MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 317 Recap: Topuria KO's Oliveira, Pantoja DOMINATES Kara-France + Serrano/Taylor Preview

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

On Monday's edition of Morning Kombat, the guys unpack all of the action from UFC 317. Ilia Topuria became the first unbeaten, 2-division champ with brutal KO1 of Charles Oliveira, Alexandre Pantoja dominated Kai Kara-France, and Joshua Van outdueled No. 1 Brandon Royval on 3-week turnaround to leapfrog the division and secure a title shot. Plus, the guys recap Jake Paul's win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and preview the upcoming Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano Trilogy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Oh, yeah. The best damn combat sports show of all time is back in your face hole. And Luke Thomas has a bone air from here to Hanover, Ohio. Hey, it's morning combat fresh off of UFC 317. Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas. Everything's coming up. Top Toria. But boy, do we have a fantastic episode for you today. Breaking down what was

I don't want to say life altering or life saving pay-per-view for the UFC but an injection a damn good one I meant hope momentum fun storylines fun fun Comments were supposed to be fun. So we had that we all said it wasn't all Chavez which will break down as well And they're also um You know, it was a good night. I'll just say that. He's in the post-coil cigarette mode. He's like, yeah, it was a good night. Yeah, I did once say that.

I told you guys it's happening. It's coming. But like, it's a good night. There we go. Look, enjoy this, OK, because your man is the best. He might be the best in the world. We'll talk about that. It's a debate now. This is Monday, June 30th, 2025 2025 if you're checking on your calendars. Hope you guys are doing well. We're old and washed, but we're here to tell you the truth about combat sports and that

still matters even if they've compromised MMA media down to where it's worthless, Luke. Well, I mean if Oscar Willis has a good job, you just know they're down to the fucking studs on that shit. Looks like bad journalists great party I'm just kidding kidding Oscar Oscar's great great fight. He's also a bad party Great guy by the way shout out to Oscar Willis Luke outside of the joy that Ilya Toporya has given you in your life and your reputation and your ability to tell America and beyond

Would you so bitch? Beyond that, how are you? Good, actually, I have to tell you I had a bit of a breakthrough at home on something. Oh, you you're now sitting to wipe like most normal. No, no, I stand like an absolute, you know, patriot. It's about freedom. That's freedom.

No, and I told you this. I think probably maybe I mentioned on the show, I've started to wear the eye mask to sleep. Yes. It has made a massive difference in my ability to sleep. So Saturday night, I went to bed at four. Usually on those nights where I go to bed at four, I wake up again at like eight. So I get like no sleep and then I have to do it again the next day. Yes. I slept till 11 a.m.

That's impossible. That's not impossible. It happened. It really, really happened. And so I did. I was like, I woke up on Sunday and I was like, I don't I don't feel terrible. This is OK. And then last night I didn't get quite enough because I was up late doing some work, but I still got enough. Like, I feel it's the toporia.

It's the toporia effect. The toporia effects took you to the level that you purchased a Dana White Anheuser-B Bush form energy drink. Now we're not sponsored by them. We're not, this is not a sponsorship. The flavor is grape smash. I mean, I like how it's like, yeah. Oh, I mean, this is the, like what kind of flavor does, you know,

somebody who is like a kindergartner who likes the incredible Hulk. I like grapes smash, you know, but what is it? What does it say under the cautions there? Is it like do not operate machinery? You may slap your significant other. No, I didn't mention that. Okay, let's try. I can't wait to see what dude.

Do this thing will kill you faster than C4 and Pink Monster combined. All right. It smells in fact like cheap grape. Does it taste like Gary Brekker? Jesus. Yes, dude. Great. Does it taste like Gary Brekker? Jesus. Yes, dude.

That is, you know me, I love energy drinks. Yeah, I know to your to your own death, you will. This is so fucking sweet. I cannot believe they think this is a good flavor. I'm going to drink it, but you're like, I'm still going to consume the whole damn thing. This is hey who wants a taste of this? I have mouth-hurt. I cannot believe how fucking sweet this is. Okay. This is sweeter than Mountain Dew. How sweet is this? This is imagine someone gave you coke and then poured Splenda and then sugar on top. That's how sweet

I'm talking about ain't or Ola, huh? Ain't or Ola? Coke Ola, okay, you can like and subscribe to this show at the oh my god social channels below You can support our independent YouTube channels attached to that and why don't we say hello? To the best boyfriend in America the fourth third member of our team today, he's a producer, director, bong enthusiast and son of a formerly horned up Australian man. And this weekend, I don't know if you're prepared for this Long Island.

Luke no Cedar of the main card minute was off the grid camping without a wifi. I want to point out he literally had to leave civilization in order to give his girlfriend time. During 317. Long Island Luke, how the hell are you brother? I'm doing a lot better now that I caught up on the fights, got to see what went down, had a little FOMO, but you know it's alright guys. Had a good weekend with the fam, the girl, everything.

Did you get eaten up by mosquitoes? No, I was actually pretty good. I did get a little sick from drinking too much. Can you tell Luke, so you brought a 24 rack and finished it in two and a half? I bought a 24 rack there was three left over when I got home But we also went to a brewery where I had a couple beers there so many how many people? There was no that was just for me. Oh There was 12 of us so in the in a span of two days camping you drink how many cans of Bud Light he drinks Bud Light

Bud Light I drink about 21. This kid rock shooting a a can mother fucker. What is the best shitty beer? Is it Bud Light? No. No it's not. I feel like Miller Light is a better shitty beer. Miller High Life. I like High Life yeah. Champagne of beers. Champagne of beers yeah. This is the red wine of tequila. What the fuck does that mean? The champagne of beers. What is that? I don't hate PBR if I'm going shitty out there. This is the water of- Anyway, how many Bud Lights did you drink this weekend? Upwards of 20. I mean, I had three left over, so it's-

It's not quite Wade Boggsian, but it's impressive. If this was a little less sweet, I actually think it'd be pretty good. Would you have been able to finish a podcast on three margaritas? I mean, I don't know if you guys realize this, every time we're doing Main Card Minute, I'm about 10 Bud Lights deep. That's a fair point. We had a couple long ribs there. So Shout out just the same odd were you moved at all by Ilya or no? Not real. I mean, there's such a ho it's unbelievable. Yo, I needed the over one and a half

So I was obviously a little disappointed. I felt like in hindsight. It was pretty obvious the result We got I will say this the odds makers having it so wide were Correct. Yeah, they were correct on a few different. Yeah, they were I will say Pantoja was my my all-star of the weekend He looked damn good. He is so fucking awesome He's so freakin good. You may see this fantastic piece of merch that I'm rocking by the way Can we put the damn camera on me? I mean, please good lord I mean, I don't even know if we sell this one But I do tell that you that we sell a lot of great stuff at morning combat

dot shop. And right now, right now you could get a what's what's what's going on a business sale. So today is the very last day that you can purchase the skits and bits shirts. I think there's a what's up. Anything else that goes out today? Skits and bits, t-shirt and hoodie. There you go. And then that's it. Once it's, once it hits midnight, that's over. July, we've got a new batch of fresh products books. Check out morning combat dot shop right now supporting us by the way, and supporting the way you look this summer. The money goes directly to Long Island, Luke, LT, and BC a nice development there. All right. Enough of this pregame bullshit. A lot of people fast forward through this Luke. They have

to realize that this is where this is the good stuff. This is where we keep the heroin. I told you that when I did serious exam, they would tell us no more than 30 seconds of this. We do 10 minutes of it. Some comedians like do like four different podcasts of this 10 minutes. You know what I mean? I mean, you're just the worst. You know, hey, let's get into the show and you know, we got a lot to talk about today.

UFC 317 went down in Las Vegas International Fight Week. Put all my hate in the side. It was fantastic. It was soul cleansing. There was a lot of things going on here. And it was also all things. Ilya Toporia to pair, you know what I'm going to say to paraphrase the great Larry Merchant after Pacquiao Cotto in 2009.

We knew Ilya Toporia was great. He's better than we thought. So Luke, the question is how great here after Toporia didn't just become the 10th two division champion in UFC history, the first to do so unbeaten. And oh, by the way, he stopped Charles Oliveira within one round. It felt like there's enough crazy hyperbole running through me to suggest a few other things that Chaporia also might have saved the USC from its own self-inflicted slump of late in this calendar year possibly became the

new face of the promotion single-handedly and maybe even past rival Islam Ahchev for pound for pound number one. So Luke Thomas in your opinion, how much of what I just said is true. What did Ilya actually accomplish on Saturday night? All of that. And then I think you're actually leaving a little bit on the table, if I'm being honest with you. Let's talk about the part that you raised. Did he become the face of the UFC? We can't say whether or not he did, but he damn sure should be. We just had a, long did this last this John Jones saga where he did toyed with the fan base and left everyone demoralized and one thing I

said on I think it was last week's MK or I can't remember exactly but one thing I said was you know what though it would like MMA needs right now was what he offered as a light heavyweight run like that John Jones would have electrified MMA well here comes Ilya to Poria to the rescue. He is arguably to your point, and it is arguable, but he is arguably the best fighter in the sport. He is the most dynamic puncher I think I've ever seen in all of MMA and all of my 20 years of watching.

It's not high from set up to delivery to power to patients, to everything. Everything. And as you're pointing out deep tape study Incredible tape study that he does So there's that I think he's easy to now My hope is actually I know it I walked in the room today and everyone's like oh here comes here comes the pro Do you know the congratulations parade, but I actually have a different request my request would be well this no no It's quite. I think quite reasonable.

I think it's in everyone's interest, the entire sports interest, that we actually rally around this guy because he can inject life and status and gigantic moments of history into the sport if we help facilitate that through realizing he's the guy. I'm also waiting for you to add on, and oh, by the way, suck my payload test.

Yeah, also lick the backside of my balls and tell me what they taste like. That's what you could do. There's one more thing I'd like to say though. This is gonna sound insane and I don't mind sounding insane. I'm not, I don't know what will happen next. So he could fight Saryukian next and lose.

Get out wrestled five rounds and this is the end. But what I'm gonna say is through 17 fights, this is one of the most, if not the most decorated run in all of MMA history. It's at least on par with some of those considerations. If you are this far into your run, you're 28 years old, you're a 2-8 world champion and you're icing people who are... And the only unbeaten 2-8 world champion. Yeah. And you're icing people along the way who are the only unbeaten 2A World Champion. And you're icing people along the way who are themselves legends in the game. It is at least worth considering not has he achieved at BC, but what trajectory is Ilya Toporya on? And the answer is one plausible claim you could make is he's headed towards Mount Rushmore

territory. He is not there. I'm not declaring to you he will get there but I'm asking you look at all the greats. Look at what they did through 17 fights and tell me it's as good as this one. You can do John Jones like that. Absolutely. You could not do that with St. Pierre who already got arm barred by Matt Hughes before that. You could not do it with Demetrius Johnson. You could not do it with Anderson Silva. You could not do it with Daniel Cormier. You could not do it I donetrius Johnson. You could not do it with Anderson Silva. You could not do it with Daniel Cormier.

You could not do it, I don't think, to the same degree with Jose Aldo. Ilya Toporya, when I said it on Saturday night, is doing something historic. Will he get to that upper level? I don't know. But the path he's on is, if he stays on it, is going to take him there. That's where he's headed. There's been times in recent years when someone flashes on and you say, wow, this could be the next thing,

whether it's Sean O'Malley, whether it's Pereira in his own unique arc coming in like he did. And really for a short period, taking over the sport in a lot of ways, being the most valuable player. But to what everything you just said, I don't feel like I've ever been more confident that this will pan out. I mean, it's panning out right in front of our eyes.

This man who I wanna like cheer against, and I have had fun, you know. Why? Can we unpack that? Well, let me, I'll tell you right now. Originally, why I wanted to cheer against him is because I won't call him cocky because there is like this humility to him.

There is this humble, hardworking, well-prepared side to him. But the fact that he's so willing to do things that we consider passe, bad luck, bad karma, change your Twitter account to champion before it happens, pose with the belts, which he did once again, like seeing the bride before the ceremony, right? Uh, making the claims that he does. I think a lot of people saw the translated face-to-face at the face-off, uh, between him and Olivero where he's, where he's almost like apologizing in advance, like, I love

you and I'm sorry it had to be you I'm gonna fucking kill you and then he does it you want to say okay he's putting the car before the horse he's too cocky he's to this he's to that no he's different he's unique you know that that term the kids say it just hits different he just hits different but I think in general how he handles himself how he prepares himself and how he ultimately Executes just fucking different Let's go to this first meme long Alan Luke if you can to show the results of Charles and then those quotes around it I'm very sorry. I didn't want it to be with you. It's Scorsese level cinema

He delivered that not with trash talk. He delivered that with like candor humble heart like brother. I love you. I respect you But they made you sign up for this and I'm taking you out dude. I'm not a hater of him I'm not as much as this sounds like gobble gobble. I'm more looking at it as I'm impressed by what he's doing I'm impressed by what he could mean during a look look during a time where UFC kind of sucks right now We've say it all the time not financially but everything else There's just no storytelling cohesion heroes to get behind like This just felt really good. He was the lightning rod behind that and I'm here to say that Right now I'm not putting constraints on any high purpley because he's backing up every fucking thing

He ever said that he was or said that he's going to do. And I know it's not going to be next. And I know in that post fight press conference that the UFC debuted, did you see that? Were he in a Dan Helley and somebody else? Yes, we have a clip for it, but it's not this, this clip. Cause I didn't see this specific clip I mentioned until the next morning. But in one of those clips that we don't have, he did mention the UFC made him promise not

to win this title and then Go directly to welterweight and announced that he's given it up You know and sort of following some kind of Connor playbook of just jumping from opportunity to opportunity but like If he's gonna be the chosen one that is the first to try to become a three division champion as of right now Even though yes, there were some I'm'm glad, okay, here's what I'm saying. I'm glad that he actually, for this, for as long as this fight lasted,

I'm glad that Toporia did meet some resistance from Olivera, that he did get taken down, that he did walk into that sort of forearm, elbow, that threw. No, he didn't get taken down. Oh, it ultimately ends up on his back after that scramble, right? No, nope.

And then reverses it and goes on top. What am I missing here? What am I missing here? So, Toporia, so, Olivera shot, Toporia pulls him up, flattens him against the fence. Olivera tries to pull him off the fence and turn him, and he was going for the takedown. Toporia reverses it like a fucking beast mid-air. This is what I'm talking about. This motherfucker is not like other fighters. So, as much as I want to have the conversation of like,

did we see any potential limitations at this weight class and is 170 too far of a leap, I'm not going to doubt this guy, Luke, until he shows me that he can't do it. And there's been very rare fighters in UFC history who are just like, whatever you're willing to try, I'm willing to believe you can do it. Seriously. Maybe it was Poetan in a window where we thought, maybe he could move up to heavyweight and knock out the champion. history who you're just like whatever you're willing to try. I'm willing to believe you can do it seriously. Maybe it was Poetan in a window where we thought maybe he could move up to heavyweight and knock out the champion or maybe it was when Adesanya looked like he was about to make some huge leaps, but there's been times where people

are like Connor was one of them where you're like, I can't put limits on this guy because he just steps up and delivers. He does it differently than Connor for all that that we can see. He's much better than Connor. He's not as big not nearly as big and the Connor thing wise what do you mean physically or well that too I mean cuz Connors bigger but I'm saying too by the time Connor was

even fighting Poirier or Chad Mendez those fights were bigger than any of to porous lights just in terms of size and audience it just was but in terms of skill to porous significantly better than him. All right. Stay with the skill topic. You mentioned and you explained to me how beautiful the reverse was for him to take top position on the ground and basically not succumb to a larger fighter trying to rush him and walk him down.

What was most impressive to you about the complete execution of what he did within one round on Saturday? I think two things I want to say, and I would love to get long on Luke to weigh in on here. To me when he said pre-fight it's gonna go about two or three minutes and it ends up going two and a half fucking minutes. I know it to me that even sounded implausible at the time. I thought he would win but it sounded like wow that's just crazy. But he clearly understands himself and his relationship to what his contemporaries can

do in a way that, like, everyone else is kind of just slow to wake up around. It's not, I don't think he was just saying that and he lucked into it because he's got big power. He basically knew Charles was going to try a few things, was going to exchange with him, and then that was just going to be it. And that's exactly what happened. But you answered, you asked a specific example. You mentioned he had to face a little bit of adversity. He took that nose shot from the elbow by Olvera. That's the exact same

sequence that the fight ended on. But there's a difference. In the final sequence, after getting drilled this way, you had him flat footed the first time, you had Olivera jump into range, kind of pull him out of it a little bit, so he jumps into range and then hits that short range shot with the elbow. Toporia got kind of caught off guard. By the final sequence, jabs to the body, jabs upstairs. What happens if you jab a guy twice? You got to know he's coming back with something.

Sure enough, here comes Olivera. But this time, rather than doing what he did before, which was step out one, two, three, he actually did one, two, three, excuse me, one, two, three, four. So he took one extra step back and one extra step out. Not a huge one, just enough for him to find that right hand. And I want to point out something, recall the right hand. BC, it wasn't even with full extension. Oh, and don't forget that that jab that split the card right before that right. Yes, that jab sort of kept Olivera in place. His jabs were so powerful, they were getting right through Olivera's guard.

But the point I wanted to make was he slightly adjusted just this. That's it. And that's all he needed. Partly, Olivera is moving into it. So it's forces colliding. But this is that's it. And that's all he needed. Partly, Olavero's moving into it, so it's forces colliding. But this is what I mean. These tiny little adjustments, it sounds like nothing, but then you ask, well, why can't anyone else do it?

Or very few anyway, because it's very difficult to be able to do that. The sense, the spatial awareness, the calmness, the decision making, it's a different level of fighter. And just, you know, this whole idea of could this be the best boxing we've ever seen in UFC or MMA history? Is he the most deadly, efficient setup to deliver the boom of anyone we've ever seen? It seems true, Luke. And mind you, he trains in his own house, in his own basement, with his brother as the trainer

and he left a team to do that, right? Like this is the Clement brothers. Yeah, they are ahead of the fricking game. And the comparisons to the breakout stardom and some things are are comparable to Connor, but they're different. But this side by side was interesting that people are floating around. If you can show that of Connor putting out Jose Aldo and then two Brazilians in the same exact manner of knocking him down and then coming in with a hammer punch. It's so significant there. That's so

incredible to me. There are different strikers but you mentioned Toporia probably a better well-rounded fighter without question. Better Jiu-Jitsu, significantly better wrestling and better power. Even though people say that he copied Connors chest tattoo idea and he's been still kind of copying Connors trash talk sure he was on the head to Patty afterwards, but holy shit. Look that was just so fucking thorough. Awesome.

Decisive exciting. How great is it at this moment in time in MMA to have anybody who can do this in the fight game right now. You are watching somebody do something that I'm telling you in 10 or 20 years they're going to be talking about this guy. And Long Island Luke was playing back the replay of the finish which UFC put out for free on YouTube instantly and it's you know approaching 10 million I think. I think it's past now. And you know Joe Rogan lost his shit almost in an unprofessional manner.

You know, when the knockout happens, usually the play by play guy steps in, everybody else lays out. Joe's just spewing words at like this monotone level. Like, I can't believe what he did. He did trample annex call. Yeah, of course he did. Right. But like at the same time, it was so, I mean, would you agree that in the first

minute of that fight when, when Oliver is rushing him and then you saw to poor, you kind of walk into that strike you kind of had like oh shit There is differences in size and weight and right here Uh, did you feel that like maybe he was up against it early on up against it? No, but definitely I recognize that you know, Olivera's Olivera is a good fighter. He's really really good fighter. Like he didn't lay down He tried he tried stuff. he knew how to do. Stuff that works on just about anybody else, you know?

Yeah, just insane. Just insane stuff. Afterwards though, they let Paddy in. And overall, I love what they did on Saturday between the Josh Van thing that we'll get into and Paddy coming in. Even if Paddy's not even your choice for the next opponent, and I'm not even sure he's UFC's choice or Dana's choice, we can get into that. But Luke, I like that they were willing to do this kind of stuff.

Now, you can do it wrong, like after Daniel Cormier defeated Derek Lewis and suddenly Brock Lesnar's in the cage, and we're just going to forget that he popped for steroids and he's pushing, you know, Cormier, and now we're going to build to that fight that never happened. There's ways you can do this wrong, but them having a backstory, Patty coming in, what do you make of Dana afterwards being upset about it and being like,

who let him in there? When it was obviously Rogan who was calling for it and was like, where's Patty? Patty, come on in. So hold on. It makes me believe what we're always saying, that Dana is on the outsides of the decision-making here. He is just the face on the microphone afterwards.

I feel like this was a choreographed move from the production team, Joe Rogan, TKO. Didn. I feel like this was a choreographed move from the production team. Joe Rogan, TKO didn't it didn't feel like that. I I don't know. So I talked to someone in UFC last week and they told me that like Dana's role in making sure like the way you see the product. That's all Dana. And he's very, very production wise.

But the way if you're watching at home, I guess in person as well. But if you're watching the fight and they did produce the third Canelo Crawford Press conference looked UFC style and it was fucking awesome. Like that's his skill Yeah, so like the way you see it. I'm told and I was told this last week by UFC employee That just looks like that that is done by Dana. So like on one level He is obviously still very connected but there to the point you raise. okay, that can be true. But then why is there this disconnect? I don't know if it was Rogan's call. He, I checked the scene. I went back and I looked again. He did have an IFB in with a battery pack. So the production truck had his ear. I have a feeling the production truck

can't tell you what to do, but the producer of the show in the production truck, they have a little bit of authority to make some calls. And they might have TKO authority over their shoulders. That's exactly right. So what I'm going to say is, I don't know if it means that Dana is losing control, but what I will say is, clearly other people in the company have different ideas than him. And they should, because remember, Dana didn't want to do Mayweather McGregor. It seemed like TKO came over the top of that anytime. I mean, Dana is showing us more and more almost this way.

There was no TKO. Sorry, you're right. Same people, but you're right. I'm just wondering if like Dana showing us that he's passed it, not just the holding the bitter edge against and gone, who but like being like, why the hell did this happen? Either way, Luke, it was exciting. First, let me show you some sound from Patty and then

I'll get your take on who should be next. But here's Patty talking about that face off afterwards and how big a fight between these two, meaning Toporia versus Pimblit, could actually be. We've got history, you know what I mean? It's, you don't even need to like sell that fight. It sells itself. Like two people who genuinely dislike each other. You don't really get that.

We haven't seen that since like, it could be even McGregor, two people who actually hate each other because I hate him. You know what I mean? I wouldn't even want to finish him fast. I'd want to finish him with a minute left in the fight after that bell bell from 700 times.

You know what I mean? Sure. That's the post fight show on the plus. I mean, they could, they could, but that's not, that's definitely not on the broadcast. I avoid that at will Luke It is interesting because I felt like Armand Suryukin should have gotten the fight on Saturday over Charles Oliva era Dana did sort of you hear Dana said in the post fight presser when he was they asked if he's upset at

Suryukin is he holding him back and he's like well he missed weight in his biggest opportunity So it's not which he classified as one of the worst things you could do But I thought it was an injury we were told now We're told the truth that he did misway behind the scenes. I thought it was an illness or an injury at the time that he pulled out. So what maybe what he meant was because of his situation. He failed to even make it to weigh in. Yes in that sense. Well, let's be honest here a fat fight against Patty.

Unless you're going to fly in Conor McGregor, and I still think there's a window to do that if you really want to pour it to be the face of the brand. I'm told he's back in the testing pool. Yes. So like, I'm not against that just from the standpoint of you have someone super special, put him in there with the all-time super special name to get that rub that's pro-wrestling style matchmaking, which proven fact, it works in combat sports. Look at the history of Pride, like how they did it there. But Luke, you can either go Pimlet, which would be a fucking fantastic build, and there's a lot of people that want to see Patty get handled like that.

You could go Sir Yookin, which is probably the best fight of the three. You could go Gachie, which is marketable for the action potential, even though he'd probably carve Gachie up. And they seem to tell him not to call out Islam and will put that big super fight on the back burner. What should be next for Tupori in his first title defense at 155, and who do you think will be next? Those are two separate questions.

So if the top choice is, if Islam is out for obvious reasons. So you have three guys. You have three guys. You have Gaethje, you have Patty Pemblit, and then you have Armand Soryukin. Yep. And Gagey's threatening retirement and Dana said Saturday post fight if you're talking about retirement, you should probably retire. It is so amazing to me that these guys think that they can sit, I respect, everyone respects Justin Gagey's career, everybody, including us, especially us, but it is so un-fucking-believable to me that guys think that they can say I mean

Maybe if you just saying it because that's the way he feels but there's no angle Associated with which right, you know trying to do reverse psychology and get and get the fight But I tend to think that there probably is some reverse psychology that does it's a fucking monopoly They don't care. I don't know how else to say it. They don't care. They don't care if you retire They don't need they don't they don't give a flying fuck if you retire. They don't care. I don't know how else to say it. They don't care. They don't care if you retire. They don't need, they don't, they don't give a flying fuck if you retire. They don't care. So, okay, putting that aside, I think the answer should be Soryukyan. Yeah. And I would accept Patty. I'm actually a lot less interested in Justin Gaethje.

Okay. I think there are good fights for Justin Gaethje. So for example, let's say they go Ilja Armin. Then Patty Gaethje to So for example, let's say they go Ilya Armin. Then Patty Gaethje to me is electric. I'm all in on that one. But let me tell you why I'm picking it the way I'm picking it. So are you getting to me, I know what Dana White said, but you asked me the question personally. He was the number one contender. And to me, I did see someone bring this up to me on my post fight show and I'd like to repeat it here and I think they're right. Okay, they say I'm not taking anything away from the volt KO. By the way,

everyone being like, oh that's because of the Islam KO. No, he would have gone down no matter what, which is what I've been fucking saying to all of you. But okay, putting that aside, he beats Max and then he beats now Olivera. Time for him to fight someone in his 20s. Agreed. Yeah. Agreed. So that's why the Patty and the Armin shot, the title shot I like. Armin to me, however, is the most interesting choice. Yes. Because his wrestling is so dominant and so consistent, he can do it for long periods of time. And I didn't see Olivera necessarily overwhelmed to Poria, but I did see him have to work for it.

So that ties into the rightful question of whether it is, is Welterweight a bridge too far potentially, or are there other lightweight title defense opportunities that could end up being a physical bridge too far? Could Toporia end up in trouble? Because remember, Toporia said, Olivera's kind of tailor-made for me. I won't have to chase him, he'll come at me.

That's exactly what happened. He was so right. He knocked him the fuck out after some early adversity or at least resistance. Do you believe that, not that it's matchup dependent, Topori is great. He might be the best in the sport, but even at 55 are there potential traps for him? Yeah, Saryukyan is one for sure. That's a one. Patty to me is interesting, not striking. I think if they strike, he's going to get his chin sent into another dimension. Well, you can't, the Scousers don't get KO'd. I don't know if you know that. Yeah, I bet Toporia can test that theory. However, however, he is big. He's fucking big. Yeah. And his back taking and back maintenance, submissions, guard,

these are all real threats. These are things that could be real, real problems for Ilya. And I definitely take that part of it seriously. With Gageje, I just feel like it'd be a matter of time before he got cracked and that would be that. So those are the two choices. You're asking beyond that. I guess we'll have to see. But I don't, I don't, I don't know aside from Islam and Patty, who I'm supposed to be looking at now, I saw maybe McGregor. Mauricio McGregor. It's a ceremonial. McGregor would get stretched.

But Mauricio Huffi was out there talking a big game, certainly on the feet. He gives me like real interesting vibes, but I don't know about the rest of his game and his take down defense and blah, blah, blah. So right now what I'm going to say is there's a couple of guys I think that could give him problems but I don't I wouldn't pick any of them over Ilya right now. I think it'd be a bad look to not do the Patty fight next if you just did what they did which was hype it up and put him in there and it was fun hype up. Maybe seriously here's a theory of mine and not a theory just a I'm not saying this is true. I'm saying wouldn't it be interesting if there's like a rogue employee in the production truck

who's like we can't fucking take this guy's decisions anymore. And then just, he's like, get Patty's fucking ass in there. And Rogan's like, let's get Patty in here. You know what I mean? Like that man's name is Hunter Campbell. That's that man forcing his hand. You know what I mean? And Hunter's got Ari and Shapiro in his ear saying, make big

matchups with trash talk. Let's do it. How we used to do. I mean, I don't know if that's true because it seems to be a TKO decision, too, of late to not spend the money to promote the big one. But everything Topori will be a part of moving forward will be the big one. So, yeah, I hope it is Patti next. Let's hear from Ilya. He did this winner circle.

I don't know even what they call it, that UFC is now doing with the winner of a pay-per-view main event, the podcast Sit Down. Here's Ilya talking about what could be next. Who do you want to face next? If you can pick your opponent, who do you want to see next? Uh, I don't know right now. We don't have more legends in this board. I think, I think there might be one.

I mean, I would, I would classify Justin Gagey as a legend and you have moved up. To a division You know that like Justin Gagee has done so much for the sport has so many incredible fights future Hall of Famer. I Put him in the same regard as the three people that you have just finished Listen listen, you don't him in the same regard as the three people that you have just finished. Okay, get the fuck out of here. I do. Listen, listen. You don't? Okay, I don't know who this lady is.

That shouts the DC sports legend, Dan Helly. I don't know who this lady is. Are you making a rant against suffrage again? That's you motherfucker. I'm not going to kill her because she seems like a nice person. That's an insane thing to say that Justin Gaethje, who's never been a champion, is on par with two of the best weight class champions from featherweight ever. Insane thing to say that Justin Gaethje who's never been a champion is on par With two of the best weight class champions from featherweight ever one of which who viciously ko Justin Gaethje

The other one was number one pound for pound. He is a former interim and BMF champion No, I just want to like I respect his career, but it is absolutely not on par with the other two guys not even close All right. Do you think they will explore the Connor idea? You know what? Because we have a have you seen the shit clip of Connor training on a beach coming up? You know what? I'm going to say this.

It's cynical. And I don't necessarily think the result would be mysterious. But it would it would give to Poria and therefore the sport itself such a boost. Yep, that I could. I could understand it even though I first of all, but I don't need to see Connor at all. Connor's like a terrible person, right?

He's a horrible guy. But you know, if you wanted to make the best business decision willing to make a star and literally put the rocket pack on his back. It's hard to know what would be the, like what's a faster way to do it than that? I'm not sure what the answer is. Islam maybe, but. My final question is this, and by the way, it's interesting that we're really not talking about Islam when I still think that's the super fight of all super fights because it's the number one and two in the world, however you have them right now.

But let's see if Islam looks like Islam could be NYC this fall against Jack Della. Let's see what happens there. Let's see what happens with Ilia first in this division. But you and I differ often on the amount of milk boy type money that's put in a brown paper bag and left in the locker room for different people. And I am happy, by the way, that they gave Brandon Royval his win show and bonus for his performance. Fantastic.

And that loss, and we'll get into it. What do you think Toporia took home from this victory? Like, is it when all bonuses and things are added up in pay-per-view points, is it 5 to 10 million? Yeah, I'm going to say in the 5 to 7 million range, because he's only recently really started headlining pay-per-views, and I don't know what this one would have sold. Because remember, the problem that Toporia has is he had a very, at least for the hardcore fans, he had a well-known loved opponent, but he didn't have a guy who the casual American fans knew, which is relevant

because pay-per-view buys boost your dollars, and there has been, let's just call it what it is, there's been a little bit of reluctance around to Poria because he's walking out at the press conference and the fight and there's a smattering of booze. They haven't quite accepted him yet. Yeah. And what I'm hoping for the sports interest is if we can get over that and lift this guy, he can take us to places we haven't been to in fucking years. Well, one of those places would be Spain. And this is why people are ripping Dana. He opened up the post fight press conference when asked about taking it to Spain next and was sort of like, oh, no, it's difficult.

It's hard. Whatever. Later in the same press conference, Luca, a reporter said, hey, did you see that the numbers coming out of Spain are that Topori is doing numbers on the same level as Nadal and tennis and other things like that? And Dana was like, wait, what? Really? And F1 and Real Madrid. And then suddenly. Fucking Real Madrid games, brother. OK, but now suddenly Dana almost changes tune in that conversation,

which again leads you to believe that Dana is not truly involved in these conversations, that it's more Hunter and TKO. So, Luke, here's my optimism hope here, that Dana doing Canelo Crawford in Allegiant Stadium and doing a dome, which he hates doing, will open him up to how important it is when you have fights on that level to do cultural events at a dome

where it's not about the experience of the user as much. It's just about the, people just wanna be in the building for this big thing. You really wanna make Toporia a star? Put him in a dome with Connor or go to Spain or do shit like that. I'm hoping TKO is looking at the dollar sign potential in that and is willing to do big shit and maybe go, okay, Dan, stay over here and you're late. I just want to tell you like this is what you could understand about TKO's

priorities is if they they'll allow their company to be rented by a dictatorial government in Azerbaijan before they take a event to Spain to rally behind the biggest transcendent or potentially transcendent star that they've had since arguably Conor McGregor. That just tells you what their priorities. But aren't you hoping in some way that if they did go the Conor direction, that they went full TKO WWE and did the global press tours and made this like one of the biggest trash talk builds that we've seen I think they can and they should and if they did I think they do a good job

I'm just telling you it's nonsense that they can't go to Spain. Yeah before it was good. It's it's just it's absolutely ridiculous I have debt to pay back Luke. I think well fine But the way which they've done I mean just to be able to rent your business to the world's most authoritarian governments to be able to rent your business to the world's most authoritarian governments before you've got to, dude, how many guys come around 17 and O like this in your fight watching life? You can count them on one fucking hand and they can't take him back to a place where they have, I mean, can we say, I don't know much about Spain, but I know that from everything I can tell they have only embraced him and that market more broadly by the way seems to be heating up in ways that is ridiculous to observe this if in boxing they would

take this guy to Spain and he would become a national icon over fucking night there more than he already is which would help him I think propel him to being a global superstar. Let's close the toporia discussion with this incredible video of Sean O'Malley and his team watching the fight live here is uh Suga's reaction. I saw this. Holy fuck. Without a two three two. 2 3 2

Holy fuck Islam versus to poor it needs to happen. He's up there with John Jones Not doubt bolt knocked out max knocked out Charles. It's not like I want to say Holy fuck who would even fight Elia? Holy fuck Thank God, he didn't accept my call out I'm like, oh, who would even All right, let's transition to the topic number two. We got a lot to get into today. We don't want to talk all about Toporia because UFC 317's co-main event allowed us another opportunity to celebrate 35-year-old Alexandre Pantoja, who successfully had the fourth defense of his flyweight title, who continues to

get better with age like a fine wine, submits Kaikara France in the third round, largely complete domination except for a closer round two where it felt like Pantoja was taken just a bit of the foot off the gas and saving up some energy for more grappling. But Luke, what he did on Saturday was impressive when you talk about statistics and how much further he's moving into flyweight history. He broke first place ties in three categories in flyweight history, extending past the likes of Demetrius Johnson, Joseph Benavides, and Devin Figueredo for most wins, most

submissions, and most finishes at 125 pounds. Pantoja told the media that he believes he should be pound for pound number two after this and is demanding more respect. Luke, from the standpoint of late career renaissance, how impressive is it what Pantoja is doing at the age of 35 in the sports smallest division in which he's becoming more efficient with age and title defense and just more dangerous across the board. I don't know if there's historical comparison directly

to what he's doing right now. I think of the comparison to DJ is, I mean, there's meaningful differences along the way, but there's also frankly a lot of similarities. DJ was, when he was in WEC fighting at Bantamweight, everyone respected him, and obviously right away the nickname Mighty Mouse kinda catches your attention. It's a great nickname obviously.

But I gotta tell you, when he was in WEC and after he fought Miguel Torres, there was nobody who was like, oh, he's going to go on to be one of the best fighters ever. Yeah, that didn't happen. He was something of a, an accident, very, very good, very respected, but you didn't know exactly how far that was going to go. Remember in the beginning of the flyweight tournament where there was him, Ian McCall, Yasuhiro Uru-Shatani, all this, he didn't perform all that well

in the first fight, right? There was this whole thing. So like, to me, Pantoja actually is kind of cut from a pretty similar cloth. Yeah, but DJ was much closer to his late 20s prime when that happened. This man's 35, he won the title, and we thought he'd give it up next time.

We thought that was the career biz ping moment. So that's why this is, to me, somewhat more surprising, is because, you're right. Athletically DJ was in a slightly different place at that time. And you even heard Pantoja reference it in the post fight interview with Rogan. He keeps working on his craft. He keeps getting better. He keeps skill building and every time it's not necessarily huge leaps, but he

adds a little bit in the striking. And by the way, shouts to Jack Slack, who noted analyst, who has been kind of harping on this point, and he's right, there's something called a crab ride. Imagine someone takes your back, they put the hooks over. A crab ride is when they go the other way behind the knees. Other guys use it in the game. He's not the only one, but Pantoja is one of these guys who uses the crab ride consistently to score the back and secure the back, which by the way,

served him valuably in this fight against Kaikour France. So I'm not calling him some gigantic innovator BC, but what I am saying is because he has so many internal characteristics of grit, determination, perseverance, and appreciation for the finer points of Jiu-Jitsu technical savvy, but also marries it with savagery. It took him a while to build to this, but you can see all of the ingredients to get to this place have always been there. He just had to dial it all in. You can tell he's paying more money now for training camps because he's coming in in such sick ridiculous shape. The guy guy was a fuck. I mean again, we talked about it. The guy is a professional athlete having to do uber eats Yeah, you know that he was didn't have enough money. He's distracted. I know that grind

You know what I mean? Like we're not bashing the grind. We're saying if you're a professional athlete This is not how you should be spending your time. Yes. Now, now look at this. Now, without all, without pop, dude, we talk about this all the time, poverty and how much it limits the scope of human potential. And this guy to me seems like the, one of the sort of the bigger poster boys for this argument. Well, now he's eating and look at the difference. He's eating up the competition. Look at the difference. Can you throw to that full screen? And look at the difference. He's heating up the competition. Look at the difference. Can you throw to that full screen, this was a tweet showing his resume, his accomplishments.

30 MMA wins, never been stopped by the way. Some people say he has the longest streak of never having been stopped in being a UFC champion. I have to double check that. I'm not sure about that. Including victories against twice Brandon Moreno, Manel Kopp, twice Brandon Royval, Alex Perez, Steve Urszeg, Kai Asakura, Kai Kara-France. He entered this calendar year nine and oh

against the top 10 in this division. Luke, this was absolutely incredible. I mean, this is what he's putting together. Here's Pantoja making his case that he should get more pound for pound respect. You know, by the way, between what Toporia did, the pound for pound could change a lot, especially with Jones leaving.

Here's Pantoja. I think most people agree that you need to be a little higher in the pound for pound rankings. Do you have a spot that you feel you belong? I mean, is it number one or do you be like, well, maybe there's some behind us? It's not make sense. If I'm not the number two,

I'm just behind off the Zlomakachad, you know? That's not make sense. Five fights for title, eight victories in streak, second submission for title defense, numbers don't lie, brother. The only guy accept that is Zlomakashev because he have the numbers. I try to understand

their pound for pound rankings I think maybe is the more victories maybe is victories with ranking guys maybe I don't know the guys need thinking I need to beat me someone to like a you put a Jack Madalena in the front of me you think I need to beat Jack Madalena together in his position? That's crazy, you know. I think it's time to respect more flyweight, you know. Like I say, Josh Yvonne, Brandon Reval make maybe the fight of the night tonight. I make a very good fight with Kaikara France. I think it I think that it's time to people start to change his mind. You know the flyweight is very entertaining and division you know and I think it starts.

Luke I'm going to be updating my CBS Sports top 10 tomorrow. I know you're not a huge pound for pound guy but I am interested in hearing how you would rank your own top five if we consider your options are Ilya, Islam, Pantozha, Brigis Duplassi, who am I missing there in the potential fifth spot? Marab. Marab. Of those five guys, how would you order that right now? I have to think about it a little bit.

I'd probably go... Because Marab was number three on my list entering this weekend. He was? Yes. I would... I have to think about this a little bit. I probably go Islam or Ilia number one. The other one number two right there one and two.

So they're one and two and then I would probably go has Pantoja Eclipse Marab who's also on a freaking hell of a run right now. All these names good DDP's on fire. What do you think? Where are you? Dude, those five right there are I'm not going to say all five have a case for number one. They don't I think I think Ilia and Islam are fighting for that But however you order them it's difficult decision because they're all on their own runs of beating

Decorated champions right now. So right the Pantoja's Getting better too. I mean he made a great argument You look at his resume on that full screen the idea that he could be third right now. Maybe he does demand more respect It's just so crowded right there. It really frickin' is. One more quick video of Pantoja. There was some talk about him maybe getting a super fight with Marab and he come out this week and said he doesn't want it. He met Marab backstage and this is what he said.

So he wants to stay in the division. They brought in Josh Vann. That's our next topic to talk about this breakthrough performance from Vann, but he's ready to take on all comers. He wants to stay at 125. Let's see how far he can go. I was going to ask you, but go ahead. Well, before we get to Vann. Well, you know, I'm not going to Vann. I wanted to ask you about Pantozja. I was on the, I was in Stanford, Connecticut on Saturday night at CBS Sports HQ on the desk with our buddy Hakeem Dermish and Danny Velanthi, the betting analyst, they call himself Danny Brasco.

Shout out to Danny Brasco. He said on air, he said, I know about DJ's 11 title defenses. He goes, but this run Pantoja's on right now. I think he's the greatest flyaway I've ever seen. I told him on air to wash his mouth off and put some respect on the mouse's name. But Luke, I don't think Pantoja at 35 is going to catch DJ or anyone might for the title defenses, right? Well, is there any chance he is on a run to becoming the go to 125? I think he'd have to do a little bit more work, but he's done some pretty great things. So let's talk about this. This is

the run he's referencing. So first of all, he loses to dominant Cruz that was in DC. Then he has the Ian McCall draw which is on my D Demetrius Johnson Mm-hmm. And again, the Cruz fight was obviously at 35. So his first fight at 125 is a draw Essentially in March of 2012. He then beats Ian McCall by decision again. That's a very good win Then he beats Joseph Benavides by split decision. That's a very good win Then he beats John Dodson people are going to under count that win. That's a fucking very good win All right.

So he's got three of those in a row. John Moraga, not as good. Joseph Benavides again, he KOs him. Very good win. Ali Bagouttinov, who was probably on gear at the time. And the Benavides was the one where they said, oh, he doesn't have power. He's boring or sick and he's flat. And then he KOs him flat.

Yeah. In the first round, I believe. Then he goes to Chris Cariasso. Again, not that good of a win. Kyoji Horiguchi, he throws him up in the air and arm bars him in the fifth very good win John Dodson again good win Henry Sohuto stops him with strikes in the in the first round very good win Tim Elliot was big so the name doesn't carry But he was a fucking gigantic lightweight. He won the tough tournament give him credit. Yeah, Wilson Hayes Or maybe Ray Borg was the one who got arm barred by throwing him in the air

It was but but but Horiguchi also got arm-barred. Sorry, pardon me. Sorry, hold on. So then he beats Wilson Hayes. Very good jiu-jitsu black belt, but not much else. And then he beats Ray Borg in the most incredible fashion. There are some weak spots in the resume. No one's resume is perfect. No one's is good. That's a very good fucking resume. He's up our room top five in a lot of people's minds all time. The two Benavides wins, the McCall win, the two Dodson wins, the Horiguchi wins. I don't think he can get there.

I don't think he can get there, but this is impressive as shit, but I don't think he can get there. I think to me, is Pantogia there yet? No. Could he get there? Possibly. What I am going to say though is, first of all, 35 Curse has now been shattered twice, but the point I'm trying to make here is the fact that we're even in a conversation about like

is he close was unfathomable after DJ left the UFC. It's like it's going to be forever before someone at 125 even gets approximately close. Well now it is here. He is at least approximately close. Very, very impressive. Quickly to close here. KKF, he didn't provide much resistance. A lot of those P Pantoja's doing.

Kai Kara France is also now 12 career defeats, but we don't tend to count that against people even though he's still in his physical prime. But he's lost three of his last four. I know I got Long Island Luke in my ear telling me that Albazi split decision, you know, should have gone the other way. It's close.

He's lost three of four, and Luke, I get the heritage. I get honoring his people. I get that. But can we show the picture of, I'm done with this, I'm done with this. Okay, why is everyone so mad at this? I saw people online saying a bunch of stupid shit about this.

Like I'm not bagging on the guys. I get that people. Every time the camera's on him, like when he does this, that's cool as shit. Every time the camera's on him, the tongue comes out, we're doing the thing it's like do you know why he's doing this I know he's honoring his it's just like no no specifically why is he doing why no I'm at here's the thing I don't like it or

hate it I have no it doesn't do one thing for me or the other but my kind of view on this is you sound like my toddler who's like oh I don't like broccoli and I'm like but you don't you've never eaten it you you're not in a position to decide. It's aggressively annoying. Okay, why? It's weird. Okay, why is it weird?

What are we doing here? Look, I think I can leave it at that. Here's what I'm gonna say. There's a lot of people who are like, deeply incurious about the world, who've decided that they don't like things. Let me finish. This is not that conversation. Stop, yes it is.

No, it's not. That is exactly what that conversation is. That's it's not. That is that is exactly what that conversation is. It's people looking at cultural elements. They don't know shit about them and then deciding that they're bad because you are ignorant about it. Now, listen, do I like that? It doesn't do anything for me. If he stopped tomorrow, fine. If you kept going, fine. It doesn't move me. But if you're going to decide, and listen, just because you know things doesn't mean you're gonna like it either.

All I'm asking is before you decide that someone's display of cultural heritage is annoying to you, you should probably have a decent understanding of what it actually is. I'll do more research and I'm gonna guess that my conclusion will be the same. Fine, you know what, then fine, fine, fine. I can live with it, fine.

I don't think you deserve this title shot. I know that there was, like, you know, this is a dominant champion on top and he had beaten everybody else in that top 10. He hadn't fought Kai car friends. I know that car friends and children flashes in the past getting into an interim title shot with Moreno being up on the cards until he got stopped. But like this pretty disappointing performance all together, right?

All things considered, you know, it was funny. Long Island Luke was saying about the main event, it was like, oh, it kind of went as expected, which is, you know, again, the oddsmakers kind of nailed it. To me, this one kind of went as expected a little bit. Not that second round. I thought he had a decent second round. It wasn't a terrible second round.

But you know, it was one thing that was kind of interesting, right? Which was, I had, you know, we all thought, or there was some mention ahead of time, hey, Kai Car France has improved his takedown defense, which if you look at the wrestling takedowns along the fence, he actually did do a pretty good job when it was traditional wrestling. But dude, Pantoja's got back exposure, crab ride, all different kinds of tricks that he uses, casserole hooks, you name it, it's a different ball game. And he was totally outmatched in that regard.

And how about this? He's like blitzing into Kai Carr of France, who's retreating, and then he's kicking the legs, and he kicks the legs right out from under him. It's like, dude, you get the feeling that this is KKF's top point in his rise. I mean, you don't get much higher than this outside of winning the title, but I think he goes downward from here as well. He's had a number of opportunities to step up the Brandon Moreno fight, which by the way,

he was doing real well in until he gets kicked in the ribs and that kind of closed the show. He's very talented, but he has had multiple opportunities to step up the next tier and has been left wanting every time. I think we've kind of know what we got at this point. All right. Let's talk about what we got in topic number three.

And that was Joshua van out dueling number one contender number one rated contender Brandon Royval on just a three week turnaround from his last fight at UFC 316 to now leapfrog the division secure what seems to be the next title shot and get a face off after the co-main event with Pantoja in the cage. This is just two years and five days after his UFC debut where the 23-year-old improved to 8-1 in the Octagon and proving that the future of the Flyweight division is very much right freaking now.

It was an absolute war of attrition against Roy Vaal. Van took the kind of chance in accepting this fight that could have ended in danger or stunted his growth. Instead he withstand the storm, landed the better countershots, dropped Royval twice in the closing minute of round three, and gets this opportunity. It doesn't look like it'll eclipse John Jones's record of the youngest UFC champion, which was 23 years and eight months because right now, uh, Joshua van is at 23 years and nine months. But Luke, how much of a shot after what he did to Brandon Royval and what he would stood and this run he's on knocking out Bruno Silva three weeks

ago, if we can show that face off one more time, how much of a shot are you actually giving him to, to, to compete for this championship? He was the slight betting favorite against Royval, even though we feared too much too soon, he proved it wasn't. This was as refreshing as something I've seen in a long time to see a kid earn it like this on this stage and look at him now face to face with a legend. Is he in this fight when they, when they make this, is this a legitimate threat for the championship here?

I think it is. Yep. I have mixed feelings about this one. About the fight against Royval? Yeah. No. Well, the showdown with Pantoja. And on the one hand, dude, like, Josh Vann is amazing.

Dude, six times this year, seven times in the last 18 months. Some insane level of consistency. Not all of it winning, but most of it winning. He's fought nine times in the last 18 months. Some insane level of consistency. Not all of it winning, but most of it winning. He's fought nine times in the last two years. It's absurd. It's freaking absurd. Two years and five days to his UFC debut, he's eight in one. Dude, he graduated high school just before the pandemic.

Like, what the fuck are we talking, it's unbelievable. But what I wanted to point out was, he's one of these situations, BC, where I'm not sure if he's doing his career correctly for the long haul. So he's obviously good enough now to beat number one contender, Brendan Royval, convincingly by the way. What does the word convincingly mean to you?

Royval rescued himself with a better effort in that second round. But Josh Van- Well, the knockdowns in round three secured that second round. Yes. But Josh Vann. Knockdowns in round three secured two to one. Yes. But it was a tight fight that could have gone either way up until the final, you know, minute and a half left in round three. Yes.

I guess what I mean is if you just look at the weapons Vann used on him, they never really changed. He kept landing the same ones over and over again. Counter right hand just bombs. Just left hook you counted he had two. So it's like he's obviously good enough and I gotta say I'm not gonna complain about the UFC trying to promote a fight. On the other hand, 125 is weak. They're trying to force feed contenders as fast as they can up there. He's competing a lot. His style naturally he absorbs over five strikes

per minute which is double the average. Can we just show this is going to speed run like if he's 28, 29, and he looks like a shell of himself. Yeah. Remember this conversation because he's he's he's shortening his career doing show. He's doing incredible things. Let's look at the output of Roy Valle here. This is an Aaron Bronson or tweet. We've all officially attempted 407 significant strikes in a 900 second fight. That's one per every 1.92 seconds.

It sets a record for the most significant strike attempts in a three round fight in UFC history. It's a higher attempts output per round than even when Max Holloway was dancing around Calvin Cater for those five rounds. Luke, I have to ask this question though. I love the raw dog, Brandon Royval. I was cheering for him in a sense, you know, he was plus money, the underdog despite being the number one contender and really the only fact that he'd already lost twice to Pantoja was sort of holding him back from getting into the, truly into a title

shot again. And I respect that he was willing to leave it all on the line and the UFC rewarded him for that performance. But how much was his extreme lack of head movement, defense, or any idea of getting off that center line? His defense was his offense. Every time Van landed a big shot, Royval came right back with a combination. And dude, up until a minute and a half left in this fight, I felt like it was whoever's going to have the last big sequence

is going to win this fight. Looking back, there was zero commitment to defense or doing anything but straight line attacks, letting it all go. I'm going to go through this kid and break him until he didn't. And he got dropped late. I don't want to take away. He got dropped when he was standing on one leg after a knee. So it's not like. I'm not saying the punch wasn't real or good or awesome, but partly the reason why he went down is because he was off balance. I get the commitment to want to breaking the kid and just being like, no matter what, I'm going to get back to the title level.

What role did that play? Just the extreme lack of defense. I mean, he was right there to be hit. But what fight would you say he showed tremendous striking defense in. He's usually better at controlling the distance. He'll put himself in danger. He's the same. He's a high volume guy.

But look, there was an over commitment to violence here that opened the door for Van to consistently land the same counter shots. And it was because Van was the bigger puncher, ultimately. Look, Van at 23 has to be able to bite down, has to be able to make the adjustments like he did. I thought Van showed better movement to evade at times. And Royvault to his credit, whenever there's an opening, he stepped in with two, three, four punches.

But Luke, he walked in face first into oncoming traffic. So I mean, I think there's a couple of problems. The first is that Josh Van's just a better striker who is like tailor-made to take advantage of a guy like this. And that's a lot of what you saw. The second thing though is a little bit more interesting to me. It looks to me like Josh van obviously tremendous.

Boxer tremendous accuracy, great combination work, the whole nine yards. It looks to me like he lacks a little pop. Like he lands on guys pretty consistently flush and it takes them a little while to put them out. Uh, so I think there might be a power punching issue. So it looked to me like rawdog made a deal with himself, which was I'm just gonna walk forward because if I just stand here at range

and try and set it up, he's just gonna pick me apart. I needed more kicks from range though. Fair enough, fine. But what I'm saying is he elected to kind of take one to give one because that enabled him to find Josh Vann in front of him more consistently. Sure, sure.

Vann would land like a two punch hard combination, but not move, and that was, Royval had to eat it, but now he can fire back as a consequence. So I do wonder about the punching power of Vann. He's just 23. He hasn't even really grown into his man strength yet. Might be an issue against Pantoja. Can he land on Pantoja?

I'm sure, but if you can't put Pantoja out, ha ha ha, good fucking luck on round four.ja? I'm sure. But if you can't put Pantoja out, good fucking luck on round four. I guess I'm asking you is if Royval had had had a little bit more variety in this and a little bit more commitment to not being right in the strike zone, would this fight have gone differently? Or are you saying he would have lost? That's how it would have gone differently.

Say that again? If Royval wasn't as willing to just throw himself consistently at Vann and be right there in countering range, would the fight have gone different? Does Royvault kick himself in the high side? He would have been stopped earlier. Should he have shot more? Oh, he should have shot more, yeah. I'm saying if he had fought round one the whole way through like that, he would have

been stopped in round two or maybe early round three. No, I'm saying should Royvault have fought from distance more and been a little bit smarter, would he have won the fight that way? With what weapons? Kicks? The volume. He's a volume guy, you know that, he's gonna outwork you. Dude, you can't just be like, okay, alright. I don't think he gets hit with as many hard counter shots as he's not right there with his hands down and not moving his head is what I'm saying.

Yes, I think there are better ways he could have fought, longer range and longer range weapons, yes. I have a feeling that wouldn't have saved him. Okay. That's kind of where I'm at. Fight of the Year contender? Yes, absolutely. Long Island Luke, you, correct me if I'm wrong, you were camping, everyone's about to go to sleep,

it's midnight, you're a mile away from any form of WiFi, you walk to a closed general store to activate the WiFi that they have in there to watch round three of this fight and you walk into an absolute brawl. That's true, right? That is 100% true. I caught the third round,

I had no idea how it was being scored earlier. They said it was anyone's fight going into the third. Josh Vann, to me, clearly won the third, but yeah, I don't know what you gotta do. Here's Pantoja talking about what he believes the threat van will be to his title, which I assume this fight will come later this year. When I have 23, I'm working in the restaurant,

clean dishes, look that. The guy have 23 gonna fight for the belt for the world championship. I think this guy is gonna be my tough challenger, he's young, he's hungry, and he don't make wars like I did in the past. I make my 35 professional fights tonight. And that's a lot.

A lot of wars I make, I pass through with a lot of very good fighters. And UFC gave me this new guy. I think everybody wants to see the new normal rematch for me, you know. And I want to fight with that guy too. I want to fight. I want that challenge, you know. Fight with a new blood, new kid with very hungry.

I found a couple fights from Josh Yvonne. He's doing an amazing job with a Hey Tatsura. He defended all the takedowns. He beat Bruno Bulldog in the last fight. He gave this opportunity to fight with the number one contender, Roy Vau. He did an amazing job, you know, who can say that? And now I think that's my tough challenge, you know. But Monday I'm back to the gym and my coach knows that. I'm not more champion of the world.

I'm the challenger, you know, and I know who's my opponent and I know that I'm not more champion of the world. I'm the challenger you know and I know who's my opponent and I know what I want. I want this belt again. Does he take him down and get his back? Yeah I think so. All right. So yeah. Quickly to close on this van situation gamble from the UFC, gamble from van. In this case it worked out we've got a hot

young guy coming up against a decorated champion that works throwing flowers too. Do you want to see more gambles like this? I get the situation Pantoja kind of cleaned out the division, but we're seeing rematches that fans don't necessarily want like DDP Strickland to O'Malley Marab to were you are you would you like them more to roll the dice on young people that are that are hot at the moment to try to create these type of opportunities. that are hot at the moment to try to create these type of opportunities. I would rather Josh Vann have at least one more fight, particularly a five round fight, for him to be fully vetted. But they got to feed the machine. Hey, it's a fight we're going to be excited for.

So for sure. For sure. Let's go to topic number four. Real quickly, if I may, I forgot to say this. When you mentioned we saw the clip of where the presenter was saying, you know, hey, Gagey's on par with, you know, the guys he's fought before. That interview that they're doing, I hope everybody understands,

it's designed to undercut MMA media. Like, there's no other reason to do that. That is exactly what that is for, so that they can get the first word out, and then by the time that the show's come around on Monday, they're getting the second or third word at that. They don't need critical media. So they have just have their own. They have found a way to remove us and soon our employers. Oh, yeah. No, sorry. I don't want to bring doom upon us. We're doing just fine over here. We're fighting the good fight. Let's go to

topic number four. It's what else happened at UFC 317. The undercard recap highlighted, of course, by Bantamwe prospect, Peyton Talbot proving his first loss was merely a lesson against Hione Barcellos as he came out against a very tough Felipe Lima. And after succumbing to eight takedowns just five months ago to Barcellos in a humbling loss, Talbot showed what five months of extreme focus upon his grappling looks like. He also has that legit punching power and a knockout threat. He got a close 29-28 decision across all three scorecards.

Luke, did it appear as if Peyton Talbot fixed the glitch and that he's still looking like the future of the Bantamweight division? People think you can just get better at takedown defense in one camp. You can get better at takedown defense, but not enough to make up all the problems that you had. So did he look better? Well, I don't know if his takedown defense was better, but his grappling was a lot better to get out of potentially bad situations. But I thought his takedown defense was pretty good as well. So yes, I mean, did he show better patience when he had to better overall, I think, technique in the clinch not just for

striking but for wrestling as you indicated on top as well I think there was some real improvements that doesn't necessarily tell me he would beat Barcellos in a rematch because Barcellos is a different kind of take on gun right he's on a heater so it's not to say that you would reverse the results that's why people like oh one fire you got training is. It takes a long time to get good. But this was a big step in the right direction. I want to say something to Felipe Lima. Because of this XFC gig, I now have to watch a ton of tape on guys who are in that seven

fights or less category. And if there is one consistent thread that I see all the time, it's that younger fighters for the most part Unless they're like a specialist like let's say they're a jujitsu guy If they're just like a I'm just an MMA fighter. They have disorganized offense They just kind of do shit without much of a strategic plan or orientation about feeding people into funnels or Understanding of how that connects with their defense, usually. It's such a problem. Felipe Lima has a lot of ability.

We saw that, and I do think it's true when we said he was more battle-tested on the regional scene. He had a five-round fight in Octagon. He was. But he just kind of chuck shit at the wall, and then if it sticks, great. If it doesn't, he just does something else. And it's like, I'm glad that he has energy and ability to try a bunch of different stuff but his finishing mechanics on a

lot of those takedowns were poor yeah maybe do less but get better at those things and focus on that but you kind of like Payton's top game too after he made reversals he was kind of nasty on there too sure but I'm just saying it was one time where you know Lima gets under a punch and then all of a sudden you can just see he just sees that there's legs there and just shoots for a takedown. It's like if you weren't planning to do that, I'm not saying it's the wrong thing, but that's you're just trying shit. Have a plan. Orient your offense.

Think about it strategically for this round and then the bout. Are you still holding on to all your Peyton Talbot stock? Yeah, I wouldn't sell no. I'm gonna hold it. I'm a holdal. That's for crypto, but still I'll hold him. You'll hold him, okay? Do you think he's improved since the collaboration with Frank Ocean? Spiritually? Think he has new swagger. He's got some swag. Gonna have to watch him at 135. Tracy Cortez had like a nice bounce back win from her first UFC.

You're gonna skip right over that Gregory Rodriguez win? I'll get to all of it, alright? But I wanted to say that Tracy Cortez looked good against Vivianne Araujo, dominating 30-27, relying on her grappling, coming off of that loss to Rosnami Yunis, and then made a call out to her fellow Hispanics, Luca under what's going on in this country at this moment. Here is Tracy Cortez afterwards responding to that. And then I have to ask about, you know, your post fight interview you did in Spanish, you know, back in Phoenix,

it's been a little bit of some turmoil over there. There's been a lot of stuff going on in central Phoenix. So I guess I think a lot of people were surprised maybe not surprised that someone spoke up like that when they had the platform. So why did you feel it was so important to kind of put out that message like that? A lot of my fans are Mexicans. You know, it's the Latin community. It is someone that I represent very much to my core and I think it would be almost coward-like if I didn't speak on something. I want the support from what I call mi gente, la raza. I want their support and I represent the Mexican flag as well as the U.S. flag.

I think it's only right for me to speak on it. I haven't been able to because I've been very focused on this fight and I was just waiting for the right opportunity and I felt it in my heart and I just want everyone to know that I don't know if I am qualified to speak on such a sensitive topic but nevertheless I could be a voice. I could be a voice and I'm here. Well, you are a voice and you can't say that enough. From experience it means a voice. I could be a voice and I'm here. Well, you are a voice, you know, and you can't say that enough. From experience, it means a lot. Thank you.

Luke, will she be, will Trump send the word to cut her? Yeah, I mean, she's going to be deported imminently now. But were you impressed with her performance? Like, this was a pretty, I know Orojo is 38 in Urojo, excuse me, or however you say it. Arojo? I expected Cortez to win. I thought she was one of the safer bets on this. But did you think she showed that there's still movement up with the 125 ladder?

Yeah, first of all credit to Tracy Cortez for basically talking about ice raids, but putting that aside in terms of the performance itself. I kind of expected it. Okay, I thought there was a I thought there was like a hard nose commitment to I kind of expected it. Okay. I thought there was a, I thought there was like a hard nose commitment to the grappling. Yeah. No, no. You know what?

Sometimes she looks like, you're right. There was a certain intention. The motor was on. Yeah. The motor was on. The intentionality was on. Just seemed like maybe there was an extra edge relative to our previous performances, but she also had issues that have kind of messed her up in previous bouts too.

So yes, definitely a good performance for an accidentally put this out of order, but we do need to talk about Hobo cop Gregory Rodriguez going in there. As people in my chat on Saturday night were saying Hobo cock because that was what you said on the in there against Jack Hermansen and we wondered if he was going to kind of guess himself out and expose himself. The thing is though, he's a dangerous finisher, particularly early, and he absolutely ruined her Manson. But almost in more egregious,

Bizping Hendo one fashion got a running start and came in for a hammer fist of death, really, to a fallen opponent. Luke is does he deserve the criticism for that? Or is it all on the referee? Because Herb Dean wasn't, wasn't flying in there. It was kind of casual. Where do you put the blame? Is this just part of the game? Warriors are trained to fight until they're told to stop. Should he have shown compassion and understanding in the moment considering Hermansen got hit, fell backwards, Robocop had to jump in and close space, had time to see him,

and still just... By the letter of the law, that's Herb Dean's fault. Okay. By the letter of the law. Because your job as a fighter is you don't stop until the referee pulls you off. Play the whistle. Right? That is the game. That's why there's going to be, you're asking yourself, is there going to be a sanction on Gregory Rodriguez for that extra shot? No, there's not. Why isn't there? There's nothing in the bylaws they could get him on. He didn't break any rule. He didn't do by the letter of the law anything wrong. So my level of outrage for Gregory Rodriguez is pretty limited. Now on the other hand, BC, it would have been nice if he extended some mercy.

It would have been nice. I will give UFC credit during the broadcast, they gave us updates on Jack's condition. So I thought that was nice as well. I'll give Megan a leavey credit for working about a week out from her due date. Can you believe that? Unbelievable.

And obviously doing great work because she always does. Yeah, for sure. I mean, that's hard work. I saw my wife a week before she gave birth. It was a lot. But what I was gonna say is, you know, I've had an on and off, you know, I've spoken to Herb Dean many, many times over the years,

and sometimes it's been a pleasant conversation, sometimes it hasn't. I think he botched this one. I don't know how else you can say it. He had his hands on Rodriguez Before Rodriguez landed the hammer fist yeah, but it was so It wasn't forceful. Yeah a lot of times you'll for the double leg and try to take him in yeah

Yeah, yeah, exactly so to me. It's like you know could Rodriguez have been a little bit nicer. He could have But the real onus on that one is Herb Dean. I think Hobo Cox should lean into it and become a heel and just be, okay, there we go. Lou quickly here. Terrence McKinney. I will hit you after the bell. That's what I do. I thought I liked the plus 500 on McKinney going the distance for the first time in his career. He liked a, uh, just over a minute submission of Slava clause at 30 years old and four wins in

his last five has McKinney straightened out the path toward lightweight contention. I have no fucking idea, but this is awesome. Okay. I have no clue. I have no clue how far this is headed, but 55 seconds of just swang and well choking, but swang and then bang. I mean, he's dude, he's MMA's evil Knievel.

And I don't know if he's going to get across the canyon, but I do know this. They're going to shoot his ass out of a canyon. He's not afraid to go head first into the canyon if he has to. That's just what he does. Dude, you see Slava was just fucking fighting and raging until he was like... I couldn't believe his... People have no idea that choke would have tapped anyone within seconds. Yes.

The fact that Slava Klaw's hung on that long is absurd. Anybody else on this undercard, Do you want to circle or the only thing I want to mention is the Jacobi Smith and Nico Price fight? Yes, so Jacobi Smith looks amazing in round one Then gases like a motherfucker for the rest of the fight as a minus three thousand favorite Jacobi Smith has so many nice things about his game. There's a lot to be excited about. I'm excited about. But that one could have gotten away from him a little bit with if the opponent was a little better. Let's tighten that up.

He looks like he looks like a fucking Hercules, but we got to get that gas tank dialed in because he's got so many other good parts about him. That one was like, how are you this tired already? Yeah. What about that dude on the what was supposed to be the curtain jerk about that miss can't accepted the fight on like an hour notice. You weren't yeah, then missed weight then got cut. But now he's going to come back.

They brought him back to the contender series, which is probably the right thing to do. All right. Maybe maybe don't book fights with felons that can't make it there because they have ankle monitors and then ask guys to cut 30 pounds in three days. Like let's just not do that. Hey, let's go to topic number five inside the box here. I guess we can call it boxing. Hey, Jake Paul had a pay-per-view on his own there against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

And despite a late and kind of exciting rally over the last two and a half rounds from Chavez, JCCJR was mostly lifeless to the point that there's a whole new set of people bringing on, this is rigged, this is staged. And even Jake Paul after the fight threatening over Twitter to start taking legal action against those saying just that. But Luke, all in all, it was a 10 round unanimous decision for Jake Paul. What did Jake, if anything, actually prove in this win over Chavez? And do you believe that the boxing public has essentially hit their limit?

We said coming in we were close. I've already there. Do you think a boxing in general have not just hit their limit on Jake Paul fighting these type of half circus fights, but really are just kind of done with this experience in general. I have I'll say this. I am so glad that we did.

We did. We covered Jake Paul ahead of time. When this fight at all pregame preview. I'm like, what do you think about Jake Paul? You're like, we're not doing this. No, but I mean like at any point since this fight was announced. I mean, maybe a little right. I take great pride that we didn't waste any time.

We knew we knew dude. We've seen the Jake Paul experience up close. You saw after Tyson. They're just going to sandbag. And I know what he's saying is like, are you calling out Anthony Joshua? Anthony Joshua would send him to another fucking dimension. Why does he want Joshua or even Canelo

or even to fucking zero? These guys are gonna kill him. Well, the Canelo fight is more interesting to me. I mean, I think Canelo wins. These are all him cashing himself out, right? Like in a sense. Here's my lesson from this. Like does he believe he can win any of these?

Look, I don't see how he could. Here's the reality of Jake Paul. He's a below average pro boxer and a very good promoter. Yes That's what he's that's where his real skill is a pay-per-view star. He can get you in the building He could sell you a narrative. There's a below average boxer and a fantastic promoter and He is aggressive for his brand. He makes it He gets, which is really the most important thing a promoter should do, right? Carnival bark, that's the job. I think he's awesome at that.

We just talked about Netflix, MVP is going to be putting on Serano versus Taylor. Couldn't have one bad thing to say about that if I tried. Two thumbs up, that is the Jake Paul experience that I care about. But this shit, who could possibly give a fuck about a guy 18 months ago who had gun charges and was in a fucking rehabilitation center? What are we talking about here? I mean, Chavez has been a joke for 13 fucking years, and then in this fight, dude, the last three rounds, he was putting it on Paul.

He won the last two rounds on the scorecards. He was exciting. What the fuck happened for the first four rounds when Chavez barely let his hands go, or how about the first seven and a half? Let's look at the anemic punching graphic here of the CompuBox track punches. Chavez 0 for 4 in round one, 2 for 7, 1 for...

Like, you see it. Then he picks it up finally midway through round eight, and then he outpunches, he outlands Jake in the final two. So, Luke, I'm not... Dude, this rig stuff, I think it is wrong. These fights aren't rigged. I don't think they talked to Chavez before and give him extra money and say don't try. Chavez is his own car wreck that's always going to take the money and kind of not try in a way, in some form.

But did you actually see the success Chavez had in the last three rounds? Why, your next comment has to be why don't you do that from the beginning? Could he have backed Jake into a corner in the beginning with that type of pressure? Could he have tested Jake's gas tank? I don't think he has, I don't think he has the metal for it or the gas tank for it. I think what you saw is what he has. He's got a couple of rounds. He can go balls out and he saved it for the end because he didn't want to do it early and then gas when he knew it wouldn't work.

That's it. Dude, this is what we got. This is there's no point in watching unless there's a unimaginable change. There's absolutely no point in watching Jake Paul Box. None. Zero. Zip. But if he wants to promote, I'm all in. I just felt like this was the fight where boxing as a community was like, OK, enough. People are getting going the rigged portion.

And here's Virgil Ortiz Jr., the unbeaten junior middleweight star, who said, Jake Paul is scamming the entire world with these circus fights, selling them as real fights. The entire world continues to eat it all up and then have the nerve to be disappointed because the circus fights that they pay to watch aren't real fights. He's single handedly destroying the sport and everyone else is enabling it. That's wrong. You guys are going to continue covering and watching the circuses,

hoping for the umpteenth time that the circus will be real. What is it called again when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results, you have to applaud Jake for keeping up the charade long. Well, look, what's the charade here? Jake still works hard, but he's picking matchups that are 1000%

usually favorable for him. He's a sandbagger. In size, age, experience, whatever. This had the same size, but then she, Chavez puts that out. I don't even see how he got booed in that arena in the Honda center. And by the way, very good undercard. They utilize some golden boy fighters. Like that was a kid Austin, kid Floyd, Schofield, kid Austin, walking through

Tevin farmer in like a minute, like that was a big development. There was some real boxing things that happened with the fatigues real Luke. And people are really like, okay enough. And here's the deal, like, you know, he called out Gervonta again afterwards, he called out everybody, but like, unless the next fight is Zerto for the title and it's the final, you know, boss of this attempt to go from Disney and YouTube to a world champion, he's just not at a world champion level. So can we stop talking about fighting world champions? Yeah, I've been done. Look at this face off backstage.

Zerda Ramirez defended his two cruiserweight titles against Unier Dorticoats in a decent fight in that co-main event. Let's go! And then we go through the charade here. I say charade because I don't believe Jake will do it. Do you believe Jake would be willing to do this? No, I don't believe he'll do it either, no. Alright, there we go.

And if he did, it'd be his demise. Alright, I'm not going to play the Chavez interview he did with Marcos Villegas where he said, I'd be his demise. All right. I'm not going to play the Shavez interview he did with Marcos Vegas, where he said, I should have started earlier. What? I, you know, I don't what are we expecting at that? He's a professional sandbagger. But the time would still be OK with a Tommy Fury fight or a KSI fight next to sort of cross those. Yeah, fine. That's it. That's it. Doesn't need to avenge the Tommy Fury.

Yeah, the Tommy Fury fight to me makes sense because they're roughly. I mean, I guess Jake might be better at this point, but you know on some level They're roughly approximate in ability that one makes sense. But if he's just gonna professionally sandbag I mean, what the fuck is the point? There were boxing reporters like Steve Kim who texted that he left midway through that Jake fight and he was like I got all the Coverage I needed on the undercarriage was well matched. It was good stuff. But like what is this? I'm so dude on this fucking show, I will give Jake the coverage as a promoter or a boxer that I think is warranted, but what I'm not going to do is give fucking air time, certainly ahead of time anyway, to any just obvious sandbagging opportunity. I'm not doing it, him versus a corpse,

not doing it anymore. By the way, and UFC tried this shit with John Jones and Stipe, now that's a different version, because Stipe's a legend, and John was still reasonably okay at the sport at that time, but setting up fights that you just know the outcome,

and then of course one guy looks terrible, and we're just expected to be like, oh, I'm glad I spent my money on that fuck No, no You can't scam fans There were surprising amount of people including Sergio Moro and Chris Maddox of Dazon who were picking Chavez to win like I saw that and I was like are you too high? No, I did okay that I still picked Jake because I knew Chavez would implode in some form

But I'm saying after what we saw in those final two and a half rounds You don't think if Chavez actually came out looking to fight from the opening jump that he might have been able to win that. Now I feel like he could have. I think he was within ability to do it in terms of his boxing skill, but not his boxing commitment. No. Yeah, it's just it's dude.

He was a fucking there for a paycheck. What are we talking about? Yeah, you're right. You're right. All right. Those are our five topics right there. Now we turn the attention to our fans and every Sunday night at morning combat on X and Instagram we give you the opportunity to join the discussion asking questions of us. This one's called EMS from the dogs. Hey, they brought it back.

And they just jerked off that donkey. They brought back the jizzing dog from Ryan underscore Thomas underscore Davies. Luke's long lost cousin, what needs to happen for the Ilya versus Islam fight to get made? Because that's probably the best MMA fight that could happen right now. Now, he's right. And look, one versus two, pound for pound, like this is the fight. And after seeing what Ilya can do at lightweight. Oh, I want it at lightweight.

I know we're not going to get Islam to say, hold on, Jack, let me go back down to lightweight. But what do you make of the combination of Elia's star push after this and Will this fight ever happen? I think if Jack wins we might get it So that would send Islam yeah, because here's the problem if Islam goes in there and then just handles Jack They're gonna give him other contenders. They're gonna give him him Shavkat. They're going to give him whoever, right? But if he loses to Jack, he might stay at 170. But now you're like, well, wait a second, you've got this generational talent, a weight class below.

You were just the generational talent at that weight class. It would do huge numbers, even with the loss at 70. I think it makes it much more likely. I don't feel like we're going to get it now. We're coming into this fight. I still thought with the Tia when we were gonna get it not next but maybe a year from now I still think it's unlikely but maybe if Jack goes in there I guess what would have to happen is to poria would have to probably make two quick title defenses, right? Put away some some more names

Obviously Islam would have to win the title Cuz they're not gonna let they they've made Elia. They're not going to lie to move up soon. But if he gets a couple of title defenses quickly, can we start being on the road to that if Islam has to be Jack to secure that number one for pound? Sure. Yep. All right. Let's go to question two from Sam V. Two feet is Pantoja underrated. He joined Volk as another fighter that is 35 and older at 155 or below

and won a championship bout against a younger fighter. And he's got four title defenses. And we talked about him breaking flyweight records in three different categories for wins, subs and finishes. Should he get more praise in general, Luke, we kind of hit this earlier, but like Antosha wildly underrated in general. Yeah, I mean, the problem is the top of the pound for pound. And you're dealing with some real heavy hitters.

It's difficult. But, you know, I just want to point out, like, it's very interesting that, like, no one in the history of the UFC under 55 and below at 35 had ever won. And now it's happened in pretty rapid succession. Yeah, they're telling your stat to shut the fuck up. It's not mine. It's somebody else's. But I just popularized it. But I love I love that they're pushing it back now. So now it's thirty six or thirty seven.

What I have to go and look, whatever it is. But like this boner isn't Tupori is he just popularized? Yeah, that's right. It's not his boner, but the blood has rushed to my penis for that reason. All right. How about that? All right. Thank you very much. Let's hear from Tori O'Neill, who said you think male or female on Tori O'Neill? T.O.R. The way they from Tori O'Neill, who said you think male or female on Tori O'Neill.

The way they spelled it to go either way. Yeah, that's a that's a that's a that's a they them amazing performance by Josh Vanne. Is there a number 12 ranked fighter you'd pick to beat the number one in any other division right now? Great question. Up UFC dot com slash rankings. I mean, maybe heavyweight. Let's go division by division to the number 12. Oh, no, no, because it's Tom Aspon. I got two off the rip already. Go for it. Well, John Silva's number 11

Can we count that? That's Lord G. N. Silva. You're talking about G. N. And then uh Rainer De Ritter. I was gonna say that Yeah, because I mean here's number 12 everywhere else. There's let's go through through the divisions here very quickly ready So Pantoja at flyweight number 12 is Josh Vans you indicated bans on weight. It's Kyler Phillips No at featherweight. It's use of the law who I respect but no At lightweight, it's Michael Chandler. Fuck. No at welterweight Wonderboy No, is you indicated we're near to rid of 85 at light heavyweight. It's Johnny Walker. That ain't He will tear up Scotland Yes, and number 12 at heavyweight. It's Mick Parkin that ain't fucking happening

Although he is good at women's straw weight number 12 is Angela Hill No, I love her but no women's flyweight Karini Silva absolutely not me the number 12 at 145 for women, please Ding-a-dee-ding-ding and then number 12 at women's bantamweight. Who's number 12 a woman's bantamweight. Can you even? Nora Cornoli If I've seen her fight, I don't remember the French chick. She just fought like a month ago. Yeah, she's number 12 We should take number 13 by the way. Thank you very much. Let's go to number four here This is from Cresenzo Fano did Ilya Toporya have an officially better run than Connor with two ends and his run. Also, he put then sequential rather than than, which is the correct word.

So he's saying Connor's run to the 155 title? Yeah. So imagine you count everything Connor did to Eddie Alvarez. Yep. And everything. You have the Diaz fights in between that makes it a little complicated. Right. He did come back and bring it.

Right. And then everything and everything Ilya did to this point. To me, Ilya's run is superior. Okay. superior critically. No superior in terms of what the actual sporting achievement is. Yeah. Well, let's not forget what Conor did to not Jose Aldo who

hadn't been son like that. Who sonned Alex like that whose son Max like that whose son Charles like that. Nobody nobody. Yeah, and Eddie foot so not literally no one's beaten valk like that I mean you could say you could say up a weight class on short fucking notice Islam obviously did something like that but in the weight class absolutely not and then no one had done max like that and no one's Done Charles like people are upset at us for when we talked last episode about if Ilya does this is like the greatest three fight stretch people like How are you not talking about what marab is on right now picking any of the tickets pick the three fight stretch?

That's better. It's a very easy question pick the three fights that are better Tell me what they are and tell me why they're better because remember this motherfucker just went up a weight class He went up a fucking weight class. I don't know how and he's destroying them like it's not like in ways I'm gonna decision ways. They've not been right. There's one thing a marab five round dominant decision. There's also to go in there and fucking destroy them. So again, is marab pound for pound great top five. No question about it. But Ilya is different. This is fun watching you as the toporia gatekeeper here. Like all ideas are coming in all opinions and you're just like swatting them away. Like nope, you can't pass here. People again, people want to have skepticism about it because they don't like his personality and it's time to let that go.

All right. Final question from sticks plays time. What is your favorite summer beverage alcoholic or otherwise? Great question. Because new kids on the block did have a bunch of hits and Chinese food makes me sick. But Luke, you know, those girls wearing Abercrombie and Fitch for the summer, for the summer. Those girls are all in high school, by the way. All right. Come on. Summer Beaver. I go alcoholic.

OK. Mojito is just a classic, isn't it? Like if you're if you and you and the wife go out to a nice restaurant, you're sitting outside on the sidewalk and it's beautiful. And Mojito. I'm not a Mojito guy, but I do recognize. I respect it. No, I'm going to havejito guy, but I do recognize. Mascot Mule? I respect it. No, I'm going to have, you know, it is one of my favorite places to go in Cartagena. Is this is this place called Juan del Mar? And they serve an Aperol Spritz there.

That is my wife lives on Aperol Spritz. And I'm so so I don't have them everywhere. I've had them here in different places and they just don't get the same drinks. Do you freaking love chick drinks? I like good cocktails. You know, you can drop the tail because that also works. I like hobo cock Let me get an umbrella and a tampon. I don't need the umbrella. I need I need a good mixologist is what I have But you know your go-to move

Man, this $25 drink sucks. They don't know how to make them in this city. Let me get the next $24 one You know, that's true. I want to try good cocktail. Now this one sucks too. The problem is I can't really have more than three cocktails anymore without getting a headache. Yeah. Or without becoming obnoxious and taking your live show down. That also happens. You know what I did? I created memories and merch.

You created content. Content is king. So non-alcoholic though. I feel like some kind of like watermelon juice or What's a great non-alcoholic summer beverage I'm not doing like I don't know I'm lame. I feel like fresh pressed juiced in the summer for like fresh You know the fruits that like shine in the summer. I feel like that's a big winner, okay You're not gonna get like a bud like clamado or anything. That's alcoholic. I know but isn't that gross with like the tomato sauce? I think anything Bud Light is gross. I mean look who drinks it. Yeah, but that's a cultural heritage Luke

I don't think the Clemato is cultural heritage the Bud Light version of it is not mandatory drinking Don't you dare do you are both dumb? I'm laughing at him doing the fucking It's like you just you're just fucking co-signing his ignorance now that was good I want to give a shout out to the spicy margarita though. That would be my oh, I must but I like spicy marks, right? All right. What's the what's the drink that you've had that you like? Change how do I ask this? Name a drink that you had that was like outside the boundaries of what you normally would drink

that you actually kind of liked. Like you took a risk and it was good. Oh, I mean I'll do that at nice restaurants when my wife's like, just don't get another IPA, get this cocktail and I'll get something wacky, but I never remember the name of it, so I'm horrible. I'm horrible for this conversation. We have more

No, that'll wrap up. Oh shit from donks morning combat at gmail.com by the way reach the show this this Thursday So here's a little update on our schedule here Friday is July 4th. We will not have a show We will be live this Thursday July 3rd or a nice remote episode where we will be playing your fan subs You're dead wrong. So hit them up at morning combat at Gmail.com. Tell Mikey that you said hi, but please keep send those dick pics. Keep the pants on. Send them one more time. Getting fired up here in a couple of weeks out. July 11th, Friday night, Netflix history will be made

in New York's Madison Square Garden. Taylor Serrano three. Are you surprised? First and foremost, Luke, ahead of this 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time there live on Netflix and Amanda Serrano despite losing the two close fights is the betting favorite in this third. I am surprised. I did think. She has the power. I thought she won both of those fights. I also agree. But I recognize that they're also insanely close. So I sort of get it. But at the same time I'm like if you got tripped up for the same reason in the second fight as you did the first fight Why would the third one be different? But I guess we'll see well

We're on the road to Taylor Serrano three in such a historic location there of NYC MSG the site of their first meeting Which that I kick myself to this day for not going to that one because those those that know the boxing regulars that were there Said male female we've never seen that type of excitement in the arena. Like, you know, the Irish fans, the Puerto Rican fans coming out. I've seen two big events there, Irish fans lifted, and that was one of them. Yeah, sure. What do we think the importance with the respects to women's boxing are from this standpoint? This became, their second meeting became a monster surprise as the co-main event to Jake Paul and Mike Tyson that it not only was such a killer fight of the year contender, all action fight with controversy and scoring, but that it became the most watched women's event in American sporting history.

We know the history between them and what's at stake. What do you think this fight, being an all female historic card on Netflix and putting this trilogy not in a co-main to another, you know, male main event, this is a main event fight. They're going on Netflix with this. What will this do potentially to women's boxing in general? It's hard to say long-term what it would do, but I think on the short-term BC,

we grew up in an era where we did actually have, for all the issues that sometimes plague women's boxing, we had big-time stars. We had Leila Ali. Dude, the Leila Ali run made news. It was, she was a major and central sports sports figure and we've lived through a world BC where we had that in MMA. Wait, Christy Martin in the 90s being a pay per view attraction? Yeah, for sure. She's another one.

I'm saying we haven't exactly had something like that in a while. Now they did great for themselves on that first and especially that second bout, but here comes the third one. To me, it's like, this is the kind of trilogy and the kind of bout and these two particular figures who I think, yeah, it's gonna stand the test of time, but it's gonna serve for this generation what someone like Leila Ali was for us, a signpost. This is how I remember this era of women's boxing.

It's the standard excellence and it's also not just the standard of excellence, it's the celebrated figures beyond just the standard of excellence. They kind of combine both in that way. Plus it's a trilogy. So it's like a Mickey war. It's a Goddy Ward kind of thing. Guaranteed at like that's the issue.

So it's got like this fight checks off many different things that we just haven't seen from the women's game. And of course the combination of all these factors involved, including the presenter here is going to make a big I wonder what this does launch in into the future of women's boxing to see a fight this important on this platform. A lot of that same audience probably saw it as the co-main event to Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. Now it's standing rightfully on its own.

You do though have to talk about the specifics and Katie Taylor really standing by the traditional women's format of 10 rounds, two minute rounds, not evolving or in my words evolving to the men's style of 12 minutes, 12 rounds, 3 minutes. We talked about this before how Eddie Hearn, the promoter of Taylor said, look, fights are more exciting that way. I also think it just, it helps Taylor's style. She can spam that offense. We know Amanda Surrano, despite technically coming from a lower weight class where she's currently the unified featherweight champion.

She's won titles in what, like nine divisions, you know, from 118 to 140. Like her power is ridiculous. Does Serrano have to change her game plan? Because being the power puncher, matching Taylor's output the best she can, she came as close as you couldn't write in fights one and two. I scored both for Serrano.

A lot of people did. How does she change it knowing that we're sticking with the two minute rounds, the ten rounds? It's going to be a sprint. Is there an evolution to the style knowing I've gone 20 rounds with Katie Taylor and I just barely couldn't edge her out? Wait, wouldn't, so, okay, didn't Serrano have a greater output in both those fights? And Taylor was the one who had flurries, but overall had lower volume. I would have to check the CompuBox because Taylor is all about high volume all the time.

Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Taylor. And Serrano largely met that volume. Evenly, it felt like. She definitely had big flurries. All right.

Here was the one from the second fight. Yep. This was in... Which had some headbutt controversy. November of 2024. So, no, dude, Serrano has much bigger numbers, not every single time, but most times. I mean, dude, in round seven, Taylor landed 35 punches out of 79 attempted. Serrano landed 54 out of 97 attempted. How about this round 10? Taylor landed 39, Serrano 73. That's landed, not thrown, landed. To me, it's like Serrano

has figured out a way to get a lot of volume in, but for some reason it's not translating. In the case of Taylor, I think she likes this format where again it kind of builds over time, but she gets these flurries in that are more memorable. What Serrano's got to do is not just put volume on her, she's got to do something that the judges can just all I remember what to happen in that round I remember what happened in that exchange or that minute. It's not a lot of time to work. It's two minutes I wonder if she's got a keep Taylor on the outside more You think so really try to because they end up just coming together and throwing flurries and it's exciting as hell But to come that close twice

This third one is in her home city of New York there with the Puerto Rican crowd. The Puerto Rican crowd versus the Irish crowd is going to be fucking it's going to be amazing that long. I can't wait for that. So it all goes down. Of course, Friday, July 11th live on Netflix, 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. specific standard time and Luke credit.

This is where you got to credit. Jake Paul, Nekisa, most viable promotions. They have filled this card signing all of these top rated names in women's boxing. Alicia Baumgartner, so many up and down this card and Holly Holm this weekend who got a win coming back in boxing for the first time since her Hall of Fame induction in the in the run in the UFC. I got to give Jake a lot of credit. This will be a showcase of elite women's boxing, but I can't say the winner of this is going to own this era because this era of Renaissance women's boxing, Clarissa Shields is such a huge part of that.

She's going to have a claim, yeah. Such a huge part of that. But I think they'll join Shields. I think win or lose for either of these two. They're going to join Shields on that Mount Rushmore. I really do. I think Shields, Serrano, and Taylor have places on the top four there, you know, with the ones that are already there of the Le Laliies, the Lucio Rikers, the, um, uh, who else am I missing there? I mean, there's been, there's been, who's the, uh, the trainer, the trainer.

What I was going to say was to me, this is, as I indicated, you know, if the, how about this? If the third, if the third fight is like the first two, this is going to be women's Gotti Ward. Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry, that's what it's going to be. And honestly, like, I'll leave it at that. But like, that's what we could have next month. All right, Friday, July 11th, Lava on Netflix,

8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific. Don't miss it. We have one more segment for you today. And this is, of course, where your boy BC checks out the internet right on the Sunday, trying to find the most ridiculous videos in the world of combat sports and beyond to get a rise out of Luke Thomas. Last week, what was I graded last week? You didn't give me a letter, but there was some, you know, severe disappointment across the world. Let's see if I can bounce back.

This one's called Have You Seen This-ish? Have you seen this? Hoo-ah! Somebody's drinking after that one. Alright, UFC 317 was IFW time in Las Vegas. Luke, you know I love a real, recognizing real. How about Ilya and Pantoja backstage? Yeah. Two fucking hammers. I love them. You should know this man. in real how about Ilya and Pantoja backstage Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Love it. Love it. Family guys. Oh yeah. That's what I'm all about.

Look, we need good stories in MMA. We need good people. Let's go. We want high achievers who, here's my request. Can we get high achievers who aren't racist and don't commit crimes? Is that, is that too much to ask? Can we get out of conversations like this next one, Dana White being asked about all of these recent tweets from John Jones Dana

Can you clarify who was the liar here? She brought him up down here? Yeah, she brought up John I don't know if you I didn't bring John up he did Okay, fair enough. He gave you a layup I don't know Did you see his series of tweets over the last few days? Inferring that basically he told you guys that he was retired last November and that your efforts to make the Asperino fight were basically futile. It's not true.

Okay. Is that what you wanted to ask me? Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask you. But what do you make of him coming out and saying contrary to what you've said there? I don't know. I'm telling you the truth. I think they're both lying. We just never want to believe Here's how often I want to talk about John Jones again never if we never bring him up. I'd be too happy Ifw also gave us this incredible more. I don't think they're gonna pull this is from the UFC Hall of Fame ceremony We can play this right not gonna get us on this gonna find out I guess

I'll sign you gosselin 236 the best fight that ever happened in my lifetime. I know people are like, what about these other brawls that were better? I'm talking about in my lifetime. I was capesighted. People are allowed to have lists that aren't objective lists. They're just personal lists. Yes. Is it pound for pound the best action fight we've ever seen?

No. Was it an insane title fight? Yes. Look at the respect they give each other here. I knew I had that mana, that fire, but I never ever got to realize that until you released it from me. So brother, I am forever indebted to you. Thank you so much.

You make me a better person. Thank you. Maybe Lampley was right. These two like, gave each other so much and fought to the death that now they wanna F, Luke, right? You know what I mean? Fighting and fucking is the two favorite things. Dude, come on. This is awesome

But you know I don't like that we call Hall of Famers Hall of Famers just because their fight got into the Hall of Fame Yeah Gee damn it Calvin Gastelone is all favorite. I'm gonna do it. You've got to put this one in It's just the reality. I think that Jack. It's cool. By the way should they have to rematch now Just give us a second helping It's cool by the way should they have to rematch now. Just give us a second helping You can't recreate lightning in the bottle all right, let's keep it going it's time for our shirts of the week here

Luke this is kind of want me to get political, but what do you think about this one far right? Excuse me far left far right bitch. I'm far ting Yeah, I feel like you should already own that that is my political party right there. I'm the farting party. You know this shows infamous history of touching tips. Check out this shirt. Real bros touch tips. Yeah, that guy wore it to church today. Okay, nevermind. And finally, Luke, long live Princess Diana.

But check out this NASCAR related die show. Number 97. Is this show turning into insulting the deaths and terrible tragedies of the world? I think that's an honor. That's not an insult. Yeah, I don't know how that works. You may have perished in that car. So why does every young guy now all of a sudden have curly hair?

I think that wasn't that way when I grew up. I don't know what's happening. Luke, you know regional combat sports where anything brother I'm living on it. Anything can happen. Let's go to tough enough. You once called the Luis Hernandez fight, right? I did.

I called his last fight before this. So this is a fight in tough enough and he's flipping off Chris Curtis and Sean Strickland. I talked to Chris Curtis and watch what Sean Strickland does coming in here. He comes marching in like a dad. What the frick dude? Yeah, he comes marching in like a dad. What the frick, dude? Yeah, he comes marching in like a dad.

And then Chris Curtis gets up in his face. So I haven't got clarification, but I messaged Chris Curtis. And he told me that Luis Hernandez repeatedly told him to suck his dick. OK. Which I'm like, BC tells me that every Monday. I don't fist fight him. The interesting point is, first of all, two things I want to say about that Luis Hernandez

I called his fight next FC He's fucking good like I would not be surprised if he actually gets called up to contender series or something Second of all until he does he's a fucking cop Like the whole thing about this is just a cop just crotch chopping and then here comes Sean You know marching in like a fucking grandpa show that Uh, and also that killer instinct in the cage, right? Yeah. Also, here's a big problem for Sean and chris Chris has a fight next month. Now. I'm not sure where it is. Um the max griffin fight and sean I don't think does he have anything on the counter? No, but if you get suspended in nevada

The ufc is not going to take you to fucking australia and then just dodge a commission your suspended. No, no if you get suspended in Nevada, the UFC is not going to take you to fucking Australia and then just dodge a commission You're suspended. No, no, no, no, no. No, that's one thing they've when have they done that? All right, they've never done that. Okay, they've never done that Okay, if you get suspended by a real commission somewhere they honor that and the point I'm trying to make is even if the UFC did Do that you see by the way, if you see did they honor that They would recognize his fight from Vegas to LA It was all under commission of probably now John Jones is saying on Twitter that he changed the game for everybody Hold on that happened under commission approval. They didn't do it. You have seen would be risking their own license I'm saying if the Commission suspends either of them for this

That's gonna fuck up their career the rest of their years if they want to the rest of this year Anyway, if they want to fight let's stay in the region real quick is fighting in two weeks by the way, so it's even sooner Look, do you remember x1 championship fighter Ivan perish Kov? I don't not off-memory Do you know about this weed boxing promotion in Thailand that they have we've shown the clip no but now I'm interested check out Ivan after he Fight oh he just gets electrocuted like a bitch. Yeah, no, he did live. We are not showing another death right here on Have You Seen This Shit,

although we have by accident. He looks like the mosquitoes in my front porch on that light I have that zaps him. All right, this next clip is not a regional MMA promotion, but check out this performance of this person in this street altercation in the pink jumpsuit. Send in that guard to hell. Where is this?

I don't know. It said NYPD on their things. Did it really? Yeah. Dude, this guy's throwing hands, bitch. Dude, what the fuck is this? Who are the, oh my, dude, I mean, what? First of all, he seems like a terrible guy,

but he got hands. Dude, he's like killing a crowd right here. You know what, but here's the thing thing is even if you win this and you drive off, they're going to get your license plate and you're going to go to fucking jail. You know what I mean? Like it's over for you. So why so enjoy the fist fight.

You're going to be in Rikers. One more regional result here in Japanese MMA. Watch this finish in this female fight. Luke. Oh brother. People don't know women's MMA in Japan has got a pretty long and interesting history and you just don't see knockout power like that in women the small. But that lady had some. Luke, in my suburban Connecticut neighborhood, people are always not used to the fact that

I regularly have bears, bobcats, foxes, like running through my yard and cutting through all the time. It's just got a furry convention. I didn't grow up like that, but now it's there's fur everywhere. Foxes are wild. Check out this Fox stealing the glizzies off the grill. Hell, yeah, just heading back like a hell. Yeah, look at that thief.

I like Fox's although they always an Ocean City, Maryland. That Fox probably has radioactive waste all in its blood. All right. Hey, look, we have not some child abuse in a while in this. If you haven't peed on the floor at secrets, you haven't lived life. Watch the kid in the red t-shirt here on the soccer celebration. Oh, get out of there kid. Take that.

One more piece of child abuse from this Jenga game. Where are the parents when you need them Luke? Yeah, you fucking dumb bitch. Hey, Herb Dean, get in there. Get in there on Hobo Cock, please. Oh God. Wow. I had a... Well, I fucking dumb. Hey Herb Dean get in there get in there on Hobel cock, please Wow Well, okay, I can't I can't I was gonna be a really you can't aggressive joke about an ex-girlfriend But I look if we're gonna have child abuse we better offset it with some elder abuse. So let's go to the motorcycle

There's full dresser right there, okay, so this happened to me once Oh Okay, so this happened to me once. Oh! Oh, God! Yes! Charged to the scooter trash network. So one time I had to put a motorcycle into my friend's barn, this was many, many years ago, and I had never, I had ridden a motorcycle like a little bit, but not, I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, and the ramp up was kind of long.

You got to give it a little gas, like you got gotta get, and I didn't, and I got halfway through and just tipped over, and the motorcycle landed on me and it burned my leg because the engine was so hot. Yeah, it was fun. She's just giving that away in like a podcast raffle afterwards. Hey, let's go to the- I banged his mom, it was cool.

Oh my God. UFC, as I mentioned, produced and presented the third and final Canelo Crawford World Tour press conference in Vegas. Dude, this comment from Bud and this little back and forth got me fired up. I won't lie. First and foremost, somebody was in a room saying that I was scared of them. So I stepped to them and showed them who was the boss of this fight. I ain't scared of shit. Hey, I never say that.

Your uncle say that, not me me I ain't scared of shit and you gonna find that out as you see the last press conference We'll see when I walked you down when you supposed to be the bigger man Yeah, hey you you say that because you're fighting with nobody and you obviously look like you're a great fighter But you find down September 13 This is gonna be different for you and it's gonna be different from you as well as well Question for the last fighters that you fought they know my level I thought everybody I love when I fought everybody

Everybody to mention me one you Fight it just one question about this. Oh me You you will see that you so when I beat you is you gonna be a nobody When I step a mother You're gonna be a nobody. When I stump a mud hole in your ass is you gonna be a nobody. You gonna be just like everybody else. Watch. Watch. They ain't shit that everybody else been saying since I moved to 147, I ain't fought nobody. Every last one of them stump a mud hole in their ass and he gonna be next. Oh shit, okay, that's good. Why when he was asked? Yes, in the Goats podcast.

Okay, he's asked, name one elite fighter that you fought, and he's bringing up like Ricky Apple, whatever the fuck his name was? So he brought up Victor Postel, who was the unbeaten champion at 140. He fought him on pay-per-view and he dominated him. That's a great win on his resume. It's like underrated.

But you're right, he should have led with Errol Spence, Sean Porter, right? Like he should have gone in that direction. Why would he not bring up Spence? He brings up Ricky Burns, who was a quality guy, lightweight. But like, yeah, I don't understand why he did that. I don't know.

But I also don't understand why. That Spence win was fucking incredible. I also don't understand why they were sitting on a rooftop with Tom Brady, Shaquille O'Neal, and Dana White. Like what are we doing here? It's the most Saudi thing ever. Let's just, you know. Did you see the way that Ring magazine's Twitter account was just killing Jake Chavez the whole

week and over the weekend? No, but I think that's funny. Dude, they're editorially just dunking on it. It's not a magazine. It's a PR arm for Turkey. Well, speaking of that PR arm, backstage, Bud ran into Mike Coppinger and a wrestling match broke out. Shut the fuck up. You little prick.

Dude, by the way, did you see a cop going at Jake on Twitter aggressively? Like, who are you to say this? Yeah, I wonder if Turkey's cracking the whip on him. Interesting. Shut the fuck up. Look, it's not October, but here is your Halloween costume of the year already.

Okay. Well, this is, I mean, are we ingenuity? Come on. You can, you can separate the art from the artist and rate that tat. Let me, let me just say, let me just say, I think this show has turned into tragedy porn. It's really, which porn is kind of tragic in the best way to wash down tragedy. Porters by going to a German McDonald's. Look at what they're selling, Luke. We're sucking dick. That's that Iliya Toporia Happy Meal I've been buying. Well, that's awesome. You know, every week we do like to remember the past and never forget, right?

OK, because I didn't sleep last night. Just drop some coffee in my shirt. It's a random Tuesday like this day can't get any worse. Apparently I can. Luke, some people are so dark. They even put tragedies on their body as a tattoo. I'm not going to ask you to rate that because that's disgusting, but that's a real tat.

Also, it's a bad one. It's not even a good tattoo. You know what? Let's get into actual tats. It's time to play rate that tat.'s disgusting, but that's a real tat. Also, it's a bad one. It's not even a good tat, too. You know what? Let's get into actual tats. It's time to play Rate That Tat. We need a rating 1 to 10 on the quality, okay? Under your... Here's a Neo-Japanese arm. Your thoughts on this. Neo-traditional? That pops. Um...

That's almost like... That's almost Neo-traditional slash new school. It's like a 9, right? No. I... Um... 8 or higher. Do you think the guy's arm should get in the gym a little more maybe? I'm gonna guess there's a few things wrong with this gentleman. All right, let's keep it going. You love soccer, you love messy.

Is this a messy tattoo for you, Luke? I don't know. Wow, that's a zero and that's a negative eight billion. Looks like he's just sucking a big ass dick. Okay. I'm not going to have you rate that. It's like, why is, why is messy kissing the tip of Peter North's hog? There we go. There we go. This is a, this is a creative one. I want to see how you score it. I wonder if you put it on a curve because of the curves involved or anything. Oh, he's holding up her butt cheek. Yeah. I give it a four. All right, that's fine.

That's fine. All right. It's time for MMA fighters in the wild. The aforementioned Conor McGregor is back training for the cameras only, it seems, to keep that body in shape. Why does he look increasingly purple? I don't understand. I just don't understand.

I'm going to be honest with you. I don't understand. I don't get it. I don't know what's happening. And is everyone watching him? I mean, this is... That's where he's at in his queries. He's just an attraction.

Once again, like, I'm... If he never fought again, I'd be cool I'd be totally cool. I don't need him anymore Chihuahua's was in the wild Saturday at their Friday at the weigh-in This is at the weigh-in watch the celebration turn into child abuse Luke. Oh Shit. Oh Notice that kid didn't go down though. He's got an iron chin brother. Yep speaking of two weewees He went to UFC fan X and ran into Lord Gian Silva and the two started having fun

But it did escalate into a weird Rasslin match what do you make of yeah every time a fighter greets Cormier? They just start wrestling him. Yes, it feels like that, right? There's no Fabio Busquets, right? Yeah Fabiano Fabiano Busquque. Do you think he gets he gets chicks from this job? I hope. Goat translator if ever there was one. What is going on here? This got a little weird. These guys are just being at this over under clinch. There's there's Mauricio Hoofy. Hoofy's like yo hold on hold on let's let's let's chill out here, and I don't know if you've seen this video. Yeah, I mean this is why when guys are like MMA is not homoerotic. I'm like it's the most homoerotic

I wasn't looking at it from that angle. I'm just like it's just like Threw him out took his phone I mean I've had enough this boys will be boys alright Luke. Sorry about that the last fighter in the wild was Habib In fact, he's on the water. What do you make of his wakeboarding skills? He's the goat, right? Now, I don't know shit about wakeboarding. Does anyone on the show know anything about it? I'm not cultured in the lake life. I mean, you know, from what I can tell,

if this is like early, you know, if he's new at this, that's pretty good, right? Yeah, I wish I was. I mean, it looks like his balance is a little bit off, you know, but other than that. I thought he did well on there. Luke, the UFC weigh-in show continues to be off the frickin rails. Here's Michael Bisping talking to Laura Senko.

Listen, I mean, of course, Laura Senko has just provided so many great matchmaking moments over the years. So that alone should get her into the Hall of Fame. But of course, she's known for being the UFC's finest female commentator. I think when it comes to being a female commentator, there is no one that does it better than Laura Sanko. Wow, there is just one, so thank you. Well, you were the first, well, the second, a long time ago.

But you're the first modern era. Of course, outside of DC, you've got the best tits. You know? That counts for something. Fuck this guy. This guy, fuck this guy. course, outside of DC, you've got the best tits. This guy. I'll say this. That's definitely going to get you fired at CBS Sports. If we did it. Yes. Pretty fucking good joke, actually.

Well, it's well-timed, but he ripped on DC. He should have brought up the WWE referee. The reason why that joke works is because, A, you're comparing her to a male, and you put the male first, right? So there is a reason why that works. I gotta say, that's a ballsy joke. That's pretty good. That's a pretty good joke. Also, you get you fired at any place. Well, they also brought out a magician right after named Jerry McCambridge, and he continued the jokes. Can you come close? Yes.

You wanna switch? No, she just needs to be over here. Okay. Which side would you like me on? Right here. Okay. Oh, they are nice tits. Oh, shit. Oh, okay.

I told you! No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They're out of bounds! So that is, that is, that's just straight up sexual harassment. That is, that's straight up sexual harassment in the workplace. I mean the the bisming one was too, but at least he I'm telling you it went too far I'm telling you but it was it went too far. I did dude. I just love how Senko does nothing but homework and the only thing anyone in MMA can do is

sexually objectifier I know no one cares because we live in a world where you can just get to be, this is a world where, you know, no one cares. Grab them by the, yeah, okay. No one cares. Things also got weird on the build to Paul Chavez before the fight even took place.

Here's a little snippet from their face off. I'd like to get your thoughts. I am super smart, man. This is how dumb he is. I'm the first YouTuber, Bound for Bound number one in the world, yes. Oh, yeah. That was weird, Luke.

Speaking of weird, if I never have to see Chavez Jr. again, it'll be too. OK, well, this would be the last time you see him. Do you remember after he fought Canelo in 2017 that that night he ordered two hookers brought him back to his room and they very infamously stole forty thousand dollars from him. Luke. Yeah, I'm OK. There's a lot of pictures floating around of it.

You can see the eye busted up from fighting Canelo. So do you think he learned his lesson? Here's Jake or here's Chavez the day before the Jake Paul fight being asked what he's gonna do if he wins Tell me how you're gonna celebrate if you beat Jake Paul. So great my clue gears Yeah, how much you gonna spend on the girls the girls at the nightclub? Half of my purse. The half of my purse. Half of his purse. So he really just took this fight for the paycheck so he could afford more whores, right? Once again, I could not believe how many dudes I found out by whores.

Dude, he's like half my paycheck. Long Island Luke, you ever bought a prostitute? No, I'm not a Marine. Wow, all right, Luke, let's continue. We got a couple more. Here's a reminder to wear your seatbelts. That's a tough... you think that she gets her You think her uber rating goes down as a passenger after that look that was like me. Oh, okay You're allowed to make jokes here. I mean the Jerry McCann I know there's no there's no way to work on this staff other than Long Island Luke. There's no Um and now Luke a public service message for anyone who can use a friend get down from there

No, Why not? I don't want to be a part of this world anymore. But this isn't the way you have friends and family that care about you. My family is too far to see. My friends don't have time for me. You don't need their love. You can love yourself and find new connections. With who?

Well, me for one. I can be your friend. Really? Just get off the ledge. We can all go get drinks at Canaldi's. Where's canaldi's? CANALDI'S NOT SPITTIN' OUT MOUTH BITCH This is Ping and Jerry McCambridge must love that clip Luke One more segment for you Um, dude

Do you remember when ketchup packets are left too long somewhere? Like I used to work at this newspaper that had all this expired food and all the things and like, oh, we got ketchup in that drawer. Every ketchup packet put out purple ketchup and I still put it on the hot dogs that I would buy and that's probably explains why I am the way I am today. I've ever had purple expired ketchup is discussed. No, I'm not a raccoon. All right.

You also like restaurants with high ratings in New York City, right? Like you're a big ratings guy. I mean, if they're affordable. All right, let's hear from some New Yorkers about this What's the best restaurant in New York City? I don't eat in a lot of restaurants. I like to stay home It's in purple ketchup shoot it into my asshole. Honestly, man eating out is so pricey They usually just hit the supermarket. They have a purple ketchup there that I like to just squeeze up my hole It's this little hole in the wall in the Lower East Side It's called I stayed home and shot purple ketchup into my own a**hole.

I shoot it up in my a**hole when I get home hard. With the much force I can, it's going 40, 50 miles per hour minimum. I'm really sick. I get really sick from it. We don't really eat at all. Babe, what did we eat the other night? We shot purple ketchup into each other's a**holes.

So good. I usually lose my appetite for other stuff because of how sick I get from the purple ketchup and and how it's it's in And it's in my That's all the shit I can handle this week See minus See minus all right, you had a couple bangers in there, but it's like hey You know I did put that together under the influence so there you go All right. You had a couple bangers in there, but it's like, hey.

You know, I did put that together under the influence. So there you go. Morning Combat at gmail.com. Thank you. You can reach the show. You can also like and subscribe, but we got off that bubble of whatever bubble we were on like 177,000 subscribers. They thought we'd never gain more.

We've gained more. All right. Awesome. Thank you. Morning Combat dot shop for all your merch needs last chance to get the which ones the Skits and bits get shirts and hoodie and the last day today is the last day Releasing the next drop on Thursday's episode so too. We'll be back this Thursday No more Friday episodes 4th of July this week Thursday this Thursday July 3rd 11 a.m. Eastern on YouTube check it out

We'll have new merch. Get your final from batch number one at morning combat dot shop right now. Luke Thomas, anything else you want to say to these people before you catch a train? Not the Osborne kind, because I know that's what you're saying. It's not a joke set up. I'm just having conversations with a friend. I really can't believe they did that on that way and show. That's insane that they did that. I was just as blown away by this being doing that,

although it was a well-timed joke. I'm like, you can't really do that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm actually kind of just wow, they really went there. But that's why I put the purple ketchup bit on just to kind of like take you down. Yeah, shooting purple ketchup up your butthole is really quite important.

No, thank you for watching the show. We appreciate you. Do you want to give a review of that? Literally, I can't finish it. There's a little bit, I had most of it. It made me feel kind of gross halfway through the show, which the other energy drinks don't do. So that'll be the last one of those I have.

By the way, on the front it says natural energy. Do we have it? I don't know if you can see it. Nah, it's too far away. It says natural energy right there at the top. I don't think it's very natural. Alright. Well, that's uh... I now have full blown AIDS. That's Luke Thomas. I was Brian Campbell. It was great to do the show with you.

Long Island Luke is here too of the main card minute. Check out his work and check us out this Thursday, July 3rd, 11am. We'll be back a pre-4th of July live episode to set you up for the weekend Which is what's going on this weekend? I think No, it's July 4th. I think there's nothing going on this weekend. So I worked every weekend in June I'm happy to take a witness where you give like the fireworks safety thing or maybe you'll hold that for Thursday No, I don't mind if people lose their fingers go ahead and be a dumb fuck Make sure good makes for good fodder on have you seen this shit? What I will say is-

Dude, Ken's like, get the fuck out of here. Yeah, what I will say is, don't drink and drive. Don't do that shit. Definitely. Please, call an Uber, call a friend, alright? Call a whore. Put purple ketchup up your ass. Whatever you gotta do to get through it.

We are Morning Combat, it's amazing we're still here, but we're not going anywhere, okay? So if you want the truth in combat sports, you know who gives it to you. Rawdog style, like a roi vol. No head movement. That's what we're talking about. For LT, it's BC and the great staff that we have here like LIL. Take care of yourself.

Have a great time and enjoy the rest of your summer here. We're out of here. Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.