MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 275 Recap | Teixeira-Prochazka | Shevchenko-Santos | Joanna Retires | Ep 311

Episode Date: June 13, 2022

On Episode 311 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian review UFC 275. Where does Glover Teixeira vs. Jiri Prochazka rank in terms of all-time best light heavyweight title fights? How did the guys score Valentina Schevchenko vs. Taila Santos? The boys break down Weili Zhang's improvements from the first fight and discuss Joanna Jedrzejczyk's legacy following her retirement. They close out the show with a weekend boxing roundup, Dm's from donks and HYSTS. (9:50) - Teixeira vs. Prochazka (42:50) - Shevchenko vs. Santos (62:30) - Weili Stops Joanna (71:30) - Joanna Jedrzeczyk Retires (82:30) - Boxing Round-up (98:00) - Dm's from Donks Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Hey, everybody. Look at us. Back in studio.

What's up, everyone? It is the 13th of June. It's a Monday, 2022, and it's time for Morning Combat. Can't hear the guys in the back in my earpiece. I guess that's no big deal, but we'll do what we can. Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, we are your hosts. And I got to say, I guess you're the king of Connecticut again, huh? Unfortunately, I am. I mean, what a dramatic turn of events for my state on Saturday night in Singapore in the main event. Wow. Certainly was. UFC 275 is what we're going to be getting to a lot here.

What an incredible event. I know we didn't have a lot of fanfare. We were kind of sleeping on it, but it turned out to be one of the best parts. Basically, we're like, hey, it's three fights and a bunch of other stuff. But that bunch of other stuff was awesome, and the three fights were pretty damn compelling in their own ways. And there will be an extra credit Today, we're gonna record it here. So that should be a lot of fun. You're watching on YouTube. Thank you so much If you're new here, we appreciate this. We do this three times a week live 11 a.m

In the east so thumbs up if you're watching there hit subscribe if you haven't already And of course if you're gonna listen to this on any podcast platform, please give us a nice review there Is this well merch 1.0 sure make me look like I've moves or am I doing now you I doing all right? No, you're doing all right. You're doing all right. You're looking good. Looking young. I got to say though, you got to visit my guy down the street for a new haircut. Yeah. What was our favorite barber's name? Neon Dion. Neon Dion. Yes. Yes. I forgot the name of the barber. That guy's good though. He's really good. He's very good. I would like to see him again. I just don't have a whole lot of time when we're here. We have a lot to get to today. We're going to do, of course, UFC 275.

Plus, there's some boxing news. International Boxing Hall of Fame inducted a lot of people yesterday, including, but not limited to, former UFC women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm. Did you see the pictures of Holm? She was jacked, yeah. Bro, she's been in the weight room. My lord, she was in good shape. So we'll talk a little bit about that as well. Plus, have you seen this shit and DMs from donks?

BC, your weekend otherwise was pretty good. We saw you on Showbox on Friday night. By the way, the main event totally delivered. Very good. That was a fun fight. It was a fun atmosphere. It's a really good arena they have there in Verona, New York. You had Hall of Famers in the crowd.

It was a really great time to be alive. I was lucky to be. But, you know, the thing is, Luke, you know, I don't really know what the thing is. But I'm here. I'm ready to do the show. How many Hall of Famers did you talk to? And by Hall of Famers, I mean ones who were going to be inducted. Lou DiBella.

That's it? Kathy Duva. That's about it. Is Kathy Duva, was she married to Lou Duva? No, that was her father-in-law. She was married to the late Dan Duva, who was also in the Hall of Fame, as is Lou Duva, the trainer, promoter, all that. So big weekend for the Duva family.

She has an incredible life story to get to this point. So, it was great to see her, Lou, go in. It was a, I mean, it's Disneyland for boxing fans, okay? It can get a little nerdy. There's long lines of memorabilia guys even asking me for autographs, Luke. What a big joke that is, right? Did they confuse you for somebody else? Yeah, I think they looked, they were like, you know, your crooked nose, your Ukrainian vibes. You fought in the amateurs,

right? And I'm like, damn right I did. As a reminder, Showtime is the place where you could have watched that, but of course there's going to be a lot more coming down the pike from Showtime. Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, keep it. If not, you can bounce. Also, BC's got that merch, got that merch on. You can go get that at morningcombat.store, although I think the one he's got you have to get from the Showtime website. No, I think RJ repurposed some of the original ones onto the new site. So now it's all things Clearinghouse for MK merch? I don't really know the details of it.

I don't even know how this show is run. I'm usually upset about things. You know, no one tells me things. But I made it on time. I had a flat tire on the way here, but I made it. Not my time. By the way, we should give a shout out quickly to a comedian. Whether he's on a Showtime series himself.

W. Kamau Bell. Shouts to W. Kamau Bell, who is a phenomenal comedian and a great television host, was wearing this version of the logo on an MK hoodie. On a green hoodie, the original green hoodie. Yes, on his CNN show. So, man, shouts to W. Kamau Bell. We really, really appreciate that. Not just that he's a fan of the show,

but he got a choice to wear what he wants to wear, and he put it on television. Thank you, dude. We love you, brother. That's incredibly, incredibly nice. I gotta say, there's a spot right there on the couch for old W. Kamau Bell. Hey, I've been a big idea advocate

of going a little bit outside the combat circle and filling up that couch with some fun. And if W. Kamau wants to... We can drop the W. If Kamau wants to come over here and talk some Cosby with me on that couch with some fun. And if, you know, W. Kamau wants to, we can drop the W. If Kamau wants to come over here and talk some Cosby with me on that couch, you know? You're going to just change his name for him? We're not calling you W anymore.

I mean, it's there for a reason, but okay. Neither here nor there. What else am I forgetting here? Oh, of course, we want to reach the show at morningcombat at gmail.com. For Wednesday's fan subs, Friday's Dead Wrong, or just to reach out to the producers, please do that there.

Boy, this looks really shitty wearing just this shirt. I really miscalculated this. What were you imagining you were going to look like? Muscular and fit. It just wasn't in the card. No, no. It certainly wasn't, but that's all right. Are you ready to go otherwise?

I am because, you know what? They look at me as a boxing guy who has casual MMA fan takes and I think they're right but I really enjoyed this card Saturday what's good for me what a what a Wow I had a terrible Saturday not like like the life distressing kind of way but the computer problems I've had yes there are continuously ongoing so I had to go and figure out another system to make the Friday excuse me the Saturday night work. So I was so happy with how good the fights were on Saturday. It was such an enjoyable relief to watch something that good. All right.

With that out of the way, BC. This weekend is BC and DC. No doc cams, okay? But BC, the fam, going to be in DC this weekend. That's right. We have to talk about dinner on Friday night. Our reservations got canceled, by the way. Oh, they did?

Yeah, they did. What's wrong with the restaurant? They apparently made them when they weren't able to do so. But I do have, we'll talk about it after the show. Yeah, but BC is going to be in DC. We're all going to hang out. It's going to be a good time. The families, for the first time, July will be three years together. Yeah. For the first time, the families are going to, they're going to meet in DC. Yeah. District of Columbia, bitch. Yeah. All right. With that out of the way, let's get this party started, shall we?

Topic number one. Let's just start with the main event. UFC 275's main event was incredible. Yuri Prohachka defeats Glover Teixeira, although he came so close to not getting that. Glover Teixeira, 28 seconds basically away from winning until he tapped to a choke, a rear naked choke with no hooks, in the fifth and final round. You see, there is so much to say about it. Let's start with this one. A little bit of chatter online about it as well.

Where does Teixeira versus Prohodzka rank all time in terms of best light heavyweight fights? I think you might even have to go a little bit deeper. And what I mean by that is I think that this fight is put now in the canon of the greatest title fights in UFC history. And I know sometimes it's always the knee jerk, does this win make this guy the go? Is this the greatest fight between a guy from Serbia and a guy from Brazil? Well, no, he's from the Czech Republic, so, but yes, the answer is list. What we saw on Saturday night was epic, it was barbaric, it was violent, it was dramatic. And I think it's on the short list of not just the greatest fights we've ever seen in UFC history, but specifically in title fights.

It's essentially what? Jon Jones-Gustafson part one. It's essentially Young J. Chek, Wei Li part one. It's Gray Maynard, Frankie Edgar part two. So if you ask me, Luke, where does this fit in light heavyweight? I mean, it's right there. Different in some ways better than even Jon Jones, Alexander Gustafson won. And I think this fight is unique in its own way because it was so, I mean, how do you,

it's like, you went on and did a great post fight show. I went on CBS Sports HQ afterwards. And the question is, what'd you think? I don't know what I thought. It was a wild roller coaster. And I don't even know if Glover was really on his way to winning it. It was 38-38 on one scorecard, right? 38-37 on the other two entering the final round. It really could have come down to whoever won that final round. I have the scorecards here. Yeah, it was Glover by one point on two and then it was even on the third.

So my whole point was that fight could have gone either way. And then to see Yuri walk through the same hell Glover did, but then tap out the BJJ expert. I mean, it is as unique and bizarre. It was so much more street fight, wild ebbs and flows than typical clinical technical fight, which, you know, even though Jones-Gustafson had a lot of action, that was more of a traditional technical fight just at a very high level. This was some bizarre, amazing shit that we saw that. So to answer your question, I think it's right there in the top five of the greatest fights

I've ever seen, and specifically title fights. Now, what would you score against this fight to say, okay, BC, I loved it, but it ain't Hendo who won. It ain't, you know, Lawler, McDonald's, or whatever your flavor is. Is there anything against this fight? Because emotionally, it took you on a journey. It was like eating edibles where you don't know the source, Luke. And you're like, I don't know where I'm going right now with these, right?

Kind of like before the show, right? Less so edibles and more mushrooms in your case. But I mean, just to clarify for the scorecards, you're right. It was 38-38, then it was 39-37 in favor of Teixeira, and then 38-37 Teixeira. But he was winning that fifth. He had rocked him multiple times. But then there was the last reversal, and then 38-37 Teixeira, but he was winning that fifth. You are right about that, yes. He had rocked him multiple times, but then there was the last reversal, and then Glover tries to get to his base and then just kind of hangs out, and then the choke came on.

I mean, was that exhaustion? Because Glover, I mean, Glover went through hell to get to that point. They both did. Is that just exhaustion? He's almost at the finish line. It was almost Silva-San in one in that regard, except for it wasn't one-sided and not exciting. It was an absolute- It was kind of a mix between Silva-Sanen won and then Hendo Hua won in the sense of the craziness with the weird last minute finish.

I'm going to say this. I mean, when we talk about best fights, no one ever really defines what that means. What does it mean to be the best? And so I do think you have to draw a pretty important distinction between Glover and Yuri and then what Jon Jones and Gustafson did which I re-watched a couple of times before today's show and what I realized about that fight was the significance of that was one I thought Jon lost the first two and then barely won the third and then clearly won the fourth and the fifth so he had this like he had to rise to the moment of being down the cards number one number two there was this air of invincibility around Jon at the time, and Glover,

excuse me, Gustafson, sorry, completely challenged that. Gustafson, there's a lot of chatter in the back that's really distracting. Sorry. Well, we need to give you a lot. There's a lot of chatter in the back. Let's keep it at a minimum here, please. Alright, what I'm trying to make here is

with the John Jones and Gustafson fight, it was a much cleaner fight. But John, for example, went one for 11 on takedowns in that fight. That was unheard of impossible. And it wasn't until the 10th takedown attempt that he got it. And then with on the 11th, John had been shown to be mortal. The guy who you thought was, could not possibly be beat the guy who you thought could not possibly have the, you know, lose a round or two, he did, and he lost him right away. Gustafson changed the narrative around John, but then John had to answer the moment,

and so it was this really historically significant fight. That's not the case with Uri and Glover. There was not as much defense, for example, in Uri and Glover, and so you had these really pronounced moments of one-way offense going in either direction constantly. So for sure, what I'm going to say is this is the most fun light heavyweight title fight I think I've ever seen. I will say that, number one. And number two, in terms of its stakes, it's obviously critically important. It doesn't have the same historical relevance. I think over time, you will see that it doesn't have that because John was, John not just was the towering figure at light heavyweight. He still is

the towering figure, even though we think he's going to heavyweight in terms of the, who's the best light heavyweight of all time. It's obviously John Jones. And that was the first time you had ever had an inkling that someone could do something to him. And of course he had to overcome that. That's just not going to be history between Glover and Uri. But in terms of just dogfights, in terms of just guys giving everything that they have, I think this fight stands alone at a 200 and 5. This is the type of fight that makes, recreates, or cements people's fandom. It really is. It's just one of those, it's like I compare, maybe why this fight is so unique, cuz you can compare so many other parts of so many other fights.

You can take the Sana and Silva one final moment thing. You can compare it a little bit to almost like Bigfoot, Mark Hunt one, where there's just insane growing violence. That's right. It bears more resemblance to that first Hunt and Bigfoot fight than any other fight, but it has a totally different significance. And it had almost a Tate-Holm constant reversal and dramatic turnaround feel that it's got a little bit of all that in there. So to try to properly say where you put it, because I really do believe that if you're a casual fan, you watch that fight, you're a serious fan. Because the street fight element of it really connects with you on a personal level. Do you think it's better than my favorite fight of all time?

Rory McDonald and Lawler? Adesanya versus Gastelum. Ooh. I haven't seen that one recently. Also a title fight-ish, being an interim strap. Oh, that's a good fight too. And then Izzy's last minute, I don't know. I'd have to think about that a little bit, but that's certainly in the conversation as well about all the time. Was it so great? Yes. Was it historically significant in its own way? Yes. But does it warrant seeing it come back part two right away right now? Glover wants it. I'd be in favor of it. You a hell yeah. These two, it's funny when this fight was announced again, we all had the, oh, poor Glover, man. He's going to get sent to hell by this guy. But as it got closer,

we have Glover on this couch. You start doing the X's and O's, you realize Yuri's got some legitimate vulnerabilities. You started to say, man, Glover could have success, he could do what he did to Jan. Now he had good moments, he took Yuri down, but it wasn't that. But as we got closer to it, we started to realize this matchup in its own way and how they contrast each other, it's perfect. It's the perfect era. And to see how perfect they were in terms of toughness and taking big chances. I mean, when Glover said afterwards, live by the store, die by the store, like damn right, I love that man.

This like if he didn't already get Glover, the love and respect he deserved for how absurd at 42 staying the course and coming back to win the title. This performance in defeat by the way, in defeat where he kind of made a big mistake on the ground late and kind of set up this defeat, it still kind of immortalizes him, even more than winning the title, right? This is the true currency to being immortalized, these type of performances. So at the end of the day, they are perfect for each other.

I think you run it back. I think you really do, Luke. It was that great. I don't think you're abusing it. Let me ask the question and see how you would answer it. It's a loaded question on purpose, but let me just see what kind of response you give. Why did Yuri win? And we know the answer is he choked him up in the back in the fifth round, but that's not what I'm asking. In the larger perspective of things, why was he able to win? I think he just outlasted Glover. I think that's right. I mean, five rounds at that hellacious pace with that level of violence and damage, like Glover showed the hell out.

But damn, did Yuri Prochazka, because we had those questions about his ground game. We had those questions about his stamina. For him to basically just say, I'm going into the deep waters with you, Glover, but I'm gonna be the only guy coming out of the pool. That's how he did it. And it's why, Luke, would you agree with this? For as great as this fight was, and as dramatic as that finish was, there was like this weird feeling when it happened.

Everyone just kind of went, everybody finally exhaled. It wasn't that triumphant moment of Spider Anderson Silva getting the tap against Chael. It was sort of like, wait, did that just happen? Did it just end right there? It was almost like, shit, Yuri's the new champion. Because the fight superseded the finish is what I'm really trying to say, right? Yes. Well, the finish was so unexpected.

I mean, what ended up happening, what we saw from this fight was ultimately that not only these guys are perfect pairing. We had talked about it before. We had thought, you know, Glover has the capacity to take advantage of a lot of Yuri's vulnerabilities and vice versa. But I actually thought, to me, like to answer the question about like why Yuri won, it was bend, don't break, right? Because actually the truth of the matter is, yes, Yuri had a lot of very important and significant striking on the feet. But, dude, Glover was not fully outmatched on the feet either.

And for as good as his ground and pound was and his passing to mount, which he might be the best guy in all of UFC to really take advantage of aggressive passing and making the damage count thereafter even then there was a lot of reversals from Yuri on the ground but he showed out on the ground you would say that about Prochaska he he survived and then found his right moments that's what I would say again a bit of bend don't break but the part that really got me that was just kind of interesting is dude the first thing that Yuri says when they talk to him was like, Jesus Christ, that was a shit performance, you know? And you can understand that.

Dude, his style, like, he was able to outlast bend, don't break, whatever terminology you want to use. That's why he was able to win. And, dude, to have the presence of mind to go for the choke like that after fighting that long and taking that much abuse is just insane to have that kind of perspective and wherewithal. But the reality is, I think this fight is going to be a real big wake-up call for him. We already talked about, we saw the stats on Friday. The guy takes a lot of damage. Yuri Prohachka takes a lot of damage with his style. And I think he kind of disregarded it a little bit because, well, a little bit of a tax you got to pay, you're going to get hit, it's a fight.

And then he was able to get Volkan Uzdemir and then Dominic Reyes out in relatively short order. Against Glover, that didn't work at all. And I think he finally realized, I cannot keep fighting like this if I want to have A, any longevity, but B, to get the most out of himself. I actually think that Glover might change Yuri, not for the worse, but actually for the better by waking up. Because yes, dude, his durability is extraordinary. But dude, he is spending on that credit card a lot.

17 straight wins for Prochazka. And by the way, you know, he did beat Vadim Nemkov, you know, before coming to the UFC. He does have some of those names on his pre-UFC run that kind of open your eye and surprise you. But what if I had told you, Luke, and by the way, his 10 fight knockout streak ended. He got a stoppage, by the way. What if I told you that before this fight that Glover Teixeira would get full mount two or three times and open a gnarly cut above the eye of Yuri that you would think,

oh, this fight's not gonna last another minute. And then what if I told you on the flip side that Yuri would still win, by the way, on that? what if I told you on the flip side that Yuri would still win, by the way, on that? What if I told you on the flip side that Glover would, you know, get banged around, knock down a few times, get his nose busted, yet be on the way to winning the fight in the final minute? I mean, just, it's just. And also, like, dude, usually when Glover gets mount, it's game over. Oh, my God.

Usually he moves to mount, and that's a wrap. Because he rains punches down. They're accurate. They're short. He doesn't fool around. And, dude, have you noticed, like, this fight wasn't necessarily the best demonstration of that, although that last reversal that Yuri got was by pushing off the fence. Yes.

But if he has mount in typically, typically, if he has mount in, like, open space, bro, it's a wrap because either he's going to pound on you from there, his balance in mount is extraordinary, or they roll and he gets the choke from the back. He can finish from there either. Dude, how many times not did he get mount but then had the back of Prohodzka and still couldn't put him away? And Glover's two most dominant rounds. I believe they were two and three. I have to go back and check.

All three judges gave him one and two. And then one judge gave him round four. He ended the two rounds in question here. I can't remember which ones they were. But I know one of them was round two. He ended it on his back getting elbowed in the face with Yuri on top of him. So it's like at any moment in this fight, when you thought you knew the direction it was going, it always had another twist and turn for you. And again, that it's two of the, for now at least,

two of the less marketable names at the moment in the UFC in a pay-per-view card in Singapore, yet they just absolutely commanded the attention of the combat sports world and did that. I want to ask you now, and it's something that we teased last week, what is Yuri Prohotska's fan favorite must-see potential now after this? Because you would have to argue he might have the perfect video game persona, action movie villain persona here with the style that goes after it. He's sort of a crossover, like casual fans dream. Is he not? He is. The only thing is if you're going to be champion, obviously

you have to win to keep it, but to, to really be a breakthrough star in, in MMA, there are a couple of exceptions to this. And then there's definitely exceptions as someone becomes something else and then turns into what I'm about to say. But typically, typically, if you really want to be a star in the UFC, you've got to consistently win. Now, you can be someone who consistently won, and then you can get to a later stage of your career where you can be like a Diaz where, yes, winning is significantly important,

but you can kind of fudge that a little bit. I don't think Yuri is there. He's 29 years old. He just won the belt. He's got to win. He's got to win pretty significantly if he wants to be that, what you're talking about, which is that breakthrough star to the next. Because people are intrigued by him.

His style is not really exciting, but he's got that weird mop on top, and he's big. Dude, he was huge standing next to Glover. When they faced off, I think it was either Bisping or Cormier, it was talking about, Jesus Christ, he looked like he was almost in another weight class. He was so big. And, dude, Glover's not a small guy. We had him on the couch. He's a large dude.

So I think there's a lot of potential there, but if he doesn't clean up the other parts of his game, and we should talk about this in just a second, I think he's going to have problems. Namely, here's what I want to bring up. The fifth round, the guillotine jump from Glover. Now, he was able to overcome it by virtue of getting back to the mount position. That was the beginning of the end. That was such a problem. Here was my read on that on Saturday night. Let me know what you think of it. The big key change to Glover, he did it in the Blachowicz fight, and he did it in this fight. After the first minute of the first round,

so about four minutes left in the first round, he goes for a takedown and gets it. Did it against Blachowicz, did it against Uri, and it was wise, right? We said his game hasn't dramatically changed or improved. It was just refocused around the ground game, right? He rocks Uri a bunch of times on the feet and then jumps guillotine. And I was like, what are you doing? But I thought about this.

What do you think? He has so recentered his approach on grappling. Like the old Glover would have just gone and buried him with the hands. We've seen it before. But I think he has changed his perspective so much that he just almost instinctually decided to make it a kind of ground affair thinking he would win. And my point is, I do think that shifting to grappling on balance has been a net win. Absolutely.

But here's the part of that net win that doesn't show up. I mean, in other words, this is, this is, this is the, that shift is great, but it does come at a cost and it cost him. Right. It works until it works until it stops working and it stopped working in that moment and it made him look bad. It made him look like a strategic misplacement. Same with, again, being the BJJ guy and then you get tapped out by the striker. But the fight at that point was so crazy. And I wanna back up a little bit. Something that Glover told us on that couch is back in the day, and I think he was referencing the Rumble Johnson

knockout loss, he would come in in a straight line and really rely on his boxing. He had yet to sort of make that adjustment to put the focus back on his fundamentals on the ground. But how good was Glover's defense for at least the first two-plus rounds? I mean, you know, he's got an ex-heavyweight boxer, Fresneli Feliz Sr., in his corner. And his constant head movement and covering up, he just barely blocked so many big bombs. But then when the fight got, like, real bat-chick crazy, he just stopped using defense. Dude, he, I mean, if he would have won this fight, you know, they could have made a Paul Bunyan statue for him because it would have been that ridiculous.

He took hellacious, stiff, short punches and just kept coming back. I mean, he, like, how much did he pour out? How much did Glover Teixeira pour out? Folks are asking, like, why did he tap? I tend to think that, like, how much did he pour out? How much did Glover Desire pour out? Folks are asking, like, why did he tap? I tend to think that, like, here's the thing. Glover knows this. When I'm about to say Glover knows, anybody who's trained for a significant amount of time would be like, yeah, of course.

When you're in that position in turtle, in MMA, let's say that was in the first 30 seconds of the first round. What do you think Glover would have done? Dude, he would have gotten to his hands and his feet, and he would have scrambled either for an underhook or standing back along the fence. He would have done something to not be static in that position. But he was static in that position. I think he was static, yes, in part because he was beat up. I think he was static in that position because he was tired.

And I think when the choke finally came on, the reason why you need to control the rest of the body is because they can move, they can scramble, so it can be hard to get the choke. We've seen no-hook rear naked chokes, but the reason why you need to control the rest of the body is because they can move, they can scramble. So it can be hard to get the choke. We've seen no hook rear naked chokes, but the reason why control is important is they always say position before submission for that reason. If you had someone super fresh and you go for a no hook rear naked choke and you don't, it didn't even have the back. It almost did it from the side for crying out loud there there there's a good chance they're going to scramble out of it. It's

going to be hard to keep. I think he had nothing left. Absolutely. I think he had nothing left. And I don't say that pejoratively. I want to be very clear. I think he gave everything he had, and the dude, Yuri, just had one little piece more, and that was all that mattered. Dude, if Yuri wasn't the real deal, there were many, many parts in that fight that he could have been overcome.

So to see Yuri come through that is just amazing, but I fear that Glover poured everything out. I fear that that, you know, that that's the end of him. It was good to see him say, you know. Yes, but he also made that miscalculation. It wasn't just that. That miscalculation cost him. They fought at a stupid pace. They fought at just a stupid pace by the end of it. But, you know, to see Glover afterwards be like, did I look 42? No, I'm going to keep fighting. He very well can keep fighting. I mean, you can, I mean, look, some of the things he got through in this fight to reverse his position and reverse the momentum. I remember saying to myself, like, this might be the best version of him I've ever seen.

Oh, that's what, dude. Like, he's so much better now than he was at 35 in the midst of his original walk to the title against John, you know, in that run. He's, I mean, you know, he didn't necessarily look this great even four or five fights ago. Whatever he did to clean up everything, right, to make his game more efficient, to change the way he trains, to everything. I mean, it is just, it's a perfect storm. You know, it's rare that it happens in combat sports for somebody to kind of put it together this late and find the best of themselves at this age. But not only was that the best of him for the most part throughout that fight, how much more can he do, Luke?

Because would he have retired with the win? You know, if he got that win, would he have retired right there, you think? I don't know, because I think he'd probably still feel the same, like I felt pretty good. To your point, you tell me which rise to a title shot is better. From the UFC, he beat Kyle Kingsbury, he submitted his arm triangle, by the way. How about that arm triangle he nearly got as well? Dude, Glover pulled out all the greatest Glover hits, the move to mount, the punishment from mount,

the head and arm triangle, all the things he's known for. Still couldn't get it done. So he beat Kyle Kingsbury, Fabio Maldonado, I would say a fairly diminished Quinton Rampage Jackson via decision, James DeHuna, and then he TKO'd Ryan Bader. Now that's a pretty good run. That's actually a very good run. And then he had built a second run until the Rumble knockout, right? PAGE JACKSON VIA DECISION, JAMES TAHUNA AND THEN HE TKO'ED RYAN BADER. THAT'S A PRETTY GOOD RUN. THAT'S ACTUALLY A VERY GOOD RUN.

AND THEN HE HAD BUILT A SECOND RUN UNTIL THE RUMBLE KNOCKOUT, RIGHT? SORT OF. HE BEAT OVID STATE PRUE, PATRICK CUMMINGS, THEN RASHAD, THEN HE LOST TO ANTHONY LAVAL JOHNSON. THEN IT WAS UP AND DOWN FOR A WHILE. BUT THEN HE BEAT ROBERSON, KUTELAVA, KRILOV, THEN SMITH, THEN SANTOS, THEN BLEHOVIC. AND AGAIN, HE'S DOING THAT AT A MUCH LATER AGE WITH MORE ADVANCED FIGHTERS RELATIVE TO WHAT THEY WERE BACK AT THE TIME WHEN HE WAS DOING IT.

IT'S FUCKING IMPRESSIVE, DUDE. at a much later age with more advanced fighters relative to what they were back at the time when she was doing it. It's fucking impressive, dude. Glover Teixeira, you know, dude, he was saying here, he said it sort of very simply, like, I train a lot of jiu-jitsu because I love it. Dude, it has paid off. It has paid off dramatically. And he mentioned how much, excuse me, I gotta get this straight up. Are they in your ear about it? No, no, I could just feel it bubbling up.

I don't want, you know, we always, we have sound issues sometimes. Like diarrhea. So I don't want to make the people upset. But yeah, I forgot where I was going to go there with Glover. But it was very proud. The run to the title. But to see him, I can't believe at this age that he can have that. He got rocked against Maheta, but figured it out and came back.

That's almost becoming part of his strategy. It's like, how long can that last well dude like he took that damage incredibly well in this fight luke dude i'm looking at no but like seriously like like he he was rocked he was bloodied he was knocked down you it never looked like he was close to going though like it was really a next level was that there all along and he just never had to use it luke whoo i have had a great night. It's hard to say. I mean, he did have a great night, but I mean, like relatively speaking, there is, I don't know. That's a great question. I haven't really thought too much about that. I don't know, but I'm looking at the numbers for this fight and it was just absolutely bonkers. Five takedowns in this fight. How about this? Two submission

attempts. It feels like there was more, but they counted as two six reversals six reversals a total of about not quite a little under 500 strikes thrown at each other dude you're just not going to see a stat line like that no for a fight this significant which with two fighters relatively speaking this advanced in the UFC maybe ever it's extremely rare and it's like a bantamweight uh line, right? That's what it feels like. Dude, I cannot believe Prochaska was able to constantly reverse him on the ground. I cannot believe that. Will this fight make the Hall of Fame? Under the way they do that. Yeah, yeah.

Here's the thing. I think they were looking for a reason to put Glover in anyway because he's been a company man. Okay, but let's draw that line. If you get in for a fight, you're not in the Hall of Fame. I know that that's a blurred line and people say, oh, there's UFC Hall of Famer Diego Sanchez. I'm not saying Diego Sanchez couldn't make the Hall of Fame. I'm saying he's not in just because of that fight against Gil.

I don't know if I agree with that. I mean, if they give you a jacket and a ceremony, you're in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, but they put you in for the fight you co-authored. They didn't put you in for your career. That's what I'm saying. Fine, that's a different way of getting into the Hall of Fame. So you're saying if you get in under a fight, it's the same thing as being in as a fighter? No, I don't think it's the same thing. But I wouldn't deny them their place. Okay. Yeah, this is a Hall of Fame fight.

Plus, here's the thing. It wasn't like, for example, Cub Swanson and the Korean Superboy. Phenomenal fight for all the reasons that it's going to go in, but this was for a title. This was the headline of a pay-per-view. This was a little bit more significant. And also, dude, it really felt like not quite changing of the guard, but you had this guy who represented

this long-standing era of MMA against this new upstart era of MMA. And neither is a perfect fit for the old age or the new coming of age. They're not exactly the perfect avatars for that, but it did feel a little bit like the push and the tension between the old guard and the new guard happening there. You were talking about Yuri's potential and his popularity future.

Do you like the Tony Ferguson comparison? A lot of people make it. Why not? I mean, Tony's game is different he's um he's just a little bit different and unique in terms of his weird persona and the willingness to take on pain and almost loving it and all that what what do you see as the comparison it's not that i made it i just see a lot of people making it to me is his own unique sort of like mythical cartoon figure come to life and he's an all or nothing slugger who, yeah, maybe he needs to alter that a bit,

but got really damn far with that. Actually won a championship at the highest level. So, no, I kind of look at him as his own thing. And that's why I think he has a chance to be everyone's favorite fighter after this. I mean, look, while people came in with the romanticism and love for Glover, and dude, he won us over on the couch. Believe me, I love me some Glover Teixeira. You have to exit this going,

not only do I want to see Yuri Prochazka again, but, like, how much does the merch cost? You know what I mean? Like, can I have a party at my house next time he fights? Like, I think he has a shot to become that type of dude. And not necessarily like an Arturo Gatti or something like that, but because, again, he's his own unique

sort of force and character. But, dude, if they were selling jerseys, like this, the NBA, I think his jersey sales are spiking after this. Who do you favor in the rematch? Yuri. Interesting. I mean, you're going to ask Glover to do that a second time? You're going to ask him to do it on that same level a second time? I don't know.

Glover's capable of some pretty smart adjustments. Glover's incredible, but Glover was in full mount multiple times and nearly had Yuri in submissions, and it didn't work. And I get every fight is its own sort of separate chapter and story. Could Glover win a rematch? Of course. But you've got to favor the younger fighter who just outlasted him, proved he could take all the threats, got taken down, no problem, got his eye cut open really bad, no problem. Dude, Yuri Prohotska's style, as we talked about, is so willing to take on damage that there's going to be a short life for his prime, for his top level, top of the mountain prime. But he's there.

And I don't know who's going to beat him. It's one of those things where it's like anyone could beat him because he takes big chances. But now that we know that he has that type of backbone, cardio, ability to get out of bad situations on the ground against an expert. Seriously, dude, of this refurbished 205 pound division, I don't know who's gonna beat him. So one interesting point, then I wanna ask you a question about it. Like one of the things that's gonna make you actually like how popular could it be? One thing I didn't mention, I'd like to bring it up now.

He actually has something of a good style to be popular. What do I mean? It's one thing when you have just overwhelming damage and force, like what Anderson Silva did when he announced himself to UFC fans by beating Chris Lieben. Obviously, people who were familiar with him in Pride weren't as surprised. But that was, you know, one-way traffic can also build a star, Ronda Rousey, for example. But some of the people that become the most lovable

and can become sustaining stars are the ones that get hit a little bit, right? The defense allows the fight, or I should say the lack of defense, But some of the people that become the most lovable and can become sustaining stars are the ones that get hit a little bit, right? The defense allows the fight, or I should say the lack of defense allows the fight to be otherwise more exciting than it would. Plus, he has dynamic offense behind that, right? If you can get hit a little bit and then hit a lot, that actually makes for a pretty compelling product. So let me ask you this. Can you think of anyone in boxing who is kind of like Yuri? Now, Yuri's his own man, but what I mean to say is, has the capacity to be durable got hit a noticeable amount?

Maybe not as much as Yuri, but got hit a noticeable amount, but had resilience and dynamic firepower back? Somebody that really stands out for that. I'm trying to think. Somebody that style makes them a little bit vulnerable. They're maybe not masters at traditional technique and perfection, yet we're able to get to the absolute highest level because of the strengths they do have.

Again, I don't think there's a perfect comparison in this case. I think that makes him super unique. And could he be a star? Absolutely. And could anybody beat him? Yes, with the recklessness, like I said. But, Luke, as long as he can stay on the top of this mountain it's gonna be hard to beat him gaff in our ear saying michelle pedetta is somewhat comparable in that in that regard he's not a champion no he's not um and he has changed the style significantly over time and dude so does this settle any kind of debate as who is the best 205 pound fighter in the world right now because i don't think that it does because he did beat

nimcoff now grant you, what, 2015 or something? Yes. Oh, you mean, I'm sorry, you mean like globally? Yeah. You know, I'd be curious to see what Corey Anderson could do because the takedown vulnerabilities, man. Dude, Glover was having a lot of success with him. A lot of success, obviously, earlier than a little bit later.

But even later, he was able to get him as well. Corey Anderson is phenomenal from half guard. He has good, accurate ground and pound. He has a vicious gas tank, but here's the problem. Corey Anderson, I don't think he has a bad chin, but I don't know if he has the very best one I've ever seen. And again, for all the fucking damage that Yuri takes, his capacity to dish it out and then persevere and presence of mind

is remarkable, truly remarkable. I think the big question for me going forward when I asked about, like, who would win the rematch, I really want to see what this does to Uri's style. Because I think he can reign for a little while, even with what he's got. But if he doesn't change, whatever the ultimate upside is, however long it's going to be, that will be shortened. I mean, look, is Glover's punch resistance going to be compromised to some degree

if they do a rematch comparative to what he showed in the first one? I think it has to. Probably. It has to. Age, grind. I mean, in these cases, when it's that close, you've got to go with the younger line who's coming on for the most part. So I think it's deserving.

I hope they match it next. Who do you think gets the next shot? A lot of people were asking me about how would Izzy do against Yuri. I had a bunch of questions about that. That's becoming a lot of people tweeting at us. It never even occurred to me to think about that. I was just, I mean, not to say it's not a relevant question, I suppose that it is, but it just wasn't where my mind was.

I was thinking more like, how is Yuri going to do against potentially Ankhalaev, if that's one of the matchups they end up making, or potentially Anthony Smith, if they go that way, depending on... Right, because we were sort of, when we talked ahead of this fight as to who should get the next one, we were saying the same thing. If khali ever smith looked great against one another if who's rackets fighting he got injured so that was out okay so he's kind of out of it now i'm wondering now that you bring up that izzy point if the decision is not to go directly into a glover rematch and save it a bit if izzy gets by cannon near without issue oh we'll hope it should be

the other one oh blahovic is knocking on that door and he was in the crowd and they had some words and we'll see that and have you seen the shit. Great point. You could go Blachowicz next and I don't think anyone's going to argue, especially since they did kind of have some jawing there. But the promotion does like to go big. Given what Izzy's done at light heavyweight, given that he fought Blachowicz when he did

challenge for the 205 title very well, but learned some lessons of how he has to change. Not, do you think the fight should be next? Do you think the promotion would want Izzy if he gets through Canada Air next to cut the line again? They might. They might. I mean, here's the thing.

This was my initial reaction on Saturday night. Tell me if you disagree. My initial reaction was on the feet. On the feet, I think Izzy lights him on fire. But... Really? On fire? Oh, yeah.

Dude, Izzy's so accurate, so clever. Yes. But here's why I want to counter that. By the way, he's going to be faster. But here's why I want to counter that. On the feet. Just to be clear, we're just talking about on the feet. On the feet against Yoel Romero.

When Romero landed that kick in round one, which was like the only strike that really landed in that first round of that weird fight. Dude, Izzy didn't like that. You know? And I think that that put him... He doesn't take a lot of damage. That's right. Right.

So the threat of Yuri's unpredictability, like Yoel, who does the same kind of, you know, smoke and mirrors. Oh, could it slow him down and make him be a little more reserved? Is that what you're saying? It completely slowed him down. All right. Fair point. So let me dial it back a little bit.

So I can't see him just picking apart Yuri because Yuri has a. Oh, I can see that. No, because Yuri presents a stance that you can't loosely do that to because he's right in your face. He's got his chin out, but he's also right there. Have you ever seen Izzy fight? I'm just curious. Okay, dude, but I saw Romero freeze him by landing one strike.

Okay? Dude, Romero is entirely different. And now we're at 205. Dude, Romero has... Now we're at 205 against one of the most dangerous knockout guys in the game. Romero never... This has changed a little bit, but in that fight, in that era of when he was fighting, it was, or that stage, I should say,

it was one way and one way. He was super defensive, super defensive, and then would have offense after that. He doesn't mix it. Dude, Yuri mixes the shit out of them. It's a completely different fighter. I get your point. I do agree a little bit.

Like I said, I'll dial it back a little bit, which is to say, do I think that Izzy could be reserved enough to not have fully dynamic offense out of concern for the reach, the explosion, the power? Yes. But in terms of who would land more and who would land more significantly, I would heavily favor Izzy. Right, but think about it. When Izzy can get in the flow state against someone level of a Vittori

or a Paulo Costa, that's different than he's just putting it on you. I don't know if he ever fully gets into that spot against Uri. Or at least it's going to take a while for him to become comfortable because he's really got to taste that power and see where this guy is at. Here's the one challenge I would say for Izzy is the size of Uri. He is enormous. He is so big. And so if a guy like Blachowicz can show that the weight class difference

is significant, you can, I mean, if Uri had a more takedown-oriented game, which isn't to say that he would always get the takedown, but he could slow it down, he could do damage there. And again, he's unpredictable in those spaces. Who knows what he's coming with, like he did against Reyes. That, to me, is the very interesting and challenging part. At distance, I'm going to just sort of lean towards Izzy, but all the other variables are hard to account for.

I think they go Jan next, Luke, I really do. Yeah, I think it's probably the right call. Especially after Ancalay beat Santos, but kind of had a pfft showing. And you're not asking Glover to rush back into this after that type of... No, he needs some time off. He earned it. He earned it. He earned it.

All right, let's move on to the second fight on the card that was just... Well, it wasn't as incredible, but pretty relevant, pretty important. Valentina Shevchenko retains her flyweight title by defeating Tyler Santos via... I think it was split decision. Okay, BC. How'd I think it was split decision. Okay, BC, how'd you score it? Number one. And what is the biggest story from this fight? Okay, I think the biggest story isn't

the scoring. That's the second biggest story. I scored it three rounds to two for Valentina and the key swing round there is round two. I get, I get when you're watching a fight like this and you see her do very little offensively watching the fight like this and you see her do very little offensively in the first three rounds and you see her in rounds one and two in particular on her back, naturally you're like, well, Tyler Santos dictated the terms of this fight.

But this is something I got caught into at times bringing a boxing scoring mentality into the MMA game. Luke, we know it's about damage at the end of the day. So when we're going with that way, round two cannot be for Tyler Santos. I'm sorry. Valentina got the best of it on the feet. When Valentina was down, she was way more active from the bottom, landing strikes over her head during the choke attempts, and she briefly had a triangle choke on, so there was a submission threat there.

Santos was so – That was a go-go plaza. You can get me on the terms. I heard it both ways. But so, you know, when you're in this point in round two, you took me off track there. What I'm trying to say is, oh, and Tyler was so inactive that Goddard actually stood her up after warning multiple times. So round one, so there's one judge that gave it 49-46. And right away, Luke, when you hear 49-46, you go, oh, okay, the champ got the wrong. It is Herzog, you're right.

Yeah, it was. How could you do it 4-1? But let's be fair. Even round one, which I scored to Tyler, but it was a lot closer than people realized. Luke, you don't get credit for taking someone down and doing nothing. You don't get over credit for that. I'm going to split the difference with you. And I don't think she was offensive at all in those two rounds for the most part.

Dude, I'm telling you. Skeptical hippo. Okay, so I scored round one for her, but I could see where a judge could be watching that under the actual letters of the law of how the scoring is written. Yes, that's true. And say, you know what, I give her round one too, but I gave it three rounds to two because I gave Valentina round two.

I urge you to rewatch round two knowing how the rules actually are and score that for Santos. Luke, she did nothing with the position at all. So let's credit Valentina for rallying. But what do I think is the biggest story in this fight? That Valentina is a superhero, but she's human. And even people like me need to slow the roll a bit. In the right matchup, as we saw, somebody with physicality like Jennifer Maya had,

who had certain levels of success taking Valentina down, wasn't able to turn that into offense like Talia wasn't. But if you're big, you can take on damage. And let's give Santos credit, that headbutt in round three, which I do believe changed the tenor of this fight. It forced Santos into a survival mode for at least another round and a half. I do think that headbutt broke her orbital bone. So she had to be crazy tough to put on that performance.

And let's give her credit. She took Valentina down and humanized her. Luke, there is a hole in Valentina's game. As much as we love her offensive wrestling against Andrade to completely neutralize her, now that is two opponents who opened up a potential lane to victory and in this case made it way too close for comfort for Valentina. So to the letter of the law, I believe she won it. To the letter of the law, two of the three judges believe she won it,

despite people at home, and I the three judges believe she won it, despite people at home, and I get why, saying they thought it was Santos. But I didn't love how nonchalant Valentina was after the fact. Very Aldo versus Korean zombie. Yeah, how else would you score it? No, she didn't say that. And I'm not saying that there's not some mixture of nerves, like relief that she didn't get the loss mixed with embarrassment. I don't know what's going on.

But she was very much like, oh, yeah, I did what I had to do and I won the fight. No, that was very, very close with the other fighter having an argument to victory. The other fighter winning one of three scorecards. When in reality, ability to ability, Luke, I don't think they were that close. When Valentina had to put her foot on the gas and put it on her offensively, she was able to do that. Was she exposed to some degree compared to the letter of perfection that we're comparing her to? Yes.

She was exposed a little bit and came back down to earth, Luke. Yeah, look at the scorecards here. The only scorecard all three judges gave Santos was round three. Yes. David Letheby, again, I don't have my glasses. I apologize. He gave the first three rounds to Santos, the last two to Valentina. Clemens, I think it's Werner,

but Werner, he is a very good judge. He gave four. That's the 49-46. So all the folks being like, oh, how can these judges do it? I would argue the very best of the three gave it 49-46. And again, rewatch round one. That's also in consideration as a flip-flop round. And then Howard Hughes gave rounds one and three to Santos,

which is justified, I think, in my view. And then rounds two, four, and five. So let me say a couple things here. I totally agree with you about, listen, I saw something kind of interesting. When her face was broken, and I remember that they let her go out for the fourth round, I tweeted, I was like, at the end of the fourth,

because at that point it was swelling, swelling, swelling. And she looked like she'd been stung by a bee or something. I'm surprised she finished the fight. I'm serious. And she looked like she'd been stung by a bee or something. I'm surprised she finished the fight. I'm serious. Because she looked like she was ready to quit. And I don't mean that in a disparaging way. I mean like she had a broken eyeball. Would you blame her?

It literally looked like she was doing this. Yes. Like the whole time. She couldn't do anything. Like Popeye out there or something. But she also didn't get taken advantage of. And this was a Valentina rallying. So Santos, so is it, did Santos overachieve on toughness?

Or did Valentina come back down to earth or a little bit of both? I think a little bit of both. I think the thing I was going to say was, for me, the UFC has a job to promote fighters, and they promote them a certain way. And Shevchenko has had a few wins, like the amazing win of her eye and then the arm bar of pain. And there's been some other ones as well that have been dramatic and important and impactful.

And they have turned her into something that she's not. what i mean by that is they've tried to present her as like a superhero she's perfect she's a knockout machine well she's not perfect and she's not a knockout machine she is an incredibly talented deserving champion but she's a human being and there's been a little bit of buying into the mythology that people have sold her i've been banging that drum and i gotta you can take my sticks away. And here's a great, yeah, that's okay. I'm going to bang with my hands now. You've got to be the Def Leppard with the eye.

I'm sorry. You set it up for me. It was what it was. But the point I wanted to make, BC, is I saw something that fans do a lot, which was at the end of the fourth round, by the way, how about that ringside physician being like, yeah, she can see. Fuck it. I was like, remind me to never get medical care there.

Did he speak Portuguese at all? I think he was just sort of like, yeah. He literally looked at her. He goes, can you see? What is she going to say for her? She's like, yeah, I can see. Meanwhile, it's like, you know, can you see? Yeah, I can see.

It's like, yeah, fuck it. Let it roll. But the point I wanted to make was I saw some, I tweeted being like, dude, I was really worried for her health. Because if you get it broken, it can affect your eyesight permanently. Remember Billy Joe Saunders after he got hit with the Canelo shot and they had to go into the It had to pull the eyeball out at the doctors for a surgery Reconstruct the inside of the socket then put the eye back in and it changed everything do that will change your career

It could change your quality of life and I was saying to myself like Jesus Christ This is really dangerous and I saw people being like, oh it'd be a shame if this fight was stopped No, it was a shame that the fight continued actually I credit Santos and her toughness I believe believe in that. And I understand her team's perspective as well, being like, she literally might never get here again. I understand that. But from a medical standpoint, you got to treat these guys not as superheroes, not as invincible machines. They are humans. They have frail and fragile biology. And we have to take that into consideration. And also, they're imperfect creatures. But here's what I want to say. I actually think the 49-46 scorecard is entirely

justifiable based on the current scoring criteria. I also believe that 48-47 for Shevchenko, or I should say two rounds for Santos, is justifiable. And by the way, did you see what Shevchenko said afterwards? We always talk about how these fighters and these coaches and these managers and these luminaries, these commentators, never seem to know the scoring criteria. But when she was asked about... Where are all these Joe Rogans? Well, in fairness, up to the... Did you see that clip in question, though?

Oh, where he was talking to Al Jermaine? Where Joe, yeah, where Joe was like, I got a great idea. He was like, there should be all these changes. It's like, bro, this change has been around since Obama was in office. What the fuck are you talking about? All right, but the point I wanted to make was, Shevchenko got out there at the post-fire press conference and's like, bro, this change has been around since Obama was in office. What the fuck are you talking about? All right, but the point I wanted to make was, Shevchenko got out there at the post-fire press conference and was like, look, damage is the name of the game.

She appears to understand what the scoring criteria is. And again, you can like the scoring criteria or you cannot like it, but if you're going to have to fight under it, it's best to know what it is. But here is one point I wanted to make, BC. I believe that the scoring criteria as it's currently implemented, why did the Association of Boxing Commissions do it the way that they did and why did other states adopt it? Because they needed a coherent system by which judges could make a proper evaluation

of what was happening in a contest. They tried to make an assessment from a value standpoint about what they thought was important and what was not as important, and they tried to create a hierarchy around that. And I think that they achieved that. But this is what I wanted to say. BC, I think they've gone a little far. All right?

They have turned grappling from what the equivalent in grappling would be from a points-based system where you get points for a takedown, points for a pass, points for a back take, advantage for a submission. They overcorrected from the lane parade days. And then they went all the way to like sub only. We're at a sub only tournament. Literally the only thing that matters is a sub. Let me make a point. I don't know how relevant it would be in this particular fight. And I will agree with you. Santos had the back for several rounds, but in three of those rounds, she had single digit strikes. She got outstruckruck because dude Valentina was landing so flush over her head and it actually made Santos stop trying to let me pause it a scenario let's say it's relatively even ish on the feet maybe you're the slight better of me

right rock my head back one time it is relatively even but I take you down and I take your back and I don't get close with a submission it's hard for me to land meaningful ground and pound under the current rule set you you would probably win. And again, if the judge scored it that way, I would understand it. But to me, that is not the proper way to score grappling. I don't like the overcorrection. We have turned grappling into sub-only

grappling in MMA. Do you blame John Fitch for that in the end? Hold on, hold on. And you can do damage with your fist as well, obviously. But in terms of the grappling part of it, let me explain something to you. If I take you down, take your back, and I neutralize you, I have put you in a near, not only, but a near perfectly defensive position. I have the only position in all of MMA where I have asymmetry. You are facing one way, and I have your back.

That is an extremely difficult thing to obtain, which I'm not saying you should award the difficulty of it. But if I can put you in a situation where you have to survive for three minutes and you can meaningfully not do much. Now, granted, if you're landing those kinds of things, that changes it. But if I had risk control, let's say, and I was going for the throat or whatever, that should be counted more than the rules count for. So I think we have majorly overcorrected. We have overcorrected from the lay and pray John Fitch era where that was a style of winning. And it was like, beat that.

So we've overcorrected to the degree where it takes it away. Like, if you ask me, there's an unofficial tiebreaker when scoring in boxing that a lot of people use. Max Kellerman made it very public. Who would you rather be? Now, I disagree with that under the boxing terms because what that means is, look, if somebody lands one big punch against me but not enough to take momentum of the round and I hit them with, you know, 25 jabs and body shots, who would I rather be? Well, you know, I wouldn't want to get punched hard in the face one time, but I would rather be the guy who scored more offense. So it doesn't always work in boxing because it overemphasizes damage and maybe the minimal landing of big shots. But looking at that under this, who would you rather be?

Tyler Santos in rounds one, two, and three. She controlled the terms by taking Shevchenko away from her more dominant position, which is on the feet, put her in terms on her back in uncomfortable situations, took her back to what you're saying. Who would I rather be? Of course. That's why everyone texted me and everyone tweeting at home was like, oh, my God, 3-0 Santos, because visually it's telling you that person is winning the fight,

but you score it to the letter of the law, and to your point, the letter of the law in this case is wrong. It's overcorrected. There needs to be a middle ground just as there needs to be a different scoring system than the 10-9 boxing system that they just adopted with longer rounds and different elements involved. Let me spin this to you, though, because I don't exactly know the complete rule set in MMA in terms of I know in boxing, if it's a 12 round championship fight, once you get past

the fourth round, the fight is official. So if there's an accidental fall, it would be a technical decision. We go to the scorecard one here after the fourth, after the fourth. Interesting. So in the third, the eye gets, so the eye gets, um, apparently the headbutt started was in round one that caused the eye, but it didn't show damage really until the end of round three. But round four, she opened up with basically it looking like it's closed. That's also when Shevchenko completely rallied. But if they had stopped the fight early in that round four, it would have gone to the scorecards, which would have made it, let's see.

You would have had Santos ahead on one, on the other. Yeah, she would have won a split. Santos would have won a split. So here's what's crazy, and I was thinking about this in the moment. In Shevchenko's mind, if she really does know all the rules in the scoring and how it works, she's got to realize that she needs to rally back. A stoppage would fix everything, right? But if she batters Santos too much and the cage-side doctor or the ref conspire to stop

the fight, then they would go to the scorecards and it could be a situation where she could be losing. So she wants to have big success. She'd love to set up a finish, but there is a middle gray area in there where she could actually cause the fight to stop and cause herself to lose. To me, there's just something not right there. When you, when you're, the idea of doing everything you can to win could run you into a loss. It's just, it's the way it worked out.

And I think it's weird in that regard. So maybe you're relying on your opponent to kind of do you a favor? Yeah, it to some degree so that's just weird to begin with In hindsight knowing that it's a broken orbital bone and seeing how much Santos was compromised and by the way Let's give her so much credit cuz I'm round five she came alive again Do you think shevchenko kind of deserves some negative points for not being able to finish someone that compromised? I think she well she had a foot injury. Remember that? So she didn't do her dance or it's like Liz Ginka dance or whatever the fuck you pronounce

it. She didn't do her. Ginka Baluba. I think it's cool. I think that's the supplement I gave you earlier. But the point I want to make was she didn't, she wasn't able to do her dance. And I think part of that was actually attributed to the fact that she had trouble moving. And you notice she's always very economical with her motion.

She was like standing like a stone in this one. And I think part of that was a thing. One last note about the grappling. Wait, you're not taking anything away from that? Dude, I never bought into the Shevchenko mythology. But do you think she handled the adversity well, meaning she went into a more offensive mode? She played it safe, but I don't say that.

People think, oh, she played it safe. Oh, that's what a coward does. No, that's what a rational thinking fighter who has a lot to lose. This was history. If she beat Santos, which she did, that was going to put her past Ronda Rousey for most title defenses in women's UFC history. Dude, that's big. But she didn't have major urgency in the last two minutes of the fifth round.

She played it safe. She played it safe in that sense. But I personally don't have an issue with it. But one last thing about the grappling that I want folks to really just absorb for a second, this new way of judging, which has been around for a little while, but I think when I say new, I mean, it finally is dawning on people that judges are doing this and then there needs to be a bit of a catch up. The thing that I am worried about is I don't exactly know what effect it's going to have once all the corners become to be aware of it. Once all the fighters become aware of it. And once

there's a general awareness about this is what the judges are looking for. I can't say. But BC, I'm a little bit worried. If you're looking at this and you're just a fighter evaluating it, you're going to say, what is the value in really, because grappling is hard. So it takes a lot of work, takes a lot of years to master. It's very, very difficult. If you're telling me I could take someone's back and be not really close with a submission and I can't get off that much offense because I'm somewhat locked, let's say, with a body triangle, that this is essentially valueless. Why would you ever go through the trouble of doing that? So here's my thing. The rules need to be situated in a very balanced way.

We're going to call it mixed martial arts and we're going to say grappling and wrestling is relevant, the rules have to reflect that, that there's such incentive to use it because if we're just going to say grappling is valueless unless you get a rear naked choke or you can pound someone out from out, there's going to be a lot of people, I think, over time just fucking abandoning it and now you're going to get much more kickboxing. I don't know if that's the right idea. To be fair, although I'm not saying UFC has the full control on dictating and changing these terms, they would rather have it that way, of course.

They might. For entertainment value. The more fights that are standing or— Okay, but look at this fight with Yuri and Glover. It was half on the ground, not half on the ground, but a lot was on the ground. That may have been the most exciting part. It would have been. If this was pro wrestling, it would have been in the parking lot.

I mean, it was that type of fight where you just keep going. Lastly, on this for Valentina, what does this do for you in terms of a Nunes trilogy? I think in the end, this is one of those things where she can survive any negative issues people take with this fight, even scoring it against her in their mind and feeling like she got a gift as long as she stays on the road. I don't think it stops her from moving up to 135 next in a rematch with either Pena or a trilogy with Nunes if that was just the fight to make right now, right? You know, there's no one knocking on the door at 125 until we ever see Tatiana Suarez again. Right. That, you know, I mean, she took care of Andrade. She's taking care of people. And, you know, Shevchenko did mention Mishite, of course.

Everyone, you know, marketing-wise would love Mishite to beat Lauren Murphy. That'd be a big fight for Shevchenko. But short of that, I don't think it actually holds her back in the end. And Luke, you know, the thing I've always kind of liked about Shevchenko is, like, she never cares about that. Like, when Karmush in the rematch was not walking forward and did nothing, Valentina got frustrated to the point where she's just like, fuck it, we're going to go to the finish line together like this. I'm not going to take the chance for this absolute bullshit. I like that spirit, right?

She's in there to win the damn fight. So I think that people already kind of know that she's like that. I don't think there's going to be a scarlet letter on her after this. You know what I'm saying? No, I don't think so either, but I do think that folks need to dial back the idea that she's some unbeatable monster. She's a human being who has a very, very high level skill set, but it's got plenty of gaps in it, just like everyone else's does. You cannot be a perfect fighter. They do not exist. And you're seeing fighters more and more using jujitsu, combination of jujitsu and wrestling to do some good work against her.

Elephant in the room. Elephant in the room on Valentina's greatness. And I love Valentina, and I'm the one pounding that drum for her greatness. She took over a division that was a non-division, right? You know, she didn't even beat the champion, not saying that she wouldn't have beaten Nico Montano. You know, she had to fight Ioana instead. But the whole point is, like, it was sort of a broken division they just threw together. She wasn't beating world beaters for a while.

Yeah, the consistency was there. The variety was there. But that did conspire to over-inflate. You're breaking the hearts of a lot of horny MMA fans. But that did conspire to over-inflate where she actually is. And also, listen, the win streak has been impressive. Let's be very clear. What I'm saying is looking back, because you can look back at Rousey's run in the same way and be like,

well, the other women weren't exactly on this level. No, I mean, I have tremendous respect for the actual fighter that Valentina Shcherchenko is. But clearly, the bubble on her about this, you know, unstoppable Avenger, that's got to go away. All right, now we're going to have two topics about Ioana and Jacek. We're going to get to the retirement question. Then one question about Tyler Santos. Does she deserve a rematch because of how close the fight was? I would like to see one.

I would like to see one. Immediate? Is it that demanding for immediate? Or is it a go-get-well? So if Misha Tate wins at UFC 276, I think that's probably the direction they're going to go. But Lauren Murphy would be the one fighting Misha Tate. And Lauren Murphy already fought Valentina. She's not going to title shot.

Right. So I think if Lauren Murphy wins, which, by the way, is very much in play, I think they should give Santos another crack. That's what I would say. You? About the same? Yeah, I just, I don't know if I'd be that excited about it. Remember, Santos was the fifth ranked fighter. They had to go all the way to fifth rank, but they're going to go to sixth or seventh.

Okay, here's my point. I still think I learned that Valentina is the better fighter. Even though, again, it was letter of the law that she won it. And I didn't necessarily love that she was sort of content with her performance and not trying harder for the finish. Yet I still feel like in a different circumstance, she's going to make the adjustments and she's going to win that rematch. But, hey, Santos came close. There's no one else in that division. You're right.

She's probably going to end up getting another crack. All right. But she did nothing stand up wise. Can you at least admit that? Who? Talia Santos did pretty much nothing on the feet. Not much. When that was coming in, you know, the highlight packages.

She had a few more leg kicks. I looked at the numbers on Saturday night. That was about it. That's because she was playing the distance game, too. All right, we have two topics about Ioana Jacek. One will be about her legacy. But first. And one about her Instagram.

That may be a subtopic for you. But let's talk first about the fight itself. So she loses, and in pretty spectacular fashion, Zhong Wai Li with a spinning back fist slash forearm puts her lights out face first. BC, is the story of the fight Zhong's clear improvement, because I think you would acknowledge she looked a lot better this time, or is the story way too many questions way too much time off just way too many other factors plus the damage from the first fight weighing

yoana down plus 35 years of age it's mostly the first question but yes there are elements of the second point that bleed into it so it's a little bit of both at the end of the day but don't sleep on that first point zhang weili came back in this fight and showed you exactly who the hell she is, because even though Ioana did have the two years away and the 34, almost 35, and some of the lack of overall evolution, which I think was ultimately the difference in this fight, she came in in killer shape and she was willing to go out on her shield, which was perfect in how it kind of led into the surprise retirement, because that's her legacy in the end. She's an absolute warrior. We'll get into that in a second.

This one was about Weili Zhang, who we saw the evolution. Let's give her credit for bouncing back from that head kick first round knockout to Rose, which came immediately after the most vicious female fight we've ever seen and then kind of had a case almost in that rematch. Used the wrestling. Her body is, you know,

she's jacked. She's an absolute physical force. And you saw that. And early in the first round against Ioana, how she just kind of ragdolled her, Luke, in terms of the grappling, but the variety now of striking to be able to break out that spinning back fist like that. And by the way, I think it did hit the back of the head. It hit kind of a lot as she was turning in and no one really wanted to mention that. Not that I think it should be illegal, but it does damage. She didn't target that and it was still kind of borderline-ish. But that showed that she's dangerous, Luke, in way more ways than she was when Jess Condrage ran into her fist early in that fight and she kind of shocked the world and won the title.

She's a better fighter now and she doesn't seem to be overly diminished or damaged from the war she's been in. The confidence level, the shape she's in physically. She's a beast in that weight class. diminished her damage from the war she's been in the confidence level the shape she's in physically like She's ready beast like weight class. She would be a betting favorite against Carla Right now and I think it might be wider than you think Luke. No, I don't think so I would I would agree with that. It'd be pretty damn wide Yeah, I mean I'll have to remember the early in the first round She had one leg captured with one hand and then was pounding on her with the other hand

Just do you understand how hard it is to hold another strong person in place with one? fucking and like the big knock on the first yin-jai-chek fight she had a couple of these and then in the second Rose fight was that Zhong Wei Li had a lot of difficulty she could get the takedown But she couldn't really do shit with it the person would pop back up pretty quickly dude How about this fight she was able to get the takedown and then maintain control and then exactly heavy ground and pound on top. Wasn't there like a vicious vibe coming out of her? I'm not saying it was like...

It was big brother. It was big brother. It wasn't like a revenge, anger thing. In fact, you got to be honest, they were kind of cute all week. It was like they were so nice to each other and hugging and kissing. Even Whaley would say that in the interviews. It's just been a delight to be around Ioana. But dude, did that switch.

I mean, there was just a vicious efficiency to that ground game. Now, Ioana, look, came in in great shape. But, Luke, you saw the difference in what those two years were. Ioana stayed in shape in those two years. She refreshed herself mentally, all that. She came in ready to go out face first on her sword. She did not have any excuses. I mean, she freaking brought it.

And, by the way, before the stoppage, she was starting to make some moments offensively. I think you're going to agree with me that the two-year difference, Whaley used it better. But do you agree with you on a strategy? It's clear that going from five rounds to three, she knew she had inflicted damage.

She was unable to inflict damage in the first fight. She was going for those... For those... No, in the first fight. She didn't really... She wasn't able to... I mean, it was... She busted up Zhongli's face. She was bleeding everywhere. But I didn't see

any single strikes that were rocking her. I think the whole point is, in a smaller window, she knew that damage could be the difference, and I think she was actually going for the knockout. Was that the right strategy? Because we've never seen this version of Ioana. Basically, Dan Hendo and H-Bomb ready at every point, and just absolutely throw these looping.

The three rounds changed her strategy. The other part, too, is I thought the fight was obviously she had. Right, but was that the right strategy is what I'm asking. I'm not sure what the right strategy was in that case because if you look at the first fight, kicking was really the predominant way she was able to land effectively. She had hands behind it and through combination. But the biggest issue was A, Zhong was durable and could blitz back,

so she had to kind of keep a little bit of distance and took away a lot of her leg kicks through the blitz, so she had to go middle and high on a lot of those. So you knew that had to be the rule here, and I think it wasn't. It was having some effect. They were kind of back and forth, but to your point, it wasn't getting her over the hump.

It wasn't really doing anything to change the tenor of the fight or the round, and so she was getting a little bit, if not desperate, changing. Those were punches you didn't see her go after a lot no and i thought her desperation would lead to a playing for a decision but completely you're not going to touch me circle away in and out get out of there i thought it was going to be a lot of darting in and out using her her that's why i thought she came in that great of shape i thought she was really going to make it attract me it may not have been what the fans wanted looking for damage in the repeat but I thought she would look at this opportunity more as like I can get back to a title shot with a win

this is the way I'm going to neutralize uh Wei Li by keeping her off balance all the time it was none of that it was instead I'm going to go through her and take her out it's hard to criticize that because she's the one that went in there and did it and you saw the result but you it was surprising to me in that regard I'll say one thing is obviously like in the androge fight you want was able to stick and move and i think that actually suits her really well talking about the track meet i think i don't know if she would prefer that style of fight but if she knew she had an opponent like that i think she'd be probably pretty happy that she could use those skills here she had to kind of try and hunt and chase and like duel with somebody who was more durable more

powerful and as you saw with that final shot, pretty clever. The point of me bringing that up is because she employed that strategy, which again, I'm not going to criticize it because that's who she is. She's a freaking warrior. She makes incredible fights, Ioana. But that strategy opened up doors for her to get hit big. It opened up doors for her to make mistakes. And it basically was an all or nothing approach to where she was getting lit up. And the difference in Weili's growth was going to be too much for that. Now, I had said, I think you had agreed, maybe not on Friday or earlier last week, that I didn't know if the winner of this fight deserved a title shot.

Okay, I still understand the argument that maybe they've not done enough based on what has happened in terms of the amount of wins, but I've got to say, you finish off Janjic like that, I've got to tell you, I don't think I have much of a problem with Zhongwei Li getting into the title shot. I have no problem. No problem at all. And especially because Carla's got a lot to prove because that fight against Rose was just not

no one won that fight, to be fair. No one won that fight. So she's got a lot to prove and now you've got somebody like Zhongwei Li with history former champion who is just rising who is coming on. I mean, yet she's one and two in her last three with a first round KO loss rising, who is coming on. I mean, yet she's one and two in her last three with a first-round KO loss, yet she's coming on. She has really shown us that she's ready.

This is just going to be another fun chapter in this incredible division's history, whether it's the big four, the big five, these five women, Rose, JJ, Andrade, Esparza, and Weili. I mean, Luke, it's just one great fight after another that I really have no issue with the order of who gets these title shots or what because I don't even know if anyone wins, meaning I don't think it's going to end up with one person that comes out of this. I think they're just going to keep passing the belt, kind of like the light heavyweight division before Jon Jones came around,

and we're just going to be grateful that we have this. I mean, has any of these matchups let you down with these five against one another no, right? They've been some have been shorter into the sense that like, you know, for example You can J Jakes weight cut against Rose the first time kind of cost her but yes The rematch was scintillating the thing I think that made a difference in the first fight now looking back was Jung Wiley is 32. So she was like 29 or 30 depending on the the the the the dates when they first fought the the When their first encounter happened. Obviously, I think Ioana was around 33 or so.

So one, one was a little bit getting out of the prime. One was smack in the middle of it. I think that's part of it. But the bigger issue was, I think Zhongwei Li was just much more durable. And maybe the damage didn't feel to her quite as much as Ioana felt it in the end. So, for example, when Zhong came back, she looked terrible against Rose the first time and did lose in a subsequent matchup.

But you could see she was rebuilding, there was something there. Maybe if you wanna kept going, we would actually see something similar. But the big difference was I think she took a bigger, I'll say amount of damage the first time and was much older, which means recovery is difficult. And I think that's carried more long-term implications. Fair? Fair. And just think about it, Luke. If it's Whaley versus Carla next,

we've never seen that matchup, but we're still intrigued to get another matchup in these five that we're talking about. But if we end up in Rose versus Whaley trilogy for the title, it's insane. Ioana versus any of these ones in rematches or trilogies would have been crazy. She's stepping away, but there's still so many great matchups.

Andrade's not going anywhere. Like, dude, it's going to keep going. I mean, what an incredible division and run. But that takes us, Luke, into the run that Ioana Young-Jaychek has had. All right, so topic number four. We stay with Ioana, but let's focus in on her career. So as soon as the fight was over, she took her gloves off, the decision was read, and she announced to Daniel Cormier, who was being the in-ring interviewer, that she has retired from mixed martial arts. 35 years

of age. 34. I guess she'll be 35 soon. Yes. So let's get to this. BC, very simple question, but a big one. Yeah. What did she bring to the sport and what is her legacy? She was a star. And I think she was certainly the first star of this smaller weight class here in the women's side. You know, Rousey was the face of women getting into the cage, but we soon quickly learned that 115 pounds was the division in the women's game, and she was the face of this longer than anyone, not just in terms of her star power, but in terms of her success.

Is she the greatest 115-pound fighter of all time? That's going to be, she's in the discussion, right? It's going to be whose flavor you like, because they all fight each other and they all trade wins and losses. But she had the most substantial, longest, most meaningful reign of five consecutive decisions. She had runs where she was dominating and blowing people away. And then as the competition caught up, she put on incredible, even 50-50 fights. Or even in some of her biggest wins, think Carolina, think even Andrade,

you know, she really had to fight off some real opposition. But, Luke, you know, 1A of her resume is, you know, the most successful women's 115-pound champion of all time. And maybe, you know, after Rousey, the star of the lower women's weight class is for sure. Want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation?

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for us to start to say that, right? People weren't saying that before that. And now you've got the two Wei Lee fights. And to see her like, JJ going out like this, and I'm the biggest JJ fan there is. Let me pour one out for you, okay? It was tough. It was emotional. The speech afterwards thanking the UFC, it was classy. She says, you know, I want to be a mom. Everyone can get behind that. But like she is a friggin warrior. So to go out this way on her face, face first, it's actually not a negative look. It's actually not like it's sort of like, you know what I mean? Like you earned the chance to go out like that in a number one contenders fight in a rematch of the greatest female fight of all time,

because that's sort of who she became. She was dominant champion for most of her run and a technician and a hustler, but maybe it was the heart and stamina she showed against Klaja and the rematch that opened her eyes, but it didn't really come full bloom until that 2020 war against Wei Li that we're looking at. Yes,

a star and a champion, but one of the, what the, the most elite blood and guts fighters at this level that we're looking at, yes, a star and a champion, but one of the most elite blood and guts fighters at this level that we've seen. I mean, she's got that blood, Luke. You can say whatever you want about her, but you cannot ever question the toughness and the willing to come back and fight. I mean, that almost supersedes the success she had

as a champion in my eyes at this point. Yeah, I actually have a bit of a different view, and it's not that I disagree, but the way I would look at it is, I feel like her legacy, whether she'll be the greatest straw weight ever, to your point, is debatable because Rose is out there. But the five title defenses, by the way, I wanted to make this point. Listen to the company she's in. If you have five title defenses, and I grant different eras, different weight classes,

okay, fine. But here are the ones with four or less. Pat Miletic, Frank Shamrock, Tyron Woodley, Hennon Burau, Chuck Liddell, Israel Adesanya, Alexander Volkanovsky, BJ Penn, Max Holloway, Stipe Miocic, Habib Nurmagomedov, Chris Weidman, Benson Henderson, Frankie Edgar, Cain Velasquez, Dominic Ruse, and on and on and on. Nico Montano. Those, no, no. Four or less, bro.

She even had four UFC appearance. Put some respect on her name. I mean, come on. But dude, in all seriousness, her name in terms of title defenses supersedes those, right? Again, different weight classes, different eras. Still, that's the kind of company she's in, number one. But the biggest one for me, BC, is yes, all the things you spoke to, I would not disagree with one bit, but I actually feel like it's a little bit more historically significant role, which is to say, she to me is arguably one of, if not the most important female fighter

post Ronda Rousey. And the reason why I would say that is, yes, Ronda had her other contemporaries. Holly Holm did well after her. But remember, even when Ronda checked out after Amanda Nunes, it took a while for Amanda Nunes' popularity to take off. And Ronda and Ioana kind of overlapped a little bit there in 2015, 2016. But that was really when Ioana began to take off. Ioana didn't make her UFC debut until 2015, I believe,

and it was only when there was a bit of a transition period. Yes, other female bantamweight fighters like Misha Tate and like some other ones, they also carried it. I don't mean to say she is the sole, you know, Statue of Liberty torch out there, but I think the fans, when they were looking, who is the next female star that we could really gravitate to, especially outside of that Bantamweight orbit, dude, that was when she was the boogie woman,

surging through, tearing Jessica Penney's face up, doing those things at weigh-ins. They gave her the ultimate fighter for those reasons. She was scary. She had, like, the gnarly long hair. She was just sort of like. As Ronda was kind of fading out of the sport, Ioana was fading, or I should say surging in, and I believe was very instrumental in making sure there were other stars

in other divisions inside of women's MMA who fans could gravitate to. It just so happens, to feed into your point, she was this, you know, this like witch doctor. She was a savage. And she could strike and do what she did to Carla Esparza. Like, it wasn't just that she beat her. Dude, like like she mugged her and then followed up with what she did against Jessica Penny. That to me, that role of after Rhonda kind of fades out, Oh, is it just going to be the

Rhonda Rousey show? And when she goes here, it was outside of her division. Another woman could fight in a totally different way than Rhonda and really prove that there was something special going on. Absolutely. Now, now let me, let me potentially be critical here. Yonah might be my favorite fighter, seriously. I love the warrior spirit, the savagery, and just the strut. I mean, she walks around like the shit don't smell. We know that. I'm already saying she's among the greatest of all time, male or female. Her five title defenses prove that, okay? But did she rely too much in the second half of her career when, to be fair, she did lose five of her last seven fights, albeit most of those title fights,

five-round wars, what have you. Did she rely too much on the savagery and warrior spirit in the second half of her career and not enough on the evolution of her game? Because the major thing she lacked was knockout ability, right? She always overcame that with guts, you know, killing people with cardio and just being a technician, a volume technician, right? Like, you know, not counterpunching, just flurries in and out, all that. Could she have been even more is my real question if it had been more about the full evolution of her game

as the people around her got better and she was still able to bite down, Luke, and as we saw against Whaley in the first fight, come as close as you can to winning back the championship. But could she have been even more? Or is it just sort of, you know, be happy we saw one of the greatest ever do it? I would say more so the latter for me. I think the issue with her well-roundedness, you know how I feel about it. Like you always have to ask the question, not are you well-rounded,

not can you do different things. Outside of your A game, can your B and C game beat elite fighters? That's really the question. No, her B and C game cannot beat elite fighters. Which we saw against Valentina, where once it was obvious she wasn't going to be able to take control of the terms of that fight, it was over. In fairness to Valentina, she actually has a B and C game that can, to some extent, allow her to do that a little bit better. So no, I do think that is a fair fair criticism again. None of these fighters are perfect This is gonna be what it's gonna be. She was transitioning over from Thai boxing

So take it for what it's worth, but yes, that is that is something of a larger question But like at that point it gets to like impugning her training. I don't know how she was training I'm gonna guess you trained pretty fucking hard And so it's just hard to learn those skills a little bit later in your athletic life relative to the needs of the division. But I'll say also, whatever she lacked, she beat Claudia Gedalia. Gedalia had a huge advantage over her on those other portions of the game. Dude, that rally and that rematch?

Yes. That rally and the rematch? Crazy, crazy. I mean, the heart that Ioana showed against Carolina, even though she was leading, she was taking damage. She went to the hospital after that. I mean, she had to put herself into some wars. And again, the backbone always won out and that's what made her super special. But even as the sport kind of evolved

past her, she was still able to hang on, always took the biggest fights available. And I give her respect for not only taking off the two years because she realized she needed it, but using that window to negotiate herself back into a huge position, but then at the same time walking away on her own terms, you have to applaud anybody because she could have hung on and been a name. The last thing I would want to see is her, I mean, I guess she could keep going, but I always prefer, like if you're getting face planted at 35, 34, whatever it is, after a long layoff like that, I think it's the right call.

I really do. These guys are human. She wants to be a mom. She wants to have good quality of life. Listen, if things are beginning to go where you're not just losing, right, but then you're getting – I know she got stopped against Rose. I understand. But, like, that was a weight cut thing.

But I'm saying if you're getting viciously stopped and you're 35 years of age right around it and you've never really been stopped quite like that for those kinds of reasons, the specific ones. I recommend doing something else. And this is perfect timing. I wanted to read some stats here. Yeah, isn't she up there in most time in the octagon in terms of? I don't have that, but here's what I do have.

She has 10 wins, which is tied for most in strawweight history. This is from MMA Junkie. She has six title fight wins, most in strawweight history. She is one of three undefeated champs in the sense that she was the only strawweight to win the belt with an undefeated record. And she's landed 17, I should say 1,724 significant strikes, which is third most in UFC history, speaking to the volume that she brought. Remember they used to

call her Joanna Champion, Joanna Violence. It's Joanna Legend now, Luke. I saw your tweet about that. No, but seriously, going out on her own terms, which means a lot to me, and she also kind of like, remember she was a bully in the first Rose fight, and she kind of took on a villainous persona?

She's kind of repaired that too over time. Not that that necessarily matters, but like everyone respects her. You saw all the tweets, like everyone, you know, walked her off with the full respect. And that means something, Luke. That means more in some ways than wins, losses, and championship. When you have that true, hardcore, fan-core respect. And she fought for that. It was clear. She fought for us to look at her as the badass she is. That meant more to her than anything. Yes. And it was interesting that, you know, you're right. She was the bully, which people loved

until she tried to bully someone else people also loved. And then it kind of backfired with the results. But I think she retires today, and I'm assuming she's probably going to stay retired. I think she retires today as something of an, and I say this again in a praiseworthy way, as an elder statesman. You know, as someone who's put their arm around the game. Speaking of which, Kovalevich had a rebound because of her.

You know, she was trying to lift everyone else around her up, and I think that will also be part of her legacy and how she is viewed long-term as well. But certainly as a competitor and as a position that she occupied in that waning slash post-Rousey era, one of the most important fight figures you could really point to in mixed martial arts history. All right, BC, that takes us lastly to a bit of a boxing roundup. Folks are asking, what about all the other fights? Yes, we're going to record extra credit after this. Don't worry. All right, BC, let's talk about a little bit of boxing. There was a big of a boxing roundup. Folks are asking, what about all the other fights? Yes, we're going to record extra credit after this. Don't worry.

All right, BC, let's talk about a little bit of boxing. There was a big weekend for boxing. Yes. We'll talk about what you did in a minute. First things first, Showtime announced we don't have a formal announcement yet for the opponent. But August 6th, Madison Square Garden, it's going to be the Amanda Serrano, excuse me, slash Jake Paul show. They're back. August 6th, MSG, your reaction.

Interesting. I mean, MSG means something, right? This is the Mecca to sort of see Jake sort of commandeer that you wonder what level of opponent is he going to get? I mean, could it be an Anderson Silva or are we asking too much? Could it be a Tommy Fury, which could hit certain markets? And I guess in theory could answer, you know, Jake, take on a real boxer. Okay. You got a real boxer here. I'm going to be intrigued to see who he ends up picking, but back in Showtime, we weren't sure which direction business-wise he was going to go. I love putting Amanda Serrano with him as much as we would all love a Katie Taylor rematch right now,

and I hope they are building toward that after that sort of modern classic where the biggest fight in women's history lived up to expectations. You'd have to agree this could be Amanda Serrano's best sort of, you know, showcase chance that she's had yet to sort of, you know, come back down and defend the titles in her own weight class and really try to build toward a second fight right there. So, you know, the Jake thing is he's going to have to keep winning over real boxing fans, but it's going to be interesting to see him win MSG for sure. And it's going to depend on the opponent, you know, how fired up we get in terms of how much danger is he going to put on himself.

I mean, dude, if it could be an Anderson Silva, I'd be fired the heck up because no one really knows who wins that fight. I mean, that's a fight where he probably would be the betting underdog in that scenario. So we'll see. So that's what makes me wonder about this whole thing. It's like, would Jake Paul, obviously he's not in control of the odds, but would he take a fight where he knew he was going to be the betting underdog, which is to say folks perceived that he would lose? I mean, I'm not sure what the odds were for Tyron Woodley, so I could be wrong.

You've got to balance the business, right? Because this whole thing is betting on house money, right? The whole thing is I'm going to find just the right guys who I can whoop up on. Who are older, retired, two divisions smaller than me. Right, right. You know, again, there is some chatter about who it could be. We don't know yet. I mean, Silva is 47, though.

We do need to understand that. Yes, he is 47. He is 47. But he's obviously, you know, an extremely decorated. And I hope he's on that shit, too, right? Dude, like, I would give a fuck. I couldn't possibly care less if he was on juice. Wouldn't bother me even a little bit.

But, no, I don't think that as big as the Silva fight would be, and I do think if Jake Paul fights Anderson Silva, you know, August 6th in Madison Square Garden, it would be a big deal. Would it be big enough for Jake to take that risk? Or is he trying to hold that card to cash in against a Diaz brother, against someone on that level? It'll be curious to see who he ends up with. And I'll be very curious to see what kind of numbers they pull. I will say, you've got to give Jake credit for this.

Not so much with his boxing per se for this comment. But in terms of lifting Amanda Serrano up, obviously she was just in MSG, headlining against Katie Taylor. This is going to be in a different weight class, which BC kind of indicated. So if they do make the Katie Taylor rematch, it will have to be under different circumstances, probably in Ireland at a different weight.

But the point I was going to make was, dude, she pulled a decent crowd out there. Yes, the Irish were very much felt and were a huge presence, but she has become something I think. So that is smart to put her in the co-main event slot. 100%. 100%.

And again, like who has done more to promote Amanda Serrano than Jake Paul? Nobody. Nobody. He has done a very good job lifting her up. So we'll have to see how the rest of the card looks. Okay. Dude, what the fuck is going on with Edgar Belonga? He fights Angulo and he wins and he boxed capably. First of all,

he didn't knock him out, which I want you to talk about. Number two, he bit him. How is this not a bigger story? You're like, well, how big a story was it? To the point where Berlanga was actually apologizing, I think today or last night on social media for it. So in the seventh round, Angulo, like I think he hit Berlanga with an elbow and then threatened, like cocked another elbow. So Berlanga's response was to try to bite his shoulder and neck. And immediately in the ring after the fight, Berlanga was acting all tough like it's Mike Tyson and I'm this badass. He later took, you know, to his credit or to whoever forced him to do it, they walked it back. But the reason why that moment is significant in this, Luke, is to your original point.

Like 16 consecutive first round knockouts and he's the star and he's hanging out with Fat Joe and he's FaceTiming all these celebrities and he's, you know, Puerto Rican boxing needs that next star, that next, you know, who's the next Cotto Trinidad in that order. It didn't turn out to be Felix Verdeo. You know, right now the throne is somewhat open for that. So, you know, Puerto Rican boxing embraced him. And it's not that he looked awful now in, what, four, is it five straight decisions now? I think it's been four.

But he has had some really, you know, vulnerable moments, and if you're going to keep pushing him as a main eventer, as a on ESPN headliner, which they are, Luke, he's not going in the right direction. Do I agree that he should have won this fight? Yes. I actually was impressed with some elements of his boxing in terms of you see that there's actual growth. But whether it's his fault or not, his selling card is that dude

that knocks people out in the first round every time. So he didn't look like he was close to a knockout in this one. Not that that should be the full-on measuring stick, but if you also didn't dazzle in the ring and you kind of looked okay, and on top of that, you got scoring that was way too wide

to really justify it. So it looked like that, you got scoring that was way too wide to really justify it. So it looked like it was almost like- There was a, there was something you, you could have, I didn't, you could have given half the round to Angulo. It was a close fight. I thought Angulo like came up short, but like, you know, it was a close fight and the scores, two of the three,

I think were just incredibly wide, which gives you that impression. Oh, the, the young prospect, you know, they paid for the- 99, 91. Yeah, like he never had a chance to begin with. Well, those scorecards kind of tell you that he didn't have a chance to begin with. So it feels like everything is going against Berlanga right now in terms of fulfilling that unreachable. Was it reachable? I don't know that idea that this, you know, knockout King is going to take over and be the next Puerto Rican star and all that. He's not that dude. Like, they got to take him off of these main events.

He's not a guy to be featured like this anymore. And I think, unfortunately, the, I don't know if it's the celebrity he got too early mixed with what that first round knockout streak did for his own, you know, head. He wasn't the fighter that that knockout streak brought the attention to deserve. Like, it didn't match up. And now we're finding that out. So I think they have to be careful of, like, this kid breaking Luke, not that he's shown like that, but like, you know, we saw him get dropped against a guy. He shouldn't have, we saw him fight through

injuries. And now we've seen him in four straight decisions where you're like, where you're like, he did. Okay. And then you put the bite on top of that. People are just like, F this guy. I mean, dude, I cannot believe how many people have turned on him completely after this where they're just like, you know, journalists willing to openly tweet. Like, I don't need to see him on TV anymore. Well, dude, think about it. Also, it's hilarious in MMA where we build all these guys up to be superheroes. But boxing fans will tear a motherfucker apart like that.

Dude, they're trying to tear this building down, bro. Like, they're trying to. But, dude, the thing is, when a person wins, sometimes they don't always win spectacularly. But you begin to think about who else could they fight. There's like no chatter at all about who Berlanga could fight next because no one thinks he's there. Yeah, it's like, okay, you got the win, fine, but you didn't do anything to make us like really, wow, where would Berlanga fit in and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It doesn't exist. Yeah, we're not like, oh, him against Canelo? Him against, no, no, we're not saying that. All right, so over on DAZN. Hold on, hold on, just real quick. Can he fix this? I don't know, dude. Dude, the pressure was already so high to be the first-round knockout kid,

and now the pressure is to just try to put the train back on the tracks. Did you like anything he showed? Like, is he improving in any degree to you? Because I saw a little bit, but it's certainly not enough. Yeah, I think that's where I'm at. I mean, I guess it was marginally better than the last time I saw him, but I can't really pinpoint.

Again, he's not bad. I don't quite think that, but for the guy who had all of this hype as the monster, it's like, no, in a way, he's the monster. And Angulo's got a good chin. He's a durable guy. And he's very defensive as well. Right, like if he was going to knock on Angulo, it was going to be like, no, Inouye's the monster. And Angulo's got a good chin. He's a durable guy. And he's very defensive as well. Right. Like, if he was going to

knock on Angulo, it was going to be like, oh, shit, he got through a tough guy. Like, a guy who's at this level can be that hammer that the elites have to kind of dance around.

My final question, then. We know that top rankers always know that they have the best matchmaking team. The Hall of Famers in that match, you know, they always sort of know when to take the next step up

or they also tend to know when to cash out. We're not in cash-out territory yet, right? Not yet. And what I mean by that is let's— He's also still valuable as a Puerto Rican fighter who can fight in Miami or New York City. I guess what I mean by that is, you know, when you cash him out, it's saying, I don't believe he's going to get there,

so let's put him in now against another name, you know? Yeah, I don't think they're going to do that just yet. But it's going to be interesting. Now, speaking of this, this guy didn't have a great showing, but here's the difference, BC. He can actually punch his ass off against, you know, decent-ish people. Jaime Munguia was getting slapped around a little bit by, was it Jimmy Kelly? Is his name?

Yes. But he got it done dropping him three times in the fifth round. Munguia, you would agree, for all of his problems, and I don't think Golden Boy is promoting him correctly, he can thump. He can thump. I question his one-punch power. Really? He's so aggressive.

He's so fun to watch because at first he was this brawler, but let's give him credit. Under trainer Eric Morales, you're watching the evolution. There's more probably negative than positive to talk about this whole fight, but a lot of that is just, why are we fighting on this level of matchmaking? And oh, by the way, why did Jimmy Kelly, of all people,

have legitimate success and kind of rock Munguia early in the fight? But the reality is like Munguia is better than this. I do think he's getting better as a boxer. I think it's not so much a one punch guy, but he's a guy who can throw really good combinations. And I like a lot of what he's doing, but I still think he's too slow for the super elite level. I still question whether Golden Boy actually truly believes in him and is willing. Now, they always say, look, we tried to make the Charlo fight. But like, Luke, I hate bringing business into all of our boxing discussions, because if you're a fan or a new fan and you just want to be a fan for the pure reasons of just the fights, right, because the fights rule. I don't want to deal with that business shit. Well, you kind of have to, unfortunately,

the way that this is set up and you have to look at is a fight between two people from rival sides of the line big enough to make. And in this case, Munguia versus Charlo kind of isn't unless one is willing to let their fighter fight on a different network, right? You're not going to do a two-network pay-per-view for that. I mean, you can try, but – so I – when De La Hoya, who, by the way, ripped Jimmy Kelly coming in and said no one heard of him but then tweeted after, all you boxing fans should have known how good this guy is. Like, just come on. I do question, like, is it that they just can't make deals with big-name fighters? Or are they not trying? Or does Munguia not want it? What is the – who's not showing themselves?

Dan Rayfield's take on this is always pretty good. He has acknowledged that there are business machinations that have prevented him. But he always says at the end of the day, he's like, dude, Jaime signs off on these. Jaime Munguia signs off on these. He bears responsibility too. They got to push him into a Golovkin fight. And it's probably unfortunate now that Golovkin's going into a Canelo fight. And who knows, you know, will Golovkin, is he going to keep fighting after that?

Like, who knows, right? But like, Munguia should have been in a fight like that, where against an older guy who's going to fight and stand and trade with you, he's not going to get circled around an outbox. Because you're like, okay Who does he have access to under the DA zone window and you're like, oh Demetrius Andrade But you know the major Sanjay would do bad things to Munguia I mean, we just dance around him with his length and just completely bamboozle him He's not fighting all the stars either. So I don't they can't get anybody with him. Well, that's not entirely true

So no, it pretty much is like Andrade has somehow just He's walked away from a couple of negotiating tables where he had... Oh, no, he's ready to fight anyone. No one wants to fight him. Now he is. Now he is. Ah, there's the debate. A few years... Yeah, yeah.

Well, okay. All right, so the point is this. Like, I like that Chris Mannix on the DAZN broadcast afterwards had a nice post-fight interview and did push him with, you know, like, when are we going to see you against the true elite? Like, this is not it. Fighting Jimmy Kelly is not it. Fighting old Gabe Rosado and old Danny Jacobs, it's not it.

It's good that we're getting to that level, but those aren't the ones we need. So, Luke, I do have questions. I think when he steps up to the elite level, he's going to be one of those guys who does lose. Now, it might be losing in really fun action fights because he seems to be somebody who's about that, who wants to go in there and brawl. Even though he's working on his technique, I still have concerns that he's ever going to win any of those elite fights. Like, I think he's— Yeah, but you have a higher upside for him than Berlanga.

Yes. Yes. Yes. And certainly Munguia is more proven on the elite level, for sure, but I do question if he actually is elite. I think, especially when he was in the lower weight classes, he was kind of a weight bully who can just destroy people with the pressure and the punches. And he's so fun to watch. He's got a lot of heart. And, again, fights with him the pressure and the punches. And he's so fun to watch. He's got a lot of heart. And again, fights with him against Kala, I mean, they'd be fun to watch.

But they've got to make us believers that he can win those fights. Matchmaking-wise, they haven't done that yet. They haven't. Because he struggled against Jimmy Kelly. He struggled. Yeah, but there's also the question of how seriously does he even take this shit, to be quite honest with you. All right, BC, you were on Showtime on Friday, show box results.

The main event was great. Yeah. A Jalala, if I can ever pronounce his last name. Marco Deir Jalala. He can fucking box, can he not? Yeah, so he's a 6'7 heavyweight. He's only 27. He's now 11-0 with 11 KOs.

He paused his pro career last year to enter the Olympics in Tokyo, won four fights, won gold medal at super heavyweight, and he's back in the pro game, and he doesn't have one of those styles where he has to adjust from amateur to pro. He's kind of like a Southpaw Vitaly Klitschko, only he doesn't take a lot of chances.

He's defensively sound. So he was in against a Jack Malawai, a guy who we saw the class difference was huge, but it took until the eighth and final round for the big Uzbek to deliver that KO. Because look, if you can give him any criticism, he is a little bit too patient. But when he puts his combinations together

and he goes after you, he's accurate, he's fast, he's got good footwork for that size. Like, we're looking at a future title contender. I don't know how high the ceiling is, but that was fun to see. And once he delivered the boom, as you can see in the highlights there, I mean, it was absolutely legit, Luke.

Yeah, he can move, he's got good hand speed. He's got good awareness. And he stretches this full. And can you see that it's almost a Southpaw Vitaly style? Because Vitaly had the kickboxing style that he converted to boxing. That's right. So it always was like, you know, weight on the opposite leg and sort of, you know, he would always have his lead hand down. That's kind of how the big Uzbek operates. But Lou DiBella, who promotes him, had been talking about him for years. And he had lost in the 2016 Olympics to Joe Joyce in the quarterfinals, but came back even after turning pro since they changed that amateur classification rule there and won gold.

So let's see. Let's see where it goes, Luke. All right. And then last but not least, both Don King was back in action with Dubois, who won relatively easily. Anything to say about this? No, we didn't even preview it because it's for the secondary WBA heavyweight title. So it's one of those bullshit secondary ones.

But yet Daniel Dubois is a legit name, and he fought Joe Joyce in that unbeaten coming and going fight. Fought on the Jake Paul card, too. Yeah, and lost that because he broke his eye socket and people questioned his toughness. But this was a nice bounce back. Trevor Bryan, who had the title. Again, this is a title that nobody looks at as really being legit, although, to be fair, in other weight classes, Gervonta has the same version of this title at 135, and we don't tend to criticize that on the same level,

maybe because Trevor Bryan had the belt in this case and not Gervonta Davis. But this was a fight Dubois should have won. He did. It was impressive by knockout. Nobody was there because Don King's at age 90 and in South Florida is not a boxing hotbed and never has I know that we're washed and I fully accept that have you seen Don King recently dude? Have you seen any of his interviews like the last two years? I saw one on BT Sport. It was like it is just I mean, it's always been bizarre

but now it's like weaving historical with current politics and like just weird waves coming out of there. He looks like, I mean, the Crypt Keeper from Tales of the Crypt. Oh, my God, he does. What was that guy's catchphrase? Did he have one? I had a weird laugh. I don't remember, but I was like, Jesus Christ, Don King looks terrible. True or false, growing up as a teenager in the 90s meant most of the time you're debating whether to watch The Crypt Keeper or watch Red Shoe Diaries

on Showtime. It wasn't much of a debate for me. It wasn't Tales from the Crypt on HBO? Yes, it was kind of always competing against each other. It's like, do I want the gore here or do I want Emmanuel Six on Showtime? That is it for our top five.

With that, let's move on quickly if we can. It's time where you get to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from dongs. Jake, can I get another water bottle, please? I got to refresh. Yeah, my man, he's got cotton mouth. I can't imagine why. All right.

From FrontsideNahComply. What the fuck kind of name is that? I work at a Buffalo Wild Wings, and normally we go into a two-hour wait for UFC pay-per-views. This time we didn't even have a wait list. Yeah, because casual fans are fuckos. Even with Joanna Glover and Valentina fighting, why do you think the casual fan didn't show up?

Dude, this is not a mystery. None of those people are major pay-per-view draws. And it was in Singapore, and it wasn't a deep card, and there was a lot conspiring against it. And also, to be fair, UFC didn't really promote it at an aggressive level. Well, they may have promoted it in Southeast Asia. Oh, yeah. No, actually, they did.

By the way, I saw Valentina and Tyler Santos across cabs on the side and stuff. Understand something. Folks are always like, well, what does it mean that a fight is in, let's say, Singapore? Just wanted to bring out Jake von Amsterdam real quick. Oh, he's too shy. Alright, in all seriousness,

folks have asked, like, what's the difference between a fight in Singapore versus it's in Chicago if it's going to air normally on pay-per-view time? Well, just think about it. If you have a fight in Chicago, one, you're going to have Chicago media there, plus all the other North American media is going to you know, go to that. You're going to have much more assets produced.

You're going to have much more mainstream media organs feeding you pay-per-view news. When you put it in Singapore, it changes that polarity where all of that is now relevant to that market with those media entities. Yes, we covered it, but it doesn't have the same pull. And so when you shift it out of North America, it does change things beyond the fact that none of those people are pay-per-view draws. Easy answer to that. By the way, for whatever level UFC actually did promote, I don't know.

I just felt like it wasn't around me as much as even the Adesanya fight coming up at International Fight Week with Max. There is more effort around that. But, boy, coming out of that pay-per-view, does it look good now on paper? When you look at it, you're like, oh, yeah, that card was fantastic. The 276 card, you would agree, is stacked. But it is possible that when 276 is over, 275 might have been a more entertaining event. That is very possible.

I wouldn't call it a something in the water night, which happens every couple years in UFC, where you're just like, there's something crazy going on. But it did have more drama than any recent pay-per-view, especially ones that were much deeper. Agreed. And this is during a stretch in the last year and a half, two years, where it's been constant drama. There's been constant big moments, too. All right, from Punch Drunk Pete, he's a regular, Jack De La Maddalena, which we're going to talk about on Extra Credit,

showcased some impeccable boxing to secure a knockout victory Saturday night. In your opinion, who would you say are the top five best pure boxers? That's a long-ass question in the UFC today. Calvin Cater. Calvin Cater, Max. Max Holloway. You know what? I don't know if he's top five. Maybe he is, maybe he's not, but I gotta tell you whose game I like around boxing is Adrian Yanez.

Yes. He also watches MK. Yeah. No, no. And I'm not saying it because he watches. I legitimately love his boxing. How about Dustin Poirier? He's in there as well. Any women we're not thinking of who are, like, good? Because Holly Holm is a boxer and she went to the International Hall of Fame, which by the way we'll talk

about at the end of the show. But she doesn't really have a boxing, she has a kickboxing style really. Really, you're right. Look, Cyborg's boxing, especially the efficiency has really rounded out where it was just always right hand slugging in the beginning. Amanda, you gotta give credit. Not really in a pure

more of an MMA power mode. Okay, who is a pure boxer that's an elite female? Frankie had some good boxing, but again, the takedowns really brought it to life. Ioana? More of a kickboxer. Right, but she doesn't kick a whole ton, though. She kicks a lot, dude. What are you talking about?

Not on the... When I look at her, I think more of the hands in terms of how she wins fights and how she sets it up. That's the main point. Anyone in the heavier weight? You know, Glover's got some decent boxing. Oh, Glover's boxing is excellent. He's got some decent boxing.

Jan's boxing is very good, too. Defensively, too. Jan is very good. And Frank Mir became, by the end of his career, he really became good with the hands. He did. He did. All right. From Gabriel underscore M underscore Diaz.

The real question is, did you all see Brian Campbell's tweet during the UFC Twitter post they have on the screen during the start of each round? Yeah, apparently you made the broadcast. I didn't even see it, but I got texted and tweeted a lot, which is cool. You know, like, and everyone's, you know, man, Dana must be pissed. Well, Dana wasn't even there. Wasn't Dana on, like, a party bus with his son? Yeah, so he was somewhere else.

I'm not persona non grata with the UFC. I just happened to be the star of Dana's four-minute hit job. But I was apologized to by the right people afterwards. So I appreciate that. I'll never get on screen because I know for a fact they don't really care for me that much. But they did approve my credential. So that's really all I care about.

You're not PNG either. I mean, so what? What's the charge against you? No, no, no. I don't think that they hate me like, fuck that guy. But I don't think that they like me. I think they're more like, eh. All right.

I could be wrong. All right, from Brandtendo64. Oh, dude, that's, we love that guy. Yeah. Does he work with BizPing? I think he does, yeah. Could we ever see Ioana on the new room service diaries? Uh, I don't have an interest.

But maybe BC does. All right, so first of all, of anything you've ever said where it would necessitate me to be like, fuck you, right? Like you dunked in high school 49 times. Can you please not operate under the assumption that I give you nothing but bad faith lies? Can you please operate under the assumption that however fantastical it might seem to you, I tell you the truth on this shit. You have two triggers. It just blows my mind. You can tell me I'm wrong about shit.

I don't care about that. If you think I'm questioning it. If you didn't know me and I told you I served in the Marine Corps, you would tell me I'm lying. Motherfucker, I have my stripes. Fuck you. How about that? Your key trigger. How about that?

I mean, one time you did Will Smith me and were like, keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth. But your real trigger is if you think I'm using humor to really try to question your integrity. Really, I'm just using humor, Luke, to embarrass you. Well, fine. Then you can use humor. But the point of that was, where were we going on that? Oh, about Yolanda and Room Service Diaries.

Oh, I really don't think that's a genuine response from you. Like, you're saying somebody with that decorated career and that fun personality? You could bully me into it, but it would not be a priority for me. You don't think that's going to be a fun watch? With the story she has, the swagger she has? I'm not going to sit here and besmirch her career. I've said nothing but nice things.

You're not interested in hearing the inside details of some of these fights and bouncing back? Really, you're not? Genuinely, you're not? No. i wish you would have taken that interview then we could oh no no i tried then we could be doing this together i i tried it wasn't me i mean we would have a no eye contact rule but we were doing this together yeah it wasn't the fault's not with me we could be super fans on the same seat that's he over there with that spring the fault is not with me let me assure you that is 100 okay but look you can you've forgiven John for Duncan. I don't care about John Alright, that's the difference. I was listen. I'm not gonna say you've forgiven me a few times. Well, I love you

That's the difference I'm not gonna say anything bad about you wanna she deserves to have her flowers. That's all I'm gonna say I'm gonna get her on that couch for you. That's okay I'm gonna make you I don't have much okay And I also made a vow after that whole thing blew up that I would never interview her ever again. So I'm going to stick to that.

All right. Mike Perry. How about Mike Perry? No, really? Really? Because that might be our best. I don't dislike Mike Perry at all. Dude, do you know

the stories over 90 minutes that we're going to get that? We're going to surgically pull out of that guy. It's going to be amazing. Because I have huge respect for him. Like, comedically and as an absolute badass, even though he's...

That's a fair point. Yeah. I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what. If he beats MVP, which you can say, oh, that would never happen, motherfucker. Keep thinking you know combat sports better than the MMA or combat sports gods. If he beats MVP, I would actually love to have him on. Now that you put it in my... Forget the MVP part of it.

I'm reaching out to him as soon as this show ends and we're getting started. You want to try? All right. Lastly, from Mikey underscore Moe underscore Miles. How many days could you... That's our producer. That's Mikey Wormile right there. That's our producer?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't know he had an Instagram. How many days could you guys live together in an MTV's real world today? Now, remember back in the day, BC. remember back In the day there were two competing shows there was real world And then there was road ruled by the same people but yes Maybe the same people and eventually intersected and eventually became like challenge shows But one of them had to live in the most like it was it was the shittiest that ever people who got road rules Because the MTV real world crew got to live in like palatial states

in London and San Francisco and New York. And then if you got on road rules, you had to live in a fucking RV. Yes. With like Theo Vaughn. Yeah. Yeah. With like, with like puck or some shit. Although he was in San Francisco. What do you think? How long can we live in a palatial? Well, I will say this. If you look at the energy between us in documentaries, one and two, both that were shot a couple of months apart and both that were very built upon the storyline of Luke versus BC but you know if that even was a rivalry We really tired of being around each other that much by like day three. You know I'm saying Luke I could live with you for a while, but we would eventually fight over the like what was in the fridge

Yeah, no because think about it We're in separate rooms here like when we stay in these in the hotels on the road like we're not living together I'd give us two days, but here's a real question We're in separate rooms here. When we stay in the hotels on the road, we're not living together. I'd give us two days. But here's a real question. How many other 40-year-old men could you live with? You know what I'm saying? What I'm pointing out is when you're 20, having roommates is like almost not like you would prefer to have a single apartment.

But like, hey, having roommates could be fun. Yeah. At 40, I'd just rather drive my car off a bridge. Like, I'm not, I don't want to live with any of you fucks. Yeah, yeah. I don't ever wish the ending of either of our marriages, and it's the most concrete, important thing in my entire life, along with my relationship with God, but could you imagine a scenario in which we were both down on our luck,

divorced dads, and we, you know, decided to get an apartment together, and then the MK doc cameras just became our life cameras. They were just always there, and we just did a, you know decided to get an apartment together and then the mk doc cameras just became our life cameras they were just always there and we just did you know dude we would be like the voltron of sad divorced dad energy just like combining i'd buy a convertible you'd grow a ponytail we'd just combine it and it'd be perfect it'd be great uh that's it that's it for uh our questions here how what's that it's time for your dude i think we've got good what is my um okay okay thank you yeah it's mikey marmal just texted me what does that he's like i already put in the your shit, BC. Dude, I think we've got good shit. What is my... Okay, okay. Thank you. Mikey Marmal just texted me. What'd he say? He's like, I already put in the request for

Ioana for that couch, alright? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Alright, you're gonna be solo on it. I can work with that. What we do every Monday, I do, and Gaff Pierre helps me out in a big way. I scour the globe for the good and the bad, the ugly, the highs and lows from combat sports and beyond.

Luke, we call this, have you seen this shit? Have you seen this species? All right. Let's start out with our Ioana legend appreciation post. Unfortunately, Luke, this is how the legendary career ended face down. But do you agree with my sort of saying? Fans almost saw this violent ending as like a badge for Joanna in the end. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, given the career that she's had.

But also, it's a badge for Zhong Wai Li. Oh, absolutely. We haven't talked about that, but for like Zhong Wai Li, dude, she viciously knocked out Joanna and viciously knocked out Jessica Andrade. Yes. Pretty fucking impressive. Now, did you see that, oh, we'll go into the second clip.

By the way, did you see that flip that way? Yeah, no hands. Yeah, that was pretty sick. Real recognizing real behind the scenes here, Luke, as Valentina Shevchenko greeting former UFC opponent and kickboxing opponent Ioana. She gave her a lot of respect. I like to see this, Luke, okay? Yeah, and also, you know how Ioana speaks Spanish? Danny Segura had tweeted a video from Jocelyn Edwards, who is from Panama. She was speaking to Valentina in Spanish.

They were having a moment as well. So it wasn't just this, but it was a lot of people have both for you want to and Valentina. Yeah, like a look up to them. Kind of. Absolutely. Also, Luke, you want to took

one final victory lap after she passed medicals and the fight was complete. Walking to the bus as the fans gave her a standing ovation. This got emotional, along with most of JJ's interviews that she gave after the fight. Rightfully so, it was good to see her get that one lap. Because she, I mean, whether it's corny or not, she loved being a UFC fighter and loved being a star, and you genuinely saw that come out of her.

And, you know, something of the people's champion as well. I think, you know, no one hired this crew to show up here. They did this of their own volition. And so I saw her open workout before the Andrade fight in Dallas, and it was her and Andrade who worked out. It was Stipe, and who did he fight? It was JDS. Yes.

And there may be another one. Let me just tell you something. It was in a gym out in Dallas. No one got a pop like she did with that crowd. Not even close. She was far and away the biggest star of them. All right, let's hit the proper rundown of the big moments from UFC 275 in Singapore. Luke, here's Dana White's reaction to the main event.

Why is he purple? Or is that normal there? He's choking him! He tapped? No way! No f***ing way! He tapped him out! No way!

No way! What a f***ing fight! Luke, how long would you last on that party bus celebrating Dana White III's 21st birthday? I don't know. I couldn't... Dude, not very long.

Complete with a... Not very long. Is it complete with a recreation of the January 6th step ascension or no? What do you mean? Do you think it'd be total, like, bro, you know, aggressive culture that you couldn't fit in with? Yeah, probably not.

Not at this stage of my life. All right, Luke, I'm sure you got fired up for the constant ground reversals in Yuri Prochazka versus Glover Teixeira. Dude, and the best part was when I saw this, I'm like, oh, the crowd's going to react. And sure enough, the crowd went, ooh! They were like, 69, dudes. This was Glover basically saying, tell me how my ass tastes. Luke, we can clown this, but there's a reason why we clown this.

Imagine having to be Yuri in that moment. This is what we do with our careers? Like, what the hell, Luke? Dude, there's been times where, you know, if you've ever trained at all, you've definitely, and I hate to say this, I'm going to get memed for it, but there's definitely times where your face goes in places where you don't want it to go, and you have to smell things you don't want to smell.

It's not awesome. You have to love martial arts for that type of shit. You have to really be like, I love jiu-jitsu and wrestling. I want to get better because I've got to smell this man's balls. Luke, I mentioned former champion Jan Blachowicz was in the crowd and had a little mixed-up dust-up here with Yuri Prohatska. Does this get you more excited? I said to him, I love you.

I love you, Jan. Let's talk in the cage like that. Let's talk in the cage like that. So Jan was aggressive. Yuri seemed to be having fun with it, right? Yeah, do look at the eyes on Jan Jesus Christ, dude That's a did he do bath salts before this what the fuck look would you agree that that could be a bat shit crazy fight? Oh, yeah, now Jan is gonna try and slow it down and make it less so yes

I think Glover was actually a little bit accommodating but his style accommodated some of that craziness. Do you think Jan's going to shoot? He might. He might. It's going to be a very interesting fight. The faces of death Luke here was Yuri and Glover after this absolute classic if we could zoom in here. I mean, so you want to be a UFC fighter Luke? Good Lord. By the way, I was thinking about this too.

Can you imagine how good or how much even more dangerous? This would be true for everyone, but especially for Yuri. If they had like a one championship rule set where you could knee a down fighter or you could up kick a down fighter. Yeah, dude. Yuri would be a nightmare on the ground. He would. He'd be pulling out those elbows that Dan Hendo hit. What's his name with that UFC 199? Hector Lombard. Yeah, dude. That was just some vicious shit.

That was like you stole my money type comeback right there. All right. What do you know about this guy who made his UFC 199? Hector Lombard. Yeah, dude, that was just some vicious shit. That was like you stole my money type comeback right there. All right, what do you know about this guy who made his UFC debut? High CR Matthew Shea? We're going to talk about this on the Extra Credits. That's a sensational knockout. Yeah, watch this, though. Here's the thing. Steve Garcia runs into him, changes stances, keeps his hands down.

A lot of times when guys change stances, their defense doesn't follow. And the bigger part was, if you notice real closely, he never did much to – he didn't faint or fake his way in. He just kind of rushed his way in, and so the guy was just able to watch. That was actually more vicious than Ioana's landing because this guy actually hit Faze. Yeah, he bounced off the – well, she bounced a little bit too. Her arm kind of blocked it, but yeah, it's still bad.

But I mean, here's the thing. I don't know how hard of a puncher he is. Probably pretty good. But if you run into a punch, it's just going to magnify the power. Absolutely. Women's straw rate, Silvana Gomez-Juarez, Luke, got Twitter going crazy after this. I couldn't believe this knockout.

If you just pay attention to this, you're like, oh, it's a great knockout. And don't get me wrong, it is. It's a sick punch. Liang just walks into it. Yeah, she does. She. It's a sick punch. Liang just walks into it. Yeah, she does. She just walks into range without – look, she just walks into it. She just walks into range without doing anything. That left hook to finish her is brutal.

You don't see power like this at 115. Shades of Andrade catching Carolina with that left hook. Yeah, and I think – by the way, I have an in-law named Silvana, so it's sort of a small little coincidence, but I think Gomez-Juarez, she's out of Argentina, but trains in Mexico, so always good to see. That means she has to pass through Colombia. Not necessarily,

although Argentina's pretty fucking far, but just sort of interesting to see some of the more, the Latin American development has out of, what's it called, Entren Gym, or, no, actually, no, that's not quite true. Actually, I'll walk that back. Good to see more development.

Walk that shit. Yeah. Luke, let's go over to a slow motion of the right hand that really set them. She just measures her. I mean, this is a looping bomb. Gets her head off the center line and just bop. Look at that. Wow.

Whew. All right, let's keep it going. We had seen a brief clip of it earlier, but here's the focus on Bakhodir Jalalov sending Jack Mulawai down in the eighth and final round. It was that left hand, but then the sweeping sort of side hook, same punch Alexander Usyk used to finish Tony, what was his name, Tony Bellew in his last cruiserweight fight.

Good-looking shot, but Luke, did you see the ringside angle that was shot by Morning Combat's own Matt Ryle? He works? I know. First of all, the first positive thing he's done for our show was provide this video. But he had the Brazilian nuts hanging out of his back pocket, Luke, you know? He understands what they do. Yeah, keep shooting things fucking on portrait mode.

All right. Luke, Golden Boy from Anaheim, California. Did you see Carlos Ortiz? Just like any gratuitous shot at Ryle we can get in. Upsetting, unbeaten Evan Sanchez. Now it's Ortiz in the red. Look at him. Just put it on, Luke.

You mean the guy has Ortiz written on the back of his trunk? Yeah, the red. Yeah, right there. Oh, golly. Dude, how many motherfuckers are falling out of rings these days? Do you want the net? It's like the 10th one in 10 weeks. Do you want the Valley Tudor net at the bottom?

A little bit, maybe. Something like tighten up the ropes a little bit. Let's go to the top rank undercard, Luke. It's Dakota Langer knocking out Josue Vargas. Vargas had just gotten sent to hell by Jose Zepeda in round one, but he was a fun guy to watch. But he's going in the wrong direction now, Luke. He took a beating here.

He went to the body, just covering up, hanging on the ropes. It's like Dakota, do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, right? I really hope you get in a car crash. Oh, God. There's another ring apron finish for you, Luke. That's what I'm saying.

Like, what the fuck is going on? Yeah, all right. Luke, we mentioned Edgar Berlanga taking a bite out of crime in round seven. Here's the footage. Dude, what is he doing? Yeah, that's not advisable. I mean, what the fuck is he doing? Oh, my God.

This is how BC and I agreed each other. He could have got disqualified, you know, straight up. He arguably should have been disqualified, which would have been, I mean, you want to talk about a real decline in his stock. Yeah. He got gifted because it's on the other side of the referee. But Jesus. South Florida, Daniel Dubois and the Don King main event. Here's the knockout finish against Trevor Bryan. Oh, he can punch. I'll give him that. It was a short left hand. Very short left hand. You see

that? There are, that's like, you see how many people in the audience, that's how many producers work on MK right now. There are more people in studio here than there are in that gymnasium. Ordering THC on their phone by delivery. Yes, yes. Oh, yeah. I know. Did you see how much mahjong these guys were playing when we were trying to talk?

Luke, we're going to talk about it to close, but the Boxing Hall of Fame, International Boxing Hall of Fame, check out the swag from Mayweather Jr. and Sr. That's a badass suit on Floyd with the star on it. I love that. Yeah, we couldn't pull it off. Although, you know what? We should try to wear that if we ever get nominated for another award. We should try to wear this.

We couldn't pull it off. But I did see that Floyd, like, teared up. Like, it was a big deal for him. Absolutely. I love to see that. Luke, let's go to some international MMA thanks to Kaposa. It's AMC Fight Night 112. Check out this entrance from Nariman Abasov.

You into this? Are these guys, like, Kadyrov-related, or what is this? I don't know. I'm not saying that because of the dance. Can't you love the art and not the artist, Luke? Yeah, no, I love the art. This is putting UFC to shame. I'm just saying, does this end with Kadyrov, like, high-fiving someone?

Like, where are we with this? Oh, that's awesome. This is the Uzbek flag, I believe. All of our producers here that stand around, Does this end with Kadyrov high-fiving someone? Where are we with this? Oh, that's awesome. This is the Uzbek flag, I believe. All of our producers here that stand around, they should all get drums and welcome me into the studio each time on air. They just fart before we get there. All right.

That's the only drums they're playing. Here's a roundup of the wild and weird from combat this weekend. Who do you think would win? Dude, this is, I mean. It's two. There's two two-legged men in an ass-kicking contest. I mean, here's the thing. This is like... What are we doing? Hold on. Like, on the one hand, on the one hand, I don't

want to be the guy that's like, people who have some of these limitations should not be allowed to compete in sports. On the other hand, you're only putting this and have you seen this shit so you can exploit the humor of disabled people. the other hand, you're only putting this in Have You Seen This Shit so you can exploit the humor of disabled people. That's really what you're doing. You're right.

So I don't want to like, you know, did anyone get their hand raised? Like, I don't even care. Dude, what is wrong? I mean, how old are you? I don't want this. I want to go to the next slide. Here is W. Kamau Bell promoting us on national TV and you're like, yo, let's watch Armless Men fuck each other.

I just thought it was interesting. Okay, let's go over to this. Luke, celebrity boxing. Black China gets worked up by Alisa Megan. I don't know much about these two, but look at who the referee is. Sugar Rashad Evans, bro. Dude, Rashad is my hero. Rashad, we should

have paid you not to do this. What are you doing? I mean, this is not me objectify her. This is just a reality. Black China's ass has gravitation. Oh my god. Did you see her in the Tekashi 6ix9ine video with the sprinkles all over her ass? I mean, what is not me objectify her. This is just a reality. Black China's ass has gravitation. Oh, my God. Did you see her in the Tekashi 6ix9ine video with the sprinkles all over her ass? I mean, what was worse, the handicapped Joker? That reference. Oh, and the other one was wearing a thong?

I mean, dude, PC was like, I need to find something that's incredibly exploitative. What do I do? Dude, should Rashad be above this or is a paycheck a paycheck? Let me explain something to you. If someone was like, I need you to referee this and Rashad's not able, could you do it? I'd be the first guy in line. Luke, there was a knockout on this undercard that looks so pro wrestling. I don't even know how to describe it.

Check this out, Luke. Oh, God. Is that Ric Flair? I mean, what is happening here? I mean, have you ever seen anything like that, Luke? Yes, I have on AEW. One more time. That is great.

That is great. All right, let's go to the BKFC main event. Remember Alan Belcher? Yeah, dude, he looks fucking jacked. He's now a heavyweight. He took on Big Frank Tate, who had been abolished. Oh, Alan Belcher Oh so Tate had beaten Joey Beltran on like 30 seconds and now Alan Belcher comes in and takes

to look at this explosion of what is that sweat water bile what is that I look like coconut milk or water or whatever like yogurt milk or some yogurt soda or some shit would you drink yogurt All right, more on that to come. I don't know what came out of his body, Luke, but it was weird. All right, hey, Family Feud had a celebrity boxing edition, and Riddick Bowe was on there, which I was like, oh, no. I don't know, but check this out. Did he sound lucid?

Big Daddy, some guys are so lonely, they'll go out on a date with their who? Joe. Their who? Joe Mama. Joe mama I didn't think he had that in him I'm not can we this is not dude I don't mind old people getting thrown off roofs and shit like you like it whatever or like you know yeah whatever dude you have shown like seven clips in a row making fun of people

who are for one reason or another. Dude, that was funny. He delivered. He did a deez nuts joke on Steve Harvey. He was Sully Sullenberger. Dude, he landed that plane, man. It was a rough ride, but he got there, okay? You know what I'm saying?

Oh, my God. Wow. All right, Luke. I don't know if you saw this picture from the NBA finals. Did you get that from Bofa? Bofa, he's nuts! ESPN's Brian Winhorse, Luke, is unfortunately all of us. This is BC talking to you.

This is all of us talking to hot chicks at the NBA Finals. Wow. I mean, I'm sure there's context around that. Hey, listen, a storm is coming. Could Brian Winhorse put his jacket over the state of Florida? Oh, come on. Could that fucking thing be bigger? I mean, seriously. Dude, a storm is coming. Could Brian Windhorst put his jacket over the state of Florida? Oh, come on. Could that fucking thing be bigger? I mean, seriously. Dude, you're taking me.

Hold on. I'm not. Okay, I know that's down. Look at the size of the jacket. That handicap joke from earlier now seems tame. What are we doing here, bro, you know? Did I ever tell you one time what Alistair Overeem did when I was on the set with, who was the Nick Newell? Ever tell you what he did when we were on set with Nick Newell?

Put your phone down for a minute. I don't think you should. So we had Nick Newell on the set. And by the way, I love Nick Newell. Oh, yeah, he's in there for the King of Connecticut. Yeah, actually, no, that's a fair point. I hadn't thought about that. And I remember it was over and then we were all kind of chatting.

Alistair Overeem grabs Nick Newell and, like, it's missing and did this and looked at it and inspected. I was like, Alistair, I love you. I don't think that's fair. I feel like everyone that's been on an extended shoot with Alistair has weird stories like that. He's super friendly. And then when I saw him in D.C., he put me in a rear naked choke while I was waiting for my Uber. Can I tell you that? I was sitting there waiting for my Uber in pitch darkness and all of a sudden, you know,

and I was like, BC? And no, it was Alistair Overeem. He was choking me from the back. He was nice. I like Alistair.

Luke, here's your combat sports interview of the week. I'm choked up. I'm made for this game. And anybody who wants it can have it. People underestimate me. But I'm here and I'm hereoked up. I'm made for this game. And anybody who wants it can have it.

People underestimate me. But I'm here and I'm here to stay. Luke, the gentleman wearing pink is made for this game, Luke. All right. Is the joke that he was crying so we have to make fun of him, is that the idea? Yeah, it was a very emotional speech. Listen, as a guy who's done speeches like that, only worse when he's been drinking, I don't... He who is without sin cast the first stone, I would say. Okay, as a guy who's done speeches like that, only worse when he's been drinking, I don't let he who is without sin cast

the first stone, is what I would say. I also believe I belong here, Luke. I'm more like mayonnaise. I got nowhere else to go. Here's some quick hitters, Luke. Would you try these food concoctions? How about yogurt soda? I genuinely hope you get shot in the face with liquid soda.

Dude, I would drink the crap out of that. I don't even care what's in it. That is so intriguing. I have to tell you, though, yogurt-y drinks, or obviously my mom's from Lebanon. It's not specific to them, but the Middle East has so many yogurt-y drinks, and they're all terrible. No, they're all good. I know Middle Eastern people are like, don't get me wrong.

I love Middle Eastern food. I love it. But the amount of yogurt drinks is over the line. You know what the best drink in the world is? The generic Thai iced tea that you would get at your local Thai place around the corner. That shit's amazing. That's the best drink in the world. It is. I've been in some parts of the world, Luke.

I don't think you've ever left the country. I haven't been in Doha, but I've been in Boha a lot. You know what I'm saying? What's in Boha? Boha these nuts right here. That doesn't even make senseha boha these nuts make sense That doesn't even make sense Riddick bow Joe mama did you walk into that like Pacquiao my didn't walk in anything?

Okay, I knew you were just making you literally go smash ma. She must have these nuts doesn't mean anything There's no joke there Luke would you try the more edibles before the show. This is called a Korean corn dog. Let's zoom in here. Korean food is amazing. This is a street vendor here, and I have to say, Luke. All right, that's some batter he's going to fry. Lard? That's probably lard.

What is that? Is that like... Sweet potatoes, maybe? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Is that salt or sugar? I don't know, but I'm old. Yeah, I'm all in. Yeah, that is, that is tremendous. Yeah, I'm all in. Yeah, that is tremendous.

Yeah, I need that. Yeah, hell yeah. Thank you, Korean corn dog. Would you try this, Luke? I think they call this the methane banana. Can't believe they're white. It seems so out of character for them. I wouldn't try that.

I wouldn't. I mean, if you had. I want to show this to, like, these, like, hardcore evangelicals who are like, oh, you know, evolution's not real. I'm like, look at these primates. Yeah. Luke, one more. Would you try? It's not food.

It's a shaving technique to trim up your beard. Maybe get a little bit more. This guy's using, like, the old-school lawnmower joint. Yeah, yeah. I think that's, like, is he, like, having a lip orgasm with that? That's a little aggressive. You ever seen those people who are too cheap to buy, like, the push mower with gas and electricity? Yes, yes. So they have just, like, the blades that rotate?

I lived in a house as a kid that had, like, a yard this big and my dad had one of those. That was weird, you know? Like, you can get your foot... It looked like a bear trap. And I want to be clear, like, all the people who are too cheap... I have one neighbor, by the way, who's, like, two blocks down who are too cheap. I have one neighbor, by the way, who's like two blocks down who does this shit. I'm always like, dude, your lawn is the worst looking lawn in the neighborhood. Just put some fucking gasoline in the trimmer and be done with it. But you're the guy who your neighbors came over and knocked on your door and were like,

hey, do you need us to help you weed whack and mow? Okay, I was a single guy back then. It's different now. All right, Luke, what's the best way to wake up a drunk friend? Option one, pour some Stella Artois in his cochleae. He's still going, Luke. He's still going. Please tell me a car hits him. Or if your friend is Bam Bam tied to Ivasa

option You can R Kelly him look or you can't pee on you Or yes Hey, it's It's hardy. Yeah, Tooey, it's hearty. That's great. Dude, that is... I'm legitimately

frightened to party with Ty Tooey Vos. I don't know that I cannot hang. I'm with you on that. Scorpions of the week, Luke, and I'm not talking about the 70s and 80s rock band, right? Rock me like a rookie. Oh, look at this fat guy. Look at this week Luke and I'm not talking about the 70s and 80s rock band right rock me oh look at this look at this dung beetle he thought he was big boy Chris Barnett and he turns out he wasn't that is that is karma you got paralyzed you piece of

shit I actually found a worse scorpion I hope it didn't end in death or paralysis or we can't show it, but check this out, Luke. Oh, my. Oh! Dude, American football is... I like the guy who spears it but he's not even remotely trying to tackle it. It's just injury. Luke, if you had a scorpion problem in your house, you can call the bug guy. But how about the monster... Maybe the exterminator? Yeah, how about the

monster Naoya Inoue doing Japanese bug Yeah, how about the monster, Naioa Inoue, doing Japanese bug spray commercials? Check this out, Luke. This guy hates scorpions. See, fighting scorpions are just like venom. Bro, you ever seen those Japanese shows

where they have giant bugs fight each other and shit? No, I'm not into that, but this was pretty bad. Like beetles and praying mantises. You can see it on YouTube. Luke, a lot of people sending me young Luke in the wild. This is you showing up in a Bloomberg UK ad if you got your shit together.

What do you think? Hey, BC, caught big Luke on a Moonlight Express. And boy's got his fingers in all the pies. That's right. I'm everywhere. Actually, that guy's... Yeah, but look how gray I am versus that dude. You could fix that pretty easily.

There's nothing to fix, BC. This is how your God intended. All right, Luke. We show a lot of male, white male hard Ls. Do we show enough females taking hard Ls? Here we go, Luke. I do. I call this drunken butt to butt.

Dude, have you noticed, is it me or is it like fat white women have the worst balance of any creature in the world? Speaking of large women and bad balance, Luke, let's go to the gym. Oh, lady. Oh, no, dude. Oh, God. Yes. Oh, God. Dude, I see

these ladies. It's not just them. It's the dudes, too. Trying to do box jumps, which are good for you, and all of them grossly overestimate their ups have you noticed that yep it's a constant problem and i see dudes so she the one thing i'll say in her benefit is she at least got one that's like a little soft on the box i see the guys who take like the wooden ones and then they slam their shins into it constantly you ever see those older ladies who mis uh diagnose uh like a funhouse circular wheel what spinning wheel got to go down oh big bertha's about to go for a ride look at her she looks like she's doing a bad impression of break dancing

i don't think she got out on her own. I think they had to remove her. That's interesting. Alright, let's get to the final stretch here. Let's show some MMA fighters living regular lives out in the wild. Luke, what if Ryan Bader was one of us? Here's him at a... He's about to clobber this shit. Oh yeah, that pinata. Or anyone else down there.

Dude, go get the fucking kids, Ryan! Jesus! Wow! Damn! Yo, remind me not to pick up candy, Ryan. Jesus. Wow. Damn. Yo, remind me not to pick up candy at Ryan Bader's yard. Scouter delivering sugar and CTE all in one, Luke. I mean, this is great. Here, kid. Wow.

Okay. Luke, Joey Beltran, former UFC heavyweight, sealed the deal, of course, with Britton Hart Beltran and now sealed it over his navel like you have a tattoo over your navel. It doesn't say thug life. What do you think about the intention? Forget the technique because you always rip on people's nice tattoos. How about the intention here? He must be in love. He must be in love.

That's what I'm talking about, okay? That's my favorite power couple in combat sports. That might genuinely be true. Yeah, absolutely. I cheer for them. More so than Brian Ortega and It's very close. Tracy Cortez. Chris Weidman doing some

dog drills with some local police here, Luke. I've been invited to do these every time I say no. Yeah, please. They can't get the dog off of him, Luke. That these every time I say no. Yeah, please. For very good reasons. You can't get the dog off of him, Luke. Yeah, that dog is... No, no.

Doug's like, I smell some Anderson Silva on that. Let me get in on that. And I like how it went for the leg. It's like you couldn't go for his arm, which isn't as injured. Yeah, that's great. I'm just saying.

Luke, this is how I toughen up backstage before MK broadcasts to deal with your bullshit. God. Oh. God. Oh, God. Look at his face. Guy's an OG. Oh, he likes it.

I think he kind of likes it. These guys were like, I don't feel anything in my testicles. You're not really bragging in the way you think you are. And finally, Luke, this guy, no one needs to say who he is. You're not really bragging in the way you think you are. And finally, Luke, this guy, no one needs to say who he is. He's got his title right behind him. Luke, let's zoom in on this. Can you take our picture?

Sure. Can you move a little to your right? Anal King. I'm sure he is, Luke. Okay. They look happy though. I'm sure he is. He's got the kind of mustache that just screams Anal King.

Yes. That's the share of the week, Luke. I hope you've seen it okay well hopefully they enjoy their yogurt soda um all right bc i wanted to mention this before we get out of here boxing had a big day yesterday yeah the international boxing hall of fame let me explain how this works we talked about it on friday but uh more so well there was three classes they couldn't enter them because of covet so So you had 2020, 2021, and then 22. I'm just going to rattle through these names.

And by the way, the first class just ever involved women as well. So it's sort of all coming together. So here's who got in. I'm just going to read straight down. Miguel Cotto, Roy Jones Jr., James Toney, Regina Holmich, Holly Holm, Vladimir Klitschko, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Andre Ward, Layla Ali, Ann Wolfe, Bernard Hopkins, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley,

Christy Martin, Lucia Riker. Dude. This is like a decade of Hall of Famers in one day. That's like when the Avengers meet the X-Men. That is an insane, insane class. I was going to argue because Floyd showed up. You saw that too. He ended up giving a speech in which he was very emotional and cried and really showed

how much he freaking loves this game and how he's able now to like relax and breathe out now i say that now he's still i think there's a press conference coming up today to announce his next risen rise and exhibition but you get the point you know he got to the finish line he did it his own way perfection would you argue that he's the type of star and i know this was a unique circumstance three classes had to go in as one because of covid that he almost deserves his own you know sometimes when someone's so great they get get their own year, they're the only ones going in the Hall of Fame, he almost deserves that, yet he had to kind of share the marquee with like

Roy Jones, Hopkins, let's go Roy Jones was, he got interviewed by our compatriots at Showtime Boxing for the podcast, Raskin and Mulvaney, by the way their interview series that they did with all the Hall of Famers, it's worth your time but I think Raskin had asked him like you know, about being a gifted fighter, and he kind of

lost his shit. And what he said was, did you hear what he said? That he wasn't just a gifted fighter, he had outworked everyone, but he actually had said that I'm better than everyone else up here. And I'm like, well, Roy, I certainly have a lot of respect for you, but that's a very bold statement to make. Roy also rapped during his acceptance speech, which was awesome, by the way.

To have the balls, you would say the non-self-awareness, but it's also kind of balls. Whenever I've interviewed Roy through the years and I've asked him about his rap skills, and by the way, he does get respect from the standpoint of any celebrity athlete that have crossed over and legitimately tried to rap. They've always called his stuff

timeless. It actually is pretty good. It's the best, for the most part, although some people do like Shaq in his early stuff. His early stuff was not bad, okay? It was what it was, but Shaq's been entertaining. But to have the balls to like, let's play the music and then to just deliver bars during your Hall of Fame, like that's pretty badass. That's, I mean, that is Roy right there.

So I'm glad he did that, you know? It is. Last but not least, of course, in conjunction with this news, Andre Ward was entered into the Hall of Fame. Showtime has a sports documentary coming out about him in early 2023. Now, I don't have a whole lot of details about it just yet. I believe it's a LeBron James, Maverick Carter project? Yes, with Uninterrupted, which is the company. And also, the whole premise here is Andre Ward in his own words. I think I referenced this a couple days ago on MKLuke that he had a life that some people think they know him,

but if you really knew what he came up growing up in Oakland with his parents addicted to drugs and a lot of the stuff he's gone through. And obviously, he had such a nontraditional career. Remember, he sat out in the midst of his prime like two, three years to go to court and battle his ex-promoter, Dan Goosen, who, oh, by the way, posthumously was inducted into the Hall of Fame as well. So it was a loaded weekend beyond just the in-ring participants. But, you know, I like this idea in this project, not just because Andre Ward became who he was because of Showtime in a lot of ways. He fought five times on Showbox, then entered the Super Six, Super Middleweight Tournament as sort of like the wild card,

you know, unproven young name, Olympiacled medalist, and then he, you know, became a star beating names like Carl Frotch and Mikkel Kessler and just absolutely dazzled through that tournament. It's good to see him kind of come back. And I thought his interview with Al Bernstein that aired on the Showbox broadcast on Friday, Al was part of our team and was doing a bunch of interviews, was just so genuine. And you saw, like, some people, I think, underrate Ward because he handled his career the way he wanted to, meaning he just walked off at age 33, right? You know, or maybe—

A little Khabib-like? Yeah, or maybe they thought he had lost the first fight to Kovalev when I think that the judges got it right. And then, you know, there was also low blows that knocked out Kovalev in the rematch that didn't get called. So there's always reason for people to go, oh, you know, there was also low blows that knocked out Kovalev in the rematch that didn't get called. So there's always reason for people to go, oh, you know, I hate that guy or whatever, or maybe they don't like

that his nickname is Son of God and they think it's pretentious. Like, whatever you think about him, he was great and he did it on his own terms and he could fight every style. And when he was active, he was always looking to make,

fight the biggest guys available. He's going to have a weird Habib-like legacy where it's really hard to make apples and apples comparisons with him and other guys. It's not that we never really saw him tested or he didn't fight anybody. It's just that we would have liked for him to have almost double the activity if we could be greedy, right? We would want to see him against everybody across two divisions that was ever around in his era. We didn't get that. But still, I think he's the second youngest

inductee ever. He's only 38 right now. You got to give that guy respect. I think it's the second youngest inductee ever. He's only 38 right now. You've got to give that guy respect. I think it's going to be a very interesting documentary to really see how he was wired because he was always such a poised and private public persona. That turned people away in some cases. But the real guy underneath, I always thought Andre, who's one of the best broadcasters in the game, by the way, is just such a genuine good dude. And I don't think he ever got a fair break from the American public

when it came to boxing. I think people found the one thing they didn't like about him and they just went with it and kind of missed how great he really was. Dude, he was great. Yeah, kind of like me when you talk about him. We need each other at the end of the day, Luke. That's true. We do.

All right, that's it for us for today. We appreciate you guys watching. We'll be back on Wednesday. We have more to shoot today. It won't be out today, but we're gonna shoot well extra credit will be out But we have a lot more to do today so well some exciting projects coming your way Yeah, I want to remind folks you can catch BC on show box But there's all kinds of stuff on Showtime and Bellator and other boxing and everything else that goes on Showtime

Showtime comm 30-day free trial you like it you can keep it if not you can bounce of course Morningcombat store for all the merch now. I don't think this was like a top 25 episode but it was a good one but you know that was we brought it today we absolutely it was good it was really good uh also morning combat at gmail.com to reach the show for any reason including wednesday's fan subs and then friday's day any final thoughts um no but thank you folks for uh watching us following what we do here uh we love you okay we'll see you in las vegas early j, okay? Yep. Be well. And, you know, Luke, just, you know,

gains, loyal, ex-girlfriends, all that shit. For Malka, Showtime, CBS Sports, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.