MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 311 Recap: Makhachev & Merab Win | UFC 313 Announced | Full Episode | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Monday after a massive UFC card. No better place to be go than MORNING KOMBAT! Luke and BC are back to break down all the action from a massive night.  Starting in the main event, Islam Makhachev finishes late replacement Renato Moicano with ease. Is now the time for Makhachev to move up to 170 pounds? Ilia Topuria tweets he could finish Makhachev right now: Is that the best fight UFC can make in terms of the combined talent in one bout? In the best fight of the night, Merab Dvalishvili outlasts Umar Nurmagomedov in a wild co-main event. Is Merab truly a P4P level fighter or is he just simply too relentless for anyone who can't finish him first? In other big fights, Jiri Prochazka TKOs Jamahal Hill by improving to 5-0 in the UFC with 5 finishes against anyone not named Alex Pereira, is it fair to call Prochazka the second best light heavyweight in the company? Plus, the guys react to the UFC 313 card that was announced. With an Alex Pereira-Magomed Ankalaev light heavyweight title bout in the main event and a key lightweight contender bout with Justin Gaethje and Dan Hooker in the co-main, Luke and BC grade the card. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, right? Monday, Monday, can't trust that day Get fired up Hey it's morning combat It's back in your absolute face hole And it's Monday January 20th 2025 We will be reacting to all things UFC 311 Come original

Over the weekend Looking ahead to UFC 313 And some big teases from the big turkey but until then welcome on in on this monday morning brian campbell the beige bastardo at your services one half of the hosting duo and from the capital of uh ustados de unitos hey that's luke thomas right there that's exactly the way you say it yes yes. And the third member of our team, Reginald J. Campbell. All right. Get the hip-hop horn for the Reg.

Yeah. Come on. What are we doing here? There he is. Luke, what a time to be a fight fan. It was fun this weekend. I'm fired up, dude. I even dyed all the grays out of my hair this morning in anticipation of this show.

Trying to save that marriage huh uh i'll tell you what life dude okay it's full life can i tell you my only real complaint about ufc 311 does it have anything to do with the nelk boys the paul brothers and conor mcgregor getting in a minibus on their way to the inauguration this morning i mean you know uh no i'll just leave it at that uh my own two two complaints one it turns out it wasn't smoke it was more mist how many times from the rafters they shot like what i thought was smoke but you know who was there was average joe art and he told me at the intuit dome it was actually a little bit more like mist than smoke so okay all is well that ends well my only real complaint a couple of decisions well a lot of decisions early but i'm talking about the main card i just wish the main event would have been longer that's it it was just too

short and i get it i get it 24 hours notice well top pound for pound versus god i get it i get it i'm just saying damn world why don't you talk to your armenian brethren who was like yo i got a secret that you guys don't know about a move you've never seen. Peace out. Yeah. Apparently that was pulling his back. Yeah, that was the secret move. The secret move was, ouch.

Yeah, there we go. And what do you think about Dana being like, no, no, no, you're not getting another title shot right away. I actually think it's if I, you know what? We'll talk about it, I'm sure. I'm just going to tell you straight up. Dana's right. Dana, I don't say this very often.

Dana's right. And I fully support him doing that. And I'll tell you why on the show today. Well, there we go. That coming attraction's right there. Of course, you can like the show, subscribe to what we're doing here on the M to the K. You can see our personal social channels, our YouTube channels below. Plenty of good content, by by the way going on in our youtube

channels look you know i always talk about that broski uh showbiz the adult right one of the one of the uh i do not know him i know you're close with him but i do not know him yeah i had him on the brian campbell experience over the weekend in a sort of state of boxing 2025 chat a lot of charisma coming out of the two of us so check that out i'm sure luke there's some goodies over there on luke thomas live right uh yeah i mean i just posted a breakdown of yuri versus jamal so watch it before the ufc takes it down oh there you go there you go uh let's welcome in the fourth member of our team uh they call him bong island luke he's from uh his dad's ball sack via australia hey that's a little that's a little much in terms of that. Am I wrong?

Did I tell lies? I got demoted to fourth member. Reggie's third now. I'm close. Well, Reggie's on his way to getting his own merch. So, you know, come on. All right. That's true.

Reggie's valuable. That's the difference between y'all. All right. Fair point. I'm just teasing. Nice koozie there, BC. You can go to maincardminute.com and get your own. Very quickly, give us an update along Bong Island, Luke.

How was the betting results for you this weekend? Fantastic. I was telling BC on Friday's pregame preview, I called Merab by decision. I said it would be 48-47, and I said that Hyoni Barcelos would cover the spread against Peyton Talbot, so both of those hit. Those lines were begging. When he was a minus 1,000 favorite, barcelos would cover the spread against peyton talbot so both of those hit that those lines

those lines were begging like when he was a minus 1000 favorite i was like no no i took i was thinking barcelos could win one round on one judge's scorecard it turns out he was just going to win the entire fight yeah 30 30 26 on one that battle-tested bastard was not happy about the odds i'm down with that type of spite that he showed. You know what I'm saying? Take it out on the youth, right? BC, did you go see any terrible bands yesterday? No, no, I didn't.

But I was shoveling all night because we got hit here finally in the CT, Luke, some of that snow. You know what I'm saying? We got informed, baby. Let me ask you this, Luke Thomas. Is it about Jaden Daniels? Because the answer is he's the best rookie quarterback in the history of the sport well i heard we do have a question pertaining to your washington redskins in uh dms from donks later but can i get a a pulse check a life check because

you know you and ariel hawani apparently had the best weekends of anyone we did well his bills advanced your skins advanced met in the super bowl in a rematch of 1992 luke yeah i don't know i don't know what's going to happen i uh i i mostly find the bills fan base loathsome and overrated um i keep waiting for them to get paralyzed doing their backyard wrestling in the parking lot those are the only bills fan is bre Brookhouse all right I like so here's here's the thing individually there are some great bills fans but I think bills mafia to me is like the most overrated fan phenomenon in the world yeah uh but I can just say this Jaden Daniels is the best quarterback uh well I should say the best rookie quarterback ever he might be the best quarterback I mean you're gonna say Patrick Mahomes but I'm saying who's

playing at the elite level right now who's playing better than him right now anywhere in the league nobody nobody is playing better than him he is beyond exceptional and i'm telling you dude he has electrified this town and it was an embarrassing moment bro i have dc united gear wizards gear i have caps gear i have nats gear i've got real madrid gear i've got u. I have Caps gear. I have Nats gear. I've got Real Madrid gear. I've got U.S. men's national team, Colombian men's national team. I don't, because the team has been so toxic, I have not one piece of Commander's merch. I might have to fix that this week.

I haven't seen this much passion since Mel Gibson put out that movie about Christ, Luke. I'm down with this, all right. How about the voicemails where he left all the N-words? Those were passionate, passionate too you know Well Luke you know You know I put this next to my Next to my Mel Gibson

And Dog the Bounty Hunter dolls as well In my racist hall of fame over there Wow come on people stop using that word Hey we got a great show as I mentioned And we're going to close it of course with DMs from Donks and have you seen this shit and a reminder You can reach the show At our email of morning combat

Excuse me at gmail.com Luke final bit of Business slash talking point I definitely wanted to publicly thank Once more Jed The second for being so Flexible and filling in for the man In the hat for us in our Cuervo

UFC 311 morning combat pregame preview rebirth on Friday thank you to the donks for watching and Luke I mean it's a little bit of inbreeding but he he felt like family did he not yeah I would say people responded well we even said after we left we felt like he showed up and did what we needed him to do. The only thing is, and he was later than, I don't know how else to describe it. He was very late. He was very, very late, but it ended up working out.

All things kind of ended up being where we needed him to be because we got to cover the change in the main event and blah, blah, blah. So we'll definitely have, if you're asking, will he be back? The answer is yes, he will be back. All right. Well, thank you to him for partnering with us.

Thank you as well for Cuervo. And thank you for today's episode of morning combat, which is presented by our other partner draft Kings. And of course you might be watching this right now on the draft Kings network. Remember download that draft King sports book app, because with draft Kings, the crown is yours.

Thank you very much. All right, Luke, if you're ready, I'm ready. Let's get into the weekend that was over there in 311, right? Is your name Amber, lady, or is that just the color of your energy, right? Hey, topic number one, UFC 311, the best fighter in the world showed up, even though his opponent didn't. And Islam Ahachev finished late replacement hainado moicano with ease by first round submission so luke uh saryukian pulled out we'll get to that

but here's my key question on the weekend even though maha chad ultimately did what's expected of him we can't look past the aspects the results of this performance he accepted a new opponent on 24 hours notice without any concern he became the winningest ufc lightweight champion in history and his win streak now 15 straight one shy of anderson silva's ufc record what does all of that say about how truly special the 33 year old mahachev is right now as the pound-for-pound king of this sport? I said it, excuse me, on Saturday night. I'll repeat part of that here, BC, which is I know there was this debate about who was really the pound-for-pound king. Is it John Jones or is it MMA?

Or excuse me, is it Islam Makhachev? And I know part of this is just Dana White posturing because he's got some other ulterior motive. It's not really necessarily what he believes. And so I think most people genuinely agreed. But here was a great test case to see exactly what we were talking about. Jon Jones did not look bad against Steve Bamiocic. Did he look a little bit older? Sure.

Did he look a little bit slower? Sure. But I think it's an over-exaggeration to say he looked bad. However, just consider the circumstance this was a guy in steve mjocic who while once great had aged significantly uh literally retired in the octagon could barely move was a cheap facsimile of what he once was and it took john about two and a half rounds to carve through him look what islam did on 24 hours notice against a top 10 relevant ranked guy who was literally peaking in his career he couldn't make it past basically four minutes this is the difference folks this is what i'm talking about yeah there are a lot of very good fighters in the ufc there's some couple of elite

ones then there's this then there is mastery over your division there is dominion over your division where really the only way people can conceive of you losing is for some kind of external factor to befall them, a bad weight cut, an injury, you know, you name it. He's got BC, a level of dominance and a level of ability and gap between himself and his peers that is now, if it wasn't before but certainly quite visible now you can clearly detect how much of a difference there is he has been deserving to be the number one pound for pound guy in the sport and I think you know was Moikano on his level BC no Moikano was not on his level but Islam made sure you knew that pretty goddamn quickly that's what pound for pound guys do I mean look I love

the social media post from Islam right after he accepted the fight aimed at Dana White, basically trying to squash this pound for pound debate that we spoke about ad nauseum. So why don't we go? Why don't we hear it from the horse's mouth, as Luke likes to say, right? Yeah. Hold on. Do you not think that's a real saying? It is, Luke.

But, you know, you got to your your people and your time and your moments all right all right i mean would you say that about john elway right sure i don't i don't i guess i gotta be clear i don't understand what point it is that you are all right we can share it off camera luke you know part of it's just good natured fun but uh let's hear from daniel white himself from the press conference regarding that pound-for-pound debate. I told you. I said it publicly. He said, brother, I am the champion.

I'm going to bed. Whoever I'm fighting tomorrow, I don't care. I'll wake up and I'll fight anybody. So came out and did what you're supposed to do in that position and actually like a stud. I've seen a lot of people say that because of that, Islam deserves some maybe pound-for-pound number one rankings. He's already the pound-for-pound number one ranking. But he's yours. Yeah.

Yeah. I'll give it to him. Fair enough. Are you happy? Is everybody happy now? Yeah, I got it. Don't be dicks. I just admitted.

I just admitted I'm giving it to him. He's the pound-for-pound, all right? Luke, you know, the man took the L at least for this week. Islam says pound for pound number one. But here's how I want to tee up here. Dana didn't stop right there at the idea that Islam is the best fighter in the world today. Let's not forget, you know, as four lightweight title defenses and a UFC record of five wins in lightweight title fights. So Dana took this a little bit further. Let's hear him. With this win tonight, Islam, 15 straight wins,

second longest in history behind Anderson Silva, and now the most lightweight title defenses. Do you feel like he is the best lightweight we've ever had in the sport? 100%. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I mean, he's the pound for pound best in the world right now, and he's definitely the best to ever do it in that division.

So Luke, we said coming in, like what would he have to do to pass habib in in a sense in the all-time rankings dana said he's already there how do you react to that i don't agree with that i think that part is a little bit or at a bare minimum that part remains unclear i mean i think i would actually say that if you wanted to say that islam is the best lightweight of all time i think somebody could make that. I don't personally feel as comfortable as I would like to, to make a claim that big,

but I don't think it's insane to make that remark. I just feel like, listen, the dominance and the clear difference in skill that he showed against a credentialed decorated competitor, or I should say experience at a bare minimum competitor in Hanatsumo Ikano tells you about the talent level, but you can't, I'm a little hesitant to assign a ton of value to the win.

The value in terms of like what it means for resume, what it means for greatness, what you actually did. Did he demonstrate how much better he is than many of his peers? Yes, of course he did do that. But that's not the same thing as what scalp is hanging in the resume that speaks to this greatness in a very specific kind of way. The two fights against Volkanovski, one of them being last-minute notice.

Again, the first one I think was very tough, but the second one, I don't know what to make of that one. This one, I don't know what to make of this one. You get what I'm saying. There's the early loss in his UFC career. There's enough things kind of pulling me back where if he ties or exceeds Anderson Silva's record, BC, then I think we revisit the conversation.

If he gets one or two more title defenses against competitors that were ready, top of the food chain, blah, blah, blah, then I think we revisit this conversation. For me, a little premature. Yeah, sometimes the UFC will do that. Remember when Stipe broke the title defense record at heavyweight, chain blah blah blah then i think we revisit this conversation for me a little premature yeah sometimes the ufc will do that remember when stipe broke the title defense record at heavyweight it was just sort of automatic now that he's the heavyweight goat when a lot of us are still like kane i was there when kane was on top but that's not the debate we want to have at the moment so

luke we'll get to certainly what's next because there wasn't much to talk about about the actual fight in a second but i did want to circle back to what we opened the show with and that's armand saruki on becoming the number one contender looking for a rematch having gone 10 and 1 since he lost that three round decision to mahachev six years ago we said all week or i said it about the press conference he didn't really overly sell or hammer home that he's here. He's going to win. He's going to take over. A lot of people are also ripping him for some interview that was translated leading up to the fight where he admitted he's apparently not 100%

like diehard focused and into MMA like we would assume. I don't know if it's unfair for me to bring that up, Luke. But then when you find out what we did in the moment on Friday during pregame preview with Jed Mishu that a tough weight cut led to a reactivation of a back injury are you willing to go public right now and blame this whole debacle on him trying to spin around on his head in that Nina drama video that's what I want to know yeah I know you're joking which I'm glad you are because I know some people were serious about that. And I'm like, guys, have you ever been in a wrestling room? That's about one of the more common warmups you'll ever see. And I'm talking about down at the high school level. There's like absolutely

nothing on you. Misha Tate used to do the same warmup at open workouts before her UFC fights in Strikeforce 2 when they had him. She's been doing it forever as well. It's a very common thing. Anyway, I'll say this, BC. I don't know what his issue him. She's been doing it forever as well. It's a very common thing. Anyway, I'll say this, BC. I don't know what his issue is. I don't think it's necessarily related to that. But I feel like this is a blessing in disguise, and he doesn't know it yet. I really believe that.

So are you trying to say without saying that he dodged a bullet here and that maybe Islam won't be here by the time Armin finally gets his real shot? Islam might still be here. I don't know about that part. That part's a little harder to say. But I think that if he is, that's still good for Armin. I don't know what would have happened on Saturday, BC. And I said this on Friday as much, but it's, I think, worth revisiting here.

This is just my opinion. Take it for what it is worth. To me, what would have happened on Saturday is that Islam probably would have won a decision, maybe semi-close, but at least three clear rounds, maybe four, against an upstart in Saryukian who was tough, who was dogged, who was in his face, but couldn't really ever get enough offense going for enough periods of time. A guy like Islam knowing where to find his offense, nullifying the very real strengths, but the kind of narrow range of strengths that Arman has. And now where are you if you're Arman?

You're 28. Islam's going to stick around the division. You're just going to be in a position where, God, we love Brandon Wojvel on this show, but he wouldn't be the first to tell you it's kind of tough being in those positions about where I'm supposed to go and who I'm supposed to beat and who's going to take a fight against me. I think Armand would have found himself right there. Instead, what he gets is back to the line and not any kind of favoritism from the UFC, it seems, anymore.

He needed that. He needs more time to work on his game. He needs more opponents to continue this development process. Islam will get a little bit older, and if they end up meeting down the road, that's a much more favorable matchup for him. He's just 28 years old. This happened to him, I honestly believe. I think it's going to make him better down the line,

and I actually think it increases his chances of becoming a champion, not decreases them. That's a very favorable pro Armenia take, although I'm not accusing you of that. That's more of a joke, but Luke, I mean, it looks bad with the company.

You're not concerned at all about everything else. I mean, it's just like, he will have to earn it back. I kind of get what you're saying, but his body's never going to be in better shape than it seemed to be. Luke, when he was at that workout with his shirt off there.

I don't know. I mean, I just felt like this takes a lot of the air out of the balloon. This is, I don't know. I mean, you're hurt, but. Good. He needs to do work to reinflate it. I'm not saying I agree with the notion that he should go to the back of the line as some kind of punishment.

Oh, you got injured so late and didn't go through with it. We're going to just punish you for that. Now I'm sure the UFC is not very happy with him and maybe they had reason to believe he could have told them about this sooner. Like who knows? There's a lot of, there's a lot of factors, but the reality is I don't support that. What I support is the idea that, yeah, did he win enough to become the number one title contender? He did. He absolutely did. But you can get a certain kind of athletic guy who's got a narrow but real set of strengths, and they can win up to a point, even up to the title level,

but they can't really hold on to it because they eventually get figured out. They don't have enough of a tool belt, and it's a very, very difficult and fleeting way to maintain dominance. Him getting pushed to the back of the line, whether by hook or by crook enables him to actually rectify this process. I honestly believe it depends how he plays it, BC. If he plays it bad and you know, who knows how he takes it? That's a different story. But if he takes it the right way, I'm telling you, this is better for him long-term. All right. Do you believe in any of the Twitter collusion that's out there

that because Moikano and Armin have the same trainer in Palumpa from, what is that, American Top Team? Yeah. That maybe they knew, maybe Team Moikano knew that Sarukian was going to pull out, so he made sure to make championship weight. Does it matter in your eyes? We'd be speculating, but I wouldn't be surprised. All right.

Well, I guess it helped keep the main event together, so I'm not going to focus on that. Here's what I want to focus on. The fight that I told you a week ago when we looked ahead to 2025 was the number one fight I want to see, even though it's not perfect, right, in terms of where they're at in their divisions. But it's Islam Mahachev, of where they're at in their divisions but it's islam mahajev the palm for pound king against ilia toporia the number two best fighter in the world in my rankings the number one fighter at the very tip of your bone air at the moment luke to be fair with you and i'm not talking about the caribbean island per se i gotta get a reaction

about this tweet that came out from topeporia immediately after the fight ended, in which he said, Islam, if I want to, I can finish you. If I want to, I can knock you out. I'll make it look easy. See you soon, Yoel Romero. Oh, I added the last part. Luke, dude, I get it. You'd probably prefer Islam Shavkaka but tell me this isn't one

of the biggest fights ufc can make tell me this isn't potentially the literal best matchup meaning the two best fighters in the world in my palm for palm top 10 years might differ going up against each other it's the ultimate hey ilia looks great but let's find out if he's actually all time great right now why would you not buckle up for this why would the ufc not throw themselves at this matchup i have to say i think that i'm going to put aside however i personally feel about the bout and just look at the tea leaves here we try to read them i think you're right I I'll say this at a bare this is my bare minimum my bare minimum on this BC is I think the likelihood of that to pour your fight went up significantly after Saturday because if you're the UFC think about it okay it's lightweight

you're really never going to be out of contenders it's not like flyway where it's like you're just like literally signing guys from other organizations like title shot right away. Lightweight, it's not like that. However, look at what happened. They had a number one contender, a deserving number one contender, but he got injured. And, you know, again, there's a question of like whether this was really the right moment for him. I don't think that it was. But he fizzles out at the finish line.

Then they're like, all right, let's get the number 10 ranked guy to give it a shot. And he gets wiped out basically inside of four minutes. You got a question to ask yourself. What is an effective use of your time promotionally? What is an effective use of Islam's time as a title holder and number one pound for pound guy? Like who should this guy be fighting with the remaining time that he has left?'s not any other fighter on the roster it's the number one guy how about the number two guy I mean just like it just makes it so much more likely because a this guy is selling it in to pour you b you probably even you bc would agree I would pick Islam to win but on the feet I do think Teporia can absolutely knock him out and for all these other reasons like with lightweight kind of being a mess at 170 the door seems closed for now

or whatever dude I think the Teporia fight is a lot more likely than it once was okay I would love it I'd go crazy you already know all the reasons why and Ilya was at I'm sorry Islam was asked about at the post fight press conference and he kind of reiterated what he said in the cage i loved what he said in the cage by the way he held up the belt and said hey look anyone can come fight for this get in line get across from me in the cage he said the same thing about the prospect of ilia he basically said if the ufc wants it let's do it but ali abdelaziz, manager to the stars, did tweet out on Sunday, the UFC has a completely different plan for Islam,

which does not include Olivera, Armin, or Ilya. But it's an unpredictable sport, and you don't know what can happen. Luke, if that's coming from the manager, that leads you to believe there's higher end discussions about islam potentially moving up so i want to get your take but i first want to play this sound from the post fight presser of islam telling us that he might not be just in this for the idea of becoming a two-division champion he might want to be three divisions also just give me the chance that's it I will fight with the depletive they give me the chance I will fight over Sam also I swear if Dana White send me contract I

will fight with him also thank you well to take that a step further Islam Ali told me you could fight at 205 and beat Alex that too much? It's too much. What were your feelings towards Mike? I need to know. I need the DC diet program to be 200 pounds. You just have to take a shot at DC. You're very mean to DC. DC also bring to locker room for me like 10 minutes ago,

some bakers. No, he did. He brought pastries. Those Russians, those Russians beat up on DC for being fat. Every chance they get hilarious. He actually brought pastries as a,

as a gift to Islam after the fight. Yeah. Luke. So it looks to be like bigger plans. We think that would mean if shavkat rakmanov defeats bulal muhammad for the welterweight title in the first quarter or second quarter of this year it would mean that but when you hear him introduce i don't want to talk about poet on that's just ali running his mouth but when you hear him introduce hey i'll go to middleweight

right now and fight ddp do we not want the best fighter in the world to act exactly like this dude? How do we not celebrate Islam more? This is insane. Is this realistic in your eyes? What is Islam's fighting future? Or maybe what should it be in the matchmaking offices of Luke Thomas? They won't do middleweight because not only could he lose there, he could get injured

going up against somebody that large both like in terms of like if he gets concussed or just you know the nature of having a larger person it's just that's where injuries happen a lot of times said saturday that jamaia is next after strickland for exactly it's just it's just them talking but it clearly lets you know that they have interest in changing weight classes. It clearly lets you know that that's what they've got their sights set on. Just as we've discussed before, he's really kind of up against it. Now, you know, what's interesting is if Shavkat wins, I think that, honestly, they would look the other way

and still go up against him. It's the Bilal one that's a little bit more delicate. But let's just keep our eyes open, man. I think if Shavkat wins, I doubt the UFC gives Bilal an that's a little bit more delicate. But let's just keep our eyes open, man. I think if Shavkat wins, I doubt the UFC gives Bilal an instant rematch. That seems unlikely. And then, I've said it, is it the perfect time to

put those two together? No. But again, if you're just trying to manage Islam's future, what does it look like? He doesn't have much time left, maybe two years or so. You've got to be strategic about what fights you're giving him. I think you're right bc i think some kind of either ilia up or him up is is very inevitable in 2025 yeah look at 33 at the at the ability he's at right now just what you said you got to maximize that you got to make a swing for history it doesn't seem to be the same thing as habib

who made a promise to his parents and sort of just said, yeah, I'm done right now. They got a chance here for this guy to seriously end up as a as a upper room all time. Great. Luke, is there anyone else in the lightweight division at the moment, save for Armand, should Islam hang around that you believe could get a shot at Islam that would deserve it? I mean, Max Holloway is lingering. You know, Chandler keeps showing up everywhere saying he wants to fight, but he's not in that position. I'd like BSD to win some fights, but he's coming off a tough stretch for sure.

What is the future for Islam at lightweight if there is one? So let's just run through the best guesses. Armin is maybe, what, two-ish? Maybe one fight away, but let's say two. Let's say two, just's say, let's say two, just this, just to even, you know, think about it. He he's, he's in your back pocket. I think it's a good way to put that perhaps. Uh, then you've got max, you could go max right away. You could do it. You could do it right away. You could say it's for the BMF belt and yeah, I know he lost a 45, but look at his last 55 fight against Justin Gaethje. You just go right

away with that. That's an option. I don't know if they're going to pull to 45, but look at his last 55 fight against Justin Gaethje. You just go right away with that. That's an option. I don't know if they're going to pull that trigger, but that's an option as well. The other one, of course, is the winner between Gaethje and Hooker at UFC 313. Now, obviously, they got the same manager. If it ends up being Justin, that could facilitate it. Hooker's not going to turn down an opportunity to get a rematch against Islam. But if Hooker wins, do you really have a need to see

that one again? He got run over by Islam the first time they fought. Is there a, is there a big reason to believe this time would be different? I don't think that there is. So maybe they do it with the Gaethje fight. Cause he's a banger, but like also he's going to get overrun on the ground. I think we all know that probably too. So, um, to me, Ilya coming up is a good option. Max right away is a good option. Armin and maybe one-ish, two-ish fights away is a good option. We're going to have to see. Well, shout out to Islam, though. He's doing the work.

He's one of the best, Luke, one of the best we've ever seen. He's only climbing right now. I mean, Usman looked like he was on that same path too, and then he hit some defeats and age caught up. Let's see if Islam can continue this. I just want to say, it's two fights in a row he finished with that short arm darts that's two fights and he got the same choke on poirier a black belt same choke on moicano black belt i think i saw a stat he submitted in his ufc career charles olivera black belt he submitted five ufc

black belt straight up submitted him and again part of of that with like Charles is he got rocked first and then he got hit. But this one really wasn't that. This was Moicano scrambling to his knees and he hit him with a short arm darts. Dude, Islam is awesome. Islam is awesome. And I know this wasn't the most electric main event of all time, but I really hope you got about a year or two left of this guy. You should appreciate it while he's here. Well, in terms of his prime, who knows how long he would fight. main event of all time but i really hope you got about a year or two left of this guy you should appreciate it while he's here well in terms of his prime who knows how long he would fight but

these guys probably going to get out earlier than later you know what i'm saying yeah i don't think you're going to see a lot of post-prime islam maybe some but not a lot all right let's go to topic number two where it's maya culpable time for bc and lt because in that co-main event, good Lord, a fantastic five-round technical thriller in which the champion underdog representing Georgia, Marab Davajvili, showed us once again why if you ain't fit to handle the heat in his kitchen, you're going to end up losing. He takes a five-round unanimous decision from Umar Nurmagomedov, rallying back to win three straight rounds to close out the fight

on two of three scorecards. So, Luke, in addition to you and I needing to apologize to Murab, who it didn't even matter if Umar was in his head, that was a hell of a performance, watching him do it as a sizable underdog, watching him gas out an undefeated Nurmagomedov and rally, like I mentioned, would you say his cardio might literally be the greatest singular weapon in UFC title history?

I don't know. I mean, Francis' punching power is a pretty significant weapon in UFC history. I'll say this. I'll meet you halfway. Rousey's from JJ, maybe? Yeah, something like that. Well, judo.

Judo, but into the, yeah, you got it. Yeah. I'll say this. He has, and I've watched MMA a long time. He has, let me say it very clearly. Merab DeWallish-Wheie has the best cardio in MMA history, bar none, bar none.

And I know what you're, you might be saying, well, what about some other guys that have great cardio? Let's talk about them. Kamar Usman, fantastic cardio, but he doesn't have the ability to work and the fifth round and, and,

and escalating in the same kind of way with the numbers that Marab puts up. There's actually a pretty significant distance between them and overall activity. So that's not there. Diaz brothers, yes, but they would get overwhelmed in the wrestling and they also would have a decline

in output over the course of their fights in certain tough matchups. Obviously, the guys I'm talking about, the Diaz brothers, the Kamarus, these guys have phenomenal cardio. We're nitpicking here, but we're nitpicking against the single greatest motor I've ever seen in the sport. Pick somebody else, BC.

How about you could say Cain Velasquez, but he kind of gassed at altitude. GSP. GSP. Tony Ferguson. Tony Ferguson went five rounds with Rafael dos Andros in Mexico City at 7,500 feet elevation. No problem. Like, that's incredible cardio. And still none of those guys can turn in the output that a guy like Marab has.

I mean, BC, I'll say this. I didn't think we were off on one central kind of point, which is that skill for skill, Marab is not as good as Umar. Striking for striking, and I will say that Marab's takedown defense is awesome. It's super, way better than I realized. It's elite. His takedown defense is awesome. It's super way better than I realized. It's really, it's elite. His takedown defense is elite, but he's not as skillful overall as Umar, but he wasn't too far behind. And BC, there is no friction between, between him saying in his mind, I want to go for a takedown and then going for it and having to pay no cost for it in terms of his gas

tank like a lot of guys go for takedowns and they fail then they get tired and then they ration their offense he never has to ration offense he never has to worry about recuperating afterwards even after long pronounced bouts of activity it never ever ever seems to slow him down in bc i've never seen anything like that i've never seen a fighter who's got a gas tank like that i've never seen a fighter who can call upon his resources at a moment's notice for whatever it calls and then even if you can't get the takedown on you he's not even trying to get the takedown you i'm just gonna fucking drown you in labor. He's so special. We were wrong, but I have to say,

it's only because he has one of the most unique special talents I've ever seen. I mean, it's one thing to do that. Wow, wow. Let that horn slip out there. Yeah. It's one thing to do that to B and C level guys. You're doing that to a guy I think is AA plus level, and that's Umar. We can get to Umar's performance in a second, but this was a technical masterpiece at an insane pace.

This was the two best band of weights in the world. I mean the performance from Umar, even with the broken hand that we'll get to, I feel like would have beat any other band of weight in the world on this night. Yet Marab has another gear to dig into. So Luke, if we called somebody like Habib one dimensional and all you can do is wrestle,

you'd be wrong. Cause he can do so many other things and his intangibles are through the roof. Is there any criticism of Merab from the standpoint that, that like his game is so dependent upon that cardio to beat guys? I mean, I see people try dismissing his skills on Twitter, acting like he's, you know, Homer Simpson, the boxer, all he can do is take damage. And in his case, all he can do is keep pushing the base. But like an elite undefeated fighter from the greatest Royal family of late in MMA history, just gave him his best shot, looked amazing from two rounds and visibly gassed out down the stretch. Like, does this, I guess what i'm trying to ask you ultimately is does marab deserve more pound for pound acclaim or is it just that he's got this one skill that

people haven't figured out how to like if you don't stop him he's going to outlast you that's what we're finding out in this experience of marab at the elite level of bantamweight yeah you have to meaningfully hurt him you actually you really you actually have to hurt him otherwise it is difficult to get anything really going i saw people by the way saying like umar didn't look good or umar got easily beaten and i'm like dude what fucking fight are you watching i know one of those route scores was 49 46 i i recognize that some of the rounds were close enough where that could go i still think umar won two of those rounds. I thought he won the first two rounds pretty cleanly,

and then he kind of really faded in the fourth and the fifth. Third round I would obviously give to Murab as well, but it was relatively close. So I just want to state for the record, this notion that Umar didn't look good is silly. But we're asking about Murab and how do we – is your question,ab and like how do we how do we is your question bc like how do we think of his power like how do we is he really a pound for pound skilled fighter or like how much of his success is built upon the gas tank in your mind it's kind of idiotic to say

because the guy russell's awesome and his striking is good enough but but is he one of, in totality, one of the most skilled fighters in this game in your opinion? He is very skillful. He is just narrowly skillful, right? He is very skillful with takedown defense. He's very skillful with takedowns, and there's some striking he's pretty good about, and I think he's making better reads in the striking department, like not running into as much stuff as he once did,

and so I think there's been some real improvements, but it's narrow, right? He doesn't have a phenomenal kicking game. He's got almost no submission game. Even the wrestling is much more designed for the takedown than the subsequent control that comes after it, although he has some of that as well. But you get the idea.

Within a narrow range, he's very skillful, but it has obviously impacted. Like, dude, did he beat Umar because he's more skillful than Um is obviously impacted like dude did he beat umar because he's more skillful than umar like answer that question no of course he did not he is very skillful and again i can't i cannot overstate this i thought i thought marab's takedown defense was outrageously good but he beat him with a very respectable narrow but respectable range of skills, powered by a motor that is second to none. Second to none in the bantamweight division. Second to none in the UFC currently.

Second to none to any motor in any weight class that has ever come before him. This is the best one. Yeah, dude, you're going to win fights that way. You're asking about pound for pound. Here's what he's up against, BC. You look at the names he's beating so hudos yawn again 50 takedown attempts almost on yawn o'malley uh aldo and now of course uh who was who was this weekend it was umar right so you have all these names that is so real that is so important i would say the one

knock on him is though that he's a decision machine right and there's not it's he's beating like insanely tough guys to beat but he's definitely not beating them up and he's definitely not putting them away he's just he's just winning rounds in a very it's not working on him i mean i guess it's the same thing as saying oh perera's all he's got his power but he breaks dudes down until they're vulnerable and he gets them the frick out of there sometimes it happens in the first round marab kind of does the same thing in a different way i mean but he doesn't get him out of there but still in the last two years you named it in succession since 2022 jose aldo peyote yan henry cejudo sean o'malley and unbeaten umar namaga madoff

in which he rallied to win the last three rounds in like an instant classic right so Luke somebody tweeted this at me and it's it's the right question is this a legendary run like is this an all-time great run atop a division right now these five straight wins over the last two and a half years because we're talking so much about what Islam's doing what this guy's doing what Tepori is doing let's talk about what Mur Islam's doing, what this guy's doing, what Tepori is doing. Let's talk about what Murab's doing, dude. It's inspirational. We doubted the shit out of him because he got so caught up in the drama outside the cage.

But when it was business time, he was cool, calm, collected, and he delivered. There's no question. There's no question. I didn't think he had it in him. I really didn't. I didn't think he had it in him i really didn't i i didn't think he had this kind of performance and i again i thought he was down too and i suspect he thought he might have lost the first two as well and you had to win the you know the last three that's a

tough tough tough thing to do and he did it and he did it after beating o'malley and he did after beating you know going down the list like dude it is a historic run it is a historic run it will be marred to a degree by there not being any finishes really really I mean I know there's more than Marais one but you know among like the big names uh he will be hindered by that to a degree BC and I think we have to kind of acknowledge that however when it when the question came down did he beat the were any of those flukes no nope the right guy won on Saturday no quite there's there you cannot find three rounds for Umar you simply cannot so the right guy won the right guy won in all of them and the level of difficulty that was required to do that especially with a narrow I mean that's that's the interesting

part about this BC again inside that narrow skill skillset is very skillful, but it is narrow and he's still beating the yawns and the O'Malley's and it's, it's, it's, it's insane what he's doing. I mean, making so much of that skillset. And I want to say he did have that cut on his leg that nearly pulled him out of it. He admitted at the post-fight presser that he had, uh, that he quote broke his back. He had some kind of back ailment that slowed him down, yet he made no excuses. Whether you want to call him a company man or whether you just want to call him a hard worker whose aim is to go out there and deliver, he did that.

So let's turn the conversation now to Umar Demagomedov and his first giant fight after beating Corey Sanhagen to get in position for this. Luke, here's the picture that Ali Abdelaziz put out afterwards of the broken left hand of Umar that supposedly happened at the end of round one. I still thought Umar won round two, as did all three judges, right? That one judge who had at 49-46 gave Murab the opening round, which I don't agree with. But point blank question has to be said, or has to be asked. How much did that injury affect the outcome of this fight? I think it played a role. And I also think Umar went into that fight with an injury as well. Like neither guy went in a hundred percent, but this is what I mean. It's like, I mean, listen, if your hand is that broken where you

can't make a fist on it, or you can't even grab, that is a significant impediment. There could simply be no denial denial but like the reality is how did he break his hand i don't know but i'm going to guess bc it's from him throwing these wild shots and then hitting the top of the head of marab because morab was ducking down a lot like that and then you know dude that's it's not it's very easy for me to sit on like this chair and say this but dude that's that's mma that's high level mma like bad shit happens in the middle of a fight you it's again super simple for me to just say this but i've watched enough elite guys have really serious impediments and or injuries to victory and when you think they absolutely could

not do it they do it so i just my response to that one is it sucks. I do think that down the line, my takeaway from Saturday was, yeah, Umar's going to be champ. Not right away, but he is going to be champ. He is better than all the rest of those guys, no question. Can't get it against Merab right now because Merab's special, but I do think he'll be that way. But you're just going to have to wait your turn to prove it again when the time comes.

Yeah, it was humbling. It's prize fighting look it's prize fighting it's prize fighting there was a point at the end of round two where i thought he was going to knock rob out i thought it was coming in around so if you're gonna if i felt that and then i see the effects of the injury i've got to admit the injury played a role but to your point they both were coming in many champions are but certain champions can adjust dig deeper so i think it needs to be asked because I'm not going to rip Umar. I thought he fought very well. And like I said, would have beaten almost probably any, every other Bantamweight on

this night, but there was real disappointment in coach Habib's face, his older cousin. And I have to admit, even though Murab is a superhuman freak, and this is what he does to people. I was shocked that umar visibly was gassing out in round four visibly so luke when you look back i want you know i don't want to be like is this more about uh marab doing great or umar not doing what we expected of him there were factors but the odds makers had it a certain way we were overwhelming that it was going to

be Umar. And it seemed like, I'm not going to say he fell apart or, but like there was some element of not raising himself to another level where we thought he could. Now I'm not going to look over the fact that with a, with one minute to go in round five, I had Umar winning that last round and on his way to win. So he really took that right hand from Rob and then the takedown, which broke GSP's UFC record, which is just insane, right? That he came in here needing six takedowns to do it against Umar, who showed insane takedown defense in the first two rounds. And he did it.

And the record-breaking one ultimately clinched the fight. Here's a pick pick by the way after that right hand landed where marab just pointed at umar and laughed at him what an insane picture right there it was closer than maybe marab was acting but still luke did you feel like umar could have done more and habib was trying to will him into it? A little. A little. Again, it's hard to know how affected he was with the injury. I mean, it obviously looks bad, but with your adrenaline going, you know, some of that

is you're able to overcome it. So that part's a little hard to say, but I do I did get the sense, BC, that he came out in the fifth round with a renewed purpose and still got overwhelmed a little bit in the end. Part of that is luck. Part of that is you know, the way the cookie crumbles sometimes but there was a sense that like dude i mean just just understand something

he'd been in five round fights but if in your first real five round title fight you show cardio problems in the fourth and the fifth now understand when i say cardio problems i'm talking about the you know relative to the guy he's facing facing, not like he's got bad cardio, but you're starting to get a pace put on you and you're visibly huffing and puffing in the fourth and fifth rounds. I mean, again, it's an unforgiving standard we see. It's very easy for dorks like us to say this, but this is the standard.

This is what they signed up for. This is the battle in front of you. If you're fading in the fourth and the fifth and you're basically your first UFC title fight, even under duress that he was put under that's a you issue man like that's a you issue that's a you you that is that is your fault um and so I this is why I think just 29 he's going to get better from this too and I think he's going to come back and really get that extra bump because you can see BC he's not that far from it. But there are some things about preparation, health, mindset,

closing the gap on some of these smaller technical details. And I think it's going to put him over the hump. But to me, he showed himself not green. I would not say he's green. But he looked somewhat unprepared for the championship moment. I mean, physically, he's one of the most fit fighters, Umar, in the game. You can see that in his body, but he didn't have it in the big moment there. And by the way, that picture when he pointed,

I believe that was actually when he kind of pushed him down into like a push takedown and he clowned him. And Murab was talking to the announcers last night. You know, the whole fight, it looked like he was like close to losing it, Luke, but he pulled it together. He got it down the stretch when the moment mattered. We often joke and say, you know, how does Kevin Lee fit into this situation, Luke? How does Ilya Teporia fit in? Oh, I know they're both Georgian. Let's see a tweet from your boy who says, Marab, my brother, what a fighter you are. You make us feel so proud. This is what happens when Dagestani wrestling meets Georgian wrestling. So Luke, later this week, of course, this weekend in Dubai, PFL is going to have the Usman Nurmagomedov against Paul Hughes fight. And there's been a big narrative with Habib involved of Irish MMA versus Dagestan MMA, but people don't really think that's a big debate right now. Did Ilya just start

a Dagestan versus Georgia MMA debate? And are you picking sides in this? I know that they are big rivals in judo. I don't know if they're big rivals in wrestling. I mean, the Georgians are good wrestlers. And of course, there's obviously a former Soviet relationship. But I didn't know that there was a big Georgian. Again, I'm not a Georgian Russian wrestling expert, but I, I, I, all I can say is I know that they're reasonably competitive,

but the Russians are certainly a better overall team, but I know in judo it's much, much closer. I know that the Georgians are a powerhouse there. Well, it's a big win for Georgia. Just the same. I was talking over DMS, Luke, you know, duty from, she loves the gloves, Christina. I didn't know her real name, but yeah, she was explaining to me dms luke you know duty from she loves the gloves christina you know i'm talking i didn't know her real name but yeah she was explaining to me uh that there were you

know 50 days of protests in georgia against russian-backed government uh situations and obviously i'm not up on international politics you know that side of me but it had to be you're not even up on domestic politics i'm not even up really on local politics for the most part luke okay but i'll tell you this. Murab deserves all of our flowers. He delivered a big moment for his country, a big moment in a fight when we counted them out. It seems crazy now in hindsight that he was that much of an underdog,

but we fell for it and he broke through. But, Luke, there was one guy all along, literally from the beginning, who told us we're crazy, and that's Bong Island Luke luke uh no cita i thought you were just doing this out of love for your island but like you are justified and vindicated here as many others who took plus money on marab uh why did you know how did you know that this was going to happen i just feel like you couldn't bet against him i know umar was a good challenger but like from what we've seen with marab no one

can hang with him his cardio is just the biggest weapon you look just said it right there like i don't know i really it was a bias pick if i'm being honest i just wanted to rep long island i love marab he cashed as a dog last time had to take him again but he totally exceeded my expectations hey way to go long out look i hope your people made money on the main card minute final bit on marab luke here's a video that oscar willis took cage side uh marab got pulled off the cage while trying to celebrate what do you think about this i know the commission hates this but like it's their moment let them let them cook right no you got to get them off these guys are a danger to themselves when they do shit like this and then i think the commission also has some legal liability.

So I get it. It's not like there's a jungle gym hanging from. I like how you're like, oh, it's a cage. Oh, I guess the law doesn't apply then. It's not like he's trying to do an Owen Hart thing. Luke, he's just climbing a cage to celebrate a big moment in his life. Again, dude, I know. Listen, there's plenty of criticisms to make of commissions, but them being like, hey, please don't do something that encumbers us legally is not a bad ask.

All right, Luke, you always have to be the dad in these moments. What are you going to give me next? Big boy coupons on Halloween? I just feel like protest the shit where you can get, you can make improvements on. Like, you can't improve on this, so find something else. All right, well, you know who recently improved on one of my favorite things in the world luke but it's just not great for me what's that i'm talking about magic spoon all right because you know i don't know if you know me luke but i was a cereal freak for most of my life a cereal cereal eater if you know what i'm

talking about right somebody who you know not necessarily cc sabathia right who used to uh who put on all that weight by eating cereal but but it was a food group in my house. But Luke, you know what happens when you eat too much cereal, right? There's a lot of bad ingredients in there. But our friends at Magic Spoon are changing that, and they're changing that in a big way, Luke. So when we partner people that are speaking to our own hearts, I'm talking about Magic Spoon. I'm talking about No Sugar, Luke. I'm talking about Magic Spoon. I'm talking about no sugar, Luke. I'm talking about packed with protein.

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But thank you to our fantastic partner. I think that's magic luke yes magic spoon all right my daughter loves it there we go we do it for toots hey let's keep it going on topic number three it's ufc 311 of course we're gonna get to the undercard and what was what it was it was yuri prohotsko of course and a light heavyweight duel of former 205 champions taking on jamal hill and luke thomas you said a lot of negative things about old year coming up stand stand by every single one of them well we'll get to that but he did as he said in the post-fight interview attempt to make a lot of changes so by improving

to five and oh with this third round stoppage in the ufc with five finishes against every opponent not named Alex Pereira. Would you say it's fair to call Prochazka the second best light heavyweight in the world? And could this strategy idealism change? Meaning you didn't see a lot of high guard, but you did see a commitment to head movement, to looking to set up and counter Hill. Will this newfound commitment lead to a, maybe a new development? Should he get what he called for a possible trilogy against Poetan?

I think it could. I mean, here's what I say. Jed Mishu after he won was tweeting me like, I told you. And I'm like, no, no,

no, no. I told you the issue with him was not that he needed to go to one 85. What a complete waste of time and abusing your body. That's not your problem. Your problem is not that you don't have to 185. What a complete waste of time in abusing your body. That's not your problem. Your problem is not that you don't have adequate size for 205. Jesus Christ, dude. First of all, did you not notice?

Not just, I mean, they're roughly the same size, but A, Prochaska, much more muscular. B, C, how about the speed difference? It looked to me like Jamal Hill was moving in slow motion out there. Like this notion he had to go to 185, absurd, totally absurd. Yeah, well, let's move past that because he's not going, Luke. Okay, but hold on. Hold on.

Let's inventory what people said because he was like, because Jed's accusation was I was like my prescription was going to make him worse. All I did was actually make him better. Him talking about like, oh, the guy is casting spells and I have to sit in these dark rooms. No, what you need to do is work on your game because he's obviously very athletic. He's very explosive, strong, good mind, durable, and he does have some skills, but he wasn't necessarily putting them together in all the right ways. Well, this one to me was not that. First of all, you said he didn't have

high hands. He did to bait Jamal Hill, and it worked every single time he did. But that's not the big insight. The big insight was he would go first, pull, and then go third. So he was hitting first and third. He was setting up angles to let Hill go past him and then counter him. He was using head movement and then rolling underneath to escape at certain angles. He was feinting and then throwing offense. He was turning defense into offense.

He was doing all the things that somebody who takes offense seriously and takes defense seriously would do. That made a huge difference in what you saw. And again, I'll give Hill some credit. I thought Hill going to the body midway through that fight made a difference for him. And him grabbing the head of Prochka, which obviously makes sense because he's doing all of this, right? You're grabbing the head and then going to the body. I thought Hill did a pretty good job with that.

I'll give Hill some credit. But in the end, dude, they had a phenomenal game plan, which was executed with thoughtful offense, athletic defense, and then the marriage of the two. That's not what he was doing before. I will say there is one thing that stood out to me about this fight, which I didn't appreciate in real time, and then I saw afterwards. I was saying to myself, okay, how different did he look in this fight? So I went back and I watched the Poetan, both Poetan fights. I went back and I watched the Ancalaya fight, which was obviously from UFC 300 in April. And I'll say this, BC, those guys went right after Prochocka's legs over and over and over again. And Hill never did. So like, don't get me wrong. Please don't misunderstand me. The real takeaway are the

improvements of what Prochaska did. But what I want to add on top of that is he'll never harassed his legs, never hurt his balance, never, you know, never attacked in that way, which if you watch those other fights where they did, it ended up kind of hurrying up Prochaska's offense. Well, because he could slow down this time BC he could make better decisions look at the results yeah look at the results that is not his most like amazing win in terms of like you know acrobatic work or whatever but that's to me my favorite win he's got because he thought through it used his athleticism look the results. And obviously what he did to that cancer patient in terms of bringing her to the fight,

donating to her, allowing her to get shine was certainly good stuff there. But in terms of the fight, as you mentioned, he balanced being smarter without sacrificing the endearing, absurd, ridiculous, reckless danger that he brings to the cage. So I think Jed was actually right, Luke, in calling you out on the idea of let this guy be weird, let him roll out and do what he does.

But when he's acting in this way, I wonder if he could get a trilogy fight. Now, obviously, it depends on how long Poiton is going to stay in this division. He's got that fight against Ankaliev in March. We'll get to that in a second. We know he wants to become a three-division champion and eventually go to heavyweight. I wonder if Yuri maybe needs another win here, Luke, but he's

showing that he is the second-best light heavyweight. I mean, you can argue that on skill that it's Ankalayev, but on success, it has been Prochaska, save for those two knockout losses. So that was nice to hear. They did eye-poke each other, and here is prohatska after the fight talking about the eye poke and basically saying it didn't matter um i just wanted

to ask you about your eye and the eye poke how bad was that and and were you concerned at all when the doctor was talking to you that he was thinking of stopping it i still feel that right now. So, no, there is no way to stop the fight because of eye poke. I've got one more eye, so no. I mean, he's got that barbaric way of thinking. I've got another eye. Who cares? I mean, it worked for Bisping, Luke. And on the flip side with Hill, I want to give him respect.

I saw him break down and cry afterwards Walking out of the tunnel And it shows you how much he put into this fight I saw him, you know, embrace Yuri afterwards You don't see him making all these excuses Like he did after the Poetan fight I saw him meet that Yuri lookalike fan outside And have a funny moment I loved that these two guys

Who we thought were going to come in and fight extremely reckless fought a tense exciting action fight at close range that was a duel there was some level of savvy and adjustments and hill as always luke even though he came up empty in this cut in this fight brought it to the highest level brought his balls with him fights it big in the moment knocked erie down. Like, you know, I'm sorry, he got knocked down. But landed some big shots. Won that second round. But, Luke, if I do have one criticism, and I didn't say this when he rushed back from injury at 300 and fought Poiton, but I will say it now.

Is he just not fully committed? You know, he's got a little bit of a dad bod to the cardio. Like I feel like if he got himself at his age right now into world-class shape, there could be another run potentially at the top for him. Am I nitpicking too much? Because I just feel like he brings so much to the table that I like quick hands and understanding of how to box. He goes for it in the moment. He's not afraid to take big shots and fight through, but I feel like I see him when he takes the shirt off and I'm like, I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that. I mean, Long Island Luke, did you detect a cardio issue?

And again, when guys are slinging the dogs and hitting each other, they're going to breathe hard, obviously. Did you detect a cardio issue with jamal hill because i i didn't but maybe you did no it was a speed issue like you said he looks slow to me dude that's it i don't do yuri yeah yuri was such a better athlete i i was blown away by the difference i feel like if he improves his shape he'll be quicker and he'll be he'll have more activity and can i say though can i say say though, that like, again, I'm not saying Jamal Hill had to leg kick Prohachka. That's not my point, but it is weird to me that like,

we have this conversation about like what Hill's good at and Hill is good at his core skill sets. And then what I would say is the things he doesn't like doing like jujitsu, he's good defensively. He doesn't like to wrestle, but he's good defensively. Right. But he doesn't really use it. And to me, it was, I, there's a conversation about Hill. You're like, well, maybe he needs to lose a little bit of weight. I'm not saying that's wrong.

I don't, I don't know. I think it's an interesting thing to wonder about and maybe we'll see. I also think his skill development needs a little work. If I can be honest with you, I think his foot skill development needs a little work if i can be honest with you i think his footwork sometimes is a little all over the place and here was a case where you know again you want to stick to your core strengths and i will say him going to the body and then grabbing the head in particular to control him and then he was you know he was doing good dirty boxing he landed some uppercuts in there like that was great like he he made some

adjustments on the fly they were slick i liked them but there's not enough like there was gotta be a threat of a takedown there's gotta be something in there something yeah something that's right just one more little piece of seasoning on top and there's a little something extra but to me it made it a little bit too not easy offense but if the range of things you have to worry about is basically boxing there's a lot a of guy like creative guy like Prochaska can do with that. I just didn't think he did enough with the well-roundedness. Quickly on Prochaska, long out Luke, can you show the video of him backstage staring down Poiton during the

post-fight interview? Luke, this moved me. Do you have any thoughts on this? You know what? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a little bit more on the Yuri train now. I always thought he was a good guy who had some great ability but was just going to be an underperformer because he was not going to take defense seriously. But if he's going to take defense seriously and he can actually continue to get better, then yeah, he's got to earn it.

Okay, we'll see what happens between Ankaliev and then whatever. But before, the notion of him fighting Poiton to me seemed like, forget about it. And I still don't think it's like, has to be done. But if he's going to change the way he fights like a Gaethje would, where you're still a madman, but you're a controlled and technical madman, look how much further he went. It's the only thing I want for Yuri.

Just do that. Yuri, if this interview is any indication with Megan O'Leary afterwards, had a lot of fun or planned on it after the victory. Luke, have you seen this shit? It's come early. Let's hear about Yuri's post-fight plans. Before I let you go, I got to know, how do you celebrate a win? What does having fun look like for you? You know, I took two crazy guys from my village to here to see this event.

And they are here. And today I will bring them to my hotel. And they will see something. Well, listen, let's leave it at that. Luke, I don't know if he's served in the Marines in the Czech Republic, but they're about to run a train in that hotel. Yeah, buddy. They're about to have some.

They're about to have. You better get the condoms and the mayonnaise it's about to be ugly in there yeah endear him more to you after being really his biggest hater for months not his biggest hater hater of the fans who just want him to be an underachiever i've the fans who want him to be an underachiever should be embarrassed of themselves that they would sell him short this way no chance he gets back to a title fight in the fuck-ass way he was before but if he wants to fight like a real guy like he did this time well then that's a different conversation but yeah dude i think listen he seems like i mean who knows but he seems like a really nice guy he's got real gifts if you've got real gifts let's see them

maximized i felt this was a step in the right direction and i honestly hope he does get to maximize his potential whatever that ends up being clear you're 100 believing he's talking about buying a bunch of horse for his two village friends right just to be yeah oh yeah for sure i mean there's no question in my mind he was gonna get he was gonna pay for some tang there was just that was what was gonna happen all right like i said like i said i never knew how many people dudes paid for sex until i was in my 20s in the marine corps and then i realized when i got out of the marine corps it wasn't just them either it some of you guys watching are truly the most despicable people on earth god bless you uh luke bantamweight prospect

peyton talbot came in with a lot of hype at age 26 and a lot of uh love of going to abandon uh factory sites and hanging out. I didn't understand all that, but Chuck Mendenhall had a nice story about it. And then he got humbled by huge underdog Brazilian veteran, Hayoni Barcelos, a minus 1200 favorite. And it goes down as the fourth biggest upset in UFC history, odds wise as Barcelos who said before before the fight he was pissed off, came down and took Talbot down at will, was willing to go strike for strike with him on the feet,

got the better of every scenario. He also got two 30-27s and one 30-26. Luke, Talbot did not get knocked out. He did not gas out. But he got handled with relative ease against somebody who's tough, but we got to call him what he is, a journeyman. How devastating is this for the bright prospect? It was a bad loss, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world.

I mean, there's no question he was technically overwhelmed. He was not physically overwhelmed. He met a guy better at this sport and the ways in which he applied it than him. Like, just much better. The guy was much better. That is surprising to a degree, but not anymore. Now you've seen it, and now you realize, wow, he's got a lot of work to do. But he's 26 years old.

I did not necessarily see anything there that told me it was fatal for him becoming something. But it does tell me they need to dial back the hype big time. You can see, man, here's the reality if you're a prospect. And sometimes these guys bring it upon themselves. They ask for more of it, and sometimes they don't. And I don't think you should hold it against them when they do, because these guys are typically really young and they don't know shit about the world yet. But there's a lot of pressure to anoint the next prospect as something. There's a lot of pressure, and they're almost never ready. We push, push, push, push, push these guys to be something. Oh my God, look at Raul Rosas Jr. coming out of high

school. Look, he's going to be champion in three years. Dude, he's not even close and I don't think he's ever going to be champion, but you know, like it's, and I go, I know he invited it, but there's also just pressure around him. Talbot, you know, there's pressure around him. You could pick so many guys that are coming through where we just ask them to be ready already because wouldn't that be an amazing marvelous story but it's not his story his story is it's going to take a little bit more time to get wherever he's going to go so it was bad it was to your point thorough very thorough comprehensively controlled no doubt about it but he's got a lot of time to get better. Let's see if he does. Yeah. You were just waiting for him the whole fight to figure it out, find an answer. I thought

in the third round when they were trading huge bombs that he might, you know, he might have lured Ioni into a brawl that he didn't need to be in. And then it was Barcelos getting the better of it. So shout out to the 37 year old. That's a big win. That's actually two in a row for Barcelos who had lost like four or five during a stretch including uh fights against umar and other top names right there so that's a big development but luke so was right near to ridder the dutch knight on saturday telling me before the fight on my channel that he was going to go in there not show any respect like he had shown meerschaer in his ufc debut two months ago and attack and go for the finish. He did just that with a first-round submission,

doing it with ease against Kevin Holland. So, Luke, you know as well as I do that this man is not perfect, especially in the striking. But he looked awesome on Saturday. Is he starting to become one of those dark horse but legitimate threats to the UFC title despite being a little up there in age? But you know he's battle-tested.

You know he's got experience. He looked great on Saturday. DeRitter? Yeah. I didn't think DeRitter looked bad. I thought Kevin Holland looked bad. All right, break it down for me. Hold on.

Long Island Luke, how did you feel about that? What was the big takeaway that derrida looked awesome or that holland looked bad i think it was a little bit of both i don't think derrida's like a title contender or anything but like they're putting him against guy kevin holland's not even ranked you know like they got to put him in top 15 matchups let's see how he does well they gave him gerald mearshart and that was tooth and nail for a little while right and he looked like shit in that fight in my opinion i thought kevin. Right, and he looked like shit in that fight, in my opinion. I thought Kevin Holland was actually a live dog in this fight.

I did bet on him. Yeah, let me just say this. I think Kevin Holland had... We said this before the fight. I thought Kevin Holland had more skills. Now, DeRidder being bigger, he was a lot bigger. I was like, wow, this actually made a big difference. So in the end, DeRidder being skilled and bigger is going to make it a tough fight for Holland.

But, dude, I did not like this from Kevin Holland at all. I think Kevin Holland actually has a great degree of skill. I think he does have good jiu-jitsu. I know he can crack. I know he's got good stand-up. And if this is what he wants for his life, you know, to just take fights whenever. You win some, you lose some. Maybe you lose more than you win, but who cares at this point? Cause that's just what you're going

to do. Then, you know, listen, I can't talk him out of it. I can't, but it's very, very hard for me to look at how good he is when he really is applying himself. And then look at this and think, a, there's not a difference. And then B that like, this is how it has to be. I don't think this is how it has to be. Number one, I think he should go to 170. Again, if he doesn't want to live in a way where he can keep his weight down, that's up to him, but this is just my opinion. He should go to 170. And secondly, he should try.

It looked to me like he was barely even trying underneath Derrida. I think he got a sense pretty quickly Derrida was bigger and technical, and I don't know that he put up much of a fight. I'm not saying he threw it, but I'm just saying, I don't know that he put up much of a fight uh i'm not saying he threw it but i'm just saying i don't know that he like he wasn't like he just didn't seem to be having a lot of urgency in ways that i thought he might and i don't know man this was a really uninspiring performance you win some you lose some the ridder's good to your point the last thing on this the ridder's good bc i'm not denying he's not good he was double champ like he's good he's good and i think he's a fun addition to the division i just didn't learn anything about where he's going to go from this

fight personally see i thought he he corrected what was wrong in that first fight where he said he came out was too caught up in making the ufc debut wanted to put on a show he was focused too much on meerschaut's ground game and he ended up getting lit up on the feet he said it's not going to happen this time because i'm going to attack And while all those criticisms of Holland are true For him at age 32 and let's not forget Holland's now lost two in a row by stoppage Four of his last five and six of his last nine While bouncing around between two divisions

So all that is right But Holland can bang If DeRitter was going to show those same holes that he showed against GM3 I think he would have got exposed Instead he came in there and handled his business and handled it easy. So Luke, when I say he's not perfect, it's basically saying that if you can stuff his takedowns at will, you can beat him up on the feet if you're a better striker. And a lot of fighters in this division are better strikers than him.

But that jujitsu is so good that I do get the feeling that he is one of those wildcard fighters that on any given night, he could be a problem. How far does that equation go in your eyes? Can he beat top 15 and top 10 guys with the jujitsu, but is he going to hit the wall at what top five? Where does he sort of top out in his climb? Because he wants to be active.

He wants to fight often and he wants to start collecting some necks out there. Yeah. I mean, does he beat a guy like Anthony Hernandez? might be a nice way to find out luke i don't think he does i think hernandez smokes him and uh and i think that's probably about where he tops out anywhere hernandez is he's behind him so top 10 i think you'd be surprised all right he already has a win over fluffy if you remember back so how long ago uh 2020 fluffy's definitely i think

fluffy's better now yeah i think fluffy's better now just but to your point we could okay fair enough you could you could you could see where they're at and then go from there i think fluffy's better now um yeah that's i'll stick to that all right quick question here luke she would be excited about what gialton almeida did getting a first round TKO over Sergei Spivak. Or is the reality that the heavyweight division sucks the horn below that top elite circle? And this just was what it was. Yeah, a little bit. I think it's more of the latter. The only thing I'll say that I thought was interesting was Spivak was doing really well.

So I told you Spivak could wrestle a little bit. It wasn't like he couldn't wrestle. It was actually pretty good. But they end up, you know, there ends up. It wasn't like he couldn't wrestle. It was actually pretty good, but he, they end up, you know, uh, there's ended up being the reversal and then he gets on top or sorry,

there was a reversal. Then they stand up. And then when they stand up, you know, I'll make a hit him with the one hit or quitter. I thought that was actually pretty impressive. He drilled him with a nice punch. I didn't even know Alameda had that in him.

So to me, it was, you know, heavyweights, heavyweight, but it was a pretty nice win in the end all things kind of being what they were except for some of the early trouble i know why the ufc broadcast does what they do in general they play down losses they won't talk

about a guy's losing streak right but dude they they sometimes glaze so aggressively in the minutes leading up to a fight they had you believing that sergey spivak was on the verge of like knocking out and gone you know what i'm saying like i don't like when they do that you can be a little more realistic right yeah i think that's fair but at the same time um you know talking about heavyweight in 2025 you're gonna have to grade on a curve you know what i'm saying all right well speaking of curves lots of bad transition and speaking of twerks hey luke say say what you will about Fiona Eileen Perez. She's a wild card, but she's got five consecutive wins granted in a bad division at Bantamweight and went out there against Carol Hosa and didn't look spectacular, but looked decent,

handled their business, got the win, gave us a little bit of a twerk. So Luke asked ridiculousness in terms of her behavior or not do you believe that fiona is charismatic enough in a dead division that she's actually a legitimate title contender right now and might be betch cohea 2.0 at 130 oh my god is she betched 2.0 i mean she's look like i know that when I talk about her Everyone's going to laugh And we're talking about the ridiculousness And oh BC you're gross and you're that

She's fun to watch She's a wild card She talks big game In fact let's hear her drop bombs on people in her division Then I want to see you react Here's Aileen Perez I want to fight for the title I said this again

Just put me in for interim title. The current title holder, I mean, she is shitting her pants. She does not want to take on Kayla Harrison. So let me take that. Listen, I'm coming off of five straight wins. All of them dominant wins. Great finish in Paris. Three dominant wins before.

There's no reason why they wouldn't give me a chance to actually put me on for a fight against the interim. Jesus. What the hell do I intern? I got it. Jesus. What the hell do I know? I'm a fan like anybody else. I know what the fans know. The fans know stuff. I'm a regular girl that just, like, checks out stuff that's going on. I don't know what's going to happen.

What happens is I am ready to fight regardless of who it is. I will fight in this organization whoever Dana wants me to fight. If Dana wants me to fight Kayla Harrison, I'll fight Kayla Harrison. If he wants me to fight if dana wants me to fight kayla harrison i'll fight kayla harrison if he wants me to it's juliana did norma it doesn't matter what i know is one thing the actions speak for themselves it's not what they're saying is what they're doing or not doing i can tell one thing i'll fight anybody because right now i feel that there's a it's it smells like shit everywhere so luke uh in addition to the division smell like shit she's claiming pena's afraid to fight kayla and doesn't want to she's willing to fight kayla for the interim

this is certainly good one woman pr to get yourself in the discussion but is it i see the derision in your face is it laughable that she's in a title picture in 2025? Because five wins in a row is not nothing. Come on. Five wins in a row is not nothing, but I don't have any great. Does she look like a championship caliber fighter to you? It would be awesome. It would be so awesome.

Come on. I just think it's a complete indictment of this division. Listen, UFC wins are tough to come by, and she's gotten five of them in a row. As you indicated, that's not nothing and she's at least trying like it's like jamal hill like she's trying to breathe life into that division i i do respect that and i i hill made that fight more yes people love yuri don't get me wrong he was the favorite by a million miles but hill being hill made that fight more exciting hill being hill made that fight more exciting. Hill being Hill made that fight much more anticipated. And I think Perez is kind of trending towards that. It's just, you know, on some level,

like I expect fighters of a certain caliber to be in championship conversations, and that's just not where we're at in 2025, unfortunately. Even though they let Holly Holm out of her contract two fights early, and she's talking about maybe doing boxing and a few other things. Isn't that the right litmus test to see if she really is for real? It would have been. It would have been.

Yes, that would have been a great one you could have done. But, you know, cat's out of the bag on that one. But it is. I have to admit, though, it is hard to take her seriously. In fact, here's. Did she twerk? She never twerks. That would be so out of character if she twerk.

DC and Marab talking like men do about her twerking. So I follow you on Instagram. I think you're like insanely funny. I like when you were slapping that girl's ass. Hey, he said, hey, can I touch this? I asked permission. Merab, you asked permission. She's twerking in front of you.

Hey, can I touch this? That's me. I always ask if I get permission, then I can. Brother, can I touch this? Hey, bow, bow, bow. That was so funny, dude. Want to touch the hiney? Yeah, not for me.

Okay, finally, Luke, on this undercard, I just want to mention Grant Dawson. He's 12-1-1 in the UFC and Dana White Contender Series fights. But yet, ever since that King Green knockout in the first round early, no one seems to take him seriously as a contender he got another win on saturday are we doing him right at lightweight or even with that that gaudy record he is what he is in your eyes i do think grant dawson is talented and he's got a smothering game plan that green loss was real bad right it was real bad that

set him back real bad i do think though like the only way to make use of him is he has to fight other top guys at this point because i think he can basically beat anybody else you know i just don't uh he messed things up for himself promotionally by like whiffing on that but at at the same time, if they're going to keep him, that's my point. If you're going to keep the guy around, put him in the fights that make the most sense for him and the division. Like if he wins, he wins, he loses, he loses, but you got to move them up the food chain at this point. It's time. He called out Darius. It's not an awful fight.

Yeah, that's a fine fight. We'll see what happens. All right. Let's go to topic. Number four, UFC three 13 goes down March 8th, T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas. And no, it will not be Poetan at heavyweight against Volkov. We did find out during Saturday's pay-per-view after the UFC social team posted and then deleted. And then we saw John Anik announce it. The doubleheader atop the bill will finally be Alex Pereira

versus Magomed Ankalaya for the light heavyweight title. And in the co-main event, as Luke mentioned earlier, a lightweight banger for key title contention as Justin Gaethje and Dan Hooker meet. So Luke, what letter grade would you give these two fights atop the marquee for a card in March in Vegas every year? That tends to be one of the majors.

Typically, are you moved by these two cards? How do you grade it, these two fights here? Okay, so letter grade or number grade? Letter grade. A minus. A minus. Maybe B plus. Something like that.

I would have given it a solid. Yeah, 8 out of 10 for me is how I would have given it, which I guess is a B. But I love these fights. And I love these fights not because they're necessarily the best pairings, although they're great pairings, but in the case of the main event, I love it because Poeton gets what we think is probably, probably the best challenge he can at 205.

And, you know, listen, Ankalive has made a lot of, like, dodo bird decisions at times, but when he's on, he's tough. And he has the skills to beat Poetan. That's not me saying he will, but I legitimately think that he can. I legitimately think that that's a very realistic possibility for him to do that.

So there's that. And again, it's been long in the making and after having to fight, you know, Clear Roundtree obviously gave him a tough fight, but like, it's number eight. Like, this is the number one guy. Like, anytime that kind of thing happens, it's been long in the making and after having to fight you know clear round tree obviously gave him a tough fight but like it's number eight like this is the number one guy like anytime that kind of thing happens it's always important and then secondly in the co-main it i will be i will be very honest with you there's absolutely not a thing wrong with this fight in fact it's great i have nothing bad to say about it except these guys have been around so long and gaethje is coming off of the worst knockout loss of his life i am legitimately terrified for them i mean that i'm actually

not even do i'm not even doing a fucking bit i am worried about the kind of damage both of them will probably take in this one and i know this is what they do for a living the commission will check them ahead of time is all the protocol is going to be there i i understand that but this is one of those kinds of fights where yeah it could end early but if it doesn't these two are going to tear each other to pieces and i have to tell you that gives me honestly if i'm being truly honest with myself it actually makes me a little bit fearful for them yeah a little bit i mean early odds here have the veteran former interim champion gaethje at minus 150 hooker plus 125 you know exactly what you're going to get as you said

but i got a i got an interesting question for you if we can throw to the odds here i think our friend aaron bronstead are over there of sports net uh showing that the odds have moved from minus 200 ankle iath to minus 155. So, Luke Thomas, the question is, even though this is a really hard style matchup on paper for Pereira, we understand that. We've been waiting for it. Doesn't it feel weird,

considering the run he's on, to see Poiton as a betting underdog in this matchup? It does. I'm trying to see what our friends at DraftKings have. They don't have odds up yet do they i haven't seen any i looked i don't think they have them up yet so i'd be curious to see what they when they eventually get them up what our friends at draft kings have but um dude poetons is under duress here this is somebody who in theory in uncle i have can wrestle him he is

somebody who can certainly control him on the ground. There's really no question about that. And Poiton has, again, it's not that he's had easy fights, but he literally had a guy in his last fight being like, I promise not to take you down. Yeah, dude, Onkelayev's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. I'm fired up for this. Long Island Luke, you're chirping in.

What do you got for us? Sorry. Draft Kings does have odds up. It's plus 100 Poiton minus 120 Onkelayev yeah a little closer a little closer uh still the underdog but that's that dude I gotta be honest like I don't I mean the people can bet how they want and they can see how I sort of get that I sort of get the notion that dude Poetan's got here's the thing. Does Ankaliev have a lot to prove here, BC? Yes, he does.

No question. Absolutely. But in a way, in a way, doesn't Poiton also have a little bit to prove here in terms of you got to fight a number one ranked guy in this division who can maybe wrestle you, who maybe should have been champ himself quite some time ago, and you've been fighting these guys

who are just going to slug it out with you, and he's not necessarily going to be that guy yeah there's something a little bit to prove with that and i think that's what makes the fight interesting and intriguing yeah in a way luke fights friday uh naoya against a late replacement but we'll get to that later the korean donk right yeah the guy that i know you're doing a play on words but i'm saying i was but the guy call his nickname is Paki weather. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding.

Wait, wait, like Paki Al, but Paki weather. Yeah. Like, like Floyd and Manny's names together. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Mixing Paki.

All right, let's go. I love this double header at three 13. I'm excited for it. Let's go to the final topic. And this is actually a big one here. If you've been following boxing Twitter over the past week and it's Turkey all a chic teasing a 2025 buffet of blockbuster boxing matchups. So Luke,

I'm going to read just what has been teased by Turkey and the outlets he represents, which is ring magazine, what have you just in the last week here. And then I want to ask you a question. Canelo crawford being planned for september with the option of both having interim bouts first devin haney and ryan garcia are being set up to compete on the same card in separate matchups in times square in may with haney taking on former 140 champion jose ramirez and ryan garcia taking on former 140 champion Jose Ramirez and Ryan Garcia taking on current one, our former 140 title holder Pitbull Cruz with the idea that they would rematch in the fall.

Haney Garcia too, if they both win the co-main to Haney Garcia too in the fall, Turkey wants to match Duran boots. After boots fight, Stanny onus in a welterweight title unification, April 12th in Atlantic City, Turkey wants to match Boots against Teo Fimo Lopez this fall with the idea that the winner of Haney Garcia 2 and the winner of Boots versus Teo would face off against one another in early 26.

Then you have Turkey tweeting about how he wants to make Anthony Joshua versus Deontay Wilder next, which I don't want to see, even though it seems like AJ wants Martin Bacoli instead, but we'll see how that works out. And then Turkey already announced a catchweight bout in April in London, Chris Eubank, Jr. Connor Ben finally meeting their fathers fought twice. We all know about that. So Luke, here's my question to you this is this is not nothing here this is really big if all of these rumored fights come off this calendar year and turkey succeeds in changing the culture and the habits of elite boxers by keeping them active by routinely matching them tough by getting them to change their mindset about what an unbeaten record represents

what will we say about turkey al-Ashiq, Saudi Arabia, and the sport of boxing at the end of 2025? Well, we are not even at the beginning of this process. We are not even at a place where any of these fights have been signed or delivered or happened. We are not at a place where we have shifted mindset culture in terms of how guys take purses and what kind of fights they take and under what kinds of conditions. I'm not going to say it's easy to do what Turkey does.

That's not my point. What I'm saying is without his dramatic wealth to incentivize a culture change, there's no catalyst to make this happen and then also i wonder if once that money leaves if that catalyst to make that happen is no longer in play don't they just resort to their previous practices like a lasting culture change of the kind you're describing that is not a simple or automatic thing to do even with big money and a good attempt at making fights however let's see i'm not declaring to you what way it's going to go or not. I think in answer to how the sport is going to view Turkey and the Saudis, you can kind of already answer that without even really knowing

what's going to happen this year if they deliver on Canelo Crawford and if they deliver on Haney Garcia, too, the other bouts, and then, of course, Boots taking on Teo, all that stuff. If they deliver on all of it, you're only going to get more of what you already have namely there's a lot of people well not a lot of people there are some people like me who think i don't know how good this influence is and it's a little weird to do business so closely with a despotic monarchy uh but okay that's where we are and let's see what happens most boxing boxing fans, from what I can tell, really love what Turkey is doing,

and it's not difficult to figure out why. If you had to ask the question, forget everything else, sports washing, you don't like the shows, they're too long, whatever your complaint is about Turkey and the Saudis being involved, if I just had to ask net net are you getting more and better fights vis-a-vis what turkey is doing uh than you would under the normal alternative the answer is unequivocally yes the answer is yes you have to reconstitute the culture luke the future is hard to know.

Let me just tell you my personal opinion. And if you have a different opinion, I actually would really like to hear it because I think the audience should hear both. I think lasting culture changes are very difficult to make. And without a consistent kind of abnormal monetary presence supercharging that culture change. It's going to be very difficult, if not impossible to maintain. Why do you feel differently? Well, I don't know. Look, I don't know what the fallout is going to be after this year in a lot of the areas from sports washing to what will this mean about boxing in North America?

Although we do see Turkey saying he wants to bring a ring magazine series to the States. We hear that Canelo Crawford would be in Vegas and it wouldn't involve a rehydration, you know, things. So there's some things I'm really starting to like go, okay, if that, if you're not going to F with that, if we're going to get closer to one title that's recognized with the ring magazine belt, which a lot of people think is coming. These are solving a lot of the problems that have gotten in the way of

consistent entertainment in this sport. We're so nervous at what the cost will be. But at the same time, if all of these fights come off and these fighters, these young fighters who we just wish would all fight each other, we wish the five princes would all fight each other as many times as the four kings did in the 80s. Turkey's actually building a scenario In which that feels like inevitable Right now and I wonder What it's going to be I wonder what happens with somebody

With a big O takes an L Are they going to just get up off the canvas and match Tough again I mean it's interesting Let's show a couple turkey tweets here Explaining a little bit deeper on What he's trying to do here's him saying It is easy fight in May meaning Haney and Garcia on separate fights then the big

Rematch and in the same card we try Teo against boots winner against winner Here's him saying it is easy fight in May, meaning Haney and Garcia on separate fights, then the big rematch. And in the same card, we try Tao against boots, winner against winner, loser against loser, by the way, in February need to discuss with our partners, top rank and match room, golden boy and PBC. So rather than creating a league, he's partnering with anybody, everybody. And Luke, this is a specific tweet. I want to get you to react to. They talk a lot about the fights, but what happens in the end is that the final answer

is with us. Prepare soon for announcing the biggest schedule for the year in boxing history. While the latter part of that is certainly enticing, I didn't overlook what he said. Talk what you want about the fights, meaning the fighters on social media. But the answer was with us. I think it's his way of basically saying out to the fighters like if you're in you're playing by my rules and we are matching tough that's what we do you can talk what you want i don't want to fight this guy whatever the answer is with us dude

he's building a level of control through the money that we've never seen anyone be able to do before let's see the tweet now about uh undefeated fighters we must now have anyone be able to do before. Let's see the tweet now about undefeated fighters. We must now have it be normal to lose some fights in boxing. All the fighters want similar to the career of Mayweather, zero losses. This can happen one time every 50, 60, 70 years. We need like the UFC model now where the champions are losing and winning. Ali lost five times and he's still a legend. That was Turkey talking with Carl Froch.

Luke, these are big statements. We haven't seen anyone in control in boxing with this much power in a long time. And we certainly haven't seen this express way of doing it, of like, let's go video game fun, fantasy matchmaking. And after you beat this guy, you're fighting that next guy. And if you lose to this guy, you're fighting the loser of that one. This is a dream. This is a dream. This is a dream for long boxing fans, Luke.

I don't know what comes with this dream, but to act like I'm not jumping out of my skin with excitement would be a lie. I will say this. Again, I don't know what to make of it. I think everyone should be very careful about getting into bed with a religious monarchy and dictatorial monarchy. I don't think that's a small thing. It's actually a pretty big thing, but, but, uh, at the same time, um, Turkey is right about one thing for sure. And it comes from MMA and people in boxing have

always known this, but this is not what they practiced in the Floyd era in particular, really kind of made it hard he is right when he says it's better if you have some losses but you take tougher fights it's better for the guy like it's better that when you take a loss it doesn't count as much the fans just want the better fights it enables better fights to get made and dude he saw that and all of us saw it because of what MMA has done and UFC's success we should be very very clear about that. UFC matches their guys very tough, very, very tough. But what it ended up doing was making a loss, not as, not always, but in most cases, not as bad as it ordinarily would have been. They're much more common. And

the fans just really want to see people go up against, you know, the toughest challenges possible. It's a lesson that MMA has, that boxing knew anyway, but that MMA really made irrefutable. It made it irrefutable that, you know, Oh, you have to preserve your record. Yeah. If you're really, really, really, really good, you can do that. But for everybody else, take the tough fights. You're going to win some, you're going to lose some. We're going to love you more in the end.

Dude, this is, this is crazy. Let's hear from Turkey. I'm sorry. From Teofimo Lopez, who, uh, he says lots of things, doesn't he? Yeah. But just listen particularly to like why the fighters love working with Turkey. I know you could just say, well, it's the money. But, Luke, fighters fight.

They want to be active and take big chances. They want to be paid for it. They're getting the opportunity. Here's Tao. Yeah, Turkey mentioned you in a tweet that he hopes that you're going to face Boots. Yes. And then the winner faces maybe the winner of Ryan and Devin. That's what it's looking like

Yeah, we're looking forward to it. You know, it's all about the best fighting the best and you know, listen, I think Yeah, man. We're here to be strong like LA What do you mean that boots fight? Like how close are we to it? The only thing now is just us winning our next fights. That's it. That's as close as it's gonna get until then So you're having a fight before? yeah the boots fight yes yes yeah out 140 or 47 at 140 and then we go to 47. yeah do you uh can you do you know who it's gonna be is it like single down to someone um well we're talking right now um richardson hitchens uh we're gonna unify no way yeah that's a good fight bro yeah so two world title fights lined up and

then you know the prize fighting man when do you think that fight's gonna happen with the richard tale ah man stay tuned that's all i can say what do you think like with may um very soon very soon that's the beauty about it we're gonna get everything done so the whole goal is just getting everything done right now and finalized and and you know that my team my legal team is doing a great job so that's it really i mean look imagine if this calendar year teo fights richardson hitchens to unify 140 then fights boots and if he wins he sets up to fight the winner of garcia haney too garcia ryan garcia could fight pitbull cruz and

then devin haney and then the winner of Boots vs. Teo I could name all the other young fighters And give you similar breakdowns If that happens or 80% of it happens We're going to have the 1980s all over again And it might be a great thing, Luke There's a price that comes with this But it's setting up right now

And as much as I don't like necessarily that you're announcing ahead of time like well this guy's gonna beat this guy and then he's gonna fight this guy it also does give you like a storyline and some connective tissue you know what it leads to what it builds to i don't know dude it's getting pretty exciting it's getting pretty exciting okay fighters let's let's see what they can come up with they talk they talk in a good game uh and they've delivered big i admit let's Let's see what they can come up with. They're talking a good game, and they've delivered big, I admit. Let's see what happens. Final bit here, TMZ caught up with Canelo to talk about Bud Crawford,

which seems to be fairly confident across the boxing world that we're headed this way for September. No catch weight or no rehydration clause. Here's Canelo, who started to dunk on Bud a little bit. Are you tired of people asking you about Terrence yet no look there's I like I always say I respect Terrence Crawford he's a very talented fighter he just win uh one big fight if you see his record, he just beat one good fighter like Errol Spence is. But other than that, I don't think he's beating another great fighter like Spence.

He did a really good job with Spence. He did almost look very easy. But I knew Terry Scampo is a great fighter. But you never know in boxing. We'll see. I was a little surprised to see that, Luke. But this being a reality, holy crap, we're getting everything we want. Well, after they fight in September, he'll have two. Wow.

Wow. You can mark me down, Crawford I see a lot of I see it changing a lot of people when this first was was talked about after the Spence fight where team Crawford all the way now I'm seeing a lot of people that know are saying I love the idea but Canelo's gonna hurt this guy he's gonna cut off the ring and hurt this guy we'll see we'll see that's one of the I mean but Bud will be 38, but still great. All right, that's your top five topics for the week here on Monday. Let's get in now to hear from the fans every Sunday night

on our social media accounts on Instagram and X at Morning Combat. We put the call out to you to send in your questions. This is DMs from Dom. Wow, that was gross. from cha underscore vita would you guys be excited for yuri prohatska versus israel adesanya at 205 and if so who do you think would win oh i actually think it's a tough fight for izzy at 205 damn right yeah i'd probably pick yuri at that one i think he obviously i think uh izzy would still land on him but i him willing to take a punch from a natural middleweight and walk through it to then land big on izzy i think would work i don't know if izzy could reinvent some life at 205 or if it's just going to be diminishing returns against bigger strikers you know what

i mean i don't know it's tough to say i mean he's been bulking up all this time but yeah it's just going to be diminishing returns against bigger strikers. You know what I mean? It's tough to say. I mean, he's been bulking up all this time, but yeah, it's a good question. I don't know how to answer that. Did you get moved seeing him and Robert Whitaker grow up and talk about DDP together in that live stream they did? Yeah, sure. You were into it? Yeah, I watched their UFC 311 breakdown too. Yeah, I loved it.

I loved seeing that. All right, question two from Mike Hrenshin, 1995. Where does RDR go from here, meaning Rene Derrida? They clearly gave him two quasi-tests to start without giving him an outright gateway to being ranked. Could you see the next fight being a top-ten guy? And, Luke, let me add on to that. Who is the opponent that you think is next for RDR to challenge himself against?

Definitely not Bo Nickel because Bo won't go to the ground with him. So let's do what? You know what? I mean, where is Hernandez ranked? 12th. Let's do that one. Not Shara Bullitt at 14, not Michelle Pineda at 15. Let's do Hernandez.

What about Paulo Costa at 11? What about that? You could do that one, too. I like the idea of a rematch. I like the idea of what Hernandez brings at like the idea of um what hernandez brings at this point i think it's a great test to see where both of them are at i got it vittori at five because he's ranked higher than he should be five you're gonna give the guy a guy in the top five let's find out vittori's interesting style matchup for him let's find out i think vittori

lumps him up all right well i gotta see that happen let's go to flannels and jits uh you probably wash those with the ncaa deciding to make women's wrestling an official d1 sport how much will this impact women's mma in the next few years look this is a great question it is a good question and they did it for i think all three levels division one two and three i believe but i have to double check but um i think it's big bc i mean you know women's mma is still behind the the the men's game both in terms of how many people compete how many divisions how much money is there but it's still ahead of a lot of other opportunities that these women would otherwise not get it's still another outlet now of course nil will play a role as they kind of formalize

the the the architecture so to speak of women's wrestling in collegiate athletics. But I think it actually makes it more likely that they either go into jiu-jitsu or MMA, but that they continue a combat sports career after that. And remember, MMA gyms will sometimes go to Division I qualifiers or national championships to even recruit. So a lot going on here with what could happen. Yeah, I like this development. This is a lot going on here with, with what could happen. Yeah.

I like this development. This is good stuff out of here. This will inevitably increase the flow of good athletes coming to women's MMA. And the time is right. Cause you know, you could say women's MMA is hitting a, a, a, it sucks right now. It sucks right now. Number four is from Steven Armitage 89. Two part question for me.

First, how big was LT's Bonair during the Commanders Lions game and second does a win against Hooker put Gaethje back in the title picture it does doesn't it I think it does it probably does because Islam has not fought Gaethje that's correct right right he hasn't and um again they have the same manager and stuff, so who knows? But the answer is yes. Dude, I will tell you about this commander season, man. Like, I had some hope for them. But, dude, they just keep doing things that I keep waiting for the season to be over,

and it just never, it's not, it just keeps going. It just keeps going. You think Dan Snyder's bitter? He has to be absolutely livid the the the the minute that he leaves everything like Cinderella you know the pumpkin goes away and everything just becomes so nice and like the fan base comes it's not just like the team is performing well like people want to go to commanders games again people are happy he did so much damage over the course of his 20 years so i'll just say this i i did i think they were going to beat the lions fuck no i think

they're gonna be the lines they hung 45 on them so i don't know what's possible bc but i'm enjoying the ride and i'm i'm so happy about it is it next week the nfc championship yeah i guess the against the eagles eagles can they beat him they already beat him once granted they beat him when jalen hurts was out but he got hurt in this game i don't know if he's going to be there next week either and uh i think i think when jalen jayden daniels is on he can he can outplay any offense in that league i believe that or any defense excuse me with the joy that you could undergo in the Commanders winning the Super Bowl this year,

is the level of joy higher than the level of heartbreak would be if they lost to the Bills in the Super Bowl? I'm just going to be completely honest with you. I don't have any, they have vastly exceeded my expectations already. This is all just bonus time i honestly didn't think since the 90s anyway that i was ever going to see the you know then the commanders uh

win a super bowl it wasn't even it's not even fathomable to me because it hasn't been for all of my adult life so we'll just see but like to me to me i'm just telling you they could lose on i don't obviously i don't want'm just telling you they could lose on i don't obviously i don't want them to lose but they could lose and i am so happy with how everything has gone for this rookie season and this new team so the last time they won was the 91 regular season with mark rippin's acne is that correct i mean i don't know if it was with his acne but you know it was mark rippian he had a career year that year, Luke. Who was the receiver that took advantage of that mostly? Hart Monk.

He was old, but the other guy, 82. You know what I'm talking about. I'm not sure. I mean, Riggins was the running back, basically. Not in 91. Not in 91, but the famous. They had Beiner and old Gerald Riggs. Yes.

Gary Clark. Gary Clark. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Gary Clark. Gary Clark. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, good call. Not the guitarist Gary Clark Jr. Yeah, okay. Final question comes to us from the Main Card Minute.

Why do we give them? Favorite flavor gummy. Like this is something we've, like, what is it? Water, sour watermelon? Like, this is like asking what your it water sour watermelon like this is like asking what your favorite flavor of mad dog 2020 is it doesn't matter you're drinking mad dog 2020 yeah that's your answer all right peach mango i go with sour watermelon that sounds like that seems like a fantastic flavor yeah but it's the most artificial sour watermelon flavor imaginable

yeah but the vape flavors you choose are always like yeah this is also a ridiculous thing that i do i mean but they're not like you know favorite like i don't know it's a weird question to ask why can't you get a vape sponsorship why why can you not uh i probably could if i tried right yeah well it would increase the likelihood of your early death that's okay all right i got one more segment for you and it's where, oh by the way, thank you for your DM questions MorningCombat At gmail.com We do fan subs in Dead Wrong on Friday

I know Daz will mahalo us there So if you want to get involved Email the show right there But do not send Mikey a piece of your genitalia Thank you Alright, final segment Where your boy scoured the globe right for the highs and lows the good the bad the ugly the in between in the worlds of combat sports and beyond we call

this have you seen luke for all this talk about what's going to happen in boxing in 2025, why are we never talking about our boy, a Big Bang? Jaleel Jong has a new catchphrase, baby. It's not Chinese power. It's this one. Do you have anything to say to Ajit Khabayal? I'm Big Bang.

I'm Bang Yo. No delay. He's going to fight Ajit Kabayel on February 22nd on that loaded card. So they caught up with Kabayel and got his reaction. He said he's going to bang you. No, did he?

Yes, I heard. He said he will bang me, but my name is Ajit Kabayel. I say this. My name is Ajit Kabayel. His name is Big Bang. I will bang him, but my name is Agit Kabayel. I say this. My name is Agit Kabayel. His name is Big Bang. I will bang him. No ditty, bro.

Come on. Combat sports is the dumbest set of sports on Earth. On Earth. All right. We had some jokes here. Serious. Our boy Alan Dawson was at the 311 post fight presser and cornered dana white about the new york times report on the upcoming boxing league last year uh you told us early this year

you'd have a announcement to make about entering boxing are you close to making that announcement uh no no there's stories being written out there uh but no in the new york times with a boxing league with turkey al-ashik yeah i saw that article what did you make of it i i think that the article was incredibly premature and uh if there was if there was a deal done it would have been announced you would have had quotes from me no quotes from me or ufc or anything so once thepex has had its expansion, could we see boxing at the Apex? I think you can see a lot of things at the Apex after the expansion. The Apex is going to be badass when it's done. It's like a $26 to $30 million expansion.

So it's going to be very nice. Luke, what do you make of this update? In the New York Times report, it said an announcement was weeks away. Dana makes it seem like it's not close. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't,

I don't know what to make of that. I maybe he's like tamping down enthusiasm because they want to have a big reveal. Could be. Yeah. We'll find out. All right. Hey,

Luke, we never talk about hockey on this show. All right. Maybe this is what Alex Ovechkin bit. He's standing in front of the net with about eight inches of his shaft in his hand. Hey, you about eight inches of his shaft in his hand. Hey, if you got eight inches, just grab it wherever you're at, man. Let everybody know.

Thank you, Mandingo. All right, let's go over to UFC 311 odds and ends. Luke, this was an interview before UFC 311 when Kevin Holland was on the Jackson podcast. I think it's pronounced jackson yeah he almost fought rampage but here's him talking about his training regimen for the rdr fight what are you doing in and out of camp that's allowing you to stay so healthy i smoke weed fuck bad bitches and ultimately just enjoy my life sounds about right it showed in the fight hold on why was he trying i heard about this why was showed in the fight. Hold on. Why was he trying? I heard about this. Why was he trying to fight Rampage?

You know, I watched half the video. It didn't really interest me. Long Island, Luke, you got any more insight on this? Why did they almost fight on the podcast? I don't know, but I will say my live chat was blowing up. Everyone was like, go watch that podcast. So it is on my list, but I haven't seen it yet. All right.

Thank you very much. Let's keep it going with 311 odds and ends. Here's a tutorial Murad put out before the fight on how to properly do a triangle choke. Today, I'm going to show you triangle choke. Come here, please. So, hands down. Legs come this way.

Face down. Legs lock. And then now, choke is on. Oh, coach. Can you show me that again this guy's a world champion he's a hero and he puts out videos like this you can't write mma this is incredible the best part was i knew who that creator was um francity she's she's colombian yeah oh wow all right uh one more more. We talk about how much Islam and company ripped DC being fat.

They did it another time this week, too. It's impossible. You go to Las Vegas. Why Las Vegas? It's very far. 50 minutes by flight from your house. Yeah. But if I go to the fly, I never know if maybe they throw me out. No.

This is the craziest situation. I go to the fly. I never know if maybe they throw me out. They throw me out. This is the craziest situation. In an emergency, you can help people? Bro, why they kick him out like this crazy? Why they do this to my guy? I don't know. Bro, this is number one bullshit. Disrespect. For sure, disrespect.

Bro, I understand if they kick you out from this emerging X, because you're so big, maybe. Don't do that. Don't be disrespectful. Don't be disrespectful. I can help because you need strength to pull the bar. Oh, you're a little bit big now. You cannot move too much. No, but all you got to do is pull the lever.

That's it. But people have to go from this side. Yeah, but once I pull, I go. Ah, you go first. That's it. But people have to go from this side. Yeah, but once I pull, I go. Ah, you go first. I go first. Dude, we gotta show Islam the picture of him in that WWE referee shirt in the next interview and get his take on it.

I cannot wait to hear Islam roast him. Alright, Luke, you know people that are shorter than people realize they're celebrities, you know they have this trick where they take pictures and they stand on their toes yeah dave portnoy does it yeah yeah he does that let's watch this so here's a some pics of him taking pictures with fans but you know there was one picture where he didn't stand on his toes did you see it was he next to danny devito or something close luke here's here's some footage. Yep, see, on his toes.

Take a picture with fans. These are all athletes, though. Don't let them know. Oh, boy. Flat-footed! Luke, flat-footed! Okay, you got me. I didn't know that was coming. Okay, that's funny. That's funny. That's a good one.

All right. Luke, do you ever imagine when you look at your teachers when you're in school, you ever imagine what it sounds like when they fart? That last one was so good. All right. Shout out to Owen Hart. Here's your pro wrestling death of the week, Luke. Bill's Mafia baby they're everywhere Luke

if that was Bill's Mafia I would have cheered it I actually feel bad for that guy Bill's Mafia I don't feel bad for just get frostbite and paralyze yourself you fucking oaks Luke have you ever been to that spot in the southwest of America where you can touch all four states at once I've seen it yeah yeah let's watch this this has never been done before we got utah here we got

new mexico there colorado here arizona here i'm gonna be the first man to do this in all four states at once how how high were you when you put this together well luke in honor of inauguration day today we have a classic john f kennedy speech that people don't play that much they should as americans and as a people of kind hearts will focus all efforts to thwarting the division that comes from Candace. Who's Candace? Can this dick fit in your mouth? Okay, so we got the answer.

You were very high when you put this together. All right, let's keep it going. Look, this is wild. Mike, stay right where you're at, okay? No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't move, don't move, don't move. Stay down. You're bleeding badly. You're bleeding bad.

No, no, no, no. Sit down, bro. Just stay here, brother. There's help on the way. There's help on the way. There's help on the way there's help on the way there's help on the way brother it's okay it's okay hey you're gonna be here again man oh my god no no no no he's on his way out of here. Hell no. Hell no. No. Stop.

Oh, fuck. No. Dude, that's a hell of a plot twist right there, right? I want what he was on. Yeah, PCP, I think. I want what he was on. Yeah, PCP, I think. I want what he was on. When he lost a shoe, I was like, that's how those shoes end up on the side of the Florida highway.

You know what I mean? I thought he was getting a run over. Do you remember the last time we were in Florida together and we saw a drug deal just on the side of the highway there in Miami? That was great. Luke, let's do a new segment. It's called Ask a Marine. Sir, first of all, I want to say thank you for your service. You ever try Whippets?

No, sir. No? You interested? No, I'm okay. All right, then. Hey, you want to run a train on Osborne? Yeah, actually. He would have said yes. That was a Lance Corporal. That's an 03. That's a non-rate, basically.

All right. Hey, Luke, Reggie Jackson, as I mentioned on my live chat last week, he's in some hot water in this house, Luke. They want him gone. All right? He's been keeping everybody up all night. But here's who he should aspire to be. Yo, look at this motherfucker. Look at that.

Damn, son. That is awesome right there. All right. Let's go to the disco i want all the i want all the drugs that this guy is on uh luke some fans sent this to me and said luke would know where this is have you heard of phennec city alabama or phoenix city it's on the georgia alabama border i don't think so all right they said you would know where this area is check out this road rage incident on the bridge here I don't know where that is.

I don't have any knowledge of the Alabama-Georgia border very much, but that looks about right. Yeah, indeed. Let's go to your hat of the week. Roses are red, violets are blue, I eat coochie, and booty hole too. Luke, you know what the kids today won't understand? The fun of prank calling, pre-caller ID. You remember those back in the day. Yes, I do.

But there are still Bart Simpson type ways that you can pull it off. Let's watch. I was just wondering if you can call for my brother to meet me up here real quick. Okay. Okay. What's your brother's name? His last name is Owners. First name is Gabe. and call for my brother to meet me up here real quick. Okay. Okay. What's your brother's name? His last name is Owners.

First name is Gabe. Attention customers, meet your party. Gabe Owners. Gabe Owners. I just choked on something. Gabe Owners. Gay boners. Sorry, Luke. You know, you try, you never know where it's going to go.

But hey, TikTok withdrawal was serious over the last 24 hours, right? Right, Luke? I guess. But then Trump saved the day. Let's hear this gentleman. I don't give a fuck if TikTok's getting banned and millions of Americans are sliding into some type of detox they don't understand? I'm a professional quitter. I've cold turkey'd heroin, oxycontin, methadone. This is just another day at the office for me. Ni hao.

Terrific. Don't be a pussy. Luke, that could end up being you if your life goes in the wrong direction. Why does he have two egg rolls on the ground that's the part I didn't get yeah he dropped a nihao so I think that was him eating Chinese food and I didn't understand it either but he had some lo mein in his hand yeah we got one more for you Luke

you gotta be careful moving couches oh he's about to get it bop oh oh yeah hit him with the bop gun bop oh and i dubbed the unforgiven bitch yeah that was an eclectic mix of my ish i hope you saw that's a solid c minus that was not your best bet all right in the in the eighth row it would all look great though i have to tell you whatever uh a reminder today's episode of morning Combat has been brought to you by DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app today. And a reminder, our great friends over there at Magic Spoon, you can check it out by going to magicspoon.com slash combat with a K get $5 off your first purchase of their zero sugar, high protein energy bars, cereal, all that. And then some tall, pale, and handsome. I have been your host, Brian Campbell. Yeah. All right. Uh, Luke Thomas, what do you have to say for the people after two hours? We love you. Thank you for joining us us we'll be back on friday we'll get you ready for uh pfl which has a couple of good fights maybe three good fights this weekend

um one really good fight this weekend in a way fight friday morning on uh espn and don't oh darren till not uh knocked out anthony taylor last week but i don't think you cared and isn't there another big fight this weekend bkfc, I think, is this weekend, no? Yeah, Knucklemania this weekend. That's right. Yeah. So BKFC is this weekend, and yeah, should be interesting. All right.

We'll get to all that ish on Friday. Long Island Luke of the Main Card Minute. Anything else to say? No. No, nothing really. Great show. That's it. All right.

Well, somebody's. That's about it. All right. Take care of yourselves, guys. Enjoy the week and check out what we got going on in our solo channels. But until then, we are out of here. you