MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 280 Storylines | Overeem Def. Hari | Rakhmonov vs. Neal | Fundora Wins | Ep 359

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

On Episode 359 of Morning Kombat, Luke and Brian discuss the biggest storylines heading into UFC 280. Is Charles Oliveira going to show up? Could Volkanovski really be a last minute replacement? Next up the guys recap Alistair Overeem's win over Badr Hari in their trilogy match. What did Overeem prove in that fight? Shavkat Rakhmonov is set to face Geoff Neal at UFC Fight Night on January 14th. How far is Rakhmonov from a title shot? The guys also break down Sebastain Fundora's win over Carlos Ocampo. What are his chances against the Charlo-Tszyu winner? The guys close out the show with Quick Hitters, Dm's from Donks and HYSTS. You won't want to miss this episode. (17:00) - UFC 280 Storylines (46:15) - Overeem Def. Hari (57:20) - Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Geoff Neal (65:00) - Fundora Defeats Ocampo (85:30) - Quick Hitters (99:00) - DM's from Donks Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Hey, far out, man. It's Monday, the 10th of October, 2022, and it is time for Morning Combat. My name is Luke Thomas.

I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of Estados Unidos right here in Washington, D.C. Joined by my partner in crime. You know him by many names. The drug rug is in full effect. My friend and yours, the King of Connecticut, Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian. Luke, they call that a Baja hoodie professionally, just so you know.

All right, Luke, okay? There you go. It will only ever be a drug rug to me. I mean, where I come from, that's indeed true. But, hey, it's Monday. We got great sponsors. We got a great crowd of people watching probably somewhere in their lives. And, Luke, you and I had a good weekend together.

I'm fired up to be here. Let's, hey, you know, you and I had a good weekend together. I'm fired up to be here. Let's let's hey, too. Right. You know, let's let's bang. Okay. Let's bang award. By the way, I want to thank our good friends at Moneyline there. You saw the ad.

We got a new sponsor on board, a pretty big one at that. So excited to have them on board. And of course, do we have the QR code? We can flash on the screen. Folks can get involved, get that Moneyline app and get their lives going. I don't know if we have it ready just yet, but I want to remind you. I think it's in the description box. There's a link in the description box if you want more information or to get Moneyline process going in your life.

So thanks to them for coming on board. BC, as you mentioned, we were together on Saturday. We're going to be together on Wednesday as well. The duties never stop. And we have a lot to get to today. UFC 280 is just, I think, a couple of weeks away at this point. On top of that, we had, let's see, we had Showtime Championship Boxing over the weekend. We had, how about Alistair Overeem getting a big win over the weekend?

We'll talk about that. Plus a bunch of quick hitters. Some Shavkat Rock Monov news we're going to talk about as well. So thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Please hit subscribe if you're new to the program. Happy to have you here where you can see you can follow us on all the various socials there on all the channels. And by the way, BC, one thing I've been doing a little bit is trying to listen to the podcast

on any, I use Stitcher, folks can use Spotify, whatever their favorite podcast app might be. Trying to see how the show sounds when we listen. Not so great when the Damon Martin clip doesn't play and there's 30 seconds of uninterrupted silence but short of that it actually sounds pretty good i like the new microphones by the way that we're using in the studios in jersey city isn't it weird that we're this far advanced into podcasting and digital you know award-winning digital shows that if you listen audio only to mk you're now the old guy in the group. Kind of, kind of. Although I have, you know, it's funny.

I have run into people who listen to the show, and I've used that word listen. I have met several MK fans who actually don't ever watch on YouTube. They only ever listen to the podcast. And I say, hey, whatever works for you. I just want to kind of hear how it sounds. I like the way it sounds. I'm sure have you seen this shit is great in, you know, audio yeah that part's not so awesome that part's not so awesome but the you

know the analysis comes across quite well bc now i gotta ask you you saw me earlier but i don't know if the mk uh listeners or viewers have seen it i got a 50 haircut and i gotta say it shows not my favorite haircut in the world if i could just be totally honest well luke you know like the dating scene available to you in high school they went high and tight luke okay so that was uh that was about it yeah when they when they cut misshapen things into my head i'm always like fucking brian campbell and by the way i didn't even save any money uh this time because the haircut was much cheaper but dude uber is is no longer being funded in the way it was before. Before, if you had an Uber ride, you might be like, oh, it's like $10.

It's so cheap. It's only $10 because the venture capitalists were offsetting the cost to get everyone to use it. And now that everyone is using it, that money has dried up. So the cost, it was a $30 effing Uber ride downtown to get my haircut. I didn't save a penny. I didn't save an effing penny. You know what all of our listeners are thinking right now luke get it together i mean my 24 haircut gets me the back rub

the wash the face claw i mean it gets a lot there's a lot going on there luke for 24 bucks all right i don't even go to robert kraft's place either believe me but uh luke you know when you said uh ex-marine no such thing i think they thought you were you know still one and they gave you that straight on military cut i mean it doesn't look awful but it's not luke thomas not at age it doesn't look great i can tell you that i know for a fact it doesn't look great so yeah i want to thank you for bullying me into getting terrible haircuts i don't care anymore if people don't like long intros because that's what we do uh luke you got to give the people a review of incanto on ice that you took the tukester uh to yesterday i mean i'm waiting you know breathless i gotta say so this is

the second disneyland ice event i have been to i went to one downtown here in dc to the capital one arena i went to yesterday i went to the eagle bank arena which is on the capital excuse me which is on the campus i should say of george Mason University. And it delivered. It was well attended and lots of sneezing kids behind me. I'm sure I have contracted some kind of communicable disease that hasn't really reared its ugly head yet. But the Frozen stuff, I had seen the Frozen act before, but they did Encanto on Ice on the second act. And it was a huge hit with the old teacher.

She lost her effing mind. Wow. Shout out to the toques i'm sure that was fantastic great to hear luke good some good wholesome shit but uh we now transition to a quick reminder about our merch luke i mean you see this hat right here okay i do see the hat so folks can get it if you want to get it of course you can go to morningcombat.store there's some merch you can have you can have the hat you can have the mug you can have no that's a grateful dead drug rug so that's not the official mk drug rug but you can get tons of good stuff there i'm told by the way that the morning combat hub the one that kind of looks

like the other hub yeah that everyone knows this is disturbing news to share with the public go ahead go ahead right the morning combat hub one i gotta say every time i wear that shirt i didn't even think twice before when I wore it. And then I wore it like three or four times and all, every single time someone was like, I see you player. I like that shirt. And I was always like,

Jesus Christ. All right. That's a little weird. Yeah. So now I'm self-conscious about wearing it. This is an editorial about the, you know, the makeup of our audience,

you know, not surprised mother effort for sure. But you know, our merch maven, RJ Crackerfuck, told us this morning that the MK Tube shirt is now our best selling item of all time.

That's because of you, fans. I don't own that one. I won't own that one. You can all watch your disturbing movies together. Maybe you can direct some of them. I don't know if you know this but cracker fuck is the official sport of west virginia that's a real thing oh that's just unbelievable i mean are we talking inner family or outer family i mean that's that's not fair look that's a beautiful state it does not you know we always think of like family sleeping together and like pit snoggle but west virginia is beautiful it is west virginia

actually has a ton of charm to it i you know can we joke here every everyone likes to pretend that they're like the least sensitive persons then you make joke about something close to them and all of a sudden they turn into uh very negative nancies just relax everyone it's a joke mk went way too far talking about japan that time and you know well you're probably right but we we tend to we we tend to throw the dart at ourselves and everyone else. Luke, that's how it works, okay? And then last but not least, Jose, before we kick off, we want to remind folks, BC and I were together for the prelims on Saturday.

Obviously, it aired on Showtime's YouTube channel, the regular Showtime Championship Boxing airing on Showtime. By the way, if you want to get Showtime, you can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. And then now on top of that, just $3.99 a month for the subsequent three months after that so a pretty good deal now you and I were on the YouTubes doing a stream for the uh Fundora Ocampo prelims of course Fundora's sister Gabriela competed on that and won I gotta say the fights pretty much delivered all the way through from the prelims to the main card that was a pretty night a pretty decent night of boxing if i do look i loved our prelim card i thought there was some fun matching on matchmaking on there but that main card just

delivered and you know obviously showtime always puts their best foot forward production wise and matchmaking wise and it's up to the fights the fights delivered that was a fun night out there hey we got a visitor oh no we got a visitor because, you know, it's a live show. Come here. Come here. Come here, Tukes. Come say hi. What are we doing? You know, just can't even do this normally. Alright, you want to say hi to all the people out there? Yeah.

Tell them your name. What's your name? My name is Violeta. Violeta, sí. Okay. ¿Cuántos años tienes? ¿Cuántos años tienes? Dos. No, tres. There you go. And how are you? How old are you? Three. No, three. Three. There you go.

And how are you doing? How are you feeling? Luke, can you ask her from Uncle Gringo to tell me about the Encanto show on ice? Okay, Tukey, since you interrupted my show, how was Encanto on ice? How was the show yesterday? I didn't like the queen inside this way. It's Jasmine and Mulan. Yeah, and there was Jasmine and Mulan. All right, Miamor. Daddy has to work because he has bills to pay.

You know all that electricity you use? It's not for free, okay? All right, te amo. All right? Beso a papá. Beso. No, beso a papá. Okay, very good. All right. Oh, beso a papa. Okay, very good.

All right. Oh, wow. That is wholesome, MK. That is some good stuff right there. All right, stay on. Well, what are you going to do? It's live TV. She just opened the door and walked on in.

Just comfortable Violeta. What are you going to do? Oh, yeah. I mean, the future, Luke, she's going to be the stat guy for our show, like around the horn or PTI or something down the road. It's coming. And then eventually she'll replace me. But, Luke, your office where that love took place is a great transition piece here

because can you tell the people what's happening tomorrow? Luke, it's a big day tomorrow. Tomorrow is a big day. We have video to throw to it, right? We do. We have a teaser trailer? We do. Okay, so tomorrow, I believe it'll be out,

I think at 11 a.m. If that's wrong, I'll double check here. But certainly tomorrow, youtube.com slash morningcombat. It is the next and potentially final installment of the, or at least final installment for a while, I should say, of the MK documentary series. BC, what does this documentary cover? What's the time period?

What events do we see in this one? You may recall that our last doc, documentary number six in the MK, Jake Von Amsterdam series, ended in December of last year when we won Best MMA Programming Award from the World MMA Awards. Luke, it picks up there,

and it covers really the last nine months of our life, more or less, our highs and lows as a show and of men, to be fair. It's documentary number seven. I forgot the title of it, but it'll be live tomorrow, and here is just a little... I think it's Homeward Bound. Homeward Bound. I wish I was, right?

Home, where my pots are draining. Home, where the music's playing. Home, you know, something like that. Thank you. All right, let's see. Simon and Backyard Funkle. Let's go to the videotape here of a tease for Doc number seven. This is where I have done a lot of really mediocre work.

Yeah, this is my office. Molly, smile for the camera. Hi, babe. Hi. Come on down. We'll see the office where the MK happens. So let me just show you a few things and make of it what you will. I mean come in, take a look around.

As you can see, I have a lot of books. I got a bed for, you know, nights that I work late. These are some other MMA books that I have. I got a great gift from my wife and kids a couple years ago, the Molly the Dog pillow. There's some books on geopolitics and globalization. Most important member of my family. Friedrich Nietzsche, the Gay Science, Aristotle's Ethics. Come here, come here, up, Molly. I've got more Aristotle readers. You know, what does it look like when life imitates art? And, you know, this is what it looks like. It's great. Edward Said's Orientalism. She likes squirrel pee and she

loves morning combat. Luke, we decided to share a little bit of ourselves for this seventh and potentially final documentary Homeward Bound. We visit my factory town. We went to our offices, as you see. So much material in this doc

that sort of ends with our trip to Vegas this summer. So check it out. You will not be disappointed. You may never see it again, Luke, but this one's like 40 minutes long. This is the final, you know, the full. This is the full, you know, the wave, the Peter North. This is the full you know the the wave the peter north this is

everything we've got okay thank you by the way the guy who shot and edited most of this shoots and edits some of the more preeminent showtime stuff you see around fight week for example so this dude knows what he's doing it came across pretty well um if you're going to check out a documentary this is this is the one to make some time for. So there you have it. All right, BC. With that in mind, let's get the show started if you're ready. I certainly am myself. What an intro, though.

What an intro. Tukes was here. We got to see the doc. Got a new sponsor. I mean, what else could you do here? All right. With that in mind, let's look ahead a little bit. We're just a couple of weeks away at this point from UFC 280 and BC I gotta

say everyone's getting real chippy have you noticed that all of the different not so much between Sean Brady and Bilal Muhammad but all in the other directions there's just a lot of everyone real angry real ready to get things I think the fan base look it's weird the fan base is getting chippy if we mention either and I'll look, this card's loaded in Dubai, but if we mention either Makhachev or Charlie Olives at any point in the show, instantly I get hardcore DMs from both fan bases saying, all you do is favor those guys. All you do is rip on those guys.

I think there's a fever pitch coming, not only for this card, but this lightweight title main event. I think that's a great point to make. First of all, there's just a ton of curiosity around what Makachev versus Oliveira is going to look like as a fight. And as you can well imagine, there's probably some overlap to those fan bases, but they're probably pretty distinct in a lot of ways as well.

And so there's just this natural clash. Plus, Makachev being like this heir to Habib who hasn't quite ascended will he Oliveira who should be the champ but isn't will he reclaim it and if so what will it look like it feels like the next chapter of the life of lightweight will turn once this champion is crowned and there's sort of a new not like a new era of champion will be reigned because they could lose the fire they'll lose their belt in the subsequent fight but I just feel like the division is ready for some larger turnover one way or the other and this will seem seems to be like a great uh bookend to what the next chapter might be now

with that in mind bc i do want to start with aljamain sterling saying something i thought was i gotta tell you everyone thinks their opponent is not going to show up for this fight. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. So let me just put this out here. Aljamain Sterling was asked, like, what happens if TJ Dillashaw doesn't make it to the fight because he tests positive? I think he was asked, by the way, on Submission Radio. And here was his answer, and I find it confusing. Quote, this is Aljamain Sterling talking about what happens if Dillashaw tests positive for some kind of performance enhancing drug.

Quote, if he pops again, it is what it is. I'm already prepared. And as I have said, I got backup plans and contingencies for other opponents. So you know, it is what it is. I train with the best guys in the world. I bring it. Look at this guy over here. This guy's a freaking savage.

He's talking, of course, about Marav DeWallis-Wheely. Now, BC, one, I get that TJ Dillashaw has a sordid past related to this issue, and so that will invite skepticism about his continuing participation in the sport. But just speaking from a matter of what is probable, I find it highly unlikely he will test positive again, although one never knows. The other part, though, is what would those contingency plans be? Who I think could replace TJ in case of emergency is what you're asking?

Well, sort of, but here's what, it was the way he worded it. He didn't say the UFC has backup plans. He said he has backup plans. Oh, you wonder, is he teasing a potential lawsuit, Luke? No, but this is what I'm wondering. You've got Sean O'Malley and Peter Yan on the card, Peter Yan, they're going to fight each other. Would the UFC pull one of them up if for some reason Dillashaw is out?

And again, I have no reason to suspect Dillashaw might be out, but let's entertain Aljamain Sterling's contingency plan here. A, would they bring one of them up? Or B, this is sort of my point. He's saying he has contingency plans. If for some reason that falls through, is he saying I'm going to be off the card no matter what? It's an interesting sort of cryptic loaded thing he said right there i'm not sure the direction he's leaning but you did bring up an important point that if this should happen and look uh you know we didn't think hamzat versus nate just recently was going to fall apart ish happens in the combat sports game would it be peyote or yan would we be looking at an aljo yan trilogy we're not talking about contingency plans for the fighter

what do you luke believe is the contingency plan for the promotion? Because I don't know if I've heard that who's weighing in as the backup. Have that, has that been announced for this? So we'll get to that with the lightweight bout in just a minute. So we do have a bit of an answer there on that one, on this one, there are other bantamweights on the card. As I mentioned, Sean O'Malley's on the card, but you know, he's fighting Yon, which was,alley's on the card, but he's fighting Jan, which is by far the toughest and most highly ranked opponent he's ever faced. Jan, on the other hand, is coming off of a loss, obviously, so he doesn't have a win to his name having just lost to Sterling. Now, he does have the win over Corey Sandhagen prior to that, so you could do that. There are no other

bantamweight fights on the card. It's just those two. So I know Marab is there with Sterling. Would Sterling really fight Marab if TJ falls? I just don't buy that. Not on last minute. Look, if they ever break that friendship teammate thing they've got going, where DeVos wheelie essentially credits Aljo for, like, helping him assimilate to the States and learn the game and all that.

But look, at some point, if they're the top two in the division two years from now, you're going to fight. You're not doing that on, you know, one week notice though, Luke. No, hell no. You're going to get paid. Here's the thing that kind of gets me a little bit. If I was UFC, and maybe this is not possible, of course, like one never knows. And you know, you're talking about asking a very established, one of the best fighters ever to do this. But in a perfect world, would Jose Aldo have not been the best substitute? In either sense, you get Sterling versus Aldo or Aldo versus Dillashaw, right? So you have a new matchup in either case. And in either case, both of those seem to be very competitive fights.

Now, you wouldn't want to put the guy in a title fight having come off of a loss himself, right, just recently losing to Marab. But as a substitute, what's a better substitute than that? Because honestly, going to Jan doesn't work, and neither O'Malley. So who are you saying would fight? Who are you saying?

Jose Aldo? No, I'm saying wouldn't have made sense for the UFC to have done that. Try to find a way to get Aldo as part of this and then walk off into the sunset. Grant, I understand making weight for a potential contest you may never fight in might not be something Aldo's interested in. I fully recognize that.

No, and he lost. Dude, first of all, he already has one of the more controversial title gets in the fact that he lost to Marlon Marais. And I think even though it was close, it was a fair loss. And then he got a title shot on name alone. You're not going to give him a second one. No, that scenario is ridiculous, Luke. Let's not entertain him.

Okay, but Sterling's your champ. Let me just read to you the rankings about which direction else you can go. Jan is sitting there at number one. Dillashaw at two. Merab is at three. Merab is there, and he is sitting at three. Sanhagen and then Vera, respectively, in four or five. You tell me who's a better name.

Well, look, I think Sanhagen, if I'm him, just in case I'm staying close to weight and I make sure my passport is updated. But beyond that, that's why you have Jan and O'Malley, which is such a badass fight with so much future. You know, if O'Malley wins, dude, he could be fighting for the next title shot. There's no question about it.

Star power alone. Dude, that's a great conundrum to be in should Dillashaw fall out. Or let's say Aljo missed weight. You can bump up either of those guys. They're already in a great spot. Nobody else needs to be sitting around as a replacement, Luke. Okay. Dude, you would really bump up Sean O'Malley to a title fight?

No, I think if it was Aljo who needed the opponent, Jan would get it because they have history and it would be a trilogy and it just makes more sense. I don't think you could allow O'Malley to cut the line, but let me ask you this, Luke. Let's say Aljo missed weight and was bumped from the card. Could you then do Sean O'Malley versus TJ in the main event as like a number one contender fight?

Come in. Yeah, sorry, come in as like a suddenly number one contender fight for the interim title or some BS, Comey. As like a suddenly number one contender fight for the interim title or some BS? You could, Luke. That'd be pretty badass, too. Would Dillashaw want that? You know? Does Dillashaw, who's in a title fight,

now want to fight Sean O'Malley to hold position? I guess if they gave him a bunch of money as like a discretionary bonus. And the interim title. Yeah, you got to have the interim title and a lot of money. It's okay. Yeah. That could be interesting.

Wow. Could you imagine Sean O'Malley as a potential interim UFC Bantamweight champion with a strange turn of events? It seems unlikely, but, but if he beat TJ, dude, you,

you, you, it's not like you could, you know, pick it outside and make signs. Luke, you know, if you beat TJ,

he gets, he's there. He's a star dude. He's a star, dude. He's there, all right? Here's a crazy scenario that, again, all of this is a little bit pie-in-the-sky talk, but the point I would want to make is imagine if that happens, right? So for some reason, Aljo gets sick, and he can't defend his title. They don't strip him, but whatever happens,

they now elect to have an interim title fight so that there's another title fight on the card, and that it is Sean O'Malley, and he fights TJ D dillashaw but now let me throw this little wrench at you which is what if it looks like the suhudo dillashaw fight where it's over you know approximately less than a minute 30 seconds whatever it ends up being something where it's like first shot that land kind of ko's him or second shot that lands kind of ko's him how what would that impact be if O'Malley won by early KO on like the first shot he landed he'd get he'd get the title shot next he'd probably be the interim champion if this scenario played out and again there would be so much pervasive doubt about it of course but that

would only add to the intrigue of look eventually because of his star power sooner than later he's going to fight for a title and obviously obviously, if he wins his scheduled fight this Saturday, he's probably next. So you're not going to hold him back anyway. So there's always going to be some doubters saying, oh, he's been fighting the Chris Moutinho's lately and not trying as hard. OK, well, Luke, what are you going to do if he if some last minute scenario, which isn't even in play? I don't know why we're playing it out this hard.

But if it happened that way, you'd still have that polarizing mix of people who don't think he deserved it. So I want to see him crumble and other people go and look, we got to find out right now. He just knocked out TJ Tillich off for God's sakes. I mean, that, that, you know, that's, that's a star making win right there under any circumstance or scenario. No, it certainly would be. I'm merely having fun with some of the headlines that are coming out about this. I just want to be totally. Well, I mean, this is my, you're, you're, this is my kind of show right now, Luke. Okay. I'm just want to make sure the people

are on board with us. Yes, that's quite fair. Um, all right. So that leads us to some of the other weird headlines coming out about this fight. And again, everyone is just wildly chippy about this. Have you seen some of the back and forth about Makachev and chandler are you aware of any of this i am not can you set the stage for me please so both have been asked to make a series of comments about the other one because that's just what media is today no one does like any investigative reporting they just rehash what everyone else is saying and so chandler was asked about makachev's resume right and he quote, he hasn't really fought anybody. That's really the truth.

Boy, people will take shots at Makachev. It's unbelievable. So Makachev responded back on social media saying, quote, ha ha, your only two wins in the UFC are Hooker, who came off of a loss, and Tony, who has five losses in a row now. Please shut up and stay in line. First of all, interested in a Mokachev-Chandler fight. Just want to be very clear about that.

And that's brilliant. That's a brilliant marketing play from Chandler, who's coming off a win no matter who it's against. And Luke, he's a company man who gets opportunities because he's ready, willing, and able, whether you agree with him or not. Okay, but let's answer this question. What is a fair criticism of islam's resume what does a fair criticism of it look like in my opinion the only fair criticism is that there's not a overwhelming amount of elite names he had to take the back road uh and and collect a long number of

victories and build this you know tony ferguson like you know max holloway like in the standpoint of how many how many more wins is he going to need before he finally gets the title shot? Well, it's right now. Enough of that conversation. I do feel like UFC was stiff arming Islam for a bit, maybe more for marketing purposes of trying to make the other bigger fights first and knowing or maybe, you know, there's some backdoor

conspiratorialness to the idea of maybe if we get Habib mad enough about his guy not getting the title shot, he'll come back and fight for us. Probably not as likely. But the whole point here, Luke, is would you have rather had him fought all the big names in this division so we know everything for sure? Of course. He hadn't had that opportunity. He didn't get there yet.

He fought who he fought. He beat those guys. Boy, is he ready right now. And I think he's always like O'Malley who people are automatically going to look at him and go, oh, he's just a flashy haircut. I think a lot of people are going to look at Islam because he's dubbed as Habib's boy, but we haven't seen him actually fully prove it yet. He's not going to win those people over until he wins the championship. Let's be fair, because they just look at him now as Habib Jr., who's just, you know. But the reality is the guy can freaking fight.

Watch that win streak. You want to credit? You know, you want to go after the lack of elite wins? Well, give him a chance to fight these elite guys. We're going to find out what happens, Luke, okay? Yeah, so he had a win before the Martins loss. Then he had the Martins loss in his second UFC fight. So since then, he's undefeated.

And he has wins over Chris Wade, who's a good fighter, but in the PFL now. Nick Lentz, who's retired. I think Gleason Tebow, who's in the PFL. Cajun Johnson, who I'm not sure is competing anymore, but then it turns up to a significant degree. Then he beat Armin Saryukin. Now, that was Saryukin's UFC debut, but still, that was a tough fight, and he won it.

It's a badass win. It's a badass win. That's a solid win. And by the way, I say it's a tough fight because it's a tough opponent, but Vakachev looked really good in that one. Then he beat Davi Hamosh, who was a very good submission grapp submission grappler Drew Dober he submitted via arm triangle in the third round Tiago Moises who he submitted via rear naked choke in the fourth round he just blew past Dan Hooker by the way he fought Dan Hooker two fights ago just want to be clear about that but he submitted him inside

the first round and then Bobby Green who he uh polished off inside the first round but that was of course a last minute change and that was a catch weight of 160 pounds he has looked good but i think your analysis about his resume is is on the spot since the loss to martinez obviously he's looked great and since the fight from so you can up he's looked really really good but he doesn't have any wins over super elite competition to this point olivera is by far his toughest opponent to date. So there is something to be said for that. Although I have to say, if you end up getting a fight where Chandler beats Poirier in New York city, right. And Makachev wins at two 80, that is very likely to be your next fight. Is it not? That's going to be his first title defense. And that's why it's brilliant

work by Chandler, who I think, you know, if you want to do the full criticism of him being a company guy and he's, I mean, he is so over the top in doing that. Why do people be company men, Luke? Because you get huge opportunities, but you also have to be a badass who's willing to fight anybody at any time, no matter what the situation he is. That's the perfect first title defense. If you're looking to really try to make Islam's name. And I think the fact that he can be so dominant, even though he's not exactly Habib, and in some ways he's more exciting in some ways than Habib,

you know, he can dominate you in ways that aren't fully exciting. You give him a guy like Chandler, he has a chance to do some exciting shit, or maybe not, or maybe they make a crazy-ass fight and you don't know who comes out of there. But even that would seem like the next one, Luke. And look, all of these guys that are now considered the last generation at lightweight, meaning we had arguably the deepest division in the sports history when Habib was on top

and we had all those celebrity names. Now, when you're talking Conor Ferguson, man, when you're talking all the Gates, they're all getting old, okay? They're all getting old. Poirier, they're one big win or two wins away each of them from being potential title opportunities as well so this division's in such a great spot because that second generation that's coming in is so strong right now and there's a few of them but whoever comes out of Oliveira in in Mahachev we're gonna have some fun fights to make and I think if

it is Mahachev if you don't think he's beaten enough guys he's gonna have to if he wins that title he's gonna have to prove it in a meat grinder of names of old and new. And we don't have the footage, as much as we don't have the proof yet that he is that dude, we don't have proof yet that he's not either, Luke. I mean, and that's like, let's pause for a second here. How fucking great is on paper is Charles Oliveira versus Islam Mahachev separate from the card, the venue, the stakes, whatever. Style versus style. This is such a great fight to get.

If I could pick one fight that's going to give me the Islam Mahachev answers, this is about as great as it gets, right? Entertainment-wise, this is going to be something fun comes two Saturdays from now. I mean, Luke, I don't think you need Jake Hager in here right now to tell you what's going on below the camera. Yeah, you probably have a pathetic boner. I mean, you've been don't think you need Jake Hager in here right now to tell you what's going on below the camera. Yeah, you probably have a pathetic boner. But, I mean, you've been having that since fifth grade,

so that's not new when you found out Santa wasn't really real. That's funny because it's true. Wow, that was a deep cut right there. Just, whoo, yeah. But what I wanted to say was, just based on where I see most talk is and the most questions I get from MMA fans, the two fights they are by far excited about the most,

and this is not really a surprise in a lot of ways, but just the disparity between these two fights and everything else is huge. It's this one. It's Islam taking on Oliveira. And then the other one would be Izzy and Pineda. Those are the two fights that MMA fans, clearly on the rest of the 2022 calendar, care about the most by far. And to your point, what is there to dislike about it?

You have two elite lightweights. We'll find out who's the most elite about them, or between them, I should say. It's a very difficult fight to figure out because both guys are very well-rounded and very experienced. It's for a title, maybe one of the more prestigious titles in the UFC,c given it's in the lightweight division and you've got guys basically in their primes like what on earth could there be to not like it's got everything you could possibly want stakes action rival fan bases the works this is this is the one to watch to be clear now yeah

okay go ahead are you spinning off of this topic? Because I got one more thing to ask you. One more. I do have another thing on this one, but go ahead. Look, I think Habib became somewhat of a surprisingly accidental pay-per-view star. And obviously, when you have the unbeaten streak, you've got his mindset, his one-liners, you know, semi-location, all that stuff. Number one bullshit.

And on top of that, he was involved in, you know, the most hellacious pay-per-view build of all time, the Conor McGregor one. And it turned out that that set the record for buys. I mean, he was also he touches different parts of the world and certainly the Muslim fan base. I mean, there's a lot that had be brought in the end. It didn't look like he was going to be that star in the beginning. Considering that Islam has the Habib rub, I mean, he's in his corner he's with him constantly if islam wins the title and if his

first you know three or four title defenses if he stays the champion come against chandler or recycle gaichi heck or recycle anyone you know there's big names still here is he going to be a star on that habib level by association when you mix that with what he's doing inside the cage I have my doubts that he can match what Habib did because I do think Habib had a more aggressive style between them and I think that was part of his appeal was just there was a certain kind of not frenetic pace but this I don't know how to describe it exactly it's a little bit more than quicksand too, but you know, he would, he was, he had a, his, his style was to me a little bit more forward towards the finish than a guy like Islam who waits a little bit, waits a little bit, waits a little

bit. Also, you know, just through broken English, a guy like Islam, excuse me, a guy like Habib could kind of talk some shit. He had funny things to say. He was the one that introduced us to the idea of smash that kind of came about afterwards islam doesn't have some of those features that habib did but he's got a lot of the other bigger ones that count and so is he ready to be a potential habib clone in that way like he can match all of the same heights that habib reached i doubt that but can he be a pretty big star for the UFC? Definitely. Now, you've got to go through Charles Oliveira

and potentially a series of other very big and important names, but he could do some things in the sport from a sales and pay-per-view purchasing standpoint. I'll tell you the truth. The missing link is actually for him to reach Habib level, it's Conor McGregor. I know Conor McGregor is shooting a movie. We have no idea when or if what he's going to look like when he gets back.

Every day that we wait, you have more doubts. I know Conor's always talking about welterweight in all of his tweets. But, Luke, isn't that the—if you're looking—if you're in that pay-per-view war room with UFC and the financial guys there, and they're talking about, you know, what's our next power move, isn't that—shouldn't that be— shouldn't they be doing everything in their power to keep him happy and as close to 170, meaning McGregor, as possible? Because that's the rub to really make Islam the star that he might be. But first of all, yeah, you got to be Charles Oliveira.

You got to be probably Chandler after that. You know what I'm saying. Long-term though, that's pro wrestling matchmaking, you know, 1.0 right there. That's the entry level how to do it. I don't know why they wouldn't, Luke. I'll just say this. Whoever ends up being the champion at 155 after UFC 280, I really, really hope that they can keep that guy active.

That's the only thing I really care about is may the best man win, whoever that ends up being, and then let's have that title in rotation in terms of defenses. That's really what I want to see. Now, we stay with this particular fight and we stay with the weirdness bc which is here's another thing now charles olivera told the media some time ago this year that he planned to be in abu dhabi two weeks before the fight and you saw even before that habib getting on social media saying i don't know if charles

is going to show up like out of nowhere. And then Islam took to Twitter and then, by the way, we're doing the same thing that MMA sites are doing. So here I am criticizing them, but we're no better. It's filling our show on a slow Monday. Believe that. It certainly is.

But the point being is he then takes that tweet and, or it takes a clip of that news story saying that Charles was going to be there two weeks before and says two weeks before the fight, Charles and his team are not in Abu Dhabi yet. Should I start to worry? At which point then on Instagram, Charles Dobronks, who's got like seven watches on, who's got more jewelry than Mr. T, says, don't worry, dad is coming. Let me ask you this.

Why are Habib and Islam putting out this narrative to the world that Charles just may not show up. I got to tell you, of all the confusing things I've seen, this is perhaps the more bizarre one. I don't think it's that bizarre. Okay. So number one, it's, it's, it's a long-term mental game. Number one, but, but what you're asking really is what the root of it is. I've kind of shared this before and I don't think anyone cares about my opinion, but I think I'm right about this. Here's the deal. When Habib was champ and beating everybody he had the chance to fight, he never got a chance to fight Charles Oliveira.

I think to him and a lot of people from his era, when they look at Charles Oliveira, they see the guy from one division below who would constantly miss weight, who could win spectacularly, but could also lose spectacularly. And I think they see him as a quitter, Luke. And I think that's, to them, it's like, they're not going to recognize that he's all grown up and he's done these things. Add that to the idea also that even though Habib is retired, what made him so great?

His competitiveness, right? He's still a competitor. And I don't think he likes that after he retired abruptly with this unbeaten record and no, he didn't get as many elite wins as we would have preferred to like you know put him right up there with the gsp john jones what i mean but you know you can also argue that he is because of what he did accomplish i think he looks at what olivera has done in a very short time since becoming champion and all these big names he's adding and i think he's just like wait people really gonna you know i never lost and people are

really gonna now put annoying this guy as one of the greatest lightweights ever and all this stuff. And I think it's just a competitor in him going, no, no, fuck you, bro. And I can't fight you right now because I promised mother and father, but my boy can. And we're going to get in your head at every turn. And Luke, if you still, you know, you know what Habib's not doing right now in retirement? He's not getting fat and refereeing wwe pay-per-view fights okay he's still in that mode look he's still there mentally okay as a coach and he's going to try to take down olivera and i think you think i'm crazy but i also think you think i'm on

to something when you really when you really let that sink in all right i i tend to think that your more conspiratorial mind is useful in situations like this because from my vantage point it makes zero sense whatsoever but clearly there's got to be some kind of purpose and your ability to kind of ferret out what the conspiracy angle actually aids the conversation here i still find it to be weird now bc here's the only not quite catch but you asked about like we were talking like who would be the fill-in in the event that something happened for aljo versus tj which by the way independent of aljo's concerns about tj potentially popping again,

crazy shit happens. One of them could get food poisoning, COVID, some bullshit. One never knows. In this particular case, Volkanovski, the featherweight champion, has said he's going to be in Abu Dhabi, and I suspect he's going to do that to be the backup in the event that there needs to be one bc i have to

tell you i'm not a big fan of him going up to 155 and getting a title shot right away i you know i'd want to see him fight another top contender first but i gotta say as a fill-in replacement highly intriguing highly intriguing would you agree yeah this is like while you can paint this if you want as opportunistic or whatever it's also daring to be fucking great i mean this is the willingness that volkanovsky's saying like you know i want i want you guys to know that i'm the pound for pound best right now and i may not always get the love i deserve but i'm also one of the greatest fighters of all time and to prove that i'm willing to do this shit i'm the champion in another weight class yet i'm willing to like do the do the Michael Chandler stuff to be fair.

Although, you know, it doesn't seem like Volkanovski is as flashy as like, look at me while I'm doing it, but it also still works. And with his resume and what he's accomplished, should he be the guy they would potentially lean to in an emergency? That would make a hell of a turnaround in terms of storyline and excitement, you know, in that 24 to 48 hour window, if something bad did happen. Yeah. I would sign off on that Luke.

And I would be, you know, you can't lose because that's the thing. Volkanovski would deserve the credit for making a bad-ass power move. And if he loses, I mean, I know it's a loss Luke, but you're not going to hold it against him. You're certainly not going to hold it against him. That's the thing. Okay. So let me ask you who

would you rather volkanovski fight obviously he'll replace just whoever falls out if that ends up happening but in a perfect world what's a better fight olivera versus volkanovski or makachev versus volkanovski wow there's that that is they're both fucking awesome by the the way. It's like, you know, MK viewer. You hear us all the time. You can smell our thoughts and feelings. Are you more BBL? Or are you more, you know, European plow experience factory town? You know what I mean?

Like, you know, where are we going here in your preference? Either side works, Luke, okay? That's the thing, you know? I'm going to say Volkanovski versus Oliveira is a little bit more interesting to me. Can I tell you why? preference either side works luke okay that's the thing you know it's either side i'm gonna say volkanovski versus olivera is a little bit more interesting to me can i tell you why okay maybe are you gonna say for fight for fireworks yes but don't i thought you're see you're the x's and o's nerd bomber here luke you know what i mean you should be saying mahachev what that will look like with volkanovski you know i think i think you missed this luke okay

don't i think in either in either direction you could make an argument. So, for example, the striking would be more interesting between Oliveira and Volkanovski. And either way, if it stays standing, I suspect Volkanovski would be quicker. And by the way, don't forget, Oliveira has vision problems and gets hit a lot. I could imagine that being interesting.

By the way, who knows what he'd be willing to do but if you're willing to go into Brian Ortega's guard would you be willing to go into a hurt Olivera's guard maybe you might be you might be willing to do that that'd be kind of interesting on the other side Volkanovsky's been dropped a number of times you could imagine Olivera doing that and then finding his way to the back pretty quickly that could be kind of cool on the other side the Makachev one is if let's assume everyone just assumes I think Makachev will get the takedown but I would say that a guy like Volkanovsky would make that very very difficult certainly doable and if he did get it what would a guy like a guy like Volkanovsky do either on his back or from turtle being controlled with wrist captures that's

kind of fun on the other side what if a guy like Volkanovsky pieces up Makachev on the feet and he can't get the takedown which is also also, by the way, quite conceivable. There's like no scenario in either of those two fights with any of those guys winning where the fight is not revealing and good. You also know there's a scenario in there in which this is just a bridge too far physically, given that he's already small in height for the weight class, that he's the champion. He might just get gobbled up in the wrestling and we have a decision win at the end of the day.

Luke, you know, you should have shot down my, my, my Habib theory better just by saying it was probably Ali who tweeted those, right? Oh, you know,

I didn't even think about that, but yeah, but you know, still there's, there's, there's just fighters have like a, and everyone's different, but there's just fighters have like a and everyone's different but there's they have weird sort of superstitions and sometimes they come to

life and when mcgregor was making these predictions everyone got this they were just drinking it in at all times but it just sort of goes to show that the vast majority of these pre-fight premonitions are just nonsense you know what i mean the vast majority are just like yeah it doesn't really work that way although we're just coming off u off UFC 279 where absolutely insane shit happened. And, you know, here I am saying it's a bunch of nonsense. Maybe it's not. Still, I can't wait two weeks away. What an event that's going to be. Now, it takes us to point number two, BC. Let's talk about that here. Alistair Overeem, the demolition man, the ream, Uberim, whatever you'd like to call him,

he has to kind of rally a little bit with some of the open scoring that they used in glory to defeat his rival, Badr Hari, dropping him twice in the third round and then ultimately getting the decision victory as a consequence at glory collision four. BC, what did Overeem prove with this victory? He proved that, you know, crazily enough, there is more for him to do if he wants it, Luke. I mean, look, he's 42 years old.

He's done everything but win a UFC title. And, oh, by the way, he came close twice in the same fight against Stipe. I mean, Luke, Alistair felt it. Just always remember that. But, Luke, you know, it seemed like when he left the UFC that, okay, maybe there's one big money fight. I don't know. There may be more if he wants to do it in in some type of boxing crossover of course which is a lot of people are chasing but look at what he did at this level now okay he'd already beaten Badr Hari by knockout even though they traded them but I didn't realize coming in that

the 37 year old Badr Hari the legend was like 0 and 5 with two no contests in the last seven years Luke okay so the build-up to this had been about that, about wounded animal. But that wounded animal, didn't he almost knock Overeem out in the first round? I mean, he dropped him hard with a left hand. I think Overeem wins this rivalry, yes. Overeem didn't touch the canvas here. Didn't he get rocked in the first round, Luke? He did get rocked.

He definitely got hurt with some big punches, yes. But he never got knocked down i'll take that part back uh i'll just say luke that you know i'm sure the drug testing is different and those parts but still dude he's still got something there whether he want you know and look you'll see it and have you seen this shit rico verhoove the the heavyweight champion in glory forever you know want wants wants to go next on this level um Luke he can play he can still play there he's an increasing I mean what a career what a lot that's a lot of mileage though but what a freaking career he's still in the game if he wants it do you agree with that at least I have to tell you I think Alistair Overeem is one of the most underappreciated combat sports

athletes of our generation and what I mean by that is certainly he has gotten a lot of his flowers we talked to deontay wilder using that description others as well while he was still alive right he got the statue made for deontay did the statue made for him in alabama and it was like a big thing for him that partly he credits to returning after the third um tyson fury fight but what i mean to say is you brought up something i thought was kind of interesting we've had previous conversations like who's the best fighter to never fight in the UFC. And you can go Fedor, you can go Patricio Pitbull, you can go to a few different directions. But here's a guy who did fight in the UFC and didn't win a title. So now if I had to ask you, who's one of the better, certainly MMA fighters,

but then beyond that, combat sports athletes who never won a UFC title, who did fight in UFC, man, you might have to put Overeem at the top of that list. We talked about it before. title who did fight in UFC man you might have to put over him at the top of that list we talked about it before dream champion k1 champion and strike force champion simultaneously taking a lot of time off from kickboxing coming back and then not just beating better hard but kind of having to rally better hard he looked pretty good through two rounds he was he was he was very selective about his strikes he wasn't over committing he You saw Overeem trying to switch stance his way into distance closing and then Badr Hari kind of combating most of it

or check-hooking him on the way in or kicking his legs out with an inside cut kick. He was doing a lot of stuff to off-balance him, cover up when he needed to, and being, frankly, for Badr Hari, for the first two rounds, both guys were trying a strategy, but he was being, I thought, the more patient, honestly, of the two. And it was Overeem who was taking a bunch of risks, but then Overeem, he made an interesting point to Todd Grisham in the post-fight interview saying, you know, you hurt him a little bit, they slow down just a little bit, and that's all that I need. That is

exactly what happened. A few of the shots got through, Batter wasn't quite on his game as he was in the first two, and then, dude, fucking Overeem went to work on him, taking angles, driving knees up the middle, and then an uppercut that was just deadly from close range. That was old school. That was old school Overeem right there. Overeem doesn't get the credit for being basically, yes, they're related, but he's basically a two-sport athlete.

He has achieved very highly in both of them, and maybe he didn't get the most coveted title on the MMA side, but I just want to remind folks, this is the one thing about Overeem that never gets appreciated. Overeem has Michael Bisping mentality, and what I mean by that is, if you look at the career of Michael Bisping, dude, he had some bad knockouts along the way. Everyone talks about the Dan Henderson one. That was one, but more than just that, he had some bad losses, some real career setbacks. The first Luke Rockhold fight would be another one. But it never seemed to deter him. His mind was bulletproof. And he was always able to just try again and try again and

keep knocking on the door and keep knocking on the door. And sure enough, it fucking opened eventually. Alistair Overeem, dude, I remember watchingvereem in the aughts get viciously KO'd you can go back to for example the Chuck Liddell fight in pride I remember there's a video of Overeem after that fight sitting on like a bus from the arena going to the hospital he's got both of his nose plugged and he just looks miserable sitting in that van before he's medically attended to and he had many losses after that the Travis Brown fight fucking the the Bigfoot fight and you can go on and on and on Francis Ngannou just say it he was involved in the nastiest knockout I think in the history of the sport that that Francis Ngannou uppercut from I mean from beyond hell Luke be it

down the road just want to let me just connect to that it's a great point like that loss and there's many other ones too and of course we're ignoring a bunch of wins that he had but I'm just focusing on those losses. Look at the way he fought Badr Hari here. He was the one closing the distance. He was the one bringing the action to him. He was the one who, I would argue, was taking more risk. After all of those setbacks, he is still out there fighting with that kind of verve and command. Dude, you just are not going to see many guys like that ever give the ring his

flowers. Dude. First of all, you, he could have, you know, he could have been killed by that knockout punch to over him. Sorry, not over him to a Vingano, which was just so insane. And then he won like six more UFC fights after that. Like he went on another run. It just, you're right. None of it has mattered, which is scary long-term, but he went in there and he was fresher and seemed like he had more to fight for.

And that's the question, Luke. Does he have more to fight for? Would you get fired the hell up for him fighting for the Glory Heavyweight Championship? I mean, he's already won. He's already been to the top in kickboxing in the past. So your two-sport athlete credit question does make a lot of sense. Could he come out here and win the Glory Heavyweight Championship at 42? Could he beat Rico? I certainly have have my doubts to be honest with you I think Rico is fucking great um one never knows they brought him in the ring it looks like that's the fight that they want to make in glory I don't know when that would happen but um it would be I'll tell you this much if he does end up beating Rico man that, that would be, I mean, truly insane.

And it was kind of interesting. We're just a few weeks away now from Anderson Silva fighting Jake Paul, and there's been a question about Anderson Silva getting his flowers post-UFC by not even fighting in MMA. It was kind of funny. For folks who may have missed the broadcast, Overeem got booed. It was in the Netherlandslands but it was a batter harry crowd times a billion now in fairness rico also got booed so it wasn't just alistair over him

but still bc beyond just the local crowd there in the netherlands and and over him has said he wants to go back to at least one more fight in mma i guess we'll see if that ends up being fedor and bellator maybe that maybe they'll make a run for his services. Certainly they used to work together. Dude, that'd be fun. Come on. That'd be fun as shit. I got to say, what's a better ending for Overeem? Beating Rico or beating Fedor?

To really celebrate Overeem. I think beating Fedor. And yes, Fedor is long past it. But look, the knockout of Timothy Johnson shows that he's always going to be Fedor. He's always going to be freaking Fedor. There's still some royalty in that fight, as crazy as it sounds. There still is. I mean, that's not the UFC title for a guy in Overeem who's won everything but that,

but that's pretty big, Luke. I think a lot of people in that fight week would get into that fight. I think it could be a big deal if Bellatorator wanted to pull that off and it's crazy it's funny you bring up fedor because that's where over him is in that in that we always have that list that countdown biz ping was on it but now he's not of the greatest fighters to never win a ufc title like you mentioned earlier what what's the upper crust right now in that category fedor dan henderson uriah faber and alistair over him uh i mean i'd have to think more about the list but yeah they would have to be on the Dan Henderson, Uriah Faber, and Alistair Overeem? I'd have to think more about the list,

but yeah, that would have to be part of it as well. And by the way, don't forget, I was there at the Izod Center when Strikeforce gave me the absolute worst seat imaginable. I want to thank Strikeforce for doing that. I was so far away, I could neither see the screen in the arena, and I could feel the heat from the... You know how they had that ramp with the fire my back was there was there was i want to point this out there was no seat behind me i was literally at the very end i was next to the guy from the big lead it was just me and him there in the fucking back like a bunch of jabronis so shouts to strikeforce for fucking me there that

was always very very nice of them but that was the same that was the same just held no grudges held luke well i mean they just i like strike force but i'll never forgive them for that uh but the point i want to make was that was the same card where fedor lost to bigfoot remember that was part of the strike force heavyweight tournament and the thought was fedor would get past his first fight Overeem would get past his first fight and then they would meet I think in the semis and it just didn't end up happening that way you didn't get that kind of a fight you could potentially at a much later date it wouldn't be the same fight BC but you could still scratch a little bit of that Fedor versus Overeem itch yeah I'm I'm in. I'm in.

I'm ready for it. And by the way, I got to say, shouts to Glory. They made that thing look good. Like, that looked good on TV. They both had, when both Batter and Overeem walked out, they had great lighting and ominous music, and the crowd was really into it. Obviously, I know they're disappointed that Hardy didn't win, but it was a well-presented product.

I thought that they had done a really great job with that, so shouts to them. Okay, BC. Those video packages were like almost WWE-like, Luke, and that's a compliment. They're like the industry standard in hype video packaging, and they were pretty good. Yeah, they were.

That was a well-run event. It looked very good. I'm curious to see how Glory, whichever, I guess, Collision 5 or whatever one it's going to be when he fights rico what that looks like you know what i'd like to see luke i'd like to see a reunion where glory says all right we recognize that your first run with us it wasn't what you wanted it wasn't what we wanted but you know michael bisping did get a second chance at dan henderson to slay the you know that that shadow that's been following him luke i'd like to see not only Todd Grisham on that broadcast,

but you too, okay? I don't deserve it, and there's better people for it. There are jobs that I want in the combat sports broadcasting industry, and certainly, you know, that would be a coveted one for many, and it would be for me, but I've already done it, and I fucking sucked at it, so I'm happy to let someone more qualified

and deserving have that. But there are other ones that I want, if anyone is watching. All right, let's go to to point number three here and then we'll get to the boxing card shavkat rachmanov it's on the list it's on the mother effing list he's gonna face jeff neal at a ufc fight night on january 14th bc shavkat r Rachmanov, 17 fights, 17 wins, 17 finishes. This is against Jeff Neal, who looked fantastic in his last outing, which, by the way, I was wrong about. I didn't think he was going to look that good,

and boy, did he ever look that good and then some. If he beats Jeff Neal, how far is Shavkat Rachmaninoff away from a title shot? Wow. Wow. You went there. Wow. All right. This is the right fight at the right time.

It's the right escalation of matchmaking. It's also. Jeff Neal, by the way, sitting at six in the rankings. And it's also a really good test, critically, of where he's at. Because to your point, Jeff Neal has had some health and personal setbacks, but there was a time he looked to be that dude and he's starting to look like that dude again. Seriously.

So, you know, I made the Johnny Hendricks comparison before, Luke, but it's kind of like he's coming on, dude, right? He's coming on. This is the right test. If he slays it and if Shavkat does it in the manner of which he consistently does. Look, he doesn't play with his food, man. You know, he eats that shit. Yeah.

I mean, can we look at this top five, Luke? Can we look at the title picture right now? I want to know from you. Okay. Who's next? Who should be next after that? Let me ask you. I don't know, Luke.

I don't know. I mean, I would want one more big win, but sometimes the top five and where people are at dictate that for you so the question is like how close would he be to a title shot a little hard to know let me read the top one two eight and there's a reason why usman and covington we know usman has business covington we're not quite clear what's going to happen there. Hamzat's sitting at three. Still, is he going to get out of the country? Is that a thing?

We don't know. The big X factor also is what's going on with Gilbert Burns, who wanted to fight with Jorge Masvidal, but that kind of hasn't come to fruition. And then we get to the meat of the real issue. Five is Bilal Muhammad, who takes on Sean Brady at UFC 280. Six is Jeff Neal. Seven is Wonderboy, who takes on Sean Brady at UFC 280. Six is Jeff Neal. Seven is Wonderboy, who has a fight coming up as well.

And then eight is Sean Brady. So let's figure this out. If Bilal wins, maybe he passes Gilbert, but he still stays in that four to five range. If Brady wins, I think he's going to take a big leap up, and he might get inside that top five space. In which case, ifady wins and shavkat wins bc not only would that mean you and i have to get a tattoo it could mean you get a brady versus shavkat rachmana fight which would be a banger but my point would be this if shavkat

beats jeff neal i think he only has one more fight after that, to be perfectly honest with you. I think this is a setup for a potential number one contender fight. One time, one time more, and if it was Sean Brady, wow. I mean, if it was Bilal Muhammad, too, that would be the right type of test. Yeah, either way, the winner of that fight, let's say. Yeah, things are looking up, and you know, we're gonna

what was the date on this Shavkat Jeff Neal fight, Luke? I didn't hear that. January 14th is what I have. UFC fight night. All right. We got a lot of time before then, but that's also close enough to really wet the whistle here. Does the Chemayev conversation play into this at all?

I feel like Chemayev has... He already fought Burns, and there's Colby sitting out there. It's not to say that a Shavkat versus Chemayev... all i think a shavkat chamaya fight assuming chamay can make 170 more regularly is simply inevitable there's just no denying that uh but i will say that like i feel like shavkat is just from what he's accomplished you know the next order of business it could be chamay i'll say this if he goes in there and just blows the fucking doors off of jeff neal well then we can revisit this conversation but if he beats him because here's the thing shopcott doesn't come out shot out like a cannon he kind of takes his time a little bit so i find like the idea of him just running over somebody a little bit unlikely

uh and also jeff neal hello is a very good fighter jeff neal could win this and advance his cause so there's that and also if balal wins he's been kind of putting together a pretty great streak having to if he if he wins he'd have you know recently beaten sean brady which is going to be difficult the thing i've got my eye on bc is if shavkat wins what about shavkat versus gilbert burns and what that would say about gilbert burns to go from chemayev to rakmaninov. Now, I know that they train together in certain ways. Yeah, they're teammates. They're teammates. Well, okay, they're teammates, but he's not full-time at whatever it is,

Kill Cliff FC at this point. And Gilbert also just fought his teammate, Kamar Usman, for the title, and now they still help each other and still train together. So it doesn't have to be. And Gilbert will fucking fight anyone. Yeah, it doesn't have to be a death sentence, but that's a sick fight. That is a sick fight. I mean, dude, what's going on with Colby?

Because he does have, to some degree, a pay-per-view brand and a following here. Is a Shavkat-Colby huge fight just as good? I mean, it's not just as good as the title, but to show you what the company thinks of Shavkat, should he win this one coming up? What do you mean? I'm not sure I understand the question. Let thinks of Shavkat, should he win this one coming up? What do you mean? I'm not sure I understand the question. Let's say Shavkat wins here. Okay.

And we're saying, damn, how far away is he from a title shot? Well, what if that next offering was Colby Covington in a very high-profile situation? I mean, that would tell you what the company believes they have here in Shavkat, right? Yeah. I don't know what's going on with Colby to answer the first question you had before that.

Dana White told the media, or whatever that is worth, that Colby was ready to get back to action. Remember, there still is that existing legal issue with Jorge where he told his team he had a traumatic brain injury, and it's like, I don't know how you go through with a lawsuit with that, or a legal matter, I should say, with that, if that's in play.

But okay, neither here nor there. Assuming he takes a fight, the problem with giving Colby to Shavkat, even if Shavkat gets past him, is what you do with Shemayev, unless you just wait for Shemayev to take the winner of Leon versus Kamaru 3. Could you do that? Could you just have him sit on ice for a little while? Who, Hamza?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, as long as you can trust that he's going to make the weight, I don't know what assurances they would need to see, but they could decide to just not punish him for missing the weight, Luke. I mean, that's also very much in play, but it does feel like Chamayev's going middleweight uh next at the moment doesn't it it does um his coach kind of poured a little bit of cold water on it saying it's too soon to say so i don't really know by the way what kind of odds would you lay on rock mana versus neil

how would you how would you size that up minus 300 Shavka even though that sounds big that sounds big against somebody Jesus that does sound really big but that's also type that could be a sharp line to Luke that could be I know this is really what it's going to be so get on board obviously I chose I don't know shit about how they set the lines and why I'm kidding not really uh you get the point Luke they're smarter than me most of the time but i think you could come out with that line because even like look if shavkat is as good as he looks he actually could slice up you know jeff neal and it would be a it'd be an eye-opener luke but it's also very much in play very much you know this uh all right let's talk about the fights from the weekend that were on showtime bc and i called the prelims on YouTube as a reminder for folks.

How about old towering Inferno himself, the praying mantis, the 6'6", 154-pounder, Sebastian Fundora gets a unanimous decision win over Carlos Ocampo on Showtime Championship Boxing. BC, first question here. How impressive is this run that Fundora is on because i want to point out something started the bout jabbing at distance which she just normally doesn't do spent like the bulk of the fight fighting on the inside very cleverly i might add then finished it off

getting right back on the outside it was a commanding performance really from start to finish yeah and there's a couple things going on here at the same time that are all true, I think. Number one, I think we soft played. We called him must-see TV coming in, heading into this fight, right? He just fought Erickson Lubin in maybe the fight of the year. I think we got to, like, double down. You know, we can't say it passively anymore. Sebastian Fundora is right now and will be until he either, you know, wins the full championship

or takes his first loss disastrously or whatever happens in between this guy is so damn entertaining to watch because there's part of you that doesn't believe it could be this good then there's part of you that is going to be overly focused on like the things he doesn't do great now look he's getting very good as a boxer like he committed to that for parts of this fight and he looks dangerous in that regard. He also takes a lot of punishment in ways that don't seem advisable long-term. And that may be the shift now in the narrative where originally the narrative was, is this, you know, guy who's fun to watch actually really good? Okay.

We already know he is really good. I think now the question becomes, is there an equal amount of vulnerability and potential holes in his style to offset the fact that he's so exciting, he can take punishment and keep coming back, and oh, by the way, he's pretty damn crafty. I mean, look, just from entertainment, he's a 10 out of 10. This won't be the fight of the year, this Ocampo fight, but just from a dramatic standpoint, dude, this was like watching a movie. It was. There's shit coming on left and right. The referee's warning, you know, Ocampo that they're going to stop the fight. I mean, there's a lot going on. Al Bernstein losing his stuff. This was a fun theater to watch.

But I do have some questions about Fundora moving forward. How do you feel at all that I just threw out here? I think I would largely agree with it. I got to say, here's the thing I'm liking about what Fundora showed. By the way, he and his sister have somewhat similar styles but that left hook that they throw from a southpaw position as their opponents try to chase into them and they both kind of sniper land it they have good timing they have a good whip on it it's pretty impressive I want to say this about Ocampo yes he's very excuse me about Fundora yes he's very entertaining that is true but two things I think get lost one it looks to me like he's trying to expand his boxing repertoire slowly so he can fight in more dynamic ways than just this inside brawling or inside fighting I should

say and that's the second part BC watch how Ocampo fights on the inside and watch how Fundora fights on the inside and there's just no conclusion you can come to other than Fundora is much more scientific in that space. He picks his shots. He has much better defense on the inside. Now, he gets hit a little bit when he backs up, and then Ocampo would blitz and just fire something there. That's true.

And, you know, part of the reason Fundora is exciting is because he does get hit somewhat. His style contributes to that. But in terms of shot selection and in terms of balance he was way better than Ocampo on the inside I just thought that like people just talk about how funny he is and how weird he looks given the weight class but there's not a lot of attention paid to the choices he makes when he fights and I feel like on the at least on the offensive side there's a real method to his madness and that shouldn't get lost in the conversation all right

that's it's a key that's a key counterpoint. And I want to get back into that is the idea that I'm saying, man, he is getting better. And you know, he's again, a 10 out of 10 entertainment wise. And now he's pretty much next for the title. He's got, you know, he just defended that interim strap. Um, is he taking too many clean shots and he'll tell you that he could box, you know, in a different way. And he did as an amateur. We played the sound on Friday. But, you know, he loves to entertain the fans.

And that is a big part of what he brings to the table. And he knows it. And I think that's smart to some degree. Could you argue that in this fight, Ocampo was, you know, from the midpoint on, was throwing a lot of arm looping punches that didn't look like they had a lot of pepper on them. I'm here to tell you Carlos Ocampo is also a must-see TV moving forward. I mean, he fought his balls off in this fight. I mean, there was some real hunger in there, but it was very sloppy.

Are you going to come back and say you're not scared about the clean shots Fundora puts himself in the range of in this case because it was more of an arm-punching Ocampo? Because, Luke, if he's going to be in there against a Jermell Charlo, against, you know, a big puncher, I'm going to let you know. Basically, what I'm saying critically here is, because of how sloppy Ocampo became, shouldn't Fundora have just snipered him on the outside,

used that big jab, and just picked him apart, rather than welcoming in that entertaining danger? Yeah, I think you can make that argument but i just don't understand the like well what if charlo he was fighting charlo it's like dude charlo has all the fucking belts in this weight class all right you you know maybe against that guy it wouldn't go that well so fucking what like i don't i never it's like okay well against you know the devil himself uh you you're not strong enough yeah all right my corner argument is is this he's got a lot of talent meaning fundora and a chin and the mindset the balls like there's a lot you know he's a great interview because he's so different outside the ring than inside of it

but you're trying to calculate what's the best way for him to maximize that potential. Which avenue to go? We love the entertainment side of this, but is this same style applicable against the very best? And you may say, well, dude, they're the very best, so who knows? That's what you're trying to do, right? That's what you're game planning for. Yeah, that's probably fair. Do I see a guy

who is ready for the very very best that this division has to offer not necessarily not necessarily but I do see a guy that's got some real ability obviously we already knew he was exciting and it will be interesting to see his progression I'm glad he defended not so much the interim title but I'm glad he stayed busy and continued to work on his craft he just looks to me like he's gonna surprise I think some people maybe not the charlots of the world but he might surprise some people because I do think he was diligently working on the intricacies of his game yeah the defensive side certainly has some lapses I'm not gonna say it doesn't but the offensive side is a little bit more dynamic than I think he gets credit even because

he was willing because he was willing, because he was willing to take chances and fight at that range, man, was it fun to watch, but I just look at him. I think he's starting to figure out that if he can adapt to put a little bit more safety and thought and defense into that and use the advantages that he has physically, rather than just saying,

well, Hey man, this is how I fight. There could be a higher ceiling because if he's going to beat somebody like Jermell, and that really is where this talk goes to, Jermell Chalo's going to fight Tim Zhu probably in January, it's looking like. And to fight a guy like that, it's going to have to be, you're going to have to take some punishment. You're going to have to lean on

that huge gas tank that Fundora has, and you're going to have to stay in front of him and just be active and really try to frustrate Jermell and set it up where all Jermell can do is look to counter big with one shot at a time. You got to win on the scorecards, in my opinion, by outlasting him. And, you know, we're having that, if you're going to knock him out, you're going to have to do that late by outlasting him and staying in there. I just want to see a little bit more commitment on the defensive end for those type of challenges. But dude, this was fun as heck. And as much as we want to credit Fundora and we will, we got to credit Ocampo on the other side who had that 12-fight win streak coming in. And we'd only known him for that, you know, in terms of Steve Farhood scoring, and it looked, you know, it was back and forth on the inside.

Referee Jack Reese, who's among the best in the game without question, him and a California commission member in between rounds were basically telling Ocampo's Corner that they're going to stop the fight if they don't see him start to land and show more defense. And they were doing it in an impassioned way that really, in the moment, even if you agreed or disagreed, it was alarming how much they were trying to take control of the fight. And, you know, Showtime's Al Bernstein, the Hall of Famer who's been through it all and seen it all, he took umbrage of that saying,

you got a kid who's not been knocked down, didn't need, like, referee to save him. He's in this action fight. Why the hell would you do that? I want to get your take on that first luke did you agree with the tone and the direction that al was ultimately going of look this is a fight this is what we sign up for this kid's in this fight what the hell are you doing ref yeah i didn't understand what jack reese was so concerned about of all the times i've seen a referee admonish someone or warn them or whatever the proper verbiage is uh and wording is to describe

you know that kind of enemy encouragement like pat on the back but i need to see more in fact he was saying jack jack reese's spanish is not great he was saying no duro like not hard like not tough enough you know it's like maybe a little bit clearer because i think ocampo was just looking at him like, okay, whatever. But I thought it was fairly inappropriate, to be quite honest with you. You could make an argument that I think it was after the ninth round where Al Bernstein was gobsmacked, and that you could say maybe after that he turned it on a little bit more, Ocampo did. I think he had his best round the round after that.

So that does make it look like Al was right, because it's like, you know, but it also could make Jack Reese look right. They challenged the kid to, you know, show us which direction you're going, and he did fix it to his credit. He never got, like, hardcore stumbled from a punch. He never touched the canvas. He wasn't, like, laying on the ropes.

They were like, oh, well, he's off balance. Because watch his posture he's pushing into fundora and fundora is so tall he's kind of he has to really lean underneath him to get that kind of leverage that he was looking for and again he wasn't the same kind of inside that's what i'm talking about he's not the same level of inside fighter that fundora is and so that that kind of played a role i just thought if a referee is going to get involved that's about the weakest case i've seen in some time. I'll agree. It was alarming. I'll agree that Al, you know, looked right in the end, but here's what, like, if you disagree on Jack Reese's decision to do that,

you know, I think you can have a case there, but I, Al didn't seem to understand the motive behind it. I understood the motive behind it. I don't think it was Jack Reese and company trying to necessarily be overslept for no reason. Luke, even though Ocampo wasn't down, he was sort of staggering into one big shot of that for another. There wasn't a thought of defense. I mean, he went after it and the, the, the sap on his punching power was going down second by second.

I think that they realized the animal in him. They realized that, you know, he was going to be willing to take huge punishment and potentially get starched. You could argue that that's the sport. Let it happen. But I don't disagree with at least the sentiment from Jack Reese. I was surprised that he went to that level to specifically say,

I need more defense out of you, and I need you to either fight or I'm going to call this fight off. That is interesting to see a referee and commission take that aggressive a tone in a fight so close. So Al's right in that regard but you know if he didn't get that kick in the pants he was looking like he was fading you wonder it's it's weird it's a weird situation man it is because Jack Reese almost fixed it by doing that in a way I temporarily maybe I mean I think if he had wanted to say I need to see a little bit more and then just leave it at that, like you're not, you're just taking too much

without really throwing back and then just stop there. That's one thing. But then to kind of threaten, you know, do this or we're going to have to call it, it just seemed way too much given that, right? So if you wanted to say that you want a more competitive fire,

I need to see a little bit more, and then let them make an interpretation about what that means without dangling this potential threat over them, that's fine. I'll say this. It seemed heavy-handed. It seemed heavy-handed given what we were seeing. Jack Reese does have a great reputation, but he's also known. He'll let you fight.

He's not Steve Smoger necessarily., like, he's not just gonna let you have the fight of the year, no matter what, but he'll let you fight, but, Luke, if you try to cross his rules, I mean, did you hear him go, when Ocampo's corner man poured out the ice and spilled it to try to potentially create a delay in the action to save his fighter, and Jack Reese is like, I know what you did, we're gonna take your money, we're gonna fine him, I mean, he was like, get off my lawn. But that's what he's known for. People remember Andre Ward's decision over La Bamba Rodriguez.

Jack Reese took a point from both of them for trash talking and stuff. I mean, he'll jump right in there and do that shit. He's also a great referee. It was interesting, Luke. Fundora versus the winner of Charlo and Zoo to close close what do you think the odds would be here luke will people be given fundora a chance here what do you think yeah i think zoo would be a i don't know what the odds because boxing is a little bit weird with the odds relative to mma i would say that zoo would be a clear but not a heavy favorite.

Clear but not a heavy favorite. Something like that. Dude, these fights are going to be awesome. Zoo versus Charlo is going to be tremendous. I mean, dude, the thing about Zoo, Luke, we don't know if he's ever going to be as good as his dad, and that's an unfair comparison. His dad's a Hall of Famer and a badass. Zoo is willing

to take on punishment and danger, and that's his style is to walk into it and just try to outwork you with big shots i mean there is craft to his game but would you would you disagree with me you know his debut here in the states uh who did he fight goshea terrell goshea yeah um i mean he put himself in in harm's way to try to show you what he's about him against charlo him against Fundora, the future at 154 is going to be fun as shit. Okay, get ready.

This one and 147 are both just on fire at the moment. So I would love to see it. Again, I would favor Zu to win. He's a bit of a slow starter, but I think some of the defensive lapses that Fundora has, again, in building his game, I think Zu would eventually collect on those over time but it would be the first six rounds would be very interesting the first six rounds

i think would be highly interesting so we can't wait to see that all right bc let's do some quick hitters here before we get to some of the questions from the oh you can't you can't not mention carlos adames luke because he's coming the hell oh you're right you're right he probably had the cleanest punch of any single person on the entire fight card. That right hand, I tweeted about it earlier. That right hand he used to rock Macias Montiel, and he was sending him like an octopus flailing about like he was an invertebrate or something was unbelievable.

What did you want to say about him? People need to realize this was a major breakthrough performance for him. Adamas, again, he'd fought for the interim title in the past, lost the decision of Patrick Teixeira. He'd been hit or miss, meaning there's times he looks fun and aggressive when he's got the control in a fight. He's also looked boring. And, I mean, he's been up and down.

Dude, Masaius Mattiel is just a bull. And I know there's people going to go, oh, dude, that guy, he's always in wars. He got stopped by Munguia that time early. Well, dude, that was at 147. This is two divisions, you know, after that and all he's done since then, meaning Montiel is make a believer that he is as tough and out as you can find to find out if you're for real, because he typically, not this fight will be there at the end. What he did against Jamal Charlo in their title fight that we weren't all that excited about. And I think in hindsight, I wonder if Charlo was even close to where his mindset should have been coming into that. Montiel was there. And if

you tire against him, he'll just keep coming. Dude, Adamas sliced through him. And the best part of this broadcast was Al Bernstein was saying the key to victory for Adamas, don't switch stances, right? He's your power side power side no this is a new Carlos Adamas and what he was able to do at Southpaw Luke I gotta credit his trainer Bob Santos who was a longtime manager had been associated with Robert Guerrero, Erislandy Lara a lot of fighters he's coming on right now as one of the go-to hot trainers of the moment right now he's got three different Dominican champions now with Adamas being one of them in that he's got this interim strap. Because the reason why this interim title fight became available here

is because Jamal Charlo is hurt and hasn't been in the ring since the Mattiel fight. You talk about making a statement, cutting through this guy in three rounds, showing a new and improved mental – There we go. This is the punch right here. Boom. Showing a mental folkness, an intention, a sharpshooting ability, and to find out him and his wife lost their infant daughter within the last month during training camp, passed away.

I mean, this is as tragic as it can be. Luke, you know we get sent those press emails every once in a while with the quotes from the public workout or from the press conference, and you can go back in hindsight and you can watch a guy that got knocked out in the first round. What was he saying saying before the fight probably that he's going to come in there and win by knockout right i did go back and read what adamas was saying coming into this and it was like damn we maybe should have saw this coming he specifically said i want all those watching to realize that i'm not a boring fighter that just likes to win on points i'm coming to

make a statement with a vicious knockout, putting the entire division on notice. Everyone watching this fight is going to love my style because I bring excitement. Other quotes were just all that same direction of like, I'm coming in there to knock him out and show you guys who I really am. He's changed. Carlos Adamas is for real now. How fired up? Because the next fight to make, it's got to be him and Jamal Charlo. It's got to be for and jamal charlo it's got to be for the for the full title do you look at him as a real threat because he's already said i'll knock charlo the hell out i absolutely do now charlo is heavy-handed and i wonder how that might go um also montiel walks into stuff that i don't think charlo would however here's what occurred

to me watching this fight which only went three rounds by the way i mean and which is even more remarkable because if you watch the first round they got booed by the crowd the crowd booed him because it was very thoughtful adam has taken his time seeing what he's got it wasn't until the second round he began to turn it on the third round he just finished him off like he was nothing very surprising that he got it done that quickly i will say that you see here's what struck me and you can see this in any kind of combat sport, kickboxing, MMA, any kind of striking sport especially. Adamas looked both very, I will say, hyper-focused and mean at the same time, right?

Now, often there's a trade-off there where guys want to fight mean, they kind of just bite down on the mouthpiece and go and they have to sacrifice a little bit of strategy in order to do that or they're hyper focused they're very carefully jabbing and you know not taking too much damage to be able to do both of those to combine that mentality where you're you're fighting very aggressively and landing very hard like you are clearly trying to do serious damage to a guy and yet to be sharp and strategic that is not so easy to do especially obviously against high level opposition and I thought Adamas was both of those

at the same time which is why he was able to get a guy out like this. You called Montiel a bull. I think that's exactly what he is. He got a bull out of there by doing both of those at the same time. Not easy to do at all. He was a man possessed that evening. Dude, that is a look-at-me-now performance because people that used to watch when Adamas was with top rank. It was a little bit lackluster at times, to be quite honest with you. When he was at 154, it was like, you know, okay,

he looks like he should be fun. He's not always fun. I think that he's had the change. He's been through setbacks. Now the personal setback, he had something to fight for. Now he's got this interim title. It's time to make the Charlo fight. Oh, God, if this guy is for real, Luke, he's a real threat in this division.

And I do want to pour one out quickly, though. I mean, Montiel, Luke, he's a real threat in this division. And I do want to pour one out quickly, though. I mean, Mattiel, Luke, he's... I mean, it's not a sustainable style, Luke, long-term. But he is willing to... I mean, dude, he's a cowboy. I mean, this is like... Damn, right? I mean, he's willing to...

He's willing to take your best shit and see if you're tough enough to hang around for a while. Well, the problem was adamas was happy to do that so yeah good good win for adamas and if they make adamas versus um charlo next i'd be more than excited to watch oh he also called out triple g after adamas did so there's that well i mean you know all right um all right quick hit. We'll go through these relatively quickly then we'll get to the questions here. BC, Paddy Pimblitt is looking to return at UFC 282. I believe I have my notes up here.

That'll be December 10th in Las Vegas. He did make an interesting point about it. He's like, dude, no one's going to say no to a fight with me. One, because I got the hype. And two, because they all think they can beat me. I have to say, he's right. I can't imagine that anyone would say no to a fight with patty really at any level of the fight game in the ufc they would all want it for any number of reasons i would love to see him back have you thought about a fight that makes

sense i've been on the drew dober bandwagon to get dober a fight with patty is there a better name out there that you could think of that's about right because what is beautiful about the current flavor of his marketing potential, and you and I think at first we're like, oh man, that's kind of an annoying gimmick. I don't think he's for real. He hasn't fully proven the for real, but he's made enough strides in certain key areas where you're like, oh, okay, so this is, I understand this character a little bit more. So you're still going to have the polarizing people to come see you win and celebrate

just as much as people come to see you get knocked the hell out. But while you're talking about these shorter immediate, like, okay, prove this now and then keep coming, I'll prove it here and here's a fight night main event and prove it here. Oh, here's the ESPN prelim pay-per-view featured bout or whatever. I mean, there's different ladders to get there when he says me versus conor mcgregor next could be

the biggest pay-per-view fight in ufc history i'm sorry not history i'll take that back could be the biggest fight you can make right now pay-per-view buys wise, what do you react? How do you react to that? You mean like of existing permutations you could make? Like if, you know, we're waiting, what the hell is McGregor going to come back against? What's it going to be? When? What's it going to look like? Are they ever going to test him? Okay.

How about next against Patty Pimblitt, a guy who might be that next big crossover star? Is he right? I guess that might be true, but the fight would I mean here's the thing right like if they made Jones versus John Jones versus Francis Ngannou it's like okay is Connor versus Patty bigger certainly would be bigger overseas uh in Europe and in the UK and the Ireland in Ireland excuse me so okay that would be true, maybe. But, like, the fight would lack any of the same significance that Jones versus Francis would. And I understand that pay-per-view sales are often not in any way

overlapping with fight significance. I don't know. Like, how would you – what would sell more, I guess, is the question, right? What would sell more, Patty versus Connor or John versus Francis? Look, for me to intervene and introduce this topic in the midst of this quick hitter is, you know, there's going to a lot of people that are just going to throw up hearing

that they're like, F that, what are you talking about? But I do wonder if, you know, maybe he's not wrong. Maybe if you did combine their two personalities right now, it could be the biggest pay-per-view sell you can do right now.

Even with what you said, Jones and Ghana, which would mean so much would mean a shitload, but you know, unless you're doing Connor, would mean so much, would mean a shitload. But, you know, unless you're doing Conor Nate 3 or Conor Habib 2 right now, this might be it. So, Luke, we don't know what Conor's situation is going to be, but his brand is so valuable to the UFC either as a standalone, just for curiosity, in a situation where you give him another cowboy-like soft comeback to try to make him look great again,

or you can use what's left of his brand for good. Dude, isn't this how you make your pay-per-view stars? By feeding them to the old names? I mean, wouldn't this, you said it wouldn't be as big as John Ngannou, certainly not in meaning and titles, but in terms of that handoff of the pay-per-view King Baton, is that not like a FIFA conner? He hasn't beaten. I mean, dude, if we're talking about like, hey, but that's the

that's the potential. What I'm saying is, I mean, if you're Dana, you got to weigh this. If Connor, you know, it's a big event no matter what. And if Connor wins, okay, he's back. But if Patty wins, how big, like, what does he become from that? Yeah, he becomes something

absolutely enormous if that were to happen in the way in which you're describing but it seems so premature so premature uh all right let's just think about it just simmer on that for a couple days get back to me on wednesday i shall how about this one ufc 283 johnny walker versus paul craig gotta tell you bc ain't nothing wrong with walker versus craig love love that light heavyweight contest. Do you share my enthusiasm? Yeah, look, styles always inevitably make fights. This has got such a hell of a contrast in styles.

And then you add into that the fact that Johnny Walker has shown it from both intention and now execution an increased ground game. It took a while. I mean, the last couple of fights weren't overly showing you that his wrestling is going to be there, but the submission win did seem to show a different level of focus and confidence and everything.

So you put that up against Paul Craig's spider web, leave a message. I'll call you back, Luke. I'm going to be watching this fight, okay? All right. Bobby Green has accepted a USADA sanction of just six months. I think he's eligible to come back like next month or so. All right, Bobby Green has accepted a USADA sanction of just six months.

I think he's eligible to come back like next month or so. BC, he was able to prove that he popped positive for DHEA from a supplement he bought at Walmart. I have to tell you, of all the places to buy supplements, I'm not saying I would never do it from Walmart, but it wouldn't be first on my list, BC. You know what I'm saying? You think it was a branded great value? think it was that brand luke just like you just i mean the worst kind of creatine imaginable you know yeah great great value creatine buy one what's the last thing you bought from walmart last thing i know the answer

is for me because they they put one one not far from where I live here. Soil for the ground. Yeah, to plant shit. Yeah, there you go. I got floaties for my daughter so she could go into the pool and not drown. See, that's both a responsible parent purchase and a little bit white trash. I like it, Luke. Okay.

Yeah, it certainly is. I certainly was dub-teeing up in that bitch. All right, BC. UFC 284 is reported to be held in Perth, Australia. I don't have a big take on this. I just have to say that's where they're going to put it. By the way, you can see the UFC is going on the road a little bit more next year, which is nice to see. But on top of that, BC, I don't know if you remember this,

the last time they were in Perth was four years ago. I believe Jimmy Smith was on that call. I think that was, I could be wrong about this, I think that was one of the Whitaker-Romero fights, something like that. Yes. Wasn't Hooker on that card too, or did I just make that up? Could have been.

But the reason I bring it up is because it's at, I think, the western edge. I'll double check here, but it's at the western edge of australia and john annick who i was following on instagram still am at the time was detailing his travel to get there and it was the most fucking insane thing i'd ever seen in my life he was on his hands and knees and he typed i think one of his captions was like uncle right just just calling uncle crying uncle by the time he got there but i am i will say this happy to see the ufc back uh on the road a little bit more especially for that australian market it's a big it's a great place i agree with that and i think uh mark haunt was on that card as well

luke if i'm not miss misspoken or mistaken uh luke would you agree with me that for as much as we enjoy the potential of a back-to-back best mma programming award and you know i don't care you know who's coming after us i'm i'm ready to look for blood and attack uh you know submission radio could deserve a nomination in this category they i mean easily one of the most underrated uh podcasts or youtube channels however you want to look at what they do they got hammered too because they were coming to a lot of the events here stateside. And because of the pandemic, they've kind of been on ice for a little while. But I'd love to see.

I told him, I mean, I would love to see them out again. We'll get some beers. I was hoping they would come to the New York show. I don't think that's happening, though. They go after it in terms of guests. You know, when a guest does their show, it's always one of those must-see fight week interviews you know so i give them a lot of credit uh indeed all right so let's see what else we have on here uh okay patricky pitbull says that usman nummer made of he's happy to fight him want to be clear about this and they are they have a fight coming up but he was like

he's only getting this title shot on name alone. He hasn't beaten anyone in the top 10, and I was like, I think that's true. Let me double check. BC, I don't know about the part about the name, although he's probably right. It is true. Usman Nurmagomedov's best win is Chris Gonzalez,

which is a nice one, to be clear, but he doesn't have any wins over anyone in the top 10. A little bit too soon for him? What do you think? Well, look, it's, this is, one, this is what you call fast tracking, okay, for for sure and if he looks like you know could he be the goods and also you get habib as his you know trainer cousin and cornerman carrying on the tradition of the late abdulmab does that also potentially create a ratings boon if he is as nasty as he looks it

becomes your champion now i think all things are correct luke yeah it is a little quick but at the same time he's absolutely dominating people and it looks like he's the next hand where's my cupboard luke can i get a cupboard with just another and i'll just get out another hammer holy hammer luke okay right i mean damn damn crop holy hammer you know yeah all right uh there you go there it is uh i would agree i i tend to by the way i think he's gonna win too so maybe i'm maybe we're crazy and i understand his point but i was like all right and then uh i mean who else the question is who should have got it instead of him look that's the question you could have said tofik musaev because he had the win over Sidney Outlaw,

and Sidney Outlaw is ranked, and Musaev ran over him, but he's only got the one Bellator fight. So you could do that, but here's my thought. I think Nurmagomedov's going to win, and then you could just do Nurmagomedov versus Musaev, which is also just the battle of the hammers. Yeah, so here's the deal. Scott Coker is a co-worker of ours, technically, under the Paramount banner.

Yeah, is he? Is that what he is? He's a co-worker of ours? My co-worker. And I've, you know, interviewed him a million times, so I've always got love for Scott Coker. But on this show, it's our job to tell you if, you know, matchmaking is done right or wrong or have an opinion on this.

This is a win. This is one of those Scott Coker wins. It would be promotional malpractice if he did it the other way, Luke. This is the way. This is the way, okay? I would tend other way, Luke. This is the way. I would tend to agree with you. By the way, for folks who haven't fought anybody, I'm like, well, he's about to because Patrick is a tough guy and I think he's going to win. You also get Habib in a

Bellator shirt, Luke. Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea, okay? Exactly. Filling it out, though. Filling out that Bellator shirt. You know what I'm saying? My man, he may not be having any beer, but he's definitely been having a few cheeseburgers. on bless him this ain't no daniel cormier level but shout out to dc getting that money there are two things you love more than anything else in life aside from boxing number one probably uh abhorrent stalking of female fighters on instagram

that's one and two fat shaming daniel cormier has to be one of your favorite things I've ever seen. That's not fair. You can't prove that. You know what I mean? Have you seen the show? I can't prove it. It's just a suspicion that I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There you go. All right. Time for you guys to ask us questions. We put up an Instagram post every Sunday. You fill it up. The producers pick questions. It's DM for once. Whoa, whoa.

Let's get to it. All right. We'll do that other thing later, Luke. Oh, wait. No, the reading. Yes. Sorry. My bad. Let's do it veryks. Whoa, whoa. Let's get to it. All right, we'll do that other thing later, Luke. Oh, wait, no, the reading. Yes, sorry, my bad. Let's do it very quickly. I apologize.

Before we get to DMs from Donks, BC, the best time to prepare for growth is before the opportunity arrives, especially for online businesses. Yeah, here's the deal about our friend ShipStation. Sets you up for growth by directly integrating with every shopping cart and storefront so your products are easier to find, easier to manage, easier to get info in the hands of your happy customers.

Yeah, I'm talking about ShipStation. One way I like to avoid holiday stress is getting on top of our online products and shipping before the shipping starts to get crazy. The easiest way I have found to do this is with ShipStation. This way, we don't have to feel overwhelmed to play catch up and can feel reassured our customers are receiving their orders on time. Yeah, no more limiting your businesses to one store. I mean, who does that? ShipStation integrates with every platform. We're talking about Amazon, Etsy, eBay, ShopFly. Yeah, making it easy to manage all of your shipping from one simple dashboard

guys this is the future 2022 we can buy uh gas with credit cards now grandpa okay get on board here this helps to maximize your sales with minimal effort yeah not ShopFly shop Buffy uh but you can save time with consolidated order management and automated shipping updates for your customers. Easily compare carriers, rates, and delivery times to get the most out of every send. I did mean Shopify. That's where I go, Luke, trying to set up our OnlyPipes account there.

But the thing, though, Luke, is get the same discounted shipping rates as Fortune 500 companies. You deserve it. Whether you're sending a stack or a truck full, join and support companies using ship station such as sock club and siete foods yeah ship more and grow more with ship station go to shipstation.com today and sign up with the promo code all one word morning combat

for a free 60-day trial yeah why don't you support us by supporting people? We like start today and get set up before the biggest shipping season of the year. Again, that's a two months for free. Visit shipstation.com. Click the microphone at the top and type in our code morning combat. All right. Let's get to the first question here on DMS from dogs. This comes to us from at Joe Brian 1990.

Gee, I wonder who is this and what year they were born. Do you think Oliveira will have issues making weight, or do you think he's realized he might need a daily health drink perhaps? It just so happens AG1 is a comprehensive, convenient, daily health drink with 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole food source nutrients made for just about everyone, just one man's opinion. BC, what do you think? I mean, look, and whole food source nutrients made for just about everyone. Just one man's opinion.

BC, what do you think? I mean, look, it's helped my black liver stay in function, Luke, and it's helped me to clean up my life every morning. It could do the same for Charlie Olives. Either that or I got three letters for you, Luke. Chef K-A-S, okay? I got to tell you, I think he'll be just fine. I really do.

I mean, one never knows because you're right, MMA's crazy, but I think we're going to get Olivera versus Makachev. I don't know if we're going to get any weigh-in shenanigans. I just feel pretty good about it. I feel pretty good. Maybe, yeah, who the fuck knows. All right, from PatientPanda1, how are you feeling about Muhammad versus Brady being on the prelims

and who wins? Is that on the fucking prelims? Let's double-check that. Yo, I'm not getting a tattoo if that fight's on the prelims? And who wins? Is that on the fucking prelims? Let's double check that. Yo, I'm not getting a tattoo if that fight's on the prelims. Come on, UFC. No, you can't do that. So as it stands, the main card, fucking A. It's the main event of the prelims.

Jesus. Yeah, they've got Chukagian versus Fioro leading the main card that's a good fight and I understand that because that's a highly ranked fight for the women's flyweight division but just in terms of my interest level I personally would prefer it to not be there

but I kind of get it I kind of get it BC what tattoo you're going to get if Brady wins have you thought about it motherfucker it's two weeks away you started putting some some mental energy into that well first of all show time picking up the bill second of all how big am i required to get to get this tattoo i think it could be quite small if you wanted it to be yeah all right all right you could get my signature on your face you know you know that in addition to Damien the Donk,

who has the MK tattoo among some, you know, gory ones, Luke, our guy Gaff has a tremendous MK tat on him, Luke. I have seen that. Yeah, it's pretty goddamn impressive. Oh, and Tristan added another, you know, animal that can kill you onto his left arm. It looks really good, actually. I didn't see that.

Did he really? Yeah, he put a deer on his bicep. He said it hurt like shit, and the deer looks angry, Luke. Yeah, the inside of the bicep is a very, very, very sensitive area. That's a hard one to get. All right. From Denny LeBlanc 007. This guy definitely works in an office.

What two fighters are fighting each other for the third or fourth time for a title? Excuse me. When two fighters are fighting each other for a third or fourth time for a title, is that exposing a weak division? Obviously, he's making reference to Figge and Moreno 4. If Askarov had beaten KK France or if France had defeated, Kai France had defeated Moreno, we wouldn't be here. It's just the way things played out.

This is a very fun division. This is, come on, Danny LeBlanc. I mean, this is like, you know, yeah, maybe he is in the office. It could be the case that they are making. So it is always at least something worth thinking about, where if you're going back this many times to the well, what else is in the well? Fair enough.

The well is fucking fantastic, though, okay? The well has given us three incredible fights. Like, yeah, we'll do a fourth. And if Moreno wins, he's a hero. I mean, you know, he's a Mexican hero, Luke. So this is what you do when you're promoting. Look, who cares about four-minute commercials? You've got to give the promoters respect when they get it right.

They've got it right here, okay? Danny, come on. All right, all right. From Jack McGinn, what makes the difference, now listen to the question, between the modern and not modern era in sports? He's not just saying UFC. He's saying in sports more generally. BC, how would you tackle that?

I think it depends on the sport, be really fair all right so give me an example of some demarcation lines in sports you watch uh pro football it's certainly the protection of the quarterback which has made passing and receiving statistics absurd right right that'd be one what about basketball that's another one you watch uh Yeah. Right around 2003, I think the hangover from the incredible 90s lasted pretty long because the Lakers won the Trilogy of Championships. But I think the change in rules, because I love 90s NBA like anybody, but it became a defensive grind down half court pick and roll or post up situation. And that wasn't great for global you know potential of ratings and cashing in on the money so they opened the lane up and it produced this wild and crazy era we have today where a guy like steph curry can become you know and like steve nash mvp let alone becoming like a you know all-time great and but that doesn't you

know steph curry's gonna end up you know on his back hurt shooting free throws in 1994. OK, so like the game changed with the change in the defensive rule, the lack, you know, the three seconds, which allowed teams to essentially play zone. That was a big part. And then the, you know, continued movement to keep that lane open so that little guys can with no longer a hand check to slow them down. I mean, heck, they put Derek Harper out of business, the greatest hand checker in NBA history. But that opened that game up. So I think there is a, you know, there's a line there. Boxing has been pretty, actually pretty consistent, Luke. I mean, there's, you know, the line is really the heavyweight division

because of the super heavyweights we've had beginning in the 90s. But, you know, pretty much boxing is about the same. And when do you think, let's stay in MMA, and obviously looking mostly through the UFC lens, what do you think is the cutoff? And it could be also the marketing cutoff when they became household name and people accept them now as one of the major sports.

What do you look back as the beginning of this UFC era? 2011, probably starting with Fox. Okay. But there's another one before that, I would say. So Ultimate Fighter 2011 would be one kind of era. I don't know. I'm not sure what the modern era would be classification. There could be different views about what the true or broader modern era is.

Certainly, you would have to have the unified rules, which would be Jersey 2000, 2001. That would be at a bare minimum. You would have to have that. All the weight classes are in there. It's regulated, that kind of a thing. And then 2005 is the ultimate fighter. 2011, it goes to Fox, and I think that changed a lot. Also, for women, dude, this is true.

When I first started watching women's MMA, it was three-minute rounds. It was fucking bullshit. So certainly for them, it wasn't until the rules got adapted to match the men's game. And then also adding the five rounds on top of it, too. So somewhere in that 2009-ish, 2011 space, I think is the newest era that we're in.

Our producers are trying to put the put it as the reebok era started the new trend i think that's just part of it okay it's part of that it's all connected there yeah but really like part of it that's right you know you could argue that the timing was that lesnar was the bridge between the two eras is that incorrect i would agree i i very much agree with that yes okay yes very much so so you're just trying to see like what are some seminal events or changes that essentially make the sport different or usher in a new wave of talent that itself makes the sport different or rules or whatever then there's this whole batch of fights that happen afterwards and there's another seminal event those are some of the eras you're looking for

uh let's see and then last but not least bc good question from clp film since it's halloween season which by the way one of the most underrated seasons of the year we halloween should be a holiday just my personal opinion well it's part of the best of the four seasons by far luke so it's a big part you know to some people it's a huge but we don't get it off that's why it's kind of bullshit but anyway what are your favorite horror films good question what do you think we've tickled this before and you know i'm not a horror genre you know historical expert and might have shitty opinions to those that are but you know halloween

one is is just like in a separate category for so many reasons as a pioneer as just a you know changing the way we can look at that i mean obviously something like psycho if you want to go back further, certainly could. But of what I've seen in modern times, and it's not everything. And yeah, I got hooked on those teen slasher horror movies, Luke, The Screams, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. It's because they put really hot chicks in there.

What are we going to do, Luke? And they were also pretty good too. But the first Saw film I think is just horror genius. If this question's pointing you only though to Halloween specific related I mean has there what what what am I I don't know the modern canon so what am I missing um I'm not a big horror expert either at all i would say texas chainsaw massacre gotta be on that list um you're right the first halloween is excellent you know do you want to put freddy krueger nightmare on elm street series on that i guess you have to yeah i mean they had a they had a uh they had a commercial and cultural impact i don't know if anyone would i was never that big on freddy krueger

being all that interesting a character to be quite honest with you yeah he felt like the gobot comparison to the transformers you know to looking at like he was the hey jason is everything people love friday the 13th we need a new crazier version mountain dew extreme version right yeah that was what freddy krueger was it was scary as hell at that age let's give him credit it worked yes yeah because the thing is he got you in your dreams and that was always like really yeah i mean the first chucky is pretty awesome let's be fair okay i fucking hated that i always thought that was so no i even saw a bride of chucky in the theater and i'm not embarrassed by that fact i got a free ticket but i snuck in six different cans of beer luke i mean i'm not being shameless is not a great thing i always want to be very i mean i'm also not

shameless in certain ways but did you ever see bride of chucky when that guy steps out into the highway and gets splattered by the motor home coming by i mean it's just tremendous it's just it's unbelievable i will say that one movie i saw on netflix netflix recently uh my brother told me and i'm not again he would know better than me but he was telling me that like the people who are the very best at horror movies apparently there's korean cinema now i've only seen one that i thought would fit that surprise it's on netflix it's called well here's what i'm told about the koreans i'm told that their cinema is like intensely scary and intensely gory um are you talking about north south korea here luke well of course south korea have you seen uh train to busan it's a zombie

flick have you seen that obviously not okay i haven. I haven't. It's on Netflix. This is not some esoteric movie. It got pretty wide American distribution. Did Kurosawa consult on this, Luke? Kurosawa is Japanese. Also dead. Train to Busan is recent. So that would...

I wasn't making that link based on their origin of country. So you don't have to make me look like I'm an ignorant fool, Luke. I do a good enough job of based on their origin of country. So you don't have to make me look like I, like I'm an ignorant. Well, don't ask bad. I do a good enough job of that on my own. Okay. Yeah.

So I'm, I'm, I've trained to Busan as a zombie flick. If you're into zombie flicks, uh, that one was fucking intense to be, to be quite honest with you. Um,

beyond that though, I will, you know what, you know, what's a, like a fun horror movie. It's not, I wouldn't call it the very best by any stretch,

but like kind of fun. You ever seen Cabin in the Woods? I don't think so. It starts out as a spoof of teen horror movies, almost comically to that effect. They're definitely wink, wink, nudge, nudge in on it. And then the whole tide turns, and you're like, what am I i watching this is not what i thought it was at all pretty fun pretty fun little movie cabin in the woods check that out my favorite horror movie in the 80s was april fool's day remember that one luke i don't i don't all right all right it was it was good people that know they know okay

they know 1986 yeah yeah check it out okay thank you. That's it for us for DMs. Time for BC species. Let's do it. Yeah. This is how we close the show on Mondays. Your boy scoured the globe yesterday. It was, it was, it was a small globe cause it wasn't a lot of combat sports. So this is the good, the bad, the ugly in some combat, but largely beyond.

We call this a, have you, have you seen this shit? BCs. BCs. Oh, oh, oh yeah. Have you seen this shit? BCs. BCs. Oh. Oh. Oh, yeah. Luke, we're not starting with the big ticket items because there wasn't many. So let's go regional MMA KOs of the week. These are the Kaposa specials.

Shout out to Gravaka Hitman. Oh, look, this is from the MMA GP promotion, Cedric Saravac, just laying out David Karp. I mean, he turned him into a dead fish. I think Sean Salmon just rolled over somewhere, Luke. Just stepped right. I mean, he gave everything. That was a little Draymond Green, Jordan Poole. Yeah, that was. That was, in fact.

Damn. That actually looked like, remember when Jermaine O'Neal lined up that fat dude during the Palace Brawl? It kind of looked like that. I mean, he could have killed the nba finals should be forced to fight its fans yeah yeah i'm into that yeah there you go uh let's go over to the to a promotion card called the war four check out these headbutts from uh uh from tomas uses the headbutt to set up the jab knockdown hell yeah right now are the headbutts legal in this uh godforsaken place because this guy tomas was headbutting the shit on this other

clip that i don't have he was just going straight headbutts this is unbelievable yeah it's a weapon it's not good for your brain but it is definitely a weapon wow you ever seen you ever seen a headbutt in the wild like in in real person like in a street fight like if somebody tried to third world another guy i saw i saw one i was not working at the bar i was just there minding my own business and a fight broke out this is actually here in dc in adams morgan i won't even say the bar but anyone who knows the area and this was like circa 2008 7 or so which was which was when that place was fucking wild. And I saw a guy, this is true as fuck,

these two dudes were kind of jawing at each other, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, getting separated, pushing and shoving starts, so it's escalating, right? And one dude just rears back and leans into the other dude and headbutts him. And you could tell he's headbutted people before. He hits this dude's nose and blood splattered

like a fucking Jackson Pollock. It was on. I've never seen, it was maybe the best head, but of all time, it was, it was crazy. I was sitting like six feet away in a, in a Manhattan restaurant and somebody got a glass broken over their head. I didn't see it though. But that, that noise, that was pretty loud. Yeah. You kind of knew shit was going down when you heard that noise. That was wild. Let's keep it going here, Luke. This is from Venator12.

Venator, Venator12? Yeah, that's the Italian promotion. Well, check out this jumping. This kid who won, they call him the sniper. Forget his name. Michael Pagani. Yes, pay attention to him. He is a very interesting prospect prospect this guy in the red

dude that is vicious right there brutal deluxe i mean brilliantly placed this other guy was over committed and he lined him up with this absolutely perfect all right how about some weekend boxing k.o's we had to go to russia with love to find uh let him bang bro it's justin lane and luke he stepped in there against kickboxer turned bare knuckler turned actual boxer Vlad Tunov, Tweenov, I don't know. But yeah, Julian Lane got splattered. That's vicious. They're not really showing the shot all that cleanly.

He basically catches the left hook, excuse me, catches the right hook from Lane. And then because he knows that that's open now because he caught it he comes right back around pops him oh man yeah what a shot what a shot they did let him bang that's what happened uh luke greg hardy is back he made his pro boxing debut against a guy half his size over the weekend it turns out he's he's successful here too this is a second round finish here's the start of the second round. Greg Hardy in the black and yellow.

Greg Hardy appears to be the size of the predator here. As you would say, he's on that Daniel Cormier Eaton program. Yeah, he's still got that power though, and at this level, it works. Here's the thing. What would you say about his UFC run? He did prove he's a dangerous striker.

He definitely proved that. His cardio crashes to an alarming degree, and he had no ground game, really. Yeah, well, good for you on beating a dude that probably is not great. I think it's probably fair to say. Yeah, he's definitely not great. Boxing KO of the year contender out of Pro Box TV in South Florida over the weekend.

Here is Cesar Francis with the uppercut from Hades. Perfection. Wow. Just waited for the jab and for him to step into it. He was stepping too hard. Steps in and just pops him to step into it. He was stepping too hard, right? Steps in and just pops him. What a shot.

That is beautiful boxing. Pro box TV right there. Let's go to Showtime Boxing, Carson, California. This is what we talked about earlier with Carlos Adamas switching to southpaw. Only this time he brought the power with him. Just enjoy his crafty work on the finish here oh oh dude he was sending montiel left and right montiel looked like a flag in the middle of a hurricane i mean he was just getting whipped i mean just a reminder montiel went 12 full rounds

with jamal charlo this was a third round finish fromas. It was eye-opening, so there you go. This is not his dominant stance. His dominant stance is orthodox. He did all this largely from southpaw. That's the most impressive part. One of the most impressive parts of the night was the title rematch opener when Fernando Martinez once again took it to Jerwin Anquejas,

winning a second straight decision. Luke, check the swag. Can you rate the swag level here on uh argentina's son hi hi definitely hi he's got the um uh he's got the argentine colors of the flag there looks like a bit of a smurf you know not gonna lie but can we go full screen dude look he fought like a fucking animal in this fight. Well, one second on his fighting ability. Look at his promoter, Marcos Maidana, the legend in the background. Dude, the way these guys dress, I got to start dressing like these guys. Look, I got to become Argentinian.

I know I'm already accepted with the Welsh. I know we've got, you know, French and Lithuanian origins. How can you be so pro-Argentinian, which is fine. I support it. Dude. And not have ever had chimichurri in your life i don't understand that you know i had it's so delicious it's so good i did have blue cheese dressing on top of a steak and at uh the boxing hall of fame of ronin new york luke at that uh

at that casino there at the top at the rooftop restaurant it changed my life it really did i think we got to do and i'm dead serious we need to get you a steak or really there's lots of things you can eat chimichurri with but we got to go to an argentine steakhouse and get you some chimichurri it's gonna blow your fucking mind good chimichurri is unreal uh let me shout out to close argentine boxers historically the badasses like the maidanos the matisse's uh but this guy uh fern guy uh Fernando Martinez dude he's good man I mean he's quick he can box but he's his combinations when he has you cornered um dude you know Paula Cole once asked Luke in 94 where have all the cowboys gone dude they're from Argentina and they're boxers and they're absolute badasses um can I stigmatize Argentine boxers and say look they're all they're

all gunslingers man they. They come to party. Shout out to Fernando Martinez there. Did you see him read that list of about 100 names you wanted to think afterwards? They almost Apollo hooked him out of there. I fast-forwarded through that part, if I can be honest. All right. The Draymond Green Sucker Punch of the Week Award goes to this man who's trying to send Spider-man deep down luke

all right i mean this is you know this is the for the people who who are uh super into hasbulla comedy yo spider-man got a receipt for that though oh look at that now oh wow wow okay yeah i'm not gonna do this bit i'm not okay okay i'm sorry i'm sorry luke we'll keep it going uh we talked about rico verhoeven verhoeven the glory heavyweight champion for about a decade he got in the ring afterwards let's listen to him go face to face with overing i wasn't here i'm right here wasn't here, I'm right here. I'm right here. Hey, if you're gonna do this to me, you're not even gonna last two rounds.

You ain't even gonna last two rounds. You know what it is, guys? You know what it is? It is very unique. He knows in the street fight, I would annihilate this man. But we're not talking about a street fight, right annihilate this man but we told him we're not talking about a street fight right you're in the kickboxing ring you're in the kickboxing ring that's all you're doing so we're not we're not talking about the glory champion we're not talking

about the street you're gonna do the eskenizer on sleeve in see i gotta tell you i gotta tell you it's hard verhoeven's a beast and i had a long talk with him once when uh when i do work for glory this was in like virginia beach very nice guy smart guy too but it is hard to talk shit with a turtleneck on i gotta be honest with you got a turtleneck on you know it's very hard there's a little bond villain in that look i thought he pulled it off well i don't say he looked bad but it's hard to be taken seriously as like a dynamic fighting threat when you've got you know lands and on that's what people say about me wearing this drug rug as a potential broadcaster looking at yeah not not what you're looking for uh i would see i'm ready for that fight if they want to do it though please i mean here we go let's oh yeah i'd be all in i'd be all uh let's go to wwe extreme rules pay-per-view the The main event was Seth Rollins versus, Seth Rollins versus, what's his name, Luke?

The UFC guy. How the fuck should I know? How the hell am I forgetting his name in this moment? We'll get it. But here's a special guest referee, and it's Daniel Cormier, Luke. And I mean, you know, a lot of people say he looks like a Foot Locker referee.

Was it you who texted me and said they're not doing him any favors with this outfit? No, that wasn't me, although now I can agree. They're definitely the vertical stripes. That's tough. That's tough when you got the vertical stripes going on. You know what I mean? And obviously, thanks to our producers, it was Matt Riddle who I was not getting.

It's Matt Riddle versus Seth Rollins in the fight pit. DC is your referee, and Luke, Foot Locker jokes aside, do you know who he kind of looks like like this? Let's be fair, Luke, okay? Did I do that? I mean, he looks like Carl Winslow a bit. I mean, come on, right? Right?

Right? Right. All right. All right. There you go. I mean, seriously, Luke, like, you know, DC shouldn't come back. He's got a great, great broadcasting career ahead of him, but he's not, I mean, can we go to the next?

He's not making. I mean, here's the thing. If DC can't get fat now, when can he get fat? Okay. But he's not making 265 anytime soon. Where's the go to the next slide, please. Yeah. Not making it.

But look, he did look like he's got some high waters on there as well. Yeah. We expected a flood there, Daniel. I know this was a childhood dream for him and i can respect that and you know it was cool to see him and here's the big the big spot from the match matt riddle who of course uh had some issues with weed in the ufc but was a good fighter was on a four-fight win streak he is now at the top of the pops with the wwe and here's part of his victory over seth rollins there uh yeah bro right yeah dude, is this a pretty remarkable turnaround for Riddle, though, right?

From where he came from? Yeah, no, he's done. From what I understand, I don't really know in this particular case. Jesus Christ, man. You're going to fuck up someone's ribs doing that shit. Is he, I guess if he's in a match like this, he's at the top. I mean, what would you, like, what level of success has he attained? Is he A-list professional wrestler?

Is that where he is? I'm told that this, I'm told that them booking him to win this specific match in the main event against Seth Rollins is their attempt at finding out what they have in him right now, like sink or swim at the top. Because if you can do it, you're on the Roman Reigns level with us here. Is Seth Rollins A-list? Yes. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, even from my distant position today,

it's obvious to tell they are the one and two. And then Bray Wyatt came back at the end of this match, Luke. So things are looking up. I don't watch it. I really, you know, not that the professional wrestling world needs to care what I think. I miss the days of professional wrestlers looking like cartoon characters for all the roids they were taking.

I mean, they still use, Luke, okay? Oh, I'm sure that they do. I have no doubt. But, you know, the larger-than-life ones that we grew up with in the 80s, they don't quite look exactly like that. No, that's why they all died at 43, okay? It's not sustainable for your life with all the drugs and life on the road. Hey, Luke, rate that Tad is back.

This is Juliana Killer Miller edition. So this is not bad. This is actually not bad at all. This is a pretty well-done tattoo. It's hard to see. Some of the pictures are a little bit blurry um i think she's got she's got some kind of ancient egyptian figure uh but this is by athlete standards this is definitely good and i would even say pretty good by and large this is a pretty good tat yeah those look like those are pretty cool they stand out. That one right there.

Look, I would get something not in a diamond shape, maybe in a circular shape. I don't hate that. I'd get that. I like the wolf or the dog better than I like the lake. The lake is not my favorite part. This is my view. This is my personal view. And obviously, no one really cares.

But I don't think in general blues or greens look that good as tattoos. There are exceptions to that, but in general I feel like that is true. All right. More MMA fighters in the wild in their natural habitat. Here's UFC women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko herding sheep somewhere probably kurgasan luke this uh it looks like good plow experience this to some people look this is a wedding invitation how about you are you making some joke about the third world or something no that this is like there's a real woman here luke right what's like what's the wedding invitation joke i think people want to marry her after seeing

this you know well dude she has the horniest fans online let's be very honest about that the people who comment on she can put up a post where she just holds like you know wearing normal clothes and the look at her mentions and it's the horniest incels on planet earth it's unbelievable uh speaking of natural habitat cory anderson bellator fame was up in his tree stand hunting when he got the notification on his phone to sign the contract he has re-signed with bellator that that was interesting luke you ever been in a tree stand no i'm really i'm not against many things in life i'm really against hunting luke i mean i it's not like i'm it's not like i want to pick it and say you know if you

do that there's something wrong with you it's just so not for me that i like i would never go you know i've done it a few times um i did not enjoy tree stand hunting because you got to do it for really really long periods and i got eaten alive by mosquitoes doing that yeah and i didn't really care for it but i will tell you dude hunting is a good thing you actually well i should say this, regulated hunting. Right. Oh, it's got a, there's a, there's a part of the side. It's actually better for the population of the animals that are affected.

It calls just enough of them to keep, for example, like disease, less of a problem for some of the populations. You, regulated, proper hunting is a very good thing. And, you know, there's hunters that are, buy the books, use every part of the animal. I get all that. Look, you know, I love that are by the books use every part of the animal i get all that look you know i love eating a burger or some finely cooked chicken i don't want to be there when it goes from life to death yeah but see that makes you a complete hypocrite like these animals you know again assuming it's done by the book and and there are obviously many many many most hunters i would say in fact do that you know that's that's a that's a proper thing going out

and getting your food and eating a wild animal versus just oh let's let all these cows just be viciously slaughtered and these pigs live in crates where they can't turn around i'm not i can't i can't i can't abide by that did you just try to call me out for being a gatherer though rather than a hunter uh more just a taker you're just the undertakeraker. Uh, let's go to Justin Gaethje. He's trying out a ski jumping. This is interesting. That's good for his athletic career. Hey, John, I'm at a press conference.

I got a question here. Let's go. Oh boy. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's like this dude is a phenomenal athlete. Here he is. Hey. And then he's going to bust his ass right into the pool.

There you go. Into the drain. Yeah. My ankles just broke watching that. Look, that scares me. I can't. You can't put me on. I did cross-country skiing in the winter with my wife a couple years ago, and it was all

ice. That was hell. I went down. I mean, I was just down. You know, it was like. One thing to take for granted is, like, I learned skiing was like you know single digits or you know early teens or whatever and when you fall obviously it sucks but your body just can tolerate it much better bro you know people are like how you know when you're 40 and you fall you might as well just be 80 all your

shit's gonna break you know what i Hips back crack the whole nine yards. Luke, the transitioning here, the Bills Mafia have holding tryouts for new members. And I don't I don't think this guy. Not not a book reader in the parking lot. Oh, here we go. Oh, my God. You think any one of these guys has ever made the honor roll anywhere in their life? Look at these.

Oh, that is brutal to watch. Wow. All right. we talked about horror movies before did you good did you see caleb plant who will be back in the co-main event of saturday's deontay wilder pbc on fox return pay-per-view yeah that should be a good one by the way his boxing shoes he'll be caleb will be fighting anthony durell that should be an interesting fight but the freddie kruegerired boxing shoes that he'll wear. Luke, your thoughts? I'm kind of into it.

I'm kind of into it. I don't hate it. Okay. I thought it was pretty cool. They're not like the prettiest thing, but they got a little – those I don't like. I don't like these. See, that's what won me over. That's like that Screams nightmare on Elm Street.

I get it. I like it, Luke. See, here's the thing. I like outrageous clothing like this for boxing where guys remember the, for example, remember the trunks and really the overall outfit that Gervonta Davis wore on the Mayweather McGregor card?

He looked like a Smurf. He had those weird ass super puffy trunks and stuff. I feel like if you're going to do the crazy exorbitant thing, that's the venue. Taking it into the street with the Air Force Ones or whatever those were, not my favorite, not my favorite. All right, all right.

Luke, what about this NHL fan? Here's our fan of the week throughout pro sports. He's ready for the postgame. Is that Jeff Wagenheim? Yeah. I mean, look, he's's ready he's ready right now to get that thing I gotta tell you dude dad's dad stoners that's my demo BC that's my yeah so yeah yeah that's right that's right all right uh your demo is also we don't talk we don't talk enough about this we talk about like how hardcore NFL team fans are just dirtbags.

I got to tell you, if you're above 40 and you're a hardcore Bruins or something like that, like a Flyers, can you imagine someone being like 45 years old and being a hardcore Philadelphia Flyers fan? There is no way you're not anything other than a complete shitbag in life. I'm going to guess a lot of our fans, though, Luke, fit that category. And I'm okay with that. We got room for them.

We got room for them, okay? You also hang out in the hashtag girl dad circles, RIP the late Kobe, Luke. Here's a playscape fail. You got to be careful if you're going to get too involved with toques, Luke, when you go to the playgrounds and stuff oh the fat man just falling through they have they have these little indoor playgrounds all over the place in columbia all over the place and we go to these ones all the time and they're a little more regulated than this piece of shit one. But yeah, this pays to not be fat, BC.

It pays to not be fat. That fat guy ate it. But the next question, Luke, is would you eat it? Let's go to this category. I think they call this, well, they call this heaven, but I think this is the intersection between Mexican and American culture. They're called hot dog and bean tacos. Ian?

First of all, whoever made this needs to go to jail right away send them to jail for life what a complete fucking disgusting waste of a perfectly good taco and there's a slice of cheese in there too yo fuck the guy who made this yo here's what i'll say like if you're a real one and you're eating a barbecue hot you know hot dog at a barbecue in the backyard at a party you put a ton of ketchup on that but if you're a real one and you're eating a barbecue, you know, a hot dog at a barbecue in the backyard at a party, you put a ton of ketchup on that. But if you go to the next level and put baked beans on top of that, then you've figured out how to cheat in life. That's the code. You figured it out.

You have achieved greatness. Transitioning to the hard shell taco, I mean, it's in the same family. Look, I'm not against it. All right? Dude, this is prison food. This is prison food. This is what you eat when, if you're a Ted Kaczynski's eating this at the Supermax.

I created my own prison. Yeah, yeah, Luke, right? You know what I'm saying? And I sell. And bro, listen, I'm into frijoles con salchicha, but not like this. Yeah, this segment brought to you by Creed. Let's go to this next

one luke i think these pops are located uh these are on the d somewhere near the d uh would you eat these luke they're uh we done this bit before no we haven't actually it's we've had we have not uh that's a dirty dog could you put more sugar on this motherfucker i mean what are you trying to do give me diabetes by age 44? Would you try it? Yes or no? Fuck it Friday. Yes, of course I would.

What do you think I am? I've got some refined palate. I'm a fucking dirtbag too. Well, how about these? These are called Jager Bomb hot dogs. Would you try these? Oh, Jesus Christ. First of all, you're boiling your hot dog, asshole.

You can stop right there. Ketchup, Red Bull, with a boiled hot dog, poke holes in it, pour Jager into it, seal it, pan sear it with more of the Jager sauce, put it in the bun, mayo and ketchup and mustard on it.

Yeah. I don't hate this, Luke. I'm sorry. I mean, you've seen my bare toes. I don't hate this, Luke. I'm sorry. I mean, you've seen my bare toes. I don't hate this, okay? All right? The end of Total Recall when the guy exposed himself as a lizard, Luke, you know what I mean?

I'm the lizard king, okay? Dude, why do people want to cook food in order to make it worse? I don't understand that. Isn't the whole idea of cooking to make it better all you had to say was no okay it was yeah but it's like yo bc's like yo would you try this this guy has a hot dog he's gonna put road salt and fucking cigarette butts in it would you eat it like no fuck no i'm not eating that all right i got one more maybe you'll try this i think they call these luke air biscuits Air biscuits.

All right. BC, the answer is an enthusiastic yes. Oh, wow. Wow. Stephen A. wanted nothing to do with these. Luke, we've long established that subways are the weirdest places on earth right like subway stations or subway sandwich subway stage while subway sandwiches are probably cooked in that same grease but uh yeah subways are pretty weird but have you ever seen this type of subway mouth art before this can't be new york city no, there's no way. That's unbelievable.

You couldn't get away with it. Dude, if you walk down the stairs to the platform and you were high as balls, this might kill you. This might kill you. With the amount of heroin coursing through the veins of people who ride the subway in New York City, you would absolutely have a heart attack here. Okay, okay.

Let's go to the typical subway videos we get on this segment. Okay. You got to keep them off the pole, Luke. Okay. And, and this is what I always tell people. I know there's a mass debate about COVID and I'm not here to rehash it. I'm just telling you, if you get on the New York city subway and you don't wear a hazmat suit, you're a moron.

You're a fucking moron new york city subway is the most disgusting place beckoned with disease i've ever seen in my fucking life look the following calisthenics are brought to you by hepatitis it's like dude why does this dude it's like also if your ass itches hold up bc is there a more is there a more effective way to scratch your ass than that there's gotta be dude i fuck it and this guy's on broadway i fucking hate the new york city. What a disgusting piece of shit place. Get your hands off.

The first thing you should do is not touch anything. And the first thing you should do when you get home is just burn your shoes. And this asshole is up here just putting his hands. You know how much homeless urine this guy has just paked on his fingernails at this point? Yo, fuck this guy. Yeah, indeed. his fingernails at this point yo fuck this guy yeah indeed indeed all right we got a couple more to close with uh we got some more regional mma mayhem because anything can happen you know please support your local regional mma show because this might happen too yeah oh i've been to a show where this happened i've been to it

this happened to a strike force show years ago by the way this is a true story i think jorge santiago fought on that card where the the door wasn't see exactly the door wasn't sealed and they popped right open dude this is for folks who think ufc is real mma i know they're like their catchphrase is real as it gets i'm trying to explain to you that's the most sanitized version of MMA. This, ladies and gentlemen, is real MMA. This is what it normally looks like. And you get highlight reel finishes like this amateur fight. Let's go to the next one. Have you seen a fight end like this before? Oh, the referee caught Nell.

Yeah, I did see this. Oh, yeah. Bah. Rolling thunder. These amateurs will just throw anything, bro. They're just spamming technique. Yeah. And the old referee just fucking took an L. Luke, what did you used to say about

large white women who wear Crocs? Well, just anyone who wears Crocs, except Violetta deserves to be fucking beaten with a car antenna. Well, Violetta, we don't want to see you end up. Oh, and just face first into the fucking grass. Yeah, all right. What did she trip over?

Oh, dude, her ankle turns. Yeah, I would imagine your ankle stability when you're this size would be a challenge for you. Luke, we try to hit every corner of the globe here to let you know what's going on. By the way, hold on, hold on. Go back, go back. Show one more time.

Show one more time. When Big Bertha starts to tumble, watch the dog. He's like, oh, fuck this. Oh, come on. Poor dog. I hope they caught the dog. That dog was like, I'm not, I'm not, the sun is not going down on me today, good sir.

I'm a Democrat. Yeah, okay, there you go. Luke, we hit all corners of the globe to let you know what's going on in combat sports. Here's an update from Poland on what Joanna Young-Jacek is up to in retirement. It's very cold in whatever room she's in. It seems like things are pointing up. I mean, look it up, Luke. So it's not cold in whatever room she's it seems like things are pointing up i mean look

it up luke so it's uh it's not too bad all right that's very chilly very chilly that's the shit of the week there i hope you saw it all right there you go good job bc that was well done that was well done wow we gave that we gave the people a gift today right i gotta say we got given chicken shit except for obviously the fundandora fight was pretty great we had two fights we could really sink our teeth into but other than that we had to kinda make some chicken salad out of chicken shit

I feel like we did it pretty well that's why we win those awards Luke for moments like this reminding folks, Showtime.com is the label that pays you can go to Showtime.com, get a 30 day free trial if you like it you can keep it, if not you can bounce tomorrow our producer says Showtime.com is the label that pays. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. Tomorrow, our producer says, Mikey says,

I don't think Luke mentioned once that we had to have an out and that we need to hurry up. That's right, I didn't. I didn't. I let it run. You're a changed man. Even though I hate going over the two-hour mark. Also, I want to remind folks, BC, tell them again one more time. What's out tomorrow on the youtube.com slash

morning combat i think it's 11 a.m we'll get back to you on that but tomorrow get ready morning combat donkey mentory number seven homeward bound man 40 minutes of love and joy our gift to you thank you for all the support you do for us yeah it's self-indulgent and ridiculous theater but you know who else can do it well i mean does your other favorite show do this i don't think so probably not probably not they probably maybe that's why they're going further and ridiculous theater, but who else can do it? I mean, does your other favorite show do this? I don't think so. Probably not. Probably not.

Maybe that's why they're going further in their career. No, we're on top, baby, because of bullshit like this. Thank you to Jake von Amsterdam and Matt Snyder for parenting this project, Luke. It is a love affair. You'll see it tomorrow. And why don't you buy our merch in the meantime there at morningcombat.store. Even if you want to buy that gross shirt, if you have to, it's fine.

Yes. Also want to remind folks, Wednesday's fan subs, Friday's dead wrong. Morningcombat at gmail.com is the place to send those. The producers will, in fact, see it. BC, any final thoughts before we close the show? Yeah. Fix your gut with AG1 and fix your credit with Moneyline. That's all I got for you, okay?

There it is. That's it. That's all I got as well. All right. So for Showtime, Molka and CBS Sports, that's Brian Campbell, the King of Connecticut. I'm Luke Thomas.

We'll see you guys on Wednesday. The documentary is out tomorrow, and until then, may all of your gains be loyal.