MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 276 Card Revealed | Moreno-Kara-France 2 | Weekend Storylines | Ep. 300

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

On Episode 300 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian break down a ton of news in the combat sports world. They start off by breaking down the UFC 276 card for international fight week. Where does this card rank among other IFWs? Brandon Moreno will face Kai Kara-France for the interim Flyweight title. Is this the right move? Brian Ortega vs. Yair Rodriguez is in the works for July. The guys close out the main topics by discussing this weekend's biggest storylines. (11:30) - UFC 276 Fight Card Announced (27:10) - Brandon Moreno vs. Kai Kara-France 2 (34:55) - Nate Diaz vs. UFC (40:10) - Brian Ortega vs. Yair Rodriguez (49:30) - Weekend MMA Storylines (64:50) - Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castano (77:00) - Fan Submissions (86:00) - Newlywed Game Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion.

That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. We're about to have done 300 of these. Can you believe that? I guess I can. I'm not sure if it's a great milestone or not,

but it's a milestone just the same. Hi, everyone. It is the 11th of May, 2022, and it is time for Morning Combat, episode 300. Spot on! Dumbass movie. All right. Anyway, hi, everyone. I'm one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital, the Estados Unidos, right here in Washington, D.C. My name is Luke Thomas, joined by the Viceroy of connecticut he may have the haircut of a 10 year old but he's a 43 year old man it's brian campbell what's up brian campbell oh luke oh luke uh doing well hump day episode 300 as you mentioned uh what a

you know who would have thought lu, who would have thought, Luke, who would have thought chemistry-wise that you and I could last this long, right? You know, I mean, I just had 15 years of real marriage last week, but 300 times up and down that road with you. Hey, look at us, Luke, right? Look at us now. Can you believe it? Both of us.

Boy, look at the ceremony. We're really rolling out the red carpet for this treasured memory we're about to have. Neither of us knew about this memory, by the way, until like 6 p.m. Eastern yesterday. But that's how we do it around here. Today will be a fun one. We've got some UFC news to get to. We'll start the weekend storylines. There is a UFC event.

There's a Bellator event. And there's actually a really good boxing event by all standards. So we'll talk about some of the storylines there, plus your fan subs, plus we're going to do the newlywed game. Now, BC and I don't have an act. Well, we have an editorial sexless marriage. In that editorial sexless marriage, we're going to do the game where it's like, oh, what's your partner's favorite movie?

And we've already been told by the head producer. He goes, you guys did not do well. So this will be interesting today, BC. Are you excited to play the newlywed game? You know, any segment that we roll out where I'm not creating it and driving it, I get a little nervous, but we'll see what happens, okay? All right, very good. As a reminder, if you want to catch Showtime,

because Friday is Bellator Saturday. Of course, it's going to be Charlo Castaño 2. You can get both for free. You can go to Showtime.com. 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. BC, I see you've got the merch on deck, well, on display, really, there, with

the shirt, with the mug. What's going on at the store? Hold on a second here, Luke. I've even got a copy of this poster that you can get on morningcombat.store if you want to light up your dorm room. They sent me one. I think RJ Dunkelmaker sent me one, and my daughter tore it up completely without me looking immediately. I was very happy about that.

Dude, that's not a surprise. In your house, not a surprise. In your house, not a surprise. In my house, nobody would have noticed it, which is similar to how your family has fielded most of your accolades, Luke. But thank you to RJ for loving on us. You can go to morningcombat.store. He's

got some great creations. No deals or anything today, but look, we've done this 300 times for you, so if you ever thought about jumping on board, the ship fits great, okay? That's the best thing we can say. You know, every morning, this could be you, okay? This could be us, but you playing. How about you go to morningcombat.store and get involved, all right?

How good does this look, Luke? I mean, this is great, right? It looks really good. It's like a shot glass size, unfortunately, but besides that, it's great, you know? Yeah, it's not really a full cup of coffee. It's like the one you have four times a day. But it's all right, nonetheless. I've already had a rain energy drink, and I've had a cup of coffee.

So I'm ready to rock. But on top of that, BC, let's see. MorningCombat at gmail.com for Wednesdays, fan subs, Fridays, dead wrong. And, oh, yeah, here we go, BC. I wanted to say, you know, I start my day with coffee, but I should be starting my day with AG1. Have you started your day with AG1? Dude, I got AG1 up in this bottle right here, Luke,

because one scoop, one tiny scoop a day of these fine vitamins and, you know, energy-producing supplements inside your body, Luke, it doesn't replace everything. I'm not giving myself through my diet, but you want to talk about building that foundation, changing the way your body feels and reacts. This is a great shortcut to that. If you're looking to start on down that road,

let me tell you that much, Luke. No doubt about it. Of course, it supports immune health, gut health. Obviously, it gives you, we have 75 vitamins and minerals, adaptogens, probiotics. I mean, this thing really sets you off correctly on your day. And BC, easy to travel with it, is it not? Exactly.

I got the travel packs. It's one scoop every morning. Go on your day. And, you know, it doesn't taste like super healthy, but it tastes clean. And I can use that, and I love it. And, Luke, when you get these special blend of ingredients together you know it's supporting your gut health your nervous system your immune system your energy your recovery your focus even helps in aging dude it's not that hard

and it tastes great what are we missing here you you know what what's what what doesn't it have luke what why can't you commit to this thing because of you it's is it a you thing it's lifestyle it's lifestyle friendly whether you eat keto paleo vegan dairy free or gluten free it's less than one gram of sugar no gmos no nasty chemicals or artificial anything while still tasting good you know what i like best about it luke the price okay it costs less than three dollars per day so you're basically investing in your health and yet it's still cheaper than that cold brew habit that you have, Luke. I do like the cold brew habit though. Taking athletic greens is a small micro habit with big benefits. It's one thing you can do every single day to take

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And Luke, they know that Luke and BC make it look easy. How about Athletic Greens making it easy by giving you the free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and the five free travel packs. I use them. They're great. You get that with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com slash morning combat. Again, that's athleticgreens.com slash morningcom to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Before you transition, did you see John Morgan's breaking news tweet? I did not. What is it?

50-year-old Houston Alexander is back. He's going to a co-main event slot in BKFC, and he says plans of retirement are now way off in the distance luke okay um that's you know it's ill-advised at best um okay i mean that's very important news you know i mean if he didn't throw the kimbo fight he should have at this point luke right i i don't know why you're so convinced kimbo couldn't win that i mean when you're ready to deal with uh little nog's true value so to speak luke i'll be meeting you on the other end of that conversation about is this one of your

tower seven conspiracies or what is this i mean i can't comment publicly other end of that conversation. Is this one of your Tower 7 conspiracies, or what is this? I mean, I can't comment publicly on any of that stuff, Luke, okay? I mean, thank you. I mean, I believe in a few. But, you know, to be fair, conspiracies used to be, I mean, they're addicting, but they used to be fun, and then, you know, like the MAGA people just ruined it, Luke. They did ruin it. Well, and they ruin a lot of things but uh yes they also ruin conspiracies

okay let's get to this one if we can topic number one this was kind of announced on saturday night but really didn't get a chance to get to it given to what we're going over the results of the fights themselves but the ufc 276 fight card was announced now why is this relevant well this is not really the one in early july this is international fight week so we have our international fight week card this is traditionally considered to be one of the bigger UFC cards, if not the biggest UFC card of the year. And here is the fight card as we understand

it. It'll be Israel Adesanya Adesanya, however you want to call it, versus Jared Kananir. Of course, that'll be for the middleweight title. Alexander Volkanovsky, Max Holloway, featherweight title. Sean Strickland versus Alex Pereira. Hey BC, did you see Sean Strickland's tweets about trying marijuana for the first time no i didn't are they uh his review was he didn't like the way it made him feel it made him feel sluggish and that was really unfortunate in the

event that he had to kill someone at a moment's notice i was like that wouldn't that wouldn't be my review of weed but uh yeah okay this is a this is a stupid sport all right uh lauren murphy if i found out he grew up loving cannibal corpse at this point i'd go i get it i get it no i guarantee you do people who like that are into the are into like that it's nonsense not that it's like real you got you got it all confused anyway uh lauren murphy ramstein all right luke thank you yeah that's a little bit better la Lauren Murphy versus Misha Tate. Pedro Munoz versus Sean O'Malley. Andre Muniz versus Uriah Hall.

Jessica Eye versus Macy Barber. Brad Tavares versus Drikus Duplassie. And then Robbie Lawler versus Brian Barino. There might be some other ones added to it, but this is the official one as we have it today. BC, rate the International Fight Week card for UFC 276 I'd say very good not great very good though and obviously uh sometimes all you need are is I mean god sometimes all you need is one great fight but certainly sometimes if you have two great title fights atop the marquee it can cover all sins this has two great title fights believe me I'm I'm one of these uh hardcore sleepers that

Adesanya Kananir is a very interesting and fun fight. But you add in the trilogy of Max and Volk. I mean, come on. That's great. From there on down, Luke, I think it's missing that one shiny third jewel, right? That Gaethje Chandler, that Hamzat Nate, even though neither of us really wanted that specifically. You do get Sean Strickland and Alex Podeta, which I love. I don't hate on Lord Mayfield.

It's missing Conor McGregor. That's what it's missing. Well, he's not ready, but I don't think it's necessary. I think you just need that third special fight, Luke. A lot of times that third, like this could, if it was Ioana versus Whaley too, as that third special fight, it's a great card suddenly. I mean, freaking great, Luke, okay? Yeah, but here's what I mean. When I say it's missing Conor, I don't mean it's missing Con card suddenly I mean freaking great Luke okay yeah

but here's what I mean when I say it's missing Connor I don't mean it's missing Connor in the sense that he's available and they should have put him on it of course if he's not ready he's not ready what I mean is the like like for example over the weekend I was I always check to see YouTube trending which will change depending on your country's results so I'm only looking for the U.S. market and what it has the following Sunday and Monday but the only UFC 274 video that showed up in the US after the fact was just Israel's reaction video like he just did a reaction videos and then but but Canelo was like number one or number two now of course I'm not trying to make a one-to-one comparison here but I'm really pointing out that what Conor brings is just a certain amount of pageantry and scope and casting a halo.

I don't even care about his fight or how meaningful it would be for the sport. Rather, just how it lifts everything up and gives it a greater grandiosity about it all. Like if he was fighting, I don't know, what would be the right comparison here? Maybe not Masvidal, but if he was fighting, I don't know, for the interim title or something like that, or if he was fighting just straight up Charles. Can you imagine if him versus Charles was at the top of this card, how crazy it would be? Hey, GSP, you're basically saying water is wet, sky is blue. I mean, we get it, Luke, okay?

It's not, this isn't Conor level. You know, there's very few Conors. This is the point i guess i'm trying to make well if you look at the historical fights ufc 264 which was the previous international fight week was poirier mcgregor three so there you go it actually had that before that usman masvidal now that was over in what you call it in abu dhabi before that jones santos cormier mioocic Whitaker then Ridicor UFC 213 Whitaker Romero UFC 200 that you know was on that one UFC 189 McGregor Mendez UFC 175 Weidman Machido UFC 162 Weidman Silva and then UFC 148 Silva San in two so there's been these real central figures in the sport I guess you could argue argue at this point that Israel has taken that role,

but it does seem to me that the cards have usually featured the sport's biggest star at the time or something approximating it. Maybe that's a little bit off here. Israel has the accomplishments and the growing star power. What he doesn't have is the confidence of the casual buyer who wants guaranteed action they don't always get that from Izzy and I think that's one thing that has held him back now although I'm not blaming him but like yeah Conor would be different having you know if this was Jon Jones Stipe at the top I think it could be a little bit different but I mean you have you had the star power of Izzy and Max and the Max fight is you know legendary with Volkanovski here.

This is a huge card. I think you're just missing what normally Nate Diaz or Jorge Masvidal or whoever that special third Ariel Hawane people's main event tag is on there. You don't have that. Strickland Pineda is like a hardcore fan's version of that. And I love the Lauren Murphy-Miche Tate fight. It's great. O'Malley against a live body.

It's great. The sum of the parts in the end. Whoa, that's unfair. Pedro Munoz is a top-ranked bantamweight, dude. He's very good. I know how freaking good he is, and I know how great this fight is, but the whole Carnival 10 covering it is we're finally seeing him against a live body, so what I said still matches up.

My point is this is more sum of the parts that makes this card very good. It's missing that third giant figure to make it great. And I think even put it on the level of a Connor card or, you know, DC Jones 2 or whatever the big sexy thing is that's getting you in the building. I'll say this. 274 had a greater top heavy throw, at least on paper. Obviously, Rose versus Carla sucked in the end, but at least on paper, we had three top fights. This one doesn't quite have that, but I'll say this card is just much deeper.

Dude, UFC 274, after the main card, and even then through the main card, it fell off pretty quickly after the top three fights, if you're just looking at the quality of it. This one has much deeper quality. Also, what I would say is there needs to be some recognition that izzy's popularity has grown dramatically i think you're right that he hasn't quite fully penetrated the consciousness of the deepest recesses of the uh casual fan base he hasn't pulled that part yet like obviously you know reaching that takes a connor level in there's

there's a pretty considerable gap in popularity between him and Conor. But what I would say is in terms of where he was even a year or two ago, his popularity has exploded relative to that. And obviously the YouTube channel, his self-promotion, everything else is a big component. Winning the fights, being undefeated at middleweight is another component. I'm just sort of pointing out there needs to be some recognition that whatever people are saying that he lacks relative to Conor, okay, fair. But whatever he's lacking, he has improved dramatically

from a recent time frame ago. Absolutely. Also, Cannoneer is a very good fighter, but there's not a lot of heat between them per se. Yeah, but this card, as you mentioned, some deep, interesting storyline matchups even in the less relevant fights. So overall, very good. A lot of depth. I love it.

Luke, I like the idea of looking back what you did when you went through the recent International Fight Week main events and sort of looking at, you know, how does this one rank to the best we've seen? But what really is the best we've seen? I think one thing you have to consider when doing this, and it was like a story I seem to end up writing every year in a row there after joining CBS Sports, is there was like that eight-year stretch where either the every year in a row there after joining CBS Sports, is there was like that eight-year stretch where either the main event or a prominent co-main event member was canceled like a week or two weeks before.

It was almost like a cursed card. Of course, UFC 200 fell victim to that in a giant way as well. But when you look back, you know, we did have Conor in at least one of these, right? The Mendes one from 189, which, God, did Ireland travel for that one. Which one do you think stands out as, like, that's the one? We do this a lot with the MSG cards because there's been four or five of them, and, you know, three of them have been, like, through the roof, top 10, all-time great. What do you look at here?

Yeah, so to answer that question, for the MSG cards, 205 would have to be the standout, right? Like, that would have to be its greatest example. Or 217 have to be its greatest or 217 i think they're dead even luke they're dead even yeah okay yeah 1a 1b pick your 1a 1b but they're they're i mean that's what we're talking about for these obviously the biggest at the time felt like ufc 200 but i don't know that it played out in a in that way um so I'm gonna say oh that's a great question BC I'm probably gonna say the one that felt the biggest in the time in which it took place again UFC 200 because it didn't quite go the way it was supposed to I'm gonna say 189 McGregor Mendez because that was supposed to be the first McGregor-Aldo, right, or I think that's right, and they had to delay it. They had to delay it.

And then Mendez took it on short notice and gave it to McGregor pretty well early until McGregor staged that unbelievable, not unbelievable, but pretty important and dramatic comeback. Dramatic, yeah. Dramatic comeback. So then you had also Lawler-McDonald, maybe one of the greatest MMA fights ever quite candidly uh Stevens Bermudez which is which is a fine fight Nelson Thatch and then uh Almeida Pickett

wow that's a fucking lifetime ago okay but still you dude McGregor Mendez and Lawler McDonald on the same fucking card that was crazy yeah that was crazy no no that that was that was freaking massive and and I think what you meant to say was, you know, also the best fight in Robbie Lawler's extensively great action fighting career, Luke, the McDonald fight. I mean, that's the one. You know what I mean? Like, you know, you can't take two girls to the dance, Luke, okay? You got to take one.

See, I disagree with people on this. I actually feel like Lawler's best action fight is the Condit fight. Luke, do you not realize I'm doing a bit and playing into the fact that you believe that and that you're wrong? It's a great fight, but we've already been through this. We've already litigated this discussion, Luke. You lose, okay? I don't think I do.

I think the Condit fight really stands the test of time, particularly that fifth round. But I will say that Lawler-McDonald is an incredible, incredible action fight. I mean, that's among the most... You mix the brutality with the stakes. Dude, that's the fight, man. It's amazing, dude.

You will never hear me say a bad word about Lawler McDonald. It's everything everyone says it is. But I also just feel like people are underrating Lawler Condit. That's all. 200 got hurt, of course, by losing the Jon Jones-Cormier match. Right. Obviously, there was enough star power to keep it together, but do you think because of who Amanda Nunes became, really with this fight, submitting Misha Tate there

to win the championship, and that was the beginning of her great reign, that this will age in some weird fine wine retroactive way? Because when it happened, you were like, oh, this is the main event? Like, okay. You know what I mean? And now, God, that kicked off the Amanda Nunes run,

and obviously you still had Lesnar winning. God, look at this card, Luke. You had Aldo Edgar. You had the last vintage Cain Velasquez performance. Remember he hit Brown with a spinning wheel kick, I believe, if memory serves. And the star power of DC Anderson Silva, which didn't overachieve or even live up to what we thought, but still was endearing in its own way. Will this age better because of Amanda Nunes?

Or you don't care? You probably don't care. I mean, the problem with that was the Nunes-Tate fight wasn't all that competitive. I mean, Nunes just kind of brutalized her pretty quickly, right? Oh, yeah. And then Aldo Edgar wasn't competitive, but it went the full distance. Like, Aldo beat him up, basically, for 25 minutes. So for me, like, for example, like, you're asking, like,

you didn't ask this question, but I would just put it in this way. Like, relative to UFC 100, what was more exciting? Dude, UFC 100 was historic, not merely in its construction, but in its execution with Dan Henderson sleeping Michael Bisping the way that he did and George St. Pierre beating Tiago Alves and then Brock Lesnar just smashing Frank Mir. I mean, this was not only important results and big fun fights, but like crazy dominant finishes.

Or, you know, in the case of Aldo, or excuse me, in the case of St. Pierre and Alves, it was competitive for a time, but he had to really overcome a very difficult opponent. There was just a lot more action that was, I fun that one was just kind of i mean there's nothing wrong with the newness tape fight but it didn't it wasn't electrifying for whatever reason when the other when the other ones were i think that's the difference corby amy ochich 226 is also pretty good because he had lewis and gone well that let me interrupt you and say this that as you and i

have the benefit of looking up and down the list at all the main pay-per-view cards that have happened on International Fight Week dating back to UFC 148, dude, we missed it. That UFC 251 card from just recently, dude, hear this for five fights on a pay-per-view main card for July 4th weekend. Usman Masvidal is your main event. Volkanovski Holloway 2. Jan Aldo for the vacant title, Nama Yunus Andrade Part 2, and Amanda Hibas against Paige Van Zandt.

Like, oh shit. I mean, that was prime pandemic. Duke, Luke, but that's, I called you Duke, wow. Duke Rufus, but Luke, that's got to be the best. Look at it, top to bottom, man. Yeah, that's really, really good. I can't believe UFC 148 was Silvason and two Griffin Ortiz. Jesus, I cannot believe that.

And then Lee and Cote and Maya and Kim. That's crazy. Yeah, you're right. But the thing is, Usman versus Maslow 1, as we know, played out on paper kind of. And Volkanovski Holloway 2 was a phenomenal fight, but it did leave a sour taste in a lot of fans' mouths, especially if they were Holloway fans. And we had to watch Jose Aldo get rabbit punched like 50 times, right? Well, Jan was still the better guy that night, but yes.

It was also the bad stoppage. Remember Leon Roberts was the referee in that one, who's usually quite good, and I think he didn't like his performance, and he left because he didn't want to referee any more fights. Yeah, he did it of his own volition like if he's like I'm not in my game I'm not going to do it which I really respect um but in any case you're right but this one's a good one man it's a really good one the Lawler Barbarina fight is like surprisingly competitive you know what I mean I didn't think Barbarina was going to beat

Matt Brown if he can beat Matt Brown beating Robbie Lawler's on the table there as well and by the way remember we thought he was going to be retired. I guess he got a new fight deal. Dude, this is a great fight in UFC's unofficial BKFC BMF division of just guys between 155 and 170 who only know

one speed. Let's just keep matching them against each other. And there's no shame in that. I love it. It fills out a main card, Luke. Also, Drikus Duplassie getting Brad Tavares tells you that their spot like Drikus has captured the UFC matchmakers attention as a contender like they're actually trying to push him as a contender now which is a very tough fight I versus Barber is great for Macy Barber if she can get the win obviously it's great either way but you know Macy Barber in particular Muniz versus Hall is a very very tricky fight Muniz is the guy who broke Jacare's arm and others as well,

so he's really good. As I mentioned, Sean O'Malley taking on a top-ranked guy to open the main card. Misha Tate is back, Strickland Pereira. There's a lot to like, man. There's a lot to like. All right, let's go to topic number two here. So this has apparently been reportedly targeted for July 30th,

which would be the card after that, or at least the pay-per-view card, I believe. UFC 277, there are reports of a potential interim title for the flyweight belt being on the line between former champion Brandon Moreno and now top contender Kai Cara France. Now, this would, of course, be an indication that the plans to do the fourth fight between Moreno and the current champion Devison Figueiredo are on hold and perhaps Figueiredo is not eligible anytime soon so they potentially are looking at this BC do you like the idea I think less so of the fight the fight itself is tremendous but the interim title being there where what is your view of that yeah this is

a like a blatant abuse of power you won't complain about it too much because the UFC it's a new trend they tend to do this a lot and the trend I'm talking about is yes the champion Figueiredo is reportedly injured we don't know a lot of details on that but he's not ready is is at least the point here I mean the UFC's new model and game plan is anytime a champion isn't ready then the next fight has to be for an interim title it's stupid yes it helps them sell it better but the fans really already know this is a great number one contenders fight, like an elite, you know, Super Bowl number one contenders fight. It's great. That should be enough on its own. So the fact that we give somebody the chance to be

an interim champion here when there's just no call for it, you know, unless you're telling me that Figueredo is going to be out at least one full year. There's just not a call for it in this situation. So I don't think that is a scarlet letter on it. You know. Yeah it smells bad. But still going to be a great fight. Still going to lead to what we want to.

But it just shows you more and more. That even though there are times. That I argue for an interim title. Just to spice something up. But only when it's worthy, like in this situation with, you know, Jones and Stipe. We don't know if Ngannou's ever walking through that door again. Plus, he's going to be out a while. That makes sense. This does make sense. But what are you going to do about it? I mean, like, nobody cares in the end,

so it's not a battle worth getting into in the end, right? I mean, that's the thing, right? Yeah, I mean, it's not like we're going to... And also, they're not making a terrible fight. They're making a phenomenal fight. They're making a great fight. And I would argue if it's a case where Brandon Moreno wants to stay busy and Figueredo isn't going to be ready, this would be the next logical fight you would make, quite candidly.

There's nothing wrong. I mean, there's a couple other ones you could make, but this would certainly be on the list of like, okay, what are suitable fights given that Moreno versus Figueredo 4 is not presently available. This would be first, second, or at worst, third on the list. So there's nothing wrong with that.

But like, according to the reports, Figueredo has an injured finger, which is a delicate thing that you have to get right so you don't have permanent injury, but it's not a, it's not like a hamstring injury where the timeline puts you back. In the reports indicate from ero hawani that he would be back at the end of this year like you would only make an interim title fight if the if you have a situation where you know the champ is going to be out for a while or um you know you just don't know like there's

just a great degree of uncertainty about any potential return. You just really don't even have a timeline. That's when you would introduce something like this. This is absurd. But I guess they have to find a way to put another belt up or they need a second belt on the poster or whatever. It's the new norm, and I think it was ushered in with the ridiculous decision to make Gann versus Lewis

and the heavyweights, a, an interim title bout winning Ghana was healthy. He just said, I can't fight on this date. I need a couple months later. And it was like, you know, still within five months or six months of him winning the title. So it was just ridiculous. But that again, that's the new norm. But the, I think, you know, the main problem, there's two of them, in my opinion, one completely devalues the interim title when you do this on a regular basis. And, you know, some people it has no value. But, you know, the extension of that is I hate when somebody who was of title contention in their career,

but they couldn't get over the hump, gets to retire and you say, former UFC interim champion. But, like, yeah, they didn't i guess you know well i'll say this the one thing the one positive aspect from this well again the i'm gonna say one more time the fight itself is phenomenal okay there's that i'll also say this fight the winner won't get pay-per-view points but the winner of this fight going into the unification so to to speak, BC, will. So there will at least be one fight for one fighter where they will be entitled to pay-per-view points, which they would not get but for the bestowing of this interim title.

I'm not arguing that that's a reason to do these in the future. I'm merely pointing out, and I'm being explicit, they should not give out the interim title. But to the extent they are, and there are silver linings available, that would be one of them. I think that's pretty fair. Let me take your silver linings playbook, Luke, and light it on fire. I get your point, but all you have to do is change the rules

and pay number one contender competitors more. I agree. This is not the answer to fighter pay. I'm simply saying if you want to find a silver lining, there's one there. As for the fight itself, BC, I'm going to guess you favor Moreno, but Kaikara France has proven to be stubbornly good and wildly improved. What kind of chance do you think he has against Moreno? I think a huge chance.

And he's won the last two fights. KK France has completely, completely won me over. And you had some question if the Garbrandt one was, you know, a little fool's gold or whatever. But, you know, he shut that down with his next performance, even in a close fight. But he's coming on, Luke. And the thing is, I never thought Moreno was a, he's a killer. But I never thought he was somebody who was on his way to, you know, becoming the owner of an era like Demetrius Johnson did. Right. And that's just because his style,

although he has added submissions and his striking's, you know, fantastic, he could really do it all. That's what makes him so fun. Um, but you know, he's going to get into some crazy fights against some very good people. So I think he's vulnerable in that regard because of the style of fights in his you know mental attitude coming in where dude no i'm giving kaikara france a a you know is it 50 50 exactly maybe not because moreno's a little bit more battle tested on the higher level but would you know if you're kaikara france you have to love what you can potentially do in this fight especially if you can make moreno fight on your terms in terms of the distance and the striking. This is going to be a fun one to watch. Yeah, I will say this. I

think there's a lot more parody at flyweight than the fan base wants to admit. I think that they want to see one guy as like the dominant. Oh, Moreno has achieved that status that Anderson Silva had over middleweight for many years or, you know or name your guy, whoever it may be. And I just don't think the reality matches up with that. These guys on certain nights with the right game plan and the right effort are just a little bit better than the other one. But I don't know if they are sustainably better than the other one every single time they go out there.

I actually tend to think they're all within shooting distance of one another. I probably would say Moreno's got a few more ways to win than Kaikara France, like if it becomes a grappling battle. I think Kaikara France is better than Moreno on the feet, but I don't think Moreno was totally out of that one by any stretch of the imagination. And on the ground, I think that Moreno has a substantial advantage. So overall, he might even still have a greater net advantage when you add it all up. And so for those reasons, it's really just what kind of fight we end up getting and what kind of effort goes into it, what kind of game plan and how well it was executed.

So to me, I'd favor Moreno, but Kaikara France is as live a dog in that fight as they come. Love, love, love that contest. The best way to put the exclamation point on the point you just made is that everyone right now within the top five of Flyweight, without me even looking at it, I can tell you that, they could end up being champion within the next 18 months i mean and when you have that and when it's that close buckle up it's going to be a fun ride you know now if before we move on

from ufc 266 and 267 i do see a note here from our producer that i would like to visit i'm going to call a bit of an audible here if i maybe see because i think it's worth bringing up i get a little bit tired of uh n Nate Diaz complaining on Twitter about not getting fights, but the reality is he actually has a pretty reasonable complaint. He is looking to fight at whatever card he can, but he is heavily at the mercy of what fights he's offered. For folks who don't understand how this works, yes, the management

team and the fighter can consult with the UFC about what kind of fights they want, but it typically does not go that way. The way it typically goes is that they offer you who they want you to fight, and you do not have to take it. You can say no, but there could be problems with saying no. A, it could make your relationship with the matchmakers poor, and certain clauses could be triggered to extend the contract time by virtue of doing that there's a lot of ways in which they don't want that to happen and so bc i got to tell you they're rolling out the july cards already now we haven't seen the full card for 277 but dude nate diaz is not being shy about the fact that he is dying to compete there is an endless list of guys who are wanting to fight him who by the by the way, are not scrubs or people that fans don't care about.

Gilbert Burns, Dustin Poirier. They already even once tried to make the Nate Diaz versus Dustin Poirier fight. Dude, is it not really a bit of a weird sign, and frankly, it doesn't paint a great picture of the UFC in this case, that Nate Diaz is not on the 276 or 277 fight cards as we know it right now? Yeah, it's a monster disrespect middle finger. Even if we don't know exactly what the real conversations are and how, you know, obviously we have to realize naturally it's hard to negotiate with the Diaz.

I mean, we have to understand that in terms of the basics and foundation of the relationship between Dana and the Diaz brothers. But even with that, it's just a constant misuse of a potentially huge and great pay-per-view brand. You know, and yes, I'm looking back at when Nate sat out three full years after being in back-to-back record-breaking pay-per-views against McGregor. And yes, I'm talking about now when it makes such little sense.

That's why I can come on this microphone and be like, is this Jake Paul related? They don't want him to be a free agent, so they're kind of going to cash him out against Hamza I mean Dana gave interviews again this week I don't know if you saw him Luke where he's like yeah I I really want the Hamza Nate fight I really like that so you know it seems to be they're just finding they're just trying to find the right landing for that so they can say goodbye to Nate and have him look you know as as bad as possible on the way out while giving the shine to the guy that they're really focused on. And that makes a lot of sense. You understand that, but it's not fair because Nate just lost another prime, you know, full year

of his outside the octagon potential there. And, you know, when you don't have the kind of leverage that we're saying the fighters should and should be fighting for, but most of them aren't. Again, what else can you say though, Luke? I just want to point out one thing like this is why fighters deserve to have more control over their career it should be a more collaborative process the idea that the promoter can be single-handedly the person or i should say the entity where they get to decide what fights happen and all you get is a yes or no vote you don't get a vote to even frame some of the decision making around how these fights are offered to begin with is madness right this it's their brain cells it's their life it's their career it's only

their win or it's only their loss they should have much more say in this process and the fact that Nate Diaz is at the mercy of essentially what could be a spiteful promoter trying to minimize his value to potential suitors after his career is completed with them or his contract rather is completed with them is insane to me and we take it as normal we take it as like this is just how things are in the fight game yeah this is how things are in the fight game because the fight game is fucked it It should not be this way. This is really a terrible way for business to be done. And the people who suffer the most, to somewhat you could say the consumer world, that's not really true. It's the fighter themselves, the people sacrificing the most to get to try and get something.

I find this totally a real symptom of how uneven this industry is. Yeah, I guess I'm just desensitized now. We all are. We all are, man. We up watching Crazy War movies too early in my lifetime. But, I mean, dude, this is the same sport where GSP has fought once in the last nine years and has been, like, actively retired for a long stretch, can't take a boxing match of his choice to make some spare money on the side. You know, he's got to wait out some, you know, like, it's ridiculous it's really i mean i you know who am i look i wear you know i got i got myself on my own t-shirt right here with a and you know my you know my

wife saw me wore this and she's like you know it's cool and all but you keep you guys keep producing shirts like that i'm not gonna not believe that you and luke aren't romantically evolved you know what i mean luke she said it are we i mean we are involved just not romantically yeah i don't i don't know how you know i don't know what she what you know what are people thinking right here um you know this is a we have all the romance of an arranged marriage that's really what we have yes all right topic number three bc i mean this was i think first reported by uh espn de portes brian ortega taking on yair this is the hardest word for me to say in spanish dude rodriguez the way they say it rodriguez is how we would say it uh expected to be the main event

for the july 16th card and of course this will be a year's second fight since 2019. The last one being on the, what, it was November of 2021 against Max Holloway. BC, size this up for me. Your level of excitement for Ortega versus Yair. And how important is this fight for either of them? Luke, I think it was the Kings of Leon who said it best when they said, Hey, this sex is on fire i mean this is good lord forget you know the the top you know five stakes in terms of potential title contention for either man dude this is a circle the the calendar type of fight in my opinion hell hell yeah and Luke you know given the

amount of times both I mean less so with Yair but but really more with Ortega has gotten to this high level and taken his big swing and come up empty but you know you go man I respect the the hustle or the chin or the toughness or the you know intention and all that you know how many more of these runs does he have and I think even though Yair hasn't had as many get to the top moments where he struck out, yeah, he lost to Max, but he fought his ass off, you know, in something that only raised his stock. There's a lot at stake here in this fight. I mean, but, you know, I can separate that enough to just tell you, you know, yeah, you know, Hanover, Ohio, you know, can you see the hard-on that I've got from here to you right now? You know what I mean, Luke?

I mean, are you kidding me, bro? Dude, I mean, if you can't like this fight, you should not be a fight fan. I mean, I just don't even know what else to say beyond. This is, I mean, they say styles. You're a communist and you eat steak well done with ketchup if you don't like this fight, Luke. I mean, that's probably fair. Like, you probably think Shoeys are cool

and your name is not tied to Ivo Asim. Who can get away with it? This is, I mean, they say Styles make fights and sometimes they mean that as a warning. I mean that as a compliment. It would be impossible for this fight to not be good. Now, I don't know if it will be the very best version of itself that it could be, but the very worst version of what it could be is still going to be

much higher than the average fight's potential downside. And I don't even see one here. Brian Ortega takes advantage of guys just like Jair Rodriguez, yet conversely, Rodriguez's newfound, I think, well well-roundedness composure when he needs it but also creativity could be a massive problem especially at distance and early in a fight or even late in the fight when Ortega takes a lot of damage um you know which is still a consistent problem for him for a guy who takes a lot of damage already to go up against the guy is creative and as rangy but as explosive but as you as unique as Yair is a horrible matchup for him.

These guys are terrible matchups for each other, which means this fight is going to be fucking bananas. Whenever you have a fight, I remember before the first Hendo Shogun and where they were in that fight, I remember thinking to myself, I don't know exactly how this one's going to play out because Henderson's right hand is going to be a huge problem for Shogun but Shogun's sort of overall Muay Thai brutality if Henderson fades a little bit is going to be a problem too and the reality was you saw both of those things come to life Hendo was dealing in the first three Shogun dealt in the last two after having to make a comeback I don't know which way this one's going to go BC

but I've got Hendo Shogun one vibes all over this one. Wow. Incredible fight. That's a bold statement that you just laid out, but you know, it may end up being warranted. And Luke, I've got,

you know, I mean, I'm a big Brian Ortega fan. People know that about me, Luke, and I'm okay with that. Okay. Cause you know,

we, I think him and I, we, we have, you know, different, but similar levels of BDE going on. But the real analysis is this, Luke.

I am a little nervous. Oh, yes, you and Brian Ortega have, yes, you and a very handsome athlete, a pro athlete, you two are peers. It's the same funk, Luke. It smells the same. You can just tell. You can look in a man's eyes. Here's the point, though.

I'm nervous because when he gets to that highest level, he turns into blood and guts warrior. I mean, he turns into Rocky Balboa, Luke, and he takes on incredible damage and doesn't necessarily lean on the craft that's there, the same craft that, you know, made him look like a million dollars against Korean Zombie when he came back

after a two-year break. Yair Rodriguez is too dangerous right now and too dialed in. I mean, again, the performance against Max Holloway in defeat was next level for him. You were like, oh, I didn't know he could, I didn't know he looked at it that way. You know what I mean? I didn't know he was,

he had leveled up. He's there. He's ready. It could be a bad night at the office for Ortega if he's like, you know, if he gets lured back into another blood and guts thing, Luke. He's got to come here with a, he's got to change his game.'s something has to change luke tell me i'm crazy i don't think you're crazy at all and i think that ortega's wrestling is going to be pretty key here because he should not like yes if someone backs you up and throw something and over commits

be a great time to you know get a guillotine clamp or find the back of course but i But I wouldn't wait around on Yaya Rodriguez if I was Ortega's team. You would want to be prepared for a scenario like that, certainly, but you would not want to be reliant upon him delivering those to you and then waiting on them. You're going to have to take that fight by the back of the neck and make it yours. And then if those other situations reveal themselves, be ready for them. But to me, this is going to be a real test

of Ortega's game planning and execution and everything else. And I think he's up to it. I thought he did it in the Korean zombie fight, although being in a different direction. But, you know, listen, you give Jair Rodriguez room to work and you are going to have a very bad day. Conversely, if Rodriguez is not minding his P's and Q's, Brian Ortega is going to snatch his throat with a quickness.

I fucking love this fight. Absolutely, but for Ortega, I think it's head movement, Luke, because, you know, yes, Alexander Volkanovsky is a whole different level wizard, and he's adding, you know, intention to his offensive aggression, and he's going after people. So, you know, Volkanovsky's going to find that strike zone against anyone, but Ortega was just there to be hit routinely again and again and again.

Luke, I don't want this to be Ortega's blind spot, similar to somebody like Gaethje with, you know, jiu-jitsu and the lack of game there where the fight can just end like that. I mean, I think Ortega's too good for that, but there's something that's always been so loose about him you know what I mean like that surfer thing is Ortega has such reactive jujitsu I'll throw up a triangle once you take me down I'll look for a guillotine only if you do a head outside double or single or something like that and what I'm saying is those are all valuable traits but but the problem is he doesn't to your point he takes too much damage before that

happens now he's gotten a lot of wins after the fact like again i go back to it and that's what moicano was fucking him up until he made a strategic error and then brian and then brian ortega does what he does i'm saying against yari rodriguez you cannot do that you cannot wait around for him to do something like that so what i think it's going to be not just what like individual skills he uses, the jab and whatnot. He's going to have to press or take it backwards. And I would have to imagine a wrestling-heavy component,

or at least a wrestling-active component, is going to have to be a big part of that, finding his back, making him work from there as well. Because standing at range with that guy and waiting for him to deliver a mistake, it will happen. But you're going to eat a shitload of punishment along the way. Not acceptable. I just think it's not just like a lust for action with Ortega. I just think there's something wiring-wise that's a little bit off.

Because, you know, remember his rise? Even when he was getting win after win, there'd be fights that were really competitive or that he was down on, yet he'd sort of miraculously in the third round, you know, pull out a submission and you're like, damn. There's part of him, Luke, that almost like feels subconsciously like he needs to go down on the scorecards before he can produce, you know, that huge burst. And even his losses tend to have these moments, even against Holloway, where he stood his ground on the feet and was landed bombs, where it's like, he's in love with that dramatic, you know, comeback, but you don't need to always

take it there. You know what I mean? Like if he brings in the offensive wrestling, as you're saying, this could be different. We'll see. I think that's right. The last thing I would say is if you look at the rankings, do I kind of like this fight for a lot of different reasons, but here's the top five, right? So you've got, uh, Matt, you got obviously, uh, Volkanovsky is your champ. Max is number one. Then you got Ortega to Rodriguez three cater for chance on junk five. We talked about how they have to Rodriguez three, Cater four, Chan Sung Jung five. We talked about how they have to go to number five in the women's flyweight division

to give Tyler Santos the shot because Shevchenko has just burned through everyone. Now Max is ranked number one, but BC between Volkanovski and Max, both of them have beaten Ortega. Max beat Rodriguez. Max beat Calvin Cater. And then Volkanovski destroyed Chan Sung Jung.

Dude, they've burned through the top five already like you're looking at a six seven eight nine and ten I would have to be fresh challenges but those guys have to beat somebody else up here it's amazing what Max and and Alexander have done in that featherweight division but it could be it could be an opportunistic time if you're somebody like Josh Emmett who could be one really big win away from getting a title shot true very true and he's got a big fight coming up against Calvin Cater to that point so that could be kind of interesting all right topic number four we move now to the weekend MMA storylines there is a Bellator event on Friday and a UFC event on Saturday BC will start with the

Bellator event which will be Friday live from London England uh MVP versus Storlie. BC, here we go. We thought we were going to get a bit of a different fight, but there was a late change, and this is sort of what we ended up with, latest change. MVP taking on Logan Storlie. BC, if there has been a consistent thread of criticism of MVP, it's that the critics say he's a can crusher. He hasn't fought enough tough guys. Now, I think that's somewhat overstated, but if you look at the history of his record, he does have a lot of wins over guys who were badly overmatched. Logan Storley, however, is not that guy.

Fresh off the biggest win of his career in a five-round main event, we know about his wrestling pedigree. We saw about his game plan application in his last fight, plus his jab, plus his striking, comes from a great team. BC, you can say whatever you want about MVP's record up to this point, but there's no denying this is far and away his best fight, and Logan Storlie is as good as they come at 170 pounds. Yeah, this is a sneaky, very good fight.

It's a consolation prize to MVP versus the current unbeaten champion, Yaroslav Amasov. And it's not as good of a fight, but it's close in its own way. And obviously, you know, what really helps Storlie's stock at the moment is not just, you know, putting away that really, that hometown win he had where he just didn't look good and didn't look right. He put that away. And his last fight, you know, against Neiman Gracie, I mean, he was blood and guts at times.

He really showed us something. The fact, though, that we've already seen him against the current champion, Amosov, and, you know, they produced one of the best fights in Bellator history. It was, you know, it was tactical. There was drama. There was a lot of back and forth. It's a slightly easier fight for MVP inp in some ways yet luke at the same time what was the big draw of seeing mvp finally fight amosov was you know is he for real and

remember we had this discussion with big john and and josh thompson and i think that's part of what made the little drama back and forth when when we were on the scene there in bellator and josh thompson was kind of you know throwing throwing right hands at us luke and we were on the scene there in Bellator and Josh Thompson was kind of, you know, throwing right hands at us, Luke, and we were sparring a little bit verbally and sort of like, what's this guy's energy right here? Was he thought we were, you know, just discounting MVP altogether? No, MVP's spectacular and he's amazing

and he has gotten so much better. But until you actually see him go in there against somebody like Amosov, who we know could potentially take him down and just, you know, rinse and repeat and grind him for 25 straight minutes, until you see that against somebody at that level, you're not going to fully believe. There's always going to be that part of you that has doubts. So it's like the ultimate perfect timing. Yes, MVP took a little bit longer to get here in terms of matchmaking, but he's gotten better in such huge increments, particularly his last couple, that damn, you want to see if MVP is the real,

but yet luckily for us as a replacement, Storlie's still good enough to really push that potentially out of him. And Luke, the one thing you could say about Storlie against Gracie is, I mean, his striking wasn't a 10 out of a 10 he's not a completely well-rounded fighter he still needs to rely on his strengths in a lot of ways but he seems intangible wise to be like legitimately battle tested and ready to do whatever he has to do to to win his chance at the title here against MVP and knowing that now knowing we've seen him go through hell a little bit it only adds to how good this fight can be yeah totally I mean listen he fought Neiman Gracie outside of his comfort zone by virtue of the fact that he didn't want to mess with Neiman Gracie's

ground game which is I think criminally underrated quite personally I think Neiman Gracie's ground game is excellent and so he was like well I guess I'm gonna have to strike it out and he did and that's exactly what he did but if you go back to the Yaroslav Amasov fight if you guys have never seen Amasov versus Storlie it's maybe one of Bellator's best fights ever. It is a phenomenal contest. I mean, truly epic. Those two were wrestling. And one of those wrestling contests where it was like back and forth and back and forth.

I don't know how those guys weren't completely gassed. And Logan Storlie only came up a little bit short. Dude, he gets to go back to that this time. Now, of course, he has to negotiate that distance. Obviously, that's treacherous and some of this fight's gonna have to be fought on the feet obviously we all understand that but like does Storlie have to look away from the ground game no he has to go right to it and this is where he does his best work so if you're MVP who by the way is entering this fight like since let's say since the pandemic he's beaten Ross Houston Derek Anderson and then Douglas Lima via split decision

now the Lima win is his nicest one but Lima is I think on a big skid in his career there's a question about whether his prime is over for obviously Logan Storley since the pandemic he has that razor thin loss to Yaroslav Amisov then he beat Dante Shiro and then to the point you raise Neiman Gracie and the Neiman Gracie one was a big five-round, real gut-check kind of moment, and he answered the bell. Dude, you've got to love this contest. If Logan Storley wins, you could not say that he wouldn't be deserving of the rematch against Amosov or however Bellator's going to negotiate that

with the war in Ukraine. And for Michael Page, dude, this would be... The Douglas Lima win is the biggest one on paper, but in terms of getting a guy who's ready to go at his best and has a particular skill set around that fighter's weakness, the Storlie win would by far be his best win on paper. To have Lima and Storlie as back-to-back potential wins, dude, you couldn't hate on him anymore after that.

You could say what you want about what happened before, but that's a very commendable one-two punch. And we could give the same criticism this way of, did it need an interim title here when we know Amasov's coming back that we gave the UFC? You could make that same case here. I think this is a situation where Bellator hasn't necessarily, you know, ever really abused that situation.

It still keeps their London card very strong. Is it the same thing in the end? Yes. But I think what this will do, at least the good byproduct of it, as you mentioned before about silver linings, Luke, is it's going to make the fight against Amosov even bigger, whether it's MVP having just proven he can beat the same style or whether it's Storlie and now we get this rematch for the title and we can talk again how great the first one was. But secondly, Luke, the best part about this substitution is it doesn't change at the core why this matchup is great, whether it's Amasov or Storley against MVP.

What each one does great is the kryptonite of the other, right? So you love those type of contrasting fights. No doubt about it. Also on the card, BC, there's some other good ones here. Lyoto Machida's in your co-main event taking on Fabian Edwards. Sort of a decent middleweight contest. I would have to say I have my eyes a little bit more on Denise Kielholz, who gave Juliana Velasquez a fight some people thought Denise had won. It was certainly very close against Kana Watanabe at 125.

Watanabe, of course, got smoked by the rejuvenated Liz Karmush, if you want to put it that way. Fun little contest there, BC. Anything else that catches your eye on this card? I mean, this Paul Daly replacement opponent is not the one we wanted necessarily. If this is the last time for Paul Daly, though, if that ends up being the case.

I think that guy, Wendell Giacomo, is a Pitbull Brothers guy, but I could be wrong about that. Oh, yeah, he is. And look, when they said Jose Augusto was a Pitbull Brothers guy, look what he did in that Rebel Johnson fight. He went the hell after it.

So it's worth watching there whether this is the final fight for paul daly or not uh conor mcgregor friend charlie ward on the on the undercard luke teammate there of sbg so you know will we get the irishman there in london i don't know i don't know luke i can't predict that all right let's move with that if we can to the ufc fight in our card we have Bellator versus Rakic that's your main event Jan Blachowicz is back taking on Alexander Rakic BC I've not looked at the betting odds for this I'm going to imagine that Rakic is a slight favorite as you swap out earpieces I have no idea if you can even hear a word I'm saying look I didn't swap out earpieces I grabbed a drink all right oh did you oh all right well I was looking at the corner of my eye

obviously as we know Blachowicz came off the best win of his career or maybe one of the more high earpieces, I grabbed a drink, all right? Oh, did you? Oh, all right. Well, I was looking at the corner of my eye. Obviously, as we know, Blachowicz came off the best win of his career, or maybe one of the more high-profile wins, beating Israel Adesanya, but then lost BC to Glover Teixeira in his last fight, and it was pretty one-sided for the most part, too. That's not quite true, but not a great performance from Blachowicz. Here he is taking on Alexander Rakic, BC. Rakic enters this contest on a two-fight win streak he did lose to Volkan Uzdemir but then beat Anthony Smith and Tiago Santos although in somewhat lackluster fights yes what is your anticipation for this one uh it's twofold

basically touched on kind of what you said and this fact is like look that's the worst performance of elite Jan Blachowicz's career and let's not forget that it wasn't that long ago, which is what made Jan's story so great that we didn't think of him as elite, that he was kind of a journeyman, a tough out, but a journeyman in some degree. Well, he turned that around, had the late career resurgence,

but then straight up is like, I've never felt that way before in the cage. So let's give credit to Glover Teixeira. He took care of business. But you do agree with that sort of self-complaint it didn't look like the best Jan Blahovic something went wrong something got miswired whatever it was worst night at you know of his life he's got a great opportunity to come back and prove that was nothing and he still got it and then suddenly you know he could be in line this could be a number

one contender fight for him in that regard I mean it, it probably is for both guys, but boy, does Rackets have an opportunity to put away whatever remaining criticism we have. And I think you nailed it. Not always exciting when he builds a lead and is sort of content to a certain degree, unless you're rushing him and making him fight. He's got a chance here, Luke. I mean, you could not be a bigger name than the former champion right here in the guy's first fight after losing the title to come out and try to get a finish and try to show people that, no, I am in that same category as Prochazka and Ankalev and these hammers that are coming on right now. But Luke, you got to love either of these fighters, you know, hopes and chances of getting a title shot with a win here.

This is big stakes and obviously it could be big action. Could be. If Blachowicz could bring that out of him. Blachowicz has sort of proven that he was not merely a championship material but could hold it for a little while. Like he proved that for a short time anyway, he could be the best in that weight class and potentially he could get back there again.

We'll have to see. But certainly that run he had, if you look at it prior to losing to Glover, I mean, listen to losing to Glover. I mean, listen to this. Just incredible. He went from the Tiago Santos loss, which was back in 2019. Then he beats Luke Rockhold, Jacare, Corey Anderson, Dominic Reyes, and then Izzy. All back to back to back to back to back. Damn.

That's an incredible run he went on. Then Glover took it from him. That's a whole career. Luke, that's an entire career in like two years, right? Yeah, and think about that win streak from Luke Rockhold to Izzy because the win streak before that was Devin Clark, Jared Kananier, Jimmy Manoa, Nikita Krylov. Like a good win streak but not nearly as good as beating Luke Rockhold,

Jacare, Corey, Dominic, and then Izzy. Completely, completely different. So you're really seeing how much he had leveled up, and that was after a loss, so he could come back here. But certainly I'm just sort of pointing out that run showed for a little while that he was maybe the best 205er. Rakic hasn't gotten to that yet. So you beat someone like Blachowicz, and again, it wouldn't prove that either,

but it puts you in a space to then contend for a title, puts you in a space to be like, well, should it be Rakic? Should it be Ankhalaev? Who's going to get next in this weight class? Obviously after Glover and Yuri have a fight at UFC 275. Really, really, really important. So not merely about Rakic getting to a spot where he can contend for a title,

but if you look at his win streaks or his wins, they're very good, BC. But if he loses to Uzdemir and then loses to Blachowicz, it would kind of tell you he can challenge the outside of the top five, but not the top three. It would kind of say that's where he's leveled out at. This would be getting past that part, too, is what I would say. This is like a first day at new school for him, Luke,

if his family just moved. He's got an opportunity in this fight to kind of define what we think of him moving forward and what his reputation is going to be, you know, splashing in the pool or quietly dipping his toe in, in terms of title contention. I mean, he can win this fight and not look great, Luke, and there won't be the same buzz and he may not get the automatic title shot. So he's got an opportunity, but I think, you know, if we look at the realities of what we know, Jan Blachowicz is not necessarily someone who's going to come full volume to try to lure you into a brawl, but he eventually tends to settle in one in the end.

So this could be a very physical fight in which the chin, the chins of both Luke are going to need to be there. So it's going to be fun. Also on this card, BC, I'd love to get your thoughts. I guess they re-signed Kaitlyn Shukagian, and then she takes on Amanda Hibas at 125. It's a big fight Luke. This is a big title contending fight. There's no question about that. Chukagian got the new deal so shout out to her Luke whether we think she's ever been exciting or not right or whether we think she has a good nickname she doesn't but that's okay Luke she's she wins. She's a consistent fighter. But this is number...

Where are we? What division is this? 125, Luke. Mm-hmm. I thought they were... Where's HeBoss ranked in here? Is she unranked in this division, Luke? No, she's at 115.

What the hell are we doing here, Luke? Damn. Do you like to fight or not, BC? She's moving up in weight, HeBoss I guess so yeah I like the fight I like the fight and its potential I wanted to say for for he bosses title contention at 115 this is not at 115 but it is at a big name but to be honest uh the the matchmaking here is a little bit puzzling Luke can you can you try to make sense of it I'm not entirely certain either especially if it's at 125 if she was trying to make 115 like as in because 125 was never going to go her way as long as shefchenko's

the champ that would make more sense but i guess amanda hebas doesn't want to cut the weight anymore and wants to move up to a division where she could dude like think about it if they go into number five in the rankings to give a title shot like, literally all you have to do is hover around that, and you'll get one. You know what I mean? So why not try? Why not try to go to 125? I'm not saying it's an easy thing to walk in the park, but you don't have to climb nearly as high.

Yeah, she fought Van Zandt there in that one-off, but I thought, again, it was a one-off. Even though she had that loss, Ahibas, two fights ago, she bounced back against John Jarova, Luke. And it's interesting. We'll see. We'll see what the narrative is. I haven't followed it close enough, apparently.

But I don't think she's making a full-time move. Maybe this was just the best fight, you know, an opportunity she got. But I don't know. I don't know, Luke. It's not. It's just puzzling. It's a bit puzzling. Nick Maximoff, who is the Nate Diaz crew guy,

who relies on wrestling, opens that card at 185. Also, BC, Michael Johnson, who is nearly a 500 fighter, 19 and 17 against Alon Patrick on the prelims. Also an interesting. Frank Camacho is back on the card. Louis Smolka taking on Davey Grant. There's a bunch of little fun fights on the card all the way through. Yeah, imagine if I told you

without you setting that up that there's a fighter in the UFC who's 19 and 17 yet has wins over Edson Barbosa, Tony Ferguson, and Dustin Poirier.

Like, are you kidding me? I know. Stoppage wins in a couple of those cases, I believe. So, incredible. All right, BC. Last but not least

for our topics, topic number five Jermell Charlo versus Brian Castagno too now we are not fools about our audience we know that they're mostly boxing fans but BC we try to get people whether it's Showtime or DAZN or anybody else to watch the boxing fights that really matter this one matters and it matters for a couple of reasons one it's a title unification to an important rematch but three bc there must be something that i don't know about this fighter i can't appreciate that you can why is this an important fight in combat sports to pay attention to in boxing in particular

the stakes are high which is a monster part you said unification it's an undisputed championship first time all the bells all the belts to crown one at 154 you know in this modern era but you know you add in the drama they already fought last year and it was a fight of the year contender type it was fun castanio pushed an incredible pace only you had a little bit of controversy there it ends up being a draw most observers thought castanio had done enough i agree with that it was sort of this ho-hum, like, womp, womp. You know, is this, you know, the B-side never gets ahead. Well, he got the immediate rematch here.

And I think we all tend to believe Jermel Charlo has another gear and maybe the highest potential gear of the two here. But yet Castaño fights in that style that is just, I mean, he's coming on. He's a brawler per se, but he's a skilled brawler. He's a functional brawler. There's game planning there. And look, he got inside consistently on Charlo with ease. I mean, he was not made to pay in the way that you would expect because he's not just there to be hit, even though he's cutting inside on you and pushing the pace. So this is a puzzle for Jermell Charlo to figure out.

And, you know, the thing for Charlo here is a loss here packaged with that draw that a lot of people thought was probably a loss. You know, that's a damaging couple fight stress for a guy who really looked, after knocking out Jason Rosario, unifying the belts in that pay-per-view that the Charlos headlined, that he was coming on to be a pound-for-pound guy, that he was, you know, going to step into stardom and chase Triple G like everybody else, like his brothers, you know, and try to keep moving up. This turned out to be a hiccup for him, Luke, but he's got to come back and handle his business. We know how deep this division is. Tim Zhu's

coming on. There's plenty of former champions, Jared Hur business. We know how deep this division is. Tim Zhu's coming on. There's plenty of former champions. Jared Hurd, you know, on and on. Julian Williams still around. But these are the two best. And it's weird. It's like, I feel like Charlo can right the wrong here, so to speak, and fix what he didn't do the first time.

But I didn't know Castaño had that effort in him the first time, Luke, and he raised his game. So, dude, you're telling me that we got this fight, it's not a pay-per-view, and they're putting it in the damn war grounds there in Carson, California, that tennis stadium which produces one all-time great thriller after another? Yeah, dude, get pretty fired up for Saturday night. This is going to be great. All right, so who has more to adjust from the first fight I'm gonna

argue Jermell Charlo because I thought Jermell of the two would you agree that Jermell is better than Jermall relatively speaking pound for pound slightly yes if you had to compare apple to apple and try to say which ones yeah I'd say Jermell slightly in my opinion yeah I would I would say Jermall, I mean, yes, he's in the bigger weight class, but I would say he's also like pound for pound, I think a slightly heavier puncher, a little bit more physical, whereas I think Jermall has a little bit more speed, timing, razzle-dazzle. Again, these are fairly similar, I mean, very similar fighters, but I would spotlight some of those differences.

But to me, Jermell had i think was a little bit surprised bc by the gusto frankly of castagno castagno in one round if charlo was told go win this round no matter what you have to do i think he could do it but i think he has trouble applying that against castagno's pressure round over round over round over round like show me that again show me that again show me that again that part he had trouble with and so you would imagine he would have a more to adjust around to fix that I don't think it's a talent issue but I do think it might be a somewhat of a conditioning issue believe it or not not saying the charlos have bad conditioning that's not I'm saying, but you might need a very special one

for this particular kind of fighter. And I think that there are some tactical adjustments he can make to preserve himself over the course of this fight that maybe he didn't do. I think he invited a little bit more brawling, especially middle late in this fight, than perhaps he wanted to. What do you make of that analysis?

Yeah, I think you're dead on. I think the main thing about this, why I still can confidently say, despite having just seen charlo lose to castanho the first time although i know it was it was a draw is that if anyone can improve on it higher it's charlo castanho you know it's over exceeded my expectations and fought brilliantly but if there's a fatal flaw in in charlo it's weird my fatal flaw in him is a little different, yet it connects with the one you said potentially about, does he have the gas tank to carry out the type of 12-round high volume but also high craft that you would expect against Castaño?

He's a little bit too in love with his own artistry, and I think that's what fuels the low output. And when it works, when he knocks out Jason Rosario brilliantly late in that fight with the perfect shot, it's wonderful. But when the other guy doesn't go down like the first Tony Harrison fight, or even to be fair, most of the second Tony Harrison fight that I thought Jermell Charlo was down on the cards, but then pulled out the knockout. When he doesn't pull out the knockout, you suddenly go, man, you're a little bit too good to be doing that Canelo thing and not, you know, leaving no doubt. If he can do that, which would mean a consistent jab against Castaño, right?

Making him pay a toll for getting inside. If he's willing to dig in and try to time those uppercuts and make it a consistent threat to basically tell Castaño it's not going to be easy this time, yeah, he could be, this could be a coming out party for how great Jermell is. Jermell could also potentially win this, Luke, if it's a more boxing oriented one with footwork and jab and trying to cut out. I mean, there's, there's, that's why you have to still love and believe in Jermell because if anybody has more ways to win compared to Castaño, it's him, but he's got to execute it in the face of a guy who just refuses to take a backward step.

Yet again, isn't there to be hit. You know, most brawlers, okay, they can put it on you. But you can crack the code and get them out of there. Castaño disguises himself well. He goes to the body. He's rugged. He leans on you. This is like the perfect kryptonite for Charlo.

Which is why this matchup is so good. Because Luke, for him to silence Castaño, he's going to have to come out of his shell and do things that we've seen in splashes, like those knockouts, the one against Hatley, the one against Lubin, right? They just coiled Snake, just delivering. But the delivery

system to set those up on this level, it's got to be more offensively going forward. And if he does, Luke, if he can figure out that balance, yes, you're talking potentially about one of the 10 best fighters in this whole game. BC, who is the crowd going to favor here? First time they fought in San Antonio, which was neutral in the sense that neither is from there,

but Charlos are from Texas, obviously, but Castaño is from Argentina. How much, A, are the Argentine fans going to travel for him, or B, who is his fan base there in California? Is this a neutral site? How do you view putting the fight, the rematch, in basically California versus Texas the first time? Well, you're putting it like Texas. You're aiming at the Mexican-American fan base without question,

but you're making it a home game for that Mexican-American fan base here in greater LA. And I think, look, Castaño's Argentinian, he's not Mexican, but he fights a Mexican style for sure. So you get the optics there of why Castaño could very much end up being a crowd favorite here. But yet at the same time, the Charlos, they've extended their footprint,

maybe not on a Gervante davis level where that level of celebrity is there in the front row consistently but you know the charlos pack a punch and people do end up caring about them but yeah luke it's it's no secret here of castano's style mexican american market he's our argentinian brother for this day um argentines do travel for like my donna floyd but I haven't seen it as consistent. They're going to be there, no question. I mean, Matisse had a good traveling group, but not on comparison to the UK

or other ethnic backgrounds. Sergio Martinez, did the Argentines travel for him? A little, but not in overwhelming numbers, no. Not a lot, okay. And also look, Martinez kind of became a boxer in Spain. So even though he grew up in Argentina, he didn't start boxing until 19. So, you know, it's a little different. I get it.

I get it. And there's a weird connection between Argentina and Spain. Okay. So there you have it. Those are our top five topics. But, BC, I want you to know, when I think about, you know, Charlo Castaño, too, I'm thinking about defense. But when I think about defense, it's the worst segue ever. I think about great know charlo castagno too i'm thinking about defense but when i think about defense it's the worst segue ever i think about great vpns do you like vpns bc of course i do

luke why wouldn't i nord vpn it for example offers this uh brand new feature to the desktop apps providing threat protection and taking your digital security to the next level and uh luke that's important listen if you're as into pornography as Brian Campbell, you need to protect yourself from malicious websites, malware trackers, and intrusive ads, even if you're not connected to a VPN server, BC. And Luke, just to make sure that you have the most up-to-date version of the app on your device,

go to the shield icon and switch on the threat protection button. You're going to love what it does to you. All right, grab your exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com slash combat. That's combat with a K. Or use the code combat with a K to get a huge discount off your NordVPN plan plus free threat protection plus one additional month for free. It's completely risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. It's worth it, believe me. Along with the amazing cybersecurity benefits

and getting the ability to access streaming services in other countries with no extra cost, NordVPN now comes with a free anti-malware feature, which protects your devices from malicious ads, phishing sites, maybe even some of that malware, Luke. That old malware. Luke, how could you, and by the way, thank you, NordVPN. We're proud to partner with you on this MK journey. Luke, how could you go weekend storylines and not talk about that, you know, viral boxing match on a helipad

in dubai you know oh i just don't care yeah yeah i mean also i didn't say this and i do care a little bit i will watch the main event of the weekend uh but invicta is also tonight and it's ducati versus epitella for your strawweight title fight. And by the way, Emily Ducati, her record's 10-6. That doesn't scream out at you like, oh, this is amazing, but she's actually quite good and has massively improved since her time in Bellator. It's actually a really fun fight. I think that's going to be on MMA Junkie, Invicta 47 FC Ducati versus Apatela.

Is that a John Morgan and CM Punk production, Luke? I think they do CF FC, if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure. Okay. According to our team, they do CFFC, and I got that wrong. But they're actually pretty good together. I'll give them some credit there. Yeah, they are good together.

Actually, it's not a bad role for CM Punk. I think he clearly likes MMA. He clearly has a legitimate love for it. But like me, he's just not very good at it. Well, on that helipad atop the world's largest building, Luke, we will get Floyd Mayweather against some guy named Don Moore. And Anderson Silva's back in the co-main against some guy I never heard of. So if you care about that, Luke.

Yeah, great. Great. All right. Luke, every Wednesday in these parts, we have the fans send in their shit to us. You know, they can make memes. They can make memories. The email address, the weebweeb,

that's all is morningcombat at gmail.com. It's Wednesday. It's time for fan submissions. We've got mail, Luke. Viewers, but except this one's female. This is from Haley. She says, Hey, fellas, my husband, Joe, is one of your biggest fans. I bought

him and our son matching St. Patty's Day shirts, and he has been embarrassed to send been joe he's one of your biggest fans i bought him and our son matching saint patty's day shirts and he has been and he has been embarrassed to send the pictures into you guys he absolutely loves you and watches the show with our little guy every day how this makes it on the show so you can see your guys truly love your fans i don't know if that was english but i support hayley just the same i know what would make this gordito Look at this gordito. Look at him. Oh, wow. Look at this. That little baby. Maybe I was talking about the dad.

I meant the baby. Two generations of dong here, Luke. This is wholesome shit. I like this a lot. I love it. That baby's got the fattest cheeks, fattest arms. Enjoy that time because they're not that way for very long. It goes quickly, but that's a beautiful picture, my friend.

And any other advice about large amounts of drugs in order to sleep, Luke? I do that. I do that. I take a ton of drugs to sleep. All right. Yeah, he is. Let's go to this is from Eric Got Me My House. He's got two photos.

Dear Wash Donks, I DM these pictures to BC two months ago, but he ignored me. Silly me, assuming he would pay attention to guys in his DMs. This is me in Vegas at UFC 272 in March. While walking around, I had one other donk approach me about the greatness of MK. Keep up the great work. Day one promotional malpractice days here. Luke, try to pick apart my tattoos. I double donk dare you.

Much love. I can't really see them. I mean, I'm not a big fan of of and I realize that this is a hot take I personally I don't think green looks good in tattoos especially like emerald green I think it looks really bad tell that to Michael Chiesa Luke he has great green tattoos I know I know people love it I am outvoted on this one but for me personally I just think green looks terrible do you think that's the donk that he ran into that knew about MK and they took a pic, Luke, or do you think that's his significant other?

That's a great question. I'm going to say significant other. All right. Well, much love to Eric and his family. Thank you very much. This is RJ. He says, what's up, donks? RJ here, but not RJ Dinklefucker.

Here's showing off the father-son trip my pops and I busted to Arizona to catch last weekend's UFC card. I had to bust out the MK hat. Of course, I was the only one wearing MK gear because I'm a degenerate that loves four locos in my late 20s. Fun fact, episode one of MK was a recap of the very first live UFC event I ever went. That was UFC 239. Love the show.

Fellas were taken over. Do they give beers the size of Dodge neons at these sporting games? It's unbelievable. Yes. Yes. What was UFC 239? I'm looking that up, Luke. Cause I remember that was our first episode.

Today's episode 300. Our first episode was like right after July 4th of 2019. Yes, Luke. The John Jones fight? The John Santos-Nunes home fight where I attempted the Albuquerque parlay, but it didn't come through, Luke. Holly could not get the job done, Luke. She could not.

It did not. All right. Much love there to RJ and his dad, Luke, who looked a little jacked, right? Yeah, dad's in good shape drinking that. It did not. All right. Much love there to RJ and his dad, Luke, who looked a little jacked, right? Those guys. Yeah, dad's in good shape drinking that beer. Thank you.

All right. This from Mr. Savage. He says, loves. I love the show. OK, thanks. What is he? What did he send? Look, this is a meme

of the parents fighting and the MK fans can't't take it when we're arguing about our stupid arguments the mk fans look at them they just don't like it yeah well this is this is raw this is real okay this is a true story uh luke this one's from at king dazer d-a-s-e-r sorry bc but this one one's for Luke I've been a fan since your promotional malpractice in MMA Beat Days and became an even bigger fan when I learned how awesome your taste in hip hop is

Anyone who lists Sean Price as one of their favorite rappers gets infinite cool points in my book I'm an artist from NYC and I thought Luke would appreciate this Luke T rendition of Sean Price's Mike Tyson album cover. Dude, that is fucking incredible.

So this is a play off of the album Mike Tyson, spelled M-I-C, where Sean Price had consistent use of rugby shirts and gorilla imagery, but he added my face to this, obviously, and then the dumbbell he added as well. But the bigger part is not just that it's a riff on the Mike Tyson cover Sean P used to have that letter P in his name in that same

font and size where you see the T here he just switched it over from a P to a T that is super fucking cool super cool that that yellow T is the only high T in that entire picture but I like it. Just the same. That's great.

Okay. This next one's from Matt. Hey, dongs, here's a meme for that ass. And PS, BC, Toad is playing a show at the Mohegan on July 9th. Will the Viceroy be there? God bless, boys. It's Matt. No, I will not go to Toad the Wet Sprocket at Mohegan,

but thank you for the yes. I've tried to get bc to listen to cannabis cannabis corpse is like cannibal corpse except all the songs are weed themed it's a real band it's a real thing um it's metal it's it's like shouting metal it's like yeah it's like shouting metal it's just instead of being about like engorged you know gut entrails or whatever uh it's about like bongs or something but it's real you can look it up they have albums and stuff it's a real band all right uh thank you matt for that meme just the same here's kevin he says last week luke was not having any of bc shit about the adesanya pronunciation

can you blow it up adesanya now. I mean, you know, that does sum it up. Luke, that's well done there from Kevin. Thank you. Let's go over to Wes. He says, good morning, you on-screen vaping gas station roller eating Cretans. Just a little meme I threw together after watching you guys fake civility while not on your own show. Congratulations on all your success. Keep up your disgusting behavior. together after watching you guys fake civility while not on your own show congratulations and all your success keep up your disgusting behavior yeah i would like to tell you that this meme over

is overstated and wrong but if anything it's understated yeah i think i i think it's dead right and i and i and i give this guy a lot of credit thank you west that's hilarious very true very put that out on the uh on the twitter today on Morning Combat, and I had a hearty laugh. Hey, Todd says, hey, guys, I stumbled across this selfie that BC posted, and boy, is he staying true to his intro to the show when he says, this is our life, this is our passion, that's the spirit we bring to this show. What does that say?

I can't quite read the initials. Is it O-M-K? What's underneath my beard? what does that say look what i can't quite read the initials is it omk what's it underneath my beard 2021 yeah for life it's oh for life oh okay yes i think you're in good shape i think it's a play on that navel tattoo luke that you're avoiding that navel tattoo you own yeah it's not an i don't know why you keep calling it. It's not a navel tattoo. I don't know why you keep calling it that. It circles around your navel, correct? It doesn't, though. That's the thing. That's the funny part about it. It actually doesn't.

Luke, picks or it doesn't count? Yeah, it doesn't count. Anything you say literally doesn't count. Alright. Finally, Luke, Danger Mouse slides in. He's got three photos. He says, Hi, bc it's your old pal here with a few classic meme templates that have been given the mk treatment oh and

stop hating on my shirt bc that's my goddamn art you're dissing so it took this long to get his order filled i didn't know that can we zoom in on these from Danger Mouse, please. These are the Pablo Escobar memes from the, what is it called? Narcos, the show. Yes, yes. I don't know that production staff member's name, and at this point I'm too afraid. That would be right, Luke. That would be dead right.

Again, I wish I could say that wasn't right. Here you go, BC. Morning Combat fan being roasted by luke for making a terrible joke yeah yeah well you know i've been there luke okay i've been there all right that's what i do bro i don't let you get any free ones out here uh if you want to be part of this great thing we do every wednesday morning combat at gmail.com same thing for fridays dead wrong and of course every sunday evening if you want to enter in the sweepstakes called DMs from Donks, visit at Morning Combat on Instagram.

Reply to the thread. That's all you have to do. Luke, it's time, I guess, because today is our 300th episode of regular Morning Combat. We're going to play the newlywed game with Mikey Mormyle? Is this really? Yeah, this is going to be stupid. All right.

All right. Can we bring him in? I don't think he's ever been on camera before hi mikey how we doing guys you guys ready we're ready now now mikey to the best of your ability which you know we'll grade you on a curve here but But to the best of your ability, can you explain to the fans how this is going to work? All right. So we have 13 questions. And each question, you guys each get a chance to get one point. I'll tally up the points at the end. And one of you guys will know the other one better. All right.

So you're going to ask us questions like, you know, what's so-and-so's favorite food or something like that. And then I have to guess his and he has to get mine, and whoever guesses the most right through these 13 questions, they win. Is that the idea? Correct, and I have the answers that you guys submitted to me, so. Okay, we're trying to prove which spouse is the most attentive here. Now, how's this going to go? Are you going to ask the question to BC first, then me, then me, then BC?

How's this going to go? Yeah, I'll direct the question at BC first, then me, then me, then BC? How's this going to go? Yeah, I'll direct the question at you. If you want to get started with one, we can go. Let's do it. Let's do it. All right, BC, what did your significant other wear on episode one of Morning Combat? Oh, okay. To my best of my recollection, and I didn't look it up, Luke had a black suit coat, a blue dress shirt underneath, and a pair of jeans on episode one of MK. I did not check his pants, but correct on that.

Luke, what did BC wear? Okay, the answer is definitely something stupid. But specifically, I don't remember much other than I thought his jacket was like a gray jacket. Is that true? No, it is blue. So one point for BC, zero for Luke. Fuck BC, he don't know shit. Question number two. Hold on.

Mikey, you had asked me to guess what I thought Luke would say. I don't get a point for that? No, you got the point for getting it right. Blue suit, blue shirt. BC has asked the directions of this game, and I'm not joking, no less than 39 million times. Okay, but you asked me to predict Luke's guess, and my guess was BC wore his stupid face. So Luke said this is definitely something stupid, so that should give me another point.

That's all I'm talking about. I think it gets you honorable mention. Can we move this along, please? All right, Luke, what was BC's first job? So I believe that his first job was working in the mailroom in a factory. I believe. I'm not sure about it, but I believe. That is wrong. Unfortunately, Luke, I was 26 when I was working in the shipping and receiving department of the factory.

Unfortunately, Luke. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. You are a fucking loser okay well i got that wrong all right bc what was luke's first job uh the only job he's been fired from chick-fil-a was luke's first job in uh northern virginia well he got you got chick-fil-a right but you're it's not northern virginia oh no that was kenesaw georgia that's right that's all yeah that's right so i still get the point here.

Now the answer was, my first job where I ever showed up and did labor and got paid, even though it was child labor and probably a lot of tobacco. But if we're talking about... But I also wrote in my answer, in fairness to you, you still get it right, BC, which was, if we're talking

like brick and mortar place, like a real place, it was Chick-fil-A. And I did get fired from Chick-fil-A. Luke, that's a great story. I get the point for sure. I love, though, the curveballs in your bio. Like, you know, lived in Doha at age three, picked cotton as a nine-year-old. Like, Luke, this is random.

No, not a nine-year-old. But what grade was that? That was 12 and 13. Yeah, for sure. My first day I ever worked a job was at McDonald's. It was the day I got my driver's license. It was February 22, 1995. And I was making $4.26 an hour.

I was the fry guy, Luke, on those first few shifts until I realized how much you can burn and scar your arms for life with the temperature of that oil and grease that they put the fries in, Luke. I got to say, though, when they get those fries fresh out of the grease, then they douse them in like 15 pounds of salt, and then they serve it to you. They are tasty. I was fry guy, the fry guy.

It was lame, Luke. It was really lame. God, they call you Bry Guy the Fry Guy in soup. You have the worst nicknames in the worst life ever. Well, that's actually what my name tag said, Bry Guy the Fry Guy, and eventually I started changing it and just putting, like, ridiculously, like, Hispanic names that could never possibly be mine, Luke. Like, you know, like Guillermo, stuff like that. And then I would hope that people would, like, look at the name tag

and then try to, they'd be like, Jorge, is that you? And I'd be like, yeah, yeah, actually it is. Esteban, yes, yeah, yeah, showed up. I'm ready, okay. All right, next. All right, question three. BC, who is the better driver? I would say because Luke lives in one of the country's biggest metros,

that he's, even though I'm an incredible driver in every capacity, bad weather, long distance, whatever you need, it's one of the few man skills that I dominate. Driving is not a man skill. But Luke has lived in the city for 20 years, which is a, I could be off here. Like, it's either that he's a great driver, and anyone that grew up, like, in the suburbs of a major city is typically a great driver because they're used to navigating the bullshit. But Luke may also be a public transportation head so he might actually be a shit driver i already gave you the answer that it's luke but now i'm questioning myself

and it probably should be me likey all right um well that would be wrong because luke said that you were also the best driver so no points you are on that one. I'm not a bad driver, but I am an infrequent driver. And so for those reasons, you drive significantly longer distances for significantly longer times. You're probably a better driver in that sense. I would give it to you. Yes. Thank you. Now, it's also because you're listening to Ravi Shankar freebase fentanyl and do strumming on the sitar for seven and a half hours. And so you just kind of zone out and let your body take over.

But I just want to be clear. BC, driving is not a man skill. Driving in the rain or snow is also not a man skill. No, that's what you're wrong. That must be said from a guy who doesn't have those skills then. That's the only justification. No, it's a guy who actually doesn't have real man skills thinks that driving is a man skill.

That's the reality. I mean, look, I once drove after being at a Milwaukee Brewers game. The second the ninth inning ended, I got in the car and drove 17 straight hours from Milwaukee back to my hometown in augusta connecticut look straight through okay bitch i've done road trips from california to dc with other marines and we saw the sun come up twice motherfucker you couldn't even possibly but you're switching off i drove the family to florida straight through three years ago luke okay that's what i'm talking about but yeah you are a better driver. I don't drive that much. I guarantee he's better. Alright.

Question four. Luke, what is BC's favorite movie? Well, whatever it is, it's probably good, not great. So for that reason, because he talks about it incessantly, I'm going to say The Godfather is BC's favorite movie.

That's in the top three or four, but no, Luke. There's a poster on my wall of me substituted in for the main character that the great web screen Christos Christoforos made for me. Luke, it's 1917. Come on, guy. That's your favorite

movie of all time? Yeah, it is. And there's nothing that you can say that'll take me off of this soapbox here. That is sad cinematic classic Luke it's a great movie I have nothing bad to say about it but like best all time

it's not even top 1000 it's my favorite movie I could have said Uncut Gems Luke would that have made you even more mad yes, the Safdie brothers are talented but annoying I could have said Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope Luke, would that have made you even more mad? Yes. The Safdie brothers are talented but annoying. I could have said Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope, Luke. Would that have been okay?

Rogue One, I could have said. Oh, that would have been even worse. All right, guess mine, fuckface. I forgot what I guessed for Luke's. Mikey, what did I guess? It wasn't right, so take another guess. Okay, what I guessed was wrong, so I guess I got to go dumb and dumber. Hold on, hold on.

BC, BC, or Mikey, what did he formally guess? Like, what did he write to you? He formally guessed, let me just pull up that rundown. I'm glad that we have all these graphics to go with this. Yeah, this is a great show. I mean, there's no bells and whistles whatsoever, and it's dragging. Hey, good job having that at the ready Mikey very prepared Brian said that your favorite movie was

strutting down stripe huh yes stripes stripes I you reference it more than any other so I had to go stripe I barely referenced it at all and in front of you had a conversation on Saturday with Ashley about my favorite movie literally in fucking front of you oh it was like because it was some Kurosawa thing and you went on this tangent about how Americans will never be as good as Asians with with a camera that's not what I said. That's actually not what I said at all whatsoever, but okay. The answer is Ron by Akira Kurosawa, you fucking dope. How did you not get

that? That's insane that you didn't get that. I mean, like Kurosawa, you know, I make mad films, Luke. Okay, I'm sorry. I don't know. What do you want from me? I don't know you that well. In fact, maybe this is a sign, Luke, that we should go our separate ways. Alright, let's go next, BC. Mikey, let's burn

through these. It's taking forever. You guys are the ones taking the time. Question five. If your spouse was a pro fighter, who would they be? BC. Oh, Luke would be Roy Nelson, without question. And I would probably be like Mayhem

Miller before the meltdown. I kind of have a flair for the dramatic. You know, not everyone can get my art. Just the certainty with which you gave me Roy Nelson is honestly hysterical. Even I have to laugh at that. I said if Brian were a pro fighter because he won't shut the fuck up about him, he'd be Zabit Megamed Sharapov, although obviously there's no relationship with whoever. That's an artsy pick.

I love that. Yes. And I said Matt Brown, because even though I no longer look like it, there was a time where Matt Brown and I had overlapping looks, and everyone used to make fun of me for it. Different backbones, but you know, that's all right. All right, no points awarded. Question six. BC, who is Luke's favorite right. All right, no points awarded. Question six.

BC, who is Luke's favorite band or artist? Cannibal Corpse. He had two answers on there, and it is not on there. No, no. It's the one you guys focus on. Wait, wait, hold on. That's not your favorite band? No?

No, dude. It's the one that you focus on for reasons that I can't. I mean, dude, look over the top of my right ear, BC. How is this that fucking hard for you? I really cannot believe that. You're right, Luke. You do love Pantera. I was going to guess Vinny Paz next. That's fine.

Honestly, I would have halfway accepted that. That would have been a decent pick. BC, for you, I put... The way I had framed it was like best all time versus like my favorite right now so I put all time for you Beatles and I put right now currently Portugal the man oh wow I love both of those

choices it was the Beatles for a long ass time then it was Dylan and Hendrix it's Joni Mitchell right now though Luke and Joni Mitchell I mean she's just a brilliant alien creature yes Luke you Joni Mitchell? I mean, she's just a brilliant alien creature. Yes, Luke. I mean, I'm in her jazz era, and I won't leave.

You can't get me out of it, Luke, okay? Okay, I still think I should get a point. I think I should get a point, Mikey. One. I mean, Mikey, you can give him a pity point, because obviously I'm running away with this thing. Keep it going. All right, question seven. BC, who would play Luke in a movie? I mean, Mike, you can give him a pity point because obviously I'm running away with this thing. Keep it going.

All right, question seven. BC, who would play Luke in a movie? I mean, Jose, before you answer this, let me say something. Let me say something. BC, remember, they're going to make me look better than I am. You don't have to go with Danny DeVito or Jonah Hill you can be nice you can be nice I think I nailed it here alright

Brendan Fraser I don't hate that pick it's not right but I don't hate that pick he's not like he became for a short period he was like A list extreme I don't hate that you know what i'll take that pick

because there was i remember i remember when brendan frazier was a bit of an it guy in hollywood i remember he had his moment it was fleeting but he had his moment i'll take that pick that's not so bad that's not the answer i wrote for myself though you kind of hated him but you respected his game i think that's what how people look at you luke you know all right so luke wrote arnold for himself so that would be wrong of course dude i had to write schwarzenegger for myself i'm not saying it's in any way reflective of reality in fact it's just nothing but wishful thinking but that's the way it would be you asked me who i thought luke would pick and i wrote down that he would pick arnold for himself yes and that who

would he pick for me well no all right let him go i picked yeah for you i picked danny mcbride the guy who plays kenny powers that's who i picked mikey who did i pick for myself uh rocco so freddy i mean does anything tell you how out of his mind BC is? Then for me, he picks Roy Nelson and for himself, a viciously angry porn star. I mean, look, he won't have a lot of opportunities to use his greatest acting tool, if you will. But I didn't give him as many opportunities. But yeah, I think that'd be a great fix. Who did I say that Luke would say would play me?

I thought I'd be getting points for this part. No, no, no. That's how it cross-corrects. That's how it cross-checks to get the point. All right. So question number eight. BC is leading three to one. What is your spouse's favorite junk food?

So what is your co-host's favorite junk food? BC. I said that your favorite junk food would be gas station hot dogs. If that's wrong, then fuck your life. Nailed it. Yes. My favorite snack food is pork. Hot dogs. Beef hot dogs. Whatever you got for me, Luke.

Yours, I put French fries. Ooh. I mean, who doesn't love French fries? But no, that's not my favorite. hot dogs whatever you got for me luke uh yours i put french fries not i mean i do who doesn't love french fries but no that's not my favorite okay my favorite would be ready for this and you're gonna laugh at me everyone laughs at this twizzlers i love twizzlers oh okay okay okay my wife if i go to the movies if i go to the movies my wife gets the popcorn and then my go-to is i get the drink, and then I get the Twizzlers. That's my go-to. Oh, my gosh. My wife and father love Twizzlers as well on that level,

which is weird because you look like my father, and you are my editorial life mate. That sounds like a good combination in your life. That is who I am. You can call me Dad. It's okay. I'll let you. All right.

Question number nine. Poppy Gringo, is that you? I mean, that is kind of my life. I have no idea how Reddit works. Keep going. Question number nine. BC, who is Luke's celebrity crush? This is so fucking easy.

Salma Hayek. Yes. I mean, come on. Who doesn't?'t i mean how do you go wrong with that one now i struggled on this one for you bc because your taste in women is weird no this is extremely easy if you know bc what is your guess i feel like i know bc really well but i feel i feel like i you're gonna love my pick I think if I pick is really good tell him Mikey oh you're not gonna say it no I should say it I want to see his face Luke's pick was can you keep the list in front of you have fun sake I have nine different screens up Kathy Bates from. From Misery? Are you kidding me? Dude, BC loves nothing more than women who look like, you know,

they're serving you sloppy joes on a Thursday. I mean, it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Who is your fucking celebrity crush? I don't know. The real answer is Shawn Johnson. I did tell you that. But I put down as the answer, you'll want a champion. I wanted to give you a chance to get it right. If you had told me it was a fighter, I could have gotten it. I did tell you that. But I put down as the answer, you'll want a champion. I wanted to give you a chance to get it right.

If you had told me it was a fighter, I could have gotten it. I could have gotten it. Alright. Question number 10, BC. What is Luke's dream job? Desk analyst at the fights. Oh, God. I would accept.

You know what? Hold on. Mikey, that's not what I wrote, God, I would accept. You know what? Hold on. Mikey, that's not what I wrote you, but I would accept that because I've had these conversations with BC, so that's not technically what I wrote, but I think BC should get credit for it because I think he's right. All right, point awarded to BC.

What did he write? He wrote that. Tell him, Mikey. You both already have your dream jobs. That's true. I did write that. Am I wrong, BC? Well, you're not, because I wrote down for my

dream job, you know, color commentary for boxing, which, yeah, I'm kind of doing, plus MK is, without question, 300 episodes in. Yeah, Luke, this is... Alright, if BC gets a point, I'm kind of doing, plus MK is, without question, 300 episodes in. Yeah, Luke, this is. All right, if BC gets a point, I should get a point. Yeah, you should.

I'm not trying to be emotional for the sake of it, but this gets me out of bed very happy every morning, Luke, that we do this show. Agreed, agreed. All right, it is 5-3 in favor of BC, heading into question 11. Which celebrity couple are you most like luke i wrote johnny depp and amber heard i wrote down i predicted what you would say for us and my prediction was that you would say we are machine gun kelly and megan fox oh that is such a good choice but no that's not the direction I went.

What was your honest answer? My answer was Rocky and Tisha. Rocky and Tisha? Who the fuck is that? UFC fighters. You don't know anything about their lives. What kind of a fucking answer is that? I follow them on Instagram. Luke,

what do you want from me? All right. Well, that one's a wash next. All right. Question 12. Name the best gift they ever gave you. Luke.

So am I answering the one I gave to BC or what he gave to me? The best gift that he gave to you. And we'll cross check it with what he wrote down. Okay. So this is very easy bc has literally never gotten me a gift so the answer is nothing mikey what did i write down for luke's prediction of what i gave him that that is a point for bc he said yes uh and then for mine i did write down that luke would say that um the only thing I've given him is,

or no, the only thing he's ever given me was an audience, but I didn't write that down. My greatest gift that Luke's ever given me was the time he bought $59 worth of Taco Bell in that Jersey City hotel room prime pandemic when he was like, oh, you hungry? You want something? Did you eat? What do you want? And then here's like the most amount of Taco Bell of all time. It was like, you know, yeah, that was a good night.

I nailed it. Did I not? Did I not? Yeah, you did. That was a great gift. That was two friends just bonding over just, you know, fast food. It was great. All right.

The last question will start with you BC who said I love you first this is so fucking easy and don't you dare lie about it motherfucker don't you dare lie about it what did I write none of us oh no I said the audience oh you're

so wrong dude I've told you I loved you multiple times I never meant it but that's not what i that's not that has no bearing on whether i've said it before the answer is luke yep yep all right so what's the final score there with this with this sexless entertainmentless game brian campbell seven luke thomas five oh it's like the canelo fight bc you barely got away with one congrats on 300 episodes guys uh thanks 300 episodes which means nothing like probably i know i gotta tell you like i remember i we used to grill bjorn rebney because we we came up on

bellator 100 and we were all the media was like okay what you gonna do for bellator 100 he was like nothing i'm just another regular show. And we're like, see, this guy lacks the, you know, the pizzazz, the fight promoter needs. Now I look back and I'm like, dude, you know, I don't really give a fuck that this is 300 or not, to be honest with you. Well, I mean, it's probably got the same street value in the end of the awards that we won,

even though I give those more values because that was the fans getting out and voting for us. But Luke, as we look back on 300, which means we started in july 2019 so we're coming up on three years this summer wow luke we're here do you have any um do you have one moment is it still the live show ending that's still the one moment for me luke the live show ending poir we weigh connor three that's the top. That's the top of the food chain right there. One day we'll

have a reunion with those exact folks, Luke, who were there. That international fight week is going to be huge. It's going to be huge. Yeah. Do you have any other favorites, Luke? Best episode, best guest, best anything? 300?

We haven't had many guests guests and part of the biggest ones we've had we've not even told the audience about yet so there's that i don't know dude just i gotta say like i just wake up every time and all the institutional support that we have for me is i mean it dude it's a dream come true i've been in places where you didn't get any any institutional support and to have all of the one stuff that we have here, it's like, do I have a particular... Oh, you know, when we did The Wheel, I did the karaoke. That was a pretty good episode of The Wheel, for example, stuff like that. And there's been fun post-fight shows that we've done. But honestly, I feel like...

I really mean this. I do feel like we're just getting started, to be totally candid. So 300, great. Here's to 300 more. Yeah. I mean, the fact that we can come up with ridiculous ideas and you know showtime's like yeah let's do that okay great you know the fact that they're like let's staff a documentarian on every trip brian and luke go on i love it i love it and it's nothing

though without these great people so it's a shout out to all you who have liked subscribed spread the word like a std on a college campus voted for us at various turns sending in all your shit each week for us to to laugh with um damien the donk got a tattoo look damien the donk got a tattoo on his arm of us of of this logo right here i know that's wild that's wild luke that's totally crazy so i i might get one if we hit some other milestones. But for now, I'll just say, yeah, super grateful for everyone who's been here. But I really mean that. We've done a lot in 300 episodes.

Not to say that we haven't, but there's a lot of stuff we haven't even tried yet, haven't even had a chance to do yet. And I know we will. So I'm very excited and very uh bullish on our future bc yeah yeah i'm bullish as well i like that i like that i like the use of that this is great all right as a reminder we went over it today bellator on friday charlo castano 2 on saturday you can get both for free if you don't already have them showtime.com you have a 30-day free trial if you like it stick around if not go do something else it's entirely up to you you want to reach the show morning combat at gmail.com that is for today's fan subs friday's dead wrongs or

just to reach the show for whatever reason you might have morning combat dot store you can get bc shirt you can get bc's mug all kinds of different fun stuff that's the place to visit uh bc i think i'll have a video coming out tomorrow that'll be a little bit fun to watch here on the MK channel. I don't want to tease too much, but it's an opinion video. So that should be kind of fun. Um, and then Friday we will have it. We'll say again. I was going to say youtube.com slash morning combat to find that also our chat with Rich

Franklin, the one championship vice president hall of famer. Uh, it was, that's out right now as well. It'd be nice to have social assets I could use to promote it. You know, I'm just thinking, you know, out loud, you know what I'm saying? It'd be nice. It'd be nice. Those things existed. Um, you know, theoretically speaking.

So there you have it. All right. Uh, want to thank the crew today at Malka CBS sports and showtime. That's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas back on Friday, live 11 in the East, plus stuff between now and then. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.