MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs. Araujo | Wilder-Helenius | Haney-Kambosos 2 | Morning Kombat Ep 361

Episode Date: October 15, 2022

On Episode 361 of Morning Kombat, Luke and Brian give their final previews of this weekend' UFC Fight Night 202 card and all the major boxing cards. FIrst, they break down the full UFC card as Alexa Grasso vs. Viviane Araujo headlines the main event. Then, they discuss the 3 big boxing cards of the week, as Deontay Wilder takes on Robert Helenius, Devin Haney fights his rematch with George Kambosos Jr., and Claressa Shields takes on Savannah Marshall in a massive women's fight. Get MORNING KOMBAT merchandise now: https://morningkombat.store/ MoneyLion: Get the only money app you’ll ever need. Download now: https://mlion.info/3rKf73Q #MorningKombat #DevinHaney #deontaywilder #AlexaGrasso #taituivasa #alexandergustafsson #JustinGaethje #DustinPoirier #UFC #Boxing #Fedor #lukethomas #briancampbell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille, Reveille, 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.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. A little artsy up in here up in here you welcome on in it's friday october 14th 2022 and what you're looking at live right in front of you the multi-time award-winning best damn combat sports show period yeah it's morning combat right here, right now. I'm the Beige One, Brian Campbell, your hostess with the mostess on these Fridays, in which, of course, we do it for the art. We're also, though, going to set the stage for a big weekend, and no one, no one better to break down the X's and O's,

to take a dead wrong on the chin, seven times, than one of the finest fight analysts in the game today, whether he's tough enough to accept a fight or not. Yes, it's Luke Thomas. I always wait to see how you're going to introduce me. It's always mostly nice, and then a couple of little stabby stabs into the floating rib there from you.

But BC, it's nice to see you. How are you doing? I'm excited. Dude, we got good fights this weekend. I'm actually pretty excited about it. Dude, I don't say this often. I'm pretty damn jazzed up for women's boxing this weekend, Luke. They've got me.

They've got the hooks in me. All right? A lot of sauciness going on. There is a lot. Dude, the weigh-ins for the fights. Let's see. Well, the face-off that they had and then some of the other pressers that they had for the women's fights,

they've been intense. Like Wilder and Helenius, obviously they used to train together, so they're very, you know, professional but cordial. Yo, the ladies are out there trying to kill each other, so I'm looking forward to all of that. And then Haley and Kim Boses, no one cares about. Saturday afternoon is ladies' night on the East Coast. A lot of box.

We got some UFC this weekend, some headlines to toss around. Here's what I want to start off with from the idea of me shilling stuff to you guys. No, not Kurt, not the bloody sock, although I was there, Luke, for game six. How about morningcombat.store right now? This hat, this mug, this smile on sale. But we're stepping things up slowly if you're watching on youtube go to look at your youtube page right now below the description you can actually see some pictures of our newest products you can click on the link and go directly to our merch

house morningcombat.store and luke thomas i know you don't visit this place often but we got new hats and they're they're bad i don't even have them yet they're badass you could get yours before me have you checked out any of our new merch luke i'm looking at morning combat dot store now the first thing that comes up is of course the porn hub ripoff which is just amazing let's look at the hat so you're talking about the hats oh is the arting hat is that what you're talking about or is there the director amateur director hat the arting hat the the the black trucker hat with the with the sun and moon logo i mean we got some good i have to say the amateur director hat is uh quite on brand quite on brand but i do i wear the bomber jackets every day i drop my daughter off at school

and uh i get compliments on them people love it people love mr plow jacket yeah it's good to finally get this she my dad used to wear those set he was in motorcycle clubs when i was a kid so he always wore those like satin you know It's like the equivalent of your older brother playing on the varsity football team, Luke. So I never got to be that cool, and now I can with the MK. And you can too out there. Because, Luke, let's be honest. Most of our audience, well, first of all, it's like 99% male. But secondly, I'd have to say we've got that washed 35- to 50-year-old window on lockdown right now.

They ain't cool anyway. They might as well put on the MK and try. Try hard at least, right? I mean, if you're not going to just throw in the towel on any hope of being cool, which at this point you and I have fully accepted, just wear what you want to wear, right? Just do the kind of thing you want to do. You're not holding up any standards.

Go buy the hat, you washed piece of shit. Yeah, if you want to wear jeans with a rip right in the crotch on a live podcast luke do you all right how long how long how long take you for the brendan shop dig five minutes not even three minutes maybe pretty good wow wow i almost i almost saw too much luke okay i think i did yeah i admit i was like i didn't necessarily need to see that myself but yeah i haven't been i haven't felt that awkward since that sean strickland truck diaries interview, Luke. Wow, all right, let's keep this show on the tracks. Here we go.

Showtime.com is one of the labels that... I talked to Brendan about that, by the way. What did he say? Can you share? I mean, I don't know how it was edited. I have a feeling a fair amount was left on the cutting room floor based on Sean Strickland having positively insane world views. Yeah. Alright. Well, you can find some very

sane products on Showtime.com. The best. Bellator MMA. The best in combat sports with Showtime Championship Boxing. Next Thursday. Next Friday. Excuse me, by the way. BC back for the final Showbox the new generation card of this calendar year. Go to Showtime.com right now.

So here's our package, right? 30 days free. You already knew that. But the next three months are $3.99. Take it for a test ride, right? You know what I mean? It's not going to hurt. It's not going to hurt.

I'll tell you that much. Thank you for supporting those. You know, Luke, I'm rocking some AG1 right now. BC, when are you doing show box again? You're kidding, right? Dude, I can barely keep up with when my daughter has to go to the dentist. Do you think I can keep up with your show box schedule? Just tell me.

You know, I think it was 13 seconds ago that I said it, Luke. Oh, I know, but I'm trying to navigate a bunch of stuff here. I apologize. Please tell me. Next Friday, Atlantic City, the final showbox to New Generation card of this calendar year. Got it. Okay. You want to catch BC?

You can get it on Showtime like that. There you go. Yeah. You want to catch people catching fades while you catch BC watching? You should tune in there to the old Showbox and check that shit out. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Right? What did Kirk Cousins say that time when he got all happy? You like that. Yeah, you like that. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to use that line, Luke. I mean, I'm not in the game anymore, but if I was, wow.

It's not like you can't say it politely. The way Cousins was like, you like that? You like that? I was like, settle down, Captain Interception. Do we have anything to say to our people or anything else, Luke, before we launch this? Well, I know we're going to talk about UFC here. We do have some breaking news that's not great about this card this weekend.

I don't know if you want to get into that now or not. Yeah, spill the tea leaves, Luke. Well, basically what happened was Askar Askarov was supposed to fight Brandon Royville, which BC had identified on Wednesday, quite correctly, as one of the better fights on this whole card. Frankly, one of the better fights all weekend, if we're being honest, certainly for that flyweight division. Well, Askarov couldn't make weight, and it turns out, and I don't blame him,

I never, if guys want to accept catchweight fights, that's up to them, but they're under no obligation to do it, and Royville didn't want to accept a catchweight bout, so there's no replacement, so that bout is now officially off. The first report came to us from um i think it's from uh let's see i got the guy here oh yes carlos on contreras la gasp he is from a mexican reporter and he's there and uh that sucks that sucks uh the raw dog was forced to seek protection luke the raw dog wanted to protect himself yeah who hates condoms more him or

herschel walker i really will never know wow back to the well on that one wow all right uh thank you very much condoms bc i mean loathes them you know you got any other weekend plans oh all right we have weekend plans so here's the deal you already know that youtube.com slash morning combat is i mean it's just a fantastic place to. If you follow us here on social and you like what, and subscribe to what we do, it's not just our three live shows. It's interviews with the biggest names. It's a doc.

Seven speaks for itself. A film, Matt, a cinematic classic, a masterpiece, but Saturday night, Luke, we know tomorrow's a big ass boxing day and night BC coming live on the MKs at the conclusion of that final fight,

whether it's the Wilder pay-per-view or the Devin Haney fight in Australia. I'm going to be coming on to break down those, break down the first all-women's card. Let's do this Saturday night, okay? Yeah. Very exciting. Yes, very good. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat to catch some BC

giving you guys the breakdown for the weekend's contest. Should be fun. No feces. That's Monday morning. Okay. Saturday night, you get the food. Well, there might be some feces in your dungarees, but it wouldn't be the first time, now would it? Wow.

Hey, how about that Moneyline commercial? The new one posted today. Luke, you into it? I know. Could we look more pathetic in that and washed? Especially me. I mean, at least you're doing a bit and a get up. I just look sad and old. I looked a little exotic though to be fair with you all right let's start exotic

let's launch this here we go uh it's fight weekend fridays we set the stage the x's and o's the picks we'll put a little money in your pocket if you listen close enough topic number one comes back to the apex on Saturday night, UFC fight night. And while we lose Askar Askarov, Brandon Royval, which may have been the best fight on the card, a pivotal UFC flyweight bout will be the headliner as both Alexa Grasso and Vivian Arujo attempt to go the five round distance for the first time,

both knocking on that larger title picture door with Valentina Shevchenko on top Tyler Santos still there and of course you got Murphy Chukagian you've got the regular usual suspects this is a big one though so Luke Thomas as we stand right now our friends at Caesar Sportsbook have Alexa Grasso as a minus 210 betting favorite. Araujo? Araujo? I did some research to see how her name was pronounced, and the gringos definitely say Araujo,

but I'm guessing if you speak Portuguese, it's not so clunky. I'm guessing it's probably more like Araujo, something like that. Yeah. We'll find out if you're Araujo- something like that? Yeah. We'll find out if you're Araujo-ed after this fight card, but Luke, the odds just jumped. That's you on Instagram looking at straw weights. The odds just jumped. Grasso minus 230, Vivian plus 190. Luke, how good of a fight is this here?

How closely are these two matched up in your eyes? Pretty good fight. In fact, we were talking about this, I think earlier in the week that is this a number one contender fight? Is this not? And then folks were bringing up, what about Chukagian taking on Manon Fiorot at UFC 280 just a week later? Could that be one as well? And you have to imagine if Fiorot beats Chukagian, it's certainly possible. But to me, to answer the question that you posed, I would much rather the winner of this fight get it I get that beating Chukagian would be a big deal if Fiorillo could manage it but I don't know like the win streaks that these two are on the kind of competition that they've had to face and in particular getting by one another here whoever manages to do that that's a very difficult

assignment um Alexa Grasso one of the preeminent talents out of Mexico certainly phenomenal boxing great overall record. Vastly improved. 29 years of age, as we indicated previously. And then Araujo. Again, if I'm mispronouncing that, you can kill me for it. I'm trying. 35 years of age, BC.

But very, very physical for the weight class. Jumping in and out of range. Very good chin. Strong wrestler. I noticed a lot of scrambling opportunities. She's just really, to borrow the term term can manhandle some of her opponents you saw that in the Andrea Lee fight now Lee made some bad choices with some of the strikes she was throwing that helped contribute to that but in the first round Lee uh knocked her down and then as she started to get up she

ate a head kick on the throat and then not 15 seconds later And then not 15 seconds later, Arujao was able to take her down and get on top and then really kind of just managed to grapple in the rest of the fight in a very dominant way. She's tough. She's durable. She's athletic. This is a great contest. Very, very excited to see who wins.

And I think the winner of this would be a deserving contender for sure. And I think moving forward, people would rather have you mispronounce Adujo than try three different ways each time, Luke. I know, it sucks. Listen, I'm trying. It's hard. I don't know. You're damned if you do on this show, and you already know that, Luke, okay?

But the deal here on the idea of this being potentially a number one contender bout if the winner looks spectacular, I think the jab against that is that Adujo, two fights ago in 2021, did drop a decision to Kaitlyn Chukagian, so if Kaitlyn wins on one side of this bracket and Vivian does, I don't know. I don't know

the direction. I don't know what's next for the title picture for Valentina, to be honest. Valentina may not even be next if the UFC end up taking the idea of a third bout with Amanda Nunes seriously. But, Luke, it was Alexa Grasso this week who said, I think this is the final four. I think we're looking at that Firo-Chukagian matchup and this one,

and that would suggest that there's a possibility the winners would have to face each other. But that's for the winner. Let's talk about how we get there. Alexa Grasso, who we have identified this week as, you know, really becoming a dual thread and has that slick boxing, but certainly can be an aggressive wrestler on the ground. She said when asked to size up her opponent, that the focus on this training camp on a

heavy level was jujitsu. And in Grasso's opinion, if she can get a sub of Araujo, this could be, you know, her strongest statement she could possibly make as to trying to either cut that line or continue on toward that world title do you know that's interesting I I would be somewhat surprised I mean I guess a guillotine choke would be in play or something like that I frankly would be surprised if that's how this fight is settled I mean here's the big knock on Araujo right it's that while she is old but you know again relatively speaking as I mentioned before very athletic but the thing you notice is that the numbers speak to this so

she has I said this on Wednesday she has a negative differential she she lands 4.76 strikes per minute that's high but she absorbs 5., so she has a negative differential. And the tape kind of speaks to it. She does do a lot of stance switching, which she uses to take angles, and that's good. But the problem is, dude, she just jumps into range without much setups all the time. And as a consequence, she gets tagged. The reason why it hasn't really set her back all that much is because, one, she's a powerhouse with the wrestling. She's good. She has 90% takedown defense, right? She's hard to take down. She's very, very strong for the weight class. Dude, she's durable. She is like, you can tell she is very athletic, but she's literally takes over at least in some of the fights that you know more recently she kind of takes over as the fight goes on um and so the the real test for me is for grasso to remain disciplined with what she already has pretty well which is a great boxing

game pretty decent kickboxing game and i'm also going to say this pay attention to me like the biggest x factor bc well obviously to what be what extent grasso can stop the takedown and get to her feet we kind of hinted at that earlier but there's another one too which is the leg kicks for someone like arujo who moves in and out side to side taking angles constantly even if she's getting hit she just continues to move she never really seems to check leg kicks either if If I'm Alexa Grasso on her team, surely, surely landing some kind of damaging leg kicks to reduce that movement to make her even more hittable than she already is has to be a part of it. I don't know, BC, if Grasso can stop Arujo in this contest because she is so durable and tough. But I would be surprised if a submission is the way in which she finds this.

I tend to think the best opportunity is going to be on the feet because on the ground, a Rougeau is not only like very, very good as a grappler, she's very physically strong. And I've seen Grasso kind of struggle with more sort of physically dominant grappler types. I just don't think that's going to be her best way to get this done.

Here's the thing though, Luke. If she agrees with you, and I think it's fair that Arujao seems to be tough. I mean, Arujao's gone into the final round. Neither of them have had the chance to fight five, but Arujao has been at least into the third in her last eight fights. So she's durable. It's probably not likely, as you mentioned, that Grasso can stop her,

but Grasso also wants to make a continued large statement here to get her just reward. So in her eyes, maybe looking at it from the idea of if I can stop her, that's the ultimate statement. So maybe the path could be submission-wise. And now Grasso did give Vivian credit in saying, look, she's tough as nails, physically strong. It's not going to be easy down there.

But Luke, you've got to have big confidence if you're Grosso when you're fresh off a first-round submission win over Joanne Wood. And Wood's not knocking on the title door at the moment here. She's been around for a while, but she's a tough out. And that was a dominant performance from Alexa Grosso. I want to spin it back to you and ask this. I agree when you put these two against each other that Grasso should be the betting favorite.

I think she has the brighter feature of the two, and to be honest, I also think overall she's the better fighter. But one thing that helps in me having that opinion, I think it gives me extra confidence, is she's getting better very fast on this incremental

level, but very quickly quickly and when she moved up to this division because she kind of her body forced her out of the the 115 pound weight class there were questions and she's you know answered those solidly with three straight wins i think that she was you know you go back and you watch the two losses she had one at 115 one a majority decision lost to espar a one of one getting handled by felice herrig she's a different fighter back then how she's been able to adapt and grow is me looking back at you and saying luke thomas don't be surprised if grasso gets to another level during this fight because i think she's someone who's hungry and is now just figuring out the

right weight class mixed with how great can i be? It's kind of all coming together right now, and I think she's got the toughness underneath that she'll need to try to give her best shot at the title level. If she gets a sub here, I won't be surprised, but I know you will be, Luke. I would be surprised. I mean, here's the problem. Straight up jiu-jitsu versus jiu-jitsu and wrestling,

I would probably favor Araujaujo so that's the first problem the second problem is i could see her getting a sub grasso provided she was able to hurt her first but vivian is very durable so to me you know i i just feel like i understand your point that there's this really kind of like a precipice moment in her career that she could cross over into something special and you know garner all kinds of opportunities and also demonstrate new strengths and at 29 by the way it should be clear this person is probably not even in her prime yet you know certainly getting there so there are improvements maybe incremental or otherwise we could expect but i just feel like you you don't want a game plan as your A game around a worst case scenario. That's not

really right. You want to build towards your strengths. But we already have strengths of, you have an opponent who's hittable and you have a fighter like Grasso who is a good, consistent, accurate striker, in particular with her boxing. You need to have a game plan built in, in the event that it goes 25 full minutes and i have seen people kind of wilt against vivian because they just don't keep up the same they go they land early and they kind of lose focus you need to make sure that whatever you do it is built to scale for 25 minutes because that is honestly probably the most likely reality is that she is in your face constantly. And she pressures a lot too. You got to have an answer for that. And even though she's hittable, can you count on the fact that you might drop her? Certainly possible. And if she does,

great. But I, I, you know, I, well, well, I, well, well, that would be to your point. That would be a real corner turning moment. If you can finish this opponent, wow, that would say a lot, especially since so many other good fighters that she has faced have not. But it would be very foolish to go in there and not have something built to last for the full 25, as a general rule, yes, in particular, given the durability and athletic quality of the opponent that you have here.

Luke, Aruujo has a knockout in her ufc debut at bantamweight by the way but since moving down in weight maybe i'll you know coinciding with an increased level of competition but she's she's become a decision machine in many ways the losses to kg and the loss to jessica i when when uh when evil was making her march toward that head kick against Valentina. But do you think she's the hardest striker, strike for strike, or Arishow compared to the more slicker boxing of Grasso? Is that a fair statement?

Maybe, maybe. But the difference would, like, okay, in terms of, like, raw power, probably, probably. But in terms of, like, accuracy and what that does for you, especially if you have good timing and they don't see it coming, I cannot say that she's overall a more devastating striker. I don't know that that's true. So when she lands and she throws with the kind of power that she naturally has,

yes, probably so. But honestly, who do I think is going to take more damage in this fight? If Grasso has got the right game plan, it should be Al Rujon. It should be. It honestly should be. So I don't know if that answers exactly your question, but the better athlete here is clearly the Brazilian. I mean, the tape is not ambiguous in this at all. Okay, would your opinion on this fight change at all

if I dead wronged myself in the moment being friday that would make sense and tell you that her loss to jessica i actually came the fight immediately after the head kick knockout loss to shevchenko does that change it at all not really not really i've looked at the more recent footage on arujo and and it's you know it's fairly clear about what it shows at this point in her career and her development. Again, I just feel like this is going to be – what you want to do if you're Grasso is you want to be steady rain. You want to be steady rain.

And if you can find a moment for lightning to strike, do it. But it would be much better to have consistent, scalable offense over the court and by the way how exciting that will be i do not know but the worst mistake you can make against this opponent the fucking worst is to be like oh she gets hit a lot i'm gonna bank on that and put her away that obviously could happen but she is durable despite her obvious deficiencies and powerful in her own right a very good wrestler can mix it up and can hold and control. She can take the back very well. Additionally,

I have seen people give away rounds to this opponent by having very bad strategies against her. Yeah. And if that steady rainstorm Luke, isn't formidable or dangerous enough, you're going to get that hail hail in return. Luke. Okay.

Great Pearl jam song, by the way, correct. Introducing get that hail hail in return, Luke. Okay. Great Pearl Jam song, by the way. Correct? 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. I don't know. I've never heard it. All right. All right. Some of us that do know we know luke uh uh are you ready to take this thing this car and park it in the garage here luke who wins this fight and why okay because i'm i'm here they got me they got they got me okay not no not

on a saucy mckayla mayor versus alicia bumgarner level no but they got me i'm into this fight yeah it doesn't have the same the same you, something extra that some of these grudge matches have on the boxing side. But in terms of quality, this is a good one. This is a really good one. I like Grasso's chances here. I really think she's come a long way in her development. Yes, people want to point to how her game has gotten more well-rounded, which it has.

And they want to point to something you had indicated, like, for example, against Joanne Wood, formerly Joanne Calderwood, that, you know, just lethal with how quickly she could finish someone. Absolutely, that's part of it as well. But this is a different kind of test to me. This is the kind of test where

you need to be able to steadily apply what you have for a long duration. It is easy in a fight to get derailed, especially with early confidence that can appear quite genuine, but turns out to be false. you can ask Andrea Lee about that she was I mean rocking and rolling early and could not maintain she made a lot of poor decisions along the way that contributed to it but I've seen other opponents do that as well so this is going to be a fight IQ test for Alexa Grasso as well as obviously her overall ability I think she will pass it I think she will find a way to get her hand raised but this opponent is tricky don't let the fact

that she gets hit a lot necessarily fool you in the men's game like you know in the heavyweight game if you took this much punishment you probably would get polished off but Arujo is tough as nails and a dynamic athlete despite being 35 years of age a great fight no doubt about it when you were referencing the questionable decisions of kgb luke were you also considering dating i mean we've been over that one yeah you know certainly i mean certainly some larger judgment issues but just in speaking of the fight itself for example here's one thing she was constantly trying to kick her to the body like a a round kick to the body. And El Rougeau kept catching them and then off balancing her. And then on the ground, there was a total disparity in ability. It's like, dude,

why are you throwing this shit? Why are you throwing this shit? No. And there was one in the third round, like a, like a, like a hook kick she was throwing and it missed badly. And then she fell to the ground and El Rougeau got on top again. It like just really really suspect decision making there Grasso needs to avoid some of those traps because again I'm going to say it one more time Lee came out and dropped her and nearly took her fucking head off right she started out amazing but couldn't sustain the offense beating Arujo means you have sustained offense over the course of time look is there a larger statement to be made here how much how many women are going to be shining in the combat sports world globally this weekend or it's a great point i haven't suffered enough for you do you do you remember

the first episode of the man show when it was jimmy kimmel and adam carolla and they went to like a women's rights march and their first their their first bit on their first show was, do you remember this? It's true. I don't, I watched every second of that show, but I don't know what you're about to tell me. No, no, I'm not here to endorse the, uh, the man show. Uh, but what I would say is in their first bit, they had, they went to like a women's rights rally or whatever. And then they had women who were confused about the term, sign a petition to end the suffrage of women for folks who folks who know suffrage doesn't mean the suffering. It means the right to vote. So that was a thing that used to air on Comedy Central.

Don't know if you can make that show today, BC. Okay, that show was funny then. But of all the comedy that has not aged well, like that show hit hard in like 2001, 2002. Like that thing was like not only acceptable in the general public for the most part but it was like it was must-see tv luke if you're an absolute dirt hole i'm glad we've evolved from those ways though for sure yeah certainly was but yeah to your point i mean honestly what's the just the not terms of like you know devin haney's the best boxer but like who's what's like the best fight this weekend honestly you could make a case

for maybe shields excuse me well you could maybe shields and shields and marshall is probably the best fight shields and marshall yeah what am i saying it's obviously bum garner and mckayla mayor but but in either case it's one of them and on the women's on the men's excuse me on the ufc side i should say this is headlining not by accident either like women have certainly but i'm gonna say one more time they're still fighting 10 rounds over on the women's side and they're fighting two minute rounds yo fuck that man fuck that that is nonsense it's 2022 man get it together i'm last thing on this bc when i first started covering mma on national television when they aired women's fights they were three minute rounds i remember this distinctly and then they were like well we have to this is you know they had some stupid ass reason for why it was then the commissions

changed it and then lo and behold all it did was improve the product yo it's 2022 athletic commissions what the fuck are we doing i mean it's it's so past time even i mean to have taylor and serrano fight at medicine square garden and it be a fight that was better than we even thought it could be but you're still dealing with 10 rounds, two minute rounds. It's like, come on. And now we have an all female, you know, a big deal boxing card here. It's interesting. Luke Russell's going to win a decision and she's going to look pretty damn, damn good doing so. Okay. I think the, at the end of the day, the volume, you know, she's going to have to establish that submission threat, but at the end of the day, the boxing and the volume of strikes you know she's

got a chin that i trust her chin that's why i look she's not perfect there's going to be defensive lapses she's going to get lit up but i think her activity will carry her over the hump we'll see what that does to her title hopes you got to know the ufc would want her to get to the title shot there's somebody that can market in in a in an area with brandon moreno as the first champion just recently that they're finally getting some momentum. I mean, look, we're finally seeing what a real Mexican MMA fighter can look like, right? You know what I'm saying? Mexican combat sports have been riding boxing for so long

that it is great to see the evolution of complete fighters coming up the ranks. No doubt about it. And obviously she's not alone. There are many other ones, but I always say it like this is what you want man who are like rock ribbed fight communities across the world the uk would be one and certainly on the men and women's side on the for mma it's coming along pretty well it has obviously had a lot of successes in a number of ways but there could be so much more and i expect so much more And then Mexico, man. Mexico has just been one of the most important markets. I mean, could you imagine boxing without Mexico?

You would lose just vast quantities of some of the most important fights and fighters in all of history. So can we get some of that energy for MMA? All it will do is make MMA better, and people like Alexa Grasso, among many others, are on that march to give us some of that. It's not as if UFC hasn't been there before and haven't put on big fights and cards and C-level cane and all that, Luke,

but we haven't had that one yet like the UFC London card or like some of these Anthony Joshua fights where it's like you can feel the waves coming through the TV screen and you're like, I want to be there. I'm trying to find a way to climb in. How do I... UFC needs that moment in Mexico City. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, they haven't quite

had that. Although Mexico City, the problem is it's always an elevation. It's like 2,000 feet higher than Denver. Maybe go to some other places in Mexico that aren't quite as difficult to catch your breath in. UFC Tijuana coming your way soon, Luke. We'll check that out.

You can go to Guadalajara. You can go to Guadalajara. You can go to other places, too. Okay. Co-main event Saturday night in the Apex. And, Luke, I'll save it for quick hitters. All right? I mean, this meta thing is, like, for real.

Speaking of the Apex, Luke, are we getting real fans and media this weekend? Or is Zuck back? Yeah, I don't know. Is Zuck back there kicking out the peasants? I'm not sure, but I've not heard anything about it. I think Zuck's back there with the power crystals, and they're connecting to the metaverse, Luke,

and they sacrifice a child, and it's awful. If you watch anything from the meta conference about what they rolled out, it's comical how shitty it is. Yeah, the only two meta things I've ever liked is meta world peace and how meta our Doc 7 was, Luke. I think that was the secret sauce in it, okay? That's probably fair. That's probably fair.

There you go. Co-main event is Cub Swanson as a plus 170 underdog, 38 years old, all-action warrior, been to the top before, minus 200 Jonathan Martinez. Luke, what are we looking for in round one of this fight? What does Cubs power look like at 135? That's what this fight's going to be. What does his power look like?

What does his speed look like? Also his durability. What kind of range he and Martinez? I feel like if Cubs, and should, assuming he's not drained, I feel like if Cubs power is there and he's leveraging it, Martinez is going to be lost. I really believe that he's going to be lost a little bit. But I don't know what the hell he's going to look like in this weight class.

At this age, it's like Aldo pulled it off in his version of things, but he's not 38. And Aldo obviously was a you know i think it's fair to say a much more accomplished combat sports athlete even though cub has done quite well but cub's calling card at 145 was that you know he was a physical bruiser in the right matchups he really could be if you know against this kind of competition at 145 in terms of like the kind of things that Martinez has accomplished Cub should dust him off but I just don't know what to expect so for me if Cub doesn't have power at this weight class by virtue of being drained or doesn't have some of the durability because also Cub's been in crazy ass fights too then I think it's anyone's fight but if he's got those things down a weight class I think he's going to be trouble can we talk about this decision though because you know on the surface you you you tend to whenever this happens

whatever a fighter because it almost it almost never happens in boxing where someone who's aging goes backwards in weight so like when nonito donair did it and went back to bantamweight and one world titles was like at 38 it was like like, holy shit, right? I know it happens more often than MMA. And Aldo, as you just mentioned, although a little bit younger, was the perfect example. But Luke, sometimes that happens when someone runs out of steam in their division and just can't get over and suffer losses or sometimes they get kicked out. And this is a desperation move. Cobb is on a streak in which he's won three or four.

And that only loss, it was a first round TKO, but it was against Giga Chikadze. So do you look at this? I don't look at this as desperate necessarily, but is it him saying, I want to maximize what's left in me if there is a potential title run in place here, if I can get hot and run off three, four in a row? I think that's exactly what it is. Because to your point, it's not like he's doing, like,

for example Jim Miller is doing really well right now but Jim Miller is only taking a certain kind of fight he's not looking to fight the very top guys in lightweight anymore he's looking to fight just you know hey newcomer a couple guy a couple fights here or there just kind of like trying to make sure he's still got a place to maintain in the hierarchy but he's not trying to ascend necessarily now Cub has beaten some some good fighters but the elite ones like Giga Chikadze at 145 they've been a little bit too much for him and I think he probably saw Aldo go to 135 he's probably always thought I could make 135 if I have to let's see what it does for me like to what extent does this

extend my fortunes because if he wanted to take the jim miller approach at 145 he would still win quite clearly he would still win but trying to ascend at 145 that does seem like a bridge too far what kind of fortunes does he have at 135 we will find out tomorrow night but i think your way of framing it like hey what could i do if maybe guys like aldo could go down there and do pretty well? Could I also have some big possibilities down there? He's trying it out. I don't know what to expect, but I'm curious to find out. The problem is he doesn't have Jose's name power, and he's walking into arguably the deepest division not just right now,

but maybe, maybe ever, as much as people hate that we have to put that label on anything good that happens. It's an uphill battle, but if it's just also to make fun fights and get a new pool of guys, then let's see what he's going to look like. Don't forget, Luke, that it was just over a decade ago where in a five-month window, Cub Swanson knocked out Charles Oliveira and then took a decision from Dustin Poirier. So it's not that we forgot that this guy was so close to greatness a few times,

but it's a good reminder of who this guy is. I mean, that was in the midst of a six-fight win streak where he also beat Jeremy Stevens, Dennis Seaver, Ross Pearson. I mean, this guy was somebody before he became a full-time action hero as well, Luke. Let's see what he's got left. What is Jonathan Martinez going to provide in terms of resistance as the betting favorite? Some potential better well-roundedness he has built for his, his offense can go the full 15 when he needs to.

I think he's got, he's got some decent counter striking if he wants, although I tend to think he probably will lead here. We'll have to see. But like, you know, here's the thing about Martinez relative to Cub Swanson, by the way,

Cubs got a good ground game too I don't know that I see anything necessarily in Martinez's game but he is well coached and again he does have a good kickboxing game potentially some of that some of that kickboxing range I wonder if that will be what he has over Cub but again we're talking about a Cub where his 145 traits largely translate to 135 what would be the one thing i would pick that Martinez has over Cub maybe some better kickboxing right but that's really about it like ever again assuming what we know about Cub largely translates to 135 Cubs should have significant advantages here so yeah that's the crazy part it's like we just don't know what that draining process is going to do to how we understand cub but if he

continues to be what we understand from him dude he should go in there and bludgeon this guy uh i very much believe that yeah yeah i'm looking forward to this fight we'll see what comes out on top did you see cub at the press conference or excuse me the uh the media day no so i don't quite understand this bit he did a media day where he stood there, or I should say sat there. He had sunglasses on. And by the way, I've always had a good relationship with Cub.

So I like Cub a lot. He had another guy sit with him and answer all the questions for him. Cub didn't say a word, just sat there as he fielded questions that the other guy answered for him what what do you make of that so the the guy was answering without consulting right like like oh i'm his representative i know him so i'll answer for him like that i only saw like photographs i didn't and then yeah so i don't know i'd have to see the video to to really catch the the full like tenor of it, but is that a mind game? Is Cub going into this?

Or maybe that weight cut sucks, Luke. That could also be it, but is Cub going into it? Oh, so hold on. Okay, do you remember when it was, remember the guys from Key and Peele? Who's the bald one? Who's the bald one from Key and Peele? Key?

Whatever. Do you remember when Obama, when he was president i think keegan michael key yeah when he was at the white house correspondence dinner and then keegan michael key pretended to be his anger translator do you remember that no no i don't but they have great bits but that was supposed to be a comedy bit blah blah blah so apparently he had his teammate be his uh his his how do i say this his anger translator for him quote cub actually started the weight cut five months ago blah blah blah and he that he goes through it was dan argetta who was the uh the gentleman who answered for him media protest i don't know what it is yeah i'm gonna have to watch that i don't know

but uh remember that key and pell bid on uh key and peel i don't even know how i don't know what it is yeah i'm gonna have to watch that i don't know but uh remember that key and pell bid on uh key and peel i don't even know how i can't even talk to it luke you know that bit i'm talking about where one of them's playing a mike tyson like boxer and they're at the press conference and they're like talking trash on like a level of like weird intimacy of like i'm gonna take you home and i'm gonna make love to you and it gets weirder and weirder and weirder and then by the end they're they're end, they are effing. I don't think I've ever laughed harder. I mean, that's Chappelle show-level greatness right there, Luke, okay? They had some.

Have you ever seen the one where they did the football players who have the most insane names? Amazing. Amazing stuff right there. Them smoking weed is a great bit, says Long Island Luke, our fine producer. I mean, what would he know, if we can be honest? What would he know? Yeah. All right, Luke, we fine producer. I mean, what would he know, if we can be honest? What would he know? Alright, Luke, we gotta stay on task

here. To close on the Askar-Askarov-Royval situation, I gotta ask you about Askarov here. Let's not forget a few things, Luke, heading into this. By the way, I just watched his media chat this week, and he was very confident and said, you know,

the Carcar France loss was his first in his career. He had had a draw with Moreno. He'd been everything I said he was turning into being. But you add this setback with recent history. I want to ask you now, Luke, if we have a trend here, because Askarov missed weight against Joseph Benavidez in March of 2021, still won the fight.

He then lost to Carcar France after a year-long layoff and has been saying this week, I wasn't in the shape I needed to be to win the fight. He then lost to Kaikara France after a year-long layoff and has been saying this week, I wasn't in the shape I needed to be to win that fight. I came back too early. Well, now here's a fight with Brandon Royville where you could talk yourself into the idea of a potential title shot if he looks great. And now he has missed weight and Royville has waved off the fight completely.

I mean, is this three strikes? Are we looking at Askar Askarov as like, go up to go up to that, that, that, that cage of killers that we call Bantamweight or, or get the hell off the pot. He might be, he's 30, he's 30. Right. And he had a run through ACB from 2015 to 2018. He was a lot younger back then. Right. And so now he's at the point where his body has probably yeah 30 it's certainly fully developed he won't get necessarily any any uh any bigger in the muscular sense but well if he goes to a weight class i suppose but he has certainly filled out

and i think if you've missed weight in two of three fights you know you're not necessarily in aspen lad territory but you're not far from it either you got some questions to ask yourself again it goes back to it can you consistently make weight in this weight class and if the answer is not yes and it has not been that way for now over a year uh then you got problems then you have some serious problems and you might have to move up yeah or maybe he here's the other part a lot of these guys are like yeah I'm just gonna keep making weight the way I made it when I was 25. Well, bucko, you're 30 now. It ain't the same.

You might have to tighten up the procedure by which you make weight. I don't know how he does it, so I am speculating. I want to be very clear about that. Won't he be small? He'll be small for that, right? He'd be very small. That's what I'm saying. I really wonder about what his methods are to get down to this weight class. Yeah, he's got a moment of truth coming up.

There's no question. He was a minus 240 favorite, I think, before this happened. So even though I thought he could lose this fight against Royval, who also, but maybe that's... So is that a business decision by Royval to say, I'm fighting a guy who a lot of people think will beat me, and he's already weight bullied before and done this to Benavidez and still won and just gave up part of his purse I'm not going to let him do that to me in my biggest fight right that's what I think

I think that's exactly right and I understand that you see this by the way tell me if I'm wrong BC true or false when an opponent misses weight you see more guys decline fights in boxing than you do MMA is that true yes that is true right and I think i understand it i understand it like you're giving up a significant advantage now he didn't miss much when he fought benavidez it was 127 all he would have had to do is get down one more pound and it would have been inside that one pound allowance for non-title fights so it wasn't a dramatic miss we don't know what he weighed here let's imagine and again i want to be 100 clear i am speculating but let's imagine a scenario where it was like 128 129 you know roival must have been like yo fuck that i'm not i'm not giving

you this advantage bro no chance about this so frankly if that if that's the reason i think roival is well within his rights to have denied this opportunity to ask her off yeah ask her i've not getting the raw dog tonight luke or saturday okay that's the truth uh luke i don't think i have enough a lot of time to hang in this undercard longer but tell me what you want to tell me about the rest of this card uh well again the ask her off i was i was really interested in it because the ask her off and roival fight if you go back to like the roival and bonterine fight there was a split decision win for roival because what you know what's interesting about roival's style is he gives up the takedown and certain positions a lot. And Bontorin, in terms of positional grappling, was just much better than Royville.

Much, much better. Like, clearly on a different level. But because Royville is so fucking threatening and squirmy, he had no ground and pound. I wonder if something would have happened in a similar way with a guy like Askarov. But if he's going to be on top of you and he's got that extra weight, I can see why Royville moved on. From there, I will tell you candidly, my interest level drops off a cliff. As I mentioned before, Tetsuro Taira is an interesting prospect out of Vale Tudo, Japan. He's back on this card. He's undefeated.

The last hurrah of Rafael Sonsal. Also, BC, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Nick Maximoff, who continues to call out... I don't understand why. He continues to call out Hamzat Shemaev, and now Bo Nickel. He's taking on Jacob Malkun. He is slightly favored, but he got handled in this last UFC fight by a guy who I would say is good, but probably not even close to the level of

Chamaya. If he still has all the confidence in the world, he can beat these guys. He got choked out, Maximoff, right? Petrovsky, I think is his name. Okay. Petrovsky, something like that. So Maximoff's a slight betting favorite here. It will be interesting to see how he bounces back, Luke, because Andre Petrovsky is what

Long Island Luke is telling us. Yeah, Petrovsky, yes. Because, you know, look, if you you've got he does the 209 routine great it's obvious he's got some skill not a complete package by any means but he'd get pro you can you can get prime placement in the in the hangover of the Diaz shadow right yeah and I think you know he obviously is a good grappler but you know you're like he I don't quite get how losing by the way he got submitted inside the first round against Petroski number one and it's not clear that he's got like other parts of his game developed enough for this level certainly his grappling is very good I will give him that

it is very very good but you're calling out like guys who are at the very front of the or you know Bo Nichols not but certainly the case of Tremai of the front of this division it's like dude there's a while that you have to wait and prove before you're even in like the ballpark of calling out those guys yeah no no question about it uh part-time videographer back to full-time fighter mark mike jackson who's in the curtain jerker luke he'll be a plus 475 betting underdog against Pete Rodriguez. So, hey, it's rare that you're going to get me to tune in that early, Luke. I'll be ready. I'll be watching, okay?

The scumbag MMA media needs a win, Luke, okay? Yes, the dirtbags who just can't do anything other than criticize, they are going to be back. All right. Big weekend globally for boxing. just can't do anything other than criticize they are going to be back so all right big weekend globally for boxing this is the time for you mma hot cores to take an exit uh thank you though for soliciting us topic two goes to the box we're going to start with the biggest one stateside and it is pbc on fox pay-per-view from the barclays center in brooklyn the return of the bronze bomber dionontay Wilder.

He's got a statue in Tuscaloosa that he's already made sweet love to, but as we talked to him about, that was a big part of the idea of this comeback. We haven't seen him since last September in that all-action thriller, the third fight against Tyson Fury in which Wilder sold out. But, Luke, that has coincided with him feeling the love. He used the term, I finally got my flowers. He feels like boxing finally respects him. He's still going to talk about the conspiracy of Tyson Fury

loading up his gloves and doing 18 other ways of cheating, which is still going to turn him off in a way to the general public, just like firing his co-trainer for throwing in the towel and then accusing him of drugging him. Mark Breland, RIP in the corner there, Luke. Mark Breland should be in the Hall of Fame, by the way. That's a separate topic for another day. But let's go here.

What'd you say? You said RIP. RIP to him in the corner. I didn't mean in life he's still living but uh i'd like to see him in canada stoda but let's go to saturday's fight it's the main event of this pay-per-view wilder will welcome the very dangerous former sparring partner robert helenius they've done a bunch of camps together they're both about six seven both can club but wilder is expected to make magic happen, Luke,

like he often does. This is the same ring where he splattered the big dude. What was his name, Luke? Brazil. The ex-quarterback, Brazil, yes. Dominic Brazil. As we look at the odds, minus 800, Wilder, to do just that again, plus 500 for Robert Heleneas. Are you on the side that says, we're all excited to see Wilder come do just that again plus 500 for Robert Hellenius are you on the side that says

we're all excited to see Wilder come back yes this will probably be a knockout so double yes we're here but do you think given their history and given that Robert Hellenius has been up and down that this is a pay-per-view setup for Wilder to look spectacular or is this a more dangerous fight than the casual fan can realize? I definitely think it's a setup. I think that PBC really value Deontay Wilder. I think they're very glad he's back. And they couldn't give him some scrub, and they didn't.

They gave him a very good challenge in Robert Hellenius, as we all know who has a history as a training-slash-sparring partner with him. And Hellenius can box in terms of overall boxing ability he's probably better than deontay but that's true for just about everyone deontay has fought and it didn't doesn't seem to matter i don't think it will matter here in the end i think this is this is a good get right fight this is a good get back fight this is a good setup fight this is a good fight where if if wilder has coasted and is just fucking off and thinks he's just going to walk in there and win without having

to train properly then he might actually lose but if he is at all the wilder that we have traditionally understood him to be he should knock out helenius i think by the seventh or eighth round something a lot around that point he does take his time a little bit and wait in certain spots these days. And I just don't see how Hellenius can withstand the punching power of this guy. I don't think anyone can, but that would include Hellenius. Well, Hellenius is 38, but obviously at heavyweight, we never panic at this age. We talked on Wednesday how, you know, a decade ago he was this bright prospect. Well, let's give him credit for rebuilding a bit after some really questionable knockout losses

to guys he should have beaten. He has won three in a row, two times stopping previously unbeaten Adam Kovnatsky. But the history between the two does, could scare you if you believe Wilder, who says, look, I'm blessing a guy that I respect is doing this because he knows the guy and knows his weaknesses here.

But before I get to some sound from Wilder about what he does know about Hellenius, I want to find out, Luke, if what happened on the scale just now changes your, it changes anything here. Deontay Wilder weighed in at 214 and a half. And for reference, that's 23.5 pounds lighter than he was last September against Tyson Fury. Now, to be fair, Wilder purposely put on bulk and weight knowing that Fury could lean all over him, and they put on an all-action war. Deontay has been in the 215-217 area, you know, the first Luis Ortiz fight in the past. What does that say to you,? 23 and a half pound difference

about where his head is at coming into this. That is interesting, but you, you already kind of stole my thunder, which was that, you know, remember all those weight training videos he had where he, a, he was wearing gloves, which was just like, what the fuck are we doing? Deontay? That's the first problem. The second problem was he was trying to bulk up as much as he could for about like that against Tyson Fury to give just maximum punching power and everything he could into it, which I think, you know, given his skills and what he was up against, probably made some sense.

You know, you're just not up against that with Hellenius. First of all, like, absent, what was he against Berman Stiverne? I don't know if we have those, but I think I recall Wilder being much, much lighter, right? The fact that at 214, I would argue, is much closer. Yeah, so here we have it for, let's see, for the Stiverne fight. Stiverne was, I think, 236, and Wilder, I'm trying to find it here. I got it in front of me, Luke.

Wilder in the Bermain-Stiverne rematch in 2017 was 220 and a half. So he's... 220 and three quarters. Yeah, so he's, you know, a little bit lighter than that. It's light. It's light. I'm not sure what to make of it in activity. Doesn't feel like he needs to be that heavy

to still have his punching power. Wants to be able to be mobile and move. That could be a part of it as well. I have to say, though, even at 214 versus 230-whatever, I still think he's going to have just ridiculous punching power. So I don't know. It could matter opponent dependent, but in this case, I don't think that this will be the deciding factor whether he wins or loses.

Okay, the lowest wilder has been in recent memory was the first fury fight in 2018 he was 2 12 and a half right he would slowly gain weight uh in that rivalry he was 231 in the second one 238 in the most recent one but in between that he fought ortiz a second time and he was 219 and a half so maybe it's not that much of a departure helenius 253 253.75, I believe, so right about where he typically is. But we chatted, excuse me, Luke and I, with Deontay Wilder. Always an interesting conversation because of his charisma, because he's not afraid to tell you about any conspiracies he's got cooking.

But here's his thoughts on the challenge he's going to expect from his former sparring partner. And he's always been a great guy to prepare me for any opponent that I may face during that time that he's there. But one thing about Robert that I love about him and I can relate to him is that he has a warrior heart. And when you have a warrior heart you know and when you have a warrior heart you know you go you you'll fight to the end you're gonna go out for your shield and that's how he is as well he fights to the end you know no matter what when the tough you're going he get tougher and i love that about him so when this fight comes october the 15th that what people gonna see i don't want people

to think that oh he's my sparring partner or wow, they're saying he loves him or he respects him. That is not going to be a great fight because that's not true. I am one of few fighters, you know, if not the only one that can turn it on and turn it off, you know, meaning that I could turn it off outside of the ring where I come in peace. But when you're inside of the ring, I can transform into a beast. And that's

what I said I'd do October the 15th. I don't want people to think that this is not going to be a great fight. This is going to be war. You understand me? This is going to be an amazing fight while it lasts. And you know when the bronze bomber is in the ring, I have people on the edge of the

seat because you don't know what's going to happen. I think he's right, Luke. I expect him to win by knockout. I expect both to take big shots and I expect to be entertained from start to finish come Saturday night. Yeah, I was looking at Deontay there like a parent having

their kid explain why they had bad grades. I don't know why I had that stupid look on my face. But I agree. You know, he's got, again, we all have, we're just used to Deontay doing to this day and being angry and all that stuff. But he can, he will still give you a very good fight, even when that's not the case. And I think we're going to get that here with Robert Hellenius.

I'm excited about this fight. So a couple extra facts from that interview, if you're wondering what Wilder's future could look like, He says he's ready for the final three years of his career. He believes Alexander Usyk will be at this fight. He said his first piece of business, if he wins on Saturday, would be to fight Usyk if he can convince Usyk to do this. And obviously with Tyson Fury's weirdness of late, it could be in play. That could be early next year. That would be a fight a lot of people would be interested in. The other one is Andy Ruiz Jr. Obviously, they're both at the PBC. Wilder said those are the two fights he is looking for if he wins here and does what we expect him to. Luke, you can't lose on either path, right? I mean, this is great. Having Wilder back is fun. It matters. I mean, has he been overrated at times in his career yes but he also has 10 title defenses at heavyweight that's fifth all time like i know he there wasn't always killers for him to fight he never got to fight joshua but the guy goes after it he's fun as balls

it's not impossible he wears a world title again here it's just not it's not i will say I don't love the fact that the fight's on pay-per-view, which, you know, they can't make the fight without it being on pay-per-view because Deontay costs so much, which I understand. Still, this fight to me, it's a very good quality fight, but it still would be the kind of fight I'd prefer to have on free TV. But, you know, that out of the way. Other than that, BC, I really just don't have any complaints about the fight. All right.

Thank you very much. Check out our interview with Deontay for more. We talked about this undercard coming in, but the only bot I want to focus here on is an important one at 168 in that co-main. Kayla Plant, fresh off of losing to Canelo Alvarez, having the first child with Jordan Hardy Plant of PBC broadcasting fame as well.

This is a big fight against the former champion Anthony Durrell, former two-time champion, who is fresh off his own performance on that Canelo card when he delivered a knockout of the year contender. In reality here, Luke, Durrell's in his late 30s. Plant has that speed and boxing IQ that these odds are going to be these odds for a reason. And right now, according to Caesars, it's minus 1,200 for Caleb Plant, that speed and boxing IQ that these odds are going to be these odds for a reason.

And right now, according to Caesars, it's minus 1,200 for Caleb Plant, plus 700 Anthony Durrell. But, you know, the Wilder fight could end up being competitive. There's a possibility. I think it's much more likely that Durrell's competitive in this co-main event. Do you have any kind of confidence that this is, you know, a somewhat interesting fight as it breaks out? Early. Early, I think so.

And, by the way, Darrell was training with Phil DeRue, who was formerly like an ATT trainer. Now he has his own training center in Florida, and I saw Darrell was working with him. That's awesome. And I think, yeah, he's Poirier's guy he's now Kevin Lee's guy he trains Timbaland but he's trained a lot of fighters and he's got him in good shape very early um so I you know I'm expecting a pretty decent Darrell here I just think at this stage with where Darrell is at and by the way remember he was like I'm gonna fight

Canelo I'm not fighting anyone after his last win and we're like well that didn't last very long so here he is but um I just think Caleb Plant's too slick I really do I think Caleb Plant's way too slick we talked about it on Wednesday the guy's got a chip on his shoulder he's out there he thinks the whole world is against them sometimes in many ways they are and I I just it's hard for me to see like what Darrell's gonna do to over the course of 12 rounds better than Caleb plan. I mean, I think he hits harder, but I think he's got a linger finding him. He's got a linger and he's got a hope to land something big late because look, the, the back and forth, I could have played videos with them.

Trash talking was actually pretty fun this week. The back and forth while they're in, in a Hellenius or boys, these two though, have been going out. And as we established on wednesday it seems like caleb plant gets into that with every opponent people want to hate this guy for some reason but where durell was hating this week of just saying look like you talk a big game but you haven't beaten anybody and luke that was part of the narrative coming into the canelo fight we soft played that narrative to a degree because plant earned getting to that spot this This was Canelo trying to make history. It was a big deal. And Plant,

to his credit, look, as a big underdog, we thought there were areas that he could have moments there. But there were times that he's been featured of late, PBC on Fox, the Mike Lee fight. He's been given sort of big opportunities, but has he beaten as many proven guys at 168 to give you full confidence well no to be fair and the big fight where he won the title against it was katagi you know he he was he was in some danger down the stretch of that fight if durell can linger he's going to have that puncher's chance but skill for skill round for round this should be caleb plant showing us that the time off after the canelo fight only made him more motivated to come out there. He switched things up a bit.

I forgot, who did he get as a trainer in this corner? I saw him on social media. He was posting with Team Gary Russell recently. Okay, I forgot specifically who I saw him working with on social media, but it just looks to be like he's got that eye of the tiger again. This fight's important. It would be a needed name for him in Durrell. And obviously we're looking to the future toward David Benavidez, toward maybe Jamal Charlo when he moves up, maybe Canelo, if he comes back in the picture, a lot of big fights to make, but for Caleb Plant, it could be get through this one and we might start banging the drum for him against Benavidez.

They hate each other even more than it seems like anybody else hates Caleb Plante right now. But I like this fight. I think Caleb Plante gets it done, but watch closely if Durrell's still there, rounds nine through 12, that's the area where when Plant slows down a bit, can Durrell set him up and hit him with some shots that could change the momentum. But either way, let's see what happens there. A couple other fights worth noting, but we've got to keep this train moving, Luke. Topic number three, staying in boxing. It's going to go down on ESPN Saturday night, 10.30 p.m. Eastern is the main event, or the main card, excuse me,

when Devin the Dream Haney, the Undisputed Lightweight Champion, 23 years old, he beat George Camposas Jrr pretty soundly just four months ago they're back in the contractually mandatory obligated rematch whatever you want to call it melbourne australia the same side as the first one but we're not in marvel stadium here rod laver tennis arena says a lot yeah it does say a lot in in his in neither guy's really been overly selling it either to be fair it feels like everybody's just like well we'll do it again look last time Luke they were both unbeaten Gambosa's just being tail female like there was reason to to make this a big event in Australia and it was until Haney sucked the entertainment and life out of it so Luke that's

really the only question coming in here yeah Yeah, we get to see Haney fight and he's either in your top 10 pound for pound or about to leap in that pool. He thinks he might be fighter of the year if he wins here and wins spectacularly. I don't know about that, but you get that point. What the hell can Cambosos do differently to actually make this a fight? And is he capable of that Luke? Or was that teofimo night the perfect storm perfect night the perfect performance the perfect weakened opponent across from you you give me the truth about what's going to happen saturday um the truth is i'm not going to watch this because i don't give a shit about this fight if i can just be very clear about that um listen it it certainly is possible that cambosis could do something here catch haney i mean i've

seen i've seen i can't remember which fighter was it was on the zone someone caught haney and i think the 10th round of a fight hey lenares it was lenares lenares kind of rocked his shit a little bit and um you know haney had to kind of hold on and recover and he and and ride out the fight which he did he did but I've seen Haney hurt is the answer I've seen Haney hurt quite badly it certainly seems possible that Kambosis could could try a more aggressive approach could try some other kind of way to get out of the way of the jab of Devin Haney and I suspect on some level he probably will, especially early. But in the end, we're talking about guys and boxing can be wild. But in the

end, dude, here's just the fucking reality. We are talking about guys with very different levels of ability. We just are, man. We're talking about guys with very, very different levels of ability. Haney is up here and Kambosis is not. He's not. Now, that doesn't mean Cambosis is garbage. It doesn't mean he's bad. It doesn't mean he sucks. He is a good fighter. And we were wrong about him, as we've talked about a million times now, when he was fighting Lopez. Whatever state Lopez was in, we still underrated Cambosis. Fair enough. I didn't think much of him at that point. I certainly have much more respect for him now. But Haney is, you know, a prodigy, basically. And in the first fight, he didn't have a very exciting approach.

It was clinching and jabbing and not a whole lot else. And dude, Kambosis had no answer for it whatsoever. He might have a marginally better one here. It might produce marginally better results for him. But the strongest strongest likelihood insofar as we are able to tell is that this is a waste of everyone's time except for haney to get a paycheck and maybe you know cambosis to get another big fight where all the titles are on the line short of that i don't know what the fuck is the appeal of this contest i really don't well everybody's getting paid it's what haney had to do right but like what's in it for the customer yeah that's a great question i don't even what, like what's in it for the customer?

Yeah, that's a great question. I don't even think there's a lot in it for the Australian Luke. I mean, you know, you gotta like whatever royalty and re you know, regalness that first fight had because four belts at stake, two unbeaten guys, we're going Australia.

Like it's all gone. It's all gone. And Luke looking back. So here's the deal. I felt that that was like 10 rounds to two, 11 rounds to one. And I didn't think there was really any moments that Cambosis sort of crossed that line and was really in it.

But the judges scored it. One judge had a 10 rounds to two, but the other two had it 16, 12, and that's eight rounds to four. So what does that tell you? If the idea for Cambosis here, and I'm going to go on record saying, I don't think, I think he held back that first fight. I think he tried to out mix aggressiveness without boxing Haney, got to a point where he realized it wasn't going to happen, did not want to risk a knockout so that nobody

would care about the second fight and said, look, I'll come out differently this time around. That's just what I think it is. And even in the, in the face-off they had on Australian TV a couple of days ago, you know, Cambosis is like, well, that's the last fight think it is. And even in the face-off they had on Australian TV a couple days ago, you know, Kambosis is like, well, that's the last fight. This is the only fight that matters now of the two. And it's like, well, that doesn't tell me anything great either. You know what I mean? And also, remember this for just a second.

We haven't even talked about this. Kambosis missed weight the first time and then, you know, eventually made it or whatever. But, like, in the fucking media interviews, he was like, yeah,in games moin games i'm like dude missing weight is not the art of war like what the fuck are you talking about like this is you're just saying words and hoping that people will buy the confidence when in fact if you look at the words they mean nothing you know like he's just fucking weird haney would go on to outland him according to compu box 147 to 100 so you know like he's just fucking weird haney would go on to outland him according

to compu box 147 to 100 so you know it was clear there but it wasn't something necessarily absurd but my question to you luke regarding this is if two of those three judges who again when you're that close you are watching the fighter who's bringing the fight to the other and i guess in theory cambosis is the aggressor of the two. So in that fight, he's always sort of coming forward, even if he wasn't taking the same type of risks he took against Lopez. Is there a scenario in which Haney,

if you're going to give him any criticism, it's that he's safety first. Yes. And he's not a huge trash talker, right? I believe in his power. When, when someone's crossing that line and coming into him.

I believe in his chin enough. I think he survived that test against Linares, like you mentioned, and when you're that good, we're looking for anything to tell us that you're not that good. Is there a scenario where Haney's controlling him so well from the outside, but Cambosis is a little more aggressive? Let's say he's targeting the body. He's making it more of a fight. And Haney may,

may back himself into like a majority decision here by accident here. Is there any scenario there in which Cambosis just on aggression alone can maybe surprise us? Yes. Yes. I think that is possible. In fact, I think that actually might be likely like the idea that like,

Oh, for example, you've heard Haney say, well, if you know, if Cambosis gets more aggressive, that's great for me you've heard Haney say um well if you know if Kambosis gets more aggressive that's great for me I think you brought this up on Wednesday but I saw him talk about it as well like if he gets more aggressive great I have more opportunity to hit him I tend to think that that's not what Haney's gonna do unless it's like a wide open you know like there's just no cost to do just free shot basically because i think what's going

to happen is he's going to outclass him early and then cambosis is this time going to take more risk some of that will pay off and then haney will just not coast exactly but he's not going to try and put him away just kind of just slowly defuse the bomb as best he could for the rest of that fight if that means holding on and clinching and being boring or whatever else he has to he will he's not in that stage of his career bc where he's just going to punt and fight like a dumbass in order to give away everything that he has earned. He's simply not going to do that. It's not who he is, first of all. And I think him and Shakur Stevenson are the only guys that ever get Floyd comparisons right now.

Because I don't think you should, by the way. And Floyd's so fucking great, it's ridiculous, right? But for Haney, it's that ability to just suck the entertainment out of it and control it. That's who he is. So I don't think there's really a ton to gain unless he's going for that fighter of the year by purposely focusing on that knockout. It's on ESPN, but people aren't overly joyed. He's going to have to go out there and do it again.

I think he does it even easier. Let's hear his thoughts on what his expectations are for the rematch. I mean, I had no choice. I signed up for it, you know, not once but twice. So, you know, I was mentally ready for it after the first one, ready to do it again. So we're doing it again, and I'm excited for it. When you look back at that first night june 5th marvel

stadium in melbourne uh you you shot a lot of people up i mean there wasn't a lot of buzz from that fight because you shot cambosis down how it looked easy how easy was it for you in there yeah um it was easy because i made it easy um in there. And on October 15th, we looked to do the same. I just feel like I'm on a different level than Cambosu. And once again, I will handicap him to make him look like he's an average fighter, like he's a regular fighter, which he's not. But I will make him look like that on October 15th once again. I think that's the best way to say it. but I will make him look like that on October 15th once again. and nobody realizing it until, yeah. All right, well, that happened. But you can check out more, youtube.com slash morningcombat with more from Devin.

A lot of good chat about his future, that division, all those big names. Minus 800 right now if Caesar's sportsbook is Haney, plus 550 Cambosis. Luke, you want him against Loma next? That good for you? Yeah, that's where I would like to go. I'd like to go into a bout where there's some genuine intrigue and fighters of roughly commensurate ability. All right, there you go for the Luke Thomas special.

You know what is commensurate ability? This all-historic women's card that's going to go down on ESPN plus Saturday afternoon, 2.30 p.m. Eastern time here on the East Coast, but it's a big deal in London, and it should be. We've got two matchups in particular, unified or undisputed titles at stake, competitive as heck in the odds, and saucy as shit balls

in the anger and spiciness between them, Luke. Also, some of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the women's game. Let's start at that main event. Your unified, excuse me, Luke. Also, some of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the women's game. Let's start at that main event. Your unified middleweight champion, Clarissa Shields, taking on former amateur rival and belt holder herself in Savannah Marshall. Luke, the storyline could not, could not be any better right now. When you consider both are 12-0, both are world champions.

They met 10 years ago at the amateur world championships in which Savannah Marshall gave Claressa her only career loss, pro or amateur. They never met again as Claressa went on to win a pair of gold medals in the Olympic Games and multiple world championships. But here they are, the main difference between them, and it's probably why Marshall opened as the the betting favorite but as we stand right now as a plus 105 underdog to the minus 130 shield is this savannah's a puncher of her 12 wins 10 have been by knockout shields on the other hand has been highly criticized that she has just two finishes. She's an incredibly slick boxer, but maybe doesn't have that one-punch sort of ability. Luke, is that the storyline here?

Marshall's punching power against the purest of pure boxers and arguably the best female fighter in the world right now in the quote, Clarissa Shields? Dude, what was that thing they had this week with the face-off where Marshall said they banged? What the hell was that? I mean this week with the face-off where marshall said they banged what the hell was that i mean we'll get into that luke i thought i'd start with something a little more uh clean and important i know it's just like what what did she say like what the hell is that uh to answer the question you know here's the thing everyone's like oh well this is shields

is only loss and she lost in the amateurs and it was 10 years ago that's not that's not recent that's not nothing that's counts for something but dude did i read this correctly sean porter in the amateurs in 2006 beat alexander usic yes sean fucking porter right like who would you devon haney and ryan garcia i believe are three and three against each other in the amateurs right so it's like i'm not saying that's not relevant it's relevant for the time in which they competed in whatever size and age they were but you know is anyone gonna bet on sean porter to beat usic now you couldn't even make that fight legally like what the fuck are people talking about so it's not that i don't take a dude of the two no doubt about it marshall is the puncher i mean not there's zero question about it and by the way it should be noted, BC,

I think that Shields is the overall better boxer, probably by a considerable margin. But it's not like Shields has a Mayweather untouchable style. She gets hit. Yes. She gets hit. So the thing for me is this could be exciting early, and it's only two-minute rounds, which is just a fucking joke, but that's not their fault.

I think it could be exciting early. I just feel like down the stretch, I always say this. I'm going to always say it. Skills win fights. Skills win fights. And Shields is not the power puncher that Marshall is. And Marshall is skilled. But Marshall does not have Shields overall boxing ability.

And I don't think not by much at all and I think over time that difference in quality will manifest itself yeah I don't think anybody does to be fair I mean even if you have Katie Taylor or Serrano higher I mean it's a tough argument to try to prove that somebody is a better boxer on this side of the game than Clarissa Shield still 27 years old in her prime and look look, her big argument, she could have just argued and said, look, two-minute rounds, I've got a lot of people hurt, but they didn't give me that extra minute to finish them. Her big argument had been that she's faced better competition. And I do think that's true because let's give Clarissa Shields credit.

She put that quote tag on herself. You see that on her jacket early and was like, I'm putting pressure on myself. And she chased anyone who was a champion in essentially any weight class she could make. There were times that she was openly saying, look, if I could get my body close enough to 147 to fight then undisputed champion Cecilia Brekus, who has gone on to lose, she was even throwing that out there. I mean, she's been willing to fight anyone. And when she did fight somebody who on paper was esteemed to be a legitimate challenge christina hammer 2019 for all four middleweight

titles uh of course it like handled her like that was not a fight clarissa dominant i mean just dominated it on that level so there's a lot of intrigue to see if savannah marshall can land something big but i do agree with you luke shields is, in my estimation, has a huge advantage in terms of just skills. Yes, she does get hit. Yes, she's aggressive and moves it, but I love the battle between them. I love the history. I don't put a ton of stock mentally in Marshall holding any kind of edge because of that win. I mean, love her or hate her, Shields is as tough as anyone out there. She's went to the damn PFL on a decent level in MMA and was willing to risk it all to make money

and just stay competitive. I mean, that's who she is. But if I wasn't already into this matchup for the intrigue, the stakes, all that, look, it got saucy. And you referenced it, and i believe we've got audio and video to show this of one of their many now remember this fight card was supposed to take place a while back the queen passed we pushed it another five weeks dude right now we're talking about this people are talking about it did you see this freaking clip

do you obviously do the fact that i won got us here yeah. The fact that I won't go to Zia. Yeah, sure. The fact that we were both screaming at each other got us there. I didn't have to say s*** to you. But you did.

It's the fact that I even gave you attention. I had to build you up. You're joking. You lost the plot. I had to build you up. Your bed fell off. I had to build you up.

I had to build you up. You obviously do. The fact that I won't go to Zia. Yeah, sure. The fact that we were both screaming at each other got us here yeah sure the fact that we were both all right there it is well i i look is that how mk is gonna break up are we effing or fighting uh luke i do believe

that she almost needed a translator that that accent was thick they actually wrote news stories about this granted in uk tabloids where it was like claudia shields you know semi colon i did not have sex with uh with that woman savannah marshall um didn't you like here's the first of all here's the thing it doesn't matter in any way whatsoever like i don't who could care but it i will say this did you not find shields's denial a little not forceful i don't know if she understood the question luke i had to watch that thing like 30 times to have a clue. No, she said we didn't have sex. Dude, if you accused me of banging you,

obviously you won't even touch me, nor am I interested in banging you. You'd be like, what the fuck are you talking about? Are you out of your mind? And it was Marshall who was asking you, or Shields, are you out of your mind? Dude, I don't know what to make of it, but it's strange. Yeah, yeah, it is strange marshall brings one world title clarissa brings three another

undisputed chance for clarissa she's tried this in a couple different divisions um she's she's won 12 world titles in 12 pro fights i don't believe that they hooked up luke but they've certainly hated each other for a decade clarissa also also accusing Marshall this week of outright ducking her in 2018 when supposedly Shields' team offered Marshall a big sum to do this fight back then, when they were both a year into the game. I do agree that it's bigger now. It helps that Savannah's also a champion and that she's 12-0 with a glossier knockout record. But Luke, it matters most when they touch gloves in that ring, and we put all of this aside. The 0-2 arena, so this is a pretty damn big deal.

Four belts at stake, 10 rounds. Who wins? Shields. Shields is going to win via decision. I just don't. I think stopping Marshall seems highly unlikely. Maybe even Shields touches the canvas. I don't think that's altogether crazy

either. But again, over the course of 10 rounds, be they two minutes or three shields is just better. Shields is just better. So I suspect she'll win, but it should do first three, four rounds and maybe even a couple of late ones could be real interesting. This is, this is definitely a fun one to make time for they share i believe two common opponents in their 12 fights hannah rankin and femke hermans both on the title level the difference is shields took decisions over both back to back in 2018 whereas marshall stopped both of them two and four years after that so uh it is a great fight on paper. I'm glad that it's this big of an event. ESPN Plus giving it prime push.

You know, they deserve this. I like that we're breaking history here as well. But Clarissa Shields is going to win by decision. That's just what's going to happen, Luke. I don't even think she's going to get rocked. The way she handled Christina Hammer, it was an eye opener. Savannah Marshall can bang and she's good enough on this level to win a world title and box well enough, but she ain't the quote. So I'll eat my words come Saturday. If

that's the case, check me on the MK Post Show. But Luke, this co-main event has really gotten our attention as well at 130 pounds. Mikayla Mayer, unbeaten, going to bring two of those world titles against fellow unbeaten American here in Alicia Baumgardner. This is a great matchup on paper in itself. Meyer, Mayer, excuse me, a minus 280 betting favorite against the plus 215 Baumgardner, who's really kind of come out of, I don't want to say nowhere, but it's been swift how she's gotten in front of us and gotten our attention at her ability. But they hate each other so much that I could play seven straight social clips for you of them pushing and talking trash to get you excited.

Here's arguably the best one of the week. Luke Thomas, I'm going to want to know your thoughts on the back end of this. It is funny. You're mad. Why do you take it so lightly? You think I'm taking it lightly? You think I'm taking it lightly? You're going to find out. You're like, you're mad. Why do you take it so lightly? You think I'm taking it lightly? You think I'm taking it lightly?

You're gonna find out. You're like, you're done. You're replacing, you really know that. You shut the up. You shut the up. Your horse face here in the. You don't be racist. Don't be racist.

You don't be racist. You're racist. . Okay, smoke, come on. You feeling it? I'm feeling it, bro. I'm feeling it. Okay.

All right, Luke. There we go. All right. We could have been banging a long time ago. Okay. Yeah, great. Luke, no, it's a great fight. I think the hatred between them is only jazzed it up. I mean, a horse face Karen, Luke, that was aggressive, okay?

Yeah, that was a little strong, but you know, fighters say- I don't know if it's racist. There's been one thing that Dana White has routinely said that I think is quite correct and will help people who, especially like casuals who like will tune in for a fight every once in a while and then like the fighters are saying insane shit about each other. It's like, dude, it's the fight business.

Like people will say very, very insane shit about each other. It's like, dude, it's the fight business. People will say very mean things about each other. You just kind of have to live with it a little bit. Calling her a horse-faced Karen is a little much, but that's the fight game. Luke, does Alexa Grasso look like a Karen to you? Because I don't know if you know this, that's her birth first name. Not in the traditional sense of a Karen.

You more imagine like a middle-aged you know a walmart white woman in starbucks who can't get the seven pump upside down flat white you know like an elitist white woman you're saying yeah i got you that or just a racist one you know probably just the same uh back to this actual fight look mckay mckayla mayor i think is the better boxer of the two i I think we've seen that. It's going to be interesting, though, Luke, if Baumgartner can put power punches together and try to go that route. The one storyline that has seemed to prevail is Mayer has been sort of framing Baumgartner

as an emotional fighter and believes that the intensity here between them will spill over and it will play directly into Mayer's hands as the better pure boxer of the two uh are you expecting the heat to turn into an all-action fest here i think that bum garner is going to try and use she's probably the more powerful punch of the two it's it's kind of akin to Shields and Marshall in that way. Bumgarner does have a pretty decent punch. I think that will maybe play a role. But, dude, Mayer's got skills, man. She has good distance management in particular.

And, by the way, probably a little heavier-handed, relatively speaking, than obviously she's a lighter weight, but, for that weight class then shields but she does have the good boxing the good overall movement the the range management she has good defense too uh i just you know could it happen could that one punch bomb happen yeah if you're deontay wilder and that's a little more common for him but i don't i don't i don't think it's going to be enough for bum garner all right uh mayor is 17 and oh the 28 year old bomb gardener nicknamed the bomb actually has one defeat so i'll dead wrong myself she's 12 and one with seven ko's coming in that only loss was in 2018 by split decision to the same fighter christina lennard to two if i nailed that uh that foot that loss to katie taylor within the last two or three fights. So, you know, at this level, Luke,

they all end up fighting each other, and sometimes a couple times. But these are the class of this area, the 130, 135, separate from what Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano are doing. If the winner here moves up to 35 and faces Katie Taylor, hey, we got a big fight either way. Either Michaela or Alicia, this is going to be fun.

Yeah, the women's fights this weekend should absolutely deliver this one in particular should be fun again for three belts for three belts in this particular contest. So winner of this might move up to one 35. And as you indicated, take on Katie Taylor or, uh, uh, you know, or maybe if Serrano, if they can make that beforehand, but they're looking for, they're looking for big fights up a weight class for sure. All right. Topic five, we'll close with quick hitters luke here back in the mma pool for a few of these bret okamoto of espn hitting the airwaves to let us know ufc 282 the final pay-per-view of the year this early december from las vegas jan blachowicz versus magomed and kalayev

at 205 your thoughts that's a tough fight for either guy it's an especially tough fight for jan blachowicz on kalayev seems to me destined for a title shot um and it has to suck if you're blachowicz because we'll talk about it in a little bit but you know they they are going to have glover rematch yuri let's talk about it right now that same night it look am i wrong is this the main event glover to, Teixeira, Yuri Prohotska, part two, their first fight. Bad shit. Amazing for the light heavyweight world championship. Yeah.

So the issue would be there that I guess that fight between Blahovich and Ankalayev, that's your number one contender fight. I mean, that's really what that comes down to at this point. And Blahovich, who was right on the precipice of getting it done, waiting to see what would happen between Glover and Uri, and he gets one of the most insane fights ever, and he just gets pushed. And now he has to fight this fucking guy? Like, that's a tough...

I don't know if Blachowicz is going to get another title shot, BC. I'm thinking he might have missed out on his opportunity. Wow. Not getting any younger as well, but we'll give him that chance to bounce back. That is December 10th. Luke, I want to read you this. The highlights of this card as is,

who knows if they will add more, and I want you to give me a grade. Yeri, Glover, two in the main event. We got Robbie Lawler, Ponzinibbio, Edmund Shabazian's back, Billy Q against Alexander Hernandez, Drikus Duplis against Darren Till. Rosenstruik versus Chris Dawkus.

Chris Curtis against Joaquin Buckley. Bo Nickel makes his UFC debut against Jamie Pickett. And then what we mentioned recently, OSP and Gustafsson. And now Blachowicz-Ankolaev. I'll give that card. I mean, certain parts of it are a 10. But overall, I'm going to give that card like a seven and a half is that fair raving seven and a half i go as high as eight because there's some there's there's a lot of fill there and the and it's the filler is good

no you know i don't know but the osp and gustafson fight like yeah that's gross okay but like just like at thanksgiving you don't have to take every you know you don't have to take a spoonful of everything look like i know you don't go near that turnip at all no turnip is not for me i don't like it turnip and radishes i'm not a big fan yeah radishes blow but if you're going to do the cranberry sauce you got to do the the great values you know walmart version of it luke as that that's one of the rare items that is cheap the cheaper you go the better it tastes all right dude my persian friend and family, every time I go to their house, they eat radishes like we eat apples. Like they just take the radish and just crunch it.

I'm like, dude, that is trifling. That is trifling. Yeah. Old guys like to eat onions and stuff. I mean, people do weird things from different times. Look, because sometimes that was their only option, Luke. Okay. Maybe that's why.

I don't think that Persians are eating radishes by a function of poverty i you know one of the great empires of human civilization there was probably a time probably on the on the men's side of my family you know i have a scottish last name but i'm i'm clearly french luke and french canadian at that at some point they came across the hot dog for as a means for survival right and what all i've done in my life is really just celebrate that tradition you know i mean like like is it adesanya like dances to the cage and stuff and it's like i don't understand that but some people do luke maybe i've just been eating all i've ever known i think you just eat like a raccoon that's really the only answer here

you eat like a raccoon digging through the garbage. Luckily, I don't have to weigh in. Some fighters do, Luke, and that's why Aspen Ladd left the UFC. We know she has signed with the PFL. She'll fight one division up at 1-4-5, and she's got an opponent here, and I like this. November 25th, that's your PFL championship card. I believe a pay-per-view

at that. It's going to be Aspen Ladd against Julia Budd. Your thoughts on this, Luke? I'm going to be Aspen Ladd against Julia Budd your thoughts on this Luke I'm going to give it one enthusiastic thumbs up yeah I I don't hate it Julia Budd is a tough test she's a proven competitor you know you haven't seen her in the UFC but to anyone who's paid attention to her career you know she's a physical fighter a well-rounded fighter an experienced one certainly has her limits honestly if Aspen Ladd's not on her game Bud can very much win that contest that's hardly out of the uh that would not in any way be surprising but if Ladd is back to something approximating

what we used to see from her she should also get a triumphant moment here but this is that's that's good matchmaking I like that fight okay I agree with you on that our final quick hitter of the week luke i'll let you set this up it's about your boy shotry sid young tong the head of one championship mma uh many many disciplines of combat uh this is about debt he was a guest on ariel hawani's mma hour luke take it from here i don't know if we have the clip or not do we do we have the clip so let me just basically set He was a guest on Ariel Helwani's MMA Hour. Luke, take it from here. I don't know if we have the clip or not, do we? We do. We have the clip. So let me just basically set this up.

There was a report from Bloody Elbow from John Nash and Anton Taboina that indicated, we talked about on the show, that the organization certainly has done really well for themselves in a lot of ways. I want to be very clear about this. I really like the one product. I like their rule set. I like how they have Muay Thai in the cage with the four-ounce gloves.

I like a lot of what they have going. I think it's just a great alternative to the UFC. It's not commensurate with it, but it's really different. It's a modern MMA product that I think does really well for itself, and it should. But they have gotten to this point by taking a lot of venture capital money and they are hemorrhaging it like a motherfucker to this point where they've lost almost $400 million. And we know that for very good reason.

However, I'm not going to spoil the lead here, or bury the lead here, I should say, or spoil the surprise. Chachri was asked by Ariel Helwani about these reports, and he just gave what can only be described as the dumbest fucking response ever. Let's hear it. That you lost a record high $110 million, and this coming off 2020, where losses of $48 million. This is from the annual financial filings with ACRA, which is Singapore's close equivalent to the SEC. I remember having you on the show last September.

We talked about this. And the quote is, you said the Internet is a dangerous place. If you believe everything you read, there was a ton of inaccuracies, tons of errors. It's not even like one or two. If it were just like one or two, I would point it out. It's not even worth addressing. Again, it's like I said, I like to let the truth speak over time. So that was your response when I asked you about the $48 million.

Now it's $110 million, according to this report. Is the $110 million accurate? I think if you want financial information, go to the most credible sources in the world, like Bloomberg or Financial Times, which also wrote articles on one. Are you going to go to an MMA website, right? So just on that level. But on the bigger picture level, it is inaccurate again. It is inaccurate?

Go to Bloomberg. Go to Financial Times. What did they report as far as what the number was? What I'll say, Ariel, is we are in investment growth. To be number five in the world or whatever in those Nielsen charts, you have to invest in the brand, the product, the roster, geographies, and you have to expand the footprint. And this takes a lot of capital. It's a very different approach, right? Then let's say if I was going to open a coffee shop today, you sell coffee, you're profitable that day, but you're not scaling globally, right? So the strategy that one has used is literally like, let's have maximum reach,

put us on TV everywhere across the continent of Asia, but around the world. And I don't know if you saw, we just announced a broadcast deal in Middle East with Bean Sports. And then so the idea is again, is increasing our footprint everywhere we go, and of course having to throw events in.

But you have to create a content. You have to create tons of content for each region, for each broadcaster. We have 154 broadcast partners around the world. So the strategy, again, is you have to get this scale and not worry so much about what are the coffee store economics, right? And that's the overall strategy. And we're very lucky that we have blue chip institutional investors like Sequoia Capital, like Guggenheim, like Qatar Investment Authority, like uh you know guggenheim like qatar investment authority like tamasek uh you know google these guys these are like the the very best

and smartest investors in the world okay all right let me tell you let me just tell you two things there's a lot you could go on there with let me just tell you two things about his answer that i just find comical first things first um chachri has i'll just say this matter of factly he has dodged an interview with me for a long time and you could say that well you don't have the platform big enough to have the guy who runs one except that i've seen him on the most podunk fucking podcast imaginable dude he was on the state of combat with brian campbell like two years three years ago speaking of podunk speaking of podunk ones he has he has and when i was host of mma hour he he dodged me as well like i want to be very clear chachri has absolutely dodged an interview with me for a long long time and then his pr fucking lackey at the time who is just a zero in this industry gave me a bunch of lies about how

he was oh he was traveling at this time and he has work commitments at this time and it's not like an interview with him necessarily is going to make you famous i was more curious about it but you know just the fucking lying around him by his lackeys just made me not necessarily trust anything he had to say but that aside BC, the two reasons that I want to articulate here that I find this funny, I want to be very clear about this. That report from Anton Tabuena and John Nash, you heard Errol reference it. It comes from a set of documents that was filed to the Singaporean government, their equivalent of the SEC. these are publicly accessible documents and bc are you ready for this one that chachri sityatong signed his fucking name well he signs a lot of papers to be fair luke okay

okay you signed it my guy you signed it that's how we know about these disclosure forms and his fucking name is one of the signatories to them. So what are you talking about? And here's the second part about this. Like obviously Ariel's show is very, very big and very popular and he deserves all the success for it, but it airs on MMA Fighting. It is very, very weird to me,

on YouTube and everything else, but it's, you know, MMA Fighting is very very weird to me on youtube and everything else but it's you know mma fighting is the sort of the brand that hosts it and vox produce it it's very weird to me that you would attack the credibility of mma sites by the way bloody elbow another vox media site you're attacking mma websites on a show hosted or presented by any way to bare minimum by an mma website like what are we doing here i don't understand any of this so like listen if you want to buy into his argument that there's a certain amount of scale that has to be achieved before you become profitable fine that's a fine debate to have but just like shitting on mma websites despite very accurate reporting and then finding fucking documents that are publicly

available by the way the one has now going to move their financial headquarters to the cayman island so this will probably the last one we ever get and his name is on them his name is on them as a signatory bc it's just it's just you know like it's such a fucking easy thing to take shots at the mma media like that way and fine they're very deserving of it in a lot of ways yeah they're all scumbags luke we've already been going over this and they're lazy and you know they're just there to be close to fighters a lot of times like there's there's plenty of good criticisms to make but dude if you're gonna get asked about it on this site shitting on mma sites is weird and your name is on there as a signatory my guy oh my lord what are we doing here well if if you're asking me whether i'd still accept an

offer to represent morning combat on season two of one championship, The Apprentice, you're damn right I would, Luke. But that aside, this is a little fishy here. I'm going to Google the names that Chachri's like. You do the research yourself. Google these names. I'm going to start right there, Luke. We'll see what happens, okay?

I'll take your word for it. Just make sure you read it on Reuters so you can get a guy who knows fuck all about the fight game and can buy any PR nonsense that's fed to him. I mean, what did you think? Did you watch the whole interview? Like, what do you think of his extended answer about, like, this is how this system works. You have to there's no limit to how much we're willing to go in debt,

but you have to go into debt to build up this foundation. Like, do you separate from whether he's just outright being absurd here on, on that specific question and the John Nash report, um, bloody elbow, do you believe that like, they've got a pretty strong plan and they will get in the plus. And this isn't like, you know, we're going to shut everything down in six months. I mean, they seem to be making, but this is the other part of it. Everyone's going to look at this. And if they're not thinking, they're going to say, oh, I'm out to kill one.

Dude, the worst thing that could happen in MMA would be for the PFLs and the Ones and the Bellators to go out of business. That would not be good. That would not be good for me. That would not be good for BC. That would not be good for you as a viewer. And it would not be good for MMA in general. What you want are organizations like one to succeed.

That is what you want. And again, I'm going to be very clear. What gets to us as the consumer? By the time I turn on my Amazon system or through the browser, however I'm watching it, I love the product. It's very, very good. And there is something to be said for trying to achieve a certain amount of scale in order for it to be profitable. But BC, like two things I would say in response to that. Number one, they have made continuous promises like we're 12 months away from profitability. We're 12 months away from

profitability for several years and it never seems to come true. In fact, the losses only seem to amount to greater and greater sums. That's the first problem. And the second problem is this idea that we have to scale to profitability. Yes, some scale is required, but you can end up chasing that to a place of nothingness. That's exactly the problem that Uber has found themselves in. What they keep doing is, if you've never read the book, I have it here, I think I have it somewhere here. It's a book called Super Pump, where what they're trying, what it basically articulates is that, why did Uber get into Uber Eats? It's because they found out that their ride-sharing program was never going to be profitable and so they had to find other systems that could be technologically incorporated or added as an additional part of their business

and then that additional part would achieve some kind of profitability but it's just scaling to find something that will make you money and then rearranging the business accordingly it's very very difficult to do that as well. Uber doesn't make a dime. They have been, I mean, yes, they make money, but in terms of net profit, they've been burning and burning and burning and burning money. That's a very dangerous way to go about it as well. Although venture capital will, as you can see with Uber,

they'll pump a bunch of money into that as well. So, dude, like Uber, one makes a very, very good product, but I don't know if it makes an economically sustainable product. And if they can't sustain, that's bad for all of us. I don't wish it on anyone. My only problem with them is they just, dude, his lack of transparency and honesty about these things is just alarming. And look, I've never loved the,

I know that there's been a turnover behind the scenes and I've really enjoyed dealing with 1PR of late late for sure but uh you know there used to be their new people are great there used to be an aggression level that was that that that was unhealthy and and some of those reports about ratings you always had questions about i get that hey as long as triller stays in the fight game and we get more crime faces, Luke, I'm in. All right. Wow. Thank you, Chotri. That's, yeah. Okay. Luke, that's that.

We're going to transition to Dead Wrong to close the show. By the way, we're closing the show so you can interview a one championship fighter. So like, you know. Dude, their product is great. I love it. I love it. I just don't like, you're going to shit on MMA media and act like everyone is stupid because you think the

audience is stupid get the fuck out of here with that all right all right look at look at ariel throwing the the hardballs out there right yeah good i mean he sure as fuck isn't gonna talk to me so someone's got to do it okay okay luke as we transition to dead wrong uh people have dead wronged us on twitter during the show saying yes i fucked it up i've let me let me dead wronged us on Twitter during the show saying we missed it. Yes, I fucked it up. Let me dead wrong myself, BC. I apologize. So I misunderstood. I thought that what happened was Askarov, talking about the Askarov and Royville fight,

which does appear to be off. So that part is true. But the wrong part is that I had thought that Askarov had a missed weight, which he was going to miss weight. They had told the team, I think for a 127 catch weight fight, Royville said that he would be interested in a 127 pound catch weight fight and it was Askarov who actually said no. So shouts

to Brandon Royville for being a pro and willing to take the catch weight fight. Whatever happened with Askarov, it's on him. So I apologize for all the parties and everyone listening. I got that wrong. That's on me. Raw Dog, you're a real cowboy. We appreciate your service. Thank you very much. Luke, we're willing to take that l if it's necessary and we give you an email address morningcombat at gmail.com to send in your wednesday fan subs

or every friday put us to the test this one's called dead raw you better come with receipts though okay and here's day one dave sliding and he says on friday's episode when bc was talking about the ben eubank junior fight he said the promoters were eddie hearn and frank warren which is dead wrong you're right i was wrong here uh eddie hearn is ben's promoter but eubank is now promoted by callie sourland of wasserman boxing wasserman boxing excuse me, formerly what the hell is Callie Sauerland's old company? Whatever, you get my point.

BC with the BDE, you gotta get this shit right. Love the show. Thank you, Dave. BC with the CTE, that's what you got motherfucker. Thank you, Sauerland event, that's what it was with Callie Sauerland, named after the family there. By the way, Luke, you don't know Callie Sauerland, but he's like this international playboy boxing

promoter who like, whenever he does the Dave Schaller thing and stands between the fighters, he makes this face like, where, you know, like he's, he's rock hard with emotion. Like he's just so damn fired up. You know, Rafe and I used to always say, if we could go to a Callie party, pants would be optional. I mean, it would be, you know, a Callie party would be wild. So I'm happy to correct that dead wrong let's slide into number two this one comes from nema he says what's up mk

first of all shout out to whoever edited doc seven that would be jake von amsterdam loved how luke's vehement efforts of preserving his privacy were respected while some of the other production crew had their arse cracked zoomed in on yeah luke, Luke, what was up with that with Jake in this one? A lot of ass. So my only rule with Jake was that you can make me look bad. You can't make my wife look bad. But I think, which he did. He did not make my wife look bad, and that's fine.

But then he just likes to make all of us look bad. He's got some weird fetish about like, fuck that guy, fuck that guy. Yeah, like, I'll show that guy's toes. Yeah, or he's always trying to get us with our shirts off in it in the doctor i know it's like dude leave me the fuck alone man all right well nema says back to the main point fool me once shame on me fool me twice shame on you luke thomas last week when you guys were talking about your favorite ground game specialist luke picked rock monoff as number one and mentioned 17 wins 17 finishes i let it go.

But then again on Monday when discussing the Jeff Neal fight, Luke said it again, 17 wins, 17 finishes. As we speak, and according to many websites, including SureDog, Shavkat's 16-0. That's one victory too many. And hey, BC, don't get too excited. At the start of the show when discussing Volk being the backup fighter, you referred to 280 as the stacked card in Dubai, but the event is going to be in Abu Dhabi. Wow. I'm sure those in Abu Dhabi have paid a lot of money specifically to Dana to compete against and differentiate themselves from their fellow UAE state. P.S. Luke, why don't you introduce BC to melodic death metal bands from the Nordics?

Cheers, it's NEMA. Because those bands suck balls. Yeah, NEMA. Don't try to push your music on us, NEMA. We're not down for it. But yeah, I guess I'll take that L again. Here's Ben and Paul. They say on Monday's show,

Luke mentioned that Robert Whitaker fought Yoel previously in Western Australia. Rob fought Yoel at 21 western australia rob fought yoel at 213 in vegas and 225 in chicago of which of which this writer was in attendance at they said yoel did fight in perth but he knocked out luke rockhold at 221 it was yes yes you're right sorry my bad my bad love you guys enjoyed the shit out of doc seven thank you gentlemen and we have one here from uh chris from scotland so it's a reverse dead wrong this is interesting emailing this dead wrong on behalf of my four-year-old son shay who was within earshot when luke loudly proclaimed on monday show

that santa is not real after plenty of damage control and informing him that you were just bitter about being on the naughty list uh my fiance wasn't as kind by the way talking about luke i talked him around i guess it's my fault for listening to you two washed fucks when the kids are home um wow uh he though is dead wrong for playing this show anywhere around oh this is our producers talking so our producers are reverse dead wronging him that's probably mikey for playing this show around his kids who's really at fault here luke yeah i mean it sounds like you're a bad father to play a shitbag podcast like that around your kid you know what i'm saying all right there it is that's the show for this week okay uh thank you i'm sorry to the kid i'm sorry to the little one i'm sorry i don't want to ruin your you know if you're in fifth grade

you'll fuck your life but But if you're young, I was in fifth grade and thank you. Thank you to my parents for that. All right. Thank you very much. Morningcombat at gmail.com for your future drop offs. Don't forget folks, youtube.com slash morning combat is where all of our bonus material is.

You can see that doc seven guys. Will you watch that fricking doc? I mean, there's like about, I know I get it. There's an average, every episode, there's a certain amount of know, I get it. There's an average episode. There's a certain amount of number that will watch our main show.

Luke, those same people don't go down the street and check out that doc that's playing. They don't. They don't. And even I am going to tell you it's pretty good. Actually, it's really good. It's really, really good. It's worth your time. And I know, Ian, listen, watch it in chunks.

It's not, you know, 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, whatever you can give. But it's worth your time. It's 40 minutes of your day. Believe me on that. Also, BC, I know you're doing the post fight roundups tomorrow also don't forget we got a ufc 280 pregame pre pregame preview with one ice man chuck mindenhall coming out on sunday as well so be on the lookout for that i love me some chuck mindenhall uh thank you to showtime you can get Showtime for free 30 days right now by going to Showtime.com. Check me a week from today. Yeah. Showbox, the new generation of Atlantic City. Be there. I will. Also, after that free month, how about $3.99 for the next three? Okay. Hey, I don't need to tell you that Corey Anderson's fighting for the light heavyweight

title, but you can watch it for pretty cheap if you jump on board right now morning combat.store has all the good stuff brand new hats today guys okay um i don't usually support that morning hub logo but it's our best seller and now we got a hat version that may change your life seriously try it on try on the amateur director hat luke as they call it it's beautiful if you like pornography shout out to money lion ag1 all the people that support us. And shout out to our great listeners. We can't do any of this without you. Thank you for pushing us to the awards levels.

We got some good stuff cooking. We have some good stuff cooking right now, Luke. There's something big coming around the corner. What is it, February? There's something coming, Luke, okay? Oh, there certainly is. That's all corner. What is it? February? There's something coming, Luke. Okay. So just, oh, there certainly is. That's all I got to say.

You know what? I'll just say it. It's the biggest thing MK has ever done. It's the biggest thing MK has ever done. So be on the lookout. Thank you. Thank you. A little, a little, a little drudges.

Right? Yep. Yep. Just, just a little bit of that. Enjoy the fights this weekend, guys. Shout out to Long Island Luke on the ones and twos, Mikey Morms somewhere. My name is Brian Campbell. That's Luke Thomas.

Luke, do you have anything to say to the people here? I got to go because I got to do an interview with a one athlete, and I'm looking forward to talking with him, so that'll be out soon as well. And enjoy your weekends. Be safe. Don't drink and drive. Thank you very much. Take care of it up here, okay? first we got this we can get through this i mean mk care if don't nobody else care uh two more words we out that's it that's i mean that's it i'm not doing anymore