MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 275 Storylines | Fight Announcements | Jorge Masvidal | Ep. 309

Episode Date: June 8, 2022

On Episode 309 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian look ahead to UFC 275. What are the biggest storylines heading into this card? Jorge Masvidal came out and said that he doesn't want Herb Dean to ref his fights because of his bias. The guys also recap a few fights that were announced this week. They close out the main topics by recapping Onoue vs. Donaie. (15:45) - UFC 275 Storylines (68:00) - Fight Announcements (81:45) - Inoue Defeats Donaire (93:00) - Max Holloway Roasts Luke (99:00) - Quick Hitters 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

back like a bad habit on this Wednesday. June 8th. I don't even know what day it is. Oh, I'm the worst human in America. Hi, everyone. It is time for Morning Combat. It is the best damn podcast period or whatever it is BC says. I am merely one half of your hosting duo.

My name is Luke Thomas. I'm joining from the capital of Estados Unidos right here in Washington, D.C., joined by the Viceroy of Connecticut himself who by the way depending on how Saturday goes could reclaim the title of king of Connecticut I don't know if he wants it or not because it would mean that Glover lost but either way we have a lot to get to today it's Brian Campbell what's up BC how you doing bro Luke fired up as always to be the sauce on top of your uh your your meat there but uh we are uh we are a a duo like no other and i think that's why people tune in luke and by the way did you see mike bone interviewing

yoana inside her hotel room is he trying to take everything i've worked for what is going on right now what is it you have worked for that he is ostensibly so So yeah, I expect to expect a great show. Luke. All right, let's have fun. Yeah. Um, we are going to get to not so much Mike bonds interview, but we will talk about UFC two 75 storylines today. We have some fight announcements.

Uh, we have to get to the Inouye fight, which was yesterday morning in Tokyo. Pretty ridiculous contest. That one was, um, plus a whole lot more fan subs. You know,

the drill, of course, if you're watching on YouTube, thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe. If you're listening on a podcast platform, please give us a nice review. We always appreciate that when you do, BC. When are you going back out for Showbox?

Because whenever you do that, the folks here are going to be able to watch you because if they get Showtime for 30 days free, which you can get at Showtime.com, it's all going to be a hunky-dory. What's the story there? Yeah, look, Friday night, you're going to want to tune into Showtime. Why?

Because your boy BC's calling a showbox card. But more importantly, it's a mostly heavyweight card on the grounds, more or less, in upstate New York as the International Boxing Hall of Fame. And Luke, this is the weekend that not just one class goes in, but because of COVID,

three different classes are going in. We're talking about Mayweather, Klitschko, Hopkins, Cotto, Tony. I'm missing like three or four or five huge names on Holly Holm. I mean, they're all going to be there. So tune in Friday night. You're going to get BC calling the action on some heavyweight stuff. You're going to get the Hall of Famer Al Bernstein as the roving reporter interviewing one Hall of Famer after another. It should be a very good timeout, Luke. If you watch, I'd be willing to do that

Doug Christie thing to you. Or something. I'd be willing to give you something, Luke, that lets you know that I may be working my other job right now, but I'm thinking about you, Luke. I don't believe that, but that's

okay. We're looking forward to harry best friday angry harry best look because of your armenian background does that make you more likely to be a system of a down fan or not i was wondering that yesterday as i was listening on the road i've seen them in concert i do like them i don't know if i love them like i don't like uh go crazy for him it was funny a buddy of mine uh used to work for what was then the Verizon Center. He would get free tickets and stuff all the time. And System of a Down came with Deftones. And I was a bigger fan of the Deftones, but I was like, okay, well, let me just go see

what's up with this. Deftones opened. They were cool. They were good. System of a Down brought the house down, bro. They were unbelievable. Dude, that Toxicity album still kind of holds up in a in a you know niche type of way it does they've got they all you know for better for worse they've got an interesting sound

and a unique one so and their live performance was one of the best i've ever seen from a rock band to be quite honest with you i was my just as last thing on this my wife actively doesn't like them but she came with me because it was like you you know, free tickets to go to a nice concert. So she came with me and even she, when we left was like, yo, system was way better than Deftones. And I was like, yeah, that is pretty much how that goes. The moving up. Yeah. Um, finally on Armenian Americans today, Luke, did you see Edmund Shabazzian leaving, uh,

coach Edmund and, and Rousey as his manager? Good idea. You know, would you? Yeah, I think it's, I mean, he's not getting the results that he needs. Right. kind of a i mean i don't know listen why leave rousey i have no idea maybe she's too tied to edmund and so it was just a package deal but you know as far as getting the training that he needs no he needs to see something else he's too young he's taking too much damage this is silly so shout out also to manuka kopian uh a combat sports writer, also a fine Armenian American. That's all I got.

You might appreciate about Armenia is it's the first Christian nation. I think the, at least if I get this right, is it the first Christian nation ever or among current? Yeah, I think that's right. I think it's the first Christian nation sort of in the modern sense anyway. So,

all right, then your people know my people. We could do this every weekend, you know? All right, fair enough. BC, I hope you had a good time getting back to lovely Connecticut on Monday. It was fun being in studio. I believe we're going to do it again

pretty soon, so I'm excited about that, but we have a show to get to today. Let's remind folks, though, they can get that wonderful hat you're wearing and a whole lot more morningcombat.store plus bc i saw you know we were having jokes on twitter but people do seem to like the bomber jackets i have to say you know they say it can take off eight and a half years of age luke just by putting it on i did look hella 35 right there all right so uh uh no comfortable uh you, my family didn't

think it was cool, but you know, Luke, I've been defying the odds against the people that love me for many years. So let's, let's, let's keep that going. My wife liked him. I showed her yours too. And then, uh, and then I showed her mine and she thought both of them were pretty cool. So I was like, okay, all right, we can do something with this. You were like, I'll show you mine. If I can show you BCS and she's like, yeah, I'm into that equation. You know what I mean? All right, too far, Luke. All right, that was the line.

Can we not make jokes about my wife, please? That would be really awesome. An amazing person, Luke. Can't wait to meet her very soon. I'm going to make sure I tell her this up front when we see her. Believe me when I tell you, she'll give you a piece of her mind. So that's fun. You know, both of us have a history with spicy women. It's how we get down, Luke, okay? And as Brendan Schan shob once told us spicy just means they're assholes i completely honestly

think that you're brendan shob's number one fan i really believe i just disagree with that line of thinking you know i mean i don't know you bring him up more than anybody else are you his number one or maybe number two fan what do you think who's now you're saying i'm i'm not only the thick boy president i'm also a client Luke? Is that what you're saying? Probably, probably. I mean, you bring him up more than anyone I've ever seen, but okay, neither here nor there. Sorry, Luke, big fan of comedy over here.

Sorry. I know you are. I know you are. All right, let's see. BC, we do have to remind folks, though, before we get to today's programming, that there's a product that we both love. No, it's, well, yes, we do love Delta-8 eight but that's not what we're talking about here we're talking about athletic

greens bc things you can take once a day tasty good for you easy to manage don't have to take a lot of pills you can bring it on the road i love ag1 don't you drinking it right now luke and if you know you're looking for me to read something word for word luke i'd tell you this we love it it doesn't taste like it's super healthy it's kind of a mild tropical taste and you know it's one scoop a day luke it's so easy but it does so much good for our body and at our age luke with our backgrounds we don't tend to always put our bodies first okay luckily ag1 is doing that for us. Well, as he mentions, one delicious scoop, you get 75 high-quality vitamins and minerals, whole food-sourced superfoods, probiotics, adaptogens.

And by the way, BC, I know you agree with this. It's just a great way to start your day. No, it is. It makes you feel good. And they say, you know, you end your day how you start it. You want to start it doing something healthy. It's convenient. It's got a special blend of ingredients that support your gut health,

your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, aging. I mean, on and on. Why not? Invest in yourself. You're going to find great results. I mean, look at this jawline. I'm coming. I'm coming on. I'm coming on.

Did you hit puberty yesterday? Got a little bit more to lose here, but I'm coming on. Thank you, AG1. On top of that, BC, easy to use. I even take it on live stream days. You take it on live stream days. Dude, I take it on the road. Okay?

All right? Because it's that easy, Luke. All right. It's lifestyle friendly. Whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, or gluten-free, it contains less than one gram of sugar. No GMOs, no nasty chemicals, artificial anything, while still tasting good. Yeah, you want to know what I like best about it? The price.

It costs less than $3 a day, so it's investing in your health and yet cheaper than your cold brew habit. Ticking Athletic Greens is a small micro habit with big benefits. It's one thing you can do every single day to take great care of yourself and i see that that that look in your eye luke that apprehension who else swears by this stuff okay well how about this luke athletic greens has over 7 000 five star reviews and also trusted by the leading health experts no i'm not talking about rogan i'm talking tim ferris michael gervais get healthy luke thomas it all starts in the morning with one scoop of AG1. All right, so right now, as BC said, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition,

especially heading into the flu and cold season. It's just one scoop and a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. Yeah, and to make it easy, Athletic Greens is so nice. They're going to give you a one-year supply of immune supporting vitamin D and the five free travel packs of AG1 that we talked about with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit their website, athleticgreens.com slash morning combat. And of course that is combat with a K.

Again, that's athletic greens. That's plural greens.com slash morning combat combat with a K to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. All right, BC. Let's get this show on the road if we can here. We start with the biggest fight of the weekend for sure. Pay-per-view is back in the UFC. UFC 275, although it's a little bit different.

BC, also, I don't know if you saw this. The UFC, I believe, has pulled a gate in Singapore better than one has ever pulled in their home market. That says a lot about the power of the UFC and also the relatively diminished power of one. But we start with the main event. Now, we had him on the couch, BC. The very first RSD, well, the new branded one, was with Glover Teixeira. He, of course, will be defending his title against Yuri Prohachka.

BC, what is your overall sense? Let's just start with the pay-per-view in Singapore. You can't say it's a bad fight. You can't say that the co-main event is a bad fight, but they're obviously in Singapore, yes, to better promote the UFC brand out in Southeast Asia. Okay, fair enough. And as I just mentioned, they're going to be doing better than one really ever has, at least from a gate gate perspective but this is not in terms of the star power the creme de la creme of what fight fans really crave i don't know that it offers them anything or at least not anything it doesn't offer them much there fair or unfair uh unfair i could make the argument that 275 although not as deep as the 276 international fight week card in a few weeks is actually a better offering because

luke of those two title fights on top and the the must-see rematch between the former champions at women's strawweight and of course knowing that that's also potentially a number one contender fight luke i i kind of feel like i'm a little bit more excited about this weekend's card even though it's flown under the radar because of Singapore, because the main event doesn't have that, you know, that, that one viral force that's sort of taken over in terms of promoting it. Am I wrong to say, I kind of like 275 a little bit better, even though the depth is not here. You're trying to say that the people of Singapore are getting a raw deal, Luke. I don't know. I don't agree with you. No, no, no. Let me be clear about that. So maybe I missed, maybe I misspoke or didn't articulate myself correctly. Here's what

I mean to say. I don't mean to say that there's no quality to the card. There is extraordinary quality to the card. And for that reason, it probably does deserve to be on pay-per-view. I guess what I mean is when we think about pay-per-view, we also think about an audience that we have a fraught relationship with, which is the casual fan, right? So I think for hardcore fans, there's certainly a lot to like here. But I don't think in terms of what is considered more popular that this will do the same kind of numbers as UFC 276. Now, the one caveat, of course, is it's harder to get Americans to buy a fight that's in Singapore versus one that's in Las Vegas. Okay, so it's apples to oranges in that sense. But you would agree with that take, not speaking about the quality,

just speaking about to what extent it pulls in that outside audience that's a little bit fickle at times. Yeah, I mean, you know, you do have a potentially local Southeast Asia product in Zhang Weili in a very important fight, so that helps. But in the co-main and the main, do you have one person you're buying a pay-per-view for? No, nor do you have one fight you're buying a pay-per-view for. Yet, I'll say this, Luke, I still really like this main event. I actually really like the co-main event, given who Shevchenko has access to.

So overall, no, it's not going to, you know, but it does possess some things that I think 276 is lacking, and I'm very much looking forward to it this weekend. Luke, can I tell you something about the main event that I'm most dialed in on? Please. So normally, you know, we do Wednesday storylines. We'll get into the X's and O's on Fridays and we will get into the X's and O's on Fridays. But I do want to ask you the storyline part, which is also kind of X's and O's related. I think when this fight got booked, right, we loved Glover winning the championship. In fact, if you haven't seen him on RSD on our couch,

check it out, please, because you don't get to see Glover in that type of setting for that long, explaining how he got here, who he is. I mean, the guy's solid. We love him. But when we heard Yuri Prochazko, true or false, Luke, we're like, oh, brother. I guess it's one and done for the ageless one, right? Because this hammer's coming on. I do think, Luke, that while that was most of our reactions at first,

and it just so happened that Yuri Prochazko is next, and he's hella dangerous, and he's won two UFC fights by knockout and now in only his third fight he's getting a title shot. But I don't think people are talking enough about how raw and unfinished he is that if you want someone like 42-year-old Glover Teixeira in a big dangerous

fight but also have an avenue for victory, he has the type of guy in front of him who kind of openly makes big mistakes while going for broke and going for that big moment that I think maybe we were a little bit wrong in reacting that. You're still going to have Prochazka rightfully as the betting favorite. There's still going to be that threat of his power and can he catch Glover? But dude, how about speaking to the fact that Glover's game right now as a veteran is so efficient and so ground heavy that it's almost set up to find the mistake of the younger aggressive fighter and capitalize on it.

And from that point of view, I'm actually really excited about this fight from a style clash standpoint. It's funny you mention this. So I actually, I don't talk to a lot of fighters via text a whole lot these days. A little bit here and there, not much. But I actually speak to a lot of fighters via text a whole lot these days, a little bit here and there, not much, but I actuallyhrase, that if Glover can avoid being cracked by something crazy, which you would agree, that's probably one of the more real threats of Prochocka. He is athletic. He is strong. He is durable, for now anyway. And he takes weird risks and throws a lot of weird things.

And when he hits you, it has a devastating consequence. And I do think it's probably fair to say that Glover at 42 doesn't have the same durability that he once did. That being said, they both were in agreement, independent of one another, that if he didn't get hit with something big, this was his fight to lose. And on top of that, because Prochocka,

it's the risk and the reward of him, right? He throws these crazy things, and when they land,chocka, it's the risk and the reward of him, right? He throws these crazy things. And when they land, oh my God, it's completely devastating. But if you don't land, bro, you leave huge openings there. And dude, we all have seen it. Not the rebirth of his ground game, but the refocus on his ground game as a part of his strategy has netted him huge dividends, including in getting the title in the last one. I definitely feel like, BC, that there's this attitude out there

from a lot of folks being like, well, hey, Glover got the belt. You know, that's a nice little thing. But on to the next one where let's just get this in the hands of a young guy who we think is the actual deserving champion. Well, slow your roll here a little bit, folks. Glover has seen a lot. He has seen all kinds of stuff. He has, there's, I mean I mean Prochaska is new in

the sense that he you know he's very a unique guy but in terms of all the things that Glover has seen in the octagon there ain't a whole lot that he hasn't before with this new focus BC I gotta tell you I think people you know if you want to favor Prochaska fine I think people are sleeping on Glover a little bit to be quite honest with you I think the odds kind of say that that Vegas has understands exactly what we're saying. I mean, you're only seeing Prochazka pretty much across the board as a minus 200 betting favorite. Younger guy, much more dangerous from a one-strike standpoint, no question. And then Glover at like plus 160.

So, Luke, that's pretty damn close and shows you what you need to see. Obviously, if Glover can take this fight down, or forget it. I mean, taking down is inevitably the best route when I say fighting the fight on his own terms. But if he can spend as much of that clock, Glover, fighting on his own terms and not just playing roulette with Yari jumping in and out with crazy stuff, yeah, you're right. This is a much different fight. Then suddenly you start asking yourself, have I seen Prochazka consistently go five rounds? Have I seen him make championship adjustments? Luke, I've only seen him in the UFC twice,

and I love the guy. He is central casting for entertainment. But dude, even those two victories he had, was it Volkan Ozdemir and Dominic Reyes? You know, those had moments in which he's getting cracked, in which he's looking like, you know, is he gassing? I mean, those are fights. Those aren't mixed martial arts matches. Those were

fights. You have to believe that Glover understands his situation, understands his pluses and minuses in this matchup. Luke, he's not going to come out there to try to entertain you. Glover's going to come out here to try to win this fight. There is still a lot we don't know about Yuri Prohotska at this level that is going to be really fun to find out.

Now, Luke, I don't want to say, what are the odds we see a repeat of the Blahovic fight, because I do agree on this. It was a little bit of a perfect storm. That was the worst performance we've ever seen from Blahovic. Something was off. He talked about it afterwards, overtraining, whatever it was, something was a little bit off. So it was a perfect storm for Glover to go in there, take him down, get the finish. But could you actually see a scenario somewhat similar to that playing out Saturday night? Yeah. Yeah, I really could. I'm in. I mean, listen, I don't know if it's 50-50. I don't know how I see it quite that way. But here's the thing that I can keep coming back to in terms of storylines, BC, and it talked about it, I think, previously, like, could Glover beat 2015-era Jon Jones or DC?

Well, I don't know how many light heavyweights in history could beat those guys, to be quite honest with you. But there's a sense that, like, okay, Glover got to the belt, and that's nice, but he got to the belt because there was a power vacuum in the division, and now you've got a young guy coming up who's just, you know, marching these guys down. Granted, only two fights, but they were, you know, crazy exciting,

and he won violently in both cases. That this is just a nice little prize that we gave to Glover, but the division's going to move on without him, as it quote-unquote should, when this new guy gets his hands on him. And I have to tell you, what does it say if Glover actually beats Yuri? What does it say about the division?

What does it say about him, if he's able to get this done? Which you and I are both agreeing is hardly a remote possibility. I honestly think people believe that this is just, we're going to turn the page on the Glover Teixeira story and it's going to be all Yuri. Which of course it could be. It very well could be. But at the same time, this presumed sense of inevitability

that people keep asking me about, like this is some kind of accident, I don't think really speaks to the reality of what is going to be happening on Saturday. I think that's very fair, Luke. I'm getting more fired up as we get closer. And was it because we did that interview to some degree? Yes, I got to see the roots and the real side of who Glover is and his preparation, his mindset,

all of those reasons, you know, are why he is where he is today. And he was able to do that. He's, you know, this isn't a guy who never deserved to be here, who stumbled into a title late in his career. I know it's the Cinderella Rocky story, even though it does kind of feel like a Rocky story

in some ways, but it's incredible that he's in this spot. I don't know if he's the Brazilian Randy Cooter, Luke, but this does feel good in that regard. But, uh, man, he can win this on Saturday. So I want to see, but he also can get the lights turned off pretty quickly. Like he once did against Rumble Johnson in spectacularly bad fashion. So, uh, all will be in play a very exciting, um, main event here. Anything else you're looking towards into the storyline, the stakes, what's next? Anything else, Luke? Yeah. For UFC the stakes what's next anything else look yeah for ufc like what if prohachka does win you know i'm not going to say

he's hard to promote but he's a weirdo when you think about weird champions he's going to be close to the top of that list actually because most of the time guys get up there and yes of course if you're a champion you might have a screw loose anyway about how dogged and determined you are and you know that kind of a thing but in terms of just being an all-around, total eccentric guy, the UFC doesn't have a whole lot of these. You can say what you want about Izzy being eccentric, and of course, to some extent, that's true. But this guy is on another level beyond that,

including into his fight style. Izzy has a very, very thoughtful, coordinated fight style. This guy is just the Tasmanian devil. What do you think UFC would rather have? Would they rather have an old butt Brazilian champion that they can use to market in Brazil, or would they rather have this young, crazy guy out there who is a little bit hard to put your finger on, but is dynamic, the fans seem to love him, and could be one hell of a fighter as well? Yeah, I think I'd go with the latter, Luke. I think they'd want the crazy knockout guy.

You know, what Yuri represents is sort of a character. He's like a ninja in a movie. There's just something uniquely odd and weird, but yeah, that's marketable even if he doesn't come from the States and isn't a big trash talker. He's got the ridiculous hair. He's actually a very fun interview. I really enjoyed talking to him

ahead of the Reyes fight. Yeah, Luke, I think they would want the latter. I don't know if Glover's ready to give that away. So, you know, nothing like, hey, go travel to Singapore for your first title defense. This is not going to be easy. There's nothing easy about this across the board for Glover. But he does seem to, you know, other guys in his spot, you'd go, oh man, they're old, they're vulnerable.

I don't look at him as that vulnerable, Luke. Like, I understand Prochka can knock anyone out i don't actually look at to share it as having you know even with the age and all that durability issues i don't think he's a guy who makes big mistakes i i really look at him as a as as solid an old still viable fighter as really we've ever seen yeah i think that's true he doesn't quite to your point i don't know i don't know if he's you know randy couture 2.0 because randy also got started a little bit later and took breaks in his career in ways that glover really never did you know pre-usada too luke yep certainly that's true as well but the point i wanted to make about glover

is uh i mean just think about this bc what is the headline about Glover if he goes in there and takes down Prochocka and chokes him from the back? What is the headline on the Sunday or the Monday show? What are we going to be saying about him? Because, again, we go back to the same sort of thing about, well, the people are just ready to move on from him. But what would he prove in your mind if he actually beats a guy this dynamic this interesting this kind of crazy and does it with like that not meat and potatoes as in limited but meat and potatoes as in quite fundamental game I mean it's sort of like a new school school game versus an old school game as well yeah I do think to some degree people start looking at him and go okay like how did you do this right and one thing

we learned from talking to him is it's like he never stopped trying to be his very best he never got too down after losses I mean he got I mean dude seriously he got knocked out by rumble in the way that some guys go okay i'm done at this level like i'm packing it up now he just kind of never stopped and never had the injury that keeps him out for two years or the you know whatever but i almost don't want to say this luke but i'm a little bit more nervous about what people would be saying negatively if that happened do you think there's any in like i don't know if it's real this who has has the better 205 division debate, Bellator with that great tournament, or UFC.

Some people think it's a non-issue. Some people go, no, dude, Corey Anderson's coming on, and Vadim Nemkov is solid, and Bader's still around. Do you think if Glover does to Yuri what he did to Jan, that suddenly the narrative goes, oh, well, you know, luckily Glover got into this division after Jon Jones left because that's the only chance he would have been able to do this. I hope that wouldn't be the result.

I tend to think it already is, but I actually feel like he can't undo all of that. I mean, listen, there is something to be said for the fact that Prime Gustafson doesn't exist anymore and DC and Jon are out of the division. Obviously, DC's retired and Jon's ostensibly moving to heavyweight like at some level he can't escape that no no future champion really could but I will say that like again I just get this real clear sense from folks that like they kind of like they respect Glover they no one dislikes Glover but that they feel

like okay you got your little prize at the fair and now let's move on to the next I think if he beats Prochocka it doesn't change the narrative that, well, you don't live in the John Jones era anymore in part because he already lost to John Jones over five rounds quite cleanly. But I do think it would dial it back a little bit and say, well, I mean, listen to the run he would be on if he beat Prochocka. And of course, Prochocka can knock him out in 30 seconds. But the run he hasn't lost since 2018,

the run would be Karl Roberson, Ayan Kutaylaba, Nikita Krylov, Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, and Jan Blachowicz. And Smith, Santos, and Blachowicz, you could argue with the three most difficult ones, he finished all three. The only one he had a tough fight with

was with Krylov back in 2019. He also finished Kutaylaba and Roberson. You go in there and you finish a guy like Prochka on that run, dude, is that the John Jones run no it's not the John Jones run that's a highly commendable run to get if you can pull it off yeah yeah that's absolutely uh that's absolutely that and you know I don't I don't know Luke you think there's any chance that John goes to heavyweight and it doesn't work out and

it comes back down to 205 right away? Yes. You do? Yes. Like, again, my whole view on John at heavyweight, and tell me if you agree, I don't know what's going to happen. All of us think we know what's going to happen.

I don't know. John has extremely high fight IQ. He's got a great team around him, and I've talked about this before. The guy who's helping him bulk up is Stan Efridean, the rhino. I have enormous respect for Stan Efferdeen. I take everything he says quite seriously. So look, John has good people around him.

We know what kind of athlete he is. We know what he's done. But he was declining at light heavyweight before he moved on. His timing was perfect. I thought Reyes beat him quite cleanly. And he's been off for what, three years? And he's now much older? There's plenty of reason to have optimism for it.

The only thing I caution against is this automatic idea what three years and he's now much older there's plenty of reason to have optimism for it the only thing i caution against is this automatic idea that the john jones you have in mind from light heavyweight will just exist at heavyweight that to me is not something i'm ready to to accept right away without some visual evidence of it and in fact i think at least some discretion in that favor or that way in that in that in that uh in that consideration is warranted. Yeah, I think absence has made the heart grow so less fonder because I was that guy at that point, even with the close fights against Mejeda and Reyes saying,

oh, don't worry, this is the perfect time for John to go to heavy. And his IQ, length, boxing ability, speed advantages, and the wrestling in his back pocket. Oh yeah, also he kicks like most heavyweights don't as well. He's just going to automatically let him become the two-division champion I always knew he would be and cement the GOAT debate rather than being in a spot where most think he is. But, hey, you still got some Habib fans.

You still got some GSP fans. You still got some whatever. But it's crazy how much seeing Nhanu go full bloom as a heavyweight doing things i didn't imagine now seeing gone as sort of you know the next generation's heavyweight mixed with just not seeing john and when we do see john it's you know public negotiation battles or texting that lady you know what i'm saying luke you know what i mean i'm with you and i keep going back to the dude has been arrested two times in two years that we even know of um you know and for for fairly serious things to be quite honest like what is that doing to his focus or training or

abilities again all i'm saying is this presumed idea that john's going to take over heavyweight he might he absolutely might it wouldn't and if he did he'd be like yeah that's John Jones but if he doesn't you should also be like well there were all these warning signs beforehand and I think having a little bit of caution about that is important all right odds out of 100 well 100 chance or or anything else zero to 100 Glover defending his light heavyweight title against John Jones in a rematch in the next year. I'll put it at like 10%. I mean, I don't think that's very high, but possible. Certainly possible. Imagine if John retires as like a seven-time light heavyweight champion,

but then we've never actually seen him lose, Luke. Imagine if that's possible. I know. It'd be like a Habib, but with a much longer reign. That's crazy, right? Yeah. And maybe a much longer. No, that's not.

That's just not. Okay. You're in a much longer... No, that's just not... Okay, you're in a mood today. All right, let's speak about the... I'm done here. Let's talk about the co-main event, BC. Tyler Santos taking on Valentina Shevchenko. You were discussing how the odds in the main event were actually fairly close.

Our friends at Caesar Sportsbook have Prochka and Tashira at minus 200, plus 170, respectively. Not so much with Santos and Shevchenko. Shevchenko at a minus 625 Tyler Santos a plus 450 again these are odds these are not exactly the truth about how competitive or not the bout is but BC what does this fight do for the Shevchenko legacy assuming she gets a victory uh not a whole lot not nothing negative obviously but you know look it's more about the number meaning this will be her seventh title defense in what three years i mean you know i'm

not saying that because apparently i got dead wrong rightfully about thinking in my mind that she's fighting three or four times a year no she only fine twice a year but she's so consistent on the nose with showing up and with absolutely dominating that it didn't it doesn't really seem at this weight class as of right now although look if she can get in a fight with misha tay would it would people care more than normal of course but that there's anybody that can really challenge her andrage i thought well no you know unless unless tatiana suarez is coming through that bullpen fully healthy i'm not sure so this is more about in my eyes just adding one more title defense i mean look luke top of

your head how many people have ever defended the UFC title seven times before? I mean, you're already in select company, correct? Yeah, three or four at most, something like that. Yeah, I mean, it's basically what? You know, Demetrius, John, GSP. Silva. Yeah, okay, there you go. So to me, Luke, I really think this is,

I don't think the last fight forever but the last fight in this division for a bit and what I mean by that is you know we have Pena and Nunes rematching for the Bantamweight title to close July and we've seen the comments from Valentina who's forever said I am going to get the third fight with him with Amanda you know when the timing is right and now saying look I'd like the timing to be this year. I think if she wins this in advance, if she goes up to Bantamweight, we get her against the winner of that rematch. Either way, you can really hype it up to the idea of the pound-for-pound queen trying to become the GOAT, whether you care about that or not.

Could that lead to a two-fight series? Or what if she beat Pena and then fought Nunes? It could lead to different things. So as far as this fight meaning much to her overall standing, you know, it's more of just holding ground. She is the pound for pound number one at the moment. She is among the greatest fighters we have ever seen, male or female. But I do like this matchup, Luke. And even though the odds are what they are, I see Tyler Santos as a, as a what, a plus 425 or plus 400 underdog. I go, oh, that means she actually has a chance

compared to who we've seen and what the odds were. Luke, can you tell us, I mean, does Tyler Santos really have a chance? Because you would say Jennifer Maya had more success against Jeff Tchenko than we thought, but it didn't really put her in situations where she could win it. So how different could Tyler Santos be?

Forget winning, although, you know, orla santos be forget winning although you know but or maybe not is forget winning in play can can she win this fight luke what the fuck's gonna happen bro i mean here's here's the problem with all of these fights with shevchenko and i think you'd agree with this which is it's like when you look at her the people who are trying to fight her you know maybe a little less so in the case of j I but certainly in the case of Tyler Santos dude the tape on her she looks like a great fighter she can wrestle some obviously I think she's careful in the striking department she can take her time in fights she knows when to press the gas and the break she's experienced as well not obviously not as much as Valentina but like this is what I mean like you go down the list you're like what is she good at dude she's good

at a lot of things but this is the question the question is not what is she good at? Dude, she's good at a lot of things. But this is the question. The question is not, what is she good at? The question is, given what she's good at, what can she use there to beat Shevchenko? And the answer is, short of Shevchenko making a mistake, I don't really know. It's not like she's got Habib-like wrestling where, yes, Shevchenko is not the best wrestler, but by the way, very much underrated Shevchenko is as an offensive wrestler and defensive wrestling has come a very long way plus she minds the range so well that it's even hard to get your hands on her obviously Jennifer Maya had some success in that regard but not enough so then you're like okay well that's probably not going to be a real actual tangible

way to get victory what about striking on the inside or the outside you're like dude good luck with that shit against Valentina Shevchenko. So it's like, I see why the odds are what they are. Santos is a very good fighter who has hardly anything you could say negatively about what is deficient in her game. But when you ask, what is that thing that you can lord over Valentina Shevchenko? Dude, for the life of me, if she doesn't make a mistake or she's not injured, I candidly do not know what that would be. She feels so far ahead of everyone else in terms of preparation, experience, technique. You know, the shape she gets herself in, always being three, four moves ahead of everybody.

That, you know, sometimes I talk about it in boxing, that in some of these mythical matchups, in the back of my mind, I'm favoring the more pure boxer because I'm like, if all else fails, they can win a boring fight or try to if they have to. Dude, Shevchenko can also win a boring fight quite easily should she wanted to. And sometimes they end up being that way if her opponent doesn't step on the gas. But is it going to be a specialist like I thought Andrade could challenge Shevchenko? I thought she could make it a fun fight, right, because she's a specialist.

She has an elite one category. Or is it going to be the well-rounded fighter on the right night who sort of just doesn't make mistakes, and then suddenly we have a closer fight? Or is it just not possible to defeat Valentina Shevchenko at 125, Luke, and we just need to wake up, understand that, and realize the real way she's going to stamp that resume is winning the 135 title and facing as many big names in the higher weight classes that she can before retiring?

I think it is possible to beat her. I mean, I'll save some of this stuff for Friday when looking at her numbers and sort of getting a sense of the lay of the land. But they're pretty commensurate. Their numbers are all pretty close together. They're not that far apart in any kind of way. Now, again, what they say on paper,

given who they fought and what it means in the cage is a totally separate thing. Yes, I do think Shevchenko is beatable. And you will say that Tyler Santos, she is a little bit younger. I think she's still, I think she's like 28, 29, something like that, is beatable. And you will say that Tyler Santos, she is a little bit younger. I think she's still, I think she's like 28,

29, something like that, which gives her, you know, that space to be in her physical prime and probably still getting a little bit better. I would say Valentina's game is probably for the most part what it's going to be. I'm sure she can add things to it here and there,

but at the core. Dude, I say no to that. Can I tell you that? And I want you to disagree with me if you believe it. I think she's constantly adding to her game. I think she purposely showed off the wrestling against Andrade to go, look what else I could do if I want to,

completely own the fight this way. She's had that wrestling for a while. That's not new. That's what I mean. Like, has she sharpened up some of her entries? Has she sharpened up some of the finishes, some of the ways in which she applies it? Yes.

And those could be hugely impactful. It's not to say that, like, adding a little bit doesn't mean much. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that core portion of her game is already there. And for Santos, that's largely true as well. I'm just trying to find reasons for optimism with Santos. I'll say this. Santos does a lot of the same things Shevchenko does. Not so much in terms of direct application,

but in terms of the things she's good at. She's just a little bit of a step behind in all of them. She gets hit a little bit more. I think her takedown defense is slightly better, given who she's fought, but not to the point where you think that can make a dramatic impact. She's going to have to go out there, and I really believe this, she's going to either have to make it ugly in some kind of way or you're gonna

have i mean we talk about all the time trevor whitman has made this this point as well dude you really want to see the difference between the people who hold belts and the ones who don't sometimes the talent isn't so much that or like what they can do the question is what do they what do they fall back to and valentina falls back to a level of a game that is almost error free almost error free now that wasn't true the first time she fought amanda nunez there's been a couple other times where it wasn't exactly true and around but dude of late who has made her make mistakes who has made her like turn the wrong way or throw the wrong punch or miss the right read very very, very seldom does that happen.

To get to a point where you're hoisting her belt, you've got to bridge that gap, and I don't really know how that's easily done at this point. Luke, Shevchenko turned 34 in March. She has a lot of mileage from doing this game, martial arts in general. She has such a decorated history before ever coming to the sport in terms of everything else she's accomplished,

kickboxing, Muay Thai, all that. Do you, but it's not like she's taking a ton of damage. She's a super, super elite. Have you seen any evidence? I mean, I really think she's getting better every fight. I don't see any slowdown meaning if she wants to keep doing this for a really long time and just put, you know, the idea of going after records and saying, OK, if I asked you to get really honest with me and five years from now on this day, June 8th, the year Luke will be 2027. And I say, oh, Luke, remember we used to do that show

Morning Combat? That was real fun. Sorry. Sorry that I got us fired. But who's the female goat right now, by the way? Oh house tuki she's like you know eight now probably right but who's the female goat you know it's going to be valentina by then yeah i mean that's a separate debate that you seem intense and intent on having every single time we do this show i don't know what the answer to that is by the way at 34 years of age though to the point that you raise yeah she does have a lot of time competing. That's true. But, dude, she takes impeccable care of herself and doesn't seem to take a lot of damage in these fights.

So I'm sure the training is hard, but she lives that training 24-7, 365. And, by the way, also should be noted, like, it wasn't like it resulted in some dramatic change of her popular fortunes. But she has done movies and other stuff, and it didn't disrupt her training. It didn't disrupt her ability to win. It didn't disrupt anything. This is what I mean. She has a lot of high-level ability. But the real thing that stands out to me is the game is so well executed without a huge margin for error.

Short of producing that from her, I candidly just don't know what the real option there is. I will say this, though, BC. If Santos does win, which we both agree is improbable but certainly possible, what does that do to your narrative of the GOAT? What does that do to all of their plans? Because we know Misha Tate's going to be at 125 against Lauren Murphy at UFC 276, by the way. What does it do to everything if somehow Santos is able to do the, not the impossible here,

but at least what most people consider to be the unlikely? Yeah, it would certainly water down the need to continue to do things like GOATs, the conversations to fill podcast times, which people already think are sometimes ridiculous and all opinion based, and that's right. But it's also how we sort of identify who is the best we've ever seen. It's tough when someone's active and they're already called the goat because every time they win or lose, it's like, did the goat ship change hands? Who cares? I mean, look, the same thing happened when Peña lost to, or when Nunes lost to Peña and we're sort of like, oh, what do we do now? Same thing happened when Amanda beat Cyborg, but it is kind of fun.

It would show you that Valentina is human, that Tyler Santos is coming on and is a very good fighter, and would almost certainly require an immediate rematch. But, Luke, I'm more interested in topics like, how surprised would you be? Because the Buffer brothers, Michael and Bruce, they didn't know they were related until they were in their 20s and 30s. What if we found out, like, next month, that there's a third Shevchenko sibling, an older brother,

you know, he's not a fighter, but he's an award-winning broadcaster in many ways. And it was me. I was that third Shevchenko sibling that was, you know, given up to adoption and sent to the States because, you know, the family wasn't ready yet for children. You know what I mean? I mean, short of instantly deleting my search history in a luke and leia type of weird way um your response would be uh it'd be like danny devito and twins they would be schwarzenegger and you would be devito they got all the good stuff you got all the genetic leftover crap all right oh look do you know that Valentina is a spokesperson for Inca Cola in South America? Yeah, you ever had it?

It's good. I buy it. There's one grocery store in my town that sells it. It's from what? Is it from Peru or somewhere around there? And it kind of looks like R. Kelly would love it. It's like that golden champagne look. But, Luke, it's really good as like a cola alternative.

So Inca is from Peru. There used to be, back when, like in the, about 10 or 15, more than 10, about 15 years ago, there was one of the early sort of major promotions in South America was Inca FC, which was out of Peru. I don't even know if they're still around, or they still do shows or whatever the case, but obviously you can imagine between Peru and their history

and then sort of the Inca civilization, there's a lot of crossover there, but Inca Cola back before LFA was RFA before they merged. And one half of it was RFA. RFA was had the in-ring sponsor from Inca Cola. It's awesome. It's really good. Yeah,

no, it's really good. Luke, I'm looking at Shevchenko's recent betting odds history at the moment. If Tyler Santos stays as a plus 400 underdog, in terms of the title defenses, that would be the closest anyone's been. Everybody else closed

at plus 700, plus 850, and even more. Ioana was only plus 250 as an underdog when Shevchenko won the vacant title, but since moving to this division, this is as close as we see of somebody having a chance to do this. So we'll find out what happens.

I'm looking forward to it. And Luke, you know, there's also that other fight, the people's main event, as some Canadians would tell people. Yeah, let's get to it. So Jean Wiley taking on Ioane and Jacek. BC, this is, I'm not going to say I hate this fight because I don't. I actually really like it. But I am, I've got a weird feeling about it, and I don't know what... Okay, let me just say this.

Number one, their first fight, in my judgment, one of the best fights ever. Easily the best women's fight of all time. I don't even know what would be a close second, to be quite honest with you. That was just incredible. And cards on the table. I've said it before. I'll say it again. I thought Yin Jae-chek won.

Now, granted, granted, it was crazy close. You can't be upset that Drangwai Lee won there's obviously a very strong case for her as well fair enough but I did think that Ioana got it however however however while I am glad that she took off all the time that she did because that was a fucking beating that they both took but look you know this as well as I do everyone saw Dude, Ioana was disfigured from this fight, man. I was actually worried about her future in fighting so she took a lot of time off. She's bringing in Kovalkevic. She's being like an ambassador

and an elder statesman in the sport but this is a tough fight to come back to. Zhong Wai Li had a tough rebound initially but she got, I think, her feet under her even though she lost against Rose in the rematch but she put up a very very strong effort are you where are you on this fight i'm excited for it but i gotta be honest i'm a little nervous about what it might reveal i think this fight should be three rounds in the end even if a couple weeks ago i got excited about the idea of it being five as a non-title

it should be three rounds to condense the potential danger and damage, although who knows? You know, we can certainly, we can't overlook the idea that this could be a slower, more strategic fight, especially considering what I saw Weili do in the Rose rematch, which was bring in wrestling with Henry Cejudo. But that aside, Luke, I think Dana White saying this would be a number one contender fight, more or less, it brought me back to where I needed to be. There real stakes in this fight this isn't just you know two older names and former champions i'm not saying that's where they're both at in terms of stock but i don't think you can classify it as oh we're only doing this because they have that history no luke you put the title shot in the line here

i mean you know you would would would both deserve it based on a win i mean you can argue that but you're going to make a huge fight against Esparza regardless. What I'm stuck on in terms of storylines and how I look at this is I'm not sure who's in the better form at the moment. Because Ioana hasn't fought since

that fight, two years. But Luke, she hasn't taken on damage. She seems to have been traveling the world, working on her brand, being a spokesperson, doing a lot of different business ventures and seems to be thriving and happy and purposely kept herself out until the right fight showed up.

She didn't want to fight contenders on the come up and she got it. Is it better to be Ioana or be Whaley, who is two years younger but does have two more pro fights in her career, had two fights since they fought, including one head kick knockout in round one. I'm not really sure because I do feel like when they entered their first fight, you know, I felt like Ioana had more tread on the tire.

And when you compare what we think their punching power to be, given that that fight was fought on even terms, you're sort of like, oh, man, I mean, look at Ioana's, you know, look at that thing growing out of her head. I mean, you know, they're both, they both will never be the same to a certain degree, but it looked like Ioannis took on a lot. Do we really have a firm grasp? Because they're closer in age than you think. They're closer in total fights than you realize.

Just how, you know, even their stocks actually are coming into this, Luke, because when you look at the betting odds at the moment, you haven't read them yet. I'm not saying what you already said. I don't think. I hope not. Damn. I may have fell asleep there. Minus 165 for Zhongwei Li, plus 140 for Ioana. That kind of tells me, Luke, that Vegas, the general opinion here is we really don't know who's going to win or who's been better off since that first fight. I don't want to talk this out of being entertaining because you want to say, and it will be a war and you're going to need surgeons afterwards and all that.

And I don't doubt her hunger. Look, whatever you want to say about JJ, you're on champion. She goes after it, dude, when it's time. I mean, seriously. I don't really know who to edge, who's the fresher fighter. And I kind of like that. If you're going to put something big at stake like a title shot they're both seem to have gone through what they needed to go through to get back to this point which is one win away from a title shot yeah I

mean we'll talk about the title shot thing in just a second more because I actually do have some feelings about it but like to answer the question that you raise like who is better prepared for this moment I think the odds speak to where I'm at on this one, which is I don't know, which is why it's super close. I'm going to lean towards Zhong Wai Li because, one, even though she lost to Rose, which coming back from that fight against Ioana was, I mean, you were never going to leave that fight the same person you came into it.

It's not going to be possible. You cannot sacrifice that much of yourself in an athletic contest this difficult and then be the same person afterwards. Just no chance. However, BC, even though she lost to Nama Yunus in the rematch, one, she gave it a very good

push. She looked to be in good shape. She fought well. Two, getting with Suhudo, it didn't pay dividends for the W in that case, but I do think it revitalized her a little bit. I do think it gave her just the push she needed to get back where she was, and so I do think she is probably going to be ready for the moment as best as she can be. While I like the time off for Ioana in terms of her health, that's great,

and I like the time off in a sense of get right, don't come back, ease your way into it. So it does have both a health consideration and a competition consideration, but it doesn't have the kind of competition consideration about like, okay, what is she actually capable of? Yes, it's better to take time off and ease your way back into it after that kind of difficult affair,

but that is saying something, but not a whole lot. And so I'm going to lean slightly towards Jean Wiley's preparation, given she's just been grinding a little bit more. That doesn't mean anything in terms of what actually might happen, but I understand why the odds are right exactly where they are.

Do you have a different sense about tilting the balance maybe in Ioana's favor, if at all slight? No, I think what I'm really saying is the whole time that Ioana sat out, the two years. And we talked about, you know, when will we see this rematch?

Will we see it? I was sort of thinking, you know, that was the last stand for you, Juana. And every, every great fighter Luke has one left, but usually they have to pour out everything that's left to either just get

through it or win it, or just look good and defeat. Right. But everybody's got one time left, like Nonito Donair in the first and the first, a new way fight. We'll get to that shortly. through it or win it or just look good and defeat, right? But everybody's got one time left. Like Nonito Donaire in the first Inoue fight. We'll get to that shortly. That was it. He poured out the jug one more time. But, you know, the time off, what Weili has gone through started to kind of even it out. But I think when I really look at it with honest glasses on, Luke, I think I've

seen Weili evolve in the two seen Whaley evolve because she had to after losing to Rose by head kick knockout. And I do wonder how much has Ioana done the same, Luke. I mean, Luke, Ioana's ground game has never really been overly offensive, right? Is that fair to say? Ioana's ground game? Yes. Yeah, I mean, it's more defensive in nature, Is that fair to say? Ioana's ground game? Yes. Yeah.

I mean, it's more defensive in nature, although she does have like, for example, against the fence, like with Jessica Penny. That's not the ground game, but like these clinch scenarios where you're kind of more wrestling than you are just sort of standing apart. She was chewing Jessica Penny up in those spaces. So she does have a good clinch as well. I know that's not quite what you're asking, but. But I've seen Whaley Weili improve her ground game. I've seen, you know, I don't know what Ioana's done in the two years to do that.

You know, sometimes when somebody comes back from that, Luke, especially when they've been grinded, they can come back and look like a million dollars. They can also come back and you realize you lost two years in the evolution of it. That's something that I think you got to put the advantages to Weili Zhang right now. Also, Luke, I think Weili has more ways to win the fight.

And that kind of plays into what I'm saying here with the ground game. Yeah, that's fair. She's probably a little bit fresher. She's got more ways to win this fight. So I am interested to see what Ioana's strategy is. Because if it's balls to the wall as fast as hard as I can, just volume, volume, volume, I think this fight's going to be a little bit different. I don't think it's going to suck all the entertainment out of it.

I just think this fight is going to be a little bit more strategic. Because look, we've already seen five rounds of trains colliding, and we didn't really learn much, meaning they both were able to give and take. Some strategic change has to come here. And, you know, does jay you know big part of the storyline here is you know does jj have one more moment in her luke do you believe looking at it do you believe she could have one more you know we say connor's got one more big win does jj have one more big win in her i think i think so again i mean until we really see it's

very very difficult to say but yeah, yeah, I think she does. And I'll say this, too, which is just a really bizarre thing. Dude, imagine if she does win, right? And Dana White said this was a number one contenders fight. Whether or not it should be, whether or not that makes sense, that's what he said. So that's kind of where we are. If, in fact, she does win and then she rematches Carla from basically the time when she won the title to begin with, kind of this weird full circle moment, she could, circle moment, we're very much getting ahead of ourselves, but it's at least conceivable in a real world kind of way.

She could recapture the title in the same way she got it the first time, which would be one of the most dramatic recapturing of the titles. I mean, I know Carla's was impressive in the sense that there was so much time in between, but the way in which she got it didn't leave a lot of people with warm feelings, for better or for worse. But dude, if Ioana goes in there and wins, it's hard to imagine she'll win that way. And if she recaptured it,

dude, can you imagine what the narrative would be on after losing to Zhong Wai Li, taking two plus years off, coming back, beating her in the rematch, then beating Carla, who you beat the first time. I mean, it would be an insane, insane storyline. MMA does that all the time. I know.

Could you imagine Ioana as champion welcoming Rose in a trilogy? You know what I mean? I mean, that might get Claudia Gadella out of retirement. I know she's been wanting to have a grappling match with Ioana, but, like, yeah, no, that would be very exciting. I think it would be hugely exciting for the division because Ioana, there's a ceiling on it, but Ioana's a star, and she carries herself like, yeah, no, that would be very exciting. But I think it'd be hugely exciting for the division because Ioana, there's a ceiling on it, but Ioana's a star and she carries herself like a star. And I think that's been a big part of her being able to achieve on the level she has.

But Luke, at the end of the day, though, do you think it's more like, like, like we all expect a really close fight because the first one was. But the rematch may be one person winning, not let's not say one side or dominantly, but much more convincingly. Is it more likely that Ioana adds wrinkles to her striking game and the cadence and the timing and the fainting and the countering and just kind of outclasses Weili and wins the decision? Or is it the other side where Weili brings the wrestling into it, she lands the harder strikes, she hurts Ioana, and you come out of there going, wow, 4-1 Weili. She's back. She's right. Which one's more likely oh that's a good question

i don't know that's a great question i really don't know dude i really don't know i will say this it's something to think about where what if we actually don't because i think we're expecting this to give us a lot of answers about what it means that you want has been away but like what if the fight is not boring but a little slower than the first one which seems improbable but let's just say to your point a change in the tactical strategy where it's a lot more wrestling based clinching based that kind of a thing and you'll want to lose is three rounds to two but it's not really some kind of blood and guts affair that the first one was what would you really say that you learned in a situation like that?

I don't really know what the answer would be. So in terms of thinking like what this could look like, my hunch is that it's going to look like the first one. Maybe not quite as crazy or I don't know. Dude, I really don't know. I really fucking don't know. I'm trying to give you an answer here, but I'm kind of just making shit up. up i i candidly have a very i am unsure sense of exactly what to expect between these two in this meeting even if we've seen 25 minutes from them before really yeah um should we start calling like the big four of these strawweight queens because we're going to look back at this era which

really was the the entire era of this division in the ufc 115 right launching in 2014 in the same players that were there then for the most part are still here. Although we're starting to see them retire or, or, or fade away. I mean, is it the big four? I mean, are we going to look back at the Ioana Rose Whaley Carla era? I mean, is that, is that fair? Or is it more of a big three, but that's disrespectful

because Esparza's a two-time champion and is your current champion, right? Yeah, I think you have to put Esparza into that mix. I mean, I realize that her situation is very different. She was kind of forgotten. But the way in which she won the first time and then beating her a second time and getting the title shot to begin with was difficult. Yeah, you can't dismiss her. I know what you're saying. She wasn't

a transcendent figure in that way where Zhong Wai Li beating Jessica Andrade in China was like this big explosive moment. We all know about Rose. We all know about Ioana. Carla doesn't quite have that, but she is relevant by virtue of the other accomplishments that she's had. So it's like three and a half,

four. And don't forget about Andrade. I mean, Andrade made fun fights with everybody. She won the title for a minute. So yeah, damn, what a great division. Luke, you know what I'm saying? Hand over Ohio, get fired up. This division, it's coming Saturday night, okay?

Also on this card, BC, there's a couple other fights very quickly. Hagerio Bontarine taking on Manel Kopp. Manel Kopp had a bit of a slow start when he got to the UFC after fighting in Japan, but has been quite good of late. But the one that really has got my attention, Jack De La Maddalena out of Australia

taking on Ramazan Amiv. Are you big on Jack De La Maddalena? Yeah. I mean, the name's ridiculous. But yeah, Luke, he looked very good in that. So he started on the Contender Series, correct? Yes. And then he had that explosive debut.

I don't know as much about his opponent. So Luke, how much of a test as to whether Jack is coming on for real is this? Fairly... Matt Alana should win this. He should win this. I'll put it that way. I think it could be a difficult fight for him, but it shouldn't be.

He is a phenomenal striker. Granted, his last contest was against a short-notice opponent who was very much overmatched, so it could get a little bit dicey in between, but he is such a good striker. He has, we talk about all the time, these guys coming up who have a much more modern striking game. Dude, Jack DeLaMattalena

is at the forefront of these newer, younger guys who have very advanced striking games and a clear sense of purpose for MMA. I expect him to shine here, to be quite candid with you. What are the odds? He has a swagger that just tells you.

Maybe not future champion champion but a guy who believes he's ready to be a future champion uh yeah look they do have it close up to this point minus 160 for della maddalena and amoeb plus 135 that's very interesting luke uh bonterine by the way could use a big win here he's oh and three with a no contest in his last four although that no contest was originally a decision win for him he is a fun guy i mean dude everyone in the top seven at at flyweight makes really fun fights but uh this would be a this would be a tough it's tough to rebound from this type of streak if this is another another l for him luke you got he's got to win this bro this is i'm not going to say win or go home because we've seen people with four or

five losses come back like carolina kovalcavich and whatnot but um it you know i don't know if he has the goodwill that she had to maintain her status in the promotion he would have to do something more here he's always kind of in the fights for a little while but just not enough to get over that hump by the way the real big sort of key consideration between ramazan amiv and uh de la madalena is going to be i think think, probably the wrestling. In the striking department, Amiv just has nothing to offer him, or at least not much. But in the wrestling, sort of like clinch

department, that's where it could get a little bit interesting. So a big test of the other portions of the Australian's game to see what else he can do to make sure that the striking comes to life. Luke, every time I hear his name, I think of that Del the Funky Homo Sapien track from the 90s, you know? Mr. Dabolina, Mr. Bob Dabolina.

I mean, I had that cassette single, bro, okay? I mean, I lived that life. Do you know what I'm talking about, Luke? How many times did you cry at a Toad the Wet Sprocket concert? Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy, consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating

your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. I've never been, but I did, but you know what I bought on vinyl the other day? Jars of clay? A single of MC Brains had a great one-hit wonder

in the early 90s of commercial rap called Uchi Kuchi. La, la, la. Remember that one, Luke? Do you remember? You probably don't know this because, well, maybe you do. Do you remember who Nas's brother was or is? Do you know the name of Nas's brother? He had a couple hits. I don't know. Who is Nas' brother?

Jungle was his name. And he had a song called Uchi Wally. Do you remember this? No, I don't remember that. You don't remember Uchi Wally? No, I remember Uchi Kuchi. I think it came out in like 01 or 02, something like that.

Anyway, I was going to bring this up all to say, did you see Rolling Stone's list of 200 best hip-hop albums? It's the worst fucking list ever made. No, I just got the new one in the mail. Is it in that one? I don't, not sure. I saw it online, so I have no way of knowing, but it's terrible.

They have one of Cardi B's albums over Illmatic, which is like, on what fucking planet are you even, what are you doing? They had it over Doggy Style and Illmatic, which is like on what fucking planet are you even, like, what are you doing? They had it over Doggystyle and Illmatic. It's like, okay, you have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. Alright, fair enough. What do you think, for your own history, is the greatest

hip-hop album of all time? Probably Illmatic. Probably. If it's not in your top five, you should probably be killed, and then if it's number one that's no problem luke do you dude i gotta say i think the low-end theory by the tribe called quest although everyone always says everyone always says midnight marauders is better and and you know and dude i had them all i know all about that but dude the trial the low-end theory

had that jazz feel that ron carter and they're playing bass like it just was different man that thing hit different. And then, obviously, Ready to Die, that's got to be right there in the top three. Yep. Reasonable Doubt, The Chronic. All of those are pretty hard. Oh, The Chronic. Dude, the Lauryn Hill one.

It's got, you know, it's hard. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Yeah, that's up there as well. Phenomenal album. Oh, that's a little bit more. She mixed genres. She did a lot of singing and stuff. True.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. True. All right. Do you get into topic numbers? Sorry. I could have gone another 40 minutes. We are another 40 minutes second hour we need to move on okay fight announcements bc give me your sense of things love this one uh big fight actually i feel like at least for one adriano morice who is their flyweight champ which we know means 135 over

there taking on demetrius johnson it'll be on uh the 26th of August. Of course, Johnson losing after getting kneed in the head. Of course, they allow it to downed opponents there because they actually have a better rule set. Your level of excitement for the rematch between Morais and Johnson? I think it's the right fight to make. I'm looking forward to it. Dude, like that, how freaking shocking was it? Not just because it was, you know, a knee in a situation with different rule sets,

but I did not expect to see Demetrius Johnson, who had looked pretty damn good winning that tournament after coming to one, get handled like that. We haven't seen that since he became the flyweight king. I think it's the right fight to make. I think it's a way for Mighty Mouse to... Sometimes you need a rival. Sometimes you need to take that L and get people interested,

and then you get geared back up to where you need to be, and you figure out a way to get that win. If he does, Luke, it only adds on to everything he's created. I mean, he's going to have one of those ridiculous fine wine resumes and legacies, Luke, that it's already, you know, one of the best of all time, and some people, like me, rightfully consider him in that sort of top five goat debate as at least an honorable mention. But to come back after that and get the win against a very tough guy who's a lot bigger than him, this would be a good-ass win, Luke. I'm here for it.

I'm telling you. You made a comment earlier about one, diminished returns. Luke, it's not by a lot, but they do seem to be turning around and coming on. Am I wrong? As a promotion, they're coming on. It's slow. I don't know. I don't know.

I do like their product. It's not a function of whether I like it or not. What kind of waves are they making? I'm skeptical. Okay, will the U.S. debut be as big as they need it to to get fans to really care? No. Not without some kind of significant signing between now and then.

No. All right, BC. Dominic Cruz taking on Marlon Vera, targeted for August 13th. Now, I did see a lot of people being like, oh, for example, our boy, Grabaka Hitman, Kaposa, was like, he would rather see Vera fight Sandhagenagen and i sort of get that i really do i understand that like hey dude vera has turned into something quite special you would really want to see him tested in some kind of way uh but the dominic cruz one i kind of like dude cruz has managed to stay

relevant he has he's had to eke out some wins but he's done it he's still ranked pretty highly and he has a big name for a guy like Chito Vera who by the way has turned into quite the star in his home country in Ecuador although controversial one or late because of some issues but dude this would be a big way to boost the brand of a guy like Chito Vera who has looked I mean that last fight he had against Rob Font was phenomenal I like this booking do you this is great matchmaking because there's such a plus upside to both meaning Chito seems to be ready to take that turn to go to the next level Luke he's now viciously I mean he's always been vicious but now he's like viciously stopping guys in fights that we think are going to be close coming in dude could you imagine if he has a finish here

of Cruz that's on the level of like, you know, when Ortega finished Frankie Edgar and we're just like, whoa! You know what I mean? It's kind of, we're kind of, Cruz is kind of in that Frankie Edgar category where it's like, you know, you finish him, wow, okay. Even, you know, but you also, there's a, dude, if he finishes him, that's a

major leap forward into the title conversation. Yet on the flip side for 37-year-old Dominic Cruz, Luke, who I seem to, without any malice, just keep trying to retire in all these fights against younger guys, yet he's finding a way to retain his skills and pull it out and

still be relevant and difficult. Dude, am I wrong? If he comes out here and upsets Chido Vera, is he loosely in the title conversation again with three wins? Loosely, yes. Like somebody needs to get injured, and then they pull Dom out of the announce booth,

and he fills in and fights for the title. Okay. That's remarkable because, Luke, if anyone had a style that I thought would age very poorly on the elite level because it's so dependent on timing, movement, and a lack of power, obviously it was him, Luke. He's found ways to reinvent, to buy some time, but is it really buying time when he's beating the kind of names he has lately? I gotta give it to him, Luke. I've never been either way on Dom. Never been a super fan, but always had a lot of respect for him. No issues. This is some

gritty shit, Luke, because it's almost like when Allen Iverson was ripping through defenses and you're like, okay, it's great now. But when he's like 33, he's probably going to be out of the league, unfortunately, with that style. Back then, with the way defense was played and stuff. But, you know, Luke, Cruz is figuring

it out. I mean, I don't think you can add power when he's maxed that out. But I wouldn't favor him to win. I don't expect expect him to win but that'd be a pretty damn great win at this point that'd be a super solid win if he got that i agree would completely transform where he thought of him about a year ago to where he is now um bc kayla harrison is going to take on julia budd at pfl6 i mean listen dude here's my thing on this. Tell me if I'm wrong. Fine fight to make. Probably one of the better ones they could make in terms of a name opponent who's battle-tested.

She's a great athlete, Julia Budd. Very good athlete. But it's like, and I grant, after Kayla's last performance where she was expected to just run over someone, she kind of didn't. There's some intrigue here. But in terms of, like, meaningfully changing the kinds of fights that Kayla's getting on this new contract, we're not even really close, are we? No, I mean, they don't have the names. You know, this was a name that was still an active, you know,

world-ranked contender at this weight class that I thought was a good signing for PFL. The problem here, Luke, is that she lost to Jenna Fabian in her PFL debut. Now, it's not the end of the world, but, you know, we've seen Kayla Harrison demolish Jenna Fabian. So in that regard, it's a little bit watered down. Yet at the same time, this is probably the most excited we're going to get this season because there just isn't those names that you expect to challenge Kayla.

And that's just the reality of where it is. She re-signed in this case, Luke, because it seemed like it was the best offer she had. Yes, there's the idea for next year of this pay-per-view thing they want to do. And if it leads to Cyborg, then maybe you can argue at the end of the day, Luke, it was worth it. And by the time Kayla does eventually get to the UFC, hopefully for her it'll be right on time. But, you know, in terms of physically and all that. But, no, you know, it's going to be as what it is. Is she destination viewing still, knowing how much she has the potential to dominate?

Yes, and let's not forget, she didn't dominate in her last fight. She won by a wide margin, but it wasn't the same type of just physical breakdown that we're used to. So I'll tune in. I'm here. But Luke, I already talked to you about this fight a couple weeks ago. My sloppy Super Bowl just got announced, and no one seems to care. Can I add a fight announcement here, Luke? Please do it, yes.

No date as of yet, but it's making the rounds on Instagram, Luke, that we're heading toward a Tabitha Ricci versus Cheyenne Valismas women's strawweight bout coming up between two rising contenders. I mean, does... I mean, look, I mean, you know, that's like the IG main event right there

in terms of, like, two... I'm not laughing because I'm besmirching the fight. The fight is actually great. I'm only laughing for how like bonerific that was on your radar. No, I don't mean it like that, Luke. I'm talking about two contenders in my favorite division, which is filled with very tough outs that are coming on. Yes, all fair.

I think Blissmas just moved. Just level with the audience, you think bliss just level with the audience you creep just level with the audience will you no no i don't know i won't i won't no i mean i mean look i'm not gonna you know that i'm not gonna say things that i don't believe in that aren't true but um okay get ready for that one luke okay you know who's you know who i think's gonna win that night luke uh the fans. Me. Right? Me. Me. Yeah.

Last but not least, we talked about this before, but now we have a date and a place, BC. Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez are going to meet at UFC Fight Night, July 16th, not that far away, in Long Island. That Long Island card, by the way, looking pretty good. That UFC London Fight Night card, and then this card right here together. We've said it before. Those Apex shows, bro, they can just put whatever they want they want on those i mean they don't even have to try at all

but when they go back on the road a little bit they kind of seem to be trying to put a little bit more of an entertainment forward product together this is a good one this is a really i read you the i read you the bouts on this card uh last wednesday luke and uh this is a loaded card which in reality it should be for an abc card just like the in the past the quarterly ufc on fox cards were so damn pay-per-view you know quasi worthy um damn i love this fight i mean separate from this card separate i love the afternoon time slot i love it's in long island i'm gonna go to it luke but i think i am maybe not i will find out but the whole point here is luke god this, this main event's great. Let me ask this question. Let me ask this question to you.

We have the third fight between Max and Volk coming up in about a month, a little bit less. And we have that fight, which would be just two weeks later after that one. What do you believe to be the UFC's preferred outcome from both of them? Because it's in decent likelihood that the winner of Rodriguez and Ortega might get a title shot I mean that may be a little bit presumptuous but probably not what do you think the UFC wants to see from that those two pairings I like that you asked that question because I tend to like this line of questioning and debate on a podcast and others

don't that's fine but I like to get in the heads of the matchmakers the boss and try to say okay you know from their financial motivations from their ideas of you know the styles they like to put and would they who do they want to win the trilogy i kind of feel like they still want max holloway luke and and i feel like that debate is as close as ever because let's be fair like volkanovsky is at a point now especially when he's adding this intention of going after knockouts where you know he's in the pound for pound number one discussion is his star power connecting globally no but but you know he's he where he's in the pound for pound number one discussion. Is his star power connecting globally? No, but

he's showing himself to be a potential all-time great. But also, Luke, Max's brand is still just bigger and more beloved. And imagine this rivalry if Max comes back and wins this. You're going to want and need more fights between them. So I think it's better for business

in that regard. And who could he face? Well, he could really make rematches with both guys, Ortega and Yair Rodriguez, and I'd be jazzed up and fired up. And all you have to do is play highlights, Luke, from that recent fight with Max against Yair Rodriguez, and you could see how badly you would want a rematch of that. So I think if that scenario played out with max max winning that i think everybody'd be happy except for you and eugene and why would i be unhappy if max won

because look you freaking love ckb dude yeah but dude i've covered dude i have spent more time here i have spent more time i have spent more time breaking down max's fights than literally anybody else that is fair you you are an og max guy you love poirier you love max i don't mean love in a fanboy way i mean like you just really respect and enjoy massively respect his game dude and i've said it before you know i think max is probably the only guy featherweight who has a chance of beating volkanovski and you just might do it to answer the question i asked you here's my read on this. Okay. You would love to see probably Yair win if you're the UFC because

you've seen Max versus Ortega and it was a bloodbath and you saw Volk versus Ortega which was a lot of fun but in the end you know, it's hard to see how Brian would win a second time if he couldn't get it done the first. A second fight between Max and Yair would be Dynamite and a first fight, think about this, Volkanovski and Yair would be dynamite and a first fight think about this

Volkanovski versus Yair with the way he strikes and doesn't buy into a lot of that fainting stuff necessarily that actually seems to me like a much better situation for the UFC although certainly if Ortega won he's quite popular the fans love him they're playing with house money either way but I do think that that that the Yair winning changes the stakes for UFC a little bit. Do you think, you seem pretty confident that Ortega would secure another title shot. I'm not saying this isn't a top five huge win to put a star back in there, but it would be his third chance at a title. Wouldn't he need a couple wins? I mean, we even saw Robert Whitaker have to win, what,

four really hard fights before getting back in there. So let's say, for there so let's say for example let's say josh emmett beats calvin cater or it may go the other way either way does the winner of cater emmett a better fight for ortega if he wins or am i going too far down the road here i mean here's the thing it's like josh emmett's sitting at seven arnold sitting at six but then five is chan sung jung nope i mean that that ship has sailed in terms of title shots calvin cater but the beating that max put on him is going to be hard to overcome in that sense. And then Yair sitting at three, Ortega sitting at two.

So the point I'm trying to make is, yes, I do think there is certainly a lot of life left in Ortega. If he beats Yair Rodriguez, then forget it. They're going to boost him back up. But I just think in terms of what's accessible and entertaining and, again, to have Yair as a champion, potentially, if it came to that, for the Mexican market, dude, that'd be huge for them. So obviously Ortega would be big in that sense as well.

But having Yair as, I think, a Mexican national would be a little bit more advantageous in that way. I don't know. I just think all signs point to, yes, could Ortega get it? I do think he could by virtue of his placement. And because it's like the Tyler Santo situation where they had to go down one two three four and find the fifth person

because the other names were just either not they've already lost it's not interesting Ortega has a lot of fan appeal and beating Yair at number three when he's sitting at number two it would be big it would be big I'm not saying it would be fair for all the other people that want title shots, Emmitt, Arnold, Allen, Cater, whoever, but he's just got a lot of institutional advantages in that way. Yeah, I would agree with you there.

I mean, nothing to complain about here, Luke. We got great fights coming our way, okay? I'm back. I'm ready. I'm fired up. All right, BC, topic number three. How about this? Naoya Inoue defeating Nonito Donair yesterday at the Saitama Super Arena,

a home to many great boxing fights, many, many important pride fights over the years as well. And pro wrestling. And pro wrestling too, I suppose, as well. Yes, probably lots of things that happened at the Saitama Super Arena. Either way, BC, let's just pitch this to you. Dude, the first fight in 2019, Fight of the Year contender, if not outright one of the best fights you've ever seen in boxing in a long time the second one was fun for as long as it lasted but he got marched down nonito donair and demolished in this fight what happened uh in a way is just that great and like i i want to i

want to remind people ahead of their first fight it was the finals of the wbss that that world boxing super series tournament it was to unify titles atBSS, that World Boxing Super Series tournament. It was to unify titles at 118. But I'm going to be fair. We felt like Donair was like living off kind of house money. You know, he got himself back to a title and he had this late resurgent. But, Luke, I was literally texting friends ahead of that fight being like, you know, they're going to have to wheel Nonita out of there.

Like, this is going to be bad. And it wasn't, dude. And he fought the fight of his life. And for the first time we got to see that night if Inoue is human only to to the monster's credit Luke he passed a very difficult test getting his face broken his nose broken and getting you know in in overcoming a guy who was willing to just you know make his legend in one night only he was already a surefire hall of famer so to see the rematch play out in the way that we saw the,

we thought the first fight would, and to see a new way, get through a very tough challenge like that first fight was three years ago and grow from it and learn from it and be stronger from it. I'm not surprised in some ways it was that easy because he's a frightening fighter, an explosive fighter who I don't look at, even though he's a ridiculous power puncher.

And what made this fight so eye-opening for a round and a half was everything he touched Donair with was like a bomb exploding. And Donair, who, great chin, body darting off in different directions from the impact of the punches. I still don't even look at Inoue as either just a power puncher or mostly a power puncher. Luke, his boxing and the way he sets up these combinations, his footwork, his IQ,

he's been some people's pound for pound number one. I think Canelo losing to B-Vol kind of opened that discussion back up again. I still have Canelo. Some people have Bud Crawford. Some people have Spence. Some people have Usyk. Whatever. Dude, Inoue could very well be number one. And this was a round and a half to show you just how freaking amazing

he is. And let's not forget, he won three titles in three divisions in his first 10 or 12 fights, Luke. He's one of those Lomachenko guys who came into the sport and just went after it. Now there's some talk, although he wants to become the Undisputed Champion here. Luke, there's some talk you make up to 122

and seek a title in a fourth weight class. And it's like, will his power carry? You tell me if his power is going to carry, Luke. What the hell was that, dude? That was a demolition against a guy in Dunier. Yes, 39, but just last year, he scored two wins by against a guy in Dunair. Yes, 39. But just last year, he scored two wins by knockout to reclaim another title. I mean, Luke, this was like, this guy is among the best we've seen in this sport in some time.

Like, he's in this conversation. Dude, here's what stands out to me about this. I saw a lot of people being like, oh, Nonito Dunair is old at 39 years of age. And it's like, Oh, no need to don air is old at 39 years of age. And it's like, well, okay. I'm not going to say that isn't obviously that's true, uh, that he's,

that he's 39 years of age. But as you just sort of articulated, this was a title unification. You know, this was not some feeble no need to don air who had limped to this finish line of a rematch to your point. He KO'd Nordin Ubali. I think that was on Showtime, in

four rounds, and then followed it up with a win over Raymart Gabajo in four rounds. KO'd both of them, and of course, claiming the title of this one, but they put it for grabs that obviously, in a way, won. So this was a very deserving rematch. This was, yes, a late career, certainly resurgence

for Nonito Donaire, but it wasn't like he had been showing signs he'd been totally washed. Since 2018, the only guy he's ever lost to is Noya Inoue. Noya Inoue. He lost to him twice, obviously the first time and then this rematch, but the first one as we indicated was very, very close, very, very good.

So what do I bring this up to say? Like, you know, you can say what you want about how old Donair is, but this was a very, very, this was a guy who had earnest opportunity. It was for a title unification, and he had been on fire in his career of late. The other point I wanted to bring up, BC, was I'm so glad you brought up his power. We talk all the time in MMA or boxing about guys who have power, how it sometimes can be a bit of a curse because it's so crippling that they don't really have to work on a lot of their other things because once they figure out that they can land a good clean shot or two,

it changes the whole dynamic. Someone like Edgar Berlanga, for example, who does obviously have very good power but probably doesn't have the rest of the game behind it. Well, here is a guy who fights in terms of his technical application and strategy like he doesn't have big power. And then when he lands, he is a fucking home run hitter. Dude, that right hand he landed was off of a feint from a jab that he was expecting Donair to slip. He bombed on him.

And go look at that last left hook that he gets off the right hand. He lands a right hand. The hands come out of Donair. And then he lands this left hook that is gets off the right hand. He lands a right hand. The hands come out of Dornier, and then he lands this left hook that is just so perfect. He is a dynamic puncher. He's an accurate puncher. He has phenomenal footwork. He's young. At this point, I'd say he's actually pretty battle-tested. I saw Steven Breadman say this, BC. Tell me if you agree to the point you raised earlier about pound for pound. They were saying that because no one really knows a lot of the opponents that Inouye has had over the years, they were saying that like, you know, because no one really knows a lot of the opponents

that in a way has had over the years, they kind of discount what he's done. But he was saying that if he was 147 pounds or bigger, he'd be number one pound for pound with a bullet. Do you agree? I think that might be true. I just updated mine for CBS Sports that just got published and I haven't met number two, you know, kill me or not.

I still think Canelo, even with that loss to B-ball, has shown enough lately. But I do think we're, again, in an era where if you like Crawford better or Usyk or Spence, you're not wrong. But yes, Luke, what Inoue has done, that's why I'm so happy top-ranking ESPN have brought him to America, more or less, here. Because you remember Chuck Letito, who's still around, the great Roman Gonzalez. But unfortunately, Luke, when he was doing the same thing a decade earlier as Inoue was doing, coming up in those lower weight classes and blowing people the hell away, but doing it thoughtfully with technique and setting it up,

by the time we got to finally see Chocolatito on the regular on American TV, it was like when he was in the second chapter. It was like, you know, he was a stream-only guy. He was an illegal stream, you know, Russian malware guy for a long time for real boxing fans. And I'm so, by the time he came in, it was a little bit too late, but we still got to see some great fights and we still want to see him in that trilogy with Estrada. But my whole point here is Odoi is much more in the thick permanence of his prime. So by the time Chocolatito through HBO came to the forefront and in the, you know, pay-per-view co-main events to Gennady Golovkin and getting that exposure,

it was like, okay, he's already had a division in which he might be over his head, and that's why those fights were so close, and we saw Chuck Luchito lose to Sorongvisai in vicious manner because of that. But, dude, I'm not convinced I know at all where Inoue's ceiling is as it pertains to weight, because not only has the punching power carried up through these three weight divisions in which he's won titles, and oh, by the way, just so people know, he skipped a division. He skipped 112.

He won a title at 108. Then he moved up two divisions to 115. Now he's got three of the four belts at 118. Luke, I'm not sure, because even if he gets to a point where his power isn't as destructive, his boxing skills, speed, footwork, IQ, all that seem to be not just on point, but freaking elite, world-class elite. Do you feel like you know? Because as much as I want to see him fight next, the other belt of the four, Jean-Riel Casamero from the Philippines, who's a slugger, fun to watch. I'd love that fight for the undisputed. How about Inouye moving up to 122 and fighting

guys like Stephen Fulton Jr., Luis Neri, Brandon Figueroa, Danny Roman. Do you think from what you've seen so far that at 122, it may be more of the same? I'll say this. Casemiro, I think, gets dusted by Inouye. I don't think he's got anything for him long-term. I'll just say that out loud. So that's 118. Now your question's about 122. That's a different challenge, dude. We just saw what Fulton was doing. He is also incredible.

I don't think Fulton is the puncher that Inouye is, but again, how would Inouye's punching translate to 122? It remains to be seen. I'll say this. I think that at 118, he can't be beat, not by anybody on a good day anyway. But at 122, that is where he could potentially become something special. In part, BC, this fight was in Japan, and hardcore boxing fans know how big this was.

Top Rank did put him a couple of times last year, 2020 and 2021. They had him fight Jason Maloney and then Dismarinius in Vegas. I also wonder about his potential to become an American star. But I'll say this. If he can make waves at 122, dude, he might be able to do something really incredible and not just being sort of a Japanese hero who hardcore fans know here, but a bit more of a global kind of name. Because Showtime is really invested, as you've seen, in this 122 division.

If we can start getting some of these other players on the outside of the networks and get some of these bigger fights to be made who knows what's possible here so i don't really have a great answer for your question because it's so hard to say given how special 122 has really turned out but adding in a way to the mix forget it dude that is just appointment viewing times a thousand luke i just added stephen fullerton jr number 10 on my pound-for-pound list, and it was a really hard move considering the likes of recent guys like Jermell Charlo, Devin Haney last week,

Jervonte Davis, who are right in and around that conversation, Estrada, Chuck Luchito, Josh Taylor, on and on. But you know what I love best about Fulton was that even before he beat Roman, he was saying, Murajov, Akhtamaliev next, Murajov, excuse me, for the undisputed.

Then I want Inouye to move up after that. Like, you know, I don't want to make this a Stephen Fulton Jr. Showtime love fest every episode, but could you imagine, Luke, if in succession he fought Angelo Alejo for the title, unified against Brandon Figueroa, beat the former unified champion Danny Roman, let's say he somehow can draw Murajov, Oktamaliev next and becomes the undisputed champion and then fights Inouye moving up. I'm not saying it, you know, all those fights can happen in succession. Yes, there's other factors involved, a lot of other factors, but Fulton at 27 is trying to show us how great he feels he can be. Inouye is already here. You know, Inouye versus Fulton is never going to be a pay-per-view ratings bonanza,

but by the time they may end up meeting, if they do, what they've accomplished and how we view them on a pound-for-pound level, this could be one of the inside hardcore fan-only dream fights. This could be great. It really could. Something to pay attention to for the future. If missed it it's easy to catch on espn plus go watch it just watch an absolute master craftsman who can punch people's fucking lights out go do work all right bc i'm gonna hand this one over to you because i know you're probably

licking your chops at all of this so uh let's see on what day was it well monday i think i tweeted this because it was on the way up to the studios i was looking at some video stuff from early max fights and i noticed on the tail of the tape his arms kept getting shorter on the tail of the tape now of course i don't actually fucking think his arms are shrinking as he gets older but it was kind of funny to watch also i'll point this out bc since i noticed that i went back and i watched like a bunch of other fighters dude mcgregor went from like 5 11 to 5 9 people's people have changed in all different directions on the tails of the tape but i had tweeted you can see it here according to the tale of tape max holloway's arms have shrunk over time because in the poirier fight the first one

which was his debut it was 70 then you go to the mcgregor fight it was 69 and a half and then you go to the swanson fight and it was just straight up 69 I'm like well that's kind of interesting that his arms keep shrinking I thought it was funny and then old Max tried to have a little fun at your boy's expense you want to set this up please well you know how many times Luke has seen the second match Alexander Volkanovsky fight by the way shout out to Max Holloway this was awesome he quote tweets or replies after you watch those 40 times, let me know how long my arms are, boss. And then he CCs the VC, the CEO.

The CC of you is really what seals that tweet. I'm like, who's running his account? He's not an Ali guy. Is this really Max tweeting, Luke? I don't know. It was, yes. He would later go back and forth with the fans. He'd bring the t-rex

joke with the short arms into it he's like yeah i gotta hook up my boy bc and let him know luke what that's great i mean what is it you know to see when real is recognizing real on this level luke and playing into our humor and of course in the end they respect you luke what you bring to this game but i believe we just filmed a uh pre-game preview in which we got deep into the 49 times debate more to come in the future luke you know when i say we got deep into it i mean brian certainly at the eighth row of the delta flight with also a beer in hand i'm sitting there talking to chuck and i can just see that fucking smirk out of the corner of of my eye and you know that here's

brian when he's when he's got like like a dad joke like loaded in the chamber he does this like he can't he can't keep his mouth straight there's this distracting shit out of the corner of my eye and then he goes hey chuck hey chuck. How did you set this up? I don't even remember, Luke. I don't remember how you set it up. Then we did like 10 minutes on the 49 times, which I just, I will say one more time. I realized that, dude, once you put something on the internet, like you don't control it anymore. You know what I mean? Like, no, don't blame the internet. That's the most pretentious tweet you've ever put out there.

Here's the only thing I mean. I'm not blaming the internet. In fact, quite the opposite all i'm trying to say is once you put something out a video a podcast a tweet and it goes out into the ether it doesn't mean that the way in which you put it out that doesn't mean that the audience will take it that way or it could it takes on a life of its own is the only point i'm trying to say that i think i know what you mean i know it takes on a life of its own so when i wrote that i thought it was the most throwaway line imaginable in fact i was just trying to get the tweet out because i i want the video was late

so i wanted to get the tweet out as fast as possible i was trying to think of some hook i was like oh my god i've done so much but it took on a life of its own and um i mean it's the most lou thomas tweet of all time we're talking about you know re-watching the fight and whether your scores change you seem to think that like i'm not telling the truth here dude i'm i can show you the motherfucking notes i have kept them front to back no but at least three rounds each time for a duration of 49 different that is fucking true do we have the tweet in question how long after the fight happened did this tweet go out this this will decide how pretentious and how ridiculous this is. I think the Monday or the Tuesday. I think the Tuesday, actually.

Okay, there you go. That's what? Three days after, Luke? There's no freaking way. How many times do I have to explain this? Yes, it would be impossible front to back with all the round breaks in between. But what I'm talking about is note-taking sessions where I go through several rounds at a time.

Yes, that part definitely happened. I mean, look, dude, maybe you just outwork everybody. I've been saying, like, Dominic Cruz would love you. Unlike DC, you watch the tape. But, Luke, have you seen my hair? That's all I do is work. 49 times in three days? No, you didn't do that.

And that's such a Luke Thomas thing to say. Oh, my God. Like, yo, I could drink 55 beers and not get drunk drunk you want to put this into some category of falsehood if you want to say it's a stupid or silly or dumb ass thing to tweet well i mean i can't really argue with you but you can't argue what it is is false i'm not making it up it might be a dumb thing to share fine but not that it's lying i'm not lying to you that's what that's not happening here all right well you know i debate that and we'll have 10 more minutes of debate on the upcoming uh ufc 276 pre-game preview starring chucky van den haal all right check it

out uh no seriously max playing in on this joke yes does he watch the show i know that you you've talked to his camp before and they've liked your breakdowns and all that and I respect that but like do you think he actually watches his shit? No chance come on so I don't know how much of it they watch but I'm told that they keep up with it whatever that means okay dude I'm telling you

if that couch the M casting couch the MK casting couch in RSD can become the 12th island and we can get Max on there. I'm in. Okay, let's do it. This could change the game.

Okay. Yeah. If Max is watching, Hey Max, we might have to do a resume review on you. You know what I'm saying, bro? Might have to put some hex on you. Uh, all right. Wow. Uh, that out of the way, anything else you want to add?

No, no. All right. All right. BC. Last but not least, we've got some quick hitters. This one surprised me a little bit. Surprised me in the sense that I just didn't see it coming, right? Jorge Masvidal, speaking to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, says he doesn't want Herb Dean to ref any more of his fights ever again. Quote, I'm not a fan of Herb Dean, man.

I'll tell you that much. We've had a couple of problems, and the Donald Cerrone fight was one of them, which kind of was a late stoppage, if want to sort of say that as well as the Jake Ellenberger fight I just I don't know I don't think I'm his cup of tea and he's kind of takes it out on me when he's refereeing he's done some things that I'm like it's kind of weird and then I clear I get clearly clearly he's talking about Covington uh throws a low blow that I'm not saying it changes the outcome but clearly he throws a low blow that's intentional and Herb doesn't do anything about it. Just gives him a little warning.

I don't know. I hope that as long as I compete, Herb Dean never referees a fight of mine or judges it. What do you make of that? I mean, is it fair for him to say that and say that publicly? No, in theory, no. None of us, I think, outright believe

that Herb Dean has a grudge against him and it comes out in his officiating. Could it be true of anything as possible? I don't believe that.b Dean has a grudge against him and it comes out in his officiating. Could it be true of anything as possible? I don't believe that, but Luke, as a competitor, an athlete who played, you know, we have all played some level of sports at a competitive level. It's like, we all have that referee or umpire that you're like, Oh, that that guy's got it out for us. You know, maybe it's just that that's his style of calling plays against your style of

trying to, I mean, maybe it's whatever, but if this is what Jorge has to do to feed the ego or, or, or trick himself and just, you know, look, everybody, every fighter to go on, they gotta be the biggest con man. We've already established that to, but to get yourself, especially after a loss, especially when your brand is, you know, potentially tarnished to a certain level, like, like to be the, you have to be the one above all that believe and is, you know, potentially tarnished to a certain level. Like to be the, you have to be the one above all that believe and believe, you know, blindly in yourself.

If this is what he needs to do or Luke, if he actually does believe this, maybe not to the extreme of, you know, Herb's got something against me, but if he does say, look, I got three or four instances where I feel like Herb missed it. Going public like this does potentially not have have her assigned to your fights if the right people listen so you know i'll get once again kind of like the sucker punch on colby it's like i think it's the right thing for him to do this no you know but like do i get it is there an end in game form do i understand it yeah so i'm not mad at it luke are you personally offended here no no i'm not offended by the way i don't think we should shield referees from criticism i mean

you want to do that job like and it's a public job and you're affecting fighters careers yeah dude people are going to say what the fuck they think about you and that's just kind of how it goes i want to know what keith peterson smells like i'm not allowed to scratch and sniff that's why we have dominic cruz's honesty to thank for all right right but here's my point it's just that the criticisms need to be as fair and informed as possible now i'm not saying that um jorge's criticisms are wrong here is something that occurs to me though herb dean i think can be a good referee but i think he can also be an inconsistent one and i do think there is a little bit to what jorge is saying in the sense that some of the times that herb dean has

had an inconsistent performance he's been in the fights they have have been his fights, particularly that one with Don Cerrone. That's not a strong performance from him. Like, Jorge is right about that. And then this one with the low blow, yeah, probably could be something to be said for that. So it's more a question of, like, does he have anything out for Jorge Masvidal? I seriously doubt that. But is he inconsistent time over time? And that can be noted.

And, by the way, if a fighter doesn't want want the referee they can ask the commission not to use them yeah i think there might be a little to that to be quite honest with you i don't know what are you doing did you leave your seat no i had a i had a hangnail and it was like sliced it was cutting me so you know you know the pain i got one and i pulled it off and now my finger got infected that's what i got one and i pulled it off and now my finger got infected that's what i did i saw i pulled it off and it started bleeding and i was like you know i got to cut this thing off right now or i'm gonna hurt myself luke all right uh bc i won't really get into this one but just kind of a sort of a small note chito vera was in ecuador recently and it was a lot of good stuff about it in fact mma junkie posted a picture of him picking up his nephew

from school and he was mobbed by people there so it it's good to see Chito Veras turning into something of a celebrated figure in his home country. Small note here, his brother is running for office in Ecuador. And as a consequence, I think through supporting his brother, they appeared with what could be called somebody who is a chavista, someone who is sort of a far-left politician, let's say. Chito has been getting cooked on social media for it. If you go and look at his stuff, and it's usually all in Spanish, but you can look at it, his mentions right now, it's a lot of mix.

There's a lot of praise for him as well, to be clear. But there's a lot of animosity for the guy who he appeared with, which is weird because he appeared with this guy, but he's pro-Trump, and they're not at all alike. So this is a crazy thing. But I'll'll just say this i have noticed a lot more fighters getting more politically involved i don't know what it does for their fortunes long term but it is happening more and more not just in this country but in other places as well uh is this person is this

person he was photographed with that created the backlash known for anything really bad? Or is it just that Chito kind of posed with somebody on the opposite side of the political line? I don't think it's the opposite. The guys do a lot of these politicians. You're getting into left-wing politics here, but the guy is quite obviously corrupt and has got a lot of... I mean, is it like a Daniel Kinahan situation? By the way, it's like a super, super anti-US. You know, so there's a lot of left-wing politics

that rejects any kind of US involvement in Latin America. This guy is... Maybe the guy... Maybe what's-his-face from Bolivia is worse, but he's up there as like a very anti-US imperialism kind of guy. So just weird that you'd be like pro-Trump and then...

Anyway, just pointing it out. Is it like posing with Manuel Noriega, Luke? No, it's not quite like posing with Manuel. No, no, no. It's not like he posed with Ron Mercadero. It's not that. What, what, what, what, what? Yeah.

What, what, what, what, what? You know what I'm saying, Luke? We light a candle, run laps around the English Channel, Neptune's got a cocker spaniel. That's what I'm talking about. Yo, that was a hot CD, Luke. That shit was good. Okay, let's move along, BC. Not greatest about yo that that that that was a hot uh cd luke that shit was good okay okay not greatest of all time let's by the way good by the way the nori albums were good the cnn albums are better just pointing that out okay uh eddie heard see the british office

yeah i got you oh fuck off dude you can sit there and tell me that his bet his main albums are better than capone and noriega albums really you want to make that argument i'm sorry let me get i don't think you want to make that i don't think you want to make that argument yeah all right bc eddie hearn now he didn't say where but he kind of said jake paul is probably going to fight tommy fury on august 13th he also said he hopes he gets chinned. So I don't know. A, what do you make of like, because I got to tell you,

I thought this ship had sailed on the Tommy Fury fights, but I guess not. We knew he kind of wanted to get back in August. Where do you expect him to fight? Is he going to fight on DAZN? We know he had the two fight deal with Showtime, but we haven't heard anything about that. Quite literally, we have not heard anything about that.

What do you make of Eddie Hearn kind of spilling the beans here? Yeah, I thought DAZN because he seemed to be so be so you know tight with them while promoting Amanda Serrano but but I don't know because I believe Tommy Fury is a a Frank Warren promoted fighter so there's no tie in network wise there um you know Luke look could Jake want this fight because Jake wants to get back serious on a consistent schedule again? And he looks at this as a fight that will sell. He can make the excuse of, you know, I'm fighting a real boxer for the first time, although we all realize Tommy Fury is, you know, very inexperienced. And could it, you know, just put another big highlight reel win on his resume to boost him stepping up the next time?

Maybe. But I don't think there's a ton of interest right now, whether this is on Showtime or not, to be fair, Showtime pay-per-view or not. My analysis has nothing to do with that. It's more like this, Luke. I think we're ready. Like, if we're going to care about the Jake experience moving forward, it's him stepping up. And I just don't think Tommy Fury is the big enough step up now, unless you're telling me I can see the future and this Tommy Fury is the setup fight for Anderson Silva, then I'm like, okay, it kind of is what it is. I'll tune in, I'll see it.

But I think the pressure's mounting here, Luke, in terms of, you know, at some point, you gotta take the attraction to the next level and match up. And the time is fertile to make an Anderson Silva fight. Is it not? I mean, if you're gonna do it, let's do it. We've talked about this a little bit.

I got to tell you, I honestly don't feel... I can't say exactly what a Tommy Fury fight would do, especially in the UK. I still tend to think that would be kind of big. But I got to tell you, in terms of taking this to a place where he's going to meet his own... Remember his own... What was Jake Paul's own metric for success?

He wants to make a quarter billion boxing, right? And against either McGregor or Canelo. And when we said, really, Canelo, bro, to his face, he seemed shocked that we would even say such a thing. I got to tell you, Tommy Fury doesn't lead you there. It doesn't lead you there, even with a win. Could it be a marketing move to go to a soccer stadium in England, Luke? If that's the play, I get it.

But do you see this choice of opponent as him not believing he's ready for an Anderson Silva? Or just like I said before, it could be a setup to that. Yes. I mean, obviously, Anderson would command more money. And I think that would affect negotiations and everything else. So there is probably a lot more difficulty in making an Anderson Silva fight than there is in making a Tommy Fury fight. I think you'd probably agree with that too.

But in terms of where it takes you to get to your goal, you need the Anderson Silva fight much more than you need Tommy Fury. And I do think that if he really believes in the stuff he's saying, taking on a guy who's nearly 50 should be doable at this point. It should be doable. But point it should be doable but i

think going this route kind of tells you that uh at least for now he doesn't really seem to think that it's all that doable but who's do you think he reunites with triller no one seems to be talking about that i don't think you care about that but do you think that's a direction after the after they were caught not paying people uh probably i believe by the way i believe they paid within hours of that story going live so by the time we brought it up i think they had already paid just so just for the record trailer did pay okay fair enough but the fact that it even got to that point where the media had to write stories about it is like red flag city i mean yes all right uh bc devison figueredo can't believe that there's an interim title on the line in Brandon Moreno's next fight against, was it Kaikara France, if memory serves.

He says, in fact, because he's so offended by it, that he might leave the division. I got to tell you, I'm like, I don't know what game he's playing here. Like, what would you have to think about yourself to think that leaving it would do damage to what the UFC is trying to build. Yes, it would be bad. I mean, listen, it would be better if the existing weight class champion was in the weight class and defending it. Of course, fair enough. He is the deserving guy, but it's not like he's so popular that leaving does some kind of like dramatic damage to it.

What, what is, are you, I don't quite understand his response. Well, I agree with him and we've already been up and down this road, that this is a pretty gratuitous use of an interim title. Did that anger him? And is he looking at the fact that it's never, ever been easy for him to make this weight, Luke? In fact, we've often regularly debated, like, well, you know, until his body forces him out of this division. I mean, he's probably pretty close.

He probably has to go through heck to get there. And let's again give him credit at 34, coming off a finished loss in a one-sided fight in the rematch. He came back and won his belt. I mean, that was a big-ass win. The move up to 135 has felt inevitable. Is this the best his stock could be in terms of negotiation, leverage, and all that?

Maybe this is part of him looking at the tea leaves and going, I'm going to move up eventually. Why don't I move up now as the defending champion? And you know, will that help him in terms of matchmaking and money in ways that it wouldn't, if he lost the belt and then moved up because he had nowhere else to go. Is that,

does that make any sense to you, Luke? No, none of this really makes sense. I get why he's upset you're right we've talked about that but i don't i just can't comprehend what he imagines these threats to mean for himself or the division such that the ufc would be like oh well we better we better do something differently like If he wants to move on because he wants to move on, fine. Drop your title and go. But I don't get what...

Who does he think he is? Here's the question. By doing that, let's say he dropped his title and moved to a 35 outright, who is being punished? You'd give up the one mechanism that gets you the more money that brings you celebrity, that gets you the more money that brings you celebrity that brings you status to go to a tougher division where you don't have the same size advantages like ufc must be like okay if you want to go go like we can't stop you necessarily right who who really suffers here it's

not ufc well you're you're in line with what i'm saying i'm saying maybe he's come to the realization that you know it's just not worth it to keep making this. It's clear the promotion would love if that belt goes back around Marino's waist for obvious reasons. So try to make it publicly as something it isn't to try to help himself any way he can and leverage. Maybe. Maybe that's the case. Maybe not. Maybe he's misguided. But I do agree with the spirit of this question and his issue that you know this is pretty gratuitous in terms of interim title placement but well you know what are we gonna do luke all right last but not least fedor has basically said he is not interested in the junior dos santos fight in part because of the losses that have accumulated

most recently he was fighting jorgen de castro at eagle fc and his shoulder fell out of the socket when he was punching we had talked about this this BC that they were setting this up. And even after the loss being like, well, he could still fight Fedor Fedor, put the fucking kibosh on that. Got to say, I don't blame Fedor at all.

I really, really don't hear. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Overeem's the better fight right now. Well, he's got the better Hari fight,

but yes. Well, actually the real fight should be Anderson Silva at a catchweight, but you know, I've just, I've just, I gotta tell you, I don't mind that fight for like a go away fight. Like the Silva at a catchweight, but, you know, I've just... You know, I've got to tell you, I don't mind that fight.

For, like, a go-away fight, like the last one in retirement? It's the perfect... It's kind of like him against Dan Hendo all over again, right? Like, that was the perfect catchweight, two legends, let's go out there and brawl, you know? This is an attraction. Let me ask you this. Do you think Bellator would be willing to give Silva a one-fight deal?

I've told Scott Coker about this behind the scenes multiple times, you know, and he didn't shoot it down, but you're asking me, do I think they'd be willing to? I would hope they would if they feel like they can get the return for what it would cost. Look, it comes on the money at the end of the day, but I would hope and want them to be interested in something

like this, because when you're trying to do a tentpole event or you want to put the rapper on and say, you know, this is Fedor's go-away fight, oh, let's put him against the freaking legend who rapper on it and say you know this is Fedor's go away fight oh let's put him against the freaking legend who's smaller and different you know a different I mean it'd be a it would be a something you had to see what it looked like you do you have to see what that looks like Luke I'd be curious now I gotta tell you that Timothy Johnson win was a little bit bigger in retrospect than we gave it credit not so much for what it means like oh he's a relevant heavy

weight again not so much that but in terms of what makes you believe he can still do yeah like obviously Anderson Silva is significantly different than Tim Johnson but just the way in which he dispatched him you're like all right man there's a little bit of tread left on those tires maybe maybe there's something to be said for a uh an escalation at this point about in terms of name value and difficulty of an opponent so yeah that could be kind of fun all right BC that's it that's all we got it's time for fan subs. Yeah, let's close with this. MorningCombat at gmail.com is the email address

where Mikey Mormile, our happy producer from CBS Sports, will field your artwork, pictures of you in tight T-shirts, whatever you got for us. This is your chance to be the artist. This is called Fan Submissions. We've got mail. Viewers. All right, yeah. Speaking of of male viewers let's start with claudio he says hello mk team this is my post hello donks what can't wait can't believe it's been 300 plus episodes i remember watching luke thomas is pissed a millennium ago let's bring it back already

ja ja ja my name name is Claudio Garcia, and I'm writing to you for the first time from Mexico City. I took Luke's advice and attended an MMA regional show called Lux Fight League LUX. Oh, I know them. They air here locally, believe it or not. And for $50, got the best seats in the building. Pick one is me and my father.

To my surprise, look whom I got to meet. Pick two is with maz or hey maz me at all and pick three is uh hope to meet you guys one day here's uh him and yahir luke that's cool man who's yahir who is that person luke yahir rodriguez yes and by the way it's not ja ja ja it's ha ha ha i know Oh, I know. That's how they spell it, though. I know. That was my Americanisms coming through, Luke. All right. Yeah, dude, that's awesome. I always tell people, bro, by the way, thanks for the pictures, and I'm glad he got to go

and see these folks. I tell people, dude, the best money you can buy for the craziest outcome, 50 bucks at a regional MMA show will get you a pretty good seat, and you will see some wild shit for real. Was Claudio representing us, Luke? There was no MK gear on, right? I didn't see any mk gear but you know what he was shouting us out so i appreciate him just the same yeah big much love out to claudio garcia out there in mexico big fan of you thank you sir uh this one's from nick luke this guy's from my hometown i'll be one of the coolest

guys around this is what nick said good morning bc and luke pretty cool i made some art i thought i'd share it with you i was listening to the 50th anniversary edition of Grateful Dead's Europe 72 tour, specifically Morning Dew from the Lyceum, when this idea popped into my head. I call it Grateful Donks. It's a watercolor painting in Naugatuck maroon and gray and combines two of my favorite logos. It might look good on an MK drug rug. Hope you like it. Keep up the great work.

Hashtag FactoryTownMMA. Luke, been to many a concert with this guy, Nick. He liked the Delta, Luke. It's very nice. Actually, I was at a Bob Dylan concert, the same one as him. We didn't even know each other, though, in Penn State. Shout out to Nick. Luke, you don't get down with the dead, but would you see this logo on the MK drug rug?

Should we get RJ involved? I got to say, it's pretty great. I'm not going to hate it at all. I like it. Now, the fist is the kind drug rug. Should we get RJ involved? I got to say, it's pretty great. I'm not going to hate it all. I like it. Now, the fist is the kind of fist, if it's your fist, it should either be like painfully white or like a hue of red.

But short of that, it's pretty awesome, I have to say. That's really, really, really well done. Shout out to Nick. One time, Luke, Nick told me he could get me radio head tickets at Madison Square Garden. Because, you know, they like rarely tour in the US. And it was time, Luke, Nick told me he could get me radio head tickets at Madison Square Garden. Because, you know, they like rarely tour in the U.S.

And it was like 04. And I had to like work the next morning at 6 a.m. or something. And I remember I said no, Luke, because it was super expensive. I think that'll go down as the concert I most regret not going to. Luke, it probably would have changed my life. You know what I'm saying? It would not have changed your life. But I understand.

All right. Thank you, Nick. Let's keep it rolling on here. Let's go to JP. Luke, this Canadian guy is making a run in terms of fan subs. He says, good day. I'm back at it. And as we know, revealed this week on MK, you can forget about Triple C.

We now have a new MK BC segment. It's not your random or typical segment. It's thick and dirty. It's hot and spicy with a smothering of factory town blended all up in there it's bc's triple s super sloppy special luke check out these he's got a new merch idea he's got a poster and two merch t-shirts god keep up the amazing award-winning work all you do is make it look easy. It's JP from Mount Unaike, Nova Scotia. Luke, not only does this segment have life,

but these logos he created, RJ, put them on a sweatshirt or T-shirt right now, brother. Right, Luke? Come on. The picture of you looking like you're kind of saluting like a weirdo and then with the two thumbs up, these are the exact same faces he makes when he scrolls Instagram. It's unbelievable. Oh, yeah.

Why does Carolina look like a hostage victim in that shot, Luke? I don't know. All right, there we go. Luke, you know I like them extra sloppy. Well done, Jay. I hope we can turn this into merch. Believe me. This is from John.

He's from Winchester, Virginia. Luke, do you know that area well? Yeah, it's way the fuck out there it's it's it's it's it's i wouldn't call it like country well yeah it's country bumpkin i mean it's fucking all right he says hey luke and co-host i've been experimenting with a new style of mixed media art hope you enjoy this painting of luke on the eighth row of the delta flight okay here. Okay, here's what I'll say. Here's what I'll say. He got the eyes right, and he got the lower lip right, but I don't know what happened to my nose.

Are you getting lip injections, Luke, like some comedians these days? Again, once again, you're Brendan Schaub's number one fan. You are obsessed with him. No, no, no. A lot of female comedians, Luke, too, hence their beauty. No, I don't. I just have a big-ass fucking lip. one fan you are obsessed no no a lot of a lot of female comedians look to enhance their beauty no i don't i just have a big ass fucking lip i don't you know i'm born with this you know one for better or for worse motherfuckers this is what it is dude your grays are coming in at almost a wolfman jack

level right here luke you should think about you know having like yeah like that's yeah what you should worry about growing a beard there you're ayear-old boy. Less policing of my beard. You grow one first. You know, I didn't have to shave with shaving cream before electric razors were a regular thing, folks. Okay, yes, I am that old. I didn't have to start using the shaving cream until I was at least 20, Luke. Wow.

Wow. Yeah, I could just go dry razor before that because there ain't nothing coming in, Luke. Except for that time that I had that really good goatee for that date I had. And I had to wear the Band-Aid over it to cover it at McDonald's. You know that legendary story, Luke, okay? That's the commitment I'll go to for women, Luke. But now I'm a one-man woman, okay?

Thank you. That was John from Winchester, Virginia. Danger Mouse, Luke. Wow, we always close with this guy because he brings it. Hi, BC. I'm back at it. And what a nice introduction you gave me last week yeah, you're coming on bro almost makes me feel bad for what I'm about

to do to you, almost sort of a boxing theme this week, starting with how I feel when the show is boxing heavy yep and I know boxing is your first love BC, as does luke which is why he called you out on friday for having no quick hitters about mma funny enough about 20 minutes after i made this luke said that wait blow this one up

oh it's a cat in a yeah dog a homeless cat in hiding there in the uh in the husky hat i like that and finally luke made a suggestion about the types of fights brian campbell promotions would make first of all it's factory town promotions thank you uh or or yeah i've made it really bro are you shitting me i've made it a reality and given your company your favorite classy font i can't wait to see this fight it's godzilla versus butterbean hungry for revenge bro that is fucking amazing also i didn't really mention it but you can see it here where it says brian campbell productions like in the porn hub style so yesterday i wore that mk shirt and i i swear to god man i need to now i need to think about it because twice it's

happened where i just peel it off the top of the rack and i and i wear it that day dude three different people stopped me to tell me and when i got to go get a haircut the dude behind the counter was like i like your shirt man and i didn't know if he was an mk fan or not and i was like oh yeah thanks bro and then he goes he goes i definitely have no idea what the font comes from i've never seen it before like in a very exaggerated kind of way. Dude, that shirt, I'll wear any other MK shirt, no one says a fucking word. That one, I get stopped all the time. I'm sure every conversation is,

you an MK fan? No, I just like watching sex. No, I never ask. You can ask my wife. You'll meet her when you come down. I never, ever bring that up. I never ask about it. I don't care about that kind of stuff. But it was funny that people stopped me for it. Alright, alright. MorningCombat at gmail.com. But it was funny that people stopped me for it. Alright. Alright. MorningCombat at gmail.com. Once again, your

email address to reach out to us. Thank you, folks. Fantastic. I don't know if anyone's ever going to beat David Appleton's most recent video, Luke. It's a high ball. When we vote for Donk of the Year, he's in that debate right now.

Where the hell's Damien been? The guy got a tat. We never heard from him again, Luke. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Probably, I don't want to say. All right, BC. I want to remind folks, you can catch BC. You will be on the show on Friday, right?

Even though you're going to be in upstate New York. I will be on Friday's MK from the hotel room, Luke. Got that McDonald's Wi-Fi. Let's do it. That's going to be fun. But either way, you can catch Brian on Friday's MK from the hotel room, Luke. Got that McDonald's Wi-Fi. Let's do it. That's going to be fun. But either way, you can catch Brian on Friday night on Showtime. And if you don't have Showtime, great opportunity to start getting it.

Showtime.com. You can get a 30-day free trial if you like it. You can keep it. If not, you can bounce. And you can see Brian, what, 9 p.m. start in the east, I believe. I think that's right. I think that's right. It's from Verona, New York, the Turning Stone Casino, which, of course, is one exit away from Conestoga, Luke, in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. So tune in for the young prospects, tune in for BC, but tune in, there's going to be a crowd full of Hall of Famers, Luke. This is going to be the legends are sitting you know standing right there next to you telling stories but uh to have this many classes going in

this should be fun i wish you look i wish you were there with me okay i wish i was there as well but i'm not so there you go uh okay we mentioned it before morningcombat.store for all the merch including the pornhub shirt kind of thing looking thing that gets me a lot of weird stares and awkward compliments um there's that as well but of course you thing looking thing that gets me a lot of weird stares and awkward compliments. There's that as well, but of course you can get the hat and a whole lot of... I don't know when the bomber jackets are going to go on sale, but we'll let you know when they do. Legitimately, my wife

actually liked them, so that tells you a lot. Wow. I know. I couldn't believe it. She was like, I really like those. I was like, oh shit, okay. Great. This is going to be good. And then of course, thanks to our sponsor AG1 and anything else. Oh, morningcombat at gmail.com to get us to Friday's Dead Wrong. If you want to reach the show, that's the show email. And, of course, you can give us a follow on social as well.

One more plug, BC, if I may. We put it out very early, but it's relevant now because this is Fight Week. If you've not seen the Glover Teixeira room service diaries, really strongly encourage you to do that. It's the best chat I've ever had with him. I've been covering him a long time. I think, BC, you would agree agree if you didn't get a chance to watch it when it first came out what no time like the present and we do of course talk about the Prochaska fight in that interview do we not absolutely hear his backstory here you know really how he got here not just in in terms of the travel and

the journey but how he's been able to do this at this age. And I mean, he's a man, Luke, he's, he's really like, and this is the best thing. Anytime you can meet a famous person, everybody's like, Oh no, he's really down to earth. He's a great person. Dude. Glover is literally that bad-ass old guy neighbor you have next door who can fix anything with his bare hands and always has a fresh cold beer in one hand. And like, would, you know, give you the shirt off his back if you needed it in that moment. I could not endorse sitting through that conversation anymore just to see a fine human being at work. And I was talking about myself.

Glover's pretty good as well in that one. Okay. Fair enough. But if you haven't seen the Glover to Share interview, really, really strongly encourage you to do that. I think you will like it a lot. All right? So for Malka, for Showtime, for Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas and all of the MK crew.

We appreciate you watching. We'll catch you on Friday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.