MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night RECAP: Dillashaw Beats Sandhagen, Barber & Yanez Win | Ep 184

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

On Episode 184 of MK, Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell do a full recap of a huge UFC Fight Night event that saw TJ Dillashaw score a split decision victory over Corey Sandhagen. Is the bantamweight division officially the best in the UFC? Plus, Maycee Barber scored a controversial split decision win over Miranda Maverick. The guys give their scores and takeaways from that fight Also, they discuss Adrian Yanez upside after his comeback win against Randy Costa and at BKFC 9 Paige VanZant lost to Rachael Ostovich. 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

We are back like a bad habit on this Monday, the 26th of July of 2021. Hello, everyone, and it is time for Morning Combat. I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the nation's capital. My name is Luke Thomas. I'm from CBS Sports as well as Showtime, and I am joined by the king of Connecticut himself. You may not see his crown, but we all know it's there.

It's Brian Campbell. What up, BC? I'm crowning actually right now, Luke, but unlike you, I can hold it throughout the whole show. Great to be here, Luke. Wow, wow. Luke, I turned 43 over the weekend, and you know what? I'm ready, Luke. I'm going to make this age a spectacular. I'm going to make this the best year of my life luke well i forgot it was your birthday so i'll admit that on air and just say i will say i got 10 times as many greetings from our great fans for my birthday than i did from my co-host all right my producers they were like bc we love you have a great day yeah luke's like check out

this latina booty right here. Yeah. I did not do that. I didn't do that. But I am wishing you a belated happy birthday, and I'm glad to hear that. Did you do anything fun for your birthday? Well, I was lying on the grass on Sunday morning of last week, Luke, indulging in my self-defeat. So it was a very chill day, but I did, my parents sent me some cash in an envelope, Luke.

I felt like I was 15 and I took that right to the record store. Okay, Luke. So I had a pretty good, pretty good chill, chill day. Never turn down free cash is always just a good policy.

All right. Well, we got a lot to get to today. We had a UFC event over the weekend. It felt like a pay-per-view. It wasn't, but it really had a pretty big footprint, which we're going to unpack from the main event

to everything else that went down on the card. Plus, we had some showbox results. But BC, before we get to anything else, I just want to set this up here. We'll do the whole rigmarole about Showtime and how you can reach us and whatnot. But you and I, how long ago was this? February, I think?

We recorded a resume review, did we not? Do you want to tell the folks how it's going to go? I don't think it was February. I think it was like last month. Maybe March. Anyway, do you want to tell the folks how it's gonna go i don't think it was february i think it was like last month maybe march anyway do you want to set it up or look it was it was like late may early june bro it was not like it was was not february okay bro all right i mean i can't remember anymore what i did how much are you right now super super but in any event we did it and um it's the longest one we've ever done, but it's probably the best one we've ever done for a couple of reasons,

one of which is all the extra bells and whistles that get thrown into it. And plus, BC, we are not going to talk about it too much today, but this Saturday is going to be Bellator 263. We did a resume review for Patricio Pitbull in advance of that. I believe we have a clip. Meech, arebull in advance of that i believe we have a clip mitch are you ready to uh play that for the crowd ready to go i think so with the horns manage yeah all right let's let's hear it if we can let's see it let's not forget in round three when you had three straight groin shots from daniel strauss including and you know and they

were in such quick succession although neither none of them looked to be intentional, but they were in such quick succession that referee Big John McCarthy, by the third one, had no choice but to take away a point. So that's the beginning of almost the ungluing and the great work that Strauss had done in the first two rounds where he was saying, oh, this rematch is going to be different. Well, now it's different for a whole new weird reason. So he loses that point, but trade some some throws some you know the wrestling which was barely even that's right there was a leg trip almost like a judo trip by Strauss

in which Pippo was almost hit his he almost got dropped face first on the canvas and kind of spun and rolled out of it there were wild exchanges right there I think in terms of momentum swings in the craziness this actually might be my favorite of the four fights and it's not it's not the favorite to be the favorite because the third is definitely the best one but this one's wild and it wasn't an easy walkthrough they would do these throws on each other they had a bit of a tit for tat these two if one of them landed a big big let's say cross on the other one the other one wanted to get it back constantly and of course you see that in fights all the time but you would see it especially with these two these two always wanted to make sure that they were almost like two brothers.

They wanted to make sure whatever you do to me, I'm going to do back to you. And you saw a little bit of that, although not so much with Kraus. Okay, and what we also don't want to forget about is the momentum surge from Strauss in round four before the mistake that would coughed him. He lined up Pitbull with a one-two, and that left cross dropped Pitbull. It did. Now, that was a surprising turn of events because despite the style difference, Strauss was more of the boxer coming in, the longer guy. He could match him on the ground, but he hadn't been

hurting Pitbull. There you have it. That's a great piece of business right there. I not only pat ourselves on the back for what is a fantastic 80 minutes of television, but you said it so perfectly luke the history of pitbull uh patricio is the history of bellator so going back on his incredible

journey to get to this point pound for pound king and bellator two division champion biggest fight in promotional history it's a heck of a journey so we i do encourage everyone to uh come on board with us here that That'll be out tomorrow, so be on the lookout for there. Now, BC, as everyone knows, you should like the video at this point if you haven't already done it. Subscribe if you haven't already done it. Tell a friend about the show if you haven't already

done it. And if you want to send us by the way, you can see all of our various social media channels there. MK, the Morning Combat name is the same everywhere, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter. If you want to send us any fan submissions or dead wrongs, morningcombat at gmail.com is the place to reach the show. And if you'd like to try Showtime, which, by the way,

you're going to need to watch Saturday's Fights, BC, you've got to go to showtime.com. You can get a 30-day free trial if you like it. You can keep it. If not, you can go do something else. Sorry, what were you going to say? I was going to say that, you know, we want to wake up where you are, folks, okay? We won't do anything at all, right?

Just slide. Slide right in. Like it. Tell a friend. Subscribe. You play a role in this, okay? It's not just Damien putting the MK on his skin, all right? It's guys like Tony Ballgame who's out there driving a truck somewhere in the world

where they drive on the right side of the road saying, I can't wait for MK to save me from this workday. We're all in this together. So why don't you do your part? Like, subscribe, tell some folks. Because, you know, where we have the ability to go together, no other show does. No other show. Okay.

And if you want some merch, 2.0, morningcombat.store will be the place to go. BC, we have a lot to get to today. So without further ado, let's get this party started. Topic number one, everybody. TJ Dillashaw versus Corey Sandhagen took place on Saturday night and it was Dillashaw who walked away with a very narrow split decision victory but he got it just the same now BC we have a lot to unpack about this bout but let's start with the obvious first question two-parter number one how did you score it and number two why did you score it the way that you did?

Yes, Luke. Three rounds to do TJ Tillichaw. But look, I know a lot of people say, oh, BC, you love the guy. Well, look, here's the deal. It comes down to the fifth round. This was a freaking great fight. It was as advertised.

And it was a great effort from both. More on that in a second. But that fifth round, Luke, waske was almost like you know a sample size of judging this entire fight did you prefer san hagen's cleaner more efficient strikes or did you prefer the cage generalship of dillashaw who in such veteran savvy ways knew when to take the fight to the ground knew when to even force the standing clinch in key moments to sort of regain momentum. Now it's not lost on me that there's a bit of controversy within that. Look, there's a bit of controversy on the judging on this card as a whole, but it's not, MMA isn't the same as boxing in theory, where you judge things like defense and ring generalship and

making the other person fight your fight. It can be, Luke, but in MMA, we much, much more score damage. So if you're scoring on damage alone, dude, again, it comes down to that fifth round and whoever you liked, and I got no issue with anybody picking Sanhagen. But Luke, the announcers picked up on something that I thought was key, a trend. It was almost like old school judging in this fight. There was a couple fights where we all think they got key parts wrong. And by the way, the third judge that scored the fourth round here for Dillashaw and not the fifth round, they fucked that up too, okay? No question about it.

But what the announcing team picked up on, Luke, was that the judges in general were almost scoring on the old system, scoring on the, well, if you control the fight even without landing a ton of damage, but you're wrestling or you're controlling it on your terms, that's good enough. And I think, you know, did Sanhagen do enough? That's something that could be itching at him that he's going to have to think about for a long time. But it really comes down to what you preferred in that fifth round. And I thought TJ's use of wrestling in such key moments was so brilliant.

And Luke, even though the first question you tossed to me was about scoring, and I get it because it's a debate here, and I want to hear how you scored and all that. The story is TJ Dillashaw, for whatever that means, Luke. I'm not here to say, you know, Max Kellerman, he won the story of the fight, but the story is that 35 off two years off with major obstacles in front of him, including the injured knee, including the cut. This guy dug deep and showed you Luke that he's still the real deal across the board. This was a fantastic performance against one of the best non-champion fighters in this entire sport. So I want to not go any further without giving TJ his due. Love him or hate him,

whatever. Two years off, he came in with that performance, overcoming all those hurdles. It actually felt good to see him get the nod from the judges, whether you agreed with it or not, just because that performance was so good. Luke, tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm drinking the Killeshaw Kool-Aid. I don't care, Luke. That was a hell of a five rounds from a veteran right there. Yeah. I mean, listen, I scored the fight three to two for Corey Sandhagen, but let's, let's back up just a second here and sort of assess the last point that you made about Dillashaw. I think you better walk away. Anybody who watched this fight with a healthy amount of respect for what TJ Dillashaw did. First of all, his cardio didn't seem to suffer at all. Now, obviously that doesn't mean that we can ignore that he broke the rules previously, but it does sort of say like what benefit was conferred.

They tested all of his old samples for whatever that is worth. It's probably not a great screen, but it's something he passed that with flying colors, what we know. And then again, here, from a performance standpoint, all of the hurdles he faced were the kinds of stuff that anyone would face injuries in the fight itself and obviously very difficult opponent to overcome and again according to the judges he did that so you know for your to your point bc the guy had to eat shit in mma for two and a half years taunted everywhere he goes booed the whole nine yards had a really tough camp it sounds like it had a very tough opponent got injured for crying out loud with his knee and got a cut in the worst possible place. By the way, shouts to that cut man who sealed him up.

What a phenomenal job that guy did. I mean, the best you could, given the circumstances. Here's just the part, BC, that I'm having a little bit of trouble with going back. So, was the fight close? No doubt about it. Could you see it either way? In real time, I had a harder time with it. Upon second review, I still scored it for Sanhagen,

but I'm a little bit more sympathetic to the idea that in real time, these things are difficult to get right. The problem for me is not that, BC. I really want to know what you think about this. Let's go back to that fourth round, for example. That was a big swing round, it turned out, for one of the judges. And they scored that one for Dillashaw. Now, I went back and I paid special attention to that round, and here's what I saw,

and I'm glad you brought up the scoring criteria, because I think that really gets to the heart of this. For folks who don't know, in the modern game, things like in MMA, ring generalship, who is walking forward, who is initiating sometimes the grappling context, those are not supposed to even matter or weigh in your mind unless the striking is even. If the striking is even, then you begin to look at other criteria that influence the fight. Here is where I saw a problem. The striking in that round was not even. I thought it was pretty clear that Corey Sandigan had done the much more damaging striking, but TJ had A, done some, and then B, done a lot of those moments

where he wrapped him up and pressed him against the fence. See, this is my problem. Those positions where he wrapped up Corey and pressed him against the fence, but in that fourth round, he got nothing out of it. Virtually no strikes and no takedowns off of it, nothing. He never achieved dominant position in any kind of way. That clearly had to have mattered in the minds of the judges because the striking by itself wouldn't sell the round for TJ.

So quite literally, you need another element to do it, and that's supposed to be an element that you don't count, dot, dot, dot, because the striking is not even. It looks to me like these judges are trying their best maybe to implement the new rules bc but they're still leaning on some of the ghosts of the old ones and i think it reared its head here a little bit i want i think you're right and i don't think any of us disagree per se that still are 10 he won that fourth round again i think it comes down to who you like better in the fifth it was a great fight. But the reason why I'm not upset with TJ

getting the nod while I acknowledged that the judges were judging essentially the wrong thing is not because I'm some TJ Homer, but because Luke, I think that that's not the right way to judge a fight. It may be the rules. Okay. So within the, within the, if the, if the judging rules were properly, were properly implemented in this case, Sanhagen deserves to win, yes. I guess the reason why I'm not having an outrage against it is I don't think that's the best way to judge a fight. I don't think damage should be held in that high regard.

I know a lot of people disagree with me on that. I think this is a skill game. Yes, you go for the finish, but how many times do you not get the finish? Then it comes down to what you did in there. And that's when the craft of, you know, and the strategy and the adjustments and all these little things, like exactly what Dillashaw was doing, making Sanhagen fight his fight in those moments in the clinch against the cage or on the ground. I think that that is a better way to judge a fight overall.

Is it because I come from that system in boxing? Yes, but also, as we know, boxing's got way more deeper judging issues where you know you never even know what the strike zone is when you go into a fight they could already have the other guy down 12 rounds to nothing for all we know on their scorecard but you get my point luke um is that a wrong way to look at it probably but i don't think you know i i get that you want to judge damage more so that we eliminate John Fitch-type victories where someone's just dominating position without an overflow of offense. I think that judges should be able to understand that nuance. And if you're just taking people down and not doing anything,

I wish that—I don't know, Luke. I'd like to broaden the strike zone. And I'd also like to have judges who we can trust and count on not you know let me let me uh we'll get to this fight later bc but this is the same problem again i don't think the judges were all the same but this is a similar problem that we saw in round two of miranda maverick and macy barber i mean folks understand something random maverick ended that round in full back control that was not going anywhere barber was not getting out of that anytime soon,

banging her head like a drum and then threatening to choke. It's like, wait a second. The striking was, you could say, at best, relatively even on the feet. And then she ended in a dominant position, banging her head around, and she still lost because why? The punches weren't that hard, even though she was from the back. I'm trying to understand, to your point, BC, I agree with you. This idea like, oh, well, you have to do something with the position sorry folks if you

get to someone's back and you're holding it despite their intentions and you're able to strike more or less unobstructed from there even if they're not the hardest punches i'm going to count that a lot that is a very very dominant position in a fight that you've achieved it's self hard to get to and be a total asymmetric warfare once you're at that point how on earth is it possible she lost that round dot dot dot other than this inconsistent application of what positions are supposed to mean in key context and i don't think the judges have a good grasp of it and for sure because of that none of us do really either uh luke i i almost wanted to double down on that one point but i wanted to spin it into a question here. I don't suppose I'll ever know what it means to be a man, Luke.

It's something I can't change, right, but I live around it. But TJ revealed afterwards the amount of injuries he actually went through in camp. Now, Luke, when someone loses and then they do that, we look at that as excuse-making and repairing your brand real quick. But do you have a problem with him bringing this out after a victory? Is this the right time to bring it out? Because according to TJ, he not only had those hurdles inside the cage, he had a pinched nerve in his foot during camp.

He tore his MCL in his right knee ahead of time, and he also re-injured one of the shoulders that he had surgically repaired. That just, of course, adds on to this narrative of, damn, this former champion's tough as balls and he's still lead at 35 and all that but do you do you buy all this do you think a winning fighter should should just pile on to their own uh their own narrative here should we support this yeah i mean i actually think related to the mcgregor conversation this should be pretty informative to people it's like one you can see just how routine this is literally every week

somebody has this going into a fight and sometimes they win and sometimes they lose but again that's just kind of sort of especially if you're like a main event fighter where pulling out is a lot more um you know ruinous to both the promotion and your potential career like there's a lot more pressure to to you know sort of go through with it so speak. You can just see this is just an occupational hurdle. It doesn't make it fair, and it definitely doesn't make it easy. For sure, I think you've got to look at what TJ Dillashaw did and be extremely impressed by it. I think even Corey Sandhagen probably is.

But at the same time, dude, that's just the game. The game is you don't walk in there healthy every time. You walk in there like a used car. You just hope it runs and makes it from point A to point B. All right, let me ask you a couple more questions about this, BC. Yeah, why don't you take the wheel on Monday? Yeah, so I want to ask you about Sandhagen here a little bit. Now, you scored the fight for Dillashaw, which I think is,

I don't agree, but I think it's fair. I think it's fair. Okay, with that out of the way, your on cory sanhagen up or down about the same where are you i have to go about the same it was a great performance out of him in which again you you can have a great argument that he won um i i do feel like luke i don't know it's it's tough it's true super elites going at it right so you know and it was as close as we thought it would be in the end and we're talking about a disputed decision. I don't say his stock went up, though. I say his stock, he was who I thought he was coming in

because I feel like he's got to be kicking himself, Luke, with this loss because of how close it was and because, again, of some of the judging theories. But at the end of the day, if you're a fighter and a competitor, you're not relying on judging theories. You're relying on, oh, two of the three said I didn't do enough to have won this, so I got to figure out why. I would have liked to see a little bit more out of it, Luke, a little bit busier, leaving a little bit more lack of doubt in his volume of striking in that

regard. Outside of that, Luke, fantastic performance that he arguably was on the wrong end of a disputed one he should have. So it's hard to take too much away. He'll be back. I thought it was interesting, his post-fight interview that he gave with Megan O'Leary where he said he basically made Sean Shelby deliver like a pinky promise that he would still be one fight away from the title despite this loss because of how contested it was. I didn't necessarily like that or that he's putting that out there

and sort of like clinging to it. But at the same time clinging to it. But in this, at the same time, you get it this, you know, his, his two losses in this elite run for him, whereas, you know, one was almost a fluke, even though obviously it counts against Sterling. And that's why Aljo went onto the title shot and he didn't. And then the second one is basically a coin flip. It's again, you know, it's the very elite matching up, but I just don't think he, he, he elevated this brand at the end of the day. If that's a slight criticism, I can go.

He left a little bit on the table in his overall performance to leave no doubt, Luke. Is that unfair? You know, it reminded me a lot of when Cruz came back and fought Dillashaw. A lot of people thought Dillashaw, to your point, won that fight. It was super close, but Cruz was able to reassert his dominance in the division after a long absence. But what happened shortly thereafter, BC?

We know the story. Eventually, that belt found its way to TJ Dillashaw, and until, of course, he popped, it was his for bragging about, right? So eventually, the tide did shift, just not at that moment. I'll say this about Corey Sanhagen. I'm set to speak to him later today, so I'm looking forward to talking to him. Again, I thought he won the fight. If I did have a criticism, which I make in the spirit of total good faith BC what do you make

of this hypothesis I think there are fighters out there who are very creative either as strikers or in some kind of approach to the game and they don't they take some of the things that they do in the expression of that creativity if it doesn't cost them too much, to not be that big a deal. Whereas it doesn't match up with what we consider to be best practices. For example, wrapping up with TJ over and over, throwing the spinning stuff, and then going to guard or trying to spin underneath for a leg. It's like the real MMA meta would have been, maybe you could try for one sub. If that doesn't work, you need to roll to your feet immediately and defend the takedown in a more traditional way.

He didn't want to do that and it ended up costing him a lot of time. Or even in round four, we're talking about. The control time that TJ Dillashaw had in that round, BC, one minute and 41 seconds. Now, TJ didn't do anything with that, except that's one minute and 41 seconds where Corey Sandhagen can't strike because he has to fight the hands and defend it seems to me like there is a sense about is he a good striker obviously

does he cohere enough to overall best practices in terms of strategy in a fight to give himself the best chance of winning I don't think he did that in this fight yeah that's fair it's very fair across the board. A quick question related to this and on the judging, you know, I thought Daniel Cormier did a great job pointing out that how key the leg strike, the calf strikes were from Dillashaw in slowing, uh, Stan Hagen down just enough in key times. Do you think our eyes as journalists, educated fans have adjusted enough to realize and realize. We understand the calf-kicking game

when the damage ensues, right? When you see the opponent now limping and completely compromised. But short of that, are our eyes trained to really see the value? It's sort of like body shots in boxing. Sometimes we can undervalue them while we're watching because you don't see the full effect of them until later in the fight when the person's gassed and slowing down and less mobile.

Is it that same way with calf kicks, you think, where maybe some people that didn't think TJ had one weren't fully taking into the account? Because a slick jab, especially when you're snapping a guy's head back, is much more in your face that someone's having huge success. But the fighters have a great job of biting down and no-selling the calf kicks, even though they're adding up, Luke. Yeah, so I mean, I would have a couple responses. You're right, like getting hit with a jab and getting your head popped back, and that's sort of another weakness of Corey Sanhagen right now, which is his takedown defense heading into this fight was 30%,

not because that's the best representation of his takedown defense, but because he just kind of gives into the position and it's like, oh, I'll creatively work my guard from here, even though he doesn't need to. And it's probably not his best interest. Similarly, he gets hit a lot, actually. And I think probably he can incorporate more defense. But I think what he says is it doesn't hurt me. So why do I have to care? Well, because that demonstrative motion of your head getting popped back, it really resonates with the judges. And so here's where I'm at on leg kicks, BC. I actually disagree slightly with Cormier. I do think it's true that there were pronounced moments in a couple of rounds where the leg kicks were

adding up such that they were, uh, Corey couldn't get his game going. To the extent that that matters, I'll count them. And certainly numerically, I will not forget about them, especially if the game is close and you had a bunch of those. Like Adesanya wins on leg kicks a lot because sometimes he can make the game so neutral. That's the only dividing factor. However, traditionally what I would say is, BC, I need to see you limp perhaps a little bit. I need to see you go less to that stance.

I need to see you, for example, what he did a little bit where someone can't get their offense going because they're constantly being reset by these leg kicks. The leg kicks had to have a more pronounced effect. And I'm sorry, even through round five, yes, TJ was slamming them home, but it wasn't exactly changing the game of Sanhagen as much as I think, as DC said it was during the fight itself. That's where I would come down.

One thing to think about that I have to remind myself every once in a while, because Luke, you've sat front row before. You had the John Morgan chair with the blue shirt on. And you know, Luke, when you're sitting that close at boxing or MMA, it is a different experience than watching the TV angles at home. And the biggest thing that you get, and there's certain things you miss, by the way, sitting that close as well, but the biggest thing you gain is the impact of the strike.

So let's not forget that if a judge is sitting that close and watching somebody get calf kicked and hearing the pops and all that, that may, you know, just like when what looks like simple jabs on TV sometimes are really, you know, landing with power that you can only really gauge in person. So I was just trying to keep that Luke in the back of my mind that that sometimes is a big part of these close fights that go the other direction because of things they've seen that maybe didn't translate through the tv i don't think that explains barbara maverick necessarily but it's something to remember all right well with that in mind let's go down to point number two we'll stay in this division if not so much

just this fight but there were other 135 pound fights on this card and there'll be more next week in the week after and bc it just seemed to me i saw dean thomas say something pretty similar maybe now is the time to officially declare bantamweight the best division in mixed martial arts so so bc with this moment we had controversial controversial or otherwise on saturday but not just the main event there were many bantamweight fights where you know the level of detail and the striking and the game overall was extraordinary, even for fighters who were unranked. Is Bantamweight today the best division in MMA? I think this is the right time to have that argument. I thought it was smart when you slid that into the rundown, Luke. I didn't need some Wheel of Death segment to get to talk about this.

We're talking about it right now. Normally I would slow the roll, but let's be honest. Although I'm excited about the fact that the lightweight division is turning over at a key point when we're losing some of these bigger names and let's consider, you know, Ferguson and McGregor seem to be going in the other direction and Habib's gone and all that. There's still obviously big stars and battle tough guys there, but Luke, the embarrassment of riches in Bantamweight it really

gets full fully groomed and blown up when you see TJ Dillashaw parachute right in on top of it and in some cases for the health of the division it's almost even better that TJ won this fight because now you've got this guy who Luke I mean he looks so good despite some of the things that you got to be thinking now you like his chances potentially against janice sterling so you're dropping in a former champion with a name who just proved to you that he's still pretty damn close to where he was on top of what already luke was perfect division for having abundance in every category what i mean is you know they're the guys that haven't gotten there yet that we need to find out how great they can potentially be and you know like davishilly and stuff like that and then you got the the crusty old veterans but you also have the

marketable old lingering names the fabers the edgars the cruises yeah luke i think pound for pound across the board filling every category this might be the division in the sport right now and that's almost an upset considering how strong lightweight was you know 18 months ago yeah i what people wanted to declare bantamweight the best one. I thought a little bit too early. Back when Cruz was coming back in Dillashaw after he had beaten Barau, and you had Garbrandt on the come up, and you had some other ones too. Like Sterling was obviously there as a prospect and whatnot.

You can go down the list. And I thought it was close. I thought it was very close. And it wasn't close, and it still is not that close in terms of box office potential. You just see a lot more, obviously, with Conor McGregor, but other ones, too, at 155 pounds. In that sense, there's still a division. But we're talking about the best one as it relates to skill and the best fights and whatnot. It turns out that I think now the tide has turned a little bit.

I think you can make a case for me, even like the top 13 through 15 of lightweight is still quite good. We're talking Brad Riddell, Armin saryukian and tiago moisés that's pretty good relative to marlon vera kyler phillips and cody stamen at bantamweight but the thing for me bc is not just are they comparable divisions in terms of what they offer from 15 to 1 and the champion but from 16 to 30 from 31 to 45 all the way through your top 50 at Bantamweight are going to be, to me, probably a lot more exciting and a lot more thorough with their skill sets. And they've got that speed of flyweight in many ways, but they can carry the power of 140 and 155.

I think what you finally have here is this old generation, but TJ Dillashaw is 35, coming back now, melding with this new generation through the ranks, past the point of 15, 16 to 30, and so completely excellent fighters all the way up and down. Yeah, it doesn't match 155's box office, BC.

I'm not sure what would, but goddamn, if you had to just bet what division's going to if you had to if you had to just bet what division is going to give you guaranteed you know great action i'm going to bet 135 all the time well i think it's 135 on depth no question i didn't even i forgot you know jose aldo's name in that group of just the the fun old guys who can still compete and make big fights that's obviously not counting the pound for pound elite near the top would you agree with me on this though lightweight still has

the baton from the standpoint of like legit top 10 pound for pound guys, either guys that are in there or have a case to be. And we're talking about Dobronks, Poirier, Gaethje, you know, Chandler's not that far removed from that. Uh, you know, Hooker was just recently kind of on the outside of that conversation. I think we have more of that level than Bantamweight, but Bantamweight again, much more deeper across all categories. And it's, look, this title picture right now, it's pretty damn exciting. I know the Sterling-Yon rematch is something we need badly and still also gives us sort of a want-want feeling. Like, we want to see what happens with the division, and this feels like a drawn-out process because of the DQ and the injury and all that. But when we get that run back,

and then we get TJ against the winner, and then you got Sanhagen feeling like he's going to still be one big win away from getting right back in that conversation. You still have Cody Garbrandt, who hasn't lost, Luke, since the comeback. You know, you still got Rob Font ranked high. Cody Garbrandt lost to Rob Font. I'm sorry? Cody Garbrandt lost to Rob Font, thoroughly font thoroughly oh he did lose since the okay i i

i had forgotten about that one correct luke um it's the title picture is pretty damn fun luke it's going to be a fun ride the next year plus no doubt about it i'm actually really excited about it and i think this was uh this was a bit of a this was a moment for me that was like okay we can't deny yeah what do you have on your mind? Do you think this puts TJ Dillashaw back in the top 10 for pound for pound because of how high we rated Sanhagen coming in? I've not kept up with pound for pound. Number 10 right now is Charles Oliveira, and 11 is Moreno. So do I think it puts him above that?

I mean, Yon's at 13 and Sterling's at 15. Probably not. Probably not. Probably not. But he's knocking on the door. I think it comes more down to how much you penalize the morality of the situation, right? Yeah. And, you know, I don't give a shit about any of that stuff. But I don't know. Listen, the win was nice.

Here's the thing to me about Sanhagen. I don't think anyone could watch this and be like, oh, he's not championship caliber. I mean, if anything, there's a case you can make he's the best guy in the division the thing is that he just made I'm not going to call him rookie mistakes because he's not a rookie but I'll say this I thought Dillashaw made a lot of really smart veteran uh choices that was the difference in the end in terms of how we approach the fight but that's this is not the best version of Sandhagen if it was the best version of sandhagen if it was the best version like he was the existing champion and dillashaw got this win i would

consider a top 10 placement bc but because he's still a little bit in in the you know the the final form uh achieving position uh i gotta dock him just a little bit in terms of pound for pound all right final question here luke you think You think Dillashaw can beat Jan? I think he can win the championship again. Yes, I think Dillashaw is capable of beating anyone in this division. Yes, absolutely. All right, there you go. There you go.

You heard it right there, Luke. Okay, take that. He's very, very good. All right, let's stay with more controversy, BC, because the fights were great, but the judging was a little suspect. Point number three here Macy Barber scores a controversial split decision win over Miranda Maverick now subsequently she promoted I think some QAnon related uh event but that's neither here nor there she just didn't see the

controversy okay BC let's go back to the beginning as we asked about Sanhagen and Dillashaw. How'd you score this bout and why? 2-1 for Macy Barber and I'm pretty sure about that. Really? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just effed up. Miranda Maverick. I said the wrong name. Let me not think, let me not try to be that guy. Excuse me on that. Yes. And I

thought it was pretty clear. Now look, I understand the second round was close and there were, there was a swing of momentum there. I liked Maverick better in that second round maverick looked like a million dollars in the first luke agree with this maverick did not finish the fight under anything close to how she started it but it and you know and you can't judge somebody on one round or you know uh edmund's boy would be a champion right now because he's incredible in that first round but in the first round maverick showed us her entire future. I mean, to all that great stuff you said about her as a potential champion,

as being sort of the next level in her technique and IQ of the game. I mean, she put Barber in a spot, Luke, where I felt like Macy was afraid to even counter out of fear of getting stopped because the striking was so clean and accurate. Obviously that changed, and let's give Macy credit look for waking up and and coming after it but no she didn't win this fight and i i think that you know san hagen dillashaw was a lot closer luke a lot closer than this fight really was i don't even see luke how do you argue that she won the fight here that's my thing like she had moments in the second round, but she didn't have enough. Yeah. I don't know. I honest to God.

Don't know. I third round Macy Barber fine. And it looked like Macy Barber finally came alive there. You know, what's interesting is as she's gotten a little bit more developed or at least the last two opponents, she's been a really slow starter. It wasn't until the third round where she began to really put it on them

or at least, you know, make it even, uh, even ish. And, um, that wasn't the case before. where she began to really put it on them, or at least make it even-ish. And that wasn't the case before, and it has been the last two. Partly, I think, is by style. Her and Maverick and Grasso are somewhat similar in those ways, but neither here nor there. Yeah, to me, this is a bad one.

This is a bad one. And I can understand the argument that, no doubt about it, Maverick faded in that third, and that's going to be something she has to look at because if you hadn't faded and you could have just kept it on terms that were reasonably equal on the feet, she would have won. And so that is a thing you do need to correct for. Fair enough. Okay.

However, dude, I just can't see what the case for the second round for Barbara could possibly be. She did have some moments where she was pressing Maverick into the fence and there were elbows on occasion from that. Again, to your point, a lot closer with Dillashaw, I thought, and Sanhagen because of the long pronounced moments this way. But Miranda Maverick able to, I mean, she wizard her way out of a takedown. She was able to find separation for the most part. Now there was some control time in the second round, Barber having 54 seconds along the cage, but this is the point BC. Miranda Maverick's total control time in the second round. Barber having 54 seconds along the cage, but this is the point, BC.

Miranda Maverick's total control time from the back started around 45 to 48 seconds, but she had some on herself. She had a minute and a half almost of control time, and she didn't have it from a neutral-ish position. 50-50 along the fence. She had it from the freaking back. She landed more strikes. She attempted more strikes.

She landed more significant strikes. She attempted more significant strikes. You can see the damage for damage for yourself dude they fucked this one up big time this was not a win a clean win for sure for macy barber even if i can grant that she survived a little bit of an early stalling out never really getting into second or third gear and then being able to turn it on late i do think that shows some long-term potential especially if she can find herself in some five-round fights she might be well suited for that we'll have to see it on late. I do think that shows some long-term potential, especially if she can find herself in some five-round fights. She might be well-suited for that. We'll have to see.

But on this day, in this fight, she did not win. She needed this win, though. She needed it big time. Huge. With three losses in a row against good competition, been disastrous. Well, it wouldn't have gotten her a pink slip, Luke, but it would have been really bad for her for the way we look at her

and for her brand and all that so she gets a win that we didn't feel she necessarily deserved but she needed that we praised the matchmaking and the company Luke for putting together a matchup like this with two fighters this young and promising do you think the outcome was what the UFC would have preferred though in the end I mean mean, is it better to have Miranda Maverick, future potential champion, go through this test and get the right decision, or is it better that they both kind of get elevated through this? Yeah, I think...

Not that I like the way it played out. I'm just saying, is this better for management? Better for management, I'm not sure, but I think if you are management, you're probably not crying into your bowl of soup. And the reason why is to your point, Barber was about to face a three-fight. I mean, I thought heading into the third round, she was going to be in a three-fight losing skid.

And then she won the third, and I was like, yeah, but the second's kind of dicey, and we explained why previously, right? You can't find that round for striking alone on someone like Macy Barber. You had to find something else that were counting neutral positions. But I'll say this. It's the same thing with Sanhagen. This is what marries, to an extent, Maverick's performance with Sanhagen, which is, A, you could argue that they won, and B, you cannot argue that they were outmatched by any capacity.

But you can argue that there are still some things that could be worked on that a future opponent might pick up on if they don't tighten up now in the case of san hagen i think some of the more conventional attitudes being adopted towards grappling in the case of miranda maverick you know she has to she moves a lot bc do you notice how much she was laterally moving in and out hopping on her feet throwing kicks i think you know working on her cardio long term is going to be kind of necessary to get, whether that's locking in her diet because of the cut or whatever else. So, yeah, there definitely are still some things to work on,

but you watch this fight and you're like, oh, right, Miranda Maverick absolutely has a super bright future in this organization. It's interesting, though. If she had won this like we thought she should have, how much would we have been talking about a little bit of a scare in round three or, you know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know, Luke. You just, just you know i thought very soberly put out there that it was a

performance we thought she won yet there's still some things to work on i wonder if we would have glossed over that luke if she had gotten the win we might have we might have been like well she faded but blah blah blah and now you know sometimes when you get a winning performance or what should be a winning performance but the judges don't see it that way, and there's like a real thing that you did not do well in the third round, you can clearly point to it. Because, dude, if they both had good energy, and they were standing at distance,

Miranda Maverick's not losing that fight. Period. And that's what you have to ask yourself is, why wasn't I able to maintain that? You know, Macy Barber turned it on late, and you have to respect that. So, I do. Do you? I thought when Macy Barber turned it on late, and you have to respect that. So I do. I thought when Maverick did bring it to the ground, Luke,

that was something I almost wanted to see more of from her. I thought she had an excellent control from top position. I would have liked to see more of that. What do you think Barber did so well to adjust at the end of that second round? She has distance closing issues, and I think she waited until she could find better blitzing opportunities better ways to just wrap up in close contact and then force her way back to the fence because it's in those spaces bc

where she gets some success there were a couple times she was able to get off to the side and then throw her right kind of like an alley not alley jab but like an alley cross fair enough um but there wasn't a whole lot of that it didn't exactly get a hold of it what really got macy barber looks to me gets her opponents to trot either she's backing them up or she's the one moving and she has very good cardio i'll give her credit she actually has really really good cardio and she spends it pretty wisely too like she goes harder in positions where she's a lot stronger rather than sort of maintaining a pace equally and

everywhere in every place. And I don't think Miranda could keep pace with that over time. So skill for skill, yes. I think Miranda Maverick is a lot better. But you know this, dude. I've seen it painted on the walls of countless MMA gyms. Fatigue makes cowards of men. And certainly Maverick's not a coward,

but it begins to fuck with your decision-making when you're tired about what kind of output you're willing to spend. Unless you're a special kind of caveman and luke i like how you use the term uh you know spending your stamina i still love that there's people like puna soriano who will go all in on the first hand every single time luke and just come back from from being you know uh cardiovascularly broke to coming back and putting it on a guy and a minute later i mean guys fun to watch luke not didn't go his way there in that prelim main event but guys fun as shit to watch soriano's amazing imagine going to see soriano at the blackjack table it must just be every time hit me hit me hit me hit me you know what i mean you have 20 yeah i too like to

live dangerously yes all gas no brakes you gotta, no brakes. You got to love it. You got to love it. All right, let's go to, here we have point number four, BC. We stay with this card. Again, this card was even losing the co-main event that it did so late. It was still pretty spectacular. BC, we stay in the bantamweight division for the men. This is what I'm talking about. And in the case of these two gentlemen, they're not even ranked,

and they put on a performance like this. Adrian Yanez, he got his face jabbed off in the first round and then came back and stopped Randy Costa with strikes in the second. BC, I know you know how I felt about it. It was an unbelievable fight, super fun. I'm sure you feel the same, but my question to you is, what is the upside for Yanez after a very difficult first round but a spectacular rally

in the second uh huge huge luke and because he has that fighting spirit he has that like that was a beautiful win under that regard because you remember what i talked about last week i was like luke you know and i was speaking more commercially good looking guy talks good you know i said randy costa kind of has like some upward potential star you know like some star potential there and you were like talking more about his ability you know yeah like he's flashy he's good but i got some questions it turned out to be exactly that luke because in the first round he looked like an absolute crap he's gonna bust out and show you that future star potential and dude yannis just bit down and

was there luke i really liked this card on paper coming in and i and i saw some comments saying what the hell is bc talking about go back to boxing you absolute factory town dirt hole and you know while that's probably a little bit harsh in in the in the latter part of that um i think this card backed it up. This card had bangers across the board, Luke, and this felt like the sort of undercard, you know, mountaintop of these moments. I mean, this was great theater, and I think when you look at now at the totality of Yanez's winning streak, you kind of need fights like this in that journey to find out who you really are, Luke. We're finding out who this guy really is. And damn, to finish it right there

as he's dripping his own blood. There's that something special thing, Luke, where yeah, he's got to tighten up some things and you've got to work on your craft, but he's got the heart of a lion there and that's going to carry him. That's going to carry him, Luke. Another guy.

Another guy to get excited about. Yeah, this was one where his mistakes didn't cost him, but he certainly got a bit of a wake-up call that there are plenty of things to still work on. So I appreciate that Yanez has a phenomenal chin, great composure. This is what it means. Everyone's like, oh, we can point out

that someone doesn't like to get hit. And then the common response is always, well, no one likes to get hit, right? But some people don't lose their composure. Adrian Yanez did not lose his composure. He kept the entire time which is a big reason why he won now Costa has some learning lessons here too because I think he just you know everything was working and so as a consequence he just went all gas no brakes himself and didn't have enough for the second round on top of that I think Yanez made some adjustments about his range. Once he got Costa backed up and he was able to

shorten the punches, he was smothering Costa's reach and then he could get on the inside and the beautiful finish where he could go touch, touch, and then rip to the body, touch, touch, touch, and then whatever else he wanted to do. It's such a great tactic. And what it causes you to do is you're changing not just the power of your strikes by going soft, soft, soft, and then hard, but the tempo as well. And then they don't get the location because they're being blinded by covering up. Dude, that's like expert level shit right there. That is very, very good. So does Adrian Yanez have a lot to work on? No doubt about it. No doubt about it. The defense in the first round was a real problem and someone else is going to pick up on that if he doesn't fix

it. However, to show the resilience and the resolve and the composure that he did with that offensive skill and now the time, I think, on his side to work on some of those defensive things, offense always comes first. Well, always. Generally comes first with strikers. Defense a little bit second. It didn't cost him the WBC and he got to flex some of the things he does right. This was, I'll say this, a very valuable moment and opportunity that he took advantage of here for Yanez. And even though he's got a seven fight winning streak now, only three of those are in the Octagon non-Dana White Contender Series. So there's a lot of room he's got to grow and a lot of type of more climbing the ladder

that he's got to show us. But I think the difference between over-celebr of the line the fighting spirit the dramatic comeback is that he's also seems to be the real deal around that whereas you know there are fighters Darren Elkins he had another Darren the damage victory on this card Luke I mean just absolute let me put myself through the meat grinder and then be the last guy standing but you know we don't look at that guy as a legitimate contender we look at him as a very tough out and an entertaining fighter Yanez needed one of those the damage type wins but I think he's also got a lot you know many more bright categories and and things shining on him that you're going to like for the future but you know

time will tell Luke you got it you got to climb that ladder and that ladder is unforgiving especially in this division which is as we put out there, the deepest in the sport at the moment. Yeah, if you're Yanez and his team, you have to like this, because one, it showed you that you could get it done despite adversity. Two, again, the limits that Yanez showed defensively didn't cost him the win, but it was definitely a wake-up call if they want to treat it like that. You know what I mean?

Like, we still get all the benefits of winning, and we get the benefit of recognizing that we have some things we have to work on and then see it justifies the ufc push behind him right it justifies that this guy yeah he he can beat good fighters he can do incredible things we still have to be incremental about the climb uh and i think that they probably will but you can see that this is a fighter worth paying attention to, and if you're the organization, worth investing in for the upside for the future. No doubt about it in my mind. All right, we go to a different card this week, BC.

It happened on Friday, and no way to say it but other than what happened, Paige Van Zandt loses again. In the main event, she faced off against Rachel Ostovich, who was making her BKFC bare knuckle generally debut but certainly her BKFC debut and here's the thing for me BC it wasn't really close I know two judges I believe had it 48 47 one had it 49 46 I think either of those are justified I think I had it 49 46 for Ostovich the bare-knuckle experiment for Van Zandt been a failure? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, how else can you say it, Luke? She fought adequate in both. You know, she was the fighter peaking in the Britain heart fight, even though she, in my eyes, clearly lost that fight. But she was the one peaking late, which led you to believe,

okay, damage control here, right? For adjustment period she'll be back well she was back here against the debutante somebody she had already beaten an mma i know it's not apples to apples but you get the point this was a fight we all thought she was going to win and and should have won to get on track and then we'll get britain hard up in the bullpen who won in the co-main event and all is good well no it's not because rachel ostovich luke let's give her the respect. She had the balls to jump off that cliff when Dana didn't. I know she's been a

marginal MMA fighter, although there's still time if she wanted to do that. She was a natural. She was a natural. And Luke, that's the thing that is I think that's one of the major things why we see more washed or recalibrated MMA fighters in Bare Knuckle than we

do boxers. because it's just, it's a different game, Luke. It's a different game in terms of your punch output and how hard you throw and wear and tear and all that. Ostevich looked like a natural in here. So her, her counter right hands were perfect. She threw heavy. She was confident, all that. But you asked about PVZ, Luke. I don't think she's going to do what I'm about to say, but this might be the time to just cut ties and get out of the sport right now. I know she was brought in for big money and there's expectations to, to carry the brand. And Luke, you got to ask, was this a failure?

I think it's a personal failure. I do want to have the conversation with you, whether this has been a failure for BKFC. I think you can argue not, but for her personally, this has been a failure for bkfc i think you can argue not but for her personally this has been a failure you're owing to and and you know you don't want to run the risk of going oh and three and oh and four and it's just i mean it gets it can get really bad it can get worse um are we really just going to keep trying to find lesser competition that you can beat i think luke you know what i think she do? Take what she got from here financially and in terms of the close-up on her brand

and also in terms of the really good boxing training through these two fights and bring that back to MMA, specifically in Bellator. Luke, you know these Bellator women's divisions are starting to populate, which is good, but they're not as deep at the moment as UFC. She's a viable title contender tomorrow, in my eyes, in Bellator, if she wanted to make that transition there where her husband is a rising middleweight. And I think for her brand, from the fighting standpoint, not from the crossover, you know, get you to subscribe to our website standpoint, just from the fighting credibility standpoint,

if she went out to a major MMA organization like Bellator and was able to win a title, that's credibility back on her name that has been lost from her bad UFC exit and certainly has been lost here from these two losses. So maybe the time's now, Luke, to circle back into MMA and to try to do things like maybe going after a title in Bellator where you could, that would look really good. And I think it's something that she can do. And I think this boxing sort of, you know, break that she's gone through will help her full round, well-rounded game in MMA in the future. But should she keep trying to find people she can beat in the bare knuckle?

I don't think there's anything to be gained, but scars, Luke. Okay. I mean, this is, this is a, this is a, a hard-ass sport, Luke. You're right. This is, this is the gas station of combat sports. Okay. I mean, this is, this is a, this is a, a hard-ass sport, Luke. You're right. This is, this is the gas station of combat sports. Okay. And I happened to kind of starting to really like it, but it's, it's not for her kind. And that's why we were surprised that she signed here. And no, this has been a failure for her personal brand. Luke, it has. Yeah. I, um, I watched this fight and it's, I just don't understand what her team was thinking here a little bit. Now, they're not dummies by any stretch.

That's not what I'm suggesting. Rather, again, I'm using the words pretty clearly, I don't understand. Because when I look at this, and clearly I don't have all the information, it does seem like from a business standpoint, it may have been a risk worth taking seriously, right? Because I think the checks were pretty good. And I have to give it to BKFC. They have featured, you know, they do their best, I think, with the means that they have to promote their stars

and find them equitable situations in which to make money or give them visibility. For example, putting Rachel and Paige Van Zandt's individual website URLs in the center of the ring and things like that. They're always pretty clever about finding ways to work as partners with their fighters. And so between that and between the checks and between how different I think they thought it was, that this would be a really good opportunity for her. So in that sense, I kind of get it.

Okay, but let's separate that out and just go and look at what we see on tape and then look at what we see in previous videos in which she was in MMA. You know, how many times can you point out out a case where she won cleanly with her hands throughout the course of a bout? That's really not the way that she ever won. She won with, like in the case of Beck Rawlings, jumping switch kicks or these weird blitzes and these sort of tangled grappling positions

and then these flurries where she just kind of would out-flurry the other person and do better. And she was a little bit more coordinated in her fight with ostovich the first time when they fought in mma which is why she won but even that one she didn't win on the feet and it was like i don't understand like why they thought this would be the best way for her to secure a combat sports future when it's not that she's bad at this i don't think that that's the argument but that's not the way that she has typically won nor is it the way that she's bad at this. I don't think that that's the argument, but that's not the way that she has typically won, nor is it among her skill sets the thing that stands out to me. I said this before, BC. What stands out to me is that she can combine so many different elements

and variables of chaos and harness them against overmatched opposition, let's say overmatched sometimes by her own will. That's the place she succeeded, but a coordinated two-minute round where you're trying to box, dude, she walked into Ostevich's range for five rounds and got bodied for it. I'm like, dude, how do you not understand that that's not the best way for you

to professionally pursue yours? I'm surprised by it, honestly. That's why, would you agree with me that if possible, now would be the time to just eject? I'm not really on board with that. I mean, I don't, it's not that I can declare that you're wrong, BC. When you said it, I had to think about it a little bit.

But you know me, I've sort of buried people before they've been ready, and I've regretted doing that in the past. I'll say this, I still would leave the door open in exactly the way that you have, which is if you want to go to MMA, and you can do it under the promoter that understands your strengths, and honestly, BC, at this point, I think some rebuilding is frankly in order here as well, then yes, I think absolutely going forward would be a very good call,

or at least one that is worth taking seriously like any other offer. But continued bare knuckle I don't think is a good idea, or boxing, or kickboxing would maybe be a little bit better, but what big fights are there? I honestly feel like if you want to stay in combat sports, do the thing you're good at, which is bring

in a storm and make it rain on these folks and then when they can't figure out how to stay you know i'm using i'm a tortured metaphor here but you get the idea that the flurries the blitzes the chaos that's the space in which she is an absolute dynamo and you just don't see that over here yeah if i was page i would swallow my pride consider choking on the ryan's luke and the lack thereof has really left her brand empty inside. But it's time to go. But here's the deal about BKFC, Luke. Dude, I want to hate it.

I really like it. I mean, Brent Brookhouse was right, Luke. So here's what I figured out I really liked about it. Wait, wait, wait. What did Brent say? What did Brent say? Set the table first. Dude, Brent Brookhouse, writer at CBS Sports,

veteran combat sports journalist. You know who he is. He has, from dayhouse, writer at CBS Sports, veteran combat sports journalist, you know who he is. He has from day one been watching these. Not even the page ones like the other in-between, like, you know, the equivalent to the Bellator Thackerville version of these, Luke. And he's been from day one, BKFC is fun as shit.

And I guess the reason why I didn't want to get on board right away is because I don't actually necessarily love the fighting. fighting like it's kind of weird right it's like okay I do like a good bare knuckle boxing fight that gets dramatic and exciting yes but I think it's a little bit also stupid Luke in this modern age to be knuckling up and doing this I love the the circus around it Luke this is to me BKFC has captured this okay and Brett Brookhouse is also an old school wrestling fan, as am myself.

They found a way to do real professional wrestling, meaning the fights are very real, but everything around it is like pro wrestling meets Jerry Springer meets like where did they find these characters because I cannot stop watching this reality TV that they put out there. And Luke, I think you, this is where it ties back into the question of this. Was PVZ's experiment with BKFC, which is ongoing, we're not saying it's over, we're arguing whether it should be, but did that elevate the brand of BKFC?

I think 100%, Luke. They have used Paige's name to create characters like Britton Hart that I kind of want to see in this new one Taylor Starling they signed Pearl Gonzalez who Britton Hart called you know called out afterwards you mix in Ostevich like they've used PVZ's name to really make this division of oddballs Luke and I don't even know if these all these women are in the around the same way but if I'm BKFC I'd relax the weight rules too and just put them in there. It's almost pro wrestling

like their heavyweight division is like that, which features Joey Beltran at the top and it's just sort of like the promos they cut afterwards are absolutely ridiculous. Luke, it's just like gas station hot dogs at the end, bro, but you know I can't avoid it and I'm into what they're doing.

It's not like must-see TV, but Luke, something, it is so in that other direction of train wreck that I can't get away from it. So the PVZ experiment for me has been a big plus for BKFC. And I think if they keep going after the

faded boxer or MMA star who's got a little bit of that carnival ridiculousness pro wrestling to them they could make these fights uh much closer to must see Luke at the end of the day they're getting their mood they're getting somewhere with this is where I'm going basically yeah they're fun dude they're fun I mean they're crazy and uh you know it's not sometimes they feel like bodega fights but uh they get it done at least their brawls go viral every time they always have a brawl and they always go viral so god bless them i guess uh all right do you get down with the

actual sport like it was almost like wrestling in the 90s look i've been a wrestling fan all my life but i'm not always a fan of the genius of what happens in the ring sometimes i just want to hear the promos and the shit talking and all that. You know? Are you like that too? I like the two minute rounds and I like that they have to toe the line where they have to start like really close to one another. I don't like the rounded ring. I think that's actually a bit of a problem.

But, you know, dude, they've got, you're right, dude, they've got a groove that they're in. You can clearly tell. And I think to some extent it's working i don't know exactly how much but and they probably would have loved to get a couple of wins out of page you know and they didn't but for the two losses that she provided they got a lot out of that um and they made it work and dude they're talking about having blue face again some rapper fight takashi 69 which

i gotta tell you you could say that's the dumbest thing on earth, and it is. I mean, let's be clear about it. It's absolutely moronic. It would sell a gazillion pay-per-views if they made it. So they're probably gonna try. We'll see Blueface on Have You Seen This Shit shortly, but they did bring in that rapper for an actual boxing match with

real gloves against some TikToker, and Luke, it was all over the internet, so I think David Feldman and company's uh gamble has has worked out uh okay with that bc it is time for you and i to stop asking each other questions and for us to start answering questions from the audience it's time for dms from the diggity dogs let's do it we've got mail mail uh okay from at cha underscore vita what do you think of sandhagen versus o'malley next and how batshit crazy would that fight be i don't think that's a good fight for o'malley right now it's not a good fight for the promotion to put out there right now it would be a little bit promotional malpractice but uh yeah i mean just styles wise do we want to see that

fight when sugar sean proves a little bit more that he's ready for it yes we want to see that but luke i think the spin-off of this question is something we didn't hit earlier when we broke this down who should be next for cory sandhagen based upon his pinky promise talk with uh sean shelby what do you mean oh you mean like the next opponent? That he's one win away from a title shot still. Yes, I don't really understand that because he's sitting at two, Jan's at one, and Jan and Sterling have business. I guess he could fight Rob Font or Jose Aldo and see how that goes. That might work.

Yeah, either of those two. Jose, that's a must-see main event, dude. That's an interesting fight because, one, he won't really go for it necessarily but if he wants it he's got phenomenal jiu-jitsu he's got really good jiu-jitsu and obviously uh you know there's a question about to what extent cory is a little too willing to accept damage those kicks from aldo would be tremendous at the same time cory is a headhunter at times he can be, and he's very accurate, and that has been a bit of a known weakness for Aldo,

even though he's got very good slipping over the course of a longer fight, like Max Holloway kind of showed. So there are ways. There are ways that could be very, very interesting. Do you think Pitbull's jiu-jitsu is better than Aldo? No, I don't. I think it's probably on par, but not better. And do you think Pippel...

What's Pippel's realistic ceiling to retire in the all-time great Brazilian rankings? Like, is he... I mean, he's not going to pass Anderson or probably not Aldo, but where do you think he could end up? We should probably put, like, a list and, like, tiers of Brazilian legends, you know, and where do you think he could end up? We should probably put a list and tiers of Brazilian legends and where they would fit.

I don't know, man. The Brazilian MMA Hall of Fame is... If you're doing it right, it's tough to get into because the competition is fierce. There's a lot of Nogueras and Vonderleys you've got to remember upon. It's deep. I remember a time when you know baron

baral was number one pot for pound i remember those times for sure tj did take that away from us yes you did yeah you did all right from at carlos sparks with a z x and a z do you think anyone in the ufc slash bellator in the ufc slash bellator will take eddie bravo up on the two thousand dollar challenge you know what he's talking about? I do. I have no idea. Okay. So if you know what a twister is, right?

So you essentially pull their hips one way and then you pull their head the other. He's got some idea for elbows during the twist. Yeah. So the way you would finish a twister is obviously you're going to pull their hips one way and then their head's going to go the other. And when you do, you come around the crown of the head and then you crank it the opposite direction of the hips and the spine so that the spine gets twisted right but rather than you pull the head behind you is the way to sort of like get the opening to the head uh but rather bc then going for the head to then grab

around the crown and then turn it instead you put your arm through on the same side and then you go uh elbow unobstructed to the ribs until you get them to stop or a tko or you can even do it to the face to a degree and he's saying anyone who wins that way he's going to give them two two thousand dollars um do you think anyone in those organizations will because he what they said was regional mma doesn't count so you can't do it at like you know bumfuck fc it's got to be a high level ish organization what do you think yeah i'm into this luke um i want to know what we're going to name it afterwards will we name it after eddie bravo we should yeah i don't know i don't know what it's called though instead of the twister be like the twister ground and pound i

don't know the lightning i don't know what the fuck they want to call that but uh i actually think conspiracy theory yeah i actually feel like uh someone will do it because mma is crazy it'll just take some time yes it'll just take some time all right from ben schnetzer who was verified now that muay thai is recognized by the ioc which countries other than thailand do you see placing on the podium at future olympic games to what extent do you see placing on the podium at future Olympic Games? To what extent do you think Olympic status will boost the profile popularity of traditional Muay Thai in the U.S.? I don't know. Taekwondo is in the Olympics and ain't nobody fucking beating down their doors

to go train. So there's that. I'll say this. Obviously the Dutch are probably going to field some pretty strong competitors. The U.S. will probably have some as well. Brazil, I suspect, will have a strong tradition. I don't know about places like Japan. Obviously, they have good kickboxing there,

but I don't know what the rules would be for that and how much they could adapt. But some of the traditional powerhouses, B.C. Russia. I'm looking at Laos as a potential sleeper, Luke. Burma. Burma. Yeah, I've been scouting Myanmar lately.

Do you know who... I don't know how to pronounce his last name so I'm gonna get it wrong do you know who when he calls himself King I think it's pronounced Leduc L-U-D-U-C L-E excuse me L-E-D-U-C on social media yeah yeah I know I'm aware of that person, yes. He's a striker, but he fights in a light way, which is like they allow headbutts, and so you'll see him sparring and fighting and then landing the headbutt. They wouldn't allow that in the Olympics, but he's an intriguing dude.

His career has been interesting. I scour the world to find out who puts the bang in Bangladesh, if you know what I mean. You know what I mean? I'm all up on this you ever been to bangladesh um all right from glow glow lou i don't know who the fuck that would be luke who told you to put this 2005 my chemical romance beanie on let's see it oh is this from the uh picture yesterday yeah dude i mean it looked like a bigger piece of

shit those are from our engagement pics look that that that uh when you and i did that photo shoot with our uh mk staff they're like actually guys if you could just you guys wouldn't actually mind kissing during this you know it could make these these photos a lot better i mean this the only reason this didn't turn into i actually, I don't even want to say that. I'll just say this. Yes, I needed an adult chaperone during this photo shoot, and I was very uncomfortable, and I obviously looked like the biggest fucking doofus.

I mean, could I look... I'm like the kind of asshole that steals people's mailboxes and fucking prank calls pizza places. I mean, I just look like an obvious loser. I look like I own a lawn care business luke right yeah and it's not doing too well like you're underwater at the same time you know yeah yeah we only work four months a year what do you want from us you know it's doesn't it's not yeah yeah i'm the guy who's like hey why don't you want to come over and swim in my

above ground pool oh i don't know because you're a fucking creep. Look at this. I've got candy for your kids, yeah. Okay, listen, Coach Sandusky, get the hell away from us. All right, from at Sasquatch Toys, when will BC get producer credits for his interviews and documentaries? Well, I don't know, BC. Should you get production credit for the documentaries? I mean, they're calling my Dillashaw interview from last week the best of the year, Luke, so I should probably get something.

But no, they don't give me shit, Luke. Okay? Jake, our fantastic... By the way, people, Doc 4, it's just about done, Luke. You and I have seen the final cut on this. It's ready for action. It's the first one since the first one that I thought was amusing. But Luke, I'm not into that shit

like you are you're big into like people giving you credit and taking notice like dude what you know what I mean like whatever bro here's the thing Luke here's the thing people know when they watch the show they know why they're watching it Luke you know what I'm saying

alright well with that in mind it's time for us to watch elder abuse and fat girls get hit with shovels. Those things happen here, Luke, each week. I'd have you seen this shit. It's like 20 minutes of fat chicks stepping on rakes. We scour the globe, Luke. Highs and lows, good and bad, all that stuff. Combat sports and beyond.

And we start at BKFC19 in Tampa. Luke, Blueface the rapper outboxes some TikToker. But, Luke, things got heated afterwards as promoter David Feldman had to step in between. Luke, we got a brawl. Folks, we're on national television right here. Yes. Gentlemen, gentlemen. Wow, that guy leaped the top rope pretty nimbly.

That was great. Yeah. This is like UFC 229 out of nowhere Luke love it that's what listen if you go to a region this is not regional this is national or international I guess but you know it's also got regional MMA and boxing feels if you go to an event like that and there's not a brawl you didn't get your money's worth yeah can I get can I get my money back, please? Yes. Yeah.

All right. That's great. I don't even know how this started or why, Luke. I just enjoyed the craziness. And to do with the pink suit, just watching it. Oh, yeah. We mentioned Rachel Ostevich defeated Paige Van Zandt by decision in the main event. Luke, we talked about those counter right hands.

Here's a nice little gif, if you will will of the kind of shots she was landing all night buckling pvz big time look that punch i think was in the fourth round that was the best punch she landed the whole fight i mean she got this is what i mean she just would she would walk into range behind her jab but she wouldn't set it up there'd be no feints and then ostovich would just time it right over the top every time it was crazy but that was the best version of it boom would you want to i'll say this what's your pvz's got a chin she got a chin she don't yeah oh she's tough as shit there's no question about it um what's your bkfc dream match right now is it uh britain hard against ostovich which who are you picking here who's coming out of this yeah i can't say i put a lot of thought

into it. Okay. I'm really into the Britt and Beltran story, but that's just me. All right, let's keep it going, Luke. PVZ don't care, Luke. She put out her first public statements on Instagram since the loss. It included multiple pictures of her flipping off the camera, a long speech about how she doesn't care. But, Luke, what I want to focus on, look at the hands, bro.

This shit's brutal. Brutal as shit shit luke get out while you can please yeah that can't be good for long-term arthritis i mean i mean this this sport will cut your face up pretty quick too get out get out you made money yeah it's better it's better for head trauma to not take punches uh with gloves in theory but it's like your hands are going to be a fucking disaster when it's all over because they're not meant to punch either and i don't clown what she put out there it's a statement that's very like i don't care i'm going to come back and look she's she's taught look she's she'll bounce back there's no question she'll bounce back she can fight okay this just might not be the the just as you know the the elite UFC

strawweight division may not have been the perfect platform for her at the moment this may not as well but there are other platforms out there Luke keeping it going boxing from the UK heavyweight Joe Joyce had an interesting scrap with Carlos Tackham Luke Tackham rocked Joyce early but in round six the slow big punch in Joyce put the veteran away, Luke becoming the mandatory opponent for the winner of Alexander Usyk, Anthony Joshua. So, you know, Joe the juggernaut

Joyce, Luke, former Olympian. We've seen him. He beat Dubois, Daniel Dubois, in that all-England prospect fight. We know Joyce is a lot older. Luke, do you think he's got any heavyweight title hope here or just too slow I mean he is slow as shit Luke yeah he's he can punch but yeah no all right well that's there you go that's that's the analysis you tune in for let's keep it going

UFC fight night in Vegas Luke Bruce Buffer doing Bruce Buffer things to TJ Dillashaw this kind of got me fired up and I'm'm not normally into the buffer scream, but look at this, Luke. Look at that intensity. Yes, get some of that. Yeah, I'm not into that. I mean, obviously he is, and that's all that matters, but for me, I'm not into that. All right, well, Luke, how about this sequence?

Early in the fight, I believe it was round one, when Corey Sanhagen nearly turned a flying knee attempt into a submission, Luke. This was wild. Yeah, he almost had the toby imada uh that was deep bro that's tight yeah that's super tight but he was able to squeeze just a little bit of his head through was a lot you know cory is gonna be the the good thing about being thin and wiry like that is you're gonna find positions pretty quickly but the downside is that

if you're not angled just right, because there's all different kinds of triangles, even from the inverted position, there's not one inverted triangle, there's many inverted triangles, it's going to be hard to get the exact squeeze that you need. And so that was what he had here. It was a nice squeeze, but it wasn't a fight-ending squeeze, and so therefore you don't really have much.

He almost choked him out with his own taint, Luke. That got pretty gross there. Let's keep it going. Puna Soriano, I mentioned in that prelim main event went to war with Brendan Allen and came up empty, but this sequence was fantastic to close the round, Luke. Yeah, Brendan Allen's legit.

Luke, they're just swinging for grand slams every punch. This is great. Yeah. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. All right. luke speaking of ground and pound uh sarge eubanks came in the best shape of her life said she put all the the you know the vices of old away and is now ready to become a complete fighter uh she was in there against a uh a almost like a crash dummy named elise reed it wasn't close and she destroyed reed's uh right eye but look are you impressed that like sarge may have leveled up a bit here

this may you know we may she may have one chance left to show us how good she can be here yeah you know what i'm frankly not even surprised by it she had uh remember she started out of the dc area over a team with urban and pure jujitsu and she was a force to be reckoned with you know even then and then when she made her way to mma i don't think the transition was quite as smooth as i had anticipated it being but you know how many times has that happened between grapplers you know uh and mma fighters where you know they're trying to transition sometimes they get it fast sometimes they don't so maybe she wasn't the quickest study in that sense given what she the prowess that she had showed in pure jiu-jitsu but i think now you're beginning to see all the pieces come together.

Yeah, you're right, dude. She looked awesome. She has phenomenal ground control when she wants it. She's got hammers too. So I'm curious to see how far she can take it. Yeah, I want to see how far. Because I love it when people, whether it's fighting or whether it's anyone in any job.

Look, I'm sure you've been in this spot too, where it's like you get a certain level of success and then you have that realization that, like, I got to level up my game full time across the board Like, you get a certain level of success, and then you have that realization that, like, I got to level up my game full-time across the board to compete at this level. You know what I mean? Like, I got to bring it. And I think that's what she realized after a few losses there

and a few weight cut issues where it's like, I got to be better every second of every day to try to maximize this. And, Luke, when you figure that out, you're ready. You're ready, Luke. Okay? You're ready to go train with Yoda at the Dagobah system. Let's do it. Damn right. Alright, let's keep it rolling here. Brandon Marino

stopped by Camp Canelo Alvarez in San Diego and took some pics. Champ and champ. Two stars of Mexico there, Luke. That's Oscar Valdez on the left of that picture. Also, Andy Ruiz Jr. along with canelo uh fun group here luke brandon moreno fits right in in boxing people love him in the boxing side

dude good for him man and you know what any kind of training he gets with those guys it's only going to be good for him so absolutely he's like really like great to see the poster he's like the ideal poster boy first ufc mexican champion like people love the shit out of him. Chavez Sr. loves this guy, Luke. That's badass. Yeah, good for him, man. Really, really hard-earned, and the stamp of Canelo's approval probably is not easy to get, and he's got it, so I'm happy for everybody involved,

including old Andy Reid, man. I want to see more from old Andy. I saw him lifting weights. He's starting to get swole. Did you just call him Andy Reid? I mean, I know they're like the same size. At their fattest, they were pretty close, Luke. But yeah, all right. Yeah.

Is he the Mexican Andy Reid? Andy Ruiz? Yeah, he is the Mexican Andy Reid. Yeah, all right. Let's keep it rolling. Skate or die time, Luke. This is where white people get injured. Check out this Olympic skateboarding botch, Luke.

Yikes. Wow. Bro, I went halfway around the world to get a vasectomy. Bah. Oh, my God. Three needles. Damn. I mean, this is in the Olympics, Luke.

This is great. Oh, wow. Isn't this what Joe Rogan was talking about? This is what Joe Rogan was talking about when he mentioned the BME Pain Olympics. That's what you got here. Wow. That's a sore grundle after that, Luke. I'll tell you that.

All right. Let's take the skateboarding out into the road, Luke. Road racing here. Oh, God. Watch out. Watch out. Watch out. Oh, my God.

What are we doing here? Luke, you know, the thing is, Luke, I know my limits, dude. I don't ski. I don't roller skate, you know, after, like, fourth grade parties at Roller Magic in Waterbury, Connecticut. People that know, they know. Luke, I don't do that shit. I'll break an ankle, Luke. I'll twist.

This is not worth it. I'm not getting into a road race on skates, okay? No. Get out. Bro, that was like a Tony Ferguson Granby roll. The guy, the homie who went flying here what ah all right let's take uh let's take the roller skates to the dinner delivery luke this is an outdated concept for for good reasons luke you know what i mean

would you like that on the rocks or would you like to wear it all right no i'll just have it in the can that That's great. Well, you know what? This is still better than my daughter projectile vomiting in the car on the weekend. So, you know. Did you get on the window and stuff? Just gross, right? Oh, dude. We had to.

We had to. Luckily, we had a change of clothes for her. So I had to pull over on the middle of the highway in the middle of the city. And just to like, I had my wife caught the puke and then had to chuck it out the the door when i come around and open it been there been there and then it was sprayed it was it was like you know she was trying to swat a fly with her vomit or something it was crazy uh luke let's bring the skateboard to the city this is why people this is why skateboarding gets a bad name luke you can you got to be careful out here i mean come on innocent bystanders coming by in a segue

you know that's dc that's dc i know exactly where this is this is the skate park by uh uh the navy archive in washington luke this is washington dc this is this is right in front of you this is pennsylvania avenue and is that do people normally rent segways in this area oh yeah totally the segways you're not far from union station so like right where you're not far from Union Station. So right where you're looking at here, to your left would be the White House. To the right would be where the Trump Hotel is. And there's all kinds of people who go through this area touring on Segways.

Bop. See you, bitch. Yikes. Yikes. All right. Hey, Luke, I try to keep up with the trends. Ghost riding the whip was cool for a while. What do you call this, Luke?

Oh, yeah. It's like the guy thinks he's in his own music. Oh, God. Good God, Luke. Oh. Oh, wow. It's like Pat Tillman. Oh, man.

Oh, Jesus. Yikes. I mean, what are we doing here um yeah yeah you know what i would say of those i would say that this guy's car should be repossessed but it actually looks like the car's getting some useful work so let him keep it i know we're not allowed to show a death son have you seen the shit so hopefully that guy was okay after that faces the death circus act. We showed that one time. All right, let's keep it going here.

Luke, get your flips on Route 66 here. Hey, is he white? Oh, right, right, right, right. That's a backflip to hell, Luke. Speaking of backflips to dark places, let's keep the tape rolling. That's unfortunate. Oh, God. That's

got to hurt really bad. That's not good. All right. Let's bring the backflip to the subway. These are the people who tweet me and are being like, dude, COVID is a hoax. This guy tweeted me to say vaccines don't work yeah that's full frontal right there wow all right let's bring it over to the bleacher somebody's got to nail one of these backflips luke and we're gonna end up with a scorpion king tryouts again this is not

good oh god this guy test this guy this guy tweeted me to say that the CDC numbers were fake. Wow. All right. Enough of that, Luke. Let's bring it out. Let's show a proper diesel man out here, Luke. I've seen shotgun and beers. I've never seen biting it open with your own teeth, Luke.

You into this type of destruction? Well, this is only a real man. A real man whose dentist probably is very rich, if he goes to the dentist at all. But that's a real man for sure yeah let's let's see if ronnie deutsch can do that he can show up on this show again if he can pull that off all right speaking of drunk people luke sometimes when you had enough you had enough inside the bar and there's only one way to get you out of there luke i mean what do what what are we doing here only it gets crazier luke okay let me get let me get a little of that on the way out.

What is that? I need to go to this place with this giant man being carted out on a dolly. Well, some chick's just grinding him on the way out. That's good. And they twerk on the way out. I mean, listen, given what I've seen security do to throw people out the door, they're treating this guy with kid gloves. Are they literally rolling him out the door?

He went out doing what he loved, at least to Luke. All right. Yeah, all right. Let's keep it going here, Luke. You ever seen a drunk couple in Vegas, Luke, get into a little bit of a spat? This is great shit. Luke, this is out in the front of the hotel.

Sir, sir, can you stand up already here? little bit of a spat this is great shit look this is out in the front of the hotel this is sure sir sir can you stand up already here look okay look can his girlfriend help model a little give a hand maybe rather than just ridicule him i see fights like this in vegas all the time yeah we're not doing well here on being able to stand luke uh wow i wonder how long they just stay there. Hopefully forever. Just live there from now on. Never call your families again.

Dude, are they on Bud Light or heroin? What is wrong with them? You know what I'm talking about? You know what? You can tell it's Bud Light and it's not heroin. You know how I know? Because if they're on heroin, they wouldn't actually fall over. They would just kind of get that gangster lean.

Yeah, they would. Yeah, they would. All right. Hey, Luke, let's go to the laundromat. You know, it's a new trend that people are bringing bars into laundromats? There's one in New Britain, Connecticut. And this is usually what happens when they do, Luke. This is not good, okay?

Are you shitting me? You're just going to fight this big-ass dude? Oh, no. He's giving him the spin cycle, Luke. This is something. That guy is definitely a bouncer. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Nobody disrespects him like that. No, seriously, they're trying to combine laundromats with bars. That's a bad combo, Luke. We don't need that. Nobody puts baby in the washing machine except this motherfucking huge guy. Luke, you're a man of the world. You've eaten street food anywhere. Let's go to Turkey, Luke.

Would you try this? What do they call this? I can't quite see. Can you blow it up? Oh, is that like deer penis or some shit like that? I think this is called straight dong, Luke. What are we doing here, bro? So, first of all, I've eaten street food in Turkey, and it's quite good.

But, yeah, no, I'm going to skip this one. We can make jokes, but I think that's actually a penis, Luke. I think that's what that is. I think that's street penis, Luke. I got super sick one time in the streets of Cairo drinking OJ from a street vendor. Oh yeah, dude, you order OJ and a side of street dick,

you'll get all kinds of messed up, yeah. Dude, you order OJ and a side of street dick, you'll get all kinds of messed up, Luke. Okay, let's keep it going here, Luke. I want to make a joke about street dick and you right now, but I don't want to get fired, so I'm going to let that one roll. Yeah, one Pat Tillman was enough. All right, let's go back into the fight game. I mean, this finish was incredible with the spinning back kick, but where's the referee, Luke?

I think he was tweeting on the other side of the cage. Bah. That's some spinny shit that works, bro, but maybe this fighter should realize the guy's done. One, two. Let's see how many. One, two, three. Oof, got in three extra ones.

Yeah, he fucked up on that one. Two, I think, is okay, but three is when the problem begins. Well, it depends. I mean, you get one, the level of Henderson UFC 100 on Bisping, Luke. That's enough to hold you back. Let's keep it going, though.

One championship, Luke. Check out this leaping groin strike. What do you call this? A rule set that I want brought to the United States. Michelle Pineda watching. He's like, oh, we can do street dicks now? This is great. Yeah.

Those guys from Turkey ate this dude's street dick later. Yeah, absolutely. Luke, you know, this one specifically for john nash the ufc would never would absolutely never give out off the book bonuses especially not in bags full of cash like davison figuerito got here in 2020 luke and that they're showing on video years later yes let's broadcast the financial crimes we're allegedly committing, BC. That's a very good conspiracy theory. You know, Chael Sonnen on his show last week talked about Dana paying for his honeymoon. I bet he did. He got that one million.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not trying to out anybody. I'm just trying to say open your worldview. You know what I mean? All right? To idiotic conspiracy theories? No. I'm good. Okay. Okay your worldview. You know what I mean? All right. To idiotic conspiracy theories? No.

I'm good. Okay. Okay. Okay. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see, Nash. We'll see one day.

All right. We'll keep it going. Hey, we close with this, Luke. Speaking of faces of death, I hope this guy was able to walk off. Oh, Jesus fucking. Oh, my God. That is. Yeah.

Luke, when I was little little my dad would never let me go on the rides at these regional fairs now I know why okay this is not oh yeah this was a great you know if you wonder like this is one of those moments where you watch this and you're like wow how flexible is the human spine

oh right right that flexible as he ricochets off the bottom rung of this, flailing to the ground like wet garbage being tossed out of a car. Yeah. Small hand smells like cabbage. We got it, Luke. That is wow, wow.

Yeah. BC, before we call it on a show, oh, you know what? Yeah, let's do it right now. Before we call it a show today, I want to remind you that no one's perfect. Even the best baseball players strike out with their bases loaded. The best golfers sometimes three-putt with the tournament on the line. So, BC, if you feel like you come up short in the bedroom sometimes with your ED. Are you selling me a predatory loan right now?

What's happening, Luke? It's perfectly okay. But if it's bothering you, there are options. You can go to GetRoman.com slash combat. That's combat with a K, of course, right now. And you get 15 bucks off your first month. With Roman, you can get a free online evaluation and ongoing care for ED, all from the comfort and privacy of your home. A US licensed healthcare professional will work with you to find the best treatment plan. If medication is appropriate, it ships to you free,

two-day shipping, whole process, straightforward, straightforward discreet no one has to know about it getting started is simple you go to get roman.com slash combat and complete an online visit take care of your ed without leaving home complete an online visit today to connect with a doctor and take care of it so there you go get roman.com slash combat 15 bucks off yeah wake up kids we got the dreamers disease right age 43 they got you down on your knees uh you're gonna need roman so just get it we don't have to talk about it you know you don't need to you don't need to tell me that you got it just get it all right uh bc you want to walk around with that bde like you used to just get roman just get that roman bc it's time for odds and ends good sir please go first for our odds and or ends.

Yeah. I wanted to pat myself on the back for some great interviews lately that you can go to morning, uh, youtube.com slash morning combat. Of course, you know, you get our live show three days a week,

but how about Luke interviewing Corey Sanhagen later today? How about me talking to Freddie Roach and others? One of those Luke was Damien, the donk who of course, uh, Stockton's finest, put a tattoo of our brand on his body. Luke, we have a leftover clip from his interview, which is available on our YouTube

channel right now, and is, I don't even know how, Luke, it is outperforming basically every boxing interview I've ever done, so shout out to Damien for that, but Damien the Donk has not only put our brand on his flesh, he has put out an open challenge to the other sluggers in this ballpark that is MK fandom. Let's go to the videotape. Why in the damn hell did you put MK's logos on your

flesh? Well, I need to say something first bc dick goes to web screen you're taking everything i work for motherfuckers you know who the number one donk is you know who the donk of the year is every year now some dorks making videos on the internet i'm the true donk wow wow wow put some respect on uh damien's name they're coming after you, Web Scream, all right? Web Scream, you're going to have to, like, name one of your children MK, I think, to match this, but Luke, I bring this into odds and ends because Web Scream, your 2020

MK Donk of the Year, has responded to Damien's challenge on Twitter, if we can throw that up there right now. And zoom in. WebScream says, man, it was a treat watching your interview this morning. I am old washed and ready to be shelved in the pioneers wing of the MK Hall of Fame. I couldn't possibly match your amazing energy. Thank you for the shout out and the kind words. Luke WebScream went on to say that he is already handing over

the 2021 Donk of the Year Award to Damien for this move. So I wanted to update the people at the transaction that seemed to have taken place here between old and new. Luke, is there anything the donks out there could do to top what Damien has done? I mean, we do have another five, six months here. I mean, is there anything they could do, Luke? Well, first I'll say, way to fight for it, Web Scream.

It must mean a lot to you. You old bitch. He was like, yeah, you can fucking have it. I don't give a shit. Listen, I'll say this. I mean, getting a tattoo is setting the bar high, very high. But I'm going to leave room for some creative folks out there. You never know what someone might do to impress us.

So right now, Damien's your clubhouse leader, but we'll see how things go. Maniche jumps in, our producer, and says face tap. But Luke, I was just going to say, we got to put limits on this. I don't want to see like MK spelled out in your fluids. And I don't want anybody to get a face tap on our regard luke okay please yeah i mean here's the thing though like what if someone had twins and named their kids luke and brian that's pretty big wow wow right especially if both were girls luke i'd be honored we'd have to be godfathers for that child and really be responsible to help raising it over the course no no i'd be an absentee landlord in the worst way i would never call or send kids anything on

their birthday you'd be like i just follow robert thomas's lead yeah yeah exactly uh bc for my odds and ends i'm actually going to go to showbox results we had showbox over the weekend it was the 20th anniversary and it was a triple header just very quickly just tell the folks that Isaiah Steen and Calvin Henderson fought off and I don't know if you saw the fight bc it was interesting it was back and forth through like four rounds and then Steen just kind of took over from rounds five I'll say to eight making it really difficult for Henderson Henderson tried to corner him and would walk into the traps that Steen was setting. Sometimes Steen was able to back him up by being more active. There was a couple times where he

was landing near home run shots, not quite, and I thought he might have a chance to put him away. Kind of coasted the last couple of rounds Steen did, but definitely showed himself to be, I think, the better of the two, and it was a fitting way for Showbox's 20th show to go with a competitive and talented pair in your main event. Here's to 20 more years of that great franchise, Luke, okay? Yeah, for sure. It plays a big role in boxing, as we already know.

Could use a little more BC and LT, but that's another topic for another day. I agree. I definitely think so. A boy can dream, can't he? Call me. BC, let's remind the folks, thumbs, a boy can dream, can't he? Call me. Call me. BC, let's remind the folks, thumbs up on the video if you haven't done it yet. Subscribe if you haven't done it yet.

It is free. And by the way, future editions of Room Service Diaries will only be available to subscribers. So if you don't get it, that's on you. Yeah, we're trying not to get fired here, all right? Yeah, exactly. We've got stuff here for if you want to follow us on social media and all the different places. There you have it. There you go.

For Wednesdays, fan submission, or Fridays dead wrong, email us, morningcombat at gmail.com. Let us know in the subject part of the email what is on your mind. Let us know in advance. If you want to try Showtime, because, by the way, starting on Wednesday, starting tomorrow when the resume review comes out, but basically any time after right now, it's going to be a lot of Bellator 263 coverage. It's really, truly, you know, listen, we give Bellator a hard time when I feel like they deserve it, but you got to give them credit when they deserve it as well. This is a very good show, and they've even had injuries

that have kind of damaged how good the show is by losing Megamed Megamedov versus Raffi and Stotz. I'm told that fight's going to take place in August, so they're going to get it back very quickly, but it won't be on this card still. Even with that, the card is very good, and it is legitimately one of the better main events, if not the best main event in the organization's history. I've been covering them a long time.

They don't get this good very often, so you really got to give them a lot of positive feedback for it, and certainly we will. That'll be on Showtime. Showtime.com for a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can go pound sand. Let's see, BC.

We got merch. Oh, yeah. We got some merch. Why don't you wear that shit? Why don't you sell that merch? Very quickly. Morningcombat.store is the place to be. And, of course, if you've got any ideas about merch, you can just shoot us an email,

morningcombat at gmail.com. What do you have to say, BC? I was going to say, we have a lot of pro wrestling fans that watch this. Some of them famous as well, so shout out to those guys. Luke, do the rumors of Daniel Bryan and CM Punk going to AEW

move you in the slightest, Luke? I don't even know who Daniel Bryan is. Is he good? All I'm saying is the revolution that I used to talk about, it's finally here, Luke. It's happening. Is he good? Is Daniel Bryan good?

Daniel Bryan good. To some, to Jack Crosby of CBS Sports, he's the greatest of all time, Luke. But no, he's a special one. He's amazing. So there'll's fantastic. He's amazing. All right. So there'll be that. And then, yeah, resume review out tomorrow.

BC's interviews are up now. I'm supposed to talk to Corey Sandhagen in about 20 minutes. That'll be up right after it gets done. So be on the lookout, folks. There you have it. BC, anything else? No, that's it for me this week, Luke. I'm good.

It was great. It was great hanging out with our people, Luke. I feel like this is like a, it's a show, but it's like a support group as well. It's a community, BC. It's a movement. You understand that? It's a movement.

It is. It's a feeling, Luke. It feels good. I'll tell you that much. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. For Pepe Le Pew, the French.

Luke, Maniche says get the podcast voting out there. Yeah, so you can go to podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up. Worst URL ever. But once you go there, you can support us by voting for us in Best Sports Podcast, Best Male Hosted Podcast. Can we have like a dash in there

or like a pound sign or, you know. Could we just have a different language at this point? Just give us a different fucking keyboard. You have to vote in aramaic i mean fuck all this uh okay hey look look what's a thing we can put out there i know we got to go but what's the thing that we could put out there if we were to win this award what would we do with our fans to celebrate i think we got to do another live show you know by by halloween that's is that possible august september october oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah i think that's doable yeah um i mean i'm making a commitment i can't possibly hold up because that those decisions are made above us but i can i can say that and also i'll

say this if we win there would be some motivation, I think, for stuff like that. We should do a live show in your front yard. Right? Right? No. Bad idea. Bad idea. If you think I wouldn't do that, you're out of your mind.

I'd do that in a heartbeat. Really? Invite donks to your front yard. Have a workout slash live show. Well, no, no. I'm not inviting a live audience. I'm inviting you. You can come over. See, I imagine you and I at a desk,

but donks doing prison-style workouts all around us. It's like a keg party, too. We could do it, but it would have to be hand-picked donks. Well, you'd have to move essentially the next day, Luke, or your family is, yeah, good luck with that, Luke. Okay? All right, all right. Listen, we've got to get out of here.

So for CBS, Molka, Showtime, and everybody else, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. We'll see you guys on Wednesday. Resume review out tomorrow. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.