MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 296 Picks | Joshua-Wilder | Tom Aspinall | Fight Announcements | Morning Kombat Ep 528

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

On Episode 528 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell Give their picks for UFC 296. The boys also break down Dana White's recent comments about Tom Aspinall's future. Does any of this make sense? Next up they break down the report that Anthony Joshua will face Deontay Wilder in March. As always we close out friday's with Dead Wrong. (00:16:50) - Ok, Bet + UFC 296 Preview (01:13:30) - Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder (01:22:00) - Tom Aspinall's Future (01:28:30) - Fight News and Announcements (01:32:00) - Weekend Combat Preview (01:48:25) - 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

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

Ha ha ha ha ha! Ah! Wow, little technical difficulties to start the show. Hey, get after it. It's me. It's your boy, BC. It's LT. It's Morning Combat.

Friday, December 15th, 2023. Multi-time award winning, but we'll get into last night's awards in a second. Shout out to everybody today, though. Right? John Anik, one more sleep. Patented phrase. UFC 296 tomorrow and the okay bet championships today welcome on into this great program as I mentioned yeah the American Alpha

you're looking at him the guy next to me is my partner in crime from DC with love Luke Thomas Luke um I'm under the what my family's real sick so i've caught shrapnel from them so i promise to keep it away from you as long as you don't pass the duchy to the left side on saturday or open mouth kiss me well i guess i'm screwed then because i'm gonna get sick all right which are we after our fight in here look which direction are you going all right that's luke thomas uh luke how fired up are you? Not for our OK Bet Championship, because I don't want to bring up bad moments for you. I want to just ask you about 296.

Definitely pretty excited. It's like that we lost a couple of the fights. There were, I think, four welterweight fights on the card. We lost two of them. We lost the Randy Brown fight, and then we obviously lost the Ian Gary fight. So that is not great. But in general, last pay-per-view of the year, good fights.

We've talked about them. We did a big preview with Chuck, youtube.com slash morning combat. There's a lot to like. Yeah. Yeah. Also youtube.com slash morning combat gives you all of our bonus interviews. I had a really interesting one with Cody Garbrandt yesterday. Check it out ahead of Saturday, along with Luke's boxing bonair,

Artur Bieterbeev. I was calling him better beev on there, Luke. You know, whatever, tomato, tomato. But dude, your boy, I've never talked to him before. boxing bonair arthur beater beave i was calling him better beave on there luke i you know whatever tomato tomato but dude your boy i've never talked to him before your boy is hilarious even through broken english i was surprised because you know him luke he's a freaking savage he is a savage but he seems like um a cheerful person right would you say that for a guy with a 100 finishing rate he seems like a pretty cheerful guy and very humble so check that out he's back of course january 13th against callum

smith we'll get to that as we get closer but today is about what's going on in las vegas and boy is there a lot to get into from the press conference to the world mma awards and all that and then some tall pale and handsome yeah you're looking at me'm BC. Like and subscribe what we're doing here. Mikey Moore, my old CBS Sports, of course, on the ones and twos. Thank you very much. And a quick reminder to the shirt on Luke's chest, the hat on my head, morningcombat.store, RJ Doppelgangafire has fire merchandise there from the average joe crossover to so many other things hey luke i have hit the one month mark of my new life-changing nutrition and fitness program down 13 pounds in a month good for you bro good for you i'm really happy to hear that i'm proud keep going reach your potential reach your goals i'm in uh i'm in week two of this kind of new program that I'm in, and it's beaten the bags off of me.

But steady as she goes, steady as she goes. Way to go, way to go. You've been looking trimmer, Luke. All right. I just hope it increases your happiness. Will it? It probably will, but I will tell you that I had a disastrous night of sleep. Tuki had nightmares last night.

So I had to go and put her back to bed like three different times. So I've been awake since 345. So wow, I am emotional myself, Luke, because I've slept about four and a half hours each night, the last three with like, you know, little sickness that just keeps you up. It's rough. Everybody's going through it these days, but we'll fight through. And don't forget, of course, folks, before we get into today's episode, that Saturday, tomorrow, going to be a big day for us, for you guys, for combat sports in general. So don't forget, before, right before the start of the final Showtime Championship Boxing Card and the 37-year history of Showtime Sports,

Luke Thomas and myself will be hosting Showtime Boxing Countdown Saturday early evening, live from the bomb shelter, where we will call a trio of featured preliminary fights that will air, of course, from Minneapolis, the Armory, one of the best locations in all of the box. But it doesn't end there. Right after that, it's UFC 296 Live Companion. Look, they may have to have those paddles ready to just keep reviving us as it goes throughout the night because we're not only giving them the live companion,

we're hitting them hard afterwards with the MK Poe show. It's going to be a big one, and this is officially, really this time, the last time in the bomb shelter. Just banging them in every orifice, BC. You know what I'm saying? Wow, wow. Rocco style. Did you hear there's a new Rocco Netflix series coming out? I don't know if I want to watch that, Luke. If it's on Netflix, why would I. Rocco style. You hear there's a new Rocco like Netflix series coming out. I don't know if I want to watch that. If it's on Netflix, why would I watch Rocco?

I don't care about his life. You know what I mean? I only care about his pipe. I got it. Look, I got it. Just a reminder, folks, that this great episode of Morning Combat is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app today.

That's what I'm talking about. Luke, anything else you want to say in this extended entry i mean maybe let's talk about it right now world mma awards 15th annual yeah last hey hey finally my pessimism paid off uh i went one for three with my pessimism because we've been nominated three times that we were only didn't get it one time but dude you bat one out of three that keeps you in the majors so my pessimism paid off that's well above the mendoza line in that regard uh if we're gonna gloat when we win we certainly want to be humble and defeat so congratulations to the daniel white contender series of course which captured this year's best uh what was it what's the category again i always forget it uh best mma programming mma programming uh shout out to all the other nominees about this for a second, man.

Folks know, obviously, that this is the last Showtime card that we're calling for the prelims on Saturday, and it's obviously well-documented that Showtime Sports is basically going away. That is kind of one big part of why the year was tough for us. But, BC, we've really not told the story about all the other pieces that have gone into making this an extraordinarily difficult year. So BC, did we thrive in 2023? No, but we did survive. We did survive. And I do believe, and this is, you know, a little bit of faith. I do believe that by the time we reach this point next year, 2024 will have been a much better year.

Hell yeah. I can't believe you just mentioned the word faith. Are you talking about the great George Michael hit or are you talking about believing in something, Luke? I mean, again, sort of faith is in this particular case, right? We don't have something concrete we can share with everyone yet. But, you know, you and I, as we indicated, have kind of been cooking in the lab a little bit. Oh, meth style.

Middle America meth style, yeah. Like Jesse Pinkman and Walter White, we've been kind of cooking. We hope that, again, I'll just say it, by this time next year, if everything goes to plan, we will be in a much better place than kind of how some of the downsides to do. This was a tough fucking year, man. Started out great. Started out great.

But we hit some snags very early in the year, and it was tough, dude. It was really tough. Well, I couldn't sleep last night with restless leg syndrome, so I was going through my IG account over the past, like, two years and looking back at some of the moments, which included London earlier this year, which was our really our high point in the history of the show. I did want to win it this year because of how hard this year was for us personally, professionally, corporately. I mean, so many elements came into here. It reminded me, Luke, I used to cover high school basketball for a bunch of newspapers right out of high school and college and talking to successful coaches, the kind that win, you know, state championships every three years. I often ask them like, what's their favorite team. And it's never the team that went undefeated and won the

championship. It's always the team that overachieved bought into the system, didn't have a superstar and got as far as they possibly could. And I feel like in a lot of ways this year, that was us. I have to shout out Mikey Moore, Miles CBS for being uh many roles for us during this great process uh great process great challenging process is what I really meant and also let's just be let's just be thankful too like we did get nominated and so thank you to Fighters Only Magazine for considering us thank you for even putting us in contention with everyone else it wasn't our year not every year will be um i don't know again who the hell knows what's going to actually happen next year we don't but i'm grateful to be in this

dude i given where where i thought we could have ended up by this time um this is actually one of the much better scenarios that frankly we were kind of facing so i am i'm honestly you know disappointed that we couldn't take home the hardware but i will tell you i have more optimism now than i did maybe i don't know five or six months ago and for that i'm quite grateful you got through the storm right and i hope fans realize that we have been bringing it lately we've been turning it back around so thank you to everybody who voted congratulations to laura sanko everyone that's with the day when i thought she didn't win no but she was a part of the she's a big part of what makes the dana wickensender series great and it actually oh yes yes yes i'm sorry yes you're right i actually was touched to

hear everyone talk because like look sometimes we think of this big machine as like power slap dana lawrence epstein and some of the things that maybe we get on in terms of the business side of it but they do put together a great production to see zach candido give the speech after they won it and he did shout us out luke i used to work with him back in the day on espn's mma live yeah and to see where he's at now in his career him and craig borsari just like you know tv geniuses doing a great job with ufc production uh i was honored to see that because i go way back with zach and mikey too dude first time i met mikey more model luke he was like a middle schooler coming into the ESPN office, throwing spitballs against the bathroom wall, like giant wads of toilet paper, dipping them in the sink and just firing them.

I worked for his dad, who was a big the late Anthony Mormyle, who was a mentor to me and, you know, helped launch MMA live on ESPN to see that category last night of best MMA programming that had us, and I come from that lineage, it had Anik Florian. He, you know, Anthony Mormos with Karen Portley started MMA Live. Those two were a foundation of it. You had Zach Candido winning with Dana White Contender Series. He was the producer of MMA Live. It meant a lot to me to see that full circle.

It was easy for me to get past the defeat. And also our boy Christoph from the UFC, you know, the PR guy. I thought he gave a very nice speech. Yes, my old training partner, yeah. He gave a nice speech last night in honor of a UFC-winning promotion of the year. So thank you to everybody last night. Also, Ariel Helwani can be our friend, our competitor. He can be a lot of things.

But 14 consecutive years of winning Best MMA Journalist. I congratulate him. Straight up. Congratulations. And same thing to Aaron Roth. Dude dude he is doing nothing but killing it and has been doing that for basically the entirety of my career so um yeah congrats to all the winners i will say this um the very first interview i actually ever did a long time ago in mma i think this is true maybe it's somebody else it was mike brown who won coach of the year. Now,

BC, I got to tell you, there's nothing, there's not a damn thing wrong with winning for my, with Mike Brown winning coach of the year, because Mike Brown is just one of the most exceptional coaches that the game has to offer. And that's not a joke. However, BC, I will say, I did think this was Eric Nixick's year in particular, right? I did think that he had a shit ton of momentum quite surprising i will tell you quite surprising he didn't get it so i'm not mad at mike brown for achieving i did think though this was eric's eric's year it was a big night for alexa grasso too by the way she won two awards was crying on the stage uh that award ceremony as

we know is weird wild and wacky but like d Dana even said when he accepted leading man last night, I'm glad we have it in this sport. So thanks to everybody. Now we roll forward. Now we get you fired up for all things UFC 296. One last plug before we do. A reminder, hey, the great Floyd Mayweather, TBE, right? 50-0 as a professional.

You want to see the biggest fights in his incredible career that also aired on Showtime, pay-per-view, a couple other networks as well. Before Floyd got there, he had a great run at HBO. Let's go to CBS Sports Network. December 16th, tomorrow, Saturday. Look at that schedule. All times Eastern. You can see Mayweather Mosley at 9.30 p.m. and 2.30 a.m.

Mayweather Cotto. Look at the times there. Maymac, Maypack, Mayweather, Canelo. A full day of a night of Floyd Mayweather. Check it out on your local cable package, CBS Sports Network, or go to the CBS Sports app. Luke, how many Floyd fights did you cover in person? Oof.

In person? I mean, because online I did a bunch of them. Sure. In person, Floyd Canelo. I did that one. Floyd Pacquiao. Did I do any of the smaller-ish ones? I don't remember. I think I only went to those two, but obviously online I covered a shit ton. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, let's get into it. It's the end of the year. It's the championship week. And yes, Luke, we did have a meeting with Mikey this morning. This will be the OK Bet Championship, correct? So yes, it will be.

There is, and the mathematical chances of this are near zero. So what BC and I basically came to an agreement on is this will be the last one because the way it works is, I mean, one of our categories is KO or sub. And there are boxing fights after this, but they don't make sense in that category. You kind of do have to have some MMA. So just for sensical purposes, we'll call it here. In the event there is some kind of statistical tie, we'll look to some of the NOA or the big heavyweight boxing things. I find the chances of that to be near bc i've accepted my fate okay oh whoa keep fighting keep fighting luke no no no i i try i don't want

to be clear i'm not going i'm not going down doing anything but swinging i i have put in bets that i feel will give me the best chance to win i i've not i've not packed it in but mathematically here's what happened i did not take you seriously. I just didn't. And I paid for it. It's a classic tale of the tortoise and the hare. And I slept on the tortoise, and now the hare has to pay the piper unless I catch some kind of miracle, which I don't think that I will.

But I am trying. I did put in picks that I care about. All right, and I believe there is a mathematical chance. Some smart math fans in the MK world said, if I go one and four and you go four and one you could win but we'll get into that in a second uh you had mentioned hey maybe bc went out and got betting help a lot of people had said that online i take that as a compliment on the level of when people accuse clean fighters of taking steroids look no you did because you did no no i'm gonna be honest with you this season i've had multiple offers from degenerates,

professional gamblers, many MK fans. I did not say yes. I rolled. I don't want to say exclusively. I rolled hashtag team vibes until I fell down in that hole a lot. Remember I was deeply in second place? Yeah, you were like 20 picks behind at some point. I did for a few weeks actually go against my own like heart

and knee jerk picks and tried to pick smarter it got me back into it but if you guys recall that week that i finally passed luke i did a team vibes pick that week i think i went like one and four i think i went oh and five a couple weeks later but i went back to doing it from the heart hashtag feels all the way so this okay bet segment that you're about to see, of course, brought to you once again by FanDuel Sportsbook, make every moment more. We go head to head every Friday.

This is the championship. Somebody is going to go to a concert. They freaking hate. This one's called okay bet. All right. You're updated standings entering the championship round. BC, 88 wins, 92 defeats, and one tie. I went 3-2 last week.

Luke Thomas, 85, 92, and 4. So we have the same amount of losses. I have three more wins. You have three more ties. We both went 3-2 last week. But, Luke, look at that categorical breakdown that Mikey Wormall put together for us. I don't mind. I mean, obviously, the favorite I did well in, which is easy to do well in,

over under, you know, picking the women's fights was just gaming the system. I am disappointed in myself on the main event side. I really let it slip there. If there is one place because the ko or something it's just very difficult to get that one right you've done better than me you know but even then you're underwater there too but that main event one that's the one where i look at i'm like i fucked up there i should have done better there you know i don't think you took chances on upsets when in reality modern day ufc is is you know a lot of upsets constantly i mean look at

totally look at grasso shevchenko look at look at whitaker ddp that wasn't even nominated for upside of the year i'm like that was the upset of my lifetime luke i'm i botched that one big time you know what i'm saying all right yeah all of us did uh thank you for that categorical research mikey before we get into our actual picks we did want to recap what has been a wild 48 hours in the UFC since we last talked to you obviously Luke mentioned Ian Gary pulling out with pneumonia he didn't pull out the doctors forced him out he did by the way not the only one out with the flu uh Randy Brown got the flu as well and And then below Mohammed took to Twitter and said four of his teammates got the flu in Vegas, BC. Did we not joke that every time we go to Vegas,

we come back with a communicable disease. Every time we go, people are like, what's in the air in Vegas. I'm like germs, motherfucker. That's what's in the air in Vegas. Alcohol laced germs. There's no question about it. Aqua de Gio and fucking germs. Yeah, absolutely. So that's where we're at with that. Not only did he and Gary pull out, and I give him credit, Luke. He came out and said, look, I wanted to fight. I was still willing to fight. The promotion kind of, you know, or the doctors kind of tried to save me from myself. So that fights off the card. I did see Kevin Holland trying to angle to get Luke. That didn't happen, right? Well, the weigh-ins are this morning. I don't believe there's been any kind of formal the card i did see kevin holland trying to angle to get luke that didn't happen right well the

weigh-ins are this morning i don't believe there's been any kind of formal announcement they wanted to do a 180 pound catch weight which i tell you kevin holland versus vicente luke 180 i'd be very very happy with that but instead what they've done is they've moved by the way this fight is like crazy under the radar but i guess it won't be anymore because they moved it from the prelims now to the main card josh emmett versus bryce mitchell will now be the replacement for ian gary versus vicente luque which i gotta say bc one more time for a replacement fight and then one that has to not now change placement on the card as well so there's two changes it's a pretty good change that's a that's a decent pickup given what you lost i will admit that absolutely uh according to wikipedia how many

times are you going to say absolutely today every time or just absolutely i sound like lennox lewis right he has like three catchphrases as a boxing analyst and just goes to them all the time uh they they did not elevate the garbrandt kelleher fight to the prelim main event at least not according to wikipedia they have alonzo mennefield versus dustin jacobi i hope they change that luke because i like that garbrandt fight you know it's very whatever it sounds to me, they have Alonzo Mennefield versus Dustin Jacoby. I hope they change that, Luke, because I like that Garbrandt fight. You know, it's very whatever. It sounds to me like they're like, let's see how that one goes a little bit earlier. You know how it goes.

All right, Luke, let's hit this press conference recap. I don't know what to say here. OK, it was it was one of the more gross and absurd, but not absurd in the typical UFC press conference way, which is like no quality control over the questions. I actually thought journalists played their roles as well as they could in this one. This wasn't, hey, Nate Diaz, what strain of weed are you buying? Or, hey, it's me from betting site. Who are you guys picking tomorrow?

It's none of that bullshit. But Colby Covington absolutely stuck his um third leg in the water and stirred it up luke and uh it brought out the worst i think of what that can be it also brought out the worst of twitter in reaction or x um everyone's not trying to make this political you know and we got called a lot of names as well which i don't look i hate that i hate that shit i hate the crossover politics in mma more than anybody what do you make though of colby covington we're not going to play the video because i don't want to really want to give it you know what it was trying to accomplish but

colby covington referencing leon edwards father in hell and sending leon there was one of the i mean you know comparable to connor saying those things about, you know, Habib's wife and the, you know, and bleeding into the religious side of it, which was disgusting at that part. How do you rank this moment in terms of what trash talk is trying to accomplish? I mean, I'd seen people say that other things had been worse. I guess it's a matter of, uh, perspective on that one. I don't really know. Obviously, you know, people are gonna be like, Oh, you two fucks are old. Yeah, that's probably true. That probably plays a role in uh perspective on that one i don't really know obviously you know people are gonna be like oh you two fucks are old yeah that's probably true that probably plays a role in our decision making as well we don't deny that um i guess i just don't and also folks are being like well you know

there's i can't even believe we have to get into this i'm only going to mention it briefly because you know adjudicating whether or not someone's parent was good or bad seems like so fucking far beyond what we should be doing uh but there were some questions like well maybe leon's because he had mentioned like you know i'm going to take it to the seventh first he actually said i'm going to take you to the seventh layer of hair after calling lebron james ladron james it's like oh i forgot to grab that sound dude how weird is that media day thrashing that colby did of lebron yeah and it's like i'm not even actually i don't i don't even think his criticisms of lebron are are bad but like he just botches shit constantly uh which is kind of interesting in

terms of the delivery of it he had previously said you know really horrible things about kamaru's dad being in in in prison i believe I could be wrong about this, and if I am, by all means, you can dead wrong me and I will take it back, but I believe he even said to Kamaru that like Glenn Robinson, the guy who died, who was the founder of the Blackzillions, who had been like a tool manufacturing entrepreneur, essentially was the way he made his fortune,

that he was going to be, that he would watch him from hell or something like that as well. Like this is not the first time that he's ever done something like this. And so, again, you can sort of, like, whether this was new territory or not or whether this is the worst version of things or not, it's simply a matter of perspective. But, I mean, I guess the thing I would ask is, like,

dude, who is the audience for that? Oh, they're in your mentions luke they're i mean i i i understand but like this i guess the thing i'm trying to get out of here is like if this level of i mean it's one thing to like make a press conference fun by you know by raising the level of uh you know intensity which can be kind of interesting certainly people are right like they're you know foes are going to say things that are awful to each other but like and and the other point too is you know people like well it's the fight game like he's trying to get as much attention on himself as possible and i guess it's like mission accomplished on that but uh the thing i would just ask folks is like dude on some

level they're asking you to find as an audience they're asking you to find this kind of thing where we're discussing the merits of people's lives who are deceased who by the way none of you know like we i don't know what happened and none of these other people know actually what happened and you know speculating about it seems gross to begin with but more to the point it's like dude this is the lowest level of entertainment possible what i would say to someone is if in fact you do find this entertaining like this is really fun and interesting to you your palette for entertainment is dog shit like it's the worst imaginable this is this is the kind of thing that only appears in the most gutter level of viewpoints about what kind of thing is entertaining or even valuable. So I don't deny that, again, did we cross new territory?

I don't know. It's debatable. People saying, oh, you can't say anything like this before or you can't cross any lines like that. Who's to say who can and who can't, you, you can decide that kind of thing for yourself. I would just say, take a nice long look in the mirror. And if this kind of thing is interesting to you, you, you have problems, like something is desperately wrong with you. The whole point about trying to make an entertaining press conference is that everyone is kind of in on it a little bit, or everyone kind of gets something from it or at a bare minimum that you can rally support for it or or uh you know uh well there's

other ways to do it as well i suppose the thing i'll just wrap up here because i know i'm meandering this was just if you're just being gross because the line wasn't even funny like you go back and listen in real time you don't actually hear a big applause break. You actually don't hear a lot of laughing. And my point is if you're just being gross just to step the line, to look at me and say, look what I can do. Look at how, I will say this, being indecent just for the sake of indecency is not clever or interesting being indecent for some kind of larger purpose that actually has something that is valuable to it beyond just self-aggrandizement. That's kind of interesting to me actually a little bit that I think you can and should do.

This was just, this was just indecency for the sake of indecency. I agree. And it's hard because it's so close. The line is so close, which is this. You know me, Luke. I like flashy packaging and bullshit and I like to get fired up. What do I love more than anything? When two guys on the scales after weighing in, try to like push each other and maybe even throw a punch. Now, do I want a punch to connect in the fight? It can't. No, none of that. But like I want that like, oh, shit, this feels real. I got to get it. So there's been a lot of people. So it's hard for me to be all hypocritical, but at the same time, like, you know, when it goes too far, you know, when you hear it or when you see it and when it does go through too far, which can be a thin line when guys are trying to talk trash, they're trying to

get a rise out of each other. Cause I saw a lot of people going, look, this is great promotion for the UFC. And that's why Colby's there because now people are going to buy the pay-per-view that wouldn't to see Colby get his just due. I don't know. I kind of want to argue that because I felt like there was almost like in the wrestling world, what they call X-Pac heat, go away heat. The kind of heat that from Colby's performance at this presser from, you know, calling Wonderboy a pedophile with his dad and trying to. Oh, my God. I forgot about that. Yeah. Trying to incite Leon by saying, you know, he doesn't have a second grade education. And

even though I, and then let's talk about the Ian Gary line when Colby comes out and is like, I want to take a survey of everybody out here who slept with Ian Gary's wife. If that was the only comment he made, I might've said this risky, but it was funny, timely, and maybe it previews a future fight. But in totality, if you're going to lean on, well, this was great for the promotion, or now he's going to get under Leon's skin and watch, it'll be a better fight or anything else. To me there, when you go too far, how much does this make people go? Oh, I don't want to watch that anymore. Or, oh, because yeah, it strikes a gross nerve. And I get that that's colby's character i used to say about adrian broner or anyone who purposely is trying to incite you to get you to

watch them to get you to pay to see them lose right floyd did things like this too it was a genius part of his matchmaking it works like i always say if you're mad at colby or adrian broner that means they succeeded but there is a line. There should be a line. And while everyone's trying to make this about politics or a lot of different things, it's not about that to me. It's also at some level about decency and how much stuff like this brings down your brand. And look, I'll say this. Has this been a great year? We've talked about it ad nauseum. At the highest level, yes. There's been very good fights. The business is moving forward at such huge financial leaps. I've been critical of a lot of things from PR to the matchmaking in between.

But there has been a somewhat of a moral struggle for journalists and some fans of late as to like, what's the culture of MMA through the lens lens of ufc and luke it's largely fucking disgusting you know what i'm saying and this is somebody who loves trash talk loves absurdity i'm not into the bushido as much i'm not into the purity as much i love the build of a big fight i love craziness but there has to be a line and to me the the overall culture which is not republican versus democrat so can we stop that bullshit just yeah it's just all republican But there has to be a line. And to me, the overall culture, which is not Republican versus Democrat. So can we stop that bullshit? It's just all Republican.

It's just the culture of sport and decency. Yeah, it's gone too far this year. It's gone too far. And I thought this was gross. I know there's a lot of Colby fans. I know they said that's why he's there. Just last thing on this, because I don't want to get into it either, because it's it's pointless. But I would just say criticizing Colby is not a way of doing roundabout political criticism. It's just not. Folks want to make it that way because Colby makes his entire identity.

I mean, the guy showed up with. OK, so for the the media day, he had the the jacket on with like Trump's mugshot. We didn't care. We didn't. I mean, I thought it actually was a cool design had the the jacket on with like trump's mugshot we didn't care we didn't i mean i thought actually it was a cool design on the jacket luke i actually thought like you know i was like oh wow who was that guy they called uh who was the pro wrestling manager who had the megaphone off to the south jimmy hart it reminded me of that to be honest with you which is kind of light-hearted to be i it's fine like it's totally fine and he had the george washington thing on which i thought was actually pretty fucking funny with the with the maga hat on but it's totally fine. And he had the George Washington thing on, which I thought was actually pretty fucking funny with the MAGA hat on.

But it's like the guy makes it in his... That's why I wore my We the People shirt today, Luke. Okay, very good. But the point I wanted to make was he makes it a forward identity. And if you actually criticize his game or people perceive that you're not giving him some kind of due relative to his game, they turn it into,

oh, it must be because you don't like his views. And I'm like, guys, I'm trying to be as honest about his fighting ability one way or all of us one way or the other we're not weighing in on whether or not we agree with this worldview or the other it's merely about that but he has become his identity is so tied to his politics that if you actually criticize him what they think you're doing is making it about that no No, you're making it about that, not us. The last thing I would say is the Ian Gary line, also indecent and gross,

like nothing I would ever applaud or approve of. However, unlike the Leon Edwards line about his father, that one actually did get a laugh. And so you could at least on some level see like why that would work and why. And by the way, no one is calling to sanction Colby, fine him, blah, blah, blah. We're not doing any of that crap. We're not saying that.

We're just asking you to take a look in the mirror and be like, what about insulting? And people are trying to make this a referendum about Leon's dad's life. And I'm like, dude, none of you know him. None of you know the facts. None of you know anything. You don't know anything. you don't actually know anything it is not wrong for a guy who lost his dad at age 13 even if his dad had something of a complicated or perhaps even worse life to feel longing for him to feel love for him and to feel pained by his absence like nothing about that is unusual or wrong if in if in uh disturbing that

kind of peace and if in enraging a person like that and frankly hurting him in that particular way if that kind of thing appeals to you you you you need to see a psychologist something is actually not okay with you look people might say well colby did the same thing in in some ways to usman's dad during that build and trying to insult his past of being incarcerated look that was borderline i get what he was trying to do i just think this went too far to me that's end of discussion luke okay so let's let's roll on i'm done i'm done i'm done let's roll on to the to the person that people believed saved the press conference and that was pat Paddy Pimblitt. Tony Ferguson tried to poke him a lot to get him to talk. When Pimblitt finally broke, we had a wild exchange.

I do want to play that video and get your reaction, Luke. Let's go to the presser from yesterday. Your own country doesn't even like you, dude. Well, just because everyone likes you, it's going to be funny when you're on the floor to sleep on Saturday night. I don't even fucking care about you, dude. I don't even... No, you don't. I don't care about you. You're just another obstacle in the way, lad.

You care about me blocking you on Instagram. That's what you care about. You care about the little stupidest shit. No, I don't. I'm more worried about everybody else. You must care because you blocked me. I'm not that much of a little pussy to block someone on Instagram. You know what? I'm not that sensitive, bitch. I don't even have to fucking look at you. Little sensitive boy. Don't call

me a little boy. I made you my little boy making you block. Go make me a cup of tea, bitch. Oh, Jesus. Your head's gone, lad. You need to grow up. You're about 14 in the edge, you little nit. Anybody ever get what he said? I don't understand one fucking word like you, buddy. You don't have to, but when I'm

standing over your unconscious body on Saturday night like Michael Chandler, you'll know who the fucking boy is. Keep dreaming, baby. Keep fucking dreaming, dude. That shit is not going to happen. Ketchup sandwich, I'm going to cut you so fucking bad, they're going to have to stitch you up. Lad, I want you to. Cut me open like you said you're going to do, because I'll be standing over you,

grinding, pounding your unconscious skull, your fucking little bum. I'm going to cut you so fucking open you have no fucking clue. Do it then, lad. Do it. I can't wait. You've never seen your own blood. I can't believe you've actually got a suit on, lad. Every other day, you're like an eight-year-old that's just dressed himself for the first time. I can't wait to fucking cut you up.

You look like a fucking idiot. It's been a long fucking time since I brought the blades out, baby, and that's going to fucking... Bring the blades out then, lad. You said you've been going to cut your last six opponents. You can't do fuck all against them because you're an arse crab. Shut your mouth. Oh, sandbag and it's going to fucking... Bring the blades out then, lad. You said you've been going to cut your last six opponents. You can't do fuck all against them because you're an arse crab. Shut your mouth. Oh, Stan Began, son of a bitch. You have no fucking clue, kid.

You're bringing the heat out of me right now on Saturday. I know. I can't wait to bring the heat out of you. I hope that the old Tony turns up, not this arse washed up. Well, here we go. We got a heartbeat out of you now because earlier you were fucking boring as shit. Do something then. Know what I mean? Stop talking.

Look, that was... that fired me up. You, I'm here. I'm ready. I got to be honest. That was a little bit, that was pretty good from Patty. That was also pretty good from Tony, given, you know, Tony's a bit got the unusual style of trash talk. I will also say Tony's suit looked dope as shit, dude.

That suit looked clean. Well, when suit looked clean well i say clean i mean like really well nicely made you know you see the watch patty was was calling it a child's watch and i like the banter there but i thought the watch was cool too um i actually popped for that go make me a cup of tea bitch line it just kind of landed perfectly i did like the fire out of patty dude we said it this is a weird crossroadsup, but there's a lot of intrigue, and there's a lot of talk about the idea that I brought up on Wednesday. Is Tony rebirthed? Is he rejuvenated?

Is it possible that a guy can lose six in a row against elite competition in largely disastrous and damaging fashion, pushing 40 with more mileage than anybody, having gone through, in his words, hell with David Goggins ahead of this fight. If you've really watched at length the Tony interviews leading up to this fight, look, it seems that like he went to levels that he's never gone before physically to try to find that spark and rejuvenate. Before we talk about that, I got to shout out my guy Fidel on Instagram

who this morning said, hey BC, did you see the interview with Tony and Brett Okamoto that ran on the UFC's YouTube page? And I hadn't. And he's like, you'll catch the feels. And it was supposed to be about, you know, Tony talking about his career,

where things went wrong. Can he bring it back together? I grabbed about 90 seconds to try to frame what we heard there. It got a little emotional for him and me, Luke, watching it. Let's throw the videotape. No more pressure. It's cool now.

Like, I feel good. Great camp. You know, UFC 296 this weekend. It's been an eye-opener for me because if my wife didn't send me the text, she said, I don't see you smiling in practice anymore I don't see and it wasn't like uh are you sure you want to do this no or she knows me I don't see you smiling in practice anymore you're not smiling as much as you would at home you do you're not smiling when you're fighting doesn't seem like you're enjoying this

if you would have told me I probably would have been like f*** off or like no wait I'm doing this and just having just whatever I would have in that saying f*** no sitting here trying to cipher a text and I end up deleting it because I'm like f*** damn it

you're right crazy and that meant a lot more to me because I couldn't say anything back. So I went and did it. Started asking for help. Started getting out of my own comfort zone, mind you.

And I haven't done that since Grand Valley State Wrestling. And that's taking a chance and going and helping somebody that needed some help and that gave me a scholarship. What does it feel like to have all these people saying that you are washed up and you're a Lord that you a scholarship. What does it feel like to have all these people saying that you are washed up

and you're a Lord that you just said, what does it feel like? They must be new around here. That's how it feels. I'm not gonna say hold up brothers, you know, but they're new. They don't understand my background. And I had to understand my own,

where I come from and what I've been through and the experiences that I have to not even give a about anybody you look there were times that his voice broke multiple moments in that interview when he referenced earlier that everyone thinks he's washed he said yeah I am washed I'm cleaned up I'm new I'm rejuvenated that is a big storyline heading into this matchup because there's the idea that Patty is extremely overrated and a company, you know, marketing plant employee, although obviously he's more than that. But it seemed at the press conference that Tony found that deep motivation that Patty activated through that trash talk. a video like this is it really possible that he may be getting out of his own way and maybe finding a way to find whatever is left at the bottom of that jug and maybe he's a live dog

entering this fight saturday night six fight losing streak finished in his last three physically just you know we all know stories what more can i possibly say about the reasons for pessimism about his chances we can and then you know exhaustion barfing in training with david goggins and everything else like i don't know if any of that stuff will help him i really don't but i said this yesterday on my on my favorite program bc yours least favorite program the uh the the live chat but in all seriousness too expensive it can be pricey it can be over text at any time yeah yeah but but in all seriousness i don't know what it means bc but i will say the read that i got from what he said in this interview and then also at the media day because he told us the the same story but slightly not he didn't change the details but he told it in a different way um It looked to me like he had really done some deep, deep thinking

and introspection and, I don't know, man, a little bit maybe of emotional healing from everything he had gone through. And I got to say, as a person, I don't know about the fighter on Saturday. I really just don't, you know. But as a person, I felt somewhat heartened by that, candidly. And maybe you or the viewers will, I don't know, will think that this kind of thing lifts him to victory. Paddy is vulnerable. He is vulnerable.

He is defensively vulnerable. That's so real in ways that hasn't been with anybody else. But the takeaway for me was he has done some looking inside and maybe that experience with David Goggins. We talked kind of a little bit about it, like the spiritual journey he was going for. I don't know. He did seem to me very reflective and thoughtful about his journey and the downside of it in ways I just never heard before. And that is heartening.

It is heartening. It is. And obviously the knee jerk reaction is to be like, guys, stop, stop falling for an aging fighter, trying any chance to to tease to you that he's back and he's deserving this opportunity but to hear him talk about closing his circle getting rid of sponsors and people that were only after him for the wrong reasons and really just getting back to what matters you could say okay but what about the damaging six losses he did in that bread interview really go at length to show like

and i think you can look back at this and you can say it was a fool's gold search or whatever, but he feels he really partnered with Dana and trying to bring MMA back during the pandemic. He was so willing to turn around on short notice or fight Gaethje in that first card. And then it seems to me like maybe he kept chasing the dragon after that Gaethje loss and kept just taking the first fight available and trying to reinvent himself against the biggest name possible and he was talking about how like under trained he was for those training camps and luke it looks like there was a lot of mental chaos going on in the last couple years as these

losses were accumulating so even if that means nothing in the cage i am happy to see that for him because i was reminded how much i love him as a fighter while watching that interview and how much of a legend he actually is and how unique his career is i want to let's back let's back up a second here i mean brett was doing the job correctly he was not in any way insulting him but when he's tony has arrived at the position where he's sitting down to do interviews with ESPN talent, and ESPN talent is asking him to his face, what do you think about being called washed up? That's where he's arrived. That's the kind of thing he's dealing with. Dude, how difficult must it have been to have the six losses in a row?

Not just what it means internally, but the damage he took from Gaethje, the damage he took from benil's heel hook the the he got finished in the last three of these i mean this is an extraordinary toll that someone has gone through that frankly dude i'll be honest i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy i just wouldn't like the level of despair and pain quite literal pain he's had to go through is the kind of thing that would break just about anyone but it looks like it didn't necessarily break him and by the way even if he loses it doesn't mean that it broke him because if he's spiritually healed and i do mean that then the loss on saturday

actually doesn't mean anything for those considerations yeah i don't know what it will mean for saturday none of us really do but but I'm with you. I actually felt like, I don't think that journey is done. I actually think there's a lot more healing that probably has to go, but if he can find happiness by this place, he has put himself. And then this journey he's gone on and I'm all for it win or lose on Saturday. I'm all for it. Absolutely. I know I made jokes in the past at UFC two 29, how he got off the stage of the public workout and gave you that gift. And I always forget what he gave you. I always called a baseball and I know I made jokes in the past at UFC 229, how he got off the stage of the public workout and gave you that gift. And I always forget what he gave you. I was called a baseball and I know I'm wrong. Why do you think he gave you that, though? And so you have you had like a close relationship?

He and I used to have a relationship, you know, cordial professional relationship. And we kind of it kind of fell apart for a few different reasons. I don't know if we're in a bad place or something. I've not really spoken to him in quite a long time. But, yeah, I mean, there was a long part of Tony's career where I was, you know, privy to being, you know, not inside the camp or anything like that, but, you know, being able to text him, being able to have regular conversation with him.

And, you know, I'm grateful for that. So it probably stems from that. It stems from the fact and um you know i'm grateful for that so it probably stems from that it stems from the fact that you know when he was on it initially started with when he was on the ultimate fighter however long 10 years ago whatever i mean more than that like a really long time ago um i was the one who did his write-ups for mma fighting i was the guy because remember they used to used to be like oh the fighter blog on mma junkie or mma fighting i was the guy who did it for fighting and it just forged a bit of a relationship again we've kind of it's kind of you know it's kind of dissolved over time but um probably that is the reason love this fight seriously gotta see this fight great job UFC on the match making even if Tony

shouldn't be in there physically or mentally and we won't know that it's hard to tell you know how much more damage can one man take I don't know know win or lose, but I'm here for it. I'm fired up. Let's actually get into the picks, Luke. And of course, we start off in the main event. We're going to go head-to-head for the final time this year, five categories. And the biggest main event is obviously the 296,

Leon Edwards defending against Colby Covington. Before we give our picks, do you believe that Covington going to the lengths that he did to actually force Edwards to throw a water bottle at him and lead to like increased security on that stage? They weren't even allowed to face off afterwards. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned.

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when it pertains to the actual cage on Saturday night? I would just say that the record on Leon is that he is nothing, if not sort of emotionally stoic. Okay. Um, I, I, I, it's, we've never really seen an opponent try this with him. You know, we've never really seen an opponent try to be cruel to him, which is really what, what Colby was doing yesterday. And again, you could say there's a certain strategy to it, and that is true. There is actually a certain strategy to being cruel to your opponent. It blew up in Conor's face against Habib.

It did very well for him against Jose Aldo. I'm of the mind that it won't really matter either way. Either, either, either for a guy this emotionally centered for the vast majority of his life. I just have a hard time thinking he's going to be like extra determined in a winning scenario or extra reckless in a losing scenario. I just, I find that hard to believe, but I didn't think Jose Aldo was going to do it either. But that's just, that's the horse that I'm riding i'm riding that it probably won't make a difference what will make a difference is whether or not colby gets the takedown into the riding time or not that that is really where the fight will be won or lost i think i'm really wondering whether that leads to headshot dead as leon likes to say whether that leads to sharpening his focus and preparing him

to finish it could just as well lead to him overcompensating or whatever. We'll find out. But Luke, I'm the leader here entering the final week. I'll go first. My main event pick. You probably know how I tip my hand talking about Colby past the victory. I know the odds are very close. I do respect Colby's hustle, his cardio, his relentlessness, his daring nature.

No doubt. Your fan duel odds as we enter this main event, minus 170 Leon Edwards, plus 138 Colby Covington. I just think, look, 21-month layoff, going to be 36 in a couple months. I don't think it disqualifies him, Colby, from being his very best. I just think even at his very best, Edwards is hard to shake. We talked about he doesn't make mistakes. He's smooth.

He's well-rounded. He's solid. He's now-rounded. He's solid. He's now, to some degree, you know, becoming a season champion. I know, one title defense, and people think Usman was too old for that one, which I think is a little bit of a reach, right, a little bit of a reach. I just love the way Edwards overall has operated through all of us counting him out and people hating on him, and he's just always been cool, calm, and collected. I wonder what the fire of this Colby insert will do. But I still think at the end of the day, Luke, Leon Edwards is a better fighter with more chances to win. He's more dangerous. Colby doesn't finish

people. He doesn't Luke, right? I mean, he finishes older guys, not a finisher in this case. So he's going to have to really outwork, use a lot of top position time so he's going to have to really outwork use a lot of top position time he's going to have to do a lot there that i just haven't seen him do a lot can he outwork an aging masvidal yes robbie lawler yes he can you know he can be great against those guys but i got leon edwards here i'm going to play it safe and maybe and go decision not that it matters could i see him stopping him i could but all my visions luke Luke, have Leon Edwards getting his hand raised. Okay. I think that's a fair assessment. I also don't think that the winner will win via finish. I mean, I will say this, if Colby finishes Leon, that would be far and away the best win of his career and a big one, not just the fact that he would get the belt, but the quality of opponent

that would be happening to. Conversely, I don't think if Leon wins, it will be via finish. I think he's going to have to grind it out i know he finished obviously kamaru but that was i mean that was a hail mary right it was a hail mary that um he couldn't replicate in the fight subsequent to that so i think this one's probably headed the distance i'm going to go take leon edwards as well for the people who are emotionally mature enough to understand that the decision that Brian and I are making and picking Leon is not a referendum on either fighter's politics and is just about the actual ability itself. Here is my reasoning. I went back and I watched the third fight between

Leon and, excuse me, Usman again, because did you see Usman? I know we had a back and forth with some jabroni on Twitter about it, but it's worth bringing up. Usman was on because did you see Usman? I know we had a back and forth with some jabroni on Twitter about it, but it's worth bringing up. Usman was on the DC and RC show, and they asked him who he thought was going to win. He seemed to be leaning pretty heavily towards Colby, and his reasoning was that, you know, I could do what I want in the wrestling department to Leon, and I was, you know, his tooth and nail against Colby. And in fact, there was a guy who I followed when he wrestled for Stanford his name was Nick Amuchastegui and he was a really good wrestler and Colby housed him I went back

and I watched that match when Colby was at Oregon State dude Colby's wrestling is fucking legit like I know we know that but then when you see other pieces of it you really get reminded like the dude has some serious ability he's a dog let's say that he's also a dog like absolutely he's a dog like he'll get after like he is very capable of winning this contest there if he goes in there and i'm being dead serious i honestly would not be at all surprised i mean this quite sincerely maybe a little surprised if he won 50 45 but if it was like 49 46 and and Leon simply could not get enough time away on the feet to do damage to negate the ground battle, would you really be surprised? I would not be surprised. I don't think you would either. That would be a monumental achievement. It would be hard to do, but it wouldn't be like, gee, where did that come from?

And in fact, if you watch the third Usman fight, there is something kind of interesting. There's a couple of times where Edwards overcommits on a punch, Usman gets under it and takes him down with ease, especially inside the first two rounds. But it's like the last three, and in particular the last two, Kamaru had a really, really hard time with that. He had a really hard time, not just taking him down, but keeping him down. Because if you go back and you look, uh, Edwards did a very good job of never letting Usman make a grip, any kind of grip. He could never get anything together behind any leg. He would go two on one and push a hand away. And so all he'd ever have is just one ankle. And then this hand would be grabbing nothing. You can't really wrestle. I mean, imagine if I told you to take me down, and you could never grip your hands together.

You can do it, but it would be very, very difficult. It would be hard, especially on a resisting opponent. And so for me, for me, given the kind of experience that Leon has had against Usman, given some of the lessons he's learned, I don't think that the inactivity will actually hurt Colby all that much, but I do think that the level of preparation and the arc he took to get to this particular fight

will make this a close fight, a competitive fight, but I do think it will put Leon ahead. One more note, it didn't seem to bother Usman all that much in their third fight fight but go back and look uh Edwards kicked the bejesus out of his legs consistently over and over and over again I am going to be looking to see what factor at all that might play on Saturday I tend to think it might be a big one we shall see I saw a good breakdown video where Stephen Thompson was asked how he would fight Colby and you know whether i think it was a ufc promotional video about you know he was

talking about it he doesn't like colby's trash talk and all that and that was before the press conference when they did what colby talked about old ray thompson's child molester bus there i was a little far but uh uh basically steven thompson said that that he feels from watching the usman rivalry that colby's weak to the body and that's's the, the only area Thompson really thinks he'd be able to slow him down because he does recognize the pluses in Colby's game. So I wonder if Leon goes in that direction, but Luke, I want to ask you a critical question here because you know, what's on the line here is,

is whether you have to go to like a jam band jazz fusion show with hippies and just, you know, wouldn't you want to pick Colby here to try to beat me in the final week or no, because we're just going to push this, this pick Luke. Probably. I mean, again, I'm, the thing is, I'm just going to pick the ones that, and clearly my judgment is suspect, but, uh, I'm just going to pick the ones that seem right to me. And again, if there's someone out there being like,

I've got a beat on Colby, I think this is the one I think we're, you know, blah, blah, blah. I couldn't go and say that's wrong. I couldn't say, oh, this is crazy. What are you doing? No, I just feel like, again, if Leon had that win over Kamaru and and then Kamaru went to 185, and then Leon had beaten, I don't know, somebody else

where it was a bit more of a stand-up affair, I don't know that I would have any confidence. But the lessons learned from the third Usman fight seemed to me just the right kind of launch pad into this to get him just ready enough to win. We shall see. I appreciate the details you took in breaking that down. So Luke going with Leon, I'm going with Leon.

Oh, last detail, last detail. You know, he says he's weak to the body. I didn't notice that on Colby as much. I don't know that I, I mean, obviously Wonderboy knows a lot more about fighting than I do, but I didn't see that. I did notice the times he got dropped. It's a lot of left hooks. He gets dropped with a lot or hit hard anyway, with a lot of left hooks. In fact, that's

what Kamaru dropped him with in the second fight that they were in. I don't know about the first one. I have to go back and look at that one. Um, but Masvidal too, Masvidal was hitting him with that as well. So something to pay attention to. Let's see what kind of angles, uh, Edwards can get and whether or not that will matter. The one plus i'll say about colby's trash talk is he seemed to plant seeds at this press conference for future fights with everybody else on the day so that if he does lose this luke maybe there's future grudge matches against ian gary or whomever i didn't love when the crowd's chanting usa after edwards's late father got that that rip didn't like that that's neither here nor there our favorite pick luke'm going to go off the menu

because there is a lot of boxing this weekend. I'm going to go to the DAZN main event on Saturday from Glendale, Arizona. A 115-pound unification between unbeaten fighters that has the hardcores buzzing. Last year's runner-up and Boxer of the Year was 23-year-old Jesse Bam Rodriguez, the San Antonio prospect, who went to the title level at 115, knocked out Sri Siket Sorungvisai, won three wins in all. He's taken on England's Sonny Edwards. And when you look at the odds right now, minus 225 in what's expected to be a very

close fight. Bam Rodriguez is favored over Sonny Edwards, who has a glossy record, but only four knockouts and 20 wins. I'm going to go with Bam Rodriguez to continue the streak. I over Sonny Edwards, who has a glossy record, but only four knockouts and 20 wins. I'm going to go with Bam Rodriguez to continue the streak. I know Sonny Edwards called him out, called Snack out, and called Victor Conte out, and basically put on the full court press of PEDs. But either way, Luke, I still like Bam in this one. So I'm going to take Bam as a minus 225 favorite. All right. That's probably a pretty good one. For my favorite, BC, this one I will express a little bit of surprise at how close the odds are given the first fight, but I also get,

I do get where they're at. I would have had them slightly different, but I'm going to go with Alessandre Pantoja in the co-main event, of course, defending his flyweight title. Now, we talked about this on Wednesday, and the Alessandre Pantoja in the co-main event, of course, defending his flyaway title. Now we talked about this on Wednesday and the big X factor was Pantoja going through this absolutely bat shit, insane war. And by the way,

BC, let's just say it out loud. Don't you think Pantoja versus Moreno is like your runaway candidate for fight of the year? I'm not even sure what would be second to that when you really begin to consider it. First Volk Islam because of the skill level the the how close it was to me okay fair enough but to me i would still put that i would

still put that in a second because while the while pantoja versus moreno was reckless in a way there was still it was so for example there was one year where people wanted to have brian stan versus vanderlei silva as fight of the year and that was a crazy if you've ever seen it it's a crazy barn burner and it was in japan and so when vanderlei won the crowd went bananas right because he was a former pride star who had had so many heroic nights there and that was a great fight but that was a lot of rock'em sock'em i mean that was just two guys just absolutely fucking trading and you did get a lot of that in pantoja versus moreno but you did get a lot of skill too man i mean the the the the amount of the mix between the two makes it a little bit different.

But okay. He, according to FanDuelBC, Pantoja, a minus 194 favorite to Brandon Royville's plus 156. A close contest between these two. Love this fight. Love it. Love this fight. For the reasons aforementioned, I get why the odds are where they are. But I still think, skill for skill skill pantoja should win this one again dot dot

dot unless that last fight just utterly changed him which is on the table as a real consideration so i guess we'll see but i'm i'm still confident enough to to ride the pantoja train okay luke takes pantoja as the favorite luke just a uh postscript here uh we're gonna obviously have our year-end awards before the new year on this show, as everyone else will. But Topology always has their fight of the year rankings. They currently like Mahachev Volkanovski won as number one. They had that Moreno-Pantoja fight as two. Don't forget about other ones like Gaethje Fazeev, Neil Rachmanov, Hooker versus Turner.

So we'll find out who wins our nod later this year. Not that neither of us really are like, you know, you know, I don't know, whatever. All right, let's keep it going here. Luke, let's go to underdog. Now look, I almost bid on Roy Vaughn. Cause I do believe he's going to win. I am making that pick not for okay. Bet though. And I almost bid on Tony Luke. Cause I'm like, if I've gone this long with hashtag feels in, in team vibes, man, Tony makes me want to jump in here at, at, at somewhat close odds and take him. But as much as I said that no one has helped me on this betting journey, that's the truth. There have been offers. And I want to shout out John Mahoney, who,

who came into my DMS the other day and said, look, you're going to beat Luke. You have to beat Luke. And here's the pick that you're going to beat Luke with. He says, take Josh Emmett in this case over Bryce Mitchell, the late replacement because of the full camp. So Luke, I took his advice to heart. I did a lot of research and you know what? I do like this pick. Plus 172 is Josh Emmett riding a two fight losing skid. Yes. Pushing 40. And yes, if he loses here, we're going to have to start having some conversations, not, Hey, you're out of the sport but hey what level are you still on could he stop a Bryce Mitchell who yes rebounded nicely from Teporia in this instance

and got a nice win last time out I wonder here Luke this is a good matchup it's definitely a crazy style contrast it could be a you know competed at a high level in terms of output in terms of uh pushing hard but Josh Emmett you know, blood and guts always endures, always goes through the war. Does he have one more in him? I'm going to say yes. I'm going to take Josh to Emmett on Saturday. And if I had to pick Luke, I'm going to go by knockout.

As much as I love me some Bryce Mitchell. I do. I do, Luke. I don't love everything that he says. I love the Bible as much as he does. Maybe not in a UFC cage. And I also love his fighting spirit. But this is Josh Emmett's time right now.

I just feel that. I just feel it. So, John Mahoney, yeah, I'm going to take your advice here. I'm going to go that direction. I almost went that. I don't think that's a bad bet at all. I think that's a very smart and wise bet. For my underdog, BC, I'm going to go slightly off-menu here,

not to the boxing side, but ksw if you guys have not heard about this ksw 89 will be tomorrow ksw is the major promotion out of poland this will be at the pre-zero arena at a city i cannot possibly pronounce is there a lot of z's and y's in there luke there's uh a w there's a w in there i don't know how to pronounce it. How would you pronounce Coach K's last name if you didn't know already? Krugiewski. Exactly. Thank you. Yes, I am. Remember that? That's an old man reference right there.

Oh, yeah. In your main event, have you guys heard, and I'm sure I'm going to mispronounce his name as well. He's a French kid. Wait, I'm going to interrupt you again and get you upset. Are you just referencing that Bud Light Dr. Galakowicz commercial? Well, the one where it's sheshefsky and he's like are you and he shows up and he's like are you this guy he's like yes i am mike kruja woski okay that's

a play on the old bud light commercial where that guy comes out with the limo driver holding the sign and he's like yeah yeah that's right that's right yeah? By the way, I don't know if you heard, great news. Kid Rock said it's great to drink Bud Light again. So, hey. Oh, cool. Also, Luke, weigh-in updates. Do you want to get these weigh-in updates now or what? We might do it. Yes, please.

Dropping them in. Roy Vol first to the scale makes weight at 124.5. Lipski at 126. She's in. Carol Hossa, 135.5. She's in. Chavcott at 171 is all good almeida's in and touchy feely at 145.5 all good oh yeah shavkat the the mma muslim don but um okay for my uh upset or no

yeah my underdog pick i'm going to ksw 89 so there's a kid on this card and I can say it because I mean, I guess he's closer to 30 than 20 at this point, a Frenchman, 26 years old, and I'm going to pronounce his name. I'm sure wrong. I don't speak French. Please forgive me. But his name appears to be Saladin Parnass. Okay. It could be Parnassi, Parnassi. I'm not sure. Okay. Okay okay but here's the key 26 years old he is already the ksw 145 and 155 pound champ tomorrow from poland he's looking to be the 170 pound champ when he takes on undefeated 28 year old adrian i'm sure i'm gonna say his name wrong too bartosinski okay so he would be if he wins this bc and a major mma organization folks like how major is mm is ksw well plenty of guys who you know have come through there roberto soldich ddp went through there i mean i could go on and on about how many guys they've

produced muslim um um what's his name um salikov no sal, Salikov's already here, the other guy, who never went through. The point I'm trying to make here is they have produced tons of great talent. This show has sold, I think, nearly 70,000 tickets in Poland. It's a huge, big show. 26-year-old looking to be a triple champ.

They don't have odds on FanDuel, but the odds makers have him at places i've seen at roughly a plus 130 underdog so you know what division championship at stake that's wild that's super wild he's only 26 and here's the other part of the story someone told me this i did not know this the ufc offered him a deal like three plus years ago and he turned it down which i gotta say was probably pretty wise. He needed some time to develop. He needed some time to get better. Go look at the tape on him. He is a dynamic, really interesting talent. It's a tough fight. The guy he's fighting is no bullshit either, but I'm going to roll the dice on this one.

Give me Saladin to become a triple champ in MMAma i love it i love that pick i want to i like this story a lot too yeah look someone's gonna do it in a major organization it's ksw on that level well they're a great regional promotion but i'd applaud this guy in a heartbeat this is a big here's what i would say last thing on ksw when you say major not major what does that mean what i would say is there's a there's regional mma which is like sub-UFC, cage fury. This is higher than cage fury. This is higher than that sort of thing. But obviously, as an overall organization, it's not on the level of UFC, not even really close.

But what I would say is I call it a regional MMA international class, where the guys who come out of there can absolutely... There are already guys on this roster very high up who have, I mean, this I think will be his 20th fight or something like that, right? Like tons of experience, super ready for UFC versus like, hey, I might be ready for the contender series. This is far past that, even if, you know, KSW is obviously a much smaller organization than UFC.

Mikey's got more weigh-in updates. If I can jump in, Alonzo Mennefield is in. Josh Emmett at 146 is good. Casey O'Neal, Patty Pimblitt comes in at 155.5. Boom Kelleher's in. And Bilal Muhammad making weight as the backup for the main event, 169.5. And somebody named Shamil Ghazi is 259.5. Luke, I'm sorry about that.

No, that's not Shamil Ghazi, I don't believe. It's Shamil Ghaziev, who's undefeated. There we go. There we go. There was a couple question marks in Mikey's typing there. I understand. I didn't look at deep enough. We'll continue.

Okay, bet down to over, under. Will they go the distance or not? I could go women here, Luke, right? But why not try to win this thing? I cannot tell you how much I love this fight. I know not everybody does, but in the opener of Saturday Showtime Championship Boxing Tripleheader, we get my favorite kind of fight.

Washed Welter's going at it. They're both at or around 40. Andre Berto versus Robert Guerrero, part two. You may remember they fought back in 2012. It's the fight that lifted Guerrero to get the Floyd Mayweather pay-per-view the next year. And that was an absolute war in which Andre Berto came out doing the Floyd shoulder roll and almost got two eyes closed shut. Guerrero fought so dirty that fight.

I'm still shocked the referee let him do what he did. They're going to run it back one more time. And I'm going to say this does go the distance at the end of the day. Berto Guerrero too. What was it before or after the Floyd fight where Guerrero showed up to the airport with a loaded pistol? So that was in the lead up to that. And what's crazy is he was in the studio with us at Bristol at ESPN.

We had him on set, Jim Basquill and I for ESPN is making the rounds, our weekly digital boxing show. He went for directly from there to JFK and then pulled the BOMAC. And I thought they were going to cancel the fight instantly. Because yeah, because new New York and gun laws are pretty serious,

right? Yeah. Ask Plaxico Burris, right? Exactly. Exactly. That was my reference point. BC.

I'm not going to listen. I'm going to ride with the horse. That's been winning for me. You know what I'm saying? I don't have many of them, BC, but I can't just abandon them now. We're in the trenches together. Give me Irene Aldana versus Carol Hossa going the distance. Okay, Luke, while that has been a consistently great bet for you, I have bad news for you. Aldana, whether she understands the language barrier in our podcast at all,

and I don't mean that disrespectfully she probably speaks english i didn't mean that no she actually does speak good english yeah okay um what i mean is i don't think she listens to our pod but i've been very aggressively against her for that performance in her title fight she's had a long layoff dude she's one of the rare fighters in this division with big time finishing power right give me a left hook aldana ko resoundingly to prove luke thomas wrong but that's your pick i respect it you might you might hey listen i've been wrong on this one 12 times already uh what would stop us from being 13 right yes uh my ko or sub pick luke i'm gonna go to that cody garbrandt brian boom kelleher fight i

really like both guys it's an interesting matchup i know that cody garbrandt did bounce back with a win over trevin jones earlier this year but i caught up with him this week on morning combat and boy has this guy been through the the ringer with injury look i didn't know that ahead of the tj dillashaw rematch he had eight epidurals in his back like the day of like dude this guy's been through hell and back personally through the fight game and i respect cody garbrandt a lot. I think this fight's going to end via KO. And even though Kelleher's maybe not known as a big time puncher, I do think somebody is going to get knocked out.

It could be Cody, right? Kelleher's coming back quick from not from a neck injury. It could also go disastrous for Cody because that's the run he has been on. I'm going to take that. This fight does is going to end versus knockout, but we do have one clip to throw to here of my chat with Cody, which you can check at youtube.com slash morning combat about, you know, just that the ups and downs, the changes in his life and career. Here we go.

What type of matchup do you expect when your two styles clash together? Yeah. You know, hats off to Brian. He's a veteran. He's got a ton of fights, ton of experience. He's been, was former world champion as well you know be hitting brow he's got some nice twins he's got some nice um you know he's got some skill to him you know what I mean um it's a great fight stylistically he brings that he wants you know he's got power in his hands he's got a good submission arsenal uh but just I'm layers ahead of this guy. You know, I'm ready to showcase that on Saturday. Healthy me and just motivated me is just excited to go in there. But like I said, I have to tip my hat off to him, you know, coming back from injury as well.

You know, I know how hard that is, you know, personally. So who knows what Brian Keller is going to show up on Saturday, you know, but I know that I'll be the best version of myself. Luke, if you're looking at, I've spoken to Cody a few times. I've never had a bad conversation with him. Never. I like him. I've always really liked him.

Um, you know, I worry, I worry, Luke. I mean, he's only 32, but the, you know, the mileage adds up. I mean, I don't know if it was a hard weight cut, but like, you know, his voice was kind of down. Do you remember when he fought Thomas Almeida and beat him in like that showdown? Yes. Almeida obviously never recovered from that. And dude, I remember Garbrandt being like, oh my God, dude, like this guy is going to be destined for everything.

And then when he became champion, you were like, holy shit. That was like a perfect game he threw against Dominic Cruz. Like it was just like, whoa. Remember he was like dancing and shit. And you were like, wow, man, this guy is headed for the big time. And then it just all fell apart. It just fell apart. He's a minus 192 favorite.

Boom Kelleher plus 154. Do you agree though, Luke, with his assumption essentially that his skills are just so far ahead of Boom? You know, I mean, obviously we're going to hope his chin holds together as well. But do you think Garbrand brand bounces back big here i don't i don't um i mean i don't the thing is this the x factor it's the same one kind of from pantoja and and raw dog which is that you know who the hell knows what you're going to get with pantoja after that terrible fight, you know, or great fight, but terrible damage he took. It's like, what are you going to get with Kelleher, you know, coming off that really, really difficult,

and I follow him on social media, and we've chatted a little bit, you know, and just, again, the surgery through the neck to get to the back of it, like, this is, I saw him kind of shadow boxing a little bit with that, remember when Vinny Pazienza had the car wreck and he had to have that thing hold his head in place yes keller had to wear one of those for a while and i was like man i don't know if this dude's gonna fight again so it's just hard to know between these two men it really it really is i

don't have a strong feeling about it i agree with you before you get to your pick i just want to update the champ is here pantoja makes championship weight 125 tony ferguson in at 155.5 which was the same weight patty pimble came in so we're on there luke to close it out ko or sub where are you going i will say this super pretty impressive that tony is basically 40 and still making 155 like that's oh yeah that's tough to do um so for my ko or sub dude i gotta rock with the guy who i've been rocking with this whole time give me shopcott rock mono versus steven thompson ending in ko and by the way of course if wonder boy wins via ko i still get the bet right because remember against jeff neal you saw old shopcott just walking into range and getting

popped that's gonna be a difficult thing to deal with and of course shopcott could very much win via sub like that's a thing he's very very good at and i think the clinch is going to be a place where potentially he could jump guillotine and god knows what else but um these two are probably going to slug it out so give me give me that one ending via ko those are our five picks the final time get up in the bullpen oteel get that base out okay all those creepers in the crowd, get ready. And a reminder that this OKBet segment has been brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment

more. Download the FanDuel Sports app today. Today. Today. Today. Today. Topic number one, Luke, we got a couple bits of news to get through before we dead wrong the absolute shit out of ourselves uh how about this luke there's a lot going on at heavyweight in the boxing game right now to recap december

23rd we're going to get that huge card involving joshua wilder not against each other of course but all the big names that are on that one and of course we get usic versus fury scheduled for february uh or maybe it's march or febru, um, Abu Dhabi, sorry, February, not Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia. Thank you. The news this week is that ESPN's Mike Coppinger reporting that Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder have come to terms on some level of an agreement to face off in March in Saudi Arabia. Finally. Now, Luke, before we talk about this, you do know about the war between Mike Coppinger of ESPN and former ESPN writer Dan Raphael of Fight Freaks United

and how they constantly one-up each other over sourcing and reporting. How do they not fist fight at every event they're both at? I mean, they both make some serious accusations about each other but it's an interesting feud i mean look i used i remember i lived through the the rayfield versus ioli feuds when they were like frenemies and then you know back and forth um don't don't forget back in the day ron borges and uh was it michael katz had a famous uh fist fight at press row in boxing? Like it can happen, Luke. It can become a physical sport. Let's go to this tweet from Dan Rayfield, Duncan on old cop. Contrary to an inaccurate ESPN report, no deal is at stake, but they are working on March 9th.

Per source, there are various open issues, including terms of an automatic second fight at Saudi's option. And per Deontay Wilder's manager, Shelly Finkel, at this point, there is no deal. So sometimes, Luke, we see this in the UFC too. Fights get sourced and rumored when they're verbally agreed to or whatever. Obviously, there's some level of this fight probably will take place.

But Luke, I got questions here. Do we believe that Joshua and Wilder both win on December 23rd, considering both Otto Wallin against Joshua and former champion Joseph Parker against Wilder? You know, they still got it, right? They have to, they definitely can win that. And on top of that, would they still do the fight anyway, if one or both of Wilder Joshua lost?

What do you make of this being another big Saudi event that's kind of announced for the future? But like, like in Ganu Fury like things have to happen first for these fights to actually matter right or wrong well basically like one point that you had made when we were talking about this fight offline was that there really is no title in the way so even if one of them loses you could actually just still do it and there's really nothing stopping you from doing that so okay so okay, so it's not that per se. I just, I, the PFL really has something kind of difficult they're up against.

They've got the Saudi investment, but then the Saudis can just do shit without them, what they really don't need. And, like, honestly, what would do better, Francis versus Wilder in some kind of mixed rules bout, or Wilder versus Joshua in boxing and I tend to think that probably the latter now I don't know because having those two power punchers with mixed rules that might actually just be the sort of secret ingredient that sets it apart but at the same time it might make it almost novelty-ish to the point of circus is a strong word but sideshow-ish something like that whereas this is a premier legit boxing match between guys with big names so I think you're that that's sort of the only

thing competing I mean listen it I'm not going to say it doesn't matter what happens because I think of Anthony Joshua by the way his chances against Valine I think are difficult Valine is a very very tough customer but the point I want to make was if there's a market for it afterwards, it almost doesn't matter. Like, yes, the market would be better if they both win. But even if they lose, it could still happen. It really just seems to be where fan sentiment will be the most or what actually is the most achievable through negotiations and contract, less so about what the actual outcome itself will be. And again, Wilder credit to himself, giving himself a lot of great options. I'm either going to get Anthony Joshua after this fight, or I might get Francis Ngannou after this fight. And either way, he'll probably

make a pretty penny for it in the end. So good for him. Yeah. You nailed it that this fight can still go on if they lose, even though that's, you know, not always the best look, but look, both Joshua and Wilder still have something they're also aging they're also vulnerable we've wanted this fight back when they were both champions in 2016-17-18 I mean it goes it goes way back I just want to see it so if Saudi's going to make that happen I do wonder what that means for PFL because I saw sourcing as recently as like two or three days ago that that there was word that PFL was almost guaranteeing that Wilder versus Ngannou was next for them

and they want to do it the first half of this year. That could be three fights in a very short time for Wilder, Luke. A lot of things could get in that way. Then I saw reports that that wouldn't be next, so who knows? But Saudi is the driver, especially at heavyweights. So we shall see what happens. It is good news for boxing. Just the same. I'll look for we get the topic to I do want to reiterate what we've been talking about this whole idea that yeah, it's December, the New Year's coming. And you know, you can sign up for that gym membership on December

31, like everybody else and start going a few times in the cold. And then, you know, you plateau, you get lazy, you do whatever. And boy, before you know it, you're still 45 and washed. But Luke, as you've talked about so long, if you instead have a plan, if you instead reach out for knowledge, how about having a coach in the palm of your hand? How about our friends at the FitBot app? Yeah, no doubt about it. This is what I talk about all the time, though. I'm not going to say it's the worst thing you can do. Showing up to the gym is a great thing.

But you're trying to keep the results moving in the right direction. You're trying to get your weight down or potentially even bulk up, depending on what you want. Which, by the way, FitBot can help you do either. You want to lose some pounds? It can help you. You want to bulk up and put on some weight in the right appropriate kind of way, it can help you get to those kinds of places as well. But what you got to have is a plan. You don't want to just show up to the gym and be like, what am I going to train

today? I'll do legs. And then you come up with some kind of ad hoc nonsense. That's just not going to maximize your results. And over time, that's going to affect your motivation. It's going to affect why you think you're there to begin with. It's not a good idea. What you need is a plan. FitBod can be that for you. It can take in what access to equipment you have, what your goals are, how long you want to take to get there, all the different pieces you need.

So what you have to do that day is open the app, what am I doing today, follow the instructions, and you're done. It's a one-stop shop to the progress you're looking for. Look, more of us are ignorant to the true ways of nutrition technique and how to really structure both a workout, a recovery plan. Let's just be honest. Like, you know, I'm one of those people that have been in and out of the gym for decades, trying to just put on t-shirt muscle, right? Let me puff up the chest, maybe some buys, maybe some shoulders. But Luke, what I've found on the FitBot app is that I need new movements. I need to know how to work my core. I need to know how to work my legs. Portions of my body that have gone really just vacant for a while. How about over 1,000 exercise

demonstration videos? That's what I've loved the most on this app. I can see just by pressing play on the video exactly where my technique should be, exactly how I should be looking at setting up and structuring my workout. And when you have an app that intelligently varies your intensity and volume, tracking your muscle fatigue and really not allowing you to injure yourself by planning the proper recovery,

knowing how to avoid those plateaus that come when you're doing the same exercises over and over. I can't stress it enough, guys. Knowledge is power. We all don't know what we don't know. How about you go with the pros? How about you download Fitbod today? Yeah, that's what you got to do. BC is right. You've got a plan. You can learn new exercises. You can track your progress. You can get your goals set. Again, a one-stop shop for your fitness changing. So folks, here's what we're offering. Get ready for this. 25% off your subscription for FitBod and get three free personalized workouts when you go to fitbod.me slash combat. You see 25% off and free personalized workouts at FITBOD.ME.

That's combat with a K. Damn right. Get that right. Let's get it right here on topic number two. Luke, we've been debating a lot about the interim UFC heavyweight championship that's on Tom Aspinall's waist and what that means to Jon Jones's injury and, of course, the UFC's want to match Jones against legend Stipe Miocic. Well, Dana White caught up with TNT Sports out of the UK and was told to, or was asked

if he would respond to Tom Aspinall's comments that he wishes not only that he gets a chance to become full champion, but he'd love to defend that interim strap against Stipe. And so would we. Dana said no. When asked if Aspinall could fight Jon Jones, he said, and we're not stripping Jon Jones either. He's the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. You're a young guy, meaning Aspinall. You were injured there for a while. You'll get your shot. Just wait. This fight has to happen. And then we'll figure out what's next for you. Aspinall could possibly fight again. Dana added, I don't know.

We'll see how this plays out going into the next year you. Aspinall could possibly fight again, Dana added. I don't know. We'll see how this plays out going into the next year. But Jones and Stipe, the fight, they both deserve it. If Jon Jones got injured, there's nothing he can do about it. I don't know. We'll see what happens in 24. So, Luke, it seems like, to summarize, Dana says, hey, I'm down for Aspinall defending that interim belt, but not against Stipe.

And you ain't becoming that undisputed champion unless you go through a healthy Jones when he gets through Stipe. Your thoughts? Well, first of all, they booked Curtis Blades versus Gelatin Almeida, which I'm glad to see. Remember, they had originally booked it for Brazil, and then it fell through. Derek Lewis came in, and the fight was what it was. But I think it's the right fight to make, right? That's a good fight, and winner of that might have an argument for a title shot, whether it's Almeida or Blades.

And of course, we had seen Aspinall-Blades for like 15 seconds or whatever it was, and it fell apart. But that would have been a fun fight to go a little bit further with. So I'm not going to sit here and say I don't want to see, for example, if it comes to this, Tom Aspinall versus Curtis Blades 2. I would be very, very happy to see a fight like that. That's a valuable fight to me. But let's just inventory one more time.

They're not going to co-promote to get Aspinall a fight with Francis Ngannou. They're not going to let him fight Jon Jones. They're not going to let him fight Stipe. And nowhere has he ever said he's going to get a chance at unification. You never hear Dana say Aspinall will fight the winner of those two that never comes in so those are four things that's a good point ever he never says it you so we're denying him the four things that matter the most and and and really is the point of the architecture to

begin with which is title unification when the time arrives we We had John Nash on the show last week on this day. And what did he say was really the key to the details about MMA versus boxing? Nobody, not BC, not me, not you guys out there, love the job that the sanctioning bodies are doing in boxing. Nobody does. They are in many ways as terrible as everyone says they are. However, there is a key difference. In MMA, because it is completely unregulated, basically, the promoter controls the titles. In boxing, they cannot. And here is a case where I think it's very, very clear where for all of the good that folks might see in having MMA kind of, for the most part, under one roof, one of the downsides to that is that they also control the titles,

which means you actually don't get the best, and frankly, the most important and necessary fights for the division that you're supposed to be getting. I just don't know who can look at this, and other than Dana, I suppose, and perhaps other executives in the company, I think this is a good idea. You forgot the fifth. He's not going to get Brock Lesnar at UFC 300, but Luke, is there an opponent that you actually would pop for if they rolled out

Lesnar? Cause Dana has said that 300 top to bottom is going to be, you know, insane. Yeah, no, he said top to bottom UFC 300 will be insane. And so was 200 on paper,

by the way, is there a fight that you would actually accept to bring Lesnar back into the mix? Ooh, I mean, I wouldn't be mad at Lesnar versus Aspinall. I don't think there'd be much of a fight, to be honest with you. If they did Lesnar versus gone, would you hate it? I don't know. I guess I'm going to jump in and say I don't want Lesnar against an active guy because look, look how far away we are from lesnar being a ufc

fighter and being in title contention and oh we're just going to forget by the way that he popped so bad for drugs at ufc 200 that mark hon unfortunately took you know a huge financial l trying to chase the dragon of that lawsuit but i'm thinking like is there an old guy fight is there a creative crossover fight is there something that like yeah that's the best use for tko group of bringing lesnar back and maybe not drug testing him? You know, what's really funny to me is this dude's I was actually watching him teach something online the other day because he has a whole series about it. And this dude's been forgotten and I don't know what's happening. So maybe you can fill me in.

But and this is not blockbuster but you're asking me what i want to see i would love to see uh gable steveson make his ufc debut i would love to see lesnar or just in general just in general now against brock that'd be kind of fucking amazing as well i think you beat the bags i'd make that the ufc 300 colman luke okay i gotta tell you dude gable steves in I don't know what's happened because he had all this momentum coming off the Olympics I don't know really where he's at I know he had some kind of developmentally building in WWE

I think right okay yeah that's my understanding as well but you don't see his name circulated very often I would love to see them do something interesting with him that'd be cool that's a great idea um would you pop for Brock versus Deontay wilder in an mma match i know i'm going like deep into fantasy here but would that work or no

i mean i wouldn't necessarily hate it um but no that's not the top of my priority list you know that's not uh mikey wants brock carwin too i mean you know you and i have never lied brock carwin one is one of our favorite fights of all time but i don't know if i need that um i don't think dc is cutting down in that referee shirt to 265 so let's not bring him back um yeah i don't know i'm trying to think of like something that's just like yeah and saint pierre closed that door too saint pierre was like yeah i'm not doing this all right brock lesnar versus puja at ufc 300 okay who marius puginowski oh at UFC 300, okay? Who? Mariusz Pudzianowski. Oh, Pudzianowski. He's old now, too.

I think he's in his 40s or something, man. That's the point of it. All right, let's get off of that. Let's go to topic number three, fight news and announcements. I want to get your, how about your one-word reaction? We'll play a word play game here for these, okay? All right, let's do it. February 17th, UFC 298.

Tatiana Suarez versus Amanda Lemos. Love it. Great fight. Also kind of tells you that Zhong Wiley versus Yan Xiaonan is probably what's going to happen next, which is the right fight for them to be making. So all in favor of it. Let's see what happens. That was way more than one word. Let's go to March 9th, UFC 299, Lauren Murphy versus Karina Silva,

who is, I don't know, she's coming on, Luke. She looked great that last fight. She did. Lauren Murphy has been doing nothing but fighting absolute hammers, so this is a continuation of that streak. I really respect her a lot. Same night, you already mentioned, Curtis Blades, Gialton Almeida. I love that fight.

Just the same. Also the same night. How about this for a Crossroads fight? Mateusz Gamrot versus RDA. Damn right. Rafael dos Santos still chasing big names. Still, dude. RDA is such a fucking MMA legend to me.

He is such a pivotal figure at 155. I cannot have more respect for his career as a fighter if i tried tough fight gamrot should probably win that one in all honesty but god damn it if rda is not out here just taking on every challenge that nobody else wants of whatever's in that jug that guy's like hey call me you can get what's left of it i'm about to pour it out all over you, okay, in the name of love. UFC Fight Night, March 30th. What are we doing here? Daria Zelenskayakova versus Montserrat Rendon. What am I missing here?

Why is this on here? Yeah, you can just go to the next one. Mikey, what are you doing to me? Let's go to February 17th, UFC 298. Tai Tuivasa, Marcin Tybura. Do you like that for Tai looking to bounce back? It's an appropriate fight, I think, for both guys in the place that they're at. Tybura's been around for a long time, kind of been up, kind of been down.

Tui Vassa's been down. This is a winnable fight, but, you know, he has to be on his game to, I think, get right, so let's see. Hinato Moikano comes back February 3rd at a fight night against Drew Dober. Hell yeah, Luke. Damn. Nothing bad about that one. Absolute banger.

Can't wait. Let me add one more news item to topic three, before we get into the weekend combat preview of what's left, uh, BKFC making a big announcement. They have stripped welterweight champion, Gorgon Slavesky. Why? stripped welterweight champion gorjan slavesky why because he has accepted a fight to tonight's

karate combat 43 card in las vegas which we'll get to that card in a second without permission here's the quote from david feldman the bkfc founder and president unfortunately gorgon accepted a fight outside the organization without our approval which resulted in us stripping him of his welterweight title we will have a further announcement forthcoming on the now vacant belt luke slaveski was six and oh under the bkfc banner and he won the title by defeating jake lindsey in august do you care about that no no all right well there's your news that fits topic number four is what's left for the weekend and what's left luke is i didn't even know this was happening tonight until this morning when I saw the weigh-in results. Dude.

Same, same, same. I love this. If we were in Vegas to try to win that award, I'd be going to this card. It's Karate Combat 43, 9 p.m. Eastern tonight in Vegas. Anthony Pettis versus Benson Henderson 3 in the main event. Obviously, this is not mixed martial arts, but it's going to be a fun as heck striking event. Luke, how, how sort of, uh, you know, interested in this? Are you in general? Modestly, I'd be curious to see the fight. Um, yeah, I, I, I don't have a single bad thing to say about karate combat, but I don't want to sit

here and pretend I'm like some gigantic fan, right? That's sort of, I'm in that middle space where like, I've seen these guys fight a couple times it was cool um this one will be cool as well but i'm not like crazy hyped about it or something okay uh shout out to alex wendling luke who used to uh work on the on the morning combat show with us and she's been doing what sideline reporting to them for them yeah i think she does something like that appreciate her help along the years to our show on this card. You're going to get the aforementioned Gorgon Slavesky straight out of BKFC. He'll be taking on Brandon Jenkins at welterweight.

You're also going to get Raymond Daniels, the legend against Adrian Hadra Biage at a catchweight. And how about your co-main event? Ross Levine is going to take on Smiling Sam Alvey for the vacant karate combat heavyweight Championship. Is that enough to get you to tune in early? It is not. It is not.

All right. Honesty wins out again. I guess topic five, we're going to hit the boxing item. Hold on, very quickly. We got updated. Colby has made weight 169.5. I'm looking at him on the scale. Looks sharp.

Looks physically sharp. No doubt about it 169 dudes yeah absolutely love it let's go to your weekend boxing preview topic number five and luke tonight the zone orlando florida it's jake paul's most valuable prospect series continuing by the fighter promoter installing himself in the main event this is not pay-per-view. It's on regular days in. And the 7-1 Jake Paul is going to welcome 35-year-old Houston native and journeyman pro boxer Andre August, who's 10-1-1 with five KOs. It's an eight-round cruiserweight bout.

And your fan duel betting odds at the moment are Paul minus 850. August is plus 520. Luke, I know you didn't watch the press conference, but I did for a preview I wrote for CBS. And August could not have done less to sell himself this fight or anything. Who is the matchmaker at MVP? Is it just Jake Paul? No. So in the past, when we covered their fights with showtime they were using the tony holden

out of oklahoma the very well respected tony holden uh boxing promotion that he runs there oklahoma to just handle like logistics and maybe they were part of the matchmaking i'm not sure i do know that um mvp has added staff members i think mike leonardi who's been a long time guy in the boxing space as a trainer manager whatever i think he plays a big role in there behind the scenes. But I don't know if they have a huge famous name, Luke. But here's my take on this. Jake Paul knew what he was doing when he tried to fight Hasim Rahman Jr., right? The son of the heavyweight champion who pulled out of that fight with weight issues and went on to get knocked out by Greg Hardy in a boxing fight.

They know what they're doing, in my opinion, here with August, who's muscular, but he's 35. He took a four-year layoff before returning this year. And his first 10 fights, he only beat one guy with a winning record. And that guy was 1-0-1. He drew with a three and three fighter and he got knocked out by a guy who's now three and 27. So Luke, we kind of know what we're getting here.

Now you can always argue that Jake Paul, eight fights into his pro career should be allowed to fight guys like this, because that's what a different real rising fighter in boxing would do. But Jake is not a regular rising boxing fighter. He's been on pay-per-view. He's fought matchups as bad as Nate Robinson and Ben Ashgren, but to his credit has has tried to step up, losing to Tommy Fury in the quote-unquote real first boxing match of his career, even though Fury's more reality star than anything else. Would you agree, though, that anything but even a knockout is a disaster in this one for Jake Paul? Well, here's the thing.

How many people are actually going to watch? So in other words, let's say I'm going to be on HQ after Luke. So at least one. Okay. At least one person. Yeah. But what I mean, what I mean is this BC in all seriousness, like, let's say he ekes out some kind of 10 round, whatever the fuck fest.

If no one really sees it, he doesn't have to answer for a bad performance. Does he really? Because let's say because let's say let's say after this he ends up fighting ksi it'll be press conference fodder but no one's going to go back and watch some boring ass again assuming that's what it is some boring ass jake paul fight against somebody no one's ever heard of like so i actually don't i would say losing would be a disaster yes that would be quite bad but winning shittily is not a big deal either right so that's kind of the position yeah jake is using the narrative of that he's trying to Yes, that would be quite bad. But winning shittily is not a big deal either, right?

So that's kind of the position. Yeah, Jake is using the narrative that he's trying to continue down the road of becoming a real fighter, wants to become a world champion, thinks his story of going from Disney Channel in six years to the potential of one day fighting for a title is gonna, you know, and it has been a disruptor,

but it's been more of a disruptor, of course, about him fighting ex-UFC names. So I don't mean to shit on August, but I do think he's handpicked exactly for a reason. I watched tape on him too. You know, it's, it is what it is. Okay. We'll see where Jake Paul's at. Good call main event though. Former two-time champion, Franchon Cruz discern will be entering as an underdog when she fights

for the vacant WBC women's super middleweight title against shadesha green the former what was it old dominion or ruckers college basketball star maybe one of the two um went on to to make a change in the box old dominion yes we called one of her undercard fights for showtime in the past and uh she's the favorite here she's got big power she's unbeaten this is actually an interesting matchup that i'm going to be watching ariel hawani todd grisham and our friend dan canobio among many on the call i'm also friends with todd and ariel too i didn't mean that as a insult uh also on the zone on saturday luke i mentioned bam rodriguez 18 and 0 with 11 k.o's just 23 gonna bring on sunny edwards a lot of trash talk here rodriguez a slight favorite marijan akhmadaliev is in the co-main event he

was formerly the unified 122 champion but he got upset by marlon topalis who will now face naioa anue on december 26th for the undisputed championship at 122 uh this fight's gonna be good yeah you see i will tell you like after this weekend obviously so you know obviously 296 is all of our focus and i'm very much looking forward to it we haven't even talked about the fact that i know we're gonna about two by david morel fighting on saturday too but i will tell you, like, after this weekend, obviously, so, you know, obviously, 296 is all of our focus, and I'm very much looking forward to it. We haven't even talked about the fact that I know we're going to talk about, too, about David Morel fighting on Saturday, too, but I will tell you that, like, the fight I'm looking forward to discounting this weekend, it's got to be Inouye, bro.

Inouye, Topalas, I am sold on. Obviously, I think Inouye will win, but I am curious to see how that one goes. Yes. Yeah, I think Topalas will fare better than when Inouye fought, what was the guy's name, Paul Butler from the UK to unify titles at 118 a year ago. And, you know, Paul was just trying to hang on. Topalos will come to fight. I just think he's going to get railroaded.

It'll be fun to see December 26. I wonder if that puts, you think Inouye gets pound for pound number one votes over Terrence Crawford if he blows away Topalos and becomes the four-belt undisputed champion and a title holder in a fourth division and all that goes with it. It's possible. It's possible. Cause he would now be back to back undisputed champion at one 18 and then

one 22, which is what Crawford just did at originally at 40 now 47, but he got stripped, but you get, you know where I'm going with that. Also Saturday night, Minneapolis, the final card, Showtime championship boxing,

all sunset after 37 years. It's emotional, Luke. I'm blessed to have worked for them for the past five years. You've been getting the reps in the last couple of years as well. Could not have any more love for the extended team, which has always felt like family for the hall of famers on that announced staff, the hall of famers on the production staff, uh, David Morrell, Jr. The 25 year old secondary super middleweight belt holder is nine and oh, with eight KOs. He's a massive favorite.

In fact, minus 1800 against the game center at Beko who's 28 and two with 22 KOs from, from Ghana. I saw him, I called his last victory or two fights ago, excuse me, on show box. Luke, I think Morel is going to roll through him, but we do have a triple header. You and I will be calling the preliminaries, but in some ways, this is also just sort of a goodbye celebration to all things showtime and shout out to my third, no fourth favorite Armenian in combat sports beyond you, head movement and Caro Parisian is Manuka Akopian of LA Times boxing scene in the ring fame. Luke, he has launched a four part oral history on the history of Showtime boxing that I was a part of lending my voice. So part one's already out there. That's at the ring, uh, the ring magazine website. You can check that out.

Very good stuff. But Luke, what's your, you know, I've, I've bloviated ad nauseum about Showtime. What do you sort of look back on the 37 years from your vantage point? Anything that sticks out? Like, what do you think Showtime's place was? I mean, it's the end of Showtime boxing, but people make it about that. And I think that's's place was I mean it's the end of Showtime boxing but people make it about that and I think that's not quite exactly right it's the end of Showtime sports altogether for folks who may not be aware there were obviously Bellator is gone but I mean on the other side they did for example sports documentaries that will be going away as well and so any kind of sporting fingerprint is going away let Let's just, let's talk about this legacy that Showtime has had for just a second. Remember, the 37 years of boxing, some of the biggest fights ever.

And also, these are the people that made Strikeforce Strikeforce. I mean, obviously, you know, there's a lot more than just Showtime doing it. But I remember when there was a real number two to the UFC and it was, you know, it was obviously much smaller than UFC, but we have not had anything quite like that. And PFL is so fractured, you just don't get a sense of its size, even though it has Bellator. Now, I guess we'll see how things play out in 2024,

but I just mean, when Kung Lee fought Frank Shamrock, that might not mean anything to people who have been catching MMA more recently. You might not realize how big that was. Dude, that was a big fucking fight. And that was on Showtime. And there many many other memories as well how about Frank versus Nick Frank versus Nick was huge on another one another one that was a crazy press conference too whatever flipping each other off and it was crazy you know so so we're talking about people who have been very important ingredients in the modern combat sports era, not just in boxing, but on the boxing side.

I mean, you know, people, I can't, I will never have the boxing knowledge that either you or many other of your contemporaries, like the folks who've been covering it for so long, I don't have the kind of wisdom or the longitudinal perspective to say much. And I know Dana White doesn't have the fondest things to say, but as someone who's been a little bit on the inside

and obviously watched from the outside as well, the only thing I can really say about Showtime Sports is that it's just excellent quality top to bottom. Not to say there's things you couldn't improve or nitpick or whatever. Nothing is perfect. I don't mean that necessarily. But I've just been so blown away by what when you actually inventory the resume of what they've done. And then when you match that against how they've treated you and you match that against

how they've treated me, it's just very hard to come away with anything but very warm and positive and frankly, you know, very bittersweet that this is any I know, PBC is going to end up on Amazon. And I guess we'll see whatever else it does. But to me, when I think about what the Showtime brand represented in combat sports, it was supreme quality beginning to end. And it was always respect for the fighter, and that's something that in part one of that oral history that guys like Steve Farahood, Steve Albert, Al Bernstein,

all these legends that have come in and out of Showtime sports really spoke to. And I like that you brought in the Strikeforce, the MMA side of it, Bellator, obviously most recently, but documentaries across the board, fights that took over the sporting world from Tyson Holyfield one and two. I mean, look, you can argue that the bite fight, Tyson Holyfield two, which aired live on Showtime pay-per-view is, you know, the, the, the most viral moment boxing has seen since Ali Frazier won, as crazy as that sounds. I mean, Hagler-Hearns in between, you know, a lot of other great moments, but that moment, right?

I mean, how about Chavez-Whitaker and the controversy of Showtime pay-per-view fight? Corrales-Castillo won maybe the best fight of all time on regular Showtime, May 7th, 2005. So many great memories. I'll always cherish the times I had. Yeah, what do you got? Sorry, BC.

I apologize. I didn't mean to cut you off. No, that's okay, Luke. I'll just wrap it up right here. But the times I had, I mean, Wilder Fury won a great Showtime matchup and event so many. And also, Luke, one thing I want to mention, never forget the Mayweather-McGregor press tour,

which Showtime put out there and produced. That was in partnership with UFC. I mean, we can't pull them from the equation there at all. The first two stops of that press tour in LA and Toronto were as electric, as entertaining, as performance art. I mean, it was just something that we just haven't seen before. And I want to shout out everybody. Look, PBC will go on. Our hearts will go on.

A lot of people are hoping they get phone calls for broadcasting gigs uh there's rumors that you know a lot of showtime people will continue on uh much love to everybody though it's hard to see this happen hbo went through that in 2018 but we salute you just the same bc one question favorite showtime fight you got to cover great question great question uh wilder fury one i was ringside my pants were soaked in sweat and that was also the first uh fight that i got to work for showtime in an on-camera way i went to the press conference and i worked it with steve farhood and morrow from the aircraft carrier in new york city you know on the edge on the edge of the water there. And Fury came up on this like

platform that elevated. I also got to work with Paulie Malignaggi and Mauro on the desk for the weigh-in for that fight, that build. I mean, look, I wish I was at Corrales Castillo one. And obviously I was there for most of the incredible Floyd Mayweather, Maypack, Maymac, Mayweather Canelo, which is probably my number two answer, Luke. Um, just so many great memories. Yeah. Yeah. Spence Crawford for me, Spence Crawford for me was the treat of all treats. No, no, no fight has ever affected me. MMA or boxing. No fight has ever affected me quite like that. And, um, I can't, what could you say BC? Cause I saw some people being like, you know, being mad at Showtime and it's like dude they they've done nothing but good for us they've done nothing but good for i think boxing and to an extent mma as well and um i can never forget july 29th

2023 what happened to me when i watched that fight that was a moment that was crazy wish i was there look i had a scheduling conflict all good but you got to enjoy it great moment uh quickly co-main event is a rematch chris colbert versus jose valenzuela they fought to that disputed decision that colbert won back in march on the plant versus benavidez undercard i talked to colbert this week and check that out if you care great interview flashy guy prime time indeed guerrero berto and course, you and I will be calling a triple header headlined by former 140-pound champion and unbeaten Alberto Puello, who's taken on fellow unbeaten Hector Madero. So check us out.

Saturday is, do you know the time? I couldn't find it, Luke, which is probably problematic. What time does that start on Saturday? I can tell you, but you got to give me a second to do that. I can do it. We're going to be with you on Showtime Boxing Countdown.

We're going to be reliving the showtime boxing countdown we're gonna be reliving the great days we're gonna be hyping up the fights to come call in a triple header it's gonna be a great time before we transition over to the ufc 296 live companion show that only morning combat can apparently 10 p.m 10 p.m 10 p.m is the is the main card i'm sorry yeah sorry sorry 9 p.m in the east start 9 p.m in Sorry. 9 p.m. in the east start. 9 p.m. in the east. 9 p.m. in the east. And then we will come on when?

Like 7, 6.30-ish? I think like 7 or 7.30. Yeah, something like that. All right. Or 6.30. Check it out. Check your local listings. We love you.

Thank you very much. All right. We're going to close here with a segment we do every Friday. Wonder Boy did make weight 171, so he's in for his fight with Shavkat Rachmaninoff. But morningcombat at gmail.com is your email address for me burping and all things you sending in,

your Wednesday fan subs, and your Friday dead wrongs when sometimes we speak into a microphone and speak absolute bullshit, but it's up to you to bring a receipt. You can roast us if you want, but this one's called dead wrong okay let's do it this one's from mike hey bc mike the snake breeder here luke you remember that guy right mike the snake breeder that you eviscerated that dude's definitely not weird no not at all

just wanted to quickly let you know that during your attempt to make a joke on wednesday's show when you were talking about guys tony could be on the roster you mentioned bonterin and perez as potential w's because haha tony is three weight classes heavier than them but they're still quote on the roster little did you realize that not only was your joke lame, wow, but it also falls apart even more when the fact that Bontarine is not on the roster, you need to take that into account. That's right. He was cut 18 months ago after repeated weight cut issues. It's okay though, BC. I still like you more than Luke. And I'm willing to send either one of you a pet snake on the house if you're interested.

Sincerely, Mike. Is there any chance he's referencing the frozen rope in his pants, Luke, when he says that? Yeah, I don't want to see either of those. That thing or any, I mean, I don't have anything against snakes. I just think people who own a bunch of them definitely are weird. Definitely are weird people. I would doubt they pay their taxes, too, Luke. That's just my call. Oh, yeah.

Financial crimes is only the beginning. All right. Well, we appreciate you, Mike, even if you just roasted the shiat out of us. Did you know that bone terrain was cut 18 months ago? Luke? I didn't know. I didn't know. All right.

We must've done good this week. We only have one more dead wrong. This one's from Paul. Good morning. You washed up filthy POSs. Paul a day. Oh, Paul, a day one donk from Belfast, Ireland here. On last Friday's show, Brian challenged Luke to wear the Rocks Project X shoes if he loses the bet as a forfeit.

This is dead wrong. The correct forfeit should be for Luke to wear. Oh, wow. To wear a pair of weightlifting gloves for the entire week or at least for one MK show. The shoes will be unseen and the gloves will cause Luke's head to explode. And we can replay the hilarious moment over and over. Thanks for everything you do. Keep up the great content.

That is actually very funny. I have to admit. Wow. That's really good. That is really good. Morningcombat at gmail.com i hope we can do the concert look we should probably talk about that um yeah we can i mean we have to figure it out but we can it may be delayed though because look we do have big plans for next year we do

timing is going to come into play you're going to see and it's going to be freaking incredible but it may take let me ask you i mean there must be you know who knows when we'll be able to uh have things in in place the way that we want but there's gotta be like summer jam band tours right i mean oh hell yeah i don't know how they tour but i'm imagining they're going to be busy during that time that's that's concert season right spring summer early fall so we'll get jake the snake uh move on amsterdam up there with the camera and we'll figure that out maybe in between luke maybe they're right maybe you do have to do one mk episode and work out gloves maybe i do it for a side bet but not i'm not adding on extra misery that i don't have to you know

what i mean i would i would agree i would agree that like that's a that's a funny fucking bet to lose i i'm not opposed to doing that in the future by the way like some other kind of thing i hope rj puts some uh mk weight lifting gloves on our website since we now sell mk jerkins luke that's the only use for them there's really no other use for them just put them on and just jack off guys that's what it's for wow wow wow uh morning combat that store is your fine merch house uh jump on there today i don't know if you can get expedited shipping in time for the holidays but i'm sure you can read it on there and we got great products here okay i know you want to wear this hat i know you do all right thank you very

much uh luke i'm petering out quick because i'm sick what else you want us to talk about anything else that's it, bro. A reminder, reminder, reminder. We're doing the prelims on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel on Saturday, and then we're doing a watch-along for the main card and a post-fight show on Saturday night. It is the very last time in the bomb shelter. Please join us for one final goodbye.

We would appreciate it. True or false you will have an explosive amount of thc in your system during that live show probably and i'm also gonna have an explosive amount of gas being expelled from my rectum so there's gonna be that as well i can't wait for us to christen the that building on the way out it's gonna be great yeah i'm gonna fart on the donuts i'm gonna fart on all the keyboards. Everything. Everything. I was just telling a really gross story from high school about how one time I walked into the Howard Johnson's in Waterbury, Connecticut bathroom after midnight as my friend was in

there peeing, Luke, and he was drunkenly peeing on the ceiling, handles, sink, garbage, floor, everywhere. And it was one of the most appalling and hilarious moments of my uh of my life that that's a buddy of mine visited me in my fraternity house and then we had we had like the way it worked was the bathrooms were in the middle and then the rooms went all around to the sides and he went through every stall and every sink as he visited and urinated on all the seats all of the all of the handles of the sinks and then all of the door handles in and out of the bathroom we were like i'm glad you're here buddy glad you're here thanks for contributing

to what we got going on thank you to bucky more about cbs sports thank you to everybody for watching our programs for voting us in for awards whether we win or lose um almost time for that new year luke in 2024 will be a new year with no limits for us. Once we get all our ducks in a row, you guys are going to see. We're about to take back over the world of combat sports and beyond. And we're getting in shape now for it. Mentally, physically, like Tyson Fury,

Luke's masturbating seven times a day in advance. So we are getting out all the anger, right? Get out all that angry liquid, Luke, okay? All the ejaculation that is necessary to succeed you know what i'm saying and and we're fired love it all right thank you guys enjoy take care of your head okay all right hard work see you saturday fine