MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night: Imavov-Strickland | One on Prime Video 6 | Jose Aldo | Ep 396

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

On Episode 396 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian preview UFC Fight Night: Imavov vs. Strickland. The boys also preview One on Prime Video 6. What should we be looking for on these two cards? Jose Aldo is set to make his pro boxing debut but does he have more to worry about with the scandals surrounding him? The guys also discuss the letter sent to Endeavor by the California Legislative Women's Caucus. They close out the show with quick hitters and fan submissions. (00:11:10) - UFC Fight Night: Imavov vs. Strickland (00:41:30) - One On Prime Video 6 Preview (00:50:20) - Jose Aldo (01:02:00) - Dana White (01:12:30) - Quick Hitters (01:24:00) - Fan Submissions Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

hey it's the 11th of january i don't know what that means except it's the 11th of january 2023 hi everyone it is time for excuse me morning combat i am merely one half of your hosting duo my name is luke thomas i join you from the capital of estados venidos right here in washington dc joined by the smirking looks like an extra on the set of Peaky Blinders, or whatever the fuck that show is called. It's the BC with a CTE. What's up, Ryan Campbell? Oh, yeah, Luke. So happy to be back at it here on this hump day, right?

Because that's what we do. You know what I'm saying, Luke? This is what it's all about. What is your very terrible shirt? It's an old school wrestling uh zach zach rider shirt you know i still woo woo you know it but that was pretty you know if you're uninitiated boy was that lame uh probably just as lame if you're initiated but luke have you been following the the mcmahon family drama of the last 24 hours i don't know if it's real i

gotta tell you i'm actually pretty interested in this news i my understanding is this so vince got booted because he you know he uh sexually harassed a bunch of people or you know paid a bunch of people to go away for sexual misconduct let's say he gets booted his kids take over and then like a couple months later he finds his way into the board of directors puts himself in charge changes bylaws and then sells the company to the saudis and then his daughter quits did i get that i gotta tell you that is like talking about not giving a fuck vince mcmahon truly believes like scandal is merely a function of time wait till enough of it goes away and i'm just going to be right back right something like yeah i mean some of that got aggressively reported and it doesn't seem to be fully true from the idea of, like, is a sale imminent?

But the Saudi Arabian government is a hefty suitor at the moment. But, yeah, it's like Vince saying, you know, if we're going down, you know, I'm going to direct it right toward that ditch and do it my way. I mean, I guess we could, you know, do you go like this to the captain for staying on the ship as it goes down, Luke? Or he's trying to make it go down, you know what I mean? Or maybe not. How much of a number two in the industry is AEW? Like, how big are they? Are they like Bellator plus PFL combined or something?

Yeah, yeah, certainly, certainly. They're not quite looking eyeball to eyeball, but it's getting closer from, you know, what I hear. Obviously, I don't watch the last couple of years, you know, know anywhere i don't watch at all but um that's sort of the perception that i get but damn it's like i mean he may not this just may be like the maniacal power move to take it private and sell it so he could be back in power creatively either way it's just it's weird man but that's that's the history of of uh. Would you say Shakespearean, Luke, or more like reality TV? It's more like the, did you watch that HBO show, Succession? Yeah, yeah, I did.

I watched the first season of that. I'm going to change my glasses. It's a little like that. Yeah, it is. It is to a certain degree. Anyway, we'll talk a little bit actually about that later on in the show as it relates. There is a bit of MMA overlap because there was some discussion that they were going to be bought out by wme they're not but um

something to think about uh going forward we have a lot to get to today we are going to preview the ufc card this saturday they're going to preview the one card this friday night and we'll get to some other headlines so thumbs up on the video if you're watching on youtube hit subscribe if you haven't yet if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform do leave us a nice review give us an old follow on the various socials there including tiktok tiktok is up there as well and give us a follow there um yeah want to remind people that i don't have any merch on but you can go to morningcombat.store you can get some merch there yeah you can check that out right there y'all you got some merch there you know merch is always

lingering around my possessions luke because that's nine tenths of the law so if you want to join this side of it get on over there luke you know what i got for christmas pizza slice chapstick it's got like a pepperoni type vibe going on dude that is some serious it's absurd yeah it's absurd i mean let's be serious here. Wow. All right. You just tossed me into Brendan Frazier territory. He still won an Oscar for it. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Okay, fair enough. But, you know, that's some fat guy behavior right there. I got some socks that smell like bacon. Well, okay. Maybe take it down a notch there, Poindexter. I didn't buy them. All right. That's my loving family.

They may be sending you a fucking message with that. Good Lord. Hey, Dad's a fat guy who likes dumb shit, right? That's pretty spot on so far, therapist. Thank you. I got to tell you, my family's shit is not much different. Like, what size is this motherfucker? They don't even have this here.

So that happens to me a lot. All right. I want to remind you, showtime.com is the label that page showtime.com 30 day free trial. You're lucky you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. And then first six months thereafter,

three 99 a month. I mean, Hey, you can't get much better than that. All the good stuff there on showtime, including BC on showbox, which is coming up very soon. Not this weekend,

but the following, if I'm not mistaken. So yeah, January 20th, Bethlehem pennsylvania uh donks unite be there all right well show box goes to some real oh dude they go to the salt of the earth venues you know dude i just found out where we're going in february it's not uh public news yet but it's you know middle somewhere in middle america i'm ready luke i'm ready to go on a barnstorming tour of this country to find out what it's you know middle somewhere in middle america i'm ready luke i'm ready to go on a barnstorming tour of this country to find out what it's really like behind the doors where they make all that sausage luke all right a lot of counting crows yeah um and then last but not

least i want to remind folks this is coming up like we were having daily discussions about this now i don't know when we're going to make the announcements for guests i'm hoping soon because we're getting them locked in but uh pod-live.com we're going to london everyone if you're in london the london area come hang out with us february 8th when i say it's a once in a lifetime opportunity i'm not telling you like we're gonna like fulfill all of your hopes and dreams what it'll probably be the only time we ever go over there so this is it folks this is the chance come see us now or forever hold your peace right bc yeah that's that's what it is you know i believe we have 500 seats that we were tasked with selling we're not quite there yet but but we're very proud of how far we are and as we said on uh monday show

jump on board now get them before they're gone because our aim is to sell that shit out all right it's like metallica after cutting their hair, Luke, right? It's like Bon Jovi when he went country, right? I mean, it's just a full-on sellout. Yeah, that's what we're going after, okay? Metallica did not get better when they cut their hair. Yeah, it doesn't. I mean, look at Samson historically.

It doesn't usually go your way, right? The problem is if you don't cut your hair and you just leave it like Dave Mustaine, you just end up looking like, you know, people just can't tell if you're coming or going at that point. Yeah, you look like Cody McKenzie. You're like a grifter. You know, one of my favorites. I mean, you know where I'm going with that.

Grifter slash drifter slash dosser. You just look like a big dosser when you grow your hair out and you're 62. You know what I mean? You just got to, at that point, whatever. But, all right. Neither here nor there, BC. Oh, and then morningcombat.gmail.com. Plus, we'll do fan subs today, I believe. Yeah, reach out to Mikey. Say hi, alright? Say hi to Mikey.

Alright, BC, if you're ready to get this going, let's talk a little bit about this UFC card. This will be UFC Vegas 67, aka UFC Fight Night M of All vs. Strickland. It's got some other naming conventions as well. Now, if you're just joining us, or you were a Heard Monday show,

we had told you that the coming main event was going to be Kelvin Gastelum taking on Nasseruddin. And it turns out that's not the case. Sean Strickland is filling in, even though he just fought the last card of 2022 against Jared Kananirer because Gastelum is out. I believe we have some tweet to this effect. Gastelum had a tooth issue where he had to get

it. Well, this is the Connor thing about it. BC, you want to set this up for us? Because I know this is a passionate issue for you. Well, I know what mouth sores, not so much, but it was tough to see Gastelum who showed this picture to prove what happened to him but then you see the quote tweet on instagram however you say it from connor who said absolute scruff this thing is that's full-on staff infection all over his effing face a full effing hole omg and it's his second time to enter uh to attempt to enter competition like this what the f clean your mats wash yourself blah blah blah go to the the doctor. Luke, unfortunate because this was a big test for Gastelum. It wasn't win or go home. It might have been.

What's the best way to not go home, Luke? Not fight, I guess. No, seriously, it's a tough turn. He would have fought if he could. Of course, he came out publicly and said, man, I was in the best camp of my life. But he basically said it, Luke, that no stone left unturned. He was was all in so to see him have to step aside even with connor dunking on him what's connor looking for people coming like people on rough times that he might be able to fight luke or is he just a general troll right here probably just being a general troll although

i did see some other pictures some other fight camps where gastelum had some matte cleanliness issues or i should say appeared to have some matte cleanliness issues uh not great not great dirty sport luke it's a dirty ass sport or in more than one way mma doesn't care about covid but they do care about mercer definitely care about mercer and by the way mercer is serious like you can absolutely wreck you kill kill you. I think it permanently changed King Moe's career because he had a very severe bout with it. So I'm not saying it's anything to look past. I'm making a stupid joke.

But nevertheless, it can be quite serious. And so folks, do take it seriously. But in any case, now it's Nasruddin Imovov, who is a minus 115 to Sean Strickland's minus 105 BC is this a is this changing opponent for Emovov is it good for him is it bad for him in terms of in your view stylistic matchups I think it's potentially a harder fight for him but I don't think it's yeah yeah for sure but you know I always reserve the right that Gastelum's going to, you know, go back into like a B plus, A minus mode and just, you know,

fight for his life there to keep the job. But I think it's in him still. But this matchup, still a hell of a good one. I think when you look at it, is it a harder fight for him? Yes, I think it also potentially is, you know, is worth more obviously from the standpoint of how quickly he could move up with a win here. But how about, you know, UFC giving Sean Strickland a chance to, like, go all in, double down,

whatever poker analogy you want here. The two straight losses were against super elite competition, you know, lost by split decision to Canada near and a big one that was him going right back to the well to try to stay in this title picture. This is the best way to just reverse recent history and get right back in a big spot. It's not an easy fight. I'm very curious to hear what the initial odds were, Luke, after this was announced.

But Strickland, who fought well against Kananir, really just was unable to make the right adjustments to get a clear win there. He's got a chance, Luke, to be right back in there. You know the UFC loves to reward this type of behavior and activity, so it's a good move for Strickland. It really is, but does this change that Imavov's the guy coming up,

making moves? He's the hot quotient of the moment here, Luke. I'm looking forward to see who shows up here and what kind of fight we get. By the way, speaking of who's not listening i did read the odds to you when i told you who the fight was it's a minus 115 for imov minus 105 for strickland so basically a pick them you said that in english and i missed it luke i

did i did say it in the king's english i don't believe it all right fair play yeah uh but here's the point in in in thinking about this fight i actually think it's a much harder fight and it's a much more stylistically bad fight for im all personally right for a couple of reasons if you look at the way he's got two finishes in the UFC I believe both of them came on the ground now he is much more striker than a ground specialist but like in the Ian Heinish fight he can go for takedowns off of like someone else's failed takedown the Shabazzian fight he was able to use guillotines and other stuff to reverse position or get on top or whatever he needed to do it was he was pretty clever with it so it's not like he can't play the dozens so to speak on the ground but he's just much more of a striker but there's two things that really give you

some pause number one not great about checking leg kicks not great kind of lets people get away with it got Buckley lost the fight of lets people get away with it. Buckley lost the fight, but Buckley got away with it. Even, to a degree, Heinisch got away with it. Guys kind of get away with it a little bit with him. He doesn't make a big effort at checking. Against a guy like Sean Strickland, where that thing is probing constantly, and it's active constantly, and it sets up other portions of his offense,

that doesn't seem like a great setup, necessarily, for him involved. The other part is, we saw this in many of his offense that doesn't that doesn't seem like a great setup necessarily for immov the other part is you know we saw this in many of his fights sean strickland is hard to hit clean now you're like oh well what perera did it yes perera did it but like other guys have had three or even cannonier five rounds and they just have a really hard time getting to him a guy like immov does bring the fight to his opponent that part is real and if you can get strickland backed up against the fence bc hey anything's possible because he is very very very gifted um and and aggressive in those spots but for a guy who's hard to hit who's hard to back up who might be active with the leg kicks it just seems like that's gonna be a bit of an uphill climb plus if he gassed in the buckley fight and this is going to be a i don't know if it's going to be three or five rounds but assuming it's going to be five rounds um that also goes in strickland's favor so it's yeah i mean i the short turnaround

i have no fear from the way strickland is wired or you know barring any potential injury here that this doesn't bet this may benefit him altogether luke because he's fresh he's he's just gone the five round distance in a fight that you know he felt like he had an argument in and fought well so yeah very tough fight but it does raise the stakes too for him above so i want to look i want to see if he is that good that's the key part of it but um it'll be interesting to see who can bring this fight to the ground or if it does go there luke yeah here's another part too strickland's got strickland's got very good takedown defense right he's probably not going to go for it there um and i just got to say too like with strickland that's the kind of guy the ufc really wants in many ways strickland is you know i don't know

about ideal ufc fighter but he's very good now he's not the most exciting i think it's also fair to say but he's very talented he's highly ranked and he can go the distance. He makes weight. And more importantly, he'll just say yes pretty quickly. Now, this obviously is a bit of a different circumstance because he, I think if you looked at what he put on social media after his loss to Cannoneer, it looked like he had a very bad taste in his mouth with regards to the judging or just feeling like something got away from him when it shouldn't have.

So he looks like he wants to get one back right away which by the way is not advisable either like in immov's favor if strickland is getting this back just to right a perceived wrong and he's doing it too quickly that will blow up or at least the chance of that blowing up in his face goes up but in general what they want are fighters who make sure that they can be good and then they're ready and they can make weight but more importantly that when the trains leave the station they're they're part of that process that they don't get in the way of it they facilitate it so to get a ranked guy on very last minute notice for immov however you may like his style or not and his readiness the ufc loves that kind of thing he's doing himself some favors here with the with the brass I guarantee it yeah no no question about it Luke I feel like you you were very quick there to label

Sean Strickland as a as an unexciting fighter I I think that's slowly changing or maybe it's just my entertainment palette now look the character Sean Strickland I think is largely cringe and sometimes deplorable and I I get that's the purpose of it it's not like I don't see the angles but you know I could do without a lot of the stuff he says into a microphone but you know i feel like it is a constant persistent high volume striking style he's constantly moving forward um it can be situational he doesn't need the right opponent to bring that out of him to a certain degree but did you did you were you not entertained against cannon here i guess is my question no i was not i didn't think it was a bad fight but was i entertained no i was not

entertained i did i did not find it entertaining um but that doesn't mean i don't think it's high level that doesn't mean i don't have respect for their abilities i mean there's lots of ways to enjoy a fight sometimes you just want to see the chess of it all and in that sense there is something to take from it but like was it fun no it was not fun at all i did not have fun watching that contest okay i mean i'm not i'm not looking for you to you know to pitch a 10 here luke but i i you know there was there's a middle ground i think where you could lie in where you know there was a two highly skilled guys in a very important fight and they were yes you know fighting with edge and purpose and you know it's a little manly in there luke so maybe that doesn't move you but that's fine luke different strokes

right again it's i think you can have respect for their abilities and the accomplishments that brought them to to that moment and then listen you don't want to fuck up against cannon here he has blinding power and against a guy like sean strickland, if you let him start working in rhythm, it will be a problem for you. It takes high level ability to negate or get around that in the case of either Ken and near or Strickland. And I have genuine respect for that. I mean that very sincerely, like that is a very, very difficult thing to do, but if we're going to start ascribing entertainment value to it, I can separate, or at least it doesn't, there isn't always complete overlap between the respect I can confer on someone or some event and have it be, that's a word that's synonymous for its entertainment value. There was not much entertainment value to it. There was a

lot of high level ability being showcased. And I think it's okay to say we can separate the two. Although I do sometimes grant you'll do, you will get entertaining with high level and then people will still knock it down a peg and say it was it wasn't entertaining i think this is a level below that in terms of its entertainment quotient it was very low for me thank you for that very detailed response luke i've come to know you at an even deeper level than i than i did setting that up wow Wow. All right. Yeah, whatever, Luke. But when you look at, I mean, what area do you think Imovov has the potential to wow you the most in? Because he's got to raise his game in this fight. And I'm not asking you to break down how he wins it necessarily. The clinch?

The clinch? Okay. He does a lot of his work in the clinch. Obviously, he does a lot of his work in the clinch. He obviously does a lot of it on the outside, but the outside is where I think Strickland's going to have... On the outside is where Strickland will give him, in all likelihood, the most amount of problems, because that's where Strickland does a lot of his best work as well. In the clinch, and by the way, again,

Strickland has good takedown defense. He's got good defense, I think, in those positions more generally. I think it would be interesting to see if to what extent Imhovov can back him up and then fire knees in close range do something in that really tight space to mix it all up to keep a guy like Sean Strickland off balance also I think if you saw Strickland really getting his back up against the fence continuously that would be a really good sign for him above. So it's going to be a big test, I also think, of Strickland's footwork, right?

And his ability to capture center, ring general, or, you know, they call it ring, but in this case, cage, general ship, that kind of a thing. It's a big test for Sean Strickland. It's not easy. It just seems like he's got exactly the kind of style built for five rounds, assuming it goes that long, to negate. Like, he just just he's very

good at being a bomb diffuser not against the very best guy right not against the champion fair enough but against everyone sub level to that he's very good at unplugging all the things that make their offense work especially in the stand-up department you might see some evidence of that unless he's backed up and forced into close range i think so there you go looking forward to this one uh this is at the apex and um i know we have more topics related to dana but just all i want is a yes or no does dana show up to this card yes i think he does i think i think he's trying to make a show that like nothing nothing's gonna stop tachi palace 2.0.

Like I'm going to ignore everything and just do what I want, you know? All right. In your main event, Dan EG, we talked about this previously, Dan EG taken on Damon Jackson, Dan EG,

a guy who tasted the top and had some tough setbacks, but still very good. I guess the guy like Damon Jackson, who was kind of an afterthought who has just flatly reasserted himself. Danny gave BC a minus one 25 favorite Damon Jackson, just plus kind of an afterthought, who has just flatly reasserted himself. Danny gave BC a minus 125 favorite Damon Jackson, just plus 105. Very, very close odds. The odds makers, it seems like slightly leaning towards EGA. I think he has fought and defeated better guys.

BC, your level of interest in this contest and to any particular way you think these two are sized up. Yeah, look, my interest is big. This is going to be an action fight. Dan Ige typically makes that happen, but you mentioned that that streak that Damon Jackson is on, four straight since the first round knockout loss via single punch to Ilya Teporia.

And, you know, he's stopping people. We saw the Pat Sabatini finish. Look, him as a plus money right now, I like it. I like hot fighters in the moment sometimes, guys that are riding a good feel of momentum and are willing to go after it. And I think Ige is always going to be a tough out. But I do feel like he peaked within that initial launch in 2020

when there were some opportunists who were able to keep fighting regularly and take big chances and come after it. I think he made some big moves and you saw some really good performances against big names. But I always question at his size with that style, with not being necessarily a consistent finisher, can that continue to level up? In that regard, I think this is a great opportunity for Damon Jackson to surprise a lot of us and show us that he might be even better than we think. Yeah, I mean, just as a recap, like how we got here with Dan Ige. So since losing to Julio Arce back in 2018, he went on a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 fight winning streak that culminated with a win over Edson Barboza.

Fought Calvin Cater, didn't go his way, went the distance. Wasn't a huge, like, ass-kicking, but he was outclassed, rebounded with a vicious stoppage of Gavin Tucker, but then, BC, he got to the deeper end of the division again, loses to Chan Sung Jung via decision, loses to Josh Emmett via decision. That's a tough fight. And then loses to Movsar, and I'm going to mispronounce his name,

Evloev, the guy who's an absolute effing hammer. So in all of these cases,'s like dude he was fighting the very top tier or pretty close to it obviously Bukanovsky would be the very top tier but something approximating it and he's hard to finish like they couldn't put him away right neither Cater nor Jung nor Emmett nor um Evloev but nevertheless found himself wanting BC Damon Jackson a guy who's been kind of all over the place a little bit was in the pfl for a time and lfa here he is uh of course he had fought in ufc previously returns to ufc at a later joint in his career now he did get dusted off by ilia zapporia in 2020 but we know like okay what does

that mean ilia zapporia is a fucking hammer since then beats charles rosa uh camuela kirk daniel argeta and then his biggest win in my judgment which he got inside of a round against pat sabatini that's a very nice win which he got via ground and pound so he is really a different fighter this time than he was the last time i think it's fair to say yeah and look i mean i don't like the trend that iga's going down where it looks like he's a really tough out to anybody who's very good or on their way to becoming it but you know there seems to be a ceiling without without being a consistent finishing threat luke that to get over the top against some of these guys he still may have the

savviness in in the certain want and hunger this time around because he needs this win so you know that may that may lift him to another level i do expect this fight to be close but man big opportunity for jackson to come to come oh you know to come remind people right luke to come make new fans yeah and by the way this is this is uh yeah come original uh yeah that's everything we do we've got yeah yeah for damon jackson he has a slightly negative striking differential uh he lands 2.65 per minute absorbs 2.83 so it is negative but just barely um but defense not 50 that's i guess that's okay accuracy 41 percent egay is slightly positive in his differential striking 3.8 to minus to 3.56 the big one that's going to get really tested bc and this is the part where it gets interesting for Damon Jackson he averages per 15 minutes 2.62 takedowns so almost one around not quite but almost one around takedown accuracy

is low but that's a misleading stat takedown defense 42 so he can be taken down uh goes for submissions constantly 2.1 here's the thing the takedown defense for Dan Ige is 51 now it's 51 against guys who we know to this point to be better than Damon Jackson, but Damon Jackson's relentlessness with it, how many he goes for might be the difference maker. And the thing is this, Dan Ige is hard to hurt and hard to finish on the ground. All those guys I mentioned, Evloev, Cater, none of those guys, Korean Zombie, Josh Emmett, none of them could do it because he is a black belt on there and he can keep himself safe underneath even if he's not necessarily a threat from guard I think that's going to be where the fight is won or lost how often is Jackson able to get the takedown how much time is spent with

Ige defending the takedown and if he gets the takedown that is Damon Jackson to what extent is Ige fighting him from guard that's something you've seen whereas look don't get me wrong Ige doesn't have a bad guard not by any stretch of the imagination but it's hard to submit a very good fighter off of your back in modern MMA if they have taken you down they're not hurt or anything they're kind of fresh and you're just working from underneath it's just a low percentage way to fight someone no matter how good you are so that to me is going to be the central tension in that fight that's what I'm looking for. But if it stays on the feet, Dan Ige should win this one.

I mean, he's, he's look, he's got that certain intangibles jacked up high that, you know, he goes after it. He's going to max out his potential within a fight to have a chance to win it. I think that sometimes when it's, when it is a back and forth and becomes a war, that's where he thrives. So let's see if Jackson can swim on this level. Let's do that. Luke, you showed some love to the idea of what this Ketlin Vieira, Raquel Pennington fight means to the Bantamweight division.

Two big names here. And I think I wanted to poo-poo that in the moment. Is Raquel Pennington on the sneakiest four-fight win streak that anyone's been on in a while, Luke? Because you look at the potential stakes of this fight with Ketlin Vieira bouncing back with two big wins over Misha Tate and Holly Holm in a close decision but still I mean is this like a number one contender bout in this division which is so thin all the time dude her resurgence is incredible and I'm so glad you pointed that out because it's been hard fought and I to your point, is it the sneakiest winning streak right now happening in UFC among any kind of ranked fighter? The answer has to be yes.

Remember something. We're not even talking about outside the cage injuries. Remember, she had a really, really terrible bout with COVID. And she had that, I think it was the skiing or the snowboarding or the ATV accident that completely messed her up. There's all of that stuff. Put that just to the side for a moment. She had a great win streak where she beat, by the way, she beat Jessica Andrade, Betch Gohea, and Misha Tate in three of four fights.

Then she gets the title shot against Amanda Nunes. And that was the one where she wanted out and her coach made her continue. And then she got beat up for it, which was not great. She followed it up with a loss to Duran Dami. She came back and beat Irene Aldana somewhat controversially then loses to holly holm and you thought okay well at this point she might just be damaged goods like i mean that's you know all the injuries then to lose to amanda nunez in that terrible way you know that is what it is and then she mounts an effing comeback by the way she was 10 and 8 hitting into the marion renault fight then she beats her she beats penny kianzad who's

a very talented fighter vastly improved over who she used to be then she beats macy i always fuck this name up jay jason jason jason i think jason however the fuck you say i always fuck it up i'm so sorry and then she finished it up in her most recent one over aspen lab dude that is you know especially like two of those three the the middle two, the Keon Zod fight and then the Chastain fight, whatever. Amazing, amazing what she's been able to do. So yeah, man, like Ketlyn Vieira has her issues, right? We saw her get stopped against Kunitskaya.

We saw her get stopped against Aldana, but since then she's beaten Tate and Holm to like boost her name again. This is a great fight. One of the better ones on this card. I think for Ketlyn Vieira, it's you win, you get a title shot. I mean, what does Amanda Nunes need now? Fresh opponents that she hasn't fought yet. So that'd be a three-fight win streak right there against former champions

or key multi-time title contenders there. So, man, good stakes there. Should be a striking match at the very least luke right yeah uh yeah that's the thing to me it's uh where's this one gonna be um probably striking at range uh i do expect it's funny they put this picture up right here you see these two clinching i'm expecting a lot of clinching i think I think that dirty box clenching position, the kind of wall ground and pound, so to speak, I think that's really where someone like Pennington thrives, but also Ketlin Vieira is pretty good there as well. I think just Ketlin's going to want to avoid certain grappling situations,

but this is a very closely contested one. And by the way, speaking of the rankings, Ketlin Vieira at Bantamweight as we speak today sitting at two pennington has boosted her career back to five so this is um you know we're talking like potential title shot possibilities here especially if you're uh kitlin vieta because number one is juliana pena they may not go that direction anyway right so right so this is a this is kind of a big deal. It's a big fight for either. It's an especially big fight for Vieta.

Look at those odds, though, Luke. They're giving Raquel Pennington a lot of respect in Vegas at plus 100, Vieta minus 120. I think this is the time to go big on Ketlin here. I mean, this is a fight that she should win, notwithstanding the recent run by Pennington. Yes, she was a hard out who is tough as nails and wants some key fights there to get to this point, no question. But I think Ketlin at this moment is the better fighter who has the potential to really make the leap directly to the title with a win here.

She's going to have to be more dynamic than usual here, Luke, but I think she's got the brighter potential in that category. So I like her as almost as only, excuse me, a small favorite. Let's go here, you know? Yeah, and I understand that. And I think I would say Vieira has more ways to win. I think that's fair. But man, if there is someone who can just persevere and long-term too, right? Not just in those moments.

Yes, she had the difficult moment between the fourth and fifth rounds in the amanda nunez fight but like in terms of just stealing her mind for the long-term journey of difficulty fucking raquel pennington is a hammer dude she's an amazing hammer so she doesn't need to be that one to be successful she needs to be a physical threat the whole fight though you know what i mean and she needs to be a physical threat the whole fight though you know what I mean she needs to be leaning clenching as you said but if you can keep her at length which isn't easy you know you can't control her so we'll see

what happens here Luke but interesting odds and um you know I probably had a great point that I was oh oh I was gonna say you can listen to more on my new um spin off podcast uh parlays and punanis with um James Krausec coming soon to uh only pipes patreon uh account yes a platform patreon platform near you thank you uh you can listen to uh parts

of it by donating to luke super chat all right thank you yeah i mean you can make a great joke to like salvage the bad one you made that probably is going to lose us all over i think it was the other way around yeah yeah thank you i was going to say bc the biggest favorite on the card no surprise right no surprise umar number cameadoff taking on how any or how any barcelos uh umar number cameadoff a minus 750 bc this guy can do it all i mean i don't know about the striking just yet but on the ground uh his control his ability to switch between and chain takedowns together, his ground-to-pound, his sub-threat, his positional dominance, his work rate. He has everything he needs to win this bout and more.

Any doubts about that? Am I missing something perhaps? Well, I wanted to see how extreme this movement goes right now. There are truthers out there shout out to them who have said from day one like i love me some mahachev and oh shit usman dermaga medoff is something wild and you know a lot of the people on the periphery of the greater um habib family extension through dagestan i mean there's some great ones that are all competing but umar's the best of all of them look you do hear that from people, right?

I mean, that's a thing out there right now. You do. You do hear that from people. I don't know how true that is. I haven't seen it yet. I've seen a lot to be impressed with. I've seen a lot, but I haven't seen that thing that can give those people that level of confidence yet.

But as he continues to climb the ladder here um he's got what he's got chances to show us i mean if you're honey barcellos what are you doing here luke coming out guns blazing or is that the worst possible idea uh i mean it's the question is like not what is the best strategy the question is what is the best strategy you could come up with given your existing skill set and i'm just really not sure what Marcellos could do, given his existing skill set, to, if necessary, keep Nurmagomedov off of him for three rounds. Like, I just don't know. Because you can't build in, oh, I'm going to KO him by the seventh minute.

It doesn't work that way, right? You have to build a strategy that goes, what if it goes the full 15? And I just don't know what that would be, candidly. I mean, don't get me wrong. He's a good striker. Nurmagomedov makes a mistake. He could eat one. Fine, fair enough.

That's a real thing that has to be taken into consideration. But we're talking about a guy who very carefully selects his offense but can do that pretty quickly. Like, he just makes very good decisions very quickly. And his overall grappling and wrestling game is very comprehensively good barcelos is uh pack a lunch he's gonna need to pack a lunch yeah it's gonna be a tough one i think they used to say about the jackson five luke that tito was like the the glue the unsung hero you know what i mean i thought that was michael oh the unsung hero

michael maybe star okay um yeah uh dude i want to see i want to see him continue to rise let's see what he's got here umar namaga met off this uh i mean dude he's he can do it all luke i mean would you say he's more of a submission threat than he is a striking threat at this point or is it pretty well right to this point i don't think he's shown quite the standing versatility as Usman has. Yeah, that's part of why I'm hesitating here. I mean, Islam Mahatir's pretty great too, Luke, in terms of the comparisons and the overall extended family here. Hey, did you see after we talked about Habib on Monday, Luke,

that the news was softened to a certain degree, that he's not retiring from coaching, but he is going to take an extended break yeah i none of these guys can ever fully stay away you know they can never fully stay away but so you're saying it's the same news yeah i guess it's the same news sort of the same news yeah uh bc last but not least for me on this card javid basharad i mentioned the one i was really putting my eye on on monday's, taking on Mateus Mendoza. They've got Basharat as a substantial favorite. I think it's a little high. They have him at minus 345 to Mendoza's plus 285. I do recognize that Basharat is the more well-rounded of the two, but as I mentioned, in their 20s, undefeated, two guys who are very much high-level prospects clashing. It just feels to me that Boshrod has way more ways to win this,

and I suspect that you'll probably see that play out, but Mendoza is not to be fucked with, to be quite clear. Luke, little, minor, super sloppy special alert feels out to the opener at women's flyweight, Priscilla Cachoeira and Sarge Eubanks. Look, both could, you know, Cachoeira's on a two-fight win streak, but both could use some big momentum here. I think we see a nice little war, okay?

So be on the lookout. If you're going to tune in early, Luke, I think you're going to see something fun. Priscilla Cachoeira's sitting at 12-4. Man, Valentina Shevchenko fucked her up. Then she lost to Molly McCann and then Luana Carolina. She fights crazy, Luke.

She fights crazy luke she fights crazy yeah she does fight crazy interesting one uh the star the sarge eubank one is interesting too because she was a really decorated jujitsu competitor and i just don't know if we've really seen her jujitsu fully obviously she's had some good moments with it but i thought it'd be more of a calling card for her and just it hasn't quite translated as fully plus she's seven and seven so big and she's lost three of her last four so this is a big one would you say that the being forced to move uh no she came down from bantamweight actually right down to flyweight i think that's right i have to double check but i mean she did flight

she yeah she had some nice wins early on like she beat Lauren Murphy and then Roxanne Modaferri. She started off pretty great, but has had, and I think she's had some injuries and some time off and a bunch of bouts canceled and all kinds of whatnot. But this is a big, important fight for her. No doubt about it. It's opening the car, to your point, but it's major, major stakes for their individual careers.

All right, BC, let's talk about topic number two here, which is the one on Prime Video 6 event this Friday. Quite an interesting event, to put it mildly. Let me put up the details here. So this is going to be obviously on Amazon Prime. If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, it'll be at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand. Now, here's what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to get up here and pretend to have information that I have and just pass off expertise that I know I don't have. Of all of the composite sports within MMA, kickboxing has been just a pretty big weakness for me. I think BC, you would say that as well. The grappling sports I know a lot more about. Certainly we pay a lot of attention to boxing on this show. Kickboxing is just a bit of a weakness for us.

But BC, here's something I wanted to point out out i've been doing a little bit of research about this about um this is this is to me we talk about the one situation all the time the main event is super bond taking on i believe it's pronounced shingis alazov bc did you realize this because this was something that did not occur to me this will be um pro kickboxing event, not MMA or Muay Thai. Superbond versus Al-Azhar is literally, by most people's standards, the number one pound-for-pound versus number two pound-for-pound fighters in the sport going at it. Oh, nice. And by the way, Al-Azhar had to win or had to do really well

in a Grand Prix to get to this point. By the way, he beat Sidichai, who's another monstrously celebrated name in Muay Thai and now kickboxing at this point. But dude, I want you to understand that. One is putting on basically, and by the way, it's at 155. This is more or less something like the equivalent of Volkanovski. I mean, Volkanovski's coming up in weight class, so it gets a little bit different,

but they're talking about number one versus number two guys in the sport. That's what this is. That's fucking impressive that they're putting this on, I have to say. Dude, their model, and obviously, part of the major thing that differentiates them from their competitors is right here,

that it's not just MMA, and it's mixed in with their MMA promotion. It's kickboxing, it's whatever, it's not just mma and it's mixed in with their mma promotion it's it's kickboxing it's whatever it's muay thai but dude they take chances to create big stakes in the main events and i and i think because of that i've grown to trust one from the standpoint of when when a main event is announced separate from is this the right type of main event on amazon prime to hook in american fans they've got some of those too, but sometimes you go, okay, I don't know who these two are,

but I respect that this is probably pretty important. I mean, look, it's like, there's a lot of champion versus champion fights across all the divisions and disciplines here in one. So you do get a chance to make big noise if you can get hot and you're willing to fight in different divisions and take big chances.

And it's not easy to keep that streak going. I mean, that RDR fight just the last time out against Malik was a big reminder of that. But damn, dude. Okay, I'm ready. You gave me a reason to tune in, right? Yeah, so my understanding is, and I've seen some of their fights, but I couldn't tell you, like, great. I couldn't get, like, the breakdowns we can do in MMA.

I'm not really capable of doing that right now in kickboxing. But Al-Azaw, the tape is pretty clear. He will, obviously he's a kickboxer, so he will use kicks, but he's heavy on the hands. By kickboxing standards, he'll mix the two together, but he really is sort of a come forward force that is quite remarkable in that way. Throws a lot from winding punches from different angles,

but your boy Superbon here, who's number one in pound for pound rankings by most people um much more of a distance kicker so there's really going to be who can define the terms of the fight it's going to be for i think it's a five three minute rounds and it's for the 155 one belt in kickboxing so huge huge fight for them really important one your co-main event bc for the one vacant bantamweight championship in kickboxing super like taking on a guy out of spain named daniel puertas um every preview and or review i have or you know assessment of this i've read is that super luck is going to beat the fuck out of this guy so i don't know how much there is to say in that regard um mikey musumechi taking on bayan durin

gantumer he's gonna demolish him anytime you see these grappling events and it's like how would a guy from adcc do against you know a wrestler from this or this part of the world or you know a sambo guy from this part of the world it's like yeah the adcc guy would fuck him up is basically the answer like there would be no good reason why this guy would win even with a weight advantage. So the question is not really that Musumechi will win, but how it was really the question there. When can I induct you into the stamp Fairtracks hype train and,

and, and join the bandwagon with me? She makes spectacularly fun fights. She's like a rock star. So let's talk about this. She's on this card in a custom rules bout five, three minute rounds against Anissa Mexon at, I believe out of France.

This is a custom rules bout. So I think they're going back and forth between kickboxing and MMA, kind of like that DJ Rod Tang fight. Correct. I'm not sure exactly which direction it's going, but that's sort of what's on the plate. Yeah, dude,

I'm up for it. Like it's going, but that's sort of what's on the play. Yeah, dude, I'm up for it. She's a great fighter, fun. Everyone in the kickboxing world tells me this will be action-oriented. So I'm not as in on it as you are, but for sure I'm in on it. I got introduced to her star, Luke, and somebody who understands the spotlight and how to try to fill that and become her best. You see in these pictures she did lose in challenging for Angela Lee's belt in a wild fight,

but that's the type of fight she makes. So it'll be interesting to see if this has that type of DJ versus Rod Tang type of just fun, wild element to it. I kind of believe it will, Luke. So this is my fight I'm circling on the card there, but I'll probably stay around for mikey musumechi um uh grappling too you know i know that's because that's big in your parts luke you know yeah i mean also he's just vastly superior to the guy he's going against so we'll see how that goes uh gary tonin taking on johnny nunez johnny nunez i believe that is that is misha tate's partner. I believe that's right.

I could be mistaken about that. But then I also want to point out, you had mentioned this on Monday's show, Rod Tang is going to take on a gentleman by the name of Jiduo Yibu out of China. And again, every preview I have read about this is that Rod Tang is going to fucking assassinate this guy. So some squash matches on here, BC.

Definitely some squash matches. It bc definitely some squash matches it's going to be in bangkok do you think our uh cbs cohort brent stover who will be on the call and play by play on the uh in one amazon card you think he's just tearing up the nightlife there you know he's an aspiring country star luke he's an aspiring country star the dude play the dude plays uh plays bars all the time plays guitar and uh and uh in the women's swoon i'm sure i'm sure um hot stove i call him would you would you go to a brent stover show or no no no okay okay all right i guess uh lastly just to remind everyone this is how interesting this

card is for friday on amazon prime which will be by the way main card starts at 8 p.m it has uh three mma bouts three kickboxing bouts one grappling bout one muay thai bout sort of speaks to exactly what one is doing here it's an mma promotion in the sense that that's sort of like the anchor programming but they are much more i think they should be thought of as a martial arts promoter they don't promote every martial art but they promote a lot of basically any combat sport that isn't boxing they do um with some interesting rule set key question here let's say you know we come around with shot tree let's say we have

a man we interview him and we ask all the hard questions and we're like, hey, that's our guy, Chaudry. And then he spins it around and goes, okay, Luke and BCIC, globally, the awards you guys are winning. I mean, it's just ridiculous, right? I want you guys to be in season two of One Championship Apprentice Edition. And Luke, it's a commitment. You're going to have to be away from your family in asia for a while does this offer even get to the marriage table does it is it even something you talk about no kind of a question is that all right well it's a big opportunity luke all right is that they got gsp last season okay come on yeah i don't think that's a big opportunity all right all right well you're like sorry sir i enjoy your fights but that's where our relationship ends yeah i definitely think

very highly of the one product but uh everything else about it you know that's what i think you don't like that extra large championship title it's the heaviest i do like that i do like that some people like the smaller you know subdued ones but i've always been the guy with the put the 22 inch rims on the escalade right get the spree wells when the car stopped rims keep spinning you know i'm talking about i know what you're talking about remember spree well in game five of the 99 finals against the spurs like they lost but that guy was it was just heroic in that game i don't think you remember that luke heroic all right no also nor do i care okay there you go all right let's talk a little bit about jose aldo bc i've got

some good news and some bad news um well look is the bad news i mean the bad news depends on what side of the political line you're on right i mean you're framing this as a uh what what are you saying he's brazilian what do you say, you were involved in a welfare fraud scandal. Hard to be like, that's good. You could be like, it's not bad. I mean, so was Brett Favre, Luke. You know what I'm saying? So was Brett Favre, right?

All of our heroes. Let's talk about the good part first. Expected to make his pro boxing debut on February 10th in Rio. The event will be held at the Upper Arena Nova União's training center, an usual site for their Chuto Brazil cards that they hold in the city. Chuto Brazil, a very legitimate regional organization, at least has been for some time, out of Brazil. BC, and level of interest in Jose Aldo boxing?

Fairly? Am I overly excited? No, but I do think he's got a certain amount left in the tank in an overall combat sports way of speaking. I guess I would rather this than him fighting some Jake Paul level guy who's way bigger than him where it could be a problem. They're probably going to put him in there against modest competition. Let's see what he's got, Luke. Let's see if he's comfortable. Let's see if he can go down this road a little bit. But I mean, would you say the other half of this equation is a little more troubling yeah i would say my level of interest in him boxing is

moderate moderate i mean i would want to see it i'm not going to pay a whole bunch of money for it but i would want to see it right something like that um on the other side he has made a bunch of weird ass headlines boy the start to mma in 2023 is one of the most fucking insane i've ever seen in my life i gotta bring down the uh the level of swearing because they picked this up and then they take away our ad money. But I'll just put it this way. So basically, there was an election in Brazil. The previous president, Jair Bolsonaro, loses and he had to flee the country on the advice

of his lawyers for potential crimes he's being investigated for related to corruption. Corruption is endemic in Brazil, but certainly he's had his share of it allegedly anyway. So guess where Jair Bolsonaro was staying? Oh, that's right. Jose Aldo's Orlando mansion, which by the way, BC, the news has reported that Bolsonaro was staying in Aldo's mansion, but the mansion was purchased like just a few years ago, not even very long ago, for $745K in Florida. BC, I got to tell you, $745K won't even get you a two-bedroom in this city, much less a mansion. Can you really get a mansion for $745K in Orlando, Florida? Do you believe it's a mansion? Yeah.

You do? First of all, I mean, look,ida um you know no am i an expert on florida real estate no but my you know my parents live there and and um i know to a certain degree obviously beachfront is different but if you're talking about orlando i think it's near disney world i mean there's different levels to to a large home but that's not you know you you even you know in suburban Connecticut here in some of these snobby towns, dude, 700K gets you a nice-ass McMansion up in these parts.

A nice one. Okay, hold on. The production staff... Hold on a second. The production staff just wrote to me, you can get a nice house in Orlando for less than 100K. Bullshit.

I don't believe that at all. My brother used to live there in a van down by the river and a part of why i'm saying there's levels to this because you know most of florida away from the ocean the the real estate can be very competitive luke because it's florida and some of it is rural florida and you know some of that extended orlando area just is you know being pushed out into more you know forest of trees that are getting knocked down in new neighborhoods so 700k

out there dude I mean Tiger that's where Tiger got a nine iron through the window right I mean you can yeah but I think his mansion is like tens of millions something he's got like a con well that's why I'm saying there's levels to it for 700k you can get a pretty big ass house dude no question about it so shout out to Jose for that.

You know, he eats what he kills. All right. Our intrepid producer in Florida, Mikey Morum says, quote, my boy has a five bed, three bath for 300K in Orlando. Dude, five bed, three bath where I live is one and a half, two million. Yeah, but you live in a stupid area for housing pricing that's only comparable to like san francisco and manhattan okay i guess my perspective is warped because when i see seven yeah a little bit 745k isn't gonna buy you shit around here

but you that's more reason why you should be selling banking and going luke you know i gotta go i gotta move to outside orlando i could be living like a fucking king out there dude a hundred percent you could okay i'm doing my stupid life dude you could be living great in in you know some some rich suburban areas if you wanted to luke or you could go you could buy a whole building in brooklyn luke you could be a hipster i could all right let's get back to the story very quickly bc there's not a whole lot to say but i think the audience should know about it if they don't already. So, number one, there's not a big deal, I suppose, that Bolsonaro is staying with Aldo, other than, you know, Aldo's got retrograde political views is the best way I could put that. But the other thing I would say is that there is at least some speculation among the Brazilian press

that this incident that happened at the Brazilian National Congress and Supreme Court, where they had their version of January 6th, that that may have been planned by Bolsonaro in Florida. So it's at least possible that all this went down in Jose Aldo's house, which is something to consider. But here's the other part, BC. Vivian Pereira Oliveira, which is Aldo's wife,

is allegedly listed as having received emergency funds from a collection of money selected to be awarded to the poorest families in Brazil during the COVID covid19 pandemic records show that olivera received equivalent to 120 bucks monthly between may and october 2020 with two subsequent lower payments the following two months aldo's wife wasn't registered as part of the platform for social programs making her ineligible to receive the emergency government handouts and her wife commented on Instagram, quote, just because we put Bolsonaro in our house,

the leftists are now snooping on our life. I have never received or registered for emergency help. BC, I don't know what to say about this. We'll sort it out on Maury this week, Luke. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Pay the $600 back and let's just move on. I don't know, Luke. It's not a ton of money, and I don't think. I mean, did if, I don't know, pay the $600 back and let's just move on. I don't know,

Luke, but it's not, it's not a ton of money and I don't think he needs it. But it is kind of weird that this sort of thing happened. I think the bigger issue for me is it's just like, I have seen, how do I say this? Exactly.

Like there's just no denying it. MMA is a very right wing sport. It just is. The people in it largely lean to the right. I think that the media does not. But the fans do. I think that the people in charge of it largely do. The fighters clearly are. And the reason you know that's true is it's not just true in the United States. It's quite literally true in Brazil as well. And I'm guessing it's going to be true in a lot of other countries on top of it so i have seen people try to argue the opposite that it's like oh there's so many different nations that participate it's got this it's got this kind of progressive worldview yeah no it doesn't it's the exact opposite um bc topic that's funny that's funny you framed it that way because before you keep going uh maybe this is the perfect transition into some Dana White talk. But it's like a lot of the negative feedback whenever you give an opinion on something like this Dana White situation comes, oh, you left this, you know, all because of you. And I'm like, dude, you don't even know how I vote or what I'm registered to.

I don't look at these debates as political. We look at this Dana White slap situation as a political debate. Like, I hate that it gets framed like that because when i look at mma i don't look at it from oh we have a problem on political beliefs i look at it from we have an extremist problem that to me isn't necessarily defined by uh support of any one side of the politics in a lot of ways it's just you know ignoring all politics which sometimes i do myself luke to for a certain mental sanity but um this is just a a sometimes a debate over decency and stuff in reality i would agree in

general but i think you can't be i'm not i'm not saying you're naive but i think we have to be very clear-eyed about it we also live at a time here in the united states and i'm guessing this is true in brazil and a lot of other countries as well where we have layered onto because there's some things that used to be like hey we can have debates over like how we but balance the budget or what defense spending should be and then there were these very sort of culture war issues that used to be um abortion for example it's by the way still is in many ways but you get the idea like there was sort of a set of core issues that defined the culture war but there was this vast space that really wasn't necessarily part of it. And the culture wars have eaten everything,

everything they have moved into. And I think now we live in a world, whatever side of the political aisle you find yourself, a lot of people have just layered onto identity, all of these other things that wouldn't, we wouldn't necessarily, when we grew up, they were not part of the culture wars.

That's why sometimes we look at it and we we're like how is this a culture war thing but it has moved in this direction because identity has been layered in so many directions that now it just becomes that even though it doesn't necessarily need to be that way i'm larry of anybody who overly aggressively identifies with one side of a political divide luke those are the people that scare me more than the people who don't even know there's a political divide going on but that's just my bolsonaro stay in your house um you know it'd have to be a situational uh thing luke do i know him has he been nice to me did he give me stolen money like the farves did uh you know but no i would not well i mean is this the equivalent like if if trump was run out of this country and like colby covington put it up put

him up in his like condo over the border in Mexico or something? Yes, roughly equivalent, yes. Okay, okay. I mean, it's wild, Luke. You can make a movie out of it. Hopefully Ian Hynash is starring in it because when they make a movie about his life story, Luke, called Backzilla,

it's going to be great, right? Bro, have you ever heard him talk about his time at Rikers? It's like the most under-reported story and I know a couple of major sites have done And I know a couple of major sites have done. I know a couple of major sites have done the kind of features that give us the knowledge we know up to this point. I want the full movie treatment because it's insanity how he went from that to being like a pretty decent top 20 fighter. You know, I mean, he taught himself Spanish, was a mule for the colombian drug cartel lived on the beach and homeless basically in spain went to spanish prison got i think either transferred or tried to come

back and got caught again i can't remember that part but ended up at fucking rikers island and for folks who don't realize this rikers island is not a place that they send bad people rikers i mean some bad people end up there it's a pre-trial detention center. Folks don't realize that because you hear Rikers and you think about all the times it's been in movies, right? And it's like, oh, that's where they send the worst of the worst. No, dude. Rikers Island is a pre-trial detention center, meaning if you can't make bond because you're too fucking broke,

they just ship your ass over to Rikers and it's massive overcrowding and there's tons of fucked up people there. And I think he said he was targeted to be attacked like the day he got pulled out of Rikers and sent to wherever he was else in that uh in that process of getting himself out of the prison system like he was this close to having like a life or death encounter in there it's his story if you've never read it is bananas bananas all right uhc we don't have to

spend a ton of time on this because i think we've kind of litigated this a million different ways but there is something of an update to the dana white situation such as you can call it that the california legislative women's caucus so this is a member of people who serve in the california state assembly have called for uf ufc president d Dana White to be removed from his position in a letter they wrote to Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel quote this is them saying it quote we write with deep concern about the recent violent video we have seen online from the UFC president Dana White our caucus which is both bicameral and bipartisan is composed of women across the state of California who are committed to creating better lives for women and girls, blah, blah, blah. Given Mr. White's previous remarks against domestic partner violence,

we believed that endeavor in the UFC shared this commitment to safety, respect, and accountability. You yourself have written extensively about the need to speak out and act when you see things are not in line with our values, which is kind of funny. And yet we have seen the video of UFC president Dana White, where he strikes his wife in New Year's Eve celebration with closed fist. I'm not sure it was closed. Was it closed? That's a little bit debatable. We were appalled.

It was alarming to say the least. The letter goes on to cite Emmanuel's own words surrounding the need to speak up against domestic violence, highlighting the, quote, hypocrisy, end quote, that comes from with the Endeavor CEO labeling silence as, quote, not an option an option end quote but demonstrating the opposite following the altercation between white and his wife the news about endeavor is interesting here because they have been massively vocal previously and now they're saying nothing bc this is not the same to me remember during the covet thing when they were pushing through the tachi palace or whatever it was yeah and they had they had like people in the united states i think it was. Yeah. And they had, they had like people in the United States. I think it was Barbara Boxer and other folks involved in the United States Congress speaking out. And that ended up,

I think catching Disney's attention. I, I'm not, I'm not saying this is utterly insignificant, but I'm not of the belief that this will lead to the power brokers in place kind of 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. Putting a lid on Dana. I don't really buy that. Yeah. And this is where people are really missing some things out. So I shared this news partially because I was just so happy, surprised that ESPN actually wrote about this and was covering it. And, you know, I had really, to be fair, really been disappointed in their overall reaction to this and their communication, their transparency, all that stuff that we talked about. So it's really more about me, about like what's fair in terms of like how people respond than it

is is this a reputable organization do they have a reputable claim and can we keep banging the drums to get dana white fired no like that's not what i want it's not that's not the end game that i'm fighting for so when you share it and you get hammered out by people on you know all sides of it it's like i can't believe we have to come on here one final time and actually define certain things for people that don't get it. This is not about him losing his job or even to my belief, losing, you know, large amounts of money in fines or anything like that regard. It's about being transparent, stepping up, not setting dangerous precedents. And it's about what's fair. And that's why even comparing fighters to Dana's situations, even though Dana's situation has its own level of layers to it, it's about the image and the look.

And when you're the leader of an organization and the consistency and reputation of other partners and how they respond to things from, like you mentioned, Ari Emanuel of Endeavor going hard after Kyrie in the public and now not mentioning this. And the same accusations we threw at ESPN for most of this season on the coverage of this it's it's frustrating and disappointment and disappointing but it's to me it's not about should Dana come or go I want him to stay but I do want major change to be you know in a message to be sent and this you

know the deafening silence on that from everybody is, I mean, wow. You know, it's just, you know, when you see words in here like hypocrisy, I agree with it. And Luke, you know, on the flip side, people are going to then come back. Well, didn't you guys just call it your Vontae fights? Like, I can't believe we have to continue to, you know, settle the differences between that. we are talking about a president of a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company who has certain precedents set on when people under his flag get in trouble. And now just ignoring this to me is, is the real story. Nothing else, you know, nothing else of what about his wife? It's like, I can't believe I have to come out here and actually explain that. No, what she did is not

right, but this has nothing to do with men's rights, in my opinion, because of how it played out and how damaging that looks, that video. Did she strike first? Yes. So if Dana wanted to press charges, yes. If you wanted to sever the relationship, yes. But his reaction, the severity of it, the multiple follow-up shots, the you know, that that's the story here. I mean, you know, Ariel said it best. You've said it best a few times, but Dana's not even defending himself. So why is it everybody collectively in the in sort of the combat world that are in the minority on here that are looking at this as no big deal? You know, I just don't understand the overall response. So I thought this was a good thing that people are keeping the topic prescient, but no, I'm not like going to line up with the

California legislative women's caucus and support Dana must go. But things do need to change from a maturity level and from a corporate level for all of those partners involved in this, of how you react to, you know, very real and very damaging public situations it's like in that regard just the the straight up ignoring of it and coming right out with power slap commercials i mean i'm dude i'm i i still don't even believe this is real life luke and it's like okay well bc what do you want daniel to do didn't he already come out he did he did already come out and do what he had to do but the people around him whose job is to be just as mature in these you know really dark situations have done nothing so they all become you know looked at like they're in on it you know just we're just gonna ignore this it's not a big deal no it actually

is a big deal and um you know the more that you ignore this it's like you said should dana be there i you know i think the best thing that should happen for uf if they wanted to cover it up, which it seems they want to do, is if there was a fight right after that news broke and they were forced to just make a comment about it. You just make a comment about it, we're done talking, right? It's just bizarre to me, Luke, that this is the stance. I mean, I don't have much to add in the sense of what we already said, but I just think folks need to understand something.

The United States is not very good about punishing rich and powerful people we're not very good about punishing elites right people like in 2008 i mean none of the bankers went to jail the sacklers help unleash this terrible opioid crisis knowing full well their culpability and they will largely skate away from this and i could go on and on and on we don't we're not good at punishing elites we're not good at punishing rich and powerful people which is kind of funny it's like dana very much you know and again bc has not called for his job i have not called for his job because i'm just i'm not i've not been convinced that that is exactly the right answer we all we ever wanted was them to acknowledge it was a problem publicly and say they want to do something

about it and and like try to have a reasonable dialogue about it and they just refuse to do even that i think that's the part that got us not so much that they need to get rid of data because by the way there's this bullshit thing going around it's like all the media wants the mma media wants to cancel dana show me make an itemized list of how many people called for his job it's like one or two people and me and bc's name ain't on that fucking list that is a made-up manufactured lie flatly no more no less and for this and for these you know these woke media that we get labeled as because we're taking a stance on this or you know whatever that means it's it's about accountability we all live in this puddle too of combat sports which is which can get very grimy at times and you know you know, I don't always love that. There are,

there are parts in public, you know, polite society when you say, oh, what do you do for a living? You know, it's like, I'm a reporter and analyst and, you know, mixed martial arts and boxing. And it's like, oh, really? Okay. Your kids play with my kids. You know, I know that's extreme and that's ridiculous and F them. And for the part i do but it's it's like when shit like this just goes unchecked like uh not a big deal we'll just move on yeah yeah no i'm gonna raise my people i'm gonna raise my hand and say not in my house not my not in this house not whatever whatever circle of of leverage or or platform i have not in my house, not cool. Fair enough.

And I'll finish off on this and we can move on, which is just that people see themselves in Dana a little bit like, oh, the guy who was the bellman who made good and got rich and like, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with being motivated or otherwise inspired or having an appreciation for his personal journey as a successful executive. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But you have to understand, he's up here now and you're down there. He's not one of you. He's not a guy who's just a regular blue-collar guy.

He has friends and he has access to a world that you don't have access to. And he has the ability to have ESPN not weigh in. By the way, I don't think they just decided not to weigh in. I'm sure there's a back-channel pressuring campaign to make sure that it doesn't happen. By the way, I don't think they just decided not to weigh in. I'm sure that there's a back channel pressure in campaign to make sure that it doesn't happen. By the way, I'm just gonna be very clear about that. That's my personal opinion, but I'm sure that it's happening to make sure Endeavor doesn't say anything, to make sure that the people who are his assets and people like Stephen A. Smith totally cover for it and say, it's no big deal, look around. He can do that because he is incredibly rich and powerful. He is now part

of a class that all of the rest of us are not a part of. And in the class that he's in, the part of the class that he's in, we don't really, for the most part, we don't really punish people like that. Whether you think he should be or he shouldn't be, it's almost irrelevant because he's in the space where it doesn't even matter anymore. We don't really bring people like that to account hardly at all. It has to be like the most egregious shit ever, and even then it doesn't really work. So this whole idea like, oh, Dana's one of us.

He used to be. He used to be, and there's nothing wrong with his success. But once you get what he's got, he's not one of you anymore. He's a completely different level, and just accept and respect that. And I think because he's the face of the company, there is a responsibility within the company now to try to use this for good, educate the fighters more. I mean, there's ways you can go by responding where you can turn this in the long run into something different and how it's remembered.

But maybe that's all doing a big public song and dance just to look okay, Luke. And maybe that's what they're fighting against. I don't know, dude. It's just been rough. It's been rough, dude. And I think there is a difference between athletes because if it was an athlete, they'd get hammered. And by the way, every misstep Gervonta's had,

he's facing serious legal issue. And this most recent situation is hard to compare directly because there were changes in his own story that really changed that whole situation. If you're going apples for apples, it's disappointing altogether. But I hope we learn from this as a sport and how we cover it and how we react. But maybe not, Luke. Probably not. Probably not.

All right, topic number five. Let's do some quick hitters real quickly. So Mike Jackson, unfortunately for him, has been cut from the UFC. He was released, but he now wants to box Jake Shields. Quote, my mindset wasn't to beat the F out of Jake Shields. It was to not get punched in the face. Speaking, of course, their first altercation. He spoke to MMA Fighting.

So he's here in my DMs talking a bunch of S, but then his tune changed. And he was like, do you want me to come to Houston to box? I'll come box you. I haven't responded yet, but that's my new thing. He's going to come to Houston. We're going to find somewhere to meet, and I'll beat the F out of him for the S that he did BC your level of interest in a Mike Jackson Jake Shields boxing fight in 2023 I mean it's you know it's low it's certainly low this is in the you know I'll never forget that time on the mass pike

Luke uh I-90 when I stopped at the gas station i was like dude they insert the cheese inside the hot dog before putting it on the griller like it's pre inserted with like a you know a needle gun and it was it was next level luke and and you know i had to try it once you know and it probably did irreparable damage because i tried it again and again here's the thing does mike jackson win that one and everyone's like oh jake shields has terrible hands and i'm like well there's this there's this mini element of redemption if you believe that jackson's trash talk online shouldn't have led to a larger guy pinning him down and embarrassing and beating the shit out of him i don't really you know care enough to try to get in that wasn't much of a beating i mean it was definitely embarrassing but it wasn't much of a beating. Creatively, is this a cool way

to spin it off and do something where they get a decent amount of eyeballs and maybe both get paid for this? In that regard, there could be a happy ending. Either way, that happy ending is going to be gross and disgusting, Luke. That's the whole correlation between the pre-inserted cheese

on the hot dogs. You know, in my senior year high school cafeteria, Luke, they sold pretzels with the cheese uh you know shot in beforehand as well that's fucking gross no those are the those were the also who's eating at their high school cafeteria senior year what kind of a fucking chump are you i loaded up on study halls luke so i could just hang out in the cafeteria and just you know so i went to college my senior year ever tell you this yeah when you played pickup ball with uh bruce hornsby is this no no no so my senior year in high school i went to college i did just a just a few classes at the regular high school but i spent the majority of my time at the at kennesaw state university they let us wow yeah dude you were an achiever bro you went ham after this this what i

was going to point out was i always had lunch off campus because i either can't i either left before noon or i didn't get there till afternoon on my senior year okay so either way people in my school who had their shit together knew that you could load up on all your credits in the first couple years so that particularly your senior year could be like you coming to school only for like two hours in the morning for your core courses you need and then going off and working and there were a lot of kids that had shit together and they had their job at the grocery store whatever and they'd go right from school to there at the halfway mark i was the lazy ridiculous opposite who would take the exact minimum amount of credits load up each day with as many study halls as possible in the cafeteria

and you know just just basically have a living podcast luke so um that was how i got here yeah all right uh diego sanchez is gonna fight bare knuckle it's not they've now announced it i guess the new mexico commission's going to allow it yikes at bkfc knuckle mania 3 this will be february 17th against austin no doubt trout now bc i was looking up his resume yesterday i don't think he's had a real opponent since what torel gauche it's been a long time yeah 2017 ish something like that he's fought a bunch of numbers since then he's 37 austin trout how like is because when they announced this about i was like this is a terrible fight for diego and

they should not fucking do this and now i'm like well maybe trout's washed like what what's your sense of that well look from that perspective he never had you know he's never a power puncher he never hit hard he was a he was big for the weight class of 154 he was a clever boxer and a southpaw and you know and i give him a lot of credit he won a world title upset mig Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden, got into a monster fight with Canelo, and he lost it. But I do think there's arguments to be made that he was in that fight, and maybe I'm the final truther left who thinks he won that fight. But the point is this. He hit a wall where he was like a celebrity gatekeeper at 154.

He pushed both Charlo brothers in close fights where he kind of rallied back at the end. But he wasn't going to get above that. And he tried a sort of last ditch attempt to cut down to Welterweight. And he was calling out big names. It just never materialized or came together. So, you know, I don't begrudge him to try to make this transition and use his name and headline and make some bucks.

So, you know, is this a long way of saying long-winded way of saying, maybe there's less chance Diego Sanchez has like a, a nightmarish, you know, ridiculous, just why did they ever do this situation? Because Trout's not a big puncher. Okay. Maybe, but bare knuckle fighting is just different to begin with in terms of how you set up your power shots. And obviously we know how easy you can get carved up and get bloody. I just have a gross, gross-ass feeling in my stomach

about Diego Sanchez being in this fight that even doesn't allow me to get excited for Trout to have one final lap in the sunset here, Luke. I don't want to see this at all. I'm sure it's big in New Mexico but this is pretty grimy it's pretty grimy pretty fucking grimy so I guess we'll see how this goes I can't believe this is news I don't really want to spend hardly any time

talking about this because it's fucking stupid Aljo Aljomaine Sterling has shut down talk about a UFC 285 return I guess Henry Cejudo said well we're looking they're looking the UFC is looking for a march time between him and Aljo but Aljo was explicit last year it's going to be till summer I'm ready and it turns out he has a not a fully torn but a partially torn bicep injury and he's saying yeah it's not is it realistic for me

to fight in March I don't think it really is this only got to be made news because they just repeated what Cejudo said without it being ever vetted against any other source like are they trying to release this information to pressure aljo it's not the guy was explicit i'm not going to be ready till the summer what the fuck is this about i don't even get it yeah i think they were trying to pressure him into to hold in that day and this was you know i mean so who don't know how to work the the public's perception through social media? Much ado about nothing in that regard, except for the very real reality that Aljo came back and admitted that you know, fighter of the year voting for whatever that's worth. And it's affected a lot of ways we actually look at Aljo. That why doesn't Aljo just wait till he is fully healthy?

Luckily, he's a top of the deepest division in the game. Luckily, in my opinion, a Henry Cejudo versus Sean O'Malley interim championship fight is probably bigger than Cejudo versus Aljo in some ways. So perfect scenario solved. Do that in the spring. Have Aljo fight the winner for the full championship. Sounds fine by me. Kind of silly this is even news.

And then last but not least, Bellator announced yesterday that they have re-signed AJ McKee to an exclusive multi-fight, multi-year contract. BC, I got to say, that's great news for bellator homegrown star 27 years old they're probably going to have him for at least i'm not sure how long the contract is for but i'm going to guess at least for a couple more years bare minimum maybe three uh which means they're going to have him till basically the point where he's 30 they're going to have him through his team basically from pro debut all the way to age 30 you know who it's hard to keep someone forever

under a banner but they've kept patricia pitbull for a long time and now aj mckee one of their brightest stars homegrown proof of concept guy this was a big one that they needed wouldn't have been end of the world necessarily if he had gone somewhere else but here's the kind of interesting part to think about it it's not just that they resigned him when you really examine like what are the possible fights that are out there for him they do have some decent options that i think even when he beat producer people the first time we didn't necessarily see they've got it now i like where they're at yeah the announcement also confirmed that he will be a part of the lightweight world grand prix next year so you're talking about obvious potential for him against the the new champion usman amaga metoff which is you know on my short list of

favorite fights i want to see there's always at any time he, you know, him and him and Patricio could settle their trilogy, whether it's at featherweight, whether it's at light, whether it's anywhere, to be fair. So, yeah, I feel like they had to get this done, Luke, because there are levels to the idea of homegrown guys. And Bellator has, you know, been great from Chandler to the Pitbulls and all that regard. But this is like day one-ish homegrown like aaron pico was you know almost to that level in terms of like you know aj's has fought every single time as a

professional under this banner he's made huge vocal promises from the beginning of what he's eventually going to do as a multi-division champion let's see him carry that out and i think opening up the cbs door again which is going to be February 4th, of course, when it's Ryan Bader and Fedor in a rematch, has anyone else under this larger banner, Luke, at Paramount here? I want to see what this does in today's landscape in terms of streaming and numbers and all that. Can this be a big bang?

Because AJ McKee's the type of guy that you would want, in my opinion, to push toward those masses ahead of some of these big fights here. So I know that simultaneously, Luke, we're hearing multiple reports of Bellator being for sale. We don't have any inside info on that. But interesting season here. But they need this guy. They built him. His dad is part of the larger team in terms of the history here, too.

So good move. Really good move to see. Because, dude, he may come out of that with the championship of this Grand Prix tournament. And just the idea that we're building toward him against the champion at some point is monstrous to me. No doubt about it. All right, folks. Holy hammer.

People, we see you. We hear you. This month, we are working with our favorite show sponsor, Money Lion, the only money app you'll ever need on a brand new segment. They love the combat sports community as much as we do, so we've decided to collaborate and create a new segment called the Money Lion Hammer of the Month. You already know that. Hammer of the Month can be a boxer or an MMA fighter on the rise

that's not getting the recognition they deserve, so we plan to highlight our nominees on the show and pick one winner at the end of the month to reward them with an epic hammer trophy that they can show off to their friends and family. When you are watching the fights over the weekend, and remember, UFC back on Saturday, one on Friday, let us know which fighters deserve this suite of war.

Hop onto your go-to social platform and tell us who you think should be nominated by tagging at MoneyLion on Twitter or at MoneyLionInc on Instagram, and just use the hashtag HammerOfTheMonth. You can also use Holy Hammer. To learn more, visit MoneyLion.c on Instagram, and just use the hashtag HammerOfTheMonth. You can also use Holy Hammer. To learn more, visit MoneyLion.com slash Morning Combat. That's MoneyLion.com slash Morning Combat.

I'm still waiting on an update from the folks. Hopefully, RJ Capital Stormer can get back to me if we physically, if the hammer is in route to Ilya Teporia somewhere, Luke, because he deserves that shit, okay? Grab it, grab it, you know. In España. Grab it by that shaft here and let's raise it up for you

because it's going to be an interesting January. I mean, Royman Villa on the Showtime Boxing pay-per-view main card had a big comeback moment and win against Rashidi Ellis. Let's see what we got this weekend from one championship, from UFC Fight Night and the return to the Apex to kick off the year so I'll be on the lookout at money lion on twitter at money lion inc on instagram as we always say and let your voice be heard okay vote them in here who who's jumping through your screen who's trying to get your attention go to moneyline.com slash morning combat for more detail and don't you dare nominate Karin Chukadadzon don't do that no don't do that at

all he made boots look look pedestrian well maybe not pedestrian not pedestrian yeah every wednesday in these parts we open up the emails to you morning combat at gmail.com mikey more miles on the other end of that hole oh he's waiting the haircut he's waiting by the way oh that's great there goes another hundred bucks mikey's at the end of that tunnel just waiting waiting for your messages he's like a quarterback luke when they get up under center they have to put their hands right under like the now are they under center or they are they college style which is just everyone's in the shotgun no no this is under his old school under center power i shit and i was talking to my cousin, Connor Campbell, Luke,

who, of course, people remember, you know, he beat Ansoni in his lifetime. So shout out at Noggy High. He was a center. And I said, did the guys legitimately put their hands, like, in the launching zone? Like, right in? He's like, oh, right up in there.

Right up in there, Luke. So shout out to cousin Big Cat there. It happened. It happened. So, Luke, you can send that shit in to Mikey, who will be waiting at the end of the Birthing Canal. And you can send in your pictures of yourself wearing our merch and your artwork that will go on the Paquette's fridge. And we call this shit fan submissions.

Thank you. You've got mail. You keep cursing, we're going to lose all that ad rev. Yeah, that's true. We've got mail, guys. Viewers, you know that already. Shout out to the few females that's that barnstorm these parts shout out to them all as always okay god bless you especially the divorced ones look right

the divorced males bc cares if don't nobody else care uh let's go over to austin he says hey guys finishing up a six month deployment in the sandbox and wanted to reach out and say thank you for giving me some good laughs over here thank them baby been a long the sandbox and wanted to reach out and say thank you for giving me some good laughs over here. Thank them, baby. Been a long-time listener and wanted to say thanks for keeping my spirits up during the holidays and giving me something to look forward to. I've attested a couple pics of me and my MWD tank.

Take care. It's Austin. That dog looks incredible. So Mikey Morms, our producer, wants to, if you and i launch a pick segment luke whoever loses has to dress up in that exact suit with this guy austin and uh get mauled by a dog on camera you know that i don't mind getting mauled by the dog put the put the picture with a dog doing the mauling back up well Well, look, this guy Austin's thanking us. We should be thanking him, Luke, right? Yeah, I need to, he needs to

not thank his barber for giving him the sideburns on this low-reg haircut. My friend, I appreciate your sacrifice, but that haircut is, that's unacceptable. That's a hippie haircut. We don't do that here in the United States military. Need to tighten it up, friend. Tighten it up. The guy getting mauled has a tightened haircut there. Look don't do that here in the United States military. Need to tighten it up, friend.

Tighten it up. The guy getting mauled has a tightened haircut there. Look at that. Lighten up, Francis. Can we go back to the other shot? Lighten up, Francis. With this beautiful dog. There we go.

Thank you. Oh, look at that. BC, I got to say, where are you on the dog? Now, this is a big version of it, but in general, where are you on the dog handkerchief both of my dogs uh wear handkerchiefs that they get at their groomer but not that big though it's more of like a yeah this was almost like a halfway coat but still i gotta say the dog you would agree look sharp that's a sharp looking panel right there now look he said he's serving in the sandbox what what do you think that means uh

cutter yeah he's doing some kind of overseas middle east deployment um is it classified i mean i mean to some extent but not necessarily it could be part of a normal rotation okay all right i'd like to talk building seven with this guy one time luke this guy austin he needs to stop using a seven uh or a seven guard on his hair cutting and trimmers and get that high and tight fucking tightened up. God damn it. Do you think he would enter that train? No, forget it.

When they woke me up and they're like, hey, you want to train on this person? I was like, no, I definitely don't want to do that. I don't. I don't. I don't agree with that. All right, let's go over to Danny. He says, hola. It's Danny D from texas no i didn't poop on pelosi's desk on january 6th but i did welcome a new baby boy on december 28th please give a warm welcome to the newest addition to the mk family luke brian davis just just just

kidding i would never name my child after two washed POS's like yourself. Funny story though, my wife got the Morning Hub t-shirt for Christmas, got me that shirt to wear out for our hospital stay. It was freezing in the hospital so I went with the white MK hoodie instead, but you can

bet your sweet ass and black liver I'm repping the hub underneath. And last thing is I'm making my predictions for the January and February winners for the Hammer of the Month. January will be Jailton Almeida, and February will be Jack Della Maddalena. Keep up the award-winning show.

Wow. Look at Danny shooting his shot here, Luke. First he procreates, so you still got it, Dave. Still shooting hammers, right, Luke? Yep, zippy condoms for old Danny. Yeah, speaking of hammer of the month, this guy, I mean, successfully, you know, he got there, Luke. He's just out there just Herschel Walkering the whole land. As they would say in boxing Twitter, congrats on the sex.

All right, there you go right there. Well done. Let's go. Thanks, Danny. Let's go to Saul, the real Saul. Luke, greetings from Cancun. My wife Sarah and I stayed at an adult-only, all-inclusive, topless resort. What?

11 a.m. struck, and my natural instincts kicked in and started watching Wednesday's episode at the damn pool. Yo, look at the vape in his hand. My man's just getting high as balls out there. Rented a janky-ass golf cart on an island, and the last night the margaritas finally got to me, I had to wear shades to breakfast the next morning. It's MK Global Domination. Yo, Saul's taking us on the road, Luke, to Cancun, right? Yeah, but I'm going to do kevin garnett and the famous nike

ad what's up with the shirt like where's all the topless women at i don't see yeah i know if you're promising us uh a week spent on a topless beach aren't you required to show that luke i think that's the law i think he's breaking the law by not doing that i've watched enough shannon tweed films on cinemax to know luke that he's in fact breaking the law okay thank you very much hey shout out to night eyes what a trilogy with andrew stevens that that franchise was Enough Shannon Tweed films on Cinemax to know, Luke, that he's in fact breaking the law. Okay, thank you very much. Hey, shout out to Night Eyes. What a trilogy with Andrew Stevens. That franchise was fantastic.

I just love how he's holding the phone with MK on it, and he's got a marijuana vape just sitting in his hand there. What an absolute D-Gen POS. That's our guy, Saul. Look at that guy. I mean, one of our original OGs. By the way, she doesn't look sober either, just being honest about it. She looks like she's had a few puffs on that thing oh you're talking about the vape what are we going with this okay the vape don't don't demonetize us here luke okay let's vape i'm talking about the vape the vape hey let's get wholesome it's jay paquette you know that guy mount unikey

nova scotia which apparently is not an island apparently luke uh good day mk nation for those who didn't stay up or later missed it here's some highlights from luke and bc's davis versus garcia instant reaction show live from the showtime's condor nest luke and bc please comment love you guys keep up the amazing award-winning show super fan for life it's jp oh dude so this is so funny so this is a truth let's say ben has been you 100 times this is the highest i've i've ever been now i'm sober okay look bc look they put binoculars in my right hand how great is that oh that is fucking so okay so so we get there so there. So BC, this is how my Saturday went. So I get a text from BC when I'm on the way to the Cap One Arena.

And he's like, dude, you're not going to believe these seats. They're like, they couldn't be any higher. We're literally with the birds. I was like, you remember Owen Hart? It was that bad. It was that bad. And I got there. And literally, I mean, I'm not doing a bit.

I've been to this venue. I'm not even joking. A hundred times or whatever is what i said it's the worst seat i'd ever had because they put us in the bleach so the showtime producers were like listen for the prelims show please don't say anything about the the position we said fine no problem like on the mk post fight show you can say whatever you want and so we did and i joked that uh i wanted to thank showtime for giving us the binoculars so we could watch the fight in this condor's nest. Dude, JP's on top of that

shit, man. And this is the Photoshop. I gotta tell you, that's a winner chicken dinner right there. Yeah. I didn't read the bottom left. Notice we don't have an elevator to the floor. You're going to just get climbing like a POS.

Dude, Jay Paquette and the boss lady, Don, they will be in attendance February 8th at King's Place. So hopefully donks can unite Luke and some of that. They can share some of that North American love with the UK+. But well done, JP. This is why you are the co-donk. I got you. This is when they roast us on this show like this.

This might be my favorite part of the show. I'm not even doing a bit. I love really good roasts. People being insulting and mean is not great. People being insulting and funny is always a hit always a hit yeah yeah i'm with you on that that's what comedy is based on luke just making fun of people you care about right i guess so i guess so people people make reddit pages about that shit maybe that's extreme though maybe not always love it's not always love in those things uh yeah

a little bit darker danger mouse is here and you know i do i do owe him a continue like you know they say you can't say happy new year after january 7th how much more do i have to apologize to danger mouse luke for him not making the top five i i i feel like you you here's the funny part about it too, because that was more your baby than mine, like the dog of the year thing. And you're usually really in touch with what the online fans want. Well, you whiffed on that one.

I mean, I admit I whiffed, but I didn't do the due diligence you did. Well, I got, you know, somebody made a big strong case for Alan W. And I did take a closer look. And I was like, oh, that guy did that too. And that, and that and that. But Danger Mouse is always there, Luke.

He's like Cal Ripken. Always shows up, you know what I mean? And then maybe he had a relationship with Brady Anderson. I don't know, you know what I mean? But that's what Danger Mouse does. So he says, hi, BC. I'm back in a better mood this week

after the support I received from Appy and JP over the Donk of the Year Award to celebrate that I've made wishes come true. More on that later. First up, the Donks revolt. So BC criticizing me for not putting work in at the end of the year. A, hating on the only P1 Donk who sent you Christmas cards. Oh, dude, that was him?

Oh, and that talk about discussing who was Donk of the Year. Well, my inside source says the decision was all yours so it's first it's time to resolve this the next submission is in four parts with a little clip at the end i think it's pretty self-explanatory all right look what we got here i don't know let's this one's okay they're stomping on you okay one no jesus christ no donk of the year for danger mouse and then uh that campbell yeah time to call in a favor william it's dm he wants that washed mma guy bc arrested for crimes against the donk nation he went to the king yeah that's the king your majesty no one ever heard of him

front seats for the coronation consider it done the campbell residents their swat team undisclosed black site north america they're taking your dumb ass so you two are here protesting about the injustice done to danger mouse in the doty competition you were big fans then how did that start i can't even read this this goes on forever this is the worst joke wow wow luke only can take so much and then he then he ejects there you go there you go danger mouse but uh uh then there's a video i'm supposed to watch too i think right whenever bc does a luke interview with an attractive female can you go back to the one before again i want to read that oh a live interview mr campbell do you recognize this art is this not in fact the design that gave mk its most successful merchandise duke of donkton mr campbell did you

not use this fine complimentary piece of art to advertise your very first personal live chat show oh shit and they're making fun of our advertisers true or false danger mouse has consistently and fearlessly provided humorous submissions for over six months oh that's a fair point yeah luke's family reacts to the news of his two podcasting awards oh this ought to be funny there's a flat line all right this is well done by Danger Mouse. Yes, I dropped the ball. You had me. I didn't realize.

So he was the one. Do you remember our live show that we got drunk at in Jersey City the first year, and we got a Christmas card that we read? Yes. Dude, that was Danger Mouse. Holy shit. Okay, so now we got. There's one more with audio.

There's one more with audio. All right, let's listen to it. I got it wrong. All right. Let's listen to it. I got it wrong. All right. Danger Mouse for life. All right. I got to tell you, that was pieced together very poorly. A little bit of a... Data Mouse has a PS. So BC, it's pretty obvious that you made a terrible mistake

in not nominating me. The rest of your decision was fine, though. I'm happy with JP and Appy sharing second place. It seems fair. Just do the right thing, BC. Announce me as the Donk of the Year for 2022. Search your feelings, Brian. You know it to be true.

I will not turn Sithith i don't believe you can resurrect padme amidala so no there you go all right um we got one more hey remember alan w he knocked danger mouse out of our good graces luke uh this one is for brian he says oh what a rush okay that's pretty well done okay these are the uh what are they called the road warriors yeah the legion of doom hawking animal that's pretty bad which one am i am i hawk or animal you're hawk you're the crazier one yeah i'm james laurinitis animal you know his son was a linebacker in the nfl you remember that right these guys look like uh they play in the band guar that's also true uh one more photo

from alan w i felt a similar heavy blunt force trauma of artsy psychosis a decade ago with the cultural phenomenon that was gang wampum gonggum style performed by south korean artist psy uh psy or psy psy yeah psy sorry about that PSY that's the Gangnam Style guy is for sure BC's spirit animal he exudes a type of energy

that is both asinine and hypnotic here is the debut of Bry B-R-Y with Noggy Style Noggy is a nickname

for BC's hometown of Nogatuck and while Gangnam Style is actually a commentary on pretension of the upper class Noggy Style is a nickname for BC's hometown of Naugatuck, and while Gangnam Style is actually a commentary on pretension of the upper class, Naugie Style is a commentary on the pretension of being factory town tough. Luke, is that Valentina and Joanna there? Yes, I guess it is.

Yep, seems that way. Opa Naugie Style. Yeah. Hey, sexy lady. Yeah. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. L&W chiming in. Morningcombat at gmail.com. Well done today, yeah. Hey, sexy lady, yeah. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. L&W chiming in.

Morningcombat at gmail.com. Well done today, guys, in general. Well done. All right. All right, reminder to everyone, Friday's show, we'll do some picks. We'll have some fun. There's Friday Night MMA. Friday Night MMA.

How great is that? And then Saturday Night MMA as well. By the way, we never talked about this. Did you see that? It's not this weekend this weekend obviously but I think it's the subsequent one or pretty soon the Derek Lewis Sergei Spivak fight which was supposed to take place in 2022 and then Derek Lewis got sick the day of and then or we got medically not cleared and then they rebooked it that's going to have a 1 a.m main card start time from the apex did you realize that 1 a.m yes it starts in vegas at 10 p.m i think they're doing it for asian audiences they're getting a bunch of asian fighters on the

card um but the main card starts at 1 a.m eastern i'm not doing a bit or can fans and media be in attendance or did at zuck reserve the space again? Or did Zuck just show up and just do that in everyone's face? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. All right. Well, I think that's it, Luke. What an efficient show we gave these folks today.

Oh, dude, did you see the Lee family wants to close the gym in Hawaii after the death of their daughter, Victoria? Not wants to. They've announced that they have yeah that's sad man that's uh you know we don't know like not that the details would change this at all it's like but i you know i am curious to what happened but it's just such a sad story altogether luke you know maybe we don't need to know it's terrible yeah i'm not sure exactly what to say about it at the present moment because we don't we don't really know a whole lot other than she was very young and it seems like it came out of nowhere as most young deaths do um but um awful awful yeah you can be you can be riding high dude life is um i really

don't care how rich you are or how successful you are in some cases even how poor you are i guess dude life is it's so hard to to do well in life like consistently it's so hard it's not easy it's not easy and by virtue of both your own actions and then the things around you that can just completely break and fall apart uh it's hard man it's really hard most people our age kind of understand that but like at 20 it's hard, man. It's really hard. Most people our age kind of understand that, but at 20, it's hard to appreciate. Life will fuck you up. It's tough. There you go.

All right, well, on that note, good luck to everybody out there, all right? You're going to do great. Pod-live. Come see us Feb 8th in London, England. I'm talking to grand opening, grand closing. This is it. Come see us. We do have guests. We're going to announce them soon. I'm talking to grand opening, grand closing. This is it. Come see us.

We do have guests. We're going to announce them soon. I'm not sure what the whole thing is. Yeah, we have already. We're starting to lock up some famous names, Luke. Let's see how it ends out in the end. I'm very much looking forward to it. Okay.

What can the people expect? They can expect us. They can expect fun, okay? Maybe some bad jokes because my type five, my my my type five luke i mean how tight is it really right it's not very also calling ireland uk plus is really you're gonna have something to answer for i'll see what the crowd thinks about that idea i got a whole full fledged idea on how we can do this moving forward but you can come see us there of course uh you can get showtime.com you can get or sorry you can get showtime you can go to showtime.com pardon me to get 30 days free also

the $3.99 a month for the first six months pretty great deal so go check that out morningcombat.store for da merch we have a very active merch site with some pretty cool stuff on there the bomber jackets are always a winner uh but we have a whole lot more beyond that uh bc we'll see them on friday um i'm supposed to have an interview with aj that. BC, we'll see them on Friday. I'm supposed to have an interview with A.J. McKee today. We'll see how that goes. Knock on wood. If you could go back, Luke, and I look forward to your interview with A.J. McKee. If you could go back

and do it all over again, would you not go the mathlete debate team, leave my senior year to take college credits route, and instead go the meathead, I'll be a backup offensive lineman on the football team i'll be on the swim team whatever just just go after that side of it luke if you could do it all over again would you be would you be dumber and um and more aggressive and end up on the steps

a year ago or a few years ago no the truth is like the very rough accepting of all challenge nothing gets in my way kind of meatheaded worldview there is actually a little bit of value to it that i think people who don't ever experience that don't fully appreciate it can both propel you to great heights and also provide great entertainment and joy um but in general as a lifestyle you know the unexamined life is not worth living and uh no i i would lean into it even further when I did. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. All right.

I wouldn't end up here. I would have done something else with my life. I probably should have gone to law school. I don't think you're living out a disappointment, Luke. I don't think. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not. But I didn't fully realize who I was until much later in life.

And I wish I had better knowledge of that early i think it's all part of the discovery in the process it comes at different times luke you know what about you would you have tried a little bit harder to not be a complete waste of space yeah i could have been a straight-a student i should have been luke and i should have gone to a big college and you know probably cleaned up in my after hours instead luke you know i went the other way you know and there we are all right but no i you know what i in hindsight yeah dude i would i'll tell you what i would have uh i would have participated more i would have joined more teams i would have yeah you know i would have taken more chances in life you know what i'm saying you know what the problem too for me was man was that the

reason i retreated into books is because uh well partly my brother let like led by example but the other one was i moved around so much as a kid. I was always the new kid. And it's just hard to constantly be the new kid, so it's just easier to retreat into your books. But I still didn't quite, I wasn't quite disciplined enough. I would like to have been more disciplined,

but yeah, who cares? I was a big choose your own adventure fan for books, Luke. Those were the best, right? I mean, it was great. You know, it could be a different ending this time. It's up to me. It could be a very different ending. All right. With that in mind, that is it for us.

So with for Malka, CBS Sports Showtime and everyone in between, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. We'll talk to you guys on Friday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.