MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Atlanta Recap: Usman Dominates Buckley, Rose Impresses, Dana White No Show | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Join Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell live in studio on a Morning Kombat Monday to go over all the biggest headlines from the weekend in combat sports. In the main event of UFC Atlanta, Kamaru Usman rather easily defeated Joaquin Buckley via unanimous decision. While Buckley rallied a bit in the fifth, it was too little, too late. Is the story of this fight that Usman was underrated or Buckley maybe a bit overrated? In Saturday's co-main event, Rose Namajunas ultimately overmatched Miranda Maverick. Was this the kind of performance from Rose that makes you believe she can become a champion again? The fellas go over other surprises from the UFC Atlanta card, plus boxing news as Richardson Hitchins stopped George Kambosas in the eighth round and Dana White isn't present for yet another UFC event.  Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at http://trueclassic.com/KOMBAT! #trueclassicpod Get MORNING KOMBAT merchandise now: https://morningkombat.shopSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Oh Yeah, it's monday morning get yourself fired the hell up I'm gonna have to wear that t-shirt and this is the best damn combat sports show they ever considered green lighting Okay, it's called morning combat. Welcome on in. It is Monday June 16th 2025 it's my wife's birthday today, by the way Shout out to my lovely, my lovely bride. Boy, they give you one day and then it's time for you to shut the fuck up again, huh? Yeah, it's kind of in the middle of like Mother's Day, our anniversary, her birthday, and you know, all that.

You get your day, but that's it. Brian Campbell right here, Luke Thomas of the DCs right there. And I'm going to have to pay up. So tune in, stay tuned into the show for today, right? We need to tell the audience the truth, which is that I came here with two shirts. I even tweeted about it. Yeah, but these are aggressive.

Then I get to the studio and then the North Korean censors, they say authoritarianism is rising in the United States. It's rising in the MK studios. Did they call the national garden? He called in the Marines and he said, just give this guy the wood States. It's rising in the MK studio. Did they call the National Garden? He called in the Marines. Okay. And he said just give this guy the wood shampoo. So I showed him the two t-shirts. This one they barely approved.

They barely approved it. And the other one they were like, there's no fucking way. Yeah. Mr. President, the second t-shirt has arrived. Yeah. We should have had you reading upside down. My pet goat. That's what Bush was reading when they gave him the news of the elementary school.

That's from our MK Jeopardy episode. So anyway, the long story short is BC now only has one shirt to wear because I got vetoed by the censorship regime as authoritarianism creeps up in this country. We will reveal this shirt and I will wear it for DMS from dogs. And have you seen this shit later in this episode? But a fantastic episode for you today, by the way, as we recap all things UFC Atlanta and maybe BC and LT bend over, bend down and may a culpa to one cow Maru Usman.

I'll say I'm sorry. I'm not going to bend over. Kaoru Usman made our his body will fall apart and they'll remove him from the octagon for good take look really bad. So it made it look bad on Saturday. I don't know how like I thought he'd be remember when R2D2 was in Chewbacca's backpack in episode 5 in the Cloud City because he was all in different pieces that mean rope and I took him apart. Yeah, I thought that's what was going to be Marty.

Wait, you mean C3PO? C3PO. Yeah. Oh, did I screw that up? All right. Either way, dude, Kumar Usman look good. And we're going to talk about that. Joaquin, but still have some question. Event. Rosanami, Eunice was back. Also, Richardson Hitchens defended his 140 pound title with a big breakthrough. TKO of George Campbell. We say something for a moment about that? Just

for a moment. Sure. When Kim bosses who on paper, you know, is a fine fighter, but nothing special. When he luck boxed into that win, okay, he fought his balls off, but he always fights his balls off. The question is not whether he fights courageously. The question is whether he fights excellently. And what we had said was he doesn't fight excellently. He gets this, what is now clearly in retrospect and an unbelievable lucky opportunity to beat a very diminished Teo and hasn't done anything else since,

except every time he goes up against anybody halfway elite he gets worked like a summer job 24 blank rounds against Haney to say nothing about this one or about Lomachenko or you could just go on down the list BC we were fucking right when we said about him and our Australian viewers got super mad at us at the time they'll realize one day about the esophagus I mean it was a diminished tail this is what I mean about Kamaru. Kamaru absolutely looked good on Saturday. There's really no question about it, but Buckley fucked up big time.

So what Luke is basically saying is you'll see in the end why he was right from the beginning. No, no, no, no. I definitely, no, no. There's no question I misjudged what Usman has left. But I didn't look at this and think, oh, well that's enough to beat the top, the very top guy. I didn't get that view. You can like this show if you want to be so thankful, so helpful to us, we'd be very thankful.

Subscribe on YouTube. Thank you to everybody watching on the DraftKings network or on audio only where you find good podcasts. Also, you'll see our social handles and our extended YouTube channels. Luke Substack on fire this week after that interview with Kyle Kulinski. It did really well.

Well done. It did really well, yeah. So thanks to everyone who checked it out. Thanks to everyone who, you don't have to promote it. You should get Tucker Carlson on that. I don't have much interest in talking to him. Yeah. Maybe.

I used to, I briefly. Palin's. Here's a little bit of a. Sarah Palin? No, no, here's a little bit of a backstory I don't know if I've told you this before I Briefly this is I mean for like a couple of months on a project worked with I took a Carlson's brother Buckley Carlson, that's his name of course Buckley Carlson

Tuckin buck yeah, and if he and Gary was there he'd be the All right. Let's bring in the fourth member, third member of our team, if we're counting correctly, Ninth Island. This is the son of an Australian. You get the point. Main card minutes on Long Island, Luke Nocita behind the glass. How are you, friend?

I'm good. You know, my dad was in shambles after Kim Boats' performance on Saturday. I'm sure he was, you know. No, he had no idea that fight even happened. But shout out Manich. Manich joined us on main card minute this weekend. It was a good show. Oh'm sure he was, you know, no, he had no idea that fight even. Shout out Manich Manich joined us on main card minute this weekend. It was a good show. Yeah, it was a fun time. Wait, in person? No, it's three on zoom, but you know, okay. Did he rip the bong? He didn't, he didn't have anything with him.

So he was faking it and people were like, damn, Manich ghost in these bong hits. Killing it. Kind of like Luke with the tequila last episode. Yeah. No, no. I had stomach problems that day. I had to, I had to killing it. Kind of like Luke with the tequila last episode, right? Yeah No, I had stomach problems that day. I had to I had to fake it I'm not allowed to tell people what happened, you know to your bowels, you know leading up to that there may have been blood Is this like you're such a super fan of Cannibal Corpse that you have to live out your bodily fluids the same gross I didn't say that there was we talking about you talking about? I said there may have been. Perfect transition here. Grab your MK merch. We're with 3.0 at this point.

Either way, it's good shit. Morning Combat dot shop is live. It's ready. It's going. So thank you to everybody that has responded of our first batch of new stuff. Those sign posters and all the good stuff were going on there. Long Island Luke doing a great job running that site. The money goes to all of us. So let's go. Let's keep it going Island. Luke doing a great job running that site.

The money goes to all of us. So let's go. Let's keep it going here. It's a great way to support the show. Morning combat dot. Yeah. How can I support the show in this iteration of it? That's a great way to do it. And you know, if you think what you've seen is all you're going to see, no, we're going to, we're going to keep coming with some fresh stuff to a outfit. You saw wool has significant other, whoever, maybe the shirt that you didn't pick, we can put on the store. I mean, I don't know. We haven't seen this one.

I've seen the reject. The one that the censorship regime doesn't want you to see. Yeah. I mean, we might lose our sponsors instantly if we put that out there. All right. There it is. Okay. Hey, I think it's time to get into the program today. So let's do it right now with topic number one, UFC Atlanta. A loaded fight night from the standpoint of big names, three former champions on the card and a welterweight main event

with absolutely legitimate title implications. Unless you were Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell coming in saying, listen, we were hardly alone. Listen, ambitious oonk. Listen, Uncle Marty. It's cool that you're talking about fighting for the title next. It's cool to talk about going up to middleweight after that. But you're 38, you've been out for so long, blah, blah, blah.

Well, Camaro came in there against a red-hot Joaquin Buckley riding a six-fight win streak, and in a lot of ways looked like the Camaro of own, scoring what we thought, or what my eyes thought were victories in the first four rounds or advantages on the scorecards before fighting off a late Buckley rally. So Luke too little too late at the end for Numanza. What is the story? This is a classic question. Is the story of this fight and Usman reminding us who he still is at this weight class for the first time in four years more about what he did retooling, taking time off and proven that he still got it or more about what Joaquin Buckley didn't do for four rounds when one takedown was enough to neutralize him completely.

I'm going to say 50 50. And I know some folks might want us to get on here and eat crow. I'm happy to eat crow because the central point that I think there's no way around is I thought Kamara Usman was going to look not decrepit BC, but like obviously diminished, right? The power wouldn't be there. To the extent he had any speed, the craftiness, the thirst for the battle itself. I thought all of it would have just kind of been shown to be falling apart. And that did not come true, even with some of the stuff that Buckley was serving up to him. So I'll definitely take a me a couple on that. There's no question in my mind, BC, after Saturday that you have to

regard Kamara Usman is at least having, and I would count this bout as part of it. One more push. I don't know how far that push goes. And I don't know how far it lasts BC, but you're getting one more put. You might get more than a push. What I'm saying is you're getting one more push at the elite end of the division. Buckley was at the elite end. He might get Bilal next.

If he wins that, he probably gets a title shot for that. He might even get a title shot next. Well, I'm sure we'll talk about it. Well, let's talk about it right now. I don't think he deserves a title shot next, but I'm 100% was dead wrong. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We should start where we were wrong. We should start there.

I am admitting I over, to a pretty strong degree, overestimated how washed he would look. We've kind of seen this equation before in a Crossroads fight and we knew to believe based on recent history of where it could go. But now I'm wondering, and this is a credit to Kamara Usman, the fact that he has been so inactive. He did take that fight two years ago against Chumayev

and did fight admirably. We all know if it went five rounds, probably who would have won. We can say that over and over. But even in the fights leading up to that, he didn't have the same freshness he had in this fight. And it's a credit to him at this age that he can turn that back on. But the trends that he had been on physically suggested a lot of what we were thinking. I think it was right that he was the underdog. I think we were wrong for basically giving him no chance.

But it's not normally done like this. So how much do you think all that time off repaired what was an increasingly broken down body at the tail end of his run as the pound for pound king with that win streak defending the title as many times as he did. Once it was over, it seemed like it was over. Do you think the time away has really allowed him to find that that new fountain of youth? You know, not just drive because he had five round cardio on Saturday as well. I didn't think that was ever going to be in question. I think a guy like that is always going to be in question if he wrestled as much as he did, right?

No, not for me. Not for me. You wouldn't say at the end, tail end of his title reign, at the tail end of his title reign, that being broken down with injuries and falling too much in love with his striking, you didn't see dedicated Falling too much in love with this striking. You didn't see dedicated spam performances like that I I'm not so sure I agree with that what I what I would say is did he look to a degree? Physically restored sure I definitely saw that he looked physically restored especially relative to the third Edwards fight Where I felt like you know again he had good cardio in that fight too, but he seemed a little seems like a gear short. Yeah, gear short. This one he did not. And I think that there's probably something to be set for restoration. Who knows if he was on some kind of pain management protocol that at least for that night enabled him to perform well. But no, I don't I don't think so. I mean, there's a couple

of things about this fight that are really interesting. We should talk about it for a second. Number one, as you indicated, Kamaru would get one takedown in the first four rounds, and that was the only one he needed. And he was dynamic on top with the constant. Well, he moved to mount twice. And it wasn't like he was rearing up, but the constant little strikes were adding up. He got those good elbows in at various times. Those were nice. I mean, he made good use of it. And also, like, you know, Komaru's ability to control in that particular dimension is pretty strong. But I couldn't believe how badly Buckley looked. And we're going to talk about that in just a second, but I want to say something. So I went back and I watched

the third Edwards fight and I was like, how the fuck could Edwards, who got housed by Sean Brady, have looked so good against Kamaru and then Buckley can't do shit to him basically until now Buckley looked great in the fifth I think we can all agree about that but as you indicated too little too late two major differences I saw in this fight I haven't seen anyone talk about this I'm going to debut him here on morning combat no no we got first rights of refusal so you know what I noticed two Two things about the differences, and I think these are actually pretty critical. Number one, Edwards in the third fight against Kumaru was almost the whole time up against the fence. Even when he wasn't being pressed, he was just close. So what you notice from Kumaru is

Kumaru does not explode into him. He almost falls into him and leans into him. And so as a con- because there's nowhere to charge charge and so what ends up happening is Edwards catches him at the point of contact and then is able to do his game. But Buckley's much more effective in the center of the cage. So what happened? You saw Komaru hit him and then run his ass into the fence and that gave him much more momentum. It gave him a runway for the when he make those and he give him credit the quick sharp cuts to take him down. Bingo, bingo. It made a huge difference number two the way in which edwards stuffed these takedowns or excuse me or uh no excuse me once he got taken down how he got off the

bottom he showed his back every time because what that enabled him to do was to get two hands on one and not allow Kamara to make a grip. Buckley never did that. He kept trying to face him the whole time and could never ever build height as a consequence of how he was going to get up to like kick him off with two knees from the bottom. I mean, which is what you can do if you're strong enough. Like it's, it's possible, but it's very low percentage smothering and moving. So Buckley get up is to basically think you have you know

you're going to be pressed the whole time how are you going to stand while being pressed not i'm going to just bench press them off of me and then stand doesn't work that way so what i'm trying to say is man i gotta give edward some credit they really did their homework and maybe it was accidental that they kind of just roamed that outside rim or maybe it was intentional but either way it disarmed kamaru in a way that Buckley was simply unprepared for. Indeed, indeed. What a performance ultimately at this age, two years off to go 25 minutes against a guy who is this dangerous, has a great motor and is at this spot.

But Luke to talk about the spot Buckley was at and the wind streak he had coming in and finishing veterans like Colby Covington and announcing himself legitimately in play to get a title shot, it wasn't just too little too late where the urgency was finally there in round 5 and he was not only able to stuff takedowns which was the key to opening up those striking moments, but he was able to stand in there and trade. That effectiveness was not available to him in rounds one through four. So when you look back for a guy in his spot,

is it forgivable that he would lose in this manner to a fighter in this situation, including age and time off, even though we are talking about a former pound king and one of the great ones, is it forgivable the way ultimately that Buckley performed and managed the rounds? No, no, it is not. It is forgivable that he lost. I'm okay with that. It is not forgivable

and the question you asked was in the way that he lost. No it is not. Dude, you've already shown in the first two rounds one takedown is enough and even with that when you get taken down one thing that was really great about Leon Edwards is he would, the instant you would drop him to his hip, he would pop right back up against Kamaru in the third fight, like the instant that it happened. Buckley didn't have any of that. He would wait until the position was consolidated and then try and then simply had no method of getting up according to normal best practices. But then by round three, he gets picked up on a single leg.

It's not finished. He gets run to the fence, which we just talked about. Kamaru using that as like a runway to really push the takedown further. And then he's punching his way, Buckley is, to defend rather than wrestling through position. Someone on my post fight show was saying, why are you, you know, why do you get mad when fighters don't fight perfectly? That's not fighting not perfectly. That's fighting well below professional standard. Every pro knows do I'm sure you've seen it work. Someone tries to take down the other person

punches their lights out and they drop and then that's the end of it. There are situations where that can happen. But as a general rule, if you've been taken down and held down for 10 minutes and they're up on a single, your number one job is to defend the takedown with high percentage defense techniques. Not that. And he punched him. He tried to punch his way through it. So what happens? He gets sat down again. Not forgivable. Not forgivable for someone in the top 10 of the 170 pounds of the UFC's welterweight division in a massive bout of consequence to perform like that. I don't mind that he lost BC. I really don't. People win, they lose. But people will be like, oh, you're being too hard on him. I don't think that I am. I don't think that I am.

It's not like I thought of him as a guy who was completely well-rounded. He's always leaned toward the power, the explosiveness, the threat of the knockout. And I think he has elevated his striking to be able to disguise certain setups and land huge shots. There's no question. I can't defend that the what he was able or what he was not able to do on the ground. There's no question about that. Do you think in hindsight, if we're trying to see pieces that were there that we didn't notice it, did he show Kamara Usman too much respect, like in their face off where he's fanboying? Didn't think so on Friday, but he didn't show Colby Covington that respect, right? There was a little contention there.

He got him the hell out of there. Do you think in hindsight, new man's might say maybe I looked at him too much as a as a hero. I'm going in again, dude, in the post fight. He put out a post fight video and I can appreciate, you know, Dominic Cruz said and we have it right. Yeah, I think we have just his statement okay which could be the same thing in terms of text but he Dominic Cruz said he's gonna learn a lot from

this and Buckley is just 31 I'm not writing him off I'm not writing him off but I'm not gonna give him I'm not gonna grade on a curve here you know if you're gonna be fighting guys where did he not say if he won this he was potentially in line for number one contenders? I'm gonna grade at a high level when I watch fights like that and the way in which it's not just that BC like with his stand-up his stand-up is obviously formidable his power is real and he did by the way have good five round cardio yes we should say that and he always has so I was very happy with that I was like okay he's got good run cardio and he tries and I appreciate that as well but don't you feel like watching his standup, it feels a little disorganized. Yes.

Feels like he's just kind of throwing stuff at the wall and not a whole lot of it is planned or set up or thoughtfully put together. Like he's obviously got a lot of ability, clearly has a lot of ability. And he is the guy who's delivered in my mind, arguably the single greatest knockout in MMA history. Like that's what we're talking about here. And has completely rebranded himself in a new division with the win streak that he brought in.

Totally. I'm not writing him off, but I think he has to take a long look in the mirror, even if he was happy with how this went in terms of, you know, pinch me moment in my career, you have to look at this and say, there are significant areas of improvement that have to happen if you want to beat the Brady's,

the Rachmanov's, whoever the division. And he still might whoever the time in that regard I'm not saying he does but it's like look at Kumar Usman I know it's a different story a different financial bracket when you consider Usman's a pay-per-view veteran and a former champion but that dude's got Trevor Whitman and Henry Hofton his corner among others you know what I mean so are we looking at the other also know the side of him a very very good fire George That's a super team in many ways. Are we looking at Buckley's Ark and the gyms that he's went to and who is he with now and say that maybe he still hasn't found the right. There was something to be said for the fact that I guess I didn't see it, but people were telling me one of his corner man was on, I think, Demetrius Johnson's podcast and said that he still works full time at Panera. Now, of course, you know, you got to do what you got to do to make ends meet and being you can be a great coach, but if the economics of it aren't great, you're going to have to do what you have to do. So I'm not going to bespoke your man for having an honest job and doing his best. He might be great. What I am going to say is great

at Panera or great at the other side? All of them. All right. What I'm going to say is Buckley has to take a look at that and realize that was a winnable fight or certainly a much could have gotten much different scores and the level at which he was doing foundational things is not acceptable for an elite prize fighter period. And whatever the solution is to that is the solution to that. Now's the time to find that. Let's see the statement put out there by one Joaquin Buckley on this performance. Uh, that's small. I don't have my glasses, but I can read this back one.

Hand wasn't raised last night, but I am still victorious and will be one of the greats. The trip has been beyond amazing and I wouldn't change a thing that happened in my fight camp. Everything was perfectly planned. I just didn't execute like I know I could. We wanted to land early damage on Usman and get him moving back,

but he did a good job neutralizing threats with takedowns. Well, I mean, okay. But don't get it twisted. Usman was more concerned about holding me than hurting me in this fight, but he did what he, what he felt was necessary to win. And so that can't be mad at that congrats, blah, blah, blah. Excited about the, we felt like a veteran. He controlled that, but he was also asking him up. I said this, I said this on Saturday night, long Island, Luke, tell me if this is true or false. Ready? The way in which Usman fought, he didn't show you anything new. You didn't see a damn thing new from him. But what he did do was fight very efficiently in his bread and butter

style of his game, which I think he can do if it comes that easy, he can do forever. True or false? True. 100%. Yeah. And he didn't and he didn't lean on his striking this time. It was the threat of the takedown, which was the original thing that made him great. Even if we can't expect him to be as aggressive as he was in his prime and when he was climbing to the belt, he's got that level of cardio and that level of ability, especially against a wrestler who doesn't have it, to dominate in the way he did. And what can we say about him?

Negative. I mean, Dom Cruise was against Buckley Hart on the on the broad, not against him, but was critical from his role as as analyst and saying it looks like Buckley was never in these situations in camp. That's that's pretty that's a pretty damning statement. I hope that's not true for him. But either way, it's the big wake up call. This is what I'm saying. People want to pin it on his coach just because his coach has a has a you know, a job that's could be a distraction. And I'm trying to explain to them, maybe that is, but maybe it's just on him. That's true.

Maybe it's just a guy who didn't perform the way he needed to. Well, look, we don't talk enough about good moments, whether it's Bushido or inspirational moments in MMA. Usman had to go through a lot of doubt. He went through a lot of injury recovery to try to get back to where he is now. Took an additional two years off after that Jemiah fight. And here we are. Here's Usman talking from a mental side about that journey.

I know it's been a while. I know it's been a while. And after the last one, going up against a young, strong, hungry guy, one of the most, you know, just kind of dangerous and terrifying guys. And I was dealing with some things going into that one, but I took the fight on short notice. Because of that fight, it's almost like

they forgot I could fucking wrestle. And they got dismissive, you know, and a little borderline disrespectful. But I just had to pull out the skill and just let them know, hey, respect every aspect of my game, every aspect. It's hard. I mean, it's been a while since, not just with getting back in here, but obviously getting in the win column.

I battled a lot of things just to get here. Just repairing my body, just physically, personally. A lot of things that I had to just kind of, I guess, expression would be fight a lot of demons just to get back in here. But yeah, a lot that I had to go through. But thankfully, I'm blessed with a great team, great support system, great family, and I'm back here so I just want to say you know recognize them I want to recognize my family my mom dad brothers sister T-baby Sammy Lulu Zena baby I love you guys. My coaches, Henry, Trevor, George, Ben, teammates, Justin, Archie,

all these guys, you know, even guys down there at Kill Cliff. I love and I appreciate it. And every one of you guys, whether you knew it or not, they played a big, big factor in this tonight. So I just wanna say I'm thankful. But- Look, you could really hear the emotion in him and hear what he battled through.

And it does make me feel like a dick for using the locker room side of our show breakdown, which is, you know, part of our, part of what we do and being like, nah, man, it's not gonna happen. History shows that he's not supposed to have that performance in that moment. But when you hear him talk about the injuries, it was a diminished version of him. This time off has done him well to hear the emotions that go into that and the disrespect

that yes, he had to read on the internet or hear from people like us straight from the basement. I do feel it in this moment. I give him full respect. My understanding as well. I don't know much beyond what I've been told secondhand, so I'm not going to repeat a bunch of it, but my understanding is just on a very euphemistic level. He's also had a series of personal issues to deal with. You know, I'll just leave it at that.

So that changes a fighter's focus and ability, everything. It just requires a lot of bandwidth to, you know, to lean it to, to, to depends on the person, right? Some people can tune it out. And I don't mean like substance abuse or anything like that. Nothing like that. Just, just some life stuff. But the long story short, um, dude, he had a nice win on Saturday.

He had a nice win and to, to see, to see him back. You know, and again, it was more just the old dog didn't have any new tricks, but the old dog still a tough bastard. Is he not? He truly is. Especially if he can take you down and lean on you and get in work, you know, pull the air out of that balloon. It was. To be a 38 year old welterweight coming off of three back to back to back losses

and a two year old welterweight coming off of three back to back to back losses and a two year layoff. You know, I'm sorry, but like, under normal circumstances, you'd be like, this is not an ingredient for winning. But we're also talking about the second best welterweight of all time. Exactly. He defies the rules. So yeah, I should have put more respect on his name. Yeah, I should have too. I was wrong. A lot of people want him against Bala Muhammad next. There is that podcast incident that happened leading into the Bala Muhammad title fight with JDM where Luca am I getting it right apparently? They did the podcast in person they had the cameras rolling there was some trash talk that developed back and forth that started Friendly but went a little more between Bala and Kamaru, and it actually turned into a fight

That's that's my understanding and then they just decide we're never gonna show the footage That's right, right? Cuz it does that lead you know, I'm not taking sides here But does it lead you to believe that maybe Bilal won that sequence and that's why that footage never came out They're all Ali guys I wonder if it was just a way to broker peace. I don't know. I don't know Okay, either way you would think that could be next I could just as just as much Luke argue that Chavka coming back from injury is the perfect fight for Kamara winner gets the next title shot in line

Well now it's kind of complicated. I don't know what the hell then I do Brady versus Shawn versus what's Gary Philly with no Sean Brady, but that Gary versus sorry Brady versus Gary. Yes, I'll get myself into a into a what? Obviously that's going to leave out below the below. I listen. What about Edwards rematch? A fourth. Edward. No, no, no. Edwards versus below. Oh, I don't have any interest in it.

I want to see belowal versus Kamaru. OK, you do. You do. I bet UFC does too. I think that's the only fight anyone wants to see like Bilal in realistically. But that's not the fight Kamaru wants, and we have video to prove it.

And I have to ask you, I know, I think I know what you're going to say, but Bilal Muhammad quickly tweeted, see you soon. I know your eyes are on a title fight That's also a pretty big fight former champ for former champ Below Muhammad who was a former welterweight champion below Muhammad next He didn't remember the name at all, Luke, apparently. Hey, you ever heard about that name, Balal Muhammad over there? Our final piece of video is Usman believing

Luke may have already earned that title shot. And look, for someone in his spot with that name, depending on the person, they might have. I just think the division's too crowded for him to go to a title chapel Let's be honest. I'm the biggest in the division You know and this is about entertainment the UFC is an entertainment company. You want to make the biggest fight? It's gonna be the winner of JDM and Islam, you know if Islam pulls that one out former pound-for-pound current pound-for-pound

Who doesn't pay for that? You feel like basically tonight you got yourself a title shot you get yourself the winner of JDM Islam former pound for pound current pound for pound who doesn't pay for that you feel like basically tonight you got yourself a title shot you get yourself the winner of JDM Islam I mean you don't feel like that who else you're the biggest name yeah okay thank you but I'm asking you oh yeah for sure a JDM is no slouch let's not look past JDM I said that in his last fight and he went out there and he showed you guys don't look past him. He's very very talented Islam is extremely talented. I love Islam I think him coming in makes that division a lot a lot more interesting

So if he's able to get in there and get the rest of that belt away from JDM former pound-for-pound Current pound-for-pound. I mean, I think everybody wants to watch that. So Yeah So Luke, you prefer Bilal versus Usman. I'm certainly not against it. If it goes that way and we already know JDM versus Islam is likely next. What would you do then with the other relevant players? What would you do with Gary Brady? What would you do with Shavkat? I don't know. I really don't know what the answer is.

So Edwards is also in. Yeah. So in a perfect world, in a perfect world, here's what I would say. So you obviously got Islam JDM. So they're crossed them off the list. Like you, Brady Gary. I think that's just a fight to make. But now it gets real hard. I think you could do Shavkat Leon. But again, again if you're Leon that is a tough fucking consolation prize You're damn right, but I think long island loose got some ideas. What do you have to say? We're forgetting about like Michael Morales is in this mix too. He's a little bit on the outside looking in though But he's number eight. I mean doesn't he still need like a wonder boy type burns Quickly that's true Leon versus Michael Morales is the fight. I think okay, so what do you do with? What do you do with Kim or what do you do with below put them together? Maru can fight a job cut yes, yeah, but I don't even want to see that

I feel like that doesn't tell me enough about where they're both at Well the best way to find out is have them fight. I don't know I might it might I don't know I want to see Shavkat tested against like Sean Brady But I know he might not be ready for that and I do really want to see Brady versus Gary's if if I'm not saying I'm not trying to say Usman's the easiest one of the group But what I'm trying to say is if Shavkat or not getting the immediate title shot when he's already secured it But he got injured it was I guess his fault in a way not really but you know things happen whatever then Isn't that the soft? I don't want to say the softest landing,

because I don't mean that, but I mean... I'm not against that if you go Shavkat Kamaru right now. Because if you're not going to give Shavkat the title shot, then give him the big name former champion. Yeah. So, where he- The reality is, there's only a couple of fights that interest me with Balal versus X or Balal versus Y,

but to Kamaru's credit, there's actually a bunch that could work. Right? Now, the one that trilogy with Colby, just another trilogy with Colby. Also, we didn't say this. Dude, how fucking washed is Colby? Real wash. Dude, because I went back and I watched that fight. Buckley resisted what he was doing. How did you not know that from the Masvidal fight, to be fair? That's why I never thought even people were giving Colby a chance in his last few fights under that well What if he rustles him for 24 minutes and controls him? He doesn't do that. I didn't bring this threat to the table I didn't think it was that far gone. It's gone like the cold Colby could do not quite. He got one takedown

He could do almost nothing to Buckley Kamaru could do whatever he wanted. It was such a huge difference between them. So I just want to point it out there like Colby's in a bad, but we're dude, listen, we're like, and I get that he's lost a bunch and he's not relevant necessarily, but like, you know, you still think, oh, he's got a bit of a name.

We're not even talking about him other than, oh my God. Who just called him out? Is it Kevin Hollen? No, Michael Chiesa kind of suggested he might, but then was not gonna, he said it's not worth it. No, Kevin Hollen was straight up called him out. Uh, is it Kevin? No, Michael. Yes. Kind of suggested he might, but then was not gonna. It's not. Kevin Holland was straight up called Kevin Holland. Walter. Wait, I picked Kevin Holland over Colby. What do you think? Long Island? I don't think that's a debate. No, I like that. But I also, I want to see Joaquin Buckley, Kevin Holland rematch now at one 70. I'm not against that either. I'm not opposed to that, but at some point

he needs to meet another wrestler, maybe in a fight or two. We need to see what he's been working on because that was real bad on Saturday. It was real bad. All right. I just wanted to remind everybody out there that now right now is a good time as any to remember where tequila's story truly began. You know, I'm talking about 1795 when Cuervo invented tequila. Since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots. Same family, the same land, and of course that same passion.

230 years later, Cuervo still right here folks, in every pour, in every margarita, in every celebration. So enjoy the tequila that started it all. Cuervo, the tequila that invented tequila. ProximoCuervo dot com. Please drink responsibly. Luke, the next pregame preview on morning combat brought to you by Cuervo is not that far away, considering we got two pay per views in June.

We're heading up to IFW, which is going to be June 28th. UFC 317. That should be a fun pregame preview. It should be a very good pregame We're figuring out the third man at the moment or woman or child whoever's we should get a woman to do that with us But I don't think we know you know what is is female friendly Well, I really have to can be I really have to blame all of our fans who hate women for that Luke I have a fear Luke Thomas We landed the plate all right there you go. That was well done. He landed the plane. All right. There we go.

Hey, back to the show here. Let me find where I was looking at. Yeah, good thing you don't have a computer and you use your phone. No, I just use my phone like any any educated person these days. Topic number two. We stay at UFC Atlanta on Saturday night

in the Coalmane event. Former two-time starweight champion Rose Nama-Yunas was looking to break out from a two and two run after moving up to 125 pounds. She did welcome in former training partner Miranda Maverick who was riding a four fight winning streak of her own. In the end Rose would take a close fight on, at least was perceived on the scorecards entering the third round and really left no doubt with her control, with her top position, without

striking Maverick considerably to win going away. But, she was also the favorite to do it in the 6th ranked fighter, welcoming the 12th ranked fighter, Luke Thomas, the larger topic surrounding Rose. And has been for a few fights. How much did this performance change that topic? Do we believe at the moment that Rose Namaeunis looks like a future champion at Flyweight following this performance? Or title contender at the very least? I want to be careful about this because under no circumstance did I look at this fight and ever think Rose looked bad?

I didn't think she looked lost. I didn't think she looked out of ideas. I didn't think she looked like she was lacking. Did not look to me at all like she had any issues with her conditioning. She kind of had the edge back in terms of like punching off the break and she just seemed clear. She knew what she wanted to do as well and then was very good for the most part at delivering it. It's just hard for me to look at this fight and be like, ah, here we go. Cattle contender like this is the the one. This was the, this was the performance I was waiting for. It was a perfectly fine, competent

nay even good performance, I think from Rose Nama Eunice, but it, I don't know. It's still kind of left me in the same position that we went in. I knew, I know that she can beat good fighters. I know she can beat very good fighters. I just don't know if she can beat the elite anymore. So like I'm not saying this was a waste of time per se, but it doesn't to me. Maybe you feel differently. It did not bring me to a place where I'm like, aha, now I've seen enough. Now I learned something. I didn't get that closer to that place and I and for you know, to be a super fan

of somebody I feel you have to be their biggest critic and not be lost on it. And there's been on this 125 journey where I'm just like I don't think she's going to get it she's missing something that that was there at 115 it's not here at 125. There was an improvement in that conversation, and I don't want to say the improvement was because she fought somebody that's lesser to her recent opponents more up more average Luke as we like to call her because we can't speak English. Moravarik? Uh, she fought well. She's limited to a certain degree, but she used her physicality in particularly on the ground in those transitions and that submission attempt. She made it gnarly for a second. Like she was in this fight. I like the way largely that Rose responded, but I still feel like Rose gets hit too much at this weight class compared to the free-flowing movement that she showed at 1'5", maybe that's a footwork issue with the added weight on and just trying to find that right balance, I'm not sure. I thought the killer instinct was back yet I don't know if I still see a dominant fighter there. Maybe that's too much to

ask. She's in the second chapter of her career, she's 32 years old, she's been through with some very tough fights. All in all, she didn't give me reason to say we're going in a backwards direction. Or sure. I just think we're still moving in increments. I do say this though, not as an apologist. Would you agree with me that if you do look back at her losses in this division, right? I have no problem with the wins over He-Boss and why can I never remember her name when I need Tracy Cortez?

Even though again, I thought she got hit a little bit too much would you say that both the Firo loss in which she broke her pinky in the first round and needed another full round to Sort of recover mentally and then kind of put it on her a little bit and the Blanchfield loss in which she was up Three nothing at that point and then kind of got out worked or I thought she was up three nothing But then gets outworked over the final three rounds and loses. That's that's not a the way she lost those. They're not air-repairable my thing.

Yeah, I mean to the to the point you're raising like none of these things are it. This is not like Buckley showing up and you're like, you know, you're well below the elite standard. This is totally in keeping with an elite standard, as a matter of fact. It's just that we keep looking for signs of a spark, signs of magic, signs of. Ascension signs of something transforming our understanding of it, or how we think we understand it, and she just keeps delivering super solid, super competent

performances that seem to confirm what we already think to be true. Now again, we thought that Kamara was going to look like an old washed, you know, nothing coming into Saturday and that wasn't true. So our assumptions are only good as, you know, 50, 50, I suppose. But her offensive wrestling was there. That was nice to see. Yep, for sure. We got some sound from Rose grading her performance. Let's listen in on the thug in former two-time champion.

I was really happy with my, just my ability to just go out there and fight and not just worry about being perfect, you know? So there was moments, obviously, where I felt like I was kind of thinking a little bit, but I just, I was really proud of myself that I just kind of let it go and just not worry about the outcome so much and just fight.

Yeah. You've trained with her in the past, so the ways that you guys have trained, obviously that stays in the gym, but now that it's done, was it more or less what it looked like in sparring when you guys trained together? You know, there was, I think think it was more or less she I think in training she was a little more tentative on the feet more like backwards stepping like there was maybe only a couple times where she would come forward a little bit in the fight she was a little bit more aggressive in the second round I think from my memory but yeah I would say it would always be a very like, she would shoot more

I think too in training. So that was something a little different I think and I think that I grapple with her more in this fight than in training. So you, we talked about you training with Miranda. Is that something you'd be willing to go back and do now that this fight's over? Is that just a different period of your life? Yeah, I think so.

She's a great training partner. She's, yeah, she actually mentioned that in the cage. Got to jet miss you there live in local, like breaking in Atlanta on the scene. You think he can play the mouth harp? That's the one that goes boing, boing, boing in your mouth, you know what I'm talking about? I don't think I do, but I also am thinking.

You never heard of a mouth harp? In sexual connotation, I guess, but. A mouth harp in sexual connotation? Well, I thought that's where you were going. You tended to go there in terms of your t-shirt choices, so we'll see at DMs from from dogs right there. Yeah, Luke Let's get a fresh opinion separate from the two of us who tend to uh, I don't know Give me a give me a current stock on Rose after that victory, which wasn't easy. She pulled it off though

She surged in the third round. She was the dominant fighter I think name value alone like we could see Rose I don't know off this performance if she could get a title shot. I guess if everything fell into place. I think like, dude, you put her against Alexa Grasso, like another- That's the fight I want. Another former champ, you get her a nice win.

She gets the title shot right after that. I'd be cool with that. Even though Grasso's, did she snap the losing streak last time around? No, she lost. No, she lost. So it's continued down. She just lost to Natalia Silva, yep.

That's right, in a number one contender fight It'd be weird that Rose is coming up right now as as she's coming down But it seems like the right fight to really get a test actually. I think it's a great call How would we map the division out around that? Are we I guess we to answer that question We need to figure out if shevchenko is going in the direction of John way Lenex moving up from 1115 or if Natalia Silva has held down with that victory over Grasso, the number one contender spot. Yeah, I don't know how to answer that,

but assuming that it's Silva, I mean, you could still make it either way. Now, how do we do it? Because Blanchfield versus Barber was supposed to give us some very key information about who's coming and going. What, that not happening, do we, it doesn't look like Blanchfield wants to go in that direction again, so you're not running back Rose and Blanchfield again like Blanchard wants to go in that direction again, so

Not running back Rose and Blanchfield again necessarily there There's enough names in and around this if they go John Wiley they can go Blanchfield Silva winner of that Just as it is out there to jazz. DeVisious is right next to her in the rankings So you could absolutely do Rose versus Jasmine and by the way, Jasmine coming off of another great win She looks to be in the best shape and form of her career that actually could be a really interesting fight But I do agree that the Grasso fight although I'm not so sure Gras to be in the best shape and form of her career. That actually could be a really interesting fight, but I do agree that the Grosso fight, although I'm not so sure Grosso is in the downswing. Jazz DeVisius is on the upswing. I might like the Jasmine fight better, to be honest with you, either of those works

that your rose, though, you want the Grosso for sure. Yeah, that's going to be a quicker path to the top with the name value right there. But restorative, yes, restorative. Restorative win. It's just not perfect. We don't know if she ends up there, but the elephant in the room or in the training corner, Luke, is the internet's obsession slash hatred of Pat Berry in general as her fiance slash coach, but more particularly the run at flyweight that he has been positioned almost to the head coaching role.

There are other names and voices in her corner. Chico Caymus, former UFC fighter, has been with her forever as a training partner. But Trevor Whitman was a big part of her, she's had many sort of resurrections in her career. He was a big part of getting her to the top of that 115 division twice. So Luke, he was in the building just in Usman's corner. Are we too critical of Rose and her corner and by proxy Pat Berry in general when we're asking Rose in a new division to show that same thing that made her great in the former one, when not only does this take time, but are the issues we've had with Rose at 25, her fault, coach's fault? How do we put this to bed now? Yeah, I mean, the situation is that there are people who are making accusations. And again,

to what extent there's, you know, a trail of evidences, something you can decide for yourself, but there's at least accusations, not without some degree of, you know, merit, but that, you know, she was essentially groomed at a young age. I mean, I wasn't going there. You know, I'm not making I'm not I'm not I'm not telling you I endorsed the theory. OK, what I'm trying to I actually have never studied it very closely. I mean, Celine Dion's manager was definitely grooming her. The problem, the problem, the reason why I have to bring it up and why it's relevant

is because that is enough of a charge, at least to some of the fan base, such that Rose's career flags to any degree. And there's automatically a tying of that together. I'm not here to say that losing Whitman is somehow addition by subtraction or exactly by addition by subtraction. That's I don't know. What I'm just trying to point out is people need to be as careful as they can in teasing out theories of decline.

It could well be her coaches. It could well have nothing to do with it. There's also a tougher division right now with bigger fighters. So there's part of that adjustment and she's older and has more miles on her and she's fought some of the best coming in. She's fought tough competition. Right? I mean this idea that it's like automatically the coaching staff's fault again. I'm not here to exonerate them.

I'm not saying that I but this like, oh, we we have these issues related to these matters which are unrelated or at least seemingly unrelated to performance could be unrelated to performance. And I'm just saying the level of evidence that people employ to make these conclusions sometimes seem a little lacking to me. Yeah, but it's a it's a question worth at least asking. Would you buy pickles from Miranda Maverick moving forward? I don't get the joke. She sells pickles on the me. Yeah, but it's a question worth at least asking would you buy pickles from Miranda Maverick moving forward? I don't get the joke she sells pickles on the side. She's so good. Yeah You don't remember when Long Island Luke told you that on last episode. I think I vaguely do yeah Yeah, yeah, I try sure I like pickles. I'm you know I like I like cornichons. I like those no pickles to me Or the devil, but that's okay Luke. They're just cucumbers soaked in vinegar. It's just it's see right through them What does that mean? I see through pickles. They're really cucumbers and decides this guy's and that's my mortal enemy I was forced. I don't think anyone hides that fact do they? most of my life they were

so so basically if anything like you don't like anything ceviche I Don't I don't know what that reference means. Bathe in acid. It's cooked in acid. Carbonic or more like cooking oils. You never had ceviche shrimp? You never had fucking? I don't like shrimp, but you know.

Okay. Well, I didn't realize I was dealing someone who has the palette of a toddler. Why? Because I don't specifically like shrimp. Get some chicken nuggets and a happy meal for this oaf. It could be said you currently have the musical palette of a toddler. I don't think that's right. I don't think toddlers have musical palettes like mine. Okay, you have the musical palette of somebody who would hurt a toddler.

Okay, let's go to topic number three. Hey, I couldn't even muster a response to that. How about the rest of UFC Atlanta? And there are a few big bullet points to talk about for a card that kind of started red hot in the prelim level with big finishes did Peter out a little bit from the standpoint of decisions booing from the crowd and a few fights in a row that there was fouls and that really you know decisions because of that so Luke let's talk at the top here Malcolm Wellmaker who was not on the top of the card had a great homecoming moment from

two hours away there in Atlanta but continued the streak he's on as Chris Mutino's well-publicized comeback to the UFC ended as violently as possible. A absolutely gorgeous sort of check left hook to remove him from his senses. Luke Thomas, this Wellmaker hype train, which I was not even aware was at the station. Holy shit, I'm aware now Luke. Good Lord. This guy's looking exciting. There's a difference between exciting and being the goods.

But for another step on the ladder, that's about as good as it gets. He has a contender series fighting to UFC fights and all of them. He's won via first round KO. Let me just say this. First of all, I don't think Chris, I mean, you know, I'm not trying to take away money out of some guy's pocketbook, but

I think Chris Boutinio is gonna get real fucking hurt fighting in UFC Yes He looks deeply unprepared for this level and you know all that time off and I didn't see How long was the fight two minutes and 37 seconds for two minutes and 37 seconds? I did not see any evidence of defensive improvement You're saying it was Phil Brooks versus Mickey Gall slightly better than Phil Brooks Not much, you know not much it was this I versus Mickey Gall? Slightly better than Phil Brooks, not much. You know, not much.

I'm not even trying to be a dick. I'm saying if he keeps taking fights in UFC, there's a very strong possibility he's going to get really badly hurt. He's not, he's like... So the five stoppages on the regional level to get back here, that's sort of the Super Bowl. He's gotten as far as he can get in your eyes. I don't know how much better he can get.

I don't know what his training looks like. I'm just telling you where he's at right now and where he's at right now is a place that's gonna get him hurt real bad. He's with Tyson Chartier, so he's not with nobody. I like Tyson Chartier, but I'm sorry, Chris Boutinio looks like he's in rough shape. I mean, but Wellmaker though.

Okay, Wellmaker, to my point, they gotta stop feeding them kids like this. He's hurting these fucking guys badly. They need to give him a bump in competition For his competition sake yes, because he's just steamrolling them no Sita Have you backed this guy from the very beginning on your deep under cards? No, I gotta be honest, but I like he was obviously really hyped coming into this he was also the hometown guy So sure also Chris mutino. Yeah, he was on that five five finish streak or whatever Dissecting the records of his opponents. Oh, no. They're all like under 500. It's pretty

bad. So you know, there's, you know, the regional scene has value, but like anything else, it's, there's limits to it as well. And I appreciate, listen, I appreciate that he went back out there and got after it and tried to win and did nothing but win. But he came back looking like there was no difference in his ability to avoid punishment. And you fight like that at this level and you're gonna get real fucking hurt. All right. All right, Luke, let's go to the middleweight division quickly on this. Did the Armenian Edmund Shabazzian look like he's fixed a lot of the glitches in this decision

win over Andre Petrosky that was 30 to 27 on two of the score cards. He didn't fold late. It looked like his body was the most sort of built and balanced that I've seen him. Sometimes he's awkward in there in a negative way. He's got those ribs that poke out like you're near Doritur. He's more solid than I've ever seen from him, and he carried out a good game plan. What's to say negative here? Yeah, no, I think I would largely agree with that. I think, you know, Eric Nixik being in his corner, it just seemed to me, BC, he fought, we talked about Kamaru fighting an efficient fight. I thought in general, you saw a disciplined, efficient fight from Shabazzian.

He wasn't throwing the kitchen sink on every combination like he normally does. That's right. And had those one-twos were landing real nicely and then he would kind of put some pressure but he wouldn't go crazy following up, which I was like, okay, this is better. So they clearly got him to fight more strategically. And I think that's going to pay dividends. How far he can go with this. It moves him to 15 and five on his record, which is not nothing.

I guess we'll see, you know, he's he, it reminded me of Rose. It was like, maybe, maybe a little bit more than that. I think he fought a disciplined enough where I was like, okay, this is interesting. But you know, this is interesting, but you know, this is also a guy that finished Brad Tavares in a round. It's like, are we, are we in a better place than that? I mean, in certain ways we're in a better place than that, but in other ways we're not, you know? So it's, um, I don't know. It's still a weird place for me. I'm with you on that one. Uh, the third former champion on this card,

Cody Garbrandt Bannum weight had a two fight win streak that was recently stopped with a loss. Uh, this was supposed to be the one he turned it around against a streaking veteran on Hione Barcellos. So I didn't put the respect on for what he had done to Peyton Talbot and the two fight win streak he brought in. Luke, this is a weird fight because for five minutes, it looked like somebody would have like relit the old flame inside of Cody. We saw the celebrating, we saw the robot,

we saw like all these weird sort of cocky, fast, you got the cornrows, he looked fit, like for a second you were seeing flashes of the old. I thought he had a little loose change on him. Okay, a little bit, but I'm saying with the new tats, with everything, he had menace, he had swagger, he hadn't been fighting with that in this losing streak. Some of his losses were just like too cocky, getting in brawls like the, you know,

Dillishaw knockouts. But then other times, I don't know, I didn't see this focus. But whatever he had in round one didn't seem sustainable. He didn't necessarily fall apart. But slowly but surely he let go of the reins as Barcellos rallied and was able in the end to pull off a very close decision. I mean, there's not much lower you can get for Garbrand from the heights that he was that we always compare him to. But this felt like a win that was in his hands that just got slippery and it felt and it slipped out. Yeah, I keep seeing people on the internet being like, my God, how could this happen? How did we get here? You know, he loses three and never recovers. And I'm like, why is that surprised?

Like how long you've been watching fights, dude, that can happen to you after one KO much less back to back to back KOs, like I I'm very, very surprised that people are surprised by this. People are like, well, where would you pinpoint in the resume where things went wrong? And I'm like that plus add to the fact number one he got stopped flatlined in the amateurs as well yeah so you have now you know multiple times you've been put out on this and some people never recover from the big K.O. of their career. I'm telling you, dude you can never recover from certain

rounds yes I say this before David Loazo getting beaten up by Rich Franklin he did not recover from that his career was never the same after that guys you might see fighters take three four or five KOs and they still was never the same after that. Guys, you might see fighters take three, four, five KOs and they still fight with the same kind of reckless abandon. You do not realize how special and rare that is. You take it for granted because we just, that's, oh, that's just what they do. But these guys are, they're humans, they're fragile. And even if his chin is not completely busted, the psyche, the, what it, what it means to have your, the psyche, what it means to have your lights put out, what it means to have been touched that way.

Does that explain how he looked amazing in one round and then just average as he got out working two and three? It seems to me that there's real psychological barriers to letting himself go because when he does it's reckless enough where he knows he's going to get stopped. So he doesn't know how to calibrate it anymore. And I think he does have concerns about the, the chin sturdiness. And also, you know, he's to, to, to add onto it BC. I know he's had other health problems associated with it. Listen,

I'm not celebrating his decline and I don't have, it doesn't make me feel good, but the people acting like, Oh, it's very surprising. There's, there's not a single thing surprising about it. Damage is poison in your career and some people BC have different tolerance for the poisons, but it's poison. Three straight wins now for Barcellos. This is a fun little late career surge from him. He had a name ready though after the fight to call it out. Let's hear from him. I think for sure it was a victory I had in my career. And this show showed that the fight was the way it was.

Cody came in his best physical form. And we were able to give a fight to everyone who was watching. Cody was in great form and we put on a great fight. Yeah. You hit him with some hard shots. Were you surprised that he was able to take them and see the fight out? It's amazing these guys do this. Like an hour after their fight and they're still kind of winded. I knew he was going to be tough. What did surprise me was how strong his wrestling was. Even though he comes from a wrestling base, I think he made for a really fun and dynamic fight. And I won 50 grand. You had called for the Cody Garbrand fight, you got it.

So is there someone you would like to see in the ring? I think it's going to be a tough fight. I think it's going to be a tough fight. for a really fun and dynamic fight and I want 50 grand. And you had called for the Cody Garbrand fight, you got it. So is there someone you wanna call out? Is there a fight that you want next? What do you want to follow? I want Rob Font to the end of the year.

I want to get into the ranking and turn the year around with a golden key. And I'll be very well prepared, that's what's gonna happen. I want Rob Font by the end of the year. I wanna be in the rankings by the end of the year. I want to be in the rankings by the end of the year and to basically get into the new year on a high note. Dude, I've heard him in other interviews, like he's talking about a run to a title. I mean, you know, there's some mindset that says if you're not talking about a run to the title, you shouldn't be fighting.

I get that. But like, he's looking at it like I've put together the best run of my career and I'm peaking. He's listen by hook or by crook by nickel or by dime. Yeah, he fights for every inch. He deserved to win that contest. It was nice to see survived. Again, Cody did look good. The first round. It's tough. I mean, you can't sometimes you can't pump you don't do back together. Dude, I'm telling you like you this is such a these guys are way More fragile than they realize yeah Let's talk about hodoffo bolado who was a big favorite the hulking Brazilian light heavyweight against Paul Craig a lot of the lot tour A lot I said bolado didn't know but I think would it be Bellato? I don't know a little bolado

Long Island Luke do you have a John Anick in front? So do Adolfo Bellotto. Bellotto. Bellotto. Yeah, Casar Caceres, I think. So Luke is- He fought too, he lost to Kokhramanov. Yeah, he did, I saw that in the Dirty Boxing. Luke, this was, I thought this was Paul Craig's shot to keep his job, but they, in the pre-fight package, they repackaged him as a guy with big wins over, you know, current top light heavyweights.

I get that he has a win over both Jamal Hill and the current champion, and Kalah. Submitted them both. But they talked him up like this was a new chapter he was going to start. And to his credit for a brief second when he hit that up kick KO, I thought, wow, he just damn resurrected his career. Turns out obviously it's an illegal strike because of where the knees were of Bellotto at the time. But Luke Bellotto falling down, arguing with the referee, then in mid turning his body to argue, passing out, eyes roll in his head and then waking up defensively like he's still fighting off the submission. It looked to

me like he was completely KO'd here. People are calling him out aggressively for what they thought maybe was an act. Let's first hear from Paul Craig on this incident. What did you make of the way he went down, right? Like, be candid about it. We just watched the replay. He was awake on the way down, and then when he hit the canvas, he was apparently incredibly knocked out.

It's not a reaction I would have expected from a blow that I thought landed more on the neck than the chin. Curious your take on that reaction. Yeah, you know, a few people have messaged me regarding this and they're saying that it looked a bit flopish, like he was maybe hamming it up. I don't want to think any fighter is looking for an easy way out in this sport.

We're all fighters, we're all in the UFC, the pinnacle of our careers, and we're looking to put on performances. But I can see where people are looking at and think it looks a bit floppy so he's maybe taking a dive I don't want to think that but I'll need to watch it back it's it's raw at the moment you know what it's my fault as much as it is his fault this is like we shouldn't be looking to persecute him if

he's taking taking the knee. It was an illegal move. That's cool of him to take some responsibility. I fully agree. It wasn't illegal. It wasn't illegal kick. It absolutely was illegal, but I have to say, like, upon looking at the replay, obviously he's concussed and effed up from the kick. I don't know, I was equating it to being, like, on the verge of blackout drunk at times, and like my early 20s, where like, just jerking yourself really quickly can throw off your equilibrium and you can pass out like it's happened to me

During a sobriety check with my parents one time really awful story after a rusted root concert. It's got it You know, tell me on my way. It's theater for another day I'm gonna buy I can believe that in which way it was the words that he said afterwards where he was conscious But her was arguing with the referee, but he said he turned so quickly that basically he lost vision. He blacked out. He fell backwards. I thought his opinion and this is what he said on air. You see his eyes come to the referee to protest and then realize maybe I can get a free win. Lays there, pretends he's unconscious,

jolts back awake allegedly. The referee comes over. This is a man that is awake, pretends to grapple the referee as if he's unconscious trying to get a cheap win. I've been doing this a long time and I know what it looks like when somebody is faking it." End quote. Luke, I disagree. I respect Smith for that take. He's a fighter.

He's close to the action there. What would he gain? Smith's trying to say he would gain a DQ win by doing that. It was a no contest in the end. It could have been a DQ. Do you think in the end, Bellotto was trying to influence the referee to DQ it? I mean, I can, I don't think it's implausible to suggest it, but I will tell you, I had a, I didn't ask for one, but I had a doctor and I would verify that they were a doctor, reach out to me and tell me that, and this is their words,

it is a thousand percent possible to look like what Bellato looked like and be actually concussed and have these symptoms and the reactions that he had. And one thing I noticed is if you actually watch the replay, he does the gesturing to the camera like this. Then the next thing you see, he's flat laying out, but there's a moment that you miss because the referee walks in front of the screen. We actually never see how his head hits the canvas. And the doctor was saying it was driving this doctor nuts. And I'm not making, I swear to God, I'll show you the note later. It drove them nuts that people were saying that this is obviously acting when they don't know what

types of reactions are consistent with neurological trauma. So I don't think it's in any way implausible that he did it, but I think people loudly declaring that they know what it is. Maybe you don't. Yeah, I think look if he's arguing with the referee that also shows me he's concussed because he's are trying to argue like that was illegal or whatever or whatever he thinks he's arguing there. It was an illegal blow or whatever or whatever he thinks he's arguing there

It was an illegal blow. I feel like He didn't have the understanding to know that it definitely was and everybody's the point is that these symptoms can set it doesn't happen All at once you can be clairvoyant for a second and then completely for the next second You can be completely out of your out of your depth and they were they were right to stop the fight That's for sure that yeah, that was good. Does this give Paul Craig new life because it's not a win It's also not a loss. It's almost like people want to give him a moral win some weird way I I kind of wanted to in the moment before I sort of realized. Oh, yeah, that is completely illegal I don't think it does anything one way or the other. Okay, they still need names at light heavy And he's got wins over two former champs. So that's gonna keep him in the majors

He's not getting back to that ankle. I have rematch for the title. Yeah. So a lot of what we've seen, car Camaro, you know, proved that he was still doing something special, but everyone else in this car just kind of proved they were doing what they were doing. Should I fear that you have reached back to that doctor over the DMS and asked if you can get off brand dick pills like on the, on the, on the, I may or may not have asked for my prostate to be examined by him, by him virtually He's just gonna guide you through it. I just need you to look at my okay there We go anything else on this undercard that we should talk about there were a couple other good

Question for Captain bong over there got to give a shout out to New York's own Phil Rowe with a sick comeback Wow He did have a nice comeback win. Yes, he did and what wasge, what was it, Losa? Losa, mm-hmm. That was dope. Also, first fight of the night, like, low-key banger, man, Vanessa Demopoulos, Jamie Lynn Horton. Okay, that was a really good fight. That was a really good fight. That was a bad fight.

That was a good fight. No, it was not. No. Do you really, all right, here. That was so sloppy and gross. Let's have this argument. You could not be more wrong. Let's have this argument.

Under like 2004 terms, it was a spirited. It was revelatory. What do you guys think without looking, if you don't already know, what do you think won Fight of the Night? Fight of the Night. It probably should have been... Well, I guess it should have been Barcellos Garbrandt. I don't know what actually won it. It was Usman Buckley, which... No.

No. I can make the argument Jamie Lynn Horth, Vanessa Demopoulos was a better fight you absolutely cannot say you cannot I mean the Boppal is up away. I wonder if she gets cut with this I appreciate that she took this fight on short notice up away class But she got it looked like she was fighting on short notice up. I mean she got there's no head movement She's got lit up. She was tough. I give her credit. I mean yeah, I give them opulence credit, dude She's tough as old shoe leather, but not a great show She lost for Cody Brundage at middle also

You see Ricky Simone held Cameron Smotherman against the wall and told him you're under arrest and then Cameron Smotherman told him you're racist I didn't see that moment. That's very interesting Wow Also, Michael Kiyas again the old guy fight win over court McGee as they booed the shit out of that fight was not great Yeah, not great. I do like both gentlemen, but I did not look care for the contest Yeah, I mean, you know, that's that's you know, whether you like them or not look that was not great. Yeah, not great indeed. I do like both gentlemen, but I did not look care for the contest Yeah, I mean, you know, that's that's you know, whether you like them or not Luke. It was that was not great right there Okay, let's keep it going right here Luke You know that it's time for a big time stuff in pro basketball the NBA finals and pull my game five, right? So well underway game five is tonight and of course the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City

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withdrawalable. Pick 6 bonus picks that expire in 14 days limited time offer terms at pick six dot DraftKings.com slash promos. There you go. Luke Thomas. Let's transition here. Topic number four. We got a little something in boxing over the weekend on the zone from the theater at Madison Square Garden, New York's

own unbeaten 140 pound title holder. Richardson Hitchens is making the first defense of the title. He picked up by split decision over Liam Parrow, welcoming in the well traveled George Cambosis Jr. The ferocious warrior from down under, of course upset Teofimo Lopez and was in big fights, made some big money along the way against Haney twice Lomachenko who stopped him. But here we are, Cambosis this time on the wrong end of it. A breakthrough victory by Hitchens who scores a TKO on Cambosus via body shot.

Luke Thomas, this jab from Hitchens was absolutely fucking fucking incredible. Cooking all night. Did Hitchens in your eyes prove he can move behind beyond that sort of boring label that has chased him at times in some uneven performances and look as good as he did again to maybe set the table for his epic call out as he did after the fight against Devin Haney, whether it's Haney and other title holder in tail female who was ringside. Did Hitchens show you that he's a monster player at 140?

I don't know. And the reason why is because Cambosis is bad enough for me to not be able to tell. Hi Australia. I do love Australia. They were so fucking wrong about him. So fucking wrong. So fucking wrong. Um, dude, Hitchens looks great in this fight, that jab, as you mentioned, and then the

final shot, he comes over with the right Cambosus tries to duck and get out of the way and then he hits him with the left to the liver or to the body Shot the breadbasket and he could simply not recover He actually stood up folks who didn't see it But even when he was turned around and was waiting to go back out there He had this pain to look on his face and the ref was like I'm gonna wave it Against this caliber of opponent Hitchens face and the ref was like, I'm going to wave it. Against this caliber of opponent, Hitchens looked like the real deal Holyfield.

But as we know, with enough evidence at this point, this caliber of opponent is not Devin Haney. This caliber of opponent, even though he's got the win over him, is not Teofimo Lopez. I wonder if in a situation like that, BC BC he might retreat and not be as open. When I say open, I mean as willing to throw as much offense as he did. Because dude, if you watch Hitchens in this fight, it was amazing. In the first few rounds, he's moving a bunch. He's not setting, you know, a consistent look. He's not letting Kimbosas do anything. Then few rounds go by and he's kind of stationary in front of him.

Right. Just at the end of his range, just getting out of the way and then, you know, hitting him with stuff. And then in the last couple of rounds, he's fucking hunting. He's pushing Kambosas back the whole time. He pushed off any talk about boring or whatever. Okay. But let me pitch it back to you. Clearly we saw the same thing with Hitchens on that night. Sure. Do you believe he can do that against a higher quality opponent? Yes, because he'll have to. He'll have to do that. I understand certain uneven performances on the way up when you're still trying to figure

yourself out, you're still learning. That's why experience matters. That's why you have to put in those fights incrementally. The fight that I saw, even against Liam Parrow, I thought he started too late. And once he put it on, he was able to get that victory. But there was still that question of, can he be that consistent threat throughout the fight? The way that he built upon in this fight really impressed me.

And then the fact that when it was time to hurt Kambosas, and he had hurt Kambosas in round five on a beautiful shot earlier as well. But when it came time to put him away, you saw him step up. Look, he talks a lot of shit. And I think he's marketable in that regard. I think most people don't know who he is, but he's starting. That name, you know, starting to hear his voice more.

I interviewed him this past week, and he was, you know, very aggressively cocky and confident, but he backed it up this time. So when you look at the title holders in this division, you got Alberto Pollo, the PBC fighter, who will be fighting on that ring magazine card coming up in New York. You've got Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, a former title holder there at 140. Who's the other? Oh, Gary Antoine Russell from PBC.

It will be interesting in terms of what big name he gets because he declared, this is Hitchens, he declared after the fight and made sure to say it that he is a free agent. Eddie Hearn would come out afterwards, who is his promoter, and basically be like, we've built so much together, I really hope, you know, we're gonna continue working together,

blah, blah, blah. Even Turkey Al-Ashiq came out and said any all future Riyadh season type performances for Hitchens will have to come with Eddie Hearn as the promoter. So that's sort of interesting that you're starting to see that camp solidify more, even though Eddie Hearn isn't in theory a part of Turkey's post plans with TKO. Maybe he will be in the end. That's sort of interesting. Who knows?

Either way, whether Hitchens signs with somebody else, I mean if he went to PBC, there's two title holders right now, or he can stay on. He wants Devin Haney, who happens to be on that side of the street currently. Although, I don't know, Devin's a free agent. He's not officially a Eddie Hearn fighter. He can go anywhere he wants. He's definitely a R Eddie Hearn fighter. You could go anywhere he wants.

He's definitely a Riyadh season fighter. Luke, we can't play the call out because it's from the Dzone broadcast and they'll definitely pull us out. Also, he said the n-word a lot, but he has been aggressively calling out Haney and his father for a while. So Luke, I am all in on this fight. I don't know if Haney can make 140 or wants to anymore though. He fought in the catchweight last time out. It seems like his future is at welterweight, especially

if boots is going to 54, like kind of looks like the direction is the inside rumors are. That's what was reported over the weekend. Yeah, fine. I don't know how they're going to move from here, but if Hitchens needed something to like stamp his arrival, change people's impressions, just get people excited about what he could do next. This did him a lot of favors. This is the highlight, he's got the swagger. If he puts it together, and he'll have to, again, to be the Haney, to be the Lopez, he'll have to, but Lopez was there, he was in the ring after, you know that Turkey...

With the worst sunglasses you've ever seen. Turkey used to like working with Teo Fimo, but maybe not anymore, so who knows? A lot's gonna happen. They'd still work together. Lots gonna happen, and the boxing landscape's still far from being fully ironed out, and there's a lot of deep rumors being written about, whether it's the MMA draw or other outlets lately,

so something to watch moving forward. Is it gonna be a Turkey against the world, Luke? What's it gonna be? You know, Turkey and Dana takes on everybody else or not? We don't know. Usually rich people get their way, so I'm going to be a turkey against the world? Luke, what's it going to be? You know, Turkey and Dana takes on everybody else or not? We don't know. I usually rich people get their way, so I'm going to bet on that. All right. That was topic number four, a rising, a rising stud there in the boxing side.

Let's go to topic number five. And we are saying this. OK, it's not that he necessarily needed to be there, but UFC Atlanta was a big fight night card in a big time city over the weekend. And it was another event where Dana White was not in attendance. What does this say about his current role? Is it good that the UFC can run without Dana? Or should the UFC appoint someone else to help promote the brand for all the times that Dana isn't there?

Because as we've talked about ad nauseam, when Dana is there, like at 315, he left through the back door at 3 16. He looked distant and uninterested. Luke Thomas. I was also looking to see on the Dana watch. Will he be back and will he be back in his role? He was not. I say just give Hunter Campbell the damn ball.

Not like he needs more responsibilities, but make that guy your voice. Either way. You got to have a consistent public voice who can answer the questions and steer the narratives. I don't think it's this guy anymore, Luke. What are we doing here? Yeah, I'm not even here to make some kind of angry claim about he's got to be there and he's got to do that. It's not going to work. It doesn't mean anything. We are where we are, right, BC? We are where we are. Whether you think it's good that he's gone because you don't like him, whether you think it's good or bad that he's gone because you think someone needs to do that work?

It doesn't matter what we think about what he's doing. You see he's got his energy drink. He's got, obviously, ties to the president. If we could play the video, we can speak over here. He was actually in my neck of the woods over the weekend. He was in DC for the big 250th anniversary parade of what, the military? Of the Army.

The Army's birthday. It was the 250th Army. And he had a prominent seat. I'm not going to get up here and be like it's good or I don't it doesn't matter what we editorialize around anymore. Sure. The question you have to ask as fans is what would you like to see the UFC do about it? And the answer is nothing. Keep doing what they're doing because it more or less works and that's the end of it. That is one option or the other one is do we think that there is someone within

the MMA universe that can occupy something of a similar role and they tell you what a similar role means showing up at all these events having some answers to some of these questions pre-fight post-fight it also means doing local media sure going through and and talking to news stations and doing morning radio and all the things that they used to do, talking to the AJC editorial board, you name it. Somebody who can get out there and Bulldog, Acolyte, whatever proper description you'd like to give it. Do we think as fans that the brand needs it?

Because TKL is going to look at this and say, well, look at the ticket sales and we're about to sign probably a huge contract. Do we really need to pay someone to go do morning radio in Atlanta? No, they don't pay for like we always talk about for big media tours to build big fights. These are areas where they've been able to say, look, it's unnecessary to our bottom line. We're going to get there anyway. So do they need it? No, it all comes down in my opinion to whether they want the brand to be on autopilot, and they're okay with that as long as they're getting their financial returns, or are they not worried at all about the direction of the sport, the buzz factor of the brand,

and whether you're going to build on that. In my opinion, you do need someone championing for you. Somebody that's putting out the fires, or taking the fires, and shifting the blame, or whatever you're doing. You're playing the company PR role in a lot of ways. When they put David Shaw out there, he doesn't have the answers, right? They don't really put anybody else out there outside of John Anik to host the pressers. And he does his best to answer the pointed questions from the media. If we're only talking about financial, then no, then we should shut the hell up and let them keep putting on the cards that they're putting on

and charging the prices that they're charging. I just feel like we happen to care about the brand, the sport, the interest, all of that, more than they do in a lot of ways. And if Dana is so disinterested or so busy, whatever it is, yeah, maybe it's time. I mean, look, you could argue that when you sign these deals, like the one with ESPN that was historic and record breaking and massive and like whatever the version of the new deal that they're about to sign which appears as of now like it could be two or three outlets at once in getting the entire package. Are we just, is everything on hold until then from Jones Aspinall to Dana getting back in front of the mic? Like I can understand

why you wouldn't want to talk about things on the regular and give updates when they're in negotiation. And I didn't think Dana handled that well when asked specifically at 316 about the upcoming deal. But don't you get that feeling like everything that's critical right now for the UFC is on hold until we find out where they're going. So that changed the product at all or that just, you know, is it dependent upon the outlets? I don't know. The only thing I can say is the UFC definitely made Dana White its biggest star. But the issue with that is when they become this level of star, where they're on the board of, you know, essentially trillion-dollar companies, when they're hobnobbing with the President of the United States,

when they're launching their own independent businesses, the biggest stars in UFC end up transcending and leaving the sport because they go on to quite literally bigger things. If that's just where Dana White is, you just have to ask yourself, does the company, from a fan experience, will it benefit from someone bulldogging that front role?

I know there's a lot of people who've been complaining that Dana White was the biggest star in a way and they didn't like that. And it's like, okay, well, if he's gone, then what's the problem? And I think the answer would be, well, it's not like they're putting renewed emphasis on the fighters per se. They kind of leave them to their own devices to some extent, although there is obviously some media coordination. But in any case, it's just a question of like you built up this gigantic entity

Which used to have a gigantic process and I had a complicated role and now that's clearly that era is clearly going away Not permanently but not in every way but it that that say goodbye to whatever that was where he was at everyone doing everything Constantly being an acolyte now. we're in a space where that's very inconsistent. Sure. What, what if anything is the remedy to this? Let me ask you a question Long Island Luke. Do you think Chael Sonnen could do that role? To be honest, I like I know people always say Chael people always say DC Hunter like

I really don't think it matters who the fuck you put there could be Dave Shaw just have the answers and everyone will be happy. I really don't think it matters who you. I think's important and say we can say what we want about Coker But he had the media like for the most part believing in him and kind of championing his cause in the same way Dana did There has to be that element you have to there's has to be a like either a likable element or a must-see element to where People want to take your word and hear what you have to say Right like if diddy declares from jail that he's gonna be an MMA fan, which promoter is gonna have an event first

if he gets a pardon? Probably UFC, but I wouldn't put PFL out of this topic right now as well, okay? I'm just teasing. Yeah, but I do think that the deal will matter. What if they sign, for example, a portion of their deal is Netflix and it's only for Four to six super pay-per-views per year and we're gonna get four to six super pay-per-views You know like like right aren't we like extreme big fight? Yeah, if that's part of it if that's part of it

Yeah, that will handle that part of my problem with them that we don't see enough like Killer matchups at the top that are gonna pull pull in the casual fans. Netflix might demand that out of them, whereas ESPN was more the demand was just fill all the dates. Maybe they still have a portion on ESPN if they have a small contract there and maybe that's where the mail-in fight night cards at the apex are. Okay, fine. Everybody's getting their fights. They're staying busy. Who will be the other? Who will be the third suitor? Is that Prime? And is Prime going to want a certain amount of big names? I hope the TV deal dictates the quality weekend. That's what I hope. Because it's obvious that we're waiting for that before big things are gonna happen. That's right. There we go. That's right.

All right. Those are our five damn topics for the week. All right, Luke. I got to talk to you about something right here, all right? Okay. The way I feel, the way I fit, the way I look when I wear true classic. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about right now, alright? Okay. The way I feel, the way I fit, the way I look when I wear True Classic. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about right now, okay? True Classic has nailed it. They've nailed the feel. They've nailed the price across my entire wardrobe, whether we're talking about not just t-shirts, but hoodies, jeans, active wear, everything that I need and that you as the viewer do to level up on your everyday style. Luke, there's something so simple about True Classic,

yet it's such a powerful look and feel. You feel more fit when you're wearing it. It accentuates the right areas. It just makes you look like you're ready for a date with your wife. You're ready to go to a meeting at work. You're ready to represent. There's a way that True Classic kind of just fits

all those boxes at once, and you look great along the process. At leisure, it does that as well. It does just normal stuff. This is a standard black true classic shirt. I wore it because I didn't even know we were doing the read today. I swear this is true. I didn't even know we were doing the read today because I didn't look at it until this morning. And

I put this on no matter what because it's just a comfortable tee. Those jeans fit so good to they fit fantastic. We don't usually have these conversations about Oh, nice shirt, Luke, how does it fit? But it fits so damn good. And again, one thing I really want to stress is it's not just different occasions. You can mix and match it with so many different things because the look is simple, clean, high quality,

as BC indicated, fits well. This is what we're looking for. Is it not, BC? Yeah. This is it. This is it. And we've been not so quietly doing it for a while, wearing true classic.

And from the first piece that I put on, it just was different. I felt that it was essential to my wardrobe. And snug where you want it, relax where you need it. That's really the key right there. No weird bunching, no awkward tight spots. So, just a clean, effortless fit that works. You want that same thing? Here's what you need to do.

You need to fight overpriced designer nonsense. Skip the cheap throwaways Find that lane for you that true classic lane. It delivers premium essentials built for real life. Grab your true classic Items today at Target or Costco or head to true classic comm slash combat with a K to get hooked up today Guys, there's a clothing revolution. We're allowed to look great and feel great at the same time. Also, Luke, maybe it turns back that aging curve a little bit, you know what I mean? Any little bit helps and this is more than a little bit. TrueClassic.com slash combat with a K. All right, Luke, you know that we had... No, we gotta do start the DMs. Right, we're cleansing the palette

right here, Luke, and I'm gonna say that bets need to be paid the DMs. Right. We're cleansing the palate right here, Luke. And I'm going to say that. Bats need to be paid up in life, start the DMs in life need to be paid. So, you know, when it came down to morning combat jeopardy and I challenged you and then I just had a really awful day of getting questions wrong. Yeah, I had to wear the T-shirt of your choosing. We're going to get to that in this

segment is brought to you by the fans because every Sunday night we go to X. We go to Morning Combat on Instagram, and we put the question, the feelers out to you. You get your questions answered on this show. MorningCombat.gmail.com is your way to reach the show, but every Sunday night is where you send in the questions and we answer them. This one's called DMs from dogs So Luke it's time for the bed, I don't know what this shirt says what I've agreed to read it Here's my here's my thought on this first of all one more time want to remind everyone that the North Korean sensors

I had two shirts and they told me one of them was so outrageous, we couldn't even put it on the show today, which... That's a Patreon shirt, come on. Which I'm not saying is necessarily false, but as I explained to them, listen, when you apply to college, you got your safety schools, then you got the ones you dream about. And maybe the ones you dream about don't show up,

but at least you try. You put in the application process. Did the letter C-U-M show up on any of the ones you dreamed about or what? Because that's sort of the ones that dream about don't show up, but at least you try. You put in the application process. Did the letter C-U-M show up on any of the ones you dreamed about or what? Cause that's sort of the ones that didn't get approved. It might've. It might've. I can't say or not. Or, okay. So I showed the North Korean censors this one and they agreed to let you go into Pyongyang to put this on. So why don't you do this? You've not seen this, correct?

Tell the folks the truth. You've not seen this. Why don't you hold... A couple of the throwaways, but I've not seen this one. You Tell the folks the truth. I have not seen this. I've seen a couple of the throwaways, but I've not seen this one. You saw the one we couldn't use. Why don't you hold this one up and then read it to the audience? Because remember the people listening on the audio platform won't be able to see it.

Slide that over to you. I mean, kids, this is what you have to do. You fall into a bet. You got it, you know. Promises made, promises kept. You know, I mean, third song in the Dead concert, is that early enough to leave? You gotta ask yourself that.

I mean third song in the dead concert is that early enough to leave you gotta ask yourself that What why don't you read that out BC as shirt says I respect women so much that I never have sex with them This is an indictment upon marriage in 2025 look or just young males in general Wow it was just it was all I could get past the censors This is all I could get past so sensors. This is all I could get past. So here we are. Put that fucker on. I look washed already, right? Yeah, I mean, well, motherfucker, you could be, you could have a fucking tuxedo on, you're gonna look washed.

Now it's a large, I don't know. And this is from some random T-shirt company on the internet. I love that you left the price tag on it too. I pulled it, take it off. Take it off, it's just a sticker. There it is. Yeah! Yes! It looks great. I pulled it take it off. Take it off. It's just a sticker. There it is. Yeah

Yes It looks great. Yeah Dude, I'm gonna get some great looks on the subway of going home. Oh, that is fucking awesome If anyone wants to send me a screenshot of that, please do it Wow, that's embarrassing Let's go into our first question from the people from Appy Fadathon. It should be Fathathon. Dude, David Appleton. Here he is. They're from France. Right. With hiding from fucking, you know, Interpol.

David says, can we organize LT and BC eating some humble pie with Cake Lady or dismissing Ousmane's prospects so out of hand? Look, is this worse than the Devin Haney's gonna two-fine Garcia up like a guitar? No, no, no, no, that's the all-time worst. Is this worse than me saying DDP has no avenue of victory against Robert Whitaker? It's not possible.

That's a bad one. This is not as bad as the Devin Haney one because Buckley did fight, well, I mean, Haney fought back too, but Buckley fought so badly and so below standard that I was like, I just couldn't believe it. So I, you know what I mean? Like, I'm sorry, we said it earlier.

Part of the story of that fight is that we were wrong about Buckley. Like, clearly we were wrong about, or sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm sorry, Usman. But we were also wrong about Buckley too. We overestimated him. It's, it's not just one or the other. So actually it's kind of worse. It's like, what are you most wrong about? I'm not even sure at this point. I mean, I was pretty dismissive of Bilal's chances of winning the welterweight title

as well. Julianna Pena's chances of defeating Amanda Nunes in the first second Pennington fight and also her most recent performance so yeah i guess we take L's at times we do you're gonna you're gonna take them i mean that's definitely an L it's just a question i mean i i discounted max holloway for most of his entire run too and he just kept proving me wrong yeah you also didn't think very highly of ilio pittoria until i had to beat you over the head with it well i mean you know when somebody introduces you to him with their piece in their hand saying you're gonna love this fighter as much as I do you know it's like you are you are so unfair with that I'm not saying I have as many jokes but you give his c and d level jokes. No you know what it is is I buy into all the like

mk-isms and you loving Ilya is obviously one of those. That's true. You know I look deceivingly fit in this shirt by the way. I'm't lose. I lose my sponsors in any. Yeah, there we go. OK. All right. That's great. Next question from the people at sticks plays time. Are you more excited by Elia versus Charles at I.F.W. or Dricus versus Hums at UFC 318 or 19? One of the two. What is it? 18? That would be 19 at Chicago.

This man says I'm personally intrigued by Elia versus Charles, especially if Elia wins and goes on to defend the title multiple times. So Luke, he's asking, are we more excited for the IFW main event or the DDP Homsot? I believe when both were announced, we, did we both say DDP Homsot? Little bit better fight.

Yeah, DDP Homsot to me is a little bit more intriguing because there's just it seems to me a little bit more unknown now Of course Charles could go and win and upset my expectations of the betting expectations wild war like I'm not in any way I want to be clear. I'm not in any way riding Charles off, but I Do you not agree? There's just a little bit more Electricity in that Hamsa DDP fight because of the unknowns? Yes, that's what it seems like to me Hamsa could still be this breakthrough Boss at the end of the video game who comes in and stops this incredible champions like I'm cautiously of the belief Illya will win and

Have gone to my head. I think DDP is gonna win but I really don't know in that middleweight fight I really don't know okay if we because of that I'm so excited if we believe that Islam will now be fighting JDM probably not too long after Ilija fights for a vacant title in his own division they both moved up kind of simultaneously who will have more title defenses that we're not guaranteeing that both win the championship but if if they're both going to have a good shot at it like who will have the more decorated run in that division i might say islam because i just don't know how long illy is gonna hang around okay i really

don't know also he's got to fucking beat Charles first. I mean... You think Islam will be dominant at welterweight? Like he's dominant at lightweight or is the gap already closing anyway? I'll tell you what I think. I think there's probably a few guys he matches up with well but over time that would catch up with him. Yeah but yeah DDP versus Homs as a hell of a fight there come 319 do we have more from the people this is from at Mike her in Shin 1995 how do you think you might pronounce is the last name? Kirian or could be Mike H. Renshin your engine I'm not sure I'm not sure you think he's Armenian I believe decrepit search history on his laptop or what why cuz he's Armenian

Yeah, that's that was the correlation. I was going for cuz that's the only other Armenian I know that well to really prove that Or shout out to Manu cock pokey and copying right copying Yes, who are some fighters you'd like to see change divisions and who are some fighters you'd prefer to see? Stick it out where they currently are I could see a couple of light heavies going to heavy and I'd like to see Prohot's guy at heavyweight. Even though we've he's talking more about middleweight. I'd like to see a athletic, dangerous. I want to see a guy at heavyweight who's comfortable being 240 but big and

athletic. Yeah. And I don't I don't know if his punches will have his kicks and punches without the same effect at heavyweight, but I'd like to see him as that active kind of reckless striker. For sure. imagine him against Aspen all if he could pull it Off moving up to heavyweight, and I mean there's been a lot of guys moving max moves moving up I've seen 55 before but like permanently Ilya's moving up Islam's moving up a lot of guys are moving up Volk We've seen move up I'd like to see Pantoja move up and fight mirab. Okay, I guess you see Gastel and go back to Walter Oh, no, sorry wrong conversation. It doesn't it to Walter would you like to see Waley go to 125? I'd like to see that for sure I could

even see Shevchenko going back to 35. But no Rose at 150. Is there any non-champion you would want to see move up? We did we did Yuri. Sean is like a pertinent topic right now. O'Malley. O'Malley. I'd like to see that, yeah. Who else? I was gonna say personally, I'd rather Sean stay put. But I just know that everyone's been talking about it. Yeah, he's got options. I'd like Kayla to be allowed to move up to 145.

Yeah, for sure. That fight against Amanda should be at 45. I agree with you on that one. Is there anyone we would want to stay? I mean, you wished Ilya stayed longer. I get that. For sure, I wish he stayed longer. I don't want him to bastardize his run in the division by actually pulling a Connor if he wins and then instantly call it Islam

But then again you are playing into a really big fight angle that could be awesome Do you want Usman to move up to middleweight? Do you think he's okay there? Walter weights still has a shot. Yeah. All right. That's all I got for you on that topic Thank you Mike Ringen a man in his cat who is really a man after my heart with Parker Porter doing well Parker Porter won at BKFC Mohegan over the weekend all right at the Mohegan Sun. Yeah, he won in the main event With Parker Porter doing well with his jump over to BKC BKFC who are some of your favorite fighters who left the UFC and saw massive success elsewhere? Or a Gucci had some good success Vader going to division with Bellator. Yeah I'm trying to think like who you could say. I mean, that's weird to say this

And it was only true for a time, but you know Phil Davis left UFC He might win this PFL tourney will see and he already won the Bellator title He got a little something out of it. Bader, obviously, as you indicated, got something out of it. He got two titles at once. Demetrius Johnson had a nice run and won. I don't think it's better than what he did in UFC. It's not, but he had a very, very respectable run and won.

He left the UFC and still had a lot of success, so that's rare these days, but... Certainly. Smilin' Sam Alvey in karate combo. That's a good story. That's a good story. I couldn't, I couldn't knock Mike Perry Francis and gunner you would not Yes, I made a lot of money with boxing, but yes, I mean he took L

But he I mean the goal was to make money I mean that was the goal we'll get to him and have you seen this shit I did not forget that he was there at a UFC stage over the this past weekend, but um I Mean sometimes people have left done things and then come back Yes, like a Dan Henderson like that's happened, but I don't think they've gone to greater glories after leaving that sort of thing You know Bader Phil Davis. Yes, Mike Perry people that like Perry definitely is the go-to on this He's gone up to bigger things so as Sam Helvey in a smaller Regard that way, but it's usually not like this I'm trying to think back in the earlier.

Greg Hardy has not gone to higher pastures since leaving. I mean, some of those guys who left UFC who did the strike force heavyweight Grand Prix definitely did. But then of course to your point, they went back to UFC like yeah, for doom for doom raises profile being fatal. People forget that Antonio Silva almost beat him Antonio Silva rocked his shit in that tournament and then maybe it was the first round.

I'm not sure. Pre-washed Bigfoot was dangerous man He's a big-ass dude. Yeah, he was very dangerous. Yeah Yeah, and obviously it was before UFC so it doesn't count It's not the way but like you know what Dana Cormier didn't strike force again. It was pre-UFC wasn't after I'm just saying having a life outside of UFC here. Sure I'm with you on that one. Um, that's that's about it What else we got from these people chin at Eric I guess you could say Rhonda wanted to go WWE, right? She was a hit there for a time Was she not she was a hit for a time? There was actually a time where she was considered that she's really good at least from an in-ring standpoint

Even though I was felt her promo where her mic work was cringe. I don't think she went to hire Well, she was champion headlining the WrestleMania in the first all fucking the female main event Rhonda's UFC career or I don't even watch W. No it did not exceed where the question is is it was it? Big enough that it's not a downgrade even though it wasn't bigger than her I mean, I mean, listen, you know, I think about professional wrestling but like if you're headlining WrestleMania yes in there no in an all women. I mean she was also headlining UFC pay-per-views I'd argue that that's a bigger deal. Okay, how many wrestlers have headlined WrestleMania. Yes, in an all women. I mean, she was also headlining UFC pay-per-views. I'd argue that that's a bigger deal. Okay, how many wrestlers have headlined WrestleMania? I have no idea.

How many WrestleMania? How many women's bantamweights have headlined pay-per-views? It's Ronda and it's Amanda. And Shevchenko was supposed to, but the fight got canceled last minute. Well, there you go. And it was a fight against Amanda, so argument still stands.

Yeah, but you're now making it about women I'm telling you about how many fighters have headlined a UFC paper. I realized secretly you hear women. There's a There's one WrestleMania a year There's one WrestleMania a year. She headlined one of them. How is that not like there's two nights of WrestleMania now, okay What the fuck you know what I'm trying to point out pointing out in life. All right enough these fans F the fan I'm sorry. I love these people. Thank you for your question. They may or may not love women Eric Bolden we are basically halfway through 2025 Eric says what has been your favorite individual fighter performance so far

I believe we're talking you took it took words right out of my mouth I saw a Sean Brady versus Edwards. There's also a year he versus Jamal Hill or Paul Hughes versus Usman or Magomedov. The last one no, it's Sean Brady because he was so comprehensively better Again, Kamara Usman could not do what Sean Brady did. But LaMahamed could not do what Sean Brady did. What's the question the most inspirational? No, who had the best single performance this year in MMA through? We're now in June so essentially halfway through not quite. What would you say for me? It's Sean Brady for sure It's Leon Edwards in the main event in London

Houston Or I mean Jackdella Jackdell is a very good one. It was for the title very good one. Oh long. I don't know. Can you fix this? Who are we missing? We're missing some I'm like racking main events in my head and something that just came to mind Jackdell is a very good one. It was for the title very good one long. I don't know can you fix this will we miss him? We're missing some I'm like racking main events in my head and something that just came to mind although I wouldn't really put it on this like Nasser Dean Imav of knocking out Izzy like that's that was a pretty like it's a pretty big That's a big. It's a pretty big one

That sure but again for me Brady was so comprehensively good Did he do he had takedowns inside camping passing dual threat barely took any punishment? I mean, it's just we just it was a former champion did that too like he fucked in that guy's backyard in his backyard That is pretty incredible right there Is that the bet I don't know like Paul? Well, he was was one of the feel-good stories in a defeat because I think here's what I'm gonna say I think Sean Brady's performance would be good in any year but if we can be honest this year hasn't

produced a ton of that level of performances which is why you're racking your brain and nothing really stands out now that being said well what about Marab twice Marab Marab against Sean in the second relation Marab Marab to me you could say it about Usman, or Umar, I don't think so. We're talking about a single comprehension, like a Crawford reading space. I would entertain Marab versus O'Malley as the top answer. I wouldn't put Umar in that case, no. Alright, he did cast out.

He'll be back. But what I'm going to say is, look at who's coming back. Jamiah's coming back, DDP's coming back, Ilya Ilya's coming back Charles is coming back Max Holloway is coming back Look at that dumb face you look like a hairy thumb put the camera on me That's what I look like when I shit blood all right there we go there we go I think that's it for the fans, right? Thank you to these people. Alright.

Where's Daz or Ke Papa when you need them? They're not back up on that ass. Okay. Our final fan segment, it's for the fans. As they watch Luke Thomas react to absolutely ridiculous videos, sometimes involving combat sports, usually involving 9-11. Hey, this one's BC's Feces. UFC Hot Atlanta this weekend. Luke, let's talk about it now. Francis Ngannou accompanied Kamaru

Usman to the weigh-in up on stage, sat in the front row in the preferred seats, not in his corner during the fight, but there's a lot of people that are saying not only that he could be done with his PFL contract in terms of time. John Nash thinks his contract could be over. Two people are saying I know the UFC and the UFC would not have allowed that if things were as contentious as we sometimes think. So my understanding is Randy Couture is not even allowed in the fucking building of UFC events, which is

different than this. So maybe, maybe we'll see. I mean that would be good for it dude. Would it not be fucking awesome? The best thing TKO could do and isn't that one of the best things they could do if John really is set up to screw them? The UFC has allowed this to... Yes, if John really is set up to screw them the UFC has waited has allowed this to yes if John is gonna bail on them last minute bringing Francis back is Such a good even using Francis for leverage against John to try to get him to sign a guest But it could be anything could be big on that although obviously would rather get Francis actually in the case Francis comes back Gets paid well and has a chance to win the championship

He will have like beat the game and he will have he already beat the game he already beat it but this is like like lapping it I say this with respect because it's part of the new cycle even though I was much maligned for an ill-timed crack under the guise of tequila yeah people didn't like your he killed people jokes yeah is he gonna face any like I do not know if there's any legal repercussions again the reporting on that is so poor It's just hard to know what's what all right all right? I will stay at UFC Luke

I don't know what Vanessa Demopolis his future is in terms of fighting with a lot of losses backed up following this loss to Jamie Lynn Horth, but she gave a The performance that people talked about at the weigh-ins Luke. Not gonna be mad at it. Okay. It's like Van Damme and Bloodsport. You know how many times he did a full split in that movie? Yeah, I'm not mad at it. Okay, okay, that's interesting. Staying here, Luke, this is from a week earlier, but it's still related to the UFC. Remember that time we went to Atlantic City? You'll never forget going there

We stand at the Borgata. Yeah, anytime you go to Atlantic City after like 1990 what like six it's just like Yeah, it's a shithole DC has problems with it You want mine? Yeah Atlantic City. No, come on man Atlantic City you go to Atlantic City. Oh, come on, man. Atlantic City. Atlantic City. You go to Atlantic City. You gotta go in the summertime. You go to Atlantic City and it looks like death. You gotta go in the summertime. It sounds like, to me it feels like if I go to Atlantic City,

don't stop believing this plan constantly. Because it feels like you're in the 80s. And it was a cool, it's like Reno, Nevada. It was like once a cool place, and now it's just this shit-ass place where old people go and they're walking along thing You got so much short dresses asses out everywhere. It's ridiculous. It's like going out the phone I'm talking about old asses not like good asses. I'm talking like that Atlantic City is the pit Atlantic City is Belen Brazil

No, this is not true. I'm telling you, I know you would take a visit is because you're from Jersey, but it's a little rough. It's summertime. It's not bad. You got the ride. The boardwalk looks like he's going to fall on top of it. States are state tournament.

Our state tournament is Atlantic City. Oh my God. Then you guys have a terrible state. The best. Are you kidding me? Luke, I did go there in the in the peak in the 80s a couple times with a with a friend of mine whose family Would go down there for work and would gamble and stuff and at the prime at the I'd stay in Trump Plaza in 1988 You know like around the time WrestleMania is there it East Atlantic City was this is actually one of my special

This is it's not it's it's for to say it's not even like 60% of what it's like 20% right now of what it used to be This is one of my issues with the movie Warrior because it takes place in Atlantic City Yeah And they kind of treat it like it's nice And I'm like the way to make that movie authentic is to treat it like it used to be nice Brian Callan I'm playboy play in that movie

And he didn't do a bad job Sam Sheridan also the author was doing some of that as well. John Anick was doing some. And you were on the Mr. Faber weed thriller. People forget that too. I had a bit of a pyro body low low and windy here. Can we watch that Luke? I want to watch that. I think you can watch it on Fandango at home. It's actually. So we can't watch it. No you can't. It's a student service. It's actually a decent movie. It's way more violent than you'd expect. Gnarly violent. And it's, uh... Touchy Feely's not bad in it, man.

Touchy Feely's not bad. I did see How to Train Your Dragon over the weekend. Oh, wow. How was that? I was high as fuck. All right. Abuela did most of the heavy lifting on that one. Yes, of course, of course. Thank you, Abuela, for that. I wasn't high as fuck. I wasn't low as fuck.

Look, you know, you'll agree There's this age-old debate in in soccer, right? Who's better Rinaldi or Messi, right? Everybody's got Rinaldi or Messi Famous Tom Rinaldo the famous Italian people say has has Cristiano Ronaldo trumped the original Ronaldo in terms of just saying the word Ronaldo With this generation certainly, yes. So the only reference this generation has to the Brazilian Ronaldo is the time that he like, purchased prostitutes potentially and they were like... So there's the old school Brazilian Ronaldo.

Number nine, he was badass. Then there's the other Brazilian Ronaldinho. Yeah, yeah. And they played for different teams. I remember Ronaldinho, yeah. And now there's Portuguese Ronaldo. Okay, do you have a, you're a messy guy in this debate. Probably Ronaldo guy.

Over? CR7, yeah. Oh wow, all right, let's see what this is. CR7 had, okay, Messi had more magic on the ball, I can't deny, but he was not in any way an aerial threat with like a header on set pieces in the kind of way that Ronaldo was Ronaldo's a little bit more of a better athlete. Well this next gentleman

Definitely had an answer who of somebody who was magic with the ball, but it was not of the two names. He was asked Oh wrong clip. Sorry. Let's run this one. Sorry. That was my bad wrong setup Let's first run the dirty boxing weigh-ins over the weekend. Okay, speaking of ball cleaning here Luke Okay, there's there's co-owner John Jones I Could hold you down and fuck you. All right. Well, that's definitely somebody who's you think they rode away on a scooter from the weigh-ins caressing some curly guys hair That's a lot that was a lot. We'll just take that out. That's a lot.

We'll edit that out after. All right. This is going nowhere. Guys are literally threatening to rape each other. That's MMA in 2025. That's where we're at. We really are. Okay, let's go to the soccer debate, please.

Do you prefer Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi? I prefer my Caliph. Okay. Fido a Mia Calif. It took a long time to get there, but it was worth it. When I'm that age and I'm living, I'm assuming that was Portugal based on the way they sounded. And I've, you know, fled the country, obviously. Obviously. I hope someone does that for me. Salute to that man. All right, Luke, you we know when you walk through first class. It's crop dust

What about if you walk through a movie? I don't know about the rest of you guys I enjoy farting on others when you walk through a movie theater even if there's children and like they have to lean back So you can depends on where I'm seated and how I'm navigating you would crop dust children Without hesitation so So would this gentleman. Dicks. Did that kid just suck a fucking fart? Yes he did. There we go. There we go. Hey that's a good transition.

It's time. Oh, dude, this segment is so fucking dumb, but it's the best thing that we do. Rate that tap time. One to 10, Luke. 10 being a fantastic tattoo. This is a 3D tap. Yeah, I don't care for it. But it changes the picture. This is not what I mean. Listen, is it a bad tattoo? It's not a bad tattoo, but one tattoo But one to ten Luke you go you're only going like seven five five really look at that Yeah, I don't like this is not the kind of this kind of tattooing does not appeal to me. Okay, okay? It's not a bad tattoo not a bad tattoo But it does not appeal you like when people get a full back splash

Shouting out to the city that they love kind of like if you did a DC flag on the back with buildings. Not, not especially. All right. This guy's doing Dallas more than Debbie. Watch this Luke. I mean, AFK with Dallas, Dallas sucks. I don't know if anyone knows that, but it blows. So this is not a 10 out of 10 tattoo. No, that would not be, I mean, again, it's a lot of work and it looks like the artist knows what they're doing. They're using negative space here real well But not for me. All right the next tattoo. I need you to rate all I wrote down here was fuck your couch Yeah, what do you say fuck your couch? Rick James on whose couch Now we looked at that tattoo now look at that I motherfucker what happens

That's a four tattoo look come on all right, that's a three however her zing was a eight or nine No, let's see if this tattoo of a tunnel can get us above seven on the one to ten scale Luke That a vagina oh god, holy fuck I think this tattoo is called stairway to heaven labia yeah stairway to......heaven? Labia? Yeah! Hahahaha! Stairway to Arby's? Duck! Stairway to Hope's solo nudes? That's the art, man!

Okay! Okay, alright! Okay! Alright, let's keep it going here, it's time to feel my guitar, Luke! Hey Leaf, I just got this new guitar, come feel the snack, it's maple! Oh shit, okay bro. Oh yeah, too good. What the fuck, bro?

Dude, don't make it weird, man! I just want you to feel my guitar. Do it again. Okay dude. Dude what the fuck bro? Ken are you seeing this shit? Alright it's time for MMA fighters in the wild. I watch pornography. You watch like pantomimed pornography.

I did with that dirty boxing way in it pretty much much yeah I will rape you is what they look MMA fighters in the wild marab coming home to Georgia to a parade and I'm not talking about the ATL they're doing they're doing marabs bit jumping off of shit crazy ass ways you know the Georgians love this fella and he revel revels in it. It's beautiful. Can't say he didn't earn it. No, he did. Look at this. Can't say he didn't earn it.

Man, they're on horseback with this motherfucking guy. Double decker boss. This is great. This reminds me of you and Joseph A. Bank. No, that was an upper decker. Sorry, upper decker. Wrong joke.

Wrong time. All right. Let's keep the fighters in the wild. How about some iron sharpening iron in this gym as Song Yedong and Big Bang Zhang? Wow, dude, they look like completely different species. I mean, it's insane how big. Chinese power, Alabama power. Yeah, dude, I can't, dude, Big Bang Zhang is so big, but this, I'm telling you, you guys today don't get it. MMA and boxing crossovers used to never happen, and now they happen all the freaking time,

and they're still cool to me every time. How about this MMA boxing crossover at BKFC Ice Wars over the weekend? You believe it? The Iceman Chuck Mindenhall with the Hitman Tommy Hearns, dude. I like his other nickname better, Motor City Cobra. But look at that. I can't tell who looks older. Yeah, I can't tell who's more punch drunk, but I love both of those people. I do too. But look at that. But I can't tell who looks older. Yeah, I can't tell who's more punch drunk, but I love both of those people.

That's great. I was you know, yesterday was the anniversary of his knockout of Duran. Brutal, brutal. I was thinking about this. How many knockouts from the 80s or 90s are so violent that they hold up under today's standards? That one is one of them. That is an insane knockout.

Just a perfect shot full extension. He goes face first completely frozen vicious shot. Conor McGregor. He may be a promoter these days Luke, but he's still all man at heart. Here's him BKFC. Okay. I mean, he wouldn't be the first or the last guy.

Okay. Hey, let them eat cake Luke the weird cake lady from France is back. Okay, I mean I he wouldn't be the first or the last guy okay. Hey, let them eat cake Luke the weird cake lady from France's back Back okay, let's go to her. Why don't you just cut up your furniture and eat it you absolute sow Well, it's a yummy casting couch Luke that is great, dude Just keep eating things you unbelievably sick person Yeah, just eat it. Yeah, why don't you keep eating cake? This is gonna make people like weird and crazy if they start following this, right? Yeah, of course.

Why would there actually be things? Just live in a world of... Imagine if everything you touched turned into cake. That's what this lady's existence is like. Yeah, maybe like, okay, what are we gonna just cut the tea? Yeah, of course we're gonna cut the tea. Why would we not cut the tea? All right, well Luke, not everybody can take a joke.

Some people may watch this and apply it to their lives. You gotta be careful. Watch this. Cut the tea of course we're gonna cut you why would we not well Luke nice not everybody can take a joke some people May watch this and apply to their lives you got to be careful watch this See he's watching the same videos we are he's like this is weird The end. Shit. Well. You have shown me videos today about two men threatening to rape each other and someone eating their own feces. Well, Luke, we got another one for misogyny. The next one you ever hear a woman talk for too long. You're like, where's the fire extinguisher?

Luke, yo, $20 right now. If you could zip it that jacket. That's right. That was a zinger of the week. Wrong setup, but it worked too. Was that what's his name? Bing bong. What's the, what's the fucking guy's name?

Nem's, Nem's gorilla. Do we have number 10, Long Island? Yeah, but you got another one before 10 after this. Improv Comedy? 9B? Uh... Yeah, but we already played that. No, we didn't. I'll play it right now.

Oh, I read the wrong one. Sorry about that. Go ahead, go ahead. You beat me, too. Dono Rolls. How is that the first thing you give a fuck about when you get in office? Like, no, let's change these hikes! What the fuck? Damn.

How many stands are there? Uh oh. Whoa. Whoa. What is going on? Wait, show it one more time. Show it, I want to see that. Because the other person comes running out.

Do it one more time. So I want to see that because the other person comes running out. Do it one more time. How is that the first thing you give a fuck about when you watch someone stands up and then the person comes running? He stands up. Boom. There it is. Damn.

Okay, you can kill it now. Sorry, I was out of order there. Long Island Luke in both putting these videos to light and reading them out of order All right, let's we have to watch anyone like terrorist ISIS ISIS videos Probably not but here's if you know the ladies and other cultures speak up too much. This is what they do I Gotta tell you it's kind of my dream Okay, sir, that is he didn't start the fire, okay

Well, we heard the zinger of the week now. It's time for the joke of the week. What does Cinderella say when she got to the ball? What she say? Well, look they say don't drink and drive now they say don't drink and scoot we're gonna get fired and one hand on the scooter. I'm a little bit worried about that. In one mile, merge onto US 101. These speedo motherfuckers in DC are fucking dangerous. Oh, here we go. Oh, here we go. Oh, no. Here we go. Oh, you dick. Who brought the dick?

All right, time for some faceball. Watch this Sideline reporter. It's a moment. Wee. It's a moment. That's a single. All she got out was we are. And now we're going to go to the double face ball. Oh dude.

Well done. Holy shit. That's Jason Bourne. All right, Luke, you ever been puking on the side of the road after a long night and people won't like leave you alone? Yes, that's actually happened to me. Oh, you got to chill. You got to chill. What's Yes, that's actually happened to me. Oh, you gotta chill You gotta chill

Still probably the best part of his day I had one time I was at a party and I slept at the house overnight like on the floor like a bunch of people did and then I woke up the next morning so fucking hungover that I drove like a mile past where we were and then I had to pull over on the highway and vomit and it was all like red from like I guess what I'd been drinking the night before and every time someone went by they'd fucking honk at me. Oh, sir your insides are out there like it. Yeah, I was just spraying vomit all over the side of the highway. Okay, Luke, you know...

I used to drink a lot. You know when you go to Disney World and they have hidden Mickey's, it's like the game be within the game, you look at the wallpaper and you'll find the hidden Mickey Mouse? I did not know that. There's a lot of dicks in the wild, too. You gotta be on the lookout for it, Luke. Check out this one. Oh, wow.

Look at that shaft, right? That is a lot of penis. That undercarriage, wow. All right. Hey, you know I got that dog in me Luke this is our bumper sticker of the week. Caution this vehicle makes frequent stops for gas station hot dogs. Alright that's nice. Alright Luke hot dogs were a big part of my cuisine growing up but they've never

been served to me like this. Oh awesome thank you. I ordered hot dogs. Oh my gosh Okay, here's the question. Would you eat it? You don't possibly expect me to That I mean, thanks. I'd eat that before I ate the cake ladies TV I'd eat that before I ate the cake ladies TV Finally you know that what I'm just saying hear me out. There's a there's a case where depending who works at that restaurant I may or may not eat it. I'm just saying finally Luke You know that woke trend the barbers have to ask for permission

That's not what the UK to what my so before we start the trim today is it okay for a man? I'll touch it. Yeah, my son crack on what thank you That's all the shit I can handle this week, Luke. Okay. You know, you gotta go out with a bang on your final episode. I can't believe that the North Korean censors let this on, but not my other t-shirt. How bad was my other t-shirt, BC? Worse than the videos we just saw.

I don't know if they were that bad! I don't know if they were that bad! I only saw, actually, to be fair, I only saw one of the rejected t-shirts and it was, it was bad. I didn't see the other one Long Island Luke is the t-shirt really worse than those videos Yes, and also BC the rejected t-shirt was the worst than the other two so yeah Like wasn't that here we go the one at the? The one at the factory no surprise the factory one was pretty bad

But it wasn't as bad as this and then there was a 9-11 one, which was in poor taste. I didn't do that. I didn't do that 11-11 one. Yeah, that's not good. That's all the show that we're allowed to give you this week, or today. If this was the last one, just know that we tried. We might be back.

Friday, 11 AM Eastern, a remote episode. This weekend, we do have what? UFC, Azerbaijan. Baku. Baku? Assuming that war doesn't spread, they're going to go right next to Iran, which I don't think it's that crowded in the box.

This weekend, right? Still a couple of weeks out from Jake Paul and a couple other things. Is Jake Paul the same day as UFC 317? Wow. Yes it is. They're going to go head to head with that. They are. That's going to be kind of fun.

Depending upon what. I look forward to not watching the Jake Paul fight. Okay. There you go. There you go. Um Yeah, so that's where we're at. We're a show and we like it to do this show I don't pay like you to like his own pay-per-view and we would like we I want you to want my merch at morning Combat dot shop. Okay New releases every month Long Island Luke, Luke, LT, and BC. We're the ones that profit from this, uh, fantastic artwork on there from average. Joe art, you know, his game, uh, what a, what a system we've developed here.

The best way that you could help the show morning combat. That shop and also look good this summer. Okay. And t-shirts like this, but we don't sell this for good reason. Yeah, that's got nothing to do with our store or anybody else's related to the show This is just I got this off of like some rando company just for the just for the walls Yeah, are you gonna wear that on the subway? No, you and you can't I had a weird on this show That's the that's the shame. That's my gift to you because I lost out on that's my gift to you

You should wear that you should wear that home If you love me, you'll do it would you say that this could be an aphrodisiac in disguise No, okay, that's that's I think it actually probably is gonna be insanely repellent But that's sort of the point maybe you can hook me up with your doctor to get some I don't need those pills just for the record okay, but you know Bitch, we know you do. Your new doctor friend. I'm 46, soon to be 47, and I enjoy doing this show. Thank you for watching.

Luke Thomas, you have a birthday coming up this summer as well. You're gonna be 46. August, yeah. Our birthdays are like a week apart. Old as shit. Yeah, that's what it is. All right. That's all we can handle here.

For Ken, Ken's back. Shout out to Ken. Is he sober? Would you bail him out for an obscene charge and agree to not tell anybody if he paid you enough? Just because you want to give him a fighting chance back in society? Like, it's possible. I'd consider it. I would accept his call from prison. Long Island Luke, you got some new stuff? You ever gotten a call from prison or jail? No, never, never. Yeah, that's happened to me a couple times. I had accept his call from prison along out on Luke You got some new forgotten a call from prison or jail never never yeah, it's happened to me a couple times

I had a friend call me from jail See it of the main card minute we can expect content from you this week Yeah, I'll be doing what that break down stay tomorrow full card watch along Saturday early card Saturday 11 a.m Prelims looking forward to I thought it was 12 prelims Might be 12 either way Yeah, yeah, I'm got that, it's got that, I don't know if it's the exact same time zone as Abu Dhabi and all that stuff, but it's roughly similar to that geographically. So maybe I'll just stand up and show off this shirt while you take us out of

here. All right, do that. Here we go. There's Brian Campbell. There you go. There it is. All right, four. The North Korean Korean sensors who got rid of the other t-shirt for long Island, Luke, and all the other dogs in the back, that's BC. I'm LT. This has been MK until next time. May all your gains be loyal. Fuck your life. This is an I heart podcast.