MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 307 Recap: Pereira Outslugs Rountree, Pena Scores Win | Full Episode

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Is there anything better than MK the Monday after a monster UFC card? This week, Luke and Brian have you covered with a full recap from this weekends big UFC 307 event. First, Alex Pereira outslugs Khalil Rountree Jr. to defend LHW title in the main event. By breaking Ronda Rousey's promotional record with 3 title defenses in just 176 days, did Alex Pereira prove once and for all on Saturday that he's the most valuable fighter on the UFC roster? What type of adjustments did Pereira make to offset the strong start from Rountree and 2-0 hole on all 3 scorecards? Did Rountree successfully shatter pre-fight takes regarding his unworthiness for the title shot by how exciting he fought and how much punishment he was able to endure? What's next for Poatan after moving into 3rd place tie with Daniel Cormier with 3rd LHW title defense? Plus, on the women's side, Julianna Pena becomes a 2-time bantamweight champion and Kayla Harrison cements top contender status with a win. did you score Pena-Pennington and is there a legitimate case for Pena's disputed victory? How much improvement did you see to Pena's game after two years away from the sport? Was Kayla Harrison's hard-fought win over No. 2 Ketlen Vieira a positive because of how she overcame adversity or a negative considering she was a -900 betting favorite and many were arguing she had already secured a title shot? Finally, the break down all the other notable fights and outcomes of the night. In boxing, the guys look ahead to the key storylines entering Saturday's Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol undisputed light heavyweight clash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveille, Reveille. Yes! Look at us now now tip to tip combat. Do you want a margarita? Yes! Fire! It's us doing what we love. Two, three, two, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah. Hey, get fired up. Get happy. It's Monday, October

7th, 2024, and you've stumbled into here, October 7th, 2024. And you've stumbled into here, these Manhattan studios, Metal Ark. And how about us? Morning Combat. Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, your co-stess is with the most. This is with Body for Days on that ass. Body for Days. She calls me on the phone.

That's such a great We were just saying in that pocket Of 90s alternative rock Shimmer by Fuel I believe it's a 2000s song Why don't you look that shit up I remember that song being in when I was in high school I remember that song

Being on when I was in high school And I graduated in 98 You think it's more Nickelback era Yeah I think it's more Nickelback era? Yeah, I think it's that 2000. I'll bet you a dollar. I'll bet you a single solitary dollar it's pre-2000. He won't pay up. I have it in my pocket.

Alright. It's 1996. Hey, suck on my big fat balls. Suck on my big fat balls. How about that? Admit it. Every Saturday, get your bong hits in. Alright, hey, we got a great show for you today. UFC 307 from Salt Lake City.

Full recap coming in your face. And then we will set the stage for all things Riyadh Cizan on Saturday. Artur Betterbeev. I am. Dimitri Bevo. So excited for that. This light heavyweight four belt summit. Undisputed Cizan.

Two top five pound for pounders, unbeaten champions. This is as Jack Nicholson once starred in Luke, as good as it gets. Our friends at DraftKings have that fight. How often do you hear this about a title fight main event in boxing? Yeah. Artur Betterbe, Baterabiev, plus 104, Bivol minus 120. Damn.

Imagine getting plus money on 20 and 0 with 20 KOs, Artur Beterbiev. Three world titles. He has three of the world titles. I interviewed him. It'll be on the Brian Campbell experience this week, Artur. And I did ask him because I'm like, I've been butchering your name definitely because I've been using three versions. Okay, so how do you pronounce it?

He said, because I was like, is it Beterbiev, Beterbiev? What do we got here? He says, beev. Better beev. Better beev. Okay. Better beev. Okay.

Not better beev, not better beev, not you better believe it. Better beev. That's what he says. Okay. All right. Now, do you care because he's not Latino? I do care. I do like him.

I want to get that one right. It is tricky, though. It's tricky. Yes. In Dimitri, I always say beevil, but that's probably not right. People say, turkey says beevil. Does he? Yeah, turkey pronounces things just a little bit off, but it's a language.

He's got an accent. You have to grade him on a curve. Sure. I've been saying beevil, but then I hear a bunch of other people call him beevil. Yeah, well, I think you should just be able to say it however you want. You know what? Sanchez. How about that? He's Demetri Sanchez to me.

How about that? I wasn't going to go there. I was just going to instill the Caceres rule. Just say it however you want. Be happy. And Alex says it that way. There is that. There is that.

Hey, speaking of the Brian Campbell experience, a little birdie. And I actually don't know if this is true. Oh, boy. No, no. I actually don't know if this is true. Because I asked him to, I was like, is this true? And he didn't respond to the email. He sent me an email. Is it true you have activated super chats on the

brian campbell experience you know i have and i and i was talking along on luke about this i don't know if i feel good about it because it feels very grifter it feels very i mean it's certainly hypocritical here buy these candy bars from my son for his little league team it feels a lot like that but the people are so nice and so genuine and i enjoy it now how do you reconcile that with five years of mockery for me doing that um and then you just doing it later yeah you know i i don't know if i'm ready to call it hypocrisy or if i'm still ready to massage it is many things hypocrisy is one of them well i i looked at it more as a why am i i'm doing this as an alternative to uber eats apparently or i'm sorry door dash i'm door dash loyal i'm doing it i guess

as an alternative to there you got to make it worth your while and i guess it's just i guess it justifies the time in some ways listen i'm not mad about it i think it i think you're just like if you're gonna whore out announce to the world who you are. I just think it's worth reflecting that I got mocked for something that you now participate in as, I don't know if as actively, but you certainly are an active participant in it. I'm a passive participant. Well, you turned them on. That's pretty active. I hit a button, you know, or somebody else did. I'm just saying it's worth reflecting on all the shit I got.

You know, I wonder if this is a turning anyway or if this is a low moment luke will i you know will i come back from this listen it's not stealing if you're you're you're giving people the option tell them what the value proposition is be clear about it and then if people want to support you which i'm sure that they do do it hey you know your kids got to go to college somehow right some i always say tuky needs shoes somebody's got to put these kids through college um we're all in it for that for sure but i wonder luke will i have the guts eventually to go full-on only pipes memberships on the youtube we're like we're like okay come on in for all the bullshit in the storefront

stay for the pornography the real shit is what happens offline there. No, we have to save that for the MK membership. Yes, yes. It's just hardcore pornography. All right, there you go. Hey, speaking of MK, I believe there's an announcement to be made today. There certainly is.

That after all these years, we hate each other enough that this will be our final episode. Finally, freedom, yes. That was good. Yeah yeah there you go uh luke we've teased or even threatened the idea of twice a week of doing friday for pay baby um i believe it's this week we're gonna we're gonna kick this off this friday can you confirm that or deny it it is true it is true in, this Friday, which will be the 11th of October, I believe that's right, the 11th of October, MK returns to its normal schedule of now.

Normal-ish. Normal-ish, which is Mondays and Fridays. So Friday is an MK show, live 11 a.m. in the East, right here at youtube.com slash morningcombat, or of course, wherever you get your podcasts. We'll have it live. We'll preview, of course, this fight in more detail. We're going to kind of set you up for the week here today. But we'll do some other stuff. And that thrilling fight night card with Roy Vall and Tatsuya Taira.

There is that as well. Great main event. Yes. The rest of that card is bollocks. It's bollocks. However, it's also the day after the Fight Pass Invitational. Kind of interesting. Nikki Rod is back in rotation.

Oh, you mean CGI Champion. CGI Champ. Yeah. So, yes, we're back. We're back on Fridays, and we're going to stick it out on Fridays from here on out. Oh, be careful what you're offering. I ain't sticking that thing out on the camera. The goalposts, the Monday-Friday show, we are back this Friday.

This will be a full MK week, all things being what they are. You know, if I was CJI and I wanted to take it to the next level, I'd hire Luke Thomas to be an analyst. That's just my opinion. Listen, I'm not going to turn down that check uh i will take that check i will take that check i will tell you i'd never i don't know if i've ever told this story on the air before i did have a promoter one time i spoke nicely of them uh the uwf in washington no no no this was relatively recent this was in the last i want to say two to three years. I spoke nicely about them. And then all of a sudden, I wake up the next day, and there's a bunch of money in my Venmo account.

And I was like, what is this from? And then I was able to trace it back. I gave the money back. I gave the money back. Oh, I would have kept that chat. Because it's like a super chat. I earned it. I grifted.

That's my grift. Hey, don't get in the way of my scam. Yes, please. No, but no, I returned it. But I'll just say there's some thirsty people out there in the jiu-jitsu world who really want some nice coverage, apparently. All right, there you go. And I'll give it to them for a check, a proper check.

For a price, for a price. Go to LukeThomasSoloChannel.com. There you go. Great to have you folks here. There we go. Please like and subscribe, everything we're doing. If you're looking to add a little bit of merch, like this pocket T-shirt that I was showing you for a second there,

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including the incredible crossover with average Joe art. I know that guy. Great guy. He is fantastic. Haven't met him. Well, not in person. Well, not in person, actually. Not yet in person. But he's a California man, so one day, one day indeed.

So I think the table is set here, Luke. You ready to eat? I just want to say one thing. Have you paid attention to what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico with this new hurricane that's coming? Yes. So a buddy of mine is from Tampa. He was able to ride out Helene without too much damage.

And I texted him today and i was like are you gonna stick around for this one no he's not he's getting the hell out of there so all the folks i mean there's a lot of terrible things going on in the world but for all the folks in uh western north carolina i'll see parts of georgia and south carolina as well but now florida they have to like bear down and take another back-to-back hurricane certainly i was talking to my wife about that i don couldn't live in that stress. That's too much. And half those homes, like, on a half, I'm exaggerating, but a lot of those homes don't have

flood insurance or hurricane protections. Shout out to all you MK listeners. If you're in Florida, God help you. Hope you guys get out of there. Bite down. Let's get through this, okay? Then we'll figure out where we're going to move after that. Alright, we've got to go to our topics to lead off here, and it was a big MMA weekend. UFC 307 in Salt Lake City.

And say what you will about the card coming in, and say what you will about the card coming out. We knew we were going to get something special in the main event because the busiest champion and one of the biggest stars in this entire sport, Alex Pereira, was back to defend his light heavyweight title, and he outslugged Khalil Roundtree Jr. in a fight that I think ultimately was a lot closer than most people expected to defend the title at 307. So Luke Thomas, Poetan breaks Ronda Rousey's promotional record

by defending a title three times in 176 days. Wow. Does this prove once and for all, after hearing that stat, that Pereira truly is the most valuable player right now on the UFC roster? Yes. He is. Now, there are different roles that

different figures in the sport, and in particular different champions, can fill. Consider, Max Holloway fought at UFC 300 and had the most exciting fight. By the way, Poiton was on that card, had a great result himself, but what you take from that is Max Holloway at 55 beating Justin Gaethje for the BMF title. He now fights Ilya Teporia at the end of this month, so he'll have been in two bouts of consequence. Also, you can think about Ilya

Teporia. He has the fight against Volkanovski, a super important fight for the featherweight division, and now back-to-back, he's going to be fighting Max Holloway. Again, a bout of extraordinary importance for that division, but also for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, especially if Teporia wins for future star power. So different champions can do different things. And because Poiton has been filling in on short notice. It has impacted his ability to get a proper opponent and a proper setup. Not so much for all the cards are not big because he was on 300. It was on MSG, 300, and International Fight Week. All last minute. Bang, bang, bang.

So he's on these relatively important places, but the opponents or the fights themselves, there's something a little bit missing with it. And this was really no different obviously we'll talk about how roundtree rose to the occasion but i just want to point out guys like toporia or holloway will have fought less this year but i think they're going to have been in bigger bouts ultimately by the way their calendars worked and by the way these particular matchups fell at this moment in time. But the reason why Toporia, excuse me, the reason why Poiton is the most valuable fighter that they have is, are his fights clearly the biggest?

No. They are important. They are amazing. He is must-watch in every way. But because of the late notice and because of how rapidly he's turning around, they're not giving him, and he also doesn't seem to have a clear 205 rival other than Onkelia, but he's got to get past Rakic first, which is no easy task. But what the UFC truly values the most is, yes, star power, yes, ability.

Of course, those are hugely important. Balls, dude. Balls, all that stuff. But the ability to say yes when the call comes, when they throw the bat signal in the air, they want to see Batman. And he might be fighting crime in this neighborhood. He might be fighting crime in that neighborhood,

but he answers the call. He gets the job done. He might be on Danny Gay's couch. He might be on Danny Gay's couch, but he delivers. He wins. He wins spectacularly. He wins in memorable ways. And he wins under, and we'll talk more about this,

typically not very advantageous conditions, even if the fan base is on his side. That is so critical in this year where, remember, BC, 2024 started out great, 298, 299, 300. This was like back to back to back, banger after banger. But it's been a bit of a drop off since then. The guy who has kind of kept consistency to the calendar is none other than Poetan. His consistency, you mentioned 175 days. But for what he did in that 175 days, what would you remember about it? Not as much, not much at all.

Poetan has saved a gigantic chunk of this calendar in ways that no one else has, even without necessarily a premium opponent. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, that is what the UFC would value most, your ability to be the strongest business brand for them possible and fight as quickly a turnaround in as tough of a challenge. No questions asked. But then when you deliver as emphatically,

violently, entertainingly as Poetan does, then it doesn't even matter the language gap that he still, you know, that's fights a battle with to some degree. He's going to become a star. Now look, Luke,

he's not Connor level, John Jones level, even what he's, to become a star. Now, look, Luke, he's not Conor level, John Jones level even, but when you look at that value, he's one of their biggest brands. There's a price that comes with that, though, with the wear and tear that you're willing to put on yourself, but I think this almost makes this victory even more impressive when you find out

what Poiton actually went through physically because of these short turnarounds and seemingly always being in camp. Long Island, look, can you throw to the sound of his coach explaining this? Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach

Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long

Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long Island, coach Long He came here to adapt to the altitude and at the same time have his camp. So it was basically a three week camp, very sick, ribs are bad. He didn't want to go to the ground because of those conditions. He didn't know the rib was going to pop for real or not. So there's a lot of little things that maybe other fighters don't have.

Just say, okay, I'm gonna fight the next card. But we just pushed through and he's very proud to have fight under these conditions and still be able to win. Dude, built different he's built different let me say this though it's amazing what he has accomplished and like all the credit in the world to him his team they were wise if you're going to come out here and do it to do it with three weeks in advance but i will say this he won't do this forever this oh that takes a lot out of you to fight this is what i mean wars enjoy it while he's doing it yeah i hope everyone appreciates this i'm not saying he'll never take another short notice fight but this what he's done in the last 175 he won't do that again and he saved them and maybe that's why they gave him this matchup rather

than uncle i have something we debated last week but poeton delivers so boy his star is growing and we will get into that and it doesn't even matter with the language barrier because he seems to be so cool anytime he does a skit or interview or anything but luke what he had to do in this fight was make real-time adjustments let's give roundtree a lot of credit we'll talk more about the chin and what he was willing to go through but he got up to a 2-0 start on the scorecard against one of the pound for pound best in this game, and it wasn't seemingly by accident. He lowered the output of Pereira in that second round specifically and had him suddenly not chasing as aggressively

and looking to land one shot rather than a barrage of them. What type of adjustments did Poiton ultimately make to be able to get on the other side of that and begin that downhill, really violent beatdown that culminated in that fourth round stop it's such an important question i have a video out now uh as long as ufc doesn't become copyright bullies you can go check it out youtube.com luke thomas what they did on here the last two weeks yeah they're they're they're quick with it but let me uh let me take this off if i

may so i can think a little more clearly sometimes you can be distracting it's like turning the radio down when you need to follow the directions and think, right? Yes. This, to me, was so impressive by Poiton, in part because, as you mentioned, he was down two rounds. Now, I did go back and watch this fight a couple times. I don't think that the scoring is in any way off. I do think Khalil Roundtree deserved to win the first two. However, I would say this. Before that, Ermihiv misses on the head kick and then turns around and then round

tree decks him. But for that, I think that Poetan was on his way to winning the second round that obviously lost it. Cause that was really bad, but it was close, but like, I thought it was a little bit ahead.

And then that happens. Yeah. Round tree won both on damage. Ultimately. Yes, that's right. Not on outworking him. But what,

the question is, what was Poetan trying to solve for for what was he up against and what did he have to do to get around it and he was up against somebody who was doing these blitzes you might recall the blitzing he was coming forward with he was not just blitzing for long distances but putting three four punch combinations together and he was doing it off of this galloping motion right you've seen Poiton kind of gallop into place and it makes him Jaron Ennis does the same thing and it makes him kind of heavy on the front foot which makes retreating more difficult and so he would barrel in sometimes by the way Roundtree

was moving and then pulling him in with his movement getting him to commit and then these long blitzes remember he would throw these long left straights that would get Poetan doing one of those numbers. So he had to get the distance right. And he had to realize this guy is moving a lot. He's blitzing a lot. Let's go back to basics. The jab was absolutely essential to this fight to the point where Poetan simply could not have won it but for the jab. You're right.

The low kick and by the way you know not not necessarily like every shot was super hard but being as consistent as he could with it but for the low kick he simply could not have won so smart this fight so what he did was if you notice the first two rounds you're getting three four punch combinations as round tree blitzes but as the jabs begin to wear down as the leg kicks begin to wear him down, he becomes more stationary. And the blitzing, you start to get two punch combinations, one punch altogether. So in the end, what did he do? He went back to the basics.

He broke the guy down so he was less mobile. He couldn't use motion to get away. In short, he became more stationary. And then the last big adjustment, BC, and you'll remember this, a lot of times what he would do is he'd have the whole octagon behind him. So he could do the Sean Strickland thing where you just peel out with your head way back. You can't fire back from there. But if I've got all this room to go back to, it doesn't really matter.

I can just escape. Instead of doing that, what did he do? He got off at the angle. And when he got off at the angle, he didn't have to back up in a straight line. Again, he was off to the side. But that's what opened up the right cross. And once the heavy artillery began to land, it went downhill fast. And if you're on the verge of pouring out your gas tank,

which I think in hindsight, and it was probably the right strategy for Roundtree, he seemed to use a lot of energy in the first and second round trying to land those big shots, which won him those rounds. Those were long, chasing him down like that. But that's going to catch up, and it's especially going to catch up when you get rocked with a big one. And you're right, once those right hands started to hit, the fight started to turn in the other direction.

And when you're seeing Poiton going downhill, it takes a Herculean performance with the will and the chin that Roundtree put himself through to even have a chance to linger. I mean, the shots he was taking from Poiton cleanly once that sort of changed, once those adjustments were being made, I think it played into that stamina just not being there for that style as well. And you're right, when it went downhill, it went downhill fast. And, you know, so you want to be an ultimate fighter is always the great goldie refrain here's the picture of roundtree's face after that dana quote tweeted to shout him out there on instagram whatever um how about that booger that came out of his nose when he was talking to it was like brain matter it was

disgusting and in like you know i talked a lot about him being number eight and getting this over Ankalayev. And it didn't make a lot of sense. But you kind of see what the UFC was doing. And he didn't need to do this to win me over because I've always respected Roundtree and his story. And if he would have pulled the upset here, you would have been like, man, couldn't have happened to a better guy. Seriously. But damn right, dude. He won me over with this performance. It's like the willingness in his one chance, in his shot here,

to climb the mountain, to take what he had to and still keep coming back and resetting himself and trying. It was superhuman. It was another level. I want to say this. I certainly don't disagree with that. I mean, Khalil Roundtree, if you didn't have your respect before, I think he earned it.

Because people fall when Peloton hits them with one of those clean ones. And he's taken four, five, six, seven about how about towards the end of the fourth he's doing guard peels so like round trees like this and poeton is literally doing what's called a guard peel where he takes the hand rips it down and then comes over to an unobstructed view of your face just drilling it and that wasn't even what dropped him it was the knee followed by the two body shots and then the uppercut and that finally sent him crashing to the mat but even then he was still conscious but i just want to say a little round tree put on like we always said bc we we we both said before the fight you go back and look at demetrius johnson versus tim elliott this was not a guy

who you thought oh like that's the guy that's going to be demetrius and he didn't but he gave him a hell of a fight these These guys ranked 7 and 8. It's the biggest night of their life. You have no idea how ready they can be, and he really showed us something, but I really want to go back to a point about Poiton, if I may, which is did Khalil Rountree

have a great game plan that he executed on early? Simply no question about it, took the first two rounds. But once that game plan got exhausted and you saw Poiton manage distance better, he wasn't running into things, he was getting his jab cooking, he was getting his low kick cooking, he didn't have another place to go. The game just kind of evaporated and then it fell apart. Poiton could not get his left hook going. He landed it a couple times in this fight, but was it a big factor?

No. And eventually he landed the right hand, but it was barely a factor in the first two or three rounds. Barely. I love what Poetan did because parts of his game, the head kick, by the way, on the right-hand side, didn't work. Poetan almost got ended by a head kick. Did you see how close he came when they slowed that down

where the kick's coming, he's leaning into it, and then he turns directions and just. But also, like, I mean, his head kick is what I'm talking about. I remember he threw it a couple of times. Vicious ones. Round tree, caught it, and then circle parried and came over the top and drilled him. He could. What I'm saying is the left hook, the right high kick.

Many of his best weapons were taken away. But what does a championship quality guy do? He has a mastery of the basics, and we call them basic like they're easy. Simple, not easy, and he was able to go back to the jab, back to the low kick, and just break this guy down so he was more manageable, and then he turned on the afterburners. And does he not have the right mentor in the corner in Glover Teixeira

who carved out probably the best stretch of his career at a time when we thought he was done by going back to the basics of his grappling and jujitsu and really focusing on control and trying not to be in as many absolute wars although Glover inevitably always gets in those absolute wars but Luke so this guy's just different Poetan and I mentioned you know star wise he's he's I mean he's not John or Connor but like who the hell is? Very few in the history. Where is he on the star value list right now? We did this exercise a couple weeks ago where we talked about it on various shows

when it was O'Malley fighting at the Sphere. It's like if he wins and if he knocks out Murab, could he be the biggest star in the UFC? Is Boateng no worse than number three on the list of biggest stars in the UFC, or do you think there's because of that value overall that it could pull him atop that at the moment? Because it's not like Conor's active. So are we discounting Conor?

If we're making a list, are we counting Conor or not? I mean, Conor's still got to be number one, because if he walks through that door tomorrow against anybody, it's a million and a half pages. So not counting him, who are the biggest stars? Poetan has to be on that list, if not number one. John, Max, Poirier. How much longer does he have? Poirier's a star, but... Islam

without a question. Poetan is actively headlining pay-per-views several times in this calendar year. So how far has it caught on with the mainstream, in your opinion? That's what's interesting. This is the issue that Poetan does face. For example, I can only use the traffic that I received from, let's say, UFC 306 to UFC 307.

And of course, UFC 306 was a much bigger deal, if for no other reason than the venue alone was part of the story. I would say that it felt a lot bigger to me in terms of the traffic that I received at 306 versus 307. Especially, now not 300. 300 was obviously gigantic. But 303 was not necessarily all that big. This is the problem that Poiton faces. He's so good for the UFC because he wins. He shows up. He looks like a fucking serial killer.

He's got everything that they want. He doesn't have a rival. We'll see what Ankhalaev can do. I mean, he has his greatest rival is one of the greatest rivalries of all time. He has Adesanya at 85 Adesanya could fight at 205 okay he's already done it for the title and didn't it I'm not I'm not discounting that but it seems like that's on ice or not in their plans or if if Izzy said I'm gonna go to 205 I will completely argument that he needs that rival to lift him into like being

the number one what I'm saying is fighting Yuri is not nothing it's a lot right that he needs that rival to lift him into being the number one slayer? What I'm saying is fighting Yuri is not nothing. It's a lot. That was on short notice, and that was really not the best way. You're not setting him up with a prime opponent on a collision course. The Izzy one was collision course, both of them, obviously, the two MMA ones. I'm saying now at 205, you've got Ankalaya, but he still has to be Rockets. And even if he does, he's kind of a fucking donk. This is why you want to see him against a pre- See it to his face, Luke.

Like, if for no other reason, this is why you want to see him against Aspinall. Do I think he can beat Aspinall? Probably not because of the wrestling. Right. But at least you're giving him another A-plus quality guy. Okay, we're going to get into topic two, what's next, specifically for Poetan. But before we do, connected to that, I want to talk about the activity level. What you said is right.

He's not going to fight three more times in the next 175 days. It's not going to happen. He's going to have to take some time to rest off the, the brutality of this fight and the injuries that he brought in on the short turnaround and just the overall grind. He is 38, but if he's scaling upwards potentially, and we'll talk about that heavyweight is still a topic he

brings up will that even matter how quick should he come back luke in your eyes knowing the the ufc is going to pick up that phone value wise and be like hey you ready yet so i know he wants some time off and he definitely needs it if i were i mean unless the ufc tells him there's no way we're ever going to consider using you as any kind of backup for the John Jones Stipe fight that he needs to take the rest of the year off matter of factly like needs to take uh all of October November and December completely like you could train or whatever but like not no camp you're not fighting and honestly I would say first second quarter I mean I would like to see him back first quarter 2025 second second quarter at the latest, because that's what I feel.

I mean, he's never going to want to be away that long anyway, it seems like. I don't think he likes just sitting around. He's 38 years old. He has to get to work. So I'm going to say first quarter 2025 seems like a good time. Yeah, I mean, it's not that much time in reality, but for him, it's... But it could be. It could be if he fights, let's say, in February, late February, he would have, you know, close to five months away.

That's pretty good, actually. So they're probably not going to call him if shit goes haywire at MSG, right? They might, dude. Dude, they'll make a call to anybody if shit goes haywire. All right, let's get to topic number two, which is about not just what's next for Poetan, but the impact he's making with these performances in his own division. So Poetan moves into a third-place tie with Daniel Cormier with three title defenses in light heavyweight history. It seems, Luke, like every three months when he returns in fights

and knocks somebody big out that we try to frame historically how to frame this impossible journey. He's not even been with the UFC three full years and look at everything he's accomplished. What do you think now in totality when you add the round tree win to everything he's accomplished in this very short time since making the full-time move to MMA? How did this performance add or change the place that he's at in UFC light heavyweight history? Because when you look at the numbers and title defenses, he's making some moves in a very quick amount of time.

Can you set the context so that the folks know what the leaderboard looks like? So the leaderboard is like this. Jon Jones leads light heavyweight history with 11 title defenses. Tito Ortiz is number two with five. You have Frank Shamrock and Chuck Liddell tied for third with four. And then at three now is Daniel Cormier and Alex Pereira.

Okay, so there's two basic things you have to decide if you want to rank this properly. One is how you want to rank era, because Frank Shamrock and Tito are obviously of a different era. They were very, very dominant for their time, but some folks are going to have difficulty ranking what somebody achieved in 2024 relative to 2004. That's going to be a problem. The second problem you're going to have to kind of reconcile is that i personally believe and i

can't exactly prove this but i i personally believe that cormier in general beat better fighters that's what i kind of believe i would i would agree with that um as good as Poiton is Cormier as light heavyweight champion beats him we should be very clear about that not on the feet I mean I think Poiton wrecks him and just about everybody else on the feet but Poiton I'm not mad at him for this but he has benefited from a historically relatively weak era of light heavyweights overall and it's not like they're running Ankalayev into him on purpose by accident and also some favorable matchmaking and i don't mind the favorable matchmaking like we have said it was smart of the ufc to do it the way they've done because look at his star power look how it's grown look how much he's done for them it all worked like it was

exactly the right call but when we're evaluating a resume it's like dude like uncle i have not even that good of a wrestler, and he might boss him around. We don't know. We have to see. But, like, how would Prime Phil Davis do against Poiton? Dude, I hate to tell you this. Prime Davis would beat the shit out of him.

All right, beat the shit out of his wrestler. On the ground, he would not. I'm not saying he wouldn't take him down and have great success there, but to blankly say that he's going to beat the shit out of him. He's still, to get those takedowns, he's got to walk through the hammer that's coming out of him. Okay, fine. Long Island Luke, prime Phil Davis. What does he do? Prime Phil Davis.

What does he do to Poiton? He doesn't beat the shit out of him. I mean, come on. Yeah, I don't know. It's probably somewhat competitive. Where? We're not disputing on the fee that Poiton's going to smoke him. That's really not the point.

We're talking about once he gets a hold of him, what's going to happen? He's going to take him down. What about Cormier? What does Cormier? Yeah, Cormier's going to take him down. I mean, that's what not the point we're talking about like once he gets a hold of him what's going to happen he's going to take him down what about cormier what is cormier is going to take him down i mean that's what's going to happen yeah cormier is going to take him down all right we'll have to see how he does against uncle live to get a better sense and i'm not fighting what you're trying to say ultimately which is he can only fight who's available to him in his era right now they're not comparable in our opinion to dc and he's not it's not like he's knocking down the door to break the record of the title defenses anyway. I mean, it's unreachable at this moment. So I think it's still too early because he's only been in the light

heavyweight division for that much. And I know that it's been a string of all current or former champions that he's walking through, but his, you know, so much of his legacy is middleweight, just the same in the short, less than three year window.

The question is that you have to ask is, is he a top five all-time light heavyweight? Here's what's noteworthy. Couture is not on that list. Right, a two-time light heavyweight champion. Vitor Belfort is not on that list. Vanderlei Silva is not on that list. Dan Henderson is not on that list.

You have to ask yourself, has what Poiton's done as impressive as it has been does it put him above names like that? I think uncomfortably it does put him ahead of some of these guys that we revere I do think it puts him ahead of well Dan Henderson's

It's hard to know how much you can count for some of these guys of what they did in pride or what they did elsewhere. But Dan Henderson being the middle weight and basically the light heavyweight champion, again, it was welterweight and middleweight for them. But essentially those two weight classes is pretty remarkable. But in terms of what Poiton has done, what 175-day stretch does Dan Henderson have at this weight class and this weight class alone that's as good as Poiton's? I don't know what it is well i think that's part of what makes poetons so unique not just that it's hard to compare anyone having this type of success in such a short window of time whether you're talking about the less than

three year two division champion run or the 176 day three title defense run i mean just walk through these people it's ridiculous but luke i think he his, his legacy is so unique that it has to be, his great argument is on a, on a totality, like the idea of what is he going to do next? And will he ever get that chance at the three becoming the first three division champion? I think his greatest argument is going to be not in a specific division, kind of like BJ Penn where, you know what I mean? Yes.

He made most of his bones at lightweight, but it's always debated between the lightweight and welterweight sides of his legacy. When trying to rank in just one division it's harder when somebody's built their legacy across two divisions in some degree so yeah and penn did more than just those two divisions he also won at 85 too i don't like him even at this point in this discussion because when you look at those title defense lists he's not close right you got to give respect to what ortiz did in that era and what shamrock and um and shamrock one is interesting for me like shamrock was a was an unbelievable athlete but like you think the pioneering element takes away from the comparing of greatness because i think

that i mean he was dealing with light heavyweight and middleweight like when the when the differentiator was like 199 versus 200 pounds and just such a different time for the game it's such a different time for the game so the question i ask again like what 175 day stretch do they have that's as comparable as this one like this is what i mean like can you say poeton has passed like a tito ortiz that seems a lot on the other hand what he's doing already in these compact amounts of time like how much he's putting into it almost none of these other guys. Jon Jones had four fights in 2011, if I recall. But most of these other guys don't have

anything on their resume that looks like that particular moment in time. Well, look at this stat in terms of days as UFC light heavyweight champion. Jones obviously first over two reigns with 2,098 days as champion. Cormier over 1,300 days. Tito Ortiz over 1, Liddell 770 days Shamrock

700 days Pereira 330 days he's already on he's already got three defenses and you could argue he's headlined the last three most important cards like I mentioned international fight week when Conor fell out 300 at the last minute and then replacing Jonesones and miochic in the msg main event a year ago crazy that's insane so he's a gamer unlike any other it's it's when we talk i mean we have to continue to talk about what he's doing it's incredible but luke let's talk about what he could be doing next let's go to the quote board here this is the quote he gave in the cage afterwards to joe rogan about his future he says we saw that drichus is going to be fighting sean strickland he is a training partner of mine.

I don't want to get in Sean's way. I can move up to heavyweight, but light heavyweight is great. I feel great with this weight cut. So, Luke, he's been going on and on about going to 85 and fighting DDP. Before that, it was I want to go to heavyweight and potentially fight Jon Jones or Aspinall or whoever's there.

What does this tell you? That he's more comfortable now staying home, knowing that it's probably Ankhalaev next. Let's continue to build what he's doing at 205. Once you get past Ankhalaev, I know Jan Blachowicz is probably still out there and wants another crack, but I don't know exactly how... It was a split decision in their first fight.

Fair enough, but I don't know exactly how close he is to getting another one. I guess he could be. Also, he's getting a lot older, so his, you know, father time stops for nobody. It's a smart call, because what he's basically saying, it's, first of all, I his father time stops for nobody. It's a smart call because what he's basically saying is, first of all, Khalil Roundtree is not a soft puncher, but Poetan seemed to be able to withstand the vast majority of it pretty well.

The head kick, obviously, or excuse me, the hook he didn't see off the failed head kick was a lot. He also doesn't sell when he's hurt, though. You have to remember that. Very good. head kick was a lot he also doesn't sell when he's hurt though you have to remember you're right very good so but i'm but i'm saying like you know khalil obviously can thump and it didn't like crazy beat up poet on but it probably had him it clearly observably had him measuring himself at 85 against ddp i just don't like that i just it's too much of a drain we'll talk about kayla a little bit later so i think he and his team probably know that as well, which makes, okay, so what are our options? 205 and heavyweight.

He'll go big game hunting at heavyweight if it's there. But, like, you look at these guys at 205, if Rakic, excuse me, if Ivankolayev can't get past Rakic, who is the other person in this division who's going to wrestle him into the dirt right now? I mean, I'm not saying it can't be done, but there's no obvious candidate. There's no Phil Davis out there waiting to drive him this

way. So it's like, why not just stick around? What do you think about my three fight plan for him? And I'm not saying it has to be three in the done because I think at 38 he's not showing signs of slippage. So as long as he takes enough rest from the grind of these, how about this? Comes back against Ankalayev, provided Ankalayev beats Rakic. So you got to take your

true style test there. You pass that one. Number three against Adesanya to defend your light heavyweight title. Because you can kind of argue, has Adesanya played his way out of the title picture at middleweight for now? It's a lot of losses in this short period. Yes, middleweight right now, yes. I could see that.

And then the third, you move up to heavyweight and take your swing, whoever's there, probably going to be Aspinall, but you'll have to wait and see. What do you think about that three-fight plan? I don't hate it at all. I don't really know. Aside from Ankaliev with a win later this month, I don't know who has some kind of mandate for a title shot. Blahovic thinks he's got

one. I'm less convinced. And so, you could bring up Izzy easily. You could sell that one. You're going to give Ankaliev his shot, provided he earns it. And then you go big game hunting at heavyweight. I mean, what would be the problem? Let's say he lost to Ankalayev. Would they do an Izzy trilogy without a title?

Well, if they needed one, sure. But it would need to be five rounds. So would the worst case scenario have to be some kind of co-main somewhere that they could just bump to five. Oh, I'd make that a pay-per-view main event without a title. They're just rivalry alone. I don't think you can do that. I just don't know if you'd waste that without a title

and try to wait to see what happens if he gets one. I don't know. There's a lot of what-ifs. I'm with you that they could do that. I don't know that they would do that. So I got some early offshore odds of what they think Poetown would be against other opponents okay plus 120 versus ankalev i can buy that plus 300 versus aspinall i could definitely buy that plus 155 against adesanya at what weight there's no no no preference on that i don't i don't believe. At 205, I don't buy that. Yeah. And then plus 450 against Jones.

Yeah, that's probably fair. One name we're not mentioning in terms of who's next is former champion Jamal Hill. But Jamal Hill had this reaction in the crowd after Poiton delivered the KO. Luke, did you see it? He looks like Tyron Woodley in that video. Yeah, I mean, who yawns like that? I thought he was getting after something right there he was doing the like like uh you know how anderson silva used to like he would

blow a kiss by kissing his palm and then like yes like you know what's the uh what are those things in alien that like they latch onto your face i know exactly what you're talking about don't most people do like this like oh like that he was like he was like trying to like well he wasn't impressed by it so this information was passed on to poet on at the post fight press Ele estava tentando... Ele não estava impressionado com isso, então essa informação foi enviada ao Poetown na cobertura de pressa após a luta. Jamal Hill foi visto chorando após a luta. Parece que ele está impondo que a luta foi aborrecida. Estou curiosa se você pode responder a isso. Tem um vídeo do Jamal Hill bocejando depois da luta, como se... Dizendo que a luta foi chata. O que você acha?

Quem? Não entendi. O Jamal Hill, tem um vídeo dele aqui na arena, tipo, bocejando, como se sua luta fosse chata. Tá bom. É, pior que nem eu, acho que ele acabou de acordar do 300. É, talvez ele acorde do UFC 300. Cara, ele não consegue perder. Sério. Tipo, você está esperando ele be super cringe on camera one day and he can't miss he just is i mean he couldn't have been less bothered by that well here's the response

on ig in the comment section from jamal hill who said you said that but you will see me soon and we will see when you wake up um the internet does not like jamal hill's attack here do you think there's any chance he gets in the sweepstakes without coming back i think it's possible he has history with them and listen yeah but what's the history i mean he's trying to claim that that the referee distraction led to the ko but you rewatch the tape and that's not true okay okay but like dude squeaky wheel gets the grease it doesn't matter like he has what if he shows up and attacks him that changes the equation you show up big time right yeah he can do the whole uh shannon the cannon briggs yes let's go champ i eat where you eat champ okay he'll find

him in brazil paddle boarding stand up paddleboard dude people get annoyed by the jamal hill thing i'm fine you can be annoyed by it but like he's actively trying to create a reason for you to either he thinks he's like lobbying i think for a title shot but what he's actually doing is making people hate him enough where if they book the fight you would really want to see jamal he'll get i think a lot of fans would see him get like crushed again but that's incentive for the ufc to make it like he wins he won't really want to see that fight i mean can a lot of get his chance i mean he's got to go through a guy who just lost by tko two consecutive times alexander rakic is a big dude.

I know he can win this. He was beating the shit out of Prochocka before he just kind of gassed out. I'm just saying they're making this guy run through hurdles, man. Give him his shot. Alankolayev finds himself in this position because he has donked it up. He is a donk. Multiple times. How the fuck do you have a draw with five rounds with Blachowicz when it was your turn?

Like, you could have just taken the fucking guy down and you were just out here dicking around for three rounds. He left around and got a triple-double, I think, is what happened. Hey, we got to keep going here. Let's go to topic number three. Wow, the Bantamweight division women's side in UFC was put on full showcase at 307 on Saturday. Juliana Pena became a two-time champion at 135

with a very disputed split decision win over Raquel Rocky Pennington. And number one contender status seemed to be locked up and cemented by Kayla Harrison in her tougher-than-expected decision win against Ketlyn Vieira. So, Luke, we're not going to pull any punches here, okay? You ready for this?

Okay. What did UFC 307 in totality illustrate about the current status of the UFC women's band and weight division? It's sorry. Sorry. I mean, I hate to be so blunt about it. It's just not great. Listen, can we be honest? You're not here to, like, come on MMA Twitter and say that, like, you know, we need to shut down all the women's divisions and money will go up and let's keep the fans happy.

No, I don't. Because I don't believe that, I don't hate women. That's the difference. I do think that this division is not great, but I don't hate women more generally, and so I'm not encumbered by these, like, very difficult feelings that certain people have to reconcile. I will say this.

Let me just ask a small question to you. Like, what kind of grade would you give the fight itself? A letter? In a letter grade? Yeah, A, B, f what do you think d plus i think it's a little strong i'd give it a i'd give it a c maybe at worst c minus can you can you kind of agree i said c out loud before yeah i think it's about right i think c's about it wasn't terrible it wasn't good but it wasn't terrible i mean it was better than the bueno silva pannington vacant title think that's about right. I think C's about right. It wasn't terrible. It wasn't good, but it wasn't terrible. I mean, it was better than the Bueno Silva-Pennington vacant title fight. That's not saying much. There was, like, intensity and people.

I want to be fair. First of all, I thought Rocky Pennington won. I thought that she deserved to win. In real time, I've not gone back and watched it like you did, so perhaps you'll have a different perspective. And I didn't hate the fight. But when I watched this, it did not occur to me that these were two transcendent athletes

who were clearly better than the rest of their peers fighting over a very coveted prize. It's a coveted prize and it was a fine fight, but it didn't seem superb or excellent or different or better than what you would get for run-of-the-mill contenders anyway. It was okay. It didn't feel like elite MMA. It did not in any way feel like elite MMA.

And I think that's really the kind of problem. And, of course, it was for the title. And to the point that you raised, like Rocky Pennington has kind of had these wins where she's put together, absent Saturday, like a good win streak, but a lot of them were like nickel and diming her way here. And then she loses one on the other end of nickel and diming

because round one was essentially the swing round, at least the one. It definitely end of nickel and diming um because round one was essentially the swing round at least the one definitely was so two of three judges gave round one to pena which i i didn't see in real time but i can sort of understand agree though that two and three definitely paying your rounds and then four and five you got to give rocky credit if you're scoring at pride vision just look at the fight who won it rocky landed the bigger shots and also like the memorable offense is what the back taking by pain yes and then the big right hand that dropped pena by pennington those are the things you really remember and because like there wasn't like a really tight submission or

there wasn't it was just good back control it was good back control this is sort of what i mean it just felt like you're not watching like it wasn't in any way must see. It wasn't better than a lot of what you see from the other peer divisions, even in women's MMA. It felt like a fight that had to happen to move the chains forward. I know, but it's like any moment they tried to create from the split screen with Kayla to everything like it just kind of fell flat. Even Kayla's performance, which I want to get into, and I was impressed by it. It didn't have that minus 900 running through your screen big finish like finally you know she's here to save the Bantamweight division I'm not really sure but quickly on the scoring I re-watched the first round for whatever it's worth I don't think this is a robbery in real time I did score it for Pena

I re-watched it almost expecting that I would go back and score it for Pennington and I just think like it's it's that close Pennington had the flashier shots when you consider the right uppercut that she caught it on a perfect angle with. And she had also a big right hand. But I thought Pena landed more shots. I thought her jab was more consistent. And she did have three big right hands

in the final five seconds that I think was enough to just sway slightly. Ultimately, it's a 10-10 round where not much happened. That ultimately decided the fight, though. So I think there's layers. and we'll get into the undercard in some of the debates between robberies and stuff. There's levels and layers to this. It wasn't a robbery.

It was just a really close round that could have gone either way, in my opinion. Although, obviously, with your eyes, you're telling you Pennington fought the better fight overall, and she peaked in the championship rounds, which is what you want. Definitely not a robbery. That would be totally unfair. It was close. And as a rule, as a rule, if a fight is close in the 10-point must system,

it can go to either person. You have to live with that, even if you sort of more clearly favor one person over the other. But, I mean, this is the thing for me. It's like, dude, why did they bring in Pena? They brought her in not because she was on a hot win streak. She hadn't fought in two years. But they held her back, I thought. Gassed out in the championship rounds well more to the point

they brought her in because yes she has an action-oriented style for the most part but really it's because she would sell the fight and in fact during fight week she sold the rivalry with kayla harrison they were kind of jibber-jabbering at the presser she does a lot of media interviews where she goes after them and then in the post-fight moment with Joe Rogan, where they're asking her, like, what's next? To your point, they had a split screen, and she calls out Amanda Nunes. There is no mandate for that third fight at all.

Nobody wants to see it. Nobody was asking for it. The first fight was affected by Amanda's lack of performance, and the right was wronged in the rematch she won 50 to 43 my point being is if you're brought in for a purpose which is to energize the rivalry don't deflate the rivalry by fucking it up when it's your turn to energize it even though i'm trying to tell you that there's an argument for pain yet and i scored it just by you know 10 point must system round by round it was almost the worst case scenario that she won in the manner she did kind of fading late and then the crowd's booing and then scored it just by a 10-point must system round by round, it was almost the worst-case scenario that she won in the manner she did, kind of fading late,

and then the crowd's booing, and then they're just sort of like, we're not accepting this division necessarily, and we're not even accepting this champion, and then she doesn't even build the rivalry with Kayla. She goes into business for herself to the Nunes fight, and she's not going to be able to get that Nunes fight unless she goes through Kayla first,

and that should be rightfully so. It would seem like, obviously, because Kayla versus Amanda is the much bigger fight, and she's not going to be able to get that Nunes fight unless she goes through Kayla first, and that should be rightfully so. It would seem like, obviously, because Kayla versus Amanda is the much bigger fight with the bigger storyline that they would be building to. But, Luke, I didn't see enough improvement from Peña on the two-year gap. Like, was her boxing as poor technically as it was in the Amanda rematch? No. No, it was better.

Her jab was much better. But I didn't see as much of a physical threat. You know, yes, she took her back in that one point, but it wasn't like the threat of the takedown was constantly there. It was just sort of two competitive people going for a title. That is it. No more, no less. So not only did Pena not allow the moment to try to build to the Kayla fight,

this is her afterwards at the press conference continuing the theme that she just wasn't impressed with Kayla at all. I, I was, to be honest, I'll tell you, I, um, was warming up and focusing on my own fight. But with that being said, I had my coaches there watching the fight and kind of giving me the 4-1-1 on what was going down. We're not impressed. She said she was going to put an elbow through her skull and she was going to, you know, do all this damage damage like the girl didn't have a scratch on her it was boring and she didn't do anything that you know jumped off the pages like oh the boogeyman you know what i mean so i was definitely um you know especially with you know hearing from my team not impressed well luke the counter to that statement might have come from

kayla after the fight when she said ultimately i think Ketlin Vieira who she had to not rally but but make adjustments and win a victory despite being swollen and cut from the damage uh she said she thinks she's tougher than both Pennington or Pena in terms of a tougher opponent after hearing what Juliana said do you agree or are you more impressed than you are not with how Kayla ultimately got it done in this number one contender fight? I actually felt like Pena's assessment of Harrison's performance was actually quite fair. I was also not super impressed. Okay, why? So, okay, listen.

How do I say this exactly? Harrison's ground game is terrifying. It's terrifying. Especially with elbows. Right. She's ridiculous in that regard. So you really have to respect that, and I do. I think that's the part of her game that is electric.

But I just don't think people really understand exactly how much weight she's losing. Like, people talk about the weight cut. The weight cut is actually the least of my concerns with her. It's the amount of, like, she is going to, in order to make 135 pounds, the length of the caloric deficit that she has to be in has to be fucking her up big time. I made this point to Long Island Luke before the show. Whenever she moves, not in judo, where she was 176 pounds when she competed.

Understand, 40 more pounds naturally than where she is ultimately to get down to 135. When she was doing that, she was fleet of foot and quick. I mean, she wasn't like Tyreek Hill or something. Right, but she's explosive. Explosive. Here it looks like she's moving in quicksand. Like she almost is one of those, you ever seen those guys on the track and they're running

and they've got the parachute attached to themselves? It feels like she can barely move the way she is actually capable of moving. So do you think it wasn't as much as Ketlin Vieira showing really good takedown defense and maybe it was just Kayla not having that extra gear that she would normally turn into? So I'm glad you asked that

because I think that's one part of the equation what I've mentioned in terms of, I don't really think folks appreciate how much, not the weight cut per se, but the entire caloric deficit she has to be in. She fought at 155 in PFL. She's fighting at 135. And again, at judo, 176. Yes.

I don't think folks really appreciate that. She had one fight at 145 and made this huge leap down. Well, they made her go through a second hurdle of Vieira, but she did show toughness calmness poise made the adjustments found out the way to win the fight but even in my white belt eyes luke she's got to have more opportunities to bring the fight to the ground it feels like she has that one entry so of trying to get the trip in the clinch and that's it you know what's kind of interesting to me about this is if you look at habib habib was interesting to me and i know there's some folks being like you know who who is who has a better record habib or poet on like who deserves like better placement on the goat

ranking and the answer is habib although what poet on is doing is obviously very very impressive and special you don't hold the one title defense against habib i think it's two title defenses if i'm not mistaken oh you might be right um you do. You have to hold it against him. Like, he bowed out early. That's going to cost him. But Habib was a guy who. He got Conor, Justin, and Dustin. Conor, Justin.

So maybe it is three. Conor was to win it, though, wasn't it? I don't remember anymore. No, it was Ally Quinto to win it. That's right. But the point I want to make is. I forgot. Oh, yes.

Habib has the ability to get those trips in the clinch but if that doesn't work he'll just go back to traditional single and double leg wrestling or then mix that into body lock wrestling and he could put all of them together habib by the way like why he wins over the poet on argument is because he leveled up the game right the game got better the entire game got better by virtue of what guys like him, and he was the vanguard of it, were doing. Like, Poiton hasn't had that effect on the game, and I don't think folks fully appreciate that.

What I'm trying to point out to you is you're right. Half of it is we're just draining this dynamic athlete down to dust, and you're not getting a very good version of her, at least relative to what we know it could be. The other component is when she had that one body lock up against the cage it was kind of harassing the balance of vieta like go back and watch what i've said about habib what does habib do when he has someone up against the fence like that he is moving them left to right forward and back to get them to balance and then from that he can change levels he can pick up a leg he can do whatever he needs to do to harass them, to take them off balance.

She was just kind of standing there. And again, it's like I appreciate how much this cut is so insane. But if all you can do of a body lock, of course, is easy for me to say, but all you can do of a body lock is kind of harass the balance. Are we supposed to rate that highly? I don't think we're supposed to rate that highly. She didn't have a lot of success striking on the feet against Vera. That's the other problem.

Vera might have been the toughest challenge available to her in this division. It might be true. And I'm sure she punches hard and it's no simple thing, but you're almost 20 fights in. This is what I think. I think it's hard to understand how much that cut is killing her because it just looks like it's very hard for her to move in a dynamic way on the feet.

And I have to believe she's getting drained to a point where she's not recognizable as an athlete. Well, you wonder, can she do the five-round championship necessity at this weight class? If she can get the takedown, yes. If she has to stand on the feet and someone's, like, forcing her to engage, I don't know. I don't know how to answer the offshore odds have minus 700 harrison plus 500 pena which surprised me that it would be that that big why would that surprise you that that's that suggests absolute domination from what you saw in the two matchups do you still think absolute domination for harrison is in the cards i think at the you know pena like pennington is good enough to be stubborn and to

really make it a a close grinding fight if kayla's plan a doesn't go her way do you believe kayla's plan a would go her way in a matchup with pena fairly easily the only thing i can say is that pena is going to bring the fight to her in a way where viera was a little bit more reluctant sure and that's going to open up that's going to open up opportunities and by the way once kayla gets someone down you know i'm not gonna say it's curtains but it's real ugly for their opponents like she's bet on the ground she's better than everyone else in that division quite obviously right it's just that the transition and then the space before it's like 20 fights in you're a double gold medal winner like there there has to be more there has to be everything we said about this division to start this point and maybe you know

it's it's out of it's at a very low moment but the best case scenario did happen for the promotion that these two are going to now build to the title fight pain here versus harrison because they're the biggest short of talkers and brands and if we think the winner gets potentially a man who is coming out of retirement that's not awful for a division that is pretty awful right now i'm going through an awful stretch that is the best way for it to be played again i think pena kind of shat the bed a little bit being like yeah i'm gonna find amanda nunez like okay you're not you're not but uh i would agree they clearly wanted to milk a little bit a pena and harrison rivalry and again i think pena will sell the shit

out of this fight when it finally happens. Kayla can talk. Kayla's gotten a lot better with it as well. But in terms of my long-term projections for the division, it's not like I walked away from 307 being like, you know what? There's a renewed sense of life for here. I didn't get that sense at all.

There is at 125. There's not here. One more piece of business connected to this was the smart cage during 307. Thought it was smart to cue up some highlights of Larissa Pacheco in the third meeting with Kayla Harrison that happened under the PFL banner, and she got the decision upset win. That information was shared with Dana at the post-fight press conference to give him a chance to dunk all over Don Davis and the boys.

And Luke, he did that. Let's listen. press conference to give him a chance to dunk all over Don Davis and the boys and Luke double old double D's he did that let's listen PFL posted a video about a few hours before her fight kind of putting her down and using that as a way to promote their their upcoming fight with Larissa what do you think as a promoter do you think that's the right kind of play to go by I think when you're losing as much money as they are, fucking go for it. Fucking throw the kitchen sink at it. This guy just came out recently and said, you know, we're going to spend more money than they did on the sphere.

That sounds fucking brilliant. How many tickets are you going to sell? They're not very bright. How many chicks you have? If I were them, I would do it. Listen, it's all fair. Knock yourself out. They're drowning. Drowning.

They suck. I mean, they're not good at what they do. So I guess you would just keep trying anything you can to make something stick. All good. Wow, he seemed to enjoy that session. I mean, here's the problem. Can you really say he's wrong about any of that? You cannot.

I wish it was different. I wish I could beg the differ, Luke, but I am excited for this pay-per-view coming up with Nganou. There's good matchups on there, but hey, we got to keep it going. Let's go to topic number four. It's elsewhere at UFC 307, which featured a cacophony of bad judging, worse refereeing. Can we talk about that?

And a Carla Esparza retirement. So, Luke, I'm going to ask you, what do you think the biggest storyline is coming out of the 307 undercard? Pick whatever you want right now. Alright, so I will say this. You can complain about, I can't pronounce his name, Sejestad, Sejestad, the referee. I call

him local referee. Yeah, local referee and the Cesar Almeida, Ihor Potieria. By the way, Ihor Potieria, is he the guy, like there's always one guy on the roster, and they win and lose, but they lose their balance more than anybody else. I feel like Potiora is, like, always has vertigo or some shit. Like, he can't stay on his feet for fucking anything. So you're saying he's not actually always in action wars?

He just can't? He has no balance? He's always fighting? Yeah, like, does he have a busted eardrum or something? What's wrong with him? Also, he does have very good tattoos. I don't want his tattoos, but they are very... That's an aggressive representation of Christ. Go for it. It's a very aggressive one, but hey, it works for him. Let me say this,

and credit to the MMA draw, in particular Zach Arnold previously, or I think he still might have fight opinion. He has made a point for quite some time, and it's really worth taking seriously, which is, and it's not just with UFC. It's almost in sports more generally, depending on where you look, which is that who is one of the biggest customers the UFC serves?

I read that piece on the train this morning. Is it you and is it me? To an extent, but it is also government contracts that they have to serve. That's actually who many of them. That's when you sign with a big city for a multimillion- dollar deal three events in the year so why were they in utah why were they why was the ufc in utah were they in utah because they have the best commission no were they because they had the best fans they had some decent fans yeah but nothing like like super special about it they were fine they were good but like it wasn't it was a clean

downtown in salt lake city i did like i do Lake City. However, my point I'm trying to make is they were there because basically the government of Utah, vis-a-vis Salt Lake City and the commission there, they had essentially paid them, the tourism board, excuse me, they had paid them to be there. That's why they were there. Talk about Ryan Smith. Who? That was part of that whole extended story. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Oh, the guy, yeah. I'm trying to make a bigger argument. Yeah. This is why it's relevant. Why do you have dumb fuck judges and terrible referees? Because when the UFC goes to a new state, they will bring a Herb Dean or a Mark Goddard or more established referees,

and then they'll also just sample the local population for what they have. Well, Utah's commission is not great. It's not a fight city. They don't have a great history outside of those two big UFC cards where there were head kick knockouts. So this is the point I'm trying to make. The UFC is in a business where they want to get maximum revenue from tourism boards in Australia, tourism entities in the Middle East, tourism boards here, even stateside. And to do that, that means they have to go to places that would ordinarily never get these fights,

which means you're getting judges and referees who suck balls, who are not good at their job. And by the way, I want to say this. You are fucking up fighters' careers, and you are fucking up. Okay, you're right. Okay, so my point I'm trying to make here is it's nice to go and take the UFC machine to all different places. I've had enough of Utah. And if the whole point is, if the whole point is the only reason why we're really there is because we're just maximum bidding, essentially government contracts.

The people who end up suffering the most is actually not even you and me. It's the fighters who get screwed with bad judges or referees who watch four to five eye pokes and don't even give a fucking warning. So it's unforgivable that performance in the Potierra fight that you're talking about. I think, unfortunately, a lot of the other black eyes on this card began to all get like another moment where I don't even think all of these were actually robberies, but it all got thrown in of just another incompetence. You're right on a larger point. I don't like when you go to a new place and local referee or judge screws the pooch. I hate that feeling. It does mess with people's careers. But how about specifically

the Mario Bautista-Jose Aldo fight? Because I do think that the judging on that ends up getting tossed into the corruption. They're inept. I'm not sure that actually was. Couldn't you argue that Mario Bautista just played the system of the rules of the scoring, knowing it and strategically won the fight in the manner that he did, particularly in that third round, just constantly after he had built a tiny, a tiny lead in the striking

early in round three, was just content to constantly push Jose to the cage. Yes, referee would break once in a while, but he'd dive back in and do it. You can boo him, yes, but I don't think him getting a close decision when in that instance is a robbery or completely end up judging. It all goes back to the scoring system.

Okay, put the camera on me. Please. Here we go. Put the camera on me. This one goes out to all of the fucking idiots who, when I tried to explain in my videos that I made, we talked about on the show as well, in conversation with referee Herb Dean, I asked a very basic question, which is what do you want MMA to look like? And the argument that I have

made very consistently is, of course, there is going to be a way to do this too over the top, too aggressively, but you want somebody to not allow fighters to maintain control positions by just essentially busy work, you know, throwing shots that don't really do anything and no one is able to extricate them. And then the fight stalls out there. It's two of the most downvoted videos I've ever posted on my channel with a bunch of people saying no, no, no. And now some of you have the balls to be like Mario Bautista ruined this bout. This is the payment for everybody who said, no, I don't want a system where the referees enforce the action. Yes, the fuck you do. Look exactly what happened.

This is a new era where people can use control positions with busy work to hold it. It makes fighting boring as shit, unpalatable, and nobody wants it. So for everyone who said, oh, that's not what I want. That's ridiculous. I wouldn't want that. Murab was working. No, he wasn't in parts. He was absolutely not working in the fifth round. He was actively with different people.

I just want to point out, it is so fucking dishonest for people one week ago to say, no, no, no, Murab was working. This is ridiculous when clearly observably in the fifth round was not working then you get somebody who beats a guy that you love and adore in a way that i agree sucked it was not a great right but he played the system he knows how to win exactly he's fighting by the fucking rules that everyone out there was like these are the rules that we want. Well, welcome to the rules that you want. Well, I also think there's not,

I don't think all the fighters can be as active as Bautista was. A big part of his game is his motor that has led to this very, very under the radar six fight win streak. Again, there's a risk in doing that. You're going to risk the booze of the crowd. You're going to risk getting lower placement in the card. You're going to risk pissing off Dana. But I don't think the issue here was the judges.

It was the scoring system or in your case, the referee who could have, I don't think the issue here was the judges. It was the scoring system, or in your case, the referee, who could have implored even more. Mike Beltran did separate them. But within the scoring system, though, as long as, in this instance, that Bautista thinks he's ahead on the cards, isn't what he's doing to Jose at least taxing him out and taking him away from his game? Isn't there some level of like

controlling the terms of the bout in there that i guess i guess there wasn't damage so we're not really comparing damage here but what he's doing is also on jose to get your ass off the cage that's that's also what i gotta add in there to that yes i certainly agree that jose i mean bautista did make a good point by the way people are killing bautista online and i'm like you can look at his other fights like he's not a he's not like a dynamic finisher but he definitely has like an all-action style I can say that for sure um but the point I want to make was yes there is some blame to go on Jose but Jose is not up against the cage because he's choosing to be he's up against the cage because Bautista is pressing him there without advancing the fight. That's the problem. Can you look at that scenario and say reasonably

that the guy who's in the control position, which is Bautista, is he working to advance the fight towards a finish? Observably, no. Well, isn't he trying? Observably, no. But tell me if I'm wrong. Isn't he trying to take Jose down the entire time?

It's just that Aldo has such great takedown defense. Yes, fine. 16 for 16 against Marab, that it becomes that scenario. Fine. I'm okay with saying that he was the one trying to take him down. If after, and again, everyone's going to have a different sense of things. I'm not going to say shot clock, but after about a minute, if you can't do it, this position has fulfilled its usefulness.

So it's on the ref. And now to me, but again, I'm not killing Mike Beltran in part because we haven't made a turn as a community in MMA to say, we need to empower the referees to stop this shit.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm saying now, we need to empower the referees to stop this shit. Dude, local ref was stopping that shit. Local ref in the potier fight. If they touched each other in the clinch, he's like,

let's stop. Let's get back to it. So I counted. There was one time where he stopped it after eight seconds this is also insane this is the other side of it where you're like no no no no no no no one is saying if because i think it was actually you know what joe rogan didn't have his best call but he did make one point that i thought was super good about that he was like dude the referee is looking at it like it's a boxing contest if you clinch for eight seconds in boxing, for sure they're going to separate you.

Yeah, no, you're right on that. Further on down that card, Luke, well, Kevin Holland popped a rim against Deleuze, and it was kind of just played into like the fights we thought were going to be bangers didn't turn out to be. But we did get what we were looking for, I thought, in Joaquin Buckley versus Wonderboy Thompson. Wonderboy Thompson looks like there's no age limit here,

and he's controlling the action. And then you get that late finish, that late surge. And even before Buckley landed that shot, you felt like he was getting closer and closer and that Thompson was fighting so well, but always that close to danger. Well, that danger caught up with him. How big is this actually for Buckley? Because this is now six straight wins since the official cut down to welterweight. This is the kind of fight where it's like, can he win a title?

I don't know. It can't tell you that one way or the other but like is he now a verifiable guy who should be fighting other top contenders no question about it that's to me what this win provided it was the kind of proof that's like okay he has earned the right to fight other top guys in this division from here on out i mean not forever obviously but for the next little while i want to see him up against number seven number eight ranked guys like that's kind of where we're at maybe even higher where's wonder boy ranked i think like six right something like that i think he was a little closer where was he i'll look right now you might be right but in any case somewhere in that six to ten range i think is an appropriate challenge depending on where Thompson was ranked.

You know what? Now I want to see. Now Luke's going to check it out. Hold on. Because it's central to the point, actually. I can't wait to find these people that have been arguing with you about this. So they have – Violate them. Thompson was at 9.

Knives. So, yes, that's about right. But here's who's at 5. 5 is Colby Covington. 6 is Sean Brady. 7 is Ian Machado-Gary. 8 is Sean Brady. Seven is Ian Machado Gary. Eight is Gilbert Burns. This is exactly what I mean.

He should be fighting the Colbys, the Bradys, or the Garys of the world next. He has earned. Buckley Gary would be something, huh? And it would be very, very fun. Because Buckley, by the way, is very athletic, very talented, very strong, but still not quite all the way put together, I think, with his game. He's getting there, though. Oh, he's absolutely getting there.

But what I'm saying is, is there territory for Gary if they fought to exploit that and potentially get a win? Absolutely. And, in fact, he called out Kamaru Usman, which to me is a very winnable fight for Buckley. So he got ripped for calling out Conor? This is a great callout. This was a much better callout.

It looked like he actually learned his lesson. This is what I mean. Things are starting to come together for Buckley in a way you cannot ignore. He did go to our three margarita show. It was after it ended, but he did show up. He did? No, I think I saw him there while we were still on the air. Someone pointed him out to me, but I was too drunk to.

Yeah, you were an old manza in that moment. There's no doubt. Before we close on this undercard, I did want to give props to Carla Esparparza do you think she got robbed against tisha pennington because it looked in tisha's eyes like she thought she was headed toward a defeat after that late rally from the cookie monster i thought it was close i think i had esparza as like slightly ahead those rounds were close and that's what i say about do it we just said it if a fight is close you might as well treat it like a coin flip. You cannot.

You have to accept that. I mean, I'm not going to say it was coin flippy for me. Can you show the video there, Luke, of her son who was dressed like Cookie Monster? It was a nice wholesome moment to see tears in Rogan's eyes. It was like, what did you think about this? Because some people are like, yeah, she's a two-division champion, but so is Peña now. Why do we get these moments? Come on. Give her the moment esparza to me is the fact that she did it so far apart is a

little bit different but again dude like i hate it because there's just so many people who hate women because they won't fuck fuck them in mma you know well that's aggressive but oh it's absolutely true some corner it's absolutely true it's absolutely true it's like i'm sorry women won't fuck you but that's a you problem but nevertheless we're talking about mixed martial arts here hold on okay nevertheless like dude the fact that pena is a two-time champ it does undercut like it does undercut what it means i'm sorry it just does as far as coming back and never giving up and having the run she had that led to the title not her fault that rose fought weird and now she walks away on her own terms like i applaud her on the way out.

And she fought. She had a very good career. She fought fucking hammers. She did. The whole way through. Joanna gave it to her in that title fight. I thought that was going to be it after that. That's the kind of loss, too, that would be like, that would sap your confidence.

Yes. But she was resilient. She came back. She obviously had some great wins after the fact. By the way, one of the women who I think was ahead of her era in terms of having good, solid wrestling fundamentals, you didn't see a lot of, like, you know, bullshit hip tosses from her. You saw double legs. Like, she had good wrestling. I think that obviously was why she had such an advantage relative to some of her peers.

Dude, Carla had a great career. Make no mistake about it. Was never in any drama or any stupid-ass beefs. And she just gave birth, and she was back at it. So I have a lot of respect for her career, but at the same time, it's like, oh, two-time champ. I don't want to dismiss that. All right.

Can we have the Straw Weights get their moments, where I come from? But Luke, what do you think about Tisha Turner? They get their moments, all right. Tisha Pennington getting booed by the Salt Lake City crowd while shouting out her late grandmother and aunt for dying for breast cancer like oh my god the utah crowd ended up being pretty good in the end because when the fight was over they waited for khalil roundtree to speak and

they gave him a big like in the end they were better but they started out wooing like fucking low-level primates you know i mean look what did you have in your Cheerios this morning? Oh, you got up at three 30. I did get up at three 30 this morning. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, listen, you're in a rare mode today. It's great. Hey, let's go do a, before we go to topic number five, Luke can get into this gigantic boxing match this weekend, right? I'm so excited. I got to tell you about Jack. Tell me about Jack. Okay. You know, you can date on your phone. Of course you can do banking on your phone. You can check out the latest news on your phone.

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Thank you very much. Jackpocket. Yeah. Yeah, baby. All right. Hey, Luke, we got one more topic and it's a big one this Saturday. Riyadh season. Season is in effect.

It's a DAZN pay-per-view, but the main event will air 6 p.m. Eastern on ESPN+. It's the first four-belt undisputed summit in light heavyweight history, and it just so happens to feature a pair of unbeaten, established, and future Hall of Fame champions, both of whom reside in the top five of the pound-for-pound list. Good Lord, this is as good as it gets. Artur Beterbiev versus Dmitry Bivol.

Bivol with the BA strap. Beterbiev versus Dmitry Bivol. Bivol with the BA strap. Beterbiev, excuse me, brings the other three. So Luke Thomas, this is the big one. And I'm fired up. So fired up. Here we go. I got my place here. Outside of crowning that first four-belt champion here at 175,

what do you think is really at stake in this battle of unbeatens come Saturday? Oh, Jesus. that's a really tough question i mean as you mentioned you've got two pound for pound guys this is a full-on unification right in terms of this is every single title at light heavyweight 175 pounds as you mentioned two undefeated records again you go through the odds it was minus or plus 100 in either direction yeah better better bf currently the underdog on DraftKings, which is just wild.

You've never been in this spot. Well, because he is, so he was supposed to fight earlier this year, and then he fell out of that contest with a meniscus tear. So he had a surgery on his knee, and he's nearly 40 years old. Meanwhile, Bivol took on a guy, I forget his name, he was no good, and he wiped the floor with him. But, like, I go back to Tank taking the Hector Garcia fight before the Ryan Garcia fight.

And I think that that tune up really helped him. So in the end, I understand why the odds are where they are. I think it's quite reasonable. I will just say this. This is one of those fights where Paulie Malinowski was talking about this. Like if we're going to pay attention to all the crap,

you have to make time for the best. This is the best of what boxing has to offer. It is all the titles, one face, one man in a important weight class, given who is there. By the way, who's like the third or fourth best guy in this division? Nobody even cares because it's one and two by a million miles. It's arguably the most important fight of the year. it's arguably one of the best best fights that can be made irrespective of weight class this year or any year we're frankly in boxing and it's an important style contrast it's important for either guy's career i don't know if there's a grander narrative i'm certainly you can tell me the fact that they're both so

established as well it's like maybe mayweather versus pacquiao they were too established they were 38 and 36 years old. Right. So it's like a lit, it was too late. At least we still got one versus two pound for pound. This on my list on CBS sports.com is number four, a better BF versus number five B wall. And Luke,

I mean, better BF is 20 in O with 20 knockouts. Although he hasn't talked about whether this has the potential to be his last fight, that hasn't been a piece of conversation. Could you imagine if he did knock out B-Ball to go 21-0 with 21 KOs and then was like, check you later, accomplished everything I was here to do? It would be one of those Habib-like, Andre Ward-like resumes where it's like, could you have done it any more perfect than that? No.

How do you put this in historical terms? It's going to be hard to figure out. Not that that's necessarily where he's headed, but it shows you that they're so far established where if they didn't end up fighting each other, they'd probably still go in the Hall of Fame. Yet we get to find out the supremacy, not just right now in the light heavyweight division in their respective eras, but Luke, the idea that we're already in like this historically awesomely unique pound for pound era, where right now you've got three guys with a legitimate claim, right? Inouye, Bud Crawford, Alexander Usyk. You can make the claim for either three and we have to go,

you know what, you're probably right. It's your opinion. What if the winner here, and there's no rematch clause, according to Eddie Hearn, the promoter of B-Vol, by the way, what if the winner here does it solidly, spectacularly, convincingly? How are we not going to put them in consideration for the number one pick pound-for-pound overall? Especially if it's Beterbiev.

Beterbiev? Right, exactly. And to your point, he gets the finish. You're finishing off another pound-for-pound guy to unify all. The guy that was the fighter of the year two years ago when he ran through Canelo and Zerto Ramirez. Yeah, and to get all the titles in the weight class, mean that is that is such a i mean again no one else on that pound for pound list would be able to say such a thing now granted they might have more good wins

than what better beef better bf has but this one win in conjunction with all of the other stoppages such that that happens this is insanely unique. This is a 100% KO rate through other pound-for-pound guys. Holy shit, folks. And if you're talking about, like, there's no rematch clause, you know, who knows where the winner would go. But if they're one and two in this division, just to remind you, David Benavidez is number three, David Murrell Jr. is number four,

Joshua Buozzi is number five, and Canelo wants the winner if it's Bivol. So, like, this is not just one fight that we finally got and we all swim out to the island and enjoy it. This could, you know, trigger and continue a run here at 175. Let's go to the face-off from the kickoff introductory press conference and you can finally see them together and look at all of the hardware around them.

Are we going to talk about Bivol's ex-wife? Dude, she is just going ham on social media. Her accusation, take her for what it's worth, her accusation is that he's a deadbeat dad. Yes, and that he broke her phone and pushed her. Doesn't pay child support and all kinds of shit. So she's putting out his injury history. The issue is this.

Better be of his type with Ramzan Kadyrov. Now, he probably has to be because he's Chechen. I know he lives in Canada, but he know he's tight with him so you know that part's not great you know you don't get you don't get a lot of heroes in combat sports but um but as a fight as a fight and by the way i'll tell you what i love can i tell you what i love about this fight again odds are close one versus two all the both undefeated all the time on friday's mk show by the way what i also love, which is not exactly what you asked, like what the stakes are, I love the style contrast.

Yes. Bivol, master boxer, just phenomenal footwork, phenomenal use of space. Fluid style, in and out. And it keeps good range. And then you have Beterbiev, who is a fucking terminator. A terminator. And by the way, by the way, who is a fucking Terminator. A Terminator. And by the way, by the way, has been dropped before.

Yes. Gotten off the canvas and then polished that dude off. He's looked as human, I think, as he ever has post-pandemic. Because he took two years off from the pandemic. He came back against, I think it was Adam Dinas, and he didn't look great. But he repaired that in the next few fights. But he's looked a little bit human, whether it was against. I didn't think the Yard fight was that bad.

Anthony Yard at times against Callum Smith, even though it was close before, but he always will outlast you with his technique and then put you away with that power late. Chris Algieri was talking about this. He's like, it's, I mean, if you had to ask me, like, is Bivol going to win rounds against this guy? It seems like inevitable he'll win rounds.

He might win enough of them. But he's like, dude, you just look, he's, he said the first time he saw him in person and how every like sinew of muscle and tissue just looked primed for fighting. And like, you ever watch all the kettlebell stuff he does with his wrist and hands

and everything. And like how he does pushups on boards that like, you know, he was saying, he's like, dude, 12 rounds is a lot of time to spend with that guy. To me, the most exciting part of this is the best part of that fight will be at the end.

Yes. And when better be have is finally in a groove. What is people going to do then? And the answer is he might win when the opponent slows down just a bit. He is the power catches up with them. That's what I was going to ask you. Like, is it ideal that this is happening when Beterbiev is 39?

No, it's not ideal. This fight did get pushed off a little bit. You can make the argument that this fight does not happen without Turkey, Al-Ashiq, and Saudi Arabia. So we can say what we say about them, but this was a fight that Turkey circled early on, wanted to make, committed to making. There were injury delays.

There was all that. We're finally getting it. But, Luke, I think in recent history, at the very you know we're still getting a better bf that can win this no question and we're getting him as a slight betting underdog which is wild so could not be more fired up for this 6 p.m eastern time is the expected main event you tell the folks how the card works yeah the full pay-per-view is available on theZN I think it's free now I'm Dan Rayfield reported over the weekend so the main event was always free yeah the main event there was always a contractual tie that Bob Arum got for ESPN plus to air the main event I think now in the U.S. I'm

not sure if this is true in the U.K. or anywhere else I believe that now the main card is also free if if you're a DAZN subscriber decent under. It doesn't have Shakur Stevenson like it originally planned to but it's decent. You cared about that fight against Cordina? Really? Well, there were things we needed to learn in that fight. It didn't happen. What have you? Whatever. We'll get more into this fight as the week progresses but get fired up if you're the kind of

MMA fan that does trust us when we tell you about these big boxing ones. This is the big one. This is one of those. I was going to say, Luke, I think it really fits. It's not as commercially wanted or longed for. Because, look, these guys have language barriers, even though they both have committed to speaking English. And they are gentlemen and sportsmen.

They're not out there trying to sell themselves in ways that they're going to become household names. But from the standpoint of, like, critical and stakes, this is up there, in my opinion, with Mayweather Pacquiao, Andre Ward versus Sergey Kovalev when they were one and two, Usyk Fury recently, Spence Crawford. I think it's on that level of the stakes, the value of the fighters, their historical value, everything.

This is a big one, so don't miss that one this weekend. By the way, we're going to do a preview on Friday. Yes. Gun to your head right now. You have the right to change your opinion. Gun to your head. Who wins? You know, I had been – this is what I love about this fight because it's so good.

I had been B-Vol for months, and I think I'm back on Arter. I just switched. I think I'm back. I was on Arter. Let me be clear. You're transitioning. Let me be clear. I want Arter to win because I like his style better,

even though I really like Bivol's style. But just 100% KO rate. I'm never going to cheer against someone who's got 100% KO rate. But the fact that he is 39 coming off of knee surgery and he's been inactive and Bivol is younger and has been active, it's like I think if it goes to the scorecards, Bivol will win. I'll say that. That's a fair assessment. Save a little for Friday. But I have to say,

I can't wait to see what rounds 9 through 12 look like. Yeah, I'm going to crush a lot of tape this week and get fired up for that. Those are your five topics of the week. Thank you for ingesting them. But before you see my fecal variety, we have a segment where we answer the questions from you, the donkers. You send

us questions on social media on Sunday nights at X and Instagram at Morning Combat. Is it X? Is it? Is it? And we respond to them here. And if they're not good questions, Luke will definitely make fun of you. This one's called DMs from dogs. By the way, I have to tell you this.

So somebody, fuck, where did I see this? I can't remember. Somebody wrote me a note being like, I hope guys understand that like donkeys are awesome and the braying is just a communication style of these like very splendid like they were like not exactly bitter but they felt like they had to correct the record i want to be clear that like i don't care if donkeys live or die you know what i'm saying i was gonna say being bitter and correcting the record that sounds like luke th me. Yeah, but like, in this particular case,

it's just about a subject matter. I just can't, I just can't care. Well, the first donker here, his name, his handle, Dookie McPoopy Stink. I mean, why did we pick this? I mean,

who picked this fucking shit? Is Alex Pereira, so by the way, Alex is dropping a potato regularly, and he's the pronunciation guy. Okay, but I, listen. Or is he rolling the R into a D where I'm going straight D? He might be like rolling the R because the way, Anik's dropping a potato regularly, and he's the pronunciation guy. Okay, but I've... Listen. Or is he rolling the R into a D where I'm going straight D? He might be, like, rolling the R because the way it was explained...

Again, by a Brazilian person, the way it was explained to me was there's no D in there at all, no nothing. It's... But you have to flick the tongue on the... Yeah, I don't flick. Parada. Parada. Parada.

Sorry, it sounds very kind of linguistic of you. Okay. Hey, he wants to know, is Alex on the Mount Rushmore of the most powerful punchers in MMA history that would have to include Mark Hunt, correct? Shane Carwin. Hell yeah. Derek Lewis. Dan Henderson with the damn H-bomb.

The H-bomb is up there. Long Island Luke, come to the microphone, please. Heaviest punchers in MMA history. Who do you think? I'm going smaller weight classes. He just fought this weekend. John Lineker. Yes. Lineker's up there. Dude, Lineker is just fucking... He is such a great fit

for that four-ounce Muay Thai shit that they do sometimes. Did you put Rampage in that or no? He was a dynamic puncher, but not one of the biggest ones in history. Chuck Liddell. I mean, Rampage beat him. Derek Lewis. Derek Lewis we already added. Jessica Andrade.

On the women's side, yeah, definitely. Liz Karmush was a dynamic puncher for a while. No, she wasn't. Chris Cyborg. Cyborg, yeah, Cyborg. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that one. And Amanda Nunes, got it.

Okay, there we go. Amanda Nunes. Hold on, there's got to be one more we're not thinking of. On the men's side. Who's just, oh, Melvin Manhoef. Rumble. Rumble. Anthony Johnson. Oh, God. R.I.P. Who's just, oh, Melvin Manhoef? Rumble. Rumble. Anthony Johnson.

Oh, God. RIP. Dynamic puncher, yes. Wow, there you go. There you have it. Okay, thank you. And yes, Poetan's on that list. So he's on the Mount Rushmore officially.

Is he top four power punchers? No. He might be, dude. He just touches people and they go away. He touched Khalil a lot. Like, who did Julian Jackson beat up? Like Poetan beat up Khalil that they survived. You're right.

They didn't get to that point. Like Julian Jackson would touch you and it was just, you're just done. Hey, let's go to add a Levi dot Brink. He says four eye pokes and one groin strike with no official warning. I know this has been talked about ad nauseum, but shouldn't there be an established baseline of an enforcement point

deduction for should be more than reasonable. We've talked about this before, Luke. I think the answer is one warning at the first foul of all fouls, and then you take a point from there on out. But you can always argue, what if it's such a light foul? What if it's like a tapping nut shot, and then the next one is like a, you know, eye poke that wasn't deep. Big effing deal. You got to set that baseline that you've got to control your weapons. You can't be reckless from here on out, or it's a problem. I could tolerate a rule that by third you have to take a point. I could tolerate a rule.

Oh, so you're going to give them two warnings, two strikes. I'm saying I could tolerate that. If they made that the baseline, I wouldn't hate it. But at the same time, I feel like the best place would be two. You get one warning, the next time, go fuck yourself. When local ref is not even warning for repeated stoppages and actions. And not letting Poteria have time to recover. What is happening in his mind?

He had to fight two opponents that night. I mean, do you think it was right when Anik and DC did not hold back? They were dunking on that guy during the fight. Which they should have. I think it was very justified. I mean, listen, sometimes they can dogpile somebody who I don't think deserves it as much. And so maybe you can say, should they be dogpiling anybody? That's a question.

Maybe somebody should jump in and be like, I'm sure Keith Peterson doesn't smell like cold cuts and hooch. At least one of the two, right? But what I was going to say was, this was such an egregious case. It deserved it. He was terrible. He should never ref a ufc fight anytime soon well we'll get another question here from world's worst hero who wants to know what was your letter grade a through f for ufc 307 before saturday and what is it after

so as a pay-per-view card on paper is c minus minus luke long allen luke c minus on paper see i actually thought it was decent on paper i'll Island Luke C- on paper see I actually thought it was decent on paper I'll give it a B on paper but I'm giving it a C in execution dude what the fuck

grade were you giving the co-main pre-fight I mean dude I've just been like you guys said I'm used to these shitty cards now where I'm like

oh I know all these names they all have Wikipedia pages hey Saul showed up on the main card minute yeah shout out Saul did he really?

yeah hell yeah gave me a dono too that's that's that's young guys speak for a hand job yeah that's what it's like he blew you yeah he walked you to your truck uh luke all the skits and bits today there's been like 50 of those very minimal these days on the old skits and bits um luke but post for a card look it short of the main event it sucked right short of the main event, it sucked, right? Short of the main event. And then the main event was. Well, the Kevin Holland fight, that's not his fault. Right.

I'm not saying it's people's fault. I'm saying how it played out. Buckley fight was a good early moment. But the Aldo fight sucked. The Buckley fight sucked. And then what was. Sorry. No, no, no.

What am I saying? The Aldo fight sucked. The Aldo. Sorry. The Aldo fight sucked. The Kevin Holland fight sucked because of the injury. And then what was the opener on that card? the kaylee harrison fight also sucked kind of sucked yeah i gave that fight i got i thought maybe c plus on paper and ended up being like a c

in reality because the main event was great it was really good and then everything else was kind of just either like standard or bad we have a question from uh oh yeah so i'll give it a uh i'll give it a c minus on the way out too okay take that luke take that rewind it back okay um from at nate the great lux the community rightfully keeps making the claims that poeton saves fight cards aside from john jones and conor mcgregor who else would you say is one of the best card savers for the ufc is who has that reputation serrani did a lot of that i feel like true um um like a consistent card saving was a card saver at one point he did two fights back to back in two different weeks yep but like who was like a consistent card saver i don't know so which star volkanovsky is always ready to weigh in as a backup. Always ready to.

But this thing about card saving, I mean, obviously it has happened throughout the course of the UFC, but it's more common now, right, where they go to people last minute and, you know, Dan Ige's in there with like four hours notice. That's a relatively new thing in terms of how much you see it. So, like, it's a little bit harder to compare eras because they just didn't do this like this before. I still have a lot of respect to give to Anderson Silva for UFC 200. I know the fight with DC didn't end up being awesome. He hurt him.

That stomach kick with the toes in the third. But the balls on that man, not in shape to just get on the plane. Also, it's weird to call Jon Jones a card saver. He could have saved 251. What am I thinking? What's the 152? Whatever was two? Yes, I could.

I don't blame him for not saving the card. But like, it's just weird to be like, wow, he saves cards like no, the fuck he doesn't. Connor Connor is the best example because he was what he saves cards that run. He was on before he became champion where he was like completely fucked up half the time. It's it's reminiscent of what Poetan is doing now. Very true. And that same type of feel. We have one more, I believe, one on Luke. I haven't pre-read it.

It's from at Elvis F. Flexley. Elvis Flexley. Who is the best fighter turned actor? Now, are we talking pornography? Oh, wow. No, we're talking traditional. Because I haven't watched enough OnlyFans pornography to really judge.

Because on the wrestling side, despite Dwayne The Rock Johnson's consistent box office success, Dave Bautista's a better actor. Dave Bautista's a much better actor. By the way, Dave Bautista, Washington, D.C. guy. Don't think he's not. Is he? 100%.

I one time saw him downtown in Chinatown crossing the street. And this was before Guardians of the Galaxy. So this was some years ago. He was great in dune one and two i didn't know he i was like why is bautista in fucking dc and then i looked it up sure enough he's from the area you should get him on your your thing he was on uh he was on mma uncensored live one time with us yeah he was a nice guy all right so who in the fight game now because what what's the history here you have connor and roadhouse you've got valentina in that Halle Berry MMA movie. You've got a lot of, like, B-level shit,

like Touchy Feely was in Mr. Faber's weed thriller that you were also in. That I got paid nothing for. Yeah, I've seen Donald Cerrone in a lot of, like, very fourth-rate straight-to-DVD action movies. How about Tito's movie, Operation Black Ops? Yes. Which literally stands for Operation Black Operations.

So, like, whoever fucking named that movie is the dumbest motherfucker right now is there are we forgetting a ray randy couture he was in all of the uh expendables it's randy cooter isn't it long island we're leaving out a bisping too he was in like oh he was in gang oh he actually had a legitimate you're right i watched that on a plane he was he actually had a legitimate speaking role oh and kamaru usman was in uh black pan that's dude this one was in Black Panther. That's right. Dude, this was... Usman was in Black Panther, yes.

Can we say something publicly? Yeah. How good... I mean, he's an absolute dirtbag, but how good is Long Island Luke for this show? I'd say for being high half the time, he does a decent job. Thank you very much.

A big part of this family. Which I need to charge my weed vape before we leave here. Speaking of, look, that'll wrap up our DMs from Donks for the day, for the week. Who's the best professional wrestler turned actor? Dave Bautista. We just talked about that. He's better than

Hogan, better than Cena. Well, I mean, Hogan. Cena's better than he should be, to be fair. I think Cena might be the best pure actor. Yes. What's the show he did? No, he's not the best. The Peacemaker. Bautista's the best actor. Come on. Have you seen The Peacemaker? not the best. The Peacemaker. Bautista's the best actor. Come on. Have you seen The Peacemaker? I have not seen The Peacemaker.

Dude, John Cena, okay, I'll say this. John Cena is a better comedy actor. Now, Bautista is a good comedy actor in Guardians of the Galaxy. He's very good as Drax. That's his character's name. But John Cena in The Peacemaker, I was like, I couldn't believe how good that. My wife was also like, who is this guy? I'm like, he's a professional wrestler.

Have you ever watched, WWE has a whole movie studio of those like straight to DVD action movies involving like the Miz and Randy Orton and shit you don't get into that I'd rather get fucked to death by an eight dicked walrus okay that's aggressive that's that's that now let's close with this segment every Monday right I mean some people would say it's the best

segment going in martial arts shows you know right crowned or not right there you go hey the young crowns Every Monday, right? I mean, some people would say it's the best segment going in martial arts shows. You know? Right? Crowned or not, right? There you go. Hey, the Uncrowned's coming, Luke. They're coming. They're coming soon.

Who's coming? This Uncrowned movement. Team Helwani in the back room. Oh, oh, oh. You mean they're... I think they're launching soon, so good for them. Good for them, yeah. What I do, though, every Sunday is I go through my shit and find the kernels in there for you, right?

Viral videos, the good, the bad, the ugly. The good news is they're not super self-congratulatory. You know what I mean? They really restrain it. They are very restraining on that. The highs, the lows, all that BS in between. Hey, this is called Have You Seen This? Yes.

Hold on. Now, before you do this, Long Island Luke, you have seen this batch, have you not? I have not, actually. He purposely doesn't watch. Yeah, I like to be surprised with you in the moment. He gets such a kick out of your reactions. He told me that, like, he stays virgin.

What am I in for here? Some shiat. Let's go with UFC 307 in Salt Lake City. Luke, if Team Poetan's breaking out this dance before the fights, you're going to get knocked out and you're going to lose, okay? I mean, dude, how good is his personality? Seriously, the character he portrays in MMA. I mean, we can get caught up in the Guru versus Nina rivalry

and waste a lot of hours and time, but this guy's the best personality in MMA. Which is weird because he doesn't have super like in your face personality at all he's like opposite charisma he picks his spots he's hilarious look i mean look at this dance look at this stuff he he he is happy at all the right times he is he is focused at all the right he just seems to know what the moment is and then rides it perfectly you know luke i don't want to be the person on this show that that the pot that calls the kettle high but um let's go to this conor mcgregor tweet that was deleted after after kevin holland was unable to

continue with what we think was a broken rib you gotta be conor goes didn't even fucking try nah that is ridiculous go out again and see how it is if it folds up again then you end it with the towel nah that's not it for me, folks. Holland is a solid veteran. He well should have went out and gave it a shot and see how he was wrong move. This is the same McGregor who pulled out of International Fight Week in June with a broken toe. Yeah, I mean, you got to be fucking kidding me.

Chutzpah. Do you know how chutzpah is defined? No, I don't. It's defined as a child killing their parents and then begging for mercy because they're an orphan. That got dark, Luke. That's chutzpah. Okay, a lot of chutzpah on that guy right there.

Let's go to Dana responding to the report of doctors finding that power slap is about 90% in causing brain injuries or something like that. It's, I think, 80, but yeah. There was also a power slap study that came out by a medical journal. Doctors watched the first episode of Power Slap and determined from just watching the first episode that there was concussions happening. Sounds legit. Yeah, I'm wondering what kind of— They watched one episode of the show, know nothing about medicals or what we do or any of the studies we've done. Sounds like these typical doctors that look for attention to me.

That's what I thought. Yep. Thank you. There you have it, Luke. What studies we've done sounds like these typical doctors that look for attention to me that's what i thought yep thank you there you have it luke what studies have they done what studies have they done i don't am i not aware of something that they just wish they would take all those resources and put it into zufa boxing and let's go full let's go full speed ahead okay it's like these these doctors and their agenda trying to protect your brain this thing is a dead-end road let's. Let's just close shop. I'm going to say it one more time. Nobody actually likes power slap. Dana likes it because he thinks he can probably make money from it, and the people who commentate it and whatnot,

they do it because they're trying to actually advance their UFC careers, and this is a— You're talking about the count. Well, he's not Dan Helly, who I like a lot, does it too. I mean, Dan's the man. Dan Helly's in our next clip. Okay, but they don't do it because they think power slap's awesome. They do it because they have to, Dan's the man. Dan Helly's in our next clip. They don't do it because they think Power Slap's awesome. They do it because they have to

to climb the corporate ladder. Helly, also the voice of DWCS. He does a great job. Also, Dan Helly, DC guy. Wow, big weekend for DC here. Here's Dan Helly on the weigh-in show, Luke. I'm not going to show the clip of Chris Weidman explaining how on his first date he shit in his girlfriend's garbage can because she was showering

and then made a big mess i find that the less i learn about the lives of fighters the more i enjoy this i'm gonna play that clip but let's play this clip in reaction to the new name of the utah professional hockey team what's your team name please tell me it's better than elk no i feel like it's pretty good i didn't go far for inspiration i was uh in the space i was in and i I looked around me, and I felt the moment, and I said, the Utah apex. The Utah apex. Where I had been living for the last nine years. I can see it now.

No, but, like, it's like a mountain. It's, like, the top. You were the apex. Are they going to play in front of 500 people at most? Wouldn't it be the summit? Are you kidding me? On the UFC apex right now? Wait, what did he say?

I'm sorry. I talked over it like an asshole. Someone, it's, like, asshole. It's like the top. You were the Apex. Are they going to play in front of 500 people at most? Are you shitting on the UFC Apex right now? Dude, Dan Helly is awesome. So Senko was actually like,

are you going to shit on the Apex? Are they going to do it on the air? Well done, Dan Helly. I appreciate that. Tip of the cap. Let's keep it going here. Where are we at here? It's time for MMA fighters in the wild, Luke. You know i get fired up to see if what if what if they are like

what if they're like one of us luke let's go to the the highlight just to get you look at that bong luke that's about to blast off right bro he's about to get booted and zooted up in this zoot suit riot grow back an ounce of of uh wow okay you don't have to have all the weed justin you can share some with the rest of planet earth i really like justin gage like i wouldn't go with him to katira son's party and but i i like him outside yeah i would also skip part. All right. Also in the wild is Marab going back to Georgia. Luke, your home state. Only this is the country in Asia, and you know I get fired up for homecomings.

First of all, I love Marab. Second of all, look at the humanity around him as this little man celebrates. And by the way, back in Utah for the fights. Yeah, he's everywhere. Marab is at all the fights. Yes, I think he's on like a full-time travel salary like Nina Drama. Just go everywhere. Right? A lot of Nina comments today.

It was a big weekend for her on the socials there. I mercifully missed every bit of it. Good for you. Good for you. I hope I missed the future of that. Shout out to Murab. Murab's name, though, not easy for everyone to say, as we found out from Teddy Atlas' podcast.

You know, O'Malley got set back with Mamadouf. Great, great fight by Mamadouf. Tremendous. So wait a second. Did Sean O'Malley fight Islam Mamadouf? Yes, exactly. Islam Makajab. That is, wait, who are we talking about? Oh, Murab Diwalish-Wheely, that guy.

Hold on, I'll say, but in fairness, isn't it Devalish wheelie? Yes, it is. Okay. All right. Let's go over to your hat of the week.

Luke, I don't know who your parents voted for in the sixties, but I wonder if it was that ticket. Luke, remember what it was called? Eaton Bush. 69. This guy,

I guarantee you is the worst first date in the country. Yes. Yes, definitely. A big week for Dana date in the country. Yes, yes, definitely. Big week for Dana White Contender Series. Luke, here is Doug. You know about the Torres Finney story? Yeah, third time's a try for Contender Series. Third time turned out to be the try as Dana finally liked what he saw. You could smell what Torres is cooking.

First team all titties on Torres Finney. Yes, him and Big E. Shout out to those chesticles right there. Dana also had a Peter Brady moment during the show. What can't you do, kid? I'm excited to find out. Welcome to the UFC. When it's time to...

Guys, you're welcome to the UFC. Luke, almost time for Halloween, but I've already found my costume for 24. I'm a genie in a bottle, baby. What are, do you, okay, now that your kids are in high school and nothing's cool anymore. Yes. What do you guys do on Halloween? I work the door.

The kids go wherever they go. Barely anybody comes to our door and it's kind of. Okay, so I live. My wife keeps the dogs from mauling. I live in a place where i get absolutely avalanches of children oh boy and i'm in the thick of it because tukester tukester is going as princess peach this year you should work out shirtless in your front yard during that i just might and um i i she's going as princess peach i told her i wanted to go as chewbacacca. She didn't like that idea. Why? Chewbacca's loyal as shit.

Chewbacca's scary to her. No. Yes. Watch like prequels. We saw a seven footer. We went to one of those comic cons that came through the city. It's not like the real one. They call it Awesome Con. And there was a guy like in a full size Chewbacca costume.

It was like well over seven feet. And I said to Tookstar, I was like, Tookstar, it's Chewbacca. And then she screamed and cried. Oh, wow. Because he was so big. Yeah. And i was like tukstar it's chewbacca and then she screamed and cried oh wow because he was so big yeah he was like you know that shit the only follow-up i could come up with is what's her favorite expired food um i don't know oh popcorn luke i've got your t-shirt of the week right here if you're looking to get a double XL. I'm fat because every time I fuck your dad, he pours bacon grease down my throat. Well, that's a completely, that's just a heinous bitch. I mean, what are you?

We transition out of that. But this week in boxing, Luke, Nick Ball successfully defended his featherweight title by knocking veteran Ronnie Rios through the ropes. Look at these uppercuts. Jesus. Nick Ball's a little pocket rocket, Luke. Look at him.

He's got some balls. Yeah, take that. Oh! Get out of here. Get the fuck up out my ring, ho. And Luke, you know the only name at middleweight at the moment is Janabek. I always butcher his last name. Alm Canuli?

Yeah, I don't know how to say it either, but he's a beast. Dude, he beat the bags off of Andre Mihalovic and did this little spin around while stalking him to defend his middleweight titles. I think only one of his two belts were on the line due to shenanigans. Yeah, dude, he is just fucking styling on this guy. Dead division, but you'll love to see this Kazakh thunder right here. Yeah. You know what?

If you're one of those guys in a dead division, I like what he did where he fought on Thursday or Friday or whatever it or you know there's no competition on saturday night do it that shit let's go to one championship the aforementioned john lineker throws bombs and he threw bombs again against balco here dude just look do he just there's nothing technical about his punching it's just wide as shit but it's so heavy oh yeah and he i love that he keeps the like hair around his head so you can see the bald spot he's just a badass old dude he just throws absolute grenades luke let's look at the weather plans for the week let's see if they coincide with your recreational plans dude that's i don't need that to be my weekend plans that's gonna be my

plans in about 30 minutes. Yeah, that's my life plan. Thank you very much. Let's go to driveway basketball. You ever imitate your heroes through the years on the app? Yeah, of course. Like, here's Larry Bird. Here's Dominique.

Let's watch this. Rest in peace. Yeah. Larry Bird. Jordan. They hit the second tower? Very relatable video there, Luke. We've all been through that.

Wow. I didn't know 9-11 humor was a thing until I met you. There we go. Time for a dance break, Luke. You ever go over to somebody's house for an outdoor barbecue and they're line dancing? Yes, I've been to my in-law's place before. Okay, but did this ever happen at your in-law's place, Luke? No, for okay, we're staying in line. Everyone's just having a moment.

Okay, all right. Oh, shit! Raised the roof, reversed. Wow, that is something right there. Yeah, shit. Raised the roof, reversed. Wow, that is something right there. Yeah, okay. Luke, John Anik got into a fistfight with his twin brother on their podcast. Let's watch this. So Scott Hastings asks, who's the first to throw a jab in a squabble, John or Jay?

Is that your answer? You know, Scott, I love you, Scott, but, I mean, that's on you a little bit, Scotty. Can I just be honest john annick's brother sounds like john annick after inhaling a helium balloon pretty much pretty much right are you and your brother still like that today uh no i think if i touched him he'd have a meltdown oh you don't like double leg him just to prove your you think i'm salty and ornery i mean you don't i'm like dude i'm fucking happy-go-lucky compared to the other men in my family. Check out this high school football referee, Luke.

So, you know, if you can be discreet, you can do whatever you want out here. Oh, yeah. What do you... What the fuck is that? I mean, there's kids around there, sir. I mean, come on. There you go. Hey, Luke, you know what we haven't played in a while high school football in the south is different oh it is different we haven't played rate that tat can i get a score one to ten on

these all right let's see a lot of horror on that back uh again i wouldn't really want it but if we're just talking about tattoo quality. Yes. Eight. Okay, the number to beat here is eight. Let's see who can top it. Let's keep it going. A lot of Ariel Helwani fans out there, Luke. This man got the uncrowned logo tag. Okay, that's just a zero.

I mean, be serious. All right. You ever hear of Power Rangers, Luke? Yeah, of course. What about Powder Rangers? Give it a solid six. Okay, there you go. And I got a phone-related tag here.

I don't even remember what this looks like. Oh, there you go, Luke. That's exactly what he was looking for, that picture right there. That's a two. Yes. And you know I like glizzies. But first, let's check out these mini glizzies here. Luke, what do you think about this tat?

Okay. Is that even legal to show? Is that even legal to show? Speaking of the double glizzies, I would consider this tat. Look, artistically, what are you going to rate this? Not that bad, right?

So as a tattoo, that's a well-done tattoo. Yes. But as a art concept, it's a negative $8 million. I think we got one more for you. Oh, popcorn related. Yes. Okay. Once again, as a tattoo, that's a well-done tattoo.

All right. But that's a well-done tattoo. All right. But that's disturbing. I give that a four. All right, let's see some milk here. Got a bag of milk. What the fuck are you doing that to Grandpa for? What the fuck? Well, you do like elder abuse, Luke, and that was very abusive there.

Look at this poor bastard. Luke, Barbara, does she ever get the cone of shame after a setback? Oh, yeah. How about you? You ever get it? I don't lick my balls, so no. I think it's about time

we put the cone of shame where it belongs on you, Luke, on the road. You know what I'm saying? Oh, that's awesome. That one got me. That was good. Luke, you do enjoy in this segment

when white people get hurt, right? Always. Hey, everybody. Haley back again. We are now on the river, but I'm going to go off the river and see what everybody around the shop is up to. Let's go check it out. Oh! That went down so fast!

Sorry, Haley. Have a drink, bitch. We got one more for you. Remember I told you I was forklift certified back in 2005. Does that mean you dated fat girls? Oh, shit! Oh, my God! That's your KO of the week, Luke.

Dude, our next video is just some bitch getting decapitated. What? There's your shit i hope you enjoyed it wow we came in under two hours i didn't think we'd land this plane yeah you rushed through the topics yeah yeah how was your weekend what did you do i uh besides watch the fights i went for a bunch of uh walks and hikes i'm becoming that old person that realizes if i walk four to five miles a day with my wife and dogs then you know i'll improve the quality of my life four to five is a lot of miles you don't really need to walk that much that's what i'm doing okay that's what i did

with my weekend you know got a little takeout a little thai food you know we got thai food yeah yeah and watch the fights you know i'm a big uh big pad thai guy i'm basic shit yeah yeah what about yourself luke did you take toques to the splash pad? No, it's too cold for that. But we did Halloween. We decorated the house on the outside. So what type of, like if you're doing giant spiders, you're a weirdo. We put spider webs on the front fence.

And then these little spiders that just kind of attach to it wherever you want. But spiders are awful, Luke. Well, it's Halloween. I mean, ghosts are awful. You could put pumpkins. We put two skulls that glow in the dark and the front steps we put we did some witches hanging up and some ghosts and attach stuff to the bird feeder i'm a bird guy i've become this is like like real nerdy with like the book where you i don't i haven't got well i have a book i haven't i don't really use it i just kind of sit in my yard and watch birds. You are full of unpredictable turns, not just your love of like abortion death rock, which is just wild. You're a bird guy.

I have turned into a bird guy. I have absolutely turned into a bird guy. A cardinal, I was sitting in the front yard and a cardinal landed in the bird feeder, which is like for me to like this camera. And it was the happiest I was all day watching this cardinal eat at the bird feeder, which is like for me to like this camera. And it was the happiest I was all day watching this cardinal eat at the bird feeder. Yeah. I'm pathetic, but I know that about myself and I accept it. Okay.

I wanted to remind the great people that this morning combat train will have another stop on the tour this week. And that is Friday, Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern time. Where's the horn? Fuck face. There we go. On the app morning Combat YouTube channel.

We will be back from home. This is the beginning. Every Monday here in Studio Metal Ark in Manhattan. Now, let's remind folks, we can be reached at morningcombat at gmail.com. That email address is active. There's been some questions that I've gotten from the fans being like, hey, are you going to bring back some of the old features for Friday's show? So, fan subs is a very polarizing.

So glad you brought that up. People don't really want fan subs that much. I still argue. And I do to you over text that I think fan subs is the greatest connection to community. And I'm proud of the community we built with the show. You have to deal with weird people in tight tank and tight t-shirts to show that their love for the show. Yes. But artwork we get skits and bits we get love and hope and why can't we do

why can't we keep that segment but doesn't have to be weekly if we don't have the that's what i'm thinking it's more like monthly how about bi-weekly that's a lot what do you think it'll be dictated by the content level. I was just going to say what BC just said. Depending on how much we get and the quality of it, we'll just do it as often as we have a good batch. Do you have a favorite segment? Have you seen this shit?

I mean... Okay, well, he's barely here. Alright. Okay, Bet is also up there because... Because you are going to trade away your mortgage for a parlay. Joke's jokes on you you think i have a mortgage he drives like an 89 citation right yeah is that what you drive 2010 we talked about this 2015 i've barely got any miles on the fucking thing yeah my wife wants a new car but i don't know what the point is i'm like why cars are expensive and this thing has 42 000 miles and it's 2015 heller huh staying on your business king of the castle we paid it

off we don't i did my mortgage five months left all right five months left on my mortgage that's well done that is a feeling that look i'm in i'm in life for you to have nice feelings that make you feel happy apparently birds provide that yeah so that doesn't mean this yeah that doesn't mean that but birds bro i went to that bro i went to the aviary in columbia the national aviary of columbia it blew me away i guess there's worse things you could become like an opera guy i'd make fun of you or like if you become i'm not an opera guy no or a dance guy i'm not a dance guy i can't just want to dance no i want to look at birds all right that's weird um well i guess that's our show if you want to wear this great merch I want to look at birds. All right. That's weird. Well, I guess that's our show. If you want to wear this great merch that we've got going on,

please head on over to morningcombat.store. And if you want even 10% off the price, use our code, live10, L-I-V-E-1-0. I don't even know who's working the store anymore, but somebody will send it to you. In theory, it's still operational. Yes. Yes, in theory. But changes are coming. Things are happening.

You would argue. You would go as far as arguing that things are happening behind the scenes. Again, my rule has been there's nothing to say until there's actually something to say. You're like, don't show me the baby. Don't tell me about the birthing page. There's movement. Show me the head, right? There's movement, yeah.

You're a big head guy. Depends who's giving it. Depends who's giving it. Butends who's giving it, but yes. In general, I find it preferable. All right. Well, that is the show for this week. I'm sure they can check us out this week on our own solo channels at Luke Thomas, right? YouTube.com slash Luke Thomas.

YouTube.com slash, is it The Brian Campbell? I think it is. The Brian Campbell Experience. Yeah, it is. It is. Did you make it longer? It's not long enough. Yeah, it should probably be longer and less original.

But that's what we do here. Shout out to Long Island Luke Noseda. Government name okay with you? Thank you for putting that out there. Yeah, thank you. People get mad at me. People get sore at me. Maniche is big on that.

Don't be telling the people my real name. It's a good idea not to, yeah. All right. Well, that's all we got for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in and watching it. We'll be back on Friday. Check us out on our solo tubes there. If you want to join my my only pipes club, I'm still figuring it out. But, you know, one of these days, right? One of these days, finally, you guys will get your chance to check that out and and see what I got going on here. All right. My ass itches. Yeah, that's weird. All right. For Luke Thomas on B.C., take care of your head, OK? You got this. You're going to get through this. We love you. And we're out of here.