MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC: Gane Beats Rozenstruik | Canelo Dominates | UFC 259 | Ep. 124

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

First MK of the week is here and Luke and Brian recap all that happened in combat sports. In the UFC, Ciryl Gane scored a UD win over Jairzinho Rozenstruik, but was it impressive enough? Plus, Canelo Alvarez dominated Avni Yildirim. What's next for him? Also, UFC 259 is coming up, what is the most interesting storyline? ---------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is Monday, the 1st of March. Can you believe it? It is March already, folks. The Ides of March are upon us, and it's time for Morning Combat. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo. I am from CBS Sports, as well as Showtime, and I am joined by the gentleman on that side of your screen. He is the king of Connecticut, factory town, born, bred, and everything else in between. The apathy to my self-title, the cue to my anon, it's Brian Campbell. Hello, Brian Campbell. How are you?

Hi, Luke. It's a new month, okay? We are coming in on a one-year anniversary of this quarantine life. Wow, Luke, how we've grown, okay? We're still standing. Better than ever, bro, all right? You may not want to talk to me at all before this show. Things may be a little icy taking separate limousines to the arena, but once you turn that camera on, Luke, I hope to get the best of you, all right? Yes, don't worry.

You certainly will. And we want to get the best out of everyone else, so we appreciate everyone who contributed to DMs from Donks and everything else and is watching the show today. If you are new, welcome. We do this Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11 a.m. in the East live those three days, plus a whole lot more in between. If you'd be so kind, give the video a thumbs up, hit that subscribe button,

and do me a solid. You probably know someone who is an MMA fan who doesn't watch MK and maybe should. Send this to them. Let them know. This is a program for them. And as you can see below on the screen, we're also all over social media.

You can give us a follow on Instagram, on Twitter, and it's morning combat consistently everywhere. Uh, morning combat with a K. If you want to try those, those South Floridian savages just spread, you know,

body fluids in COVID all around. Like it's going out of style. Do that. But with this show, okay. Spread that thing, right? Yeah, spread this show like COVID. That would be better than actually spreading COVID.

In the meantime, if you want to try Showtime, you certainly can. Showtime.com. You can get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, if you subscribe, I think, for like Bellator, I'm not sure how long this promo lasts. I'll get clarification on this. But for the first six months, it's only $4.99 for the entirety of the Showtime experience,

which, by the way, is hefty. A lot of things you can check out on there. If you want some merch that we are not wearing but does exist, you can go to store.show.com. Brian, we had a meeting about merch on Friday. You want to tell the folks how that went? Yeah, it went great. So here's the deal, folks. MK Merch 2.0, as we said, yes, it will be available internationally.

And yes, it is taking the foundational start we had of the, hey, this is our merch. It's in earthbound colors, in general fonts. It says Morning Combat, and that's all it says. We've certainly taken it to the next level. Inside humor, a lot of fun coming your way. I think this is going to become a thing, Luke. You know, we launch new merch, they buy it, right? No matter what corner of the world you live in.

We want you to want me, and I want you wearing this, okay? All this bullshit, all right? There's going to be so much more coming. Many different colors and kinds, too, all right? Luke, I'm fired up about our merch situation. Thank you very much. It's about to be a lot different than it was before, which it was great before, don't get me wrong,

but had some limits. Those limits are about to be off. Well, Luke, wasn't MK merch, the launch, very dad-friendly, right? Very dad-friendly. But not everybody's 42 and white that watches this show, okay? Yeah, well, also, we have an international sport. Like, like if you want i mean nba is pretty international these days but still most american sports are just that uh this is not exactly the case we have fans and viewers from all

over the earth quite literally so getting a chance to service all of those needs i think is important and uh and servicing our fans luke is is really what we what we do here right we will we will reach as far as around to service our fans uh yeah yes that's a thing that we that you say uh is there anything else we forgot before we get started uh you know plenty of great bonus content out there check out my interview with al joe sterling ahead of this weekend's title fight as well uh a lot of great chats you can catch up on. Also, the instant reaction to Canelo over the weekend. But, you know, don't watch that.

Watch this right now, okay? Because we're about to break that down as well. Luke, I'll be heading to Puerto Rico after the show today, all right? Oh, yes. Are you staying in San Juan? Yes, I am, okay? That's all I'm going to say. Have you been there before?

Never been there. Oh, man. You're going to love it. I mean, Puerto Rico's obviously been hit really hard with a lot of different mismanagement by the colonial powers that be, and the hurricane didn't help things, but they're good people, and San Juan's an awesome place. Well, this beige hurricane's about to land, okay? Luke, it's coming.

Right. Thank you. Are they going to make you eat the bagged eggs like they do in California? I have a feeling bagged eggs could be in my future, but I'll keep you posted on Wednesday and Friday's show, of course. I dare you to not eat those and then put them in your bag on the way back. They're going to say that you're smuggling fucking something. Dead children.

And you're going to get arrested for it. Yeah, good lord. All right, with that in mind, let's get things started for the weekend, the past weekend, that is, because we have a lot to get to. There was a fair amount of combat sports, not the most exciting or thrilling weekend ever, but certainly some things to get to. So topic number one, I believe I've got to fade this way if memory serves.

Yes, there it is. Giving you a little bit of real estate. That's why they pay me the big bucks here. Cyril Ghosn defeating Jairzinho Rosenstreich, unanimous decision in the main event from UFC on Vegas 20. Now, there were some criticism afterwards. Not that he didn't deserve to win BC. It was pretty clear that he did. But UFC president Dana White, and he wasn't alone in this, but certainly he was the most vocal representative of the idea that, you know, this was Cyril Ghosn's big chance on a national stage main event to get out there and make a name for himself.

And while he won, he didn't do much more. BC, should the Frenchman be criticized for his performance? I'll say that he could be criticized. And, you know, you know, the quickest way to Dana's heart we've been over this a million times right it's not through his stomach it's by clutching his own pearls and shaking them up for him by delivering a big time action fight so Dana's always going to say that could you say something negative about Gon not putting his stamp on the moment when it was clear that he held a specific advantage that he was largely milking you could but let's be a little bit more realistic here luke one thing he said in the interview afterwards is

he really wanted to prove you know and everybody else let alone himself that he can go five hard rounds he did that and you know there's a very upper core elite of top heavyweights who can do that who can give you five full rounds of a tough pace and play out a game plan. So I like what he showed there. Number two, Luke, there ain't a clear path to the title at the moment, okay? Francis has next in a few weeks, then Jon Jones, then maybe the winner of if Derek Lewis fights the other guy that just won. Oh, there's that other guy that just won too, Volkov. It's pretty crowded. Gon could have come out here, Luke, and landed a three-punch combo in the first minute against Rosenstruik and finished him and still been in the same spot in the end.

So I don't think long-term it hurts him. And I think he kind of showed us, at least to me, tell me if I'm wrong, I'm spinning back to you, he showed me more craft than I necessarily knew he had coming in. So in the end, I think it's a win-win all the way around. Yes, we could be running a viral gift package if he had delivered some big boom, but that

man across from him, Rosenstreich, you don't have to run with him. Overeem found that out. So when you take all of that into the factor and you're looking at pictures right now of even some nice ground and grappling work he did, Luke, what am I going to say negative about him? You're catching up to that upper tier crust of this division, Cyril Ghosn, and I'm in on this, brother. Dude, he has eight fights.

This was his eighth fight. You know, look at how he is performing in his eighth contest. He only has one, two, three, four, five of them in the UFC. Here's his wins. Rafael Pissau, Dontel Mays, Tanner Bosser, which we now know, in retrospect, is actually a pretty big deal. Then he beat JDS, although that was kind of a weird one, but he beat him. And then Jairzinho Rosenstreich. So you're already doing that with, let's say, less than 10 MMA fights.

I mean, most people who are in their eighth fight, even if they've won the first seven, are still competing on the regional scene. This guy is in the UFC in the main event and maybe knocking on the door. Not quite of a title shot at this point, but certainly top five space. I mean, it's kind of incredible to see what we're doing here. Moreover, I looked at the actual numbers, BC, and I thought you were right.

You really hit the nail on the head, which is what did he show you? Listen, a lot of people want to hipster this to the nth degree and say, no, no, no, if you didn't appreciate this, you don't know the intricacies of fighting and blah, blah, blah. And I'll be like, well, it's sort of true that maybe they don't know the intricacies of fighting. But the whole point is a good fight is one where somebody doesn't know the intricacies of fighting and it's still really palatable.

It's still really interesting. This was not a particularly fun fight. It's totally okay to say that. It was kind of boring. It was a little lifeless. It was on at the same time Canelo was beating the shit out of Yildirim, which we'll talk about later. So if you didn't enjoy it, I think that's a perfectly fine opinion.

But to say that Rosenstreich is free of blame here, basically all the attention's on Gon, I don't understand that. There were three different rounds where one of the fighters landed single-digit number of strikes in that round. It were three different rounds where one of the fighters landed single digit number of strikes in that round. It happened three times. It wasn't Cyril Ghosn. Jairzinho Rosenstreich landed eight strikes in the first, six in the second, and just five in the fifth. Meanwhile, 23, 29, 29 for Cyril Ghosn. I'm sorry. He also had two takedowns. He had four and a half minutes overall

of control time. Dude, the guy, one of them was working. The numbers clearly show one guy was doing a lot or was relative to the other guy. And that guy is Cyril Ghosn. Now, yes, could he have risked something and got out in front of his skis and maybe have won? It's not a guarantee he would have lost. Yes, that's very true. But the numbers are pretty clear here. One guy was better than the other guy. He was better than the other guy with less than 10 fights in pro MMA to his name. He did it comprehensively, BC. A 25-minute fight for a heavyweight, and he never really lost gas

or really showed his game break down over time. Dude, that was a very, it showed, it looked like Gon, BC, I think you would agree with this, had 20 years experience. He looked like the guy who knew more about the game, how to manage his resources, how to command range, and from an activity standpoint, did multiples of what Rosenstreich did.

Dude, he had Rosenstreich straight up frustrated and confused to the level that he wasn't even playing into the one chance he had, which was the, you know, the puncher's chance, the one punch knockout power. He wasn't even letting his hands go for long stretches because the opening just wasn't there. So yeah, you're right. Let's spin it back on Rosenstreich and also a little bit on Dana. I mean, like Dana wasn't killing gone.

He was just being Dana, right? He's trying to promote action. He's trying to take attention off of guys who, who see an avenue to cruise to a decision without taking, you know, chances and damage. And he jumps on them. Well, Hey Dana, you remember when, and gone to, and Derek Lewis fought and it was way worse fight than this one. And then you crapped on Derek Lewis and didn't criticize uh you know Ngannou at all he won the fight you didn't criticize him now you're criticizing in this case the guy that won it uh you know this wasn't as bad as say Curtis Blades in that Volkov fight Luke who I think had a much bigger opportunity to make a statement especially fresh off those comments

about fighter pay the spotlight was on him and you know he had to backdoor that win in the end after he gassed out trying to wrestle too much. This had none of those elements. This was Cyril gone, I think, telling us, Luke, that if you wanted to know whether he has the temerity to attempt upper bound limits of potential to steal a little Luke and scramble those eggs up, Luke, he's better than some of the more one punchpunch-or-nothing guys at this level.

I don't know if he's a legitimate title contender long-term, but Luke, I don't almost tell him to lean into this style because we got enough bangers that can get you out of there accidentally in this division. Do we have as many guys this craftful, switching stances, doing a lot of that stuff? Now look, a lot of that's not going to work as easy as it did against Rosenstreich, against a Jon Jones, per se, but this lane might be Cyril Ghosn's best to try to maximize his ability. So, Luke, all in all, big win for him, okay?

I don't want to overstretch this comparison, BC, because this is not fair to either participant I'm about to say, but if there is one similarity between, let's say, Cyril Ghosn and a guy like Volkanovski, they have different weight classes, different body types, obviously, very different styles. But there is a commonality, which is you're seeing these best practices being developed, and they're very good for nullification, incremental landing, right? So I'm a little bit more than what the opponent is doing and staying out of range, staying safe.

And again, they use very different tactics, very different skills to get there, but you're seeing it's sort of a bit of a common factor. If someone is overmatched, these guys are going to finish them. But if it's somebody dangerous, and again, we're talking 10 or less pro fights, you know, there's going to be a degree of rational care

that goes into maintaining. And these guys have the range and the skills and the movement. I mean, one thing that gone was doing like folks are not going to know this, but it's like actually kind of important to gone. Uh, he sometimes would jab on a straight line. A lot of times he would jab and then V out at another direction.

So like, that's not something that shows up in the stats and you're asking like, Oh, actually it kind of does in a way, BC, because it shows up on Rosenstreich not being able to throw because the guy wasn't there. He has all these skills that just kind of shut down an opponent who is very dangerous.

It doesn't give him the highlight reel finish that everybody wants. But geez, man, I feel like people are being way too critical for a guy who is still this young. This should be exciting because, B.C., we can all agree, Gon has room to grow, to get better. He's already this good, this athletic, this smart. Shit, man. People should be excited about what he can do in terms of building on this.

Yeah, I mean, it's not like he's overflowing with charisma either. So, again, this might be the best lane for him, right? Let's just be as good as you can be. yeah I mean he you know it's not like he's overflowing with charisma either so again this might be the best lane for him right let's let's just be as good as you can be unless they're going to change the rules one day Luke that says all championship fights need to be a finish and if it's a decision it's a draw on your record which will never happen then there's only a limit to what you can say about somebody being too boring okay you know in this game if you fight boring you don't have a big personality you're probably gonna have to wait your turn some guys though that's the only way they're gonna get their chance it's understood it's how the system works let's kind of give this

chance this guy a chance to grow he's fresh off his knockout of a former champion i mean like let's give him a chance here all right let's move to topic number two if we can here we'll come back to ufc don't worry folks but this is just how the show is structured for today let's talk about the technically the biggest fight of the weekend in terms of pomp and circumstance and size this one took place in Miami Florida Canelo Alvarez defeating Avni Yildirim inside the third round I believe it's TK I don't know what the official designation is but he wins uh let's see WBA BC ring magazine shit stain look I think it says via shit stain on the Wikipedia page it It might as well. It was a very extraordinarily.

I mean, we knew Canelo was going to win. We knew he was going to win by a lot. But it was just an even with that, Avni Yildirim didn't open up. And when he did, he got, you know, obviously assaulted. And the fight ended pretty quickly. Okay, BC. Did we learn anything from this? No, not in reality no you know we

said it was a let's you know stay busy move the chains keep your title away from them crooks type of fight and it played out exactly like that do you want to criticize yildirim you could right he's got that wolf's blood nickname or whatever the hell he had luke and yet he's going out there in a completely foreign style to him trying to box defensively now look was that part of a longer plan to get Canelo into the later half of the fight or whatever might have been let's shout out to Joel Diaz for taking a rough subject and trying something problem is while they were trying something they actually weren't trying anything Luke because they didn't throw punches you'd almost respect Yildirim more if he went in there and went out face first on his shield

like you expected him to with that said though can we give Canelo a little bit of respect here for surgically dismantling him, creating an event, whether you like that ring entrance or not. I'm not trying to use the ring entrance necessarily as collateral to say, well, Canelo entertained us. I mean, look, he made it a big event. He got the guy out of there, okay, at the end of the day. Yildirim didn't seem to bring his best chances of winning,

and Canelo is proving in this one and the Callum Smith fight Luke and even the Rocky Fielding one that if you look to hide behind your gloves and wait him out or stink him out and you don't have elite foot speed to do that he's going to get through your guard he's going to loop in hooks he's going to find uppercuts so if there was anything to learn i think it's just a double down on what we learned in that callum smith fight that you really have to be elite in in at least one to two categories like super elite to hang and contend with him right like guys like laura or jacobs they had certain elements to their game quick feet boxing iq or in jacobs case the threat of power to make canelo stop being canelo uh it's a long drop off after those elite guys and obviously Yildirim wasn't even close to that category but Canelo stood right in front of him like he did Callum Smith no fear for the power and and dismantled him if we learned anything it's

that at 30 years old right now Luke we are watching the very best of who Canelo can be and I gotta tell you having followed his entire career, I never thought, Luke, he would be this good. I knew he'd be this big of a star. I knew he would be able to match make and learn from Floyd on how to be a,

you know, be a superstar, win big fights, whatever. Luke, I never necessarily guessed that he would be your pound for pound king, would be able to rise up and wait

and just dismantle folks. This one was expected, yes. But if we learned anything, Luke, it's like hell yeah this is the canelo era this guy really is the goods in every category yeah i guess i can't say i learned a whole lot from it um you know we'll talk about the quitting on the stool or

whatever it was in just a second but yeah you go in there and i thought okay a little dirham will try and take it long and he was trying to cover up as a way to do that because he couldn't even open up a little bit without being set on fire even just defensively shelled and doing nothing but receiving shots and then trying to roll with them or cover them as much as possible he was still getting chewed to pieces he had nowhere to go in that fight we've been over before you know I think the concept of a mandatory in many ways it makes sense in many cases it will be quite beneficial to no matter who wins just as in terms of maintenance for a division and for a title, that's fine.

But with so many titles and so many sanctioning bodies, it ends up getting to a point where you get a complete mismatch like this. I mean, this was not a guy who deserved to. I mean, this is the thing. It's like people are making it about like, oh, he ordinarily wouldn't get a title shot because of the way popularity works in boxing. This guy wouldn't get a title shot against Canelo by virtue of the way talent works in boxing if there was any kind

of real like singular ranking system he'd be too far in the back of the pack to ever ever get close to this so he should thank his lucky stars yeah he's a French contender who the two biggest times in his career before that that he stepped up to the elite title level, he lost both. So he shouldn't have been in this fight, Luke. And I'm not trying to hide the indictment that this is on the sport. You can argue that the mandatory system sucks to begin with, and then when you're getting mandatories like this,

I can't defend it. I straight up cannot defend it. But again, dead weekend in the middle of the early winter, at least Canelo filled it, and at least, Luke, he will be back May 8th. So do I want my stars again? Do I have just fought in December, come back in this quick one, and then tell you I'm coming back in May,

and then two more times after that, again, yes, yes. Oh, Big BC, all you're doing is pumping up the bag of Big Red. Tell me why I shouldn't. You know, pour some cinnamon on me, folks. Seriously. Just trying to tell you like it is, all right? This guy's beating the game right now. you like the the j balvin entrance yeah i think i was a little too old for it luke but i will say i tweeted that it was awesome it had a it had a

you know a strong you know what it screamed it screamed star it wasn't necessarily super bowl halftime cheesy and cringy it was pretty pretty damn cool, Luke, I'll say in the end. It wasn't as cool as Anthony Joshua, but it's next level. He's a Mexican superstar. He was in Miami, which I don't know exactly how many Mexicans are in Miami. Obviously, you associate Miami with all different kinds of Latin people, but predominantly Cuban and Puerto Rican, right? But there's more than that. There's a bunch of Colombians, Venezuelans there.

It's filled with all different types. But certainly, you go in there, you get J Balvin there. You're in Miami. It just felt like a very Miami entrance. It did feel like he was trying to cast his wide net to as many young Latinos as possible. Was it for me? No, of course it's not. I'm not the target demo. Did I think that it was big and spectacular, kind of, to your point, like befitting a king, so to speak. I did, actually. I thought it was kind of cool.

So, you know, the fire and then the platform and everything else, it was a little on the long side. But the only thing that came out of the fight that was a little bit subject of debate-ish was how the fight ended. So after the second round where Yildirim gets dropped, BC, he goes back to his corner, and I got to hand it to him. His corner put it on him. Joel Diaz, right in his face, right in his, oh, end of the third,

whatever it was, got in his face and was like, I'm going to give you one more round unless you show me something. He didn't even respond back, and I think they called it because he didn't respond to his trainer at that point. Did his trainer throw the towel, or did he throw the towel? I don't know. What do you make of how the fight ended? Yeah So I guess, did his trainer throw the towel or did he throw the towel? I don't know. What do you make of how the fight ended? Yeah, I think it was the trainer.

And let's just say there is a language barrier there. Avni does not speak English, but I think that was the reason. Luke just blank stare, didn't want to be there. It's actually rare that you see a coach step in, you know, on this level this early. But again, I echo to you, I like that he was trying to portray to Yildirim the impact of the moment.

You just got dropped. You can't even get a punch off. Like, you either show me something right now or the fight's over, and by not saying anything, he said enough, Luke, I got no problem with it. You know, what do you want there? You want blood? You want the guy splattered across the canvas?

It was going to happen, but, you know, health and safety won out, and I know I'm the guy telling you, let's let Cater go, but I thought it was a different situation. Yeah, I mean, health and safety won out. And I know I'm the guy telling you, let's let Cater go. But I thought it was a different situation. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. It's like if you're not responding, language barrier or whatever, it's body language too, and you can't hide that. And moreover, I was like, dude, through two, three rounds, whatever it was,

what could you have possibly seen as a path to legitimate victory for this guy, short of a, and it wouldn't be legitimate at that point, short of a double leg and then ground and pound. I mean, Canelo was... Yeah, he was going to have to cheat. He was going to have to muck him up on the inside. He never even tried any of that, Luke. Yeah, he wasn't going to get on the inside.

Canelo was going to eat his lunch there, too. You know, I saw people being like, oh, he shouldn't have quit. I'm like, dude, if you're in a fight or it's still winnable or this guy's beneath your level you know yeah I could understand maybe sucking it up but man this ain't the time to suck it up you suck it up you're gonna go out there and you're gonna end up looking at the lights and you know it's easy for us to say this guy has to worry about love you know life after fighting I did not mind that he quit at all and frankly I thought it was actually the wise decision he was way out

of his depth and only bad things were going to happen at that point. Yeah. And Luke, look, you're going to get a lot of people saying this is wrong with boxing. We've already been up and down that road. At least he's coming back. Like I said, May 8th and it's Billy Joe Saunders. And I got to wake people up if they don't know, like this is a real fight. It is Canelo going against a guy that normally may have been avoided in this spot because Billy Joe Saunders talks a lot of trash to embarrass you. He's hard to get a deal with. He pulls out of fights. He's a tough negotiator.

And oh, by the way, he can fight a negative style as a southpaw. He has looping punches. He's got quick feet. There's a lot of like sneaky elements that makes this a tough fight. And again, it's Canelo just going, he has the belt I need. I'm going to fight him at the biggest level. I can't wait for this fight, Luke. I know it's not going to be as sexy as Golovkin or, you know,

when we start propping in the new wave of young guys that we want to see Canelo against. But it's a necessary fight. And Saunders still hasn't lost. He's been world class for a while. Let's go. Let's see it. I love seeing Canelo, Luke, have to deal with a guy who's got a completely defensive, smart, tricky style. It's going to be fun to see.

Certainly the best fight I think he could be in, maybe in this, well, Callum Smith was a good one, but it just didn't end up being very competitive. I tend to think Saunders will be a little bit more back and forth. It also, for folks who may not realize this, since 2012, basically, Canelo's only fought two times a year, once in 2019, just in that May, just in that September. Now you're getting the May and September with a couple of other ones thrown in along the way. So if you didn't like it, fine, you don't have to, but it's not a substitution of good.

It's just the good's already there, and then he's adding some stuff around it. Your mileage may vary on that. Yeah, and I think, Luke, you're going to see how great he can be this year, because if he's not going to be taking a lot of punishment in these fights, and I know it's not easy to basically be in training camp for a full year but we're really

going to see whether he fights you know saunders next and plant and then maybe a golovkin we're going to see the very best of what canelo has i love seeing this activity at the highest level it's so rare in boxing for a super elite to even attempt to fight four times in a year i think you're going to you know i'm hoping luke i'm hoping people realize that not only can you make more checks this way and you can make a big impact commercially in a small window you may find unless you went through a barn burner that took a lot out of you that you could stay at a really high level the whole time yes absolutely and i wonder not so much this fight bc but the overall once the 2021 campaign is over if he gets in the four uh in the year which he said he wanted to so he's looking for four if he does that i wonder if it might compel some other

champs to maybe take on a little bit more activity or maybe a little bit more risk or something i don't think it'll have a wide ranging effect but if you get a couple more fights that you ordinarily we're not going to get out of it, not the worst thing in the world. Hey, if Triller is going to keep throwing money around, Luke, I might box you. It might get to that point, all right? It certainly might. We'll be on Triller. It'll be great.

Okay, BC, let's get to this one. Back to the UFC card. So in the co-main event of the UFC card, Magomed Ankhalaev defeats Nikita Krylov via unanimous decision or whatever it was. I got to look at the exact way he won. But it was kind of a workman-like performance in the end. We had all expected a bit of a striking affair. Krylov being a little bit more of a kickboxer. Ankhalaev a little bit more of a boxer. And you did see some of that. But Krylov was either winning or giving him too many problems for Ankhalaev to really like that way of fighting. So he mostly wrestled

and controlled him on route to victory. So my question forBC is okay he won and he's the legitimate winner here he's on a great streak did he convince you though that this is a guy who could be a future 205 pound title contender he did he did in a big way Luke I'm going to tell you I this fight certainly wasn't spectacular didn't have a lot of bells and whistles but I was intrigued the whole time and entertained from watching him turn this fight around Krylov came in and gave a hell of an effort Luke I mean he was out grappling the better grappler in that first round and was standing up to shots and really was like this is going to be a fight despite you know what they said on the broadcast that uh Akali was a four to one favorite uh which is large at this level uh and to see the adjustments

he made into smash mode luke and just basically took the fight away from this guy and every single thing krylov tried in that second round i mean akali had the perfect counter for it and then when he's landing that check right hook from the southpaw stance luke and just sitting down on that shot uh this guy's nasty and he has sort of that requisite Bond movie villain, oh, you're from Dagestan, Russian area, you're probably a killer who can wrestle thing going to a large degree, too. He seems smart. He seems single-minded in his approach.

He's going to come in there and take you out. Luke, I was going to ask you about this guy's upper bound limits because what I'm seeing is a guy who can really do it all, and he's poised, and he's tough as balls. I really like the run he's on. I know he got submitted by Paul Craig early in his UFC run in 2018, but he's been very active since then, and it's been one impressive performance after another. Yeah, more to the point, he was beating the shit out of Paul Craig. Paul Craig got that submission at 459 of the third round.

If that fight had gone just a little bit longer, he'd have easily won it. He was winning that fight no problem. So that's his only blemish on his record. So he did lose the Paul Craig fight,

but he, you know, again, very unusual circumstances. Then he beat Marcin Prochnio, then Klitsin Abreu after Abreu missed weight. Dolka Lumgiambula, who has the biggest traps I've ever seen on a human being, twice Ayan Kutiglaba, we all know the story there.

Trapsilla over there. Yeah, and then Nikita Krylov, and all of those have gone via a way of stoppage except for the Klitsin Abreu who missed weight, and what can he really do about that? He won that as well. This guy is very, very, very talented, and only 28 years of age. He still has a couple years left before he really primes out. In my opinion, this was not the strongest performance in the same way as the Cyril Ghosn performance wasn't his strongest,

which is to say he didn't have the most violent finish. He didn't have the biggest differential in skill between his opponent or, you know, did he show Habib-level dominance, like once-in-a-generation-level talent? No, he didn't show those things. But what he showed was it kind of doesn't matter what you have. He's got an answer for it. Is there IQ?

Luke, he's a smart dude in there, man. Super smart IQ. On his boxing, you watch boxing. You've watched it a long time. You see, that dude's got good timing. He's got good timing, good accuracy. He just knows when to make reads. He sees the openings and he takes them.

He's just got a lot of abilities, man, that to this point he's already this good. Now, do I think he could beat Adesanya if Adesanya wins this weekend? Probably not, although we'll have to see what the hell happens. But do I think in two years this guy's going to be a force to be reckoned with? Yeah, yeah, I think in two years this guy's going to be a force to be reckoned with? Yeah, yeah, I absolutely think that. I think if you can already do the kinds of things he's doing and show the natural ability to have timing and distance and speed, and obviously, you know, he's got a V in his name and his first name's Magomed. He's got the Amish beard. He's not going to be out

toughed. He's not going to be, you know, shook by the shit you say to him. He's going to be out-toughed. He's not going to be shook by the shit you say to him. He's going to be totally immune to that kind of a thing. Dude, he is serious. So it's weird. We're talking about Ghosn and we're talking about Ankhalaya, these main and co-main guys, and the division's just two apart. And we're praising them in situations where, yes, they're not getting amazing finishes. They're not going out there and just running past the number one contender. You've got to build in parts of your life. You've got to build in parts of your life. You've got to build in certain parts of your career. But BC, it's just if you look at where they're building

and what they've done it with and what tools they've done it with, I don't know how you can come away from this being anything other than like, dude, this is someone who is, at a bare minimum, probably going to contest for that light heavyweight title some point in the next year or two. And I have to say, i'm extra impressed by his iq and the adjustments he made to a live contender you know getting the best of him in the first round more impressed with that than i am at just the the dominance of how he smashed him around three so look anytime there's a a great fighter that pops on the scene he's a little bit bit different. You know, you can get copycats, you can get a new era kind of,

uh, churn out. And, uh, there's not, there's not going to be another Habib anytime soon, as you sort of established it, you know,

it's just a special and rare all time athlete, but are we going to see more of these guys from the Shmesh factory? Just come in here and absolutely clean up. Even if they're a little bit more striking heavy than they are wrestling. It just seems like this mindset and this style of just grind them wrestling with the connection to Dagestan I mean it feels like just the beginning because now division by division you're looking at guys that that sort of fit that Amish profile Luke as we jokingly said but with full respect to the fighters that come out of that era it it's not just the technique.

I mean, these guys are trained savages ready to take over, Luke. You feel the new era might be here. I mean, it's already here. All those dudes right on or near the Caucasus Mountains, all those dudes in what they used to call Indo-Europe, everywhere from Iran, parts of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, all the way through. Dude, all of those people are going to excel in this sport,

and you're seeing it now. They come from a very difficult upbringing. It's part of their culture. They have monastic lives relative to a lot of Americans in terms of how they approach this. Dude, the Russians are here, and they're not going anywhere. And you can see it because it's not just in UFC. Look at Bellator. Some of the biggest signings Bellator has made in the last year

have been the same kinds of profiles. And I guarantee that's only going to continue. The feeder system out of these parts of the world are going to create several, several more UFC champions, not just from Dagestan but again from russia and then some of those parts of uh indo-europe it's going to be it's going to be wild to see the americans are going to have their work to do well they've taken that they've taken i mean like you know the american wrestlers dominated that that first wave of like legitimate ufc with rules right and

then it kind of became the brazilians um are we missing anyone in between because it feels like it's going to be uh caucus time for a long time Luke well you're forgetting that the Japanese dominated at some point through several weight classes as well but yeah I mean is that a surprise that I forgot that Luke no it's not it's quite it's quite on par it's a sad truth yeah by the way on Kaliav sitting at 11 before this fight in the rankings almost certainly now with Krilov sitting previously sitting at eight they might fight in the rankings, almost certainly now with Krilov previously sitting at 8, they might swap places at a bare minimum now on Koliath in your top 10. And then in heavyweight, Gon was sitting at 7. You had Rosenstreich at 4.

This is going to put Gon in the top 5. So it's not the kind of thing that's going to, oh my God, did you see his power? But if you understand smarts and the value there, and then what you can use that to do, you're going to see those guys get stoppages and you're going to see them in very important fights coming up. BC, now we've talked about everything from Canelo Yildirim to UFC on Vegas 20.

There was that Parker versus Fah heavyweight fight as well. It took place in Auckland in front of a crowd, which is kind of interesting. So point number four, anybody out there, anybody out there in the combat sports space this weekend doing that work that you believes deserves a bit of a shout out a little bit a little bit of a a tip of the old cap yeah i mean i'd love to pull you into some international boxing and it's not like i didn't see the anthony durell draw surprisingly on that pbc main event on saturday which was actually a pretty decent fight but i mean look you saw the guy in the picture, Pedro Munoz. That fight with Jimmy Rivera, Luke, was sort of like the people's main event of this card.

And it was one of those savagely competitive fights where, Luke, you knew 60 seconds in these guys were so friggin' evenly matched. I know they fought before, you know, six years ago. But you knew, like, 60 seconds in that they're going to give everything they had and both of them are going to be really hurt and somebody's going to just barely win the fight. Oh, look, this was a calf kicking festival for a while, but man, were they trading bombs and what a gutsy, smart, adaptable win there for Pedro Munoz. And both of these guys had been, you know, all stars of the second tier level in this

division with, with teases at times that they at times that they can get back to the top. You almost feel like a fight when they're this evenly matched. It just takes enough out of both of them that neither end up getting ahead. But great win for Munoz and great effort certainly for Jimmy Rivera. Luke, did you hear Bisping's sort of half-joking but half-serious takes on the state of calf-kicking? I did want to get your take on that. Which part?

The whole idea, he was half-joking and saying, look, maybe talking to Paul Felder, maybe we should ban these because it's become the ultimate calf-kicking competition. And I have seen, obviously, now that the calf-kick is the new fresh thing, both sides of the extreme takes, right? People saying uh hey dude chill out it's another adaption in the sport that you have to figure out how to stop right let's embrace it but then i've seen other people saying look it's not that it's illegal or anything like that it's just kind of gives an sometimes an advantage someone wouldn't you know wouldn't

build any other way right i mean you can debilitate somebody with that quickly. So are you, and this is becoming the focus of every fighter in every fight. Where do you stand in that? Keeping in mind also the entertainment factor of it. Is that entertaining to you to watch two guys circle around and make each other's lead leg black and blue? Yeah. Yeah, it is. All right.

I tend not to put too much, you know i disagree with michael i don't think it's that big a point of concern for two reasons or maybe three but the basic idea would be one why don't you see these kinds of problems in kickboxing and you'll talk to kickboxers and the answer is because they do a lot of good work in conditioning their legs they don't feel it quite as much so the idea that it's automatically debilitating is not true. It is for MMA fighters who don't want to put their body under that kind of stress, but there are probably ways to condition ahead of time that could help. And then the second part is that, you know, am I under the belief that we are at the end of fighting?

Like, this is the end? This is the maximum level of ability that fighters are at the end of fighting? Like, this is the end? This is the maximum level of ability that fighters are going to have and to make adaptations and changes and adjustments? No. It's currently a situation where guys are exploiting a loophole. This loophole is going to close. Guys are going to get better at checking it. They might find ways to condition their legs. You absolutely, by the way, can check a leg kick or calf kick it is entirely doable you have to change your stance to account for that so you're going to see some of these changes better conditioning better checking better range management better you know getting your foot

out of the way whatever over time because the idea that this is just well we've encountered this problem and no one knows how to solve it boy i find that very hard to believe it's just that right now it has a very pronounced effect from a technical standpoint the argument there and i'm and i'm not saying that bisping or paul felder were saying outlaw it but they were having a discussion and they said the problem is that you can't check it you know because there's there's such a high pain level and damage even in checking it so and then look i'm also not saying it's boring get rid of it but it does change the tone of fights very quickly and you know you could say the same thing though to be honest with you there is that sort of out punch in both boxing and mma and then may you can also

kick them there and that's hitting somebody in the liver or just hitting them in general with a debilitating body shot luke that can end the fight at any frigging point like that too. And, you know, we still have defenses in place to block that. So you're right. I think the styles will evolve out. I think what you don't want is that it gets to a point where you need a forced evolution and a rule change for the sake of entertainment. And I think that happened in the end of the nineties into the early two thousands in the NBA, where defenses were just, you know, dropping down, playing such a physical game,

trapping any kind of offense. Scoring was down. They're like, oh shit, we got to open the lane up again, bring in zone defense, really change the rules where you can't hand check so we can just open up the scoring again. We've certainly seen that in the NFL. I think maybe more towards the preservation of quarterbacks

and head trauma, but also in opening things up and having higher flying. I just wonder, Luke, if there's potential for this to get close to that, where fights are so dominated by this that it's like when people were first learning about grappling in those mid-UFC days where they're like, oh, man, I mean, we still see some of that today from boxing fans. It's like, I can't watch two men roll around in panties, right? That's what Bernard Hopkins said one time.

It's just not for me. We're luckily past that will we get past this quicker i mean understand mount used to be such a position of dominance you couldn't imagine someone getting out of it short of a miracle like we're talking early days of ufc where you know mount is sitting on someone's chest past their hips all they have is their arms it seemed it seemed the most suffocating, horrendous position for someone who could achieve it, and now people don't even go for it because they can't hold it. Like, again, if we're 10 years down the road and guys exchange calf kicks and then the fight's

over, we can revisit this. If you are a fighter in today's UFC, you have an enormous incentive to work around this problem. I tend to think it will be worked around. And again, I want to be clear about something. I'm not saying I'm tougher than Bisping and Paul Felder, because I'm not. I'm not saying I'm no more than them, because I don't.

But I'm listening to other kickboxers, Gabriel Varga and, for example, Joseph Valtellini, who have their YouTube channels, and they're both explicit. You can check them, and you can get conditioned for them. Okay, well, they seem like they know what they're talking about. Two championship-level kickboxers. So if they're saying it granted different sport different rules different ways to prepare i understand but with what they're telling me and what i just know about fighting

it's like you ever seen those economists that whenever some kind of technology comes around they say this is going to put everyone out of their jobs these are these luddite economists and then what you end up seeing is yes it replaces them on that version of it like when the typewriter comes around there won't be need for x and then you just realize there's just a bunch of new ways to use the typewriter where employment stays full is this sort of these false ideas about what's going to take over an industry no people will just make adaptations to it i very much believe i think you're right i think the calf kick right now bc it's a problem i don't think it's going to be that way forever.

I wonder, though, I think the only way it would become a problem, Luke, is if it led to shortened careers. I maybe don't know enough about the grind and the medical science behind that, but if we're seeing guys like their mobility compromised after three or four fights of heavy

leg kicks and they're not the same fighter, that would be the only thing that could speed this conversation up but i think you're right let's let's let's tactic against it folks okay and then if you wanted to if you're if you were a commission you could just outload strikes below the knee you know that's it um yeah by the way to give a heads up to or a shout out to somebody uh ronnie lawrence was the only guy who got a stoppage on this ufc card i believe i think that's right um he defeated uh vince cachero catcher we'll be seeing him and have you seen this shit later in the show luke ronnie okay so i'll just say this he looked really really good

he's only seven and one he's still relatively new in his career but he was he was just dominating this guy taking him out ground and pounding him he looked like uh he looked like someone to keep your eye on. Were you impressed by Montana De La Rosa gutting out that draw, Luke? She got kicked in the eye a few times, dude. And her face was broken. Did you see that? The left side of her eye socket was for sure broken.

Yikes. And she was all bitter. She got a draw. Yeah, it sucked. Last but not least, BC. We are on the verge of UFC 259. So point number five here very quickly there is a lot on this card I mean a ton you've got three title fights you've got I mean the card itself is actually pretty good but here's my question to you BC wherever you want to go take it what is the most interesting storyline to you heading into UFC 259 well can I just dead

wrong you and you're like you know the card's pretty good the card's freaking loaded Luke to the point is this the most loaded UFC card since like 217 or 229 I mean this thing's freaking loaded star power three title fights bangers that have title implications, all that. So let's put that down. Luke, I can't get past the whole Adesanya angle in this, and there's a lot you could lean to, which you say, what's the most compelling or interesting. Best fight on this card, it's the Bantamweight title fight. But the storyline involving Adesanya doing this,

Luke, he has been in the UFC for three years, and I know there's the city cuckboxing joke, and there's the double down. Hey, BC and Luke, you tend to really puff up Izzy's bag outside of the weird visit videos. Izzy posts touching his dog's dong Luke, which I'm not even sure I'm prepared to talk about.

Um, there's nothing bad you can say about this guy in three years. He's nine and oh, with four stoppage wins, two title defenses, plus an interim title win, and victories over a who's friggin' who of this division's recent history, including a flush knockout victory over Robert Whitaker.

So that's the establishment here in the foundation, and now he's moving up to light heavyweight. He's favored to win, and he's still talking about, I want Jon Jones, I could go back up to heavyweight he's favored to win and he's still talking about i want john jones i could go back up to heavyweight luke this opportunity for a victory here for izzy you thought these three years were big seriously at the end of the next three years could we be seeing the ufc's first three division champion a global superstar your pound for pound king and a guy who catapults himself into the goat discussion it's in play i'm not saying it's going to happen i'm not saying he'd ever be favored to beat john

jones under any weight class all i'm saying is i think the biggest intrigue here is how does he look at the new weight can he become a simultaneous champ champ right here and does this open our eyes to the idea that while mcgregor's rise was certainly impactful and impressive critically, I mean, he knocked out Jose Aldo in seconds, right? It was a little bit more commercial value than even critical, Luke. I think what Izzy has a chance to do over the next few years is going to be, you know, on par critically with that run John Jones had to kick off his light heavyweight title career, right? Just be in hall of famer after all. I mean, this is insane what he's doing. And I think he's got a chance to do, um, the, the kind of ambitious shit. People just don't always either have the opening or have the balls to go after.

He don't get there unless he beats Jan this Saturday. And Luke, I'm really interested to see what the next few years, knowing how bold this guy is, what they look like. Can he really fight at heavyweight at the elite level? I mean, it's going to be wild if he ends up going down that road and also the reverse of the story is kind of interesting too which is what if Jan Blachowicz wins we've discussed it a million times he would be one of the most unlikely success stories certainly in light heavyweight history but maybe in UFC championship history right and here's what I mean there's been people who won the title and then didn't defend it or, you know, don't have the most memorable reign as champion. But if Jan Blachowicz, who started his UFC run two and four, right? Two

and four is how he started his UFC run to then go out there and become champion. That is alone impressive. But then in your first defense, you go and you beat an undefeated fighter. Granted, moving up a weight class, but listen, I'm not going to give Adesanya too much of a break because he's going up a weight class here. He's the one talking about he could go up to heavyweight and fight and has certainly in one of the composite sports of MMA you know okay this is something that is entirely doable for you if if Blachowicz goes out there and wins dude how many times can you say a guy started his career losing uh two out of every three fights and then ended up as champion beating a guy who was not only undefeated but was widely considered to be in

your point I think your points are totally correct who is kind of spotlighted as a dude who was not only undefeated but was widely considered to be in your point, I think your points are totally correct, who was kind of spotlighted as a dude who maybe might get two, Jesus, three belts out of the question, that would be such a turnaround, such a late development, because this guy is, I think, close to 40 at this point. I mean, that would be...

He turned 38 the other day. I can't think of many stories, especially outside of heavyweight, where guys are good this late after day. I can't think of many stories, especially outside of heavyweight, where guys are good this late after being, I'm not going to say mediocre, but sort of regional UFC level. Like the guy, like, oh, UFC's in Prague this weekend. Okay, well, they'll have Jan Blachowicz on the card. He'll be fighting another guy from Europe.

That is fine. He graduated from that, and no one took notice until they had to. And now you're asking yourself, well, well geez how far can he take it he has a huge opportunity this weekend yeah he does he does you're right he'd almost be a footnoted transitional champion if he loses this Saturday or he has a chance to really uh put a kind of capstone or not even count a launching point like you mentioned potentially by being a guy this critically uh recognized uh blah oh it's kind of his story kind of got lost in last year's fighter of the year uh debate luke and it was tough to see that because he certainly was in the top three discussion and deserve more praise on the unlikeliness of it uh luke to close on that point about adesanya

if he wins in almost any non-controversial form on saturday like is that than enough to be your pound-for-pound king right now, right? I mean, that's going to pass Jones. It should, right? Hold on a second. So we're assuming the two guys who have been in that spot all this time, we're assuming that Habib is not on that list? Yes, he's gone. And then we're assuming that this would be better

than what John has been up to recently, which is not much. And this is John and Usman in this discussion. John in this discussion. He's got to be, right? Without Habib there? Yeah, yeah. I think that's right. I mean, he would be, yeah.

If you're the only, well, Amanda Nunes is up there too, which is another part. It's like, you know, if she wins, oh, by the way, she's casually defending two titles in two different weight classes while in between having a kid is like you know the most mind-blowing shit i mean i realized her partner wasn't one that carried it but still you and i've had kids we know what like what a drain on your life it can be in terms of you know just physically being yourself um looks like you know it's fun but

man what a drain on your life your free time what are you gonna say you're well rested when you have a kid what are you gonna say wow i've never You're well-rested when you have a kid? What are you going to say? Well, I've never slept better. Jeez, no. Of course, having a kid is wonderful, but it's not great for your sleep. I can tell you that shit. So for her to be doing that, by the way,

totally bonkers. But on the men's side, if you are holding two titles at once and there's not anyone else that's holding two titles at once, I kind of feel like you should get it automatically. Is crazy to say no i mean yeah i mean there's there are factors that factor in obviously in the mythical pound for pound debate but uh i like what you're saying i mean and there's it's no brainer he'd be look john's recent fights they were they were debatable

they were they were very close he's gonna have his own chance now at heavyweight to make a new kind of statement but But fun times. Fun times atop there, Luke. And that's just the main event on Saturday. I'm sure the rest of the week, Luke, we've got a lot more to talk about from Jan Aljo all the way down. Great card. Great freaking card, Luke. It is.

By the way, I mean, I'm looking at this card now. Jesus Christ, man. They stacked this one to the rafters. I mean, dude, Benavidez, Askar, Askarov. Not only is that like a number one contender fight, but they're going to bang Luke. Is Benavidez really going to be number one contender, though? It is if Askarov wins.

I don't know the other way around. But also, shouldn't be lost on this card, Islam Makachev versus Drew Dober. Makachev, by the way, not yet there, but could soon be a player at lightweight. And then Tiago Santos versus Drew Dober. Makachev, by the way, not yet there, but could soon be a player at lightweight. And then Tiago Santos versus Alexander Rakic. You might imagine a winner of that gets a title shot, depending on how it goes.

Not just that, but, like, dude, Mejeda's window is kind of closing. 37 now, Luke, okay? Yeah, double knee surgery, all that shit. Like, he may have to go for it. It may be like, I need to bang, and I'm not talking about any women's band weights. I need to knock Rakic out.

Rakic, Rakic, Rakic, Rakic. Real quickly, I added this to the rundown before the show. Five and a half, BC, five and a half, so it's not really our sixth topic. Very quickly, you had brought up the fact that there was an interview. I don't know who he did it with, but Paulo Costa spoke to someone,

and I think it was a brazilian outlet basically now saying before he fought adesanya the night before remember they fought at like eight in the morning there so he had to be woken up at like five and get down to where he needed to get down to and then he couldn't fall asleep so he drank an entire bottle of wine the night before and was kind of hung over bc what do you make of this recent statement so to speak from uh bohashina this is bizarre obviously it's bizarre and we've seen some wackiness in boxing remember ricardo mayorga the night before he lost to oscar de la joya in that pay-per-view he was supposedly out with women of the night in the casino until 5 a.m partying i

mean look it's happened from a reckless standpoint, but this wasn't purposely reckless yet. Ended up pretty ridiculously reckless. Luke, look, I get the scenario. He was in your legs hurt. You're getting up at a weird time for a fight at a weird time.

And, you know, in a different land and you're like, holy crap, I can't sleep. I got to get up in three hours. I mean, look, no one knows that pain more than you

to be, you know, not funny here and honest. I mean, when you got something big to do, let alone fight for the championship of the world, I mean, that sucks. But how the hell could he ever have thought, let me just slam this bottle here of Cabernet here or whatever we got and I'll be fine. And Luke,

that would explain the, the weird taunting and just aloofness in the cage. But like, you know, I want to say this as, as, as, uh,

nicely as possible, but still being fairly critical, Luke, this, you question your IQ when you make a move like this, like straight up, like, like who the hell would do

that this dude this dude it's like dude you couldn't get nyquil you know you couldn't get you couldn't i don't know like your thought was before the biggest fight of your life i should drink a bottle of wine or don't sleep and come in raging. I don't know, Luke. I don't know what you got to do. I just feel like this was just not it, bro. I mean, you know, have you ever drinking a, you know, I don't know what his alcohol tolerance is, but you drink a bottle of wine, three hours later, you're feeling it, bro.

Okay? Like, that's just what it is. And you're not certainly primed up and ready to go fight. You know, you may have liquid courage, but you're, especially red wine. And by the way,, it's like the guy's had a million different explanations for what's gone wrong. He didn't sleep. He couldn't sleep. He had to drink a bottle of wine. Maybe there was an

injury. He didn't throw that punch. Or maybe it's always been... What we've been saying, it's always been Adesanya is just better. Sorry. Yes. Would a rematch potentially go a little bit differently where if they were doing it at a time that was accommodating to Bohashina, let's say it was in Brazil, he didn't even have to travel.

I mean, maybe he stayed, so I don't even know. But you get the idea. Home-ish kind of game for him. Yeah, I do think he'd perform better. I still am going to pick Adesanya to beat this guy probably nine times out of ten. That's the thing about this whole story, why it's weird and worth

bringing up it's it's actually not to damn or take anything away from the adesanya win it's just to say like the hell's going on with costa here i mean you know this this was the biggest opportunity of your career and this broke this broke down like this like really bro like look it's true or false would you would you rather him to keep the aura of toughness never share this story ever? Like, look, you know, you may have been out at a whorehouse two days before and caught the chlamydia from Lydia, and that may be the reason for your poor performance.

Don't ever share that. Don't make you more of a man. Don't share me a red wine at 4 a.m. story here. Just let me believe that, you know what, you had kind of a shitty, arrogant game plan, and the guy caught you. You know, like, let me believe that. And also, BC, we've drank them. You know what, for kind of a shitty arrogant game plan and the guy caught caught you you know like let me believe that over and also bc we've drank him you know what for the next room service diaries we're each going to drink a bottle of wine during the podcast and

we will still finish the podcast it will still be good yes we will look look are we able to talk this much crap because he doesn't speak english or what i mean he'll find probably we're probably running our dumb mouths by virtue of a language barrier. Yes. I will say his body is a wonderland, Luke. If someone said, would you kill BC with your bare hands to have a body like Paul Acosta, I'd kill you twice. You understand? That's what I would do. I would fucking strangle the life out of you to look like that. Okay, Luke.

With that in mind... You could have just been like, yeah, he's rock hard, bro. It's oh my now. That would have been more than... With that in mind, it's now the time of the show where you get to ask us questions. We put up an Instagram post every Sunday. You fill it in and then the resulting segment is what follows. It's time for DMs

from Diggity Dogs. Hee haw. Hee haw. follows it's time for dms from diggity dogs all right bc we go to you first on this one good sir yeah yeah what do you got bro from at mosley underscore the boxer where does paulo costa say the same thing where does paulo costa saying he drank too much wine had a hangover without a signing fight. Where does it rank by the way in all time MMA excuses? Tito's saying he had a cracked skull is up there. Is that from Shane Mosley the boxer Luke or would that be Shane Mosley?

It's the Mos Eisley Cantina motherfucker. I don't know. Sorry. Sorry. That den of sin. Yes. Luke it's considering it was a title and considering he really never let his hands go, it's a really bad excuse. That's why I said keep it to yourself.

Let us give you the benefit of the doubt until we find out. Don't tell us the truth. Where does it rank? Luke, what's the best comparison? You were about to put out a few there. The Tito cracked skull one is up there. That's a big one. I don't think I've ever heard a high-level UFC fighter blame, like,

banging a chick the night before, you know? I've never heard that. They do make your legs weak, Luke. Women, yeah. Well, I'm just saying. So I think the Tito cracked skull is the one that comes to mind for me. What about you? I mean, yeah, okay, so it's up there with, this ain't MMA,

but it's got to be up there with the four or five that Deontay Wilder's put out there in the past year, unfortunately, Luke. But in terms specifically to MMA, I'm trying to think of a really, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's a title fight. It's really bad. It's really bad, Luke. It's a weird flex. It's a bad. It's really bad, Luke. It's a weird flex. It's a weird self-medicative panic flex.

It's just there's a lot of other things. Can't you just take, numb it? Would that have popped on the drug test, Luke? Just shoot it up? Shoot up your bum leg? I guess. Cocaine? If Adesanya fights Costa again, he's got to do the Tarver bit

where he's like, what's your excuse going to be tonight, Paulo? I mean, should he have done a few rails? I'd probably respect that more, Luke. All right, from Liam Roedlg. Would Megan beating Amanda be a bigger upset than AJ versus Ruiz, Tyson Douglas, or Sarah GSP? What are the odds? I'll tell you in a minute here, BC. Dude, the odds are crazy.

I think the last time I checked on William Hill, Amanda is minus 1250 or something. So here's the deal, Luke. This ain't a plus 600 fight. I know I'm higher on Megan's chances than I think anyone at this point, and it's not that I think she's got some specific path to victory that others didn't have. I'm just mixing her legitimate size at featherweight, right?

Not a blown up Bantamweight. She she's figured out through wins and losses, kind of who she is as a fighter. She presents a different challenge and maybe just frigging, maybe Luke, this is the best time ever to fight Amanda, right? Hasn't fought in a long time. You know, fought just once in the past year plus.

Had the first child. You know, there were those little snippets of maybe I'll retire. Maybe this is the best under-the-radar moment. Maybe. But I don't think this is as obscene. I mean, in the real world, Luke, what should she be? Like in the real world. Like plus 500 as the champion plus 600, something like that.

Plus 1400, you know? But is it a bigger dude? I mean, look from an emotional connection, just nothing compares to Tyson, even though the closer you get to figuring out how Tyson Douglas happened, it's obviously a lot more understandable. You know what I mean? Given that Douglas was actually pretty good, just lazy. Tyson was actually kind of, you know, running on smoke and mirrors.

His life was out of control at that point. It's almost the same way with AJ, too. Like, AJ wasn't this fat nobody. Like, boxing fans knew that he had skill if he could ever put it together. Matt Serra would be a bigger upset, Luke, still. Yeah, I'm looking at the betting odds for UFC 69. That was the fight where Serra won. I know when I say that, people are going to go crazy.

They're going to be like, BC, look at the odds. But I just, and Nunes is the GOAT. So let's say that. Mandy's the damn GOAT, Luke, okay? So this makes this massive, if it happened. Yeah, Matt Serra was plus 700 for that now where we go william hill she's right at that but i have seen other places where she's as high as plus 800 in which case that would make it technically a bigger upset also uh ronda and holly was a big upset too as well as we all know all right from i don't know how to pronounce this

irish name so i'm just gonna fuck it up from oishin underscore mccarthy 96 how do you pronounce that ocean we wiz and uh oh risen yeah the great uh japanese fighting uh promotion that's that's canelo that much more superior to his opponents now or is it a case of his opponents have an inferiority complex and almost freezing when they are there with him okay so there is a little bit of the latter going on and it's weird it wasn't canelo at junior middleweight was not that uh physically opposed i mean even though he was like you know he was bigger then right at the smaller weight classes you have you lose you you loom a larger presence even though canelo Canelo was bigger in comparison to his opponents when he was a junior middleweight, Luke, he was a counterpuncher.

He didn't attack you and walk you down. This evolution to, like, I can do it all Canelo is scary. So I do think the latter is true to a small degree. I think both Rocky Fielding and Callum Smith, Luke, they just cashed out mentally. And Yildirim the same, right? They got to a point where they're like, I can't even compete with this guy. I'm just going to try to save whatever face I can.

Right. Like, it's not that they stopped trying to win, but they kind of stopped trying to win. Right. Like it was, there was just, he stole their confidence,

but he's not Mike Tysoning people. Right. You know, like they're not, they're not shaking scared. I think they just get to a point, Luke, that he has all of his bases covered.

Anything you want to do again,, unless you've got elite foot speed or, in the case of Golovkin, amazing power mixed with such a technical jab and know how to cut off the ring, you're just not going to have any success against this version of him. So it's a combination of both, but I think it's more his evolution, Luke, because he was so much more of a counterpuncher back in the day. He couldn't come at you and walk you down and go to the body and get you out of there, or just stand

right in front of you and swivel with uppercuts. I mean, the guy is a full-on prime guns blazing, one of the best in recent memory. I mean, he's amazing, Luke. Yeah, he certainly is, and you're right. You definitely watch it. Like, Gil Durham was definitely deer in the headlights there

and Smith took a little too long to ever really get going, so you hope that Saunders takes some lessons there and is like, you gotta show him no respect, but the problem is the reason why Canelo keeps winning is he will figure out a way around that, and then once you've shown him all of your

gusto and what you plan to do and it doesn't go anywhere, it's probably pretty goddamn deflating. From hepatitis with an R dot Gracie, right? Get it? What is easier? A wrestler becoming a high-level striker or a striker becoming a high-level wrestler?

I would probably tell you the former, not the latter. But even then, when you say high-level striker or a striker becoming a high-level wrestler? I would probably tell you the former, not the latter. But even then, when you say high-level, what does that mean? You mean like they could just go and become a pro-level kickboxer? It's probably unlikely. But can they do what St. Pierre did? There was a time, folks may not remember this, St. Pierre for a time was being rumored to be trying out for the Canadian Olympic team in wrestling. It was like, was he going to do that, blah, blah, blah. And of course he never did, but you know, there was some,

there were some whispers he might try, but the reality is that in the totality of what it means to wrestle for just pure wrestling, he doesn't have enough skills. Um, so can you go from being a wrestler to a high level striker and vice versa, which is to say from your base to very, very comfortable, even formidable in another area of the game inside MMA, yes, absolutely you can. But do I really think you can grow up as a wrestler and then become a pro boxer? No, I don't think you can. Do I think you can grow up as a boxer and then make a national or a world team? No, I don't think you can so um I would probably say it's a little bit

I would ask a coach what they think about this it used to be the case it might a little bit a little bit easier to train a wrestler to become a striker but I wonder if that's the case now with modern best practices you should ask Eugene Bearman later Luke Luke, when you guys are FaceTiming each other. Luke, is it true to say that pre-Habib, GSP was in discussion as the greatest wrestler in UFC history in terms of the functionality of MMA? I mean, he was pretty much right there, right? Yeah. Yeah, he's up there. I mean, again, it's like, dude, you can do great things inside mma outside of your base but when you go to that outlier dude that's the point of the bringing it up i mean he's the damn outlier

i mean just totally a freak athlete with high level intelligence and work ethic that just put it together man i mean all right you should have been wrestling us you're gonna you're gonna love this next question bc this is a got your name written all over it from cubbies fan 80 bc who is on your mount rushmore of guitar players love it love it luke it's it's it's okay my personal mount rushmore of guitar players now luke i always have to ask this when we get these type of questions does that mean i'm telling you my four favorite guitarists of all time or does that mean i'm telling you who should belong on a mount rushmore representing both you know uh skill mixed with impact mixed with all that you know uh your four favorite is how i will define your four favorite my mount rushmore a favorite guitarist

of all time damn i love this question first and foremost foremost, it's Jimi Hendrix, Luke. Not just for the recognition of him being the best of all time, but for the fact that he's actually my favorite artist in music history. And I love the songwriting. I love everything about it. But yes, I love the way that he changed the game on the guitar, Luke. And just, I mean, Luke, he's playing colors, okay? He's playing science fiction novels in his head.

He ain't playing charts, all right, bro? Like, what the hell's going on here um jimmy yes um dickie betts i've said it before right be able able to play those those country rock highly melodic solos and bring that into the foray with the allman brothers uh there's two of them right there okay what about like a joe satriani or something like that i mean he's technically through the roof you know it wouldn't make my mount rushmore favorites but but i mean the guy you know come on come on what we're talking yeah i don't know who i'd put in there because all of my favorite guitar players as guitar players aren't necessarily even close to my favorite musicians um that's a tough one man you know maybe die back daryl just

for like uh yeah you know emotional sake um no but he had the chops to be in this discussion luke yeah yeah i think he did uh i certainly wouldn't put him as best but you know those are the ones that made god who else would i put in there that's a great question i'd have to think about that one you're all you're a little more equipped to answer that one than i am but yeah i mean i love i love trey from fish i love love but i wouldn't put him in there i'd put jerry garcia in there look i'm a sucker luke for for anything upbeat melodic like that like that style of soloing like come on that's that's insanely like lu, I've said it before. There's a jam band music. It's like a dog whistle for stoners, right, Luke?

Like, you can hear something that the average ear can't hear, Luke, okay? And then those guys, those type of guitarists play that. Do you like Phish? I have. I can appreciate Phish. I've had many runs with Phish. How do you like Phish if you're not on drugs? See, the problem, though, there's a few problems.

Like, once you figure out what Phish actually is, and it's not like Grateful Dead 2.0, it's actually more progressive, mixed with almost like Frank Zappa style of just speed jazz. I mean, look, it's incredible. I think what has always held me back is the quality of songwriting. It's just not there. Trey's soloing is insane. The rest of the band is the chops.

Their whole style and history, set list, touring, they're great. But they just don't have it, songwriting-wise. That's what held them back. But I've been deep, Luke. I've been on the tours. I've been there. I've lived it. But, you know, you've got to give me, who's your favorite metal guy? Who's your favorite metal thrasher, Luke? Dimearyl has to be right well when i was a kid you know

uh i was a big it's probably dimebag daryl because when i was a kid obviously everyone loved kirk hammond and metallica but i grew out of that one pretty quickly once i realized like oh there's a lot more metal that i'm not aware of. Yeah, it's probably... I'd have to go... I'd have to think about it. I'm not good on the pop quiz to fly here, but that's almost certainly going to be my number one, which is not, again, which is not to say he's the most

technically proficient, but just the one that has... I've enjoyed the most. Yeah, I'm going to throw Clarence White in there. Somewhat forgotten name in the country rock bluegrass scene, played with the birds for a while before his untimely death. Played with Grant Parsons. That guy changed it. I mean, Luke, he invented things on guitars that switched what type of guitar it is with a switch.

I mean, that guy did insane stuff. But great question, Luke. I'd have to really think about it to get my fourth on there. But a great question. All right. Well, with that in mind, sir, we go from guitar players to people who probably smash guitars on their balls. It's time for you to steer the show. All right, let's do it.

You know what we do. We look around the globe. You know the highs and lows, the good and bad, the ugly and the in-between from combat sports and beyond. Throw to the graphic. It's have. You've seen this shit. All right, Luke, let's do it.

UFC Fight Night in Vegas. How about that promised montage of Ronnie Lawrence and his Bantamweight win over Vince Cachero? Luke, it was a third-round TKO, but check out this sequence in particular. Yeah, that was the ending one here, I believe. Good God. I'm close to it.

Ragdoll and Luke. Yeah. Better in a movie? Hot tramp. Daddy's little cutie. Ragdoll and Luke. Yeah. Better in a movie. Hot tramp. That is little cutie. Ragdoll. Fuck. Okay.

Rinse and repeat, Luke. All right, let's go to zone boxing in Miami. We talked Canelo earlier. Luke, did you see promoter Eddie Hearn during the weigh-in on Friday? As a bet, he wore Canelo's Dolce & Gabbana pajamas to the event. I was going to say, did he lose a bet? Because he looks bad. He looked like a sore freaking thumb.

But hearing the interviews and him kind of joking about it and laughing with Canelo, Luke, they make a good pairing, Canelo and Eddie Hearn. I know they only have one fight left on this deal, but did you see that quote that I sent to you that Eddie Hearn put out there? We should have ran that on the show today about why guys like Bob Arum are behind on this right now. Yeah, I read it. It was good. He was right, too. Maybe we'll get to that on Wednesday, but Eddie Hearn and Canelo, man, they look happy. They look good. That was fun to see.

Damn, those are ugly pajamas, but who am I, Luke? Moving on from the undercard, did you see Mark Castro stopping former UFC title contender John Moraga deep on the undercard, Luke? In the second. In the second. Yeah, they're turning him into a journeyman, not even in boxing. It's sad to see, but... Did he bypass BKFC and go right for the box, Luke?

I think he did. I think he did. All right. He wrestled at a decently high level in college. So he's a good athlete. But, yeah, look at him. He's just getting tuned up here. Yeah. Backstage, Luke, before the Canelo fight.

How about this guy Salt Bae, the famous chef, fresh off meeting Conor McGregor, putting some love on Canelo. But, Luke, should he have been this lovey? Ain't the damn Salt Bae, the famous chef, fresh off meeting Conor McGregor, putting some love on Canelo. But, Luke, should he have been this lovey? Ain't the damn Salt Bae Turkish? That's Yildirim territory, bro. Yeah, it is. Also, I got to tell you, listen, no one's going to accuse me of being the king of fashion.

I don't love the collar on top of the suit. It's very Masvidalian 70s Scarface, right? Yeah, it's very, you know, I 70s uh scarface right yeah it's very you know i got dressed in a time machine look i have ripped abs really good cocaine and a lot of women at my disposal that's what it screams look right right basically okay all right all right well luke that was before the fight how about afterward when your colombian hero jay blavin came in to celebrate with big red and then jay blavin balvin balvin not blavin jay check out what happened next canelo getting lovey-dovey going all tip on tip on this hog wait wait for it here luke this is what real men do luke

you know what that's how you greet me. Luke, were any of the Latin women in your household feeling it during that Jay Blavin concert to bring Canelo out? I don't know who Hota Blavin is, but yeah, they liked it. I mean, you know, it's very Miami, but they liked it. Okay, all right. Yeah, yeah, if someone's touching tips, it's usually going to be on this show. Hey, Luke, one championship Fists of Fury took place over the weekend. Check out Rod Tang.

What do we call him? Rod Tang? I see his name all the time. Jesus. Rod Tang's the guy with the better tan. Kavilov letting him have it, and he went all Recorder Mayorga on us. Luke just like, yeah, hit me right here, bro. Boy, you are doing a real Mike Goldberg job with these name pronunciations i only see one v in there not two yeah all right

stay with me luke i'm getting more goldie day by day this is gross okay uh also on this undercard luke 16 year old victoria lee aka the prodigy got a submission win in her debut luke 16 yeah yeah you'll you'll roll with 16 year olds and you'll be like it's absurd how good this person is at 16 life is not fair although one was trying to put up graphics like youngest to make their pro debut and it was like wayne gretzky mike tyson i'm like slow your roll one slow roll. But isn't she part of that one super family of champions, the Lee family, Luke? Isn't there like a brother and a sister and a younger sister? Yeah, but my dad was a diplomat, and I turned out to be a loser. So, you know, that doesn't necessarily run in the family.

All right. Well, you know, I've often wondered in Singapore where the high school girls hang out, Luke. Right here in this cage, okay? Very good-looking win there for the uh for the uh what's her name all right luke let's roll on um why don't we go back a week there's still some meat on the bone to celebrate from this oscar valdez knockout of the year of miguel burchel including luke is that me is the ring doc that's a that's close uh i don't know but it does look like you had a bare minimum cut his hair are you his barber dude i I think I have that jacket that he's wearing, too.

When I saw that, Luke, it was Spider-Man meme. It was like, wow, I know you? Okay, how about that? But, Luke, it gets better, Luke. You know world-renowned boxing ring announcer who works with me on NBC Sports on Ring City, Lupe Contreras, Texas' own, real good-looking guy. He sent me in this video of Oscar Valdez celebrating with his father, Luke, immediately after the victory. He said, show this to Luke.

Luke, these are what passionate men do, okay? A father and a son. Yeah, but he had a mask on. All right. You know, it was his boy's biggest moment. Mr. Valdez was like, plan it right here, French-Canadian style. Okay, Luke, all right. I know they don't do that in the Thomas house, but well done, Oscar Valdez. They don plan it right here, French-Canadian style. Okay, Luke, alright. I know they don't do that in the Thomas

house, but well done, Oscar Valdez. They don't even hug in this house. Yeah, they don't even hug in this house. Actually, Luke, speaking of your salty background with a lack of father intimacy, we did get footage of the new boat you bought over the weekend. Check out this

pic. Alright, take that, Ralph Thomas thomas you know if it's 3 a.m you must have left your son lonely he is he has accomplished a few things please moving on that's not bad street fights of the week luke here we go uh this guy going all praying mantis in the third world, Luke. Check this out. Oh, shit. He sent that guy the empty script. What drugs was he on, you think? Yeah, PCP is a hell of a drug, but nice combination after distracting him, Luke, with the kata, you know?

I mean, the guy just stood there with his hands down. Hands down, man down. That's what Daryl Spence says, Luke. All right. Let's keep showing some street fight weirdos. Check out how this dude gets fired up before the fights, Luke. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments?

Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. High school. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply.

Eat dirt, John Boy. eat dirt boy wow why the why the fuck you cutting line and wawa in front of me look at the person in the in the mirror watching this luke this is great oh mouth breathing the person watching is just sitting there mouth breathing more than i do during the show luke have you ever um tried to fire yourself up before a fight by punching a wall or anything? No, I've seen a dude break a windshield doing that before a fight. Yeah. This is the Gus Farad of Street Fighters, Luke, right? I mean, these guys are amazing. They hit themselves, and then they walk into their opponents hands down.

It's just like, okay. Hands down, man down. All right, Luke. Hey, how about some spinny shit done right? Check out this promotion called Made for the Cage in the UK. Ooh. Well, darn, what a finish. That was nice.

Magdy Garive with some insane spinny shit right there. Please play that again. That is a kill. Wow. Be careful in regional MMA. You never know what can happen, Luke. They can pull anything out. This is how the Thomases greet each other.

Yeah, they do. Yeah, they do. Damn. Except for the celebratory hugs afterwards. Last week, Luke, in Russia, check out this fat heavyweight fight luke max novoselov a former drug trafficker who served 18 years for murder comes out of jail heads into the ring here luke against uh dennis vladanov here's the ring walk for old max uh you ever hear this guy he's an international man of uh infamy luke he looks normal and well-adjusted.

Is this Con Air? Are we on the plane right now, Luke? What is going on here? He definitely, you would want this guy as your neighbor, for sure. Shout out to Tim Boxeo for researching all these weirdos for us. Let's see the footage of the fight. Good old Max sends this fat guy, sends him down, Luke. Which one is he, this dude? The guy on the right, the bald guy.

Oh, the left now? Yeah. You know, you hit him in that bread basket, Luke. this fat guy uh sends him down which one is he this dude the guy on the right the ball on the left now yeah oh you know you hit him in that bread basket luke you can knock a few loaves out of there you know he's probably like you know i'm used to these being shanks that i made out of a toothbrush but a boxing glove will do he was eating good in prison shout out to that guy all right hey look you know they got a festival for everything. Check out this ginger fest that I saw captured on TikTok. Luke, a field full of freckles. Look, there's Canelo.

There's Rafe Bartholomew. There's Short Fuse Ed Herman. There's that snarky ginger chick that hates me on Twitter, Luke. There's Carrot Top. Snarky ginger hates you on Twitter? Oh, yeah. Hates me, Luke. Really? Yeah, I have that way with a lot of women, unfortunately.

But, you know, Luke, I had a ginger thing in high school. That could have been cleaning up at this point. I've actually never dated one, and I'm perfectly happy as a married man, but I will say i'm not one of these guys who discriminates against the gingers i you know i've seen a couple of them that had red hair

that were 10 out of 10 now they're the gingers what i mean people are gonna you know pick this clip out luke and send it at uh you know all right what do you want to accuse me of red hair bigotry for fuck's sake i mean yeah all right let's keep it going here uh luke um it's it's a amazing clip here how about check out the lack of kayfabe on this kid coming in to rescue batman luke check this out dude thanos getting fucking worked oh shit here comes the cavalry if you're thanos you're a recovering alcoholic you're just trying to make kids happy luke and you get kicked right in the face this is great dude this guy who's this guy who's playing thanos right now he's like what the fuck went wrong with my life

look what country is this happening in i'm gonna guess hold on let me see the kids i'm gonna guess south america i was gonna say that's very columbian like hair this is good i like this all right yeah see everyone's got the brown hair can we get a parent to step in already thanos is getting his ass kicked dude i love how iron man and spider-man are just like yo thanos you had it coming bro yeah we we know what you did to those kids you got it coming uh poor parenting move of the week time Luke usually the idea of a tossed salad is only this dangerous in a jail cell

check this out Luke yikes Luke just a word of advice poor receipt when you do gymnastic selfie videos just tie the kids up. I feel bad for the little one.

He's crying. Speaking of great parents and dads, Mr. HeBoss, move over. I need you, Luke, as the biggest tattoo critic of all time to check out what Canelo trainer and co-manager Eddie Reynoso did ahead of this fight

putting Big Red on his left forearm. I think we got a couple different pictures to cycle here through. Luke, you sent Mr. Hibas to the deep, deep, dark depths for his artistic choices. I like how I'm now like a tattoo hater because I didn't like one quite obviously bad tattoo. But OK. The sentiment was great. Luke, I want you to first tell me about the... Who gives a shit?

That has nothing to do with how good the tattoo is. And you know it doesn't. It does, Luke. It doesn't. It has nothing to do with it. Okay, then let me tattoo your arm. And I'll put a nice big heart

and say I love BC on it. You want to let me do that? Tell me about the technical ability here. Is this well done? Is this highly paid for, Luke? What happened here? Again, I am not an expert on this. Yeah, it's actually, well, I mean, to be clear,

it's significant. Leave it there. Don't move it. It's significantly better than the other one. You can look at the top of the glove. You can see his name etched into the glove. You can see the light shining off of the glove. It's a little dark, but it might lighten up over time. The only thing I don't like, and this is just personal,

it does look like Canelo. It's a little bit different, only thing I don't like, and this is just personal, it does look like Canelo. It's a little bit different, but you can see like even then they got the musculature in there. You can see the writing on the back of Canelo's back. The only part about it that I'm a little bit not necessarily a fan of, but this is not making a bad tattoo. It's just a personal preference, is you see how the back has a giant black shading and Canelo fits against that. I tend to not like that kind of background where you're obviously setting the tone there. I rather just have Canelo sort of standing free and maybe make that work.

But a lot of people like it. It's not, it's certainly not technically wrong in any way, just a personal preference. But is this a better tattoo in virtually every way than the Amanda Hibas one? Yes, it is. Oh, come on. I think I smell a good segment here brewing, Luke.

Look, you can even see beneath his left jaw, look at the folds in his neck as he turns. I mean, this is a pretty well-done tattoo. Now, what about the sentiment? Is this weird? Like, I know they're day one-ish best friends back from when Canelo was 15 and turned pro, and he's a few years older. But is this weird, Luke?

This is a little weird, right? I wouldn't get it, you know? I think weird is a strong word, but, you know, it's extra. I mean, that's going to be on his body forever luke okay what is that supposed to mean you have a falling out i don't know luke maybe you get stiffed on the money one day he's like damn i got a big red on my arm you know i mean like yeah yeah i mean i guess if you feel like you know everything is transactional and ephemeral that you could avoid that but you know my view on tattoos is if you want to get it, get it.

It doesn't mean, just because you're going to have it until you die, like, oh, that's a reason not to get it. That's a reason to just do what the fuck you want and let it be. All right. Look at Luke going all Aleister Crowley, do what thou will here. Wow. All right, Luke. Here we go.

Speaking of Canelo, and look, I'm speculating here, but you know I love to do it. Luke, was it convenient timing that retired former Pound for Pound King Andre Ward, the 37-year-old, putting out multiple videos? It looked maybe like a commercial shoot, I can't tell, but multiple videos of him working out and letting the hands go in the ring. Luke, can I get excited through this? I mean, it's just real basic stuff, and it does look like a commercial shoot,

and those Jordans look fresh. But yeah, yeah, I mean, he looks like he's in good shape, doesn't he? I mean, Luke, it's just timing, right? Timing of the message of putting these out. It just happened to be the day Canelo fought? You know, I don't know, Luke. Yeah, it's interesting. All right, all right, I'm with you a little bit,

and the Jordans are, they're nice. I mean, him against Canelo at 175, Luke, you're going to get some people picking Ward. I'm telling you. Do you like Jordans? Yes. What year made the best Jordans? Which iteration?

Do you know? Or do you have an opinion? I like the threes a lot, Luke. I'm not as... I only own one pair of Jordans I like the threes a lot, Luke. I'm not as... I only owned one pair of Jordans of my like, Luke. The Roy Jones Jr. boxing ones. I still have those. Oh, shit. Really? That's cool. I don't know much about Jordans

because growing up, I wasn't allowed to have nice shoes. We had the shittiest shoes ever. But now that I'm older, I try to get back into them. Were we rocking Avias, Luke? LA Gear? No, I didn't go la gear but i would get just like whatever the whatever the shittiest like you know whatever they had at pay less shoe source your boy was getting consistently until i had a choice to like buy

my own stuff you know puma was before they were cool back when only isaiah thomas and clyde drexler had the contracts with them luke you could get beat up wearing puma's in my school right yeah not that i mean but you know i didn't i didn't i didn't try to do the imitation thing Isaiah Thomas and Clyde Drexler had the contracts with him, Luke. You could get beat up wearing Puma's in my school, right? Yeah, not that. I mean, but, you know, I didn't try to do the imitation thing. I was like, I'm going to get the British Knights Dime-A-Cell. I was like, I'm going to have shitty shoes. Yeah, they're shitty.

Those are shitty, yeah. Oh, super shitty. But I think the Jordan 3s or the Jordan 4s are the best ones they ever made. But, you know, I'm old. The 3s are incredible. The ones that came out with the uh like black leather tongue with the holes in it you remember that one it would they did a black with red and a black with purple that was like 92 those were insanely amazing too the space jam ones are pretty

badass too do you remember the shack ones they made that had the cartridge you would like load them up those were lame as shit those were really lame luke yeah did i ever tell you that once did i ever tell you this story i'll tell it on the air. I don't give a fuck. The one time I got Reebok pumps as a kid, and understand something, Reebok pumps at the time would have the basketball on the tongue that you pumped up.

Those were considered, for at least a short period of time, BC, you would agree, those were apex cool, correct? D Brown, 91 slam dunk contest. They were the best shoe you could find at that moment, non-Jordan. 100%.

So, dude, I had, I had divorced parents. All right. And I live with my mom, which meant, you know, uh,

we just lived. I lived a single mom life in terms of what I could wear. That's why I had shitty shoes, whatever the whole nine yards. So my dad, one time purchased me and my brother at the peak of their coolness, the peak, uh,

a pair of each, uh, Reebok pumps. And I couldn't. Yo, are you talking all black with the ball on the top? All black. No, these were white that had blue trim. But they were still pretty cool. Okay.

They're still pretty cool. They ain't the D Browns. But yeah, they're cool. No, no, no. They weren't that one. But listen, from what I was wearing, as much of an upgrade as you're going to get. And I remember my mom said, there's no way I'm going to allow you to take these. And I had to give them back to my dad.

She wouldn't let me wear them. And I had to consistently wear shitty shoes until high school. I'll never forget. I was so fucking pissed. That's lame. Yeah, we got more on that to come in the future. I got a lot more comments about it. When I was on the eighth grade basketball team, BC,

the whole team bought Nike Airs as part of what to wear. My mom made me buy New Balance basketball shoes. Who the fuck wears New Balance basketball shoes? Okay, so I feel your pain. My dad was out of work for two years, and it was seventh and eighth grade, so I had shitty shoes at the time that everybody had good ones, Luke.

So I know that feeling. That sucks. Look, I couldn't afford football cleats. I don't play football in old Nikes, Luke. It was horrible, all right? Yeah. If there's one thing I want to do as a parent, it's not that to my kid. Not that at all.

Not that at all. All right, well, let's hopefully something in the rest of the show doesn't make you lose your job, Luke. Okay, let's keep it going here. Luke, hey, how about this one? Congrats. Whoa, what is this? Oh, here we go. Yeah.

Check out this guy, Luke. I don't think we've seen this one. Oh, God. Congrats. You've got C-E-T-E, sir. Oh, God. Yeah. Dude, look at this guy.

He's like Tits McGee here. Just thinks he's going to take flight. I mean, he didn't get his hands out. I mean, that's just face. That's just bad. I'm not convinced that he didn't live, Luke. We might have had to vet this properly. I'm sorry.

How many teeth did this fat bastard lose? Remember that time they wouldn't let me run that video of the circus performer getting uh choked to death by the snake because we found out he died yeah it wasn't that it was me i was like i don't think we should be putting deaths on the air maybe that's faces of combat death all right let's keep it going a couple more hey luke you know that great artist boss logic check out this poster he made for spider-Man 3. It's borderline tip-on-tip, bro, right? Pretty good, pretty good. That man blew up.

Oh, yeah. Our old UFC friend loved that guy from Down Under. He also did the posters for Mayweather McGregor. Yes. I have got some. You know, Showtime sent me some real weird ones of Conor wearing a crown and shit. I think those are probably Boss Logic ones. I got one of those too, but I don't remember what I did with it.

Luke, this is the most requested clip we've had in a long ass time. The Scorpion King tryouts came to the boxing ring this week, Luke. Oh, God. Dude, did he punch his spine out of his back? Luke, you know what that looked like when you go on vacation and you buy too many souvenirs? You're like, how am I going to fit these into the suitcase? And then, yeah, you just condense them like that man's spinal cord.

How did he live? I mean, that's brutal. That is brutal deluxe. That was me on the first day of school with all my shitty shoes. That's what it felt like. Luke, I got one more for you. Let's close with this. Check out this weird and creepy throwback youth basketball team, Team Picture, Luke.

First of all, who's going to let their kids play on the come team? I mean, who's coaching? Sandusky? And second of all, Luke, who the hell would wear a shirt in public that says come on it? What are you, some kind of asshole, right? I mean, who would do that, Luke? You know, I mean, who would steal 30 bag lunches? I'll tell you, it was that damn Sasquatch.

Yeah, all right, Luke. Got a lot of people, by the way, sending in about this cum shot. That's crazy. That's really funny. Well, it's not quite cum. It's the Kumite. It's a Frank Duke shirt from Bloodsport.

God damn it. That's funny. That's good shit. What is Catholic University M? I don't know what the M would be, but Jesus Christ. That's a terrible picture. That's really bad.

Yep, that's... All right, BC, time for odds and ends. What do you got for odds and or ends? Yeah, so plenty of star power at that Canelo fight from Colby Covington to every popular boxer also Jorge Masvidal in the house Luke and he gave an interview on camera with Boxing Social afterwards and with which Masvidal said straight up I'm fighting Usman it's probably going to be in September and and after that of course he went on to say like he said before I want to box I'd love

to box Canelo I'd love to blah blah blah, blah. And he gave the reasoning, obviously, about that boxing pays more in one night, you know, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Luke, the news that really came out of that, though, is I think he jumped the gun and screwed the pooch there. If he's fighting Usman in a rematch in September, which is obviously seemingly the fight to make in many ways, the distance of having that out that far, does that mean that they're going to be tough coaches?

What the hell do you say, Luke Luke I think that's what it means because if they're they're probably they're probably asking themselves okay how much longer do we think Kamaru is going to hold this title and there's reasons to think he's going to hold it for a little while longer so you might as well promote with him if he's going to be there in that position especially if he might move up a weight now that is he's moving up a weight I mean there's a lot of reasons why it's probably time to get behind usman in a way that they not necessarily not that they've been shitting on the guy but you know really like dig into high gear i think that's what it means but i guess we're gonna have to see all right uh that that was an interesting bit of uh news there um so this uh what's happening

for me at odds and ends there was a grappling event called wno who's number one on flow grappling on friday a bunch of results craig jones beat uh this atis guy i think it's ronaldo or ronaldo i'm not sure how he says his fucking name to be quite honest with you so keep that in mind but the bigger news out of it in terms of the salacious side was uh roberto jimenez was supposed to have a match with the heavyweight over at Dan Hurd Death Squad. I forget his name. And he got injured. And so Gordon Ryan filled in. Gordon Ryan is easily the very best no-gi submission grappler in the world. And Gordon Ryan won. In fact, even before the match, said he was going to win via mounted armbar, which is exactly what he

did. And so that's kind of amazing. But afterwards, he had a confrontation with Andre Galvan. Now, here's why. Galvan is a previous ADCC winner. And then when you win it, I think of the absolute, you have to come back against the super fight against the previous year's winner or whatever the fuck. I forget how it works. But you have to have a super fight if you're the previous, every two years, with the previous time. So Gordon Ryan is on a collision course with Andre Galvan, and they've been talking

trash, but Galvan doesn't seem like he wants to have a match, and there's just online back and forth about who's going to win and how much money it's going to cost and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, they saw each other, and we actually have video of it. Here's part of it. This is actually after... Do we have audio or not, Maniche? Do we have audio? So you can see Gordon Ryan comes up here. Maniche, did you actually get the one of Gordon Ryan slapping Andre Galvan or not?

Yeah, this is after the slapping. Let me see the slapping. Check this out. And I wish we had audio, because if you hear it it's not a little boom son slapped him up and galvan did nothing and i which i was very surprised by and neither did his team and so afterwards so he shoves him here bop slaps him hard. You can hear it. And then he goes and sits down, and they have this back and forth. Now, I don't know what's going to happen in terms of them actually having a match at ADCC, but this was all the rage afterwards.

Gordon Ryan is, I mean, Flo Grappling gets a lot of criticism because all of their coverage is basically about Gordon Ryan. But he has a thing that I guess his detractors just don't understand. One, he's very good, so he wins a lot of matches. He's on like a 50-match winning streak, and he wins them at a high level in important contests. And two, dude, he's a king troll. He goes out there and just pokes the bear with everyone. BC, he's kind of like, it's not exactly right,

but he's kind of like a 2016, 2015 Conor McGregor a little bit. I mean, he's a little bit better than that because of how good he is. But in terms of the place he represents. Yeah, he's kind of like a Jake Paul, Conor McGregor. Something like that. He's as good as a championship level. He's the very best in Nogi. And then on top of it, he just riles up everybody in that industry.

So he ends up getting just an enormous amount of coverage as a consequence. And there's Gabby Garcia, by the way. Wow, look at Gabby. Gabby's like, what the hell is going on here? She's ready to take over, Luke. Dude, Gabby is way bigger than Andre Galvan. Gabby should just double-leg Ryan. Just take him right out, Luke.

She agreed to face him she'd face Gordon Ryan she'd probably lose but still you gotta admire her guts what do you make of this episode in Jiu Jitsu BC yeah a little pro wrestling drama I'm telling you the truth it would get me more interested Luke

when did all them people watch NASCAR when those guys fought a ton in the damn hauler area Lukeke when did all them people watch nascar when those guys fought a ton in the in the damn uh hauler area luke right when did uh uh when did uh what's it's oh the the figure skating broke all them records at the uh at the olympics in 94 luke remember how many people were watching that tanya harding bullshit you remember that luke yep because there was like a pro wrestling style attack ahead of the time. Luke, it's the secret to bringing in.

So what if these guys were conspiring behind the scenes, Luke, to bring in eyeballs? They might be. They might be. But Galvant took an L here because he got slapped and just let it happen. Boy, I always thought if someone slapped a pro fighter. Remember, he used to be a pro fighter. You know, that would be the end of something,

or at least initiate conflict between two of them. But he just allowed it to happen. Kind of surprising. All right. All right. We should get Gabby with us on the road for security. She'd take people down, right? You ever seen her in person?

No. I saw her next to Cyborg once. Her and Cyborg were together at a Strikeforce event. They were like friends hanging out. And she dwarfsfs dwarfs cyborg i couldn't believe it i was shocked she is uh she is large and in charge bc you know i'm saying not dissimilar to the host of this program luke okay something like that not not quite uh not quite as successful in their individual occupation but you know working at it uh all right bc i think

that's it for us this time. We have a bunch of extra content coming your way this week. So we have the shows, obviously, right? So today, Wednesday, and Friday, live chat Thursday, blah, blah, blah. But on top of that, we're going to have some special get you ready for UFC 259 content. Dude, three title fights in one day. That's a big deal.

That's a huge fight week coming up, man. Yeah, this card's great great great freaking card look you could make an all-star team out of the undercard and put together a a better fight night card than what we normally see you know what i'm saying oh easily easily you could take the rest of that card maybe put like one you know top contenders fight at the top of it and it'd be fine it'd be totally you'd be very happy with the quality of that card. So pretty impressive. Well done, UFC.

All right, so if you want to subscribe to... Oh, Luke, important, important, okay? Get ready. A lot of people asking us, what the hell happened to that doc you guys were trying to pawn off on us, get us really excited about. The final rough draft is in luke i've seen an earlier rough draft it is spectacular this second documentary i'm serious am i saying that because

i'm the star of it luke probably but i will tell you that uh thematically cinematically um how it was performed look this thing is a so a... So here's the deal, folks. It'll be live this week. I think we're going to have a trailer during Wednesday's show. And I think Thursday of this week, you're talking about bonus content that's legitimate.

How about some illegitimate content this week? Thursday, Donkey Mentory 2.0. Luke, it's coming. Are you going to watch it ahead of time? You have the link in your possession. You're like, yeah, I don't need to watch it. Yeah, I'll watch it. I'll watch it. So be on You have the link in your possession. You're like, yeah, I don't need to watch it. Yeah, I'll watch it. I'll watch it.

So be on the lookout for that. That's important. Follow and subscribe. You can see it's Morning Combat, the same name and written in the same way everywhere. A little bit different for me and BC between Twitter and Instagram, but give us a follow just the same. We always appreciate that. Alright, if you got any fan submissions, any artwork, any

pictures of yourself and MKGear on the road or wherever, send it to us. Morningcombat at gmail.com. Also, any dead wrongs that we have for Friday's show, you can send us there. Morningcombat at gmail.com. If you want to try Showtime, you can. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can do whatever you want with your life. And if you subscribe now, I believe you're going to get $4.99 for the first six months of your Showtime experience. Let's see. You can go to store.show.com for some MK merch, hats, beanies, mugs, tumblers, ball condoms, that kind of a thing.

It's all there, ready to go. And BC, what time is your flight? I think right now, Luke. I got to go. So it's great doing your flight i think right now luke i gotta go so it's great great doing the show with you i'll catch you later travel safe to uh puerto rico we'll talk to you soon and for everyone at mulca cbs sports and showtime thank you so much for watching until next time may all of your gains be loyal Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.