MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night Leftovers | Jon Jones | GSP vs. De La Hoya | Luke Rockhold | Ep 161

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

On episode 161 of Morning Kombat, Brian and Luke discuss Jack Hermansson's win over Edmen Shahbazyan. What's next for each fighter (8:30)? GSP revealed the rules that were presented to him for a potential Oscar De La Hoya fight. Should GSP be fighting harder to get this payday (18:10)? Dana is working on Mackenzie Dern vs. Marina Rodriguez (23:10). Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen exchanged some words on twitter last night (34:40). Finally they close out the main topics with a little conversation about Luke Rockhold. Who should his comeback fight be (46:20)? '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: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

it's the 26th of May 2021 and it's time for morning combat hello everyone we are this duo here you see on the screen from cbs uh sports viacom cbs that over there is the king of connecticut brian campbell my name is luke thomas and brian it is good to talk to you this morning i know we've been doing our dad shit this morning, but otherwise life sounds pretty good, huh? Yeah, quick turnaround. This will be a hump day shit show, most likely, Luke. I got off the plane 1 a.m. last night from a sojourn to San Juan and extended territories down there in the great territory of Puerto Rico

to hang out with the Paul brothers. A lot of future content to come this week, later this week, on CBS Sports, Showtime, Sports, etc. A very fruitful get-together. In fact, I was hoping for adoption into their fraternity. But either way, Luke, I'm back. I'm exhausted. I'm ready to go, okay?

It is morning combat. That's all I got to say, Luke. That's it. All right. Here's the operative question. You had to mow your yard this morning. True or false? Yeah, the mosquito Joe is coming, my wife said.

I had to get up early and mow that shit. It's not all glamour here in Factoryville. We got to earn our keep, alright? Did you pull out the edge trimmer? Did you do that? No, I got into the rider with shorts and flip-flops.

No glass. Just coffee cup in one hand. Just, you know, no care of lines or attention to detail. Luke, you know what I'm talking about here. It looked a lot like your yard at the end. Yeah. At the end of the day, the neighbors are like,

wow, our neighbor is really quite the multitasker. He can both have a cup of coffee, mow his yard and touch himself all at the same time. It's yeah. That's seven a.m. In the morning. And not read the morning combat rundown.

So it was really a fruitful morning that, that, that I put together there, you know, well, look, welcome back. Good to have you here.

Good to have a show today. We actually do have some stuff. Our producer kind of put me on tilt yesterday because he sends us a note being like bro what are we going to talk about there's nothing and to be fair to him there aren't exactly major topics but there are some things we're going to get to so we'll get some leftovers from the last UFC card we'll get a little bit of a look ahead with the Devin Haney fight and then some stuff in between as always thumbs, thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe. BC, I can't quite see through the screen what your sign says. Is this a future Java jerk?

Yeah, so here's the deal, Luke. I thought this Floyd fight was like a month from now. It's actually next week, Luke. You and I will be in Miami and Brendan Schaub's going to be there. So Luke, you had mentioned multiple times that joining a fraternity despite my misgivings of these organized white gangs that you were part of was the best thing to ever happen to you, end quote.

You know, despite you being a father and a husband. That's actually not what I said. So, you know, I'm thinking I mean, you know, if you can't beat them, join them. What are the odds that I could get initiated or pledged into that thick boy club you got going on? I mean, maybe I might be surprised. I'd love to be.

Maybe I can join the Java Jerks in Miami. Look, all I know is that MKDoc cameras will be rolling. I hung out with the documentarian himself, less than Jake, in Puerto Rico yesterday. So we got a lot of fun ideas. I hope, though, that BS will play ball with me. Okay, Luke? I hope. Well, I can't make them. I guess we shall see.

If not, there's always Lambda Lambda Lambda for you. Okay, Brian Campbell? Is that a Revenge of the Nerds reference, Luke? I love that. It is. It is. Because I'm 40, and that's all I've got. I will say, the quote about the fraternity, just to refresh everyone's memory, Luke, I love that. It is. It is. Because I'm 40 and that's all I've got. I will say the quote about the fraternity, BC, just to refresh everyone's memory, was for my social life in college, it was the best decision that I made.

And it absolutely was. Highly recommend anyone who's in a similar position to do what I did. Dude, but seriously, I'd love to get together with you and Brendan, talk Daje coin and, you know, and just, you know, it'd be great, right? I think it's Doge coin. I don't know. I don't own any pretend internet money, so I don't know how fruitful

a discussion that might be. But yes, if there's a chance to hang out with Brendan, we should do it. I just don't know. I haven't talked to him about it, so I guess we'll have to see how it goes. One team, one dream, Shob. I'm ready. Alright? I'm ready. Let's see. So if you want to try Showtime, you certainly can can we all are part of the showtime family here to in one extent or the other you can go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you can go pound sand bc i've got our old merch on you see you got a morning combat shirt i don't

know if you have the ats i don't think that's what that's all the smoke but you can go to store.show.com you can get all the smoke merch there, too, by the way. I may not need it, but we have Morning Combat merch there. Merch 2.0, you know. I mean, Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot. Shout out to Captain Jack for squashing this Kwame beef, you know? Shout out. I didn't see what happened.

You know, put it away. That's what you got to do. You know what I mean? I've seen Kwame Brown open up on everyone, it seems, these past few days. Did they finally squash their beef or something? They did. They did. And I give Stack a lot of credit for that.

Stack has love for those who have love, Luke. I want to have a lot of love. I want to be in that crew. All right? I'm pledging ATS as well, okay? All right. Very good. Very good.

Alpha, Tau, Sigma. There you go. You can go pledge them or whatever it is. And then, let's see. Last but not least, oh, the email. MorningCombat at gmail.com. We'll do fan submissions today. That's of course where you send them for any point and we still have Dead Wrong

on Friday. So send everything you have to MorningCombat at gmail dot com. And we have some interviews. We've got interviews with Gervonta Davis out there. We've got some interviews with a bunch of people. We've got some interviews down the line coming. So listen, youtube.com slash morningcombat where you're watching right now. Go there and

give us a like, give us a subscribe, all that kind of stuff. Alright BC, you ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. Okay, first topic is something we did not get to on monday it still comes to us from ufc fight night font versus garbrandt let's get to it now it's the shabazian and hermanson fight now hermanson ends up winning a unanimous decision 29 28 so the fight went the full three rounds and in fact if you watch it i watched it one more time this morning just to be, Shabazian does really quite well in the first round. In fact, I think he won it. He had a

great jab. He had a great answer for the jab of Jack Hermanson, BC. Round two, I thought was competitive, but probably belonged to Jack Hermanson. Round three was a bit of a disaster for Edmund Shabazian, where he got basically taken down almost right away and then held down and beat until basically the round was over with a little bit of difference there at various spaces in between. Okay, BC, are we overreacting to the second loss, not only of the career of Edmund Shabazzian, but the second in as many fights, or is there something to be said about the matchmaking here,

that this was the wrong fight to make at the wrong time for Edmund Shabazzian? Yeah, there's a little bit of that because this was like a, you know, title, almost like future title contention type shot where the winner was going to be catapulted up. And I think, like, it's tough for me to come on and say here, Luke, that, you know, this was, you know, this or that. When just last, what, a couple days ago, we said, look, for Valerie Lareda, who's in a different spot than Shabazzian, but still, it's the same thing, a, a, someone with

bright potential who's climbing the ladder, um, you know, we said, look, it's early, you can take losses in MMA, I mean, Aljamain Sterling had those back-to-back defeats early in his UFC run at a time when he looked like he could be one of those next things in that division but in this specific case Luke this had much more damaging results from my point of view for Edmund Shabazian even though I liked him coming back and taking the risk by going right in there against a tough opponent not a get well fight not a let's see where we're at and even though I like the way he dealt with the loss again afterwards in terms of his quotes Luke this is the second straight implosion. And right now, Edmund Shabazzian, who is uber-talented in certain areas,

is giving me really, really large Amir Khan vibes in boxing. And if you're not a boxing guy, Amir Khan, I call them the greatest first-round fighter in boxing history. He comes out there with those lightning-quick combinations, and he puts it on whoever he is in the ring with. Dropped Maidana with a body shot. Was all over Danny Swift Garcia until Garcia knocked him out. Khan is one of those guys, Luke, who in three of the four most important categories in boxing is like superstar elite, hand speed, combinations, all that. Edmund Shabazzian in round one looked like a freaking

killer as advertised. Incredible striker on the feet. But as the fight wore on, his lack of a ground game on the level of Hermansen showed, maybe gas tank showed. And Luke, I saw that thing, that thing that you can see where, you know, he didn't just get beat by a better fighter in Hermansen I think he kind of imploded a second time now again in reference to the Loretta conversation you can take losses in MMA you can bounce back from them much easier than in boxing where that the L is like a scarlet letter when you're a prospect rising up But even with all that said, Luke, I have high level concerns that Shabazian, who put the loss before this on stamina, right? He came into this fight against Hermanson just saying, look, I gassed out in that fight before. You know, I didn't have anything left. And I can respect that. Fighters need to sort of build as they go. You know, you don't have five round

stamina right away. You got to build as you go steep amy ochich learned that in the first junior dos santos fight but i'm a little bit more scared than all of these other references i'm making luke is this justified this is an interesting one i had missed the fight initially in real time and then i went back and i watched it close to seeing what the twitter reaction was and i sort of understood it to a degree i was like okay all right fine then i rewatched it this morning and I have less of the same feelings, but a lot of the same dread. I do think that the Amir Khan analogy is well served, and as much as a boxing MMA analogy can be.

I like that. I would also say to me, I was trying to figure out, okay, what went wrong for Edmund here? His striking is good. It's really good. He may win or lose on it, but you know, he's fine. I don't think that's really too much of a cause of concern. And we've seen his offensive wrestling. We saw it against Darren Stewart. He went 15 minutes

basically offensively wrestling the guy, not striking. That was pretty smart. So that's not so bad. But the two things combined against a guy like Jack Hermanson, I actually would argue three things combined against a guy like Jack Hermanson are going to hurt you. One, his defensive wrestling is okay, but not great. Two, he's got cardio issues, man. He's got cardio issues. We've seen in the last two fights. Now understand something. When I say cardio issues, I don't mean insurmountable obstacles that he could never overcome. He's 23 years old. I have to believe a 23-year-old who has had these two kinds of losses, where it's a combination of skill, and in this particular case,

definitely a combination of cardiovascular endurance, essentially, that hurt him. But I do think we should say one more thing, BC, and it's something that doesn't come up all that often. I really wonder how you feel about it, especially because you, obviously, you've cut your teeth in the boxing trade. The more advanced MMA gets, the more I see a case for having additional weight classes. Now, not

as a way to make business better. I don't offer it to you as that kind of a solution, but I'm seeing more and more of these tweener guys, these guys who would be great at 175, 165, 195, depending if that's how they wanted to go in that direction. I think a guy like Edmund Shabazzian probably fits in that role. Hermansen was way too big, and he had a skill differential too. Don't misunderstand me. He was just better on the floor, but the fact that he had such a size advantage given the circumstances to me was alarming. I want to bring up one point to you, BC, and let's see how you feel about it. I was trying to think back, what's an example of someone moving up five pounds, but it having a really big effect. Now this was a while ago, but it stands out to me.

I remember when Matt Hughes went from 170 to 175 to fight Hoist Gracie. Now Hoist was out of his depth in that one, no matter what. But I remember that five-pound allowance, dude, Matt Hughes came in fucking yoked at the weigh-ins. I could not believe how much different he looked. And he used every bit of that plus skill to demolish Hoyce Gracie. I think we are undervaluing at this advanced stage of MMA where everyone's gotten so good. We've got much better athletes. Dude, weight differences, this is not 2003 anymore.

They're going to make a real big difference, especially, BC, if your cardio's not on point. No, that's a fair point. It's still, it's troubling, and you know, maybe the AmeriCon comparison isn't perfect because Khan's issue was his chin, and that he was, you know, just too offensive, and he would

fade a little bit as the fight went on, and then he looked like, you know, average by down the stretch where in the beginning he looked sensational either way Shabazzian's got to figure this out Luke I don't know if it's just the the balancing of his stamina he's got to build a deeper gas tank I'm not sure what it is it's just that like there's a difference between somebody running out of gas though and somebody imploding I saw almost a helplessness down the stretch in this fight, and it's such a contrast to how talented he is on his feet and how talented he is early in a fight that I hope he figures it out.

Maybe he needs a couple fights against lesser competition to do that. He was one of these guys that we picked at a young age who had sublime skills and had the connection with Edmund Tarverdian, who you were just like oh my god maybe he will be the next big thing but uh uh still time but I'm worried the last the last thing I'd say on this too is that like I've seen these like did we lose them where'd he go I'm right here there okay okay okay I thought I thought you went out uh the one thing also should be said we brought it up before but it bears a little bit of repeating here, which is that you'll start to see these guys out of the regional scene

who've got one of their tricks, and not even a trick, one of their skills. I'm using the words in a very informal way. And they can just blast through a whole lot of people, including some decent contenders on the way. But that doesn't mean they've been fully audited. That doesn't mean they've been put through their paces. To me, what it shows is that everything you think about the striking of Edmund Shabazian is probably pretty true. I don't think that we saw anything that undoes that. The problem is everything else.

And at 23 years old, I think it's a very solvable problem, but it goes to show people were hammering Edmund Shabazian's team for letting this fight happen. I'm a little less, I probably wouldn't have taken this fight, but I don't think that's really the biggest issue you could, the hill to die on. But I do think now, now you've got two clear examples of big dudes who have good wrestling, who can just put it on this guy, especially late when he gets tired. The next fight for him needs to be carefully made. He can be something great. He already is pretty something good. But until he gets the right career management to be put in that place, and maybe he asked for this fight too, let's be clear about that,

he's going to continue to have problems. I'm still cheering for Coach Edmund, you know? Tarverdian and the head movements, I'm still cheering for you. I'm still in your corner, okay? Team Armenia, thank you. And the last thing, yeah, the last thing is also, like, these guys coming off the contender series, you know, knocking people out in 30 seconds.

Dana White loves it because it's, you know, it's good for ratings. It's good for the show. It is awesome. First-round knockouts are amazing. But the problem is they don't tell you a whole lot about the full totality of someone's skills. That's where we are. All right, topic number two. This was interesting, BC. Now, George St. Pierre revealed some of the rules had the De La Hoya about the exhibition or whatever it was going to be, had it gone forward. We know that it won't happen because the ufc has forbade saint

pierre for making any money in this particular way uh for better or for worse but here's what he said saint pierre quote it would have been bigger gloves the how big i don't know 14 16 18 ounces i i don't know what they would have been two minute rounds normally it's it's um well it's eight ounce gloves below i think 154 pounds in boxing and 10 ounce gloves uh above that so i mean probably yeah 12 14 yeah yeah that's a fair point um so the terms were different to accommodate it to make it more like a show it's less dangerous part of the profit part of our purses would have been given to a charity unfortunately it did not happen but it would have been fun Brian we won't see it but what do you make of Saint Pierre willing to fight De La Hoya for two minute rounds eight rounds bigger gloves I actually think it would have been really fun I think that's the type of fight that that Triller should be

going after right now uh then some of the other stuff that we're seeing you know like that there's a lot of interest in there because it's potentially competitive. Now, as long as De La Hoya is not a physical mess, and he's 47, but he looks to be in pretty good shape, even though mentally and decision-making-wise, he's sometimes regularly all over the place, you'd have to believe that that's a fight that could be competitive, also that Oscars should win.

I wish we could see it. The reason why we're not seeing it just, just, you know, rubs me the wrong way that Dana still has some type of control over GSP's frozen contract, even though, again, this is a fight that would have been in another sport altogether. It's not like he's saying, I want to come back at Bellator and fight Logan Paul in an MMA match. No, it's not, that's not what we're saying here.

It's a fricking boxing match. But with all that not what we're saying here. It's a freaking boxing match. But with all that said, DC, you know Daniel Cormier? He made a lot of headlines in reaction to this, Luke, on that Canadian show he does where he said he's glad it's not happening because it would have been really bad for MMA to have GSP go in there against Oscar, who's obviously a loud mouth, right, and takes shots at MMA all the time, except for that time that he put on that really bad pay-per-view,

that it would have been really bad for MMA had GSP gone in there and lost to Oscar. I don't get with that really, really well, Luke. I don't subscribe to that theory. You? Yeah, that sounds to me like he's parroting the official UFC party line on that one which is listen I understand why the UFC has a little apprehension about this if you were the UFC and you went through all this work for promotional and you know frankly existential credibility

and then some of your most decorated champions were out there let let's say, getting stiffened by old or bad or retired boxers one after the other, you'd be like, okay, all right, what are we doing here? But like on some level, there's a lot of issues at play. As you indicated, one, you know, St. Pierre probably should have a right to make money at this stage off his fighting ability, whatever's left of it, especially in a bout like this. And listen, I probably would lean towards de la jolla and do i need to see gsp versus de la jolla under any rule set no i don't you don't need to see any of this stuff it's quite obviously just sort of combat sports junk food but i gotta tell you bc i don't think i would have hated that as much no they're close enough to their they're close enough to

their physical primes and gsp was obviously a really good boxer in the MMA space, and he's a lot younger than Oscar. He's got a great jab. I mean, look, you could talk yourself into it actually being, like, a decent theater comparative to, like, Evander Holyfield against Kevin McBride, which is another trailer fight. It's just sloppy shit, right? Like, nobody really cares about it.

I don't know. Did you see Oscar came back? And this is usually how these conversations end. Oscar's like, okay, Dana, if you can't let me fight GSP, then I want to fight you, you bitch. I mean, that's not going to happen. This ain't 2006. Plus, you know, Dana's not that dumb. I mean, come on, Oscar.

Yeah, that would not go well for Dana. I don't think. They should do a cliff jumping competition. That'd be a little... probably be one-sided too. How about a fist fight in the air after you jump off of a cliff? You can only fight in that space before you hit the water. Let's just get creative out here. I'm just pointing out of all the different crossovers I've seen,

what was there in it for us between Mir and Tarver? I don't know, but it felt like whatever this has, it has a lot more of it than Mir versus Tarver or Mir versus Cunningham. It feels like there's a very narrow window where you can make one of these permutations kind of work. This feels like the alchemy actually made some gold this time. Yeah, but no one's taking home that gold

because of Uncle Dana. But, you know, thank you. Thank you for that. All right, all right. Topic number know, thank you. Thank you for that. All right. All right. Topic number three, if you'd like to move along. This is a short one, but I would just love to get your interest in it. So Dana White has a plan in mind.

Now, nothing official that I have heard, but he did speak to it talking about Mackenzie Dern. Now, she's back at 115 pounds and has been since the birth of her kid. And frankly, that looks to have lit a fire under her. She's been pretty amazing since then. He has said said dana white that she has a fight coming up quote she does have a fight coming up i was just talking about this this morning we haven't announced it i'm sure but i'll give it to you anyway hopefully it's done my people hate it when i do this she's taking on marina rodriguez next which is a great fight b BC. Great. Okay, first impressions.

Like it, love it, hate it. Where are you? Love it. Love it. You know I love this division, first and foremost. It's all killer, no filler all the time. Look, I was kind of early on the turnaround for Dern and saying, look, she's looking like a future title contender.

Now, her last two fights, specifically her last one, really put that into focus, especially the shape. Look, you know, the physical shape, I don't try to get into that a lot. I don't try to be a body guy, but Dern got into a much serious level of physical shape. You can see the muscle tone, all that. Like, she's going for it right now. Did she come back a little bit too soon after giving birth? You can always argue that, but she's in a zone mentally and physically right now. She's ready. Luke, she's a title contender this is legit and obviously there's certain marketing elements she's sort of a quasi you know rousey 2.0 in some weird ways too this is a great fight to find out how good she really is and if she wins this luke she's not far outside of that title picture which is

which is a tight circle right now right you? You know, of those names that we debated on Monday's show in terms of who should be next for Rose and where does Joanna fit in and you got Carla Esparza coming off the big win and all that. Oh, by the way, dude, I got Boricino depoted hardcore on that whole Esparza rant.

I'm blocking people left and right. What happened? Because I fumbled my words and Yogi Berra did and basically said that Esparza looks like a new fighter and she's on the way to getting to a level that she's never been before. And people are like,

bro, this asshole, she was already champion. Yeah, I know that. I was at that fight in Las Vegas in 2014. I know she was already champion. But even though she finished that version of Rose, she didn't look like a killer back then. First time ever, this fight, she kind of looks like a killer. So that's where I was going with that. Listen, I got bad news for you. The internet

is not always fair. I have to tell you. Not always fair. That is true. I guess I got to just sit back and count them rocks, Biatch, and just enjoy it. But look, this is a very good fight. Marina Rodriguez is one of those just difficult, perfect tests to find out if somebody's ready for that title picture

or if Marina herself is ready if she gets by Dern. That's why you love this fight. Luke, I want to spin it back on you and just really focus on the game and the evolution of Dern. Do you agree with me by this point that like, this could be a future champion, even though she may not have like, let's say the most perfectly well-rounded game. It's very ground heavy still, even though she's improved her striking. I think she's in play as somebody who can wear that belt in the next, you know, 18 months. I think she's a real

threat. I think she's a real threat. I mean, let's talk about where she fumbled a little bit. It was in 2018. So she had that Amanda Cooper fight where she fumbled a little bit. It was in 2018. So she had that Amanda Cooper fight where she came in for a 115 fight. She came in at 123. I mean, Dominic Cruz was right. He was like, you know, basically if you miss weight by that much, you're not even trying. Like you're not even, you're almost trying to sabotage it. You're two points or two pounds away from the next weight class.

I mean, it's an insane amount of irresponsibility. Then she fought Amanda Hibas in 2019 and lost. But since then, she's had four fights. Hannah Cyphers, Randa Marcos, Virna Janjiroba, and then Nina Ansaroff. She won three of those via submission. All three of those wins came with a Performance of the Night bonus, and the one

she didn't get against Janjiroba, who, by the way, also an accomplished black belt herself, which Mackenzie won that one walking away, too. She has been absolutely reformed. But BC, I'm glad you brought the way in which she has been reformed. It's not like her striking went to the next stage. It's pretty good. It's okay.

Definitely she doesn't mind sitting in the pocket. I'll say that for sure. Yeah, but it's functional to set up what she does best, right? Right. And now what she does best, she's bringing to life. A lot of these people are like, oh, I want to use my striking now that I've been training it. And they kind of lose sight of what got them there. Demi and Maya had that issue and then kind of got back to it.

She had like a mini version of that. A mini version of trying to figure out who she was. She's still working on the striking. She's still working on all the incorporations to get there and she's going to need that by the way against someone like Marina Rodriguez who I think has good takedown defense good framing you're gonna have to really get inside on her and that's going to come from the stand-up to an extent because her wrestling shot is not super athletic blast double type she's gonna have to work her way inside but on the ground dude she has become a very no bullshit operator once it's

down she is hunting for better position right away right away without a moment's notice she can do it on top she can do it on bottom she has a lot of different tricks and you're just seeing her have a very clear this is what i've noticed bc in her larger life in her larger purpose and in her game it just seems like she has a lot more focus and direction about where she's headed and how she wants to get there and we've all had those moments in our own careers luke where it's like okay we're pretty damn good at this but are we trying to be a killer are we trying to be our absolute very best do we really want all the smoke are we daring to be great masvidal found that spark right in some reality show in the woods in Central America.

Whoever Mackenzie Dern found it, she found it. And while we are talking about the evolution of her game and giving her the respect, this is the longest we've ever talked about her without speaking of the evolution of her accent. Luke, your thoughts? There is no controversy about the evolution of her accent. By the way, if you look at the career of marina rodriguez she has a weird one right she has the draw against marcos she has the wins against torres and aguilar which are good she has the draw to cynthia then the split to carla and then the last two fights she has wins over he boss who she just dummied and then michelle watterson what do you make of her evolution since entering the ufc you know she kind of surprised me by by by becoming suddenly a contender who's sort of like wow she has a a very tough style to look

good against a very tough style to get over the top against i don't know if she's completely turned that corner where i'm like you know she's she's a killer. She's a finisher She's gonna go in there in in in wreck shop in challenge for the title I still see her as a tough out on the way to the title But those last two wins are especially coming off of a loss. They're very impressive. So I need to see more. She's uh, She's smart Luke. She she's a you know, she's a tough out in there You can't look great against her and and this is why this matchup is so good she's smart, Luke. She's a tough out in there. You can't look great against her.

And this is why this matchup is so good. I didn't want to dead wrong you quickly. It's Nina Nunes. Can you put some respect on that family's name? Yes, yes, I keep doing that. It's a bad habit. I apologize. But you're right.

It is, in fact, Nina Nunes. Although on Wiki, they still have her as Nina Ansaroff. So that's where I got my bad idea. But you're right. I made that mistake a few times. I don't know when that would be, but really would love to see that one. I love that matchup classic striker versus grappler, but in a very modern kind of way and winner of that one, dude, just quickly look at the rankings here for just a second in that division, depending on how it goes at sitting at women's straw, but you've got Dern at six, and you've got her opponent, Rodriguez, at five. So it makes all the sense in that one.

Above them, BC, Yan Xiaonan, who's out of the picture for the moment, Esparza, okay, and then Ioana and Zhang Weili. Dude, there's a huge fight for the winner on the other end of that. Not a title shot, but maybe a title shot eliminator. Exactly, but I want to ask you now that we're focusing on the other end of that. Not a title shot, but maybe a title shot eliminator. Exactly.

But I want to ask you now that we're focusing on the 115 title picture because I could do this all day on Morning Combat. We got, not dead wrong, but people saying, what the hell, BC and Luke? When we talked on Monday and sort of said, look, my personal belief is Esparza deserves and will get the Rose title shot in that rematch. Great storyline. Esparza showed us everything we needed to see out of her in that win.

And we were sort of like, well, what's next for Zhang Weili? Because I really feel like she's going to be one more win away from getting back into a title shot. Everyone's like, hey, wake up, Morning Combat. Zhang Weili versus Ioana Champion, part duh. Duh. Luke, you know, it sells itself. But is that the right fight to make right now? Like, I don't know. It seems to me it's one of those fights where you make it when you don't know what else to do and it's a spectacle because of the first fight. Do you match those two up again a second time because of how close and how freaking vicious?

Am I trying to protect both of them because I know they're both savages and they'll do really bad things to each other and shorten their careers, Luke. Jesus, man. Would those two even want that fight after what they did? I don't know. The fact that... You know, Zhang Wai Li is making this out to be like, Oh, I wasn't used to the booing in Florida.

And yes, the howler monkeys throwing their feces at you, if you're unaccustomed to it, can be a little bit jarring. On the other hand hand it's like dude let's just not let's just not kid ourselves your last fight was an absolute game changer for your career both in the sense of the accolades you get from winning and also like you'll never be the same after that now how much of a degradation i don't know but you cannot you cannot watch that fight and say she didn't leave at least a little bit of a piece of herself in that and i think partly just trying to rebound off that was difficult she wants to go right back You cannot watch that fight and say she didn't leave at least a little bit of a piece of herself in that. And I think partly just trying to rebound off that was difficult.

She wants to go right back into that maelstrom. I mean, I wouldn't hate it, but it's like, I don't know. It's a little bit like a more devastating rivalry of Pacquiao and Marquez. You know, they fought like, it's like, why do those fuckers fight four times? The first three I get. Did they need a fourth? Probably not, but they got one. And it was fucking brutal.

It was fucking brutal. Yes, it was. Luke, great use, by the way, of the word maelstrom, which reminds me, Luke, of that really awesome and weird ride at Epcot Center in the Norway section of the Showcase of the Worlds there that they have bastardized and now turned into a frozen let it go ride do you know about this can you speak to this i've not been to epcot since i was a kid i'm gonna take my kid at some point but okay i love the shit out of epcot first

of all second of all the maelstrom was one just one of those weird ass kind of scary just makes no sense rides that was sort of like something you would look forward to like something that was from a different era but was still around and then they just come in and disnify it i can't take that shit all right yeah that sucks i i don't know i'll if my kid likes it and leaves me alone about it i probably would have an opposite view because i'm so tired right now um all right but in any case you got a little bit of a log jam at the top of women's straw weight. Different, but somewhat similar to what's happening at the top of men's bantam weight. There's this unresolved contendership, but it means one way or the other, you're going to get some sick-ass fights, no doubt about it.

All right, BC wants to get to this one. Let's go to topic number four if we can, BC. You'd love this one. I don't have a whole lot to say about it but i did find it crazy there's like a mini sjw luke right yeah it is like a mini sjw so bc and i or bc found i guess some interaction online john jones deleted all of his tweets here at least the vast majority of them anyway but john jones put out some kind of tweet saying he was giving birth to something,

something big. They have the tweets they're telling us. They're going to put up on the screen. Just start putting them up. Don't wait for me. Just start putting them up. And John says, I'm about to give birth to something big, something out of the ordinary.

I want to pause you right there. Hold on, Luke. I want to pause you there, okay? Because we've got to tell the story in order. What the hell does that mean? I don know it doesn't mean much i don't know i mean i'm building i'm working on my calves for a run at heavyweight like what am i i'm ready to box jake paul what does that mean luke i this is i don't follow a lot of fighters on Twitter, you know, so I'm not, listen, if one of us, if there's anyone who's a, hold on, if there's anyone who's a John Jones whisperer, it sure as fuck ain't me. It got me excited, Luke, that we already know he wants to move to heavyweight and announced it. We already know he's rebuilding his body and willing to take a long time to do it given the complications of his public

negotiation battle with the UFC and the fact that Dana and company was basically like F you we're sliding in Derek Lewis and Stipe's on deck see you later John thanks for playing but when he puts this out this tells me as sort of the uh the super fan here Luke that like he's giving birth to something internally we We talked about Masvidal's turnaround, Mackenzie Dern's turnaround. What if John just gets nasty on the inside, Luke? Because that's the mentality he's going to need to not just outbox these heavyweights, but go in there with the mentality of finishing them before they finish him. Did you get the same feeling of like, yeah, you know that scene in White Man Can't Jump Luke when they're in the

two-on-two basketball tournament for Brotherly Love and the tournament and they get into a fist fight between Flight and Willie D and the referee and the tournament is like, hold on, you gotta stop this before we lose our sponsors. And then they cut to the crowd and Marcus Johnson is the guy in there. He's the guy that plays

the pickup guy who got the gun. You know what I'm saying? And he's like, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? And he's like, yeah, yeah. Like, this is what I came here for. Yeah, like, fight, yeah, you know? That was me reading this tweet.

Like, yeah, John, okay? Find an oven, get in there, and cook up something evil that you're going to bring out in the cage. Did you feel what I was feeling, Luke? No. No, I didn't feel any of that i tend to not really look into like any any person because i get this a lot with all the people i

follow in the fitness world on instagram there's a lot of like this self-affirmation you know believe conceive achieve shit and i just don't i it's in one ear and out the other bro i it to me is utterly meaningless so i don't really pay attention in one ear and out the other, bro. It, to me, is utterly meaningless. So I don't really pay attention to that kind of a thing. I will say I pay attention. Let's get to Chael shitting on him then, right? You know, let's get to it. That's what I came here for.

So then Chael puts up a tweet saying Jon Jones is giving birth. Now, you can't see the picture there at the top of the tweet because it's uh whatever reason but it was just sort of like a picture of john jones making a scrunched face on like pasted on top of a pregnant woman it was nothing really to it at which point i would love to read these tweets because boy john is definitely not mad about this whatsoever from from john to chale quote i'll tell you to go fuck yourself or to take my dick out of your mouth and you'll actually go home and celebrate getting my attention that day. Seriously, man, look at the position we are in. I honestly couldn't imagine hating someone so much. Making YouTube videos about another man who already kicked your ass

just to make a dollar. You're so beneath me, it's pathetic. Do we have more? I think there are more. That may be it, Vinicius. Put them be put them up when each do you have any more or do you have any uh big mixed all right you have any tapes you want me to share with the producer man each anything yeah there's more of these bc what's your reaction to john absolutely in no way shape or form of being upset about this yeah i didn't like that? Because it shows exactly what you're saying, that somebody like Chael, who has now graduated as a retired fighter,

but really just the two old guys atop the theater and the Muppets, what, Waldorf and Staddorf? What are those guys' names, Luke? Who? Those old guys that just shit on everybody and the Muppets? Oh, Stad Stador for some shit? Yeah, that's basically who, that's Chael

Sutter right now. The fact that that could so easily entrap Boney, you know, that's, I don't know, John, you should be above that, right? Get back into that cooker, cook up what you're doing right there, brother, okay? I need John Jones to come back in

three big ways. One, the actual physical comeback at heavyweight. Two, I need him to respond publicly to Dana in terms of this negotiation thing and take another big power move. And three, you know, I need him to get into that space, Luke, and find that dragon, find that beast. You know, he hasn't had to bend that beast in a while. And in fact, you can look at how close the recent light heavyweight fights that he had, in which we could argue that Maheta and Dom Reyes beat him, as, you know, him playing, maybe him playing a little bit too much prevent defense, Luke, just trying to edge people out and just, you know, keep what he's built and and no i want i want to see the i want to see i want to see you chase the tail of the drag i want to see you go out there and finish people so uh i don't want to see you

sparring with chael i mean chael did break your toe right that's that's about as close as chael came we don't have any of the tweets afterwards but then chael here let me pull them up because they're just they're just because they just went on forever. Chael then does the bit where he does the tweets, but he doesn't address them to anyone, but you kind of know who they're about. So here's what he does after he gets sent to hell a little bit by John. First, he quote tweets it and writes, now, John, that was hurtful. And then he goes into the following, quote, you've got some grammar problems there, former champ. Spend a little less money on tequila and a little more on an editor.

Next one. I beat you. I tore your toe off. Face it. Yeah, well, Chella is undefeated, so we've got to give him that look, okay? Okay, here's where it starts to get nasty. You tried to play chess against Dana White when you can't win at checkers against Betty White. You're alone, bitter, and bored.

Come grapple on SUG again. Submission Underground. I got you. 5K. All right, Chad. Hold on. Hold on. He's not done.

He's not done. John, got your SUG contract here. FedExing to you at the intersection of Irrelevant Ave and Obscurity Street, Nowheresville, USA. Little dad joke there. Not my favorite zing. Yeah, he should have used the intersection in Albuquerque where John ran from. That would have been a bigger dig, Luke, right?

Oh, that would have been good. Is it my fault my wife is hotter than the pics you had on the walls of your prison cell? Okay. Now we're starting to get ugly. We're going dark here, Luke. And here's where he gets insanely dark. I'd attack your wife, but yank got one. I guess multiple rehab stints, arrests, and booking it after crashing into pregnant women

don't exactly scream marriage material, does it? Oh, wow. Jesus, dude. If this guy ever gets crossed paths with Jon Jones, it honestly might be terrible for him. You know what I'm kind of into after this, Luke? Because of the climate we're in in combat sports right now, and I know Dana would probably ruin this. These two donks boxing?

Yeah, on Triller, basically. Exactly. The winner gets Oscar. Yes, that's exactly where I'm going with this. I mean, really, Luke, that's the thing. You should be able to settle all street beefs in an organized fighting environment, and if that's the only way Triller can survive, by pivoting completely to that, then

that's where they should go, Luke, because I would actually care about this. Why? Because I am a gas station eating pro wrestling connoisseuring in the past guy who gets down for stupid trash talk that turns into a fight. Meet me in Temecula. You know the direction I'm going here. Well done by Chael to make this a thing. John,

stay quiet until you're ready to growl. I want to hear that growl. I want to feel it. I want to smell it. I need angry John Jones at heavyweight, Luke. I need him coming out. I need more pictograms. You know Aaron Pico's horse has got that thing.

I need that size. Picogram size. Take it all. What did Harold Scott Howard say that time, Luke? If you're coming on, come on. If you're coming on, then come on. John, it's time to come. Okay, that's the new sign that you should put up.

Take down future Java jerk and put out it's time to come. That's what you need. And you got to spell it with a U, not an O and an E. That's gross. The U is really gross, though it with a U, not an O and an E. That's gross. The U is really gross, though. I know. I hate seeing it in written word. The last thing I'll say about this, BC, is this.

It's like, dude, honestly, trolling culture is incredibly immature, and it's designed to be undercutting of just normal decency. It's really what it's about but you know you can't fight the ocean on this you just can't which is to say he's gonna do this no matter what you do it doesn't matter at this point you can either be an active participant in it or you can just be above it as as pain because here's what everyone thinks oh if i strike back i'll lash out strong enough to really stick it to him maybe shut him up maybe look better than him but if he's trolling you you already look better than him in certain kinds of ways anyway and if you participate

in it you actually elevate the trolling i know it has to suck but you got to just let it let it go just let it go speaking of frozen look is there any way there's no legal way like if john just gets to a certain point where he's like i can't work for dana in the ufc anymore like there's no way you could just get out of your deal right and there's no way they would ever giving his marketing potential just let him go and like go fight rumble under the bellator banner or go fight i don't know go join shotry's uh the apprentice singapore edition like is there any way like could john sit out two years and go to court and then get out of his deal like is his own like he's either going to fight in the ufc or he's not going to fight anywhere that's the truth right that's how the law works correct contract he would have to he would have

to challenge it so the way he could challenge it is this is why triller is kind of interesting gsp could do it he just refused to if you sign a contract to fight let's let's say trill offered you a deal so they offered john jones a deal to box chill what they could argue and i don't know if they would win but what they could argue is under the Ali Act, that boxing contract should be honored and respected and then protected, which means that it would challenge the ability of the UFC to then be their sole promoter of any kind of combat sport. It would just regulate them as it relates to mixed martial arts, and they would have the freedom to then go pursue boxing.

But to do that, you're going to have to take them to court, and it's going to take years to get it settled. GSP's in a good position because he's got the money and can fight for it, but he just doesn't want to. So there you go. Maybe GSP realizes it's not worth the squeeze. He can be a UFC legend, show up glad hand and all that. But I don't know.

Could you get yourself jazzed up, Luke? I'm not saying this because we're ViacomCBS employees, but I'm saying could you get yourself jazzed up in some dream scenario where John, you know, went to Bellator and fought Rumble and Romero and Bader? I mean, it'd be wild, right? It would certainly be wild. Yes, I agree. All right, last but not least, this is BC's story. BC loves this story. I don't hate it. I don't hate it, but he does love it. So Luke Rockhold did an interview, I believe, with Brett Okamoto of ESPN. And in that interview. Two handsome men. Maybe the two most handsome men in MMA together, correct?

You should blow them. God, I mean, really, really? I'm banking off Ioana's quotes to try to double troll you, and you come back with that? I mean, come on. I mean, listen, you say it every time we say either of their names. I mean, was Ioana wrong? That's all I'm saying, okay?

Not about this, no. All right, topic five, Luke Rockhold. Luke Rockhold does an interview with Bret Okamoto. It says a bunch of stuff in it, including about Kevin Holland working with Daniel Cormier to get better at wrestling. But the bigger one, the bigger one, BC, was about Israel Adesanya. He knows that, of course, Adesanya is going to fight Marvin Vittori.

Hell, pretty soon, June 12th, coming right around the corner. Here's what he had to say. I mean, the Italian kid, Marvin Vittori, beat Kevin Holland. He got a title fight. I just don't understand that. He beat a guy coming off of a loss. A lot of these guys need to be proven, need to be tested, Luke Rockhold said. I want someone that excites me.

Someone that's fun, that's interesting. You can go back and forth with and the fans get excited about. He's a character. I appreciate Kevin Holland's character. I think that'd be fun stylistically. Now, he has said he wanted this fight, but he also said, BC, that the way in which people fight Israel Adesanya,

they don't pick up on the mistakes. I don't have it in front of me. I do. Mikey gave you the wrong quote there. This is what was on Brett Okamoto's Instagram page, the quote from Rockhold. I know what Israel is capable of. I've been studying Israel for a long time. I appreciate his style,

but I think he's beatable in so many ways. I don't think many guys can fight him from the outside. I can. If I just stayed relaxed and stay on the outside, it's a game that I can play. And then if we go into the takedowns, I'll do a lot better than Jan did.

I'll tell you that. Well, BC, your reaction. Full disclosure here. Okay, Luke, full disclosure. All right, let's be honest. We all have blind spots, whether we call ourselves real journalists or entertainers like me

or just really a glorified keyboard warrior fan. You do the math. I don't care. I don't care what you think about me. But I love Luke Rockhold. I believe in him. I thought he got a raw deal in that UFC debut when he fought that frickin' TRT monster Vitor Belfort

who put off that tightest spinning shit that we've ever seen, the violent shit. It could've ruined a man's career, but he came back. He won the damn championship. Did he do it because Weidman screwed up? Maybe. But he won the damn championship, entering the Bisping rematch. Luke,

I was ready to tell the world if he had won that and he should have, he should have won that because he destroyed Bisping two years before that he had an argument at that point, Luke, as like one of the pound for pound best in the world

he had one of those outside hipster arguments it was a stud but it all fell apart there and I know his holes and he's broken my heart but we all have these blind spots i call them like the nine lives syndrome i have a nine i had a nine lives syndrome for amir khan for zab judah in boxing for adrian broner like i'm always gonna believe no matter

what my eyes are saying that they can get serious again and come back because i just believe in their damn skills so much i believe in this guy's size, his striking, his skill. It's just that he has really large blind spots himself, Luke. He fights arrogantly and leaves his chin open. He makes big mistakes in key moments. But I

really want to believe that, you know what? On the right night, maybe Luke Rockwell could give Izzy some stylistic problems am i freaking crazy luke am i falling for his good looks and dick charm he's a dick he's an arrogant dick in person i didn't mean dick as in as in uh what you thought that was good i mean like you were worried about bohashina depot before yeah i guess i guess i could get depo'd right now i mean i did ask you know luke rockhold

about his dms on camera that time and he he no sold the shit out of me so i know he's been arrogant jerk and we saw him on millionaire matchmaker but luke the whole point of this stupid rant and this stupid hump day show in which we're both old ass tired men is i kind of believe him i kind of believe he'd give izzy an issue okay okay? All right? Tell me I'm crazy. Here's what I'll say. I don't think that you're totally out to lunch on this, but I'm a little bit of a different space. I'll meet you halfway.

There are some fans who would not meet you halfway. I will meet you halfway, Brian Campbell, and I'll tell you why. Because you, like me, watched what he did in Strikeforce. You, like me, watched what happened when he came over to UFC and how good he was. Okay, the Vitor Belfort fight notwithstanding, but the run he was able to put together to becoming champion, the win over Chris Wyman. You want to look at it fight by fight, Luke?

That run at UFC was very impressive, all right? Let's hear it. You have it in front of you? I do, I do, okay? So look, he goes five rounds with Jacare in that classic Strikeforce fight, right? Beats Jardine and Tim Kennedy, then loses to that TRT monster. Then he gets a body kick KO of Costas Philippou. He submits Tim Bosch.

He submits and dominates Michael Bisping in Australia. One-handed guillotine, yeah. He submits Lyoto Machida, and then he chris weidman for the title i mean that that's a that's a run right there luke that's a hell of a run i mean here's why i'm willing to meet you halfway i can't ignore the things that have gone wrong but i'm not willing to just completely forget all the things that i saw that went right for him and showed how good he was like does he probably have a chin issue he probably does have a chin issue I thought going to 205 was the right thing for him given his weight cut issues but then he was way too big he was way too slow that's not

his style so I do think going back to 185 if he can you know not kill himself in the weight cut is probably a good idea I do think on the floor, remember this was a guy who, you know, other black belts in pure jiu-jitsu was saying, when you think about MMA guys with good ground games, Luke Rockhold's right at the top of that list. He didn't show it a whole lot, but remember he had that reverse submission on Tim Boach. He took the back of Lyoto Machida and was just dominating him. Like he can do real good things. Moved to mount on Chris Weidman. So like on the ground, I do think he probably has an advantage over Adesanya, but in all the other factors, I would still lean towards the champion. Listen, I'll say this. I'm not ready to throw Chris Weidman at 185 out the door into the trash. Not ready to do that. Sorry, Luke Rockhold. But I want to see what he's got, dude. I'm not ready

to just say, oh, he's going to just pick right up where he left off. Let's see where you're actually at at 185 in 2021, and then we'll make a call from there. He is 36, right? But he hasn't been extremely active. One fight per year from 2016 to 2019, and then he hasn't fought since then, so he hasn't been taking a ton of damage.

I do agree that there's potential chin issues there, but I think it's an arrogant-based chin issue, Luke, where he just, like, takes, he doesn't take stupid chances. He just, he just operates at such a high level of arrogance that he leaves the back door open, and obviously, you do that against Romero, he's going to stop you. Now, we we didn't think biz ping was gonna be able to do it but took michael bisping's freaking credit i mean he had the right mindset on a short turnaround he came in there and he bullied him in the press conferences got him a little off tilt there and then walked in and knocked him the hell out but i don't know i still want to believe luke maybe i'm just maybe i'm just stupid i mean i'm really you know that's why i end up on borchina depot all the time this is you pick a stupid co-host luke all right yeah well you did too so we're stuck

you're stuck bitch you're stuck with me dumb and dumber okay uh all right well with that in mind those are our topics for the day i they say we have an ad read but there's no ad read in here so i think bc we jump right to the WOD. No, not the workout of the day. It's time for the Wheel of Death, bitches. All right, this is what we do every Wednesday when our fans want us to. Right now, they want it.

We're going to give it to them. So the premise is Luke Thomas, he don't want to talk about certain categories, so we have a segment each week where he must. Good faith responses to decently faith questions. It's called the Wheel of Death. Wheel of Death. Wheel of Death. Great graphic.

Oh, God. Ten categories, five spins. It's all random. You get what you get. Here are your ten categories for this Wednesday, Luke. Here we go. Big Booty Bellator. P4 PPV.

Persona Non Fabia. Welter Skelter Pimping Surprisingly Easy MMA Royalty Find the Pickle So Much Showgirls Revisionist Mystery and Reach Around for the Stars

Luke, take the wheel, brother. Alright, let's see what we get here. This ought to be fucking stupid. Hey, P4PPV! Admit it, Luke! It's a weird time for combat sports pay-per-view sales. Will you admit it? Sure. Showtime flew me to Puerto Rico for 26 hours yesterday

to hang out with Logan and Jake Paul. That might be the greatest example of this. You got Dana White openly shitting on Jon Jones for not being a pay-per-view draw. Bob Arum just did the same again, talking to the athletic about Terrence Crawford yesterday. Meanwhile, the highest selling boxing pay-per-views since Mayweather Pacquiao in 2015 have involved these names, Luke. This is boxing.

Conor McGregor, Ben Askren, and 54-year-old Mike Tyson. With all of this batshit craziness in mind, in terms of who are actually the biggest pound-for-pound brands in this combat sports game, and with full knowledge, Luke, that June 6th on Showtime pay-per-view, Floyd versus Logan is probably going to do gangbusters. It is what it is. Present to me right now, from number five to number one, a pound-for-pound ranking of the five strongest combat sports pay-per-view brands at this second right now.

In terms of anywhere who can draw from a fight? In terms of who could you put out there almost against any opponent that is a guaranteed draw? What are the five most important brands this second right now in combat sports? So let me list them, and then we'll figure them out. Alright. In no particular order, I'm going to say Conor. Big. Does Habib count?

He's retired, right? I mean, Ali told Tyson... Retired and not... Yeah, he's retired and not willing to take anything, which is different than like St. Pierre or something. Yeah, and didn't his manager Ali tell Mike Tyson and Henry Cejudo that he turned down $100 million to box Floyd? Didn't you see that? I did see that.

That means he ain't coming back, Luke, okay? Yeah. Everyone's got a price, doesn't he? Let's see. All right, so you got Connor. I would go with, honestlynor i would go with uh honestly i would go with i think is floyd can floyd still draw i think it's still draw right uh yeah yeah floyd has only like the you know the seven biggest pay-per-views in combat sports okay but the last one the brunner

pay-per-view not the brunner i'm sorry the burto pay-per-view well that wasn't expected to do well he did bounce back with Conor. Okay, fair enough, fair enough. So let's say Floyd, Conor and Floyd. I'll say, God, I might have to throw Mike in there. I might have to throw Mike. I will say... Mike Tyson? You're putting Mike Tyson?

Yeah, I mean, it's fair. You said under the right... Well, I mean... Yeah, no, you're right. You're right, Mike. You're right. The proof was in the put against Roy Jones, rightones right now i don't know the answer to this so you could tell me isn't who's a bigger star globally fury or joshua

joshua joshua right yep so let's go joshua and then for that fifth one, I mean, you're begging me to put a Paul brother in there because I don't really know what they draw. I don't see how you don't have both in there right now, Luke. I don't see that. Because we don't know what they actually draw. That's the problem. From Logan's standpoint, that's fair.

We did not get the numbers from when he fought on DAZN in that main event, and although that one that they did for $15, that exhibition, sold really well it did it did but it was yeah so i'm not i'm not so here's the thing i'm not excluding them from the conversation but until we have a little bit more concrete it's like can we say that they sell more than canelo maybe but i don't know so if not josh'm going to put Canelo. Joshua's hard to decipher because he does over a million in the UK per pay-per-view, but in the UK they charge much less.

Yet, Joshua got a $60 million site fee in Saudi Arabia, and he does $80,000 and $90,000 on the regular in soccer stadiums. Right. Yeah. He seems like a big deal. So I'd go somewhere in there. But where it gets more interesting is five to ten because then i think the paul brothers might show up certainly one of

them might you're gonna get um man i'm not even sure i'm not even sure who'd be out there but it'd be interesting the point of this exercise though was for you to declare an order basically which brand at this second is the strongest yeah floyd's brand's still pretty strong i guess so would you put him at one would you put connor at one i still would put connor at one i still put connor at one okay i think he verifiably sells more than those guys very listen to the keywords verifiably you know i think you got to put jake paul up dude. I think you have to. I mean, we'll see. Listen, we'll see.

We'll see what he does. We'll see what he does, but I'm not... Listen, I have a positive attitude, BC. I can't fight the rain anymore. It's just gonna rain, okay? Might as well just get an umbrella. Turned over. Yeah. Listen, I'm not in favor of it, but I can't fight the rain. I might as well just get

a fucking umbrella at this point. Hey, we should all join the Java jerks. It's you, me, Shob. It's Jake and Logan Paul. We're all on the same team, bro. All right? Are we? I don't really see myself in that way, but I'll just say this.

I'm not opposed to giving them what they're due, but I don't want to give them their props based off of hype and innuendo. I want to see real results one way or the other. That's fair. That's fair. All right, Luke, spin it again. Spin the black circle. All right. Oh, Jesus.

Luke, when was the first time you shot and killed a man? What? Hey, Welter Skelter. Welter Skelter, you're coming down fast. All right, we'll delete that in the after show. Luke, despite once having the same champion for over 2,000 consecutive days, the UFC's welterweight division has actually had the third most title changes in UFC history. 12 in all, the only divisions that have had more are heavyweight

and light heavyweight. So it's trivia time here on the Wheel of Death, Luke. Beginning with Kamaru Usman's 2019 victory over Tyron Woodley. Go backwards over the 21-year history of the 170-pound division within the UFC and provide, in order, the previous 11 times the title changed hands, telling me the fighter who won and the fighter he defeated. All right, so in other words,

who took the title from who backwards? Yes. Okay. Camaro took the title from Woodley. Woodley took the title from who backwards yes okay camaro took the title from woodley woodley took the title from lawler lawler lawler took the title from hendrix 2014 correct yep uh and i believe that was vacant or did he have the belt he had had the belt outright, right? Yes, Johnny had it outright. Yeah, but Johnny got it from a vacancy, essentially. In 2014, who did he defeat, though, Luke?

Lawler? Correct. You're on a run here. All right. So St. Pierre had it before that. St. Pierre defeated Matt Hughes. You missed one, Luke. Let's back up a step. St. Pierre defeated Matt Ser. You missed one, Luke. Let's back up a step.

St. Pierre defeated Matt Serra to get it. 2008, correct. Matt Serra defeated St. Pierre to get it. 2007, yep. St. Pierre defeated Matt Hughes to get it. 2006, yes. Matt Hughes defeated, let's see, he defeated, was it Carlos Newton to get the belt? No, sorry.

He picked it up from the abandoned title fight because Penn had it before that. Right? Who did Matt Hughes beat in 2004 for the vacant title after BJ Penn went to Pride and gave up the title? Was it Frank Trigg? It was GSP. Oh, the first St. Pierre fight. Hold on, let me finish this out. So then he got it from that one.

But that was, yeah, that was the UFC like 50 or whatever the fuck it was. So then before that, did he beat Carlos Newton to get it? BJ Penn defeated Matt Hughes to get it before that all right okay but before that is what i'm talking about before that matt hughes defeated carlos newton in 2001 yes carlos newton defeated pat milotic 2001 correct pat milotic defeated fuck who did he fight to win that? It was 1998, Luke. It was the inaugural UFC welterweight title fight.

Okay, so hang on. So Pat Miletic beat, god damn, hold on, don't give it to me. Give me just a second. Who did fucking Pat Miletic beat to get that? He beat, I don't know. I give up. Who did he beat I don't know I give up who did he beat Mikey Burnett I would not have got that Luke fuck hey you did who had a resurgence through the ultimate fighter later that's interesting you did well you didn't get a perfect score but you did really well I would not have been able to recall the the the the key look the trick part of this question was those vacancies, Luke, obviously. Yeah, the part where it goes St. Pierre, Hughes, Sarah, vacancy, recapture, lose it, blah, blah, blah.

There's a little bit of a lack of organization in there. But otherwise, I know the names. Very well done, Luke. Spin three coming up. Yank. All right, let's see when was the first time you stabbed a homeless man and left his body oh mma royalty hey all right royale madrid time luke it's if it's not already circled on your calendar because floyd versus logan is that same night on showtime pay-per-view i want to remind you that sunday june 6th at 8 p.m Eastern on Showtime is the beginning of a four-part must-see TV event and the launch of the documentary miniseries entitled The Kings, which traces the incredible rivalry in and out of the boxing's middleweight division during the 1980s, of course featuring the legendary Four Kings, Marvin Hagler, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, and Thomas Hearns.

Luke, I have seen the doc in full, and it's nothing short of spectacular. And what the doc does a great job of doing is showing how important the Four Kings were to the sport of boxing in the aftermath of Muhammad Ali's fall, when a star was needed. And four of them stepped forward, though, not just one. Not only were all four Hall of Famers, of course, but the key to their legacy, Luke, is that all four fought each other, sometimes multiple times, and they created the biggest fights of the decade in terms of public interest, in terms of record-breaking fighter purses, in terms of everything., in terms of record-breaking fighter purses, in terms of everything.

They own the 1980s. So, Luke, despite our attempts to crown subsequent groups of four kings in the sport, including that featherweight group in the early 2000s of Pacquiao, Barrera, Morales, Marquez, this new crop of current lightweights that we're talking about right now, of these young kids, none have obviously been able to live up to what the Four Kings brought. But that's boxing. Let's talk MMA. Thinking back over the short history of mixed martial arts, what is the closest we have

come to anything resembling the impact and combined talent level that we saw with boxing's Four Kings, taking into account that idea that all fought each other and also carried the sport along with it during a particular stretch. So this would be the light heavyweight division in the aughts. You had top light heavyweights in the UFC and you had some in Pride. Now there were probably more than four. The two biggest out of Pride, probably Rampage and Vanderlei, but you could throw Arona in there as well because he was obviously a big player.

There were some other ones there too. And then UFC, it was Tito, Chuck, Vitor, and Randy. Dan Henderson's kind of a player in that space, so there's more than four. But you want to talk about that was the time in which those were the big, like who were the big stars in UFC at the time? The vast majority from the 205-pound division, it was the time in which those were the big like who were the big stars in ufc at the time the vast majority from the 205 pound division it was the marquee division

tito fought chuck uh several times randy fought chuck several times randy fought tito uh randy fought vitor vitor fought tito vitor fought vanderley vanderampage, Rampage fought Dan Henderson, Rampage fought Chuck, Rampage fought, you know, you could just go all the way around. And the title got passed a million times in that space. Each guy took turns being the man, especially when Pride and UFC got put together. So around that 2004, 2007 era, that's the closest.

So that's a great answer. You went a little bit larger of a circle than i expected you to do and it does make sense given that pride was right up with ufc at that moment i thought you were going to go which i thought was the correct answer of tito chuck randy and then you can either throw in like shamrock or belfort as the fourth for what they did for ufc from the standpoint of of of being faces and most of them fought each other but you know you do have to have Dan Henderson and Rampage in that you also could have given an answer Luke of the that light heavyweight title hall of fame group

of the next era Rampage Rashad uh you know Machida John who all fought each other a bunch of times and and you know were the stars of the sport. But I think that Liddell group was much more impactful, Liddell and Tito, at taking the sport from broken to something, correct? Yeah, 100%. And I thought, I mean, the talent was so rich at 205 that I remember at the time I had a hard time understanding why boxing's cruiserweight was so weak.

I had a hard time. I thought 205 would just be the marquee division forever and then of course what you realize is it's only just a moment in time and whatever was going on in the world that recruited and produced all these great names at 205 that was just a moment in time and of course the division has moved on um but at that moment dude the sun in mma rose and set at the 205 pound division no doubt about it did we miss a contender for this category because we never got tony habib could could you have gone habib tony connor and pwawi way i mean we never got tony Dustin either. Yeah, yeah. A little bit less, but a lot of the same kind of things. Yeah.

The problem is Tito, Chuck, and Randy fought basically everybody, and then Dan and Rampage kind of did too later on. So, like, the answer is too easy. Okay. All right. Very well handled, Luke. This has been a clean, efficient wheel of death so far. Let's keep it going with spin number four.

By the way, can I tell you how many places in D.C. are cashless now? You don't have your card or your phone. You're fucked. Who doesn't take cash? I'm not allowed to carry cash because of my gas station food consumption. Luke, so much showgirls is your category here. Luke, of course I'm referencing the 1995 classic, nude heavy, all growns up, saved by the bell. Do you remember this line from this movie?

I got towels. I don't remember that line, actually. I actually have only seen that movie a couple times, but it was line, actually. No, it's almost, I actually have only seen that movie a couple times, but it was memorable, Luke. Luke, some movies you just can't stop seeing over and over. Is that the 90s counters, J-Back? Wow, look at that shit. You just can't stop seeing over and over and over again.

Luke, there's no limit to the amount of times certain movies can run in on cable in which you won't instantly stop what you're doing, or how many times that you have quoted the lines on this show to your friends so with that in mind luke for your personal movie watching history i don't want 10 answers okay what is your mount rushmore of the four most rewatchable films in your movie watching history oh so two of these are really easy, but I don't know about the other two. Number one, Predator.

Probably have seen it 50 million times. I mean, VC. Yeah. Am I a Schwarzenegger diehard fan? Am I a Predator diehard fan? I've got the Predator toys. I've got Dutch. If you guys can't see this,

I've got Dutch as an action hero toy. Is he covered in mud? That's badass. He's covered in mud. This is the scene where he's covered in mud. Yes. Go ahead. Kill me. Yes. Do it. Now. Hey, Luke, real

quick. Real quick timeout. Is that a real bookshelf behind you? It is a real bookshelf. I actually have real books on it. Real books've read can you believe that americans all right yeah uh in any event so predator number one easiest call on earth number two empire strikes back if empire strikes back comes on TV I even have Disney Plus I don't even need to watch it that way but I gotta tell you bro there's something about fucking hey I don't know what else is on

but I know Empire Strikes Back is on easy call alright so those are two third man see this is where it gets hard um I will go what do I just rewatch all the time on TV? I assume you would go Bloodsport.

So that's on the list. It's also a function of, like, what they play. You know, like, what do I rewatch all the time in that way? I would probably go Bloodsport. I could probably put that on there. And then last but not least, I would probably go Bloodsport. I could probably put that on there. And then last but not least, I would say, God, there's a couple of them that I...

Dude, you love Dumb and Dumber. Listen, I'm going to double dip. You love the shit out of Dumb and Dumber. Seriously, you do. Dumb and Dumber, I do love. I've seen it so many fucking times at this point. You're going to laugh at me a little bit. I will re-watch T2, Terminator 2.

I really will. Oh, I respect that. I got a lot of respect for that, yeah. Yeah, those are just em i will re-watch t2 terminator 2 i really will i respect i got a lot of respect for that yeah yeah those are just eminently rewatchable movies i gotta put tommy boy as number one on this list like with a bullet luke i mean it's just it's impossible it's impossible not to watch that movie you know even even today nine times a year right i mean it's just 49 times luke i watched that in a row and each time hollow, Holloway won. You know what I mean? Love it. Yes, and number five would be Bang Bus, editions one through infinity.

Yes, yeah. Emmanuel 9, the new Emmanuel. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, Luke, spin five coming your way. Here we go. All right. All right. Luke, when was the first time you robbed a bank oh revisionist mystery all right here we

go okay it's kind of like revisionist history luke only it's a mystery we don't really know here don't look now luke but you and i are closing in on a two-year anniversary of morning combat it quite literally has changed my life and career from the standpoints of exposure to creative and artistic happiness to simply seriously getting me out of bed each morning fired the friggin hell up to figure out a new way to make mk even more fun and and take over the world really mk has been a a joy in my life and my pocket luke but as we learned in the back to the future series one tiny change in our backstory could have a monster ripple effect on the rest of our lives although you and i first met at floyd versus canelo in 2013 and were cordial acquaintances

in the combat sports space in the years that followed mk really wasn't birthed until august of 2018 when chuck mendenhall asked if i would be interested in taking the train to new york city and be a lie technically july july sorry and be a one-time guest on episode 200 of the mma beat he said hey luke had no idea you lived so close he asked if you would be you know willing to join luke but what if i had said no or i couldn't or my employer wouldn't let me or whatever right or what if chuck had recommended a canadian or even the damn schmo to take my place the last few years of your career would have looked a lot freaking differently than it does now i'm sorry luke so in the spirit of that trace back for me using as much detail as you can to our first episode of morning combat in july 2019 until now and try to piece together

exactly where you would be today if we had never found our spark on the beat mk had never become a thing and you and i simply kept saying what's up to each other twice a year in Vegas where would your career be today without Brian Campbell and Morning Combat I know you seem to think I was struggling but in many ways you're going to laugh at this I'm not going to say MK was a step back but in order to build MK

into what it is I did have to take a bit of a step back from all the other projects that I was building if I had just kept on with my YouTube channel I might might be well into 200, maybe 300,000 subs at this point. Is this your way of saying you've done charity for my career, Luke? No, no, no. I see there's no way to make that argument without you getting pissed off about it, but that's really not what I'm trying to say.

You asked me in a car ride once, I'll peel back the curtain here a little bit, what I wanted out of MK. Like, what do we want this to be? And everyone's got different little pieces here or there of what they want it to be. And I told you the answer. I'll say it here, and you can tell the audience if I'm lying.

I said I wanted to build something great. And I did. And I did. And I didn't think I could do the kind of great thing that I wanted to do on my own. Do I think I could have kept going with the radio show? Like, they were giving me shifts on Mad Dog Radio, which is general sports to all audiences. It's a much bigger channel. They had me hosting Super Bowl Radio. I probably would have continued on a path of

YouTube on my own personal channel, plus Sirius XM, and then gone in a little bit more of an MMA slash regular sports direction. Whereas now I get to go back to combat sports and a much more of a focused one. But I think that would probably be the major difference. I would have just leaned into the strengths that existed before, but to be truthful about it, I don't love regular sports like I like, frankly, even boxing.

I don't like, I love soccer, I love football, I love baseball, but I like them in a very casual, I just want it to be fun. I just want to watch, you know, a little bit more for certain teams, obviously. But it's not my passion. It's not what drives me. It's not what gets me up in the morning in the way that fight sports do. So I probably would be doing a lot more regular shifts, talking about Kevin Durant and the Nets,

talking about, you know, whatever the big issue is in regular sports more so than recap. But this is why this move was important. It's not just a partnership that we had or that we're going to build something great and we're well on our way. It's that I just have a lot more fun talking about and being involved in combat sports. And listen, Paul versus Mayweather is kind of silly, but I'd rather honestly be there with you having a good time than trying to worry about who's on the leaderboard at the Masters just because that's good for a potential shift. And don't misunderstand me. I want to say something. SiriusXM only ever treated me well. That's a great opportunity anyone would relish to have. I'm just saying if I'm being honest with myself,

this is a more natural fit than me doing that other stuff. I don't have to work nearly as hard to just be enthusiastic about it. It did open, me notwithstanding in your life, it did open doors with Showtime and CBS. 100%. Would you still be with MMA Fighting? Would you have gone to the Athletic upon that initial launch? Where do you think you'd be?

Oh, there's a chance I would have signed for another year with MMA Fighting, but not for the MMA Hour. I had told MMA Fighting when my contract was coming up that there was no way I was going to do another year, and they basically were like, you know, what do you want to do? And so I gave them some ideas, but then at that point you and I were already in talks with Showtime. And then they came with an offer simply,

you know, I know I couldn't refuse. And, and so now I feel like we're on this process of building something even more special than I thought it could be. But we had, you have to acknowledge we had to start from scratch. It takes time to get where you want to go when you start from scratch and so um that's just

the reality of it you know we did open and shout out to Brendan Schaub we did open on the below the belt channel and you know initially it was like 100,000 every episode and then we sort of had to uh right it away and rebuild and uh it's and it sucked it sucks to build that first 100k it's not easy and it takes time but once you get it you know you're you're gonna you're you move into another tier of what these kinds of rewards can be we're getting closer luke and we got some big events coming and uh yeah i mean we're you know you we've built a hell of a sitcom here luke it just so happens sometimes we talk about combat sports all right that's right that's exactly right we're building

i i don't you believe that i don't you fucking like when we're 50 whenever i don't know when this fucking thing's going to come off the rails but don't you want to look back and say like dude we invested in a long-term project of building something that people really want to be involved in yeah i just want to be a part of that i i i you know i've had cups of coffee on really fun projects. I always bring up my time on the Cheap Heat Wrestling Podcast and ESPN with Peter Rosenberg, where you touch an audience of passion, and you're like, these people will die for this.

The boxing podcast I did with Rafe, where people, you know, your jokes are the soundtrack of their conversations. But I wanted something where people, it's must-see frick see freaking tv for them to to take a seat on the bar along with us luke okay hopefully we're doing that for people and i think the last thing i'd say to bc about all of this is like um you know sometimes life takes you in unexpected directions this was a gamble like when we were talking about this show

we were like listen here's what we think it is here's what we think it can be this is the let's just see what happens and we went and found out what happened and it only got bigger over time so listen i had a lot of things going on that i was personally involved with bc maybe i've never told you this but like why don't i upload to my personal channel even if i wasn't doing content we never touched why don't i upload right now and i'll be honest with you man it's because dude for 15 fucking years i was working two three jobs all the time i got tired i needed help i wanted someone else to be in the canoe with me to row this motherfucker forward and i don't really care what the waters look like if i've got someone else in there with me but like doing it by yourself you can do it it is is possible. I'm living proof. And people have done far better than me, truly.

But it's hard, man. It's a lot of hard fucking work. And it killed your gallbladder, Luke. Yeah, and now look at my gallbladder. It's falling apart. All right. All right. Well, thank you for taking on this journey, Luke, and obviously all of our people for coming along with us.

I do feel, Luke, that as fun as this show is, we've made a decent impact. If we can get in a damn studio like a couple times a week together. I do feel, Luke, that as fun as this show is, we've made a decent impact. If we can get in a damn studio like a couple times a week together. I know, dude. What are they waiting on at this point, honestly? No, I'm telling you, it might not even look like this show anymore. It might go in weird directions, but I'm ready to go there, okay? I'm ready

to go there. Thank you. By the way, I know you talked to some Showtime folks yesterday. Did they say anything about putting us back in studio? No, but, you know, look, things are changing to some Showtime folks yesterday. Did they say anything about putting us back in studio? No. But, you know, look, things are changing quick in terms of

where we're allowed to, you know, yeah, it's coming. It's coming, Luke. We'll get into some details offline. By the way, less than Jake's going to be

in Miami, as I said, Luke. I've watched a rough, aborted rough draft of Doc 3 from that aborted mission to Mohegan. It's very aborted luke but uh

it will come out in some form it's going to be an abstract it's it's like going to be one of those weird sequels in a movie franchise where you're like remember halloween three it didn't even have michael myers it's going to be like that but hopefully we can bounce back in a big way in miami and bring some good content maybe you'll even buy in this time on the doc luke we'll see i mean it depends what they want if they want to come in my room and watch me eat acai under the sheets, your boy ain't playing games. I did see some rough, raw footage of you in the gym at Mohegan, not happy that the cameras were there.

So get ready for that. Yeah, I mean, just like, dude, I don't understand these people who vlog for a living. Like, I don't mind vlogging for like a week. Oh, I'm on a week. I'm on location here, blah, blah, blah. But like, just to give your whole private life to YouTube oh my god that sounds like the worst idea ever yeah the paul brothers have done it to the tune of millions though luke all right let's go that's the real you have no inner life i mean no you don't it breaks up didn't we learn reality tv breaks up

marriages luke the laches the uh the hogans all right let's hope it doesn't happen to us through this stupid documentary that i live and die for all right lu's hope it doesn't happen to us through this stupid documentary that i live and die for all right luke uh every week also on wednesdays morning combat at gmail.com is your home for sending in i don't know your artwork your videos pictures of you wearing our merch uh whatever you want to do it's called fan submissions we've got mail all mail review fan subs it's raining mail hallelujah luke we start off with arthur from la what's up luke in bc took my mk merch 1.0 on the road again during my visit to nashville here i am spreading the holy gospel of mk in front of the state capitol no sieges occurred thank you for your continued dedication and work on mk's way to the moon it's mk all day nearly Holy Gospel of MK in front of the state capitol. No sieges occurred.

Thank you for your continued dedication and work on MK's way to the moon. It's MK all day, nearly every day. May all of your Canadian MMA journalists be loyal. Two words, we out. Arthur from Los Angeles, a true gentleman in the game, this fellow, Luke. Yeah, great picture, great shirt. I'm glad he lived close enough to get merch, unlike the rest of the universe, but yeah, nice.

You know, he might have been in the weight room, Luke. He fills out that shmedium pretty well there. Doesn't look like a weight room candidate, but you never know. All right, I got your back, Art. All right, I'll spot you. This is from Petrit D. Hi, Donks. Just wanted to share a quick little video. Notice what I'm listening to on my phone. Enjoying an MC

trip around the fjords of Norway. Take care. Can we run some audio, Maniche? Maniche? Good, Maniche. Larry Hoover. Whip it to work. Hallelujah. I can't hear anything. Poor dog.

Can you run the audio? That's a long fucking bridge, man. Damn. All right, end it. Thanks, Corey. So apparently he's listening to MK while driving over the world's longest bridge as i hear myself again yeah norway looks beautiful i love that we have fans luke from

doha to detroit all right and shout out to petrit from norway thank you for repping our game right there one day we'll get you international shipping. One day. All right, Luke, Todd M is back. He says, Hey guys, the idea was started by the great Jordan Breen some years ago. It's the MMA museum of inanimate objects. I've assembled the best batch of objects that I can remember for the time being. Feel free to add anything I missed. I know there are plenty out there. I think it really speaks to the history of the sport and perhaps why mma has such fertile soil for memes keep your tips sharp luke your thoughts on this i mean the bisping eye seems a little insensitive you know terror oh i got terror masu right there we got buffers tuxedo

right uh you got the misspelled gee you got do you remember rampage's truck for folks who don't remember this he got arrested once because he drove his monster truck with his fucking face on it and his whole body on it. And this was when he was a lot more popular. He's obviously kind of faded a little bit. But when he was pretty fucking popular,

drove it around, hit a pregnant woman, by the way. All kinds of shit happened. And he was not drunk. He was sleep deprived and high off of energy drinks to the point where he was seeing things like he was literally hallucinating yes that was the truck okay we've got habib's hat john jones's bentley the dick pills caught by usada cody mckenzie's by USADA. Cody McKenzie's shorts and Cody McKenzie had the Walmart tag on his shorts

in the cage. Oh my god. Because he just went and got the shit and then walked into the octagon. Yeah, they were not happy about that. I see John Jones' picograms. Maneach, one more time if you don't mind. I'm just trying to figure this out. Oh, Art Jemerson's one glove. Yeah.

Misspelled Reebok kits. Benson Henderson's toothpicks. Look, this is brilliant. Conor's dolly. Yeah, I love it. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. I love it.

Well done. Well done. All right. And never forget, hashtag never forget that Speedo in the Octagon 2. Yes, Dennis Hallman. Yes. All right. MD slides in and says, this is basically how the luke valerie

interview went i even refaced the sandlots wendy pepper peppercorn for accuracy i didn't even ask to do that interview they fucking made me well what was my text that i kept sending you? Huge clicks. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Yeah, yeah. Well, look, we'll never forget that interview, okay?

Or the one when you asked what her DMs look like. Oh, I don't regret that at all. All right. ForestKOS, it says, Hey, BC, not sure if you have LinkedIn, but I have made you a new profile pic, BC the Greek. Yes!

By the way, Luke, shout out to Yanni the Greek. He reached out to me and said he loves our show and does watch it. I mean, Luke, in a dark jail cell, if Yanni the Greek opened his mouth, we would have light to get to the end of the tunnel, Luke.

You ever look for something when you're lost and you just pull the phone out and you hit the lamp on the phone you know like the thing when Yanni smiles it's just light everywhere I mean I've got coffee soaked yellow gross factory teeth Luke

this guy Yanni is ahead of the game put the picture back up. Put the picture back up. Two things about this. One, it's like if he opens his mouth, it's like when Ving Rhames opens up the case in Pulp Fiction and all the light comes out. That's one.

Two, in this rendering, I got to tell you, you look like Eric Trump. Do you not? Well, because I'm fairly fat and gross at this moment, Luke, I'm wondering if I get into really good shape again. That's probably peak BC at 42, right? Right there. That Yanni the Greek

set up there. If I slick back the hair, it is a little Eric Trump-y, and I'll give you that. I think if you slick back the hair, I'm going to tie you down in your sleep and shave your head. All right. Luke, considering the success we had on the crossover I'm going to tie you down in your sleep and shave your head. All right. All right. Luke, considering the success we had on the crossover weighing in pod with, you know, Josh Thompson getting into our marriage bed and you doing nothing about it, I'm excited for future crossovers with.

You're such a hoe about this. It's unbelievable. Yanni the Greek. I mean, look, we got a lot of, you know, a lot of people out there we can make great, great moments with on the podcast game. All right. This is from AppyFatathon. He's got two of them.

The first one says, Hi, guys. I'm sure you both agree the highlight of the show's most recent evolution has been Luke's spontaneous and sincere plugs for Showtime merch and subscriptions. Here he is convincing us ps i enclose a photo of me david and my cat bowie trying to follow the boxing and ufc main events at the same time at 5 a.m on a sunday over here in france ps or pps luke thomas changed my life by shaming me into some cable management before taking this pic keep up the good work at appy fatathon, a.k.a. French HR Snooker Nightmare. I don't know what most of that means, but can we blow up this pick here, Manish?

Can you go back, Manish? What the hell was that? So there's the cat Bowie, right? Where's the pick of the dude? Okay. Well, strong cable management there in france luke i do shout out to those euro bros who have to stay up really late like when you and i complain about you know late east coast start times these people they have a different life out there luke okay yeah it sucks i agree all right and by the way bowie probably my second favorite cat behind Millie right now in terms of fan submissions. Also, here's a Luke meme from the same guy, Luke.

Now, am I supposed to be Gamora from the Avengers? Who am I here? I don't watch superhero shit, Luke. Yeah, you're too cool for that, huh? All right. Thank you. Thank you, David. Okay. The guy's name is david and he named his cat bowie are you okay with that no not really it's pretty lame but what are you gonna do all right i mean you can named your cat booger is booger still alive i love that cat oh that's a really nice way to say something about my yeah for folks who may not know uh he's an update on my cat he is dying unfortunately um yeah he has a cancer in his face that is uh

it's gone behind his eyeball it is now inoperable and they gave him roughly two to three months to live so we're just trying to give him pain medication so he can get through his day and at some point when i met my wife she had this like legacy amazing cat named ziggy he he got cancer when we got married he lived under three years he lived until he was 18 so maybe this dude has this dude has like aggressive cancer and it's blown up one side of his face and uh they can't take it out so i don't want him to suffer so if he gets to a point where he's you know suffering really badly then we're just gonna call it yeah you will do the humane thing there all right thank you thank you wow okay connor i'm glad this was brought up so yeah my cat's dying everyone yeah yeah let's flip well

we're all dying slowly let's flip the script here connor f says the year is 2041 john jones is still teasing his move to heavyweight mcgregor versus poirier 17 has been booked with dustin having won the last 15 against him jay aaron is still recording music for some reason and merch 2.0 still has not been released luke this is incredible incredible i actually i actually somehow look slightly better so by the way that's not far from what my dad actually looks like now only he's got like more he's got bigger hair and he's got like a salt and pepper mix but we should blow that up again here please that kind of still looks like my dad a little what's that sign say kevin lee finally champion yes yes that's pretty good that's a good job that they did yeah i gotta tell you i if i look this way i'd actually feel like an

improvement because i am just so unbelievably washed. Luke, what does your dad look like? Is that what he looks like? Like that. Does he have facial hair? Like that. Like this. Does he have a beard?

Yes. Santa Claus one? Yes. All right. All right, Robert. Thank you. Okay, let's keep it rolling here. This is from Brandon M.

I love the show, and I wanted to submit my fan submission. Thanks for all you do. Wait, what does mine say? Please, please don't notice me, Josh. Oh, Josh Thompson? Is that what it is? I guess. Oh, yes.

Bellator 258 preview, yes. God, that's funny. That is well done there. All right. Hey, Luke, you know who's back? Dickles. Remember that guy who owned our show for a while? What happened to him?

He's got two this week. Well, here's his message. Hey, MK, finally back with a couple new fan submissions. I've been busy working trying to keep up with our increased monthly bills since the wife and I bought our first house in August. Congrats, Dickles. Morning Combat helps me get through the week and provide the perfect ambient background noise.

Hey, Dickles, we're way more than background noise, you jerk. Let me see the full Monty here. God, they gave me Jake Paul's haircut? Fuck, man. Well, hold on a second. He says, I greatly appreciate the hard work on and off screen that goes into one of the best combat sports shows around. Actually, it is the besticles.

I hope the show numbers continue to skyrocket like BC's cholesterol. So, Luke, here's a morning Paul chat. Since it's now bro time at show time with the recent addition of untested American boxing legend Jake Paul, Morning Combat might want to make a spinoff show to cover all the upcoming Paul Brother duchery that we will be forced to digest in an effort to really capture that Dude, spinoff show? Motherfucker, you got us talking Paul Brothers every show. He says, I gave Luke and BC a much-needed Paul Brother makeover to appease to the youth.

Hope you enjoy it. Meech, can you blow that up again, please? I was just in puerto rico capturing plenty of duchery look this is brilliant you you're jake and i'm the maverick is that what that is you know how much here's what i hate about this photoshop is that how much younger and better i look like the glasses are terrible but i'm like wow man there's a little bit of youthful vigor in that. I got earrings and shit, you know?

And now I just look in the mirror. I'm just like, I want to set the whole house on fire and collect the insurance money. Paul Brothers, Paul the Time. Luke, Dickles is coming for everything WebScream worked for. I mean, this guy's good, Luke. All right, hurry up because I got a turtle head poking out. Let's go. You're crowding like the king of England. Finally

from Dick Holes, Factory Town MMA footage. Here's some leaked footage from Factory Town MMA. Hope all is well and thank you to the entire staff of Morning Combat. MK Strong all day long. Yeah, Luke. You've been training these two guys?

Yeah, they are our first customers. Oh, wow. Oh, God. You've been training these two guys? Yeah, they are our first customers. Oh, wow. Oh, God. Wow, Luke. Yeah, this is... We're still looking for a dedicated space, Luke, so we're using my living room.

Oh, wow. We put on our first fight card. What are we doing here? What are we doing? Okay, Nichols, that is... Oh, wow. Well, this is also how we train, Luke. Yes, that is... This is you in your driveway before your wife sees you coming home from the grocery store.

You know what the gross thing is? People said, like, I could play Joey Chestnut in a movie about his life. I don't agree with that, Luke. Okay. This is when they fought and rubbed their asses all over all the produce at the Wawa. Look at this. Look at this guy's gross ass. Look at this. Look at this guy's gross ass. Look at that.

Oh, he's coming with the knife. We did bring Coach Fabio for a seminar at Factory Town MMA, Luke. And then, oh, wow. This is great. This dude got, like, what does this guy have? Like a, what the fuck? Is this like Dickles' have you seen this shit moment right here? He's got a lot of them, Luke. Bop, bop.

Oh, snap. We brought Kevin Aioli on right there, as you can see, Luke, for a seminar as well. Oh, my God. Look at that ass. Oh, my God. What is happening right now? Look at that. Oh, here we go.

Dude. Dude, Dickles went to work on this highlight reel. He just found all the dub tea. He's like, bring me your white trash from South Africa. Bring me your white trash from Leeds. I don't give a fuck. I want to put all of them in here. Oh, what was that?

That guy went for the, yeah, wow. Oh, yeah. Oh, boy. You know what? I got to say, I don't know how good the cardio is of your Padawan. Oh, I took a shirt off for no particular reason. Oh, I went naked for no particular reason. We need to hire some instructors, Luke.

Right now, it's just me. Let me see. That was not an effective recruitment tool for students. Chasing them down wearing a mankini. Factory Town MMA is still in production. It is coming, okay? It is coming. It is.

We just, yeah. Wow. Okay, Luke. Thank you, Dick. If we don't fight you, we're going to fuck you. Yeah. All right. With that in mind, I think we're done for the day.

So let's remind everyone. That's it. That's it, Luke. Thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe. Live chat tomorrow at 3. The last show of the week will be on Friday. BC, do you have anything you want to tell us about any content

that you have produced coming our way? Or still, we're going to wait and see on that. No, you want to check out the Gervonta Davis sit-down that I had right now available on youtube.com slash morning combat and yes later this week uh it'll be in video form on the showtime sports uh pages i know we can't put it on mk i'm so bitter about that it'll be in story form on cbssports.com i'm sure you can see some of it on cbs sports. I have sit-downs or stand-ups with Logan Paul, Jake Paul, had a nice chat with Logan's trainer as well. So some of that

content will be available next week as well during Fight Week. And Luke, we are just days away, you and I, from hopping on a plane, heading on down to South Beach, taking our talents there. Meet me in Miami, right? You know what I'm saying? I can't wait to see you in Miami.

We got a weekend off, because by the way, we still need people to contribute questions to the mailbag episode. So if you want to do that. We're recording that tomorrow, right? Yeah, we're recording that tomorrow. So if you want to get the questions in,

now's the time. Now's the time. You just leave a review on Apple Podcast and then put a question there. Give us a nice five-star review. We appreciate it. And then we will get to it. Okay. You think Stack and Matt Barnes and all the smoke would welcome us for a crossover

probably not we're two losers but i'll say this bc you mentioned standing up and sitting down i'm about to sit down and go number two and then i'm going to stand up to clean it because i really need to go all right dude i forgot you do wait i forgot you that is so gross that you do that that is so like four years old. Listen, I'm not the one who, you're the one who walks around Fight Week being like, dude, my butthole is unbelievably itchy. I'm like, yeah, maybe you should clean it more. Since I do it three times a day, I'm actually really good at it, Luke, turns out.

Okay. You know, I'm very, I'm very clean down there. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not welcoming you for salad tossing, but I'm telling you it's a, yeah. All right. I'm going gonna have to take your word for it because i'm about to have a butt uh explosion so if you want to try showtime you can go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial for wonderful content like this uh if you like it you can keep it if not you can pound sand there's merch store.show.com email the show for dead wrong morning combat at gmail.com for whatever you need.

There's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. I'll see you tomorrow for the live chat. We'll both see you on Friday for Friday's show. Until next time, may Formolca, Showtime, CBS Sports, may all of your gains be loyal.