MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 281 Recap: Pereira Stuns Adesanya, Weili Submits Esparza, Poirier Wins | Ep 374

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

On Episode 374 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian are joined by Aaron Bronsteter to recap a wild UFC 281 event. Alex Pereira stunned Israel Adesanya in round 5 with a TKO win after being down big on the cards. What can be said about Adesanya’s run as middleweight champion? Zhang Weili submitted Carla Esparza in round 2 to become the strawweight champion yet again. Is she destined to hold the belt for a long time? Dustin Poirier submitted Michael Chandler in the third. What did he prove with this win? Plus, Frankie Edgar's career came to an end. 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. You hear that? Ugh. Paid.

And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month. Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply.

Reveley, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Hey, it's the 14th of November, and we're tired as shit. Hi, everyone. It's Morning Combat, Monday edition, post-UFC 281 edition. 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 editorial life mate. He's that BC.C. with that C.T.E.

I sound like I'm dying of fucking lung cancer. I'm just awful. Hi, Brian Campbell. How are you? I'm wounded, Luke, but they've called me a red light guy before, and no, that has nothing to do with Amsterdam. Um, uh,

you know, you may, you know, you may fall apart on this show, Luke, but I'll get you across that finish line. Okay. You can call me Sully Sullenberger.

Going to drive the plane into some geese. Huh? Uh, no, look, what a weekend. What a week. What an event. UFC 281.

Couldn't be more fired up to break it down. We've got a very special guest just seconds away, Luke, and really arguably the best Canadian journalist of all time. But, Luke Thomas, jokes, ad reads aside, RIP to one of the great ones, and this is obviously a shocker, Anthony Rumble Johnson, 38 years old. We'll have more later in the show on his life and legacy, but some sad news coming off a wild card at New York City.

Yeah, there was a lot of good news from the event itself. It was one of the best events we'd seen in some time. UFC 281 totally delivered. BC had talked all week about that MSG magic, and you got to see it. There was good evidence of it, but then, of course, yesterday some somber news that basically Anthony Rumble Johnson had passed away. We'll talk about that in a minute.

Just very quickly, thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Please hit subscribe. If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, do be so kind as to give us a nice review there as well. Reminder, 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. showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can bounce reminder there's a bellator show i believe this friday that is a certified banger an unbelievable card probably their best card of the

year if i can be totally honest with you i think bang bang yeah it's their best card so you can check that out on showtime of course merch i've got some merch right here bc's got merch on as well morningcombat.store is the place to get that, right, BC? Yeah, it really is. I mean, it is the finest merch house this side of RJ Bumblebanger, and we've got fantastic stuff, a new fresh line of hats for the fall and now winter season. So head on down to morningcombat.store.

Put a little of that fall headwear on your dome as you're out at the kids' soccer match, all right? Or whatever you do, okay? Whatever you do, do it with us, all right? You know what I mean? Just, yeah, yeah. Bang with us. You know what I'm saying?

Bang with us. Look, there's some concerns about your health. Can you put that to rest, Luke? No, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm just run down. I'm just run down. That's all.

There's really no more to it than that remember even when I get home like my sleep's kind of messed up already and then when you go on the road and people like oh well then you know your family's not there you can sleep in but I actually have problems sleeping in hotels so it actually just stays just as bad if not gets worse so uh I'm fine I had a bit of a cold it's almost done with it's not that serious I'm just I was just doing it was bc I was just tired yesterday it was, BC. I was just tired yesterday, bro. I was just tired. I was really tired.

Been there, done that. Other than that, in a day or two, I should be totally fine. I mean, I was a salty old bitch in Phoenix, Luke. Okay, happy I got out of that trip alive. Okay, but we have the best job in the world, so let's get fired up to do it. Can we bring that guy in? He's been waiting.

Yes, one more note. One more note. Morningcombat at gmail.com for wednesday's fan subs friday's dead wrong morning combat at gmail.com that's the place to go now we have a lot to get to and when what we like to do is when bc and i both do the post-fight show we like to get a third voice in here we need an erudite voice we need an accomplished voice we need an experienced voice you know we need bc we need a canadian voice erudite here does that mean he only likes white people look what does that even mean well he's he's well learned he he is educated he knows a lot yeah yeah smart man let's bring him in right now luke let's do it all right aaron bronstetter joins us now from tsn in toronto

canada what's up hey look we have glasses that are similar. How about that? Except you've got the coating on. You know, you have the purple glare. I couldn't wear glasses with it because it drove me crazy seeing it on screen. So I got no coatings on mine because the blue light thing,

it's kind of, a lot of people you ask, I asked my optometrist, apparently overrated. but either way, AB from the home of BTO is here. Let's take care of some business. Yeah, yeah, AB, the Elvis Costello of mixed martial arts. Always a pleasure to chat with him. Luke, you know, he made it back to Toronto from New York.

But AB, have you been now to all six UFC at MSG events? Is this a fact? I missed one. So my daughter was born six weeks early. I was supposed to go to the Moncton card, and then the week later was the MSG card, which was... If I was going to miss any MSG card, it would be this one. It was the Cormier Derek Lewis card.

That was the only MSG card that I was unable to attend. You didn't miss much right there. Then can we start right off the top, Aaron? What you saw at UFC 281, what you felt inside that building. Are we talking about something in contention with UFC 205, 217 as the best, you know, in this six, seven year run since UFC has been allowed back in there? I think it was for sure the most

entertaining of the cards. Like if you were going to look at it from top to bottom, the entertainment quotient was super high. But when you're comparing it to some of those other events, were the stakes as high? I'm not sure you could argue that, but I think that you could certainly look at it. I mean, we had one where there were three titles on the line. Stakes were through the roof for that particular card, and that card really delivered as well. But that card on Saturday was really something special, just from top to bottom. All action, incredible fights. I was surprised they didn't give bonuses to everybody who got a finish on that card because uh it certainly delivered and the fans were really of course

eating it up like they always do at msg uh by the way when you get back into canada do you have global entry i'm just curious i do yeah oh it's the greatest thing ever yeah it is you fuck all right i'm so jealous now all right uh well let's do this if we can bc let's start with topic number At the end of these, Aaron, I do want to get some of your thoughts on Rumble Johnson, but we'll save that for the end of the topics. So first things first, let's start with where this conversation starts. We have a new middleweight champion, nine new champions, by the way, in 2022 in the UFC. This would now be obviously adding to that list. All right. So Alex Panetta wins fifth round stoppage, despite the fact that the champion was up, or I should say, excuse me, it's now a bad habit. The former champion was up on 39-37 on all three judges' scorecards

heading into the fifth. Aaron, if I had to ask you what the single biggest determining factor of Pineda's success in that fight, what is it? Well, I think Israel kind of spelled it out. Israel's leg was horribly compromised. I mean, he said that the calf kicks over the course of the fight took their toll, and that'll stifle his mobility. That'll make it also something that he has to really think about. If you're

starting to move and your leg is unable to hold your body weight, those are the kind of things that will put you in a position where you're stationary. And that's not where Israel wants to be. He was up against the cage. And Alex Pereira, you know, the commentary team always does a good job. But in this particular case, them continuously pointing out that the guy hasn't fought five rounds, I think is erroneous. And listen, at MMA, that is 100% true. But him going five rounds in back-to-back fights against Artem Vakhtov, which were just volume striking, volume striking, you could see that his power would carry for the duration of the fight.

This guy's got, in my opinion, he's the most credentialed striker we've ever seen in MMA. If you look at what he did in Glory, becoming a two-division champion, this guy is so dangerous all the time. And he put in the legwork, no pun intended, early on in that fight to take away the balance of Israel. And that's, I think, was the X factor down the stretch. Aaron, Izzy was up three to one entering that fifth round. Before having this information, which obviously seems to be huge, the effect of the calf strikes, without having it after the fight, I was critical of, let's say, the, you know, we talked about would the effect of the calf strikes without having it after the fight, I was critical of, let's say, the, you know, we talked about would the lack of experience in Pereira cost him in MMA.

I argued that, you know, Izzy seemed to make a mistake that set up that finish that was out of character, that, you know, he had too much experience to do that. But we find out he feels like he couldn't have shot for a takedown, and he certainly didn't have the mobility with that. But we find out he feels like he couldn't have shot for a takedown and he certainly didn't have the mobility with that. So knowing that, do you look at this as more a result of Pereira's just so poised and he never went away? Or do you look at Adesanya being in the lead there and put a large percentage on what he didn't do that allowed this to happen? Well, I think it's a little bit of both. I don't think it's one or the other. The thing about Alex Pereira is his striking is so good

that at any point in that time, if he finds one little opening, that's all it would take. And if you looked at the live odds going into the final round, Israel was a 13 to 1 favorite. I think that anybody looking at that kind of a line needs to know that Alex Pereira is not going to go away here. His corner inspired him in between rounds. He knew that he needed to get a finish in that round. I'm sure that the level of urgency in his corner told him that. And I don't think that you can really take too much away from Israel because he fought brilliantly up until that fifth round.

He really did. You know, he lost that second round, but it was still a relatively close round. It's not like Israel ran away with it. Or sorry, Alex rather ran away with it in the second. So, you know, I hate to take anything away from Israel other than the fact that maybe next time around he's going to have to be a little bit more careful with his defense in terms of lower body. But otherwise, if you look at him going into, you know, how he fought up until that point, he fought really, really well. So that's why I think a rematch is just something that we have to see next.

It was such a dynamic fight, and the tempo changed, and the tone changed so quickly that I think that has to be next, unless, of course, Israel is badly hurt, which he kind of alluded to after the fight in his press conference, that there were some health problems going on behind the scenes that he never talks about so well whether or not that's long-term lingering who knows yeah you're not a doctor and he gave us very limited information but he was somewhat compares comparing i guess what he's feeling to to the the late actor chadwick boseman who you know had fallen into what what did he have cancer i'm trying to catch up on my mind quickly you know didn't reveal it fought through made made some final films and unfortunately passed that seems a pretty

huge comparison for izzy to make and he was also referencing people making fun of him which i'm assuming is the left nipple and saying you know i've got some legitimate health concerns afterwards i got to go back and fix like armchair quarterbacking without a medical degree, what does that actually mean? Because that's a pretty large reveal after, you know, his first middleweight title loss after such an incredible run. I mean, are we concerned here? Let's just talk openly here. What does that mean to you? It's hard to say. I mean, like you said, it was veiled in secrecy, but that is a pretty, in terms of the comparison to Chadwick Boseman, I mean, it's got to be something somewhat serious if he's going to make that kind of a comparison.

Unless the comparison was just you don't know what people are going through behind closed doors. If that's what he was alluding to, then maybe it's something different. But yeah, hopefully, whatever it is, it's something that he can come back from. But like he said, he's fought three times in 10 months. I mean, he's been very active. So if it was something that was going to hinder him dramatically, I don't know if he would have taken three fights in 10 months. Also, just from my point of view, Aaron, it looked to me like he fought.

I mean, you mentioned it. He was up 39-37. Like, I'm not here to say that his comparison is overblown. I don't have enough information to make that claim. But just based on what we saw in the octagon for 20-plus minutes, he looked pretty good. He looked pretty healthy. He looked strong.

He looked like he was in good shape. So I don't want to make a claim one way or the other, but I guess I would have a little bit more comfort, just a little bit, knowing he looked as good as he did even in a losing effort. Do you share that sentiment? Yeah, absolutely. I think that that's a very good way of putting it. And I just thought that early on,

the way that he incorporated a lot of the different elements of MMA that weren't available to Alex in kickboxing, I thought really threw him off of his game. The hand fighting in particular, I thought, was something that really stood out in those first couple of rounds where he was grabbing the wrist, he was grabbing the gloves, he was doing things that are illegal in MMA that you don't see in kickboxing to kind of show Alex, like, listen, this is a different world here.

This is a different realm, and you're going to have to beat me without all of the same available tools that you had, or at least, you know, you have to have more of the tools that make a complete mixed martial artist in order to defeat me in my world. And I thought that he outclassed Alex pretty early on in that fight. And then, like I mentioned, that power of Alex Pereira is no joke. And all it takes is one single strike to throw you off of your game. That's how powerful this guy is.

And when I see all these people being like, oh, well, he's not facing guys that can take him down. You know, Robert Whitaker would take him down and hold him there. Try getting close to this guy. Try taking him down and getting hit with elbows to the side of the head or getting hit with uppercuts. People are just completely dismissing the primary weapon of this guy just because his ground game might not be quite as refined. I will say what kind of stands out to me about this whole fight was that basically Alex did to Izzy what Izzy did to that division, where Izzy had this massive striking advantage, basically, over the rest of the division. He could play prevent defense everywhere he needed to

to more or less let that reign over the course of his fights. But that didn't work against Pereira because he got one takedown of four. That was nice, that third round one. That was pretty good. But he could never really replicate it. And so as a consequence, like Izzy forcing his opponents to stand, he kind of had to spend much more time in a, what do you want to call it, a risk-centric way of a place up against the cage

where there's just a shit ton of risk. And obviously Alex is the more devastating kickboxer of the two. So do you feel like Padella kind of used Izzy's magic against him in the way that Izzy had used it against the division? Well, if anything, he just leveled the playing field, right? I mean, Israel was such a step ahead of the competition in terms of striking that what's the thing that's going to take Israel out of his game? And maybe it's a heavy grappling approach that somebody like a bone nickel

eventually would have taken against him. But if you take somebody who's as good of a striker or even better of a striker, because like I mentioned, I think that in terms of credentials, it doesn't get much better than Alex Pereira in terms of MMA. I think that he just kind of has found his match in terms of what he is best at. And that was going to be the thing that was the X factor in this fight and turned out to be that thing. And as much as Israel was using a lot of the different elements of MMA that took Alex out of his primary best path to victory, I do think that when you look at what Alex was able to do in there eventually and just by staying in the fight, by being motivated, by knowing that his power was going to translate and that in his mind, I'm sure he felt he was the superior striker, was enough for him to continue to be a threat as the entire fight went on. Yeah. And when you say level the playing field, you have to go back to those calf kicks by Pereira. That's the best thing you could do against somebody who moves so well with great footwork and then obviously has all-time great sublime striking work like that. I mean, we've never seen

Izzy compromised like that, where if it wasn't a miscalculation of the danger that he faced, you know, or he had to stay in the pocket because of the calf kicks putting him there, that's the best way that Pereira was able to overcome the lack of experience between them. And really, you know, a lot of that, the technique, even though obviously what Alex Pereira does, as we just saw, is very dangerous on itself.

That leveled the playing field more than anything. So, Aaron, we played up the narrative coming in of, you know, does Pereira have Izzy's number and will that factor into this fight? Now we're likely heading to a rematch, as you mentioned, and the early odds makers that flood out those emails have Adesanya as the potential favorite in a rematch. Well, hey, he controlled that fight for four and a half rounds before being stopped. I get that. But do you think this only adds to whatever percentage of that pie is true that Pereira is or will still be in Izzy's head? I mean, when you've

beaten a guy twice, including by knockout, then you follow him into his new sport and you knock him out after losing four plus rounds. It was literally a redo of their second kickboxing fight and how that played out. You know, what type of mental rebuilding is he going to have to do knowing that this guy's got him twice now? You know, it's funny. And I think the odds are based on the fact that if you look at the duration of all three of those fights, and you were to say, who is winning the majority of these fights? Israel is the clear answer. Like, Israel is winning and dictating the pace of a lot of the time of that fight.

But again, it's that primary weapon of Pereira and his ability to find that left hook, no matter how much you know that it's coming. He's always able to find it. And that's what makes him, in my opinion, such a devastating fighter and such a big threat to anybody that faces him because you know what's coming. And even though I think in terms of his matchups in the UFC, Bruno Santos fought a really good defensive game plan because he was, I think, fighting knowing that that left hook was going to come out of nowhere.

Even still, he's so devastating with it and so precise with it. And it comes so quickly that no matter how much you prepare for this, I think that he's always going to have that weapon at his disposal as long as the fight goes on. So even if Israel wins four and a half rounds, you just never know if that left hook is going to be able to connect. And that's what

makes this such an intriguing matchup if it happens for a fourth time. Because will Israel finally be able to get the best of him? Israel knows what's coming. Israel's a brilliant, brilliant fighter. He's got as high fight IQ as anybody that there is. But no matter how many of those intangibles you have, when Pereira has that left hand and the speed and precision in which he's able to execute with, he's just so dangerous at all times.

All right, so then let's talk about what is next. Now, you want to see the rematch. Fine. But make the case for me along these lines right make the case for the viewers for us here that the second fight between them in MMA the fourth overall which is crazy but make the case that that's a better choice than booking Robert Whitaker I know he's gonna fight with Paulo Costa but just hear me out they could they could change that if they wanted to. Booking Robert Whittaker, where then Izzy gets the winner of Whittaker versus Pineda. Well, the case that I'm making is one that's full of money.

Because you don't want to squander this rematch, right? I mean, that's the case. If you're a promotion, you know that that's the fight to make. I mean, everybody's going to want to see it again. I don't think anybody's going to walk into that fight being like, oh, this guy just has Israel's number. He's going to, it's going to be, you know, 4-0 for Alex. I think everybody's intrigued as ever after that fight on Saturday, because people saw that Israel had that fight. Like, it was in the palm of his hands. And all of the talk about, oh, this guy's, you know, he can't go five rounds.

He doesn't know what he's getting into here. Completely, that narrative's gone. It's out the window. Rip up that piece of paper and throw. Completely, that narrative's gone. It's out the window. Rip up that piece of paper and throw it away because that's what makes this rematch a necessity. I just think that unless, again, there's some sort of health ramifications here, it's the clear fight to make next. Yeah, yeah.

You nailed it. I love Robert Whitaker, but you nailed it. I didn't want to let any time go by, though, without giving you a chance to comment on what's going on in Connecticut. And I don't just mean, you know, my career or Chuck Mendenhall's. I mean, greater Danbury, Bethel, Connecticut, and what

that gym's doing with Glover Teixeira for Nelly Feliz Sr. I mean, look, Dom Reyes did not have a great comeback fight. That's a separate topic though. But they not got two world champions out of that gym. Glover getting a chance to regain his back. Is this just like right two or three group of guys at the right time?

Or do you think that Glover's building something special there? Yeah, I think that Glover's, you know, Teixeira, mixed martial arts is going to be a destination for people. And you look at that coaching team, you've got him, you've got Polino Cruz, you mentioned Feliz. I mean, it's just a really solid team that is building great fighters. We also do have to point out, though, on that card, the two fighters from that gym that fought prior to Alex lost.

And Alex has to have that in the back of his head going into that final fight, right? So while they are building a lot of good talent, I still think that the cream is going to rise to the top. And it was sad to see Dominic Reyes lose in the way that he did. Wellington Turman, I think, was a little bit outmatched as well. But I just think that that is a great situation for those

fighters because they can focus entirely on fighting. I don't know how familiar you are with the greater Danbury area, but I can't imagine that there are too many distractions from the fighting world. Do you guys watch the UFC countdown? Yes. My favorite is, it's like a Rambo scene and you've got Alex with the archery

and the bow and arrow and you see him in the trees and then it just turns out to be like Glover's backyard and he's out on the porch waving to him. I just thought that that was a weird cinematic choice. But yeah, I just think that these guys could focus entirely on fighting and that's what makes it such a cool gym and a good situation for these fighters.

Also, we didn't really talk about it on Saturday. We don't have time to get into it today. It does seem like, yes, it's a good place for fighters to go to, but the Glover-Alex connection appears to be extra special, right? That appears to be something that they're both getting from each other that I'm not sure they can even share with the wider gym no matter what they had they seem to have some kind of you know Yoda Luke Skywalker kind of bond going on um and it's lifting uh their performances to put it mildly all right let's talk about the co-main event here

Aaron Zhong Wai Li I mean this one of all the fights on the card you know this one in the Aaron Blanchfield ones we kind of saw coming sure enough we did think that Carla Esparza put up a little bit better of a fight than maybe some of her most negative detractors would have thought but in the end it was academic Zhang Wai Li gets the submission from crucifix if you can believe that shit I'm all right yeah the crucifix from the back so let me ask the question this way. How long will this championship reign of Zhong Wai Li last, Aaron Bronstetter? Well, I think that we are buying into a little bit of recency bias

here, because going into this fight, you heard people talking about this, and as the fight went on, you're thinking, outside of a catastrophic injury, there's no path here for Carla Esparza. As difficult as that is to say, because we're talking about a championship fighter, it's no path here for Carla Esparza. As difficult as that is to say, because we're talking about a championship fighter, it's like, where was the path?

Anytime they got into grappling exchanges, Zhang had answers. And that's Carla's primary weapon, and she was able to completely nullify it. I think that Zhang Weili looked really good in that fight, and also in the Ioana fight, as a result of the quality of opponent. Not necessarily that Zhang Weili is at this stage so much head and shoulders above the rest. I mean, she's lost twice to Rose. I think that we're seeing Amanda Lemos start to come on as well, and I think, selfishly, that's the fight I would like to see next, because I just think there would be an amazing matchup. You know, Andrade got caught by Zhang Weili in that first fight. That doesn't necessarily mean

that she can't beat her if they were to match up again. I just think right now Zhang is riding so high based on what we've seen from her recently that it makes it difficult to think that anybody's going to be able to beat her. But that being said, I think that might just be the matchup in those situations for her. I thought those were very favorable matchups and you can always look really, really good in those situations. Okay. To some degree, I agree on the favorable matchups there. I also agree that, that, you know, she's in the conversation here for two-time champion,

the way she's rounding out her game, the, the, the, how dominant she is in certain skills, Young-Huei Lee's entering the conversation soon of, you know, potentially being the best strawweight we've ever seen in this deep great division but Luke asking you how long the reign will last really really resides in whether she can finally get over that Rose Hill and while I'm more of a Rose Homer and you know five-star review on that documentary there UFC fight pass well done um I want that trilogy next to ultimately decide that but here's the deal i think if we're going to take a lot from this performance from way lee mixed with the other

two performances one win one loss since losing her belt it's how she's rounding out her ground game first in wrestling now showing you what you can do with the with the you know submission game here too that's going to help her completely round out and be great against against anybody but i think it's the striking gap that's still preventing her her completely round out and be great against anybody. But I think it's the striking gap that's still preventing her from getting over the hill against Rose. I want to know, AB, if you agree with that and what you think a line would look like betting-wise if Rose versus Weili was next for the trilogy.

I think Weili would be probably a minus 150 favorite if I had to guess, something along those lines. I think, like you mentioned with Wei Li, the well-roundedness is her biggest thing. On the feet, she can hang with anybody. On the ground, she can hang with anybody. So you're going to have to fight a pretty perfect game plan, like Rose did last year at MSG, mind you, to beat somebody as good as Zhongwei Li. If she fights Lemos, I think Lemos has a really good power advantage against anybody in that division. She's got a crazy knockdown rate compared to the next best one in the strawweight division. And she's got a pretty good submission game as well.

However, she's also, I think, going to be 36 by the time they would match up if they do end up making that fight. I would like to see some new challengers emerge in this division. And we've seen the same champions. It's been like a carousel of the same champions as Strawweight because there's been such an elite class of them. I'm hoping that there will be at least another challenger that will rise to the occasion and become a threat. But, yeah, Wei Li, I think, right now,

would be favored against anybody in the division. A.B., if they liked your plan and went with Lamos next just for what you said, let's mix it up, let's get new people in, we don't have to have trilogies of every matchup right now. If they did it in China, that would make a lot more sense marketing-wise as, you know, Wei Li represents a very big opportunity for them to

continue to make inroads there. If that plays out that way, and they prefer Rose to get another shot, do you have a preference here, matchmaking-wise, on who Rose would need to fight that could be like a quasi number one contenders match? Probably Lemos, right? Like, I mean, if you want to get Rose back into the mix.

Under this scenario, Lemos would fight the champion. So that would leave an open. So then it's Rose against someone else. Maybe Andrade again. I'll have a trilogy fight between them. But Andrade is moving to 125 for her next fight against Lauren Murphy, right? So then, by process of elimination,

who's left? I mean, would it be Marina Rodriguez? There's not a whole lot of options right now at the top of that division, unless there's something I'm forgetting. Jan Schaunan or Mackenzie Dern. Jan Schaunan is a good one, too, because she just beat Mackenzie Dern,

so she's in that mix. Rose versus Jan Schaunan is a good one too because she just beat mackenzie dern so she's in that mix rose versus yon shanon's a good one i like that okay yeah i don't think he has the love for the 115 like i do luke i think he just shared that with the with the world okay okay it's rose i'm not sure i'm not sure anyone has love for 115 quite like you do okay rose versus whaley three is next because people like stories and money okay thank you very much. Hey, Aaron, just real quickly on Carla Esparza. How do you view long-term the role she played in this era of strawweight? Because on the one hand, she had a great winning streak over legit competition, some of those by the skin of her teeth, but she did stack Ws on top of each other.

She was a two-time champion, one of which she won awfully, but one time she won quite spectacularly and thoroughly. And yet when we think about the heavy hitters of this era of the Ioannas, the Jean Wiley's, the Roses, Carla seems to be orbiting a little bit outside of that space, despite being a two-time champion. How do you view her placement relative to those other ones in this era of women's strawweight? I think Carla's legacy is kind of set now. I mean, she was, her story is, she's the first champion of the division in the history of the UFC, and then after, I think

it was, what, eight years, was able to somehow claw her way back into a position to win the title, and regardless of how it's won, she still won that fight. You know, you can say it was a boring fight, but she did what was needed at that time. Her game plan was enough to stifle Rose to the point that

Rose became a completely defensive fighter for whatever reason on that night that she was able to recapture the title. So, that's Carla Esparza's story, and it's a great story. You know, I don't think that people should be writing her off in the way that she has been after that event. I saw, like, Nico Montano comparisons. I don't know. She ran

the gauntlet of the toughest strawweights that were available to her in the Ultimate Fighter House to become the champion. Lost to Joanna. You know, had Joanna been in the house, maybe she never would have been champion to begin with. But that being said, she's always going to be the first strawweight champion in UFC history. And that story is always going to exist that so many years later, she was able to recapture the title. And that'll inspire future champions as well. So I don't think anybody should be taking anything away from Carla Spars after this. She ran into a really bad matchup that I think stylistically her back was up against the wall, you know, right from the jump. Yeah. In the era of 205, when it was the division of Kings, guys like Renato Sobral never got a title,

but they were always kind of right there, giving the other guys usually tough fights and then beating everybody else. She kind of reminds me a little bit, a little bit of that. Uh, although, you know, being a two-time title holder is a little bit different as well. All right, let's talk about the crazy ass fight on this card. Jeez Louise, Dustin Poirier submits Michael Chandler in the third round, but not without a little bit of controversy, including some potential cheating controversy, which I want to get to. But first, AB, the first question to ask you is the following. What did Dustin Poirier prove with this win? He proved what he always proves. He just does not go away. You have to put him out if you want to beat him, because down the

stretch, he will always be the better fighter. And, you know, watching the fight backstage, Chandler's nailing him with big shots in the first night. And I'm saying to people next to me, I go, Poirier's got him right where he wants him. And they're like, what are you talking about? Like, Chandler's pouring it on him right now. This fight could end at any second. I'm like, no, no, no. This is what Dustin Poirier wants. He wants Chandler to put all of his eggs in one basket, throw the kitchen sink at him early on, because down the stretch, he's going to be able to, you know, for him, this was sprint versus marathon. That's exactly what this was. This was a sprint for Michael Chandler. Get this guy out of there by any means possible early on. And if not,

you know, you're going to lose this fight. And that's what happened. I mean, at the end of the first round, when Chandler's gas tank started to dwindle, Poirier poured it on and stole that round with those big strikes to end it. Second round, Chandler does things smart, takes him down, wins the round by controlling him, is able to catch his breath. And then by the third round, he wasn't able to catch enough breath. And Dustin Poirier is a builder. He might be one of the best builders in the history of MMA, because as the fight goes on, he solves the puzzle, and then he is able to best you and put it on you in ways that are very, very violent and very, very determined. And that's what he did on Saturday, and that's what he will continue to do for as long as you allow him to be in a fight.

Because I don't think we're going to see Dustin Poirier lose a decision, unless it's against a guy like Islam who wrestles him. Because as the fight goes on, his power never seems to go away. He seems to be able to maintain his cardio, and his will just continues to grow and grow as the fight goes on his power never seems to go away he seems to be able to maintain his cardio and his will just continues to grow and grow as the fight goes on yeah this was everything we wanted it to be and and i think more i think it actually exceeded the wild expectations that this fight had coming in where we're like okay give it a round around and a half it'll be a incredible brawl, and then somebody's going down. God, there were like 17 near finishes, like Steamboat versus Savage here, you know what I'm saying here?

In that regard, I felt it was going to be over at so many different points. So the stakes for this changed in a weird way coming in. Alexander Volkanovsky announced 24 hours before to get the next lightweight title shot. So I want to ask you a two-part question on if that hadn't happened, if that fight hadn't been announced, if it was still wide open, would we be talking about Dustin Poirier getting a third full crack at this lightweight title after this exact performance? And on that flip side, if it is going to be Volkanovski next, what did Poirier secure beyond respect and another great name on his resume?

Poirier was able to remind everybody what he's made of and that he is a championship caliber fighter. You know, one fight does not make a career and that loss to Charles Oliveira when Charles Oliveira was on fire. You know, I think that that is something that Dustin Poirier coming off of two Conor fights might not have been prepared for at the time. But right now you look at this kind of performance and it just reminds you just how good Dustin Poirier coming off of two Conor fights might not have been prepared for at the time. But right now, you look at this kind of performance and it just reminds you just how good Dustin Poirier is. And on the flip side, you know, my colleague Robin Black at TSN raised a very good point about Michael Chandler. Michael Chandler is not making the best decisions in there

because he wants to put on a show. He wants to perform. And it's worked out for him great from a lucrative standpoint. He's making a lot of money. He's getting bonuses. You know, he just extended his contract with the UFC, got a new contract rather. And he's fighting to entertain. And I think for Michael Chandler, that'll do really well for his bank account. But he makes a lot of mistakes along the way as a result of that. And he's run into

three elite fighters in Gaethje, Oliveira, and now Poirier, where had he fought a little bit smarter, maybe been a little bit more calculated in his decisions rather than trying to put on a show, maybe he would have won some of those fights. So I think that, you know, the success of Dustin Poirier also is a symptom of Michael Chandler perhaps not having the best game plan in these fights and not thinking long term in terms of how the fight is going to play out and really trying to gas pedal a lot of these opponents. Dustin Poirier is absolutely the wrong fighter to gas pedal because down the stretch, he will outrun you.

I don't know, Luke. I want to argue that. You brought up a good idea, Luke, about Chandler potentially trying to take some of that energy and focusing it more in one strategic area, which isn't too different from what AB's trying to present here. But I just look at Chandler at 36, coming over from Bellator, even though Eddie Alvarez had made that same conversion, we did remember the Will Brooks story where it wasn't going to be automatic, but I think he took all of his abilities that were left in elite and rolled them into one giant punch. And is it reckless? Yes, but he was that close to winning the damn lightweight title.

And in his mid to late thirties in this killer top 10 of great old names going on and new ones coming in, I can almost argue that this is the best use of his powers as reckless as it is. And it can cause big mistakes, but he also can break people that barrage of punches. He put on in the second half of round one before, as you mentioned, it looked like he started to gas. You know, if you don't have the chin and ability of Poirier right there,

you're probably getting knocked out. And that's what he does in financially rewarding, but he may also get Conor next for all we know. So, you know, I wonder if had he gone the other way and fought as straight up, I mean, he's given up size in a lot of these matchups too against the elite lightweights. I mean, his record may end up being the exact same. So instead he did it his way, had fun,

lived a rock star lifestyle and cashed big checks. And because of how reckless he is, it's going to help the aging process because we're never going to know exactly what he has left. Does that make any sense? Or am I just trying to mimic my career after his attitude here? Because I'm about entertainment too, Luke, okay? AB, here's where I'm at on this one.

I think I'd split the difference a little bit. My view on it is in the three fights that he lost, if he had fought a little bit more strategically, I think he probably could have won at most one of those more so like do I think the results would be different and again I mean I'm just making this up I don't I don't have evidence to prove it but it's sort of my sense of things that had he tailored his fighting strategies a little bit more in line with like a coordinated strategic vision of things could he have gotten another win maybe even two it's

possible I don't think he would have gotten the two but I do think he would have gotten at least one of them but the reality is to BC's point it's not a major trade-off in wins losses I mean you know three or two and three doesn't look great but it would with three and two is not significantly better and more to the point he has made himself like such an attraction to the fans and to potential opponents down the line by virtue of how much this buzz is created in the way in which he's come over and fought so like I get that there could be more wins on the ledger but it's hard for me to believe he'd be quite the sensation and then setting himself up for other things in the way if had he fought a

more strategic version of things like in other words I'm not going to say it's all the wash I actually think he probably made the right call in the end to do what he's doing oh yeah I mean I wouldn't argue the other way on that I think that if he ends up getting the Conor fight because right now I think he's by far the most attractive option there then him fighting for bank account is gonna pay off he might not be the champion of the UFC but if he gets a fight with Conor I don, I think that he would probably prefer that to becoming a UFC champion. I think that would be a massive attraction fight.

I think, honestly, when Conor is ready to come back, I think they're going to present him with two options. Do you want Tony Ferguson, or do you want Michael Chandler? And I think those are going to be the two possibilities for Conor in his return. I think Chandler has the early lead in that regard. So if that's what Chandler, you know, when Chandler came to the UFC, he said, I'm here for a good time, not a long time. And that has proven to be very, very true.

Well, AB, quickly on this, because I was so enthralled and entertained and we knew these guys would do this. Of this lightweight era of action heroes, which is Poirier, Chandler, Eddie Alvarez was in there, Gaethje still making them great, you know, Tony, Conor, I mean, all those guys kind of fought each other the best they could. Where does this Saturday's Chandler versus Poirier, in your eyes, rank in terms of the best action fights those guys have produced? It's up there, but I actually think Chandler versus Alvarez was probably, like, those two fights were probably better than that one this past weekend. And, you know,

you hate to use recency bias because that was such a great fight, but I think Gaethje versus Alvarez was better. I think Gaethje versus Poirier was better. Gaethje versus Chandler may have even been better. Like, Gaethje is really producing the best results of the bunch in terms of these action fights, if you look at what he's been able to produce since coming to the UFC,

I mean, that guy's just never in boring fights. So if I were to, like, give an award for, you know, best action star, if I was handing out the Oscar for that, the action hero would be Justin Gaethje. I think that his fights are just always, always entertaining. I mean, hey, look at Michael Chandler also. He hasn't produced a dud yet either. That's interesting. Gaethje's been in the best ones, though.

Gaethje has tried his best to tailor his caveman crazy style and make it a little bit more title contending, and maybe that took a little bit off of his, yeah, I'm just going to go out there to make the kind of shit that Chandler's making purposely every single time. But to your point, Gaethje might have been in the better ones overall in this stretch. I mean, Gaethje versus Eddie, Gaethje versus Poirier.

I mean, they've just been, I mean, we've been spoiled. We've been spoiled across the board. Luke, you don't like to rank action fights, but they're awesome, okay? Well, I got to say, I think I agree with AB that Gaethje has been probably the greatest catalyst for exciting fights. But fucking Chandler's knockout of Ferguson is, wow. That is, that's up there with one of the best knockouts I've ever fucking seen. You know what I mean?

So the overall body of work probably goes to Gaethje, but that individual piece of brilliance would go to Chandler in terms of like guys coming over to UFC from other organizations. A couple more points on this fight I want to get to with you, AB. Number one, the fish hooking allegation. Now there's a video that came out. I don't like to accuse fighters of cheating unless we have like NFL rules, incontrovertible evidence. I don't know that we have incontrovertible evidence, but there is a very slowed down piece of video where you can see he doesn't quite have the choking arm. And then he lifts his hand like this and pulls and then slides. It's hard to know exactly what really went in his mouth or what Michael Chandler knew he was pulling. It's a little hard to say, but it doesn't look great for Chandler. What do you make of this?

Oh, my God. Cheating in MMA. Ooh. This never happens, does it? It's the referee's job. Stand him up. Take a point. We see this all the time. People are making a big deal of this.

Yeah, it's dirty. Do we see dirty stuff in MMA all the time? Do we see cage grabs? Do we see people grabbing the gloves? It looks a lot dirtier. I mean, that's the thing. Optically, it's a lot more visceral to see somebody stomp their hand in someone's mouth and lift their mouth up.

But again, the referee's got to be on top of the action there and do something about it. Otherwise, we're just going to keep seeing cheating and fouls that don't get called. And it's hard also because taking a point away, it has such a profound effect on a three-round fight that the referees often won't do it. But, you know, at least take away position or do something that's going to penalize a fighter for doing something like that. And I know Dustin Poirier was furious about it. In fact, there was also a clash of heads in the first round that a lot of people didn't see that rocked Dustin Poirier. Like, that was really the catalyst for that big barrage that Michael Chandler was able to land. I actually told Poirier when I interviewed him afterwards, I go, you know, that was like a clash of heads.

He goes, oh, I knew it. He goes, I blacked out. I didn't see anything coming. And it just, in the first round, that was one of the things that, and, you know, the referee kind of missed it. He probably could have called the timeout and let Dustin Poirier recover. But, you know, obviously the referee's going to have the angle that they're going to have and these things happen at such a blink of

an eye that oftentimes you won't catch it but again it's one of those situations where i think a lot of people are making more of it than they normally would some sort of foul that is committed during a fight that doesn't really have anything happen as a result of it well maybe i think they're missing it fish hooking fouls are gross as shit though like of all time gross fouls that's gross as fuck okay well you guys are both missing that's why people pay more attention to it i'm sorry to interrupt your conversation guys but you're both missing a big part of this equation which is why the fans were so grossed out and also why poirier was so pissed is we've

seen before when the fighter on top is bleeding as chandler was that they sort of try to angle the dripping of their blood to fall in the face of their opponent to blind him we've seen that before but chandler according to poirier and we've got video and have you seen the shit that might prove it chandler was shooting bloody snot rockets like aiming them at poirier's face while trying to land round and pound that's next level grimy to me that goes beyond holding the gloves or grabbing the fence would you agree that that's enough to a justify how pissed poirier was but b like we do have to say did chandler go like morally a little bit too far here with that grossness i took a refereeing course and

snot rockets are not one of the fouls that are illegal in mma so snot rockets are fair game in terms of mma now of course if he's fish hooking him and holding his mouth open to shoot snot rockets into his nose that's where the foul that's where the foul. This really is a stupid show. I really have to just say that out loud here. We're talking about shooting boogers in each other's mouths. But I think there is a line. I think that does cross to me. Well,

you know what I mean? Like that does cross to me a line of, of what's acceptable. I'd be pissed if I was poor. I'd go right for the nuts. If I was him, I would have, I would have gone right.

I didn't. He wanted to knock them out in the third. Dude, Poirier tried to open his cut with two hands. This was after, uh, you can't do that. I would have. I would have gone right after him. He knocked him out in the third. Dude, Poirier tried to open his cut with two hands. This was after Chandler shot Snot Rocket. Yeah, you can't do that shit. Alright, last question on this and we'll move on to something else on the card.

Benil Dariush. Now, I had him. I interviewed him. He just is not interested at all in calling anyone out. But geez, Luis, man. Aaron, you know this as well as I do. That guy has earned himself something. What does the UFC do with Benil Dariush? And here's the caveat, if they're trying to do right by him. Easy answer. You book him against Dustin Poirier. I think that's the fight to make. And I think that would figure out the rightful number one contender in this division.

Benil, I think, knows he needs to wait a little bit if he's going to try to get a title fight off of his last win. But I also think that he wants to be busy. He took a little bit of time off. He had a child and dedicated a lot of his time, of course, to his family during that time. So I think he wants to stay busy. And I think him versus Dustin Poirier would be a phenomenal

fight night main event that you can make if you're going to start going back to bigger arenas for fight nights. That's the kind of fight that you want to see headlining you can make if you're going to start going back to bigger arenas for fight nights. That's the kind of fight that you want to see headlining a fight night if you're going to be buying tickets to an event. I think they have to make that fight happen next and basically say that the winner of this fight should be number one for the lightweight championship.

All right, I totally agree. Let's move on now to number four. I've got this question worded a different way, but I'd like to start with this. Frankie Edgar. That sucked to watch, candidly. He gets flatlined by Chris Gutierrez in the first, seemed to be barely in the fight at all. I'll just pitch this one to you, and I want to talk about some other players on this card in relation to Frankie. First things first, Aaron, your response to what happened with Frankie Edgar any thoughts about

his career what do you want to say about Frankie Edgar now that this is the last time we'll talk about him post-fight well Frankie Edgar is just an absolute legend I mean look at those fights that he had against Gray Maynard would you have imagined that his chin would have held up as long as it did to the point where he started to just start getting knocked that knocked out in the later part of his career and he was he was one of the most durable guys that we've ever seen in the sport. And eventually, when you fight eight hours of UFC fight time, that chin is not going to have as much hold as it has in the past. And that's what we saw on Saturday, unfortunately.

And, you know, it was awful to watch. At MSG, to see him drop like that, but at the same time, that's Chris Gutierrez doing his job. And also, when you really unpack it, Chris Gutierrez is fighting with the emotions of finding out that his coach had kidney cancer, leaves the hospital, comes to New York, walking around with a cane to be in his corner. I don't think he cares about Frankie Edgar and Frankie Edgar's health in that moment. You know, he's doing what he has to do to win that fight and fight for his coach, who has a pretty remarkable battle in front of him as well. But we always hate to see fighters like this. And then you look ahead to this card in Brazil.

We've got Shogun Hua against Ihor Poteria. Why are they booking these fights? Like, why are you taking these guys that have a foot out the door and putting them against people that have no profile in the sport at this point in time no disrespect to chris gutierrez or poteria book a fight where you know that he has a shot of at least producing something exciting like dominant book him against dominic cruz or book him against uriah faber like we options here. There's no reason to have him fight somebody that's going to try to build a name off of him at MSG in his backyard in his

final fight. Like, to me, I just don't like that kind of booking. I don't think it makes sense. And they always say there's no easy fights in the UFC. I subscribe to that. But at least give the fans something that they can enjoy watching instead of having all of the air come out of the building when you see an absolute legend go down like that in Frankie Edgar. It was horrible to watch. The backstage where I was, it was completely silent after the fact. Everybody's concerned about the guy. And you have to be concerned about his long-term health after all of these.

Like, you look at the Korean zombie knockout, the Ortega knockout. Like, these are vicious, vicious knockouts. And for him to end his career like that, I think, is something that didn't need to happen. Let me follow up real quickly, if I may. What is the biggest Frankie Edgar fight we didn't get? Is the answer Dominic Cruz? Oh, like, that could have been booked for this past weekend?

Yeah, probably Dominic Cruz. But not even this past weekend, but, like, in the totality of the Frankie Edgar experience, what was the one like we just didn't get? Yeah, I mean, Frankie versus Cruz is a good one. There's not a whole lot of history there because Cruz is like the WEC guy and Frankie Edgar is the guy who moved from 55 down to 35 eventually.

So I'm not really sure if that would have necessarily been the one to make. But I think that would have been... Conor's the answer, guys. Guys, Conor McGregor's the answer. That's kind of the one to make, but I think that would have been... Conor's the answer, guys. Guys, Conor McGregor's the answer. That's kind of the one that got away, I guess. Yeah, it should have been Conor McGregor. There was that window. The window was there twice, actually, to be fair. Didn't happen. Yeah, for sure. At some point, that would have been a cool one to make also, especially with the lightweight division not being quite as developed historically as it was at that point

in time, where Edgar at that time was probably the best champion the division ever had. All right, now let me follow that up here with staying on this idea of guys being potentially done. Now, Frankie's in a very different scenario than the other two gentlemen I'm about to mention. I'm not making this claim to say that they are equivalent, but rather that one situation gives us some concern or some pause or something to think about with the other two, namely Dominic Reyes and Brad Riddell. Dominic Reyes getting flatlined in the first round for the third time in a row. Well, he got flatlined in the second round in the other two, but flatlined ultimately for the third time in a row. Brad Riddell getting finished in the first round for the second time. Now, Brad Riddell just took to Instagram to say he's taking a break from MMA. I can't read the whole

long thing, but he's basically saying that I'm going to, you know, let's see, I'm going to step away from competing in MMA for a good while until the fire to compete comes back. I'm not performing close to my capability, which I agree with. And it's a dangerous job if you're not fully present. Totally agree. Really admire this from him. But it now leads us to this conversation about Dominic Reyes. What the fuck does he do, AB? Well, Dominic Reyes did what Brad Riddell is doing.

He took time off. When I spoke to him at weigh-ins, this was a completely different guy. He was so rejuvenated, so reborn, so excited about getting in there. You know, to see him lose to Ryan Spann that way, I think it's just, that's got to be so devastating for him on a personal level. To go forward at this stage, I don't know, man. Who can you put him against that you're not going to be worried is going to just crack him and put him out in the first round in this division?

I still think Dominic Reyes is a really, really good fighter, but it's very difficult to watch him lose like that so many times in a row, especially when he was so close to becoming the light heavyweight champion. I think that took a mental toll on him that we will never know, and that maybe he will never know, in terms of his motivation to perform in this sport. But I do hope that if Dominic Reyes chooses to continue his career, that he's given a more winnable fight for him to try to at least get himself on the right page mentally going forward where he can have a win that will rejuvenate him just a little bit.

But after those three losses, if he wanted to retire or if the UFC wanted to part ways with him and say, listen i you know we're a little bit worried about where this is going to go i wouldn't be shocked either way yeah he already put on ig that um he tried too hard to make a big statement you know it's all his fault he'll be fine he'll be back but at 32 it's like if they did cut him you know you'd have to believe other promotions to be jumping over themselves to try to rejuvenate him themselves. So, yeah, this is a very interesting spot. How many more? I mean, does his age alone get him one more opportunity here, Aaron? I think so. And, you know, talking to him again in the lead up to this past fight, he was talking about how much he'd shored up his fight defense, how much his striking defense rather. And watching the fight, like, listen, I've never been in there.

It's not for me to say, you know, what is this guy doing? But that's what I was saying when I was watching that fight because it seemed like he had no striking defense at that point in time. He wasn't defending himself. And he explained that in his Instagram post after the fact that he just wanted to get that win so badly that it seemed like all of the fundamentals that he had learned going into that fight and the mantra that he would have wanted to carry into that fight was completely absent.

And that's what makes me feel even worse for him is because I think he knows he could have performed better in that fight had he not gotten a little bit overzealous. I would like to see him fight one more time in the UFC. I still think that there's something left in there for him to prove and that with the right opponent and the right mentality going into a fight the right strategy and following the game plan i think that he can look a lot better than he did on

saturday uh before we finish off on frankie edgar do you have a favorite frankie edgar moment favorite frankie edgar win something that stands out to you among the rest and frankie edgar events i can't remember if it ended up being a draw but when he was basically 10-7 against gray maynard in the first round of that fight, and then came back, was that one the draw? Or did he win that fight? I can't even remember because there were so many of them.

But that fight, to me, him being able to withstand that and continue to fight and make it a competitive fight, how many examples of that have we seen ever in MMA? You may be able to count them on one finger. That may be it. I don't know if we've ever seen somebody get smoked like that and then continue for a five round fight and look at that. Like that to me is one of the most remarkable performances in MMA history, not just in the history of Frankie Edgar. Yeah. That's, that's Juan Manuel Marquez getting

dropped three times in the first round against Pacquiao and fighting back and getting a draw in their first fight. It's as rare that type of scenario as you can possibly see, and that's Frankie. So that is the perfect example. Not even a win, right? But that's Frankie. That's probably the biggest win he ever had without getting one. That's why he is revered and adored.

All right, last but not least, Aaron, it's an open floor. What else from UFC 281, topic number five here, what else from UFC 281, number five here what else from UFC 281 which had a lot to pick out give me one more fight winner something that you'd like to spotlight now and tell us why you're giving it that spotlight well we have to talk about Aaron Blanchfield I mean I was 22 or 23 years old just completely demolishing Molly McCann, who had all the momentum in the world going into that fight. Like, that was an utter demolition. No other way to put it.

And then I talked to her after the fact, and she is the most even-keeled human being you will ever meet. Like, nothing fazes her. She goes into these fights completely emotionally detached from it and looks at it completely as sport. Like, it's all about sportsmanship for her. It's all about being able to prove that she's, you know, basically it's an athletic competition for her. And I think that that's what we're going to see a lot of from the younger stars of mixed martial arts.

Because for them, they didn't grow up in, like, the, like, Hank Abbott, Hoist Gracie weirdo tournament phase of the UFC. They grew up watching Ronda Rousey and, you know, Conor McGregor and George St. Pierre. This, to them, is a sport. We still have the circus part of MMA in our heads at all times. We grew up in this. But she did not. And a lot of these younger fighters

did not either. So, I think that she's going places. She's just so good, so well-rounded. I tried to prod her and be like, when Molly you know, when Molly said, this is my city and you guys were facing off, I could tell that you, a little bit of you was angry about that. She was like, oh no, you know, it's, it's just part of the show and we're going to go into this and I'm just going to compete. And she just is so even keel and is just such an impressive human being inside and outside of the cage. So that's why I want to shine a spotlight on her yeah hashtag holy hammer indeed take that luke okay she's making

noise whether you're ready for it or not new jersey is in the house uh aaron quickly on my end and then i can uh hit eject here but uh no one brought this up and i'm surprised uh perera barely made weight poeton it seemed and then knocked out Izzy in the fifth round. He's a two-division champion in glory. Is this a, this guy a long-term threat at 205 in the UFC, or should I, you know, take my turn here and slow my roll? I think his game is more conducive to 205, so absolutely. Like, this, he looked huge compared to Izzy in the cage. You know, a lot of people were trying to downplay that,

but he looked a lot bigger than him. He's taller than him for starters, and not a lot of people in the division in general are taller than Israel. And he just looked massive. So I think 205 could certainly be on the horizon for him down the line. Of course, if Glover ends up winning the title, that fight obviously is not going to happen.

But if Yuri ends up winning, perhaps we see somebody try to avenge the loss of their mentor in Hollywood style and see Poiton move up to 205 and try to become a champ, champ, champ, champ, so to speak, with two kickboxing divisional titles and then two in MMA. But let's not get too far ahead of it. But I think that that's something that we should certainly look at. And another thing we didn't talk about was the stoppage itself, which I thought was a great stoppage by Mark Goddard,

but a lot of people seem to disagree. Yeah, Luke, where do you stand on that stoppage? Because I didn't have an issue one bit, but it is a conversation. Yeah, I don't think I had really an issue with it. And, you know, I mean, there's always the argument that let's fifth round title fight, very experienced fighters, big stakes, let it go a little bit longer but my view is basically that he jumped in at an acceptable time maybe a slightly early for me but acceptable and there's a window of acceptability and it's inside of that for me and also it just seemed to me like he probably saved is he a vicious fucking ko um to be honest with you so yeah you're right um luke i want to remind you that december 8th i think it was just announced, the World MMA Awards are going to have their, whatever, 18th annual affair there in Las Vegas.

I think that's a Thursday night. Of course, you know, MK's up for back-to-back best MMA programming against, you know, Rogan and Ariel and all these people that really make it impossible for us to dream that we could, you know, lift such hardware in the air. But here we are. Luke, our friend Aaron Bronstetter is going to find out, along with us, that night if he can crack the code of what has been Ariel Helwani's, you know, Ripken-esque streak of best MMA journalist.

You know, I just happen to be a big Bronstetter fan, so I'm cheering for him here, Luke. But, you know, can you give him a pep talk, something? I mean, you didn't believe in us, and here we are, Luke, okay? Do you believe in Bron? A. Bron is the king here. I told everyone who would listen I didn't believe in us, and then we'd win. So, Aaron Bronstetter, I'm here to tell you I don't believe in you.

Well, thank you. I mean, listen, No. 16 Colgate usually does not beat No. 1 Duke, but I'll take my one in a thousand chance and try to be Cinderella on that night. But listen, the field for this award is just like I'm in such great company. I shouldn't forget our friend Shaheen, who's a brilliant, brilliant writer. Just to be in that kind of company alone I consider to be a win. So I'm just happy to have made it to the show. I am like number 16 Colgate in this situation. That's how I feel. I'm just happy to be on CBS for the opening weekend.

Well, we love having you on the show, Aaron. So thank you for your service. Before we hit the eject button, real quickly, your assessment, your thoughts on Anthony Rumble Johnson passing at the age of 38. Yeah, I never, I got to spend one day in my entire MMA career

with Anthony Rumble Johnson. It was before I was covering the sport. And I was a guest booker and he came to TSN with Daniel Cormier prior to their rematch in Buffalo. And the two of them were just like buddy-buddy there, which you don't see often when you have two people matched up. But, you know, in terms of him as a person,

I didn't really get to know him, but as a fighter, I don't think that people can underestimate just how powerful of a man this was. Like, he knocked out Glover Teixeira, who hadn't been knocked out since his debut, I think it was 12 years prior, in 13 seconds. He was the first person to knock out Alexander Gustafson,

and he did it inside of two and a half minutes. Like, I mean, the kind of power that this man had is nothing. Like, could he have been the most powerful puncher in the history of MMA pound for pound? It's a possibility. Like, he's up there with the Francis and Ganoush of the world. Just absolutely devastating power. And you look at the shot that he hit Daniel Cormier with.

For Daniel Cormier to survive that, and I think Cormier has said that that was the biggest shot he's ever taken in a fight. I think that's going to be what he's remembered for, is being one of the best fighters to never win a title. And also, just for that legendary power. You don't see that kind of power come along very often in this sport, and he absolutely possessed it. So rest in peace.

It's always sad to see young people, especially with Elias Theodoro recently in his late 30s, now Anthony Johnson in his late 30s, he's just got to count your blessings. Every day above ground is a good day, and be happy for what we have in this world. And if you look at Anthony Johnson's last Instagram, it's kind of like a meme. It was like him slapping his younger self kind of thing. Like, it's hard.

You don't want to live with regrets, but it's always important to just be thankful for what we have in this life. Well said. Go ahead, BC. I was going to say, well said, and it makes us take stock of what we have and be thankful. And I'm here to apologize for openly criticizing your claim that you were a high school athlete, Aaron, because my friendship with you means more than that. I never said I was a high school athlete. Let's not get it twisted here. But of the three options that Luke gave me,

with me being somebody who recreationally played basketball, it was more accurate than me being a mathlete having failed math twice. And then I forgot what the other option was. The third option was something that was also not conducive to who I was as a person. I felt like I had to pull that knife out of your back. Okay, I'm sorry, Aaron. I'm sorry. For you to doubt my athletic abilities, I think is very fair. You need to apologize for absolutely nothing.

Champ Champ does what he wants, Luke. The Champ Champ does what he fucking wants. All the way from Canada with love. Aaron Bronson, if folks want to get more of what you're doing, where do they go? Aaron.report. It has all of my platforms, all of my work in one spot. So I got a domain name specifically to make it easier for me to say it on people's shows like this. Just go to one website, www.aaron.report, and you can find everything there. Aaron, we can't wait to have you back on to recap the first uh uh dick slap competition from dana white we're all very excited so great thanks for being here absolutely my

pleasure guys and i'm not sure if i will be there to recap that but i appreciate the invitation nonetheless thanks ab we'll talk to you soon man all right there he goes the great aaron bronstetter the pride of toronto canada You know how often in MMA when we go, oh, nice guy, but no chance I'd allow him around my kids for more than five minutes. I would give Aaron Bronstetter a kidney, Luke, okay? You know what I'm saying? I wouldn't give him a kidney,

but I would trust him around Tukey, if that's what you mean. Okay, yeah, that's what I mean. That's what I mean. All right. All right. I think it's time we're doing DMs from donks. I don't even know what the fuck we're doing on the show today. How about that?

I'm pretty well prepared. I made the rundown. There you go. He, he, he, he, he,

he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,

he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,

he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,

he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,

he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,

he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,

he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, LLR16, worst name ever. Where does 2022 rank all time for the amount of massive upsets in championship fights? I think I have a stat for this, BC.

Please. Let me find it first, but what's your answer? So my knee-jerk reaction is to remember, I want to say 2016 because it certainly encompassed that, but to me it was like the end of 2015 into 2016. It hit this run where I suddenly felt like anything was possible, right? We had seen, or I had seen in front of my eyes, Nate upset Connor at that point, you know, down big in that second round at 196. Tate rallied that same night for sort of a, you know, crazy finish. And then the big Bisping Rockhold upset that happened at 199. That stretch that year.

And what, did we have Rousey Holm right before that to close 2015? I just really, you know, Aldo losing by one punch against McGregor. That stretch, which was, you know, arguably the best time to be a fan ever leading up to the sale, you know, of the UFC in July of 2016. That stretch to me, I remember, you know, you could bet the underdog of any UFC main event consistently across the board and just make a ton of money. Oh, Robbie Lawler getting one punch by Woodley. I mean, it was that same frigging one-year stretch right there, Luke. Statistically, I don't know if that matches up,

but that's the last time I can remember where we are now, which is, it was just August that Leon Edwards head kicked Kamaru Usman and, you know, different but similar situation in this fight on Saturday. I'm sure I'm missing countless other upsets that went down recently, but yeah, it feels rare. Do you have any kind of time frame or nuggets here to put me in order? Yeah, so here, not so much about 2015, but for 2022, and again again some of

these are interim so just take that for what it's worth but there have been nine new champions if you count interim ufc 270 davison figueredo became the flyweight champ ufc 274 esparza became the women's strawweight champ ufc 275 yuri became the light heavyweight champ ufc 277 moreno became the interim flyweight champ ufc 277 277 again Amanda Nunes recaptures her bantamweight title UFC 278 Leon Edwards of course wins the welterweight crown UFC 280 Islam Makachev and then 281 you had both Zhong Wiley winning women's strawweight and of course Alex Pineda becoming your new middleweight champion so this is just sort of goes to show I said this before even even before Saturday this was true BC if you look at the reign of Israel Adesanya, it's just, he's the second best middleweight of all time,

period. Like he is that guy in MMA, like by a long shot, he's that guy. And you know, these titles are fucking hard to hold onto for any extended period of time. If you can rack up two, three, four, five title defenses, Jesus Christ, man, you are doing something very special. But the worm always turns in this sport, and Pineda's your new champion, and he deserves it. That's the end of the story. Shouldn't we be less proactive to criticize

whether it was, you know, the tail end of GSP's title run when he was so careful, and the stress of keeping his belt led him to, you know, figure out the safest, most efficient ways to do that. And obviously let's take into account Adesanya getting criticized of late. And then he comes out and, you know, fights excitingly. And then I criticize him for standing in the pocket too long against Pereira before I knew about the leg strikes. But, you know, I don't, I don't know. I don't, I don't think we should hold again.

And I know when it happens, it comes more from a casual fan point of view of wanting your pay-per-view money to, you know, have felt like you got your best reward from it in terms of an action fight. But playing it safe sometimes when you're a champion to try to actually put together

a title reign, I mean, it kind of becomes what the job is because there's so many ways to lose this i mean there's so many ways it's ridiculous in this sport there are so many ways to lose at any given time with this not even a full mistake like the hints of a mistake so uh you know i vow in the future luke to to value the w a little bit more uh you know when you don't fight balls out chler style, it can hold you back on getting certain opportunities. But the people that have put together those win streaks that you mentioned, that's, you know, Demetrius Johnson, Anderson Silva, 16 in a row, right? Like Amanda Nunes before that massive upset to Juliana. I mean, it's crazy, Luke. It's crazy.

Looking back, that it ever actually happens because of how this sport's insane. This sport is absolutely insane. It's fucking crazy. It's very, very hard to have sustained success. All right, next. Let's see what we got. From 10pointmaxNMA, does Michael Chandler deliver the best slash most exciting performances in a losing effort of any fighter in UFC history? Uh,

that's fair, right? That's fair. He's up there. He's up there. I'm trying, I mean, that's a hard question to answer off the top of my head.

Um, I mean, there have been guys like, you know, who jumps out at me, you know, Chris Lieben types in certain stretches where they were really strong B side opponents. But like you know who jumps out at me you know chris lieben types in certain stretches where they were really strong b-side opponents but you know whenever they came back up for air

against the elites you knew you'd get a fun fight but you knew they'd get knocked out um chandler's not necessarily that sometimes he can be that against the ultra elite because of his style but you know we were debating who's authored sort of the best action fights in this lightweight modern era if we if we broaden that and just look at the sport as a whole and ask yourself you know, we were debating who's authored sort of the best action fights in this lightweight modern era. If we if we broaden that and just look at the sport as a whole and ask yourself, you know, who have been the I'll use Arturo Gatti as the comparison, because when you hear that name in boxing, you just you know, he got in the Hall of Fame largely because of that ability to just make insane fights. Yes, we have to start talking about Chandler differently, I think, of just what he in five fights in the UFC, he's put on top of already what was a very good career three-time Bellator champion authored many great action fights or or spectacular knockouts but I don't remember being this it's not even this excited that we could get you know elite level wars it's this guaranteed matter of fact expectation now that even if he's fighting

for the title against olivera that chandler's gonna play video game style the entire freaking time even justin gaethje slightly altered his game of late to try to focus more on winning than just going i mean you know that if if he was a full-on caveman gaethje he would have tried that same thing against habib and everybody else but no there came a point in his career where he had to try to play it a little more strategic. Chandler is literally mashing the buttons. Now, I know there's a reason to his rhyme. I'm not saying there's no thought in that. Like, he knows how to get the most out of his explosive attacks.

But Luke, he might be this era's, you know, Arturo Gatti. And sometimes that's more reserved for a guy who's, you know's a journeyman or a guy who takes on more defeats. But for an elite fighter, when was the last time we saw somebody this guarantee? If he's on that card against anybody, it's going to be insane. Guarantee! Yes. I'm not sure where it would go in MMA history because also in Pride, they had a lot of guys who were full of that Bushido spirit who would just fight balls out, not even really trying to win, just trying to entertain. Want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation? Or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam?

What about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space? Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own part of your favorite companies. Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share. It's a piece of cake. Learn more at td.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you.

You know, so like where does Chandler fit in with that? Because it's a different era, different kind of thing. So I'm not sure how to answer it in the totality of MMA, but certainly in modern MMA, I mean, Chuck Liddell, right? Yeah.

No, I don't know about Chuck that way. No, I'm not so sure. Not like Chandler. No. Yeah. He obviously would be another one like that too, but I,

that's a, it's a good question. I have to think about a little bit more, but certainly in the time at which we are right now, there's no one quite like him. Yeah. Gary Paratska is, does things like are right now, there's no one quite like him. Yeah, Gary Prochazka does things like that too, so that's another guy to consider. All right, so let's take a look at question number three, please.

Here we go. This is from Turtle Power. With the success of Pereira and Izzy coming from Glory, how do you think Rico would do at heavyweight? I mean, the answer is probably pretty well. He has fought MMA before um against you know whoever the fuck on you know clown penis dot fart show nothing nothing too difficult to you by cam soda yes got it but the answer is the same right like pineda got guys who weren't really going to

take him down except for bruno silva and that wasn't much of a threat and then izzy got him down a little bit but it wasn't much of a threat again the third round was pretty good by izzy but you know in general one of four on takedowns. We haven't really fully seen him tested at all in MMA against the elite. Again, A.B. seemed to think that it was not crazy, but people were just automatically spelling his demise, which fair enough, you don't know how the fights are going to go, but I've got to tell you, B.C., if he fights Robert Whitaker,

I'm picking Whitaker 10 times out of 10 without much hesitation. So how would Rico do, BC? I think he'd do well, but we don't know. 10 out of 10? I'd save one of those 10. I'd save one. I'd save one. It's a figure of speech.

Maybe two. Maybe two. Rico would obviously do well at heavyweight, but there are wrestling guys at heavyweight, and I just don't know how that would go. Okay. But you don't want to see him against Overeem for the Glory Heavyweight Championship, right? just don't know how that would go. Okay. But you don't want to see him against Overeem for the Glory Heavyweight Championship, right? Oh, I would love to see that.

Sure, I think Rico would win, but I would be happy to see it. Sure. Okay. But this is an MMA. Sure. Right? I got you. So, no thoughts?

Oh, yeah. I thought you nailed it. I'm on that track with you. He'd have to... I mean, look, it's not automatic. Go Kansakiaki luke it didn't last long okay right right izzy is special panetta is special rico is special too but you know i'm not here to tell you panetta's got a great ground game yet it didn't ultimately become a factor outside of that one takedown really so um he seems to be super special in his focus determination willingness

to you know learn and go i mean he goes through we saw footage he goes through wars with clover in practice i don't think they're using modern uh precautions in that gym i think they're just going to war luke then i gotta tell you people talk about how hard that sparring is i've seen way harder that did not look nearly as crazy as some sparring i've seen okay you mean like like are you talking about bettendorf iowa level sparring no i've never seen that but i've been to elite mma gyms where they sparred much harder than that yeah yeah like those guys were definitely sparring hard but i still thought there was method in their madness um yeah that's not nearly as bad as it gets turned out it was just meth yeah yeah all right next uh from cubby's fan 80 where does hanato moicano's post-fight speech

rank amongst the greatest in mma history greatest or worst bc what do you think oh i think it's among the best we're gonna hear it shortly and have you seen this shit so buckle up but you know is it is it was it memorable enough to you to link it like i don't like i'm trying to think recently top four or five years what have we seen i love the rose i'm the best speech that was great uh juliana's pena's speech was emphatic and inspirational derrick lewis you know my balls was was hot was insane i feel like that you know moicano calling himself moicano just put this thing on a new level yeah for some reason it wasn't like nate diaz beating connor then being like i'm not surprised motherfuckers you know it wasn't any of that so it was almost

like where do you rank just great post-fight speeches unrelated to the fight themselves in that sense pretty high as it relates to the fight itself and it was a great win uh but it seems a little unrelated i tell you what it felt like to me bc it felt like he was just trying to announce himself to the world in a way in which he hadn't quite had the chance to do that he's clearly worked on his english um it showed like he he's got a lot of loud opinions it was better than the time that guy shouted out daniel kinnahan yes yeah that was his name laze was that the guy's name lazez munir lazez was i i missed i got the guy wrong the first time i don't want to make that mistakes uh again but um yeah that was not awesome but you know no one cares in the sport you can do

whatever the fuck you can hey here's a sexual predator hey he's my corner man now i can't wait to see if colby's going after desantis 2024 or back with don senior luke this is going to be a he's got a lot of decision making to do right now it will be interesting all right last but not least what do we got from ev harkness favorite rumble fights slash finishes oh yeah this is awful news luke because he's so young like we all wanted to see him against you all we're merrill like there seemed to be some post-career life for him meaning he retired in the ufc on his own terms the great rumble johnson and then came to the bellator and we weren't expecting the world in fact when he fought that late replacement jose augusto it was a crazy war but like he seemed happy he's got his businesses you know he really

worked on uh his business portfolio and in his time off from the ufc but you know we had heard what that he exited bellator with with some um some type of illness that he didn't go public with and now he's gone so this is insanely sad and i thought aaron bronstetter kind of nailed the feeling that we all kind of have but to celebrate what this guy did and i mean like you know that first dc fight as aaron mentioned i mean he's he's he's one punch away from winning the championship right there we almost got to see him against john jones i mean it came pretty damn close uh but he was also once a welterweight so when you talk about like hey who's your favorite people to call up on ufc fight pass to just kill some time dude rumble as a welterweight. So when you talk about like, hey, who's your favorite people to call up on UFC Fight Pass

to just kill some time? Dude, Rumble as a welterweight is just so much frigging fun to watch. For as great as he was as a light heavyweight, and he got as close as you can get to winning the championship, he has this other freak show side to his career, which is not really a freak show because he was a legitimate rising contender. But look, that run as a UFC welterweight I can't even believe that ever happened so my favorite fighter knockout is every fight at 147 even though he authored some sick ones the Glover one at UFC 202 was just I

mean just ridiculous but Luke that welterweight run damn yeah I was there for a speaking of which he fought in Washington DC he beat Charlie Brenneman at the then Verizon Center I was there for a speaking of which he fought in Washington DC he beat Charlie Brenneman at the then Verizon Center I was there for that one boy he whipped his afro a lot of different directions with that one um Kevin the fire burns people may not remember that fight I remember that fight um I think there's a couple of them because he got poked in the eye but uh those were great for me I'll say two of them just putting Glover's lights out effortlessly was one. The other one was when that motherfucker went all the way to Sweden in Alexander Gustafson's hometown, and they're in the Globe, or I think they were in the Globe,

but wherever they were, they were going fucking crazy for Gustafson. And Johnson went in there and just methodically closed that fucking show. Boy, he shut those guys up like that. Unbelievable. This dude was terrifying. I would love to do a resume review on him posthumously, Luke, and celebrate him.

Yeah. One of the hardest hitters I've ever seen independent of weight class. I think his power would have. Remember, he knocked out Arlovsky's teeth at heavyweight in World Series of Fighting. Folks don't even remember that. Arlovsky's face at the end of that, he had out Arlovsky's teeth at heavyweight in World Series of Fighting. Folks don't even remember that. Arlovsky's face at the end of that, he had a bunch of missing teeth because Anthony Rebel Johnson just fucking worked like a dentist on him, man.

The guy was terrifying. It went the distance, and they were both gassed out. But, yeah, that thing was, he landed bombs. I mean, when I look up and down, I don't know, man. It would be tough to beat that Glover one or the Gustin one, and one and they were back to back uh what have you and uh I had the wrong card I was who did he not gonna oh 202 was the Glover one so he had he had the uh the Nog and the Gustafson one back to back those two were vicious too let's not forget about you know what oh no let me add one more to that let me add one more to that I was there for this one I remember this

distinctly um when John Jones fought Glover Teixeira, that was in Baltimore, Maryland, and I got to cover that show for MMA Fighting, and I remember we had Media Day, and this was the Media Day where Jon Jones was doing pictures for the face-off and Phil Davis got in his face because Phil Davis was supposed to fight a returning Rumble Johnson who had been gone from the organization after that failed Vitor fight weight cut and got bounced and you know

went on World Series of Fighting and everything else then came back so this was Rumble's return now Rumble didn't knock him out but Rumble handled Phil Davis I mean he had Phil Davis scared for his life understandably so he had this return performance where Phil Davis was making a big show about wanting to fight John Jones, totally overlooking Anthony Rumble Johnson. They get in there, and Rumble Johnson let him know right away who's win this was going to be. And that was a big, big moment for his return. I remember that very distinctly.

Yeah, and that head kick from Charlie Brenneman may be the best single highlight I've ever seen from him. I mean, just insane power. Yeah, Luke, what else are you going to say? And this is shocking. It's so sad to hear from a guy who had— We say this all the time, but as you get older, you really begin to appreciate it. It is very hard to take mortality and sickness seriously when you're like in your teens or 20s and you've mostly lived a healthy life.

You know, it's very, very hard to understand that, but it really is true. When you leave your house in the morning every day to go to work, you do not know if you are coming home. You don't know. It's not, it's not a given by any stretch of the imagination. You don't know what illnesses are going to befall you. You don't know what tragedy is coming your way and so you know and this is me saying this the sourpuss mcgee but i'm i'm serious man you really really have to take life day by day appreciate what you have go do the things you want to do love your people around you because you may not get any more chances at all um yeah that's it well said well said uh any more of them dms from donks or do we still only have male viewers i think that's it just dudes telling us about their hogs

all right well we go from somber news and reflection luke into that shit ridiculi yes this is your favorite segment of the week viewer because it has to be because it's so damn addicting it's when your boyicting. It's when your boy BC scours the globe. The highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, the in-between in combat sports and beyond. And Gaffney Pierre, my man, sifts through that shit to find the golden kernels

and puts it on the air for your benefit. This is called Have You Seen This Shit? Ow. Ow. Ow. Luke, I hear this is a great one, okay? I would know. I curated this bullshit, okay?

You're going to love the way this looks on you. Here we go. UFC 281 in New York. Look, before the fight even started, in Times Square, check out Claudia. I'm sorry. Check out Carla Esparza taking on the naked cowboy. Did you see this fight? I still think because I'm heavier, but maybe not. She hit me right in the balls.

Can the NYPD just beat him up with nightsticks or something i mean if i was her i would burn all those clothes and shower instantly after that exchange luke he's the grossest man alive i feel very confident he used to have an incredible figure now he's just like wiry strong and old and it's just like dude the gimmick's over okay well maybe he brings joy you know maybe he brings joy to people maybe yeah. Yeah, just set him on fire and call it a day. Luke, let's look at Poetan's reaction to knocking out Izzy. This is as stone cold as it gets. Look at that face. Yeah, this is how I react after getting something fun in the mail.

What? It's magazine day? What are you talking about? like if you order something from amazon and it finally arrives you know you're like fuck yeah dude he looks like it didn't affect remember when reggie miller hit that buzzer beater in the 88 eastern conference 98 eastern conference finals against uh jordan and the bulls when he pushed off when reggie pushed off like a bitch and larry bird didn't even celebrate because he knew there was still time on the clock he saw it going he was just like that's what poeton looks like like yeah i fucking expected this bro i ain't surprised at all luke in fact we may need a wellness check

how is your heart at the moment because you sat down with this man in a 14 million dollar mansion you love izzy and i respect that out of you are you recovering okay from this dude i really i was you know i was a little bit bummed when it first happened just naturally but honestly man i said this you know i've said this a lot really dude the guy's win is legit i mean all you can ever hope for is that the person most deserving in the end in a fair contest gets their hand raised dude that's the guy it raised dude that's the guy it's poet that's the guy dude Glover's choking him out look at that I missed that the first time so like how do I feel about it I know that these titles aren't held for very long is he fought

great but this guy fought better in the end at least in the moment that it counted he won it fair and square his story is amazing this is life-changing for him it's life-changing for his family. How can you hate on that? How can anyone be mad at it? You can be sad that Izzy lost if you're an Izzy fan or whatever, but you can't be mad that Pineda won. He won spectacularly, delivered action, got it fair and square. His story is remarkable.

Dude, I'm cool with it. I'm cool with it. I'm glad to see that you're in a good place with this, Luke. I had to go through the same thing when Whaley ended Ioana, okay? I lived through it, all right? I made it to the other side. Yeah, but the difference is I don't want to bang Izzy. Okay.

Luke, I mentioned that Chandler was strategically dripping blood and shooting blood snot rockets, which led Poirier to counter somewhat dirty on his own look at him try to part the red sea right there did you see that yeah that is uh dude it looks like Chandler spit at him too watch this closely yeah look at that a little bit yeah dude that's grimy from Chandler dude trying to shoot those bloody I will say it is common in this particular position or when you're stacking someone in jiu-jitsu, it is very common.

It's happened to me a couple of times where you're sweating and your head is directly over theirs and then the sweat from your head drops in their mouth. That has happened a number of times. I'm not tough enough to appreciate this. This is freaking disgusting. I don't want to be tough enough to think this is cool. Yeah, here's the thing.

This is why it's like, does like staff and matt herpes and shit spread this that's how that's how uh there you go there you go all right let's go to superman span you know monkey pox kind of fell off the news radar i didn't really follow it i was surprised that that wasn't more of an issue in jujitsu because you know motherfuckers were showing up with that shit not telling anyone no you're right you're right no one has monkey pox it's like polio polio anymore i hope not luke your grandparents yeah i mean fdr did he fought that shit he never tapped luke my dad said he went to kid it went to uh elementary school with kids who had polio who like you know lost the ability to walk and shit you Yeah. I bet he didn't talk to them either, Luke. Let's go to Superman Spanned ending Dom Reyes here,

sending him to hell's basement. I hate to watch this again, but it was the left hand. Look how fast it happened. It was that jab that stunned him, right? Dude, he just walked right into range. He just walked into it. He really did. Look at this.

Oh, God, that left hand was so sharp, and then that clubbing right hand just demolished him man that's a good win for span though we tend to sometimes you know forget him in this picture but the problem with that win for span is the win the win is tremendous it's not like you can say anything bad about it but it doesn't tell you if like his ground game got better right it just tells you what you already kind of knew which is you know you stand in front of this fucking guy he's gonna put your lights out and so we got that but we didn't get any new information all right each fight night luke gives us another opportunity to join hands with

money line our favorite uh one of our favorite sponsors because they know how to do money right they know how to money and uh hashtag holy hammer indeed for aaron blanchfield but it wasn't just the victory slicing that meatball in half via crucifix. How about the celebration? Luke cold-blooded indeed. Yeah. That's me after chopping like kick carrots on the, on the,

on the, you know, the wood fucking chopping block. Like, all right, I did it without cutting myself. Eat shit world. Dude,

she might be hashtag hammer of the month. She i gotta tell you she your nominee for this week because she's definitely mine she is definitely my nominee for the michael trozano you had a great one round there with uh with with choy and you know nearly put on the fight of the year by accident but uh this this was hammer of the month right here luke okay you can't touch this luke she was widely expected to win though okay all right all right uh let's go to the aforementioned promo of the year it comes from hainado moicano and i'm fucking here to take over all these motherfuckers i'm here to take over make no mistake i lost only to the best, but today I'm with the fucking best. Will you stop playing at another level, sir?

Let's go, New York! Make some fucking noise! I love it! Renato! Renato! I have to be on the fucking ranking, man. This is disrespect. I took a fight, five round fight in four days notice.

Short day notice. I was fucking drinking beer, eating steaks in Brazilzil and they come and i come here i travel 24 hours and motherfuckers respect me i want the fucking bonus my colonel wants money look he also passionately made a plea to be on joe's show and did the rogan you know what is train by day rogan by night routine as well some shit dude uh moicano needs to get on our couch that's what needs to happen next right yeah that's how i go to the bank and i make a deposit lukito wants money you know what i'm saying? Yeah, then they pull firearms. Yes, that's what happens. All right.

I mean, God bless him. What a performance. What a promo. Damn. I hope he got the 50K. I didn't even check. But, Luke, elsewhere in NYC on Saturday, did you see this fight in the streets? Nate Diaz slapping Dylan Danis outside MSG. See, they say he slapped Dylan Danis, by the way, just looking like he has been living in a van down by the river.

I mean, he looks terrible, first of all. Second of all, they said he slapped Dylan. I didn't see that. I haven't seen any video of that. I did see video, actually, of Adi Attar, Conor McGregor's agent, the head of Paradigm Sports Group or Management Group, whatever the formal name is slapping one of dylan dennis's teammates but they're to my knowledge i have not seen any video of him actually slapping dylan dennis which by the way is i would love to see

it and by the way this is also where i had to wait at three in the morning for one of my fucking rides this is right outside the uh the moynihan train station yeah people love to see the landmarks of your demise, so thank you for pointing that out. But there are other angles to this video where he does slap somebody that I agree. I wasn't sure it was Danis exactly, but that's been the narrative. I didn't do my due diligence to research it,

but there's the video for you. This is a true story, dude. Nate Diaz flies around the country just slapping people at combat forces. Yeah, I mean, it's not a bad business plan now that he's a free agent to try to create like crossover fight events yeah i mean would you watch him again in a high rollers main event on pay-per-view against dylan dennis yeah i would look yeah but dylan pogs if dylan

is at all himself he should win that one relatively comfortably but um he all right we'll have to do it at bellator then we'll have to do it in bellator but i We'll have to do it in Bellator. But I hit up Bellator like, I don't know, a few months ago being like, is Dylan Danis still even under contract? And they said yes. They said yes. So I don't know what the fucking story is there. Long Island Luke and Gaff that they want Nate and Dana's slap league. No, no.

Stop. Stop, guys. Nate should be in Dana's power slap league? That's fucking hilarious. Stop this weirdness, okay? They got a tbs contract by the way damn only in america luke only tbs will air anything it's like yo we're just gonna go out here and fucking wrestle these bears well i was throwing bricks outside the garden but inside

of it luke dave portnoy of barstool was shooting bricks i'll rate his form here oh boy yeah you know the guy who's in charge of a sports empire is uh perhaps the least athletic man i've ever seen he has one of the i mean i i mean i i don't have a great jump shot luke i'm a post player but this is this is uh it's pretty lame here that's pretty bad he shoots like some i mean this generally because i remember the first time someone showed me how to shoot a basketball i was in fifth grade because you know my parents let me join sports teams here's here's how this goes i realize this now right now that i'm a parent some kids have parents who show them how to play sports and then of course they go into coaching and then the coach takes over or whatever

but my parents were like oh do you want to play sports well didn't just you know go join a fucking league we're not going to show you shit so I didn't know how to do anything until I actually joined leagues to learn how to play. So I remember the first time someone showed me how to shoot a jump shot. Literally, it looks to me like no one has ever shown Dave Portnoy how to shoot a basketball. Yeah. He shoots like Connor a little bit, a little bit like Connor, but that's fine. Luke, he's making a lot of money and betting a lot of money more on that in a second. Yeah. He's rich as balls, but he shoots like someone who doesn't know how to shoot a basketball you know the biggest winner of last week was you and i for staying in jersey city and not taking the subway into

manhattan so that we didn't have to see this luke i fucking hate the new york city subway i fucking hate the new york city look at this gross piece of shit look at this look at this barn animal and i don't mean the dog is he the uh rhythm guitarist in in uh cannibal corpse by any chance luke that looks great wow dude look at the and also dude i mean you know people don't like my white people jokes which i just do at this point to needle people who are very sensitive about it i don't even really mean it but they do love making out with dogs don't like my white people jokes which i just do at this point to needle people who are very sensitive about it i don't even really mean it but they do love making out with dogs don't they yeah they do that shit they do yeah yeah i come from a long line of people that'll make out with cats luke it happens you know it's it's i don't i don't try to take part believe me but it's gross

you know it's gross all right let's uh let's see some msg fashion statements this week uh luke i want you to give me a rating one to ten ten being the coolest one being the lamest here's famed actor musician jared leto backstage at the garden just dress like he's going to a porno theater get some normal clothes on asshole i think i think peewee herman wore that that time in the back of that theater luke indeed that nice trench coat you got there did adidas smuggling in a fucking two liter of coke wear normal clothes asshole uh let's go over to kamaru usman dressing like jenna jackson in the rhythm nation video luke but i'm here for it though i'm here for it yeah that's a bit much

but uh i'm okay with this though this is this is aggressive do you like let's see so francis is walking pretty cool and all normal show that that again. Watch how Kamaru walks. He's got that diddy bop. See it right there? Oh, yeah. You know what I'm talking about? This thing? The chains are jangling, too.

I could get down with this. You've got to commit to the part, and he has. But it is a little off-putting at first glance. Also, I've got to say this. I've tried it before just as a gag. Yeah. The sunglasses inside bit no

you gotta stop everyone unless you're on copious amounts of cocaine and you're just trying to keep that hidden I don't like that look either just get some visine and be quiet I mean you know Nate Diaz likes it it's a cool look if you're a rock star it's a guarantee you're dressing up

if you're a rich young celebrity obviously you don't listen to me in BC you don't know what the fuck's cool but no we're all sunglasses inside thing i just i've never i can accept literally everything he's wearing no problem except the sunglasses inside i can't do well uh poet time was dressing shirtless with a sport coat all week but here's his weigh-in gimmick luke we should have seen this coming right wow yeah dude i gotta tell, this was awesome. That was fucking awesome. And I don't know what all the imagery or symbolism means,

but he looked menacing, did he not? Yeah, he brought that same spirit into the cage, it seems, too. By the way, shout out to UFC for using Radio City Music Hall. I was there, by the way, for that Conor and Habib press conference with no crowd because they were afraid of a riot. One of the craziest moments ever. But Radio City Music Hall is badass, Luke. Going to fights there, anything.

I love it. I love it. Yeah, it's great. It's an iconic place in the UFC. Yeah, the Rockettes are the best, too, Luke. They're great at what they do. The other fashion statement of the week came from Izzy post fight your thoughts on this uh this hair fur uh he's almost done with the chewbacca costume you know what would he be as loyal luke would he be as loyal i mean no no one is no i

mean no one can replicate the greatness of chewbacacca. Like I said, man, young people with money, they just know things we don't. Yeah, yeah. They take chances we're not willing to, Luke. But we're going to be heavy on the Portnoy here. Here's the thrill of victory followed by the agony of defeat when you gamble heavily with big money at UFC fights.

Here's Portnoy celebrating his Poirier by submission bet at plus 750 odds. Whoa. Of course, he's wearing the Meatball Molly shirt, so they took a bit of an L there early. But, yeah, that's a nice. Well, for whatever he won off of that bet,

he certainly lost the 10 grand he put on Meatball Molly. Oh, he put 10 grand? Yeah, he tweeted that ticket out. It would have won 40 grand here's him and the other guy luke uh experiencing their first crucifix that's that's that's a big cat it's a big cat yeah yeah there's theo vaughn sitting next to jared leto what is that conversation like huh uh drug field i hope i hope yeah i hope yeah all right uh speaking of portnoy luke we always mention on here when real meets real.

Dude, Joe Rogan's got Portnoy looking like Shaquille O'Neal here, right? Boy, you love talking shit about his height, don't you? I thought Portnoy would be taller. I really did, Luke. I really did. All right. Let's go to the punch machine. That's always worth a laugh.

Here's your punch of the week is that beetle juice oh beetle juice oh buddy what happened there my guy why is he why is he walking like if he didn't clench his butt cheeks, feces would come flying out? Look at him. I don't think he has all his ducks in a row, Luke. This guy, I mean, this is great. He did provide us with great entertainment. Here's reason number 57 why European MMA is just different.

How about this for a between match entertainment product? Just two people fucking? What is it they love sax over there luke i mean yes yes my family and i are here for sex yes yes that's do you remember the guy who opened uh at MMA Awards last year, the guitar player? Yes. Who looked like he'd been on the road for three and a half decades? With all those showgirls dancing with knives around him? That was bizarre.

And everyone around us is like, this is truly the vibe. Everyone's like, I'm not saying he's a bad guitar player, but you can just start the show without this. You know what I'm saying? You can just get right to the show. Luke, you know everyone's favorite bit on this show is when Luke Thomas rates that tat. Oh, shit.

Here we go. You better speak the truth here. Here's Cheeto Rivera. And old Cheeto went ham on the back of his skull. Your thoughts? So people were clowning this tat, and I really mostly don't understand why. Here's why.

This is designed to be what's called American traditional. American traditional is more along the lines of what you see with these flat, saturated colors. It's mostly 2D with the objects. The tiger I have is American traditional as a matter of fact. Now, I will say that if you look at the back leg leg it looks like it's twisted like a bag of dough so they didn't quite get that right but in

general in general you have to like this style of tattooing and this style of tattooing that's mostly fine okay so that this is not a mr hebas scenario no again, you know, by the way, I have to say, like, to get tattooed on your fucking head is the best level. And then to get deep color saturated in your fucking scalp like that, dude, Chido Vera must be tougher

than you could ever imagine. Yeah, he's a real man, Luke. He is a real man. He's about that life. Believe it. Rate that tat number two. A combat favorite in these parts luke britain beltron wife of joey and bkfc fame what do you think about this so this is flat out excellent

that is a nine and a half out of a ten uh great placement great shading it's like black and gray portrait realism whoever did that knows exactly what they're doing that's maybe one of the better tattoos i've ever seen on a fighter that is an excellent excellent tattoo okay it screams america too right yeah for sure dude like i mean they're just good bullet bullet up full screen just look at the inside of the mouth look at the feathering and how distinct it is the eye obviously has like depth as in set into the face so this would be the opposite of american traditionalist we get in portrait realism that is um that is a superb tattoo that is excellent she's an effing feeling indeed luke uh here's our final tattoo of the week hoyler gracely gracie excuse me showing off his mr hibas inspired tribute to his father helio in the picture behind him. Your thoughts, Luke?

It's a bit of a mess. The hands look terrible. The gi looks terrible. Yeah, that's not great. That's not a great tattoo. No, the face is a mess. You're going to tell Hoyler that yourself, Luke? No, I would skip that.

I would skip it. Hoyler's amazing. Hoyler got the gold at ADCC, I think, four times. I mean, Hoyler's amazing. But that tattoo is not my favorite. All right, your regional MMA fight of the week, Luke. It's an old guy in slacks taking on two punk kids that I'm sure egged his car. But this shit got wild.

Let's see what happened. What the fuck? Why is this steampunk asshole fighting two asian kids watch the double guillotine attempt coming up they would go on to beat it is this like tiktok versus the typewriter what is this shit i didn't research it is this like that fight circus cam soda oh it is Fight Circus, where they just do whatever the fuck. I think it's in Thailand or something. Yeah, Brent Brookhouse loves that stuff, Luke. They'll straight up be like, yo, we're going to put this featherweight against, I don't know, a hippopotamus baby.

Let's just fucking do it. Yeah. Luke, Mayweather took on Deji yesterday in Dubai on pay-per-view. Deji, whatever his name is. in Dubai on pay-per-view. Yeah, but I was more focused on Big John Fury, father of Tyson, nearly killing Jake Paul on commentary. Enjoy yourself some of this. Fight me right now, then.

Come fight me right now, bro. Easy now. Hold on, guys. Hold on. Hold on. Now John Fury is taking the shirt off. Why did he take his shirt off? John's coming after him. Because he's a fighting man. John Fury trying to get out of the ring and get to Jake here. Why did he take his shirt off? Because he's a fighting man. Luke, let me remind you.

The Fury's level of confidence is inversely proportional to the greatness of their physiques have you noticed that yeah that's a great call so uh let me remind you that john fury once took a man's eyeball out in a bar fight did jail time is now no longer allowed to fly to the u.s i asked tyson about that incident on my interview with him two years ago which led to him hanging up on me. Did you see at the press conference for this two weeks ago

that he almost got into a fight with Anthony Taylor as well? Remember him? He was on one of those Jake Undercards, the former Bellator fighter. Yeah, John Fury's not like my father at all. You know what I mean? They're very different people. I would hope your dad acts like that when the rent's due on that investment property in Vegas, Luke.

That's what I hope. But that was the end of a Tommy Fury fight, and Jake was on commentary in his Hulkamania shirt. Did Tommy even win? Did he fucking win? Yeah, but it was like a last-second switch on opponent. Because he missed weight. Yeah, there's a lot of shenanigans going on. But here's Tommy Fury and Jake Paul nearly coming to blows afterwards.

2-2-2. Jake. Jake. Jake, we got a mic. Come on. Come on, pussy ass. Get out of here, cut. Let's go. You fucking suck at fighting. Let's go. Pull up. Pull up. Pull up. Yeah, let's go, bro. Come here. Come here, all of you. All of you. Come to Papa. Come to Papa. Come to Papa. Come to Papa. Let's go. Come to Papa was the refrain, Luke. Does this get you jazzed up to get on an airplane to London? Showtime pay-per-view, Tommy versus Jake sometime in 2023. Ian, Luke, we can make this happen. Come on, Ian.

Only if John Fury is shirtless for the entire fight week. Dude, first request to Showtime, if this actually happened, by the way, which is in play, it's possible. First request, room service diaries with John Fury on the ground, shirtless, instantaneous, Luke. The second we get off the plane, I want the couch on the runway. I want to make sure this happens. Alright? Agreed.

We'll pay him in bitches. Alright. Luke, remember Delphine Pursun? Remember she was the Belgian cop who had two just all-action fights against Katie Taylor? Delphine took on Ikram Kirawat uh this would go down

as a no contest but watch the finish here oh you can't hit a downed opponent you can't so is that why it's no contest because she did the old mma bit i don't get why it wasn't a disqualification because that's not an accidental foul. But if an accidental foul happens before round four, typically it can become a no contest based on the commission. But we're in Dubai, so the commission could be Sean Shelby for all I know. But yeah, that was weird. Okay.

Elsewhere in boxing, you want to see weird? Luke, they held a Royal rumble in the zone main event and montana love took his first career l by dq for tossing stevie spark uh into the crowd okay what the fuck is he doing uh he lost the fight that's what he's doing this was early on they were they were mixing it up it was a decent fight but uh then that happened so they call it here yeah they called it a dq he criticized the ref afterwards montana did he said he definitely wants a rematch but we saw him in the past on a jake undercard he is an unbeaten legitimate uh young fighter out of ohio and uh he got pissed enough to to launch the guy so there you go that's what happens

uh that's weird yeah yeah yeah it is okay uh elsewhere in boxing on the top rank undercard in las vegas remember this guy floyd cash flow diaz with the crazy hair oh yes i do uh he makes statements check out this one he's now eight and oh whoa i want fulton i want Inouye on his trunks. My man wants some fucking smoke. Does he not? Yes, he does. He actually put that.

I didn't notice that until now. That's brilliant. He improved to 8-0 with the TKO of Edgar Cortez. He's not fighting world beaters, but he is making noise, Luke. He's making a lot of noise, this guy. Hey, he's been on this show a number of times, and he's not been here for unfun reasons. I like this guy. Ricky Hatt on this show a number of times and he's not been here for unfun reasons i like this guy uh ricky hatton and marco antonio barrera had one of those legends boxing matches

over the weekend but here was ricky hatton's ring walk luke this this popped me an ode to uh willie wonka with the cane right oh jesus oh my god this is hilarious oh my god or it's the beginning of an adult movie i can't figure out which one but that's great he's just gonna go bang them both in between rounds and look on that top rank undercard i mentioned here's emiliano vargas the two and oh son of fernando vargas with a sick ko damn he did the uh He did the Leo Santa Cruz bit after Gervonta knocked him out, where he goes forward, then backward. Yeah. Right?

One of the many Vargas sons that are. Yeah, the Vargas sons just signed with Top Rank. And damn, this is a guy to watch, apparently. So look at that shit. Woo. I'm not sure if the ropes in boxing do what they're supposed to. Can I just be honest about that? Yeah. You've seen too many guys go through it on this segment these ropes all the time dude yeah yeah that's that's bad all right let's go to charlie sheehy

he's a 24 year old lightweight prospect five and oh what was better here the knockout or the celebratory dance luke all right let's see his opponent's just standing in front of him okay is he fighting the guy who missed on the punch machine are you into that type of celebration luke i'll take the knockout over the dance although i have to say people doing the gritty when they win in anything in sports, and then it ends up on sports centers, fucking Instagram feed. I hope all those people get paralyzed from the neck. Does that include Michael Buffer who showed up in this segment doing that dance Luke and the Eagles? I love, I love Michael Buffer, but it's been a nice run time. All right. I want to make you aware of the six foot nine

heavyweight prospect named Antonio Morelos, who goes by the nickname El Gigante. He scored a KO2 over 5'10 Eric Perry. And, you know, anytime there's fat heavyweights, they're getting on this show, Luke. Did he fall through the ropes? Oh, no, they held him in this time. What do you think of this 6'9 prospect here, El Gigante? The giant.

I mean, he's not fighting world beaters, it looks like. Yep, yep. Somebody to watch, okay? Somebody to watch. Alright, let's go to the ping pong table. Here's your smash of the week. Watch the shirtless fellow is that john fury and that's the perfect transition into what i like to call dirty dancing gone wrong

we've seen this a few times maybe not this violent does someone get face plant oh gee wow yeah she had the time of her life luke and she's never felt this way before and neither is that guy right wow i've often hoped that women would do this in my face at clubs but it never happened uh luke this is uh becoming one of the most requested videos people cannot wait to see your reaction to this level flexing from this young man this was caught on an espn college football uh broadcast football broadcast. Or maybe that's ACC Network. My fault, Luke. My fault.

My man showed up from his shift at Foot Locker to be like, yo, look. I got a Costco card trying to fuck. Yo, that worked, too. Look at the reaction. I bet you that worked. That is fucking awesome. Oh, my man was trying anything to get some action. Yeah, college basketball.

That was what it was. Okay, a couple more here, Luke. You've lamented about your growing balding situation, although I can't really see it. Yeah, well, here, this guy's got a nice fix for you. You asked me, BC, how do I fix this? Here's my answer you know bc you can't be clowning blue collar ingenuity yeah i mean look it works watch the ending here is this what lebron james did

wow look at the lines on that that's perfect yeah maybe we got to do this in studio next time with neon yeah who should we call like a car detailer or like a uh yeah exactly i'm not sure but this this looks like it could work yeah yeah okay uh luke don't drink and table dance everybody knows that rule right no no the ladies don't know that oh right how did i call that one man she's white seems so out of character oh god that's that's a ko right there wow bop i'll see you bitch yeah okay okay uh sometimes the lady dancers get themselves but luke sometimes they kill other people check out this woman she's very happy she's heavy happy i said not heavy oh boy yep she might be heavy too look that's that's rakishi's finisher in wwe yeah there is wow isn't isn't well hold on you said

the the latin guy was el gigante maybe we got to change the nicknames up here yeah to this lady's uh caboose but uh enjoy the they enjoy wow that yikes that's child abuse and finally luke we've got white women in the hood or actually white women on the hood your thoughts um this is gonna end poorly i'm guessing what are they playing in that car and she twerps and nobody caught her nobody Nobody even helped. Look at that. No, they were just like, you know,

just let nature take its course. That's true. I mean, this woman, I'm glad she got on the show because it looks to me like she's going to catch a Darwin Award in a couple of weeks.

Wow, Luke, when she heard her jam, she had to just let it loose. We can all, we can all, when you hear, Luke, when I'm around you and a reggaeton song comes on,

you're like, yo, BC, this is for real the shit. It's not reggaeton, by the way. This is my jam, bitch. Yeah, what do you think they're listening to? Is it like Cotton Eye Joe or some stupid bullshit? No, no, no. Daddy Janky. Daddy Janky, as my wife would say?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, great meeting your wife and kid this weekend, Luke. What a time. What can you tell the viewers about my wonderful family? They are just sweet, you know, real people. And Tukes took right all. She walked into the Room Service Diary studios, grabbed the microphone,

and was like, I mean, just took over, Luke. It was great. She loved the rotary phone. She was a big fan of that. She did love the rotary phone. Yeah. Now, let let me ask you are you surprised that people that normal and sweet have entered into a life agreement with me yes i'm trying to figure out like what your wife didn't see in you that i see that would have prevented that from happening but you know i'm sure you're like a romantic protector and a real nice guy and stuff but yeah yeah yeah

that's great no seriously just a joy to meet the Mrs. Thomas so enjoyed that a lot I can't wait for you to meet Reggie Jackson one day Luke alright yeah I would love to meet Reggie Jackson I would love to meet Reggie Jackson I bet he rules yeah he's great he's great yeah but no Luke that's the shit of the

week and I think we do have to bring back up that we're getting we're a couple weeks into Holy Hammer time, right? Hammer of the Month, the Morning Combat crossover promotion with Money Lion. Luke, it's coming up. Here's how it goes. For more information, of course, you can see the graphic right there. You can also just use your phone and scan the QR code, moneylion.com slash morningcombat.

Here's what you're going to do. You can go to Twitter and follow and tag at Money Lion,, or you can go to Instagram at MoneyLionInc. Let them know who you think deserves to be the Hammer of the Month, somebody who's ascending, who maybe isn't getting quite the pub that they deserve this week. Both BC and I think Aaron Blanchfield is that person. You can use the hashtag HolyHammer or the hashtag Hammer of the Month, whatever. Let MoneyLion know what you think, or who I should say,

who you think deserves this award for this week. At the end of the month, we're going to tally it all up and come with a single winner. We're going to mail them that amazing hammer and it'll be good. Moneyline.com slash morning combat for more information. Dude, that hammer is so legit that I'm actually excited about the prospect of fighters,

like getting it in the mail and you know, you know what I mean? I'm curious to see how it all goes i'm cautiously optimistic cautiously okay okay i'm into that and uh should they shouldn't use the hashtag holly hammer right no holly hammer we're gonna reserve that for christmas that's gonna be the christmas hashtag okay but holy hammer or hammer of the month will accept either of those i think i'm into that uh special thanks again for aaron bronstetter for checking us out uh joining in from tsn fine mma journalist himself and you know vinyl raconteur in many ways luke but uh can he beat can he beat ariel i mean this isn't about

ariel it's about abron the canadian king right it's his time luke it's his time it might be uh but that's going to be a hard monopoly to break yeah you're like yeah yeah i'm sure yeah sure yeah i mean you were the guy that had some hope in pena because of her bbl stature luke so i'm going to retain some level of hope fair for aaron i mean ariel's got enough of them luke okay yeah he doesn't need any, but he might get more. You know what I mean? Like once we, once we went our like seventh consecutive best podcast of the year award, that's when I'm going to start being like, okay guys, can we, can we give the submission radio guys a high five already? Cause they're great. Okay. Can we do that please? All right. Fair enough. I want to remind everyone showtime.com

is the label that pays as the week progresses. We're going to really lean into the next Bellator card. What is it? What's the number on this card? Is it 287? I don't remember the number, but I remember the name of who's in it, and it's going to be fan-frigging-tastic. I mean, we're getting Corey Anderson, Vadim Nemkov, $1 million at stake, the light heavyweight world title.

Let's do this, okay? They took that away from us the first time, but now we get it back. I was close. Bellator 288 is the card listen to this card vadim nemkov cory anderson to the rematch pitbull versus usman nurmagomedov hello that one is my favorite all the yep what did i say let's say pitbull it's pitbull it's patricky pitbull yeah take it on usman nurmagomedov daniel weishall versus timur he's here heiziriev I'm not sure how to say that one Tyrell Fortune taking on Daniel James and then this one BC this guy Roman Feraldo Roman Feraldo you should not forget that name a striking savant a highlight machine taking on the Georgian Levon Chokely I can't pronounce his name quite all that well but those fights at the top of that card are fucking

bangers and of course that will be on November 18th at the top of that card are fucking bangers and of course that will be on november 18th at the win trust arena in chicago illinois so if you want to watch that on showtime showtime.com is the label that pays of course want to thank some of our other uh folks here involved morningcombat.store rj dunkel gangbang getting everything uh lined up there for us by the way spoiler alert anthony smith was in our studio on saturday and he he gladly received a morning hub t-shirt he did morning hub morning combat hub yes the one that i get the most odd looks at when i wear it to the grocery store that's the one um and then of course uh morning combat at gmail.com is the place to go for emails relating to fan subs

or for Friday's Dead Wrong or just to reach the show. The producers do see it. We don't. So you don't have to be like, dear Luke and Brian, because we're not going to see it, but the producers will. No, dear Mikey, mostly. But Luke, youtube.com slash MorningCombat. Just a reminder to folks, not only if you only watch our live shows

and reactions do we have so much great interviews and bonus content, including this week laura sanko on the room service diaries couch i mean come on you're gonna want to see that but just a reminder on how youtube has restructured everything under the tabs it is confusing if you don't know there's a home tab there's a video tab there's a live tab depending on what we're doing it's going to fall under different ones live shows right interviews special pull apart so you got to kind of check them all to make sure that you're completely up to date on our content. You also can just sign up by the way, and hit like subscribe and even get, you know, text or

email notifications each time we put out a new one, but don't miss all the good stuff going on youtube.com slash morning combat. There you have it. And so of of course the when you go there it's got videos shorts and live the shows will appear under the live banner or the the live vertical shorts of course what you think they are their youtube shorts and then videos is anything we just upload separately interviews documentaries whatever they may be but the live shows are going to be under the live tab youtube.com slash morning combat. All right, BC, any final thoughts before we call it a day? Thanks, guys.

Great week of fights coverage through the weekend. We put out a lot of content. We got a lot of great feedback. We appreciate you, you know, living and dying with us because that's what this is all about, Luke, okay? Trying to prevent the latter and trying our best to continue to enjoy the former. And if you ain't living, you're dying. So RIP to the great Rumble Johnson.'t living you're dying so um r.i.p to the great

rumble johnson we've had a lot of fun covering his career and uh like aaron bronstetter said right hug those close to you call your mom look i gotta call my mom you know i gotta you know i'm saying i gotta check in check in okay keep keep keep your connections strong and firm um thank you folks we love you that's all right so for it's a great message for Brian Campbell, CBS Sports Showtime. And by the way, one more time, big thanks to the Malka crew who put up with us all week. They had everything ready to go. They helped us to get everything done. And I know it was a lot of long days and a lot of late nights and long hours. So thank you, all of you on the Malka staff very much for helping us out.

We really appreciate it. And that's it for us today. Back on Wednesday, I'll have extra credit out a little bit later. But until then, thank you guys so much for watching. For Showtime, CBS Sports, Malka, and everyone else involved, we're out. Until next time,

may all of your gains be loyal.