MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Fight Night: Volkov-Aspinall Recap | McGregor vs Usman | Edgar Berlanga | Ep. 279

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

On episode 279 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian recap a huge weekend of UFC fights. Tom Aspinall made short work of Alexander Volkov in the UFC main event. Is the Brit worth the hype after such a strong performance? Also, Arnold Allen and Paddy Pimblett continued their ascensions with big wins. Plus, they discuss the latest UFC rumors about a potential Conor McGregor vs. Kamaru Usman fight. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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 What a weekend, what a show, what an event, and what a podcast.

An award-winning podcast here on this Monday morning, the 21st of March, 2022. It is time, ladies and gentlemen, mostly gentlemen, really, mostly January 6th gentlemen, for Morning Combat. Hello, everyone. I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of Estados Unidos right here in Washington, D.C. I am joined by the Viceroy of Connecticut, who was very quiet on the interwebs and text messages this weekend. I'm guessing he got out and got some sun, although he looks more pink than anything. It's my friend and yours with a hunting hat who he's never been hunting. It's Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian.

Thank you, Luke. Again, I don't wear this hat for style i wear it for its high t message to those that want to doubt me or or confront me luke it does you know it does look like like i've killed an animal right luke like like it like it's possible right i mean here is something it doesn't it does not look possible they don't't understand, right, Luke? Yeah, so hey, I'm back. It's Monday. You and I are going to catch a plane for South Beach soon or Fort Lauderdale, whatever the hell we're going. But as we speak today, Luke, the weather's changing.

Optimism abound. I'm fired up, Luke. I mean, they want the bod. Here's the hot rod, right? You know where I'm going with that? I don't know. Where is that from? Shoop. Baby. Ah. hot rod right you know where i'm going with that i don't know where is that from uh shoop okay all right well however you're feeling on this fine monday morning where were you like

what did you do you know i went uh for a four mile walk around the neighborhood luke but just getting that 70 degrees it was like uh injection season luke It was fantastic. So great, great stuff. Did the family stuff, Luke, okay? Feel refreshed? Feel ready? You know, Luke, like spring, it happens every year. It comes after that pit of despair that we call winter for those of us that don't ski, apparently. Because the skiers, Luke, they're living it up.

I mean, these people have no idea it's winter, right? They're snorting the mountain. They're so happy. But for the rest of us, Luke, spring is eternal, Luke, okay? Hope, joy, optimism, the idea of not being fat and being happy every day. It's fantastic, Luke. So, you know, I'll drink to that. Thank you.

Fair enough. Well, speaking of all of the celebrity, or I should say the celebrations, UFC London, an incredible event over the weekend there was some boxing as well that was not as good we'll talk about all of it here so thumbs up on the video if you're watching on youtube hit subscribe if you're listening on a podcast platform whichever one that may be please give us a nice review always remember showtime is the label that pays if you want to give showtime a try you can go to showtime.com and get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, keep it. If not, you may do other things with your life and time. MorningCombat at gmail.com will be the email for Wednesday's Fan Subs and Friday's They Wrong. What's up, BC? You know, I wanted to jump in before you got in,

before you slammed it, the door shut and started our five topics and say, you're holding it together pretty well for what happened this morning luke with uh yes you're recording you don't you don't even know the half of it it actually gets much worse than that you were so for the people to know you recorded extra credit your your spin-off show you're you know i mean you're you're perfect strangers to family matters right and um and you didn't record the audio and luke you know it it's like you, it's man, you know, I used to remember as a kid, they had that game domino rally. That game drove me to like insanity.

Cause you try to set up like, you know, 5,000 dominoes and like a cat would run by and knock it over. And then like, you just fall apart emotionally and like scream. Um, you could have been there, Luke, but I want to say that not only do I have your back to the viewers, but our staff, while you were sleeping, while you were angry, we repaired it. So we've got the footage right now of Gaff and Corey, and we're proud of it. Here's Luke attempting to record extra credit this morning without without volume on yeah

I mean that's just that's just some that's just some sloppy shit Luke okay I'm eating shout out to Carl's Jr alright eating shout out to carl doesn't get all over the place all right it doesn't belong in your face uh let's see what else uh merch store morning combat uh dot store is going to be the place

for merch if you'd like to go there and uh last but certainly not least athletic greens bc if i don't know if you're too busy doing fuckhead bits to uh be involved here but our next partner has a product i use literally every day i started taking athletic greens because i want better health more energy and i don't like taking all those pills and vitamins bc i mean i gotta stand right behind with you luke we love it i love it i'm not only the hair club president, I'm clearly also a client here. It doesn't taste like it's super healthy and that matters to donks like me. It has kind of a mild tropical taste. I look forward to it each morning. You know, my questionable techniques of how I refill and don't stir Luke to, so I can keep that flavor going all day, but

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BC. I don't know what else there would be to talk about to start today's show other than ufc london what an event historic in many ways nine performance bonuses handed out you were indicating before the show how dana white just looked to be glowing after the fact but let's start with that main event tom aspinall basically made short work of alexander volkov even surprising people like me who I knew he was good. I didn't know he was going to do all that. Okay, BC, is the Brit, the heavyweight Brit, worth the hype after what he did on Saturday? He made it look so easy. And I know a lot of people had a lot of fun with, you know, old BC saying, look, I got

to see it to believe it. Look, I don't even really think we've seen it yet. And I don't say that to take anything away from Aspinall. It just was so damn easy what he did to Volkov, a guy who, you know, I couldn't talk up higher coming in about how battle tested and tough and maybe, maybe looking like he's got his best run to come. And he just got steamrolled and it was over before it was over. And then it was over.

So Aspinall all does he still have things to prove of course but the frenzy that's going along with him and him being a very key part of this class of uk and ireland-based fighters right now and it cannot be overstated what that crowd felt like through the screen the energy of the building and what it fueled the fighters to produce those performances. And obviously, and no wonder Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua are ringside with free tickets to get a taste of it. We already know it's like that in UK boxing,

but it was a wake-up call for all, Dana White included, to realize the potential out there. And Tom Espinel, Luke, is in this very perfect spot of being young, you know, sort of decent tat setup, Luke, okay? Decent tat patterns going on there, but also be a guy with monster potential. He ain't afraid of shit. He fights so easy and smooth, Luke. I don't really know how great he can be, but there's no use in standing up here anymore and trying to, you know, decode against that because he's got momentum. He's no use in standing up here anymore and trying to decode against that because he's got momentum.

He's coming on, Luke. It's going to be fun watching how far he can go. I'll take the Kodo knee in round 10 here, Luke. I'll tell you, I was wrong, but I'm happy to be wrong here. I'd be curious to ask you what stood out as impressive. I think you alluded to one of the things, right? One is he's calm, very calm. He doesn't seem to get too high, too low, stays right in the middle.

That enables him to make good, sound decisions. That would be one thing I'd say. Two, his hand speed. His hand speed was noticeably super quick. Volkov looked like he was standing in mud in terms of his ability to move both his hands and his feet relative to Aspinall, who's so athletic and so quick and then the other one was we had talked about it on Friday ABC we're like he's got to make sure that he doesn't stand too far apart from Volkov or just give Volkov room to move on the backside either right so in either way that

has to be constricted I didn't know if necessarily that was going to be from the takedown but sure enough it was dude he got it no problem his entry entry was quick. Dude, with ease. So Luke. I got to say, you're right that we haven't seen him tested in the sense of someone put it on him and he had to respond like Paul Craig or something like that. That is true. But all the other pieces indicate to me we're dealing with somebody special here. Yes.

And he's so efficient at doing very high-level stuff, very powerful, quick stuff. And just, I mean, executing like a ninja out there for a guy, his size. And by the way, he has a legitimate heavy weight size at six, five and, and that build, but he does it so quickly, Luke, that I'm going, what the hell's wrong with Volkov? Like, did he have a seizure on the walk in here? Like what happened? And obviously Luke, it's that next level stuff that we even talked about ahead of this fight with him that is freezing his opponents and making them look stuck in the mud. Or, you know, it took me a second, third replay to go, oh yeah, dude, he would, you know, Volkov doesn't tap there, his arms. I mean, you're going to be, you can sell

it as a souvenir on the way out. So it really was all that subtle stuff coming together for Aspinall and guys are having a trouble picking up on the speed and the movement of his fastball, so to speak, Luke. They're having trouble figuring out exactly where this guy's coming from and what he's got. And again, I'm having that same trouble trying to analyze him, but you can tell it's something special. And perfect timing, again, for this movement to happen.

He's sort of one of the big faces of it at the moment. Although, you know, Dana said after he would have loved for this card to have been a pay-per-view with Usman Leon Edwards as the top. And, you know, you certainly couldn't hate on that as well. But, dude, Espinel took his opportunity, Luke, against a guy I didn't think he should have been favored to beat. And he beat the shit out of him, Luke. I mean, it wasn't a sustained beating because it was so quick and efficient. But, yeah, dude, he's just like, nah, no, it might be real. It might be real after all, Luke.

So all of our passionate MKUK fans and Irish fans, you know, you felt that. You know, you dog whistled that shit. You know what I mean? You were like those owls, owls,ls owls owls who know the storm's coming luke long time before the weathermen do and they're already preparing their exit strategy right uh i'm not sure if owls do that um but the question i would have is you thought and i agreed with you uh to a large extent on friday which was Volkov seemed like a really good test relative to where Aspinall had been previously.

What would you have liked to have seen that we didn't see? In other words, what we did see was limited. I mean, it was less than a round, but it was so conclusive that you can at least draw something from that. What would you have preferred to see that would make you better understand Tom Aspinall? What did Volkov fail to do? Yeah, so because Aspinall really is

some of these things that he's teasing, this next level sort of athleticism and flash, I think he's freezing these guys. Again, I didn't think Volkov was going to be at the level where that could affect him that well. So that's the big surprise for me from Aspinall. But what I would have liked is if Volkov did what I thought he was going to do which was stand in there and be able to trade and establish his jab and establish a kicking threat

which he did in the you know very beginning but but never did anything else of note after that of course but you want to see Luke Rollins for Asall, which was the only major glaring thing he hadn't yet to prove to us in his, in his run and still hasn't. So that's fair. But you would have liked to see him push there by having his ideas of taking the lead offensively and being that creative and efficient. I mean, again, we thought, Hey man, he might have to crowd. He might have to get inside that reach of Volkov. And like you said, Luke, he got inside that with ease, and took

him down with ease. We didn't see him have to adjust to being stopped, to having his plan A stopped, so that's what I would have liked to have seen, some of those intangibles that, you know, flashy fighters, if they don't have, they'll show you right up front, as soon as they step up.

This was that step-up opportunity, Luke, and we still didn't see shit shit because he's really that good, okay? I mean, he's really that good. Right now, Luke, I feel, tell me if you're wrong. And this does pivot into the what's next category because he did call out Ty Tuivasa. But as much as Tuivasa surprised the absolute shit out of us against Derek Lewis in terms of his Luke Thomas patented upper bound limits,

dude, I'm way more confident at Tom Aspinall's at this moment. I mean, he seems to, he didn't get into the sweet 16 of this tournament because he upset some people. Yeah, dude, this, you know what I'm saying? It might be. Dude, you know, I can't say that with full passion and confidence until he goes four or five rounds. But yeah, something special something special look am i drunk

on london right now i might be a little drunk but we're probably all a little bit drunk on london because the the atmosphere in the u.s you indicated the uk and ireland is just it's unparalleled it's unmatched especially on the boxing side but dude you know how good volkoff is you know how good he is luke and he is quite good yeah he's quite good he just ran past him I mean Tom Aspinall said something kind of funny later on which was I'm trying to remain a mystery like not that he's trying to finish fights faster than he ordinarily would so that people don't get tape on him

but yes the better the shorter the fights can be for him the better because he doesn't want to show everyone what he's got which I think is a good policy in certain respects although you know at some point there probably will be enough tape and that you can no longer really hide from that. But okay, the point I'm trying to make is here,

it always makes me think about what Jon Jones is up to, trying to bulk up to this weight class. And listen, I don't know how good he's going to be or how bad he's going to be or when he's going to come back or who he's going to fight. I mean, the questions are endless with him. But in terms of what you see from Tom Aspinall, the reason why I'm wondering if he should have pulled that trigger a while ago

is there's always beasts at the top of every division, even a thinner one like heavyweight. But these guys like Aspinall, man, these next generation of guys who fit into that weight class perfectly, who are athletically hand in glove with what you can use to both get ahead and make a name and lord over your opponent as BC dies from probably vaping when the camera's not on. Wow, sorry. Luke, that wasn't planned. Wow. You all right there?

Yeah, you know, I think maybe I should encourage the folks to actually stir their athletic greens, Luke, because you can catch a floater in there, Luke, okay? Yeah, you've got a couple tadpoles just swimming in your belly at this point. Yeah, I think I just gave birth in my mouth. It's really where you're going right now, Luke, okay? Yeah, you've got a couple tadpoles just swimming in your belly at this point. Yeah, I think I just gave birth in my mouth is really where you're going right now, Luke. I get it. It's almost like these 205ers are like,

and John's very different than every other 205er because he's the one who is basically undefeated in the weight class and overall, again, basically. But the one I'm trying to make here is trying to terraform your body to get right for a different weight class versus what you see are these guys who are athletically in a groove

in their natural weight class. Obviously, tactics can make up a big difference in strategy and talent, but he looks like he's got a lot of those too. I think he shakes up this division. We had kind of thought this was a gone Francis division, and I guess it is for the the moment and it could be for the future too i guess we'll have to see but dude between tuivasa and guys like this there's a lot of potential shake

up and stipe still out there too by the way and i was gonna ask you about yeah go ahead go ahead no well tuivasa or somebody else because i gotta tell you maybe it's too much too soon fair enough i gotta tell you i would love to much too soon fair enough i gotta tell you i would love to see an aspinall miochic fight i really would okay learn a lot from that that's where the direction i was going um i yes luke yes so the reason why that gets me excited to even peter brady my voice a bit is um i'm wondering you know if Aspinall ends up being everything he looks to be, and not only do we have to see him go five rounds, make adjustments, we've got to see if he has, to be fair, a steep A-level, you know, chin and toughness.

And by the way, if you're steep A-level on chin and toughness, you're probably one of the all-time greats because that's a major part of what makes steep A so great. But when I look at Aspinall Luke, I say to myself, if he ends up being everything he looks like he could be in a top shelf situation, dude, he's a more dynamic Stipe. So the idea of, all right, to really find out how good he is, could we do the tie two of us thing? Of course.

And it's, you know, it's Jon Jones versus Bader all over again in terms of like, you know, which one's going and coming and which one's, you know, just that step below. But, dude, how about we find out right now? Stipe's that—it's like two—it's the Spider-Man meme, Luke. I mean, I would be, you know, particularly concerned for Aspinall if that fight goes deep given Stipe's gas tank experience and toughness. But if he slays that beast, you just you just cut the line you know what i'm saying you just found your way to the head of the class and in some ways miocic is a really tough fight right because a he's steep a you know the most decorated heavyweight that we

have in the ufc's history he obviously is super well-rounded can play the levels as experienced as any fighter in the heavyweight division can get, not named Andrei Orlovsky, but even then you get the idea. But at the same time, Aspinall's athletic gifts make me think he could dart in and out, cut angles, and land on Miocic and put him away as well. There's a lot of different ways that could go. A fight like that, a fight like Tuivasa, I'm not saying it has no value. It has a ton of value.

But you've got two contenders on the rise. Putting them right together right now seems a little picture i guess the point i'm trying to make is i would like to see him go against someone who's got a little bit veteran experience on him let me judo chop and hedge it back at you could he still get a title shot off of knocking out tai tuivasa in your mind or is there still too much no there's too much uh it's too crowded at the top it that's too crowded there's that gone test that curtis blades test volkov is volkov is one kind of test and it's a very important super impactful

one all right there are other ones that also have to be answered as we know april 23rd is that tyson fury dillian white heavyweight boxing uh championship match between two UK, you know, stars. And they sold what, 90, they sold 90,000 tickets, Luke. And it's going to, you know, break, they're trying to break the Anthony Joshua most recent record. And of course the Carl Frotch record before that for outdoor stadium fights in that area. But, you know, Francis Ngannou versus Tom Aspinall for the heavyweight championship. I wonder if that's our first taste of UFC doing, you know, 80, 90 K. And it's like a fricking, you know, Woodstock over there, Luke.

And my question to you on that is, is it this group right now? And certainly we're going to talk Patty. We're going to talk, you know, meatball, everybody up and down that shine on this card. Is it just that? Or can the UFC commit up to two pay-per-views a year from this region and put anybody more or less, you know, pay-per-view worthy, main event, co-main event, and do stadiums on a regular if they wanted to? You know, what's the heat check on that area? Well, if you had Leon Edwards in the main

event with Kamaru for the welterweight title I think you could but if you had let's say Colby versus Jorge in London or something where two guys where it's not a belt on the line they're not from the area not from the country even what could they do I still think it would do really really well could they do 90,000 for that I don't think they could do 90,000 for that but for the right kind of fights and the right kind of card, they might be able to. They really might. The enthusiasm in that market is impossible

to deny or ignore. The right match... See, here's the thing. This was their first show back in three years. The next London show probably, it's all fair to say, probably won't be as good. This was something of a magical moment. So you're going to regress to the mean a little bit here. To get the kind of experience bc i think you got to stack it the right way not just any old thing i just think with with with ufc being on espn now and sometimes

there's strategic reasons why they should go earlier in the day because of that whether it's boxing having a monster card that same time or anything else you got more there's more reasons to do the afternoon pay-per-view, Luke. That's all I'm saying, okay? Luke, you know, they've been asking for years one of those unanswerable questions of who let the dogs out, but we're going to answer it now. It's going to be you right now, Luke.

You know what I'm saying? All right, point number two. Let's move along. Point number two, how about that co-main event? Because that was a brutal one as well, albeit a different kind. He's UFC's Gary Russell Jr. He's been fighting once a year and beating good competition the whole time we were wondering how he was going to look this time he looked amazing arnold allen dispatches with dan hooker in he did get dropped briefly or sent to a knee when he got overzealous in the pursuit. But other than that, it was one-way traffic.

BC, question for you. Was this the performance that Arnold Allen needed to start truly ascending into that top five, big fight, number one contender fights? Yeah, absolutely, Luke. Please let those dogs out, Luke, please. Absolutely, it was. And look, not only had he been fighting too infrequently,

the big question I posed ahead of this was he's been solid. He's been, you know, good to very good, but he hasn't been great. There's been decision after decision for the most part in that run, and he hasn't had his moment. Well, dude, this is your moment to do it in front of this crowd in this setting. Arnold Allen may be able to benefit,

and I say that because we get, he's a very good fighter with big potential but not overly I mean he's not Patty Pimblitt or you know he's not going forward in that level in terms of potential marketability but he may get huge opportunities and being placed high in huge cards after this type

of win it was the one he needed in terms of name recognition because when you've won a long streak you gotta sometimes really put that pipe fitters cone in terms of name recognition, because when you've won a long streak, you got to sometimes really put that, put that pipe fitters cone right on the top. Just put, just put that,

just, just, just fucking tighten that shit. This was that win against the name like Dan Hooker still, still holds up value. Although, you know, we're going in the wrong direction here, but still holds a value right now. But yeah, Luke, we haven't seen him that explosive. Now, I think if I can hedge my

enthusiasm just a bit, you know, Hooker's really gambling with this weight cut. You could tell, you could see physically, Luke, how he just barely seemed to make it. And I didn't like anything about his punch resistance and reaction to it. And that could easily just be because Allen was landing perfect shots and heavy shots, but we've seen a little bit more resilience, to say the very least, from Dan Hooker. So that compromised version of himself, which I believe to be in this not desperate but aggressive attempt to cut back down in weight and make another run at the top, version of himself, which I believe to be in this not desperate but aggressive attempt to cut back down and wait and make another run at the top. I think that played a factor in

Arnold Allen being allowed to look this spectacular. But did he need this? Hell yeah. Does he look like he's ready to find out how good he can be? Yes, Luke, let's find out. Let's match him against the very best. You get to pass that. You know, somebody asking afterwards, could you really deny arnold allen with another win if he wins 10 in a row dana for a title shot yeah of course you could unfortunately you could but um we're not there yet but we're going in that direction at the very least okay luke you got to do this now a couple times right yeah did you see the pictures of dan hooker at the weigh-ins yes yes i mean i can't describe

to you how thin that was other than to say that is literally not an exaggeration that is literally stage ready bodybuilder thin where they have reduced the amount of fat on their body to a very narrow you can only do it for a short window, like a few hours even, they have narrowed and removed as much fat and water from their body as humanly possible. You know, it's just, did he make the weight more safely than he has in the past? Certainly. Is that an optimal weight class for him? No. We'll talk about Dan Hooker in just a second, but getting back to Arnold Allen, part of the issue for me about why this fight was a great win for him, but I still

need to see more, is one, we still just don't maybe this is his first fight in 2020. Granted, it's March so we have plenty of time. I would really like to see him get another big fight against a big contender this year. That's the first part I'd say. But the second part was, you know, he didn't just beat Dan Hooker because Dan Hooker may have been compromised from the weight cut. I certainly think that

probably played a role. And also, by the way, all of the beatings he's taken over the years, I think that played a role. But dude, he was also tactically outgunned in this one. I mean, Dan Hooker has a tendency to paw with that jab a little bit and then kind of use it as a range finder or whatever. And they knew he was going to do that up front and they read it, I mean, a million miles away. as soon as that cross was extended i think it was the jab that was extended they lit him on fire right away i mean they had a game plan they executed it it was devastating initially again the weight cut and everything else didn't help dan hooker but dude it was the smarts and it was the strategy and it

was the approach from a thoughtful standpoint that that got that got uh yeah that win so some of what you're saying was they almost strategized for this exact ending, saying, look, he's making a tough cut, and he's going for it, but you don't have punch resistance, Luke, when you make ridiculously hard cuts like that. You don't. I mean, you look at how quickly Dillashaw crumbled against Cejudo. It was just like that shit was over right away.

That's the gamble you take in doing this. But, Luke, it did make Arnold Allen look like a killer. And he's got a couple more of these to prove that he actually is. You've got to maintain this level, this dominance on a regular. Can he? I don't know. But this is, again, the win he needed to be in this group of people from that area, Luke. Dude, they're coming on. They're coming on. They're coming on.

They're coming on. But I think you're right. It's like, listen, I don't know exactly what it means to beat Dan Hooker at 145 in 2022. I don't really have a clear, I mean, we know he's good at 155, but even there he's got some limits.

What is he at 145? We don't know. It's hard to say. So I think another one is needed. But beating a guy who was certainly at a bare minimum very quality at 155 and to do it the way he did is extremely impressive. I just think we need to see more. To me, that was the UFC being like, we've got this guy who's talented.

We've got to give him a fight that actually matters to people and matters certainly for that division on some level. And we need to see what he can do in this promotional moment. And everything came together on that level. But from a, does he beat Ortega? Does he beat Korean Zombie? Dear boy, does he beat Zabit? These are fights we still need to see,

if not those specifically, other ones like it. The big thing for me, though, is Hooker, man. Zabit would F him up, all right? Let's just be fair about that. He might, but who knows? The point I want to make is it's about Hooker, man remember after the edson barboza fight i asked dan hooker like dude are you not worried about taking all this damage and his answer was it's not boxing where it's just waist up or you know 70 of the punches or all the strikes total go to the head and you

get these severe brain damage issues that we don't have as many of those in mma there actually is some data to support that that there is a distribution of punishment that somewhat narrows the amount of brain injury. There's obviously a lot more study that needs to be done. There is something to that. On the other side of things, BC, on the other side of things, your body cannot absorb dramatic weight cuts

and then beatings like he had in the, for example, he got knocked out against Michael Chandler,andler which is not a beating but it was you know ferocious the poirier fight the felder fight and you know the barboza fight where you're taking exuded damages your muscles it damages your ligaments why we wait for it yo he got the shit beat out of him in the probably delivered it well he delivered it too but he got know, that was a grueling fight. But dude, here's the thing. I think a guy like that can travel from New Zealand on a Tuesday and then make a weight cut on a Friday or even a Wednesday, and then he can put himself to 145 and then he can not feel this abuse and whatever.

There are these guys who can turn off all the mechanisms in their body that get them to stop doing things that are either difficult or in some cases risky come with pain difficulty he has completely shut that off but the problem is now that he shut that off there is still these other issues you have to tackle on the other side namely yeah all of the damage that actually inhibits performance even if you have mentally said i'm not going to succumb to it your body will make choices for you and it does appear that's where he is now. How worried are you about the future of Dan Hooker at only 32 years old? Yeah, very worried for everything you just said.

When you do that, when you, like, I wouldn't call his actions the last couple of years desperate necessarily, but he was like almost on tilt in the direction of like, this is my prime, this is my window. Like whatever it takes, I'm going to prove it to you. I mean, it's, I hate to say it, you know, it's kind of, it's similar, but at a, at a higher, more elite level to what Kevin Lee's been going through of late. I don't consider their past the same thing, but it's sort of like, okay, this is the fight I'm going to show you. And you know, he bought time with that Naz, Naz, uh, with that has

Hawk per ass fight. Look, I will nail that name. One of these days, um, he bought time with that, but I don't, you know, you can, it's hard for me to sit here and financially given how much it costs to go through an elite training camp. And, you know, in theory, how underpaid for what they're worth, these guys are when you get to Dan Hooker's level. So it's hard for me to say, man, you should take a year off and retool. I don't know if you can even afford to do that, Luke, but he needs an extended break, in my opinion, to let the wear and tear the grind. And he put himself in the coffee grinder extra, extra the last two, three years. If you don't do that, Luke, you're going to end up Henning Barau or even a Michael Johnson where, like, we know it's in you, but you end up becoming that tough-ass journeyman who takes more L's than W's but puts on a really good fight and performance.

And, you know, that's still a high level of professional fighter, and you can make a good living that way despite the physical receipt you'll take on. But Dan Hooker, true or false, Luke, and I think you're going to say true, he's shown at times legitimate title top end of this sport potential. So it's hard to just say, okay, just, yeah, go back to it, bro. Go ahead. You're going to make us fun fights. You'll win some, you'll lose some. Keep going.

No, I want to see him take a break, retool. And if there's one more run, Luke, if there's one real run at 155 for him to figure out how great he's going to be, I think he only gets there by stepping away for a bit and letting everything air out and, you know, retool. God, change your team. I'm not saying you have to, and I'm not saying that's the team team's fault but this is the time to do that in your career this is the time to you know to be uh to be more efficient you could be just just as aggressive in your decision making but you have to be efficient with them too Luke and I don't think he's being that I think there's a skills issue honestly we know he's tough we know he can get into two different weight classes if you can get into two different weight classes and we know you're tough,

and he obviously is skilled. He's not like some low-level fighter. To your point, he has shown us some real flashes of brilliance. But if you're coming up short and you're changing weight classes and you're finding all these different avenues to maximize physical effect or whatever the case may be, and you're still coming up short, getting submitted quickly by Islam, who's no chump. He's very, very good.

Losing to our own Allen, very, very good. Paul Felder, Dustin Poirier, these are all good guys. But the cumulative weight of it is there need to be more skills to win. Period. There just need to be more skills to win. So to your point, that's the one thing I would say is backing up a little bit and saying, at 32, I'm not like, I shouldn't be over the hill by now. And then working on game development to the extent possible.

The other thing I would say, BC, is you don't hear this as much in boxing. And I wonder what you feel about MMA. Every time I see a young-ish fighter take a beating, like an Ortega or even Hooker as a young-ish against Poirier, I have so many people after the fact tell me, okay, but they'll recover, they'll be fine. There's this weird current in MMA where everyone's like,

yeah, sure, that was bad, but that was bad for that night. Don't underestimate how tough they are. Folks, it does not necessarily matter how tough you are. Your body, whether you want it to go a certain distance or whether you want it to do things,

it has limits. It has physical limits. And if you take a beating like you do in that Edson Barboza fight where the commentators are screaming for the referee to stop it, that bill is going to come due. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next month, maybe not next year, but it will happen.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. The beating you take on one end, even if you get a win, the balance of that you'll have to pay a little bit later on. I don't know exactly where a guy like Hooker is because of all these changes, The balance of that, you'll have to pay a little bit later on. I don't know exactly where a guy like Hooker is because of all these changes. And again, he's fighting only elite guys. I think a dial back an opponent is probably merited here, BC. But my only point is this instinct in MMA to not be aware of how a single beating connects to later performance or later life quality. Forget even just the fight itself and the profession there is this massive ignorance about it because we just want to believe these

guys can mentally out tough the limits of things they can to a pretty strong degree but there are also things they cannot work past and when those bills come due there is nothing you can do about it that's something my liver constantly reminds me of speaking of free lunches right constantly it reminds me yeah hey look quickly for your health purposes i know how much we love athletic greens if they came out with a um plant-based vape cartridge would you uh no i'm trying to cut down on the vapes i'm trying to cut down i'm trying to um get rid of it so hopefully by next couple weeks i'll stop that's i'll say in hindsight in terms of my favorite mistake of your life and career, it was just

my favorite. Look, this is the season, vape season, S-E-N. It was a nice little quarter of 2022. Hopefully it won't last longer than that. Alright, point number three. This guy was where all the attention was headed at. Aspinall was your main event and certainly Arnold Allen had a lot going for him as well. But the big

attraction, I think, on the card, certainly in terms of where fans have the most amount of intrigue and even questions would be Paddy Pimblitt and he you know didn't start out in the first minute all that great but it ended pretty well for him after that in fact I would say he beat Kazula Vargas with relative ease okay BC we know he's due for an upgrade an opponent I think at that point after Saturday it's pretty clear that was a nice two fight test run he got in UFC third one needs to be a step up but did you learn anything new about Paddy Pimblitt from this win yeah I mean look the the you know I mean getting a submission win when there's this many questions about know his skill set his defense

his decision making at times too like like Luke I say this about Ryan Garcia in boxing right I think Garcia is a little bit more talented than Pimblitt but you can argue Pat he's got a brighter you know commercial uh future but when Ryan Garcia loses it's going to be spectacular he's going to get splattered Luke it's going to be spectacular hold on real quickly why would why would you i just i'm just curious about ryan garcia because i haven't seen him as much as you what have you seen very quickly from ryan garcia that makes you think that when that right matchup comes along it's going to be curtains the combination of not moving your head enough for an elite fighter mixed with a natural want, especially when hurt, to want to stand in the pocket and let that shit go.

Brian Garcia is going to have spectacular knockout wins, and he eventually is going to have a, you know, a mere con level, just fuck fleecing, just fucking, you know, tornado came through and tore up the town type of moment. So Patty Luke inevitably is going to catch that L. The question is, you know, because look, we have the debate about the matchmaking. No matter what we think, Luke, it's going to be a little bit slower than everyone else. And to your point last week, you know, it's probably the smart decision. I mean, Luke, he is a crowd activator of the very rare level. I mean,

is some of it corny? Is some of it aimed at getting us 40 something year old dad sort of going, I like the spunk, but he's kind of an asshole. Yeah. I mean, it's all over the map, Luke, in terms of the emotions it's going to create. But dude, this is the straw that's stirring the larger drink. You know, Aspinall certainly has a much immediate higher ceiling to bring the Michael Bisping level of honor and glory back to this. Aspinall was headlining that card for a reason. He's significantly more advanced than Patty Pimlin. But Patty has, I mean, Luke, it's cliche and obvious to say he's got second-rate poor man's McGregor written all over him.

Yes, without question. But that shit works when you're this pre-wired to be a shameless star in this reality TV slash influencer era. He knows what we say about the Paul brothers, Luke. We say, love them or hate them, they know what the fuck they're doing. This guy does too, Luke. But bro, cue up 311 in their fourth studio LP,

Transistor, Luke. It's going to be a beautiful disaster when they peel him off the canvas on the elite level. The question is, how long does it take till we get there, Luke? Right. I mean, this is the point about waiting. It's like, OK, they gave him two fights in the UFC that were very manageable and he managed them. And in fact, I thought it was really good. I know he's been working with Justin Flores, who's a great judo coach.

And, you know, that that trip that Harai goshi from the clinch that you can literally go on justin flores's instagram and you can see patty pimble at working all of these things so like dude the guy's talented he's around good people he's gonna beat good fighters um and i don't know what his upside is but this is why you give him easy fights for now again i think the next one should be graduated a little bit but if you just think about it rationally what is the space between his first and second fight however many months months that is, that's another camp. That's another amount of fights he got to go and train and work and train. You get more time to work on these things while you're developing your brand,

while you're beating good fighters, while you're getting in cage time. And I made this point before. Either he's going to graduate to a level where there are no longer fights that you can hide from, or he won't. He won't be good enough to get there. Either way, this approach at least guarantees the maximum chance that he could get someplace. So from the fight itself, you know, uh, he was on the ground. I thought he did a pretty good job protecting himself. The one thing I would say, BC, that I had noticed from him, what I thought was good was the throw, obviously moving to the back when his opponent made a mistake and trying to sit up the way he did. Hand fighting, switching sides was great. Like his back work and

his back control might be the best part of his game. He's very, very good from there, right? And you saw that. The two things that concerned me, again, not a huge deal, but just things to work on was one, he did get popped right up against the fence and you saw his mop go way back. And I was like, striking defense is still a bit of an an issue and the other one was he kind of took the underneath position and rolled there when he was in this kind of scrambly moment with vargas and it's like that was fine here and in fact i would consider that a mistake by vargas that and a good call by pimblitt but what i would say is as you graduate levels of opponents that no longer becomes a good suggestion or a good idea. For example, if you're fighting a guy who's got one pro fight,

kind of taking it to him early when they are at their maximum like eyes wide open kind of moment and they can be shell-shocked, going after them quickly makes sense. Doing that against, like I say, Volkanovski would be a very bad move. So some things to work on. He looked fine. I think the approach is working, and I think for now there's no reason to stop. And he's a brewing magician and that sounds corny and

stupid, but here's what I mean by that. Part of the McGregor rise. I always talk about the magic, Luke. There was a magic, an element of luck, almost like, you know, like it was written and like it was supposed to happen. How the hell did it happen? There was some of that, but you have to be really good to execute that level of momentum and control it and shoot it out at the TV screen and knock Jose Aldo out cold with the first strike you land. There's a little bit of that in Patty from the standpoint of, you're right, he's skilled enough in certain areas you either wouldn't expect or you might

question. It's like, I can see the holes in his game. I'm sure potential opponents without question are licking their chops because they can see it. But like McGregor on the rise, there's a next level thing in there that he can rise to the moment. And even after taking some damage, get a win that maybe you can argue he shouldn't, but it's because some of the skills that make him good are spread out in different areas. You know what I'm saying? So that's why it's so fun in watching journeys like this because you're like, man, I know the bottom's going to fall out, but when?

Until those credit card bills come due, how big can we live it up, right? You know what I'm saying, Luke? So, dude, I don't like the gimmick, but am I feeling it? Did I catch a second hand? I don't like his gimmick. I don't like his gimmick either. It does nothing for me. Like, I'm not a fan in that way.

I don't hate or like. It doesn't move me. And I was never a fan of McGregor's stick either. But two things I would say, and you know this is true. One, being an asshole to some people while your hometown fans love you, that's great for business. It's great for business, number one. Number two, it's not for us to know or appreciate or like or dislike.

It's for the fans. It's for the next generation of people. It's for the folks from Liverpool and all the people that like him and even folks stateside of course but we're two 40 year 42 something year old dads like what we think about it is you know in terms of oh I like it I dislike it it's irrelevant you know yeah but I'm saying like people are gonna under people are gonna underestimate him he's gonna end up with a couple of those wins that, that you're like, you know, I saw no way he was going to be that guy. Yes,

yes, yes. Oh, you know what? I got an email about this. I got an email about this over the weekend. You are so right. And the guy was like,

okay, I agree with the approach of slow rolling Patty, but the problem is, and he's right that until he proves something like beats a real quality opponent, like no, no, no denying him,

right? Like a McGregor over Mendez, you can say whatever the fuck you want. Short notice. That's a quality opponent. Like, no denying him, right? Like, McGregor over Mendez. You can say whatever the fuck you want, short notice. That's a quality opponent he beat. Until he does that, we're going to have to hear about all the people he thinks he can beat and all his supporters think he can beat. And we're just going to have to sit here and tolerate it. And it's going to be crazy.

He can beat, you know, just name somebody that's impossibly difficult to beat. Yes, there will be some of that. But that's going to raise his marketing appeal. When he loses, that will be lorded over him. Or if he wins, that'll be used to call him mystic Patty. Either way, the game will resolve itself in terms of its truth functioning over time. And that's why you, that's why we got to give his stick the respect it deserves in terms of it's working. And Luke, he makes the, he takes the emotion and energy of a schoolyard fight and brings that to, you know, elite ish level MMA at the highest promotion.

And I think that's sort of the the hook, that flavor. It's like, you know, momentum swings, a lot of emotion. It's like, look, remember, like school fights always had that built in like ending and you never knew it could be three seconds. It could be a minute and a half. But like rarely did they go on referee unstopped right you know a couple times in the wrong area of the school some kids got the shit beat out of them luke but most of the time it's a quick one and patty's like that perfect like undersized school brawler who's like if that fight with wasn't stopped he'd get the ship kicked out of him. But does he have enough skill, chin, balls,

daringness in that window before the teachers or security get there to maybe land some big shots on somebody and come away the victor? Yeah, he does, Luke. I don't know if that matters at the end of the day, but it's sure fun to watch. Okay. Damn glad to meet you. Stop sitting on your aeroplane points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in Aeroplan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends february 23rd book at air canada.com conditions apply all right we move on now uh i did have an extra credit i guess i'm gonna have to record it after i travel from my fucking hotel room but what are you gonna do uh we'll talk about molly mccann

muhammad mccive we'll talk about uh jack shore we'll talk about, oh, the McCann knockout, as I mentioned. There's a bunch of them we're going to get to. Yeah, you may see some of these people on Have You Seen This Shit, Luke. It's possible. Yeah, okay. Point number four, BC. We'll move on from UFC London again. I'll circle back to it a little bit later in the next podcast.

But Conor McGregor made some news, BC. And this one, I'm not sure what to say about it. I'm very curious to hear what you have to say about it so over the weekend it came out that he was sort of talking about getting back to action and you know all the stuff there

he says he wants a title fight when he comes back against Kamaru Usman and here's what he wrote BC myself vs Usman for the 170 pound title in my comeback fight is the one I'm eyeballing at the minute. Why cut the weight? I've already won at 155. I got myself to a lightweight frame. But you know, I'm big now. I feel big. I feel strong. I feel healthy. I've got good energy. I'm coming back from a gruesome injury. I don't want to be depleting myself.

There should be no need to deplete myself. Okay, exception of the Usman part, I'm on board with all that. That sounds actually pretty reasonable to me. Here's where it goes off the rails. And I feel confident against Usman, a jab-happy, sloppy, orthodox wrestler with no submissions whatsoever. What's he going to do? Where's the danger here? I don't see danger. No one has ever obtained three titles in three divisions like I will do if we make this fight.

Now, he is right. He'd be the first one to capture three UFC weight class titles. BC, where's the danger here? Do you see it? Yeah. I mean, look, that kind of attitude is going to get him knocked the fuck out. And Luke, inevitably, when, I don't say if, when these two fight, maybe to close this year, you know, he probably will get stopped. But the whole

point is, Luke, here's the deal. The history of this, I mean, he's going to be the first person to attempt this, let alone do it, you know, which the odds would be against him, of course. But like, that's the biggest power move he has left, right? You know, if he looks in his tool belt of what uncashed lottery tickets are there, right? It's like the third Nate fight, of course. Maybe Masvidal. And probably one or two others that we're not even thinking of in the moment. Maybe Holloway a second time. There's money fights left.

But which one of those gives him the chance at bringing back the legend? Rewaking the aura that's kind of dead. I mean, the aura is still there. The aura will still kick your ass if you're not careful, but the chance to just get right back to where he was in the peak, not ability wise, but in terms of like star value and critical respect. I mean, if he pulled off this upset, Luke, it's as if the last five years didn't happen in terms of what became of his

MMA career so I think he's just one of those adrenaline junkies who's like okay if I lose who cares it's not even my weight class I'll talk you into thinking it's my weight class right now but I know it's not and I may need this scare that Usman does bring he's the pound for pound king he's on his way to figuring out if he's if he's going in that upper, upper room, right? I mean, it's freaking legit as shit. I wonder if Conor's like, I need that scare to get out of bed and really give it everything I have left, Luke.

So maybe that's part of the motivation, Luke. Maybe that is the motivation, dude. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I mean listen if if he's saying these things that he knows to either be true or a false rather and then or some version of an exaggeration you're just saying incendiary things to get a fight and then on top of it adding this sort of layer of history like hey not only would I beat this guy but I would be the guy for a weight class title in a way that no one else in UFC history ever, ever has. And again, he was the first in UFC to wear two belts simultaneously.

So this would be, you know, very much in keeping with his tradition. And again, BC, the other part is, you know, this as well as I do, listen, the difference between, um, a fighter daring to be great and a fighter being absolutely batshit insane is thin, very thin. There's a very thin difference between a guy motivating himself and achieving true greatness, and saying outrageous shit that's utterly indefensible in pursuits of similar kinds of goals. To me, the calibration's a little bit off, although to your point, it could be a function of just trying to get the fight, whatever.

But assuming he actually believes that, yes, I think he has gone way too far in dismissing the quality of the opponents and assessing him so he had two fights with poirier and look what that did to him i mean you know well in his mind lukeman would thrash him oh he oh hell yeah but in his mind luke if he knows deep inside because look this is what he's about this is this is the history of cotton mcgregor right taking big chances not caring about the risk just believe you know again whether that's what it takes to get him to the best version of him or not but like dude if he would if he pulled this upset off like he knows

that's his argument for the rest of his life to say i'm the greatest fighter of all time now we wouldn't necessarily although I don't want to even predict that because if, if he knocked out Usman, I mean, it would, it would wake a lot of things back the fuck up, Luke. Okay. I mean, we would, it would, it would awaken a lot of conversations, but you know, could I think that that makes him the goat? No, not necessarily, but that's the kind of currency you need to get to that table, to have the argument and make that chance. So he might be thinking, Luke, my window's closing of my prime, so let's do it now.

This is the very best of what I have left. Coming off that injury, retooled mentally. It's not going to happen two years from now. It's got to happen right now. And, Luke, tour falls here. As much as his brand, I wouldn't say it's dangling, but it's not going to happen two years from now. It's got to happen right now. And Luke, to our faults here, as much as his brand, I wouldn't say it's dangling, but it's damaged. It's damaged at the moment. It's damaged.

I mean, you can still get a lot out of a damaged brand this good. Look at the second half of Mike Tyson's career. Like, no question about it. But I don't think he loses a ton by getting knocked the hell out by Kamaru Usman. We just go at the end of that, okay, that challenge was what we thought it was. You entertained us to get here. And, oh, by the way, maybe Kamaru's got one more step closer to being the actual GOAT. Right.

And I would say this, though. The one caveat to that is, again, if he's trying to do this because he knows his time is limited or whatever, and he's just trying to see, like, what needle could I thread to get the most out of this out of what's left then fine all that is totally again say what you want do what you want i'm just saying if people out there are hearing this and thinking that like yeah would usman versus connor be competitive no it would not it would be really bad for connor what i would say though is if he gets knocked out on the feet that carries a certain amount of significance but here's the thing i do think is true bc if he gets like taken down and then just brutally ground and pounded

instead of a round or two or something like that, I don't think that does much damage to the Jake Paul fight that's potentially there for him as well. I don't know what Jake Paul's doing. We haven't heard from him. I don't know if he's going to box Tommy Fury or whatever the hell he's going to do. It doesn't do any damage because Luke...

Well, if he gets knocked out on the feet, I still think that fight is big. Please don't misunderstand me. What I'm saying is you get taken down by a big 170 wrestler and you get pounded out you can just say well you know Icarus got too close to the sun whatever absolutely I mean if he gets one punch like Masvidal and he's out cold that's a bad look still semi-recoverable but that's a bad look but Luke I don't believe he considers submission losses as actual losses. So in this case, Luke,

gassing out is just like, I didn't get the knockout in time, let's rematch. That's what it is. He seems to genuinely believe when I have energy, I'm better than everyone else. That's what matters. Who's the best when we all have energy? It's like, well, that's one way to look at it,

but not the whole way to look at it. All right, BC, last but not least, speaking of the hype train starting to slow, Edgar Berlanga fought on top rank at the Madison Square Garden Theater, I believe, over the weekend. He fought Steve Rolls. We talked about this on Friday.

Now, Berlanga was this guy who came out 16 first fights 16 first round KOs I mean he looked like the next Puerto Rican star times a billion and then in his last three I believe he has looked very pedestrian relatively speaking now in his last fight not the one on Saturday the one prior he had a biceps injury which he still won with so okay he's obviously a tough dude he can box a little bit but dude this was a to me a decision for berlanga or berlanga and i didn't i don't feel like that's super controversial dude he should have knocked this guy out a lot earlier and roles actually had some moments in this fight are you now off the hype train of Berlanga being the next Puerto Rican boxing star? Long term, too early to tell, but this is a gigantic blow to his short-term momentum

and the idea of him being a headliner. I mean, look, on paper, this was not a competitive matchup. Steve Rolls is 37. He only stepped up to the highest level once and got steamrolled by Triple G. And did he fight defensive and and just try to survive in this fight yeah he did so and he had moments in doing that so um this was that type of performance where where there's issues he's 24 he blew those guys away i talked in the preview of this fight that you know i just think that's going to hinder him that the celebrity level he got to as a result of the first round knockout scheme was, you know, streak was always destined to have a price to pay for it.

Okay, you get Fat Joe in your corner. And by the way, it was hilarious. Hilarious in that video. Somebody was interviewing Fat Joe as he was walking. And he was like, yes, when Steve Rolls fought Triple H, he fought way more aggressive. Like, your excuse can't be, we didn't look great because our opponent was defensive and circled away. It can't be at this level.

And, Luke, the problem is they're overloading his circuits right now, meaning they're course-correcting the two decision wins he had after that knockout streak ended. And let's not forget, that second one, he tore his left biceps, right, and fought most of that fight with that and then needed surgery, and he got dropped in that fight. So they course-corrected that so hard by overloading his corner. He's not only got his dad, he's got former boxer Mickey Bay as a second assistant.

He's got Kay Caroma, who is like a stud a technical coach former us team usa coach like amateur background this area right yeah yeah absolutely he's with a lot of pro fighters today either as their head trainer or as their like consultant and then they also have got um you know rosier uh andre rosier as like danny jacobs's uncle and trainer as like the lead guy and you saw in between rounds luke in the corner dude there's like three different messages coming at him. He's fighting. Like he doesn't know who he should be. They're trying to teach him how to box. And it's not that he doesn't know he was an amateur and, you know, and had success, but he's a puncher Luke. And he's an aggressive puncher. And they're trying to slow him down because he's still early enough and teach some of these things that is not of his nature to master.

Would you love him to be a well-rounded fighter? Of course, you'd love any fighter to. Some guys never get there, by the way, and still are champions. Some guys get there eventually through experience and start to round out their game. They're trying to put too big of a download on him. And I think he was unsure. He didn't know what to do at times his punch output was badly low did he land the better shots and outclass steve rolls in the important moments for the most part yes he deserves a decision win here

but six rounds to four is probably the best score luke and against steve rolls who dude is i'm sorry he didn't come running at you, but you should be able to walk this guy down. And by the way, again, shout out to Andre Ward and Timothy Bradley on that top-ranked ESPN broadcast. You may not always agree with what they say, but they are passionate, and they are real, and they're not afraid to

call out the house fighter, right? And they did. They're like, look at Berlanga, not cutting off the ring, just following this guy around. If they go forward with this model of him, Luke, it's broken. This model's broken. He's going to get found out by somebody, probably outboxed, right, and lose a clean decision. I think you just, you got to go back to like, look, what are his strengths? He's a slugger.

He's a puncher and he believes in his power and he wants to be great. Live and die with that, Luke. I don't need a reckless barbarian but I need more David Benavidez out of this guy than I need trying to box from the outside yeah I basically agree with that it's like I'm not saying that there's not a case for continuing to improve in all areas for every for every boxer for all these guys even Canelo there's the fine-tuning working on the game adding things, all the things we understand that fighters do between camps and over the years.

But what I would say is that you're right. They have altered him. It's a little Johnny Walker-ish, right? Good call. Good call. This guy had a very limited game where it wasn't the best game, but the good side of it was overwhelming. Now they've dialed some of that back to improve

his defense, which, okay, better, but the offense is now muted. And the other part, BC, is you know this as well as I do. There are two different kinds of fighters. There are the kinds who take advantages of openings, and then there are the kinds that create openings and then take advantage of them. And Berlanga is very much in the former for now and not the latter. Those two things are not great if that's the permanent state of things so either it has to get much better on this new path or i think to your point be like listen what was the thing that got us here to the dance let's just ride that as far as we can i don't know if that's a good idea for his brain health but i mean he's not a main eventer if he's not going

out there to finish guys he's not a main eventer he's not right now and and and you know i think he's i think he wants the smoke too badly where there's no like you can keep matching him tough but just let him be him is what i'm saying he might win he may lose probably gonna win more than he's gonna lose luke because he does have a you know he's i mean it's not a bad boxer by any means there was just indecision and lack of execution here that was you you know, and again, you can only, even at 24, I mean, he's been boxing since he was real small, Luke. So you still can't just alter the beast and not expect there to be issues from that, you know?

Yeah. Also, I mean, I'm not around Edgar. We don't know, but like he does seem to, and I'm not saying he doesn't put in the work. It seems like he does, but the fact that you've got fat Joe blowing you up and you look at his Instagram and it's all like huge chains and I'm around, you know,

on well, and all these other guys. And even on the front of his trunks, he was sponsored by a reggaeton singer do you think daddy jenny definitely seems to like the celebrity he likes the celebrity trappings that come with a side boxing so to speak does that make sense yeah and do you think daddy jenky knows who he is i'm certain he does i think they uh he uh daddy yankee visited him when he was training once he put that on oh shit yeah no dude dude he attracts the celebrity clientele here but um he had he had

who am i talking about he had malo conejo backstage who is that i don't know bad bunny bitch somebody who's huge in your household i'm i'm sure luke no he had he took pictures who's huge in your household, I'm sure, Luke. No. He took pictures. He was another Puerto Rican music star and now television. I saw him in Narcos. Bad Bunny was with him backstage, too. You know what I mean? Yeah, WWE superstar, Bad Bunny. Yes, yes. WWE superstar, Bad Bunny.

That's right. I'm just saying there's a lot of that going on around him, and that's growing a lot. I'm not seeing the other part of the game growing, and Mayweather was always good about doing both. You know what I mean? So something to keep in mind for the future. All right.

That is it for our top five. Now it is time. Do you guys want to mention Nate Diaz wanting to fight on Bellator? We'll do it in the odds and ends. We'll do it odds and ends. All right. Now it's time for when the donks get to ask us questions. It's time for when the donks get to ask us questions it's time for dm hee haw hee haw we put up a instagram post every sunday y'all fill it up the producers

pick them and then we answer them and y'all's first things first y'all's better bring your a game to this bitch yeah whores all right with sean o'malley and Patty Pimblitt refusing to fight top 15 competition until they are more highly compensated could this matchmaking refusal potentially be a more common tactic for fighters with hype to use to gain leverage in contract negotiations over their respective promotions what do you think BC yes as of right now they've figured out I don't want to call it a loophole but it's kind of, look, what Sean O'Malley is doing is interesting. It's just saying, I'm not going to challenge myself unless you reward me for it. And oh, by the way, I know when my contract ends, I'm going to test the free market while I'm still 27. Right. So like there is that thread in there, Luke. So could that leverage, you know, lane be shut by some decision by the UFC or counter move? We'll see. But I think that's the direction we are going, Luke.

A more, a slow, tell me true or false, Luke. I'm not predicting the erosion of UFC. I mean, they deliver, dude. The numbers financially just boom. Rightfully so, dude. That's a product that delivers. But a little bit of the old boxing way is going to start to creep in the more that they make some of the decisions that they make whenever you make

short-term financial decisions there's there's typically a long-term trail you know of change the it's not only it's easy to say the more fighters get what they deserve matchmaking, the less control of matchmaking could alter the product a little bit, of course but even on the road there Luke we're seeing more of the boxing feel and control we just saw Eddie Hearn and Dana

ringside loving it up and trading paint Luke, you know what I mean? it's it feels inevitable in that regard. I just, I mean, for fans who are, and only been around the last few years, I cannot explain to you how strange this all is, that MMA and boxing are now beginning to,

it's still very nascent stages, even post Mayweather McGregor. But it's like, dude, this love fest where the heavy Anthony Joshua is showing up to ufc fights and ufc fighters are walking out you know uh lawrence okoli and all this other stuff like this mma boxing crossover thing this was the exact opposite not too long ago and this incredible melding of worlds is not in every way good but in most ways pretty, pretty great. I bring this up to say, dude, these guys are going to see how the boxing guys,

even if they have a different model and different rules and different legislative protections, they're going to see how they structure their incentives and how they respond to them. And they're going to start doing as much of that,

not all of it to your point, as much of that as they can. Here's the thing. For a guy like Sean O'Malley and Patty Pimblitt, I don't think this will meaningfully change a whole lot about how much they get here's the thing for a guy like Sean O'Malley and Patty Pimblitt I don't think this will meaningfully change a whole lot about how much they get paid in the end because there's too much control of the industry for management however you may no longer hear stories like this

where if you talk to Gray Maynard and he's talking about making 17k for one of the Edgar fights you won't see a lot of that from those guys. In other words, the pay doesn't go up, but I'm not fighting that motherfucking, you know, number three, number two guy in the world for early pay contract. I'm going to get that later on when I've had more. So the pay won't necessarily increase any faster,

but you're going to be able to run through a contract against opposition where you're not like hey i had to fight number five guy in the world and i took an enormous beating even if i got the w for 30 40 50k i think those things might start going away yeah yeah all right from b nastin b nastin yeah wood period the liberty wrote wood period'd rather be stuck in a football field with Tom Aspinall for one hour or in the octagon with Arnold Allen for 10 minutes. Now, when they say football field, BC,

do they mean soccer or do they mean American football? I mean, even if they mean soccer, the point is, you know, the grounds of a stadium for an hour trying to run away from Tom Aspinall or surviving 10 minutes as Arnold Allen sits on your chest and just batters you, Luke. Can I just quit after the first minute? I mean, yeah. Can I tap? I mean, I got gotta go vape i got this isn't this isn't impinging my ability to uh infringing on my ability to go uh vape yeah uh you know bj once told gsp only a

bitch taps out on strikes luke but he also didn't answer the bell for the last round when they fought fair fair enough i don't know maybe that's why he's still handing out receipts at the Lava Shack, Luke. Okay? He's running for governor, which is... Yes. Yes, he is. Okay. At Jakey underscore D19.

This could be our Jake. Who knows? Why isn't there more hype surrounding Jack Shore? You see, he beat Timur Valeev, dropped him twice in the third round. Why isn't there more conversation about him? I think there's only so many things you can buy from the hype store right now. And right now, there's a lot of fighters

with hype all around them, not just most of the people on this UK card, which was the biggest bank of a UFC fight night card in history for the UFC. I mean, it's just... Dude, again, this opened. You heard Dana's voice after. You saw that shit-eating grin.

We're going to do stadium soon, okay? That's what Dana and Eddie are talking about. You got to believe that. So it's just the beginning, Luke, to where that's going right now. What was the spirit of the question again? You know, I got off an exit. Jack Shore. Oh, Jack Shore.

I mean, dude, he was, you know know you could make a case that he's you know you could make case he's more impressive than than than some of the other fighters who are getting more uh more herald at the moment dude he 100 is better than several main card winners i mean is he really the welsh gsp luke i i don't like see i don't like when white guys wear those in boxing or mma wear the skirt shorts i don't know why they just looks lame dude like you can only wear the skirt shorts if you can pull it off hector macho camacho luke paulie malinaggi i have the fight here was he wearing skirt shorts he was wearing those more are they muay thai ones or no they're like the tie he was ready he was wearing the board shorts but he just did the bit where they cut him up the scene yeah side dude i can't take fighters seriously winning that it's not like there haven't been a many fighters who will knock you the fuck out while wearing that

and that's cool but i can't take him seriously luke okay outside of that he's got poised he seems to have execution he had a you know he had a fight through this win here too um why is he not getting the next level of attention? I just think there's a... Dude, say it right now, Luke. There's the most amount of potential future star and champions than I ever remember there being. And a lot of that is because of Dagestan and the associated area, of course.

But, dude, I feel like everyone under the age of 26 right now is coming on, Luke. I think that the reason why he hasn't gotten as much praise is because, one, he's in a division where, you know, Bantamweight. It's like, is Jack Shore good? Yeah, he's really good. But Bantamweight is just a fucking murderer's row at the moment. So you've got to really start beating some name opponents in that division before people start paying attention. Also, this wasn't the jack shore show this was the patty show the tom aspinall

show something of a liverpool show with molly mccann as well you know this was this was a card designed to promote the interests of other fighters his two but just not in the same kind of way so yeah he just as i said the hype store the hype store was sold out if you're looking for the jerk store it's around the corner ask for luke you know what i'm saying i mean that's right i'm not only a fan a member of the fan club i'm also a president but yes but in all seriousness bc i do think this i watched the tape on him we're going to include him for uh extra credit dude he he's better than a lot of people on that main card. A lot of people. Molly McCann, her win, we'll talk about this on Extra Credit.

Her win is, I talked to the guy behind MMA Rising, Robert Sargent, who's been following almost exclusively women's MMA for longer than anybody else I know. And I asked him, where does that knockout rank among all-time women's MMA knockouts? He said it has a case for number one. At worst, number three. But the point I'm trying to make here is what Jack Shore did

against an opponent the quality of Valeev, because Valeev is a significantly more difficult challenge than Karolina. As good as her knockout was, again, one of the literally historic, literally a historic knockout i still think jack short to me stands out a little bit more in terms of his upside because he has so many things dialed in from a fundamental standpoint i really believe he can do special things if he just changes the short the short patterns he's going to go to the top without question luke what do you put in that conversation quickly of the greatest female knockouts of all time are you putting andrage versus kalvulkevich are you putting rose versus whaley are you putting

holm rousey what about that irene aldana one what do you got luke i think holm rousey is on there um holly holm taking on who was it this uh from lfa no no no uh shana not shana dobson but um i forget her name that's a great one he had he has the biggest one from his say watanabe in japan and the point about hers was it wasn't a back elbow it was a punch and it was so bad that after 30 minutes they still had trouble getting her out of the ring like it was a one of the most most vicious knockouts you've ever seen in your life so the point being is you can kind of play with it, but certainly McCann is in the running for number one with a knockout like that.

And we should be celebrated. But I'm just saying with Jack Shore, dude, Jack Shore, his... Listen, everyone wants the big explosion into the UFC and some guys are built for that. But in reality, on balance, the best approach is the quiet step through to get good wins over quality opponents, build your game in your 20s,

so by the time you're 30, that's when you can make a serious title push. Or in our cases, by the time we're in our 40s, Luke, we're finally making the real money. Yes. From Dolan M. Johnson. Good question question where does this weekend's card rank all time bc for sure it's the best fight night ever that is without to me any question at all so where does it rank among paper fight nights used there used to be a little more levels now anything that's not a pay-per-view is a fight night right but the quarterly fox cards used to

really mean something luke that they were in the in between would you say i mean that's fight night plus and there were some great ones dude they were yes kane versus jds was the first one which also had jim miller benson henderson i mean that's some good stuff i mean dude in terms of just main and co-main like there were some really good fox cards where you're like dude that's a pay-per-view holy shit so was this better than that maybe not maybe not but you could argue it is on energy you could argue it is on people with big personalities having monster breakthrough moments which is great you know celebrities i mean yeah it was pretty damn close luke financially it was insane what they did um yeah is it the best i think is it. Financially, it was insane what they did. Yeah. Is it the best British UFC card of all time?

I think you could say that. What have we had there? How many pay-per-views have been there? Is it just Henderson versus Bisping II, UFC 204? Is that the only pay-per-view to hail from? So there's Hughes Newton was there as well. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure all the ones that they've had there, to be candid with you.

But I went to Tapology. Here's their ranking of the top 10. Now, this is best MMA events all time. So there's a couple prides on there. And I'm just going to read you what they have. Number one, they have UFC 100. Number two, they have the very first Ultimate Fighter finale. So Ultimate Fighter 1 back in April of 2005.

They've got some McGregor cards on here. 189, Mendez McGregor. UFC 1 is number four. UFC 205, Alvarez McGregor is number five. And that was a killer card. Give me UFC 217, Luke. Give me it, all right? Give me that.

Okay, UFC 217 sitting at number seven. Number six is UFC 139, which was Shogun versus Henderson, another crazy card. Eight was Pride Second Coming. That was the card where Takanori Gomi got go-go plotted by Nick Diaz. Nine, UFC 117, Silva Sonnen, and then 10, UFC 202, Diaz versus McGregor, too. Does it fit among those?

Depends on your preferences, but I'm going to say best fight night of all time, best UK UFC card of all time, probably. Luke, you know what that list was mixing UFC 116 Brock Carwin dude that main card was balls bonanza it was awesome

that was awesome yes there's a bunch of good ones that are on that list alright last but not least we see Eddie A Johnson asks have either of you seen the show Yellow Jackets I got Showtime with the MK promo. Thank you. Found Yellow Jackets and it's amazing. If you haven't watched

it yet, check it out. Also UFC London was the best UFC card in a long time. For a moment it reminded me of all the things I love about MMA and helped me forget there's so much I hate. Look, did you write that? Is that your pen name? Yeah, I know. I know, I know, I know.

It sounds like me, but no, it wasn't. Have you seen Yellow Jacket, Speecy? No, but every single person that has asked me if I've seen it has followed with, oh my God, it's amazing. And the premise looks pretty interesting, Luke. Have you heard about it? I've not. I've not.

Dude, I finally watched the new Spider-Man movie that's been in theaters for seven and a half years and just now came home to streaming. I watched that over the weekend that was my one little treat for myself it was actually pretty good for spider-man i'm not a big spider-man guy but that was pretty good i enjoyed it yeah i don't i don't mess around with that spider-man bullshit luke all right all right yeah too too busy hunting you and bryce mitchell um yeah yellow jackets luke is about a um it's about a uh yeah it looks really good it's about a 43 year old man from connecticut who stutters on air yeah it's about a high school soccer team where the plane crashes in the deep wilderness luke

and the team members have to survive for 19 months and it goes uh it goes wild so uh i'm yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna watch it and I'm going to get back to you, Luke. Also, real quick, Luke, I think we can call this an early dead wrong. This man was so passionate that I got to shout him out. His name is Georgie, Georgie with a G, Georgie Matveev. And he told me, please read this on the air and tell Luke to go F himself. Luke, this comes from an NPR story written in 2020, and the quote is,

Spaniards are technically considered Hispanic by the U.S. Census Bureau, which defines the term as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. You see, are you reading this to me because you didn't listen to a word i said the first time because that's what it sounds like you're saying to me so you're saying that i'm a defense lawyer for somebody who's not telling the truth no no stop stop stop stop let me say the argument one more time since you clearly did not listen the first time okay the

argument i made was not that there is, that someone from those places is not considered Hispanic. That was my point. And if you want to call someone from Spain Hispanic, you could because it fits into a larger profile. The point I'm trying to make is you cannot call Dominican Republic, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan,

you cannot call that Spanish culture. It has Spanish influences. It is not Spanish culture. It is in fact quite distinct from them. That is the point that I am trying to make. Do you understand that? You know, I mean, we could argue whether I understand it, Luke. Did I, you know, as a defense attorney, did I take on a client that I didn't really ask whether he did the crime or not? Luke, he just offered an opportunity to send you to hell. And I said, I'll be a representative to take you there. Yes, I'll be. I have this. I have this weird thing where everyone thinks they're a worthy adversary. And every time they don't listen to what I am saying, there is a broad distinction between cultures that are united by Spanish speaking.

There's a lot of things that bind them, the Catholic religion, the language, some other things as well, but they are entirely distinct. You might be able to classify that as a broader Hispanic thing. By the way, there's also a difference between Hispanics and Latinos. There's broad overlap. There's actually a difference between them as well. So if you want to suggest that it fits some census definition fine but they are culturally quite distinct quite distinct i enjoy uh the upper bound limits of your william and mary

educational vocabulary luke including broad overlap which is something i'd really like to try luke if you know what i mean, right? All right. You want to get into the shit, Luke? Let's do it. Let's get into your shit. Yeah, we scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, the in-between. In the worlds of combat sports and beyond,

this one's called Have You Seen This Shit? Luke, you might be talking about meatball Molly McCann on extra credit but you're gonna be watching molly mccann's big weekend here because luke you could argue although aspinall's limits are bigger in the rankings than anyone on this card arguably and although patty pimblitt's ceiling is bigger commercially than anybody on this card who the hell made a bigger leap on saturday in public consciousness than journey woman meatball molly mccann luke who didn't look like that in round one against luana carolina when

she emptied the tank and nearly knocked her out here's a slam luke early in or late in round two holy shit luke right that's like a 69 slam or a 96 right i don't know that's uh don't you still have to be facing each other for that i don't know what this is but if she was i'll say this molly mckinnon is strong as fuck well luke she'll admit it she looked insanely good in round one and then was kind of playing catch up in two and three but it didn't stop stop her from delivering this Luke after eating a bunch of strikes. Good Lord. That needs to be in that teenage wasteland.

Baba O'Reilly, the who, you know, before the pay-per-view main card music video that they do, Luke, it's gotta be in there now. It's insane. What a fricking moment.

It's one of the best knockouts you're you'll ever see. Truly, truly just perfect perfect perfect by being patty pimblitt's sidekick in a way and taking on that responsibility and cheering for him cage side both of his fights like she's become this mascot of sorts and then to deliver this luke commercially it's like she's going to go places she may not deserve to be she's going to be part of this hype train luke okay it's fun to watch um that's not deserve to be. She's going to be part of this hype train, Luke, okay? It's fun to watch.

That's the spinning back fist from hell. Here's the post-fight dance moves, Luke. Your thoughts? Sort of like a Serena Williams crip walk, but not quite. Okay, okay. I mean, I appreciate the effort and the passion as well. Let's keep it going here, Luke. While walking back, she made one with the Liverpool crowd just dousing her, Luke.

You know, it's funny. I saw several people in this event either jumping to the, not jumping to the crowd, but there were various moments where they were interacting with the crowd, and every time someone from the crowd was trying to hand them a beer. Every single time. I was like, dude, I gotta party with these people jesus later luke molly would appear cage side for patty pimblitt's big ko and dude she even made it in the cage that's what i'm saying luke have you ever seen a secondary person i know darren till did this with aspinall to close the card but a secondary person get the top of the cage treatment

conor mcgregor tried that one time at bellator oh yeah he did yeah it's akin luke do you remember when the bears won super bowl 20 over the new england patriots and buddy ryan the defensive coordinator got carried on the shoulders just like mike dick of the of the players luke all right that's her buddy ryan moment okay bare feet style like rex ryan likes it okay luke um also a big celebrity hug backstage celebratory and celebrity dc united star wayne as a footy legend wayne rooney gets the hog here on both of these um incredible uk performers luke and also oh that's it connection here the connection here is they're all from Liverpool. Exactly. And the accent's awesome, and the Molly

McCann show's going to keep rolling. The meatball's going to keep rolling, Luke, okay? Let's keep it going around the world. How about Risen 34 from Japan? Risen, if you will. Koshihara? Oh my god. Yuki Koshihara, Luke. Wow.

That man will never. That is effing. Oh. I think Michael Bisping's other eye just fell out after watching that, Luke. That's wow. All right. Let's go to the NCAA Wrestling Champions. It's all Gable Stevenson content from here on out, Luke.

The stud from the University of minnesota won his second straight national championship a 6-2 victory over arizona state's colton schultz and then as is the fashion luke retired amateurly by putting his shoes out there in the middle and it's on to the wwe luke your thoughts i mean i'm not sure exactly what his eligibility rules were like, but I think what happened was he went to the Olympics between his junior and senior year and won a gold medal and then came back and won another national title. I guess you could just keep going if you wanted to get

as many medals as you wanted, but he achieved almost everything you could achieve as a wrestler. You got the highest level gold medal. You got two times in the national champion folk style. Dude, you did the damn thing. I hope he makes a shit ton of money in whatever he wants to do. By the way, listen to this. I'm not sure how he did in the tournament,

but I know pre-tournament, because you mentioned this guy got two on him. I'm not sure what the rules were or how he got it to escapes or whatever. But prior to that, prior to that, he had out prior to the tournament, he had outscored his opponents this season 201 to one. Good Lord. The one point that they got was

only because he had taunted a guy and they docked him. That's it. So up until this tournament, they couldn't do shit to him. Look at this leapfrog he performed earlier in the tournament, Luke. He's obviously a physical freak of nature. But you talk about beating the game, he's been paid by WWE for the last year. He signed one of those new NIL, NTL, what do you call those deals, Luke?

NIL. The Marshall Rogan IU deal. Yeah, and so, Luke, he's probably, I mean, who knows? He may show up at WrestleMania in a few weeks, luke who knows but um he's a freak well i mean well luke true or false before the age of 30 this man fights a professional mma fight true i will say true i will say true uh luke let's go back to ufc london because there's so much content just listen to this crowd in the london streets if you don't think Tom Aspinall is being hoisted up as the next it, Luke.

Yeah, I saw something similar to this after 2.05, and I did my post-fight show from the press office at Madison Square Garden, and I went downstairs and I actually talked to Malki Kawa for like 15 minutes, and then I walked out right onto that promenade that leads into 7th Avenue, right in front, you know what I'm talking about, where you can get into Penn Station? And the Irish, granted these are the Brits or whoever, but the Irish had completely blocked traffic for like a huge stretch of 7th Avenue, which it's hard for me to explain this.

This is the dead center, basically, of Manhattan, and the Irish are dancing, flag-waving, and just completely bombarding traffic. You had to be pissed if you were a cab driver or an Uber, but as an observer, it was like, you just don't see American sports fans do stuff like that. It was a moment. It was a definite

moment. Aspinall also got involved with the energetic celebration here inside O2 was this at o2 luke did i just make that up yeah it was right i think it was o2 yeah oh look at this double fist in luke yeah yeah and then just dude you i guess it's the rule that if you go to a combat sports event in the uk you have to wear rain gear because bitch it's gonna be showering beer from the ceilings stone cold steve Steve Austin style right there, Luke. You got to like that.

Luke, Paddy Pimblitt got the big win, but rate the racy dance moves after, Luke. I mean, the guy's got charisma. I mean, he's pissing charisma, Luke. He does the hip gyration. He does the Johnny Walker. Yeah, that thing. Again, it's not my cup of tea.

It's not for us. It's strong. It is a strong cup though yeah luke mokwan the cup the cup is the size of several ufc flyweights i mean it's just enormous uh luke mokwan amir connie uh subbed out mike grundy in round one and how about the celebration from the team and he gets the lateral drop here. Yep, there it is. Yes, yes. When we do a live show, Luke, if we do a live show this summer, we should end the show with that, you and I.

Yeah, I'm sure this will go just the same as it did for two athletes. What if we did the dirty dancing moment, Luke? Could you hoist me? Yeah, for a second before I tipped you face first into the pavement. Okay. I bet I would have the time of my life, Luke.

All right. Heaviest boxing match in history went down from Dubai. I know Luke was all over it. Here's Bjorn Thorsen dropping Eddie the Beast Hall in round three. Luke, that's a legit-ass punch. Yeah, he double-jabbed his way into range. I'm not sure what the hell Eddie was doing. Holding up his left, using it to parry, and then he's holding up his right but he's got the worst

angle ever six foot nine damn um luke did he win i said this before did thor bjornson like completely like changed his physique he lost 100 pounds and then some and took several uh smoker slash amateur slash whatever youateur-slash-whatever experiences just to get right, and it paid off, man. He looked a lot better than Eddie. Good sportsmanship afterwards, Luke, where they finally buried the hatchet of this five-year grudge, although Eddie was a bit begrudgingly like, all right, okay, yep, yep.

Luke, was it a decision win or a knockout? Decision, but he dropped him twice. He dropped him twice. All right. Luke, let's go full screen. This broadcast of Segi.tv. Segi or whatever the hell you're presenting. Segi.

Nice re-rack from the play-by-play guy, Luke, right? Caught on camera. Wow. All right. Got an eight-ball side pocket. There we go, Luke. There we go. Balls bonanza.

That's big laws. He's a famous British. I think he might be of Iranian descent, but he's a British strongman himself. He's a fucking animal. He's great. You're like a famous juggler. Yeah, indeed, Luke. All right.

Hey, Luke, let's go to the soccer pitch. There's some nasty mma breaking out bangkok fcs alt surat noichabun sending a hell ball whoa good lord dude he got a running start into that was that an elbow yes yes yes. That is violent shit. Let me see that one more time. That is just violent shit, Luke. Oh, my God. And it looked like he was lining up the right hand. He raised his right fist just a bit and then comes with the left.

Oh, God. Dude, that guy has trained Muay Thai. I'm sorry. The average amateur can't do shit like, well, maybe they could, but I bet he's put a little bit of pad work in in his life. I guarantee it. Phew. Damn, son.

Just caught him clean. Luke, you mentioned this during our interview with Stephen Fulton Jr., the 122-pound unified champion. You can catch that interview, of course, youtube.com slash morningcombat and many more. Mike Tyson taking over all the games. How about the edibles game, Luke, with the Bitten Air. Ear?

Air. Ear. Ear. Ear. Ear. Air. Ear. Air.

Bader. Fader. Fader. Fader. Bader. Luke, the air bites. You see, how many of these are currently sitting in your tummy? You know, I made it as far as the seventh row on delta luke i'm trying to trying to get

them to move my chair a little bit further oh luke i bet you these are strong as shit right and expensive too but i'd eat them yeah i would eat all of them you're like i would eat them out of mike's ear like right like my tongue would touch his cochlea you know what i'm saying luke yeah all right uh luke retired old guys don't give a shit check out this guy living it let's go full screen here living it up oh god yeah luke it didn't slow him down he was back on the dance floor wow wow senior barriga is over here just getting it done what part of the world do we think this is? Florida? I'll go with Florida, Luke. Yeah.

Oh, boy. That's great. Okay, enough of that bullshit. Luke, this is how a younger, more single Luke Thomas would prepare for a freaking weekend, if you know what I mean, right? What are they fucking doing? Are they fixing someone's tailbone? What are they doing?

Are they pushing that shit in? Luke? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Is this, is this Rikers? Where is this?

It's just the movie sleepers. Wow. I haven't seen that one in a while. Okay. Let's get out of here. Look, I got more UFC London for you. Good Lord.

Ilya Teporia just killed Jai Herbert. Luke. Oh my God. We go over this, we go over this in detail on extra credit. Yeah. Luke, um, I'll let, I'll, you're going to talk the shit on your show, but he had to take a little bit of a beating in order

before he was able to deliver that. But once he delivered that shit, dude, that's violent as hell, heck. God darn. Think about how much his power carried up the weight. I mean, I don't know exactly where he's going to end up. Maybe 155 will be his future home. I don't know or what he plans to do. But I didn't know what it was going to mean for him physically at 155.

It didn't mean shit. His power carries all the way up. I mean, you have a one-hitter quitter like that. You can just pull that out at any point. I mean, it was like a seven-inch reach disadvantage, too. It was wild. Luke Dana White and Eddie Hearn, derek chisora and anthony joshua all cage side luke what do you think they did talk about cocaine and bitches what do you got

so wait your business model is you keep 80 of the profits we gotta get this business model we gotta start working together yeah please all right that's a great business model here's our model we keep the money yeah yeah luke you may not remember this but uh anthony joshua was once publicly questioned by amir khan on twitter of whether aj slept with mrs khan during a particular rocky bout for the cons when they were going through a public online scandal. Somebody asked AJ on Twitter the other day about it. Did you really F Mrs. Khan back in the day? He said, honestly, I didn't. But with all the accusations around my name,

I wish I did. Luke, your thoughts. I'd probably say the same thing. I'd probably feel the exact way. Like, yeah, kind of wish I did bang this dude's wife. Amir Khan ended up apologizing after that and kind of backtracking it a bit. But it was a funny moment, Luke.

Boxing over the weekend. Dude, did you see this guy in the top-ranked undercard? He's been on this segment before. Shoo-shoo Carrington, Luke. Bruce Carrington. Dude, I saw the... Dude. Is he good? He looks like he's the goods.

He's got an amateur background. He's good, but he keeps doing these one punch knockouts on the undercards and he's making people believers, dude. That's wow. Wow. I mean, both of those punches were absolutely vicious. That guy, once he got hit, he was just spun in a circle. He had no hope.

Yeah, it was awesome. Oh, look, we didn't preview. I didn't even know what was happening. Our rugaroo rugaroo pro gray was back in abu dhabi it was a probellum card that's richard schaefer the uh the john jones advisor but luke he came out with the rugaroo mess do you know he told me this cost ten thousand dollars to make i believe it i believe i asked him what the rugaroo is and he guessed i guess it's the New Orleans, Louisiana version of Bigfoot. Yeah, it's like the boogeyman. Yeah, the boogeyman.

He lives in the Louisiana swamps, according to legend or something like that. Absolutely. Luke, he took on Tyrone McKenna in what was kind of a soft... I haven't seen any of this footage. This should be a beatdown, right? Yeah, he would get a... I think he got a decision win, but he beat the crap out of this guy. Here's the second round knockdown, just to stay busy for Regis.

But, yeah, just the same, Luke. We got to get this guy into a big fight. I know he's kind of like waiting for the opening, but he was with PBC, remember, for like two fights, and now he's with Probellum. I mean, he's 33, Luke. He's really good, dude. That fight with Josh Taylor was an instant classic,

but I don't know, Luke. He's been taking easy paychecks recently. Like, he did the Triller thing against Ivan Redcatch. Yes. And then he did this. And I'm not bagging on him for it. Like, you know, if they're giving you big money and your window is short, get your money.

But at the same time, it does feel like we're missing out on where he could be against better opposition. Well, it's weird. He was like a wrong side of the tracks guy when he first came on the scene in terms of not having a major promoter. He had Lou DiBella for that stretch. And he has the celebrity management of what, Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg, I think, are potentially his co-managers. So, you know, I don't know. Like, maybe they've felt it more strategic to not sign with a major promoter.

I'm not sure why he never really ended up, like, you know, in the PBC universe or in the top-ranked ESPN or Golden Boy or whatever. But he called out Jack Catterall after the win, Luke, who was ringside. But he also had a real recognized real moment backstage after the win with Manchester United's Marcus Rashford. Luke, I'm not moved by this, but are you? No, I don't really watch Premier League all that much. Also, hasn't he been benched recently?

You think I know that shit? I got DM'd by many a fan saying, please heckle Luke that his soccer team got the shit kicked out of him 4-0. And I'm like, I'm not going to do that publicly. I'm not going to out a friend. Everyone's got something to say when they lose. They don't have shit to say when they win. So when they win the league,

everyone be sure to come back into my mentions with the exact same energy, please. Wow. Wow, look at that call out. Luke, ProG gray also had an interesting tweet about pollution let's blow this up luke tell me your thoughts on this scientists claim pollution is causing men's private parts to become smaller california pennsylvania and texas have the worst air quality in the country you know what there might be something to it mean, this doesn't seem very scientific. It's just a tweet, but with no sourcing whatsoever.

But you know what? Let's go with it. All right. Luke, this is off the rails already. Let's just get drunk. Let's keep it going. Luke, this is how not to tap a keg for St. Patrick's Day. Oh, these fucking idiots.

Yeah. I mean, has this ever happened to you, Luke? In my early days, I have botched a keg tap or two, but I don't think I'd be that bad anymore. Yeah, luckily you had your... And it's green beer too, huh? God, it looks just like my daughter's nose. Yeah, that's true.

But luckily you had the brothers in your fraternity, Luke, to help you, right? Get your back. I did. I had a mentorship program. Yeah, right. Luke, shoeies are now overplayed. What do you think about croc rips

these are the newest things luke this is just sad these are just sad bored people they got nothing to do they got i bet you a few of our fans have tried this there's probably i mean probably a few mk subscribers there's just dude there's dude you could honestly explain most human behavior at this point by being like they do it for the lulz on instagram and they're otherwise just sad and bored all right maybe that means this guy too luke who showed up to the to the to the death metal concert made it on stage and then made a running start to for a crowd dive here is this uh uh cannibal corpse oh god that is just yeah yeah i mean luke served him bc i cannot believe that a white guy went to a death metal show and then got hurt trying to stage dive i can't believe it look

at those ups that looked like john morant he got so high yeah um r.i.p that guy luke um this is an interesting one you and i both got tagged on ig by the legend street fighting legend mma trolling legend blood stain lane luke there's a fella by the name of dsny boxing on instagram who was willing to stand in front of the mirror and say beetlejuice three times and we have video proof here. I want to get your thoughts on this. Yo, you see us in my box? I'm here. I'm ready to call somebody for April 8th. You know who I want? Somebody from the

Q Fight Club. Now who do you think? Bloodstain Lane. That guy annoys me. So how about you get off those hardwood floors and step into a ring april 8th let's make it happen bro give me i got something i got to tell you what's up you degenerate heathens this is bloodstained lane aka the holy hill aka saint bloodstained aka mr 187 on you 666ers You know, today I was just minding my own business like a true Don does

And lo and behold, I get an alert on my Instagram And I open it up and I say What in the creatine is going on right now? I see this meathead, Neanderthal Who I've never heard of, never seen in my life Called DSNY Boxing Calling me out to a fight on April 8th, saying that he don't like me, that I annoy him. Blood stink.

He don't like a man of nobility, of decorum, of righteousness and holiness. This primate doesn't like me. You know, he's all jacked to the gills and muscles, this and that, but truth be told, he has the aura of Tinkerbell, okay? All those muscles are not going to stop me from breaking that glass door when we do scrap. Now, I know you want me to fight you in eight ways, but let me tell you something right now.

I'm not some slut. All right, we can cut it here, Luke, because it keeps going on. So wait, does he say he's going to take the fight or not it sounds like he's saying he's going to take the fight luke and if you could get any legend to come back for one more people want gsp people want habib once more luke how about bsl coming back and putting the gloves on do you like his chair i mean he's he's of the age of us old and white and washed luke but he does live a different lifestyle he is a a don in those parts luke okay i gotta tell you i once had drinks with bloodstained lane did you know that i did not i did not know

that so when i briefly hosted um spike tv's mma uncensored live or when i was one of the co-hosts he came in one day when Overeem was our guest. He was like, he was boys with Overeem. And we got to talking, and he is fucking hilarious. Like, truly, like, pit of my belly laughing at some of the hilarious things he said. And then he went on sort of a different life path,

and I haven't been able to keep track necessarily with all the things he's up to. But I did see his, there's footage of him having an amateur like MMA bout he looked pretty good all things considered actually so I don't know what kind of shape he's in these days but if BSL wants to make a return I'm all right he seems to be inspired again I mean like you said he's ready to pull a 187 on all you 666ers so um Luke if they you know I mean look we've we've broken down worse fights on this show, I'll tell you that much.

So if this happens April 8th, you know, I'm going to be excited about it. Let's close this segment quickly here. Let's go with some KOs of the week here, Luke. First on the two wheels. Oh. Oh, God. Oh, my God.

Oh, God. I see these people do these, try to do these tricks on all these uh like scooters you can rent in dc because there's scooters everywhere you just scan with your phone pick them up and go you know and dude some of these people like i'm gonna be tony hawk which i know is a skateboard but i don't know who the equivalent would be i'm gonna be a fucking tony hawk and they fucking bite it every time yeah uh let's go to the amateur kickboxing ring, Luke. I mean, it's cool to try spinny stuff unless you do a self KTFO.

So, yeah. That referee's just like, bitch. How do you lose a fight without having a punch thrown? Yeah. We haven't had enough child abuse on this. Let's go to the soccer pitch, Luke. Let's fill all the quotas today. Oh, boy.

Oh, that little. Oh, poor Zita. I don't like that. All right. Let's make sure somebody older gets it this time, Luke, to balance it out. Check out this amateur KO. Dude, this guy's just.

Jesus. Is the ref just going to let it? I gonna let it about to say ref what the fuck yeah there you go hey didn't rick flair do that at one point where he got like hit or something and then like seven minutes later he fell forward that is the rick flair famous face first fall all right luke we close with this i call it wrong place wrong puke i. I got two of them, Luke. Who would you least rather be in this case? Oh, boy. That guy in the white shirt, Luke. This is me in BC after shooting pregame preview. Yes, indeed.

Indeed. And let's go to this. Is that me right afterwards, or was that you at the Mexican restaurant? Oh, boy. Oh, wow. Oh, God. me is that me right afterwards or was that you at the mexican restaurant oh boy uh oh wow oh god oh my god luke that is uh i don't know if we're allowed to even show that that is gross the things you do for love that seems like a crime that you just showed i think yeah i mean luke i would do anything for love but i won won't do that. Meatloaf was right. All right, Pete, Luke. There's your shit.

BC, time for odds and ends. What do you got? So, look, we could play a million videos and praise him, but I think he deserves it. We hyped up E. Casey Light on the, I'll say famous, world famous, you know, photo journalist for MMA fighting. Spent a decade on the top. A lot of times working with Ariel Hawane. Traveled the world covering MMA. You know, photojournalist for MMA Fighting, spent a decade on the top.

A lot of times working with Ariel Hawane, traveled the world covering MMA. He did the Wimp to Warrior program now called ALTA and had his amateur fight. Now, he's 44 years old. He took on, I think, 24-year-old, a guy named Fritz Fraunheim. And, Luke, you talk about a hard-fought decision. Oldie Casey ate a big left hook early. You might even be able to see it right here. Or maybe it was a right hand.

Anyway, he ate a pretty big shot. Damn. There, that right there. And he went on, Luke, to take, I think, 30 27s across the board, relying on his wrestling. Got full mount a bunch of times and just grinded that shit out. Luke, I'll say this, that video MMA fighting did capturing his journey to this was inspiring. It was humble. You know what I mean? It was like really behind

the scenes of what somebody who's as close to as you can get without being a fighter is. And I give him so much credit, obviously, for going through this. This did not make me want to go through this, by the way, even though I've had a bunch of our listeners who did similar programs like this, reach out and speak how life transformative it is. And I'm sure it is Luke, but, um, to hear, to hear Casey, a guy who I've always known, but never known. If you, if you get the point, I've worked with Esther a ton only just recently really getting to know Casey a bit. Um, what, what a journey, dude. I mean, like you don't have to do this, right. And it, but there was something he wanted to

prove to himself and just the fact that he did it as ballsy. And, and, and as a fellow media member, I'll applaud it, but to really see his story, Luke, there was a, you know, he was straight up, you know, there's a, this sucks. The grind sucks. The pain sucks. Even winning the fight afterwards, he's like, this sucked. But there was something deeper, Luke, that he was willing to, you know, quote unquote, risk it all for on the other side of that hill. And, you know, we all, we all have that challenge in many areas of our life. Here's a guy that went out and did that shit.

You know, it's like they always say about people that wrote a book, Luke, you know, only so many people can say they wrote a book and that guy did it okay this guy just took casey casey just took a damn amateur fight and he went in there and grinded that shit out luke he's more man than i am i'll tell you that much he's he's the best and i had a good chance to work with him for many years as well he is. He's just as talented as anybody in this industry, and probably more so, and I'm really happy for him. On the uglier side of things, BC, for my odds and ends...

Frank Trigg was the referee. How cool is that? If you're Casey Lydon, Frank Trigg is your referee. Badass. That's pretty cool. Last but not least for me, BC, there was a big problem at Glory 80. For all of the jokes about the fight between Thor and Eddie and whatever else and stuff we see and all the comical stuff, Glory 80 had a card.

I got to find out exactly where it was. This is what you can see. They got to the co-main event, which involved Batter Hari. But then a riot broke out inside the arena. I believe they were in the Netherlands. I'll double check that it could be belgium i forgive me i should i should have that detail in front of me but as you can see here chairs start being thrown and then people start streaming for the exits i don't know

exactly i mean look at the one guy standing to the bottom left of the screen just giant bricked up dude who's probably on all the steroids i don't know who he is but what i'm trying to make here is this got ugly quickly they had to stop stop everything, cancel the remainder of the card at the request of the local security and police team. And, I mean, dude, this is bad. I don't know what generated it. I don't know who it was between. There's still a lot of unanswered questions. And I feel terrible for Glory, who, you know, I'm sure did not want this.

But it goes to show, show man security at these events sometimes is a thin veneer of what it actually should be yeah and it looks like that's what happened here that this looks like bo galata which you know is a great reference for so many people remember that 1996 heavyweight boxing match disqualification brawl in the crowd and you know lou duva's body getting carried out and Jim Lampley not knowing where his daughter was but uh Luke you it it could go so bad so quickly and that's why I always say having been there for UFC 229 having Habib's co-manager pinned down on top of my laptop and cuffed so I was like in it people jumping barrier left and right it looked like that thing was going to get

swallowed up and become what you just saw on that video screen and i still say to this day luke ufc got lucky that shit got got handled quick because uh you get fight crowd versus crowd with differing backgrounds you know you know nationality wise you know whatever i mean in the shit that was talked it that's bad for business luke that's anytime you anytime you put bad for customer was talked, that's bad for business, Luke. Anytime you put customer safety in question, that's real bad for business. Yeah. And you got to remember, kickboxing has a weird history in the Netherlands, too, where there was a lot of tie-ins historically with organized crime. Obviously, Glory has tried to clean that up and has had some success with it.

But when you have barbarians throwing chairs at your events, it's not going to make regulators look upon it favorably. So we'll see what happens. Dude, I was at- That, it's not going to make regulators look upon it favorably. So we'll see what happens. Dude, I was at... That's it, BC. Don't forget, in 2002, Luke, I was at the Guns N' Roses riot in Philadelphia when Axl never made the plane trip.

Don't forget that, okay? Never forget that. I won't. BC, I really do have to get out of here because I have a plane I got to catch because we are taking our talents to South Beach. We have some stuff and some meetings planned tomorrow. We were going to do a live show,

I believe from CBS on Wednesday, if memory serves. I'm excited. I'm excited. I will see you probably a little later tonight or tomorrow morning. Yeah, it's going to be a great time. We're going to pump out some really fun content in and around Wednesday's

MK episode. We're going to meet by the way, and really plot the future. There's our handles below. If you want to follow us, like the video, subscribe on YouTube. It really does go a long way. Just like when we put you out there to vote for all these awards and this stuff sort of, you know, it dots the I's, crosses the T's, so to speak, in us doing this on a much bigger level. And that's what we want to do for you. So thank you for the support everyone out there uh i look forward to next seeing you wednesday 11 a.m eastern on youtube from fort lauderdale florida let's do it

you can buy our merch at morningcombat.store luke we just talked to rj uh rj dunkel uh crank and the uh the merch maven um shit's moving so if you want to get that MK tube, morning tube, is that what they're calling that, Luke? I don't know. I haven't talked to RJ balls of shaven. You want that filthy, gross shirt right there that RJ's... You know the nerve of RJ, Luke, to go, you know what? BC, I've got to catch a plane. I'm going to gamble that our listeners are degenerates

and want this piece of clothing on them. I'm going to gamble that that's the case. I know. It wasn't like we had a long meeting about it. It just showed up. We're like, okay. Let's see how this goes. Showtime is the label that pays. Showtime.com Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can

keep it. If not, pound sand. We got the Costa Zoo, sorry, Tim Zoo, I should say, and Tarogo Shea Fight coming up very soon. So if you want to take a look at that, you got to get it on Showtime. For Brian Campbell, for Malka, for CBS Sports, for Athletic Greens, and everyone else involved, Showtime, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas.

We will see y'all Wednesday. I'll have extra credit out later tonight, maybe tomorrow morning. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.