MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 285 Recap: Is Jon Jones The GOAT? | Figueroa Def. Magsayo | Ep 415

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

Episode 415 of Morning Kombat is an EPIC one. The boys recap a wild weekend of combat sports, starting with a massive night at UFC 285. Who is the greatest of all-time fighter in MMA? While some consider it to be Jones after his UFC 285 victory, others disagree and suggest it belongs to GSP. Does Erin Blanchfield deserves the next title shot at the women's UFC flyweight belt after Aalentina Shevchenko got upset by Alexa Grasso. After Shavkat Rakhmonov's win over Geoff Neal at UFC 285, he called for a title shot. Should he get the winner of UFC 286's Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman? In boxing, Brandon Figueroa earned the unanimous decision victory over Mark Magsayo, but was the fight closer than the scorecards indicated? Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher 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

If you're washed and you know it, clap your hands. If you're washed and you know it, clap your hands. If you're washed and you know it, you're Brian Campbell. Hey everyone, I'm washed too. Hi, it's Two Washed Losers. Welcome, Morning Combat everyone. This 6th of March, 2023. 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 the king of Connecticut himself. He's my friend and yours. He calls himself many names. You can pick anyone you want. I like Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian Campbell. Hi, Luke.

Combat Sports' greatest tag team is back again, Luke, okay? Party on, party people. BC in the house, jump, jump for joy. All that good shit, 90s lyrics and lyrics and references hey it's a new day luke and you know it's the hangover of ufc 285 which means this is going to be a spectacular freaking show but you know despite the urging of my audience and my and our staff to avoid this piece of clothing i decided to bring back the unity hat today the one love okay uh you know what i mean let's let's get together and feel all right today during

mk hey you ever see that guy who sends us re uh twitter responses of mma analytics with a video of him like lighting a bong i don't know who that guy is but i'm entertained every time he he loves marijuana that's how i understand this gentleman um as you bc what time did you get home yesterday i got home at about uh one oclock in the afternoon, 1 p.m. A little bit after me, but I had to take a train, obviously. BC, how do people travel anywhere? Don't worry, I was fine. But how do people travel anywhere without noise-canceling headphones?

I really don't get that. How do you get on a plane or anywhere around other people? I don't think it's safe to wear noise canceling headphones luke i've i've seen i've crossed paths with you in our mma beat days in the train station and was screaming your name from three feet away and you just kept going dude you know what i mean that's the that's the idea that's exactly yeah but you get the whole point i don't know i grew up needing to learn street smarts luke i spent a lot of my life in waterbury connecticut and um you know you got talking about street smarts, Luke. I spent a lot of my life in Waterbury, Connecticut.

You see, how are you talking about street smarts? You didn't grow up in a major city. I did. Okay, but Waterbury, Connecticut is one of the dirtiest cities in this great country, Luke. So I head on a swivel, dude, at all times. No eye contact. All right. I lived this life before.

My kids, they don't know this. They don't know this life. What are they worried about? Test scores? You know what I'm saying,ke okay all right the kid that sat next to me in third grade got his leather jacket flushed into the toilet there was one arm hanging out by the time we got there i mean luke i've been through some shit all right dude my wife still does this bit where you know homeless people will like walk down the street screaming or whatever you know

just looking for attention and what are you supposed to do you're not supposed to like just react to it just you know just kind of don't pay it any mind go about your business dude my wife does the rubbernecking bit where she just looks at him the whole time and of course what does that do that gets them bitter and then they want to start yelling at us and i have to keep telling you quit fucking looking at him but uh she loves it she loves it what are you yeah you know, you know, one time after UFC 201 in Atlanta, Brett Okamoto and I were walking around the streets after midnight, and, you know, sketchballs would come screaming for us and come running. And, you know, my street smarts told me to, you know, go to a public place.

And Brett was just like, hey, buddy, what do you need? You know, and he was just very polite, you know. And I was like, Brett, you know, they say 16 will get you 20. I say talking to that guy will get you stabbed, right? I mean, that's how I grew up, Luke. But you know what I found out in my brief times traveling this world, Luke? This Northeast mentality I grew up with, work, work, work, don't play, don't care about anyone else, it sucks.

The rest of this world knows how to live. They know how to party, Luke, okay? Yeah yeah i was trying to be dad yesterday when i got back after like two two and a half hours of sleep it's hard it's hard when you're 40 isn't pathetic so yeah i kind of understand you look yeah luckily you had all that marijuana luke to get you through it you know i mean oh my god yeah i got your text message yeah i think i misdosed yesterday because a little bit of a wild ride they're getting home but all right we push through so of course I got your text message. I think I misdosed yesterday. A little bit of a wild ride there getting home. But all right, we pushed through.

So, of course, over the weekend, BC and I were together for the Showtime Boxing prelims. We had a great time doing that. Thanks to everyone who tuned in. And then afterwards, we did the post-fight show for UFC 285. We're going to take 285 and then spin it forward because there's been a range of debates that have happened after the fights. We're going to get to them here today. Speaking of one quick debate, I want to welcome all of our new listeners and watchers because I know that we have those because the comments that I skimmed from our live show were exclusively just, you know, who's this absolute buffoon Luke has linked for the rest of his career. And, you know, the life cycle of an of an MK fan, you know, enter for Luke. Hey, BC, realize he's smarter than he looks. Oh, he's kind of humorous, too. rest of his career and you know the life cycle of an mk fan you know enter for luke hate bc

realize he's smarter than he looks oh he's kind of humorous too you know oh i love bc i always hated luke and then eventually realized that that i've got soft white here's what happens they come in they come in loving me and hating you then they hate excuse me then they love you and hate me yeah then they just end up hating us both. Well, then they hate themselves and then me and then, yeah, that's how it works. But hey, I've enjoyed every part of this life cycle with our fans. They're great. Luke, you know how many people are sending me

cat pictures now after Reggie Jackson made a glorious appearance on this show? This is my content, okay? Future waitresses that fight at 115 and cats. That's my life, Luke. Okay? That is indeed your life.

All right. Let's get this moving here. Showtime.com, of course, is the label that pays. Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. And that's relevant because Usman Nurmagomedov fights on Showtime in Bellator on Friday.

You get a chance to watch it for free if you already haven't. Not to miss the start of that lightweight Grand Prix. Going to good time folks not one to miss so that'll be on friday of course we also have merch bc is wearing some you see the polo shirt there he's got oh yeah you can go to morningcombat.store bc for that and many other goodies please please fill your house with this absolute bullshit i have and i'm i better for it. You know, that's great. It's really good. BC, before we start the top five, let's recap Friday's OK Bet and where we're at.

We're in a place that's good for me and bad for you, basically, although mine's really not great, to be candid with you. Mine's not that awesome. By the way, how did I get? Oh, okay. All right. All right. We got to go back over this.

So they say it's three and two. I thought I was four and one. Let's talk about it. All right. Main event. You had Cyril gone. He lost quite dramatically. Looks like I shit my pants on that bet, Luke.

Okay. A lot of people do. You know, the funny part about it was you and I were both agonizing we just really didn't know it ended up being a runaway one way or the other but dude there was really smart people who picked cyril gone to win even by finish i saw in certain places it wasn't a crazy call it just basically information that we had but now based on the information that we have afterwards yeah it turned out to be a bad call uh we both got one right for our favorite you picked brandon figigueroa. He won. And then Tabitha Ricci won for me.

So that keeps us at a level there. We both lost. My underdog pick, Vivian Araujo, however the fuck you say it. And then Derek Brunson. Dude, Derek Brunson looked good in that first round, but then fell apart. He had the strategy he used against Robert Whitaker, which is to fight balls out and then gas out and lose and get stopped. But you know, he almost did it.

Luke, he almost did that shit, you know? Uh, okay. So you're over under, I picked Bo nickel and, uh,

Jamie pick it to take the under. Of course that did you picked, you know what? And I even said it in real time, tell the audience the truth. When the fight started, I was like, Ooh,

that's a good bet. Cause BC picked Garbrandt Jones to not go the distance. And sure enough, it went the distance. I do think that's a good bet because bc picked garbrandt jones to not go the distance and sure enough it went the distance i do think that's a good pick though i mean based again based on the information that you had you know i i can't win luke i bet like i bet big like an asshole i lose i bet safe i lose people like man bc can't bet for shit yeah i'm a professional podcaster you want real bets go go get yanni the greek lu, did you see that Tupac-inspired hit-em-up video he put out there where he's making it rain and shit? Yeah, although apparently some people say the money was fake,

but then Michael Chiesa told me the money was not fake. I don't really know who to believe at this point, but either way, that's his cross to bear. All right, last but not least. Chiesa's out here posting pictures with Tom Brady on Instagram. I saw that. He was out there hanging out with TB12. All right, BC, lastly,

you had to pick a fight to end in KO or sub. Now, BC, Mikey says I have a loss because I did predict that Rachmaninov-Neal would end in a finish, but I did not predict it would end. I think I had it end in TKO. It ended in a sub. So if I predict sub, I don't get the credit?

You lost, Luke. Just deal with it, okay? You lost, all right? Okay, but it's like it's like it's like but just to be clear you still lost bro okay wait wait wait wait so in fairness that's a two-parter you have to pick not only the fight to stop you have to pick it by which method it will stop the fifth one it's the wild card one it's the one that can make or break you luke that's the that's the purpose of that you know all right well i guess that's a loss then because i was a little bit

unclear on how the rules work for that one but i'll take it so that brings me to three and two over the weekend it brings you to two and three now here i owe you bc is gonna he's gonna have fun with this one but i owe it to him all right so this is the one you did get right which was nickel versus picket you thought it was going to end in a sub it certainly did that brings you to two and three our totals again mine's better but really not by much 18 and 11 to your 11 and 18 you're still underwater it's so early luke it's so early it is it is you've been treading water for a while though let's just put it that way however however before we start the top five i do have to have a mea culpa with you. Yes. All right.

But here's the thing. You're right. You're right. I'm going to say you're right, but not for the reasons you imagine. For the record, I also was right about Woodley Till and Francis Will Wrestle. Just for the record. Yes. Dude, I got to say, your Francis Will Wrestle call, that's one of the all-time best calls someone could have.

That was a really good call. call that's one of the all-time best calls someone could have that was so was we will win the award the first time and so was one day we'll have a live show in in england and sell it out so look i'm you know yeah i'm uh you know i'm no stranrago over here all right fair enough there's some big picture stuff you very much get right okay and you got this one you got this one right but for maybe the reasons you don't imagine so the debate we had on saturday night right after the fight was you had nickel who was, let's just be real. He was controlling picket and doing almost whatever he wanted to do him.

And he had a head and arm triangle, which he couldn't quite finish. And he had three quarter mount. And what I had argued on Saturday night was if you have three quarter amount, all that means is one foot is trapped between their legs, but your knees are now past them. So it's almost mount,

but your foot is still stuck in them. They have it, they have it between their thighs to have your foot. What I had argued on Saturday was what he could have done was just use the pin from the head and arm triangle, knee cut to the opposite side, and finish. So let me give credit to who corrected me on this. Joe Gilpin of BJJ Fanatics. He's a current competitor.

I think he's Brown or black belt, something like that. And what he told me was he hit me up. Here's what you got right. Nickel purposely did not do that for a good reason. But here's what you may not fully understand. And this is what you don't appreciate. What I was asking him to do

to put his rear end in the air and then knee slice, that is 100% how it was taught for a very long time, including how it was taught to me. And the reason why I know that that position works is it's not just exclusive to the head and arm triangle. If you have three quarter mount with the gi,

there's a cross choke. You can use same thing. You just knee slice to the other side from three quarter mount. Their hips follow you. You can get it. There's actually a series of attacks from that exact same position. And the truth is when you do that it does make the choke tighter there's no denying i was right in the sense that if you do

that it will make the choke tighter but what was explained to me credit to joe from bjj fanatics was in the more modern game and this is what i did not know guys are abandoning that a little bit and what they're doing is they're not going fully to that side, which would make the choke tighter. Instead, what they want to do is they want to keep that there, the three quarter mount so that if they lose position, they can quickly reclaim it. And so it doesn't make the choke as tight, but what they found out over time is you can just slow bleed it. You can just kind of slowly, slowly get there without having to compromise position. Cause if you do what I did, which is the knee the knee cut it is a tighter choke but you don't have nearly as much control so what he explained you allow the person i'm almost done i'm almost done god you're such a controlling asshole but

i'll keep i'll keep working with you i'm almost done i'm almost done i swear to god so what was explained to me was it's a question of trade-offs if you feel like it's the right circumstance you can do it the more old school way, which was taught to me, or the more modern guys are going to slag off that side, keep the three-quarter hook in there as a way so that they don't lose position. Might take them longer to secure the choke,

or it might not come at all, but at least you can maintain position. BC, go ahead. Yes. So for the record, I couldn't care either way, Luke. I was really angered at your arrogance in the moment when you were like no no no you don't know what you're watching and i'm and i was saying look you're right i don't know what i'm watching but i felt that bo nickel did and there is more than one way to skin a cat and you mentioned that one video but

also uh you know craig jones luke you know that guy well i didn't mention the video i spoke to someone so it was a little bit different okay well people put this craig jones video in my in my inbox about 46 times the same thing yes and he says look if you if you do the knee move that you're talking about they can escape out the back door so it was really just a very patient calculated bo nickel getting the job done okay but i didn't like was that when one person tweeted it out you found it you just thought you were gonna shack on chris dudley and hang on the rim and t-bag me and i'm like dude i'm gonna go with bo nickel over you just so you know every single time do junior fighters make mistakes all the time i just want to point that out i will admit that the modern updates are things that i've just

not been in the gym in in years so the more modern time for a comeback you know what i mean if you want to be America's best analyst and you're you're very good it might be it might be so again it's just a question of trade-offs about what you want to do but in that particular case it's a more modern approach about what he was picking yeah and it worked for him however it was explained to me something that the the way in which he was trying to wrench it a little bit even Joe from BJJ Fanatics told me he was kind of forcing it a little bit so he had a more modern game but still he was maybe rushing the attack which is understandable it's

his fourth ufc fight first big fight like you know in terms of the audience and everything but i want to acknowledge that having a little bit more humility about the modern game i should probably have oh i appreciate that luke and craig jones said it was a it was an Islam Mahachev like move just so put that up in your uh okay all right fair enough all right with that in mind BC let's get to the meat and potatoes of today's show so we start with the rundown topic number one this is a conversation that has come up big time yesterday on social media I was participating in a few conversations but I'm sure you've seen them. And now that John has beaten Cyril Ghosn and did it just so thoroughly, he now has a weight class and another title.

He is the reigning UFC heavyweight champion. Here's the question. Is he actually the consensus best fighter ever? Is he your all-time guy, right? And there was a lot of coronation on his name, about his name, Saturday night bc we were saying he was that guy a lot of ufc staff and employees and the broadcast were saying that a lot of people a lot of people do believe that but there is some dispute about whether it's actually

gsp because he had to fight much tougher guys which i do think is true so bc where are you on this idea about whether or not Jon Jones is or isn't? And what do you make of the criticisms of the idea that he is? Jon Jones was my goat coming in. So, you know, if I want to have a humble mea culpa moment, I'll only say the intention of my analysis in the post-fight show in which people said, you know, I was downgrading what John did. You know, I was almost more talking from a entertainment standpoint mixed with like, look, this was a big event. John Jones coming back from three years. I wanted to get all my questions answered against Cyril Ghosn.

I wanted the fight to go multiple rounds, see John's gas tank, see his, you know, how he's adapted his game. John took that away from me because he was more dominant in the moment. Even if it was a potential matchup in which his strength matched up perfectly with Gon's glaring weakness, I thought Gon wouldn't be that weak. Turned out to be wrong. So if John's my GOAT coming in, and then he goes in there against one of the best heavyweights in the game now, and just, I mean, white belts him, obliterates him. How could he not be my GOAT coming out? But let's talk specifically about the debate that keeps rearing up.

And it's not just that if it's not John, could it be a number of three, four, five others? It's really John versus GSP in the public's eye, it seems right now. You just made a comment that I think you said it out of context. You said GSP fought better guys. Do you mean that? Because overall, You said GSP fought better guys. Do you mean that? Because overall, you think GSP fought better competition? Do I think he fought better competition every time? Certainly not.

Do I think in general his strength of schedule was tougher than John's? Yes, I do. Well, I want to counter that with this. To me, right now, Bantamweight's the deepest division in the MMA. Before that, lightweight was almost at a historic level of deepness. In the comparison for me of, okay, what does it historically compare with? Light heavyweight right before Jon Jones became champion. When one Hall of Famer after another traded the belt, there was a lot of parody,

until Jon Jones arrived and kind of brutally finished every single one of our heroes in a row hua right uh machida violently right you know rampage decision win over rashad like across the board i mean that that eight to ten fight stretch john had beginning with the hua fight i still don't think it's been has been rivaled in UFC history in terms of strength of schedule. And what did he do since then? He fought his own contemporary era, which was like the Gustafsons, the DCs, whipped him. And then as a little bit longer in the tooth post multiple drug suspensions, beat the new

class. Not fully convincingly comparatively but did it then took three years off came back against a completely elite sort of peripheral pound for pound talent and gone and absolutely obliterated him yes gsp had already won titles in two divisions yes gsp is you know almost flawless in terms of the individual, the competitor, the representation, all of that. He doesn't have the same drug issues that John had, although he did grease one time. OK, well, I remember that. But, dude, the big thing for me in the John versus GSP debate, it comes down to two things to me.

And when you're comparing goats, when you're comparing greatness, you've got to be fine. You've got to find tooth comb that you've got to split hairs. Right. John never lost that's one and i think his strength of schedule is better so if you're going to go on that strength of schedule argument would that make gsp your goat no because i don't see that argument look i don't see i think in general gsp fought better guys but um i don't think he always fought better guys for sure i want to be clear about that i don't think that's always true okay who are the better guys comparatively like actually compare this i'm interested luke you got me interested so gsp so okay i mean it's kind of

funny right everyone's like well gsp fought better guys it's true i mean here's a couple ways you can kind of know that right what the average age i looked this up and i made sure i did the math before today's show so the average age of john's opponents in title fights obviously we're talking all ufc here uh is 32 the average age of gsp's opponents in title fights is 29 but that's a little bit deceiving right first of all 35 pound weight difference that's the deceiving part luke okay it's more than that it's more than that it's more than that who is the first 20 year old that gsp fought in title fights do you know the first 20 year old yes in other words who was in their 20s when they fought gsp for a title who was the first one um uh yeah i'm gonna surprise you

okay it's condit it's not until he fights carlos condit way later in his career. And then Nick Diaz was another one. Obviously, Condit obviously rocked him in that fight. But you're talking about two fighters who have major stylistic disadvantages to GSP, right? I mean, very much not well-rounded in terms of the wrestling game, especially Nick Diaz. I mean, he just got controlled for all five rounds.

He had nothing for GSP in that fight. So this idea that even though he was a 20 year old and yes, Nick Diaz at 29 was certainly a lot more dangerous than he is today, but the stylistic disadvantage made that a walk in the park for GSP. I want to just be very clear about that. It wasn't like he fought some like super well-rounded guy. John Fitch was 30 when he fought him. Tiago Alves was pretty young.

That's a really great win for him, but BC, I'm going to make this very simple. This to me is not that hard to argue. Really? I can understand. You've done a good job yet. I'm being i can i don't think you've done a good job yet i'm being honest i don't think you've done a good job convincing me yet i'll convince you i i believe that like i mean listen dude gone's gone's dude gone had an all-time horrible performance on saturday for ufc title fights and i want you just you can turn off the sound for just a second. I want you to watch what happens when John just locks up with him and how he

like almost with literally every step shreds his defense. This is what happens when the gap in skill is extraordinary. And of course, John is very good, but gone had a level of defense that is unforgivably bad for this level. You should not be that bad in a UFC title fight. Not good enough. Making a series of very elementary choices. Not well trained for this contest in that department at all. And that's why that win went as quickly as it did. St. Pierre

didn't fight a lot of guys like that. Just to be very clear, he did not. They were much tougher, much more well-rounded relative to that. But the argument to me, BC, falls apart for St. Pierre very simply at Matt Serra, right? Because if you want to argue that GSP had better fighters or better tough competition overall, which I do agree with, then state that. I know you don't agree with it, but let's pause it for a second. I'm being honest. I'm waiting for you to

argue that. All you said was gone. You have to let me get to the argument and actually utter the words before you can respond to it. Don't show me the birthing pains, Luke. Show me the baby. I'm ready. Let's do it, okay? It's not so simple, BC.

You can't just rush things all the time the reality is this St. Pierre when he fought Sarah for that title even before that was already in his 30s he had come off the Chris Lytle win off the ultimate fighter which was a terrible win not that great that is not one of more uh that is that is not one of St. Pierre's more elite competition. I don't think it's fair to say that. And so that guy beat St. Pierre and not only that he beat him, he forced St. Pierre to tap to strikes. In other words, not only the St. Pierre have a loss on his record, in which ways that say that G excuse me, Jones does not, but more importantly importantly even if you want to argue that gsp fought better guys the guy who iced him is not one of the more elite guys and to the extent that john faced only let's say that

level of competition john beat all of them john never lost two guys of that level john never had to watch someone else pummel him while he tapped the strikes two guys commensurately of that level. John never had to watch someone else pummel him while he tapped the strikes two guys commensurately of that level. The guy that iced St. Pierre is not one of the more elite welterweights of his era. He just had a really, really, really great night and good for him. And obviously he's, you know, he's decorated in the jujitsu sense and his American heritage with, with Henzo Gracie. Like Matt, Sarah's a great fighter. Please don't misunderstand me, but it's not one of the more elite guys. that was the guy that beat saint pierre john never had a day off like that ever not like that never not once and so to me even if you want to argue that the guys

in general thought were better he stumbled in ways john never did. And that to me counts significantly against his case for best ever. Okay. What you just did respectfully was essentially further argue my argument. And I agree with you. Matt, Sarah is 11 and seven all time. He's in the hall of fame on the first ballot, but the UFC hall of fame standards are sometimes wonky.

He lost twice and was finished both times. He did avenge those two losses by finishes, which I always bring up Lennox Lewis in that comparison. So GSP, solid as shit. But Luke, respectfully, I don't think you've made the argument yet that GSP's resume is actually better than John's. The argument you used for that was that gone shit the bed, which he did. But a lot of people have tried for

years to downgrade gsps went over biz ping for similar reasons not that michael shit the bed in the title fight but that he was older i thought anderson silva had beat him which means i didn't think he should have gotten the advancement to the title fight although it was last minute i understand all of that this isn't an anti-bizizping rant, but I would actually like you to tell me where you think GSP's resume is that much better than John's. I think beating Penn twice is a huge deal. I think beating... There's no one really on John's radar

quite equivalent to Tiago Alves. You could maybe argue Gustafson, but I think Alves was even younger than him and already just a fucking dynamite force. Obviously, this is all pre-Usada. So that's a part. I think that... So let's go through there before...

Actually, before that, you have Sean Trick and everything else, Jason Miller, but I'm excluding that. I think Kostchek twice. I'm trying to find the nut. Kostchek twice, Fitch, Alves, Hendricks. We're talking waves of guys, much much tougher much more well-rounded than a guy like cyril garning and i would also argue some of the guys that john got at 34 35 okay so this is what i'm trying to get to the core luke i'm trying you know because you made an interesting

comment that we don't have to rush everything and i'm like dude i've been trying to tell you that at the tail end of every single mk broadcast to be fair but uh you keep comparing to gone let's put gone and bisping the wins that got them the second division championship almost off this debate because the debate you're trying to say is he has a better resume is the nut is the great i'm gonna release the i'm gonna release the question to you is the nut of your argument what do they call that in writing? What is that? The crux? The crux. There you go.

Is the crux of your argument that the big names John beat were more over the hill at the time than the big names GSP beat? Because that would be the only way I could begin to understand your argument. I still wouldn't give it to you, but I'm having trouble here. So, yes, I mean, I regard, so it would depend, but I think most of us would regard beating Cormier twice as probably at least two of John's better wins. But those come at, I think, 38 and 30. Okay, but dude, Daniel Cormier, like Randy Couture,

didn't come to this sport until his 30s after a long amateur career, and you could argue the 38 and 39-year-old version of DC was the best version ever. So I don't like that angle, Luke. Well, you cannot like it, but it's hard to argue that fighting guys who are 38 is tougher in general than fighting elite guys that are 28.

It depends on the situation, dude. I agree. I agree. So, Jose, Jose, Jose. He sees a top 10 fighter all time. Yeah, fair enough. Dude, I agree with that. I agree with that.

I'm not making the argument that GSP's resume is, in terms of the guys he beat, wildly different than the one that John. Some people are making that. I'm not making that. I do think there is a difference of quality of his wins overall. Some people are making that. I'm not making that. I do think there is a difference of quality of his wins overall. I do agree with that. But with you, that's a good point to make.

Also, I want to point out, so the ages, he had two back-to-back 20-year-old fighters, GSP, 25 and 27. That was the Condit and back-to-back. Oh, no, excuse me. That was, I think that was Condit and Diaz, back-to-back, 25, 27, right? But he got Rashad at 32.

Well, Rashad only had one loss on his record and had just dummied Phil Davis to get the title shot on Fox. He was hot. He was 17-1, 32 years of age going into that. Dude, that to me is tougher than beating a 25-year-old Carlos Condit. That's much tougher in my view. And John did that. And John did that. So I agree with you. I'm not saying there's a monsterit. That's much tougher in my view. And John did that. And John did that.

So I agree with, I'm not saying there's a monster gap. That's not my argument. I'm even positing, let's say that there is, the fact that GSP got iced by the lesser version of his competition to me changes the debate substantially. I think the only debate you could really lean on at this point, now that John has the title in a second weight class, is if you're going to go the drug route, which I think is a very cloudy debate to begin with. Because even though John is trying to say now that the recent picogram update with USADA clears him of ever being a steroid cheat, dude, he got caught ahead of UFC 200 with two drugs that had nothing to do with the pulsing drugs that happened afterwards. So, I mean, I think that's out the window.

I don't, I guess, you know, look, I love GSP and, you know, what else could he have done? You know what I'm saying? Like the two losses, he avenged them by stoppage. What else could he have done? But to me, there's got to be a separation between the two. He's the second greatest fighter of all time, whether it matters or not, in terms of my discussion. John's that dude but luke you do understand that because gone shit the bed which which look he shit the bed be i'm sorry because gone shit the bed and he did because of john jones people want to downgrade what this moment which we've been waiting for 10 years to happen john

finally moving up and challenging himself on a new level, they want to downgrade that. Even though I was upset that Gon shit the bed because I picked him and I wanted to learn more in the fight, I don't think that can be part of the argument. I really don't, especially since GSP beat Bisping. I understand your point. I do agree John made him look bad. I don't take that back at all.

I think that's true. But, dude, opponents at this level should be better. They should be more developed than Gon was. It's a conversation we should have. Like, remember when Cyril, excuse me, what am I saying? Remember when Francis got real beat up by Stipe in their first fight and then Francis left that team? I'm not one of these guys that advocates leaving teams

because those situations can only really be understood by the fighters and the coaches themselves. But I have seen now a couple of guys, Francis first, now Cyril. You can argue some other ones, but certainly just those two in title fights, woefully unprepared. Like you could say what you want about Francis. He walked into that Stipe fight unprepared. His development was not where it was supposed to be.

He didn't have educated responses to what he was supposed to do. Look at Jeff Neal versus Shovkat. Educated responses both ways, which is why it was competitive and it lasted as long as it did. educated responses to what he was supposed to do look at jeff neal versus shopcott educated responses both ways which is why i was competitive and it lasted as long as it did here you have a guy and god just doesn't know what to do in these situations and got overwhelmed almost instantly guys should not be fighting for titles when they're when their skills are at that level they just shouldn't be well look i agree with that completely um and if we i don't think gone deserves a complete referendum on was he ever good because but but

it is damning that in his two biggest fights francis and now john to certain levels he did crap the bed although you know even dana says if gone hadn't gone for that heel hook against francis we might not even be talking about this. Gon's biggest win was against somebody who shit the bed in their hometown right in front of him, and Derek Lewis. But I'm not here to say he never was. Cyril Gon, when he's able to keep the fight on his terms, is one of the best heavyweights of this era without question. But look, Jon's number one with a bullet, and we can't overlook the three years to come back to rebuild his body to do it that easily. Now, I still want to find out a lot of the answers to things about what his body looks like over five rounds and hopefully he'll hang around long enough to show us that. But to me, John is number one with a bullet, Luke.

I love me some GSP, but I even went to the next level and took some time and updated whether people care or not. Not just my upper room list, but my top 10 list go all time in MMA history. Luke, are you ready to look at this? And please tear it apart if it needs to, Luke. I'm ready to show you it. Okay. I think this is a valuable exercise because I've never made one of my lists like this. I always kind of just sort of had a vague idea of things in the back of my head.

I'm curious. Before we show it, the reason why I want to do it is because I understand a lot of people get on me and go, you know, you always talk about your top five upper room. You don't have Jose Aldo there. So where is he? And, and, you know, what about this guy? What about this guy? And, you know, spoiler alert, PJ is not even in my top 10, which I get for some people is like outright sacrilege. So there's a lot of things to consider, including the evolution of the sport, including accomplishments, including strength to schedule everything, Luke. But I took the time and I did that. There's only only 10 people can be in the top 10, right?

Even if 25 have have a resume that would allow it. Here's BC's top 10 goat list. Yeah, baby. All right. Walk us through. Number one, John Jones. Number two, GSP. And I really think, what's the worst GSP could be on your list?

Three, right? Well, my number three is Anderson Silva. That win streak mixed with, you got to also account the ability of just being a supernatural video game fighter who took the attention of the, the attention of the entire sport when he was on top number four, Fedor. And I really don't want people to start, you know, as the years go on, try to push Fedor out over some idea of, because he never fought in the UFC because it's just not regular.

It's just not warranted. Number five, Luke is a potential hop button one, because where do you put them? 29 and no Habib Nurmagomedov. My number six is Demetrius Johnson. Who's still going at a very high level, but still owns that UFC record for most title defenders,

or I guess he's tied with John in total, but most consecutive title defenses, and really was the perfect, complete fighter. Amanda Nunes, number seven, Luke. I feel like she has to be in the top 10. The accomplishments speak for themselves. The resume, going after every opponent she possibly could, and then even had her GSP Sarah moment The accomplishments speak for themselves. The resume, going after every opponent she possibly could,

and then even had her GSP Sarah moment in Avenge the loss to Peña. Number eight, the king of Rio, Jose Aldo. Number nine, Daniel Cormier, a guy who I've had as high as like four or five after he knocked out Stipe, but I feel like this is probably the best spot for him because, look, if there's one thing against Daniel Cormier, yeah, he did win titles in two divisions. Yeah yeah he's one of my favorite fighters of all time but he did lose more than he won in his biggest fights right twice to john jones twice to stipe i think you got to factor that in even though obviously wins over gustafson rumble twice and the strike force tournament speak for themselves and how about number 10 luke could i put bj could i have put

a lot of people i'm putting alexander volkanovsky i've come around review it luke what do you think all right so this is my i've not seen this list i purposely didn't look at it till just now so obviously you know things that could get moved around anyone in those top three could be shuffled around and like you know that like i i more or less think john is well i i think it's you've got the right one two three but recognizing there's going to be a diversity of opinion on that one i gotta tell you fedor above demetrius for me is a problem okay okay i mean i went back and watched all those pride fights in succession luke you know and they're amazing big nog was the dude he handled big nog okay big nog was the dude back then yeah i don't know where i have never really fully

considered where to put habib so i don't have much to say there again i think demetrius should be inside your top five i gotta tell you dude putting amanda over jose is a major no-no for me really i saw i was there when she moved up and knocked out cyborg luke i was there i think jose is not just more talented i think he also fought far tougher opposition um um i mean it's obviously hard to compare strength of schedule male versus female because in general the female game is just not as deep but amanda was on top of the Bantamweight division when it was historically deep. And when she had an opportunity against Misha, Holly, Rhonda, she viciously finished them all. She has two wins over Valentina, who turns out to be her toughest competitor. She beat a handful of other

names we care about, including Jermaine Durandamy, former champion twice. And oh, by the way, won a title in the second division by beating Chris Cyborg, who was then the GOAT and some people think still is, Luke. If we're not going to put her in the top 10, even with the hard-to-do male versus female divide in terms of a debate, what the hell are we doing here? Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying she doesn't have a place

in the top 10. I'd have to think about that more, but I'm definitely not putting her over Aldo. It would never happen. Okay. The rest of the list, I guess I to think about that more, but I'm definitely not putting it over Aldo. It would never happen. Okay. The rest of the list, I guess I don't have a problem with. What about other fringe figures? Who was hard to leave out of this list for you?

BJ Penn, without question. What about Usman and Izzy and guys like that? Let me get to that. BJ Penn, in terms of the historical guys, without question. I do have a soft spot for Randy Couture that as the years go on, nobody has that same soft spot. And I understand it was a different era,

but he did span multiple eras and won titles in two weight divisions, reinvented himself a shit amount of time. I think the biggest problem right now is that we have a bunch of active fighters who are really close or already there. And it's hard to really figure out while they're still active where that is.

I mentioned when Daniel Cormier knocked out Stipe, I was like, dude, he's, I think, a top-five fighter all time now, even though he never beat Jon Jones, and sometimes losses at the end can move people, whether that's fair or not. But yeah, Kamaru Usman deserves top-ten consideration. To me, Israel Adesanya to some level. I mean, I'd love if he goes back and wins back his title. That would certainly help. But, you know, there's a few guys right now, Luke, that I think are getting somewhat close.

And in the same debate that we mentioned with Habib, I don't know where to put Habib. I think you can make a hipster argument for No. 1 like we did for fun in that high court, even though, look, should he be No. 1? No. But I don't know how high to put him, and I don't know what to do with Usman, who was just about to tie the record for consecutive wins and got stopped but does get a chance to regain his bell here

yeah the Izzy ones I'm being premature the Usman one it would be hard because he was right at the precipice of being like among these names but then as you pointed out it just blew up what do you do I guess we'll see as you indicated I think what do you say is the biggest historical one that i'm that i'm like i'm pissing on bj pennex i mean not purposely but only 10 can make it there's going to be a lot of people going dude come on really but he has too many ups and downs so you can understand leaving him out hendo's an interesting one i wouldn't put him top 10 but he's kind of a fringe character because he was the first dan henderson is in this conversation how about that luke because of the pride the pride run yeah the pride run the thing with dan henderson was he was the first one to hold two belts

simultaneously when he did it in pride after knocking out vanderley yeah that was a big deal and he has longevity he has a strike force championship for whatever you think that's worth he knocked out fedor i mean he's done a lot a lot of things, Luke. Yeah, so he's up there. He's up there. Again, I've never done one of these lists, so I'd have to really go back and consider. I think in general, you've got most of the right names. I would just switch the order a little bit,

but that's the fun of this. I think there's really not as much consensus. But I will say this. It's just funny to me that everyone, getting back to Jon Jones, we could turn the page after this. It's it's it's so funny how along the way everyone tries to find a reason they do this with a lot of really successful guys ladies too they find reasons over time to tell you that they're your greatness not that it's imagined but it's really

not all it's cracked up to be like i remember like oh john only wins because he fights guys with the same he has he has greater leverages greater reach all this kind of stuff and then he fights someone who's naturally bigger than him with just a very modest minor reach disadvantage and john fucking dummies him like where is that conversation now where's the conversation that john only wins because he's taller and ranger than everyone like it was fucking stupid to begin with when they were saying years ago and it's fucking stupid now. And I would just like people to recognize if you want to pick St. Pierre or Silva as your top guy. I understand.

I didn't say it Saturday night, but I understand there is a debate, but you got to leave the like obviously false shit about John, whatever your feelings about him to the wayside. And I just don't, I just, people are just disappointed. Gone.

Didn't do enough. And then I think they're taking that out on John as a way to like, you know, protest vote. You can't do it that way. Is Stipe in the, in the 10 to 15 area or no? Not for me. Not for me. Now, if the conversation is just what they did by division, well,

it's a very, very, very different conversation then. But all time, even though he beat Cormier twice, no, no, because that's Cormier's second weight class, right? So, no. Should Chris Cyborg have been considered? Should Valentina, Ioana? No, no, no. No.

Again, here's what I think. I think we should have separate lists for men and women. And I know inevitably people are like, well, how are those two going to compare? But those, those compares are so fraught. They're very difficult to do.

That's just because you want Magumi for Jumi in there, Luke. That's why I know it is Fuji. E there's a little bit of an E on the end there, but yeah, you'd put her on that list. I just feel like you can get a better understanding of women's greatness, not by comparing them to men,

but by comparing them to each other. And so I just, I just feel like it's a a better understanding of women's greatness, not by comparing them to men, but by comparing them to each other. And so I just, I just feel like it's a better way to go. See, Luke, there's a reason why I wore this hat today. Okay. One love,

baby. All right. All right. BC. Let's spend this forward. BC. Let's spend this forward. Here we go.

Topic number two. I'm going to give you a true or false statement here. You tell me which one it is. BC. We're talking about women's flyweight. You tell me which one it is, BC. We're talking about women's flyweight. We're talking about, of course, Grasso upsetting Shevchenko. But now we're spinning it forward into where it all goes from here. So, BC, ready?

True or false? Erin Blanchfield deserves the next title shot at the women's UFC flyweight belt. Which is it? This is hard. It's hard. There's a lot going on atop the standings. And Grosso's upset of Shevchenko flips this division upside down. True or false?

I'm going to say false. Because I know who gets, people are sick of rematches and the need for oh a champion's got some level of stature and they lost let's run it back and they're sick of it especially when that champion dominantly loses now this wasn't a dominant loss throughout the four the three and a half rounds but the way it ended, that was dominant. I completely understand. I do think, though, when somebody has been almost historically level, you know, dominant or on top and in charge, yeah, you do deserve it. Amanda Nunes, in my opinion, deserved it against Peña.

She got it. Demetrius Johnson, again, after the second fight with Cejudo, I thought he deserved it. He got traded. I mean, Valentina set the record for title defenses by a female and was, you know, is really on her way to all time greatness here. Overall, I think who deserves it the most? It is Valentina. The bigger question though, is what direction should the promotion go? Erin Blanchfield's stock because of how this fight ended, I think only goes up even higher. But she does have people right with or above her in the rankings.

I mean, I could check just to make sure, but, you know, Manon Thoreau was already ranked higher than her. Let's see where we're at. Let's update the rankings right now, because sometimes they play chicanery with this, Luke. As we speak right now at Flyweight, Fia Rowe is No. 1, Tyler Santos, No. 2, who just had a split decision with valentina and now aaron number three if they went the direction of aaron blanchfield because of the hype and the dominance against you know against increasing level of competition they would not be wrong and aaron against alexa grasso was a fight we didn't even really consider it's interesting

for the title but can i throw you a wild card pitch before I get your response of what should happen and what will happen? Yes. Dana shot this down post-fight Saturday. He says the idea of a trilogy now between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko at Bantamweight is no longer relevant because Valentina lost the title.

I completely disagree with that for a couple reasons. One, it's in a different division at Bantamweight. Two, the only person outside of Peña who the loss was avenged that ever really gave a man to legitimate trouble was Valentino, who you can argue ran out of time at UFC 196 because she started too late and almost beat her. And you can argue in the rematch, did beat her when they fought for the title. My thing is this, flyweight is so fun right now Started too late and almost beat her. And you can argue in the rematch, did beat her when they fought for the title.

My thing is this. Flyweight is so fun right now that if you are a little bit fatigued to the idea of champion who lost their title getting immediately run back no matter what. And I agree. Overall, it does fatigue, even though I think Valentina deserves it. Why not do this now? Because if you don't do this now, Valentina versus Amanda 3, you may never get another chance. We've had this sort of as a lottery ticket just sitting there for a long time that they could cash in on. There is nobody at 35 or 45 and hasn't been for a while

who's like screaming, we need to see them next. I know people are going to say, Irine Aldana. And look, she's deserving of a title shot if we're going to go whoever's next in line and with the whole thing about Mexico having three champions and a potential fourth if you want to do that fight in Mexico I'm not going to get in your way but why not do Valentina Amanda right now and then if Valentina wins maybe she go maybe she stays at that division you could just as same make the argument of let's give her another a chance to regain her title and if she loses it,

then maybe that's the right time. But Luke, why not Val Amanda three now? And who do you think is deserving of the next title shot? Why would they do that? Why would they give her, I mean, I know you covered it,

but I'm just trying to articulate. Why would they give her a title shot after not just losing dude, she got finished. It's a different weight class. She was great in that weight class. She arguably beat Amanda in the rematch i guess i'm alone and that's fine luke i've never been afraid to stand on top of the mountain here's what i say you and i are like a little bit more in lockstep with like the desire to see that third fight and so what i think what i think you're getting at here is like hey man that's a great fight there's never going to be

a great time to do that fight why not pull the trigger now it's not the worst argument but the problem is there's just no momentum for that there's nothing pulling us in that direction it just seems like you're gonna have to sort valentina's place at 125 before you can do anything else whether that's a great thing for making that future fight or not okay because i don't think that fight needs two titles in the cage to make it a great fight. There's already history there. Second fight was boring, dude.

Okay, that's fair. All right, so let's remove the trilogy BC wildcard idea. When you look at the rankings, I already read the top three to you. Who deserves the next? Valentina, Aaron, Manon, and France. What are we doing next here at 125 here's the thing I am not interested in a rematch which isn't to say which is not to say

that there's not a case for it that other people should feel this way it's not my point I'm just telling you as a broadcaster here's my personal preferences thing is, I get that Valentina has been this decorated. I mean, really just the, you know, she has, she is the standard in this weight class and there will be new standards over time. But as it goes, this is the, this is the benchmark of excellence at women's flyweight. That's just the way that it is. And given her record, they're going to have to give her a rematch. I understand.

But BC, I frankly don't want to see it. Here's's the thing here's really where it comes down to for me if they rematch i probably would pick shevchenko to win again right i mean that's you know you got to be careful with that but probably probably and it doesn't matter because i think blanchfield beats her or grasso that's the problem for me the problem for me. The problem for me is you've got someone waiting in the wings who I think is ready to be the belt holder, but she has to wait because of this new wrinkle that, yes, by every precedent, you have to go back and see if that wrinkle makes sense and you have to go back and figure out what happens between Grosso

and Shevchenko. You just have to. But I don't know what the hell you're supposed to do with Blanchfield because she's ready to go march people down. If she wants to stay busy, I say Blanchfield versus FIRO, but the UFC is not going to want to do that because there's one contender getting rid of another one. Well, look, they have ridden the hot hand before, and this would be that.

Now, sometimes they do that when someone's got a super marketable potential. I don't necessarily see crossover potential potential but she is just 23 uh i don't know 23 and how many months luke what she wouldn't break john jones's record for younger youngest champion correct no i think john was like 21 when he beat shogun like something he was 23 but it was like a young 23 we can have our producers look it up real quick we can have our producers look it up real quick no no i have it okay i'd love when he beat shogun when he beat shogun he was let's see john jones was 23 years eight months oh that's an old 23 i was wrong so where's erin at right now i know she was born when i was like already in college luke which i can tell you where she was obviously i can tell you where she was in the uh fight with andrage so when she fought

andrage she was sitting at 23 years nine months so she's already passed she's already passed okay i say that because that's a good hook to sell the fight but to your point do you need a hook no aaron blanchfield is coming on now so luke okay do you think it's more likely that it's aaron or valentina because then i want to i want to i want to book the territory after that so let's establish what's more likely for the ufc to do right now the champ or re you know rematch with the champ with the old champ or aaron blanchfield rematch with the old champ okay so let's say it's Valentina. The one person you're disrespecting here is Tyler Santos in this mix. She did just push the champ to a split decision. Is this because she didn't pay her coaches, Luke?

Is this like retroactive penalties you're giving her? I'm not docking her any points for that, but her coaches might. You make a good point that Aaron's done so much in a short period, so if you did do the Valentina rematch, what do you do next? Blanchfield versus Tyla or

Farrow, or Manon Farrow versus Tyla Santos, and then Aaron Blanchfield sitting to get next, which might not even be fair either. We got a problem here. It's a good problem, but we do have a little bit of a problem in terms of what's next and how you're going to set up the bracket. Agreed. So what do you do with Blanchfield? Let's assume the UFC is going to do that. They're going to make the rematch. They're going to book it immediately. It'll be in three months or whatever, you know, a quick turnaround

or something. What does Blanchfield do? Do you recommend sitting or do you recommend staying active? Does it come down to the overall level of competition? Because even though she destroyed Andrade and whether or not you want to play into what Valentina was saying in my interview of look, Andrade wasn't in great shape. She admitted she only took the fight because the money they offered her was like life changing in the moment. Again, I'm not, I don't like to lean on that because andrage agreed to take the fight and she's always dangerous but if you're gonna find tooth comb erin's resume and it's small because she's got five fights and she's 23 years old in the ufc she hasn't consistently beaten elite foes i mean she destroyed meatball molly who was questionable

had some big wins but was questionable in terms of her upper bound limits. Destroyed a tough out in Miranda Maverick, had some moments against JJ Aldrich, good and bad, but got the win. Would you say like, even though it was a breakthrough moment against Andrade in a main event, and it screams that she's a legitimate title challenger, that to be fair to the other women ranked above her, she may have to win one more, Luke? I think here's the move.

Ready? You got to run it back because Valentino won for so long. It would be shitty to not give a... And by the way, same situation. We saw the scorecards. Correct me if I'm wrong. She was up two rounds to one

heading into the fourth, correct? Yes. She may have won the fourth, so it may have been 2-2 heading into the fifth. Bare minimum, pretty competitive, but she was up after three. You have to do that. On her winning streak and everything else,

you have to give it to her. Okay, I think you run back Blanchfield-Santos. I think you run that back. That's a great fight. It's an interesting test. It's an interesting test for Erin because she's so heavy with the ground, although we saw her striking against Andrade.

I like that. Santos already had a title shot. Manofiero has not. You don't ruin title shot. Manon Fioro has not. You don't ruin that, and then the winner of that gets whoever. It kind of creates a problem with Fioro, though, and what the hell you do with her. There's a lot of problems. There's a lot of bottlenecks at the top of this effing division.

I mean, Tatiana Suarez committing to 115 doesn't fully help this either, but that's what we're dealt. I wanted to bring up one thing because we both mentioned it in the post-fight show. The idea that we're on a little bit to bring up one thing because we both mentioned it in the post-fight show. The idea that we're on a little bit of a trend here in big-time title fights where the big favorite or the one we expect to win gets stopped late after having great success.

Usman against Edwards, Adesanya against Powhatan, and now this fight. It's weird because what we talked about when we praised Valentina coming in was right. She's a lifetime martial artist, 30 years, as she says, constantly evolving, traveling the world. She went to Tokyo this time to constantly evolve. Yet how did she lose? By smart tape study by Grasso anticipating that if this moment happens, I know what to do to counter it. Similar to Leon Edwards against Usman.

So look, there's already a million ways to lose in UFC, in MMA, elite MMA. We already overly praise, rightfully so, whenever anyone can do what GSP, Silva, Jones, Nunes has done, which is be champion on top for a long reign. Demetrius Johnson, too. This recent trend has to have all the champions look in the eye that, like, if there's that much tape out on you, as you often bring up up which is a smart point dude you have to evolve your game even more than you realize because this was one moment in time that Grasso and her team picked out that they can that they could have an advantage on when Valentina does the spinny shit right and she does it non-recklessly

she she fits it in beautifully but it became a. It became a big moment because Grasso was waiting for it. Dude, this sport's already hard enough, Luke. But tape study could, you know, in waiting for that one moment, a lot of times you watch fighters lose because they're waiting for that one moment, right? But it can happen, dude, and it's happening a lot now. What do you say about that? I agree. I mean, it's amazing.

Once you become the champion and there's all that tape on you and your fights are going longer, because obviously if you're the champion, there's going to be some fights that end in the first round, but the reality is, in general, you're going to be fighting the best of that division through the course of your title defense, and every time they're going to make that fight a little bit longer and every time they're going to figure out another wrinkle and the accumulative weight of those wrinkles uh and all the things they pick up that is a very difficult

thing to overcome especially when the contenders continue to stay young continue to come through the ranks it's just it once you get to that level it requires masterful strategy masterful tacticians to be able to pull it off and it's that's another reason why these guys who are at the top like silva at the top of his run gsp jones there's so much goddamn tape on them and what do you do though times do you have to re almost retool your tendencies on a regular basis you know switch it up to the level where you can't be predicted there's nothing you can do i mean yes listen shevchenko is doing everything she can. She lives, I'm not going to say monastically, that's not quite right,

but she's a forever student. She's never out of shape, right? No matter when you see her, press tour, she's at this event, she's at this fight, cornering someone, just doing PR. Every time you see her, she is in excellent physical condition. She hardly ever gets injured she's been training her whole life what more can she pack into her day it's the natural order of things you're going to get really good and then you're going to get older and you're going to

hold on to that and you can make these small changes that could have profound effects but they're just small and inevitably they can't keep you out of there this is what we mean about the fight game it will drown you it will drown you the best thing you can do is swim while you can and then get the fuck out of the pool there's nothing else you can do don't linger folks okay do not linger get the hell out before somebody shits out a candy bar like in uh what was that caddyshack luke or yeah yeah all right bc let's let's move the conversation forward point number three how about this guy, huh? Team Shavkat.

By the way, they did a 90s counter. Caddyshack is like, what, 70s, 80s? What is Caddyshack? Late 70s, yeah, late 70s. Late 70s, yeah. All right, let's talk Shavkat Rachmanov, BC. Now, we all know he did amazing against Jeff Neal. But by the way, Jeff, I got to say this too, BC.

We didn't say this on Saturday night. I went back and I watched this fight this morning. I took some notes on it. Dude, Saif Saoud's game plan for Shavkat Rachmanov and Jeff Neal's ability to pull that off I I tip my hat to them dude they had a very good game plan and I'm not gonna say it's miraculous that Shafqat won because Shafqat's a beast too but they had they had something for old Shafqat they they they were ready for him I was very impressed by that but obviously Shafqat is just a demon uh who did what he did so here's what he said afterwards he said I thought I needed one or two more fuck that I'm ready for a title shot BC should he get the winner

of UFC 286's Leon Edwards versus Kumar Usman why or why not uh no luke no no why not yet but not yet all right first of all you could save the dead rungs for friday caddyshack is a 1980 movie nobody really cares here we go though luke as we look at the rankings right now you got kamar usman number one he's getting the rematch colby at two hamzat at three and this and you say why not well part of the why not for me luke is which direction is Hamzat going? Is he going to get in the Robert Whitaker, Paulo Costa at middleweight direction? Or are they going to give him a chance one more time to cut to welterweight, either in a setup fight for a No. 1 contender or a title fight?

I don't know. Bilal at four, Gilbert Burns at five. Luke, there's an element of of not that this would factor in but there is an element to this fight that we did talk about late saturday the idea that shavkat either willingly or because you know jeff neal fought his ass off or whatever like stood too close in the strike zone and took a lot of damage now that's not necessarily going to you know should that affect whether he gets next it shouldn't but luke i do need to see a little bit more i mean as we speak are these rankings updated that the ufc today or

do they wait a day i don't think they're updated in a few hours they're not updated yet all right well he was ninth uh you know right now on their website i don't know if that's before and neil was what seven so the the big yeah yeah, Neal was seven. The big part of this, Luke, is I got to find out where Hamzat's going because did you see, and I get the idea of a snarky Twitter response from people. Like if you tweet out Shavkat's great,

you're going to get a bunch of, what about this? What about this? Well, one of the what about this is, is didn't Shemayev just go in there against Kevin Holland and absolutely destroy him? And then Shavkat goes in here and gets in a war. And yeah, at the end of the day, he looks vicious and violent in finishing it.

But did he have to get in that war? And that's not a perfect argument either, because didn't Hamzat just get into a war with Gilbert that you ask yourself, did it have to go that way or did he want it to go that way? We do have to figure out what's going on with Hamzat. We do have to figure out what's going on with Hamzat. We do have to figure out what's going on with Colby. But I think the UFC calls up Colby and they go, it is kind of shit or get off the pot time here. You got to fight. You want a title shot?

You want to fight the winner of Edward Zussman? You got to beat Shavkat to do that. Or you got to beat Shemayev to do that. So, Luke, I still don't know. Even with the win over No seven, Jeff Neal, dude, I still have questions I need answered, Luke. He's great. Was this an aberration?

Was this, you know, I got to prove no matter what? I have an explanation if you'd like to hear it. No, I have a theory if you'd like to hear it. Okay, give me that theory. Or a hypothesis anyway. So in watching the tape, and this is why commentary inma is so hard because it's very difficult to pick up a pickup on exactly what they're doing and what the strategy is

when you're watching in real time it usually takes you a step back or you know a few rounds anyway before you can be like oh okay right this is what's happening here especially between two elite guys like this where it was you know it was back and forth man neil was giving him some problems make no mistake about it but what Rachmanov was trying to do was essentially push into Jeff Neal and get him off of his stance break his base constantly not just put him on his heels but I mean literally push into him and then force him to either retreat to the fence break away just not allowing how much time you could put a stopwatch how much time was Rachmanov denying Neal's ability to stand like this there's a lot of it so he would come in and step into range and that's where he got hit

but that pushing into and then disrupting the base disrupting the stance the constant resetting the wrestling the underhooking against the fence this was all super intentional as a way to deny a guy who's got big punching great combination great speed by the way great awareness in this fight too it was a way to deny him that if you just try and like duke it out with him in front of you even if you're cutting angles and by the way Rachmanov cut a lot of angles in this fight I'm not gonna say it doesn't matter but that's not enough you had to get him off of his stance he had to he had to find a way to like wrestle and then get back and then wrestle and then get back it was his stance he had to he had to find a way to like wrestle and then get back

and then wrestle and then get back it was this disruption he was looking for this movement into space and he led it with knees as you saw and then obviously finished with the choke all right well here's the deal luke once i get what you're saying i understand that um to as much as i'm able to understand it with the way my brain works he He just accepted a lot of risk. And by pushing into a guy like you're, if you fight that way, even if you're good, you're going to get hit. The question is,

does he have better head movement for other guys? I don't know. I don't know. It's not just the way I was raised. It was the tap water and the factory town. I mean, there's a lot of questions, right?

People weren't even allowed in the Nogatuck river for like 30 years because of the chemicals dumped in. But look, here's the deal. I understand rewarding the hot hand, which is why we just had that debate about Aaron Blanchfield. Shavkat is undefeated. He's been dominant. But his two best wins,

Neil Magny and Jeff Neal, are more back-end top 10, top 15 wins than hey, he just beat a top 5 guy, right? You know, like if this had been Steven Thompson, who carries an air of veteranship and former title contender and he'd done that, maybe I'd be more willing.

But Luke, there is a gentleman named Bilal Muhammad, whose last four wins are Damian Maia, Wonderboy Thompson, Vicente Luque, and Sean Brady, including by stoppage. So no, Shavkat does not deserve next. I feel like I want to see him against either Colby or Bilal. Or you could get pretty crazy if you were a wild man luke and do shavkat versus hamza was that not one of my predictions for 2023 i'm sorry i lost audio can you speak again luke i gotta yeah so glad you know hi hi hi good what i'm just mumbling over my words did i not call that

for 2023 as like the thing to watch? Yeah, you did. But what we need to figure out what's going on with Hamzat. Where is he going? What's the future plan, the direction? So let me add one more wrench to the conversation or one more detail. Let's assume Shavkat and Hamzat are not going to cross paths because for whatever reason, Hamzat's just going to move 185 and just keep it there for a while.

Maybe there's a future at welterweight, but right now, whatever. Let's just say that's in play. how do you match make him winner of masvidal and burns colby balal dude balal i mean do you feel like balal balal's ranked fifth i don't i mean people will say well i feel like what else does balal have to do his win streak's great dude right i mean we would have loved had that leon fight played out to see what actually happened, but it didn't. And he's got four wins since then. I know I'm sort of serial, you know, I'm sort of perennially keeping Bilal out of this

conversation. Are you, you don't like Bilal versus Shavka? Doesn't that make a lot more sense than any of the other fights we're talking about? Here's the thing. If you're Bilal, why would you take that fight unless you had to that's the problem like what is balal's incentive for taking a fight against a tough ass guy like that when you're already ranked in front of him and you're kind of knocking at the door of a title shot two things would have to happen incentive they'd have to say one you're not getting a title shot without beating shavkat or this guy or this guy too you could give him a lot

of money and make it a main event or a co or a pay-per-view co-main you know what I mean okay let me just ask one question though kind of about this conversation because it does kind of inform your judgment namely either up or down not that your opinion change about Shavkat after 285, but are you more or less of the belief that he could win a weight class title after Saturday? I'm not going to let what happened take over me in fear. I have questions about the, the, the reason why he was more willing to stand in there than not. Could he have made that fight easier? That's my question is my question that he Is my question that he's now downgraded from who I thought he was? Is this boogeyman coming in? No, Luke. I mean, look at the way he finished him. Look at some of the success he had. He's still potentially that dude. I just don't think he's done enough,

even with being unbeaten and having two really good wins in a row in terms of name value. I don't think you can have him lap the field. I mean, you got to remember the name at some point. I get what you're saying. Does Bilal have the, is there any way this makes sense for him? Okay. If it doesn't, then he should, you know, hang where he's at and try to jump into that title picture.

But I don't think Shavkat just gets to lap these dudes. And by the way, Mikey Mormauer, our producer, slides in and says, Luke, your prediction was actually that Shavkat would move into the top three before the end of the year so you not only did not predict that he would fight Hamza you are trying to push him into a title a shot that you predicted wouldn't even happen this year I mean what like how could you be that hypocritical Luke yeah I don't think that's right I'm pretty sure I did predict that they would fight each other this year or like crystal ball ones like top five and things I'm paying attention to. I'm pretty sure I did predict that they would fight each other this year. Or like crystal ball ones, like top five and things I'm paying attention to. I'm pretty sure I did. I'm like 99% sure, but we can double check that later.

BC, one more question about Shavkat on this one. We can move along. Namely, this was my thought after Saturday. He had been on some like apex cards. He had been, you know, he obviously obviously he had prior to saturday 16 wins 16 fights um you know all finishes the whole bit now he had 17 this is the first time that the ufc was really like presenting him to the public and man he delivered he delivered big time i feel like this is that he did the most he reasonably could to make himself memorable to casual fight fans on purpose based on this opportunity.

Agreed? If that's the case, I'll say that does mirror what Hamzat did against Gilbert. Like he wanted to prove a point that night that he's the absolute badass oh gilbert you know you're coming in guns blazing my guns are bigger although look i'm willing to entertain any truthers who believe that was a gilbert win and and they missed it but uh yeah luke i'll say that but you know our producer mikey more mile who i don't know if he's got an agenda against you but this is entertaining he said he just went back and listened to the prediction episode and i mean how did he listen to the entire predictions episode while this was like pillow talk with your wife at some point and you know okay so it may not be

it may not be it may not be from this one but we did two of those we did oh you know what we did we did the mailbag one too it must have been in one of those two one of those two somewhere at the end of last year because we had a conversation about it we had a long conversation about it so speaking of a mail bag uh we didn't cover this in the post fight show but uh Bo Nickel hit that guy in the balls Luke I think it did happen he did he did we're gonna talk about him here right now let's let's get to it okay BC so let's talk about Bo Nickel here after Saturday right Bo Nickel is obviously on another coming off another win um i do think he looked great but there are some questions bc now first things first is the ball kick or the i should see the knee to the groin so the question i have is after a little bit of foul trouble and again not the mount

controversy but he kind of did grind it out like kind of forced this attack is there a reason to slow him down or just keep him on the path that he's on and we're overblowing everything what do you think yeah i would keep him on an aggressive path but i would also say this like you know my neighbor shout out to anthony weber luke decorated high school wrestling coach he's been telling me about bow since like 2017 right you know he watched it and i ran into him walking the dog yesterday you know he's like is he really that good man and i'm like in terms of taking wrestling and turning it into into you know jujitsu and submission games he's like three four steps ahead of these guys at this point but

luke even though his debut and icon was a striking knockout and he just came out with combinations dude we really don't know even with the dana Contender Series close-ups where his striking is at so Bo very well could be the goods and he's screaming that he might be I mean even Craig Jones said it look with the knee in the stomach but uh the point I'm trying to make really here is that let's let him evolve at a rapid pace but nothing stupid of like him against the middleweight champ tomorrow him against Hamza tomorrow like him against anybody let's give him what he deserves which is you know two to three three to four fights of different styles stepping up each time and for the record he said he didn't knee him in the balls and that he hit him in the thigh and he's you know said that Pickett and company were just protesting to try to save face but Luke we, we got to see, we got to see him push to the limit in terms of, you know, three

rounds. We got to see what his striking can do. We got to see a lot of stuff here. Now, if he runs through three more fights over the next, you know, nine months and doesn't even get in those situations because he's finishing guys, well, yeah. Then at that point, you know, he's so spectacular and poised and already has a big name that you've got to put him into a huge fight but there's no need right now i mean the division at the top we got to figure some things out there's no need right now to try to overly rush this guy do you are you

with me or is this talent i think that's i think that's right i think that's right there's just not a need you know you don't you're not desperate yeah i mean yeah the division at the top doesn't have superstars i mean it's got izzy and whit, the division at the top doesn't have superstars. I mean, it's got Izzy and Whitaker, but I mean like this new crop of superstars. It doesn't have that. It's middleweight. You know, there's going to be some questions about how great the division is overall. But here we got a guy with like, I'm not going to say limitless potential, but an extraordinary

amount of potential. And there are things to fine tune with him, right? I mean, he is very very good no doubt about it but this like relentless attack it's amazing for guys at this level i don't know how it's going to exactly scale for guys at the top but i think people are like give him a ranked guy next i don't agree with that which isn't to say i don't think bo nickel couldn't beat a ranked guy yet i think he probably could Probably even guys better than we think. The question is whether that's the right call.

Something we've been saying since the Contender Series. And every time I see Bo, I'm always like, dude, the guy is amazing. I mean, there's just no doubt about it. But we just don't need to fast forward things. I do, though, want to have a conversation about the knee to the balls. Because here's what happens. The commentary crew, they talked about it, but not really. So people think, oh, they're covering for Bo in real time.

But here's actually what I think really happened, BC. If you watch enough combat sports, you'll see a foul. If the referee doesn't acknowledge it and they just fight on, you know the commission is on almost all certainty never going to review it, never going to turn it over, even with a formal protest. So I had tweeted that it didn't really matter. People are like like how can you say it doesn't matter of course it matters i'm like well i'm not saying it didn't affect jamie pickett what i'm saying is the ref didn't see it they're not going to over in all likelihood they're not going to overturn it it just is what it is i don't think there's anything nefarious from beau but i do think

the fact that he rushes so much, just slow it down a little bit, man. He's going to torch these fucking guys. Dude, I can't wait to find out these answers because, you know, he's got a cool name, he's got such a decorated background and the poise, the understanding of the technique of the game, the willingness

to be great right now. I mean, it's screaming, but yeah, give it time. Give it time. Let's figure out the top of the division without Asanya rematching the champion. Let's figure out where Robert Whitaker fits into that. Is Hamzat entering that title picture? Like, look, they've got stuff to do there. This guy's got time.

27, Luke, he's in a great spot, okay? I'm not against putting him in high spots on the card each step of the journey. That'd be a smart thing to do, right? I mean, look, what if he was in a fight night main event no no no no no we're not going i mean i mean already his ufc debut basically and he's already on a freaking huge pay-per-view card like yeah they're yeah they're making a show of it i think that's the right call it's the guy's got he's gonna be in a great spot in a year or two but i mean we you know we've had this conversation about darren till

last week i'm not here to compare the two like there's a lot of reasons to be very high on bow that have nothing to do with till situation no overlap but it just goes to show if you rush development dude it will cause problems down the line some worse than others but that's a pretty clear case where they rushed it and it hurt them in the end. All right, BC. Last but not least, let's talk about some of the box sale that happened over the weekend. My Lord, dude, this was happening. This was happening at the same time as the UFC fight. So I know a lot of folks didn't see it, but Brandon Figueroa got the unanimous decision nod over Mark Moxio.

Although BC, I would argue the scores way all over the place. In fact, here is my question was Was, in fact, in your mind, the fight closer than the scorecards indicated? Although, let's be clear, it was a banger from beginning to end. Yeah, you know, I don't... I was going to look up. Luke, when is this fight replaying? Is it tonight at 10 p.m.?

I think tonight. I don't have my notes. I'm going to make something up. 10 p.m. Eastern, I believe. I'll look that up. Look, this was such a fun fight. We knew it had the potential to be and even though Figueroa boxed from the outside

in the first round, and by the way, I liked it. He was landing those long right hands, those right crosses. It became a phone booth fight, which we expected basically from like round two and a half through 12. That last round, incredible. But those scorecards were way too wide. Those scorecards, even with the two-point

deductions for Magsayo, both for holding and both he had been plenty warned and really deserved it, to be fair. This was a very close and good fight. Look at the ref's hair. Look at the ref's hair. Shout out to Thomas Taylor. He knows where the gym is, Luke.

I'm not going to talk about his hair. I mean, you think it's a piece. He knows where the hair transplant services are, too. You think it's a piece. It's like, how dare you, dude? Okay, he's a handsome gentleman. Give that guy some respect. But did Figueroa win 10 rounds, 9 rounds, and 9 rounds out of the 12,

which the three scorecards are essentially telling you? No. Steve Farhood had it much closer, although Steve did recognize throughout the night at the Hall of Famer that some of these rounds are so damn close, it could go either way. I understand how you could get here because Figueroa was more often pushing the pace of the fight, backing Magsayo up. You know, his volume was higher, even though the punch stats in terms of landed punches

was very close. It's not a robbery. It's not a, you know, look, the right guy won in the end. And those two point deductions from Magsayoo hurt him, and I thought he deserved them. But you could make a strong case for four, even five rounds, you know. I mean, maybe even up to a draw, you know, and then those two-point deductions would have pulled him back. It was that good of a fight.

It was that competitive. But I am happy at the end of the day that the right guy won. Luke, we debated when Figueroa would essentially just go back into that style of giving away his reach, almost squaring up and just going. Dude, he went to that early. But I really think if he works more on fighting from distance, not in a pure boxing sense, doesn't have to be jab, get terms of his reach, that if he starts trying to control distance better, but still close enough to land those big left and right crosses when he switches stances, dude, I think he's only going to continue to get better at age 26.

This was a very good win, even if he went to the trenches early to make sure he could pull it off. I know now he's got the interim title, which really sets him up nicely to face the full WBC champion at Featherweight, which is Ray Vargas, who we just saw lose when he moved up in weight and took on Oshaki Foster for that vacant title. He's going to come back to Featherweight. He was in the crowd on Saturday. Brandon Figueroa only continued what we thought, which is he's on his way to becoming a star. And moving up in weight was the right thing for his body.

But I am curious your thoughts on is there a better mix of his style that in the long run could make him even more dangerous i don't know i i it's funny i thought that he would abandon a lot of the jabbing at you know reason mid-range for the inside stuff and he did because the inside stuff is usually just kind of where he gets the better work done like you saw um in the castro fight right but it wasn't the here. I actually thought he was pretty good at distance, and then he was abandoning it, or Moxiah was pulling him into those different ranges. And so he just kind of got back to what he was used to,

but that wasn't good enough. So I actually feel like rather than, I thought, oh, he could add some more, but he's just going to go back to what he's good at. I actually think he needs to add more, not because I think his inside game is bad, it's quite good, but it clearly on certain cases is not going to be enough. I wasn't sure that that was true before.

Now I'm a little bit more convinced that it could be. So I think jabbing at distance, again, at times, for when it's appropriate and having enough of a game there where you can weave that into everything else you're doing, I'm with you. I think that's critical. I was going to spin it back, too. How do you think he stands up with the other bigger names at 126? That's an interesting question.

I want to bring up the rankings and try to look at that. And quickly on the punch stats, Luke, and this points to what Max Sayo did credibly well here. Normally, Figueroa averages 92 punches thrown per round, but according to CompuBox, he was limited to 54 punches per round, and that's because Maxeyo was able to meet him in the middle, land big power shots, and stay in this fight, although he held a little bit too much to do that. Your question overall is about the division at large, and he becomes an interesting player here.

Look, Ray Vargas is tough. He's tall and long. He's a good boxer who can throw high volume. That's a hell of a fight waiting right there. But I'm going to be honest with you. I'd still favor Figueroa because, Luke, he is coming into his man strength here in this weight class. Dude, did you see him load up for body shots, Luke? He is a destroyer. Maxeo's got a hell of a chin and an ability to walk through shots. But I think he's going to be a problem, meaning Figueroa, for this 126th division. And if we look at the rankings right now, I just happen to be going to ESPN.com's rankings. Maurizio Lara, No. 1. Of course, he stopped Lee Wood.

Ray Vargas, 2. Luis Lopez, 3. Then you got Josh Warrington, Maxeyo, Lee Wood, Robesie Ramirez. Figueroa at 8 right now. Michael Conlon at nine and Isaac Dogbe at 10. Luke, I'm going to be fair. I like him against everyone in that top 10. This is not an overly deep 126 at the moment. Some guys had moved up to 130 and moved on, you know, waves come and go in the division. There's some good names in there, but I think Brandon Figueroa has the potential to be the class of this weight division, and I want to see if he only keeps moving up.

Luke, you see his frame. How high do you think he can competently fight at? Not 135. You don't? I think... You do? I don't know. Look, just the four-pound difference,

which I don't want to say just because the reason why we have weight classes so close together in the lower weight divisions is these pounds matter. Dude, he moved up to 26, and his body's different. His intention is different. His power's different. I'd love to see him eventually move up to 30, and I don't think 35's too far. I'm not going to tell this guy, hey, go all the way up to welterweight, but if he keeps filling out his body, he's got that long in reach. That's why right now I would, who am I, right? But I would love to see him work in more distance control and not have to go in the trenches.

He can weaponize his ability to go in the trenches whenever he wants to. He's going to throw more than you. He's going to pile up punches to the body. Look, did you see, and it was a great call by Al Bernstein. He said, oh, God bless you, Brandon Figueroa. He was slipping punches a couple times in this fight where even in close, he doesn't do that enough.

He starts to add more of those levels of craft. You can still be a Figueroa family member, which means balls out all the time. But how do I think he can potentially compete at 30, 35? I think by mixing in more boxing, dude. It happened in that Castro fight. It happened to me in the Nary fight before that, before the Fulton fight. I think Brandon Figueroa is only going to keep getting better the more he moves up in weight and matures.

And I love this performance on Saturday, even if it was the grimy Figueroa style when at times I wondered if he could outbox Mike Sayo if he wanted to. Felt the score should Should have been a little bit closer, but I think the right guy won in the end, and I like him at 126. I would certainly entertain him at 130, but to your point, just 26 years old.

Let's see how it goes. He's not fully... He may not even be fully physically developed at this point, in which case, maybe 135 will be in play in a few years. I mean, his chin is insane. His chin is fucking bananas, dude. But you don't want him to lean on that if you don't have to right too late i mean too late you want to save that for the big weight classes when you move up he leans on his chin against louis neri known power puncher obviously

122 but whatever uh mexico power puncher he was leaning on it like dude his career is i you know he ain't gonna be fighting to 40 we can already tell that uh but his chin is absurd right now look before we get to jared heard um it was announced this morning that stephen fulton jr is fighting niowa in a way for his two uh 122 pound titles it'll be in japan i believe it's sunday may 7th uh it's going to be on under the anu terms which is espn and it's going to be under the Inoue's terms, which is ESPN, and it's going to be early morning on a Sunday. Dude, I can't say it enough.

Fulham will be back under the PBC banner here on Showtime, and if he moves up to 126, which he's also teased, good lord, can this rematch with Figueroa... It couldn't happen any sooner. I love me some cool boy Steph. But dude, I will continue to tell you that is

daring to be great in japan no less i mean he had not just by him money he wanted but he's going to japan and it's not just him it's a new way too dude and a new way has always been like this that's why he's my pound for pound king three division champion carries the power up with him day one at the new weight class. Now you want a new way. Once, once the best fighter there and one of the 10 best in the game right now in Fulton's like, yep,

I don't care about the networks. Let's do it. Um, that's a gift to boxing. You know, he'll be back Luke, but yeah, this is going to be fun.

How about this? How about, how about the young guns? Ryan Garcia, tank Davis, no, you're in a way, Stephen Fulton. These are the guys Ryan Garcia, Tank Davis, Noya Inouye, Stephen Fulton.

These are the guys putting risk on the line to make bigger fights. Thank you. That's what we need. Thank you. They want the smoke, Luke. Like you, when we watch these Have You Seen This Shit videos where people blow full containers of weed smoke into people's faces and you're like, if that's the way I got to go out, at least I'll be doing what I love.

You know what I mean? They want the smoke, baby. BC, real quickly, let's talk about Jared Hurd. Now, I rewatched the fight. I do think he was losing, which was unfortunate. I didn't think he was losing terribly, but he was definitely losing. However, the fight ultimately got stopped because over the side of his left lip, it split, and I'm trying to explain to you how it was split.

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 are you crushing your bills defeating your monthly payments sounds like you're at the top of your financial game rise to it with the bmo eclipse rise visa card the credit card that rewards your good financial habits earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month level up from bill payer to reward slayer terms and apply. It was split in the same way that Lawler's lip was split when he fought Rory McDonald. Just like completely torn flesh, wide open.

The doctor had to stop it. Now, you can see it right here. It's on the opposite side of where the camera is. So it's on the left side of Hurd's face, which is why you can't detect it there. And we didn't get a great shot. It's a horrible cut. They had to stop it. He was losing on all three judges' scorecards.

But, BC, were you fully convinced he couldn't have come back or rallied absent the cut? Here's my point. I'm not fully convinced that's true. And what I think is more to the point is even if you are, it may not matter. The cut might actually be fortuitous a little bit for Hurd because he can say well I got stopped because of this not because I quit not because my corner threw the towel not because the fight was actually over I had several rounds left to go but because I had this flesh wound I deserve another shot am I reading too much into it because he's a DMV guy or is there

something to that well you know I did have a lot of people questioning the stoppage but I think when you break it down with the lip and consider his nose was busted you know i don't hate that stoppage but the real question here how you asked it but i think i can reword it even better is is he done now i don't think he's done i think he's going to regroup he put out an instagram post that was very sort of positive spin it forward but should we have huge concerns yeah yeah we should after another long layoff 32 years old what's the reason why because that style that made him so fun and dangerous at 154 when look i'm gonna be honest like i know he had an amateur career and look he was known but when he when he won the title and started making big fights to some level he did come out of nowhere it was like oh who's

this guy like people had heard of him he was in the amateurs he had a good career but when he started that lunch pail style of just going head to head and wearing you down and backing you up and the the damn you know the knockout of tony harrison the trout fight the incredible fight of the year against laura that's not a long-term sustainable style and to see him against a guy on this level and i don't want to i don't want to say anything bad about Armando Resendiz because this is the biggest win of his career and sort of a breakthrough moment for the young fighter. And who knows, El Toro may be in the long run a very good fighter from this. I don't know yet.

But this is not the guy Jarrett Swifter should have this kind of trouble against and not the guy that he should take this much punishment against. And that's the key. He's not the same fighter anymore and in some degrees like how could he be with the damage accrued to get those big wins and then the you know last couple years have been hard on him you know lost his father like a lot of things have been going on but when you look at the the last three fights over the span of the last like four and a half years i mean he didn't look good in outboxing Chia Santana when he was trying to rework his style. He looked lifeless in the split decision loss to Luis Arias. And now he

basically got beat up and stopped and was down on the scorecards against a guy that his talent level, even in a new division, Luke, he shouldn't be, he shouldn't have these issues. Does this mean he should retire right now? Probably not. And I don't, and i certainly don't think he will luke but he's already switched trainers twice and there's got to be some some level of of uh of uh he's got to meet in the middle somewhere here and alter his style enough to where he can still be the inside fighter the high volume the pressure use his body push you back but without needing to be there all fight. Luke, he's got to learn to dodge punches.

He's got to learn to move, to work in a certain level of responsible defense that doesn't compromise his style and how dangerous he can be. And if he can't figure that out right now, he, he won't be able to. So it's a precarious spot moving forward, Luke. I think he'll come back again. I think he'll go back to the drawing board. And, you know, was there some things to like in this fight? To some degree.

But this is a disastrous result. And I don't think even the, oh, my lip split and that's why I lost. That's not a reason that you sort of throw out there that you can lean on and be like, oh, that's fine. You know, I didn't really lose that fight. No, he did, Luke. He takes too much punishment. And if he can't figure out some hybrid,

some meat in the middle there, then he's going to be a meteor, a comet, who came through, became the chief of this loaded division back when he was the unified champion. And then once he lost, Luke, he went away because he's been away for a while. And I hate to say that. I love the guy.

Love his fighting style. Great interview. Great dude. Hey, he's got good chest hats too, Luke, to say that. I love the guy. Love his fighting style. Great interview. Great dude. Hey, he's got good chest hats too, Luke, to be fair. Tattoo on to T, saying S-W-I-F-T. You know what I'm saying here? Sort of. But I don't know what to tell him.

You know what I mean? Not that my advice matters, but like, what do you say right now, Luke? It's a bad spot. I don't have much to add to what you said, to be quite candid with you. I think he can probably get another opportunity at a decent fight. But, dude, he left pieces of himself in those fights. And it's hard to get him back. It's not really possible to get him back, actually.

So, I think his career is in trouble, honestly. Not in the immediate, like, oh my God, right this moment sense, but two years from now, is he still going to be doing this? I don't think so. But we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

All right, BC. That is it for you and me asking each other's questions. It's time for the viewers to ask us questions. We put out posts on social every Saturday. You guys fill them up. The producers pick them. It's time for DMs from the Diggity Donks. From the Diggity Donks uh we got mail viewers viewers yeah we do sometimes you just got to be honest it was a

sausage fest in london we've got mail that's the that's that's the truth okay all right from swanky tray good lord as you. You know this guy is a dog. Should Gon consider changing camps to improve his wrestling slash jiu-jitsu, or is it just a commitment issue to really growing his skill set? Hard to know because he's admitted to being lazy in training. But BC, between this performance and Francis against

Stipe, you're talking two all-time whopper bad performances in title fights, kind of related to the same thing. I mean, look, is there even a comparison to a big title fight that the odds were hotly contested, that media was split coming in and one guy just completely fell apart early? I mean, it can happen when somebody is old. And I'm sure if you go through the history books, there's been early finishes where you're

like, damn, but he completely fell apart fell apart i mean john didn't beat him with next level things john beat him with sort of basic things i mean he did basic things brilliantly when john ducked in and took his back i mean that's that's timing that's smarts there's a lot there but god shit his pants so do you panic and cut ties with Ferdinand or do you bring in, you know, a different wrestling and jujitsu coach? You got to do something. He's not young, dude. He's not. He's young in terms of his overall experience, but he's 32, Luke.

Okay. It adds up. Yeah, 32. And I'll just say this. I don't know exactly what the problem is, but here's a very, very easy way of looking at it. It's pretty clear. Whatever he's doing is deeply deeply insufficient you should not be making choices like that in the grappling game at this stage of your career that is not forgivable not not just not by the way did you see the the video that's making the rounds that henry cejudo was teaching

wrestling to john who was there with with other people in the gym, and the same move that John did to switch from the back. Sort of, sort of, sort of. It was a common position against the fence, and what Henry was trying to explain to him was, when you know you're ready to lose the position, you can go and cover the head, switch back and forth, just to have a good feel for knowing when the position's getting away

and where to be for the next one and what the timing is. And it started from that. There are some meaningful differences between them, but certainly the advice was very good, and it did generate from the same original position. John went a bit of a different way in the end, but there were obviously a lot of overlap. It's not quite the same thing, but it's pretty close.

Dude, if I ever have the balls to put my money where my mouth is and challenge ekc lyden or oscar willis to a real amateur mma fight and if you're asking what's the percentage that bc would ever have those balls luke you know i mean it's below one percent right it's basically like can my life reach such levels of desperation that i i need to just my manliness? But if I did, dude, I would want Coach Cringe, Henry Cejudo. I would want Eric Albaracin, the captain, because he's going to wear such flashy shit. It's going to take the pressure off me. And then I'd probably have Coach Latorre there. And that's a great three-person corner.

And I need encouragement. I need style. And I need legitimate wrestling tips. Okay. encouragement i need style and i need legitimate wrestling tips okay what do you think the vegas odds considering i'm a heavyweight would be me against oscar willis in an mma fight you ever seen that picture of that YouTube video called Two Idiots Fighting? It'd be you. No, I haven't. I haven't.

All right. What about me against Balian? You're into that or no? You're not into that. I'm not into you at 44 fist fighting anyone. That's what I'm not into. I'll stay on this side of the camera. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good idea.

We're old now. Let them motherfuckers burn their brain cells. All right. At the double D official okay uh how would john versus blades look let me make a point here gone i do think is very very talented on the feets why i was so high on him to begin with turns out there's a massive gap between his standing and his ground game but um he is young for had it played out on the feet one never knows how it would have gone. But I want to make this point. To me, I got to tell you, BC, I don't know how you feel about this.

John coming back and fighting Stipe doesn't do much for me, to be honest. You know, it came off of a vicious KO. He's been off for, what, two years? He's 40-plus. I'm not saying John will win it no matter what. That's not my point. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying my will win it no matter what. It's not, that's not my point. It's not what I'm saying. Just saying like my level of interest in it is not that high.

John versus some of the younger names at Blades. John taking on Blades, much more interesting to me. But you understand that's a promoter's dream matchup. You're going to, they're going to do that next. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, the, the, you know, I get it. Like I get what way the winds are blowing. I'm just telling you, personal consumer choice,

John versus Aspinall or Blades, two thumbs up. John versus Stipe, fine, but not that interested. You know there's a name that we never mention in these conversations and we miss it by accident. It's our fault, but people get on me a lot. Sergey Pavlovich. Pavlovich, yeah. Yeah, he's an interesting one too.

Yeah, add him to the list. Sure. Okay. Add him to the list. But what do you think? How does it look, BC? John versus Blades? I will have to say once again,

and by the way, Mikey's reminding us that Pavlovich has an 84-inch reach, so that John suddenly doesn't have this massive advantage. Look, I'm not downgrading John's win over Gon. I'm not doing any of that. I'm not telling you that John's not as good as that fight looked because I don't know, Luke.

I want to find out. So how does it look against Blades? I don't know. What if they're, does their wrestling just cancel each other out and it becomes a striking match? If so, I'm going to favor John, right? But, you know, does it become a back-and-forth wrestling match where the gas tank gets involved?

We have seen Blades, remember, against Volkov, be very aggressive with the wrestling and have that backfire for him. Is that, like Chael told us during our room service diaries, the potential toughest matchup at heavyweight for John? Maybe. Maybe. I don't know how any of us after watching like 75 seconds of John at heavyweight at 248 pounds or whatever could really understand what even the steep a fight

is really going to look like. And I get what you're saying. There's a lot of criticism of, even though steep a is considered the greatest or most successful heavyweight champion in UFC history. Is it fair that he's essentially just like, I only take title fights and I'm willing to sit out a year at a time to get that? I don't know. I don't even know if that's fair, Luke, but I really don't believe that any of us have a true understanding of exactly what John will look like in these fights. So Blades, yeah, that's a hell of a matchup against a guy in his prime who's already lost

a few tough ones and was able to sort of, you know, bounce back from those. And he's got a somewhat well-rounded game, but this will test John's wrestling for sure, Luke. Okay. I'd love to see it. And I think John will get there. I think he beats Stipe and then I think Blades might be next, you know, or maybe Pavlovich knocks somebody out and gets in there. Are they fighting each other? Am I missing out on this? Is it Sergey? No, they're not fighting each other. Am I missing out on this? Is it Sergei against Curtis? No, they're not fighting each other. Not right now.

Not that I'm aware of, no. Speaking of Sergei Pavlovich, atpowers.cole asks, is Sergei Pavlovich the biggest treat, he wrote, I think he means threat, to Jon Jones at heavyweight? He raises many of the threats that Ngannou had and would match Jon's 84-inch reach.

What do you think, BC? Well, I just want to remind you that uh two weeks ago brett okamoto put out sources pavlovich versus curtis blades is close for april 22nd okay okay okay but it wasn't official they haven't they haven't announced it to my knowledge sure sure sure yeah look sergeant pavlovich could could we love the idea of like the the foreign spoiler has arrived and will they ruin everyone? It might be him, Luke. He's destructive.

That reach is insane. You're certainly more studied on him. Where would his ground game match up against John? So Overeem had his way with him on the ground, but I always go back to that one. We talked about it a million times on this. How representative is that Overeem fight, especially because that was his UFC debut,

and maybe he kind of had the deer in the headlights thing. thing in that fight it wasn't great and also a big guy like that you know he he's he's built for big power early right you can see why so many of his wins are like that blades is going to test that i would imagine if blades can avoid the big punch a la derrick harris derrick lewis excuse me um he should be able to win but i we shall see i favor blades but that's a tough one i gotta ask you this and you're gonna shit on me for it but that's fine this is a legit question when i did that little dc ran about dc john three that's it's comedic right although in my heart i'm a dc guy so i'm like yeah dc coming back because i don't want to talk about that anymore that's not where i'm going with this but i threw that out there because this is in that conversation okay

and i'm not afraid to upset you if they if you think i am all right i'm not afraid i know you're not in fact i know i'm on record with that with that absolute shit okay um there's a lot of talk and people i don't like it but there's a lot of talk of now's the time to finally do jones lesnar to that but i haven't even thought twice about that no would you be would you be what would be your reaction if you found out jones versus kane velasquez was being looked into not that interested i think whatever version of kane you're going to get is terribly diminished i mean there's an argument to be made it's like and i've seen people like john duck the heavyweights well it's always a little more complicated than that but the reality is he didn't go up to heavyweight when verdum was at his best

when kane was at his best when those other guys had some big names at heavyweight and we're doing some interesting shit he didn't go up then and he's going to go up now and take on some of these older names which i get the business and all that kind of stuff i get it but this is why to me it's important to see him against the blades or an aspinall or pavlovich or whoever it ends up being some younger names that are much more destructive than what the older guys have potential for. No brown pride for you. Nothing. Not for this fight being made.

No. No, not for me. RIPC. At TheRealKCarter asks, this is way up your alley, is Valentina the greatest women's fighter to gain nearly zero mainstream crossover appeal. And here's the truth, man.

They put her on big cards. She was in that Halle Berry movie. She does a lot of media and she does have a following. It's not to say that she doesn't. In fact, it's the horniest men in all of MMA Twitter. They can't put their pants on when they talk about her. It's just a reality. But I don't know that she ever turned into the star the UFC kind of hoped for.

She's not, like, the one she had last time was in Singapore before this one, whatever it was. Like, they're putting her with that Glover card. Like, they've strategically put her on big stuff. But I think they've also realized they kind of maxed out whatever potential was there as a popular attraction. Yeah, I mean, look, she has dominant finishes

like when Jessica Ai runs into her leg, right? But she's not rousy like where it's like oh my god she's finishing people in 20 seconds she's very well spoken and i i think you know she's a very interesting person but not the type of personality that you become the mainstream crossover but look she's beloved and i get what you're saying about the creepy responses and that's part of it but like have you ever been at it remember when ufc did those public workouts pre COVID public? Yeah. Like,

like they'd like, they'd put the, the mat down in the center of the MGM grand outside of the sports book. Did you ever used to hear the responses that Holly home would get like that Rousey win, like made her the, the, the all time great fan favorite Valentina gets responses like that.

Like the fans love respect and appreciate her, but no, for the most part, she lorded over this one 25 division that was devoid of dangerous talent or even big name dance partners. And you know, if you're not a dominant charismatic personality or controversial or a dominant finisher, you need dance partners, villains, or whomever to truly make you. She hadn't really had that, and she doesn't really have that personality, Luke. So I wouldn't say that, like, it's zero. I mean, she was in a movie opposite Halle Berry, but there's obvious built-in ceilings of, like, I mean,

whoever actually gets to that level. Amanda, you remember when, I mean, Amanda got pretty popular, but even darren not exactly not exactly got further and she was on dancing with the stars and whatnot she was pvz it's rousey i mean tate and holm had some time based on the rousey rub where they were household names but it's just it's not easy i mean like look look how many male ufc fighters that are active right now are household names not many john jones yeah connor connor diaz not not even in the ufc um maybe poirier after getting the connor rub two times at pay-per-view maybe yeah a couple couple other stragglers along the way yeah yeah but like but like the point you know maybe out of sonia maybe

i don't know maybe not i don't know but not not not a lot, not a lot. So what are we actually looking for? Her to get a sitcom, Luke? I mean, I'll be the third Shevchenko sibling if we should get a better like a better measurement would be like google trends so let's look up valentina shevchenko and compare her at that well yeah but google trends can be overplayed i say that because it's every single pay-per-view that's a lot better than going on crowd pops yeah but doesn't dana say this is trending to be our record-breaking pay-per-view every single card yeah but that's not google trends he doesn't control those google trends are independent of his control all right mikey thinks maz have you all got to that level he's right he's right uh yeah i mean even now i mean rossi is still doing professional wrestling so that's not a great comparison who's another person i should compare her to for this time period um even doing bkfc hold on even even doing bkfc so she's really been out for the last year. Even then, her search results and her total global profile

is vastly higher than Valentina's. It's not even... Yeah, but is that a surprise, Luke? It's not like it's a surprise. I don't think she's like failed miserably. We should just say it. She's not really all that popular. You're making it out to be like,

oh, she's kind of just like Holly. No, she's not. She's not even close to Holly. What I was really saying was she's beloved by the fan base, but it doesn't extend to the crossover level. That's what I was really saying. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that's right, yes.

And that was Long Island Luke who said that, and everyone knows his dad's from Australia. Blah, blah, blah. All right. Last but not least, from at Cole underscore Brown 858, do you believe Derek Brunson's corner throwing the towel mid-round will start a trend for other high-level MMA coaches and teams to do the same absolutely fucking not no no chance whatsoever

you don't think that that that helps remove the stereotype if it's there that in MMA we don't do that like it's a thing in boxing right it's a throw the towel like saying this is sort of like saying going into someone's room and they've got pizza boxes everywhere beer cans littered everywhere shit smeared on the walls everything else and you go and you pick up one tiny sock that wasn't in the hamper and then you put it in there did you how much cleaner did the room get not not much and more to the point is this picking up the sock and putting the hamper is this going to lead to the room getting cleaner no it would have to be a shit ton more that goes into making this this is a nice thing i'm not i'm not bad mouthing it i think they made the right call good for him brunson 39 years of old he should not be taking extra punishment do i think

it's going to cause a trend no not at all okay dude these guys are hard-headed man they're hard-headed they're immune to evidence they're immune to a lot it's gonna take here here's what will start a trend and this one will be short-lived too someone's got to die and i hate to say it that way but someone's got it something or something has to get paralyzed or something terrible terrible terrible has to happen before people go oh right there's consequences to acting like a meathead and until then they just won't do it they just won't yeah i don't think we have an another area to add this in but i did want to not forget to bring it up in the show um that that thing you shared with me that uh about the mma contracts oh i don't know folks pay attention to this they've this. The UFC has recently changed the contracts again,

and they've made it harder to leave. You still can leave. There is a sunset clause, but the timing of the contract starts not when you sign it, but when you get your first fight, which they can delay for a long time. If you have any kind of injury suspension, that adds time to the contract.

It didn't used to. There's other provisions as well. And then on top of it, they're making all the new guys sign deals that say they're not going to participate in class action lawsuits you know so they can basically indemnify themselves going forward so they're already paying money to lobby against their own fighter contract employees rights to organize correct they're actually they're actually spending money to to essentially attempt to change the laws to make it harder for their athletes to unify.

This is a true fact, right? Well, it depends what you mean. So they've lobbied state governments to not release purses. That doesn't help them. They've also lobbied on the Hill to prevent the passage of the Ali Act. That's not unionization,

but it's certainly something that would improve their situation materially. Okay, well, what you sent me was a story from Fightful, and it says that Fightful reached out to 11 prominent MMA management agencies to get their response

to the Bloody Elbow Report about the new changes to the UFC contract. So they reached out to every major one you've ever heard of. First round, Vayner, Ruby Sports, Sucker Punch, Chosen, Dominance MMA, Paradigm, Iridium, all the big names, Luke. And they were given over 72 hours to respond to Fightful, to comment, and none of them

chose to. And now here's a quote from the Fightful story. If these are the people who are negotiating deals for these fighters and they can't even comment on contractual changes that could impede their clients' rights, that can't be a good sign for the state of fighter pay and rights improving within the promotion. I would say that seems true.

Seems true, Luke. Folks ask, what do MMA managers do? Well, if you're Nate Diaz's manager and the guy who manages Nate Diaz, that's his only MMA client. That's the only one he has. You get that guy good legal help to look over any of his contracts. You advise him on business deals. You help get him PR.

That's what a manager is supposed to do. You negotiate with the UFC. You come up with figures. You dance back and forth. But that's the only guy that uh that he has when he reps MMA fighters just just Nate there's a different kind of manager who's basically like a broker or a rent seeker where what they do is like oh you sign with me and I can get you signed to the UFC but that ends up being a deal where it's like great for UFC and

great for the manager I am very skeptical that that arrangement is good for fighters in any capacity whatsoever. Luke, did you watch that manager video that MMAI put out? You know my guy, my guy Jason. I got half, I got half, no, I think I got like a third of the way through. The problem is his videos are great. They're just long. And my wife's out of town and dad has to pick up Tukey from school. Had to take her to school.

Had to make her lunch. Oh yeah, Tukes. Well, I will tell you one day when you finish that, I'd like to get your... It's some damning stuff. He's taking facts that are out there in the world and putting them together. And would it be wrong to identify...

I love... Look, we're friends with some of these managers. You know what I mean? I love this sport. Some of them have just a few clients, and I think they do a lot of really good work for them. I like those guys. But the ones who act as rent seekers, that's the problem.

I mean, are they acting like pimps almost? P is a strong word but they're just brokers they're they're brokers for the ufc they if you think of another broker like i've got property this guy owns a bunch of properties i gotta fill them i'm gonna find renters to go fill these properties that's essentially their role that's that's the service they provide yeah that's not really a service to the fighters as best i can tell i mean the last time we heard of a manager like going to bat was when francis had that uh what's the guy's name that he had um was it markel martin something like that yeah and didn't francis drop him because the heat with the ufc was getting too much yeah like and also you know who you know used to butt

heads with ufc i'm told less so these days but used to. Who is Holly Holmes' old boxing manager? Oh, what the hell's that? Was it Brian? No, what's that guy's name? He was like a local Albuquerque guy who repped a couple fighters and whatever. I forgot the guy's name, dude. I'm told he used to give the UFC hell in negotiations.

I'm told that dude used to really put it down because all he ever dealt with was guys having, or, you know, fighters having the kind of leverage he understood from boxing it was like yeah we're not gonna play those games so i guess it worked out for him but my favorite mma manager is luke danny rube danny rube yes and i regret the hairline comment i do but you know he's an ou wrestler man that guy nothing a double leg couldn't figure out with that guy that guy is great i love that guy he's's got... I like Danny. I like Danny.

Shofcott's guy, right? Shofcott's guy? Yeah, he is Shofcott's guy, yes. All right. All right. You want to see some shit or no? Let's see BC's feces. Here we go.

All right. I scoured the globe yesterday, but it was a little bit more than the typical call to action, which is, you know, I've been accused of turning this segment into SportsCenter and putting too many fight highlights. Yeah, what are you doing, guy? Not enough old people getting injured. So I was challenged by my co-host. And since I challenge him constantly, you know, I took it to heart, Luke.

Here's a revamped, hopefully improved. You be the judge. Have you seen this shit? Yeah. All right. We do have elder abuse right around the corner. But, Luke, you know I always start with the UFC, and it was UFC 285 this weekend,

but no, we're not talking about Jon Jones or Cyril Ghosn. We're talking about the octagon debut of Jake Gyllenhaal. Luke, did you see him and former UFC fighter Jay Heron filming countless roadhouse scenes for the remake starring Conor McGregor. Look at the step and repeat. UFC 222, Harris versus Dalton. So spoiler alert if you care about the potentials of this movie's plot, but here's some of the action.

Luke, how long has Jay Heron been out of the game? A while? A while, but he's been kind of getting some roles in Hollywood the whole time. Sometimes just a cameo, sometimes a little bit more. But he's kind of been active in there. Good for him. Yeah. Well, I haven't seen Creed III yet, but I know Todd Grisham and his own team is part of that.

So I'm looking forward to it. They actually put Jake and Jay Heron in the cage. Here's a little bit of that footage. This was between fights on Saturday, Luke. And, you know, Jake's got the gear, right? This is just MMA pro wrestling, right? Basically, yeah. Look at that.

Oh, yeah. Get in there, Tognoni. Get in there, dude. Let me just say, whatever PEDs that Jake Gyllenhaal is taking, I'll have some, please. That's what Brendan Schaub tweeted. I'll have what he's having. Well, they asked Dana about it after the fight here's dana white i think he's been usada tested but uh he looks great paulo costa secret juice might have helped him what's that maybe he's using too much of paulo

costa secret juice possibly Luke what like what is he on everything I mean he's he's like what 40 something he's ripped yeah I mean understand when you get to that level with that kind of money dude you can hire like elite chemists who make this kind of stuff to give you like a proprietary blend or you may have gone with the old

natural stuff but he's on it make no mistake he's on it not a gas station dick pill i'll tell you that much but speaking of jake no sir no sir uh jake got a front row seat to the fight sitting next to his co-star conor mcgregor luke only this little shootout this show up was interrupted by dave devlin massaging uh connor's tattoo on titty your thoughts here luke yeah it's a little much. Can we not do that? But, you know. All right.

All right. Enough of this shit. Let's see some old people take fails, Luke. You asked for more elder abuse, and that's what you're going to get. Let's go to Abuelo. Why they got to be Hispanic? What the fuck?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Show that again. What happened? What happened? He put a firecracker in his beer, Luke. Show me one more time. Let me see. I wasn't even paying.

I was trying to listen to it. I couldn't understand it. All I heard was puta in that, Luke. I couldn't get much. His accent's weird, but that was hilarious, dude. All right, we got Grandpa. Let's go to Grandma here. What do we got going on?

All right, we're going to get her ass, too. Oh, no. Don't shake it before you open it. Oh, Jesus. Good Lord. Wow. That bc when they announce all the 115ers fighting i can't comment on that hey wedding season is upon us just be careful if you get married where there's a moat outside your castle let's check this out oh no oh auntie come on come on auntie that come on. Come on, auntie. That is not good.

Into the drink. All right. All right. Well, you know, Luke, some grandpas used to be daredevils in their day, and sometimes they come out of retirement. Let's see this guy. Freaking way. You better be careful.

I can't even do that. I've been doing this for years, man. Yeah. Yeah, grandpa. What happened? Oh, come on. Where's the ending? What are we doing? what are we doing what are we doing guys let's get this um maybe they're censoring me already he's saying that's the clip the ending is he he crashes but before he hits the ground they show him in a wheelchair afterwards in the hospital luke and he's got full bandages so poor old guy all right all right well that clip uh maybe next time get the

right somebody shaved the end of it luke maybe to protect us from anything but uh you know let's go to the pool here i know gramps used to dive in high school but look at these over eager whites oh oh wow well all these guys think they're justin gaethje after knocking out michael johnson or something oh yeah they're not if we're gonna have old guy fails and old guy probably shattered his fucking ribs doing this and probably shit his pants too but he deserved it luke uh if we're gonna have some elder abuse we need some hashtag old guy wins to balance it out luke check out this old guy at the bullfight you know when you gotta go you gotta go dude what the f

he's just peeing on this guy hey man watch the leather is that you in 1999 at the local movie theater yeah pretty much look at that the piece on that old guy the rug on top too wow that's great that is great all right another old guy went at the playground let's check this out this could have been disastrous but this guy's a legend let's see yo that's what i'm talking about abuelo yep grandpa stuck the landing bro look at him big win for uh poppy there let's let's go over to me ma if abuelo can win big so can she luke wow okay i don't even want to think about the implications of this this is it's like grandma you don't even need that party trick anymore and quit bending your chanclas when you do this okay let's clean can we clean up the ground after that uh luke if

if i win okay bet this is the concert i'm taking you to these old bastards oh the snake handlers yeah yeah i used to make fun of people who were religious in high school i'd ask them you know how many times you had to inject anti-venom bro dude the whites uh they love they love handling the serpents don't they yep hey lucas time for another hall of fame induction into my personal heroes the hashtag lifting gloves hof here's showtime sports star steven jackson i know i was like stack what are we doing bro dude he's cut for like 45 look at that oh he's a pro athlete or you know he's obviously retired but he was a pro athlete and a good one at that high level one

you know i would say this you gotta you gotta get a little bit of a stretch on the lats to get the most out of the workout but he's killing it if we end up working with him and any fights coming up i'm gonna ask him if he's on the gear straight up on camera luke okay all right do it and if he uh body slams you uh i will enjoy it hey luke creed 3 is in theaters i did not see it yet so no spoiler alerts here i will see with my kids but oscar de la joya attended the premiere and he's got a great idea for creed. They're portraying like Latinos are in the Creed franchise. Maybe I can now be the next, you know, who knows? Creed 4 starring Oscar De La Hoya. Maybe.

Maybe. Luke, they would pay him directly in money, dollars, dollars. Yes. What he uses those dollars for. My man got some ab implants, and now he's very happy-go-lucky. Slow the roll there, Oscar. Those addies, I don't know what's going on, Luke. He was very excited, though, very excited.

I'm going to guess he had some rain energy drink on the limo on the way there. You know, I'm a big fan of AG1, but what do you think about our cbs sports uh friend friend of the program hq host bellator personality ag2 amanda gara luke speaking of uh creed and rocky i thought we said no spoilers amanda amanda tweets what is the statue of limitations on ruining movies book shows because i'm very upset. Someone told me Creed died in Rocky four.

What if I wanted to watch it? And then she added, sorry, if I'm ruining this for anyone else, look, I know she listens to this show. Are you, this is Colby Covington territory.

No. Yeah. I got to tell you, Amanda, the movie came out in 1985. The statute of limitations for that was also 1985. It's it's 2023. It it's tough luck i don't know what to tell you love you amanda we're not going to silo our conversations to protect you okay all

right let's keep it going luke there's a new handshake that's all the rage with the millennials on tiktok not my style though okay okay this is uh oh always always there for you what happened to our mk handshake that came through the remember that we used to do that yeah we did it once and it was weird so i know we never did it again and i'm not doing that one with you luke okay i'm not i don't i don't do that uh how about a few chick fails to satiate the appetite let Let's go to the deadlift competition here. That's not deadlifting. It's not live lifting either, Luke. I don't know if she made it after that, okay?

Dude, that is, yeah, this looks like a weightlifting competition, so that must have been the jerk. Or maybe it was, maybe not. Maybe you're the jerk i know you're three three of your favorite things in this world are bbls basketball and tiny bicycles let's let's combine them together this is elite internet content oh yeah what happened oh yeah so many fails luke we need more wins hey let's go back to john jones at ufc 285 uh there's a developing theme here involving dancing with the stars but john came back triumphantly he

deserves a chance to dance here is before the fight when he caught up with a champ he respects valentina shevchenko how did he do luke let's see did he curse her here? Let's see. Did he curse her here by doing the Valentina victory dance in front of her? Let's see. I mean, he just spun around. He didn't. I'm sorry. Well, he gets a little bit more groovy here with Grandma Habib. Let's check it out, Luke. He has reason to dance this was his weekend okay dude we don't talk enough about grandma habib being like the best mascot in all of all of mixed martial arts right now who was that uh elderly woman who was like the mascot for like that uh college basketball team and she was like sitting courtside on the oh yeah i vaguely remember that i'm sorry sister sister something she was something catholic

related yeah you're right you're right well john jones loose dancing luke continued after the uh is it's a press conference or weigh-in let's continue it oh yeah look it was a it was a week long part seriously no jokes aside it was love him or hate him luke it was great to see him happy and back doing what he loves there's the dance and then i don't know if you saw the dance in the octagon after the win too luke did you i don't think i did oh there it is i mean are you happy a lot of dancing would you say you're happy for him if you look back on your 40s are you happy for him luke uh and i see what you're doing skits and bits but what i was going to say is i don't wish poorly for him, but like, to me, you know, you want me to be happy for him. I'll be happy for him when he makes substantive change in his life. How about that? So if I had asked you to send him a video,

encouraging him, would you have done it? No, absolutely not. All right. Well, someone really famous did Dana white shared it on Instagram. Here it is. Luke one goat to another. Hey, John, I wanted to say, welcome back to the main stage. It's great to see the goat doing what he does best and doing what he's meant to do. So I thought seven titles was a lot. You've doubled it, man. And I know tonight's not going to be easy. Cyril Ghosn standing on the other side of that octagon. He's a bad man. It's going to be an incredible fight.

Dana knows how to put on a great show, as always. And I wouldn't miss one for the world. I'm going to be there watching fight. Dana knows how to put on a great show as always and I wouldn't miss one for the world. I'm going to be there watching. Good luck to both of you guys tonight. John, congrats on an amazing career of greatness. Let's fucking go. Oh yeah, Luke, let's fucking go.

Do you think they go to Eyes Wide Shut parties together? No. I hope. What's the point of being that rich and that famous if you can't go to eyes wide shut parties together no i hope okay i mean what's the point of being that rich and that famous if you can't go to those parties right yeah and why is dana sharing that publicly just for just for clout luke yeah i mean why else would you share it publicly i mean if any old random person did it he wouldn't share it but it's tb12 you know so all right more ufc yeah i bet i bet tommy i bet i bet wink, nudge, nudge. Yeah, yeah. He knows a little bit something about...

Yeah, he does, Luke. Let's go to more 285 randomness. I do not have the picture, I forgot it, of Song Keenan's face after Ian Gary took care of him via third round TKO, but we know Ian Gary has been supported by Conor McGregor. What do you think of this post-fight celebration dance luke oh now let me ask you this because i never know the origin is mcgregor the guy who made it up which he's often credited with or is that a vince mcmahon thing it's the vince mcmahon billy strut billionaire strut conor took it and advanced is this the gritty or whatever the fuck

the i don't i'm not young enough or hip enough to understand what's going on after after that that's about it luke i guess we're not doing the stupid ass like fortnight dances anymore right no that was big for teo fimo lopez remember when he was on the on the come up and then i guess i'm the only one left playing fortnight by the way look big i came home to a huge surprise yesterday. My wife bought another Xbox and this one's for me. Now, is it the new Xbox? I don't know. I don't know. But I played Fortnite on it this morning and I, you know,

I finished in second place, you know, and I was really excited. I mean, is it a midlife crisis? Yeah. I was about to say, that's some real 44-year-old shit to be happy about. I played Fortnite this morning and I got second. It keeps my competitive spirit alive luke okay all right all right now i don't have to fight with the kids over xbox time okay okay uh luke let's continue did you see this face off in the crowd does this get you fired up for the future of the light heavyweight division or what jamal hill yuri prohatska bro yuri just has seven haircuts at once i never understand it oh yeah

i mean i'm pumped for his return i hope he's okay i mean it would be nice to see him back he's i mean he's fun as hell you know would you like to see him at heavyweight against john jones or that that's not that's i mean i don't know let's let's get let's get him back at 20. I mean, he's fun as hell, you know? Would you like to see him at heavyweight against Jon Jones? Or that's not... I mean, I would... No, no, no. Let's get him back at 205 and see what he's got left there first, right? All right. Also, your boy Shavkat, you know, pulled the Habib,

put the Davy Crockett hat on Joe Rogan here, Luke. Yeah, I've been saying this. Bro, you get mountain people who wear dead animals on their head, you better steer clear of them folks, man. Yeah, yeah. They don't mess around. It got Joe up to five foot six luke it was actually it was actually an improvement you know it was pretty good hey why does joe dress like a bus boy is this is this like purposeful look or is that just all black is it a bus boy because i disagree because if he wears the white

shirt with the black suit and then the black tie that's never actually buttoned it's kind of always unbuttoned that's a little bus boys but if it's all black i don black tie that's never actually buttoned. It's kind of always on button. That's a little busboyish. But if it's all black, I don't think that's busboyish, is it? That's more barback. But maybe he's just a big supporter of those frontline workers in the service industry, Luke. I can respect that, okay? That could be.

All right, Bo Nickel also need the guy in the balls and claimed he didn't. Here's the footage if you want to say so for yourself. So people were bitter at me. We got to go back one more time. No, no, no, no, no, no. There no there was another one before there was another one before it this could be my fault i think it's long island luke's fault but we'll fight about it after so hold on so somebody said there was two it definitely was not two he got him flushing the balls it looked and then that second one was on the thigh okay okay and all right and somebody screwed up. It could be me. And if so, I apologize, Luke. But we'll keep it going here.

Smoke them if you got them time, Luke. Have you ever seen one this big, dude? I mean, my Lord. Whenever I see this, someone should just play like cool in the gang celebration every time. How do you drive with that? Who cares? Who gives a shit about driving anywhere when you have that? Put me inside of it and just bury me in smoke.

All right. Hey, it would take a good welder to take bong making to the next level. Check out this contraption. And where do we find it? Oh, my Lord. Dude, where are all these people who are like like who work with metal and or are like these you know diy fucking macgyvers who can make bongs out of the most amazing things where i no one in my city does this i gotta move out west that's what i gotta do i gotta move out

yes you do and you know if we're looking to disarm the nation luke, some people want to do that, and that's up to your stance on it. But these are the type of firearms I'd like to see more on the streets, to be fair. Yeah, you could put that barrel in my face all day. We don't need a Brady Bill for the purchase of this, Luke. Let's just get it right now. We should do a debate show where it's like, okay, we're going to debate some kind of of topic then you go first and you make

a great argument then I go second and you can just put this gun in my face and that way I can't talk and you win but then I get high in the most amazing ways and then we kind of both win you know well look at that Twitter handle Shannon Sharpie was the one hold on I want to put out a call if anyone knows a place where we can get these I want to do an mk show with these in my face please all right all right yeah luke they say kids do the darndest things sometimes they say the darndest things too but you know you get a superhero at a kid's birthday party everyone's getting handsy here luke oh boy is that bone nickel hey it's time for the daily catch you know they say if you go to restaurants closer to the ocean Is that Bo Nickel? Okay. Hey, it's time for the daily catch.

You know, they say if you go to restaurants closer to the ocean, the fish, Luke, tastes fresher. You know? What did we get this time? A little carp? Wow. Yeah. Okay.

Somebody just used that and was like, you know what? I'm just going to chuck that shit back. Yeah, that's definitely used. I mean, what else would you do in this place where this person lives i mean you got any love for fat guy fails luke yeah of course all right dum dum da dum time let's do it uh eat it eat it oh god you know why don't you put tissue paper below a man who weighs 10,000 pounds? That's a great idea. Why don't you just wipe while you're down there, guy? Okay, great. Look, boxing was wild over the weekend.

Here is DAZN Boxing offering Eduardo Nunez with an insane one-punch finish. Dude. Oh! Dude. Wow. That's one of those KOs that's amazing to watch in real time like a thousand times but then you're also like is that guy paralyzed is he paralyzed i don't know dude that's like almost shades of uh marciano against uh was it jersey joe walcott he had him with that

in like the 14th round that right hand that just god lord i don't think anyone's ever compared eduardo nunez to Rocky Marciano before, Luke, but there was still time. Hey, let's go to O'Hara Davies against a guy who used to love the Sandman, Louis Ritson. He calls himself Jordy Golovkin. And that body shot. Hell of a finish there from O'Hara Davies.

Dude, he's just writhing in agony. His ref is like seven. Yeah. Eleven. Yeah. Or as they say in New Mexico, seven, eleven. Yes, twelve. Luke, you and I were on the call for the Showtime Championship Boxing prelims on Saturday. Here's 22-year-old prospect Trayvon Marshall

sending Justin Deloach-Dock to the land of wind and ghosts. Watch, there's a little bit of elbow blocking. Big right hand and down goes Deloach-Dock in round three. I love that he throws the uppercut first to the body. He got

cracked with a right hand. That's it. Referee Thomas Taylor has seen enough. What a performance. A resounding third-round TKO. We were on the call, and we delivered. Hell of a knockout from Trayvon Marshall. Hey, from PG County, Maryland.

Don't forget it. Indeed, indeed. Hey, let's go to BKFC in the UK. Way in time. Connor Tierney making a big statement on the scales here, Luke. Alright, I mean... Alright, there we go. Oh, I haven't seen that type of move

since the 99 Women's World Cup, Luke. Yeah. Just showing them titties. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Just showing them titties. Oh, yeah. Okay. He took on some guy called the Gypsy, and I'm sure it got gross. All right. Luke, a couple more to close here.

There's a thing called Town Pump Rewards. You know how you could do it at Cumberland Farms, too? If you buy enough gas, you get discounts off the food that'll kill you? Mm-hmm. This is probably the greatest white trash combo offer in the history of gas station delight. Check it out. Buy two Bush Light 25-ouncer,

so that's basically like a tall boy, and two corn dogs for $5. Coffin not included. Luke, that's a party in a package right there. If you ask me, wow. That used to be dinner for me. Five bucks to get Beast Light and two corn dogs. That is Americana, ladies and gentlemen.

Unbelievable. Hey, it's boat time. Two more for the road here. Let's go out to the boats, Luke. You know, people get drink. They get drunk. They get partying. They start climbing.

Here we go. Oh, climbing. There we go. Oh, yeah. Eat it, you stupid. I think you kicked that lady in the face. This is great. Yeah. Why don't you stub your toe? And by the way, cut your hair.

You're 50. Luke, apparently, this is our final clip of the week. Apparently, white men can jump the only problem is they won't be having kids anytime soon you know what i mean right like oh my what there it is look there's your shit of the week what do you think this is what you get you little piece of shit for wanting to dunk you dumb fuck

yeah that's like luke in high school i dunked with ease on the math team yeah yeah right okay i've never ever said i dunked with ease but what i did say was you got to remember dude i've been this tall since i was 16 you know yeah i really thought i'm gonna be six nine you know i thought i really thought it'd be six nine like i'm not short i'm tall i'm six foot four but i've been six foot four for a long time you know what i'm saying hell yeah luke i'd go to offer that the last 136 minutes that we gave the audience was i'd say that's a top 45 show in mk history it's pretty good it's pretty good top what do you think about the shit we're getting better we're going in the right direction much better much better this time a little bit of levity to it i liked it i liked it i like a little of that shout out to jeremy oakman

my guy who fills me up a lot a lot of other people out there bella i see all the people they send me all that shit they send me ones we've already used luke but whatever it's fine you know all right let's remind everyone uh thumbs up if you haven't already given the video a thumbs up hit subscribe if you haven't welcome to all the folks who are new you can follow us on social here reminder of course bellator is back on showtime this saturday plus by the way this weekend as well lukito it's friday night bellator i believe yeah friday night for bellator saturday i believe for um for tim zoo and tony harrison which will be fun but you got to get showtime to get it so showtimecom, 30-day free trial. Of course, we have the morningcombat.store

for all of the merch if you're curious. And last but not least, morningcombat at gmail.com for the folks who want to reach the show. I got a quick little chat with Australia's Tim Zoo today, Luke, heading into that Harrison fight. So I'm looking forward to it. Very good. Do we want to tell yeah very good uh do we

want to tell them about wednesday because we don't really fully have a plan yet yeah so here's the deal um the the the press tour is hitting this week it's going to be gervonta davis it's going to be ryan garcia ahead of course of the april 22nd showtime pay-per-view showdown that the world will be watching and luke thomas you and i wednesday will be in new york city as the uh hosting the stream broadcast of this press conference it'll be it'll be happening during though the mk live window so i think we got a nice piece of content to give the people to hold them over though wednesday at 11 a.m eastern is that is that the truth we will it hasn't i don't want to say exactly what it is because there's still some issues about getting it ready. It will be ready, but there's some

questions about all the stuff that has to go into it. So there will be something for everyone. Obviously, we're going to have we'll be there at the Garcia and Ryan Presser. I'm sorry, Garcia and Davis Presser. I apologize. Yeah, New York City Wednesday. Can't wait. Should be a lot of

fun. All right, BC, great show today. That's it for us. So let's thank Malka. Let's thank CBS Sports. Let's thank Showtime and everyone else who watched today. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your day. We're out.

And until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.