MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Chikadze | Dm's from Donks | Ep. 252

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

On Episode 252 of Morning Kombat Luke previews UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Chikadze. Which fights are they most excited for? Next up the guys run through a bunch of fight announcements. The boys close out the show with some quick hitters and Dm's from Donks. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count.

And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Reveille, reveille, dawgs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Well, MK has officially turned back into a pumpkin. Here we are doing what we do in the place where we do it, in our homes. Hi, everyone, my name is Luke Thomas. It's the 14th of January, 2022. Can you believe we're already two weeks into the new year? Jesus Christ, where does the time go?

As I mentioned, my name is Luke Thomas and this is episode, I think, 252 of Morning Combat. If you're watching on YouTube, give it a thumbs up. If you are listening on a podcast platform, whatever platform it's on, please give us a nice review and a nice star rating there, wherever that may be. You can see it right there as well. You want to give us a vote for your best sports podcast? Pull up one more time. Sports Podcast Awards, I think is what it was before.

I mean, he kind of jumped the gun there, putting it up there before I was ready. But that's okay. There we go. SportsPodcastAwards.com. You can vote for us there as well. BC is out today. gun there, putting it up there before I was ready, but that's okay. There we go. Sportspodcastawards.com. You can vote for us there as well. BC is out today. I think he will be back on Monday. I think that's right. We'll have to see, but yes, he is out today. So we'll talk to him. No, excuse me. Actually, Monday we're off. So you won't see BC until Wednesday. Let me give you a bit of a calendar update on the show. We'll have today's show. I'll do a bit of a chat on today's show. Then tomorrow, I know the card kind of sucks, but I'm actually

going to do a bit of a post-fight show for the Chikadze Cater fight. It won't be very long, obviously, because the card's not that great. Probably 20, 30 minutes, maybe 45 at most if you have a bunch of questions or something like that. And then Monday, the new resume review will be out. And then Tuesday, we're going to hit you with another video. So that's the plan tentatively. BC is out today. I apologize for that. He will be back Wednesday. I'll be back Wednesday. No Monday show because it's MLK Day, but we will have immediate reaction for you for the weekend's fights and then something to sink your teeth into as we head into UFC 270 fight week. Okay? I feel like that's a pretty good trade-off. Okay. As I mentioned, thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe if you're watching on YouTube.

If you would like to get some merch, you certainly may. You can go to morningcombat.store. I'm not wearing any merch today, but we do have some that I'm told is, in fact, pretty good. You want to try Showtime? You certainly can. Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can go pound all of the sand. Yes? Okay. Alright, so the way today is going to work, we'll keep it nice and light, relatively informal. I asked for a list of questions. You guys gave some. We had a show planned. BC was supposed to be here, then things kind of got changed at the last second, so we had to switch it up a little bit. But you guys left a bunch of questions. I'll pick from some of them. My producers picked from some of them, and we'll answer, and then we'll go down the line. Before I even start, though, with any of those, I know there are fights tomorrow. The weigh-ins, I think, start in an hour. The weigh-ins for tomorrow's event, so if there's any news related to anyone not making it or missing weight or whatever the case may be, we'll obviously let you know during the course of

this broadcast. But before we even get into the questions that you gave to me and that my producers picked, I did want to talk about the weekend's main event at a bare minimum before the questions. Obviously, Calvin Cater, main event, taking on Giga Chikadze. I did find some odds, and the odds that we have, according to my intrepid production team, they've got Chikadze sitting at a minus 235 and Cater at a plus 190. Cater opened at a plus 150 with Chikadze at a minus 175. So the movement has been towards Chikadze certainly and people expecting him to do quite well.

I suspect this is going to be a tough fight for Calvin Cater to win. I think the reason why, we talked about it a little bit earlier in the week, coming off of a historic beating, I actually have some of the numbers from that particular contest. Let me pull that up here. For folks who might need a little bit of a refresher on what happened against Max Holloway, Max landed, attempted rather I should say, 746 strikes and landed 447 of them. That is an absolute epic, unreal beating. So that is in play about what kind of fight you're going to get, what kind of fighter you're going to get coming off of something like this. That doesn't mean that they're ultimately ruined. We saw Francis Ngannou was not ruined after the Stipe fight, but, the first one anyway, but by the time he came back to take on Derek Lewis, he was simply unready for that kind of a contest. And so the question is not necessarily whether Calvin Cater is done. I'm not asking that, but whether that kind of an event that he had prior to this one, it's just hard to imagine

that doesn't have any carryover for this event. Hard to say exactly with any degree of certainty, but it certainly feels that way. But when you talk about how the two match up, I think that's the most interesting component. First of all, we are going to be at the apex, which means it's the smaller cage. Certainly, Chikazi has had more success of late, even in the small cage. I do think on balance, that should give some advantages to Cater, provided he uses them, but I don't know that he will. Here's what I mean. I think for Cater to win, where does Cater do his best work? He does his best work in mid-range, in boxing range. He actually has pretty good boxing.

You'll recall prior to the fight itself, there was some discussion about who's the best boxer in MMA. Is it Cater or is it Holloway? Or at a bare minimum, both had thrown their hat into the ring for discussion more broadly about who that belonged to. Because Cater is a good boxer, and the way he tends to work is in that mid-range boxing range and in particular he does good work behind the jab. The jab is critical to what he does and at first he kind of single shots the jab. He's moving, he's setting it up, he's faking, he's fainting, but he's jabbing, single shotting, getting in, getting out, seeing what it does for him. As the jab becomes a little bit more comfortable to execute, as it becomes a

little bit more, as it becomes a little bit easier for him to get into a rhythm, found the distance a little bit, begin to get some of your opponent's timing, right? Then he begins to put shots behind it, right? A jab cross, a jab cross, left hook to the body. He's got a very good left hook to the body, you guys might recall. That's the way he gets going. That's the range in which he traditionally occupies, and that's the way in which his offense begins to cook. So how did Max Holloway beat him? Giga Chikadze is a very different fighter, but how did Max Holloway beat him? One of the biggest things that Max Holloway did was not just the overall amount of volume. Yes, it was a torrential downpour of offense, but more than just that, what you'll notice is, remember, Cater is single jabbing to start. Behind the single jab,

he would kind of blitz Cater. So Cater would jab and then pull back, and then you'd see Max immediately throw a one, two, three, four, five strike combo on top of him. Some of it being blocked, a lot of it landing, you know, half, half, but still a lot of it getting through. And that meant that as Cater would throw and then cover, he would just be essentially at Max's accuracy mercy. To the extent that he's accurate, it's going to land. To the extent that it's not, it's not. But the point being is you're just leaving Max to that device. There's nothing stopping him other than your hands in front of your face when things get through there.

So what I'm pointing out is Max would have this blitz overwhelming right behind it. So the point being was a guy like Cater who sticks behind the jab and needs the jab to start working before he builds off of it, he just never let Calvin get to that point. He was throwing more. He was never letting Calvin use the jab to find the kind of range and setups that he wanted. He was attacking him every time he tried to throw. There were some interesting kicks that were thrown in both directions, but largely it

was a striking bout with the hands. Now, how does that bring us all to Giga Chikadze? If you're a Calvin Cater, again, you have to ask yourself, under what conditions does Calvin Cater or any fighter, but in this particular case, under what conditions does he do his best work? He will do his best work when he is in mid-range and when he is the one dictating behind the jab. That means he's going to have to get in Giga Chikadze's face, who we already know is a very aggressive fighter. I don't know that Calvin Cater, I mean, yes, of course he can win plausibly in any circumstance, but if Giga Chikadze is backing him up and maintaining kick, kicking range, kickboxing range, I don't know how Calvin Cater wins that. I don't know what weapons he has at that range that

can match it. Now Giga Chikadze does mix it up. He goes hands to feet, feet to hands, you know, ranges he's kind of playing with a little bit. He likes big explosive movements sometimes. He has a lot of knees he uses to distance close along the way. I mean, he can be hit. He will be hit. It's a fist fight, and Calvin Cater is talented. But I'm just pointing out, if Calvin Cater seeds control of the fight in terms of who takes center, who establishes range, who is the one backing up the other guy, if he

seeds that to Giga Chikadze, it's not to say that he can't win, but his chances of winning go down extraordinarily. They go down way, way, way low. It can be done, but it's very difficult. He has got to back Chikadze up. He's got to get inside of that kickboxing range so that a lot of those weapons aren't even in play anymore. And if you just sort of circle with him and let him kind of play in and out like an accordion, he's going to get eaten alive. So what you're looking for here is, one, what is the overall look and posture that Calvin Cater gives you subsequent to that Max Holloway fight, however many months we are past it at this point? And then two, what you want to look at is,

where is the fight taking place and who is leading it? I mean, these are common questions you would want to ask almost in any fight, but they are acutely of concern here. If you see Calvin Cater with his back towards the fence, right inside of the two black lines space, I think it's one now, but inside that black line space, that warning track, and he's kind of just jabbing but not really getting a whole lot off and you're already in the second round, that's a bit of a problem for him. That'll be a bit of a problem. So that's what you're looking for there. I like Chikadze for those reasons. Not a hard prediction, you know, like I really know better, but it's just picking Cater here would be a lot more doable if he wasn't coming off the max fight.

But even though it would be more doable, I would still pick Chikadze. And so when you just... Structurally, there are reasons that's going to be a hard fight for Calvin Cater. And then you add in the fact that he's coming off of an epic, historic UFC beating. One last note I might add. I would maybe see if Calvin Cater looks for takedowns on this one.

Chikadze is certainly no slouch on the ground, but it's not even close to his best strong suit. It's not what he does in terms of overall martial arts talent at a world-class level, right? I mean, he's a world- does in terms of overall martial arts talent at a world-class level. He's a world-class fighter, of course, but that particular skill set is not. He's coming over from glory, for crying out loud. So I do wonder if you might see some of that. That'll be kind of interesting, but we'll have to see. I did mention that was the last note.

That's a lie. One more note. Richard Mann, I talk about this guy all the time. He works for Fight Metric or 3027 and now is what it's called. And he had a piece over the week talking about this particular fight and what's interesting about it. You guys should know something. Giga Chikadze had a negative differential when he was striking in glory. He got hit more than he landed.

And the numbers were really elevated. When he went to MMA, everything changed. I'm not going to say his, well, the sport changed, so his striking style changed, but more than that, the complexity, not the complexity, the complexion of how he operated changed. Now, he not only has a positive differential, he's got it by over a full integer. He lands 3.76 strikes per minute and only absorbs 2.69. That's the reverse of what it is in kickboxing. Now, we don't have enough data to say exactly what people's numbers do when they go from MMA to kickboxing or kickboxing to MMA. There's a broader array of data that gives us that information. So if we had that, maybe we could draw a broader conclusion to say,

oh yes, that's interesting for Giga, but it happens all the time. I don't know the answer to that. But I can say that there is a marked difference between how he operates in kickboxing and MMA as it relates to his striking accuracy and efficiency. And defensive sensibility as well, actually, I would argue. It's a big, big difference, and it's showing up positively for him in MMA. Okay, with that out of the way, let me pull up, if I can. I'm going to turn this off. There we go.

I'm going to pull up some questions from today's thread. And this is what we'll do for today's show. I'll pick some of these that my producer picked, and then I'll pick some of my own as well. All right, this is from Sam Lau 8. What book are you currently reading, Luke? I can tell you I am only a very modest way in. I think just the very beginning, because I have fallen asleep the last two times I tried to read it. This is the book I'm currently reading. It is called Maladies of Empire. I explained this. I don't know if you can see this or not. Yeah, you can kind of see it next to my face maybe. It's a little too bright. Barely, you can barely see it. It's called Maladies

of Empire, How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine. And I mentioned this on my live chat, but for folks who may have missed it, the basic idea is that war is obviously a very terrible thing. I guess to give you a modern day example, but you'll note that the war, the wars that the United States has had the last 20 years probably did a lot to accelerate the development of prosthetics. When I was a kid, prosthetics were not that great. They looked very, very basic, very average, very toy doll, cheap, plasticky, just taking up space and not really functionally improving your life. Dude, look at prosthetics now. I mean, you've got guys who can do incredible amounts of things. And it'd be overly simplistic to simply say that it's the wars that the United States has had that was this incredibly great and fortuitous thing for the development of

prosthetics. There's been a lot of development that has happened outside of that, but it did act as this catalyst for rapid development. And so the book is kind of an idea about that. It's like, where do a lot of modern medicinal practices come from? It turns out they came from, frankly, an unfortunate but real history of slavery, of war, of colonialism, and what various actors in that space figured out about human biology to keep the whole train on the tracks and everything working. It had unfortunate results for colonialism, for slavery, for war, but it turns out it actually advanced modern medicine in a lot of interesting and perhaps uncomfortable but I would I would say interesting ways so there's a sort of dichotomy about war being incredibly destructive and obviously slavery being you know a moral abomination and horror but it's funny how the story of human progress is not so neat and not just the story of what earnest, nice people in lab coats do and figure out.

It turns out that there's sometimes a pretty gross and unfortunate history behind it, and that's part of what this book is about. All right, this is from Corbin Peter. Let's say BC spent all his life savings on gas station hot dogs and needed to recoup money fast. Which fight or fighter on this upcoming UFC card would you feel confident on betting the house on to make the most cash and why? First one would probably be Giga Chikadze, to be honest with you. If we're not going that direction and we're looking at the rest of the card absent that fight, the biggest favorite, and they're not very, the biggest favorite is actually

Giga. No, sorry. Brian Kelleher over Kevin Kroon is a big one. Gabriel Benitez over TJ Brown is pretty big. Kletzen Rodriguez. I probably go Brian Kelleher. Boom. Boom is pretty reliable. We'll stick with him. Where are we at? Okay. From Don MMA 205. It seems that everybody is writing off Kader by saying Giga would deserve the next title shot if he wins Saturday. Okay. If Kader wins this Saturday, then what fight makes the most sense for him? Zabit rematch, Yair, Ortega? So the Zabit rematch would be great, but I don't know where the hell he is. So can you really matchmake around him? Maybe, but as it stands at the time of this broadcast, he is not back,

so I cannot include him. The Yair fight would be incredible and actually would tell you, well, if he can beat Giga, then he might be able to beat Yair as well. But it would certainly be an interesting, that's a tough one. That's a tough one, two, three. Holloway, Giga, then he might be able to beat Yair as well. But it would certainly be an interesting... That's a tough one. That's a tough one, two, three. Holloway, Giga, and Yair. That's tough. Ortega's an interesting one, too, but how they match up. That's a little bit more of it. I like that striking pair. It's a little more close together

in terms of what you might get, which means they might accommodate each other a little bit more. That'd be fun. You couldn't go wrong with any of them. What makes the most sense? Probably That'd be fun. You couldn't go wrong with any of them. What makes the most sense? Probably of those three. Where are they in the rankings? Because that defines a lot here. Let's see.

Ortega's sitting at two. If Chikadze wins, he'd be sitting at five. I mean, it's a quarter flip at that point. I'd go... Maybe Ortega. Maybe Ortega. No, you know what? Let's go Yair.

Let's give Ortega a break. You guys had a lot of rough fights. From The Dansky. uh from the dansky luke your facial responses to bc range from oh he's disrupting the show again to what am i doing with my life to i may have to ghost this guy how close have you been in the past to a breakup no not not very close he is He is but annoying. I mean, there's no denying that. BC is incredibly annoying. He seems to think that any joke he tells is worthy of reverence because he told it, right? It's the act of acting like a class clown, not whether or not the class clown antics are particularly funny. So there is that. And then when he starts every show like Pepe Le Pew,

like some French rapist, it makes me very uncomfortable. But I am not at all close to a breakup because, despite the fact that he is a horrible person, he's good for business. And that's good for me. No, I'm kidding. He's a good guy. But, you know, he does do a bunch. I mean, listen, what do you guys want me to do? You want me to, like, be on the show and not react to the stuff he does?

It just wouldn't make sense. You can like my reactions. You can hate them. But I'm going to react. All right, from Obi-Wan Quinobi, but it's spelled weird. Another one, this person writes, With the noise Francis has been making about fighter pay, is it better for the sport and the fighters if he wins his upcoming

title fight against Khan? If he does, do you think the UFC will bend to his demands and get behind him promotionally again? Why the fuck would they do that? Whenever you guys ask me questions, just ask yourself first, why would they do that? Because with him, if they're not battling with him, they could make more money. Yes, that's probably true. If they were not battling with him, they could maybe under one plausible scenario make more money with him. But not battling with him could potentially mean giving into his demands, which they don't want to do. If they don't want to give into his demands, and there are no real mechanisms by which they can be compelled to give into his demands, and the fans talk shit, but they're never going to change their...

Not never. They're unlikely. And when I say fans, I don't mean hardcores. I mean all of them. All of the various rings, so to speak, of casual fans. If none of them are going to change their purchasing decisions based on this, dude, what is there to do to make the UFC change? I keep coming back to this.

What is the mechanism by which Francis can make them change? The fan base will groan, but so far not do anything. You can get mad, you can go to the press. The press will report it, but it won't change the nature of your relationship with the UFC. So what are you going to do? I'm not necessarily advocating for just giving in and laying down and doing nothing. Do what you got to do. Live your life under the best terms that you can and what matters to you principally or otherwise. But what I am trying to say to you folks out there is that folks, I think, naturally want the UFC and Francis to get along. They want to see him promoted as well as he should be.

They want to see him, especially if he wins this one, to be on the pedestal that I think a lot of people would deserve, me included. And I understand that. It's a very natural, common, understandable impulse to have around this. That's totally the right one. But you just need to be rational and understanding of this. If the UFC has no incentive to change, and the UFC has no fear of any mechanism existing anyway to make them change. Now, a union different but they you know we don't have one legislation could change things but we're not especially close so what is the mechanism you know what i mean like we keep coming back to these so um

you know with the noise francis has been making about fighter pay is it better for the sport and the fighters if he wins his upcoming title fight against god i don't think it makes a difference one way or the other i guess one change be, let's say he does win, and then doesn't sign with the UFC again and somehow gets out of his contract, and then went and signed, I'm going to make something up with Bellator, but with boxing on top of it. Maybe that would change things because someone would be like, I want to purposely leave the UFC in my prime as champion

to pursue a more financially lucrative deal outside of them. That would be unusual. That would send, you know, a shockwave through the sport. I don't know. But stuff like that could be powerful. And certainly if he did it and then another one did it, it could have this accumulative effect. It could be a real, I'm not going to say butterfly effect, but a copycat effect. So that would be interesting.

Him electing to do that on his own would be reflective of a certain kind of change. But him just winning and this creating a Shangri-La territory is, no, this will not happen. As much as I actually want Robert whitaker to win the rematch can we get an mk resume review for him next month i think we can because it's actually a pretty good one to do in part because we've already actually already done izzy i think with the resume review depending on how someone's career could go there might be two of them for one person. Like we did Alistair. We did Conor.

There's another chance we could do Conor later, depending on how things go. But we've not done one for Robert Whitaker. I'd be happy to do one for Robert Whitaker. I'd be happy to. For curse or otherwise. Whatever. But I think he's had an interesting career. He is a guy who has shown what it means to be perseverant.

I think he's done a lot of things to advance the game. He put the oceanic region, if not on the map, he certainly did a lot to make it part of the territory that it's become today in terms of a powerhouse of MMA skill and, you know, a very promising future for that area. He is a major, major, major contributor to that and I think is going to give Izzy a tough fight and certainly a winnable one.

Yeah, I'd be happy to do one on that. And as I told you guys on the show, boss called me up and was like, hey, we want more of these. I was like, okay. All right, sure. So we've got one coming out on Monday. We've got one coming out on Monday. Be on the lookout for that. I know all the comments. See, here's the thing. All the comments

are going to be, I believe in the curse. You know what I mean? I was like, dude, just if you want to believe in that nonsense, believe in it. If you don't, don't. Not here to adjudicate that either way. But all I am saying is, maybe don't miss the forest for the trees. Don't just show up and leave a, if you want to leave your comment about, oh, here's the curse again, blah, fine. I'm not going to do anything about it.

But at a bare minimum, just watch what we have to say. This resume review is a little bit different. I think very good, very fun. And just at least watch it. That's all I would say. Just watch it. Okay? Okay. All right, from G Evangelista 09. How does Big Francis do in boxing? Obviously, he's less skilled, but he's big, durable, and very powerful. Wilder has made it quite far with those attributes. Wilder was a gold, excuse me, a bronze medalist in the Olympics. Now it is true that Wilder did make it far under the way in which you've described it,

less skilled, big, durable, and very powerful. Yes, that is true. However, he's done that with only boxing training, with boxing habits such that they can be developed later in life and worldview. Not that he's going from MMA over to boxing. I don't think he would do very well. I don't know how his power translates to boxing. It might translate quite well. It might not at all. There is a bit of a difference.

I think the cardio would be a challenge for him, as it is any big heavyweight. Listen, he's maybe the best heavyweight on earth in MMA. I don't need him to be all that good in boxing. It would be amazing, but I don't need... Just doing what he's done... This is one of the weird parts about this question. It's almost like you get this guy who is, you know, what was Watson and Crick back in the day who discovered the DNA sequence, right? And it was the combination of A, C, G.

Was it A, C, G, and is it H or D or whatever the fourth one was? Or Gattaca. So it would be G-A-C-T. That was what it was because that was the movie. Where are we going on this? I forgot what I was talking about. Oh, right. The point being is if they come up with this amazing,

not invention, but discovery, right, you don't go, yeah, but how good at tennis are they? Right? You would be like oh wow man just doing what they did is already you know no one no one goes to darwin and is like hey i know he's obviously been dead for well over 100 years or whatever the fuck but uh you know no one goes like you know darwin is pretty amazing for the theory of evolution, but how good is he at Pokemon Go? That's really the important question here. It's like, dude, probably not that great. Or make it like this.

Stephen Hawking did a lot of work on wormholes. How was he at another academic discipline, English literature? I mean, I'm sure he's competent at it. You know, smart as shit. He can't be all that bad at it. But that's not his thing. That's not what he does. So, you know, whenever you're asking, it's like, could he do okay?

Probably do okay. Maybe. But do I think he'd be like really good? No. All right. From Official underscore Fizz. Besides Ankalayev, Dariush, and Fiziev, who do you predict to be first-time headliners in 2022?

Wow, that's a good one. Well, those three in particular stand out. Saryukian, he might get one. I don't think Rachmanov will get one. I don't think he's in that space yet. Saryukian kind of might be, depending on how things go. Let's see. Who might get a headlining for the first time?

That's an interesting one. Depending on how things go, Arnold Allen is kind of due for one. I don't think he will, but Allen is kind of due for one. I don't think he will, but I think he's due for one. Man, that's a tough one. That's a great question. Andre Muniz, maybe? He's kind of been tearing people up.

Holland's got one already, so that doesn't count. He's got several, actually. Gamrot, maybe a little bit too early for him. Chimaev. Chimaev might get one. Has he had one where he was the headliner? I don't think he has, right?

I don't think he has. So Chimaev's probably a big one. There's a few for you right there. From DuduVudu1. Charles Oliveira has said he'd jump to 145 or 170 if it meant an immediate title shot. What chance do you give him against Volk, assuming the weight is not punishing to him, which is a major if? I think he gives Volk problems. I think he'd get completely annihilated by Usman. I think Usman is far too big. Just going to be way too strong to control. I think he's going to be able to down block on him really well. I think he's going to

hit him a couple times on the feet and rock his shit. Certainly a guy like Oliveira. Oh, someone said, by the way, for first-time headliners, Paddy the Batty. Yeah, that's a good call. That's a good call. Paddy the Batty probably might be one as well. We'll see. But in terms of Usman, I just think he's too strong, too big. Yes, a guy like Oliveira is tricky and could give anybody problems with an unreasonable amount of weight nearby. But Usman might be a bridge too far. Volk would be an interesting one because the length is there. The submission skills are there. I think he could handle the power punching of Volkanovski and deliver his own. Obviously, he could handle the power punching of Volkanovski and deliver his own. Obviously, he could create things in terms of troubling scenarios for him on the mat. Maybe

Volkanovski even invites that. That, to me, would be a very interesting fight. Usman, too much to ask of him. From AtThatSeanMoore, how many BCs would it take to overwhelm an in-shape and sober Luke? Well, I wasn't sober when I was in my 20s, but I was in shape. So let's say I'm like 250, strong as shit, first class PFT. It's about my peak. My peak was I was about 245,

248 at times. And strong as a motherfucker. Probably three. The thing is, you know, you just put one on his jaw and it's just, you know, it's just the whole thing collapses, right?

He's tower, you know, seven when it comes to that shit. So it's like, you know, just one on his face and he's a, you know, he just, I mean, if I told you guys what a girly man he was, like some of the things, I mean, you might lose a little respect. So I'm not going to say that, but suffice to say, unless he got two of him on top of me, as long as I had access to a jaw and the words of Vinny Paz, um, and with this bulldog, ain't nobody live when he bark.

So, that's me. All right, let me get a few more of your questions in here. It's only been about 35 minutes or so, not even. I hear it often, but how does fighting a big name in the UFC equate to more money? So, it would depend, right? One would be if you get a higher placement on the card by virtue of having a bigger name opponent, you could get more, well, Venom money now, but formerly Reebok money. It could be a case where if you get put into a main event, depending on who the opponent is,

that could raise your pay. It could be that you have destructions in your contracts that, say, if you fight someone ranked, you could do it. Pay-per-view points. There's a lot of mechanisms that they could build in where it could do it. But really the issue is not necessarily like, oh, I fought one big name and everything changed. Or even two or three big names, it doesn't necessarily change.

You still might get whatever's on your contract, win, lose, a person and bonus and whatever else it is. But what it does is it leads to a greater scenario where then you're put into a space where you only fight on pay-per-view or whatever. So it's not necessarily the case that every time you fight a big name opponent, it automatically results in a bigger paycheck. It may not necessarily, but it could, A, and B, it definitely puts you on a path to the

kinds of opponents and cards where your pay is significantly augmented by virtue of some of these clauses that are put into these contracts. Who would be a scarier fight? Cyril Ghosn with Francis Ngannou's power or Yoel Romero with Max Holloway's volume and cardio? Ghosn with Francis's power because you have one of the smartest fighters, one of the most brutally strong fighters. Yoel Romero is a good fighter, but I wouldn't put him on the level of Gon

in terms of fight IQ. And Max Holloway's volume and cardio is amazing. But again, it's the... I don't think folks really understand how smart and clever Cyril Gon is. Some of you might, obviously, but the broader public. You have just received $500 million from a genie or some other weird character.

But there's a catch. You have to donate 25% to charity. Luke and BC. What charity are you choosing? I don't know what charity BC would choose. 25%. So, I'd have, what, $125 million to give away? How would I split that?

I would split probably... How would I split that? I would probably split that between a local charity that works on homelessness and food insecurity here in the nation's capital. Probably do that.

Something to help working moms, working families, the working poor. Especially when it comes to children getting food or having adequate clothing or something like that. Giving money to a food bank or just some kind of program that assists people who are in food insecure stages. Especially for families and, again, working parents. And then I'd give the other part to, I'd have to figure out exactly which one I would want to give it to, but probably some kind of veterans charity that's good about putting veterans in job placement programs. I think that's probably how I would allot that money. There's a pilot program here in the city. As you guys will know, around major American cities,

there's a lot of problems with homelessness. It's always been a problem, but it's gotten worse as I've gotten older. Hasn't, well, yes and no it's gotten worse, but it's certainly gotten worse of late. I mean, you know, I don't know what the numbers were in my kids in the city, as I was a kid in the city, but it was not awesome, you know. But in the city, as I was a kid in the city, but it was not awesome. But in any case, but there's a couple of pilot programs in the city where they're trying to put them in homes or otherwise through programs that can kind of counsel them on their way out. I would like to

give some money to that. I don't know if those programs work or not. We'll have to see, but hopefully they do. What are some of your favorite Muay Thai and kickboxing matches of all time? You know, candidly, I've not been the biggest kickboxing fan, and I would be majorly speaking out of my depth if I told you about some of my favorite Muay Thai fights of all the combat sports, and I want to be very clear about this. I do like Muay Thai. I've been to Muay Thai fights. I've paid tickets as a spectator just to go watch them. Same for kickboxing. I worked for Glory. I like it. Please don't misunderstand me. But I've never been a

huge fan and so as a consequence, I've never been much of a scholar or even reasonably articulate about kickboxing history or who really stands out. I mean, I know some of the basics about the Lumpini Stadium and Roger domner and things like that um but that i i just and i know who science is and

and a lot of other sort of the more celebrated muay thai figures um but i like kickboxing in in doses you know um i think some of the best what what was the best? There was one Mike Zambides fight that I saw. Who the fuck did he fight that was just an absolute, there was one fight. Mike Zambides fought someone, I think an Egyptian guy, and they fucking killed each other. That was a good one. And then there was one with, God, who was he fighting? It was Artur Koschenko. Was it Nikki Holtzkin?

I don't think that's right. He was fighting someone, and it was, I mean, these fucking guys were killing each other. Those two, even though I can't remember the full-on opponent's names, those two, I can see the fights in my head. I can see the ring. I can see everything. Those two kind of stand out. But I'm afraid to tell you that, like, those two, I can see the fights in my head. I can see the ring. I can see everything. Those two kind of stand out. But I'm afraid to tell you that, like,

you know, I've got to be honest about my limits. I just don't know enough to really tell you a whole lot. If you could give or take away a skill or ability of any MMA fighter that would have made a fight more interesting or a division more interesting, who is that fighter and what is the skill ability? I will tell you this, I wonder what would have happened if Jon Jones didn't quite have the wrestling domination that he had early in his run. If you guys have not like gone back and watched him around UFC 100 or before or you know even like in the Brandon Verified or Matt Yushchenko dude he was taking these guys down who had good MMA wrestling like it was nothing like it was absolutely nothing like it

was child's play and so he had you know limited striking at that time but good enough to win obviously but he had such and he didn't just have dominant wrestling he had like an ace in the hole wrestling where like if he wanted to take you down, bitch, you were going to the floor. Not that I need to see him lose, but I wonder what would have happened if that ability had been somewhat mitigated. To what extent does that change his fortunes? Does he level up on striking even faster because his fight IQ is so great? Does he regress and become a more ordinary fighter? Probably to an extent.

There's a lot of things you have to ask yourself about that. And I'm not wishing for this. Those things happen and he earned them and that's just the way things go. But sometimes you see these abilities that these guys have and it just stands out in such stark contrast. Now that has changed of late. I don't think he enjoys the same wrestling dominance he once did. Not even close, actually.

But there was a moment in time where it was absolutely lights out, no questions asked. Once he got it, you were going, and it was overwhelming. What happens when you take that overwhelming skill that's lording over a division, and what does that change? Hypothetically speaking, Henry Cejudo steps in and defeats Volkanovski for the featherweight title. Where would he rank among the greatest of all time? See, that's a really interesting one that gets back to the heart of the debate we've been having for many, many years at this point,

which is, you know, how do you measure greatness? Here would be a case where he didn't slog through all of the divisions in which he held titles, although obviously in some cases he did. But certainly in the Featherweight case, he would not have, but he would have gone up there and done it. I have maintained, I have maintained

that I think that what St. Pierre did and what Silva did and Demetrius Johnson and Jon Jones have done is the hardest thing to do. Stand a post, accept challengers, and then just see how things go. That's a tough way to make a living, but it's a very, very clarifying way to fight because if you can do that, I don't know what would be harder. Still, showing up on one night, while easier, right, than, you know,

seven, eight, nine fights, burning your way through contenders and then getting to the title. It's still, it would be such a dramatic one night. I don't know that I would put him best of all time, but certainly, like... You know... one night. I don't know that would put him best of all time, but certainly like, you know, who can fight up to the challenge? Who can raise his game when he needs to? It'd be Henry Cejudo. But you know, it's funny, if he beat Volkanovski, he might go back to 135 and then lose his very next fight. Like, I don't actually believe that he's the best fighter in

those weight classes. Well, maybe at flyweight and bantamweight. That's certainly a flyweight that's possible. Well, even then, I'm not sure anymore. But you get the idea. Like, you can, you know, certainly not a harder argument to make for him. But like, do I think he could get it done on the right night? I do. You know, he's very, very talented, obviously. So, if you got those belts, but you don't have some of the other, you know, yeoman's work that kind of goes into it, can you really say you're the greatest of all time?

That'd be a very, obviously, unique and singular achievement. I'd have to see. You know, if he did it where it wasn't like a flute KO, but he just kind of like beat the fuck out of Volkanovski, he didn't know what was coming to him, over the course of five rounds, I might say he's the best ever. But he would have to do that. What rule change, if any, can you see happening in the foreseeable future

that would have a noticeable impact on the game? Open scoring. Open scoring. Commissions are already trying it. You're seeing it in Invicta, in Kansas, places like Colorado is now playing with other rule sets, not just open scoring, but other kinds of rule sets. And there is at least some demand for it. I don't think it'll be universal. I don't think it will gain tremendous leverage between now and whenever the fuck. But that is something that is going to be more prominent in the next five years

than it has been in the last, for sure. Let's see. Do you think Francis could be the catalyst to fighters unionizing? No. Not even a little bit. Tyler from the 412 here. Any chance you guys can do more morning combat classics? I love the one about Vasquez and the Marquez trilogy. Also, any chance BC could do more boxing stuff? I'm here for the boxing coverage. Yeah, dude, we're all too happy to do more boxing coverage. I think we might do one of the

classics again, but we want to do it in studio. Like in studio, it's just, there's just no comparison. Heaviest band BC listens to and then softest band Luke listens to. Softest band? I mean, I've heard Simon and Garfunkel. Does that count? I'd probably say like in terms of concerts I went to like this Paul McCartney but I got free tickets for that so it doesn't count I've paid for I've paid for um Rodrigo y Gabriela and I've paid for um Jose Gonzalez Jose Gonzalez is I think he's he's he's Latin but he's actually Swedish or lives in Sweden and he has this real soft kind of peddled flowery music. He's like a little Elliot Smith-ish. I like him a lot. I've paid for tickets to see him. He's amazing. I saw him at the 930 Club, as a matter of fact. He fucking rocked. So shouts to him. For BC, probably, what's the heaviest band he's ever listened to?

Spice Girls? Something like that? Bro, I literally got in his fucking car. I'm not exaggerating. He had on some dude just jamming to the sitar for 17 minutes. Just, that's the shit he likes. Where do you two see yourselves in five years? We actually had that conversation this past week We actually had that conversation this past week

I'm not going to tell you But I can tell you that he and I talked about it Could you guys include some coverage of one in your channel? Yes Yes, I know they had an event today But not a very good one So we ignored it Could you guys include some coverage of one in your channel? Yes. Yes, I know they had an event today, but not a very good one. So we ignored it. Can you educate me on David Benavidez? I think he's a solid fighter, but I'm just not seeing what everyone else is seeing.

It's the idea that he's got a great chin. He has great hand speed. He's a very, very clever tactician. He's big for the weight class. He's not super bricked up, and he's made a fuck ton of errors in his life, whether it's recreational drugs that messed him up or whether it's weight issues or whatever. He has not been as dialed in and confidence-inspiring

as maybe he should or could have been. I recognize that. But what I would say is when you watch him operate, dude, he can play the levels. You want to brawl, he can brawl. You want to box a range? He can box a range. You want to go fast paced, head to head, phone booth? He can do that too. He can play all the levels. He's durable. He's got good power, high volume, highly accurate, highly technical. He is somebody for those reasons. You can just watch and be like, dude, he can give people problems. The reason why you don't think that is because he hasn't had a super big fight in quite some

time. He's been on Showtime. He's been in some good fights, but he hasn't had, you know, he's looking for that Charlo or Canelo opponent because that's just not who he's been fighting. And, you know, losing his, I mean, the first time I covered Benavidez for Showtime, he lost his fucking belt on the scales. You know, now granted that was the first fight during the pandemic and they didn't have access to the sauna and it was a whole thing. He didn't do that for a subsequent fight for Showtime. they didn't have access to the sauna and it was a whole thing.

He didn't do that for a subsequent fight for Showtime. So, you know, it's not like it's a constant thing, but there's just been enough of the issues he's had that have given people pause. And I understand that. But I think when you, you want to think of him as like, what could, listen, when you fight Canelo, the proverbial you, those guys on that night, sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't. But the vast majority of them have the very best fight they more or less could have gotten. There's a couple of them. Danny Jacobs, you could maybe say, could have done things a little bit differently. But a lot of them, you look at him, like, what would Caleb Plant have done differently?

Yeah, he could have had a different strategy. I mean, what could he have done differently that would have yielded him with his skill sets, his frame on that night? What could he have done differently that would have yielded him greater results? The answer is not much. The answer is not much. I think David Benavidez,

when he rises to the occasion and maximizes his potential, I think he is a very real threat to anyone in that weight class. Have you guys ever considered editing out of the podcast? Have you seen this shit? So I used to, if you guys remember when I hosted MMA Hour for the one year that I did it, I would open the show with Monday Morning Analyst. I would do that for 30 minutes. They actually cut that from the podcast and made that a YouTube exclusive. We might. We might. Do you foresee heavier attention on UFC fighters unionizing? Or is it going to be the same problem of getting the majority of the fighters to agree as well as move together?

Folks, I lived through Project Spearhead trying to do what they're doing. I lived through... Who was the baseball agent who came through? What was his name? He tried to start the PBA or the PFA, the Professional Fighters Association. I lived through the double M, triple A. I watched all of these things get erected and then fall. I watched all of them. I don't know what the issue is.

You'd have to talk to somebody who was trying to get the cards signed for unionizing. You get a certain percentage of the employee or the independent contractors at a place to sign. They can become eligible for unionizing. And then once they do, everyone is eligible to join at that point but you get the idea what I'm trying to say is I saw all that was it Scott Boris or his brother

it was one of the Boris brothers or whoever it was who did the PFA dude I remember this vividly vividly there was a ton of attention on it and it did nothing ESPN ends up being actually something of a camouflage agent for the UFC.

Because it's interesting. Here's what I don't understand about ESPN. Here's what makes no sense to me about them. On the one hand, they've got this whole cadre of talking heads, pundits, whatever. I'm not sure all the things that they do. Like Sarah Spain and there's a bunch of them like that where they're like super into the woke debate, right? And then when it comes to some of the excesses of what's happening in UFC, they don't ever pay attention.

Why do I bring this up? Because what I have noticed is that folks thought that when UFC signed with ESPN, that that would act as this kind of disinfectant agent, right? Oh, now UFC is partnering with Disney. They have to clean up their act. And actually, it's the opposite.

Not that UFC is some kind of atrociously dirty business or something, but I don't mean that. What I mean to say is it's the inverse of that. It is actually that the UFC's relationship to ESPN makes people think that there are no questions to be asked. Now, maybe internally ESPN has told your Bomani Joneses and your Sarah Spains and your Pablo Torres and your whoever that they're not allowed to talk about UFC negatively or I don't know. I do know that ESPN tells its employees that they can't say certain things all the time.

It's quite common. ESPN employees have been telling me this for a long time. So everyone's like, oh, wow, the lights have never been brighter on UFC, which is true and whatnot. But look, dude, just look at the reality. They're making more money than ever. They have a broadcast partner that makes people think everything is above board and normal. The casual fans either don't know or don't care. And you might say, okay, yeah, but now's the perfect time to get a union push in. Maybe it is, but I will resort to the idea that I will believe that when I see it. I think the fighters, my hunch, I don't really know this, but my hunch, based on talking

to some folks, is that some just have Stockholm Syndrome. They actually believe that they're going to win the lottery, and so why risk it as they see it anyway? The other one is they're a little bit tied to a political worldview that makes them think unionization is either bad or something that they would never want to be a part of. I don't know what you do about that. Others actually really like the unionization. In fact, what I've heard is that most people are quite supportive in theory. Excuse me, I've been talking a lot. But they are worried if they sign one of the cards to get unionized that they will get outed by UFC and it will destroy their relationship or it will hurt the business and therefore trickle down to them and hurt them. And it's just not

really worth it. And do I really need a union? That kind of a thing. So to me, it's a bigger issue of this cognitive myopia that a lot of the fighters have. And their fear of signing, I think is, I understand it, but you would hope that they would eventually overcome it. I don't think that they will. I think the only way this industry changes is through legislation or the court case. That's it. I don't think anything else does it. Let's see. What is the end goal for MK? Would you guys want a half hour show on ESPN or one of the other networks? Why would I want to go any other place than Showtime? What do you guys see next for MK if everything goes perfect? It's a great question. I don't, I mean, we have some things that we're looking at. Again, I'm going to keep secret. I think the one thing I have said that I will articulate to you guys, at least for 2022, is, you know, again, to the extent that things are feasible, I don't want to make any demands of my employer in ways

that I'm not allowed to or, you know, ask for things I'll never get. But I do think it's possible and something I want to push for. I think that the post-fight stuff that me and BC do when we're on location, certainly for stuff Showtime's involved with, you know, I'd like to see that if possible. Maybe it's not, but if possible, I'd like to see that take on a bit of a bigger role and, you know, perhaps be, you know, just a bigger part of the overall Showtime experience. I don't know that that will happen, and if it doesn't, then I can't complain about it to anybody because, you know, here I am with an opportunity to shape my own reality. But it would be nice if something like that happened, but I have to work for it and I

have to earn it, and so we'll see. Should the UFC try to make, yeah, that's the same say what kind of asked what stops the UFC from expanding rules in a favorable place like Nevada where it's more likely knees on the ground soccer kicks etc during the pandemic nearly all fights are happening there incongruity in rules already exists between the say athletic commissions anyway can lead the charge so the reason why they probably don't is that again this is a thing I've said a few times. Everyone will say that like running towards regulation in the early days when the UFC purchased part of the Zufa myth, but as it stands anyway, as it's stated, they didn't run away from

regulation. They ran towards it. Of course, the reality is they were running towards regulation prior to that, but whatever. And that sounds like a very effective talking point. Like, wow, we ran towards regulation. Like, come regulate us. But what that ends up doing, and I don't think UFC had a choice, to be honest with you. It was either that or go out of business. I mean, at that point, you just do what you have to do.

But what I'm trying to get at here is that when you enshrine rulemaking with a state government entity, you are enshrining a bureaucratic, difficult to change in any direction process. So the reason why I think that they don't is that unless it is absolutely egregious and you cannot imagine a way of going forward without it. I don't think they want to mess with the rules. They don't want to mess with them because once you mess with them, how are you going to get it unfucked? Just to get the rule changed, they would have to go before the commission. They have to make an argument. They would probably have to submit evidence, which means they have to collect it. They have to do blah, blah, blah.

There might be a trial basis. It would be a huge thing. They might be able to do it. In fact, I'm sure that the Vegas commission would be as, or I should say Nevada commission, would be as lenient as you could imagine them being, especially if the rule change was really important. But once you've changed it, now you have to go back if you decide, oh, it's actually fucked up the game a little bit. Now you have to go back to them and say, okay, actually, you know what? We changed our minds. You know, it's just a shitload of work for something you just didn't have to do to begin with. You can kind of just say, well, the rules aren't perfect and judging is not great, but you know, we more or less got a workable thing here. Let's just

leave it alone. I tend to think that's what it is. Dude, I was there. I covered it. When the UFC was going, obviously, they had already reached a certain place even before I even watched it. Larry Hazard had regulated before the State Athletic Commission, I think 2000, 2001, before the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. So it had happened before. But I distinctly remember around 07, 08, before UFC 100, dude, UFC was going to every state one for boxing, but they didn't have one on the MMA side of things. They had to go there and make them establish all of this so that they could regulate other things and do it properly. Because remember, MMA was taking place in that state. It was just going unregulated.

There was nothing to it. It's like Delta 8. MMA was like Delta 8 back in the day. It was legal just because of technicality, basically. So I remember when they did all of this i remember when they went place to place dude to to then go and be like oh we goofed this rule is actually fucked is it'd be a mess what i have been recommending for years is the opposite now with covid everything has changed but i've been making this argument since 2016 or even before. Dude, you can go to Singapore or someplace in

Europe or whatever, and you can self-regulate. If you can self-regulate, that means you can introduce the changes that you want to see and no one can do anything to stop you. Now, I'm not suggesting to you, oh, let's fight to the death. I'm not saying that, but people always ask, is open scoring good? I don't know. Let's see some evidence of it. How about taking a point from someone on a round because they fucked up a weigh-in, right? We have evidence from Brazil, from Jeremy Cruz, that that has some positive results for that organization. What results does it have for UFC? That is a laboratory and laboratory conditions anyway, under which you could test these things to see if they actually do good for your business or your product. And then if they do or they don't, you take that information

back to you and then you lobby the athletic commission. The whole idea behind lobbying the athletic commission is that that's the thing you want to go to when you're ready, when it has to happen, right? They did have to run towards regulation. There was no other choice. But if you've got places where you don't have to do that, and you've got almost 600 fighters under contract, man, fucking play with the rules a little bit. Let's see, some conspiracy theory questions. Good one. How long until we see a Georgian UFC champ? Gotta be within the next three, four years, right? If not less than that.

Those guys are headed towards the top of the food chain. What is your preference for the new Washington football team nickname? Man, fuck that team. Well, I like the team, but fuck that organization. I can't stand them. I can't stand Dan Snyder. I hate his guts. I hate everything stand them. I can't stand Dan Snyder. I hate his guts. I hate everything about him.

He's the worst. I liked anything with the term red in it. I liked, my number one choice was Red Wolves. Of course, of course the skins come out, or whatever the fuck they're called. The Washington football team comes out ahead of time and says, well, we're not going to go with that one. We'll go with one of the other ones. We're not going with that one.

And so the other ones are Admirals, shitty. Armada not going to go with that one. We'll go with one of the other ones. We're not going with that one. And so the other ones are admirals, shitty. Armada, terrible. Commanders, shitty. Brigade, shitty. Presidents, just the... Can you imagine? Oh, fucking Washington presidents. Get it?

Huh? Huh? Get it? Pow, pow, pow, pow. Like, it's just the worst shit ever that means they probably will go with that i've seen a couple different ones leak um and then red hogs was one i like that one as well bc ruins it for everyone because he's got you know the mind of a gerbil and then um and then red wolves red wolves was the one i thought was the best. But, you know, we can't. I don't think Red Wolves is like some amazing name.

But if the choices are commanders, armada. Armada is Spanish for navy. The Washington Navy. The fuck kind of a name is that? This is the fucking Washington Air Force. You mean like the actual Air Force? No, it's just a football team. Oh. Oh, you're just a fucking idiot. That's okay. All right. I get it. Francis Ngannou has a better resume and heavyweight than DC. It's probably true.

How much stock should we actually put into Burns versus Hamzat? Not any right now, but it could be some in time. My take on the pay-per-view price hike. Probably an ESPN decision, not a UFC decision. One that they're allowed to make, one where the UFC will probably benefit. I don't quite know why ESPN is doing it. They want to raise money for whatever reason internally. I think that the fans will do a lot of complaining. I do think it will turn some people into hardcore piraters,

but I think in general, whatever trade-off there is in terms of how much this contributes to piracy, it will contribute more to their bottom line, which is why they're going to do it. I think a lot of people complaining are actually not telling the truth, not to themselves and not to the public. There's a lot of you who are like, oh, I'll never buy it again. I don't believe that. I don't believe that at all. Every time they – I remember when UFC prices were $45. $45 for HD. I remember that, you know, what was that, 2004? Something like that.

I think I ordered, it was USA versus Canada. It was the first GSP versus BJ Penn fight. It was a USA Canada card. And I remember, I think that one was like $45. Okay, so the point being is every time they raise the price, every time people are like, Oh, I'll never buy it again. And they just keep buying. In fact, you know, you have to pay five bucks to get ESPN plus. And it was 70 before this, right? That should have been one of those ones where I was like, Oh, I'm never doing that.

And now they're making more money than ever. and they're selling more in terms of the overall, not just dollar amount that they get back, but the price on the, excuse me, the amount of pay-per-views that they sell has gone up. They had their best year ever. So understand that. This past year was record price with an additional $5 surcharge on top of it

and they had their best numbers ever. So again, I want to make sure everyone understands this. There's going to be a bunch of people that are like, I'm never going to pay this. This is abysmal. This is going to hurt the business. It will do nothing but make the business richer. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see, I'll do a few more of these, thoughts on the Toporia versus Jourdain fight next weekend, I saw, I saw Air Jourdain come out on Twitter and say he wanted to fight, guts on that dude, super big guts, love it, Jourdain is a guy, or Jourdain is a guy who's got really good ability, I don't know if he's got the fire power of Toporia, we'll have to see, but I love his guts. I love the last win that he had. He's betting on himself. He's a talented guy.

Let's see. Let's see what he can do. Love it. Love everything about what Air Jorda had to say there, or had to, is trying anyway. I know your thoughts on PED usage, Luke, and and agree but how would you address the grievances of fighters like Mark Hunt well I don't know about all of his various grievances but I remember where he lost the court case where he sued UFC and then sued Brock Lesnar related to UFC 200 and testing positive and what he had argued before the court was that um you know if you're Brock Lesnar you agree under the terms of competition to not use. And USADA tested him but didn't have the results ready.

So what are they doing? Is that negligent? And he had argued that he did not have to assume that there was a chance that his opponent could be on anything. And the judge disagreed. The judge was like, of course it is rational to at least assume there is a risk of this guy or any opponent using and whatnot. You have to at least assume that despite every attempt from any organization to screen this, some of it might get through. So like the idea that you're, because I think the idea was if they had reason to believe he was using or something like that, then they were in violation of their contract, the terms of the fight contract.

And the judge really disagreed. The judge was like, yeah, if you do the steps that you're supposed to do, even with that, you have to at least assume your opponent could be on. And so for those reasons, they disagreed with him and he lost his case. I think that's right. Do you have, yes, you should be, you know, if you are a athlete who doesn't want to use and you want to compete against other athletes who don't want to use and you want to compete against other athletes who don't want to use in an organization that doesn't want its athletes to use, you know, it should be a world where you live in, where you don't have to assume

that your opponent may or may not be on it. But that's just not the real world. It's not Earth. It's not our life. It's not reality. It was a weak argument to make. Now, that's a separate question from whether or not, you know, are the attempts at,

you know, is USADA diligent enough? Is, you know, did Brock obtain a huge benefit from the drugs he was taking or whatever? These are all important questions that make Mark Hunt's situation quite difficult. But when you've fought PED abusers before and never said anything, again, maybe he had a change in his career and his view changed. But the argument he made in court about Brock was weak. And then he's had a history of fighting and beating many PED users. And then he claims that he's been blackballed, which sucks. I don't want to see him blackballed.

I wish he could get a fight, obviously. But if you sue a promoter under the argument that they had a responsibility to make sure that there was never a case where any opponent he ever fights ever has any PEDs in the system and anything short of that is a violation of the fighter contract. Yeah, I would imagine a lot of promoters might be hesitant to do business with you. You know, you have to understand the nature of the UFC can afford lawyers. Some of these other smaller promoters can't afford that shit and don't want to pay for it. So they're just like, fuck it. It's not worth the headache. What if they sign a guy, they try to make sure he's not on

anything, and he is. What are they supposed to do? Are they going to get sued? Who wants to run that risk? Is BC leaving you for the fighter and the kid? Yes. Yes. I don't know what this is. Da-da-da-da-da. A lot of questions about P.F. Chang's.

All right, this dude is going to get muted. Luke, what do you think with prices going up literally every year? To be a UFC fan will do the promotions getting more exposure as well as more UFC fans most likely will pirate that shit now. I don't think so. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I will say that MMA fans get screwed because most sports fans just need basic cable and they can watch any of their teams. It's something of an exaggeration, but pretty close. Here in the United States, anyway. And then, with MMA, you gotta pay for Bellator. You gotta pay for UFC. You gotta pay for

almost any version of UFC. Almost hardly any of it is on basic cable. You gotta have at least ESPN+. PFL, you get that with basic cable, but some of that, not even the case. So it's like, MMA fans, they get asked to do a know. So it's like MMA fans, they get asked to do a lot. They get pulled in a lot of different directions. They get banged up.

So I understand the frustration. The frustration is real. And I do think some people will be turned from that to piracy. But I'm just telling you, every time I've seen this complaint from folks, it has never resulted in the reality that they said would materialize, which is that at that point, the UFC will have tipped the scales and there will be not just more piracy, but that the juice will no longer be worth the squeeze to sell it that way. And if anything has happened in that time, it's the opposite. I remember when UFC, and Dana White still does this to an extent, when they would really go after piraters.

You know, if you're really concerned about piraters, would you raise your cost just since 2019, 25%? If you're really concerned, man, piracy is fucking us.

Hey, let's raise our prices. I'm not saying that the UFC doesn't suffer real material losses as a consequence of piracy. There isn't a doubt in my mind they do. 1,000%. They probably lost millions of dollars around piracy. I mean, I just don't think there's any argument about that. But is it so cancerous to their business that they can't survive or do well? Dude, they're not surviving. They're not doing well. They are killing it. That's why they feel like they can raise their prices, or at least ESPN does for whatever reasons they may have on top of that. But

are they worried about the fan base going all pirate? Nope. Nope, they sure ain't. And I think folks need to just kind of accept that a little bit. You don't have to pay. I mean, do what you want. I'm going to pay for them. But I don't believe people's claims that they're, oh, now is the straw that broke the camel's back.

I don't believe that. All right. I think that is it for me today. Mikey, should we call it a day here? I think we should, right? I mean, we don't have BC. We're not going to do Dead Wrong. I don't have any fan subs.

We'll save that stuff for... Oh, you know what? We'll probably just save Dead Wrong for another week. I think BC's got like 10 of them on there. So we'll do that. So let's do this. Thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe if you're watching on YouTube.

If you're watching on any other podcast platform, you know, do me a solid, man. I did this one solo on a Friday. Give me a nice review in Spotify, in Apple Podcasts, in any other places, wherever you listen to your podcast. That would be greatly appreciated. There you can see the lower third. I think it's sportspodcastawards.com sportspodcastawards sportspodcastawards so sports and awards are plural .com Give us a vote for best combat sports podcast

that you can. Let's see. Morningcombat.store if you want to get some merch. There's always new stuff coming. By the way, there's a ton of stuff coming for your boy, so be on the lookout for that. What else we got going on? I think that's about it. Yeah, always you can email the show for fan subs or for Fridays, Dead or Wrong, whenever we do them

at morningcombat. It's morningcombat at gmail.com. morningcombat at gmail.com. Get those in early and often. Okay? All right, let me see here. I think that is it for me today. One more reminder. I will be joining you post-fight.

The card is not great, but that main event should be. I'll be joining you right after the main event for Giga Chikadze and Calvin Cater. I'll have a live show and then on Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, resume review is out. I'll be back live on Wednesday with

BC and we will get you ready for UFC 270. Okay? All right. Thank you guys so much for understanding everything. We appreciate it. Enjoy your weekend. The UFC is back. I think the main card kicks off at 7 p.m. in the east. I will join you subsequent to the results of the main event. And until next time, for BC, for Malka, for Showtime, for CBS Sports, and everyone else in between, may all of your gains.