MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 295 Picks | Deontay Wilder to MMA? | Fight Announcements | Jamahal Hill | Morning Kombat Ep 513

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

On Episode 513 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian give their picks for UFC 295. The boys also discuss Deontay Wilder considering a transition to MMA. Is this a huge mistake? Next up they break down some recent fight announcements. Is this the best possible option for Kayla Harrison? The guys close out the topics with a quick update on Jamahal Hill. We close out this Friday with Dead wrong and Fan submissions from Wednesday. (00:10:30) - Ok, Bet (00:56:00) - Tony Ferguson (01:08:00) - Deontay Wilder (01:25:00) - Jamahal Hill (01:31:00) - Fight News and Announcements (01:41:00) - Jaron Ennis (01:52:00) - Dead Wrong 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

Oh yeah, can you feel the R pumping through my veins? How are you? It's Friday, November 10th, 2023. 24 hours removed from UFC 295 at MSG and NYC. This is the best damn combat sports show, period. My name is Brian Campbell, that beige base tard. Yeah, coming at you. We win awards.

I'm one half of that, right? Luke's putting his S back together, but there he is right there. Washington, D.C.'s finest. He's got his toe spacers. It's Luke Thomas. Luke, are you, knowing that everyone made weight, are you fired the hell up for tomorrow night? Fired up for two reasons.

One, we didn't have to travel for a non-John Jones card. That's pretty nice. And two, BC. You didn't pay $900 for nosebleeds. I didn't pay $900 for the nosebleeders. And today, BC, is the 248th birthday of your beloved United States Marine Corps, everyone. And this is your boy, July 1998. Look at that.

There it is, July 1998. Haven't always been a Dodge Omni, BC 1998 haven't always been a Dodge Omni BC haven't always been a Dodge Omni well where am I in this one or where am I in this one I'm at the bottom well I certainly support your uh service Luke let's not overdo it that that there's a lot going on in that picture but I did want to congratulate the anniversary. Happy birthday, Luke. Can you show the picture full screen here of that? This guy here, this was Brian Thomas. This was by bunk mate. I was L Thomas. And one time he got in trouble and they were like, Thomas, get out here.

And we both go, sir, these recruits don't understand which Thomas. And they go, fuck it. Both of you. That's what you get for having the same last name. Oh, wow. Looks like i didn't organize the train sir i swear yeah this was july of 1998 right here okay tell look at that that gaze in that man's eyes what is going on in your head during this picture take so if you look

closely at my chin here it's slightly swollen because the day before we were practicing rifle manual and my instructor grabbed the uh the basically the uh plastic guards around the top of the m16 and then drove the front sight post right into my face and cut it and so it was still swollen two days later this was about seven or eight weeks into a 13 week boot camp so i I was like, I'm almost done. It's not, I'm not too far. I mean, this is look, this is, hold on. Here we go. Ready? BC before methamphetamine after, um, Luke on a scale of one, two, I called home crying. How hard was boot camp? You're not allowed to call home. There's no such thing.

You don't get phone calls. That doesn't exist. That's not a real thing. You get to write letters if they let you, but there's no phone calls. You don't get a phone call until week 12, and you're already basically done by that point. The last week is more or less processing out. So it was tough. It was tough it was tough the hardest part about it to be

perfectly honest was not so much like each day's thing was that hard it was uh not getting injured that was actually the hardest part because if you got injured they removed you from your training cycle and you had to go with a different platoon that was just for injured people and then you had to stay there until you were done then pick back up with just whatever platoon was at the same time you had left off and so i know guys who like broke their legs or tore their acls so they had to be i had to be there for three months for that's the you know a little bit more but that's that's basically how long marine corps boot camp is but if you like tore your acl people are there for like a year or more shit like that terrible contract luke they just keep sunsetting your your clauses yeah and

also like the ufc they don't pay you very well it turns out but there's plenty of honor and glory they pay all that that's that's pretty great there it is there it is the u.s marine corps you said it's their birthday today the day before veterans 10 november 1775 is the marine corps birthday and then of course veterans day is the day is the day after. That's why the rest of the trash get to be honored, but the Marines always go first. Semper Fi, never die, as we like to say on this show, Luke, right? We don't, but we can say it today if you want. All right. Thank you to the Marine Corps.

Can you give me a quick shoot-off of your favorite famous Marines? Drew Carey would be a favorite famous marine shaggy shaggy is a favorite famous marine wait wait shaggy like uh uh wasn't me shaggy yeah shaggy was a u.s marine he fought in um in the gulf war i think drew carey did as well and then um who's the guy who plays kylo Ren? Oh, is it Adam something? Adam Driver. Adam Driver was a famous Marine as well. Yeah, there's a bunch, man. There's a bunch.

And by the way, the Commandant on the Marine Corps had a heart attack last week. He is still in the hospital. He lives down on the northeast side of town. His whole thing is guarded. BC, if you go down there, you'll see Marines posted up with rifles in the whole nine yard right in front of his house uh he had a heart attack last week so he is recovering so um we send our well wishes to the commandant of the marine corps for speedy recovery wow normally the only commandant i've cared about in my life luke is lessard from the police academy franchise i mean dude the first three hold up still still yeah i gotta tell you

you know what you know what the key was to the police academy series they built characters high tower was a great character the guy who made the noises was a great character you know yeah absolutely uh this is a great show that's going to come at you we're going to hammer home everything that's left on ufc 295 including our okay bet picks look at the latest news hit a few dead rungs f around have a good time don't forget about our merch and i know a lot of people say hey bc i see your hat i see your mug i see your badass mayweather burdo t-shirt yeah all right so you're the one who bought that yeah yeah who owns this besides me um please go to morningcombat.store

Right now, you can get ahead of your Holiday shopping, and people always say BC, I love it, I just don't like the price Can you give me something Can you sprinkle a little sugar on top of there Yeah, we're gonna give you 10% off Big Ray over there, RJ Dunkelmaker He has approved this, go there

To morningcombat.store Hit our promo code Live10, L-I-V-E 1-0. For the duration of the show, and spoiler alert, until RJ turns it off, you can get 10% off using LIVE10. So even if you have to do it later today, I'm sure he'll leave the light on for you. All right, Luke, anything else you want to get into

before we find out who's going to a concert that they really don't want to go to let's remind everyone tomorrow is a ufc pay-per-view so we're not going to have a live watch along but there will be a post fight show so join me right back here tomorrow youtube.com slash morning combat for your ufc 295 post fight reaction show i'll be here. Also, if you want more from our great show, go to youtube.com slash morning combat. Fresh new interviews.

Shakur Stevenson later today. We got Demetrius Andrade, Roy Nelson. Luke had way better in terms of important chats here, an hour long with Corey Sanhagen that we need you to watch. Luke, shout out again to Kerrion Fitzgibbons as well Kerrion not Kerrion not Kerri Lazon okay thank you very much who else did you chat with you're on fire who else should they be watching uh well Gordon Ryan because the Gordon Ryan one was supposed to be for this week because it was supposed to be John Jones and then that whole thing kind of fell apart but it was Gordon Ryan, Kerrion Fitzgibbons, uh Eric Nixick,

Dewey Cooper, Corey Sanhagen but some fun ones yeah. Good shit look people see your face in the uh in the picture they click that's how this relationship works. They all they click they also sometimes vote down but they do click they do click all right well all right and I'm like I'm always like dad how many burner accounts did you make to vote down so many times? You know what I'm saying? Well, just a reminder, folks, this great episode today of Morning Combat. What number is this today for us? 500-something, right?

513. 513 is, by the way, presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more with FanDuel Sportsbook. But now, Luke Thomas, we will start our Friday and to continue to get you fired up for 295 with our head-to-head betting segment. Five picks each, although Luke will have a six this week. This one's called OK Bet. Whoop, there it is, Luke.

Obviously, this will be heavy on UFCfc 295 but don't forget game bread mma that's tonight right game bread mma i couldn't tell you if my life depended on it you know the vague the the inaugural heavyweight championship of game bread mma luke you can't wait so who's roy nelson fighting for that alan belcher former, former BKFC heavyweight champion. God bless him. I think Hick Diaz is on this card. A couple of your other favorites, Luke. Millender, Curtis Millender. Shout out to those guys. Good striker, actually. Curtis Millender's

a good striker. Indeed. Last week, Luke Thomas went 2-2 overall. One fight was canceled. Your boy, BC, went 2-1 overall. Actually, sorry, no fights canceled. Last week was Fury versus Ngannou, correct? Am I looking at correct numbers? Is that

really last week? No, Fury and Ngannou was like two weeks ago at this point. Yeah, Mikey, is this correct? I couldn't have been two and one last week. Can we get this figured out? I don't know. No, you were two and one because I was, oh no, yeah, you were two and one and I was one and two or something like that. I don't know.

Anyway, either way, I'm sure the math is off, but your updated standings if you haven't been paying attention. It's a virtual tie right now. 74-78-4 is Luke Thomas. 76-80-1 is your boy BC. So I have two more wins. You have two less losses and three more ties although i've been told luke by our unofficial third member of this game ky again not the jelly jelly not the

jelly just so you know um a fantastic bloke who watches our show and sends in fan subs he's claiming that not only is he beating both of us, but my winning percentage is slightly, slightly ahead of yours at the moment. Do you believe that? You're a math teacher. Yeah, again, we never really figured out exactly how we're measuring it, but because it's so close, I can't. Here's the thing, man.

You know, you get these football teams, like the Washington Commanders who aren't very good, and of course you can put the camera on me at any time while I speak. I think Mikey stroked out. What I was going to say was, dude, I'm so sick of Ron Rivera getting up there and being like, oh, it came down to

this call or it came down to that call. And I'm always like, no, Ron, it came down to you just making this shit close the whole time with mediocre teams. Fuckface. So, you know, I don't really care how we measure it because if it's this close, you deserve it to have trepidation about it all yes you did bitch and wanting to be a bitch so mikey has updated

luke what went down last week we both got gelton almeida correct we both got our favorite correct or you got petrino correct i lost with denise gomes i lost with Bukowskis. Couple other, your underdog fight didn't happen. So that's where we're at, Luke. 76-80-4 for you. 78-83-1 for myself. Remember, the loser's going to go to a concert they don't want to. And, Luke, I was a guest on Oteel Verbridge's fantastic podcast, Comes a Time, that will be released soon. And he says, I was like, Oteel, maybe we should get Luke to go to Oteel and Friends.

He said, no. Why not? He goes, Luke may end up liking that. We got to send him somewhere where he is just completely out of his element. So that's going to be. Yeah. I mean, Oteel seems like a great guy and a very talented musician. So he might be right.

But Oteel, don't worry. I probably wouldn't like that music either. You know what I'm saying? All right. Oteel also has a standing offer that I'm communicating to you to appear on his podcast and debate life, Luke. I would do that if he wants to reach out. Yeah, sure. All right. There you go. That is that. And this is this.

Let's get into it. It's going to be UFC 295 heavy, of course. We've got a couple of lingering things from this week to sort of clean up luke yesterday was the official press conference no dana white by the way with the great john annick the voice of the ufc was at the mic did you learn anything did you even watch it luke i know you don't care about this dude i mean here's the okay so like here's the thing about all of this right and again i'm not bashing what the fuck is the point of a UFC press conference? Like, what is the actual point? The actual point, as best I can tell, right?

The actual point is so that the media can do the UFC's job for them by asking questions related to the fights that hype up an audience or otherwise get the kind of responses that generate clicks did anyone who was there in attendance yesterday ask dana anything related to the fighter lawsuit like the most important story in the fucking sport did anyone ask him just to reiterate as i said it wasn't there How did I see him at the face-offs? See, this is what's weird about that. So they did the press conference in the lobby of Madison Square Garden, and I did see some people complaining and saying,

hey, man, in the past, dude, they used to blow this thing out, go to the MSG Theater, do a big thing. Not totally true. Not totally true. Anyway, John Anik was hosting. I don't know why, because Dana's obviously there. Last night, Callum Walsh, the unbeaten rising Irish boxer who I think Dana manages to some degree.

By the way, he's also good, but he's good. He's a good fighter, but he's not like great. Yeah, he's not kicking the door down. Good kick. King Callum Walsh, good fighter. He can fight. But by the way, Dana White, Nick Khan of WWE and Triple H all sitting ringside. So I'm not sure why Dana wasn't there.

But to your point, Luke, and I did write a feature this week on about this, aiming it at 295. But just on the larger unfortunates that are going on this calendar year, people don't tend to ask those questions up front. And I did get my former colleague Josh Gross reminding me that there's a reason for that because people lose their access when they do loop tops um yes and no yes and no i mean they certainly can't they certainly have they don't always do but i mean you're asking me like did i watch i don't know what the fucking point is like we're just gonna like if you what question is going to be asked at this press conference that hasn't been asked of either guy in any pre-fight media interview that they've done? Virtually none. The only difference might be that they might play off each other a little bit.

And I guess there's something to be said for that. But, you know, there's no fucking point to them at all. Now, I will defend UFC in this particular sense. I've actually been to two press conferences, three if you count one of the ones that Bellator had. But for example, when the UFC finally got MMA legalized in New York, they held a press conference with Governor Cuomo at the time, who turned out to be a real dirtbag, but at the time he was the governor. And Chris Wybin was there, Ronda Rousey was there,

lots of folks were there. I got to interview Lorenzo Fertitta off the record actually there. Oh, wow. You talked words with him? No, no, I didn't. Lots of folks were there. I got to interview Lorenzo Fertitta off the record actually there. You talked words with him? No, no, I didn't. Although he was very friendly to me, which I thought was surprising. I thought he was going to have to spit venom, but no, he was very kind. So they did have it there.

Bellator's had it there. That is a place that they do commonly have it. Although I recognize that's not the same as other situations they could have had to really have a raucous crowd, you know? Yeah, and we didn't really have raucous moments of trash talk or too much back and forth. Tom Aspinall did a lot of revealing that, you know, he considers Pavlovich the scariest man in the world, and he also believes Pavlovich has a bigger quarry than he does Luke,

but I didn't pull that clip because it's a little unnecessary. Let's get into the shit that actually matters. Mikey, can we go to the face-off here of this main event, which will obviously be our first breakdown here? It's for the vacant light heavyweight championship. There you see the former champion Yuri Prohotska. Let me ask you, do you think Hunter Campbell is actually a Yankees fan? No, I think he must have one in every color.

Very Durst and Thomas-like in that regard, Luke, to be fair. The only thing you've got going that's limp, Luke, is your bisque. It didn't come out right. Forget that one. There's your face-off right there, LT. Let's get into it.

Main event pick. We can go either way with this i think technically i'm leading so luke thomas how about you go first here okay listen some of these fights have very very very close odds really close odds um and i think a lot of these picks were dealing i mean in like i really believe this bc you're always dealing with unknowns so for example um i got the chance to talk to ryan hall when i went to go interview cory sandhagen ryan wasn't available to sit down at that time but i spoke to him a little bit and he told me about the ilia toporia fight if you go back and you look there's a moment there where he he tears his thumb

not through the skin but basically off the hand he had to get surgery to repair it and he broke his jaw and teeth accidentally on the top of his head in that fight so when you see him sit up to post he actually can't sit up off his his hand his hand wouldn't bend back and one thing we were talking about was how often there can just be factors that influence the outcome of a fight where you don't even it's like so coin flippy like you know an injury happens in the most absurd of circumstances now again he did kind of concede that even in the best case scenario earlier was going to be a really tough opponent to beat but he just hated the way that that one went for him because he

just got injured two times real badly very quickly and it just derailed the whole thing and you really have to know we're dealing with a lot of information that we just don't have even in a perfect scenario i think that is doubly true in your co-main event we which we'll talk about later with tom aspinall coming in on short notice the heaviest he's ever weighed could mean nothing i'm not declaring to you that it is but it did stand out that he's now above 260 pounds he has never weighed in that much for a UFC contest. Usually he's been in the sort of mid-240s, mid-250s, that kind of a thing. And then in the main event, BC,

we are also dealing with a fair amount of real true unknowns. What is Prochaska going to look like after all this time off, after surgery? Is he still going to donk it up? You know, it's really hard to know. So I'm going to go with Pereira. I think that, to me, this is a close contest. I think most would agree.

And I'm going to say it, unpredictable, because fucking Prochocka is unpredictable. But skills win fights. I don't know that on the ground that I would say that Pereira is the more skilled, but I would say overall the way he manages a fight, and in particular the sharpshooter level of his striking, should him the edge. Give me Pineda in the main event. Well, I was reminded this week, Luke, that some people believe Dom Reyes actually knocked Prochazka out during that fight only for him to come back to life. Do you remember that? Right. Yes. Right. So if you go

back and you watch his fights, dude, he gets crushed several times. I i mean he's on an incredible win streak right now yuri pratska that although he only has three ufc fights and although he is coming off major shoulder surgery and a 17 month layoff he dude he he absolutely brings it to the level where you just don't know how the fight's gonna go go. I find that's the same scenario here. But I don't discount what the 17 months in major surgery might do. And to hear him talking about learning from the Glover fight, which I think is positive, by the way, to not be as reckless and out of control. I do have some of the fears that is this a first time he's going to unveil this?

Is that going to go clean against a fighter this dangerous? Will he have identity troubles trying to amend his style? Or will the same warrior spirit ultimately come out when they start trading? If it comes down to that, if the ground is not a part of this, and if it comes down to just what we think it is, why we're so excited about this fight, the thunder, the lightning, the potential here. Look, P look potato throws tighter punches here perera sorry perera throws like much tighter punches here he doesn't have the weight

issues he had at middleweight he seems to be a little bit renewed he was one of the first to the scales today absolutely and he looked very good by the way i just wonder for as dangerous as prohotska is the combination of a style that leaves him too often to be hit, the idea that he's going to amend that, but what will that look like after 17 months off? Suddenly there are so many questions about a very good fighter who we haven't seen in almost two years, that the other man across from him is slowly becoming more of a sure thing.

Yes, the fight with Blachowicz to get to this point in his UFC light heavyweight debut was, uh, you know, a little close split decision, some things to love, a couple of things to sort of look at. If this turns into that shootout,

that slug, you, you can't act that way. Probably like Brodska asked with a puncher like this. And you could say the same thing about Glover, and he took heavy damage. But the whole point is, I don't think we're going to see exactly that. I also like Pereira, especially if this fight goes later without having to really feel like that weight could hold him down. Yes, he's a slight betting favorite.

We're not stretching anywhere as we look at the odds at the moment from our friends at FanDuel. Minus 124 for Poetan plus 102 for Yuri Prohotska. Luke, I'm going to go Alex Pereira. I'm going to do it. I've got that feeling right now. It's going to be a good fight. It's going to be very interesting for the future of this division. Would you say this fight at

the end of the day is the one you're most excited for on this card? No, no. For sure the co-main event to me is the most intriguing. That's interesting. That's interesting's interesting all right that is our main event picks in lockstep before we get into our favorite luke and we'll see where the other fights fall in let's talk a little bit deeper about that co-main event interim heavyweight title at stake sergey pavlovich coming in six straight first round knockouts we laid all the storylines down tom aspinall on short notice across from him. Our great colleague of CBS Sports, Shaquille Majore,

you can follow him on his Shaq MMA channel, did catch up with Sergey Pavlovich. Let's find out how he has prepared for Aspinall on short notice, considering he was expecting to be the backup for Jon Jones versus Stipe Miocic. You know, Stipe is more of a standout fighter, where Jon is more of a wrestling grappler.

So technically, if you combine those two together, we were pretty much preparing for Aspinall. So we did a little bit of corrections. We corrected some things in preparation, but mostly we were preparing right away. Sounds pretty fair, Luke. Sounds pretty fair. Pavlovich was also asked by Shaq

what he expects to be next if he wins this interim title. And remember, we do not expect Jon Jones to be back, you know, after eight months of recovery until potentially late spring next summer. Let's hear from Sergey. Yeah, we have the saying in Russian that you can't divide the fur over bear that you haven't killed yet.

So right now I have a fight in front of me. The fight is this Saturday. The fight is for the title. So first we're going to get this title and then we'll worry about what happens next. Yes, Luke, the old adage of don't count your chickens until you skin them alive or whatever he was trying to say. I don't know, but it sounded pretty scary to me. You?

Yeah, he's an intimidating guy, to put it mildly. I saw some of the old pictures and whatnot of him training at AKA for a while. Good Lord, that must have been a very difficult room in which to spar. Yes, indeed. Tom Aspinall on the flips I look taking this on short notice but the full recovery from the year off and the injury that he suffered in his only UFC defeat to Curtis Blades uh it's close enough they did ask him at the press conference whether the short notice fight really matters because there's so much expectations for not only an early finish

but if you look at the odds on the props they they're almost asking you to pick a first-round knockout in this. So let's hear from Aspinall first. Here is his breakdown on having to face Sergey Pavlovich here, talking to Shaq MMA. It's a tough one with someone with a lot of power like that. I've got to stay playful in there is what I've got to do. If I start tensing up, being too serious, I'm either going to go all in or I'm going to do if i start tensing up being too serious um i'm either going to go all in or i'm going to do

nothing and that's about they're both wrong both of those are wrong i've got i've got to do in between going all in and nothing and just just play around and feel my way in right rather than being a bit greedy luke he has said this week has aspinall that he does not expect to go toe to toe at any point with Pavlovich knowing how scary that man is across from him but here's Aspinall breaking down a little bit deeper why this short notice fight was so uh automatic knee jerk he accepted here's why I changed my training situation you see before I never used to train with any heavyweights at all or I did but it was like you know once every blue moon like every now and again um and now I'm on the map training with heavyweights like

every single day and I think that just gives me so much confidence to where I'm at and what my body can do and what I can do it like I don't know I just like there wasn't really much thought there I was just like yep I've been training good let's throw me in I'll be all right in two on two weeks notice but whereas before I would have second guessed myself a lot because I didn't know where it was more difficult to like gauge where I was at before. So yeah, I'm super happy with where I'm at physically and mentally. Luke, we're going to find out shortly if these were part of our picks this week.

But I want to ask you based on what Tom touched there. First, having not regularly sparred heavyweights before, how do you sort of read that? And second, the weight that you mentioned earlier, he's going to be heavier than normal. How do you think that changes his approach coming in here? All right. First things first, not training with heavyweights, at least not much anyway, is what he said. That's probably a good idea. Heavyweights are fucking terrible. You're going to get a real bad look. I'm being dead serious. I would much rather if i was

tom aspinall and again i don't know exactly what he did but if the choice was you get to add train with a bunch of reasonably athletic light heavyweights who are you know more or less the same dimensions uh versus some you know fat fuck heavyweights i'm gonna pick the light heavyweights 10 times out of 10 they're gonna be faster they're gonna hit if not quite as hard still pretty hard it's just gonna be a much better training environment at the same time though um if you're going to be wrestling at all then you probably do want to work with some heavyweights because the the the added heft there does change some of the entries it changes some of the finishing uh potentials it changes some of the finishing potentials. It changes some of the risk calculus about certain positions. So, you know, him bringing in some in a very calculated way, I think, probably would help.

And in terms of the weight, again, I want to be clear. There's been times where he's been like low to mid 240s and at times low to mid 250s. His last fight, it was 258. This one, 261. So not a dramatic difference. Although, you know, it's hard to say what's exactly the right weight for him. In this particular case, I don't know that the added heft will hurt him. I don't know if it will really help him either exactly, you know, relative to 258.

But being smaller and lighter against a really powerful guy, if you're going to strike it out with him, yeah, it's beneficial. But if you're going to be wrestling this guy, you're going to be on top of him. And the beneficial but if you're going to be wrestling this guy you're going to be on top of him and the whole idea is that at times he's going to carry your weight well then make him fucking carry your weight so in this particular case i don't think it's going to serve him poorly how much it will benefit him i guess we shall see i only noted people on twitter were all like oh my god he's going to lose and blah blah because i noted all the previous weights that he had listen it was the most he's ever weighed in. I wanted to make a note of the difference there, but the idea that it's automatically negative. Uh, I'm a little bit skeptical of that.

Yeah. I would have to agree with that. The updated fan duel odds echo with the other books are basically saying, Luke, this is a virtual pick on fan duel has minus one Oh four Pavlovich as your slight underdog minus one 18 is Aspinall uh Luke Thomas let's continue okay bet favorites is our next category which direction are you going all right for favorites I will go with uh you know I hate to do it and it's only partly because you know again you got to pick from the list that you have and which ones do you have confidence in? You know, was I going to pick McKenzie Dern?

Um, were you, were you thought about it, thought about it, but do I have that much confidence in the whole situation? Again, especially you go back to the beginning of 2023. We talked about it. Andrage had a really,

really nice win over Lauren Murphy there. It wasn't like she looks horrible. And then both of these ladies, unfortunately have been going through pretty tough divorces. We've talked about it. Andrade had a really, really nice win over Lauren Murphy there. It wasn't like she looked horrible. And then both of these ladies, unfortunately, have been going through pretty tough divorces. We've talked about it, dude. Divorce will wreck your shit, even in the best of cases. It's just so destructive to your life. We kind of joke about it because so many, at least in this particular country, so many Americans get divorced.

I think for a time it was like 50% of all marriages ended in it. So it's like almost this common thing. But you don't really realize it will wreck you it will absolutely wreck you so you know i i really uh feel for both of them that they've been going through difficult circumstances but i just didn't get a good read on that one this one i did get a bit of a better read give me benoit saint denis and i know it sucks because we love matt favola it's going to be rock'em sock'. The thing is this. I think both guys are going to land. They're going to land with big power.

They're the best versions of themselves they've ever been. The difference for me, BC, is Saint Denis has looked hittable but recovers in unusual ways, right? Really has absurd recovery beyond the normal. Even for elite fighters, he's got absurd recovery i've not exactly seen that to this point from for vola um he can dish it i'm not saying he can't take it of course he can but saint denis is like a zombie out there i mean he really is quite different in terms of his ability to tolerate punishment to this point so i'm gonna go with

him i'm gonna ride with him for my favorite i don't i hope matt favola wins and that i'm wrong but that's my pick for this particular exercise the odds are telling you this is going to be a close shootout bs deep minus 230 on fan duel plus 184 is for vola i gotta lock my door otherwise he's gonna come in here oh gosh it'll, gosh. It'll be cute, Luke, but it'll be an inferno of cuteness. There you go right there. Luke going Benoit Saint-Denis in a fight that is absolutely going to deliver. Let's go to my favorite, Luke, and I'm going to play it. I'm going to play it, dude. I've been talking about it.

I may be the only one saying that this is a potential to be a squash match between Mackenzie Dern and Jessica Andrade, and I'm not overlooking Andrade's experience title pedigree any of that I'm really looking at recent memory and I know what she has also said as you mentioned about divorce and she talked about this this week with MMA fighting here's the quote this is Jessica Andrade saying this year I had my divorce and that's taking a lot of money and paying for lawyers and things here and there. So I ended up taking five fights because of it. It will be over this year, God willing, she said about the divorce and I'll be fine. But because of the divorce, I had to spend a lot of money on lawyers. It's too much bureaucracy. So Luke, she's basically

admitting in tune with what we thought that she's taking all of these fights on such short notice. What did she have, Luke? Three stoppage losses in a span of six months and fought four times overall this calendar year. This will be her fifth. It was poor decision-making. I get the real-life realities. Everything you said about divorce is so true. Look at Mackenzie Dern this week week still talking about how hard it is financially

how hard it is in every way to go through this and go through this publicly let's not also forget especially if you're in the eye in the in the camp that doesn't believe in dern that look the ruka gym closed she had to essentially create her own sort of in-house gym in and around rvca yeah ruka that's a v right but it's pronounced ruka luke is it pronounced ruka yeah can you get in on this luke it'd be about time that you got in on this please okay i didn't know it was pronounced ruka yeah yeah i'll get i can educate you on mma all day all day if you need okay i'm not saying it's wrong. I just thought it was RVCA. On the east side, that's where I met Maruka. Great song, right? I don't know that song.

All right. So, Luke, there's questions on both sides. I get that. But I don't know if Andrade could just flip the switch after getting stopped three straight times. And we saw what the divorce did in terms of, I don't know, lighting a spark under Dern last time out, albeit against Angela Hill, which was a sort of get well fight.

I just don't know if Andrade can turn that all around for as much as Dern has her own limitations. Andrade's are starting to become more and more clear, Luke. I also fear that her chin is going. I'm going to take Mackenzie Dern, minus 205. And oh, by the way, Luke, I'm pretty damn confident about that. Plus 168 is Andrade. I get the power.

I get everything. I think Dern stops her. Wow. One thing we didn't talk about when we were speculating, knowing the markability of the 30-year-old Dern, knowing that UFC would love to make her a a champion the idea of her cutting the line if she cut the line with a win here to get the next shot at zhong weili what would you say to both yan shaonan and uh and uh um look why do we always forget her name patch Patsy Mix's love of his life. Tatiana Suarez.

Those two are actually above. Well, Suarez is now. Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. She had the 125 fight, but that was just a return fight. Yeah. Dude, what do you want me to say? They've been wanting to put her in a position to do this for a long time and she had

to kind of get close enough to earn it you beat Jessica Andrade former champion I realized this you know we all talked about circumstances the three losses blah blah blah um I don't love it it should be on shown on you know really should I think of anyone she's got the best case to this point um but this is how the fight business goes man people who are promotional darlings and people like oh she's not a promotional darling she is in terms of the eyes of the promoter the promoter has been doc forever set they do the ufc has been looking for the next ronda all this time and there isn't a next ronda because ronda was a you know something of a lightning in a bottle but mackenzie durn has some of the things you might imagine that could lead to that or or or

at a bare minimum some of the ingredients that could be built upon to be a bigger star certainly than she has been and get be very very useful for ufc that she's gonna she's gonna she's gonna jump the queue it's just how things go all right i can see them slowing down yan shaonan because if you're going to give her the title shot it's going to be against young way lee it's going to be china you know chinese born versus chinese born you want to put that on chinese soil i would think luke i wonder if there's some setup time involved in that but here's my issue right now with turn potentially cutting the line even though two days ago ago I told you, I think UFC would do it. And I'm here to tell you that it's probably going to happen anyway. So we should shut up.

There are questions with that. Namely this one, Tatiana Suarez came back this year and scored two very good wins. One over Montana De La Rosa, one division up the second one, Luke just a couple months ago against Jessica Andrade, who she finished. And Oh,

by the way, Jan shout out. If you want to make the case for her, do you know who the names are on her current two-fight win streak, Luke? Tell me. Mackenzie Dern and Jessica Andrade. So it's like, what would Dern beating Andrade mean if Schaunan had beaten both of them lately and Suarez's fresh off a stoppage of Andrade.

So I'm here to tell you it's very messy. It's very messy. I mean, listen, Chito Vera is on a one-fight win streak, and he's in a title fight. Like, if there are promotional reasons for them to lean one direction or the other, not totally in keeping with the most meritocratic choice, they will. They will. It's just how it goes. It's the way the game goes. So my favorite pick will officially be Dern Luke let's go over to the underdog

all right for my underdog pick here uh again I'm just trying to pick what I feel like might work um so again this the category. The category is find someone who's the betting underdog and pick one. In that circumstance, I'm going to go with Sergei Pavlovich. BC, I'll just be honest with you. I have gone back and forth on this one. I feel like, you know, I know I waffle a lot, but I do think you would agree in this matchup, man, it's really not hard to like in your mind, see a way where Pavlovich wins or conversely, see a way where Aspinall goes in there, takes them down, subs them out. You're like, oh yeah, right.

Like this is what we should have expected all along. Like you can, I hear the truth about this. I almost want to say almost, I almost want to say it doesn't even matter who wins and loses on Saturday. That's obviously not true, but I guess the point I wanted to make is there's a reason to believe that irrespective of the results on Saturday, both of these guys will eventually wear UFC gold and they are going to have a promising future no matter what.

And I kind of believe that. Again, who's to say how it's all going to go, but there's a lot of reasons to think Pavlovich's winning ways will continue for some time. And then conversely, the same with Tom Aspinall. But again, forced to pick an underdog. They had Pavlovich as an underdog. I'm going to go with him because he was the guy that was training all along.

Javier Mendez was saying, even back in the days when he was training, this was pre-pandemic, when he was training with AKA, was training with aka he's even then dude we just couldn't find guys to hang with him in the stand-up it didn't work another ground's a different matter of course that's an aspen also smart guy he's gonna go and try for that you know there's no doubt in my mind the thing is as an underdog pick the reason i'm kind of going to side with that is because introducing the new mcspicy from mcdonald. 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. Pavlovich's power is unforgiving. He doesn't have that Francis one punch, oh, you're done. But he has the one punch rattle you and now you make mistakes. And then he really lights guys on fire. So if he's going to be the underdog in a case like

this, I'm going to risk it and say Pavlovich, but you know, I guess we'll see. Well, it's basically a pick them, but I see what you're saying there. You'll risk it for the biscuit. I avoided this fight. Cause I'm going to be honest. It's, it's just, it's a great fight. It's too close to call. And by the way, I know I wrote a column this week. I know this fight because I'm going to be honest, it's just, it's a great fight. It's too close to call. And by the way, I know I wrote a column this week. I know I'm becoming this critical, this guy hates Dana as you see this face-off between the two. I want to reiterate something. Yes, we lost the star power of Jon Jones. Yes, we

probably should have had Ngannou in this card to begin with, but dude, they have matched this card in replacement so damn well. They are pick-ems up and down. This fight in particular has got to be the hardest one to decipher on the card for exactly what you said both guy could win spectacularly with their a game early could pavlovich stop this man to become to basically look i read that pavlovich is tied for the ufc modern record of consecutive knockouts right now with six could he break that record and

get to set yeah he couldn't easily right that's what he Could he break that record and get to set? Yeah, he couldn't easily, right? That's what he does. He's got 84-inch reach and huge hammers. If Tom could take this to the ground, though, that changes it. I just think that speed advantage with the hands, even though I didn't pick this fight, if I had to, I still would have taken Aspinall, and I think I would have taken him by knockout.

I would have needed him to take Pawełowicz down to kind of wear him out a little bit, but the of tom's combinations if he picks his spots i think he could have big big success here we're gonna really find out i mean look what do we know about pavlovich's chin outside of getting stopped by ovary his chin is absurd i mean again i go back to it this is the thing that blows my mind they both fought curtis blades right but the problem in the aspinall fight was it landed what or excuse me it lasted i should say 15 seconds or some absurdly short amount. You didn't get really anything in there to really judge what was happening. A couple times, Curtis landed on him really well.

But what does that mean? It's hard to say, right? Curtis landed really well on Sergei Pavlovich, and it didn't mean jack shit. He still got stopped inside of a round. The thing that kills me is one when the on the Aspinall side the fight was just insanely short you can't really get much from it and the other side was it wasn't you didn't learn anything you did but you didn't learn about the critical question about sustained ability of Pavlovich to fight off takedown attempts

because fucking Curtis Blades who does have good stand-up and that's not that he doesn't just decided not to go for it and I'm'm like, oh my god, man, that was the critical question we were supposed to get an answer to. And here's the thing, I said it before on Wednesday, go back and watch the Pavlovich fight with Blades. It's only about three minutes in length. Dude, Blades lands on him continuously, hard shots. And you're like holy shit dude like blades was doing well in this fight but one uh was it overhand right comes begins to rattle him and now he doesn't move quite as well and now he gets hit more and then he goes face first into the canvas and you're like oh my god so the one guy who has the quality to really test aspidol who has the quality to really test

pavlovich you didn't get a great sample out of either of those equations and so it just really is kind of frustrating that we didn't get that so hence we go into this with odds that are to your point i'll fucking pick them because we just don't have great answers to some of these questions i'm with you and uh by the way blades who is like perennially the like uncrowned guy that gets so close to the title level but i you know typically loses the number one contender fight he doesn't just typically lose luke he does get splattered when he steps up to the to like the highest well dude like you gotta say something about blades that no one really talks enough about who the fuck has curtis blades ducked i mean volkov he

fought derrick lewis he fought uh let's see i just mentioned pavlovich he fought aspkov, he fought. Derek Lewis, he fought. Let's see. I just mentioned Pavlovich, he fought. Aspinall, he fought. Francis, he fought twice. He fought gone? He fought gone too, right? I think he fought. No, I don't know if he fought gone yet. I can't remember if he did.

But this is what I mean. Like, who is he saying no to? Nobody. Nobody. So I really appreciate that from Curtis Blades. He's a very skilled fighter. Just the way that it unfolded by accident or by freak accident

anyway in the Aspital fight. And then I think again, he does have good stand-up, but that fucking power and the accuracy that a guy like Pavlovich has at heavyweight is unforgiving. You cannot play games with him, and he did. Blades is 17-4 overall. The only losses are by

splattering knockout twice to francis one to derrick lewis one to pavlovich has not fought cyril gone yet but you know has scored the requisite uh victories below that by the way here's who's uh curtis blades has beaten just so anyone you know wants to know mark hunn alistair overeem jds volkoff jairzinho chris dawkus and tom aspinall but that was 15 seconds with an injury still at 32 years old when curtis blades recovers JDS Volkov, Jairzinho, Chris Dawkus, and Tom Aspinall. But that was 15 seconds with an injury still at 32 years old. When Curtis blades recovers from his own injury, he's still in the mix. I hope he gets his shot one day, Luke. That's what I'm saying. He's great. He just hasn't put it all together yet.

No, I think there's an identity crisis because I think that he, every other fight, he's like, I'm a striker. But then the next fight, it's like, well, I got served last time. So now I'm just going going to be a wrestler i think he's got to kind of figure out that balance that's your underdog pick it's pavlovich my underdog pick luke i'm going to go a little bit off the menu here i'm going to go to game bread mma this evening in mississippi but before i do here's one last cheap plug for my roy nelson. Luke, if you're wondering, Roy Nelson took three years off after the end of his Bellator career. He says he was trying to campaign for a Fedor fight that never came, but he did make his debut in Bare Knuckle MMA with Game Bread just a few

months ago, scored a first round knockout over Dylan Kleckler. Here is Roy Nelson talking about his incredible beard beard luke and i'm not talking about his chin i'm talking about the salt and pepper fur animal that's growing off of his face let's listen and roy that is an iconic beard is the commission gonna let you fight with that because that's that's the most epic i've ever seen your beard i think right is it the gnarliest it's ever been actually no i've actually had it bigger, but it's Mississippi. They don't do tent. The only thing they care about is if you don't got the hiv.

Like, check your weapons outside the cage, right? As long as you... Yeah, there you go. They don't care about anything else. You could juice. You could do whatever, but as long as you don't get the hiv, you know, you're good. Okay. B.C. B.C. B.C. BC, BC, BC.

That's so offensive, but it's hilarious. It's hilarious. First of all, he's right. Mississippi didn't give a fuck about shit. On June 20th of 2024. So we're not there yet, but on that day, how old will Roy Nelson be? Don't look. Yeah. Please don't say 50.

I know he's in his mid-40s. Where is he, Luke? He'll be 48. He's 47 now. He's 47. Bro, he's three years older than me. He's older than my brother. He's, dude, 47?

And you're fighting bare-knuckle MMA? Okay, but he's dude 47 and you're fighting bare knuckle MMA. Okay. But he's fighting former UFC middleweight, Alan Belcher, who hasn't fought in MMA in 10 years. He got knocked out by Michael Bisping in his last UFC fight, but he has gone everywhere from professional boxing to winning the BKFC heavyweight championship to, uh, he's fought basically every combat discipline since then so luke before i make my pick here didn't didn't uh a new mexico native american commission allow tommy morrison to take a

mixed rules mma fight that time with the hiv it was either that or west virginia i can't remember yeah yeah yeah that was a big that was a big, then he eventually died, obviously not from the bout, but, um, but yes, I wrote Josh gross report on that story in real time. I think it was West Virginia, but I can't be sure. I think it was New Mexico. I think I watched that fight live on a grainy stream. All right. Uh, but look, they did a fan duel didn't, but there are odds out there on one book for

this fight. So I went and I grabbed it. I hope that's legal roy nelson at plus 200 of an underdog is going to be my underdog pick hashtag vibes hashtag look if i pick intelligently i lose anyway so i might as well roll the dice here's the deal okay belcher does have bare knuckle experience right right yes plenty yeah he's, he's been, as of 2023, he fought in BKFC. Dude, Roy Nelson does throw bombs. Is it crazy for me to consider that he comes out here

and knocks this dude the hell out? Well, okay, let's say this. Roy is highly experienced. He has big power, even still, probably. He has a black belt in jiu-jitsu. So there are reasons to think that, you know, things could go well for him. But he's 40 fucking 7 years old. And probably not in, like, super great condition.

I don't really know what to make of a contest where he's fighting Alan Belcher, who's 39, you know, and it's bare-knuckle MMA. I don't really know. But I can see why roy's the underdog i'll put it that way all right five straight losses for roy to end his bellator career the only man to stop him during that stretch though was sergey karatanov who is a hammer luke thomas so i am risking my future for nostalgia and vibes but i am going roy nelson because luke you know what if you're gonna live by

the sword you might as well die by it okay and the thing is they ain't drug testing either so i hope roy's taking more than just long chin here into that fight with him okay um for his sake and yours i hope that's true all right roy nelson is my underdog luke let's go to the over and under which fight are you picking is going to go the distance or not so i've obviously picked the women's fight but there's a little bit of method to my madness on this one so i'm gonna say godinez versus ritchie goes the distance but here's the thing that's kind of interesting to me bc i don't really see a way that here i am jinxing myself i would be surprised if it doesn't and the reason why is because this is to me going to be a hardcore wrestling battle or it's going to cancel each other out it'll be like a striking battle at distance where neither has a

substantial advantage maybe godinez has a slight advantage in that particular case but godinez can wrestle ritchie can wrestle we've seen ritchie resort to it pretty early if the striking doesn't go well um not a dynamic finisher herself but very strong and physical you just got two people who can wrestle who are physical who are i think going to be able to negate the other one to a reasonably substantial degree and so for that i think it's going to go the distance also you know just say it just say it it's a women's fight the statistics play in your favor you're playing it safe here i'm gambling on roy nelson's 50 year old beard. And you're like, Oh wait,

let me make sure I get my women's fight in. Hey, listen, ass wipe. You're picking on the fights where guys with 47 years old are fighting in Mississippi and bare knuckle MMA. This is hardly chance. I'm taking a chance. I guess,

I guess, I guess. What do you got? All right. Uh, my over under is going to go where back to Mississippi, Luke, where they don't

drug test according to roy nelson so with that info in mind how about hector lombard versus chris sorrow not going the distance luke lombard has had actually a pretty nice pivot into the bare knuckle space he's still got monster power he's got an experience edge yes he's old as shit but look he's still a hammer himself i think this could be a very easy pick for me here let's go hector lombard knock out not go the distance what is the percentage of bare knuckle i didn't realize this bare knuckle mma but bare knuckle boxing what is the percentage that go to the distance i don't have that info in front of me and I probably should if I want to win this segment. Especially relative to MMA. I wonder what that answer is. Yeah, that's it. Luke, KO or sub, where are you going this week? I don't know how to pronounce it. If it's

Rebecki or Rebeski, Roberts, by the way, both, I think Roberts missing weight this morning, but he's filling in on short note. Say again? Roosevelt Roberts you're talking about? Yeah, Roosevelt Roberts. He's filling in on short notice. Missed weight, which I think you would understand given – I think it was like super short notice. Rebeski, a bit of a hammer. That's not quite true, but he's kind of – he can do a lot. I'll put it that way.

I think that one ends in either KO or TKO. Give me Rebeski Roberts to not go the distance by virtue of KO. Luke, for Roosevelt Roberts, he's been off 18 months since a victory on the Eagle FC banner. He was on the Ultimate Fighter. He was on the Ultimate Fighter. Oh, the comeback season, you're right. And you know what, Luke, he did, he looked pretty good in the

early episodes I saw. Apparently he lost a split decision to Austin Hubbard in the semi-final round. Who's another good fighter, yeah. All right, there you go. We haven't seen him in the UFC proper since 2021. I don't hate that pick. I'm going to stay on the UFC 295 card for my own KO or sub.

And I think this might be a layup here, Luke. Matt Favola versus Benoit Saint-Denis. You're taking the Frenchman who is a slight-ish betting favorite. I'm just betting here for violence. And I think this is what we know for Evola to be, especially at Madison Square Garden, where we know he wants to level up at age 33. He wants the paddy type opponents.

He wants bigger names. I'm sure he wants to catapult into the top 10 here and become a real contender. I'm not saying he gets it done. I'm just saying he's going to bring that spirit in there to make this a war we know bsd is willing to oblige they're going to somebody's going to get KO'd you you down with that i think but yep i think that's probably a smart bet to be i'd be surprised if it was a jab fest to a three-round decision, you know. All right. Mikey, did you want me to read that on the air,

or is that just a factoid for us about Hector Lombard there? All right, there you go. Thank you very much. Luke, that is OK Bet, and I want to remind folks that if you didn't already know, now you know, Dana. OK Bet has been brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more with a fantastic betting app that you can download today. FanDuel Sportsbook. All right.

OK Bet behind us. Let's get. Oh, any other comments here? Look about 295. Any other fights? Any other developments this week you want to hit on? I think to your point, everyone made weight. I'm looking at this card in general.

I mean, my personal belief, BC, I said this before. The main card is great. It's a great main card. It's not super star studded. Not yet. But I think if you're there in attendance and you show up for that main card, you're going to get your money's worth. The rest of the card, I'm not so sure.

But certainly for that part, I am. Look, can we put an asterisk next to money's worth? Oh, right. Because they're charging you like you know balls that you got to give up your firstborn kid and it's like all Sophie's choice just to get in the door but okay if you got free tickets certainly it's worth your time how about that oh one of our fantastic MK viewers I forgot her name I should have pulled it up Luke she had reached out to me after we chatted about this saying that she was in person at at the last

big Vegas pay-per-view where somebody got pulled off the card beforehand and she got an e she said officially she got an email the day before the card from the ufc saying this person is off would you like a refund now so they do give you that option which is good to see on you know if you paid 900 something for john jones and he ain't walking through that door all right top five top five topics here. Let's transition. Tony Ferguson is going to be back December, what, 16th? Is it, Luke Thomas? The UFC 296. Final pay-per-view of the year.

Patti Pimblitt, say what you will about that matchup. And boy, have we. It's going to be interesting. But Tony Ferguson is getting into sick shape. Keyword sick here, Luke, with David Goggins. If anyone doesn't know, Luke, who is David Goggins? David Goggins is, I mean, to call him an ultra marathoner would not be quite right. He obviously has a military background as well,

but he's basically famous because he does what I would consider to be extreme feats, not so much of strength, but of physical conditioning, and more than that, extreme feats, not so much of strength, but of physical conditioning, and more than that, extreme feats of mental strength and duration, where he'll go on these incredible exercises that last in the most absurd levels of ways, and he'll just keep going and keep going and keep going. He's also a bit of a mindset coach at this point as well. Yeah, yeah. Almost like a Tony Robbins with action, right? Something like that.

Well, Tony Robbins, I mean, well, I guess there's sexual assault claims against him, so I won't say that. But, yeah, we don't have that with David Goggins. But he's the kind of guy who's like, yeah, I'm going to go run 100 miles and then we're just going to not sleep for three days while we do sit-ups until our organs burst into liquid and we just shit out blood. blood yeah we're going to do it again the next day and you're like i don't know if that's good for you but it works for him well if your commandant doesn't make it luke he could fill in in that role yeah why don't you joke about the commandant

the marine corps the highest ranking officer and a member of the joint chiefs of staff being in the hospital for a heart attack bc on the birthday of the marine corps no less boy you're a great patriot osama bin campbell everybody. Osama bin Campbell. Where's my NWO USA flag t-shirt, Luke? That'd be great to put on right now. Okay, with that in mind. Osama Brian Laden. That's disrespectful, Luke.

That really is. Box cutter Brian, right there. Okay, wow. By the way, I made that Pat Tillman joke for America that time, Luke. Okay, just so you know. I know. Thank you. All right. Listen, I'm also part of Show joke for America that time, Luke. Okay, just so you know. I know. Thank you. All right.

Listen, I thought it was a part of Showtime legal. I thought the joke was great. Here's Tony Ferguson training with David Goggins. Come on. Come on. I don't see this. Come on. Come on.

Come on, Tony. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on, Tony. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.

Come on. Get up, Tony. Get that weakness out. Get that weakness out. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.

Ah. Back up, Tony. Back up. Come on. Back up. Go ahead. It's okay. It's okay.

Um, I don't know what to do. Get that weakness out luke is this uh what is this just be honest what does this tell you about tony's chances what is this what is going on here all right look what david goggins does uh i'm not going to say just for himself, but certainly what he does for himself clearly seems to work. Right. And I know that he has worked with other folks. And if they feel like they got something out of it, I don't want to necessarily get on the show and say, oh, it's all not true.

That's not really my point. But I want to encourage folks when they think about physical training to think about what the best science tells us. And there's a guy I really trust whose name is Dr. Mike Isretel. He's a professor in the Bronx. I forget the name of the school. But he has a PhD. I was talking about the other Dr. Mike from the Jake Paul Undercard that time. I like that guy a lot too.

Also, Dr. Mike. I don't know if folks saw the Dr. Mike you're talking about took a fucking shit on that absolute fraud that dana white has hired gary brecca and everyone's like this guy saved my life and dr mike was like actually he's a complete charlatan it turns out so um okay but putting that aside for just a moment i don't want to sit here and say like some guy who like you know is training in his front yard has the right to criticize David Goggins. But what I would say is the people that I have found who have real world expertise matched with the highest level of academic training, guys like Dr. Mike Israetel, they will tell you very clearly that there is such a thing as overtraining. The science on that is not really ambiguous.

And here's what I don't get about what Tony is doing. I mean, I really understand what he is doing, but, like, Tony fought. People ask, like, for example, what's Tony's best win? And I will tell you, personally speaking, there's some debate about this, but personally speaking, I think his win over Rafael Dos Anjos is, to me, the most impressive. Because he beat him very cleanly. And he did it for five rounds at Mexico City, which has significantly higher elevation than even Denver. And you didn't see Tony miss a beat.

He didn't take a deep breath once in that contest. Conditioning and mental strength to me have never been Tony's weaknesses, ever. Not once. Not once did you ever go, well, if Tony had better cardio, maybe he could have won. Or if Tony hadn't just given up, he would have won. If Tony was crazier, he would have taken more damage in there.

It's just not Tony. So I get why Tony is attracted to what kind of messaging that a guy like David Goggins provides. Tony probably sees himself to a degree in David Goggins or the kinds of things he could respond. To me, he's not really trying to get better cardio. To me, BC, he's trying to rescue himself mentally. He is trying to get something mentally or spiritually from this experience

that he thinks will elevate him to the next level but you even had Rafael dos Anjos on Twitter yesterday being like this is not going to make him better it's going to make him slower and if he was looking for a mental edge he never fucking needed one the reality is this Tony Ferguson is nearly 40 years of age in a weight class where that is extremely unforgiving and he has taken an amount of damage between the gaechi fight but you can add in chandler and you can add in some other ones that have made it past the point of no return father time is undefeated so what he's trying to do bc is he's trying to wrestle back some kind of mental edge that will fortify him into his next contest and i hope for

his sake that i'm wrong and he's right but i have a feeling that it's just an exercise in futility don quixote attacking windmills i just don't see it as much more relevant i mean look it visually gives you the the heebie-jeebies luke not just because he's puking into the bag but like i don't know man i mean i'm the guy if you're exhaustion barfing and that's not the only video of him exhaustion barfing training with him. Guys, if you are exhaustion barfing, you're not training optimally. It can happen at times, obviously. But if it's happening repeatedly through the course of a training cycle, the evidence is very clear that you are overtraining. Don't do that shit.

Thank you. Could you argue, though, that his best win actually is Kevin Lee, not for the interim title, but for avoiding that chess staff? It's a little bit more luck than I think anything else. But, you know, good resilience there, too. Kevin Lee had him mounted. Remember that? Kevin Lee was putting it on him. But then, of course, Kevin Lee kind of fell apart. But that was to me one where Kevin Lee did have staff and he couldn't really go the distance in that fight with with Rafael De Sanjos a proven tested competitor and Tony put it on him uh but dude you can't you can't go back in time like dude this is the let me just say this too because people always think we're trying to

shoehorn these conversations and the reality is maybe if Tony was rich, we wouldn't be here. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe he'd keep competing, BC. I don't know. But what I do know is you look at some of these numbers from Connor and you look at the numbers from John Jones and whatnot, you can pretty easily surmise Tony Ferguson did not get paid

what he should have been paid in his career. Not a doubt in my mind. And maybe if he had gotten paid, who knows if he would have wasted it. I don't know. But I kind of feel like we get to these situations and we all want to have conversations about how delusional the athlete is and blah, blah, blah. And yeah, you know, that's part of it. But the other part of it is these guys get to a point in their career where their popularity

has been maximized, but it takes so long to get there. And this is the real core where they can make money. It all happens too little too late. If Tony Ferguson had been paid what he was supposed to have been paid through the course of his career, I can't say for certain whether or not he'd be here right now. But I think the chances of that would be a lot less. We should not lose sight of that. Well, I think what sped up the uncomfortableness of this tail end of his career was that

to keep alive his title hopes in hopes of finally fighting Habib back then, you remember when he fell at the Fox studio the week of 223 in, what was that, 2018, and he was unable to fight Habib for the fifth time. He came back in almost stupid record time. Luke, he was back in international fight week, right? This was April that he had a, or March, I guess, before the April fight that he had that brutal injury. He comes back in July in a war with Anthony Pettis. And I think he felt like

he was owed something huge. I know you remember that stretch Luke pandemic before the Gaethje fight, where he was sort of openly complaining that the UFC really didn't reward him for everything he did for them as a company man. And I feel like they're in some ways keeping him going. I know two fights ago, I had this weird Tony revelation where I'm like, you know, he actually didn't look that bad. Maybe he's got some life left. And it's hard because you're always going to juggle your fandom, love and respect for somebody. And that fact that you mentioned, Tony never really got what was due to him. Yes. He finally got a title shot of some sorts against Gaethje after previously holding that interim belt, but don't forget, he got almost unscrupulously stripped of that

interim belt. When they stripped him, it didn't really make a ton of sense so he felt he was overly owed it didn't go his way with injuries and scheduling to actually get the habib showdown and the big title shot then he finally gets the title he pours it all out he takes a beating and a half and now he's already down that road that he can't get back from. So this extreme level of trying to resuscitate his relevance and meaning, it is hard to watch while you're also offsetting that with wanting to see him succeed, not wanting to see him get hurt. It's hard. Look, it's really hard.

It's really hard. Dude, I mean, I'm older than him, so I'm saying this in terms of like an athlete, but it's just an older athlete desperately trying to get back what is, what is lost. And I just, you have to, we have to ask ourselves, listen,

and by the way, like I'm not like Patty is beatable. We should be honest about that too. Tony could beat him. I'm not suggesting to you that that's some crazy thing. I don't think that it is. Tony could win this fight in a way where like, I did not have great confidence.

He could be Charles Oliveira, for example, or, you know, be no dairy use or something like that. But Patty is much more beatable than those guys. Patty is more beatable than Michael Chandler. Patty is,

you know, he can win that one, but the reality is God, you know, and Tony's made mistakes too. It's not like he's free from blame, but it just, it just looks to me looks like a guy trying to wrestle back

that which cannot be wrestled back you cannot wrestle back youth you cannot wrestle back damage once it is incurred at least a certain amount of it you cannot wrestle back and he's trying to find some kind of mental edge to make all of this immaterial some kind of transcendental physical almost enlightenment there's a way to say that through this immaterial some kind of transcendental physical almost enlightenment there's a way to say that through this like hellfire that he has put himself through with david goggins but i think in the end what he's ultimately just doing is breaking himself down unnecessarily um for a spiritual awakening that probably is unlikely to serve him well it is but man any win he gets late in the career i mean it isn't weird not weird it's

understandable he is like becoming a cult fan favorite on a deeper level every single time he fights even though we're equally half kind of cringing right it's just it's weird like he's finally getting his flowers to some degree after the fact but it's almost too late ability wise right because he it's tough to see a guy go on a win streak like that never get the full title shot get an interim one get brutalized never be the same and now it's almost as if UFC still feels like they owe him so they're continuing to trot him out it's tough let's transition though to topic number two 38 year old Deontay Wilder former WBC heavyweight champion had the trilogy with Tyson Fury which led to a draw and two losses. He's been out of the boxing ring for a bit, but there continues to be the rumblings, right, that MMA could really be in his future.

Last time we saw him was that comeback fight in 2022 when he knocked out Robert Heleneas in the first round. But according to a chat he had with blue blood sports TV in the past few days, here's the direct quotes from Wilder on his intent to cross over to MMA. I'm thinking about doing both UFC and boxing. I'll be a dangerous man in the UFC with four ounce gloves. I feel like picking up a big body and slamming him, then getting on top of him and beating the shit out of him. Now, Luke, we had heard some level of a rumor in the past six months that this that that Wilder has this interest. I don't know if you saw it overnight, but apparently Wilder on social media responded to a fan's request that he fight Nate Diaz in MMA, to which Nate has tweeted out. Let's get these contracts written up ASAP.

Real fight, shit respect to a real fighter down to fight for real all love to boxing, but this is different. Real shit. LFG 1993. Luke, it sounds to me like Nate Diaz and Deontay Wilder might be trying to fight each other in MMA.

This also goes into the information. We heard that while there might be willing to fight in ghanu in some form of mma crossover thing here wilder 38 years old how i i was going to ask you if this is a bad move i'd rather say how bad of a move is this luke or am i wrong here part of the answer is unknowable because it would depend on how much he gets paid. So if he got paid $25 million for this fight, would you call it a bad idea? If he gets paid $25 million and he gets choked out and around by Nate Diaz, would you call that a bad idea?

I would not necessarily. So again, some of the particulars here really matter about whether it's a good or it's a bad idea. Also, if he legitimately has been trying to get an Andy Ruiz fight and can't get it, and legitimately trying to get Usyk or Joshua, and these guys don't want to sign on the dotted line and he could get a bunch of money to fight MMA I don't think that's the worst idea is it the best thing for him to be doing probably not but given the circumstances could be good here's what I'm saying though or you have more to say well I

was just going to say the Nate Diaz idea I thought about this one too it sounds like a crazy idea but I don't think it's as crazy as people think. I mean, here's the reality. If you're going to do that fight and it's going to be sanctioned by a commission, you have to ask yourself under what conditions in an MMA fight would they sanction Deontay Wilder? You would imagine someone else who's got a heavyweight who has limited experience, they could probably do that. But if it's going to be Nate, your answer, because I think Nick folks might be like, well, that's a better fight with Nick Diaz. But if it's going to be Nate, because Nate's not under contract, you have a situation where you have to have such a disparity in certain,

because there's a disparity in ability and a disparity in size, some of the factors have to balance out just enough for it to make it compelling. And Deontay Wilder would obviously have massive power, and he would have obviously size to his advantage, although Nate getting up around the high 180s would negate some of that, depending on what Deontay came in around. More to the point,

how could you get a fight between an elite boxer and an MMA fighter that a commission would sanction that you would favor the MMA fighter if they were you know significantly smaller it would have to be under one of these kinds of situations and if you think about it Nate Diaz is a lot older dude he didn't beat Jake Paul in a boxing match he sure as fuck if it was a boxing match he ain't gonna beat Deontay Wilder but like who could he fight that's kind of out of the box that's really different that's really weird where if he got a win like if he beat deontay wilder inside of a round let's say via rear naked choke do you know how massively

restorative or forget restorative how massively boosting to the nate diaz brand this would be also you could just be like well yeah deontay doesn't know shit about mma of course of course he lost it sounds stupid and crazy the first time you hear it. But then when you begin to think about it, if a commission can sanction it, and if you can get the right amount of money for it, it's sneakily smart. It's sneakily smart. And it's sneakily creative. And I actually kind of like it.

When we first heard the whisper of this months ago, I was excited because if you're going to do something this crazy, everything you said was right. You got to level the playing field in some degree. And that would be in this case, the size difference, the weight difference and the power of Wilder doesn't mean I would expect him to win. I think almost exclusively, I'd expect him to get kicked really hard in the legs,

taken down in some form and sub pretty quickly. I think he'd last longer than James Tony against Randy Couture, but the whole point is Luke, does he need to do this? Should he do this? He has made a shit ton of money at the highest level as a heavyweight pay-per-view main event guy consistently. I know he wants the Joshua fight. We all want the Joshua fight. It would make a lot of sense.

I just think that Ngannou Fury fight from two weeks ago just changed a lot about the options, about what he should do look francis is like it's already been talked about by the head of of the saudi arabia sport and government whatever that that government arm of the saudi of saudi arabia that has the endless pockets for their sport the sovereign wealth fund basically sovereign wealth fund they want to bring in ghanu back and they want to do it huge in fact look i don't know if you saw that rumor that Frank Warren's spouting out that there's going to be a huge card in Saudi in December with big names on it for boxing that won't include the names we expect like Ngannou or Wilder or Joshua. I don't know if that's going to come to fruition

or what that looks like, but if you're Wilder, you suddenly have this chance to stay in your sport against a hugely hot name in Ng ghanu that you probably would be favored against given that it's your actual sport even though believe me i understand how good and ghanu looked against fury and now we're trying to figure out was that just a bad night for fury or is in ghanu maybe the most special crossover story of all time if you're wilder you could probably get more money for this am i wrong you could probably get more money for this. Am I wrong? You could probably get more money boxing in Ghana and Saudi Arabia where Wilder has already flown out this year and been a guest, just like we've seen him around the PFL cage as a guest. He was on camera. You got to believe he's talking behind the scenes. I don't, I don't doubt put any, you know, down on him for,

for at 38, trying to maximize his financial options of what's left but it just seems to me that he would get everything he wanted against in Ghana it would be a real boxing match he'd probably be favored it'd probably be the most money he can make if you want to do a fun MMA thing the Diaz thing is fun but what do you make of if he chooses the Diaz lane over in Ghana we thought it might be didn't we think at some point that Wilder's MMA hopes were tied with PFL since he's been publicly kind of showing up with them he keeps saying in that quote I want to fight UFC is he saying UFC as MMA in general or do you think he's saying UFC in particular yeah and if he's not he's not fighting with the UFC unless he gets, I mean, dude, it'd be very weird for John Jones to complain about not getting Deontay

Wilder money only for Deontay Wilder to fight in the UFC. Right. And get Deontay Wilder money. Right. After Francis also left because he's not going to get Deontay money. Dude, UFC underpays people. They're not, I would be very surprised if he ends up fighting UFC. It's possible. Brock got 8 million and blah, blah, blah,

but I would be somewhat surprised if he did that, especially if you're fighting Nate Diaz. Why the fuck do you even need the UFC? You don't. They're going to take a big cut. You don't even need them. That fight would sell itself. I do think we should be honest about something. Again, once Maymac happened, the chances that

another one of these happens goes up exponentially and you got something kind of like that with tyson and francis and now that that has gone up the chances of another one happening goes up and up and up and up and up and i just don't feel like we have fully seen the potential crossover um possibilities played out in real world between MMA and boxing crossovers. It has simply not been fully explored in the way that I think it inevitably might be. So I would say that if he ends up going that route, it's only because his boxing options were just not nearly as good.

I think if his boxing options are close to being as good, he'll just go that way. But if they don't materialize and there is big money to fight nate diaz which i know sounds crazy but if there is big money to do that that fight dude let me just ask yourself deontay wilder versus nate diaz i gotta tell you dude that would sell a shit ton it's a shit ton elite train wreck tv elite train wreck tv right like you have to see what that looks like dude you have to yes you have to find a way to pay for that and see well maybe not pay but you have to find a way to see that yeah yeah how much how many buys it does i mean this is certainly an open question but okay so when he's saying ufc he's saying he's incorrectly saying ufc what he means is mma in general or what he is saying is he's saying the

word the letters UFC to like get people to pay attention and yeah you know whatever and then in the end they're like oh yeah we'll pay you seven and a half million he's like yeah go fuck yourself I'm not doing that right okay I wonder if PFL teams up with Saudi Arabia who has already put 100 million into their into their account right to help uh as a partnership I wonder if that's the lane he ends up choosing i'm just saying hey dude if you get a chance to box in gano do it do it you may get a dude if i'm if i yeah but if i was if i was if i was him and the chance the opportunity to fight in gano was real i would do it but like you know clarissa shields for example who's not a pay-per-view

attraction in that same kind of way they've given her some fights in pfl and it went you know fine as best they could but nothing really earth shattering in there what do you again what do you need pfl for or even ufc for if your opponent is a diaz brother like you don't you don't can his okay but even though diaz put a couple teases in that tweet i read to real Fight, which is his promotion. You'd agree, Luke. Real Fight's a promotion in name only, right? Yes and no. Certainly, it's much more of a legal entity than it is a giant

production company or something like that. That's true. They can't pull off their own pay-per-view, is my point. I think that they could yeah i think that they could mvp which was the most valuable promotions which was jake paul's one they probably did the heavy lifting in that in that sense but i gotta tell you like would francis and uh nate it's not francis i'm sorry would deontay and nate really want to cut in a third party to take a bunch of money to promote this? Don't just hire outside firms

It's more about there are a certain amount of people who know how to do this the right way, Luke in the world, right? And I know that we get a lot of fighter, we get a lot especially in boxing, right? Every big fighter has their own promotion named after themselves. Really, it's just kind of a way to divide money right they're not out yeah like

canelo promotions like what does canelo promotions do basically nothing they're they're they're partnering with the pbc and tgb promotions and all that you would i think you would need an logistical infrastructure under i mean to jake paul's credit he built that up quickly with mvp but he did align himself with showtime for a bunch you know uh okay but when we did those mvp events like for example like the press conferences and whatnot showtime filmed them but they were staged by mvp like when i don't know when i got bit by that fucking horse who okay showtime didn't stage that MVP stage but let's be honest Tony Holden promotions out of Oklahoma was essentially the house boxing promoter for those yes that's true yes but in terms of like you know uh being responsible for PR being responsible for credentials setting up press

tours and whatnot yeah they had some help dude they don't need to why on earth would you cut in a major mma promoter to take a huge part of that check for some benefit yes logistical help but like no if i was if i was either of them i would never do that never never never never do that no all right we know dana won't kill zufa boxing because every six months I feel like I see another quote where he's like, well, it might not actually be over. Dude, he seems to have a legit interest in Callum Walsh, who he is putting on UFC Fight Pass, showing up at the fights, all that. Do you do you think 2024 sees Dana White affiliated with anything boxing related? That's big. Like, would UFC be willing to do like we just talked about Deontay Wilder in an MMA match or or what I'm basically saying is did Francis

without knowing it wake up Dana to what's out there again in boxing because of how successful Ngannou versus Fury was and not successful in pay-per-view buys but successful in attention in the result opening up the window to more crossover fights I think if there's a real window to make a really big crossover boxing fight they might express more interest than they normally have

let's see what Sean O'Malley can do against Chito let's see how some of these things play out I think there is a world where it's possible yes but again I've seen so many in the it's funny like you're the boxing community. Like, yeah, we would love to have Dana white here.

And I'm like to do what exactly? I mean, I get that. He'd be bringing a lot of, here's a guy coming in. Who's got a bunch of money. Okay. That sounds nice.

But like, what is it that you imagine he's going to do in boxing? That's going to be revolutionary to the sport. There's nothing he could do. You had a quote and it's not your quote, but you, you said it to me one time and it's the truest fucking quote ever and this is why boxing hangs on the way it does in a in a kind of

like a permanently or nearly failed state but it just keeps on moving boxing can't kill it can't save it that's just the reality it's the that is how it works he's not going to come in there and do something like oh i'm going to punch pump a bunch of money into it. There are certain avenues he could take to have a more significant role. That is true. But I'm just going to be like the new Eddie Hearn. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't work that way. Hey, shout out to Wilder, Luke.

It's crazy. But seriously, if they make him an MMA match against Nate or Jake, I mean, there's business there, dude. There's huge business. That's why I want to see where PFL is going network-wise next year because Jake is currently aligned with The Zone for boxing. Jake is planning on fighting MMA next year for PFL, right? Is there any connection there?

Same thing we said about Francis. Francis has been smart where he's aligned with PFL for MMA. He's purposely stayed independent and solo in boxing. But I wonder, I mean, because if you're PFL, you've got to try to maximize as much of this agreement you have with Francis as possible. So I just wonder if based on where PFL ends up, if there's some larger partnership connected with Saudi where they can more

easily make these type of crazy. You're thinking about it this way. I'm thinking about it a little bit different. Again, one more time. Can you imagine if Nate Diaz choked out Deontay Wilder or armbar Deontay Wilder? How fucking insane that would be? But more to the point, it's amazing in 2023 that we're back to UFC 1. Jiu-jitsu versus boxing.

With crazy weight differences and shit we're all the way back full circle to that and it's as compelling now as it was in 1993 it's kind of wild i mean how many times have you watched this wasn't ufc but how many times have you watched the highlights of hoist gracie putting an arm bar and akibono like there's always going to be human interest in that luke. It's sort of a timeless crossover carnival thing. All right, let's get back into real MMA for topic three. Jamal Hill, the former light heavyweight champion who, of course, vacated

his title. That will be up for grabs in a vacant way this Saturday. He talked about in the past being promised a UFC title shot when he returns, but what about that timeline? Jamal spoke to MMA fighting. He says, looking at hopefully six months from the surgery to get back to training. Not bad. I plan on making my return in the second quarter of the year. Recovery process has been good. It's been a lot quicker actually than I thought it would be. I've been making good

strides. I've been working now for a while. I'm getting back to my normal footwear and things, just taking it slow. He would go on to say, looking to hopefully hit that six-month mark to be back and looking toward getting booked. I guaranteed when I come back, I was guaranteed when I come back, I will be given the title fight.

I will receive the same championship purse and pay-per-view points, end quote. Six months from now, Luke, does he fight the winner of Saturday's title fight whenever he's available? I hope. He's the most deserving one, right? He's the one whose situation requires that he get pushed to the front of the line. He was already at the front of the line when disaster struck.

And, of course, he got to the front of the line by a different set of circumstances. But he wasn't in control of him. They gave him an opportunity. He took it. He won. And then disaster struck. But for disaster, he would probably be in this fight or whatever the case may be. So yes, it should be him.

It should absolutely be him. And I will just say this, though. I really hope he doesn't rush the situation. I really hope he takes this time with the comeback so that when he returns fully healthy, ready to go everything's working the way that it's supposed to work because if you just rush back oh i want to get right back at it i want to be in this like you the the potential for re-injury is significant so um but who else would it be but him there's really again onkali of shitting the

bed in the last two fights the way he has has really to my, damaged his stock in a way that we thought he was once inevitable. And now it's like, I don't know if he's going to be there at all. Yeah, it's Jamal Hill. If he's ready on time, it's him. What is a better and bigger fight? Prochaska versus Sweet Dreams or Poiton? Versus Sweet Dreams. I would say Poetang.

Poetang, because Jamal Hill is a very clever striker. I think he showed in the Glover fight, he's got better overall skills, certainly than I had thought he had. Yeah, I think that'd be a more interesting striking battle. I do. I'd be down with either one. I think that's, that's.

Yeah. Either one's great. Like you didn't say a fight that sucked, you know, they asked Yuri at the press conference this week, whether he felt in hindsight that he should have been stripped. And I loved his answer. He basically said like, yeah, like, why wouldn't I be, you know, I wasn't able to fight.

He'd been gone 17 months. Almost like, of course he's down with that. He's okay. I'm actually actually it's weird that both guys gave up their belt like look at john jones in comparison not going to give up his heavyweight title right you can understand that but i i think in hindsight it's allowing the division to move forward during a time when this division is constantly not balancing itself out and giving us consistency so um yeah i'm down with this um i do i do i don't know like what

should we expect from because here's the deal we all thought jamal hill was pretty damn good he looked great against glover i mean he looked great he started to show you like oh maybe he just needed this level of opportunity like maybe like he also raised his game and his striking and brought it to a level that a lot of us didn't know he was at. There's going to be answers after this, but even if he comes back at full 100% ready to go, I have no idea who's going to be light heavyweight champion in three months, six months, one year.

How about one day, Luke? I have no freaking idea what's going to happen to this division. It's impossible to say. There's too much parity, too many guys with great ability, but some known deficiencies, injuries. It's just really, really, really strange. But I just want the guys who have earned it and deserve it to get what's theirs while they can.

That's it. All right, let me ask you luke thomas an interesting question they asked poets on this he kind of had a no answer like didn't really buy in either way when not when israel adesanya returns luke i may have nailed that i may have at least in the luke thomas pronunciation lane i may have nailed that. Does he come back at middle or light heavy? Because, here's why I say because, if Poiton is the champion, would he be allowed to cut the line?

Probably. Probably Luke Thomas. An MMA trilogy between these two. Does Adesanya come back at 185 or 205? That's a good question I would say chances are he probably comes back at 185 but if Poiton is champion I might put it at 50 50 like if he if Poiton's not champion I think he goes to middleweight almost no matter what it might depend who's the middleweight champion what if it's still strickland and he's like oh fuck this guy i'm gonna show you what i learned from that first

fight you know like okay but if strickland like washes ddp and they can't get the hams on fight maybe they do that but it seems like there's too many again dude there's too many interesting contenders at middleweight you know that's the other part you know what maybe there's 205 thing you might be right about that he might come back and just say fuck it 205 or bust and i don't understand he's older he's older now what is he what is he luke 34 34 i believe so he he's getting there you wonder if in the reason and so with middleweight and light heavyweight being 20 pounds apart he could have a nice speed advantage at light heavyweight that will keep him younger longer he could take this time off to bulk up a little bit the right way. Like John Jones.

Not three years, but you get the idea. You know what? You kind of talked me into the fact that 205 might be the likelier path now that we're kind of talking about it out loud. I hadn't thought of it in the way you're suggesting, but it's real. Love it. Love it. Topic number four, Luke, I want to get your reaction to the latest fight news and announcements.

January 13, we have a ufc vegas fight night card probably at the damn apex matthias nicolaou versus manel cop at flyweight your thoughts uh surprisingly decent fight i guess it was supposed to be um kai car france they couldn't make it so i don't know what his concussion situation is i'm glad he's taking his time uh just minnow cop please don't say anti-gay slurs just stop doing that and everything will be great you know that'd be nice i i still want to see him against kkf but yes that was ridiculous that didn't happen twice in the same night that night people just love that other the other guy was like all ufs yeah that was great. That was the worst, actually.

January 20th is UFC 297, probably Toronto. No, I'm not here to talk about the women's Bantamweight title situation. How about Air Jordan, Charles, on Canadian soil against Shawn Woodson? That's all right. It's okay. I mean, Charles Jordan seems like a pretty good fighter. He's one of the bigger Canadian standouts, I would say. And he's always down for a fun scrap. You can certainly say that.

Sean Woodson has got the weirdest body type I've ever seen. Yes. He looks like Kevin McHale out there. Kevin McHale had a head of hair, though, right? Yeah, shoulders up to here long floppy arms like sean woodson looks like the kind of guy like when he gets bit by a mosquito can just scratch his knees with full posture you know what i mean yes yes i'm with you on that uh ufc shanghai is in one month december 9th how about song yadong chris gutierrez at banham luke down okay so i'll say this i am sad that we don't have a Song Yedong-Peter Yan fight.

That was sick. That was going to be sick. Okay, as a backup, and it's not too far away. He was able to, I think Chris Gutierrez just fought recently. He's going to turn it right around, and he's going to be able to do it. I fucking love this fight. Fucking love this fight. Both of these guys have all the talent in the world

in very different kind of ways. This is going to be a real interesting test, especially for Gutierrez. But Song Yedong has been a guy who I think is capable of much more than he's done, and he's already done a lot. What a great fight that is. Dude, you almost pulled a Brandon Rios

there. Do you know that famous quote, Luke? Do you remember when Rios had those two wars with Mike Alvarado? Do you remember the first one at the StubHub Center there? There was a moment between rounds after it turned into a full-on brawl where Robert Garcia, the trainer, said something to him in Spanish, and Brandon Rios' reaction was like, I fucking love this. I fucking love this. And Robert's like, I know you fucking love this. I fucking love this. And Robert's like, I know you fucking love it. Calm down, though. Calm down.

That's what you sounded like. They're getting Let me ask you, how much CTE do you think Brandon Rios has? We don't talk about that publicly. We just don't, okay? Probably like I'm going to guess if there was an amount, the answer would be all of it. You know what I mean? Well, do you remember that very awkward moment after the rematch with Mike Alvarado,

which Alvarado won by close decision? When he made fun of Freddie Roach for having Parkinson's? Well, no. When he almost accosted Max Kellerman during the post-fight interview, and he's like, what? You think I'm a punching bag? You think I'm a fucking punching bag? And he got in his face.

It was a little weird and awkward. I don't remember that, actually. But he's a warrior. Well, you know what I've learned about fighters in 20 years of covering them? They're not sensitive at all. You know, like they just let you. Well, you know what I've learned about fighters in 20 years of covering them? They're not sensitive at all. You can give a very fair criticism, and they will just accept it in good faith. Especially when you ask them about their 20s, Luke. Especially when you ask them about their 20s.

They love that. They'll answer that right away. So let's update the Kayla Harrison story. She has not appeared this year for PFL. We expect her contract to be done at the end of this year. They did not add her into the women's tournament at 155 because she was chasing a cyborg crossover fight that never happened. Instead, they did a tournament at 145, but Luke, we knew Kayla Harrison was going to be in the PFL championships in DC, November 24th,

but it's not going to be the original opponent. Former Bellator champion Julia Budd is out of that fight. And to make matters worse, she's been released from the promotion. Here's the quote from PFL CEO, Peter Murray, who gave a statement to MMA fighting. He says, this is correct. She's no longer with PFL. We released to, she, Julia Budd refused to fulfill her contract obligation obligation which forced the promotion to scrap the fight murray would go on to say she had the opportunity to take the fight and she chose not to bud did not sign her bout agreement consistent with her contract and unfortunately we had to move on but we're really excited about aspen lad sliding in. Murray says this is going to be a great fight, end quote.

Luke, is Kayla Harrison versus Aspen Ladd an upgrade from Kayla Harrison versus Julia Budd, or do you hate both of those fights? I don't really, I don't think it matters much. I think Kayla smokes either of them. This is the Kayla Harrison stay busy tour, which is fine. You know, that's part of it.

Aspen Ladd is a good fighter. She's a respectable opponent. I don't mean to suggest that she's some scrub. She's not. But I don't see her or Bud being in the same level as Kayla Harrison. And yeah, it doesn't change much for me, and I don't think it changes much really for them either. No.

What do you make of this Julia Bud situation? There was no details beyond she never signed the bout agreement I don't have further details on what led to this uh I don't remember this exact thing happening lately though Luke this kind of weird right yeah well here's the thing we haven't gotten Julia Budd's side so I would like to hear Julia Budd's side on this one before we declare what you you know, anytime a promotion is like, well, this fighter didn't do their end of the business. They could be telling the truth. I'm not declaring to you that they're not, I don't know what happened, but we should be hearing what Julia Budd's side of the story is. She apparently did not sign the bout agreement. They announced the fight. You know, we've seen this before where promoters announce a fight that's not really signed. And you're like, well,

why did they do that? I don't know what the the story is but we should hear both sides before we get a you know declarative statement all right aspen lad is two and one since joining the pfl in 2022 her first victory a split decision over julia bud on the championship card last year she split fights this calendar year uh and that's the situation. Look, I don't hate this fight. Kayla versus Aspen. I like the personalities size difference though. It's going to be huge. Remember, although Aspen failed to stay a Bantamweight due to weight issues, I don't think she has the skill for the higher weight classes to be super affected. Although the talent is not there above one globally right outside of like pacheco

and kayla yeah it's a fine test for kayla um i i my my intention is to go to that fight here in dc um they're gonna have it at the anthem which is a really cool venue down on the water by the wharf so um we'll see but again it's like to me it's like there's like maybe two people in this entire weight class at 145 or whatever the fuck who could even beat Kayla. One was Pacheco and then the other one was probably Nunez, maybe Cyborg. I don't know. But if it's not any of those names, I just feel like Kayla's going to smash him. So I guess we'll see. Final bit on Kayla, who we love, Luke, friend of the program.

You'd say that out loud, right? I love Kayla. Sure, I like Kayla a lot, yeah. What is she going to do next year? She'll be a free agent at the end of this year, but PFL is launching pay-per-view. They reportedly have bought Bellator and plan at some point to merge the rosters down the line. Do you think it's more likely she re-signs with PFL, chases a cyborg fight, another fight with Pacheco, or does she, even if the money isn't there, try to knock on the door of UFC, or is there weight issues there too, Luke?

It's very simple. If the UFC can accommodate her and can keep her busy with fights, and more importantly, keep her busy with fights that are of stature, I don't know how they would do that necessarily, but maybe they've got some plan. I don't know. If that was that necessarily, but maybe they've got some plan. I don't know. If that was a real possibility, then she should definitely go with them. But other than that, if I was her, and I know a lot of MMA fighters can't do this, I would explore signing two or three fight deals, like doing the Canelo bit,

signing two fight deals wherever you could, or just whoever can keep you busy in a way that makes you stand out is really the simple answer for her what are those real options luke i don't know i mean i don't know there's regional options sure but in terms of quote-unquote real options wouldn't it i mean is there options in one i don't know luke is there the real options right now would be go back to pfl and chase cyborg and pacheco or probably take a lot less money to go to the UFC. We don't know what the future of the UFC women's featherweight division is. Dana, after Amanda Nunes retired, seemed to hint at the idea that it wouldn't last.

Do you think Kayla, who has operated largely at 155, save for one appearance in LFA at 145, do you think she could make 145 consistently enough to make her the face of that division in the ufc that even if you had to take less money at her age by the way she's on the other side of 30 would it be smart even for less because look she lost a lot of leverage by losing to pacheco i think we could say that out loud yeah she do is this the time that the money doesn't matter it's about if they'll take you go after it or maybe i don't know

here's the thing i don't know what she wants i don't know how much the money matters to her so that is an important equation but if she's trying again here's the thing to act like oh 145 should we have all this glory who the fuck's she gonna find a 145 over there like i don't even know what the answer to that would be so um it's a tough situation after she gives birth look baby i don't know i don't know it's a tough situation it is a tough situation topic number five luke is also a tough situation pound for pound king terence crawford i mean he just moved us to the nth degree back in that super fight in july and showtime pay-per-view when he brutalized and stopped errol Spence to

become the first four belt undisputed welterweight champion. Well, that championship reign from an undisputed status is no more. The IBF has stripped Terrence Crawford of his title. They've upgraded Jaron Boots Ennis, the unbeaten prospect from interim title holder to full title holder. The reason is because Ennis has been a number one mandatory for a while now in a couple of sanctioning bodies, but in particular here with the IBF, the IBF wanted Terrence Crawford to face Ennis next. Terrence Crawford told them, I have a contractually obligated rematch that Errol Spence has activated. And here we are, Luke. So there's actually a lot to talk about here um it sucks on the

surface but here's my history with this okay the four sanctioning bodies the four recognized you know title producers here they're sketchy but the IBF historically for the most part is known as the stingy one that follows their own rules They're not like the WBC and WBA who float all these extra titles, change the rules based on a celebrity fighter. Oh, we have super champions now. We've got unnecessary interim and secondary titles. IBF does it by the book. By the book, and Dan Raphael of Fight Freaks Unite

has reported this, it's actually their rule, 3.8 in their book related to return bouts. The IBF rule states states this no contract for a championship fight shall contain any clause or any provision whatsoever guaranteeing or in any way assuring or promising either contestant a return championship contest where such clause or provision interferes with the mandatory defense of a title in this this case, the obligatory rematch with Spence, which Spence activated, would get in the way of this mandated Ennis fight,

which is why he's been stripped. You then see Mike Coppinger of ESPN reminding us that Errol Spence was IBF welterweight champion for five and a half years, in which he only had one mandatory title defense. Now, Luke, I will say in this case, Ennis has been the mandatory for a while, is past due. There were rumors that he was going to take an interim title fight again

just to kind of stay busy while he's waiting. From your standpoint, because I'm a little too close to this, where I think all four of these sanctioned bodies are crooks and I hate them all to begin with, how do you read this news? It's unfortunate to see this pound-for- pound King just get stripped when it's not really his fault. I see it as just as selective as Mike Coppinger. I mean, you can say whatever you want about what's on the books. And yes, if he's not going to be fighting a guy who's been a mandatory challenger, I could be seen in a vacuum. Could you understand the IBF's decision-making here? Yes. According to

the letter of the law, you could understand it. The problem is you cannot understand it in the broader picture of how other decisions in a similar manner have been handed out to other athletes, including in this own weight class, right? Previously with Errol Spence, as Mike Coppinger indicated. And that's where you're like, Jesus, these sanctioning bodies are almost always going to do the thing, and I should say always, that is going to be inconsistent if it benefits them in the long run, which is what they want.

They probably are dying. Again, I recognize that Crawford probably, after the Spence fight, especially if it doesn't happen on 147, he's not going to defend this belt anymore. He's just going to drop it eventually. And so what they're probably saying is, this is the guy who's never really going to defend it. Even if he does, it's going to be forever.

Let's just go ahead and pull the bandaid off. And I sort of understand that. But when they haven't done that with other ways, and by the way, it's not just ibf that does this wbc you know let germal germal charlo just sit around forever without defending it and not stripping him and so you have these like he's on two years he's got over two years and they're giving him a mental health break but he's coming back against jose benavidez in november 25th in a catchweight non-title fight which which again, how is the WBC okay with that? And by the way, Benavidez coming off of a loss to Danny Garcia, which was basically one side.

No, I guess he had the return bout that we called on the prelims, but the last sort of A opponent that he fought, he got smoked. But the point I'm trying to make here is that what they want is their cake and to eat it too. At times, they want to be like, hey, this is the letter of the law and this is why we did it. And then at times they're like, Oh, right. Well, let's reinterpret this in a different way so that we don't have to do it. This to me is just that if they want it to be consistent, fine, but they don't. And they're going to go around it in different ways when the time serves them. And they're going to find some kind of legalese to justify it. That's, that's how I see it. I get that. I'm, I'm sounding hypocritical because I'm mad at them for actually following the letter of their law, which I actually prefer time limit rules like

this because, you know, should Jaron Ennis continue to suffer? No, he should get his chance to fight for a title when the reality is like we talked about Crawford's 36. He's chasing a Canelo fight. He's got to rematch Spence next Probably at 154 And he's more likely to fight Jermel Charlo For a bunch of 154 titles Or maybe even Tim Zoo for all we know Than he is to cut back down to welterweight And fight boots even though we would all prefer that

Right? But it's inconsistency for all of these sanctioning bodies IBF included Look at what we said about Spence Technically they sent a letter back to Dan Rayfield that they're claiming the IBF, that they reached out to Crawford on August 25th, which is about a month after he beat Spence. They told him he must begin negotiations with Ennis. Crawford said, hey, sorry, got this rematch with Spence.

So I get it, but I don't get it. But I also hate it. But look, folks, there's a reason why we, before the last couple of years, you don't see a lot of four belt undisputed champions in boxing. Why? Because typically the sanctioning bodies hate that because they want their titles to be defended

on the regular. Why? Because you have to pay a sanctioning fee, a hefty 4% of your purse, just to be able to wear the title. That 4% doesn't matter when you're a nobody. That 4% matters a lot when you're somebody. Let's not forget there have been times and even Floyd Mayweather's pay-per-view run where he has chose not to defend certain titles. So he doesn't have

to pay that, that sanctioning fee. Remember when Canelo fought for a while at catch weights, it's all part of the tricks of the trade here. It's just that boxing so broken to begin with Luke to see this, it's just sort of like now we're penalizing crawford for something that's not his fault right it is what it is it's but i'd also rather become champion by beating somebody rather than become champion like like haney originally did devin haney originally became a lightweight champion because they they they stripped teo femo that time so it like... We call them email champs in boxing. Yeah. And it's just not fair, but it's the reality to an extent.

It is what it is. It's the box. By the way, Luke Thomas, have you seen the trash talk between Jamal Charlo and Jose Benavidez Jr. on that teleconference they had the other day? Yeah, it's racist and awful. Yeah.

Well, I don't know about racist. Well, it was borderline. Let me explain something to you. If you tell a black fighter he's got nappy hair yeah that wasn't great that wasn't good yeah not i was talking more not all benavidez was coming after charlo basically making fun of his mental health and he's like yo i got shot in the leg and i still fight which was funny i have to i have to admit it was it was pretty funny the exchange again this is boxing and people say horrendous shit about each other we all know the story but i will say that

the leg zing was like okay all right well played well played by the way shout out to 40 year old andre burdo on this t-shirt you know how much i love washed old guy fights in boxing luke right when it's when it's your number one favorite when it's not too sad and it's like in between sad burdo has claimed that he's going to rematch robert guerrero on the undercard of that november 25th pay-per-view that we're talking about that's headlined by benavidez and andrade and then you've got charlo and benavidez jr in the co-main i don't know where that's going to fall on that fight card whether it's on the pay-per-view or off tv or whatever but that's a rematch 11 years in the making.

I don't know if you remember Luke, Berto came out and tried to do the shoulder roll against Robert Guerrero. And one of the dirtiest big level fights I've ever seen. And he got both eyes swollen, shut Guerrero got the Mayweather fight instead of him. That was, that was what happened there. But I want to also announce that on that date,

November 25th, a couple of Saturdays from now, Luke Thomas and I will be calling the prelims from our Jersey City studio. And the main event of our Showtime pay-per-view countdown card, how about this? Sergey Lipinets versus Michelle Rivera at 140 pounds. Hell yeah. Give me some of that, okay? The Muhammad Ali lookalike against Sergey Lipinets should be a fun, fun fight.

Before we get to Dead Wrong, Luke, another friend of the program, Mike Perry, had a press conference yesterday to promote his BKFC pay-per-view return December 2nd, Salt Lake City, against Eddie Alvarez. The face-off between the two of them at the end got a little weird and physical. If you missed it, check this shit out. Got a finger in and physical. If you missed it, check this shit out. Got a finger in the face. This is how Brian and I developed MK. We just sat there and flexed and punched each other. Well, Luke, there was a second video. Mikey, do we have this?

So Mike Perry went back to the hotel lobby, it seems, after this and ran into Big Ben Rothwell, who would be the co-main event that night. By the way, taking on Todd Duffy, which should be weird and fireworks and insane. We don't have this one. If you can check that out on the BKFC social channels, him and Ben Rothwell do the same thing. A little bit more playful, but Mike wanted to prove that he can take heavyweight hooks to the body just the same. Can't wait for that fight card.

Hopefully we can get Mike Perry on this show very shortly. Let's go to our final segment here. We're going to push fan subs off again until next week due to time constraints. Apologies, but sometimes the news takes precedence. We still want to give you the chance every Friday to email us at morningcombat at gmail.com. We won't see the emails. Just a reminder.

Luke, I don't even know if I should say this publicly, but didn't Mikey say he caught a dick? He caught a dick. Yeah, people are letting him swing in the DMs. Don't do that, boys. Don't do that. Gross POSs out there. Okay, I'm glad it wasn't me.

All right? Glad it wasn't me. You get a chance to tell us if what we've said was incorrect, insensitive, or just plain dead roll all right luke this is where we stand trial without vaseline or a lawyer that's always smart the first or the latter either yeah i agree with you see i'm here's what i'm gonna do luke i am 45 now so i've got a colonoscopy i need to schedule i know i've said this to you before but i'm serious about this will they also check my prostate when i'm out i don't think so but um you

can ask like i know they won't tattoo me i know there's certain like you know they won't there's certain things they won't do when i'm out luke but that seems fair i'm already out you have my ass can we just check it all it's a great question and this is one for your doctor and can we also not talk about your prostate and dick and balls in this any more than we already have and your anus is it not on brand or i mean you know right i mean it's 12 53 on a friday it's like what did you do on today well i talked about my co-host's anus uh today so it was great all right number one here on this dead run from john b hopefully it's the guy from uh from the outer banks there good day team mk out pedantic this

ish right here, donks, at the one hour and 39 minute mark of episode 511. During everybody's favorite segment, BC reviews the Lane-Kosgon-BKFC face-off. BC then continues to bloviate and declare that Julian Lane won that fight by decision. Hey, that's dead wrong. If you actually watched the fight

instead of tripping over your pants while extending your research for this week's Dern versus Andrade fight, I resent that fact, by the way, you wouldn't have known that Lane was gifted a win by Dr. Stoppage at the end of round three. Love you too, Dodge Omnis. Best regard, John B. Isn't a Dr. Stoppage still a knockout where I come from?

Not necessarily, no. It's still a knockout where I come from? Not necessarily. No. It's still a TKO, Luke. Okay. It's still a technical knockout. Yeah, it's a little different though. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. I got one more dead wrong for you and it comes to us from Kevin. He says, Hey guys, at the one hour and 51 minute mark of episode five Oh nine during fan subs, Brian and Luke were discussing a submission of luke as

dracula in a sub from alan w brian said quote way to put the jamaican flag colors on the bong too hey the bong was red yellow and green the jamaican flag is black green and yellow and fun fact it's the only national flag that has no red white or blue in it which i did not know and that's pretty interesting brian is probably thinking of rastafarianism which is represented by the colors of the bong luke can you i don't remember you saying this so this was news to me i would have yeah i would have dead wronged you in real time but i didn't i don't remember you saying this find my bob marley bobblehead anywhere lu, but that's got the colors on it. I guess they're right.

You're right. The Jamaican colors flag has black in there. It is red, yellow, and green on the Rastafarianism. So shout out down there. One of my favorite islands to visit, Luke. I've never been. I've not been to Jamaica, unfortunately. I would love to go, but I've not been.

Is that because you've watched Marked for Death by Steven Seagal too many times? No, it's just that, well, one, you have to, like, you know, there's just a limited time of vacation and it costs money to go. And I just don't do, I'm not saying I would never do it, but I've never done an all-inclusive. I've never done it. Why? Why?

Yeah, why, Luke? You can't talk about my my asshole at least you can come clean on this vacation talk so my basic view is i want to be clear about this i don't not i'm not trying to say that there's not a good circumstance to do that what i can say is the way in which i like to visit a place is to actually like get out in town and see it and navigate it and i prefer like making mistakes and finding cool things that way versus like hey you get food whenever you want to go be fat by the pool don't misunderstand me there's a time and a place to go be fat by the pool but if i'm going to a new place i kind of want to go explore it and um you can't really do that in all inclusives some places though Luke, if you make mistakes publicly while exploring, you get stabbed. Right.

But that's the other part, too. It's like it also if I can't go to a place where you can do that, then I probably just won't go to that place. So that's fair. Yeah, that is fair. That's dead wrong for the week. Morning Combat at gmail.com for your fan subs on Wednesday. You're dead wrong on Friday. Tell Mikey we said hi. All right, Luke. I won't keep your hair any longer. I want you fan subs on Wednesday. You're dead wrong on Friday. Tell Mikey we said hi.

All right, Luke, I won't keep your hair any longer. I want you to enjoy your Friday. I want you folks to enjoy your UFC 295 and to check out Luke Thomas's post-fight analysis directly at the end of Saturday's pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden. I'll be going live on CBS Sports HQ. We'll get you covered from every angle. Check out our great bonus offerings at youtube.com slash morning combat, including an interview with Shakur Stevenson that's dropping in about an hour.

I did ask him about Sean O'Malley, Luke, and he had a lot of, he had a lot of, what'd he say? What'd he say? You're going to go, you're going to wait and see if it was inflammatory as was his comments about Devin Haney. So do not miss this very interesting interview.

Okay, okay. All right. Can we have favorites? I think he's my favorite boxer, Shakur Stevenson. It doesn't mean I'm impartial. So he doesn't matter. I like the hammers, like Better Beave. That's kind of more my style.

But I will say this, dude. Shakur Stevenson, it occurs to is, he understands the fight game. Obviously he's super skilled, but beyond that, he understands the fight game. It to me, his rise to stardom is a fucking inevitability. I don't know when it will be, but it will happen. It will happen. Yeah.

He's, he's been almost chronically avoided and he calls out Devin Haney for that exact fact. Although Haney does have a very interesting fight coming up with Regis program pay-per-view early next month but check out that interview with Shakur uh I meant that I I you know we try to be impartial but we also are fans Luke and I love this guy's game his style his demeanor maybe he knocked out a few people in a parking garage but Luke who hasn't right hey listen I've been to many parking garages why just start swinging on people and that's just what that's just what real guys do, you know? That's what men do, okay?

And that's the deal right there. MorningCombat.store is our great merch house. Why don't you buy this hat, this mug, and the fantastic crossover collaboration that's known as the Average Joe Art 2.0 launch. Check it all out, please. And why don't you get 10% off while you're there using our code live 10 live e10 we'll leave it open the rest of the day and night 10 off anything we got in that store and luke i talked to big ray you know rj dunkel gangbang he has big plans for black friday for the holiday season maybe even the return of one of our

most requested items in merch history yeah i'm more concerned about what happens january 1 i gotta tell you that's a little bit more yeah you're talking more about like five days ahead of uh how you plan to celebrate the anniversary of Jan 6 with Pat? There's that. There's that. There's also who's going to run that site on January 1. I don't know. I don't know what the answer to that is.

Well, Luke, we're in the middle of some changes, right? You know what I'm saying? Luke, it's going to happen how it happens. Here's my pitch to get merch. Get it while you can. That's my pitch. No, you don't mean. Well, yeah, you might be right on that.

I might be right. Well, look, Luke, we've talked in code about what's really going on morning combat not going away we have cbs sports strong i have this belief though luke that next year could be the biggest year in the show's history well again we we joke about the pessimism and we underplay the optimism almost for fun and by design. And BC, you know this as well as I do. Between now and this time next year, who the hell knows what's going to happen? We don't have anything guaranteed.

And I'm not going to play my hand, but I'll say this, and I think you will agree, and I think it's a good message to take into the weekend. We have plans to win next year, not just the MMA Awards or whatever, but we have plans to not next year, not just the MMA awards or whatever, but we have plans to like, not just do shows either, but to take things to another level and it will be hard and it will be difficult, but we think we can do it. So stick around. We got some, we got some plans.

Yeah. That's the extent we can tell you, but stick around because one thing I'll say to close here, you and I have had incredible fun. This has been arguably the biggest blessing or turn in our respective careers. Just a joy. For all the highs and lows, the pains, the aches, this is a joy.

Mikey Mormale, a joy to have been part of this process all the way. We love you. But we have had this vision of what it could one day be what if one day is is next year luke all right it is it is possible it is possible we shall see but it is possible evan garnett showed us that anything is possible all right that's luke thomas i am brian campbell thank you for joining us mikey more mile on the ones and twos um that's about it enjoy yourself take care of your brain, okay? Please, put yourself

first. Happy birthday to the USMC revelry revelry indeed.