MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Announcements | Tank vs. Roach Preview | UFC Apex Preview | FULL EPISODE | MORNING KOMBAT

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

MK Fridays is always a vibe and this week is no different. Luke and BC bring you into the weekend like only they can!  Beginning by reacting to the latest UFC announcements, including Rafael Fiziev vs. Justin Gaethje at UFC 313. Then it is time to preview the weekend. As they look ahead to Saturdays big boxing card in Brooklyn as Tank Davis returns to face Lamont Roach. Plus, they break down this weekends UFC apex card and react to referee Jason Herzog's admission to Henry Cejudo.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's the 28th of February 2025 and y'all are gonna have to see defeat like a podiatrist. What's up everyone? Hey, there's that autofocus on BC's camera. Hi there, it's time for morning combat. We got a lot to get to today, but first things first, let's intro ourselves. Hello there, my name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of the status of the news right here in Washington DC.

And I believe my friend and partner here is normally the king of Connecticut, like once Jadakiss accused 50 cent of being, but I believe he's in New York City or maybe you're in Brooklyn right now, correct? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. What's up, Brian Campbell? I was thinking nobody raises the roof anymore, Luke, like we did back in the 90s. You want to bring that back today? I don't, though. I don't

Well, hey happy to be here. This should be a great show Luke mate possum was out I was that chance because it's Friday all the people out there ain't got she had to do right Let's just let's talk fights and bang to it. Right? Come on. I Listen We I don't know how much you've talked about this. I'm surprised there's not been a little bit more chatter about it. Can you tell the folks why you're in Brooklyn because of what you're doing tomorrow and I feel like I know you try

not to make it all about you, but dude, this is your show. This is our lives. Why don't you tell them what happened? Yeah, thank you very much. I will be on the call Saturday night PBC on Prime pay-per-view from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Tank Davis versus Lamont Roach Jr. Let's frickin' go.

Fire it up. Live in the dream. Climb in the mountains, Luke. I'm ready. I'm ready to deliver more. Renal O'Abner Morris is going to be a wild time on Saturday. By the way, a big to-do, a big DC affair. Obviously Lamont from the area.

Gervonta training at Headbangers in Southeast DC. Also your co main Gary Antoine Russell Junior. Well, no, sorry, this is Gary and Tuan Russell. Yeah, sorry. There's like there's like nine of them. Like I just say junior by accident, but Gary Antoine he'll be in the co made event and by the way,

a sleeper of a co main event. If ever there was one so it's I'm I'm a dude I gotta tell you I'm so proud'm, dude, I gotta tell you, I'm so proud of you, I really am. Listen, I doubt you even showered this morning and I bet your breath and butt stink. But, but as your friend and longtime partner, man, I am legitimately so proud of you.

You should be really, really happy for. Thank you, that is, that is wonderful. Thank you, I did, however, I did clean my butthole in the shower, really happy for her. Thank you. That is wonderful. Thank you. I did, however, I did clean my butthole in the shower, have not brushed my teeth yet though. So, you know, there you go. Yes. Yes, I was half right.

Let's bring in the third member here of the team who also probably doesn't wash his ass. It's Bong Island. What's up, brother? How you doing? For a matter of fact, I did this morning. Okay, all right. Very good.

What's going on, brother? I'm good, dude. How are you doing? Good? Good? Good? What's what's the plan for the weekend gonna ignore your girlfriend some more? So she's on vacation in Key West for the weekend shout out So I'm doing the full card tomorrow UFC Vegas 103 does not deserve it But I'm doing the entire card and then we'll tune into BC's commentary afterwards What time what time does the main card start for the UFC fights? Do we know seven? So it's gonna overlap. We'll probably miss the first fighter too on the main card on PBC, but we'll catch the co-main in Maine

I'm thinking probably can catch a comment in me. Okay, very very good. Yeah Starts at eight the pay-per-view eight Eastern and then a six Eastern. There's a three fight prelim card I'll be calling headline by our boy swift Jared heard Oh Another DC guy by the way, Who you calling the prelims with? I believe also Morrow and Abner but I'll find out later. Yeah I mean who the fuck knows right? I mean it's a new day. Let's remind everyone social is everywhere. You can find us at all the different places where you get all of your content. You can follow BC who's been a very active week over at the Brian Campbell Experience, his personal YouTube channel but you can get mine as well. Just Luke Thomas there as you can see below. Uh,

BC, I saw you spoke, spoke to Lamont Roach. I saw you spoke to Manel cop. I saw you spoke to who else? Virgil Ortiz Jr. And we went name by name through that one 54 division to talk about his interest, whether he thinks he can make fights against them. So very good chat with a guy who's absolutely on fire. And it looked like he did it from like his parents' or something. Just a humble guy in Texas you know. Don't beat the fuck out of you. Don't think he won't. That's what he'll do. All right so we

have a lot to get to today on the show. There's UFC announcements, there's a UFC fight, there's boxing and then there's sort of some sundry boxing topics but without further ado BC if you're ready we should get this party started yeah? Yeah I mean yeah we should yeah let's bang okay. All right let's bang Tui. Topic number one if we can UFC President Dana White issued yet another slate of just amazing announcements or what we think are amazing announcements anyway I suppose we can debate them let's go through them piece by piece there are there are many of them but BC there's basically three major ones. Let's start with what I consider to be the biggest. Dan Hooker was supposed to fight Justin Gaethje and the co-main for UFC 313 not tomorrow but the following weekend. He injured his hand, he's out.

So who was going to replace him? It turns out it's going to be Rafael Fazib which is a rematch that they had from I think about a year, almost two years ago, well not quite, like a year and a half ago at this point. Whatever the case, BC, did they get the right co-main, or rather I should say, did they get the right replacement for Justin Gaethje given the timeframe and given who was available and all the other factors that go into it?

Luke, to quote a great American sports analyst, your mileage may vary, Luke, okay, all right? Look, let me start by putting the statement on there that we already know. Justin Gaethje versus anyone, at any time, anywhere is gonna be must see TV. It's gonna be hard to get that wrong. Do I understand what they were up against

your last minute? Of course, I understand you're not gonna have to Tupuporia fill in. You're not going to have, you know, uh, poor yay necessarily as they're mapping out his retirement plan. Although he did raise his hand. We found out on Twitter, which was interesting. Um, the issue I have with this Luke is really just the larger, more generic issue with UFC matchmaking and the proliferation of fight cards, the higher prices and the water down. The ad nauseam complaining that we tend to do because we are, or we look at ourselves as sort of like gatekeepers of this industry of how it

used to be and we're watching these crazy trends happen. What do I mean by that? This is a pay per view in Las Vegas with a fantastic main event and the rest of the card is atrocious and now we lose the all-action co-main event and while Faziv versus Gachey was pretty interesting fight the first time around, not only did Gachey score his first takedown

as a professional MMA fighter, but he showed legitimate veteran instincts to pull out a fight against somebody of the next generation of lightweights. But, but, Fazeva's all went two in his last two, Luke. So it's like, is that the perfect fight right now? I mean, I'm certainly being greedy when I'm saying,

look, I would have loved Armand Sarukian right here. You know what I mean? I would have loved Charles Olivera, but can you get these guys on two weeks notice? Maybe not. Heck, Luke, I wouldn't have hated if they ran back Moikano after his one-sided last minute loss to Islam and give him sort of that second chance

to capitalize on his run. Either way, will this be a bad fight? No. But this is a co-mane event of a, of a, you know, of a somewhat major pay-per-view this year and it feels like a rematch that nobody really needs right now. Tell me if I'm just a curmudgeon or if this is on to something here. I think you're being a curmudgeon. I actually love this fight and I don't really understand what the pushback is about if I can just be totally honest. Okay the pushback is it's a pay-per-view cold man that's the pushback.

Okay so you know what let's back up a step if it wasn't going to be Fazeev who would have been Brian Campbell's top choice? Armand Saurukhin. Okay now we have a graphic I believe on this where um oh did I include this one? I don't know if I included this one. God damn it, I probably should have included it. There were a series of ones that were offered and Armin was one of them, but Armin said he couldn't make the weight. So he was asking for a 160 catch weight and the UFC bulked. Is your belief that the UFC should have just made

a 160 pound catch weight and done this? Or you can't fight? I believe they should have. I think it still would have served the same purpose of sorting out the order atop the lightweight division. But again, it comes down to your mileage of whether you think this card is fine as is with this change, then there's no issue at all, Luke. I mean, like, what do you think about UFC 313 at the moment? We are about to pregame preview that a week from today. Is it going to be a two fight conversation or not? That's the real question here. So I grant that this is less than ideal circumstances. Nobody wanted the hooker fight to fall through and now we got this kind of unfortunate

situation. But let me just make the case for Fazeep because I just disagree that this is like some kind of, I mean if you wanted to make an argument that this constant replacement cycle stuff has become annoying or, you know, it just doesn't leave you with much titillation about what's to come because you're just getting like a reduced version of whatever the good thing could be, then fine. We love titillation, Luke. When it comes to TNA, we love titillation on this. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

And granted, there's not necessarily much in part because of all the circumstances that we kind of laid out here. But I have to tell you, I love this fight. I really love this fight. Listen, Fazeev was on a ridiculous win streak before the Gachie fight and was winning the Gachie fight up until Gachie stormed back late, which is just an amazing heroic performance on his part. But like Fazeev matter of factly was putting it on him early enough. So like there's rivalry between them. There's history between them.

There was competitiveness between them. And to your point, Gagee versus anyone is action packed. But Gagee versus Fazeev is especially action packed. That's the first thing I'm going to say. Second of all, the Gamrot fight. Yes, that's a fight that Fazeev lost. Fazeev lost it in the second round He won the first round on all three judges scorecards and then got injured in the second to me

I don't really necessarily read a whole lot into that from that fight And by the way gamerat apparently for whatever reason turned out a rematch with Fiziv So it's not great that we're having two losses in a row for Fiziv I certainly grant that is true But this idea that like he's overmatched and he can't handle it and he's like, you know, he's kind of petered out and this is the end of that. I just think that's complete bullshit,

totally oversold for me. For me, is this the ideal situation? Of course not. We are not in ideal territory. We have to make do according to the UFC's preferences with what we have available. The other ones that were available who could make way and I'm with you. If the UFC was willing to play with weight more, there might be some

better choices, but for whatever reason, they're not. So it has to be guys who make weight. We're really gonna spend what could be could be could be Justin Gaethje's last fight against a wrestler trying to take him down ad nauseam in Gamrot. You could do that. I don't really understand necessarily what the point of that would be. Fazeve on the other hand, and I know there were some other choices that were out there, also not nearly as good, or you know, kind of paying Robin Peter to pay Paul in a sense.

But among the people who were available, this is not only the best one. There's reason to believe it could actually be very, very competitive. And the fact that Fazeed has one to get back because of what happened the first time in an all action style, honestly, I'm not sure that I can't declare to UBC that this will be a better fight than Dan Hooker, but for me, this is the one that offered the least amount of drop off from the hooker fight to a secondary choice. And I'm honestly blown away. People aren't more on board with that. It'll entertain. It could continue the rivalry because, you know, Gagey was crafty in how he pulled out that first fight. I'm not going to be upset coming in or probably upset on the way out. I am looking at

the other options though. I mean, I wouldn't have preferred more, let's say Dariush or Tarantula Turner. But Luke, if we're going to accept a guy given the circumstances of two week notice and turnaround coming off of two losses in Fiziv, and I do understand completely what you're saying about the circumstances of the Gamrot loss, could we have considered number 15 Benoit Saint-Denis? Would that have made people more excited? Would that have made me more excited by being extra, extra greedy here? Do you think it was even addressed to call up BSD? I don't know, but that could be one of those things where it's like,

are they saving him for some future European or French card for the later in the calendar or something, you know? Um, but, uh, the argument to me is not that there is no way to look at the roster again, especially if you're willing to play with catch weight and find a superior alternative. I think you could, but I think in terms of guys who can make 55 who are ready to go who have an action-oriented style and then anything else on top of that is bonus The fact that they have a history together with by the way a phenomenal fight itself I don't know man. I've seen some of the belly aching and I just don't get it

I mean, there's some other fights down the line or more broadly the 313 card any hit it took was gonna be Or more broadly, the 313 card, any hit it took was gonna be obviously detrimental because it was already paper thin and this doesn't help. But I gotta say, in terms of a rescuing effort and in the ways in which you view that, I just can't complain about this. I'm actually kind of pumped for it, if I can be honest. And this, I rarely say that with a replacement,

but this one satisfies it for me. Then I pull back my disinterest Luke and I do know that BSD has a fight coming up is it Alvarez? Oh yeah Joel Alvarez and by the way that fight is a banger. Oh that's gonna be a great fight. So look I gave you my real reaction I'm not lingeringly upset here let's see what happens what I do want to ask you about this fight is Long Island. Luke pointed out the odds to me earlier today, courtesy of Draftkings, which have Fiziv minus 135, Gachie plus 114.

Do you feel like Vegas is ready to fully cash out Gachie coming off of that Holloway KO under the premise that the chin might be gone? I think that they're worried. Fully cash out seems a little strong. Let's see how the odds change between now and then, but I absolutely think that they are concerned. The guy has taken an enormous amount of damage even prior to the Max Holloway fight and then got viciously face planted, KO'd, one hitter, quitter, one of the worst knockouts that a fighter in UFC history has ever suffered. That's a true fact. You know, nobody comes back from that like just

the same. A piece of himself was left in the octagon at UFC 300. There's absolutely no way around that. The question is, okay, even if you lost a piece, how much is still left? We don't really know. This is why Fazeev, Hooker would have been a great test too, but this is why to me Fazeev is a great test. Fazeev is gonna try and find that out. I absolutely believe it. He's got one gear for the most part anyway. And, oh, I see you smiling like a rapist.

What's going on? I was agreeing with your point. I mean, I do like Fazeev. Look, I'm trying to not be his curmudgeon here. I'm trying to go, yeah, yeah, let's bang this final bang. I'm in, let's go. Yeah, Long Island Luke, give me a prediction on where the line will settle a week from today.

I feel like it's actually trending the way that it's been going. Because Gaff texted me yesterday, shout out to Gaff, and was like, yo, hop on Justin Gaethje right now. He's plus 100. And today, you guys just read it, he's plus 114. So money's still coming in on Fazeve. I'm going to see where it settles before I throw my bet in okay i will be taking gachi as a dog gun to your head though

just up or down who wins justin gachi okay it's three round fight i like that better yes not a five round fight a three round fight and for that reason it changes it up and bc like could they have pulled in michael chandler that would have been cool i mean you know i think they already fought obviously but could you have pulled in patty got Patty. You got Patty. There's other guys that are already kind of locked in again among available choices for me. It works. It works well. Now that takes us to what I think is the second most interesting announcement that Dana White made. Now there was a bunch of these for the UFC Kansas City card that will take place. I'll look at the date here. I think it's the end of the day. Don't forget the TKO takeover that's happening in Kansas City that weekend

per press release where they're having UFC Fight Night, WWE SmackDown and professional bull riders. Luke, this is just the beginning of your TKO is about to take over your satay, right? They're coming. They're coming. Apparently, apparently. But the point I wanted to make was headlining that card for Kansas City is

going to be a light heavyweight tilt between Jamal Hill and Khalil Rowntree. BC, I've got a question I want to ask you, but first I noticed that when I said I liked this fight, a lot of people agreed, they also liked the fight, but they were like, oh man, this is just too quick. A turnaround for Jamal Hill. Well, Jamal Hill addressed that on his personal YouTube channel. Uh, and here's what he had to say. But the thing is this though, right? I haven't, I fought twice in the last two years. All right. That last fight I was, I wasn't able to get comfortable. I wasn't comfortable. I didn't feel the routine. I didn't get into my normal flow and it didn't feel like it should. And I think part of that was the fact of how long I've been inactive

How long it's been stressed in between before that fight? I'd only had three minutes of time which was warm-up time in a fight before To get to get to get to get into that fight and things of that nature So, you know it was for me. It's like I need to get back active I need to get back active, you know I'm gonna take care of the things I didn to take care of from for as far as like, you know, I mean health and things like that. But I feel like this is plenty of time is right on track for when I will want to see myself back in there. So yeah, I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna do my thing.

BC, is he coming back too soon? I actually agree with his decision making right there. I think we are in the midst of seeing some type of, I don't want to say pro wrestling face turn from Hill, but the humility is kind of nice that he showed in the loss to Uri after it. We saw those two shooting shots in the bar with their significant others. Now you've got him saying, look, I'm going to address the issues of why I lost the last fight, you know, in camp, but I got to get back in there and I got to make a statement. Look, this is a great ass fight is going to be all action. We know that. And it is a pretty damn important fight considering how recently round tree contended for the actual title that if he'll can go out there and win this fight. Dude, he's kind of back in the mix in this division, which has a lot of it's not quite heavyweight, but but you know, guys can get hot and then cold because of how easily it

can be to knock each other out with the big boys in this division. But I think he'll has to find consistency. He's got to, you know, find a different lane than just coming in there with the attitude of this hand is going to settle everything. And then if I lose, I'll make excuses. I kind of like the changes that he's realizing now. How long is this window going to be open? Let's get back in there. Let's fix what, what didn't go right against Yuri and let's make up for all that time away due to injury. Let's go Jamal Hill. Luke, this is, this is a positive turn for me.

this is a positive turn for me. I. I think it's a calculated gamble, but I'm not super opposed to it. Now I let me be. Let's we should. We should say very clearly. It is risky. It is risky. There is a real risk involved here with having been basically getting, you know, throttled. I don't know what the correct word would be by by Yuri Prochazka. Look, I got it. Actually it's dicked down.

Okay. All right. Having that have happened against Yuri and then obviously before that against Poetan, although that's now been some time but you know, that's not a great run in terms of like brain health and it's not that I don't think that's now been some time, but you know, that's not a great run in terms of like brain health And it's not that I don't think that's a relevant concern but The reality is these guys always complain about they don't get enough fights and part of the reason why they want more

Yes, of course more money But they always tell me that they can stay in a flow better like they everything is just sharper if they're more active more regularly And he's right like he just hasn't competed very much He I thought he came back too soon, obviously already when he took the fight against Poetan, coming back from that Achilles injury and it didn't go well and it go, so it's like, oh okay, well last year you already came back and it already went poorly, why would you double down? Let me say again, I'm not, I'm not arguing it's not without risk, real risk. At the same time, I'm not arguing it's not without risk, real risk. At the same time, more inactivity might actually

make things worse net-net. On net balance, it's very conceivable that waiting around and then fighting, you know, in December or something, because if you turn this down, who knows when they're gonna come back around to you, it could be quite some time. It's just hard to say. You may not get the reps that you really need. Repping is super important for any UFC fighter,

particularly those at the headlining level. So I gotta tell you, I I was a little bit through my fingers. I'm looking, but I can kind of see the logic now BC in terms of the fight itself. This is phenomenal matchmaking. Heck yeah, two different kinds of sluggers Khalil Roundtree and both of these guys, by the way, coming off of stoppage law, well, one before, but essentially both having been stopped by Poetton, one was a little bit more competitive than the

other one, certainly. But in the end, Poetton gets his hand raised. But BC in Khalil Rowntree, a vicious Muay Thai striker who has really come into his own of late, and I think the fans have really gotten on board with him. Jamal Hill has not necessarily been that but you know former champion had a neck and a phenomenal performance I should say against Glover Teixeira and really does have some skills when he's dialed in which again in theory getting back to it gets us there. So tell me what your back to it gets us there. So tell me what your and your view is of how they match up. And in particular, what do you actually think is on the line here, both for the winner and

the loser? Excuse me, Luke. Look, I feel like this is a loser's bracket of the title, you know, in terms of the two, two of the more recent title losers to the great poet on on the run that he's on facing each other. gets back into the title picture loser goes back into the mid level of contention that's kind of where we're at here in this. I really like the matchup stylistically I like what you how you you deemed it they're different kind of strikers. Hill the better boxer round tree the more explosive. But Luke tied into my,

me saying I kinda like Hill's mindset right now. I kinda like the strategy of coming back quicker, even though round trees hella dangerous. And even though he did get an unlikely title shot, I think stylistically, I think fighter for fighter, Hill's the better fighter. People might disagree with me on there. But there is one thing I do need to see from Jamal Hill.

And that's a commitment to elite level conditioning. I'm not really sure we've seen that yet, even through his brief run as a champion with the title. I feel like that could be that could change some of the gaps that he's missing at the elite level. He's always going to have a puncher's chance. You saw against Glover what he can do when he's in the lead, when he's bringing the fight to somebody. But I need him to get into killer shape for here. I need him to have the threat of takedowns in there.

Still though, Luke, I like his chances against Roundtree. I like his opportunity. He's got a big opportunity, in my opinion, to get a win here and be catapulted right back to the top. I mean, this is what's so interesting for me. If you're Khalil Roundtree, on some level, I'm not going to call this playing with house money, but it's a little bit like, not that his success is accidental, but he's never been champion, right? He's never worn gold. And Jamal Hill has. And so obviously getting a win over Jamal would be huge for his resume and

I'm not saying a loss doesn't matter but to me it's like the much more consequential side here is about Jamal. People were asking if Jamal loses to Yiri where does he go from there and the answer is well okay he's still kind of doing like big important fights I mean just think about it if you beat Khalil Rountree a a striker, and particularly if it's exciting, not only does that put you at a decent place in the rankings, but it's restorative to stop the losses, obviously, first. And then second of all, that's a tough guy to beat, and he's probably not going to beat him with Jiu Jitsu. If he does win, he'll beat him with striking. That's a big and important kind of victory

to get massively restorative, both in terms of what it does psychologically for the rankings and everything in between. It's huge. The loss by contrast is devastating, truly devastating. It'd be three in a row. If he gets stopped, it'd be three stoppages in a row. It would just be absolutely the worst case scenario that you could find after having essentially done really well and then been injured and then having to suffer through a return like these Achilles injuries, man. People just don then been injured and then having to, you know, suffer through a return like these Achilles injuries, man, people just don't jump back into it. Again, we talked about the calculated gamble that he's

taking. But I just I just feel like maybe it's my imagination BC, I just feel like either to win or to lose. It's a little bit more in Jamal Hills. Court than it is for roundtree. And I don't know if that's fair. But that's just that's 100% fair. Okay, that's 100% fair Luke. I never thought he'd get to the title level. He did because kind of a perfect storm. And whether they you know, forced ankle I have to wait one more to reward poet on with a more favorable style matchup because of what he's been doing to the company

either way. I feel like this is round trees last opportunity to stay in the title picture. So I would fully agree. Plus, let's be fair, Hill can talk. That matters. That gets you into big fights. Is it likely that he ends up someday in a Poetan rematch? Probably not given Alex's age and where he's at in his run, but he's also not that far away should Pereira hang around at 205. I'm not saying everybody wants or needs a second per era Hill fight. I'm just saying Hill can talk and that does matter.

That absolutely matters. In any case, a highly intriguing clash of styles here. I really love that. I love that both guys are. It's so funny man, like light heavyweight used to be something of a wrestlers division and now that's totally gone. Now it's a strikers division almost top to bottom. Like who's the best wrestler at 205 currently? Magomed and Koliyev.

Okay, discounting him because he's got a date with Poetan. Who is it? All right, let me look at these here rankings that are- Well, Luke, who's the best wrestler not named uncle I have a 205 Yeah, I'm looking right now at the rankings Does rackets ever shoot I mean, yeah, he'll shoot he'll shoot a little bit. Yeah, of course. He's won some big fights with that. Mm-hmm Bogdan Guskov. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, I mean you see what I'm saying. The divisions completely turned on its head. It's like it's a strikers division now. Not saying that that's necessarily for the worst,

but it is a different change. Alright BC last but certainly not least. Bryce Mitchell is back in action. It was announced he'll be taking on Jion Silva at UFC 314 now BC, if I looked at some of the odds for this one, I found them to be like shocking. Let me pull them up here for just a second. They're in the rundown.

Oh, they're in the rundown. Sorry, I missed them. Ah, there they are. Sorry, Mitchell, have and our friends at DK have Mitchell as a plus 295. They have Silva as a minus 375. BC, I like Jayon Silva as much as the next guy and I'm not poo pooing this fight necessarily. But what gives us all this confidence that Silva has takedown defense when he's barely had his takedown defense tested at all in his UFC run. It's a fair point Long Island Luke and I had an off camera discussion about this where initially I'm like, yeah, what's wrong with that? But the more you think about it, they

are teasing you to throw money in the direction of Bryce Mitchell. Maybe they figure some well know this is MMA. So maybe maybe people will, Luke, in the fan base, because they support Bryce's beliefs. I don't know. Look, here's the deal, though. Bryce has been devastatingly stopped twice against elite foes, and the Lord Silva is on a type of reckoning path and creates so much chaos in there right away that I'm not sure it'll actually matter Luke.

So I get that the odds seem a little inflated, but I also can't act like I feel like Bryce's stock as an actual fighter is anywhere near where it was. I also can't act like I believe that all of the negativity surrounding him right now is going to help him in the cage. I think we're at a precarious point in Bryce Mitchell's career where it can go really bad. I mean, look, can you say the things he said and not get karma KO'd your next fight? I don't know. We're going to find out here. But outside of the

comment from Dana that we all don't love, which was, well, hey guys, you get to see Bryce Mitchell fight again and maybe you can cheer for him to get KO'd and we're sort of using the grossness to sell this fight. Lord Silva's red freaking hot right now. If you told me you can see the future and he stops Bryce Mitchell and just over around, I could see it happening, Luke. I could see it happening. I can see it happening.

I less on a karmic thing and just more that maybe Silva does have pretty good takedown defense and then just lights him up on the feet. I mean, obviously on the feet, it's really not even close. He would beat him up. I just want to point out, listen to how insane this Miami card is BC Volkanovsky versus Lopez is your main Chandler Pemblit co main. Now I don't know exactly where they're going to put it, but let's just imagine that you have Bryce Mitchell now, Jayon Silva on the main, Jeff Neil Carlos, pro chess on the main. Then you've got any number of choices you can go from there,

including Pitbull Rodriguez, probably going to be on that main. That'd be on the main dude. Then after that, Danny Ege, Sean Woodson, Nikita Krilla versus Dominic Ray as Yon Shaanon versus Virna Jangeroba, Darren Elkins versus Juicy J, Julian Arosa, Jim Miller, chase Hooper. And then it goes on down the list from there, dude, that card is insanely fucking stacked. All the things that I rail about week to week, and people get

mad at me, or they say I've gone too far, I've become the curmudgeon, curmudgeon old guy, just watch the apex fights, they're just fine. This is where we need to get excited, citing when they come back and they actually pump the card up with the type of energy personality style matchups where you go look, this is worth it. I gotta buy this pay per view. They do that in Dubai. Luke, that's a new spot for a quote unquote major Miami's getting major treatment here. I'm not going to try to politically figure out why I'm just going to enjoy it. Dude, this card is awesome. And I wish the other cards could be more balanced out. I wish we didn't have to have three to four jack cards a year and then a real step off.

But dude, top to bottom, I think you can put that pitbull fight third from the top. I think that's probably where it belongs to. And those quote unquote filler fights are not only important, they've got potential for some real fun carnage to happen. So well done to the matchmaking on here. It feels like every day we're getting a new fight added to the mix at 314 in Miami. And it's a, it's pretty good. It's pretty damn good. I'm in, let's go. Bryce Mitchell is going to get roaring cheers if he wins,

isn't he? He's not going to get booed. Um, he's not going to get booed. South Florida, he'll probably get booed, right? I would bet everything I own, he would get roaring cheers. If he wins. I don't want to talk about that anymore. Yeah.

I mean, that's just where we are now. That's just where we are. Like you can just say the most horrendous and it's not even just saying it. You can believe the most horrendous shit and people will just reward. One thing about Bryce though, I'm sure you don't read his Twitter account. But even in the last day and a half, like he goes hard as a mofo against Elon Musk on like a daily basis, basically calling him Satan Luke. So that that side feud is getting kind

of interesting right now, right? All right. Well, that part's interesting, but at the same time, and I agree with him, but at the same time, you know, listen, pre pre meth, Elon, you go fishing with that guy. I mean, I'd sit at the Rogan podcast desk in T one up with that guy, right? Yeah, for sure. Okay, that's topic number one BC. Let's get to topic number two, which is the whole reason why you're in Brooklyn and why by the way, I looked at the ticket sales. I think it's almost completely sold out. There's like just a little bit left. I think by fight time, it'll be a straight up sellout. Gervonta Davis faces Lamont Roach in a lightweight title fight

at the Barclay Center on Saturday live on pay-per-view BC on the call. BC, there's been a lot of debate about who Lamont Roach is. You spoke to him, I spoke to him. We've both interviewed Tank multiple times over the years, although I don't know. Did you speak to Tank this cycle yet? Did you do the fighter meeting with him? He didn't show up to the fighter meetings and he really hasn't done traditional boxing media like at all outside of after the press conference yesterday where he tackled all those topics you would want to hear from Turkey to Shakur and all

that but yeah it's been a different connection to tank for the traditional boxing media entering this week. Okay we'll talk about Lamont Roach's size because that is clearly if not the most important issue certainly one of them but the trainer for at least this camp, the sometime trainer of Gervonta Tank Davis, Barry Hunter, out of Headbangers has said Lamont is the most skillful opponent that Tank has faced to date. Is that true?

If so, why or why not? It sounds like something that couldn't be true. But I think we're talking about the total package here, the intangibles, the defense, the confidence, which has been through the roof, but it hasn't been, in my opinion, an overbearing confidence where you feel like you can poke that with a, you know, with a pin and it'll explode like it's just for show or just to talk himself up. Look, the reality is that Tank and Lamont Roach did grow up in somewhat proximity to each other. Roach being born in DC, moving to upper Marlboro, Maryland in his youth, Tank being from Baltimore.

They sparred so many times as amateurs. They fought twice as amateurs in 2011 when they were 15 and 16 years old. Tank won both, but they were ranked number one and two in the country in their weight class. So this is one of those situations where Roach is just not afraid. He's known Tank since he was a little kid. Now we can certainly break down how their skills match up and how anyone matches up against the power,

the IQ, the efficiency of what Tank brings to the table. There's a reason why he's undefeated with a 94% knockout KO rate. But I think the things that make Roach really good don't necessarily jump off the screen against you, right? You know, he does have a loss and a draw in his career, but they were sort of turning point moments that drove him to a deeper level of focus and belief in himself and success. Since that 2019 title loss to Jamel Herring, he's 4-0 with three KOs, and he is not a huge power puncher. And yes, he's moving up five pounds in weight, but he doesn't get hit easily. He can scrap a little bit on the inside.

And while I don't, it's not that I don't understand the betting odds for this. It's Tank. Roach is moving up in weight. He's not as sexy a name as the others. You talk to anybody in and around these two camps or anybody in and around that really knows boxing and you hear the same thing. Yeah, Tank should be the favorite, maybe even by a lot, but this is a real fight. Roach is coming to this fight to win. So it's not a situation where you can go, okay, what's his actual avenue? Is he going to knock tank out? Is he going to shut them out in the cards? No and no. But he is a experienced, gritty, well-rounded, can be defensive minded, and really a smart boxer. And I don't think it's

nothing that he's coming in with this level of comfortability and confidence because how many times have we seen fighters that maybe don't belong at the elite level or maybe don't belong yet, right? They come up, the lights are too big. Heck, it happened to Roach in 2019 against Jermell Herring when he lost that decision. It also happened, it seems, the last fight when the ghost Frank Martin came in. It felt like he was defeated in those press conferences coming in and you could really see the inexperience play out on the brightest lights on the pay per view stage.

I don't know for which is gonna last four rounds because Gervonta is Gervonta. But I can tell you he's coming to win. He's here to compete. And to say that he doesn't belong in the ring would be like he belongs in this ring against Tank. You just have to really ask yourself how much does that experience and that familiarity matter talking to Lamont? It feels like it does Luke, but we're going to find out on Saturday.

Yeah, I spoke to him about his amateur experience as did you. Let's look. You spoke to him this week. Mine was all the way. God, I spoke to him months ago about it. Let's talk. Let's take a look at your clip where these are guys that face this is not the first time Lamont Roach has boxed. Jervonta Tang Davis. To what extent is that amateur experience relevant? Here's

what he said. I think it would play a significant role outside of sharing a ring together. It's like stuff that I know that you know, I'm saying that I would use that I know that, you know what I'm saying? That I would use that I can use and that we will use to our advantage. So you're saying inside tips, tells secrets, that kind of stuff. Tell me about it. Uh, look, everyone's probably wondering the same thing. And it always happens this way when somebody's been successful as tank. What can you do differently that everybody else has failed to do? How would you answer that?

I can, like I said before, like the IQ and the skill level, the skill set is just compared to everyone that he's fought in that present time, it's just levels levels above and the tenacity that I'm going to have with it come March 1st, it's just going to be something that he's definitely not used to. It's going to be the total package. It's going to be one of the best fights of the year, I promise you. BC from what you can tell from what you know from speaking to him, does the amateur experience confer any advantages for Lamont Roach and conversely does it confer any advantages for Gervonta Tank Davis? Look, I'm always of the belief that everything matters, that when a fight is announced from that moment

forward, they're fighting. I believe some of the pre-fight mental stuff is real. You have a face-off or a press conference that doesn't go your way. I think there's mental realities where that plays in, but it doesn't mean every time. It doesn't matter if somebody beats somebody in the amateurs at pros and the pros that can be completely different.

And then the Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney fight happened. And I know that Ryan is much more explosive than Roach and a different type of fighter. But clearly the six fights that they had in the amateur level splitting those fights, the sparring that those two had, Ryan knew he could get that left hook off. He knew there was a hole in Haney's defense.

That's a different fight with different fighters. But again, to act like this doesn't matter. It's gonna matter a certain degree. You asked a great question though. What about the flip side? Tank's beaten this kid twice. He also grew up around him. He knows just the same. So that's gonna play a role as well as well this Luke.

And I think it's a good question to spin back on you. How much, how dangerous is it to be too confident against tank? Yeah. You you've seen Lamont Roach in person, right? I sat down with him as I mentioned a couple of months ago and he is in person. It seems like a roughly similar size in terms of frame to Gervonta Teng Davis but BC this is to answer your question I'm getting to it the difference in power is extraordinary like like gigantic

difference in power and to me BC here's where I come down to it like I believe Lamont Roach when he says he believes he can and will win I believe him when he says he'll know the right way to box Gervonta for long periods of that fight. I believe him. But I also know if you look at some of the tape on him, he tends to come square at times against opponents and to be hit. And I just am not, especially because of the size difference in terms of who occupies 130, who occupies 135.

It's not that I don't think that Lamont can't box with him. I absolutely think he can box with him. But I feel like if he's really starting to you know, get confident, move downhill, as we like to say, he's going to get hit. He gets hit in all these fights. I mean, obviously, it's a boxing fight, but you know, he doesn't have like his good defense, but I wouldn't say it's iron clad. And so it's like if you're overconfident or too confident, however you wish to describe it against a puncher like Davis, dude, the consequences are fucking dire. They are dire to do things like that.

So it's like it's a weird mix, BC, where I am very willing, perfectly willing to believe that they feel like they've got what they feel like some secrets to unlock some doors that previous opponents just haven't been able to do against your Vonte Davis. But as you know, as well as I do, they're gonna have to take some risks to get there if they can at all. And that is where all of the danger is. And that's the part where I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know about that part. That's why the odds are the way they are.

They are because Durante has the great equalizer. He's also, like we mentioned, so efficient as a counter puncher. What does that actually mean in a fight? It means he doesn't waste punches. So it also means he's never really out of position to be countered clean and to be hit so if you are going to hit him if you are going to try to put him in situations he's gonna have in most cases that upper hand to wait for

that tell or that one angle let's not forget he let Frank Martin win the first three rounds when they fought last was it May or June and then started to really pick him apart and corner him so Roach obviously is gonna have to balance his aggression smartly. He's going to have to swim and not get wet in the most extreme scenarios. Of course, they do have a common opponent in recent memory and Hector Luis Garcia.

Remember Garcia was the title holder at 130. He moved up in weight to fight Tank. He fought aggressively and got knocked out and got stopped and actually was temporarily blinded was the title holder at 1 wait to fight tank. He fa got knocked out, it got s was temporary blinded in that assault on him. Um, fights him in Las Vegas a win in which Roach needed

the final round. But that off of that big time KO l very defensively on the b frustrating. But I think for figuring out an aven him to get that late knock I mean the way that roach Garcia fight, it may be e

Oh, common opponent tank roach had somewhat troubl think you do have to watch of Hector Garcia in both. rose to the occasion in t fight to get the knock do decision. I did like what I don't know how much this

in there actually, like w tank. I also don't know h retirement talk of tank of late is actually going to matter when we get in there because tank has shown that ability, no matter what's going on in this personal life, which there's been a lot of turmoil he can focus in and dial in like no other. So Luke, I guess Roach is going to have to need a tank that is too conservative early and reading Roach that he allows Roach to get up too quickly on the scorecards.

And then he's got to hope that he can, you know, obviously do something that very little have done, land a punch of consequence to change Tank's demeanor, to change his strategy. But he's going to have to throw a no-hitter. Let's be fair about it, right? He's going to have to go in there and fight the perfect fight. Is it possible? Yes. I mean, even though Tank hurt his hand in the sixth round against Pitbull Cruz, the things that Pitbull Cruz did really well gave Tank fits.

Tank had to really lean on his boxing and IQ to figure that out. Roach is going to have to do something in the middle of this fight to really make Tank have to think, have to work, have to adjust. If he can't do that, it's going to be a slow burn until he gets cornered and he gets taken out of there. We should also talk about the state of Gervonta Davis and like what attitude he's bringing into this one because as you mentioned, skipping just a lot of stuff, went to the workouts, didn't do much. Let's roll this clip from I think this was yesterday or two days ago, this week the pre pre fight presser. He's in a real relaxed mood. Let's put it that way. You can kind of see the the history that you and Lamont both have. Is this a little bit

different for you going into this fight, knowing that you guys have that history? No, no, I'm gonna do me. I'm gonna do me regardless. I told him to leave his mom's and you know the people home and he still broke them. It's crazy man. It's gonna get bad. It's gonna get bad man. But you know, it's all love. He been talking a little too much too. I've been peeping so you know, it's close. So we'll see Saturday night. He's just got this real relaxed kind of demeanor and I, I, it does appear like he's been training really hard at headbangers. He was not in Houston. He was not in Florida.

He was here in DC, but I don't know BC between like the weird vibes he gives off at press conferences and then being like, I got three fights left and I'm done. Where is Gervonta Davis's head in all of this? Yeah, I think he's in the midst of figuring it out. And that's why we've seen such different reactions from him. Meaning that like when this fight was first announced, you know, we heard those rumors that he was fighting with PBC behind the scenes. He wanted it in Houston.

They have that first press conference and tank shows up alone with like no members of his team. I think just his lawyer. Now subsequently, even though Barry Hunter has been moved into the number one spot as the head trainer, Calvin Ford, his sort of, you know, career long trainer and father figure, was at yesterday's final press conference, will be in his corner. So there hasn't been a big tear behind the scenes. But to't that this isn't a t would be wrong. Let's let math here. Tank had been most of his career, but h

day layoff leading into t Of course, there was a jai that when he violated his now this is a 250 something is not typical for tank a him talk about openly, and boxing has supported this, which is good to see, openly want to change himself.

He wants to get out of boxing, get into therapy, be a different person in presentation to his family members and those that look up to him. Given Tank's upbringing and the various missteps outside the ring, that's a good thing. But even though that can be a narrative toward the idea of is he unfocused, is his head not going to be in there?

Like I just said, 30, you know, a minute ago, he does have that ability to bite down and focus. I did notice that comment. He said right there of a road. You've been talking a little too much. I've been watching. So I'll say this like I' heard nothing from Barry much tank throughout the

Roach. They know he's com of right now, I don't hav that tank isn't dialed in he was kind of colorful y the press conference when scrum. I don't know if you was, he was he down turkey, Ella Sheikh,

nothing about boxing, say a devilish vibe and all t and people are selling th there. Like that was int he's you know, the last b hasn't made that leap. Um when he shoots down the p a Shakur or a key of that though is just posturing negotiating and all that but if he wins this he says he wants to fight twice more

this year I need to see him against against one of these title holders Lomachenko, Keyshawn or Shakur Stevenson to unify belts it's time he seems also to want that I really don't know if he's going to stick to his guns of you know three more and out. He's so valuable to not only PBC, but the American boxing scene, the, his live gate, potentially he's going to, he's going to shatter. I'm told the live gate record at Barclays this weekend. Um, I think his post fight comments, if he wins and I'll be the guy delivering it will be interesting in that regard in terms of like who he's looking at and how much more he wants to do.

But do you agree with me, Luke, that it's starting to feel kind of much ado about nothing tank looks ready. It looks dialed in. He can go on anyone's podcast he wants like he's been doing something a little bit different this build up. But whatever, right? I mean, we should we should acknowledge the fact that we kind of been dancing around it here. We mentioned a couple times. We'll just say it out loud. Roach is a junior lightweight and is coming up here to another weight class. You see, I just feel like Tank isn't really dialed in, but I'm also not convinced that he needs to be 100% dialed in. Not because I don't think Lamont is a good boxer, I do, but because I think if Tank trains enough, plus his accuracy and power, and he does have good boxing IQ, given that you're taking on something of a smaller opponent, that should be enough. I really do believe that. And in fact,

he said he was going to have around 8 or 9 K.O. Let's take a look at the face off here very quickly from that same presser. And I would love to get your reaction to some of this. Let me see. They don't look hugely dissimilar in size, man. No, they don't. I mean, roaches technically about an inch taller or half inch taller, about an inch longer in reach. They're actually pretty close in size. This is the first fight in which Roach is fighting an opponent short,

technically shorter than him in a very long time. So this is going to be what it will be. I don't think the size will matter. You can notice they have a little kind of cheeky fun back and forth here. PBC did ultimately, like UFC's been doing of late, release the audio. There was sort of some, you know, standard trash talk back and forth, but it was confidence trash talk. They don't hate each other.

It's just a little bit like, I know what I'm gonna do on Saturday. Yeah, wait and see. Like we said this whole time, Luke, the way Roach has handled himself in these press events, I've been impressed by. But to act like that gives him three to four more rounds in there or something. No, it doesn't.

It's going to be up to him to do the one, you know, to avoid the one thing that all of tanks opponents, but, but you know, one at one basically have avoided and that's he finds a way to figure out your tell to put you in the corner and to take you the hell out of there. I love how Roach has been acting though, but will it be enough? We're gonna see. We're gonna see Luke. And by the way on stage, we hadn't seen him up until this point. Calvin Ford with him there, Barry Hunter with him up there kind of and then also there was that was Lamont Roach senior standing on his side.

They're kind of interesting thing. All right, BC very quickly last question. Give me a prediction. I know you're calling the fight, but you have a sense about how it might go. I'll put my cards on the table. I think you used tank set about round nine stoppage. I'll go a little later. I'll say 10 or 11, but I think probably somewhere in that last last third of the fight, it all comes to a close. Yeah, I think that's the most likely scenario given what we know about these two. Let's see what Roach can do. Let's see if he can give tank a different look.

Let's see if he can push him into those later rounds, which that's also something that's only been done a few times, right? Cruz went the distance against him. Gamboa, I don't want to say gave him trouble, but gave him resistance until I think the final round when he got him out of there. But let's see if Roach can linger.

And then let's see if he can take enough chances to have a shot at this. Sorry, I'm getting blurry here. I'm trying to let me ask you a question. How come every time the camera goes back to you, you have different lighting on your face? So my lighting just died. So I got it plugged in. I'm recharging it again. So I'm kind of just holding it from a different angle. All right. Well, either way, Luke, I have put the lotion in the basket if you're wondering. All right, let's let's go to topic number three. If we can

hear BC. Oh, excuse me. Hold on. Before I do that. Before I do that, we got to mention here very quickly. BC, the Salida promotions with the Subaru, Matias, Gabriel Valenzuela, IBF World Title Eliminator. So this is going to be live on Dazon from Fajardo, Puerto Rico, BC, what can you tell us about the Subaru, Matias, we already kind of know what the score is a dynamic puncher. Who is Gabriel Valenzuela? What's what, what can we expect from this matchup from Dazon? Which I guess,

as I mentioned before is going to be in Puerto Rico. Yeah. And shout out to, uh, you know, certainly friends of the program and unboxing Al Bernstein, Raul Marquez, among those, I think that'll be on that call in Puerto Rico. This fight is more about Super Al Mateos for sure. He was the boogie man of the 140 pound division. We've told this story before, made some, what was it, five guys in a row quit,

was getting that Lomachenko reputation. And I don't know if as much as he's a menacing puncher, he's just a bully in there. But Liam Paro in June of last year did, I don't wa as the scorecards were cl into enemy territory in P won that decision, took t

there. And although we di come back in november of second round TKO in Port a step in a better di opponent wise is Gabriel No, but he's 33 losses, 1 as I mentioned there. Uh Mexico, 5 ft 10 is on a f

since his decision lost t in 2022. It will be a go test here to see if Matias is long for getting back into this title picture. We know there's been talk about him fighting Teo Fimo, but Teo Fimo turned it down due to the pay-per-view money that was going to be offered to him. But it's going to be interesting to see if Matias can work his way back in. It's never a boring fight though when he fights. So check that out this weekend on the zone. No doubt about it. And of course, Alita promotions, you might

know they're the folks that have developed Clarissa Shields, Jarell Miller, Jermaine Franklin, Otto Vallein, lots of folks and a good undercard fight there as well between Alfredo Santiago and Nestor Bravo. BC, you're a basketball guy. Certainly I am as well. And if you're a basketball fan, are you ready to win some real money? Check out pick six from Draft Kings. When it comes to basketball payouts, Draft Kings Pick Six donks on its rivals,

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and cash in your basketbo can get $50 in pick six credits instantly on just a $5 entry. So Luke, will Luka Donchic get the triple double tonight? What's his over under on assist? This is the type of fun action you can get into and get involved. I don't know if you can bet whether he'll stare down the Mavs owner again after getting the win for LA,

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available everywhere including New York and Ontario. Void were prohibited. One new per customer bonus awarded as non withdrawable pick six credits that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer C terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. BC topic number three. We do have a UFC event this weekend.

I'm trying not to be a hater about this. I swear to God I'm not. It's I'm not sure what to say. It's not really the most necessary card to happen. Huh? Say it. Say what you need to say. Put it out there. It's just, it's just, it's Luke. Is it the worst card? Is it the worst card in apex recent fight night history? It's it's it's up there. Long Island Luke, give me a grade for UFC slop about where this goes. Four. Oh, shit. If it's even a four for you, that must be... I mean, dude, I'm doing the full card watch along. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm going to watch every fight, but is it a good card? No. The co-main event has two guys with losing records in the UFC. It's literally,

arguably the worst co-main in history. I looked back Carlos Felipe versus Jorgen de Castro was a co-main on a card headlined by Holly Holm versus Irene Aldana. That's pretty rough. But does Holm's star power just take over for all of that? Does it cover that? I don't know. That's what they assumed. I guess. I don't know, dude. All right. But BC in your main event, we have Flyweights, Manel Cop, and the Kazakh, Asu Almabayev, by the way, an interesting name and a very good fighter. Okay, let me just ask a very basic question, BC. And I mean it. I don't mean it necessarily in a hater way,

but we have to ask it this way just by the nature of what's happening. Why should we care about this main event? Who obviously was supposed to be Manell Cop versus Brandon Royval, which would have been a perfect Crossroads number one contender fight in the sense that Royval has been there. He's held his place in the title picture. And if he could have beaten the Red Hop streaking cop, he could still be in there contention for the next title shot, right? Cop the different story.

He feels like he's long overdue for that. He loves saying crazy things into a microphone. He once said he would show up at Dana's door if he didn't get a title shot. Well, he told me Luke, when I interviewed him this week, that he's been more, it seems matter of fact, the way he said it, that he's more or less guaranteed a title shot with a win.

So to act like this fight means nothing would be wrong. It is a important fight at the top end of this division. I say top end ish, right? Because, uh, asu is ranked number eight, but long on Luke was talking about this guy before I knew he existed 21 and two overall 31 years old out of Kazakhstan unbeaten in four UFC fight three have gone to decisio that decision went over M

last bout is not nothing. him though, in terms of t fought, I don't think he a win, but I think he can himself to the top. So go it seems like it's going matchup. But Luke, if we're being very fair, not everybody knows a lot about Asu Almabyev. Excuse me. How do you think he matches up against Kaat?

Okay, so let me give you some statistics for him because I was looking this up before the So let me give you some statistics for him because I was looking this up before the before the show today. So some of his numbers are really impressive and I watched some tape on him as well. Obviously I watched the Nicolae fight. I watched the Osborne fight. I watched the Vergara fight. I didn't see the Johnson fight, but I watched the rest of them. I mean some of these numbers are very impressive.

BC strikes absorb per minute 1.02. That's so low. I mean it's such a great number, but strikes landed per minute 2.02 that's so low. I mean, it's such a great number but strikes landed per minute 2.11 fucking anemic. I mean, he's got a positive He's got a positive striking differential by a full integer, but it's really not that interesting You know by contrast strikes landed per minute for cop five strikes absorb per minute four that's high on both counts But you can just see there's just a lot more going. Now what's interesting is the takedown component. That's obviously where this, I just think that's where this fight's

going to be one or lost. He averages on the bio of 5.08 takedowns per 15 minutes. So he's good for almost two around. That's a lot. And his submission average per 15 minutes is 1.7. So he's kind of tying them up. If you watch the tape, he does a lot of winging over hands to level changes to get into people. And then from there, he does have lot of winging over hands to level changes to get into people.

And then from there, he does have a series of good finishes and he's got so, so ground and pound. It's not bad, but it's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination. He appears to be in good shape. So the question you really have to ask yourself is, can cop intercept him on any kind of take down or level change opportunity?

Is that gonna be on the cards? Or or be if he does get taken down to what extent can he thwart any? Advancement therein it's a five round contest that does favor on the bio I think the longer it goes but to me cop is just a Significantly higher level fighter or at least I should say this up to this point Has shown himself to be a higher level fighter who has beaten better guys. Now you read the odds. Yeah, I have them here. Our friends at DraftKings. They've got let's see, let me pull it up here if I can. Now I don't have it in front of me. Where is it? Almabyev. Oh wait, we got Breaking New?

Where is it? Almabyev. Wait, we got Breaking News? Opening bout of the night, Montana De La Rosa versus Luana Carolina is canceled because Luana Carolina could not make weight. And nothing of value was lost. Luke, I'm not kidding. That was probably my second most anticipated fight.

Yeah, I bet it was, you horny- No, I mean it, I mean it. I'm disappointed. I've got your odds here. Our friends at DraftKings, Manel Cop minus 218 to Almabayev's plus 180. I think that's actually a little generous to Almabayev. Don't get me wrong, BC, I think he can win here.

I do think that if Cop is, because you know Cop, he likes to land something and then he does a dance and shit, and it's like, did you do that against this guy? That could be a real problem. You have to have a disciplined, focused, consistent application of your game to beat him, which if he does, I think he runs away with it. Almabyev is limited. He's going to have to get the take down his ground and pound that was not ferocious. So for all those

reasons, this to me feels like it's cops fight to lose. We shall see right now you spoke to cop and you talked to him about the differences between some of the opponents he's had another changes that were made here. Let's see what he had to say. I think the difference is just about the highest, you know, Brenna have eyes more taller, you know, he's a fighter that I was working more my body shots. And also he's a fighter where I can work more the shots in the head, you know, his head's gonna be there as a target, you know, he's a fighter that don't move so much his hips,

his shoulders, so I think his face is going to be full of blood. What did you make of that, BC? Bloody face, yes, full of blood. I believe that he doesn't feel that Amo Bailiev is on. I've just butchered that again. Damn, what is it? Almabyev, thank you. Yeah, Almabyev, yeah. Cheris, thank you. He doesn't believe he's on his level. So look, I like cop in this fight for sure, Luke.

He can be a little bit off the mark here. I expected in my interview to get a rowdy cop calling out everybody from KKF to is he to do i he was reserved, he was c daughter in his arms. He' obviously behind the scen right? Because he shows i be a bad shit, crazy and

and also says absolutely a microphone. But Luke, h a complete game. He is cheeky in there from the standpoint that he'll piss you off. He's got antics. I think he believes that he's gonna run Ruffhouse on this guy and that he's gonna get

the title shot next. He thinks he's gonna get the winner of Pantoja versus KKF. And remember, he has that loss to Pantoja a few years back that he says if it was a five round fight, he would have won. Okay. Okay. But he has no preference ultimately in who he gets out of that matchup. But Luke, I am a believer that he's going to get into a title fight soon.

And I think he could be champion. Obviously, he's got to win this one first. But are you of that belief that this guy is the real deal in this division? And I think he could be champion. Obviously he's got to win this one first, but are you of that belief that this guy is the real deal in this division? Cop? Yes. I think he can be a legitimate threat if he can put everything together. Yes, I've seen flashes from him, great athleticism, obviously great striker, great reaction, good timing, you

know, and other pieces of his game are coming together. If he can really tighten up everything and put it all together and again we've seen pieces here, pieces here, pieces here, put all that together, he can win a title in this weight class. I believe that. I truly believe that. Almabyev will be a good test BC in the sense that Almabyev doesn't have Pantoja's game but if you're gonna go into a title shot after beating Almabyev,'t have Pantoja's game, but if you're going to go into a title shot after beating Almabyev, assuming that that's what happens, you're getting ready for Pantoja by fighting a guy who's going to be grappling you first. That's good prep. That's really good prep

for him. So this could set him up real well to then go say anti-gay slurs, but or also win a UFC title either way. And by being serious, like he actually has a, this actually, some of these short notice fights, they're dangerous because you're getting a dangerous guy that you're not prepared for. At the same time, depending on how it goes, some of these could be tuneups for the big boss eventually later in the year. And this could end up being something just like that.

I do believe that. And has won five of his last six, Luke. And I thought he looked almost virtuoso, virtuolic, virtu. He looked like a damn virtuoso against Bruno Silva. Did he not? He did. The Micaiah fight was a weird ass fight. I didn't love that one.

I think if he fought that one again, it would be better, but. And you know he has a split decision lost to Nicola back in the day and Nicola just got defeated by ASU. So I don't know whatever you want to do with that info. Fair enough, BC going down this card. If I may your co main. Cody Brundage taken on Julian Marquez.

I don't want to be mean to him, but that's just no no. Well, can I bring along on Luke? Because I heard you mention this recently, Long Island of this fact that Marquez seems to be much closer to losing his employment than Brundage. And I've seen everyone on Twitter put in, put in as much money as possible on the Cody stoppage. Do you still stay in that lane? I mean, Julian Marquez has been KO'd three times in a row. And I just feel like his, we want to talk about Gagey's chin being on. I mean Julian Marquez has been KO'd three times in a row and I just feel like his we want to talk about Gage's chin being on I think Julian Marquez's chin is gone, but I would never trust betting on Cody Brundage So like this fight is just a crapshoot. I took fight does not go the distance in a parlay

I feel like that's the only logical thing that's gonna happen here But uh both the I wouldn't trust my money on either of these guys to be honest going to happen here, but both the I wouldn't trust my money on either of these guys to be honest. UFC fight night, I wouldn't trust my money on either of these guys tune in live at seven. Also on this card we see there are some good fights. First of all, Nasrat hack paras taking on Esteban Rebovich. I can never say his last name correctly. One of these Argentines with these weird names. That's a great fight. That's a great fight. I cannot believe that that's not the co-main, but whatever, it's the 55, so I guess they put it lower. After that, there are some good ones.

Hear me out, not these though. William Gomez versus Heider Amel, zero out of zero. Danny Barlow taking on Sam Peterson, no interest, or at least very little anyway. Danny's undefeated, but I'm not sure about him yet. Austin Lane taking on Mario Pinto, Pinto undefeated, but it's heavyweight. I don't know what the fuck to say.

Here's an interesting one. Hikardo Hamos taking on Chepe Mariscal. That's a fun action fight. De Silva, Douglas Silva de Andrade taking on John Castaneda. Interesting, kind of a fun one. Is jacked as shit always, always right is jacked as shit. Lucas Almeida taking on Danny Silva. I could take it or leave it Andrea Lee taking on JJ Aldrich.

Bit of a coming or going fight for for both of them frankly. But the fight that might be the best one on the card energy Charles Johnson taking on Ramazan Temerov. Dude that's a fun ass fight. Charles Johnson had a great 2024. He looks poised to make a run. I can't believe they have him this far down on the fight card essentially, but I love that contest. Long Island Luke, do you agree with me?

Charles Johnson, Ramazan Temurov, that's the good one here. Yeah, that should be a good fight. The odds are actually crazy on that because Charles Johnson was like plus 120, like maybe on Monday, he's minus 130 now and now Temarov's the dog plus 110 so a lot of money coming in on energy. Hey tough turn from Rebovitch to go from the damn sphere to the apex but they did say on that TKO earnings call that UFC plans to take what would have been a handful of apex fights

this year and move it to international cities and And not only is that great news, but it's probably fueled by their in mid construction anyway on the apex right now in terms of building more facility for people to be. Hey, do we still have that funny tweet about UFC matchmaking? Because this might be the new litmus test. Yes. So it's the one at the top from the topic number one. It's called funny tweet. Long Island. Yeah, there it any sorry I had. I was going to my notes any UFC card with more than seven fighters that I've heard of is what is considered stacked at this point. Okay. Well, that's obviously a joke.

Is that true? Like that might be that's the new Mendoza line, right? If or maybe how many Wikipedia pages does a fight night card need to be acceptable in 2020? At least 50%, right? But I don't know if you, you know what? Let's see, because I'm actually not looking at Wiki. Let's actually see that for just a second.

Hold on, I wanna see this. How many Wikipedia entries does the current Fight Card have for us here this weekend? All right. So let's see, Coppin on the Bay of both have it. Brundage and Marquez have it. Only Hack Perast has one and that's the rest on the main card.

So only five on the main card. So 50% have it on the main card. On the prelim card, it's a little bit more common. Lane has one, Hamo, Douglas the Silver Down, Drudge, Castaneda, Lee, Aldrich, Johnson, and then they wiped off the last one. So yeah, you're at about 50-50, I guess.

So I guess it has to be higher than that. It should be 75% PC. All right. Hey, I'm done complaining for the day. Let's enjoy the fights on Saturday, whether you're watching Tank Roach or you're watching UFC Fight Night. It's what we got, Luke, okay?

But this CKO takeover is coming to all of our sports. It's it's inevitable. Good. Alright, let's go through topic number four here. It's not the biggest one, but it definitely made some headlines. It was all over social media. BC, we're gonna need you to to UK boxing explain this to us. Chris Eubank Jr and Connor Ben. They are set to compete. I think in the end of April if memory serves, I'll look up the date here specifically in just a second.

BC, these are not household names in the United States, but they have had an electric run in terms of this press conference. Before we even go to BC, let's show the egging incident in question here if we can. The family feud goes on. All right, so he hit him in the side of the head with an egg. BC, who is Chris Benk Jr., Chris Eubank Jr., excuse me, who is Connor Ben?

Why did he hit him in the face with a fucking egg? So look, I did not, I said this on my on my live chat the other day. I did not expect to care about this fight. It's not that I don't know these guys. They're big stars in the UK. They're both son of great fighters. And the reason why this matchup is happening when they're in separate weight classes, right? We're going to do a catch weight here.

You bank has fought largely at 60 and 68. Ben has fought largely at 47 and 54. So they're going to come middle. Their dads had a fought each other a coupl the first and foremost. T already scheduled back in an electric press conferen

was Connor Ben's failed d like like Canelo calling beef, Connor Ben claims a swears it was due to tainted eggs that he ate. So it actually played into the storyline for Eubank, who's always been brash, both guys are, to come out and do that. But Luke, this has evolved into something now that we all must see. So this will be Turkey's first ring magazine branded fight card series that he's bringing to the states eventually,

but all over the world, this fight will be in London in late April. Then in early May, we're gonna see that Garcia and Haney doubleheader, if not Times Square, somewhere in New York City. So this is the one that tanks privately fund, or Turkey is privately funding himself. And I was gonna say that I wouldn't really have cared too

much about this fight, even though I liked the fighters and their personalities, but this jacks it up. The egging in the first press conference, I think we have taped from the second press conference. You also had the two promoters, Ben Shalom, a boxer, and Eddie Hearn pushing each other on the stage, getting into heated conversations during interviews afterwards, trade and trash talk. Now you got the dads involved

and Ben and you Ben going, I mean, it's Ben. Look, it is a proper soap opera, pro wrestling style garbage bin build that boxing needs every once in a while. Remember David Hay got glassed that time with a fight was that was that David Hay Derek just saw I'm not making this up. He glassed me he glassed me these moments happen in boxing. It's ridiculous.

It's disrespectful. But you know what? They succeeded. They got our frickin attention. This is a fight all boxing fans need to see now. I mean, look at some of these assets we have. So we showed the egging incident. Here's Chris Eubank kind of just doubling down on being real mean about it.

Did I cross the line? I mean, you know, during this whole process over the last two and a half years, I think many lines have been crossed. You know, I'm sitting up here today on a stage with two of the scummiest characters in boxing, in my opinion, a drug cheat and a man who did everything in his power to help him get away with it. So me throwing an egg at somebody who absurdly claims that that is the reason why you failed

to do drugs tests because of contaminated eggs. I think that's light and I think that's deserved. He deserved the embarrassment of what happened. You know, if I had an opportunity to do it again, I would. What's the Samuel L Jackson line? Yes, I killed that woman or whatever and I hope they burn in hell. I was like, did you see that after the egging Eddie Hearn did an interview and he was like, it's on site at the next press conference. Like people are ready to kill over this fight. Okay.

Okay. Well, look at this. Let's keep going. Here's Chris Eubank not only smashing an egg into the side of head of Connor Ben, here's him talking to Connor Ben's dad. But you did put your hand on my neck. Yeah.

And I'm gonna give you a pass because of what happened, but I'm just letting you know, if your hand ever touches me again, you won't get it back. Shut your fucking mouth Jimmy My dad again watch what happens here. Yeah, I'm not threatening him. I'm just I said, he did get his arms around your neck. Come on, leave it, leave it, I got it. Mark can handle this, mate. Mate, I'm old school, mate. I just, if he's dead, I'm old school, mate.

So this is, it's no problem. I understand and I apologize for doing that, mate. Shout out to Nigel Benz. So Luke, that was rooted in what basically happened was Benz team thought, they didn't think it was an egg. They thought it was either a slap or he had hit him with some type of foreign object. It was obviously but not

not a hard one. It wasn't brass knuckles or anything. So Nigel Ben the legend, I guess put his hands on the younger you bank I mentioned the two promoters pushed each other. So that was you bank half apologizing and then also being like, I would have kicked your ass. And I love Nigel Ben being like me. I'm old school. I can handle this. Let's go. Let's go. Yes. All right. Last but not least, look at this. They did another stare down later

with about eight million people in doing security. You're gonna hear commentators talk, but you'll be able to hear what Connor Ben and Chris Eubanks say to each other. Dude, listen to how bad this blood is. Visualizing the ring walk standing there on the pitch. Sorry, say that again, Joe. I think you were just enjoying the freeze. how bad this blood is. in front of their arms. So you couldn't get him. I got my reflexes. You're rolling your shots to bits. Should have told him the other day.

Yeah, true. Can you face the cameras? Yeah, I'm done. Face the cameras now, boys. You're rolling. All right, let's go. I want you to get your shot to bits. You're done.

You're done. Let's get our money. You're done. You're fucking right, we will see. You're done. Heads on, come on. Okay, BC, I gotta tell you, I'm all fucking in on this fight. I can't believe I'm saying this. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. blah, blah, blah. I get the family history. I get now the drug history. Uh, but you could easily make a cat like, you know, knee jerk, you tend to go, okay, well you banks, the bigger fighter, even though he's been completely mercurial the second half of his career is Kim, Kim Connor, Ben fill that gap. Well, he is more skilled and he's got balls. So now it's suddenly like, yeah, let's see what these two guys in separate weight classes can do against one

another. When the hate is so strong between everybody involved. This is, this is the boxing we fell in love with. I can't lie about that. It is. Why can't you know what, dude, we don't get enough of these in UFC anymore. Is it my long on Luke? Is it my imagination? Like someone was asking me about this yesterday, long on Luke.

They were asking about like the UFC heavyweight division, you know, what would happen if John beats Tom? And And you know, obviously that would be bad because he'll win and then move on and then you're just left with this wreckage. But the reality is even if like that doesn't happen, who is Tom's rival that's going to get in his face and talk to him like that beyond John? Like once John, John's got one more at best, right? At best. No one seems to be doing this as much in UFC these days. It all seems very transactional. Am I missing something? No, I agree.

Rivalries are kind of dead in that sense. And like, dude, nothing got me more hype than DC Jones too. Like where there's some real beef going on, you know? Tone and Silva too. It's the same thing. I think I'm cutting you off here, Long Island, I'm sorry. I just think that we've seen almost fake abrasiveness too often lately. I'm talking about Colby Covington, Sean Strickland,

where it's some, you know, it's almost a schtick, it's almost an act, but this is a blood feud. We don't get that enough in this corporate era of UFC, which is crazy to say, because the corporate part of it doesn't muzzle them. I mean, you know, Dana lets them say whatever. So we could very well have a crazy blood feud like this. Have we had one since Habib against Connor? Poirier and Connor was also pretty ugly. Um,

but that was also, you know, the, the second fight was weird and then the third fight was also, you know, the second fight was weird. And then the third fight was even weirder. I mean, outside of Cheyenne Vlissmus against Monster Rat, when she said I'll follow you home, bitch. I mean, I was down for that. Like, okay, fair enough. But like, also, like, this is why the Diaz's are who they are. People love them for many, many

reasons. One of which is, dude, they stir up shit. And there's something to be said for that, in the, one of which is, dude, they stir up shit. And there's something to be said for that in the end. And I just feel like I can't believe I'm saying this to the point you raise. I don't I'm not saying I need to see all of a sudden everyone chucking fucking Monster Energy cans at each other. It's not my point. But where are in MMA broadly, not just UFC, but where are the big time rivalries that are being stoked and the allegiances and the and the and the harsh, you know, contrast, it's me or it's him and

I can't stand anything about them. And this is why they're awful. No, this is why they're awful. And then doing press around that like, dude, I would never ever care about Chris Eubank Jr. taking on Conor Bennett. It's for the UK generally, you know, I get it. They've done such a marvelous job promoting that, that I can't fucking wait, April 26th, to see that fucking fight. Yeah, look at these odds. Long Island Luke shared with us the DraftKings odds, minus 150 for Eubank plus 115 for Ben. So it's crazy. Stylistically, it's becoming a great fight based on where they're at in their careers as well. I think what you're really asking Luke is where have all the cowboys gone right? Where are my

gauchos at right? I also have hairy armpits like that lady. Oh you get yeah I won't keep singing because all right. Last but not least BC we can just touch on this very quickly topic number five we can just touch on this very quickly. Topic number five, Henry Seguto released a video this week where he's having a conversation with referee Jason Herzog. And in the video, Herzog acknowledges that he made an error

in not taking a point at UFC Seattle from Song Yedong. I have a question about it for UBC, but first let's take a look at the video. Yo, what's up Jason? Sorry man, sorry about that. One, first let's take a look at the video. Yo, what's up Jason? Sorry man, sorry no problem. One, you didn't take a point, and then two, when I took the five minute break and we ended up coming back to actually fight,

like I still wasn't recovered, but that dude still came here and you didn't do anything. Like you know what I'm saying? Luckily I couldn't see, or at least I saw four arms, but you never warned him or you never took away a point, do you like? I'll give you my perspective in a moment,

and then just so you hear it. I'm not trying to say it's right or wrong, because I've heard you now, and I completely agree, especially afterwards when he came with his fingers like this, why didn't you then stop and take a point immediately?

And I think that's a very valid criticism and adjustment that I probably should have made. Yeah. I think that you're a fair point. You say these rules in the bag, Jason. I think that's what kind of bugs me is that you specifically did this and the whole thing, everything that, everything that you said happened to me. And there is no point taking away, man. I have a loss of my record, Jason, because you didn't make the right call, man.

And then that bugs me a little bit. I can't say that you're wrong. And when I watch it again, I'm like, yeah, you should have probably stopped it, taking a point there. BC, does this give you more or less confidence about Jason Herzog's abilities? It gives me more that this will lead to positivity,

a positive change in the thought process if it doesn't lead to some form of a change in ruling on how this is handled and how referees are, I mean, armed themselves with the, I mean, I get the premise of why we've seen such passive refereeing. There must be some edict from above on the idea of like, don't become part of the story, you know, because the worst thing that can happen is someone unnecessarily getting a point taken There must be some edict from above on the idea of like, don't become part of the story. Cause the worst thing that can happen is someone unnecessarily getting a point taken away. That affects them.

That affects their money in the long run. But the opposite of being this liberal is horrible. So first off, damn, this video was cringe as shit. Like there's parts of it that were like really good and refreshing. But I saw some people accusing Henry of not letting Herzog know he was on camera. I'm sure they knew that this was for a podcast of some form and they're on

camera, but you know, Henry going to near tears at the end was interesting, but. This is the transparency and we have a lot better transparency and MMA officiating compared to boxing because you do see referees with Twitter accounts that come out there and respond You do see guys once in a while show up on podcasts and talk about things where in boxing is sort of like they're trained Not to ever enter the media cycle Unnecessarily, so I wonder if her Zod being this open Humble right to take an L publicly like this and be like, I think you're right

this like if this moment changes him and he's already considered by many to be the best referee in the UFC, or if not, top three for sure, I wonder if this will lead to not only more conversations with commissions behind the scenes, but more people taking notice and saying, it's almost worse to not take away a point and then your name becomes the story than the risk of taking away a point and then your name becomes the story than the risk of taking away a point. They have to establish a baseline of, you get one warning and then it's points for all the follows.

That's what it is. Or something better than what we're doing. So in that regard, Luke, everything about what this could mean is refreshing. Even if it was cringe as F, but that's our guy Triple C, it's what he does. I mean, were you as shocked as me to see Herzog taking an L on a podcast a couple of days later?

In boxing, we'd kill for that. We'd kill for a press conference where the commission leader or an official or a judge would have to answer questions and actually explain why they did something. And maybe it can lead to this where somebody goes, you know what, I made a mistake. He doesn't have to say I'm a change man, but this will change him moving forward.

This is good. You just had to deal with a little cringe to get there. And Bruno Silva went blind for us to get here, but hey, whatever, right? I was also gonna say, like I thought, you know, Henry was a little harsh to his face, I thought, in this one, not terribly. I didn't think it was completely out of line or anything,

a little harsh, but I understand his point. Like there's a loss that goes on that record. If he had taken a point, it would not have been that way. It would have been a majority draw and he'd be in a different position. And so, you know, I can understand having some bitter feelings about it, but in general, like I asked you the question, like, did it make you more or less confident

about his decision making going forward? I don't know how you could look at this and think it would do anything other than make your confidence go skyrocket. These guys are not going to bat a thousand. It's simply never going to happen. It's difficult. They have hardly any tools to review their decisions. Like I made this point before, like if you watch American football, you know, not only do they have a chance to review things and by certain points in the game, they have mandatory that they review certain things, but then they have to announce their decision on the microphone to their audience, like to the audience in attendance, I guess at home too.

Like they have to keep them abreast of their decisions, but they get a chance to review, they get a chance to reflect on it. Why? Because one, it's important to have a transparent, direct conversation with the audience about what decisions you're making and why you're making them,

or at least what the basis is of what you're making them. But more to the point, like, of course they're not going to get it right all the time. It's silly to think that even with technological tools, they're not going to get it right all the time. But it's a notion of refereeing that not asks them to be like these perfect angels who, you know, from the heavens come down and wield their judgment that is so much better than ours. No, they can have good judgment about it. They can have obviously understanding of protocol better than us, but they're humans like anybody else.

They're going to make mistakes. Giving them a chance to correct that either in the rules or in the application is great. Now, that's not anything Henry Cejudo has been afforded in this situation, but this is the next best thing. And I understand that's probably you know a bitter pill to swallow for Henry because it doesn't mean much in the end in terms of what goes on your record. But a referee willing to come on talk with you about the bout to an extent be

berated and then explain where the he agrees where the error took place as kind of like an indication of what went wrong and then what not to do in the future. Dude, what more can you ask of a referee? I wish there were better rules in place that they had to talk to the media or some kind of rep had to talk to the media after fights are over if there was a more open relationship, you see, with various commissions between any kind of media association or media outlets

and the athletic commissions themselves. By the way, either for boxing or MMA, since it's the same commission in Nevada doing all of this essentially. But if you can't get that, this guy took ownership of his own regard. He faced the firing squad by choice. By choice, he decided to do that. That speaks an enormous amount to his integrity, to his desire to get the job done right, to his own humility, to examine what went wrong in his own decision-making process and then to, to the best extent possible, steal himself for the future.

I fucking love this from Jason Herzog. We said on Monday, did we not, BC? We said, he's a great referee, it's just a tough job, you're not always gonna get it right. Sure enough, I feel vindicated to a degree in professing my appreciation for his skills by virtue of how this has all gone down after the fact. Yeah, outside of that time,

he broke my former colleague Arash Markazi's ribs in that referee seminar. I've got nothing bad to say about Jason Herzog at all. And Luke, yeah, I forgot. It was gonna be a good remark it was good probably gonna be the best moment of the show but if I forgot I'm sorry why did he break your friend's ribs oh I think we're a rush was there to write a story about refereeing and he like took a rush down and like they were doing

demonstrations and a rush is not the most in-shape guy I've ever okay okay let's move on please that's my friend you're talking about, okay? I mean, I'm not, you know, I didn't think he was, like, the most physically fit. Oh, Luke, I said I need a warning on all fouls, but I think eye pokes are getting so egregious in how they changed the bout, especially going back to the old gloves now,

that I'm actually not against if they put a flat-out that if you penetrate the eye you get a point. Wouldn't that change everyone who fights like this? Wouldn't that force them to do that? So it's kind of funny, we didn't put it in the rundown, but Jim Miller put out a video and he put a glove on, the old glove obviously, and he said you know, how can I poke you in the eye like this? Yes. Like you can't, the hand has to be closed and he argued that the hand opens and by the way I also can't poke you in the eye like this. It can only be like this, right? And he argued this typically, not always obviously, but typically more commonly than not happens on defensive retreating actions and what he says is that should be essentially penalized out of the sport, where if you are his, his argument goes that if you sufficiently

penalize that on these defensive retreats or whatever people are trying to do, that it will make them over time when they get penalized for it, it will make them over time much more likely to not do it in the future. And obviously a reward to some degree anyway, the person getting poked, it would help them in situations like this and in many other cases. And I don't really disagree with that, but I don't understand how that can't be used in conjunction. And I know this is an old conversation we've had a million times. Yeah.

But I just can't believe that they're retreating to the old gloves and being like, all right, well, we're just not gonna do anything about the eye poke problem. Getting the, let me say this BC, getting the rules changed, I support. But one thing that you have to keep in mind, and I've seen it a gazillion times, when you change the rules,

sometimes there is a bit of a Pandora's box that opens and it ends up creating situations that you didn't necessarily expect that can be hard to undo in the language of new rules themselves. To me, I support penalizing this, but I also think we can complement that policy with technology that rounds the fingers so that you get a double whammy kind of approach to this rather than just trying to legislate out the issue, which I think can be effective, but all of those things carry inherent risk. Yeah, but you know, you scare people. You can scare it out of the sport.

I mean, it was controversial, but look at that Singapore caning in the late 80s. Look at that American kid. Every American knew from then on out. Don't go there. Okay. Don't do graffiti on the guy's name. Speaking of that area of the world Luke quickly, if you allow me, I just wanted to say how about that news from one championship only this card won't take place in Singapore August 1st in Denver 1173 the return of the most electrifying force in mixed martial arts today stamp Fair Tax Luke unification against Denise Zamboanga. Let's go. Are you down for it? Tell me about it.

Yes, I'm down for, I love, I'm telling you, we kill one at times. I love their rule set. I love that Colorado gives them space to do that. I'm all for it. MMA needs more of what they're doing, not less. So I'm happy to see them back August 1st, 100%. All right, maybe we'll get Shotry in studio.

What do you think? No, that motherfucker won't talk to me, under any circumstance. But you know what, there are good people that work there. And as I said, I'm happy to see that. I'm happy, I truly mean this. I am delighted to see one back in Colorado. And I hope that show for MMA's sake,

certainly theirs as well, is a big success. I absolutely support that 100%. Okay, that's our top five topics. BC, we're not gonna do fansubs, I don't think today, right? Yeah, so we talked to Mikey, who is at the other end of that glory hole path known as morningcombatatgmail.com, meaning that's how you contact the show. And let's not forget our rules. You show Mike your picture of your package, your band. Okay,

that's what we know. He said there wasn't enough good ones this week that we have to punt towards next week. So I think this is Mikey challenging our audience to come original with their pants on at morning combat at gmail.com. Okay. By the way, speaking of bands, you know who I'm going to see? I think that April 26th is the day I'm going to have to double check. It's right around then. They're going to come to they're coming to well just outside DC, but they're going to

come to DC. Cannibal Corpse, baby. I thought you were going to say 311. I was like, real excited. Do they're going to play at the they're're gonna play at the MGM the MGM National Harbor that new facility well new ish facility off just outside the city the use do that I hate to say it but that is where Well, first of all, I didn't realize this usik fought there like the 2017 Michael Hunter

That's right. Sadly that is also the place. I hate to say this, but it is true. That is the place that Maxim Datashev ultimately died. So there is, you know, obviously some, you know, there's been some mixed events there, but in any case, like for a concert venue, I don't know. I'm supposed to, I'm supposed to meet up with the band afterwards. So we'll see how this goes. You gotta put, you gotta take pics and we'll run them on MK. That's great. Yeah. So like I hit up,

I've kind of developed an online friendship with one of the band members and I was in touch with him in the last week and he was like, he set it up. He's like, let's meet at the Oxen Hill show. I'd like to find out if you can whether George Corpse Grinder stands or sits when he wipes.

I don't think they're gonna be offended by this line of questioning. I really don't know. I doubt it. It might be in their wheelhouse too. I guess we'll have to see. But by the way, the guy I'm friends with in the band or online acquaintances, whatever, big boxing fan, big box. Nice, nice.

And shout out to friend of the program, Oteel Burbridge. You know how they were doing dead in company Luke, which was like a super group of old members, the Grateful Dead and new members. They're doing the same thing now with the Allman Brothers. The brothers are on tour. So it's like Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, J Moe, the original drummer, O'Toole. They're doing back to back nights at the garden coming up too. So shout out to our guy.

I got one more silver dollar. That song, that song bangs. Don't think it doesn't. All right, with that in mind though, we make a bunch of errors. We say a bunch of stupid stuff. Y'all hold us to account. It's time for Dead Wrong. Dead Wrong. Just coming after me left and right these days. This is from Daz. Back up on that ass and give these motherfuckers a blast from the past. Aloha donks. This is either a dead wrong or Luke was unclear about what he meant when he said the statement. Okay, let's see. On Friday's episode, which will be 22125 so a week ago, Luke in comparing Connors and Ilya's moves to 55 states that Connor quote one at 45 and then moved up and then that was it he never went back and defended which is true but then he added a throwaway line talking about me quote although Max was a title defense yes Max was a title defense to Ilya. Luke if you

were inferring that Connor beat Max after winning the title this would be incorrect that's not what I'm implying at all I just mean that when Ilya fought him that he wasn't winning another title he was defending it against Max. As they fought in 2013 yes before Max or Connor became 145 champs. Not sure about what Luke meant by Max being a title defense for Connor. No title defense for Ilya. That seemed an odd mistake for such a longtime follower of Holloway. That's why I didn't make it. Wishing health and a speedy recovery for Reggie Jackson. By the way we've got to get an update. Hold on. Sorry I missed last week on Dead Wrong. Didn't find anything

agreed just last week. Thanks for all the content. Mahalo. Daz. What's the story on Reg? That was a little pedantic of Daz. Wouldn't you say though overall? It was unclear, but so I kind of get it, but no, I didn't say it. I'm still willing to promote that fight with, uh, with Delph and Ke Papa at the lavish back. All right. Now that that now that governor penn has accused gsp of steroids uh all all good uh let's talk about reggie jackson thank you everybody for like it's been a ridiculous amount of people showing love for for i know they showed the same

for barbus and reggie jay um he's home from surgery and he's he's on the road back to recovery and it's so great to see still has a minor respiratory thing, but it's not the deep pneumonia. It was that I thought almost took us in some dark places, but the vet, when we picked him up from surgery, he had the four teeth removed, including the two big canines there. They basically said, they were like, although he's a happy drunk, he's both the craziest cat we've ever dealt with pre-surgery because it took him three hours to pin him down to get the x-ray and a lot of drugs. They said he's by far the craziest post-surgery they've ever been around.

And Luke, it was my job Wednesday night in my office in the basement to sequester Reggie away from the other animals and sleep overnight with him. I didn't get a wink of sleep. That guy on narcotics is a maniac, but he's healthy, he's back, his tongue fits in his mouth now, it closes again, and he's back to just being a regular asshole rather than one on narcotics.

So shout out to Reggie J. Thank you to everybody out there. He doesn't care about any of you, but I do. So thank you very much. That's my dude, okay? That's my guy, all right? Thank you. All right, very good, glad to hear.

And there's one more, again, for me, from Sid Rival. He says, just wanted to shoot Luke a dead wrong for his faith in topology. They, and I think there's a photo associated with it if you wanna put that up as well. There it is. What he says is, quote, they have me listed at 510 but I'm 58 on a good day lol. This is mostly ingest but I

found it funny and wanted to share a shout out to BC I deleted the gram but he followed me when I had it at Sid rival been following Luke since before he was washed love you guys and all the content you bring cheers from a loyal doc there you go. Hey listen, they're not perfect. My only point is also on his own Instagram page. He lists himself in my vlog as 28. So all right, take a look. You ever see Sid rival? Luke? He's got some killer tats. He plays the guitar. It sounds so familiar, but I can't pull it from

how can I pull Michael Fay from the memory bank? And I can't pull somebody who watches the show from the memory bank. I don't know, but the name is so goddamn familiar. I'm happy that Sid rival got that Rogan bump. If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I mean? Luke, right? On the height there on this topology page. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Oh, that's an awesome one. That's the show today. Long Island Luke. Why don't you plug being a bad boyfriend again for this weekend? She's on vacation. I already mentioned that today, Long Island Luke. Why don't you plug being a bad boyfriend again for this weekend? She's on vacation, I already mentioned that. Guys, full card watch along, main card minute, 4pm in the east. We'll do the entire UFC card into the PBC card, joining BC on that one.

Looking forward to it. Now, hold on, main card minute, it's UN Gaff, right? Correct. What is Gaff doing with his life these days? He's working the PBC fight events this week, so Gaff was on the press conference, the media work out. He'll be doing the weigh-in today. Yeah, them both. They're live right now, I think, with the weigh-ins.

Are they doing that? Is that an All the Smoke thing? Who was the production company there? All the Smoke. Yeah, All the Smoke. Okay. Did you know that Gaff also has his own podcast? What's it called?

Sorry, I muted for a second. One More Round Fights. Go follow Gaff. One More Round Fights. Just Gaff. One more round. Just the same. Hey, Luke, you know how like if a plane goes down and boy, they're going down every day lately, they'll have like an old airline expert

on the Today Show or something. Do you think that we should get Dave Sandeen, loyal MK viewer into the role of whenever there's questions about paying for sex, we'll bring that guy on as an ex-military expert. No. Oh. Oh yeah, we could do that.

We could do that. Also Luke, last night in the hotel room here, I watched the Gabby Petito American Murder series on Netflix. And I got a lot of questions for Mr. and Mrs. Brian Laundrie for their, for his parents. I got a lot of questions. This is the one I sawundry for their first parents. I got a lot of questions. This is the one I saw the trailer. Correct me if I'm wrong.

They start out talking in a van like they're down by the river. Yeah, no, no, but seriously weren't they in like some kind of it's like two young influencers in a van. Isn't that right? That is it. That's the story. Obviously it got played up to such a high level people thought because she's young blonde and white Luke, but it was a very it was a very interesting story that they've played out.

Cause you know, they got the access to all of the police camera videos. So like when the police first knocked on his parents' door at the house, like when they pulled the couple over. So you get like, I've never had this much access to a murder trial before, you know what I mean? Like to like a murder story.

But Luke, these parents, wow, wow. All right. Horrible people? No, they just were willing to do anything to protect their son. Oh, okay. Sorry. I misunderstood. I'm supposed to watch Grave of the Fireflies, which is supposed to be one of the great movies

of Japanese animation that people have tasked me with. So I'm gonna give that a look this weekend. BC will be on the, Oh, we got breaking news. Really important. Lucas Almeida missed weight for his bout with Danny Silva coming in at 148. They will proceed as a catch weight. Yeah. Nobody gives a fuck. All right. I mean, that's not against Luke along on Luke. I'm just saying like, you know,

um, okay. BC on the call tomorrow, I guess for the prelims as well as the main card. And you're doing post-fight interviews as well. Yes, that's a fact. Well, they got you. They got, I mean, I'm happy for you because I'm happy to be assignment. Yeah. Can't complain, but like you're doing, you're doing a lot of good for them. I'll put it that way. You're doing a lot of good. the environment. Yeah, can't UFC 313 we're going to be doing. Tell them what it is BC. How about pregame preview brought to you by queer ball UFC 313 Chuck Mindenhall the man in the hat. Did you know by the way Chuck's going to the to the tank fight on Saturday as a fan. Oh nice even better.

It's fun. I'm like, yeah, that's like that's awesome. Yeah, I saw the tank fight and I've seen a couple of tank fights in person. They're fucking fun like they're they're a good time So especially in Brooklyn do that atmosphere is awesome and bark. Yeah, lots of weed smoke in that arena Yeah, lots of weed smoke in that arena Okay We got to get out of here for Brian Campbell for Bong Island Luke and the whole main card minute group and everybody else

That's BC. I'm LT. Follow us here on all the socials, on YouTubes, and everything else. We'll see you guys on Monday. We'll react to all the fights from the weekend. Hit us up morningcombat, excuse me, morningcombatatgmail.com. Email the show, Dead Wrongs, fansubs, the whole nine. That's where you go. We're out of here. Enjoy the weekend. We'll see you Monday. And until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. When you sit on your aeroplan points, it's like you're sitting on your next trip. Like a sunny getaway sitting on a terrace.

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