MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Edmonton: Brandon Moreno Dominates | Max Holloway To Light Weight | UFC 309

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

On the latest episode of Morning Kombat, the guys recap a busy weekend of UFC News. First, at UFC Edmonton, Brandon Moreno looked fully rejuvenated in a one-sided win over Amir Albazi. Did he prove he's all the way back and if so, does this mean he gets dibs on the next flyweight title shot? Erin Blanchfield earned the decision win over Rose Namajunas, but did she really impress in the process? Plus, in other UFC News, Max Holloway released a video where he declared his future fights will be at lightweight instead of featherweight. To what extent is this the right call? Also, do we like the Ian Garry-Joaquin Buckley UFC Tampa headliner? If so, does the winner become the top contender behind Shavkat Rakhmonov? Moving to UFC 309, if Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic is fun and exciting, does that mean putting Tom Aspinall on timeout all this time was justified? And, we're less than 2 weeks out from Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson, what chance are we giving Tyson to win and what would it even mean if he did? 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 ho Shout out to Morning Combat Do you want a margarita? Yes! Oh my god! It's time to bang. Oh, yeah.

Monday morning. Get some of this. It's Morning Campbell. Thank you for joining us here on Monday, November 4th, 2024. He's not in proximity to me, but I must connect with him via technology. So let me welcome in this gentleman now ahead of this fantastic show. You're looking live and direct into the office of Washington, D.C. Nice jazz hands. That is Luke Thomas. And Luke, unfortunately, you were diagnosed with chlamydia over the weekend. So we're going to have to do this remotely.

But I'm so happy to talk to you from distance. You know what I'm saying? I don't have the clap. My daughter has no school today and my wife is out of town. So I have a literal babysitter on the other side of this door watching her because no one's here to watch her babysit. Oh, OK. I thought you just in my day, we would just turn the iPad on, Luke. That would be the babysitter. All right. other side of this door watching her because no one's here to watch her babysit oh okay i thought you just when in my day we would just turn the ipad on luke that would be the babysitter all right the the team you can do that i mean that's a little negligent i could have done that i'm

gonna move this screen over here excuse me um just give her a matchbook and yeah she'll be fine she'll be fine but no happy to see you five-year-old unsupervised i'm sure the house will be fine you know there you go uh very happy to connect with you luke i found this throwback hoodie in the closet you like this you know do you know my favorite part about that hoodie is is that like they sent that hoodie to like everyone who at the time was a cbs employee dot dot dot except for me well you know you may have been the only cbs employee willing to publicly admonish them during that period so i think you earned that distinction luke. Thank you very much. We have a pretty damn decent show for you today.

Recapping all things UFC Edmonton, looking ahead a few weeks from now to some big events on the combat calendar. We'll look back at the box from over the weekend and get into your questions and DMs from donks, maybe close with a little shiat, if you will, like we like to do here. And I'm not talking about Shiite, Luke. S-H-I-I-T-E. What is that again? There's two different kinds of Muslims.

One's are Sunni Muslims. Other ones are Shiite Muslims. There you go. I knew it was a reference to something related to something that I, yeah, there you go. That you don't understand? Yeah yeah which is most things in life luke you know what i do understand a little bit combat sports and bad comedy so this is your brilliantly dumb show um hey no pink monster for you today what's going on luke yeah my wife bought me these celsius which are pretty good you know um intrepid producer matt S. loves these.

Isn't that right? Yes, the nephew of the Redskins owner. Yes, yes, he's a big guy. By the way, 7-2, 7-2, top of the division. Suck it. How about that? Well, they did beat up on the lowly Giants, Luke, the little Giants with Rick Moranis.

Twice. Two times they beat him this season. Two times. All right, times I beat him this season. Two times. All right. All right. There you go. Luke, before we get into serious combat in Edmonton and, you know, absolute bullshit like that, did you have a nice weekend down there in the old D.C., Luke?

You know? Well, I have good news. Yeah, I did. I actually looked it in jeans on Thursday in the front yard. That is so dubty, baby. That is. It looks baby. That is, it looks like, how can I take something that's already trashy and make it worse?

Were you in a wife beater too, Luke? No, I was in one of my awesome true classic shirts, by the way. So shout out to true classic. Shout out to our sponsor. But I do have good news.

I would bring him on camera and I would pick him up, but he is still very, very delicate and he might start coughing if I do. Barbas is alive. I did not in any way. Imagine that. Wow. pick him up but he is still very very delicate and he might start coughing if i do um barbus is alive i did not in any way imagine that wow hip-hop horns for barbus yes yeah dude it was it was bad it was really bad um i thought he was hairy like 70s pornography no it was uh dude i didn't think he was gonna make it in part because they told us he probably was not going to make it yeah but um basically he had a misdiagnosed problem they thought it was a trachea

issue because he was coughing and it turned out he had heart failure and then the heart failure turned really bad because it went untreated for about a week and uh it nearly killed him uh it has nearly killed my bank account to save him but save him we have we have so he's on every he's on every medicine you could imagine but uh he's okay he is okay um he's back home so that is so great day by day hour by hour minute by minute whatever it takes savor the time all right enjoy it we're trying bro we're trying it was tough um so they put him in this oxygen tank at his at my local vet and then they were like you got to take him to the 24-hour hospital which is all the way across town but they wanted to get him stabilized before i could do that dude i swear to god i'm not

kidding i thought he was gonna die in the car on the way there i kept looking back and he kept just falling slowly like this and he managed to live but uh jesus it took a it took a chunk out of him so thanks everyone who's on a kind note thank a bunch of mk fans reached out i really appreciate that so thank you to everyone who who sent a nice word mk nation behind this this gentleman war barbous luke big big fan over here reggie too reggie jackson sends his warmest love just so you so you know animal to animal all right all right are. Are you going to mouth kiss him on air today? How's that going to go? We're feuding over his face bite from the other day.

You know, he's an aggressive lover. Luke, all right, I'll tell you that. That's great. Hey, let's bring in our third member of the team, the producer. He's the co-host of the Main Card Minute, where he does bong hits and bets on Saturdays. It's Long Island Luke. How are you, brother?

What's up, guys? How are we doing today? Good, good. You all are you all fired up after that Blanchfield Nama Eunice tilt from Saturday or what? Absolutely not. I was on Rose and that was clearly two to going into the fifth man. Rose really let me down there. But yeah, this weekend's card, not much better. Not going to lie. Yeah, this might be the worst fight night coming up this Saturday. Might be. We say that a lot. Have you noticed that? It's always like...

We do say that a lot. That's a thing we say frequently now. All right, all right. That's it. Reminder, folks, that you can follow the show. You can like and subscribe to our channel here. And there is our social channels at Morning Combat, of course. You see our personal socials, our YouTube channels you can check out.

Please check out the Main Card Minute with Luke Noseda, of course, as well. And our merch, not wearing any at the moment, but I often do. And I got it at morningcombat.store. And if you even want to get a little freaky and get 10% off, why don't you put in our code LIVE10 right now, L-I-V-E-1-0, brother, and get some of that-ish. There you go hey let's let's also not forget to mention morningcombat at gmail.com for anybody who wants to get in dead wrongs you want to get in on fan subs or just to reach the show bc and i won't see the emails unless they're really angry and then the producers inexplicably forward them to us as if we're going to do something about it but

otherwise morningcombat at gmail.com that's the place to go remember that time mikey caught a dick pic i feel bad for that hey listen someone's got a we need someone to jump on those grenades and he was willing to jump on that grenade you know what i'm saying he was mikey's a trooper remember that time he he laid on that bed for us you know what i'm talking about at the studio was his hotel room yeah oh yes it was the max rsd wasn't it yeah we're like hey mikey great news you're gonna come with us to the fights bad news your room is our studio and we're just gonna fart and shit in there so all right speaking of those bodily functions let's transition into our topic first topic of the day here on monday to things off on Morning Combat. And that was the UFC Edmonton main event, a flyweight tilt with some key title positioning at stake.

But in the end, Brandon Moreno looked fully rejuvenated in a one-sided five-round decision victory over Amir El-Bazi. Luke Thomas, did Brandon Moreno prove that after the absence, the nine-month layoff, the recharging of the battery, so to speak, that he's fully back? And if so, what does this mean on his potential at getting back into that mix for the Flyweight World Title? So I don't know how you felt about this. We've not talked about this card, even over text, a little bit.

So this should be interesting interesting which is I definitely felt a he looked good I definitely felt that this performance was for letter b here a get back fight that he really needed and I thought see I definitely saw some elements of his game that I was concerned may not be there and they were actually there he had for example what I was concerned may not be there, and they were actually there. He had, for example, what I was hoping to see, which was, and this is common in Al-Bazi fights, but I want to get to the nuts and bolts of it here. He had a more than two to one significant strike output success rate, right? So I think Al-Bazi had somewhere in the 60s, and Moreno had in the 130s, right? So he was really doubling his output.

And really, most cruciallycially he defended all but one takedown and that one takedown he got I think was round two if I'm not mistaken maybe around three Al-Bazi could only keep it I think they gave I think fight metric gave him two seconds of control time so he keep I think he scooted his hips back and like popped right back up so on that level there is a lot to like about this performance this was was, to me, I remember I thought Al Bazzi was going to, and there was questions about him coming in, but I thought he'd be able to dictate more of the wrestling game or at least the clinch game and kind of control Moreno a little bit.

And that was nowhere to be found. Moreno was able to keep the right distance. He has much more dynamic tools. He's able to put multi-strike combinations at multi-ranges better together by far than Al Bazzi. This was, if you're a, I think the way I would say it, BC, is if you're a Moreno fan, there was a lot to like about this fight. And there was a lot that I thought restored a lot of confidence. In particular, was it a good idea to take this much time off? And did he have a significant downgrade or, you know, was he really rusty coming to take this much time off? And did he have a significant downgrade?

Or, you know, was he really rusty coming back? The answer to that question is no. However, I really wonder what you think about this. Because here was another piece that did kind of occur to me. I called it a good get-back win. And I really mean that. Like getting back in there, fighting a quality guy, putting together a quality performance. Please don't misunderstand me.

But did he look all the way back to me? No, I did not get the sense that he was all the way back. I felt like either he was intentionally kind of holstering some of his weapons or there may have been just a little bit of rust. I don't know. There was a certain kind of dynamism or maybe, no, no, excuse me. There was a certain kind of restraint that I felt was still present in his game that told me this was not the guy that, you know, beat Figgy. This was a guy on the rebound after losing some tough fights that showed you a lot of the same weapons and a lot of the same ability, but not quite at the same level as I had previously seen him. Do you share that opinion? No, I don't share that opinion necessarily. And I wonder if some of that reticence, and I get what you're saying,

was because Al-Bazi never really made him show the extra, extra gear that we have seen in the past in big title fights. When he got the submission where, you know, the finish of Figueiredo to win the title there or defend it. I forgot where we were in the rivalry at that point. No, I saw a guy who had complete control of the game, who leaned on nuances to his craft and his striking and really just constantly had the answers to all the questions Albazi tried to have. Now, did he rush and go for finishes

in any kind of aggressive manner or anything bordering on reckless? No, but that's also, Luke, what I liked about it. It was a mature performance to me. It was him beginning what I think is going to be the second half of his career saying, okay, I've been through the wars. I've been the champion a couple of times. I went through the meat grinder of being sort of, you know,

kind of a celebrity as the face of growing what they were doing in Mexico. I know the face became Alexa Grasso headlining those cards, but when he was champion, it was sort of like Brandon Moreno is, is the lifeblood of this movement in Mexico of, of UFC trying to bring MMA up to speed onto the long tradition of, of the place that boxing holds in the hearts of the great fan base there. I can understand the burnout.

He felt that taking so many tough fights in a short notice while he's juggling being a broadcaster, being an ambassador for the UFC. So what I did see in this fight was a lot more veteran poise and command and control. I don't think he went to those extra gears because he didn't have to, but I also think, and this is where I'll give Al Bazzi credit for this. He was never truly in this fight to win it in meaning that, you know,

he didn't have the big advances or sequences where he was putting, you know, Moreno on the ropes and really threatening to come over the top. But I felt he was stubborn and sturdy enough where Moreno could never fully be comfortable. And I like the fact that Moreno kept his foot on the gas without being too reckless. And really just once he was able to consistently stop those takedowns, exposed him in the striking, was able to keep it to the striking. And that's where I saw a rejuvenated, bouncier, happier Moreno. What specifically are you missing? Would you have liked to have seen him gone for more finishes?

Maybe I'm saying I'm content with him sort of being the veteran, building a big lead, and then controlling that lead without going into prevent defense and without taking unnecessary chances. He drove that ship home survive in advance get the big win that he needed and now i think he is back in title contention in a big way yeah i i don't know if we're saying something too dissimilar i i do like your point that albazi couldn't force much else out of him i definitely agree with that i absolutely 100 agree with that he tried and tried and tried and couldn't get, he's got a very simple game.

It's a very effective game when it works, but it's a simple game. And there wasn't a lot of multidimensional threats because the takedowns, it turns out with Elbazi, if you can stuff the take, and we kind of knew this, but it was really laid out very well in this fight. If you can stuff his takedown, there's not enough with his striking.

It's meat and potatoes, which is very good in certain contexts, but if there's no takedown accompanying it, it with his striking it's meat and potatoes which is very good in certain contexts but if there's no takedown accompanying it it's kind of like Frankie Edgar people think Frankie Edgar was a good boxer and he was but he actually like what Jose Aldo showed was if you take away the wrestling the boxing becomes much less effective and so yes I think you got a lot of that with this one too and again to me it like, you had all this time off. You were coming off of a weird fight with Brandon Royville. I mean, did he look better this time than he did in the Brandon Royville fight? I don't see how you could say he didn't. He absolutely did. I guess my point was

if a guy can't do that much to you, you're out striking him two to one. He can't get a takedown basically to save his life. And when he got one he couldn't do and literally nothing with it you know if the plan was to play a more cautious style uh you know not a significantly more cautious one but a cautious one relatively speaking because of all the other factors it's not like i'm saying it's a bad thing what i am saying is there is a little bit more to moreno's game that just never materialized here. And it's not because Elbasi did anything to shut it down. I think that's the kind of point that I'm making. Elbasi was sturdy, though.

He was sturdy. He was still there. He was still coming forward the whole fifth round. In fact, he tried to do a half-hearted, desperate Max Holloway, let's stand in the middle. I think he was just always there enough that Moreno was like okay I'm comfortable with kicking his ass at this level and then I pushed the pace a little around five he did see if he can get Elbasi out of there I just challenged the idea that that guy who was fighting on Saturday was all the way back I think what you could argue is if he wasn't all the way back was it a concerted

decision to not do that right was it a concerted decision to play it a little bit safer given some of the stakes given what he was hoping to do you know you don't want to like follow up a bad performance or you know a a strange performance anyway and then all this time off and then come back and get in front of your skis and now all of the same problems re-emerge and like why did you do that so like I understand there's a case for that but i guess the point i'm trying to make is i just did that to me was not brandon moreno all the way back whether it's because that part of him is gone which i don't think is true or because there was probably some kind of a strategic element in place that that intentionally limited what he was willing to do that to me is entirely justifiable i just saw some people being like oh he's all the way

back he's i mean this is that's oh, he's all the way back. He's, I mean, this is, that's the guy. He's all the way back in a different form. I mean, he'll never be the same guy he was in his, you know, in his early physical prime of his late 20s becoming the champion for the first time. But I think, Luke, these are necessary changes. That's why I'm saying I felt like this was the beginning

of the second half of his career because I feel like this was necessary. What makes him so fun is that, yeah, he brings craft, but he brings a dog and he brings the pace and he puts exciting fights on you. But you also have to take big punishment back in return to keep that style going. I felt like this was his way of kind of saying, no, I am a little crafter in these areas, craftier in these areas. So let me keep him on the outside, but let me also slowly beat him up.

And that's what we saw. But hey, don't take our grade for the performances. Long Island Luke, I think we have Moreno talking about how he would grade his own performance here against El Bazzi. Tonight I was on fire. Tonight I wasn't worried about nothing, okay? I don't know. I was telling that because with Roybal, I feel like my mind wasn't there, you know?

I wasn't automatic, just fighting, throwing punches, doing whatever. But tonight, again, everything was connected. Every piece was in the right place, and I was ready to fight with everybody if it was necessary. Look, he was flowing in the confidence, the happiness, the full-round game. I get what he's saying. Against Royval, he was just walking forward and fighting it was just stalking and fighting there was so

much more thought and craft put into this that's why i liked it okay it was a mature performance yeah no i didn't dislike the performance at all i thought it was good uh i'm just trying to be like one of us has the clap and it's not me. I can tell you that one of us. Yeah. See you later in the week. Yeah. I just thought that it was, I saw claims that this was the guy that beat Figgy and I'm like, if I, I believe what he's saying is true that not only did he, could he connect things, but like, you know, the muscle memory was there.

Everything was put together in the way, but there was still a, you know, the muscle memory was there. Everything was put together in the way, but there was still to me an inherent restraint that I just feel like you have to categorize performances according to what they are and where they are. And this to me was the right, maybe even the best choice to make given where he's at, but that still doesn't make it all the way back. In fact, am I wrong for saying this?

I believe this is right. Didn't he say he doesn't even want all the way back. In fact, am I wrong for saying this? I believe this is right. Didn't he say he doesn't even want a title shot next? I thought when they asked him who he wants next, he said he wants to get back to the title. I thought that's what he said. Did I misinterpret that in the cage here in D.C.? Do we have that, Long Island Luke? We have sound of him from the press conference afterwards telling.

So let's listen to him and see what he says. I would love to fight for the title tonight. You know? I mean, my goal is to keep these kind of performances in my next fight. But I mean, tonight I feel so connected. Everything was on point, was perfect. My timing, my distance, my take on defense. So nothing, man.

So hopefully I'm going to put all my effort to show this to the world in my next fight. Do you think, given the performance tonight, your name value, you're kind of a star with a legacy in this division, is that enough to get the winner of Pantoja and Kai Asakura? I don't know, man. I mean, hopefully. I want to be honest with myself.

I think maybe I have to fight one more time before the title. But I don't know. I don't know what the UFC is thinking right now. Maybe they get so impressed with the performance tonight and say, like, hey, maybe he can get the title next. But, I mean, I know Roybal is there. Kaikara Franz is there trying to get their opportunity for the title next. So, I don't know.

I'll be ready for whatever. I'll be ready for whatever. I can get some rematches with Roybal. I don't want to fight with Kaya again because I fought against him twice and I beat him, but if I have to do that. But I mean, Tatsuo Taira is there. Kaya Sakura,

let's see what happens in the fight against Pantoja, but if he loses, he can be the next one. I don't know. let's see what happens in the fight against Pantoja, but if he loses, he can be the next one. I don't know. Let's see what happens. Look, he said he's ready to fight for the title tonight. So he took your strawman arguments and he stuffed them in a locker. Did he? Because he also just said he probably has to fight one more time against somebody else before the title.

Did you not hear that part? I know, but I think he's being realistic to the title picture. So let me ask you this, Luke, what should be UFC's handling of the title picture moving forward? Obviously that could be dictated by whether Kai Asakura in his UFC debut takes the title from Pantoja, but you got Royville at number one coming off of a very solid win against Tatsuya Tyra. You've got KKF in position again.

It seems to strike to go for the title. Does Moreno's name and importance to the brand still have enough value where he could be fighting the winner of this fight after 3-10? I definitely think so. I definitely think so. Again, this was restorative because he was, to the point that he's raising, like

distance was on point, shot selection was on point, takedown defense, lights out, basically. I mean, almost, not quite, but almost perfect. About as perfect as you need it to be anyway, right? So all those things were really, really great. You have to kind of figure out, obviously, it's hard to know what the UFC wants or who they think is owed something. And, you know, do they want to go back to Australia?

If they do, does that favor KKF? Do they not? Do they plan to go to Mexico? If they do, does that favor Brandon Moreno? So there's all these other, like like calendar and then geographic location arguments that are hard to understand because we're not in the UFC's war room that will impact who gets the nod. But here's what I would say. I think if Pantoja wins, they don't give it right away to Moreno. They might have him fight Royville again, and they'll probably give KKF a title shot.

I think that's the least possible. They may give Royville a title shot and then have Brandon fight KKF. I'm just pointing out if Pantoja wins again, I think that Moreno might have one more. However, my gut tells me that if Asakura wins and does it in Asakura fashion, which is like, you know, brutal TKO, they might just push Moreno to the front of the line. Because that, I mean, any of those fights against,

if it's Asakura KKF, it's Asakura Royval, like, none of those fights are bad. But Moreno Asakura is like, I think, I don't know how you feel, BC, but I feel like that is the best fight. Yes, is it a worthy title fight to make of course but like what is the best permutation you could put together to get the best kind of action you could do moreno and pantoja again but if he loses and asakura wins

i feel like moreno asakura is like dynamite a dynam dynamite, awesome matchup. It is dynamite, but that's why it's so dependent upon that fight at 310. Cause I have to ask you this, if we're being fair and I don't just bring this up because you know, I love me the raw dog, Brandon Royval, but as much as we're saying here that Royval has a chance as the number one contender to be on an Island. Why? Because he lost twice somewhat recently, including the rematch for the title to Pantoja. I do want to remind you, Luke, that Moreno has three losses to Pantoja,

not just two. If you count that exhibition in tough. So is that fair? Now the UFC might just do it for everything. You said Moreno is the closest thing I fly. We have to a star depending on where that fight is. Southern California, Mexico,

Moreno would make a ton of sense. But to be fair in meritocracy for whatever that's worth in modern UFC, isn't that just saying F you to Royval if we're trying to throw Moreno in there a fourth time with Pantoja? Yes. Yes. Royval's case is strong. It's really strong. Obviously, losing to Pantoja is not great. But in terms of what he's done to rebound, in terms of what he's done to stay busy and relevant and good, and like, you know, asking him,

hey, prove it at this next juncture what you can show us, and then doing that basically against the best the division has to offer, it's him. You can't complain if Royville is next for either Asakura uh I guess or even the thing is is if Pantoja wins I wonder if they go KKF just because it's a fresh matchup um but short of that you know you've got Royville at the front of the line and it's difficult to be a guy who's I mean you know both guys in More in Moreno and Royville to have lost to a guy before, in certain cases, multiple times,

and then try to get another title shot. So KKF is kind of sitting in the catbird seat here a little bit as well. But it's, again, it's really, really, I just feel like if the UFC, like this is a division they almost cut, right? They bled it dry. It kind of revived itself it's still to me not fully all the way back in certain ways but I just don't see them looking the other way if Asakura comes out looking like he did in Rizin against Pantoja they're just gonna be like oh we'll

just give the guy who really deserves it the most you couldn't go wrong with that I just have a suspicion that they won't do that. No, I think what you're saying makes a ton of sense, and I think you're right on. I think KKF is next for the winner of the 3-10 fight, no matter what. Because it's a fresh matchup, because KKF has CKB, Oceanic connections,

and we've never seen him break through and have that big title victory yet. We've only seen him, what, in that interim bout against Moreno in which he was winning, and then until he lost it. So I just think that makes the most sense. And the answer to our questions about two guys with at least two defeats each to the current champion, I think that answer is answered, or that question

is answered, by them going into the cage against one another. Luke, it seems pretty clear to me that the fight to make really for Brandon Moreno is the trilogy with Roy Volth. Talk me off that ledge. Why? They both have a win. Talk me off that ledge. Why? They both have a win. Don't they both have a win?

Yeah, no? Yeah, they both have a win. It's a trilogy. And the winner gets the next title shot after that, potentially. That's not a bad idea. I just put the territory for you. That's not a bad idea. That's not a bad idea.

Yes, you know what? You make a good point, actually. Yes, you can absolutely do that. That would not be a bad solution to, again, depending on how things go, that would be a reasonable solution to the situation, yes. Do you like, though, Brandon Moreno in this Saif Saud era of his career? Because remember, he went to get betting advice in Kansas City until that training relationship was shut down. Are you liking who, now that you've seen this mature performance,

and like he said, he showed all the weapons, the takedown defense, everything. Is this the best way to get him to maximize what's left? And how much do you think is left given that he's been in some wars? And this is a division that isn't always kind to aging. Well, see, this is what I mean. It's like, was he restrained against Al-Bazi strategically by his own choice, given the circumstances, or has he, has, has the game pulled a piece from him and now he's just not the same anymore. And so it's really hard to tell,

because again, this is a great performance. I mean, he beat a quality guy in a very high quality way. I hope people really understand. I'm not in any way bagging the performance, but I'm trying to tease out what's happened there given that there's a little bit of a step missing if it's intentional as we said before it's one thing but you're you're talking about Saif Saoud I I have all the confidence in the world and Saif Saoud I really do I mean that doesn't mean he'll win the title that's really not my point because again if the wars took something out of them I don't know who it matters who you go to. You can't necessarily get all of that back. It's really, really difficult.

But this was a really strong performance. And the reason why I say that is, while to me it wasn't an he's-all-the-way-back performance, it was so fundamentally sound that it's something you can really build off of. If the fundamentals begin to drop out, right? And again, he has weird punching mechanics mechanics i don't mean that per se but i i mean like all the pieces of his game blended well he looked in control he never got overconfident he never he didn't make

any bad choices is really the point i'm trying to make here he made a lot of good decisions from minute one to minute 25 you know safe saoud is a guy who can bring you to that position you have to be talented enough and you have to work hard enough on your own to get there but under his tutelage he can get you there so I have all the I have full faith and confidence that that relationship can get Brandon as far as Brandon can go the question is BC is how far is that was he strategically restrained or as you know dude the fight game you watch it long enough it just it absolutely tears these guys into lesser versions of themselves and you just can't lose sight of that even when somebody comes back like Moreno and looks overall pretty

damn good it did seem like Moreno was also the star of Edmonton meaning he brought all the Mexican population in that area to the forefront and they really treated them like a star. When that fight started and in round one, they're like, let's go, Brandon. I'm like, we had a Trump rally here, Luke? What's going on? You know what I'm saying? But a final question related to Moreno, Luke, is this,

and I had a couple of dongs slide into my DMs to bring it up and they wanted me to bring it up on the show. I don't know if I agree with it, though. They're saying saying look if this is a kind of a new moreno here starting the second half of his career what about a consideration of moving up to 135 where he'll have the speed and in some cases maybe the boxing advantage i just think he's so close to being back to the title at 125 and he seems to be a more mature version of himself i want to see that let that ride let that dice ride before you need to go up there right i'll say this i would be very surprised He's 125, and he seems to be a more mature version of himself. I want to see that. Let that ride. Let that dice ride before you need to go up there, right?

I'll say this. I would be very surprised, very surprised, if we arrive at January 1, 2026. Just make it Jan 6. Let's keep the joke going. Okay, why am I the arbitrary? Okay, if it's the anniversary of Jan 6, I would be very, not this coming one, but the following after that, I would be very surprised if Pantoja is champion.

I would be very surprised. It's going to get taken from him. I don't know if it's going to be Asakura or KKF or Moreno himself. I don't know. But if I'm Moreno, you would want to go to another weight class if you're really out of options and you're at a stage in your career where it would make some physical sense you can get some fresh matchups and your best chance of winning a title is somewhere else so think about it for figgy now figgy was older and we weren't

sure how things were going to go for him at bantamweight in fact i was initially skeptical but what we found was his power carries to 135. Obviously his ground game and his scrambling is phenomenal. His striking is very, very good. He's got great speed. He doesn't have to drain himself as he gets older and it's all these fresh matchups. And lo and behold, he's turned himself into a either number one contender or quasi number one contender. Brandon Moreno doesn't really seem to be facing those circumstances, at least not many of them. He still looks to me like he could get another title shot in this weight class, and it looks to me like it gets a little premature to say this,

but it doesn't seem crazy to think he could wear gold in this division again. So a few things have to play out ahead of him, and he has to kind of be patient maybe and pick the right fights. But I don't think moving to bantamweight maybe he could go win a title there bc but does he really need to go do that i know because bantamweight's got almost a historic level of killer i know i don't call it historically deep anymore that it's kind of figuring itself out but it's crazy deep 125 i know it's a lot of rematches for him but he's already proven he can beat a lot of these guys let's see what the mature Moreno can do but Long Island Luke I did want to get a clarification

here I know your bone air for fighters typically extends down under because of your data that's why Robert Whitaker is your favorite fighter does KKF bring the same level of movement to the uh to that area my pants aren't moving there he doesn't bring the same level of excitement but i'm a kkf fan so what's the aussies new zealand divide race are we automatically brothers because we're from the same side of the world it's a lot like the american canadian divide oh yeah i don't i don't think it's i mean listen i don't know nearly enough to answer this confidently, but I just don't feel like the American Canadian relationship is the same as the Aussie Kiwi relationship. They seem much closer together than we do to Canadian.

I'm a big fan of the Paquettes to be fair. I think it's just because like, if you're not from the U S or Canada, you probably associate them together. Just like we associate the other side of the world. We associate Oceania together, but in reality, they're two different countries and they kind of hate each other. All right. Well, well, interesting.

Interesting. Long Island. I want I want I'll tell you what. Hold on. Let me do this. Hey, if you're Aussie or Kiwi, tell us if that's the same as the American Canadian relationship. Morning Combat. Not like they would know.

Yeah. By the way. By the way, I want a dead wrong Long Island Luke on this. I definitely want to say he's wrong, but I don't know if he's wrong. Awesome. Inner fighting. Luke on Luke crime. Long Island Luke, a year from now, flyweight, who's the champion?

I don't agree with Luke. I'm going to say it's Pantoja still. Oh, my God. Dude, how much more damage can that man take in a title fight? You're super wrong about that. I hate the clog at the top five between Royival moreno and pantosia but so it would be nice if us curl one but i i do think pantosia is just he only needs what two title defenses to make it to jan 6 2026 i mean he'll make it let's see yeah he's older he's taking an enormous amount

of punishment now the one caveat to that that i'll admit is he could get like one more title defense and then get injured in which case he wouldn't have had to defend it enough for this theory to prove true. But I think if he fights two more times, someone's going to take it from him. This division's wild. And you mentioned the clog. I think that's why Luke's not allowed to shit in that bathroom next to the studio. Which is illegal. What shitter are you not allowed to take a shit in?

That's illegal. Okay's keep it going. Which is illegal. What shitter are you not allowed to take a shit in? That's illegal. Okay, there you go. One day we'll tell the real story on our Patreon of why that you can't shit in that closet. Let's keep it going to topic number two, and that was the five-round co-main event on Saturday's UFC Edmonton card. And another key flyweight bout with title implications only on the women's side. Erin Blanchfield and Rose Namajunas ultimately did go the five full rounds, but it was a tale of two cités or fights.

The first half, the first two rounds being all Rose Namajunas, and it seemed on all three judges' scorecards, the last three all went the way of Aaron Blanchfield. So, Luke, Aaron earns the decision coming straight off of that loss to Manon Farrow in their number one contender fight. But did she really impress, meaning Blanchfield in your eyes, in the process? Because if you see her face in the cage when they read the decision, it almost seemed like she was prepping for a defeat. Yeah, I really can't wait to hear what you have to say about this one, but okay.

It was impressive in one sense, although one very important sense. She got tuned up in the first two rounds. No question in my mind, like just no question in my mind. And the game plan around one was puzzling. Super didn't seem to be one. Yes. And by the way,

like there was a couple times that Rose, was it round four where she went for the takedown and then it got whiffed? Or maybe it was round three where she went for the takedown, couldn't get it, and then Erin was able to push her up against the cage and then get the takedown herself and then basically take the round. It was like there were some puzzling decisions from Rose along the way.

But I want to be clear. She was down 2- nothing heading into the third all right so the fact that she was able to kind of like center her game focus on the part that was still good enough for her and rescue herself on route to a decision win i think a deserving one i know some folks think round four was a swing around i went back and i watched a couple more times it's not it's not it's it's really not yeah i mean it's close but okay i i think that showed some real moxie and that showed some real belief and discipline and you need those things if you want to beat world-class fighters so in that particular sense i did think that part of it was impressive, but the overall development of her

game is now a little red flag ish to me. Um, you know, when she's going in there and busting the doors down and then getting to take down easy and then subbing out or whoever she was doing early in her UFC run, I was like, wow, like, I mean, she's really way ahead of these people. And then she moved to the front of the division. You're like, okay, she's not nearly as far ahead as I thought she might be contrast that with Ilya Teporia, where I thought he was way ahead of these people. And then she moved to the front of the division. You're like, okay, she's not nearly as far ahead as I thought she might be. Contrast that with Ilya Teporia, where I thought he was way ahead of those guys. Then he moves to the front of division and then he beats all those guys too. And you're like, okay, right. He is ahead of those guys. Aaron Blanchfield is not in that position. Both former MK Hammer of the Months, by the way, or Hammers

of the Month, I should say. But the one I want to make was her game is still a little bit simplistic which is okay you don't want to have a super complicated game plan but what I'm saying is the amount of weapons and adjustments that she has to go to are fairly limited and that really hurt her and it took her a while to come around like people were asking like why was this a five round fight if it wasn't she loses this one easy walking away no problem she loses this one and I almost kind of wish I think it'd be and I wish but I think it'd be better for her development if she had lost in terms of the the change it would force to bring her game along she is in a similar situation BC we talked about Al Bazzi in the main event If he can't get the takedown,

I don't know how much is there with the striking to get the job done. She did better in this fight than Albazi did when the takedown wasn't there, not in the first two rounds, but in other parts of the third and fourth and fifth, although I think the fifth she had like four minutes of control time, but certainly in the third and the fourth. In the fourth, for example, I think numerically she had 15 more strikes she was doing a better defensive job in round four to avoid being hit but the point I'm trying to make is she rushed to the front of this division because the skill set skill set that she had

was enough to enable her to do that but now she's that she reminds me of one of these like quarterbacks who played for like a top SEC school and they never played under center they're just playing from the shotgun and they just wing it and then it goes and then they get to the NFL and they're like oh the speed of this game is new and I don't quite I don't quite get it as easily that it felt like that to me where there's like a lot of development that has to happen before I mean did you see anything here that told you she would do better against Fiora? I simply did not see that. I mean, we'll see how things go against Shevchenko if she ever gets a fight that way. I know she didn't call her out.

We'll talk about that in a minute. But, like, I didn't see anything there that would tell me that that would necessarily go her way either. Shevchenko, a master of distance, a master of timing, really good at keeping you at the end of her punches and whatnot so there were flashes and core elements of a game that you absolutely have to have if you want to be elite fighters and obviously bc she's very good but if i have a concern it's the development of her game has lagged behind her speed with which she's moved up the contendership ladder really and now there's a bit of a gap and that is causing me some some concern yes she's not up the contendership ladder. And now there's a bit of a gap, and that is causing me some concern. Yes, she's not, even though this win featured some growth in some of those key categories, including striking.

I mean, she went in there in round four without takedowns and outstruck Rose. Now, I do think that played more into the negatives. I'm going to speak in a second about Rose's performance. But it shows you that she's improving and evolving. But you're damn right. If she's going to evolve her striking at this speed, she's never going to make it against the true elites. In my opinion, Shevchenko and Grasso will tune her up on the feet, to use a Luke Thomas

phrase. It's going to be completely dependent then on her taking people to the ground and trying to physically dominate them. Only it's going to be even harder against those two names I just mentioned because of how skilled and battle-tested they are. So how did she do? I think you nailed it. She did well in some key categories.

Like, Luke, if I'm looking at her as a stock, and she's still so young, 25 years old, in terms of, like, is she showing you that the foundation is there for her to one day be not just a champion, but maybe even, like, a successful dominant champion? I still think it is because the reason why she won this fight was to use the word you did. Moxie was a key part of it, but so was elite championship cardio to keep pushing that pace and just out,

you know, just wear Rose out as we catch Luke. I mean, give it to us. Just give, give the people what they want. I mean, you're the P you know, that's very Peter North of you in a lot of ways, Luke, you know, I, I feel that spirit. You know what I mean? I'm ej you in a lot of ways, Luke. You know, I feel that spirit. You know what I mean? I don't want to wear that spirit. I'm ejaculating a lake of semen. What's happening here? Okay.

Yeah, just coming right out of your mouth. So, Luke, what I'm saying is, like, the motor, the adjustments, the poise, even in that Faroe fight when she was getting dominated and almost outclassed, there still was that poise, like like I'm going to figure this out. I'm going to keep running full speed and try. So yes, it's a credit to her that she got the job done here and that she got the win and that she advanced.

And I think Daniel Cormier was right in the interview afterwards saying, this is the biggest win of your career, the best one of your career. Now she's had wins against quality people where it was one sided, where she got to play that a note and she can dominate playing that. But Luke, I have those same concerns against that upper tier because even though this division is not as bad as it used to be, you still wouldn't call it deep from an elite sense.

That elite core is still at the top of this division and they're still super elite. The questions coming in were really, is Rose still of that ilk? Is she actually rising? Does she have a title shot in her future? Can she turn this around and make a two-division champion run here in a new division?

We got those answers pretty firmly, Luke, and they're a no. And as much as I need to credit Erin Blanchfield for why we learned those answers, I do think, Luke, a lot of the reason that Erin was allowed to make that run in the second half were the things that I didn't like about Rose's game, her performance,

and to be very fair, her standing in general in terms of which direction of her career she's going. If I'm going to be the biggest Rose superfan, then I always hold that responsibility. If you're going to superfan somebody, you have to be their harshest critic at the same time. And Luke, I see diminished returns from here on out. I had those questions of who Rose really is at 125,

and I think we learned more about who she is, and I don't like it, and I don't think she gets back to this point again. I think we may have seen the best and last of her at this level. That's harsh coming out of here, but Luke, for her over three rounds to be unable to make an adjustment, including in that fourth round where it was kept on the feet to be able to figure out how to outclass somebody who still, to a large degree, has some basic level striking out there.

That was a huge red flag to me. Rose wasn't busy enough, and I think once she got taken down in round three, she was a watered-down version of herself the rest of the way. That's not going to cut it. You can be a litmus test in the division with that ability, and she'll still beat a lot of people in this division. But if she couldn't win on Saturday under those conditions and that circumstance, and again, I'm not taking anything away from Erin.

She pushed that pace to make Rose have to be in the spot where we kind of saw her almost break. But Luke, tell me if I'm being too emotional here. I saw former champion Rose who, when she's at her best, she's right. She is one of the best of this era. And even in women's history, that spark's gone. And I don't know if I don't think it's coming back anymore. It was weird, dude.

She was cruising in the first two rounds. And I'm like tagging Blanchfield over and over with right hands. And I was like, oh, man, I totally undersold her Jesus she looks great and then it just kind of fell apart this was my read BC I wonder if you think I'm onto something here or not first two rounds again she was flowing she could I mean again Blanchfield's entries that left a lot to be desired her exits she got now she did better as I mentioned particularly in round four just not being there to be desired her exits she got now she did better as i mentioned particularly in round four just not being there to be hit enough but what i really noticed was in the fourth round for example rose was going back to the same weapons over and over again the same

combinations over and over again or at least pretty similar ones anyway and there wasn't enough adjustment from her and so it's like okay Blanchfield was getting pieced up and that was going bad, but then she made a switch and it wasn't just the takedowns again. Some of the defensive awareness I thought was pretty good from her as well. Rose didn't. She just kind of kept, it seemed like, I'd have to go back and look in closer detail, but it seemed like she just kind of kept doing what she was doing in the first two rounds and then hoping it would work. She didn't have another so here's my point i'm not in any way challenging that 125 is not an ideal weight class for her because like with the amount she was landing and like how clean she was landing on blanchfield it was having an effect but it wasn't having like a hardcore effect and i wonder

if at 115 it would land with a little bit more authority. But I also don't necessarily think if she goes to 115, like, oh, that solves the problem. There seemed to me to be like an in-fight adjustment issue, and I'm not sure where it derives from. Well, let's be honest. The stuff that we really don't like about that Esparza rematch, Luke, like we don't necessarily know what that's rooted in or necessarily why that happened outside of there is a pattern in Rose's career.

And Pat always talks about Pat Berry, her husband and coach about how every fourth fight, I think it is like, it gets a little wonky. She'll take a bad loss or she'll have like, you know, a really off night. But even though it wasn't the same circumstances that Esparza second fight. And again, that round three where Rose was being taken down by Blanchfield and just sat on that took a lot out of her but rose at 115 isn't in those moments and doesn't have that physical response so luke i saw some of what i didn't like about

the unexplained nature of that as far as a rematch in this fight did you get that same feeling like where it's just like you the old rose that that adjustment. And maybe it's harder because it's at 125, and she was in there against a physically strong flyweight. But Rose is also pretty big in this division when she bulks up too. And for as much as she was dominating in those first two rounds, and she was, though, Blanchard was kind of running into a lot of that. I just don't see that Rose of old that with that, with that thread of the finish, like she held that flyweight or straw weight, which allowed her to win that title

twice and allowed her to have these reinventions. It's, it's not here now, Luke. And it's, and I think she's, I think if she wants to stay on in this division, she's above average, but she's slightly above average and she's closer to average in this division than she is to the direction that Aaron's heading. And I don't even know if Aaron's fully ready for that direction. And we should probably have that chat now, but if Rose didn't fight again, I would understand. And that's, that's crazy to say she's had a two fight win streak, but there's a disconnect in there and I hate to see it.

Yeah. I've seen some folks speculating that it's a coaching issue. I mean, that's, there are a lot of people who have issues with Pat Berry, and in particular here to comment on, per se, the nature of the relationship, other than to say I don't know if that therefore equals he does a bad job coaching. I think the situation could be a little bit more complex. It seems a little bit more internal to Rose, what is happening, from what I can tell. But again, she's still got ability. And I think particularly in these three round fights you know uh I I think she could beat a lot of really good fighters in this weight class

but her inability to adjust down the stretch and it wasn't exactly lifeless as much as it was robotic right rehearsed in a sense that was the part to me that was like huh like there's a there's something missing in the code here that is not quite translating and i saw again everyone's like oh just go to 115 i'm like what's she gonna do against a physical 115 or who's in her face three round three round four round five is she gonna have the same kind of limiting situation? I really wonder about that. I really do. I fully agree with you. And maybe there's another spark in Rose

because, to be fair, her whole career has been this rollercoaster of wild ups and downs, and it's dramatic and inspirational when she puts it back together, and she's done that a few times. But this is not going to cut it. And I felt, I mean, look, to be fair, the real rose

takes round four and maybe this fight still goes a distance but she gets the win dude she gets it done you know what i mean like dude this was a person who won an invicta with flying triangles or flying where was the kicking in this fight i mean maybe she just lost it in round three and that was it the rest of the way she the kicking hang on but... Some of the kicking is justified, but some of the lack of kicking, I should say, is justified, especially because if you're worried about Blanchfield getting the takedown in particular, it's justified. So again, she had like a key weapon kind of somewhat holstered as a consequence.

But to me, it was like you're going for the same... It was the same, I think it was... It was like a left straight right hook she was going for, or maybe it was a left hook right straight. I have to go you're going for the same. It was the same. I think it was like a left-straight-right hook she was going for, or maybe it was a left-hook-right-straight. I have to go back and look at the tape. But I remember she kept looking for the right hand over the top, the right hand over the top, and Blanchfield had moved out of the way from it multiple times,

and she kind of kept throwing it, and it put her out of position, and then she would get body locked, and then the whole problem would then go to what it was going to. And I'm like, she used to be able to make that adjustment or change it up or something and that part to me felt weird to watch i guess that's what i'm trying to point out yeah and i feel like she gets hit too much at flyweight maybe that's just the reality of moving up in weight in the division but that elusiveness that speed that that being ahead of the game at every turn like she was when she was on top at strawweight,

that advantage is not there anymore. So it's tough to see, but we'll see if she can go back to the drawing board one more time. I mean, I'd love a Trevor Whitman reunion. Let's just do it one more time. Like the Beatles did with Abbey Road. Enough of the fighting. Let's bring back George Martin,

and let's do it the way we used to do it. Let's get the band back together. I wouldn't quite put her on par with the Beatles, but I certainly think that Trevor Whitman couldn't be bad for her. You think Pat Berry's Ringo? All right, all right. I'm a big Pat Berry fan, by the way. Hey, listen.

Hey, listen. Octopus's Garden underrated Beatles hit. Underrated. Yeah, the guitar playing in that is absolutely tremendous, and I actually used to lump that in the Yellow Submarine category incorrectly and say it was garbage. No, Octopus's Garden, the tune, the orchestration is brilliant. There you go.

Luke, there are times that we meet. We don't have to always meet in, you know, abortion rock inside a, you know, a port-a-john. Do you know, I had to miss the show. I had to miss the show because my dog was dying, and also because it was Halloween and Tookie. My wife had to take Tookie trick-or-treating because it was Halloween and my wife had to take Tookie trick-or-treating because I was in the ER with my dog.

But Dying Fetus played in D.C. on Halloween, and I had to miss it. Can you believe that? Wow. Wow. I'm very sad about that. I'm happy for your soul that you were saved from that. By the way, I did not get a single trick or treater. I mean, I say that, but who's going to –

imagine people just knocked on the door and be like, I'm here for the trick. You turn tricks? What do we do here, lady? Hey, let hey let me ask a question what is an appropriate amount assuming you have a lot of kids in the neighborhood i'll put it that way and you don't want to be a jerk off right so i'm not going to go out and buy i'm not going to go buy king-size candy bars but i want to make sure that i do my job yeah yeah yeah roy rogers roy rogers i think you should carry that tradition on by the way uh what's an appropriate amount to spend on Halloween candy for your neighborhood?

I don't know. I mean, you do. You always want to have enough. Problem is, then it lingers. Then you eat it all yourself. But what is I mean, those those Halloween size bags are really expensive. Like the large bags. It can be like 12 bucks.

Yeah. Well, maybe what? Like 35 bucks, 40 bucks. That crazy. OK, so my wife spent 120 on halloween candy ready for this it was gone and it was gone in 90 minutes 90 minutes how much do you give out per kid because i was asking my wife and i had that same debate of like if it's the mini sizes she's like oh i give like four or five i'm like i don't know you know and i'm being like greedy in my mind

because i want to eat it all but in reality what, what do you think? Three per kid is fine? Yeah, two or three per kid is what we usually go for. Two or three per kid. I got AG1 travel packs left over. Would that have been rude for me to just say? Here's a coupon to Whataburger as well as a condom and AG1. Have fun. Thank you, Mr. Thomas, Robert Thomas.

Luke, we have one more piece of art here from Erin Blanchfield, and it's explaining at the Post Fight Press Conference her call-out, which I do think was a good one, but the question is, is she actually ready? But here's Erin talking about Alexa Grasso. And you called out Alexa Grasso, which I thought was perfect. How likely do you think it is that she would take that fight with you right now? I think she already said something about taking, that she would love to take that fight, so I think it's going to happen.

What do you think, you know, in terms of a game plan and approach to that fight, how do you think it would unfold? Yeah, you know, I mean, she's another great boxer, just like Rose is, so I could see it being similar. Yeah, it sounds like they might be going to Mexico in February. Would you be willing to do that fight at Elevation and all

that in Mexico City? I don't know about Mexicoxico but uh we'll see okay good luke here's the key question i already showed my cards earlier is she ready for the grasso showdown and can she win if things don't go perfectly for her well here's the thing right i mean we keep talking about this like you know we're sitting here being like oh her performance was good but not great and blah, blah, blah. But the Grasso call out is actually really interesting because Grasso, former champion in this division. Obviously, we should just fought at UFC or UFC.

Her wrestling. Holy Jesus. I just that's how Valentina won the belt back. Right. To be fair, I just can't overstate how disappointed I was in Grosso's takedown defense I mean just it was I it was mind-blowingly bad you know Blanchfield if she's got one thing it's the ability to strike her way into the clinch or into a takedown and she's got pretty dang good top control like that's a very winnable fight for Blanchfield. So I like that she wasn't asking for a title shot.

I'll say that is good. And again, Grosso off her back, certainly on some level presents a threat on the feet, a huge threat. But I, you know, Blanchfield, I would favor Blanchfield to win that one. I mean, Grosso's takedown defense has just, like, it's not gotten better.

It's somehow gotten worse. And yeah, it was a problem. Dude, can Erin do this quickly? Can she improve her striking? Like, can she make a huge leap coming into the next fight? Because she's showing us that she has a championship chin, too, I believe. Like, she has a willingness to go through the war. And, again, I praise her for making the adjustments against Rose

and figuring out how to win that fight. That's not stuff that you can teach either. So can she fix the striking quick enough to where this isn't a question? I don't think so. Maybe get her Tarverdean, get some head movement in there, Luke. I def, I mean, the reality with Blanchfield is she's still so young that honestly, like, this is what I mean. She's like zoomed to the front of the line where now, like, these are the relevant fights for her.

Grosso is a relevant fight, a relevant fight she could win, right? Like legitimately, you could even see her favored to win. And you can, if she out wrestled her for three or even five rounds, would you be surprised? Of course you wouldn't but her development while maybe even appropriate for her age is still not exactly where it needs to be to have um the kind of skill set that can give the really true true top top contenders or a champion or number one contender a genuine threat like it falls dramatically short there so it's like you know i feel kind of bad because it sounds like i'm not giving a young person who is legitimately skilled enough credit but what i'm really trying to say is her the skill set

that she had was good enough to just breeze past so many fighters in the division it now puts her in a spot where it could actually limit her ability to get better quickly because she has to rely on the core weapons because she doesn't have the ability to really like you know lean into the skill set slowly over time which she would actually need and usually people aren't good enough that they race past the rest of the contendership queue so quickly and they actually get that time to develop so i don't know man it's a it's a weird position she's in. She's obviously good. She's skilled.

She's going to beat good fighters. I wonder about her development long-term based on the weirdness of how everything plays out at 125. Yeah, I would just get in that boxing gym. Let's get after it, right? Let's figure this out right now. All right. Luke Thomas, quickly on the rest of the card,

the Derek Lewis headline is interesting. He was pulled after weighing in, I believe believe but before the ceremonial way and he was pulled for non-weight related medical issues and i don't think we ever got an answer in terms to like what really happened and how serious is it what do we make of this at 39 which you know he's still he's still viable but he's at the end he's at the he's at the tail end here. I thought it was funny that he said he got a great deal from UFC because of Francis, which I was like, oh, that's amazing, right? Of course, you get higher wages when there's competition. But then he was like, yeah, they're trying to space me out

so they don't have to pay me as much. I was like, you know, two steps forward, one step back. Unbelievable. But he has had notorious uh back issues right i mean his back has been a real big problem for him i hope that's not back but it's that would be my first guess uh we do you're right they even asked them they asked the gentleman i forget his name who essentially is in charge of north american affairs or canadian david shaw david shaw um and he did decline to elaborate other than to say it wasn't a weight cut to your of North American Affairs or Canadian Affairs. David Shaw? David Shaw.

And he did decline to elaborate, other than to say it wasn't a weight cut, to your point, a weight cut issue. But there's been no further elaboration. I guess we're just going to have to wait and see. I asked him how much weight he cuts when I interviewed him last week, and he said to make 265, he cuts 30 pounds. Damn.

He's up at three bills? That's what They told me. I believe him. I believe him, too. Luke, did anything jump out at you at this Edmonton card? I thought the card kind of ended up sucking in terms of the performance of it. But Mike Millat didn't blow me away with that three-round win over Trevin Giles after the Neil Magny loss.

In fact, I was wondering if he was on his way to losing that at certain points. What did you take away from that? Yeah, he looked not at all great. Got the job done against Trevin Giles, but he looked lifeless the whole time. I mean, I haven't said it, like, the way he collapsed against Neil Magny, it just seemed like a real bad sign. And then this fight back. This, it almost sounds like what I'm saying about Brandon Moreno

better applies to Mike Malott. Brandon Moreno performed even better than this, even though it was a get back fight. This was just a get back fight for Mike Malott and nothing else. Like there was nothing else to it than that. It was just about getting the dub and then moving forward. There wasn't a whole lot to it. I would say there was a couple of a few of these and it all happened back to back to

back. Yusuf Zalal over Jack Short. Dude, Yusuf Zalal over jack short dude yusuf zalal looks like the real deal holy field he looks absolutely awesome uh in his last few fights he looked great jack shore is a tough competitor and he looked fantastic against him charles jordan at 135 dude no one has i think subbed out victor henry before and he did it in this fight with a nasty guillotine, which he can find in all kinds of interesting ways.

And new tats, to be fair. He showed off those new tats well, right? They're good. They're very, very good. And then Ayman Zahabi over Pedro Munoz. I thought Ayman Zahabi is, you want to talk about a guy whose development has slowly, but very matter-of-factly come along.

Ayman Zahabi, he is old. I'm not saying he's going to make a run for a title. I don't know if that's in the cards. I'm into Zahabi. He is old. I'm not saying he's going to make a run for a title. I don't know if that's in the cards. I'm not saying it's a death sentence, but yeah. But all I ever ask from a guy, and again, it's Bantamweight, it's a tough division, but all you ever ask from a guy is, just give me your best.

Ring the sponge dry of any water. Show me exactly what you have. Sham wow, baby. Sham wow. He has absolutely worked on his craft and he has become a very formidable fighter i really really really respect that and obviously the dustin stoltsfus knockout over uh mark andre barrio was vicious but he was standing there just slugging it out like that's what's going to happen you know uh so uh faraz's kid there's what 35 now

so is jasmine or brother I'm sorry so is Jasmine Jazz who had result wise you know a stoppage win over Ariane Da Silva but I don't know there were also some moments in there where I felt like she could have taken quicker advantage she's 35 but this is

a third straight win is it time for her to fight legitimate contenders at 125 to find out where she's at yeah I think so I mean but this is a third straight win. Is it time for her to fight legitimate contenders at 125 to find out where she's at? Yeah, I think so. I mean, better matchmaking for her up a little bit, I think is going to show us exactly what is really possible here. Also, we should note.

She's a good top game though, Luke. She has some dominant top game. Yeah, no, she's very talented. She's very talented. There's no question. That Darsh she set up was real slick. But Cody Gibson versus Chad, and I had the fight on mute so i don't know how to pronounce his last name chad uh and helleger and if i'm saying that wrong please forgive me

cody gibson yeah cody gibson used the knees to a previously two hands down downed opponent hit him with the knee and then his opponent took a knee, and then he stopped. So it was perfectly legal. But first time in the 10-point must system, unified rules, we've seen someone hit that knee in a legal way. So Cody Gibson gets a nice win, and he used it, or partly used the newer rules to get there. So shouts to him.

Cody also got the first 12-6 elbows legally to cause a cut, apparently. That's what they told him. Oh, nice. Yeah, look at that. Doing the whole bit. Yeah, take that, Matt Hamill. What I wanted to ask you, Noseda, was weren't you telling me when we were saying, hey, you know, the card had some moments, but I don't know,

it didn't really win me over in the end. Weren't you saying that the Derek Lewis replacement was two 0-2 guys making their UFC debuts? What the hell happened? No, that wasn't the replacement. But Kyle Machado versus Bredson Habero was on the main card, and they were both 0-2 in the UFC. So, you know, just how good our cards are recently.

They were trying to sell name value alone to those Edmonton people. But I don't know. Adding the Moreno fight didn't suck. It looked like on paper it had the chance to be something. But, Luke, you didn't feel it. You weren't feeling it, right? paper it had the chance to be something but luke you didn't feel it you weren't feeling it right no thomas no no all right maybe next week's carlos protish neil magni tilt can send you that's over the moon i hope everyone understands that's the main event that's the main event cody garbrandt and the co-main luke but it's not you know it's not

2015 though you know what i'm saying yeah I was thinking about this as I was watching the preliminary card live Tuki was asleep so I was like oh I got time to watch this you know so I watched the prelim card and I want to be clear like you had Cody Gibson on there you had Yusuf Zawal I think it was prelim card but whatever I mean you know I was watching some of the earlier fights before um the bigger stars got started I'm like these are good fighters on here And I'm not saying that the preliminary card of the UFC is identical to like the main card of LFA. But what I am going to say is the distance between them is mostly negligible. The one big difference.

Yeah. Well, the one big difference would be you'll get guys who have already graduated to the UFC level and then usually gotten a few wins along the way so they're slightly better certainly more experienced at a higher level but the actual difference in fighter quality between them is mostly negligible and I don't you know I just want to tell folks like it did not used to be that way like that is that's a that's a that's the way that the business works now. And I, on some level, you have to understand that, but to be clear, the distance between a UFC preliminary card and a high level regional card,

there used to be as much greater significant gap. And that gap has narrowed almost to the point of being invisible. Not quite. It is as much as that's a shocking statement. It's so close to being probably right that I don't even want to entertain it, but it probably is right, Luke. How sloppy are we? Are we close? I was asking Long Island Luke this.

Shouldn't we just do Garbrandt versus Dillashaw 3 at this point? I'd be way more into that than another kind of comeback fight here against Miles John. Is Cody still with it? I don't know if Dillashaw can come back. He's had multiple, multiple shoulder surgeries at this point. He's jacked, though. Do you see him?

He's like jacked. Huge. That's the other part, too. Can that dude even make a 35? I don't even know. Open weight. At this point, let's just do open weight. Open weight, yeah.

If you can show up that night, you can fight. How about that? Put it in Japan. They don't have a commission for this stuff. You could do it that way, but otherwise, I don't know. All right, that'll wrap up topic number two there. Let's go to topic number three, and let's talk about a guy we love in these parts,

Max Holloway, the living legend, the Hawaiian punch himself over there. He's blessed indeed, but his future after this knockout loss to Teporia has a little bit more definition, meaning it seems Max has done at 145 and is going to make the full-time move to lightweight. He put out a video that we can show

you now explaining and and the big question right now is was that your last fight at 145 you guys kind of saw me touch upon it in the press conference and um i can honestly say i think i'm done with with 145 your boy is like i said we're only getting older i've done 33 this cut was you know like jesus this cut was easy bro you know shout out to tyler met to shout out to my wife they helped me make this cut really easy but it takes a total cutting weight period and whatever weight you are like i said i had to give up ramen for my 45 cams so i'm done with that i don't ever want to give up ramen again 155 here we come and 155 is where i want to stay this is a new chapter this is where we start this is where we begin and uh i'm super excited for it

i cannot wait you know like i said never say never but i can honestly look you guys in the eyes and tell you guys i'm probably not ever going back to 45. i loved what I did. I did what I did. You know, I did what I had to do there. Luke Rahman for days in that guy's future. I think we all agree, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, that it is the right move. It's understandable based on everything he said. But I want to ask you a serious question here, Luke.

Let's not discount what this guy's made of. Is it possible that this guy makes a run to the title picture, like literally the title fight at 155? What are your expectations here for Max? I don't think it's out of the question at all. It's difficult. I mean, getting a title shot at 155 is not easy, but I think he can do it. It's tough.

I mean, how easy is it to leave 45 and go to 55 and get a title shot? I think he can do it. It's tough. How easy is it to leave 45 and go to 55 and get a title shot? Not that simple, right? This is a very difficult process. I'll say this. I really agree with this from Max. There was never a doubt in my mind about him being able to make the 45 weight cut, even though he went from 145, then 55 at UFC 300, then back to 45. And I thought that might present some unique challenges.

Fight didn't really go long enough for that ever to be present. But I knew he was going to make the weight cut. There was he's, you know, there's just no denying Max is like the professionals professional. So that he can do it is really not at issue. The question is what is good for him. And I haven't talked to, I have talked previously to Max's old manager and I'm sure they've kept many of the same methods,

but he told me a long time ago that they look at all of Max's blood markers and everything when he is cutting weight, like his testosterone levels and anything you can imagine and those cuts to 45 are brutal on him he can do it because he's just made of steel and he's as mentally tough as anybody in the history of mma but they they come at a cost and the older he's getting and now like the title picture being essentially sealed off from him um it just made all the sense in the world to go to 55 and something else we've been

kind of discussing up to this point was on top of that his punching power he's been working on he's been putting on natural muscle and then to perform as well as he did against justin gaethje again there are some ways to look at that and say that that's a bit of a favorable matchup how would he do against let's say say, a Mateusz Gamrot, who's going to be wrestling him the whole time? I think Max's takedown defense is pretty great, but it's something you'd have to see to really get a better understanding of. But, like, throw out a couple other names.

How would Max do against Dustin Poirier this time around? Max might do really effing well. I know he's lost twice, but it's a new ball game, and I really believe that Max could perform very ably against him. How about Dan Hooker? How would he do against Dan Hooker? I think he would probably beat Dan Hooker, to be perfectly honest with you. How about Oliveira, dude?

Him and Oliveira would be a wild fight. And the first time they fought at 45, that was a very different Oliveira. And I certainly take Oliveira to be better now, but Oliveira's also had some struggles too. So they're kind of getting to a place now where like the matchups actually in a certain way make more sense at 55 than they do at 45 your question was about could he get to a title that's a very tough thing to do I wouldn't preclude it but I just think from a health standpoint from a from a star making standpoint or at least our preservation standpoint fun fight standpoint bmf title defense

standpoint 55 makes so much more sense for him i am glad he's doing this and he should eat all the effing ramen in the world on his way to getting some suffice which i think he can win okay everything you said but i'm gonna add on and i'm gonna even take it further i think he does get to a title shot because i think the matchmaking that's going to be provided for him will help that and I'm not against it and you kind of tease that in a lot of ways. Like, look, what could be the matchups for him? Well, if you're thinking from a pay-per-view sense

and Max without a title is still a pay-per-view star, in my opinion, and a guy you can match up with a lot of people, I mean, what if his next fight was Chandler? You know what I mean? There is a group, like you said, Luke, of the aging core of all action guys, and he already proved that against Gaethje, and I think he could swim with those guys and get big wins.

I don't think he's going to have to go through the up-and-comers, the wrestlers, the hammers to get there. I mean, look at recent history. When stars move divisions, they get title shots quickly. Jose Aldo got one at Bantamweight coming off of a loss in the division. Kenny Florian on day one moving down got to fight Jose Aldo there. It happens regularly that he may get more of an older guy fun action fight in one that I think at his age, even with the mileage,

I think this reinvention, his body will be healthier at this weight, and he's going to have that quickness and that boxing advantage, and we know he's got a legendary chin, even though you are nervous about that idea of going up in weight, going up to a typical all-action division at the elite level, like all hammers. You're going to be in a war no matter what. But I think he can survive in a lot of these wars.

Look, he's not going to have to beat the type of guys that we would be nervous against. I think it's going to take two wins, but I think it's going to be of the variety of the big-name fighters, and he can get plugged in any time and we shouldn't be surprised about this yeah i mean i'm looking at the top 10 here i don't think i'll have to pour a pour a did that he just juggled wins and losses and he gets title shots off that so islam is obviously your champion and he's got a date with saryuk and we'll see when that happens oliver we've already discussed his number two that's a rematch you could make that one fun as hell just engaging we've already been down that road four is poirier

five obviously max holloway is currently ranked at five but if you wanted to go six dan hooker michael chandler i don't think is going to be looking for that although we'll see how he does against charles olivera so we'll see but and then it's got dariush gamrot and fazeev you could do those two but just look at the other ones we just mentioned all of those are awesome all of those are competitive all of those are you would think winnable in either direction you could do those too but just look at the other ones we just mentioned all of those are awesome all of those are competitive all of those are you would think winnable in either direction you could do bmf title for them or not depending how the ufc wants to play it i don't know how that's going to go but yes 155 max i i wasn't sure he should go back down and fight to porio but it was too tempting not to because you know how many chances you're going to get to be in

another title fight you got to kind of take those when they come. But now he can kind of take, I think, more appropriate fights. All of these are going to be bangers. All of these are going to be on big cards. All of these are going to be in fights where he's not going to be as depleted as he once was. I just feel like at this stage of his career, you asked previously about like, hey, does Moreno need to go to 135? And the conditions didn't quite line up. Here again, they line up.

A senior fighter who will get a benefit by going up a weight class. In this case, with Figi, we didn't know how he was going to go 135. We already have seen Max Holloway at 55. And by the way, Holloway, having gone to 55 previously, but just cut less weight. And then this last time at 300, he went up to 55 in a real way to bring his body there. So now he's got the trial and error part already out of the equation.

I just think it makes all the sense in the world. Max is a smart fighter. He's got a smart team around him. This can only be a good thing. It doesn't mean he's going to win all of his fights because it's a tough division, but he's going to win some big ones, and I can't wait to see how he does it. Hey, Luke, I'm overthinking of it.

He's probably one win away from a title shot. Think about it. You won't hold that Teporia fight against overthinking of it. He's probably one win away from a title shot. Think about it. You won't hold that Teporia fight against his 155 chances. He's coming off a win that looks great against where Gaethje was standing-wise coming into that fight. You go in there and fight either, just for example,

Poirier, Chandler, Conor, Oliveira, and you get one win there, you're next for the title. I mean, how would you ascribe his chances, by the way the way against Islam you have to compare him to the top of the division and that happens to be the best fighter in the world what would that fight look like do you ever think about that Luke I don't know I mean the thing was we got very close where folks may forget this but Habib came very close to fighting Max on short notice and that would have been an

interesting test because it would have been somebody, I mean, yeah, Frankie Edgar went after him, but Frankie Edgar, you know, obviously is much more undersized relative to Islam Makachev. So we never really got a full answer for the takedown defense of Max Holloway. Obviously it's a poor, you got him down, but really couldn't do anything with it. It's hard to say. I would obviously favor Islam, but I feel like I, you know, one 55 might give us a really awesome answer to like the full limit of Max's wrestling defense and to see what that answer would look

like I think would be quite telling but this is what I mean these matchups to me are so much more interesting than Max Brian Ortega 2 or even Max Josh Emmett like I you know what I mean do I really want to see it wouldn't be a bad fight, but him versus Poirier three. And by the way, just before the show, I believe Poirier retweeted someone suggesting that fight and put, I think like one last dance or one last ride or final walkout, you know, some kind of way to encapsulate,

like that could be the last one for him in a really fun, dynamic way. Dude, if that's Dustin Poirier's last fight, a third fight against this version of Max Holloway. Holy shit. Yes. That might win whatever award is out there way. Dude, if that's Dustin Poirier's last fight, a third fight against this version of Max Holloway, holy shit, yes! That might win whatever award is out there for the fight featuring the two most beloved

fighters possible at that moment. It's like two extreme babyface American heroes, like living legends, against one another. That'd be a huge pay-per-view main event. I'd be all in on that. Luke, quickly in the welterweight division, the last card of the year for UFC, which comes December 14th,

a fight night card in Tampa is a very good ass main event here at welterweight. Ian Gary going to take on new man's Joaquin Buckley. So Luke, if this goes down, like it looks like they're on their way to doing that, does the winner become the number one contender or, or, or next in line behind Shavkat Rachmanov who's hoping to get his date with Bilal Muhammad or no not rescheduled looks like he could

stay on that card at 310 and maybe fight for an interim title either way this fight could have big-time performance does it produce the next title challenge so I don't know if it produces the next title challenger except to say the following I think if Gary goes in there and looks really impressive it probably does if Gary goes in there and kind of ekes out a win I don't think it does and if Buckley goes in there and even if Buckley looks impressive I don't think that it does so I think it only has title implications if Gary goes in there and really, really impresses. It could.

And here's why. You've got Usman sitting at two, which is incomprehensible. By the way, how the fuck is Colby Covington sitting at six? I mean, you just have to be kidding. So they can justify keeping him in a pay-per-view if they need to. You know, like a lot of Dana White's complaints about the way the rankings work aren't very good arguments, but, like, his general displeasure, I share quite candidly.

You look at something like this, like, Colby Covington sitting at six when he's, like, one and two in his last three, and he's performed, you know, barely at all in the last three years. It's just mind-blowing how he could be up there. But, okay, putting that aside, you've got Rachmaninoff at three. He's going mind-blowing how he could be up there. But okay, putting that aside, you've got Rachmaninoff at three. He's going to be next, depending on how things go. Leon's kind of sitting at one, because again, apparently he's the number one contender, even though he lost a decisive fight to Bilal Muhammad. The rankings are so fucking stupid,

it blows my mind. But here's the problem. You've got Jack de la Manalena sitting at four, Sean Brady sitting at five the two guys in question and Gary and Buckley sit respectively at six and eight there are a couple of different guys ahead right so for example if Gary was fighting Sean Brady and he went out there like let's say smashed Brady which I don't think is likely but let's say he did I could really see a title shot for him and again if he beats Buckley, a guy sitting at number, excuse me, number nine, I said, I said it was eight. It's actually nine.

He's sitting seven and nine. You know, it's not enough to leapfrog Jack Dillon, Madalena to me. It's not, he had that one. If he stopped Ian Gary, if he stopped Ian Gary with something powerful and awesome, but like, yeah, he would leapfrog brady and jack de la maddalena to you i don't think that he would for me i would i'd keep him in the conversation all right he's really okay okay i feel like gary's poised to be a star like they're setting this guy up to make a run here okay but that's just it that's why i sort of started the way i did if Gary goes in there who kind of who's got like what what's

what's Gary's title shot case it's meritocracy plus potential burgeoning star right and again that Irish market which the UFC hasn't been back to since like I don't know how long at this point like I think I said that the last I think I read the last time that a irish guy headlined a card in ireland in the ufc was patty hoolahan hoolahan in 2015 i mean it's been almost 10 years i think they were there in 2018 was that the last time they were in ireland but did an irish guy headline it i don't remember right you know what i mean well now they got that i'll look into it yeah that's the point i'm trying to make it's been a while and like they just put this fight in tampa and i saw some irish people being like upset about i'm like well dude this how the ufc makes cards like they got roster spots slots to fill and they just plug people in as best they

can shut up we're getting it's not magni practice shut up already this is great you know but the point i'm trying to make is i just feel like what brady and adela Maddalena have done in beating Gilbert Burns is such a better win than anything that either Buckley or Gary have put together that one thing I'm not saying it couldn't I'm not saying it couldn't happen BC it could but I would it needs to be really good for them to get one thing I'm saying is Buckley has been fighting for his own future in my opinion he's been taken to the microphone outside of that Connor call-out, but that was also him trying to become part of the conversation, and it certainly made him.

But, Luke, when you ask for big opportunities aggressively in the UFC and then they put you in tough spots, but you come through and get the wins, and obviously we're positing a scenario here where he would not only defeat Gary, but let's say he finished him, and let's say it was like, holy shit. Like, it's hard to deny that when guys come through and over deliver in those moments, you know what I'm saying? Like I'd be, that's the perfect guy that I would make the case for because I don't think all those, those other cases are strong. I don't think they're dominant.

And I think that's the difference. It's always one of these cases where like, you know, BC, I don't know if we've ever talked about this. I was in the boy Scouts. I actually reached the rank of Eagle Scout. I'm not surprised by this, this not surprised by this but that's not easy to do by the way that's like a lifelong commitment yeah i it was it was it was not easy i certainly agree uh you know it wasn't great for my getting laid prospects but uh those eventually turned when i gave all that up yeah what i want to make was it's all about like starting a fire do you have enough of the conditions to get a raging fire going and it can. Do you have enough of the conditions to get a raging fire going?

And it can be, do you have enough of the same, you know, I'm making the metaphor a little bit tortuous here, but what are the weather conditions? Do you have enough kinling? Do you have all the different ingredients you might need to get one going? I could see a scenario where enough come together to build a raging inferno in the case for Ian Gary. But for me personally, it would take a lot.

It would take a lot. Doable? Unlikely. All right. I'll accept that. Luke, let's keep the show moving here. Let's move on to topic number four. And we're getting really close here, less than two weeks out.

So let's set the table for UFC at MSG 309. And finally, finally, the heavyweight championship, the real one, will be defended when Jon Jones takes on Stipe Miocic a year after it was already probably a few years too late. But it will match the maybe most successful heavyweight in UFC history, Stipe, against the greatest fighter of all time and a guy who we still know very little about at this division, even though he's the heavyweight champion.

So, Luke, Jones versus Stipe is what it is. It's something. There's history on the line. There's potential for something here. Let's say this is fun and exciting here. Does that mean putting Tom Aspinall on timeout? Did you write English right here, Luke? Did I read this incorrectly?

What are you trying to say here? What am I trying to ask you here? Let's say Jones and Stipe is great. Does that justify having to wait this long? That's it. Tom Aspinall in a penalty box just sitting there with the interim title. So here's a scenario that I haven't seen discussed a lot. A lot of the conversation has been about, hey, it's been unfair to Tom Aspinall. He's had to literally defend his interim title while these two relics are sitting here just making us play this waiting game.

And the presumption, BC, is that Jon Jones is going to go in there to do something to Stipe that is probably not too dissimilar from what he did to Cyril Ghosn. But I was thinking about this over the weekend, which is, well, okay, but let's see if something else happens. What if Stipe, who, you know, I think he did one interview with Jake Paul recently and hasn't done anything else. I'm sure he'll do more as time goes on, but, you know, has been very, very quiet, basically, almost hidden from public eyes. He's just living his life. What if he goes in there and first of all, what if he beats John? I mean, that seems to me unlikely, but again, we have to consider all possibilities here. Or something else, which is more likely than that, which is John wins, but it's actually a great fight.

It's a fun fight between two old dogs who get out there and it's spirited. John wins. He gets the job done, but it's a blood and guts affair. And people are like, hey, well, maybe, why were we so hard on these two guys they turned in an awesome performance maybe Tom deserved to wait maybe the UFC was right this whole time the question is if the fight is actually exciting and good whatever that might mean to you will that erase some of the what do you want to say? Displeasure with how this division has gone. And I actually think that it will, uh, if it goes that direction, if it ends up being that steep, it goes in there and wildly overperforms expectations. Cause dude, we're talking about steep. Hey, again, you saw that video of him walking out that one time and he's walking like Cornelius

from planet of the apes. Like he looks barely mobile, but if, if steep, it goes out there and this whole time he's working in silence, he's not showing anything that's going on you haven't heard from any of his sparring partners his coaches aren't doing any interviews like none of his team is on social doing any of this bullshit and he goes out there and really gives John the fight of his life and John has to really raise his game and dig deep all up something which you got between Jones and Gustafson. I think people will look on this potentially quite favorably. And they'll be like, yeah, maybe Tom,

maybe Tom deserved to actually sit his ass down and we had to get this whole thing done. It could completely transform the narrative that is going into this, which is, this is two old guys engaging in a complete waste of our time. I actually do believe that is possible. I think it's a very astute take that you just made. And I also think part of that is that we've dumbed down our expectations so much for this

based on being forced to wait so long an additional year. Again, I used to make the argument last November that like, hey, everybody, it's still two legends and we don't know what's going to happen. It's great. I mean, we're a year later, but for you to kind of make that backdoor argument now, I think you're correct. Mostly because history has taught us that it's true. We value the currency the most of an exciting fight that just made us

reminds us of why we love this sport. And I think with these two legends and their respective histories, it could really, you know, not change completely, but add a significant chapter onto both of their end of their careers based on the result, especially if this is some exciting fight. That's what we want as fans. History will not tell the story if that happens of what we actually live through. How do I know that? The best example is what I think is the best boxing rivalry of my fandom and time as a journalist and all of that of my lifetime and

that's Pacquiao versus Marquez we got four fights but even though the fourth fight is by far my favorite probably my third favorite fight of all time and in my opinion still the best boxing match this sport has produced since Corrales Castillo won in 2005 I was also there as a journalist and fan and can tell you that we were like, this is so gratuitous of top rank. We don't need another Marquez versus Pacquiao fight. Like, yeah, it will probably be good and yeah, whatever, but they're old and it's going to end the same way every time. That's going to be a close, really good fight.

But half the crowd will think that Marquez finally got his moment and instead Pacquiao will get some close decision that he may or may not have deserved. Especially their age and what they've been through. We were just sort of like, man, the third fight, while very good, produced a result that fans hated. So the taste in everyone's mouth ahead of that fight was F that fight. It really was. I was there. And then that fight turned out to be one of the greatest things that ever happened to so many of our fandoms.

So we're asking a lot of, though, Jones Stipe to live up to something like that. But I don't think, Luke, it necessarily has to be Pacquiao-Marquez 4 and be this all-time great fight. But as long as it's fun and we learn something here and it's not just old Stipe

succumbing in ways that we're just like, oh, come on. We still don't know anything about John and have heavyweight. As long as we learn things, it'll soften the blow historically. It really will. And then obviously we're going to wait with pain, pins and needles to find out what the winner says afterwards into the microphone. And will they retire or threaten it and what that all means? But dude, if the fight's really good, you're right. We're not going to be telling this long, arduous story again.

We need to wrap our head around what it might mean for Stipe to win. For example, like John's takedown ability early to middle parts of his career was, let me just tell you, having lived through it, it was unstoppable. It was a foregone conclusion he was going to take his opponent down. And that got harder and harder and harder as time went on, but he still was able to do it for the most part. But then I go back to fights like the Dominic Reyes fight, BC, where he does have two of nine takedowns attempted.

He secured two, but the two he got barely mattered at all. He couldn't do hardly anything with it. I think one in the fifth, looking at the the notes here and then one in the fourth the only two rounds that i thought he actually won that fight i thought he lost the first three rounds in that contest and then you know cyril gone couldn't do shit but cyril gone's not really much of a wrestler to begin with steepay is steepay is can you imagine what's first of all is going to happen if steepay just stuffs all of his takedowns like first of all let's just just that automatically changes i think a lot of how this fight could be perceived that's the first

thing to mention but just imagine this scenario for a second imagine if it's a blood and guts fight stipe stuffs nearly all the takedowns or at least enough of it to you know make it a stand-up fight for its entirety and gets a decision win can you imagine the fucking in your face including to people like you and me the in your face victory tour that stipe is going to take and how that is going to completely transform how this fight was viewed and also like what happened to him by the way it's going to make francis look good because because Francis ran over Stipe in their rematch I mean make no mistake about it that fight wasn't close for a second um it'll transform how I think Francis will look to a degree it's gonna I mean destroy John's legacy to not completely obviously because his light heavyweight resume is about as unimpeachable as it could ever be but But, you know, what he became and what this all meant, it will destroy that.

But the dunking, oh, my God. The dunking that Stipe is going to enjoy if he manages to get a win is going to be biblical. If I was his, you know, roommates, bunkmates up there in the fire department in suburban Ohio where he works, I would instantly make an Instagram account and just start dunking on every media member and every fan and just making yeah i do we're gonna we're gonna have to eat shit if he does that in part because we see like you know you mentioned this i don't know if people know what happened in pacquiao marquez for that is one of the most devastating knockouts i've ever seen very few times have i ever watched a fight and thought i think this fucking guy might be dead that's one of those fights it's it's the

closest i can think of bc and the circumstances are obviously like totally different i'm just talking about punch to what the other person did it's like five seconds by the way yeah it's like what josh emmett did to bryce mitchell nuclear shot they're not moving and you're like oh this this could turn ugly really really quickly and badly that's what he did to him can you imagine if stipe has a moment like dude it is it's it's hard to even fathom because we've this is my point we've only ever discussed this other one and i don't i want to be clear i don't think that this is the likeliest outcome but every time you think you know what the likeliest outcome is going to be in fight sports they have a funny way of showing you you don't know shit about the world anyway for sure something

to think about as we get a little bit closer to 309 about what could happen in a world where some of these things take place and by the way the 55 second reference i made was that's how long pacquiao was out cold until the smelling salts revived revived him while they were zooming in on his wife in tears in Bob Arum's arms on the ring apron. Like that was some hairy all time shit right here. That's, that's why that rivalry is so insane. But Luke Thomas, I got to ask you,

what is a worst case scenario for the UFC scenario? Number one is steep. A knocks out John Jones cold and then calls out Francis in the post fight interview and says, let's do the trilogy. Let's find out who the greatest heavyweight is of all time. Or, option number two, Stipe falls out with

an injury during fight week and Jon refuses to fight anyone else. What is the worst case scenario here? I think it's a little different than that one. I think it's, you were kind of close with the first one stipe let's say knocks out john jones and then just straight up retires and so now you've got no real champion you made tom aspinall sit out all this time for basically nothing at

that point and john jones's legacy is again not entirely entirely. I want to be fair, obviously. His light heavyweight resume is insane. But the thing he was trying to do, which would be the Mayweather of MMA, you know, 15-0 or whatever, that's ruined, and he can't get it back because Stipe doesn't want to fight anymore. He's going to Habib exit like, I'm done, done. Like, this is not going to be doable. Yeah, that would be worst-case scenario.

Because now Francis looks amazing. John looks terrible. Stipe's gone. And Tom is sitting there being like, well, who the fuck am case scenario. Because now Francis looks amazing. John looks terrible. Stipe's gone. And Tom is sitting there being like, well, who the fuck am I supposed to fight now? Even if you beat John, the fucking 42-year-old just beat him in that circumstance. Like, that would be horrible for them. If we're going to say worst, we've got to say best. Best case scenario is that Jones looks like Mayweather in picking apart Stipe and then dominantly finishes him,

picks up the mic, says, Tom Aspinall, get your ass up, get ready. Hey, Dana, fucking pay me. And then maybe says, Francis, I might also be seeing you. That's like the most extreme best case scenario for everyone, right? Best case scenario is it's a good fight that John ultimately looks awesome in the end of,

finishes him, and then calls out tom aspinall and if you get that then you know i mean you're just cooking with i don't even need the francis call out if you get it you don't need francis just if you get the aspinall call out from jones everyone is erect from here to hanover ohio yes i i i wouldn't go so far as to say you don't need francis but if john wins impressively and then calls out Tom Aspinall, you have everything that you basically need at that point. There's nothing you're really, I mean, yeah, you're missing the Francis thing is big, but. Yeah, but we can get there.

Let's get one at a time. One at a time. Yeah, yeah. I mean, John Jones versus, or even if Stipe sticks around, which by the way, I don't know if he will, but even if he does, John winning, because he's the bigger star, fighting this up andand-coming guy

after just beating the brakes off of stipe in that theoretical world that would be absolute printing money situation for the ufc wow wow uh quickly here we have a video of brandon gibson talking about john jones's ability here at heavyweight as we enter 309 he is getting stronger faster more skilled at heavyweight you know early on to make that jump from light heavyweight um to get up to heavyweight was putting on a lot of size a lot of mass and now his body's gotten very accustomed to that size you saw his recent photo how lean he's getting for heavyweight um and then we've just assembled this like super team of training partners and coaches so you know john's the greatest student in the game as well so he's always learning

and i think he's already the most dangerous heavyweight there is and now you add in this plethora of new tools oh it's just terrifying there's He would be a nightmare to coach against because there's no path to victory against Jon Jones. That's a scary proposition. If Jones has just been working on his craft and making himself an even better submission grappler and all that, we've always wanted to see Jon at heavyweight for this reason. He's the best of all time. And with certain physical advantages

that he automatically would have in this weight class, I want to see it it that's why i wish that gone fight gave us more stand-up time to actually try to figure out who john is here at heavyweight yeah i mean i don't know if brandy first of all brandon gibson's a fantastic coach i don't know if what he's saying is ultimately true but i tend to take him at his word that john has put together a lot of different skills i'm reading this quote from Steve Bamiyotich, which is amazing. He told MMA fighting, talking about the UFC,

booking him to fight Jones instead of Jones versus Aspinall. And he says, quote, I believe people want to see that him versus John Jones. I think, uh, Steve, I think a lot more people want to see that fight than Jones fight Aspinall.

And I'm like, Steve, I gotta tell you, I don you, I don't think that they do. But whatever. Well, Stipe, oddly enough, sat down with Jake Paul, who asked him the key question about will you walk away, win or lose here? What's going to happen? Is this your last fight regardless of the outcome? I don't know, man.

I say it every time. After every fight, I think about retiring. So we'll see. Right now, I'm just going to worry about the fight. I'm not going to worry about it every time after every fight I think about retiring so you know we'll see right now I'm just gonna worry about the fight not gonna worry about it after until it happens look I'm not sure I got all that we have a translator in house I don't know that we do poor Stipe

I mean you gotta love Stipe Stipe rules he's a nice guy Luke you know he has I'll say this about Stipe like I don't have the same and I think I think i speak for a lot of fans at least currently a different generation this is not so true but i think the current fans i don't have the same attachment to him because he has just not been present right and even when he is he doesn't do media and he doesn't like doing media but i have to say if you

were a fighter i love how he did his career which is that he achieved basically at the highest level almost as much as you possibly could and never had to be anything that he wasn't and that didn't translate to the kind of stardom that would potentially be available for somebody who was as successful as he was but at the same time he got to keep his sanity he got to keep his family he got to keep everything intact made a to keep his family he got to keep everything intact made a bunch of money had a phenomenal career whether he wins or loses against john it doesn't even really matter although obviously if he wins it would be huge but you know my point like his career is he had he's had a great run i actually really admire the way he's

done his career it just makes it hard to have a you know the same kind of attachment to him i'm with you all right topic number five here to have a, you know, the same kind of attachment to him. I'm with you. All right. Topic number five here. We have a similar sort of look ahead because the night before UFC 309 in New York will be Friday, November 15th. When we get Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson on Netflix, finally. So Luke, I've got to, you know, get, take your temperature here. What chances less than two weeks out, are you actually giving Mike Tyson to defeat Jake Paul?

What would that mean? How would we celebrate it? How would we frame it if that actually took place inside Jerry World? Do we have the assets? Because I kind of want to use that to react a little bit if we can. This is, I think this may have been from like the Andre Ward interview that he did, but either way, Mike admitted that his second personality iron Mike has returned quote. I'm always careful when that guy comes out. Every time I drink or get ready to fight iron Mike returns,

I break out in handcuffs. Unfortunately, I have to fight and be that guy. I wish I could stop that guy. That guy haunts me. I wish I could stop that guy that guy i wish that guy died but he's here again and you look at some of these pictures he looks like he's you know for 58 anyway bc i'm not gonna say chiseled out of stone but fucking big strong right does he not look that way to you this is the thing that you and i have labored under a little bit we have had to pay close attention to many of his fights because he did a few of them with Showtime and obviously just because he's fighting other MMA guys so it's kind of in our orbit don't you feel like he's done this to us a couple of times and this is the way that like all

promotion works but it's like especially acute with him which is that like at the end of the day which you just would after all of his fights I'm always like this guy sandbags it's all he does he's the king of sandbagging but he's very good or at least he was for a while very good at making you think okay he sucks enough that he can't be sandbagging right anderson silva might be old but he's anderson silva and who the fuck are you and then he goes and knocks him down and beats him nate diaz oh but it's nate diaz fresh off of a ufc win and then he goes and beats him or tyron woodley fresh out of the ufc okay you know woodley looked a little bit old and kind of washed but it was from wrestling now it's just straight up striking it's better and you didn't think much of the askren win you

didn't think much of the nate robinson win or the pre-diabetic gas station attendant he fought to begin with and he's in gib yes let's put it gets very very mad when you call him a pre-diabetic gas station attendant but nevertheless the point i'm trying to make is he's just the king of sandbagging but he does a pretty good job for i think a lot of people to make you think that he's not and this fight i've noticed bc all of the hardcore fight fans are always like oh my god this is a waste of time what the fuck are we doing and then every i don't know about you every single casual fan i have spoken to is like hey isn't tyson old i'm like yeah and they go yeah but he's still gonna fuck jake up right like it's mike tyson and i'm like dude this guy jake paul is he's the king of sandbagging but he's the king of doing it

in a world where people never see it coming and i i have to believe jake's gonna run over him right like that's that's what's going to happen because that's what always happens the thing is luke that sandbagger mike tyson could still kick your ass and the question is how long is he going to be viable in this fight if it's a real fight and it plays out like one because i I got questions about, like, Luke, if I was doing the same thing that we just did with UFC with the kind of thing that people don't love, the Joan Stipe one, but it could go really well,

to some degree, this fight is that too. It's just in the circus tent. As much as we want to hate it or be leery of it, it's going to happen, so we got to tune in and take part of the spectacle. But what's worse, Luke, that we watch one of our heroes get beat up, like legitimately beat up by a younger man, or that this doesn't actually play out like a fight and is more of like a spirited sparring match. Let's cash this big check together and then we'll hug on the way out. That's almost

just as bad. But if it's straight up the real deal and you know, I hope it is, then it comes down to legitimately. And this is how you, these are the conversations you have with everybody. You have to almost take the casual angle. Cause this is a casual fight. It's not a real fight. It's weird, but the casual angle is true. How long can Mike be super dangerous? Like I think he's a knockout threat in the first two rounds. And these, by the way, are two two rounds. And these, by the way, are two-minute rounds, not three.

By the way, 14-ounce gloves that Brent Brookhouse of CBS Sports keeps reminding us when we debate this in our CBS Sports meetings that how long can this last, Luke? How long can you give Mike? Because the Mike from four and a half years ago when he came back and fought Roy Jones shocked us at how much he still had left. And you saw signs of the old Mike. Like it was almost scary and weird and amazing.

But I don't think he's – I mean, can he be that guy again? How long, Luke, in your mind can Mike be like in this fight and dangerous? Because I think they are going to have a quick hook if this guy starts taking some punishment. And maybe they should at 58 for anyone. I a minute or two that's it for first round yeah like a couple of exchanges i mean dude here's the problem with jake like jake is not a good boxer you know what i mean like even even against mike perry i've this is something that remember when uh showtime asked me to do like tape study on him and we did and I went through it and one of the things that like Jake is this wasn't always true but one of the things that like I really saw

on tape aside from like not great footwork although he's cleaned a lot of that up too but this is one of his biggest problems he will look down and throw he doesn't actually look at the target when he throws that overhand right and he's got a big punch like I'll give if there's one thing you can say about him he can punch like he's actually got a pretty good punch but he doesn't look he looks straight down and I'm always like dude who is going to be the first guy to see this on tape and uppercut him but then he never fights anybody who can like do that to him so it's never a liability that ends up costing him because I'm always like guys if I can see this on tape you have to imagine anybody who's halfway decent can see it on tape I think Mike could take advantage of something like

that Mike's got that I mean I don't know if he's got the peekaboo style anymore but he probably still can punch a little bit you know but remember people like oh he looks pretty good against Roy Jones dude that was four years ago that was four years ago four years in your 50s is like dog years. I mean, you're aging quickly. So I still think Mike can probably punch and probably catch him. But if there's anything I've learned with Jake, it is that he finds a way to make you think he sucks enough to lose even to an old guy, and then he goes and batters the old guy. If Mike Tyson wins, it will be one of the greatest moments, I think,

in a lot of people's fandom in quite some time it would be i mean yeah i know that jake lost to tommy fury but that doesn't quite feel the same and plus it was kind of close and whatever didn't he knock tommy fury down too i think something like that final round yes whereas if he knocks down mike it's just gonna so mike's dangerous but not enough for me to make me believe this is actually competitive i just really really really hope i'm wrong yes i'm with you on that i just have those bad tastes in my mouth from seeing holyfield who was 58 at the time when he fought vitor belfort and that triller thing and as soon as he got hit with one punch his legs were gone and then and then he was on skates, and he got knocked down three more times,

and the referee had to pull the mercy cord. No one wants to see a 58-year-old Holyfield take unnecessary punishment against a maybe enhanced Belfort, who's only 44 at that point. This has potential to go there too quickly, Luke, but Mike didn't box as long as Holyfield. Maybe he's in better physical explosive sturdiness shape. I don't know. A lot of factors go in to like what version of Mike can we get?

But I think the key question is how long we're going to find out November 15th. All right. Those are your five topics for the day. Let's get into your questions that you send out on social media. Every Sunday night at morning combat on Instagram and X, we put out the call. You send your questions, and then we harass you if they're lame. This one's called DMs from Dogs. Speaking of Peter North.

Yeah, geez, wow. This one's from The Harrison Bright. If Brandon Moreno wins back the title again at flyweight, where does that put him all time at one to five? I don't know. That'd be something three time champion. That'd be something. Yeah. I mean, no one's touching Demetrius anytime soon. You know, at best, number two, something like that, maybe three. What do you put? So who do? Where do you put Cejudo ahead of Figueiredo or below him? I mean, it was a brief time in that division, Luke.

If we're just talking about what they did at flyweight, now granted he beat Demetrius somewhat controversially, but he did beat him. Well, he was in that division longer, but you get what I'm saying in terms of the height. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he had the win over TJ, which was kind of big. And then the win over, but the winner against Dom was at 135 right so

it would be just those two that you'd be looking at as like the biggest wins uh I would put Brandon above that because of the three-time aspect of it plus you know getting it back against the same guy is kind of one thing but getting it back against a different one who depending if it's Panto yeah it would depend but maybe number two but it's almost kind of irrelevant because it's like the distance between two and one here is a yawning gap yes yes one of the five greatest fighters of all time Demetrius Johnson thank you very much let's go to Eric Bolden number two how many current top five UFC middleweights would you favor over Johnny Eblen at the moment let's see what the rankings look like before I can answer that. So at middleweight, right, that's what we're talking about here.

Yes. So five, you have Nasurdin, Imalvov, Whitaker, Chimaev, Izzy, Strickland, and then Duplicy at six, but, you know, champions unranked. Maybe one or two, you know? I mean, I think the one you'd lean to would be Imovov, but would that even be true? I mean, Ebelin's striking isn't through the roof, Luke. I'd need to really see what he looks like.

Also, is he, I think the wrestling component could still give him problems, especially at this stage, he's older, you know? So that one is a maybe. Chemayev, I don't think so. Strickland, they're trained together. That's a whole, you know, that's a little harder to say too because they're training partners. Whitaker, I don't think so. Strickland, they're trained together. That's a whole, you know, that's a little harder to say too because they're training partners.

Whitaker, I don't think so. Imalvov, you're right. I could see him, I mean, you know, a couple maybe, something like that. Yeah, but Johnny's got to get out of PFL at all, unless they're going to have, unless they're going to pool all their resources and have a PFL middleweight division

with a championship. Get the heck away. That's what I say. Let's go to flannels and jets. That wasn't racist, right? Or, or sexual. Maybe. I don't know.

What do you think of fighters doing grappling events? You had Polaris that had Michael Venom page versus Carlos Condit this weekend. What are some grappling matches you would love to see? This man says he would love to see GSP versus Damian Maya or Habib. And he would also like to see Rhsp versus damian maya or habib and he would also like to see ronda versus misha in grappling luke what did you think about condit versus mvp this week i didn't see the match i just saw the results uh mvp i guess got like a decision win over him

do you like when the fighters do this even in the flow of active competition in mma it's a weird one too because you've got guys who are like you know striking based dudes i mean condit's well-rounded but you know striker based um i like it in the sense that like they're not doing power slap you know or you know committing crimes or something like it's nice in that sense but i don't have like a burning desire to see mma fighters do grappling per se uh but except about a shop versus abreu rematch cyborg cyborg abreu first one wasn't that first one wasn't that fun you know it wasn't that fun um i would like to see habib in a grappling match i think that would be fucking awesome habib versus gsp i mean that in a grappling match that'd be sick that's sexy that's yeah it's pretty sexy that

but these were these were guys who showed like phenomenal grappling ability which is why it'd be kind of cool to see them in that sense you know but habib without the ground and pound i don't know how that will go necessarily right for these older fighters in this type of dream scenario that we're concocting here do do they have pride issues which stopped veteran NBA players from joining the slam dunk contest and being willing to like maybe lose and try to come back and win it the next year? It seemed like people would win it once and then never want to do it again. That became a showcase for rookies. Is it what do you think? It's like there's some hesitation in in staining your resume or you your standing at all by putting not really also it

looks like it seems to me like guys who maybe didn't quite get what they wanted out of competition and we're looking for a little extra paydays you know yeah um uh rather than like the very best we have to offer trying something different you know uh again i would love to see habib doing a grappling match but also it would depend on the rule set, too. Right. You know, you have to get the right rule set. So I'd like high rollers rule set. Luke, to be fair, you know, I mean, I just get high as fuck and roll. Yeah. Just handing out gimmicks left and right. And it's like we were it wasn't Cynthia Calvillo there and Emily Whitmire.

All the stars came out. Yep. Yep. And then we met. We saw we talked about this. We saw Patsy Mix. We talked to him. Yes. I was like, out that day. Yep, yep. And then we talked about this. We saw Patchy Mix. We talked to him. Yes. I was like, tap that motherfucking ass, Patchy. And he looked at me like, security, please, would you? He was like, okay, I will, I guess. Luke, we got a question from McInerney.

He says, if Stipe KOs Jones, where does that rank among all-time upsets? That's interesting. That's a good question. Would they do an immediate rematch? I mean, we didn't explore that enough. If one guy wins by KO, but it's kind of abruptly in a close fight, do we do a rematch anyway? Is there a way this happens a second time, Luke?

All right, BC, I don't know where it would go all-time on upsets because the way that it's typically measured is by betting odds. Whether or not that's the best way to do it, it's just the way that we do it. Our friends draft kings have john jones as a minus 650 they've got steep at a plus 470 that's a lot by the way that's that's for a main event that is significant that's a lot that's a whole lot i'm looking if i'm looking at john jones because he's only ever in main events right um john versus gone was the closing range john minus 143 gone plus 155 and that ended up being a fucking blowout tiago santos was similar to this minus 525 for him santos at plus 485 anthony

smith minus 714 anthony smith plus 550 so it's around that and then the oven st pru one which also was not that good uh in the end so i just wonder how many people in history will talk about how long stipe has actually been off or will it just be no it's stipe he's one of the greatest fighters of all time and he scored a big win against one of the other guys dude and coming off of a vicious ko loss no less so would that best would that best the feeling that we have in our hearts from randy upsetting tim silvia to win the heavyweight title would that take that moment away would that be the go-to when stupid nobody i lived through that night i don't know how many people who are watching the sport now were watching it back then that was absolutely enormous that was so fucking big

it would be something like that also dude to be the only guy to ever ko john jones and be the only guy to say you ko john jones and daniel cormier holy shit i'm telling you i'm telling you if stipe goes in there and does something unexpected it is going to be transformative i gotta be honest it's not bigger than nunes pena one which was one of the most shocking i've ever endured in terms of like i can't believe this happening, but now I think we understand maybe why. And it's not bigger than Rome with a home Rousey Luke. That was just like, that was, that was time. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Absolutely. It would not top those, but it would be big. It would be very, very big. It'd be huge. Okay. Our final question here from Emery, Nick6. Who gives the worst interviews in MMA? Any memorable bad ones? Recent Stipe interviews are unwatchable in this person's opinion.

Luke, I've always said Cowboy Cerrone was consistently in his time the worst that I had in MMA. You always knew it was going to be like dental surgery, and you almost never got anything out of it. Yeah, again, I've said this story before. Like WEC brought it into town. They had me in studio when i was at serious xm and we did the interview and it was fine and then when it was over and we turned the microphones off the first thing he asked me was where's the nearest titty bar that was a fun time but steve pay is in that category

by the way and it's not like he just not doesn't really care and just answers with three word answers you know i'm the wrong guy to ask this question too because i find most interviews no no fun um who whittaker for me tough to interview i'm gonna be honest no no but seriously i've done it one-on-one like there were times where oh yeah he banned he banned brett okamoto from interviewing him for a while when i was the mma editor for brett at espn so i would have to do it in person when john would come and um you had to massage his ego and really work around landmines to get anything interesting you know i i and now he blocked me on ig so you know which i cannot i how did he block you and not me i don't understand that but whatever luke dripping yeah bde yeah i guess that's it he couldn't he couldn't he saw all that man he was like i can't be around that i don't want to look at that it's gonna make me feel bad you mogged on him um um rousey also a

bad interview holly holm to be fair is not a great interview um i thought she was always one of the perennial big names that you're just like uh you know yeah yeah i'm trying to think like because the really the if you thought if you interview rank and file guys it's also not that great so the question is more like big names that were not that great um you you've got a bunch of good ones there i'll tell you what you know not great frankie edgar not that great and a great guy not that great not that yeah yeah not that great uh recently if this is about boxing but geron ennis i love geron ennis he's like a dynamite fighter to watch and we've interacted like privately in person and he's a totally cool guy not a great interview like a really bad interview who's like the worst interview in And we've interacted privately in person, and he's a totally cool guy.

Not a great interview. Like a really bad interview. Who's like the worst interview in boxing? And then this is hard because you get a lot of language barrier types. I don't mean that. I mean like native speaker. It's tough. It is tough.

There's a lot of great interviews in boxing, to be fair. But, you know, there would be guys like Leo Santa Cruz. Great guy. Never a great interview. Can't really get much out in the directions that you try at times. He would give you honest answers, but you know, it's just sort of, there'd be some, you know, vanilla guys, I guess you'd call them or whatever. But boxing has so many

of the opposite. So many colorful, out of control interviews that I always just sort of forget who is not as good and difficult. All right, Luke, for time purposes, we've got to rush out the door here with the final segment and that's where i scoured the globe on sunday for the uh highs the low the good the bad the ugly and in between uh on the media on the social media there in the world of combat sports and beyond basically they're weird videos this one's called have you seen this shit?

Uh, Luke, big week for Oscar de la Hoya, your boy, and it started on Clapback Thursday where he went somewhere and he went there aggressively. Now, nobody is safe from Clapback Thursdays, including my best friend Holly. Something tragic happened in my life this week that I have to address. I suffered two huge losses. The love of my life decided to downsize her enormous cans. No! It's been a long day without you, my friend. And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again.

Holly, you know how much joy those fun bags brought to me? All the good times the four of us had together. Is this a phase you're going through? I thought you were a vixen. Come on, man. Are you joining the convent? You said you did it because they didn't fit in your clothing? Isn't that the entire point of having huge titties?

I'll never be able to motorboat those puppies again. Bruh. Luke, it would go on to continue. By the way, I just don't know, for decency purposes, how much more we should show, but I want to get your thoughts. No one is ever going to accuse Oscar of having too much class. I can just point that out. Well, Luke, Oscar dressed up as the Joker for Halloween.

They had a big press conference. Here's first Oscar getting interviewed beforehand. One of the things that I know a lot of people love is the banter between you and Eddie Hearn. My buddy. My buddy. My buddy. Wherever my buddy goes, I go. My buddy, my buddy, my buddy. Wherever my buddy goes, I go. My buddy, Eddie.

Eddie, am I sad or happy? You guys have a lot of things to say to one another. It's not. Okay, and then they did this big skit. I mean, is this a sport? You can't look at that and think, okay, this is a sport. Like, it's not a sport. You know what I mean? And then they had a press conference for Floyd Schofield,

Kit Austin's fight, which main evented a zone triple header, and this happened. If you're not already with Golden Boy Promotions, you have time to repent. You do. The end is near. Get out of here. Are you going to hell? Security, get out of here.

Jesus. Ma'am, none, please. Save your soul. But listen to her. If you're not with Golden Boy. Wow, Luke, that was aggressive. I mean, it's made for this segment. It is.

I wish I had more hands. I'd give those presentations four thumbs down. Luke, you always told me that weddings in different countries are crazy, right? You've told me that, right? Yeah, I went to a batshit one in Columbia over the summer. Well, this one's pretty crazy, too. Watch what happens here

after the groom drags the bride up. Dad not happy. What the fuck is this? I don't know. Here comes dad not off to an auspicious beginning in this uh this here setting wow went to a hockey game and a wedding broke out that's wild all right you know where there's a lot of fighting lately football let's go to the sec florida georgia and watch these two cops just mma beat down ground and pound what the fuck this is aggressive that's assault brother right wow that is why is he beating him up like like a pro wrestler you've seen that just like just hammer fists

from that cop and also luke inside the games it's getting physical watch this superman punch by the u yo damn to the head knock him out of the helmet it looked like it i don't watch enough football to tell you the truth on that though though. Dude, that is insane. They play by a different set of rules down there at the U. I know that. Well, Luke, you've long told parents, if you're a real parent, do not bring your kids to NFL games. Here's why.

Falcons versus Saints. I bet your ass won't, bitch. I bet your ass won't, bitch. Look at that wife-feeder. Get him, bitch. Woo! Get him, bitch. Woo!

Get him, bitch. Get him, bitch! Woo! Get him, bitch! Woo! Get him, bitch! Get him, bitch! Woo! Let's go! Yeah, that's aggressive right there. Again, I'm going to keep asking this. Why would you ever go to an NFL game? Why would you ever go?

Why would you ever jump off of a diving board too, Luke? Oh, Jesus! Oh, my God. Come on. god oh don't replay that wow that is uh wow luke he's just just hanging around just uh oh luke you know wow that is one of the that is one of the most like awful things i've seen in quite some time. Was that like Big Nog refusing to tap? That's a little worse. He was hanging out. He was hanging out. Regional MMA and boxing, Luke, you know they give you the best KOs of the week.

Let's go to BKFC. This is regional enough. Here's Ben Bonner delivering the boom. And his victory is a celebration with the boss. No, not Dave Feldman. Get that man a forged Irish stout because for the 365th consecutive day, there's Conor McGregor.

Yeah, there's that Cal Ripken streak alive and well, buddy. All right. This is what I mean. I know we got to go, but this is what I mean. It's like, dude, the guy is killing it. He's enjoying his life. Why would he ever come back to fist fight another guy? It makes no sense.

No sense at all. You sent me this video from Infusion 142. Here's a six-second KO for Kiara Vanderkluster. Watch this. Hold that. That is so pretty. Look at this. Bop, bop.

Oh, my God. Six seconds. Six seconds. My Bop, bop. Oh my God. Six seconds, six seconds. My daughter's making fun of me outside my door. Let's go to RCC 34. Here's a Kaposa special Dimitri nickel, nick off with the double ax handle finish. Wow.

What the hell was the referee waiting on? The guy was just standing there looking like he's sunbathing. Yeah. I understand the sequences right there. Also, Luke, you know, you want front row at sea world sea world you're gonna find out same thing in sumo wrestling oh no oh no oh boy yoko zuno from the top rope luke where's lex luger on the aircraft oh boy bro these guys are like 400 plus pounds too, man. These are big dudes. These athletes.

Luke, you know they need weight limits at Playscapes these days. I don't know if you brought your daughter to this Chuck E. Cheese, but this happened. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah.

Is he going to go through the whole thing? Yeah, he did. Hey, you know what? Hey, you know what? The system worked. The system worked. Wow. It held him up there a little bit.

I thought we were getting Building 7 flashbacks, Luke. That was interesting here. Let's go to your license plate of the week. Look at this license plate. Why would they do this? It's ridiculous. It says suck 33 dicks. Succeed indeed.

Yes. All right. It's family feud time. Tell me a part of the body that begins with the letter t titties oh look this past weekend in box a oh how about gabriella fundora the 22 year old younger sister of sebastian fundora becoming the undisputed flyweight champion. She had already won one of the titles, and she won this unification fight, and she did it by stoppage.

Luke, she's pretty legit here. And the person she knocked out is wearing a Boca Juniors logo, so she must be from Argentina. Her first name was also Gabriela. I believe you can see the name at the beginning with an A. I can't read. I have old eyes, but you know. She continued. There it is.

Golly, son. Sat her down. So the Fundura family, Luke, are continuing. They're the first simultaneous brother-sister world champions in boxing history. Over in top rank in Verona new york i love me some abraham supernova mostly luke along with his beard he has a mascot of himself that dances

behind him it's the coolest idea ever and i need it yeah i disagree it is distracting and weird and reminds me of like a phil collins fever dream music video i thought it would remind you of jake paul's robot right dude the problem let me let me explain something to the audience once you've seen the guy who does the jake paul robot and how sad he looks you can never unsee that yeah the guy's a true carny uh luke nova that guy true i guarantee you that guy lives in a van down by a river i don't know which river but he's living there. Probably.

Luke, he would go on to have a war with Humberto Galindo. It would end in a draw, but look at some of these exchanges right here. Damn. That looks like regional MMA. Yeah, well, that was rude, Luke. Let's go over to Golden Boy unbeaten prospect Floyd Schofield, who would go on to get the win here in a step-up fight, but he missed his own stool immediately after getting rocked by a right hand.

Boy, he was getting murdered on Twitter for that on Saturday night. Murdered. He does a lot of talking, this guy. This kid does a lot of talking. You notice a lot of young fighters right now are calling out big names, calling out Shakur, calling out Tank. That's what we want, dude. This is wild right now.

I love it. All right. I don't know what this one is. We're going to space today. What's up, brother? Okay. I don't really know how to explain that one, Luke. Up, up, and away.

Luke, it's election week. Our nightmare is almost over. I don't care who wins. Just stop talking about it. But then this moment happened, and now I got to care. You know what? I had a couple dates like that in high school. You know what I mean?

I wish we had the apps when we were dating, Luke. We didn't have the apps. You know what I mean? I hear that the apps are. Hey, Long Island Luke, did you ever use the apps? I know we're short on time. Yeah, but not really. Like I had it, but I barely use it.

I got the last chopper out of Saigon. I didn't have to worry about that, you know? Good, good, good for you. Luke, it's time to rate that tat, whether you like it or not, but you need to give me a one to 10 rating, 10 being the best. Here's our first one.

How about gold and I love right here? Seven and a half. Okay. you like the premise right maybe oh um pierce brosnan doesn't look like pierce brosnan but other than that yeah and also the silencer is crooked but okay okay let's go on to uh do you like frogs luke do you like two frogs okay fuck this person. Just send them to the gulag now, you fucking moron, piece of shit. All right.

You ever seen a tattoo of a stripper before, Luke? Let's rate this one to 10. And they got a poll. Okay, I'll give this one an eight for creativity and a zero for job prospects, but keep thinking. How about this fighter tat honoring Nateate diaz the 209 fame let's see this seems like quality luke let me see i gotta see the finished product here they're

doing a lot of negative spacing there's the stencil with the negative spacing here show us the you know don't tell me about the birthing pains let's see the final product uh yeah this is um boy that is an excellent fucking tattoo that is that's a 10 that's i don't say that very often that's a day high score of the day from luke we've turned him into a little bit of frankenstein that will fade when it becomes a little less fresh but that's a 10 yeah right. We only have one more to try to beat that 10. Here we go. That's not real, is it? That's a real tattoo. That's a real tattoo.

That's not real. It looks real to me. I mean, that's a negative 8 billion. I don't know how else to say that. I didn't think we'd have two Trump head clips in the same sequence, Luke, but apparently we did. There you go. Luke, remember those simpler days without phones where people lived in the moment? Okay.

Moving on. Luke, it's time for my favorite part of this segment, MMA Fighters in the Wild. Hey, Grant Dawson's got a joke for you. Holy shit. Is that Bo Nickel? Oh, no. It's Bo Dime.

Oh. Well, Luke, we can leave the comedy to the professional comedians. Next. Okay. What else you got, Chan? Let's go over to Team Canelo. Eddie Reynoso and company. Guess who they're training, Luke, in the gym?

Raul Rosas Jr. What about this collab with Chewy Weez? Hey, Chewy Weez. That's a good combination, these two. I like it. Yeah. Imagine if Canelo just made this guy like his mini-me and they always hung out together and rolled around and Chewy Weez'd chicks up.

It'd be wild, right? Luke, you know I love victory dances here. Here's Hamza and I think a few Kadyrovs just celebrating like men should do, Luke, after the victory. Hey, listen, let's see if you can bust a move here. I don't know the traditional Russian dance he's doing or Chechen or whatever it is. Look at that.

Yeah, he's feeling it. He's feeling it. If you can do that, you'll get laid at a wedding. Believe me. All right, it's Halloween time, Luke. I'm outside the rest of the uh the taco bell uh shitter when i've just had my crunch wrap supreme but you know luke i'm going to bring back your favorite lady the everything is cake lady are you turned on or turned off by this halloween sequence send this hag to the gulag now look it's all cake okay her whole life is cake yeah oh get out of my life

i mean it gets worse look if you're willing to hang with us i don't know i don't know what your degenerate harpy you're gonna eat spiders now you absolute fucking cretin i bet that spider's real. Would you be willing to interview her on MK with me? We need to have some type of like, okay, bad thing where you lose. Look, you have to, you have to be part of interviews. You don't want to.

So we'll get like you wanna and the cake. I don't mind that. I don't mind that. Yeah, I don't mind that. I play that game. Luke, you should, you know, this as a dad, you should got to always check two keys candy first on Halloween before giving it to her.

You never know, Luke. They're the silent killer, Luke, okay? You've got to be careful, all right? There could be wieners in there. All right. You get that from my dad's house? Where'd you get that? I didn't get any trick-or-treaters so you know what we were doing luke

trick-or-treaters say we ring the doorbell three times i guess no one's home look at that power ranger in there wow oh one of the best things i ever did this is a true story hold on this is a true story i got the new google doorbell installed in my house so it's got a it's got a camera on i can see who's there but uh i disabled the uh doorbell so i don't hear anyone ever i can just see you know who i want if i if i happen to hear them i don't ever answer the door anymore like you can come to my house and be like i'm the comp cast salesman i'm trying to sell you one but i could get the fuck out of my yard how about that says the guy who also lifts weights in his front yard so look it's always the dichotomy it's always there you go i got one more for you luke you can get front yard. So, Luke, it's always the dichotomy. It's always there you go.

I got one more for you, Luke. You can get anything delivered now. It's true. I've got an order for a fart from Jack Valkyries. Yep, that one's mine, mate. Right here. Have a good day. Right on time.

And I'm being serious when I say this. I'm being serious when I say this. Where is a drive-by shooter when you need one? Oh, come on. Where is the drive-by shooter when you need one? There's some Aussie humor in Osita. You got to get down with that, right? It was all right.

Those mates down there. All right, that's all the shit I got for the week. I thought you enjoyed it. I got to say, that was a pretty good one. That was a pretty good one. That's an A- for me. Would you also agree before we close here that for as weird as this year's been for us

and we're fighting for a great future, that we're on fire right now. We're putting our money where our mouth is, all right? This almost feels like MK of old. Almost. Almost. Almost. You know, I don't know if I share necessarily every element of your enthusiasm. I'd like to add the Showtime budget to that.

Those were the days, right? Just a little bit missing, but you know what? I love doing the show with you. I'm sorry. I could not be there today, but what are you going to do? That's all right. I'll walk through the piss up the subway steps solo. Okay.

There you go. Hey, you can't get into the Amtrak lounge today. Sorry about that. I know. I know. I got to be a peasant, but I'm building points quickly. Shout out to Long Island, Luke and our great team here. Thank you so much. That's Luke Thomas. This is yourasant, but I'm building points quickly. Shout out to Long Island Luke and our great team here. Thank you so much.

That's Luke Thomas. This is your boy, BC. Follow us real quick. Like, subscribe, follow, all that stuff. And also, we got merch for you. Morningcombat.store. You can get 10% off with Live 10. Do it.

Just do it already. We're big fans of you guys. We'll be back Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern time to set the stage for the weekend. Luke? Morningcombat at gmail.com.ke morning combat at gmail.com morning combat at gmail.com email us with anything show related dead wrongs fan subs anything there you go yes hit us hit us where it counts right between the legs that's it that's the show that's bc that's lt we're out of here