MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 279: Chimaev vs. Diaz | UFC Fight Night: Blaydes-Aspinall | Bellator 283 | Ep 325

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

On Episode 325 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian Discuss the biggest storylines heading into this weekend. What should we be looking for on UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall and Bellator 283? The guys also break down the reports that Nate Diaz will be out of his UFC contract in October. The guys close out the show with some MMA Quick hitters and Fan Submissions. If you support the show, please nominate Morning Kombat for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ (13:50) - Khamzat Chimaev vs. Nate Diaz (39:30) - Aljamain Sterling vs. TJ Dillashaw (51:00) - UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall (73:20) - Bellator 283  (86:45) - Quick Hitters Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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 our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Hey, it's the 20th of July, 2022. Look at the smirk on this zero to my left.

Unbelievable. Look at him. Can't believe it. Hi, everyone. It's Morning Combat episode whatever the fuck it is. My name is Luke Thomas. I'm one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of Estados Unidos right here in Washington, D.C. Now, BC, let me see if I can get this right.

I'm going to try and dig into my bag of wrestling knowledge, which is not a deep bag, but it has a couple of gems inside, like the bag of porn. Is the Rip'Em shirt from the hulk hogan movie no holds barred hell yeah luke and i'm i'm blown away because i've worn this shirt like 18 times on mk blown away you pulled that luke that's amazing that's like i remember because that movie came out i feel like i was definitely an 80s kid when that came out like it wasn't a 90s thing that was an 80s thing oh Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that was like appointment viewing in the theater, build your birthday party around it. That movie was so big when it came out. I mean, it's one of the shittier movies of all time. It's got some great moments. But yeah, Luke, that was a thing, bro. Just like Ninja Turtles Part 1. That was a thing.

So I saw Ninja Turtles Part 1 just down the street when I was a kid over in Union Station. And when Union Station, which over in union station when union station which is the train station here used to have a movie theater and i saw it there sold out first night with my dad and my brother how about yeah that's what i'm talking about rob thomas you know what i'm saying uh how you doing bc king of connecticut what's going on bro i'm washed and worn down luke uh i had to have my uh my well pump replaced on my house yesterday so to to save a couple hundred bucks, I was out there in 90-degree weather digging a ditch in the front yard to find the well.

So it's been an event. My neck, my back, well, the crack too, Luke. A lot of my body is worn down right now. So, you know, hanging in there. But, Luke, that's a joy. If there's any consolation, I had to get up at 515 this morning to have a coughing fit uh and and hawk up a bunch of stuff and spit it all out in the sink for like 45 minutes it was terrible that's certainly on brand for mk if you don't do that during a broadcast are you a real co-host of this show i mean if you ain't dying luke are

you really living that's the question when it comes to hosting this show but i'm glad you've recovered from our argument pre-show luke about work ethic all right because if you're not on my level at the end of the day i'm cutting your ass luke yes i understand that you have a great deal of enthusiasm for uh for work sometimes too much enthusiasm uh the quality suffers but hey if i don't fight for room service diaries who will on this show okay no. I like it that you cracked the whip on that. I don't mind that at all. You know, but sometimes the horse has to get the reins pulled back a little bit, even if it's a thoroughbred.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Hey, we got a show today. It's actually pretty interesting. So we're going to talk about this Diaz news, which is monumental and so much to get to. There's a bantamweight title fight that got scheduled and kind of rescheduled. We'll talk about that. Plus, hello, Bellator has a very good card on Friday.

UFC is back in London on Saturday. We have a lot to get to here today. And, oh, by the way, BC. Don't bury the lead. Please. I'm not going to bury the lead. I think this will be, if it actually all happens, which probably won't, but if it all happens according to schedule,

Tom Aspinall should be here about 12 45 eastern standard time he will be the first live fighter we ever interview on a regular MK is that right I think that's right I don't know if that's true not we've had Steven Espinosa live on MK I feel like we've had a couple other people in last minute situations but I know just the thought of this makes our staff break out in hives, Luke, but I'm happy to challenge them today. Long Island Luke and Corey, two of the best. By the way,

Gaff and Vacation, another one. You talk about Malka Power Rankings, right? Those guys very high up. But yeah, I mean, look, MK, it wins awards. It's something, but it doesn't have a lot of live guests. Well, how about today we get you UK blokes, Tom Aspinall. How about for the rest of the world, too?

All right, so 1245-ish Eastern, tail end of the broadcast. We'll get that big heavyweight on, Luke. We'll do some magic here. I mean, look, this show is so great, Luke. I think moving forward, they should pay us in awards only. What do you think about that? No, I like cash better. Cash is nice.

I was going to say, you ever seen that scene in Apollo 13 when they have the beginnings of the malfunctions and there's like an oxygen issue? And then the engineer comes up and explains what the problem is for like the movie audiences. And he goes, we got to make this object fit into this. And of course, like they don't fit at all. And you're like, how the hell are you going to do that? Malka is the opposite. It's like, how do we get a fighter on the show? Well, guys, well, you know, there's a lot of reasons why we can't.

I always felt that same way about Shaq's ex-wife, Shawnee. It's like, how does that fit, Luke, at the end of the day? I mean, I guess it worked. It worked, right? They found a way. They reproduced. They found a way, right? Yeah.

There you go. You can see the merch there right there, morningcombat.store. I'm not wearing any. BC's not wearing any, but we do have a lot of good stuff my closet is full of mk merch certainly would appreciate if you guys stop by see if there's anything for you there go and check it out how about our newest item our pre-game preview t-shirt featuring real talk of course like men do and some people have taken offense to that look you know women can talk real too okay but on this show, pregame preview, when we invite Chuck into the studio

like we did on Monday, Luke, okay? We are doing real talk, okay? Luke, that was one of our better pieces of business here. I think I laughed, I cried. There was a lot of emotions in that show. It was great. It was good, actually. I really enjoyed it.

That will be out soon, so be on the lookout for that. And yes, of course, morningcombat.store if that kind of shirt appeals to you. Also, how about Showtime? You can go to showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. This weekend's Bellator you can watch. Now, BC, when are you doing the next Showbox event? It might not be until September.

They're wrangling some dates together now and throwing things around. But for 30 days of free uh you know you may just hang on at the end and not pound sand and keep subscribing then you'll get some bc you'll get some bellator as luke mentioned this friday you get some great docs all that i mean like a lot of good shit on there okay you want to stream come stream with us all right and also point gods i think is coming out like the 29th oh dude i mean you want to talk about new york city basketball point guards luke mark jackson rod strickland uh you know what i'm saying pearl washington you want to talk about the legends

yeah come on tons of good stuff so there you can get it all there and of course bc we could not forget uh obviously morning combat at gmail.com for today's fan subs for friday's dead wrong but also bc how about the good folks at ag1 i'm back on my ag1 game. I am feeling better. The cough is the leftover from the vid. Buddy, they're just the best. I use them about every day. For what reason? Gut health, for hydration, for all the things you need when you put those vitamins and minerals in your body. Right, and how about the not-so-important things?

The taste, right? Well, the taste is it doesn't taste gross or medicinal or super healthy. It's got like a mild tropical mix there that like it's really the perfect day to start the perfect way to start your day each morning feeling clean. And it's like one delicious scoop. That's all it takes. And you're suddenly absorbing 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, whole food source, superfoods, probiotics, adaptogens. That's how you start your day the right way. Not at Cumberland Farms. Not with a 12 ounce Mountain Dew.

With AG1. Bitch. There's a train going by and it's shaking everything in my room. Jesus. I think that was my intensity coming through your ear hole, Luke. Could have been a little bit of that as well. Okay, so what does it have? It's got special blend for, as I mentioned, gut health, nervous system,

immune support, energy, recovery, focus, and how about aging? My face is getting swallowed by the gray, but AG1 is keeping me healthy. It really is. You know, you can take it on the road with you. I do often with the travel packs, and you want to talk about your lifestyle, whether it's home or away, whether you're keto or paleo, vegan,

dairy-free, gluten-free. This thing contains less than one gram of sugar, so no GMOs, no nasty chemicals, no artificial anything, and yet it still tastes good. And Luke, you know, a lot of people go, okay, what about the price? How about less than three bucks a day to invest in your health, okay? Put the watermelon vape away.

Put the cold brew habit in the closet, okay, with your MK merch. Why don't you invest in yourself for once, you old piece of shit? Taking Athletic Greens is a small micro habit with big benefits. It's one thing you can do every single day to take great care of yourself. Yeah, and you know, to make things even easier, Luke, and you know, I know what you're thinking. Okay, that's great that you two like it.

Well, how about, you know, Tim Ferris and Michael Gervais? Yeah, they like it too. Okay, and they've told the world ads have 7,000 people giving five-star reviews about athletic greens. Okay? So take back your life take back your immune system and to make this crap even easier i want you to get the gold that is athletic greens right now by going to athletic greens.com slash morning combat in addition to

your order if you go right now how about those five free travel packs that we talked about take that on the road and how about the free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D? All right? Get down on the D. Let's go. Okay, you got to visit athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat. Again, that's athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat to take ownership over your health

and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. BC, what does verbatim mean? You know, Luke, we can deliver it, you know, lamely and people can fast forward, or we can give it the respect it deserves. AG1 has changed my life, all right? I want the world to know it. Before we begin, one final note here.

Happy Colombian Independence Day. Today is that day. They declared independence in 1810, and here we are. So all of the Colombians out there who pretend they don't speak English when I talk to them, happy Independence Day. Including Edison Miranda. Bredis Prescott.

Yes, yes. Uncle, what's his name? Uncle... Pepe. Uncle Pepe. I'm sure he's brought his practice to South Florida, if you know what I mean, Luke. He's in Columbia right now. Yeah, well, he's going to be cleaning up down there, okay? Thank you. Yeah, it's going to be a good time for him. All right, let's get the show started if we can, BC. Let's kick things off, man.

There's a lot to say about this. It's a huge story. Brett Okamoto from ESPN reporting yesterday that the final fight on nate diaz's contract is going to be against hamzat chamaya this will be a ufc 279 it'll be a non-title main event which is fairly rare for a pay-per-view although you could imagine why this one fits the bill i don't think it's a pay-per-view luke i don't have proof that's a pay-per-view do you it's ufc 279 if it's numbered like that all right then that's a pay-per-view, Luke. I don't have proof that's a pay-per-view. Do you? It's UFC 279. If it's numbered like that, it's a pay-per-view.

All right, then that's a pay-per-view. Oh, T-Mobile? Yeah, that's a freaking pay-per-view, Luke. Damn. Can I finish this for fuck's sake? September 10th at the T-Mobile Arena, main event, five rounds. Now, if it's been verbally agreed, nothing's been signed, but I got some additional details I'll share in just a minute.

BC, there is a lot to unpack here. When you think about what first occurred to you when you heard this news. That Nate Diaz, excuse me, Diaz Army shot the Nick Diaz. That the lower third spelled Shamayev wrong? Yeah, well, that's part of it. Me interrupting you in a key moment, another part of it. But here's the deal.

Nate Diaz is that dude. And we already knew that this fight had been talked about when Nate was really pushing to get out of his deal. He'd accepted it. And then he felt like Tremaya was going in the other direction, but with all the bad PR and headlines going around about Nate's handling UFC still unwilling to, uh, to let him exit through the meat grinder on his way out, Luke and what balls this man has to take this fight. You can say he has no other choice. He sat out for a year and a half.

He wants to make big-time money, whether it's Jake Paul or not, on the outside, and we all believe he should and should have already been there. But this is as hard an – I mean, this is – I mean, look, you know, we saw PVZ against Amanda Hibas. That was a harsh goodbye. This is another category of that. The opening odds are minus 1,100. Can we start right there, Luke?

Is that realistic? Is that like, that's some Shevchenko, Nico Montano type numbers. I mean, this is as, like, fuck off on your way off as the UFC can possibly get. It's also, by the way way a fight that's going to rightfully so draw huge eyeballs this is going to be an event but it's as weird an event given the circumstances as I've ever imagined so I'm a little bit torn on this one which is to say I agree with just about everything you said but I had a couple of conversations yesterday with some folks close to nate diaz like very close and the one kind of unifying theme this is not news but it like they were driving it home with

me which was after the chamayev burns fight nate has been asking apparently for this chamayev fight repeatedly since then in fact they didn't even like the idea that this was characterized as what Nate was offered what they wanted the world to know I suppose was that Nate had actually like repeatedly repeatedly requested it because if you go on like a social media and you look at the way in which this is being viewed everyone is like oh my god poor Nate UFC is doing him dirty on the way out and I can understand that impression because like this fight doesn't it doesn't make sense right if Dana White is saying things like Nate is one in four in his last five and you know who has he beaten and you know this that and the other and then you're giving him like the number two or whatever Tremayev is ranked at

two or three number two ranked guy in the world. Well, which is it? Is Nate deserving of the number two guy in the world? Or is he a guy who's one in four in his last five on the way out the door? You kind of decide. And this is why this fight is like nonsensical. Also, to the point you raised about the odds for a male fight, because we've seen crazy female odds. For a male fight, I don't know if I've ever seen odds this lopsided in ufc ever i can't say that declaratively like i can't i don't know if that's 100 true but i don't know if i've ever seen a disparity like this on the male side of

the game it's it's fairly unheard of well certainly not with with names i don't think you've ever seen something with names like a headlighting bout like a head yeah yeah i mean but bc let me just pitch it back to you because this is the thing i've been going over i don't understand i'm going to assume that what i was told about nate is true and again people told me like i have i have you know they know okay they know why on earth would nate ask for this and i'm trying to think of what the reason could be and some folks said well it's a no lose because if if you win of course you I mean you you you take the thunder from the UFC's basically enforcer at this point um and that would be amazing on your way out the door and then if you lose well no harm no foul you weren't expected to win but BC you and I know the truth

dude you could get your ass yeah there's harm you said no harm no foul dude you get why would Nate be so adamant about this fight I'll get to that in a second but there is harm foul you get one-sidedly demolished your value does go down that's the truth right but here's why so I started off by saying look just by saying yes to this in any form as Cheech and Chong once famously said what balls he has I mean this is like we got to shout out Nate Dia diaz like i know i get down on him when he does the nate diaz talk of uh you know i never lost and you know it's submissions don't count you know all that stuff that whatever it's the stuff that he says submissions don't count more of a mcgregor line but you get what i'm saying the the whole like you know uh i'm undefeated

that whole mindset of of when no you've taken clear losses before. But this is what this motherfucker's all about. Like, F you. Oh, this is your monster? I'm gonna, okay, and this is my only way to get out of this company and go be free, then I'm gonna do it. But the thing that you specifically asked, what gives him this confidence? Why would he run in this direction? I think it's because

of the Gilbert Burns fight with Chimaev, which showed, of course, how much of an absolute savage Chimaev is when you go 50-50 and brawl in the center of cage with him. But if you're Nate Diaz, who just fought somebody, albeit a year plus ago, who was way more technically ahead of him, mixed with the youth, mixed with everything,

and that's the guy who's going to be fighting Usman coming up, Edwards for the welterweight title. And Nate, in a five-round fight, you know, took the early damage, then hung around and did Nate Diaz things and almost pulled an upset. He just got to see an example of how you get close to hitting that spot in the middle of the Death Star, which is Chemaev, to get it to blow up. You know, maybe in hindsight, Chemaev was too willing to be an action fight in there, or maybe Gilbert Burns pulled it out of him

just by standing in and not going anywhere. But I think if you're Nate Diaz and you're that old school OG, and you know the one skill I got left is I can get in these fights and I got the stamina to be in these crazy fights late and I can outlast the dude next to me, I think he saw proof in that Gilbert Burns fight

that Chamayev is human. And that's all Nate Diaz needs. You know, that's part of the percentage. Part of it is this is the only way I get to go. This is the only door they're opening for me. So I'm such a badass that I'm going to kick it open, and I don't care what happens. But I think part of it, Luke, is he sees the way he's going to survive this and either win or, you know, lose with his head held high if he has to.

And, dude, that's ballsy. That is – this is a real man right here, Luke. I don't – There should be no denying who Nate Diaz is in terms of character. And I made this point on Twitter yesterday, but I'll briefly reiterate it. You know, folks won't remember this name, and this guy got into trouble with the law later. But for what he represented as a fighter at the time,

and Nate Diaz's seventh pro fight, he fought Hermes Franca, which was like an absurdly difficult assignment for that level of his development, and he still did it anyway. He took on Conor McGregor on, what was it, 10 days notice. He fought Rafael Dos Anjos badly injured. One more reminder, the Diaz boys have never withdrawn from a fight due to injury. I want you to think about that because Nate Diaz is coming up on, I think, 15 years inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Yes, with some significant time off, but 15 years he has never withdrawn from a bout due to injury.

The guy is only accustomed to tough assignments and across weight classes that he probably shouldn't have been in like 170 which by the way there's another part to this it's like shemayev is a beast at 185 at 170 he's a fucking animal like this is just a really tough assignment but to your point the guy's got character for days i think the thing that i really go back to on this one is man i all that stuff when nate's like oh you i've never lost and you know this kind of thing and i beat khabib and because it was a street fight i always took that as nate kind of being wink wink nudge nudge i know that's not true but it's a great way to self-promote now i'm kind of wondering like i get your point that hamzat fought undisciplined against burns

but dude i think burns probably hits a lot harder than nate diaz at 170 oh oh you know what i mean like for all the flaws that he showed in that fight and for all the undisciplined ways in which he fought he fought a guy yes gilbert burns fought a 155 170 but i would call him a much more natural 170 or i it's i dude i gotta tell you like again it's not just loss he's risking here this fight he is five rounds he could take a a career altering beating here i don't think that's out of the realm of possibility do you no and that that's the scary part of it but in that you know matches what you said earlier about like this is on brand this is what the hell this guy does he's always done that so it's not that

different to him but i don't ever remember something this weird again you know the situation with the contract the the time between the fact that we had such long public soap operas about who was at fault and why this happened and yet they just settle on all right f it we'll do the chamaya fight okay you know what i'm saying so luke i gotta bring up the other part of the diaz brother you know experience and granted this other part of it tends to circle around Nick in totality in recent years more than Nate which is the bizarre sort of antics inside the cage although that's not completely out of bounds for Nate to do something wacky but you know a lot of people are going okay this is so WWE right now to begin with Dana's basically basically Vince McMahon. Nate is Bret Hart.

Montreal, screw job. I've gotten a lot of DMs from fans going, BC, your old school wrestling heart must be loving this. So in that sort of pro wrestling veil of looking at it, Luke, a lot of people are going, okay, the ultimate Nate Diaz move here or Diaz brother move would be to walk in, flip off Dana White cage side, lay down and get tapped out right there and be like,

fuck off UFC. Now Luke I don't think he'll do that and that's also like you know they could take him to court for that. I mean they could withhold his purse there's a lot of other sides to that Luke that also just says F you to the game but there's a softer version of that. Do you remember when

Nick Diaz fought Anderson Silva and just kind of did Nick Diaz stuff and laid down and kind of engaged but mostly didn't? Is there a scenario in which this could turn into that type of fight? If it's not Nate Diaz flipping the bird and taking a fall and breaking kayfabe, is there a scenario where he goes in there and then just goes, ah, F you guys, I'll coast to a decision loss? Or is this not the opponent to even attempt that with?

I don't. I've seen some folks be like, oh, is he going to go do the Bob Sapp where the bell rings and he immediately taps the ground? I don't foresee that. I really don't take that seriously. I suppose anything could happen, but I wouldn't expect that. Or who was the boxer? I forget who it was.

They brought him out to the ring, they announced him, and as soon as the bell rings, he just walked out right in the middle yeah it was the guy fighting fa ajagba yes you know so i don't foresee that i foresee this basically either nate surprises i think a lot of people myself and probably you included and submits him or knocks him out or something which is not out of the realm of possibility but unlikely i think is a very charitable way to put it uh or he just takes a fucking beating man i'm really kind of worried about it dude nate diaz is 37 years old man how many big fights do you think he honestly has left like let's talk about that for a second

how many big fights does he really have left this one probably after this one if he can get it if the stars align or whatever it seems like the the jake paul fight is there potentially two of those now that 37 now he might be like 38 39 by that is there. Potentially two of those. Now that he's at 37 now, he might be like 38, 39 by that point. There's not a lot of time left for big fights. True or false? I mean, he's going to get Conor again whether it's at the Lava Shack or BKFC. They'll fight a third time,

but I hear your point. This brings the potential given... Okay, so if the pro wrestling FU is out the window, and I agree with with you i don't think he's going to be that recklessly unprofessional although a lot of people would say oh justified and all that because of how he was treated you can argue that as well but it's more likely luke given his character that he's going to go in there and just fight like you I mean, look, the odds should be wide.

This is, again, a weird fight. The reality is Nate should be in the senior division fighting other old fated names, and they should celebrate him on the way out, but they don't do that. I get that, but that's what it should be. Is there a scenario, Luke, where he can lose, but not F around, but also not get physically dominated because i did look i'm going

to be honest i didn't think that last round rally against edwards was was like possible in that scenario i thought he was going to lose a one-sided fight in which he may be on the verge of getting stopped due to cuts and damage and although he took you know damage in that fight he he hung around and then he was fresh as shit in the final round. If he pours out what's left to avoid getting dominated, and let me put that in the right frame of mind. Whether you think Izzy may have taken his foot off the gas against Anderson Silva in that last-minute special fight they created, or you believe, like I do, silva just poured out whatever was left

to avoid getting handled and to keep himself kind of in that fight is there enough legend left in left in nate to pour that out and use every ounce of what he has to avoid getting beat up luke or is it just is it it's just different against a guy like this i know i'm kind of asking the same question twice but but i you know i don't want to underestimate scenario where nate loses but but handles himself well enough where he doesn't get like exceptionally beat up or something like that yeah it's possible but dude let's just talk about the realistic one here the realistic one you're talking about a guy nate diaz was a 155 or who's now at 170 chamayaya was a guy who's probably better at 170 but can fight quite ably at 185 and he has you know modern control significantly better wrestling

better athleticism a certain kind of in physical intensity and drive he probably has pretty good submission defense as well you know the likeliest outcome here is that he puts a fucking beating on Nate Diaz and a bad one at that that's the likeliest outcome that what will happen your guess is as good as mine but I am I'm like I'm saying this I'm going to be very clear about this I'm actually a little bit worried about it I'm a little bit worried about how ugly this could potentially get now if Nate goes in there and subs him dude that would be one of the most legendary fucking performances in UFC history to be quite honest with you that's really really what it would be. It would be historic for him to stick it to them in that way.

But the likelihood of that is not high. The likelihood of that is very, very low. And that's what gives me some concern. Let me ask you this. Go ahead. You asked me a question. Let's do it. All right.

Well, here's the thing. 15 years later, it's ending like this. You know? And to me, if it ends like this 15 years later, it probably should have ended a lot sooner, where both parties basically can't stand the other one, and one, Nate's got whatever his designs are, and UFC's got whatever their designs are,

and now they're just having this ugly departure, which God only knows what path it will take, but probably not a pretty one, whichever path it is. I have to say, like, this should be like a wake up call for a lot of the fighters. Listen, there are guys who have a relationship with UFC. And then when they're done, they continue to have one. Your Liddell's, your Forrest Griffin's in particular, your Matt Hughes's. Those things are real and they matter.

But like throughout UFC history, Nate Diaz is not new in the sense that there are the Frank Shamrocks and the Tim Silvias and you could point to all of the ones look at Anderson Silva one of the maybe the best fighter ever look at the departure he had not they were a little bit kinder to him obviously on the way out the door but they didn't really roll out the red carpet for him there wasn't that kind kind of a thing. This kind of acrimony, I wonder what lesson you take from this, BC. I wonder after 15 years of the Nate Diaz experience, why it's ending with a bang potentially,

but so poorly in terms of the relationship between the fighter and the promoter. What do you infer from that? Well, it's like even, you know, I always talk about the have and have nots in the fighter pay discussion. And the 1%, once they reach that one percent they have no motivation left to to ruin it for themselves and just they just want to live in that one percent and take the money they can get behind the scenes and all that so we always look at it as okay if you can sell

that covers up sins why is why why were we saying yeah you should jump josh emmett in the title because you can sell it's a different type of marketing claim. This is a situation where somebody can sell. And yet, again, they still missed three consecutive years after their commercial prime, after beating Conor and fighting Conor in an amazing two-fight series. He just went away. So I think what this does show you is even if you can sell and there's times where the company can work with you on almost an even level in terms of

helping you and helping them, you're still not in the family. But that doesn't really prove that point. You can still be kicked out of the family. It's still not a blood pact. The Diaz's have never really been UFC family. So in this regard, Luke,

you can't learn like, okay, you can learn just in the idea of things that you should already be learning by reading the headlines, which is, you know, Dana White giving that big ass bag to the Nelk boys and basically saying F you fighters. And then, you know, the next day, the whole insight on that whole court filing and, uh, or not court filing, but you know, the, the boosters and the, the money being raised to sort of legally with the,

to fight against the potential of unionization and fighter rights. So you should already learned all this if you are a fighter. But at the same time, Luke, the Nate's situation is just so unique to begin with. I mean, like his communication with the company at certain times in the last five years just completely fell apart, like completely, like nobody talking to each other. So it's hard because he never, because it's been, you know, in the Diaz's DNA to be lone wolves and sort of these guys that just do things their own way and credit to both brothers they have. But I can't, dude, there's no comparison unless you go to Bret Hart

versus freaking Shawn Michaels in the Survivor Series that time or whatever in Montreal. Like, and there's no comparison in modern combat sports where I can remember something like this being like this. The fear we have mixed with how Nate's been handled. So, yeah, what should other fighters learn? Like, you got to be fighting for yourself, man. You know what I mean like I'm glad that Nate to some degree at least is wanting this and welcoming this because when Nick came back and last fought we heard the post fight interview it sounded sad like he didn't want to be there this is the

opposite of that but this is such a fuck you from the UFC that it's just ridiculous Luke and it gives a crazy opportunity for Nate who's already been getting that hero love, you know, year and a half in his return coming back against Edwards. And I love seeing that. How do you think Nate should handle this, the build to this fight? Because, Luke, you don't get down on this pro wrestling shit. Nate's not a huge trash talker unless you provoke him. But how do you think he will go out pr wise and do you think he should kind of be burning the ship down with him as he's getting off of it well like

i said if the last chapter ends up being however unlikely i may view it if it ends up being that he submits or knocks out chamayev i mean i that that would be i mean you want to talk about the legend of nate diaz i don't know what on earth would be like to make the fan base love you that would be probably top of the list i can i cannot think of anything bigger than they put him they would put him on the mount rushmore of most beloved fighters by fans of all time that probably includes chuck liddell randy couture you know like anderson at the very top. I mean, like it would be, we would never have seen an equivalent of that too, Luke. Although Randy Couture had some of those FU moments,

but they weren't as blatant. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, honestly, to me, like Nate Diaz will probably, you know, we'll see what happens with this fight. He'll get out of it. I do think he'll eventually fight Jake Paul and make probably good money. Maybe two of those fights we'll have to see but the lesson i take from all of this is that

yeah there is a cost in mma to like you were saying you have to advocate for yourself i actually i agree but this is why a lot of fighters don't right they this is why they don't because there actually is a cost to it you know francis and ganu may finally get a chance to work around it but these contracts since 2017 where they put sunset clauses in was only a function of the response to the lawsuit and some of the bad press they were getting, so that helped them. But short of that, he would be basically stuck. Nate Diaz having to have all the acrimony that he's had with a promoter

for various points in his career to this day where he has to go out fighting this fucking boogeyman on his way out the door whether he requested it or not or you know look at Randy Couture who has been basically iced out of UFC history or Frank Shamrock or Tim Sylvia and the list goes on and on and on from there you want to take care of yourself in separation to the to the to the brand there's going to be a tax to pay there is no free lunch and the question is how big is the tax and how much does it affect your future from there on i guess we'll have to see what the answer to that is but you can see why fighters cozy up to the brand you can see why their stockholm syndrome

because only a few can actually make use of cozying up to the brand and sometimes they can make good use of that yeah but the reality is it's very safe relative to the riskiness of the waters where you go out on your own because even the mighty Nate Diaz who in his last fight is headlining without a title is still getting shown the door in one of the ugliest ways I think I've ever seen in all of MMA and it's it is in some way similar to like what you and I could go through. You can be a company man because you suddenly work for a big company, but you also got to be a protector of what you're trying to do there.

But yeah, the risk is high. And that's why you don't see guys do it more, because if you're the opposite of that, if you're a DC and you stay with the family, you could have a job for life. You could be an ambassador, a broadcaster, a trainer in the PI. I mean, you could be part with the family, you could have a job for life. You could be an ambassador, a broadcaster, a trainer in the PI. I mean,

you could be part of the family forever. So it's certainly not for everybody. There is a way to become that 1% and then ride that gravy train and, and look back and say all the hard work and blood, sweat and tears was worth it. But it is narrow that hallway at the end. And it is hard to get in there. Luke,

maybe to close on this, but let's compare balls at least in a fair way when randy couture was the heavyweight champion yet amid his own you know battle with the company and then comes back at that age and fights brock lesnar that was just some kind of balls although it wasn't his exit with the company it was there's some similarities there is this a more ballsier move what Nate's doing compared to what Randy did yeah significantly I mean Brock had the title Chimaev has nothing right I mean he's got a lot of cash Randy had the title Randy had the title at the so what am I saying but it

was for the title it was there was a belt on the line right this was a big bout and that was the time ESPN was really leaning into it before ESn ever really leaned into it there was there was big stakes involved and brock lesnar was the biggest name in the sport now chamay was one of the biggest ones but i would actually argue nate diaz might be more popular um they're both pretty admirable and of course your randy was fighting a guy much bigger than him although you know nate is i think fighting a guy probably naturally larger and stronger than him too. But, dude, this is, you know, look at the odds from the original Randy and Brock fight.

I bet you these are much wider than those. I mean, I think that kind of tells you Nate has asked for probably, arguably, the most difficult exit imaginable short of a title shot against Kumaru. And even this one might be more difficult depending on style matchups and everything. This is a hard fight to win. It's going to be a rough exit. And even if he gets the dub, title shot against Kumaru, and even this one might be more difficult depending on style matchups and everything.

This is a hard fight to win. It's going to be a rough exit, and even if he gets the dub, he's probably not going to get it very easily. I have enormous, enormous respect for what he is attempting here. And I'm shocked this is a pay-per-view main event. I'm actually happy because I think there's much more room for non-title pay-per-view five-round main events that are just great matchups. You know, remember Rashad versus Rampage has a perfect example of that,

and I love to see this, but I'm shocked that they're giving Nate pay-per-view status here. I'm shocked that they're giving this fight, which we have, you know, I mean, it could look really bad in the end, five-round pay-per-view status. I mean, it's the ultimate ringing of what they feel is left of Diaz's brand on the way out to get the most of it. But it also puts in the showcase, okay, if we're going to use this matchup as a company for the reason why we're making it, to rub off a guy leaving and put it on a guy rising,

dude, giving Hamzat Chamayev a non-title pay-per-view main event before he ever fought for the title against Nate Diaz kind of tells you what they believe they can do with him moving forward Luke no question about that no question about that at all all right let's move on to the second part of the topic or actually topic number two these were initially going to be paired now they're going to be a little bit separate so Aljamain Sterling it looks like this was originally reported by I think Kevin Aioli of Yahoo Sports they were originally going to put it at ufc 279 now it's going to be 280 which will be october 22nd in abu dhabi al jermaine sterling is going to defend his bantamweight title against tj dillashaw the main event of course will be charles olivera taking on islam

makachev now bc i saw some consternation about Sterling kind of always being in co-main events, and I understand that. I thought, especially after his fight against Jan, where he proved a lot of people wrong, that he deserved to be taken, just respected a lot more, given a little bit more, not just verbally with saying nice things, but treated a little bit differently by the promotion and by the fan base and by the media as well. Here he is still in the co-main event role. However,

let me give you a little bit of a nugget. I have it on pretty decent authority that for example, I saw some folks battering Izzy because that's what folks love to do in the MMA fan base that UFC two 76 didn't sell above 400 K. My understanding is there isn't a pay-per-view this year that has sold more than 400 K, which means no headliner has done that. And Sterling certainly is an incredibly decorated

and very, very good champion, but hasn't proven to be a sales draw in that way. Certainly not over the 155 guys who would be bigger anyway, so they would get that slot, plus it's for a title. So I kind of understand it. So your reaction to Sterling versus Dillashaw, October 22nd co-main uh my reaction first of all is this is one damn fine double header atop this card i mean

luke you know these are two of the best fights i want to see right now in the entire sport so to your point about maybe them not giving aljo the the the boost that that he deserves and i think a lot of us in the media and critical fans came back around, for however we dogged him of his handling of that DQ, the way he went back and straight up beat Jan in the rematch and is now your champion. Yeah, he deserves a chance to stretch out and be who he could be and find out how big his brand could be. So if there was going to be a matchup where it would make sense

to give him that pay-per-view headlining role, fighting the former champion in Dillashaw, I would think would be that. But this being one more time a co-main event at the same time, Luke, it doesn't seem to me as like a backhanded slap. I mean, Mahachev is in Abu Dhabi for a reason in terms of trying to capitalize on that fan base. And that fight as the main event, it just feels a little bit more prestigious to me. Even with former champion Dillashaw coming back in there, there's a feeling for me in

that main event that we could, storyline-wise, this could be the dawn of Habib 2.0, Habib's protege taking over, or it could just be another amazing stamp on the all-action passport of Charles Oliveira. So I'm okay that they're loading this up for the fans. I mean, these are two main events, you know, for the price of one here, and I'm so damn fired up for this fight. Sterling versus Dillashaw. I got questions as would anybody about TJ's age and injury. It's been a while since he beat Sanhagen in that disputed fight.

But this is great. This is going to disputed fight but this is this is great this is gonna be great theater luke this is great matchmaking this is a great night at the fights i you know the fan of me very giddy right now talk me down luke try to shit on try to shit on my tai chi palace please seriously if i had to ask you give me a ufc card where you put the two best title fights imaginable together. I'm not saying this is the only answer, but this would be one of the top answers. The very best at 155, in this case, Charles Oliveira, the reborn version, against this guy who's been on an incredible run in Islam Makachev at 155.

Okay, that's one you could do. Then the guys in charge of Bantamweight, the existing champion and the former champion, who, by the way, never had the title taken from him other than by administrative policy, not by actually what happened in the cage. Those are the two you're going to pair together. There's not many pairings you could do better than that. That is one of the more optimal ones, permutations,

that could even exist. In the case of a guy like Aljamain Ster Sterling for folks who might be upset that he is constantly co-main event roles. I understand it. I get the notion that he's entitled to respect, but I also get the idea that the UFC is not selling pay-per-views this year in the way that folks might have naturally assumed, or they were during the pandemic,

the more the bigger stages of the pandemic anyway. And so you put this in the co-main event role against a guy like Dillashaw, who does have some popularity, who does bring some controversy, who I think if a guy like Sterling can beat him, it raises his profile even more. You put him on a card where there's this 155 just assassins above him.

This is a great, great scenario. This is what you want. This is the Wagyu beef cooked medium rare right here delivered to you if you're a fight fan and these two fights hold seriously and i mean this genuinely i don't even give a flying fuck what comes before it these two fights alone are worth the price of admission they're the very best in many cases that mma even has to offer the complaints here should in my judgment be fairly minimal looks like you can even put local government propaganda

films on the undercard I'm okay with that give me these two in fact Luke let's be fair here you know I'd sort of thrown out the idea last show should there be majors are there major pay-per-views in the UFC I think this kind of cements what is now kind of becoming a thing every fall going to Abu Dhabi. Obviously, during the pandemic, there were key parts where that was the only place, and they stayed there for a while. But you want to talk about majors right now. International Fight Week, first weekend of July.

The December Vegas card, which used to be New Year's Eve. Now, I like it a little bit better. Second weekend in December. Madison Square Garden in November. But Luke, put this one right there. Put this one right there. That's your fourth major, Abu Dhabi. This main and co-main mixed together.

That's as major as it gets. And Luke, when we talk about great old guy wins, right, or old fighter wins. When we talk about, you know, 34-year-old Devis and Figueiredo coming back to stop the guy who just stopped him in Moreno and winning the title back. When we talk about, you know, Glover Teixeira winning, Michael Bisping winning, TJ Dillashaw comes back and wins the belt against this version of Aljamain Sterling in this fight. I know there are legitimate reasons to use the words PEDs, Luke, when you're talking about this guy over history. Yes, there's legitimate reasons.

But that'd be some heroic shit for a guy who gets looked at as a villain. I think he likes that, by the way, TJ. But, dude, that's some hero move right there, Luke. Okay? That'd be a win, brother. That'd be a big-ass win. I think either way, it's a huge win. For a guy like Sterling, this would be, you know, you've beaten Sandhagen,

Jan, and then Dillashaw. Jesus, that is an incredible run through, what it would do for your brand and everything else and credibility. Then on top of it, if you're Dillashaw, to have never lost the title, you had the PED stuff, you had to lose two years of your career, you come back at 35, you have a grueling fight against Sandhagen, and then you go and you beat Sterling in back-to-back fights. I mean, insane levels of redemption. And either way, dude, I know that Henry Cejudo is out there calling for the Volkanovski fight, which I have less than zero interest in,

but I do have a shit ton of interest in the winner of this fight taking on Triple C. I think Cejudo versus Dillashaw at 135, or Cejudo versus Sterling, obviously, at 135. Those are the fights I care a lot about, and I think he's competitive in both. Do you agree? I 100% agree with that.

I love that matchmaking. I think we've all agreed on this. Cringe is shit. Yeah, he wants to do big things, Cejudo, like fight Conor or fight Volkanovski, as you mentioned, but him against any of these elite Bantamweights, Luke, right now, or even the old guy Bantamweights, like, I want to see it. I want to see Henry Sudo come back and fight three times in a year.

I mean, he's great for this division. He's a great fighter who has done some all-time stuff, Luke. It is hard to exactly, at this point, because the batch has been small to try to frame history around it, you know, but yet he's also a two-division champion,

whether you like it or not. And, um, I do, I could sit here and just read off matchups and multiple weights. I want to see this guy in, but if the UFC is smart, which they seem to be,

they're going to make him come back and earn it the hard way at Bantamweight. If he does want to Luke. So yeah, him against him against, yeah. I mean him against still show would be insane theater. Luke, come on. Poor Luke. I, you know what? I don't like when, like, when, yeah, him against Dillashaw would be insane theater. Luke, come on.

Luke, you know what I don't like? When, like, you know, housewives and soccer moms, you know, when they're, like, driving or they're at the supermarket or whatever or a party outside in the summer and then, like, Pour Some Sugar On Me comes on by Def Leppard, right? And they're just like, oh, this was my song back when I was loose and free, Luke. And then they're just like, you know, and they're just like normal, like well put together,

well-moraled moms who just lose it all in the moment when they hear that opening guitar riff, Luke, and that one-handed drum beat. And then, you know, they sing the chorus wildly and outwardly, Luke. They have no idea

what they're actually, in effigy, welcoming onto them, luke do you know what i mean no all right all right i had a much longer point luke we would have gone down some roads got off a couple exits took a detour and come back but you know what it would have slayed if you didn't know sell it you would have slayed i'm telling you i'm telling you it was perilous i was i was tiptoeing luke i could have fell in at any point but i think it would have slayed. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. It was perilous. I was tiptoeing, Luke. I could have fell in at any point, but I think it would have slayed. You know what I'm thinking?

Next MK doc, Luke? What about this? Which is apparently never getting made. If we can get Doc 7 in production, if we can get Jake to get paid to do it here. By the way, like Magic Johnson on the 91 lakers when he told management if you go sign terry teagle from the warriors i'll pay for his salary out of my deal because he wanted to win so bad i did tell showtime i'll pay for jake's hours to build the stock okay yes all right say that actually i don't want them to take my money but uh yes how about doc seven a lot of

people making runs at the at that mic these days, at that stage, Luke. Just going up and taking their swing. I was watching snippets of Andrew Schultz's comedy special. It was fantastic, Luke. A lot of people making that transition these days, like NBA players making rap albums in the 90s, right? What about your boy BC just putting together

like a tight 10, right? Like a tight-ass 10. Something I can work with. The business card, as I understand it, is you got to have a tight 10. A tight-ass 10. Something I can work with. The business card, as I understand it, is you've got to have a tight 5. 10, you can't do 10. You could maybe do 5. I'm ambitious, Luke. And what if I just say,

you know what, I don't know what it's going to look like. It could be set on fire. It could be like Geraldo opening the vault, Capone there, and there's nothing, Luke. I may have nothing for this game, but do I have the balls to try it one time, Luke? I don't know. Do you?

You know, Luke, I'm a gunslinger at the end of the day, all right? Okay? That's why I wear this wild head of hair, Luke, I'm a gunslinger at the end of the day, all right? Okay? That's why I wear this wild head of hair, Luke. I only get one trip around this globe, all right? Don't underestimate me. Luke, don't ever fucking underestimate me at any point, Luke. I will slice your throat, Luke. Okay, that's a little much, but I understand your enthusiasm.

All right, let's go to topic number three, BC. How about the fights this weekend? How about the fights this weekend? The UFC is back in London with a heavyweight main event, one of the most consequential ones in some time. If you thought Cyril Ghosn was going to be the next heavyweight champion like I did, well, you were wrong, although he could still be one. There's another gentleman from the Liverpool side of things

who is knocking on that door. Tom Aspinall, who will be the hometown guy, so to speak. We take it on Curtis Blades. BC, we'll start there. How high are you on Tom Aspinall? And what would you say if he goes out there and not just beats Curtis Blades, but beats him like a drum, makes it look easy?

What would you say? I'd say I was wrong, first of all. How high am I right now, Luke? Well, that's probably another topic to debate at any point. How high am I on Tom Aspinall, though? A lot higher than I originally was. I thought that was going to be the night he got humbled against Alexander Volkov, where we go, okay, bright guy for the future, love the youth and energy that him and Taito Iwasa bring to this division.

But, you know, not of that ilk yet. Luke, he may be of that ilk right freaking now. So it's not just how quickly he submitted Volkov and passed that test. It is retroactively going back and kind of picking apart what I missed. And I thought, Luke, actually Tom Aspinall said it best this week at the media day ahead of this fight at the O2 in London, which is an obvious big deal locally. They slayed just a few months ago last time they were there with Molly Meatball and Patty and all that and Tom Aspinall. But he said, you know, what separates me is my speed, but my in-the-moment decision-making.

And certainly these are topics we'd love to talk about when we have him on later in the show today, people, so don't miss out on this. But, Luke, there is sort of this under-the-layer, intangible side to him that there's an IQ that's not your average Barrett heavyweight in there. And you mix that with being 6'5 and being quicker than he looks and having a heart and desire and all that. No, he hasn't answered every single question we're going to have of him, no.

But there's something more special underneath those handmade tattoos there, Luke, than maybe even my casual naked eye could realize. So if he goes out there and has the same level of one-sided success against a guy that nobody does unless you have through-the-roof next level and Ghanu, Derek Lewis-level power, which is Curtis Blades, who is the class of the—he's going to end up being the class of this division for a decade, Curtis Blades. He's that good. I don't know if he'll ever get over the hump. I hope.

But he's that good. He makes him look like he made Volkov look like Luke. Dude, I'm going to restructure the title picture and who I want to see fight for the belt next. This guy's coming to hell on, Luke. And while Tuivasa got there with balls and the right matchup and the right punch at the right time, this guy is ahead of his time in terms of the experience he actually has with the skill that he's flaunting and showing. I can't wait to see how good he actually is, Luke.

And I'm happy to say that up to this point, at least, least I was wrong and now I want to find out where does that extend where's the limits to what this guy can do because if somebody's going to make you look bad for five rounds Curtis Blades will do that he'll do that to you Luke yes um this is this is this a great ass fight come Saturday afternoon I'm fired up I'll say this I you know in talking to some folks in in the british mma side of things you get a real clear sense that the departure of bisping has created a well not i mean obviously as a competitive fighter obviously he's still commentating and still quite active but in terms of like that fighter that could lead the market since the departure of michael bisping there just really hasn't exactly been that darren till was kind of that guy for a little while, but that hasn't really worked out.

And there's a ton of very good fighters, like your Arnold Allens, for example, but he hasn't quite fully gotten there yet either, even though he's done very well for himself. There are, I think, a lot of hopes, a lot of fingers crossed, a lot of knocks on wood, or knocking on wood,

that Aspinall is that guy. That Aspinall could actually be that guy who can be the torchbearer for that market, the very best one that they have, potentially a champion, the one that the UK could really rally around. To me, Aspinall, when you hear him talk, he's like, I don't really want to be rushed. I want to take my time. I want to work on this. I want to work on that.

But dude, the reality is this. Gon had his shot against Francis. I do think he'll beat Tai Tuivasa which kind of keeps him relevant but you know you know I think if you beat Curtis Blades which of course he may not but let's say he does if you beat Curtis Blades you probably should fight for a title there's not many guys above Curtis Blades, right? Like, Curtis Blades, given his style matchup, could very well beat Gon. Not on the feet, necessarily,

but what we saw with Gon's ground game against Francis, why couldn't Curtis Blades do that? He could easily do something like that, at least relative to what Francis' grappling abilities are. I'm going to say, of the two, Curtis Blades is a significantly better wrestler than Francis Ngannou and can maintain top control we've seen that so you would imagine like i would probably favor curtis blades to win that one depending on how we fought if you can beat curtis blades now

and what i think will be his 15th mma fight dude they're gonna push him to the front of the line whether he's ready or not or whether he wants that opportunity or not to me what this is about is the UFC really really really wants a the the next Michael Bisping Tom Aspinall looks BC looks like he could be that we'll have to see on Saturday yeah um this is getting exciting and it's like what what is the potential if he if he just if he blows through blades and by the way maybe the real I've always loved Blades. I think he's going to fight for a title. I think he can be a champion. I don't know if it'll work out for him.

We'll see. But there's like an elite version of Blades when the confidence, when everything's right, when everything's right, there's a version of Blades the striker, Luke, that he's not as dangerous on the feet as he is on the ground in terms of controlling a fight and winning it. But when he believes in that offense, now there's times he's gone as dangerous on the feet as he is on the ground in terms of controlling a fight and winning it, but when he believes in that

offense, now there's times he's gone in there and the times we've seen him get finished viciously, he may have walked in there that night believing in that offense, but there is a he can't always be consistent with it, but if he can activate that next level, this is, again, like you said, as hard of a matchup in this division as you can find,

so that's why you have to reorder your title picture if Aspinall blows through Blades. And what's the worst-case scenario? That they give him Stipe at, like, Wembley Arena? That might be the worst-case scenario, Luke. You know what I mean? Because we don't really know. Is John going to come back and fight Stipe for the interim?

Or is the UFC just saying, well, we've waited this long. If we have to wait a few more months and do Johns and Gano in a damn Las Vegas dome, I mean, that's a massive fight. Dude, you could see something like Aspinall on the steep A level after this. There's no one else to fight after this if he wins it. There's no one else. Unless Tuivasa upsets Gano, there's nobody else, Luke. Yeah.

Well, the John Jones factor is sort of looming out there right like what if he first of all I don't even know if he's ever going to come back I mean they keep saying he's going to come back he might I guess we'll see but even then we'll have to see what he looks like but okay but at least in theory you have to take that possibility seriously you have to at least consider that he could come back but I'm with you dude like you know I think if I want to be very clear here Blades is a very very good fighter there if aspinall loses this is hardly him blowing up the dreams of the uk market having their michael bisping 2.0 because this would be just his 15th ufc or 15th mma fight you know he has time to get

better i still am very high on tom aspinall win or lose i just feel like if he wins he's going to get fast-tracked and that's the beginning end of that story um but I forgot what I was going to say oh yeah but John Jones John Jones is kind of that one out there where you're like how does he slot in at any time and what's it going to be and and everything else out there but dude Curtis Blades we're not really talking about him BC I'm with you Curtis Blades okay he lost to Derek Lewis and that you know he lost badly to Derek Lewis but in general man he beats everyone who isn't a champion. In general. In general, that's who he beats.

This is a hell of a test for Tom Aspinall. That's why I think it's so consequential. If you can beat Curtis Blades and you can do it soundly, there's nothing really left. That's it. You're ready to go. Look, do you believe when you talk about what makes Aspinall special, that in his own words, saying the decision-making,

I can think quicker than people and just be there, and it helps when you're 6'5", jacked, and also quick at that size. So he's got a lot going for him. But do you see that? It does kind of make it hard to put a ceiling on him because there's that extra sprinkle magic on him. I don't know how to fully put it into words but i got i got asked this i got asked this earlier in the week by someone and their basic point was like what is it about him it's like well it's he's not like

volkanovski in the sense that you know volkanovski went three rounds against aldo he went uh 15 rounds against holloway he went went, however many, I think the, or take a fight, go the distance, whatever it was. I can't remember anymore. But you know, you get the idea. Like these fights have gone long. So there's a ton of tape on him. And at that point you can begin to like pinpoint exactly what's happening with Aspinall. This fucker has seen the second round in the UFC once, has never seen the third round ever. There's not a ton of tape. So you're at your question, I think is actually really well intentioned um you're right the athleticism is big i'll read his stats on friday they're mind-bogglingly good like you cannot fucking

believe how good they are but uh the better point is like a the fact that he makes short work of everyone is sort of one the accumulation of that is kind of big but you're right it is the decision making dude he makes great choices he makes great choices from a game planning standpoint is sort of one the accumulation of that is kind of big but you're right it is the decision making dude he makes great choices he makes great choices from a game planning standpoint he makes great choices in the middle of a fight and then he's got the athleticism to bring that to bear so he fights really calm fight iq high he fights it's not like he fights really calm okay that's accurate to say you know for a fighter with what six u UFC fights, like you said, never been past the second round, but it's like, it's not like a misplaced overconfident. It's just like, uh, I'm really comfortable in here. You know what I mean, Luke? And I know

that that it's like, okay, that's what, that's anyone on the elite level, but he seems really, really, really comfortable in there is really what I'm saying. So when you have also speed advantages and you can make those quick decisions, he doesn't look worried at all about what's coming at him. And I think that's allowed him to make some of these quick endings. But like anyone else, love to see him in a five-round banger and see what's really under the hood, Luke. But, you know, the interviews, I think he's in a humble spot.

You're right. You would think somebody with the success he had and how close he seems to be from really cashing in on that success might say, F it. Let's get Jon Jones next. Let's get Francis next. F everybody else. But no, he's really like, no, I'm the one who knows. I need more work.

And I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And I'm going to get there. It's like, damn. That's maturity, Luke. But it's different. It's like, I know there's a secret, and I know it, and you guys will find it out,

but I don't care to tell you about it. Just watch, you know? Also on this card, BC, do you have any strong feelings? It was supposed to be Darren Till. He's now out. Chris Curtis takes his place. Jack Hermanson versus Chris Curtis. It's a fine fight.

It's actually a really cool storyline, especially for Curtis, who won on the Contender Series, didn't get a contract nearly or did retire kind of came back had some ho-hum performances in PFL and has been on a pretty decent run in UFC against Jack Hermanson who tasted the top found himself wanting but still wants to do relevant work do you have a strong opinion about this one uh entertainment wise I'm into it I don't think um Hermanson's completely done either in terms of you know putting Winstreet together and doing some stuff.

He's been underrated at times. He's had some rough endings, but this is a good fight as well for him. You've got to like his chances more. But yeah, Luke, I'm romantically engaged into the Curtis action-opportunity storyline just the same. So I like that

bit of theater, and I think that it's another piece of fruit in this basket you know you're going to get the patty pimblitt fan reaction and is the guy for real and can jordan levitt expose him or do we have something here just the same with molly meatball i mean there's intention luke of aspinall which you're right in saying everyone seems to look through the bunch and say okay this guy has the quickest path potentially to a title to become a thing but they keep putting patty and molly their little life podcast around him luke and in orbit and i know there's other storylines and there's paul craig and there's gust of sin and all that but uh all together i'm really excited and it's an afternoon east

coast time to start so what is it luke 3 p.m. the main? Is it? I don't have it in front of me, but I believe that's right. How good does that feel, Luke? You know those West Coast people that brag about watching the NFL in their pajamas when they wake up, and we're like, we have no idea what you're talking about. I got to go to church first and mow the lawn, and I got a lot going on before that. I want to live a life, Luke,

where the fights are on in the afternoon. How do we get there? Do I have to move? Is that what you're saying? I think you have to move, yeah. BC, so let's talk about this one very quickly to close on the fight night card. Patti Pimblitt taking on Jordan Leavitt. Jordan Leavitt, I think 10-1 in UFC.

Patti Pimblitt with two fights in UFC and undefeated. Pimblitt makes a big splash. The fans love him. Particularly the UK fans think very highly of him. He's got a unique look. He's got a unique look. He's got a unique way of talking. He does have a pretty good ground game. He has a lot of good experience from cage warriors,

but he gets his bell rung a lot. His defensive striking, a bit of an issue. Jordan Leavitt, not so much a threat in that ballpark. A grappler. Here's the thing. Do you like this matchmaking? I actually do because this is one where Pimblitt could lose but also one where uh you could see him with the right intensity easily winning in other words

you don't have to worry about Pimblitt's striking so much in this one it's a grappling focused kind of fight and Leavitt is actually good enough to win but he's not so much a threat that it's like oh well what's Pimblitt really going to do here it's pretty pretty competitive. For those reasons, I kind of like it. What about you? Yeah, yeah, it's good matchmaking, and we have to just understand what the UFC really has with Patty. You know, I mean, forget Aspinall's title, you know, aspirations and

possibilities, which would be the face of the UK movement at the moment, like you mentioned. This guy could just lap that in terms of the star potential, but yeah, I'm with you and a lot of people of what I've seen. I'm certainly not convinced. It is great theater, Luke. It's not necessarily so far in left field like O'Malley's character at the moment

where the 43 and a nine-tenths-year-old me is just like, I don't get it. That's cool. Go ahead. I get Patty. I don't love it, but I'm entertained, Luke. I don't always love it, but I'm pretty entertained. I mean, he can fight in terms of the

motor in him and the want to go out there and do it. This is that right challenge. You can't push him too fast, too quick. Luke, we say this is the UFC. This is the big leagues. Everybody, you know, you get the same harsh treatment. Hey, Brock Lesnar, you're getting Frank Carwell or Frank Mir. I'm sorry on

your first fight. But that's not the case anymore. You can, you know, slow down the matchmaking a bit. And, you know, I think we saw that with O'Malley the last few fights, regardless of the reasoning behind it. And the question is when, Luke? When does Paddy get figured out? And can he get some wins that he, you know, that he almost doesn't deserve to keep that momentum going like how far can he go luke is he a wolf in sheep's clothing in terms of his vulnerabilities does you know what i mean like is this just that catnip to get the the old

guys sitting on the porch so you and me to go oh that guy's not not for real but let's tune in and watch the next seven times he tries to show us whether he is. If there's a little bit of a crazy sly fox in his act in that regard, look, it works. It works. Yeah, I tend to think that the UFC is, they gave him contracts at several points or gave him UFC offers at several points in his career

and he declined them. I think this is the third time he finally did sign with them, which was the right call. I think he needed to get more experience, and he did, and everyone comes along in the way that they did. And by the time he made the UFC, again, the look, the talk, the way, it kind of caught on fire, certainly over in the UK. And I guess U.S. fans love him as well,

but the slow rolling of the matchmaking tells you exactly what the UFC makes of him, which is that they're not exactly sure what they have or what it's going to really turn into. However, this one is like, I'll say this, it's bad if Patty loses this one. Because as I mentioned, this is not like some striker who's got good takedown defense that's going to really put it on him in a way where his deficiencies that are known would show up. And I've talked about this before.

Soren Baku beat him in Cage Warriors and beat him with the grappling, basically, over the course of five rounds, went on to Bellator, kind of showed that even with the grappling, there are some limits, but this is one that is certainly winnable for him. But if you can't beat a guy who is not so much a dynamic threat on the feet,

does have good grappling, but that's supposed to be your base, that would be a real bad sign, I think. So I'm not going to say this is a do-or-die contest. I think the UFC is trying to get as much out of him as they can. And again, if you're Patty, you have to love the matchmaking. You've got a guy who will accommodate you in all likelihood in the grappling department.

But if you can't beat that guy, you're probably not going to go very far. Also, I have to ask you, BC, where are you on the Molly McCann versus Hannah Goldie matchup? That's got BC written all over it. You might not be surprised, Luke. I'm pretty deep in that one. And I will tell you this.

We do have a recurring Wednesday storyline special segment where BC announces his super sloppy special of the week. And that would be this, Luke. It's going to be interesting because, look, I was a little skeptical on Meatball Molly in the beginning, too, and I think she's really kind of putting it together. And she just had her knockout win in her last fight, given the

setting in the UK and the placement it got on television. I mean, it was massive. I think she's the better fighter here against Hannah Goldie, who's typically been a prelim fighter and has had some ups and downs, although Luke, I do call her the Sean Shirk of the women's

strawweight division. You're going to have to agree with that, Luke. No, I don't. She's a physical tank, Luke. She'll go in there and brawl too, but she's a physical tank. I think Molly Cannon should win this. I don't think it'll be easy, but I think this could end up being a fun-ass fight, Luke,

for all the reasons you would believe. I mean, with crazy transitions and dramatic twists and turns. So I want you to be aware of this, and I want you to be ready, Luke. This is going to be entertaining. Where are you on the return of Gustafson, A, and his return to 205 as he takes on Krylov? I have to say, people, I'm like reasonably high on it I guess I'm kind of interested but not that high no Luke no I don't I think I'd love to God bless you I'd love for it to be proven wrong Luke and I'm certainly not a

hater Alexander Gustafson dude I can't tell you how many times I re-watched the Cormier fight Luke that no one talks about how great that fight was. Great! Alright? Love me some Gus. But he hasn't convinced me, you know, the one-off at heavyweight or the comeback from the original retirement that I don't want to say that there's still

not something left in there. I mean, he is only like 35, Luke. There could be something left in there. I just haven't seen the motivation. The right motivation, I guess is what I'm saying I haven't seen that spark I don't know why he's doing it could just be you know that's who he is scratch the itch I'm not sure I haven't looked that deeply into it but from what I have seen I don't there's a tough matchup Luke come back down to 205 I mean really ever since I don't think he's been the same since the second Jones fight, you know, where I think he came into it and we probably over-pumped up his value because we were just excited that that rematch became possible,

even with the last-minute city change and all that. But you go back and watch it, and you're like, yeah, that was not just the beginning of the end. That's kind of who he's been for a while, Luke. So if Gus can re-hit that spark, then this could be a great matchup. But I kind of feel like one-way traffic is coming Luke and I don't want to see that I don't want to see that okay we shall see and then lastly Paul Craig versus Volkan Uzdemir opens the main fight fun really fun fight yeah I totally agree why do you like it so much uh look Paul Craig's probably

going to do Paul Craig things and get dropped early and almost stopped and then rally to get a submission win. And Luke, as dangerous as Vulcan Ostemir is, and he is, this is the perfect type of opponent to have that type of finish against. It really is. And on the flip side, if you're Craig and you're going to keep taking some of that unnecessary damage before setting up what you do best, this is the wrong guy to F around with, Luke, whether you're in the Octagon or in a Fort Lauderdale bar. Luke, never forget that exchange right um you know vulcan's not the same stock right now that he was when he

kind of got fast-tracked to a title because there was no one else a title shot because there was no one else available at that moment but uh he still could thump luke so this is a good-ass fight man and how many more does paul craig have to win before he gets some like you know push into that title picture Luke uh probably a lot probably a lot because you know he's got some pretty amazing wins on his record but there are a lot of them are like you know victory from the jaws of defeat he is 5-0-1 in the last six 5-0-1 Luke fair. Fair enough, fair enough. I mean, maybe not too far, but I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of other guys who, you know, we still have the Smith versus Onkelia fight coming up.

Rakic is kind of still out there, although he was injured. You got Jan, Glover, Michael. I mean, there's a lot of guys ahead of him. I'm not saying, I'm not pushing this topic because I think he has a huge chance of, you know, becoming the next champion. I love Paul Craig's game, but he's 5-0-1 in his last six, I'm not pushing this topic because I think he has a huge chance of becoming the next champion. I love Paul Craig's game, but he has 5-0-1 in his last six,

and there's a few mixture of decent names and old names like Shogun, but he did just finish Krylov in the first round, Luke. So it's going to be hard to keep him out if he keeps winning, right? A guy to watch, which makes this fight even more interesting. A guy to watch in the larger picture. Agreed. Agreed. And certainly something of an MMA unicorn in the way that he fights. Really a special guy. I like Paul Craig a lot.

All right, let's go to topic number four, because the UFC London fights will naturally be on Saturday. On Friday, you get Bellator 283 BC. And in your main event, I got to tell you, this is a big fight for Douglas Lima. Douglas Lima has been on a terrible losing streak, the worst of his career, I would say. And he does not have an easy fight next.

Jason Jackson, the ass-kicking machine, is his known nickname, who has been fighting at 175 for a few times. But our guy, Rashad Evans, has been high on Jason Jackson for a really long time BC Douglas Lima did an interview with MMA junkies Danny Segura saying you know like have I lost a step am I too old like he has really begun to grapple with frankly existential questions is it a case where he is too old has Has he lost a step? What has gone wrong?

And what does he face against Jason Jackson? Yeah, I mean, three-fight losing streak, obviously all title or fairly damn high elite matchups. It's tough, Luke. This is the right type of matchmaking to find out that question. It also, obviously, given the status of where Jackson is in the rankings, would allow a, what is he, a three-time former champion, Luke, or two-time? It could be three, right?

Yeah, I'm not sure. I have to double-check that. But several times. I mean, he would be right back in the mix. You'd beat a guy like Jackson at this point. So you have to look at that losing streak and say, I mean, look, he's not young. He's been in some tough-ass fights. I mean, a lot of his biggest wins are tough-ass fights. Was it the rest of the competition catching up to him just as he slowed down a bit? I mean, remember the first fight with Rory? That was a hell of a fun fight, Luke. Or was it just, you know, wrong matchup, wrong time?

Okay, so he fought Musashi in the first one. The size differential kind of daring to be great. You get what would happen there. The second one, Luke, it didn't look so good. But most recently against MVP in the split decision loss, would you argue that he, for the first time, showed how he can sustain the fact that he's getting old and it's slipping away naturally, physically,

by leaning on his wrestling and making that a different kind of fight for big stretches, Luke. I mean, he did have a rally in him and he did have a focus on efficiency and saying, okay, this is what I can bring to this moment right here. This is my best chance to win because, you know, the old stalker and leg striker and just walk you down and, you know, he may not be able to be that guy anymore against some of these more elite guys. So I'm not going to, you know, rip him for the amasov loss luke to lose the title but it was it was one-sided as shit it was way more one-sided than i thought it would be i like at least the spirit against mvp did that show you like arlovsky like sometimes you see

these guys delaying the inevitable finding finding another sunset before walking away. I have concerns. Not that he couldn't win this fight. I do think it is winnable because Jason Jackson is talented and he's big for the weight class. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy

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Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, the credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Yeah, I think Douglas Lima has enough in enough areas of the game if he mixes it up. Like we talked about Li Zhenglang in his fight against Muslim Salikov, where he was targeting the head, body, and legs all equally, which is not right or wrong per se, but it was very right for

him in that particular context. It was a really smart application of strategy. I think if you see something in the sense of Lima doing a little bit bit of wrestling doing some clinching fighting at distance you know mixing a lot of different offensive elements in there and not letting jason jackson settle yeah i do think he can actually win this contest so there is a potential out there but i think the signs are bad man like he beats michael page in may of 2019 venom page and he looked like that was one of his best wins and And then he had a really strong win against Rory McDonald, but then he fought Musashi and looked very languid. And then you're right about the Amosov fight. Amosov just kind of, I won't say ran over him,

but didn't have that much trouble. And then the Michael Page one, Page is better, and then Lima's on the downside. And so even though it was a bit of a third round rally or whatever it was. Look at him in top position, yeah. I mean, look at the fight he's putting on that video right now,ke yeah i know but to drop that way that he did i am glad that he was confronting the existential questions i think that is actually good not denying it

not pretending it's not a role it's real confronting it i think that part is very good on the other hand the question is it too little too late i always talk about it man like you know whether it's your title or the end of your career, it's going to happen and it might happen sooner than you think. And so for a fighter, you have to be really kind of candid about that. I appreciate his candor. It is winnable. This fight will tell us.

Jason Jackson, I'm going to, for folks who don't watch a lot of Bellator, let me just sort of warn you. Jason Jackson is not an easy fight, dude. Not an easy fight at all. This is a really tough one. So the good news for Douglas Lima fans is if he beats a guy like Jason Jackson, that's a great sign. And losing it is not the end of the world, but it would be four in a row at that point. I also want to remind folks he made his MMA debut, his pro debut,

all the way back in July of 2006. My man's been fighting for a long time. He's been in Bellator since 2011. There's a lot of miles on him, and these weren't a lot of easy fights either. There's a lot that has happened in his career up to this point. So what I would say is fairly, fairly consequential doings here in this main event on Friday night in Bellator from Tacoma, Washington.

I wonder if, we'll get into this more when we preview this fight, the X's and O's on Friday, Luke, and we'll be all over CBS Sports HQ, I'm sure, getting ready for this, the weigh-in special, all that. But, you know, I wonder if for Lima you do focus on a potential ground attack here, Luke, or do you really try to time your shots and really try to offset the amount of time you're going on even terms on the feet against a younger aggressive guy? Is there an avenue here for that? I mean,

we just saw Logan Storley win an interim title, right? By doing that to MVP, whether we agreed with the scoring or not, Luke. That may be the best avenue against a Jason Jackson, who is an ass-kicking machine luke um because it could go bad for him if this turns into an action fight i believe he's got to kind

of avoid that the issue for lemus i agree that the ground has definitely needs to be a critical component of this fight the issue for lima and this is why it's been a bad sign is he's just looked a little lifeless yeah you know and you know this from. What's the number one sign when someone is done in boxing is when they get hit and don't throw back. And there was a little bit of that happening in some of these fights where he was just kind of getting hit or taken down and he was kind of fighting it off, but there wasn't this extreme urgency that you see from someone like Izzy

who is in the smack middle of his prime or something like that. It was just kind of like, I'll fight it off. I'll kind of hold on. But accepting of certain things, that's a bad sign. So we'll see if he can reverse it, but it's certainly in play. Also on this card, BC, he might get a title shot off this. I think he's ranked number three right now in the Bellator lightweight division. Or, no, is it lightweight?

I'll look at the... Lightweight. Yes, I'm out of my mind here for some reason i was thinking it was bantamweight no it's lightweight usman number gamedov taking on chris gonzalez chris gonzalez by the way wrestling stand at himself usman number gamedov bc he is i'm telling you this guy's going to be champion i don't know when i don't know when but would you share my enthusiasm this guy's got belt holder written all over him you know my box of russian hammers luke that i have to bring out often holder written all over him you know my box of russian hammers

luke that i have to bring out often in this discussion and and just you know his is of the the squiggly shaped with the nice paint job on it because he's not only of that russian hammer contingency and and representing but there's a lot to love about his complete game i think his first couple fights in bellator have really showcased that. I mean, you're Khabib's cousin, and your first name is Usman. I mean, like, you know, and you also can back up the wrestling, you know, Dagestan

reputation, but yet, Luke, it's a lot of his sort of plus ability to take fight, you know, to suddenly it's checkmate and the fight's over to take you there. He's something special. You know, when here you can't keep him away from a title shot. I mean, look, one day he's going to fight AJ McKee for a title in one of these divisions,

and it's going to be a fan frigging tastic fight. I think you know that there's something in you that understands. It's like for folks who haven't watched a lot of Bellator, like what is he good at? Well, the answer is probably everything. Everything. He can strike his ass off in ways Habib never could. I don't know if he has the Habib level ground game, but his ground game is excellent.

Decision-making is great. Athleticism is where it needs to be. Coaching is obviously, you know, pretty fucking good. Dude, that guy is going to wear a Bellator belt and he's probably going to wear it for as long as he wants he is so talented it's shocking how good he is and bc i gotta say the card overall people are sleeping on it the main event may or may not grab you i don't know but this fight number gamedov gonzalez is on it lorenz larkin is back on this card how about this one sydney outlaw a top prospect or top contender i should say taking on tafiq musaev is on this card how about this one sydney outlaw a top prospect or top contender i should say

take it on tafiq musaev is on this one romero cotton a top prospect let me very quickly dalton rasta's on this card uh gadzi rabadanov who's a fucking another one of your hammers is on this card take it on bobby king uh ferraldo versus iniguez is on this card dude this one is filled with these up-and-coming interesting guys that you really should be paying attention to. Yeah, by the way, Bobby King always makes fun fights. All Hawaiian there, Luke. But Sidney Outlaw getting co-main event status in here, Luke,

I think tells you that there's certainly something there. He's put together some good wins. This is a tough fight, and this is a great opportunity in the same division as Usman Nurmagomedov, who's going to fight before him, that he's got big potential here with Bellator. So you like to see some of this. I mean, look, if you're Bellator from the standpoint of the homegrown idea

or having Amasov become the champion, Nemkov become the champion, guys that really may have been in other organizations but not major ones making monster headlines, they've come through the Bellator way here. These names, we just saw Cody Law lose. He's going to have to bounce back, but these names are coming through, and Aaron Pico is still around, Luke, and he's still going to be coming on and eventually fighting for a title soon.

I wonder if Outlaw is fashioning himself to be in that group, Luke. Have you seen enough to see that this is a guy who could be something? Yeah, but Tawfiq Musaieb is real good. you seen enough to see that that that this is a guy who could be something yeah but to speak musaev is like real good he's a real good so it's like yeah he definitely sydney outlaw is definitely worthy of your respect but this is not an easy fight and i want to remind folks roman ferraldo's on this card as well seven and oh guy taking on luis inigue. BC, Feraldo is a highlight machine on the feet. And don't believe me, just put his name into YouTube, put his name into whatever search or social media channel you prefer

and watch the fights that come up. This guy is as exciting a striker as they come for guys who have less than 10 fights in MMA. He is incredible in that way. Dude, he's knocking mofos I mean he's just knocking people the fuck out yes so this is one of those cards where by the way women's flyweight fight Vita Ortega taking on Vanessa Porto as well I would make a case that obviously the the main event carries a lot of significance for Bellator and their division

certainly Sydney Outlaws worthy of respect and you got Nurmagomedov on the main card in that sense it's better also Lorenz Larkin on the main card. In that sense, it's better. Also, Lorenz Larkin on the main card. But this prelim card, in terms of having a bunch of interesting names, depending on your preference of what you care about, it might be actually more interesting than the main card, which, of course, will be free on YouTube or Pluto TV. There's a lot to like on this card from the Emerald Queen Casino

and Hotel in Tacoma washington bc have you been to tacoma washington i've never been luke washington state is right up there on my must you know you know i'm a big nature guy luke they got rainforests they got alpine looking peaks they got ocean i mean that's you know i'm not going to be out in kiesa territory over at uh eggers meets luke taking down that land jaeger like you did but uh i i am looking forward to head up you know all those national you know north cascades national park luke i want to see that shit have you been to that state no i've so the pacific northwest has eluded me i've actually never been to i've been to a lot of places in the world i've never

been to oregon or washington state i am i'm sleeping on that big time yeah why don't you save the next trip that was scheduled for medellin and uh head on over to like you know uh seattle luke okay well here's the difference as wonderful as seattle is the u.s dollar right now is so fucking strong it's like four and a half to one on the colombian peso which means you can go to Colombia and live like a goddamn king. Oh, like steak dinners for breakfast, Luke, right? Like literally, it would be hard to spend $100 in a day. It would be actually kind of hard. Wow.

And what about like massages and like pampering and that kind of stuff? That's cheap too? Dude, so you could go to the beach and there's these ladies that come by and they give massages they just walk around doing it and they always combine it like oh mucho tensión masaje masaje um those are like five dollars they're like five dollars oh wow dude robert kraft could clean up down there luke that's awful that's awful that's just yeah okay well he'd have to clean up because he'd be busy if you know what i'm saying uh making it gross there okay yeah bc topic five we'll do some quick hitters volkanovsky is sort of responding to what's happening in the

featherweight division he's asking like you know would rodriguez for an interim title be a possibility uh dana white says he likes it. He doesn't hate it. But then Volk on the MMA Hour says, I don't mind the idea while I'm sitting here. I won't read the rest of the quote because we don't really need to. But do you like the, we talked about this. Dana White seems to like it.

Volkanovski doesn't seem to mind it. It's the right fight to make. As we said before, the winner would then take in pay-per-view points heading into any unification with Volkanovski bc hard not to like it and josh emmett doesn't get screwed where do i sign up luke let's do this thing right now and by the way it's a great freaking fight on top of that so yes please thank you move on uh frankie edgar reveals his desired opponent for his retirement fight first of all before we can get to this let me just say i'm glad that he is contemplating retirement my man has taken he first of all he's done an amazing amount he will go in the ufc hall of fame i have very little doubt about that i'm

sure you probably agree was beloved in ways in his peak that i don't think current fans would really understand dude stayed relevant at an age at a weight class that he's going down in weight the second half of his career i mean that he's going down in weight the second half of his career i mean that's wild you know in three weight classes won a title 155 was relevant at 145 and fought for a title and was relevant at 135 at least for a little while um with pretty important fights i mean he was i remember when he fought tyson i think it was tyson griffin was his ufc debut and that was the time when tyson griffin was kind of at like you know was a a very good fighter and i was like when Tyson Griffin was kind of at like, you know, was a very good fighter.

And I was like, I don't know who this scrub is from, you know, Tom's River, New Jersey. Tyson Griffin's going to beat his ass. And then Frankie Edgar went in there and fucking gave it to him. And I was like, whoa, who is this guy? Amazing, right? All right. But Frankie talked to Brett Okamoto from ESPN.

Here's what he said. Quote, honestly, I'm never one to call out anybody or pick anybody. I let the UFC and Ali who's his manager figure that out but I'll say a name just because it's more of a legacy fight and I know he's got a fight coming up and everything who knows how it can happen and go down but I think Dominic Cruz he was a champion at 135 when I was a champion at 155 still both pretty pretty much top of the division. I think that could be an interesting fight. BC, do you agree? Hell yeah. This is how old guys should be fighting each other.

Get Mr. Faber involved in one of these again if he's interested. Yes, Luke. It's a great matchmaking. I don't want to see Frankie against a hammer. I thought maybe he should have walked away after that last fight, but if he wants one more against another name, he could soak up the moment. He could have a reason to get in great shape. It's a matchup where you

don't, at least on paper, suspect him to take a ton of damage. He ended up requesting Luke to the UFC per Aaron Bronstetter that this fight would take place at MSG, UFC 281. That's basically Frankie's backyard there outside of Jersey. That's the type of legend that you would like to see be given the red carpet on the way out in ways as you like

to often mention which is true it doesn't happen in this promotion luke they don't do that shit all right they don't but to get a retirement fight at msg would be big and i hope he gets it and i hope that that's the end of it because he's had a great great career all right lastly we'll end on this one. We spoke to Hasim Rahman Jr. I think everyone and their brother did, but we were one of them. And BC, I gotta tell you, I'm gonna say this.

If you didn't know their names and you just knew who X fighter was, let's say it's Jake Paul, his record, and the record of the guys that he beat, and then the Y fighter, Hasim Rahman, and all the guys he beat in his record. If you didn't know their names, you just knew them as X and Y, you would never, ever pick X to beat Y. You would never do it.

It wouldn't make any sense. So there's a big question of, like, has Jake Paul bitten off more than he can chew? Rahman Jr. spoke to us and certainly believes that. And you had asked him about some of his details on sparring Jake Paul and what he learned. We got a couple of audio clips. This is what he told us about sparring Jake Paul and what he learned. We got a couple of audio clips. This is what he told us about sparring Jake Paul.

I learned that he doesn't know his trainers, the people that are doing this for him, they don't tell him that they're asking people not to knock this guy out. In his head, he's convinced that these sparring sessions are real fights because he doesn't have an amateur

background. He doesn't have an amateur background um so he doesn't have amateur fight experience so when he gets in there with the pro he's treating it like it's a real fight and you know the pros such as myself and other people that are spartan we're being told okay don't don't turn south paul don't knock this guy out don't piss him off or else it's going to be hard to get you paid. He's not going to come off the money. With that being said, that's a super handicap to me. And for him to have built this false bravado, this false confidence, is only going to be a detriment to his health come August 6th.

He's going to be in trouble. What did you think? The look on my face was not the way i was feeling i looked like i was you know pissed off at the dmv or something but i was actually interested he already had to say uh look i after our interview with him and you can obviously check it out at youtube.com slash morning combat in full along with our luke's chat with jake paul at the end of that interview with hasim jr i'm like, Oh, he's going to win this fight by knockout. And Luke, at the end of the day,

that's what I love about this matchup. I know this wasn't the plan matchup. You and I weren't all that excited for Tommy Fury, especially if Tyson couldn't travel and be by his side and play up the sort of circus of it. Well, it turns out none of the theories can travel at the moment, or at least they say there's a way better fight because here's the

bottom line. The best thing I can tell you about why you should order this August 6th, although Showtime's not telling me to say this, but the fan in me is, Luke, and the fan in me is saying this. I'm not sure if this is trap fight city and Jake's going to not only take the first L but get stopped, or if this actually is, given some of the vulnerabilities and inconsistencies of Rockman Jr.,

the perfect matchup for Jake to look great and pass a big test. The truth may end up being in the middle. And if it is, we may end up getting a very entertaining, dramatic fight, Luke, with a lot to fight for, for both, seriously, in terms of keeping the train moving. I mean, Rockman Jr.'s career was just not being talked about. He just lost his first pro bout to Tommy Morrison's kid and got stopped and gassed out. So for him to now get to turn this around, have this opportunity,

he's such a wild card that I got to see it, Luke. I don't really know. I don't really know who's telling the truth about the sparring. I don't really know, and I like that. It's refreshing. Fair enough. And to that point, there's not red flags about the sparring. I don't really know, and I like that. It's refreshing. Fair enough. To that point, there's not red flags in the sense of Jake. We all know he's got limited experience and limited abilities

as a boxer, and we know that on paper, which I indicated, on paper, Rockman Jr.'s resume is much better, but we also saw the presser, BC, in Madison Square Garden, where his own dad kind of aired him out, so we asked him about that. Here's what he said.

Yes, absolutely. That's what he said at the conference, you know, where he said that I've been underprepared for my fights like this. It's fights that I've won by first round, a lot of fights that I've won by first round knockout where I could have been in better shape or I could have ended that fight in an even more emphatic fashion. With that being said,

I think that having an honest person in your corner is the best thing because I know when it comes down to it, he's going to be honest. He's going to let me know what's going on. He's going to let me know what I need to do. If I listen, I'll come out on top.

There you have it. So that, again, August 6th, Showtime pay-per-view. I got to tell you, if you're not interested in Jake Paul, then you're not interested in Jake Paul. But if you are at all curious about what his actual boxing ability is, this is by a million miles

the best time to figure out what he's got this is it for all the red flags and the short notice and the weight which will complicate matters bc i think you would agree we've never had a better test case to see because even with the fury fight i don't think it would have told you this one at least in theory stands a much better chance of telling us where jake paul is on this absolutely look if j's going to go to six and oh, he's gonna have to earn it. I mean, he's going to have to legitimately earn it, uh, with the opposition in front of him or so we think so that that's the intrigue. Uh, I did mention Luke in that interview.

I got dead wrong preemptively by a ton of people. I'd said, this is the first time Jake's fighting a real fighter. Obviously I met real professional boxer, no disrespect to the fighting heart of one ben askren or tyron woodley or ann eason gibb or uh nate robinson luke right k-m-i-z or klf is gonna rock you yeah yes uh okay bc i want to remind folks we are a nominee for the best sports podcast and best male hosted podcast category in the people's choice podcast awards we appreciate all you guys for all you do

for us of course and we hope you enjoy the show enough to nominate us to advance to the final round to nominate morning combat go to podcastawards.com or you can scan the QR code on your screen but it's podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up and toggle down to the sports category

the whole process takes less than 60 seconds BC we've included a link at the top of the episode description as yeah I mean we don't have to always nail this but this allows us to do some of the fun BS that we love to do and involve you so I'd love to have a live show on NYC Luke so do

support us in ways like this. Maybe we can get something like that off the ground. Thank you. With respect to Uriah Faber, Luke, we are the team alpha male in this space, in this division. And I think that's why we're up for best male podcast with all male viewers.

Who would be the Dwayne Ludwig in that case? Who, the guy who gets to bang. All right. BC. We may have to pause in the middle of fan subs. It depends how fast they go. Cause we are expected to get Tom Aspinall live in about 10 minutes. But for now we can,

we can always go back and finish, but let's, let's go to the fan subs. Yeah. Morning combat at gmail.com. You can send in your artwork. Mikey more mile. Weift through them and here's the best of the best we call it fan submission got mail you've got mail viewers yes yes all right uh let's start out with michael he says i found luke's classmates cushion elo sand i'm sorry luke's classmates custom elo sand just like bc said

they wear avias with a sharpie yeah look what the hell i mean craig elo i mean air i honestly i mean i'm so glad that i'm wrong because it makes for parody in the funniest of ways but i could have if you had told me on like in a deposition where i was you know hand on the bible kind of thing under oath i would have told you i saw some elos in seventh grade i must be out of my fucking mind uh did you have some bullshit basketball shoes at that age like voids or like dude oh let me tell you i've told you this before so my parents were divorced right and you know shocker that i turned out the way that I did. Wow.

So I have two stories about this. I have two stories about this. One, I've told you before, my dad bought us the Reebok pumps. And this was the kind when Reebok had the little basketball, like the orange basketball on the top of the shoe. Dee Brown, baby. Yeah, yeah. And my mom, so my brother got them and brought it home for my dad.

And my mom made us take it back. i never got to wear them one time i was so fucking pissed that was once the other one was my my peak because i got injured that year but my peak was i remember i've been this height since i was 14 years old so i had a huge advantage of everyone and i was on the it was my eighth grade year i was on the basketball team and uh my mom refused to go along with the team like you know how the team would like buy shoes at large and everyone pays their thing and we were all going to get these like sick nike air you know basketball shoes and my mom made me buy like these brand new fucking ugly ass this was like the mid 90s too so you can imagine the color patterns. New Balance basketball shoes.

Oh, God. That were just the fucking worst. The worst. New Balance is great for running shoes for people our age, Luke, but that is not what you want to be wearing, dude. I know, and it sucks now, dude, because now that I'm old enough, I've been buying Jordans the last few years and wearing them like you know a middle-aged fucking crisis kind of guy uh but the truth is i can't wear them anymore because the toe box is so narrow

it's fucking up my feet so now i have to go back and wear ugly shoes so at the point i could have worn cool shoes i never got to wear cool shoes my life dude i had a couple dark years in middle school where we had no money as a family and had to wear the L.A. gears and get made fun of, Luke. I've been there with you. I know that pain a lot, Luke. Did you wear the British Knight Dymacels? With the Dymatab technology. I've had all the bullshit ones before I finally could get a good pair.

Actually, you know what the first shoe I had that I thought was cool was? Well, I had the Converse Magics. Remember those low ones you had in the early 90s? And then I had the Reebok streetball ones that Sinbad was in the commercial for. You remember those? No. Oh, those were pretty bad. Actually, I have one more very quickly.

When I was in fifth grade and my mom was real broke and I don't know what was happening with child support. My mom had no money. I had to wear a shoe straight up up from like you know like pay less shoes or whatever yeah i had to wear a shoe called the winner shoe i'm like dude if you have a shoe called you're a loser like automatically you're a loser so dude i've never i've like literally i have been fucked on shoe wear my whole life it sucks dude. Dude, people don't realize that age when we were in middle school, you were judged by it. You were judged

by it. Big time. You were in your social class because of the kind of shoe you had. I mean, lame people whose parents could get them Jordans, Luke, they had a moment in the sunshine. They don't understand how easy they had it. Those of us who had

to navigate the minefield of the winter shoes and british knight dime cells we had some character built up if people wonder why my toes look like this you know what i mean come on a hard-earned journey to get here all right this is from lee he says good morning i wish to formally apply to be a model for your mk merch i feel i meet the very specific criteria. Wash dad, check. Sleep deprived, check. Prematurely bald, check.

Low T, some good, some bad tattoos, check. Strong in the weight room relative to my level of washedness, check. Admirer of BBLs and follows a disproportionately high number of female fighters on Instagram. All check. I'm a total free rider, however, and I'm willing to pay for the shipping of the gear. P.S. What popularity content do we have to rig? Contest, I think he meant to say,

to get Luke and BC to travel to the U.K. Luke, I did say that's our next show goal, right? 15, 5,000. 5,000 live fans in the U.K. That's my next goal for the show all right that would be that would be amazing yeah uh what do you think about this bloke's attempt luke to wear our merch as a model and is he strong as shit as he thinks it's lee yeah i can't quite see how many plates he has on uh let's see one two i can't quite see because my glass

let's see one two three four and then it looks like he has the 35s on, which only a weirdo puts on his thing. So these aren't straight-up deadlifts. This looks to me like a block pull, so he's got it slightly off the ground. He fits that medium tank top fairly well, right? Yeah, I got to say. And also, the mechanics here look, for the most part, pretty good. Folks like the top of his back is rounded, which is true,

but that doesn't matter. What only matters is that the lumbar part of the back is rounded. He's got a mixed grip. He's got a nice, yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. He's pretty strong. Shout out to RJ Dunkeldauber. We got MK powerlifting shirts on the site now.

This is great, Luke. Yeah, I got to say, in general, if this is what he's pulling sleep-deprived, he's okay, because when I'm sleep-deprived, I can barely do 10 minutes on the treadmill. Yes, 60 minutes on the mk yeah i know yeah exactly before my feces turn into uh you know before you get angry and you suddenly threaten that you'll have another job all right look this from scott he says uh the fights on saturday water park on sunday make a donk data clothing line because y'all have some dads out here repping.

Also, can't watch your podcast while my sons are in the room because y'all got the potty bocas. Luke, this is Scott. Can you zoom in on his cable management or life management here, Luke? Well, he's got the

television stand that I do like he's the substitute teacher and he's just going to plug in some movie on the vcr for the day which is kind of strange but the kid room looks pretty good and uh is there another tv in the back that the kid is watching i think so but that would also be his child look you can be polite you know as his daughter it may not be maybe he stole that kid from the grocery store you don't know and here's him at the water park on sunday luke uh still repping mk by the way you know he's got a flat brim oh god pour some sugar on this guy luke in the name of love yes yes all right yes okay great uh thank you scott uh luke will you address his uh offer that his kids can't watch the show because

of the language you choose to use um i would say it's also your language i think it's fair you make jokes about you know that and all that you know i mean you do a little bit of that too all right i'm trying to clean up luke okay starting now thank you uh This is from Mustache Dad. He says, if BBC was a metal maestro. Black liver society. Luke, I look kind of cool as a Jack Wild, right?

Yeah, who's on tour, by the way, with one of my favorite bands. Well, one and a half of my favorite bands. I'm not a huge anthrax guy but they're on tour with anthrax black label society and also shouts to jamie josta who i'm good uh i'm like boys with from hate breed he's also on that tour as well are you as big of a fan as i am of the no more tears ozzy album which uh zach wilde had a tour to force on luke so you know what's funny about that you know who is is like a giant Zach Wild fan is my wife.

My wife loves Zach Wild, loves Black Label Society. I like him okay. I like him okay. I definitely don't hate him at all. But I don't love him quite like some of the more diehards out there. Okay. I mean, he's incredible. I've seen him in concert before, Luke.

He's incredible. He was doing like Van Halen teases. I mean, it was incredible. I've seen him in concert before, Luke. He's incredible. He was doing Van Halen teases. I mean, it was incredible. Oh, no, he can play. I mean, say whatever you want about him. That dude can play. He can play his ass off. Yeah.

Dude, by the way, last time I saw Ozzy in concert was probably like 2002, and it even felt like Weekend at Bernie's during that, Luke. I mean, he still brought it, but it did feel a little bit like that. I mean, he's just Vicodin and skin at this point. I can't believe he's still out there doing it. Oh, Luke, you know who is here? Not Tom Aspinall yet, but Appy, Luke. David Appleton, fresh from France, Luke.

Fresh out of the jail cell, I think. He says, hi, guys. I thought I'd take a break from painting myself as a sex pest and send in a more normal fan sub so here i am with the kids yes alarmingly i have children we were on holiday in the north of france rocking the mk gear my kids refused to wear mk merch for the photos labeling it t-shirts to boomer even brian should be able to pronounce that and translate that uh yours wholesomely it's appy david appleton p.s i just actually got recognized in paris the other day don't know if they recognized me specifically for the mk shirt but a couple definitely pointed at it

and smiled appreciatively you're taking over the world boys luke in the in the um to catch a predator circles we're we're huge, apparently. This is great, right? I know. It's like when you got recognized, I mean, like, by what? The police? Like, what do you mean exactly? Look, you know, Appy is also a girl dad, like you and the late Kobe Bryant, Luke.

So do you see, like, the truth come out of him in these at-home moments? Get groceries delivered across the gta from real canadian superstore with pc express shop online for super prices and super savings try it today and get up to 75 in pc optimum points visit superstore.ca to get started um hard to say if he was a if he was a real well i won't say that but you know i mean i first of all i want to know what fucking 1920s russian roller coaster he's on that's covered in rust i think he's on the pirate ship on look if you put me on the pirate ship at this age uh i will throw up instantly okay instant what was the last time you were on a like a real bat shit crazy

roller coaster um i went to uh there's a there park in Connecticut across from ESPN called Lake Compounds, but they do have a pretty well-renowned balderdash coaster. It's wooden, but it's fast and rickety as shit. I remember when I worked at ESPN and we would go once a year to the party at that park, I could handle it at ESPN Family Day. Yes, Mikey, Mikey grew up there. Mikey Morms. I could handle it at ESPN Family Day. Yes, Mikey. Mikey grew up there. Mikey Morms. I could handle it, Luke, but it would hurt. But I'd do it, alright?

Dude, I brought, my wife and I brought the kids last summer to this park, and I did that, and dude, I when I say it fucked me up, like, I was crippled the rest of the day, bending over, ready to throw up, like, all parts of my body aching. Like, Luke, it, dude, bending over ready to throw up like all parts of my body aching like look it dude

it's not fair i mean i get a two beer hangover still so it's still not fair there but but look it's really not fair it's really not it's just not like it's fucking crazy it's fucking crazy dude when my in-laws from columbia come here it's the only thing they want to do i think they do have theme parks in columbia in places, but they're not that great. So like Six Flags here, which is not far from my house, or there's King's Dominion down 95 just north of Richmond. Yeah. So they always want to go there.

Here's a little pop quiz. I didn't realize this either. Do you know how they say roller coaster in Spanish? You ever heard this? No. I'm going to fuck the words up because my spanish blows montaños russias russian mountains that's what they call them they don't call them roller coasters they call them russian mountains um they are addicted to going to uh six flags and shit i have to go

several times a year as a consequence okay okay luke um shout out to appy and the family there but i really wish i could go on rides. It sucks so bad. It sucks. I wish there was like a pill you could take, is there? Maybe I could man up. How about that? Yes.

Whatever Ozzy Osbourne's been taking for the last 30 years. Okay. I can snort heroin through my eyes is what you're saying. Okay, great. Finally, we have Danger Mouse sliding in. He says, hey, BC, I'm back like a jilted lover after the production team passed over my Margaritaville art last week. I did see this on Reddit, I think, Luke. It was pretty good.

And they broke my months-long streak of fan subs. Well, I can't take it out on them. I've tried. They just censor it. So you bitches are getting it instead. So let's talk about this so-called relationship you have with Luke. Hugging Luke? No. Hugging Luke? No.

Hugging Michael? Look at this. And look how happy Luke is when BC just dives straight in for the man hug with a relative stranger. Dude, that is so fucking funny. Is it me? Is it my deodorant? What is it, BC? I don't know, Luke.

We'll have to dig deeper on the next MK doc. Dude, I didn't even put two and two together. That is so fucking funny. I have offered for us to go to MK Couples Therapy for the doc, and you have not taken me up on that. The next one from Danger Mouse, he says, It's time now for me to be the voice of the Morning Combat chat room and make their feelings known about a certain social media presence

who's been receiving a lot of attention recently. Luke is probably not going to like this one, which means he will really hate the dirty version that I suspect will only make it to the production team's private chat. Let's see what he's saying here, Luke. Can you blow it up? I can't see it. That is blown up. It says Morning Combat 2020 on top.

There's the meme of you playing Draw 25. Oh, I see, I see. So jake paul or take 25 no in 2020 and then 2022 i'm interviewing the guy i mean listen oh that's like rain's world luke look at that first of all very funny it's very i'm not mad at it at all listen guys i would like to do good things at showtime i'm trying to be a good soldier it comes with talking to jake paul i had a short conversation with him it is lampoonable i don't mind that but your boy is trying to be a good soldier yes yes keep it up you're doing great uh he's got one more on the same subject apparently this danger mouse luke okay let's see all right you know what look this isn't dead wrong but you know we we do stay accountable

even in fan subs luke um yes listen they know they have a right to roast us and they should by the way is that gavin and gwen in the back there it is it is what's gavin's last name from bush uh rosedale rosedale that's it rosedale. Rosedale. That's it. Rosedale. Yeah. Dude, remember in high school, every chick wanted to bang him. Remember that?

Oh, hell yeah. I think I did too for, for a hot second there. Look, they were hot. They had, they had a,

they had a minute. I think the thing about them is they didn't have a sustainability of great albums, but they had at least what I would consider five, like top tier radio tracks, like rock. Everything Zen and glycerine are the two biggest ones, right?

Yes. Yes. There's like three other, you know, machine head, uh, uh, Lou Long Island,

Luke offering. There's like, I think there's at least five and they're like three of those, at least three of those five Luke are like top tier nineties radio rock songs. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I would agree with that.

They had two albums that like that one album, I forget what the name of i mean like yeah i agree with that they had two albums that like that one album i forget what the name of it was 16 stone is that 16 stone yeah that one was i mean i cannot overstate how big that album was here fucking i like so i liked live more than them but i think in hindsight i should have switched that loop so live had the good two albums culminating in throwing copper yes but they had an album after that where one of the lyrics of one of the songs was this puke stinks like beer and it was the worst fucking are you talking about the secret samadhi album which had the hit that no one talks about which was great called turn my head yes i mean that was you know i had that i had that one too okay you would agree

throwing copper though that's peak live right that's like that's apex live dude that that's peak 90s like i you know i'm not. Like wallflowers bringing down the horse. I'm not here to tell you live throwing copper is a five star go out and buy tomorrow. But it's peak fucking 90s, Luke. It's like, you know, what did the 90s feel like and sound like? And I'll throw that up there. That's my life, Luke. All right.

So let's talk about this out loud. We have a choice to make here. We're waiting on Tom Aspinall. If they could give us an update in the chat. We don't have him yet. In fact, they wrote, still no sign of him, which is always a good call. You know how this goes, BC. We've been doing fighter interviews for a long time.

Sometimes they show up. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they get the time zone right. Sometimes they don't. So they're talking to the PR lady. How long do you want to wait? That's the question you have to ask yourself. Are you saying that you don't want to wait for your life to be over Luke?

Um, no, I think we're, it looks like we're still getting them, Luke. Um, I mean, she had two babies, Luke. One was six months. One was three. Okay. Um, the war of 44. Yeah. I mean, I'll wait Luke.

Cause no one likes feeling that. Look, I got to talk to you about something here. It's not the Thor movie review, which was way, way over the top, Luke. No. It wasn't a cinematic classic. Dude, if you like that movie, it's a guarantee that your parents don't love you. Okay, come on. I've had people in our MK universe who I know are cool be like, Luke was wrong.

No, I'm not. That was a pretty damn good movie. That movie is terrible, and anyone who likes it is off the list of anyone whose opinion you should ever take seriously and i did want to shout out just joel luke he's not you know he sent us those t-shirts i wore one during our rossi rock my interview our staff was overjoyed shout out to just joel of ocala florida that guy luke is a mick mashup dj mix master luke okay right there he makes art for a living but here's what i wanted to talk to you about. All right. My wife's away, so I've been doing the Mr. Mom thing. And it's, you know, dude, we don't deserve them, Luke. They are the most organized, incredible people of all time.

And me trying to fill, you know, Mrs. Campbell's shoes here is a debacle. But I did get some great time with the boys, with the bros. Dude, we watched, we crunched like five straight episodes of the Obi-Wan show last night. I had only previously seen the debut episode. Dude, this is gold. Luke, this is gold, dude. This is really good. Okay.

Let's unpack this a little bit. Please. Where do you rank that season, which I think might be the only one, but where do you rank it relative to first season of mandalorian i like it better oh you're you're so fucking high you're not well i mean that's always debatable but i dude i love the men loved the mandalorian okay i really liked um rebels the cartoon i didn't go too deep on the other cartoon, Luke, although I hear it's great, but I don't know if I like that shit. But, Luke, and I didn't watch the, what's that other Mandalorian

who has a show? Oh, the Book of Boba Fett. I didn't watch that yet. The reviews are bad, but I will eventually. Luke, I was blown away at how good this was. Dude, are you serious? Like, the young Leia was amazing. I mean, dude vader

i mean come on i was kind of like marking out here so here's what i would say i didn't see book of boba fett but i'm sure it's trash because even people who like star wars didn't like it all that much so i'm gonna put it last mandalorian is clearly the best television show that disney plus has made relative to star wars at least live action i've not seen enough of the cartoons i'm gonna put this one in the middle and the reason why I'm saying that is because I do think there are certain episodes or parts of episodes that are actually really cool and really good. I did not hate it, but I don't think you can look past like that scene where there was episode one

or two where flea is like chasing Leah and it's the most low budget piece of shit fucking scene you've ever seen in your like was this show expensive or cheap to produce i can't tell because where it looks nice and they actually did a good job with like the character development with the third sister all in fine dude i've never seen higher bigger highs or lower lows in cinematography luke and you know me i normally don't harp on that until 1917 came out and I had a cinematic orgasm over and over, Luke. But there are moments like the fire scene with Vader on one side

and Obi-Wan on the other where it's the shots, the shadow and the reflection in the Vader. I mean, it's just. Those were good, yes. It's amazing, and you're right. There are other scenes where it's just like, but I don't think that's enough of a flat tire, Luke. And I also was nervous that they were going to be too aggressive

in telling the storyline of what happened in that gap between episodes three and four in the normal Star Wars timeline. And I think even though they actually were really aggressive it worked like i want to hate this whole leia thing but i can't it's really good luke again didn't hate it didn't hate it but i think mandalorian is leagues above it leagues maybe you are just a hater maybe that's it luke maybe i think i think i think the world is filled with a lot of simpletons who let their kid like romanticism cloud their judgment about what is actually good and what is actually not dude that new thor movie is bad it is bad it is not good at all couple of decent action scenes the gnr and you know stuff is you know can't go wrong with gnr christian bale amazing

everything else about that movie is garbage and i don't think people actually watch very good movies enough to know what a very good movie looks like and what the fuck that is dude to me all all all these superhero movies are bullshit luke i was entertained by that one maybe i should watch it more okay maybe i'll get back here's what i'll say if you like that one, you will love Thor Ragnarok, which, by the way, the same director made both of those, which is kind of weird

because he got that one right and then that one really wrong. But the Thor movies in general, like Thor Dark World and shit, I didn't love, I didn't hate, but I didn't love all that much. But there are definitely better Thor movies. Everybody was like,

BC, you gotta watch Deadpool. That's gonna be your entry into this. That's your type of superhero movie. I tried, Luke. I was like 20 minutes in and I was like, this blows. I'm out of here, Luke. I was out of there. I never came back. Where are you on Spider-Man? I don't touch that shit either, okay, Luke? I think Spider-Man is a little overrated, but I do like Spider-Man. I don't touch, you know, no, I'm not really into any of that stuff i you know i got a harsher no i don't i don't i i didn't even watch those batman

ones until we did for that extra credit homework it was really good but you know i also don't chase that stuff either luke oh wait we were talking about this well we were talking about what's the war movie you haven't seen yet where i lost my fucking mind do you remember oh run isn't that no no no no no uh you've seen saving private ryan right okay but don't forget that was my that was my early pandemic project which led to a lot of drinking and a little bit of depression so maybe that was the best route but i ended up watching all of them remember no there was we talked about it recently there was one you oh black hawk down you haven't seen right right i have not seen that you're saying that's in the pantheon i need to instantly add it in well i don't know how okay

it's definitely very very good it's not better than the deer hunter i'll tell you that already it's i mean i'm not going to call it a top five war movie i'm not going to do that but like if you want to say you've seen some of the better war movies you have to have at least judged black hawk down it's a true story it's a true story by the way uh i like the hurt locker a lot more than most people i thought that was great hurt locker is very good her lock is really good um you know it's it's yeah i mean the best are probably the you know deer hunter apocalypse now you know what i'm saying what do we got cory talk to me well cory why don't you just be honest? Are they going to get them, or what's the deal?

Okay, because we're trying to keep this ship afloat, and the audience is going to be checking out here pretty soon, and I wouldn't blame them. More like a ship of fools. Cinderella's going to turn back into a pumpkin here fairly soon. BC, I did finish two shows recently. I finished season three

of The Umbrella Academy. Have you seen those? Still have not seen that. You did recommend that in the past, yes. Season three is a little weird, but decent. And then, what was the other one i finished recently i was watching it with my wife oh the boys season four i think whatever the latest one was that one is very good i love the boys the boys is is like so i didn't realize this dude let me pitch this to

you real quickly and everyone kind of tells it wrong until so i heard this from someone else the guy who wrote the original comics for the boys actually hates superheroes and thinks the whole thing is phony and bullshit and that this idea that they would ever be like bastions of morality and good faith is completely the opposite of what it actually is so he writes into these characters not just the opposite of what you might imagine but like real depravity mendacity um you know sinister backstabbing fucking thin-skinned everything every character flaw you could imagine they have and to me it works dude it completely works well it sounds like spending a day at the Malka office, right?

I will look out for it. Long Island Luke just gave a double throw down on that, Luke, that that is a great show. The boys. All right. Look, I'll try your shit. I don't know if I'll stay, but I'll try it for sure. It's gory, though.

It's gory. All right. I mean, if gory is artsy, I can. It's a little gory. I mean, there gory is artsy, I can, you know. It's a little gory. I mean, there's a scene where one guy jumps into another guy's dick and then explodes. It's a whole thing. So I'm just going to point that out. We're probably going to get demonetized now.

I believe we're close to getting Tom Aspinall here, Luke. I don't know how close we actually are. I'm actually skeptical that we're going to get him at this point. That would be on brand, on par with your history in terms of optimism. This is why, dude, from the beginning of this show, when we created it in 2019,

this is why I was like, I really don't want to do... We can do interviews, but I don't want to do them as part of the show. It's because it's actually... I tried this with MMA Hour as well. Ariel makes it look a lot easier than it is. it is extremely difficult to coordinate this stuff in ways that most people cannot imagine so well our team has tried hard luke if we get it we get it all right shout out how much longer you want to wait look i can do this all day i know but we shouldn't though that's the thing you know this is this is what i do look a lot of people speculating that I let things go a little bit too far,

that the black shoe polish is coming back, Luke. Did you die again? No, I've been going full-on gray to my wife's detritus. She doesn't like it. She's like, color that stuff, Luke. You're not that old, okay? So I'm at a crossroads right now, Luke, okay? Has your wife ever commented on how i look grayer than gandalf uh maybe a couple times but she you know from a distance she seems to like

you luke you know you're my business partner you're my editorial husband okay hey speaking of which we were you know we still haven't gotten the families together for some complicated reasons are we going to get them together in 2022 yes i hope you think so i mean i don't know look it's i'm bringing i'm bringing my fam up i think for uh because my birthday is the day before the jake paul fight yeah i've still got a bunch of friends from when i lived in new york who are still there i think i'm going to bring the tukester and me up toosa up to New York on that Friday. Wow, maybe you guys can look around at potential rentals or for sale opportunities, Luke.

No, New York is prohibitively expensive. I mean, there's Jersey and CT as well in this tri-state biatch. You know what I mean? I mean, yeah, you're like, you can buy the nice one or you can go get these rusted old pieces of shit. You can go and get them. Well, why would I want those? Why would I want those?

You know what I'm saying? Luke, will you be seeing any concerts this summer? So yes, I, my wife bought the tickets in 2019 before the pandemic. Uh, I'm going to see actually the week of the Jake Paul fight I'm going to see

Rage Against the Machine and Run the Jewels. Okay that's I hear that Rage on this comeback have been very good Luke. That's what I hear. Yeah I guess there's a bunch of people who are confused about their politics not realizing that they've always been this way which is kind of funny

but either way I don't care. I'm going to go see them here in D.C. and let's see. What else? I was supposed to see Dying Fetus when they came to Baltimore. I missed it. I'm going to try and catch them maybe this year. Oh, and you know what? I might go to that

Hatebreed show as well when Hatebreed comes with Anthrax and Black Label Society. Oh, here we go. PR just canceled it canceled it dude did I call it or did I fucking call it how did I you know you know pessimism wins Luke okay in this in this instance for you take your victory lap I told you it was all gonna fall apart BC this is why dude this is what there's many reasons why I don't like doing fighter interviews this is one of them. This is one of them.

Well, I give our staff credit for trying to jump through hoops for that. And shout out to UFC PR. If it didn't work out, it didn't work out. But I enjoy working with those folks a lot, Luke. I wanted you to know that, okay? Yes, I agree. Hold on. Let me shout to the Mocha staff and to Mikey and everyone else on the staff who tried to make it happen.

I know you did work hard to get it. It didn't work out, but fellas, and I warned you three years ago, this is what happens. Just want to point that out. Luke, let's close with this is,

um, I know we haven't really, you know, breached the subject of divorce since doc two. It was a great storyline though. Luke, you know, you and I are getting along really well lately,

but shout out to Desus and Merrill. They got divorced. Luke. Um, dude, though luke you know you and i are getting along really well lately but shout out to desus and merrill they got divorced luke um dude i saw you know did you you know suddenly look at our union and say man how how strong is this really you know what i mean well we are eventually going to try and kill each other i do think that's true but we have to worry about getting desus and mero success levels before we can worry about like those guys are so wildly successful they're probably like yo fuck that guy yo fuck that guy i think you and i looked in the mirror we're like we're two fucking losers who you know this life raft needs a couple people to make it float you know what i'm saying so um if it comes down to it and the boat is sinking,

I'll stay with you on that raft, Luke. Okay. I'll stay on that. We'll drown together. BC will drown together. That's a really morbid way of putting things. Hey, I want to remind folks, we've got merch morning combat dot store.

We do have fighter interviews, just not when we're supposed to have them. You can get those youtube.com slash morning combat showtime label that pays showtime.com 30 day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can get those youtube.com slash morning combat uh showtime label that pays showtime.com 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can bounce bc any final thoughts here as we uh lingered with the audience unnecessarily yeah morning combat dot store for our merch check that out and uh if you lingered and you like this type of free i mean look to be fair some people still want room service diaries 1.0 because they just want to hear us bullshit. That's true.

That's true. Maybe one day we'll bring it back in. You know, I'd like to bring happy hour back, Luke, on this show. Or we just, you know, no script and we just go. Just go. I just don't drink like that anymore. No, no. You don't have to drink, Luke.

You're just having a conversation with another man. Okay? Yes, but if I ask you to hang out, always tell me no oh my god what what what kind of marriage do you think this is luke all right i have i'm sorry i'm tired i have to watch to wash my hair i mean come on this is so weird all right wow all right let's call it a day let's call it a day for the mulca crew and everyone at cbs sports who tried to help us get this done it didn't work thank you for making it happen or doing your best anyway for Malka, for Showtime, for CBS Sports. There he is. That's the King of Connecticut, Brian Campbell.

I'm Luke Thomas. We will join you on Friday for a full weekend preview of fights. Until then, may all of your gains be loyal.