MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 290 Picks | Jones-Adesanya face off | Ennis vs. Villa | Joshua vs. Whyte | Ep 461

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

On episode 461 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian give their picks for UFC 290. Who will become the undisputed featherweight champion? The boys also preview Jaron Ennis vs. Roiman Villa, Discuss a Power Slap match being put on the UFC 290 weigh in show and break down the Jon Jones-Israel Adesanya face off. We close the show with Dead wrong and a special batch of HYSTS. (8:10) - Ok, Bet (51:30) - Jaron Ennis vs. Roiman Villa  (67:00) - Power Slap infiltrates UFC 290   (79:00) - USADA  (84:00) - Jon Jones Faces off with Israel Adesanya   (88:00) - Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte 2  (91:00) - Dead Wrong (97:00) - HYSTS 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

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Reveley, reveley, donks. Look. Hold on, I gotta make a quick phone call. Oh, yeah. Back in familiar surroundings. Hold on, I've got to make a quick phone call. Hey, Chewy. Let's bang. It's Morning Combat in studio, Jersey City. Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, Friday, July 7th, 2023. And, Luke, I don't need to tell you what is on the combat sports calendar this weekend it goes down tonight it's power slap three on IFW power slap three my ball bag is ready thank you very much hey we have a fantastic show for you today setting the stage and the foundation to set you off onto

UFC 290 this weekend with our okay bet picks we will hit the biggest news in the sport including a preview of saturday showtime championship boxing and the return of jerron boots ennis we got interviews and sound from so many people luke we're going to look at that israel out of sonja john jones chance meeting in las vegas and so much more little dana talk sprinkled in uncle dana are you ready um that sounded almost dx like of you like are you ready remember they had that theme song that was almost like stem face the pain like it was i don't know the theme song are those the guys who did the yeah yeah thing the crotch thing yeah i think it's still in fashion or in a nostalgic way to bring that back in polite everyday society just just kind of doing that just kind of do that grind you know You go to Chipotle and that's how you deorder.

I want that adobo chicken. That's what I'm talking about. You can wear our merch if you like this spectacular golf shirt that I'm filling out at the moment by going to morningcombat.store. RJ Ballbag back on the job, I've heard. I haven't seen anything new on the store yet, but he allegedly is there. All right. He's got a great consulting company that he started.

Yes, he does. Yes. Shout out to RJ and Average Joe Art, who is making a run in these parts. Probably more on that to come. Luke, how does it feel to be back in our Jersey City stomping grounds, the former bomb shelter, the former orchids of combat? It feels like the stands in the hourglass passing through. This is our last time here.

We did have a great run, Luke. So I'd like to say thank you to everybody, though. Behind the scenes, who gets this done? We are here. We're alive. We're ready. We are well. Shout out to our Malka crew behind the scenes.

Mikey Mormyle on the ones and twos from CBS Sports as well. It's always great seeing Gaff and Long Island Luke and the boys. All right? all right? All right. Some nice new faces today, too. Are you going to indoctrinate them into your flatulence? Not until you close talk them first and tell them, do your five minutes of Brian Campbell material.

There it is. It's the hardest five in the business, right? There's only about 1,000 of us out there, Luke. It's a lot of silence. No one gives you a harder five than me and Connor at the weigh-in, right? It's a lot of crickets. A lot of crickets. All right, jokes aside, all that behind us,

any other business you want to get to, or can we just, you know? Let's bang, Dewey. All right, there it is. Of course, as you already know, Luke and I will be on the scene Saturday Showtime Championship Boxing, but don't forget we will be there after UFC 290, as well as you see the information there Saturday night. That tripleheader, 9.30 p.m. Eastern on Showtime.

Jerome Boots, and it's Royman Villa. Also, Luke, episode one of All Access, Spence versus Crawford. Oh, right. Before that, 9 p.m. Eastern, Saturday night. You can catch us on the prelims, which begin at 7.30 Eastern in Atlantic City with Steven Jackson ringside calling the action. 30 days free of Showtime right now. If you want to see more, go to Showtime.com.

Luke, let's kick this thing off with a bang. We're going to start this week with our weekly betting segment, and you better believe it's all things UFC 290. We call this OK Bet, Bitch. Oh, yeah, Luke, I'm a little gassy today on the upstairs, you know? Do we have the updated record? We do. I don't know how I did last week.

So last week, Luke, you and I both went two and three. So you're updating standards of futility. You have Luke Thomas just over 500 at 46, 45, and three. Your boy BC is ever so slightly knocking, Luke. Once again, I am exactly as valuable as flipping a coin and BC is decidedly worse. As Dennis Lurie once said in a bit

that I'm not sure he actually stole from Bill Hicks on an MTV commercial. I think you hear me knocking, Luke, and I think I'm coming in. There you go. Very much. Thank you. Shout out to No Cure for Cancer. With a lot of stolen bits, still spectacular comedy. No Cure for Cancer gave me a lot of happy memories.

It really did. You know, that's probably because you're an asshole. You're an asshole. I can shave my balls. All right, Luke. Luke 290, International Fight Week this weekend. A lot of debate. Like, you know, we've been through it up and down.

Is this a real IFW card? Is it not? Is there showcase fights? Is there not? It's a pretty damn good card. Do you have a grade on the card just before we start? Because Jed Mesher gave it an A yesterday, and I was like, fuck off. Yeah, I think A- is probably about what I would give it.

A-? I think it's about B+. B+, I think, is fair. It's A-B+. It's kind of right around there. Well, it depends. Like, for this calendar year, it's an A+. But for the expectations for ifw it's a b plus a little bit different we've been through the storylines though it's now it's time to get into the picks luke the

main event the featherweight championship of the world the unification as alexander volkanovsky seeks the fifth defense of the title he won from max holloway when he welcomes interim champion mexico's own Yair Rodriguez. Luke, you get to championship advantage. Are you going first or second? I'll go first. All right, bring it. Who wins?

Why? I have to dead wrong myself on my pronunciation for, not for anybody here. Well, you gave about 17 Hora guy pronunciations, right? Not Hora guy. I don't think it's Hora guy. Well, I mean, the thing is, you have to debate. Hora guy is what you do in traffic. Would you rather us butcher it once with something like whore a guy or you stumble and apologize over 17 attempts at pronouncing it?

My best understanding is it's not – I was saying it kind of like a Juan, like a J-U-N, but it's a J-A. Sorry, it's a – yeah, it's J-A-U, so it's more Haurigi versus what I was saying. The H-A-W-R-I-G-I. How does J-A pronounce it himself? John Anik. That's what I want to know. I don't know. Because that's the definitive one because he talks.

It's definitely not the definitive one. He researches the origin. It's definitely a mostly reliable one, but not the definitive one. Okay, neither here nor there for the main event for UFC 290. UFC 290. I did struggle with this one a little bit. I had a hard time coming to a conclusion because I just couldn't decide exactly. I don't know.

I take the contender here very seriously, but I was just thinking the Emmett fight, I don't know how representative that is because Emmett was kind of absorbing, catching, blocking, and then just trying to throw from way far away that's just really not the kind of game Volkanovsky is going to play moreover some of the success that Max had on the ground against Yair I think that Volkanovsky can at least repeat some of that or at a bare minimum use that particular dimension to his uh benefit so BC, even though he is a little bit long in the tooth, give me Alexander Volkanovsky. I mean, come on. He's 34, the palm-for-palm king in the prime of his game,

and he just came off almost beating Mahachev. So now you're going to tell me that he's long in the tooth? For high-level guys, he's getting up there, yeah. For high-level guys, yes. He has yet to reach your favorite statistic. The 35-year-old mark. Yes. Yes, he's close, though.

Which you once told Laura Sanko and cornered her that time on, have you seen this, or on the fan subs? Do you remember that? Okay, hold on. What does this mean? Comedy. No, but there's no comedy there, so it has to mean something else. You don't remember that fantastic fan sub last time where they had a...

Oh, I do remember the fan sub. I don't remember that fantastic fan sub last time where they don't remember the fans i don't remember cornering laura sanko no the whole bit of that bit was that you were cornering a woman who happened to look like laura sinko actually oh oh oh sorry i thought you were actually saying that we had her here for rs you've become so desensitized that you think everything's a skit and bit in the holster right but part of what you do is blurring that line go ahead luke go ahead i did volkanovski go ahead yeah that's it joel goski i'm going volkanovski for my main event pick yes no other uh analysis there no i gave you some okay well here's what i'm gonna tell you i'm updating the odds right now as we speak luke if you can deal

with me looking down here ca Plus 290 for Rodriguez. Plus 290 minus 370 for Volkanovsky. It comes down like this. Is Yair arguably the most dangerous test in terms of the version of he is right now of the reign of Volkanovsky? I think that's fair. I think that's fair. I actually think the odds are a little bit wider than I expected,

given exactly what Yair does. The question is, as we laid it out on Wednesday, how does Volk deal with the unpredictability? I don't know if you saw in the countdown video in the Embedded that Volk has been using Blood Diamond as his sort of kickboxing muse to try to mimic what Yair can do. Will that help? Well, people made fun of Jon Jones training with some guys who were not all-star killers in the UFC. You mean Maurice Green? Not just him. Not just him.

And Jon Jones went in there and just beat the shit out of Cyril Ghosn relatively quickly, actually. So sparring partners don't need to be world beaters. Sure. That's a big misconception. You want to try to mimic the expectations of what you're going to see. The thing is, though, Volk deals with everything. Look, unorthodox, orthodox.

He's a genius at this game. He's rounding out his game while still not so old in the tooth in the terms of adding the wrestling and look at what he did and not getting dominated by Mahatchev to have an argument to have won that fight. Look at what he did to break down TKZ and get him out of there in that last minute fight. Look at Luke, you know, the poison that he showed against Ortega when he actually was in a brief moment of peril,

their extreme peril. He can just do it all. This is not the time to bet against him. Could Yair pull this off? Absolutely. But Luke Thomas, I think Volk is too smart not to have a strategy here that is aimed at exactly that, disarming Yair, keeping away from his strengths.

And to me, this is an Nganou Gan prediction all over again. But that's wrestling, Luke. That's wrestling. We're going to see Alexander Volkanovsky wrestle in strategic times because one video that's making the rounds, I don't know if you saw it, was from thatay uh fight against yair which was a fantastic fight if yair wins on saturday i expect a title rematch there but did you see how often max became a wrestler that night how he went full mount on him how you know late in that fight he was absolutely smothering and

dominating to some degree with that strategy i can see volk implementing that and whether he goes exactly that lane or juggles a lot of different things, which is what he does best in terms of mapping out what you bring to the table and decoding it, this is what this man does. He's fresh off this Makhachev fight, which is the greatest victory in a non-win I think we've seen in a long time. He's going to get his hand raised. He's going to get the job done. Five defenses.

But you've got an interesting video out there right now on the Morning Combat channel, youtube.com slash morningcombat, debating a topic, Luke, that has come up this week. Whether it's now, whether it's after, if Yair loses to Volk, is Volk really knocking on the door of featherweight goathood against Josialdo? Or is that a time filler podcast debate and nothing more? I mean, these questions are actually worth asking, I believe. Like, you won't always get a neat and orderly answer, and you don't get a neat and orderly answer here. But I put out a video. It's up now, youtube.com slash morning combat,

basically asking who is the featherweight GOAT. You have three. You could maybe throw Conor in that discussion. I don't think he really belongs in it. But those three guys. What was he, 7-0 with six stoppages at featherweight? But no title defenses is really kind of important. True, but Poirier, Holloway.

I didn't say he did poorly at featherweight. I'm just talking about the very best. I'm just saying he's in this debate. He's in the debate. At the tail end of it. At the tail end of it. I mean, at the front of it, it's Aldo, Volkanovski, and Holloway. I would put them probably in that order.

And so the question is, who is the greatest featherweight of all time? And there's a lot of consternation about this one. There really shouldn't be. But you should just be careful about the question you're asking. Because if you're asking who the featherweight GOAT is, the answer is basically very straightforward. You're asking who did the best at featherweight and, in particular, who did the best in the championship version of it, right? So let's look at their overall weight class resume and, in particular, the championship one since we're asking the very best of it, right? That's what, to me, would define actually the best fighter to have a 145 pound resume. And if that's the argument, and I think it should be, Aldo walks away with it very cleanly.

He was champion for 2,500 days consecutively, nine consecutive title defenses, right behind Anderson Silva, second youngest champion in UFC history. I mean, by the time he was fighting for titles in WEC, Alex Volkanovsky hadn't even made his pro debut yet. And I mean like a similar age, right? Like his ability to capture a title so early into his MMA run is, again, with the exception of Jon Jones, basically unheard of, right? But that's not asking the same question as who is the best 145-er. I should say rather— See, I don't like this. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me finish.

Who is the best fighter to-er? I should say rather. See, I don't like this. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me finish. Who is the best fighter to ever compete at 145? And I want to quickly just draw a distinction, if I may, then you can push back, which is if someone has some of their career, you can define what it means to have fought at featherweight and not necessarily be known as entirely a featherweight fighter. But let's imagine you had, let's say, three or four fights. You won them all up a contendership, and then you move up a weight class, and then you go on to do, like, really incredible things. You would say that the best fighter to ever compete at 145 is not necessarily the guy

that has the best resume at that weight class. And so while Volkanovsky's resume is good, it's in terms of the championship stuff, it's not as good, but, but BC, he does have three wins over Max Holloway. He has a very clean win over Jose Aldo. Not debatable. I mean, you can lay off both sides, which is what you're doing. But that's not what we want out of you. We want one side.

And this is what Jed Messier tried to do yesterday. No, no, no. He's trying to say there's a difference between greatest and best. Put them together. Call it the, the, the Grest. Call it the Breast. Luke, who's the damn featherweight goat? I don't want to hear, well, you could stand

this side of the fence with this evidence. You could stand this side. I want an answer. I want an answer. I just gave it to you. What's your answer? You said it was Aldo. In terms of who is the featherweight goat? Yes, it's Jose Aldo. See, I don't think it's crazy to say Volk now. Because you nailed it on the head-to-head. The head-to-head to me is how you separate arguments when things are

close. If you're only going to lean on title defenses— Are we talking if he beats Yair or like right— I'm talking about if he beats Yair. I'm talking about that added thing of one more crazy great name on his resume who was at the peak of his powers at that time. If you're only going to lean on title defenses, you can give it to Aldo. He was a damn hero, but I think a lot of what people lean on with Aldo is the 10-year unbeaten run.

Volk had a similar 10-year— I think it was nine years and 10 months that just ended with Makhachev. Volk is also unbeaten over his career in this weight class, 15-0. But he hasn't competed as long. But it's the head-to-head thing. They're only two years and two months apart. I get that Aldo's peak prime was earlier. Much earlier, yeah.

Much earlier. But the version of him at 32 when they did go head-to-head was fresh off of consecutive knockouts of uh of uh moicano and jeremy stevens was refreshed for that fight i was telling people wrongly on this microphone for years that that was jose's last fight of his of that ufc deal no i think he wasn't sure no and stevens after he lost to volk right let me double no it was before look i got it you don't have to check it's right it was before my own okay we'll wait on that then go ahead my point well then i'm gonna lose your you're not gonna lose it i'm listening um my point No, it was before. Look, I got it. You don't have to check. It's right. It was before. Okay. We'll wait on that then. Go ahead.

My point was, I'm going to lose your, your, you're not going to lose it. I'm listening. Um, my point is this Luke, he had rebuilt himself. He was 32 years old. And what did we see him go on to do? Jose, he went on to move down the division into the deepest division in the sport and get to the title level, even though he got there with a split decision loss against Marais. If he's washed and all that 32, when they went head to head, then what is Volkanovski now at 34? Again, I get that there's different peakier primes, but Luke, we not only have the head to

head, the point I brought up with the contract, I used to explain it away. Why was Jose when he did go head to head with Volk so out of answers, so one-sided, so almost like, you know what, you win. I'm just going to kind of circle away like i'm so frustrated look he had signed the new contract before that week before that fight so that's not the excuse so if it's only the volk versus uh jose head-to-head argument on that one fight i don't think that's enough to lift him up but the fact that as you mentioned that he not only beat the guy he beat the guy who beat the guy twice max holloway knocked out violently in the third round in consecutive fights against a still prime aldo who was champion in the first fight and volk beat that dude three times still doesn't make his resume and even though uh even though aldo does have that wec run that cannot be forgotten or cannot be one-upped what they have done head-to-head

in the ufc at the elite level is basically a pick-em in terms of what... No. Let's compare the top end... Hold on, hold on. I looked up the ranking of every single opponent that Jose Aldo had in the month before he fought them to the extent that there was rankings available. With the exception of Hominick, almost every single one was one or two. Most of them were one. In fact, the average rating of his opponent, I think, is right at two in terms of what their ranking was.

Like, name someone in his entire run that he ducked. My point is they both have equally strong resumes within the UFC at the top of the featherweight division. No, they don't. They don't. Jose Aldo has more title defenses. Jose Aldo was champion for much longer. Jose Aldo did much. He was his.

Let's see. So not only did he hold the title for longer and not only does he have obviously more of the wins against top contenders as a consequence, but for example, he has – Okay, you understand I'm not talking about WEC right now. I'm talking about their run. Why would you exclude that? Because I'm trying to show you that I get that there's always going to be that one-up for what Aldo did in WEC, and I do like to count the overall total title defenses. And if that is your debate of, look, he just has more title defenses than at this point, you can't argue that.

Yes. But in terms of who he became in his prime in the UFC, who he beat, the amount of finishes is basically a push with Volkanovski. It's not. It's not? Their finishing rates are different. As? Check it out, Luke. Check out when Jose got to the...

In 145-pound fights, Aldo's finishing rate was 11 for 22 or 50%. In title fights, he went 4 for 14 or 29%. Volkanovski is less than that on both of those measures by a considerable margin. Over their last, I think it was eight or nine fights atop the featherweight division, they have the same amount of finishes, and that's two each. Look. In terms of what? In terms of who they beat and how they beat them. I guess I don't understand what you're saying.

I'm trying to explain to you, like, at Aldo's finishing rate for the entirety of his title fights, he has four finishes. You're saying he has two. No, he has four. Okay. Oh, you mean just UFC again? We're doing that? Once again, I'm telling you.

Again, I don't think you can have a real argument and say that beating Mike Thomas Brown and Uriah Faber when those guys were the very best in the world is somehow exempt from this conversation. I'm not saying it's exempt from this conversation. It was a different organization. I get, though, at the point it was the elite organization in my opinion, it's close enough basically head-to-head in terms of who they beat and what they accomplish as champion that that would allow the one-up that Volkanovski has in both head-to-head and thoroughly defeating three times, you know, once, two out of three times, kind of cleanly, thoroughly defeating the guy who finished Aldo twice. That's enough if you want to make that argument that Volkanovski has done enough right now as he's kind of closing in on the top 10 all time, Luke, that he might have actually done enough on the other side of that.

If it's only title defenses and only names he beat, okay, Volkanovski hasn't been on top in the UFC as long. But if you're going to compare their UFC runs and take into account the head-to-head, I think there's enough there for Volkanovski. Yeah, I mean, but you can compare their head-to-head. You can compare their UFC runs. You just cannot exclude the WEC runs. I just tried to draw a line in the sand and say this isn't really relevant for the conversation.

It's just matter-of-factly untrue. Those were the very best guys in the world. There was some argument about some of the guys in Japan coming over, but to the extent that they did, they got fucking washed. So in the end, history actually bailed out WEC in that regard. Those were the very best in the world, and Jose Aldo was an absolute – dude, I remember exactly where I was. I was at my wife's, at the time, girlfriend's apartment watching WEC when Jose Aldo beat the fucking shit out of Mike Thomas Brown, which was not a shock, but the ease with which he did it was a huge moment. Dude, that Jose Aldo was a monster.

Yes, and that counts as part of his featherweight record. Again, we're not saying UFC featherweight. We're saying all-time featherweight record. So for that reason, Pitbull would be eligible to be in the conversation, whether you would put him there is obviously a different matter, but I'm saying in that way. And I get the point that, like, for example, Volkanovski hasn't lost yet. So it took seven years, I think, inside the U.S.

So 2009, 2015, and a little bit beyond that, it took about a seven-year stretch competing inside Zufabak organizations for him to lose. A total of 16 fights. Volkanovski lost through 13, albeit up a weight class, and there was some controversy, but it happened a little bit quicker. But now, this is Volkanovski's seventh year. So they're getting to a point where I think if he beats Yair and then, let's say, for example, he beats Toporia, even though he wouldn't have the exact

same amount now we can begin to compare like what the quality of that was a little bit because the point about beating Max is important but he's only got title defenses against three names that's the issue it's Ortega Korean Zombie and then two against Max whereas Aldo has fucking seven he's got seven of them two of them Chadie edgar the former 155 pound champ two of them chad mendez who gave everybody of his era an extremely difficult fight like i understand that uh volkanov volkanovsky is the innovator to everything from aldo's generation and actually a little bit afterwards he is a manifestly better fighter about that they're concerned dude they they fought like like we don't even have to like speculate what would happen if they fought we know well i guess that's

what i'm saying i'm putting up jose's wec otherworldliness with the fact that that volk has a clear edge and head-to-head against each other and against their most relevant elite opponent and also luke and correct me if i'm wrong in history and i had this debate again with jed alex is number one in the world like he's the pound for pound king. Or Islam, depending on. And he's coming, and I know John also is getting some votes in this conversation, was Jose Aldo number one with the Bulls? So I put that in my essay as well. He was never that guy.

In some ways that doesn't matter. But you have to acknowledge he also competed alongside the Demetrius Johnsons of the world, the GSPs of the world, the Anderson Silvas of the world, John Jones' light heavyweight reign, and of course whatever else you want to say about him, that's the best guy to ever do it in that weight class. Yeah, standing out amongst those guys, granted, he never achieved that position, but he was around at a formidable time for the development of all-time greats.

It's going to be very difficult. Again, to me, it's not a question of like, who is the most talented guy I've ever seen fight at that weight class. That's one kind of conversation. It's we're asking who's the most accomplished. The most accomplished is Jose Aldo. It's most accomplished slash best. That's really the debate. The debate is not the same thing. If you want to separate them, they're not the same thing. But I think they both have to be factored in. They could be the same thing. It's like pound for pound. I don don't think pound for pound the baseline should be everything you accomplish in my opinion what you accomplish gets you in the discussion of who's in the top 10 who's your

number one pound for pound guy right now what separates that discussion is either head to head or the fantasy matchmaking your head of what would actually look like if these guys did fight what separates their skills and abilities i just think that we have enough on the other side of that conversation with volkanovsky where it's not insulting to say he is. You can lean either way, but I don't think you can say it's two different things. If you're asking me if Volkanovsky is better, he is better. If you're asking me, has he done more in a featherweight campaign to rival what Jose Aldo

has done? It just seems to me matter of factly, he has not. Right. Well, I guess what I'm saying at the end is that those criteria is both matter though in this debate so it's not you can just say well if we're only talking about this it's this it's that no it's everything it's everything together i think alex is the better fighter overall uh and that took me a long time to get to that point he is to be a long time i mean it's not that difficult to think i don't know here's what i would say to push back on you a

little bit i don't even understand why it's debatable like who's the better fighter they fucking fought like we knew the answer to that like uh even even if uh volkanovski had never fought after the aldo fight it would still be true this is my point like he's definitely better but like aldo was not you know you know like kind of at the i mean he didn't have many fights after the volkanovski fight end of his reign is a little bit obviously not quite true people blow up the fact that he went to bantamweight and did well, but the reality is he never matched his competitive fortunes at featherweight at all. In fact, he did well at 135, but he was never great at 135.

He did very well, but I don't think you can ever not mention that he lost what I thought was a clean split decision loss to Marais and got the title shot because of fame. And he got the shit beaten out of him by Jan. But Joe, he got that title shot because of fame. Right, right. That beaten out of him by Jan. But Joe, he got that title shot because of fame. Right, right. That's not really part of this debate, but that's also true. He got wrecked by Jan, and, you know, the Merab fight was weird. I don't know what you want to say about that.

But my point is about Bantamweight, I don't measure any of that when evaluating who the best 145er is because it's quite literally irrelevant. If we're asking who the best guy to have, like who's amassed the best resume in that weight class, then you have to look at what they did in the weight class like that's the question you have to be asking yourself indeed so for that reason it feels like aldo's the clean sweep but all right luke let's continue oh before we get down the other road of okay bet we did see a press conference this week we have

sort of tuned into some of the media uh you know presentations from the ufc on youtube and stuff what's your take on on this fight? There has been a lot of respect. There's not some deep trash talking. Even the Robert Whitaker DDP one has gone off fairly. It seems like a happier week, if I can be honest. The Jon Jones thing with Izzy was like a happy reunion. The Hall of Fame has always been a good thing. Although Anderson Silva not showing up to the Hall of Fame,

I got to tell you, like, that can't be accidental, right? He did send his son to represent him. Okay. He didn't completely tell him to go fuck themselves, but what was he doing that he couldn't be there? I think him and Jake Paul are making an MMA union. I think that's what they were doing, right? Yeah, good luck with that. With Bjorn, yes.

So, you know, what I would say is that people I think are ready to celebrate. It seems like there's really a mood, a convivial mood that I think, and I texted a bunch of the guys on the ground there and I was like, how is the mood? And it seems like that. Like most people are telling me that there's a general kind of buzz going on. People are pretty happy to be there. It's not over the top. It's not crazy as you wouldn't expect it to be. But I think, you know, generally it's not over the top it's not crazy as you wouldn't expect it to be but i think you know generally it's a peaceful excited atmosphere all right there you go um i've been i guess pleasantly surprised to see certain people get close-ups you see the replacement opponent for uh for bo nickel for trish on gore came in uh with the 80s sort of tie-dye open look shirtless you know i'm talking about uh what's the guy's name luke what what's the guy's name who the new

opponent for Bo Nickel. Oh, yes, Val Woodburn. Val Woodburn. Came in a nice 80s-inspired sort of quasi-Zubaz-looking outfit, shirtless. I like that. Do you like that they brought Robbie Lawler up to the press conference for this? I did. He actually had some thoughtful things to say. Poignant words.

Yeah, yeah. Dana even, too, had some nice things to say. Don't know what to say about Jens Pulver's haircut, though. Don't know what to say about that. His passion, though, was real. His passion was great. His passion, though, was real. His passion was great. The passion was great.

Fantastic. Luke, we continue OK Bet. We're both taking Volkanovski in that main event. Let's go now to favorite. For favorite, a couple of directions you obviously could go, in keeping with the fact that you can't pick an outlandish favorite. Again, maybe one of the better fights on this card for a lot of reasons uh but i like brandon moreno at minus 210 give me him for my favorite now it is strange perhaps to some to pick a guy who has already fought this opponent twice and lost badly the first time and then got his

ass kicked the second time if you've never seen the second moreno pantoja fight it's a beat down pantoja just works him over. But that was, what, five years ago? And I just feel like Moreno is in a completely different space in his development. Pantoja's still a very dangerous, dangerous foe, BC. But I like Moreno's chances here at minus 210. Interesting, interesting.

We'll get to that. Taking some chalk, I realize. Further on. My favorite, Luke, I'm going to stay on the main card there, but I'm going to go to the lightweight division. It's the tarantulas time, Jalen Turner. Yes, coming off that split decision loss to Gamrot last time, but five wins with five finishes before that.

Luke, we don't, you know, tend to lead on vain topics like this, but did the hair color choice of Dan Hooker this week at the press conference make you higher or lower on his chances? Did he address what the reason for going blonde was? I don't know. That press conference was kind of lame. I was kind of half listening to a lot of it. I don't think they asked him.

I don't think they did. Impulse decision, including to Long Island Luke. Probably not going to matter against Jalen Turner. Well, look, Hooker believes a victory, probably rightfully so. If he packages a victory here with the play-ish stoppage, he's back into contention. This feels, though, like a tough matchup at a tough time. I mean, Jalen Turner's coming on. He's feeling himself.

Does Hooker need to wrestle more? Does he need to reinvent himself? Either way, Luke, I'm picking the tarantula. I think Turner comes over the top. I just hope he doesn't do it by stoppage. I hope Dan Hooker comes out and is able to show the best of what's left of him, despite my concerns. Yeah, I think your pick about Turner is right, though.

He looks like a beast. And, you know, losing to Gamrot, that's one thing. That's a very, very tough guy with a bad style matchup. This one, it's like, dude, Hooker's going to accommodate him on the feet in all likelihood. I know he did some wrestling against Hackperast, so maybe he might bring that back. But I don't know.

I kind of feel like he's going to want to slug it out. Minus 280 favorite. I think that's good enough for me. Luke, let's go to the underdog. Who do you got? Hey, man, this one, I don't feel like I'm of feel like he's going to want to slug it out. Minus 280 favorite. I think that's good enough for me. Luke, let's go to the underdog. Who do you got? Hey, man, this one, I don't feel like I'm taking that much of a risk on. Give me Robbie Lawler at plus 190 over Nico Price. Now, granted, Nico Price is the favorite with good reason. Robbie Lawler, this is his literal retirement fight.

It's hard to pick on. I probably have made a mistake picking a guy who is actually on it. When was the last time you saw a UFC retirement fight and you're like, wow, man, I feel so good about that. Like, watching Frankie Edgar get stretched by Gutierrez or whatever. Pick whichever one you've seen. Oh, you know what? It wasn't a retirement fight, but Nate Diaz's exit fight, that went well against Tony Ferguson. His exit fight.

His exit fight. I thought you were teeing up Nick Diaz's exit fight, comeback against Lawler. Yeah, that was terrible too. So I'm probably making a huge mistake, but I don't know, BC. Does it really feel like... He does seem, he's in great shape always. Always.

His spirit, he seems the happiest. Yep. You know, what does that mean for a warrior like that? Will that infuse him? You know the crowd is going to give him that, like, huge veteran pop, like the old school warrior, we love you, thank you for your contributions, all rightfully so.

Robbie doesn't tend to normally need that or get changed by that. I wonder if that's like a needle, if that's like a TRT right here, Luke. Also, not a five-round fight, three-round fight. He can step on the gas the whole way. We know he used to take some rounds off. Really not in play here. Nico Price is going to leave openings. We do know that.

The guy's wild. But can Nico pick him apart, though? Can Nico stand in there, go toe-to do know that. The guy's wild. Can Nico pick him apart, though? Can Nico stand in there, go toe-to-toe, man-to-man, and pick him apart? The thing is, Nico plays the Russian roulette game. Like 50% of the time when he fights that way, he's going to win. The other 50% he's going to lose. So I actually see it as 50-50, and for that reason, give me Robbie Lawler. It would feel good to get a Robbie Lawler win, and then you get the win on OK Bet at the same time.

I see what you're doing. That's right. You're doubling down on that. Luke, I'm going to go with my underdog, and I'm going to go back to that co-main event, that Bantamweight title, the unofficial trilogy between these two. And what we have to ask ourselves, as you laid out there,

how much has Brandon Moreno changed since their 2018 rematch, but how much has Pantoja changed riding this inspired three-fight win streak, two straight finishes over high-level guys in the division like Perez and like Raw Dog. But Luke Thomas, people forget who Pantasia is and how he got here and who he beat.

It wasn't just Moreno and tough by submission. It wasn't just Moreno by wide decision in the rematch, Luke. He also beat Brandon Schaub and gave him his last loss, and people forget that about Pantasia. It's like right after the Travis Brown fight. I don't know if you remember that. I know what you're doing. Skits and beats.

Luke, here's the deal, though. Sometimes when you've got somebody's number, it just matters. I don't lean on that as ultimately the reason why this is going to happen. Look at the Poetan-Izzy rivalry, right? Things can change. A lot has changed for these two. But what hasn't changed for this division is the parity on top.

And even though Moreno survived the epic four-fight war, trilogy, trapdoor, quadruple-logy with Figueiredo, there's still parity. He still can be had, Luke. Pantoja is confident. He's a finisher.

He's coming after it. There's no Brazilian champions at the moment. All this week is about Mexico. I mean, Dana was really pumping up Mexico's future when John Morgan asked him that question at the press conference about that. Not just the colorful new belts that Dana's partnering with a designer in Mexico for, for the Mexican

champions, but it's the PI in Mexico, Luke. It's all about, like, they're not even selling this story as a promotion that Pantoja has this thing over him, right? The story is that Moreno and Yair are here for Mexican glory. Telling this story as a promotion that Pantoja has this thing over him, right? I know, and it's a big deal. The story is that Moreno and Yair are here for Mexican glory. And by the way, I get behind that story. I like that they're coming back with Grasso Shevchenko, too, for free in the city, Mexican Independence Day in September.

But Pantoja's coming in, underdog, the weight of Brazil on his shoulders. Dude, give me him at plus 175 to do it one more time. I like that bet from you. I like that bet from you. I like that bet from you. The thing is, I can't both pick Moreno as my favorite and Pantoja as my underdog. But I did play with that idea a little bit, the Pantoja part for the underdog. Because he's, I mean, the guy has beaten him twice and like thoroughly, you know, there's never even been close.

Oh, and Machev too. Right. There is that. I mean, I got to say, I did see, if you haven't seen this, there's a clip going around, I think, from Fighter and the Kid. There's two clips, two separate shows. Oh, that's right. The second one is new. But the first one was from Fighter and the Kid, and I think Brendan had mistakenly thought that Pantoja had beaten Makhachev.

No, that's... Well, I keep mistakenly thinking that Gastelum was competitive against Whitaker, apparently. So I'll have to rewatch that and get back to you just the same. All right, Luke. What do you got for over-under? Who's going the distance or not? Well, because my other picks usually do poorly, I have to stand back at this end of things. So I'm going to say in the over-under, give me the under in Nickel versus Woodburn.

I just win or lose, right? I mean, Bo nickel will almost certainly win there's a chance obviously but he's going to be the biggest favorite in ufc history the freaking under here please so i'm gonna take the under here because he's either gonna demolish the guy or he'll get slept out of nowhere and either way it ain't gonna go the distance i'll take that one did you like the confidence of woodward and thatward? Yes. Woodward and Bernstein? Yes. When they got the information from Deep Throat to take down...

What's his name? Woodburn. Woodburn. Apologies for my lack of preparation that we just met this guy yesterday, but I liked his confidence. I liked the dress. You know, he was flamboyantly dressed, but he also came in there like not overwhelmed by the moment, not talking too much trash, but letting Bo know I'm coming here to take it.

Listen, he probably won't win, but MMA is crazy as shit. Yeah. So we'll see. All right, Luke. My over-under, I'm going to stay on this UFC card, and I'm going to go Nico Price, Robbie Lawler. You're picking Lawler to win. I'm picking them both to go the distance in a fun-ass action fight. Who's going to win?

Look, I'm going to lean toward Price in this regard. Just, I think, you know, being the fresher fighter, even with the fanfare of Lawler walking away, either way, Robbie's going to show out. He's going to bang of what's left. It's going to go the distance. It's going to be a fun fight. That's actually not a bad bet at all. I don't know if you notice, I'm moving up in the standings. You're really not, though. You're really not.

You're just sort of, like, statically shitty and I'm statically a slightly less shitty but also shitty. KO or sub, Luke? What do you got do you got uh this one again i'm gonna sandbag this one although i suppose this one is not nearly as much of a sandbag but still uh give me jalen turner versus dan hooker ending in ko i think that's the way it's probably gonna go i don't think that that one could go to a decision again if dan decides to wrestle and has a fair amount of success that is obviously a different ball game but i have a feeling that they're both going to slug it out on the feet and for that reason doesn't matter really who wins for this particular bet because i just think it's going to end via strikes yeah turn all right my ko or sub will

stay on that preliminary featured area jack della maddalena will not be feisting sean brady because of the elbow issues josiah harrell in last minute, Luke. He is 7-0 with seven stoppages. Just made his LFA debut last time out. But uphill climb against a riser like Mr. Dabalina here. I'm going to take KO in that matchup. And I think you know who I'm picking. Yeah, you're going to pick Jack Della.

Luke, a matchup we didn't touch in this category but still a big one that has a lot of people talking for various reasons is that middleweight tilt robert whittaker against drichus duplicy and the idea that we're kind of looking at a most likely a number one contenders fight as dana has said i say most likely because strong sean strickland looking so good last week could could change this discussion and now going on rogan like i mean you know, whatever else you want to say about what he said like that. What'd you think about what he said?

I mean, if you were wondering why he had a disturbed worldview, you can see where it came from. Like his upbringing was not the way a child is supposed to be brought up in this world. Actually, I have genuine sympathy for that. Yes. It was great. I only heard soundbites because I'm not going to watch the whole thing. Strickland doesn't do it for me, but it made sense. Some of the things I've heard. I saw people like laughing about it and thinking it was like I only heard soundbites because I'm not going to watch the whole thing Strickland doesn't do it for me but yeah it made sense some of the things I've heard right I saw people like laughing about it and thinking it was like super cool yo like some of the stuff he was saying

there's not a fucking thing on earth cool about that uh it's disturbing actually and the fact that he has made as much of a success of himself as he has if you think about it uh it's I would argue somewhat miraculous to be quite honest with you because people of that kind of upbringing you know more often than not you'll find them in jail or doing something else. What do you think about him dunking on Ali and being like, I know this is going to cause me trouble. So I read the clip. I did not. I read the transcription of that part.

I have not seen the clip. I don't exactly understand what his argument is. His argument is that he was sparring Vittori in the extreme couture gym, preparing Vittori. So going out of his way to help Vittori. And Ali was lingering and watching, watched the sparring session. I think based on the way Sean was laying it out, I'm assuming not that he was allowing Vittori to have his moments, but the camp is about setting up Vittori, right? Right, right. And I think Ali watched Strickland spar in that, didn't think he was all that good, and then suddenly Strickland gets an offer from Abus Magomedov's side,

which is Ali. And Ali reps him. And so Strickland's reaction is just basically, well, he talked bad about him, but then he said, like, managers shouldn't be in the gym. That's shady what he did. That's a dirtbag move to watch my sparring and then use that as, you know, knowledge to go grab his guy and match him up. Now, Strickland got the last laugh with the dominant win,

but is there any – is Strickland on to something in that regard? I'm less, I less have an issue with managers in the gym. I really don't, I mean, that's hard to enforce. Like, how do you even do that? Like, if you manage these guys, you're not allowed to show up to the gym. Like, why? Especially if you have, like, two or three clients all in the same gym. What, are we going to ban girlfriends now from the gym?

Yeah, exactly. You know, ban civility. Yeah, there we go. But no, if I'm being serious, that to me is less the issue. The issue is, to me, let's assume for a moment what Sean Strickland is saying is 100% true. If that is the case, then the issue to me is that a manager can just go to matchmakers and have that kind of direct influence. That to me is the bigger issue.

The UFC should be making matches. They obviously have to work to some degree in concert with the matchmakers. But if you're a manager and you have, again, according to Sean Strickland's worldview, the capacity to just basically call your shots like that, like, hey, let's match up my guy against this guy, even when they're unranked, that is the issue. It's the managerial undue influence over matchmaking,

less that they're actually in the facility on occasion. Interesting. It's interesting stuff, Luke. It's kind of a gray area there, but the fight that offers no gray area is the one we're talking about. The odds aren't explosively in the direction of Whitaker. Do we have those in front of us, Luke? Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. We just, the general media.

Oh, no, they are. What's the latest? So he's currently, as we speak right now, according to our friends at Caesars, I do, as a matter of fact. We just, the general media. Oh, no, they are. What's the latest? So he's currently, as we speak right now, according to our friends at Caesars, Brian Campbell, he is, Whitaker, a minus 380 favorite. Drink his Duplicy, plus 300. I'm looking across the board here. You can find action on Whitaker at around minus 400. Okay.

Now, obviously, that's a lot for a number one contender fight. He's a four to one favorite. I guess I just meant it wasn't the type of, like, embarrassing minus 700 type odds. No, no, no, no. But that's been the media feeling, Luke. I like that Robert Whitaker at the press conference is not taking in every media stop this week, not taking the bait on like I'm supposed to destroy this guy. He's giving him the respect. He expects everything.

We've got some sound we're going to throw to you in a second. But are you expecting a competitive fight here? Even if the finish is one side, you know what I mean? Like whatever. I mean, even if Whitaker wins by decision, are you expecting DDP to show out? Even if he's heading into a situation where all think defeat is coming his way, it's not like he's going to get his ass kicked, right? Or is that also? I definitely expect him to give Robert Whitaker trouble in two different ways. One, to make him hesitant because he is so unpredictable what might come. I think

if you're Robert Whitaker, yes, it's a three-round fight, but you do need to take your time a little bit with this guy because he's going to come out like a fucking bat out of hell. And so I think that might give, I would say, Duplessy's best chance to win a round will come in the first round. He really has to bag that one because he's not going to win it

by the third. That's when Whitaker, the skill difference is really going to show up. So if you're Whitaker, you cannot make a mistake early. I think that will slow him down. The other one is BC. He is, dude, he is a big, athletic, strong middleweight. If he lands on you, it's going to cause problems. I do think there's a chance, like, you know, Kananir was able to do it.

I think Kananir has shown more skill in my mind. But, again, the physicality, the unpredictability, if something lands like that, I think it could cause Whitaker trouble. But BC, again again i'm going to say it over and over skills win fights skills win fights and it is very clear that robert whitaker is the vastly more skilled guy and when skills don't win fights it's when an intangible can be broken robert whitaker went 10 rounds with i know it took like two years of his career off of that after that from the residuals, but you get the point. Robert Whitaker caught up with CBS Sports' own Shaquille Majury, a

friend of the program here at MK. Here is Rob's thoughts about exactly what he's facing here in DDP. They underestimate just how tough and resilient he is. He's got such a well-rounded skill set, and he's got no quid in him. There's a lot ofrounded skill set, and he's got no quid in him.

There's a lot of times in his fights where he's faced quite serious adversity, where he looks moment from defeat and then comes back to win it. And that's dangerous, mate. It's interesting. We also have Shaq on his Shaq MMA channel, catching up with Drikus Duplessis himself to get the other side of this matchup and maybe how he's going to pull this big upset against

the Bobby Knuckle guy. What was his name? The Reaper? The damn Reaper. Let's hear it. He's never bought into his own hype and that's why he's such an incredible athlete. He is a guy that, you know, show me one fight where Robert Whitaker came into the ring unprepared, where he looked like he didn't have a great

camp, where even if he had an injury, where he looked unfit, where he didn't look strong, where he didn't look in shape. No, that's not the way he operates. He's going to be a guy that every single time you fight him, you know, you're going to fight a guy that prepared for this fight like it's the last fight that he'll ever fight and that's that's why i have so much respect for it again not because of what he's achieved but purely because of the consistency over all these years knowing and seeing the improvements and seeing how hard he works he's an inspiration to so many people now look i did pop for the biceps of kevin lee in my interview with him last week and we saw what happened the biceps of d Lee in my interview with him last week, and we saw what happened to the biceps of DDP there with the veins and striations was impressive.

The vascularity. The vascularity of that man. He's not wrong what he says about him, but, Luke, there's obviously a stigma coming a lot from the media, guys like us, that, hey, DDP's good, but it's not quite yet. Wins over that version of Brunson and that version of Till are good, but this might be too much too soon. Is it the cardio thing is all that?

DDP addressed is some of those concerns here with Shaq. Everybody's saying work on your cardio does not know what the hell they are talking about when they are talking to me. I am a workhorse. I am the hardest worker in the room every single time, or at least I go out to try and be, I go out there and I compete with every single person in that gym and myself of yesterday, every single time I step in there. So it's not a matter of working hard. I know that's not the problem. And it's about getting the right people around you with the right knowledge and making sure that the right energy systems fire at the right time, making

sure the right muscles fire, making sure the right energy systems fire at the right time making sure the right muscles fire making sure the right like i said energy systems are firing at the right time so that i train in a way that complements my fight thank you to shaq major you can watch those in full on the shaq mma channel luke in regards to his cardio you know that madman with a law degree jed mesh Meshew from MMA Fighting? Yeah, you bring him up constantly. I can't figure this guy out. He's got wild takes, aggressive takes. He's going with DDP like an a-hole here, but one of his hooks, as he's saying,

is he got his nose finally repaired, and now he can breathe for the first time. You're a man with deep-rooted nasal issues that don't necessarily... I had an issue last night. Not caused by nose beers, right? By nose. Nose beers. That's what they used to call candy in my.

I was never a big Coke guy. It was never my thing. Do you think that could lead to a change? Is what DDP is saying, anyone who's questioning his cardio is an asshole. Well, what if he did get the nose job? What if it's full on best case scenario of DDP? It's still not going to be enough, Luke. It's Robert Whitaker we're talking about.

I can't believe he picked Duplicy. That's interesting. I'm actually kind of surprised to hear that. I called him the Kid Rock of MMA Jed Mastro. Who was the little man he had? Little Joe C? Was that who it was? What was his issue? Was he

a little person? Yeah, he was a little man. He had some health issues, but Joe C had some passion on the mic. You think they buried him in a shoebox? Oh my gosh, you know what? I thought we were going to get hate mail from that Kobe joke with the helicopter and you're like, let's keep going down that road. Luke, to close

on UFC 290 here, we talked about Yasmeen Horigay coming in. We talked about some of the other matchups. Is there any storyline we're not hitting? Horigay? Storylines we're not hitting. Horror guy? Storylines we're not hitting. I mean, this is a pretty bad early prelims card. You'd agree, right? Yeah. I'm not... Again, there's

the Alonzo, Mennefield, Jimmy... Oh, rematch, rematch. Well, what's sort of weird about this card is when you look at it, it's like there's a gazillion Aussies and Kiwis, I guess, or mostly Aussies. That's what I said. When anyone said, hey, BC, why are you complaining about this card not being an A++? All the hardcores love it.

All the Aussie fans love it. Yeah, they love it huge. And I get that completely. It just feels like this card should be in Adelaide. It should be in Perth. It should be in Sydney, whatever. Oh, Adelaide Bird will be there. She'll be K-7.

Oh, Adelaide Bird will be there. She'll be turning in some 3026s DDP. Don't think she won't. But at the same time, it's like, again, there's really nothing wrong with the card. It's just not all the way right, I think is the way I would say it. All right. We will enjoy it just the same. A reminder, I'll be on CBS Sports HQ immediately after Saturday night's card.

And then, or maybe simultaneously, Luke Thomas will be pressing play on our Morning Combat Instant Analysis YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. I might join you there, Luke, right? pressing play on our Morning Combat Instant Analysis, youtube.com slash morningcombat. I might join you there, Luke, right? I intend for you to join me. Can you let me in the door, though, after the HQ hit? I'll just give you an extra key. You can have a key to my room. Oh, God.

That's weird. All right, Luke. That is okay, bet. We'll get now into topic one to set the stage for the weekend, and we do have a very interesting boxing tilt this weekend. A tripleheader 9.30 p.m in the east coast saturday night only on showtime rising unbeaten welterweight breakout star geron boots ennis 30 and 0 27 ko's he's gonna i don't want to call it a stay busy but i think the whole division at large is staying busy waiting for the fallout of course of all things spence crawford july 29th but luke

his opponent this weekend boardwalk hall the, the theater there in Atlantic City, is a guy who's kind of come out of nowhere. Roy Manvia, the Venezuelan slugger, made his U.S. debut last year on Showbox. I called that fight. Delivered a big upset to unbeaten Janelson Boca Chica. And then he comes back on the January pay-per-view card. Was that the Hector Garcia tank? It was in D.C.

And a big upset against Rashidi Ellis. He was outgunned early by the speed disadvantage against Speedy Rashidi. But Royman made adjustments, started walking him down, and really had a spirited finish here, Luke. Let's talk about this main event. It is in some ways about, like, Boots taking that next step and finally drawing in one of these elites, whether it's Thurman, Ugas, the winner of Spence Crawford.

But how much of a challenge is Villa for him? Villa is not a technical challenge for him. That's really not what this comes down to. Jerron Ennis is a guy I've been really high on. His last fight, he did perform really well if you look at the scores, but he underperformed in the sense that I think people had an expectation he would put that guy away pretty quickly, and he didn't went the full distance he was much better but you get the idea but the point I wanted to make here was from a technical perspective both offensively and

defensively Jerron Ennis is just infinitely slicker than Roman Villa Roman Villa is a come forward kind of brawler basically has a high guard which means if you got two hands up here and you're blocking a lot you have to catch before you can shoot right so he ends up just kind of having to he's not really great at like ring generalship either he just marches and marches and marches and then tries to find stuff and then eventually he does if you slow but the problem is again on the offensive end a guy like Ennis should eat this a guy like this alive he does not have sophisticated defense and again on the defensive side himself Ennis is a guy like Ennis should eat a guy like this alive. He does not have sophisticated defense. And again, on the defensive side himself, Ennis is a handful as well.

He should win this one very easily. Should, though. Let's give Villa credit. Coming on late, I think that was almost a setup fight. I mean, it was a great fight on paper, him against Rashidi Ellis, but Rashidi was calling out boots. The idea was maybe Rashidi, who finally put his career back on track, was going to take that step.

But Royman Villa showed big-time stamina. He went 12 rounds for only the second time in that Rashidi Ellis fight, and he was the better fighter in the second half. So you do have to hold that there. A guy with power who you know has the chance to be there at the end. If there's an implosive side, if there's anything that the critics can reach for for boots, maybe that's it. But it would need Villa cutting off the ring.

It would need him going to the body. It would need him going to the body. It would need him early on establishing some type of threat that could pay off later. You referenced, Luke, though, the last time out in January on the same card that Villa beat Rashidi Ellis. We saw Boots against Karin Chukudzin. To be fair, that was, you know, it was a secondary. It was an IBF interim title at stake.

So it's sort of we got the four belts in Spence and Crawford, everybody else lining up trying to get in position. Look, he did win 120 to 108 on all three scorecards but the critics rightfully so said look you didn't put him away the guy was circling in the other direction the whole fight but that's a challenge for a young fighter to do something i caught up with boots ennis in the build-up to this fight and here's his message to all the haters who won't stop talking about what he didn't do against Chukazin? I really don't care what nobody thinks. Honestly, I don't.

I mean, with me, first they were saying he can't go past six rounds. Then they were saying, we don't know if he got a chin. They don't know what they want out of me. It don't matter who I fight. I can fight a brick wall. I can beat a brick wall. They're like, you're supposed to do that. So with me, I don't matter who I fight. I can fight a brick wall. I can beat a brick wall. They be like, you're supposed to do that. So with me, I just, I don't care what nobody say.

I just be myself. And like you said, I had a 12-round shutout decision, you know, with a guy that didn't want to engage. And with this guy, I know Romain Villa is going to be right there for me. And that's perfect, you know. And we're going to have some fun until, you know, back to making statements. I like Boots' demeanor, by the way he's humble he understands situation he went on to say when talking about things like guys ducking him and stuff that it's it's not about being scared it's about business luke i think he always recognized that he's a a high-risk guy right being so young

and not yet fully broken out but he does show you that kind of talent of which he could be i mean look when we're talking about like the future faces of the sport gervonta is kind of in transition to kind of becoming one of the faces or maybe already there but we're talking about those guys that are a little bit younger the shaker stevenson's the devon haney's all that i mean boots is right there in that debate about three to five years from now who's going to be the number one face of this sport and you know are potentially the pound for pound king it's. It's like Boots. It's like Haney. It's like Shakur. It's like maybe Stephen Fulton, who's got a big fight with Inouye coming up.

Like, these are the guys. Like, these are the future. Luke, but will that future lead to Boots fighting the winner of Spence Crawford like a lot of people want? Here are his thoughts on the future of the Walter White division. Well, when I beat William and Villa, you know, I feel like the 147th Division, like, landscape,

it's like everything falling into place. I feel like if Spence and Bud don't, you know, do the rematch clause, you still got, you know, Dan Jonas and Ortiz. I feel like everybody, I feel like everything, like, finally coming together, and I feel like everybody is going to be able to fight each other real soon. You know, just hopefully, you know, uh, they don't do the rematch clause and everybody be able to fight each other or, or I'd be able to fight the winner, you know, uh, Erwin

Spence. I mean, Erwin, um, but. Look, let me ask you this. You've been a big boots guy. I've been a boots guy. I don't think you can hold too much against him for that Chiquites and fight. He did everything. I mean, he dominated the fight.

Spence and Crawford, what would you give the percentage that they may end up rematching, considering both sides have it? And this is going to be a huge fight. Both sides have the option of clicking it, and it's high, right? 100%. Mark me down now. I don't see a mutually enforceable rematch clause. They're going to fight two times, and I want to point out one more time.

I said that on the Showtime Boxing Podcast with Karen Mulvaney and eric raskin mark me down as one of the guys who said we get two of these motherfuckers right here yes this guy this well i mean there's a dual rematch clause before this was months ago this was months ago there was no news about a rematch clause your guy just predicted it big money fight i'd love to do it again so in that case let's say boots beats via he's got to go do it in Atlantic City Saturday night we're all going to be there watching Luke and I will be calling the prelims beginning at 7 30 p.m eastern on the showtime So in that case, let's say Boots beats Villa. He's got to go do it in Atlantic City Saturday night. We're all going to be there watching. Luke and I will be calling the prelims beginning at 7.30 p.m. Eastern on the Showtime YouTube channel. What should be next for him?

And by the way, he did tell me, Boots, that if Spencer Crawford, if either of them go to 54, he'll follow them up there and still want to fight them. But he's got to handle his business first at age 26 here at the Welterweight division. Is a Keith Thurman the right fight next? Got to be. I did see some talk aboutith thurman the right fight next gotta be now what i did see some talk about keith thurman potentially fighting you go to denny's hugas so maybe the it's

maybe i won't say it's a tournament because that's not quite right but what i would say is maybe the winner of this weekend's showtime championship boxing card between boots and uh old by the way not even you think i mean i butcher names names. I do butcher names. Guilty as charged. Guilty as charged. But Boots Ennis is not even trying. He's like Roman Villa. It's like – It looks like it.

Not quite, but okay. You didn't try. All right. Either way, the winner of that probably or could potentially – That's a great fight. Boots against the winner of Vukov's tournament? Yeah, exactly. Well, I'll say this.

I don't know if – well, dude, if Boots loses, that makes it kind of interesting. But assuming Boots wins, I think he probably gets the winner of Ugas and Thurman. Probably that. Well, Boots said that he loves this matchup because he knows Villa's – unlike Chukudzin, Villa's coming after him. That is 100% true. This could lead to explosive, spectacular Boots Ennis arriving Saturday night in Atlantic City. Final reminder, get going early, 7 p.m. Eastern

on the Showtime YouTube channel. It's Luke Thomas, it's Brian Campbell, it's Steven Jackson ringside in Atlantic City calling the action. By the way, also, I didn't know this. I think you're probably different because you've been covering boxing for so much longer. I've never seen a boxing fight in Atlantic City, ever.

Wow. I have seen a Bellator fight. I saw Rampage fight Joey Beltran when he came over from UFC, before he went back to UFC illegally and then back to Bellator, but neither here nor there. So this is a bit of a first for me. I'm actually kind of excited. Did you see that Joey Beltran and Bretton Hart broke up?

But before they did, they were on that weird internet reality show that's fake where the bail bondsman comes over and tries to like, and they put Joey in cuffs and then Joey like argues and Bret's going crazy and then Joey's like, how about we just wrestle to find out if I get arrested or not? And they have like this scrap on the floor and it's all

staged and it was really weird. I haven't seen that. But weren't they married? They were. I think if you're married, they don't call it breaking up anymore. Oh, it's called separation? It's just straight-up divorce. So it's a tripleheader on Showtime. And unfortunately, Luke, we were also waiting, anticipating, and hoping Saturday night on DAZN.

The card will still go on in San Antonio, but we're not getting a must-see welterweight fight equal to Boots Via from the standpoint of what is next after Crawford Spence. And that was unbeaten secondary WBA welterweight fight equal to Boots Villa from the standpoint of what is next after Crawford Spence. And that was unbeaten secondary WBA welterweight title holder. I'm on to Stani. Oh, this is my Lithuanian brethren. You may remember he had that big win over Rajav Butaev on the Spence versus Ugas pay-per-view undercard. Luke Thomas, he was supposed to fight unbeaten Virgil Ortiz Jr. who is the Mexican-American promoted by Golden Boy, 19-0 with 19 KOs.

This was the perfect matchup of unbeatens. There were people like Chris Mannix saying, this was going to be your fight of the year. But for the second straight time this calendar year, Virgil Ortiz has pulled out. Only Luke Thomas, it's pretty dangerous this time. He passed out while trying to cut weight. According to reporting from Dan Raphael of Fight Freaks Unite,

Virgil Ortiz's father needed to give him mouth to mouth. What is the name of the diagnosis here, Luke, that they got? He got rhabdomyolysis, which is the CrossFit used to have this mascot called Rabdo the Clown. Rabdo is what they call it for short. You can get it from other things like illicit drug use and blah, blah, blah. But what it mostly comes from when you see athletes get it is insane over training it basically the the i'm not going to give you the medical explanation but the way it was explained to me once is rhabdo is the body

turning on itself from exhaustion yeah and overuse like you can only get that if you are training in the most fucked up over advised inadvisable ways by the way time out on this very quickly very quickly you have to take a dump? No. We have a second screen up right here. We got the weigh-ins. Oh, here's Volkanovski. UFC 290. We're actually watching the weigh-in show. BC, here's a question. Yes. If anyone misses weight, do you

want to have a slap fight? You and me. Why does Volkanovski wear in that left-eye Lopez RIP band-aid under his eye? Did he get cut? Or does he plan on burning down Andre Rison's new mansion? He doesn't chase waterfalls. That's just not what he does, you know. Looks like he made weight, Luke.

He looks pretty healthy for 34 there. He looked first on the fucking scales is Alexander Volkanovski. Short in the height, long in the tooth, Luke, right? I like that. Yeah. He called him old in the tooth, Luke, right? I like that. Yeah. You called him old in the tooth, which is more like what my dog is. Yeah, I mixed up a few metaphors. Oh, here we go.

Pantoja. Pantoja. Stepping up to this. Just zippy shoes. Just showing up to one of these McDonald's. These guys, like, no hat, no shoes. He looks like he just got off the beach with Crone Gracie. You know, just slanging.

Right? Just fine. Just look at, you know. Good tattoo set there luke good tattoo set right uh it's okay all right let's close quickly on this boxing luke so ortiz was hospitalized and if you look further on his medical diagnosis what that could mean luke this is life and potentially obviously career threateningthreatening from the standpoint of the permanent damage that now twice it appears this illness has. I mean, so, Luke, naturally the knee-jerk for a guy so young who, like Boots Ennis, is like waiting for that moment to break out.

I mentioned he's 19-0 with 19 KOs. He's a monster part of Golden Boy's future along with Ryan Garcia. Luke, I want him to move to 154 if he can still fight again, but at this point, we're not even sure how he recovers from this, right? I think he will, but he has to ask questions like, why are you getting Rabdo multiple times and having to get your father to give you quite literal mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? Dude, this is dangerous. Yeah, you're Rodriguez making weight.

Right, you're Rodriguez makes weight. And he's third on the scales. So the three of the four in the championship fights have made weight. But getting back to Virgil Ortiziz a guy of very considerable talent a guy who has i think if he can get right a lot of fighting left in him but bc if you are in a place where they're doing that to you or you're doing that to yourself you will cut your career short drastically yes drastically uh if boots ennis by the way beats via i wouldn't hate him by any stretch of the margin against Stan Yosses. In fact, I thought that fight should have happened earlier this year. That'd be okay.

Yeah, that would be a great fight. That wouldn't be as interesting to me as some of the other ones, but yes, it wouldn't be a bad one. Stan Yosses, he can bang. He comes after it. He gets inside. Brandon Moreno. Brandon Moreno makes weight.

So, ladies and gentlemen, all four fighters in the two championship fights have made weight. The first four to make weight were the championship level fighters motherfuckers well golden boy bumped up floyd scofield versus haskell roads for that main event tough break for both golden boy and the zone to see that uh go that way with virgil ortiz pulling out the zone is uh and people think i hate on the zone i'm still a disowned customer like i still pay for it even though bellator is not on it anymore i still i i pay for it not even though Bellator's not on it anymore. I still do. I pay for it. Not having the strongest 2023.

Well, you expense it. Let's be fair. Huh? Don't try to act nobody. No, no, no. I've never. I do write it off of my taxes, but I've never, ever expense it to, not to zone. Maybe the UFC pay-per-views on occasion. Okay, okay.

But I'm serious, BC. They're not having a great year. They're not having a great year. Quick mention on the, and they lost Canelo, unfortunately, for them. Quick mention on the way out here. ESPN Plus has a boxing offering for Mexico this Saturday. Luke, you remember Luis Neri, former champion at 118,

had some weight issues. He had moved up, I think, to 126 even last time out. He's at 122 here. He'll be in a ESPN Plus main event and he'll be taking on Froli and Saludar. But the whole point is, last time out, Neri may have delivered the fight of the year against Hovhannessian, Luke. That was an absolute brawl.

Worth catching a stream if you haven't seen it. Neri can thump, and DDP just made weight. And, dude, he looks like he is in fantastic shape. Well, Luke, the topic, too, aligns perfectly with the live UFC weigh-in show that we'll continue to update you on as they hit the scale because there's been a big announcement, Luke. Not only, as we previously mentioned is power slap. I believe three happening tonight, July 7th in Las Vegas,

as part of the UFC's international fight week offering hall of fame convention, all that stuff. Dana White and company are taking it one. You could argue masses step forward Luke during the current UFC weigh-in show, which is happening now and live, Dana has announced that Power Slap will be having one of the fights on tonight's card early. And as you can see there on that tweet from Amy Kaplan,

shout out, heavyweights Nate the Buffalo Soldier Bernard and Stevie Ray Payne are going to slap off in between real UFC fighters stepping on the scale and probably DC and Weidman and Lorisenko spinning the wheel and having some fun. But Luke, this is either something we can laugh off as WTF, good old Dana, or is this the tease? Is this the trial period for much further pollination and crossover? How nervous, if that's even the right word. Maybe we're just soy boy MMA media haters, Luke, who are getting in the way of great Americans delivering business initiatives.

But PowerSlapp isn't just taking over the social media channels of the UFC today. It's going to be part of the offering. Your thoughts on this? Rob Whitaker made weight. Here comes Jasmine or Yasmeen. How do you just pick a pronunciation? I mean, just pick one.

It just depends on where you're from. OK, you're from India. I'll say Yasmeen. How do they say it in your daily? I'll say Yasmeen. My wife would not. She would not say. I'll say Yasmeen.

She makes weight as well. OK. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. Like, they're just balloon testing all this shit, right? Like, they're going to put these two donks, Bernard and Payne, in this slapping thing. Uh-oh. She has barely any clothes on.

That's interesting. All right. Look, she's a professional fighter. I understand. I understand. Barely clothed. But the point I wanted to make was, BC, like what's stopping them? Because it's also sanctioned by the Nevada Commission.

It's not like it's independent of that. What's stopping them from having a hybrid MMA slap show? Like if you pay to watch, like they'll put like two fights, then a slap fight, and then two more fights, then a slap fight. The key question is how close are we on a pay-per-view from the pay-per-view kicking off? What's stopping them from doing that? Nothing. Nothing is stopping them from doing that. So it looks to me like, I mean, it's amazing.

First of all, it's amazing that, like, it does do well on things like TikTok. But then when you look at their YouTube numbers, they're fucking dreadful. Luke, Dana said this not only dominates social media, PowerSlapp does more clicks on social media than every major sport combined. Yeah, that's a bunch of bullshit. But for sure, it doesn't do well on YouTube. Like, you can look at the numbers there. It doesn't do all that great.

And then more to the point, more to the point about that, it's like people keep saying, oh, if you don't want to watch it, don't. Motherfucker, I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm trying my ass off to not watch. You're making it very, very difficult for me to avoid it. Please fucking stop doing that. Like, if I don't want to watch Formula One, it's very easy to not watch.

If you don't want to watch Premier League, it's very easy to not watch. They're trying desperately to push anything they can in terms of the UFC halo onto MMA fans to just get them to begrudgingly accept it because they obviously want to make money off this thing and whatever else. But it is, it's so, it's like, it clearly cannot stand on its own. So it needs the UFC halo. It's not nearly as popular as they ever presented, which everyone knows already. It's just, you know, a concussion contest.

Hey, do you like combat sports, but you hate defense? I've got great news for you. Watch these two hirsute overweight people give each other a concussion at 8 a.m. in the morning for your enjoyment on ESPN+. You love to say, well, because you MMA media are soft and you guys were featured in Dana's video, so this is all about you versus Dana, which it's not.

You can also say you're just a Dana hater, which I was never, but am I becoming a Dana hater this calendar year with bullshit like this? Yes, this is fucking shameless. This is like the original XFL as like the great big, you know, misstep of Vince McMahon's business career until he misstepped all over those women, Luke. And this is new Coke all over again. Nobody's asking for this. People have told you we don't want this we will told you it insults the actual product and the fighters that that you represent in the ufc yet you're shamelessly forcing it upon us and if all those numbers were really true from dana about how much this dominates they wouldn't need this exposure but look you have to start asking yourself as an mma fan a true mma fan and i have actually i'm actually proud of this do i get a lot of hate

from the people that are diehard dana you know, protectors? Yes. And I understand that, right? Because in some degree, Luke, a lot of us as MMA fans, even though I've watched the early UFC pay-per-views with my dad, like a lot of people for just curiousness, we became hardcore MMA fans because of Dana, because he was arguably the greatest salesman of all time, because he rallied you to believe in the sports future so much that you were almost on the team with him. He did that to the media members. He did that to the fans and made it feel like one big family, like we're all cheering for this sport to break through and this man to push this brand forward. And this calendar year, at least, they've completely shit on that idealism. And I had to have had a lot

of fans reach out and be like i don't want to see every show turn into duncan on dana but he's let me down this sucks luke this is a bridge too far this is like we're programming you for the future here nobody wants this fucking future at all so so bag it already take the l or if you want to keep doing it like they do with the pb with the professional rodeo or like they do with all this other stuff that Dana and the Zufas own with the – what do they have? BMX racing circuits? I don't know. Whatever else through the Endeavor portfolio. But the whole point is what are you going to do?

Put an octagon in the middle of that next BMX race and we'll have one fight from the UFC pay-per-view during the – you know what I mean? I've seen that, by the way. I've been to regional MMA where they were jumping bikes over a fight that was happening beneath it. I've seen gimmicks. I've seen live rap music during fights. I've seen MMA boxing crossover. I've seen golden boy MMA. I've seen all the gimmicks.

Okay. This is the worst possible gimmick and UFC should be above this. But again, even if you want to diversify your business and do it, do it in your own silo. Keep it away. It's, it's disgusting. It's the worst look. So I'll go back to that thing. Luke, are we just Dana haters?

Are we like litter? I don't want to over, over say it like we're fucking soldiers digging in on the line here, but I think we're standing up for a certain level of quality control in the sport. That is this calendar. You're just going out the window and nobody seems to back me on this conspiracy theory,

but this has to be more about, about we're not promoting UFC to the full level because corporately we have to pay off the WWE purchase from endeavor and we're still paying off the UFC purchase from years ago. But it's the fact that Dana just doesn't care. Luke, he does not care about UFC anymore. What is he promoted in the last few months?

Zuck versus Musk, shamelessly and slap fighting shamelessly. Also, also his admittedly quite impressive sneaker collection. We're going to transition very shortly into Conor McGregor talk, but you know what the Dana of seven years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago would have done? He'd make fucking sure he calls up Conor McGregor and goes, take this Chandler fight and let's do it. Like, what's your problem? And if, and if Conor said no, he'd probably publicly destroy

Conor's good name to try to zap him into coming back where he's saying, no, Conor's a bitch. He doesn't want this fight. The Dana also Luke of years ago, wouldn't be welcoming a slap fight onto his great promotion. He would be taking his fighters from his great promotion and barnstorming around the country to try to get them on the Today Show or that kind of thing, right? Those days are over. The idea of taking the sport and trying to elevate it through other channels are over. Now it's the inverted. Now we're bringing things we don't want into this.

What is next, Luke? Scripted WWE backroom skits on UFC pay-per-views because that's also in the portfolio at some point you do have to draw the line around the octagon the brand and the sport and say thank you everything that dana lorenzo and for in in in frank and now ari has done but don't fuck with the actual thing anymore okay because what you're doing from saw unexplained soft matchmaking to all this other bullshit it's it's starting to smell it's starting to smell really bad luke and it's on all of us, and I can't get it off of me. I found out something.

BC, actually, you know what? Let me answer this phone call. Okay, very good. Yes. Tui also wants to bang, and also I hear if you lose the slap fighting contest, you don't get tickets to UFC 90. If you win, you also don't get tickets to UFC 290. You're just going to go straight to the ER. There you go.

So, Luke, speaking of that other day and a bit of news connected to this involving Conor McGrath. If I may make one point in seriously, you know, the UFC used to be very, very careful about presenting too much of a violent image. So, for example, like Frank Mir got into a lot of hot water when he said he wanted Brock Lesnar to be the first death in the octagon at his hands. Now guys say they want to kill each other all the time. And I get that like the sport has changed.

But if you don't, if you weren't around in 2006 or 2007, you don't appreciate it. And I thought the Zufa's sensitivity on this stuff was right. For example, the IFL, when they made their big debut on network television, they had a guy carry it out in a stretcher with like the, you know, the heartbeat on the EKG flatlining going beep on like this promo package. And it was horrifying to the MMA community. Like the UFC was very, very good about steering away from that kind of stuff, really focusing on some of the other parts of the sport and parts of the brand. However, what this kind of tells you is between the slap fighting stuff and then saying,

I know we're going to get into it, and then saying, you know, who cares what USADA says, that sensitivity they had about the product being associated with wanton violence or otherwise this like real hardcore focus on safety. Boy, they appear to have let down the guardrails to a fair degree in ways that I find quick and surprising. Does money change everything, Luke? I guess it does. So like everybody else moving forward missed me with the, you should thank Dana for having a job. You should do all this stuff. That's the Dana of old.

And I used to thank that guy. In fact, I got pictures of me as a fan with Dana. A lot of us have that Luke when, when we met him early on in a non-work situation, that ain't the guy anymore. Okay. If we are supposed to be critical and hold fighters to the ideal that we have in combat sports, Luke, that no matter how much we love them, you're only as good as your last fight.

Right? In a lot of ways, you're only as good as your stock of where you are now. That's unfair, but that ultimately becomes the truth when we break this down. Hey, Dana, you're only as good as this calendar year in terms of what you're putting out. You're not helping the sport anymore. You're not. You're not helping the sport move forward anymore. I will say this.

Helping or hurting, I don't know. But, like, is the UFC maximally promoting? Quite obviously not. No. Quite obviously not. So what they are promoting, Luke, is a fight that unfortunately may never happen between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler. The tough season is still rolling on.

We have no resolution on Conor entering the mandatory six-month USADA program. Dana White caught up with TSN and Aaron Bronstetter. Shout out. Here's the quote that's getting passed around a lot, Luke. I'll read it to you. 100% says Dana, there's a chance Conor McGregor fights this year. He's not back in the USADA testing pool. The Conor thing, who the hell knows what's going to play out?

But who cares what USADA says? We'll see what happens when it happens, so I don't know. End quote. So Dana is saying, luke despite the fact that connor needs to be in the pool for six months and right now mathematically if he entered the pool he wouldn't be eligible to fight until what january end of january of 2024 dana says there's a great chance there's a 90 chance that that connor could fight this year and if you're wondering about usada i don't care what usada thinks says dana as he often says luke that's

novitsky's problem the fuck is going on here dude what is really like what is happening here i i have to tell you i was shocked i was shocked by that you know again when they were invited into the world it was 2016 ish something like that 2014 so i can't remember anymore um there was all of this remember it came out of the trt crisis where all these guys were taking trt then popping in all kinds of ways and then otherwise looking you know in ways that didn't seem natural and they caused this moral panic where they then overcorrected and went the path of usada and now it's like well wait a second here we've made things a little bit better in terms of not throwing guys under the bus until their situation has been

adjudicated okay there's been a couple of other changes in terms of not throwing guys under the bus until their situation has been adjudicated. Okay. There's been a couple of other changes in terms of what they test for and to what degree they test for it. Okay. And I thought we were getting to not to a great place but to a somewhat more sane and rational spot. And then the very people in charge of the fighting organization say who cares what the people who we hire to do all this anti-doping. Who cares what they say. We'll just do what we want to do which of course we always knew was their right hello that's how Brock Lesnar fought at UFC 200 like none of this is new but the rhetoric to be so publicly dismissive of these people that they hire is shocking it is

shocking coming from the world where they had this highfalutin language and these promoted ideals about what it means for clean sport, whatever the fuck that is supposed to be. But, you know, talking about it, putting rhetoric behind it, putting, frankly, like a bit of a PR effort behind it and how important it was for the sport, how important it was for athletes and how important it was for overall safety of the competition. And now they're like, you know, hey, we're just going to do whatever the fuck we want with Conor and that's really going to be the end of it. Which, by the way, it's not even like I really find that a problem. I get that why they would want to do it. It's just the about face has happened so quickly and so almost overnight that I'm actually kind of, I'm actually, BC, I have to tell you,

I am even someone like me who doesn't really think anti-doping should be pushed in the way that it is. Drugs win drug war. Drugs always win the drug war. Drugs will do nothing but win the war. They can't lose. So the best point I've always made. But BC, I will say this. I think on top of the situation, people have asked, well, then what the hell is the point of USADA?

This has been the point of USADA since day number one, since day fucking one. If they were brought in to quell a PR and potentially regulatory headache that came out of TRT, what is it you think they are buying? It is arguable that MMA isn't even a real sport by virtue of how it is constructed and how it takes place. It is more just sort of like real competition but in a – on an entertainment model, not a sporting model, right? So it really has even a hard time calling itself a sport. This idea that it was pushed for clean sport is just nonsense that they tell people to – either because they're true believers or because they're just gullible. Is it just to cover lawsuits? Is it just ahead of that sale in 2016 to look like we've got this thing under control? Partly the sale was a big issue, but the other one is it's catastrophe

insurance, right? I mean, just think about it. It's not that I recognize the ideas of anti-doping as unimpeachably true, but rather as pervasive in the public. And therefore, if they were to have some kind of, let's say, paralysis or death by virtue of a fight in the octagon, they can, even if someone didn't pop, let's say that they popped on top of it, the person who did the damage popped, you could imagine this would be a massive scandal, even though you, could you necessarily draw a line between what they were using and what happened? On some level, of course you could. I'm just simply pointing out what they're doing is they're buying insurance that in the event that something terrible happens, even if someone doesn't pop, they can say, look, as a promoter, what more could we have done? What more

could we have done? We paid for extra anti-doping that, you know, is trying to make this as safe as possible. We're regulated. We try to do that as best we can. We don't go to bullshit states. We go to states with the best commissions, even though we know Nevada's a pathetic commission at best. It's insurance against catastrophe from a PR perspective. That is the value it provides because you must realize if they did have a paralysis and more to the point, if they had a death, that is an existential moment for the UFC. I think they would survive it. But trust me when I tell you back in 2016, that was not necessarily as widely assumed. They had to do something to shore up their business in the event

that catastrophe struck, whether or not it has any relationship to keeping anyone safe to begin with. That is the role that anti-doping plays. And we know this is a motivating factor, BC, because the research on this is clear. Part of the way that wada came to be is off the back of pr scandals from discovered use that is how anti-doping institutions and lore is built but now the creator or the the people who are in the ufc are saying well who gives a fuck what they say you're right about one thing is it's being run exclusively now as an entertainment brand the ufc and and less and less as a true sporting brand. In the past, that would get blurred when the UFC would screw up their own rankings and not go by meritocracy just to elevate a popular fighter into a title fight.

But we dealt with that because we know at the end of the day it's a business and it is about entertainment. But, Luke, when you do things like get the ESPN deal and become almost on par with the big four sports and really carve out your own niche, different expectations. You can't operate like it's 2008 anymore. Would David Stern, RIP or Roger Goodell be allowed to come on a press conference or come on a

situation where this is how the company is communicating with the public and the media and just be like, ah, yeah, who cares what the drug testers like, you know what I mean? Like, like we're past where that is acceptable and this type of conversation came out of us when the when dana's slapping thing happened with his wife and in the you know the companies around him didn't respond publicly and it's like more is demanded of you as a you know de facto commissioner or whatever here than to just be like i'm not sure i mean seriously dana clean up the house get figure out is this fight happening or not you've got a a dinosaur of a show rolled back out to promote this fight that you're not even sure is going to happen and you're

like well it might and if it does who cares what the drug testers think bro wtf okay like at some point like it is all entertainment and that's why we pay for it and we love it but it's also a sport we try to get behind the meritocracy of it and the accomplishments and debating who's the featherweight goat and all this bullshit luke if that's not all backed by by some level of like legitimacy and we're just we're just winging it now we're slapping it that's what we're doing we're just publicly slapping it around okay dude i don't hate mma i don't hate dana i want it to be great again someone get me a red baseball cap luke let's roll on las vegas also this week provided us with a very interesting i don't want to say reunion.

How about a union? No, not Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou running into each other at a PFL cage side, smart cage side moment. It's Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya who, don't forget, had a multi-year social media feud. And we were talking about them meeting at heavyweight for the heavyweight title if both eventually got there in the lead up to the Blahovich Light heavyweight title fight.

That seems long ago, but Luke Adesanya's team filmed much of this union between the two of you. We have three videos to show. Let's hit it. First, Alex. This mother f***ing Joan. Who f***ing cares? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, chill, Pat.

What's up, love, baby? Bless this game. Bless up, King. All the time. Man! Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Hey! That's not even a brother. That's a servant. I get my back on one of those. I don't like that face on there. I feel like he wanted it. Ahhh! Ahhh!

He's trying to get a wreath. He threw everything so he could get a wreath. Ah, that's funny. That's funny. That's funny. That's good. That's good. Oh, that's good. That's good. Oh, that's good. That's good.

Oh, that's good. That's good. Oh, that's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good.

That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good.

That's good. That's good. That's good. That reeds. Everything's like reeds. That's that. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. This feels more like, have you seen this shit than actual news but luke did it feel good to see two goats having a rubbing it up a nice way like like loving it up respect yeah i i would say in general i i'm one of these i i kind of feel like you know less acrimony is better for your life it does make me wonder about some of the criticisms that he's had of john like what happened to them do you still i saying, I guess he doesn't

feel that way anymore? I don't really know. Does he still believe John drinks nose beers all day? I've never heard nose beers. Really? Yeah. Nose beers. Okay. Yeah, no. It's common these days per gaff. Gaff, how old are you? 30.

Fuck, you might know. Yeah. Yeah. Better than we would anyway. Yeah. Alright. Uh, they would anyway. Yeah. All right. They're never going to fight though, right? It's never going to, never going to. Oh, he's adding numbers now. Now he's 31. Yeah, now all of a sudden just started adding digits afterwards. 31 plus 9. The whole idea of Jones and Ghanu is even if it did happen somewhere down the road,

it'll never probably not be as big as it could feel right now. Izzy John is more spectacle than necessarily like history but do you think there's any scenario that ufc would get behind that and we could make it i don't think john's gonna be around long enough i just it's not his okay imagine if john is around long enough i think is he's inevitable gonna move up to 205 maybe get one more against strickland or ddp if he upsets or whatever some people are telling me no dude we learned enough from the yon fight that Izzy can't do this. I think Izzy, if he builds his body, can do it at 205.

If Izzy moves up to 205 and has success, is it possible we get some type of catchweight Jon Jones fight? No, he's not going to stick around long enough. All right, there we go. It was great talking to you, Luke Thomas. We close with topic four, Luke, and that's heavyweight boxing's got an announcement here. Mike Coppinger of ESn on the reporting here uh it's gonna i don't have the that link broke all

right luke it's gonna be anthony joshua in august i forgot the actual date here it's not in front of me i'll get it and he's gonna rematch dillian white now to review here dillian white was an amateur rival of aj they met in the pros early on in AJ's rise. White hurt Joshua in that fight. It was an exciting fight. AJ came back to knock him out. It's going to be August 12th. I'm not sure if that's a DAZN.

O2 in London, yeah. DAZN pay-per-view in the States or regular DAZN. Don't know about that. But the whole idea here, Luke, is that AJ does this as, I mean, it's not a stay busy. There's history between them. But it's sort of an elevated stay busy on the path, according to Coppinger, of the idea of him fighting Deontay Wilder, meaning Anthony Joshua, in December.

Yes, a lot of money would have to come through in Saudi, and it could be linked with that Fury fight or it could be not. We'll find out. But on paper, as it is right now, Joshua White, too, August 12th, are you in? No. Boring. Why is that boring, though? Because Anthony's rebuilding himself. He didn't look

great against Jermaine Franklin. He's got a new trainer in Derek James. This fight we all knew was always going to happen. Fine. I'd be curious to see it in the sense of like what AJ can look like now with two camps with Derek James but. Because Dillian White's older

but he can still pop and he can still hurt and stop joshua do you really believe he'll win if i had to tell you to bet you bet your home would you bet on him jack della maddalena basically almost everyone has made weight like there was just a parade chef they must have called chef cass they called chef cass he put on the lights and said let me start they were like can you put that weird blinking light thing on my package will that help me lose weight? Okay, Luke, I'm into Joshua White, too.

I think in Joshua's progression and if he wins that and we finally get the Wilder fight. AJ versus Wilder is amazing. I wouldn't say one bad thing about that. But White versus, or Dillian White versus AJ, too. I'd rather him stay busy. And I still feel like that final four is still intact of Fury versus Usyk and potentially AJ against Wilder and maybe the winners face off in 24. Here comes Brandon Royville weighing in. They brought out the nude thing, the nude cover, Luke.

Yeah, they brought out the walker that they put out and then you can get naked behind. You think DC would have leaned on that? Well, you can't even see. Oh, there he is. It looks like it's so raw dog Dog Royval is the backup for the. I'm assuming that's the case. Yes. And he's naked. Yes.

And he has made it, Luke. He did it. The prime sponsorship right there. Luke, we are going to close with two segments. First, where we stand trial for the rights or the wrongs. We may have said into these microphones for three to four days a week. Morning combat at gmail.com is your chance to email in and take us to, to,

you know, make us stand trial. It's called dead wrong. You've got angry male viewers. Luke, let's hear from Rick. He says, good evening, fellow wash dads and jaundiced who.

It's your guy, Rick, from the fight capital of the East Coast, Jacksonville, Florida, here to take a stand against BC's vast and often obscure references to all things NBA on MK. At 17 minutes and 11 seconds of the holiday mailbag episode, which was very much appreciated, by the way, Luke was explaining why he lost interest in the Schwarzenegger documentary, being that Arnold clearly had too much say in what was being portrayed, and BC compared it to The Last Stand with Michael Jordan.

Sorry, BC. Last Dance. Oh, my God. The Last Stand with Brian Custer. Damn, I just did that. Oh, my God. The other BC at Showtime, by the way. They call him BC when we're out there at events as well.

Sorry, BC, you're dead wrong. MJ's doc was the last dance. Yes, it was. However, maybe it was just the CTE talking because good old Arnie actually starred in a movie called The Last Stand in 2013. I did not see that. I did not see that either. You guys are the best. Can't wait for you to get the PFL smart cage on the RSD couch.

Cheers, Rick. We may have to go to. Dude, Cormier's top three featherweights of all time. He has Max as one. It looks like it's a ranking. Max as one, Jose as two, and Volk as three. No, I bet that. It's like. I bet he said I won't pick one and I'll just give you three.

That's what I bet. Okay. I mean, clearly these are the top three. I don't know. We don't have audio, but if he's ranking it in that way, it's like the worst possible ranking to have. I take issue with you saying that Conor can't be in this debate. He can't. He has seven, like six finishes in seven fights. Like the thing is he demonstratively finished big names.

He didn't finish max. Right. There was an injury involved. He's a monstratively finished big names where other people, I guess, didn't have some trouble with them. One or loss had decisions. Like he went. Didn't defend his title.

He went through that division. He sliced through it. Listen, he did very well. I mean, who would say otherwise? I mean, you have to put him in that conversation. He's not going to win the conversation. I mean, it depends how much of the conversation you have. He's Ross Perot in the 96th election.

Ross Perot just took votes from Bush. They were very upset about that. That's why Clinton was able to win. Yeah, he's got a machine head, Luke. It's better than the rest. Where is Ross Perot from in Texas? I don't know. Never heard of this place?

What's it called? It's the mix between two words. And now I forgot it. My brain just stopped working. Hold on. Hold on. All right, Luke. Texarkana.

Texarkana. Oh, yes. I've never been there, Luke. One day I want to visit the Double Cross Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, the home of Terry Funk. Amarillo by morning. Amarillo is where I'll be. What does Amarillo mean? I don't know.

Amarillo. Yellow. Are you saying people from Amarillo are yellow? I'm saying that's the Spanish word for yellow. All right, back to Dead Wrong here. Thank you, Rick, for that. I was wrong. Let's go to Gabe.

Hey, you washed up donks. This is my first time watching you guys. Wow. Oh, no, writing to you guys. I was about to say. It's like, wow, Jesus. But I've been a day one donk on the latest Mailbag episode. At 44 minutes in, Brian was heard singing.

It just takes some time. And then asked if it was Jimmy Eat World. Luke then proceeds to say in a tone drier than an elephant's ball sack, that the song was a 90s high school radio jam. Luke, the song was a high school jam, but for the 2000s class, because the song released in 01 when this man Gabe was a freshman. So take that, you gray moose. Love you guys.

I'm a big fan. Donk for life, biatch. All right. I will take that L. All right, Gabe. Thank you. Number three here is from Victor B., Luke.ke hi you absolute sacks of fecal matter what the fuck man fan here from gray yet surprisingly happy den i love these intros like what's up child molesters

anyway big fan of the show like okay luke he says he's from the happy country of denmark which is somewhere in scandinavia b.C. Is that true? Yes, it's a Scandinavian country. On Monday's holiday mailbag. Wow, we sucked on that one, apparently. We apparently just licked all the balls on that one. Luke said that Conor's fight versus Cowboy in 2020 was his first since the Mayweather boxing match. Has the abundance of Latin ash cheeks been mushing the old gray dome, LT?

That fight was in 2017, and Conor made his return next year against a certain Mr. Habib. That being said, I love the show, and will try best to one day give you a second Danish fan besides myself. That means he's going to bang. He's going to bang like Tully. I will take that L. All right, two more here. The stupid thing that I said. This one's from Bennett.

Hey, Luke in B.C., I was watching episode 459 at 1-18-13, and Luke and Luke corrected BC, who thought John Lineker was the one Bantamweight champion. Fabricio Andrade, no? Concededly stating that the current champ was Fabricio Silva. Yeah, you corrected yourself. I corrected myself in real time. So, Bennett, why don't you keep watching? Yeah, you didn't finish watching there, did you? You got the Twitter fingers.

We corrected ourselves and actually looked it up to get the name just right on that segment. Yeah, we were allowed the end of the show to dead wrong ourselves and fix it. He says Fabricio Andrade is well known for kicking Lineker in the penis. That's so hard that he shattered his cup. That's true. Much love from upstate New York. Finally, Luke, this one's from Michael, although Owen also wrote in. They say on the June 30th show, college-educated Luke Thomas was dead wrong.

He said that Kevin Lee got cut after losing to Charlie Olives when, in fact, he got cut after losing to D-Rod. Can you guys at least try to be good at your jobs? Is that asking too much? So I think what happened was he got injured again after the Olivera fight, and then plus it was the pandemic, and I guess he just sat out for a while. Yeah, Jesus Christ.

Yeah, sorry about that. I'll take that L. I took a few Ls today. God damn. Yeah, I don't know why you need to bring Jesus into it, but we'll pray for a while. Yeah, Jesus Christ. Yeah, sorry about that. I'll take that L. I took a few Ls today. God damn. Yeah, I don't know why you need to bring Jesus into it, but we'll pray for you just the same, Luke. That was Dead Wrong Morning Combat at gmail.com for that and Wednesday's fan subs.

But, Luke, we closed with some fun here. Monday we apparently mailed it in with that mailbag episode on July 3rd, so we didn't get to see some of that shit. Dude, I mean, if anybody knew what was going on behind the scenes, the fact that we even have a show today, it's a miracle. It's a miracle. Oh, stop that. What?

The plane landed. We're fine, okay? Oh, no, we're fine. But I'm just saying. What, you want to make a Tom Hanks, want to make a big Sully Sullenberg movie? No, no, no. How would you describe the plane ride? It's not the Sullenberger thing.

But do you see that lady who got off the plane and then was like and that man back there and there was no guy back there at all kind of was like one of those plane rides all right all right something like that well luke bc's feces is going to make a special friday edition here as we close our show with the highs and lows the good the bad the ugly and combat sports and beyond and by beyond i mean elder abuse this one's called have You Seen This Shit? Hey, you think they're going to talk? Just a question since Kamara's on the panel. Yes.

Do you think they'll talk about Kadyrov on today's UFC weigh-in show? Do you think they'll do that? No, no, Luke. Well, it was July 4th over the weekend, Luke. So smoke them if you got them. Let's celebrate this great nation's birthday or maybe the week, not the weekend, by smoking the largest blunt ever inside a garage. Yes.

Do you know this guy with the USA shirt? He's the, that's right. That's right. You know that guy? First of all, by the way, can the viewers hear me? I mean, first of all, this man should be shipped like normal to Abu Dhabi for that fucking hair. Dude, I follow him on Instagram. He's squirrel bait.

That's right. That guy. That guy. Look, this would knock you the hell out. Now, I will say that this is extremely impressive and that they have the garage doors closed like real men. Yes. Definitely is a good thing. You got to bake that up.

I bet you within minutes they'll be all pressed up against the wall. But I will also say this. You cannot claim to be a patriot and then wear the American flag. It's against flag code. I don't give a fuck what anybody says. All right, Rick Monday. I get if someone's burning the flag in the outfield. This guy's celebrating America with a giant.

You can celebrate with the colors, not with an actual representation of the flag on your clothing. I know everyone does it and they think it's patriotic. It is the exact opposite. I don't think this guy's doing it because it's patriotic, Luke, okay? He probably just stole it off another homeless guy. That's what I'm going to guess. Well, Luke, if you don't want to smoke the largest blunt of all time with the that's right guy, how about this weed face mask?

Could you survive 60 seconds in the weed face mask? I hope not. Just let me die. Just let me. Dude, honestly. That has to be irreparable harm to you. Honestly, if... Assistance to suicide should be legal in this country,

and this should be one... Let me finish. And this should be one of the mechanisms where they just marijuana you to death. I sign up for that. All right. 80 years old, I'm just going to call it a day. We've done full tub bong hits in the past

and just took a knife to our lungs. One 60- run with this you can you'll never breathe properly again no you'll it'd be like having covet or something yeah flu or whatever all right luke speaking of america luke name a more american male than this florida man right here who showed up to the cookout is he just practicing karate on swans this motherfucker just rolling around with a snake and hooch luke at a 40 or something what is he holding the keith peterson first of all he's built like a french bulldog and dude you should hear that song it's's like, America, fuck yeah. Dude, imagine, like, you know what Florida is? I've said this before.

It's just bootleg Australia. It's like, just take all, like, the deadly, venomous shit you see in Australia and then just infuse meth and poverty, and that's fucking Florida. The Future Part II was, like, a dystopian version of Hillsdale. Remember that? Yes. That's what Florida is. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. That's a good way to put it. Speaking of Florida, it's time for your bumper sticker of Hillsdale. Remember that? Yes. That's what Florida is. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's a good way to put it. Speaking of Florida, it's time for your bumper sticker of the week, Luke. I'm going to assume this is Florida. Now, I do read the English language, and according to that, it says, I eat milf ass. Save a horse, ride a milf. Boy, who would put this on the back of their

shit car? Oh, I know. Probably someone from Florida. Luke, speaking of eating ass, let's check in on Japanese pro wrestling. First thing I make them do is toss my salad. Is this the, you know how there's Chinese water torture? Is this like Japanese ball bag torture? Yeah, Japanese bunghole torture. I think that's what it is, Luke. Shout out to Risen, just the same.

Luke, let's go over to the ambulance. You ever see it? You know, the Japanese look down on us for being heathens, which we really are. But they are, they're gross motherfuckers too. I mean. Okay, I'm not supporting that. I'm not supporting that comment from Luke Thomas. Luke, a real man refuses medical care.

Let's watch his journey after this. He's like, fuck an ambulance. I don't give a fuck. Give me that pizza, bitch. I just snorted. That's a perfect ending to that. Wow, that's great. If he had grabbed a slice and kept it moving, I'd have been impressed.

All right, let's go to the ball field, Luke. Watch this umpire call strike three. Is that Izzy, Luke? I got to tell you, I got to tell you, I'd watch a lot more baseball if they did that. Luke, the UFC Vegas was last weekend. Let's look back on this moment. I don't think I've ever seen a coach change oil during an actual fight celebration. Did you watch

this? I see an N word. Hey, coach, can you adjust? Can you give me a little bit of a, yeah, let me get another quart down there. There we go. All right. What? Was he trying to milk his tailbone? Do you think Eric Nixick would do that for us if we chose to fight? No.

No, I don't think he would. All right. I don't blame him either. I mean, what? Luke, what? Is this the right form? Is that called a turkey? Am I allowed to do that on this show?

That's probably not. All right. The two and then the one and the. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Luke, this week in Real Recognizing Real, Ioana Champion and Mel Gibson ringside at the Apex. Point to the guy who has screamed the N-word on the phone.

Luke, sometimes Real just recognizes Real. These two are champions, right? What's Mel Gibson's best movie? Lethal Weapon 1. Lethal Weapon, right? No, let's be honest here. What's his best? Oh, he was really good in Conspiracy Theory with the redhead, Julia Roberts.

Oh, no, it's got to be Mad Max. Mad Max was really good in Mad Max. Probably right. All right. I mean, he did produce The Passion of the Christ, right? Oh, they're saying Braveheart. Oh, we're assholes. It's obviously Braveheart.

Dude, no, we're absolutely not. All right, all right, all right. Dead wrong live, we're assholes. It braveheart dude no we're at we're absolutely all right all right all right we did dead wrong live we're great we're assholes it's braveheart you know i just you know did you ever hear the phone calls he left that woman he was dating yeah yeah i heard dog the bounty hunter's phone calls and hulk hogan's as well i mean it gets it just keeps getting worse look for our heroes unfortunately uh real recognized real luke won one championships mikey musumechi oh my god sat down for pizza with at zuck yeah your thoughts just two fucking nerds i mean come on mikey's a good dude right i like mikey i like

mikey a lot i mean again dude in mma it don't matter what you've done anybody can come on in it's like i do how did all these like awful characters get into the sport yeah because you fucker let them in there's just just no screening, no filtering process. Just let all these fucking guys in. This isn't a true real recognizing real, but this is a man after your own heart. Here's Paulo Costa's most recent tweet. Peoples thinks I'm training hard to fight unknown Russian at altitude. Reality, I'm smashing some BBL all day. This is...

Is he referencing Tracy, Luke? Truly, the enlightenment culture in the sport is really quite overwhelming. What did you make of the response from Ortega saying he didn't fumble the bag because he purposely threw a pick six, Luke? Yeah, he's like, if you just throw it away, that's not an incomplete. He's like, that's a completion. I'm like, no, that's an incomplete pass. Also, didn't he get her name tattooed in his mouth?

Yeah, he did an incomplete pass. Also, didn't he get her name tattooed in his mouth? Yeah, he did. He did. The thing is, his track record is so Scott Baio-like that it's hard to criticize. Now, what's his face? Gaff is saying mouth tattoos are temporary. There are places that do. By the way, there's a place in D.C. now called Ephemeral. It's a tattoo that only lasts for a few years and then goes away.

Gaff is saying mouth tattoos go away. Is that true? All the saliva, he says, like, you know, denigrates it. I'm not sure how true that is. I saw a guy get his gums tattooed 40 years later. They were still tattooed. Would you get morning combat tattooed inside your lip? Only after we get fired.

Only after we get fired. That's weird. All right. Hey, why don't they interview more skeletons on this show? I mean, everyone getting off the scales and having to go and sit and talk about it. They look terrible. Our final real recognizing real. You know our MK, Malka, social guy, Brendan Lynch?

Yes. He had boxing sparring with AC Slater. Look at this guy, Lynch. He's jacked as shit, right? What would you say? Is he a good looking guy? I don't mean that, but is he like a uh i wouldn't bang him if that's where you're going no no how would you describe him positively or a poor man's

gordon ryan um upon meeting him my my i will say he's a very good dude a positive but he is a poor man's gordon ryan there's no question about that sort of like the volkanovski aldo thing right i mean i don't know his situation he's he's i, I'm hoping that he's slinging and banging, Luke. I'm hoping he's using it before he's losing it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, this is the age to do that. I mean, this guy's jacked as shit, this guy Lynch.

Wow. Shout out right there. Amazing. I don't know. AC Slater has an age today, by the way. You think it's just a lot of lotion? I think it's a little bit more than that. All right.

You think he's doing like extreme PEDs? Not even that. Just like extreme, not extreme cosmetic work, but I would imagine that his, you know, his skincare routine is probably pretty good. That's why I said lotions. But also, it's more than lotions. But also that like anytime he needs a little help, you know, there's always a little doctor to fix that.

What kind of help? Like Bob Craft help? I would say, like for example, his hair has probably been worked on. He probably has Botox to fix that. What kind of help? Like Bob Craft help? I would say, like, for example, his hair has probably been worked on. He probably has Botox to some degree. Like, you know. Indeed, indeed. All right, Luke, we have finally, out of all those years you said

that you walked through first class just shitting your pants, we have finally found video of you doing that on a train. Let's listen in. Luke just out here crop dusting average folks. I mean, what are you doing here, Luke? First of all, I mean, you just put your face in another person's ass on a train.

Like, you basically deserve that. But did you see her hair get blown? Dude, would you ride on a train like that? Have you ever ridden on a sleepover train? No, no. I did it one time crossing from the Czech Republic. Where were we going? Into Germany? I don't even remember anymore where the fuck we were going.

And it was gross as shit. Yeah. I saw a guy on TikTok. He was like, I'm going to ride across India for 30 hours on a train. And there were like a dozen people in a sleeper for four. Insane. It's gross. Look, remember the kid in your elementary or middle school that's like,

no, you don't understand, dude. I got a new girlfriend. She just lives in another state. And you're like, yeah, right. You ever wonder where those guys grow up to be, Luke? Who they become? Mall shooters? Let's look in.

Okay. Okay. What the fuck? I mean, Luke, you got to try it before before you buy it so i like what this guy's doing right well blow that up full screen this guy's at forever 21 in whatever fucking mall look these parents are like hurrying the kids away here's the question that this dad has to, we have to ask about this dad. What is he listening to in the headphones? Oh, I want to sex you up. Yeah, that's it.

TikTok, you don't stop to the heart. That is disturbing. When was the last time you were in a shopping mall? Christmas time. Yeah, that's about right. That's about right. Luke, it's time. I love this segment.

It's a segment within a segment brought to you by Mamita's. It's MMA fighters in the wild, Luke. Here's C-Level Kane coaching up at AKA, and he's got the low jack on, Luke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's working with Umar. Does that make him look tough or what, to have that packet on his ankle, Luke? Can you fight? So here's a real question right here.

We don't know. Oh, you mean the ankle bracelet from Hunter? Yeah, he's got the low jack on right there, Coach Kane. Imagine if he, I'm serious question here. Imagine if he announced the comeback and Dana's like, you know what? We're going to do it. Kane Velasquez versus Jon Jones, the best fighter of all time against arguably the best heavyweight ever. Would he be allowed to fight with the low jack on?

Or would the law be like, no, you can unbuckle that for the fight? I don't know how that works. I don't think they'd be that lenient but who the hell knows i mean you remember the raw way state prison uh fights in the early 80s when boxing there was that champion was his last name scott and he defended his title in a prison a couple times yeah but like wearing an ankle bracelet in boxing is totally different i don't know if he had to wear that yeah that's an interesting question here let's keep it going here, Luke. Craig Jones was at the UFC Fight Pass Invitational a couple weeks back, and here's his post-fight interview. I'll do anything for the right price, you know?

That's about the limit for me. But tonight, we're going to hit the nosebeards at Hakusana. I hope to see all you guys there. Hey, everybody give it up for Mr. Craig Jones. He didn't mean that. I mean, did he really mean that? Probably. I mean, I would imagine a fair amount of nose beers get done at Haka.

Let's go to, Gaff is young enough, 31. How old is Long Island Luke in the back? He's 20. Okay, Long Island Luke. He looks 50. What does nose beers at Haka-san at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas mean? Can you please say it in my ear and I'll tell the people? They can't find him in the control room.

The control room is like the size of a New York City apartment. What does let's go have nose beers at Hakkasan mean in 28-year-old speak? This is terrible. This is terrible television right here. Yeah, sorry. Sorry, bad bid. It's over.

Do you think he meant it though? Probably. Okay. Probably. All right. Let's keep that going there. Extreme couture coach Eric Nixick has a new training program going on there in Vegas with Ponelele Soriano. This looks like how we warm up here in the Malka studio, right?

I've said this before. You know how, like, you start watching MMA, and then you watch it with someone who's never seen it before, and you're like, wow, this is really homoerotic. And you're like, no, that's not true. I've been watching this sport for almost 20 years. It's the most homoerotic thing on earth. Like, that's just what it is.

All right. Look, I have a rule here that they never follow, that if you're going to get a dozen donuts at Dunkin' Donuts, at least four need to be Boston Creams. At least four. They don't do that here. There's like one sometimes if we're lucky here, all right? I mean, come on, guys.

Thank you very much. Let's go over. Justin, Eric Nixick, he's great. Look, speaking of MMA fighters in the wild, I think, you know, I don't call Zuck an MMA fighter. How about future Hall of Famer Barry Bonds, though, Luke? Earned his BJJ blue belt. Are you impressed by this? I actually am.

I don't know how old he is at this point. He's got to be in his 50s, something like that. I mean, dude, his head is pachyacal. I mean, he just is. It's just so large. I mean, that thing just can change the tide depending on which way he's walking around the coast. So here's the deal.

Drugs do win drug wars. If we're not going to hold it against him, there's a strong argument he's the greatest baseball player of all time. There actually is a strong, like he's Ruthian. He's Shohei Otani-like, Luke. And also, I would just say if there's any sport where you could take it up and you're using illicit drugs, jujitsu would be that sport. Yeah.

I mean, look, seriously, that stretch he had in his late 30s. Dude, when him and Sosa and Maguire were doing what they were doing, baseball was thrilling. But what he did after that, okay, what I mean is after Bonds broke the Maguire and Sosa records from previous years, no one, I think he hit, what, 73? I'm talking about those last four years when he was, like, getting intentionally walked,

like, 200 times a year. He was getting one pitch to hit every two games, and he still had like 40 home runs hit 370. Like at some point we have to just go, okay, obviously he had every PED in his system. But who has ever been that good in the history of one sport? Like seven MVPs. Like it's just ridiculous. Yeah, he was a joy to watch. But like he was a pariah for so many years.

It'll come around, right? It'll come around eventually for him. It might be a while for him. It might be a while for him. It might be a while for him. Luke, to close on MMA fighters in the wild, let's go to Danbury, Connecticut. Glover Teixeira gets gifted by Poiton, his

student, a brand new motorcycle. This was a wholesome moment. A truck backed in to Glover's driveway to drop it off. They hugged it out. This is awesome, right? It's very generous, but that is a death machine. Well, look, these are MMA fighters.

They live by the sword. That is true. That is true. They also have the same shoes on, I guess. Dude, their bromance is awesome. I think Glover's been great. Well, actually, they've been great for each other, but certainly for Alex's fortunes,

Glover has been about the best possible teacher he could have had, I think. I think if you're Dom Reyes, you're like, oh, shit, how do I follow that? I haven't heard from him in a while. Yeah, me neither. All right. Luke, time for your sports fans of the week. Let's go to WWE SmackDown and check out this kid over Bad News Barrett's right shoulder. All right.

Do we parent anymore in this country, Luke? I mean, what is going on here? Now, was this your kid's first time at WWE? No, no. Okay. All right. Do we parent anymore in this country, Luke? I mean, what is going on here? Was this your kid's first time at WWE? No, no. Okay. All right. It's not just WWE fans, Luke. You know who the worst people in the world are?

Football fans. Let's go to the soccer pitch. All right, gentlemen. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's not nice.

Okay. Dongs in soccer also collaborated for this next interview. I want you to watch the fan over this lady interviewer's right shoulder. Okay. Left shoulder. This is just sexual harassment. Luke, speaking of your favorite sports, soccer, Prime. You know Prime, right?

The worthless drink for hydration, yes. Has now become the official drink of your bandwagon Barcelona football squad, Luke. Barcelona is the team I hate the most, so thank you. I'm so glad you brought this up, that the frauds from Barcelona thought this was a good idea. Oh, you're a Manchester Madrid United fan? Yes, a Manchester Madrid, yes. Thank you. I forgot which team.

Manchester Madrid, that's my favorite team. Which one is the equivalent to the New York Yankees? The one you follow? You mean the best team in the world? Right, right. That was good. So is this an embarrassment to your rival then? Yeah, I was actually delighted to see this. I'm so glad you brought this up. See, I thought I was dunking

on you. No, you're only taking an L, fuckface. Your own lack of soccer knowledge blew up in your face. There you go, Luke. Alright, you never know what you're going to see on the roadway, Luke, including what's going on in the back of this motorcycle. Now, there has been a stigma against this practice in person. Bro, I didn't. What the fuck?

And she's breastfeeding? Is that safe? Do they have an extra chair back there, Luke? Can I get on the back of that too i'm not even dude dude florida is the worst place in the world it's i cannot believe how many times i've been to florida and i you'll see people driving like this you don't have to have a helmet in florida like at all when you drive a motorcycle which is just just beyond batshit crazy. And you could be packing heat too, right? Well, I mean, that's not limited to Florida anymore.

But yes, and then to ride like this, no one's got helmets on and you've got the kid. Like the breastfeeding in public, I'm not one of these guys who gets up in arms about that. They should be allowed to do that, no problem. But probably not the best time to do that is on the back of a motorcycle with no helmets. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair point.

Luke, last weekend in boxing, Savannah Marshall scored a majority decision win over Fran-Chon Cruz, discerned to become the undisputed super middleweight champion. I think you remember her and Clarissa Shields at 160 last year, having really one of the best women's boxing, or maybe was it this year, last year? Having one of the best women's boxing title fights we've ever seen. Clarissa Shields showed up at the press conference Tarver Roy Jones style. Let's listen in. You know what's up?

I'm going to let you have your moment, though, but you know what's up with me. That's why I'm here. So come on to the USA and you can get smoked again. Yes, ma'am. I'll be there. Yes, ma'am. Can I just? You want me to be more hydrated and be stronger at 168?

Let's go. I'll beat you. I'll beat you again. I'll beat you again. You talking about the amateurs? Oh, my God. Where are we going to go? Your leisure center.

All right. No, no. I'm going to smoke your silly ass. I'm going to smoke your silly ass. I'm smoking you. Luke, I'm into this. I'm going to smoke y'all's piliers. I'm smoking you. Luke, I'm into this. I'm into it. I can tell by your delighted laughter that this is a moment of joy for you.

Yes. True or false, the first fight was great for a women's championship boxing match. It was good. Because Marshall has legit power, and now we're going to fight one division higher. They're both going to be. It was good. It was good. There's very little, like, huge women's fights we could make.

I know. They have to resort to this to really build up their fights, unfortunately. Yeah, but it worked. I'm in. Yeah. I would watch it. Yeah. Okay.

Shout out to Clarissa Shields here. All right, Luke. How about some elder abuse? It's time. What to say? How about this racetrack? This is right up your alley, Luke. The first ever grandparents race.

Oh, my fucking God. Dude, that is the saddest shit I've ever seen. That guy who won looked way too young to be a grand. He's like 42-year-old grandpa right there, Luke. I know that happens, but dude. Dude, look at this. I mean, the least impressive zombie apocalypse you've ever seen. Oh, look at that guy in the Harbaugh Walmart pants just went down hard, Luke.

And dude, even the guy winning is just running like a fucking goof. Oh, he's a lot older than I thought he was. All right, let's keep the elder abuse going, Luke. Be careful removing a tree. Hey, if you die in that race, do they just euthanize you right there like they do in the book? I think so, Luke. I think so. Oh, God, Lord.

Luke, the bad news is he'll never conceive children. And the good news is he had a good run in life. Luke, it's over, though. But that tree was like, I'm going to get the last laugh here, Jethro. Yeah. Let's go over to the birthday party pinata. Nothing bad can happen here with old people and a stick and a blindfold. I mean, they just, these fucking people.

Oh. All right, we knocked the pinata down. Let's get the blindfold off, people. This could get dangerous. Let's take charge here. Grandma, can you come in and fix the situation oh god oh fucking god oh oh boy what do you expect granny what do you expect i mean you try to dance on a video you're gonna get oh speaking of granny's dancing let's go to the next one hold on hold on i want to see

oh no no no no no no no i gotta see that last one just let's go to the next one. Hold on, hold on. I want to see. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I got to see that last one. Just fast forward it to the end if you can. Just play it out. Just play it out. I want the full screen, please. I got to see this. I got to see this. Dude, she fucking wrapped that thing around her fucking skull.

I mean, it's a bunch of whites playing this music. You know, I'm not sure how racist this is not. Why do you have to hate white people so badly? No, they just do. Okay. Okay, lady. oh oh god lady lady look even that guy held his head well luke grannies are trying to do uh tiktok dances too sometimes those end good and sometimes you end up on this show it's the lady who just got her head fucking... Oh, that cat. Oh! Come on, you can't do a spin, a standing spin above age 65, right? You're going down. Yeah, and also, hey, can you take the tags off your clothes?

All right, Luke, thank you very much. Almost done here. This was the combat moment of the week, Luke. It comes at a BJJ tournament. I'm not sure if this is legal, but Big Van Vader, RIP, must be a huge fan of this. Yeah, that's decidedly not legal. People are like, we need more pro wrestling vibes in all combat sports. This guy's like, I got you. Match over.

That's it. You lose. That's decidedly not okay. All right. Is there a penalty involved? Automatic disqualification. Okay. Okay.

And finally, Luke, one bite. Everybody knows the rules. Oh, God. Okay. I should have taken him to prom. Thank you very much. That's the shit. Mikey texted in.

Mikey's of a young age still, right? 30? He says that Craig Jones comment means yes. 100%. Yes. Nose beers. Yeah, I mean, what the fuck? I don't know what's cool anymore.

I never really have. There is either a style or a brand of beers that is N-O-S-E, which is probably. No, isn't that the N-O-S-E? Yeah, unless you're talking. He's talking about. There's the energy drink Nas. There isE, which is probably. No, isn't that the N-O-S-E? Yeah. Unless you're talking. He's talking about. There's the energy drink, Nas. There is that.

There is that. There's N-O-S. All right. That's all the shit I could fit in this Friday show, Luke. We will be here Saturday night. Not here, but in. Oh. Strap, Luke.

You made a big show of this. Strap season, right? Man down, right? July 29th, coming up. Here's what I'll say, Luke. We will have a UFC 290 live post-fight show from Atlantic City, from the hotel, okay? Saturday night. We will also be calling the prelims 7.30 p.m. Eastern, Showtime Sports YouTube channel, right here.

This is what it's all about. The gold at the end of the day, Luke. I might bring a belt like that home to Tukey. You can bring this home to Tukey. Yeah. Can you tell her it's from Uncle Gringo, though? I can. Okay, okay, okay.

I used to love wrestling, Luke. They ruined it. Maybe I got ruined. You know what I mean? There it is. There it is. That's what it's all about for that 10 pounds of gold right there. That's just a wrap.

Thank you to our fine people behind the scenes running this show, Long Island Luke Gaff, among them Mikey Morms. Luke Thomas will be in AC this weekend. Do you expect anybody to come shout out MK in person? On the boxing side? Yeah. No. We're not doing a live show in Atlantic City from the boardwalk.

I wanted to be in Vegas this week. It didn't work out corporately, unfortunately. But I do hope to do a live show again one day and meet our fans. Not like open-mouthed kiss them or anything, but like Boston maybe? Or maybe we'll wait until next year. We've got to get some shit figured out. Yeah, we've got to get some shit figured out. But, yes, I would like to do that as well.

Again, I always say it. You guys kind of poo-poo it, but I've done them before. Like after weigh-ins of big events. Meet and greets. Dude, a tweet-up. People fucking – Here's the it. You guys kind of poo-poo it, but I've done them before, like after weigh-ins of big events. Meet and greets. Dude, a tweet-up. People fucking – Here's the thing. You hate people.

You're leery of our fans, but you're like, let's have a tweet-up and let's all – I don't know where you get this idea that like because I don't open-mouth kiss them the way that you do – No, I just accept them as humans. I've been – anybody who's ever listened to my show who's been to a tweet up will attest to the fact that's just utter bullshit. You do, when you stand in line, the receiving line, you know, like the post. Every fucking person. Yeah, you do deliver. You deliver.

And your line, Luke, is way longer than mine. Only in MMA. It'd be the opposite in boxing. I don't know. It'd be the opposite. But the one I'm trying to make is, even if we can't do a live show, the next time we're out live somewhere, we got to do at a bare minimum, at a bare minimum, a tweet up. All right. They will post. Trust me. I don't want to be the last one minimum, at a bare minimum, a tweet up. All right. They will post.

Trust me. I don't want to be the last one to know that this show has already hit its peak. It's Zenith. Is it all downhill from here? Probably, yes. Or do we have another big run in us? Guess we'll find out soon. Are we like Kevin Lee, unfortunately? Are we always going to look back to that day we had that staph infection

and almost won a world title? I love that guy. That hurt me a lot. Yeah, that sucked. That was the least favorite thing that's happened this month. All right. All right. How many Delta 8s will be in your system on the car ride to Asia?

Oh, not just Delta 8s. BC, look at me and be very honest. I don't want an answer. I'm going to ask it. Don't answer it. Is this about search history? Hold on. No, no, no. I'm going to ask you a question. Keep it in your head. And then on the count of three, I'm going to ask it. Don't answer it. Is this about search history? Hold on. No, no, no.

I'm going to ask you a question. Keep it in your head. And then on the count of three, I'm going to say go. Okay, ready? Are you going to stop at the downstairs Taco Bell before we travel to our next destination? No, you and I are sharing a car, aren't we? Yes. You better not eat Taco Bell before that.

That's a long ride. Put the camera on me. Put the camera on me. I'm going to Taco Bell before that. That's a long ride. Put the camera on me. Put the camera on me. I'm going to Taco Bell. Extra beans. Mas frijoles. All right. For Luke Thomas' colon, I'm Brian Campbell.

Thank you for joining us here. Thank you for following, subscribing. You know I had a bunch of beers on July 4th and I had diarrhea afterwards. Those beers? No. I had regular beers. Senate beer. It's a D.C. beer. I had a bunch of beers on July 4th and I had diarrhea afterwards. Those beers? No, I had regular beers. Senate beer. It's a D.C. beer.

I had diarrhea the next day. I haven't had diarrhea in so long from drinking. I forgot that you get that. I love that. Oh, okay. I love that you threw the asterisk from drinking because I've been a part of at least multiple conference calls, Zoom meetings. You're like, sorry, guys, don't want to do this. But, you know, I'm having what can only be described as an explosive

shit attack right now, so I'll be leaving this meeting early, and I'll catch you guys on the other end. It's actually a very good impression. It's actually really good. If I could be so candid, the upper bound limits of my shitake. Yes, yes, yes, yes, there you go. Morningcombat.merch store. What is it?

Morningcombat.store? We're going to relaunch some shit soon. Morningcombat.store! store. What is it? Morningcombat.store? Who gives a fuck? We're going to relaunch some shit soon. Morningcombat.store! You could be wearing this out on the golf links, Luke. Does it look like I have moves with this? I've been lifting people. No, you look great. All right, thank you.

But you've got to do the Jackson Wink nipple tweak thing. So my wife told me that I have an unacceptable amount of gray hair and I look like an old piece of crap. What did she say about me? Seriously, not that she ever talks about me much, but she must see my face on occasion, and she must have had a comment about it. She's not mean like that. She's only mean to me because she's my best friend in the world, and she's honest. I don't think you have unacceptable gray at all.

Well, I'll be honest with you, okay? Three days ago, I dyed my hair, but it doesn't look like I did. Let me see. I was going to say it actually looks pretty good. Oh, it does? Okay. It looks pretty good. It's coming through on some areas.

You know what kills you, though? And I have it too, obviously, but I actually have a man beard and you have – I have a shitty – okay, here's why. As a 44-year-old man, I'll be turning 45 this month, Luke. I just wanted to get you ahead of that. I don't have a skinny enough face these days to not have a beard, I don't think, Luke. Yeah, I mean we're all – anyone who has a beard is covering for something. Yeah, yeah, usually small manhood,

but luckily for us, Luke, that's not the case, I hope, I think. I mean, that's not, you're so fucking weird, it's unbelievable. Yeah, I mean. What I was going to say was, you know what kills you? Turn that way. You've got enough hair there, but because it's so light colored,

it actually blends in and it's hard to see. So you actually do have enough, but just not of the right color. So I feel like your hair color is fine. Well, I'm at the crossroads, Luke. And first of all, we're going to miss everybody. We're going to miss everybody. This camera lady who is new here today. Yeah.

She seems quite wonderful. She's been standing the entire time and then also like having to just like there's no chair there. Oh. So she's been like, am I wrong? She's been like squatting the whole time and I have felt so fucking terrible for that. It's like we couldn't get her a chair. Like our normal camera guy, she'll be in a recliner on her phone on playing Angry Birds for the rest of next week. No dude, she's been listening

though. I know, she's been like thought-lidling. I almost wanted her to go to Angry Birds. I'm like this is the part where we watch people hit elderly people in the face. To close on my poor visage, I think I'm at the crossroads of either going all gray and letting it go and just being a wash piece of shit or, you know, trying to keep the marriage bed pure. You know what I mean, Luke? Okay. It's a little more information than I care to learn. But I wasn't talking about like role playing or anything weird like that.

My wife. You know what? Do my wife dyes her hair? Like not like it's natural color. She dyes it. I think every woman does, right? No. Okay.

Has every woman I've ever dated dyed their hair? No. No, but most of them did. Have you ever dated somebody substantially older than you? Like you were at the zoo looking for some cougars. You know what I'm saying? No, I've never done that. I have dated people that were substantially better looking than me which is not a high threshold but okay uh how about substantially

younger no no never more than two or three years apart one way or the other it's very safe very yeah yeah but as luke has never understood the guys who are like i understand being 50 and then wanting to like you know have a fl fling with a girl who's 25. Yeah. But I never understood guys who were in their 50s who wanted – you're in a completely different part of your life than someone who's 25. It's not going to be awesome conversation. I don't know.

Who cares? Hey, that new Portugal the Man album is changing my life. It's so good. Will you listen to it at all? How about I make you a deal? It's called Chris Black Changed My Life. Will you listen to it at all? How about I make you a deal? It's called Chris Black Changed My Life. Will you listen to it at all? Okay, on one condition.

Yes. We have to listen to the new Cattle Decapitation album, Terrific. Okay, I will do that. And actually, John Gourley, lead singer of Portugal, the man who watches this show, shout out to JBG over there, he actually said that you and him would get along in music because he comes from metal. He said at college he walked in on his, who became his bandmates, his guitarist and bassist.

They were playing Pantera and Cannibal Corpse songs as he was walking by. And he also said John said his first concert was Pantera. Really? Yes, yes. So why don't you come on board to this side of it, all right? All right? I'll give it a try. They just played them in D.C.

They did. I think it was a big to-do. I would give it a try. I'll give it a try. Okay. Maybe when I win OK Bet. They did. I think it was a big to-do. I would give it a try. I'll give it a try. Okay. Maybe when I win OK Bet, that's where we'll end up at PTM. All right? Shut up.

You're going to go to Gorguts with me. Gorguts? Vomitory. I'll have a Gorgasm at Gorguts or what? All right. That's about enough of this bullshit. Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, thank you. We'll see you this weekend.

Enjoy the fights. A great weekend. 290 for all the crap we said about Dana. 290 is going to punch you right in the face. Enjoy it. Saturday night, triple header on Showtime Championship Boxing as well, 9.30 p.m. Eastern. Duran, you got to see Boots Ennis. You got to freaking see Boots Ennis.

But the big question is, do you want to see BC, LT, and Stack 5? Steven Jackson on the prelims, ringside. That's right. 7.30 Eastern. Post-fight show. Post-fight show. UFC 290. BC and I together. Don'tfight show. Post-fight show. UFC 290. BC and I together.

Don't miss it. All right. Look, remember Hulk Hogan had 24-inch pythons? I'm an old 44-year-old piece of shit who does curls in my basement. Would you give me 12-inch pythons? Would you give me 12-inch? Hey, that's pretty good. What would you give me on there?

How many inches? Do you think the drapes match the carpeting in terms of- Okay, end this fucking show. you absolute disaster of a human. HR's here. It was great. We're out of here. We're going to get fucking fired.