MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night: Blaydes-Aspinall Recap | Bellator 283 Recap | Ep 327

Episode Date: July 25, 2022

On Episode 327 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian recap UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall. What can really be said about what we got with Curtis Blaydes and Tom Aspinall in the UFC London main event? Did Jack Hermansson's stock rise with his win over Chris Curtis or did Curtis's just drop? Paddy Pimblett secured a rear naked choke victory over Jordan Leavitt at UFC London in the second round. What did he prove with this victory? At Bellator 283, Douglas Lima lost his 4th straight fight. Is time to declare him done? (00:11:00) - BLAYDES vs. ASPINALL (00:31:38) - HERMANSSON vs. CURTIS (00:41:45) - PADDY PIMBLETT’S R2 SUB (00:59:20) - LIMA vs. JACKSON (01:10:42) - REST OF BELLATOR 283 (01:15:00) - Dm's From Donks (01:27:30) - HYSTS 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

On July 25th, my math is right, 1978, there was a man who was born who would later end up wearing a crown, hosting a podcast with a very surly gray haired man. 44 years later, that man, ladies and gentlemen is Brian Campbell.

I'm Luke Thomas. This is Morning Combat. And not only is it Morning Combat here on this Monday, it's the birthday of my friend and yours, the CTE of CT. There he is, right there on the right of your screen to the left of me. What's up, B-Cam?

How you doing, bro? Happy birthday! Feliz cumpleaños. Yes, thank you, Luke. Thank you to everybody who's reached out in response to your tweet and our staff. 44 years. Luke, any crisis moving forward hopefully will be of the midlife variety now. You know what I mean? I'd love to live to 88, but we'll see how long my liver can hold up in that regard. But what a great, you know, there's nothing I'd rather be doing on my birthday, Luke,

than doing this show for the people and shout out to mk superfan lee selker uh duke wrestling product it's his birthday as well today happy 40th to him walter payton rip uh stacy montalto too luke i went to seventh grade with her it's her birthday today i don't know how she ended up though you know maybe i should look into that you know you know i have a summer birthday as well how did you always feel about summer birthdays? Because kids who had birthdays during the school year, it always felt like it worked out better for them. Those of us who had them in the summer when everyone's kind of gone

or doing whatever, I don't know. It always felt like we got left out a little. No, I actually disagree with that. Having a, you know, your birthday is what, August 5th right around mine. It's essentially the midpoint, you know your birthday is what august 5th right around mine it's essentially the midpoint you know because as a kid oh you know you're building toward christmas luke right as a kid you're only thinking materialistically you're thinking gifts you're thinking toys right so your your whole focus all year is staying good for christmas luke especially when your parents don't tell you the truth until fifth grade.

But having a summer birthday gives you, you know, that mid-year Christmas, Luke. You know, especially when you combine it with, like, trips to Riverside. Phil McKagan knows what I'm talking about. Or Baseball Hall of Fame. I did a lot of great, you know, July birthday trips, Luke, okay? So that's much better than somebody having a birthday in, like, January or something. You know, it's like, oh, we just gave you your Christmas gifts. What do you want from us now? You know what I mean, Luke? Yeah. I guess I had a very sad childhood. I don't remember. I don't remember these birthday trips you refer to. Um, it didn't quite work out

that way for me, but neither here nor there BC. It is a Monday. We are reacting to UFC London. We are reacting to Bellator 283. We're talking about your birthday. We've got Have You Seen This Shit, BC's Feces, plus your DMs. And by the way, it's a fruitful load of shit this week. I put a lot in there. Shout out to Long Island Luke and Gaff for corralling that

bullshit. It's going to be fun today, Luke. Hopefully you're going to have some surprise birthday element, like the top 44 things you hate about BC or something, Luke. I mean, come on. I don't have any special elements planned in that way, but I don't think about it so much exactly on those terms, BC. But I am happy to be here, and I'm happy to make fun of you just the same as we have been doing for the last three years.

All right, thumbs up on the video if you're watching on YouTube. Please hit subscribe if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform. Give us a nice review, wherever that may be. Spotify, Stitcher, I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. Just give us a nice review. Also, BC, if you want to try Showtime, because hello, Showtime Championship Boxing back at the Barclays Center on Saturday.

I will be there. BC will be on vacation, but I'll be there doing some prelim action for you guys, so that'll be a lot of fun. Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. But that's there and available. BC, you're going to have FOMO on your vacation going out there at the Barclays.

I will. Shout out to Danny Garcia. I had a very nice interview with him. You can check it out, along with all of our other bonus content at YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. Of course, DSG making the debut at Junior Middleweight on Saturday. Luke will be there. I'll be missing it, Luke. I'll be missing Nunes Pena too, bro. But luckily, you, me, Chuck Mendenhall,

we filmed a hell of a pregame preview in the old Jersey City studio for this one, Luke. So that's coming out soon, I hear. I hear, Luke. I hear soon, right? I hear lots of things. We shall see when it actually comes out. But yes, we did record one.

It should be out pretty soon. So that is something to look forward to as well. We have some interviews that you and I are doing later. Extra credit is already recorded. That should be up soon. So plenty of content coming your way. Give us a nice subscription. I'm saying that like a dumbass.

Subscription here at YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. Also, I want to remind everyone, you can email the show, MorningCombat at gmail.com. That for wednesday's fan subs friday's dead wrong and or if you just want to reach the show that's the place to do it uh let's see if i'm forgetting anything i think that's about it bc right that's that's the whole shebang yeah i mean we might as well the merch switch gears and put on an award-winning show oh yeah merch luke it's really good too this is the shirt that when i wear, I get weird looks

at the grocery store, so I'm wearing it here today. So that's the only product of our catalog I really don't support, Luke. Okay? You don't like this one? No. Look what it's promoting, Luke. Filth, okay? I mean, you know, this is not a family

friendly turn for our brand, but you know, RJ said, I know what the people want. And, you know, he may he actually may know our audience better than we do, Luke, in that regard. So you have a segment called Have You Seen This Shit? Where we look at elderly abuse, feces flying and all manner of ill repute behavior. And you're worried about a porn. Well, I won't even say finish the term, but you're worried about a pornography ripoff? Look, a real man has standards.

He has lines. He has boundaries. You cross those, you get cut, bro, okay? You know what I'm saying? You know? So what is your explanation for desecrating the American flag with a wrestling shirt? I forgot that's your thing, dude. Yeah, it is my thing.

You know, well, it's my birthday, Luke, so I figured I had to wear something ridiculous, right? So shout out, you know. That's true. That's true. It's just too sweet. That shirt right there says, I live in red state America. That's what that shirt says right there. Yeah, it does.

It does. You know, that's the thing, Luke. I like to be a chameleon. I was that in high school. You know, I got along with the metalheads just as well as the nerds, jocks, geeks. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, Luke, some people think, like, remember that chick, Snarky Ginger, sold any love for me because I once said I liked Curt Schilling as a pitcher. People think I'm all over the political spectrum, Luke.

But wherever you are in your life, just remember, I'm with you, okay? BC cares if don't nobody else care, alright? Thank you. Thank you, BC Pac. I appreciate that. B Pac. Alright, with that in mind, let us begin the show. A good slash bad slash

weird weekend of fights. I'm not really sure how to describe it, so hopefully BC can help us. Let's talk about UFC London's main event. A strange one, to put it mildly, BC. In the main event, it lasted a whopping 15 seconds before Tom Aspinall. We still don't know exactly what the injury is. There's obviously been a lot of Twitter doctors telling us what they think it might be. Some of them might be right, but in any case, BC, what is there really to say? He throws a leg kick, retracts it, Aspinall does.

And as he retracts it and kind of stumbles a little bit, he seemed to suffer some kind of terrible debilitating knee injury. They exchanged a few punches right before that. What is there to say about this? Well, look, it's disappointing. It's the second straight week that we've seen a UFC main event, which we were jazzed the hell up for, that had important title connotations. And boy, did this one come up empty. I mean, it happens, Luke. You know, I was there. I think I was there when Matt Mitrione stick kicked Sergey Karatanov under the Bellator banner. It happens sometimes in the first 10, 15 seconds. What sucks the most is we were really looking to see who was going to advance, survive in advance, and move closer to that title.

And more specifically, the thing that sucks the most is what does this do to Aspinall's rise? It's a delay of some form, a step back, a detour, however you want to look at it, depending on the severity of it. Let's hope he bounces back and still has an opportunity to get right back in line and continue this march. But what did we learn? I mean, almost next to nothing. I liked what those 15 seconds brought me. It wasn't quite the same tease that Ortega and Yair did in terms of like, oh shit, this really could be as good as we think it could be. But in that 15 seconds, dude, I liked the way

Blades was countering and his boxing. I certainly liked how he responded to Aspinall off the start, taking the fight to him. Obviously, that means nothing to where this fight was eventually going to go. I think at the end of the day, Luke, we're treated to a lot of great stuff in the UFC. Great matchmaking, consistent cards every weekend. But, you know, this stuff happens once in a while. I don't know if Curtis Blades turned Sith between fights and force-choked the patella to force that stoppage, but either way, Luke, he gets the TKO win, whatever you think of that,

whatever you think the value of that is. So let me spin it back on you and ask you directly, what is the value of this TKO win, considering we're not running it back in two months, right? Aspinal's going to be out. What does this win do to Curtis Blades? Well, he kind of, I thought, accurately described it. He gets a win on his record.

He gets his money, which is nice. He doesn't have his ranking position affected. The end result is, it's not that he gets the confidence or the, I should say, the managerial confidence in what it would mean to beat Tom Aspinall but if Aspinall is really injured and is going to be out for a long while Blades retaining the position that he's in is going to serve him as we figure out what's going to happen with Cyril Ghosn and Taito Iwasa potentially potentially I mean there's it seems to be nothing but Twitter talk forever, quite literally years at this point,

about Jon Jones' return and potentially a fight with Stipe Miocic, Blades still gets to get the benefit, not so much of the win, but as if the fight never happened, and then he just gets to retain the existing rankings position. So it's a good opportunity for him to get some more money and whatever else, and I certainly don't see anyone really blaming him for this in any kind of capacity, so that's nice. But if I'm Curtis Blades, I get to go, well, listen, I was supposed to fight Aspinall. It didn't work. It's not my fault.

Here I am. I'm going to look up the rankings position as we talk about it right now. Let's pull that up, BC. Currently at heavyweight, he is sitting at number four. The only ones above him are Tuivassa, Gon, and Miocic. Well, Tui Vassa and Gon are going to duke it out. Maybe Gon gets the title shot after that, but if I'm Curtis Blades, I say I want either the winner of that or the winner of Miocic and Jon Jones, whichever comes first, and then use that to get back to the title.

That seems to me like you didn't really prove anything in this context because there was nothing provable given what happened, but you are sitting at four. The ones ahead of you have fights coming up, at least in theory. All of them, Gon just lost, Miocic just lost, Tuivasa's never really been up there. I guess if Tuivasa wins, maybe he'll get a title shot, but that seems, I don't know how unlikely that is.

Miocic, hard to know because he has the loss to Francis, although maybe they might run that back. And Gahn just lost, so I doubt he'd get it back. If I'm Curtis Blades, I want whatever winner of that permutation of Jones and Stipe and Gahn and Tuivasa, I want to face whatever winner of that gets him to a title shot, which I think he'd be in place for would he not he would so that's really the spirit of what i asked you with that is obviously like you know the 15 seconds freak injury you don't gain a lot i guess critically but will the ufc brass and the

matchmaking machine ultimately look at this as exactly what it goes down to on the record a tko win and advance him up the ladder as if he had won the match? Or do you think this ends up being a sort of status quo in terms of his standing moving forward? I think he's going to end up benefiting from it, Luke, and maybe he got lucky in the end. You know, it is what it is. Here's the thing. Because he has the losses to Francis and their stoppage losses, and because he has the stoppage loss to Derek

Lewis, the reason why he still might be held back is because, again, it's not his fault. There was nothing to prove here, given that the fight was 15 seconds, but he didn't prove anything here. I wonder if they might be hesitant, in part because he's spoken out about, like, I'm just going to be boring, eat a dick. That's sort of one thing he's said in the past, although, again, against Chris Dawkus, that was not the case at all, again in other cases as well but i do think that he gets to be in a position where he can begin to get uh or he's on the verge of getting i should say a relevant

next fight that could propel him to a title but i feel like at some point even if that is the case which it seems to be, at least from a ranking standpoint, the case, he is going to have to prove something that eluded him here. If he gets to Ivaso or Miocic or Jones or gone or whatever the case may be, he is going to have to prove that he's a guy that despite losing to Francis twice, despite losing in the way that he has, he does deserve a title shot. He does deserve to be that next man up has he does deserve a title shot he does deserve to be that next man up he does deserve to be in that big shot kind of role he does deserve to be

on pay-per-view for example I think that like he there is still that's the one thing about this Aspinall thing that is is lost to him he does get to be in the catbird seat so to speak in terms of really advantageous or advantageous promotionally, I should say, advantageous matchups promotionally that get him to a next spot. But, but, in those contexts, he has to deliver. Like, in other words, if he had gotten a tough but sort of ho-hum win over Aspinall and then another tough but ho-hum win over Gon, at that point you couldn't really deny him. I don't know if he can get a ho-hum win just over gone and get the title shot.

He has to do something really kind of, not like an amazing knockout in round one, but he's got to really deliver the goods and show he's not just a good guy that sometimes loses when he goes up to the very top. He has to prove that the doubts about him are relevant to a previous version of himself. He gets to maintain the the interesting position in the rankings but it doesn't it doesn't solve that other problem that is still kind of lingering for him that's sort of where i agree with that now in terms of like look it goes down as the tko whether you like it or not there's certainly an argument to be made that a fight

ends in 15 seconds not on a strike should be a no contest. It's not the rules, though. So, because the rules sort of indicate if you cause injury to your foe under any circumstance, that's looked at as a positive. You get the win. Okay. I mean, like, it's like, could you deem this an accidental foul? You look at the tape closely. There was a kick and a check. Did he check it, Luke, or did he absorb it?

Either way. He absorbed it. It was actually well above the knee, almost near the hip. It was on the meaty part of the thigh, to be honest with you. Okay, so do you believe, and I don't know if this matters at all in terms of the flip between TKO and no contest, despite what the foundation of the rules are, do you believe the injury was caused on the kick or the landing, or both?

So, hard to know. i tend to think when stuff like this happens that there was something lingering ahead of time whether they were aware of it or not i think that the kick probably didn't help but i think the landing if you notice uh there is like a half punch that kind of lands and also pushes aspinall and he has to kind of catch his balance on a second step very quickly I tend to think that that might have done it so like a weird awkward sort of landing in a non-athletic position that's what maybe did him in again without knowing what the injury is it's really hard to say but here's the thing if he had checked it and caused it like

you know I don't know like we've seen a times, like Weidman and Silva or something like that, that'd be one thing. But that's not really what happened here. It seemed more circumstantial based on landing. And so I get you, what you're saying. It wouldn't be an accidental foul because no foul was committed. He didn't hit the back of the head. He didn't gouge the eyes.

He didn't do any three stooges bit. But you're right. It is deeply weird to be like, oh, you get a loss based on some kind of injury literally 15 seconds into a bout. That seems unfair, frankly, to both competitors. There should be some kind of other rule to

judge that. Do you consider Brent Primus having been the Bellator lightweight champion, or do you think a similar scenario at MSG against Chandler should have made that a no contest? Is it time to change the rules here, Luke, or is this not the battle you're willing to fight right now? See, that was nerve damage. I take that seriously. I think that's a real win for Brent Premis. Now, obviously, Michael Chandler got it back, so I think

he did prove that of the two, he was the better one, I should say. But, yeah, when you hit someone in the nerve and then they can't walk right and then you just kind of win based on that, yeah, I think that's legit. I mean, that's part of the reason why you should check. That's part of the reason why those things are in place. But if you hit the meaty portion of someone's thigh and then your knee gets either dislocated or some kind of ACL tear or whatever happened. Those seem not unrelated, but not like directly correlated in the same kind of way.

I don't see those as equivalent personally. Okay. What do you think we say about Aspinall now, Luke? I mean, what do you do? You just wish him well, hope he can be the same guy when he comes back? I mean, that's it. That's my only thing is I hope he's not out. My two wishes.

One, I hope he's not out too long. That's the first one. And then the second one is I hope he's the same, or at least reasonably close to being the same because it would be terrible if he had this amazing build, suffers some kind of traumatic injury, and is able to come back, but it looks like a lesser version of himself. I mean, remember, part of his game, and this is not not a knock on him this is not saying he isn't technical we all know

he quite quite well is but part of his game is built on athletic ability it's about leaping into range getting out of range timing and level changes all those things are aided by a by good athleticism and a good athletic base that he has remember he kind of hops on his feet like a like a Robert Whitaker a little bit at times if that is at all compromised it will compromise his game how badly I guess we'll have to see so what I really hope is that the layoff is not long and then more importantly he can retain he can retain the athletic advantages that have helped make his game what it is. Because I'm telling you, man, if there's any kind of degradation in that,

he's going to have a hard time. I don't know what to make of it other than that, to be quite honest with you. All right. Let me ask you a generic question about this event, because you nailed it off the top. It was a weird event. There's a lot of decisions on the undercard, and a lot of times, look. Terrible wrestling.

It is what it is at the end of the day, although I think, like you said, terrible. I think there were a lot of fights where you're like, that's not even UFC level. It was kind of weird, but it's a three-month quick turnaround from the last London card where the same three promising fighters, Aspinall, Pimblitt, and Molly McCann were on it. In that case, all three hit home runs, and the crowd was, you know, it was coming through your screen to show you the intensity so i don't i don't you know have anything bad to say about coming back there and forcing another card in or even going to the level of eventually making london a major down the road

but would you agree with me that this card of course part of that might be the whole hum main event sometimes the undercard sizzle. Sometimes they just are blah. But overall, this kind of just, I don't know. There was something magical about the fight card three months ago. This felt very forced, and it kind of took away some of that growing, like, UK UFC magic, Luke. It did, because I got to tell you, like, if you watch, like, UK boxing events, they just feel uproarious in all kinds of what they i don't

know help me understand bc maybe i'm wrong on this one but if i am tell me and tell me what i'm missing when i watch sometimes these uk boxing events sometimes the ones before the main event are ho-hum and the crowds into it or they're not but but once the crescendo of the main event starts where the walkouts begin and then there's the intros and then the fight it just feels like it all builds these huge moments this one felt like okay patty had a big pop for sure we'll talk about him molly had a big pop fair enough there were some other ones that were interesting along the way it just never felt like this one got out of second or third gear for the most part. It didn't crescendo in that same way.

And I guess the wrestling, I think there was one stoppage on the prelim card. And obviously Nathaniel Wood had a pretty dominant win over Charles Rosa. But I don't know. Am I saying it wrong? Why is it that the crowds at the boxing events feel a little bit more vibrant and this one kind of felt, at times, good, but not the same. And that's kind of what I'm saying. And again, maybe it was the unexciting prelims,

maybe it was the ho-hum of the main event, but it didn't have that spark, that energy, and turning around and coming back three months later was obviously built upon capitalizing on that. And they did get the three sort of favored sons and daughters of this UK movement back in the cage. And like you said, we got two wins, but I don't know, it felt a little forced. And I'm going to make

a statement here. And Luke, this conversation, I'm sure we're going to talk about Patty and Molly's wins in a second. This conversation is definitely going to come up and have you seen this shit. They almost have their own section of the show. But Luke, this is a comment I've never said before at many an Italian restaurant. Too much

meatball. Luke, too much meatball look too much meatball luke and then i that's it's it's hard to say that and frame it properly and not be looked at as an asshole i get that it was it was a nice win dude what was wrong with the win the win was we talk i'm i get to it on extra credit like what was wrong with the win maybe it's the placement on the card. You know, she fought one of my favorite fighters, but didn't necessarily fight a main card fighter, so to speak. And, again, we'll get into it and have you seen this shit, but the grandiosity and celebration, Luke,

I don't think equaled the triumph or the, I don't know. You know what I mean? She's a great sidekick for the Patty movement. She's put together two exciting wins of her own. She's a legitimate fighter, but I feel like she's getting carried into this discussion of the takeover when I don't have the same belief in her long-term success or ability as the other two in this conversation.

Yeah, I think that's fair. I see these wins, and her win over Hannah Goldie was nice. It really was. She was, from the word go, she was ready to go. And, again, Hannah Goldie is a limited opponent, I think. Well, what did I tell you? I said no head movement. You stand in a trade with her, you're getting knocked out, right?

Yeah, and also, like, Hannah Goldie has, I'll talk about this on extra credit, dude. She's, like, real, she's obviously super strong and super athletic. But her upper body is, like, it's not fluid. Like there's a certain stiffness to motion where McCann doesn't have Goldie's physique, but she's a little bit more able to flow with it. And again, it stands out for that reason. And so I just felt like she was coming up short constantly. I think you're right. I mean, listen, but this is how you build a market. You build a market with people that the fans care about. And sometimes the fans care about the top-level quality, which Aspinall didn't show in this particular case,

but to this point has shown. Patty, I think this was his best win by far in the UFC and one of his better wins in his career, quite frankly. We'll talk about him in just a minute. And yeah, McCann is fighting someone who is probably not long for the UFC and how much further can she go? I don't know. But I always try to be... The fairest I can be is

I can't react to what the fans like or don't like. That's a very separate equation. And the UFC's trying to build UK MMA, which I'm further along anyway, and I appreciate that. The win was nice. The win was nice. She did a good job. She executed from the word go she

dispatched an opponent who did not belong in there with her and she did she's she joins ricardo hamosh as the only other ufc fighter with back-to-back spinning back elbow ko's like dude that's i'm not trying to take that i hear your point that there's people being like oh my god she's gonna she you know i don't want valentina shevko. Yo, she doesn't want Valentina Shevchenko. I don't agree with that. No, she called Antonino, which is probably the right call in her trajectory, Luke. No, no, but I saw other people saying, like, oh, she's coming for her. She's coming for her.

And I'm like, slow your roll. Slow your roll. Yeah, I mean, she did party with Joanna afterwards, Luke. Exactly. But what I would say is, did she go in and turn in, frankly very good performance she did dude she did i don't want to take that from it's just it's like look it's like you know having a go-to comedic move among your friends that you do in public and it's you know it jumping over the cage luke used to be reserved for like conor mcgregor you know uh knocking out Seaver in front of Irish fans in Boston

and getting in Jose Aldo's face, right? Right. Or like Charles Oliveira finally winning the title and jumping over and going up to Dana and stuff. You don't get to do that. Or maybe the London card three months ago where we're here and we're taking it all and all that. Yay, okay.

You don't get to do that after beating Hannah Goldie. Like, you know what I mean, Luke? That's my point. That's my point, okay? Yeah, that's not altogether unfair. But at the same time, you know, this was probably going, I mean, you know, these are some of the better days of her life, the better days of her career. I completely agree.

Like, you know, this ain't Conor McGregor jumping out and screaming in aldo's face territory no it's kind of like if you have a great party trick you can't bust it out four times a party it's like you know if you're a one-hit wonder band everyone's only at the venue to see you play that one song you know what i mean you can't play it more than once what are you an asshole you know what i mean luke i mean i was in a i was in a dance club in jamaica in 2003 luke called bubbles it was called that because they'd fill the whole room up with foam. You'd have like a foam party. And, Luke, they played in the club by 50 Cent every half hour. And the DJ would be like, you want me to play it again?

And we're like, yeah. And, you know, you could do the math and argue whether I was too old to be in that setting in 2003. And I'm okay with that, Luke. But the whole point is, like, I don't know, Luke, okay? Maybe I'm just a crusty 44-year-old asshole. We'll talk more about this in half a season. Certainly that is true. I get your point.

That, like, there's a level of acclaim that's happening that isn't commensurate with the level of difficulty of achievement. Although, I'll tell you, I was in Columbia once, and I went to this club called La Casa Blanca, like literally the White House. Like that's what they fucking called it, the White House.

And inside all of the staff were white. All of the walls were painted white and they shot smoke into the air in every room, which of course ended up being white. And I'm like, I think you guys have taken this bit a little too far. And sure enough, it went out of business. Fuck bubbles and and also coca-cola cocaine is white Luke I hope that didn't

extend to that I hope that was you doing a big joke there with I'm not doing a I'm not doing a nationality bit or or anything I'm just saying like I hope that wasn't the hook there Luke like studio 54 you came there to do two things Luke Luke, okay? One of them was coke. You know what's also white? You. You. You are also white. Just want to point that out. White as shit.

Yeah. All right. All right. With that in mind, BC, so that's what's up with Blades. We're talking about the event more generally. Let's talk about the weird-ass co-main event on top of it. This was another weird one where I was like, what the fuck is happening here? Okay.

Jack Hermanson defeats Chris Curtis and did it without a takedown, which I did not think would be possible. I thought for sure he had to get the takedown to win. I was wrong. But BC, Chris Curtis never really cut him off. And at first he was flipping him off when they read the thing and he took to Twitter and he was like, I should have prepared for a track meet. And then as his emotions settled, he thought better of it and realized that,

hey, this is the fight game and that's the way that it goes. So I appreciate Chris Curtis mentally, I should say, sobering up in that sense. But BC, I can't quite make heads or tails of this. Did Jack Hermanson's stock go up or did Chris Curtis's just go down? Both. And I can make easy heads and tails of this because I predicted, despite the fact that Hermansen was an underdog, and despite that in each category, for the most part, we could have given Curtis the edge on paper.

But the reason why I picked Hermansen, and the reason why I wasn't surprised that he ultimately won this way, is because he needed this win way more than Curtis did. And Luke, if we're being honest about the 35-year-old Curtis, who's been very impressive in sort of having this late run to find out how good he can be, he's been opportunistic of taking advantage of this opportunity you know going in there getting big finishes I had a feeling Jack was going to be as gritty as possible and sometimes being gritty when you need to win Luke means you're stubborn something you always think of gritty as bite down go in there and get into a war. This was more about being stubborn. This reminded me of Jan Blachowicz getting the boring-ass five-round decision over Ronaldo Souza at a time where he was getting the close-up, the main event, trying to get ready for a title shot. We wanted him to bust through with the Polish power. Instead, he got a boring takedown defense win because for him

in that moment, it was survive in advance. For Jack in this moment, Luke, it was survive in advance. I don't think it goes negatively against his stock. Look at his run. What was he, 3-3 in his last six? All against pretty damn good competition. At his age, given how good he is comparative to the record he's had of late, he needed to find a way to win. He found that way. I think you can be dismissive of Curtis not, yeah, like you said, not realizing the circumstances.

Leaning more into the middle finger, why aren't you going to fight me, rather than figuring out a way to get it done. Because of the way Jack fought against Strickland, made it so close on the feet without needing the wrestling because it got taken from him. I knew this was possible, and I'll give him credit, Luke. He pulled it out. He was stubborn as shit. He doesn't care if you were entertained. This wasn't what this is about. This is about getting another fight night main event.

This is about climbing the rankings. This is about getting to that title shot. He did what he had to do. I'm sorry it was a boring-ass co-main, and maybe it played into the overall letdown feeling of this card. But, Luke, you know, he had a more exciting guy in front of him who could do more things. He just played the angles, was gritty, and got it done, dude.

I take my hat off to him. You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying you're going to win fans or whatever, but sometimes it's about winning, Luke. I'll say this. Here's where I was wrong. I thought that for Hermansen to win, it's not that he couldn't win with striking,

but that it was sort of like Frankie Edgar-ish, where it has to be combined with the wrestling as a dual threat for both of them to do what they want to be able to do. And that wasn't the case here. I will give credit to Chris Curtis. It is true that the Adolfo Vieira fight was a good warm-up in the sense of takedown defense. Jack Hermansen could not get a takedown. In fact, he went 0 for 6. Good job by Chris Curtis stuffing the takedown. He clearly was prepared for that. I will also say I thought Jack Hermanson did a really great job with rhythm disruption. He was going first. He

was maintaining distance. He was throwing that high kick to occupy the left hand of Chris Curtis constantly and then the lateral movement and everything. He was doing enough where Chris Curtis couldn't get into a rhythm and a flow state. He did have some decent body work, which he always does, but he couldn't really make a rhythm and a flow state. He did have some decent body work, which he always does,

but he couldn't really make a lot of effective use of it by virtue of the fact that he didn't cut off the cage at all. He was kind of following and chasing a little bit rather than throwing sort of strategic low kicks in ways that would limit the potential movement side to side of Jack Hermanson. And so Jack Hermanson did exactly what he needed to. He was on his horse.

It was effective lateral movement. It was good rhythm disruption. It was good range management. If you had told me, could he do that for 15 minutes ahead of time before the fight, I would have expressed some skepticism about that. I would have expressed, I don't know, I think that Chris Curtis probably would have been able to cut him off. Now, I think about why didn't Chris Curtis do it? Maybe that's not one of his stronger skill sets. He seems to be a little bit more boxing-based than kickboxing-based based as a striker something else to think about BC is he does have one fight in the grander UFC octagon when he fought on the Usman Covington card when he fought Phil Hawes but Phil Hawes was kind of like a come forward sort of guy right he didn't

have to chase him down the other fights that he has are in the apex, which is the smaller octagon. We go back to this all the time, man. There is a real difference, not for every fighter every time, but for many fighters, many times, if your only experience is in the practice room on an open mat or the small cage, you don't have the right training or the background in terms of what you might need for the big cage in learning how to cut off and really understanding that as a priority. Jack Hermanson has a lot of experience, big cage, small cage, at home, wherever. So he was really able to make nimble use of this.

It was not necessarily all that entertaining, I could tell from what the fans were saying, but it was it was not necessarily all that entertaining i could tell from what the fans were saying but it was very effective i i don't but here's the thing bc and i'm not trying to bag on jack her manson he proved he could do something i didn't think he could do and i'm acknowledging i was wrong right up front however did you get the sense that the guys he's lost to, by virtue of this performance, you think he can now beat? That I did not come up with. Not necessarily. Did he show enough striking prowess to make that leap?

No, but he figured out a striking plan that would work, and he stuck with it. So, again, it was about surviving and advancing. And I think, Curtis, you broke it down from a technical standpoint, but I also think it's a mental standpoint. I think he was playing with house money. I think he was kind of happy to be there. Everything was starting to come together, and he just thought it would come to him,

and he would figure it out like he'd done of late. And when it didn't, he didn't have the plan B and the adjustments necessary. So I think it's more praise for Jack in my breakdown than the negative comments at Curtis, but it is somewhat equal in that regard. And I like your bringing rhythm disruption into the vernacular of this show, Luke. I haven't seen rhythm disruption like that except for when they had long dialogue in adult films in the 90s. I'm glad they got rid of those parts, right, Luke?

You know what I'm saying? You know what I never understand about adult films is why everyone breathes through their teeth. You know, I'm glad they got rid of those parts, right, Luke? You know what I'm saying? You know what I never understand about adult films is why everyone breathes through their teeth. You ever notice that? No, but I'll look out for it one day. Yeah, thank you very much. You know, I was more, you know, see, I was a big Cinemax and Showtime and HBO guy

like most 13-year-olds, Luke. I mean, you remember Night Eyes 1, 2, and 3 with Andrew Stevens and Shannon Tweed. Luke, what a franchise, right? Can't say that I do. I do remember Red Shoe Diaries, but I don't remember that. All right. A lot of people out there definitely just woke up and, you know, did the DiCaprio meme of, you know, BC, I was there with you, right?

Not in the same room. That'd be a little awkward. All right, so BC, you got Jack Hermanson sitting at 8. Hard to say exactly where he might go from here in terms of the ranking because Chris Curtis was coming in off short notice and is not ranked, and then Darren Till. Where's Till sitting at? He was sitting at nine.

So this was eight versus nine, or at least it was supposed to be, I should say, eight versus nine. Here's the problem. Number seven is Sean Strickland, who recently-ish beat Jack Hermanson. So if you're Jack Hermanson, I get your point. Okay, I didn't lose to an unranked. To the point you raised, it would have been real bad for Jack Hermanson from a ranking standpoint at a bare minimum to lose to an unranked guy.

But the guys ahead of him, BC, Sean Strickland, Paulo Costa, Alex Pereira, Derek Brunson, Marvin Vittori, Jared Cannoneer, Robert Whitaker. I don't know which one of those he's going to get. Sean Strickland just got KO'd, already has a win over him. I'll tell you. Real quickly, let me run through it. Paulo Costa has the bout with Luke Rockhold coming up. We'll see how that goes.

Pereira obviously is going to fight Izzy at some point. I guess Brunson is sitting out there. That's one you could potentially do. Vittori, I don't know. Cannoneer just lost, and then Vittoria and Whitaker are going to fight in Paris or soon thereafter, wherever that's supposed to be. What happens next? He should fight Darren Till because Darren Till's name is much stronger

than his recent track record and proven ability of late, especially since moving up to middleweight. You get to fight Darren Till, it's probably going to be a main event. Maybe it'll even be in Europe, you know? He's been pushing to get on the Sweden card coming up. I mean, I'd like that as the main event. The whole point here is that Darren Till is a little bit of a celebrity still at this point. I think that that's more valuable to him than trying to move a little bit higher

and fight the next ranked name who's coming off a loss, who's got some... No, fight Till. I still think it's a matchup that to that to some degree he can do well and luke and i think it's more it's more valuable to get a win at this point over a name like that than anything else i mean you know he could fight brunson but we all kind of consider brunson's now going the other way luke although he did he did have a nice win streak there for a while um but it did get derailed uh fair enough okay uh how about this one though one more of these? One more of these. A couple more of these, actually.

What about a Jack Hermanson versus the guy who won big at UFC 276 over Uriah Hall? What about Andre Muniz? Andre Muniz. You could. Look, you could. You kind of have grappler grappler there a little bit. I mean, it's not like Jack is in a position where he has a lot of leverage

in this regard, but that kind of feels like a step back, Luke. He wants to get back in. He wants to make noise, Luke. You fight Muniz, you're kind of probably buried, you know, like second fight of the main card on a fight night somewhere. You fight till you're the main event, Luke, okay? That's what I'm talking about. Okay, fair enough. Alright, BC,

so let's now talk about the guy who I frankly thought was the star of the show right at least it turned out that way patty pimblitt this was a good win by him this was a very good win by him i i had debated and i think you did on friday like i don't i'm not sure if i'm gonna pick i'm not sure how much confidence i think both of us in the end decided pimblitt was the guy he secures a second round rear naked choke victory over jordan levitt you You could maybe argue Pimblitt or Leavitt won the first round based on Leavitt not doing a lot of damage but having a lot of control.

But let's ask the question this way, BC. What did Patty Pimblitt prove on Saturday? I think he continued to prove coming off of the submission win in the last fight something that I sort of speculated. Because look, you and I were a little bit negative toward him when he launched on the scene. We saw and tasted and smelled much more hype than actual product. We saw the opening and vulnerabilities and danger signs, but something happened since then, Luke. Two straight wins in which he was able to show a different side of him, more well-rounded side of

him, but I think if you look specifically on this camp and this fight, he came in in an elite, world-class, almost championship-level shape. So, Luke, I do think it was a little bit of sort of like negative fool's gold that we bid upon when he came and made this debut. Because he was talking such a big game, almost McGregor-like to a degree, and because

he showed the vulnerabilities, we're like, oh, dude, he's going to get stopped when he finally gets in there. He might be something I speculated last week, a wolf in sheep's clothing, right? You know, he might be a lot better than he may have shown, you know, and some of that may be nerves. Some of that may be, he just got in, tried a little bit too hard to land the big thing and got, you know, beat up a little bit in the first fight, but got the comeback win. It seems to be part of his dna to figure out how to come back after somebody takes an early advantage that just may be who he is but luke

it took me you know the last week in progress to do it but after this fight i've come around he's a lot better than i gave him credit for potentially being coming in i'm really excited given given the potential of his marketing side what he actually could be i still don't know we you know there's still no way to know it's incremental right and he's going to get probably a continued incremental push i don't think you're going to see him you know against the top 10 guy tomorrow but he's backing it up luke and he's tough as shit and if he can handle himself on the ground like he did the last two fights, against higher-level opponents to offset the magic that he brings to the striking game with his intention and power, yeah, he could actually live up to it and be a real thing, Luke.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, as it looks right now, could he be Darren Till? You're damn right he could, Luke. He could be him. He could be on that level. He could get there. How enviable a position do you perceive him position do you well let me ask you this darren till once fought for a title he's still a celebrity in there he still fights only elite guys for the most part

what i'm saying is i'm now in my own personal where is patty pimblitt ceiling i'm pushing up the roof a little bit more and he's showing me in the right sort of incremental step-ups that, that, that he may be, he may be pretty damn good, Luke. And I, um, um, I may not always be here for the, the shtick. And I get a lot of people DM me saying BC, it ain't a shtick. This is what guys like him, where they're from. That's who they are. Okay. That's cool. Right. Guys like from this factory town, that's who we are. All right. Pieces of shit. No. Um, so, you know, that just may be who he is but the shtick doesn't always win me over but here's the key luke the fighting is actually starting to

win me over speak to that mr technical right luke he's not that bad dude he's pretty damn good uh well this again so this was in some ways a tough matchup because you had another kind of tricky grappler and in other ways it was an advantageous matchup because you had another kind of tricky grappler and in other ways it was an advantageous matchup because two things one as we had noted Jordan Levitt doesn't typically bring that like physical intensity to the bout he's much more of a like he has that inverted triangle over Matt Sales that was he just kind of trickily applied so he doesn't bring necessarily the same physical intensity and he's not really much of a striking threat at this stage and in fact there were times where he was throwing and Patty was kind of flat-footed.

To me, the bigger questions about the striking defense of Patty's game were not answered here at all. They weren't really questioned one way or the other. But to just dismiss that because he got a nice grappling win, to me, is very foolish. I would not do that. Until he really answers it against someone who can try to put it on him in that way. The questions linger, number one. The second thing I'd say though is

I thought this was a very good win in the way that he finally got it where he kind of had that half like choke applied from the side of a failed takedown attempt is able to get his hook in, trap the arm, and then cinch the other arm on the other side, and then fully lock in the choke.

That was very, very nice. Now, we've always known that Patty has good back attacks. I talked about it on Friday. He's known for taking the back and his good back attacks. They're only getting better. That part of his grappling game is very good. Very, very good. Again, that's a real nice win that he got.

However, if we're being fair, the amount of control time that a guy who's not really a drive-forward wrestler in the way that Jordan Leavitt is, I didn't love that so much. He got three and a half minutes of control time, and Patty stuffed a bunch of takedowns in that first round, but Leavitt got three of them in the first round and minutes of control time and Patty stuffed a bunch of takedowns in that first round but Levitt got three of them in the first round and some decent control

time. It's like, dude, against a guy who's like a real good wrestler in this division, that's not a great sign per se, to be honest with you. Now, the flip side of that argument, BC, is well he endured it, he didn't get into too much trouble, and by the time that guy tried

it in the second round, having gassed himself, he took his back and choked him out fair enough dude again he beat a qual he beat the very best opponent i think he's beaten in the ufc by a landslide and maybe one of the better fighters in all of his career it's a nice win but i think people are making a little bit of a mistake to say the win was nice for some very identifiable reasons therefore we can forget about all of the other lingering questions that didn't really go answered here in this contest by virtue of how nice the win is. I would caution strongly against that. That seems like a big mistake.

I don't think we should make. Well, don't don't misinterpret my sudden turn of optimism and even slight favor to me saying that all the you know check marks all the all the i's and t's have been had no but i had a pretty to be fair luke upon his arrival i had a pretty low expectation of who we can actually become so maybe it's a course correction that that you know a self course correction and i think it is but he's starting to win over in the cage and that's where it's going to matter the most luke okay and for me first of all again i want to say this he survived all the wrestling attempts he never got into too big of trouble and eventually when that guy tried to keep doing it he choked him out from there like

that's a very important thing but you can't look the other way on some of the bigger striking questions and you can't look the other way that like the takedown defense not as ironclad as it needs to be if you here's the thing if you really want patty to be able to contend like this is let me be let me go back to this here very quickly uh if i can bc so this fight as it took place right this was a lightweight contest ask me what armin saryukian and mateus Gamrot are going to do to Patti Pemblitt. Right? That's who we're talking about. And those guys, Mateus Gamrot's inside the top ten.

Armin Saryukian is not. Like, this is what I'm talking about. If you want him to be able to contend with those guys, there is a lot of development that has to happen before you can get there his slickness on the back cannot be understated he is very good in finding the back attacking from the back and finishing from there he's legit legit legit legit but i'm trying to tell you look at all the other motherfuckers in front of him in this division you need to see more than what you saw to give you confidence against the saryukians the kutatateladzis, the Gamrots of the world. I think that's pretty fair, is it? Yeah, no, definitely. And obviously,

the built-in inevitability is that he's too popular not to start matching him sooner than later against elite foes, but as long as they can stretch this out, giving him the ability against the right incremental opponents to stretch out his own game and add to it, maybe it's a longer play, whereas in the beginning I thought it was a short play. Let's throw this firecracker in the middle and let it self-combust and we'll all enjoy it. Now, Luke, I think it's a little bit of a longer play, and although that rarely happens in UFC matchmaking, again, this might be the guy to do it, right? You know, that market, he could be the face of it.

And maybe with Aspinall's injury, where Aspinall had a much further ceiling than the three of them from the UK that keep showing up on these cards in terms of potential title opportunities, maybe him taking a step back with injury is going to make the need for Paddy to show that he really is that good, even more importantly, Luke. I saw the little exchange of him afterwards saying, man, my dream, I can't wait to have John Anik call my fight. How far away are we from

that? I'm not necessarily talking about the level of step-up in competition, more about the placement. How do you promote him moving forward, Luke? I think you continue to give, listen, they are matchmaking him appropriately. The first two guys, they wanted to see exactly what they had. The Cazula Vargas and even forget the other guy who he fought.

They were appropriate fights. They were a little bit overmatched, but they got his feet warm. This was a good test. Jordan Leavitt is a tricky grappler, and Patty Pimlett choked him out from the back in the second round. That's a nice win. That's a real nice win. All I'm pointing out is you need several more of those steps before you're at dude at number listen listen to 11 through 15 is in this division tony ferguson conor mcgregor which okay

i mean i realize that you know those fights are not imminent or anything but you got jalen turner sitting at 14 armin so you can attend damir isma gulov at 15 dudeov at 15. Dude, those guys are ahead of him, and they're ahead of him by a considerable distance. All I'm trying to ask people to do is, it is possible, and I think the right way to look at it is to appreciate this dude beat a very tricky grappler by taking that guy's

best effort, letting him tire himself out, not really getting a whole lot with it, and then finishing him off in the second round. That's nice, dude. You can't take that from him. That's nice. That is not evidence that he is ready for the Saryukians, for the Ismagulovs of the world.

There are a few more steps. To answer the question, I do think he'll be on pay-per-view cards. What I think they're going to do is probably put him on, like, main event of the prelims to start or something like that, right? Like somewhere where it's abc exactly he's like perfect for that because listen the fans love him he is exciting he's three fights in ufc three finishes right like this dude is out there giving you what they're asking him to do there's no reason to not lean into that but But that is not the same thing as saying, oh, he's ready to fight Armin Saryukian.

No, that's not where we're at at all. And I just want folks to understand, everyone develops at their own pace. Everyone develops in their own time. Give him the space to develop so he can be the best that he can be. And then maybe fight guys like that. And then maybe beat guys like that. And maybe who the hell knows how far he can go that's all i'm saying also bc we should note that post-fight speech he made was incredible truly incredible it'd be very dishonorable of us to not talk about

it michael bisping puts the microphone in his face and you know what he wanted to say and he notes he had lost a friend to suicide he he talked about how men, in particular, need to be more open with their feelings and talk about things. And this is something we're not doing enough of. I thought that was smart of him to say. I thought that was insightful of him to say. And I thought kind of brave, to be honest, for him to say something like that. I fully agree with you. I mean, obviously, it came about 90 seconds after he stuck his ball bag on Levin's

face, so you do take with a little grain of salt, although we all have multiple sides to us, but yeah, to take that platform in that moment, and instead of calling out somebody exciting that he thinks he can beat or whatever, talking about his after-party, to take that stand and share something that's

heavy on his heart, but you know, look, I mean, we got corny t-shirts for pregame preview that say real talk like men do, you know, real talk is among men sharing those feelings, asking your, you know, your buddy, your brother, your best friend, how are you really doing? So anytime that stigma can get overturned, whether it's people like more Rinaldo fighting the good fight, shout out to him or, or, you know, even us with this platform, look, yeah, I'm behind that. It's funny. If that's a battle he wants to fight publicly, it's going to make him a babyface in the fans'

eyes just as much as his ability to get into skirmishes and kind of rally and come from behind also does, Luke. I mean, some people are going to come just for the hair and the dancing and the trash talk, but he has legitimate grassroots the potential to be a a true full-on baby face as it comes to pay-per-view marketing and who he may become commercially down the road because of some of these things luke you fight through challenges and get through people are going to love you you stand up for something that not everybody's talking about when they should like this topic you're also going to win people over rightfully so, Luke.

Yeah, no doubt about it. And listen, I saw people going after him being like, oh, he once said this on Twitter and he once said that on Twitter. And it's like, I'm not telling you any one of us has to be fully accepted for all the things we've said or done, but that message, that message he delivered and the platform that he used to deliver it is going to be incredibly helpful for someone out there, even if it saves one person.

Mission accomplished. And I just hope folks really understand. I'm in a sport where I see the world differently than most of the other people in the sport. But that doesn't mean that we can never find common ground. That doesn't mean that we we can never find common ground that doesn't mean that we have to always say well because they're different we can't like them and or vice versa what we have to do is find important ways not so much like some bullshit kumbaya come together thing but what i mean to say is here is an important message that could apply to a lot of different people in a lot of different contexts it would be foolish to try

and judge someone on the totality of who they are and then disregard this message as a consequence. Accept the message for what it is, which is helpful, smart, brave of him to do it, and frankly, rather insightful as well. I commend him for it. It took big balls to do that. After, to your point, he had already leaned them on Jordan Leavitt after he got a nice win.

He was the star of the show would you agree like of anybody who delivered on expectations and then frankly I would say with that post-fight speech exceeded them Paddy Pimblitt came off a plus on Saturday night yeah and look I'm happy to be wrong on some of these things with him Luke so it makes me very excited to see him again, see what the level of competition is, see what the setting is, given that he's getting a lot of eyeballs.

Yeah, I'm intrigued to find out who he's going to fight next, Luke. And no, it can't, dude, it can't be like Saryuki and Ergamra. Let's give him time to develop. Luke, I'm sorry. At the end of the day, no matter what job or situation you're in,

if you can sell, if you're marketable, whatever, if you're good looking, I mean, there's all these factors that come in. You're going to get advantages. He's going to get built-in advantages because of his personality and the show that he puts on. I don't think we should always look at that as negative necessarily, Luke. As long as you're, if that advantage that you're getting is slower matchmaking,

it is what it is, Luke. All right? They got a ranking system. Doesn't mean they go by it when they pick out who gets the next title shot. You know what I mean? It is what it is, Luke. All right? They got a ranking system. Doesn't mean they go by it when they pick out who gets the next title shot. You know what I mean? Yeah, but also, here's what folks also fail to realize. The promoter can do you favors and sometimes should do you favors. On that level, we both agree.

But you would also agree, probably, right, BC, that at some point, they can't. At some point, there is only so much help that the promoter can give you the rest of that job again when that time comes is up to the fighter i talk about this all the time they're like well connor never fought edgar dude they played connor exactly the right way they gave him enough time enough time enough time to work on his game work on his game work on his game promote have big wins, before he ended up taking the Chad Mendes fight where he was injured anyway, and he wins it. Then he has the Aldo fight and whatever. But the point is, once he got to that and the Eddie Alvarez's

and everything, there was no going back. There were going to be no easy fights after that. There were going to be no, we can hide you in this corner of the top 10 or hide you in this corner of the top five. At some point, that train comes to a stop. So my only like entreaty to the fans would be is for folks who are like, oh, why is he fighting someone better? Blah, blah, blah. This is all bullshit. At some point, he will have to. At some point, he will have to. But that's not right now.

He doesn't need it right now. Chill out. Let him develop. And let's be fair. How much you like a particular fighter's character or the shtick they put out does fuel, at the end of the day, whether you think they should get advantages or not because of these same things. So if it's a fighter that

we don't like their shtick or we don't think they're that good, we might say the complete opposite. But at the end of the day, it's a business, dude. It's a business. It's entertainment. Alright? So, you know. Let's see. Let's see. With that in mind, BCc let's talk about well and we i on extra credit we'll get to gustafson which kind of is in along the lines of the conversation we're about to have now let's talk about bellator bellator 283 now there were some high notes for sure at bellator 283 in fact jason jackson uh defeats douglas lima via unanimous I believe. I don't think it was split.

I don't have it in front of me. But okay, this is the fourth loss in a row for Douglas Lima. And at first, it was up a weight class to Musashi. Okay, not the end of the world. Then it was to Amosov back at welterweight, but Amosov appears to be incredible. So that's not the end of the world. Then it was to MVP, and you're like okay he previously beat MVP but MVP has improved but now it's Jason Jackson who was no scrub but not a guy who has been in that same atmosphere

as the previous three and he still loses and he came out in the first round BC with blistering leg kicks I'm like okay this is better but then Jason Jackson got the takedown Douglas Lima locked up full guard and that was basically the bout from there. So the question is, is it time for Douglas Lima to hang it up? Always a tough question in this spot. Always hard to make that statement when somebody isn't getting the crap kicked out of them. And he did not get the crap kicked out of him in this fight. But the lifelessness is a pattern.

And it's a bad pattern, and let's look back on the end of Tyron Woodley's run, you know, it's like we always want to rescue people when they're taking too much damage, but sometimes people are taking too much damage in fights that they're competitive, he's not, he's not competitive, the second you're right, his back hit the canvas, it's sort of like he just got triggered and went back into, you know, no urgency. All right, I'll just sit here until the end of the round mode, which is only going to get you hurt in the long run on the elite level. So should he walk away? I think you should take time as anyone in this spot where they're not too old.

There's still something there. But if that something isn't fueled with legitimate desire, then you're just going through the motions. You're putting yourself in a position to get hurt. And also for the whole entertainment promotion side of it, you're putting out kind of duds like this. Now, it doesn't mean Jason Jackson didn't work hard, lean into his strengths, and isn't the reason that Lima got suffocated in the end. He was. Jason Jackson is ready for a title shot. He's on a six fight win streak. But unless Lima wants

to take time off and then, you know, try a resurrection at middleweight or seek out only fights against big names, unless it's something like that. But remember, a time off in between should be there, right? You should sit back, rest your mind and your body and really ask yourself those serious questions of, do I actually want to do this anymore? If there's not going to be that break, then no, he shouldn't fight again. Because these are major warning signs. Failure to launch. These are major warning signs.

This is not a sport to be lingering when you don't have that same drive to get yourself through it, right, when trouble comes. And he's still good enough not to take beatings. He didn't take a beating here, although he got cut up. I watched the fight, obviously. But, you know, no, it's going to need a time off. It's going to be a look in the mirror that's necessary. I don't think he looked in that mirror the last few fights, Luke. I don't know, personally. I'm not trying to take shots at him, but I'm saying it seems, in retrospect, like it was a little bit more like, oh, let's ignore this, let's try to do something to get us back going

again and get back to this level. Well, that something didn't work, okay? So now it's the important crossroads moment for Lima, but I think you should take some time because running right back into a fight at middleweight or what have you, there's nothing to gain here right now, okay? There's nothing to gain. There's going to be this all

over again, or you're going to get in a war with somebody you shouldn't. So, yeah, Luke, it's tough talk time for Lima, a guy who I love and respect. And just like two years ago, we were legitimately saying, is he among the two or three best fighters in the world at this weight class? And I think he was, Luke. He's not that guy anymore. So I have a few thoughts on this I think generally I share

your analysis and I think it was as well said the way you said it I think what I would add BC is a couple of things I have talked to fighters who retired and everyone's got their own little journey about the end and what it looks like and whatnot but I've talked to some where they said at the time they they didn't realize it was the time they didn't realize it was the end or didn't know it was the end, and then after they retired, they were like, oh, yeah, I was done long before that. I just didn't, not even so much in denial. They just, they didn't even, they couldn't put themselves in a spot to realize it.

You have to understand something about these guys, right? That's one thing that always surprises the fans is how sensitive the fighters are to, like, verbal criticism. And it's like, how can that be, right? Because they're the toughest guys on Earth. And not Douglas Lima per se, but sort of generally speaking. But you've got to remember something, man. These guys live and die in their own minds, right? In their minds to do the stuff they have to do.

Like, oh, I like getting up to train. But, like, that's somewhat simplistically stated. They have to, in tough spots, for years, for years, they have to brainwash themselves. They have to brainwash themselves that they can push through a workout, that they can push through pain, they can push through what might be a promotional entity not getting their back, or some media figure saying something mean about them,

or the fans lighting them up on Twitter, or whatever the difficulty may be. And they do this for months on end, and then years on end, and then sometimes in the case of Douglas Lima, for more them up on Twitter, or whatever the difficulty may be. And they do this for months on end and then years on end. And then sometimes in the case of Douglas Lima, for more than a decade plus, they have convinced themselves over time that that's how their mind should speak to them. And of course, you do want to give yourself positive affirmation, but they do it to an extreme degree to where the point where the results don't match it, they don't know how to square that. They don't know how to understand themselves anymore between what their brain is telling them and what their body is showing them

and i think it tells you that there can be a gap between those in interesting ways there's actually some research that sort of indicates that the body sometimes knows about trauma and doesn't want to experience it and before the mind fully cognizantly recognizes that and i think that you know who knows if that's where we are, but it sort of feels something similar is happening here where he is trying to will himself past these moments. And again, I agree with you, take time off and then reassess, and then we'll see where we are. And then you can make a better call. Like at a bare minimum, Gustafson taken off two years, I thought was the right idea. Take some time off, see how you feel. It didn't work out,

but that was probably not a bad idea to do it in the way that he did it. I think that's the first thing I would say is that it's very hard for them to recognize when the end is here because all they've ever had is go. Yes, you can do it. You can power through. You're the best. You can do it. That is hard to unwind after 15 plus years of having that wash over your brain the second thing i'd say is bc and you know this from boxing as well like what are the signs when someone is done it's when they don't really throw back right they just a little bit here or there they're moving around they might be defensively showing up they don't really throw back here's what's

kind of funny man go watch douglas lima's fight with ben askren back when bellator was run by bjorn rebney back in the aughts now he gets taken down and controlled in that fight but dude like Douglas Lima's a black belt in jiu-jitsu he was aggressively hunting submissions on Ben Askren in that fight dude here he just locked up full guard and didn't do really anything with it this is a guy who has a good a very good guard a legitimate black belt in jiu-jitsu has had it for some time and he's not really attacking from there that's a bad sign to me that's a bad sign about the kinds of things you should be seeing so i think i share your assessment generally which is let's take some time off figure something else out and then when you know enough time has passed where you can

really begin to grapple with what's happening make a call one way or the other. But dude, if he keeps going like this, he's not getting beat up now, but he will if he keeps going. And look, burnout is real, and it's also hard to walk away when you were the three-time champion, just won the, it's not that long ago, he won that World Grand Prix,

and then, you know, to, I mean, there's two title fights in this four-fight losing streak, so he's so close to the top still that it is hard but now you got four losses in a row now it's time to look internally and it reminds me of the end of Sugar Rashad Evans' UFC career Luke having talked so many times with him introspectively on

the air in my old podcast and times of this one of like you know it's like something's wrong I don't know what it is I can't figure it out but yet yet i feel when i walk in there like everything's going to go right and then it goes wrong and i can't do what i thought i was going to do and yeah it's a major warning sign i mean i don't want to see douglas lima take two three more losses to figure this out i want to see him figure it out right now and look you know maybe a year and a half later he may come back reborn

at a higher weight class, have success, figure it all out. I mean, this is a great fighter we're talking about. He's just, he's not fighting great anymore, though. So, shout out to Jason Jackson, though. We can't let that go by, Luke. Yeah, I was going to get to it. It's title talk or nothing now.

You heard him in that post-fight interview. Right. So, here's the thing, though. This is the problem for Jason Jackson. Amosov, who is ukrainian is no longer on the front lines he's back in germany training which is good news great to hear that but you've got interim champion so to speak logan storley who's out there storley and jackson for folks who don't know are teammates and like friends by the way

so what's gonna happen because you would imagine they're gonna by the way if you never saw it oh you are in for a treat. One of the best Bellator fights I've ever seen in terms of the wrestling and the scrambling. Amosov versus Storley won is fucking incredible. So I guess they're going to run that back, or what, BC? Are they going to wait for

Amosov and maybe have Storley defend his interim title against Jackson? How's this going to work? Well, Jackson's words before and also after this fight were pretty consistent. He loves Logan Storlie. They're great teammates. They're both willing to fight each other.

They'd prefer it be for the full title. So I think in this case, and that's the right spot, that's the right attitude to have, Luke, because if you're going to be on a super team, and they both are, you're going to run into people in your division, in your promotion. It's going to happen, okay? And you hate to see when it breaks up teammates and friends and all

that. And I do think with Amasov back in camp already, or back working out, and you know, what do you think? Three, four month camp? If it's that short of a turnaround here, you make the Storlie fight, in my opinion. I think it's better for them, potentially as friends too, Luke. And then, hey, if Storlie wins the rematch against Amisov and you're not needing an immediate trilogy, if there's not any circumstances connected to it, then it's Storlie versus Jason Jackson, and that's the deal. But he's in a great spot. And I even liked, even with Big John pushing him and saying, okay, well, what if you had to fight somebody else? And he's like, well, look, MVP is busy. So there's nobody else. I agree with him.

There is nobody else, Luke. I don't know how quickly MVP can turn around from a bare knuckle pay-per-view against Mike Perry, but I think that's the right way to go. Run back the rematch. Jackson gets next. Let's do it. I think that's right. I would agree.

A good win from Jason Jackson, but as good as it was, best name on his resume, I would argue by far, there's still a little bit more to prove, right? And so getting back to that Curtis Blades conversation, it was good. He did his job fair enough, but he didn't prove in this one that we can affirmatively declare he's like, oh, he's going to give Amosov all kinds of trouble. I think something in between has to happen or he's got to wait for a while, which sucks.

That's kind of the reality of things. BC, how about the... We said Pimblitt was the star of the show at UFC London. I'll tell you who the star of the show was for me at Bellator 283. It was Usman Nurmagomedov who made short fucking work of Chris Gonzalez.

I saw people being like, oh, he's a can. Chris Gonzalez is not a can he is a former wrestler himself out of Team Alpha Male a physical specimen Usman Nurmagomedov is just that good, but here's the funny thing right, you had Sidney Outlaw who was supposed to fight

Petriki Pitbull for the title, he ended up taking a short notice contest against Tufik Musaev, Musaev ran through Sidney Outlaw is, as it stands today, the number one ranked Bellator lightweight contender sitting there. He just made him look like he was nothing. Musayev has a win in Rizin over Patrycki Pitbull. So BC, who should be next?

The Bellator newcomer who got the win over the number one contender or Usman Nurmagomedov? Who should fight Patrycki next? I think it should be Taw The Bellator newcomer who got the win over the number one contender or Usman Nurmagomedov who should fight Petriki next? I think it should be Tawfiq Mosayev and I don't think there's a concrete answer you can debate either way and Bellator has got an interesting scenario in front of them and by the way part of the reason why I say Jason Jackson

wait for the full title is what just happened to Sidney Altlaw supposed to fight for the title as you mentioned instead wants to stay on the card and get the payday and stay busy after putting the camp power, you know, more power to him, by the way, only they brought in a debuting hammer in Tawfiq Musayev, and he lived up to that in, what, 20 or 30 seconds.

I mean, it was a... So here's the deal. He's kind of hot right now. And with that storyline of him having, being the last guy to beat Patrycki, I say you do that Luke, because here's the deal. This is really,

uh, Nurmagomedov stepping up to a, to a good level for the first time. Slow roll that a little bit. Okay. And if it ends up being Nurmagomedov versus Tawfiq Mosayev, then, then,

you know, there's a few different hammers that are going to collide there, Luke. So I think it's still a little bit, it's like you're running out of time for Usman Namagamov. It's like, what else could you give him here? He looks to be better than everybody in the division, more or less. You know what I mean? And this is a division that could have AJ McKee in it.

So long-term, yeah, I want to see that fight. Believe it. But Moussaiev has that in, and that's having beaten him. And could you ask for a better debut than stopping the number one contender in 23 seconds or whatever? No. So, I'm okay with waiting just a little bit longer, but yeah, Usman Armagomedov, so far as everything we say he is,

Luke, I don't see how you can watch this, watch these fights, and not see that he's going to get there soon enough. So, no need to rush it, Luke. 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 at participating McDonald's in Canada. 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. 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. Fair enough. You don't have to rush it. I guess I'm more interested in his upside, given his undefeated record, although Mosiah has fought many more times, and so that's going to naturally probably produce more visibility around his deficiencies.

But you can see the highlight here. The outside trip to the ankle pick, to the front headlock with the underhook, to the power guillotine, or some folks call it a ninja joke and the way in which he did it is just it's just the timing on that is remarkable the control is remarkable and Musaev looked good against Sidney Outlaw dispatched him and I the fight barely lasted any length of time in fact I have it here he defeated him at 27 seconds of round number one Sidney Outlaw had nothing for Tufik Musaev. So because there's history there, I could see the argument. He came in unranked, but that's not really telling the full story, obviously. So if they want to do a rematch between Musaev and Pitbull in Bellator

and then give Nurmagomedov one more guy to really just be sure, I wouldn't hate it it but i'm telling you now you you know i've been largely in agreement about this i think usman number gamedov is going to wear gold around his waist sooner or later maybe this year at the latest 2023 as good as musaev is and he's very good number gamedov is awesome at this 24 He's 24! He is so gifted. And 24 years old. He's a hammer. He may end up winning title belts in multiple promotions, Luke. Who knows? Who the heck knows, dude?

He might. Alright, that is it for our Top 5, BC, but we are not done, obviously. Now is the time when the fans get to ask us questions. It's time for old DMs from the diggity dogs. Hee-haw. Hee-haw. Alright, let's burn through these if we can. We've got mail.

Viewers. Did they play it? We can never hear that. I don't know. You know, I don't know. All right. From at Roger Castro 7, what is more likely to happen within the next three years?

Patty Pimblitt winning a UFC title or Luke giving up vaping? God, I hope the latter, Luke. Although it's provided us with such comedy. But do you have a vape in front of you? It truly is the most white trash piece of shit thing I do. I mean, I'm reheating coffee all day, Luke, and that's so less WT than what you're doing. Do you have it in front of you?

Can you show the people? If it's within arm's length right now, then you've got got a problem yeah god you're holding it the whole show you absolutely wow wow i mean look the the towns you lived in in georgia during your really your formative years your your your transition from teenager into man were those dub t towns i mean they all had their share of it, but I would say that... I wasn't super... Okay, so one of them was... I used to live in Nashville, Georgia. Super dub T.

I mean, dub T to the exponential. All right? And then I lived... Or I went to school briefly in Tifton, Georgia. Dub T. And then I went to school in Valdosta, which does have, please don't misunderstand me, Lowndes County is just, I mean, awash in Dubty. But I wasn't overly exposed to them where I was.

And then I was in Marietta. Dude, all of Georgia just is me crawling with Dubty. It's like, you know, what do you want to say? All right. Then I don't hold it against you. Marietta's also got a real old southern aristocrat, you know, good old boy network kind of to it. So it's not in that same kind of way. But, yeah, there's definitely, you know, I once had someone told me they love to mix red wine and seven up.

I was like, get the fuck out of my face. Luke, if you could make a prediction right now, given your addiction level, when do you drop the douche stick? I got close to stopping recently. I'm going to say 2022. I think by the end of 2022. Okay, douche flu. Thank you, Long Island Luke.

That's what Michael Piestoff calls it. All right. AtOriley7402 asks, which fans are better and more passionate, the UK or the Irish fans? Or just for Luke, do you prefer to hear fans sing Zombie or Sweet Caroline? Now, the Irish are very protective about this.

The Irish believe that they are the very best fans, and to their credit, at a bare minimum, they're, you know, 1B or 2, like a bare minimum. So what do you think, BC? Who is better? Sweet Caroline, I mean, just fucking bash the speaker with a fucking baseball bat every time I hear it. But Zombie is amazing, and I do like both fan bases. Because I heard, I caught Sweet Caroline on 60s on 6,

or whatever the hell that channel is, on Sirius, on the way home the other day, Luke, and I kind of rocked out for a moment. I'm like, damn, you know, for a prime 60s pop song, that's as good as it gets, dude. Yeah, no wonder you like Thor, Love and Thunder. You're a zero. But, you know, it's been ruined, obviously, to a large degree.

But, Luke, I'm going to say something that's probably going to denounce my Welsh citizenship because, you know, I've been after the fact. You know, I'm welcomed in Wales right now, luke okay they're my people okay aren't they relatively the same uk to me when i think of fight fans irish and uk they're like neighbors they're all the same luke right i mean northern ireland is in the uk they're they're all like you know i know that's crazy people are gonna hate me for that yeah don't all them white guys look alike, Luke? I don't think the Irish take too kindly to that.

Yeah, probably not. Don't forget, guys, I'm an eighth Irish, okay? So I'm allowed. Like Mike Perry, I'm allowed to disrespect my people, okay? But no, Luke, I'm kidding on that. Who's more passionate? Well, UK for boxing. Yeah, I think for MMA, the answer is the Irish.

But I do think for boxing from what i have seen don't kill me irish people from what i have seen i think the irish are better mma fans that's what i would say okay do you have any respect for the scottish luke i know that's uk but do you have respect for them yeah what do you ufc's ufc's been to glasgow they've had some decent shows there no you personally for your tolerance of people from the UK and Ireland, do you have a power rankings between Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland? I don't have a strong sense of Welsh identity. And Scotland is one place that my wife and I want to visit.

My wife finally went to England for the very first time in her life. But she went to London and she was blown away by it. Although she said the food sucked a fat one, which is true. English food. I mean, you fucking zeros over there have no idea what good food. They have very good Indian food in London. That's about it. It fucking sucks.

So I don't know much about the Scottish beyond that, except that they're very friendly. I love their accents. And I'm curious to see Edinburgh and stuff like that. So, yeah. I don't know much about the Scottish beyond that, except that they're very friendly. I love their accents, and I'm curious to see, like, Edinburgh and stuff like that. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't have a power ranking in that way. But if you're asking me where I want to visit next inside the UK, I would say Glasgow, Glasgow, Edinburgh, that kind of stuff. Now, you badly punted calling your dad American the other day, really?

You know? But do you know where the dad side of your family has originated, Luke? Historically, like, if you trace it very far back, England. So these are your people. You're, you know,

these are, you know what I'm saying, Luke? Nah. You and Eddie Hearn are one and the same, all right? Yeah, no. Mm-mm. Not the same. I appreciate them for who they are,

but we're not, like, the same. I'm an American douchebag, and they're UK fuckers. So there's that. I got a Scottish last name, Luke, okay? You know what I mean? So maybe they'll welcome me there. Oh, well, they're nice, actually. They're pretty friendly, but we'll see.

They can probably smell my French-Canadian side. I know they can, Luke. They probably don't welcome you. Dude, you claim more identities you know nothing about. When it's convenient for the jokes, you're Lithuanian. I can't wait to tell me you're Chinese one day. This is going to be... Oh, come on.

I mean, you know, we already did that, Luke. Okay, we don't need to get back there, all right? All right, fair enough, fair enough. All right, from at ant, N-A-C-C, knack? I don't know. What strategy would you employ if you were Nate Diaz's coaches to give him the best possible chance to win versus Shamayev? I have no fucking idea.

Shank him, Luke. Illegal weapons, please. Brass knuckles inside the tights. What do you got for me here, Luke? Seriously, let me ask you this one foundational question. Should Nate do nothing but try to get Shamayev

into a brawl? Should that be the only focus? I think so. I think if you just wait around, you know, and kind of like slow play it, that's only going to make it worse. I think you, okay, do we have proof that Chemaev can be baited into fighting in an undisciplined brawling way? Yes, we do. And Nate Diaz can strike. He does have, I think, respectable power.

I think you just got to take it to him right away. Like what Krilov did to Gustafson. Obviously, very different circumstance. But just go right at him. Just go right at him and see what happens. And if it ends quickly, it ends quickly. But the downside of letting that one slow play is bad. I don't like it at all.

I don't think I've... Can you recall seeing Nate just go for broke? I mean, just come out, start a fight, fully offensive? I don't... You know what I mean? Just... I'm trying to think. I don't think so.

I mean, he's always offensive, but he's... You know, sometimes he can be the counter striker. Sometimes he can kind of weather your early storm. You know, he tends to kind of try to get you after you've emptied the tank a little and try to take advantage of that and jump on yes yes which i mean could that work against your mind it's certainly possible just seems a little bit unlikely but yeah i don't know dude it's not it's it's a listen it's a tough assignment it's a tough assignment for anybody especially for a 37 year old guy whose skin has a lot of scar tissue like it not. It's a tough. Listen, it's a tough assignment. It's a tough assignment for anybody, especially for a 37-year-old guy whose skin has a lot of scar tissue. Like, it's a tough assignment.

All right. From at Flannels. Flannels in Jits. This guy is probably the worst person to talk to at a party. Can you imagine? It's like, what are you into? I'm into flannel and jujitsu. Like, get the fuck away.

What do you think of this? It's too candle box, Luke? I'm teasing, by the way. Flannels and jiu-jitsu. It's a joke. Everyone relax. Y'all roasted me on Friday. It's only right that I return the favor. Okay. Question. Will the Poirier-Chandler fight happen by the end of the year? I'm going to say

yes, BC. Yeah. Did you see those comments from Michael Chandler, who was at the London Card, Luke, saying that it kind of saying that it could be announced soon? I think that's what he said. Yeah, did you see those comments from Michael Chandler who was at the London Card? Luke saying that, kind of saying that it could be announced soon? I think that's what he said. Yeah, he said, you're going to hear some news soon, probably. Yeah, love that fight. What's your early read

on how that one looks? Awesome, destructive, emotional, violent. I mean, look, they both took a version of Justin Gaethje to the deepest waters, right? To the woodshed behind them waters, you know what I mean? And they named the waters, and they took it at him, and they finished him. Could it end up looking like that, only the two of them against each other?

Chandler's so combustive that pretty much all of his fights seem to end halfway through the second round, right Luke? I know he went three rounds with Gaethje, but I kind of feel like this is going to be... Against Yamauchi, for example, even against Primus in the rematch, he can grind out a wrestling win when he needs to or wants to. That actually is on the table. But obviously more often than not these days in the UFC, he's just throwing the hammers, you know? It's going to be a fourth round stoppage. And I have a secret fear that Poirier is a little bit of spoiled milk,

a little bit past his prime, and we're not fully picking up on it. I mean, he's right there on the outside, the pound for pound top 10, you know? So I think some people UFC might still have him in the top 10, but I feel like Chandler's got a little bit more in the moment. So if I'm going to lean one way, it would be a late stoppage for Chandler, but I think the fight's going to be crazy, which means anything can happen, Luke, you know? Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, Poirier has been as tested a lightweight as they come against all different kinds of fighters. It could be like the

Gaethje fight with Poirier. It could look like that. It could be... I mean, who knows? It could be all over the place, honestly. Very winnable in either direction, so that would be a very fun one. And then last but not least, BC, from at Kyle Hank Levy.

This one's for you. Old big baby Jarrell Miller has a fourth round KO of a can. I didn't even see this. What does he have to do to be on our radar, BC? Well, fight on, you know, real television again and not fight a guy with giant moobs. But look, it's been a long

time off for Jarrell Miller who lost that massive pay-per-view against Anthony Joshua. Look what did he get caught with? 19 substances in that one drug test? It was like Brock Lesnar at UFC 200. I'm not doing a bit. I think the count was, let me see, all of them. Yeah, all of them. He's fought twice in the last month, or last two months, against really low-level competition. Look, he can talk. He also came back at like 330 pounds, I think, Luke. I'd have to check that.

He's quick for a big guy. Look, at the very best, right? He's entertaining at times. I thought he could have made a fun fight with AJ. But he's got to go a long way. I mean, the way that he—I mean, look, people fail drug tests and lose fights, but we forgive them and they come back and whatever. It was so dramatic the way he lost that payday and that opportunity that it's going to take some time. I think it's going to take,

I think it's going to be hard for him to get TV dates, Luke. You know what I mean? I'm not sure where exactly where he's at in terms of his connections now, but it's going to take a while for us to really care. You know, he may never get back there, Luke. We'll see. We'll see. I, uh, yeah. It's like, what does he have to do to get back on our radar? Get on our radar? Like, do something relevant? Yeah.

We've talked about him on this show strictly for taking drugs. I mean, that's really the only thing, you know, that he's ever been on our radar for. Alright, BC, it is your birthday and I am told you have hyped up today's BC's VCs in an extraordinary way. I am very curious to see what happens.

Every single time I've ever hyped up the shit you're about to see, you've deadpan no-sold, and we went to like, oh, okay, great, we had a good run, I guess. But here's the deal. Every weekend, even on my birthday, I scour the globe for the highs and the lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in-between. In combat, sports, and beyond, they call this,

have you seen this shit? Have you seen this motherfucking shit? Luke, for better or worse, UFC London was the Patty and Meatball show, and we've got a lot of videos to show you the proof. Luke, here's Patty at Friday's weigh-in pulling the okey-doke on Jordan Leavitt. In terms of trolling, did he nail this?

I mean, listen, I'm an old and sad piece of shit. It's hard for me to get up for this kind of thing. Like, oh, I did the whole fucking Three Stooges or whatever the fuck this is you know like it's not for me all right uh luke we we we hyped up bc's super sloppy special of the week hannah goldie versus molly mccann and you know let's give molly her her flowers for at least this she she did finish violently luke another spinning back elbow as you mentioned and damn when look when she smells blood she doesn't know how to turn it on.

Luke, would you say that she's a British Betch Cohea? She's better than that. Well, I don't know how good she is yet. All right. But here's what we're talking about, Luke. I mean, you know, you got Dave Portnoy in a strategic spot with the wig on. You know, we got this. I don't know.

I mean, look, it was a lot. I mean, she was on the screen a lot over that main card. She's maximizing her screen time. I'll say that. It's a nice win, man. It's a real good win to get that in the way that she did. The crowd had a certain expectation. Listen, of what you could reasonably expect from her, did she deliver?

I would say she over-delivered in terms of what you could expect from her. All right. As I mentioned, not everyone a fan. Somebody put this tweet across my timeline. Luke, is this fair or unfair? How much of your dark heart believes in this? I understand the sentiment. I really do.

I get it. It's a little, you know, she wants, it was kind of like a main event, sort of like jumping out of the cage and into the arms of Dave Portnoy. But you tell me how much you agree with this. How about that? I mean, look, it was a lot, okay? It was a lot, but you know.

For folks who are listening on the podcast, it should be, this person writes, it should be illegal to celebrate this much for accomplishing so little, they write. All right. Luke, speaking of Hannah Goldie, the B-side of this matchup, how about WWE superstar Big E

shouting out your boy to honor the super sloppy special that he was about to watch, Luke. Love this guy. Yeah, he was even he tweeted me about what's his face is about Aspidal's back tattoos. And I was busy trying to feed my kid

and he was a piece to Violetta. Well, let's see it right here. Biggie took it one step further by shouting out Tookie, Luke. I have so much love for this guy. He's a real fan, man. Dude, he's the best. I don't know what the state of his recovery is. I don't know if you know more than I do.

But I really hope he's okay. Shouts to Big E. Thank you for spelling my daughter's name correctly, which motherfuckers usually don't. So good job, sir. One T, not two, Luke. There are ways to spell it two ways. For example, there's a show on Disney Plus called Violeta,

which I think is either Spanish or Argentinian. It's in Spanish. My wife tends to watch it, and it's always a bunch of whatever. They spell it with two Ts, so it can be spelled that way. But it's like John and John. There's a lot of different ways to spell it. Or Connor. Everyone puts two Ns in Connor's name.

It's like, yo, how fucking famous does Conor McGregor need to be before you dullards learn there's one N in his first name? Apparently not famous enough. Dwayne Wade's so famous I now misspell Dwayne every time because of him. There's a Y in there, isn't there?

Yeah, he goes D-W-Y-A rather than the opposite. Oh, that's right. Luke, back to Meatball Molly. I was critical on some parts of her celebration, but this part was kind of awesome. How about running to the front row, celebrity row, and as we mentioned earlier, drinking whiskey

out of a cup with Ioana Young-Jacek and Michael Chandler. That's pretty badass, Luke. Yeah, except it's Howlerhead. Yeah, we may get to that soon as well. Alright, well, how about we get to it right now? Luke, it's howlerhead yeah we may get to that soon as well all right well how about we get to it right now luke it's one thing to to celebrate your own victory but here's where i started to turn against the old meatball when she started taking over patty's spot almost more than him and then we see company employee number one pat Patty Wig, howlerhead banana whiskey in hand,

running around the front. Look, whether or not I like this or I think it's too far, who am I, right? Who cares? But if you're a UFC fighter trying to climb the rankings and get exposure, they got to be out happy with this, Luke, right? Tell me why. You're taking the boss's product, know what i mean running free in celebrity

row in the front running in and out of the cage putting patty on your shoulders again for being hannah goldie i know it's part of the atmosphere and the charm and again some of it i loved but isn't this like full-on company man routine right here luke yeah a little bit but the thing that really stands out to me here is like you know how dana white is always like turning the color of country time pink lemonade apparently everything around him turns the color of country time pink lemonade why is the white balance off on this camera why does she look like she was left out in the sun for the last 40 at four and a half days yeah i can't comment on that but uh but uh you know she she you can argue she won the card luke you can argue that you could argue that no patty won the card patty won the card, Luke. You can argue that. You could argue that.

No, Patty won the card. Patty won the card. Not to be outdone, speaking of Patty, Luke, here's the aforementioned teabag celebration, which he promised he would do. He said it's from some video game he plays. But Luke, isn't this a reverse teabag? A teabag's supposed to be where you give them the full Monty, right? Like you have to face them to give them the teabag?

That's what I thought, unless people are dropping reverse teabags all the time. You know, it's a practice I don't practice, Luke, so I don't really know. But, you know, like in boxing, there's a thing where if the referee, you get knocked down and the referee skips the 10 count because they think you're done and doesn't give you the chance, a lot of times these referees will jump on your chest to pull the mouthpiece out and just straight up teabag you and wave off the fight. That's as embarrassing as it gets, Luke. They didn't

even give you a chance to recover, and now you've got those old refs' balls in your face. I would say it depends on how droopy your balls are, which at 20-something years old, his should not be very droopy. I can't believe I'm talking about this at 42 years of fucking age. It looks to me more like

he's just taking a dump, right? Right? Like, you know what I mean? If you just put some sound effects in there, it just kind of works. Alright, I just skipped over this clip. Let's go back to it. I want to get back in line here. Luke, here's Meatball Molly sneaking up from behind

to grab a high crotch on British rapper Stormzy, but she doesn't fully run the pipe, Luke. I'm telling you, she tried to win this whole card, Luke. Yeah, she's a party animal. Did she fix her teeth? They look amazing. Is that a shot at British people, Luke?

No. Did you see her teeth? They're about as perfectly symmetrical and white as I've ever seen anyone's mouth ever. Like, they look legit. Like, dude, for someone who's got some crooked-ass fucking busted anyone's mouth ever. They look legit. Dude, for someone who got some crooked ass fucking busted teeth like I do, hers look amazing. Also, I have no idea who the fuck Stormzy is.

Yeah, that's right. So this is the moment where I turned, Luke. Here's Patty being carried on Meatball's shoulders. I wrote down in parentheses, I hated this crap, Luke. A little too much here. Okay, a little too much. Dude, you really like. A little too much here. Okay, a little too much, Luke. Dude, you really, like... A little too much.

How much of this is you just hating on someone having a good time? I really, like, you know, I'm not here to say that I didn't, you know, get a little out of line with, you know, two or three margaritas at our Friday show at the beer house. But maybe you just don't like it when other people have a good drunken time around you. I'm beginning to sense a theme here, BC. Are you saying I'm fun police, Luke, if I can't be the center of it, then nobody can? Yeah, I was going to say, it's not like you're the fun police because there are...

Okay, so for example, where were we when we went to the baseball... Like, we had the box, all the Malka crew, we were shotgunning beers. And you're like, yo, I'm not into this fraternity bullshit. I'm going to go pout outside like a hoe. And I was like, well, why don't you just come party with us? You don't like it when other people have a good time around you unless it's about you. If you're doing a deep dive cycle analyst,

you may have some points there. I don't subscribe to that, though, on the surface. I disagree with you. That day, though, Luke, there were a couple things going against. I mean, let's just be honest and free and clear here, okay? Luke, I got a low tolerance. If I drink, you know what I'm saying? Like, not a low old guy tolerance, meaning I used to have a good tolerance.

Now you know I'm an old piece of shit. One or two or three drinks could give me a vicious hangover. So I was trying, you know, sitting in the eighth row of Delta, and I was really trying my best, Luke, which helps with the hangovers, by the way, but I was really trying my best to be strategic with my drinking. I couldn't waste it in a drink off. Mixed with Luke, that was a serious turn for our doc in terms of storylines, right? We were deeply, introspectively contemplating the current realities of our life and career and where we're going as the invasion was happening. So some of that storyline magic and some of that was the truth about what i was wrestling with luke

okay i think that if i know anything about brian campbell is that what he likes to do is to walk into a room and just fill it with himself everyone look at him and talk only to him and if it can't be that you pull the plug. That's it. Just out. Are you saying that that's what fuels my Lithuanian exits which are so much nicer than the Irish version Luke because you're telling the person up front it's not you it's me I gotta go.

Which is a long way of saying it's you. I've got social anxiety I need to go okay. Yeah alright. Okay Luke where are we at in this Mollylly and meatball show i think we got um i think we got one more oh no we saw it all all right luke elsewhere on ufc london barstool prez dave portnoy um out here dressing like an asshole i can't figure out if i liked this or i didn't luke where do you stand on this, I'm a humorless piece of trash. You know, like looking like Mr. Planters, the peanut guy.

I guess there's a segment where this works. Listen, I hate fun. Can we just be honest about that? So will Dana ever let our podcast sit with the patty wig in the front row and like carry the fighters around afterwards, Luke? Only if this podcast turns into a billion dollar enterprise that uh gives his fighters money what imagine it's thinking of speaking of storyline turns from the doc imagine if a real life turn happened luke where we end up becoming dana's favorite podcast in the end somehow and then he gives us the milk boy gift on camera and then we have to turn back and be like what do we do we've got hours of footage fighting for fighter pay and then now dana just put 250k in our pocket you know

yeah i i'm not gonna wait around for that um okay could happen never know okay all right luke let's go to jack the joker here in the co-main event he was vicious and offensive in this sequence thinking he had chris curtis. Look at these elbows from the Nordic nightmare, Luke. Yeah, he looked pretty good here. This was the one time he blocked the kick, but it still kind of rattled him a little bit. Some of these elbows, I was like, eh. But he let them rock. Yeah, a couple of those slipped through.

Yep. Luke, here's Chris Curtis activating his inner Nate Diaz after the fight, as we mentioned earlier. Yeah, okay. Chris Curtis is my family, and I am Jack Hermanson. That's typically how interactions go. That's fair. Luke, Muhammad Mokaev and Charles Johnson needed to be separated ahead of their featured prelim matchup here, Luke. Look at this shit.

Yeah. I know, and then he landed one significant strike in the third round. Yeah. I was like, save some of that young fella save once they've no one went to the wind and ghosts here but uh muha muhaev uh mokaev excuse me was handing out tickets to suplex city during this fight luke i kind of popped for this right yeah some nice ones there he had he had like i again we covered this a little bit on extra credit he had like in just the third round five of ten takedowns so he was yeah putting in work on the wrestling well hopefully in extra credit you will be talking about uh paul craig maybe coming out a little bit too fired up uh it actually started in the weigh-ins luke with the

look at this bringing it right to vul Volkan. It looked like mentally he might have cracked him. Did you zoom in on Uzdemir there and see? It looked like he was in his head, Luke. Maybe, but then Uzdemir won all three rounds on all three judges' scorecards. So it was like, Connor won the press conference, Connor won the weigh-in, and then Nurmagomedov goes and ices him.

It's like, one of these things matters, one of them doesn't. Shout out for Oscar Willis of Mac Live fame for first putting this out into the world. I think he took it in the hotel room. Although Blades in Aspinall in the main event didn't get to find out the winner, look at the winner's circle afterwards, Luke, the 19th hole. Two good buddies taking down a cold one. I'm here for this.

Bro, those beers. See, that's an English pint. The English do the beer pint the right way. Full-size pint. Them two getting after it. I've got to say, those beers. See, that's an English pint. The English do the beer pint the right way. Full-size pint. Them two getting after it. I gotta say, those beers look refreshing. And then when I tweeted that, John Anik was like, yo, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Indeed, indeed. Luke, Long Island Luke just put in our chat, Cleveland Portnoy. Is he trying to ask if you turned on Dave Portnoy when we interviewed him that time and they complained about the cameras and, you know. Well, it wasn't our fault. we didn't set that shit up but no he was trying to like you just missed everything in the chat as he was putting it up and now you're reading it all back together like a jackass oh it just appeared sorry oh was that really five minutes ago it just appeared in my yeah actually six minutes ago yes oh now now they're appearing one after another okay

that's how the chat works bc welcome to modern um true or false though and i don't have anything Six minutes ago, yes. Oh, now they're appearing one after another. Okay. That's how the chat works, BC. Welcome to modern technology. True or false, though? And I don't have anything against Dave Portnoy, except for when he went to Mike's Pizza Palace in Naugatuck, Connecticut, which I'll put up against any pizza that was ever made, Luke, and he shit on them with Deb, the Uber driver,

and gave them like a 6 out of 10. He no-sold everything we tried to give him in that interview though would you say that true or false you know we tried to make a little magic little back and forth play volley he he kind of shoved us i mean he was just like i'm not playing this game right now well to be clear shop did that to you not to me i want to be very honest about that so i don't quite have that same use of the verb in ways you might i just remember him being very tan, and then afterwards, Big Cat followed me on Twitter, so I got something out of it. Alright, he was the guy who complained

openly about the setup. Okay, alright, let's keep it going here, Luke. Let's go to the next one. If you thought we were done with Molly, the meatball Luke, we aren't. Check out this sound as she was asked about being called out by Miranda Maverick after the fight yeah miranda if you want it i'll fuck you wherever you want to be fucked that is the way

you're right luke i may have been too harsh on her after this i think you know this kind of on brand for this show. I think I'm back again. So, Molly Meatball, you're A-OK with me. This is like, this is Apex BC. Like, this is what you love. That's about as good as it gets. Actually, I'm into this.

Because think about it, Luke. Look, long term, do I think she's going to be great? I don't know. We're going to find out. But there's a lot of fun matchups against some of my favorite fighters we can make with her right now. So why not, Luke? Why not, Luke? Why not tie back her?

Plenty of time to see what happens at Women's Flyweight. All right. Let's keep it going. Luke, this from- How many times have you thought- How many times have you done this on Instagram? I'm just going to look at all the women fighters I follow. I'll fuck you where you'd like to be fucked.

You've said the same thing out loud looking at your phone. I mean, Luke, can we move on before we all lose it, Luke? I mean, before the show gets shut down live on my birthday? Did you write that line for her? I'm just curious. It sounded very BC-esque. I mean, it is. You'd believe it if I

said yes, though, wouldn't you? That's probably the thing here. Alright, Luke, this from last week. Speaking of failed main events, how about Brian Ortega going backstage and apologizing to the family of Yair Rodriguez for the injury preventing them from making the magic, Luke, that they looked ready to make? I'm telling you, I got a new favorite fighter now that Ioana's retired. It is Brian Ortega, Luke. It is.

Yeah, he's, you know, I think he felt terrible about the situation. That's a giant cup that he has um and uh yeah your family looks wonderful all right there you go uh luke we always ask that same question that was pitched in the 90s by joan osborne what if ufc fighters were what really one of us luke just a slob like one of us? Hey, how about Islam Mahachev? Fresh off getting the title shot. Caught himself a fresh catch, Luke, out on the water. I bet this motherfucker barehanded it, too.

Dude, that thing is like five feet tall. Look at that fish. How did he fucking catch this thing? He's got a full-on wetsuit, so he must have been fully submerged in the water. Dude, he may have shot a double on it. Yeah, probably. I don't know what the name of the, or what channel it's on,

but you ever seen the show River Monsters? No. Well, there's this thing called noodling. You ever heard of noodling? Yes, yes, I have. What definition do you have for it, Luke? Not the thing you're worried about after you have 10 jacking diets. I don't mean that that what i mean is where they catch these giant fish with their bare fucking hands usually like big ass catfish and shit you've never seen this no it's like good

old-fashioned dub t fun they go noodling and like wherever the fuck on the mississippi somewhere and they catch these giant ass catfish with their bare fucking hands, dude. It's the craziest shit ever. I don't know if that, this is not a catfish. I don't know what the fuck it is. I mean, look, I assume Dagestan is like, you know, put your hand in the water, grab it, and take a bite out of it, Luke. They're that old school. They can live off the land, right, Luke? I mean, that's a different mentality out there.

Maybe he did catch this with his bare hands. I'd be fired up, Luke. I would like to see the video. Yes, that's a giant fucking fish. Speaking of noodles, did you let your daughter watch Elmo at all? You know about Mr. Noodle? Guy has huge... Dude, Mr. Noodle is such a stupid piece of shit.

I mean, he has huge predator vibes, Luke, okay? Also, it's like, can we get a home invasion on his house so we can just end him in the neighborhood, please? Fuck that guy. Mr. Noodle is constantly, yo, Mr. Noodle, what's the weather like today? It'll be raining. He'll be like, it's sunny.

Like, get the fuck out of here, Mr. Noodle. You are not helpful for anything. You are giving everyone wrong information. You dress like a moron. You haven't combed your hair since 1973. Get the fuck off screen. What do you think about Mr. Noodle's brother? Mr. Noodle's brother was active when I used to watch that show, too, Luke.

All right. They both look like, you know, you came all this way to eat pizza with a teenage girl? She's 12. You know what I mean? Like, they have that vibe, Luke. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Mr. Noodle is a piece of shit.

Yo, fuck Mr. Noodle. I'm not Chris Curtis after the Jack Hermanson bout. Yo, fuck Mr. Noodle. Let's go to Bellator MMA. They took over Tacoma on Friday night, Luke. Speaking of Tawfiq Musayev, here's the 27-second demolition of Sydney Outlaw. It was impressive as shit, Luke. Look at the power.

Ugh. 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. Stop sitting on your Aeroplan points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be,

like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in Aeroplan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide worldwide so stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one don't miss out your chance to save in points ends february 23rd book at air canada.com conditions apply fucking not even 30 seconds this bout went unbelievable this guy he came in hard charging. Look at his elbows.

Extra pointy elbows. You ever notice that? He sharpens them probably. Probably. Probably does, dude. This guy is a beast. Poor Sidney Outlaw, man. Just overwhelmed. Supposed to have a title shot and then just gets dusted off in less than 30 seconds against

a guy who I think was making his promotional debut, if I'm not mistaken. Not a great run for him, unfortunately. If I came from the Wild West days, Luke, I definitely would have been a blacksmith. I bet you those guys got laid all the time, like in the mountain towns, like the mining towns, Luke. A blacksmith? Yeah.

I would have been a blacksmith, dude. I would have been cleaning up, too, and like, you know, I don't know, where do you want me to clean up? Jackson Hole? You know what I mean, Luke? Yeah. You definitely would have mean, Luke? Yeah. You definitely would have been, I'm trying to think, what would you have been?

Deadwood. Mining Town. Yeah, Deadwood. Boy, you're Deadwood these days. Luke, CBS Sports HQ, they asked me for my best bet of the weekend, and of course you gave a minus 800 favorite as your best bet, but I said no, Davion Franklin. Okay, stop. Was I right or was I right? Yeah, you gave a minus 800 favorite as your best bet. But I said, no, Davion Franklin... Okay, stop. Was I right, or was I

right? Yeah, you do that every time, though. Davion Franklin did not end up improving to 6-0. In fact, he gassed late, Luke, but he did have a highlight here against Marcelo Gomes in the main card opener. WWE style, hitting him with the Death Valley Driver, Luke. Look at this! So what is

a Death Valley Driver? It's like a failed standing fireman's carry? Yeah. Kenny Omega has a great finisher, the One-Winged Angel, which is somewhat like this, but you've got to tuck the guy's head behind his neck and slam him, but this is pretty dangerous. Yeah, it's a standing

failed fireman's carry, and he lost the bout. He got submitted the round after this, I believe. Yeah, he gassed, Luke. It was unfortunate to see, but maybe it's a key step in his journey to overcome and work on that gas tank. Luke, here's Mark Coates delivering the strike of the week on this Bellator preliminary card, hitting what I think is called

a flip dong kick on Jalen Bates. I was going to ask if you were going to bring this up. No, this is a rolling axe dong kick. Oh, sorry. Yeah, rolling thunder dong shot. Yes, yes. Dude, honestly, pound for pound, I think Bellator, I don't think they have the most ball kicks.

I don't think that's true, but they've got the most creative ones or the most insane ones. Add this one to the list. Indeed, indeed. Middleweight Dalton Rasta made a fairly large statement himself in the preliminary main event, stopping ranked Romero Cotton, Luke. This was huge, dude. I love this performance.

Boy, what I wouldn't give to look like Dalton Rasta for a day. Jesus Christ. They call him Hercules. Look at this kid. He is unbelievable. Fucking Cotton couldn't get the takedown at all. Rasta no-sold him and then made his life hell on the feet and then finally hit him with a Superman punch

and then that left hook. Here it is. Superman punch. Bah! Given his last name is Rasta, would you be against him putting on the high-T Bob Marley hat that I sometimes wear and coming out to reggae music and just calling himself the Rasta Man?

Would you be against that, Luke? Well, see, this sort of gets to the Columbia, Columbia thing. In English, we spell Columbia with a U, and we pronounce it the same as when it's C-O-L-O versus C-O-L-U. But in Spanish, it'd be Columbia versus Columbia. He's actually got the O. Rasta would be R-A-S-L-U, but in Spanish, it'd be Colombia versus Columbia. He's actually got the O. Rasta would be R-A-S-T-A, and I'm wondering what's the proper pronunciation

of Rasta. It's probably Rosta or some shit. I don't know. I'm making a dumb point. Who gives a fuck? Yeah, great non-answer there, Luke. Appreciate it. Luke, we told you to watch Welterweight Roman Feraldo because he keeps knocking people cold on the undercard. We'll talk about this on Extra Credit.

8-0 with 8 first-round KOs in this one. Good Lord. Yeah, so he forces Iniguez to his right and then throws from the right-handed stance a lead right, switches stances, which freezes Iniguez, which lines him up as he steps off in the switch stance for the left and then just drives that one home. Dude, this one was easy work for him.

This kid is super awesome. If you are not paying attention to Roman Feraldo, I don't know what you are doing, man. This guy is a highlight reel machine. He's coming on. Our regional MMA highlight of the week, Luke, comes from MMA Series 53. Did you see this insane post-fight brawl that broke out? Jesus, what is this, the Passion of Christ?

What is going on? Oh, come on. You could have made a Kerry reference at least. I mean, wow. Oh, Jesus. Jesus. Where is this? Europe?

Oh, he just got sucker punched? this is wild damn so folks we're on live television here at strike force nashville i mean come on i mean these guys not fooling around luke these things happen in mma yeah thanks gus very helpful thank you everyone gus called uh when kimbo got knocked out by uh the what's the guy's name seth petrozzelli he called it the biggest upset in MMA history. That was great. That was great. Alright. Luke, I call this piece... Rise and fire!

Yeah, check out this piece of photography brilliance. I call this art piece the strip mall circle of life. Look at this picture, Luke. This has to be where my dad is from. This has to be where my dad is from. This has to be Lawton, Oklahoma.

Holy shit. Yeah, you can get it all. You can get it all in one stop. You know what's missing here? You know what's missing here is the Bale Bondsman. That's the only thing fucking missing from this fucking lineup here. Well, it looks like that strip mall goes a little bit longer, so there's probably a vape store, Bale Bondsman.

Yeah, that's fantastic. All right, Luke, Lucas, time to play Rate That Tat, you know you love this game well you had mentioned the Big E from WWE, our guy from the New Day shouting us both out on Twitter, here's what the Big E offered, saying Luke is

Aspinall's back piece excellently done, or have I consumed too many Delta 8's, I hope the latter is definitely true, but could you respond here? What are your thoughts now that you got the chance to see Tom Aspinall's new backup date? Again, I'm not really paid too much attention to it, believe it or not. I haven't had a clear look at it.

It's unfinished. So we had to be very careful. We say it's very much unfinished. I didn't love it from what I saw. I didn't hate it. It's not bad. I'm going to, I'm going to reserve judgment until it's done. I want to see it from what I saw. I didn't hate it. It's not bad. I'm going to reserve judgment until it's done. I want to see it when it's done.

Do you think Robbie Lawler's tramp stamp is unfinished? Because it looks like it. Yeah, I don't understand what the deal is there. Just get it lasered off, right? If you don't want it. Or add to it, right? Or add to it or whatever you want. But he just kind of halfway did it and was like, eh, fuck it.

Just left it. All right, Luke, here's your favorite thing ever. Rate this ass tat. I do like ass tats. Uh, that's exceptional. That's exceptional. That's extremely good. I mean, it's kind of gross though, Luke, right?

The colors are good. I like the colors. Yeah, but more than that, like the depth is amazing. You know, and he that, like, the depth is amazing. You know, and he uses the ass well in this particular case. Yeah, good analysis there. He does use that. Yeah, he does, Luke. The whole point is to be able to scale the entirety of it.

That's the whole idea, rather than just sort of, like, fitting it where it doesn't need to be, where it doesn't actually fit. And he scales it really well here. I guess it's around her boobs. Real talk, how close do you go to the pieces when you do it? Do you get the full grundle tatted up too? Where's the cutoff? On the outer

ring? They have to push the butt cheek aside and go in a little bit, yeah. God. The Sarlacc monster could come out of that. You know what I'm saying, Luke? Wow. Yeah, the opener for the tattoo is like, is Boba Fett going to come out of this?

Wow. All right, Luke, I got, you know, 58 DMs about this. They really want you to rate it. So rate this UFC superfan who got his leg done up, I'm assuming with all of his favorite fighters, Luke. Okay, so I saw this one before. Here's what I'll say. The black and gray work,

the Rogan looks a little bit mangled at the top, but the photo's not great, so it's hard to say. It's wonky. In general, this is very, very good as a tattoo in general. And someone who did it clearly is good at black and white,

or I should say black and gray portrait realism however I think if you got this on your leg as a leg sleeve it tells you two things one you probably have not been a fan longer than five years this is like I am in you know MMA fans they're like they kind of get into it then they fall in love then they get

madly in love with it and then they fade out after about seven or eight years he's at the middle part where he's like madly in love also if you got this on your leg i would recommend um psychological counseling i think probably oh my god wow okay all right i mean if you're asking is it a good tattoo by tattoo technical application yes yes. Yes, it is. It's actually very good. What would you say then? Ask yourself, who the fuck does this? You know what I mean?

Okay, what if I got every 115-pound champion in UFC history tattooed on one leg? What would you say about that, Luke? I would be disappointed. You should only get the ones who got cut from the UFC. Those would be the only ones I care about. Wow, wow. For you, anyway. All right, Luke, speaking of tattoos,

NBA veteran Chris Birdman Anderson was caught running around the Summer League in Vegas this past week. Shot him out, Luke. Look at this fella. Birdman. Birdman. He is just...

Would you have ever guessed that this guy looked like... Dude, before he got all the tats and grew the hair out, do you know who Mason Plumlee is? Yeah. He kind of looked like Mason Plumlee a little bit before he first got into the league. Look at him now.

He looks like a Hell's Angel. Do you think this gimmick still gets him laid? Well, he's huge. He should still have money, and he probably is well-connected. And he's also, what, nearly seven feet tall? He's probably got a dong the size of an eel. Oh, my God.

All right. Here we are. Luke, I got video proof of what it's like to be a first-class patron on an airplane as you waddle your way down to coach, crop-dusting the whole way. Here's some video footage. Oh, wow. Wow. Does she vomit?

Let me just explain something to you. If you know anyone who wears shorts like this, there's a 100% chance at some point you're going to have to bail them out of jail. Just a given. Luke, I have an awesome younger uncle, Uncle Dave. this, there's a 100% chance at some point you're going to have to bail them out of jail. Just a given. Luke, I have an awesome younger uncle, Uncle Dave, my guy, and I tell my kids the story about my whole youth, he would wake me up by farting directly on top of my face. Like, just, that was the thing. That was the gimmick, right? And it was just accepted.

Is this off limits in your marriage? Luke, I don't want to push too far. I don't want to go too far in this conversation. Well, I will Luke, I don't want to push too far. I don't want to go too far in this conversation. Well, I will say, I don't do this. My wife would truly stab me in the stomach with a pair of scissors if I did. But I will say, do I audibly pass gas in front of her, at which point she screams coccino at me? Yes, yes, I do.

Dutch oven or that's too personal? No, I don't do that. I don't do that. Okay. Cleveland steep. No, I don't do that. I don't do that. Okay. Cleveland Steep. No, it's just. I mean, what are we doing here? Let's go to the next one.

You're asking about feces and my wife. Can we move on, please? Luke, you know the young trend that we missed? We missed Edward Fortyhands. We were too old. We also missed this poke a beer and shotgun it. But it's hard to open the can sometimes. You need help?

Just ask the Tooth Fairy, Luke. You know what? You know what? That's just dub-tee ingenuity. I'm not going to hate on that. Okay. All right. I mean, you know.

That's dub-tee ingenuity. That's like, I always wear those sandals that have the bottle opener on the bottom, Luke. Yeah, I've seen those. Who the fuck does that with the bottom of the thing? But, you know. Yeah, I've stepped in shit in those sandals and I've opened your beer if you've hung out with me.

So thank you very much. Luke, speaking of shotgunning a beer, there's easier ways to do it. What do you think about this guy's method? Okay. All right. I mean... All right.

Here we go. This guy, let me tell you something. This guy, if he hasn't already, 100% guarantee, the LT, 100% guarantee, he's going to get a Darwin Award. Just inevitable. Shout out to at look at this American on Instagram, and he may have this T-shirt that I'm wearing in his closet. You never know, Luke. Luke, check this out. Serious for a second.

Top Rank had a boxing broadcast over the weekend on ESPN. They ran a feature of Mark Kriegel sitting down with Teofimo Lopez Jr. who's coming back August 6th to make his debut at 140. But Luke, we know about Teofimo falling apart against Cambosis,

but we did find out afterwards about the medical condition and in this sit down it's kind of a puff piece about teofimo having the tear in his esophagus or larynx i think he should have pulled out of the fight he fought anyway he risked his life i don't know if we always give him that grace or benefit of the doubt or that credit because we've also seen him make ridiculously ridiculous comments afterwards about da zone paying the judges off so that he would lose the fight. But did you see this tweet? And more importantly, who retweeted it?

So this was a tweet that some guy named Vince Cummings put out saying, can they produce a doctor or medical paperwork to back up this near-death experience because ain't no way I'm just taking these two clowns at their word. You know who retweeted that? Top ranks Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler. Damn. The current matchmaker? Yes.

So the current matchmaker retweeted. Who's this guy? Who tweeted it? This guy, Vince. Who is this? I don't know. I'm going to apologize if he's. Just a random dude or whatever?

He may be in the business. I don't know. I'd have to look it up. That's a bad sign. That's a real bad sign. Jesus. So what is your level of confidence he actually suffered this medical ailment? Yeah, I mean, I want to be in good faith. And I do think he's tough enough to fight through something like that and still put on that performance. But look, it's basically, people always said we were shitting on Cambosis,

yet you and I have always said from the beginning, no matter what you want to point the blame to and why Teofimo fought that badly, most of the reason why you and I believe that fight went that way it did was because he wasn't even close to 100% mentally and physically. That was a bad strategy, horrible night at the office, everything. If you're telling me there was also an underlying medical condition, well, I kind of could agree with that because that wasn't Teofimo

Lopez that night, yet he still went the distance in an action fight. I'd lean more towards believing him, but I do have to say his credibility has taken a huge hit from all those comments afterwards. There's no denying his credibility tanked afterwards.

For a lot of good reasons, by the way. I will say, if even top-ranked management, essentially, is retweeting shit like that, that is a terrible sign for him. Terrible. Unless Bruce is retired and I don't know it. But either way, Luke, it's still in-house, right? It's still in-house. So that's interesting.

Luke, this unlucky lady is a model, and she does her thing on the catwalk. Yeah, on the catwalk, Luke. She shakes her thing on the... Oh, she's used to it. Time to say goodbye.

Yeah, there it is. Dude, here's the best part. Watch. Yo. She just loses both shoes. Both shoes there it is. Dude, here's the best part. Watch. Yo. She just loses both shoes. Both shoes just go flying. Yeah, some people not made for heels, Luke, including me. I don't know how you can walk in that. That'd be insane.

Now her ankles have been shattered, so that's fun. Yeah, they say everything's bigger in Texas, including the head trauma. Why do we run so many pinata clips lately, Luke? I figure you'll enjoy this. Get the kids away from the... I mean, what are we doing? Just these fucking morons.

What is this? That is unbelievable. Why don't you keep grabbing shit? Okay, there we go. Look at it. Oh, Jesus. I mean, can you get the other kids away from this, you fucking morons? And by the way, aren't you supposed to be blindfolded?

This is the whitest we've got of celebration we've ever seen in my life. Yeah, that's not good. Poor parenting. Luke, we do like, you're always ripping white people in this segment, but we do like fat white people that fight each other, right? BKFC put on a fat white barn burner on Friday. Look at this. Dude, these guys, you know, you could say, people bag on this

kind of shit. I guarantee you, these guys have knocked out some several dudes in parking lots. I guarantee you. Oh, yeah, in men's rooms? Yeah, definitely. No question about it. 100%. These guys have had serious fisticuffs outside of a hooter somewhere. Alright, Luke,

we got a couple more here. You know my favorite segment on this show, Lukito, would you eat it, Luke, we got a couple more here. You know my favorite segment on this show, Lukito. Would you eat it, Luke? Okay, let's start off this. I believe they're called Oreo popsicles. Would you eat? Okay, let's see here.

Yes, of course. I'd eat that. That looks ingenious, right? Do they sell those? What's wrong? You're acting like this is like, yo, we put road salt and broken glass into a paletta. Eat that shit. I'm like, well. Well, we may get there on this segment. All right, let's go over to the second one.

This is from Manchester, England, Luke. I think they call this. You know it's bad already. I think they call this a waffle cake, Luke. Oh, it's just in the shape of a dick. So back to the original question, Luke. Would you eat? Oh, so let me get this straight.

So the bit of this place is the waffles may or may not be tasty. Oh, look at that. That is. Is that the Eggers Meats insertion sauce, Luke? Yeah, this is really. I mean, this is terrible. Okay, okay, okay. But yes, I'd eat it. I'd love to get that on camera.

I really would. All right, number three, Luke. We get a little more exotic this time. Would you eat? So batter with the pickles. Pickle pop? Fried pickle pickle breaded fried pickle dipped into peanut butter uh i don't know about the peanut butter but i'd eat it yes i wouldn't go near this you know what you know what pickles really are luke cucumbers in disguise in disguise f cucumbers

yes they've been brined like that's yeah the worst i wouldn't be over discovering how food works i wouldn't go near that phallic looking uh piece of street fair food look okay all right i might try this next one though i think they call this a ravioli dog your thoughts no i could be swayed into trying this i'm not i'm not kidding you dude it's like would you eat this i'm like is this my last meal on death row? What the fuck is this? All right, Luke. Yo, dude, you ever been like in your 20s,

you're just trying to find shit in the fridge to make? You're like, all right, I've got three hot dog buns. I've got yogurt. I've got some peanut butter. I've got two ravioli that I kind of ate but left over. I got a can of baked beans. I've got some ketchup, whiskey, and

some potato chips. What can I make? It's like, okay. Real talk, though, if you don't put the baked beans on the hot dog and then the ketchup over it, are you really playing the same game as me? Baked beans on hot dogs are for simpletons. I just want you to know that.

Simpletons are for geniuses, Luke. Are you kidding me? Because nothing tastes better Simpletons who have the palate of a toddler. Nothing in the world tastes better than the baked bean brown sauce. And I think that, you know, deep inside, given where you come from, you know that's true, Luke.

You freaking know that's true. No, I don't. And I think you're disgusting. Alright. Finally, I got one more for you, Luke. You freaking know that's true. No, I don't, and I think you're disgusting. All right. Finally, I got one more for you, Luke. Tell me the truth or tell me to F off. I think I found your dream Uber, and I'm going to hire these guys everywhere we go together for at least the next year, you're telling us.

There's four dudes One job among them Oh god Are these my peers? That's what you look like Luke Yeah I know It is the worst habit on earth I really hope these guys got in a car wreck. I really do.

All right. That's the shit for this week, Luke. Hope you liked it. Hope you saw it. That was good. You did a good job, dude. You did a good job. Well, let me just remind everyone, it is BC's birthday.

Why don't you throw up the social handles there for the Malka folks so we can see what they are. Send BC a DM. Put some dongs in it. He's into that. But either way, send him a happy birthday message. My man's 44. Big day.

You got any plans? I mean, I guess you're going on vacation this weekend. Yeah, I'm going on a cruise. You've taken two vacations before I've even taken one. I mean, unbelievable. Yeah, so this was the makeup for that April trip to Colorado trip to Colorado and Utah to cancel because my son was really sick. So it did end up being. And look, they're always inopportune. I always schedule these things. And then you find out two weeks later.

Oh, guess what? We're playing a pay-per-view for that week. So it always happens that way. But the D.C. trip was kind of like a weekend getaway. And originally you and I were going to do the show from there. And then things just kind of fell apart. People got sick. You know how that works. All right. Well, enjoy your time, whether you celebrate or not. Happy 44th to you.

I want to remind everyone, there is Showtime Championship Boxing on Saturday. I'll be there at the Barclays Center. So go to Showtime.com for a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, do whatever you want with your life, but it is there. You can get some merch. Huh? Some merch. MorningCombat.store. I'm kind of leaning

the wrong way like a jackass, but there you have it. There's the available one there. And MorningCombat at gmail.com. Wednesdays, fan subs, Fridays Dead Wrong, or to reach out to the producers. BC and I don't see it, so you don't have to put us in the email, but the producers do. So have a gander

there. BC, any final thoughts on this wonderful birthday of yours? No. My wife bought me a Boston cream pie, though, yesterday. So that's going to be a nice treat. You mean like the donut? Yeah, they make a pie version of the donut. It's the best thing that ever happened.

I've never had that. That the donut. It's the best thing that ever happened. I've never had that. That sounds unbelievable, actually. It's amazing. Just to be fair, it's not as good as the donut, but it's kind of the donut's flavor in a cake. It's amazing. Oof. All right.

Did I say pie? I meant cake. It's cake, Luke, okay? Okay, either way. Cake is better than pie anyway, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. All right. We will be – oh, tons of content. I want to remind you you i've got an interview i'm recording later today so was bc oh big names big names big names you and i are interviewing big ones yes indeed and also pre-game

preview will be up very very soon so tons of content coming your way youtube.com slash morning combat is the place to get it and we're going to keep. And we're going to keep you busy. We're going to keep you busy for a while. So for BC, for Molka, for CBS Sports and Showtime, I'm Luke Thomas. This has been Morning Combat. Happy birthday to the King of Connecticut. We'll see you guys on Wednesday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.