MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 280: Makhachev Subs Oliveira, Sterling Stops Dillashaw | Yan-O'malley | Ep 365

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

On episode 365 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian are back to break down a stacked UFC 280 card. The boys start off with Islam Makhachev's submission win over Charles Oliveira. Who do you favor in a Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski matchup? Next up is Aljamain Sterling vs. TJ Dillashaw. Should this fight have happened at all? Sean O'Malley won a split decision over Petr Yan. Why is everyone so quick to call a disputed decision a robbery? The guys also break down who Aljo should fight next and Belal Muhammad vs. Sean Brady before DM's from donks and HYSTS. (11:00) - Islam Makhachev Def. Charles Oliveira (33:50) - Aljamain Sterling Def. TJ Dillashaw (50:50) - Sean O'Malley Def. Petr Yan (61:30) - Who's next for Sterling? (69:50) - Belal Muhammad Def. Sean Brady (79:15) - DM's from Donks (88:30) - HYSYS 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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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 24th of October, 2022, and this is the second time we've been on camera this morning already. Hi, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. Welcome to Morning Combat.

But I am merely just one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of the status of needles right here in Washington, D.C. But the king of Connecticut is on the other side of the screen. He's my friend and yours. It's Brian Campbell. What up, B.C.? Luke, they nearly caught me manscaping on cam there. I didn't think it was turning to my side.

But great to be here uh what a uh fighting extravaganza we had saturday afternoon you know it was nearly uh skyrockets in flight there luke so loved it loved your reaction to it uh and now we wake up monday morning looking to spin this shit forward this should be a great show today so put on your strap buckle it tight okay mk yeah it's coming it's coming right all right we don't have a moment to waste so thank you so much for joining us we have a ufc 280 extravaganza here today although i would say officially it's jake paul fight week but it's not officially jake paul fight week for us until tomorrow so today's show let's talk about UFC 280.

So if you're watching on YouTube, thumbs up on the video. Please hit subscribe. Let's see. If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, do leave us a nice review if you'd be so kind. BC, Showtime is the label that pays. You could have seen BC on Showbox. You'll see him again, I'm sure, at some point.

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And we got some great new stuff today. So check it out. Put that aside. Let's bang. Let's UFC. Hey, Luke, real quick. I saw Eagle Mania last night the world's premier uh eagles cover band i just wanted to let you know the average age in the crowd about

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Brian Campbell, let's get into it. So I did the post fight show for morning combat on Saturday afternoon here in the States. We have not heard from BC yet, so let's go right to him. BC, topic number one, Islam Makachev defeats Charles Oliveira by submission in the second round in what I would call a pretty dominant victory. What is your biggest takeaway from this fight? Well, Luke, first of all, my biggest takeaway is that I was right on all three of these fights and I got clowned for my use of magic and mythology and chemistry and all those other stuff.

But at the end of the day, what did I say about this? I said we cannot be surprised if either fighter wins dominantly because of how perfectly contrasting the skill sets were. But at the end of the day, why did I echo the betting oddsmakers by saying, forget who Islam has beaten up to this point? Have we seen enough of his game to predict a leveling up? Luke, I did because trying to take somebody and name them Habib 2.0 is, you know, the biggest setup for failure you could possibly do to somebody unless they're as great as Islam Mahachev is. And Luke, he's, you know, will he ever be better than Habib? That's not the conversation we have right now. It's, is he the best in the lightweight division today?

He just proved that against a fighter who was so dangerous, setting so many records that it seemed inevitable that as good as Mahachev was, that Oliveira would find a way to lure him into chaos, as we talked about in the build-up to this. Only, Luke, I said there's something about this guy that seems he's impervious to that. He's going to come in with his game plan. He's going to put it on you. It's not if he'll take you down. It's when and how much.

But I think what we ultimately saw from Mahachev was not just an ability after Oliveira pulled guard early in round one to do what he does, sit on top of you, be poised, slow, dangerous, pull on your gas tank. But in round two, when it went back to the feet, landing that counter right hand, which dropped Oliveira, showing that he had a leveling up in the part of his game that we thought was, you know, the weakness area,

and just showing that all around, top to bottom, start to finish, this guy is wired differently wired differently hashtag holy hammer the apple did not fall too far from the abdulmanap coaching tree luke because coach abib was in there carrying this guy running around because he just went in there and stopped the most dangerous fighter in the sport today who was riding a nearly historic win streak and here we are. Islam Mahachev, the champion, has a new name. He's from Dagestan, and Luke, as it looked in there, you don't want to put the pressure on him.

He's not undefeated. He's not Habib. He's different. But he may not yield the spell for a while because what he showed you on Saturday is applicable against any style. He's not going to be lured into a trap off of his game plan. You have to beat him in his strength to defeat him. Until somebody does that, Luke, he's going to be favored and favored big step by step across this journey as his lightweight reign begins. This was as impressive as it could get.

And that's not an injured Charles Oliveira. That's not a Charles Oliveira who was riding on fumes. That's a prime dangerous fella across from him. And he finished him. He submitted the greatest submission threat in the history of the sport. Can we give this guy his respect? Can we give BC his respect? Look, this was a changing of the guard, but it was humbling to see the ease he had.

People hate. People freaking hate when we try to compare things. Who's the GOAT? Does this make him fourth in line for the GOAT chip? Enough of that. You know what this makes him? Your lightweight champion and a guy who has greatness potentially in front of him. This was that fantastic of a performance. I echo everything you're saying.

I also picked Makhacheachev too, which is interesting because we're looking at Charles' game. And BC, we all love Charles, man. And by the way, he could be back in a title fight relatively soon. Look at all who he's beaten. It's not out of the question that that could happen. But here's just the big reality that everyone has to accept, whether you're a Charles Oliveira fan, and BC and I are.

We love his game. Islam Makachev is a bad matchup for him. A bad matchup for him. Here's one of the biggest realities you just kind of have to accept as BC walks off the set. The reality is this. A lot of fighters who go up against Charles Olavera, they try and fight fire with fire.

He comes in guns blazing, and they try and roll and counter. They try and meet him in the middle. They try and push back with their stri striking or whatever the particular situation might be. Islam didn't do that. When Charles Oliveira comes in jumping switch kick, he's parrying and getting out of the way. When he's firing in with punches and just walking into range, he's taking the dominant angle and giving him a punch right down the middle as he just moves into it he let Charles Oliveira bring the fight to him and when he needed to defuse the bomb and when he could when the moment was right by virtue of his positioning and his timing and whatever else he was selecting he

was able to take advantage of it through the openings he wasn't trying to just beat down the door like a lot of other Charles Oliveira opponents were and then when you see see that, the way he was able to neutralize the guard, off balance him in the clinch, and then the way he set up the submission finish, punching Charles Oliveira to the head. Obviously, once he's already on the ground, he brings the elbow up, then he occupies it, and then he closed the show from there. It's just, he was a terrible matchup for Charles Oliveira, just matter of factly. But I echo BC's point that this guy is the best guy in the world

in this weight class, certainly, by a considerable margin. We'll have to see who is better than him. His striking, I would not call it super pretty, but it's actually very functional. It does a lot for him. He dropped Charles Oliveira, obviously, in that second round, off the right hook. That's the first point I want to make.

The second point I want to make is BC. I thought Javier Mendez and Habib Nurmagomedov and whoever else was responsible for that, they had a tremendous game plan. They knew all of Oliveira's tricks. They knew all of his tendencies. They knew what he wanted to do, and they built a game around to either get out of the way of it so he couldn't build on his offense or to take advantage of the openings that he leaves by over-pursuing certain things. And it worked almost flawlessly. That was really kind of incredible. That's true both in the striking department

and in the grappling department as well. And BC, here's the last thing. I want to talk about this with just a second for you if we can. I don't know if he's back or not. Yeah, he is. BC, I saw a lot of people being like, oh, Charles looks sluggish on the feet. He didn't look himself.

Bullshit. Not true. Yes. did that cut look terrible no doubt about it all of his cuts look terrible I am if you wanted to argue was he drained by the weight cut I'm sure he was I'm sure he was but I am severely doubting that he was more drained by this weight cut than previous ones by any kind of considerable margin enough to determine that he didn't look himself he didn't look himself because islam made him look that way that's the fact i mean look look the thing i said that i think rang most true and it's just a prediction we all have predictions right not all of us could start with woodley till and go on a run right now that you know know, I'm seeing things, right?

I'm seeing the future. It's in no way remarkable. It's incredible. But here's the deal. The whole idea that Charles' run has been insane. But what has always been true is he needs to welcome an extreme amount of risk to carry out that bait to get you to take the bait, which is, oh, I've got a chance to hit him here. I've got a chance, you know, and enter into this chaos. And then to give him credit, not only does he operate so deftly in the face of violence and danger, but he's got the chin, the balls, the finishing ability

to take your best shot and get out of it. He couldn't lure Islam. The last six opponents on this win streak, as impressive as they've been from Kevin Lee all the way through Justin Gaethje, they have been the type of fighters who, if you're to offer it to them for free, they're going to take it. Islam's not wired that way. Now, it obviously was going to take Mahachev more than just discipline and poise and not taking that bait. But when you see the dominant potential on the ground, when you see him, again, submit the submission master, but when you see him

use solid, accurate striking to drop and set up, this guy is more dangerous, I think, than we even could have assumed, even if you told me ahead of time he was going to win this championship. The next level of poise on that backbone, it screams holy hammer. Like, you know, I want to get, I want to get right here, just a large cupboard, like a dartboard with the doors that open. And then I got all my hammers here. Look, I may have to get a separate one just for Islam because his hammer is that large. He's a different dude, a different breed. So in a weird way, it almost didn't matter what

Oliveira was trying to do. You know, you give him a little credit there, Charles. He pulled guard. He wanted to see what Islam had. But once he tasted that, once he tasted the power and the striking, it wasn't going to be the same kind of Charles Oliveira fight that had really been the beauty of this run. You know, take chances, pull you into it, and then be the last man standing and outlast you.

You are going to have to come at Islam Mahachev moving forward with a much more detailed game plan, with multiple exits to get off the highway, multiple adaptations there, just trying to lure him in or just trying to pull guard and see what he's got down there. If you allow him to be the aggressor and take control, he will. And he'll shut the fight off because there's going to,

same thing when Habib was on you, there's going to come a point where you're going to panic that your gas tank has left you. And that's when the openings are usually there. And what Charles had feasted on leading in was luring fighters into making critical mistakes that can finish them. What do you do when you got a guy who not only does not make mistakes,

but the second you do, the fight's over? This was a great result, you know, and it came at a tough time for Charles because he was mounting a legitimate attempt at, you know, kind of pushing Habib back a little bit further into history and saying, no, now is my time. It's not. It's just not. So, Luke, how good is this Lomachev? I mean, time will tell. Future will tell. You know, get a couple title defenses before we're even going to begin to start to talk about what he's accomplished.

But from this fight, the confidence in you, I mean, they could be offering him a chance to fight the pound-for-pound king next, which could bring with it him being the betting favorite and him becoming the pound-for-pound. I mean, it's in play. They are laying out the future for this guy. But right now, how good is Mahachev? That's what I want to know from you, Luke, because all I could use is like alchemy and weird words

to try to trick you into believing that I know what I'm talking about. But you actually do, Luke. Yeah, well, just to correct the record, he never pulled guard, Charles Oliveira. There was one time when they clinched, but actually he got taken down by Makhachev, hipped into him and forced him down. Tell that to Twitter. Twitter thinks he pulled guard, Luke. No, he didn't. He never pulled guard.

I thought it was a clean takedown, too, in real time, but the announcers were embellishing the pulled guard. Yeah, they're wrong. But, I mean, listen, this is the part about MMA commentary. It's hard to see things in real time. It's much easier with the benefit of hindsight, which is what I have here. But no, Charles Oliveira never pulled guard. He got taken down every time he went down, just to be

very, very clear about that. Once he got thrown in the clinch and the other time, Charles tried to clinch with him and Makachev wizard him over. So let's be very clear about that. They went to the ground on Makachev's terms, not Oliveira's. Fact. But to answer the question about how good he is, well, I would say something like this, and we'll talk about

Dariush on extra credit. You know, a guy like Dariush might be a bit of a tougher matchup because he can strike as well. He will take risks, but Islam is probably going to do what he always wants to do, which is to get it to the ground. But I think Dariush, as forward-moving as he is and as offensive as he is,

is not quite as vulnerable in certain ways, certainly, as Charles Oliveira. And obviously, Charles Oliveira is very good on the ground, so is Dariush. But Dariush can wrestle really well, too. So that makes for an interesting matchup. But it's just hard for me to see who's going to beat him in this division.

You could say, oh, Saryukin's coming on. We'll see what happens. But he already lost. But a future fight could be different. But he already passed that test, certainly to some degree, although it was Saryukin's debut. You got got this magulov we'll see what happens with their gamrot we'll see you know he just lost obviously as well like he's just looking around if it's

chandler if it's poirier is anyone picking those guys over makachev i sure as hell not i think makachev is your best in class and probably by a little bit of margin while also a little asterisk there bc you would agree at least a little bit some styles make fights some of those might be a little bit harder than others, obviously. Absolutely. The proof will be in the put-in. Luke, there's breaking news from Mike Bone. Can I share it with you or no?

Please. Dada5000 is back. He will compete in a November 19th bare-knuckle boxing match against Matt Strickland under the BYB banner. I don't know if they will set up defibrillators directly outside the cage. Luke, does this move you? We're not getting Spence Crawford November 19th. Let's talk about this and have you seen the shit,

because I want to get through this analysis. Thanks, Mike Bone. Thanks for ruining our time, Mike Bone. Thanks. So let's answer the question here, BC. Obviously, I think Makachev is best in class. I'm sure you would agree as well. Some fights are definitely going to be harder than other ones.

And listen, there was a couple of striking moments there where he got a little bit over in front of his skis. He would lean too far. By the way, let's talk about this very quickly. What punch selections did Makachev make? He made basically two of them. Left straight, right hook, or right hook, then the left straight. Why? Because Oliveira just marches into range. He would pop him with the left hook. That would be the first one. And he's constantly reaching with his own left hand, Oliveira is. So then the right hook would sit him down. That's what dropped him in the fight to begin with in that second round. So it wasn't like he had a super sophisticated game, but because he could manage distance and his timing was good, by the way, go back and look,

he was also dominant with capturing lead outside foot position, which is very important when you have an open stance in Southpaw versus Orthodox. He just had better fundamentals. He had better timing, better positioning, better strike selection, better offense. You can be mad about it. You can hate it. I hate it for Charles because he's such a nice guy.

He just got outstruck in this one too because someone else made more careful decisions, which we talked about on Friday ABC who is more defensively sound Makachev by a mile I mean the odds maker saw it coming and let's give credit to an incredible run from Charlie Olives it's not over as you mentioned he outright begged Dane on the post-fight interview to get another shot. You know he'll be back there. He can finish anyone at any time. But I don't think what I said leading up is incorrect. The idea that juggling that, to be fair, it's different,

but like Masvidal coming out of the rainforest and then being the best version of himself we've ever seen, there's a time frame. There's an expiration date on that specific, I figured out how to be as great as I can. I'm taking huge chances to be dramatic. Oh shit, I'm on fire. Charles had one of the greatest stretches we've seen in modern history of somebody turning the page on what we thought about them, getting to another level. And it'll be up to him to decide whether, like you said, wrong matchup, wrong time.

This was inevitable no matter what, or maybe he's coming back down to earth and will humanize a bit moving forward. Either way, what he just did, the future Hall of Famers that he ran through to get to this point, it deserves our respect and it only adds to how big of a win this was for a guy like Mahachev

who had the win streak but not the names. He set up, Luke, at least moving forward depending on the direction they go matchmaking to get all the names. He set up, Luke, at least moving forward, depending on the direction they go matchmaking, to get all the names he will need in the next three, four, five fights because he's going to have to probably go through a portion of that same gauntlet that Charles did, plus the beginning of this new era and this new generation. And in our pregame preview with Chuck, that was the big narrative.

You know, is Charles the bridge from old to new? Because the new guys are coming Luke they're here they're right here all right so let's talk about this the next step it looks like the next one obviously is going to be uh Islam Makachev taking on Alexander Volkanovsky maybe it'll be in Australia maybe it won't we saw them face off Volkanovsky is saying he's going to have a much harder time taking me down than he thinks and on the feet I'm much better than him now I would agree on the feet he is much better than him I think that's not even really in contest but the grappling obviously is going to be the real big x factor who do you favor early on yeah I get with the right to change your

opinion as we get closer who do you favor right now 155 Volkanovsky or Makachev? Makachev without question in fact Luke I think it the you might end up being a little bit surprised at how big of a favorite he's going to be not not minus 400 not minus 300 but what i'm saying is you look at the size difference between this was always going to be a problem for volkanovski on the idea of moving up and daring to be great he was going to have he's already giving up a decent amount of size at least from a height and reach standpoint in his own division only he's so freaking great it doesn't matter right well now we're having him go up another weight class to a guy with the type of fu style like i like to say that can completely shut down your plans what i love about the matchup

though and i think some of twitter who just watched mahachev dominate oliveira and then saw these two face off in the four inch height difference and like oh man this is going to be domination no this is the pound for pound king we're talking about and really in real time you're watching one of the greatest fighters to have ever done this 12 and 0 in the UFC uh he's gonna the key in this fight will be seeing how smart Volkanovski actually is I believe him when he said it's when he says it's not going to be as easy. I think he'll impress us with his wrestling. He has impressed us in different leaps and different categories along the way, whether it's showing the toughness and adaptability against Ortega

or going on the offensive against TKZ and just being a completely different fighter in terms of the danger he added. You love the fight, what they are givering. Like, look, there were two lanes you kind of could have gone. I know Conor's not ready now, but obviously, as expected, Con expected connor tweeted out oh i've got the antidote you know what i mean well get off the road i know so boring at this get off the roadhouse set and get in usada for six months first but my point is connor would be the greatest gift they could do to machev's brand on the idea of let's make it as big as it could be commercially. But critically, he cannot get a better fight than Volkanovski.

He'd be the betting favorite. His plan A, still on paper until Volkanovski can prove what he looks like at lightweight, should be the difference. And he could literally go from beating Charles Oliveira to becoming the pound-for-pound king in two fights. That's in play for Mahachev. I love this matchmaking, Luke. This is a super fight that kind of fell in our laps. I don't think there's a ton of risk for Volkanovski. It's a chance to use the leverage you built up and try to be freaking great. I like that

spirit, but I like Mahachev as the favorite and I hope we get this next. I'm really into this and I think a lot of Twitter are missing that and undervaluing. It's an uphill battle for Volkanovski, but don't miss out. And I know you don't, Luke, because you probably had to get larger pants, right, after his last couple wins. He's going to find a way to be in this fight. It's just can he win it? And, you know, as much as we're talking about Mahachev right now,

what do we do with Volkanovski historically if he does win it? Another topic for another day, right? Yeah, certainly. Although one point I want to make, Dana White acknowledged the thing you referenced that conor mcgregor is out of the usada testing pool and we'll have to come back into it for six months before he can get a fight again which means i don't even know if he's i don't think he can fight this year right because we're already in the 10th month so that's impossible um but the point i wanted to make was remember what the regulations were that they told us you can get out of the testing pool when you retire or if you're obviously no longer with the organization. And so what happened here?

Like he says, hasn't UFC waived the six month thing before? They have. But Dana White did say at the presser that, no, he would have to be back in the six month pool. So they could waive it if they wanted to. I didn't think they might not make him. But either way, the point I want to make is you saw his transparency up. Yeah. How about that?

Well, here's the fear. So first of of all the reference from mikey our producer is obviously brock lesnar at ufc 200 correct uh it allowed a retiring fighter a chance to waive that he obviously you know shout out to mark hunt's defense team obviously took that opportunity to juice himself to the gills but um you just don't want dana to suddenly get on the mic and go oh i misspoke he's actually been in the testing pool for five and a half months so uh you just don't want Dana to suddenly get on the mic and go, oh, I misspoke. He's actually been in the testing pool for five and a half months, so get ready for Mahatjev McGregor.

No, that's not happening. It doesn't deserve to happen. Let's get that out of our imagination. It is, though, Luke, and we could waste a lot of shows talking about Conor and even the UFC fans groan at that. But the more he's away, the more creatine water weight he's putting on to fill out this roadhouse role. I have no idea when, if, what he's going to look like. So yeah.

I just want to bring it up because I saw that he tweeted some verbal nonsense. It didn't seem to be coherent. Yeah, I've got the style. And then Dana confirming. I just want to be very clear. So now it turns out that either one, there's a third category beyond being cut or retirement that you can occupy, which we don't know about, or you can just weaponize

retirement to go do whatever the fuck you want with these performance enhancing drugs. So great job. You saw it really cleaning up the sport. Okay. Neither here nor there. Getting back to this BC, one more question I want to ask about this because we do have a loaded show to get to. Is there any doubt now at this point? I'm not comparing resumes because I don't want to get into that anymore but is there any

doubt at this point BC that Habib would have just washed Oliveira like is there any doubt in your mind this would have looked exactly the same if not worse there's not a doubt and as much as I have turned the corner so hard completely where I don't even want people to make the joke anymore of you know what would it take for Habib to come? He's not coming out. I mean, he's wearing barefoot and sandals as the best coach in the game right now, arguably. You know what I mean? He ain't coming back. But yes, the biggest regret in him retiring on top of the mountain, both commercially

and critically, your pound for pound king at that time is you would have loved it against Oliver. You would have loved it against everyone they can line up because you would have favored him against everyone. And look, my eyes are not telling me yet that Islam is as good. But this style wise to the very, you know, at least it shows us what it would have probably looked like. And, you know, who knows? But I think it's pretty good.

Look, Oliver was on borrowed time with house money, and you know that to a certain degree. The reality is, yes, could Oliveira have won? Oliveira, on his best day, might be able to beat anyone in the sport, maybe even up a weight class, depending on how things go. But it just looks to me like the relative ease that Islam had, I think Habib would have been exactly the same. I don't know when they're going to do this Makhachev-Volkanovsky fight.

I love it. I'm like UBC. I favor Makhachev. I don't think he they're going to do this Makachev-Volkanovski fight. I love it. I'm like UBC. I favor Makachev. I don't think it'll be a huge, huge, huge favorite, but I think it'll be sort of a clear one, and then we'll have to go from there. But to your point, if Makachev wins, what a resume boost that would be. By contrast, if Volkanovski wins, holy shit,

that would be tremendous in and of itself, although it then creates problems for both the 155 and 145-pound division because you ain't defending both of them continuously. All right, BC, let's get to point number two here. Topic number two, Aljamain Sterling looked pretty good for what we saw. He retained his Bantamweight title, defeating TJ Dillashaw, I think sometime in the second round, but it turned out that Dillashaw dislocated his shoulder in the first round, then did

it again in the second round. They eventually had to call it off. They interview him afterwards, and he admits that his shoulder had fallen out of its socket about 20 times during camp which means folks were like trying to downplay this you might have irreparable damage as a consequence of that which we'll talk about in a second bc here's my question for you this was a waste of everyone's time. Should this fight have even happened at all? No, it shouldn't have. And I got a lot of flack, I'm sure you did too, in tweeting out, like, if he knew he was that compromised, which we found out after he did, I got questions.

How you got past the commission? How you got past the doctors? How you got, you know, in this case, and Dana said afterwards, he didn't even know. Well, it was getting fishy, Luke. I couldn't, I tried like hell to get an interview with him. It kept falling apart. He, what, didn't, wasn't Well, it was getting fishy, Luke. I tried like hell to get an interview with him. It kept falling apart. He, what, wasn't on the embedded cameras at all? He didn't do the public workout and hit mitts.

I know it's a great area because people are going to say, okay, Luke and BC, you're going to criticize Dillashaw now when you know the facts, but didn't you just have Eric Nixick on the other day basically lying, you know, making Ngannou the all-time greatest man hero for what he did when they said, don't even walk on that leg, let alone fight. Yeah, it's a gray area because it's a gamble. If you can pull it off and it does not compromise you, it sets you up to, you know, for greatness.

And sometimes these guys get at a point through a long camp, they need the money. That's just the reality of it. Or they can't miss this opportunity because it may not ever come again. I get that. But shouldn't there be more things in place that are more honest in terms to prevent the other half of the equation? Like in boxing, when Sergio Martinez, the middleweight champion, welcomed Miguel Cotto in what, 2016 or 17, whatever it was. And, you know,

couldn't even stand on his leg and got dropped three times in the first round. And it was a, you know, laugher after that. And a lot of people going, he knew how bad his knee was. Come on, nobody wins in this case. And everybody's going, dude, I think I just saw Aljo win. And didn't he win a lot of money? And doesn't he get Dillashaw's name on his record? And maybe 20 years from now, we forget that this injury happened this injury happened well maybe but he doesn't get any short-term critical respect he beat a guy who the first second they collided meaning Dillashaw kicked Aljo caught it took him down the shoulder was out and and really when it's that far out I think this mixed with the Aaron Pico situation we do have to look at this closely for the long-term health as Luke Luke said, the irreparable damage.

These guys are wired in a way, and nobody is a more gritty competitor than Dillashaw. I mean, he's been caught cheating a long time off and keeps coming back and finding every way to be great. So I'm not surprised he would have been willing to do this. But somebody's got to speak up. Somebody's got to have a way in there. There was not a way to you know, to say afterwards, I'm sorry, guys, I didn't want to hold the division up any longer.

You've already been holding up the division. You've been out for a year. You got hurt. You said you destroyed your shoulder in April. You're only a couple of years removed from double shoulder surgery. To have it come out 20 times in camp, this is not the Ngannou situation. And to hear afterwards, oh, you know, I knew I couldn't take him down, so I wanted to talk trash and get into a fight with him. You had one

working arm, and I don't even think, I don't know how this fight was allowed to go on as long as it did. Even if they were able to pop it back in, which it seemed like they did at the end of round one, as Paul Felder said on the broadcast, I mean, it's not going to have the full use you expect, and the idea, you know, the amount of potential future damage that you're

welcoming, that's where somebody's got to step in. A coach, a commission, a referee, and just be like, like, no, you can't continue. I mean, it's the same thing when, when, when, you know, Mike Chandler lost his belt to Brent Primus that time in Madison square garden, you know, the, the foot injury, it's like he would have continued, but you can't, you can't do that. Nobody wanted this. Dillashaw held up the division for another year. And I love D you can't. You can't do that. Nobody won in this. Dillashaw held up the division for another year, and I love Dillashaw. You know that. That's why I was willing to say if his body does not betray him,

I think he wins this fight. For all we know, he may have. But his body betrayed him, and he knew about that six months before, and it only got worse throughout camp. You know, in some ways, Dillashaw the villain is back. He took the money money he took the opportunity too but he knew like the window's going to be closed it's hard to keep your body together when you've gone through that much and operated at that high of a level but you know Aljo didn't win much

this this didn't give us any answers and obviously it's extra it's extra easy to complain about when you're talking about the deepest division and so many many guys, well, you know, Marlon Ver, so many guys are worthy of shots right now. And, you know, as much as I wanted to tell you ahead of the fight, yeah, he was once a cheater, but he served his time. Now we need to shut up about the PEDs. If he could pass the test, he's in there. Well, this was a test he would have failed. The shoulder, are you even healthy enough to do this? But somehow he passed that too, Luke.

And I don't know if it was lying. I don't know what happened. But this is just not a good look for the sport at all if this is the way shit plays out. And I know the pressure on them, I know that's why Cain Velasquez had to enter the first JDS fight and lose his title with that bad knee injury because it was the first fight

on Fox, it was going up against Pacquiao Marquez 3. This fight card didn't need this. They could have pulled this. They could have res't need this. They could have pulled this. They could have rescheduled it. They could have done a lot of different things. What we saw was the worst-case scenario. The only question now is, Luke, how do you change that?

What safeguards can you put in to prevent this from happening? I'm not so sure how easy it is to solve this problem. The first thing I would say is, folks are like, and I said it too, because the pre-fight medical screening is just garbage but you gotta understand something about pre-fight medical screening while i think it is garbage it does almost nothing uh the reality is when you go to the doctor you may not know what you have wrong with you they may not know what you have wrong with you but you're at least telling them you know in in most cases you're telling them honestly what your symptoms are and then they're able to sort of pinpoint what the problem is imagine

you're trying to conceal something from the doctor by saying nothing is wrong there is no problem and you can more or less kind of get away with it from a motion standpoint if it is your shoulder without it popping out automatically right you can move it and sort of you know just enough for a basic basic basic physical exam how the hell are they supposed to know what's wrong with you they would have to really really go in and piece by piece and kind of find stuff there's no time there's no there's no money for that so if you're not honest in your medical screening the process is fairly worthless is the first thing i'd say the second part is aaron bronstead our friend of the show brought up a great point on twitter last night which was

you know the team did a pretty good job of keeping this thing secret because if it had gotten out it could have fucked up betting lines also if his team was less scrupulous they could have bet on aljo and made a ton of money to win because they knew about how fucking bad he was in in a certain way they could have easily just gained the system like there's all kinds of problems with this but let's stay there let's well before you hold on one last point just let me just get this one last point the last point is and other folks brought this up to me which i didn't even consider it because i just hadn't thought of it this way but it's quite obvious now in retrospect he was doing this to get paid probably right yes he was fighting once in 2017 once in 2018 once in 2019 two years off then once again a year for the two subsequent years he probably

needed the money but it's like dude i'm not going to say that this is fraud it's not but this is borderline fraud this is where you are i mean to bring up your point about the knick-knack thing bc yes that is not a great scenario either but francis was able to go out and compete without re-aggravating the injury in some kind of other serious way through the course of it and win both to some extent in the stand-up but certainly in the wrestling department he got the job done literally literally the first time he had to post on his hand it came out dude you're not you were that fight was never never never never gonna go any other way than the way that it did and it's i mean look it's it is a gray area because if francis

goes out there and his knee buckles you know 15 seconds in and the fight's over and gone's the new champion and he's a free agent, we're like, you know, we might have come down hard on Francis in that moment. You know, like, that's the chance you take, just like they're taking the same chance that they're going to be able to win, you know, without the injury aggravating, but

what we found out in that post-fight interview was this, you know, it didn't, look, it's different if it happens in the moment or if it's something you're saying with my style, I may be able to conceal this. I mean, you know, it didn't look, it's different if it happens in the moment or if it's something you're saying with my style, I may be able to conceal this. I mean, you know, Anderson Silva came into the Chael Sonnen fight with a broken rib and that certainly played a factor as did PEDs and him ending up on his back and providing the ultimate hero moment of coming back and rallying for the win. But it's tough. It's tough because sometimes you have to do that. I'm sure TJ looked at the situation and said, I just missed a year. I just missed two years before that. Every time I fight,

I'm getting a major injury. Like this may be the last chance to get this. And in the competitor, in the back of his mind, I'm sure talked himself into the idea of luring Aljo into a standing war and trying to knock him out. Did that against Cody twice. But when it goes this way, then you got to start pointing fingers. it was like man TJ kind of incriminated himself directly after in the way and when he went to apologize for it so the biggest factor you brought up I thought Luke is the betting odds and there was a time where you know all sports were you know obvious not oblivious to the betting going on but weren't able to push it in the way that they do now meaning UFC has major sponsorship deals with DraftKings and

literally on the screen every other five minutes there's a mention of how you can play on DraftKings or that some rich person just put down 300,000 for some you know Fiora to win by TKO like all this stuff is put in your face just like why I thought it was the right move for the UFC last week to make the rule where fighters can't bet and specifically not bet on themselves when it comes to UFC fights just to put in that safeguard. In this era of embracing betting, I'd have to believe there's got to be even more responsibility on not allowing this level of a damaged product to enter out there. Because imagine if you did take my advice and telling you if he's healthy, he can win this there because imagine if you did take my advice and telling you if he's healthy he can win this and imagine if you did bet irresponsibly okay well you learned a hard

lesson but could it have been avoidable luke could it have been or am i just preaching a you know fresh i put up i put up something i put up something on instagram about it and misha tate responded in the comments basically her argument was it's not a bad argument which was because i was like you know fighters managers coaches like if you have a guy who's this i mean again one more time the first time he posted on it it came right out you are not dude you're you cannot even win in the ufc that way much less beat fucking aljamain sterling i mean it's just totally delusional and i'm like if the if you know if you're in this guy's team you you've got to say something to him. You can't go along with it.

Now, I get he needed the check, so I guess it's going to be what it's going to be. But her point was like, you know, it's not fair to push this on to managers or coaches. And I really disagree with that. Like, number one, I have seen managers give up their role with fighters when they disagree with paths they're taking and taking certain fights. I've literally seen that, number one. I've seen coaches give up on fighters who they didn't agree with continuing to fight based on certain circumstances i've literally watched it i don't present those to be easy choices but this is the basic point i want to make if you go if you're a part of that guy's team and you go through with this you might think you have noble intentions

and maybe you do maybe you do have noble intentions but the customer doesn't deserve this they are paying for something that is not that this is not what they signed up for when they forked over that money you can't do that to them and if you sign up to help them you are also complicit it's moral reasoning you are complicit you assisted them in this effort again it's not quite fraud but it's like a watered down version of it if you assist them you can think you're noble and maybe you were to some extent it's all kind of complicated but you also bear culpability in assisting those efforts that's just a fucking fact so anyway yeah no it's it's it sucks and and it how you know it helps to this argument that played out worst case scenario

first time they touched it sucks and for Aljo I think for Aljo it's like he already had a rough reputation he already had the DQ title win and the pictures posing with it yet turn that around by beating Jan yet I heard the

most amount of Jan truthers I've ever heard leading up to this fight about how seemingly people didn't see Aljo win that rematch. I saw him win that, and now you have this, which is, you know, he didn't beat him. I mean, look, it's like, you know, I don't even want to celebrate TJ's toughness in round one.

It's a miracle he finished that first round. It really is, with a guy that dangerous on his back, literally on a backpack on him. I mean, it's a miracle, but, you know, Aljo only gets booed in the post fight as he's doing his, his kind of cringy heel thing. And, you know, it does nothing for his credibility.

It just doesn't. So nobody went, look, nobody wins, but I'm sure if you gave, if you pulled the fighters and managers, you know, from Misha Tate's perspective, I'm sure they have a hell of an argument as to why all of the, you know, everything's tilted against the fighter where sometimes you have to make these decisions and hope for the best. I get that. But there's only one Francis Ngannou, and there's going to be very few moments where that Francis Ngannou story actually plays out that way. Listen, I understand that these decisions, which I don't have to make, are much more difficult when you're close to these people.

I get it. I get it in that sense. I get it in the sense of none of these decisions are easy for anyone. And Misha's argument, I think, is not altogether wrong, which is that like, yo, the fighter bears responsibility here too. Fair point. Absolutely fair point. But if you are around that fighter and you assist them in these efforts, you are part of this process you cannot divorce yourself from it you now bear responsibility as well they can't stop the guy but they can stop themselves i realize that no one wants to do that but if you don't want an argument that you are also culpable for helping in these scenarios then don't help in these scenarios is sort of the basic idea here

luke misha had a good argument and i know you've known her a long time and you're not going to come back and send her to hell like i wish you would have against john jones i like me she's a 14 press conference but had you just sent her a picture of a shed do you think she would have got the mic drop moment there luke i don't even understand what you're saying had she locked up the atv, maybe Carraway wouldn't have stolen that. You're awful. Like he did the split decision against Aljo. Last thing on this.

We'll come back to Aljo because we're going to have a Bantamweight matchmaking questions, but on the case of Dillashaw, so he turns 37 in February. By the way, shoulder rehabilitation, I won't go back over it,

but I talked about it on the post-fight show, is slow. It takes a long time to get better. If he gets better at all. I mean, the damage he's done could be significant inside that space.

BC, does he have a future in the sport at all? You know, it's going to depend on the recovery. He's asked a lot about his body to get back, you know, a lot of his body to get back to this point, because even though that two year break was USADA driven,

he had the double shoulder surgery and then to have that leg injury, which he fought through freaking heroically. And he would have fought heroically here if the shoulder hadn't betrayed him. Believe that. But no, I think that answers why he made that tough decision to just go for it. Because I think he knows that the body's going to... As much as he's retained an incredible level of speed and reaction time and all that to stay elite at this age your body can only hold up so much in trying to patch work repair put you know band-aids on just try to get to that next stop um i think luke with with

significant time off he can get back to fighting i mean would you ever be against him rematching dom cruz no i mean there's you know tj may have enough left to still make fun and even to some degree, big fights, but I think this severely diminishes the likelihood that he would ever return to the elite level because he may have done legitimate damage. So we're going to have to find out. And also he could be 38 before he even comes back, much less 37. Right, and he's got a style that demands so much of his body to be sharp and perfect, you know? I mean, it's literally, literally, his body is falling apart. It's falling apart.

There's some major questions to be asked here. And by the way, they mentioned Aaron Pico on the thing. Both Aaron Pico and Dillashaw both dislocating their shoulder. They have the same trainer they're Sam Calavita now I don't want to uh suggest that I have any understanding about why the shoulder was injured to begin with in the case of Peake why why what happened happened I don't fully know somewhat weird that two guys would get the same kind of dislocation uh coming from the same camp so something to think or having the same trainer anyway they have the same what physical trainer I to think. Or having the same trainer anyway. They have the same what? Physical trainer? Yeah, Sam Calavita does, I think, both of their physical training.

Interesting. Yeah, I was just fired up that John Anik referenced Bellator on the broadcast and they didn't fire him right there. That was great. Kind of amazing. All right, let's talk about the fight that got most people talking beyond the main event, certainly. Maybe even more than that.

How about this? Sean O'Malley defeats Piotr Jan here. Topic number three, but it's a split decision. And more to the point, a very controversial split decision. Two judges gave round one and round three to O'Malley, and then every judge, I think, gave the second round to Jan. One judge gave Jan the first and the second. BC, first question, how did you score the fight?

Two rounds to one for Jan. Like I think every single media person that gets, you know, pulled together on these lists that they have online. I think they couldn't find one that picked room. O'Malley close fight. Yes. Is there an Avenue to pick O'Malley? So all three judges gave O'Malley the third.

That's the one round I gave him. Even that round is close by the way, and you can argue for Jan, but the flying knee cut Jan open. Even though Jan finished the fight with ground and pound on top, I'm fine giving O'Malley the third. There is a path to give him a two-to-one victory, a split-decision win here, but it would have to be round one. It was a close round.

There wasn't a ton of damage either way, but Jan was able to take him down and have success on top. And I don't think O'Malley did enough on the feet. So to give him both of those, both one and three, you're asking a lot. Not a robbery, not a, you know, Dana loaded envelope to the three judges, you know. No, although I get that that's why people, you know,

right away are like, oh, come on. But you do have to reach a little bit. Close fight, it could have gone O'Malley's way. It was obviously surprising to then see two of the three judges do that when everybody from a distance couldn't go to that length. I'll reserve the right that judges are closer than we are. They see a little bit more than we do. I'll also reserve the right to mention that the scoring system's all over the place in terms of interpretation. But even in all of that together, Luke, no, I can't give him two rounds. I really can't. But what's

interesting about this and maybe why there isn't maybe even more outrage, what did O'Malley have to prove in this fight? That he belongs among the bantamweight elite, among the elite in the most in the deepest most dangerous division not only in the sport today but really maybe ever he proved that he was tough he got rocked he stayed in he made adjustments to his game he rallied in the third so it's weird that in the fight he gets a decision win which people don't think he deserved he did accomplish what he set out to do proving he belongs in this level and. And look, I've got to say this, whether you care about his reaction or not, his reaction afterwards of being like, almost saying, I'm not even really sure if I won. Let me watch the tape. Even when they asked him, are you ready for the title next?

You know, he's like, well, let me watch the tape again. I got nothing but respect for that. Like Anthony Smith, not allowing that DQ win over Jon Jones. I got a lot of respect for O'Malley being real right there in that moment. And I think he wins, even if he had lost this, I think he would have, you know, won from a critical standpoint, but I don't think it's great that he won though, Luke, you know, you know, I knew he was going to win. I just knew he was going to go win in ways that I couldn't describe and they

didn't involve corruption it just felt like this momentum this run that he's on i'm not surprised that he won but i can't find two rounds for him luke i can't just me on my my criteria my scoring i had someone come after i had someone come after me on social media being like oh same thing you always say this that there's not a robbery yes yes you fucking bozos of course i'm saying it's not here's what a robbery would be a robbery would be if all three judges or at least two of the judges anyway gave round two to o'malley now that would be a robbery that's a robbery but giving him the round that he clearly won not giving him the third round which was closely contested but probably a fair call for O'Malley and then not giving him the first one I don't agree with that but the numeric totals were

close and then there wasn't much ground and pound or submission threats from the grappling itself and so under the new criteria which I think is absolutely fucking stupid but it is the criteria that the judges are asked to use. There you have it. I can, I can squint and see why the judges may have called it for him, but a robbery would be something that is inexplicable. This is quite explainable. This is not that hard to noodle through,

right? You see, like I've seen, I, I, this is a true story. I literally called the fight was an old promotion called UWC back when they were in the mid Atlantic and the aughts. I called the fight between Mike old promotion called UWC back when they were in the mid-Atlantic

and the aughts. I called the fight between Mike Easton and Chase Beebe, now UFC and then WEC veterans. And Chase Beebe and a 25-minute fight had Mike Easton's back for like 22 minutes. Something insane. He had no offense really to speak of. And the judges somehow gave it to Mike Easton. It is not explainable. It's not explainable under the criteria.

That is a robbery, ladies and gentlemen. A closely contested round going potentially not the way that you like it. I disagree. I also think that Jan won. That is not a robbery. Thank you. It's exasperated by the idea that O'Malley is the you know the the chosen one marketing wise and it probably should be for them and that's why he was in this spot that's why

Dana declared it's the number one contender about even though Marlon Vera beat him and is you know maybe arguably more deserving you knew it so when somebody wins a decision in which again we can find a path for it I get how it happened I just I just fully did not agree. That's when it becomes a robbery and there's, you know, conspiracy and all that. I don't think this was the case in this. O'Malley had a great reaction. He also fought very good. This is also your former champion in Piotr Jan, who's, you know, nearly flawless across the board, you know, outside of maybe Aljo taking his back more than I expected in the second fight and O'Malley he's going to get the the spoils of it Luke but we have to separate between uh I don't agree with the decision and this is corruption I mean there's a there's a lot of steps in between

that all right the other and by the way I saw the Ben Cartilage is one of the judges who gave the first round to O'Malley Ben Cartilage isidge is a very good judge. A very, very, very competent judge. I don't agree in this particular case, but to your point, I don't know how he saw it and his vantage point in the cage, what he heard, what he didn't, what he saw, what he didn't. Dude, wouldn't it be nice if we had accountability? Can we have accountability?

People, this is the main reason why I don't want open scoring separate from the real reason, which is I think open scoring separate from the real reason which is i think it's more entertaining without it is is um i forgot luke yeah it was going to be great you know what i mean i'm just gonna have to sit here shame i'm gonna have to sit there wearing the shame of my of my uh of my broken down path that i was headed towards so just well just i was gonna say this i think the right takeaway that you you had BC was that like win or lose.

Like, even if I scored the fight for Yon, dude, Sean O'Malley belongs. He is a very, very, very legitimate top guy at 135 pounds. Although here's the thing BC,

like he was kind of hesitant. Cause I'm, you know, you look at his body language and everyone else's and you reference this, you know, when they were reading the decision, it didn't look like they thought that he had won. But the bigger point is this. It look like they thought that he had won.

But the bigger point is this. It's like, okay, on the feet, O'Malley is a force to be reckoned with. Jan gave it back to him, but Jan is also a very high-level bantamweight. And they were giving each other fits on the feet. So he is clearly of that level. On the ground, however, BC,

in the wrestling defense, a guy like Sterling, could he beat O'Malley on the feet? Highly unlikely. Could he beat him on the ground? I think he takes his lunch money on the ground, right? I do think that he is skilled and he belongs,

but there's a clear difference in some of the phases of the game. Indeed. And that's going to be, that's why I think the Conor comparisons are more apt, not just that they're colorful and they're both have, you know, big audiences and momentum upon their rise, is that O'Malley, you know, I don't think he's ever going to be that fully rounded out, completely, you know, mixed martial arts across the board. What he does, he's great at it. He can beat anybody with his A game. It seems though, and he proved this

in this fight, whether you thought he won or lost, he may have enough of those other intangibles to keep him going on the elite level and keep him down this path, even if he doesn't round it out. But there are some bad style matchups for him, just like there always would be for Conor. And I think that only in some ways raises the entertainment and the anticipation. Can he get it done? You know, what happens? This was good for him to find out what it's like when you get rocked by a championship level fighter and how you respond to that.

And in those regards, Luke, like what's the most valuable thing that O'Malley gained for himself, if he cares, is this whole idea that he's, you know, fragile from the vera fight he kind of got rid of that to a certain degree yeah yeah that he may fall apart that he may have an unforced error that he's weak or anything like that you know i didn't love that that that finish for him against vera and i hated even worse his reaction to it but this was mature in the ways he needed it to be mature even though god yeah I mean could I keep I was saying all week that Jan if he loses be three in a row I keep forgetting about that Corey Sanhagen fight in between which was a great fight and Jan was amazing in that but this is three losses in four fights for a guy who I mean

he's still among the 10 best in the world in my opinion luke it's it's it's crazy to see but that's this division that's the bad luck he got yeah and again last thing on this for me is just that i just hate the scoring criteria i i realize that you just don't want a guy laying on top of another guy yes and they've been like oh well he got a lot of control time so then that matters i do a control time is a variable it certainly matters to some degree but you don't want to overstate it but this idea that the the only grappling that matters is if you're laying heavy ground and pound or close to a submission I think is a fucking joke, personally. If you take a guy out of his very best place where he is no longer able to launch meaningful offense,

it is creating instability in terms of how secure he can be and what he can throw by virtue of am I going to be taken off of my feet plus the actual work he he has to do to extricate himself from that give me a fucking break dude that is real that is valuable that matters and to just chuck that out the window seems to me like a vast overcorrection but whenever you're unsure guys read the letter of the law like we've done a few times on the show it's not the word damage it's the word impact and when you're a when your plan a takes away somebody else's and they've got to struggle and make adjustments that could win you a close round if there's no damage i mean that's just how how the scoring criteria works and then everyone's

got a different interpretation of said scoring criteria so good luck luke right i mean it's really the scoring system that could create the outcome we saw there. Yeah, fair enough. All right, BC, sticking with the Bantamweight division, let's tie some of this together. Topic number four, which is Sterling is still your champion. Granted, in this weird space where people still haven't quite warmed up to him, but he's obviously very talented, you saw a lot of call-outs. And he was just, you know, in the post-fight speech or interview,

he was just, you know cat letting everyone catch strays so what makes the most sense for him now i don't think a dillashaw rematch makes any sense so we can put that out of the way is it henry suhudo is it chito vera or is it sean o'malley i think chito's the most deserving and i think this would be the best way to correct the idea that you know if o'malley had a chance to leapfrog the whole division and if they went o'malley next nobody's going to argue that's promotionally the right move is o'malley next that's why you put him in that spot you don't own the judges uh you know there's no conspiracy in this case from my vantage point in my opinion so that so O'Malley

is the right fight for the promotion to make but is there any type of way that you could slow that because O'Malley didn't clearly win this in everybody's eyes and plug in Chito Vera who's more deserving and kind of fix the problem with your whole scenario you could do that but you know they're not going to always make the decision that makes the most fair. They're going to make the decision that makes the most business. O'Malley next completes that plan and it's huge business. But Henry Cejudo next is interesting. It is a wild card. It would force O'Malley to take a step back. And if O'Malley is going to be forced to take a step back, is the only fight that makes the most sense? Cheeto rematch for the chance to be the next title challenger after that?

It's interesting because what you'd be doing is rewarding Cejudo for going away on his own terms, which the UFC hates. So there's always that part in the back of your mind that when Cejudo does officially ready to come back, will they make him go through the gauntlet a bit to get there? This would be stopping your prized recruit here in O'Malley from, you know, going full bloom potentially by sliding in Henry. And so I think at the end of the day,

that's why it's not going to happen, Luke, because if they needed Henry Cejudo star power right now, they could do it in a second. They don't need it. The division's deep as hell and you've got O'Malley next. So I just talked you up on all three options. The promotion at the end of the day is going to make the best move for the promotion.

As long as nobody's injured, Sean O'Malley's going to fight for that title next. And then it's going to make, if he wins the title, him against Vera so much more interesting. And I think Henry will be back within the next year. But I think the UFC has to be strategic on when to do that and I don't think they're going to be in the position to try to reward him and have him cut in front of a guy who could be the biggest star in the game if he keeps winning so there's there's the truth at the end of the day Luke I almost want Cejudo to get it in the sense that I agree with you that they probably won't because he would be rewarding

him or whatever but uh I almost would love it under the idea that I would love to see a Chito versus O'Malley rematch for five rounds. I would love that. I think that would be so interesting because here's the reality, man. O'Malley can strike his ass off. He is so good, powerful, quick, crafty, can cover distance very well. I mean, he's so good at it. But Chito Vera has one of the most legendary chins and overall durability in the game,

and he is maybe, maybe the king of the five-rounders. You know, they're called Butterbean, the king of the four-rounders, right? Old Chito is the king of the five-rounders. You give that guy 25 minutes and by the the 21st minute he is fucking you up like that guy is amazing with that so i would love to see that for that reason but if we're talking deservedness bc okay it's to me it's got to be cheeto vera i've got two things to say one when we get butterbean on room service diaries within the first two questions i'm going to ask him his best story of just shutting a bathroom down.

I mean, where they had a remodel after he was done. But number two, there is a way that everybody wins. The UFC gets its cake and eats it too. What's fair is fair gets corrected. And it's one of the things that I hate the most, an unnecessary interim title. But if you put Chito O'Malley for an interim title that wasn't necessary and made it a pay-per-view main event,

you'd kind of fix all your areas if you still wanted to do Sterling Cejudo next. Wouldn't you, Luke? Wouldn't you kind of fix everything with that? You might. You might. But again, it runs up with the UFC. I mean, they did it for St. Pierre. Well, again, now it's a post-St. Pierre world where they don't want to do that because St. Pierre was like, yeah, I'll be back.

Oh, no, I won't be back, right? And Cejudo could take this and retire again if he wanted to. Like, what's to stop him? It's a tough call. It'll be very interesting to see. But if they give it to O'Malley, I think Sanhagen versus Chido would work. I think Chido versus Henry Cejudo, Henry versus Corey as a fight would work.

There's a lot of different ways they could go, but I just feel like O'Malley, he should be very proud of his efforts. There's nothing he should hang his head about whatsoever. Yeah, you fought a very good guy and not all of it went your way, but I wrote this on Twitter, he was a worthy adversary. But I like the maturity that Alexa Grasso showed over her last win being

like, you know what? I think I want one more five rounder before I ask for a title shot, right? That's smart. Not rushing your way there. And certainly on the feet, O'Malley has got something for everybody, but in the top of the, uh, of the of the the division where the fights go 25 minutes and they're very well rounded and they're super specialists in certain parts of the game as well right it's a combination of both man you just can't rush that because you just i don't know like i so it's a hard thing to do and like oh what about the paycheck sean apparently makes a lot of money outside of fighting anyway so true or false true or false if. If the UFC felt like they wanted to, to build behind Sterling and make him a star, then they would give him Cejudo next, but they don't.

And, uh, that's the reality of it. No, I don't think giving him Cejudo turns anything into a star. No, if they, if they felt, you know, but when you, obviously this is a moot point in the eyes of O'Malley's coming on next in terms of star value it doesn't matter but what's Sterling's issue with the public is it the fact that he's got incomplete wins now two in his last three or is it just that he's really corny afterwards because look he was pretty corny after the fight right yeah I mean look he says he says a lot of some you know I wouldn't say a lot but he says some goofy stuff uh on occasion so you know he just doesn't necessarily have that power

in the way that Chael might. That's one. But, you know, okay, there's a couple things. One, you know, he was good before, but then he had some noteworthy losses, like, you know, viciously losing to Maraich. So there was this comeback that people didn't want him to have, which he did.

Jan's fans are, I mean, Piotr Jan is an amazing fighter. I thought he was going to win. I thought he deserved to win. But his fans are, I mean, Peter Jan is an amazing fighter. I thought he was going to win. I thought he deserved to win, but his fans are like wicked annoying. Like they're super annoying, right? They're always just chirping about how he's been done wrong or whatever. And so the fight going the way that it did the first time,

just sent that into overdrive. You, but you mentioned taking a picture with the belt and everything else. And then he wins the second one outright. It was kind of a reluctant turn. And then, you know, he compounds it with kind of a reluctant turn and then you know he compounds it with being like oh i helped tj dislocate his shoulder well like yeah technically but that thing was so fragile like you can't really claim to have done it and then he had the

sort of the goofy post-fight stuff although i did think he had a really articulate response to henry when henry's like we got to bring that belt back to America. Yeah, that was cringe. I'm an American citizen. What the fuck are you talking about? I thought that was actually pretty smart. Wait, did Henry name his daughter America? Because maybe he could try to pull that. Who did that? I thought it might have been Henry.

Let me look that up real quick. Yeah, okay. So Henry's daughter is named America Maria Cejudo Cejudo excuse me with his uh fiancee Anna do you think maybe he was really just trying to say I'm bringing it back to my daughter I don't know look it's cringe either way okay yeah I mean you know it's not that great uh but you know Aljamain Sterling is an incredible champion he looked to be in phenomenal physical condition and you know whoever they put up against him, you're going to have a hard time beating that guy. He is very, very talented.

All right, BC, let's get to the best news of the weekend. Point number five. Now, we will talk about Dariush on extra credit, but for this today, how about one of the best performances of the weekend, huh? Bilal Muhammad stopping MK favorite Sean Brady with strikes in the second round. It was, of course, the main event of the preliminary card. Two-part question, BC. How impressive was the victory in part two?

Does this earn him a title shot? Where's part three? Does my skin stay pale and pasty and without art for the rest of its life? Look, first and foremost, Bilal Muhammad, like, you know, he showed out. This is a, you know, I've been underrating him outside of sharting out his well-formed pecs. I'll tell you this, you know, I've been behind the eight ball on remembering the name and remembering his potential

and how good he can be. This was yet another, like the win over Luque in the rematch, step up, step forward. He's not going away performance. Yes, what we ended up finding out in a guy in Sean Brady who I love so much and it was you know it's tough to see him go out in this way but you know he's game you know he'll be back is Brady's striking is not up to the level of his wrestling up to this point and once you once you saw that pattern develop where Bilal was going to

be able to be too physically tough and stingy in the takedown defense while keeping up that pace and being on him you know Bilal played that match up perfectly and then did it one better by putting on enough pressure to actually stop him you're not gonna be able to keep this guy away from either a title shot or a Chemaev fight and he kind of deserves one or the other I know there's a bottleneck now we got Leon next we might have Jemai of Covington coming up if that if they go that way but I don't think Bilal should have to jump through any more hoops or pass any I mean am I wrong Luke this was it you know he moved down in the rankings fought a red hot guy who was 15 and 0 and stopped him you know yeah you're right you're damn right remember that name um you know what

is there a chance he'd have to like beat a Gilbert Burns too to get to the top I hope not Luke right I mean this this guy's ready this guy showed out in a really hard fight and he took advantage of the opportunity and he kept me you know original and clean and and you know luke it's you know no ink no ink baby no but while i'm sweating out no ink our guy sean brady it was tough to watch but i love that guy and and you know i know he got a lot of hate and you hate to see that on social media but i love the picture he posted of his wife greeting him at the airport he is tough as nails mentally he will be back in a big way but this was one of those step up to the level find out where i'm at dude balal is of the elite tell you know prove it wrong luke no you can't he is you're right i'm late i'm the guy who needed

the extra convincing you got me balal okay i'm in i'm in on this journey yeah he looked he looked you know he didn't wrestle at all I mean all defensively he wrestled but he didn't offensively wrestle really at all and he still got the finish in the second round I mean I think two things I would say one I've just been I mean I was just so wrong about Bilal Muhammad so consistently I don't even know what to say anymore but uh what I would say is this was clearly a level up performance for him and he's been having a few of those recently. A lot of folks talk a lot of shit about Bilal and how he's quote-unquote boring. I mean, I don't know what you're supposed to say about that.

Yes, some of his other fights have been lackluster from an entertainment standpoint, but you got what you wanted out of this one. Beating a tough guy like Sean Brady in the way that he did. Now, he had the crowd behind him, and it was a big moment for him, but I saw him talking about training with Habib and what it did. He really is getting significantly better. And to be clear, this was a setback moment for Sean Brady, but Bilal's had setback moments too.

He just persevered past them and hit a new gear and hit a new gear and hit a new gear, and it brought us to this moment. And so I felt really bad for Sean Brady. I thought he did win the first round. I thought he won the first round. But he just couldn't get a lot going. So it leads me to believe BC that he's got some stuff to work on as well. If you had to sort of pinpoint what was missing for Sean Brady, what would you say? You know, I don't think the, the, the, the boxing was up to the level it needed to be to,

to keep below off of him. And I think, you know, he's a Philly guy, you know, it's in him. There's going to need more seasoning. I know, you know, maybe get some more time with boots in there, but he didn't, he wasn't able to establish his power, in my opinion, to dissuade Bilal from using that gas tank to put that mental pressure on him and back him up. And, you know, Bilal was accurate and he was willing to stand in there and take a potential punch. I think you had some more sophistication,

obviously to what Brady is going to be able to do on the feet. It's only going to make his wrestling ability that much more. Brady seems to have some really good intangibles. I know some people question the stoppage here, Luke. I don't really see how you could. Brady was getting lit up upon. I thought it was

a merciful stoppage by the referee on time even in that. Brady's got to get those hands on that danger level Luke. I'm interested to see what he looks like coming back because that you know we talked to that guy at length both on and off camera and there's a there's a hunger there's a hunger in there that uh that you know I don't look at this uh you know as a as necessarily a damaging defeat I think it's going to be the kind that'll fuel him to come back even stronger yeah I I tend to think that for me he just seems to look so unsure of himself striking,

especially under heavy pressure. It's like he's kind of almost trying to just, you know, you mentioned getting him off, but we mean getting somebody off in terms of disciplining them to not march down on your position by putting pain in their face, putting pain in their belly. He seemed to almost be playing a little bit of tag and then getaway, right? It's almost like he's a little bit unsure of how that's going to go. And then the striking, excuse me, the wrestling, obviously Bilal was able to shut down,

although I don't think those were necessarily his best attempts. It seems to me like the forward pressure, and to your point, some of the striking, the boxing in particular, there just needs to be a little bit more confidence behind it, a little bit more meanness behind it, a little bit more intentionality behind it. And he might like to counter-strike but there might be better ways to go about doing that it when it uh when possible so um he mentioned something on i'll be right

there luke it's okay he mentioned something on social media about uh getting out of his comfort zone i don't know what that means that part's pretty interesting i don't know if that means he'll leave philly or a new team or a new kind of training I don't really know what the hell that means but I guess we'll have to see in the end last thing on this for the title shot for Bilal I don't think this actually gets him a title shot but I do think BC it gets him at worst a number one contender fight I think there's just probably a... You got Colby up there. There's going to be this rematch or this trilogy fight already between Kamaru and Leon.

Hamzat's up there. Gilbert's still kind of ahead. Yeah, there probably is one more due for him, but he gets past that. That's it. Home run. He's in there. I would prefer that.

I think the only thing that is as good of a title shot would be a Hamzat fight, and I'd kind of prefer that. I think the only thing that is as good of a title shot would be a Hamzat fight, and I'd kind of prefer that for him, and I'd prefer Gilbert Burns against Colby Covington myself. So if that played out that way, and then we wait to see who wins the trilogy, I think everyone wins there, and I think Bilal will take that in a second. That's like a, I mean, there's no title at stake, but that's a make your whole career in terms of commercial and star power

if he goes out there and somehow beats Chimaev, Luke. There you have it. All right, those are our top five. Real quickly, BC, I want everyone to know we have a very cool giveaway to announce from our good friends at Money Lion. These guys just keep on bringing the hits. Money Lion wants to hook you and a friend up

with tickets to the Jake Paul-Anderson Silva fight. This is going to be this coming weekend, October 29th in Glendale, Arizona at the Desert Diamond Arena. That's right. You heard it correctly. So here's how it's going to work. Not only, BC, will they fly someone out there. They'll put you up in a hotel for the night and they're also going to hook you up

with a signed pair of gloves from the fights themselves and of course you're going to go to the fight. So flight, hotel, tickets, signed glove, the whole nine. Here's how you enter. the money lion app which bc and i have done create a roar tag account all right that's key and then comment on social media with your roar tag the information is in the description box below you must be 18 or over to enter you have to be following money lion i think on social media to win u.s residents only the contest bc ends this wednesday so if you're trying to go make sure you enter asap again our friends at money line giving away two tickets to jake ball versus anderson silva details in the

description box below uh i sweetened that deal the other day luke and i mean it you you're an mk donk you want to go win this contest you want want to meet us in Phoenix, Glendale specifically? Why don't you come on Friday's live morning combat show 24 hours before Paul Silva? You want to come and give us your prediction? Get to step in on your three steps, okay? Not three needles. I survived that barely. This is an easier three-step process, okay?

Do it. You can hang out with us. Maybe even Luke will let you up on the vape stick right no no no no what if they have a signed covid slip luke from uh dr uh dr mike assigned covid slip this entitles you to not spread covid uh no by the way every time i go to fight week i come back with some kind of communicable disease so yes let's see how this goes in arizona this weekend all right bc time for time i get to arizona zona remember that that great great song right public enemy now it's time for dms from donks let's hit the graphic there okay yeah right yes yes yes this

is where you guys we put up a post on instagram every sunday you guys fill it up the producers pick questions and then we answer them we go first bc to amelio bruce he asks do you believe islam could be as dominant as habib was in the division maybe even defend the title more times than habib did the certain the last part maybe the first part hard to say yeah uh as we laid out to start the show the the the possibility is there uh And it was before this fight, but you add that type of finish against this type of guy. Yeah. Like, Luke, we spent the whole time building up to this fight being like, let's not ruin Makhachev before he gets there.

There is no Habib 2.0. This is its own guy. Did you exit this going? It's actually not that far away from Habib, potentially. Potentially. Right? Potentially, right? Potentially. Not yet.

He would have to go on quite the epic run. But is it possible? Is it within the realm of like reasonable possibility? Yes. But, I mean, he's got – he just won. He's got – I mean, the guy is the 150 – here's the best part about being the 155 champ. You are at that point right now, the best guy in that division.

Here's the problem. You got to fight all the other best guys in that division. Good fucking luck. Yep. One day Armand Saryukian is coming back for, for, you know, revenge, Luke. One of these days, okay? He probably is.

All right, from Tylorians. In your opinion, BC, what fighter in the UFC poses the greatest threat to the seemingly unstoppable Makachev? Now, mind you, mind you, he didn't say 155. Keep that in mind. So, you know, outside of like a pro wrestling angle where they like sleep with the same girl by accident

and then Habib wants to fight him and then comes back out of retirement and like, yeah, outside of that bullshit um I mean look styles make fights which is why this I thought this was always going to be an awful style matchup for Oliveira turned out to be you have to ask yourself what's the kryptonite on the other side I like what you said about Darius being a potential sleeper to to giving him a different look and being big enough and strong enough but like I mean look you're going to get into an extra credit, but that was a mature as hell victory by Benil Dariush against the

guy he fought, that he beat there, Mateus Gramra. But who's the one? I mean, Hamzat Chumaev? Chumaev would be a tough one. Again, one of those guys,

when they get their final moment, either Saryukian 2.0, Ismagulov, let's see what happens with Gamrock because he found himself to be wanting here, but he's a tough customer as well. So I'm not exactly sure who it is at lightweight. Obviously, any of those guys, Kamaru, Colby, Chumayev,

I think they all give him a hard time. And by the way, way who knows fucking volkanovsky could punch his lights out too you know so um but i would probably say by the way how about shavkat rakmanov fucking sleeping on him too i think he beats him um oh that's the answer yeah that is the answer right there that's the i mean he'd have to move up and wait let's let you know let's see let's see him defend the title once before we do this okay enough all right from at flannels and jits what is your reaction speaking of hamzat to the hamzat versus habib's camp scuffle it was with abu bakar who i think he was having the disagreement with boy i gotta tell you don't really give a fuck also wanna wanna point out hamzat was there with the son of ramzan Kadyrov fresh off seemingly committing war crimes.

And if you saw the video they put out where they returned POWs to his father as like a fucking trophy, they recorded the whole thing on video, Ukrainian POWs. Then he shows up to this fight week. And again, I don't think, I don't know if Dana took a picture with him knowing who he was.

Cause he was, it was Dana and Shamayev. And then this, then the son, this like, you know, Uday and Kusei Quisling, fucking whoever he is, of, well, not a Quisling, but one of the sons of Kuderov.

And Dana took a picture with him, too. I'm like, dude, does anything matter in the sport anymore? Does anyone give a shit about not hanging out with people potentially associated with fucking war crimes? I guess not. I don't know. Yeah, well, we'll see the scrap on have you seen this shit, but subsequently, there's some social media posts that everybody's putting in my DMs

that supposedly it's Kadyrov saying that everything's fine, and then didn't you see in the past, like, 12 hours, Luke, there's that picture of a dinner table in which Hamzat is sitting across from Habib, and, you know, both teams are there, so, yeah, it seemed to be some misunderstanding, but, you know, there was once a misunderstanding that once a misunderstanding that Chemaev would never fight again and then Kadyrov said that's not true as well.

It's a little dicey here. Also, so much for him being trapped in Russia, huh? That's a bunch of bullshit. There he was in Abu Dhabi. Yeah, yeah. I mean. What are you going to do? All right.

Nothing. At Cole underscore Brown 85 858 what would a loss this weekend mean to your raya hall's legacy so for folks you need a refresher refresher excuse me hall is fighting former nfl running back levion bell on this uh jake paul and anderson silva undercard what do you think I don't consider these as as monster uh potential I mean like if he got knocked cold would we you know would we talk about it in the same way when we say, hey, remember when Johnny Morton that time took an MMA fight? Yeah.

Oh, God. Bernard Aka sent him to the land of wind and ghost. This is not going to affect Uriah Hall's legacy. I mean, it'd be embarrassing because there's a perceived huge advantage for Hall here. And, you know, outside of Le'Veon loading up with one punch, which he did against Adrian Peterson, there's a perceived monster advantage.

But it's a different sport, you know? Like, remember when people were trying to say if Ben Eskren gets knocked out by Jake Paul? You know, I think Ariel used to push that too and be like, you know, this will be what people remember him. That's not going to be what people remember him, okay? Yeah, it would be bad. It would be certainly embarrassing.

He would be, you know, taken to the woodshed on social media by it but um doesn't really mean much because he's like how hard did he train did he give a fuck you know who knows you know uh we'll see i don't expect that he will lose by the way i expect him to win so we'll see how it goes all right from at fergal fits i think what tattoo was bc going to get if if Brady won and would he still get one? No, the answer to the second part is no, but I'm interested to see, did you give any consideration to what you would have gotten and where you

would have gotten it? Yeah. I feel like we didn't really specify that enough. We probably should have put it in the rules of the locate, you know, potential locations, how big it would be. What I wouldn't do is what people do is get all cute and put like a dot on them or a heart and be like, Hey, I got a tattoo. No, I wouldn't do that. I would go for

it, Luke. And I always felt the outside of my, you know, left arm, bicep, tricep, uh, middle ground there would have been the best spot for it. You know, I would like some type of circle in it. You know, two things that would definitely be there. It'd be some form of a nature scene, you know, mountains, sunset, something like that. And I'd have to have like bright-ish colors. Even if you told me, hey, you're pasty, it's going to look bad on you. It's just who I am, Luke. I mean, this is my new phone case,

you know what I'm saying? So, you know, it would be loud colors of this variety, but I'm not exactly sure what it would have been and what the full theme would have been, but I would have went for it will i let's see how deep my uh midlife crisis continues to be i i'm about 600 records into this you know we'll see yeah intrepid producer of note mikey morham says one of the fans said you should have done the john annick tattoo with the philly area code god jesus you would have gotten the philly area what is the philly area code i don't

know i don't see philly area code it is uh 267 445 and 215 you would have gotten 215 tattooed on you no i would not have gotten that okay that's so stupid look there's a member of our show who got an mk tat we know that donk of the year damien who disappeared from life uh got a morning combat tat he's up on stage telling everyone he has a small dick do i would you know to be in the full spirit of this should i what should i have been forced to get some type of mk tat no i think you know you should get the tattoo that you want i mean at a at a bare minimum, especially if it's your first tattoo, it should not be a punishment in that way. Not to me.

Imagine a scenario when I called you up. I'm like, Luke, I took your advice. I'm going to get my ass tad. And you're like, yo, BC, finally, dude, you see it. You get it. I'm like, well, not my ass cheeks, but the actual asshole with this with this tattoo. Look right here. that's a very funny joke bc i'm sure it kills at the wolf's lodge or any other place yeah sad people hang out

um that would be probably the only mk tat i'd get but uh yeah all right hey look you know we try uh we try to give the best show possible there's times when you know sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit okay maybe maybe it's maybe the stars didn't align maybe you know maybe today was meant to be a sucker show i'm i think the show's going fine up until right this moment oh all right let me get back on track then let's do it it's time for your feces time for bc species let's do it uh luckily for you guys before i had this uh midlife mental mental breakdown here um i did scour the globe and the internet yesterday for the uh the good the bad the ugly the you know all that shit i really want to see some weightlifting fails and some elder abuse you really have been slipping on that if i can you know what on the ladder i have been slipping i

get so many see there's problems that happen we get so many duplicates and where it's like it's a different video but we've done that bit too much. And our audience forget shit. All I get are constantly people sending me videos we've used already, you know? And I can be like, oh, we used that two years ago, you know? So, here we go. We gotta keep it fresh here. Let's go to my shit. It's called,

Have You Seen This Shit, in fact. Yeah. Oh. Oh. BC's Feces takes us to Abu Dhabi, UFC 280. Luke, this is as wholesome as it gets. I kind of, I got emotional here watching this. Let's go to the videotape. And I just want to say, you see, this is my belt for my coach,

Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. Many years ago, he told me just training hard and you're going to be champion. And I want to give this ball. Him and his father make me. I know. That's about as

humble as you can be in that moment, Luke so i you know i support that all the way his father made me that's that's that's that's profound that's deep and coach abib is on fire right now right dude apparently when he runs we heard what eric nixick said like his practices boy he don't fuck around in there you're there you're there to learn that day so i think the only downtime they get is when they play that full contact uh basketball game that they play where they like take each other down you know and they're dribbling and stuff they beat the fuck out of each other playing basketball it's like this is a weird ass game but if it works for him it works for him indeed and then uh islam got an actual victory lap here on the shoulders of habib and luke some people were doing the split screen

it was it was inverted when habib won the title at 223 Islam was carrying him around so uh great to see that full circle moment there for team Habib regardless of who they eat dinner with are you gonna do this if we win the world MMA awards to me I'm I can't be a power bottom in this Luke I can't carry you I mean come on you know I'm frail I'm falling apart over here uh let's go to uh the the said incident between abu bakar nurmagomedov the cousin of habib and hamza this was right after uh islam's victory it's weird that like they they're holding hands or like they're embracing and all of a sudden it's just pushing and shoving. Yeah, luckily nobody... Right in front of the media there, too. Look at the media. Yep. Imagine if Habib got a running start

and drop kicked Shumayev like he tried to do to Dylan Dennis. Well, I got to say, that was like the high point of Dylan Dennis' popularity, right? Like, since then, he's just been a ghost. Yeah, ever since he got water bottles thrown at him by Jake Paul that time at the SHOB show, Luke, it's been downhill since then, you know?

Yeah, I think that's it. He has, although DAZN keeps tweeting about him, which is the most annoying thing on earth. But what are you going to do? Luke, we talked about Bilal having, I don't know if he's a D-cup, but he's got the best cans this side of that octagon. Even Dana had to get to second base on him during the stare down, Luke. All right?

He does. By the way, Sean Brady's got impressive pecs look at those things yeah I'm sure his ass is too Luke underneath all that ink but you know maybe maybe Luke you know a lot of people going oh god now we got a room service diaries jinx we jinxed Glover we jinxed

Sean Brady well Demetrius Johnson won after RSD but Luke wasn't there so maybe the Luke RSD jinx is upon us here luke or maybe some of you guys are stuck in third grade maybe that's what it is oh i'm being told aj mckee also won after being on the couch so right right so people can yeah yeah no no sean maybe so but maybe sean cursed himself trying to win a world championship with ass tats. Andy Ruiz tried that against Joshua in the rematch, right? Didn't happen.

Did he have ass tats in that one? The curse of the ass tats. Yeah, but he beat Luis Ortiz. It was better when you believed in things like curses. Okay. Let's go over to Tai Tuivasa, Luke. He had to let his presence be felt. Oh, let me guess.

Is there a shoeie? Let me guess. Yeah, and your boy your boy this isn't hey the good news about the shoey is it's totally not played out you know what i'm saying well it's hygienic too that is gross wow who wow yeah he don't care luke he's here to bang you know i just can't it's like it's like dude we gotta like tai tuivasa seems like a very fun cool guy and i'm betting he's got more party tricks than this can we see some other party tricks because i've seen this one 80 billion times what are you gonna do next eat shit yeah i mean come on right remember remember they did that in philly when the eagles won the super bowl

oh that's just they are all right look you know nothing gets me happier on this segment than real, recognizing some real. Let's go backstage at UFC 280. Welterweight champion Leon Rocky Edwards embracing Habib and Islam directly after the victory. Hey, a welterweight champ meets the lightweight champ. Yeah, I like this. I like this respect shown. You see that guy in the suit there in the blue, Luke?

That's one of Habib's managers. He was handcuffed on top of my laptop during that melee at 229. He's also a big figure in dominance MMA management, I believe. Gotcha. Gotcha. Nice moment there. And, Luke, let's keep it going. Hasbulla was trying to take over like a liver king.

Did ESPN MMA's social media accounts share enough hasbulla information and and tweets and videos i can't tell because they only tweeted about it every five seconds uh here's hasbulla and sugar sean recognizing the realness in each other i gotta say chucking the water bottle and putting on the shades is kind of cool yeah that's all right i like this one okay uh gaff do you have that extra video of of uh hasbulla on the water bottles can we throw to that now if possible yes okay this also luke was uh after the fight that's you that's you that's you on every mk set luke i can't hate on Hasbiel. This is hilarious.

Dude, I'm not hating on him, but someone tell me what the joke is because I don't know how you can explain it without saying that ultimately you find something hilarious about whatever developmental disability he has. No, he's hilarious. He, the character he's playing, his persona is hilarious. It's mildly amusing at best. There's nothing wrong with it. It's fine. Dude, he's going to persona is hilarious it's mildly amusing at best there's nothing wrong with it i don't it's fine dude he's gonna make money go make money but i think people are just lying to themselves about what the what they're doing here luke our final real meets real

how about heavyweight champion alexander usik catching up with ivan drago himself dolph lundgren. Holy Jesus. What happened to old Dolph? I don't know. Yeah, that's not a good look. Hopefully he'll recover. Oh, you know what? Blow back up.

He looks like he's got a walking cast on his left foot there. Yes. Yes, so he must have had some kind of surgery. Well, he's still big as shit, though, for a guy as old as he is. Oh, yeah, he's probably still a badass. All right, let's go to uh henry cejudo luke he was doing you know everyone's got a live show now like a like a fight companion like joe rogan and cal calbassus luke that's like it's like the hot thing to do number we did one with

dion the barber it was fun people like yeah here was a moment during henry cejudo's at-home live party Saturday. Guys, welcome to YouTube Live, where I'm going to be breaking down UFC 280. Jujuy, you want to come, Jujuy? You can, Jujuy, come. Where I'm going to be watching UFC 280, breaking down, watching these fights live on tape. We have little baby America here. Right now, we're just closing off round two of gonron versus dariush

luke shout out first of all shout out to baby america as a hashtag girl that is gorgeous she's amazing r.i.p the late kobe you understand that but how about that welcome that is luke thomas like i've seen that before all right that's that's you looking at the hot dogs on the little roller thing at cumberland farms that's you oh look did you hear that tito ortiz is mad and he's not gonna take it anymore oh god he gives a shit the the satanic uh a circle has overcome california Tito is going to pack up his family and move to Florida. Let's hear from Tito. Enjoy.

The devil's here, people. It's disgusting what's going on. Like I say, I'm going to save my children. It's my life. This is what I live for, is my children. Once again, my name and my word. All right. again my name and my word all right well did we need to see him do that luke it's his life and it's now or never and like he said he's not gonna live forever luke so florida welcome the ortiz's here we go. Let's go over to this. Luke, how

about this? Deontay Wilder is back. He also has a new single and a music video out with his wife, Telly Swift. Let's go to the videotape here. I want to get your thoughts. Thank you, baby. okay okay i've heard enough i've heard enough uh luke thomas your thoughts uh probably not the intended audience for that kind of music. I think that's probably a fair way to put it. Okay. Also, you know, the auto tune there was notable auto tune. Did you get a little feel of like,

come on, be my baby tonight. You know, that, that legend David from new Orleans, real world, you know, the reality is if you're famous enough,

you can buy enough things around you to, to basically do whatever you want. Um, I'll say this you know what and i mean this sincerely dionte seems happy which he hasn't always been he's not doing the to this day thing all the time you know so he looks pretty cool in that video i mean you know he looks like a king in that video i'll give him credit on there so i mean could he wear i mean he looks like liberace with those clothes on i mean let's just be honest about that but uh that's that's an old man reference right let's get back to the fights here is uh one on Amazon Prime 3 from

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and look at this no moss after this body shot oh wow no yeah oh yeah she doesn't want to fight anymore okay there we go yeah there it is wow that's me that was me after like going to that taco bell downstairs the first time uh let's go over to fabricio andrage uh he broke john lineker's cup luke with a knee to the groin damn this fight was good uh he fucked up john lineker well actually both of them were taking some damage. You can see the right eye of Lineker was, look at that, super messed up. And then he shattered his cup. Boy, and John Lineker missed weight. I mean, he just had all kinds of fails.

And he's bald now, Luke. Yeah, he had a rough weekend there. But the fight turns out to be a no contest. And here is Andrade's reaction afterwards. Sucks, man. It sucks. Raj's reaction afterwards. Do we see a rematch, Luke, for the title? If Lineker can make it or what? It was turning out to be a pretty good fight, so I would hope. But by the way, I got to say, for the third one event on Amazon,

this one was very quiet. I didn't see anyone talking about this one. I agree with you on Amazon. This one was very quiet. I didn't see anyone talking about this one. I agree with you on that. Luke, here was the Cade Ruotolo appearance here. We had him on Morning Combat. And the 19-year-old took the back instantaneously to open

round one. How about that, Luke? Hit a duck under here right there. Rolls through. Takes the back. Yeah, dude. He went to work on this guy. Although I will say the judo guy hit a foot under here right there rolls through takes the back and uh yeah dude he he went to work on this guy although i will say the judo guy hit a hit a foot sweep early uh kurjav hit a foot early that took ruatolo off of his feet but after that he was he was uh ruatolo would go on to hit a heel hook luke here's the videotape and when the the inaugural. He goes belly down on it like this. Yep. Oh, Jesus Christ. One lightweight grappling title.

Wow. Look at that. Yeah. I mean, I don't. That guy is lucky he's walking out of there not in a wheelchair. That is a vicious variety of the heel hook. And to the victor goes the spoils, Luke. Here's Cade trying to hold the heaviest belt in combat sports today.

I mean, could this belt be bigger? Honestly, why not just give him the cage for fuck's sake can you make the belt a little bit more is that his brother luca yes that's ty that's ty rule who's also very good who also didn't win at adcc but you know was a high level competitor and fought and he actually got i think one win at this past week or the past time tournament so one or two look you ever hear of a dance called the gritty dance yeah i see every asshole doing it on uh social media well we found another one now just kidding here's 77 year old boxing hall of famer michael buffer breaking down a uh gritty dance in the eagles end zone i mean someone just slugged this old man in the face please wow that guy's a

legend luke come on i know i love michael buffer but when they do dude like guys in their 70s trying to be like i also know what's happening on tiktok dude it's okay if you don't know what's happening on tiktok if you're 70 it's totally all right you know that's fair that's fair uh he is aging gracefully 77 good lord wow all right uh let's go to pro wrestling we don't play many clips of pro wrestling in here luke for i think obvious reasons but this came across my timeline the other day wanted to get your thoughts what the fuck is this what the fuck all right yep toss salad indeed luke. Okay, hey, let's go to our wheel kick of the week. It comes from this random rock and roll concert, Luke.

Nobody was burned to death here unlike that Rhode Island incident. Remember with... Yeah, here we go, Luke. Here it is. Who are these jackasses? Oh, yeah. Oh, that is great.

Dude, was that one of the island boys or what, Luke? I don't know, but if you look like this, I feel like the audience deserves to beat your ass when the show's over. I think so. I think so. All right. You know what I would like to do, Luke, is search deep. I search deep.

Here's some fighters in the wild. Let's catch up with what people are doing outside of the fighting surface. Here's Clay Guida on the open water. Check out this score from the carpenter damn i don't know what kind of fish that is but that's a big ass one it's like an anaconda snake or something luke that thing's massive it's just damn you ever been fishing bc yeah but it's not you know it's not not my thing you know does that make me less manly this is a true story first of all i went on a 50 mile canoe trip one time which was awful it rained every single day when i got home my my sleeping bag was so mildewed i had to throw it

away like there was no way to save it and uh there was one time when we were going under a tree brush and the idiot who's in the canoe with me because we were fishing along the way he hit the tree on top of us and two cotton mouths fell in the fucking canoe so we had to jump out of the canoe by the way these are like alligator infested waters we had to jump out of the canoe and then guide it to shore and then dump the fucking thing to get out of the way from the cotton mouth i was like dude i want to never leave a city ever again fuck this. Now you're running from cotton mouths while hosting an award-winning podcast, Luke, right? Yeah, but you're cotton mouth for a different reason.

It's because you have a thrill of Delta in your tummy. Luke, here, you know who's not being talked about as Aljo's next opponent? His good buddy, Marab Davalish-Wheely, who got out of the MMA space to hit the kickboxing gym. Here's 6'4 kickboxer katsarina kavalieva just dominating marab luke tell me you saw this and you didn't think of deuce bigelow male gigolo being like holy shit it's bigfoot

she's six four damn you think she dunks she don't dunk she probably dunks in high school you know what i'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But look at this. She just manhandles him. Yeah. Damn. All right. I don't know if he's...

Is he married, Luke? Or is this an investment opportunity for him? I don't know. Okay. You know who is married, Luke? Yordanis Ugas, the former welterweight world champion, upset Manny Pacquiao. We know him. Did you see the shirt his wife was wearing at the Deontay Wilder fight look i gotta get your your take on this yeah um you know i've seen a lot in

my time with uh latin women this is a new one this is a new one so is that a picture of her own chest worn over her chest i don't think i don't even know if i understand it yeah it's like you're not gonna look at my titties exactly just a picture of them that i'll wear hey when you're when you're when you're a badass like your danis you guys you could do whatever the hell you do whatever the fuck you want hell yeah that's what i'm talking about hey listen when you're the american dream your girl can wear a titty shirt you know what what I'm saying? That's true. That's true. You know what else you can do with the American Dream? You can make a comeback, Luke, because that's the American way.

You know who's back in the ring on the regular right now? I got three letters for you. Not GSP. BSL. He's back and he's not leaving that ring. Here's some recent sparring footage of MMA's own Bloodstained Lane, the living legend. Yeah. Oh, whoa, whoa. sparring footage of mma's own bloodstained lane the living legend yeah oh whoa whoa am i in the wrong order that's not what the fuck is happening here do we not have that video to shout out the legend i oh we don't have that one i may i don't know i

don't know luke i don't know what's happening anymore anyway he was dominating some guy from the southpaw stance, there you go. Good to see him back. Good to see him back. Hey, let's go to Pancrae's Neo blood. Let's check out what happened at the weigh-in, Luke. Here's Durrani Pravjara wearing an interesting... You know, I'm going to ask MMA male fighters to not do this again, please.

Although I will say he's manscaped. He is manscaped. Yeah. Okay. Luke, you know that Dana's going to Dana, and when he does, sometimes we put him on the show. Here's Dana for the first time ever addressing that four-minute media takedown on your boy BC during an appearance on the Balancing Chaos podcast,

which is hosted by Frank Fertitta's daughter. So let's listen. When you fuck with us, I can't wait to shove it in your face. You know, when we went through COVID and you were talking about how I was just getting murdered by the media, I went out and found every media guy that talks shit. And we did a documentary that we posted. And we posted their face, their name, what publication they wrote for, what they said.

Bring the negativity, but get ready. Because when I prove you wrong, I'm going to rub your fucking nose in. I'm still waiting for him to prove me wrong, Luke, okay? I know. I'm still waiting. It's like, okay, so did you go to Tachi Palace? No. Why didn't you?

Because, oh, right. Did Disney tell you to stand down? Because that's what we were referencing there, sir. still waiting it's like okay so did you go to tachi palace no why didn't you because oh right did disney tell you to stand down because that's what we were referencing there sir everything after that thank you for your service and keeping us employed and giving us it's like everyone's decided they've won the covet battles and okay whatever well look if you mess with him though he's proven he'll slap you he'll slap the taste out of your mouth. In fact, he's taking that idea to the next level. Here is the first power slap commercial from Dana White's new venture capital investment. Now, did they do this at the apex or the gathering of the juggalos?

Where'd they do this? Dude, this is so lame. I'm really shocked that we are here. I'm really shocked we are at this point i know he had to do something with that with all that um here's the best part here's the best part they're doing this november 11th so this is the day before this is the friday before ufc 281 how many mma media members are going to show up to let me just say this now if you're an mma media guy and you go to this you got some serious questions you better start asking yourself so i got this there's a video from dana's uh instagram

and i i legitimately look to see like what the the public reaction is or which celebrities endorse it you know the first comment was michael chandler going this is awesome look company man all the way but dude on top of this sport just being the lamest in the bottom of the of the food chain and combat sports like just what what's so lame about this is like we already knew that the key to Dana's heart was to fight your ass off and be as exciting as possible I mean he outright built a contender series which has become the the quickest and you know and most legitimate way to get noticed by the the the company on a foundation where like, if you don't get a finish, you're probably not getting a contract, even if you win. So we

already know that's the intention, but to now put something like this together where there's literally no defense, it's the stupidest thing ever. And then bragging about like, Oh, we've got real interest already from MMA fighters. If this is some way of saying, you know, BKFC has taken what's left of all our ex fighters maybe we should create our own thing where they can continue to make money and lose the rest of whatever's left upstairs luke this is literally the stupidest thing i've ever seen get to get this far with this yeah this is again this appeals to you as an entertainment product you pro i mean i'm uh you know not a book reader probably is a fair way

to put that not a book reader like i'm shocked any other adaption of combat sports like if he bought karate combat and went that route i'd be like pretty cool you know or if you bought glory or like whatever luke but this is uh defend yourself at all times slapping no just take the shit like that's it like there's no i mean literally zero defense zero defense yeah i'm sure they did surveys luke maybe this is what middle america wants okay um yeah there's there's i mean there's probably some audience for it um just a bunch of uh rubes a lot of people want to know like where'd come from, Dana? Where did it birth? I think we found the video, Luke. Shout out to the 209, right?

You know, he tried it. Monetizing this. He tried it and he liked it. There you go. I get it. Hey, Luke, Halloween's coming up soon. Here's the best costume already of 2022. They call this one Laces Out.

Finkel is Einhornhorn that's pretty good yeah let me ask you about that one hey dunk fail of the week time everybody tries to be a hero on an eight-foot hoop let's see what happened to this guy man he's white bc that's so out of character yeah yeah who is that person that just showed up like geek squad's ready to help him fix his hard drive and uh sir i'm here to install your nest doorbell oh sir i see you're a moron i apologize yeah indeed all right luke street fights of the week this is the good stuff right here let's go to mcdonald's to see what happened next yeah bro they're just having it out like what's the oh and i dubbed the unforgive on bye yo i'd be running by stealing their like half-eaten big mac if i saw this breakout i think

my favorite part is it's just man versus woman versus fat guy versus chair versus wall versus yeah uh chair fights are popular let's go to the poker room of this casino with a lot lot going on in this brawl. Oh, hell yeah. Look at this. I bet that guy's an ex-Marine on the left. I bet. It turns out there is such a thing.

There is no such thing. Oh, look at this. Oh, shit. My man's not even playing with the stool there. Oh, and he fell. He got tased. He got tased like a mofo. Don't tase me, bro.

Yep. You did get tased, bro. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Hey, Luke, you once told me there's not enough BBLs in this segment. So you ever hear of a natural disaster that they call the BBL earthquake? Oh, Jesus. What the fuck?

What happened to all the Latin women, Luke? I don't know. I mean, that's just insane. Satan was like, I'm going to take these ones from me. Wow. Wow, I hope they were okay. Holy crap. What language is that, by the way?

Is that like some kind of Croatian or something? I don't even know what that is. I hope. Yeah, yeah, maybe. Luke, remember that Caleb Plant KO of Anthony DiRale? It might end up as ko of the year check out this alternate angle that i found of it finish him oh shit oh i mean that's good that's really really good that's really good yeah that is really damn good wow i hate to see that i love

me some anthony dure, but what a finish. Damn. Hey, dude, they talk that shit. You get put out like that. That's the game, man. That's the game. That is the game. We close with the best artwork of the week.

We start with this art. Look right this tad. Here's Cody Garbrandt's, the back of his left leg, and it's Post Malone on that. So that's a little bit dark, but I think because it's fresh, it will lighten up. I would say that's mostly pretty good, I think. All right.

Well, we see some tattoo art. How about some performance art? I call this Half Court Cage. Is that a donut yes well he rubs his nicholas cage but i think yes um you know this is a little bit disturbing this guy's well well wait for this just mouth breathing nothing but that dude look at that this guy this i don't know who this guy is but he's definitely committed a bunch of crimes we don't know about i'm just gonna say much more than that he will 100 eat your flesh after challenging you to a game of one-on-one luke but wow from half court

from way downtown bang because that's what he's to do to you after he puts you in his basement. Is this like Chef Kaz in like 30 years? Maybe, maybe. Although Chef Kaz can take any fighter to the championship level, Luke, with that nutrition plan. You better believe that. We close with the final piece of art.

I think they call this one the human windshield wiper. I was looking to get your thoughts on this. Okay. I mean, I have to look at man dong and man ass, but then the one BBL you had had just a shirt on. Like this is, this is very unfair. If I do say so myself,

I'm really sorry that those BBLs Luke got sucked in by the Sarlacc pit monster. Yeah, they did. They went into the sarlacc pit monster yeah they did they went into the sarlacc pit oh no job job job was like she knocked on two walk off and there was a getting there yo salacious crumb was a motherfucker right he was a all right that's all the shit i got i gotta go all right all right all right let's remind everyone we got the manscaped stuff going on there's information for it in the description box hey you want to go hang out with mk free tickets free airfare uh free hotel sign gloves to go to

jake paul and anderson silva which which is this Saturday in the description box below. Our friends at Moneyline are going to send you if you enter that contest. Go do it now. That's legit. That's real. That's the whole nine yards. Plus, we will have extra credit on Benil Dariush coming a little bit later. We've got some other stuff to set you up for Jake Paul,

Anderson Silva Fight Week coming out pretty soon as well. So be on the lookout there. Here are all of our various socials. You see them below on the screen. As reminder bc and i travel tomorrow so wednesday and friday show will be in arizona but you can email the show morning combat at gmail.com to reach the show for wednesday's fan subs or friday's dead wrong i'm trying to think if there's anything else i need to plug at the moment i think think that's about right. Oh, yeah, here we go.

Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. For the first month, you get it for free, and then $3.99 a month for the three months subsequent to that. By the way, Wednesdays and Fridays show are going to be one hour later. So instead of live at 11 in the east, they'll be live at noon in the east as a bit of a reminder for you. Plus, we're going to have tons of stuff on the ground there in Arizona to get you guys ready for that fight week as well.

There's also a UFC fight this upcoming weekend, too. We won't forget about that either. All right? All right, so for Showtime, for CBS Sports, for Malka, and the great Brian Campbell, I am Luke Thomas. Thank you so much for watching. We'll catch you guys on Wednesday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.