MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 302: Makhachev vs. Poirier RECAP, McGregor-Chandler Presser Canceled | Full Ep | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

Big weekend of combat sports and MORNING KOMBAT is here to break it ALL down. First, Luke and BC break down Islam Makhachev win Poirier in surprise thriller.Why was fight closer than expected? Should this be the end for Dustin Poirier? Put to words his legacy, Also, Sean Strickland beat Costa. Was he impressive or underwhelming in completely disarming the Brazilian? Plus, in boxing, Zhang finished Wilder with brutal KO. Is there any reason for Deontay Wilder to continue after hapless KO loss? Also, the McGregor vs. Chandler presser has been cancelled. What's going on? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah, the only sound you need on this Monday morning, June 3rd, 2024. Your combat sports informers are back. I like it.

Bum, bum down in the garden. Yeah. Speaking of snow, we have some Conor McGregor breaking news in just a moment. We'll also be recapping all things Saudi Arabia over the weekend. Luke and the Republican national convention that went on in Newark. Yeah. You know what? They actually put some UFC fights at a Trump rally.

It was great. I'm like, can we get some slap too? I am Brian Campbell. That is my co-host S with the most S who I'm not going to lie to you. Cause I never do that. Right. First of all, his name is Luke Thomas. He represents Washington, DC and Luke with seconds to spare before we went live, your angry a-hole came back from the bathroom in which you just tore porcelain.

Just absolutely shredded glass. In the words of one of my favorite gunnery sergeants that I served with in the Marine Corps, I just demolished that commode. I demolished that commode. That is so gross and disgusting. Luckily, though, you didn't go in the one right next to the studio, that bathroom. That really does smell nice. The one where it's like it's a legal shitter, but you can't shit in it, which I think is an HR violation. I think you are an HR violation.

But we're happy to be back. Of course, we had the special Friday-only episode last week. We are back just a couple days later where we belong here, Metal Ark Studios, Manhattan, New York. There was no human feces at the local subway stop today. I was blown away. What did you catch today at Newark Penn? No, no, I don't go to Newark um there was no human feces at the local subway stop today I was blown I was blown away uh what did you catch today at Newark Penn would you no no I don't go to Newark anymore oh you've skipped that we stopped there but I don't get off the train oh great I go I go we went from Newark to New York baby New York baby so I tweeted on Saturday night that Newark

sucks ass and people from Jersey got upset with me. And I'm like, guys, even if you're from Jersey, yeah, you have to admit Newark sucks ass. I mean, a lot of Northeast armpit, New Jersey sucks ass. And we just have to be honest with that. I'm a tri-state guy.

I'm allowed to say that. I will say this. Matt Snyder in the back over there and BC, you too. Jersey city way better than Newark. Recently, recently, recently it's come up recently. Maybe not historically, but right now, Jersey City way better than Newark recently recently recently it's come up

recently maybe not historically but right now back when like Bobby Hurley was running the show over at St. Anthony's I don't know if you could walk the streets at night

yeah but now I feel a little bit differently about them in many parts anyway especially by the downtown area Newark Journal Square is not that interesting

yeah I'm not saying Jersey City is amazing is that the voice of Long Island Luke yeah I'm just saying people got bitter that. Is that the voice of Long Island Luke? Yeah, I'm just saying people got bitter that I was like, I had the temerity to be like, feces isn't awesome. And they're like, well, it's not feces.

Look, put the camera on me. Oh, wow. Put the camera on me. Already, already. Newark sucks ass. Deal with it. Okay, very good. All right, there we go. Just like that.

We do have a great show for you today, as I mentioned, recapping all of that. And then some in the world of combat sports. We'll get to your questions, DMs from Donks, and also, Luke, pretty damn good batch of shiat. Long Island Luke, can you confirm that? The shiat batch is looking good today. Great batch of shit.

Great batch. All right, you build this up, and then it's like one elderly person, and he getting hit with some five-year-old in a pinata. There's questionable both misogyny and elder abuse in this one. Did you get the Oilers fan who showed her, her breastises to the entire crowd and then now to the entire internet, you were on the text exchange with a producer and myself and that got, that got vetoed pretty fast.

Like we can show North Korean censorship, death and dicks on this show. But, uh, what happened to fully, you know what happened to freedom of speech? What happened to freedom of speech? Well, Hey, North Korean censorship around here. We could show death and dicks on this show, but a Foley? What happened to freedom of speech? What happened to freedom of speech? Well, hey, the Prudential Center, there was plenty of freedoms being enjoyed.

Did you see the crowd fights? I did not see the crowd fights. Oh, the best knockouts were in the crowds. Oh, wow. Yeah. There were a lot of famous comedians there, too. Did you see Joey Coco Diaz and Theo Vaughn? Yeah, I did.

I saw Theo Vaughn getting bitter when like Islam would do anything to Dustin. You know what I mean? You could see him in the back, like gesticulating. I do. I do. I gesticulated this morning before I,

I bet you did. Just to let you guys know, you can follow us at the socials. That'll be dropped down there below, please. As we continue to roll this thing out. It's not what you thought it was but it's still pretty damn great right we're on the road to great things look at

the merch this hat that jacket right there i don't think you can get this sweet phil brooks ufc t-shirt there but look if you go to morning combat dot store right now if you want 10 off how about a little discount use our code live 10. Big Ray Dunklemaker is over there. I don't know where the merch money's going. Hopefully Ray's feeding his kids with it. Yeah, Bukkake Ray, as we like to call him. Okay, alright. That was a little extreme. Wow, just like that. Hey, we're on

the DraftKings network. Don't forget about our partners there. You might be watching it right now. Every Monday 5 p.m. in the East. A nice morning combat replay. Luke, is there fights this week? Oh, Adrian Broner's back this weekend in the Don King Bowl. Again, as the fight poster makes very clear, Adrian Broner will fight this weekend if he shows up. Against Blair the Flair Cobbs in a true WWE-inspired boxing match.

And I think there's a fight night card in Louisville, but I don't think it's... There is a fight night, but I'm going to... I was, you know, when you have to work on the weekends, you can't exactly be dad of the year. I intend to... I'm going to give When you have to work on the weekends, you can't exactly be dad of the year. I intend to... I'm going to give my next weekend to my family, I think. Okay, then you're getting fired up for the future, right?

And then after that, it's Gervonta Davis. Although a lot of our summer blockbusters, more on that to come in this show, keep getting knocked down left and right. We'll find out what happens. I think it's about time we do it. All right, here we go. Let's go. Before we, though, dip into the five topics.

And of course, you're eagerly awaited analysis and reaction to all things. UFC 302 breaking news overnight about midnight Eastern, late Sunday night, early Monday morning. We found out that today's 12 PM Eastern time scheduled UFC 303 press conference in Dublin, Ireland.

I mean, this is old school UFC going back to spreading the big events to the masses. It will no longer take place. UFC putting out on social media the news that the event has been postponed. Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting reporting that Michael Chandler found out about it Sunday morning and did not get on the plane. We do not have word whether Dana White, who said he was flying directly from Newark to Ireland after Saturday night's event, not get on the plane. We do not have word whether Dana White, who said he was flying directly from Newark to Ireland after Saturday night's event, did get on the plane.

But Luke Thomas, this is really big news when you consider Conor McGregor's journey to here. While we do not have the official news of why this is postponed, when you consider how big of an event this was, the price tag involved, the fact that we're 26 days out from the International Fight Week main event of Conor McGregor's long-awaited return, it's hard not to get apprehensive, conspiratorial, whatever you want to do. What does this news, this announcement mean for that fight, June 29th? Because this ain't good. I saw fans understandably frustrated online, and I think a lot of people naturally concerned, which is kind of what you're driving at.

I saw some other fans saying, do you think that they might schedule it in the next coming days? And that just seems impossible to really believe right now. The UFC doesn't like to use the word cancellation if they can at all avoid it. They typically use the word postponement, but even in cases where there is no eventual rebooking. So Dan Hendo versus Jon Jones, UFC 152, is that currently still under postponement?

Yeah. No, no. That one they had to cancel because they had already. Or is Jon going to fight him after he fights Steve? Well, here's the thing. They couldn't. Yeah, right. They couldn't push that to a postponement date because they'd already announced UFC 153.

So they couldn't just change all the numbers. If you actually go back, I was on the original call when Dana White called Greg Jackson a sport killer. And he even said, oh yeah, we'll just change all the names of the other events. And then they just decided we have to cancel and not do that. But they would have tried. That's the whole point. So when they say postponement, I really can't say if they'll book it again. But my belief is that was probably the one window to really make this happen. 26 days out.

You do have to really think about that. Also consider, dude, the UFC is a, you can have any number of criticisms of them. But what you cannot say is that they're not a well-run and well-oiled machine. They know exactly what they're doing. That event at the three arena where they had 10,000 tickets sold. But remember, they're making nothing at the gate because those tickets were free. But they were snatched up instantly. You have to pay for all the crews to set everything up, to fly everybody over.

They might use local crews, but nevertheless, you have to pay for them there. Everything's involved. Dana White said at the post-fight press conference for UFC 302, he was going to fly right out there from New Jersey. For them to postpone this, it has to be bad, real bad. They don't do it normally. So let me answer the question and we can, we can talk about it. The basic answer I would have is if you have questions about this presser being booked

again, I do too, but I would say it's almost certainly not going to happen. What I would then say is, I don't know what it means for June 29th, but you are absolutely well within your right to assume that that fight is either going to be off, postponed, that one actually postponed, I don't know, it's International Fight Week, or at a bare minimum, BC, at a bare minimum, even if Conor does go through with it, is anyone in their right mind between this and what we've seen on social media none of these are complete pictures ufc didn't really explain to the fans why there was a cancellation although some british journalists reporting it was due to conor mcgregor that he initiated that he was the one who ultimately was had to pull the plug on it what conor mcgregor are you even going to get even if he makes it to the finish line okay without knowing and we're speculating here but look let's be honest about our speculation they could have lied even if it was connor related and been like look due to logistics we will no longer be having this event on this day but stay tuned we'll update when it's going they didn't do that they came out with the full cryptic i'm sorry you know apologies

we're gonna have to postpone this event that to me screams that it was extremely last minute extremely disappointing and extremely you know scare inducing fear inducing from this standpoint let's be honest about where conor mcgregor is right now luke twice in this training camp we've seen him out clubbing and partying now it was with his significant other you know who knows what he was ingesting but you know what you know and you can see what you can see and every time time Conor McGregor's in front of a microphone for a year, two years, three years, the dude looks like he's in another space mentally, that he is full on living the rock star lifestyle. And while I'm certainly speculating and don't even know the true details of this because it wasn't released,

I don't see how you couldn't just continue that, escalate that speculation of not only is this guy in the right headspace, but even though he claimed in many social media videos of late that he's given up the drinking and the partying and the, in the craziness for this training camp, look, even if that's true, there's still no guarantee that this guy's going to be anything close to where he was. And now I have to finally come clean with that. It's way too late. Right. But I was the guy all along who's saying, no, Connor's different if he wants to if he takes it serious again right you know but that was the attitude to have after the cowboy fight which now feels like a long time ago in the history of conor mcgregor where that was like okay still young enough if he gets serious again the guy's got

that it factor he'll figure it out look it's too far gone that train's not coming back in the station anymore it's too far gone and and no no not coming back in the station anymore. It's too far gone. And, and no, no, I don't know what this news actually is. Hopefully we get some clarity and truth. Hopefully Conor McGregor is okay. Right. But how could you not continue that escalation of speculation? When every time we see him, the guy looks like he's on a four day bender.

Let's be really honest. Every single time we've seen him for two and a half, three years, if he goes through with this fight, it's probably going to be bad. And if he doesn't considering the foundation of what UFC does for the IFW, I'm sorry, for the Conor McGregor pay-per-view cards, you know automatically you're getting a stripped down, watered down card because so much of the money is going to that main event. I know the addition of Ian Gary versus Michael Venom Page is a great fight added to it, and I've supported it.

The replacement co-main event or whatever, wherever it will fall on the card of Carlos Olberg replacing, um, round tree to take on Jamal Hill, decent fight. The rest of that car is not decent at all. So they might have to go to the bullpen and really panic and get a title fight replacement, main event, call up a, a legend on short notice.

I mean, there might have to be some, I mean, this is international fight week, right? It's not the in-between pay-per-view card. So I think there is a lot of reasons to be concerned right here about conor mcgregor's future and about how this tentpole event is going to end up playing out and look we can go through it right now who would even be available let's go through

this very quickly if we can you could go 125 flyweight title maybe he had a headliner though exactly so but even if pantoja is recovered from that ursak fight which was grueling by the way can you headline with that? Probably not. Sean O'Malley, to me, is more interesting. You could potentially get him back in rotation for a hefty extra sum. I think him and Murab is the band-aid. You could potentially do that.

That would actually be a decent one, but then you're going to get it on short notice. You're just not going to get the same kind of fight in the end, so you're making a trade-off there. Okay, 26 days. What is a typical short-notice camp if an elite fighter can pull it off? Six weeks, I would say.

A month is doable, but, you know. We're well on it. Yeah. So, okay. 45, you could do it to Teporia, but it sounds like they have other plans for that. Max at 55, though. Max versus Chandler. Could you do that?

There's something there potentially. So that'd be a BMF defense. You could be a BMF defense. 170, no. He's spoken for in Manchester, unless you want to pull that off that card, which don't think that you do now you go to 185 you could do drichus and izzy early assuming that those guys would agree to it i don't know if that's possible that's but that's an availability 205 is potato maybe you could scrap the yuri fight or maybe you could do that one early that potentially would be but again you're going to be you're robbing peter to pay

paul no matter what and then a heavyweight forget it they're not gonna pull aspinall off that card in england and you know john jones ain't gonna fucking bail you out so so that's what we have left now you can say women's fight but i don't think they want to move shevchenko and grasso and even then is that a ifw headliner no i want to say one more time i cannot overstate this the ufc would not have done this and postponed unless it was bad it has to be bad if it was injury related they probably this and postponed unless it was bad. It has to be bad. And if it was injury related, they probably would say something. If it was illness related, they probably would say something

because that would eliminate what we're doing right here. The fact that they gave no explanation kind of explains it all to a degree. Dude, it's sad because we know the trajectory that Conor has been on in the second half of his career. Getting to the mountaintop against Eddie Alvarez in 2016, looking, you know, wanting ownership in the company, looking like he can literally do anything. Luke, when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez, if I told you he was going to a welterweight title shot next, you would not have batted your eye, right? You'd have been like, yeah, let's see how great he can be. And then look at where we are now.

I don't hold it against Conor that he took the money and fought Floyd. It was a, you know, historic once-in-a-lifetime event. I don't hold it against him that he took time off for his family to be born, that he built the money and fought Floyd. It was a historic once-in-a-lifetime event. I don't hold it against him that he took time off for his family to be born, that he built up other businesses. Look, I don't even necessarily hold the multiple arrests and missteps outside the cage, but I hold the totality against him.

Do you think this is kind of getting worse than even the second half of Oscar De La Hoya's great career where he still ended up a Hall of Famer, but the first half of his career, he was rising and winning titles and beating people, and the second half of his career, he was rising and winning titles and beating people. And the second half of his career, he was losing big pay-per-view events where he's partying in between. This is almost going off worse. If you look at the totality of the second half of Conor McGregor's career, you look at the potential of who he still could have been as a fighter.

And now it's just long layoffs, injuries, missed turns, inactive. I mean, it's just it's just, it's sad to see for an athlete who was like no one else, I'm done believing in any aspect of him anymore. Yeah, I mean, the Mystic Mac stuff, it's over. Let me also say this, and I know some people get rubbed the wrong way by him. I'm not trying to tell people who to like

and how to like them, but you do have to feel a degree of sympathy for Michael Chandler in all of this as well. Delayed his career, put his career on hold for this big payday, for this red candy night. He is 38 years of age at 155 pounds. It is now or never to get really anything left in terms of a big name opponent with a big name opportunity.

This is it. The window will close probably in a year or so. They poached the ultimate fighter a year ago. Yeah, and. Like this, the window will close probably in a year or so. They poached the ultimate fighter a year ago. Yeah. And I, and I want to, you know, again, I know what folks are going to say. They're going to say, I don't like Chandler. They're going to say, Oh, they might say he's a grown man. He signed the deal. Yeah. Fair enough. He could have potentially abandoned plans. There were possible off ramps he could have taken, but at the same time, they finally moved the needle on this one. They got it signed. it announced they announced a fucking press conference which was exactly the shot in the arm

that i thought that this event needed and now you're going to get not just no event but the the pain to the fans of having offered it and pulled it away all while chandler has lost insanely valuable time to his career again i'm not saying that Conor won't fight at IFW, but I do think I'll believe it when I see it. Even if you get it, what the hell is he going to look like? I just want to close by getting the number of the percentage of your panic on a couple quick key questions. What's the percentage

in confidence that Conor McGregor will fight June 29th? 40%. What's the percentage that he wins on June 29th? 25%. What's the percentage that he wins on June 29th? 25%. All right. Pretty low. Those are pretty low.

Still possible. Still possible. I mean, look, they're at their best as a promotion when they do have to scramble at times, when they do have to go, okay, what's available? Let's make it work. Did they put their best foot forward for UFC 300? We argued that. The card over delivered name was great. By the way, they're going to have a record

gate potentially for, if McGregor doesn't fight there, a fight that never even happened. That's why I really hope they give a suitable replacement. In my opinion, O'Malley and Marab would be more than suitable. And those guys have been circling each other. That doesn't replace Conor, but that's about as good as it's going to get. It's about as good as it's going to get. It's tough news to start on this day because we were going to figure out

do we go live and react to it? BC and I talked over the weekend. Like, what do we do about this? Well, the answer is you just saw it. You just saw it right there. All right. That's our breaking news off the top of the show. Let's, though, get back into topic number one.

And, you know, you know why you're here. Newark over the weekend, UFC 302. The pay-per-view event went down in Newark, New Jersey. Former President Donald J. Trump, Luke, got a cage side seat for that. Not sure if you saw that moment. Yeah, you know what? Actually, I counted the number of times they showed him on camera. Do you know what it is?

What, how many? 34. Can you believe that? That's a big number, 34. You know, 34 times that they got Donald Trump. 34. Yeah, I mean, that's another topic for another day. It's frustrating to some levels.

It is not frustrating from a a who do you support politically it's just frustrating from like like why don't we just name the pay-per-view after him you know i mean why don't we just have like a receiving line of people to come up to bow down in front of which i guess we had after strickland went out and took the selfie uh did you like derek brunson's tweet tweet that um donald trump has now made more ring walks in the last four years than john jones for the usc which is hilarious back to the topic at hand of course was the main event the reason why we're there, the lightweight championship. Islam Mahachev extending his closing in

on record run of unbeaten streak here. 14 consecutive wins. Now too shy of Anderson Silva's record, but it wasn't easy. A fifth round submission of the 35-year-old gutsy, never say die, Dustin Poirier, the same lightweight sensation, future hall of famer, Luke, who we really looked into these cameras and said, I love the man,

but I cannot find a path to victory. Luke Thomas on Saturday, he damn near found a dramatic path to victory by bloodying and rocking Maha Chevrolet. And then we saw the, the, the Bravo choke the fifth round submission to get it done. So my lead-off question here off the top, after a pay-per-view that was up and down, but delivered with this thrilling main event, why did this fight end up playing out closer than we expected?

Why were we so wrong? I don't think we were. Go back and listen. Well, let me just say this. There were people who thought that Islam was going to run over Dustin Poirier, which is not necessarily that crazy, right? Dustin Poirier had been head kick KO'd by Justin Gaethje back in July of 2023. He did have the nice win against BSD,

but BSD was getting all kinds of bad positions on him before he rescued himself with, of course, his trademark power and great boxing. So phenomenal win, but this was something that of a good rebound win against BSD. But let's be honest, this was something of a sentimental matchmaking for a guy who doesn't have a lot of time left by his own admission. And so there was natural skepticism. Plus, he had lost to Habib. He'd been chucked over in the back by Charles Oliveira.

I understood that. But we had said on Friday that, yes, certainly, Dustin Poirier has his work cut out for him, but we also said it worked the other way around, that we thought that Islam probably would be more well-rounded and would have a lot of success, which I do think you saw. I've seen him win the whole fight. But that he would face some resistance,

maybe less than we thought necessarily in the grappling. Okay, but let's be out fair. We didn't expect this level of resistance. You got to nip in the bud here. But I don't really share your sentiment that this was like, oh, Islam really got battered and beat up. And yes, he got cut and he got hit with some big shots. It was a four plus round fight.

The reality is on the defensive end, Dustin Poirier really showed some legitimate improvements in the takedown defense and scrambling department, and you've got to give him credit for that. But BC, I went through it with a fine-tooth comb yesterday. Let's just say it out loud because it's true, and the tape is very clear on this. Islam Makachev outstruck Dustin Poirier. Yes, he did. And everyone says the same stupid response when I bring that up, which is he was worried about the

takedown threat. If you're saying something like that as the chief explanation, because it does play a role about that, there can be no doubt. If you're saying as the top explanation that it was the takedown threat that had Dustin Poirier outstruck by Islam Makhachev, you don't have a fucking clue what you're looking at. You just haven't been watching his finishes of other former champions. But the point I want to make is this.

What did we see from Islam? BC, as a boxing fan, you know this. How about all the slipping and countering off the jab and the cross inside and outside slips? Dude, he was bobbing, weaving, pivoting out everything you would want, doubling up on the jab, hitting it with combinations, forcing him to a side. Give me a fucking break. Those are things you do when your opponent is attacking you,

and he beat him there. Put some respect on his name. You don't have to like these guys. It's not about who you like, who you love, BC. The question is, who did what? And I give Poirier credit, because he's tough as shit, not just that night, but every night he goes out there. That's who he is.

And his wrestling that he had done BC with Mateusz Gamrot, I feel like played a big role. That's the apology I want to make. The idea that we, or that I, I'll just say I, the idea that I thought Poirier, who had been dominated and tapped out in his two previous lightweight title attempts, and now was fighting a guy who was pound for pound number one,

and just a machine and near perfect fighter. I guess I just assumed that he wouldn't have shit against him on the wrestling, that he would get dominated again. Damn credit to Poirier, not just for being tough, not just for being incredible at this advanced age, but for putting in that work with Gamrot.

That was, if I had asked you, why was this fight closer than it should have been, which I asked you, you got to say the wrestling takedown defense. That's the answer. Yes, no doubt. Or the ability to not get submitted like early on. That's exactly, stuffing the takedown, you heard Mike Brown say,

he can't even take you down in the middle of the cage. The good down blocking from Dustin Poirier was phenomenal. This was great. It's not like he looked like bad or something. That's not at all what I'm saying. But I just feel like there's this weird thing where people don't want to like Islam. And one of those reasons I get it. Hey, you fight somebody who's beloved like Volk. They're not going to like you. You'll fight somebody beloved

like Charles. They're not going to like you. And who is more beloved with good reason than Dustin Poirier in this game? Not many guys, maybe Max Holloway. That's about it. So he keeps beating nice guys, but these nice guys are not chumps. These are some of the very best dudes and he is finishing them almost every time. You're arguing against the post-fight narrative that I saw a lot of people of like, well, because this fight was closer than the one Habib had with him, then this must mean Mahachev isn't as good as we thought. No, Mahachev looked great. Dustin made adjustments. Dustin was willing to pour it out and potentially in what may end up going down as the final fight of his career. And yet Islam still stood in there, survived the war and was able to put him to sleep and

would say afterwards, as Islam gave Dustin rightfully so repeated praise and flowers, he basically said, man, this guy is such a dog. The only way I was going to stop him was by putting him to sleep that's what he fucking did which is why he's number one pound for pound with a bullet so do you think this was actually though as close of a fight is that looked islam was up three to one on one scorecard but chris lee had a two two entering that fifth round doesn't chris lee have a somewhat controversial judging name and what was the third scorecard what was that uh i'd have to look. I don't know.

Okay. Two judges had it 3-1 for Islam. The other one had it 2-2. So was it actually as close as it looked in your eyes? Well, when you say close, it's hard to know what that means. What I would say is I never really thought for the most part, again, a couple of moments here or there, I never thought Islam was in super big trouble. He's not a dynamic puncher himself.

So even when he's landing, I don't know. Do you see what he did? All of era? Yeah, but all of era was jumping in the air when he hit him. And then he finished him off with the head and arm triangle. So again,

well-timed good. I mean, the guy is fucking lethal. You can say that. I'm just saying pound for pound in terms of punching power. He can't match what Poirier is doing. So what I'm going to say is this, was it competitive?

Yes, certainly. Did Dustin Poirier is doing. So what I'm going to say is this. Was it competitive? Yes, certainly. Did Dustin Poirier win at least a round? Yes, certainly. And did he show dramatic takedown improvement and really gave the champ a hard time as it relates to that? Let's be clear about it, BC. He made Islam go 5 for 16. I think that's the worst wrestling performance he's had in his UFC run. Here's the problem with that.

He got five takedowns. He got one in every single round. And he outstruck him at least numerically, I believe, in every single round, perhaps with the exception of one, and then finished him off in the end. But the skill he showed along the way. Again, you fight heroes. They're not going to love you in the fight game. But I really believe people are late to the party.

And I do want to talk about pound for pound. And I do want to talk about where he is all time. We'll get there. We'll get there for sure. I do agree with you that I thought I thought the after market reactions were a little too harsh to the idea of see much of not who we told you he was. No, he is that dude. You have to expect tough fights against legends like this. It was tougher than expected because Dustin's that gnarly.

And this is everything that's great about Dustin. So I get, I understand the idea of pushing back against that because I agree with you. But Luke, I do think it turned out really close. There were moments where I felt like that Islam was one to two more clean punches away from being in trouble. Can we show a highlight that ESPN may put out on their Twitter account?

I thought this was somewhat of a turning point moment when Poirier screamed at, at Islam after eating a punch and started coming back at him. Can we run that long? Just outright scream at him. Who did that recently? Tell me what I'm looking at here that tells you that Poirier is turning momentum. He's just yelling at him.

See, that led though to sequences in which he landed big punches there in rounds three and four I gave him round four Luke I'm sorry no I gave Poirier round two you could have argued round four in his direction but I still thought entering that final round it was a clean three to one but what I'm saying is Luke to act like it didn't look like he was one or two punches away from changing the momentum of that fight there were a couple moments where I saw Islam eat a few big shots and take a step back. Luke can have to change his strategy, have to go more for takedown. So Poirier shocked me in that regard. I do think this fight was close.

And I think the reason why I can say that, the proof that I have, Luke, tell me if you agree with this. Did you see the celebration from team Nurmagomedov? We'll get into it during Have You Seen This Shit and what happened to Usman and all that. But his team hurdled the fence and dove on him like he just hit a buzzer beater to win the NBA Finals. They're only doing that because they realized

how close he was, in my opinion, to this being a fight that he could have lost. That was going in the wrong direction or was close to be. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. I'll meet you halfway. Definitely he had some adversity in this fight. There's no denying. But in that third round, he numerically outstruck Poirier and then went one for one on takedown so 100 also is credited in that particular round with a submission attempt the idea that the third round demonstrates

that there's like some change in momentum it just does not show up in those moments when you saw yelling poirier was the moments where i said turn the crowd off he's not going quietly the crowd off and just watch what's happening there There's no shift at all. That's just pure theater that you're buying into. Sorry. I saw his face get busted open. Fine. But there's also head clashes and a big elbow that landed late.

But don't act like there wasn't a bend moment. Now, he never broke, and that's what makes Matchev great. Yes, bend moments for sure. Dude, I'm not saying it's not competitive. I'm saying the opposite. It was competitive. Great fight. But this idea that Islam was clearly imperiled in a moment like that,

I don't see any true evidence of it at all. Well, you also didn't think the bonuses at UFC 300 spurred exciting content. They don't. That's just complete fantasy by dogs. Hold on. We're going to fight to the death about that. Let me make this point because I keep forgetting it and I want to get past it. We had talked about this on Friday Friday about Bohashina and him.

Did they have staff? After the fight, it is revealed by Islam Makachev he did in fact have staff. And we called it exactly on Friday's show. It looked like he had it, but it may have been a little while ago. And he had gotten over it. Whoops, let me turn my volume off here. You're getting pinged. My wife texted me.

Did she ask you to pick up eggs on the way home? No, she told me she was proud of me. One thing you'll never do. She's a really nice lady. I'm glad you found her. Believe me, me too. If I was stuck with you. You'd be walking alone in the desert.

We ain't found shit. I think you're asking about the celebratory nature of what had happened. Islam got tested. Fact. And he persevered and got the stoppage. So there's jubilation about that. And also I think that they probably had some concerns. What apparently happened was he had gotten over it roughly three weeks ago, but he had to take off an entire week of training with less than a month before the fight,

which is far from ideal. I think that weight cut for him is tough no matter what. You cannot afford to miss all that road work. So they're probably relieved because they also clearly had some concerns about how compromised he was in the end as well no that's a very good point uh we're going to get into mahachev in the second topic about what's next about the pomfapon ranking and all of that but to stay with this in topic one one thing i don't think you can argue is even though this is a very good win for mahachev and continues that streak i mentioned 14 in a row now too shy of the record of anderson silva luke is this the end for poirier he was non-committal in the post-fight interview but

and we do have a clip to throw to it did sound like he at least knows where his heart is at let's react to this and i'm not 100 but if this is my last fight i uh wanted to dedicate this journey to the people who may be the man I am, and that's the women in my life. To my grandmother, I miss you every day. And I know I'm still protected by your prayers. To my mother, we've had a crazy life. I love you, thanks for always having my back.

And to my wife, I love you so much. I wouldn't be standing right here without you. And babe, Julie, I don't know if I'd be. I wouldn't be standing right here without you. And babe, Jolie, I don't know if I'd be breathing, honestly, if it wasn't for you. And to Parker, daddy's mine. I love you so much. I'm so proud of you.

We all right, baby. Always chase your dreams. It's a beautiful thing. You're an incredible man, Dustin Poirier. Thank you very much for everything. Dustin Poirier, ladies and gentlemen. Luke, I want to add on that anytime he was asked during fight week whether this is the end, he got emotional and brought up his daughter. So you're a hashtag girl dad, just like the late Kobe Bryant.

Is this going to be the end for Dustin Poirier from what you saw right there? I hope. Because the dilemma is he's still got it. Dude, he's still got it. Yes, he was competitive. He also said in that post-fight interview, it's not that I think, or maybe in the post-fight press conference, he can be competitive with these guys.

Yes, he was, absolutely, no doubt about it. He was competitive, but he fell short again. It's sort of where it's at. And given what you've achieved financially and given what you've achieved in your career, yes, of course, that last hill to get the title remains but getting back here again he was very clear about it is too much I would like to I would like to see him go and I and I say that not because I actually want to see him go yeah but because what did he say that was so clear and when you hear these guys say it you know it's

coming if he sticks around a little bit longer the game is going to retire him because that's what happens to everybody so he is taking a lot of punishment he's taking a little bit longer, the game is going to retire him because that's what happens to everybody. So he is taking a lot of punishment. He's taking a lot of punishment. Let's be clear. Is Dustin Poirier, as we talk today, is he washed? No. No, he is not.

Far from it. But that's all the more reason if you can't get the title and you've made money and your life is good and you're not washed yet, it's a great time to go. Maybe he could sneak in one more. I know Volkanovski wants one. Sure. So that's interesting. Volkanovski wants that at 55. Yeah.

Some people are saying, hey, man, heal up. Trilogy with Gaethje, perfect celebrity action, big money fight to go out with. He said one key thing at the beginning of that interview with Rogan. He said, like, it's not about the money. I've made the money. And look, I mean, he headlined two pay-per-views back-to-back against Conor McGreggregor you're going

to be set for life in a lot of ways after that he's done well with his money he's built up his charity when i hear him talk about his daughter it leads me to believe that not only does he want to spend more time with his family but he wants to be there with them mentally and he knows the price of this and knows if there's you know there's not going to be another title shot around the corner most likely whether it be a bm likely. Whether it be a BMF opportunity, whether it be a super fight. I mean, what if Conor does come out there June 29th and blows away Chandler and then says, there's only one fight left that matters to me.

No, it's not Nate. It's you, Dustin Poirier. Does that get him up? I don't know, Luke. I don't know if there's anything left that does get him up at the end of the day, or should there be? 35, fought the best fighter in the world, did way better than we thought, won the night, won the moment. This encapsulates who he is.

Never an undisputed champion, but it doesn't matter. The rare guy who can go into the Hall of Fame in the first ballot without it because of everyone he beat, mixed with everyone he fought, the way he's been an ambassador for the sport, a true gentleman, a man's man.

That's the, what we saw on Saturday night is the legacy of Dustinin poirier that's exactly it right there nothing more to add you've done it all walk away on top this is and i want to say too one more thing very quickly like we live in a space in mma and in the world more generally where there's just a lot of dudes who think that they're smarter than women and they're more ethical and better than women when really they just have mommy issues and they haven't figured it out they're too fucking stupid is this some editorial at the fact that you found out there's misogynistic videos and have you seen this shit today? No, it's not that. I just want to say for a guy like

Poirier, who is, to your point, fighter's fighter, man's man, to say that the way he got strength was from the women in his life in a world filled with these idiots who think that hating their mom is a personality type. It is a refreshing thing to hear. And it's part of the journey that I've gone through. And I have to say, to the extent that I have any strength in the world these days, it is also, I feel like, in the women in my life. And so that really resonated with me. What a fucking champ. What a guy.

Final question on this opening topic, Luke. Islam Mahachev at the Post Fight Press Conference said, I think I saved this card today because all these fights are boring and the arena was almost asleep. Is he right? Was this card on pace to kind of be a stinker until that main event? The card basically sucked. People said the Kevin Holland fight was fine.

Long Island Luke loved that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fine. Fair enough. Because he was at the Mile High Minute podcast probably and just probably made a big score, right? Yeah, I would hope. I did have a bet on Kevin

Holland. Yeah, there you go. See? So that was fine. That was reasonably gross and short fight. I feel like twerking was a big night. Yeah, twerking. Aileen Perez got the win, but in general, that card was terrible, except for Kevin Holland was great and then the main event was really great. So, yeah.

All right. Perfect transition. All right, BC. Let's go to topic number two. We stay with Islam Makachev, but the question is as follows after Saturday night, after UFC three Oh two, does Islam deserve an opportunity to compete for the welterweight title? Given his post fight call out or BC is a one 55 rematch with Armin Saryukian,

the right fight to make. And I want to be clear, make a clarification if I can, Armin Saryukian, the right fight to make. And I want to make a clarification, if I can, before I pitch it to you, which is Dana was not necessarily sold on the move up in weight. And the team have, you know... I'll leave it there. Yeah, so Dana ultimately said that,

oh, we've never heard this before from the team, even though Islam has said it. He's consistently publicly said it. But here's the deal. I did write Saturday for CBS Sports that I think he deserves it. And I don't know if you can argue against that when he's beat 14 straight, when he's got stoppage wins over, you know, Olivera, Volkanovski, now Dustin Poirier in this fight. And when you consider that he really is on his way to becoming one of the greats.

But Luke, the time I've spent since writing that on Saturday and the facts that you just mentioned, I do think he deserves it, but he deserves it after the Armand Sarukian fight. Not only is that the right fight to make a rematch of a fight that took place early, like day two for both of them in their UFC career, a very competitive fight. And look at who Armman has become since then. And when you mix that with the fact that there still is the log jam atop the wall, it's not a full log jam, but we've been waiting to see Leon Edwards against Bilal to like finish that story for a long time.

Well, that's got to happen. Then he got Shafqat Rachman off in the bullpen. Who's just waiting for his opportunity. I think you go to, you go to Islam and Islam said, by the way, because a lot of people think Islam doesn't want the rematch because Luke,

he has been on the record saying, I don't like rematches. I already, we fought, I beat him. I want new challenges. But then he did say, look,

Dana calls the shots. If Dana wants me to fight him in a rematch, I'll do that. I think that's what you tell him. Make this rematch happen. Remember Machef's 32 still in the midst of his prime, but Luke, but that age of no return is coming and i don't necessarily

mean 35 when you can no longer win a title at welterweight or below unless your name is tyron woodley or rocky pennington but you don't recognize the women in this in this debate right does the stat affect women too or no i 35 and it does but it's uh it affects pennington and nunez but look i saw mma on point breakdown that it's at age 33 where you really start to see the beginning of the decline. I want to see him get that opportunity because what he has said, Luke, Islam, is that he measures greatness in a sense that we can debate all we want, but those that have done this, the two-division champion, those that have left their natural weight and done it,

I don't think he's taking a shot at Habib when he said that. No, of course not. I just think he's saying that's the mark of greatness. He wants to get to that level. How few people have been able to do that. Look, I think you just tell him you beat Saryukian this time you get that shot. I mean,

could you imagine Islam moving up and fighting Leon Edwards? I saw the early odds had from some of the offshore books that Leon has a slight favorite. The early odds had Islam as a flavor over Bilal, which I think would be right. If Bilal won the championship, a flavor it, but Islam versus Shavkat, for example, or Rocky Edwards.

Those are phenomenal fights, Luke. This guy's too good. No one talks about it anymore, but do you remember that Islam, it kind of gave him the shaft in getting his first title opportunity? And we thought it was secret conspiratorial payback for Habib retiring when Dana kept taking him out for dinner and trying to lure him back. Do you remember that season? People forget that season never happened. I forget that season. Why is Machev not fighting for the title when he's won like 11, 12 in a row? There was some opponent falling out issues. Okay. The point is he's your number one pound

for pound, in my opinion, with a bullet. We'll get to the Dana debate in a second. He's on his way to greatness. As long as he, the next guy in line, next guy in line deserves it. So you can take care of him, give him the opportunity. It's easy. I would say this. I have a lot more interest in watching Islam fight Edwards, but I recognize what you recognize, which is he's already got the Bilal fight.

We'll see what happens with that. By the way, Bilal could completely upend everybody's plans, in which case, what do you do there? And then, of course, he'll have a rematch again, or a third fight, technically, with Bilal. So that's that. I don't want a trilogy there. I know, know I'm

saying you could get it you could get it or Rachmanov is due that's really where we're at here so because there's this log jam Islam just doesn't neatly slide in and Saryukian appears to be the best contender that lightweight has right now the first fight was intriguing it was Saryukian's UFC debut he's obviously come a long way that's the fight to make but BC you kind of alluded to it I'd like to put the conversation a little bit forward here which is about pound for pound placement let's play what ufc president dana white said when he was asked about islam's place at number one and how he completely rejected the idea this is saturday night joe rogan on the broadcast called islam the perfect lightweight and they're just the size and style of fighting just his

fight iq i'm curious like where do you rank him in this pantheon of lightweights that we've seen over the yeah I think he's you know one of the greatest of all time I don't think he's I think he's incredible I don't think he's the pound for pound best fighter in the world for anybody to call Islam the pound for pound best fighter in the world when John Jones is still fighting is nuts and shouldn't be ranking in the pound for pound or doing any of the rankings ever if that's what you really think John Jones has never lost a fight ever he's fought all the baddest dudes in the world and then when you think about what pound for pound rankings really mean he moved up to heavyweight and

destroyed the best guy in the world um as long as John Jones is still fighting active and in the rankings yeah nobody's pound for pound best fighter in the world what would it take for him to surpass John Jones in your mind for that pound for pound number one I mean when you think about what pound for pound really means right he fought Volkanovski who's a weight class lower than him Jon Jones beat everybody at light heavyweight then beat the best heavyweight in the division like it was nothing at a higher weight class.

Jon Jones is absolutely positively the pound for pound best fighter in the world. Probably the greatest fighter of all time in any sport. When you think about when you talk about who's the baddest dude in the world you put two guys in a room and who walks out? Jon Jones walks out of the room every time.

No question about it. And in no way trying to diminish Jon's accomplishments, but like, you know, he's fought once in the last however many years. Islam's fighting multiple times a year, defending. So, like, at what point does activity outweigh Jon's? Well, beautiful. I like that you asked that question. Let's talk about activity. Three years off. Nobody, not even Ali. way well beautiful i like that you asked that question let's talk about activity three years

off nobody not even ali nobody's ever come from three years off and look the same john jones walked through the heavy with the number one guy in the heavyweight division like it was nothing with three years off yeah john jones is the best ever ever and when i say ever i mean in any combat sport he's the best ever you throw throw John Jones in a room with anybody, John Jones walks out of the room. There's a lot to unpack. We see your reaction to what you just saw there. My God, it just doesn't understand pound for pound.

So is John Jones the goat? Yes. He's the greatest fighter of all time. You can be the goat and be active, meaning you're still an active fighter, but you're not the pound for pound best at that moment. It doesn't mean we're saying Islam's better than John all the time. Let's set that as one comment. The other comment is we're going to keep saying that John came back from three years and fought the best heavyweight in the world, Cyril Ghosn, who had already lost a title shot and then got outwrestled by a one-legged man that never wrestled before that only I predicted would wrestle. So let's be honest and clear about that. Also, guys, activity is a major calling card in how you identify pound for pound.

The fact that Jon Jones has fought for, I believe, it was 94 seconds of cage time since 2020. February 2020, yeah. 94 seconds of cage time. And while I don't hold it against Jon winning the championship because Ngannou left and cyril gone laid an egg he then has taken 16 months off 16 so outright alone when you miss that much time you typically get removed from pound for pound rankings to begin with dana went on and not captured in that clip and by the way shout out to mike bone of mma junkie for

pushing him on the on the activity part part. It does matter, Dana. It really does. But the other part, Luke is, is, well, the other part is Jon Jones is actively ducking the real best heavyweight in the world at the moment after sitting out for three years

and not fighting the other best heavyweight in the world, Francis Ngannou. Another topic for another day right there. But no, Luke, I don't understand that attack against, it's not an attack,

but look, he wasn't asked Islam's palm for palm place. He was asked where Islam would fit in among the lightweight champions all time. And Dana jumped in to say, Dana, you're the guy who said Jon Jones should probably cut back, cut down to 185 after Francis beat Stipe. Okay, let's remember that. You're the guy that typically hates Jon. So now are we just doing it because Jon's coming back and you want to hype it up? Yes.

Okay, that's fine, I guess. But like, that's not how palm for pound works. Jon did move up in winning heavyweight congratulations to him he's now actively avoiding the best heavyweight available to him and threatening retirement because of it that stuff also does matter in my opinion in pound for pound voting look i know so many fans are going to go guys this is just media masturbation no one cares about pound for pound i do that's not the only way you can actually judge who in the moment is the best fighter in the world and what it would mythically look like if they were in the same weight class.

I know that that's a crap shoot, but people are way off on pound for pound. They think only your accomplishments gets you there or only this or only that. It's a combination of all of that. How good you look right now, where, you know,

all of that. Jon Jones, not an active fighter in the moment, even though he's technically active, he's, he's, he's a great he's the greatest of all time but Luke we don't know a damn thing about who John Jones is anymore as a fighter because he moved up to heavyweight and fought for 94 seconds against a guy who can't wrestle so we don't actually know if he's still that guy that's why palm for palm matters it's not your reputation that would leave you at number one or two it's what you've done lately and he hasn't done much lately so i don't even know how this is remotely a debate it just doesn't make any sense it's not i mean it's just a bizarre

take from dana who i would say i think again you can say whatever you want about him he is a real fight fan um but like you know it doesn't make any sense his definition doesn't make any sense because if we're talking about ultimate accomplishment irrespective of whether or not they are currently fighting or have been off for a long time ali would still be at the pound for pound number one oh yeah so no so luke let's address that no one's ever come back from three years and and look the same gsp beat michael bisping a division up after five years they look the same they look pretty damn good okay good enough to get the belt dominant crew set out for what was it three years and came back

and then another two years as well and then came back and looked the freaking same. And then another two-year stint as well. And then came back and won the championship again over a prime pound-for-pound Dillashaw. Also, just again, looking at the tape on Gahn, the decisions he made in the grappling department were so amateurish. That's not John's fault, but it requires us to grade what that effort was appropriately. By the way, John had a take on this. I want to get your take on this. Put up John's tweet about this because he was... Boney, you mean. Boney, yeah. Boney Johns.

It felt awesome to get that level of recognition from the boss, John said. The man that's literally been here since UFC 1. Well, he's been on this planet since UFC 1 started. He's been on the planet since UFC 1 that we know of. I know the haters are not going to like his comments, but Dana's a pretty hard person to argue with. No, he definitely isn't.

Dana White has had a front row seat to my entire career. That is true as well. Again, I agree with you. Question about where your accomplishment stands all time. It cannot mean the same thing as who is doing the most impressive work now. So maybe he's just trying to fight against all of the negativity surrounding Jones because it's obvious that he's trying to avoid aspirin on threatening retirement. And it's obvious that the UFC would prefer that he fights steep pay for the business of it. So this is Dana coming out in front, but look,

do you put any validation on what he says that John Jones is the greatest combat sports athlete of all time? Because he is, he's not saying it's completely insane. He's not saying it under the complex, under the context of achievements. I don't believe, I believe he's just saying it under the idea of get all the best ever combat sports athletes in their prime, put them in the room. Who's coming out on top? Well, that's hard to say when you're comparing to boxing because these guys aren't training mixed martial arts. I don't even know what that means. Like put them in a room.

What's in the room? Who all is going to be in the room at the same time? Probably cocaine. I'm okay with that. You know, like he who's without sin cast the first stone, as I like to say over and over, but these things are like, like that's a real science experiment that has happened in our mind. And therefore the results are valid.

It doesn't mean anything. The only thing that matters is what your accomplishment is relative to what the demands of your sport are. This is the wrong time to make the idea that he's the best. Again, don't get me wrong. Do I think John's the best ever in MMA? Probably,

probably. Yeah, probably. But the reality is when you've got people who have you know three or four olympic gold medals you know so we're talking 20 plus years of dominance in a much more difficult sport with a much higher participatory rate yeah no it's just you have to be you have to be realistic about this mma is a very very insanely sport, but that doesn't make it easy. Oh, triple C one.

And then two weight classes. That's also highly impressive, but that's not to me. If you've won three Olympic gold medals in judo, get the fuck out of here. That's so much harder to do. Anyway, different conversation.

Yeah. BC, before we move on to the other parts of this card, one more question for you. And we'll kind of talk about this. You know what? We can save this part till later. Yes.

There's a conversation about all time best lightweights. Let's have that a little bit later in the show. Sure. All right. Let's keep the show moving right there. We'll go to topic number three. It was our UFC co-main event and the rest of card 302. And it was Sean Strickland keeping pace in the title picture,

scoring a split decision in the end over Paulo Costa. The question really comes down to Luke. While Strickland seemed to be largely dominant, completely disarmed Costa, took Costa away from any of the predictions I tried to make here about his evolution and the power he's going to bring against Strickland. And shout out to Eric Nixick for lighting me up in the IG. I deserve that in a big way there, Coach. So shout out right there. That was funny. But Luke Thomas, was Strickland and shout out to Eric Nixick for lighting me up in the IG. I deserve that in a big way there, coach.

So shout out right there. That was funny. But Luke Thomas was Strickland impressive in outpointing Costa and really setting himself up for either a substitute title opportunity against DDP, a fight against Adesai, I mean, you know, fight against Chamath, Whitaker, so many big opportunities for him. Was he impressive or boring slash underwhelming? Considering Sean did spend the entirety of fight week saying, we're going to go out there and go dick to dick

and bleed for you motherfuckers. He said that again and again and again. What say you about Sean Strickland here after this performance? This is why, I mean, sometimes completely ignoring what fighters say pre-fight will get you into trouble because they'll really tell you something truthful. You're like, ah, they all talk nonsense and you'll miss it but most of the time you'll be right actually and i feel like this is one of those great opportunities what they say pre-fight you just have to put aside okay i actually didn't like the fight like anybody else did but i didn't hate it as much i didn't hate it well people were bitter about it online I can say that and for a very partisan crowd because that's what who goes to UFC shows now they were booing him they were booing him multiple or booing the fight anyway

multiple times over the course of that bout I'm gonna say this I actually do feel like Strickland was I don't know if impressive is the right word, but I do appreciate his performance. Actually, a fair amount. Yeah. In that Costa fight and in that DDP fight, you can argue he won either of them. Excuse me. Sorry. In that DDP fight, in that Cannoneer fight.

Excuse me. You can argue that Strickland won either of them, but ultimately the judges disagreed. And we've talked about it. He came to a bit of a fork in the road in his career where what he had a problem with is he had excellent defense, but the defense he had constructed for himself required maximum blocking of punching lanes and more importantly, cross-stepping into these huge retreats that made him hard to hit. And that is a very, very impressive thing. Even if he's walking forward on you,

it's still these big retreats and getting out of the way motions. And they realized that's going to cost you against good fighters in close contests. And all of the contests that he's in against elite guys are close. So this fight, you can tell that they really worked on it. Sean Strickland walked forward and at a bare minimum

would either stop and absorb or just keep marching forward. You didn't see any of these big retreats that you have commonly seen in some of his other fights. Part of that is because Paul Acosta, I just don't know what to make of his career at this point. We'll talk about that in just a second, but to answer

the question, I actually feel like watching him and his team problem solve is kind of interesting. I fully agree. So this is the boxing fan in me coming watching him and his team problem solve is kind of interesting i fully agree so this is the boxing fan of me coming out luke okay but like this is the same i'm not comparing him to floyd mayweather but this is the same debate after like a floyd mayweather fight in which there was a lot of big talk you're hoping there's going to be action and then mayweather goes in there and scientifically disarms his opponent to the point where they're not comparing strickland to may where they're no longer trying i'm not comparing their levels or even their styles or whatever.

But the whole thing is as a boxing fan during that stretch, I had to come out of there saying two things. One, Floyd Mayweather is freaking brilliant and the hardcore fan in me loves watching him diagnose and dissect these people. But two, no one's ever going to argue that he's an exciting athlete. So if the negativity against Strickland here is an argument that we just

need to wake up, he's no longer an exciting fighter. Okay. I mean, you can't really argue against that. The crowd to wake up. He's no longer an exciting fighter. Okay. I mean, you can't really argue against that. The crowd was booing. It wasn't a great fight, but I don't think it was his fault that it wasn't a great fight.

I agree. I thought he was actually intentionally looking to put more punches together, looking to take some of the criticism, you know, in the end. But I think what happened in the end was he just got a guy who wasn't going to exchange with him.

So he says in his mind, I'm in it for the money in the title shot, right? That's what he said afterwards. I'm in it for the money and the title shot gives you more money mind, I'm in it for the money in the title shot, right? That's what he said afterwards. I'm in it for the money and the title shot gives you more money. So I'm in it for the title. Luke, this was a fight to protect that in the end.

He's claims he was doing the company a solid. There were a lot of us who were saying, look, why is he going backwards in the rankings and giving coast to this fight? That kind of means more to coast his career in the sense that he can kind of double down on his stock. If he got a big win there and suddenly he's in the title picture. For Strickland, it did become about maintenance and it did become about surviving and advancing.

If this dangerous guy is not going to come out and do the things I thought he would, why should Strickland force him to do that? I thought Strickland picked certain moments where he did try to bring in the offense. But at the end of the day, dude, you got to survive in advance. If your goal is to is to win championships so you can win money, Luke, you're not going to get there by brawling all the time and in and enticing the fans i think at the end of the day if strickland has an opponent who can get through his defense and force him to fight he's willing to fight where i was wrong and i was way wrong i didn't think that at this point he was going to continue to escalate his game that he was going to continue i didn't think he would play this patient of a game i was wrong i i miscalculated exactly where Strickland's head is at in this fight against

a guy that was ranked in the other direction that he did. Look, he looks world-class in this and I applaud him for that. The question is though, does the performance in a crowded title picture end up holding him back? That's the question. I honestly think the performance and then also again, the fan base loves his old statements of his political preferences.

And even though there is symmetry with how it's seemingly the organization or Dana White feels, they don't seem to like each other. I think, honestly, who the president or CEO anyway, who they like and who they don't, whatever their reasons, that, of course, is going to play a role. Maybe not the most determinative one, but it will play one. But I would challenge something you said a little bit, BC, which is, you know, you blame Costa. I blame Costa probably more than, definitely more than I blame Strickland for that fight being boring. Yeah, did they have red wine in the corner? What happened?

I don't know what is going on with his career. He just appears to be going nowhere. And I saw he put out after the fight, I'm going to bring back the old one. Yeah. He's like Dana and Rogan are right. I'm going to go. I understand the logic.

The logic is like, if I'm going to lose, at least I'm going to lose in an exciting way. But now he's lost. What? Four out of five. Right. It doesn't,

it's not, you're losing and you're getting beaten thoroughly by better guys. And in certain cases, it's not even entertaining. What I didn't like is afterwards. Costa said, yeah, my game plan was to outpoint him and I was wrong.

Even though I talked up the advantage he made. Yeah, but don't you understand him wanting to be, at least initially, wanting him to be himself to be more than a brawler? I can appreciate that. But when it's not working in a certain fight and he had five rounds to deal with, you've got to make the freaking adjustment. We should also say in Strickland's case, again, I'm not saying I necessarily feel this way, but people being like, oh, well, you know, Costa was boring. If your opponent is constantly backing up and not engaging, there's actually only so much you can do. However, this looked like a lot of Sean Strickland fights,

where he's walking, he's got this sort of forward-facing Philly shell, he's stomping with forward kicks, getting out of the way, putting up traffic, and then this time he cage cut a little bit as the fight went on and put a little bit more offense on the back end of it, and I appreciate that from him. He at least tried and did, I think, elevate his game. However, he brings a quotient of boringness to this that can simply not be denied. To put it all on Costa is unfair maybe the majority

but certainly not all of it all right that's fair well let's talk about what Strickland said afterwards Luke he recognized that he felt he did the company a solid in taking this Costa fight when he feels that because the majority of decision loss to DDP was so close and Sean felt he won so did a lot of fans that he should have got the rematch he's upset that Izzy who he beat seems to be the guy who's going to get the rematch. So Luke, if it plays out like this, DDP versus Izzy later this year, we know in June we've got Chimaev versus former champion Robert Whitaker. Strickland said, I have secured a title shot with this performance.

I will wait until I get that. Is that the right move at his age? Sure. Because he's going to have to wait out DDP versus Izzy. There's obvious potential. If Izzy wins back the belt, that that could be a big money rematch. If Hamza or Robert Whitaker wins big after Strickland,

not like he looked very good, but he didn't thrill anybody. I got to believe they're going to go with the hot hand, whether that's former champion Whitaker or, or Chamayev, right? You're going to do that. So what I'm saying is he may have to miss two title cycles to sit out.

Is this the right call? If that's what he wants. I mean, you say the right call, the right call for who? Right. Call for Sean Strickland at his age. I know,

I know, I know what you mean, but I, it's, it's dude. If you don't want to fight that much, why should you fight that much? Will he lose anything saying to the company?

I am waiting for my title shot. I will not accept any more fights? I think you could ask the question, is this strategy going to be effective in getting what he wants, sitting around, is that going to be an effective thing? I don't think that it will be. The division tends to move quickly, the UFC tends to favor people who are active versus not. Dude, you can argue he got a title shot in Australia against Izzy

because he had stepped in on so many short notice fights previously. It kind of felt like he was good for it. Now to dial it back. I'm not mad at him for it, but I don't know if that's going to serve his interests in getting the kind of fights that he wants. Fair point. Do you think he is deserving of cutting that line at all?

I, again, okay. Okay. I'm going to sell. He does sell. I'm going to say this, I do think he is, and I'll say it because we'll see what happens with Whitaker and Hamzat later this month,

that could be a completely different wild card, if Hamzat goes in there and smokes him, forget it, dude, Sean's gonna get leapfrogged instantly, but we'll see, I don't know if that's going to happen, but I'll say this, I, he clearly beat Izzy, and I and I upon review thought he beat DDP as well he was in those fights yeah I wouldn't I don't think his case is bad for it whether or not the UFC agrees different matter by the way I mentioned that Chris Lee had the Aurier-Mahachev fight 2-2 going into the fifth did you see the video I didn't have time to grab it where Cormier's in the locker room afterwards talking to Habib and he sent me location Send me location. Yeah, and Habib's like, send me location of the judge to tell me where he lives. I'm going to go get him.

Luke, there was another judging controversy in this Costa versus Strickland fight, and that was Judge Dave Torelli scoring four rounds to one. 49-46 for Costa. Let's hear Dana White's thoughts on it. Cormier made a mention on Strickland to beat Paula Costa. There was kind of a weird judges scorecard in there. They gave it to Paula, I think. It wasn't wasn't weird it was nuts is what it was it's insane that guy should never rough a a big fight again they should kick him back down to the minor

leagues and let him work on his uh on his judging it's unbelievable i mean how anybody who isn't an absolute lunatic could could call that fight a split decision. I don't even know what to say about that. It's insane. That guy shouldn't be judging big fights. Is there an argument for the leg kicks of Costa in any of these rounds? I gave him round one because of the damage of the leg kicks.

But then after that, it's still 49-46 on Strickland. Let me just say two things, though. Be like, oh, that's a split decision. Guys, when the judges turn it in, they don't turn in. I have a split decision. They turn in whatever the card is, and then they add it up, and it either is or it isn't. That's one.

Two, I understand that if you have like 50-45, 50-45, and then 49-46 the other way, people go, what the fuck? In the 10-point must system, that's possible that is possible you can see if they have close rounds in each way it is possible for one judge to see it one way versus the other even if two saw it or a over b you can still have b uh over a i always remind you they're on an island they're not on twitter they're not listening to other people just want to make that no it's possible but luke when this, when someone gets robbed, we then open up the podcast going,

what do we do? Do we add another judge? We got a problem here. This was a situation where the right guy won both fights, so it didn't matter. Yes. But it did give Joe Rogan and people who believe in open scoring and MMA a platform to continue to push that.

I really don't want open scoring. Open scoring and MMA sucks. And Joe also wants people to fight in a football field, which is a remarkably bad idea. Fight in a football field? He wants an open space. He doesn't want walls to go up against. Oh, so like a false count anywhere match in WWE

where you're brawling in the locker room? No, no, no, no. Imagine you had to fight on a surface where you couldn't take someone down against the wall because there is no wall. It's so big that you actually just have to wrestle them in the middle. You have to fight them in the middle. That's tough because MMA fighters believe if you keep going past the walls

that aren't there, that eventually the flat earth just falls off. And they'll just be floating out in space with Leia during episode eight. That was great. She used the force, bro. She got back in there. By the way, after seeing Dune now a couple times. See, I'm mad at you. I don't even want to hear your analysis because you could have seen it in the theater.

You could have seen it and I'm like a real man. Dune, I realized that Star Wars is Dune for morons. Yeah, for kids. Star Wars is Dune for morons. That's what that is. Thank you very much. Thomas is right. Oh, and by the way, congratulations on Real Madrid. Yeah, Real Madrid.

They won. But Luke, you are under fire from your own people. They're upset at you for quitting your stream at halftime. No, I had to. I mean, the audience bailed. Yeah, it didn't work. You couldn't break down great passes from Davi Ramos and Wunderkind Michael Owen? Here's the problem.

There's many problems. One of them was I only watch Madrid games. I don't watch any other team. Well, DC United on occasion. Okay. So I didn't know shit about the other team. I knew they were good, but I didn't know anything about them. It didn't make for a great viewing experience, which I understand.

So I'm going to tweak it and come back, and we're going to try again. But that one, you know, hey, they can't all be winners i'm you got some balls to try to break into other areas what about a breakdown video of whether the wmba should protect caitlyn clark does that come into your job they're just beating the fuck out of her it's amazing i guess they like flying on spirit airlines huh yeah there you go all right all right bc let's talk a little bit of boxing because there was some i do that i do that yeah uh so they had the five by five or the or the five-versus-five tournament or showdown, essentially, between Queensbury and Matchroom in Saudi Arabia.

Again, two big heavyweight contests in two weeks down there. We're not going to talk about the whole entire cards, the whole five-versus-five, but let's start at the top. Deontay Wilder gets polished off by Big Bang Zhang. He got banged. And BC, we saw it against Joseph Parker. Deontay Wilder looked at best disinterested. He came back.

There was a 70-pound difference at the weigh-ins. He looked even skinnier than before. He looked just as disinterested this time. So the question to you is this. Is Deontay Wilder done? Yeah. Yeah. Or the answer that I'm going to give you is this, is Deontay Wilder done? Yeah. Yeah. And the answer that I'm going to give you is he should be,

and I don't think delight in it. And I do like that. There've been some boxing people because the knee jerk reaction from everybody is, Oh great. Wilder never beat anybody. And he's always sucked as he won a bronze medal in the Olympics after boxing for like a year.

So let's give him some flowers. He made like 10 defensive is defensive is his WBC title. So he's done some things, but that guy's not coming. You know, Larry Bird's not walking through that locker room anymore. Rick Pitino, Luke, it's over. And I had a good friend reach out to me and say like, what, what, like, how do you know what makes a guy wash? Look, I think there's three reasons or three signs of when it's, when it's done in a guy.

One is chin. And that's the easiest one, right? When somebody can no longer take shots. That wasn't the case here. Two is in my opinion when you when your body falls apart either you lose your legs because you're too old or you know injuries whatever but look three is is failure to launch an inability to let your hands go to see in front of you where the openings are and just unable to connect the dots to will yourself like you used to out of fear of getting knocked out out of lack of belief in your skills, out of whatever.

This was sad because this was twice now in what, a six month span that the great Deontay Wilder came out there. Luke, I predicted last week during the show, it was Friday before the weigh-in, before I saw the results that I'm like, you know, I'm really feeling really just a few days ago. I'm really feeling Wilder here. Luke, the second I saw the results of the weigh-in, I was texting everybody I knew, flip that prediction. Why?

Because when Wilder's going to come in at 214 and have legs that are skinnier than mine, right? I mean, there's a reason, Luke, I wear jeans a lot in the winter in public. You know what I mean? I don't have that muscularity. I'm working on it. He's worse than I am on there.

But Luke, it's not just to say, oh, he's washed. He wouldn't let his hands go. That was a big part of it. The thing that was the biggest scare for me that I knew it was over for a while there was there was nothing to his game plan. And I look, say, oh, there's never everything to his game plan. No, put some respect on him. Is he known as a guy with the one big punch and it's bails him out of fights that he's

losing? Yes. But that's almost a calculated thing. He's, he's always been a smarter guy than people realize to set up the shots. There were no setups to the shot. Never committed to the jab. A couple times threw it out there. Nothing really beyond keeping the left hand out, setting up the right, and just bringing it.

But it was so predictable. Jung can see it coming all the time. Big Bang did get hurt that one time, but Wilder couldn't capitalize on it. He used to at least use that left hand to set up the right hand. It was just to stalk around and throw that one punch that everybody knew was coming. Done, done, done. I don't take joy and delight in a guy who has been great for the sport and the division.

A guy who really has such an underrated story that nobody ever wants to talk about and celebrate that he was stocking shelves in a grocery store overnight at like age 18 and daughter had spina bifida realized i needed money to pay for it decided to take a boxing and wins a bronze medal at the olympics and goes on to have the career he has but luke it's over let's look at this replay that the zone put on social media luke it was a really bad ending where wilder got rocked he actually got spun around but if you can see why he got rocked right there on that check right hook and then just a disastrous ending he He beat the count.

He looked like he was not steady, but, Luke, it was going to be the same or worse if they let this fight go. What was this, about the sixth round that this happened? This was the fifth round. Fifth round. But another reason, Luke, why I felt really confident was not only did Wilder come in at 214, which was 69 pounds lighter than Zhang.

Zhang came in 11 pounds lighter than he was against Joseph Parker just a couple months ago. So that showed that he got back in there. Look, what's Big Bang's biggest issue? Always stamina, always cardio, right? He put the cardio back on board. He obviously had a fighter against him who shouldn't be in there. Big Bang handled his business, but undoubtedly the story here is Wilder. Luke, please tell me, please tell me he's not going to get offered like Ngannou to come back because the weird part about this was Wilder already has a fight scheduled. August 3rd, LA. The first Turkey Al-Ashiq Saudi Arabia card on U.S. soil.

He's supposed to fight, what, 19-0 Jared Big Baby Anderson? That can't happen, dude. That cannot happen. Anderson took to social media to say he doesn't want that fight anymore. He wants somebody else. Honestly, I don't know if the commission will even clear him. I mean, he got, I know that Wilder stood up and contested the referee's decision to stop it, but it was a good call. Wilder got saved from a truly vicious knockout in the end there.

He's, he's completely done. And I'm so glad that you said it's not, there are so many people who want to take these last two fights and some other ones as well, but in particular, these last two as a reason to dunk on Deontay for being not necessarily that technical or a late comer or, you know, some kind of imposter who doesn't belong among the boxing elite. But he forced his way in the door, as you mentioned. Dude, you don't make nine or 10 heavyweight title defenses in any era. Yeah. If you don't have it. 10 heavyweight title defenses in any era. Yeah. If you, if you don't have it, he made a ton of money.

He had, or was one half of one of the best heavyweight trilogies you'll ever see for all of his faults. I think he helped bring back the spotlight on American heavyweight boxing. He obviously will go down and this is true. He will go down as one of the heaviest punchers in boxing history. He's got a bunch of kids. His life is good.

He doesn't need to do this anymore. We started the show talking about Conor, and Conor's got other issues that appear to be related to substance abuse or potentially more than just that. But we were asking, why the fuck are you still fighting? You've got a, what is it, a Ferrari or Lamborghini yacht. Go park that thing at Monaco and go go get go get blown on the deck in the sunlight while someone feeds you caviar like why

are you still doing this and in the case of Deontay he has that financial security dude why would you go fly to Saudi Arabia to go get banged by Zhang because he thought he still had it there's career okay he thinks he still has it he really wanted to hockey days available. He thinks he still has it. He really wanted to believe that. But it is so clearly not the case. And I want to say two things. People point out that it might be the relationship, or excuse me, I should say, that what happened in those three Fury fights, getting stopped the way he did, especially in the second, second one and the third one. Yeah, the second one, to remind you, was when he came out with that large suit that was. Felt like shit, yeah.

And blamed it on the suit. Yeah. Blamed conspiratorial things on Fury. That's the turning point, right? Fires, Mark Breland, never the same after that. Yep, yep, yep. Okay, so that definitely played a role. But I also think, in addition to the ayahuasca,

and just getting older as a man, nearly 40 years old, your priorities and your biology just changes. The fight that he stretched, the former sparring partner... Robert Hellenius. Hellenius.enius i think it fucked him up you see that video people have put on social media of wilder at the presser after when he knocked out helenius in the first round crying how about how about the video where he goes to helenius's hotel room and is effusive with apology yeah and asking him how he's doing this

is a man he cared about and then for the purposes of the fight he had to stretch him this is a man who wanted to catch a body more than anything and was trying to revive that narrative. Dude, that guy brought us a lot of delight. And even though he might have been flawed, that guy is gone. And you know what, BC? That's totally okay. Yeah. He got everything out of prize fighting that you basically, basically want. He got his flowers in Alabama when they put up the statue of him in his

hometown, in his home state. And he open mouth kiss that statue. And he just weirdly made love to his own statue. But it's over. It's okay that it's over. So no Ngannou super fight, right? No, like we're not doing anything crazy here, right? I have zero interest in an Ngannou super fight.

What do you, quickly, a quick aside on this. Remember there was like rumors that Wilder might do MMA for pfl and like fight a diaz brother or something crazy um we don't need that either i don't have i do dionte you've made so much money you've done so much for yourself and your family i'm being serious when i say this dude go enjoy it go enjoy your family go enjoy your money go enjoy your security you can lay your head on the pillow at night knowing dude you you changed everybody's life including yours and everyone around you congratulations don't get fucked up anymore against guys who are in a different place than you are now okay how fired up would you be if the august 3rd replacement and i do want to

remind you august 3rd is that first saudi pay-per-view card in la on u.s soil but it did take a hit because tim zu that cut that he had against fundora that's how bad that cut is pulled him out of the really good fight with uh virgil ortiz jr still a loaded card crawford madrimov at the top of it if they subbed in big bang jang versus jared anderson you in on that it's good fight sure i take that i mean jared anderson's used every drug imaginable but you know isn't that big baby the other big baby jerome mill oh i'm sorry anderson was the one that's got the head issues from top rank he like mental issues i mean yeah well he he drove away from the cops in a high speed chase right before his fight yeah okay very quickly i want to move this along but there are other things on this card we do have

to talk about very quickly how about the resurgence of Daniel Dubois? Dude, he's jacked too now. So he gets his ass kicked kind of early. Through the first, I'd say, five rounds or so, Hergovich is lighting him up. The vacant, was it the interim IBF title fight they had? But Dubois stands his ground, keeps staying in his face, keeps on the pressure.

And I want to say this too, BC. Tell me if I'm wrong. This was a guy that other people in England, the boxing community to an extent, lots of folks said was a quitter, not that tough. Obviously, you know, can be. But Joe Joyce broke his face, dude. And there were questions about his toughness. He took monster punches and finished this dude off.

Granted, he got stopped with cuts in the end, but it was the beating that he turned back on Hergovic. This is the best win of his career. He has affirmed his place near the top of the sport and I think redeemed himself dramatically with this. And you love to see it because of everyone that said those bad things about him. It turns out after the Joe Joyce knockout loss, we found out how brutal the break on his eye socket was to see him bounce back luke that by the

way that victory that alexander usic had over dubois right where dubois hit him with what was called a low blow but did drop him with a body shot not only does that victory now get elevated for usic because dubois got into this level of shape and came back and won this but it elevates it almost elevates Dubois like critical standing because now you look back and you're like look at the trouble he gave Usyk right look at the resurgence here talk about the reward for this Luke I mean look what was Saudi Arabian boxing fans kind of hoping for that Wilder would knock out Jang and then we go right to an AJ fight now it's looking Luke like Daniel Dubois versus Joshua. And you had Turkey El-Ashik saying, let's do it in a soccer stadium.

Let's do it London, Wembley Stadium. Luke, that sounds like an 80K type event. You pack 80K people in there, you get a big event. That's going to be a slugfest. That's a good-ass fight. And I don't care if you make it for the interim or the real IBF or just the idea of the winner of this is going to fight the winner of Usyk versus Fury 2 in December.

This was a good development for the division. This was. This was a great development. He's only 26 years old. So nice to have a young guy early to, or I should say mid, mid twenties at this point and have this again, redemptive response.

He's now a champion or interim or whatever for the IBF. So he is entitled to all these big fights. You can do so much with a guy who has all of those aforementioned characteristics or is at different places. You have to love it. And again, I don't think Hergovic, this did pop a little bit of the bubble around him where don't you feel like some people were treating him as like, oh,

he might be that next thing in the division. Weird question. I'm not saying I'm not. And I know he beat Zhang. And that that one was also kind of so close that people kind of downgraded him afterwards. He's still great. But I feel like he might have come back to earth a little bit. So the question a lot of people had when we're talking about, like, where do we go next?

And we just laid it out, right? The big fights available. But Joseph Parker, because he just beat Zhang against Hergevik. He know. Hold on. Joseph Parker just beat Zhang and Deontay Wilder in like the last six months. He seems to be the odd man out who deserves a big fight.

So if we're going to do Jang versus Jared Anderson, potentially, and we're definitely doing Usyk Fury too. And we look to definitely be doing Dubois versus AJ. What should Joseph Parker's reward be beyond them shoving him on the zone staff and giving him a lot of announcing? I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to Matt. You have to tell me, I don't know how to do that i don't know how to matt you have to tell me i don't know how to i know i'm trying to think of of what reward will be either way it's a good good problem to have to have so

many you know active viable heavyweights at this moment i wanted to comment quick on the zone broadcast please they got to get better pacing i look i look that's a saudi thing i don't think that's i don't know here's the thing like it's hard for me to complain about this out loud because what are my career ambitions to work on boxing broadcasts and be a talking head? But look, do they need 16 talking heads on there? They need four different sets of three or four people that they just rotate to between fights. I just mean there was a lot of fill time. And while I understand that the idea of Eddie Hearn versus Frank Warren was certainly aimed more at the British audience, right, that grew up with those two rivals. It would have meant more to us if it was like Oscar De La Hoya against Bob Arum. And I don't hate that gimmick. And they're going to do a lot

more of them, by the way. Not just more of Eddie versus Frank, but more. But it was almost too aggressive, like shoving that down our throats. Like Eddie Hearn lost every match. It was 10 to nothing in the scoring. It was fun to sort of see their reaction. But did I need an interview and a face-off after every fight between these two promoters? It was just like, it was a little

bit much. But on card, some of those undercard fights really deliver like the raymond ford uh nick ball one really delivered um but it's tough to see well they're like this very quickly they announced that better babe better beef biv all october 12th gonna kick off riad season reopening opening ceremony card well that should be a lot of fun and uh did we miss anything else one more thing turkey said his plan to close this calendar year is still a super card headlined by canelo versus crawford do we get there luke do we get there like what would i still prevent either man from saying yes to that is it canelo canelo did i just think canelo wants per long and i have no fucking interest in that fight.

But if you're Canelo and you're not doing Benavidez, which, like, when we talked about the pound-for-pound debate between Jones and Mahachev, Luke, one thing I didn't say is, remember when you got on me and you were right? You and MK viewer John Bolton, who's all in my DMs, were like, hey, BC, how can you keep Canelo in that conversation with those guys? He should maybe be a step back. And one thing people are saying, and they're right, you're not penalizing him for avoiding Benavidez. I penalized Fury when he waited on Usyk for a year unnecessarily, right? I kind of pushed him back a couple spots.

I agree Canelo deserves that. But if Canelo is going to do that and openly duck the biggest fight available to him, you kind of have to accept Crawford now, don't you? No, you don't. Are you surprised because he doesn't need the, cause he doesn't need the money. He doesn't need the money.

And also like the way in which he talks about his career, like I can just do whatever I want. I don't want to be bullied at all. Yeah. I think he really believes that. And you can even say he's entitled to believe that. Certainly. He just doesn't.

I do. He wants for longer. I, you know, what if they did that in Vegas at like Legion stadium? Someone's going to, going to pop that cherry there in combat. I would very very excited very excited all right luke that's no topic number four that was excuse me that was oh one more thing big bang zhang gave us one more

greeting on the way out after he won at the press conference let's listen in I gotta say oh he didn't do the I bang Wilder which he was doing anytime they put a microphone i gotta say showing up to the post-fight press conference and being like my team banged your team that's a dunk that's a fucking guy do you know he lives in trains like 20 minutes from here he's like very close we gotta get him in the studio we do you speak mandarin with him uh i not without sounding incredibly racist no there you go there you go right there shout out to you big bang i hope you continue to cash them checks at 41 yeah dude he's killing it

right now he really is uh luke we connor versus chandler could be in jeopardy but topic number five another slumber blockbuster over the weekend was moved postponed let's see what happens july 20th was supposed to be the netflixing Live debut at AT&T Stadium. Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson. Unfortunately, Mike Tyson, who's going to turn 58 this summer, had a medical scare on a plane when he had an ulcer flare-up. They even had to call out, are there any doctors available? Ultimately, Mike was okay, but Luke, this did lead into the fight being temporarily postponed.

Are you nervous? What does this mean into the fight being temporarily postponed. Are you nervous? What does this mean for the fight's future? The only thing we know concrete wise is that Jake Paul and MVP promotion said they plan to roll this out again later in the year, maybe October or November. Do we still see this fight? It's so hard. I mean, because this is like the worst case scenario for the thing that has most people like scared slash cringy. It's that it's a middle-aged man.

So I will say that when the fight was first announced and none of us thought that it was a good idea. Like all of us were like, this is terrible, but I was a little bit skeptical. People would be like, Oh, Mike Tyson was in a wheelchair six months ago,

which there was some of that, but I'd also seen him moving around. Maybe Paul Pierce shit his pants again. Maybe that's, yeah, there's, there's that. But then seeing that, I mean, oh, Mike Tyson was in a wheelchair six months ago, which there was some of that, but I'd also seen him moving around. Well, maybe Paul Pierce shit his pants again. Maybe that's why. Yeah, there's that. But then seeing that, I mean, dude, your health slowly fails over time. To see his health so frail and so fragile in this way, I mean, fights fall out all the time for any number of reasons, but they're usually, like, training-related or someone has a fucking motorcycle accident. Like, my ulcer blew up on a flight is fairly new. I've never really heard that before.

I'm not saying it's false. I'm just saying. Is that normal old guy shit? I don't even know if that's normal old guy shit. Like, that sounds like a real problem. So the point I'm trying to make is there is a little bit of a, I think I owe, when the donks were like, hey, he is borderline infirm. That was still a little bit of an exaggeration, but they were definitely more right than I

was. First thing I'd say. In terms of the future, I don't't even know i don't even know what to do here because listen if netflix came along and was given the opportunity to air something like jake paul versus jorge masvidal for a boxing contest i know that he has business with nate but i'm just saying you could do something like that that's a reasonable thing you could do you could even pay nate step aside money such that he wants it, but that's not going to give Netflix the cultural event moment that they want. You better pay fan mail some step-aside money. Yeah, fan mail. That's right. So the point

I'm trying to make is we all kind of want this to be done with, but they don't. And there's no real that I can detect. There's no real simple, dude, how do you substitute Mike Tyson? And you could say, well, he's 58. Right. But as a cultural factor, how do you substitute that? Mike Tyson?

That is not easy to do. It's a great point. I mean, unless you're getting like LeBron James in here or something like that, just like, what, what am I doing here? So,

so it's really hard to say, like, I don't think they're doing that unless they really can't do it. They're going to, they're going to, because of Unless they really can't do it, they're going to. They're going to because of the money potential and because enough people came around and were like, oh, my God, I have to see this. Right? Not came around to. I got to say, it's going to be gross, but I have to see it.

My friends never ask about MMA or boxing. They ask every fucking week about this fight. What do you make about Dana White's reaction? So Saturday at the press conference, obviously, Dana's friends with Mike has been forever. They both live in Las Vegas. Here is Dana's reaction when asked about this. Clip doesn't have audio. Let's take it down then.

So we had an audio problem there. So ultimately what Dana said is he said, well, and he was about to answer and he said, I do know the real story, but I'm not going to share any of it. And he would add on later that Mike gets mad at him when he speaks negatively about this fight. Is there something deeper there? Is there something more scary than this ulcer scare there?

Is there like, is there is, I guess what I'm saying is I asked you, will the fight go on? Now I'm asking you, should the fight go on? No, the fight shouldn't be happening at all. What kind of a question is that? Well, Jake Paul tweeted some business that looked that he had, at least he attempted to hold this date. And who did he go after?

Let's see the tweet here. KS Nubs. Going after KS Nubs here. KSI's coach is saying he's over 200 pounds right now, so no weight excuses. Let's run it for july 20th and then paul versus tyson in october or november then we find out that ksi is in negotiations potentially with amir khan retired former 140 pound champion that's also he says i just gave

ksi and his forehead the opportunity again for july he said he's fighting in august cool i'm fighting in october slash november february it is 200 pounds msg nyc get it done so this is jake challenging ksi which is still a money fight for him in the not the crossover space the actual influencer space he thinks he'll do that at msg um yes i versus america that's that that just blew me away look that really blew me away here you listed like seven fights i all hope don't happen all right well the irish times reporting because you you might say what about katie taylor versus amanda serrano to the massive yes they're reporting that now talks are going for october

or november for that fight to headline a card in germany where women's boxing has always i'll say this i'm glad they're keeping that one moving i mean it sucks that it won't be on netflix in all likelihood at this point but it is good that they at least are on track to fight without further, too much further delay anyway. Indeed. Indeed. Interesting stuff. Those are our five topics put to bed right there.

But now we give you the floor. We don't do dead wrongs or many fan subs these days, but we do give you the opportunity. If you're a viewer. We have to have more shows for that. If you're a donk every Sunday night when we put out a call on Instagram at Morning Combat for your questions, we're going to answer them. You better have a weird-ass handle name so Luke can dunk on you.

This one's called DMs from Donk. Still running out that sound, are we, Luke? I mean, this show needs a refresh like yesterday. I thought we just launched a re a historic refresh. No, we just, we just, we were,

we were the undertaker. Me. We just sat up out of the coffin. There we go. Luke question. Number one from our viewers is going to come from PW four, three, seven opinion on the gold gloves that Poirier and much have wore in the title

main event. I personally think only the champ have them kind of like the champion's shorts. So, Luke, we see black and gold befitting of a champion, as John Anik says, which I like that champions wear those ones. Now we're seeing the gold gloves. I'm not going to ask you whether this improves or makes eye pokes worse. It seems to do nothing, by the way.

Did you see Mahachev's logo came off? Like the sticker on his gloves just kind of peeled off. I looked up, by the way, real quickly machev's logo came off like the sticker on his gloves just kind of i looked up the by the way real quickly i looked at the manufacturer it's a taiwanese company called diaco d-y-a-c-o and they specialize in some residential but mostly commercial fitness equipment and medical devices i looked up who the other clients are they do make again some stuff for like a commercial gym it's a b2b business yeah but like what experience they have is like a manufacturer of mma gear uh you know in any kind of enlightened way i don't i don't know what the fuck would be why them they're just a weird candidate for making mma gloves i think anyway did it look gaudy to you or did it look acceptable

cool and the because the thing i've always wanted is when you look at a title fight or a – that's why I want more – you know when they change the color at UFC 200? They change the color of the mat. They did it again at 300. I wish they would do that for the really big one so it just looks and you go, oh, that's a special one. I would say I agree that only the champs should have them. In boxing, we're used to watching guys who have completely different colored gloves

and it's really no big deal. It kind of looks cool. I agree. The champion should have something that is different than the rest the challenger not the challenger no i agree i'm with you on that let's hear from aopw underscore figures realistically what are connor's chances of beating chance let's let's say this fight does go on june 29th and that this is just a hiccup this press presser thing. And what could it mean to Chandler if he ends up losing to McGrath? He's 38. What is that supposed to mean? I mean, he takes big swings.

He takes big chances. He has a reckless style on purpose. I'm not, like, insulting him. That's what it is. And he has a good shot of winning here, by the way. We should also say that. But also, he's 38. What does it mean if he loses?

That he fucking tried real hard and came up short in this one. And yeah, you could say, oh, it would be damning if he didn't get enough wins coming from Bellator. No one really cares about the Bellator background anymore. He's here now. It matters. All of the fights he's in are fucking gunfights. You're going to lose some of those, and he's nearly done in the sport anyway.

And he came close to winning the title. It doesn't mean... I'm not saying it doesn't mean anything but it doesn't mean that much what we speculate about mcgregor with the age inactivity and rock star lifestyle that i'm speculating but boy do i feel like i have clues let's answer this man's questions what are the chances that connor gets i said before now I'm like 25%. 25%? Yeah. I mean, obviously it's a style matchup where he can line Chandler up with a big left.

That's right, he can catch him coming in. He's got a big left hand. Power's the last thing to go. The fight's at 170. But was it you who feared pre-show or was it Long Island Luke that Conor could show up and look like Ronda did against Amanda Nunes?

I think it's him. That was me, yeah. I think he will look like that. Is that possible? I mean, the wheels just completely fall off. That seems a little strong because Rousey got knocked out by Holm, and then I'll never forget. You guys remember this?

She flew home. Rousey. Rousey. I'm sorry. She flew home, and then the paparazzi was waiting for her when she landed, and she refused to even show her face. She was already crushed by the weight of that experience and she had thoughts of connor connor feels if anything at least as it relates to what

happened with poirier and the time off emboldened so no i don't i don't see that but could he collapse like after you know getting hit with a big shot yeah of course he could that's my fear that that he gets hit with a big shot and sort of gases slash just, you know. I don't know, Luke. I got bad feelings. I got really bad feels, and I really hope for the promotion that they can, if they have to replace this, let's replace it with something big and let's do it now. I'm sure that's what they're working on right now.

Let's hear number three from Fitman Eats. Dana said in the press conference they are working on another BMF title fight. Who do you see them lining up for that fight, given the current schedule and available fighters. So Luke, I don't think, are we, are we defending this title?

Well, well, well, hold on. So like, does the title stay with the one man and defend? Like Dana said explicitly, if I'm not mistaken,

if I'm getting it wrong again, please, you can blow me up on, on a social, but I believe he said he actually liked that. So Poria wanted the BMF title on the line when he fought Max, which I fucking hate. No, but then he also said, though, that because somebody asked him,

do you think Mahachev will ever fight for it? And Dana's like, well, if he's the champion, I don't see a need for him to fight for it. While I respect that Toporia said that and Dana said that he respects it, I didn't get the feeling that Dana was thinking about it. Okay, so then who would it be for Max at 155? Or does it have to be Max, I guess is what I'm asking you. Is this a title that has to be defended by the same man? Because we saw Masvidal win it and then kind of never defend it again

because he went right back into the title picture. Yeah, I would imagine that they want Max to capitalize on having that. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. What are the best opponent? Let's say Toporia versus Max is not next in the cards, and let's say Max is not rushed to replace Conor. What would be the BMF fight that would make a lot of sense to you?

A bigger aging guy? I mean, kind of just did that, a bigger aging guy engaging. Yeah, that's exactly what you did. I'm not sure. No trilogy with Poria. We're not doing anything crazy like that, right? I don't hate that fight. What about Oliveira?

I like that. That's a rematch, too. I like that. That's a rematch, too. I like that. That's a rematch. Yeah, I'd take that. I'd take that. Dude, Max is a motherfucker. Okay, we're not doing Max versus Nick Diaz in an open weight fight, right?

Okay. Max is an MF, or yes, he is. I love that guy. All right. I want to see it. I just want to see it done right. I want to see it done right. What do you make of people keep asking Dana if we're ever going to see a female BMF fight?

Is it necessary? Should we? Should we go equal upper? Well, we need some good candidates first. You need elite brawlers in a sense, right? Like Andrade versus. Andrade would have been there. She's half of it, but you need someone who's going to match that.

Yeah. That's the issue. All right. Let's go to question number four from Nate the Great Lux. Although he'll have never been a full champion, one could argue that Dustin Poirier is a top 10 lightweight of all time. What does Luke and BC's top 10 rankings look like for one of the history's best divisions? So, Luke, we didn't go top 10 for sake of time, but you and I both prepared our top five UFC lightweight rankings ever after UFC 302.

You want to do your list first? Yeah. Yeah. How about that, Luke? All right. You want to start with five? Yeah. Let's do it. Okay. Go ahead. At at number five i have a man with three title defenses benson

henderson okay at number four you asked me a question i've got the answer frankie edgar okay at number three now even though benson beat edgar twice yes okay i think uh overall frankie Edgar twice. Yes. Okay. I think overall Frankie fought and beat better competition. Okay. Then, I mean, I know he lost in that, but good question. Number three,

Islam. Okay. I don't think that's crazy. Number two, governor of Hawaii, BJ Penn. And I don't, I don't think he could get elected dog catcher.

And number one, Habib Nurmagomedov, who I also think is at the upper room table in the argument, but can't get it done because of the greatest fighter of all time. In the argument. Our lists are not too different. They're a little different, but they're not too different. So I can just go off memory because mine's almost the same as yours. Did you actually rank five?

Or is this going to be like a thing where you name 15 and that's i ranked five i only have to change one well two but one placement basically five i also have benson henderson okay or i also have edgar and the reason why i have edgar i wanted to ask to see what your logic was i don't have much logic but go ahead but my point is those fights are highly controversial and i thought edgar won at least one of them so one of them was in china right no uh or i don't think so no i don't think i think one of them was on pay-per-view one was on fox i believe okay but okay so then i have that three this is where it gets interesting okay three i have bj pen and the reason why is if you look at the most title fight wins at 155 it's three names it's bj it's islam and it's habib for me that's not the

ultimate reason you would rank them in that way it'd be a tiebreaker though um and i can understand a case for bj at two but i think after saturday and you look at the overall resume of what a guy like him has showed again we're talking about their lightweight all-time best lightweights because penn's accomplishments extend to different weight classes. So did Henderson and yes. And also, you know, he has this amazing rise and then this like incredible downfall, which is part of a broader conversation. So for me, this is what I've come to over the weekend. Islam Makachev is the second best lightweight of all time, period. I think that his, not just the names that he's now adding, stopping Charles Oliveira, stopping Alexander Volkanovski, beating him twice, stopping Dustin Poirier

and the record of achievement before that. But I can't give him the number one slot because that belongs to Habib, who is clearly not as well-rounded, but it was such a force of nature when he got in there. The dominance is too much. And the fact that injuries that he overcame in the gate, that,

and also BC, how much does it mean now? Maybe not much, but the fact that Islam got flattened by Adriano Martins, it has to count against him. And Habib just doesn't have that. Well, he has the Gleason T-ball fight.

Let's be fair, but he didn't get flattened, but he may have lost it. Anyway, I was going to ask you this earlier, and we shelf the question for now. It's hard not to compare Islam and Habib because Islam's rise to the title felt like Habib 2.0. They have the same coach. They come from the same area. They're like brothers, right?

People are going to go after this close fight with Dustin where Dustin really learned from the other two losses, right? In title fights, lightweight, to grow his takedown defense and his toughness is through the roof I don't hold it against him but it seems like social media is using the closer than maybe expected fight to say there's your proof Islam struggled more with an older version of Dustin than Habib who let's give him credit that time in uh Dhabi, just absolutely dominated Dustin. Does that play into the end? He had one flurry in the second round, I believe.

So it's one thing to do the rankings here and say, okay, as things stand right now, Habib, the greatest lightweight we've ever seen. Boy, is Islam getting close. Do you care or do you have an answer in terms of like, who's the better fighter overall? And does this Saturday's fight matter in that conversation? They're different. Again, I'm going to say Islam more well-rounded. I don't think that's really much in dispute.

Much more of a killer instinct from Habib. A little bit more reckless from Habib as well, which is why there were times he got into a little bit of trouble but then just kind of powers through and gave good technique to it. I don't mean just raw athleticism. I mean good power. What's up, Long Island Luke? I was going to say back to Benson and Frankie.

First fight was in Saitama, Japanapan that was it yeah japan that's right that's where joe lozon got his head kicked by uh anthony pettis anyway i believe that quarry's takedown defense was incontestably better this time than it was against habib even if he is a little bit older. Certainly, I recognize that. And so for Islam to have that second gear, essentially, to go to to win, the overall record of dominance doesn't quite match Habib's, but it's pretty goddamn close.

It really is. It really is. Two of the greatest fighters ever, and that camp has more of them. I don't know if they're going to end up being the greatest ever. Yeah, we'll see what happens with Usman. You've got Umar. You've got Usman. You've got, yeah, it's fantastic. All right, Luke, and that camp has more of them. I don't know if they're going to end up being the greatest ever. Yeah, we'll see what happens with Usman. You've got Umar, you've got Usman, you've got, yeah, it's fantastic. All right, Luke, we've got one more. And this comes from a guy we know very well, J.D. Roseman.

You know that guy, Jake Von Asch? Is this the guy that got fired? I don't know if we should share. I mean, I love that man, Luke. He's a documentarian, but here's what he has to say. If Luke was locked in the octagon with an unranked blindfolded bantamweight for two minutes how does that fight look you against a ufc ranked 135 pound fighter but he's blindfolded i mean i'm definitely gonna steal on him like what if it's like pedro muñoz with a blindfold adrian yanez just fucking crushing

him with a shot see i argued when we when we talked as a team pre-show because people in that studio right in that in that uh control room right there believe in your size and the fact that you've rolled a bit i just think that the blindfold won't matter because jujitsu is all about touch and feel anyway i just feel like they're going to be able to... There's a reason there's no blind world champions at the elite black belt level, BC, is because eyes do matter. Not until there's contact. I like how you think they're Jedis,

just like, you know, fucking catching... Book of Eli with Denzel. You see that where he was blind? It turns out... Oh, spoiler alert. Sorry. It turns out he was blind in the end. Yeah.

All right, great. Just give away the whole fucking movie. Yeah, great. All right. Enough of that BS. Thank you, Jake, for watching. I see blind people. Do you finish Adrian Yonah's blindfolded? I mean, listen, if you're going to handicap him that bad, I'll probably win, yeah.

Okay, but I don't know. So what do you think, then? If they're blindfolded, yeah, I'm going to fucking kick him in the balls. No, that's illegal. It's an MMA fight. He's fucking blindfolded. What about that as MMA?

It's an MMA fight, it's an octagon Even if you don't, I'm going to kick him right in his fucking oblique, kick right into his kneecap Shatter his knee You're not shattering his knee You may shatter your knee Dude, I'm literally twice his size When was the last time you kicked a bag?

That's a fucking sideways stomp I got blind Yanez over you I mean, it's not going to be easy Listen, if he's got eyesight, different ballgame But if we're literally blindfolded That's a fucking sideways stomp. I got blind Yanez over you. I mean, it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be easy. Listen, if he's got eyesight, different ballgame. But if we're literally blindfolding him. Can we get him on the show? If he's watching now, can he call in?

Can we get him on the show? I mean, come on. Yeah, Adrian, if you're calling, pick up the bat phone now. All right. I'm surprised you went head kick, Luke. I thought you'd just take the back, choke him out real quick. No, because Luke knows if he tries to take him down, Yanez is just going to feel it, make the adjustments, and then get the rear naked on him but you can lock the arm under the

neck before he even sees it coming you know yeah once again i'm just gonna kick him in the balls guys okay here we go and both of you can suck my balls those are the dms from you the listeners the donks thank you for your service okay we've got one more segment today, Luke, and it's a good one, right? It's just, I mean, it's arguably the best one we got, right? Yeah, it's so good, right? So, Luke, what I did yesterday was I scoured the globe. Scoured Pornhub.

For the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, the in-between in combat sports and beyond from the last week. That was, this one's called Have You Seen This? Have You Seen This? week that was this one's called have you seen this my dream is that we get like an 80s wedding cover band like a cheesy over-the-top 80s cover band we do a live show one day like the london one we have the band there and they sort of play us in and out of the segments and stuff that'd be badass badass, right? I was listening to like two words. And then the Vikings were like, you guys want to row? By the way, I saw the video of that. It's so lame.

So for folks to catch up, I didn't know this until I had seen it. If you're into Viking metal at concerts, they literally, rather than having a mosh pit, they sit on the ground and pretend like they're rowing. Arm in arm, leg in leg. They all lock limbs and

then they like and it's the saddest thing i've ever seen it's like the wave on steroids right no it's like it's i hate all those people look at our sound guy ken deep into his phone you think he's looking at nudes he's playing sonic the hedgehog on that there you go all right luke we start off ufc 302 fromark. But this was during fight week. Let's go over to where the Mets play. City Field. Here's Paulo Costa. Don't worry.

There's no one in the audience. Throwing out the opening. Oh, my God. Just a bit outside. By the way, there is no one there. I have to explain this to my daughter. I'm like, you have to. We played Frisbee yesterday at the park.

I'm like, you have to release the Frisbee where you want it to go. Because she's just chucking the shit to the side yeah you know yeah all right that was that's bad that's that's it's not worse than 50 cent but it's bad john wall by the way also had a terrible throw remember the first week we ever did have you seen this shit and the last clip of the bunch was that femway park when that when they were throwing out the ceremonial first pitch and the guy missed it so bad that there was a cameraman standing behind home plate and he got hit right in the balls yeah that was one of the greatest moments all right luke costa um also had a big moment on embedded when him and eileen perez uh and luke it came look at his right hand he comes no yeah listen i yeah

he exercised restraint i'll give it that him for a high five or was yeah he's okay there you go good you know you know what it was muscle memory there it is all right well eileen perez was not done luke not done uh here is her celebrating her decision win over jocelyn edwards in their grudge match the only way she knows how luke now that coach is is is that the guy from karate combat it's the guy from goat shed yeah we're out of combat too yeah what's his name uh i forget i forget he's a nice guy on on he's hilarious on on the internet there um luke perez and jocelyn edwards by the way would bury bury the hatchet after the unanimous decision sort of sort of people Well, some people thought that there was a proposal in here, Luke,

because you got down on one knee. She kind of like begged her to like join her in this sort of mutual, let's put the acrimony behind us. We love the hate ahead of a fight, but don't we want our heroes afterwards to like respect each other? Not this demonstrative, no. No? No, a little much for me.

This got very intimate and emotional. Look at this. Yeah, it's a little much for me. We do this after every show, you and I. Well, you're on your knees. I can say that. Okay, all right. Luke, after they did this reunion in the cage and they made nice, Perez continued to walk back to the locker room.

Again, the only way. She's an interesting follow. This is how BC gets into the shower. She's an interesting follow on Instagram bc gets into the shower she's an interesting follow on instagram luke are you a follower listen uh i don't know a whole lot about latin america but i do know they dance a lot i have seen you know i have seen that you do know a very lot about it uh let's keep it going though habib and team maha chav we mentioned they hurdled the fence to celebrate this was usman nirmaga medoff right. They chucked him out, by the way. So he was in the crowd in the ticket section, not wearing

a, not actually a cornerman, and he jumped. Ah, is that it? And that's it. But look at the, even Habib dude jumping up. It looks like he was about to do a flying dropkick on Dylan Dennis. It's actually a really great moment between teammates, but when they're coming over that fence, there's an instant where you're like, shit, that looks scary. You know what I mean? Is Zybara

Tugulov there again? Is he going to go after Conubaira to to kugel to gugov yeah yeah you say tomato i say uh luke you mentioned usman got kicked out here's security some people thought maybe he had uh been a biden supporter but no luke actually it was because he you can't yeah they're not welcome here yeah there you go hey by the way did you see see Aaron Rodgers in the front row did not stand up to shake Trump's hand when everyone was like sort of. Okay, but here's the question. Was he tripping on some kind of drug at that time? Wait, Snyder says he shook his hand later.

Oh, there you go. Okay. There you go. Maybe it was psychobiotic. But anyway, he's an RFK guy. He likes the brain worms guy. Brain worms? Did you not see this?

No. Long Island Luke, am I at all making it up that rfk admitted by his like no one asked him to do it that he had a worm inside of his brain i've never heard anything about are you guys i do not know i don't really i don't really watch the news i can see that you guys are checked out on this program actually as you're finding out right now this is great brain worms guy uh luke we had a big weekend in Saudi Arabia, but I already played the Big Bang Jang clip. But speaking of Saudi Arabia, is it safe? Hey, did you know that Saudi Arabia was the safest country in the world

up until 2018? I did not know. Yeah, check it out. According to Wikipedia, until June 2018, Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world in which women were forbidden from driving motor vehicles. That's too far. Luke, I do not endorse this moment.

That's too far. The future is female here, please. I mean, that is just not good. I mean, that's very misogynistic, but it's a decent subversion of expectations. Yeah, there you go. Anyone can get it in the show, as Adrian Broner used to say. That's right.

Listen, just jokes. Just jokes. Just jokes right here uh do you want some elder abuse because it's back let's beat the shit out of some old people huh it's back with a bang let's go to the golf course you see this new prank they've been doing with the fake snake luke yeah and freaking people out with it yeah let's watch this okay including people who have a dead tree and let it fall in a neighbor's car. Oh, shit! Oh, Jerry. Geriatric.

Oh, boy, he's down again. It's fake! It's fake! It's fake! It's fake! It's fake! Look at this pot-bellied Zero. He definitely shit his pants in those white shorts. There's no question.

Oh, I mean, he needs some wet wipes like Tookie when she was two. Wow. All right. That's some good elder abuse. That's great. That's a great bit. Let's go to the dock right here. Let's see what Grandma's got for us. Remember what Shob said that time, Luke? No.

Nothing a double-egg couldn't figure out? Let's see. Oh, she's us. Remember what shop said that time, Luke? No. Nothing a double leg couldn't figure out. Let's see. Oh, she's going to backhand. Oh, grandma. Fuck your life, bitch. Where's Poirier when you need him, grandma? Look at her. She winds up like my mom.

I'm going to backhand the fuck out of you. He's like, you know what? Nah, lady. Have a drink. Yeah, Dagestan style. Wow. That's fantastic right there. Okay.

Let's go over to this lady, Luke style. Wow, that's fantastic right there. Okay. Let's go over to this lady, Luke. I feel like she's done this before. What the fuck did she do? What is this? I think she tried to smell the lotion. Oh, she just squirted the shit super hard? Yes, yes. But, you know, she didn't panic.

This has happened. You know, I've had a couple girlfriends look like that. You know what I'm saying? Okay, that is something right there. Luke, when you graduated and walked through the threshold, did you, like, throw your hat or do something crazy like that? So I screamed at my college graduation. Like the scream you did at the Pauly Way McGregor live show?

Exactly like that, yes. But they played, and this is not a joke. People think I'm joking. They played Make Them Say Uh at my graduation. In high school, yeah. Valdosta? No, this was Marietta High School, yeah. Marietta High School, class of 98.

If you know, you know. All right, let's see this real G crossover here. Not that guy, Luke. Okay, all right. The one that's chained, that's fine. That's fine. I'm in with that no problem oh you can just see here sir we don't do that here no no just keep it moving bro keep it moving all right hey luke big week for normalizing ass eating i eat cat from da back.

I guess that goes beyond. What does the license plate say? I don't know. I don't know. Te lo sico? I don't know. Wow, that's a bold statement on the back of the truck right there. Let's keep it going to your hat of the week.

Same topic. If eating ass is a sin, I'll see you in hell. With the Guy Fieri 2005 Arrow Flames. That is fucking awesome. By the way, I didn't know this. Hold on. The guy who played Seabass in Dumb and Dumber is Cam Neely.

He's the president of the Boston Bruins. Yes, he's a Bruins legend. I know, I know, but I just never put together the guy who played. 50 goals in 50 games, yeah. I never put together the guy who played Seabass as the fucking president of the Bruins, but it's real. Well, Sandler's always good for getting ex-athletes to play those roles. Yeah, you're right. Good point.

You're right. No, that was Fairley Brothers. Oh, that is Fairley Brothers. Fairley Brothers. You're right. Why am I giving Sandler that credit? You're right. Good point.

Luke, do you ever look at a picture and then look closer and you see something you've never seen before? Like a magic eye? Not a magic eye. Just reflections or things in the background that you never saw before. I mean, look, you look really happy in that picture, you know? I mean, I'll say this for the people who kill me. You can't say they don't know me. You know what I mean? It's true. You can't say you didn't get me dead to rights you got me look what's the opposite of elder abuse

uh beating the fuck out of kids yeah we got that too this week let's see it lord okay he's just swinging let's see what happens he's gonna jump like a dumbass yeah oh fucking hell oh boy he wanted you know you could be anything you want in this world from the account scorpion from the account account Scooby Laced My Blunt. Wow. All right, we got one more kid getting hurt. Look here. Let's see what happens.

Let's see. Do we have no sound on any of these? A lot of them don't have sound. Some of them have music we can't clear. Oh, boy. Oh, you know what? He hit him with the fucking, he hit him with the Seonagi. Let's see it one more time.

He beat the shit out of that kid. He hit he bopped him like a hammer watch here comes the seo nagi standing seo nagi bah bitch that you yeah wow that is that is something all right hey combat sports athletes in the wild do you know when people play stupid games like asking canelo alvarez to hit him to the body they do oh okay imagine wearing a wife beater and asking canelo Alvarez to hit him to the body? They did. Okay. Imagine wearing a wife beater and asking Canelo. Look, he's smiling. He's like, I'm going to flex real hard. That'll fix it.

Dude. I mean, do you see what happened when Teofimo hit that? You know what? People were like, oh, remember when Sean Strickland beat up that donk from Grumble? And everyone was like, he really went too far, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, dude, if they're asking for it in an MMA context. Remember Deontay Wilder went after Charlie Z because he was putting those messages on his. It's like, dude, if you signed up for it, I'm not having any. You're an adult.

I'm not having sympathy for you. What do you think about Canelo being all in on that golf tournament? Be like, oh, you want a body shot? Sure. What is his handicap? Do we know? He's really good at golf. He's one of the best celebrities. I't know the stats but he's he's

long on luke can you look up what canelo's handicap is please uh luke let's keep it going here combat sports in the wild look at the way joseph parker's training for his next big fight uh a couple of years ago his handicap was an eight whoa yeah that's legit luke this is some like i would think that's some shmeagle from uh lord of the rings type shit right yeah this is joseph parker from new zealand just pulling the fish right out of there you know what you can't say you're not a real man mama that motherfucker eating raw fish is that how you get the most protein is that what it is i don't know but i'm not really going to challenge it oh lord uh we got one more did you see kayla

harrison making the rounds with poeton in the newark area they they went to the same gym here and worked out and kayla look at getting the this is not nearly as big of a deal as people think it is explain so obviously she's strong but she's a two-time gold medalist in judo like she's throwing a static opponent you know and it's just a basic hip toss okay like why would it be why did it get in this show is what you're saying why is it in this people were like oh it's amazing it's not you're like i'd rather have erotic middle-aged women swallow glizzies right is that what you prefer luke is that what you want if you want it you got it let's go to the videotape all right look at this broad son get me that fucking phone number. Are you kidding?

Oh, wow. She knows exactly what she... Ivan Redkatch posted this? Yeah. That's a boxer. That's a real boxer. Ivan Redkatch. He's hilarious, by the way. You know that tattoo scheme he has on his chest and shoulders?

It's the same one Miguel Cotto has, because Cotto's his idol. Is that right? Yeah, it's interesting. A Ukrainian fighter is Redkatch. We used to call Redcock. That's what we used to call him. That's nice.

Oh, Bob Arum had a great moment that hasn't made the show yet. He doesn't have Red Koch, he's my dog Barbas. Yeah, he does. Luke, Jack Catterall took a split decision win over Josh Taylor in their rematch a week ago. Did you hear Bob Arum in the ring afterwards here at Nile? I love Bob Arum. Like everybody else, those scorecards were a disgrace. Were an absolute disgrace.

Look at Eddie in the background. He's loving it. I really feel sorry for Josh. I thought he won the fight. You little prick. Dude. Shut the fuck up. Bob Arum is 92.

Yes. Bob Arum promoted, this is true, Muhammad Ali. Bob Arum's first fight was a Muhammad Ali fight. Okay. He's 92, flies all over the world, and all he does is tell people how dumb and awful they are. Fucking legend. Dude, imagine if we facilitated a face-off

where it was Coppinger and Bob, or Grandpa in the studio. No, forget that. Why are we doing an RSD where we hit the bong with Bob? Do you think he would? Is that inappropriate on air for us to do that with a 92-year-old man? Who gives a shit? You think anybody cares about journalism anymore?

They only care about drugs, apparently. All right, that's cool. Hey, this week in baseball heated up. Luke, let's go to Japanese baseball. Check out this rehab moment in the dugout. Where do I sign up, right? That's great. Look at this.

Yeah. Look at the, that's, yeah. You know, I don't really want to judge these practices, but they seem a little extreme. Yeah, you do. This is great. Wow. That guy's like, get the camera away. Move the fucking camera.

All right, let's, you ever been real high at a baseball game, Luke? Look at this guy. Yeah, like two weeks ago. Holy shit. Dude, look at how high this guy is that looks like Tristan when he drank out of a shoe on the main card minute podcast that's Tristan after drinking the blood of six children he's kidnapped

I'll have what he's having yes yes indeed we got one more here is Gary Sanchez Major League Baseball player, sneaking in a lip packer, Luke, but this one's jumbo size. Watch him in the background. Oh, dude, you don't see that on camera too often, right? Yeah, you know, as a guy who used to dip, I can acknowledge that's a fat wad.

That is a fat wad. You swallow even a half drop of that liquid i've told people this i don't they don't believe me but it's really true dude my drill instructors at boot camp always swallow the tobacco juice every single time every day you don't violently throw up it made me sick once too but one time laid over a storm drain two houses down from my house in high school and just after swallowing that drunk and just threw up for hours i'm not exaggerating threw up for hours in a storm drain on the side of the road and remember i went from boot camp i went from june to august in paris island south carolina it was hot as shit every day they would march us around everyone's sweating their balls off and

they would continue to swallow it on runs i couldn't i couldn't believe it i could not believe it all right luke uh wheel of fortune had a great moment. Not Pat Sajak's retirement, but this moment. Tavares, right in the butt. What? No. First of all, it's four letters in the opening word. And he said, right in the butt second of all do you know my man is into that shiso porn you know he's into that dookie love yeah i don't go

that way i'm more into the classics like rocco you know that's just that's just me uh luke good ass nascar fight in recent weeks here's ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Bush getting into it. NASCAR is 80% car racing, 20% rednecks. Yeah, well, I think it's more of 99% rednecks. But when they fight, Luke, that's when I'm into it. Look at the teams getting involved. I talked to NASCAR

fans about this because I didn't get it. NASCAR fans fucking love it. Oh, they love this shit. Yeah, look at these old ass pit workers getting involved too. Yeah, dude. They love just shitty fist fighting from car drivers. Oh, they love this shit. Yeah, look at these old-ass pit workers getting involved, too. Yeah, dude, they love just shitty fist fighting from car drivers. Oh, yeah. Look at the—oh, wow. This keeps going. Looks like the stands at UFC 302.

I didn't see any of those. No, I'll send you some. They'll make it in here next week. All right, Luke, you want to talk boobs to close this out? Sure. Look at this live band. Look at this lady playing the cymbals. You know, work with what the good Lord gave you. what i'm talking about why waste that uh luke a lot of people like to

talk about pronouns let's hear from this old guy people always ask me what my pronouns are my pronouns are let me she damn titties i can't say I endorsed this message completely, but that got me at Pops for it. It's like, you know what? We gotta let Pops go, because his life expectancy is Thursday. Let's just be honest. Well, Luke, we found his favorite song.

There's a music video to it. Let's listen in. You're talking to me about stuff. Why? I'd rather see your titties. Now you're talking about other stuff. Why? I'd much rather see your titties now you're talking about other stuff why i'd much rather see your titties let me ask you a question if i tried this with my wife tonight will she hit me with a tire iron she's like look at though you're supposed to take the car for admissions and you're like you're talking to me about more stuff you're talking to me about stuff and let's just be honest,

I'd rather see your titties. Was that racist when I impersonated her? I think my wife would fucking kill me. That's great. One more for you. You mentioned that NASCAR was very white trash. Here's your white trash moment. Get it going! Just an average morning at the truck stop.

What the fuck? Oh my god! Oh my god oh my god come on amy joe come inside it's fucking dangerous big morning at the piggly wiggly hair luke this is great so you know you're in the south when uh girls have two first names yes laura beth, Amy Jo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. No, no, no. That's their first name. Oh, yeah. Like Laura Beth Smith or Amy Jo Watkins or whatever the fuck.

Amanda Bobby Cooper. Shout out. Mrs. Brendan. That's how you know you're in the South. That's what I'm talking about right there. That's the shit of the week, Luke. You saw it? Your thoughts?

A minus. That was actually good. Okay. That was better. You know what we need? I had to threaten getting canceled a few times. No, we need the elderly abuse is great i'm not so into the kid abuse because you know my daughter's very special to me i'm just trying to equal opportunity fair enough uh i want to see

some of the skaters bust their head open and their teeth get knocked out that's the kind of thing i'm into as well oh great that's real um that's great all right well that was our show for the week do you want to shout out anybody in the room over here? Hey, they all do a great job, and I'm glad they're here, except Long Island Luke, who sucks ass. I always get the other guy's name wrong. Always. Nadir. Nadir. Why can't I get that right? Nadir. Nadir, big

Fortnite guy. Is that right? Oh, yeah. He's trying to get me off of that into some other thing. Yeah? Fortnite? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Let me ask a question, because I don't know. What's the last thing oh yeah yeah i'll get to that yeah what do you it's a serious question because i do not i'm not like saying it is i am asking isn't fortnight a little washed well i'm a little washed is it a little washed i mean i don't i remember before the pandemic all the kids were doing all the fucking

remember tail female used to do fortnight dances that's when it's cultural peak but i got into it only to connect with my sons more and now they're like dad you're an addict on a level that we don't want to be here's my question instead of playing fortnight why not just watch more pornography i just rather fortnight or pornography this is not a difficult call luke i forgot we have one bonus clip here so people are mad at us for a few things. Promises we've made. We don't do fan subs anymore. They don't think we do dead wrong because we don't want to be held accountable.

That's not true. Okay, well, let's hold Luke Thomas accountable. All right. We're on the way to it. Yes, I know it's been a slow rebuild. Luke said we're going to do something that's never been done in MMA podcast history before. I never said that. Maybe they meant we were going to sit around and wait.

Why do you take shots at me about what I've said? I don't do that to you. Because you're a very comical person. Yeah, that's fine. But it's like Brian Campbell said he was going to blow Craig Jones. You didn't actually say that. Let me just say something. I can't reveal a whole lot.

What I can say is I've continued to see what people are suggesting that we're going to do, and not one person has gotten it correct. That's true. What we are attempting is something that that at least in the combat sports space uh no one else has done yet okay okay okay there is some fairness there accountability matter there is some fair enough listen dead wrong but bc you have to back me up a little bit first of all at the time at which i said that you're talking about other things hold on but i just want to say your time okay keep going it's like just this we'll get back to the titties here uh at the time at which i said that i didn't make that up out of thin air. Don't hedge. Take the L. I'll take the L.

I'll take the L. But I'm saying we had discussions at that time that were going in a different direction than where we ended up. This was going to look a lot different. But you have to say, shout out to the people that have helped us get here. We're here.

I'm not complaining. I'm just saying, it blew up in my face. Okay. Blew up in that lady's face with a lotion bottle. But I'm also going to say this. We're not done. We're not done.

We're not fucking done. It just has been way different than we thought it was going to be. That's what I would say. It has. All right. Hey, we're going to, are we going to Gervonta? That'd be a great pay-per-view. I think we are supposed to be going to Gervonta.

I think we got to get to this fear and see dead and company. You owe me. I owe you. You owe me. I owe you. I owe you. We got to hook this up. We got to makeervonta Davis. I think we got to get to this fear and see dead and company. You owe me. I owe you. I owe you. We got to hook this up. We got to make this happen here. You got to have the transcendental experience. If Oteel gets us tickets, I'll go. Whoa! Whoa! I'll go. I owe you. Oteel Burbridge, you hear that?

This man will... And we'll film everything and then give it to Jake. Okay. There we go. I like that. I like the sound of that. For Long Island Luke on the ones and twos, thank you. Luke Thomas, brian campbell morning combat like and follow us hit our merch house morning combat dot store hey you want 10 off this great bomber jacket right here use our live 10 code shout out to metal ark draft kings of course we are live we are uh rebroadcast on the draft kings 5 p.m Monday at 5 p.m. in the East.

Big news to come. Big things to come. Hopefully, we'll still have a great summer with all these blockbusters falling apart. But we'll continue to bang. Dewey? We're going to bang. I mean, has Big Bang Zhang removed Dewey and Greg Hardy from our… It's so much better.

It's so much better. Yes. Yes. That's about it. I don't know what to do. Sometimes I'm like, what do we do? Do we do something gross? I gotta train to catch. Let's go catch it. Let's go catch the trains.

Okay. And maybe, like in the Marine Corps days, we can run a couple. That's a true story. I've ever told this story where I got fucking woken up by this dude. Have I ever told this story? You've told this story like 3,000 times. His last lance corporal vitality he was from fucking is he still alive can we interview him he can't be he was way too stupid he was way too stupid i want to interview people from your life do like this is your life i can put you in contact with a couple people but anyway

he was like hey dude and then i won't say exactly what he said, but he invited me to go participate in group sex. And I was like, I don't want to do this. I just want to go home. Yeah. Yeah. So I went back to bed. Yeah. All right. There you go.

Well, that was gross. Hey, that's Luke Thomas. This is your boy, BC. As always, protect yourselves up here, guys. Let's have a great summer together, okay? Let's live our lives. Let's do this, right? Yeah.

Let's stop being like sad, depressed pieces of crap. All right. For LT on BC we out of here now next week