MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 293 Picks | Fury-Ngannou | Fight Announcements | Gamebred MMA | Ep 486

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

On Episode 486 of Morning Kombat Brian Campbell and Luke Thomas react to the UFC 293 and Fury-Ngannou Press Conferences. What stood out to them? Next up the guys break down some recent fight news and announcements. Is Paul Felder returning to the UFC? Who could be on the biggest BKFC card ever? The boys give their picks for OK, Bet before closing the show with Dead Wrong and Fan Submissions. (6:20) - UFC 293 Press Conference (25:20) - Fury-Ngannou Press Conference (45:00) - Fight News and Announcements (62:30) - Bare Knuckle MMA (74:00) - Ok, Bet (85:50) - Dead Wrong (93:30) - Fan Submissions Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah, it's Friday. You know what that means. Ain't got shit to do.

You might as well buckle up for the best damn 90 minutes or so in combat sports today i'm talking about the morning combat the bbc with that bde coming at you brian campbell friday september 8th 2023 one more sleep john annick until ufc 293 so you better believe we got okay bet today all the final previews getting you ready, and of course that man across from me. No, he ain't Rip Van Winkle, but I'd like to see him lying in bed just like Brian Wilson did, just the same. It's Luke Thomas from the nation's capital. Luke, no one deserves more sleep than you.

Yeah, trying to do my best, but I'm ready for today's show. You know, I got to say, for a card at UFC 293, that's not the UFC's, what do you want to say, best effort. Still pretty excited for that main event, I think. I mean, on the pay-per-view level, Luke, it's arguably their worst. But that's neither here nor there at the moment. We're here to get you fired up for what's coming. Adesanya versus Strickland, all that, and then some tall, pale, and handsome.

Yeah, it's your guy right here. I want to thank, of course, the labels that pay us. I want you to follow us on the social handles, which I believe will be below right friggin' now. Thank you. Mikey Mormile, CBS Sports on the ones and twos today. Also, I want to shout out our CBS Sports Director, Linda, who, Luke, this will be the final shift of her legendary broadcast career before she walks away into retirement, left coast living on the way. Thank you very much for your service on MK and HQ. Yes, congratulations.

And if we get fired, we can probably join you and be homeless in LA. It will fit just right in, you know. Yes, we'll have a lot of fun in that van down by the river. Indeed. Alright, Showtime, of course, the label that pays us, you can get 30 days free right now. Go to Showtime.com. You got boxing, you got Bellator, you got Bill Cosby. What else do you need? Right there.

But Luke, this is a pretty big damn day in these parts when I'm talking about some merch. This hat, this mug, this smirk, this creepy french laugh all right there you go it's happening morningcombat.store it's official right now the limited edition collaboration between rj dunkel gangbang over at mk and average joe art on social media. You want the two wash dads, super Mario style.

You want teenage mutant ninja wash dads. You'll want it all. You can have it. Luke, we've been teasing it for a long time. Does the reveal equal the hype? I hope, I hope I've heard good things about the sales from the,

what do you want to call it? Quiet soft launch that i guess happened yesterday it was unannounced i just wanted to see what would happen and apparently everything is flying off the shelves in ways we haven't even seen before in a long time from the merch store so get them while they're hot fresh off the press now is the time so let me just say thank you to again rj dunkel gangbanger and then also Average Joe Art and everyone else involved in this whole process who put it all together and got it out. It's live.

It's ready. Go get them. We're excited. We thank everyone who has purchased or will. We're pumped for it. Yeah, the collaboration of a century in the making here. And it takes time for greatness. And this took a little bit of time, but it's going to be worth it.

Early sales are hot, Luke, like you mentioned on that soft launch which would probably be a good way to describe your wedding night and also luke as average joe has said many times you know if people keep buying he might keep making and we might keep collaborating so great to add him to the larger team right there and thank you as always to rj i believe that's it luke do you want to say anything nice? Or are we ready to be all about 293 and get after this? Let's get after it, bro. It's Friday. Let's do it.

Let's do it. That's what we do right here. Thank you. Oh, vote for us, too, as well. Hey, they have a podcast award thing going on. It's the World MMA Awards. We might win three in a row. It's up to you guys.

This has been your award throughout our history. You go into bat for us. You can scan that QR code. And if you like you some Aaron Bronstetter, maybe you can vote for him too. He's going up against the reign of terror that Errol Hawane has put forth 12 consecutive years for best MMA journalist. But we're up for programming. We're up against Ariel. We'll see if the best man wins or the craziest fan base wins.

That is up to you. Let's do it right off the top. Topic number one, let's react to what's going down. Maybe we don't have huge expectations for the depth of Saturday's pay-per-view card from Sydney, Australia, and the promotions return to that city for the first time since 2017. Luke, who can forget Fabricio Verdum versus Marcin Tybura in that main event the last time they were in Sydney? Who could? Oh my god. Dude, I forgot they even fought. Wow.

Well, Verdum back this weekend by the way. More on that to come. It's Israel Adesanya versus Sean Strickland. And Luke, what we've been saying all the time leading into this is, look, the odds are wide in this main event. Can Strickland pull the upset herd around the world? But had said this we're here for the press conference we're here for the shenanigans we're here for what Sean Strickland as a character brings to the table did Thursday

early morning's press conference live up to those expectations for you um I mean you would have so I think so I mean the question is really this? Is did the fans who like Sean Strickland or wanted, at a bare minimum, Sean Strickland chaos, did they get out of that what they wanted? I would say mostly, mostly. The thing that stood out to me was, one, Izzy definitely was not the fan favorite, right? I mean, you could hear Sean Strickland getting significantly greater applause. And I sort of wonder if he's like, is Sean Strickland like the inheritance? Is he from the lineage of Don Fry, right?

Blue collar kind of guy who fashions himself. All right. But, you know, beer drinking, kind of says what he wants, you know, that sort of thing. The fan base seems to love that kind of guy and they respond to him in that way. So you got to see a lot of that. The one thing I will say that I thought did not deliver from the press conference, as well as today's weigh-ins, because they've already happened, they're ahead of us in time, the face-off.

The face-off was was there was nothing to it at all so short of that i'd say people more or less got what they wanted from it well let's start off the top there the surprise for me i even saw john annick posting about it on social media how surprised he was exactly what you said that australia didn't back the oceanic hero in uh new zealand's israel adesanya of course, moved there after being born in... Where's Adesanya from officially? Is it Nigeria, Luke? Yeah, he's sort of Nigerian. He was Nigerian by birth and descent,

and then his family moved to New Zealand when he was young. And I believe he stopped at Japan in between. I could be wrong, although there's a lot of talk about China in this regard. But, Luke, when it comes to that, I want to throw to some video, Mikey Morms, if you don't mind, the pop Sean Strickland received in the press reaction. It was like Crocodile Dundee came home,

only it was an American wearing that hat. Is that a knife? Well, this is... All right, let's listen. You have a chance to win the World Cup. Let's fucking go! Let's fucking go! God damn, you guys are fucking awesome. All right, sorry about that. Let's get go! Let's fucking go! God damn you guys are fucking awesome!

Alright, sorry about that. Let's get to the question. You have a chance to win the world title this weekend, but I wonder how much more it would mean to take it off someone that people consider one of the greatest of all time. Here's the thing about the China man, you guys. Oh no, hats off to the fucking China man. He's a bad motherfucker.

I think we can all agree that he's a bad motherfucker and there's no easy way through the China man. He's a bad motherfucker. I think we can all agree that he's a bad motherfucker and there's no easy way through the China man. But hey, you guys, I'm up for it. You guys fucking motivate me. It's going to be fucking awesome to bring the belt back to the States. Fucking no more painted fucking nails,

no more dog collars for fucking you guys. Let's fucking go. Luke, I want to ask you about this because a lot of people saying this is almost in pro wrestling terms like a baby face turn. I think Strickland, I don't want to say like geniusly, but calculatedly has combined his typical cringe persona mixed with the legs he shows in being very offensive, and China men is very offensive in these parts, Luke. But then he's also adding in blue-collar American almost a little bit of the Colby Covington lane, but then endorsing and embracing Australia.

I don't know if you saw specifically the interview he did after the face-offs at this morning's commemorative weigh-in. Dude, they're straight up receiving him as a returning hero. So I want to ask you, why? Is there a beef between Adesanya and Australia that I don't know about? Do they just love white people? Luke, what's going on here? Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. It's like there's definitely got to be some kind of contours to the New Zealand.

Because here's the question. If the fight was in Auckland, would Izzy be cheered? I do think he would be, or at least more cheered than he is in Sydney. But you know, you and I over here in Estados Unidos, I don't understand the contours of the New Zealand Australia rivalry slash relationship all that well. So I don't have anything informed, I don't think, to say about that. But I do wonder to what extent that plays a role. But it just goes to show you, like, the MMA fan base is not homogenous in the sense that you can go to, there's Chinese fans, there's Australian fans, New Zealand, Japanese, German, blah, blah, blah.

There's this great sort of diversity in that sense. But within those countries, it's all kind of the same people that value the same kinds of thing. And why would the fans respond to Sean? This answer is simple. They see more of themselves in him than they do in Izzy. They respect Izzy because if you then go, oh, who do you like more? They might say Sean, or at least that's the evidence you can gather. But then when you ask, okay, who's going to win? They're like, yeah, Sean's probably going to get sparked. I mean, they respect what Izzy has done, but he's so different, a little bit weird, we should be honest about that,

that they just can't quite attach themselves to him in the way that they can to Sean. All right, well, this is not an intervention, Luke. This is not a setup. This is not putting you on trial. But I got to bring this up because, like, maybe, maybe the Australian fans are embracing the, like I said, the underdog nature mixed with this blue-collar presentation that Strickland's mixed with also kind of like a no-BS way of looking at Izzy. But, Luke, I have had a lot of people DM me and be like,

BC, please at least ask Luke this question. They said, Luke, this is collectively from like 50 people. They said, it's okay if Luke backs laughing when Izzy did the cringe N-word thing. It's okay if Luke's, you know, defends painting of the nails. Luke, people can live how they want to. But the whole posting a video on your own channel of you flapping your dog's genitals back and forth and making it a big fun thing, it's been a big part of Strickland's stance of why Izzy actually is cringe. And the people want you to fully address, are you endorsing this move by Izzy? Are you not going to call it weird as shit?

Where do you stand on that? Because to them, this crosses the line beyond the normal banter that we're talking about. It's weird as shit. It's gross and it's weird as shit where do you stand on that because to them this crosses the line beyond the normal banter that we're talking about it's it's it's weird as shit it's gross and it's weird as shit like there's i don't know how i mean people have been like oh my god this guy's out here committing crimes well if you took that video to the auckland police station they tell you to go get the fuck out of the office because there's nothing they can do with that but we're not asking about whether he's committing crimes we're asking is this you know weird bizarre unusual and like i mentioned kind of just frankly kind of gross behavior about that there i don't i don't how could you say otherwise how could you say otherwise like and by the way like we're dog owners it's never even occurred to me to do that like i would like

you know it's it's dude like barbus is a disgusting i love him but he, Barbas is a disgusting, I love him, but he's disgusting. He's a disgusting little man. There's also a difference between what you might do to Barbas off camera or if I captured secret video through your windows and posted it to defame you and you posting it on your own damn channel.

Luke, I know this has nothing to do with the fight and I actually love Izzy, but dude, that's weird as shit bro come on it's I mean what do you want me to say it's weird I'm agreeing with you I'm not I'm not fighting you at all at all on this I mean I think some of the others like the other part too is and this is just the elective the painting nails like I don't want to paint my nails or the pearl necklace or all the stuff that he does that's a little bit unusual like none of those things you ever see me do either not putting them all on the same level I'm just sort of pointing out he's an eccentric guy who's got his own kinds of things now granted the video is

old he was 22 years old when he posted i think he's 32 33 now something like that so this is quite some time ago um but yes i agree like it's definitely bizarre gross and weird um but i would also say i would also say everyone who has worked themselves into a panic about it. Yes, we can call it unsavory and like, yes, respect your dog's bodily autonomy. Everyone is not that hard to do.

And then on the other hand, be like, okay, I don't think he's out there like Michael vicking the dogs, you know, shoving their face into like a bucket of water. Let's, let's put it in the proper context.

No, no, no. Weird and gross, weird and gross. shoving their face into a bucket of water. Let's put it in the proper context. No, no, no. Weird and gross. Weird and gross. Probably that's about what we can say about it, right? Or what am I missing? Let's put that BS behind us. We addressed it.

Before we get into the surprising heroes of this press conference, including Manel Cop and the pleasure maker himself, Luke. Pleasure man. Pleasure man. The pleasure man, excuse me. I did want to throw to the video of the face-off between them and sort of get one final look back at what we learned from this fight week. Let's go to that face-off right now of Izzy and Strickland. My fucking people. Let's go Australia.

Let's go fucking New Zealand. My fucking people. How we doing? I don't want the cringe to rub off on me. Just wash your hands before we fight. We'll see where they've been. You want to stare down? We're good.

How are we doing staring down? We're staring down. I'm trying to get your bankroll, you know? All right, you guys, I'm fucking out of here. Thank you again. Let's fucking go. I've already iced this guy, right? I've already one-armed guillotine Michael Bisping.

You know, I already know I can beat him, and he kind of walked in there way too confident and took too many risks and then of course as we know the story paid for it therein is he again it could happen MMA's crazy but it just doesn't look to me like he's not anything other than ready to rock I guess we'll find out tomorrow I have to agree with that all right let's go to Manel Copp he is in a featured flyweight bout not against kai car france which we expected kkf needed to pull out although he did show up in a big way at this press conference ufc debutant felipe dos santos will be in his crosshairs manel look should manel rebrand himself as manel cop killer and come out to that ice tea uh rock and rap crossover song luke hey Hey, Body Count was there.

They were making some waves in 1993. I don't think they weren't. Boy, did they. This was surprising because like when Izzy was fighting Cannonier that time at that press conference, it became more about Izzy versus Strickland. Surprisingly, this was supposed to be about Izzy versus Strickland, and then Manel Kopp and Izzy almost came to blows.

Let's look back on this moment. We are here, Sydney. Unfortunately, Kakarov France is a bitch. A fucking bitch. It's in front of me. And you are fucking guilty because Sunday, he's going to get murdered. You know?

Because you, you fucking pussy. Calm down, calm down, calm down. You fucking pussy. I'm afraid because... Ele vai ser morto, sabe? Porque você, seu cacete! Calma, calma, calma! Seu cacete! Felizmente ele é uma rodízio. Eu sou um franguinho. Você tem três semanas para lutar. Seu pequeno cacete. Olha para você.

Você tem o coragem de vir aqui. É um franguinho mesmo. Sim, se apresenta, merda! Se apresenta, merda! Se apresenta, merda! O que você quer? O que você quer? O que você quer? O que você quer? Let's go, baby. Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up, motherfucker. What you want? What you want? What you want to? What you want?

All right, yeah, yeah. Shut the fuck up. Sit down. Your things is in shriek. Sit the fuck down. Sit the fuck down. Shut the fuck down, yo. Shut the fuck up.

Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck down, bro. Tight ass car was giving you a brain cut. Sit the fuck down. Sit the fuck down. What the fuck? Get your ass work. Sit the fuck down.

Look at this little midget trying to fuck with me. I will fucking bury you. Shut the fuck you up. Shut the fuck you up. Shut your mouth away. Sit the fuck down. Look at this little midget trying to fuck with me. I will fucking bury you. What the fuck you are? What the fuck you are? Shut your mouth. Hey, I'm here, I'm here. I'm back, I'm back.

Hey, calm the fuck down. That's not the fight, dude. Leave the little man alone. I'm okay, I'm okay. Calm down. I'm okay. I'm supposed to be the asshole here, Izzy. That's not your job.

Your business with him. Your fucking porn cartoon addiction. Well, Luke, there goes our monetization for today. Yeah, we're not going to make a dime off this show. Yeah, hopefully no one had their kids in the car while listening to this live. Dude, I got to say, Manel Cop is coming off as my kind of crazy. To stand up to the middleweight champ like that? Your thoughts, Luke? Yeah, and then he had the zinger for him there at the end I mean listen here's the

reality man how I think he's lost something like five or six bouts due to cancellation of his opponents getting injured or whatever the case now he is mad at Kaikar France because he had a concussion and thought you can just come back from that in three weeks which of course that's a silly and ridiculous thing to believe. But at the same time, can you understand the broader perspective of Cop that you're trying, you can't get paid unless you fight, and if your opponents keep falling out, I mean, how frustrating must that be? The money you have to spend on camps, the money you have to spend traveling,

that doesn't, you know, it doesn't work out. Now you have a last-minute opponent switch. Like, I can understand very much why he's frustrated maybe not in the exact way in which he applied it where he was like but you know ty to be boss was just like sitting there like this i was like we're all you ty we're all you dude ty was great in that moment even strickland saying hey is he i'm supposed to be the asshole is great so is i, I don't normally support this, but Cop throwing the monster water bottle at KKF kind of spiced it up. I'll say this, Cop is coming with almost Devis and Figueiredo type cockiness and demeanor right now to this division. It does sort of ramp up my want to see him and the whole idea of is he a, you know, a title threat in waiting, Luke?

He had had a good run in risen he beat didn't he beat kai asakura for the for the vacant rise in bantamweight championship so he's got like some good war class experience has beaten some name fighters in japan before coming over um this is going to raise his profile i feel like this was like a little bit of a power move he sort of channeled jeremy stevens Chiesa and Kevin Lee, all the great sort of press conference moments of the past. He sort of channeled it all in this moment. Does this make you like want to cheer for him more? I'm kind of all in on the Manel cop train right now. No, because he seems a bit like a maniac when he's going after a guy for getting a concussion. I'm a little bit more of the Max Holloway,

gentleman of the game kind of dude. Okay, that's fair. But in fairness, I will say this. I will say this. He's very talented. He's a great fighter. He had a bit of a slow start in UFC after fighting in Japan, but he is now, when he fights,

looking quite good. He should look good on Saturday, Sunday for them. Let's see what he can do in this division to shake things up. I think the idea that this guy was going to come from Japan and be a title contender, folks kind of put that by the wayside because he just hasn't been active enough. But if he can be active enough, I think that that would be in play. Yeah, and he is on a nice little run coming in here. 29 years old from Angola, represents Portugal these days. Three-fight win streak, including two by knockout, but

not the step-up he wanted. We'll see if he can continue to make his name. And you know who else made a name for themselves on Thursday's press conference, Luke? It was the fact that this card is so weak. We got a lot of people walking up to the dais that aren't normally there, but this light heavyweight bout between local favorite Tyson Pedro and Anton Turcali went in the direction of a hardcore pleasure. Let's look back on the incident here. Wow, wow. One for Anton Tricoli down there. Tyson seemed very amused yesterday by your nickname, The Pleasure Man.

Can you tell us more about the nickname and what the fans can expect from you on Sunday? One more time, I didn't hear you. You want me to tell you about my nickname? Yes. The best way is if you ask Tyson Pedro after a fight or you ask your wife. Tyson your response to that? After my fight the pleasure men. What am I supposed to say to the pleasure men? You're going to taste the pleasure.

I'm going to taste the pleasure men. That's what I'm going to do. Come on, cuz. What am I supposed to do with that? We're going to have a good fight. I would love to fight him tonight. He got fired tonight last time. So I want to do it in front of Sydney.

But I definitely don't want to taste the pleasure, man. This is so stupid. I love it. I seriously love it. Dude, has this not been between the Izzy Dog stuff and then everything else all the way down the line? It's been like the dumbest news cycle for a pay-per-view in some time. Now, to be fair, UFC press conferences during pay-per-view weeks are usually very dumb,

but I'm in on this type of dumb compared to like, hey Nate Diaz, what strain are you smoking these days? You know, I don't need that. Luke, in terms of the Pleasure Man, when he said ask your mother, was he talking about Tyson Pedro's mother or Mike Bone's

mother? Because I think the Pleasure Man the Pleasure, or yeah, ask your wife. The Pleasure Man should look at Mike Bone and you you know spider-man meme real recognizing real mike bone has been known to be a little bit of a uh mile high pleasure man himself if you know yeah i mean he's the well you know what maybe he's the canadian pleasure man that's what we can call mike boner so he might not be mike bone does mike bond does not have a wife that I am aware of. But, you know, he's known to, he's a creeper. He'll creep in your DMs.

Don't think he won't. Well, hey, Tercali just got my attention, okay? Let's see who is pleasuring themselves. Dude, Tyson Pedro. I was like, Tyson Pedro, what do you want me to do with that? That was exactly what was going through my head. Like, what do you want him to say? Yeah. Hey, Pedro's got want him to say? Yeah. Hey, Pedro's got an aggressive chest tat set up.

Did you see him at the commemorative weigh-ins this morning? I think I saw him doing a workout, and I saw some of the tats. From what I remember, they were very good. Yeah, tattoo on titty included. Yeah, I'm a big fan of what he's got going on there. Luke, that was one press conference we had over the last 24 hours. Topic number two, and of course, your UFC 293 OK Bet picks to come later in the show. We know you need to back bettors who regularly hover around the 500 mark, so don't miss that.

Let's go to topic two. There was another press conference Thursday. Luke, if you didn't know it, you do now. Hashtag Riyadh season. They only mentioned it about 45,000 times uh it's going down in Saudi of course later this year in October Tyson Fury Francis Ngannou the boxing match no world title at stake although Fury was certainly arguing the opportunity for Ngannou to win the lineal heavyweight championship we had a press conference and i gotta tell you luke

like i will always separate two things associated with this fight one very happy for francis he didn't fumble the bag this is dream come true he's not this mike tyson training him he's fighting the best heavyweight in the world and it was always his dream to be the boxing heavyweight champion and although it's definitely a circus fight, people are like, you know what? Let's give him a chance. Let's see what happens. And number two, I will say this. Night of the fight, fight week, the curiosity factor,

you're not going to be able to avoid it here. It is what it is. It's going to be something. With that said, I was really turned off by a lot of parts of this press conference, by a lot of parts of Fury's sort of old, getting old. Be honest with the audience. What Fury is doing is, no pun intended, infuriating you. Yes.

So I want to separate almost for a second the other side of it, the Alexander Usyk side of it, the real boxing side of it, which is really pissing off purists like me. But separate from that, Luke, I don't know, Tyson Fury coming in extremely overweight, just kind of doing his, like, shtick of what I want to do. We do have sound of Fury talking about fighting Ngannou beyond this boxing match, and I want to throw to that and just sort of react to where we're at when it comes to this matchup right here in Tyson Fury's mind. Go it Mikey whoever's the best on the night will win the fight that's it

world champion in boxing in boxing because in fighting I think you are very limited in general just no not fighting because I think I can beat you in general you're very limited I would kick your ass in the cage no problem no. No, no, you can't dare. You can't even think about that. 100%. 100%. But just focus on- Personally, I'll beat you in the boxing ring, and then I'll kick your ass in the cage.

Just focus on real season, and then we will see after. 100%. I'll beat you at boxing, and I'll beat you in a cage. No problem. No, bro. No problem. Focus on boxing for right now. No problem.

Best at boxing, and I'll beat him in a cage fight. No two ways about it. Luke, I'm getting tired of this shtick. And I guess I can't separate it from the other half of it, which is that he already should have fought Alexander Usyk for the undisputed first four-bell heavyweight championship in this modern history between two unbeaten, all-time great heavyweights trying to figure out once and for all who's the face of this

heavyweight era, who is, you know, stamped for all-time Hall of Fame, extreme greatness, upper room, maybe even top 10 at heavyweight for the winner if they clean out the rest of this era. And not only is this fight not happening now, it may not happen ever based on the comments that Tyson Fury gave to media members during an extended red carpet sequence, which annoyingly ran like two hours before they finally did sit down and talk and then really flooded us with Riyadh season propaganda, which I guess to a certain degree we're going to have to deal with due to the fact that that's where the money is right now.

But the quote in question is this, talking, Tyson Fury talking to Fight Hub TV, he was asked if Alexander Usyk's undisputed fight is no longer his priority. And his quote was, has it ever been my priority? Did I ever say I wanted undisputed? It's always been some other little bitch's dream. If he takes a small percentage, meaning Usyk, we might make it happen. But if he wants a large bag, I'm going to say no thank you. I think Nganou is going to be a tougher challenge than these other guys. These other guys are just boxers, and Nganou is more than that. Luke, like, how the hell are we supposed to react to that? And how are we supposed to separate the whole side of the road element

to fury and gana which i just admitted fight night we're gonna watch it we're gonna be intrigued but separate that from the realities that tyson fury doesn't want anything to do with his actual legacy at the moment and i'm being really rare real about that and it's disappointing as all hell you know what's funny is we all thought that it was, who's the, my brain isn't working right, the little brother who was on Love Island. What's his name? Tommy Fury. Tommy Fury, excuse me. We all thought that Tommy Fury was the one who was kind of chasing after what Tyson Fury had.

But it looks like it's actually the opposite, that Tyson Fury is chasing after what Tommy Fury has. But what I mean by that is, if you're so uninterested in competing against Usyk, and then he also dismissed the notion of fighting Joshua and really anybody else that would have been a substantive, genuine boxing contest. The only names he said he was interested in were Tyson Fury and Jon Jones. Now, of course, Tyson says lots of things and then backs out of them, but here's the point I'm trying to make, BC. I think Tyson, and maybe other boxers too, have realized that there is now a very clear market

that has been developed that you saw through this sort of YouTube boxing, whatever phenomenon you want to give that a name to, where, you know, the premium of skill is just not very high, at least in one or sometimes both directions, but at least in one. And it doesn't really matter to the audience who pays for it. It is still a gigantic audience.

It is still gigantic paydays. And I think he sort of realized, well, geez, I can take advantage of that. Now, of course, he had to build up his name in order to get here and take real boxing fights, and the Wilder trilogy was great. I mean, he's a phenomenal talent. I still think he would beat Usyk if they fought but the point I'm trying to make here BC

is it is very interesting to me that he has moved closer to Tommy more so than Tommy moving closer to him in the way in which he is pursuing professional opportunities he just seems like do I think he's afraid of fear of excuse me of Usyk I really don't I don't think he's afraid of Usyk? I really don't. I don't think he's that. But I think he's deeply uninterested in it because it's a much easier way to make a much bigger paycheck, and he doesn't really care if people are like, oh, how am I going to be remembered?

He doesn't seem to be bothered by it. As long as you're not, this is a viable path, actually. I mean, I don't have to go through the big rant that I always do about why historically it's so important for fury to take handle his business like this is what he's been building for since his comeback so i won't repeat that but when you are filling our ear holes with the nonsense of you know i'll fight you in the cage too you know what i mean like all this bs and now when they asked him like you referenced you know when stephen a smith on that espn interview yesterday asked him about who he wants moving forward. First of all, Stephen A. Smith never even said Usyk's name. I

don't even know if he knows Usyk, to be fair, Luke. But to be fair on this, you know, when your response is Jon Jones, well, first of all, you know, Dana's told us many times, Luke, they don't do gimmick fights like that in the UFC. But number two, that was only talked about because Dana was trying to F over Ngannou. But number three, if you're only about the money now and the easy money and the big events, and you have a reality show now and you know, making generational wealth, I'd almost rather him be honest about that upfront. Just tell us, or maybe he is Luke. The problem is every time he speaks, he's always in and out of this stick and routine where it's so the truths, the all or nothing are so polar opposite. It's like today, I want to fight nothing

but Joshua Nusik. And then tomorrow, those guys are bums and I'll never fight them. So even if you told me that he wants to fight Nusik next and he will, that this is all more about public negotiation and forcing Nusik to take a ridiculously low percentage, even though he has three of four belts and is undefeated at the moment, it's still within the grounds of his rights to a certain degree. But I'm not joking around what I tweeted out after I read that quote and after I heard him say, I want Jon Jones next. Remember, he only came back nine months ago and fought Derek Chisora for the third time after beating him twice because he just wanted something that we thought to keep him busy until Usyk was fully ready. Because remember, Usyk needed a couple month recovery

period after the second Joshua fight. But because he's basically coming on saying, that's not even my dream, I don't want that shit, WBC should strip him. They should strip him right now. And it's not that I want that to be the reason that we don't get this historic four-belt fight. But if you're not into it for this, then get out.

And I already had people respond to me going all right bbc who works for the pbc on the same network what about jamal charlo he hasn't defended his wbc middleweight title in two years a couple points connected to that one there's no four belt undisputed historic fight waiting for him that we're all waiting on two jamal charlo had like legitimate mental health challenges that he told the wBC about, and they made a public announcement that they were going to support him and not strip him. I have a lot of issues with how these sanctioning bodies work when they decide who to strip and who not to. But in this case, look, I'm going to be honest, middleweight's dead. There really isn't a huge matchup that Jamal Charlo's not coming back for.

He's also in the process of trying to come back. He's moved his life to Pensacola, Florida. He's training with Roy Jones at the moment to try to kind of reinvent himself mentally and physically. And in recent interviews, he did say he's going to be ready pretty soon to come back. But if Tyson Fury is really only about WWE and this match and, you know, let's meet in a four ounce gloves and we'll do a hybrid fight. If you want to do all that, that's your right as a a superstar, you've earned that. But you're not going to be able to earn the right to say that you're one of the best all-time

or that you're the definitive best of this era. And I don't even think he deserves the right anymore to carry that belt, Luke. Although, obviously, they're not going to strip him. Why? Because, of course, the WBC created their own Riyadh season belt to give to the winner of this fight, Luke. Of course they did, right? Of course! You know what boxing needs, BC?

More belts. They just don't have enough. That's the problem. More ceremonial belts. I mean, they gave one to Jake Paul. They'll give one to anybody. But this is bullshit. And it should matter.

Real boxing should matter. Okay? If, if, if right now, could you imagine if Canelo or Gervonta or any of these stars were like, you know what? Thinking about not really fighting regular boxing for a year or a year and a half, I'm just going to go do all this other stuff. The same thing would apply. The same rules would apply. Are you in or are you out, Fury? We gave you the one-off Chisora fight that didn't matter, but you did it. Okay, great. We gave you this Ngannou fight hoping, okay, he wants to make some big money before the Usyk fight. I'm really getting to the point that if he doesn't come

out and explicitly say Usyk's next, then Luke, I'm giving up on him. I think he should be stripped. And you know, you say, don't take it personal because you're a fan. I'm a fan of Fury. I'm taking this personal. This is BS. You're punting on your legacy. You can do reality shows for the rest of your life after boxing handle your freaking business what about the idea though that like um is it okay if he

didn't have the belt if they did strip him it's not like you'd suddenly be happy right like why can't he I'm just playing devil's advocate of course but why can't he just do the things that he wants to do? Like, if we're going to cheer, and again, I'm playing devil's advocate, but if we're going to cheerlead Francis for getting the bag, why can't we cheerlead Tyson for getting the bag? Okay, but there should be things that apply to that. So shouldn't the WBC be saying, okay, like, you're due for a mandatory, like, get it done, right?

Like, shouldn't that be connected to this? If you have a title, and again, if it's not a situation like Jamal where you're expressing publicly, I need a mental health break. I'm going through some stuff, right? If WBC easily could have stripped him, Luke, Jamal, excuse me, and we wouldn't have argued against it. We would have said, okay, if you can't defend it, that's what it is. This is Tyson willingly not playing his part right now. Willingly. So even though I don't want what would become of that, meaning you strip Tyson, you put the belt vacant, you probably got two donks that you don't want fighting for it, fighting for it. And then the winner maybe fights Usyk and then maybe we do get a four belt champion. But isn't that how the sport's supposed to work? The thing

we always complain about in boxing is, well, it's not the NBA playoffs. You're not guaranteed that the best are going to end up fighting the best in the finals if they get there. These guys aren't willing to join this tour. Sorry, Tyson Fury right now isn't willing to join this tournament. So why should he be able to wear the belt that you would represent as a champion within this natural tournament of, okay, we have champions who can actually make a fight now. Business-wise, everybody seems to be on board. Make the damn fight. Make the freaking fight. freaking fight what are you holding up what are you waiting out ustek to get a little bit older make the fight we would favor you you should win that one make the fight i understand i just um you're either an entertainer or you're the heavyweight champion of the world which one is it

like this this market pre mayweather mcgregor plus YouTube boxing, it just didn't exist. And now that it exists and fighters like Fury have options, and again, it's not going to be every fighter, every circumstance. It's going to be a narrow subset. But for the ones that have it, I honestly feel like we might see more and more and more of this going forward. We're cheerleading Francis because MMA is monopolized and it's hard to get a good paycheck.

But I wonder what might happen in MMA if everything opens up and guys can start to take this. And now MMA guys aren't taking the fights they're supposed to take because they're not taking boxing contests, whatever the highest bidder might be, how we might view this. So an interesting turn of events now that the market has kind of shifted in boxing. What do you say to Mikey's response in our chat here of a devil's advocate way of looking at it? That, hey, it's prize fighting.

They're going after the biggest prize. And I don't disagree with that. It's your right to go after the biggest prize in any form that you can legally pull off. But when did the undisputed four-bell heavyweight championship of the world not become the biggest prize, Luke? You're telling me he can't...

This isn't like I got to take this Usyk fight for less money when I could be fighting Joe Rogan for a hundred million in a curiosity fight. If he fights Usyk, it will be in Saudi Arabia and it will be for stupid money. So what's the, like, what are we doing? Well, I mean, here's the part though, like, they're in Saudi Arabia

and we're wondering why they're not, like, employing the utmost of sporting standards. It's like, dude, they're not employing the utmost of sporting standards. It's like, dude, they're just sitting here washing blood money. And, you know, of course they're not going to adhere to the strictest standards. The whole thing is just kind of about that. I'm with you, though. I'm with you. It's like, if you want to be inside the belt and boxing architecture,

then you can't do shit like this. You've got to make a choice. Because Floyd did the whole boxing architecture thing, called it a day, and then came back and, you know, you can like the extra shit he does or not, but it's a compliment, so to speak, to the rest of his career. Or it's just an extra bonus or something.

This is still Fury, technically, I think, in his prime, or pretty close to it. And so you're like, dude, it's just weird to give all of that up when you've got something else that's available. But if he doesn't want it, we can't want it for him. What I really just want for him is honesty. I really just want that. First and foremost, just be honest.

What are your intentions? What do you really want? Because if he was honest, Luke, it would be easier of us to just go, okay, well, that's, I disagree with that. I think he's being honest. That quote you read where he's like, yeah, it wasn't my dream to be unified, dude. He's telling you, he doesn't really give that much of a fuck. I mean, I, do I like it or not? Do you like it or not? Does the audience like it or not is what is a different conversation. But what is Fury declaring to you? He's declaring to you he doesn't really care that much about it.

He was saying, I'll take the fight with Usyk if he takes a small percentage. He just, again, do I think he's afraid of Usyk? I do not. I do not believe that. But it is very clear he is not interested in fighting him for one reason or the other. And that's just the way that it is and it's funny you texted me and said hey is there like precedence to this is this the most obvious sort of duck if you want to call it that i hate calling it a duck because do i think fury

is afraid of usic no no i don't so i'm not calling it a duck in that regard but the knee-jerk reaction from me that i texted back to you and everyone would reference would be lennox lewis and riddick bow right recap recap is they met in the 88 gold medal game in the Olympics. Lennox Lewis won by knockout. Then when they became pros and heavyweight champions, Bowe became a star faster, right? He beat Evander Holyfield in that all-time war, but he wanted nothing to do with the mandatory eventual matchup that the WBC was going to make him do, which is fight Lennox Lewis as he was on the way up. So what did he do? Yeah, he made a bunch of excuses, but then he held a public press conference, took a

garbage can, dropped the WBC belt in it and was like, I ain't doing what you're going to tell me. And while his intentions and the way he was presenting it was more like, F you, you know, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to do what I want. I almost respected the duck because he's telling you, he's basically you, I'm not going to do it, I'm going to do what I want. I almost respected the duck because he's basically telling you, I'm dropping the title in the bin, I'd rather give up my championship than fight who you want me to, only because we'd seen the Olympics

and saw him get handled by Lennox. We just said, look, what are we going to do? He's ducking him, but at least he's being upfront about it. I'd rather that from Tyson. That's what I'd rather. Fair enough. Again, if you want to be inside the architecture of boxing, then be in it. But if you want to be in the sort of, I don't know, we have to come up with a better name for this side of boxing because it is a viable, gigantic market for the right kinds of guys.

You don't get to be inside of the tent. Either you're in the tent, which is a big one, or you're not, and he just doesn't want to be in it. either you're in the tent which is a big one or you're not and he just doesn't want to be in it so that's just where we are i want to throw to the face off that they did do luke do you have any further takes beyond the usic god i wish i wish i i mean i mean tyson fury is up there like lizzo and has all the confidence in his body in the world, bro. He's got muffin tops more than your local bakery and just has like 10 out of 10 in machismo confidence. I wish I had that kind of body positivity. Can we show the round belly?

I mean, look, he's fought with a big gut before, and he did say that this is going to be a 12-week training camp. He's already started it, and he does have George Lockhart, who we remember had a run as Conor McGregor's nutritionist and a lot of UFC stars ready to help him get down. But what is your take about the actual fight after hearing them talk and seeing this somewhat comedic face-off between them? Bro, look at the love handles coming over the belt.

I mean, my man has just been eating doritos right like just just all day dude he's on that bomac diet not the gun charge but everything else right uh but okay in all seriousness nothing i mean for me to think that francis has a shot and by the way people like oh fury's not six nine and francis is six four francis is taller than me so he's actually six five i don't know if Fury actually is 6'9". I've never seen him... I think Fury's 6'7", I think, in reality. Yeah, that sounds more like it, because if I'm 6'4", and

Francis, I've stood next to him, he's a little bit taller than me, so I actually think he's closer to 6'5". But either way, like, what do I make of it? Dude, Tyson should still mop the floor with him. The only way Tyson would lose is if he, you know, is paid to take a dive, which, of course, I don't think is in any way going to happen.

But rather, or he's just, like, wildly unprepared for it. But short of that, he should, I mean, he should cruise. Yeah, there it is, Luke. There it is. Are you amazed at his body positivity? I just cannot. Dude, if I, I mean, I don't look much better than that. But if I looked like that, dude, it'd be curtains for me.

It'd be curtains. Yeah, indeed, indeed. Let's move on to topic number three, Luke. Fight news and announcements. I'm going to name a couple fights. Give me your honest, instant recap and recall here on your excitement level. Middleweights at UFC 295. Is that the December card? Do do we know or is this NYC

um I believe I'll double check but I believe that's the December card all right we have a couple fights from this how about this at middleweight Derek Brunson versus Roman Deleuze Luke uh that's the New York City Madison Square Garden card per Mikey and Deleuze I believe has a bun in the oven so congratulations to him Luke do you like this fight I love this fight Brunson is still kind of hanging on to what's left but still I think a tough challenge for a lot of middleweights Dilize kind of fell short a little bit against Vittorio though it was close but it's still trying to you know make that move into the next echelon a great test of both directions do you think Dilize still has what it takes to eventually fight for a title or is there still some parts of his game that he may not get there in time?

It's a great question. You won't know until he fights a guy like Brunson. Remember, beating Brunson is kind of like, people are like, oh, he's a gatekeeper, he's a journeyman. He's neither of those things. But he is a good test for someone who wants to reach the upper limits of that division, yes. Matt Schnell versus Steve Erseg, I believe that's how you pronounce it, also on that card. That's a banger. That's a banger. both those guys have high action styles matt chanel i've

known for a long time great respect for his technical abilities i mean that fight he had against suma darji in long island is just one of the most crazy ass fights you're ever going to see so that's they're putting some real bangers on this card so far happy about that october 14th is ufc vegas 81 we have a main event. It's been promoted up from the early parts of the car from another part of the card. How about Sadiq Youssef versus Edson Barbosa as a headliner, Luke? We don't expect much of fight nights these days, but I really like this fight. I do. I love, I love the fight. I'm not going to talk bad about the fight at all. Like just this guy versus this guy, Sadiq Youssef. I've had, you know, I called one of his amateur

fights many, many, many moons ago. He's been a guy out of this area I've seen him uh uh you know uh fighting for so long and he has such promise and I still think he hasn't really reached his full potential Barboza still trying to hang on to what he's got but obviously still very very difficult to beat if you're not really ready for it wonderful test in both directions there's a question about whether that's main event worthy for the UFC but as a fight is it a quality contest yes of course it is well if you're going to question whether that is a good enough main event I have to believe you're going to do the same for October 7th one week before UFC fight night in Vegas Grant Dawson versus Bobby Green yeah that's not a main event that's not main event worthy. I'll be a banger as an opener. Yeah, Bobby Green is a tough out.

We all respect him, obviously, and he beat Tony Ferguson. Grant Dawson has proven to be one of these Americans who's kind of adopted this Dagestani style of wrestling and grappling, and I think it's a tough competitive contest. Again, it sounds like we're bagging on these fights as fights. That's actually the opposite. I'm, I'm perfectly,

I really liked the use of Barbosa fight and I liked the Dawson green fight just fine, but the roles in which they're occupying on the card, it's like, if that's your main event, like less so for use of Barbosa, but if Dawson green is your main event, yeah,

like what's below it, like a contender series night? Like I don't even know what you would put below that. You know, I did this rant yesterday, Luke, on BTL on MMA Fighting with Jed Mishu. I feel like I owed him one, Luke. He saved the day for us last week. You did, yes.

Can we stop bragging every time like, O'Malley's the latest Dana White contender series fighter to win a championship. We're probably about 12 months away where every single fighter on the roster is going to be directly from the Dana White Contender Series fighter to win a championship. We're probably about 12 months away where every single fighter on the roster is going to be directly from the Dana White Contender Series managed by Jason House and had entered the promotion on a 12 and 12. I think we're getting past the point where it's like, man, this great series has done so much to produce our next great fighters.

It's really becoming the only way you can get in the promotion. You know what I'm saying? It used to be a place where like, you hey interesting and potentially elite prospects like we should be honest when o'malley was on the contender series it did have a little bit more of that cachet but now to your point it's just the fucking turnstile through the door yeah so you know uh like they're just like hey what division do we need to staff up for the coming year? Oh, middleweight. Yeah. Did you win? Great. Here's your contract. Get over here, kid. Indeed. Let's talk about one of my favorite announcers in the UFC, 39 year old Paul Felder.

We have not seen him fight since his November 2020 split decision loss to RDA, which came directly after a split decision loss to Dan Hooker. Luke, he's a fantastic broadcaster. Like, he's really starting to climb the ranks and become a consistent voice. He's also back in the USADA pool at age 39, and he was on the UFC broadcast last week next to Michael Chiesa, who he does a podcast with. And he's basically saying, look, like, I don't have plans. There's no one I'm targeting. I'm not actively looking for a date.

But I'm also not, not all of that. What do you think about this potential? There might be something left in the basement for good old Paul Felder right now. My view on this is, first of all, I think he is one of the better commentators that they have. I think when it's him and Senko together, that's probably one of the better duos. If he didn't want to come back and just wanted to stick with the broadcasting,

I think we'd be richer for it. I'll just say this. If he wants to come back against a Jim Miller type, cool. I think that would make sense. But if he comes back against some like rising hammer and then just gets pasted, what was the point? You know, you've been off for three years, still active physically, not in that sense, but you know, you're not been in the gym training as hard. I'm guessing you've not been doing the fight camps. Uh, obviously like there's been a,

there's been a drop off in activity you've not been competing like you're not going to be the same that you're three years older than you once were clock is ticking so there could be some good matchups for him but it would be highly dependent

on the matchmaking itself for me to feel like great about it alright what about this idea that just came to my head? Eddie Alvarez is a free agent. How about an all-Philadelphia old guy war, and hey, if Eddie Alvarez looks good, maybe we do the Chandler trilogy and pull the old Bellator footage

and remind people how great that rivalry is. Am I going in the right direction here? Boy, I hadn't even thought of that. That is interesting. At 155, right? Yeah, unless they want to meet somewhere else, that's fine. I mean, it'd be more of about just two action guys we really respect. And let's not forget, Eddie's a former UFC champion, too.

So it wouldn't be ridiculous if they offered him another chance to come back, right? I got to say, I think I like that idea. That's interesting. I had never thought about that, but that's a great, an all Philly, old guy fight. That's an easy hook for that one, yeah. All in on that. Let's go to Mike Perry.

He was on Errol Helwani's MMA Hour this week. And, Luke, before I get into his comments about his BKFC future after recently signing a huge deal, and I got to say, this has been one of the greatest turns that Mike Perry is on right now for, like, positivity, wholesomeness. He's married to Coach Latorre. They've got two beautiful children. Mike was on Ariel's show wearing, like, a shirtless white suit. I mean, he looked like, you know, he's enjoying the high life.

But Dylan Dennis is currently being sued by logan paul's fiancee for the extremely aggressive nature in which he's been i don't know clowning her terrorizing her on social media using no call call it what it is sexually humiliating her yes i mean it's it's reached the levels, but the lawsuit seems to be aimed at the idea that Dennis may have taken leaked, you know, cell phone photos or videos and use that as part of his arsenal. Dennis seems to suggest on Twitter, Luke, that this could be really bad as a lot of people are, and it could jeopardize the fight. Are we, should we get prepared for Mike Perry versus Logan Paul? Cause that would be a banger. Dude, that'd be so weird.

I'd be so into it. I mean, seriously here. Dude, God help Logan Paul if he has to fight Mike Perry. I mean, God help him, dude. I would honestly be worried about him if, you know, in a way. I'm sure the people who lost money in his crypto Ponzi scheme or whatever it was, alleged, whatever it was, would be happy to see that. But I'm just sort of pointing out,

dude, that you go from Dylan Dennis to bare knuckle hero, Mike Perry. Oh, you're fucked. You're fucked. Even though Logan Paul is so much bigger, dude,

Mike Perry will, Mike Perry will decapitate him. A couple of points on that though. We did. I know it's a different fight, but when he fought, when Logan fought Floyd, I assumed he would get decapitated, didn't you?

He got stolen. It's just that Floyd was way too small. I also get that Floyd, like, let's not forget that even though Floyd has done a ton of exhibitions since then, don't forget his quotes after that Logan Paul fight in Miami. He was humbled. He was humbled. Yeah, he was almost to the degree of I didn't expect it to be that hard.

And to be fair to Logan, who is an exceptional athlete, you can see that in WWE, he is big, he is super jacked, and he does seem to have at least a working handle. Not as good as Jake, but a working handle on the jab and moving his head a little bit. I can understand favoring Mike Perry, especially when you stick to Rockhold, who's a big opponent opponent but that size difference isn't nothing in a boxing match right uh the size would be valuable but like dude who did mike perry just beat yeah he just broke the

teeth of luke rock i mean he dude listen to what i'm saying he just that was bare knuckles fucking teeth that was bare knuckle this would be boxing i know fair enough fair enough it would be a difference but at the same time i mean okay bc you either keep your house or you lose it who are you betting on oh my carry i'm betting on my pair this is not hard this is not and then especially if you're logan paul like you're going for it's not like you were having like tough fight to mike perry you were going from Dylan Danis. Yeah. I mean, the guy getting choked out by bouncers. This was a very winnable fight before, and then all of a sudden, if it goes to that, it has become orders of magnitude more difficult.

So, yes, I grant that Floyd kind of overestimated his abilities there or whatever, and Logan is a big, strong kid. He is much better. They did that face-off, remember? kid he is much they did that face off remember but logan is much bigger than than mike perry dude but mike perry is a junk yard dog uh that's a tough fight they did officially weigh in mike or have mike perry face off with logan that time at the presser i think they're almost expecting at this point that dylan will either pull out or have something happen so it appears appears that's contractually that could happen.

But let's talk about Mike Perry's real future. Luke, it's not hyperbole to say he's like the face of BKFC and arguably their like biggest star and performer. He headlined their biggest fight card ever. And there's a lot of buzz even faced off against Conor McGregor, which was just shocking that it even happened that night. Well, he says he's got a return in December. He told Ariel that'll be in Dallas, Texas.

It'll be a main event. And he says it's, quote, going to be BKFC's biggest card ever. Luke Thomas, let's speculate a little bit. Who could be that opponent? Who should be? Who would be? Are you fired up for this? Because they went big last time.

And don't forget, they had Eddie Alvarez on the card. They had Chad Mendes on the card. What are you expecting for this big announcement that he's teasing? I don't know. I don't know who the opponent would be, but they're always pulling a rabbit out of their hat. You can like Bare Knuckle or not. I tend to be more agnostic on it.

I sometimes like it. A lot of times I don't. But whatever. If you can like it or not. But they usually are real good. I mean mean we've talked about it dude they've stolen market share from like that bellator signing old guys even pfl signing old guys kind of territory they've gone and just grabbed up that portion of the market so who could it be i would have to see who's available who they're talking to i don't know who that is but like do, do I have, I want to jump in.

I want to jump in and say the name that Mikey just typed in our chat that I've been thinking all along. If this is going to be potentially quote, the biggest card ever, which would be bigger than Perry Rockhold and Paige Van Zandt and a couple of, you know, Paulie Malnage, a couple of the big sort of side of the road fights they've had. I don't think that means Eddie Alvarez. I got to think that means Nate Diaz. Don't you?

So Nate Diaz is an interesting one but for a guy who's got all that scar tissue to fight in BKFC, that would just be a disastrous idea especially against a big puncher like Mike Perry They're the same size in terms of the weight classes they've operated in MMA There's much more competitive

viability to that matchup. But, dude, here's the thing. If you're Nate and you just pulled in between 15 to 20 mil boxing and then you made the whole thing about the guillotine choke and it's not a real fight, do you jump right back into another contest where your scar tissue could be messed with? And it's, again, not a real fight in his terms.

I mean, i'm not saying no because here's the thing dude bkfc opens up the pocketbooks do they not they come up off their wallet for you so that's what makes them interesting but i feel like that would be a huge uh bill they'd have to pay to get nate well what dave feldman said in interviews after that mike perry supercard the last time was that yes he had to sort of mortgage the house to make the card happen but that he said the investments would be right you know coming right after that to be able to sign bigger fights so mike he said the fans in our chat right now are echoing what a lot of people have rumored at times darren till what if it's darren till uh would that be would that signify

like holy shit i must buy this and watch this that'd be that'd be good i'd like that i'd be i'd be psyched to see that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, Mike Perry's... That'd be sick. He's won. Mike Perry is beating the game right now, and I couldn't be happier to see it.

We also could use him as, like, who in the larger crossover bubble are you hoping could get humbled? Like, that's what this Logan Paul fight would be about. People would be like, all right, finally these Pauls get what they have coming, right? Dude, can you imagine if he gets hit with a shot from Mike Perry and then lands stiffened up? There would be a lot of fight fans who'd be gleeful about that. Yeah, indeed.

Luke, we've got some old guys returning to the cage, and I want to get your thoughts on this. Do you remember that era where the Baron was the pound-for-pound king and the greatest band of weight we'd ever seen? Hedden Burrow is a monster. And then he lost like 15 in a row, Luke, before the age of 30. And we're all like, how did that just happen? So even though he was not going to be on this weekend's game bread card, which was a little bit of a controversy and he said he never signed for it.

October 7th, he will be fighting at Farah championships one against Peter Ligier. Is this a good idea or a bad idea for the Baron? And does he speak English enough so I can have him on the show? Because he's been one of my favorite fighters ever. I mean, the amount of CTE he must have is, you know. Oh, boy. I mean, am I being unfair? I mean, the dude's been rocked and knocked out and hurt.

You know, it's like, dude, at what point is enough enough? I guess it's not enough, but it seems to me that certainly is. Yeah. So Uriah Faber told me in 2017 on the CBS sports state of combat podcast, Luke, or maybe it was called in this corner, then who cares? Nobody listened to it except for the boxing part. Um, he said that it was USADA, not CTE or opponents that caused uh burrows slip from grace so you know yeah but that's a different consideration it's like okay that may have changed the competitive fortunes but i'm just talking about the amount of trauma he's absorbed the amount of he's been in a gazillion car wrecks at this point you're right you're right well you

know who else has luke quentin rampage jackson and you know he's been talking about making his uh one more fight in that ufl league that frank mears associated with it looks like it's going to be in december against daryl schoonover schoonover let's just call him what everybody else calls him luke titties big ass titties rampage called daryl this, of course, back in their Ultimate Fighter days. And here's Rampage's quote on the Jazz On podcast. I'll come back and fight grudge matches only. I want to fight titties from the Ultimate Fighter. He just signed the contract. The way I got titties to fight was I said, look, if you beat me, I will never call you titties again.

He's like, okay, let's do this. Luke, did Linda just walk off the show on her final show because we've given her nothing but ridiculous content yeah i mean she must be like i cannot believe that these two idiots have a show where they talk about other people acting like idiots um we're surprised too linda so don't join the club yeah i do can you imagine getting called titties on national tv and then it just sticking with you for 15 years? I mean, that's really the hell that this guy's been living through. We're in 2023, and it's like, oh, who's that guy?

Dude, they didn't even say Darren Schoonover or whatever. I don't even know his last name. I just know that everyone calls him Breastises, and that's just where we are. We have a direct quote from Linda in the control room of, I've never felt more at home, she says. All right, there you go. I see Linda is also a degenerate. Very good, very good. Thank you very much, Linda.

Luke, you won't care about this fight, will you? No, no. Dude, ever since Rampage Jackson just kind of belly flopped against Fedor, I've been like, wow, man, he's really checked out here. Well, I was down on him long before that belly flop. He had a few other fat fights, too, before that. Hey, let's go to topic three, Luke.

This weekend, I believe it's tonight. It is tonight. It's Game Bread Bare Knuckle MMA. Yes. I think it's Jacksonville's, uh, is this in Jacksonville? I don't know. Yes. At the ViStar Arena. Yeah. At the ViStar Arena. So here's the deal. It's, it's Jorge Masvidal's promotion, of course, but it is full mixed martial arts, but with bare knuckles and you're getting a heavyweight rematch that we may or may not have wanted between former UFC champions Junior Dos Santos and Fabricio Verdum. I caught up with Junior two weeks ago. You can catch that full interview, if that's your flavor,

on YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. Here is JDS talking about why he signed up with Jorge here for GameBread MMA. Entering this one under a new banner, of course, the Game Bread Bare Knuckle MMA banner. But you look like a million dollars. How do you feel? I feel great. And I'm doing, I'm putting in a great work at ATT, you know.

And I feel great about this fight as well. I think it's the most, it's the fight that makes more sense for me to be having right right now you know and uh the date is a great date uh i'm very excited with everything that uh game grad promotions are doing you know they're they're very serious guys you know and that's crazy but as soon as I moved to America back in the day, you know, 2015, as soon as I was training there on one of the days with George, and then George says, oh, man, one day you're going to fight for me on my promotion.

And I said, man, that's going to be a pleasure. Let's see. I hope it happens. But you see the power of the words. Today I'm fighting for his promotion and i'm very impressed with everything they are doing you know the guys are are are working hard to make it happen in a fashion way well luke uh they fought a long time ago it was jds's u UFC debut, and he knocked Fabrizio Verdum out. And hidden in that quote was the idea of how good he feels.

Luke, if you look good, apparently you feel good. 39-year-old JDS looks like a brick shithouse at the moment. And I went into that with him. You're going to love his answer, Luke, if you believe that drugs win the drug war. Let's listen in on old Junior. First and foremost, brother, you've been showing a physique lately that makes you look like you're 20 years old. What the heck's the secret here, sir?

Yeah, I'm feeling great, actually. I'm putting in great work. And right now that we're not going not uh going through uh usada it's it's been great because we can like i can take my pre-workouts i can take my burning fat i can take all the supplements that i uh i couldn't before you know so uh it's been great i'm feeling great i'm eating good and uh i i've always uh take care of my health you know i was always in great shape you know and things like that but right now that we are able to to uh not having uh problems using our our vitamins our supplements everything you know it's a

it's a it's a different it's a, you know, and then you can see the result. Here, you have a, you have a virgin body right here, buddy. So whenever, whenever you give it something, something good, you know, for it, it's, it's going to react right away. Luke, that former heavyweight champion now has a virgin body from all those vitamins and supplements. Could you just tell the people what's really happening here? Here's my question to you is why was he shouting the entire interview? I was like, dude, the volume's on. You ain't got to do that.

All right. I hate to clown him, Luke, because he's such a polite man, and I do respect him so much. But he's juiced to the gills, and he's like, yeah, I am. It's true, right? That's what he's saying. He's juiced to the Darren Schoonovers is really where he's juiced to the gills, and he's like, yeah, I am. It's true, right? That's what he's saying. He's juiced to the Darren Schoonovers is really where he's juiced. And, dude, the reality is this. Who is watching bare-knuckle MMA and is like, guys,

I can't watch bare-knuckle MMA unless these fighters are drug tested. That's beyond the pale. If you're watching bare-knuckle MMA, your car has been repossessed, your children have been taken from you, and you like guys doing steroids, which is fine. I'm not even against it either. But you're watching the most violent version of the most violent sport. Just let it be. Let it be.

Yeah, so JDS lost five consecutive fights all by TKO to end his UFC career in May of 2022. He's back at age 39. Verdum at age 46 has not fought in two years since that disastrous end to his PFL experiment. But Luke, I have to say this. Look, this is a gas station hot dog fight. It's kind of like real MMA. I think bare knuckle MMA is really stupid. I really do. Like, put the Florence gloves on. Like, this is a gas station hot dog fight. It's kind of like real MMA. I think bare knuckle MMA is really stupid. I really do. Like put the four ounce gloves on, like have an MMA

rematch. Just do it. But I don't have the sound to show it. You can check it in the interview, but I was actually disappointed with JDS on this factor. I talked about how in shape he was. And I talked about that. Look, you know, like this is a rematch. There's big names. People are going to care to a degree. Are you though auditioning for francis ngannou in the first pfl pay-per-view luke his response was uh no no no i just signed you know full-time with game bread that's where i fight there's the sometimes you only get one shot luke there's one shot at one really big bag left for Junior. Why would you not be like, yeah, absolutely.

Hey, Francis, you need an opponent after you're done with Fury. Hey, PFL, I know you got USADA now, but we'll work around this. Call me. Are you really going to stay loyal to Jorge over getting the Francis bag? What are you doing? Yeah. Well, again, PFL employing USADA, just an epically unnecessary decision. But I'll say this, dude.

I've seen those game bread purse reports, like the one for the fight they had in Milwaukee. They put out a lot of money. Not Francis $2 million minimum guaranteed money, but decent wage. A decent wage. Do you think they're making back enough as a promotion? I don't have any idea how they're making a dime. But, you know, that's not my issue. All right.

You're not going to use terms like laundering and get into conspiratorial areas, right? No. But, like, dude, I'll just say that promoting is difficult. Promoting is a hard job. Brandon Jenkins versus Anthony Njuquani on this card as well. Reggie Northrup. Is there any other names we know we know I mean I know you don't care Luke I'll I'll tune in for curiosity but dude if you're JDS why are you taking yourself out of the Engado sweepstakes what are you doing I'm the one yelling now yeah I don't okay I don't know all. And speaking of bare knuckle, Luke, former BKFC champion Alan Belcher is a free agent

who has just signed with, guess who? GameBread MMA. And he's going to be fighting on October 28th, the dried husk of what's left of Roy Nelson for the bare knuckle MMA heavyweight title. And here's the quote from Masvidal on Ariel Hawani's MMA hour. We've got both those freaking savages competing bare knuckle heavyweight championship of the world.

I told you I'm bringing fucking heat brother. End quote, Luke. So JDS won't get in Ghanu, but if he wins, could he get the winner of Alan Belcher versus right now? What are we doing here? Look,

what the hell are we doing here? Alan Belcher. he still has like, what happened with him at BKFC, right? Because I thought he was like a big hit for them, but I guess not. Yeah, he was like the champion. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, Luke. I don't follow it that closely, to be fair, okay? You know, that's just, he is jacked and yeah. Luke, do you think bare knuckle mma needs to exist i don't think it needs to exist just be like regional game bread mma and bring in old guys and make fun fights right they gotta have some kind of twist this is the angle they're going for well whether it will work or not i do not know well if you're looking to get in shape in your own midlife crisis or whether

you're looking to work yourself back into the game, you certainly can take the supplements that JDS is taking or Luke, or you can consider using our latest sponsor. I'm talking about FitBod. That's right. FitBod is going to transform how you work out either for the summer or now the fall that's upcoming. FitBod workouts fit into my routine, keep me motivated, and I'm seeing progress, BC. Yeah. And smart technology, it's all around us. Everybody knows that. So you wouldn't use a printed map when you have your phone's GPS, right? Using technology to improve your workout, it's really the same thing. And FitBod's technology improves my workout by creating routines I can stick to. I don't need that big Schwarzenegger

book anymore, taking up all that space in my closet, Luke. That's right. If you're looking to push your limits either at the gym or jumpstart, just your general fitness routine, FitBod can help you. Yeah, indeed. The FitBod app creates customized workouts based on your goals, fitness levels, available equipment, and it learns from your previous workouts and adapts as you improve. It's the perfect combination to help you crush your summer goals. It might be even, Luke, more intelligent than that damn smart cage. Well, the Ask Jeeves cage is certainly quite intelligent. I can't believe they're not calling it the Ask Jeeves AI cage, but that'll happen soon. But listen, FitBot's powerful technology, they understand your strength training ability, they study your past workouts, and then they

adapt it to whatever available gym equipment that you either have at home or, of course, at the gym. This keeps your gym sessions fresh and mixes up your workouts nicely. Yeah. And you can easily keep track of your achievements and your personal best with FitBod's progress tracking charts. Learn new movements right away with over 1,000 demonstration videos. That's right. So listen, it's not too late to crush your fitness goals. Try FitBod today. Yeah, get 25% off your subscription or try the app for free. Here's where we want you to go to this website, fitbod.me slash combat with a K,

F-I-T-B-O-D dot M-E slash combat. There you go. There it is. All right, thank you very much, FitBod. Let's move it on, Luke. It's that segment of the week. We had a few weeks off here where you and I go head-to-head, and I am creeping right now, Luke, right?

Like young radio head. You're like both thugs in harmony creeping on a come-up. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about right there. We go head-to-head every week with five picks. At the end of the year, whoever does worse has to go to the concert of their co-host choice bc you know what's out today you know what's out today do you not no i don't how about the like literally today the brand new dying fetus album make them beg for death i can't wait to take you

to the show the only thing better than dying luke is begging for it right yeah there we go uh luke before vacation you went two and three the last time we did this it just so happened that your boy bc went three and two so here's the deal your updated standings did we throw to the intro already or did i miss that not yet oh all right well here's your updated i can't tell if the india flag thing is racist. I want to accuse you two of being racist, but I don't know if I can. Look at those updated standings. 63-58-3 is the barely plus 500 record of Luke, but only two or so picks away at 61-63 is your boy BC. Oh, yeah, baby.

This could be the week, Luke. This could be the week I pass your ass on a segment that we call OK Bet. All right, OK Betters, it's time to get it. Luke, you still hold the champion's advantage. Are you going first or second here? I'll go first. I mean, it's not too difficult to call for the main event. Obviously, I'm going to go with the champ

Izzy. I don't know if there's much explanation that needs to be made. Listen, MMA is crazy. Anything can happen. Blah, blah, blah. Upsets there or there. You know, whatever. But it's just hard for me to see a credible case at this point in time. So give me Izzy. Yeah, I saw

Strickland tell John Anik after the commemorative weigh-ins this morning that he was yelling to the fans, thank you for, he was actually being really sincere, thanking them sincerely for the support, but then saying, I'm going to get a lot more CTE for all of you come Saturday or Sunday or whenever it is down under. Luke, I do believe that Strickland is going to go after Izzy. It really, if you really think about it, I don't want to say that's his only chance. He does have five-round stamina, but I think we're being correct in saying, what is he going to do to sustain? What is he going to do to win rounds?

It's hard. It's hard, Luke. It really is hard. You got to go Izzy here. He's a nearly 7-1 underdog. Do you think that what Izzy said at the press conference is ultimately the difference here. When he said, they asked Izzy about Strickland's comments about mimicking what Kelvin Gastelum did. And what Izzy basically said was, look, that's great, but he doesn't have the chin Gastelum has. And then he made a reference to the tradition of Mexican fighters' chins.

Is that the biggest reason in your eyes why a Strickland upset is unlikely? Or is that not even part of your thinking? That's part of it, too. I mean, he actually referenced another fight, which I think is a little bit more doable, which was Michael Bisping versus Anderson Silva. You know, that is a little bit more doable because you can really work volume.

You can put the jab in his face, potentially, potentially, and, you know, work from that. But even that seems like Anderson would play too many games and wait too long to throw. Izzy is selective, but not like that. It's, like I said, dude, anything can happen. MMA's crazy, blah, blah, blah, but it's hard to see a path for him. It really is.

Yeah, we're both going to go with Izzy. Obviously, that makes a lot of sense. I want to see those updated. Caesars has minus 650 for Izzy, plus 460 for Strickland. So, Luke, in a betting sense, although it's not part of our segment, you and I were both on CBS Sports HQ yesterday.

We both predicted Izzy by stoppage. I'm thinking right around round three because the more Strickland tries to win this, look, unless he's going to come out with the most accurate jab that's going to come out with the most accurate jab that's going to surprise us in how it backs Adesanya up, the more he tries to win, the more it speeds up his exit. That's the equation when you go into the spider web of counter shots

that Izzy weaves. You know that. He's hard to hit clean. He's hard to hurt. I mean, yeah. I mean, we've kind of been over this a million times, but it's just tough, dude. It's a real tough matchup for him.

All right, let's go to your favorite, Luke. Who are you backing here on minus money? Well, I made one of the all-time dumbest picks in picking one of the Connecticut boys to beat a Taffa brother, and that didn't go well. So let me see if I can undo that a little bit. Now, this time, when they fought the last time, Justin Taffa got raked in the eyes and they couldn't fight.

This is the rematch against Austin Lane. Our friends at Caesars have Taffa as a minus 220. I think that's good enough to still be pickable for this contest. So give me Justin Taffa to beat Austin Lane for my favorite. Yeah, I feel like a knockout is coming in that fight, and I think you got the right guy. He's got the fan base there. The brothers bang.

We know that. So the tour of Taffa will continue. Let's go to my pick for favorite. I'm going to go to that co-main event. It's Alexander Volkov minus 250 against Ty Tuivasa, who's got somewhat, you know, they're giving him respect on those odds. Luke Caesars has it plus 205 Tuivasa. This is a fight that we talked about this week that, yes, to Ivasa could win.

And really, I think for his upper bound limit future as potentially half fun guy, half legitimate, I'm going after the title, he needs this win. I think a lot of people, though, are looking at my analysis and saying, I'm asking too much of Tai to Ivasa. Luke, if he doesn't come out with something different and it's still the same thing, I think it's going to be the perfect fodder for Alexander Volkov to work him from the outside with not only the jab, but those hard leg strikes,

the body kicks, but also the wrestling. I mean, Volkov didn't mince words when he said, like I told you earlier this week, he said, my ego lets me know that I'm a better striker than him, but I need to win this fight. So at the end of the day, if there's openings for wrestling, I'm going to take it. What do you make of Tai Tuivasa's takedown defense at this point? Because I'm going to take the favorite here in Volkov. I do think he's coming on two straight wins by knockout.

I don't think he's perfect. I don't think he even gets to the title level at the end of the day, but I think he should win this matchup. What happens happens though if Tuivasa stops the takedown that improves his chances certainly but there's still a lot to overcome just in terms of overcoming the reach but uh yeah I mean I mean stopping the takedown seems like a pretty important component which he should be able to do Volkov's got some decent takedowns but not overwhelming I don't think like it's against, I mean, yeah, listen, it's just going to tell us where Tuivasa's at. Like, Tuivasa should be able to manage that. He should be able to get that done.

He is, again, the faster athlete that can also matter in takedown defense as well. So I guess we'll see, but I think he will. The question is whether or not that will be enough, even if he does. I'm a little nervous making this pick, because I will say this about Tuivasa. He does seem to have the ability to rise to the occasion we are talking about like

taking that Pavlovich fight too quickly and getting demolished but the time off does leave me wondering about what we're going to get but with the home fans rocking I'm going to be biting my nails during this one but I still like Volkov as the favorite they're going to come a knocking huh yeah come a knocking Luke who's your underdog here yeah uh this is probably a terrible pick because all my underdog picks are pretty terrible but I'm going to go with-knocking, huh? Yeah, come a-knocking. Luke, who's your underdog here? This is probably a terrible pick because all my underdog picks are pretty terrible. But I'm going to go with Da Eun Jung. Now, he's coming off two straight losses, which is obviously probably a very bad reason to put him in this spot.

The thing is, at times, like in the Kennedy and Zetsuku fight, he looked pretty good, actually. He's had moments. This guy out of South Korea, he's taking on Carlos Olberg, who has gotten nothing but better. So he's probably going to get his ass kicked, but forced to make a pick out of an underdog on this card. Different from you, certainly, as well.

This was one I thought, maybe there's a chance, but, you know, it's a stupid pick, if I can be honest. Yeah, I'm going to tell you right now, you're going to lose it. Luke Olberg's going to win, and then he's going to win after the fight, too. He's going to win big, dude. He's going to do nothing but winning. Nothing but winning. So but winning so that'll bring me closer to you my underdog pick i'm a little nervous because i picked it before the weight miss and you know luke i'm always i don't trust when a guy misses weight as bad as shane

young did who will be taking on gabriel miranda shane young's the favorite coming in miranda plus 140 or let me check the updated one because Because what happened here was Shane Young missed weight by upwards of four pounds, Luke. But near, far, wherever they are, this fight will still go on. I am going to take the underdog, Gabriel Miranda, here. I am nervous about that pick as Shane Young, riding a two-fight losing streak, does need a big win here. This catchweight bout will take place at 149.75 pounds. I'm going to go Miranda, Luke. I'm going to do it.

My Miranda rights are allowing me this. But like the Miranda rights tell you, Luke, I can plead the fifth and not give you reasons why. So I'm going to pick it because I feel it. But I'm nervous. The Miranda rights are not the Fifth Amendment, but I understand what you mean. Well, yeah, I do have a right to an attorney, right? And if the court could appoint one to me, yes if you cannot afford one the court will point one for you yes yeah thank you i'm gonna go there now you were gonna pick that too luke do you have the

same confidence that i do that miranda can pull this off uh that was the other pick i was gonna do for my underdog pick but again my underdog picks are consistent failures. So, you know, take that for what it's worth. All right, so for over under, give me Tuivasa Volkov dot, dot, dot, not going the distance. I just have a hard time. I mean, not a hard time. I think it is more unlikely than not that it goes the distance.

So I'm going to think, I'm going to give it the under. I think it gets up. Where, though, is a little harder to tell because you could imagine it getting stopping very quickly right when someone lands a big bomb or something or it going a little bit late if it has to that that's another possibility there as well but I just tend to think it doesn't go the distance I think uh you know I think like I said uh Volkov's gonna win a decision so I'd be happy to get two points off of this result let's go over to my over under I'm gonna go with that

Carlos Olberg Dawun Jung fight and say that will not go the distance. I do like Olberg as the favorite here. I like him to get the stoppage. You have taken the upset pick on this. Either way, though, Luke, I don't think they get to the 15-minute mark. I think that's probably fair. Yeah, I don't think that's a bad pick at all. I would agree with that. I mean, Olberg is kind of a go-for-it kind of dude. And Da Eun Jung, he is not winning more recently, but he is a balls-out action fighter, so that's probably a good pick. All right, so last but not least, KO or sub? Give me Manel Kopp versus Felipe Dos Santos via KO. I have a feeling that, you know, Manel Kopp, by the way, he's got great flying knees. I wouldn't call him like a bite-down-on-the-mouthpieceopp by the way he's got great flying knees he's he uh I wouldn't call him like a bite down on the mouthpiece action guy but he's got the capability of uh violence at a moment's notice I think is a good way to put it maybe and Felipe Dos Santos I think is going to meet him in

the middle which is probably going to lead to some kind of devastating KO in either direction probably in the Dos Santos getting KO'd side but either way give me Kopp versus Dos Santos getting KO'd side, but either way, give me Kopp versus Dos Santos via KO. All right, my KO or sub is going to go back to that GameBread MMA main event there from Jacksonville. It's very simple. I'm going with the KO, Luke. Either fight or winning will give me that if they do it by KO. But the 39-year-old Junior Dos Santos looks like a million bucks. We're right to have a lot of questions about Verdum at 46. Bareknuckle, yeah, give me a JDS knockout there to give me another point. I think I might take you this week. I may actually take over you as we look now at a full-screen recap

of our picks right here. Thank you, Mikey Morms. This is BC. I'm going to need some help here. I'm really nervous about that favorite and underdog pick, but I think I got three points outside of that. Yeah, the underdog pick is sketched sketch but the rest of them look pretty good looks decent although tuivasa scares me let's go back to luke's picks to recap as the race is so tight at the moment

as you see i gotta say my underdog pick sucks ass but the other ones i don't think are that bad right no you never know you never freaking know. We'll find out on Monday's show, the updated scoreboard. Will I take over? If I do take over the lead, Luke, I'm going to start calling my band members and figuring out where, you know, where they're playing and when we can do this. I need Jake. I need Jake Von Amsterdam there with a camera. That's what I have really slept on your ability to, to rise. But once again, I want to point out to the audience, you know, you could flip a coin and every single week and basically have the exact same results that we do. So please take our betting advice accordingly. And with all due respect, it's the only sleeping you've been doing, Luke, to be fair.

That is also true. Yes. Yeah, there you go. We haven't done this in a while, but we do try to put ourselves on trial if necessary. Every Friday, we give you an email address, morningcombat at gmail.com. Mikey Marms from cbs sports say hi on the other end of that rabbit hole and it's your chance to put us to question we speak into a microphone for many hours per week but did we say some of that bullshit were we wrong were we too mean what the hell happened i don't know but you better have receipts if you want us to humbly admit we was dead wrong. All right.

This one's from Daz. D-A-Z-Z. And he mahaloed us, Luke. So he must be coming from Hawaii. Hopefully him and his extended family are doing okay. Luke, you're not going to buy into some of these MMA fighters that are saying that the Hawaiian fires

were laser beams from airplanes, right? No, I read books. Okay. Daz says, Aloha, Donks. Not to rain on the Gary Busey parade, but the clip that aired on Have You Seen the Shit, Gary Busey and Buttered Sausage, was a deep fake. Oh, no. Oh, boy.

And not the real Gary Busey, despite how plausible the video seemed. That's the thing. It seemed real. Thank you how plausible the video seemed. That's the thing. It seemed real. Thank you for all the great content. Looking forward to the new MK Store merch. Shout out to Average Joe Art. Yes, indeed. Shout out to the kid.

Mahalo. It's dad. Say hello to Governor BJ for us at the Lava Shack. Thank you. We'll take that L. We will. This one's from Kevin. He says, hey, guys, quick one this time. During Have You Seen This Shit this week, Brian called Craig Jones a wrestling coach, but he's more known for his reach arounds. Really? Wow. A.K.A. the octopus guard. In fact, he should be called a BJJ practitioner coach. Okay. Luke, while technically Craig Jones is known more for submissions and BJJ,

didn't he do wonders to Volkanovski's offensive and defensive wrestling? Isn't it not ridiculous for me to use the word wrestling when talking about the other things like BJJ and a white white lightning that Craig Jones does so well? I think that, okay, here's what I'll say. And I said this on my live chat yesterday, which is your favorite program that I do, but yeah, not cheap,

not cheap to work on that show, but the people love it. Luke. Okay. Okay. But in all seriousness, someone was asking like, what is it that he gives people?

And the answer is in my view, because I've watched a lot of his instructionals and his matches he has a very different view over what jujitsu should be doing right rather than passing guard and going to side mount and stuff like that he believes you should work on a little bit more of like what uh you know methods of control to actually get people pinned where they can't move wrist rides and controls so it's a mix of catch wrestling and jujitsu, right? And what I mean by that is catch wrestling has a lot of like elbow pain submissions. It's not that, but you know, a lot of stuff where you're lifting from the neck, not so much for a choke, you're lifting the head to keep the spine compressed so they can't move.

You're using Turks, which is essentially one of your legs, lifting one of theirs so that you can either turn them or they can't turn, right?'s this thing that it's like it's it's more grappling than anything else but it's got wrestling elements built in because catch wrestling is kind of a offshoot of scholastic wrestling so it's this weird different hybrid so to your point BC you know is he a wrestling coach in the way that we typically understand them? No, I don't think that would be a fair description. But is he a jiu-jitsu coach in the common way that we understand it? I would argue, yeah, he can do all those things, but he does more than that.

And it's a little bit more of that old school wrestling pinning type stuff that's different and new. So to be fully pedantic here, I think it's fair for me to say I'm more right than I'm wrong, right? Like he is a wrestling coach. I think you couldn't call him a strict jiu-jitsu coach. I would call him like a grappling coach, something like that. To be fair, when people say grappling in the mixed martial arts space, that does involve both amateur wrestling and jiu-jitsu, correct? Yeah.

So I should just say grappling coach so Kevin can be right here, right? Yeah, something like that. All right. Maybe I'm wrong in that regard. But is the proper counter to a Turk a keikos, Luke? It's an Ottoman. It's Caribbean Island humor for you. There you go.

All right. It's an Istanbul, not Constantinople. Oh, okay. There you go. Hey, let's go to the next dead rung. It's a double dead There you go. All right. It's an Istanbul, not Constantinople. Oh, okay. There you go. Hey, let's go to the next dead wrong. It's a double dead wrong from Dalton. Two dead wrongs this week, and both of them are for BC. Here we go.

Number one, at 11 minutes of episode 485, BC, who was looking like the Michael Douglas character from Falling Down with his new glasses, states that Izzy, quote, has six title defenses looking to extend to seven on Saturday. Hey, that's dead wrong. Izzy is going for title defense number six. He doesn't already have six. I will take that L, especially since I previously said he only had four, I think. He beat Romero, Costa, Vittori, Whitaker, and Kananir before losing to Poiton. That's five defenses, BC.

Here's hoping that BC's lovely wife is the one who helps his kids with their math homework so they don't wind up at the same mail order community college that BC dropped out of. Well, just so you know. Damn, dude, that was unnecessary. Jesus. Just so you know, I do have an associate's degree in general studies from that, from Naugatuck Valley Community Technical College. So put some respect on the NVCC. Thank you very much. Also, Luke, my lovely wife and I both punt

when it comes to math homework. Have you tried to, well, your daughter's not in sophomore year AP calculus or whatever the heck my kids are in, but look, it's, dude, it's a foreign language when they're like now now i know what you're thinking you heard me try to tackle sat math skills without a pen and paper and a lot of delta eights and it went disastrously wrong in studio but look i was pretty good at math 27 years later dude i don't have a freaking chance of helping on homework yeah i did well in math in high school my brother has a phd in math but I haven't looked at math problems in 20 plus years I don't know what I'm gonna do I'm like hey son just you know you can pick a career which math

is not a not a question there's I was told there wasn't any math in combat sports Luke so that's why I'm here so thank you very much also yes my wife is a lot smarter than me and handles the finances uh there's reasons Luke why partnership is great in that regard let's go to the second dead wrong here from dalton he says at 53 minutes of episode 45 bc states that it was edward kennedy who said the famous line to dan quayle i knew jack kennedy and you are no jack kennedy that is dead wrong you're right it was lloyd benson the running mate of michael dukakis who said this to dan Quayle about Jack Kennedy having nothing to do with Edward Ted Kennedy. If you're going to be a washed piece of shit, BC, at least try to be a somewhat competent washed POS and not the MMA media equivalent of the aforementioned Dukakis. Also, P.S., BC, stop asking for the Charles Whitman when you go to the barbershop.

It's 2023. Love the content and donk on, day one. Yeah, you know, whatever concert we go to, it's not going to be a country one. I'm just going to put it that way, you know? Well, Luke, I'm not wearing the glasses today because after wearing them for two hours two days ago, I no longer could see long distance. So I think I may have to, like to ration my use of them to reading. It takes some getting used to, yeah.

Yeah, my eyes were blurry for 24 hours after that. It was great. I'll take the L's on there. I was dead wrong. Thank you for being largely polite, but not really. That's the end of that segment. What we have, Luke, also is some leftover fan subs that we have not finished. Normally we do this on Wednesdays. We had to speed through them last time out, Luke, also is some leftover fan subs that we have not finished. Normally we do this on Wednesdays.

We had to speed through them last time out, and then I added some have you seen this shit on Wednesday to complicate it. But morningcombat.gmail.com is your place to send pictures of you in tight merch or maybe you cleaning up the lake in Nova Scotia, getting ready for that beautiful fall season over there in Mount Unaiki. This one's called fan subs. I did it wrong. No, wait, fan subs, what am I saying?

Viewers. We've got mail, yes. Viewers. Let's hear from Mike. He says, what's up, Luke and BC? It's our guy, yes, Liverpool's Mike Owens Media. And I just got back from spending 292 fight week with the New England cartel. Calvin Cater and Rob Font showed me around Boston,

introduced me to Dana White, and got me in the building to witness the Sugar Show in full effect. Can't thank these boys enough for making my first UFC experience a special one. Hope to see you boys at a U.S. pay-per-view soon. Luke, that looks like an album cover right there. Look at these guys. Go back to the last shot, if you can, whoever's running the board there. Yeah.

Boy, did Calvin Cater get those glasses in Columbia? Because that's what they're all wearing down there. Let me tell you. Wow. He's ahead of the curve on that style. Luke, I got to say this. We have always sort of embraced the friends we've made in this media. I always feel like you can rather help people and lift them up than hurt them, Luke,

although we have some nice banter with Ariel, but we work with him too. We love him. Mike Owens media is such a good donk. Been on his show just this week recently. When I, when him and I, when I reached out to him after seeing his social media pics in Boston,

it was like, dude, how was that? He wrote best week of my life. Great to see. Great to see him. Yeah. Yeah.

Taking his career to the next level. He does a fun podcast with Rob font and to now be inducted into the cartel like that. And I'm happy to see that yeah yeah taking his career to the next level he does a fun podcast with rob font and to now be inducted into the cartel like that uh happy to see that for a great kid once you're in you can't get out you can't get out yeah you're gonna have to kill a man mike i'm sorry about that but uh one of the better things to come out of liverpool since since really the fab four luke right all right that's that's that's a little strong i I mean. Okay. All right. All right. All right. Okay. Let's go over to Leo. He says, hey, guys, it's Leo writing in from LA. I heard BC was reading Dune.

This is true. The whole series is one of my favorites, and I think Luke would appreciate it, too. Love you all and can't wait for the three-peat at the World MMA Awards. Luke, I don't read. You know this about me, right? I don't read fiction, first of all. And I'm having trouble sticking with it because my...

You have the reading stamina of a toddler. Yeah, my reading hygiene is worse than your sleeping hygiene. Luke, I'll say this though. This might be the greatest book of all time. Dune is already... The Dune from 2018 or whenever it came out is already my favorite movie. This has become my favorite movie of all time. I'm serious. The new Dune is already, the Dune from 2018 or whenever it came out is already my favorite movie.

This has become my favorite movie of all time. I'm serious. The new Dune one is my favorite movie. The book is exceptional, dude. This is amazing. So I was perusing Netflix the other day with my wife, and I saw that there's like the 1984 version of Dune is on there. Have you seen it? Yeah, it's blockbuster.

It's comical, Luke. It's ridiculous. It's bad? Yeah, so it came out right when I got HBO as a kid, and I'd never watched it. I couldn't tell if you said blockbuster or you were doing skits and bits, but of course you were doing skits and bits. Of course I was. But I'll tell you this, Luke.

I did watch parts of it after watching the new one, because when I first got HBO in 84, I was like six years old. Dune was the big movie that was coming, and there's all these specials and features about a great on a curve you know what i mean yeah it was the most expensive movie ever and it was the one of the biggest flops of all time dude that that is a comically awful movie what denny has been able to do with the book and bringing it to script and bringing it to the big screen with his team is remarkable it's so committed to the to the script luke to the book itself i'm telling you that i know it's it's hailed as arguably the greatest science fiction book of all time so i'm not rediscovering the wheel here but this book from from frank herbert is just it's it's

it's amazing web scream reread it again out of excitement for me reading it, Luke. Remember that guy? Yeah, I remember him. All right, there we go. Thank you, Leo, for that fan sub. Am I crazy in saying that that new Dune movie is among the best movies I've ever seen in my life? You saw it. I did see it.

I really liked it. I just think you have not seen very many actually good movies. That's the problem. Yeah, all right, all right. I will say that, unfortunately, Luke, it's been announced that the sequel that was intended for November Oh, they pushed it way back, right? Because of the strikes, right?

Yeah, because of that damn writer's strike. So there you go right there. Let's go over to Lee. He says, Bidding to be MK's strongest fan for hitting 506 pounds for three while repping the MK merch. If however, my deadlifts are Vitor's traps, my bench and squad are most definitely Kamaru's calves. Luke, how is my form?

All right, let's see. Damn, he looks good in that tank top, right, Luke? Yeah, his form is good. So Lee says, he says, Brian, I'm sorry I'm not Brett Okamoto, but it is me. Wait, wait, wait. Can we talk over it while he plays it one more time? One more time. One more time.

So this is Lee Borthwick from Edinburgh, right? Did I say that right? I guess so. Edinburgh.wick from Edinburgh, right? Did I say that right? I guess so. Edinburgh. Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh. Edinburgh, Scotland. Yeah. Yeah, not bad, right?

Yeah, that's pretty good. I mean, he got a little bit with his hips coming up before the bar on the third one, but in general in general that was a great lift like that's the best lift i think anyone has sent us on this show least pretty jack for a skinny guy too i don't know if there's the same guy i think he is who sends me his tyson fury impersonations all the time over voice memo and always take shots at you in the tyson fury voice look it pretty. Does he call me a sausage? Yeah.

Yeah. Dosser, all that stuff. All right. Thank you very much. Hey, let's go over to Antoine. You remember all six foot eight of this guy. Remember Luke, he ran away from San Diego and moved to Alaska. Remember that guy?

Oh, the Jan Sixer? No, but yeah, he's on that level. It's been a long time guys, but it doesn't mean I haven't been a good P1. God damn, that thing is washed out. Look at that Jersey or the hoodie. He says, I took my merch 1.0 to the Ruth Amphitheater in Denali National Park via Bush plane. No Luke, not Bush, the beer, and no BC, not Ruth's Bush. And I flew by and saw the largest mountain in North America, Denali.

I hit the peaks. I hope all is well with you guys, and I appreciate the MK all America, Denali. I hit the peaks. I hope all is well with you guys, and I appreciate the MK all day, every day. Thanks for tapping me into the monster in boxing, BC. Niowa Inouye made me a pretty penny these past couple years betting. Maybe I can finally buy new merch for the wilderness. Happy birthday, Luke, in BC last month. Eat a bag of dicks, you heathens. Much love from the middle of nowhere.

It's Antoine in Alaska. Now, Luke, I've been following Antoine's life story because he's a good donk. I think recently he moved to Colorado and he does, like, skiing instruction. But, dude, he's a former college basketball player and he's from France, dude. And he kind of cleans up with the ladies. Can we run that footage again, Luke? Run the picture again? I mean, he took this lady to the top of the world, Luke.

Yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hope he doesn't Richie Valens himself out there flying one of these little... Yeah, yeah. By the way, look at the person in the background, miserable as shit. Yeah. The day the music died.

I hope he joined the club up there at Mile High, Luke. But good to see Antoine repping us. I mean, look, the thing is about our day one P1s, dude, they got our back for life, right? Yeah, they're pretty great, I have to admit. They like us in spite of ourselves, you know? Yeah, shout out to Antoine. He sent me a bunch of extended videos from this flyover, Luke.

Just gorgeous. Have you ever done that? Beautiful country out there, huh? I want to go to Alaska so bad. Maybe Antoine could be our tour guide for MK. What do you think? No, I'm not that. No?

Nah. All right. Well, David Appleton's here, Luke, from France, with love. Oh, Jesus Christ. Here we go. He says, hey, guys, I just got back from holiday in the south of France, and I've been catching up on a couple weeks' MK shows. The hot take from 15 hours of MK listening since I got back, and shit, I'm turning into JP,

is that BC is not only making up at least two words per episode, he is now justifying his infant school level of English by claiming to have Greek roots. Here's a little sample of BC Socrates and his classical Greek vocabulary. Irregardless, adaption. Unsuccessively. Quadrupology. Meritocris. Jesus, you are just inventing shit.

Yeah, it is very shop-like of me, Luke. You know what I'm saying? It's that CT kicking in, but the CT and CT, believe that. But I'm sorry, people. I'm sorry. David Appleton would go to say, Yours affectionately, the last man standing of the former Donks of the Year, Jeffrey Appelstein.

Just to let you know, though, Jay Paquette is back in the family, Luke, and it's great to see. We missed him. I'm glad he's back. We were busting his balls. It was never personal. It was never personal, guys. Yeah, big fan of JP there and Appy.

We still need to settle the debate of who really is last year's Donk of the Year. You know what? We should have a rough and rowdy with the Donks, like bar school style. I was going to say, like, mud wrestling or something between the two of them, right? It'd be great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Our final fan sub of the week comes from Super Dave.

He says, Hey, Mikey, since Danger Mouse memes are nowhere to be found, I had to pick up the slack. Here are some fun memes I made. Good luck on the best MMA sportscast of the year. Is that Chachri? Yeah. Is that Danger Mouse at the bottom there too? I think it is. That is awesome.

Oh, that is awesome. I look jacked in that picture. Look at this. Oh, boy. Is this a play on three men and a little baby? This is you, me, Chuck, holding the baby, Shaquille Majorey. Are you down with this, Luke? Of course.

I'm the one covered in piss. That's great. Three men can live together. There's no problem. It's 2023. Baby Shaq approves. Oh, yeah. There it is, Luke.

There it is. The silent killer. Cumberland Farland farms who would have thought but look at you and me showing up like uh decorated donks in front of that yeah i'm glad i had i'm glad i had a bow tie on crooked all night that was well that was smart have you ever eaten out of cumberland farms luke i've never even seen one it could change your life negatively as could eating at arby's there it is luke beef and cheddar for days. That's your own peril. Yep, there's another hidden danger mouse if you can find it there. It's like a hidden Mickey.

I love this from Super Dave. We got anything else out of here? No one does memes anymore. Hot topic. Oh, this is your hot topic. Yes. That is awesome. That is awesome.

When was the last time you were on a hot topic? And I'm going to say not being a creep. Yeah, I did go to the mall with my wife on a day off recently, and it was like it reminded me how I used to, you know, between the ages of like 12 and 28, I spent a lot of time in malls. And as an adult, you really don't go back except for like Christmas, right? So. Like I said, dude, the malls in Columbia are still kind of where it's at,

you know, so when I'm there, you got to go to the mall because that's where all they don't have Amazon there. So like brick and mortar still kind of is the thing, you know so I've when I'm there you got to go to the mall cuz that's where all they don't have Amazon there so like brick-and-mortar still kind of is the thing you know yeah so I've been to them I've been to like the I've been to the malls overseas a lot but here and the malls in DC suck they're yeah I mean you know yeah it is what it is look DC's not perfect I just want you to know that oh I know it's not perfect I'll do crime is crime is up. Like, believe me, I know. It's really expensive.

And, you know, the attitude of the average service worker, Luke, is ridiculous. Stop blaming the service workers because your five minutes of material didn't work on them. That's a you problem. The instant no-sell, the rock-solid no-sell of, like, okay. Hey there, guys. Are you working hard or hardly working, huh? Huh? Yeah,

there it is. And that is also our show for the day. Shout out to Mikey Mormons on the 1GT. Hey, this was a good show. Linda directing for the final time. We wish you well on your future endeavors after an incredible career. And Luke Thomas, will you be there for the people

Saturday night after UFC 293? Saturday night. Join us. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat for your UFC 293 post-fight show slash instant reaction. I got you covered. I'll be there. Join me as soon as the main event is over.

Also, a reminder, today's official launch of our new merch and the collaboration heard around the world from Average Joe Art. RJ behind the scenes working hard. It's live now. Go to morningcombat.store. A reminder, a limited edition collaboration.

But if you keep buying them, I have a feeling Average Joe will keep keep making them great to see this come to fruition It is an incredible step up in our merch game. Look at that one love Bob Marley hat Luke on that on that wash dad right there. Also also you can vote for us morning combat Best MMA programming 15th annual world MMA Awards. Oh Luke Luke we might have to be there to accept this so what if we get O'Malley versus Cheeto do we need Connor on there to get the bosses to send us we got to be there in Las Vegas for this you know I it's hard to say but I don't think we need Connor on the card it would make it a lot easier it would make it a lot easier but I don't think

we need it um but I guess we'll have to see we'll see i'm gonna be honest because you know we made a fun joke of it we made a documentary about it you didn't give us much chance to win it was a big upset emily uh whitmire told us that herself afterwards it was a huge upset you guys are that we took down rogan helwani dc all them if we did it for a third straight year, like, would it bring a tear to your eye? Yeah. Ric Flair, Royal Rumble, 1992. I might cry. I'm not even doing a bit.

Like, I might cry. I might cry. Yeah. Yeah. I would like to. And then we can do the theme song, the winning song, right? S my F and D.

S my F and D. Yeah. Yeah. Luke Thomas original right there. Oh, F and D. Yeah, yeah. Luke Thomas original right there. Oh, we lost him. We lost him. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just stroking out here right on air. Luke, I fear once you finally get the sleep you're looking for that you'll never wake up. That's my fear. Okay, so we need you. Well, that's really a terrible thing to say to someone. It's quite the omen. But no, I think I'll be okay. I think I'll be okay. You know, I'm just going through a bout of insomnia, but I'm working on it. I'm working on it. So just,

you know, everyone send me positive vibes. How about that? Yes, please. One in Luke's prayers and then two in his, you know, in his, there you go. And his thoughts. Indeed. We need that golf glove back out there. All right. That's it for the show today. Thank you. Take care of yourself upstairs, folks. Okay. Put yourself first right there. We love you. Enjoy the fights this weekend. Thank you so much for being a P1 from day one, but we out of here. I don't have a good joke to end it with Luke. You want to take it home? I mean, I'm done when I'm done. I'll see, I'll see y'all tomorrow. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.