MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night Recap: Strickland Beats Hermansson | Thurman Def. Barrios | Ep. 261

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

Another week of MK gets started as Luke and Brian recap an eventful weekend in combat sports. In the UFC Sean Strickland took down Jack Hermansson. How does Strickland pair up with the current top 5 of the division? Plus, Thurman impressed in a win over Mario Barrios. How much did this performance restore interest in him? Also, What's the biggest storyline ahead of UFC 271 main event between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, Reveille, dogs Look at us now, tip to tip This is our life, this is our passion That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Two apes in the cage getting more amazing with age hello everyone it is the 7th of february 2022

and it is time for morning combat my name is luke thomas i am one half of your hosting duo i join you from the capital of los estados ninos here in washington dc with the crown prince of connecticut he is the i can't even do your 78 letters somehow describing your balls one way or another but it's my friend and yours brian campbell what's up brian thank you luke thank you i am the the bbc with that bde or something like that luke uh hey do you hear what joe rogan said about armenians luke no what do you say probably something awful probably something just awful all right uh was his favorite movie planet of the armenians yeah there you go there you go there it is uh monday morning back at it come on right come on this is what we do right luke fired up i'm

uh chilling like bob dylan and i'm killing like penicillin so let's do this luke okay uh we got a big show today we're reacting to let's see the ufc event that was over the weekend thurman barrios was over the weekend we're actually going to look ahead to izzy versus whittaker 2 which is going to be on saturday very excited for that by the way plus a whole lot more so if you're watching on youtube thumbs up on the video hit subscribe if you're listening on the podcast platform please leave us a nice review on whatever platform that may end up being and of course if you're watching on the podcast platform, please leave us a nice review on whatever platform that may end up being. And, of course, if you're watching on the live stream, you can see our socials on the screen below. Showtime is the label that pays us.

Give them a try. Go to Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. But remember, you don't just get live Showtime programming. You get the entire library that is available all therein. Email the show for Wednesday's fan subs

and then Friday's Dead Wrong or you just want to reach out to the show, morningcombat at gmail.com. And BC, I don't think we have any special brand new merch today in the merch store, but I think it's just another great day in heaven. It's just another great day. Morningcombat.store is that fantastic website.

You want our new logo on T-shirts on sweatpants you see the look you see those new white like workout pants with the with the sun and fist logo on the back of the calf just just badass you can check that out so they sent me i got back from vacation and because i uh you know i've lost a bunch of weight it's funny to look at the old sizes that they matched me up for i'm not sure if this is a flag that funny to look at the old sizes that they matched me up for. I'm not sure if this is a flag that you would put at the Capitol or a bed sheet for a California king, but it's the shirt that they sent me.

It's like a rash guard, I think. If you look closely. It's like a workout shirt, right? Yeah, it's almost like a rash guard if you're a contestant on The Biggest biggest loser or a host on Morning Combat circa nine months ago. If our merch master, RJ Dunkelmaker

and Sons, he's got little tabs on our merch site. There's the Factory Town MMA line, the Dead Luke line. What about the January 6th collection? We put that shirt you just held up there and we just you know we just go after it that that shit's gonna sell right we and we could do nfts where we

can put music can you put music in an nft i don't even know how it works but i would imagine there's got to be some way to do it because we could put this you know that's remember that song oh they call him the streak just running in shit it could be great i don't know i'm just going places that don't need to be gone. But all right, there's that. I don't know where the fuck that's going. Oh, we do have to remind everyone, BC, we're not athletes.

And for that reason, we have to, it's all about team health here in the last year or so. We've all kind of tightened up here a little bit and tried to get things going. Our next partner, BC, has a product that, this is true, actually, we do use every day. Certainly I do. I started taking Athletic Greens greens because bc i wanted better gut health better energy and i'm not taking any more pills yeah that's what i'm talking about look ag1's legit

and i know like you can have those misgivings of is it going to taste like super healthy and it's and it tastes great and it's kind of like the mild tropical feel going on. And, you know, every morning, Luke, I mix that in the water. The first thing I do when I wake up and I need it to keep this liver from falling out of me like a broken muffler just dragging across the road. And I think you could use it too, to be fair. It's like, you know, when people say they're going to ship their guts out, BC actually means it.

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It's almost like cheating in a good way, Luke, right? If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. I don't get my greens the traditional way enough, Luke, but this does it all. It's almost like cheating in a good way, Luke, right? If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. I don't get my greens the traditional way enough, Luke, but this makes it easy. Yeah, I do my best to get healthy eating. Of course, there's no substitute for it, but this is a great way to make sure you're crossing your T's and dotting your I's.

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All right, BC, are you ready to get this going? Let's jam. Let's jam. Topic number one, we start with the UFC's main event at middleweight. By the way, it wasn't necessarily making everyone happy on the interwebs. My timeline on Twitter last night, or I should say on Saturday night, was a giant bevy of complaints about how boring it was. I actually didn't mind it because I hadn't seen fights in a few weeks and so I had a little bit

of a of a need for speed and you know it wasn't the most exciting fight but I didn't hate it per se but okay part of the reason why they hated it BC was because yes Sean Strickland won in my mind we'll talk about the scoring in just a second it It was kind of crazy, but he was the clear runaway winner with this, but he didn't exactly blow people's socks off. What did he accomplish with this win? I think he accomplished a lot more with this win than people realize, leaning on the, hey, this didn't entertain me at the level that I expected coming in. It's not that that doesn't happen, but what Sean Strickland did is,

I think he upped his game and he raised it. He stuck to his elite game plan which is pretty damn technical and and and like gets better each fight and okay would you have liked him and you know the announcer crew was was pointed that out step on the gas a little bit more for sure you want the full complete statement to be made but these are the type of fight Sean Strickland's gonna have to win to be taken seriously as a title contender. Cause the, you know, he's not going to mow through Adesanya Whitaker and that, like that, you know, with the same level of dominance that he's had about against the opponents before, and to be able to hold that dominance for this long, uh,

after making that early adjustment, cause let's give her Manson credit. He was in this fight early and obviously he was tough as nails and never stopped trying to win but really rounds three through five were an absolute showcase of what sean strickland can do when he's on and i like from him being taken down luke to him having to make that early adjustment i mentioned i liked the things he was in i like his reaction to those and look he's almost a better boxer than he should be luke i mean it is just consistent effective and while he puts pressure on because he stands so close and he's always moving forward there's an efficiency with his output that is really the secret sauce and what makes him so good luke i feel like he can step on the gas and go for the ko you know in the right

matchup when it's time. But him showing again, second fight in a row that he can go five rounds and be this strategic and figure out how to lead with his strength, which he did from about round three on. I came away hella impressed. I texted you right at the end of that fourth round. Like, you know what? He looks today. He looks amazing tonight because what this fight was about was announcing yourself as a title contender and even though he chose to do it this way and even though the last 30 seconds look were weird i have no idea what was going on there this was a dominant performance once he figured it out so uh what he did was make a statement that he's ready for the for the best

in this division top five let's do it people were making an argument and i understand why they make it it's tempting to be like okay did i see in this contest in terms of the winner did i see someone that made me believe with this particular performance that they could defeat whoever the eventual winner on saturday would be either robert whitaker or israel adesanya right do it did i see them beating the champion well no i don't think you got with this performance the kind of information that would tell you that that is imminent however a based on this performance that kind of information that would tell you that that is imminent. However, A, based on this performance, that doesn't necessarily tell you that they couldn't. Granted, this wasn't the one that told you that they could,

but just because this one didn't doesn't mean that it's impossible that they ever could, number one. I just want to point that out. But two, here's the more important one. Maybe I also didn't see someone that night that I thought could beat Adesanya or Whitaker, but I definitely saw somebody that could beat, I think, or at least give a very tough fight to Marvin Vittori.

Marvin Vittori's had two cracks, albeit one not as champion. But he's had two cracks against Israel Adesanya. He took Adesanya five rounds. Marvin Vittori, granted, also 27 years old. A little bit younger than what we're talking about here. I'm just sort of pointing out, dude, he showed you actually a lot. Not enough to make you think he's the very best guy in that weight class in the world all right but he definitely showed you in beating

Hermansen he's of that level and then the specific skills employed BC eight fights now he's not been taken down in the last fight against Hermansen he went over eight on takedown attempts he has lights out takedown defense at least as it relates to sort of middle top contenders that he has been up against. You saw his striking defense, dude. I thought his striking defense was excellent. He was catching, blocking, and parrying everything. For somebody who can be as active as he can be

when he's rolling downhill, when he's completely got you in his spider web and he's just chipping away, you nailed it. It's not just the punch efficiency I said earlier. It's the responsibility of the defense. He doesn't get marked up a ton. He's like, you know, you saw the face of Hermanson afterwards. You go five rounds with him.

He's going to, he's going to disfigure you. He's going to put that on you. So he's not a real one punch guy, but it's consistent. It's heavy. And he's in your face, which raises that anxiety level. He's figuring it out. And look, we have to be careful sometimes of being too critical when someone's climbing a specific ladder. And he's on this final stretch, you know, to prove that he belongs in these big time conversations of title fights or ex-champions or whatever.

And think of Jan Blachowicz's recent rise. I gave him a lot of criticism when he went the distance against Jacare Souza. And really, you know, main event, this was his time to show that he's the next big thing. And I'm like, you know, he failed. He failed to show that. He was boring. But in reality, Luke, that was one of those puzzle pieces that needed to be there to form the ultimate you know final version of him when he stepped in there to fight for the title and to his credit he raised raised his ceiling and in and you know a big upset and a great story i think for strickland it's a there's a little different

public you know piece of from the of the puzzle than that fight in particular of blovitz but it's going to be an important one luke. It is. And he's got that, we know he's got the nastiness when he wants to turn it on, but he's starting to show that poise that you need if you're going to face not just the two guys fighting for the title this weekend, but a Cannoneer, a Vittori to your point, a Paulo Cruz.

I mean, you're going to, Paulo Cruz, Paulo Costa, you're going to need that next level. So all together, Luke, great. But what the hell is going on in the final 30 seconds when he wanted Holloway-Lamas-type vibes, and then he was getting out of it, Luke? Yeah, I mean, he's a weirdo.

We talked about this on Friday. I don't quite understand everything that he says or why he says it or how much of it is an act or if it's real or some combo of all of it. I mean, he was out there calling him like a pussy in the last 30 seconds, and then you're right. It wasn't exactly standing in the pot. I mean, you know, I don't know whether or not from a competitive mindset

if he's got everything dialed in there the way he needs to. Not that he doesn't really want to win. I believe that. But, like, some of the other things going on, I wonder how much that could ultimately derail any progress. I just want to point out, last thing on how good his performance was, I will not ask the audience to assume that they should find it entertaining. I will not do that.

But what I would say is what you're really looking for in situations like these, if you're someone who paid tickets or, of course, you wanted to watch, yes, entertainment. What you're looking for, did they show you elite forms of quality? Not did they show you their best performance quality not did they show you their best performance not was it lights out beginning to end did they show you elite quality yes he did he absolutely showed you elite level quality so what what is next for him whether it's vittori or cannoneer or somebody else as you indicated we're going to have to see we'll have to see what

happens with saturday with the next set of results but sean strickland is not just deserving of the top five because he beat jack her manson the things he did in beating Jack Hermanson shows you he is very ready to swim in these top five waters and he's absolutely earned it let me ask you this though let's flip the conversation just a little bit about Hermanson we talked about what he was up against on Friday right he had been to the top five had a couple of tests and got bounced out was looking to get back in here comes Sean Strickland now he's another person in this sort of top five space so I can't beat him up too much for losing to a guy this good at the same time BC at 33 with the amount of weapons that he has when he has the fight on his terms ground and pound takedown submission kind of thing he's a nightmare but

it's not enough on the feet for him currently to get it done against the likes of the Sean Strickland's of the world has he peaked what has happened to him he's 33 years old I think he's peaked Luke and and you know where he peaked if that's true it's pretty damn good because the step right below this he he finds a way he's able to win dominantly in in some cases I mean what he did to Kelvin Gastelum instantly it seemed like so he he's a tough ass out you know he he is Luke what that perfect gatekeeper that tells you whether someone's ready to go to the final final deep part of the pool and contend for a title or not um you know it doesn't mean he can't get another big win doesn't mean he's on the way out but I think we've seen him level out now a couple times

that's not that's not incorrect to say. No, I don't think it's necessarily incorrect to say, and I would be very, there's been times where I've been like, Oh, so-and-so has peaked. And then it turned out they had a couple of gears of small,

but important reinvention that, that extended either their longevity or gave them access to heights. They had previously had that. I didn't think that they could get to. So to be clear, could her Manson go a little bit further? We should, we should honor his, you know, competitive abilities and focus to see, you know, let's let he, let's let him decide that. But to your point, the general climate of things indicates that he's going to have a hard time getting a lot better than he is. The last, you know know we're going to be accused of hating on uh european-based mma fighters

particularly eastern european ones if they only knew you know who my favorite fighters actually were and which instagram accounts i follow i love eastern european fighters yes provided provided there's only three divisions for them in the UFC, 115, 125, and 135. All right, last on this, did you understand the judging for Hermanson? They had us on a split, which I found to be baffling, beyond baffling. How is it possible you can find three rounds for jack romanson yeah it's funny uh brent brookhouse of cbs sports had had you know put it in slack in the middle of that fight like once it became apparent that strickland wasn't gonna you know push down on the gas completely

and sort of risk it to go for the knockout he was like you know what watch he's probably gonna get backdoor screwed here sometimes that can happen Luke, when you make that decision. I'm glad, obviously, in the end we didn't have too many shenanigans, but I don't see how you can justify, obviously, a scorecard in the direction three rounds to two for Hermanson. Can you give him both of the first – I say that, Luke, but can you give him round five for pushing the pace more than Strickland was? Yes, correct?

You don't award rounds based on pace pushing. So based on that, no, I could not do that. So I gave him one of the first two rounds. I could see somebody giving him both of the first two rounds. To some people, that fifth round may be a backdoor swing round, but Luke, in totality, no. It's not the guy that deserved winning it, even with the scoring system. Yeah, I don't understand it. I think you could have given him the first

because I just thought he had more offense that was meaningful. And then maybe if you're feeling generous on the fifth, you could do that. But in between there, I don't see a round for him, and I don't think it's especially close. Granted, we always talk about this. Jud this judges whether they're aware of them or not are going to have their own set of biases judges based on their sitting position could actually have a much better view than what you have at home or even in certain cases a much worse one it's hard to tell so there's just a lot of ways that sitting ringside or cage side can affect the judgment and i understand it but i just want to be clear i know there's some folks being like yeah it's not that crazy okay it's not the craziest

thing i've ever seen far from it but it's a definitely an example to me of a judge not really getting the best look at what they should be getting a good look at um but the right guy won so how how upset could you possibly be not that much um okay let's go to point number two here if we can. I know one of the Diaz boys was, or friends of the Diaz boys was in the co-main, but it was fairly uninteresting. The other big star on this card, or at least the one who could be a big star, is the first Kazakh fighter who

has been signed to the UFC. Shavkat Rachmanov just made simple short work of Carlston Harris, who doesn't have the biggest name, but is lanky, powerful, good wrestler in the clinch, and was undefeated in the UFC heading into this contest. BC, how validating was this win of some of the hype that's building around Rock Mono?

Yeah, how about fully validating? And I know if you're going to be, you know, the extreme devil's advocate critic, you know, you could say, well, we haven't necessarily seen him have to overcome this yet. We haven't seen a lot because it's three fights and he's dominated all three and finished them. But there's some things, Luke, that the eye test just fills in the blanks on. And yes, I need to see this guy go five round stamina.

Yes, I need to see a fight in which he's on his back for half of it. But from what we've seen and this level of matchmaking, when you got that early itch, that early feeling, it's looking validated up to this point, Luke, because forget a poise, you know, he's got this poise that's like part championship poise, part just killer, but just a complete offensive game, variety, and it's hard and accurate as shit, Luke. I mean, it's just heavy as shit.

He's almost like you could central casting, you could pull him out of some war from 300 years ago. He looks like a well-oiled machine of a soldier who's ready right now for a lot of smoke, Luke. And if they keep him at this level, he's going to keep doing this over and over again. Yeah, this level has nothing for him other than bonuses that he could rack up by finishing them, which is all he has, 15 wins, 15 stoppages.

They can't take this. The judges are bored when Shavkat Rachmanov comes around, or at least they don't work very long because they're not really required. This dude is insanely impressive people are asking us how would you compare Rachmanov to somebody like Chimaev and there are real meaningful differences in part BC that question is very hard to answer because however much we know about Rachmanov is not that much at least at the elite level and however much we know about Chimaev at the elite level is not that much all of their wins appear to be really nice but they don't tell us a whole lot about what the next chapter may or may not look like with any kind

of real certainty but what you can say about Rachmanov and this is why we're high on him you were right about a clear thing there which I want to underscore namely he's got a full skill set that doesn't mean he's a perfect fighter but it means at all the various ranges in the phases and and and dimensions of the game does he have command of that dimension from what we can tell it appears yes we've not seen him against somebody like bc like a dedicated just aggressive all wrestler type that will tell us a little bit more but certainly to the extent that people have tried to wrestle him it has looked quite poor carlston harris is actually pretty good in the clinch and shafqat raghmanov either shut that down completely or actually had the better success there and of course on the feet and everything else he can fight he can fight in

boxing range kickboxing range his timing is good he makes just phenomenal decisions and when you the reason why a 27 year old guy can make really good decisions is because he is so in command of what is happening he can stay calm he understands what he's up against he's a veteran in certain ways in terms of the overall body of experience he has in combat sports training and competition and you just see what is happening here dude 27 year olds don't look this good this early in their career where they have this level not so much the wins per, because he hasn't got the elite wins, but in terms of the skills and what he has shown in all of these various

challenges, you don't show me another rising prospect that is as well-rounded. We'll have to see about your mind. We don't know, but if you take him out of the equation, I don't know who else it would be. Sean Brady has better wins. I think that Michael Kiesa win is just a better win than anything.

Rachmaninoff has, and he's obviously going to be a handful on the mat as well, a complete hammer in his own right. But in terms of the overall skills, Rachmanov has the best overall skills of rising prospects, maybe of anyone in the UFC. So he feels different than your average prospect at this point. So what I mean is that every couple seasons we get,

oh crap, this guy is dominating this level of matchmaking. Let's try to project what he'll be like. Well, you know, what if we threw him in a title fight two fights from now? But when you see it as heavy flash, like Johnny Walker, for example, the flash means, Luke, he can reach a high note when things are aligned perfectly for him that somebody this young shouldn't. But it always suggests that, you know that the full package might not be there. There's just all the things that Rachmaninoff does

looks completely finished. You know what I'm saying? Each category looks not just a flashbulb moment. It looks like it's completely powered up across the board in every category. So I was really high on Doohu Choi. Remember him, Luke? Not so long ago.

The Korean Superboy. And I thought he had all the holes filled, you know, where Johnny Walker, you just weren't sure. There was a point with Johnny Walker where you're like, dude, just put him in there with Jon Jones and see what happens, you know? But you didn't really know what he had. I was much more confident in a Doohu Choi, and he didn't even work out because of the wars that he got into once he really started to step up.

But this guy just feels different even than all those names. Look, you know, it just feels different. There's a there's a there's a vibe with him that I that I see in Islam Mahachev and Maja's obviously accomplished much more and fought much better competition for longer but it's that complete product feel where you're like please somebody drag this guy to the deep water because like he's got he's got his speedo on luke yes in a manner of speaking yes i mean he's ready to swim luke okay there was no backdoor meaning on that on that entendre please all right do you do you like the idea that he floated by the way for folks who may not understand this he signed a four-five deal my understanding is he's just trying to get through this contract and then the next contract he's going to start you know working his way through i guess they wanted to just burn one before he started trying to get my you know they

didn't want to pay him or whatever he's getting for fighting the carlson harris's of the world uh that you're going to get paid that much fight fight those kind of guys. So with the last fight on the contract, he was thinking about Michelle Pereira. Do you like that idea? I got to tell you, I don't. I don't like that idea. No, Luke, I love that idea, actually. Yes, I do.

I do, Luke. Yes, I love everything about that idea. Please, please. Dude, he's please he's gonna i mean that guy is gonna get torqued tortured like shafqat rachmanov is gonna run through him like nothing it's no no no no it's not whoa whoa whoa luke whoa whoa whoa slow up would he over the time beat and maybe stop him meaning you know could r Rachmanov do it? Yeah, I could talk myself into that. But full domination, I don't know, Luke. This guy, you know, Pineda, when dialed in, is obviously a freak athlete

who can take you down and can throw enough flash that you can't be guns blazing offensively. You've got to, you know, really kind of take notice of. So I don't know. There'd be some negotiations in that cage before the eventual stoppage probably happened. But it's not hot knife through butter, Luke, and that's the intrigue of the matchup.

I don't think it'd be very close. I think Brock Manov would... I don't see how that one could go past two. I think Brock Manov would have his way with him, which is in part probably why he called him out. There's that as well. We'll have to see what happens next, but it's not this contract that I'm expecting the things to get interesting.

It's the next one. We'll have to see what happens when he does that. So you're saying you don't want that fight because you think it's mismatched. That's ultimately what you're saying. Well, on some level, anyone outside the top 15 is a bit of a mismatch um for him but yeah i just like if you're going to book a fight where you feel like one guy has a really distinct and clear advantage there would have to be a reason where you have to book it partly they could be you know close together in the rankings partly it could be who's available right all those

things to me this is one where like his argument was oh he beat a teammate of mine i want to get that one back fine but absent that decision bc i don't understand what you could make about the matchup that would make the fight competitive or interesting to me yeah but i don't know it seems like the perfect fight, the perfect step up. It seems really, really, really does. The guy has a name and a bit of attention, and he's actually doing really well. It makes sense, and I understand why Rachmaninoff called him out. I merely mean as a guy who has a high opinion of Rachmaninoff,

it doesn't do much for me in terms of moving the needle because I sort of assume that, like, I don't know what Pereira could do short of some kind of accident okay well here's what he could do Luke he could make it a a wild freaking fight at a high pace that potentially exposes Shavkat's uh gas tank mixed with how does he respond to being legitimately hurt now you and I both agree he passes that test but you can't act like that's not possible I mean look you know Edmund Shabazzian test, but you can't act like that's not possible. I mean, look, Edmund Shabazzian looked great until he didn't. I was riding the Tom Duquenois train as the next big thing.

Okay, Luke, it happened. He was good. He should have got to the UFC earlier than he did. You know, Dana thought Cynthia Calvillo was like the next big thing. He hadn't seen the force strong in a while since he saw her, and look what happened. Tatiana Suarez, and it's not even her even her fault Luke we fall for the next big thing but you gotta put the next big thing in the big thing before you find out if they got next dude I am just on fire today wow well I mean I hope

your arm doesn't break patting yourself on the back but yes you're right in in in short you're right I cannot declare to you that I know that he can beat them. That's why they fight. That's what we have to know. I'm just telling you, if you're asking me why my enthusiasm for it is like, meh, it's because personally speaking, and I can't prove this until we see what happens, I just feel it's very much a foregone conclusion. But you're right. I don't know that, and we'll have to see.

So for that reason, they might actually end up making it. All right, BC. So you watched and you did a live reaction for us afterwards. let's talk a little bit of boxing if we can here keith thurman fought one time in three years which is not why he has the nickname but it was fitting but he got back to the ring on saturday and i have to tell you bc he cut his hair and whatnot which was good i know folks didn't want to cut his hair but the hair situation listen for those of us who are losing our hair we understand that you got to just call it a day at certain points he looked good physically and he looked dominant early didn't quite have the step on the

gasness of it later in the fight but he won that one walking away how much was this winning performance by Thurman restorative of some of the hype that had been lost. Want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation? Or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam? What about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space? Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own part of your favorite companies. Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share. It's a piece of cake. Learn more at td.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you. Pretty big, pretty damn big,

because you had a few questions that really needed answering. And one of those was the whole thing surrounding his hunger. Well, you know, fought two times in five years due to injuries and other things. But, you know, does he want it anymore? That mixed with, has he been gone for too long? Ring rust? Is he not the same fighter anymore? He answered all those questions because not only did we get to see a dynamic offensive performance,

and if he was going to be dynamic there was potential it could be a uh you know a uh one-sided fight in the end but he also you know got hit to the body and got hurt and answered a question again so it's weird luke did he answer all the questions no and what i mean by that is he answered the question that he restored the luster pretty damn far you know he looked close enough to to the to the prime thermonavolt not not exactly but close enough but there's the other question is did he look like he could not just compete with but you know have a shot in your mind of beating the very best which are errol spence and terence crawford? The answer is still no right now, but you got to give Thurman grace and you got to give him a shot to prove you're wrong here because the layoff was extreme and he showed his commitment.

He came in at 145 and a quarter pounds, which you wouldn't have guessed for an aging fighter off this long. And I thought, Luke, he self-assessed himself perfectly after the fight and saying what i was lacking was really stamina based i didn't have that second level explosion and he said you know he knows how to restore that in the gym ahead of time so you know we're never really gonna know luke can he upset a spencer crawford until we see it and the odds are going to be against him because Spencer Crawford are generational talents, okay? But Keith Thurman as a celebrity elite welterweight pay-per-view boxer, he's back, baby.

And I think that was the most important question he had to answer in this fight. Yeah, I'm not as down on Thurman as some of the other folks. I grant that the criticisms of it are fair, right? It was a better first half than a second half. Fine, no doubt. I mean, simply no denying it. And I have to say, I texted you this. Dude, it is impressive as shit that this fight was at 147.

Thurman, now he did rock Barrios, I mean, multiple times. I thought by the fourth round he was going to get him out of there because he was just beating him pillar to post. And Barrios' face afterward was a complete swollen mess. So Thurman did quality work, to be clear. But for Tank Davis to go up to 140 and put that dude away, it tells you a lot, man. That guy can fucking punch.

Okay, but about Keith Thurman. Luke, can I throw in a thing that helps that? They talked about it on the broadcast. Did he move up to 147? Yeah, normally there's eight-ounce gloves at 147 pounds in these type of fights. Barrios' team pushed for the 10-ounce, which is in the rules.

This is the last weight class. You can do that. And they ended up having the lighter gloves on, so that didn't help. And also, look, I get that if you're going to be a real... Wait, they had the 8 or they had the 10? Oh, they wanted the 10, they got the 8. Excuse me, that's right.

Yes, that's right. No, they got the 10. Thurman wanted the 8. Most got the eight. Excuse me. That's right. Yes, that's right. No, they got the 10. Thurman wanted the eight. Most times they use the eight. Berrios' team somehow got it to 10. Okay. But let's also not forget, Tank Davis was coming up in weight against a bigger Berrios, so he had to fight and make it a fight, meaning.

And look, Berrios had moments, and I think Barrios put himself in position to get hit with the kind of shots that lead to knockouts against Tank. Because Barrios was the bigger guy getting into a brawl with a smaller guy. I think once he consistently tasted the power of Keith, there was only so much he could step on the gas and go for it, Luke. Like, Barrios showed toughness in balls, but he also never put himself in a spot to be stopped. He kind of would come up just short and play it somewhat safe on the outside. And that's a harsh criticism, but I think it plays into why Thurman didn't get the stoppage mixed with maybe his own sort of I'm more focused on going the distance and not gassing out

than I am on stopping this guy. That's a totally fair point. Glove difference, weight class difference, and then how certain success affects certain kinds of strategies, which makes the fight look a certain way. These are all incredibly fair points. And the ultimate way in which Tank Davis was able to put Barrios away was with a body shot, right?

So I don't know that Thurman was as invested to the body in a way that a guy like Davis was. Nevertheless, as a side note, in a way that that that guy like Davis was nevertheless as a side note it is remarkable that a guy at 130 can do that to a guy at 141 when he goes to 147 and there's not exactly the same kind of symmetry just pointing that out he's obviously a heavy puncher but in the case of Thurman dude this is the question I was I was I mean we were talking about like what were we expecting on on Friday from from Thurman how much can he give us when he's fought two times in five years?

Dude, for two times in five years? When really the kind of main thing you saw was he didn't quite have the same zip and pop in the second half of a 12-round fight? That's a correctable thing, as he indicated. I do believe that. Now, whether he will do it, we'll have to see. But at least in theory, it's quite correctable. And being short of that, I thought he looked in phenomenal physical condition overall

in terms of like body composition and what kind of training he'd been doing and what kind of focus he had. This was the kind of performance in a similar kind of way to Sean Strickland. Did not tell me that he, Ugas I guess we'll see, but did not tell me he could beat Crawford or Spence. However, it did tell me that I don't think he's very far from putting himself in a space where he could give those guys already tough fights. And then with another camp or two, very tough fights. Those actually, I think, would be kind of competitive, kind of interesting. It wasn't ultimately restorative of the guy who beat Danny Garcia previously on CBS or whatever. Did I see that guy? No or whatever did i see that guy no i did not see that guy yeah but did i

see a version did i see a version of that guy bc very far away from that one not necessarily no i don't think that's true well the the key question is can he use this to get himself even closer to that 2017 version against danny garcia right after the sean porter win um it's still possible but the crux of of the criticism against... BC, I do want to ask you a question because I do think it's important to get your perspective here. In terms of what was... Okay, in terms of what's possible, he could have come back

and looked amazing like Superman. But I'm talking about in terms of two fights in five years, hand injuries, the like, how much was realistically possible? You know that ring rust doesn't affect every fighter every time but most fighters most of the time I think you saw a little bit of that in terms of execution over the course of 12 rounds yeah my point is this BC I would love to get your reaction in terms of what was possible for an elite fighter under those conditions the version of Keith Thurman you got was one of the better versions you could have gotten. Absolutely.

He just didn't do it down the avenue that really plugs the hole of the voice of even the harshest critics. And I agree with you. I think this is much more, much, much more a plus and a positive than a negative. And what I was going to say was, you know, the real crux of his true critics, Luke, and I'll be fair, those true critics have been there since that

second half of that Danny Garcia decision win in which he played it a little bit safe and, you know, you have to look fairly at Thurman's performance against Barrios and say was he risk-averse? And it's hard to even say that because it sounds stupid. It's like risk-averse, he's landing

the bigger punchers throughout. But Luke, if you're going to be a one of his harshest critics, you will say, yeah, he still looked a little risk averse, though, over the second half. And the fear is that risk aversion will not just be there because of the long layoff, but will follow him when things get tough against Spence and Crawford. So the harshest of harsh critics knows he can get into those fights, Luke, but they have severe doubts that he can win those. Where do you stand on that? Can the very best version of him improve on this for 33 years old

and actually beat a Spencer Crawford in your eyes? Well, here are a couple things I would say. Number one, Spence has to get through Ugas first, right? So we'll have to see what he looks like after eye surgery. I mean, I would imagine he'll be fine, but again, these things being automatic, let's see. Number two, Crawford is to me just significant. Listen, what could Keith Thurman have showed you against Mario Barrios that would make someone go, he can beat Sean Porter or excuse me um uh Bud Crawford who I don't know if that was even on the

table to be honest with you so no I don't see that but what I would say is Crawford is not getting any younger he's on the wrong side so to speak of 35 he looked amazing against Sean Porter but Sean Porter showed ways to make that competitive and so so my only point being is, okay, I'm not going to sit here and argue with you that even on his best night, he had anything for Crawford, but Crawford's getting older. Spence having surgeries himself, by the way, getting older as well. This was his first fight back. If he ends up having another one where he looks better than this, where he doesn't have that second half let down, um, this entire narrative can change.

The other thing I would say bc is do you think there's anything to the idea not that pacquiao and barrios are even the same kind of competitor same kind of challenge same kind of thing but in the fight with pacquiao thurman had to kind of rally on the back half a little bit look great and had a chin had so my question is this do you think being off that long, he was a little bit worried about, like, I cannot start this one not strong. Came out a little bit too strong and then had to calibrate it back.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's it. I think he was just solely focused on not gassing out. And, again, his response to that body punch situation in the eighth round, spitting out the mouthpiece and catching it and getting that deep breath. It helped him recover because that was the Josecito spot. That was the spot where, oh, crap, it's all falling apart right now after a long layoff. He passed that test.

You just want to imagine, can he remove the risk aversion? It wasn't there against Pacquiao, but it kind of was just from the standpoint of his biggest critique on his own performance against Pacquiao but it kind of was just from the standpoint of his biggest critique on his own performance against Pacquiao was that he didn't throw enough in fact Luke he told me on that interview that he feels if he landed 15 more punches it would have been enough to sway that close split decision

but he can't he can't come in looking to outpoint Spencer Crawford that's the point because the fear Luke remember when Sergey Kovalev fought Canelo and Sergey's the bigger puncher, but he chose self-preservation by boxing. And even though at the time of the stoppage, you could argue he was slightly ahead. I had him slightly ahead.

Kovalev boxed really good behind his jab. But once Canelo went for it, it was over. Nobody wants to see Thurman acting like Kovalev against Spencer Crawford right you want to see him going in there okay looking to win more rounds but also looking to knock this guy out and to be able to do that against Spencer Crawford you have to be willing to welcome a lot of danger and I don't know Luke I don't know, Luke. I don't know. I think you're right that what would be required to get past those kinds of challenges are not things that you saw before the long layoffs and even with this one,

not something that you saw that would give you an inspiration about his chances there. I think that's a very fair criticism. In part, though, what's interesting is, you know, again, I wasn't covering boxing in a dedicated way when Thurman was doing some of his better work on cbs and whatever the early pbc kind of explosion there and as a consequence i don't know that i have some of the same kind of uh i won't say hang-ups but i i have a and it's not even fresher eyes because in a way it's more ignorant eyes i just mean to say I wasn't judging him based off some of the glory

that he had shown previously. I was merely judging him based off some of that and then just what is reasonably attainable for even an elite athlete in this space. For me, under those conditions, he passed. But I certainly grant BC, if you're looking for something that made you think that this guy can go up there and really give Crawford, put him on his heels,

or Spence is going to get outworked and blah, blah, blah, or the power's there that he'll just bite down on the mouthpiece. No, he took the mouthpiece out and kept moving when he got, he got hit to the solar plexus. I understand that. I understand the reason why all of these fears need to be compartmentalized and not get in the way of your excitement for when he does fight those guys. And by the way, he very well could be fighting, you know, Terrence Crawford next, it would seem like the right next career move to Crawford to sit down with Al Heyman and figure out a price and do this.

He had a gap between the Jose Cito and the Manny Pacquiao fights. That was what? Four months? And the questions we had about him coming out of Jose Cito, I think, boy, did he answer with his performance even at a loss against Pacquiao. So let's give him the chance to do that against Crawford if it happens, even though that's a steeper hill to climb at this point.

Manny was 40. He had a great year, great performance, but steeper hill against Crawford. Fair enough. I think it's a good point. All right, let's go back and sort of say from a combat sports weekend here for point number four, there were a lot of different things happening,

a lot of different parts, a lot of things going here or there. So BC question for you, very simple in boxing or MMA for good or for bad, who stood out to you on Saturday night that we have not yet talked about. I know our MMA fans don't want to hear all this boxing coverage, Luke, but you and I had legitimate questions about Luis Neri from Mexico, the former 122 and 118 pound champion who had come off that body shot title knockout loss to Brandon Figueroa. And it had been a bad stretch, right? Like, you know, even he looked bad in wins and in

change trainers and just didn't, didn't look like that guy anymore. And oh, by the way, he gassed out against Figueroa more or less. He came out against Carlos Castro. This was an important fight on the undercard, um, of the, of the Thurman pay-per-view over the weekend. And look, he boxed beautifully. Scored a big-time knockdown in the first round, but didn't gas himself out going for the finish afterwards. And even though

his gas tank slowed a little bit in the second half, I thought he thoroughly outboxed Carlos Castro in ways that I didn't expect. He was a counter-puncher for most of it, but his defense was sound. He wasn't getting hit. And when he's, you know, committed to power shots, they moved. It ended up being a split decision.

I really didn't understand the judging on the other side at all. But the right guy won. And I think you insert him right back in that mix with Stephen Fulton, with Figueroa, with Danny Roman, with the unified champion, Akhtar Maliav. He's still that guy, Luke, and it was great to see. No doubt about it. And I saw

right away, I didn't see the fight itself. I did see the main event that night, but I didn't see this one until it made its way to social media. For the first round on, as you indicated, setting the tone, he looked pretty good this time. I think the last two performances seemed like were a bit of a wake-up call for him, round on, as you indicated, setting the tone. He looked pretty good this time. I think the last two performances seemed like were a bit of a wake-up call for him on some level. It looked to me like he didn't change who he was,

but it did look to me like he had tightened some things up a little bit around what he was doing and the way he was applying his trade. So a nice win by him. I don't bring this up in any kind of joy. I bring it up because it actually did set a record, at least tied a record on Saturday night night sam alvey gets another loss that i think brings him to 07 and one in his last eight um not a great run that would tie bj penn for the longest winless streak

in ufc history i would imagine that this would probably mean his organizational exit although one can never be too sure but the thing that really stood out to me was he does have some obviously a fair number of wins in ufc let's see one two three four five six seven eight nine ten he's got 10 ufc wins however when you look through them jean valente not in the organization anymore marching prac neo i don't think he's in the ufc anymore rashad evans retired mark Mark Hort gone. Alex Nicholson gone. Kevin Casey, Eric Spicely gone. Dan Kelly, Cesar Ferreira gone.

Dylan Andrews, I believe, is gone. So the only person he... I don't think he has a win over a UFC fighter who is still on the... He retired them all while smiling, all right? In a way, in a way. Those are nice wins, especially the time that he got them, including the Rashad Evans wins. But I think that might mean the end of his UFC run.

It probably should because at the super elite level, you can't employ fighters losing that many times in a row. His situation was much different than BJ Penn, Luke, meaning that Alvey was more competitive in a lot of these fights, but also he's a good company guy and he takes last minute opportunities and new opponents and whatever. And, and,

and, you know, goes out there and earns an honest paycheck. And, uh, sometimes you can clown a guy like this, but at the end of the day, you really have respect for a guy like this who came out and fight,

but you know, Oh seven, uh, in with a no contest in eight fights that, that, you know, that says it all. You know,

you rarely get somebody with this many consecutive before they just they just shut it down anyway I remember the days I remember vividly when if you got three losses in a row they would bounce you and I'll never forget when Dan Hardy lost to Anthony Johnson I think they were supposed to have fought on a versus card. And that, at the time, represented Hardy's third loss in a row, or maybe even fourth, something like that. And I remember Lorenzo Fertitta tweeting that he's not going anywhere because he's so great, which is good. As a rule, three losses in a row is a hard thing.

At the UFC level, it's very easy to lose three in a row, no matter where you are, top five, top 15 or not. So I'm glad that there's more leeway, but you're right. Once you start getting to this, I mean, this is a lot. This is a lot that we haven't won. So I tend to think this might be a frame at the UFC level. However, he probably will get signed by one of your bigger ones.

One PFL, BKFC, Bellator, something like that. So, all right. You have an extra credit plan today for the other stories of note? I don't know because I would have done a big one on Shavkat Rachmaninoff but I feel like this point is kind of overkill

and the rest of that card was kind of you know, I don't know so we'll see. Alright, did you like Nick Maximoff's Diaz brother impression in the interview afterwards? He had all the mannerisms down, Luke. Fighting style totally different, though. Isn't that wild?

It's so weird to me. He knows where the gym is, too, Luke. That guy's jacked. Yeah, he's jacked. By the way, that kid's only 24 years old. I mean, that's pretty, you know, did he have the most dynamic win? No, he didn't. But for 24, and that's your eighth fight,

that's a pretty good job he did. The thing I would say, though, is you know what's really weird to me is they don't just borrow the Diaz brothers' personality. They borrow it to a T. I was pointing this out. I used to listen to two Deftones a lot. I like Deftones a lot. I saw them in concert a couple of times.

But their work changes around a certain album called The White Pony. All of their walkout music that they use in the deftones is all post that they don't get anything from like early deftones it's just like very specifically diaz and the way that the diaz's are who they are it's just incredible that they've absorbed that personality so directly you you know? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's something that he's soaked in it. He's dripping Diaz swag. And yeah, he does it well, Luke. Did you say White Pony?

Is that a Booger Sugar reference, Luke? I don't think so. Okay. All right. Yeah, slangs and terms. Last but not least, BC, this is a fun one for me. Let's look ahead to UFC 271 main event this weekend. The rematch, one that has been long anticipated. I think we all kind

of thought, okay, Adesanya beat Robert Whitaker thoroughly the first time, but that wasn't going to be their only meeting. Sure enough, Robert Whitaker goes on a win streak that cannot be in any way doubted whatsoever. Gets the rematch. bc what is the main storyline in this fight ahead of fight week that you are paying attention to i think it kind of has to be the is robert whittaker actually a better fighter than he was back when he was running a little bit too you know hot and heavy and we know the situation and mentally and physically fatigued and and then you know he not only did he get stopped by Adesanya in that first fight but I like his honesty and humility to say look I got so caught up and just wanting to beat that guy right so I think that the storyline surrounding are we gonna now get to see what this potentially

classic fight has to offer between two I think when all is said and done all time great fighters is this going to be the type of competitive theater that it could have been back then if the situations were different and in the long run has this

fall but rise from Whitaker made him better for it coming into this now. And it's, I mean, that storyline, which extends easily and connects to the idea of Luke, buckle up. This is mixed martial arts at its finest. Like, I can't freaking wait for this fight. Storyline-wise, X's and O's o's wise what it means to their legacies like i love this fight luke okay i have a i yeah i'm i'm rock hard with emotion jake hager about this

fight luke the comparison is not accurate what i'm about to say on certain levels for very obvious reasons but i would not want to lose sight, BC, of some of the potential historical parallels. What do I mean by that? Not so much Anderson Silva versus Chael Sonnen. That doesn't fit. But Anderson Silva versus Rich Franklin has some unique and interesting parallels. A guy in Rich Franklin, before Anderson Silva came along,

I remember him as champion. I remember him beating um certainly David Loaza was a big one but you know uh Edwin Deweese I remember him just beating the shit out of Edwin Deweese uh Evan Tanner as well you're just tuning these guys up he was the man before Anderson Silva ever got there and then Anderson Silva gets there and Rich Franklin got kind of cast out and then had a rematch situation later and it didn't go his way either now I don't know if that will happen BC in fact you know to be clear Robert Whitaker is better than Rich Franklin ever was and Adesanya is does not have the record of achievement at middleweight that Anderson Silva does but it it looks like it could have some of

the same historical patterns kind of at least echoing a little bit over the course of time even through this middleweight division is interesting that you might be getting some i don't hate that parallel but the main the main difference luke is that i don't see how you could have expected i'd have to go back and revisit everybody's mindset and what people predicted but with how freaking dominant anderson silva disposed of franklin in the most brutal way in the first fight i don't remember having any level of confidence that that that franklin was going to turn that back and avenge it uh you know i didn't expect an arguably just as lethal and violent finish which was just brutal as shit a second time around but um i think the main difference is we expect this second fight to be to be far better than the first

true no doubt about it i didn't i didn't i remember the the rematch i didn't have a ton of feeling that rich franklin was going to be able to do things a lot differently however i would tell you it took a few fights even including through his championship run by anderson silva before people bought in it took a long time actually people were not automatically of the belief even after he was beating dan henderson and everybody else there were still a few fights in where folks were kind of like yeah but could he beat this guy could he beat that guy so it was that little shit stretch of like talus latest and damian maya and even you know no no even when he first came to the ufc remember chris lieben was like i'm gonna beat him and send him back to japan and of course chris lieben got you know totally annihilated what i mean to say is that little strain of thought uh existed early into his ufc run even amidst all the

success that he had so we're not in that kind of territory I just mean to say there are some interesting historical parallels I would add on top of that though BC I think that one thing that has been a part of the storyline that is quite true and reasonable is it looked to me like if Robert Whitaker just wanted to try to MMA strike with Adesanya that that's not a very winnable fight for him. I think Adesanya is probably too good on that level. So what he has said, and I think is, you know, how he implements it will actually be what really decides this fight or not, is he's just going to be much more of an MMA fighter. I'm going to be level changing. I'm going to make him work in the clinch. I'm going

to make him wrestle, but I'm going to make him strike as well. I'm going to do this, that. I'm going to introduce all of the different elements of MMA as a larger complete fight to see what I can get done. If he ends up losing that, what it will end up meaning is that also Adesanya was able to level up in the same kind of way, maybe not the exact same portions of the game, but that he will have experienced, if he gets the W, he will have experienced the same kinds of growth and determination that a guy like Whitaker has put himself through.

The thing we haven't really talked about is what happens to the division if Whitaker wins. Do they give Adesanya a third fight right away? They might actually, right? They should. They might and they should. You know I've been fantasy matchmaking for about a year and a half. The idea of Whitaker winning this and then we get the trilogy.

And this is the rivalry of this division historically. And up there with Silva-Sanin. This has that potential to be big. And certainly the storylines of has Adesanya improved anywhere on the level Whitaker has in the interim since they fought each other is a legitimate one. But Luke, I do want to say one thing. Well, clearly you're right. A completely well-rounded performance from Robert Whitaker, who I think is arguably the most well-rounded fighter in this game at the elite level, would be preferred to have your best chance of beating Adesanya and that was

the reason why Whitaker was the betting favorite ahead of the first one and I think even being an Adesanya fan you had to kind of go okay there is a there is a path here where if Robert Whitaker just comes out and shines everywhere this may not be Adesanya's night you sounded like you don't think it's possible for him to win a fight on the feet for five rounds against Adesanya by by boxing obviously the threat of kicks and in calf strikes it's going to be a part of it but just by his pure boxing ability I will say Luke I feel like really some people are over some people are saying this three fight win streak is overrated by Whitaker like who are these people he showed like every single skill because he was forced to and went five tactical

rounds with three elite guys in some of those performances I know Gastelum's been way up and down since that Adesanya fight but that was a great Gastelum that night you know like he put it back together I think Whitaker if he wants to Luke can go in there with the mindset of how do I win five rounds against this guy and I trust that his skill set has a very good chance of pulling that off I would argue that um if you were advising Whitaker on best ways to win you would not argue to him to just box without a side. You would not. Like, in other words, your point is he could box and win.

That might be true. He might be able to box and win. I mean, it comes down to his jab in that case, Luke. If he's using that as a direct weapon. But what I'm saying is not what can he do to win? What are the things he could do that give him the very best chance of winning. And if I'm thinking about his very best chances of winning, a strict boxing game would not be that.

It would actually encompass a larger array of things, like threats of the takedown or all the various tricks that Whitaker and his team have cooked up. I think that is his best chance. And how good do I think that is? I think that is, I think if Adesanya is not on his game in the way, the very best of his game, he's going to lose that belt.

That's how good I think Robert Whitaker is. And obviously Whitaker is going to need the threat of, like you said, the complete game. But I think sometimes the fights end up going that way of just being a stand-up fight. And I think he's going to trust his chess skills in that regard. i think he should luke it's going to come down to that jab but it's part of why you love this fight so damn much and i think it's part of why the finish was so surprising yes adesanya had in their first fight had had more success up to the stoppage

point of course but you didn't see that coming at that moment, Luke. Am I wrong? No. Well, he did drop him in the end of the first. So there is that, right? Certainly. He had an advantage at that point in the fight. I'm just saying it felt abrupt. It felt, oh, shit. Yeah. You know, like, look what he just did to Robert Whitaker.

Like, it was, yeah, it moved me. Well, the part about the fight that actually works in Robert Whitaker's favor is that was, I mean, Adesanya was better that night, period. He just was better that night. But I really don't believe that that was even close to the best Robert Whitaker, and it was a very limited Robert Whitaker. He didn't show a ton of his skills. I think Eugene Behrman even said it recently, and it's quite right. If you're Robert Whitaker, it has show a ton of his skills I think Eugene Behrman even said

it recently and it's quite right if you're Robert Whitaker it has to suck that you lost the first fight but the good part has to be that there are so many things you can do in the second fight that you never even had a chance to do in the first fight that are going to keep you safer and give you a better chance to win so like if you're the Adesanya camp, dude, you got a lot of work you have to, like, have prepared for all the things that Robert Whitaker can throw at you. This one should be a lot different, a lot closer. I think it might be a nail-biter to the very end.

I really believe that. You know, Luke, sometimes these UFC pay-per-view cards are so stacked that there's, like, you know, four or five competing storylines, you know, from the main events and the title and the co-main event to, you know four or five competing storylines you know from the main events and the title and the co-main event to you know somebody's big return um this is the only storyline for this card and probably rightfully so and it gives them the the the the focus you know and the attention that this rematch deserves but like there's almost no other storylines coming out of this card yeah that's true that's true.

That's true. Although, in fairness, when you've got a main event this good, how much help does it need? That kind of a thing. Well, and by the way, some of those fights that could be taking storylines in this case are just complementing the main event when you've got Jared Kananair and Derek Brunson in such an important top five,

producing maybe the next title contender fight. Very excited about that one, Luke. Yeah, that one is super interesting because both of those guys have kind of tasted the top of that division. Both of them had their moments where, you know, they got bounced a little bit once they tried, but they're too good to be dismissed. And in the case of Brunson, appears to have really,

you know what, Brunson? Brunson appears to have really, you know, a Brunson Brunson has made the overall career reformation that Figueredo made in the Moreno, uh, uh, or third fight, um, where he just kind of,

I didn't change everything I did, but I dialed the intensity back a little bit, which allows me to make clear, more focused, safer decisions. And it has elevated him to the nth degree. I think he took the sport serious for the first time. And that sounds crazy when he was like, you know,

before that already winning big fights and in big fights. But Luke, to be fair, Derek Brunson had a long run of kind of fighting like an asshole. Like I always say that and then people go, that's so rude. But like he fought like an asshole against Robert Whitaker in round one, Luke, and he got stopped. And it was almost like rightfully so um he's i mean yes that's him dialing it back to your point but i think he is focused on the the game planning mental side of the game uh for the

first time at this level and you're seeing the fruits of it and shout out to him doing it at this age and oh by the way luke not only are these two you know late 30s middleweights but like we know what's at stake in terms of potential title contention do you think jared cannoneers win over kelvin gastelum was any level of fool's gold based on gastelum's up and down this because i came out of that fight thinking cannoneer has learned from the robert whittaker loss and maintained a very elite level of boxing and defense and really efficiency where I don't think he's out of the title conversation at this point dude remember in that fight with Whitaker I know you're asking about the gasoline fight I share

your sentiments exactly and then on top of that what I would add is remember the Whitaker fight Whitaker was kind of kicking his ass and nearly stopped him but dude this is one thing that has defined Kananer wasn't enough for him to help him get the w that night however he kind of rallied at the very very end of that fight and had whitaker not won't say in trouble per se but whitaker had the situation where he nearly had this guy finished and then canoneer came back to life at the end of that fight he is very very tough very perseverant and the thing you're pointing out is he can take that kind of willpower and those experiences that he's had against quite literally championship level

fighters and then build on that with extra work with John Crouch in terms of the skill set the things he needs to bring himself along to have better success when he gets another run dude Derek Brunson has a the fight of his life on his hands and I agree with you so does Jared Cannoneer when Cannoneer authored that that that really incredible turnaround comeback story of cutting all the way down to middleweight and then knocking out those guys three in succession it was like what anderson silva david branch i forgot the third one you you kind of looked at him as like a jessica andrage like like the power is going to be there at any point in the fight and he can knock out anybody.

But do you see him as an elite five round, you know, technical make adjustments guy? I think at that point we didn't, but now that he's had the chance to show it, he's completely, I think, evolved from that way of thinking. I mean, this is a very, very good, powerful and dangerous, but smart fighter. So I really like Cannoneer's chances against Brunson. Obviously, he'll be tested on the ground, and you love the style contrast and all that. But I expect a lot from this version of Cannoneer. I think he's got a lot left. That's really the point of what I'm saying.

I think he's got a lot left. I think that's very fair. I think that's very fair. And as you indicated, kind of an older guy, but still quite with it. All right, with that in mind, it's time now for the viewers to ask us questions. We put up a post on Instagram every Sunday where we solicit them.

It's time for DMs from donks. And, of course, you can always give us a follow at Morning Combat on Insta. All right, BC, from Buzz the Blogger, who has a higher ceiling, Shavkatakhmanov or hamzat chamayev i love that question and this is the natural comparison and that you got a lot of people saying they should fight each other next which is that's wild that's that's that's wild bro and i think the main difference between them you asked that question earlier the difference between them is that chamayev's shown more against better competition you know right that's the really the main

difference although their game is different obviously totally but who has the brighter ceiling i think you have to admit right now than in a one night scenario meaning if you put both of them in title fights tomorrow i still like chamayev's brand a little bit more in terms of what Truss stated. And yeah, I believe in his chances of winning a title tomorrow better. But long run of their career, Luke, I think Rachmaninoff's the safer bet, the more long-term value of the two brands going up. Like you said, it's really impossible to say with how little information we have. Chimaev does have better wins

as a consequence of some of the opportunities he's had thus far. But I'll say this. I like Rachmaninoff's game better, but if the question is who has a higher ceiling and the answer is who's shown more to this point, with the information that we have, it would be Chimaev, but we have such little information that, like, I wouldn't, you know,

hardly would be surprising if he ends up being better. I just mean we can't really say for sure right now. But obviously, dude, both of these guys are going to be in title fights at some point. Admit it. You would be giddy as a schoolgirl if Shavka Rachmanov moved to the Oceanic region and joined CKB, Luke. You would have a city kicking boner, Luke. You would be so freaking happy.

Luke, you would walk around. I don't know what that would do for his game exactly. I don't know if that's the best fit. It's not about him, Luke. It's about you right now, okay? All right from i'm just going to ignore that from joe be the hut with this person wrote san alvi with sam alvi on a zero oh and one streak what are the worst and most surprising losing streaks that you can remember across both boxing and m. You know what name comes to mind, Luke? Kenan Barau. And it was Uriah Faber who said on my old CBS podcast

that he believes Barau fell off the cliff while, what, pound for pound number two and still in his late 20s because of the USADA era in the sport. You can argue that amongst yourselves. But that fall from grace and just knockout after knockout after gas out after a thorough decision loss after knockout is what I mean, look, how does that even happen? Like Johnny Hendricks had a somewhat similar, but Johnny Hendricks wasn't pound for pound number, you know, Dana making a, you know, standing outside with a, with the, with the sign, right.

You know, saying vote for Barau or perish. I mean, do you compare that to anybody, Luke? That was like night and day. Do I compare that to anybody? Because you've seen it happen when it's self-induced. Like Chavez Jr. or somebody. You get that. You can understand that. Yes.

I'm trying to think. Have there ever been boxing losing streaks like that? How many losses in boxing can you have before people just say, fuck it, we don't want to watch anymore? That's a good point. I mean, it didn't have that many losses, but Roy Jones had a couple of those runs in the second half of his career, like after the knockout of Tarver and Johnson in succession. But then when he started going up to like cruiserweight

and just getting sent to hell in Russia, but that was never seven in a row. It doesn't typically get there, Luke. Here's the thing, because the reason why you can get to 7-0 or 0-7 or whatever in ufc is that they still have a need for content production overall and so they need like a they need manpower that is sort of more or less you know not readily available but available for this slot and that slot and to fill in here and fill in there and so you can kind of even if you don't have the winningest record, I don't know about seven losses,

but up and down, let's say, if you still fill slots for them in ways that are convenient for their matchmaking and content production schedule, you can hang on. Whereas in boxing, it's a little bit more of eat what you kill. If you've lost that much, you can't.

There's not a lot of interest. To be clear, this does happen because there are guys' jobs who are only to make prospects go rounds and sometimes those guys doing that used to be names and they're not they don't care about ending their career with seven eight losses or you know what 10 losses in 11 fights or whatever because their job is kind of to go out there and lose by decision or get knocked out it's just have we ever seen like a fall from grace on that i mean leon spinks was close luke winning the gold medal beating muhammad ali for the heavyweight championship when he's 7

and 0 and then just completely falling apart and drugs and getting knocked out every time he stepped up and i mean that's probably the only major comparison fair enough all right um from greg leach 99 i don't even know what to say about this. Thoughts on Dana White's decision to let the Nelk boys sign a fighter and sponsor slash promote them despite still not allowing fighters to acquire sponsors of their own. Why am I supposed to give a fuck about this? Yeah. This sounds very like, you know how much I don't care about NFTs, Luke or Doja coin.

You know what I mean? Like this, this fits into that, but why Dana White does have, it's like Dana White's got these celebrity friends that he like supports or, or keeps, you know, propped up and relevant.

And sometimes you get it. You're like, Oh, kid rock. Yeah. I guess I get that. Right. I don't get some of these other ones.

Like, man, he loves the damn Nelk boys. Luke, what are Nelk boys again? I don't know. I know we i know we're too old and i'm sure their podcast is much bigger than ours so they're going to be cooler and uh i don't know but here's my point it's like oh they're gonna they're gonna a guy who or a fighter who is a nelk boy sponsored whatever is going to come through danny white's tuesday night contender I'm like, okay, they're probably still going to sign a bad contract.

The Nelk boys will probably pay them more than UFC does. And either they're good enough to stick around or they're not. Either way. So are we supposed to be afraid that this is the future of this and next we'll have Howlerhead signed fighters and then we'll have, like, is this where this is going, Luke? The question is he writes despite still not allowing fighters to acquire sponsors of their own you can have

sponsors of your own there's just limits over what you can show on anything where it's a ufc broadcast or event right so that you could still have them here's a case where the nelk boys will be able to advertise that they have a fighter on the UL. This will be a noted thing on the broadcast, which I guess the UFC, I don't know this, but my hunch is BC, the UFC just is not doing this for free. They're probably paying for the right to do that.

Um, so yeah, you know, uh, why does it happening? Because they're paying for the right to do that. Uh, that's just like when you,

when you know, your father-in-law owns a business and you have him sponsor your little league team this was exactly and also it's like dude did you guys hear about this unfair uh labor practice that the fighters aren't getting paid enough it's like yeah we've heard of this what would you like me to keep saying about this that i've not said 50 million times it is an unequal situation that will not be rectified until someone rectifies it. So what do I think about it? And I think it's Monday.

That's what I think about it. What do you want me to say? Yeah. All right. Luke, would you say, though, even though we all like, you know, grunted at the Reebok deal and what it meant for taking money and sponsors away from fighters and we, you know, we don't want that leverage to be gone but do you agree that when you go back on UFC fight pass and you know you're researching for the next fighter you're just watching for fun when you see a pre-Rebok era fight and you see the banner with the millions of sponsors and you see the condom depot and all the you know stuff that we've laughed at through the years and the crazy shorts that it looks triple-a baseball compared to at least what

you know one of the main focuses of going the uniformed full Reebok route was to, to be uniformed and aligned in one, but also to be, to look cleaner. It's much cleaner Luke. And it makes me hate venom this era so much more. Cause even though it's not far from the Reebok look, it just looks cheap and like spandex under underwatery underwear. I don't think that it looks all that much better i think that the cage still being littered with ads kind of undercuts that

argument completely okay and uh also i find it to be beside the point i know what you're saying like does it look yeah i'm not arguing financially somewhat but not i don't really not for me all right from cubbies fan 80 bc if you guys were forced to participate in a winter olympic competition oh fuck me against a fellow donk of your ability so you know relatively even in abilities which event would you choose i don't even i dude i don't watch the winter olympics at all what are winter olympic events skiing ice skating can i do the one where i ski and then shoot ship and then ski again yeah hockey all kinds of luge skeleton bobsled type jams uh

what else is there for men luke i don't know uh let's see uh okay winter olympic guy to be fair except for when there's like usa can Canada, hockey, must see it. Oh, the answer to this is easy because I'm not doing skeleton where I go face first or luge where I'm going, you know, the speed of light and shit. I'm not doing that. I'm not going back in time. I'm not doing that.

However, however, curling. Curling I would try. My hand at curling. See, curling used to be cool to talk about or imagine doing that and then it got really lame and then something like moms are making curling jokes and then it was just sort of like okay it's like mambo number five i just i can never hear it again or talk about okay but you do the other ones we're gonna get paralyzed alpine skiing bobsled cross-country skiing we're not we'll have a heart attack we wouldn't have a yeah yeah figure skating

freestyle skating ice hockey luge nord combined, short track speed skating. Wow, dude, I suck at this. No wonder why I suffer with winter depression. I don't ski or skate. And, dude, it gets worse. Hold on, it gets worse. Four more. Skeleton, ski jumping.

Dude, you will die ski jumping. Oh, God, hell no. Snowboard and then speed skating. Dude, I'm fucking curling. I'm not doing that shit. I don't think there's actually an event that i can pull i can actually pull off luke i can so you're saying like me against damien the donk and yeah uh there's no like winter judo or anything luke there's no like uh yeah all right is there a winter podcasting i could do that uh reasonably well i suppose can we hang out in the

olympic village and watch everybody just or like orgy orgy is that what happens there yes i want to do that all right last but certainly not least from telvin key papa bangles from hawaii luke right yes bangles or rams tell me you're not cheering for the fuck boy rams i don't care i really don't care dude the rams are owned byenke, okay, who is one of the worst owners in all of sports and has run the great Arsenal franchise into the fucking ground. Arsenal was one of the great teams of, and I guess it's still top eight-ish or something. Is the feel for your argument to F this team European soccer?

Because if it is, Luke, we can just keep going. Dude, well, here's my point. If a guy is an owner in sports, hold on, hold on. If a guy is an owner in sports and his first bit is to ruin a once great franchise and his other one is to take the Rams out of St. Louis so he could build a fucking taxpayer-funded stadium in la for a team that the city doesn't even really want yeah dude you got to have a little character and cheer for the fucking bangles i feel like

that's joe burrow right that's the guy who smokes weed that yeah yeah i'll cheer for that guy we'll cheer for joe burrow right yeah yeah yes. Just to shut up those stupid European soccer bosses, Luke. Okay. But dude, it's not even about that. You could ignore everything he did there and just talk about him as an owner in the NFL. He's a fucking terrible owner, dude. Look, how come you're not boycotting the Beijing Olympics due to human treatment? I am.

I haven't watched one second of it. I refuse to watch it. Okay. And the next World Cup, too, in Qatar. I'm. I haven't watched one second of it. I refuse to watch it. And the next World Cup too in Qatar. I'm not watching that shit. Fuck that. You used to live in Qatar. Yeah, it's not the place itself. It's the government basically

had a bunch of people killed in order to make stadiums for the tournament. I mean, we're talking about you know potential doc options what about bc and dc lt and ct yeah dude you're you're a hoe when it comes to this how about you've been invited to come down several times and every time you have some cockamamie story about why you can't do it how about mk and cutter luke all right how about that doc all right how about you go there and get your head cutter off, that motherfucker?

How about that? Do that. All right. All right. With that in mind, it's time for your shit, good sir. Yeah, that's what we do. We scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly,

and the in-between of combat sports and beyond. This is Luke's first time doing this in, like, three weeks. Have you seen this shit? Not this shit. I'm going gonna smoke my vape while i do this by the way there's no weed in this it's just a regular old uh lung wow this is such a dad guy flex like hold on guys i got a new convertible here you know what's up fellow kids all right there we go all right yeah uh luke we start how do you do fellow kids get it right fuck yeah uh ufc fight night in las vegas how about middleweight chidi bang jokuni with the 16 second debut luke and ko of mark andre burial i didn't understand

the uh the leg kick there i didn't set it, and you did it in punching range against a guy this good. That's just no. Yeah. So is that pronounced N-J-K-O-O-N-E? N-J-K-O-O-N-E? I'm all over it. So the way they say it on the broadcast, so again, I'm sure I'm saying it wrong too, but the way they say it on the broadcast is N-J-K-O-O-N-E.

N-J-K-O-O-N-E. Okay. Okay. I like the nickname Bang Luke. All right. Dwayne Bang Ludwig. I like that shit. Okay.

Yeah, it's a great nickname. All right, Luke. bang luke all right bang ludwig i like that shit okay that's a great nickname all right luke also light heavyweight gilton almeida showed off his dance moves following his first round stoppage of danilio marks how about this look this guy's going after it man bro this guy is a super athlete too i mean this guy's like i want this is this is me walking to this is me walking to the commode when mk is over look i think this guy should be nicknamed Bang. Look at this, right? Yeah, again, that's me walking in to go take a dump when BC has finally stopped talking.

Yeah, all right, all right. Hey, could they turn on the fire? Oh, my fire alarms are going on, because why would my family ever do anything to protect the sanctity of this broadcast? I think the vape set it off, Luke, okay? I doubt the vape set it off. They only okay? I doubt the vape set it off. We all vaped all day yesterday.

This is like, yeah. I mean, this is pretty ironic, don't you think? No, they're cooking out there. That's what they're doing. Okay, Luke. Middleweight Brian Battle was talking with Michael Bisping following his decision win over Treshawn Gore. That noise.

Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world, Luke? I'm having a fun time. I'm glad that they keep cooking out there. Let's go to the video tape. How much did the eye bother you? Man, who needs two eyes? Tell me about it. You know, I can still see through it.

You know, it's a little swollen. Hopefully, it'll get me a couple free drinks tonight. You know, I can still see through it. You know, it's a little swollen. Hopefully it'll get me a couple free drinks tonight. You know what I'm saying? But no, nothing, nothing crazy. Look, that was a good one. That was a good one. That was a decent joke. This thing has a sense of humor.

It's good to see. That was good. Battles the Savage, by the way, came from the Contender series. I saw his uh episode that time um he goes after or was he from ultimate fighter which one was it uh he was the ultimate fighter he actually had his trophy i guess it was a point of content i did not watch a single second of the ultimate yeah he was from tough my bad i guess it was a single i guess he wanted to show that like he was the actual uh tough champ um all, let's go to the post-fight press conference.

Here's Sean Strickland talking to John Morgan of Blue Shirt fame. I saw this. By the way, you're the only fat-shamed people you care about. If you ever want to work out, bro, you let me know. Where do you live at? Are you a Vegas man? You a Vegas guy? I'm a Vegas guy. Bro, you come change me. I'm going to help you out, dude.

Dude, get to drink beer afterwards. Yeah, you're going to make your dick at least two inches bigger bro i promise you every time i make weight dude my dick is at least one inch bigger and i got a little dick so you know i take every inch i get appreciate me for it very tempting luke that's probably like the fifth weirdest interview he's had this week i mean uh did you see him talking about the way oscar willis dresses and uh dude why are people going that that's not even the weirdest thing he said for this post fight scrum later he was like you know i like mcmainer to have a good relationship he's like i'm a company man i will suck that d you just let me

know i'm like okay all right king andy king baby uh luke um why are people going after john morgan lately like you know he left it off and no one wants to be in that spot but like people are john jones in him lately luke listen man there's just no if you want to be mma media fighters are going to take shots at you there's just nothing else you can do about i mean it's payback for all the shit you say on this podcast about them luke the motherfucker you're the one who is racking up the enemies i'm actually the one who's like mending fences all right uh luke uh speaking of bang featherweights julian erosa and steven patterson they banged luke they gave us a bat shit war and it was great you remember this yeah this

was a absolute uh you know here's what i liked about it. Arosa was probably the better fighter, but he had a kind of a fatal flaw that Peterson found, and it gave him total life, and then it kind of evened the fight out. And then it just became basically like, you know, who wanted it more? And you could have gone either way, although I thought Arosa had done the better work. But Jesus Christ, this ended up being a great fight, much better than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, Caveman FC, main event worthy. No question

about it. Luke, let's catch up with other two sport athletes beyond Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson. Let's go with first Boxer Canelo Alvarez at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Million Dollar Hole-in-One event. Here's a par 3 tee-off from

Big Red. Now, I know nothing about golf. How good of a golfer is he? Oh, shit! So he came inches from winning a million dollars with the hole-in-one on that hole, Luke. And right before he hit it, like seconds before, Jim Nance was interviewing him in front of the whole crowd. And he was like, you know, how much do you play, Canelo? Canelo goes, four hours a day. And Nance is like, oh, yeah, right oh yeah right like come on don't you box he's like yes but boxing training

five hours a day golf four hours a day like canelo is like no bro i'm coming i'm coming on on the way i mean i know nothing about golf to say if he looks good or not but he seems to be the genuine article man that's pretty impressive you think uh him and mj should golf together right he's are his eyes going to come back as jaundiced from years of uh alcohol abuse yeah yeah all right other two sport athletes this weekend luke uh former cruiserweight champion now heavyweight champion alexander usik suited up for the ukrainian second tier soccer team, FC Polisia. And big number 17 there, Luke. Got a nice pass in front of the goal.

Let's check out his skills there. That's a fucking huge soccer player. Yeah, yeah. Six, four and a half. Yeah. Two hundo plus. Well, they got him. They got him. I can't quite tell what position he's playing here.

He's like a forward. Here's off the side throw. And they set him they got him i can't quite tell what position he's playing here but he's like a forward here's off the side throw and they set him up here luke right here look at give me give me oh god yeah god damn it you know luke he may have to stick to his day job but this next guy luke youtuber turned boxer turned promoter jake paul, at MSG to promote Serrano and Katie Taylor, and from way downtown, Luke, bang. Wow. Wow, Luke. Wow. The Rifleman.

I mean, it's a little much with a celebration. I mean, that's so much better than Conor McGregor's three at MSG. Believe that. That's not saying much. I mean, that's not saying much than Conor McGregor's three at MSG. Believe that. That's not saying much. I mean, that's not saying much. But yes, it is better. Francis Ngannou met Shaq, Luke. Not Shaq Majorey, the real Shaq.

And look at the ease that he's handling the diesel. Wow, dude. Yeah, Francis is a mutant. He's the strongest motherfucker on earth. I'm convinced of this. He's just insane. Dude, think about it. How many people have ever done that to Shaquille O'Neal?

Like, he was actually kind of humbled right there. Yeah, he just high crotch lifts him there. And not even, like, with a proper high crotch technique either. He didn't really get his elbow fully beat on it. I mean, imagine you're Shaq. You're 7'1 and jacked and at your physical peak you're a freak athlete like pro sports rarely has ever seen in the history

of life and you've got just a hammer down there, Luke and you've just spent your life just physically dominating people and then big Frank walks up. Yeah, he's probably got an eel in his pants to borrow from Joe Rogan there uh let me ask you

this though how much you think shack weighs like 350 380 oh god even though he's muscular yeah definitely three 350 yeah yeah i mean that's just 325 picked up like nothing you know yeah all right well luke speaking of hoops legends i don't know if you saw this video making the rounds they found middle school footage of lebron James. Luke, he was just as dominant back then as he is today. Check this out. Fuck them kids. Bah! Eat shit.

Luke, you gotta admit, when you're at like family reunion and there's a hoop and there's like uncles and cousins and, you know, aunts playing, you turn into Magic Johnson and you are going like around and cousins and you know aunts playing you turn into magic johnson and you are going like around the back and just clowning people like it's and one you know yeah i've been trying to teach my daughter how to dribble i steal the ball from her like you know who's one of the all-time leader in steals in the nba i don't even know stockton stockton yeah i

don't quite have his insane anti-vaccine views, but I'll take his stealing skills when it comes to three-year-olds. Look, they're like season ticket holder, no more. Alright. Okay. Luke, we have done too much real sports. Let's get drunk people involved. Luke, you ever been

at a bar and you just go full-on coyote ugly like this guy? Look. Oh, yeah. that's great oh shit there went all the proper 12 oh boy is that a tattoo or is that chest hair luke i can't tell what i don't know hopefully he's down and he's not coming back. All right, back to the cage. LFA 23. Luke, sometimes you're the hammer, and sometimes you're Logan Nail, who needed just seconds to get this TKO in round one. That's some brutal shit, Luke.

Yeah, dude. Regional MMA produces. I mean, you see this stuff in the UFC, but regional MMA, it's like, this is just how shit goes every other fight. The guy's name is Logan Nail. Do you think he'd be abhorred by my toenail situation luke i mean to be fair you know if he's logan nail are you diseased nail jaundice nail yeah i guess are you fungus nail all right hey luke let's play your favorite game

in the world's rate that tat mma edition we start with marlin chito vera going all head scorpion marlin has good tattoos look you into that head scorpion wow that's aggressive i gotta say that's not for me that is in a chito is a tough bastard boy let me tell you that is i mean his tats already said something that says something luke that says that you know that says i could i could rape you in jail luke that says that you know i that says i could i could rape you in jail luke that's what it says okay yeah that's a strong so i mean that is a uh it's a no bullshit message on that one all right let's go to the champ again davison figueredo luke i must have got dm'd about 50 times when you were on vacation people wanting your take

on this mr he boss looking tattoo of the championship plate um it's busted it's pretty busted unfortunately i kind of like it maybe i like this brazilian style luke maybe maybe that's my here's the here's the problem if you look at for example i mean it's just it's not clean work um at all the problem is for example the shading is inconsistent the line work is not like the u and the f and the c don inconsistent the the line work is not like the u and the f and the c don't have clean line work and more to the point look at something like the the tip of the green part at sort of the top of the tattoo it's wider in terms of the black underneath than the blue part so the thing is the tip is normally wider to be fair bc you don't

always have to make terrible jokes you can choose to make them on occasion and therefore limit the impact that they have on the show one day i'll teach you the first rule of improv luke one day yeah it's not it's just not it's not great it's not great the significance is extraordinary but it's not great luke it's been a long time since i turned off your pilot light during this segment luke it's happy to know it's still possible hey let's Luke speaking of you I found the perfect birthday cake what's your birthday again Luke August 5th August 5th you'll be looking at this Luke that'd be the best cake I got in years don't threaten me with a good time asshole yeah ICP for life Luke okay all right uh we talked about the nfl playoffs luke apparently they were the best of all time i i just didn't watch a ton of it um but these fans

did what do you think about this bangles fans beer beard celebrating all the way to the superbowl yeah this is uh excellent uh not just because he did the beard with the six beers which is by the way it's good that you know five of his friends can all join him but he did the beard with the six beers, which is, by the way, it's good that five of his friends can all join him, but he did the face paint correctly in conjunction with it. He didn't mail in the look. The whole look is done correctly. Yeah. I mean, look, is there any chance that the people that paint their face

for NFL games and have season tickets, like you could trust them to babysit in a pinch. No, if you paint your face like that and you go to an NFL game, it's a guarantee there's a tax lien on one of your properties. Alright, I guess that's better than sex offender, Luke. Alright, let's keep it going. Luke, tough

L's up in Buffalo in the playoffs. Playoffs. And also for this couple, Luke. Please let them buy the farm. Please let them buy the farm. Yes. Oh, God. Wow.

You almost had a tossed salad there, Luke. Wow. All right. Hey, Luke, Steelers fans celebrated Big Ben's retirement with this little skirmish. How about this for a finishing move? Why'd you take the hat off? Yeah, exactly. Oh, God.

I like how the other person just kind of does it like your big sister, pushing you in the face. Yeah, but Polamalu's not done taking L's, Luke. Oh, God. He's getting it. You know, Troy cut his hair and has just fallen off the center. Paulo Malu, really. He used to be such a beast on the field,

and now he's just a decrepit white guy. Yeah, Luke, NFL fans don't care. They'll do fan-on-fan violence. Let's keep it going here, Luke. Let me ask you, why would you ever go to an NFL game? I mean, I just couldn't even imagine what could compel you to want to go to one of those fucking things. Well, let's go to the L.A. Rams crowd, Luke, okay? Oh, yeah one of those fucking things um well let's go to the la rams crowd luke okay oh yeah here we go yeah let's go oh jesus oh my god a titans fan

luke he got a titans fan was like planking down those fuck oh oh god go full screen we gotta go full screen yeah yeah let's break down this uh this meeting of the mensa minds here this is This is me after my mentions after I tweet something totally innocuous. It's not over here, though. He just steps on the head. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Dude, why would you go to an NFL game? I just could not imagine the reason. That footage says it all, Luke. All right, hey, let's go to the gym. I haven't seen a good weightlifting fail in a while, Luke. I love those. Yeah.

Let's see some. Use this guy while he... Let's see some. While he kissed the ground, Luke. Wow. You know what? Credit to this guy for actually uploading it. I actually commend him.

Not a great job in catching... Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure what... It looked like for a second... The first time I saw it, I was like, is Not a great job in catching... I'm not sure what it looked like for a second. The first time I saw it, I was like, is he trying to catch it in the snatch? He's trying to clean, and he's got the straps on. He's just not giving himself a lot of... No, that was a snatch. It was a snatch because he tries to go behind

the head, and his hands are way too close together. And he got straps on. What the fuck are you doing, man? Gaff wanted to know if that's Jimmy Crute of UFC fame. way too close together. Like what the fuck? And you got straps on. Like, what the fuck are you doing, man? Um, Jeff wanted to know if that's Jimmy crew of UFC family. No, Jimmy crude,

strong as an ox. This dude is just some random dog in his garage. How is he not knocked out? Look, look, look, look, look, look,

yeah, look, because he's got, you know, a cranium, the size of the, of, uh,

the, the, the great wall of China. Well, keep, keep, keep playing it. Keep playing it.

Watch when he closes it up. Mouth breathing into the phone. Look playing it. Watch when he closes it up. Mouth breathing into the phone. Look at him. I mean, look, he's concussed. Let's be fair, alright? Well, Luke, that wasn't the grossest white guy move this week from somebody hopefully not concussed. Let's go to the massage table. Stipe Miocic,

the former champion, posting this, Luke. He was getting a nude massage and then you walking through first class on the way to coach, he just crop-tusted this fellow, Luke. I don't know why we're watching this. I mean, that is... That is...

I mean, who posts that, Luke? Can we just move to the next slide? I mean, can we just move to the next slide i mean there's proof look steve hey tapped yes he did wow okay look hey t-shirt of the week time luke i call this guy the og of bde i mean this guy's a hero to many, including myself and you. I want him at every party I'm ever at for the rest of my life. I mean, he's been gone for a while, but Luke Big Dick is back in town, and he's just late. Luke, you think he's a snowbird, and when he gets back to Florida in the winter, it's like, okay, Big Dick's here, right?

I got a pension. Who was it's, you know, Big Dick's here, right? I got a pension. Who was it, Nick Foles, Big Dick Nick? This is Nick Foles in like 40 years just walking around town. But it's not the weirdest t-shirt this week, Luke. That would go to this young fella on the left. I don't know where parenting has taken us. All right, well, that's a bit much

for a young man to be wearing. Or a young woman, I don't even really know what the situation is here, but that's a bit much for a young man to be wearing um or a young woman i don't really know what the situation is here but you know there's a there's a parenting learning lesson here that needs to happen i think all right luke white trash move of the week goes to this jenga playing hero check this out we're at the wedding. Yeah. You know, I would like to hate on this man. I would like to hate on this man a lot, and I was about to, but I got to admit. I got to admit, that's pretty slick.

I got to admit, that's pretty fucking slick i mean this guy had everything you would want to hate about him worst haircut dressed like the absolute worst acting like the absolute worst and that was the best that was honestly the best where i come from this guy is a hero luke there's no Dude, this is your town mayor. Just admit it. Wow. Okay. Thank you. Luke, it's knockout of the week time. You can now call this kid Luca Brasi because

after meeting this eel, he sleeps with the fishes, Luke. Yeah, I don't understand these people um he's not getting up so the eel electrocuted him is that the idea what happened i don't know if it's an eel i just that was the first thing that came to my head this is a bad this ko1 luke this

is this is not you know no no care needed you know here's the. If you try to fuck with animals and then you fall into the water, I think it should just be you just drown. Like, that's just goodbye. See you. Yeah. Well, that's the biggest one-shot KO of the week. Here's an attempt at an interesting kick here, Luke. Let's go to the bathroom.

There's nothing like drunk chicks, Luke. Yeah, dude. They should try one of these kicks in the UFC. Yeah. Can't believe they haven't. By the way, she almost got both of them. I just want to point that out. She almost took out two there. Bah.

Luke, you always see videos with suspect karate techniques on McDojo Life's feed. Here's what they got this time. Oh, God. Oh, God. life speed uh here's what they got this time oh god oh god i just what are we doing i mean we're running over children for training is that what we're doing karate for defense purposes only look okay dude they've gone from wax off wax on to yo let me just run over you with my motorcycle mr miyagi what will this teach me shut the fuck up daniel son luke it wouldn't be a great have you seen the shit without some elder abuse so let's go to uh grandma taking uh taking the youngin for a tour of the old firehouse luke

and just buys the farm dude you would be surprised you know what gets most young and old people alike as this uh video attests to what inertia inertia just kills them right because they don't pick their feet up they just keep moving in the same direction and then they end up doing i can't say how many times my daughter just not looking where she's going and then the inertia carrying her forward and she ends up tripping over like half a million things that she left on the floor well hopefully luke when she goes out in the snow this winter she doesn't trip over this well it's nice that you made that kind of joke about my two-year-old daughter it really is an important thing that you did there. Yeah, one of the worst segues we've had, Luke. That was a really, really bad one, I think, you just did there.

I think we should just move. Although it's funny, the picture. I understand the joke. It's a cock with some balls. I get that. I mean, it was a transition, Luke, all right? Yeah, I think you should just keep transitioning, is what I would say.

Just keep doing it. Wow, all right. Well, transitioning, is what I would say. Just keep doing it. Wow, all right. Well, Luke, we'll close with this. This is where hopefully you'll find yourself shortly after this show ends. Someone on the commode? Oh, God. Dude, I didn't know they had pictures and video of heaven. Yeah, that's... Why is there a random Obama poster in the back? I didn't know they had pictures and video of heaven. Yeah.

Why is there a random Obama poster in the back? Shout out to Cypress Hill on Instagram, which has nothing but these videos over and over again. You know, people say this is a waste of marijuana, and I challenge that very much. This is an excellent use of marijuana, actually. Well, Luke, poor transitions or not, that's the shit of the week. There you go. Very good, BC. challenge that very much this is an excellent use of marijuana actually well luke uh poor transitions or not that's the shit of the week there you go very good bc uh before we get to

our rogan odds and ends you want to give us your other odds and ends that you pulled with some of your interviews that you've done yeah look here's the deal does anybody want us talking about fight or pay every episode for a half hour no but i do have an you know and i and i get what you said earlier about you know, what do you want me to say? This is what I'm always going to say. They deserve better, but it's up to them to take that ball and run with it. And I agree. But let me throw out the two different clips

I had. So I've got some interviews that are either out or still coming out this week on youtube.com slash morning combat. Robert Whitaker, Derek Lewis, and also a very good one with Anthonyony pettis who's who's you know promoting his first card this weekend on ufc fight pass or uh and great chat anyway luke you know i asked uh i asked them about fighter pay here's two of their responses and

i just want to kind of ask you a point question about this let's go to a gaff the champ in your division is in ghanu still he wrestles as you mentioned he keeps the belt but look he's in a lot of um other kind of headlines labor disputes contracts all that i want to give you a chance to react to it but i'm not trying to trap you i understand you can say what you can say what's comfortable for you and your stance, but when you watch Francis take this stand, are you cheering for him? Do you think it's too risky? What do you think about this?

I don't care. I don't know what his contract situation is. I don't know what's going on behind closed doors and everything with his camp. And so I really don't know. That's Derek Lewis. And also Robert Whitaker.

He wanted zero part of that. Let's see if Robert Whitaker takes the opportunity or the bait, however you look at this, which is interesting. You don't make a lot of headlines talking trash, not your style. You don't make a lot of headlines complaining, but when you see a contemporary, an elite champion in Francis Ngannou and the walk he's going through publicly for fighters' rights, how do you respond when you watch that?

My dad. That is a tricky question that is a tricky question because yeah that is that's um what do i even say it's it's such a that's that that that's a loaded question it's yeah very loaded very loaded yeah I mean way more loaded than the question about nipples to be fair it was wrapped a little tighter too yeah yeah yeah honestly I I don't have too much information on the on the whole matter at all I uh I've just been focusing on myself focusing on the training focusing on getting ready for the fight because the fight's only a week and a bit away and um and then and i don't really keep myself up to date with the news and everything like that anyway i

kind of just hunker down in the room in the fort and just uh go along my way so not really um i mean are you saying you know you're happy with with what you've accomplished and the the wage you're earning and your you know your battle is yours is that what is that how you sort of look at that oh mate and we can go back to nipples i didn't want to take you down this long dark alley if you don't want to be there but uh luke for more on israel adesanya's right nipple you can check that out at youtube.com slash morning comment so why do i put why do i throw that out there luke because like journalists asking fighters about it isn't going to go away but like journalists talking about it is really the

ceiling of our responsibility so it was fun i i saw the response to me asking those questions in in a quick look at the comments to be completely polarizing of people saying damn those fighters have no idea how to help themselves they completely just bricked and and froze when asked about it and acted dumb and then you get the other half of you know why is bc you know helwanian this as or as it may be um what is the responsibility here's the thing here's the thing like your questions were uh in terms of like how justified were they utterly justifiedterly justified. There's a couple things, I think, to keep in mind. You're absolutely right.

Like, dude, it's not the media's job to file a lawsuit for the fighters for pay. It's not the job of us to go to the Hill and lobby for the Ali Act. It's not our job to, you know, whip up support for a union and vote. That's up to them. We can't take that path for them, whatever one they want to take. It's up to them. I don't know what for them at whatever one they want to take it's up to them i don't know what the right answer is they have to decide for themselves our job is to talk about it and as long as it's a relevant issue which it will be for the foreseeable future we will however at some point you know while the fans don't the fans don't have the right to say because we don't like a question you should take it out but you also have to recognize

at some point you may not be spending your time most valuably going to those questions with every single fighter including even elite ones because a lot of them are going to be in a position where they don't want to change anything for you know fear of changing how they're paid and security and everything else um so you just kind of have to ask yourself is it worth it every time but is it a fair question it's totally fair i just well you know i certainly believe it's fair um but i also understand the relationship between the two is why like you know media and fighters should be cordial but not you know friends or best friends or whatever because it's our job to create clicks that's a current headline

right now but i just wonder what their role right now given that opportunity whether it's interviewing with me or whoever what their role should be using that platform because look luke if there was a you know something going on at showtime with a big name person we wouldn't want to probably or be you know it wouldn't be a good look to air that out publicly into in debate that's like it you're not going to just take that mic and go yeah you know what f Dana Ngannou's right but you do have an opportunity to say something yeah however you want to use the value unless you're really committed to the cause in the way that Ngannou has made himself and that's a choice that he made here this is the reason why a lot of fighters don't they don't because they feel like they're going to get themselves in trouble if they do

they feel like they're going to um create issues with the matchmakers especially like right now where he's on the cusp of a title shot does he really want to rock the boat in one of these scenarios i grant that he's already kind of at the at the precipice of having some leverage but a lot of these guys it really is the way that they are they here's the thing is john jones for example poor he's not we go there we go luke we're back to you you're back yeah i don't know of these guys it really is the way that they are they here's the thing is john jones for example poor he's not we go there we go luke we're back to you you're back yeah i don't know what happened he's not poor by any stretch of the imagination the argument would be he just didn't get paid what he was supposed to but it's not poor so i think a lot of these guys these elite guys like

robert whittaker they're not making bad money relative to the rest of the population they're going to be in the top one percent in terms of overall earnings and i think a lot of them are like best leave well enough alone for a guy like francis and gone who's got a different sensibility and a different perspective that's not enough for him but i can understand how fighters arrive in both perspectives i mean the difference between if there was something going on in this you know in our own companies and we it just wouldn't be good pr to talk about it is this affects them so much so right it's like by the way people have asked like what about you guys well first of all me and bc are employees we have protections if we want number one that the fighters don't and number two bc and i know exactly what we make we've told each other and we've used it as a way to make sure

that we get maximum amount of money. BC knows what my paychecks look like and for the most part, vice versa. That really helped both of us get a sense of how much we should ask for and how much we should get. Do we do that? By the way, if any other media member wants to know what I make, I'm happy to tell them. You should know those things.

I just can um, I just can't see those responses being the best move. There's gotta be a middle ground where you don't meddle and don't get yourself in trouble, but you also stand up firm for your profession and what is going on right now. And I mean, would it kill them? I mean, does what's the blowback for saying, you know what, this is a brave move by Francis. He's walking his own path, but we all understand it and we all support him. Maybe there is or there isn't. It's for something that innocuous. But, dude, the UFC, you know, Dana, like these guys, you know,

it's amazing that they're very pro, oh, we're big free speech guys, but they're not. They don't like media reports about things they do critically, and they're very, very aggressive, either about, in certain cases, trying to undercut those reports or to make sure those reports like that never happen. And they lean on fighters to, you know, carry the companies or repeat their talking points or whatever.

So I understand why they might feel. And also, we talked about it before, a guy like Robert Whitaker, dude, you have to fight fucking Adesanya in a week. Whatever the money, I mean, you got to focus, man. He did the right thing, I think. And it's not me trying to trap him to say an accidental. I just think as long as that's still going to be a headline, it's our job to ask it, and they can take it wherever they want.

It's just interesting, I think, the responsibility of both sides sides how far you should go but you know whatever it's news it it'll be here and gone tomorrow if nothing happens luke so well i'm definitely glad that you pitched people watching your interviews on questions no one wanted to answer there's others that they did answer i swear okay yeah i mean derrick lewis is it's a while it's a wild chat as you as you could expect okay look you know let's end the show here and then we don't have to say necessarily a whole lot about it uh but it is worth at least bringing up that ufc commentator certainly he is much more than that um joe rogan has been embroiled in controversy starting at some point on the weekend i'm not sure exactly when i saw it but it basically follows along well it's more than this but the current controversy follows along two two lines one there was a series

of episodes i think 20 or so where he had used the n-word um you could decide for yourself whether the context of that he wasn't in any way calling someone that but you know there's a debate about whether or not um those kinds of using that as appropriate or not you can decide for yourself and the other one was a little bit less ambiguous, which he did apologize for. Actually, a lot less ambiguous. Not ambiguous at all. When he made a joke about Planet of the Apes being in a black Philly neighborhood. That's sort of like just straight up racist, which he acknowledged as much and had apologized for.

But there's a larger controversy about what Spotify might do. There was a letter written last night from spotify's ceo to the employees basically doubling down that they're not going to remove him you could never imagine dana white under these scenarios nor is anyone i think in the mma space at all advocating for it i'm just pointing out that you know i don't think this will have any effect on his ufc position bc but is there anything more to the story that you wanted to say i think think Tukey's got something to say about this. She's watching. Could you guess what movie?

I can tell you what scene she's shouting. Can you guess what movie she's watching? Maybe Texas Chainsaw Massacre based on her reaction. Close, close. No, it's in Kanto. It's in Kanto. And it's the opening scene during La Familia Madrigal. She's like, I'm at 48 watches.

I just need one more to be in. Isn't that what Malcolm Gladwell said about Luke? At 10,000 hours, yes. She could write in Kanto at this point. And at the end of the first song, the La Familia Madrigal song, she sings a bunch of stuff, and then the kids go, what about Mirabelle?

And then she's shouting. Luke, in all seriousness, it's a topic it's and it's an interesting one because we all we all fear the extent of what cancel culture becomes we all also don't it's tough you don't want to you know the video is pretty damning right and it's like how much can you create how much can you hold against people for past sins done? And in certain senses, like a Bill Cosby situation, I guess you're not getting a lot of outrage in that regard or anything else related to that.

But in this case, it's like, what should your reaction be? Well, let me ask you. You shouldn't be fired or yanked, in my opinion, by any circumstance. And I think I fear a little bit more where that can go if it gets too aggressive. Let me say a couple things. I don't in any way know Joe Rogan as a friend. We've texted back and forth. As you know, I had the opportunity to be a guest one time on his show.

We talked there. I found him completely pleasant, fun, frankly, to be a guest one time on his show we talked there i found him completely pleasant uh fun frankly to be around he put me at ease because i was very nervous and um i really enjoyed the opportunity i had to do that so i would say that you know whatever extent i've had with him has been utterly phenomenal actually um i actually feel like i you know i don't think the spotify ceo is going to take anything down and i have not noticed anyone in mma suggesting as much nor would i advocate for it in fact what i would argue is taking down joe rogan chill if it ever came to that spotify ceo ever bent to that pressure that would be very very bad very very bad yeah for Yeah. For more than two reasons, two big reasons. One, for a tech oligarch to bend to what is officially now White House pressure

because the government has gotten involved about their version of COVID concerns and what Joe Rogan may or may not be saying, when the state and the corporations are aligned together, you get really, really bad things. And the flow of information is important in society. And I would argue that if you take down his podcast because of what reasons you think exist there, you are not going to get rid of his audience,

but you are going to radicalize every one of them into never, ever trusting any mainstream media organ or major corporation that has any say over the flow of information ever again and you they might be right to be skeptical uh that it would be a disaster more to the point on top of it is what i would say is if you want to convince joe rogan's audience to think differently than you would than they have been or how you presume it to think, you cannot take Joe's show away and think you've won the argument. You haven't even had an argument. If you want to convince them, that's what you have to do. You have to convince them,

not take away the Joe Rogan podcast and then expect that all of these ideas that you hold sacred will all of a sudden just be bought wholesale. The reason why Joe Rogan podcast and then expect that all of these ideas that you hold sacred will all of a sudden just be bought wholesale. The reason why Joe Rogan is as popular as he is, is I would argue one, he has been a very strong advocate for sharing perspectives that do not get put in mainstream media. Not all the time. Ones I agree with. I don't agree with hardly anything he said about COVID or any of the guests he's had about COVID. But at the same time, I can recognize that, for example, people that I like politically, Bernie Sanders, Kyle Kalinsky, you know where you don't see them? You don't see them on CNN. You don't see them on MSNBC. You see them on YouTube. And a guy like Joe Rogan has done a lot to signal boost them.

These are not possible without the kind of work he has done. So in addition to just radicalizing his young viewers, all of them, in addition to creating distrust with tech monopolies and corporate media, and to say nothing of the fact of how dangerous it would be to say that they could control the flows of information, it would be a horrific idea to take it down. What I will say, though, BC, and I do think it needs to be said, and if Joe ever asked me to tell him this face-to-face,

I would say it because I don't have any malice. Joe Rogan's podcast is eminently successful for very good reasons because not only do people trust him for a lot of ways, but on top of that,

I think he has been, for a lot of people, a lot of young men in particular, the kind of conduit to interesting and broader ideas in the public public whether it's about by the way space exploration or in certain cases even before the pandemic infectious diseases native american history he has on palestinian um uh authors that are people who have written

about palestinian causes who i value greatly you don't see any of that stuff in corporate media and people know that they can trust him as a place to get this information that would otherwise not be available. That is extremely important and extremely valuable, but no podcast, including MK is perfect. And it's hard to hear criticisms. If I had one criticism because no show is perfect.

And I would say this to Joe, what I would say is what makes him interesting is his creative, um, the creative possibilities that he pursues. He has so many different interests from hunting to, of course, MMA, but this huge, vast array of things. Let me finish this point. This vast array in between. The argument that I would make is at times I don't feel like he's had enough

guest curation at the front end, by the way, which would solve some of his own problems. Here's what I mean. It's not about left or right. It's about quality conversations. Someone like Stefan Molyneux should not have been on his show multiple times. Alex Berenson, who it might be the wrongest man on the internet in terms of anything COVID, has been on his show multiple times. It's not the single conversation or trying to have a conversation with these folks that I mind. It's bringing back low quality, whatever perspective you want to bring. These are not interesting people. They do not have smart things to say. In the case of Berenson,

routinely wrong, matter-of-factly about any number of things. To me, it's lessons. It's not the pursuit. It's a slight bit of the over-pursuit that I think you could correct. And it's not the biggest portion of his audience the pursuit it's a slight bit of the over pursuit that i think you could correct and it's not the biggest portion of his audience but it's one that would make a big difference okay i get what you're saying but he doesn't want to be a homogenized show that that serves everyone like can't we just have voices i think that's right the real you know people could be wrong and i get that that's right it's it there's it's a loaded weapon when people are spewing potentially false, bad information. I get that. But I also believe in people can have the right to be wrong.

And I don't want to go away. It's abhorrent what he said. I look at this more as a debate of how much can you retroactively penalize people for doing shit that's not illegal but that's not cool. It could and maybe should affect him moving forward in terms of sponsors that want to work with him or whatever, and it is what it is. But here's the thing.

I'm not asking. No rational person can ask Joe to not do a show that he wants to do. I'm not even saying don't book some of these guys, but what I am saying is if you have them on multiple times, you are now making a claim, at least implicitly, about the kind of value of information they provide, and you're going back to that well a number of times. I think that has been something of a mistake.

He's even indicated, by the way, without naming names, like, for example, how many times did Dave Rubin have to be on that show before you realize, and I think Joe did, having this conversation with him about amazon versus the post office i mean the guy is a fucking idiot he doesn't have anything reasonably interesting to say at all and there's been multiple times that a person like that got on i'm not i'm not mad that he had doctors who challenged the prevailing public health narrative per se even though i don't agree i don't think that is in any way something that should be censured or whatnot. But if we're going to say where, like if you don't,

I'm not saying he doesn't want some of these problems, but if you curated away, again, we're talking about a slight degree here, curated away from some of the overreach I think that has happened, a lot of these criticisms would actually go away from the wider world because it is true that he shares a vast array of things that have nothing to do with it to the crux and the true fuel of the cancel movement which is because of the awful race right but but everyone wants to make this strictly about a cancel movement and i guess what i'm asking more broadly is do you think that 100 this is nothing more than

that i am perfectly willing to believe it's majority even driven there is an absolute hatchet job element to this no doubt about it but are we going to really are we going to really say that that's the only criticism there's no criticism no no the fear is the fear is shutting down of course of course you know voices that go against the, not only the mainstream, but the, the, the corporate overlords of,

of, of no, no, no doubt about it. Like that would be horrible for them to get their way really, really bad. I'm not in any way whatsoever. And you're like,

so he had shop on six times instead of five. Like nobody really cares. Like, okay, it's fine. Like you might think UFO. But no, it's not about that. but there's room for it on podcast and radio it is easy it is easy to do a boring show it is hard to do a popular show and there are going to be times over the course of the life of a show where you can make choices dude it's you can have colby on an mma

all the time you can have the most outrageous people on all the time. And it will work for you as a means of getting attention. That's sort of a very direct way of putting it. But I mean to say, there is an argument not so much for the worldview to be challenged by Joe, because it's his podcast. But if you do care about quality information, if you do care

about quality speakers who have real credentials and real backgrounds, yes, deciding who is right and wrong can actually be kind of complex that's why you want to have debates but when you go back to guys that have demonstrable problems as merchants of the truth that's an issue for me i think that should be kind of curtailed a little bit not to your point like is it really that hard to say your co-host's name on the air like Like, is it really that hard? It was, I admit, something that you won't let go of. But to your other point, I am in complete agreement with you.

Like, you know, these like stars coming out and being like, well, now that I've learned more, I feel I want to distance myself from Joe. Like, these are people that had perfectly enlightened racial views from day one. All of them, it turns out afterwards have said shit just as bad if not matter-of-factly worse you know i found that moral preening to be kind of gross keep debating you but i do have to pee my pants it is it's a reality if we're i'm just pointing out i'm just pointing out i think a lot of this is really wrong and i'm kind of worried about where it's headed but the idea that there's no criticism to make to me seems a

little foolish okay we're out of here for that bc has to urinate because he has the bladder the size of a three-year-old girl thumbs up on the video if you're watching on youtube hit subscribe if you're so inclined wherever you're listening to on your podcast platform whether it's stitcher or spotify whatever leave us a nice review we'd appreciate it you can see there below all of our socials if you're watching on the youtube feed morningcombat.store is the place to get all of the merch if you're so inclined. Showtime.com if you want to. 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it.

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slash morningcombat. We've got a whole deal associated with that. There you have it. Yeah, there it is. Free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five travel packs with your first purchase. I mean, hard to go wrong. All right?

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