MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night: Gane-Tuivasa | Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva | Quick Hitters | Ep 343

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

On Episode 343 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian preview UFC Fight Night Gane vs. Tuivasa. What should we expect from the UFC's first trip to Paris? Next up the guys discuss the reports that Jake Paul will face Anderson Silva in a boxing match. The guys close out the show with a bunch of MMA quick hitters and fan subs. (00:10:00) - UFC Fight Night: Gane vs. Tuivasa (00:38:00) - Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva (00:56:00) - Zabit Shares Retirement Details (01:05:00) - Project Rock (01:15:00) - Quick Hitters (01:27:00) - Fan Submissions Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. You hear that? Ugh. Paid.

And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month. Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply.

Reveley, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. It is Wednesday, the 31st of August, 2022, and it is time for Morning Combat.

Hello, everyone. How are you doing? I am one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas. I join you from the capital of the status of noodles right here in Washington, D.C. Joined by my friend. He is not from Compton, but he's wearing the shirt. He is when he's not cooking in his basement. He's asking pro fighters about dicks. He's my friend and yours, the king of Connecticut himself. It's Brian Campbell. Hi, BC.

You know, Luke, I may get lionized for that attempt at a comedic transition there, but I will say that actually was done, and I thought Danny was going to run with that, Sabatello. I thought he was going to say, you're damn right, I'm rock hard with emotion, ready to kill this guy. But his no-sell, you know, it made the moment, Luke, okay? BC, define lion eyes. You know, I don't tend to necessarily use the right words

in the right context, Luke, but I try to tie them together with passion and emotion and hope you feel something okay luke i actually feel like you used it correctly but perhaps not in the way you might imagine it means like to to uh make something popular to um to boost its sort of profile essentially and uh then what's the opposite of lion eyes luke you mean to like reduce the profile i'm not sure what the exact opposite would be um minimize or that's not quite the right word either but in any event I see you drinking that ag1 player

uh we got a lot to get to today so first things first thumbs up on the video hit subscribe let's see if you're watching on YouTube of course if you're listening to favorite podcast platform be so kind to give us a nice review that'd be great we appreciate how you listen to the show no matter what of course you're looking on the TV screen right now. You can see all the screen, whatever. You can see all the various social channels, and you can give us a follow there. Showtime is the label that pays.

You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. You can't get the Compton shirt that BC is wearing, but you can get other good merch in the merch store. Can you get this Malka baseball cap that I stole out of the studio the other day? Yeah, it looks pretty good, actually. I do like that.

I do like that. That's a nice one. Shout out to Team Malka, right? Corey Maneach, Long Island Luke, right? Gaff. Certainly. Certainly very true. And there's all the merch you can get right there. Of course, don't forget there is the morningcombat at gmail.com where you can send Wednesday's

fan subs, Friday's dead wrong. And I want to do the, we're going to do the bit for a little bit later. Let's put it up now. World MMA Awards. World MMA Awards. We'll remind you a little bit later in the show, but vote for Morning Combat. WorldMMAAwards.com slash nominees if you're listening on the audio platform.

If you're watching on the screen right now, there's the QR code. Just put your phone up to it. You can vote easy fast no problems there i've been told the q and r code is broken luke i've been told that it's broken that's what i've been told so if it is leave it up leave it up i'm gonna try it in real time leave it all right go to world mma awards.com slash nominees if this is broken and um you know let's see say your right now okay um let's see would you believe it it's it's not broken okay then i heard wrong from our listeners okay okay mikey says it was broken but it was fixed or maybe that was long island luke shout out to our team behind the scenes for always getting our back and taking care of shit luke i would have had potentially

a q anon related conspiracy on why it was broken but i'm glad to see it's back luke glad all right very good uh bc we also have i can see you're drinking it i had mine this morning um ag1 ag1 is a great sponsor of ours and something we use every day athletic greens we want better gut health more energy and we don't like taking a bunch of pills and vitamins i mean here's the deal i like stuff that tastes good right how about this mild clean tropical taste that one scoop each morning of this magical green power luke it's gonna you know jump into your bloodstream and kind of fill in the gaps of what you're not giving yourself and that's the stuff that's gonna let live long. I know we chase green in this life, Luke, and we're normally

talking about, you know, the cream, right? The cash that rules everything around me. Dollar, dollar bill, y'all. But Luke, the pursuit of that, right? Right? That can lead you down some dark roads. Why don't you pursue this green? Because it's called life where I come from. One scoop a day. Why don't you change the way you feel about yourself? Why don't you change what you see when you look in the mirror? Why don't you start that journey with AG1?

All right. It's lifestyle friendly. Whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free or gluten-free, it contains less than one gram of sugar, no GMOs, no nasty chemicals or artificial anything, while still tasting good, BC. I mean, would you say it's the second favorite thing in your life that's green, Luke, behind the cannabis tree? Can we do the read? We have not hit the part where it's verbatim yet, Luke.

Okay, this is the freestyle portion of the ad. I just did the verbatim part. Okay, sorry, Luke, sorry. Well, to get your back, I wanted to talk to you about this great and small micro habit that produces big benefits. You can do it every single day to take great care of yourself, and I can't

say this enough, Luke. Don't take my word for it. How about the 7,000 people that have given Athletic Greens five-star reviews, and how about those leading, trusted health experts like Tim Ferriss and Michael Gervais? Right now, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially heading into the flu and cold season, which just

whooped your boy's ass. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. I mean, to make it even easier, Luke, right? Than one scoop a day? How about this? Athletic Greens is going to give you the viewer. How about for free, one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D with your first purchase along with five free travel packs?

I take it with me on the road all the time. It's discreet. It's small. It's easy. It's quick. It's perfect. It's athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat. Why don't you tell them that BC sent you?

Okay? Why don't you see what happens next? Again, that is athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. BC, I was sick last week, obviously. Yeah. I managed to get every single person in the house sick.

Abuela, Pipe, my wife, my kid. I mean, everybody. Everybody got sick because of me. So it was great. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure they're loving Whitey at the moment in your house, Luke. Luke, you ever go to see your favorite band perform live and you're all excited, but then they play the songs exactly like

they sound on the album and there's no improvising there's no you know emotion there's it's kind of like you reading an ag1 ad luke i gotta be honest with you all right yeah i saw rage do that just recently and they were great i loved it all right there's that as well it's fantastic all right let's start topic number one ready to get into the show let's start with Topic number one, ready to get into the show. Let's start with the UFC's return to action. Of course, they were off last week. They're back this week. And there's a big note here. They're going to have their very first event in Paris, France. This, of course, will be UFC Fight Night.

Gon versus Tui Vassa. That's your main event. If you look at the odds right now, BC, for Gon and Tui Vassa, our friends at Caesars, boy, they have Gon as a massive minus 575 favorite. If you look at the odds right now, BC, for Ghosn and Tuivasa, our friends at Caesars, boy, they have Ghosn as a massive minus 575 favorite to Tuivasa's plus 425. So BC, when I ask you what's at stake here, it seems like beyond there just being a massive uphill climb for Tuivasa, which of course would be a great win for him if he were able to get it, what is at stake in this heavyweight, Paris-based main event? Yeah, that's interesting you ask that, because the same question was asked to Dana White last night

in the post-scrum after the Contender Series episode, Luke. And, you know, after the, what'd you say? What was that? What did he say? Did he say that? What did he say? After those type of stuff that Dana keeps doing? He did answer, Luke, and he said essentially, don't call it a de facto number one contender bout, but it kind of is, especially for Tui Vassa, said Dana.

And as you mentioned, look, Gon just fought for the title. He gets a win here. You have to believe he's right there. I do believe Dana. I do question this matchmaking, though, Luke. It's just something that we said when it was announced. Some of that question of the matchmaking though, does lean into the idea that we all believe Taito Iwasa is, you know, kind of batting over his, uh, you know, over his limit there, whatever the phrase is when you get a really hot girl, Luke, but you're a, you know, filthy scrub yourself. He's not necessarily a filthy scrub, although he's played one on TV, drinking out of his shoe. My point here about

Taito Iwasa is, you know you know, he upset Derek Lewis by knockout. He's got himself to this position. Would there have been a better stylistic matchup to give him that opportunity to cut the line and have his big moment? I'm sure, yes, many, as we looked at, you know, the final heavyweights available right now in this title picture. But this is the fight that was made, and the odds tell you what should happen, what I think a lot of us expect to happen but at the

end of the day i don't think taiyatu ivasa would be right here right now as jesus jones once famously sung and look he's here luke um if he gets it done once more against again maybe the worst style matchup available to him yeah he might be just fighting for a title next. And it would be an incredible run given his popularity, his sort of barbaric style. He's earned this opportunity, but this opportunity ain't easy, Luke. They did him zero favors as Gon not only gets the homecoming in some ways, but in many ways gets a chance to bounce back and redeem himself after getting out-wrestled by Nganou in that title fight. So I would agree with that in general.

And listen, if you look at the rankings as it stands at the moment of this broadcast, obviously Francis is your champion. We'll see what the hell happens. By the way, we don't even know what's going to happen with Francis. Is he going to stay in the UFC? Is he not going to stay in the UFC? We just don't even really know what the answer is. Plus, he's on ice through injury rehabilitation.

So there's a lot of uncertainty, actually, at the top of this division. Now, I mentioned, as it stands, here are the rankings. France is sitting at the top, obviously unranked because he's the champion. So, number one ranked contender is Cyril Ghosn. Number two is Stipe Miocik. Three, Tai Tuivasa. And then, of course, four is Curtis Blades. So, BC, we had the Blades versus Aspinall fight, and we got a winner there, but we didn't really get a great answer to whatever questions we were looking for between that contest. So that kind of just happened without really any meaningful, impactful resolution. We have this fight, and as Dana indicated, it's kind of number one contenders,

but not necessarily. The UFC is keeping its option open because we don't know what's going to happen with the number two ranked guy, Stipe Miocic, and a guy that's not ranked, but certainly going to be right at the front of this division, at least to begin his first fight, which is Jon Jones. They're waiting to see what happens

in all of these different scenarios to then make the best calculation for the brand or whatever the case may be in whatever direction they want to move forward. If Cyril Ghosn wins and wins impressively, he might get a title shot. If Francis sticks around, would they do that right away? I don't know.

If Tuivasa, to your point, wins, no doubt about it, I think he gets a title shot. They would want to capitalize on that, plus the Australian market. So that would work out well. But what if John comes in and looks really amazing? Would they bump him to the front of the line? If so, would Gon have to fight the loser of that? I mean, there's just a lot of different ways in which this could go where the UFC would want to maximize the potential time John Jones has left and any kind of ability as well.

He claims he can do, you know, walk on water. We shall see about that at heavyweight. But that's really what's kind of up for grabs here is keeping his really elevated place in line, or in the case of Tuivasa, getting a signature win and then potentially getting a title shot right thereafter. But there is one more thing worth mentioning here, BC, which is they've got a French native, essentially, in the main event, Cyril Ghosn, in Paris. You've got to understand the size of Europe's economies.

Germany is number one. They have tried to make inroads there. It's been a little bit more slow going. Two would be the UK. France is right behind it and barely right behind it. As well, while the UK is a hotbed of boxing fandom and boxing talent, all things boxing, it really is in many ways the capital of the world, certainly, for boxing,

the French history in martial arts really cannot be understated. One of the top judo teams in the world for a long time. They still produce gold medal talent all the time. It's been home to many of the other sort of native striking arts. Kickboxing is big there in a lot of different ways. We're talking about an economy that's barely smaller than the UK's with a natural proclivity, it it seems like among the population to produce and enjoy martial arts and now they've got a heavyweight guy in the main event who could be lifted to

stardom in all kinds of different ways I'm sure he already has a level of popularity we're talking about what's at stake it's not just what's at stake for Cyril Ghosn and Taito Iwasa, Ghosn could do a lot to lift the overall, let's say, status of MMA inside of France in a way that not a lot of other people could. It's a really exciting time for MMA, for UFC, and for French MMA. And if Ghosn goes in there and does what I think the oddsmakers think he's going to do, could be a really big moment in the history of MMA as a turning point to developing a very important market in mixed martial the history of MMA as a turning point to developing a very important market in mixed martial arts yeah no question and some degree it feels like UFC you know finally getting into New York City in 2016 after that long break although let's put

some respect on Bellator put in what Czech Congo and uh was it Timothy Johnson in that first uh card back in Paris or Bader I think it was Bader. I don't think so. I don't think so. I'll look that up. Yeah, something like that. But look, you're right about gone, but back to that original question we said about how crowded this title picture is, and it's just so tough to tell because

we don't know if Francis is going to fight again in the UFC, as you mentioned. We don't know if John's going to come back against Stipe for an interim title with the winner then facing Francis when he's ready, or if it's right to Francis and maybe the winner of this fight would get Stipe, or maybe he wouldn't be interested in taking that. There is a lot of uncertainty, but I wanted to spin it back on you and ask specifically, when the UFC match makes main events that have local cultural significance,

there's usually meaning behind it. Is this matchup to them? Look, just two guys right there in the title picture, both exciting in names. You know, gone more exciting because of the connection there to France than his style necessarily. But is this a setup for gone to look great and secure himself a title shot in front of his home fans and inject that market Luke,

or do they think Taito Iwasa has a good chance as anybody in this one? Because I don't, I don't, I don't feel like I fully get this fight. Yeah. I, this to me feels like strike force matchmaking a little bit. And here's what I mean.

It's going to sound like I'm diminishing what Taito Iwasa can do. I'm not, I thought like again what's the big takeaway from the Gan and Francis and Ganu fight for me there's a few things but the big one would be like as good as Gan striking and overall round and fight management is and it's very very good maybe the best at heavyweight in terms of just that his ground game really is far behind and it needs a lot of work we'll see if he can get the proper development on that as time goes on so I thought they were going to test him to see if there's going to be some kind of improvement to that like by giving him potentially Curtis Blades but they didn't they didn't give him that

and that to me says let's see if we got this right. They didn't give him a test. I mean, Tai Tuivasa is a tough fighter, but the particular weaknesses that Gon showed, I don't know that Tai Tuivasa is particularly suited to really test those, right? Like a leg lock guy, so to speak. So you're not getting that question really necessarily answered here. It's in France. It's the UFC's debut in France. And you've got a guy who's one of the smartest distance risk managers on the feet against a guy who is certainly a heavy power puncher aggressive has beaten very good guys can fight fire with fire with the best of them but that seems like a bad matchup for him taking on a guy like Cyril Ghosn it seems to me that this is I'm

not going to call it a setup fight because Taito Iwasa being number three in the world you know when you're number three in the world going to call it a setup fight because Taito Iwasa being number three in the world, when you're number three in the world, there's not really a setup fight. But in the sense that, is the UFC giving Cyril Ghosn a tough fight? Yes. But one that's winnable given the circumstances? Very much yes. In a market that they really want to have a dynamic, hot start in. I think that it is is i think that's largely what you're looking at here because if it was really about seeing the development and testing cyril gone against his weaknesses there's a few other fights they could have done this is not the

one i would have picked i agree with that and you know if francis resigns who knows maybe we end up with francis versus gone too from like the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower, Luke, which would be the ultimate sort of French pastry to deliver to the locals. But like I mentioned, the division is so sort of cloudy at the moment in terms of who's next. Whoever can win this one on Saturday will be in such a great spot, though, when that's all figured out to get their opportunity. Luke, do you look at france i mean like like i said there's comparisons to new york in 2016 meaning it didn't make a lot

of sense why the sport was outlawed in this modern times and now it's finally not so let's invade it but do you look at france as a potential hotbed market at the same way we look at ireland or the uk when they get a local fighter think conor McGregor now think Aspinall and Leon Edwards making big noise um or Australia which really blew up after uh Holly Holm and Ronda was there is France on that level do French people actually care about this shit Luke well what are the French care and what kind of commercial success I'm way too far removed to have any clear sense of things I guess we will see in time. By the way, the Bader-Congo fight was in France.

That was Bellator-Paris as well. Wasn't that their second journey to Paris? Wasn't the first one where Congo lost by split decision to Tim Johnson? Or did I make that up, Luke? He could have. Let's see. I can tell you that right now. So if you're looking at Czech-Congo.

I mean, I know Bellator history. Don't challenge me, Luke, okay? The one you're talking about is Bellator 248. That was also in Paris as well. We were both right. Essentially, they were both in Paris. The point I'm trying to make here is, commercially, I don't know exactly what it will mean.

We will have to see. But if you're asking me about athletic talent, dude, France has some of the best athletic talent in the world. And this is something you may not appreciate, but it is just worth saying out loud. Dude, for example, you can look at the French rugby team. those motherfuckers are all hammers just from beginning to end but if you look at their soccer team that's really where you begin to see it dude the french soccer team i cannot overstate this they have so much talent that guys who have like dual nationality from

having ancestry in africa guys who are on the very best pro teams in Europe often end up playing for potentially one of their other countries they have a dual nationality with because they're just they can't get on the French team dude the French team is a fucking murderer's row top to fucking bottom of nothing but the best players in Europe everywhere. It's shocking. There's a reason for that. There's a reason for that. Because they were such a colonial force.

Hold on real quickly. Real quickly. They were a colonial force for so long. I didn't turn away. I'm still listening. I'm still listening. That they have all of these. They have a certain eligibility rules for a lot of their former colonies.

So they're able to just recruit a lot of athletic talent. And then internally in sports that they give their resources to soccer, being one of them, their development programs from youth are just world-class. So by the time someone becomes like an 18 year old, ready to be a professional athlete, kind of, uh,

whatever the sport may be, dude, they've got resources to pull from training programs to get people ready. The French are athletic powerhouses, whatever stupid impression we might have of them. Otherwise, dude they've got resources to pull from training programs to get people ready the french are athletic powerhouses whatever a stupid impression we might have of them otherwise we those dudes are ready to go yeah yeah indeed i was going to try to talk french football with you luke if you will okay do they call football there they probably do it i'm not sure how you say football in french but i'm assuming it's um you know the last time I really cared about French football, Luke, was the 98

World Cup because of the popularity of the EA Sports FIFA game that year with Song 2 by Blur as the theme song when it kicked off and then the ability to play the indoor setting. It was a great game, Luke. And then Henri and Zidane went out there and

headbutted their way to a championship. I did watch when they lost as well. Who is rocking the house these days? Is it that Teddy Atlas-scarred motherfucker, Ribéry? Is he still there? He's pretty old. He played in the German leagues for a while. He's pretty fucking old.

No. So, like, the best French player is the guy who plays for my team. Well, the best striker, anyway. It would be Karim Zidane. What was that? Karim Zidane. Benzema. Benzema. Benzema is one of the best.

But, dude, you can go all the way through. Would you call him a French Ronaldo, Luke? I don't know what that means. A goal scorer in the mold of the mighty Brazilian talent, Ronaldo. He's his own man. But, yeah, he's going to man, but yeah, like he is, he's going to win the Ballon d'Or, which would be the French award given to the best player every year.

He's going to win it walking away this year. But dude, all down the line, they have, I mean, the level of talent they have is absurd, absurd. So if you can get some of that to go into MMA, dude, the French are going to be fucking powerhouses before you know it i'm telling you you know long term they are my people luke i don't identify with them often you know what i mean but long term they are my people so but the thing is you and i grew up in in this stupid era of you know american arrogance where we thought the

french were weak and pathetic and yeah it turns out that like you gotta you gotta let go of 1980s attitudes about them they don't they don't really hold up look this era of american arrogance does weak and pathetic and yeah it turns out that like you gotta you gotta let go of 1980s attitudes about them they don't they don't really hold up look this era of american arrogance does date back to 1776 i just wanted to you know i know you weren't born in this country but i did want to educate you on that true wasn't born here i missed i missed that part in 1776 all right uh also on this card and i gotta tell you bc we looked at the odds you know gone let's be real gone should win this like it'd be kind of shocking if he didn't. However, the co-main to me is significantly more interesting at middleweight.

Now, two gentlemen who have both had two different cracks at the current champion, Israel Adesanya, neither could get it done, although Whitaker getting pretty close the second time around. This is something of their, a bit of a next up campaign to get back to him one more time. The odds makers BC have this contest as pretty close, although Whitaker, clear favorite, minus 220 at Caesars, plus 180 for Vittori. Now, I don't think the winner here gets a title shot. I do think a win is valuable. True or false, BC, is a loss more damaging here than a win is more beneficial? For Robert Whitaker, are you saying, or for either? For either.

I throw either. Which one has more substance to it, the devastation of the loss or the boost of the win? I don't mean to sling disrespect at Marvin Vittori, who I love his attitude, hunger, that he goes after it, that he'll fight you in a hotel lobby, if that's what it calls for, Luke. But I don't think a loss really hurts him because I think I know who he is the rest of the way. Yes, he reached the title level. He's going to be a tough out for anyone, Luke. But I think he's going to be who he's going to be for a while, meaning he loses here to Whitaker. Whitaker goes on to a title shot. It's not a big deal. He'll still be in this pool. Is it damaging for Whitaker? Well, of course, because it would be a second straight defeat.

But I really believe what I had said the other day in the episode, Luke, about my clairvoyance and the feelings I see that, you know, Adesanya is not long for this division. After Pineda, there's not much else to accomplish, Luke. So Whitaker very well could get a title shot directly off of this fight. We can't sleep on that. Now Sean Strickland out of the cannoneer fight, which makes it a little bit more muddier. I'm not sure, Luke. I'm trying to see who the opponent's going to be. I can't see it, but I think it's very possible. So the stakes huge for this fight. Would a win be more powerful and valuable than a loss would be devastating for Whitaker? Yes. Yes. Right now, right now, no question about it, Luke. And I think even if you're not going to ride with me, right on the

idea that, Hey, the judges might've gotten it wrong in the Adesonia rematch. It might've happened, Luke. It's one of those fights that it's how you look at the scoring criteria, what you like better, what you preferred. I still think Whitaker is of this ilk. I think this is the right opponent at the right time to show that, meaning Vittori's style is going to bring out the very best of who Whitaker is and what he does. These are the type of opponents that his craft goes up a level, right? He had to numb down the craft against Adesanya because he's up against the ultimate craftsman. He had to try to find other ways to get a victory. I'd try to take the fight to the ground. He had to do some stuff against an opponent like this. We're going to see prime Whitaker. And I think he ends up fighting

for a title sooner than later off of this. So I look at this fight, Luke, as big stakes. I think it'll be a fun fight to watch. Odds won't be as wide as we expect gone to be to Evasa in the main, but I still feel like I know who's going to win both of these fights coming in. I'm not complaining about that, but these are the bounce back off of title losses type fights that you got to go back in there, remind people who you are, and get back in line.

And I like both guys to do that, but I also... You know what? I'm going to stick with that. I like both guys to do that, Luke. Okay? Thank you. A little early prediction. Why don't you take that information luke and plug it into like uh bet something.com all right what would happen in your ass what would happen what would happen if marvin vittori not only wins but wins convincingly you might find that possibility

remote okay let's say it happens what then what then now well well Luke um what I think Adesanya would be interested if he defeats Podeta and doesn't need a kind of like rematch or anything there um would he want to run that back I don't think there's anything to gain there so for Vittoria it would be huge we would be stealing some of his thunder probably by talking about what would look like is a small decline coming off of the second title chance there for Whitaker. But it would be about Vittori bouncing back in a big way. And he would again be right up in the front of that line looking either for a title shot or maybe a vacant title shot, Luke. Because I really believe that.

Luke, are you on the same wavelength as me? I know you got a city kicking boner from here to hanover ohio but do you believe for adesanya that this is probably it unless he loses a close one and they run it back at this division i'm not creating that out of nothing luke i'm feeling it i see it my thought is if vittori wins then there's really no chance he sticks around right there's no chance if whittaker wins right and let's say Whitaker wins spectacularly and then does a post-fight chest banging you know ah you can't run from me is he kind of speech or whatever yeah could I see an interest in a third fight from the UFC and potentially from Izzy

himself like yeah I could actually I could I think if vittoria wins it's over i can't because there's nothing to gain for is he at all he's already beat him twice luke and i don't think he's gonna let himself the circumstances were different but i don't think he's gonna let himself be pushed into another fight like volkanovsky ultimately had against max you know what i'm saying i don't i don't know the negotiations i don't know what kind of you know at the end of the day he took it and god he almost stopped max he beat the credit to him but i think izzy would have hung around for sean strickland but now it's not happening anytime soon luke so that's what i feel okay maybe if is he lost it could be different he'd want to get back in line i don't know but get ready at 205 i think the big gun's coming up

again luke um fair enough that will be interesting uh also on card, BC, there's not a ton to love. I will say Nathaniel Wood fighting at 145 against Charles Jourdan. That's pretty good. Those two guys just fought both in July, I think on separate cards, or maybe it was the same one, but they both fought like six weeks ago or something. Hardly at all. Here they are back on this card. Also, the gentleman who was like, yeah, Daniel Kinahan's a great guy. He's my neighbor. He mows my lawn. Fareez Ziam. He's back, taking on a last-minute opponent. Yes, by the way, Jordan and Wood were on the same card. You have John McDessie taking on Nasrat Hakparas. Dude, how is John McDessie still around right now? That's like a 2010 name, Luke.

John McDessie? Yeah. Yeah, but I think he's coming off of a win if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, he got a nice win over... Bahamondes. Bahamondes. Let the rhythm take you Yeah. Yeah, but I think he's coming off of a win, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, he got a nice win over... Bahamondes. Bahamondes, let the rhythm take you over. Yeah, the guy who knocked the hell out of Roosevelt Roberts. Remember that one, Luke? Yes, I certainly do.

In any case, there are a couple of decent fights. Bringing up the must-see man on this card, Luke. Dick Rico, brother. All right, Alessio DiCirico. He's lost four or five suddenly luke um is this winner go home against roman copilove probably also you know i doubt one's related to the other but like the people who have like ultra aggressive attitudes about the media tend to i don't know there's just a weird correlation between them not sticking around

very long so well except except for Dana White. Yeah, but even then he does media. You know what I mean? That's the difference. He disdains the media, but then he does a scrum after Contender Series. At a bare minimum, he still does something. Luke, I might be too close to this situation about this stupid four-minute video that's back. Should somebody have asked him about that at the scrum last night, or i just you know stuck in my own headlines here i mean here's the

thing like with dana it's like i don't know what the right answer is anymore because you know yes the answer is basically yes right just as a matter of due diligence you should do it but at the same time it's like dude what are you going to get what kind of answer you're going to get you're going to get you know nothing that you could trust as true um just kind of grand all right i'll be the guy i'm going to tell you right now i don't know if the interview is going to come on hq on this show backstage at a ufc fight next time i see dana i'm going to interview him and this will be the first question luke okay and what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna be coy i'm gonna go undercover and be like yo i love that you put that video out against these scumbags right and i'll go undercover and i'll get him talking about it luke and it'll bring down his guard and then i'll get some of the details behind it and then i'll hit him with

but yo why are you lying about it what's up why is this video completely untrue you know what i mean and we'll see what happens luke then i'll be i'll be covering the fights from the uh parking lot yeah yeah probably probably uh that's another reason probably don't want to do it also like again like the people who go to the fights they're the the media guys like whoever hires them they're not hiring them to get dana mad and you could say well getting dana mad might be part of the job right not part of their job you know these corporate media folks all they want is to have a great relationship with UFC

so they can send fighters there or send media guys there to you know sort of document events but never really rock the boat they're not charged with that particular job they should be but they're not and so you want to lay some blame down on them lay blame at the shoulders of their bosses who have zero interest in doing actual journalism that's the that's the result now fair uh bc one more note hold on let me

get it out let me get it out let me get it yeah i don't want you to move on before we're done luke so i have to put in these safeguards i have to you know i have to set my boundaries here luke okay i had another comment about this card if you're we're still talking about this card keep going we are we are we're doing nasa nasa dean imovov at 185 it's on the prelims taking on joaquin buckley this is one to watch right here imovov is very good he has wins over ian heinish who he stopped he has wins over edmund Shabazian, who he stopped. He does have a loss all the way back in 2021 to Phil Hawes, but he looks like a very good prospect.

And you already know what time it is when Joaquin Buckley gets in there. That is a hell of a contest. I'm going to be honest with you. For this card being very top hit, like good on top, and pretty good for a fight. I mean, this is a glorified fight night card. It may not be deep, Luke, but it's got some heavy hitters on it. For this to be on the prelims, I just don't get it.

If this is a victory here for Numanza, Joaquin Buckley, which I believe would be his fourth in a row, does he finally start to get the respect, Luke? And I ask that because, let's be fair, a lot of people first knew about him because of the incredible spinning knockout against Kasangane, which is among the greatest in history. And then you see him kind of getting clowned publicly by Darren Till that time.

I don't think he gets the respect yet as a potential viable contender in this division. He's more the highlight reel guy still. He's on the prelims here, Luke. But you win four in a row in this division. You start making some big noise, Luke. I'm starting to believe in this division he's more the highlight reel guy still he's on the prelims here luke but you went four in a row in this division you start making some big noise luke i i'm starting to believe in this guy are you going to be with me if he pulls this off um yes yes i would i think any kind of win streak the way you're describing is exceedingly difficult to come by the opponent here makes that exceedingly difficult to come by. Yeah, I think I would be.

I think it's a fair point completely. And he showed up to our live show, Luke. Okay, so shout out to New Manza, all right? Also, Khalid Taha is taking on late replacement Christian Quinonez. By the way, Khalid Taha from the great country of Lebanon. Just want to point that out. Here you go, BC. Oh, wow, look at that flag, Luke.

Yeah, I got this in biblos lebanon um uh which the guys there tell me some of the first alphabet came from there now for anybody that doesn't know what is your connection again to lebanon is that the is that your mother's birth country that is my mother was born in syria but she was a lebanese national okay all right so you know shout out luke right right? You know? That's right. That's right. That's what he did. Moving on from that, let's talk about topic number two, BC. I think we froze.

If you're ready. Are we still live? TMZ has reported, and people are always like, you guys work at Showtime. They don't tell you anything. You can't be talking about NATO until the show goes off the rails. Nothing to confirm anyway. I don't know what's going on here. Jake Paul is going to fight Anderson Silva according to TMZ.

TMZ's report is as follows. What they are saying is that 47-year-old Anderson Silva will take on... All right. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Zoom is bugging out, so I missed all all of that i don't know what you did or you could have just uh we're making hand puppets or some shit i don't know if you can hear me or not uh okay in any event we're gonna get anderson silva apparently taking on jake paul we don't

have a date yet that i can see what they are saying uh is it could be in October. BC, your reaction to this report from TMZ. Sorry, Luke, about that issue. I was a little bit shut down there. I'm back at it. My reaction to the potential of a Jake Paul Anderson silver fight, look, this is big. Love him or hate him, as Dana White himself said when he was asked about it Tuesday night,

this is a real fight, end quote. Now, Dana went on to say, stop effing asking me about this guy. I don't care. He's not in my business plan. But if you are in the Jake Paul business, if you are a lover or hater of him, this is the fight. No, it's not against a traditional real boxer. It's a retired MMA legend, arguably the greatest fighter in mixed martial arts history. But there's a guy who made that transition to boxing despite the age so perfectly. I mean, it'd be Chavez Jr. that I think commercially, but most importantly,

critically, Luke, Anderson Silva still has so much danger left in him, given his size, speed, and experience, that this is the make or break fight for Jake Paul and his future as a boxer. This is the fight that could end up being a KO loss or any kind of ending. This is also the fight that if he goes out there and wins it, could really be that boost of critical respect that he's been looking for, that he's slowly been acquiring in his escalation from, you know, the YouTube-like opponents to retired NBA greats to, you know, guys that have fought a bit like Tyron Woodley twice for sure. But Anderson Silva is just bigger and better in the sport they're actually going to fight,

traditional boxing. That Luke, I'm going to use the love him or hate him thing again because Jake is that polarizing. But whether you can get yourself pumped for him against, you know, Tommy Fury is one thing. If you can't get pumped for Jake Paul Anderson Silva and have to figure out where it's going to be, what date, and where you're going to be watching it, then I don't know if you like boxing or mixed martial arts because, as Dana said, it is true. There's a real-ass fight right here.

There's real stakes in the future of Jake Paul being a thing because it could go badly right here. And for Anderson Silva, what a frickin' victory lap. You know, he didn't necessarily get that in the ufc he's getting that now luke uh he would be everyone's hero it seems if he if he pulled this off and did what what potentially could happen the fact that i don't know who's gonna win just adds to why i need to see this thing yeah i gotta tell you i don't hate this at all i don't i really don't if it's fact true, I guess we'll find out soon enough.

But assuming the report is true, I completely agree with your analysis, which is this is a make or break one. I mean, realize what would happen here. Let's say, let's just imagine a world where Jake Paul beats Anderson Silva. Not only would that be very validating, I think, for his claims about what he wants to be and who he is as an athlete, as a boxer. That would be about the best kind of validation to this point that he could have possibly had. And I think given who he's fought, the Nate Robinsons, the pre-diabetic gas station

attendants on Twitch, or whatever, the two Woodley fights, dude, Anderson Silva is multiple leagues, even at age 47, ahead of all of them in this particular kind of fight so so the credibility would be pretty big at that point but beyond that you have to understand what it might do commercially for him jake paul would break the hearts of every mma fan on earth if he ends up beating anderson silva or worse knocks him out stops him him via TKO, whatever that might be. You could, I mean, he would end up getting their begrudging respect, but they would fucking hate him to the nth degree. Conversely, while Anderson Silva already has captured the hearts and certainly the imaginations of MMA fans, they would love nothing more than the spider before he rides off into the

sunset to beat a guy who has been trolling the MMA community quite effectively, I would boost the glowing sentiment around him in a way that that win might. So in every way, commercially, you've got an A name and a B name. In terms of the stakes, the odds makers will have it close. I'll talk about that in a second. Seems competitive-ish on paper. It's the right kind of escalation for Jake Paul. It's the right kind of money-making opportunity for Anderson Silva. Dude, this is again, assuming it is true, this is very clever matchmaking, and I don't see what the problem

with it is. And you have to ask yourself, given that the Tommy Fury fight fell apart, then the Rockman fight fell apart, is Jake doing this not because he has to, he doesn't have to, but has that fueled his, or sped up him saying, look, all right, I'm going to really test myself. Let's cash it in because Luke, I say cash it in

because outside of fighting Mike Tyson or a legitimate UFC star under contract, that's on the level of Conor Diaz Masvidal. You get what I'm saying there? This is the biggest fight he can make for himself. I mean, it really is without is without question I mean I'm trying to think of the boxing equivalent in the love and royalty that Anderson Silva represents to MMA like maybe Sugar Ray Leonard is the right comparison like Anderson Silva is not like out here doing this because he has to because he needs the money and he's reckless and broke down he's kind of just taken a victory lap because he was so freaking sublime through his whole career that at 47 he's not that far removed from it like the fact that we're talking about Jake Paul would finally get the critical validation he was seeking against a 47 year old retired cage

fighter like it doesn't make sense but again it makes sense only because it's Anderson Silva and he really does still have it so to speak in the standpoint of trying this type of transition and i mean you know it blew away somebody like tito ortiz who probably shouldn't have been in the cage but however wash chavez jr is and look he is let's be fair anderson looked like a real boxer against him. And Anderson Silva is loved in a way by MMA fans that like, it goes beyond your typical retired UFC fighter. Who's trying to do this for money and clicks. Like, I think people are going to come out of the woodwork for this fight because Anderson has that GSP level that, that just royalty air of like, Oh, you know, Floyd level to be really

fair. Like, Oh, he's going to be in this fight and it's going to be a competitive good one. I got to see it. This has everything. It really does. It has everything. And I don't know how it's going to look for Jake, but I give him credit for signing on the dotted line. You know, the equivalent of this fight in boxing in terms of the danger he's taken, Luke, it would have come in boxing against somebody that doesn't have this name value.

So to get the same level of challenge in a way, you know, like this is, it is time for him to fight a real boxer. This close enough to be in a real boxer without, you know, not being, but still being a massive celebrity and having a chance to win. I'm fired up for this really. Um, we're going to find out what's next for Jake. And if he's really for real, the same moment he will. And I don't think that's disrespect or I think that's actually what's going to happen here. Like, I don't know if Jake's going to fight this fight and then never fight again and go make movies or wrestle or whatever he's going to do. He's probably going to come up with fresh new ideas and do it. He's that type of dude, but this could be the end of the line, Luke. I mean,

it really has that potential so i'm gonna officially give him the credit he deserves for saying i couldn't make those other fights all right let's make this one the time is now because look the time is now this is the fight to make in this weird celebrity silo if he wants to cross back into the real boxing you know territory now i got something kind of interesting here i got these odds from uh bet online it's a company right so they've got the odds on a jake paul versus anderson silva fight they have jake paul as an barely an underdog at plus 100 anderson silva as an underdog at minus 130 now i certainly understand again these odds are going to be in a way to induce betting

um and they'll move over time. There's a lot of different ways in which that's not a real reflection of reality. However, I got to say something. I find that kind of shocking. Two things to think about. One, if Anderson Silva goes in there and does what I think is very likely, and let's say knocks Jake Paul out and potentially even viciously, this whole Jake Paul thing could go up in smoke on one night. He's trying to escalate in a noble way, and you have to give him credit for that. You can't say he's...

To go from Tommy Fury to Aseem Rahman Jr. to Anderson Silva, that's an escalation, not a de-escalation. So that's the first thing I would say. But it carries significant consequence, because if you lose to a guy like Anderson Silva who can viciously put people's lights out, even in just boxing, real bad shit can happen to a guy who may not be ready for it. Okay. Second thing I would say is let me peel back the curtain a little bit. My bosses at CBS came to me several weeks ago and this was their idea before the

Rockman fight was canceled. And they said, we want you to do a dissected on Jake Paul. And I was like, no fucking way. And they're like, no, we really want you to do one. So I did. I did a dissected off the two Woodley fights. And I made it before the Rockman fight. Of course, the Rockman fight never happened. So that thing is sitting on ice.

But I did do the tapes at ABC. And I'm going to repurpose it for this Anderson Silva fight if and when it gets officially announced. Let me tell you something. I can't believe these odds are as close as they are having watched the tape on Paul. Now, to be very fair, the difference between what he showed

in the first and second fight in a lot of important respects is big. There are real, clear, meaningful improvements you can see from the first to the second Woodley fights that will tell you that there's probably going to be a lot of improvement from that one to this one. However, there are also a number of very distressing concerns I would have if I was training a guy like that to go up against even a 47 year old Anderson Silva, especially as that fight goes long and the bad habits begin to repeat themselves. BC, I don't know if you saw that

dissected that i did but i gotta tell you i look at these odds and i almost laughed i couldn't believe how close they are i'm gonna go ahead and say unless something crazy happens between now and then my official prediction is that anderson silva is going to probably walk all over him um i would be shocked if anything else happened yeah it's in play if you're asking me is it more likely than that happens than anything else? At this point, I will agree with you in that regard. I am a little bit surprised by the odds. And sometimes, again, they're floated to, you know,

induce a certain level of activity in any direction. But the rumor out there is that they're targeting 185, which would be the lowest weight, I believe, yet for Jake, who's been hovering in the low 190s. And for Anderson, so it would be his prime middleweight weight. But Luke, not only are they, you know, the closest in size of any Jake Paul opponent to date, I mean, we've seen Anderson Silva succeed at the 205 level against very good competition.

So the speed, the experience, but I think most importantly, what has Anderson done in the boxing realm so far that has impressed me the most okay my second answer would be footwork his ability to you know like you know even though tyrone woodley like i gotta tell him the credit like he really went after it and you know the second fight was slow and tedious but i think he made it that way technically but anderson already has those foundational technique elements, but then he's got that plus element of not just power or speed and power mixed together, but Luke hitting you with punches you don't see coming,

hitting you with spectacular punches. That proved against Tito Ortiz to be a mop-up, like shouldn't have even been in the same ring together. Jake Paul's better than Tito Ortiz, of course. And Jake Paul, you know, has some good foundational elements to his game around the ideas of defense and knowing what he's doing. But Anderson could still, you know, F around and do something crazy and that he's not going to see coming. And I think that is the biggest danger to him in this fight.

Like, I'm trying to figure out, is it going to be better for Jake to use his youth and size and try to box from different distance and live and die by that jab or is it better for him to try to fight anderson silva at a high pace i don't know if i like both roads luke you know what i'm saying i'm not i'm not sure where he beats him in close silva's ability to roll and counter is again relative to what we're talking about significantly more advanced and at distance like again I mean unless Silva at 47 is completely compromised by age which I suppose you know that is certainly a thing we have to consider but even what you saw against Tito even what you saw against Julio Cesar Chavez dude that guy

that guy should be very capable of putting Jake Paul away. And you said Tyron really went for it in those first two fights. I really disagree with that to the nth degree. No, I didn't say he went for it. I said he went for it. I meant went for it, meaning he committed. Here's my explanation of that.

He committed. So he went for it in the training and preparation to actually try to box, meaning he didn't go in there as an MMA fighter looking to just throw hands. He actually tried to box. Did he have huge success of it? Well, look, he rocked Jake in the first fight, and in the second fight, he was arguably winning on the cards in an actual, almost amateur technical match. So I think he went for it in the technique.

His unwillingness to go for it either fight in the offense is what I think cost him, although you could argue it would have gassed him out too. Again, Luke Anderson, much more equipped in each category than Tyrone Woodley ever would have been, including size and things like that, that yeah, this makes it a tough fight. So that's just two man's opinion that Anderson should be the favorite and that this could be an uphill climb for him. But watching the build to this, if it happens, Luke, and watching the fight, it is going to be interesting to see what Jake Paul and company do because he has legitimate boxing minds in and around his corner and has for a while. You know, ex-fighters like Jay Leon Love, BJ Flores.

It's going to be on them to use the skills, the size, the youth, the power, to be fair, that he does have and try to carve out that path to victory. And Luke, this also gives Jake huge potential to, you know, not only potential, he hasn't really had to come back from much besides getting rocked by Woodley and then he got cut. So there was some, you know, there was some troubled waters there that i thought he navigated well in the first fight but he may you know he has even in a loss he has an opportunity to really win our respect if he goes in there and if things don't go his way and then he's got to stand in and fight his way out luke which i think you know entertainment wise is what everybody wants to see but um he may is there i guess i set this up to say we kind of know the limits of his technique and actual boxing ability.

Is there another gear in Jake Paul that he hasn't had to use yet that we could end up coming out of that fight being, being surprised that we overlooked that? Because he is so much younger than Anderson. You know, I tend to say it's not that big of a deal. What do you say? 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. 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 AirCanada.com. Conditions apply.

Gear, I don't know. I mean, that second Woodley fight, the knockout is one of the best knockouts you'll see. I mean, it was spectacular in every way, but the fight before that was dreadful. It was really bad. And it was really bad for both of their faults. It wasn't just Jake Paul, Tyrone played a role in that as well but another gear no, I think the thing

you might want to look at for Jake Paul's chances is Silva might play it somewhat conservatively up front Jake Paul might be active up front and the difference between Jake Paul and the second Woodley fight to now which sometime has elapsed since then you know guy that young training that hard can make a lot of

improvement right so he'll just be a different guy he'll have more tools but here's what I think is really going to undo him I'm not going to tell you what these are because I want to redo the videos related to this one if and when it gets announced there are two or three really bad habits he has and in the second Woodley fight you don't see them up until about the third or fourth round when things begin to he gets tired and the discipline goes away and then all the bad habits come back you know I don't know how many rounds this fight will be likely eight we'll have to see what any commission does or approves if it ends up getting this far but I would be you know the first half you might be able to see jake paul do some things where he could claim a couple rounds but i think as that

fight goes on and he gets undisciplined and the difference in all the training shows up again assuming age has an utterly crippled anderson silva i think the second half of that fight's going to be real bad for him real bad for him so um for him to win I think would be incredible I think I if Jake Paul wins he would and I'm gonna say this you know even if Anderson Silva wins he'd have my respect if Jake Paul wins he will very much have earned my respect any MMA fan who's been a critic of his should be willing to say that as much as well I would rather see him try to potentially fight his way out of trouble than you know go the scorecards in a defeat if it turns out to not be his night. I want to see him give himself, the younger guy, the fighting chance,

but I do think he's going to have to really come up with a smart boxing game plan and try to stay as firmly rooted in the fundamentals as he can, Luke, to try to set up and give himself a chance here. It's going to be fun, dude. Once you heard these whispers, you're this, is this really potentially possible here? I got, I got very excited. This is a massive escalation from the fights that we were talking about. And that's not just in danger output, it's entertainment value, it's personalities. You know, it's like, it's like now we're talking about like, okay, what does this do? What, what would the potential of a win here do for Anderson?

Like, in some ways, not much, you know, outside of money. But in terms of, like, that potential for victory lap, like we talk about, I mean, you know, he's going up there against one of the most polarizing people of the day, Luke. This is like, you know, we could put another candle and some more whipped cream on top of his folk hero mountain and keep building, Luke. People are going to love this guy if he comes out of here with a W. All right. Topic number three.

Let's move on. BC's favorite fighter ever, of course, has been retired now for some time, but shared some details about it. Speaking to a fans in at an appearance in Russia, Zabit Magomed Sharapov spoke out and he says the following quote, the main reason was that I w I was not able to fight. He said the UFC didn't give me a title shot. They promised me one thing and did another. They promised me and didn't keep a promise. That was the main reason why I got mad.

BC, I can't sound so promise. That was the main reason why I got mad. BC, it sounds so out of character that a fighter would complain about the UFC promising them something and then not doing it. I can't believe it finally happened to someone. What do you make of all this? It's hard. I mean, like two things came out of here. We'll get to the second part of it if he would come back.

But this was the big one that jumped at me. His first time we're really hearing him talk, and it's like when you hear this at face value, like so they said at one point you were probably next for a title shot you didn't get that title shot so you know you're just gonna walk away for good i know there were other things were injuries but in some level you know that's conviction that's habib level conviction to promise mother and father and carry it through but is it delusion though i mean i don't know he says after beating cater he was in that title picture and was promised you know i mean they can use the the false promise at times luke for leverage or to motivate somebody or sometimes

business and plans change so it's hard to be live or die firm on that we did know right didn't you have really really really bad COVID, and that's what started this process? Yes, he was one of the guys that got really bad COVID. Okay, so, I mean, you know, a lot of other stuff beyond that. I tend to think it's a combination of all of that as to why he didn't return. And, look, if he wants to go to the medical room, become a doctor, it's noble. I give him that.

What I think you don't want to see is the potential of him coming back if he's not 100% mentally and physically into it. And he isn't caught up on things like being so upset if he wasn't given a time. I don't like that excuse. Now, was it just part of the interview? Was it taken and translated? I don't know the full factors of the interview. I tend to not love that, Luke, that way of thinking.

You know, they didn't fulfill on a promise, so I'm just going to walk. But there is, if you're asking me, is there a chance, Luke, tell me if I'm wrong from the quote you're about to read. I feel like he's getting itchy here. Like he might want to come back. I feel like it, Luke. So he was asked about potentially coming back to your point. And he says the following quote, I want to do it. When I see someone fighting, when I joined their training camp, me and other friends, there could be a wish. I have to think I when I see someone fighting. When I join their training camp, me and other friends, there could be a wish. I have to think.

I'm going to think about your question. I tend to think that's bullshit, but you seem to think that there might be more to the story there. Well, not that there's more to the story or that I have intel. I don't, but I'm saying, you know, that old phrase, you hang around a barbershop long enough, you're bound to get a haircut, Luke, that our parents would tell us to try to get us not hanging out with those kids that probably wore drug rugs to be fair.

But, um, you know, he does train, help train guys and help people out and spar and all that. Dude, he's young enough. Still, was he 32 ish? He's young enough still where if he went all in and came back, there's still time. He still has a unique, you know, combination of skills. Um, but I would want him to do it with real fire and passion. And if that fire and passion is to prove UFC wrong, then that'd be great, you know. But I don't know if he really wants it anymore from what we've seen, Luke. I don't know how devastating the, you know, the COVID battles were. I mean, there are a lot of people walking around with receipts from those COVID battles still, Luke.

And it sucks. And, you know, it doesn't matter if he, you know, his age in that regard. But if he wants to, Luke, he is the greatest of all time. Is he not, Luke? I mean, you know. Yeah, here's his UFC resume. He submitted Mike Santiago. He submitted Shaman Maraish.

He decision Kyle Bokniak. He kneebarred Brandon Davis. He decision Jeremy Stevens and decisioned Calvin Cater. That's your GOAT? I mean, I'm having fun with it, of course. I'm romanticizing the potential. He is that rock star. He's obviously very, very good.

Yes, of course, but that's your GOAT. He is that rock star. He's part of the 27 Club, it seems. You know, died young before he could really put out those bloated, shitty albums to fill out the record contract. I don't know if he was going gonna ever be that good in reality i know people love that third round against cater as the uh as the what the loaded glove the the tit what's the word what's the law term for that luke the smoking gun is that where i'm going here maybe i don't know okay um i don't tend to believe in that same smoking gun. Okay. I want to see him. What band rebounded best after losing their lead singer or some kind of band

member, you know, some tragic accident is the answer. AC DC. It has to be right. I would say outright. Yes, but I do think Van Halen slash Van Hagar's in that conversation.

There's been bigger names. There's been big name bands that have done this to like slighter degrees replaced the singer later in the career but nothing compares to acdc because the volume of top shelf albums they'd already put out with bon scott and yet the new guy might actually be better long term i know that's that's sacrilege to a lot of people the hard og fans who are you know bon scott life death, and he did set the tone of that band just as much as the Young Brothers for craziness, and he went out on his sword, so to speak, in the rock and roll lifestyle.

But damn, Luke, Brian Johnson's great. I mean, you know, Back in Black might be the greatest album front to back in the history of rock and roll in terms of not having a pimple on the ass cheek. Just all killer. Just perfect. No freaking filler. I mean, put on Have a Drink on Me right now, and you'll be like, damn, that sounds fresh.

It just sounds incredible. Get stoned! You know, Luke? Dude, the whole thing. I just want to go through the tracks right here. This is the Back in Black album, top to bottom. Are you ready? This is his debut

album with the new band i know some of the songs have been pre-written and all that i'm not saying brian johnson came in and walked on water but look at this luke okay number one hell's bells okay two shoot to thrill fucking amazing song three what do you do for money honey an underrated one four give given the dog a bone, which is okay. Not my favorite. No, it's great. It's great. Come on.

Okay. Five, let me put my love into you. Which, Luke, I actually think that's the best song in the album. Seriously. Dude. Oh, well, that's just bullshit because track six, Back in Black, Need I Say More. Track seven, You Shook Me All Night Long. I mean, just those two songs.

Most bands never have two songs that are that good, that go that big. They had them back to back in the album. Eight, Have a Drink on Me, another great one. Nine, Shake a Leg, decent. And then ten, Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution. Are you fucking kidding me? That's a great closer, by the way. And I saw them at you

know 2001 at msg and it changed you know blew me away but here's the deal luke i think bon scott as a as a whole has a better collection of albums than brian johnson without question although i do like some of these sort of mini comebacks acdc made with brian johnson through the years um the late 80s run was great especially i mean dude mean, dude, any album that has the word balls in it, I've loved it. But the problem, even though I am a massive Van Halen guy and also Van Hagar, is as great as Van Hagar was, Luke,

it's so this is London, this is Tokyo to what David Lee Roth was that it's hard to make the same argument. And I do love van hagar and shout out luke but that's a completely different band than david lee roth van halen and david lee roth van halen is in reality so much freaking better than van hagar that i think the answer has to be acdc for this question luke yeah i mean just to come back after losing your lead singer not in some kind of band dispute but because the guy accidentally killed himself from

drinking too much basically. Do you think Fleetwood Mac's in this discussion because they had a long career under Peter Green before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came and changed them? I don't give a shit about that band.

Alright well that was great talking classic rock with you. I held you for a while. Luke, final question regarding Zabit. I can't talk about him because I'm in too deep, Luke, okay? I'm like Vince Carter hanging on the rim in 2000 in Golden State at the Dunk Contest. If he did come back, like, would it end with him fighting for a title? In your eyes, in your skeptical, dark eyes, eyes luke like if he really made a push if he really went all freaking in could he get to the title shot in your eyes yes yes i think he could

but for no other reason he'd be a fresh challenger right because volcanoff's probably gonna have it for a little while longer well the the for no other reason is that he's also fucking awesome okay luke so let's not forget that okay yeah what's his best win jeremy stevens calvin cater baby yeah but that one was it got dicey at the end so you know my career's had some dicey moments too luke but look at me now all right uh all right topic number four we don't have to spend a whole lot of time on this i just thought it was kind of interesting officially we knew this before they had announced it in january but the shoes came out yesterday it was a bigger interesting. Officially, we knew this before. They had announced it in January, but the shoes came out yesterday. It was a bigger, broader debut of the relationship.

Project Rock, which I believe is the company founded by Dwayne Johnson, also known as The Rock. Again, they had announced a partnership in January to be the footwear company because you'll recall Venom was going to be the kit provider after Reebok, but they don't really make shoes. They make boxing shoes, but they don't make apparel shoes in that way. So they had to get a separate kind of shoemaker, and they had to deal with Project Rock.

I guess Reebok had hung on until more recently, and the shoes came out. I don't know if we have any photos of the shoes. If you do, I'd love to take a look at them. BC, first question, did you see them? Did you like them? They look, I got to tell you, they look like they won't get you made fun of in high school,

but they're not, you know, they look i gotta tell you they look like they won't get you made fun of in high school but they're not you know they look i don't know they look slightly better than generic is what i would say they look like you can take the brahma bowl logo off of them and put the letters nb on them luke and your father would probably wear them right that's what they look like i don't think they look that bad they're're not like the Chef Curry, you know, lawnmower dad things, are they? They ain't great, Luke. They ain't great. Just the same. I'm not a sneakerhead, but they ain't great, Luke.

Okay. What's worse, Project Rock UFC shoes or British Knight Dime-A-Cells? Oh, God. Those were so lame. I mean, dude, I had the L.A. gear equivalent to those Dime-A-Cells, too. It's like the third-rate version of a third-rate sneaker to begin with. Damn. Yeah, probably the British Knights, Luke.

Because, you know, for a minute, that Dime-A-Cell shit, you know, it sold some people, you know? Dude, what was worse, British Knight Dime-A-Cells or L.A. Gear? I mean, that's really a tough competition. They both trick you into believing. It's like, you know, they trick you into believing that there's a C cup under there, Luke. And then you get under. You know what I mean? We've all been there, Luke.

Dude, I had a single mom. Obviously, my parents were divorced. And then it got weird at four times. So it was a while when my mom was having to buy me my shoes. Bro, my kid is going to grow up in a world where she never has to worry about this i fucking hope but so far so good but my parents dude god i've told the story a million times i'm not gonna retell it but i've had some nubber ass shoes that you just walk in the room and the kids are just fucking pointing and laughing meanwhile all my all the kids in my

class had like air Pegasus. Remember Air Pegasus? Those were the fucking jam back in the day. And your boys out there going to pay less shoe source, buying just nubber shit. I live that meaning 7th and 8th grade. Changing my dad's job meant like we had less money for the first time ever. And I was wearing LA gears. I know during a time, and it may not matter in hindsight.

It sounds stupid to even retell the story, but during the time, Luke, your social standing in middle school did depend upon the level. Everything hinged on it. You saw nerds who bought Air Jordans are suddenly considered cool, and you're getting buried because you're wearing L.A. gears. So I've lived that. So which shoe during that run broke your heart the most

that you had no chance of buying because your mom's budget was probably like $35, and these were like $1 like 115 you know so again i've told the story before the big one was when my dad bought me and my brother a pair at the very peak of cool of the reebok pump when it had the little um the d brown ones you're talking about i don't remember i don't remember which one they were but it was the one when the tongue had the little basketball on it yeah you could pump the basketball up and then my my dad got us for us and my mom made him return it and i never wore them once that one broke my heart but the one that i always coveted that i never got a chance until i was an adult were not even the jordans the nike air maxes that with the big bubble on

them that just look like you were a fucking astronaut you know they were great my my biggest heartbreak were those uh nike hair air Air Harachis that came out in 92. Chris Webber wore them for Michigan. Leitner wore them for Duke. They were white, but they had the purple and black sort of backing on them. And I think a lot of people wanted those Jordan Bugs Bunny ones. Those were bullshit, Luke. I don't want anything to do with that.

I wanted, when Nike tried to rival those original pumps you're talking about, by coming out with the Force David Robinson ones that had the pump up next to the tongue. It was a little weird and it didn't quite work, but they were white with green and black. Dude, don't lie. David Robinson his first two years before we realized that he was like

you know, white toast, bread and butter toast, white toast like in terms of his personality. He was like the coolest guy ever based on those commercials, dude, with those shoes. Oh, the fucking Admiral was the man. Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood, all the highlights are him dunking on fools. Like, he was the man, Luke. He was.

I remember when the Shacks came out, too, they had a little cartridge you could use to pump them up. I didn't have those either. Yo, could you vape in those, that cartridge? And then stick it back in your shoe? I did. I told you this one, too. The one year where I was like halfway decent at basketball, my eighth grade year, I made the

team, and then the team all bought Nikes for the thing, and my mom refused to buy them, and I had to wear these. The colors didn't even match. Fucking New Balance basketball shoes in 1994. Couldn't have looked worse. Biggest piece of shit on earth. So now it's like, dude, I can't do this to my daughter because it fucked me up mentally for life where like constantly not having the cool shit made me just want to get only the cool shit by the time i had

any little bit of money which is not a healthy way to shop either so i'm just gonna make sure my daughter has cool shit reasonably throughout the course of her life so she doesn't like just stop you're gonna give her everything she wants for the rest of of her life so she doesn't like Oh just stop you're going to give her everything she wants for the rest of her life no matter what and you know it Luke okay she's got you yo Tookie owns you probably probably alright the last one I wanted to make about this is BC's an all serious

question and it's true about Project Rock it's true about Venom as well Reebok got assassinated by fans at every single turn. Yes, for a lot of their own failings, including but not limited to multiple spelling errors and just not having a culture of understanding the combat sports world all that well. Venom and now Project Rock seem to be largely escaping these similar kinds of criticisms.

And yet, you know, it's very funny to me that The Rock puts out a highlight reel when this was initially announced. This is when he had the back and forth with me and it's like, oh, I wanted to thank the fighters for their, you know, walk in the walk. It's like, you want to thank them, you can give them a fucking raise, Rock, which he did not do. Which he did not do. It's like, yeah, no wonder you're putting out a tribute video.

You're not doing a fucking other thing for them. But in all seriousness, Venom doesn't catch heat for this either. BC, why did Reebok get assassinated and Venom and Project Rock are not getting any criticisms for doing basically the exact same thing? Because the wound was fresher when Reebok came. This is why I always say this and you say you don't care, but I think I'm going to be proven right.

The Reebok era will age like a fine wine in terms of when we look back. When you see highlights of fights in the Reebok era that just looks more uniformed and better eye-pleasing and not fucking venom. I mean, it just looks good. So you're asking me why did they get maligned in ways the other ones aren't? Because they came at the time and were the reason that fighters didn't suddenly lost a giant stream of income that they were used to. And the deal, you know, it wasn't even their deal probably. It was probably income that they were used to and the deal you

know it wasn't even their deal probably it's probably UFC's deal but the way the deal worked out right they couldn't you couldn't have dynamic fasteners on your crotch anymore hold up the banner of dude wipes or whatever look you get the point I don't think that was Reebok's fault per se it was UFC really really closing you know I know they had the the some fighters got paid by Reebok but it was you know different different levels of that um, some fighters got paid by Reebok, but it was, you know, different levels of that. I think that's not Reebok's fault. And I think they put out a better product. So I think we'll look back more favorably on it, but why doesn't people talk about it? Luke, I feel like some of the times when the fans, when we do videos and the fans hit

the comments, sometimes I'll see them and I'll look at it because I'm not going to avoid that. I'm not going to avoid that,ke um and they're like guys stop talking about fucking fighter pay fans don't care about that i do think they're right more than they're wrong on that i think you know 70 of fans don't give a freaking damn about that so i think that's also people think that the show is strictly designed for them like in their individual preferences it's not some things for them and their individual preferences. It's not. Some things are designed for their individual preferences.

What would the audience really like to see? It's a very pertinent and important question. If you don't ask it constantly, your show won't be around very long. Fair enough. But we also cover topics that are of just importance for the public to know whether they care or not. And fighter pay is extremely important, not merely because of the pay itself and how it affects the sport,

but because what it signifies as a power imbalance in a very dangerous sport where the guys who are asked to do the most dangerous shit had the least amount of control over that as a consequence. Whether or not individual members of our viewing audience care or not, to me, given the significance of that issue, is matter-of-factly irrelevant. I would fully fully agree with that but i do think it explains the answer of why

does nobody really care about that now i don't think people really care at the end of the day but i do think you you need to put some respect back on reebok's name look they put out the best product so far and all they do is get shit i think the venom well the the project rock shoes are terrible pieces of shit but you're gonna say you say you think Venom looks better than Reebok, get out of here, Luke. Yeah, I think the Venom kits look way better than the Reebok kits. No, not even close, Luke. Really? You think they look better? I mean, I think this is a stupid enough topic that if we waste any more time arguing it,

we'll probably get turned off anyway. But no, I think Reebok looks uniform and professional. I think Venom looks ridiculous, Luke. Thank you. All right. Well, you are blind, but that's okay. All right. Topic number five.

Let's do some quick hitters here very, very fast, BC. We start with Sean Strickland. He is out of his October 15th event, or a fight, I should say, on the October 15th event versus Jared Cannoneer due to Strickland's finger infection. Do we have a picture of this? I'm really hoping that we do. I've avoided it this whole time, Luke. Everyone said don't look at it we do not have you seen it all right that's my fault or that's the producer's fault but we should have had a picture

of that yes uh yes i have seen the yes it looked terrible and he let it like dude i tell me let me explain something to you why do you like i understand the the idea that oh if i don't need medical care then i'm not going to go seek medical care right fair enough i get that impulse but motherfucker your finger needed medical care why are you still putting off medical care in that scenario that's the part to me it's like't... Like, if you don't want to go to the doctor for frivolous reasons, fine. That thing looked like it was being eaten alive by maggots. Like, you needed to take that thing to the doctor

fucking seven weeks ago, my guy. I mean, I would say the same thing about Corey Anderson's middle finger knuckle, Luke, but that's another story there. I mean, that thing's a lethal weapon. I can't really criticize Strickland here based on the history of my toes and liver, Luke, so maybe I'll just take the Ellen Ball out, all right?

All right. Dana White spoke to Jim Rome. He was asked about Habib. He said, quote, it's funny you asked or it's weird you asked that question. I just reached out to him recently to see if he's interested in something, and he was like, I'm retired, brother. I'm done. I don't think Habib ever comes back. It was something different different i was trying to get him to do a grappling match he's

like i'm done i'm retired i think that when his father passed away that was a wrap for him and he's just focused on training other guys and helping them become world champions bc habib wouldn't even do a grappling match can you believe that um i can't because this is a man of conviction and even anytime i've thrown out you know situations mythical situations in these stupid filler games we do bringing up the idea of habib coming back always in the back of my mind i'm like there's no fucking chance he's coming back you know even if if you know mahachev gets you know killed by by someone's spinning kick no he's not and i and i i respect that dude i really really respect that i mean it's impressive i mean dude he's a it's hard it's really hard to hate on habib i mean you know off camera luke

sometimes i question like like r.i.p kobe and i'm not gonna do the bit you think i'm doing but like people you're you're already doing the bit i'm not doing the bit you think i'm doing but like you know okay but people are like coming out and being like no that that's my guy like I I you know I use him for daily motivation today Luke I you know I don't get that necessarily but people start doing that for Habib Luke it the the glove fits you know what I'm saying Luke okay uh could you see that is he an inspirational figure to you and i to me is luke who habib um inspirational is a strong word i have respect for his career like i'm not saying perfect and i align with everything he's ever done or said i mean i just look at him work ethic wise and conviction wise as like i got a lot of respect for that guy like i you know yes yes but as people i separate what the people do as professional

accomplishments on who they are as people okay i have a great degree of respect for his professional accomplishment i don't have much to say beyond that uh all right paul acosta undergoes hand surgery he explained this on his youtube channel quote i broke my hand in the fight i thought i had a bone injury or maybe ligaments but what really happened was a fracture to the metacarpal bone i hoped it wasn't a fracture because then i'd be able to come back fighting again in 50 or 60 days and use all the conditioning that he had done for the camp with Rockhold. Looks like he might be out a little bit longer. Still, though, BC, a little bit unclear about what's going to happen at middleweight.

Remember, Vittori already has a win since his loss to Izzy where he beat Paulo Costa. So maybe not the end of the world. No, it just slows momentum i mean granted i didn't think this would be the bone injury we were talking about coming to that first fight luke right you know it's like coming on that last fight it's like you know if you have an erection for four days please seek uh yeah please uh you got my point there um we should just change we should do like instead of doing room service diaries we should just have fighters on to talk about their dicks i mean look unfortunately

we're there we're already there okay we're already there that's pretty you know you can blame me just you know you can blame me luke for that that's fine but i'm not necessarily on board with it like you think i am all right uh i don't know you're pretty fucking i mean i drove the bus into that ditch willingly but you you know, but did I feel great about it? Not necessarily. Not necessarily. All right. I did it all for the nookie, Luke.

Robert Whitaker entertaining a move, this was amazing, to 205 potentially towards the end of his career. Quote, he told this to Submission Radio. Shouts to Submission Radio. When I moved up to 185 the first time, there was no way I would ever go back down to 170. I could never Got to put on muscle You have to train that weight Got to do all the bits and bobs there and here

But I've been thinking about 205 I think it will be more natural weight for me personally But the height disadvantage is annoying I don't know if I would want to deal with that Once I make the decision to go up to 205 I'm there, he said That'll be my division I'd finish my career there for better or worse

I'm doing really well at 185 Really well i'm definitely one of the most dangerous men in the division so it doesn't sound imminent bc but would you like him to finish his career at 205 pounds no no and first of all luke i gotta give you credit i thought you ad lib that bits and bots part that was actually in the quote i thought you were like your southern charm came out accidentally luke but um no i don't i don't feel like this is a great idea i thought you were like your southern charm came out accidentally luke but um no i don't i don't feel like this is a great idea i just think by like size wise in his core and what his core skill set is and by the way my clairvoyance is a lot of me to realize this is a moot point ultimately because he'll be fighting for that vacant middleweight title but if that doesn't

you know come to tradition nostradamusly i i do have questions about that size difference being a you know a former welterweight here um I I mean some guys you know we can have that thought and then it doesn't matter I mean look at Frankie Edgar all the way as high as a lightweight champion like for some guys it's just not going to matter is he this type of guy at this point in his career where the size difference won't matter Luke uh no size difference will almost always matter Luke? No, size difference will almost always matter. At least eventually. Right? At least eventually.

Yeah. Speaking of size, Rampage Jackson wants one more, BC. A boxing match with the Cannon, Shannon Briggs. He told TMZ, No, man, I ain't done. I'm not happy with my performance in my last fight. Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine. I can't leave MMA fans like that. I'm not happy with my performance in my last fight. Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine.

I can't leave MMA fans like that. I'm not going to leave this. I'm going to leave this sport a little better. Like I said, I'm in talks with Fighting Shannon, finally. That fight has been almost a year in the making. I want to do some boxing before I retire. I might do MMA, but I want to do boxing. I'm getting up there.

I'm 44, man. I'm getting up there. My knees hurt from wrestling. When you're doing MMA, a lot of people want to take you down. BC, I'm all good on the Rampage Jackson experience. Yeah. You had a very good career, but I've seen enough. Yeah.

I've seen enough to know I've seen too much. Yeah. I mean, you know, do you think you should try to go the call out Jake Paul route? Or is he hoping that this builds to that? Because I don't see anything else, any reason for him to get back in the gym and try something right now. He's got to be what? Walking around, 260, 270? I mean, yeah, you're right. It's over.

So, no, I don't want to see this anymore, Luke. Yeah, my level of interest in this is... You know what? I know he's difficult a lot, and I've been at press events where there were other reporters. She's just like, I'm not going to answer any questions because that guy's here. Like, I've been through that i get it but i don't think i'm done with the experience of rampage the mma personality like is there a a post-career graduated role for him in this luke i i love me some rampage you don't seem to have that same level no i think that

is completely reasonable and frankly welcome but as a competitor maybe my lord i couldn't possibly care less at this point right right and i don't know what that role is luke i don't see this point like dude he's if he keeps going and he looks even remotely like he did in his last fight which was a disaster was that the fate or fight get fucking hurt it's the fate or fight the last one right yeah yeah no i don't want to talk about that fight no i don't you know no you're right you're you're right everything you say you're right you're right uh bc how about this one fresh off the win over canelo uh b-ball is back taking on a guy folks may not know but i love this fight yeah against zurdo ramirez set for november 5th i believe this is going to be on the zone set this one up for us bc yeah so, so B-Vol, after beating Canelo Alvarez,

was trying hard to get that four-belt undisputed fight going against our guy, Artur Beterbiv. But it didn't happen because Zerto was the mandatory, and his team, Oscar De La Hoya's promoter, went to bat and pushed to get that mandatory

forcing to happen. Well, it's going to happen. And, Luke, this is a very good fight. Now, Zerto Ramirez, the people know, is 44-0. I mean, he's long, he takes chances, he's got some power from Mexico. I believe he won a world title at Super Middleweight before

I'm sorry, at Middleweight before that release was on the title level. You know, his record at 44-0 doesn't doesn't like it's not that he hasn't fought anybody but he certainly hasn't fought somebody where calling out this 44 no you know he's coming close to this mythical you know rocky marciano floyd mayweather area um it's always going to be more hype than it is substance but he also can fight he's not without you know defensive laps laps at times.

I mean, he was with top rank and had a big push, and then suddenly, you know, things broke apart. But this is a danger to B-Vol. B-Vol is more of the traditional mode, won't take chances unless you make him. Ramirez is going to force him to have to fight at times. So as a sort of setup to the idea of better beef is going to have a unification with joe smith the slugger it got delayed because of injury but if this is the final four right now

is really what i'm saying at 175 and i meant zerto fought at 68 before on the title level now he's back at 75 if this is that luke it's not a bad fight at all so get get fired up for it uh and last but not least ufc hopeful uh top noi i'm gonna say this name totally fucked up key rom has a ritual of smoking cigarettes before fights he told the media quote before fights i smoke cigarettes uh when i fight in the morning yes i smoke cigarettes in the morning i eat things when you're full you want to smoke a cigarette. Sleeping, wake up, smoke a cigarette, go to fight. Do we have a picture of this? I hope. I hope.

I mean, come on. Don't tell me we don't. I mean, who's working on this show? Okay, producers. Producers, I need you to look at the rundown. If you see something like this, you need to go see if there's photos or videos of it and put it in the show. I don't care which side of the production aisle we're looking at this, and here's me talking about this.

BC, this dude is hilarious, by the way. I don't know how much longer he has in the UFC, to be honest with you, but my man is a little bit one of a kind. I mean, this is Ricardo Mayorga territory. I mean, that's the same pre-fight routine Keith Peterson has, according to Dom Cruz, so you got to love that, Luke. But this is absolutely hilarious. And, you know, smoke two joints in the morning, smoke two joints at night.

Sublime song. He fits the lyrics here, Luke. He smokes a cigarette after smoking a cigarette, and then he smokes two more. Yeah, I love the badassery. You can't pull it. I mean, this isn't the 1960s NBA locker room where dudes are smoking half a pack at halftime, I mean you can't do that in elite sports, right Luke? I mean some guys can do cocaine and

win the UFC light heavyweight championship but like could, you can't, you can't, I mean could you people are wondering if you can go as far as a broadcaster as you're trying to with your vape habit and I think that's a legitimate question Luke No one is wondering that, you're literally making that up

uh that's it we're done with uh what you call it time for fan subs luke i think i hit you with a with a body shot there i think you know like your legs wouldn't respond you definitely didn't you definitely didn't but go ahead all right all right. Every Wednesday, we give you the opportunity to email us at morningcombat at gmail.com. Mikey Morms, our great CBS producer, is waiting for you to send in your artwork, pictures of you with our clothes on, anything really to get yourself deeper into our weird-ass family. This one's called Fan Submissions. We've got mail. Viewers.

Fan Sub. We've got mail. Want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation? Or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam? What about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space? Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own part of your favorite companies. Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share.

It's a piece of cake. Learn more at TD.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you. Viewers. Viewers. Although, Luke, didn't we get an email from a female viewer? We got a couple of fan subs from female viewers. Yeah, yeah. shout out to our

female viewers um here we go this one's from frej f-r-e-j frej he says uh hey guys day one donk here from sweden doing some tip to tip to tip with my u.s girlfriend during a trip to the states over the summer keep up the good work and please never change well luke if we never change we may have to change employers, right? One day it's going to catch up with us, Luke. Here he is in my neck of the woods. This was fun. Cool for him.

All right. From Creme Fraiche. Well done, Fraiche. You think it's pronounced Fredge? Fredge. Fredge. We call him Fredge. Refrigerator Perry over here.

Luke, true or false regular american girls like just love european guys i mean they'll just fall head over heels for them i think up to a point up to a point i mean this beautiful lady in european country i bet he demands this beautiful lady feed him grapes at night luke probably that's probably true yeah shut up shut up i mean you know it's a good gig if you can get it uh let's go to mary and marty no mary mary and kevin luke how about this mary says my boyfriend kevin wore an mk shirt that i got him on one of his youtube videos might be considered small potatoes but this video got at least 7 000 views might have given you one extra sub at least uh this photo is uh six months older uh kevin is six months older than luke and mary is around the same age she says kevin is a serious les mis

the way luke is sometimes what the hell does that mean luke and i'm the fun loving bc who'd rather joke than face life oh so luke they're us that's what they're saying luke i see i see oh les mis les miserables like the miserables yeah you're're us. That's what they're saying, Luke. I see. Oh, Les Mis. Les Miserables. Like the miserables. Yeah, you're a miserable person. That's what she's saying. Not me, Luke. She says... That's nice. We thank you for... That's a nice thing to say to someone. For a guaranteed laugh. I mean,

people look at their own marriage and see us, Luke. I don't know what that means, but that feels weird. She says, we laugh at least three times a week because of you guys with your thoughtful fight breakdowns. Keep rocking the MMA world, and I'll keep giving out my email with no questions asked, just to vote for MK on whatever bullshit award you're up for. The other photo, Luke, is her and Kevin at UFC Columbus. These are real fans here, Luke.

Very good. Is this guy batting over his limit here, Luke? A little bit. A little bit. I mean, he's a true donk. Shout out to Kevin. He's a real donk, Luke. Very good. Is this guy batting over his limit here, Luke? A little bit. A little bit. I mean, he's a true donk. Shout out to Kevin. He's a real donk, Luke. He definitely, like, if you were to look at a lineup, you'd be like, yo, who's got a human foot in his freezer? This motherfucker would be a two on the list. I'm sure you're right.

I mean, he's definitely feeding her grapes. Definitely. But, Luke, they call themselves the other MK because that's the first letter of their names, Luke. Alright? Okay. Mary and Kevin. That's right. I love them. Okay, Luke? They call themselves the other MK because that's the first letter of their names, Luke. All right? Okay. Mary and Kevin. That's right. I love them.

Okay, Luke? They're welcome anytime. Okay? I love them. She is. Look at that hair, dude. That guy gets high. Come on, Luke.

All right? Let's be fair. Oh, he probably. I mean, he's probably high. I mean, how many mushrooms are sitting in his tummy in this picture? I mean, all of them? She's like, honey, we didn't get C-Date. He's like, I've been sitting here all day.

You know, that's really, you know. What happened to all the weed we bought? Yes. Yes. This is Jason P. coming in. Oh, that's JP from Mount Uniac, Nova Scotia. He says, good day, MK crew. I really love the UFC 278 pregame preview

and wanted to put a quick post together. Real talk, like men do. BC, oh my God, those shorts. Love you guys. Keep up the amazing award-winning show. Fan for life, it's JP. Luke, it's about time you put some respect on JP's name, right? I don't know who that is.

Does he work on the show? Oh boy, thank you. Don't worry, Grandpa. We all remember show? Oh, boy. Thank you. Don't worry, Grandpa. We all remember World War I, too. We're right with you. Okay, Luke. I like that poster.

In fact, I'd put that on my wall or a T-shirt. You, Luke? That's pretty good, actually. I agree. All right. Thank you, Jake. I'm glad Chuck's getting a little shine, too. I love Chuck.

Thank you. I do. I mean, look, he works with the enemy, right? I don't know if the enemy is the proper way to describe Ariel. No, I was talking about baldness, Luke. Like, we're all fighting that off. That's why he wears that hat, right? You know what I mean, Luke?

All right. Hey, there you go. Hey, Luke, let's go over to Fernando. He says, hey, LTNBC, I'm FC, and this is a bit of a long post, so hopefully the team will send it your way. And hopefully this half-assed photo of photos looks okay. I was in San Antonio last week on the Riverwalk, so I decided to go all MK out and spread the word. Top left and bottom right were from the start of the week, hanging out with my missus, and then going to a heavy metal concert.

Bottom left is when we hung out and walked around uh and took a horrible photo from the hotel then on third this guy's give us a travel log then on thursday we went to austin for rob zombie mud vein static x and power man 5000 on the horrific show on the drive up i went tit to tip at bucky's then the rain showed up so i had to protect that mk hitter during the concert i'm sure lt knows these bands finally the middle right was me this morning getting back on the work grind i work from home and i listen to mk every monday wednesday and friday plus that m o ultra all day every day it's fernando um can we zoom in again we got to check out does he have

cables or women in his life what are we doing no but i gotta say if you're putting that kind of coffee shit in your coffee you deserve to have your knuckles beaten with a car antenna wow i mean look he did represent in in san antonio here okay also name me of one power man 5000 song i don't i you know i i like i hate P.O.D. as much. They only had the one hit. This is what it's like when worlds collide. Luke, I don't know them, but I do have a confession to make. I didn't hate P.O.D. as much as everybody else did, okay?

They had one halfway decent song for the era, which was Southbound. Dude, they had three songs, I thought. One that we don't talk about. Then they had Alive. And then they had that other rocker, Luke. You know what I'm saying? No, they had the one. We are, we are.

Yeah, yeah. Youth of a Nation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, their best song is South Town. Is that off that same CD, Luke? I had that one. I don't know. The first one, yeah.

Okay. Also, you could tell the lead singer was stupid because he named his daughter, like, I remember this from MTV Cribs or something. His daughter's name was like heaven spelled backwards or something. It's like, wow. Okay. You have not read very much in your life. Luke, Fernando, big fan of beautiful Latinos, Luke.

Okay. Latinos. Thank you. And who isn't? He is a smart man. Well, Luke. Okay? Latinos. Thank you. And who isn't? He is a smart man. Well, yeah. Except for his coffee habits. There you go.

Let's go over to Teddy. He says, hey, guys, here's a couple pics of me repping MK at UFC London and PFL London recently. I had a word with the smart cage and it told me that the liver king isn't actually on any secret juice.

So jury's still out how smart that cage actually is it's teddy from london look at this guy representing luke got a beer in hand yeah there's a smart cage oh there's liver king just doing dumb shit luke their pfl is flying him and his family to all these european shows why for so here's what they're trying to do, because it wasn't just him. They've got, like, there's this dude. I don't know if he's a TikTok star or Instagram, because stuff gets, you know, and the algorithm comes up in either one or whatever.

There's some white guy who wears, like, white or, like, tan-colored shorts who's got, like, the biggest ass on Earth, and he's constantly getting harassed at TSA for having a big ass. So this is a real thing. They flew him out and they did a bit with him. Liver King's like any kind of influencer who's got a big audience.

It's like PFL. This ain't going to get people to watch your shit. You have to fundamentally improve the product. Liver King's just a jabroni. Maybe Teddy was right. That cage ain't so smart after all luke okay yeah it's not all right let's go to michael here a shout out to teddy thank you for showing up out in london for us one day we'll do a live show out there in front of 5 000 british fans

luke and my fellow welshman will be out there too uh michael says from a viewer who somehow ended up living in danbury connect Connecticut. Wow. Oh, shit. That's Glover territory. What does he have for us here? Well, Luke, that wouldn't be wrong, okay? That's fucking amazing. Look at you, biting your lip. Yeah.

I can't wait to talk about this part. I mean, you know, I represent Luke for all, for all, okay? That's a good one. I like that one. Well done, Michael. Let's go to CG Lunds. Thanks to FOIA, we now know the truth about how Luke... Freedom of Information Act.

We all know the truth about how Luke Thomas Esquire was able to view a five-round, 25-minute all-out war 49 times in a matter of a few hours. Here's to you, Mr. Thomas, a true renaissance man, if there ever was one. Okay, that is fucking hilarious. Yeah, that's pretty damn good there. Is that weed below you, too? Yeah, it looks like two giant bags of weed. God, I wish I had those.

Good Lord. Wow. Dude, that stupid face I made in the Max Holloway interview, just perfect. Yeah, it looks like two giant bags of weed. God, I wish I had those. Good Lord. Wow. Wow. Dude, that stupid face I made in the Max Holloway interview, just perfect. Yes. Shout out to CG Luns over here. That's great. Sounds like a stripper's name, but that's fine.

If that's his profession, that's fine. Let's go to Travis. He says, greetings, MK. I'm one of your five Black followers. Shout out, Luke. Yes. Yeah, we don't talk about that enough. I mean, it's mostly a white audience.

Let's be real about that. Hey, our shirt did show up on our guy's show. I love that, man. Oh, yes. W. Kamau Bell. W. Kamau Bell. Thank you. I've been following MK since episode one, says Travis.

Luke and Brian get me through my work day and most of my workouts listening to the pod. Here's a pic of me repping MK in in hawaii on vacation i only have one request i tagged luke in a lookalikes pic on ig and he blocked me look if you could unblock travis underscore versus underscore trap on instagram that would be great either way i'm still a fan keep grinding. Luke, Travis just shot his shot to get out of LT jail. Are you going to release him live on the show? Sure. Oh, wow. You're like, we'll see you at the Waterbury Open next week?

Yeah. Producers, just email me his information and I'll do it. All right. Shout out to you, Travis. You know your way around the weight room there as well. Thank you. Let's go to Jason P. Wow, JP again, Luke. This guy's making it twice in the same week.

On last Friday's show, BC revealed an accusation as it pertains to the voting for the World MMA Awards. Quote, these MK guys are prostituting votes, Luke's response was. You know why I am BC? You know what I am. A whore. A whore for votes. I will whore it up any day of the week.

End quote. Hot off the presses, it's the official MK will whore for votes promo poster. Let's bang. I mean, I look like, you know what I look like. I don't even need to say it. And then on your side, you look like a guy who definitely has committed sex crimes. And then it says, let's bang. That's amazing.

Oh, boy, Luke. That is JP says, love you guys. Keep up the amazing award winning show. Fan for life. Yeah. JP, shout out to you, brother. Wow. Luke, shout out to another guy who typically closes it's usually the sandman here they call him danger mouse

he says hi bc as you change the time of the show yesterday i've made you a new anglicized thumbnail that seems more appropriate for that time okay okay afternoon combat all right you know what luke he took a chance with this that it would bomb i think it barely hit i'll give i'll give danger mouse it hit it hit yeah he took a she took a chance he says uh the second one comes by way of the anvil in chat who was the first to spot that you'd stolen Chuck's hat. Yeah, you did. Hey, you can buy it as well at the myth.com.

M I T H. Uh, finally, I've added you both plus Chuck to a classic photograph. Can you blow it up? I like how I'm sitting away from all you fucks. Yeah. Yeah. The world's worst posture.'s that's there you go thank you danger mouse uh a contender as well luke for donk of the year but it's it's getting hot that contention you know david appleton's up in that up in that groin it's

getting hot luke okay uh let's close with let him get to close too close to anyone's groin. He's a professional educator. Remember that. Luke, we'll close with Caesar. He says, someone found Luke Thomas' burner on Twitter. That's awesome. Yeah, I don't really drink anymore, but everything else looks tasty. Yeah, well done there. Thank you to our fans.

Morningcombat at gmail.com if you want to grace us with your bullshit, like JP from Mount Unike does. Shout out to those guys. That's it for that stuff, Luke. You got anything else? Nothing? That is it largely for today's show. We are back in studio on Friday.

It should be noted. Back in studio on Friday. So we'll have a live in-studio show for you there. We're going to record some stuff afterwards as well to get you ready for the upcoming following fight week, which, of course, is the Nate Diaz-Hamza Chimaya fight week. Oh, also, it should be noted, BC, Saturday I will have a post-fight show after UFC Paris. Oh, wow. So I want to get folks ready for that.

Is that an afternoon card in the East Coast? Yes. I think the start time is 3. Okay. Oh, wow. So I want to get folks ready for that. Is that an afternoon card in the East Coast? Yes, I think the start time is 3. Okay, good to know. Thank you for doing that, Luke. You know, Monday is a holiday. Are we going to be back Tuesday? I think that's right. We'll have Monday off, and then we'll come back Tuesday.

All right, something like that. Hey, but we've got another show Friday, so why don't we do that one first, okay? Yes, let's do that one first, and then we'll have a post-fight show on Saturday. It'll be fun. Okay, yeah. Thank you. All right? All right all right want to remind everyone showtime.com label that pays you can go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you

can bounce morningcombat.store for any kind of merch falls around the corner get them bomber jackets whores uh let's see vote for us world mma awards you can look on the the QR code that we'll put up here on the screen here momentarily. There it is. And you can go to world MMA awards dot com slash nominees. If you are listening on the podcast. Let's see. Of course, Morning Combat. Hold on.

Morningcombat at gmail dot com. Now. Now go. What's up? Would you look? I'm just, you know, I feel like you're going to end the show if I don't just step all over you. I'm Aaron.

I'm going to end the show. Are you going to vote for aaron bronstetter luke yes of course mma journalist of the year sure i'll vote for anyone mk affiliated wow would you vote damien the donk out of prison if it comes to that luke do you imagine getting a collector you've got to collect call from damien the donk from the you know montrose correction Department I'd be like fuck no I didn't take this call. You know two years from now would you use your powers of attorney Luke

to get President DeSantis to pardon Damien the Donk can't say that I would can't say that I would alright BC that is it for us you can follow us on social don't forget Morning Combat is now on TikTok same thing just all one word Morning Combat and then you can follow us at a bunch of other places

as well talk you don't stop all right yes you don't stop that's right you need to stop okay for cbs sports showtime and mocha that's brian campbell i'm luke thomas we'll see you in studio on friday live 11 a.m in the east and until then may all of your gains be loyal