MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 317 & 319 Announcements Reaction, Did the UFC Blow Islam vs. Ilia?

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell react to Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira as the UFC 317 headliner during International Fight Week. Did the UFC miss the boat on Islam vs. Ilia??? Also, the guys cover UFC 319 announcements and round out the show with a full preview of Gilbert Burns vs. Michael Morales.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Oh Oh, yeah, It's Friday. I know you got ain't got any **** to do. You might as well tune in to the best damn combat sports show they ever put together. We still win awards for this ish. Hey, it's morning combat. It's Friday, May 16th, 2025 and this is your dynamic duo in the worlds of boxing, mixed martial arts, and phallic humor. Hey, I'm Brian Campbell, the BBC with that BDE, the American alpha AA MCO over here.

And that's my cohost L to the T from DC who would probably look really good in a Jackson chain. It's Luke Thomas. I don't wear jewelry. Are you, you're not a jewelry guy. Are you? Oh, I'm a piece of crap from a factory town, Luke. I mean, exactly. I have a wedding band on you. Yeah, that's it. I've got a wedding band and I'm good. I? Oh, I'm a piece of crap from a factory town, Luke. I

mean, come on. Yeah, exactly. I have a wedding band on you. Yeah, that's it. I've got a wedding band and I'm good. I don't I don't wear jewelry. Nice to see you. I mean, I got man bracelets like every other, you know, person these days,

but that's about it. All right. I don't have those either. Yeah, you got ink. You got ink on there. Oh, Luke Thomas, you look freshly cut. Is everything alright in your in your life? You look very fit, trim and ready to deliver today.

Yeah, amazing what a couple good nights of sleep will do for you. I feel a lot better than I did on Monday. A lot of people, by the way, I had someone on my chat beat me up about it yesterday like, wow, you had one night of bad sleep and you're complaining about it. I've tried to explain to them. No, no, no, it was actually three or four nights in a row of bad sleep that really got to me. I was on fumes, but, but BC, I feel recovered. I've had a couple of great couple of really good nights actually. And, uh, I feel ready for today. People love when you complain about first world issues, Luke.

They love that. The problem here's the problem. The thing is I don't, okay. So I have two problems that I really have to encounter. One is that I have, I never in my life until my thirties had allergies and now they're overpowering. And then the other problem is, man, I just never handled my like anxiety problem. And so now the problem is it's not even something serious, like, Oh, my God, how am I going to do something big and important? It's

like, Oh, you know, there's a there was no peanut butter when I wanted to make a peanut butter jelly sandwich, you know, and all of a sudden it just gets like the littlest thing. Yeah, makes it now uncontrollable for me. So it makes sleeping hard sometimes man that really fucked me up a couple nights in a row. Reminds me of that that time I regrettably played the hassle off video on the show Luke that's where he went. Was you played that night like to key hadn't let me sleep more than two hours

and like several nights like not not bitched to key to the hater out there. Bitch, I forget about three months. I haven't slept in 14 years. That's what you should be saying. Yeah, well, I'm better today. I feel good. All right. There you go.

We're fired up to be here by the way. And if you want to follow us for more, you can like this video could subscribe to what we do. You can hit up our social channels right there, including our extended YouTube channels. We're happy to have you here today, so please tell a friend and subscribe. Let's get off this bubble.

Let's get on to the next number afterward. Also, folks, we have a great show. Looking at the recent announcements in Big Time UFC Pay-Per-View Main events coming up, IFW and beyond. We will also be previewing this Saturday's UFC Fight Night Card, a welterweight tilt, and the headliner that I think you have to see and also catching up some box AO. Do we have fansubs and dead wrongs to hit today? Do we? Let's bring in the third member of our team

to ask him. He's a fantastic producer, director, and podcast host in his own right, and he likes to do this a lot. Don't speak about his dad's man bag. Hey, it's Luke Noseda. Luke, did the fans deliver today? That's what I wanted. They did. We got some good fansubs.

We got a couple dead wrongs, nothing crazy, but we got both ready to go. All right, there we go. How are you doing in life? I'm doing good. I'm doing a report. Doing the full card watch along for UFC Vegas 106 tomorrow, so that's that's the big news in this household

All right, so and then going out on a date afterwards or no? No, I mean her Saturday is pretty blocked out Which is why I have the capability to do the full card, you know Islands finest Luke and he actually has a girlfriend or is it one of those things where it's like in high school? It's like yeah, I've got a girlfriend who lives in Canada. Yeah, I met her at camp. Yeah Yeah, I met her on to a different school. You guys just don't Remember being remember in the 80s and 90s like if you tried the I have a girlfriend two towns away thing Two towns away felt like another country, right? Like everything was verified Yeah, like even now like when I was a kid, I moved around a bunch, you know what I mean?

And when you left a place in the 80s and 90s, bitch, you left a place. You might as well have just gone to a new planet and now everything's so connected, it doesn't feel that way really at all. So, gotta love it. Yeah, I mean, it's weird, Luke. This world is weird. Luckily, our viewers have two old guys to guide them through it here. You see our new pictures on the YouTube thumbnail? We look old and high Luke. I mean,

it's great. Yeah. That's uh truth in advertising. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Uh but thank you for playing today. I hope all of you are doing well out there. Uh it might be oh Luke one final bit of note. I thought of you heavily this morning when the news broke about the about no wow when the news broke about the need New Jersey transit strike that could be affecting Amtrak as well and your potential commute to the studio on Monday are you gonna be okay? It's gonna set this it's gonna send me to an early grave I'm telling you for a lot of reasons one of which could be that I just rage out It's going to set this. It's going to send me to an early grave. I'm telling you for a lot of reasons, one of which could be that I just rage out and

then, you know, ends up being suicide by cop. I don't know who knows. You know what I'm saying? It could just be one of those things, but, um, I'm trying not to think about it. BC. I really am trying. Do you have a one word reaction to Shakur Stevenson sending cop to hell or no? Hey, you know what?

If they am track train doesn't work. I could just fly into Newark. Oh wait. Yeah. I hope you get stuck at Newark. Penn. All right. Enough BS. Let's keep it going here.

Topic number one on this Friday. Uh, let's hit it. It is the UFC three 17 international fight week announcement. We are a couple of days removed from from Dana White taking to social media and delivering what we've been waiting for. Did that main event of UFC 315 on Saturday when Bilal yielded the welterweight title to Jack Delamadelena change the future? It seems like it did, as now officially we will have Islam Mahachev dropping or vacating or being forced to vacate the lightweight title to seek a title fight against JDM and 40 something days away from now, June 28th UFC 317 will officially have a vacant lightweight title bout atop the bill as Ilya Toporia welcomes former champion, Dol Bronx Charles Olivera.

Luke straight up, is this the right fight to headline international fight week this year? We're going to get to in the ensuing topics, the whole Islam, Ilia thing, but this fight on paper to Poria versus Olivera is this rightfully so to headline what we consider a major and one of the biggest fight cards of the year for UFC. Now it's hard to have this conversation to a degree because of the Islam factor. However, if we just take what the UFC has to do here or is

electing to do as a given and so now we have to assess our options there in it's hard to imagine. There's a lot of better options than this one on On its own terms, between Ilya and Charles Oliveira, you're gonna get an absolutely sensational main event between two, literally former champions, right? A guy in Oliveira, former champion in 155 and obviously former champion at 45 in Toporia.

He is obviously Toporia going for a second weight class title. Now you're adding a degree of history on top where he could now etch his name into the list of fighters who have achieved such a designation, which of course is quite minimal. On top of it, it's gonna be action packed, I think. It's just hard to imagine how either of these guys is gonna turn in a boring performance. And so, yeah, would it have been nice, BC,

to have Jones and Aspinall? That would have been cool, but it wasn't in the cards. Again, the Islam factor, we will talk about, because it obviously is very, very relevant, but not doable for the present circumstances. You could have done Poetan on Kalei of two, and we did, in 2024, call upon Poetan to save us several times, which he did.

And this could have been another one of those, but of course it seems like he was tired of doing that and didn't want to. And by the way, even if he was available to make that fight, BC, I'll just be honest, I would have rather have seen Charles Oliveira versus Ilya Toporya in that main event. To me, the only two fights you could have put

in front of this one were they available would be John versus Tom and Ilya versus Islam. Those are the only two I would have thought would have been a clearly decidedly better choice but given where we are and then again on its own terms I love this fight. I love this fight for this card. I love this fight to kickstart the summer schedule between 318, excuse me, 317, 318, and max in Dustin 3. And then of course, 319, which we'll talk about as well. And DDP Homsot, it's a tone setter for the summer. There is a bunch, a bunch, a bunch to like about this.

But the last thing I would say BC is, it's always gonna feel like lesser than when a title in a weight class has to be handed back to the next two guys vying for it administratively. So I understand why certain fans might feel one way or the other about not necessarily being fully on board with it, but you can count me as on board with it. I think it's great and I really can't wait for that card. Yeah, I mean, the silver lining in a lot of ways is twofold here. One, it's a consolation prize fight,

meaning it's not Elia versus Islam, but the consolation is that we get two title fights, two that are probably going to headline pay reviews in the next few months. And oh, by the way, this fight absolutely rules. So from a sexy summer standpoint, a white boy summer, if you will, Luke, I don't know if you will, probably won't at all.

But from that standpoint, it is just, I don't even know what that means by the way. But from that standpoint. Yeah, me too, I. Yeah, yeah. From that standpoint, I mean, it's great. We get one of the biggest stars. We get the number two pound for pound fighter,

at least on my list, in Toporia, in a sexy action fight that we want. Can we show the full screen now, Long Island Luke of UFC 317? In its totality with the co-main event of Alexandre Pantoja a long-rumored title defense against kai-kara France You got Paul Acosta against Roman Kapilov. You got Darius versus Moikana, which I don't hate Yeah, somebody's gonna take the tour atafa But Luke Brandon Royval Manel cop is a main event unto itself at least from a fight

night level a good one and then you can go on and down Tracy Cortez back hobo cop against her Manson Luke. I know that your grade in our reaction to these is always on a curve now because we're not comparing these pay-per-views to 2016 or the last time we felt UFC was UFC. It's a different era right now. I'm starting to adjust to that era so it's not just negativity, negativity every show. If we are going to grade on a curve from what they've done lately, what do you grade this pay-per-view card for June 28th?

Bare minimum A minus. Bare minimum. Whoa, whoa, A minus. I mean, OK, OK, OK, OK. I was gonna get like a solid SB. I mean, you know, you know, B's Luke, they're not bad, right? Put the card up for just one more second. Let me just walk through why I think it's that way. So your main event to me is just a phenomenal main event. Your co-main Pantoja, easily one of the most, if not the most, disrespected champion, maybe in all of MMA, a guy who won the Pound to Pound rankings simply does not get his due. And Kai Car France has earned this

particular moment. Kosta Kapilov should be madness. Dariush Moikano, two very, very decorated competitors who know what they're doing. Again, Torov Toff is whatever, but as you mentioned, Royville and Kop number one contender

at Flyweight Hermansen is back against a guy who I think is going to be a tough out and then Araujo and Cortez and there'll probably be some other fights that they add to this along the way. I mean these are all for the most part, for the most part, again, there's a couple of other ones that you could just put to the side. They have divisional relevancy, they have divisional relevancy and

a high degree of action involved. You get two titles at the top of the card. And I think both title fights, whatever else you want to say about them, it's hard to imagine in either scenario that they're not going to be action packed. I mean, Pantoja is a goddamn Wolverine charging across the octagon. KKF can play it as cool as he wants,

but that dude's gonna be in his face. No question about it. And then again, as I mentioned before, just on the Royval and cop fight alone, just those three are all bangers. They're all. All right. B plus for me. I'm wondering if maybe, maybe that B plus a minus area. Cause whenever they ask me, how do you want your stake? I always say, you know, is there a spot between these two points that we know like rare and medium? Give me the spot in between Luke. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You mean medium rare or no, sometimes I'm like, give me the spot in between Luke. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You mean medium rare?

Or no. Sometimes I'm like, give me the spot in between the spot in between. And then they get mad at me. Like between medium rare and medium. Yes. Yeah. See, I wanted as close as you can get to medium without, without blooding it up. You know what I'm saying? I mean, there's people out there, by the way, that order it well done and then put ketchup on it. Yeah. I mean, these are, these are heathens who deserve to be sent to a prison in El Salvador. One of those people is Vince McMahon. I want you to know that one of those people. I mean I'm not sure if the other prominent guy defecates in here as well but it's just pretty disgusting. It's amazing to cook the flavor out of steak and then try and

put flavor back in it by pouring ketchup on top. Yes, yeah. Alright, so even with an adjusted curve I'm going B plus. Yeah, this is a solid ass card top to bottom right here. We have a quote from Ilya Toporia about the Olvera fight. And he says, I feel really sorry for Charles. Whatever is least painful for him, that's what I'll do because I like him a lot. Luke, my question really surrounds the opening odds here. As we look at DraftKings,

Charles Olvera, a plus 275 underdog, minus 345 for Toporia in his debut in this division. Is that showing enough respect to Doe Bronx? Or is that an inevitability when we're talking about at any weight, one of the best fighters on this planet and a guy who I don't think we've seen the best of yet? we've seen the best of yet. I, that's weird, right? Because I definitely take Olivera very seriously.

And I think it'd be very foolish for anyone who's a toporio supporter to think he can just, you know, mosey on in there and win this one without really any issue. I don't, I don't buy that. I think if he's going to win it, he's going to have to earn it, but I would be surprised if to party a lost. I would, I don't buy that. I think if he's gonna win it, he's gonna have to earn it But I would be surprised if to Portia lost I would I'd be very surprised I think we already know his power carries. He's extremely well-rounded There could be some scenarios that could get him in trouble. The the the clinch could be one of them Obviously on the ground could be another to the extent that it plays out in that space

But you know, this is this is as far as I'm concerned, this is the porous fight to lose. And I think the odds makers kind of reflect that. The other part BC is that, listen, Olivera 35, I believe, two and two in his last four. And he was beating up Michael Chandler real good, but then there was that fifth round rally where he got just stung a bunch of times.

And I'm thinking to myself, you know Michael Chandler looked terrible against Patti Pimlet he's been on his last legs and if a guy like Toporia hits you cleanly like that you're absolutely gonna take a nap so I can understand why you're not measuring obviously it deserves to be just say it out loud. You're not measuring this against the high water mark of Olivera. You're asking, where is he today? Where is he today? And where he is today is still very good, but beatable, hittable. And you're talking about a guy who was a precision, precision, hard puncher.

Tough matchup for him. It is, but look, the stats can get worse if you lean on them and the fact that he'll be 36 a few months after this fight. You mentioned two and two in his last four, but one was against the best fighter in the world of Madochev, and that was a fight in which Oliver afterwards said,

look, everything went wrong, it's an aberration, that's not me. And then it came out the next fight and stopped Dariush. And then you got a split decision loss to Saruki. And do I recall that it could have gone either way in that fight? I mean, either way it's, it's very close against, you know, it was one of the very best in this division. And then you come back and you beat Chandler. I'm wondering if this guy demands a little bit more respect as the greatest finisher in UFC history as somebody who can stop you on your feet as well as submit you out of most scenarios and oh by the way former champion

dangerous as **** I don't know man I mean we gotta see Toporia at this weight class am I favoring him am I do I think Toporia is gonna win yes but we gotta see it first so this is an interesting opening line in my opinion see I mean here's the thing it's like everyone said all this shit about, you know, all well, you know, folks, one of the books, one of the greatest featherweights of all time, if not the greatest max, same kind of thing. What happened there?

He smashed them both. Like, you know, it's where I respect Olivera, I just don't think people fully understand what they've got with Ilya to for you. That's what I think I think he is one of these kinds of guys who doesn't come around very often, who everybody is beatable, including him. Trust me when I say, you will watch him get beat if he sticks around long enough.

No question in my mind. But I don't think it's gonna be in June. I think in June, he's gonna get another title and I think he's gonna do it via stoppage. Now, what I would say is, let's go to our resident D-Gen in Long Island Luke. What do you think about the odds on this one? And do you understand why the odds makers have such a high opinion of Toporia? I mean, yeah, he should definitely be the favorite. I do think they're a little wide. Like I'm tempted to throw money on Charles Olivero

right now. Do I think he's going to win? No, but it is a five round fight. And that quote from Ilya is kind of telling to me, he's like, I'm going to take it easy on him. Whatever's the least painful. So like, I don't know, dude, I'm kind of feeling an over here. I'm feeling this fight go in the distance. I feel like that could be plus money. Yeah, that might be interesting. I could see it go into distance. Olivera is nothing if not a survivor. So let's see the quote from Charles Olivera. I don't know if it's in response here, but he says 46 days for this belt to return where it should have never left. And look, we, we long know that the champion has, or in this case had a name and that is the great Del Bronx. There are legitimate questions here. Damn, damn. Do I love this matchup?

But Luke, I don't think on and morning, morning combat show, I've yet to ask you maybe an even more important question than this. Lalienda apparently heard the criticisms of his new self-given absurd nickname and then pulled it back. It went back to Meditor. So Luke, while a lot of the decisions made by Ilia are very, very, you know, conceited and swaggy and all that, don't do it. He's backed it up. I kind of, I disrespect him more for turning the game back than I do ever creating it. No, no. So we can both agree. Lalaenda is anointing himself. That was terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. And certainly going back is also one of these things that everyone's going to

be like, really, dude, what the fuck are we doing here? At the same time, El Matador never needed to be changed to begin with. It reminds me of the UFC. I lived through it when they were like, all right, we're going to try 9pm pay per views. Now, actually, I kind of like that idea, to be changed to begin with. It reminds me of the UFC. I lived through it when they were like, alright, we're gonna try 9 p.m. pay-per-views. Now actually, I kind of like that idea to be honest with you, but they hated it and they went back the other way. Sometimes, sometimes you got to call an audible BC and you got to recognize when you've made a mistake and you've got to correct it. He corrected it. So he should have never done it to begin with and it was moronic to do that. But I think this was given what he did, it was better to go back than it was to try and just push forward on it. All right. All right. I mean, I mean, it's tough to get on the guy when he does absolutely continue to deliver after acting constantly like he's putting the cart before

the horse. But look, I've come around. I do think he is of that ilk. I think there's a discussion to be had if he wins how long he stays in this division, but we can certainly get to that as the show progresses. Luke, do you feel like people aren't responding positively to this? Maybe because it was telegraphed? I mean, it is a sexy ass awesome fight. So I think that definitely plays a role here. First of all, I think most people are pretty excited about it. But and again, trust me when I tell you, we're gonna spend time talking about the Islam factor because it's just, it looms large here.

We're gonna get to it. Partly there's a little bit of longing for that BC. So that's a big one. And then the second part is, to the point you raised, we kind of knew what the score was gonna be for this. If, or rather I should say, depending on what happened with the UFC 315 main event We kind of knew what we were gonna get it wasn't like a grand surprise or it wasn't like Everyone was kind of you know, we're waiting for a fight announcement and then all of a sudden it just hits one day

You didn't exactly know who it was gonna be or when it was gonna come it It didn't happen in that kind of grand arrival way This one was more just a confirmation that had been widely telegraphed ahead of time it was going to be or when it was going to come. It didn't happen in that kind of grand arrival way. This one was more of just a confirmation that had been widely telegraphed ahead of time. Nevertheless, nevertheless, whether by hook or by crook, what you're asking the UFC is to make the best fights they possibly can. And there was some debate about whether or not you got the very best fight you could get, but you got a very, very good one at a bare minimum. And I think that's to me, the lens by which I'm going to look at this contest. Yeah.

And as you teased earlier on, you know, the whole trend had been, you got an issue call poet on to save your card. And it seems like they did, which likely led to poets on putting out that very cryptic tweet, then trying to walk it back and say, he was hacked only for DC and everybody else else including us to be like yo you're 100% lying here but Luke we're starting to get more of the truth about what really happened and was the champion Ankali have reached out to to try to save

this card and was Yuri Prohotska the name they went to after Poetan said he wasn't ready. Let's show Yuri's response here. He says he declined when he was offered a fight at 317 due to his university exams coming up in June. He told that to sports in Eastern Europe there. Luke Thomas, that would have been a hellacious action fight, but the Poetan rematch should be the next fight. So I'm personally really happy that it didn't go that direction just to try to save the car. Yeah. Also just based on what we're seeing here, there's like no way Poetan was hacked,

right? Like there's no, there's no possible way. They asked him to fill in on short notice and he's been doing it for literally years at this point so he was like no I don't want to do that and so they went and asked you know Yuri to see if he wanted to fill in and I think I think poets I was like well wait a second I'm owed the rematch but of course the UFC you know the trains leave the station on time whether you're on them or not that's the way that the business works so just kind of a funny way it went but also like Ankalaya versus Yuri for International Fight Week. I mean here's the thing I want to, I want you to

people to think about BC. Everyone is thinking about the fights they didn't get. John, Tom, or Islam, Ilya. And again, relative to those considerations, yeah there is something of a downgrade here. But we also could have gotten Ankalaya of Yuri and that wouldn't be a bad fight by any stretch of the imagination BC. I'm not saying it's bad, but I don could have gotten on Kali of Yuri and that wouldn't be a bad fight by any stretch of the imagination BC. I'm not saying it's bad, but I don't know if that's a suitable on short notice. I don't know if that's a suitable international fight week main event. It's not to me.

It doesn't. It doesn't have what you need. Ilja bumping up a weight class against yet another fan favorite who's also a former champion. That to me seems like, given the available alternatives, clearly the best choice they could have made. It's star power. It's an action fight. There's a lot to learn from it. It's very good booking and matchmaking. Quickly here, we have a response from Ankaliyev to this whole situation. And he tweeted out, guys, is there anyone in the light heavyweight division? Who's willing to fight me because Yuri and Alex do not want to fight. It was a better decision You're right not to have

Big onk in my opinion at 317, but Luke does this whole situation cuz look look in my opinion PFL Letting patchy mix walk is my last straw. They don't fucking get it They're never gonna get it you They're never going to get it. You and I on our own YouTube channels went on extended ransom sure to that same degree. I felt like if they would have announced Aspen all gone for the interim title in the main or co-main event to 317, I would have felt something similar in this era of UFC. Like if you're waiting for things to turn back around and feel a little bit like it used to and everything not to be so grifty and and and you know the direction the gross direction we've been going lately that would have been a sign to me that

They're turning into boxing and there's no turning back. So I'm glad is shit that we did not get Aspen all gone But do you think the way that this whole thing was handled? the the bizarre nature of waiting on the 315 main event to decide this main event, and the fact that they announced it 40-something days before, the shortest notice in the last multiple years in IFW, that the more larger disturbing trend, even separate from how much money they're extracting from the product and raising prices and the questionable matchmaking. I just feel like they're not prioritizing the main events of the quote unquote major cards in any form of like advanced time. And I know MMA is a fluid game injuries.

People turning down fights always changes things. But like you can go back to UFC 300 when it seemed like they didn't have a plan and sort of just rallied and called poet on and he saved saved it. Obviously same thing when Conor McGregor was main eventing an IFW card against Chandler that had nothing else besides that main event and they called Poet on last minute and they saved it. There's been a few other times even the sphere where we felt like they didn't necessarily get the right marquee fights atop of their at the right time with the right notice. Is that viable criticism in you in the case for me in your opinion that like first and

foremost, get your big tent shit in order first like it shouldn't be where we're relying on the result of a fight to change matters. This is what I don't like Luke because if I'm a fan and I'm going to pay what they're making you pay especially for something like IFW, I kind of want to know who's fighting a lot of time ahead of it, so I want to figure out if I'm making that trip. You know, again, we come on the show, we try not to be overly negative, but to me, what we have to, we have to watch like the way in which this fight was booked and the way in which it was announced is downstream from a series of problems that they have, namely star power.

And that's a function of a lot of different things, including but not limited to the way in which the UFC has constructed their own business and what they've chosen to prioritize versus not. And so that's why there weren't enough available fights and stars to call upon to fill this in a more readily upfront kind of a way. There's other factors involved, namely, you know, Dana White appears to be halfway out the door, or, you know, I don't know, I don't know what to say about any of that.

He just doesn't appear to be as checked in as he once did. That that's another factor. They're not competing really against anybody else. That's another factor. You know, so it's a series of things that put you in a position where they don't have enough guys, they didn't have enough of them ready to go. They couldn't get that out the door early enough. and so they have to kind of wait and play, you know, a little bit of, you know,

what's the game where they have the ball and then the cup and then they're, you know, you're rotating it or whatever. The point is, under a strange metaphor, they just had to move pieces around and had to wait until events transpired, as we saw, before they were even ready to do this kind of a thing that reality is down it doesn't just happen in a vacuum it didn't just happen because they were just sitting on their hands it happened because it's they were dealing with the situation I think honestly as best they could but from a series of broader considerations that are in play that they're also architects of

that make getting those things out the door and more premium selected early enough much more difficult than it once used to be. Yeah I think you meant like a three card Monte like a card Monte that's it yes yes yes yeah yeah and when you say broader things you're not talking about the women's division there's not like a you know misnomer rootous through in there. No. I'll look quickly on that co main event in the fly weight division. You said Pantoja maybe doesn't get the pound for pound respect but ESPN.com and CBS Sports of which I ranked that myself do have Pantoja at number six. So we're respecting that man. Fair enough. I just think in the

where's he right now and the last time I checked I did not like his positioning in the official UFC rankings which you know you could say whatever they got Pantoja sitting at 10 yo yeah that's got they've got they've got JDM above him and I'm like all respect to JDM I'm sorry he's not about Pantoja I hate the way they do the pie hit the way to do all the rankings data is actually right about that part your ranking suck Dana you're using non-employed media members that no one's ever heard of, but the odds on this co-main from DraftKings minus 245 for Pantoja plus 200 for KKF. Luke, I'm happy Clycar Francis climbed this ladder. Maybe it helped him that there's been a lot of parody

at the top with a lot of rematches and a lot of Pantoja lately, but this should be a good fight. I'm fired up. I'm ready. Again, I think up and down this card, there's a ton of **** quality including but not limited to that co-main. Yeah. Well done there. Let's go to topic number two and we're gonna get to Elia versus Islam and we're gonna get obviously to the unplanned it's planned but not booked yet. Jack Delamadalena as we assume to make that first welterweight title defense against Islamahchef.

But we got another big banger out of that Dana announcement. I gotta be honest, it brought a lot of relief to me that when it comes to summer blockbusters, in which we already have Poirier, Holloway 3, New Orleans 318 to top of pay-per-view. How about UFC 319 in Chicago in August and this absolutely fantastic must-have main event between two guys that you could argue belong in the top 10 pound for pound, Drikis Duplassi defending his title against Hamzat Chamayev. And we still haven't found the ceiling on Chamayev through this wild up and down sort of unique run that he's had. Luke, before we can even talk about this fight, we have to address the giant elephant in the room, which is the whole idea of, will Hamzat make it into the ring? Will he make it into the US? Will he be healthy?

Will he not have another weight debacle and maybe a conspiracy against Nate Diaz in what happened that time around? It seems like a good time to show a little bit of a quote here, maybe a little bit of a shots fired brought to you by Cuervo. And look, Dracus Duper champion went to social media with that same thing, saying, look, with Nasruddin Imavav, the number one contender being named the backup fighter for this, DDP said, guess I'm fighting Imavav.

So Luke Thomas, I'd like you to react to that, because this photo hangs. It's awesome. It's both commercially and critically. I think it's a big deal. I love that they're going back to Chicago. But we do have to get past that, which was the reason for this shots fired even the champ himself isn't confident that he's going to see to my have across from him in August. these guys mentally ahead of time, which is really quite remarkable. He has a unique ability

to like, you know, take someone's weakness or sometimes you don't even know what their weakness is, but certainly a perceived weakness and really just dig his finger into it a little bit and make them squirm. I suspect that this will be something that he'll be harping on quite a bit. And if he ends up doing a McGregor, you know, let's say a 2016 McGregor where his predictions come true he's gonna look even more like a genius in all of this. It's just a very funny way to undermine Chumayev. It's a way to undermine his readiness, it's a way to undermine to a degree his past, it's a way to undermine his future, it's just a way to make him seem lesser than, weak, incapable, feeble, unreliable, all the kinds of things that would make Chumayev, potentially I'm going to guess, because fighters are very,

very sensitive, angry, embittered. And yes, that can backfire too. We'll see if that happens at UFC 319. But it just is very, very, the more you learn about Drikus's personality, he got treated BC when he came to the UFC, especially for the first few fights is like. Almost like a Labrador dog. You know what I mean? Like big goofy thing.

That's you know, maybe athletic and you're happy to be there, but you didn't really know what it's going to be. And in the end it turns out he's something of an evil genius. You know that's it seems to me more of like what he's morphed into, a guy who understands the weaknesses of his opponents, keen, keen insight, is a physical bruiser himself and then

leverages all of the both of those things, the mental warfare and then the physical nature of how he competes and it's really quite overwhelming in the end. I will tell you BC, I don't know how you feel everyone's going to be different on this one. If I may, if I may, you may. I'm much more excited about DDP Hamsat than I am Ilya Charles. I think that this fight is one of the most electric, part of what makes MMA MMA is, you know, yeah, calm scientific fighting can sometimes be exactly what the doctor ordered there's all different kinds of fights and you it's okay to like a particular version of them but one of the hallmarks of MMA is its capacity for insane electric balls out fighting and we know Hamzah can deliver that Hamzah versus Gilbert Burns pretty clear example of it but it's just his

style anyway and if there's any kind of dance partner who you would want to see that up against in that middleweight division, not even just because he has the title, although that certainly adds to it, it's Drik is Duplassi. Dude, this fight is what is what MMA is, is it's what really sets MMA apart from other combat sports. This kind of matchup is exactly what you're looking for at certain times. And, you know, given the, again, given the calendar

we're getting for the headliners in the summer, for this one to cap off the end of the summer, to me is just fucking brilliant. And to do it in Chicago, a major market, I freaking can't wait for this one. I echo that. And that of course was shots fire brought to you by square. Vo now is a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila. Luke. I could not echo any more of my love for the fight,

but I do want to get your purse. Your cat's butthole. No, this is only the cab just trying to keep her off of me to be honest. Okay, got to keep her away with the stick. Just, you you know, you just stay over there. She's loving on you Oh, she's the best but she'll bite viciously if you don't not prepared I mean she'll get she'll sneak into the bed and bite your toes Luke if you're not petting her at bedtime But no more pillow talk between man and cat what I do want to get an answer from you is like no What this fights great? Yeah, it might, probably is even better than, than Charles versus, uh, Elia, uh, it may be on par with Islam versus

JDM in terms of my excitement level to it. But even though Dana says, Chumayev can fly to the U S without issue, Chumayev's history of illnesses, weight misses, visa issues, like extended illnesses. When he does show up and when he's at his best, there's a reason why the hype is still large. Are you 100% confident that he will show up in that cage and be 100% because I don't want to be so worried about will he, I'd rather be worried about one of the key angles of the fight, which is what does he look like in the championship rounds if DDP takes him there? It's not that I don't think these concerns are relevant, BC,

but I'm just not going to waste my time with it. This was a guy that we thought would should have gotten a title shot a while ago, and he didn't for a few reasons. Again, you know, having a relationship to a Chechen warlord probably doesn't help. That's a big one. But, you know, no one cares about doing the right warlord probably doesn't help. That's a big one. But you know, no one cares about doing the right thing anymore. So he'll be allowed back in here. That obstacle is gone.

And yes, there's been questions about his lingering fitness related to whatever illness he had back, you know, again, I don't know exactly what the full extent of what happened to him, but let's call it health issues, right? I don't know. Here's what I know. What is he 30 now? Dude, shit or get off the pot. Like all of these concerns about can he make weight and what's he going to look like and can he deliver on some of these more basic things just kind of showing up

to the fight to compete dude like either he can or he can't and I understand the point about like well, I'm worried about him not showing up like this is the line in the sand. This is the moment you are now ready for a UFC Title they're gonna put you on a major market. They're gonna put you on pay-per-view They're gonna put you against a dance partner That is a can't miss opponent in terms of like, you know meeting you for an exciting fight Like if you can't make this we can just write you off for good

I truly mean that it isn't to say he couldn't come back and have another fight where he could weigh in and he could have some success down the line. But like, I'm at the point now where it's like the level of professionalism and readiness that he needs to have. He's had time to get here now. He's had an opportunity to right these wrongs. He's had opportunities to get this thing sailing in the right direction. if he can't then we can just move on past him. I mean that totally thoroughly. So so so to me, it's like I'm not dismissing come August. Oh my god. What's gonna happen? I I understand that point but it's that this is all of the

mulligans he's been given all of the well, we'll see next time. There is no next time after this show up and fight or don't and if you don't we can just forget about him as a relevant factor in this division going forward. I mean it's an A plus main event. I just don't want no no disrespect to M of who keeps winning, but that's not an A plus main event DDP versus versus M of so I hope we get the steak come this summer that we deserve. Let's look at the odds right now for

this fan friggin Tastic matchup according to Draft Kings. The champion DDP a plus one six four underdog to the minus one ninety-eight Chamayev. Luke, we've seen again and again when he's got his ish together what Chamayev did on like two hours notice against Kevin Holland against Robert Whitaker like I know he had that brawl with, with Gilbert Burns. And I still question to this day, whether he sort of unnecessarily entered into a brawl like that to prove his toughness, but him as the betting favorite with all these questions to me only makes

this fight even more interesting. Is that the right move for the odds makers here to kick off this event? more interesting. Is that the right move for the oddsmakers here to kick off this event? Once again, let's go to resident DJ, Bong Island, Luke, Bong Island. What say you to BC's question? I mean, I think they're, they could be a little closer, but I do think Hams out should be the favorite. That being said, I think DDP in every title fight has been the underdog and he's obviously cashed every time. So I'll take DDP as a dog again. I mean, I would too. Yeah, I would too. Luke, I would take DDP as a dog with that plus money if I was betting no doubt about it. We got, dude, we don't know what this man's cardio looks like after, you know, after he dominates people for a couple of rounds. Also again,

dude, DDP is going to be hard to hold down. He's going to be hard to manhandle. He's going to be hard to physically move around. The dude's a fucking tank. Like I can't, I'm telling you, I can't wait for this fight. I cannot wait to see it. Uh, DDP 31 years old, dude, this is a growing kind of legendary resume. He's starting to put together here 23 and-2 overall, unbeaten in the UFC, and you look at this run

that he's on right now that includes submission of Darren Till, TKO of Derek Brunson, domination of Robert Whittaker when he was a massive underdog in the eyes of a lot of us. Two wins now over former champion Sean Strickland, including one, to win the championship, and then a face crank submission win over former champion Sean Strickland, including one to win the championship. And then a face crank submission win over former champion Israel out of Sonia. Luke, if no Robert Whitaker, no, he, uh, we're talking about DDP. I'm talking about DDP.

Sorry. I misunderstood you. Yes. So Luke, if he adds unbeaten red hot getting pound for pound votes. Chum I have to that resume. I know DDP is already getting the pound for pound love. You know, he's right there firmly in the top five where he belongs, but for somebody who, when he beat there until we were making fun of them still for his technique, dude, like this is a legendary run. If he adds this guy's name to that run, a former

champions, holy shit. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about it. Best middleweight champion ever is Anderson. Second is Izzy after that's a little bit up for grabs, but like if DDP can start getting a win like this, not only does that make him firmly number three, but it might start having him nipping at the heels of number two. Um, that's the kind of thing. And I just never imagined we'd be there. This was a guy that lost to Roberto Suldik sold it, excuse me, back in the day. We got finished as a matter of fact, and again, has a style that we all thought was kind of goofy.

But here he is, earned the opportunity, has set the tone for that entire division. Hard to beat, like I just feel like. He's doubted he's he's quieted all the criticisms are not all, but many of the criticisms about or I should say he's quieted many of the doubts about him BC is like you know does he deserve to be here, but there's a there's a different level of these are deserve to be here, which is where do you rank all time among UFC Middleweight champions? He's starting to challenge some of those considerations as well.

This is not just a, he got a title and maybe had one defense and he's on his way. He looks like he might be doing something special. Now, we have to see what he does cuz Hamzah could steal all of this thunder. But I do agree, man, DDP could do something really, and again, I wanna say something here. They put this fight in North America, where in the United States, anyway, but North America, where pay per view is the dominant well pay per view matters the most, right? They're trying to

put him here to really turn him into a big superstar him and hams on. It's the right call put in this fight in Abu Dhabi. I don't think would have made the same amount of sense, although you could have done it. I think that the person who wins here, depending on how they market it, depending on how they build this card, a lot of factors BC, but someone could be poised for a big star turn here. I agree. Based on the factors. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. I mean, DDP is growing quickly in that star factor. When you have finishes over Adesanya Whitaker, the two faces of this era at middleweight, two title wins over Strickland.

And if you can add, uh, unbeaten Tayev to that, this is gonna, either way, it's gonna fill the star hole. Because we know the click potential of what Chumayev brings in big fights. If he becomes the unbeaten champion with that villainous persona, damn, we got something here. I mean, look, this is a good development against that whole UFC star issue, issue in building them, issue and having them JDM felt like a minor star turn with that title win over Bilal you've got to

pour you you've got Mahachev now we've got these two guys facing off in Chicago in August I cannot wait let's go let's build stars and let's build to these really big matchups and look it's going to feel like playoff time this summer when these MMA matchups hit in these huge UFC main and Luke it's going to feel like playoff time this summer when these MMA matchups hit in these huge UFC main events. But it's currently playoff time if you didn't know and boy are the pro basketball playoffs absolutely on fire. Now if you are still just watching the games we're here to tell you you're missing out. Why? Because with pick six from Draft

Kings you can turn your hoops knowledge into real cash. Just make your picks, track your score. And if you hit all six, you're looking at bigger payouts than prize picks, flex pays. Luke, we've got game six of Nick Celtics tonight. Don't pick Jason Tatum for your lineup. He's out. But with their backs against the walls last time out in game five, you had a few things happening, right? You had Jaylen Brown showing you why he's the heart and soul of that team. You were talking about Derek White coming out of nowhere with 34 points. How about Luke Cornette with seven blocks off the bench right there, Luke? When we're talking

about putting together a pick six lineup for tonight, whether you like the Celtics or you're on team Brunson and the Knicks, that's what's going on. Luke, who are you picking first? Who are you going after in these stat lines? Yeah, I mean, I watched the Wizards and not necessarily a ton else, but I have definitely checked in on these games. That dude White from Boston, oh my God, he is just. He does the little things too, that guy, yeah.

Yeah, well, he's just money from behind the arc. I mean, the game starts and within the first few minutes, he's got three threes, four threes already cooking, setting the tone there himself, as I should say. So for me, that's the way I would go. I think that guy has been reliable. He's been a producer. He's been, you know, a contributor to your point, not just from behind the three point line, but to defensive play as well. I would go with him. But, but you know,

Nick's got something to say about that too. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta think about Josh Hart as a, as a guard, considering his rebounding ability, averaging over nine, that really would help you out a lot when we're talking about pick six, cause nobody's dropping better payouts than pick six hit six picks. And that's 25 times your cash. And if you beat your competition, you could be looking at a 500 times bag in your pocket. And right now, new customers will get $50 in bonus picks

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including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited. One per new customer bonus awarded as non-withdrawals. Withdrawable pick six bonus picks that expire in 14 days limit to time offer terms at pick six dot DraftKings.com slash promos Luke gun to your head. Will the Celtics survive in advance to a game seven on the road? Can they do it without their without their leading scorer

Jason Taylor? I certainly hope not. I detest the Celtics and Boston. Well, I like sports of Boston, but I detest their sports fans. I detest their culture. There's way more annoying. I don't even I don't even like the Knicks, but let's go Knicks, baby. I hope they fucking don't own those bitches. Okay, those bitches are going to be back for gas. Long Island Luke.

Hey, Long Island. Luke. How do you feel about the Knicks? Chances in New York or as the New York all day, baby, let's go. Luke. How do you feel about the Knicks? Yeah, the New Yorker asked the New Yorker all day, baby. Let's go. Yeah. That guy don't like the Knicks. That guy only likes hockey. Knicks fans are atrocious as well. That guy likes hockey, off season gambling, and we, that's it in that order. All right. There you go. Uh, Luke, topic number three,

given the unusual amount of tension and the potential stakes involved stated plainly. We've had a back and forth war of words in the last 48 hours on social media between the two best fighters in the game, Ilya Toporia and Islam Mahachev. They will not be coming together for the lightweight title as Islam vacated. We think he's gonna move up and fight JDM and we know where Ilya is going but given that people won't stop talking about this matchup, given that I said it's the best fight you can make in the entire sport,

is it okay to second guess the UFC even though we got these good consolation prizes? Should the UFC have found a way to force this fight before making any other moves in either division? Plainly put Luke, did the UFC miss the boat on a can't miss Elia versus Islam number one versus number two, the two best fighters on this planet? I'm inclined to say yes. Whoa, you were never on team Elia Islam. Some people thought you were protecting your boy. That's what some people thought. Well, some people are stupid as shit. I mean, what can I do? The world is filled with idiots.

We are drowning among them. But it's not a clear ESPC, but I'm warming up to it. I'm warming up to it. And I would love to hear your perspective here in a minute, but like, here's the thing. And I said this at the top of the show. It is always going to be better. Consider what just happened at welterweight when the title is taken by someone or

defended either way, but the process is such that the title does need to change hands. It is better to be taken by the fighter who was the challenger from the champion. That is always going to be better. It's going to be better for the fans. It's probably going to be better for the fight itself. And it's definitely going to be better for the fans. It's probably going to be better for the fight itself. And it's definitely going to be better for the sport and the division. That's just when the title has to be handed back

administratively, it is so deflating in ways that it's hard to overstate. And I didn't even realize this until someone brought this up to me because I just never pieced it together. BC, Conor had the fight, had the title and had it stripped. Who won it after him? I'm trying to think here. Al Iaquint.

Al, he gives it back and so they have to then give it to the winner of Chandler Olivera. He wins it and then loses it on the scale and then ultimately Islam is able to pick it up at a later time, although it was, you know, at least fought for it or whatever. But in every one of these cases, it had to be handed to the next person, essentially, I mean, they had to win it, but they didn't win it off of the other fighter. The UFC had to administratively put it up for grabs again. This is a good, lightweight has been in a weird spot, BC. It's been in a really weird place

where they didn't have the turnover that you're now seeing at places like Welterweight. Welterweight is thriving as a consequence. You didn't have any of that. And if you had this weird kind of administrative, you know, guiding of the title from fight to fight because nobody is either by luck or, you know guiding of the title from fight to fight because nobody is either by luck or you know whatever you want to say has been able to win it back and

this is not good for the sport it's not good for the division and for all the folks out there who are like oh well what we what was reported was that Islam and the UFC came to an understanding that he had to give it up please please be fucking serious with me please be be serious. What fighter knowingly gives up hardware? I mean, yeah, if you're retiring and you don't want to do that anymore, that's one thing, sure. But like, if you're still active, and you want to get a title on a second weight class, what fighter like just says, Oh, I just don't even care about that title anymore. And again, there could be cases where they're retiring. It could be a case where like the weight cut was just so insane. You know, there are a couple of exceptions that prove the rule, but let me just tell you fighters don't want to give that up. That's not a thing that they want to give up.

And I understand that we haven't necessarily lost Islam Ilya forever, but there's a good chance that we have. And my point to you here is BC. I understand the UFC's position, which is fights have to get made, cards have to get made, and we got to put them on on time, they got to get out the door. I understand that. So from the UFC's perspective, it just doesn't make sense for someone to be a champ champ. I understand that. But the fighters who seem allergic to the idea that they should ever advance their own interests beyond what the UFC wants for them. They're doing this to themselves, so I don't necessarily have a great degree of sympathy for them. However, what I would say is for the fans sake,

for the division's sake, frankly for the sports sake, if we've lost one of the very best fights that could be made in the last several years of one versus two, and there's no way to get it back, it is a little hard for me to see that as anything other than some kind of a big missed opportunity. Whether we wanna use the word mistake, I don't know, but if there was a world where we could have made that,

we probably should have, right? Well, look, I would have loved that energy from you more when the window was open, not that we can sway UFC matchmakers or fighters in our direction, but you were kind of openly against it throughout. And it's like, as a consolation prize are the two title fights, well, I accepted in this era where I'm used to not getting what I want. Hell yeah, I love both of those fights, so I'm okay. But they 100% missed this window. And I don't hold it against Toporia leaving a situation,

like you said, at featherweight where a former champion who had just been knocked out had to fight somebody who wasn't quite ready for prime time. And now it feels like that division's a little wonky with that, but at least it's Volk. He's a legend on top. But I don't really understand Islam not staying and taking care of this first.

Given the stakes, did UFC try? Did they try to throw a ton of money at him. I'm not sure I don't know. I think part of him wanting to go up is not just that Islam's 33 and he wants to really carve out his own legacy is not just Habib's boy, but a potential two division champion right there. I also think there's elements of how they honor the legend legacy and plans of the late Abdulmanap

Nurmagomedov that they're opening up room for Usman Nurmagomedov once he gets through the Paul Hughes rematch win or lose to make that move to the UFC. I feel like that is something that's part of this as well. But I'm not sure if we're going to get this again or have a window for it again, unless, and I'm wondering if you believe that the UFC is thinking about this as a possibility, for Tupori having followed the Conor McGregor lead on basically all of his career decision-making from the way he flaunts himself, he says he learned English by watching McGregor interviews, he's got McGregor-esque tattoos on him, he gave up the title and moved up

What if he stops Charles Olivera? Isn't he just gonna call out Islam right after and the idea being that if Islam wins the 170 title From JDM that we get we have a potential to get that fight next which would make it bigger or maybe even if Islam loses The title at Walter weight and then says F it I'll go back down and get my belt back and we'll make this either way. I wonder if the door, it's a big what if, but do you think that's part of the equation? Them saying, we're still have an opportunity to build to this and make it bigger than ever.

Well, that's the hope. I mean, let me just say a little bit if I can about like my evolved thinking on this a little bit, which is you're right. Like I had a very different attitude previously and I don't think that, again, it's not like what we're getting is bad. I don't think that what we're getting is bad. Islam going up to 70 against JDM rules. Ilya coming up against Charles Oliveira rules. I guess the point I'm trying to say here is sometimes I get, sometimes

you just inherit the world the way that it is and the way that the promoters define it. And when the promoter has so much say in this case, it almost just becomes, I don't know how to explain this. You just get kind of stuck in their own, like how the UFC perceives it. You kind of almost by osmosis begin to internalize it a little bit, right? Rather than like, hey, let's reimagine how it maybe should be. Let's reimagine it in a way that could be.

Now, again, we haven't necessarily lost this fight, but BC, another sort of way in which this has got kind of grown interesting to me was after this announcement was made, these two are going after each other. Yeah. Yeah. You know, with in ways that make you want to see them against each other. Yes. Yeah, it was in ways that make you want to see them against each other. Yes. Yeah, it did. It did. It did in a way that I just didn't consider before, if I can be honest with you. So Ilya unleashed on Islam and his hypocrisy and moving to welterweight. Ilya had said Islam is the biggest hypocrite I've ever seen. He said he didn't want to give me the opportunity because I was the little guy. And now the little guy is the one looking for the,

does that say lame opportunity? I was looking for, I've never seen more hypocrisy in my life. Islam would quote, tweet and respond and say, difference between me and you, that I cleaned out the top list in my division, moved to next, but you ran away from two contenders

who had consecutive five to nine wins in featherweight division You are nobody in lightweight division. Just a big mouth from Spain with a nice haircut Go get one W and we can talk boy. They would continue with Ilya quote tweeting that and saying the difference between you and me is that I am a man and you are a coward I speak and fight you talk and hide run away far leaving no trace and then he put something there is that in Russian Luke. I don't know what that is in Georgian. I don't know what that is but here's what I gotta say about that

Luke. I'm more of a Mahatchev guy between these two in terms of fighters. I like who do I think's the better fighter Mahatchev who I think would win great fight. We need it right now, but I still think Mahatchev I greatly dislike the hypocrisy Mahatchev has shown and I think would win? Great fight. We need it right now, but I still think Mahachev. I greatly dislike the hypocrisy Mahachev has shown. And I think Ilya is right, right there and saying, no, you have to earn it first in this division, even though he's now going to move up and get the immediate title shot. We all see that. But how about him saying, I cleaned out this division. And then people are memeing him and showing the top 10 and showing how few of people he've actually had. Now that's not all his fault. Fights have

fallen apart. He had to take Moikano. Definitely not all his fault. Definitely. I don't like when people rip him for fighting, blown up featherweights considering Volkanovsky was number one pound for pound heading into that two fight series. But Ilya is right in these trash talks, Luke. I mean, it's not like Islam's not daring to be great. He's hell yeah doing that right now by moving up and fighting such a great young champion on the rise here in JDM. I mean it's not like Islam's not daring to be great. He's hell yeah doing that right now by moving up and fighting such a great young champion on the rise here in

JDM. But we probably could have had this if Islam wanted it Luke and I think history is going to show that he didn't want it dude. He don't want it at all. So it's like now you're talking your **** now. Now I want to see it even more dude. Come on. What is the UFC's thinking about why they couldn't make it? Did they, do you think that like they were concerned that Islam would lose and that that would spoil a move up to 70? I'm not really sure because whenever I've heard that response, whether it be from you or Jed Meshue on various shows I've appeared

on, I always feel like you let the fights play themselves out. You don't worry about what happens next if this guy wins or this guy wins. How about they just fight? It's probably going to be freaking awesome and there's probably going to be demand for an immediate rematch. So like, let's see where it would have gone. Let's let the results of the fight dictate the future of movement and what people are going to do.

I would have rather have gone that route myself, especially in an era where we're begging for big time star fights that matter and what matters more than one versus two pound for pound with two guys in their absolute primes, different ages, different situations, but God dang it, Luke, this is a sex matchup. I mean, this is everything you want. Like I said, though, do you think Toporia will follow in the McGregor footsteps with a win and just be like one and done at lightweight brother. I'm all about Islam next. It absolutely could be, but I just don't think the

UFC is going to entertain that. Like I definitely think that he's going to call out Islam if he wins. And I really hope that there's a way to think about this where Islam could consider going back down because losing this fight to me is, again, I don't know. I don't know how to quite explain it. This fight became significantly more attractive in the last week to me than it had previously. And some of the reasons that Islam was like,

I don't wanna do this anymore, I still think are super valid. I mean, he is cutting a ton of weight to get to 55 versus 70. And I think that changes a lot of the equation. But like I said before, BC, just are we gonna lose this forever in a way that we didn't necessarily have to?

I don't know what the right answer was here. Because it sounds very easy like, oh, they should have made it. And again, if there was a way to make it, they should have done it. I'm going to go back to it one more time. If they had paid these guys a sufficient amount, BC, could we have made this fight a lot more easily? I don't know the answer to that question. I don't know what the truth is there. But I do in a world where we know that the fighters don't necessarily make, you know, a significant amount relative to what they could. That is also one of these relevant questions. I'm not trying to see the question towards fighter pay. I'm simply saying BC. There are complicating factors that made this a little harder to come by that I think the readiness on our urge to want to see it. I think the only complicated factors was Mahachif not wanting the fight and basically saying like, I already had a plan to move up.

They probably already talked about it for a long time. And I feel like it's him being stubborn. But I don't take the money account into this because we're talking about the 1% here. These are the 1%ers. These are the championship level stars that make the real money. And I'm starting to believe there's something to the idea that anytime something's brought up about Habib or Islam, Dana's quick to say, oh, they've made millions. Oh, those guys have been paid very well. I

don't know if that means, you know, paid by sponsors by government. I don't know what that means Luke but II tend to believe more that Islam has been paid very well and this has nothing to do with that. He's a consistent pay-per-view headliner arguably the best and biggest star in the sport. If you wanna break it down on the markets that he goes and lights up like in the Middle East when he fights there. So I don't think it's that. Let me push back a little bit. I have my own thoughts on this, but I want to hear yours. How can we say that Islam is particularly afraid of what Ilya can offer when he's trying to go up 15 pounds in weight and take on a guy who, by the way, Jack looked awesome against Bilal.

What's the argument? I think it's more due to stubbornness, Islam wanting to control his own path. He's probably been talking about moving up for a while. There's probably some sort of light agreement with the UFC. I believe I really do believe he's trying to open up an opportunity because he's talked about it for years and interviews for Usman Ramadhan off his teammate and you know, quote unquote brother to come up. But it felt like it could have been done. It felt like Islam could have said, okay, well, let's just have a natural handoff. We'll give him the opportunity to fight for it. Let's do it. You do have a short window in your career and you do at some point have to use your leverage and make the fights you want. I'm not saying this is

about being scared. He's going up and fighting JDM who's on fire right now. It's a great ass fight. Then should I should I take my point finger pointing off of him and point it back at the UFC and say, did they did they make it rich enough for him? I mean, I don't know him I mean I don't know Luke I don't know there's only so much we can complain about this because we're still getting great replacement fights but when I see these two amping up their trash talk now it's like okay kind of missed that window I mean we got more sound want to hear from Ilya here yeah call the

press conference to rip these guys. Let's listen in. He is the greatest hypocrite I have ever seen. I told myself that I didn't want to give myself the opportunity because I was the little boy and now the little boy is him, who is looking for the same opportunity that I was looking for. So it's like you were criticizing a decision, an action of mine when you are doing the same right now. It's like I haven't seen more more hypocritical in my life. But well, that's how it will be. His manager, Aliya Teratid, in an interview said the following words, and that is that you should thank the Mahaché for leaving the belt on the way.

I would like to thank Ali for not having put a stick in his star and that today he still has a value and that he has some credibility, it's thanks to me because they have taken him out from the back door because everyone knows it was the fight that everyone wanted to see, I was willing to do it, he had prepared me, he had put everything that was in my hands on the table and they escaped. From the beginning, they never accepted the fight, they always said that I didn't deserve it, that they didn't want to give the opportunity to another little boy. So they have never accepted the fight, and they have done me no favor. If they haven't done themselves a favor of escaping in time, so they still have some credibility and some value. People who are watching live could see the subtitles. He's basically dunking on Ali, continuing down the hypocrisy road.

I think this is what started the back and forth between them on Twitter. But you get a lot of people saying, dude, Islam don't tweet. That's Ali tweeting for his fighters again, responding to this from Ilya. I see a lot of people saying that's the most Ali thing you could do, sign your fighter to a different fight and then spend the time trash talking the former fighter that people wanted you to fight. We do also have sound from Ali to continue this discussion about when this Mahachat fight could and will take place and where.

People are hoping over here, obviously, that the fight happens in Perth. But obviously I spoke to Javier Mendes. He's like, well, I don't know. That's a, it's a big fight. I really know. Listen, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not going to, it might not be in Abu Dhabi. It's a, it's a big enough fight. It's going to be in New York, Nellis Spore Garden, or it's going to be in Las Vegas.

You know, if they said going to be in Abu Dhabi, but it's not going to be in Abu Dhabi or Australia or none of those places. So that was Dennis from Submission Radio, of course, interviewing him. Luke, do you think the tease there of MSG is basically if they can't get Jones and Aspen all, then you put JDM versus Islam in that building? So this is the other part of the calendar that you got to think about. They got to spread some of this stuff out to fill all these headliner roles. I mean, this is what I mean.

It's like you kind of internalize the UFC's own logic when you think about matchmaking Which you would do if you're a reporter or watching the NFL because that's how it would work there But the difference of course is that again not to belabor the point but NFL players are employees They're not independent contractors So it's a different situation that can kind of be told what to do in a way that it's a little bit different here and the UFC Has to spread this out over the calendar and that that makes it what it is. Yes. I mean, I don't I wouldn't rule out Abu Dhabi But I I or a pertinent well Abu Dhabi. Yes a Perth. There's no way I mean Jack

No, and I don't think my head chef would would I mean look he's the number one in the world when he did that So different to me So yeah, New York LA LA even, maybe potentially Vegas for sure. And then maybe Abu Dhabi if they're feeling frisky about it, but that's about it. That Abu Dhabi wants normally in October and is really one of their majors without question. I would love for it to fill that,

especially if we would get Jones Aspenall the next month. I mean, they are starting to set themselves up, the UFC, the rest of this year, at least from a headliner standpoint to bang, bang deliver one after another, including Holloway Poirier. So I'm fired up for that. That would give JDM, it seems enough time to rest and get back into training and make this turnaround. Maybe Ali was the one doing all the tweeting and this is this whole back and forth as much to do about nothing. I'm not sure. But Luke, back to close that question you asked me about, if he's going up to fight a bigger guy who's a champion,

who's red hot, then that's not ducking. What do you actually believe is the tougher fight on paper for Mahatchev to maybe answer that question? Is it welterweight JDM who hits hard and is evolving his game, but isn't a great wrestler, or an effective defensive wrestler in this most recent fight, no question, or is it the smaller Toporia who's got a completely well-rounded game,

but the last time we saw him, he weighed 145. What is it in your eyes? Well, this is the part that is exciting. I mean, this is to me the trade-off, right? So if he was at 55, you know Toporia's power carries, but I do think the ability for Islam to physically handle Toporia would be pretty significant, right? I do think that that would be a lot. By contrast, yes,

he'll be much more hydrated and I think much more able to take punches up at 170 relative, not Obviously the 70-year guys are gonna hit harder than the 55 guys on average but what I'm trying to point out is if you're gonna spot Islam 15 more pounds his relative ability to take punishment will go up I do think that it's true it's just that now of course you're dealing with much a larger opponent and so how does his ability to leverage his grappling against a guy like that who's gonna be Craig Jones trained as well how does his ability to leverage his grappling against a guy like that, who's going to be Craig Jones trained as well, how does that go up? This is an unknowable thing, to be perfectly honest. My hunch is that JDM actually might be the tougher fight, but

I'm speculating and I don't know if there's enough information to make a, you know, a hardcore determination at this point. But that's why it's exciting. That's why it's exciting Islam is going to 70. And that's part of my, again, I will say this though, I'll be very disappointed if we get either one fight from either guy at this weight class. Like if Ilya does this and is like, oh, I'm out. I wanna go to 70, I'll be upset. And if Islam does this and wins and is like,

yeah, I'm done, I'm gonna retire, I'll also be upset. My hope is that we're gonna get from either of them is something of a new campaign at this weight class. However long am I? I hope Islam can't win. You can't win and then retire. I know that's, I mean, why not? I mean, he could and it would fall in line with that camp with Habib retiring early. Although that was for father and mother. I hope Islam plans on making a run here and continuing to deepen himself in the history books. But Luke, head to head, I do think Toporia is the tougher matchup just barely because I think there's a potential embarrassment factor for him in potentially losing to the smaller man as opposed to going up and fighting a bigger man. I think Tupori is a little bit more skilled. Obviously you'd have

huge questions to answer about whether his skills rise in weight with him. But there is this soft Georgia versus Dagestan rivalry going on. I think you can say that's true, right? Marab just took the belt from Umar or in that in that fight or kept Umar away from winning the belt. Um maybe that's part of it, Luke. Maybe that's part of it deeper. It's a good rivalry that's brewing here. Yeah. To me, this fight, it's weird. It kind of grew a new life after the division or I should say after

the UFC moved on from it. It actually got even hotter and that was kind of surprising. Real quick Long Island Luke, if I can bring you in for the betting angle, no DraftKings line, but early offshore lines have a plus 175, I'm sorry, plus 200 underdog here for the champion Della Maddalena where Islam would be a minus 175 favorite. How do you speak on that? I mean, I doubted JDM against Bilal. I don't know if I could do it again, but I also feel like Islam wins that fight pretty easily. He wins it, but how do I have to see it?

When I say easily, I'm saying like eight out of 10 times. I think Islam wins that fight. Wow. He also said Gary would run through protest and that almost became a bear trap at the end. That's right. Yeah. Well. Don't look at this guy. Yeah. All right. There you go. All right. This is good though.

Look, I have to say all in all, we can nitpick and we do. We're critical and we need to. This changes my optimism moving forward, my lookout for the head of the year because what I want from them is health. What I want for them is buzz. I want job security. I want my content to move product. I want to be excited as a fan When you do the big things the right way

Forget the day-to-day stuff forget the the the apex matchmaking When you hit the main events with shit that that's gonna wake up casuals or part-time fans. That's when I get fired up They're doing that the rest of this year. It seems. It seems. There's a lot of potential for that. Let's go. On paper, the summer looks scorching. So I'm just going to try and remain cautiously optimistic and I think if they deliver on what they've got on paper, we'll be in a good place by the fall. Yeah. And I think the next few cards, you know, the newer card. I mean, I don't

hate. I mean, there's this sort of bite. me is could it could be good but I'm I'm actually I'm actually a little bit negative about that one. Yeah, a little bit but but I'll I'll I'll put some optimism on there with everything else going around it. What we have this Saturday though, Luke is topic number four as we continue on down with the UFC and it's UFC Fight Night Apex style. I believe right. Apex. Yeah. Oh yeah.

We back in a big way in a welterweight main event is 38 year old former title challenger friend of the program. The beloved Gilbert Burns welcomes in an absolute red hot welterweight in Michael Morales, the 25 year old from Ecuador who is 17 and oh overall won all five of his UFC fights. One is doing Dana White contender series fight and enters this fight fresh off of a first round TKO, a destructive win over veteran Neil Magne. Gilbert Burns on the other side is 38 like I mentioned, but Brazilians age gracefully or more than others, Luke. We've seen problem is he's lost three in a row. Ultimately competition, though, when we're talking about Bilal,

JDM and Sean Brady. Luke, I freaking love I freaking love this fight. And this breakdown of Burns versus Morales in this UFC fight night preview is brought to you, by the way, by Total Wireless, the official wireless provider of UFC get unlimited data that won't slow you down. So Luke, the stakes are pretty clear here. Let's discuss this fight. How much realistically in your eyes does Burns have left to offer the rising Morales in a deep and fun division? I gotta say, so normally in these contests, which the UFC is now

doing like much more nakedly, especially in these like apex main events, where they're taking a young up and comer against an aging vet. I mean, that's always been the model, but it feels like it's especially been tuned up with some of these apex main events. Now, normally I'm like, you know what? I respect the aging veteran, but I just feel like it's the young guy's time.

I don't know about this one. This one, I've got questions. Let's put it that way. I got questions. If you watch Michael Morales. Now one thing I will say that Gilbert Burns is very much up against here. Morales is going to have an eight inch reach advantage. I mean, holy shit. That is holy crap. Yeah, 71 versus 79 inch reach. That is that's a big one. All right. So that alone gives me some serious pause. Also, if you just watch Morales, he's a fucking tank. He's really strong. He's

got a good chin. You know, and he does have obviously big power. You know, you watch the Jake Matthews fight, he would hit Matthews and Matthews, you could tell just had a very different reaction versus when Matthews would hit him. So you know he's just a physically imposing force that I think is going to be real tough for Gilbert to deal with. But here's the thing BC.

Morales as good as he is and he is quite good. He's 25. Dude, he makes a lot of errors. A lot of errors. He leaves his feet all the time in ways that he shouldn't. He constantly rhythm steps, he drops his jab, he doesn't throw necessarily in combination. He over pursues via position.

He doesn't set up his jab a lot of times. He gets countered off of it all the time. He does have very good and very strong take down defense, but you know, Gilbert's crafty. If Gilbert can find the back, I mean, the thing for me is, yes, it's youth versus experience. That for sure is true. But you're just talking about a guy in Gilbert

who's got like a lot of experience. And you got a guy in Morales who's got really green skillset, relatively speaking. Normally when we see these kinds of matchups, they're a little bit closer in terms of, you know, one guy, the young and up-and-comers a little bit more polished than this. And then the old guy is quite as battle tested as Gilbert is. I know the odds have Gilbert like way down.

The odds are insane. Okay. The odds are insane when you consider Gilbert's one year removed from putting it on the current champion and being up on the scorecards, two out of three with two minutes to go in the fight. That's what I mean, dude. That's what I mean.

Now also what we also learned is Jack Dela Maddalena is very good at extracting himself from bad situations. So on the one hand, that's true, but I got to my head, I'm probably just going to say past his prologue. And I think Morales should probably get the nod here, but he is green relative to relative to burns, dude, there's a big gap in skill here. You just have to wonder how much will the physical part kind of just make up for it? I guess we'll find out. I mean, didn't we just see in another young rising welterweight and Carlos Pratish who did

rally back in the final round to redeem certain elements of that fight against Ian Machado Gary, but I think he's a little bit, I don't know, is it fair to say he's a little bit more poised and less raw than Morales and yet he looked like that was a huge wake-up call Now granted that's Ian Machado-Garry a younger fighter right in the top five looking for a title shot next. But I wonder if there's room here not just in the idea that Gilbert might still have enough left in the tank, but you got to prove it at the higher level the more you rise and if you have these gaping flaws. I guess I don't fully understand this line, according to DraftKings right now.

Even with 38-year-old Gilbert on a three-fight losing skid, even with the fact that he got stopped kind of brutally by the current champion, Jack Della Maddalena, and Gilbert would say afterwards, by the way, that Jack Della hits harder than anyone he has ever faced, your current odds are plus 600 for Gilbert, minus 900 on Michael Morales. Look, we said at 25, unbeaten, stop Neil Magnihan in less than a round, which tells you something.

But there's some flaws to that game. This is what old veterans do, expose fault flaws in that game. And you've got an old veteran who can not only bang But on the ground he's dangerous not just in controlling you but submitting you. I don't know dude. I'm Long Allen Luke jump in here from a betting perspective, please because you're gonna be all over this card on Saturday I mean I told you guys on Monday. Yeah Monday. Yeah when I saw you guys I said, dude, you see the line on Gilbert Burns right now I mean, same, same points you made the three fight losing streak before they just updated the rankings. Cause now Bilal's the number one contender, but Sean Brady was before they updated it. We're talking the current champ, former champ,

number one contender. That's it. Michael Morales hasn't fought anyone in the top 15 right now. He fought Neil Magni. Yeah. Magni fell out of the top 15. Unproven. And you're putting him Gilbert plus 600. I'm on Gilbert all day. Let's go. I'm telling you, Luke. I mean, look, what is, what is Michael Morales is ground skills? Will this decide the fight? He doesn't have what Burns has on the ground, but he's got phenomenal takedown defense. I think he's got plus 90%. That'll help him a lot. Yeah.

Is that what the money, the odds makers are saying here? It has to be the hit. Yeah. He's bigger. He's much stronger. I'm sure. And he's got really, really good balance, really good takedown defense. That's where he's pretty strong, but dude, he can be hit.

I mean, he's there to be hit. Like it's again, I got into my head. I'm going to pick Morales. Um, I think people are sleeping I'm going to pick Morales. I think people are sleeping on Burns a little bit, man. I really do. They are. Burns enters as the number eight welterweight according to the UFC rankings.

Number 12 is Morales, and here is Gilbert Burns talking about how the Hamsot brawl, which I'm still going to say it, there's a huge argument to be made that Gilbert did win that fight over three rounds and didn't get the nod he's claiming this fight derailed him let's listen so many things that I changed like so many priorities so many things you know I think honestly I think it got way too big after that that that she might have fight you know and then why and if you don't mind me asking why do you why do you think what happened there? I think it got a lot of fans, it got a lot of recognition.

What is not a bad thing... Rightfully so. You know, it was good, a lot of opportunities, couple sponsors, you know, the fans recognizing everywhere. And it built up my platform to a different level you know. So but then you kind of get caught up with these a little bit like making money, traveling, getting recognition and I think that kind of took me a little bit away, is slowly away on my path that you know that during the train is hard I want to become a champion is not was not a bad thing to kind of have that

financially grow right but it kind of took me a little bit out of my path and also and then it's slowly after those couple losses was kind of actually very good for me to reflect on that See what I change and kind of start correcting that a little bit putting my priority first get my My my relationship with God kind of like to a place that I never been there, right? I wanted Luke he is honest as shit all the time He's such a great interview, but you know what he kind of said without saying, first of all, I love that he was that honest and basically was like, it went to my head, maybe it compromised who I am training wise and all that.

It seems like he got more positive attention from being a warrior and a fight to red hot, Chumaya from like fame and sponsorship levels. Then he did fighting Kamara Usman for the welterweight title. Is that what he kind of said without saying? Sort of in a way. I mean, it did blow him up. Like that whole thing had a strange effect on him. But I'm with you.

Like I didn't realize that he internally had that, well, that he kind of got lost as a consequence of it. I'm not sure how you would describe it exactly, but whatever he said. But you know, to your point, BC, like the dude has an unrelenting desire to be truthful to himself to thine own self be true and he really does and I Think that's why he succeeds for as long as he has BC

It's because of his ability to not lie to himself because that's how he gets better. That's how he understands his flaws That's how he centers himself. That's how he understands his flaws. That's how he centers himself. This is what I mean, dude. Gilbert burns. Listen, Morales might beat him gun to my head. I'm going to pick them, but I think burns is, is nobody's pushover. And I think Morales has his fucking hands full tomorrow night.

All right. Well look, that three fight losing streak, we mentioned the names, right? The ball, I'll fight. If you want to try to revise history, he took it on extreme short notice and regretted it afterwards and wasn't full steam. Obviously either was Bilal, but Bilal gutted it out and got the win. We already established against the current champion JDM, he was winning the fight. He was controlling him on the ground, a less refined version of JDM, but still. But Luke, you're only as good as your last fight.

So if we can explain away to some degree, those two losses, what do you say about the decision loss to Sean Brady? Did that show us that these odds are correct in your eyes or was there just as much in that fight to say this guy still has it? But Brady's such a different opponent. Yeah. Brady, like look at look at Brady now. Brady is polished, experienced. He might be limited in certain ways because every fighter is not every fighter is, you know, 100% strength in every direction. But like look at how well he can manage around.

Look at how well he was able to apply his takedowns and at first you Couldn't get him that eventually he I got them all look at how smooth and and Competent he is in those exchanges on the ground like especially with that Leon fight what you're asking about the burns fight But like in the Leon fight like dude you're dealing with a very different kind of guy Morales is not that at least not not that we've seen, not that we've seen. So, you know, I understand the nature of your question, but to me, between Brady and Morales,

you're just dealing with like, Burns is up against something very different between them. I don't think we should sleep on how skillful in certain capacities Morales can be, but I don't think we should look the other way on how green he is in other ones. Um, it's hard for me to not see it on tape. It's, it's quite apparent. Uh, maybe bring back that last topic for just one quick second. This division at welterweight is arguably the deepest and it's in the standpoint of like fighters from eight through 15 being, you know, scary and legit

and coming on. Do we need Mahachev right now when we already kind of bottlenecked at the top, meaning there's a bunch of fighters from Brady to Buckley. If he beats Usman to Gary, who are deserve it deserve an ish deserving ish of titles is the, you know, and if Morales wins this, he's going to make a leap in that conversation too. Do we need to we need to Islam in this right now? Or is that complicating things? Well, again, I mean, it would have been nice to have gotten the ilia fight, I suppose. But what I will say is putting that

aside. Nah, I kind of love it that there's a bunch of guys. I mean, JDM is the man right now at 70. But like in your heart of hearts, are you firmly without a shadow of a doubt convinced he's the best 170 or no it might be shop god who i didn't mention yeah it might be shop god yeah so this is my point you got a bunch of guys who have you can decide who's who uh and again jdm's the man but you've got a bunch of guys right now who have i think a pretty credible claim to being the best welterweight in the world including but not limited to islam let him fight it out, brother. I'm all in favor of that. Let me see how that looks.

Well, Gilbert Burns believes he's actually not that far away from entering that title conversation and getting another chance at gold. Remember, he fought for the title once against teammate Kamaru Usman, dropped him in the first round before getting stopped. Let's hear from Gilbert one more time. I believe so. I believe that two wins there, I'm in the first round before getting stopped. Let's hear from Gilbert one more time. I believe so. I believe that from the victories I'm in the game. All the guys I lost, I didn't lose to any pangarets. I lost to Camaro, who is the champion. I lost to Shimaev, who is fighting for the title.

I lost to Belal, who became the champion. To Jack, who became the champion. To Sean Brady, who is the number one contender there, I fight against everyone. I think that's what the UFC respects too, sees that too. But I see that I'm on the way, you know? I have to return to the path of victory there, believe in the adjustments I'm making. And it's not far, Guil. I believe that the Morales Cup I'm back in the game, another great victory there will be like a movie, my brother. Imagine Dorinho, champion there, becomes a movie.

So it's my job now to believe that this movie will happen and that let's work, let's give our best for it to happen. In the ranking it doesn't move, but I but I know it has nothing to do with it. When Jack Madalena beat more win away from the title. And he said the number, the ranking number won't matter. And he pointed out how Jack Delamattalena at that moment was not the top contender. The C's just sort of parted perfectly for him. Seems ambitious given the, uh, the traffic jam atop this division. Do you think he's right?

I don't know. I don't think that, but he goes in there and blows the doors off Morales and he gets another fight against, I don't know, rock Monoff. Yeah. Well, good luck. Congratulations on the upset win. Here's rock. Yeah.

Yes. Yes. But you know, it's, I'll say this, let me backtrack a little bit. It's possible. It's possible. I find it unlikely, but not out of the question. I just feel like to the thing we've already raised, you know, Buckley's on his way. Brady's on his way. Rockmano is going to be back on his way.

JDM is already here. Here comes Islam. You know, you got to jump those guys in the queue or at least stay steady with them. You got to do. I mean, it's do or die on Saturday and anything short of that makes the question completely moot. Well, if Morales wins at 25 years old this would be obviously for the unbeaten fighter the biggest win of his career yet another name that he's sort of packaging together of veterans that he would advance with he would enter the the greater the

larger title picture the top 10 without a question here and let's hear from Michael Morales uh he's here to tell you Luke that he also hates Ian Gary so So let's hear from him on that Ian Gary being a backup over in Montreal would he be the first call out that you would have an After win on Saturday, would you call out on the air and Gary? He's a great fighter and somebody that has always looked into as an opponent my understanding is no longer a an undefeated fighter That loss is there but still a fighter that everybody My understanding is no longer an undefeated fighter. That loss is there, but still a fighter that everybody puts up on top. And I think somebody that would be next. Obviously, we don't know who will be fighting, but I'd love to wipe the smile off that face.

But it would be somebody that we consider for our next fight. All right, Luke Thomas, it's time to go for it you already teased that way it seems like you're going Morales we know that it could go either way the odds are bloated how does Morales get it done in your eyes? Decision I think he wins three out of five um I think that he land the big punch eventually. I think that he hurts Gilbert. He's going to be hard to take down. But I think he's I think his physical prowess will probably will probably make the difference

in the end. But it's going to be tough man. This is the first time he's going five Luke. He's done three route the three round distance four times. He's got a lot of early finishes in his 17 and 0 run up to this point. So we're going to learn a lot about the gas tank of Michael Morales, the adaptability,

and whether a mistake could cost him in the end. Dang, I wanna lean Gilbert here, Luke, but sometimes young legs, young hands, young power can just get it done. If Morales gets this done, even as a heavy favorite, it would say a lot about his fighting future. My heart's with Gilbert. Yeah, my bet's gonna be with Gilbert. Give me Gilbert. Give me Gilbert one last time here, Luke. That's the way I'm going

with this. Uh to to to veteran his way through and figure it out. Asking a lot of him but his back's against the wall and you know about wounded animals, Luke, especially old Brazilian guys. They'll pull another win out of that satchel if you give him the opportunity, you know that's possible in the co main event looks like my buddy Paul Craig is fighting for his job potentially here Luke when you're talking about the 37 year old Scotsman who is on a three fight losing streak that

extends back to having lost five of his last six dating back to 2022 yet He's a betting favorite against Rodolfo Bellotto Who is fresh off himself a draw with Jimmy Crew? And he's on a four-fight winning streak before that including his UFC debut when he ground and pounded eat whore, e whore poteria. So Luke Thomas, as we speak right now on the odds, according to DraftKings, Oh boy, I was wrong. I had it flipped. Excuse me for my mistake. Plus four 10 is Paul Craig

rightfully as the underdog minus five 50 for Rodolfo Bellotto. Luke, people criticize him for the Jimmy crude draw, but Craig feels like he's on borrowed time. Is it win or go home for Paul Craig right here? Well, the crude draw was for Bellotto. Right, that's what I'm saying. People have criticized him. Oh yeah, yeah.

Which makes me think people believe Paul Craig has got a shot here, but. I mean, here's what I'm saying. People have criticized him. Oh, yeah. Which makes me think people believe Paul Craig has got a shot here, but I mean, here's the thing, dude. Bellato is like Bellato. I would probably pronounce it. I mean, his stats do not necessarily inspire a ton of confidence, but they do at the same time. Let me tell you why strikes landed per minute. 6.28 just super high. It's like two X the average rate. That's very, very high. Here's the problem. Strikes absorb per minute 6.31. That's, that's, that's like three times the, the, the normal level. Like he takes a shit ton of damage. That's the first problem. However, BC,

what I will say is his takedown defense is up to this point. Now, granted, it's a limited UFC resume, but up to this point has been a hundred percent. did UFC resume, but up to this point has been 100%. So it's good that Craig is back at 205. I think he's gonna be more physical there and I think he needs to be more physical there. But he just doesn't move his head a lot. Bellato throws a lot of punches. He's got good takedown defense.

But he's a donk and he can make mistakes. So I don't think it's out of the question for Craig to win. He's got a lot of fights that he should. I mean, dude, he fucking subbed on Kalaya for fuck's sake. Like he can get he can get wins, but It's not looking great. It's not looking great. Paul Craig spoke this week and he believes it's just that it's winter go home. We love him. He's a friend of the program Luke. He's tore up many parts of UK from the from a woman's standpoint Luke if you know what I'm talking about. Yeah a little bump and grind. Let's not forget he stopped Jamal Hill former champion back in 2021 an aging Shogun Hua. He's done some

things here Luke. Let's hear him talk about needing one more to stay alive. That move to middleweight at the time was a great idea. And after that victory against Andriy Munoz in London was incredible. I didn't really get a chance to get running as a middleweight. And that's because I had three high level opponents in front of me. I had Kyle Baralo, Brendan Allen and Bo Nichol. So there are no slouches in this game and to lose to them, it's not an embarrassment. But it's difficult to pick yourself up for three losses because this sport is about entertaining and if you're not entertaining,

you're not winning, then the UFC have no right to keep you and I know that myself. I'm not being, I'm not under any illusion that a loss come Saturday night would potentially result in me not having a UFC contract on the Monday morning. So that for me is fire and that's what I think I need. I do my best work with my backs against the wall and everybody's written me off. So that's why this fight is ideal for me. Move back up to light heavyweight, don't have to cut all that extra muscle mass and it's game day for me. Sadly, he is right. He does his best work in fights that he gets his ass kicked early and knocked down and then he tends to pull out some miraculous move here, but his back is

against the wall. I wish him well. We'll see what happens against Rodolfo here. Thank you, Zoe for the support and love. Oh, Luke, when you look at the question question how do Zoe and Reggie get along? Reggie is the male alpha of the cat world in our family. One male two two females so they get along well when he wants them to but his his go to move is if anyone has found themselves a

comfy sleeping spot whether it be in front of the sun coming in he'll go up start to clean them and then bite on on their neck and their throat until they try to fight him off or inevitably run away. So she hates him for that. But if he's in the mood to be nice, she's the mother hen of the house. She's the OG. She'll show that love. You know what I mean? Do they play hide the salami? What do they do? No, they brawlwl they brawl viciously His dude Reggie's an a-hole and he has no head movement. He's like every MMA fighter He just still sit in there and they will light the girls will light him up with shots And he'll just turn his head and shake it off and then pounce on them and bite their throat

You know, that's how he gets down. He's a he's a predator that guy Luke. Can we look up and down the card? Okay, we got Sadik Youssef riding a two-fight losing skid both against you know, big names and elite fighters as he welcomes Myron Santos Are you into that? Yeah, that's actually a really fun contest. I think long out Luke You were telling me the odds on this one are all wonky as well, correct? Yeah, well, I just not that they're wonky, but I didn't think Sadik would be a dog. He's plus 114 right now I like him as a dog to get it done. Yeah, I'm surprised by that as well I think he has not had his best showing in quite some time, but I still think he's got pretty decent ability It was a pretty good ability. Actually. He's a good fighter

And my Ron Santos granted he looked he should not have won his last fight, but that was a The guy he lost he was a wrestle boxer, which is not exactly what uh, Sudeik is. So I think it's going to be a different kind of fight. Um, you know, Jared Gordon, Tiago Moises is fine. Uh, the one that's kind of interesting is Hyeongseong Park, undefeated fighter, one road to UFC. I think the fly weight division. Yes.

Um, he looks somewhat limited and green, but ever developing and pretty good. He's taking on Carlos Hernandez. That should be a ton of fun. And obviously Tisha Torres, previously Natisha Pennington kicks off the card against Luana Pinheiro. But in the, Oh yeah. And juicy J up against a Mel Quisiel Costa. That's a banger. That fights a banger. So like all these apex cards, there's some bangers up and down there, you know. Yeah, it kind of is what it is the rest of the way on that card, Luke. So we'll take it. We'll be happy for a good main event. We'll see if Paul Craig can stay alive. And I don't know if you just saw on social media that Donald Trump basically threatened to deport Bruce Springsteen on his way back into

the country if he doesn't keep his mouth shut. So that's interesting. Oh, did he? Yeah. He was like, we'll see what happens when he gets tries to get back in. We'll see what happens. That's fun. We'll see if he ends up in El Salvador, the boss there, Luke. Topic number five to close this out is a quick little roundup of all things going on in boxing. There's been some weird and wacky stuff this week. We did get the kickoff press conference for the June 28th Anaheim Dazon pay-per-view as Jake Paul welcomes former middleweight title holder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. amid a lot of backlash from folks who believe that at 39 coming off of years of drug abuse and mental health challenges that Chavez Jr. is a corpse of himself. The press conference was all about the

theme with Julio Cesar Sr senior next to him that junior is training like never before to represent boxing and save his career against Jake Paul. Let's hear from Jake Paul on his stated goal for the future. You've got a former champion sitting over here to the left with a big name. Does this signal to the boxing world that you're looking to get back on that championship path, the pursuit of a world title? Yeah, look, I always said it. I'm going to fight really tough people, and I'm going to fight big money fights.

You know, this is prize fighting. And so I'm giving the fans what they want with every single fight, taking on tougher opponents, and this is just that. I can't help but notice it's a cruiserweight fight. The co-main event is a cruiserweight world title If you look just to your right, there are two belts sitting there on the stage Is it at all in your mind if you beat Julio Cesar Chavez jr. That a matchup with that man Zerda Ramirez might not be far behind. Yeah 100% man

This is what I came here to do is become world champion and to create one of the greatest sports stories the world has ever seen. Going from Disney Channel to YouTube to world champion in six to seven years, that's the most relatable and best sports story that any kid can get behind. And that's what I'm here to do, is inspire the next generation and do what no one's ever done before

in the world's hardest sport, which is boxing. You've faced some hostile environments in the past, the Nate Diaz fight being one of them, but this might be the most hostile you've walked into. Southern California, two Mexicans on the card. What do you think about fighting in this type of atmosphere? Man, the Mexicans love me, bro. I'm stepping into my home environment.

They love me more than they love this guy. Mexico doesn't even claim him, so that's just the way it is. And I love my Mexican fans and they've always been rocking with me since day one. And I'm gonna show him who the real Mexican warrior is. Now, look, I know this fight not for everybody. And there's a lot to criticize here. Interesting that Jake chose to play the heel in this

and basically just pissed on Chavez Jr. The whole press conference for being drug addicted and not anything close to his prime. He also went after senior and told him to shut the F up a bit. We only play this though for the bigger picture. Do you believe Jake is ready maybe to cash himself out since he was willing to fight Canelo? He was willing to fight AJ if he wins this and Zerto wins in the co-main event against Unial Dorticosekos, do you think we see this? Would you be fired up to see Jake Paul in a cruiserweight

title fight against El Zerto? I'd be worried for Jake a little bit, if I could be honest with you. Um, I mean, just sort of a question here, like what is he attempting to prove here? Or what can he really actually not, not even what is he attempting? That's the wrong question rather. The question is, what can he really actually not not even what is he attempting that's the wrong question rather the question is what can he prove here and i'm not speaking about him as an energizing force in boxing particularly on the promotion side but not uh but not merely that one creating big events for the sport having them domestically i mean these are things that you know sport does need

right now on some level for sure but But just in terms of like what is achievable, I mean what is achievable is whatever he can turn it into BC. But like what is he actually proving with a win like this because I'm assuming he's gonna get it. The answer is listen dude, you know everybody who steps in there to a degree deserves respect. He certainly seems to like boxing a lot. I think he's done a lot of good for it. I really mean that. But like, what does this fight prove? It doesn't prove anything. There's a big argument to be made that JCC Junior was never

that great at all to begin with, whatever you're getting now is just a completely hollowed out version of even that. He was a way fully at best in his prime. A way probably at one second. Yeah, we believe in this. you know the two like the three boxers that the real three boxers that Jake Paul has fought, he lost to Tommy Fury and then the other two were just like club level guys. You know, August and I forget the other guys named Borland. I think was the other guy's name.

Like these are just club level fighters. Like in terms of what he's actually proven and what can be proven, you know, it's fairly limited. Now that's not to say BC that he can't win and turn it into something to the point you raise. He could fight Zerto I suppose, depending on how that goes. But like dude, Zerto would I think fucking do real nasty shit to him. He would hammer him. Yeah.

So it's like, it's like, I don't, you know, the Jake Paul equation, like when he first got into the sport, we were all like, oh, is this bad for boxing. I think we can definitively declare. It's definitely not like it's definitely not bad for boxing in fact Net net Jake Paul is good for boxing. You know there's I think that's the reality, but I Just don't want to do another media cycle where we're like pretending He's trying to achieve something that he can't or is even really on the table. There's just nothing to be said about this fight other than it might do well. It's good to have boxing in the States. It's another step in his career. And if people want to see it, they

can go see it. But the sum total of it is no more than that. I would I would have interest if he is going to go for it. You know, fight a real boxer boxer fight a guy your own weight. If he tries to fight for the cruiserweight unified title against Zerto with the danger there and what we expect to happen, I'd give him credit and I would wanna see it. This one not so much but Jake is also a promoter Luke and he made a lot of real big news once again this week signing Savannah

Marshall who is gonna match against Shaday Green in a super middleweight title unification on that July 11th Taylor Serrano card in New York City. He also signed Chantel Cameron who had that two fight series with Katie Taylor and is a former undisputed champion and then went inside 43 year old boxing Hall of Famer Holly Holm who is going to debut on that Taylor Serrano three card against a 10 and 0 fighter who people are saying is absolutely legit who he also signed. I don't hate these signings Luke. He's continuing to corner the market in women's boxing and I think he's doing the right things

in these areas. So yeah in that respect I have nothing but nice things to say. I think he's doing his best to you know there's a question about whether Holly Holm should still be fighting at 43 I think but beyond that like what he's doing for women's boxing what he's doing for boxing more broadly again putting on shows domestically you know he's doing stuff that a lot of these other boxers just don't and won't and we'll take a check to go do anything else so I really really respect that it's just I'm not gonna sit here and be like oh wow if he

beats JCC jr. this means a lot it It doesn't. It doesn't mean a lot. But I hope that fans who attend and watch have a good time. And thank you for long on Luke on all these weight updates. Everybody on the UFC Fight Night card is in and has made weight. So that card is all set on Saturday. Luke, we're also seeing a future fight tease here for Teo Fimo Lopez Jr coming off of essentially that that clean and clear wide unanimous decision victory over unbeaten Arnold Barbosa in Times Square. Teo followed it up with more N word racism Luke to the level that the WBO is actually taking

action against him. By the way, Berlanka dropped the N word like crazy at the press conference yesterday too. Maybe it's in New York City. This is the age for stupid men to say slurs. So welcome to it. All right. But the idea of him moving up to welterweight and taking on the best in show at the moment, which is unified champion, Jaron Bucenes, has to make you fired the hell up. It's being discussed for July. Here's Eddie Hearn after yesterday's Ring Magazine press conference. So we are talking, we're in negotiations for Jaron to fight Teofima. And it's a hell of a fight.

And Jaron, you know, you heard his excellency, he said it there, you know, and this is just the last 48 hours. So Jaron's been chilling out, you know, there is a date in August that we could be looking at in Saudi Arabia, but we weren't really expecting to fight in August, if I'm honest. You know, we was expecting to fight in September, October.

We have a mandatory challenger in Chakram Giyasof, who stepped aside for the Staniy Onis fight, but I believe there's a conversation to be had there and I've got a call with Jaron and Everett and the team and Bozai in about an hour to see if that's something we want to do. I will say there is still the conversation about 47-54, you know, it is inevitable, the move, but I feel like the Tiafimo fight is a great fight and I think that's a great option for him so I honestly think that I think that it's just too big and too good but I rate Tiafimo but yeah when we did the weigh-in here T Tia Fimo stood on the scales,

about six hours, eight hours into hydrating, he was about 146 pounds. Barbosa was about 157. All right? I don't think he's a big 140, Tia. Wait till you see Boots on the night in there, hydrated, fit, healthy, and he's a hell of a fighter. I don't listen. It's a great fight for boxing I don't see anybody beating boots and it's 147 154 160 It's a great fight

Luke shout out to Luke back in sports the up-and-coming boxing journalists for getting that sound there Luke shout out to Luke back in sports, the up and coming boxing journalists for getting that sound there. Uh, Teo did ask for the fight immediately after the barbosa one making a uh, what do they make a weird, uh boots, uh, Dora the alarm Dora the explorer and i'm looking for boots. Yeah. Do you sign with eddie align with eddie here that Teo might be too small Because a great fight it's such I mean i'm, I'm curious. I'll say this. I'll say this BC boots versus Brian Norman or boots versus Teo Fimo. I'll take tail. I'll take tail. Not to win, but I'm saying as a choice between the two opponents. Brian Norman's good. I can't wait to see him in big fights, dude. Yeah, no, no, I'm not saying it's some kind of scrub ass fight. I'm just saying like the Lopez factor looms like it's it's an he's a wild card. And one more time. I mean, granted, you know, Barbosa didn't have the most electrifying performance. But if anybody of the six fighters on

that Fatal Fury card in Times Square look good, it would definitely was Lopez. Now, he does appear to be a, you know, he doesn't have the most racially enlightened views I've ever heard. uh he does he is a good boxer so and yesterday they did have that press conference to formally announce the Saturday July 12th ring magazine number three card it comes one night after Taylor Serrano three on Netflix from msg this time it's going to be at the tennis stadium in Queens near the old chase stadium there near city field it's not the Arthur at the tennis stadium in Queens, near the old Chase Stadium there, near City Field.

It's not the Arthur Ashe Stadium with the dome that they use for the US Open Final. It's one of the stadiums in that complex and the early AI pictures make it look pretty gnarly as a potential venue. But look at the press conference, Wade Plemons was the host for Dazon and Turkey Alashik called in and basically pushed himself

to be on speakerphone to the microphone and basically, she called in and basically pushed himself to be on speakerphone to the microphone and basically challenged everyone on the card to not put forth the stinker that they did in Times Square because there's a ton of big matchups to be made. Let's see this for the boxing. Uh, Shakur, one of the greatest fighter bound of the bound now in the wall. She runs is the ambassador and Shakur, both of them is the ambassador of Riyadh season. Shiraz is looking to have a big performance in America

and watching the result of Krover and Canelo. Berlanga want to put very big statement in the first card with us. Zubayda have a lot of options. We have the Latino site. We have a big fight preparing now in Mexico. This is important card. This is important card. And the last request for Mr. Versace, this belt, we change it. We now want the new Virgin, please try to have the new Virgin from the factory in England.

Thank you. So Mr. Versace is Rick Reno, who's going to get the new Ring Magazine belt. The co-main events there, the double main event, excuse me, is Berlanga against Hamza Shiraz at Super Middleweight, and then of course, Shakur Stevenson defending the title against Zepeda. Look, he did announce that Boots could be next for Teo. He did announce a few other things on there. It was weird for him to call in like that

and try to put the pressure on everybody. But I gotta be honest, a lot of the ring stuff has been weird lately, including Rick Reno's clothes, but shout out to that guy. Luke, quickly, we're running out of time here, but Turkey also moved the dates on Bud Canelo, which has got a lot of people talking about whether it's setting a smoke screen, lying to the media.

What the hell is going on? Let's just say this very quickly, BC. For folks who missed it, a report came out from my coppager, formerly VSP and now the Ring Magazine, saying one, that now you were gonna get Canelo versus Crawford not on that Friday night, but the Saturday night, which by the way would make it go head to head with UFC 320. So you're like, okay, that's weird. Cause that Dana White supposed to be ostensibly promoting both.

And that now it was a Riyadh season and a pay-per-view rather than being like a Netflix, well, we're not free, but you know, free through your Netflix subscription. So it's like, what the hell is happening? You're moving dates. It's not on Netflix. Is it even TKO anymore? Like what is happening here? Then the maybe a day or two later, Lance Pug on Netflix, is it even TKO anymore? Like what is happening here? Then the maybe a

day or two later, Lance Pugmeier of Boxing Scene put out a report from an industry insider saying, well, no, that's all misdirection. Now we don't know what's about to happen here. I guess we have to wait and see. But let's just be very, very clear about this. There's already been a situation with the ring where they put out information that Turkey admitted was knowingly false. But it's a situation. There was weird, Dougie Fisher war that they had. And then there's the time he lied to try to sign Canelo.

Okay. Now, if you have Mike Coppenter playing ball with this, you don't have, and I don't know if they are, we'll see. I'm not, I'm not declaring it happened, but if it turns out that this was a smokescreen, you do not have any obligation to take anything the Ring magazine says seriously at face value nor anybody associated with that brand, including Dougie Fisher, including my Coppinger, and frankly, including anybody else who's got

a byline there, they cannot be trusted in that event lying to the public is a red line. You simply cannot cross. That would be to me three strikes in your out. So yeah, I mean either way this goes. This is a big story. Whether this is another smoke screen Turkey using the Ring magazine to lie. I think a lot of people are already of that same belief that when they're talking about their own events, you can't necessarily trust them or when they're talking about others because of Turkey admitting to lying to sway everybody on the Jake Canelo negotiation. So that's interesting but the other side of it is does this mean he's

not working with TKO anymore? Does this mean the Netflix thing isn't happening? This obviously means it's not going to be at Allegiant Stadium because UNLV football has the Saturday night booked. The Raiders have Sunday booked for that weekend. So I think the most interesting thing is you're not going head to head with this with the Noche. I mean, what the hell is going on here, Luke? It's just weird, man. It's just weird. It's weird that that got announced

and then there's been no follow up. There's been no like what does this mean like. Yeah, I'm waiting to see how I'm I'm going to keep my mouth shut to wait and see how it goes. But if it goes a bad way, I'm going to make sure everyone hears about it. Yeah. Yeah. So that was your boxing roundup and oh by the way, if you want to continue to stay fired up about boxing, Shaker Stevenson, by the way, is talking about moving up to 154 per or 147 to face Connor Ben there. Connor Ben wants it at 154. And speaking of Connor Ben, who's fresh off of

that fantastic performance in a loss at middleweight to Chris Eubank, one Connor Ben of the UK fame has sat down with Aachen Barack of ring champs fresh off of his mega fight with Eubank, one Connor Ben of the UK fame has sat down with Akin Barack of Ring Champs, fresh off of his mega fight with Eubank Jr. Ben chats about growing up as the son of a boxing legend, his beef with Eubank Jr. What's next and much more? Check out the full interview of Connor Ben with Akin Barack on the Ring Champs YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Luke, it's time to turn it to the fans here.

MorningCombat.gmail.com is your entry point. Tell Mikey we said hi or that you did. I don't know. But I'm going to tell you this right now. It's time to hear from the fans. First, we go to trial for things we said. Were we wrong? Were we dead wrong? You better have a timestamp and you better brought some balls with you.

Let's go. Dead wrong. Dead wrong. Alright, Luke. We had like five people write in about how Dead Wrong BC was this week. One of them being Oscar, the producer of the podcast, The Cr crack with Pizzi Carol of on the stream and he said at one hour, 33 minutes on Monday show BC said that Paul Hughes is fight with the PFL last weekend took place in Dublin. That was dead wrong. It was a homecoming fight for Hughes in Belfast, Northern

Ireland, a different country, although it's all the same, right BC wink wink. thank you Oscar for the submission. Shout out to Sean Eoin, Joe Gazi, and everybody else who burned me the same. So, my understanding is Eoin is pronounced Owen. It's probably pronounced like Rachel or something knowing them. I mean, I also might be true. Aaron go bra. I mean, lose the bra already, would you? Uh shout out to you. Can't keep making that joke.

I mean, there is no bigger sign you're a dad other than the just for men shoe polish fucking die job you got going. Then, hey guys, Eric go brah or maybe not. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's a playoff of the old Dice Clay joke. But I will say Luke, shout out to the Irish. I'm one eighth of even those in Southern Ireland.

And sorry, you're right. Belfast, Northern Ireland. We're not talking about Dublin here. I was wrong. Great crowd by the Irish. I'm one eighth of even those in southern Ireland and sorry, you're right Belfast, Northern Ireland We're not talking about Dublin here. I was wrong great crowd by the way, so I'm dead wrong The Irish always bring it our second and final dead wrong comes from Ethan He says on the Monday May 12th episode Luke Thomas says that there are 172 games in an MLB season. Hey Luke. It's actually 162 This was at two hours and three minutes of the show. Take that out. Yeah, I mean, that's still 161 too long. Let's just be

honest. It's like, hey, great job with the pitch clock and speeding up MLB broadcast. There's still 162 games. I know. I mean the NBA at 82. I never thought I would say this when people used to complain. Now, I'm at the age where I'm not die hard every week and I'm like, yeah, I don't think we need 82 games. Let's go like 50 games. We don't need 82 games at all. I did.

Another thing too is I go to like 15, maybe 20 Nats games a year just because I have a friend who is able to get me affordable tickets. It is a difference now when you go to see how quickly the games go. But Jesus Christ, dude, they're playing forever in the calendar year. It's insane how long it is. They're never going to get that because of the money they make in the stadium for the TV rights, you know, all of that. But could you imagine an NBA if they did it shorter?

We didn't have load management. You know what I'm saying? I mean, man up, manage your loads like a real man. Take some fucking steroids and get back out there you hoes. Yeah, please, thank you. Get the greenies, get the leaded coffee, thank you. Our final fan submission segment is a fan segment

where you submit your tight t-shirt picks, your artwork. Yeah, this one's called fansubs. You've got mail. Viewers. I got Don and Jay Paquette, the boss lady herself, JP from Nova Scotia. Mount Unikey is back on this program, Luke. He says, Don

and Jay say, good luck. Good day, Luke, BC, Mikey, and MK Nation and Long Island. Luke, your 2022 codonk of the year old man washed POS, Jay Paquette, recently Mike and MK Nation and Long Island Luke. Your 2022 Codonk of the Year, old man, wash, POS, Jay Paquette, recently turned 50 years old. Dawn, the boss lady and I flew up to Ontario

with my brother and sister-in-law and we were hosted by MK fan and my non-related brother, Chef Mark Paquette, at his amazing establishment, the Cast Iron Kitchen. Mark prepared an impressive private chef's table menu and wow, it did not disappoint. Luke, you are 100% correct. Getting old sucks and everything starts hurting after 40

and even more so at 50. Message to all your younger donks, form good healthy habits early, treat yourself and your health like a gift because it certainly is much love and hope everyone out there is doing well. P.S. from Dawn and Jay, Appy, quit hiding in your basement and get back into the game. Bring your worst. I'm waiting.

L.O.L. Luke, your your thoughtful, nice wishes to a 50 year old Jay Pickett. Man, look at that photo. That's incredible, bro. Look at everybody's wearing our merch, dude. I know I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I am just so grateful.

Happy birthday. Shouts to all these kind folks. First of all, getting together for each other, but then also kind of getting together and taking for us essentially. I'm humbled. It's great that there's chef Mark Paquette unrelated who lives in Nova Scotia and is also an MK dog or maybe lives in Ontario. Yeah, there it is.

And they and they connected. So shout out to those two dog or maybe lives in Ontario. Yeah, there it is. And they and they connected. So shout out to those two. That's super cool. Yeah, indeed. Thank you, JP and Don. Let's go over to Miguel. He says, what's up, guys? Longtime viewer. I'd like to get Luke's take on my tat. Oh, boy, look. I'm looking.

I mean, it pops. Definitely pops. That's like a superhero sleeve right there. Damn. It's not a sleeve It looks like a shooting sleeve Luke, I mean, here's what I'll say. I definitely think it pops I definitely think the it this is what you would call new school. Yeah, that's what you would call new school Definitely not for me But I do think it's done pretty dang well. So if this was what you wanted off the stencil, the guy who are the lady who did it did a great job. I'll say that. I don't like insulting people's tattoos

unless they're like, like bad. And that's not that's not a bad tattoo at all whatsoever. It's a good tattoo. It's just, I could never wear something like that. I understand that shot to Miguel for getting that and taking the chance, Luke making you be honest about it. I like the colors they pop. This looks a little crazy on the hand though. I'm not a big hand tack guy, but I'm also a big tattoo guy, but you know, I know. Let's keep it going here. Kim bong. The third says Long Island Luke and gaff are the Bong Island boys. Wow. Wow. Oh, are they going to smooch? Do y'all smooch on that on that show?

They got accused of doing more than smooching to each other for money, Luke. I don't know if you saw them at that weird MMA press conference yesterday. No, I don't need to know. Yeah, you don't need to know. You don't need to know. That's hilarious. Thank you. Kim Long shot at the gaff by the way, long time friend of the program one half. MK tattoo. Yeah, indeed. Uh Alan W here. He's got a weekend at Bernie's thing that's probably gonna be awesome. Oh my god. Dude, Alan W talented gentleman. I just wanna say this is kinda creepy cuz he made like an AI version of me.

Like that's not even me. I mean, that's also halfway me. First of all, it's a weirder chin and also my hair is not that brown. Wow, I look young and muscular there and hip. Look at that. But yeah, after three margaritas, it becomes weekend that loop.

This is once again, what can what, what, you know, what can I say? I, I earned it. Allen W also says in a move to improve PFL smart cages, ability to measure punch and kick speed. Don Davis upgrades the smart cage with 100,000 Nvidia H 200 GPUs, making it sentient after years of backhand comments and abuse, PFL Smart Cage, who now identifies as they them, conquers humanity and assimilates BC and LT in perpetuity on Mondays and Fridays, Morning Combat sings the praises of PFL Smart Cage. Obey your Smart Cage, Overlord. Wow, Luke. Wow. How is BC the T1000? It's motherfuckers not the upgrade. BDE, baby. Okay. How is BC the T 1000? And like, wow, he's motherfuckers, not the upgrade. BD baby. Okay. And a lot of it.

By the way, I saw Connecticut license plate with BD on it the other day. Amazing stuff. You know, did you hear the Connecticut? The Mohegan Sun might sell the yeah, the WNBA team, they might sell the team. Dang, dang. Good. Also, that that that that thing that they just made is fucking insane and incredible. Like what job? Well done. Look at that shit. Well done. That's amazing. That is great stuff. Our final fan sub submission is from a an all timer in these parts. Look, you're wearing his magic right now. It's average Joe are and he says, Hey, BC and LT,

Mikey and Long Island. Luke wanted to share some artwork I came up with while on a morning walk with my dogs last week, I'm hoping to give my beloved fans subs a shot in the arm since I've been a few weeks skipped due to lack of submissions. Well I know this isn't dudes in tight t shirts, elder abuse or 9 11 jokes. I hope everyone enjoys them just the same. Morning Combat presents 123, two, three margaritas. So, this is the count. This is the count from Sesame Street uh doing uh the one, two, three margaritas. What does it say underneath it? Oh, with Luke Thomas. That is

so good. God. And look, you can see the margarita over the numbers, you know? Yeah. Oh my god. Sesame Street with MK uh Glory right there and secondly says um, oh What's the second one here? Brian Campbell's technical thriller. Oh god, that's so good. Jesus Christ. Oh my god That's a t-shirt by the way Wow Okay, Joe says I have a long list of MK ideas and it's always good to scratch a few off. I also wanted to thank you guys for sharing

that photo of my dog Bagel that passed away a few weeks ago. It makes me happy knowing that everyone got to see her smile. Your 2023 reigning and defending Donk of the Year average Joe are. Dude, that thriller one is badass. I need that on a t-shirt. Can you show that one more time? That's so good.

Damn, look, dude. That looks, that looks to me. Oh man. Morning Combat. That's like the last thing you see if you're a hot dog at 7-Eleven. Indeed. Indeed. Uh, there it is. There's, there's the Luke three margaritas. Oh, well done folks on stepping up the fan subs part of this I forgot to throw to the clip. So one more time, don't forget to check out Connor Ben on Ring Champs with Ak and Barack on the All the Smoke Fight Network. You can check out the Ring Champs YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts. And here's a little snippet of Ak and Barack sit down with Connor Ben as we throw it to the exits.

Thank you for watching. This has been Morning Cup. When you saw that moment and the crowd was going wild. watching, this has been Morning Combat. So you felt something good about I was happy I was I was happy but I knew I should be feeling happy about this Hmm, but I was house kiss it in a gun because you can relate I could rely I get it Come on. I was like cool. Did you think it would help him in the no? I know it ain't gonna help him in a fight. No, it's like a logic. No, no, no, because soon as you get your first punch in Yeah, you know, did you think he was gonna open that? Sherling that he was wearing, that coat?

He had a blue full suit underneath. Because he was holding something, I thought, underneath it. He's bizarre. He's just bizarre. It's part of his sixth century behavior. But I'm just watching him and going, come on. Like, you're there. You did it.

We did it. Because it was just a mission to try and get him there. You know, after all the articles that were being said, at the first press conference, I was like, yeah, your dad don't like you, and, you know, speaking about, you know, how much his dad don't like him. And then as things started unfolding, where seniors started coming out and saying, yeah, you're a disgruntled, I thought, yeah.

It's never gonna happen. Last press conference, no, but then the last press conference, I didn't even wanna talk on it. You didn't wanna mention it? I felt like it was going too far now. No, it's too far now, I don't wanna talk on it. People ask me in interviews. Before it was mind games, but then it's like, no.

Yeah, people are going, then what do you think about, you, I said, like, really don't talk about it. You left it alone. Like, it ain't my place to talk now. Like, this has gone too far now, where it's like, it's talk about it. Like it ain't my place to talk now. Like this has gone too far now, where it's like, it's not about that. ["Ring the Bells"] ["Ring the Bells"]

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 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 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

Fran Chon Foo's Dazern 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.

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