch, but they're a little bit heavy.
I mean, he makes
mad films, Luke, and if he did,
there would be a samurai.
Seven Samurai
is what he made, but I think that's pre-70s.
I think that was 50s or 60s.
Hey, Long Island Luke, can we get the 90s counter once a show at least, please?
Okay?
I know, as Luke Thomas would say, it's not your fault, Long Island Luke,
that you were born in 2001, but thank you.
Well, and also, not even in this country, Australian Luke.
Was he born in Australia?
I think he was.
92, born in the U.S. Born in the think he was. 92, born in the U.S.
Born in the U.S., 92, born in the U.S.
But his dad's a big Aussie.
What city is your dad from, Long Island Luke?
Suburb of Melbourne called Fox Hill.
That means he drinks.
I think he said Box Hill.
Is it Fox or Box?
Box Hill.
I bet you they have strong as shit coffee there, Luke.
You know what I mean?
Maybe Long Island Luke's dad's a big city kickboxing fan like you.
I'll give you a choice.
How about this?
They're saying Encanto or a fight.
How about this?
One of my favorite events for years.
It's since been replaced just because MMA's gotten so much better.
One of my all-time favorite events is Pride Body Blow.
This is Rampage Jackson versus kevin randleman i think
this was when carlos newton got iced by anderson although i'm not quite sure about that but i also
know this is when fedor beat nogara for the first time and by the way people thought nogara was just
going to run over him and the commentators i think it was boz rutin and steven quadros were shocked
you want to watch incanto or you want to watch pride body blow well if we were going to do a
full ass card like that i think it has to be its own episode and not a segment in a show right it's
about the same length and kanto and watching that will take you about as long see i was going to
finish watching uh 1981's nighthawks starring sylvester sloan and rucker hauer and billy d
not on the list not on the list i mean i'll i, it's about time I watch Encanto, right?
It's probably about time.
It's good.
It's short.
It's like an hour and a half.
You'll like it.
It's good.
All right, let's do that.
Let's do MK Homework.
BC finally gets in touch with Columbia.
See, that's the...
Luke, that's what I felt so bad about about the Hasselhoff video,
because if I'm going to break up with you,
I want it at least to be like an ill-timed like um escobar joke and you're like you don't
understand colombian culture the damage that that does to the people i'm like dude i don't and i'm
sorry and don't tell your wife and mother-in-law i'm really sorry like i want that to be where we
break up right so maybe this will help me understand colombian culture a lot better
it will there's one thing in the video i won't have or i won't have a chance to explain i want
to do one thing before we go.
Columbia has one game, and it's very much like a working class game at this point.
Like billiards is not, you know, remember when we were kids?
They call it pool here, but billiards.
When we were kids, like billiards were everywhere.
And it was always in smoke-filled rooms, but now smoke-filled rooms with old dudes,
it's become far less than it ever used to be.
So it's kind of like that in terms of its place in the culture.
They have a game called Tejo, T-E-J-O.
Dude, when I tell you that you and I need to play Tejo somehow...
Is it like a bumper pool, Luke?
No, it's the greatest game maybe ever.
The game is this...
It's like a flat steel... It looks like a rock almost. Oh, I'm looking greatest game maybe ever. The game is this, it's like a flat steel,
it looks like a rock almost.
Oh, I'm looking at it right now.
Yeah, I'm looking at it.
That itself is called the Tejo,
but this is why it's so impressive.
You basically lob it like a cornhole,
but it goes into a stack of mud.
And in the mud, there's a ring in the center.
And around the ring are packets of gunpowder.
And so when the steel strikes the gunpowder, it explodes.
And you want to hit all of them.
And there's a lot of different ways you can do it.
But the catch to this is nobody plays Tejo sober.
When you show up with your friends, they ask you for two things.
One, how many crates of beer do you want?
And I'm not doing a bit.
They bring you, remember those old plastic many crates of beer do you want? And I'm not doing a bit. They bring you,
remember those old plastic milk crates
from elementary school?
And each one has a fucking beer in it.
That's number one.
And then they bring you this giant plate
of salted meats, cheeses, and starches
called fritanga.
So understand, you're playing with steel.
You're chucking it at gunpowder
while you're drinking beer and eating fritanga over and over and over again.
We went to some place called Costa Rica when I was in Bogota the first time I played it.
And the dude who was the national champion of Tejo owned the place.
He told me he had never seen an American show up to play Tejo.
So he put on a show for me.
He had the local village idiot stand at the other end near the box of mud
and get on his knees.
And he hit the Tejo just past his head and into the gunpowder.
And he was doing all these tricks from far away and shit.
It was maybe the best time I have ever had.
There's a brief Tejo reference scene in Kanto that you'll miss
if you don't know about it.
You'll see him throwing and hitting the gunpowder.
Dude, Tejo will be the best thing you'll miss. If you don't know about it, you'll see them throwing it and hitting the gunpowder. Dude,
Tejo will be the best thing you ever do.
What a game. Like a third world mixture of ski ball and horseshoes.
Luke,
what is this?
Yes,
yes,
yes.
But again,
I want to be clear.
You don't show up and then not drink beer.
You don't show up and then not eat all the,
all the meats.
Like part of it is this feast that goes along with it.
Like one is important for the other.
It's not mutually exclusive. It's not like
America where you can go and do cosmic bowling
and just have a Diet Coke and be on your way.
No, no, no, no. Tejo is about
drinking and eating and then chucking this thing.
It's
an unimpeachably
good time.
I'm willing to give it a try, Luke. I'm willing to watch
this movie. Is this a Disney Plus thing?
Yeah, I think you can order on YouTube or wherever.
Oh, I gotta pay for this?
Well, if you have Disney Plus, it's free.
Oh, okay, okay.
You have Disney Plus?
Yeah, I got all the streamers.
Then you're good.
It's free.
It's free.
So we'll talk about Encanto on Friday, all right?
All right.
Luke, I played basketball last night
for the first time in a month
and then had no subs, went into overtime in two of the games,
and then came home and threw up all night.
I mean, being 43 is like the worst thing ever, Luke.
Things just don't work the way they're supposed to anymore.
I can't complain.
I play with a wide age group of like 35 to like late 60s.
And these guys are like 61, 58.
Dude, they have like four times the stamina that I have.
I'm not even kidding, Luke.
And you know me, Luke.
I'm a piece of shit, but I'm not that far out of shape, right?
No, you're not.
No.
But I guess maybe you must be because that shit kicked your ass, didn't it?
It did kick my ass.
I was ineffective.
I was basically just setting picks and throwing passes.
It was, it was just, yeah, yeah.
All right.
Well, let's get out of here for today.
Thanks to everyone who watched.
Remember, morningcombat at gmail.com.
Send us your video questions, morningcombat at gmail.com, and we'll answer a bunch of
those.
We'll play some games on Friday.
We'll have a good time.
Friday will be a good time.
So join us then, 11 a.m. in the East.
So for Malka, Showtime, CBS Sports, and the great Brian Campbell,
I'm Luke Thomas.
Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.