MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 316 Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley Lookahead, Upcoming Schedule News & Updates

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are back to talk about the upcoming Bantamweight title matchup between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 on June 7 in New Jersey. Also, the guys take a look at the upcoming schedule including Belal Muhammad vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov that Jon Anik revealed will take place in October. Plus, the guys ask the question: Who are the five most powerful people in all of combat sports? Stay locked in with MK on a Tuesday edition of the program!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Oh, do you want a margarita? Oh, yeah memorial day behind us mk in front of us. Let's get fired up. It's tuesday, may 27th the the the the the the the the the if Luke's prediction is any indication of two and a half years, but hey, I mean, you're the one who asked the dumb ass question. What do you want?

Uh, my name is Brian Campbell. I'm that alpha dude from the C T drop the E. And my friend next to me is from Washington, DC. He's a lover of Japanese toilets. It's Luke. Okay. What, what, what, what is this bit? Is there like a bit going on in the comments? I need to know about now. I'm asking you, Luke, at this moment. Hey, post Memorial day, what the fuck that means. But OK, did you honor our country and those that were fallen yesterday by raising your age, you want to Pat Tillman's legacy?

Yes or no? Not in that particular way. But, you know, I had a quiet day with the family. It was it was enjoyable. Yes. Wonderful. Wonderful. I see you rocking that energy drink and trying to get fired up with the family. It was, it was enjoyable. Yes. Wonderful. Wonderful. I see you rocking that energy drink. Get trying to get fired up for the show. Luke. I see if I, if I stroke out on the air, you have my permission to replace me with, with anybody except Rick Glazer. Okay. That's the only

person you can't do this with. All right. Is that stroking out a reference to the story that Gronk told about Aaron Hernandez at Patriots practices and tape sessions? Uh, I think I only saw a clip about this. This Aaron Hernandez was just beaten off in meetings. Is that the idea? That was his like gimmick and they all thought it was funny.

I guess, you know, who would have thought it could end how it did. I mean, I can't believe the guy like sexually assaulted himself ended up being a bit of a murderer. Uh, Very surprising. Shout out another great Connecticut resident right there, but we're happy to be back after this holiday weekend where nothing is going on in combat sports. Well, not nothing. We'll get into a few of those things here.

We're also going to have a little bit of fun looking ahead to UFC three 16, which is on the horizon. We'll be tackling a fun little exercise, looking at the power players at the moment in combat sports, who is the most powerful, will be counting that down. Also having a little bit of fun with Call Me Crazy, an old segment that is making a return. DMs from DONGs, have you seen this shit on the way out? Hey, it's gonna be a great time.

So why don't you follow us, like us, subscribe to us. Follow our extended YouTube universes, If you will, Dusty, I hope you will. And also welcome in the third member of our team, producer, director, bong enthusiast. Yes, he's here directly on a one way passport from a man's ball carriage down under it's Luke. No seat of the main card. What's up guys? I hope you had a good Memorial Day had a few beers had some dogs BC eat some hot dogs yesterday No, I didn't I ended up getting takeout pizza. It was horrible So what way to serve him it went on our America on that day

But you know I did have a drink by the fire out back. It was it was nice, but no Sita I don't want to ask you about Aussie Independence Day or anything like that My law I'm not allowed to talk about this piece of business. Not yet. I mean, you are wearing a nice piece of attire there. Perhaps it'll be available sometime soon? Perhaps. All right, Saul and others are like, when is it coming?

When is it coming? I think we're gonna have an announcement on Monday, so stay tuned for that. Luke, before we get into these really serious topics involving combat sports, I watched in full your your Jordan Klepper piece on on Comedy Central and really enjoyed that. I really wanna say that. Anything else you got going on in your life? It was kinda funny. That conversation I

would I had with him was for 2 hours and they I think there's a total of me talking maybe 30 seconds. You know what I mean? Yeah, but interspersed throughout. So yeah, it is. No, no, it definitely is. I'm not like it sounds like I'm complaining. No, I'm not. I mean, it's just kind of funny to me, like how these like these television crews like, you know, basically unlimited budgets, what they're able to do. It's ridiculous. It's amazing. Even though that one's not necessarily like, you know, CGI or anything.

Yeah, that was cool. It was cool. I took my daughter to gymnastics and then one of the other kids' parents was like, did I see you on the Daily Show? And I was like, not quite, but close, you know, not quite. Other than that. That's better than if he had said, was it wise that we rehired Dr. Nasser in this facility? That would have been, yeah. So in general, uh, it was a great weekend and, uh, yeah, I have nothing to announce. I'm never. All right. I mean, are you at all fired up about combat sports or are you also taking a break?

Or is my theory true that TKO is on the road to ruin and everything we love about this job in this profession and this, this passion? I will tell you with the exception of like Moses, etama, I've spent most of the weekend, not even paying on purpose, on purpose. Yeah. Just, just do I tell you what my daughter just turned six. Uh, one thing that I've beginning to slowly realize is like, obviously this makes sense, but you know, it's my first kid.

I'm only experiencing it in real time. She's getting to a place now where her personality is really starting to come together. And it's just every day is more fun than the last one to spend time with her. It's actually like every single day is starting to get better and better and better. And like in really cool ways.

It's just, it's cool being a dad, man. It's incredible, Luke. And I always said when my kids were growing up that every year got got better more fun more amazing and I and I'm saying that all the way now through these guys being on the verge of turning 18 early next year so uh enjoy it it's amazing Luke maybe if you're if you got time f around and pop out another one Luke maybe all right I'm 45 if I have another kid I'm going to die okay all right All right. Thank you very much.

Yes. Okay. On that note, Luke, we should probably spin it forward and remind everybody that this episode of Morning Combat is brought to you and presented by DraftKings. And with DraftKings, of course, the crown is yours. Luke, speaking of DraftKings, did you have around and catch any NBA playoff action this weekend, including that big Knicks comeback or no, nothing. No, no, no. I did see the Knicks come back.

Yes. That one I actually did see. I was pretty amazed. I still don't know if they're going to win the series. I don't know. No, come on. But I did see that the Knicks certainly back at the garden there, you know, they're formidable. No, no, they want it on the road. I thought, right? No, I thought they, no, they went on the road. They went. Oh my god. I'm out of my mind. And yes, I apologize. Never the last for tonight. Also on the road. Okay. Oh, you're right. Yes, of course. They

had the yellow shirts every time that Pacers play at home. I always see it's like you and me BC. I see dorky white guys high-fiving each other. Yes, I always see that in the audience whenever they play in the A. Yes, of course. You're so right. A lot of white people in Indiana. But yeah, there we go with that one All right. Oh Caitlin Clark out for a few weeks look I don't know if you've been following the WNBA much cannot say I paid attention much Although I my daughter wants to go to a balance sesto game. I got a taker. What is that? Is that soccer?

That's basketball in Spanish. Oh Okay, so would you take it or a mystics game? Yeah, I want to do a mystic Yeah, in part because the mystics tickets are affordable Jesus Christ, man, you know, so yeah, I'll probably do that Well, Jesus loves women too Luke. Okay, I'm like our fan base according to you. All right. Well, here we go guys Let's get into the damn show and topic number one I know it's a little bit more than a week away, but there's a bunch of tidbits floating around in the news affecting UFC 316, which we are waiting for June 7th, Newark, New Jersey, and the return to the world's premier mixed martial arts organization, putting two title fights on the line for us. And this segment, by the way, talking about all things UFC 316, brought to you by Total Wireless,

the official wireless provider of UFC. Get unlimited data that won't slow you down. So Luke, first and foremost, I have an alert for everybody breaking news. Marab DeVos really is crazy, but we already knew this. The Bantamweight champion who hangs from mountaintops and does a lot of other reckless stuff, getting Dana White mad at him. Luke, let's go to the video and then we'll get your reaction of hashtag toe gate. Why you break my toe? I'm gonna cut it off.

This guy broke. This guy was ruthless. Now Luke, when I saw this I panicked. Are we gonna lose a main event? I mean what's gonna happen here? Then I remembered that this guy's back was like in traction. He couldn't walk days before the Umar fight and he fought anyway and he may fall off of Mount Everest tomorrow but I think he's gonna show up to the fight Luke is is Marab the champion

Unbreakable should we be worried about this or is this just another funny story on the journey of this guy becoming one of the greatest? Possibly bad and white champions we've ever seen I Don't think this is a significant story. I really don't. It could be if he doesn't manage it. If the problem ends up being that this leads to a series of other medical problems between now and fight time BC, then that would be an issue.

But it's not the big toe, which is the one that'd be most important for things like balance or springing or any number of different athletic functions. It's the pinky toe and they're all relevant, but if we're just grading the relevance of your, which metatarsal is the most important one, the one inside the pinky is going to be probably the least important one in that regard. You can tape it together. I don't know to what extent he's allowed to have painkillers fight time. But you know, there's a there's a there's a number of almost even over the counter remedies to a situation like this, especially for a guy in Marab who's like a known risk taker who I'm guessing, even if he's turned in excellent performances did not necessarily feel the best version of himself. I think what's really happening is

there's just not a lot of news going on. We do know that Marab has a penchant for, you know, maybe not acting in the most medically advisable way close to a fight himself, but I just don't feel like this is anything we have to be right now enormously concerned about. Well, Dana White did sort of like, uh, quote, tweet this on an IG story and say this, you know, this guy never learned, shake my head, whatever he did.

No, I think, are you sure? I think that might be MMA, uh, sentel. Do you know MMA sentel? Are you don't know this? No, no, no. I don't. All right. I get hacked by a fake Elani again or weapon.

Maybe. So there's a, this, this is no, no. I got hacked by a fake Elani again or weapon. Maybe. So there's a, this, this is where it started and I'm not joking. There's an NBA account called NBA central. It's a full news feed the whole nine yards. There's a, there's a clone of it that looks exactly like it called NBA sent tell that's a purpose troll account. But like it's stuff goes viral all the time. Like literally they've talked about things like MMA sentel has tweeted on

first take. They didn't know any better. There's a new MMA account called MMA sentel, which is supposed to be like a version of that. And I think that's where it comes from. I don't, I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent, but I'm fairly sure. I thought it was a Dana White IG, but Dana White did have the same comments. Wasn't it just a month ago that Morab posted himself a picture of himself sparring and he had like a dripping cut under his eye.

I mean, look, the guy is reckless, but he's he also kind of feels indestructible. I mean, what he went through to get into that Umar fight says a lot about him. And I don't want to compare toughness, Luke, because I'm a keyboard warrior literally in my basement at the moment. But Conor McGregor pulled out with a toe injury and we never saw him again. Yeah. Well, Connor is not Marab. Connor is barely Connor's not even active.

Like, what are we talking about here? Marab is a weight class champion in arguably the toughest weight class that the UFC has it's arguable. It would be in the running. If there was a top three, it's arguable, it would be in the running. If there was a top three, certainly it would be in it. He's the champion, he's the reigning champion. He's now defended his title. Connor is, I don't know, a former fighter

who has faced legal problems recently and is trying to make a political turn. Like, they're just living different lives. So yeah. I forget about in between, he's just, they're just living different lives. So yeah. We forget about in between. He's setting a Cal Ripken like record for consecutive days. Yeah. Yeah.

Three, three. He's MMA's Wade Boggs. I mean, you know, I get it. I'm just saying like also Merab is unusually tough. You know, I mean, these are, you know, yeah, you get the idea. I mean, they're just. All right.

Would you advise this next video? Merab posted of him sprinting down a mountain at full speed. Let's go. New Jersey. I'm coming June 7th and still sugar. You better show up and let's show people good fight good scrap no excuse for you no excuse for me and People I promise you're gonna have a great time good fight

And I'm coming I'm healthy I, I'm ready, I'm hungry. Life is good. Look at this beautiful nature. Look at this. This is good life. I love this. Let's go. Let's go, guys.

Dude, we don't have the schedule depth at the moment in the UFC for pay-per-views for him to be acting like this, just so you know, but he seems okay. I'd like you to know he's coming. And I'm wondering, Luke, when this fight got announced, people weren't overly wanting it. Let's be honest with that. But do you feel that UFC subsequent announcements of other fights that people don't want, including bulk versus, uh, versus Yair, which I guess isn't fully announced along with other rematches that have felt gratuitous.

Do you feel like people are going to be fired up when this fight does hit a little bit more than a week from now, uh, pairing two of the best bantam weights in the world. Oh, Mally versus. Marab for a second time is good enough of a fight that forgetting the context of how the fight was made and what by that I mean, was this necessarily the guy to pick for Marab in terms of the available contenders? No, they made a choice. We've been over it. They made a choice to go with O'Malley. It was not, it was not the consensus number one by any stretch of the imagination. Um,

so under those circumstances, yes, there's going to be a lot of consternation. Also, it should be noted that O'Malley not doing a lot to promote this. Now we know he's been living sort of a, relatively speaking, a monastic lifestyle more recently, probably in preparation for this bout. So like those two facts. No fapping. No fapping. Yeah. I mean, I want to be clear. That's not rules that I'm operating under. I mean, that would be, that'd be a death BC. That'd be a death sentence. Especially not in a hotel room on the road. I'll tell you that.

A hotel room, a meeting, a bus. Okay. All right, Aaron. Thank you. Harris, Harris, teeter,ader Joe's, you know, you name it. So the point I'm trying to make is under those considerations BC and then Murab, you know, he is trying his best to deliver entertainment, but you know, he needs a, the real way to do it would be to have a rivalry, which he simply does not have not not in this particular moment. However, what I would say is, you know, that's a big enough fight between big enough names with big enough consequences and big enough

talent between them that you have to take it seriously no matter what if you're a fight fan. I know if you're an MMA fight fan anyway, I mean, it's it's it's still it's like highly relevant MMA but like, you know, it's quiet now and I don't think that this weekend's fight is necessarily gonna do a lot to set up the following weekends and I don't know, I don't want to get into some bitch fest about it. But yeah, I don't I don't I don't. This is not the ingredients we're looking at. You may actually end up getting an amazing fight. We should be actually very clear about that. But I don't think that the promotion is heating up in some kind of detectable way that will make it feel like bigger than life and you referencing this weekend's card and then using the term bitch fest was not misogyny right it was it was not related sorry I did not in any way mean in that particular regard I just check in

so like look excuses are what they are but I think we do understand from that first fight which took place last year at the sphere in September in which O'Malley certainly wasn't lifeless but he was controlled by what Marab does with the high pace, the takedowns, getting the unanimous decision win. We know that wasn't 100% O'Malley. It was a guy who had been putting off surgery, lost the fight, it allowed him the chance to recover. But now we've got his coach, Tim Welch, talking to ESPN this last week with this quote in

referencing the sphere. Well, let's go to this one first. First, he's not making excuses, Luke. talking to ESPN this last week with this quote in referencing the sphere or not. Well, let's go to this one first. First, he's not making excuses, Luke. He wants you to know that Marab is great. In fact, he says, I don't really know how you debate that Marab's not the best of all time. Just look at his record. Has there ever been a Bantamweight who's beaten that many champions in a row?

It's pretty easy to say that Marab is the best Bantamweight ever right now. And showing that successive wins over Umar O'Malley. You got Josie Aldo on there. You got a few others. My eyes are bad. I was looking close to the screen. First, Luke, let's start off there.

That seems a little aggressive, isn't it? Is he just trying to like puff up the champ there or what? Well, if you're looking at title defenses, he's got just the one against Umar Al Jameid had three, TJ had to Dominic had to Henning Burrow even had to depending on how you want to look at some of that, you know, so like he's not at enough of a resume where from a championship rain, it's just, we're not there yet. Like it's simply just not there yet.

Six fights in a row defeating Marlon Marais, Jose Aldo, Peyotr Yan, Henry Cejudo, O'Malley and Umar. That's pretty incredible. It's extremely impressive. It's extremely impressive. And in fact, for something that if you were to ask like, you know, name a run that you can like a like a five or six fight series between, you know, non title and title, like a contender moving into a title under those parameters, where would Merab's run rank?

And I suspected rank quite highly historically. It's very, very important. But we're just talking about best. We have to put some level of respect on championship tenure. Again, it's not the one of these ultimate questions of like, oh, well, Al Jamey's got three. So does that mean he's number one? Not necessarily because of the Dillashaw fight. So it's not the best band and whatever. Right. Fair enough. I'm just saying it's not strict numeracy in that regard. And I'm not saying it's strict numeracy in that regard either. But what I will say is not that a first of all, if he gets two defenses that outputs him in pretty

elite company within the history of the Bantamweight division, and more to that point, it's just not really clear. I mean, Corey Sanhagan is looming out there. So that's another one. But I've said it before, when you're a champion, and you're starting to get rematches, and if you start putting those rematches away, you know, relatively similar to how you did the first fight. Now you're beginning to talk about a level of, uh, tenure and championship excellence that is historically rare. Um, that's what you're looking for here. So I do think we're at the precipice of that, but let's see how it goes at 316. Marab would add, and I'll get to the comment I was setting up in a second, but let me just add this about Marab's greatness.

Luke, he would add in the buildup to this fight that he's eyeing two more title defenses. Obviously, he's got to win this fight against O'Malley next week in New Jersey, but he wants to fight two more times in 2025. And if he did, and if he went victorious going 4-0 on the year, he would become the first fighter in UFC history to defend a title four times in a calendar year. Not even Rousey who seemingly fought every three months had been able to do that. Would that elevate him to a, or should that elevate him to a higher level? Should he get there?

Although that's very ambitious. Yeah. I mean, I don't think the UFC will call upon him in that regard. So I don't know how accessible a goal like this is. But to the point you raise, let's say he did it. Yeah, that would change a lot. staying relevant winning big fights. And this is I mean, what how more relevant does MMA get than the UFC championship? That's that's I mean, yes, there's

levels to that too. But that's basically the highest tier. You do that four times in a calendar year and do you're cooking with gas. I mean, that's poets on highest tier. You do that four times in a calendar year and dude, you're cooking with gas. I mean- Yeah, that's Poetton type shit almost. It's hard to know. Yeah. And again, to the point you raise about Poetton, the reason he was called upon so much

is he had to fill in late. He had to fill in late at UFC 300 basically. So there's a heroic element to saving a card to a degree. Now again, he'd have to have the right dance partner. Marab's not poets on, but doing these events of solid by showing up and I'll take over the main event roles. You know that that sits well with fans and for very good reason. Now look, we're going to get into this at length. This fight next week as we break it down, not only in the storylines of Monday's episode, but don't forget, next Wednesday, June 4th,

in New York City, 11 a.m. Eastern, a special Wednesday pregame preview of UFC 316 as LTBC and the great A. Braun, Aaron Braunstetter, joins us in person. But as we're looking a week and a half out, the idea of the rematch being more competitive and more exciting than the first fight. I already established that O'Malley wasn't at 100 percent,

although few guys are apparently including Marab here. But what do you make of these comments from Tim Welch in that same ESPN interview when he talks specifically about the sphere and says, quote, there were tons and tons of shots that barely missed by inches for O'Malley that would have completely changed the fight. And I think a lot of it had to do with the sphere and the lighting, end quote. Now, look, I do lump this in

with the very poor performances in boxing at that Times Square, Turquoise Sheet card a few weeks back where everyone that was there, I talked to one of the judges that were inside there. They said it was, the lights were flashing so much. The heat was high. Like it was a non-traditional boxing experience. And I connect that with David Benavides of boxing

just this week in an interview on the Cejudo and Usman podcast said publicly, Turkey asked me to fight in Alcatraz, but I'm like, no, man, I'm not into that. I want to fight in real arenas, real fights, real fans. Is there any stock you can put in those comments from Welch because this fear was such a abnormal fighting situation? I actually think that there is merit to this.

Yeah. I mean, anybody cynical enough is going to look at this and say that you've got. A standard MMA, maybe even combat sports scenario, a friend slash training partner, this one's a little more coach, but they're their peers essentially in age, taking someone's side after a poor performance, and then finding any manner of excuse. So the costume was too heavy for Deontay Wilder or my drink was, you know, laced with something or, you know, we were huffing paint in the back. Although that was pretty real too. Remember that when they were doing that in Saudi Arabia? Yeah.

They were huffing paint in the back. I got herpes, so I got to pull out of the co-main event. You know, we should have that last week. I got sexually transmitted disease. All that one could be just delivered in utero. But either way, this, it seems like a similar kind of refrain, a similar kind of scenario. And of course I can never dismiss that. But I'm actually a little bit curious about this. BC, you're a baller, a hooper.

Here's something that I guess I didn't realize until, I don't know, maybe relatively recently. I mean, I did intuitively, but I had it actually spelled out to me by somebody who covers the NBA. If you look at those glass backboards when you're shooting, right, basketball, if you ever played in a gym at your high school or maybe a church, depending what part of the country you grew up in, I played in a church league growing up BC. And when they bring- I didn't think you ever set foot in a church, but that's great to hear, Luke. All right. Well, I set foot in a church gym. I did do that. Okay.

All right. Here we go. When those glasses, when the glass backboard is there, how many feet is it from the wall behind it? Maybe 10 feet, maybe 15 feet. It's very, very close. Yeah, right. It's very, very close. What it turns out is in the NBA, that's not really a thing. Because when the glass comes down, there's space behind the thing and people are waving all kinds of stuff to distract. It turns out it's less about the distraction and more about the depth

perception that it's easier to shoot when those two things are closer, when they're further apart, like in a NBA sized arena, it's very, very difficult. You know, that open spacing in the back and then the lighting that can come from this, if you're already nervous if you're already Not used to this. I actually could see how it could potentially be You know not the reason why you lost but definitely some of the reasons why overall you might have underperformed At least in certain individual context. It's a question about he's making it about light

but I'm saying there's also that weird spacing behind it and any kind of, any kind of change in the common sensory experiences. I don't know. Yeah, actually that to me seems like it's could be something. I don't know. I mean, I talked to one of those judges, like I said, at the time square boxing match where they said the flashing lights from all the big screens around really was distracting and kind of was like, you're not used to so can I just gets pulled in a certain direction you don't even you're not even used to yeah I think it could mess you up yes I think we're gonna get a better fight regardless of that but how about a

little Luke we don't usually do wholesome moments on the show because combat sports rarely produces them but here's Murab and his pops getting after it. Your thoughts here. Oh, my God. No. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to see that right there. Luke, as it, oh, we got one, sorry, we have one more quote here from Marab, if we can go to it, about just the history he's trying to make. Let's listen.

Like I said, I don't look at this one like easy fight. It's going to be challenge. But after that, I want to be busy. I'm just gonna take only one month off and I will be back to training camp and I want to be busy. I heard they will have a fight in Guadalajara, Mexico. I would like to fight there and I would like to fight in New York or December, Vegas. Let's see, let's see if we get this one and two more this year. Let's see if we get, you know. Two more.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm willing. Yeah, that's how excited I am. And yeah, I want to be just busy, you know, because I'm in good shape and I want to, because when you have a fight, you know, you know, you put so many and you were one of the busiest fighter in UFC and when you have a fight schedule, you more discipline, you smart, you're not hanging out, you know. Well Luke, while the UFC continues to hold off on the fights we want for their next TV deal, he might get that opportunity in this great division. Could you see him against Sam Hagan next? Yes. Could you see him against Jan in a rematch after that? Potentially just as an example. Yes. So he's got to get through Sugar first next weekend.

Luke, that Coalmane event, Kayla Harrison against Julianna Pena for the Women's Bantamweight Championship. The odds are telling you that it's all a setup here and that this is going to be a big time victory from Harrison and I do feel a lot of us believe that are you worried at all as we consistently bring up this topic of the weight Kayla Harrison would say in the past week on Instagram that she needs to walk six miles a day and do two full workouts to be able to keep pace for this weight cut down to 135. We

remind everyone that she won PFL championships at 155 and judoka, judoka, judoka, apostrophe, ed at 171 pounds in winning two Olympic gold medals. I'm really worried about this, Luke. She did admit to urinating blood in the lead up to her last fight to set up this opportunity. I just saw your cat's butthole Yeah, that's Zoe. She's not looking to hide it, right? That's the one good thing Reggie brings to the table. Zoe's like I don't care about your listeners your followers Your cat is an unbelievable whore. Well, you know if only fans were around for cats, you know There'd be a possibility for her. Okay, like

this this is um, this is, um, this is a debate that comes up in anti-doping, which is, what is the role of sport and health? And it sort of sounds like a weird question. It's like, Oh, you're playing games. You're, or you're, you're engaged in, you know, cardiovascular or strength, or some kind of way to improve the body's ability to athletically function that must necessarily be related to health. And actually what you begin to realize is professional sport has nothing to do with health. Professional sport has everything to do with the capacity to play. And that might mean

playing through injury, that might mean playing in ways that are bad for your brain health, that might mean any number of actually trade-offs to both your present and long-term health if it aids your ability to play through the playoffs, big games, you know, you name it. This is a clear indication that sport has absolutely nothing to pro-sport, and in particular pro-MMA, which you knew from the brain trauma and the injuries more generally. But here's a case where non-contact, right, we're not talking about sparring training, we're not talking, non-contact training is absolutely a prison sentence that she is locked into. Dude, make no mistake about it, she's doing long-term damage to herself,

and I don't say this like gleefully or think it's good. And I bet she knows it too. Like I've interviewed Caleb many times. She's a very smart, successful person. I'm sure she's making a calculated trade off here BC about what's accessible and how much of that she's willing to expend to get it. And I'm guessing it's going to be a very narrow window because what she's doing is probably real bad for her. And on top of it, just not even a thing even if you wanted to that you could do for much longer than she's doing. I don't expect her to have a long a long run in UFC unless they bring back 45 in some kind of way. Are you

looking at this co main event next week which a lot of people are deriding? I get it. A lot of people are deriding women's MMA in general. Do you look at it as the winner gets Amanda Nunes and that's the best thing we can say about it. Or the fight itself could be good. Um you know but yes if if it leads to the return of Amanda Nunes, I think that it's it's just hard to see that that anything else currently happening in the women's game and UFC is bigger than that.

Uh again, Shevchenko versus John Wiley is a separate exception, perhaps, and the only one, but everything else. Amanda Nunes is the big figure. Yeah, yeah. We'll check out what goes on next week in Newark. Hopefully these fights will be held together. Luke, topic number two, we will look ahead to recently rumored or announced fights and get a letter of grade from you between A plus and F minus. Now, Luke, the first one came to us by way of ask a question. Yeah, please. How do you have an F minus? Um, I would say that means failing. I mean, at that point, it doesn't.

Well, I mean, I'm trying to give you extra Nuance because there's f fights, but then there's f minus fights look, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I one time wrote a paper one time overnight and I remember the teacher. This is in college you know, I didn't care about this class at all and It was Patrick a pass fail and they wrote on one of my papers F Then they crossed it out then they wrote D minus then they crossed it out and then they left me with a C minus And I was like I'll take it. And then they were like, seek oxygen and women, please. Let's go. Let's go. Luke, the first one comes to us from an unusual source, UFC play-by-play announcer, John Anik,

who during an episode of the Anik Florian pod with Ray Longo as a guest in his typical weekly spot, we got breaking news about a former welterweight champions next fight. Ray. How do you feel about poor public health? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I mean, we've got a iconic Florian pod with Ray Longo as a guest in his typical weekly spot. We got breaking news about a former welterweight champions next fight.

Ray. How do you feel about poor Balau? How do I, well, I'm glad that he has an undisputed UFC welterweight championship belt at home and I'm glad that he's married to the game and we'll see what Shavkat Rachmanov has for him in October. Okay, Balau versus Shavkat in October. There's your breaking news.

All right, would you rather? Now, Luke, I did not see UFC follow it up with the news. I got it. Bilal versus Shavkat in October. There's your breaking news. Alright, would you rather? Now, Luke, I did not see UFC follow it up with the news. I mean, they're not talking. UFC's not talking about anything right now, alright? They ain't talking about Canelo Crawford, Jones Aspinal. They ain't talking but we do know that Anik is

friends with Bilal. We know that Anik's twin brother, Jason, hosts a podcast with him. If this is the fight in which we're doing a lot of time, rightfully matchmaking the welterweight division, Bilal coming off a close title loss and a healthy Shavkat who will get skipped in terms of being next for the title due to the injuries he's had and also Islamahatj jumping in. Are you down with Bilal versus Shavkat next in October? Sure. Sure. Balal versus Shavkat next in October. Sure, sure.

The division moves fast. The fight over with Ian Gary was not the kind of drubbing that it maybe could have or should have been, or you know, you name it. Like he kind of squeaked by with Gary on his back in the end, squeaked by is a little strong, but maybe kind of squeaked by Gary a little bit in that fight and then was off for a long time.

That's not enough of a mandate to hold your spot. It's just not. You got to get it back out there and do it. And Balal is a tough-ass fight for anybody. Jack beat him, but it wasn't like a walk in the park for him by any stretch of the imagination. Again, two of the judges had it 2-2. Heading into the fifth, yeah, Rachmanov should get out there and fight him again. If Rachmanov is that guy, that's a winnable fight. So one way or the other, I have no problem with it. If they, if he wants to hold on, I think that'd be a mistake. I wouldn't bitch about that either BC, but you're asking, do I think it's a good move if they end up making that fight, particularly for that card at that time of the year? Yes.

Yes, I do. I absolutely. Now am I getting played here by another fake account or John Anick playing with the audience? If this is real, I want to get your letter grade, but do you believe this is real? Let's just treat it like it's real. How about that? We don't know if it's real. I'd let a grade a minus. I'm into that. I'm into that. All right. Let's get into our second fight announcement here. It's a report that came from a South American MMA journalist whose name I don't have in front of me, Luke. My bad on that one. But according to this report, another former welterweight champion, Leon Edwards, could be back for UFC Noche September, presumably in Guadalajara, but you know, UFC doesn't talk against Michael Morales. If we

get Rocky Edwards, Michael Morales next, what's your grade? Fucking A. I don't know if that again, that fight could be MMA Centel special BC. We don't really know if it's real. I absolutely freaking love it again. Young versus old. Although Leon's a very young old, if that makes sense. But he's not over the hill, like 36, 37 or something like

that. So he's still I know he's in a tough spot coming off two straight losses. One of the was a terrible finish. But Morales is a very different game than both Ballol as well as Sean Brady. He's a different beast altogether and I don't know if he's ready for it. I think it's a little bit too much too soon. But again, this is the thing with excelling or I should say accelerating through the contendership queue at the speed he's doing it.

It's an interesting test for both guys. I would love that fight. That's a great fight. And by the way, Morales, as you mentioned, trains in Mexico for long portions of the year. So that would be not a homecoming exactly, but they would certainly be favorable towards him. Well, we might be putting out fake vice Luke, but that's that's the new cycle this week. Another fight that does not appear to be fake. It feels appears to be fully announced and you referenced it on Monday on last Friday show August 2nd UFC Apex main event.

Amir Al-Bazia Flyweight versus Tatsura Tyro. Are you in? What's your grade? Are you in? What's your grade? Yeah, B plus really great fight. Really fun both guys being very hyped kind of next. You know, maybe these are the future of the division kind of figures at flyweight, but then had some real setbacks and that's okay, particularly in the case of Tyra who's quite young, although a Bosnian I think is pretty young too, but I think Tyra's a younger of the two definitely has time to get a lot better. So they're still really exciting. So now you're getting top prospects, I think still top prospects, locking horns

with one another. Yeah, I'm all in favor of that. I know we don't want to cannibalize the division, but you don't want to skip interesting prospect fights if you don't have to. And that seems like a fun one to make. Yeah, we're going to get some fun turnover in this division between that, Cop versus Roy Voll, obviously we've got the champion coming up against KKF, so we could see some key changes at the top. So that's the August 2nd Fight Night Apex Main Event. One week later, August 9th, also in the Apex, we officially have a middleweight main event. Fluffy Hernandez back against Roman DeLize. Do you like this for a apex Slopfest? I actually like it a lot. That's another great

fight. I mean these are good fights. Now this one I'm going to give a B because it doesn't have a lot of you know celebrity sizzle. It doesn't have a title. There's some questions about exactly how far the winner goes here. But for Fluffy Hernandez, this would be his most important fight to date. He has looked vulnerable in key ways, particularly to the body, although we've also seen him perform when he was sick and you know injured and all kinds of other messed up stuff and his resiliency is remarkable. But of course, what does he really have? He's got an he's got an unbelievable gas tank and pressure over the long term.

So that is gonna be a really tough fight for Roman. Maybe not upfront, but again, like any fight with Hernandez, down the stretch, it's gonna be a real grind. Love that fight. Look forward to that one, a fun one at middleweight. Yeah, and the 36-year-old DeLize has won three straight, Anthony Smith, Kevin Holland, and then Marvin Vittori. So he's on a little bit of a run. Luke, you think it should be automatic that if you're a big Cheyenne fan,

you're automatically a deletion fan. Connect people's fandoms. Luke, if you will, apparently you won't. And finally, trying to connect people's fandoms. Yes, I am. Luke, July 19th, we already know PFL Africa will make its debut. We already know it's gonna air live at 4 AM Eastern time and we already know it's up against that day. You know, nothing like Pacquiao coming back or Usyk Dubois too or Bam Rodriguez or I don't know. I mean, there's a lot going on that day. But in addition to those main two card fight or main fights atop the card,

which is world middle eight champion Johnny Eblen and also Dakota Ditchevo on the co-main event, somebody to get my dad up in the bullpen, we have two more fights to round out that main card. We can throw to the full graphic here. Corey Anderson is gonna move up to heavyweight and take on 2024 heavyweight tournament champion Dennis Goitsov. And then we've got AJ McKee cutting back down

to featherweight to take on 11-1 Ahmed Magomedov. Luke, all things considered here for PFL, what do you think about the strength of this card overall with these two fights on it? I think it's Goitsov. That's an L there, not an I. There's no way I can continue to mess that's an elder, not an eye. There's there's no way I can continue to mess that name up more than I already do. Apologies. I mean, it's like it's like me. Well, I got like Macy Chastain.

How do you say it again? Yeah, it's like for some reason my brain just won't let me do it. I listen, put the card up one more time. Put the card up one more time. Okay, look here. This fight should be a relative... PFL has a way of surprising you, but your main event should be a nice clean win for Eblen. I think Ditcheva is going to do evil things to Inaba.

Inaba, a long-time Bellator veteran, well-rounded, but at a lower level, basically everywhere than Ditcheva. AJ McKee versus Ahmed Magomedov. I think this should be maybe showcase for McKee. No, McKee should be a slight favorite, but it could be fun and competitive. Corey Anderson going against Goldsov is huge. So I'm 6'4", about 275.

I walked past Goldsov and he towered over me both in like, like shoulder width and height. He's a huge man for Anderson. You thank you for the card for Anderson to jump up to heavy weight just to stay active against a guy like that. That's a huge challenge. It's actually kind of an, that's a, that card has a little bit of strike force challengers vibe to it I don't mind it. I don't mind it But what do you think about AJ McKee cutting back to featherweight after a couple fight run there at lightweight?

Might not be the worst idea. He's not a big lightweight He's a good size lightweight, but he's a big featherweight if he can do it I actually don't think it's a bad call at all. You know what? I want to see these people get their careers going. Like whatever Corey Anderson is left in the tank, I'm glad he finally has another fight because he's been campaigning for it. I don't want PFL to fold because I want there to be options for people. But it's like guys like AJ McKee, before he's suddenly going to be 33 one day,

it's like I kind of want to see him now in the UFC, Luke. So should I be cheering? What should I be cheering for? P F L to just trade all their good people left that they have no clue how to promote so they can go to the UFC. Like Pico just did like, uh, what's his name? Just did a patchy mix just did. And he'll be debuting, uh, next week in Newark.

What should I be cheering for here? Luke? I don't understand the question. If I want all these people to carry on their careers and meaningful fights, Ditchevo included, then should, is it like reverse karma to cheer against PFL staying alive when we all want other avenues for fighters, but this doesn't seem to be an avenue that's producing

what the fighters actually want. The die is already cast. I mean, I've been trying to say this for a actually want. The die is already cast. I mean, I've been trying to say this for a long time. The die is already cast. It's already too late. I, you know, I'm not sure what to say. People don't want to connect the dots.

They want to pretend that everything that's happened can be utterly surmised by the wisdom of the executive's decisions and there's I say it every time there's a million things to pick at about what Don Davis and crew have done although they made some good decisions too but like I'll say it one more time De La Hoya makes money do you think he makes money significant amounts as a promoter in boxing because he's a genius at it? Oh my god Like what are we talking about here? This is silly. This is a ridiculous conversation People don't want to accept the reality of it and I guess it's a you know, we're beating a dead horse with this

I don't need to go on about it, but The die is already cast. There's nothing to do. So only thing I'm rooting for is that they can remain active as much as possible and that we can get that serviced as best we can before the inevitable takes over. I'm sorry to be so gloomy, but that is just where we are. I mean, getting serviced is what I'm after, Luke, to be fair, right?

That's topic number two. Do you pull into Jiffy, Luke, and you're like, which one of you guys is gonna blow me? Which, how does this work? Sir, I asked for a service. You get in the back with the oil change. You, uh, Luke topic number three, as we continue to try to fill out a dead week with filler material, just brightened by our own personalities and charisma and enthusiasm. I came across a random tweet that normally I'd skip because it comes from the mouth of famed Twitter boxing matchmaker Rick Glazer.

But if we could throw to the legendary New York state matchmakers tweet here, it got me thinking. Rick Glazer said, many talk about who the face of boxing is. Canelo, Tank, AJ, Inouye are most mentioned. The reality is the face of boxing, according to Glazer, is Turkey Alashik, as Turkey has now established himself in the business and to the public as the ultimate boxing power in the world. Now you know! Luke, you know, one out of every 10 scoops from Glacier sometimes turns out to be true, Luke, and isn't spite-originated.

But in this case, his tweet got me thinking, not just about who are the faces, you know, respectively in both boxing and MMA, but who are the power figures at the moment in all of combat sports. So, Luke, in light of that, I tasked both of us with ranking in order a top five list of who we think are literally the most powerful players in this game with the most pull leverage and influence when it comes to making big events and big fights and making headlines in that regard too.

So Luke, do you want to, how do you want to reveal this? I would actually this time, I think it'd be better if you went first. All right. All right. Are we good? Let's start off with number five here. I think this is potentially my most controversial. Hold on. So just to clarify, we're going to give you top five of who we think are the most powerful and then separately, we're going to give you top five of who we think are the most powerful and then separately What we think the average fan views as the face of MMA and the face of boxing So one is like what the fans think one is not just to be clear My top five power players in combat sports at the moment. I am interested in your response to this Number five. I have Jake Paul at the moment as As controversial as he can be, obviously, when he fights,

people tune in to varying degrees, but still he's built a pay-per-view business out of fighting retired MMA names and a mixture of people from different backgrounds. He also put forth a fight against Mike Tyson that had numbers we haven't seen in many years. You add that to the idea that he is a successful promoter who's looking to corner the market in women's boxing and will be back on

Netflix in just a few weeks at Madison Square Garden with arguably the biggest fight in women's boxing history. I bring this name up largely because Netflix is the new what we were 10, 15 years ago of if we can only get boxing on regular TV, if we can only get it on CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, that's Netflix nowadays. Jake Paul seems to have the inside track above anybody on getting that. Do you agree this guy's top five most influential slash powerful people in this combat sports game today? I think it's an interesting debate. To me, where would you say, so here's the issue. I didn't have him as number five on my list. Not that I think your list is crazy to start out with that at five, but we have to be, we have to define the terms of his power. So is he that significant a presence as a promoter? Well, he certainly is in the women's game, but not in the men's game. He's really not very much at all. Now he is a

significant presence BC, as you indicated with the huge amount of people watching the Tyson final Netflix and you know, we'll see what happens with JCC Junior and and whatnot. And again, some of the big stuff he's doing women's MMA is quite big, the return to Netflix for Serrano and Taylor. But I could see, for me, he didn't make that list because while I recognize he is a significant presence, the question is to what kind of amount does he lord his power over the industry to shape it not just for his own ends but to shape boxing more broadly and to that regard I say he's not that powerful. So I'd push back against that there's a very few amount of people who can be I guess all

things at once and he kind of is that meaning he's a fighter that can draw his own big time ratings and attention. He's a promoter. He's also an influencer who connects to a younger audience, which is everyone's goal in combat sports. But, you know, people have very mixed results on that. Is he is he specifically strong enough in any of those areas singularly to be on this list? No. But I think if you make the totality of it combined and really keep in mind that Netflix thing. I mean, Luke, didn't it seem like Turkey and Dana were going to get on Netflix with Canela Crawford? And that's, I mean, it's everybody's

want. There are people that believe Turkey and Dana only announced their partnership on March 5th to try to hold Jake off from getting a potential residency on Netflix. Although that never looked likely because Netflix wants seems to be to only do big time combat events. But I think, you're talking influence, you're talking leverage, you're talking he was that close from fighting the biggest star in the sport,

Canelo on Netflix, even though Jake's not, quote unquote, a real fighter, which I do agree with. He's not, quote unquote, a real fighter in that sense. But even in the sense that he is, he's the face of the crossover bubble. And he's like trying to make fights with Anthony Joshua, Jervontae Davis. I'm not here to argue the quality of those fights. I'm just saying that's power when you can get people to be willing to do that. And you have the connections to to create the platforms

and you can handle everything in house yourself, ultimately, because you're also a promoter. It's pretty remarkable. It is power, but it's self-centered power, which I again, I'm not. Yeah, of course. Like that's what you want to do. But to me, it's not quite the same as floor. And it's not even close to being the same as what Floyd and Showtime coming together that had a big net industry

impact. I've not seen that exactly. I've seen it where he was able to raise to see again, we all saw the numbers for the Netflix fight. It was fucking enormous. Like to that end, he does wield power, but it all seems directed like vacuum it up, not about extending it out. And I don't know, it's just a different way to see power, but I certainly recognize the point here. I don't think it's crazy to have them on that list. You see, in fact, I'm not in any way being like, Oh, this is laughable. No, no, no.

It's an interesting debate. All right, let me go to number four. Okay. He's an OG in this game and you certainly can make the argument giving his age reported health scares in the last year and also losing the big platform at the end of 2023 in showtime. But I don't think you can ever count out Al Heyman in this game or even try to diminish the influence he still has. Remember when it came time to get Timo Bull Arena for Cincoco de Mayo who got it over you know UFC and Dana White

and all that for Noche was it was Al Hayman who can still put together the biggest pay-per-views in this game that are that are done the quote-unquote you know traditional way that can drive the live gates behind Gervonta and obviously Floyd Mayweather and a litany of all-stars before him but I think you also have to look at not just the history the last 15 years of what have been the biggest pay-per-views in combat sports history and who has been the promoter of record,

even though technically he's a advisor slash manager, but you understand the point. He's the boss behind the scenes. That's Al. And today even still with a big platform on Prime, even though they're certainly struggling to get back up to where they were would probably be the best way to say it. I still think Luke, when you, when you look at connections,

the ability to put on the biggest fights that that move the attention and the, and the metrics that we, that we value from live gate to pay per view buys. Heyman still that dude still the OG got to recognize that. I challenge this one. I think that there is a time BC, I think we would both agree and not too distantly from now where he was without question the most powerful guy in boxing and that would that would that stood for a long time. So this is not a question of like, you know, is this guy was this guy ever relevant? He was, he was the relevance for a huge amount of time.

And to the point you raise still doing and contributing in important ways as well, despite, you know, rumors or reports of declining health and any number of other factors, as you previously articulated, but I don't think if we're looking at who's really driving the industry you could put him in your top five I mean it's hard for me to see how he's got more influence than Jake Paul and I don't even know if Jake Paul deserves to be on the list. He still has Tank, he still has David Benavides among others still.

Yeah but how much has he lost in the last two years? I mean a significant amount. It's a fair argument. I mean look the entire business has changed in the last two years? I mean, a significant amount. It's a fair argument. I mean, look, the entire business has changed in the last year and a half and so for sure, insane incredible ways. But I got him there at number four. Interesting to debate here. Let's go to number three, Luke. This guy's certainly the fastest riser. But I believe that the rumors are true or that the great reporting done by places like the MMA

draw are true, that Dana White, who long would have probably been number one on this list for many a year or no worse than two or three, that a lot of his responsibilities these days are going to the man I have at number three, and that's Hunter Campbell. That's the deal maker for the UFC, the chief business officer who, from negotiating fights to seemingly having a big hand in matchmaking to all things business, I think it's hard to diminish the power that this gentleman has today. Are we wrong to say that although we don't, you know, we're not behind the scenes every day, it really feels like this is the guy at UFC these days in a role that was once either Dana or

Dana with Lorenzo right behind his ear calling those shots. Yeah there's no question fully agree with this one Hunter Campbell's the guy he is the guy making the deals he's the guy traveling to make the deals Dana White still serves a important and I think reasonably valuable function to the organization but the nuts and like the backbone who's the exec who's the backbone of the executive at UFC. It has to be a hunter Campbell at this point. It's him no question about it and he's got a hand in

everything. I mean this would fix some of the communication issues in theory that we have with UFC, but I know that like when Dana's not the press conferences. They put out David Shaw head of international and maybe it makes sense when they're in international cities, although I can certainly argue against that because he doesn't have answers to the larger questions that the media sort of demands or you could argue deserves to be able to ask and hear. Would you like it instead of Shaw if they started working Hunter Campbell into this job since we are all starting to believe that that's like,

if not already the boss behind the scenes, like that's the guy who should be answering these questions. I mean so that's a really interesting question. It depends what you want and that's all that only the fans can decide this. I can't decide this for anything nor am I going to declare what's best. I don't know what's best. Do you want somebody out there who can who can actually promote in the way and I'm saying this pejoratively, but also not to carnival bark? Do you want a carnival barker? Like, do you want someone who will get out there and like Eddie Hearn to me does the job of both like making

fights and then carnival barking and to be clear, that's a legitimate part of being a promoter, at least depending on your style of promotion, but it can be. It's not a thing I'm saying is all the way bad, but it does require a certain kind of car salesmanship to it. Do you want that from Hunter Campbell? Or do you want someone to fill that role for UFC

and then Hunter Campbell can just do whatever he does more normally and doesn't have to face press scrutiny. I mean, yeah, it'd be nice to have some level of that. I think thinking of this in terms of press scrutiny is like almost an out antiquated way of looking at it. So only the fans can decide what's missing about that, but Hunter Campbell cannot be Dana White. They are, they are split in that regard BC.

And I think trying to put them back together by having hunter do more media Careful what you wish for. I don't know if it's gonna deliver exactly what people think or do any media I mean, you know or do any yeah was the star of that Roku doc It did teach us a lot Luke even if seems like UFC kind of recruit Do you think they regret that doing that? You know, what's funny about that? I don't know if I've told you this one of the guys who made made that documentary, I won't say on which side of it, reached out to me maybe three, four months ago. And yeah, there was a lot of, my understanding was a lot of what got out there. How do I say this exactly? Wasn't supposed to. I'll put it that way. Yeah.

They did let a lot. I mean, they let us see a lot. I mean, a lot. And I enjoyed it. It was interesting. It changed the way I think we look at the company in a lot of ways. But let's carry on to number two. We're talking about the heaviest of heavy hitters now. And if you tried to argue this guy as number one, it might be hard to overtake you. But I'm gonna leave him at two here and that's certainly Ari Emanuel, the head of both Endeavor, the owner of the UFC that purchased it in 2016. And now the conglomerate known as TKO Global Inc, which includes WWE, UFC, PBR, and we thought maybe TKO boxing.

Now first and foremost, Luke, he's the boss. I mean, he's Dana White, Nikon, Hunter Campbell, Triple H's boss. That first and foremost is huge. He's running a company that up until a week and a half ago, we thought was like literally on the verge of a triple monopoly across the three major combat sports genres,

if you consider that in boxing, MMA and pro wrestling. But I think even more importantly, he seems to be, obviously along with Mark Shapiro, seems to be really be the brains behind the shift that UFC has done in particular to seeking out government contracts and big site fees with all of these major cities in the U.S. and beyond. And I say this as a drawback, the idea of not just monetizing the UFC, but turning it into a full-time value extraction product that to the point where the product is suffering because of

how aggressively they are trying to make money on every single space available to them. This guy's cutthroat, he's well traveled, well seasoned, and just the control he has and the people that answer to him alone, it's hard to find anyone in the history of combat sports who has more power and influence and leverage right now than Ari does, and it seems to be Luke that he's ruling that power with an iron fist. I don't think there's any underselling this at all. He is one of the most powerful people not just in combat sports in sports. If you think about it, I mean, there's many powerful people.

I'm not saying he's the most over there. There's more important figures, but the level of power over the size of the industry that he wields is significant in charge of not one but two monopolies and potentially three. Big, big, big time and by the way his brother is sort of floating a run for president Rahm Emanuel and I think it's a longshot BC but it's not just how powerful he is in combat sports but the level of connectivity beyond sports and to tie these disparate worlds together of power and influence and tech. You know you've seen the video of him hosing off Elon Musk on the back of their yacht and whatnot.

I mean, this is a guy who only interacts with other enormous power players in various other sectors of the world in big deals with big influence. Yeah, he's easily one of the most important guys in sports and certain... I mean, on the phone with the White House daily is what I hear Luke, you know what I mean? Like you want to talk about the influence and control and I Could say just enough negative things about what he and TKO has brought to combat sports and I often do but you want to Talk about power. It's there. So who could trump that Luke? I think you can all guess it Donald Trump Close right close, right? I mean, yeah, but no, it's Turkey al-Sheik in what's going on in Saudi Arabia.

It's just first and foremost this. Any fight or situation, and when I say situation, I'll bring up the sphere last year as a great example. Any situation where you're like, man, damn, it'd be great if we could do that fight, but what about the money? What about the fact that this promoter doesn't work with this promoter? What about all that? Well, the thing that fixes that is extreme money, and nobody has access to more extreme

money at the moment than Turkey Al-Ashique from his connections as being the right-hand man to MBS and the crown there in Saudi Arabia through running their general entertainment fund through personally financing a purchase of the ring and turning that historic publication now into a fight series in boxing. But it's not just boxing. The fact that we had a UFC No Chase celebration that was title sponsored by Riyadh Season

and that Dana White's only call to be able to pull that off given the tight TKO financial guidelines that they run with, it was Turkey. You gotta call Turkey. They did. He wields that power in a big way also across the WWE, although WWE has had relations with Saudi for years before Turkey took on this public facing role in combat sports. But combat sports is about money at the end of the day and always has been.

It's prize fighting. This guy's got the most of it. This guy's got the most control. Money brings people together that don't wanna be together. Money changes everything in this game. Not almost everything, right? We're gonna find out soon what's going on behind the scenes with this weird Canelo Crawford mess or hopefully we will.

But outside of that, who have we ever seen? I mean, Don King tried to be this back in the day, but couldn't get it done. Al Hayman, you could argue in 2015, took over the sport of boxing in such an aggressive way that we've almost never seen it. This guy's not just taking over boxing. It's similar to the effect that Ari Emanuel has, and that's why I think a lot of us were like, oh my God, we're going to pair up Ari with Turkey? Now that doesn't, it doesn't seem now that that's true, although, you know, it's been silent, we'll see.

But dude, I never imagined one person over a year and a half doing exactly what this man has done. And it's not his wallet for the most part. It's a country that is looking to do incredible things for their own image and their own reputation and they're willing to spend for it. But Luke, if you call him up and get him involved, you can get anything fine. There's not a thing that you can't get financed these

days. Better call Turkey. People are calling him. He's the man right now across the board. Say what you will about him. I don't have much to add to that. I'd have a slightly different position for a few things on my list so we can get to that in just a second but You know, I've seen powerful figures come and go through boxing. I don't know if I've seen one this powerful before Before we get into your list. I did want to ask you this related to how we're putting this together people might say Oh BC no fighters on your list in In different years, that would have changed. Maybe Canelo's on the top three.

Good point. Up to four years ago. Maybe Floyd Mayweather slammed Dunk to be high up on this list, you know, while he was in his prime. You know, you could argue a lot of fighters at certain points, including Conor McGregor, would have been arguably number one on this list,

just for the fact that if they show up anywhere, you're moving an incredible amount of live gain in pay-per-view, you know, cost and all that. I mean, it's money everywhere. So are you surprised that my list and that we don't have fighters in the power position right now? No. Well, no. Who would it be?

Canelo's arguably the most popular guy in boxing. I mean, there's Gervonta Davis up there, but none like whoever it is is so commensurate with him that it wouldn't qualify and on the MMA side. I mean, please be serious. The only guy who would have a name that could even potentially even be

useful in that regard would be Connor. His brand has declined substantially, so no, there wouldn't be a fighter. Certainly we've lived in eras to the point you raise. We've lived in eras where the fighters would be on the list, just not this one. All right, all right. All right, what you got, Luke?

All right, for mine. Also, we can move through this relatively quickly. For number five, go ahead and put it up on the screen. I have a three-way tie, Herne, De La Hoya, and Heyman. And the reason, you could probably make it a four-way tie. I put Frank Warren in there, however you want to do it, but... No respect for grandpa, come on. Well, I sort of see, I sort of see these guys, these, these... De La Hoya is still putting on relevant fights, so is Matchroom, and you could put in, I wouldn't put Aaron BC. Who's, who's like really the guy at top rank? Well, Todd DeBuffa's son-in-law is sort of

kind of running things around the scenes, but they've got an all-star team from Brad Jacobs to Carl Moretti. So I didn't know who to identify. It's basically that tier of promoter. And then collectively, all of them are doing the kinds of things where they're getting new television deals or trying to go back to old partners

or doing deals with Saudi Arabia or trying to keep the American market alive in the UK market to an extent, depending on who you're talking about that tier of promoter, I'm not going to say they're all the same, but I do believe that as we're ranking power, they do belong in the same tier of power in that particular sense. And they're all in different ways, kind of doing or fulfilling a similar purpose within the fight game itself, obviously to promoters, but more than that from a wielding of power and influence standpoint.

So I kind of grouped them all in one go. All right. I would quibble with De La Hoya, although he could still make big fights, being that he's Ryan Garcia's promoter and that he's willing to work with everyone. Also, he's a big personality that can sell it. I just don't know if he has the stable to keep him in the control here. Eddie Hearn is a much more seemingly connected, powerful figure from, from current definitely. Yes.

And it, but I get the point you're trying to say here that the, even though some of these promoters are still relying upon Riyadh's season money to do. Really big things. I've always liked that Eddie just flexed his muscles inside of Turkey goes away tomorrow. I still feel like I'm the best, you know, promoter in the game. It's not to say they're all equivalent.

It's to say that that again from a power structure. I don't know that one is necessarily wielding a significantly more influence over the industry than the other. OK, that's number five number four. Put it up on the list here. Dana White. Now you might be surprised by me saying that,

and here's why I'm going to say number four for Dana White. Now you might be surprised by me saying that. And here's why I'm going to say number four for Dana White BC. We just talked about how Hunter Campbell is the guy who's actually doing the bulk of the work that Dana and slash Lorenzo once did. And none of that really changes. But what you have to understand something is the position to which we have arrived. And we have arrived at a place where the takeover that Dana White and again, Lorenzo and the whole UFC team from previous eras and to an extent fulfilled

by this one as well. Joe Silva too, shout them out. Joe Silva as well for sure. That they define the terms of how MMA exists, right? They beat out all these other competitors that was driven by a vision to do exactly that, to be exactly as big as they are. The way in which they have a relationship

that's adversarial to the media. The way in which, you know, that they have just come to make large and small business decisions about the way their business functions. That has defined how the industry more broadly functions. BC, we are swimming in the soup that they have all made. And yeah, you know, Dana is not necessarily day to day getting out there and driving those kinds of factors of influence in the way that he once did. But my point is, is so much of all of how we understand and interface with MMA is defined by the vision and the relentless

pursuit of it by Dana White that you couldn't even extract ourselves from it. Like it would take years and years to undo it. That's how baked in that it is. And so for that reason, I actually still have them pretty high on the list. For just for the record, he would have been number six on my list. It's hard to keep them out of it, but the factors that we talked about in terms of Hunter Campbell's role, I do sort of subtract that from Dana's one-time power, but he's also teasing, getting into boxing,

although again, who knows what's gonna happen with that. So when he speaks, people still listen and largely believe it, Luke, even if they have proof to not do it. So, you know. The thing is like, the thing is I'm like dismissing power slap, I don't care about any of that. You know, again, we'll see what happens with TKO.

He might get back, oh, I'm sorry, with Turkey. And if not, Canela Crawford, you know, subsequent fights. There's still a lot more as a promoter he can contribute. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not really even weighing in on that. What I'm saying is, if you saw MMA in a world where Dana White had to share power with other promoters and share space with other promoters, you can't help but notice the way that it looks now.

And you can like those changes or you can not. Again, there's a whole debate about that. But the question of how MMA functions today is heavily, heavily defined by the actions that UFC has undertaken under his leadership, not just more recently, but really since, you know, 2003. But it seems like me putting Al Heyman at four is, is maybe pushing too back on too, too hard back on history. Maybe the same I could say about Dana, unless you look at it like this, even

if you're trying to diminish Dana at this exact moment to being more influencer than boss, he's a pretty damn big influencer for all things UFC and by extension, mixed martial arts. And by the way, he's like that with the president, which matters when you see the direction of things in recent years. So that's pretty big influence. Yes. Pretty big influence. Again, you can debate it. It can put a different few places, but I feel comfortable putting on the list. All right. Number three. This is where we get to the real heart of the list here. Number three. Hunter Campbell, like UBC, hard to overstate exactly how important he is to the brand. We've been over this. The guy doing the deals, the guy making the moves, the guy just kind of doing the things that Daniel Lorenzo once did. I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but he had to be number three on my list BC. I don't know if there's anything else to add at this point, but I also recognize extremely important figure. Yeah, we should get him on the show. I'm sure he'd love to come and just talk to

us about all of the decisions he's made. All right, number two, this is where I think we start to have some difference. I'm going to put Turkey number two. Everything that you mentioned, BC, about what he's doing and the takeover that he's initiated, I couldn't challenge any of it. It's just where you categorize it. But certainly, if he's not number one, then he would have to be number two. He could not be number three.

I don't know who would be, if he's not, you know what I mean, like who would you put between him that would even make sense? I don't even know who that could possibly be. No, the guy defining the terms of how boxing works today in large part and potentially might define how it goes for the rest of our lifetimes. Oh, get out. Um, huh.

I hope he could get out of here. You could fall flat on his face, but what he's attempting is that that is what he is attempting. He can have a role in boxing and a lot of it could be good. I don't need this guy controlling boxing with iron fist. You better hope. But he might. I mean, that's what he's a taste.

They're not attempting some, you know, lighthearted. Oh, we want to be on the council of, you know, advisors. No, no, no. They want to be the council of advisors. They might want to get rid of it. Ordering no, no, they want to be the council of advisors. They might want to get rid of it. Order 66, right? They are the ones that's actually, you know, you know, but I've got number one, I've got different and I put it this way for a reason and I'll explain why I've got already a manual. The reason why I put him number one BC is Turkey gets

a lot of media, rightfully, we just indicated, either one or two, depending on the list. But I want to think about something here. Ari Emanuel goes on the, I think the beginning of this year at the end of last year on the Pat McAfee Show and makes cryptic comments about the Ali Act, okay? Now, I don't imagine that Ari is in any way involved with the day to day about what UFC is doing

and whether or not, you know know Marab is you know fighting on Newark or the Chicago event like he's not thinking about it in those terms but just on the boxing side alone forget about the fact that this guy is basically in charge of everything but just just ignore the MMA side they want to change the Ali act to give themselves not in all parts of it but they They want to change the Ali Act to give themselves, not in all parts of it, but they want to basically change the portion of the language that will enable them to hold their own titles. And the reason why they want to do that, of course, is to have market dominance and potentially even

monopolization over boxing. If they get that, again these are big ifs, even if they get the law changed, can they actually seek out that worldview and and make it all happen? There's a lot of unknowns about it. But let's just assume that they actually, I mean, again, why are they desiring to change federal law because they want to make it easier for their competitors? Is that what everyone thinks?

Because they just fucking woke up from a coma? No, they wanna do it, they wanna do it because they just fucking, you know, woke up from a coma? No, they want to do it. They want to do it because they want to have control. It's what the MO is of everything the UFC has done since the moment that it had been taken over by Zuffa leadership. And this of course is just a natural extension of it paired with Ari Emanuel's vision for, you know, corporate control as well. That's what this all comes down to. That's what that that that's the game. That's a level of takeover that I didn't even know was possible. I had not even contemplated. It is it would

redefine how you understand boxing and what it could even be for the rest of our lifetimes if they're potentially potentially if they're successful. For that reason among any other one I could pick, you've got to put Ari at the top of the list. Changing how the rules of the game work is next level powerful. And just you can add in the ability to take an athlete from UFC, put them in the crowd in the front row on Raw and SmackDown, right? Like things like that, the connectivity between Hollywood and everything. Yeah, Ari's up there. It's either Ari or Turkey. There's no question. Luke, quickly on potential

honorable mentions or people that we missed, we didn't put Don Davis on there for obvious reasons. I do agree that I said earlier that in a previous era, it would easily be Con or Canelo Floyd, whomever. A year ago, would you have put Francis Ngannou here? Because he's doing, he could do big boxing pay-per-view main events, big UFCver. A year ago, would you have put Francis Ngono here? Because he's doing, he could do big boxing pay-per-view main events, big UFC ones. He worked his way out of the UFC deal for this insane PFL deal while he's also taking big money in from Saudi in boxing, or would you limit that? That's an interesting one.

I mean, I probably would be a little bit cautious about putting him on that list. Not to say that he wouldn't be doing really did big things and something of a pioneer for athlete rights to a degree or certainly a risk taker. But because of the nature of the contracts that the UFC has and that they changed following his departure or around that time anyway, certainly to prevent, you know, they, they make you sign a waiver. You won't participate in the class action lawsuit and you know, they there are ways in which they add tolling provisions to your contract and taking out that sunset clause and all that stuff or are changing the sunset clause, I should say.

You can't really get that at scale, right? You can't really get that kind of thing. It wasn't like he showed everyone something that they could do. He did something for himself that was big and symbolic, but ultimately not a at scale alteration of the way the business operates. Len Blavatnik of Dazon simply because they've got, you know, a lot of boxing on there or no? No, no.

Fuck no. If anything, they're a contributor to boxing. Well, I'm not, that's not right. They're not a contributor to boxing's decline, but they're not helping. Yeah. I mean, like the back in the day, the head of HBO would be on this list, but the times have changed. Yeah. Times have changed. Big time. All right. Quickly, Luke, if we're talking the day the head of HBO would be on this list, but that yes It changed the time change big time Alright quickly look if we're talking about the actual faces of the sport and how we think the public perceives that to be What do you think right now is the current face of boxing? I? Struggled with this one because when I came to the conclusion, I'm like really it's this guy

But then when you think about if it's not him Who would it be? And you're like, well, I don't think there is a better one. So Canelo Alvarez to me is the face of boxing. I I'm surprised by that because he's been really letting the fans down for a number of years at this point. And that last one, the last fight against William's school in Saudi Arabia was a true Jesus depressing kind of fight. But, um, it's not Jake Paul. It's not Gervonta Davis. I don't think it's Turkey because I don't think the general public knows general public. Yeah. Again, this is what does the public perceive. I think Canelo's the guy. He still is. And I don't think it's, it's definitely on the public's mind that he's

ducking Benavides or that he, you know, hasn't been overly challenging himself. He still can fill out an arena in Las Vegas to full capacity against anybody on an, and do, you know, good pay-per-view numbers still. I think he's at, his brand is never at the most, it's the most challenged it's been because of that school fight and because even the weirdness surrounding this whole, you know, Crawford fight and what happened there, but he's still got to be the face. I agree with you on that. Do we agree on MMA Luke?

It's still Dana White. They have completely programmed for years him to be the face of the operation. I think, you know, obviously 2015, 16, 17, even 18, you could argue, you know, that's Conor McGregor, the face of MMA in everyone's eyes. No question about it. Was it Rousey at one point? Was it Lesnar? You know, you can insert the names, but the person that's been the most

and still is, is Dana White. No question about it. Um, I can't disagree with that. I, I think who else you can say, dude, you can even make, you can make an argument at the face of MMA is Donald Trump. I mean, it's a little strong. Obviously I wouldn't go that far, but it's not that far. Uh, but if it's not him, it's definitely Dana White, dude, the biggest star, the biggest name, the the just synonymous with the brand, the guy who's the media outreach guy to the extent that he still does any the podcast circuit guy, the influencer circuit guy. He's on the board of Metta.

I mean, yeah, good point. Who is more popular as an MMA figure than Dana White in MMA? I have no fucking idea. Maybe at Zuck for that time that he helped Volkanovsky lose the title in the corner. Maybe that guy. Luke, that is our three topics for this week. And now to continue to fill fun time and play around

with the news cycle, we've dipped back into the MK bag of tricks. This one's called, Call Me Crazy. Yeah, wow. of tricks. This one's called Call Me Crazy. Yeah. Wow. Hell of a animation there separation but look if you forgot already Call Me Crazy is BC putting out seven opinions out there on combat sports that maybe that may be a little edgy. Maybe a reach. It's up to you. Luke. Call me crazy or or am I on to

something here? Number one, during an interview on the bcx Last week with eddie herne the famed matchroom promoter I was giving him crap for the july 11th katie taylor amanda serrano trilogy Still being under what I would call the archaic old school women's boxing rules of 10 rounds two minute rounds Even though you can argue that the sport needs to evolve from that. I did pressure him. I expected him to give me a fake answer because why Taylor, his fighter benefits based on her style from this system. His answer was interesting though. Let's listen in.

There's a couple of things on I mean, they weren't quite Taylor Serrano, but they were still World Championship fights. When when Serrano boxed three minute rounds, it wasn't as fun to watch. I've always felt that as a product, ten twos really suited the growth of women's boxing because it's all action. It's great to watch. They throw so many punches. Things just change a little bit. Now, Luke, you could again certainly argue that's just protecting Taylor. But here's the thing. I'm not saying this is the most progressive thing I can say.

But considering what Eddie just said and considering the apathy that is currently being had for all things women's MMA, where people are pointing out lower skill sets, boring fights, blah, blah, blah. Call me crazy, but moving female UFC fights to three minute rounds as a trial moving forward could or maybe even would greatly increase the entertainment level even if it's not the most progressive thing. And it could be a win-win for everyone. Essentially what the claim is here is if you just BKFC women's boxing, it becomes better. That's the claim, right?

I mean, not exactly right. You're not standing toe to toe. It's not bare knuckle, but shorten the time, shorten the number of rounds to make everything a sprint. This is essentially the claim, right? Number one, to make a claim like that, you would need a broader set of data, not Eddie's anecdotal experience. That's not nearly a sufficient basis by which to make any kind of conclusion. Could be true.

Could, could be very well be true. But what I actually think is a bigger problem, and I mentioned this a number of times is I actually would make the gloves a little bit smaller in women's, excuse me, women's boxing. I actually think that playing with the round time is exactly what you should not do. You should have the rules uniform in that regard, but you should make the gloves a little bit smaller to make the power punching a little bit more significant. I actually think that that would be three minute rounds would push

them to push the offense more. I think in certain cases that absolutely could. The question is, does it do that more broadly? What does the data actually show? And then also like, you know, just making women fight sprints because you're worried about them being boring seems like you need to question the premises of what goes into making a calculation like that to begin with.

I'm not saying it can't be true. You see, this is, it sounds like I'm making a broad declaration. They're like, oh, it's not true. What I'm saying is to make decisions like this, you need to have good information. Good information lets you make good decisions. It lets you to quite literally make an informed decision. I don't know what the broader set of information is that you can judge it on. Eddie's saying this. This is where Eddie becomes a really interesting promoter for ABC because in all likelihood what he is saying is just

cover for his fighter in Taylor. However, because he's smart enough, he finds a clever way that makes you really think about the way things work in order to see if what he's saying is bullshit or not. And it may not be at all. It's still nakedly what it is, but he's clever enough to make it a bigger issue that is worth having some discussion. This is why I actually kind of like Eddie as a promoter. He's full of shit like they all are, but he's smart enough to do it in a very interesting way, which is why I actually kind of like Eddie as a promoter. He's full of shit like they all are, but he's smart enough to do it in a very interesting way, which is why I kind of like him.

All right, you're not buying on the broad. I get it. I could be sold. I could be sold. You need better information. All right, number two, call me crazy here, Luke. Former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, the 36-year-old, posted a video

from his family vacation in Como Italy we thought it was to announce a fight turns out it was the exact opposite listening. Good morning people little view here off the balcony absolutely stunning here in Como stunning this morning I hear a lot of talk of the Gypsy King returning to boxing and I asked the question of this one, for what? What would I return for? More boxing belts, 122 of them. I've been rumped, that's it, fair play to them, they've had the use for me, but I'm happy. I'm happy, contented with what I've done, what I've achieved, what I've accomplished. Been around the world and back again and here we are. This is what retirement looks like for the Gypsy King.

Not too shabby. I'm in no rush at all to come back boxing and get my face punched in for what? What would I return for? I ask that question. So here we are. I'm retired and I'm staying retired. I've got nothing to prove to anybody and nothing to return for. God bless you all.

See you on the other side. Like I said earlier, you're top. Now, Luke Sportico reported that Fury was the highest paid boxer in 2024, making 147 million with 140 of that from the two fight purses against Usyk, which is insane. But Fury's already retired and come back about five times already, as many famous boxers have.

Call me crazy, Luke, but this first bout of Hall of Famer, there's a 0.0001% chance that he doesn't retire for good without first fighting British fellow British legend Anthony Joshua. And I'll also add in if Dubois beats Usyk in their rematch, this guy's gonna be back on the phone looking for a chance at the heavyweight championship. Come on. I don't think you're crazy. I think that's exactly right. However, I just want to say, BC, if I made $147 million in a year, you would never see me again. Yeah, more hear from me.

I want to see it 100% clear. I absolutely would never say goodbye. I would never do a sign off. I would just close this computer and I would leave and I you'd never hear from me again. And I mean, you don't believe him. He's not he's not he's not he's not he's not staying away Luke. He'll come back but only for something with a ton of money. Yes, that doesn't matter if he wins or loses or whatever. I think he wants to fight Joshua. He wants to be considered the greatest British heavyweight of all time. I think that's something that like he wants to have on his resume. That's my opinion. I think if I had that kind of money, I wouldn't give the slightest degree of fucks. All right. Number three, Luke, during a recent interview on the HJR podcast sitting next to one Rampage Jackson, Nate Diaz produced a shocking reveal about a near Hollywood turn.

Let's watch. I was supposed to do Conor McGregor's part in- Roadhouse? Roadhouse, yeah, that was my part, but I was like, I'm not fighting. I'm not going there and losing the fight. I seen the original Roadhouse. I'm like, so I'm the main bad guy I'm supposed to fight. Okay, who's the who's Patrick Swayze then and they said it was Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm like I ain't going to no movie and losing to no broke back mountain That was the best meme where it said man broke back mountain 2 is lit and it shows like Connor on top of Jason shows like Connor on top of Jakes. I said I can't see I can't do it. I'm like, I'll look. I ain't looking nobody in no way. I think he need to get into the weed business. Luke first of all, call me crazy. No Hollywood producers put him in the speaking role, but Diaz would also say this week that he hopes to make a UFC return soon and he identifies a Conor McGregor trilogy, a Max Holloway BMF title fight, or a lightweight title fight against Ilja Toporia as his preferences. Call me crazy, Luke.

I'm not sure the 40 year old Nate Diaz can be any big name in the octagon anymore that is not named Conor McGregor. I don't think that's crazy at all. Am I understanding this right? Because Jake Gyllenhaal played a gay dude in a movie once. What he couldn't be in a fight. Yeah, he's like perfectly straight as a. Okay,

I mean, fuck me, bro. What are we? All right, look, let's go to the next one. 20 year old boxing heavyweight phenom Moses Itama improved to this motherfucker is awesome, bro. 12 and oh with 10 K. O. Saturday by blowing out 21 and one Mike Belogan in less than two rounds even though he has just surpassed Mike Tyson's official age of 20 years four months so he won't have a chance of becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history. He's being called the best heavyweight prospect we've seen in a long time and some people are comparing him to the impact Tom Aspinall

has on the UFC's heavyweight division because he's a southpaw with speed, combinations and big power. Luke, with the exception of back to back six round decision wins in his third and fourth pro fight, he's knocked everyone out within two rounds. Many would love for him to face Martin Boccoli next. Boccoli was in the crowd and said this. It's got a beautiful future before him. I want him to build up his career like he did, but to pick Martin Bacolay now, I think it's too early for him. I want him to work hard

and maybe be a world champion tomorrow, but I don't want him to pick me now because he's making big mistakes. He's playing with the fire. He's a man, but if you think he can handle me, I'm open to it. Luke, I get the warning from Boccoli, but call me crazy. There's a potential scenario in which Boccoli doesn't even make it through six full rounds against a Tom off. They fought next. I think you're right. I don't think that they should make that fight because Moses needs a little bit more. He's still got some issues to work on. But do he? He looks like the real deal Holyfield. He does. He not let out literally. I mean, I'm using it as a dude. Moses. He Toma is in MMA or boxing the most exciting heavyweight prospect in the world. Wow. Now I would play his highlights.

Who would it be but him? No, you're right. And I would play his highlights. Richie Torres? No. His own would copyright us. But dude, his check hooks as his opponents are coming after him. That's what I'm saying because Bacoli is known for taking punishment and then walking you down as like fear and fatigue sets in. I don't even think Bacol would get to that point

because I think he'd be getting lit up by a Atama. He's special, Luke. It took me a while to really want to bite into how special he was with all that hype. Watch the tape. Yeah, he hasn't beaten a ton of world beaters yet, although he did face former title challenger, Marius Wachin, blew him out in two rounds.

But dude, I'm in now. This guy's absolutely fire, legit on i mean what dude would you like to see him against tyson fury one day and a passing of the of the torch of british heavyweights that could be wild right i don't i mean i don't know how that's timing is gonna work but let's just keep him busy let's focus on all right uh number five luke manon faro took to ig to deliver her first public comment since losing her women's flyway title to Valentina at UFC three 15. One of the quotes that she said was it's far from over. We're going to do this.

The dream is alive. Nothing is lost. This is just one chapter. Luke, call me crazy, but even though she's 35 and coming off of a very close defeat and considering how close she was to stealing round five from Valentina and taking a decision in a fight she lost 48 47 on all three scorecards. Call me crazy for your still the second best flyweight in the world. And I think she ends up becoming champion in early 2026. Think about it. She came back from getting her nose savaged in round one.

And you're not crazy. You're not crazy. I, I, I hadn't put much thought into it because you know, why would I, but now that you say it this way, I mean, let's, let's see what happens between Barbara and Blanchfield. I know that Blanchfield fought her and went, okay, but like, you know, let's see what happens, but you might be right. I mean, let's see what happens between Barber and Blanchfield. I know that Blanchfield fought her. Okay. But like, you know, see what happens, but you might be right. I mean, I can see that. She just has a way of, uh, she doesn't take huge damage. I mean, outside of the first round when she was getting lit up by the right hand from Jeff Jaco and the left crosses, but, uh, she does have a way to hang in there

and make it a technical battle, which favors her she's physically imposing. She's got an improving takedown defense. I just don't think even though there's very good fighters at 125 or any of them killers that are going to take it from her or take it from Valentina for that matter. I don't think so. I thought there would have been by now, but I've slept on Shevchenko enough to just shut my mouth about it. I don't I I'll believe it when I see it. I believe it when I see it. Luke, despite being 46 years old, inactive since 2021, and winless since 2019, Manny Pacquiao is just a plus 340

betting underdog, according to DraftKings, to defeat WBC welterweight champion and 30-year-old Mario Barrios when they meet on July 19. Many experts, including Chris Algeri, in a recent boxing scene story, believe there is a legitimate path to victory for the Pac-Man. Call me crazy.

But by already holding boxing's male record for the titles in most divisions with eight, if Pacquiao becomes a world champion at 46 after this long of a layoff, we may need to re-examine the whole debate between him and Floyd Mayweather as to who has had the best career head to head despite the fact that we did see them in 2015 when they were 38 and 36 years old respectively. And that typically is the decider in close debates like this.

But I think we're going to have to have that discussion if this happens. That's insane history to add on to everything else he has accomplished. A that's not gonna happen and be I you know. Do you think you can win a boxing title at 46 given what he's been through drug free? No, right. I don't think anybody's drug free in the last 20. Neither do I, neither do I.

But like it's always one of those things where you have to understand the terms of the conversation. He's I mean I saw him in rise in PC and he looked terrible. He looked terrible. He didn't train for that. He fought against he fought at 160 against a guy that I'm told he thought was going to take it easy on him and that guy came to win and jumped on him. I'm not going to defend. I mean he looked in that fight but Marios is beatable. We know that like I'm not saying Mar is is some fucking you know amazing fighter but pack out like shit isn't whether he wins the argument is if he does win is there it like the question is is there anything left he could accomplish that could put

him above Mayweather all time. Um, you're kind of treating it like a George Foreman Michael Moore moment. It doesn't feel that way to me. Yeah, I hear you. It feels a little forced to some degree. I got you. Alright, one more for you, Luke. Tom Aspinall reposted on Instagram the online petition to strip John Jones of the UFC title, which I thought about signing this I didn't do it But I thought about it it now has over eighty thousand signatures on change.org Call me crazy

But John Jones if he should ultimately ghost the UFC and fuck up everything from the heavyweight division to Aspin all's prime By carrying out the soap opera without fighting Tom to close the year. There's still a potential silver lining. Tom Aspinall versus Francis Ngannou is actually a much better MMA fight than Aspinall versus Jones. And I know- Fact. Fact. Not crazy here.

Not crazy. No. Fact. It doesn't have the history of having Jones involved, but it's a much better MMA fight. Yes. The Jones fight is a bigger fight. No question about it. And by the way, it could be a fine fight, great fight too. Like it's not a neither or question. And also I want to point out if Francis was still around, even if Jones was still playing all of the same fuck, fuck games that he's playing now, I'm not going to say it wouldn't matter, but we could have had Aspinall and Ghanu by this point anyway, potentially even a couple of times. Right?

That's what we're missing here too. I want everyone to be aware one more time for the dumb fucks in the industry or like, hey, let's remake that Miocic fight, even though we got to get out of jail free card when you got injured. Salute to that that shit just the dumbest thinking ever ever but putting that aside yeah dude these two are gonna absolutely get after it could Aspin all land on Francis in a similar way to what Joshua did I'm not saying he is Joshua has that kind of power but you know we know he's got the ability to cover distance very quickly and he hits extremely hard. Could that be the case?

Or could someone finally crack the chin of someone who leaves it up in the air? The like, like a Aspen all does. I mean, I don't know what it'd be a long fight BC, but it would be probably, you know, high tension until it was resolved. And like the chaos quotient could make it so much more interesting. I will say though the capacity for that fight to have the Jones-Aspinal fight, the capacity for that fight to have a slow build over time, it seems stronger because John's gonna want to drag it out I think a little bit

and for that reason you might get a little bit more drama But you're gonna get absolute, you know insanity with with Asperger on Ghana Let me ask you this in a world if this happened where John Jones at the end said, sorry guys not gonna do it I'm fine. I'm enjoying Thailand. I love being in a pool full of Dagestan men if that was the case Luke I I love being in a pool full of Dagestan men. If that was the case, Luke, I looked up in Ghanu's contract the best I could from the information we have. It's not based upon fights. It's based upon time.

He's only fought once in the PFL. I don't know if the PFL is going to be here in a year and a half. We don't know a lot of things, but if Jones screws UFC, is there any way in your eyes that the combination of Hunter and Ari could overrule Dana's grudges and that there would be an olive branch put forth to Nganu if he becomes a free agent that this could even happen? And would they be motivated to want to make it happen? I don't think so. I think that this is a Paul Sumtek's daily situation. He's out. That's it. There it is. There it is. Okay. And that's done for our Sumtek's daily situation. He's out. That's it. There it is.

There it is. Okay. And that's done for our special segment, Call Me Crazy. It could be the last time that you ever see it. Now we go to the fans every Sunday night, Morning Combat on IG and X. We give you the opportunity to ask us questions. It may be Tuesday, but it's still time to hear from you.

This one's called DMs from the Dogs. Oh. What? What? Oh. it's still time to hear from you. This one's called DMs from the dogs. Dude, they got rid of the, the masturbating donkey. Did you hear that? I did. What'd you think? That's better. I didn't know this was called Long Island.

Look, let's see it again. It's still a little honking. Personally, I like the old one but uh yeah, we got a new one. Okay. Alright, I'll take it. Our first question is from Eric Bolden. Will Sean O'Malley move up to 145 if he loses on June

7th? Easier way to the title and good stylistic matchups for him. I think that's a very reasonable possibility. What's if you lose twice to Merab, what are you supposed to do at that point? You're supposed to fight Volk for the title at 145. Yeah, exactly. Alright do it at Noche, please. Let's go. Let's go. Second question here. No, I agree. And I think do you think because he's wiry and tall that he could fill into that weight and be good at that weight class. I think he's gonna struggle with wrestlers in that division to the extent that he runs into him, but there's not that many at the

top right now. So I think he could do quite well. Alright from Rob Jankiewicz. Uh Janky asks if Jones retires, who can Aspinall fight to become the greatest heavyweight in UFC? Besides wins in numbers, I don't see any real names in the weight class to cement his legacy. I mean, you can support that by saying, Cyril Gahn we already know would probably be the next fight. You got, what's his name?

Volkov is angry that Jones is holding it up, but Aspen already beat Volkoff in like six seconds Luke the cupboards bear the question is how quickly can they create one or can they acquire and Ghanu or Malik and or whomever is out there they can get Malik in is that kind of really provide? I mean you need rivals. Yeah, you need rivals in stature. You need rivals in style. You need rivals. I mean, you need rivals. You need rivals in stature. You need rivals in style. You need rivals. I mean, I just think there's gonna, dude, this is the thing, like heavyweight, this is not a UFC problem.

This is a global problem. Globally, heavyweight is just shit right now. So that's, you know, obviously you could get, Malik, as you mentioned, Gable Stevenson, we'll see what happens with that. You know, there's some ways that, you know, obviously you could get Malik as you mentioned, Gabe, uh, Gable Stevenson. We'll see what happens with that. You know, there's some ways that, you know, Tom's not young. I know heavyweight, you linger, but just Tom's not young. I mean the bit, dude, if John doesn't fight him, Tom should fight every two

and a half months on the dot and just keep blowing through every single name. Yep. I agree. Just, just go out there and start housing them. If he does, they might acquire in Ghana. They might. They might do it, Luke. I would love it. I think it'd be a great, great call. I'm just skeptical they'll do it. Indeed, indeed. Our third question comes from Justin B. How great was Josh Taylor in his prime? Many claim he was never that good, which is dead wrong. It would be dead wrong to say he was never that good. But Taylor did lose in an upset over the weekend Luke to a gentleman's name. I forgot. And that is his third straight defeat. He's in his mid thirties. Uh, we've seen the best of him already, but at his peak at 140 pounds, this tough southpaw with legitimate boxing ability, a great jab,

a great understanding of distance, a really good left hand, balls. He was as elite as it gets. He was the undisputed champion at 140 pounds after he beat an unbeaten Jose Ramirez. Not losing the title to Teo Fimo in that case doesn't take that away. Neither maybe does his confirmed racism in the past. Luke, but I would say he's not a, you know, maybe an all time great fighter, but at his peak he was top 10 pound for pound, the best in his division and a great fighter, even if he doesn't have 12 years of beating,

you know, elite names across the board. I think that's right. I think it's a good way to put it. Great for his era. You know, how far that extends is a little bit harder to say, but, and for his weight class as well. Yeah, I think that's a fair way to put it. His fight against against Rougarou in the semi-finals of the World Boxing Super Series is a hell of a fight. A split decision

win. People should watch that look if they have. That's a great fight. It's probably his. It's a, you know, it's one of his cuts. Uh, also we have from IZZ underscore he is he, I know you both don't smoke anymore. Well, Luke is a closer, so he's still vaping, but give me your all. Okay, thank you. That's great for you and your future and your family. Luke, give them your all time cigarette power rankings. Post sex, post meal, post with bits behind an RVs, whatever rank them. Luke, I'm sure you had a period where you were on them things. So which ones, what was your brand?

Definitely post meal. Definitely post meal. Um, I was going to chime in to just say it's very on brand for me, but post-bong hit cigarette is the best cigarette I stand on that We got white trash working on this show how dirtbag are you no see that have you ever smoked a cigarette under the covers when you As soon as you woke up that's that's where under the covers No, I haven't smoked the cigarette in 11 years, but I did smoke cigarettes back in the day Marlboro 27s were my brand of choice, shout out.

Are those the ones with fentanyl in them? No, those are the ones that everyone says have copper in them. They're the copper colored Marlboro ones. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah. It's for me post meal.

I was never like, yeah. And I think, dude, I think if you're smoking in the bed You're gross if you're a fan and you smoke cigarettes in your bed. Yeah, dude That's like there's nothing people make that sound like oh post sex cigarette. Do you smoke in your fucking bed? You're dub-t You're you're white trash piece of shit you all right What about bonk hits in the bed while you're like sitting under the covers? I mean, you know, I can look the other way. I don't think that's as bad.

But like just sitting there having a fucking cigarette in your fucking sheets. You just go shower. You absolutely filthy fucking swine. OK. I used to smoke Newport's when I was 19, like when I go to Yukon and party with friends, Luke, but I'm glad it didn't last. Secrets are the worst things ever. Secrets are terrible. Yeah.

It just, all right. Thank you. Uh, we also have one here from platinum Mike Perry. Is this a, is this a joke? Is this for real? I know he does follow our show. He legitimately replied on the post and wrote this. Hell yeah.

All right. So Mike Perry's question is BBW's only? So what is he saying here, Luke? Is he talking about big old women? Big big beautiful women? Big booty whites or big beautiful women? No, I think, long out Luke, this is a porn reference to like big old girls, right? You tell me, Luke. I have no idea. I think that's what it is I think that's what it is I'm not sure you sure you didn't write BBL BBW he wrote BBW yeah I mean I'll pass on that I mean that's not you know it's not my fave did you see Cory Sanhagen on the over dogs podcast with Mike Perry where Sanhagen which which appears to be a bit that everyone fell for, claims he made two million on only his testicles.

Yeah, I fucking died laughing. I saw it yesterday. And then, and then Perry's like, yo, I got beautiful balls. I gotta talk to my wife. I could be making us killing. I mean, Let's see. I'm, you know, BC, the BBWs are not really down with, but the P a B W B's, the, the pogs or BW g, excuse me, the pogs. Yeah. True or false at William and Mary, you were known as a BBW closer. You know, I mean, you know, they like to party too. Luke. I mean, please be serious. I had, I had some discerning taste. Um, you're a frat guy. It was what any port in the

storm. No, no, it actually wasn't any port in the storm until after I graduated. Then it was, you know, 4 a.m. It's time to go hogging. You know what I'm saying? Right. Speaking of hogs, Luke, that is your DM question. It's time to transition into a full hog category in which I look around the internet and find the weirdest videos possible and force you to watch them. And if Luke laughs. This is called BC's BC's. Oh, Luke. Hey, it's getting a little zesty in Thailand. Here's the go himself, bony enjoying himself with the boys in Dagestan. Luke Luke Nate Diaz lusted one day on that reality show. This guy loves it. Yeah. Are we doing the John Jones gave thing? No, no, we're not.

That's a good M.A. Guru bit. This is just man having fun. What's wrong with that? Nothing. I just don't care about it. Okay. I mean it's raining man. Luke. Hallelujah, right? It's great. Okay. Does that make you think he's going to sign for that fight? I don't I'm trying. You know what? Like last week, we actually did a lot of talking about Jon Jones. I'm ready to not talk about it. Let's never talk about it again.

You once asked Jon Jones about your 20s and got nowhere. Here's Joe Rogan talking about his 20s. I don't know about your 20s. I don't know what you did in your 20s, but my 20s have been like this crazy rollercoaster. But. I don't know about your 20s. I don't know what you did in your 20s, but my 20s have been like this crazy rollercoaster He had a hell of a time in his 20s there Luke. What even was that? I don't know. It looked like he was you know, I don't know Luke. I you know This is a kid's a family program at the end of the day This is age appropriate for kids. A new summer pool

flow idea for you you and your family. Let's check it out. Hell yeah. If you put a pool in your front yard next to that weight bench, would you put that in there? Just to just to mark your territory? I mean, the thing is, I have to be careful about it because any place that first of all I don't have one of those but you're asking like in a theoretical world I mean nowhere that toaster is going to play I'll put it that way.

Oh yeah yeah we know what I'm saying I got you got you got to respect the toaster I can't do I can't even make jokes about that look like you know I show up to your house uninvited with one of those potentially you know potentially okay hey you know we've never done in this segment are you legy of the week and John was a great man with a beautiful soul and that's why I give John's life five big booms boom boom boom boom have they died yet the did you see the Rizzo at the Knicks game posing in a suite with like Larry Johnson, like all these Knicks legends. Yeah. With what they all know the Rizzo or dude, it was great. The Rizzo or the Rizzo or his first of all, he's going to pull receipt though. He's going to die from type two diabetes or something. His brand

is, is, is staying strong while the Costco guys Yeah, people love them, but the Costco boys, they've fallen off hard. I haven't seen them anywhere. Yeah, that's bad. Look, have you ever had spicy nuggets in fast food before? Probably yeah. For some people, they're too spicy and that's what led to this week's meltdown of the week. Luke, that was a Burger King. That was pretty obnoxious, right? What the fuck was wrong with that? Dude, you're just watching people have like mental episodes. Yeah. Yeah. Post-COVID, we're getting a lot of those publicly on this. Uh, it's wild. All right.

Uh, Luke, you know, Pickleball produces, uh, not only J. Aaron in tight shorts, so let's avoid that, but it does produce some great fights. Let's check out this one To white guys, you know arguing okay, we got a kick, you know this I'm watching All he came over with the racket oh Here we go. Oh Yeah, you fucking look at you know, just swatting them. Yeah. Oh, here we go. Oh yeah. You fucking look at, you know, just swatting them. Yeah. Oh, here we go. My man's got risk control. You know what? He's got pretty good risk control.

Oh yeah. He learned that as I don't think anyone landed a single punch in that whole exchange. So, uh, execute all of them, please. Well, Luke, it is time for father daughter bonding and time for you to teach Tukey the classics. First literature. This is one of my favorites. I read to her at night. She goes to bed in tears but it's worth it. You know what I'm saying? And Luke, here's a perfect Halloween father daughter costume you guys can put together. Okay. I mean outside of the door. Why is why why is my man got a heat? Put that back on. Why is my the dog. I mean outside of the

owner with at least one year of experience call 581-1318 to apply. Look, I got over four years. Yeah. I got to be, I got, I got a lot more than one of your experience. All right. MMA fighters in the wild. Nobody loves gender reveals more than you, Luke, but what about if it's Dustin Poirier and his beautiful family? It seems like a nice place wherever they're at.

He's probably got some compound in Louisiana, right? Look at that. Yeah. I bet he's living nicely. Do you look down on him because he did this and tell it and put it out there? I mean, at this point, gender reveal parties are just so ubiquitous that I'm, you know, you're just fighting the weather at this point. You know what I mean? The bat, the battle has been lost. They're a thing now. I have to admit

surrender. More fighters in the wild. How about iron sharpening iron in Las Vegas as Sean O'Malley and Izzy were training? Is he going to be trained by Welch? Is that what's going on? I think they're just working it out. You know, he does all this stuff to learn from people. That's an interesting power couple there in a cage right? Yeah yeah again you train with as many people as you can you'll learn as many many different things you never imagined. Yeah I mean you had a chance to train with Osborne we saw what happened with there. Yup I declined. One more fighter in the wild here's Corey Sandhagen preparing to pack for a fight. Pretty standard stuff you don't need a lot

like the UFC gives you a lot of stuff when you get there. You bring your own scale, obviously, which I have. Your other scale for your other things. Drugs. I don't do like the serious drugs, just, you know, the not white drugs. Some of that sticky icky. Some tobacco, protein, of course. and then lastly, this is Cosmo.

This is my attack dog. He looks soft and fluffy but he's a mean son of a bitch so. Come on buddy. Okay. Alright. Don't eat the drugs buddy. No money. Just don't eat the drugs.

Good boy. Alright. And uh, yeah. That's pretty much it. We're gonna take off to the private jet. Good boy. Alright, and uh, yeah. That's pretty much it. We're gonna take off to the private jet. That's how I get around now, so uh, so yeah. We'll be

doing that. Dude, why did we not have him on the MK documentaries in hindsight? He's got it down, right? We didn't know. We didn't know. We didn't know. We didn't know. Alright, Luke, you know what time it is. It's time to rate that tat one to ten rating system. Let's go to former UFC

title challenger, Megan Anderson, who touched up the back. Your thoughts. Man. So, a lot of her other work, I do think is very good. I'm not super in love with this but it's unfinished so we'll have to see. Okay it looks a little it looks a little so better than Mr. Hibos but not quite definitely better than well I mean that's not saying much. Yeah it's definitely but again she has a lot of black and gray work. She has a leg sleeve that's really good. She has some of the best tattoos I've seen in MMA. I didn't that back piece is not

necessarily my favorite. All right. Let's go rate the next one. Luke, this is combining two of our favorite things Creed and Ronald McDonald. Okay, this is a 10 out of 10. Are you sure? That is six feet for six feet from the mother with the mick fucking edge. Dude, I went into my son's bedroom yesterday and he had a creed mix playing and I was like, you're us.

You better kick that dork to the fucking street. My guy, are, you after it. I didn't and I didn't even influence him with this. It just osmosis onto him. Look, poor child gonna call Child Protective Services on your bitch ass. Luke, rate this next hat. Shout out Danny Glover of Lethal Weapon fame. Holy shit.

Yeah, that is a very good tattoo. I mean, it's a little strange. Like the bottom lip's got like a ton of white on it but in general that's I love the I love the font I'm too old for this that's I like that one that's a that's a nine and a half out of ten that's a guy yeah one more for you Luke involving your favorite, the Marines. You know what, as an ironic tattoo, it's a 10 out of 10. Are you sure Luke? I wouldn't get it. I could tell you that. I wouldn't do that shit. All right. Speaking of Marines, Luke, here are the two most important flags to a Marine. Would you

agree? In that order as well. Yes. Thank you very much. Uh, New segment alert. We call this Dongs in the Wild. See if you can find the hidden Mickey in here. I mean, sorry, the hidden Peony in here, Luke. Wow. That means you've got a veiny ass cock. Is his name Rocco by any chance? Yo this rules oh And it's jizzing on the tits of the other minion wow that's aggressive right that is Great you probably wouldn't be surprised to find out that this sea urchin is also named Rocko. Urchin. Urchin. You fucking idiot. Yeah. I mean, who cares?

All the same upside down, right? Luke, look at that. Yeah, that's wow. Wow. Look at the unit on that guy. Right? Wow. Dude, this show. Hey, let's talk about whether or not who's the most powerful people on combat. There's some dicks. right? Wow. Okay. Dude, this What the fuck?

Spicy dick nuggets they got over there. All right. Let's go outside. I really love what you bring to this show. It's really. We're just looking at dicks in the wild. That's all it is anymore. We might as well continue it, right? We might as well continue it.

All right. Next. What are you doing? I'm making a snowman how are you gonna get that on top it doesn't need to go on top no i just gotta make the seam to it i don't see how this is a snowman you gotta trust the process seriously what are you doing? We have neighbors. It's art. Please stop.

Okay, the hair. I mean, this is what my life is. I'm 45. I'm 45. The hair on that snowman's balls made me laugh. Yeah, we got one more dick in the wild here. Luke, they call this class art. You ever see this before? This is Long Island Luke's bong. It's much nicer than that.

Oh, wow. That job blows, Luke, right? You're fired. I'm done with the show. You're fired. All right. Enough of this shit. Let'm done with the show. You're fired. Alright, enough of this shit. Let's go to the next one. Hey bro, you got any plans this weekend? Let's listen in. Hey bro, are you going to that Salkon convention? What's Salkon you ask?

Salkon, these nuts. Okay. Someone had some gummies in their tummy when this list came together. I can't comment on that. Do you remember MMA great Jeff Monson? Luke? Yeah. Remember this promo?

Monson here. You like watching people get fucked for free? Watch me fuck up Mark Kerr for free on DonKingTV.com. Live Saturday, September 27th, 9pm Eastern Time. DonKingTV.com. I'm going to fuck him up. I'm going to fuck him up.

I'm going to put these hands right around his face and beat his ass. You watch this live for free. DonKingTV.com. Are they fucking or fighting there, BC? It sounded like that Aljo promo from back in the day. You know what's kind of funny about it is anybody who's got, you know, immigrants in their life, God bless them. I have many of them in my life.

They have, the Spanish language ones, they have difficulty with certain kinds of verb tenses or not just not tenses but like for example I'm gonna turn the clock or turn up the radio they drop the up so they'll just you know though though It's so instead of saying fuck up the guy I'm gonna it I'm gonna fuck the guy versus I'm gonna fuck up the guy two very different fuckings going on You know what I mean? Luke I don't know what shows you watch with young tooks uh maybe this one's on your on your menu

Bob the building he's a building Bob the building oh no I knew I knew what you were gonna to do. You're so predictable. I have to look at the veins on dicks and then pro terrorism jokes. Look, it's about never forgetting. In fact, some people pay tribute to this day so that we do never forget it. Check out the back of this truck and the license plate. Your thoughts. It's a lot of never forgetting I can say

that yeah sir at the DMV I'll take the license plate 9 1 1 2 0 who's number 3 in NASCAR Dale senior was it Dale senior yeah yeah the intimidator we don't joke about him anymore though look on this show I want you they get bitter when you joke about Dale. See you get super bitter. Oh, let's go to the playground. You got to take care of your kids out here. It is a dangerous place, bro. No, they can grab a teabag out of nowhere. Okay.

Okay. I am so glad. Yeah. Just, yeah. I mean, this is, you don't understand. I mean, you know, BC, cause you had kids. You don't understand how common this is at the playground. Not every time, but at least once a week, I have to watch a kid get absolutely punted into fucking orbit

because they walk right in front of the swings and get fucking smashed and their parents aren't paying attention. It is. It is an absolute regularity at this point. Yeah. Look, have you ever gone on a cruise? No, I'm not dubty. Okay. I was going to ask if you remember your first cruise. Let's see this guy's first cruise. You know, that is really seeing the sights, you know, finally, Luke, do you know all this

time in history? I never realized there were six spice girls. Did you know this? Let's find out. And who's this? I want to, I want to, I want to really, really, really want to say a zig. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr us know that BBW is officially big, beautiful women. There we are. There we are. That's the show. That's all we got for you. All right. That's it. That's it. That's all we could produce. Follow us below.

If you haven't liked and subscribe, it really would help. The algorithm is that a thing? I think it would help it. You can check out our YouTube channels. I'll have an interview later today with one. Keeshawn Davis, the businessman. You're not going to want to miss it. Talks a good game.

That guy also delivers. Luke, are you fired up him against Edwin de los Santos? June 7th? I'm, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready for that, dude. Oh yeah. This month has been kind of quiet. It's going to end kind of quiet, but I feel like the summer is going to be nice heat up. It's going to be good. Let's go. Let's go. Long Island. Luke. No Cedar of the main card minute. Uh, the UFC is back this week with barber versus, uh, Blanchfield, Blanchfield, a New Jersey product. Will you be podcasting this Saturday?

I will. I'm putting out the bet breakdowns today and tomorrow. Took yesterday off because of the holiday and I'll be doing a full card watch along Saturday. So join me. Okay, and Losito, would you say big merch announcement next week, would you say? Yeah, I would say definitely tune into Monday's episode

at 11 a.m. for a big announcement. Okay, let's get after that. A week from tomorrow, don't forget, Wednesday, June 4th, brought to you by Cuervo. It's pre-game preview, UFC 316 BC LT and noted UFC hater Aaron Bronstetter getting in there. So this will be, this will be good. We'll tussle. All right. Luke, do you want to tell the people anything else before you go on to your life? Uh, I saw the new Lilo and Stitch. Don't go see it. It's bad. Okay. Black Adam bad or what? Well, um, I bad different bad was just, you know, yeah, this terrible. Don't,

don't waste your time. I went on a double date this weekend at Mohican sun. Remember we were locked in there for a long time. I saw a comedian, you know who it was. You remember in the early two thousands, there were those Dodge commercials where that redneck guys like, is that a hammy vaguely? Yeah. It was that guy. What's his name? John Reap. Damn bitch. You go see some sad shit. I did it. It did happen. That's it though. Okay. I'm going to go back to my WT life. Thank you for tuning in.

Don't forget folks this Saturday, Amazon Prime non pay-per-view get fired up. PBC is back. We're looking at Caleb Plant, Armando Resendiz in the main event, Jamal Charlo in just his, what, second fight in like five years or so. Big questions. Big questions against Thomas Cornflake, Lamana, a couple of the good fights on that card. BC on the call with Moro Ranallo and Abdomaris.

Thank you very much. Check that out this Saturday night on Prime Video. But that's about all for now. Like everything we do, we like you back. Take care of yourselves, folks. That's it. Hope you enjoy your week. We'll be back on Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern for LTLIL.

I am the BC. And we are out. All the smoke fighters 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 de Zurn and rising prospects JJ Pagan and Devel 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 turningstone.com for accommodations and tickets to Friday's Spike Night. Visit ibhof.com for the full Induction Weekend schedule. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.