MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night: Blaydes-Aspinall | Bellator 283 | UFC 280 is STACKED | Ep 326

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

On Episode 326 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian preview UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall. What are the key's to victory for each fighter? Next up the boys preview Bellator 283. Is this Douglas Lima's last change to make a run at a title? The boys also break down some UFC 280 fight announcements. Where does this stacked card rank all time? The boys close out the show with Quick Hitters and Dead Wrong. (00:09:50) - UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall (01:08:50) - Bellator 283 (01:30:30) - UFC 280 Get Even More Stacked (01:44:20) - Mayweather Speaks on Davis-Garcia (01:53:30) - Quick Hitters (01:58:50) - Dead Wrong Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. And participate in McDonald's in Canada. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings.

Try it today and get up to $75 in PC optimum points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Reveley, Reveley dogs. Look at us now. Tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion.

That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah. Yeah, dig it. Indeed. Friday, July 22nd, 2022.

And you've stumbled right into the best damn combat sports podcast. Period. All right. I mean, that's all I needed to do today. Show's over. In fact, though, we have a fantastic show for you today. Setting the stage for Bellator, for UFC, for the combat sports headlines and bringing forward two of the most unlike minded minds in the combat sports headlines and bringing forward two of the most unlike-minded minds in the combat realm today.

I am your co-host, the Brian Campbell, the BBC with that BDE. But while you stay for the sauce, you come for that piece of meat. That is Luke Thomas. Hi, everyone. I hope you're having a wonderful day. My daughter's having a karaoke moment right outside my door despite multiple entreaties to my family to not allow that kind of thing during show hours. But who cares, right?

Is she talking about Bruno Luke or are we not doing that anymore? Let's see. What is she talking about? No, she's singing some songs in Spanish. I don't know what the hell they are. Yeah. Did I catch a Kill Whitey in there, Luke? I don't know what song she's singing. I don't know if she's singing Cop Killer by Ice-T or what is it, Body Count.

Well, Luke, this avant-garde will only add to what is a fantastic show on Friday today being for the arts. So I'm fine with that, Luke. We got a great show. But before we get into business or anything else i i gotta ask you what the people are asking me luke okay like 18 and a half dms can't be wrong has tom aspinall now entered you'll want a champion territory in terms of your dark heart luke no no no no no no i don't it like i am uh the yowana one was different because we actually had her on the line when we were on the show and then she got off the line to go at the time on another show

and that was the problem like we there was like this it's a long story i don't even care anymore the but like what happened with tom i don't know what happened on his end, but that kind of thing where they don't post or they show up late or all kinds of stuff, that happens routinely. No, I have no hate in my heart for Tom Aspinall whatsoever, and in fact, I am very excited for his main event this weekend. Well, ultimately, Luke, your pick today will probably answer that question subconsciously at least.

So we'll find out something to look forward to. Luke, I did want to tell the people you can see my old school, not necessarily merch 1.0, but one of the early models right here of the Morning Combat merch. You can find this and many other great ones at morningcombat.store right now. You want a little pregame preview, real talk? How about some Factory Town MMA? How about Dead Luke's face? How about winter caps, okay? It's coming

eventually. The cold will come. Why don't you hit up that, ask for RJ. Tell him BC sent ya. No discounts right now, but you can discount, double check your life by stepping up and feeling like a champion in our merch. Dig it. Shout out to Showtime, Malka, CBS Sports,

but specifically Showtime. Tonight, Bellator's back, and you're going to have to see it. I'm sorry. You know, you will. So why don't you see that for free? Don't subscribe. How about go to show.com right now, or in fact, showtime.com. Excuse me.

Start your 30-day free trial. So much box, so much BC and LT. Well, maybe not on the app, but like in general, you know. Yeah, okay. There you go. All right. I can't seem to maybe not on the app, but like in general, you know. Yeah, okay. There you go. All right. I can't seem to find us on the app, actually, Luke, for the most part. But you can find some great stuff on there.

So there you go with that shit. Luke, you want me to read any other ads? What do you got here? Anything else verbatim? Do we have an AG read today? We don't. But I did want to tell people how they can vote this calendar year, Luke. Yes, please do that.

And I'm not talking about that guy who fell off the bicycle, Luke. I'm talking about Morning Combat, a nominee at the moment. From the folks over at the People's Choice Podcast Awards for two best sports podcasts, best male-hosted podcasts. I'm told, Luke, we're also kind of up for the third, which is like the People's Choice Award podcast. I don't really get how it works, but it will take you 60 seconds or less to decode it yourself and vote. So we appreciate all you guys doing for us. If you care about

things like live show, that type of stuff, making our bosses happy, this is the kind of stuff you can do to get our back. Go to podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up, or like Luke pointed to, the QR code is on the screen. So do it the young way, if you will. 60 seconds or less.

No, you don't have to sign up for a predatory loan. We're past those days. So why don't you, you know, do your best to get our back. All right. You know, as we try to do the same to you. I mean, the show is free last time I checked. Okay. Thank you very much, Luke.

I mean, I always wonder, Luke, you want to know how much does your audience really love you, then, like, go to Patreon only, right? Then you're going to find out. Yes, and that's where we get to the dark stuff right there. Go to onlypipes.com slash MK. That's when you're going to see a lot of lights. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Always there.

All right, indeed. Oh, Luke, anything else? Do you have any weekend plans? Yeah, work. That's what my weekend plans are. Lots and lots of work. That's all I seem to do anymore, especially before vacation. I will say, shouts, and I don't know how to pronounce his last name properly.

I don't know if it's Algeo or Algeo, but it's Bill Algeo, who had a nice win, obviously, at UFC Long Island. I had tweeted that he's insanely tough but that triangle that herbert burns put on him he was partly able to wiggle out of it yes because he's a black button he's very good and all that kind of stuff and he was remarkably tough but because he's also has a very thin frame and then he tweeted me yesterday he wrote quit thin shaming me bro so shouts to bill algeo if I'm pronouncing the last name right. No shame.

It's a goddamn superpower, if anything, when you combine it with his remarkable skills. That win was not accidental. But no shame over here. Trust me. That guy's hips don't lie, man. I love that guy. Yeah, no. No shame at all, Luke.

Okay? I mean, they ain't childbearing hips. I'll tell you that much. No, they're not that. They're not good for that. But they're good for fighting. I'll tell you that. Yeah, yeah. Five of them for fighting. There you go. All right. I guess all the BS is behind No, they're not that. They're not good for that, but they're good for fighting. I'll tell you that. Yeah, five of them for fighting.

There you go. All right, I guess all the BS is behind us. Let's do it. Some would say, Luke, haters might say that this show is even better with me in the point card chair, Luke. I've heard that before. I've heard it. Maybe that means there's no substance to what I bring, Luke.

I'll be yourself. Who have you heard that from? The acolytes who thought Thor, Love and Thunder was worthy of Oscar nominations? Is that who you heard that from? As you would say, clownpenis.fart. Oh, by the way, I'm going to take Tukey to the mother effing water park later, bro.

We're about to get busy over there. Are you talking about Splash Pad or are you talking about Water Country USA, Luke? I'm not going to take her to the Ebola Petri dish that is a water park where everyone pees in the same pool and then wades in it. No, I'm not doing that. It's a splash pad.

Dude, you take my kid to the park now, it's literally too hot to put her on the goddamn slide. The slides are like cooked. So you got to take her to get some, you know, get some agua. Yeah, indeed. Shout out to Do to dukey i'm glad she's back at it luke uh all right let's set the weekend straight let's do it the right way top of our rundown of course ufc fight night it goes down saturday night a must see saturday afternoon excuse me from london i believe 3 p.m eastern

time is the main card you can check me on that But the main event is heavyweights, and boy, is this an important one for title positioning. A plus 120, according to our friends at Caesars Underdog, is the well-traveled experience Curtis Blades. Coming in against the red-hot upstart, Tom Aspinall, a minus 140 betting favorite. Luke, whether he shows up on this show or not, we talked Wednesday. We got a lot of love for the game that Aspinall's showing. He's red hot at the moment, as I mentioned. He could be the next hope of the U.K.

Could also just be that next model of heavyweight, modern heavyweight 2.0 that Cyril Kahn's doing. Aspinall's doing a little bit of that, too. Do you agree to start off, Luke, minus 140, Aspinall the favorite, entering the toughest test of his career? I don't know. This is a weird one because I can make a case for why I think that the minus 140 is probably appropriate and maybe even somewhat underselling

exactly how good Aspinall is. But, you know, it could blow up in your face too because the reality is, we talked about this a little bit on Wednesday, the start that Aspinall has had in the UFC is insanely remarkable. And he does have wins over like credentialed guys and for example in Volkov and then, you know, old hammers like Arlovsky.

But the reality is there's just not a lot of time. He's only seen the second round one time so like for so for very basic questions like what is Aspinall's gas tank like in the third round how does he really deal with someone who can put 10 or 15 takedown attempts together we just don't even know what the answer is there's just a lot of really unknown things and not just like minorly consequential things majorly consequential things so there's a good argument to make for Aspinall and I understand the minus well I think they said minus 140 um I I I have been a big believer in Curtis Blades I just don't know exactly what to make of this matchup there's a lot more tape on him which means you get a better sense of his upside, yes,

but also his vulnerabilities. We just don't really have a clear sense of the full picture of Aspinall. So the limited viewfinder that we're looking through to take the shot is insane. I said this the other day on my live chat, BC, but have you ever looked at the statistical picture of Tom Aspinall? Now, it's only five fights, so make of that what you will, but dude, listen to this. Strikes landed

per minute, 7.33. Strikes absorbed, just 2.65, a nearly plus five differential. That's one of the highest ones I've ever seen. Striking accuracy, 65%. Striking defense, 64%. Off the charts high. Takedowns per 15 minutes, over four. Takedown accuracy, 100%. Takedown defense, 100%. Damn. And then submission average, two. Dude, this is like one of the, for a five-fight run in the UFC, which includes some ranked guys there,

that's one of the best statistical stat sheet, or stat, that's redundant. One of the best stat sheets I've ever seen independent of weight class. It just feels to me, BC, this is why this fight is so consequential. Curtis Blades is different, very different than all of the guys that he has fought previously. So I'm going to make, I think what I think, what I hope is a strong case for Tom Aspinall, but I make it with a little bit of trepidation and why the odds are where they are, because however much you believe in Tom Aspinall, and I do kind of believe this, unless you know him very well, you're in the training room with him. But from our side of

the story, if you're going to make a case for Tom Aspinall, it is partly based in the evidence that we have but it is also partly based in a little bit of taking that picture and then extrapolating out one of the more charitable versions of what that becomes it's a little bit BC I mean maybe you disagree to me it feels like a little bit not entirely like a leap of faith do you agree agree with that? Oh, for sure. For sure. And you have to rely on elements of the eye test when your actual evidence is this small. And it is this small. I mean, he made quick freaking work of Alexander Volkov, who I thought would be the kryptonite of the moment for him. It at least opened my eyes to what everyone else had already been seeing, sort of those

plus sides of him. But to your point, I mean, the greatest, here's why this matchup is so great and why i like the odds again minus 140 for aspen all plus 120 for blades you could flip that no one would have a problem either way it's that for what aspen all hasn't shown us the fuck you you could be as confident you could tell us you spar 65 consecutive rounds and like you could say whatever you want there's a difference between three round and five round fights. And when you've only been through halfway of the second round, there's a potential major difference. So if that's your only on paper weakness, because we just don't know, we have no freaking clue.

And I always remind people, even Stipe had to learn that five round lesson in the first fight against JDS. So for Aspinall, it's like Blade suddenly becomes the boss at the end of the video game for that one piece of potential kryptonite. Now, it may not even be a factor, and then it's suddenly a different fight to try to weigh out based on their pluses and minuses. But I think at least for everything we don't know about Aspinall and, boy, is he close to kicking in a door that it doesn't matter what we know, then you get to that title level, you're there. This is the right fight, right style,

right time to give us exactly what we need to know, Luke, which takes us to Blades. It's funny, I think we just had this argument about Ortega the other day. We kind of, I kind of end up in this. Curtis Blades, when he's striking confidently and his intention to strike is on the same level as his intention to use, you the same level as his intention to use, you know, the threat of his takedowns. He fights at a different level. Some will argue, Luke, that he can only do that against B, right? B minus level guys. And when he goes up to the elite, we saw what happened. I don't know if that's Apple's and Orange's debate right there, but when Blades is operating like that, a dual threat, man, he's tough as hell.

Yet, would you almost advise him in this fight to forget that anything to do with, a dual threat, man, he's tough as hell. Yet would you almost advise him in this fight to forget anything to do with being a dual threat and go out there and win it? And it may have to look like Blades' win over Volkov, Luke, which if you recall, was dominant over three rounds wrestling in Ragdoll and then suddenly kind of hanging on for dear life down the stretch as that style even gassed himself out to a degree. Are you telling Curtis Blades, if you're his coach, forget the uppercuts. Throw him the heater, Ricky. I mean, take this guy down.

Solve it with a double leg. Time and time again, put this young kid on his back. Let's all find out together where that gas tank really is. Luke, it's got to be, right? I think I would agree mostly but not entirely so for example if I said BC who has the advantage just on the feet like if it turned into a kickboxing fight who probably gets their hand raised would you say Aspinall yeah the speed is what gets is the difference maker to me between the two of them so I I agree with that. I agree that Aspinall has the advantage on the feet.

I would also say that if it goes to the ground, I would give it to Blades. But I think if Blades just tries to wrestle a guy this athletic who is probably going to be very ready for the takedown threat, especially early, that Volkov fight kind of stands out as like that's not a scalable plan for him. So what I think he has to do is not chuck out the idea that a dual threat is not the right game plan. I do think he needs to be a dual threat. I just think

he needs to be a dual threat, 60, 40 wrestling, maybe even 70, 30 wrestling where striking with Aspinall. I don't think it's so dangerous that he can't do it like while I give Aspinall the nod as the better striker of the two and a little bit more mobile and can cause problems in ways I don't think as good for example by the way folks forget Curtis Blades didn't even attempt to take down on Chris Dawkus and put his lights out just standing however I think Aspinall is just a little bit more of a fleet of foot, an athletic quick guy that it just won't work in the same way with him. So I do think that having long portions of the fight, you are striking with him and also level changing, level changing, making that

wrestling threat real and then actually securing it and building off of it. But you have to, I think, a guy like Tom Aspinall has to be kept metaphorically on his toes. He has to be unable to process exactly what the threat is that is happening against him at any given moment for that attack to succeed. If he knows, for example, that there's a wrestling threat coming his way and he has a firm idea that this is this attack that is launching in front of him is a wrestling attack his chances of stopping it are high conversely if it's just a striking bout I think Blades can make a strong account of himself but over time something like what

Aspinall will do would be the difference maker it's the it's the combination but while it's also the combination it's the part of the game that Blades is best at, which is wrestling, being the predominant amount of offense built off of the confusion he would layer together by mixing them. So I don't think it's 50-50 dual threat. I agree that would seem like you're undercutting the thing that you know you do better than almost any other heavyweight in favor of just parody for parody's sake.

No, I don't agree with that. I think he needs to be dual threat enough to be confusing to make the wrestling shine. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes a lot of sense, without question. It's just how close can he get to the line of danger while doing that? Obviously, from the outside, Curtis Blades, when he commits to the jab with his length and his power, that's going to be most likely, although the athletic Aspinall does have a way of cutting down distance

and making big moves. If a striking can be a conservative striking situation, you like Blades' ability to hang in there and then use those situations to form his takedowns as a threat, but it can't be fighting this guy in close. I mean, Aspinall's ability to throw combinations, to throw creative shots,

to throw explosive shots. Um, you can't be messing with that Luke. So that may mean a lot of clinch fighting. And if it goes to there, who do you think has a physicality edge in terms of what they showed? Hmm. So let's say they're, okay, are they clinching an open space

or like clinching along the fence? Fence. Curtis. Again, based off what we know, right? Because we could go in there tomorrow and then that's actually not the case at all. And we're like, oh, well, and then we over-labored the decision-making in this and it wasn't necessary. Based on the evidence that we have, however limited it may be,

I would say that Curtis probably is going to have the advantage. Curtis is not just, I think, one of the better wrestlers and a very unique wrestler in many ways in the heavyweight division. Dude, let's be honest about it. He doesn't just have more fights than Aspinall. He's got vastly better experience. He has fought the very best guys. He doesn't just have more fights than Aspinall. He's got vastly better experience, right? He has fought the very best guys. He's fought Francis twice.

He has tasted big power from him. And yes, he was left wanting from it, fair enough. But, you know, and Derek Lewis as well. But the reality is he has been in there with very good guys. He has been in there with all different kinds of scenarios, like Overeem, for example. So to me, he's just going to have if like if he needs to stall out along the fence you're asking like who's going to get the better

of it what does that mean to get the better of it if i can stall out aspinall and make him work and slow him down and tire him because we don't actually know about the full totality of his gas tank that's a slow method of winning over the course of five rounds that may not look exciting in each individual pocket but the accumulative weight is significant so I would say I would favor Blades there but I really want to go back to this I really believe that what Blades has to do is be light on his feet he has to not be afraid to strike he's got to put a jab in Aspinall's face and he has got to be level changing and fainting constantly you can hear Tukey having a little screaming moment.

The point is, he does a lot of stance switching and stuff like that on the outside. He did that against Chris Dawkus. That is valuable, but I think the value of that is going to be limited against a guy like Aspinall who can pick you apart when you do shit like that. To me, it's going to be, I can't tell when the wrestling is coming,

and then by the time it does arrive, it's too late. That, I think, is the Curtis Blades' logical, rational, doable path to victory. Yeah, he's got to constantly be ready to be adaptable and to change his patterns and to just constantly try to keep Aspinall guessing. Hard thing to pull off, especially against a guy in Aspinall who's probably not just going to wait back and allow you to try to set these traps. He's going to try to punch right through and come right through the middle. So, you know, that's where the potential clinching along the cage can be key for Blades.

Obviously, if he can take him down, in theory, that's key. But, Luke, what do you know about their submission games? We know that Aspinall did submit Arlovskysky which was his only one since coming to the UFC do you think there's an advantage there meaning even if Blades is successful with the takedowns can he does he have to be super careful in terms of his you know grounded pound to not get caught into something do you have an edge for either fighter in this one in that realm usually big men don't have good guard games there have been in the history of jiu-jitsu, some exceptions to that. And I don't mean just relatively big, like plus 200 in a long frame, 6'4", 6'5", like a Hodger Gracie type. I mean actually big dudes who are north of, let's say, 240, 250, who can invert and work good ground games.

There was a guy years ago, I'm not sure where he was in Brazilian. I think he was somewhere from Spanish-speaking Latin America, his name was Abraham Marte. And Abraham Marte used to be like a very good, big guy who could play underneath. But for example, what's his name? Is it, who's the big guy out of like the West Coast? Orlando, what's his last name?

He wins. Most big guys in jujitsu just have good top control, right? So for example, in the last fight for Aspinall, how did this submission come about? It was a straight arm bar from half guard on top. Now that is a, that's actually a little bit harder to pull off than folks might imagine. You have to be long yourself. You have to have good, you have to have good balance. A lot of people can't get that from half guard on top. So the fact that he was able to get it is actually a little bit more deceivingly difficult than some folks might imagine but he didn't really get it from underneath and what i would say is if you're

tom aspinall and you saw what curtis blades did to allister overeem with those elbows the last place you want to be is right there if there is a submission threat and i do think there is one it's going to be on top for tom aspinall or from the back potentially although even that one seems low percentage because maintaining it's very difficult to maintain control of a 250 pound athletic guy it requires your chest and your back to be glued together very very tightly and that's hard to do when they can move around and they're strong. And when someone's 135 and 135 pounds,

it's a little more doable. When they're 250, I think actually Blades weighed in today at 260, that's a hard guy to keep control of. It's actually funny. You don't see a lot of guys take mount on other big guys like that because it's actually hard to balance on someone that big and that athletic it's there's no there's no stability there so what i would say you're

looking for is that is very likely top control or potentially something from the back or maybe like a bulldog choke kind of a scenario but not from underneath i really don't think that plus curtis blades is ground and pound not just in the Overeem fight, but in general, can not so much in the Volkov fight because he was gassed. But when he doesn't have that, you know, the gas tank weighing him down, so to speak, he's a nightmare on top. I would never, ever, ever want to be there. The goal there would be to clinch or to immediately get away, not to spend time looking for subs. Charles Oliveira makes it look easy. It is not easy.

Yeah, not to spend time looking for subs. Charles Oliveira makes it look easy. It is not easy. Yeah, not easy at all. Luke, as always, I don't know why I go to extremes, but if you were a Blades fan in this one, which extreme would you rather? A Blades going for the knockout with the type of aggressiveness we don't typically see in that category for him, or a Blades who comes in and says, look, my best chance might be to gas him out,

so I'm just going to wrestle until my own wheels fall off. Which one would you rather have? Both could end disastrously, Luke, but if it came down to that, which way are you leaning? I think, based on what we know, and again, I'm going to keep saying it, which limited anybody who has like oh I again maybe Aspinall's coach has a very clear sense of things and that's fine but we don't have a very clear sense of things although we do have some enticing things and that's what we're trying to wrestle with but I go back to it all the time

there's a lot of folks who look at the first round of Khabib Nurmagomedov fighting Conor McGregor, and they really misinterpret what it's all about. Because you can make a case, well, like, Khabib didn't really do anything, and, you know, maybe you could say Conor even won. I've seen some people say Conor even won the first round, which is a little bit silly, but they misunderstand what it's all about. Khabib didn't give a shit about any of that. What he cared about was, I'm going to wrap this guy up, and I'm going to force him to work. Now they knew a little bit more about him. They knew that his gas tank wasn't

great and they knew that they could make that a very doable game plan. We don't really know how true it is in this particular case, but the point being is, one of the best ways to win an MMA, if you can pull it off, is to drain a guy, is to make him less than what he was. Not necessarily all the time via punishment, although if you can incorporate that, that's great. But if it's a five-round fight and you've got more experience and you had a real wake-up call in Curtis Blades with that Volkov fight and what it meant for your takedown and your overall game development, this is a chance to right that wrong. What you want to do is you want to put Aspinall in places where he can't really get off meaningful offense maybe he can get a little bit

here or there he can't get off meaningful offense you control the engagements and through those engagements you make him work let me give you a great example if you can tie him up against the fence line drag him to the fence he goes to base and now you can capture a wrist and you can make him work from turtle where he has to stand you can maybe sneak a few punches in along the way that to me early on investment even if you lose round one and maybe even round two is a decent is a decent idea i mean you wouldn't want to drop the first two rounds obviously but draining him early to then fight a different guy later i think is the very best plan you can have because it captures what we know about Aspinall,

which is we don't have any clear sense about what he looks like third round on against elite opposition. Well, Curtis Blades is that times a thousand plus. He has a skillset to actually bring that to bear. Volkov didn't really have the skillset to bring that to bear. Spivak didn't really have the skillset to bring that to bear Spivak didn't

really have the skill set to bring that to bear Curtis Blades does this is a chance for him to force Aspinall to work and by working drain him and then once he is drained put it on him now you might be saying well Curtis Blades has shown his capacity to to get drained too fair enough when he meets enough resistance in that Volkov fight, he had issues with that. I am banking a little bit on the idea that he has figured out better ways to, a lot of that was panic wrestling,

better ways to control that, working on his gas tank, working on a game plan where he's not overly reliant on the wrestling, overly reliant on the clinching, but he has enough of it there as a quotient to make a difference in the ultimate outcome I really believe that's that is not just a winnable path for Curtis Blades that's

the winnable path for Curtis Blades I think if you go in and just try and bulldoze him you know and I'm gonna put this guy on his heels dude a guy this athletic who can find offense in all the ways he does that seems like a real bad idea i'm trying to figure out you know i've been such a blades guy but i have seen him falter when he steps up and it's like we still don't really know is that just you fought two legendary sluggers and three separate fights in which you got finished in all and obviously the first one against in ghanu was more of like uh he asked out because of the beating he took. He was not cold or anything. Oh, he was not cold after that, Luke, for sure.

But it's like, is that just bad luck, bad place, wrong time against superhuman hulks who caught him? Or is there something intangible that's preventing him from getting over that top? It's not in a panic mode. He's still in the prime of his career. Heavyweights age and last longer. There are still significant strengths that he has that almost make him a unicorn in this division that he leans on

them so there's nothing about will he get another chance to get there i mean he's going to be atop this division as long as he's active you get that feeling but can you identify what's missing luke i know he doesn't always believe in his striking it looks like at times I I don't know what that missing thing is though he's a lot like Stipe Miocic and people are like no he's not hear me out in my comparison but imagine you kind of flipped the polarity of it a little bit right what I mean to say is Stipe can wrestle Stipe can strike but Stipe's best work has been predominantly not from wrestling. It's been from striking, and then the wrestling was, you know, for example, in the Francis Ngannou first fight,

kind of like a thing that he could go to if he really, really needed it. He could drain and control Francis, that kind of a thing, right? So he had that in his back pocket. It was a part of what he was, and it was an ace in the hole, but it wasn't the forward part of his game for better, for worse. It wasn't the forward part of his game. For example, in the Cormier fight,

it was not a forward part of his game. Blades is a little bit the opposite. Blades can strike a little bit and it's, and now it's becoming a little bit more significant of his game, but he was kind of just like a wrestle heavy sort of guy. And I think he's trying to become, you know, much more balanced as a fighter

but if you actually look at what who's a heavyweight who can actually strike and really wrestle there, Aspinall notwithstanding Gon is actually not that guy right? Gon's actually not that guy and I gotta say, I don't think Francis has the wrestling acumen at all

of a guy like Curtis Blades, right? Even though Francis has two wins of him, hello it's MMA he doesn't actually have the wrestling acumen like in that sense they're very different in a lot of different ways but the closest thing at heavyweight to Stipe Miocic for all their many differences in terms of the type of balanced fighter that Stipe represents it's something like Curtis Blades even if there's a shift in polarity over the predominant skill set and so you're you're you're sort of wondering, why can't he take that next step? I just feel like first time he fought Francis, he didn't blend things nearly as well as he needed to.

Second time, you could maybe argue early stoppage. Also, Francis's power is enormous. Against Derek Lewis, he didn't blend it as well as he needed to. There's just been times where he wasn't quite mixing it as nimbly as he needed to, whereas in a striking sport, for Stipe to be so good at striking already, the wrestling kind of in his back pocket, he could mix them when he needed to, but he was able to just have much more of a ready-to-go championship kind of skill set. This one is sort of working backwards from it.

And so I think that's really kind of held him back a little bit of working backwards from it um and so i think that's what kind of held him back a little bit the striking has held him back not just the striking the blending of the striking has kind of held him back and not that he was ever bad at it but we're talking about the very best guys in the division for them it maybe wasn't as good as it needed to be now you're starting to see some of that stuff come together and as i mentioned the chris dawkus wins zero takedown attempts didn't even try you know that was i think he's leveling it out all a little bit so jesus i'm sorry i'm getting distracted because there's world war three happening outside my mother effing door um but anyway you get the idea that's there's there's plenty plenty of meaningful

differences between stipe and and curtis but in terms of finding a balanced heavyweight in that way, it's not gone, actually. It's not Francis. It's not Derek Lewis. It's not Taito Iwasa. We'll see if it's Aspinall, him notwithstanding. The closest thing to that for all the differences, it's a little bit Curtis Blades. All right.

All right. I don't disagree with any of that. It's like, can Curtis Blades show us a next level gear or is the theory true that when he does step up to the elite level of competition they find that weakness they finish the fight if Espinel is that and he's starting to really look like that then he will but there may be an even middle ground to that middle ground Luke and it's ultimately my prediction I do think you're going to get a very strong performance out of Blades, but not a victorious one.

And on the flip side, a pretty good, but yet still showing that it takes some time performance out of Aspinall, yet it will be enough for a win. I think this one goes the distance, and it's that fight on the rise that Aspinall will ultimately have most needed

to show the gas tank, to show his own level of adaptability and versatility based on the different looks he gets. I like Tom Aspinall here by decision, Luke, and I think it's going to be hard-earned, and it may open up a room for people to say, oh, they're not perfect, they're not perfect. Well, guess what? He's not freaking perfect, right? He's pretty damn good, though.

And if you're going to get by this version of Blades right now and get to that upper-crust title picture, you're going to have to version of blades right now and get to that upper crust title picture you're gonna have to earn it and i think he will luke i i really believe in this guy whether you know he ever shows up on this show or not i'll say this i'm gonna pick aspinall i i wonder if i'm gonna regret it tomorrow because i do think it is a and by the way i'm sure that aspinall and his team have not slept on Curtis Blades like if there's one thing you want

to say about Tom Aspinall for all the limits we have of the understanding of him one thing is pretty clear he's smart he has high fight IQ and his team understand him and they also have fight IQ they're not chumps at all but I do feel

like Curtis Blades even even by us potentially, is somewhat not merely underrated, sometimes criminally underrated. So I'm going to pick Aspinall. I'm going to do it based on what we've seen and a little bit of a leap of faith. And I'm going to say he finishes Curtis Blades somewhere around the third, fourth round. I may come to regret it, and if I do, I am happy on Monday's show to be like, God damn it, I should have known better.

But that's where my head is at today. That's my pick for the main event. Yeah, I think I'm more confident in an Aspinall finish after round three than I am of a Blades win of any kind, even though I expect this to be a close, very competitive fight. So, yeah, I'm just an asshole, though. So we'll see what happens. We'll see how it plays out. I can't wait for it, though.

London, Saturday afternoon. Luke, the co-main event, Jack Hermanson, a minus 105 favorite. Sorry, not favorite. Minus 105 underdog. Or maybe I don't know how to read odds, Luke. Very, very true. What is... Curtis is the favorite.

Minus 115. Hermanson, minus 105. But, Luke, for Mr... It's basically a pick-em. It's a pick-em. Yeah, basically. For Mr. Action Chris Curtis 35 years old eight fight win streak across a few different promotions he lost three consecutive

fights in 2019 in the PFL two to Magomed Magomed Karimov and then one to Ray Cooper the third but it's been all victory since then and now he takes a another last minute fall apart to kind of slide in and see what happens here Luke um dude Hermanson last time I checked Luke is a tough out for anybody do you like Curtis being the favorite here entering this one I do a little bit a little bit I gotta say dude if you needed a okay if you're Chris Curtis and you knew you had to fight Jack Hermanson but you needed a warm-up fight to get ready for it now I don't know if there's needed a warm-up fight to get ready for it. Now, I don't know if there's a perfect warm-up fight for it,

but I got to tell you, Adolfo Vieira as a warm-up fight for that is actually pretty helpful. Why? Because Jack Hermanson can do some interesting striking on the feet, and he can blend, but his best work is typically as a grappler it's why he went all in on it against Jared Kananir and it didn't work but it was probably the right idea Jared Kananir in

that fight did an amazing job scrambling and breaking grips and breaking control I don't know if Chris Curtis has that particularly on short notice we're going to find out it'll be interesting to see but when you have to stuff 20 plus takedowns in your previous fight, and I think you're walking in here with a 100% takedown defensive rate in the UFC, that's exactly what you might need if you're already a better striker, which I do think Chris Curtis is certainly a better boxer than Jack Hermanson. You already just fought a guy recently who tried to take you down all the time. Now, Jack Hermanson is a different guy, different strengths, different leverages. They're not the same, but we're talking about what's a good warm-up fight dude that's a great warm-up fight

all things being what they are to take into this then on top of that you look at the fact that Chris Curtis tends to get hit a lot but dishes out more than he takes is good in boxing range has obviously knockout power uh I gotta say I i you know it's a close fight and there's lots of reasons to think her manson might win but chris curtis is walking into this one if if you're gonna walk in on short notice which is what he's doing this is one of the better ways to walk in to have an existing skill set that gives you a bit of an advantage on the feet to have a recent fight and to have a recent fight against the guy who spammed takedowns against you in all different kinds of ways that is an awesome awesome background to have to walk into this co-main event yeah it's

very well said although i we i found out the hard way when i i'm not criticized but i i once said something negative about the joker luke and boy he's got fans you wouldn't guess luke they came out at us at mk but here's the deal with the joker yeah they did and boy, he's got fans. You wouldn't guess, Luke. They came at us at MK, but here's the deal with the Joker. Yeah, they did, and said, look, he's way better than people realize, but the reality is he's 3-3 in his last six, but it's losses to the very elite. Split decision

is Sean Strickland, Vittori in a decision, then he got stopped by Kananir, and the wins are, you know, Ronaldo, Sosa, Calvin Gastelum by submission, and then when he ran through Edmund Shabazian for that three-round unanimous decision. So it's like, Luke, the last six would tell you he's an elite gatekeeper. Others will tell you he's just putting it all together right now.

If we get the very best of Jack Ramance, and this may be a different fight, Luke, but have we seen the very best of him yet? I think we have, which isn't to say he can't win here that's not my argument but like do I think he's going to rack up a win subsequent to I mean what would you say is his best win so he's got yeah to your point the Gastelum win from the heel which was nice. Yeah. Do I think he's going to get a win better than that going forward? I'm skeptical. Certainly possible. I'm not a fortune teller, but I don't think so. I think you probably have seen him at his peak.

The question is not that. The question is, even if he's not at his peak, is he still good enough to beat Chris Curtis? And certainly on paper, yes, he is. But I don't think he's got like grand heights in front of him I don't believe that no and you know he had gritty fights in losses to Vittori and Strickland I mean he puts on the pressure he's willing to fight he's tough as crap Luke he gets in and out of crazy situations um it you know it could be the perfect kryptonite for

the for the fun run that Chris Curtis is on and take nothing away from him. And to your credit, showing that power and just taking each opportunity and climbing. But if the Joker Luke is still going to linger and try to make another run, he's got to win this fight. That's what it comes down to. And if he bites down and stays gritty, I mean, I get what you're saying. If he can't take the fight to the ground at all, that could change this in the other direction for him. Look at what happened in the Sean Strickland fight.

Let's pull that up. Jesus effing Christ. Sorry. How about Jack Hermanson? Do you know how many takedowns he attempted in that fight, BC? I don't know. No, I don't remember. He attempted eight takedowns.

How many did he get? Two. Zero. He whiffed on all eight made it a very different fight at that point even against a guy like sean strickland who was somewhat a little bit you know um muted as a striker in terms of like big action right he's more much more careful in that way so no he if you if if you can't get if he can't get the takedown his game changes dramatically at that point right and for Chris Curtis uh now if he gets taken down I think he's in big trouble because one thing that Jack Hermanson does really well is once he gets the takedown or if he can bring the fight to the floor in some kind of way then he is an active submission hunter right now that is a big difference he's not some guy who's going to take you down and i'm going to slowly work to move to half guard and you know

i'm going to pitter patter with shots i'm going to look for ground and pound no dude that guy is trying to find a limb or a throat as fast as he can um but it's just if you take that away he's just not at all the same guy anymore and again chris curtis walks into this fight with a 100% takedown defense and by the way bc what do what do Sean Strickland and Chris Curtis have in common? They're training partners and they have been training partners now for a little while. Sean Strickland has probably done a fair amount to help Chris Curtis about these entries and about what to expect. Again, you got to fight it. Sean Strickland can't fight it for you, but that is going to play a role here. I suspect Sean, uh, Jack Ramanson's up against it yeah the plot thickens I just think if you're Jack Ramanson

in here seriously you got to win this one this is a matchup you I don't want to say you should win for everything you just said and it's a tough ass fight but if he's going to stay being a guy of a high level of respect that we have for him Luke at this level he's going to have to be gritty and he was gritty against Strickland even with the takedowns being taken away from him, but it's going to have to be more here. It's a big close-up, Luke, a big opportunity for him that could dictate where he's

going the next couple years, so I'm looking forward to it. Luke, a lot of attention going to be, of course, on Paddy Pimble, who seemed to make weight and look great doing it, despite all the talks of him getting fat between fights. He'll be a minus-265 favorite against Jordan Leavitt, plus 225. We talked about this as being kind of the right matchup at the right time, a favorable style matchup.

It may be a little bit more about keep banging the drum that Patty's coming at this point and give him a chance to get there, Luke, to some degree, in what you can do with UFC matchmaking, which we don't normally do that, but to some degree, you can wiggle a little bit. This seems to be that type of matchup. So what do you expect that we see? I mean, Patty is, boy, does he love the crowd, Luke, and they love him. Do you think that's what drives him into situations

where he ends up taking damage before winning? Or is it just, you know, know that's his style that's his hunger he gets he gets in that i think the yeah it's like chicken or the egg i think the fans respond to that right i think he's got that in him he's if you watch them just on the grappling department like jordan levitt is a very good grappler like this is i was i was i'll say this this is a good test for patty pemblet's development this is a good test for Patty Pimblitt's development. This is a good one. If he passes it, it doesn't mean that he's going to win a title. Far from it.

But it would be a nice sign for him to be able to pass this because, you know, his striking, I think the striking defense is something that needs to be worked on a little bit, obviously. But his grappling is pretty great. And so if you can beat this guy grappling, which we'll see how he beats him, but if you can beat him grappling, that would be a pretty good sign. The point I'm trying to make here is the difference between like Patty and

Levitt as a general fighting posture is that Pimblitt is a little bit more of what we call it in the military, a hard charger. He's a hard charger. He has a certain amount of physical intensity that he brings sometimes to his own detriment, but when it's going it goes really well and what you're actually seeing is he keeps a little bit of that physical intensity but in his

last fight against Vargas uh he dialed it back just a little bit just a little bit to make a better I think to get better takedown opportunities or I think to get up on top is what he ended up doing um I think we found the back. How did he win his last one? I have to go back and look here. Paddy Pimlet won the last one via rear naked choke. That's right. But he was patient

along the fence line is the point I'm trying to make. There was a real patience he showed relative to what he had showed previously. Levitt is a tricky grappler and he's a very good one. But he's almost a... He's almost got a very defensive

sensibility to him especially in the striking he has like these big like cover-ups and moves away a lot he doesn't really engage in that sense and in grappling like for example his win over sales he was sales was the guy initiating the takedown then and then from this sort of like slow moving scramble he locked up this uh inverted triangle. So he's tricky in that way, but he lets the game kind of come to him, whereas Pimblitt kind of tries to define the fight by virtue of taking the fight to the opponent.

You might say, oh, that's a bad matchup. That's exactly what Levitt wants. It could be that. That is one possibility. The other possibility is that if Pimblitt's game is developing the way that it needs to, he's going to run over Levitt. That's the other possibility is that if Pimblitt's game is developing the way that it needs to he's gonna

oh he's gonna run over Levitt that's the other possibility here like there's a value to letting the game come to you a little bit letting the fight come to you but there is a thin line between letting the game come to you and then getting your ass run over by someone who is bringing too much intensity for your defensive sensibilities, right? You've got to match that intensity at certain times, and I don't necessarily see that. Like, for example, you go back to the Puejas fight he had where this is the one that Levitt lost.

You know, he was kind of accepting of his opponent just bringing the takedown to him and then kind of having these scrambles where he was doing well enough, but there wasn't enough intensity in the wrestling scrambles to get the better of it. And he lost that fight as a consequence. Like, dude, that's a very, that's a, that's a path that Pimblitt could follow to say nothing of the difference in striking where for all of Pimblitt's striking deficiencies, you know, dude, look at the numbers here for just a second. Let me read them to you very quickly. Okay. This

is the bad side of Patty Pimblitt. He absorbs 3.89 strikes per minute. It's a little on the high side, and we've seen him get rocked a lot. But dude, strikes landed per minute over six. That's high. Conversely, Jordan Leavitt only lands 2.5 strikes per minute. He's just much more muted in that sense. So there's a real question of if Pemblitt brings the intensity but is a little bit scientific about it but steady about it he might just run over Jordan Leavitt Leavitt has

to bring a certain kind of and by the way uh I think uh Pemblitt brought this up I believe this is true dude Jordan Leavitt in the UFC has fought at the apex let me explain something to you he he made a point Leavitt was like oh well it's the fight's gonna be at 9 p.m or the brit's gonna be really drunk by that point motherfucker they're gonna be hammer time by the time that fight comes along are you fucking shitting me they're gonna be drunk as a skunk shouting their their their lungs out he is not at all prepared for what that crowd is gonna be like make no mistake about it yeah this is the lion's den and ken shamrock's not showing up anytime soon luke i agree with you i feel like the combination of the submission win in the second fight showing you okay there's

more under that hood than than maybe he's shown since coming here or that we think and look i i don't know i'm starting to get crazy like a fox, sly fox feeling from Patti Pimblitt that, you know, he wants you to think that he's a little bit limited. You know, a little Billy Hoyle right there, Luke. You know, it is hard goddamn work, right? I mean, a little bit of that. I think he rolls through them too.

And, you know, the chicken or the egg about the fans and how they love him, they fuel him, Luke. There's no question about it. I mean, it's, you know, maybe, I don't know, maybe he likes getting into a little skirmish, Luke, and then rallying out of it. You certainly can't keep that spirit all the way to the highest level.

But on this level, with the expectations for this crowd and this close-up, I don't know, Luke. Look, you know, we talk about majors. We're going to get into UFC 280 again and that, you know, Abu Dhabi card coming up. But, dude, that's a freaking major. MSG, a major. I mean, I wonder if, you know, we need to readjust that.

London's going to be a major soon, Luke. A major pay-per-view inside of a stadium if, you know, once we get to that point. And this guy's a big part of getting to that point. So he gets another one of these wins here with uh you know the o2 going just bad shit crazy uh he wants he seems to want the smoke luke i can't believe i'm coming around on this he seemed like you know the gimmick is just kind of like yeah all right you know but but i think there's more under that hood luke than we know i uh when they first announced this fight i was like dude levitt's a tricky grappler

and he is a tricky grappler. Like there are a lot of ways this could go poorly for Patty Pimblitt. That's why I like this matchmaking. Like first two fights, you know, they were just trying to get him warmed up. Fair enough. Didn't mind it. I understood it for what it was. Now they're asking him to beat someone who really has the capacity to beat him.

All right. I didn't really believe the first two guys had the genuine capacity to beat him. This guy does. This guy does. He really does. Jordan Leavitt is a very, very tricky grappler. But I think if Paddy Pimblitt can bring that intensity he typically brings. But in his last fight, look what he did.

Show moments and a general sense of when to press the gas. And when to press the brakes rather than just being all gas all the time, he's going to win. I'm going to pick Patty here. I wasn't going to pick him earlier, but I think I've changed my mind a little bit about it. I think this is, it's a tricky fight. Make no mistake, but

Patty, I'll put it this way, should win. Should win this contest. That's what I think. Look, he's charmed you a little bit well here's the thing i i'm not one of these guys that buys into like oh he's you know he's the next big thing out of the uk you know i don't think that that's true we don't know that you know and i again i always go back to it like soren bach whooped him and then went off to bellator and like doesn't have the acclaim and it's kind of weird because that guy like Pat Pimblitt was a five round

fight and Bach beat him basically grappling. Like it can be done. I've seen it done. Um, so, you know, I have real reservations about his upside. I think that's only fair,

not just in the striking, but overall I have real reservations. However, however, the dude trains hard. He gets a lot of shit by, by being a big personality that i think is a little bit unfair this is a winnable fight he trains with a very good coach that i have a lot of respect for

justin flores among other ones he deserves the respect that he's owed and i feel like i with i don't get involved with the fan side of it and if you you know i'm not saying not you but the proverbial you out there if you guys like him or hate them i leave that entirely up to you i don't really get involved in it so i feel like i have a little bit of a a little bit of an opportunity to make you know a non uh not every assessment is biased but i'm not biased in the fan sensibility way at least and as a consequence i i you know i he's a good athlete he trains hard. He's got a good team behind him. This is good matchmaking on the part of the promoter to give him some trouble but put him in a winnable context.

I'll just say this. It's a real bad sign if Pimblitt can't beat Jordan Leavitt in this way. It's a real bad sign about his upside. But if he wins, it's a great one. He should be – it would signal a very positive sign for his development uh every time i read jordan levitt's name luke i think of joseph gordon levitt from you know third rock from the sun and um you mean batman and um it's uh summer uh summer what's that movie you know you know i'm saying 500 days of summer joseph gordon levitt was

good in Loopers. Have you ever seen Loopers? No, I haven't. I have seen Lucas with Corey Haim, though. You better believe that, Luke. Dude, Loopers, I think it's on Netflix with Bruce Willis. It's a very good movie. You should see it.

All right. I stopped watching Bruce Willis movies after Color of Night because I realized you can't top that, Luke, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, fair. Okay, there you go. Luke, I had some rough things to say about Alexander Gustafson coming back to the light heavyweight division for this fight.

Only a plus 175 underdog, by the way, against the minus 205 Nikita Krylov, who's coming off a first-round stoppage loss himself, Luke, there. What does this look like in the end? I don't want to be proven right here. I love Alexander Gustafson. I'd love if he could create, you know, a twilight run and be a tough out and win some fights. I'm not feeling it here, Luke, okay?

What is this fight going to look like Saturday? I don't know. I really don't know. You know, you look at Khrilov two fights against Ankaliev, he lost. Okay, fair enough. Ankaliev is a hammer. And then he lost to Paul Craig. And, you know, Paul Craig has an amazing guard, but, like, just a lot of really poor decision-making from Krylov.

So you think he's beatable, maybe, right? But, dude, the questions about Gustafson at this point I mean I don't even let me ask you where are you forget about Krylov forget about this fight just where are you BC on Gustafson because okay he went to heavyweight and the Verdum thing didn't work out whatever but you know he was kind of fading down the stretch when he was fighting uh Anthony Smith I fighting Anthony Smith. I think Anthony Smith took a lot of the last bit of the love from the game from him, and then he came back and all this stuff. I don't even know.

Like, dude, I'll say this. Gustafson at his best, at his best, way better than Kralov's best. Way better. Oh, no question. But where is Gustafson's best? Yeah, that guy's not coming through the door, Luke. This has more like recent Carlos Condit run vibes to me. And even Condit had some wins in there.

But like, no, Luke, where am I at? I told you Wednesday, I'm in a bad place with Gustafson. He's going to have to really show me that he wants to be in there. And I think this is a tough matchup. And maybe he's getting the odds this way because of his name. Or maybe I'm off and there's going to be more fire left in that belly and just needed some time and recharging. But the one-off at heavyweight and then back down,

this ain't an easy out under any circumstances. So I think he gets stopped in the first round. I said it, Luke. I said it. I'll be watching the DC fight for the rest of my life. It's great theater. That DC fight, someone was asking me like uh i forget where i saw it but someone made a point to me that gustafson should be included on the list of fighters best fighters to never win a title hell yeah and dude that fight he gave dc

is people always talk about like the fight he gave john and he gave john a tough fight that fight against dc was tooth and mother nail and i've you know you've seen dc hurt obviously with uh you know this the the loss to john for example and there's been some other ones but dude that he put dc in peril remember this this is a general rule and i learned this one from phil baroni phil baroni i made a point like dude what's the if you know someone was in a tough fight where they interviewed the winner This is a general rule, and I learned this one from Phil Barone. Phil Barone and I made a point, like, dude, you know someone was in a tough fight where when they interview the winner, the first thing they say is like, holy shit, that was so goddamn tough. They did not get paid enough.

I mean, DC's actually talked about it. He was like, that made me reconsider whether I wanted to take really hard fights like this anymore because it just financially might not be worth it, you know what I mean? That was an insane fight i mean that's if that's the best of gustus in the jones fight followed by his performance and that i know he had nice wins around that he also came back who sent him to hell in the first round was it rumble or glover that just peeled him off the canvas like that was a rumble glover and him went four rounds and he

beat glover which i think is one of the paths to victory here i think it was Rumble remember because it would they because that's that's when the UFC was trying to make Sweden like this next big market yes and Gustafson was really trying to come along and then Rumble put a stop to that shit yeah Rumble Texera was the Rumble against Glover was that 16 second one at 202 I remember that one for sure but uh all right Luke I hope you know I hope I'm proven wrong here I want to be proven wrong here. I want to be proven wrong. I don't want to be known as the guy who picked Woodley Till perfectly and then picked this perfectly, Luke. Okay? All right.

I don't want to be that guy. I'll go. You picked Kralov in this one? By first-round stoppage. In fact, he'll take Gustafson's gloves off for him and leave them in the center of the cage. Do you have odds on this one? Do you have the odds?

Yeah, I already read it. Plus 175, Gustafson, minus 205, Krelow. Luke, if you only listened to me, you'd get a lot of information. I hear you, motherfucker. I can't remember the numbers all the time. You know what? Fuck it. Just for fun, I'll go Gustafson. I'm not really predicting that, but just for the show's sake. Then if he wins, I'm going to claim all the credit.

So fuck you. I hope so. All right. Luke, Molly Meatball is coming off a spectacular knockout. I did see a lot of haters saying, you know, you guys need to slow your roll. That was the perfect situation against the right opponent, the highlight reel finish. She ain't that fighter. Well, she has been up and down since coming to the UFC, but that performance did show you something else. A different kind of spark, Luke.

Maybe it's fueled by the attention that her and Patty and Aspinall are getting. And, I mean, Luke, you've got to give Molly McCann credit, this credit at least. Every time she shows up on camera somewhere, you know she's there. I mean, she is selling out in terms of, like, I'm a personality. Come watch the Molly and Patty show. And it's fun. It's fun to a certain degree, Luke. But now they've got to fight again.

Hannah Goldie at plus 330 is typically in the opening bout. She's going to get bumped up in this opportunity, Luke. Do you like the muscle in this case? Or do you like the meatball as a minus 410 favorite? So you're going to ride with this Hannah Goldie is the new muscle shark? Yeah. I'm not going to. I have been riding with it.

Luke, you know, I'm a forerunner, a trailblazer. How much of that is Instagram influenced? I mean, the thing is, I don't have to comment publicly unless unless the court appointed to tell you about who I follow on Instagram. And listen, she is. She is. She is. To your point, she's well muscled strong um and I by the way some of the criticisms of Molly McCann in the sense that you know the

opponent she got the the the spinning back what was it fist or elbow or elbow uh ko yes that opponent was not not the toughest fight I've ever seen right right? Let's be very fair about that. But I always say this. It's like, okay, if it wasn't the toughest opponent, she still beat the shit. I mean, she did what you were supposed to do. That's what it's supposed to look like if there's that much of a mismatch.

Fair enough. I just, it's not that I can't see Hannah Goldie winning, but what would you actually say in terms of individual phases of the game that Goldie is meaningfully better at maybe stronger okay fair enough stronger potentially jujitsu on the ground she can get herself I mean look Goldie ends up in wild fights and a lot of that unfortunately Luke is her lack of head movement in terms of her defense and she's good in those scrambling of those wild fights so it's

gonna have to be a ground heavy attack that that attempts to kind of gas molly out because if she stands and trades with molly i think she's gonna get stopped yeah if she trades with molly she'll get stopped even then the jujitsu thing i take it it's it's it's legit it could happen it shouldn't It shouldn't. It shouldn't. Molly McCann should be able to cause, to break contact for separation and then beat her up on the feet, particularly with leg kicks and whatnot. I think that's the likeliest path that this fight takes. I take your point that you have a better athlete,

maybe certainly a stronger athlete in the case of Hannah Goldie, but in general, in general skills, win fights. And while I recognize that, that, you know, people are trying to blow up Molly McCann based on the win and put her perhaps a little bit further along than she ordinarily would be given, you know, who she was fighting fair enough. That win was nice. It was extremely well executed and she does have the skills to win this fight. I think she should and will. And we don't have, you know, super fan Jay pocket's animation ready, but this is the BC Super Sloppy Special of the Week.

It should be a wild fight. We're probably going to be talking about it in some form come Monday. So, by the way, Luke, Monday is my 44th birthday. Wow. What are you going to do for your birthday? Morning combat. Give me your address so I can send you a guy who shows up with a thong on and sings you a song for your birthday like a single telegram brings you a cake.

That would be something, Luke. Luke, this might be my favorite fight on the card short of the main event. Paul Craig, Volkan, Ozdemir. We set the storylines of what we can expect, but again, I think curious odds. Minus 145, Ozdemir, your favorite. A plus 125 125 Paul Craig, who's on a hell of a run right now, despite getting hurt and dropped in a few of those Luke.

Dude, I like plus money on Paul Craig all day here, Luke against Vulcan Oztemir, who I wouldn't say his career is completely falling apart, Luke, but there's been some serious highs and lows since that initial run to a title opportunity. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. Paul Craig is just, he's just the best. I love guys who bring unusual games and then find ways to have unusual wins.

That's really what he does. However, there's no good reason why he should win this one, right? Volkan Uzdemir, when he's cooking, when he's cooking, is fast, hits hard. He's fought the very best at 205, right? He's already been to the mountaintop in that sense. Found himself wanting, but he at least got up there. And there are deficiencies in his game.

For example, Anthony Smith was able to work from the back against Uzdemir. You would imagine Paul Craig might be able to take advantage of that as well. It's a winnable fight for Paul Craig. But if Uzdemir is careful and doesn't make bad decisions, he should win this one. It's not like on the feet Craig is a major knockout threat. I think that's not unfair to say. It's mostly the submission threat, which is real.

But Uzdemir's athletic should have good takedown defense should have good separation and should be the much better striker on the feet so we'll see this like dude fighting paul craig is a real big not just like who wins and loses but like it's a real big question about fine iq against paul craig because a lot of these guys they hurt him and they go to the ground it's like dude stop fucking doing that he's got all kinds of tricks on the ground in positions you're not used to with your training partners to take advantage don't do it so if they make good decisions they should win this one we will see how good Uzdemir's decision-making is at this stage of his game.

I think that is somewhat what's giving me confidence and fuel that it could be another Paul Craig-type fight. I mean, look, current stock in terms of momentum, obviously Craig's got that advantage. I mean, look, we've got to be real here. Uzdemir's 2-5 in his last seven. Yeah, there's a lot of elite names there, but, you know, and yeah, he was putting it on Prohachka in big moments before getting stopped,

but I also think he got a favorable split decision against Rakic in a fight that I thought you could go the other way on. So, you know, Craig needs to stop doing some of those Paul Craig things, which is get lit up by a big striker. This is a guy you cannot F with. And if that is the ultimate determination in the way these odds are set, I guess I get it, Luke. I mean, you're kind of basically saying forget the current run of either guy. Ozdemir at the end of the day just might be the better fighter. That's kind of what you're saying.

The fight starts on the feet and given that reality and given his ability and his experience in terms of separation take down defense that sort of thing that should heavily favor him it does heavily favor him the question is what he does with it in all the different other phases and paul craig has all kinds of guard ability uh in the way that we have seen him use it but he is also somewhat reliant on both his ability his trickery and also in the case of for example in the krilloff fight his opponent making bad choices one way to neutralize paul craig for all of his for as much of a gem as he is is to not make bad choices about the grappling we shall see we shall see yeah i mean look obviously not just his strike defense

to be able to to not get hurt and be sent to these situations where he can rally on the ground that's going to be key but he's also going to have to be a striking presence of some form without question to win this fight i mean you say what you want about Vulcan's run. Again, he was punch for punch with Prochocka there. You know what I mean? He did get the nod, whether I agreed or not, and had big moments against Rackett. So he certainly, Luke, can play and has shown that in the past at a high-level competition, even if he's not getting an early knockout.

So I don't want to, you know, leave that level of disrespect on him. But if Paul Craig has that leap in him luke to legitimacy this is the path man it's got to go through here so let's see it's going to be theater at the very least luke i i'm telling you i'm in my mind you know will that transfer into dollars i don't know but in my mind i'm taking paul craig with the plus money here okay uh feeling good about it i i i would love for paul craig to win because i think he's just, he's so good for MMA. He's so fun. He's a nice guy.

He's a smart guy. I'm going to lean Uzdemir because he shouldn't lose this. We shall see. We shall see. All right. Very interesting. Look, any other fight you want to highlight up and down this card? I know that you've talked a lot about Mohamed Mokhaev, who is a minus 475 favorite against Charles Johnson.

They say that this guy may not be on the prelims much longer, Luke. Yeah, he's amazing for a guy who made his pro debut or his UFC debut in his last contest. Was it even? Yeah, in his last contest. The one I'm a little bit more interested in would actually be the Nathaniel Wood-Charles Rosa fight. Nathaniel Wood was a top prospect out of the UK and kind of hit a few road bumps in the UFC.

And this is a good kind of get-back fight a little bit. He's coming off the loss to Casey Kenney, and he has a loss to John Dodson. But I do think highly of him. I would like to see him... I would like to see what he can do here. So this is a good test. Charles Rosa is tough, but this is a good test. Charles Rosa is tough, but, um, you know, this is a winnable fight, I think for Nathaniel Wood.

It's a, it's a good matchmaking. I like it. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments. Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply.

I like it as well, Luke. I'll be looking forward to a reminder of those prelims start early East Coast time tomorrow afternoon from London. I believe 3 p.m. the main car, so it should be fun. I like this. I like this schedule. Let's keep that up. Luke, Elite M at World Class MMA also going down tonight on Showtime. Speaking of 30-day free trials at Showtime.com, it's Bellator 283 from Tacoma, Washington.

And we've got a new sort of last-ish minute main event when the co-main got bumped up from three rounds to five rounds with Patrycki Freire, the damn pit bull himself, the lightweight champion, pulling out. So, Luke, your new main event, Douglas Lima, Jason Jackson. We established that on Wednesday's show. But what happened on Thursday when you and I were handling weigh-in show duties for CBS Sports HQ for Bellator, Douglas Lima coming in at 171.8. I'm sorry, 172.8 pounds for this 170 fight. The non-title fight, there would have been that one-pound buffer for him, but he didn't even go to the scale a second time. You and I sort of debated on HQ whether that's a monster warning sign, although he looked in great shape on the scale,

or whether his words of saying years of trying to make welterweight, you know, they're going to catch up with me eventually. Maybe they might have. How does that change things, though? Jason Jackson, five-fight win streak on the verge of a welterweight title shot, a minus 190 favorite. Lima, three-fight losing skid plus 160. We already thought maybe damaged goods or not damaged,

but look, age 34. He's been through the wars, three-time champion. What does this weight cut do to your expectations tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern on Showtime when Bellator 283 goes down? I think it might be 10 p.m., unfortunately. A bit of a late start but i is it really i think it's i think it's 7 p.m is the prelim oh maybe it's 10 okay you know there you go luke uh yeah it's a late start it's a late start are you doing the post fight hit on hq i am are you no i'm doing the pre-fight i'm doing the one at nine um so have fun oh i think that's

the one i'm doing, too. I don't know, Luke. Maybe I agreed to both. It's very possible. I don't know. I think I only agreed to the one at nine. But in any case, are you double checking on your phone right now? Yeah, I'm doing the post and the pre.

I thought that was the same offer. Apparently, there's two separate hits, Luke. All right, that's fine. Yeah. Hey, catch me on HQ. Yeah. So here's what I would say. Dude, I just don't like all of the signs here.

I really, really, really, really don't. You know, you can write off the Musashi loss as listless. You know, kind of came on a little bit too little too late, but it was a little bit there. And then against Amosov, he just didn't have it. Amosov is a beast. Okay, fair enough. But then against MVP

and MVP is much improved but he just didn't have it there really either and I was like man it's not a great like he's just not it's not just that he lost it like these rock'em sock'em affairs he's just looked kind of lifeless the whole time and then you go into this one missing weight and I take your point seriously which is well you, he's been having trouble making weight recently. If you go remember BC, we actually covered the weigh-ins when he fought MVP for the second time. And we were talking about, dude, he looked bad. Even though he made the weight, how sucked out

and just kind of drained he looked the whole time. So fair enough. At age 34, maybe a move to middleweight is the right move here. I guess we'll have to see. But, dude, the reality for me is the three losses are not accidental the way in which he lost them even if he showed a little bit of spark late it was always too little too late then to go into this one and to miss weight by you know we're talking about a guy who was a multiple time champion missing by nearly two pounds three if it was a championship level fight like dude

that's a big big miss and even if you want to say well okay he didn't he didn't try and by the way didn't even try on a second attempt to lose more weight was like fuck that this is the limit dude like he looked bad even then so he's gonna have this psychological component that he couldn't make weight and then on top of that there's the physical component like that he couldn't make weight. And then on top of that, there's the physical component of like, dude, he didn't look good at all, even not even making it, like not even putting himself to that ultimate weight cutting limit. Jason Jackson is on a hot streak. If he needs to strike, he's a good striker. If he needs to wrestle against an opponent who's too good of a striker, he can do that. He can play the levels. And again, we go back to like the Patty versus Levitt fight. There's a thin line between not enough intensity and too much and you

can you know fighters get it wrong all the time but it's not just this momentum it's a certain amount of fire that jason jackson has that i've just not seen from douglas lemur if you wanted to ask me is douglas lemur's high point better than anything we've seen from Jason Jackson's high point to this day? Yes. Yes, it is. His high point is higher. But that's not what we're adjudicating here. We're getting just what version of Douglas Lima exists today versus this version of Jason

Jackson. And I just don't like the signs at all. I think Jason Jackson's going to win it. How comfortably? I don't know. Because to your point, BC, it's not like Lima got blown out or in the words of Emmitt Smith, blowed out. It's not like he got blowed out, right? He didn't, but he was just kind of doing enough to hang around. Jason Jackson, if that's the Lima that shows up, is going to feast on that.

Yeah. So lifeless for the most part against Musashi for the first loss of this win streak, but it was for the middleweight title. He did try to step it up at the end. It didn't work out for him. He said, okay, I get it. But the lifeless against Amasov, even with the new champion just being a hell of a motor and wrestler and just the aggression that he shows that was the warning sign so i had some level of optimism coming into this fight because of what lima

showed at least in the third of the three fight losing skit against mvp and look we talked about it the the wrestling that he showed the the sort of efficient mindset of saying okay this might be the my only way to neutralize this guy he all guy. He almost had a case for winning that fight, and it was at least like urgency, I guess, is the best thing I could take out of it. But you're right. I don't really know what to do with him missing weight like this because he's been so consistent.

That's been his key. I mean, look, he fought Spartan Koreshkov three freaking times, Rory McDonald two times. I mean, he's been in some, you know, epic big fights. Yeah, he's been cutting down to welterweight since 2010 on a full-time basis. So, that's 12 years. I mean, do people grow out of that? Yes.

But for this fight in this moment, it's like, you know, I could also come up with that conspiracy theory that he's doing the old veteran move of, okay, I'll pay the tax, but I'll have the physical advantage of not cutting down. I don't even think that's his MO, Luke, and that's his style. So all things considered, that's enough of doubt on the Lima side where, yeah, I love Jason Jackson too in this fight. And I think that at the end of the day, his ability to stay off the mat will certainly be key.

But just the aggression, the action that the ass-kicking machine brings to this fight. If we get a Lima who is not as dialed in, who isn't establishing those hard outside leg strikes and really looking to control the fight from distance and coming in and out with pockets of action. You're right, Luke. I may be asking for somebody to come through that door that just isn't there. This could be a Tyron Woodley situation where it was quick when it happened, but it happened. And there's a little bit of failure to launch here and pull the trigger.

There's also a little bit of it. It just might be past him. Go Jason Jackson, who I always argue that one loss he's had in Bellator to Ed Ruth by split decision, he scored multiple knockdowns. I thought he did the totality the the best work in that fight he could very easily be undefeated here he's never been spectacular he's never been without flaws but he consistently wins against the the you know the paul daly's the benson henderson's that uh you know that level of matchmaking as neiman gracie neiman gracie which was a big one to get

to this point i like jason jackson's chances it should be an interesting fight with more questions surrounding douglas lima by the way one thing is you know jason jackson they just showed a picture of something that kind of reminded me dude jason jackson has good takedowns and douglas lima will just accommodate you guys or accommodate his opponents from guard you know what i mean he won't even like sometimes he fights to get up obviously it's not entirely true but there's a lot of times he'll spend around just fighting off guard it's like dude he'll just give away the last three fights he'll just give away rounds it's like dude it's just it's just a real bad sign it's a real bad yeah although to be fair you know when he lost that first fight to rory in that fifth round when he was on his back the whole time there was a little bit of that back then as well although i think we

just looked at it as maybe he fatigued with Rory coming on, and obviously he reversed course and then won the rematch, although it was kind of a brutal fight to watch, but we'll see. Luke, we didn't set it properly for this co-main event in terms of what's going on here. Yes, Sidney Outlaw on a big spot right here, but it was originally supposed to be Sidney Outlaw fighting for the title against Patrycki Pitbull. Pitbull pulled out, so one, Taufik Musaev, who was already on the card, was supposed to fight Adam Piccolitti. He steps up.

Now, no, pick a lot, pick a less, more, whatever you got, Luke. But here's the deal about Musaev, Luke, is he beat Patrycki Pitbull and risen just a couple fights back. And even though Musaev enters his Bellator debut here fresh off a loss in his most recent fight under the Risen or Risen. Luke, I want to get this right for once. I think it's Risen, but I'm not 100% sure. But, you know, the point is coming in, Tawfiq Musaev can fight, Luke.

He beat Petriki in the Risen Rising Lightweight Grand Prix, beat Johnny Case, beat Darren Cruikshank. I mean, he beat some guys that we know. He'll also be a minus 140 favorite against the plus 120 Sydney Outlaw. And Luke, you may remember three fights ago, Sydney Outlaw did get a one-day pass to the

land of winning ghosts, as you would say, against Michael Chandler. But it's one-two cents then and really seems to be putting it together and coming on. Look, this is a good-ass fight on paper here with Outlaw plus 120. This could go either way, and you've got to believe the winner is going to get the next chance at Petriki. Yeah, this dude, Tawfiq Musayev, is funny.

He's got a loss, by the way, via triangle choke to... It was the first loss he ever had to Muhammad or Muhammad Berkamov, who was also on this card, but now fighting at 170. And he's got a loss in his last fight to Roberto D'Souza, which was something of a... Not unexpected, but fairly surprising, I would I would argue somewhat surprising is maybe the better way to put it so there are some there he's got a couple of triangle losses actually I think three triangle losses of the four but he's got a huge winning streak to your point he beat Patricky

Pitbull in Rison and Johnny Case UFC vet and Damian Brown UFC vet and Darren Cruikshank UFC vet like this dude is a hammer. So he's a little bit overzealous when he takes guys down from guard against people who are good submission threats. I don't know if Sidney Outlaw is that guy, to be candid with you. I guess we'll have to see.

But Tufik Musaev, another one of these guys, BC, now he's from Azerbaijan, which is not Russia, but of course, you know, this sort of former Soviet state bag of hammers that you talk about. You better add this motherfucker to the list, dude. This guy is good.

And I think he's probably going to win, to be honest with you. Wow. Okay, Luke. You know, Sidney Outlaw seems ready, but this is a, I mean, this could end up being a tougher matchup than Patrycki, considering this guy was, you know, the last guy to beat him there. So this should be a very good fight, and we're going to see right now whether Outlaw really is of this ilk or the class of this division, or is it another hammer sliding into Bellator for Scott Coker and company

in scooping up more of these titles. Luke will take one massive step closer in a fight here, rising from the Piccolitti-Lie level luke hobby lobby level and now on the uh the very big level this should be a heck of a couple fight run for tophique musaev if he can arrive in bellator beat sydney all law and then fight patricky in a rematch for the damn title luke something to watch luke something like a phenomenon maybe the good news for sydney outlaws he's he did, Piccolotti is a wrestler grappler type. And so he's going from one of those to basically another type.

So that works out well in the sense that he didn't go from, you know, poor, poor Jack Hermanson was going to face Darren Till. And now he's got to fight Chris Curtis, which is, I guess, well, you know, actually that's not the best comparison. There's pretty similar in certain kinds of sort of broad stroke ways. But the point I'm trying to make here is he didn't go from a guy who was like oh i'm preparing for a wrestler and then you get a strike or vice versa he got a guy who at least he get in broad strokes is fairly similar to what he was expecting so that should help sit in the outlaw but dude to speak musaev has just a fucking crazy intensity and um it's a

tough fight for sydney outlaw a very tough fight. Does that Asian crazy intensity or the line between Eastern Europe and Asia, Luke, and does that include Armenians? Are they involved in that overall fog and hanging? Armenians and Azerbaijanis are historical. The countries have fought wars before, but they're all part of the former Soviet satellite states. Yeah, I mean, they're very different kinds of folks. I like the dichotomy of your background, Luke.

You know what I mean? You have not just being born in New Delhi, but you've got your Armenian side offsetting against... What's your dad again? English, that old bastard, Luke? He's American. I will tell you this. My best friend in the world is Iranian, but his dad actually is...

So Azerbaijan has a lot of different kinds of people in it. And there is a major Persian influence in Azerbaijan as well. So his dad is from Azerbaijan, but then moved to Iran as a kid. But he speaks like Turkish and all kinds of different stuff and whatnot. So all of those parts of the world meld in interesting ways in some of those former satellite states of the Soviet Union and Azerbaijan being a big one. We always talk about, like, all the Russian hammers,

but, dude, the Kazakh hammers, the Azerbaijani hammers, the Armenian hammers, they're on their way, too. Luke, a lot of talk about those Lithuanian hammers, too, okay? You know what I'm saying? Factory town mindset. Steniosis, right? Steniosis. Yeah, former Russian, yeah, yeah, now just in a hurry in general. All right, Luke, there you go. hammers too okay you know i'm saying factory town mindset right steniosis yeah former russian uh yeah yeah now just in a hurry in general all right luke there you go uh interesting how quickly you

shot down though your dad oh he's american yeah what tribe luke is he cherokee he grew up in oklahoma he grew up in oklahoma oh so is he native american luke no he's yeah he's the last name is Thomas. He's an old European part UK. How about that? Okay, there you go. Luke Usman Nurmagomedov, we're ready to crown him as the next king. The king of all things Luke. He's going to be in

another step up opportunity here, but he'd be a minus 800 favorite against Chris Gonzalez. Whether or not he ends up wearing the lightweight Bellator title, Luke, it's another step in getting us there. Chris Gonzalez is fresh off a first round knockout of Saad Awad. So, you know, it's a fairly strong name in terms of establishing yourself and being ready for this type of matchmaking. But is it not going to matter in the end, Luke? Because Usman Nurmagomedov can do it all.

And, you know, Luke, I want to make you aware. I know you don't listen to the peanut gallery or the chirp of the crowd, of the MK universe, if you will. They think we are overrating the shit out of this guy. And, Luke, as Floyd would say, the proof is in the pudding, and he's gonna about to be putting it on Chris Gonzalez come come tonight Luke you got to believe that so what is their argument about how good he is how good do they think he is they think he's been fighting powdered

donuts and dealt Bellator and and you know you know that typical response of because you didn't do it in the UFC you didn't do anything you know what I mean like that kind of thing it's not an altogether unfair criticism he has not been facing the toughest opposition to this point that is actually um that's true that's true the problem is not so much that the problem is uh you know the skills he shows as he just dispatches with these guys he is far better than uh are. Now, Chris Gonzalez is a... Let me be very clear about this. Chris Gonzalez is easily, easily the toughest opponent Usman Nurmagomedov has fought

in Bellator to this point. He is a Team Alpha male guy. He has a wrestling background himself. We saw him at the weigh-ins yesterday. That dude is a fucking brick shithouse. He is a real athlete. He's got a real background, a real team. This is a tough test for Usman Nurmagomedov. I just feel like you can look at his record and say well he's beaten a lot

of guys he should have beaten okay fair enough but the way in which he beats them to me evidence is high level ability and high level decision making we won't really fully know that right until we see him beat the Chris Gonzalez's and then and then on up the ladder from there but I think if your argument is oh well he's only beaten guys who aren't very good it's not an altogether unfair argument but it's not the complete argument either there there is more to the story than just that and when you look at the total picture BC I think you would agree from what I've seen he looks to to me like I'm not exactly sure who in that division will beat him. Yeah, I mean, he ain't Habib. He ain't Zabit, Luke, but he's something pretty damn special.

Let's give him a chance to figure that out. Well-rounded, has some spectacular sides to him, obviously fantastic on the ground, but he could submit people too, Luke. He's not going to run through perfection here, but I do expect, and the odds will tell you another big win another big sort of how soon how soon before we fit this guy for for a title as the smiths would say how soon is now yeah i mean look well the winner of outlaw and uh the other fellow to fake musaev luke uh you know gonna probably jump right in there against patricky could could

this be enough or do you got to get us on this win and one more on that level, right, Luke? You got to get a couple more, right? Two more. Yeah, yes. But this is the right next step. They want to see what they had with him, and they've got a lot. Gonzalez does have the loss to Gochi Yamauchi, and he got kind of outstruck on the feet.

And you might be like, oh, well, Nurmagomedov's just going to take him down. But this version of Nurmagomedov can strike his ass off on the feet too. So it's an interesting fight. We will see Chris Gonzalez can win this one dude I want to be very clear he's a good fighter a very good fighter I just feel like Usman Nurmagomedov is destined for Bellator um belts but if he loses I will come up here on here on Monday and eat a pile of shit so I'm ready I'll be serving that to you uh luke quickly uh sorry i'll jump right to it i got my eyes on davion franklin who's five and oh under the bellator banner he's good as well a ranked heavyweight now he'll be a minus 240 favorite against marcello gulm plus 200 uh are

you a believer of what davion franklin's doing as being a potential sort of uh you know a couple more wins away let's see what he's got. He's climbing the heavyweight ladder at the moment, Luke, whether that's a deep climb or not, you know, given Bellator's roster. But he's winning the fights. He has to win the Saad Awad. Sorry, not Saad Awad. The Saeed Soma win last time out, the split decision,

sort of showed you that he can do a little bit more than maybe you thought. Let's see what he does here against Golem. What are your expectations? Yeah, to me it's not a significantly more difficult fight than the Syed Zoma fight. So to me, it's like they gave him another difficult fight relative to what we have seen. Remember, he's only five fights in.

This is his sixth fucking fight. Like, how good is he supposed to be? Let's slow the roll here a little bit. But I'm with you. I think he has shown good athleticism obviously big power he has shown pretty good decision making i think we're gonna have to see against a guy like golem who's got literally twice as much experience as experience as him how that looks a little bit later because sometimes he can be a little bit too aggressive

i think you might agree with that and it's called and not cost him obviously he's undefeated but you know it you could see how someone else might take advantage of that. I don't think Marcelo Gorm is that guy, but he could be. So this is an interesting test. It to me, the only thing I would say is a guy like Nurmagomedov, you're like,

oh, well he's only beat these so-and-so guys, but he's got 14 pro fights. Again, Davion Franklin, five fights, five fights. So let's see what happens.

The one that you haven't talked about is the Romero Cotton Dalton rasta fight now that one is you know i mean two fucking absolute beasts uh going out of show and undefeated both six and oh someone's oh has got to go bc indeed lorenz larkin also a plus 130 underdog against the aforementioned muhammad berkamov luke so that should be interesting uh as we mentioned roman ferraldo on the undercard is making big time highlight reel wins he'll be a minus 1050 uh favorite here against luis iniguez so uh plus 700 yes so uh don't be the brock lesnar being like i'm gonna enjoy this fight with Cain Velazquez by drinking a Corona and eating a burrito.

I was like, wow, that's both racist and stupid. Wow. Okay, Luke. Free Cain indeed. Luke, Cain is losing. Hold on. You skipped the Godsey Rabotinov, dude. Remember, he beat another top prospect in J.J. Wilson,

who's out of New Zealand, and made it look relatively easy another hammer that Bellator I'm telling you dude like people kind of sleep on the main event because Douglas has kind of been like yeah ho-hum down the list of this card are tons of interesting gems guys who are on their way slowly breaking out this is an interesting prelims and main card for sure to watch hell yeah bellator 283 7 p.m is the preliminary card you can catch that on youtube you can catch that on pluto tv 10 p.m eastern the main card on showtime this evening so don't miss it luke topic number three takes us to this just freaking fantastic talk about a major pay-per-view. It goes down October 22nd in Abu Dhabi.

It's UFC 280. This thing has come together like very few cards in a while, Luke. I mean, God, they are giving this legitimate major feel. We already know Aljamain Sterling versus TJ Dillashaw for the Bantamweight title in the co-main event. Charles Oliveira and Islam Mahachev for the vacant lightweight title in the main event. We already knew Bilal Muhammad and Sean Brady at welterweight. How about this, though, Luke?

We could do these one by one or as a whole, but here's the whole and you can tell me your reaction. Sean O'Malley versus Peter Yan at Bantamweight. Benil Darius versus Mateus Gamrot at lightweight. Marina Rodriguez versus Amanda Lemos at women's strawweight. That's six fan-frigging-tastic fights, Luke Thomas. That is, I mean, just A-plus quality. Just A-plus.

You're not going to see main cards look like that very often anywhere. That's like UFC 217 and 205 level, correct? Except for the star overall, like through-the-roof star power. Right. This is worth noting. Now, you could say Sean O'Malley is very popular, and he is, but he was on the UFC 276 card, and, of course, he wasn't in a headlining role.

But that card was, was i think to some people's estimation it sold well but it didn't sell like it was you know not up to expectations like oh 7800k no one on that card and i think this is a fair tell me if you disagree no one on that card is a major proven pay-per-view draw now you could maybe argue a little bit for olivera but that's not entirely true not like there's not a there. There's not a full battery of pay-per-views he's headlined to give us a full indication of that. Certainly not the case with Makachev. Obviously, in the co-main, Sterling is an amazing champion, but he hasn't proven to be a pay-per-view draw. TJ Dillashaw, kind of interesting, but he's never on his own.

Sold above, I think think 500 or so so the point I'm trying to make here is there's a lot of um there's a just an an overwhelming amount of fight quality and relevance and stakes but part of the reason they're kind of all grouped together I think is that you need all of them to do a decent to good buy rate individually there's not a huge pay-per-view draw to the point and 205 by the way it had i think three title fights this just has two but but that aside it will do well on pay-per-view it will do pretty well the quality the quality is extraordinarily high i can't say on that level one single critical thing about it i believe there's a press conference for that card actually going on right now luke uh from the ufc but let's let's stay right here i got a couple key questions about this card uh i mean like yeah it's freaking

fantastic aligned in some of these key pay-per-view card bouts are same divisions as the title opportunities in the main or the co-main so luke if something happened to either Charlie Olives or Islam Mahachev during fight week for the lightweight title, would you see somebody from the Dariush-Gamra fight get bumped up? And who would be more likely? Well, Dariush would be more deserving, right? He's done more at the higher end of this division, I think. I think that feels right. Or maybe

Michael Chandler's going to show up again and cut weight again. You never know, Luke. If I'm the UFC, I'm not counting on just robbing Peter to pay Paul from the same card. I would actually bring in somebody else if at all possible. And Chandler or Poirier is a name you could bring. And I was going to ask you the same

question about Sterling and Dillashaw fighting for the Bantamweight title. Damn, you got yan and o'malley going against each other on the same card who would get the nod between those two well see here's the thing you would say yan because he's the number one ranked contender but he just okay so well okay let me ask you this if it's if it's dillashaw that falls out and so sterling is the one who needs a title opponent. It probably would be, I can't believe I'm fucking saying this, well, what do you think they would do? Would they give a title shot to Sean O'Malley?

Like, that seems insane. The one thing they have a proven history of is fast-tracking superstars into title. I mean, look, they fast-tracked Ngannou into Stipe so quick. They fast-tracked Ozdemir into DC because there was nobody else. I mean, they'll do that, Luke, when there's a spark and they need it. Yeah, you're damn right they're going to do that, okay? No disrespect to Piotr Jan. I don't think we're itching to see that trilogy about right now at this moment.

He just lost soundly. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I mean, he's the higher-ranked guy by a million miles, but you're right. That's interesting. But here's the thing. What if Sterling falls out and now they got to make an interim do you do yon versus dillashaw or do you do uh o'malley versus dillashaw that's that's why they get paid the big bucks to sit in that war room

and make those decisions luke it's pretty interesting i mean because think about it if you last minute threw o'malley in there you'd'd have to think the buys rise, right? Like, because he's got his own fan base. They're already going to be buying this pay-per-view, but it does sort of, he is the crossover potential guy of the moment, right? I mean, now you're finding, oh, he's in a title shot?

Dude, I got to buy that. Yeah, I'm saying, you know what I'm saying, Luke? That's interesting. On the same topic, we said, we both agree, I mean, it's obvious how loaded this is. Maybe this is the beginning of an annual loaded October fight card. Not really the beginning because we've seen Habib there in the past.

We've seen, you know, we've seen Fight Island be an island of savior during the COVID run. Why is this so stacked right now, Luke? Why is that specifically filled out this deep is it just to offset the lack of star power in the main event so you've got is it is it deeper in terms of relationships and and money and i suspect that they want to bring a quality car to abu dhabi right because they have a formal relationship it seems um with the folks over there so that's partly it right they want to do They want to do some good there. And remember, they brought Habib in the past and they brought big fights there.

They don't have any one of Habib's level, but they've got Makachev and they've got some other things that could be interesting to that market. So yes, I do absolutely think that bringing a spectacular card to the Etihad Arena is important for them and that counts.

Again, I go back to the fact that you've got a lot of interesting components here by themselves. Not huge draws, but collectively together could probably do a lot bit of a super team thing and that's it too also Nate Diaz is fighting at UFC 279 it wouldn't make sense to put like Diaz dude Diaz and Makachev could fight at the apex with no crowd and there's no other fights on the card like literally you just pay for Diaz and Makachev and it would sell an absolute shit ton so I'm sorry Diaz and um um Shemayev I'm sorry

so it would sell an absolute shit ton so they're trying I think to balance the schedule as best they can with the competing interests that are involved but dude I think we're kind of burying the conversation here a little bit let's go talk about Sean O'Malley for a second dude you've got Sean O'Malley who had at best what would you call the fight against Munoz inconclusive I think is a good way to put it inconclusive and he goes from that being ranked 13 to taking on the number one contender the former champion so in back-to-back days they had i think tramaya was like the number two guy at welterweight something like that taking on unranked nate diaz a fight that by itself doesn't make

sense for those reasons then the next day they put number one against number 13 bc i could have sworn we have heard that all of these fights are made because so-and-so was ranked fourth and fifth or sixth and seventh and we just have to put them in these kinds of ways they totally abandon any pretense of that do you like that they did it not that do you like the fight the fight's kind of interesting for all those reasons but that this whole like fuck it rankings don't matter right now we're just gonna make these fights eat shit yeah i don't just like it i love it and it goes against some of the creed of the things you see me arguing for. But again, let's not act like it's not true. If you're the best looking chick at the dance, the UFC is going to allow you to cut the line.

And it's been proven and it's happened. I mean, everybody, you know, even Ronda Rousey got to walk in the door and fight for a title on day one. But, you know, Brock Lesnar, oh, let's rush him in. It's just what happens. It's weird that they're kind of just giving him the win against Munoz basically and just moving him along but Luke it was also weird to see him in three straight fights against not the typical level of competition that you would expect or want for somebody who just who not too long ago missed two years because

of USADA which kind of slowed down his growth and you know right now star wise he's ready to fight for a title ability wise inconclusive yet the flashes are brilliant and we get a chance to find out right freaking now who he is against somebody like piotr jan level already you know as just another nugget in this loaded ass card i'd be a fool to complain luke yeah i mean did he get the money he was looking for by fighting that battle luke of i'll take on less rank you know i mean did it seem to have worked out for him it seems the company's all in i don't know the financial details well i have a feeling he may after hearing what i got a pretty good sense of what max holloway makes gaming i

have a feeling that uh sean o'Malley makes a fucking metric ton doing that kind of thing, and I think that's probably where he makes the majority of his money. I don't know. But I have to believe that his whole public of, I might be a free agent, I'm just fighting, until you pay me to fight a top-ten guy, that season that's now over,

I have to believe that helped him, Luke, get this type of opportunity. Obviously, at the end of the day, he's got to be the one that says, yes, I'll fight Jan right now. I'm ready. I give him kudos to him for doing that and not feeling like he needed a slower, longer build. He's been on a long build with the

combination of the two years off and some of that matchmaking of late, which wasn't great, but it is great now. Munoz was a great matchup for him, and as inconclusive as it was, we're not going to go out of our way to run that back. The time is now, Luke. If Jan's willing, and boy is he,

I mean, are you more excited about this fight than any other on the card? It's kind of a weird trick question because they're all flamethrowers, Luke. No, I'm not. I got to tell you, I'm not going to say I'm equally interested in all of them. But dude, I'm like majorly interested in all of them.

Right. So let's go down the list. Who's going to be the lightweight champion? And you have Charles Oliveira, who is the most. I mean, what a phenomenal, not turnaround to his career, but journey, I think is a good way. I hope to put it against this guy that is the presumed next Habib, whether that's fair or not, right? I'm not saying it's true or it's not,

but there is this talk about him in that way, sort of like Habib has kind of knighted him as the replacement, and he has done really great work in this division. Let's see what he can do. That's huge. Then you have the Bantamweight title fight. Do I even need to say it's the best division in MMA? Arguably, with the existing champion who has proven douchebags like you and me wrong in getting that win in his last fight against Dion,

against Dillashaw, who, hello, never had the Bantamweight belt taken from him except administratively. Then you have Sean Brady, who I think might be, I mean, that guy's got title potential written fucking all over him, but this guy, Bilal Muhammad, has proven to be a genuine force at 170 pounds whether you think his game is exciting or not is irrelevant that fucker wins and is a very tough fight for anyone and hello by the way Palestinian American I think that audience over there is going to be

you know boosting him up a little bit as well so that's kind of important then you've got Dariush taking on Gamrot Dariush by the way super, but just willing to have all-out action fights against a guy like Gamrot, who has just an insane, insane gas tank, plus next-level kind of overall game. And then you go to Sean O'Malley, who is all the things about this next-level guy, but has somewhat improved,

and the two times he's gone up in rank, it's been these weird kind of fights. Well, here, he can jump all of that shit. I mean, nothing would be more, nothing would validate Sean O'Malley more. Forget about the hype and the hair and all that shit. Nothing would validate him more than beating Jan. Like the number one guy, the former, you beat fucking Jan. That's about as credible a win as they get at Bantamweight. It's exactly what Sterling needed, by the way, to get some respect finally from everyone, media and fans alike. You put Sean O'Malley on that level. It's amazing. Conversely, if Jan gets that win over O'Malley, he gets to get a huge popularity boost and then get right back to the swing of things against whoever's there. Dude, every

fucking way you look at it, this card is just quality at every level stakes high levels the very best division four titles four contendership four legacy it's huge so which one do i like the best for all different reasons they're all great wow there was some real passion in that lt i love this card bro i love this card i think i've come around to being most excited here about this o'malley fight amid all diamonds right all diamonds there no pearls luke okay don't be rg3 no pressure no diamonds yeah yeah i was watching rg3 highlights last night luke while sitting in the eighth row there on the uh in the old flight yeah it was great it was it's exciting luke okay while listening to 70s records you know what i'm'm saying? Great. You were watching RG3 highlights from, like, what, 2012? Yeah, with the Redskins.

Sorry, the Redskins. Yeah, sorry, the Redskins. At the time, the Redskins, yeah. Yeah, all right. Let's keep the show moving. Topic four takes us to this. Talk about a stacked card UFC 280. How about the potential for a stacked, must-see,

pay-per-view main event matchup in boxing that we thought, Luke, was going to be really hard to make, so don't get too excited. It may still be, but what an interesting turn of events that may have opened up some doors here. Floyd Mayweather, who, of course, is the promoter of Gervonta Davis. Luke, even though we spent last Gervonta fight against Roley talking about how he's going to leave, he hasn't left. It seems business is a go under Mayweather promotions so Floyd was talking to fighthype.com which has long been his preferred media outlet to say his piece let me ask you a question does he own them

does he own a piece of them I do not have that information maybe or maybe he's just really good friends with Ben Thompson who seems to be his go-to guy there, but he's always gone to them first and gone on the record. So we know that Ryan Garcia is aggressively on social media, trying to lure Tank. We know Tank's shown some willingness. Floyd Mayweather told Fight Hype that absolutely he's willing to make that fight by the end of the year, but he has one major caveat, Luke, and that would be he wants Ryan Garcia needs to wait before he goes up to 140 and cut to 135 one more time. Take on take right here. He tried to use the whole argument that Tank has a title now. We know it's a secondary title.

We know that Devin Haney has all four of the quote-unquote real titles at 135. Either way, it's a big fight. Now, Luke, I'm going to read some of his comments. They don't fully solve what could be the issue in this being a hard fight to make. Will DAZN and Showtime, in this case, be willing to go together to make some type of double pay-per-view? There's been some talk that that might not be realistic, but here's what Floyd said. He said, the main man in the sport of boxing right now is the one that's attached to me, Gervonta. That's the only thing this kid, Ryan Garcia, the only thing that he

knows is Tank. That's the only name that he knows, right? Oh, I want to fight Tank. I don't care. It's the biggest fight. Oh, you want to fight Tank? How about you make the sacrifices? So we know Tank right now is at 135. So if you want to fight Tank at 135, we can make it happen before the end of the year. Luke, his sort of argument was you just fought at 135. So if you want to fight Tank at 135, we can make it happen before the end of the year. Luke, his sort of argument was you just fought at 135. So if you can make the sacrifice, you can do it. Luke, let's start just right there in that regard. From Floyd's comments right there.

Is that enough to make you believe that this is a possibility for 2022? However, it goes down financially and network wise behind the scenes that Floyd saying let let's do it was a major hurdle to get past true or false false don't buy it don't buy it um if you i guess if you're asking me do i have a greater sense that it's possible now that i did maybe i don't know six months ago or something then yeah i would say yes but it just feels like i mean you know listen and i'm not even saying floyd's wrong it's got to be 135 versus 140. i think that's probably right uh that tank's the a side ryan's the b side i think that's probably right but i just feel like as as much as Ryan is enthusiastically lobbying for it, which I appreciate. I think we talked about Tyson Fury doing that back in the day

and how much we liked that guys were taking the bull by the horns. Very good. I like it. It also feels to me like you can say it's more like, oh, yes, we're open to it. But this, that, X, Y, Z. It's like you're substituting a no for a yes, but then the yes just has a series of no's behind it. It's a distinction without a difference to me.

That's kind of where I'm at. Am I being too much of a hater? Well, it depends on some things, right? I mean, it depends. Can Floyd get Al Haim in the PBC? Oh, sorry, it's a difference without a distinction. Sorry, go ahead. Can he get Al to agree with this? Is Al on, sorry. It's a difference without a distinction. Sorry. Go ahead.

Can he get Al to agree with this? Is Al on board with this? Can Showtime be talked into it? We have seen Steven Espinosa's comments in the past saying, love the fight, don't see a need to work with the zone. What do they bring to the table? Obviously, that's got to get through. That specific question about the competing networks was asked, apparently, in this interview to Floyd, and here's his response.

That fight will not be difficult to make. We don't have a problem. This is what we're going to do, okay? Now, we're going to turn down a lot of things, but we ain't going to turn down no money. We can turn down our collars, you know, but we ain't going to turn down no money. So with that being said, we've all done some foolish things in life, but we not no damn fools. So now I'm letting Oscar know this. Oscar, we can make the fight happen, but the fight's got to be at 135.

And Luke, he also closed by saying, this is kind of comedic, but he said Ryan Garcia also would have to do an interview with Fight Hype before entering the negotiation room. I did see that. I mean, it's such typical. Floyd's told Fight Hype in the past when Ryan Garcia first showed interest in fighting Gervonta. He was like, okay, you can fight Gervonta, but you've got to fight Rowley first.

But at first, people were like, who the hell's Rowley? We didn't know about him at that point. So, I don't know, Luke. I mean, this doesn't address fully the two-network thing. Of course it doesn't. But to see Floyd not answer with this answer that would have gotten me upset, which is, okay, you want to fight us?

You're going to fight on our terms. Come to us on our network only on our terms. Now, he did identify terms, and the A-sides historically have always done that. One thing Floyd said in this interview, I wasn't a 154 guy, but I knew I had to move up there to fight Oscar. I knew I had to move up there to fight Cotto. And I did it. He did Luke. He won those fights. I do agree with that. Making Ryan Garcia cut down one more time at the end of the day. It's what you got to do to get the fight. But can Floyd control the other parts of it? What's gonna be the financial split? There's still more

hurdles, but seeing him do anything but say, you know, come to us, this seems promising, Luke. He didn't say no, alright? You're saying there's a chance, Luke, okay? I'm sorry, there's some fights that are so enticing, and again, this isn't two guys in their mid-thirties. We're not Spencer Crawford just saying,

I hope they finally see each other before it's too late. This is 27-year-old Davis against 23-year-old Garcia at a point where both have done some stuff. Gervonta's certainly done more, but neither one have had that one defining breakthrough, guy that everyone thought could beat them, but then, oh, they got the win moment. And for both fighters, there's some of that in this luke this is a fight to to lose my morals and get just freaking excited about luke and i'm damn excited about this possibility i mean this is

one of those like brings in different audiences you don't know who's going to win they're both unbeaten they both got a puncher's chance they're both going for the ko they're both stars who haven't yet been fully proven this is the kind of shit that keeps you a boxing fan fights like this luke i think it's possible here's what i guess i would say do i think the likelihood is now greater than it was previously yes you make good arguments but i don't think we've reached the point where it's past the tipping point of likelihood in other words I still see it as overall at this stage, unlikely. I need to see something else that gets me to say,

okay, it may be, you know, we went from 5% to now 25% likelihood. That's still 25% is five times as likely as 5%, but it's still not likely that it happens. It's still more often than not, not going to happen. So I guess that's where I'm at. I take your point that it is a meaningful difference, okay, but it's not meaningful enough to pass the tipping point from being unlikely to now likely for me.

Well, if you're asking about my personal tipping point, Luke, yes, I do have a phoner, okay? I am rock hard with emotion right now. I've got to give you credit. It took you an hour and 51 minutes before you made a reference to your genitalia. That's a new record for you. Usually it takes a minute and 51 seconds. I think you mean until I made an obvious

reference, Luke. I've been throwing things over your head all show. You do tend to do that. That is a fair point. I don't know who's going to be the person that roadblocks this if it has roadblock potential, and yes, it does. There's a lot of people at this table, Luke, a lot of cooks in this kitchen. But they, meaning Floyd and Mayweather Promotions,

which by association also kind of means Al Heyman and PBC, they would need this fight to make them so much money that it's worth doing, even though it's difficult, and give them the confidence that they can win it and i think they have both luke i think floyd and them realize ryan garcia brings legitimate you know marketing side and and money wise brings something to the table i also think they watch him fight and go oh tank will knock him out luke so maybe that helps us maybe that helps us get there i mean here's the thing it's like mario barrios is a is not a strong b-side in terms of sales roly romero tried his best to say outrageous shit but you know none of those guys have if you want to say tank is the a-side and then ryan's the b-side which i agree ryan is by a million miles the biggest B-side

that Tank will have ever, ever, ever, ever, ever fought. And so to your point, that makes him significantly more attractive. Plus, they probably like his chances. I do think those are fair points to make as well. Yes. Okay. All right, we'll see what goes down. I mean, unfortunately, if you're new to this side of the box,

trying to predict what network heads will do is a part of I mean, unfortunately, if you're new to this side of the box, trying to predict what network heads will do is a part of boxing coverage, unfortunately. It is to make these fights happen. We'll see what happens. Quick Hitters is topic five. Luke, real quick, I got three nuggets for you. Tell me if this moves you at all. Johnny Walker and Iwan Kutelaba

on tap for UFC 279. Your thoughts? Kutelaba's going to UFC 279. Your thoughts? Kute Laba's going to bring a fight out of him, right? Kute Laba's not going to hang back. You know that. You know, he's not going to let him with that whole, like, I'm going to pick things apart at distance.

He's been trying that new sort of style. Like, you might get the old Johnny Walker back, for better or for worse. You might get it back with Kute Laba. So, don't hate it. Don't love it like crazy love it, but don't hate it at all. UFC 279 goes down September 10th, Las Vegas. The only thing we really know about that right now is it's Hamza Chemaev and Nate Diaz.

How many times can I call him Nick? Nate Diaz in that non-title main event. We know some of the undercard bouts, but I wonder, you know, they got to put something else. They got to add one more nugget to that, Luke, okay? You're going to sell Hamzat Nate, and that'll sell itself. But I do think you need one more big fight. We'll see what direction they go.

Luke, we know there was a contractually obligated and financial reason to do this. So it looks like reports are telling us Devin Haney will give George Kambosis the rematch. It'll go down November 15th, I believe. I don't have the date in front of me, but it'll go down in Melbourne, Australia. I mean, look, Melbourne, in all theory, Kambosis should be able to fight better than he did in laying that egg the first time around

where he wasn't willing to go for broke or take on the danger that he took on against Teofimo for example maybe it was knowing he had the rematch in his back pocket I don't know Luke that does lead me to believe the fight will be more fun first one not fun important not fun I think I'll be entertained this time but it does feel very extraneous and unnecessary to me. Are you on the same wavelength? Unfortunate, you know, says a lot, by the way, that they went from Marvel Stadium

to Rod Laver Arena, which is like, I think close to like a third the capacity for seats. Rod Laver. Yeah, Rod Laver, whatever it is. Rod Laver, Laver. You know, it's a UFC has fought

in that arena. It's actually better for the fans, but it's a significant downgrade in terms of the size of the audience. So that's interesting. Um, it sucks for Haney. Remember his dad, his dad got into the country at like the 11th hour before that fight. Listen, Haney is just a lot better than Cambosis. That's what we saw over 12 rounds. I just, you know, I understand rematch clauses in fights. I get it, but there needs to be some kind of limits on it, especially for like mandatory situations from the original fight that limit how much they can do this kind of thing.

I believe mandatories can't have rematch clauses luke i believe that's the rule so then what is what was it okay this was the the this was the toll that devin haney who became a free agent network and promotionally leaving the zone and eddie hearn this was the toll he had to pay in order to sign a co-partnership with lou de bell or lou de bella reps cambosis so in order to sign that co-partnership with Top Rank, who's putting on the card with ESPN as the network, right? He had to sign into the two-fight agreement because Cambosis was the champion with leverage

fighting in his own backyard. So that's the price Haney had to make to make this agreement happen, unfortunately, in that regard, because he blew him out the first time. Yeah, I mean, it sucks for Haney because he's the guy with all the belts that he has to go back to Australia. It was a pain in him out the first time. Yeah, I mean, it sucks for Haney because he's the guy with all the belts that he has to go back to Australia. It was a pain in the ass the first time he made it work.

I suspect he'll win the second fight. Might be a little bit closer. First one was, you know, not a beating but a blowout. You know, it's unfortunate, but I don't think it's majorly consequential either way. It sucks. It sucks for Hential either way. It sucks. It sucks for Haney big time. It does.

Yeah, we'll see what happens there. Finally, Manny Pacquiao may not have won the presidency losing in the Philippines, Luke, but he's going to be back in the ring, only this time it'll be an exhibition. So I don't know if this is technically him coming out of retirement, although I fully expect him to, Luke. He'll be facing YouTuber DKU this December, and the fight is set up to raise funds for the Ukraine-Russia war victims. Okay. Can he stretch this fucking guy for us?

I mean, I don't even know who he is. I don't know. I don't follow the YouTube. I'm not, you know, I don't follow the YouTubes. I know we're on YouTube, Luke. I watched our G3 highlights last night, you what i mean but that's about it on youtube okay thank you luke i do expect fully to not only see a manny pacquiao back but i know you poo-pooed the idea a few times manny pacquiao versus tank davis bangs brother yeah get the

fuck out i have just bangs. Okay. Listen, what I watch, you know, the level of what I would watch is fairly low. I would watch it. But do I want to see that? Do I prefer that? I don't prefer that. It might be a good fight. It might be a good fight.

We'll see. All right, Luke. To close this week on a little verbose and long, my fault, as your quarterback, as your captain here, but morningcombat.gmail.com is your entry point for Wednesday's fan subs, and they've been fantastic of late. And Friday, where we stand the

test of time, we get on trial for things we've said that were ill or incorrect. It's called Dead Raw. Yes. All right, let's start out with Michael here. He says, during Wednesday's show, when discussing the UFC ABC card,

Luke stated that Shane Burgos had a wild fight with Kyle Bokniak. Maybe clear up all the nicotine vapor in front of your computer screen so that you can actually see Burgos' record on Tapology. He never fought Bokniak. Zabit was the one who fought him back in 2018. You're dead

wrong, you disgusting vaping douchebag. That's fair. That's fair. For some reason I had invented a fight that didn't exist i do that all the time look all the time i'm an asshole all right this from skylar is that a male or female skylar skylar skylar probably a dude that was a chick in goodwill hunting right mini driver yeah yes i don't know what her i don't know what her the character's name was but yes yeah it was skylar

that's why i brought it up. Wait, that was Skylar? Her name was Skylar in that movie? Yes, yes. Come on. That was basically our life on film, Luke, right there, okay? Luke lists his five favorite Pantera songs in his live chat. Wait, they're dead wronging your live chat on this show?

Yeah, they shouldn't be doing that. You can dead wrong it to me personally, but you can read it now. I don't associate uh the live chat on july 14th at approximately 134 of episode 124 the second song he states is respect which isn't actually a pantera song at all this makes you dead wrong you wash dodge omni donk keep up the great work. I've been listening since episode one. The chorus is re- spect. Yeah, walk. Yeah. Wasn't Matt

Brown at the concert that Dimebag Daryl was killed at? I believe I've asked him. That's a crazy story. I've talked to him about it. Wild. Wow. Alright. This is from Connor and Mark. I believe Connor is the writer here. At 144 of Monday's show, Luke says that the Liver king admitted to having ab implants on the Full Send podcast. The liver king actually did not.

He mentioned that the media made up this story and that 35 years of lifting weights and eating right made those abs. I still think it's a little sus, but Luke was wrong to say that he admitted they were fake. That's fine. That's fine. He admitted it and then took it back and then made a joke of it. But then subsequent internet sleuths have then suggested that it has to be true.

And they note that when he breathes, the abs don't really move. Shouts to Derek from More Plates, More Dates. He did a whole breakdown on it. Yeah. Yes, he did not fully and then consciously admit to Derek from More Plates, More Dates. He did a whole breakdown on it. So, yes, he did not fully, like, and then consciously admit to it without walking it back, but we're all sus. He's sus as shit.

I'm now following Liver Queen on Instagram as well, Luke, too. I need to learn about all the tenants. I bet you are, you fucking dirtbag. I bet you are. All the ancestral tenants, Luke. I need to learn about all of them. Okay. This one's from Omar.

Hey, it's Omar again, your friend from the Canary Islands. Luke, that's incredible that he lives there and watches us. It is cool. It's a round world, man. It's a round world. Yeah, man. In Morning Combat 324, that's the episode number, during Have You Seen This Shit at 2 Hours,

BC said it was a squash match, and Luke Thomas corrected him saying it was a pickleball match, but that's dead wrong. It's a squash match, and Luke Thomas corrected him, saying it was a pickleball match. But that's dead wrong. It's a paddle match, a racket sport originating in Mexico and different from the sport known in the U.S. as paddle tennis. The main differences are that the court has walls, the ball is different, and is always played in doubles, as you can see in the video. Much love from Spain.

Keep up the good work. It's pickleball. Fuck off. Oh, wow. You said Omar to canary hell. You know what I mean? He's probably right. I mean, listen, if we're, you know, it looked like pickleball, which is a game that geezers

like you and I will play in probably five years when we can't fucking move. Yeah. Complain about like taxes and kids in the millennials and millennials having kids. Luke. Yeah, that about taxes and kids and millennials having kids. Luke, yeah, that's great. By the way, the guy who worked out with Tony Ferguson wearing the MK shirt at Snick Diaz, I'm told he was at our live show as well in Vegas. Amazing. P1 is that guy.

Absolutely. Big fan of that guy. Vinny says, at 40 minutes and 45 seconds of episode 325 Luke said that TJ Dillashaw never had the title taken from him other than for administrative reasons and not what happened inside the

octagon this is dead wrong due to the fact that TJ lost a split decision to Dominic Cruz and their match at UFC Fight Night we're talking about the last belt that he had fuckos Night 81. We're talking about the last belt that he had, fuckos. That's what we're talking about. Back in January of 2016. Double down on that AG1.

Okay, I mean, that's not what we're talking about. Love the show. Yeah, all right, all right, all right. Wow, Vinny got up inside on you. I like that, Luke. I mean, but it's not the point I was making. The point was he had the belt when USADA came crashing down on him that's the point you pedantic piece of shit yes yes uh did he lose yeah he lost the belt to usada yeah okay uh this is greg harry also wrote about this but this is

greg writing this is our last one what's up fellas it's your boy greg eating today yeah this is all one-way traffic i'm loving it i'm back with another dead wrong for certified frat legend himself, Luke Thomas. While discussing Nate Diaz vs. Hamzat on Wednesday's show, Luke claimed that neither Diaz brother had ever pulled out of a fight due to injury. This is dead wrong because Nate pulled out of the Leon Edwards fight at UFC 262 only for it to be rescheduled the following month at 63. I recognize Luke speaks closely with Nate's team, so perhaps he knows something I don't.

But every report I can find states that Nate pulled out with the injury. P.S. Luke, I want that rematch. Oh, dude, that's Punch Drunk Pete. That's Greg, yeah. I would have to double check that. He could be right. He could be right. I don't remember it that way,

but I also thought that Shane Burgos fought motherfuckers he didn't fight. So it's worth a double check. Morningcombat at gmail.com will get your shit read by Mike. God damn, I had to face the firing squad today. Shit. Real talk here about Punch Drunk P.

He had a moment during our live show. He was much more entertaining than me. I'll give you that credit. He was drunk as shit, though. He tried to wander on set and stuff, but I really liked the guy. Is he MK approved? Will we hang out with him,

or do you think he's more likely to jizz in Land Yeager and mail it to us or something? No, he's a Land Yeager jizzer for sure. I mean, of that there can be no doubt. But I will say this in his defense in addition to being a great fan he is one of our fans that likes both mma and boxing uh and doesn't groan when we do boxing content so i appreciate him in fact punch drunk p long before i met him would always hit me up in the dms be like what fight should i watch next and give me a breakdown

how much you loved it so he is digging into the box and enjoying it. Luke, who would you be more willing in a pinch situation to let babysit Tukey? Punch Drunk Pete or Damien the Donk? Oh, Jesus Christ. You're going to need him to get you through this probably, Luke. I mean, given that Damien the Donk has children hanging from a noose on his chest and a tattoo, probably means I wouldn't leave Tukey with him unattended. Donk has children hanging from a noose on his chest and a tattoo. Probably means I wouldn't leave Tukey with him unattended.

But Punch Drunk Pete would be the kind of guy who's like, oh, you thirsty? Drink this beer, three-year-old. Yeah. There you go. There it is. Luke, that's our show for today. Friday, set in the weekend.

Mikey reporting that Damien has a son. Yes, he did show up in the background of the interview. Who's going to win this year's 2022 Donk of the Year? Well, keep trying, folks. Appy's out there. Russell from Georgia's out there. We're going to see who else is going to keep contributing here. Those were our social handles.

Like and follow that. Bellator tonight on Showtime, 10 p.m. Eastern is the main card. You can check Luke and I on CBS Sports HQ at 9 to set the stage. Check me afterwards if you care that much. I love you. Thank you very much. Luke, any closing shots, parting shots, closing comments? We're working on it. I can't guarantee it. There

might be a post-fight reaction show for UFC London. No guarantees. We're working on that. And then next couple of weeks, we got, well, there's some vacation going on the next month, really, between you and I. But even with all that, we got a lot of extra stuff planned.

So be on the lookout, as always. As always, check YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. Obviously, we would love for you to like this video and subscribe. But great content outside of the three live shows per week. Interviews, you can check out my chat with Danny Garcia, who's back July 30th on Showtime at a new weight class at 154. Luke talked to Jake Paul. Him and I talked to, of course, Hasim Rahman Jr. They'll be fighting August 6th on Showtime pay-per-view. Start your 30-day free trial right now of Showtime. Why not? Showtime.com. Do that shit. Luke, I wanted to close with a brief editorial. A lot of people are hitting me up saying, BC, it's like, it's great that you guys

are pushing AG1 so hard, but I know you. i know how you live your life i know what color your liver is you're gonna try to sell me something that obviously is is is not helping you you know in any form as you cough it your lungs out and i get a lot of people that say this luke but how smart are you guys really maybe it's the ag1 that's keeping me alive yeah i don't think they understand it's like but for the ag1 it would be much worse is it a miracle cure nothing is but in terms of the healthy like what's all the unhealthy and all the healthy things in the balance here ag1 is the only thing keeping those scales even remotely close maybe that's how i make it to the microphone three days a week all right you ever think of that all right why don't you pour more water over your coffee mug that has coffee left in it and then

just drink brown water like a piece of shit that you are so i do the move that my dad does historically luke which is if there's coffee left in the in the maker in the morning just throw that in a cup heat it up while you're while you're making new coffee. And this morning, I didn't even make new coffee. I just drank old stuff. To some people, that's like gross as shit. Luke, are you in on that? That is insanely gross. Again, the only gross thing I ever did with coffee was put it in my gums.

Take the granules and put it in my gums as like a wake-up call. But other than that, yeah, yeah. You're a gross piece of shit. Yes. All right. Confirmed. There it is.

We got to the bottom of it. Thank you to Malka showtime, CBS sports, long Island, Luke on the ones and twos there may be many chiding. I saw, um, gaffs vacation picture.

So continue to live it up in the Caribbean. We love you as well out there, uh, for Mikey Morms, for the great Luke Thomas, LT himself. I am Brian Campbell reminding you, right? All work. Good. All work fine, And we love you as well out there. For Mikey Morms, for the great Luke Thomas, LT himself, I am Brian Campbell reminding you, right?

All work good. All work fine. But first, take care of Ed. Be well up here. You got this. We're going to get through another week. Enjoy the fights this weekend. Two words for the people.

We out. Don't see Thor. It sucks.