MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Denver Recap: Rose Gets Big Win | Boots Ennis Dominates | Full Episode | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Another MK Monday is coming in hot as Luke and Brian breakdown a light weekend of combat sports and preview what's ahead. At UFC Denver, Rose Namajunas got a huge win over Tracy Cortez. How much did Namajunas' victory do to establish herself as a legitimate threat to the 125-pound title and two-division champ status? In boxing, Jaron "Boots" Ennis shines in Philly homecoming, calls for Bud Crawford showdown. Given the size of the crowd and the fanfare surrounding the event, how important was Ennis' move to Matchroom Sport in terms of taking him to the next level of promotional exposure? Also, U.S. district judge rebukes UFC in antitrust class certification, denies approval for settlement. How much should UFC brass be concerned about the potential fallout? UFC French Canadian broadcast appeared to spoil UFC Noche headliners during Denver card. The guys rate the UFC Sphere card on a 1-10 scale if it turns out to be Ilia Topuria-Max Holloway and Sean O'Malley-Merab Dvalishvili atop the marquee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille Reveille Boys Look at us now tip to tip Oh Jesus Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho Do you want a margarita? Yes! My God! It's us doing what we love.

Two, three, two, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, man. It just feels so good to be weird, Luke. Monday, July 15th, 2024. How about the best damn combat sports show and lifestyle gathering, period. And we're going to give away a Ford Raptor to our... Oh, sorry, wrong podcast, Luke.

Wrong podcast. You're such a dumb bastard. This is morning combat. Hey, Luke, people were so excited for us to be back in Manhattan at Metal Ark Studios today that there were Colombian people crawling in the air conditioning ducts to get in the building today. Is that racist of me or no? Well, slightly, but not altogether unfounded.

What the frick is going on? So my understanding, I mean, we actually, we were at that venue. We saw Mayweather do his boxing nonsense with Logan Paul there. And I thought it was a nice facility. My best read on this is, and who's the guy from Levitara? Mike Ryan. Yes. He was talking about this.

Dude, this place hosts Super Bowls and concerts and NCAA national championships all the time. And the Columbians were like, fuck you. No. Conma Bowl. Do you know who Conma Bowl is? No. Okay, so CONCACAF, that's the organizing body that does North American soccer.

Conma Bowl is South America. Conma Bowl is notorious for being ass at organizing. They were in charge of this, and they royally fucked it up. Wow. So, dude, people were marching in there, storming the gates, January 6th style. Yeah, Jan 6th style. They were Jan 6th in their way into it while people were outside with tickets that were like two thousand dollars a piece i'd be livid i'd be

livid and columbia lost anyway you know what that makes me want to say damn wish i was your lover why don't i hear him better anyway hey it's brian campbell and luke thomas back at it with you monday morning have a fantastic show ahead of you. Recapping UFC Denver. All things. Not a bad show at all. By the way, a very fun card from top to bottom. I enjoyed that.

Boots Ennis making the boxing Philly homecoming. I've mixed feelings about that. And a lot of big spinoff potential coming off of that. And we'll look at the latest UFC antitrust news, which took a big turn. We will look ahead to the weekend coming up in terms of all things. Jake Paul versus Mike Perry on pay-per-view this Saturday. And also a check-in Luke on potential leaked main and co-mains for the Sphere. This shit's starting to heat up, okay? We're the best show to break it down for you.

Yes. BC, how was your weekend overall? It was really nice. Yeah. I took Tukey to a new place. I took her to Sky. You ever been to Sky Zone? is there like a trampoline trampoline those places while very injury inducing to people our age you can end up and have you seen this shit pretty easily it is it's really fun it's really fun i was blown away at how cool it was but you have to sign a million waivers to get in

and then later one of my best friends is also my family attorney. Yes. I told him, I was like, hey, I took my daughter to Sky Zone. He's like, you dumb bastard. Apparently, that's like the number one place for consumer litigation is against either trampoline parks or Sky Zone specifically. I will say this. I thought it was cool. I thought Sky Zone was cool. I mean, it's cool until some 300 pound guys falling on your daughter.

But it wasn't crowded like that. There was Kid Zone and they were separate, but it was pretty fun. Special shout out to Long Island Luke on the ones and twos behind the scenes. I think we can hear his voice if he's one of them. Oh, Shouts to the Sky Zone in Bowie, Maryland. You ever been to Bowie, Maryland? The Bowie Bay? Home of the Bowie Bay Sox. That's exactly who it is.

The Bowie Bay Sox, yeah. Luke Noseda is on the horn here. What up, boys? How we doing? How much did you lose your ass in gambling this weekend? Not at all, actually. Had a great fucking week. Everyone go check out the horn here. What up, boys? How we doing? How much did you lose your ass in gambling this week? On the main card minute. Not at all. Actually had a great fucking week. Everyone go check out the breakdowns.

We're up 20 units on the year. Killing it. 20 units on the main card minute. Hold on. If you and I together had to put our absolute pudding for brains together and we had to go head to head on betting with Noseda. We'd end up at a dead concert high on acid. It'd be fantastic, right? It was you and me versus no cita and gaff how much how bad would y'all smoke us

uh clean sweep you think so oh wow all right shout out to gaffney jim that's my guy shout out to ken on sound you love that guy got very dark don't shave the feet of the future so bright or there's something going on underneath there. That's what I want to find out. You can get our merch. But first of all, follow and like, follow and like right there. Thank you very much on our social channels. You can see the merch that both of us are wearing here.

Look, I forgot I own this cannibal corpse. I come blood shirt as Luke knows. There are a ton of those floating around. I have more MK shirts than I have literally anything else. All right. You can get that jacket at morningcombat.store Tell RJ Dunkel Gangbang we said hi and

shout out to Average Joe Art on these incredible crossovers. Shout out to Jay Paquette like us, Luke. He is home alone. Okay. Why is he home alone? His wife is on the road too. Oh yeah, us too. Yeah, so we're trying our best. I bet by the way, I'm a notoriously bad cooker. I've been on fire with these meals.

What did you make yesterday? I made pasta with meatballs, so that doesn't sound too good, but I made some good stuff. I don't need to, you know. I'll tell you this much. Abuela's in town, so I have Abuela helping me. Oh, does that mean she cooks all the time? Like a short- order cook, dude.

It's ridiculous. Keto bitch, right? Sorry, I see we're back. Skits and bits. Kibble saying skits and bits. Hey, shout out to Trump. The world's most famous UFC fan lived. That photo, by the way?

Seriously? Where does that rank on the all-time iconic, like, photos in American pop culture? So if you go to, if you go to, oh, you know what? It's shut down, but there used to be a museum in the city, in D.C., called the Newseum. Yeah. And they had an exhibit where every year,

it was just all in a row, all in a big semicircle. It was all of the photos that had won the Pulitzer Prize. The monk in, I think it was Vietnam, sitting there, the Buddhist monk engulfing himself in flames. That's a tough one to beat. Sure. That's a tough one to beat, but certainly it's going to be an iconic one. The thing I wanted to say, though, was the gentleman who took that photo,

Evan Venucci, is an MMA fan. Oh, wow. I'm not certain about this, but I believe he trains out of D.C. I believe he either trains or has previously trained at Team Lloyd Irvin. I don't know. Will you have him on the Luke Thomas Solo channel? I don't know. I don't know if I have.

To talk. Photo taking? Well, yeah. To talk MMA and conspiratorial secret service gaps. I don't think it's very conspiratorial. I think it's quite flat. They had some security gaps. So, yeah.

Yeah, there you go. So that's the intro to the show. I'm sure most of you have fast forwarded to this point. But thank you to all of our great listeners for always supporting us, always having our back. We appreciate you. But, Luke, there's no better time to start the show. Let's do it. Than right frickin' now. Five topics. Let's do it. Then right fricking now.

Five topics. Let's lead it off right there. What went down Saturday night? Hey, UFC Denver back in front of a live crowd. And I have to reiterate once again, pretty much start to finish a very enjoyable card

of fireworks. Maybe not big name power across the board, but interesting results that we will break down no bigger than the main event and what's going on atop the women's flyweight division. And we knew something was going to happen here with Rose Namajunas and late replacement

Tracy Cortez from the idea of pushing one closer to a title shot, but maybe dramatically closer based on how it went down. Well, how it did go down was a five-round unanimous decision in which Rose Namajunas, in her second weight class, really seemed to win this with ease, Luke, despite somewhat fading in the final two rounds. So, Luke, in totality, this performance, 32 years which she said she wrote down before she ever won the strawweight title for the first time, that she would end up being a two-division champion. How close does this put her? And what does this say about the viability

of Rose potentially lifting that flyweight strap? So she put two wins together, where I think it really is the most important part of this story is that we now have back-to-back wins. You're beginning to put something in, you're beginning to build something of substance something of note okay so since she debuted in two flyweight 125 which was in september of 2003 she lost to manolfi oro with the finger injury which people don't bring up enough i think fair enough fair enough she beat amanda hibas cleanly and then she beat beat Tracy Cortez who was filling in on short notice it should be noted uh cleanly as well but the thing that had caused some issues for her was

prior to the Fioro fight she had a really terrible Carla Esparza fight which was bad for both people I mean no one for everyone involved yeah everyone involved like no one came out of that situation looking or feeling particularly good about it I will say this this. Two wins now, losing to Fiora. Losing to Fiora is not in any way disreputable. She is a very, very tough fight. She's very, very also difficult to look good against because of her prevent. Can I add in that Rose dropped her twice and I think cut her, right?

She did cut her, although she did get outstruck. I mean, the cutting was not incidental as much as it was, not really indicative of what was actually more broadly happening. But the win over Hibas and the win over Cortez tells me she is certainly as viable at 125 as she has ever been. The thing that I can't quite figure out about this is, did she look good, especially dropping Cortez early, knocking her eyelash off, which was remarkable. She also, again again faded a little bit down the stretch but she was still very competitive in those fourth and fifth rounds this told me that there is certainly more left in the tank what I'm left with and I don't really have an answer I

don't think anybody except them and her she and her team do which is is she still settling into some kind of not just new weight class but new offensive identity or at least somewhat reshaped offensive identity? Or is she, yes, back to her old ways, back to a very, at her worst, she's still, I mean, okay, the Carlos Barza fight wasn't great. But, you know, this is a very talented, competent fighter. Sometimes she's the mother effing best. Let's be honest. Sometimes. There are times that she dials it up

and she's... Absolutely zero question about it. What I guess I'm trying to point out is, I would give this performance personally solid B+, maybe I would stop short of A-, but you could probably go that high. That's very, very good and that's... I mean, it was an F

against Carla Esparza, and I would give it like a C against Manolfi Rowe, and then maybe like an A- against Esparza, and I would give it like a C against Manofiero, and then maybe like an A- against Hibas, and then certainly a maybe B+, A- in that range. How much of this is her moving on from Trevor Whitman, settling into some different ways in which to find her offense and get a rhythm and an identity about it? And how much of this is there was just people have slumps,

they have injuries, they have good performances, they have bad performances. She's still basically the same. You're just now seeing evidence of what we knew at 115, now 125, because she's not fighting the Menon Fioros of the world. I can't quite come down on an answer there. Fair question on trying to actually frame what we saw. Now, I'm admittedly a Rose superfan, so that means I'm probably going to overblow it when things are great and I'm going to get maybe too nervous when things are questionable and I've been questioning exactly who she is and where she's at in this division because I think the biggest thing I didn't love

about the Hibas fight it's interesting that you gave her sort of an A- I would invert the grades of this fight in the Hibas fight the Hibas fight I was concerned she took too much damage almost unnecessary damage on the regular the thing I loved about this performance although she didn't finish Cortez and some people thought there was a window where maybe she could have what I loved most about it was a return to the command that she had offensively, where it wasn't about her taking unnecessarily unnecessary firepower back in two way skirmishes. It was the movement combined with the Chris striking.

I mean, I get, look, I thought if there was a debate whether Tracy Cortez was overrated or underrated, I would have leaned overrated. And I'm not, there's not an indictment against her. I just think, you know, at the,

you look at the basis of this match, you were going to say, okay, Rose far too experienced and skilled, has faced better competition. It ended up playing out that way, Luke. But I have to say the whole idea is this rejuvenative, a hundred percent. She looked to me like a title contender.

Luke, that spark was back. The commitment to the footwork was back. It was almost as if you would have told me ahead of time, oh, she's back with Trevor Whitman, and here's the result. I would have said, okay, look, she's back. Now, Trevor's not in the picture anymore, but maybe to your point, she's figuring out how to be comfortable now three fights into this division. I get ultimately, and she said it herself coming in,

she said the difference between this opponent and the original one Macy Barber is she felt like she had a fear Macy Barber's explosiveness more and her her finishing instincts the fact that Barber seemed is always trying to get to the end of that fight right I do agree that there wasn't the same level of threat from Cortez although she was tough and she never gave up and there's some good things you can say about what she could take away from this performance. But still, this showed me that if Rose is dialed in, I think she really could be anyone in this division. And that does include names like Grasso, Shevchenko, across the board. The Faroe fight, when you look back at that, she was compromised by the broken finger that happened during that fight.

It was her first fight in the division against a very tough fighter at that point where Faroe is just really putting the whole game game together. By the way, at 125, one of the most, if not the most, physical fighter in that weight class. And then drops her multiple times. I saw a return to that that I didn't see that spark in the He-Bots fight, Luke. I saw somebody that was kind of maybe going through the motions. You're saying she dropped her multiple times. She is credited with zero knockdowns in that fight. Then I'm going to have to go re-watch that tape so I don't keep spouting this. But I distinctly remember, maybe I'm confusing times that she wobbled her,

but Luke, I distinctly remember her. She definitely bloodied her. That's without doubt. I guess ultimately, look, I saw a return to where the boxing was commanding, but also when she commits to that footwork level. When she commits to saying, I'm not going to get hit by you. There's few

in the world that can stand up to her boxing slash kickboxing skills trevor whitman there or not so this was a reminder and a return to me that 32 there still seems to be fire in the belly and if you look across these matchups like i just i named all those names atop this division i think she has avenues to beat all of them if she's going to look like this but it does bring it back to your question did she look like this because it was a step down an opponent ultimately an unbeaten opponent who was rising right but a last minute did it right did they align perfectly where not to not to continue to link Cortez to Brian Ortega

but Brian Ortega against Korean Zombie for example made Brian Ortega look like all the sins of the past were erased turned out to just be a style matchup right right passing time I wonder if that's the case for Rose I I tend not to think so, because whether you believe in the Pat Berry theory that you're going to get three good fights in a row out of Rose and then inevitably she's going to find a way to fumble it, whether that's true or not, or that's all superstition, nobody goes up and down like Rose to show you fear

and then show you again that she's put it back together. I feel it's back together. And I think that's a plus for the women's game in general in UFC. And I certainly think it's a plus to the future of Rose's legacy and what she can do. Because, Luke, I do think she's a threat right now at 125. I do want to go over some of the numbers because I always feel like these are important and they shed some light. Remember, the numbers that you see on screen during the fight itself are completely unreliable. It doesn't mean what I'm saying is that they're always wrong.

What I am saying is they're very conditional. They have to make those graphics in real time. And the way that the guys at Fightmetric do it, 3027, when I call the company, they have to go through once. And then they have this dial thing that they use to go back and forth with the footage and very carefully count. The numbers can change between what you see on screen and then the final numbers at the end. And to that point, BC, yes, Nama Eunice was outstruck numerically in rounds four and five, but not,

excuse me, just rounds four. That's it. Yeah. She outstruck her around one round to get numerically round three was a lot of grappling, obviously round four, Cortez had one more strike than she did 12 to 11. And then around five,

Nama Eunice had 28 to 21. So she outstruck her even in the round that I gave to Cortez, which would be round five. Also, in any round that Nama Yunus attempted a takedown, she got it, right? That was the missing half of the analysis, that not only did she look like her old self on the feet, she went into the strength of her opponent

and in some ways neutralized slash dominated her in that space. I don't mean she put on a threat to finish the fight on top i mean she took away the wrestling from cortez yes she got one of one in round one she got two of two in round three she got one of one in round four and she got one of one in round five and nearly a a minute of control time in each of those instances or more this is what i'm pointing out this is a high high-quality fighter. This is obviously a high-quality fighter. This is the kind of performance. Could they give her a title shot? I think that would be premature,

given that we still have an unresolved rivalry between Grosso and Shevchenko. Also, Firo is kind of an... It's unfair to Firo. Let's be fair. So, BC, to me, Rose Namajunas versus Erin Blanchfield? Sign me up. Well, Rose also mentioned, she said,

I want title shot or BMF fight, which is interesting. Cause it wasn't just you wanna, who mentioned the idea of potentially coming out of retirement. And although we don't think of Rose as a BMF fighter because of how technical she can be, she's been in some absolute thumpers, whether it be the technical high-speed chess of the rematch with,

with you wanna, or how about the rematch with andrage which was an absolute blood and guts war i think that is the right fight to make what you just mentioned rose versus blanchfield i do i do think it's the right fight but would you be shocked if we got rose yoana three for the bmf women's inaugural belt i don't know how much interest i have in that yeah i don't know either even though i love both fighters i don't know if that's the right also i don't feel like right now is the time in the women's game

where we should be crowning a BMF, which isn't to say that there isn't one or that there aren't ladies of exceptional quality or athletic ability who deserve our praise, but the game... But don't force it is what you're saying. The women's game right now is suffering. It's not as... There's always been a gap between the men's and the women's game. That's always been the case.

But that gap narrowed pretty significantly circa Ronda Rousey's time, 2014, 2015, 2016. And it has widened again. There's a big gap between them. And that feels, I mean,

the BMF title is gimmicky, but it's a fun gimmick. And now, because of what Max did, it's a very legitimate gimmick, gimmick, but a legitimate one. Is there demand?

I'm with you. I, we, the fact that we have rose is high quality she doesn't i understand what she would want it no i get it but the the fact that we have to struggle to find people that identify as a potential candidate shows you where we're at it's not there it's not time yet i do want to say for cortez a couple of things if i may well can we lead in with a video please you can react to cortez went through a journey it caught it started with her missing weight although although Rose did say afterwards, Luke, that the scale in the back room that they have you step on as you're about to walk into the actual scale, she said, oddly, it was a pound off. She's 100% right.

I'll explain why. So here is Cortez cutting off the hair. We can watch him. So, Luke, she went for it, meaning she was all in on taking this fight on short notice, put her unbeaten streak in the UFC five in a row on the line. Then she went to the level of cutting off the hair to directly go on the scale. But she also held the hair when she weighed in. I'm not a math expert, but like.

No, no, no, no. She held her. She made the weight and then they handed her back the hair. Okay. Okay. So you're, you're, you're. This is, I mean, that wasn't the ceremonial one, but like, well, it kind of was in the end, but that was just for pictures.

So remember you weigh in you make your weight and then they tell you to pose for the photo i'm wrong on that area the other video i wanted to show you made that mistake was when she did lose the fake eyelash which rose would say afterwards like how do you even fight in those bing bong look a lot of people questioning why she would fight in those i mean it is you know there's a style element to there but is it functional i don't understand what purpose it serves but clay guida wore hair in front of his face that made his vision bad and people thought it was cool so i don't get it but if i don't think that's why she lost can you rate the the tracy cortez

experience here this is her putting herself on the elite level rolling the dice what do you take away i took away that first of all i thought this was pretty commendable by her if i'm if i if i can be honest she took it on short notice i had deep concerns about her ability to have cardiovascular conditioning for a five-round main event in denver held up pretty well for the most oddly fresher than rose in the championship rounds she was she was the aggressor i think fresher is a little overstated but certainly the aggressor in the fifth and i think it's partly played why she was able to have better offense in that round um but i thought it was she was going to be a well i didn't know it was going to be a disaster but the stuff she was saying didn't fill you with confidence but clearly she

had good conditioning remember she had a fight next week coming up she may have been training at moderate altitude prior to this so she was able to perform in that sense very well. Again, some of her boxing I thought was pretty good. To me, she has been too inactive, and this was her biggest step up. There are defensive issues with her boxing that really need to be addressed. But honestly, if she can tighten some of that up, there's a lot going right for her game. There's a lot to like about what she can do. The certain intangibles that she seems to have. Toughness, cardio,

a winning mindset. My biggest question of her as an elite fighter is does she, yes she's a decision machine. That doesn't mean you're not dangerous. I don't always see the danger of the threat of the finish either on the feet or on the ground. Hard to see that against Rose. Again, we're talking about a very high quality fighter

here. But I will say that i think her off i think there's a lot right about her offense i think what trips her up is um there's just a lot of work that has to go into her boxing in terms of weaving in defensive fundamentals by the way this is a common problem for a lot of very good ufc fighters this is hardly something specific to her. You see this pretty significantly. And the ones who kind of get past it or find a method to make it all work,

they're the ones that can really take their game to the next level. She's got, it seems like, BC, all the potential. I agree with that. All the potential. And to hear her life story, what they did with the video package and the connection to her late brother,

her late mother, and all of that, she seems like somebody that's easy to cheer for, her late mother, and all of that. She seems like a easy, somebody that's easy to cheer for an inspirational story. That's sort of waiting to happen. If she can put it all together, stay active. Like you're mentioning across there, Luke,

she was frustrated in the second half when she was unable to pin down Rose and hit her. So she tried the max Holloway. Can we look back on this? Rose was like, yeah, I'm not buying this. Rose would say afterwards,

like, Hey, you know, like what, you know, the obvious, like, why am I, I'm not about that life. Why am I, like, hey, you know, like, you know, the obvious. Like, why am I? I'm not about that life.

Why am I going to do that unnecessarily? Shows her her butt. There you go. Yeah. Gave her a little little Nate Diaz. Turn your back to the action. And they ended up showing love about it. But yeah, that wasn't going to work for her.

But does she ever get back here to sort of this fight, which was a possible quasi sneaky potential for number one contender fight? Meaning if she had won decisively over rose who knows maybe she would catapult in there for a title so what i'm going to say is that again it's this was a very tough assignment for tracy cortez she is clearly a skilled fighter of of commendable skill what i'm going to say though is did i see anything in this performance that told me getting back to a spot like this was inevitable I don't know if I saw anything that was necessarily inevitable about this what I did see though was and going back to it I hope people understand I'm really not trying to challenge the idea that she isn't commendable or talented she is commendable she is talented

I absolutely saw BC the potential to get back here does she have the ability to get back to a quasi number one contender or potentially even pass that given her athletic profile and her game and everything else and her age and whatever experience, all that stuff. I absolutely saw that. I absolutely saw someone who could return to this. The choice is hers. It is up to her ultimately to foster her own development,

to get herself to a place where she can really iron out some of these things I'm telling you. She can iron out some of the defense get in, get out. Her head was kind of straight up the whole time. She was there to be hit quite a bit. The jab was a very effective. Whenever your opponent does a really good job with their jab and you lose a fight four rounds to one, basically,

I think it is incumbent not to feel bad about yourself because, again, she took the fight on short short notice but it is incumbent upon you to ask how was this weapon so successful and how do i not let this happen again and when you really dig into those answers i think that's the kind of growth that could take her to the next level and she is capable of it whether it will happen your guess is as good as mine i think you're 100 right and i think rose versus blanchfield i'm trying to think of a fight that's a better option for Rose outside of some BMF weirdness,

and I think that might be the best fight, because you know Erin Blanchfield's going to come back better than what she showed against Faroe. We were surprised that she seemed so one-dimensional against Faroe. She better be building up on that, because Rose will pick you apart on the feet, but I wonder if Blanchfield can take her down. I mean, Rose's takedown defense, Luke, has been sturdy.

But Blanchfield's going to take that fight to the ground. What can she do with it? That's the question. We shall see. Yeah, it'd be interesting. Elsewhere on this card, I mentioned there were, I mean, I think there were more than a few handful of action fights or moments from Drew Dober's Crimson Mask that were very redeemable in this fight.

Luke, when you look up and down, was there a biggest surprise or a biggest storyline coming out of this undercard? Man, there's a few directions you could go. There's a few directions you could go. Number one, the guy who I had the highest hope for, Josh Vann, he lost in this contest. We have footage of him losing if you want to see it. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. Charles Johnson was down.

Charles Johnson, I had him down. I had Vann winning 2-0 heading into the third. And then he gets hit with this uppercut after the right hand rocked him. So first of all, Charles Johnson shouts to this guy, took this fight on short notice. Unbelievable. He was down. He never got discouraged. His corner told him to go out there and fight with urgency in the third and look at the results.

And he doesn't care about that haircut. If you have that haircut, you don't care. You don't care. You don't care. You've punted. But the reality is this. A great, a great win for 33-year-old Charles Johnson. And also, BC, Josh Vann was winning that contest. I do think he is worthy of the hype.

But obviously, after a fight like this, some setback is going to be, you know, something worth reflecting on. How about Montel Jackson, BC, over Damond Blackshear? An 18-second win. Great commentary by Dominic Cruz in this particular moment. It continues to be awesome and people hate him and I don't get it, Luke. I guess people don't like he's a little

monotone. Pair him with DC and Anik. That's the trio. You know what that is. DC do. They beef. That's why it's fun. Because you and I beef and this show still works somehow, you know? There is some truth to that. So those two, there's some other ones we could go down the line. By the way the pronunciation is Ange Losa you got that wrong I got that wrong we got it wrong on Friday um Losa Gabriel Bonfim I thought looked fine not not

remarkable good but not great not spectacular he's it was sort of him getting the taking the training his wheels off getting back on the bike and just sort of like let's get the decision when to get out of here so I didn't love that I'm told i haven't seen it i'm told we have a question about um jean or jean silva in dm so we'll get to him but obviously dude he rocked the house we'll get to him how about juicy j juliana rosa who basically like another guy like a lot of these guys came out afterwards was just like i like to bang Whether it's smart or not, this is how I fight. Dude, not only was he exciting, but there was like, there was an edge to the way he was

mixing the pressure style with what he can do on the ground. And when he was able to force that tap out, he looked very impressive. So if you guys haven't seen it, there's a very similar finish. Carlos Condit over Carlo Prater looked almost identical to this. So you can go look that up. That was a WEC win for Condit prior to his UFC arrival.

A sit-up guillotine, no arm in. Christian Rodriguez was looking pretty good for the most part, right? You even heard Dean Thomas compliment the fact that he kept his hands in Juicy J's face to kind of confuse him, blind him, and then get a secondary attack going. And that was all pretty great. But he just let his guard down for a moment inside the guard remember because he gets the reversal then gets on top goes into the guard from erosa and then gets guillotined for it uh a bit of it that was a war that fight

that was a war i'll say this for erosa dude he is constantly looking for offense and at times that's going to get him in trouble because he's going to just walk into traps. At other times, you're going to walk into his buzzsaw of just offense he's throwing out there. Great job by him setting this up. I have to say, there is a category of fighter these days. I don't know if you want to call him BMF light. I'm not trying to insult anybody. That are hair to bang, Luke.

Sometimes they get close to the elite level. Think of Drew Dover. Think of Matt Favola. Think of Billy Q. Like these guys are just, you know, now Juicy J. They're just like, look, this is my addiction. I love to entertain you and get into these crazy fights. I'm so thankful.

You want to call these guys TV fighters? Sometimes they take that as an insult. I'm sure every name I just mentioned is still trying to get to that dream goal of get to the title. But these are the guys we need, Luke. Okay, the guys that we look at, we know what we're getting with them, and they just make fun-ass fights. And there were a few of them on this card, and there were a few crazy moments that, hey, apparently the UFC doesn't fully hate me.

I was tweeting my excitement, Luke, for these fights, and it showed up on the screen. Yeah, they don't put my tweets on the screen. I'd like to see you on the screen. They don't do that. I also want to mention, but in a losing cause, remember I was unaware of what, what's that chick from Long Island, Luke?

Near you, right? Fatima Klein. Fatima Klein. Didn't know who she was coming in, saw that the odds were close. Top prospect in women's MMA, it turns out. Then find out the backstory of Rose was her idol and all that played into that. While this is Jasmine Jazdavisius

continuing her ascent, she got the win, she had a hilarious moment afterwards that we'll see in Have You Seen This Shit. I was impressed with Fatima Klein showing that it's like, skip the Danoite Contender Series, go right to the major leagues, and prove you belong in a defeat.

You know what I mean? You love those kind of moral wins when somebody raises their game and shows you. She really struggled with the takedown, and then getting up. I think there might be some physicality issues, although Jazz Divisius is physical, so this isn't necessarily proof that there are physical issues, but I do wonder.

That's all I'm going to say is wonder. Good movement on the feet, but a lot of excess movement. A lot of just kind or really heavily changing stances and taking these wide angles and all the time. I would like to see that a little bit more pared down, but she's still in single digits within her fights. Like there's so much room for improvement with her. I admire her moxie. I certainly think she has a very good game we'll see where it goes from here no but the moxie is the right word sort of that mental toughness that she believes she belonged and that matters dude that does matter that matters that's what not enough to get the dub that's what shane mosley

jr told us and the fighter means ahead of that danny jacobs fight who retired by the way who retired shout out to danny jacobs we said to shane like what what's the advice from your dad the hall of famer shane mosley senior and he said he just told me to know that i belong and do that matters that matters sometimes where people get to a certain level without having that matters for us when we look in the mirror in the morning matters for all of you gotta believe that you belong here luke no matter if you take l's or what people say about you you know what i mean why are you looking at me and smiling when you say that because i got inspired and happy all right the last thing i wanted to ask you about this card and we'll see some of the other fights or fighters on have you seen this shit what do you make of the abdul razak

uh i always forget that alhassan against cody brundage where now people are attacking cody brundage on on twitter and saying man those elbows to the back of the head didn't really connect one definitely connected flush it seemed to f him up where he he didn't really seem to realize when the doc and the referee were talking to him like what would happen if would it be a no contest or what like he hit you could tell he was concussed or hurt but like should he have continued now people are going after him they were screaming fight fight fight in the uh it's very rare that someone is so badly hurt visibly that the fans look at it and think, oh, he definitely can't continue, right? I mean, a guy could have his face falling off and he goes to the doctor. The doctor's like, yeah, you got to stop this fucking fight. And the fans are like, boo, let his face

fall off. So people at home, I understand them being upset that they didn't get a fight to continue, especially Alhassan was really pouring on the offense. I have to tell you, though, I really have to say this. Could he have continued? Maybe, maybe. Like, did it look like the most severe beating to the back of the head I've ever seen? Definitely not. But that Fs people up sometimes where they just don't recover.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, I don't know. I genuinely don't know. Here's what I do know. The referees do nothing about shots to the back of the head and remember this is the second time this has happened with brundage it happened in the jacob malcolm fight as well and folks like oh he does this all the time guys if the referees don't do shit about enforcing shots to the back of the head where in different cases where there would be some kind of other penalty where you would get a point taken

or DQ'd straight up depending on the rule set or whatever, there's very little of that. They go to this one like, can you continue? They just wave it off. Fighters taking advantage of rules that favor their situation in a sport where the referees refuse to do fuck all about these kinds of fouls,

I gotta tell you, does not rub me the wrong way at all. Did I love what happened? No, but the referees do nothing about ever deterring shit like this for a guy to be like, well, yeah, maybe I could continue. I just don't want to. Again, I don't even know if that happened. But if that did happen, doesn't bother me in the fucking slightest. Put the blame, put their blame put

the onus put the focus back on referees enforcing fouls eye pokes fence grabs shots to the back of the head dude i thought a huston was going to attack him after when they called off that fight he was like he had the and that was another part too like i appreciate that brundage was moving underneath fairly substantially and that really can throw off your balance and you're already in motion. Some of those did hit the back of the head. And I don't think some of those were intentional. I really mean that. I think he was trying to aim,

but I also feel like if you're just going ham on hammer, look at me, put the camera on me. The point I'm trying to make is there's a, that entire posture of trying to finish a guy is almost, almost inherently reckless. Like some of that could have been tightened up by Al Hassan. And I think you, you can say, Oh, Brenda took the easy way out.

You can make that argument. Fine. Make it or don't. I'm not making it, but you can make it. If you want, I'm going to look the other way and be like, no Hassan could have tightened that up a little I mean try getting elbowed the back of the brain see how that makes you feel like there's a reason why that's I mean boxing do you you they they do seem to police that very quick boxing is rightfully so boxing rabbit punches are much more quickly sure verboten and that by the way is close enough to the equilibrium area

where you get hit sometimes you just never recover so you know no question about it that, by the way, is close enough to the equilibrium area where you get hit. Sometimes you just never recover. So, you know, no question about it. That wraps up the UFC Denver portion to kick it off. But Luke, in a world of, let's say, slot reels and blackjack deals, if you will, comes the must-play event of the summer from DraftKings Casino

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$1 wager to earn $100 in non-withdrawable casino credits that expire in 168 hours. Terms at casino.draftkings.com slash blockbuster. Shout out to our partners over there at draft Kings. Luke, let's keep the analysis moving. All right, BC, let's talk about what happened over in Philly,

by the way, 14,000 plus, I believe in attendance for the, something of the homecoming of Jaron Ennis. Jaron Ennis gets a fifth round stoppage over David Evanesian. Who's tough as shit, dude. At the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was the first fight that Boots had with Matchroom Boxing.

By the way, Matchroom having a nice little run here. They had the fight with Liam Parrow and Matias in Puerto Rico. They had this one. There's another one I'm forgetting as well here in the States. BC, Boots made it look very, very easy. The commentary crew would, by the way, I want to ask you what the commentary crew, but they were very, very filled with praise for boots. However, there's something of a bigger question about whether he got hit too much. But the first

question I want to ask you is given the size of the crowd and the fanfare surrounding the event, of which there was a significant amount, how important was Ennis' move to matchroom in terms of taking him to the next level? What did he prove as a box office draw with this? I think he proved a lot. I mean, that wasn't the 2300 ECW arena, shout out. That was the same arena that the 76ers play

at. And it wasn't full, but that's a show out for considering that he lost his original opponent Cody Crowley, who wasn't going to blow people away anyway, even though he's a good fighter. And it was a sort of a downgrade of an opponent. But yet here's what Boots said to himself. Terrence Crawford fought Avenisi in a year and a half ago

and finished him in the sixth round. So I want, in the fact that he motivated himself to come out and try to do it faster, told everybody I'm going for the knockout, I'm going to get to Boots' performance and how he looked in a second. But I think this marriage with him and Eddie Hearn and the fact that Hearn committed to make this feel so big. Luke, on paper, this really wasn't a great fight. It was more about seeing Boots come back from a year away,

defend his full IBF title for the first time, and then kind of see how does he look, where does he potentially fit in once he can get the adequate names to get real pound-for-pound consideration and try to figure out who he's going to fight next. But, Luke, it was like a real homecoming, like Terrence Crawford in Omaha, where, like, the local community showed out,

Boots showed out in his performance, and you have to think about it like this. Even though we saw Boots Ennis the last couple years on Showtime, he had Cameron Duncan, who recently passed away, RIP, the great manager who turned into a promoter, as his promoter. And he didn't sign with Al Heyman and PBC. So even though, because he had the backing of Showtime and Steven Espinosa, who was high on signing him to the network,

even though we got to see him on Showtime consistently, if you noticed, he never quite got the big welterweight names which were under the PBC banner, served up to him to have a chance to make his name off of. He also had inactivity issues within that. So it's like he was on Showtime, but he didn't get the golden ticket handshake of opportunities. Then Cameron Duncan passes away. They do a buyout with the family and he's a free agent.

And then he goes to match him and Eddie Hearn and Eddie Hearn's basically like, look what I can potentially give you. If going back to his home city and putting on a show like that is what he can potentially give you. If going back to his home city and putting on a show like that is what he can potentially give him, this is probably the best move for Boots Ennis to get what he deserves, which is the platform against huge names to show how great he can be.

And that's why I go back to the performance here, Luke. Could you make an argument that he got hit too much? Absolutely. But I think it was purposeful because think about it. He knows who he was going to try to call out after he won and spoiler alert, it was Terrence Crawford and we'll get into that

but I like that he looked at and said, okay, I got to fight Avanison who no one knew what we were going to get with him. He's like 35. We've seen him lose when he steps up to the highest level. It turns out Avanison to his credit was tough as nails

and literally kept trying to fight until his face broke until the corner had to save him from himself but Luke, the fact that Boots who is skills-wise pound-for-pound worthy literally kept trying to fight until his face broke, until the corner had to save him from himself. But, Luke, the fact that Boots, who is skills-wise pound-for-pound worthy, just doesn't have the resume yet, the fact that he committed to welcome any and all punishment in order to put on a show for the home fans, in order to announce to everybody that after a year off, I'm back,

and I'm back with a bang, and I'm ready to take on everybody. Luke, the fact that he was willing to sit in that pocket, take whatever Avonison had, which turned out to be sneaky and some veteran shots that he landed flush and still delivered a breathtaking, brutally efficient. Like there was never a point in that fight where boots wasn't extremely dangerous and trying to end it with,

with the fact with the switching of stances and these flurries of punches and these angles. It's very, very, very rare in this game that we say Roy Jones-esque. We said it about Teofimo on his rise. There were elements to that performance last night that were plus-level Roy Jones next level, from the athleticism to the creativity of the shots. I love that he was given the platform to kind of paint this masterpiece. It was going to be what it was against Evan Eason,

but it turned out for entertainment wise, Evan Eason stepped up. So what did boots do? Met him in the middle. Cause you know, I have an Eastern strategy is to put pressure, get in your grill and just keep backing you up. Boots met that pressure and was almost virtuoso in how we put the

offenses together to end it. Could you make the argument? They took too many shots. Well, how about this Luke? Not everybody's wired the same way, but the same people are going to criticize Shakur Stevenson per se. Yeah, you're wrong about this.

The same people are going to criticize Shakur Stevenson for not taking chances when you're in against a guy that you should do that against. But Boots said, you know what? I'll take on the chances. I'll sit in there and I'll show you how great I am. I'm not saying Shakur is wrong because everybody's wired differently.

Shakur is a defensive fighter at his base. Boots is not. Boots can be a great boxer when he wants to. He's got the whole game. But the fact that he wanted to entertain as much as get that guy out of there and show what he's capable of to advertise to the future, I actually thought across the board, even with the shots he took, it was an A-level performance and an A-level presentation of what they were trying to do with that, push him to the masses and show him what he's got. Look, he has the game. He could have won that, in my opinion, boxing in a boring way easily. But instead to the masses and show him what he's got. Look, he has the game. He could have won that.

In my opinion, boxing in a boring way easily, but instead he dug in to show what he can do offensively. And I think he was better off for it. Tell me why I'm wrong though, because I, I, I justify the shots he took because he was willing to do what Shakur for comparison example,

wasn't willing to do and got the criticism. That is certainly true that he, I mean, he Shakur was standing in front of of him but not really throwing as much whereas boost was just constantly throwing at him and to your point look at the final shot that dropped him wasn't the final one but close to the end he gets hit with i believe a he has his hand down he throws an uppercut he gets hit right here with the right and then comes right over the top of it right right over the top of it so he knows if you're gonna get hit the opening over the top of it is going to be there he just sort of accepted that by the

way Terrence Crawford did that in one of his knockdowns against Errol Spence I'm not suggesting to you they are equivalent knockdowns I'm simply saying at times boxers will take calculated risks often against the ropes about accepting punishment from an opponent who either is available to be hit, out of position. This is one such example. Also of note, there were 14,930 people there. That's the biggest crowd for a fight in Philadelphia since Marvin Hagler's win over Benny Briscoe back in 1978. 45, it could be 46 years ago.

We saw Boots fight Royman Villa in Atlantic City, and we were wondering, why isn't this guy back in Philly? Well, here, dude, I give a lot of credit to Eddie Hearn. Taking Boots back to Philly in this way, that in the, let's build Jerron Ennis, that was a home run. That was a home run. And if they add Sugar Stevenson to that stable,

Eddie Hearn's going to be on fire. But I think there's a couple things that people are missing about the performance that are fair. People are fair to point out. I have seen this argument that like, well, make up your mind, fans. You're mad at Shakur for not doing enough. And now you're saying Boots gets hit too much. Y'all don't know what you want. No.

No, I know what I want. I know what I want. It is entirely reasonable to say, independent of one another. Should Shakur Stevenson have done at least something more offensively, at least in terms of judging him by fan appeal of the style of fighting? Sure. Uh, is it fair to say that the things people are saying about boots, Roy Jones, ask future generational, great. You can't say those things about a guy. and then he gets hit this much. Now, I mentioned something to you at the beginning of this point, which was the

commentary crew was kind of funny to me. There's a moment there where Chris Mannix brings up the inactivity and you notice that there's this big swath of fights that he gets in like a short amount of time. And then more recently, it's been much more sporadic. And they're like, nah, it's not that. It's a totally different reason. It's got nothing to do with it. Then after the fight, Boots is like, yeah, the ring rust was. He did say that.

He was a bit of a problem. So shouts to Chris Mannix, who was 100% right about that. This is my point. I think that for a first fight back against this kind of an opponent where Boots probably did not feel he was super threatened, he was willing to take on a little bit more punishment, which was not a huge amount, but have been a number of instances where they land on him cleanly. Now, he finishes those guys off because, obviously, Boots is a ridiculous talent. The concern is not what it meant for the Avenisian fight. The concern is, well, now they're talking about Turkey Al-Ashiq getting involved to make a fight with Bud Crawford. You are not allowed to have that kind of a permissive attitude

of your opponent landing on you against an opponent of that caliber. Dude, he's not going to fight like that exactly against Bud. The problem is, BC, this is not a one-off. The Avenisian fight is not an aberration of what the catalog shows. It is a continuation, in part because he can't get quality fighters to face off with him. It's not his fault in that sense, right? You won't really show what class you really are until you get somebody who is really forcing

it out of you, and those guys all left 147. I don't blame Boots. I'm not even saying Boots can't win. I have been a big believer in Boots. I remain a big believer in Boots. But what I'm pointing out is you're talking about a guy like he's Roy Jones Jr. You have to do Roy Jones Jr. shit for that to match. Offensively, he looked Roy-esque. Offensively.

Roy was not getting hit in his prime. Roy was never getting hit in his prime like that. I just think that Boots committed to it because of the idea of I'm going to show the home fans with the big crowd. I'm going to show everybody. This is my big crowd. I'm going to show everybody. This is my debut on DAZN, on Matchroom, and I'm going to try to best what Terrence Crawford did in knocking out Evan Eason in the sixth round. So I just think he committed to it to be exciting.

I don't think he's going to take as many risks against Terrence Crawford. Now, does that mean that he's going to, you know, does that mean that at this point we can be confident that he has the skills to be in that fight? I'm not sure yet. I mean, it's hard. That's the thing. I say he's got flashes of pound for pound ability, but he just doesn't have the skills to be in that fight i'm not sure yet i mean it's hard that's the thing i say he's got flashes of palm for probability but he just doesn't have the

opponents to be able to prove that or show it to us i think this was more situational i get the fear though but maybe luke just maybe that the way he's sort of the dial is leaning maybe he's just more offensive in general and that's going to make him more dynamic in fights and more entertaining and is also going to expose him more, but maybe like a narrow Spence, who we saw against Mikey Garcia, box circles around him and not get hit. We also saw that when he commits offensively

to being himself, him getting hit is going to be a part of it. Gennady Glovkin's the same way. That guy got hit a lot of times too, but it was, can you take the heat? He also had a legendary chin. Can you take the heat of his power? I don't think Boots has that level of power,

but I will say this. They said it right on the screen. You can see Boots has a massive welterweight. He does have the type of back where you're like, okay, I can imagine him at 54, 60. Manic said that they're willing to go as high as 68. I can imagine all that. But let's enjoy for whatever it's going to look like or however long it's going to be

him as a welterweight. Because I don't know if he's going to be able to carry his power up the same way and be the same level puncher. We see so many fighters do this as they get up their power eventually levels out and they have to be more of a boxer or what have you. I don't know, but who he is right now as a welterweight and for however many big fights he

has left here or that he can get before having to move up, he is spectacular and a destroyer on an extreme level that I hope. And even though we can make an argument that the welterweight division is suddenly, was the money sex pay-per-view division is now suddenly kind of void of talent because all the names that we really wanted to see are suddenly outside of this division.

It's comparable in my eyes to somebody like Sugar Shane Mosley, who ends up in the Hall of Fame because of his greatness and he rose all the way up to 54, right? And when you're talking about the bulk of the career that made Shane a Hall of Famer, you're obviously going to talk about the welterweight win over Oscar in 2000

in their first fight. You know, you're going to talk about those type of fights where for a window, he was in the argument of pound for pound number one. But the real hardcores know that when you're talking about what was the actual greatest version of Shane Bosley, it was the eight fight run at lightweight.

It was where he flashed and he looked like arguably the greatest lightweight. I would never say that in light of Duran, but obviously he looked arguably like one of the greatest lightweights of all time. And he was a destroyer.

Sometimes guys have that window as they're rising. I don't know ultimately if Boots will be the same fighter as he rises up. But for right now, he is going to be fun as hell against anyone.

And he is going to be dangerous as hell against anyone. Whether he ends up welcoming too much the room for too much punishment or not i think he has that go get it in him like spence has although it didn't work against bud because bud was transcendent like somebody like sugar ray leonard had right now the young guys not only want it luke from the standpoint of wanting the big fights now these young american fighters and i put american on the tag because it just seems to be that the fighters from other countries never have this problem, Luke, right? You know what I mean?

The Russian fighters, like the fighters from a lot of different countries never have this problem. They want to smoke all now. The young stars want the smoke, but they also want the, not Shakur, but the rest of them seem to also want to mix it up and win these biggest fights, the fighting fights of their career, the old fashioned way, Luke way Luke by going through people I just think that's who boots is I'll say this we have both been high on boots I remain very high on boots obviously he's already a world champion I think he'll get collect another belt potentially another weight class potentially even more than that the the he is a significant and pronounced talent what I'm trying to get people to understand is I can understand in this particular fight again Avenisian on short notice,

I can understand he did make it clearly that final sequences, he's making a decision to accept punishment in certain ways to create openings and bah, he's got it. I think a lot of people are pointing to that and saying it was a conscious choice in this context. That is true. Some of the broader tape, and this is why it's a little inconclusive because those guys don't last under his firepower either. This is not the first time that has happened. And what you have to maybe accept, and we don't know, is that it's actually just part of his style and the way he fights. And if that is true, that will cost him later.

It won't cost him against the Avenisians, but it will definitely cost him against the Crawfords. It could cost him against someone else at 54. Let's show the Turkey tweet, because suddenly this Crawford conversation got real, but I do want to investigate it. So Turkey Al-Ashiq tweets, after Boots on the post-fight interview with Mannix did say, I want to fight Crawford next.

I just reached out to boxer Jaron Ennis and Eddie Hearn to congratulate them. I'd love to see Ennis fight with Crawford. Say Jaron? Some people, yeah, Jaron, Jaron. I mean, yeah, Tomato, Tomato, Luke. The whole point is Turkey has the checkbook. He wants to make it,

but we're going to see Crawford against Israel. Madram off for a debt. 154 title on August 3rd. Luke. Some people think, I mean, you gotta be on realistic or Crawford hasn't fought in over what a year. And he's also what,

like 36. So Crawford's window of huge fights is going to be small. I don't know if the Canelo fight will happen. Do you think Terrence Crawford can be paid enough to accept this? Would he want to accept this? Do you think Terrence Crawford watched that fight and sees the same things you do and says to himself, okay, the kid's flashy, but I know what I'm doing. If Turkey puts it on the table, do we actually see this fight?

So to me, Turkey's interest in this kind of tells me the Canelo window has closed. Canelo doesn't want it. Let's be honest about this. Canelo doesn't want a tough fight. And so I think that was what Bud wanted primarily. If that is off the table and if Turkey is going to pay big money for it, the answer is yes, he'd do it. I do believe that. Well, I want to ask how much it moves your needle.

And I am talking about your needle luke or your noodle whatever you want to call it to the idea of potentially putting this not an english soccer stadium it's so fucking weird but like a philly ballpark no i'm not saying if crawford versus ennis ever happened that somehow ennis would get a side privileges and this would be in like the philadelphia phillies baseball stadium but here's eddie hearn talking about his own needle to that prospect you know i've not thought about that. I mean, him versus Boots at the ballpark. He even versus Crawford at the ballpark in front of me. I mean, this table's about to jump up in a minute.

That's got me really excited. Oh no. Wait a minute. No diddy. No diddy. This is the dumbest one. Oh, Sean Combs just catching strays.ays Luke I don't think that would happen but if Turkey backs up the truck because Crawford's a prize fighter that's why he fought Evan Easton

that's why he took that money with what's Marv Nation like we all ripped him for not taking the expense okay BKO whatever I don't even remember what that was in hindsight but he is a he is a big game hunter Crawford in terms of prize money 100 I would believe that he looks at boots and says okay he might eventually get there but maybe he's not there now maybe I do fight him I don't know if he doesn't fight him though is there a fight at 47 you actually care about the the big names that could cross over in my opinion are Haney if he moves up some people think he can't make 140 already and he is aligned on that side of the street if that still matters boots works Teo fimo who wants to fight crawford at 54 wants to move up or the

lingering guys that are still in the secondary title range at welterweight the mean machines the what about virgil ortiz or what about so he's at 54 you're right but he is a zone fighter yeah and tim zoo as well dude what about tim so what about errol spence jr well we'll see how he looks in his next... I don't know. I wonder if him never signing with Heyman, do you think PBC never puts up one of their big guns against Boots?

You would know better about the boxing politics than I would. I don't know that answer. Wow. I'm getting excited, though. I'm getting very excited about this. Like I said, I think under those two conditions, Canelo's off the table and Turkey backs up the truck, I think he takes it.

I genuinely... Dude, he took a fight against Israel Madrimov.. I think he takes it. I genuinely, he, he, dude, he took a fight against Israel Madrim off. Like obviously that's easier fight to win the, probably than the boots fight, but it's not like he has to have a name opponent every time or,

and boots is certainly getting, you know what I mean? Like another pay-per-view star, which boots is not yet. Right. So, all right, let's transition out of topic number three.

And this suddenly we thought it was over, but it's back. Shout out to the online reporting. Of course, of guys like Josh Gross and John S. Nash. Josh Gross was, by the way, on the scene in the courtroom. It went down this week. Luke, a U.S. district judge has rebuked the UFC and the antitrust class certification, a lot of big words here, denying approval for what we thought was already a done deal, the antitrust settlement with those hundreds of fighters

who put their name on the line in the Kung Lee. But Luke, there seems to be a dispute here between the Kung Lee one and what, the Johnson trial? Yes, we don't exactly. So let me tee it up to you, Luke. It appears the major concern here from Judge Richard Boulware, according to the reporting from Josh Gross, is that the settlement prevents UFC fighters

from ever challenging the promotion's monopoly based on the new contracts. We already knew that. They signed waivers to not participate in class action lawsuits. So now it looks like we actually could go to trial and we are potentially open up and that settlement won't stand.

So how much should UFC brass be concerned about their own financial future and as it applies to free agency and everything else if the doors get opened up of the vault and all the secrets come out well all a lot of the evidence is already out you just have to go through it but it's pretty unequivocal um here is my best assessment of it now we're waiting on further word from bulware about what he is going to rule or say here and why he's going to say it. And we don't really know. And so I think there is some level of analysis here. We have to kind

of leave alone, even though I would love to speculate, but we'll leave part of that alone for folks who may not understand too. You kind of laid it out here. Basically what happened is the UFC and the plaintiffs, those are the fighters. They came to an agreement for $335 million, plus some contractual changes that had happened along the way. They took that agreement, the judge in any kind of class action lawsuit, any kind of agreement between parties, the judge has to agree to it. He did not. He sent them back and they changed some of the way in which payouts went between the two classes and a couple of other things, took that back to the judge. And this is the one you're referencing. He said, there's no way i'm accepting this and now we're waiting to hear what it is are his major objections we don't really know and so we're still premature to the idea of

like wow this is definitely going back to trial so here are two possibilities that are going to happen it's basically only these two one the plaintiffs plaintiffs and the UFC get back to the negotiating table, and they reach some kind of settlement, both from a monetary figure and probably some contractual changes that allow the judge to say, okay, you failed the first couple of times with a negotiated settlement that I found acceptable. This one is better. Signing off.

Done. Deal. The other possibility is they go and try to find another negotiated settlement and the judge is like no we're not even in the ballpark of okay this is going back to trial now neither party if i can be clear wants to go to trial the plaintiffs don't want to go to trial and the ufc doesn't want to go to trial because it could take it could be you could get nothing or everything with something like that between the the ideals of the johnson and the lee lawsuit one's after money one seems to be after change in the industry that's right here's what i think the ufc is up

against you had dana white on fox news last week being like people say we're a monopoly you know we're just better well the judge in nevada disag He disagrees, substantially disagrees. He, in fact, thinks there are numerous barriers to entry, and BC, this is ultimately what is plaguing them. It is quite clear that this judge views the UFC as an illegal monopoly. That's it. He views it as a monopoly. And so my thought process is, if they don't come to some kind of settlement that challenges that, I don't know if he's actually going to approve it.

Right? If they just come and say, you know what, we're going to pay you $335 million, how does half a billion dollars sound? He might be like, right, that's a nice amount of money. That's a better amount of money.'s a that's a better amount of money but you're still an illegal monopoly he clearly believes they are an illegal monopoly i bring this all up to say bc here's what's kind of interesting and this is where the rubber meets the road on all of this the ufc is either now or very soon about to start their television renegotiation and understand something this is the number one way that they make money is through guaranteed revenue from media rights deals both domestically and then

globally as well which is why they they said f covid we're pushing through we're pushing through they have to meet that minimum because if you don't have enough those events happening you don't get the money that you're owed from espn now espn might them. They might go to Netflix, to Amazon, who knows? Rumble, bro, rumble. But here's what I do know. It's going to be several billions of dollars, probably maybe even 10 billion or more, depending on what the deal looks like, an extraordinary amount of money. Can you imagine, BC, about trying to negotiate that deal in the middle of an ongoing antitrust trial. I would imagine that would spook potential broadcast partners from either doing business with you at all, or certainly at the

price tag that you might be asking. And so the UFC obviously has a huge incentive to get this settled, to put more money in, More money and potentially some contractual changes. But if the judge ultimately is convinced that this is an illegal monopoly, shortchanging fighters and ruining the sport, or at least damaging it and limiting it, it might not matter how much money is actually offered if there are no real contractual changes.

So that's why I'm like, ooh, I don't know what's going to happen here. This just got a lot more interesting. Can we throw to the Josh gross tweet? He was in the courtroom. This is the first of a, of a long thread. I encourage you to look at it where he mentioned judge Boll, we're not granting a preliminary approval. Josh would go on to say, by the way, that, uh, there's several areas of concern from Boll where, and that it seemed to Josh that they're leaning toward denying the deal and moving to a jury trial. I want to point out one of those concerns that Josh mentioned. The attorney, Eric Kramer, who represents both the Lee and Johnson lawsuit, it's all in-house there.

He shared concerns during this about the friendship between Dana White and Donald Trump from the idea that if this thing goes to trial, ultimately even to the Supreme Court, that they believe if Donald Trump is president at that point, I think that shooting scare on Saturday, Luke, is pushing. Oh, boy. What do you got? You want to jump in? No, go ahead.

Finish. Okay. Luke, the side of both of those lawsuits believe that's a potential issue from the idea that Trump's influence could sign with the UFC. Is that a legitimate concern if this thing should go to trial? Because we've never seen sports and politics like this deeply connected, at least on an American level, right? Well, it's weird because if he was president and there was any kind of

legislation that happened through Congress, I think Trump would probably veto it, right? There was an Ali Act. Would Trump sign an Ali Act if Dana White was in his ear about how bad it was for his business? I suspect not. One never knows, but I suspect not. The Supreme Court one's a little bit more interesting because they could appeal their way all the way there.

And then you're kind of speculating because these are Trump appointees. I mean, they're certainly pro-corporate, but they do buck what Trump wants at times. So that's a little more speculative. But what they're trying to point out is we don't want to go to trial. There are all number of ways in which this is much better for us than some kind of future potential outcome where it could go to the Supreme court and get vetoed or some other kind of political influence, ultimately burying this when we have a negotiated settlement. That's what they're trying to indicate to the judge. They don't want to really go down this

line, but this is what I mean. Ultimately, if the judge thinks it's an illegal monopoly, all bets are off. We will wait to hear what he has to say. Maybe it's just a monetary settlement going up. Maybe. One word answer. Do you understand the fighters wanting to settle and saying, hey, it's cool if the business can fix itself down the line, but right now I got to pay my bills and I got these lingering health issues and I have no money to show for it. I do. I do understand. I think it's ultimately very disappointing how all of this has played out in relative to the expectations. But I understand at this point going to trial, I mean, the reality of going to trial is this. You could end up with billions of dollars and contractual changes that absolutely reform the industry. Or you could end up with billions of dollars and contractual changes that absolutely reform

the industry or you could end up with a jury trial getting not a penny nothing zero that's a risk that's a real risk so you went through all this for nothing so i understand but the issue here is the judge took so there's a lot of there's a lot of complicated legalese the judge took so long to rule previously uh on a different matter and then that ended up having to split the cases to the Lee case and the Johnson case. And that's what's causing some of this conflict is that one is good for monetary damages. One is not. And they're trying to he's trying to solve both problems at once. But you can't at least not very simply.

Hence, we're back here. It's a big problem selfish fear as both fan and journalist is that this does go to trial and when we're already in a year or an era where matchmaking is pretty damn watered down it's the apex era we talk about this every freaking week does it get worse if we're headed to a trial and they are trying to retain more funds just in case i mean i don't know luke could that lead to an even poorer era of this product i mean when wwe went through that steroid trial not an equal comparison by any means it also happened during a time when pro wrestling in general just hit the toilet they didn't have the financial

means they they nearly hit the bottom there you have seen a much different position but i can't see the product improving if shit is going chaos behind the scenes again i don't think the people who own the ufc are really they care about the concerns you're addressing he always says this lawsuit doesn't affect us it's not my concern it doesn't right now that's true that's a fair point if it continues to go forward it definitely will all right uh here you want some breaking news yeah what do you got uh this comes to us from damon martin by the way by, Noseda, we need a breaking news alert or something. We'll work on it.

You say that. Did you get the hip hop? It's out of my control, Luke. You know it's a person above that can't be named, but we gotta ask. A lot of secrets behind the scenes at MK, right? A lot of secrets. UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been formally charged with two

misdemeanor, two misdemeanor, excuse me, involving the case you might remember previously with the drug testing agents who visited his home in March. Jones has vehemently denied the allegations. He'll have his next court hearing scheduled for July 17th. I don't think this involves any kind of significant legal penalty, but my man's been charged with some crimes again so have fun there you go there you go and this segment has been brought to you by 19 crimes the red wine you need to drink all right bc let's talk about what we found out over the weekend now when we say found out we

don't really know what we found out but we can tell you what we saw we have video to throw to we can tell you what we saw the ufc's french canadian broadcast the one that was airing Quebec appeared to spoil who was going to be on the UFC Noche headliners this was of course during the UFC Denver card that this kind of came out I want to throw to the video about who's going to be on it but BC given what they say rate this you know what let me hold the call let me hold question. Let's take a look at what they said and who they said was going to be on this card. Show it. Those translations brought to you by our own French-Canadian Brian Campbell. Was this an inside job caused by me and my French-Canadians? BC, rate the UFC sphere card on a scale of 1 to 10 if it means

and rather I should say if it turns out that it is to Poirier Holloway and O'Malley Murab at the top of the marquee. Remember what Eddie Hearn said about the table? Rising up? No ditty. 10 out of freaking 10 to the level, Luke. While this certainly does lack a lot

of Mexican noche flair in terms of the fighters. You mean any? I will say this. What have I been complaining about? Like, I want the buzz. I want to get so excited. You know, you just want what you feel like you're missing these days where it's just been very watered down. Luke, if they told us that this will be a two fight pay-per-view card, there will be no undercard.

And we are raising the price for US the sphere to pay to pay for it. Right. undercard and we are raising the price for us, the sphere to pay, to pay for it, right? Because they already seem to be 18 million or more in on trying to make these video screens feel like that dead concert made us feel. Look, I only need these two fights and I'd be willing to pay a hundred to $125 of my actual money to see them. These are 10 out of 10 blockbuster critical,

two of the best fight fights you can make in the sport right now. And if they are going to put them on the same night, as much as I complain about how this calendar year has featured these big moments of 300 and these can't miss ones. And then a deep Valley in between, if they really want to do what they've promised. And Dana said a million times, you want to make this fear with it,

which is a one-off because of the price be the biggest, most unique event in combat sports. Luke, this is a, this is how you matchmake it. This is 10 out of freaking 10. This is balls bonanza. These two fights freaking rule.

You want to see me stop getting critical about UFC week to week? This type of aggressive matchmaking, even if you have to rob Peter to pay Paul for the next 12 UFC Apex events, I still might suspend my disbelief in where that could go because, Luke, these fights freaking bang, brother. Okay. I mean, here's the obvious part. There's not a single thing bad about either

of those fights. Those are two... First of all, Holloway versus Teporia is basically the best fight you can make in MMA right now. There's some debate about that, but it's probably... Or Jones-Aspinal. They're in the same conversation, right? We're talking about the most coveted fights you can make, right? So that one i would also say i don't have i don't think o'malley versus marab is on that level however however also a very coveted fight and

one you would really want to see in a hot division at 135 pounds the point i'm trying to make here is bc there's nothing bad about it. There's no fat on that whatsoever. What, what, what the hell is that? What is this? What, what does that,

what does that, you look like a middle-aged white dad trying to sing nineties rap lyrics. This is a story all about what the fuck does that have to do with mexican heritage and fighting well what does what does noche brought to you by riad season this is what i'm asking like is this the michael chandler black history month of fight cards you know what i mean it's like we're going to celebrate i can think of nothing that no better way to celebrate black history than to and ask a white guy about it like to celebrate Month, we're going to show you Shogun Hua highlights. It's like, yeah, Pride rules.

I'm not saying that the card is bad. The card is quite obviously, by the way, there has been some denial of this since this report or this thing leaked. There's been some folks denying it. Obviously, the fights are like super high quality and I'm not even complaining about them being in the sphere per se, because that experience is probably going to rule like nothing about that is bad. I guess I just don't understand Riyadh season brings you UFC. No, Jay brings you two fights at the top of the card. The most important two fights at the top of the card, none of it has anything to do with Mexican heritage. I'm sure they'll have tacos on sale, just to be fair.

I'm just saying this. I'm not Mexican, so ultimately, let's ask them how they feel, and we'll see. They probably won't care. I mean, we don't even know if it's true. But, I mean, it is possible that a broadcaster would have, potentially possible that they would have access to that hidden information that is yet to be put out, right?

What do you mean? Like, it could be a mistake that this broadcaster saw something that wasn't, but it leads me to believe that he accidentally saw propriety information that wasn't supposed to be put forward, and he read it like it was fact. But that was the problem. Like, the UFC might be deciding, do we put it here? Do we not put it here?

It's obvious that it's probably been under consideration, but I don't know if it has come to completion. Again, dude, if they put these fights on the sphere, two thumbs up for me. I'm just wondering, why are we calling it UFC Noche? Just call it UFC 306. What if only one is correct and the other fight would be Grosso Shevchenko 3?

I think that's fine. Either iteration still holds up if you put that fight with it. Again, still a little weird you're putting a Spaniard in there. Because, again, Mexican Independence Day from whom? Oh, but, but, but. What the hell was that again? Can we rewind that? Wow.

The point I'm trying to make is, BC yeah i'm not knocking the fights i'm not knocking the event it's great can't wait to see it you know it'll be awesome i guess i just don't understand the labeling i don't understand the labeling that's the part i don't get but if they have what the hell if they have a title why why do i sound like i'm here we go that better okay maybe yeah uh well toporia did celebrate i'm sure he celebrated spain's soccer win yesterday luke over england i have this proprietary video of oscar willis uh taking his uh taking his shirt off during england's loss guys it didn't come oh yeah look at that that guy's dude oscar willis now look he is a rascal but he's my favorite rascal

i gotta tell you watching all the brits suffer yesterday, it was enjoyable. See, you have gone so hard in the paint on Ilya Teporia. No, no. Dude, did you not see all the— Listen to me. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Listen to the words I'm saying. Did you see all of the Scots killing the English on Twitter yet?

You don't follow soccer? No. You send me all these soccer clips and go, these don't matter to me. I don't know what this is. I got news for you. Most of the world hates England and wanted them to lose. Just so the soccer community more broadly.

I'm sorry, Columbia lost, by the way. I know they did lose too. I'm sorry. And they probably deserved it. Anybody here a soccer fan? Anybody? No, they're not. Anybody?

Ken hates soccer. I watched the game yesterday, but none of us watched. The English are not sympathetic to the world community, me assure you but okay i was going to say because you you know you've made the idea of fellatio and toporia you know a regular thing that you know i was you make me cheer against spain just so you can't have that moment yeah but i'm not the only one who's been calling out Teporia of late or questioning your man love for him under the guise of like,

is he doing, is he acting in the way he should after beating Volkanovski and trying to get back? You know Robbie Fox from Barcelona, right? I do, yeah. Hey, let's listen to this. Everything Elia Teporia has done since winning the title has been so annoying. The way he's handled Max, the way he's handled the BMF title,

the way he's just a Conor McGregor the bmf title the way he's just a conor mcgregor muppet baby now and he's just trying to be conor mcgregor at every turn fight max and get on with it i don't disagree yeah i think uh this is i love robbie by the way shouts to robbie who's the man one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet i know it's like you want to try to find a way to hate him and then you meet him you're like he's awesome you cannot hate robbie it's not possible however he is profoundly wrong about this you guys just don't i mean yes he has been we've talked about this before he has certainly been a little bit what was the word we used previously um an outspoken fan rob no no no no no no talk about to porio he's been like he's been annoying

like the self-importance and everything has been really annoying he's put out his post thanking himself look okay yeah i mean that's really weird that's super fucking weird however he fights on about his regular schedule as other ufc champions you guys don't like him partly because of that also because he beat one of your favorite fighters like to me i i just find it yeah i'll leave it alone at that i i i like here's here's my bc here's my bias yes i like watching good fighters great fighters i don't like watching fighters who i find pleasant on social media i like ones who are fucking awesome when the cage door shuts and he fills that requirement out no problem loosely related i don't i forgot to add it to have you seen this shit but speaking of spain

did you see that there was a youtube boxing event over the weekend in spain four million concurrent viewers on twitch stadium looked like a wrestle WrestleMania setup with about 80,000 people. That's the Real Madrid Stadium, yes. And they had Will Smith, among others, perform. And then one of the boxers came in with a messy, what was it? A messy jersey. Barcelona jersey in the rival Madrid stadium and held it up like a total wrestling heel move. I can't believe, like, I was shocked when the first logan paul ksi fight

in london like sold all those pay-per-views and filled an arena yeah i'm shocked that they filled this many people for youtube boxing this is my point like i mean maybe this guy is way more popular than ilia taporia but ilia taporia plus the ufc machine why couldn't they do that right the appetite we here's the funny part, like England, in terms of the European markets, was a first mover in MMA. Obviously, you go back to Ian the Machine Freeman

and so many other great English fighters, they were kind of first, and they're still going to be a very important, prominent market for the foreseeable future. But the lingering markets,

the Frances, the Germanys, the Spains, they were not big features in the last 10 years in MMA. But I think, BC, they're going to be huge in the next 10. The appetite for this stuff in these markets is enormous, and they can put on a show.

Let's see it. I want to see if Max versus Ilya is not in the sphere. I want to see it either in a stadium in the States or that exact setup that you're talking about, stadium in Spain. Can UFC just get to the stadium portion of their promotional career? Because I feel like there's a lot of money to be had there.

And also, like, dude, I remember watching the GSP fight with Jake Shields in Toronto. Right, which that fits that description. Which was like one of these shows that when you see it, it just will forever be in your memory because of how different it looked. There's a communal element to that

where it doesn't matter if you're 300 yards away up there. It's the same thing of seeing the stones at Giant Stadium or something. There's this communal element of like, we're here together for this moment, only not like seeing the old-ass stones. It's a historic moment. I mean, you kind of had that.

People had Brett Okamoto, who you always reference, just follow things when I bring the guy's name up. Yeah, you want to have sex with him. I mean, just an ex-co-worker that I really like, okay? Turns out, so Luke, he always marvels at being in that stadium that they made. Didn't they make Marvel Stadium for that event, or am I making that up? When it was Rousey versus Hol. And just that, that moment,

wasn't there where Whitaker where is he was too? I don't think that's quite, I don't think it was just for that. Okay. But that, that set the attendance record at the time. And it was like one of those shifting cultural sport moments. I want fans to have that on the regular. Do you know what I'm saying? Like I want, like, why aren't we going to Legion stadium when it's right next door? I know. Is it, does it, is it,

does it only center on Dana's belief that you don't have that same experience as a fan when it's when it's that big so the issue I think that is the biggest one is partly that there is you know they're doing the sphere so fear sphere show so it's not totally credible to say that they lack imagination but I do think that it's like they don't have the kind of will to do stadium shows yeah and the kind of do think that it's like they don't have the kind of will to do stadium shows in the kind of regular way that we would like them. They could probably do it,

but they just seem reluctant. The other thing is, and I think it's a bigger one, is you can put these Russian Muslim fighters in these Middle Eastern countries. They're going to be well-received there, and you can still do well on pay-per-view. Teporia, to Robbie Fox's point,

has not converted the fan base into treating him like a big pay-per-view star. Obviously, he's very good and everyone respects his ability, but there's not that component. So, it's one thing to take a Habib to Abu Dhabi. It's one thing to take Islam to pick a place out there

where, yes, you have a different time zone, but you've got a much bigger pay-per-view star. Taporia doesn't quite solve that problem yet. So, let's see if he beats Max. Like, for example, maybe you think Max is going to win. Maybe he will. Under the, we're positing a world where, let's say, Ilya does what he says he's going to do,

which is the first person to put Max's lights out. That would be big. That would be big. That's the kind of thing he has to do to elevate himself, I think, to the kind of place where the UFC would even consider a time zone change in pay-per-view. It's one fight, and people are already trying to say he's going to be the next Cody Garbrandt who has this career-defining performance and then never lives up to it again for whatever reasons. I hope not.

Just for the sake of the sport, right? Yeah, I don't think that's very accurate. Even though I'll be cheering for Max against you. Topic number five, though, Luke. Loaded show as we continue. Hey, it's Jake Paul versus Mike Perry pay-per-view fight week. On to Zone Saturday from Tampa, Florida. Mike Tyson out. Rescheduled to November. you hey it's jake paul versus mike perry pay-per-view fight week here on the zone saturday from tampa florida mike tyson out rescheduled to november so jake paul and all intense tense

and purposes or whatever that intense and purposes it phrase says is going to take on the danger of bare knuckle pay-per-view star mike perry so luke outside of that narrative of Jake Paul needing to win in theory to preserve that can't miss Netflix super fight with Tyson. What is tangibly at stake in your opinion for both fighters in this fight in terms of their respective combat careers, which come from different backgrounds, but suddenly they're at the apex here of, of the celebrity crossover bubble.

So it really only depends on two different outcomes. So in the event that Jake Paul wins and now Mike Perry loses, there's nothing at stake. It doesn't meaningfully add anything. It would put somebody finally on his resume. That was 32 versus 37 versus 40 something. But in the end, it doesn't really change his stock.

It doesn't change his future. It is a marketing opportunity to promote his Netflix fight against Mike Tyson in October, I think that's right? November. So that's really all that's on the line there. And if Mike Perry loses, you're like, right, well, he's not a boxer, and we all are familiar with the Jake Paul experience. He got some marketing.

He can go back to be a KFC. No harm, no foul. I don't really think it means anything at all under that circumstance. It's the reverse. So needless to say, if Jake Paul were to lose to Mike Perry, let's talk about the Mike Perry angle first. Ben Askren couldn't do it. Tyron Woodley couldn't do it two times. Anderson Silva couldn't do it. Nate Diaz couldn't do it. Mike Perry would be the one. Mike Perry would be the one. And by the way, what's his face?

The Fury Brother. Tommy Fury couldn't do it either. Not an MMA fighter, but certainly a pro boxer, for whatever that is worth. Mike Perry would be the one to upend the apple cart. We talked about the guy's ascension since leaving the UFC and getting wins over tough guys in tough circumstances, like gritting out a win over MVP.

This would be the crowning achievement of all crowning achievements, in part because he's going to a sport that he doesn't really have a full background in, and it's kind of a setup fight for the A-side, to be quite candid with you. Because of the size difference, largely. Yes, and the size difference. I mean, this is designed for Jake Paul to win. That's what this is.

So, like, it's not – Mike Perry winning is not supposed to happen. But if it does, it would be the most remarkable turn for a guy leaving the UFC that you might ever see. Concurrently, when Jake Paul loses under that circumstance, this is a disaster for him.

You would lose to a guy you are roundly expected to beat to the point we just raised with circumstances, the wind at your back, with size, with experience. This is supposed to be a tune-up for the Mike Tyson thing, a marketing opportunity, a stay-busy fight for the Mike Tyson thing. That would create jeopardy for that particular contest. He would almost certainly have to do a rematch if he did. It would be disaster for Jake Paul. That's what he's up against here on saturday

it would make because there is a pro wrestling feel at times in the way that these fights get promoted and sort of play out with the craziness it would be the ultimate completion of the most unlikely baby face turn in combat sports history like let's not forget that mike perry left the ufc largely because he was kind of cut right mean, I know that we try to reframe that sometimes as he like was a free agent and walked off and went to another deal. But like his stock as a fighter was very low at that point when he left UFC. His stock reputation wise was non-existent, meaning we tend to, we tended down the stretch Luke to watch him for the car accident side of the road variety.

Dude, he would walk into restaurants on camera and knock out old dudes for talking smack. Like he was a different level of crazy. Luke, he's almost wholesome to the level where he's not wholesome, but like he's, he's got a family life. We cheer for him in that regard,

dude, if he did this for his career and was able to flip it, it's why, when this fight was announced, we said, how would you even escalate the call out? If you knocked out Jake Paul, I mean,

it'd probably have to be Conor McGregor or nothing because that's how big this would be. But speaking of big and the size, that's what's holding a lot of people up. So let's recap. Mike Perry fought largely at 170 as MMA career wasn't considered really large for that division, right? Luke has been boxing at 185 because or BKFC at 185 because largely his ability with the bare knuckles and his relentlessness to get inside and make it difficult for bigger guys like Luke Rockhold.

Jake Paul was training Luke to be a heavyweight against Mike Tyson, was walking around well above 200 pounds. This fight will be at 200 pounds. Mike was on Fight Hub TV with our guy Marcos Villegas. Villegas, Luke? Marcos Villegas. Marcos Villegas. Love that guy, by the way.

A veteran in this game and the talk was about Jake Paul slimming down Luke and the talk turned to your favorite category in sports and topic performance enhancing drugs let's listen in you questioned Jake's weight when I sparred him a couple years ago I was 179 180 and he was 195, maybe 205. To put on 25 pounds, I don't know how someone does it, I guess, without a cheat code. Some extra stuff, some extra sauce in those minutes. It doesn't matter, though.

It doesn't matter to me. Maybe, you know, I could just be saying that just to mess with him. He does look flubbery and, you know, whatever. And I also told him, I don't think you were 230. Because if he was 195 to 205 in those couple years ago when I acquired him, I think maybe at largest he could get up to almost 220. Mike is not concerned about the size difference, but was he inferring that Jake is a little bit saucy right now? He was lightly suggesting.

All right. Luke, will we see fight week hijinks? What are your expectations this week? Yeah, it's going to be the Jerry Springer show. I mean, right? I'm not even saying that like a bad thing. It's just that's what it's going to be. It's what it's going to be. It's what it's going to be.

So I'm expecting a lot of homophobic slurs. Okay. We happen to have a clip of that if you missed his appearance with Jake on the MMA Hour a couple weeks back. This is what you might expect. I won't get out of your face. There's nothing you can do about it. I'm in there all night long. You're going to get married.

I kind of like that. Get all up in there, bro. I do. Yes, I do, bro bro i want to be married i want to be entangled with you forever i'll even hit you a little reach around brother if you want that yeah yeah i like that because i'm ready to go all the way you you say your hands are bisexual my hands are all types of sexual trisexual bisexual, bisexual, asexual, pansexual. You can get it any way you want.

Any way you want. Let's get married, bro. Get up all in my face. And I kind of would like it if you put your notes in my mouth, and I ain't gonna lie. We already signed the papers, man. It's already written. I mean, what are you gonna say to that? It's awesome. It's so stupid.

BC, suck my balls. I mean, this isn't a awesome. It's so stupid. BC, suck my balls. I mean, this isn't a fight. It's a wedding. Remember when Jim Lampley, the first time we interviewed him? Jim Lampley, like, these are two guys falling in love. They hate each other so much. They love each other. I'm like, Jim, they're fist fighting, not falling in love.

Luke. Fighting and fucking. Let me tell you the DraftKings odds as we speak, because I think as the days roll on, we do fear for that size difference for Mike and the, and the fact that Jake can actually, to a certain degree, especially in the, in the crossover bubble can be a technical boxer can jab and hold draft Kings has Jake Pauly minus three 40 favorite plus two 50 for Mike Perry. We've heard, we've seen Eddie Hearn say Mike Perry has no chance.

We've seen a lot of people say that Luke, are these odds representative of how you think this fight could go? Yeah. Yeah. I tend to think this fight could go? Yeah. Yeah. I tend to think that they're probably right again. Mike Perry's up against it. He is a B side and he's a B side. It was an undersized one,

not in the sport he typically competes in. He should not win, but Mike has been proving a lot of people wrong since he left the UFC. Again, shouldn't win, but it'd be quite interesting if he did. And not out of the realm of possibility either, obviously. I'm looking forward to it, and maybe we do MK Free Fridays this week

and dig a little deeper after they get some press events. Yeah, let's see. Let's see if they do reach around. Let's see if they have sex on stage. I don't know. We'll be the first to report it. They definitely kind of intimated that they were going to be doing that, so I guess we are where we are.

Those are your five topics of the week. And Luke, you know when you discover a new binge-worthy show? I don't know if you're addicted to any at the moment. Not right at the moment. Or a song that you bump on repeat. I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I'm highly favored, right?

Yeah, he's not either of those things, but yes. And you just have to share it with a friend. So they can experience just how awesome it is. That's the feeling that I have right now, and I want to tell our listeners about, that it feels like when you discover Mint Mobile. It offers a premium wireless for $15 a month, does Mint Mobile,

when you purchase the three-year plan. Three-month plan. Three-month plan. It's such an awesome deal, Luke, that there's no way really you can keep it to yourself. Like things in college, you've got to spread it around the dorm. You know what I mean? If you're looking for an affordable but reliable way to get some mobile coverage, I think this is a fantastic deal, BC.

$15 a month for full mobile coverage, Luke, is what we're talking about with Mint Mobile. Friends don't let friends get haircuts, they said about Metallica in the 90s. Friends also don't let friends overpay for wireless. But all plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered to the nation's largest 5G network, BC. Indeed. Indeed. Sorry, Corey Maniche tweeting me,

texting me about the Blessed and Highly Favored song. Yeah, it's terrible. Shout out to that guy right there. Luke, all plans come with high-speed data, unlimited talk and text that you just said, and love that for 15 a month use your own phone get that with any mint mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all your existing contracts and i got to say whenever it comes to the idea of switching phone switching providers the first thing you're always going to say is man everybody has that number i need it not a problem with mint mobile not at all all right so to get this new customer offer and your new three-month premium wireless plan

for just 15 bucks a month, great deal. Go to mintmobile.com slash combat. That's combat with a K. That's mintmobile.com slash combat. Cut your wireless bill to 1515 a month at mintmobile.com slash combat. A three-month plan, $15 a month. You pay a $45 upfront payment. New customers on first three-month plan only. Speeds slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for more details.

Man, I love great partners in this show, Luke. Thanks to Mint Mobile. Thanks to DraftKings Network and hopefully Brazzers in the future. You know what I'm saying? MK Hub, indeed. I got a thumbs up. We do give you an opportunity once a week. We used to allow you to send your artwork in,

but we got to get a second show, you know, on the books for that. Luke, it's coming. But what we do is Sunday nights on Facebook and Instagram on the at morning combat account, we put out a disclaimer. We will put out a call to you. Actually not a disclaimer. We say, look, send your questions in and your hosts will answer them, but they better be

good. Okay. This one's called. Yep. From dogs. called the from dogs that was gross all right luke uh let's see what the fans have to say after a weekend that was first question coming to us from at bike life underscore bde well i couldn't get down with that with now are we saying john or jan with yeah I mean that's he's Brazilian so I don't quite know how to do it okay with John Silva's impressive performance on Saturday against

Drew Dober in that absolute war which considering that he moved up in weight on two-week notice to take this fight which weight class do you think Silva should stay and compete at regularly because his power Luke did seem to carry the lightweight Do Gilbert seemed a lot bigger and I realized that he lost and got stopped, but I'm just pointing out. He did seem quite big. If Silva can make one 45, he should stay at one 45. It's the issue of,

can he make it right? So it's not one of these questions like, Oh, he can make both. What's the question? Well, if he can make both, then just stay at one 45. But if you can't, then there really is no both. What's the question? Well, if he can make both, then just stay at 145.

But if you can't, then there really is no choice. That's as simply as I look at it. He looks like a little bit of a killer, though. I mean, it looks like he wants- He looks fucking awesome. He looked tremendous. That whole team, fighting nerds, all those guys, him, Kyle Behalio, all those guys, Hoofy, they're all amazing.

That was a great TV fight. And we sort of saw somebody take the next step and went up. Were you surprised as i was they interviewed drew dober afterwards it wasn't like it was fight of the year but they so he was the hometown guy i i sort of get that i sort of get they rarely do stuff like that but again i got nothing bad to say about dober dude comes to fight does not is not deterred his eye was falling off luke and still wanted to continue ridiculous chin too i mean that guy's been hit with some heavy leather and stood up and withstood it.

He's a real man. Let's go to the next question here from our folks. This is from at Fergal Fitz. After nine UFC fights, Poiton 8-1 with seven KOs and a two-weight UFC champion. After 10 UFC fights, Conor McGregor was 9-1 with seven KOs and was a two-weight UFC champion. Great question.

Whose run is more impressive? Conor's. Explain. Conor's beaten better guys. Conor beat, again, that was a very underdeveloped, but he beat Max Holloway. He iced Jose Aldo. We're saying Conor threw Eddie Alvarez at the peak of his powers November 2016. Just the top of the mountain.

Conor beat Eddie Alvarez at the peak of his powers November 2016, just the top of the mountain. Conor beat much better guys. I had someone on my live chat last week, BC, ask me about, they asked me about, like, you know, is this a renaissance? Because 185 is having a bit of a moment, but they're like, is this a renaissance also at 205? I'm like, guys, 205 has never been worse. I mean, maybe you could say, say like the early proto days of MMA,

but in the modern era, it's never been worse. This is a division that when it was hot in UFC with your, he went kind of back and forth a little bit, but your Vitors, your Randys, your Chucks, your Titos, concurrently over in Pride, you had Arona, Rampage, Sakuraba, Overeem, I mean, Vanderlei, Dan Henderson, concurrently over in pride you had arona rampage sakuraba overeem i mean vanderlay dan henderson like concurrently at the exact same time it was the number one marquee division in ufc while it was arguably they had a good heavyweight division but certainly one of pride's better divisions if not their best one sure concurrently concurrently it is a fucking graveyard compared to that now so while what

peretta is doing is amazing dude like it is amazing i mean we're comparing two of the greatest runs of all time in a short period connor would connor beat significantly better competition significantly please be serious again i can argue that john jones's run and particularly that calendar year that i brought up recently is also you know maybe the greatest stretch I've ever seen. His 2011? Yeah, the year that he won the title. Four fights. Bader, Shogun, Rampage Machida.

Those four fights and the destructive nature in which he won them. Yeah, finishing all of them. But yeah, look, Poiton is carving out something that is unique, given him circumstances. As much as I want to see the craziness of the crossover ideas of him going up the heavyweight him against ankalayev is a great fight and look that would be yet another badass name if he can get his hand raised there so no stop in poet on right now no no let's keep it going you look like you just lost interest in the show it looks like your soul just

leaked out are you all right yeah i'm good all right let's keep it going then i guess it was me at alexander underscore underscore Evans underscore 07, do you think Sean O'Malley deserved to win the ESPY for 2024's best MMA fighter for his win over fifth-ranked contender Chido Vera while Poiton KO'd two former champions? Yeah, so here, while I... The performance that Sean O'Malley put on

over the course of five rounds was very, very, very good. Really commendable. It's really not a lot bad you can say about it. So the question is, whose was better? I would argue that the two wins Poiton had were better. Now, I think there also might be a question of what the voting time frame was. It's not January to December.

It's always weird. Right. So that might change the conversation. But if we're just comparing that win to the two wins, yeah, for sure, the potato deserved it under that consideration. It's not like the ESPYs have really ever mattered, right, in terms of what they represent. Like, we won an ESPY.

I mean, I think it matters to the athletes who win. I mean, it matters from the idea of an entertainment show and, oh, hey, we won the ESPY for team of the year. You can't say it doesn't matter because if Poiton had won it, we'd be like, yeah, he deserved it. And now you're saying, oh, well, O'M we won the SB for team of the year. It doesn't matter because if, if, if Poiton had won it, we'd be like, yeah, he deserved it. And now you're saying,

Oh, well, O'Malley won and he didn't deserve it. What does it really mean? No, it would mean something in either case. It's just that, I mean,

it means you've crossed it over to some degree. You're getting like a mainstream shout out on a big thing, but like, it doesn't really mean anything. I mean, it's a signifier of elite success in the sporting world. Sure. Whether it's the ultimate arbiter of that is obviously not the case, but it means something.

I think if Poetan had won it, we'd be very celebratory about it. I like that you fancy yourself the ultimate arbiter of combat sports without actually saying it. I like that. I mean, I just try to give my takes. That's what we all try to do. Yeah, but you stand on your business, even if people hate you. Dude, why do you bring up that every time? Because I'm impressed by you.

You know what I mean? Why are you focused on? I can't shout you out. I spent enough time tearing you down on the mic. I can't shout you out. How often people are mad at me. You bring this up all the time. Oh, I don't mean it to poke you.

I say other things to poke you, like that Toporia video. Yeah, that's fine. No, I'm just impressed that you inspire me to be more of a badass on the mic i don't believe that but go ahead i'm being honest and real here i'm being a good partner all right yeah let's keep it going here from the fans what else you got uh chin let's go over to at z rigs great question what is one pizza topping that you would choose if you could only have one for the rest of your life don't give me a luke thomas answer of seven if you could only have one for the rest of your life? Don't give me a Luke Thomas answer of seven. I need one and one only for the rest of your life.

Jalapenos. I never would have saw that coming. Jalapenos. I can't hate on it because even though I'm a wimp when it comes to heat, I have grown to love jalapenos on a lot of things. You're really going to pick that number one, dude? I mean, pepperoni would be the answer, but like. First of all, meatball is the answer. Meatball?

Oh, hell yeah, meatball is the answer. This motherfucker's like birthday cake and cigarette butts. Okay, the number two is arguably ricotta. Ricotta, but yes. Oh, don't- Gringo, I'm gringo, okay? I'm an American- I had to.

I'm an American gringo over here. Did you see that Kid Rock angry video? You messed with Krip. You messed with me. I was like, go shoot a case of Bud Light, you 60-year-old zilch. I mean, do you, like, he caught Pamela Anderson on the back nine. Do you give him credit for that? I mean, kind of.

I mean, Tommy Lee really is the one that. Dude, Tommy Lee was in Nate Diaz's locker room at that fight. Was he really? Yes. That's pretty cool. I didn't cross paths with him, but we were back in the same area. He's got Lee was in Nate Diaz's locker room at that fight. Was he really? Yes. That's pretty cool. I didn't cross paths with him, but we were back in the same area. He's got a hammer in his dungarees for sure. He is the original Rocco in a lot of ways.

I mean, my man was steering the boat with that thing. I was like... It's like, dude, if you ever get old and you need a cane, you're money. Like, you're money. Oh, boy. I think we have a final... Oh, wait. Sorry.

Pineapple, I would add. How are you doing the LT thing by giving a bunch of fucking answers? Give one. Meatball. Meatball is such a fucking bozo. No it's not. Meatball is a man. That's the manliest thing I've ever said on this show.

Meatball. The manliest thing. Number one. All right. I'm with you Luke. Jalapeno. Yeah. Because my go to is jalapeno and onion on a pizza.

Oh you're a fucking. Are you the guy who shot Trump? You're a fucking serial killer. Oh, wow. Can you ask Ken? What's Ken's answer? Number one. For the rest of your life.

He said pepperoni. See, that's not a bad answer. I mean, it's an acceptable answer. All right, hold on. Nadir says chicken. Chicken? Yo, Nadir has weed socks on. Did you see those?

I could smell Nadir with the weed walking in the room. Are you kidding? I got a contact high. Love it. it love it i believe we have one more question what do we got here uh from at world's worst hero great name what oh god these people are speaking my language what's your favorite fast food joint and what is your favorite menu item from said fast food joint shit balls that's a great a great question. BC, could you go first? I have to think about that because a lot of people are like,

I like the onion blah, blah, blah at Whataburger and I'm like, I haven't been to Whataburger in 20 years. I don't mean to be like Luke Thomas, but in recent years, I would have said

the five-layer beef burrito from Taco Bell and Taco Bell being the answer. Seven-layer? Or did they change it? No, seven-layer is too much rice. You got to go five-layer. At other times in my life,

I would have said, I would have said a few things. I would have said the arby's beef and cheddar but let's go with right now i think historically if you look over the course of my life which is very fast food heavy i have a black liver that i'm working on to speak for it the answer is wendy's that's the best fast food chain that's the one if i had one more meal before death fast food wise i think i'm going to wendy's and as much as this is the most vanilla answer of all time it's the classic single dude it's the square patty it is like that's the cheeseburger i want luke okay can i ask a question now there's crazier cheeseburgers the texas toast one at checkers will change your life it's like a grilled

cheese it's amazing i've never been to checkers florida as my friend mal said last night when we were hanging out with that uh tysonong, more to come on that. He said that Florida, if they do one thing right, it's fast food. They are aggressive in terms of that regard. But Wendy's is the answer, Luke. And I'll classic single that shit for days, man. So I'm not sure how to answer this one. But can I ask one question that's separate from this before I give my answer?

Please. What is the appeal of a smash burger? What is the appeal? Nocita, you know what I'm talking about, right? They take the burger and they smash it flat as fuck. They cook the onions into it, and the onions, I think, melt into the meat. Why does it have to be smashed?

I think that helps the onions marinate into it, and Ken's saying the crispiness as well so people always want a little texture on the meat I'm with you I don't see the thrill it doesn't really add much to me to the experience so I would probably say the grilled stuffed burrito

I don't think they even make them anymore at Taco Bell that used to be my number one but is Taco Bell your answer for what's your historically look at the course of your life what is your favorite fast food chain you're going taco bell yeah taco bell is definitely my favorite fast food chain i don't eat a lot of fast food but to the extent that i do the number one thing that i order is the spicy chicken sandwich at um chick fil a that's my that's like honestly what i order more than anything i don't get the spicy there but the chicken sandwich at chick-fil-a is a masterpiece. Fucking amazing. It is amazing.

I get extra pickles in it. I get the lettuce and tomato. I don't put the cheese on there. And then I'll sometimes top it off with the buffalo sauce they have. I can't believe I didn't say beef and cheddar. With a jamocha shake after doing whippets behind Arby's and Waterbury near the Long Hill Projects. I mean, some people that know know.

And that did happen, Luke. I was there. I mean, hold on. Does like a Dairy Queen count? Yeah, they have fast food. Okay, so the Dairy. Chili dogs at Dairy Queen can kill you. I was there. Does a Dairy Queen count? Yeah, they have fast food. Okay, so the Dairy- Chili Dogs, Dairy Queen can kill you. It's not even that, but the Dairy Queen Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard might be Lomé Horror.

Oh, you're going dessert. Now you're changing the game here. That might be number one. That might be number one. Yeah. But for sure, my favorite place is Taco Bell. No, say no. No, say no.

What's your answer? I'm going to go McDonald's, and I'm going to go classic McNuggets. Dude, you're a fucking toddler. You got the palate of a motherfucking toddler. I mean, you can't knock nuggets. Any kind of nugget. I mean, I used to buy 30. Dude, Chick-fil-A's nuggets are better than McDonald's nuggets.

I've never had them. I've had the sandwich. Sandwich is fire. Okay. All right. We can agree on that. All right. My daughter likes the McDonald's chicken nuggets.

Those things are as processed as food comes. They are, but in a while you got to get two mcdoubles and just go for it once in a while once in a while oh let me let me let me reverse uno here most overrated fast food item and what i mean by that is like obviously something that people love now that's a great question i always thought in general and so i know some people attack me for this at burger king in general is massively overrated from top to bottom their patties taste like absolute nothing they had moments breakfast wise through the years but they're they're top to bottom i mean i did mess with their chicken parm thing at one time but overall i think they're overrated badly okay i'm gonna say the big mac agree with you agree with the big mac it's not that i hate the taste profile but like the middle

soggy bun in the middle doesn't do much for me. It doesn't really transform the experience. What are you going to say, Naseed? Ken and Nadir were in agreeance with you on the Big Mac. Agreed. I worked at McDonald's for two years during my last two years of high school during the Arch Deluxe, one of the massive flops in fast food history.

That was the healthy one? No, not healthy. It was the adult burger. It was, they had this incredible artisanal bun and they had elements within the burger that were supposed to be like higher class, like an upscale burger. Dude, I used to F the elements inside,

although they were great. I used to just take that bun and then make triple and sometimes quadruple cheeseburgers in that bun until one time I bit down on the quadruple cheeseburger directly out of the oven that Rich Shuzeski gave me. And I felt my heart skip two beats after I bit it down. Look, and I never ate that again.

The Arch Deluxe was a boss and they got rid of it because they lost so much money on that. People that some people know out there, they know. I also ordered the McHotDog when it came out and it was the grossest thing I ever ate. And oh, I got it. I got it. Are you a McRib guy? That's the answer. The most overrated of all time is the McRib.

McRib is butt overrated. It's disgusting and people live and die by it. But then again, 7-Eleven hot dogs made up half of my youth. So what can I say? And that's a true fact. My dad and I would go on the motorcycle. We would actually park and then set up a little picnic under the tree, which is the most white trash thing you could possibly do.

But that's the connection we have. Don't you have that with your dad somewhere? Like a coffee shop or something? My dad gave out Roy Rogers coupons on Halloween. There you go. There you go. All right, we've got one more segment for you. And arguably, it's the best one in all of podcasting today,

to be fair, right? I scoured the globe for the good and bad, the ugly, the high and low, the in-between from the worlds of combat sports and beyond. Old people get hurt. We see some bad tattoos. This is called Have You you seen this shit? By the way, did you read the Hawk Tua girl interview

with Rolling Stone? She's rebranding herself as like this wholesome, like Dolly Parton 2.0. And I'm here for it. Shout out to that chick. Listen, make a couple of dick-sucking jokes. It could change your life. Look, it's UFC Denver time.

This was the on-the-mic moment of the weekend. Jasmine Jazdavisius hearing boos from the crowd, and she didn't like it. That was kind of the game plan a little bit. Yeah, I'm still working on my striking. Shut up, booze suck it man look she did the adesanya with the with the toss and the throw of the of the fluid that that's something right i popped for that i i appreciate anyone who tells a booing crowd to go fuck off

that's great he'll work luke luana santos by the way won her fifth straight fight, taking Maria Agopova to the woodshed, and she celebrated in the only way she knows how and became a lot of people's favorite fighter. Your thoughts? I think a lot of you guys are so horny. This has nothing to do with me. You guys are in desperate need. Go higher up. Let me say this. Stop that. Hold on. Put the camera on me are in desperate need. Go higher up.

Let me say this. Stop that. Hold on. Put the camera on me for just a second. No, not now. There are so many of you under sex losers. Not,

not the audience watching here, but like send this to somebody, you know, not our MK viewers, not our MK viewers, but MK viewers, you know what I'm talking about? Send this to them.

Y'all are in desperate need of some female attention do what my friends in the marine corps did go hire some prostitutes oh i thought you're gonna say run a train on osborne well that can happen that can happen too find some fine you know find find somebody out there who for a hundred bucks can rock your shit because the amount of online horniness from undersex dudes in MMA is shocking. Y'all, it's the epitome of the no fucking section. 100%. Luke, the most entertaining man in combat sports, Dean Thomas showed up at the UFC weigh-in show.

You know how he does great impersonations? Here's this new one called Kamara Usman. I'm going to put him to shame. He was doo-dooing. He went to go doo-doo. I'm going to just put it. Wow. That's what you, yeah.

This is so. That's what I told you. That's what you were doing? Yeah. Welcome back to the show. Kimura. Kimura. Kimura.

Kimura Usman. What's happening, y'all? It's Kimura Usman. Hey, how you doing, man? I'm doing good. Where that fool Den Thompson at? I don't know, but you fresh, though. You know what I'm saying?

I'm just out here. You fresh, though. Hey, what's up, man? Yeah. Oh, my God. Kimora. Yeah. Hi.

Yeah, you are doing. You like the threads? I like it. This is straight off the back of a hyena. I stripped it with my bare hands. It's still in the parking lot. I get you one. Is that how the pound for pound king rolls?

Yeah. I'm a D1. I'm a D1. The Nigerian nightmare. Okay. He morose. I like that. Look, that continued on and on to hilarity.

Can they make more room for him on UFC broadcasts? I mean it. The combination of humor with he's a badass ex-fighter turned coach, he can legitimately offer quick analysis of what's going good or wrong. I'd almost like a chair at ringside, make him the third band. Dude, years and years ago, I had a segment on Fridays on my radio show

where we would interview top fighters to do just film breakdown. Dean was a guest like two times a month when I was doing that. He's been underappreciated for a long time. Not now, less so. But a long time. Do you remember we had him on the show two years ago,

and he did it from the apex inside the cage? Yes. That was fantastic. Yeah, it was amazing. He's the best. By the way, he did that to Kamara's face. That's ballsy, and I love it. He told me he was working on an impression of me.

I need to see this, Dean. Can you bring this to fruition? I think you had to shelve it because there's no real place to use it. Yeah, because UFC loves you. Luke, this is how he did it. Montel Jackson, 13 seconds against Daman Blackshear. You mentioned Dominic Cruz said that cross, he can't miss with it. Well, he didn't.

He didn't miss. Dude, just kept the hand out there as the feeler. Just changed rhythm. Instead of touching with the lead hand, touching with the lead hand. Changed the rhythm up right there, and then he got him straight punches rhythm luke so you want to be an ultimate fighter here's what drew dober looked like when his eye exploded good lord that's a bad cut that's real like we're so used to seeing bad cuts that were kind of numbed out that's a really bad cut like holy shit holy shit. Shout out to Drew Dober.

Cause he was wanting to continue to fight through that. You see the pictures the next day. No. Oh my God. His face looked like he was in a car accident. Luke Shakur. Stevenson is making the rounds, getting recruited by big time promoters.

He was at the boots fight in the match room broadcast. Here's the quick interview with Chris Mann. So if you do work with match room or golden boy, that means I'd be scoring some of your fights. And I know you're a huge fan of my scorecard. I hate your scorecard. I think you're one of the worst that I've seen in boxing. But it's going to be real fun if we can make it happen.

Good luck, Shakur. Thank you. I tell you what, I like Chris Mannix a lot. I've had good— I have nothing but nice things. As a person, he's cool. He's cool. Hang on.

I like him. Well, I'll just say this. I don't know him that well, but every time I've interacted with him in person, it's been very cool. He did a big preview for me when I covered Mayweather Pacquiao for SB Nation at the time. So, shouts to Chris Mannix. I like that he asked that

and he let Shakur have his way. I agree. That was great. He let him dunk on him. That's what you're supposed to do. I don't always love Chris's takes, but I've been listening to his podcast for years. I disagree with his takes all the time, but I appreciate that he just does his job professionally as best he can and keeps it moving. And I think he's good at what he does. I have a similar role that I'm trying to do. Also, again, I'm going to say it one more time.

You had Sean Porter. You had – Yeah, they have a four-man booth. I don't like that. They had Sergio Mora. They had – who was the other fighter in that? No, Christian was the play-by-play. And they were killing Mannix over pointing out he had that boots was

had a ring rust and then sure enough boots like i had ring rust so yes of course you have to listen to fighters get to listen to people who have other perspectives too all right time to hit the wild and wacky luke of the regional fight circuit where you know anything can happen this fucking guy marches right into the guy on the left is ruben War. He needed six seconds to do that. Wow. The other guy, I want to point out something. He takes these like crow hops. When you do that, you land heavy on the front foot, which means

your weight is moving more into the punch than having a balanced perspective. When you just kind of hop like that and leave feet. Watch the front foot of the guy who gets knocked out. Watch. Heavy on the front foot as soon as he gets cracked there. King Mo coming out of retirement to be KFC. Don't love it.

I don't love it. I love King Mo, so I don't love that. Love King Mo. Don't love that. What about Rampage and Rashad in a boxing match at one championship in Atlanta? That's the rumor. It's not official. I've got so much respect for Rashad that I just don't want to see him fight anymore.

All right, let's go to Romanian MMA, Luke. A lot of people loving this the last few weeks. This two-on-one match. Two females and a fat guy. And it went about as how you would expect. This is BC at prom. Yeah, the women are just after me. I have to keep them off.

So no, they're trying to find the bear spray to go after you. I mean, he battered these chicks, Luke. It's this is like this is fucking gross. This is borderline cam soda material. Yeah, this is really terrible. But you know what? It's a it's a well, look, it gets worse. Seems very Romanian. Bob Sapp was involved in wheelchair boxing as well i don't know if it's

the same card or it's probably not the same card but uh what do you think about this bob sapp ripped still by the way there's so many it's like dude let's fight each other in a car let's fight it's like it's like uh dr seuss yeah i'll fight you in a car i'll fight you up very far i'll fight you in a bar i'll fight you you know and it just goes on like in water and and anything and they're all stupid versions of the last one so how much peds is he's taking these days i mean i there's a shortage because they're all in his bloodstream we also have a left hook from hell on the regional scene this is a great knockout watch this that's a nice one oh j, Jesus. Damn. Look at that.

All right. Jersey of the week time. Let's keep it going, Luke. Anytime someone's going to put on number 69, you know what they're all about. Master Beanhole. Yeah, the Brazilian soccer star. Everybody knows him. Look, he's a legend on the beaches of Ipanema or whatever the fuck.

Luke, your joke of the week comes from this comedian. I've been down that road. I used to get terrible cramps in my jaw from cocaine, okay? Until I found out that you could just buy it with money. I pop for that, all right? No? You're a simpleton. Oh, get out of here.

All right, let's keep it going. Hey, late Father's Day gift idea. Hand job. Better than nothing. I will agree with that, Luke. It is better than nothing, right? Yeah, take what you can get. All right.

Hey, virtual reality and boxing go together with fails very well. Let's watch this. Deserved it. Deserved it. Honestly, if you strap that shit on your head you deserve to get your balls bitten by a fresh dog hey mma fighters in the wild time this is they're regular people just like us let's see john jones in the weight room how much do you respect this 525 pound squat so i'll just say this this is he's obviously strong he's obviously strong but this is called a box squat let's see does he i need to see the positioning of the box yeah so he's he's obviously strong but this is called a box squat let's see does he i need to see the positioning of the box yeah so he's he's way above parallel it's not that he's not strong

or that there's not a point to doing this but given the depth and this is called a safety squat bar which puts the weight in a more it pitches you forward but it's a little bit more balanced because it's not it's different axial pressure it's impressive but it's not like crazy impressive that's that's what i mean okay i mean this does remind me of that time phil sims did like 60 pull-ups you're like no hey phil he did pull-ups he did zero pull-ups oh my god zero pull-up hey i could do a whole segment on poet on every week he was out in the wild in new york city for his birthday with glover and family look they need a sitcom these. He jumped on a rickshaw and started driving Glover around. Okay, I'll admit this is amazing,

but I'm also going to say we're risking overexposing him a little bit. And risking him in New York traffic. Yeah, also get a fucking helmet. You're in the middle of Broadway here. But this bit is amazing. No denying. In Anaheim for the Diaz-Masvidal fight, real recognized real backstage

when Ryan Garcia and BJ Penn caught up with each other. Is this the conversation between Einstein and... Yeah. I hope they weren't talking to each other for too long. Let's separate those two. Let's not let them conspire together. Has he gone to rehab yet?

No, this is what I don't like. So Ryan Garcia put out an apology. You mean that was a bunch of bullshit? No, he put out an apology video at his ex for breaking into her house and accusing her and throwing shit. And it seemed heartfelt, but then he was like,

I am going to rehab, but not yet. Not for another month. I've got some business to do. And then that business was him showing up at influencer events with drinks, right? Yeah, like, guys, if you have money and you have to go to rehab, you just go. Yeah.

They'll let you in almost, in most cases, in most states, right away. Nash instills what David Crosby famously on the helicopter, and he said he'd only go if he can shoot heroin on the helicopter ride there to rehab. Yeah. That's what a real rock star would do. Yeah, like you have to just go.

You don't like plan it like it's a fucking vacation. I know that worries me for Ryan, but there's a lot that worries me for Ryan. Hey, Noseda's going. He's a big concert head, by the way. That's why he's good for the 90s thing that we used to have, the 90s counter. He's going to see Third Eye Blind and Blink-182 in the next five days, right? I'm sorry to hear that. Right, Luke?

Yeah, in the next week. Here's what you can expect expect no one would ever mistake you for being anything other than white let me tell you here's what you can expect luke from blink 182 this weekend i can't hear it you're not supposed to you're supposed to watch okay okay they're getting a little handsy luke this uh reminds me of the live show that we did is this j Jake Paul and Mike Perry? I mean, look at that. I will have sex with you. Come have sex with me. I put them and Green Day in the same category where it's like did I like the experience? No, Green Day's better. Listen, did I like the experience when they were on top?

Yes. But are they both overrated? Yes. I'm seeing Green Day as well in like two weeks. Yeah, they're both overrated. Luke, they're both overrated, let's be honest. And they're very good at their peaks, but they're both overrated. What's the best Green Day song? Anything from Dookie. Whoa, whoa, Nadir jumped in. What'd he say? Nadir said American Idiot. I'm gonna

say She. Yeah, She's a great song. She's a great song. Dude, so this is the... They got some hits. They got some hits. It's the 30-year anniversary of Dookie and the 20-year anniversary of American Idiot. They're playing both albums in full. No, see, I don't care. You love it. I don't care. Bumper stickers of in full. No, see, I don't care. You love it. I don't care.

Bumper stickers of the week time. Luke, let's read these. Keep honking. I don't have my glasses. I'm getting sucked off by a blowjob robot completely powered by the sound of car honks. And I'm about to bust. Is that better or worse than this one, Luke? Let's see what you got.

If this van's a-rockin', I'm in here masturbating. Very honest. Very honest presentation from the American. Someone got this at an Arby's. Luke, we haven't done Rate That Tat in a while. Okay. I want you to give me a numeric score. One being the worst, ten being very, very great on all these tattoos. Here we go.

UFC style on the first one. Here's the lioness. It's okay. It's okay. That's on someone's nipple, Luke. Yeah, it was a little much, but it's okay. What's the score? One to ten? Six. Be the arbiter of justice here. Six.

I thought you were going to go two on that one. Let's go to the next one here. Maybe five. I don't have my glasses. What do you think of this hand crane tattoo? One out of ten. Zero. It's creative, right? It's gimmicky. Zero.

Okay, let's get some cat tats in here. I need this for Reggie Jackson pronto, Luke. Seriously, if I got that on my form at that level of quality, I want your score, and I want what you would think of me as a person if I got Reggie Jackson. Again, you can sort of discuss the aesthetics of it and whether it appeals to you or not,

but as a tattoo, that's a nine. That's a solid nine. It's tremendous. Would you respect me? That's a very high-quality tattoo. Because Reggie, as much as he's this most selfish animal of all time, Luke, and he's an asshole to everyone else in the family, and that kid loves me so much. That kid? Yeah, he's like a son to me.

Would you disrespect me if i showed up with reggie jackson right i would not disrespect you what if i showed up with amanda hebus and emily whitmire like mr hebus's tattoo right there i would disrespect you just a better version of it uh one more cat one for you i want your rate creative that's a zero oh come on and zero and luke uh two more for you on the tats i think maybe a one you'll give a one on that okay this is doc holiday so this is a guy you see where their handshake snake tattoos he's out of west virginia he does these like orange and white um like silhouettes or you know drawings on top of like a black background yes he this is a 10 out of 10

as far as that is incredible that is a fucking and it's cool as shit ridiculously good tattoo not only high quality cool as shit i think he's an mma fan by the way finally luke we got a star wars inspired one can you uh misa what's it i can't read on my glasses no cita can you read that i can't read it either misa heard you's a bad boy so it's a dominatrix Jar Jar tattoo, Luke. That's a negative 8 billion. All right, let's see why people get injured. Luke, they say don't text and bike.

Have you heard that? That's pretty good advice. Somewhere in Europe. Hey, go into the fucking bushes there, you dumb fuck. Let's go to the carnival. There's like a pitch machine. You know, people try to see how hard they can throw it, Luke. Yeah.

Turns out pretty hard, Luke. That's a metaphor for life, Dad. T-shirt of the week time. Let's see. We got a couple good ones here. If it's illegal to deep throat corn dogs with my butthole, then lock me up. That's an American T-shirt right there. If you don't wear that on next week's show, I'm quitting. All right.

Well, I'm a big backer of New England, Luke, where I'm from. What do you think about this one? Call me New England because I've got massive, huge tits. Massachusetts. I mean, that's, come on, that's good. You're five. You're five. You wanted more gym ridiculousness, so this is your, what is going on here?

Someone said this was five sets of Chris Benoit. Oh, my. I don't, is, does he? I didn't say it. I mean, is that an exercise, or can he not stop? Is he stuck? So, what you're supposed to be doing here is doing crunches, but he's doing it in every wrong way possible. All right uh let's get

high here luke this one's called breakfast for stoners what do you think about this innovation holy shit who is this young lady how do i meet her we need to hire her for the show there's no question about it dude stoner engineering makes the world go around some people also can combine talents of balance luke let's see this bicycle balling trick here have we seen this before i feel like i've not seen this oh good then look at this wizard what beach is this i don't i think it's a public park yeah you're right where is this again stupid as fuck but cool king tut there's a king tut exhibit there where is that boston i don't know there's a king tut exhibit in dc. Where is that? Boston? I don't know. There's a King Tut exhibit in D.C., but this ain't D.C., so I don't know. And one more for you, Luke.

I said, I have said many times I would not play this guy on the air. You know the Asian guy, USPI, whatever his name is? The guy who just yanks stuff away and he's got a micro penis or whatever? I told you I would never play this guy again, but sometimes he delivers, Luke. Okay, that's gross. This is how you be self-sufficient and you live off the land, Luke. Watch what he's doing to make this breakfast. All right.

This is self-sufficient pancakes, Luke. This is how you. This is the most disgusting, unappetizing. Okay. The bit got better. The bit. Oh, my God! Come on, that guy's in the

Have You Seen the Shit Hall of Fame. Okay, that one worked. That's the shit of the week. I hope you saw it. We have to catch a train, but real quick, I have a gift for you, finally. We've talked about this behind the scenes a lot. Shout out to Student Glass.

You know that company? I'm not familiar. Who makes fine water bongs, apparently apparently luke and makes fine smoking equipment they have oh this is the premier brand in like fabrication of bongs yes and they have a current they have a grateful deadline they have a mike tyson line and they have sent us some incredible uh samples if you will okay including this incredible vape system that long island luke has and i wanted to you know win you over luke with this mike tyson inspired g-pen which you put the bud right in there i opened it for you look if you want to check it out okay let's see and it vapes the bud right there so you put flour in here yes do i take this off yep and long island luke already figured out

how to do it how do i light oh i just yeah i'll have to is it charged it is charged i charged it last night for you uh luke i also received the mike tyson line student glass gravity oh it's magnetized look and luke i saw it in action last night okay all right and the reviews stellar 10 out of 10 does not begin to describe what student glasses tyson water bong can do for this type of uh this type of recreational activity luke talk about taking it to the next level uh it's a science project and it flips and it bubbles and it is as smooth and potent as anything you could ever imagine taking your uh street level bud to you know i will use this this is actually super handy for me

um see i told you i will reach around and make your day better we will have sex uh shout out to student glass luke i need you to get it i couldn't bring tyson is putting his name on a lot of things these days i will say that because you can buy tyson like regular vapes like no weed vapes um well thank you this is very nice of you uh there's other products that they make everything is top shelf high class if you want to merge the worlds of boxing and mike tyson together with this recreational activity these products could change your life you know that when i showed you the video with tyson where you spin it and the bubbles up and they got the hookah string i mean it is it comes with so many cleaning tools look it's the most incredible piece of operation i've ever looked at or seen people say you know can a one thousand dollar bottle of

wine be really worth it can a six hundred dollar bong be really worth it yeah it'll change your life especially when they're free there you go shout out to student glass hey shout out to long island luke ken nadir all our guys here we had a great show luke shout out to, shout out to Long Island Luke, Ken, Nadir, all our guys here. We had a great show. Luke, shout out to you. Shout out to our great partners in DraftKings and Mint Mobile. To our producer Matt. Yes, yes. Matt Snyder who had set back in the family and we love him. So Matt, we're

sending our we're thinking about you. We love you, Matt. Shout out to you. You've been behind the scenes one of the many. Since day one. Really some day one-ish from Matt Snyder. So much love for that gentleman right there. No doubt about it. That's it, Luke.

That's the show. We'll be back Friday. We'll have another free MK Friday. We'll get you ready for Perry and Paul. And that's it. We're going to have a good time. There it is. Woomp.

In fact, there it is. This is Morning Combat. This is what we do. Thank you for watching. We are out of here