MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 315: Jack Della Maddalena Wins Title Over Belal Muhammad, Makhachev & Ilia Topuria Implications

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are live in the studio Monday to break down the results of UFC 315. The fellas discuss Jack Della Maddalena's impressive win over Belal Muhammad that potentially turned the welterweight division upside down. Valentina Shevchenko relied upon her veteran ability to make championship adjustments, outpointing a red-hot Manon Fiorot. What does this mean for Shevchenko's legacy? Plus, LT and BC comment on the perceived retirement of Jose Aldo. And Irish MMA rising star Paul Hughes made his PFL return and needed just 42 seconds to finish Bruno Miranda before an emotional callout of Usman Nurmagomedov for a rematch. Start your Monday with Morning Kombat!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Oh, ha ha This is our life. This is our passion. We'll be here for the next two hours. Hey, it's morning combat back in your face hole on this Monday, May 12th, 2025, looking to sweep up, wrap up and ship out all things. Post analysis to UFC three 15 in Montreal, Brian Campbell, that BBC with. That BDE one half of your hosting duo. Let me check these levels.

All right, here we go. I'm back. That guy from Washington DC is a little tired a little ornery, but nobody brings it in a hot and sweaty bathroom out of Joseph a banks quite like Washington DC's Luke Thomas. This job is going to send me to an early grave. You think so? Yeah, yeah. And when I say this job, I mean, you know, stay like.

Late nights, early mornings. People will be like, oh, we would love to have your job. Don't get me wrong. I love this job, too. It's not that I don't love the job. I love the job. But the four a.m. four a.m. bit from Saturday night to Sunday. It's going to it's going gonna send me to an early growl. Maybe it's also your life habits, just possibly so. No, I didn't drink or do anything crazy. I will say, though, that this fantastic episode

of Morning Combat is brought to you by DraftKings, and as always with DraftKings, The Crown is yours. Thank you for everybody watching. I just wanna be clear. On the DraftKings network, live on YouTube, maybe in somebody's ear hole at the grocery store. Luke, be clear with the people. No, no, no. I just want to be clear on the DraftKings Network, live on YouTube, maybe in somebody's ear hole at the grocery store. Luke, be clear with the people.

No, no, I love the job. I'm just saying my body is frail and broken and it's hard for me to get up at 4 a.m. after going to bed at 4 a.m. the previous day. You just got to keep fighting. You know, you just got to keep after it. Just like Balal, that guy went through hell to try to hold on to that champion. Do we have a picture of his split lip? Can we just show that early?

Can we show this early Dana White submitted picture on the social media web? Oh my God. That is. Broken nose, broken orbital bone, and a split lip on par. That is. With Robbie Lawler against Rory.

Yeah. And over him against. Curtis Blades. That is with Robbie Lawler man against Rory. Yeah, and Yeah over him against Curtis blades Who was the over? I was Rosenstrike wasn't it? Oh, you're right. Yes. Yes Yes I forget about that because he was beating Rosenstrike really for the majority of that bout and then at the end it kind of Fell apart and that happened to a couple once over him after the Brock fight over him We had a couple of those curveballs where he's completely in control

went in the fight and then he gets knocked out. But I will say this, you know, not a B plus card on Saturday, but not a disaster that people were expecting. I don't think that's true highs and lows, but there was some fire to it. There was for a main card to have four decisions and for you to feel like, all right, that was okay. Yeah, I think is something to note. Yeah, indeed.

You can follow us at the social handles that you see at the bottom of your screen. We approve of you liking the video on YouTube, subscribing to what we do, whether you access this on YouTube or on your favorite audio home there. Let's spread the word on the MK. Can we get the subscriber total on YouTube up over the threshold that we're currently stuck to?

Like we're Han Solo and Frozen Carbonite. I mean, who's to blame? Is it our comedic choices? Wait, what? All right, we're stuck. We're stuck on that number. Oh, no, no, it's because you need things beyond the show to grow the channel itself. Oh, all right. Well, you can check out our other things

we do there with our YouTube channels as well. You heard quickly the voice of the third member of our team. He's a producer, director, bong specialist, degenerate gambler and the direct son of some horned up Aussie guy who came to the States and was like, you know, I'm going to spread this seed. It's Luke Nocita. What's up, guys? Saw my dad yesterday. Oh, yes. Did not mention that you guys talk about his ball sack,

but I did mention that we got two Aussie champs. He was mildly excited. Okay. Long Island Luke was fired up when he came in this morning. He's like two Aussie champs. Yeah. You know, people love your Francis and Ghanu jokes. I mean, you know, you know that you got, they were hitting me up about your

Francis and Ghanu jokes, but you know, sometimes you take a chance. I mean, the punch line, the word punch is supposed to. And then we then sometimes we have to regret it. I think you're a good person, but I don't know if others do. I think you're a good. You got to keep people second guessing you your whole life. That's what I've been very good at that. Yeah, yeah. I've excelled.

I have excelled in many ways doing maybe I'll retire that line of joking along with the Dale senior jokes. I like the deal. Because it attacks whitey. That's no, it's just the thing that I never would have considered. And then you made it a part of the show. And now I feel like we have to keep doing it. Yeah, that's our show. We can pump the brakes on the Inganu jokes. I think we can be done with that. There's going to

be 9 11 jokes today. breaks on the Inganu jokes. I think we can be done with that. There's going to be 9 11 jokes today. I know. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is look, this show is about two things, boxing and mixed martial arts, but not usually about boxing, mostly mixed martial arts and 9 11 jokes and that as well. Um, did you have a nice weekend overall? Did to get to hit the splash pad yet? I mean, where are we at with that warm enough for that? It was, it was warm enough for that yesterday, but it wasn't Saturday, Saturday. We went out and we spent the whole weekend like trying to get outside because it was such nice weather. Um, we really enjoyed it. And yesterday we did a little bit of a picnic with the fam and then you had a great dinner.

Oh my God, dude. I had the most disappointing mother's day dinner ever, bro. Ever, ever. It was so fucking bad. How bad was it? Well, I don't even, I'm not going to say the name because I don't want to kill the place, but it's a place that has one New York City location and one DC location. And this was supposed to be like, all my friends in New York were like, dude, you gotta go. Now that it's in DC, you gotta go. You gotta go. So I took my wife there and

It was not cheap and it was terrible Terrible terrible dinner. So everything was great about the weekend BC except for that that really sucked I'm sorry to hear that Luke. Maybe I don't know maybe you can pay it back to them in the restroom I'm gonna pay back to them on Yelp. Okay Enough weirdness enough grossness. Thank you for supporting this show. How about that pregame preview we did last week with Chuck? I had a great time. Yeah, outside of the dark humor turn, we had a great time in here with our friends from Cuervo though.

So I'm wearing the shirt. I'm representing the brand. Shout it out. Live it up. Love it. Let's get into the show with topic number one. It is UFC 315. Pay-per-view recap here from Montreal, or Montreal as they like to say it over the weekend. And in that main event of course, the welterweight hierarchy switched hands once again

as Bilal Mohammed coming off of that lengthy foot injury, entering his first title defense, got into as we showed off the top of this show, a compelling gnarly war there with Jack Delella Maddalena, but it was the Australian who out slugged him in route to scoring the decision, capturing the welterweight title. So Luke, considering Jack Della had been off for 14 months, was fresh off a trio of close fights that we talked about, it made him kind of like a previously an afterthought in this era of the big names that are popping up in this division from Ian Gary making the move

Shavkat and etc. But after 25 minutes on Saturday, he turned the division upside down. What would you pinpoint as the most impressive part of what Della Maddalena did walking in there all that time off coming in as the underdog and then walking out as the rightful champion? Man, it would be wrong to not cite, I think the full suite of things you expect from an A level fighter. You know, when you get an A level fighter in a UFC championship fight, you

expect them to come in shape. You expect them to be, you know, this is partly a function of luck, but you expect them to be moderately healthy. You expect them to have a good game plan. You expect them to be able to at least in part execute on that to make a, even if you lose, you certainly challenged and made an account of yourself. You expect them to have the right attitude. You expect them to do media. You expect them to do the kinds of things that A level fighters do both

in their professional responsibilities in, and then also outside of the cage. And he did all of that. Like if we're just talking about what Jack did, did he make a big noise before the fight? No, and that's not his personality, but BC, everything he did was, it was the full package of things. It was elite. It was like the full bloom.

It was like we kind of overlooked him. He just, he's all grown up in front of us. Even the funny thing that we were talking about this before the show, one of the things that, you know, there are a few guys in MMA and ladies too that have iconic walkouts with their music and Vulk coming out to Minute Work is certainly for me one of them. Yeah. You know, Max Holloway coming out to Hawaiian Kickboxers, another one of those. But Jack coming out with a mean mug on his face to the Bon Scott era of ACDC

TNT, dude was so sick. Like this is what I mean, like from the minute, if you didn't pay attention to anything pre-fire, you just tuned in Saturday night from the minute you laid eyes on Jack Dela Manolino as he walked out to the cage, he just had a certain kind of posture, swag, attitude, confidence, belief. He physically looked ready, but to really answer that question BC, we have to talk about, I think the grappling and the wrestling because it's not necessarily, I think, to most observers, a great surprise that JDM was better on the feet. I will say

Balal made a decent account of himself on the feet. Oh, he was courageous as hell. I mean, more than just taking a beating. Like there were times he landed on on he nearly shut Jack's right eye That's not nothing But to me and this is a big part of the debate. I keep hearing people say oh well all didn't want to wrestle Because what he wanted to do was prove a point. I think that is not There is probably some some evidence for that. It plays a part.

I think it plays a part. It's not to me, let me be clear, it's not an all or nothing thing, okay? And I think if you make it an all or nothing thing in either direction, you're probably gonna mess it up. But I also believe people only use the tools of observations that are accessible to them. And it's not to say that I can look at this

and oh, I see everything. No, there's tons of stuff I'm sure I'm missing as well. But I think a lot of fans just hear what they were saying on the broadcast and they just kept talking about like, why Bilal's not shooting, why Bilal's not shooting, and I think they overplayed it a little bit. So here's what I want to say. Were there more opportunities for Bilal to shoot or to wrestle or to engage in that kind of thing?

Yes. There was, he left some food on the table. You can't really argue he didn't. However, two responses. One, in the round where he did the most of that, he took the most amount of a beating. Sure. Right? Because once Jack separates from you and you're up against the fence, he tees off on you. The two are related. They are not coincidental. Part of the reason why I think he was more reluctant to do it played that role. But BC! You asked what JDM did that made the difference.

And the answer was he fought with an absolutely excellent game plan and he shored up his defensive grappling in ways at every fucking level. Let's go through it if we can. Yeah. Let's go through it. In round five, when he had JDM on the ground, he used the giggler or the knee lever sweep

to create space and stand up. So now we're on a, if we're flat on our back, he's creating space. I showed Long Island Luke from the Whizzer, the Harai Goshi's he was throwing. That's where you put your leg across both of theirs. You touched them a lot during those two weeks. And you touching is part of life, BC. You've touched my soul in ways. If you want to recreate it, we probably could. And using that to create space in the clinch was one. Bilal shooting, Jack faking like he's going for a switch to get Bilal to release his grip and then standing using frames in the clinch, using a split base in the clinch.

But more importantly than that, we did tape study on my substack BC. We did. We did. Oh wait, you did. Well, what we found is that what what JDM really lacked in prior to this fight was what I call first order takedown defense, where you're not just sprawling your feet behind you, but you are greeting the person trying to take you down at the point of contact with defense. What he did before was Burns, for example, I know his arm was messed up in that one JDM

is but a broken forearm. Yes. But the point I'm trying to make is Didn't just happen in that fight. It was other ones too. They would get underneath him Attack his hips and he would be forced to extricate himself from a bad place Which as I just mentioned he did in this fight to the big difference was his ability to create create scrambles Underneath and in the clinch and more to the point to greet offense with defense at the point of contact such that the law was deterred heavily. People like he didn't shoot. He shot in every round, but the third he tried take downs in all five.

Go back and watch. I mean, there was nothing there for him because when he did get Jack down, Jack's ability to score him out of the way, get that right kick. All these things you're saying. This is not Leon Edwards where Leon was getting pressed up against the fence and he was able to shoot underneath his arms and now Leon is trying to press his way out of it. No. And then the last piece we see, in addition to the first order takedown defense that he got better, his shot selection, you know, using teeps, using jabs, all that stuff to keep it at range,

but his lateral movement and in cage positioning, he was almost never outside the black lines. Leon Edwards, we're like, Oh, well, he got Leon down. The fight starts and Leon just backs up to the fence. That's just not what JDM did for 25 minutes. It is a comprehensively good game plan to aid both the strength of his striking and to shore up all the deficiencies with his grappling and his wrestling defense. And it left Bilal who could have wrestled more, but in general, it left him in a very, very

unenviable place. And I like what Bilal how Bilal reacted to reacted to that challenge. He tried to meet it. You know what I mean? And I don't Yeah, it's like, I don't think he's gonna have that same success. You're gonna expend a lot of energy. So I think he got to a certain point where the take down, where the plus minus

on what was gonna come back from using the effort to get those takedowns wasn't there. Look, he fought his balls off to stay in that. Is there a backdoor three, two below scoring argument? I don't tend to believe that. You could score that one five, oh. But I think you could have given him three and four, but shout out to Jack in the 5th round. When Jack's the one who doesn't have the reputation for going 5 rounds,

and it's Bilal, the boring decision guy, well it's like, how are you going to call Bilal boring all the time? Then he goes out there and does this performance. That turned out to be his best pathway to victory for Balal and he came pretty damn close. But it only showed even more why Jack, and you don't know it until you see it, was truly ready to be a champion. Because those were such, the behavior of him throughout the whole process screamed champion. It's sort of like, kind of like how DDP came on the scene and you're like, he's a little raw, he's a little, you know, this and that. But the poise and the, I got this feeling. Dude, Jack had that. Like, he was in control of that.

Even when it got close, even when he was taking some damage and his eye was closing. His ability to just stay calm, deliver, and you saw that in the post fight interview. Like, it's just matter of fact, couple weren't answer. The dude speaks awfully, but he's got a warrior spirit. And the way he leveled up his skills was hella impressive. Let's hear from Jack himself about what went right in this fight. Well, congratulations on the victory. You know, it was a bit of a war in there. I don't know if people would have maybe expected that from Belal, but what were you expecting it from him?

Yeah, I was expecting a tough fight. Obviously, he's a good fighter, pressure fighter, good wrestling, good, he's pretty well rounded. So yeah, I was expecting a tough fight. Were you surprised perhaps that he didn't go for as much grappling exchanges or takedowns as we usually see from him? Not really I mean he was saying he wasn't gonna shoot takedowns but I was expecting I was expecting a like I guess a all-round offense and yeah I guess you can never expect anything you just got a roll with it and that's I feel like what I did. I felt like most of your best exchanges were sort of in the pocket against the fence was that an area you knew you were gonna find yourself in or

was he just going with the flow of the fight? Going with the flow I was trying to the game plan was to stay off the fence I feel like he does his best work on the fence so I was trying to stay off the fence but he just walked he was just walking down pushing me up against the fence but I felt like my footwork I felt like every time he came in I was able to hit him and then get off the fence Fifth round it looked like you had him badly hurt I was curious if you felt you nearly had him out of there and then you just wanted to engage a cardio What were you thinking in that fifth round? Yeah, I was hoping to get him out of there

I was being thinking all week and be cool to get that like late fight finish Like the Gilbert burns like it felt good to rally through and then take him out at the end but I tried. Confident you had the win when he went to the judges? You never know but I was confident that done pretty good work but I guess you never know when you leave it to the judges. My corner kept when I finished the fight I asked the corner a few times and they said yep you definitely won that so just wait see, but you never know. Four to one is how I scored it.

But I love mostly that he seized it. He took it and you saw that I did. He had to have a backbone to be able to deliver that because Bilal was coming throughout the counter argument, though, is pretty strong out there that Bilal strategically will regret this. I just don't agree with it. You want to hear Robert Whitaker and like that's what's fueling that side. It's not an all or nothing thing. I just don't agree with it. You wanna hear Robert Whitaker and like that's what's fueling that side of the story.

Again, it's not an all or nothing thing. I think there's part to it, but let's see what Robert Whitaker has to say. I expected more takedowns. Okay, now it's easy for me to say on the outside. Okay, we can look in and say, oh, I don't know how he was feeling what had happened to him during the fight.

I don't know how he was feeling. What, what had happened to him during the fight? I don't know how he felt, but from the outside in, was it a third or fourth round when he mixed in his striking and his shots, when he mixed in the striking to bring Jack onto it, to mix into his shots, they were clean every time, every time I think he's only two take downs more or less were from the open mat drawing Jack into it sort of thing. Now, why didn't we see more of that? You know, I can't help but feel like Balau was trying to make a point, striking with Jack for the first three rounds.

He was, I think so. I, and, and if that's the case, that is ridiculous. Big mistake, right? Like, yeah. Yeah. So is the argument more off the start of the fight, then? Would you would you agree with that? I think Jack was so what are the official statistics on taking down?

I'm pulling it up now. He went two of nine overall. Yes. So Bilal, it was two of nine overall. And what he attempted, how many times in the first two rounds he attempted one in round one. He attempted three in round two. Now, fight metric has him as zero for zero on round three, but that's. They might have a different way of how you record what you're actually counts as a takedown, what counts as a takedown attempt. But he absolutely went from up against the fence

and couldn't even begin to get close to it. I mean. what counts as a takedown attempt, but he absolutely went for him up against the fence and couldn't even begin to get close to it. I mean. So, but is any part of Robert Whitaker's take, which a lot of people out there have, true, because Whitaker's specifically pointing to the beginning of the fight, and if he only shoots for one takedown in the first round

and three in the second, and ends up going down three-oh on most people's scorecards, that's how I had it at that point. Is three, hold on, just to answer the question, is three not enough per round? Well, I'm trying to say, is this just because people hate Bilal and it seems to be like people were dunking on it, left and right, them losing?

So partly it could be that people don't like Bilal. The other one is that, you remember, he did say, oh, I'm not gonna shoot one take down, I'm gonna stay with him, which we all knew was kind of silly. And so they're thinking, oh, is that what he did? Again, I'm going to say it one more time. Can I go and find spots where I thought he could have been a little bit more on the gas with wrestling exchanges or an attempt to some kind of, even if it failed, some kind of way to pressure. But I'm going to say it one more time. Number one, the round where he did the most amount

of wrestling was the round he took the most amount of abuse. Just a fact. Number two, the idea that he wasn't trying for takedowns until round three is just matter of factly invented on the internet. It's not what the tape shows. People have got to stop saying it. Okay. And the biggest point is Jack de la Maddalena did an absolutely expert job, not just at stopping takedowns once they got started, but people go back and look at the, if you didn't go back and watch the Leon fight, watch the Leon fight, then watch this one. Look at where Jack is. He is always just a little bit outside of shooting range, not always, but pretty consistently.

And he is never here. He is always in here. Belol has a hard time taking guys down. He did get one in the fifth round that way, but then then then Jack at the knee lever and got up. So he was able to get one that way. But this idea that like, dude, well, Mohammed is not marab. He does not shoot 20 takedowns of fight.

Not Damien Maya, but he meant to be fair, he may have felt on the first takedown attempt in that round one, like, oh, this guy has leveled up so significantly there. I mean, it's hard for me in hindsight to say you should have spammed him in the first couple rounds. That would have really negatively affected Bilal's gas tank, and he was hanging close enough. He was competitive enough in the first three rounds where maybe in his mind he thought he won round three, and then he did turn it up in terms of mixing up the takedowns and the striking in four But round five, I think you got to give credit for Jack coming out and putting it on him He would the fat I mean it's everything what you're saying about meeting the the takedown attempts of below and he was meeting a lot

of times with not just pushback with offense. This was a brilliant footwork and and Technical boxing performance overall from Jack Della Maddalena And I think that needs to be pushed further ahead of any of these other talks. I fully agree. Let me just read you these numbers very quickly. These are the amount of takedowns that Balal has gotten per fight. Ready? 3, 9, 0, 0, 5, 7, that was against Wonder Boy. 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 0, 3, 2. 22203142032. If you've got a guy who doesn't make himself available for takedowns and then when you try, he is, your grip can't get together, you're getting stuffed immediately and then you're

getting hit as a consequence, why is the notion, BC, this is, I guess this is the part that bothers me. They're making it about whether or not Balal could have made a different choice and that would have been, like it was all his decision. And I'm trying to explain to people, yeah, there were probably a series of smaller decisions that could have changed it, but the idea that every part of this

was basically just Balal's decision is matter of factly not fucking true. The tape doesn't show it. That's not what happened. We won't talk about this as much, even though on topic too, we'll talk about how this fight affects the UFC schedule in the future and it does in a big way in almost unique and unprecedented ways.

But did you feel this changing of the guard because it puts a fresh face champion who's unbeaten in the organization. He's actually under 30, which doesn't typically happen and this happened in this division. First one sent under 30, which doesn't typically happen in this happen in this division. Saint Pierre 170 when the title changes hands and he's exciting. And he pulled the guy that was everybody called the boring champion into a super exciting final round that made that it was like a crescendo

at the end of the pay per view, right? It made it feel OK. That was an exciting show. And that fight was good. Did you feel like like for all this talk about star issues and stuff, that this was a refreshing change of events over the weekend, even though that's not a slight against Bilal, it's just sort of like, I felt like, oh, there's hope. There's more hope than there was, you know, an hour before.

Just, I mean, Lightweight's got bigger stars, you know, because you still have the guys hanging on, like the Gachis and the Poires and whatnot. Now Max is up there and Ilya, obviously'll talk about him I'm sure but 170 is that's the division of young guns. Brady, JDM, Shavkat, Gary, Buckley, it just goes on and on. It is so freaking exciting to answer your question to watch a division get the kind of turnover that I would consider to be natural or somebody who leveled up in their late 20s claims the title and does it in what I'm going to describe as pretty dominant fashion. The only thing I would say is I don't see somebody at 170. I mean, maybe it'll be Rachmaninoff, but he's got some stuff to work on at this point.

I don't see any of them who are clearly head and shoulders above the rest. So we might get a hot potato situation with that belt, BC, where every time a new challenger comes along, someone else is just grabbing it. And I will say, it's healing up. So it's it's almost got quasi light, heavyweight pre-John Jones. That's right. Fives to it. So what I'm going to say is it feels to me, though, but it's it's great to see healthy division turnover.

A guy in his late 20s should be the guy in his late 30s, and that's exactly what you got. And this could be a guy that fans potentially get behind, we'll see. He's not overly trash talkery, although he fielded the Ian Gary stuff well and could probably... He does the cold stare real well. Pretty much, pretty much indeed. Luke Thomas, Balaam Muhammad.

Let's show, let's compare that lip injury to those other famous ones that we referenced there. Look at that sliced lip over him on the right. Robbie Lawler on the left right there. Wow. He went through hell. Do you think this will be, I'll bring in Vander Holyfield in the example. He was because he didn't win the heavyweight championship by going through Tyson

and because he was sort of looked at as the small cruiserweight who didn't have the same heavyweight power moving up that it almost took him losing the title to Riddick Bow in their first fight, but fighting with so much heart and character for people to be like, oh my God, he is one of the great ones. Like he's awesome. Do you think there's a poor man's version of that? Will Bilal finally get the respect that the critics and the haters have held back? Because in defeat, dude, he gave himself every possible chance to win and went out like a fricking warrior. But here's what I don't understand. How can the crowd say, Bilal could have wrestled more and just chose not to

cause he wanted to stand and then also hate this guy. Yeah. And then also say he fought like a warrior and did everything he could. Well, you're arguing he didn't if you're saying he could have wrestled more and didn't. Like the argument is inherently contradictory. So this is why to me, I don't, I don't, could he have wrestled more? Yes. He might come out and say this week, I should have wrestled more. Like, I understand it. But I don't think that would have changed the equation. I really don't. I think JDM had his number that night. He

was just comprehensively better. But I do agree BC that like, I don't know how you can look at that photo and then look at the overall amount of effort he gave, including with his own striking, which we haven't even talked about, which was not as good as the ADMs, but still quite commendable. Definitely. And, you know, he was in that fight to win it and not come away without a strong degree of respect for what kind of a fighter he is. Listen, there's going to be people who don't like him because that's just the thing to do. It's just to pretend that he's uniquely horrible or something like that. But anybody who knows Ball can look at that and be like, was it a perfect fight from Balal?

No, no. But it was a fucking hard nose commendable one, dude. And he never quit. With the internet saying that the UFC broadcast was too pro-Balal because John's brother, John Anik's brother hosts a podcast with him. I don't know if it was too Balal. I mean, listen, you've done,

this is something for you to weigh in on because I've done commentary for smaller events. I've never done commentary for like a big you've done tank Davis commentary, right? People sometimes get on the booth and they say oh the booth is biased and and sometimes they're right Sometimes the booth can be biased but not in the way that this is describing like oh John's got his brothers in business with him and so therefore he's just you know Artificially propping up the look or the interest. I didn't think it was too far. They're going to side with the champion not every time but more often than not.

Yes, he probably does have affectionate feelings in that way for Balal but I didn't think it was that. I just felt like the attention was about Balal. The commentary, this is why we're having this conversation, the commentary was why isn't Balal shooting more? Why isn't Balal. The commentary, this is why we're having this conversation. The commentary was, why isn't Balal shooting more? Why isn't Balal shooting more? And they made it like it was an elective decision at all times. So there's just this focus about him. Plus, he was the champ going in and you know, there's going to be more attention on you for that reason. So they could have been biased BC. That's to me totally

normal. But I don't think they were biased for like, fuck JDA, man, we're gonna, you know. I felt the criticism was more overblown than the actual commentary was, but here is Bilal, his first statement since the loss, taking to social media saying, Allah's plan is the best plan for everything. Thank you to all my supporters. Alhumdulillah. I always pronounce that wrong. Alhumdulillah. Sorry. Thank you to all my supporters.

I've been here before. Alhamdulillah. Sorry. Thank you to all my supporters. I've been here before and I'll be back. He will be 37 in two months, but although our network, we're going to slide into this next topic where we're going to talk about what's next for the champion and everybody else affiliated to that. We don't have Bilal's future. Does he float away from title contention after this or is he very much one big win one bounce back from from still being in here.

He is good enough to give anyone in that division in the top five a run for their money. But I said it before once you become separated from the UFC title it's virtually impossible to get it back only the very very special ones. Especially in the deep division and if Mahachev is coming now that will make it harder. Yeah exactly so you've got as you mentioned Buckley and Gary and Shavkat and Brady, and now you're going to add in Islam on top of it. Like, holy fuck. But there's probably a clause in every fighter's contract that if you're at welterweight and you're coming off of a title loss that you're going to fight Covington soon.

I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you, Bilal versus Covington, I wouldn't hate. That's like the perfect celeb get well fight in the sense. First of all, I think Boulal washes him and more to the point. It would actually be kind of a fun grudge match. Also be, you know, probably wildly racist on the part of Golby. But one never knows. I hope not. I hope not. Before we talk about what is next for all of these fighters,

why don't we talk about what was then and what is still going on right now? Yeah, look at me, the camera I'm talking about now being a great time as ever to remember where tequila's story truly began in 1795. Cuervo invented tequila. It's a true fact. And since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots. We're talking about the same family, the same land, maybe most importantly, that same passion. Because 230 years later, Cuervo's still right here in every pour and every margarita in every celebration. So enjoy the tequila that started it all.

Cuervo, the tequila that invented tequila, ProximoCuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. And Luke, I think the Blanco of the Cuervo is my favorite when we, when we pregame preview, as we just did last week with Chuck Mindenhall, UFC 315. I'm already looking. I'm already looking ahead to 316 Steve Austin style middle get Steve Austin here to drink this Cuervo hell yeah, brother. That's what I'm talking about. Um, is that what he says? Hell yeah, brother. I don't know. More or less. Okay. More or less on that regard. But uh, fired up. Let's get into topic number two right now. And that is of course the whole uniqueness about the main event of UFC 315

playing in theory or what we've been led to believe by Dana White's sort of confirmation of this talk from when Mike Bone asked the question at the pre-fight press conference about how much this will affect International Fight Week, which is, guys, 47 days away as we speak right now. So are we getting JDM versus Islam next? Are we getting Elia versus Charlie Olives? And where the hell was Dana White after this event? So this is where we got an issue here, folks. Nothing is seemingly confirmed, even though Dana White was the one who confirmed and said that it all comes down to who wins JDM or Muhammad. And then Dana exits stage left and we get David Shaw, international

relations, who says, yeah, like I can't comment on that stuff, guys. I don't know. So Luke, following a rather unprecedented situation, as I mentioned right there. With Dana White being a no show, what the hell is going on at the moment? Is Dana White completely checked out? Is he being phased out? How are we supposed to interpret what happens next in these very big matchups, including the summer showcase main event and what happens next for both Islam and Ilya? Why did they not come out and put that to rest on Saturday night?

Partly those deals still have to get signed. They probably had verbal agreements rather than fully written, actualized ones. And there is a degree of paperwork that's required before they can commit to promotional assets. I think that's probably part of it. But you're asking a bigger question. You're asking about like, why didn't Dana talk about this? I actually hit up a bunch of reporters who are on press row to get to get their sense of things.

And they had a lot of different things to say. Part of it was even when Dana is there nowadays, he still doesn't say necessarily a ton. Maybe he's not like he's. You know, hardcore advocating for certain kinds of fights or, you know, agitating for UFC causes more broadly. Hunter Campbell is doing the role that we all typically ascribe to Dana White in reality, right? But he's got to play a role in matchmaking. Well here's the thing, here's the thing. Hunter

can do all the contracts and he's a smart guy, he's a very capable guy, but he can do all the contracts, he can do all of the things behind the scenes to get fights made, but the UFC has always had a bulldog promoting its brand, which was Dana. They've had a bulldog, a guy who promoted in the media, a guy who made aggressive the cause of MMA during the Ultimate Fighter and after that, a guy who was advocating for certain big fights and for MMA to reach new heights. And now the brand doesn't have a bulldog. It's got a very capable guy and Hunter Campbell. This is not a question whatsoever about his competency or ability. It's it speaks for itself. It's a question of somebody being the brand's barking dog in everyone's face all the time. And sometimes by the way, they can go too far. But you can see what's happened. They

I think internally, a few things have happened. One, Dana has got a lot of other things going on. He's got his own personal power slap project, which to me is a gigantic waste of time, but it is a thing that he does. TKO boxing is certainly going to take over a lot of his time. Okay, Fridays, he's busy. Fridays, he's got a whole, he's got a whole lot of stuff going on. Um, so that's a big part of it.

But I think the other part is you've heard them talk about they wanted to build UFC to a point that it was self-sufficient. And I don't think UFC can ever act. I don't think hardly any brand can actually be self-sufficient. I don't think that's a real thing. Framing it that way to me is a mistake, B.C. Let me finish this point if I may. What's missing is there is somebody who is

beating the drums, powering the engine with aggression and passion and fury and focus. Yes, Hunter Campbell's doing the job, but no one is pounding their fist on the Formica and saying, let me speak to the motherfucking manager. You're not getting that. And I think that is the kind of thing you're missing. Yeah, I mean, we would all love somebody who's

delivering the passion and what you would expect for this job. And Dana, again, is one of the best. You know, some people think the best ever do it in a long history of combat carnival barkers who have done this job very successfully, who who can compare with with his resume, but like. Even more than you want somebody who can do it so great, you also just want some information dissemination and truth confirmed, even if it's confirmed in a way, in a used car salesman way where you're like, okay, I can see through what's really

happening. Like I know that it doesn't seem like the UFC cares about the bad PR going lately when we're talking about matchmaking and the whole direction of the company financially and all that stuff, but I thought there was a big opportunity on Saturday considering this is a thing that was their fault that they sort of created on themselves. If you're saying what is the thing? The fact that it's 47 days away, we don't know what the IFW main event is and we're all kind of like, you can't make Jones an Aspinal, can you make Ilya an Islam, can you just make something happen? And then they leave it up to chance ultimately and say, this fight will decide it. What about the potential good PR? Have you just had this exciting main event?

You got this new champion. We know Ian Gary wants to fight next. Shavkov probably got next. There's three other guys who would raise their hand. Also, Islam might parachute in based on what you said, not having someone to come out. And again, if it's not Dana, if he's not even that guy anymore,

then maybe Hunter should step into that role and be that guy more or maybe just arm David Shaw with the information that of course the media is going to ask about. Wouldn't it be a great PR slam dunk for them to come out and be like the welterweight division has been turned upside down we got a new young champion oh by the way the best fighter in the world is ready to make the move up. And later this fall, it's going to be this guy versus this guy. Instead, it's just, oh, we didn't show up. Do you need to do that if you believe the UFC is ultimately self-sufficient? I mean, it's... People were talking about the ticket sales.

They sold a $6 million gate, which for a pay-per-view is not super, super... Or maybe it was eight plus... Right around that, I forget if it was Canadian or US. Not its highest by any stretch, but the highest in that building for a non-hockey event. I'm not saying to you that like there isn't real consternation about the state of the product. I fully recognize but again people don't want to have this conversation because they get all angry and they're like this is too much but the effects of monopoly are all encompassing and corrosive and if you believe that your product is ultimately self-sufficient,

what is it you think you have to do after a pay-per-view like this that just had a semi-record gate? I guess nothing. Right. This is the problem. You have to feel the heat on your ass to get out there and be able to go out there and say, look what we got going on, look how important it is, look what we're gonna have in store for you. And with verve and energy and fucking A. But if you think of running self-sufficient, why would you do that?

I mean, we could have come out of this show as much as it's always gonna be important to recap the biggest fight from Saturday to kick off the show. But if we were coming out guns blazing with, it's gonna be Ilya versus Charles Debronx at IFW and it's gonna be JDM making his first defense against Islam. And oh, by the way, how good was that main event?

Like you could like the thing, the storyline would be all full guns blazing excited. Let's spin it to the future debate. Was that the right move? All this stuff. And now we're sort of like, I don't know what the next move is. It's just, I don't know. It's sort of. I don't disagree with you. Like do you do your job in that regard? Like get the people fired up.

What's your theory about why Dana, and he did this in London too as I understand it, what is your theory about why this is all happening? Maybe, just maybe, when Dana announced on Thursday that based on the outcome of this fight, this fight will happen, this fight will happen, maybe now Islam's like holding firm, like I need more money for this or something. Maybe it's a negotiation tactic, who knows? Okay, but couldn't you come out and say, hey, we know we're eyeballing a couple of big ones for Islam, but we gotta see what happens.

It's not unfair for me to criticize them for not having their shit together when we're less than 50 days out from the biggest centerpiece car to the year. I hope you understand, I'm not suggesting it is. Right, so it's like that's really the onus of my anchor. It's like you have all the things in front of you to dominate this industry, and you are from a financial standpoint. Do the bare minimum of what we expect for you. Like, like build that hype and that buzz. Did you see their Q1 earnings? I didn't look into them. Yeah, they're higher than they're. I think they're up like, I think

something like 12 or more percent relative to Q1 earnings of 2024. People keep talking about how like, oh, if something doesn't happen, the UFC is going to, boy, it's gonna get real bad for them and we're gonna see some real consequences. That is true in a sense, but we are so fucking far from that. We're not even approximating where that is. It's starting to feel like the exact thing

that got me out of the wrestling business at a time when booking was so stale in 2019, 2020, and I felt like WWE and Vince McMahon was just really just leaning on the backbones of the hardcore addicted fans who would sit through anything to connect the dots from one pay-per-view to another. The storyline just never made sense. There wasn't, and it felt like a disrespect to the people that actually care about the show from that standpoint, right?

That you're telling this larger soap opera angle and all that. I feel like that's what's happening. We're losing the recipes, Luke. I mean, I feel like that's what's happening here. Because I want to talk about these fights. Let's see these two tweets from Islam Mahatjab because I like, are we, we're led to believe JDM won. Now Islam's moving up and getting the next title shot, correct?

That we're led to, Dana confirmed that without by saying yes at the press conference. He said yes, I think that's that's Yeah, once again, I want to point out pre fight. It wasn't like he was saying a bunch of interesting things either He's checked out dude. I just can't figure out if they have forced him out or if he's just checked out But here's Mahat, you have the first one time to become a double champion. Inshallah. Let's go and then the second one aimed at JDM, who at the end of the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, said, let's run it and let's do it for VULK. You are not VULK, I will show you a different level. Keep my belt clean.

I'm sorry, Joe Rogan wasn't there. Cormier. Cormier handled the interview. Did I miss something? No, sorry, that was in Canada. So that would lead you to believe there that That is next cameras seem to catch the tail end of Jack Della. Maddalena's Speakerphone with Hunter and Dana that says a little bit about the future. Let's go. Cheers, Dana. Thanks, my friend. I'm glad you're back, man.

Thank you for everything. I really appreciate it. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. All right, I think that was a good one. Cheers, guys. Save the welterweight division. Save the division. I guess it didn't confirm anything there, but do you think that that's where we're headed? Potentially Perth, because he's the hometown boy, him against Makachev?

There is no fucking way they're gonna make Makachev fight in Perth. Not gonna happen. I mean, they didn't bite on it when he threw the bait out. Not gonna happen. Are you confident that that is where they're going next? Because they do have a few different sexy options. So which way are they going next?

Yes, it seems to me that the likeliest option is Makachev versus JDM, which can we just say for a moment, put the bellyaching aside? What a great fight. I would love that fight. This is what this is the debate we were having on the pregame preview for this past week, which was the single best fight you can make in MMA is Islam Ilya. Yes. That's the single best one. We lose that or at a bare minimum, listen, he could go fight JDM and get knocked out and maybe he goes back to 55

That's a possibility, but it seems like for a minute at a bare minimum. It's on the back burner However, we now have Islam in this new potential universe at 170 I don't know how long he'll stay around if he wins a title at 70 BC He might win it and call it a day or move up to middleweight No, I don't think he'll do that. But you get the idea. You have a new range of possibilities. This is what I mean. He's making an already great division, much more exciting in the process.

And I do think that's something that fans should be excited for and celebrate. For me personally, JDM versus Islam is a top tier fight. I mean, it's two absolutely hungry, top elite alpha studs. And even though Islam has on paper a lot of, you know, a lot better of a well-rounded game and more skills, it's the adaption of moving up in weight. It's facing this absolutely hungry guy that's willing to go through hell to win these fights. Yeah, that's a great fight.

Like, I'm not fully... I've always been for Islam Ilya because it's just so big. It's so wonderful. Just cash it in. You may get two or three of them if you're lucky. Just cash it in one time. But the argument against it probably always was that you can get two of a good thing instead of one. You can get JDM versus Islam next, and then Ilya versus Charles Olivera at IFW for the vacant title. Both of those scream entertainment, scream that it would teach us a lot. Do you think though, if that's the direction we're headed,

and we've got more video to prove that it seems like it is, do we net, have we missed the window, will we have missed the window in your eyes for good on Islam versus Aaliyah in the same way, although I don't hold it against them, that EUFC had a minute with that GSP Anderson Sova window, and then- They had much more than a minute. They had a few minutes, But my point is I was never like holding it against them that it didn't happen. It probably should have happened. But that's fine. Is this the end

of this talk? Elia and Islam that is probably this was the key wins at 170 in his next fight. Islam. It's over. Yeah. Could you see though? Could you see Elia, who's been following a McGregor like almost pre-written plan from the tattoos to the pronouncements? If he beats still Bronx for the vacant title, couldn't you see him without a shadow of a doubt going, Mahachev, after you win that after you win that welterweight title, I'll see you there also. He would have to he would have to pulverize

Olivera you'd have to absolutely bat or just stop him if he stops him. That's a statement I don't think stopping is enough. I think you got to go in there and like destroy him Long out look that's the direction these these impromptu opportunistic planners like like like Ilya ultimately is. Of course he'd be calling out Islam right away. That's McGregor type shit. Yeah.

I think any stoppage you could call them out. It's wild. So maybe. So maybe it's not. I'm not talking about that. I'm saying what can you actually do to convince UFC to think about making it and just stopping him is insufficient. I want to say also though I don't think like Ilia moving up to 70, I don't see.

I think more like Ilia wins convinces Islam come back. Oh, come back down. Oh, then that's a huge, huge, huge fight. Let's hear from Jack Della who's into the idea. Islam's already tweeted at you a few times. I want like the most recent one. And he says you're not vocal. Show you there are different levels.

Keep my belt clean Do you have any response to Islam? I know come get it come get it. Oh shit. Oh shit. By the way Here's my point how fast did Islam beat Olivera like a round and a half right something like that? This is what I mean. What if Islam excuse me What if Ilia goes in there and beats Olivera quick quicker than that? Well now you have an argument It's like look how long it took Islam, and by the way, that was like a one-sided fight for Islam. I mean, that was relatively easy for him. What if Ilija has an even easier time?

Now, that to me, that is a scenario where he can be like, I get it. Whatever Islam is, I'm better. But the line is long at Walter Waite, should Islam go in there and win it right away. What about the hypocrisy of this? Wasn't Islam and I damn I don't want to like chair against him. I love like I mean I really love that guy as a fighter. He's he's one of the best of all time Luke. But him saying that Elia would have to come up and prove first. Isn't that the same argument that could be said about Islam moving up and getting a title shot? Yeah I mean I don't know

if guys know this fighters say a lot of shit all the time and half of it is nonsensical and or hypocritical. Okay, thank you, thank you. All right. That's the beginning and end of that conversation. Okay, all right. Well, let's go to Ian Gary who believes that he should be in this spot and is ready to cut in. He took some fucking strays this week.

Yeah, he's ready to cut in line if given the opportunity. You've got the new champion Jack Dalamadalena, the Aussie, great performance, but sloppy The rumor is, Islam Makachev is moving up to 170 And if he does, then all of us welterweights have to take a step back and give the man the respect he deserves But if negotiations don't go so well, then you've got a tall, blonde Irish man who's ready to take over the UFC and get that belt And I will smoke Jack Dalamadere Elena. I'll box the years off You know long Alan Luke and I were talking earlier I Mean I think he's good, but I can't I just can't take that seriously. I'm just but that would be a great fight Oh, it'd be a great fight, but he's like JDM looked sloppy

JDM look awesome. Yeah, he looked fucking awesome. What are you talking about? But what he's talking about is he has a way of neutralizing people's he does best best practices offensively and he knows that he might be the toughest style matchup outside of a wrestler who could not boxing JDM's ears off. Let me be very, but he'll slow down what JDM does. Well make it a close chess match. He has the ability to win these close. Don't get me wrong. Ian Gary, he's in that list with the Buckleys and the Shafkots and you know

everybody else. He is firmly entrenched in that part of the conversation and therefore any of those permutations are great. Although as we discussed pre-show, I think the best one for Ian Gary would be Sean Brady. Sean Brady, Ian Gary to me is the one that is. That's probably what would happen next if Islam gets the title fight. Yes, if Islam gets it, we actually have to kind of think about that because Shavkat's waiting in the wings, but Brady's waiting in the wings. And there's Buckley Usman, which may or may not factor into this. For the UFC Atlanta card, that's the headliner there, but I think Buckley's going to wash him,

and so he's going to now be in that space. So there's a couple of ways it could go when Islam does make his move to 170 eventually. And again, if it ends up being JDM Gary, I'm all in favor of it. But him being like he looked sloppy. I realize I get it. It's promotional material. I understand. But it's laughable. I mean, I just, you know, come on.

All right. The flip side of this is Elia at IFW against Charles Oliva. We didn't talk about what happened to our months. You're so rookie in the last week and a half where people are claiming that the UFC trapped him by offering him a UFC Dubai main event against who was it? Gamera, which he then turned down saying, no, I'm I'm ready for a title. I deserve a title shot.

And then that was their way of getting him out of the way and bringing in Olivera. I don't know if I believe in that, but was that a wrong strategic strategic decision or the right one? Because Armand's going gonna wait for his opportunity? Armand can wait a little. I actually feel, we didn't really discuss it with the last topic, BC, but in general,

fighters are going to say that, and correctly, I think, that more regular competition would be better for their overall ability. But there can also be cases where competing too much at certain times in your career doesn't give you what you need to really round out. This is the kind of conversation we're having I am having anyway about Ian Gary. I'm not declaring that's what's going to happen to him, but I'm a little bit concerned based on what I see. Plenty of ability, but can he really

maximize that if you're just constantly taking these short notice fights all the time, right? But Dale of Matalan did something a little bit different. He took now he obviously had an injury and part of it, but he took 14 months off. Look at how much he leveled up in that process. So the point I'm trying to make about Sarukian is, dude, UFC. OK, don't take the gamerat fight because we don't need to see it. We already did. It was a good fight, but he's in another place. But if if I'm in Sarukian's camp, I am telling him

if you want to get good enough to beat the people who hold the belt Taking a little bit of time off actually here is exactly what he needs to be doing All right quickly before we hit the rest of UFC 315 how this applies further on down the line is Does this mean toporia against dobronx would be the main event in your eyes for? I've done because there are there was the whole poet on the, I was hacked, which none of us believe in DC came out aggressively. Now you've got Ankleyev, whether it's him tweeting or Ali, basically saying that, uh, if, if Poetan doesn't want it at IFW, like they're willing to take on whomever. And he'll give what, Ulberg?

I don't know. Probably, right? I guess that would be. Ulberg beat Jan. And so that's kind of where we're at. So that would be the co-main? You could probably do co-main with that one. You could still, by the way, you could, I mean, I don't know is probably right. I guess that would be over beat yawned And so that's kind of where we're at so that would be the combane you could buy you come in with that one You could still by the way you could I mean, I don't know I don't know how if they could make it work, but could you do Aspinal gone coming? We really gonna do as I'm asking I'm asking I think I personally believe that if they do that

It'll be some point of no return for some people. That's like all right fuck it I can't watch this stuff anymore. If you can't make it, if you can't, you know, if you can't be like so radioactive, kind of like it because it's building, it was the UFC London card. All those fans, you know, turned away and didn't buy tickets. It's like we've been building incrementally all these little turns where people are like, man, that's fucked up. This isn't the UFC from the pandemic.

This isn't my UFC from 2016. Whatever. I feel like that is an ultimate sign of you have become boxing. As you're trying to get into boxing while you're telling everybody that boxing sucks. Yeah, I mean, if you're getting a guy defending his interim title, I've said this before. I've only seen a guy in boxing defend an interim title. Sorry, I've only seen an interim title defended four times in boxing. It was Julio Arce years and years ago, but we're not far from that. Unfortunately, boxing puts out interim titles now all the time.

Just so it looks like it's a title fight on TV. There was a interim secondary title on that Ryan Garcia, Raleigh Romero fight. All it really means is the winner is going to be a number one contender for a title fight. I mean, it's all bullshit, but that's where we're at with that. Yeah, fair enough. Also, this podcast is sponsored by Total Wireless, the official wireless partner of the UFC. And when you're streaming the fight or sharing those takedown highlights,

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applies only to the monthly rate for your plan. Additional terms apply. See website for details. Thank you very much. Topic number three shifts up to the co-main event and 315 feature of the women's flyweight division offering in a lot of cases the best that it has to offer or was it considered the best? Let's get into that. Cause Valentina, she have Janko edged out Manon for row and a close five round decision to defend the title at age 37 on the same night that Natalia Silva and Jasmine jazz, the vicious scored breakthrough wins to push

them even closer to that title. So Luke, this may, this co-main event, it was far from the most exciting title bout in recent memory. It was your favorite fight. I'm sorry? It was your favorite fight. See, I was frustrated because you know this talk right now about women's MMA being down and you got a lot of people aggressively saying we should just shut it down and get it off of pay-per-view main cards. This matchup I was fired up for. A lot of them, all three matchups on Flyway and I was entertained to a great degree, but I get when you watch a very close chess match like this, not everybody was.

So I was kind of down after this and considering that this were this, the way it played out kind of only adds to the fuel of those stereotypes that I mentioned. It is a little bit disappointing, but Shevchenko relied upon that veteran ability to make those championship adjustments and narrowly outpoint Firo. Did the judges get it right in the end in your eyes, Luke? Is there a case here on the other side for Firo? And does this aggressively push Shevchenko further into that living legend, maybe getting closer to the potential women's MMA goat ship? How big was this win in that regard and how'd you score it? In some ways this will be a forgettable win because Fiora is simply not a noteworthy figure

in the sport. She's not really even a noteworthy figure within women's MMA other than for the fact that she did well to get here as a number one contender. The odds makers favored her. Fair enough. There was some concerns about Shevchenko because of what kind of performances Grosso had been turning in.

And again, she's closer to 40 than she is 30. You know, to me, this fight was pretty terrible, but not the worst thing I'd ever seen. Here's what I'll say. Fioro did what she could with the skillset that she has. I was a little surprised by this. I thought she'd have a little bit more success, but she didn't. To her credit, she got lit up in round one.

She got torched in round one and then came back out with that Lansing jab that she used to then clinch. And I thought that that was not a spectacular way to fight, but she was just trying to find anything she could get, you know, drowning in the water, trying to find anything she could hold onto. And she climbed her way out of that one a little bit. So she did make it close down the stretch.

She used her size. I got to give her that credit. Yeah. And again, she was pretty strong. I thought that was pretty interesting as well. Can we show the scorecards here? I scored it three to two giving Ferro both the second and third. I thought Valentina rallied around four. She dropped Ferro late with that stiff jab to claim that. So I had a two2 going into the fifth.

I gave the fifth to Shevchenko. What I really want to know is how did you score and is there an argument to give that fifth to Fero since she had a lot of success in the clinch? Although her strike, I guess overall wasn't as clean in that round, but it didn't feel like around five where they both were fighting with desperation either. Yeah, I'm not high.

You know, I think both had the most amount of volume that they each had in that round. So they were both kind of trying to put it on the other one. To me, though, it's like a question of like, Pharrell was able to make it close and round. She was able to like land, you know, busy shots and keep it working and, you know, find a way to just kind of scratch and claw.

But even if she had won, I just would have been disappointed. It would be disappointing because she was not the better fighter. No, the better fighter was Valentina. She let you down, not personally, but like in the esteem that you put in her stock, seeing her as a betting favorite, knowing what she did to Blanchfield to completely neutralize her, although I said coming in Blanchfield doesn't move her head. Shevchenko does. It could be a different game for sure.

But the adjustments for all made physically after getting beaten up round one and looking like she was on the way out. Yeah. Like there's some, there's some elite championship backbone in there. But were you let down in totality that she couldn't out, out-chest the chess matches? Yeah, basically that you saw the full, I mean, again, I'm going to give her a ton of credit. She got beat up real badly in the first round. I think her nose was broken because she kept wincing on

every highlight, so she must have been in agonizing pain for the rest of those four rounds BC and that could not be easy to do by any stretch, but I also felt like we got a clear look at her game and once she didn't really she had a bit of a B game to go to. The A game she wanted got taken away so she went to the B game and the B game got her close, but it just wasn't offensively dynamic. Like, the person who was offensively dynamic in this fight was Shevchenko, and frankly, the person who was defensively dynamic because she could turn defense into offense was Valentina Shevchenko. I didn't come away necessarily having a massive stock drop in Furo. It certainly dropped to a degree.

But honestly, I can just admit it, I slept on Valentina Shevchenko a little bit here. I thought, you know, obviously she's done amazing things, but I thought, okay, well that's coming to a close. And what I will say is a performance like this, where a contender can clearly be a bit of a lesser than and still make it close, tells you that like there is some parity now between her and that division in ways that maybe didn't exist before. But at the same time, she is talented and crafty as shit. She had a good game plan. Her athleticism is still very, very serviceable. And dude, she knows what she's doing. I the takeaway here, like in the main event, the takeaway, sometimes you can really point to the person who loses and you can be like, you fucked this up.

But in the main event, I'm mostly going to say JDM rose. And in this co-main event, I'm going to say Valentina set the bar high and Thoreau just could not match it. I just fear that if this was the best of what the deepest division in the sport offers, I mean, it wasn't the best in terms of excitement because for Valentina to win it this way she had to kind of really not hold the ball but make it a very you know tight margin of error for both in the chess match. I I felt like this negatively played into people's stereotypes of if this is the very peak of elite women's MMA, then that's... Yeah, dude, elite women's MMA. ...that's boring and limited to me. When it didn't... I guess maybe there used to be a lot more fire, I felt like.

Here's the reality. There are a lot of people inside of MMA who have terrible relationships with women and their mothers, and they don't realize it, maybe they halfway do but they use it as a. Well, maybe they just want more exciting barbaric fights. No, no, no, no, no, no. Let's back up a step. There are a lot of people in the sport who have terrible relationships with women, terrible

negative attitudes. Here's my point. And it's very hard to understand where that begins and legitimate criticism of a flagging side of the sport ends. It can get lost. But what I can really say is for people who've paid attention to women's MMA, it was in a very terrible place when they were doing three minute rounds on CBS. Yes.

Okay. And it got really good, but it has clearly declined since the high water mark of what would you say 15 or 16, something like that. I didn't push it further into the Rose versus Yowanna series. It was still at a very even the early way late way Lee run with maybe through the Yowanna way Lee won in 2020 right before the pin. I just remember I always bring this fight up because it wasn't for a title. But like when Misha Tate fought Katz and Ghana, it was a brutal ass fight.

She finished her off with knees. Yes. And I remember thinking to myself, this is why women's MMA succeeds where women's boxing doesn't. Because the action they can deliver closely matches the men's game. And now there has been a major bifurcation between the men and the women.

Bifurcation, wow. Well, yeah. I'm impressed by it. Okay, whatever, there's been a split. Whatever you want me to say. Bifurcation is fine. Yeah, there's been a bifurcation and so now you're just getting to a place where, now in fairness to the women's game, there were two other women's flyweight fights on this

card. And we're going to get to them. Both of them were pretty great, but one was very short. Let's get to the extending resume of the great Valentina Shevchenko, who extended her women's record in UFC history for most wins in title fights to 10. This was her eighth total defense of her women's flyweight title, but if you look at that, the faces on that resume that she's defeated across two divisions now. Holly Holm, Juliana Pena, Ioana Young-Jacek, Jessica Andrade,

who's that? Alexa Grasso, and then now Manon Fereau. Everyone but Fereau is a former champion, and she has eight title defenses in this division, and she's been on top long enough that she was there in the beginning when there was no one to fight her, and she's been through the rise of others, and she's still standing. You gotta give it, though, you gotta give it up for that.

She's special, dude. And again, we all knew she was special, but I kinda thought that was coming to a close, And it just, she's still got it, dude. She's still got it. The question is next for Shevchenko, should it be Whaley moving up into a super fight, or should it be Natalia Silva? We'll break down Natalia's fight in a second,

but here's what Shevchenko thinks. I have to ask, Whaley's already sent her message out to you. She says, she said, congratulations, and then everything's lined up, and then it's destiny that you two face so I guess is that in fight you'd be interested in do you have a response for Whaley oh now I like coming before coming to his to here so everyone was saying like Whaley or Natalia like another contender so yeah I don't know yeah I just like when I'm

maybe fans can play some role in that and if they can like join my only fun page and drop some messages who they want to see me fight next so I think it's gonna be we will compare who's next. What's best for your legacy? Would Whaley mean a little more to you? Probably yes. And considering like all that title defense that I already have in Flyweight. Yeah, but you know, it's kind of like for me now, after the fights, you got a victory, your belt is with you. It's so much like you have this still adrenaline running and everything like that.

And to answer exact question, I would. Sorry to cut her off there, but there's continuing. You're like, I don't need to hear your yapping. But look, she wants the fans to vote on her only fans of who she should fight next. What's on their b's? I don't know, but unfortunately, I feel like people are going to vote for themselves as the opponent or vote to shut down Women's MMA entirely.

I hope not. Seriously, though, resume wise and big fight wise, you got to pick Wei Li. Who would you rather see as a fan, though, considering Natalia Silva, who I said the fact that she's not a big slugger, the fact that she's not a finisher would be an issue maybe in this Grasso fight. And she just implemented her plan a beautifully in dissecting the former champion Grasso, who should be next. I tell you, I'm not super high on the John Wiley fight.

Why? All right. Because you hate women or no? That's not the- That's a problem that some of you other donks need to go to therapy for. Oh, some of us? I already did my time in therapy to get over my issues. Zhong Wai Li is obviously really good

and in terms of pure talent would be far and away the best opponent that Shevchenko could get. Here's where I, tell me if I'm missing something. Shevchenko and Zhong Waili technically are 10 pounds apart, right? But Shevchenko, if it wasn't for Nunes, would have been a champion up there at 35. And by the way, you can make an argument, should have been anyway.

Hell yeah. So we've got someone at 25 who can cut down to 25, but is just as competitive basically at 35, especially now she went to 35, I think she'd take the title. I don't think anyone would. Really? Yeah, yeah. I don't think Kayla would be here. That the most exciting turn of events for women's in May if that happened, right? Whereas John Wiley, I think can go up to 25. But if you're dealing with somebody who's competitive, very competitive championship level competitive at 35, is she undersized? Is there something to that? Is she undersized is there something to that? There might be but long until we talk about her moving up to 35 She's got to clean out the remaining big names and there is there's a list of competitive names coming up

And I think if you add way Lee to that if she's gonna move up full-time Mm-hmm, then you would kind of want to get through that first. What do you what do you think about that idea? I? Think it's a fair point that like Shevchenko would have the size advantage, but I want to disagree with you on the Kayla thing, man. I think Kayla Chevy, I don't want to say I think Kayla wins, but I kind of think I favor Kayla in that. Let me be honest.

I like Kayla Chevy more than I like Chevy's John Wiley. I agree with that. Because I think we already know that like, that she's the better technical fighter and she's going to be the bigger one. So there's a fighter and she's gonna be the bigger one so there's a great chance she's gonna be able to dissect her in a somewhat boring way like we just saw potentially or she could just wrestle Zhong Wai-Li for you know two or three rounds and then the rest of it just kind of keep away whereas with

Kayla Kayla's got real deficiencies relative to Shevchenko on the feet but the hands get together and now we got a different ball game going on. So to me, that's kind of an interesting fight. It is. But I recognize pure talent. Zhong Wai Li is the best opponent for her far and away. Should Natalia Silva have to take another fight after this victory over the former champion in Grasso because, dude, her movement and her footwork's plant

strategies and her ability to not linger in the pocket to get Lit up with big shots like if you rush her like Grosso did a few times you can clip her But Luke she's she's firing back offense in the midst of that and she makes you chase throughout Okay, I always feel like someone with big power is going to Discipline that style out of her, but I'm not sure if there's anybody left with super big power that's of the elite status that will do that. It's amazing to me that we're talking about like all the things that Bilal apparently just elected to not do against,

you know, a ridiculously talented opponent. And I don't hear anybody talking about the fact that Grosso can't effectively cage cut at this stage in her career. Now, granted, it wasn't something she could have done, I guess, and chose not to, but to be that skillfully deficient at this stage in her career is one billion percent unforgivable. Unforgivable. So you're saying that she made Silva look like a star?

Because I saw people going, I think Silva can run circles around Valentina. And I'm like, let's slow it down there. Here's the thing. No, I don't know about that either. She does have fast feet and fast hands. Like that's real. She uses that full space very effectively. My point is, Silva used footwork and lateral movement very, very effectively in that fight. People were saying she's running, you're an idiot, she's not. Okay. If you're the one scoring more and moving

more than the other person is doing something wrong. My point is there was supposed to be a corresponding response from Grosso to cut her off and we never got it. Right. So we don't know what other answer that Silva may have been forced to use and whether she could or couldn't have. There's just a series of unanswered questions. Grosso, a former champion in the middle of her prime, watching an opponent just walk around the cage and you're not effectively pressuring and cutting her off. And this is why- She got caught up too.

She got banged up. She got super banged up. And this is the part that, you know, again, dude, DC and Cruz I think are very, very good commentators. But they said one thing during that fight, which also makes me kind of question about some of the Bilal analysis, when they're like, well, why isn't it? It wasn't Cruz, it was just DC, like, why isn't he shooting more? And again, Bilal should have shot more potentially.

But what they said in the fight with Silva is, oh, Grosso needs to make it ugly and whatnot. I'm like, I don't think that's necessarily wrong. But the one sequence where they brought it up was where Silva's back is up against the fence. And now Grasso can get close to her. The two most important distances from fighter X to fighter Y, that's one. And then from fighter Y to the cage, those are the two things you have to solve for. If you cannot solve for at least one of them, but ideally two of them, you cannot win in modern MMA. But BC in that sequence, yeah, if Silva is not moving and now you can get closer to her

as a consequence, she's going to be more hittable. It's not about making it uglier. It was about solving distance problems. Yeah. That's the issue. And I don't think that, you know, you can play up any narratives that Silva can't do damage when you look at the damage she did over three rounds to Grasso right there. I mean that striking is crisp and clear and she's got a kick, not just a kicking game, a variety to the kicking game.

Bro, if you're William School and you're just touching and not doing fuck all, it's one thing. If you're landing the more damaging strikes and moving your opponent's job is to limit your movement. She didn't even fucking try. Not well anyway. Just a totally bad effort at it. I don't normally say that, but like, dude, how can someone be 31 a former champion and you cannot effectively cage cut an opponent at this stage of your career? It's not forgivable. It's not forgivable. Long Island Luke, be honest. Can Silva beat Shevchenko? I think she can, yeah.

Wow. She's young too, right? How old is she? She's like 27, but would that be one of those situations where it would be a slow, boring fight, but she would be the one who's more active, and you'd be judging her her leaping in and spamming against Shevchenko's bigger counters. Well, that's what that's what Fiora was trying or can Shevchenko wrestle her. I think Shevchenko can wrestle her, although Silva has very good takedown defense. That's one thing I would say.

But, you know, this is the other part, too. First of all, I think Shevchenko, if she wants to cut her hand cage cutter. But more to the point, I think Shevchenko might accept that pressure. That's what you saw in this fight too. She likes accepting aggression and then getting head off and then, you know, it wouldn't be in that particular respect. It wouldn't be too dissimilar from the Manon-Fiorot fight

where she's accepting Fiorot, who's coming in ramrod straight for the earliest early on and then getting clipped for it. So, you know, the one thing I will say though is I think Silva is much more explosive and quicker Than Fioro and so her ability to like explode into distance might be More of a threat to shevchenko than Fioro. That's a fair point jasmine jazzed avicius. You got to give her credit I mean, she's climbing she fuck

Let me ask a question though I have to ask it put her down and subbed her in the first round within like it felt Like you met I have to ask is on Dr. Aj. Okay, like here's what I'm saying I don't want to take away from Jasmine at all But I just don't know what the hell's going on with just kind of just par for the course like I have counted her out Big time like three four fights ago And then she comes out knocks out Mackenzie Dern. Like she can if you're vulnerable to her power, she's willing to take the your your the violence that you put on her to continue to stalk you through the whole fight.

And that goes back, by the way, to her fighting you on for the title back in the day. So she's definitely a second or third tier version of her peak self. But there's even with the depth at 125. There's a just a huge group of that of those fighters and contention that she can still break down and get a knockout on just for having that big-time power. But if you have size if you have a specific dominant skill to counter that particularly on the ground she gets swallowed up

and that's what's happened in all of her elite losses, you know in succession. Well, actually recently she's been stopped even even more I'll say this whatever the reason you can just look at the tape and Jasmine looked phenomenal She was not afraid she took control of the fight and when she had an opportunity she pounced on it 35 Yeah, so that's exactly right this like right now is the moment to press the press the go button We got Jasmine talking about this exact thing and that she's putting off the wedding For this so do you want to stay this active are you looking for big names? What exactly do you want?

Kind of up to the guys on I Whatever the road is to that number one spot like I don't I don't care who they've put in front of me I don't care about who fight to you know, I don't I don't know don they've put in front of me. I don't care about who fight who. You know, I don't know. They'll figure all that stuff out. I just want to see Jasmine Jasevizia as number one champion of the world. So this time next year, do you think it says number one next to your name?

I'd say so. Keep running on this kind of trajectory. They said that you are delaying your wedding until you get the belt, that you want the belt before the ring. Is that accurate? You know, I'm not here for a long time. I want to stay active.

But I also want to have a nice wedding and plan it and enjoy doing that. And I understand that there are sacrifices that I have to make. You know, I'm coming for that number one spot and afterwards we'll be able to get married and it will be a spectacular show. You can bring the bell to the wedding. Exactly. So she's ambitious, the work ethic is there, she's raised her game in her craft. But Luke, from what we see right now, is she title material? Is she good enough to win this championship in your eyes?

Like, is there room for more growth? Would what she did to Andrade translate at all to the elite? Well, she might already be there. I don't know. What I would say is, I have. It's a busy division. We got Macy Barber coming up against Blanchfield. You were asking like, who's deserved the title shot.

The problem is you've got Blanchfield and Barber. You know, you have Grasso and Furo, but they've kind of fizzled out now. And then the next two in line would be Blanchfield and no, it would be Blanchfield and and Barber. So the winner of that one, which is coming up, is probably going to settle that question. Do you think also you think they would get the Blanchfield Barber winner would get the head of Silva? I think winner of that fight fights Silva and then you do Valentino

versus either Waley and Fairpoint and wait in the meantime. Yeah, that might be the right answer. There you go. Right there. Interesting stuff playing out at the one to five division topic. Number four, though, we continue on to the big hits down this UFC three fifteen card and Jose Aldo was a big one. We didn't seem to love the matchmaking for the third straight fight, but Eamon Zahabi, who took home a disputed three-round decision,

at least co-authored a fun as hell final round that was all action. And then, surprisingly for me, led to Jose Aldo directly to the King of Hio's second retirement. So, Luke Jose appeared to put the gloves down for good again He said his body would not allow him to cut down to 135 this time around That's why this fight was a featherweight bout do you believe that this is true that this is the end of Jose Aldo's? UFC career or or or combat sports participation in general? and if it is, should I move on past the regrets I have of the matchmaking

that these were the last three Jose Aldo fights we saw rather than Dominic Cruz, Pitbull, et cetera, et cetera. All right. So let me say this. I do hope it's the end for him. He's taken an enormous amount of abuse and but he's still really competent. He's still very competent. Dude, you don't need to stop when you're completely destroyed. You can stop before that. That's what people fail to realize.

He's already absorbed a lifetime's worth of CTE. I'm sorry he has, I guarantee you. Can we show that pic of him in the cage? This was sad to see. This was like the final image, you know? Yeah, this is what I mean. And he won that fight, dude. He won that fight.

He probably should have. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a little closer than the internet will tell you, but I do agree he probably should have won. But it's like, dude, he agreed to this fight. People keep saying the UFC did this to him. It's like he's a grown fucking man. And it's not in the middle of his career. The very, very end of it. He doesn't want to be in these kinds of fights. Don't accept them. But I also agree. I mean, here's the problem, right, BC? I could accept him losing. I could accept him taking some punishment, even at this stage, if we were in fights that made a little bit more sense.

And. Like, it's a boost to Iman's a hobby, but he's also a little bit long in the tooth. I don't know what he's really going to be able to get out of it. Thirty five, he's riding that way six fight win streak. That's great, which is great for him. But I don't know exactly what it's going to amount to in the end. Same with Bautista. I don't really know what's going to happen. Let's show the three fights.

Here's a closer look at the recent ledger of Jose Aldo. This is after the loss to Marab, right? Right. And look at the caption here. He writes, what a horribly managed comeback run for Jose Aldo came back, fought opponents. Nobody wanted to see him. And it went one and two and arguably, you know, could have gone three and oh, I suppose. Um, the

UFC gave him the wrong fights. There's really no argument around that from Silva giving him can and near and Brunson. And this is what they like to do. If you want to stick around, they're going to use what's left of the husk. That is your body. And Tony Ferguson, they're going to farm it out to whatever they can farm it out to do that. You know, Frank Yeager fought Chris Gutierrez in the garden. And that was I think that was his last one, if I believe like, where's Chris Gutierrez now? He's a good fighter. But did it necessarily lift him to great heights?

It didn't do any of that. Meanwhile, Frankie's career kind of just comes to like a limping close. Dude, they should have fucking done Pitbull versus Aldo. But like they should have done like a like a bigger prospect. Yeah, maybe something like that. Chewie's Chewie's I don't know, but they should have done Dominic Cruz. Like these were the fights people wanted to see. These were the ones.

And by the way, now that Aldo's gone, it's just fights like Poirier. It's just guys like Honey Yaya, who are the last WEC fighters on the roster. Now I know Cruz has since hung it up. But like, you know, they mismanaged the end of this for for one of the very best guys to ever do it. They should not have been putting them in fights that the fans were kind of sour on to begin with that didn't really lift the winners. Ultimately, in the way that they fans were kind of sour on to begin with that didn't really lift the winners ultimately in the way that they I think kind of envisioned it and in the end who's satisfied by this obviously if you're Ayman Zahabi he fought I think very especially dude he got soccer kicked

in the god I don't know how he didn't get finished unbelievable resiliency like I took my hat to him he got need to the face and as he was falling back he got fucking soccer kicked like dude straight up amazing job by him. But I'm just saying, we're taking some of these legends and we're grinding them into dust for gains that are not exactly clear to me at all. Who's winning here? Who's winning? I mean, would you rather have had him against Conor McGregor in a rematch than like a stupid fight like this? Did you see that video Conor put out of him training?

No. Looked like he was moving through molasses. Well, if you're questioning if this is the end of Aldo's UFC run, I think it is. And then the five tweet run that he put out yesterday that basically just reiterated the thoughts that he gave in the octagon about his body giving up on him and him for the first time, feeling like, okay, like it's almost like the baseball players that are, you know, the famous ones that say like the moment they, it became a job for them. They're like, okay, I need to retire now that I know it. That's the moment. But Luke money talks in this guy's competitive and look at Manny Pacquiao coming back at

46 years old this July to fight again for a world title. Do you feel like BKFC is going to call in a year and then he's going to box Mike Perry without gloves for big money and win maybe and then, you know, or just, yeah, insert name, right? And like, do you see Josie Aldo being done for good or do you think it's just, it's just freaking inevitable? I mean, he did say something kind of interesting and I tweeted it yesterday when he was saying he was cutting weight and then a voice spoke to him being like, you don't have to do this anymore. Well, you're down a class from your elite way at this age. Like there's other there's ways to do this more lazy if you wanted to be fair. And I agree with him. Like, dude, like what's motivating him to just, yeah, I mean, keep the wind streak

going, but I don't know what wins. Just well, sorry, the not the wind streak, but what his mind? I don't think he's lost. I mean, there's there's part of that. But I think the issue is, you know, what is the fucking point of this? What is the fucking point of all of this? You know, you're putting him in a place where the judges probably didn't do the right job in awarding him this contest.

You're against an opponent that, again, I give a ton of respect to Imons Ahabi, who has, you know, managed to have the best run of his career right at the very end of it, or close to the end of it. And that's tough to do. He brought GSP back. Amazing, amazing job by him. But these are not the fights that the fans requested. And I don't know what it's gonna do for him long-term.

Meanwhile, you're watching one of the very fucking legends of the game just get put through the grinder, and you're like, how does it make you feel now? You don't feel like we're supposed to feel elevated when we watch a legend come back for something. It's supposed to be romantic to a degree. It seems ordinary. Him and Dom Cruise could have fought and no matter the result, that could have been full Bushido. Everyone's standing giving both, a standing ovation on their way out. It's like a perfect way.

There's ways to pass the torch when you have that elite young prospect, which is why I felt like a Patty versus Connor pay-per-view fight should have already happened, okay? You can also just let two legends go out one more time, shake hands, get the rub and be out of there. That's what it probably better would have felt like. The rest of 315, though, Luke, that early, to open the pay-per-view main card of Benoit Saint-Denis shaking off a two-fight losing scheme. He looked like shit I'm sorry a while against Kyle Krepilek and then he gets the submission with the arm triangle choke at in round two

Yeah, he needed it to stop the streak, but I agree it didn't scream. He got lit up Yeah, how was that possible you take it on a guy who washed out of UFC, who, you know, put together a decent win streak, 4-1 on the regional scene, comes back, you know, is clearly outgunned. Listen, BSD won that fight because he's just an aggression machine and he does have some pretty good grappling. I'll give him credit there. But... He got rocked a few times. Dude, his head looks like it was glued onto his shoulders because of the lack of movement.

There's nothing defensive. Just walking the guy down. And so Prepple kept fucking landing on him. And I'm like, dude, buddy, you can't beat anybody good fighting like this. You will not beat anybody good fighting like this. I hope he does. I hope we get to see the best of him in climbing the ranks. Because the division's opening up with those older guard guys on the way out.

That was supposed to be what that Poirier fight was. Like a pat, you know. You could like this guy being like, oh, I didn't use a coach the last two camps. Yeah. Put the camera on me. Ready? Here we go. It shows. It shows. Sure. We're going to have a Don Davis put the camera on me moment soon. But before we close out 315, Mike Malott was getting put on him at times against Charles Radke in a fun little scrap.

But dude, Malott got the hometown pop there in the prelim featured fight. You back on the bandwagon? No, no. I mean, I'll say this. It was exciting. Great performance. Dude, he was, I mean, he was treating Radke's head like a double end. That was a brutal ground and pound finish.

Did you see the overhead shot? I mean, we can't show the replay here. But Radke's head is just getting like speed bagged. So that was I mean, it's got to feel great for Mike. That's a great comeback win. You know, I don't know what it means for his future, BC, if I'm just being honest with you. But but you know, he had the he had the Canadian crowds all in their field.

So Mark Andre Berrio looked like a Canadian destroyer, and he he dent the skull of Bruno Silva in that first round ko It was a bad dude damn. They brought in the stretcher People might not appreciate this I remember watching UFC when they would have a serious medical event in the octagon And then they would just wouldn't show it and they wouldn't update you on the broadcast So this is some years ago. This is the Spike TV era. They didn't have the insurance to cover it, I'm sure. No, no, you have to have insurance to cover it by law. You couldn't. They didn't have the access.

We didn't need you guys to die outside. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They had to cover that stuff even then, but they didn't have transparency to the public about why they were doing it. And I think they've amended this. This is not a new thing that they're doing, but this was a good illustration of just how much better they've gotten about this issue where they showed him being stretchered out, which they did not do back in the day, and then gave us through Brendan Fitzgerald a series of medical updates about him. And by the way, I want to say something as a bit of a side note. They had Brendan Fitzgerald doing locker room reporting, cage side reporting, medical updates, and hosting the desk.

He did all of it flawlessly. He is such a good broadcaster, it is shocking. He's very good, and he just followed me on Instagram. Shout out to that guy. Nice, there you go. Long Island Luke, to give you credit, the curtain jerker of the evening at Bannamweight, you said Bexat Almakhan, Almakhan?

Yeah, Almakhan. Almakhan was a potential killer, and he killed Brad Katona in just over a minute, yo. Yeah, he looked good. Luke thinks Katona kinda looks like not so great. I think it was Almakhan looking good. It is Almakhan looking good, also Katona's not that good. I mean, he seems like a nice guy, but.

Any other donks you wanna talk about on this card? I mean, shout out to Lithuania Modestus, so the scoring in that one. What the fuck was that? I can't even get angry about it anymore I mean, they are kind of meaningless fights. Unfortunately, well, I know I mean the wreck I won so it's not even that but like 30 27 the other way you're like What do you even say to something like that? I don't even know what to say. I say it's time for topic number- oh, and look, you always have something to say about the deep undercard. Do you want to go on the dark web and tell us anything here? No, I mean, Bukowski's getting that nod was a little iffy. Also, Daniel Santos over Jeongyeon Lee,

I feel like that was a little iffy too, but yeah. Could you have scored it for Pharrell? Did you score it for her? No, I had it 1 four five for Chevy. Sorry. What am I saying? The Bukowski scoring was wrong. Well the 2928 How did you score that bout? I don't remember my exact scoring, but I remember thinking Coutilaba won Yes, I read the scorecard. Yes, so 37 the other way. Excuse me I think I remember thinking I'm like maybe you could find around in a half form if you really squinted But what are you gonna do? There we go topic number five Luke. It was Friday of last week I'm not doing a bit here when I realized

Paul Hughes maybe maybe the bread the biggest and brightest thing going outside of Dakota Ditcheva in the PFL And he was fighting this past weekend in Dublin. No doubt. And when that happens, you expect a raucous crowd and atmosphere. It was. Here's the problem. Nobody knew about it. And it wasn't on American television. Now, in the end, the rising star Paul Hughes bounced back from the loss to Usman Nomagomedov in that thriller earlier this year, needed just 42 seconds to finish Bruno Miranda, had an emotional call out of Nomaga-Medoff for a rematch afterwards.

But when there's zero opportunity for U.S. fans to watch it live, when no one seems to know it's even happening, and now Don Davis comes out on Twitter and attempts to try to be the hero, can we throw to this tweet, please? This was not from LinkedIn. This was on Twitter. PFL fans in USA. You asked for it.

We pulled this off of Microsoft Teams and Slack and PFL MMA will deliver it. All PFL international league fights will be available for free, free, free, free. You know, watch in the USA moving forward, June 1st. Details coming in major announcement from PFL MMA. Luke, that's similar to the victory lap he took by saying the fans wanted elbows so we put elbows in MMA. Hey, Don, the fans want you to drop this tournament format, stop having 18 champions in 15 feeder leagues, and just declare who your best fighters are and have them fight for belts and then we'll get behind it rather than what we're getting here. Either way, incredible atmosphere.

But is it too hard to look past the Don Davis side of it and not guess if this company is still going to be around in two years because they're not going to be. This great moment happened that probably should have been, you know, their leading note of this first half of the year based on the rivalry building between these guys. And they barely promoted it. It wasn't even, you couldn't even watch it. Here's what blows my mind is that the UFC, like if Paul Hughes was the UFC and he was coming off of that loss to Usman Numerga-Madoff, could there be a world where he fought this Miranda kid in the same kind of way? Well, maybe in the sense that they would have booked Hughes against somebody else and if that other person had fallen out and they had called this guy in the last minute, they would have done it.

The point I'm trying to make is they actually, if you look at the show itself from what we could, whether we couldn't get it here. So if you illegally streamed it somehow and you watched it, it looked good on TV. Hughes, I mean, set that crowd on fire. But the bigger point I wanted to make was this is Strike Force. Strike Force would take a guy off of a big win and they might give him another big fight after that, but sometimes they wouldn't. Sometimes they would give him a guy that they knew he could easily beat. And he would in fact, easily beat him.

It would be red meat to the fans in attendance to online and it would build his star power and then the one after that they would give him another tough fight again. So what I'm saying is I don't even mind that the fact that the fight was 43 seconds, it looked good on TV, it looked good for the crowd. It's only gonna, you know, he gets a win back, it gets the seminal moment for Irish MMA history. It's a big moment for PFL if it's presented. And you've got no one in the States who even knew about it or had access to it.

I don't use this phrase very often, BC, but I'm going to bring it back out because it's relevant. This is promotional malpractice. This is promotional malpractice. This is doing it wrong. This is doing it wrong. No, look, the fans spoke and he delivered, so moving forward. And then to be like, oh oh we're listening to the fans

You don't have a domestic fan base Don. What the fuck are you talking about? Like we're listening to the fans You mean the the complaints that have been lobbied about the access to the premier guys and by the way listen to what I'm saying I'm not even saying they're doing a bad job matchmaking him. I'm actually saying it's a pretty good job But if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to see it, right? We know the whole, like this is what I'm talking about. And by the way, we hear that like sometimes he'll DM media guys when they say critical things. Yes. You know, I haven't gotten one of those yet. Have you gotten one of those?

No, I'd love to. I'd love to have a chat with him about this kind of stuff because it's like- It's promotional malpractice to have one of your most exciting talents and not promote him and not even have a way for people in the U.S. to access. I'm sorry. The thing that they spend all their money and time promoting are these tournaments that don't actually lead to becoming champion. And it's kind of in some ways, they're second tier fighters. So it's like, what about their first year fighters? Oh, they are either sitting out waiting for the next pay-per-view if it happens or they're at the road to Dubai, South Africa, champion series going on a major podcast and complaining publicly that Ditcheva had to do to then get a fight announced the next day. So let's show us stuff from a fan cam. Here was the in arena excitement. This is all part of Dublin and these incredible

fight fans in in Irish combat sports. But listening on this. These kids are fucking star. Let's check out this tweet too from P.T. Carroll. From Uncrowned provided great coverage coming in and coming out of it. He said the world should have been able to see this tonight so they can understand what Paul Hughes means to these people. One of the best atmospheres I've experienced covering the sport in 15 plus years on this island. I mean like... Dude, they're gonna go out of business

and MMA is gonna be poor for it. Can the rematch save them? Because this should have been the thing. Nothing can save them. I mean after the first fight, which was so great, and they put it for free on social media on YouTube, and then they're like, oh yeah, we're gonna be off for two months. It's gonna be so bad for MMA when a promotion like this goes.

It's gonna be terrible. Let's hear Paul Hughes talk about this rematch. I will never, ever, ever forget the entire experience, but I could see a blacked out stadium with the lights and I heard every single person singing at the same time. And that is just something I will go to the grave with. I mean, I believe I'm one of the best pound for pound on the planet. I truly, truly believe that.

I think that when I get to fight and be Doosman, that will be more proof that I am that guy. I just need to beat him first. It has to be next. The PFL would be absolutely crazy not to make that fight next. So make the fight as soon as possible. Let's get it done. I mean, seriously, drop everything you're doing.

I'm sorry, drop PFL, Mina and all the, like it's cool that you have this blueprint of how you're going to build up this, this world, you know, system. You're never going to get there unless you're actually using your assets. Where the frick is Patchy Mix? How the hell did you let Aaron Pico go? Like, please. They're stuck between, we have to differentiate our brand to get money. To confuse. Right, we have to confuse our brand to get money, but as a consequence, they can't grow an audience because everything is so confusing

and they make bad decisions. And they just, all Don does is pass it off as the MMA media being negative. It's like, you don't have the leverage to do the Dana White move and say that. Also, we're negative because we're right. Because we want you to succeed. And it's like, what the hell is going on?

You imagine looking at a burning building and be like, why are you guys so negative about this building's future prospects? Well, it's on fucking fire. What's the best thing PFL can do to make this rematch huge to put a lot of positive PR in them? World tour, PR, world tour. And book it in a venue.

With fans? With fans, sell domestically, and full court press on doing media. So you're talking about like Boston or are you talking about putting? Yeah, Boston would be a great idea. TD Garden if you could sell it. But this is the point I'm trying to make,

you laughed at me when I brought this up, you see, when they came to DC with Francis and Jake Paul and I talked to my friends over at the Washington Post, I was like, did they even come to you guys and pitch you? And they didn't, one thing not to pitch me sure but they didn't even pitch the Washington Post Like how do you come to the to DC and you don't even bother with him You didn't bother with Fox 5 you didn't bother with any of these other outlets that are typically pretty receptive to this kind of thing They have to stop that they have to get out there hit the pavement you got to come see this kid

We've got one of the most exciting. They can literally say to the camera, we've got one of the most exciting fighters, irrespective of weight class in the entire sport. And they're telling the truth. If you can't sell tickets based off of that, Bubba, you can't sell tickets. Should that be a pay-per-view? Should you put Ditchie on the Coleman and make that a pay-per-view? Fuck no. Put that on ESPN. Put that on ESPN. That'd be awesome. Put that on ESPN.

Put that on ESPN. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you, it's a different ball game under that consideration. I wish they promoted that like a pro wrestling promotion from the 80s would, meaning every show, we've got a sit-down interview segment with Paul Hughes to continue to churn up talk to that rematch. Every one of these tournament shows, like,

it's got to be about what you're building toward. They never educate to the fans what they're building toward in anything. It's Donald just say, oh, yeah, we'll just do the Champions League series at the end of the year for what another meaningless belt that you're going to create that's going to disappear the second it's competed for. Yeah, it's Johnny Edlund fighting soon. He's the middleweight champion of what? Yeah, it's or PFL. Yeah, again in that press release where they announced that Eblen and Ditcheville were coming back, Eblen was listed as the weight class champ,

Ditcheville was listed as the tournament champ, but you know, the differentiation and how it's described is modest, and if you're not paying attention, you wouldn't even know. It's the whole thing is fucking ridiculous. It depresses me, but that was topic number five. And the sad part is it's gonna be bad for MMA when they go. It's gonna be really, really bad.

But what can I say? And you can reach the show in the future, folks, including Friday's episode, when we will take your fansubs and post your dead wrongs by reaching out to morning combat at gmail.com. Tell Mikey we said hi or you said hi, but just don't show any pictures of your privates. Thank you so much. I'll look. You know how much I love boxing, the Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York and by proxy I heard about it for years, the experience of the boxing hall of fame weekend, the international boxing hall of fame there. I called a couple showbox fights back in the day on that weekend. And how about this Friday, June 6th, a really fun

collaboration coming up between Salida Promotions and all the smoke fight as they present Hall of Fame Fight Night. It'll air live on Dazon Friday, June 6th at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, one town over there from Canastota and the legendary HOF. USBA Titleist Brandon Moore will face unbeaten and dangerous Stanley Wright in the main event in a matchup of American heavyweights. We're also gonna see Francheon Cruz-Dazern defend

her unified world champion on the undercard. Some rising contenders as well. And this is a pretty cool collaboration here. We're getting all the smoke fight on the scene. Andre Ward as well. Sit downs, interviews with the Hall of Famers. Manny Pacquiao going in that weekend, by the way. Is he really?

Just a month before he is gonna come out of retirement at age 46. So... Happy about him going to the Hall by the way. Is he really? Just a month before he is gonna come out of retirement at age 46. Oh my God. So. Happy about him going to the Hall of Fame though. Sure I feel about the fight. But him going to the Hall of Fame, very cool. I hope I get to call it, that'd be fantastic.

Do you know if you are? I don't know yet. What's the next fight you're calling? Caleb Plant, Jamal Charlo in separate fights, May 31st, PBC on Prime. But. That's it, that's T-Mobile? That is at T, I don't know. Actually I gotta check. I don't think T-Mobile? That is at, I don't know.

Actually, I gotta check. I don't think T-Mobile. Okay. I gotta figure that out. It could be Mandalay Bay. Yeah, Mandalay Bay. Excited about this. Friday, June 6th, of course, they're live on the zone

at the Turning Stone Resort Casino. Should be a good time. Hall of Fame fight night. So Luke Thomas, those are our five topics put to bed. We do have an opportunity for the fans to reach out to us and touch us a little at morning combat at gmail on instagram and on x sunday nights and you did that. So here are your questions. They're called dms from donks

Yeah, that was uh, that was pretty gross, Luke. I hate it. All right, let's hear the first question. This is from at Rick Bolden. Who ends 2025 Luke Thomas as the UFC welterweight and lightweight champion? Great question in light of everything going on right now. You're like Ilya Toporya, both of them. Ilya Toporya for a lightweight for sure.

The welterweight one's a little more interesting to me. Okay, where are we at right now? We are in the month of May. Yep. You have potentially two more fights potentially. The new champion will defend once in the next what? Four months, five months? Probably, probably.

It might be against, it might be against Mahachev. But he won't fight again Mahachev, the winner, if he wins. Unlikely, but it's possible. It's gonna be. Is it gonna be Ilya and Islam? It's gonna be me. It's gonna be shitty if, I will say this,

it's gonna be shitty if they both move up weight classes and then become champions immediately and then we still miss that fight, you know what I mean? Well, what do you make of Islam on social media I saw saying that he doesn't want, he doesn't necessarily have to give up the belt. He just wants to move up, become a two-division. Fighters say lots of things. That's nice when they do that. They say lots of things. I'm gonna go Islam right now. Ooh.

Islam will close the year. Ooh. But I mean we need to see it. Yeah we do. We fricking need to see it. Next question coming in. Hot and heavy from at Hasma B17. If JDM beats Islam later this year,

who does that win him fighter of the year? Yeah, if you win the championship in the same year that you beat the number one pound for pound fighter to make your first title defense. It could. It could. And then someone's gonna go, yeah, but this other guy fought three times, and that guy fought two times,

and three's a bigger number than two, so therefore three is the winner. That's a good impression of Corey Sandhagen in that skit there that he did. I couldn't stand those people about this poetically argument, but... I mean, what if, what if Toporia wins the title against Charles,

if that happens, and then gets a second fight against whom? Gachi do are they gonna make a paddy fight if to Poria wins Yeah, they would and that would be a big deal and it should be a bit to Poria sending his mouthpiece into orbit would be Yeah, I mean think about it like What no it would be to Poria in that case because he'd be going up a weight class and then under the scenario that we're sure positing, he'd be doing close. Yeah. Imagine if they were both in the running for fight of the year. We're like, why don't you

just fight each other to close the year? And that's what you should do. That's what you should do. There we go. Let's see the next question from our viewers. This is from at Ty Kwan Do. No, Ty Kwan Ty K. Tae Kwon Dude memes. Is Shafqa officially the biggest loser in MMA right now? He's clearly not next at 170, and who knows what would happen if Islam wins the belt and then tries to defend the 55-2. He definitely took a hit. He definitely took a hit.

There's no question. There was a picture of him on social media wearing a... Cast? Cast, yes. Oh, you're gonna say like the Infinity Gauntlet? Like he just had surgery, it seems. That'd be cool if you broke your arm and they gave you a cast that was like the Infinity Gauntlet? Like he just had surgery it seems. That'd be cool if you broke your arm and they gave you a cast that was like the Infinity Gauntlet. That'd be kind of sick.

Whoever's the champion, like when it's Shavkat's time, it's not like he's gonna do a ton of media ahead of it. Like it's just gonna find, we're gonna find out he's healthy and it's gonna be his time. Yeah, he definitely, I mean here's the problem dude, like even if you have to sit up because of injury, like you just have to sit out, oh my god MMA moves fast. Buckley, here he comes running up. Here comes Ian Gary running up. Like you think he might lose his spot? Meaning they might say, I'm sorry you're gonna have to come back. Oh my God, MMA moves fast. Buckley, here he comes running up. Here comes Ian Gehry running up. Like, do you think he might lose his spot?

Meaning they might say, I'm sorry, you're going to have to come back and fight the winner. A billion percent, yes. The winner of Buckley-Usman. Yes, yes, yes. They could, that absolutely could happen. Walter White's fun. I mean, we're just going to add the best fighter in the world. It's a fucking shark tank.

It really is. I love it. Yeah, yeah. Let's see the next question from the people. This is from at probably Brian. What is your favorite Bushido moment in MMA? Mine is Liotto Machida bowing after front kicking Vitor's head into the stratosphere. That was a cold but sweet

Bushido moment right there Luke I mean there was some girl shit. Oh, can you run that Valentino?ina you wanna clip for a second year? We'll speak over it look I enjoyed this girl Shido moment When you know Valentina defended the title proved her greatness, and then it was it was like the receiving line after a wedding Luke I don't know who that is who's that right there? When do you like deuce bigelow that's a huge bit. Yeah, there's a there's you on the champion Luke we love Bushido because we get it these days so few and far between mostly It's just we love Hitler and the end words cool. Is there a historic Bushido moment that jumps out at you?

What who got on their knees and cried when it was somebody's last fight recently, and it was like you know I'm talking about fight recently and it was like you know I'm talking about Fuck was that? noise yeah Now look what fight am I referencing when it when somebody had their last fight and then the opponent like prayed over them and like Hugged them on the ground afterwards. I don't know like bowed in front like vaguely know what you're talking I can't remember the Yota's had a few of those. You know he did it to Ryan Bader to I believe You know so I don't know if that's pure, I mean, it is, it is Bushido, but it's also like this badass celebration.

Yeah, but also like, you know, it's showing respect to a guy who is your opponent. I might say it's slightly different, but Genki Sudo having the we are all one flag that he would take with him and show the crowd everywhere, even when, you know, he had crazy ass fights, even when he gets like Butterbean and and stuff like that like just trying to show community and unity rather than what we get now which is you know and we're

jokes about that time that Tito like had his last fight and then Forrest Griffin just commandeered the microphone I don't remember that oh that's right holy shit I forgot about that yeah that wasn't that was like drunken uncle at your wedding you're seeing Tito's new ads for his business. Yeah, they're coming. Yeah. He spells tequila wrong on the he does a lot of those things regularly. Uh, do we have a final question from the people or does that wrap? Oh wow. From at Z rigs, if you could truth serum Turkey, what would you ask? I always play this game with Dana way. Like if you could know one truth, you can ask Dana way right

now. One question has to give you an honest answer. But now we're doing it Turkey style. What would you ask him? Are you evil? You, have you? Truth, sir. Have you done the math yourself to have an opinion on it? I mean, I'm asking. You're asking what, well, you're asking like,

what could I ask him that'd get an interesting response if he had to like a complete 100% commitment to the truth? Are you evil? Be cursed if he were to have to say All right, interesting interesting. Um, don't you remember the song from Metallica? I'm I evil do yes, I am I Mean I have decently funny answers, but will they get me into hot water? You know, that's question, you know, I'm trying to avoid that these days. Who's the guy over there who's looking like a fucking? Boy Rick Reno. Rick Reno. That's Turkey. I don't know what I would ask him to be honest with you I'm just making something up. I'd be like Rick Reno how many of these outfits you got?

Yeah, Reno's a little more interesting to me. Yeah, I mean Rick what you wearing bud? I mean we could ask Turk. Do we want to know the answers with Turkey? That's the question. Yeah, I'm not sure I do. Yeah Do we want to know the answers with Turkey? That's the question. Yeah, I'm sure I do. Yeah. Interesting. Those are the five questions from the fans. Thank you very much for playing.

We'll see you next week. We have one more segment for you and it's when I on Sunday scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, the in-between, the world of combat sports and beyond this one's called. Have you seen this shit? You have this in your soul UFC 315 was in Montreal, Luke and although we didn't get many soundbites from Dana this week, he did respond when they said, I thought you don't do stadiums, what's up with Bud Canelo?

You throw more punches, so I'm curious, what kind of fight can we expect from you against Val? Sorry, that was the wrong one, but that's hilarious. I read it out of order. That was to kick off the 315 press conference Maybe that's why Dana barely played ball on saturday That's that's the other mk dogs I bet. Here's the question about the dome. What convinced you to do it in the stadium I know you like the experience. I look I better to experience at the arena. Yeah, I hate it I hate it. So because I hate it so much, you know I I'm going to have to try to figure out how to make it an incredible experience inside Allegiant. Then won't I don't understand that at all. If he succeeds with Bud Canelo being an in arena like Dynamo, like it probably will be. I mean, he has been to big time boxing events. They always hold on.

Hold on. Hold on. They thrill these big ones. The entire answer makes no sense. First of all, why would you want someone working on this who detests the concept of it? You're not going to get the best out of that period. You're just not. But won't this force him like Ronda Rousey's success in Star Power forced his hand on women's MMA. Won't this force him to go, Oh my God, this was awesome. And we did it right.

I like how people think he's going to rethink 25 years of the way he's been promoting for one card. You're out of your fucking mind. That's not going to happen. More to the point, he disdains the very concept of it. And even more than that, we've already seen people do very successful arena shows in MMA and boxing. There's already a blueprint.

What does, he's like, I have to go figure this out like no one's done it before. A million people have fucked, Octagon does it in Europe several times a year. KSW does it several times a year. Pride did it when I was in fucking college. What? Yeah, can we show the first day in the white clip again

with the fans? Oh, you throw more punches. So I'm curious, what kind of fight can we expect from you against Valentin on Saturday? Oh yeah, 315 also gave us the UFC weigh-in show being wild. Let's watch this beer chug competition. This first? No, just twist the damn thing. Just twist.

Once. Good. This is like hot potato. Whoever it lands on, you gotta drink it. This used to be MK. Oh, you gotta drink it this used to be MK Yes, she does go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go.

Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go.

Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go.

Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. That's like a pro wrestling level commitment there from single She's like let me get these calories if you don't know all right. Let's keep it going here Um also our Jay Clifford had the one-liner of the week you love this guy right? I love RJ. Are you a bigger fan of Jessica on drugs? Yes, I am of Shavkat It's very with me. It's a little bit more sexual But I would say I am a shove cut Very with me. It's a little bit more sexual But RJ He was a long time guy at Sirius XM. I think he's still there. Um, he's great. Not pictured at UFC 315 was maybe the most important man in MMA right now in terms of get your shit together.

John Jones. He was in Thailand, Luke. But this video came out of him. Huh? came out of him. So I don't I mean well it's good to see him sober you know yeah is he training for the Aspen all fight is that what's happening what the hell is going on here who knows this is em know. This is MMA in 2025, okay? Get ready for Aspen All Gone and just like it. Hey, Paul Hughes might be fighting today. We don't even know. Alright, time for your regular folk fights of the week here.

Let's go to this bar and watch this action. Luke, it started off fun and games, but it gets serious quickly. Is this two dudes? I can't even tell. Look at this guy going for the curb stomp. Dude, come on. I I mean that's just cheap. Oh Good lord. Jesus this guy. A bunch of white frat kids Luke. These are your folk. My- my- what the- Oh! Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you're damn right they are.

Behenthe. All right. All right. Decent scrap. Let's go to the Red Rock Casino in Vegas. Here's your real folk fight of the week. Big hefty hair. Is he gonna swing? Oh, do a lot of the what's up talk. What's down, dude? Hey, you know what? My man in the hoodie, he tried to help. He didn't listen.

Oh, now he's talking shit to the... It's like I'm scared. Yeah. Oh listen. Oh, now he's talking shit to the... He's like, I'm scared, yeah. I have this guy coming at me. Oh, he's trying to... He's trying to... Oh, did he break his leg? Oh!

He did the crow cop? Yeah. After getting hit kicked by Gabriel Gonzaga? Damn. Let's also go to the alleyway. Watch this fax machine take a moment in this fight. Oh boy. Okay.

I don't know the context of that situation, but that's why. The fax machine take a take a moment in this fight. Oh boy. Okay. I don't know the context of that situation, but that's why. Yo, I gotta send you a fax. She kept it 100 with the fax right there. Wow. Uh, old white guys at a NASCAR event. Yeah.

We'll watch them scrap. Luke, check this out. Who's not going to see that. No, no, it's it's true. X is the best. Don't you tell them Dale senior jobs. Don't you talk about the king, right? Wow.

Don't you talk about the kind of this race? All right. Time for some nut shots. Let's go to the break dance. Oh, wow. Wow. All right. Okay. That is amazing. That's PC for warming up. Okay.

For end chain right there. Let's go to the soccer pitch, see if anyone can take it to the nuts here. Oh, boy, that is a, that is a fully right there. Is that the Saudi Arabian League too? Yeah, I think so. Yo. Yo. You know what? It's better than getting bone sawed.

Luke, the lady that you have voted MVP of the segment is the crazy cake lady from France. Let's check in on her. OK. And oh, God. OK. Stop eating things, you crazy lady. Imagine if she just pulls out like, like just strips a guy's pants down and just she's going to cut off her leg and it's just going to be. Oh, here we go go What about what? Disgusting

Put her in the zoo. How about that? But get we need to see under the showtime budget I bet you I could have convinced Daniel Snyder's nephew to fly her in yeah for an mk episode where she just like starts cutting Up the mk set. Yeah, it's like your vape. She just takes a bite out of it. It's cake You know, it's like oh, it's gonna your vape. She just takes a bite out of it. It's cake, you know, it's like, oh, it's going to be great. Disgusting. Elder abuse time, Luke. Let's let this is why you don't drink beer on trains, right? OK. I don't know what city this is in.

Oh, OK, sir. That is. Hang on to those rails here. Let's see what's happening here. Now, that's the end of it. He took a he took a facial right there. All right. Let's see. This is why. No, that's the end of it. He took a facial right there. All right, let's see. This is why I don't mess with like bullfighting or the running of the bulls or anything to do with the bulls, pretty much. I don't even go to Chicago. Okay. Oh my God.

Hey guys, stop messing with gigantic horned animals. All right. Luke, what do you do when a friend accidentally puts a hole in your wall? I mean, that'll fix it. Let's go to the barber shop haircuts of the week time Luke. Okay. Yeah, score one for feminism. Luke. I gotta say it seems like truth in advertising. Okay. All right.

If you thought that haircut was good, you fucking can't give me the post Malone when you go to the barber next time. Wow. I mean just send this person to El Salvador to die in a gulag. Is that art? That's kinda art, right? I mean, it's art of a certain kind, yeah.

All right, would you smoke that joint right out of that guy's hand? Of course. What kind of a fucking question is that? All right, would you smoke the giant Benjamin coming up in this next clip? Yeah, I have a little extreme. No, it gets the extra flavor. Uh-huh, extra butter?

Yeah, extra flavor. He's holding it very shallow. No, it gets the extra flavor extra butter. Yeah extra extra flavor Okay, my late uncle used to tell a story about hitchhiking in the late 70s across The west coast of our country was he the zodiac killer? He could probably could have been confused as it He said one time he got it was in the backseat of a two-seat sedan And the guys were like hey you might have we smoke. He's like yeah, no problem He said they pulled out a giant wooden long long that shaped like a boner and

They were like maybe those guys should stop hitchhiking and buying drugs and just put their money towards a car Yeah, that's that's wild the way that that story ends is even more wild, but we'll have to save that for it Our scene the zodiac Killer movie. I know how it ends. All right. Local news bloopers continue to be the best. Watch the Spanish news broadcast, Luke. That's not Spanish.

Okay. Did you see that man? What is that, Luke? What language is that? Portuguese. Well, I'm glad I got to see another man's ass today. I didn't get enough of that on the New York City subway. Luke, take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls have. And if you're making last minute dinner plans, you may have a hard time getting in some of

the titties and some in some of the titties and some and some of the city's top spots. That's my nightmare. That's my nightmare is to be forever memorialized being like and uh just being on local news and just being like you know what guys I want to go for some titties. I mean beers when this is over and everyone knows you're a fucking creep you know. Yeah it's kind of like also um if you're like an old rich guy and you just want to get laid and then like everybody's making fun of your relationship Bill a chicken his girlfriend in the year 2000. Okay, that's that's disgusting. That's disturbing All right, we should cleanse the palate with the MLB arm break of the week. You know this

of the week you into this? Oh, that need dropped it too dude that's oh that is rough. Well you know what they play 172 games a season we'll be back. All right a new sport alert it's called ultimate whip fighting you in. Why don't we just do itutions, right? Are white people sad they can't use whips anymore? So they just use it on each other? Like what's the story here? Look at that ref. Dude, hey, Long Island Luke, have you heard of these two Aussie guys who are kind of like their own like jackass? And they do these things where they hurt each other for bits, but they commonly, I went on their Instagram page, I watched like a hundred videos.

They commonly hit each other with different types of whips. Have you seen this? I have not, but I am intrigued. Does it end in anal or what? It ends with these guys whipping the fucking flesh off each other. It is so fucked up, but it's kind of funny when they howl in pain. Anyway, go ahead. All right. It's time for your Fart of the Week.

What do you think he ate to create that Chernobyl? Send him to El Salvador. Let's party, Luke. Everyone's invited. I hope that's not a problem. Remodeling. That's what you get for partying loudly. OK, old guy. All right, Luke, this next bit

was me all. Dude, when I go to when I go to Columbia, you know how hard it is for me to like find a time when the fucking walls are not thumping? Yeah, it's it's 24-7. One sec. Luke, this was me all week reacting to the negative comments to my Angano joke.

Okay, what the fuck is the point of this? It'll make them tougher, Luke. Did it make you tougher? Yeah, yeah. Getting feedback like that? Yeah. Luke, podcast number one for MMA fighters doesn't always go well. You remember Bryce Mitchell on his first episode?

Yeah, the Hitler one. Yeah, here's Choweewees on his. What are you going to do when Drake puts the nine inches in you? Okay Listen if you're into reading books, there's an alternative to this. That's like 1995 humor right there like that would that's not even that's 1995 humor if you're 13 years old alright alright there we go One more for you, Luke I'm glad to see that manners and gentleman ship has not left us watch this

That's the shit of the week maybe maybe Maybe not the best batch we've had. Yeah, I mean that's a C-. I hope you have seen that. Yeah, that's the C-. That wasn't your best effort. That's okay. All right. We're still alive there. Thank you very much for playing and watching. I hope you guys are doing well.

I don't know what else to say really. Oh, dude, Sabu, RIP, the EC ECW the you know, how did he you know? So this is the pro wrestling guy. Yeah, the pro wrestling guy. He died. Did he die? He died He'd been in horrific help, but he just had his retirement match at age 60 against Joey Janela where he during WrestleMania weekend where there was like barbed wire ropes like death match and he put himself through hell And then died a few weeks later like a like a real man. Did he what was the cause? I don't actually know that. Is it related to the match?

I mean maybe. How old was he? 60. I mean dude Sabu at his prime for as much as you tune into ECW in the late 90s when you got home from the bar drunk and high as much as it was for the just next level absurdities Sandman the drinking of the beer those highlights of him doing backflips off the top rope like Into the crowd knocking people over happily was just some of the most insane shit. I've ever seen just death defying Badassery, I will never celebrate his death. That's I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you

Thank you for the work for the pro wrestling community for saying yeah Yes, all right on that note the lead singer three doors down has stage four cancer. Did you see this? I'm sorry to hear that too. Yeah long out Luke. Thank you for working today Any other deaths you want to report in a pleasure? I don't have any deaths to report I do want to report that Ken has a ridge wallet has a Ridge wallet, so. Oh, yeah, Ken. What colors got there? Yeah, that looks like prison silver. Yeah, Ken's got a Ridge wallet and also illicit narcotics.

Let's be very clear about that. Sound man in the league. All right. Yeah. Today. Oh, he's more than that. He's Ken. Yeah, he's also my dealer. All right. All right. That's the show. Hope you had fun. Thank you for playing. That's Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell.

We'll be back Friday. Friday Friday 11 a.m Eastern there is a good main event this weekend Morales and Burns. Yes, there is good one Good thing going on the box. I remember nothing. I'm paying attention Yeah, you're married. I forgot for Luke Thomas. I'm BC. We're out here All the smoke fight is headed to the Hall of Fame That's right This year's International Boxing Hall of Fame induction weekend in boxing's hometown, Canister, New York, takes place from Thursday, June 5th, through Sunday, June

8th, ending with an annual ceremony immortalizing boxing's all-time greats. The International Boxing Hall of Fame are hosting fan events and experiences all weekend long. On Friday night, June 6th, Salida Promotion will present a terrific fight card in association with All the Smoke Fight, Live on the Zone from the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Ramona, New York. Featuring USBA Heavyweight Champion Brandon Moore,

defending his title against undefeated prospect Stanley Wright in the main event. Plus a stacked undercard featuring world champion Franchon Fouze Dazern and rising prospects J.J. Pagan and De'Vell Smith. Sounds to me we're gonna have a great fight night and of course Sunday. The ceremony to induct the class of 2025. Legends like Manny Pac-Man Pacquiao, Michael Second-to-None, and the Pazmanian devil Vinny Paz.

Join all the smoke fight and salida promotion at Turning Stone Resort Casino for this year's International boxing Hall of Fame induction weekend Hey listen visit turning stone.com for accommodations and tickets to Friday's fight night visit Ibh of calm for the full induction weekend schedule You're listening to an iHeart podcast