MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Gane vs. Volkov | Bellator 261 | Gervonta Davis | Anthony Joshua | Ep 171

Episode Date: June 24, 2021

On Episode 171 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are back in studio to look ahead to the biggest storylines at UFC Fight Night Gane vs. Volkov card (9:40), Bellator 261 (21:30) and Showtime boxing's Gervonta Davis vs. Mario Barrios (30:30). What should we be looking out for on these cards? Anthony Joshua responds to Deontay Wilder's claims that he would knock Joshua out in "devastating fashion" (44:30). The guys close out the show with Wheel of Death (58:00) and Fan Submissions (85:00). '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  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille, Reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Straight from the slums of Jersey City, the MK clan strikes again. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. That's Brian Campbell. And we are Morning Combat back in Jersey City. Back with a bang. Yes, that's right. With a bang on the 23rd of June here in 2021.

Brian Campbell, feels good to be back in the old bombshell town. Yeah, the old orchids of combat. Not sure what's going on on this table since we've been back here. But, you know, ready to be here, breaking down. I don't know, it's hump day, no J. I don't know, what are we doing today? Yeah, there is no J here. It's a Corey and Maniche production, which means this should be just fine.

Pretty excited about that. We're excited that you're here as well. We have a lot to get to today. There's a ton of combat sports over the weekend. We're going to preview it. We have. We have a lot to get to today. There's a ton of combat sports over the weekend. We're going to preview it. We have the Wheel of Death we're going to do. And just to preview, Luke's already getting a little bit bitchy about the Wheel of Death because you got to preview the categories.

I saw a couple of the categories. Most of them were fine. It's just that BC is getting a little too big for his britches, but whatever. We'll figure that out in real time. We also want to remind everyone that we have fan submissions we're going to get to and BC. Before we get to anything else, all the normal preambles. Are you saying Santa Claus is coming to town? Is that what you're saying? I am told that Santa Claus has come down the chimney.

Would you like to tell the folks what the good news is, good sir? Apparently, this is live, direct. It's happening. Morning Combat Merch 2.0 is not only always there when you call. In fact, it's not even on time, but it's here, folks. Can we flash the website? MorningCombat.Store. It's there. Is your new home for all things Morning Combat Merch.

Now, they tell us you can still go to store.show.com to get the 1.0 merch, but this is going to be our new website that will feature a few things. New designs coming week by week as we decide to roll them out. Allegedly. And most importantly, international shipping. You used to have to be close enough to Jersey City and get a Wi-Fi signal, and then maybe they would deliver it to your house. Now, I don't care if you live in Doha, India, I don't really, you know, thank you,

Providence, wherever the hell you live, you can get this shit. And, you know, I was, you know, I was so much fatter then. I'm slimmer than that now, but I still look good in that white hoodie right there. So go on and get yours over at morningcombat.store right now, okay? Yeah, actually, you know what? Let's do that in real time. Let's take a look. I've actually not seen the store. I mean, if it was true to Morning Combat's tech difficulty history, Luke, your attempt to purchase something will probably be incomplete, right? Came up right away.

Holy smokes, look at this. So they've got hoodies, bestsellers. Obviously, they're just making things up because they haven't really sold yet. But they've got all kinds of stuff, all different kinds of T-shirts. There should be tank tops here eventually as well. But as BC mentioned, whatever's on there right now, just wait.

We're going to add stuff. The whole idea is so that this can be responsive to all the things happening on the show, things you want to see, things we think might sell really well. If we get a hot joke, people start calling Luke the Pink Panther after what happened to Miami,

we'll have a t-shirt ready for you to order, okay? That's right. That's what I'm talking about. So shout out to all our great people. You want to shout out any of our fans? Yeah, all the ones who give us money. Thank you. All right.

Thank you. No, I mean, there's a lot of effort that went into this, so I want to thank everyone who made it possible. Yes. It took a lot longer because, you know, bureaucracy is bureaucracy, but we made it through all the channels. It is live. I just checked it. Take a look at that. Pretty good. I mean, that looks great. Can you show the people is bureaucracy, but we made it through all the channels. It is live. I just checked it.

Take a look at that. Pretty good. I mean, that looks great. Can you show the people how that site looks? I mean, that looks great right there. That's a great-looking site. Is that a Kate Spade iPad? No, it's not.

So, you know, Graham Manning, you know, out there in Ireland, outfit your wife, Nettie. She's a good one right there. Anyone abroad, okay, who's studying one, put a ring on her, put a morning combat sweater on her. That's the way it goes. That's the way it goes. So there you have it.

It is live. We delayed it. Hey, I don't want to jinx myself here, Luke. I did drop eight pounds in a week and a half, though. You look great. You look great. Clean liver. Why don't you tell them about the gummy roulette you played at the beginning of the show?

I really have no idea who he's talking about. You should have seen him in the bathroom. I really got him. I really have no idea who he's talking about. You should have seen him in the bathroom. I really got him. I really have no idea what you're talking about. But, Luke, there's a simple phrase that the Texans like to say. Everything's bigger in Texas? Clear heart, clean liver, can't lose.

So I'm trying to keep that going. So with that in mind, go check it out. Go buy what you like. By the way, give us feedback, too. You know where you can give us feedback? Same place you can send us fan submissions. Same place you can send us dead wrongs. MorningCombat at gmail.com. Let us know what you think. What do you want to see? What's not

there? What's an idea you have that you think might be good? We'll take it and make money off of it and never credit you. MorningCombat at gmail.com is a great place to go. Also, we should probably send WebScream something for his new young baby son. I don't know if we have MorningCombat throw up bibs, but I'd like to put one on his offspring. We should get all pop sockets, anything that anybody would wear. Now shipping to Italy, WebScream.

Okay, we're coming for you, bro. If you want to try Showtime, who makes this very show possible, you certainly may. Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can balance. It's a good thing. Like BC said, you want to get merch 1.0?

I think it's store.show.com. It is quality merch for those who have access to it. It is certainly available, although the new one, morningcombat.store, is where we're going to direct everyone from here on out, I think. And then, what else, BC? What am I forgetting? Is it hot in here, or is it just this coffee? It's just that coffee. By the way, as always, like the video, hit the subscribe button, the old YouTube.

Yeah, I mean, look, we're willing to penetrate every single one of our viewers. So now is the time to get on board with that, okay? Remove the chastity, right? Okay, well. I don't mean to chastise them. You made it five seconds. What I really mean by that is we're coming big things ahead. If you like what we did in Miami, I don't mean to chastise them. You made it five seconds. What I really mean by that is we're coming big things ahead. If you like what we did in Miami, I don't care if you like that fight.

I didn't like the fight, all right? Yeah. Much bigger things coming your way. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, all right. Well, that's that. We have a lot to get to here today. We will do the wheel a little bit later.

But first, BC, we do have to get to some of the big topics of the day. Are you ready? Yeah, let's do it. I don't believe that you're actually ready. Right before the show goes live, he's like, I haven't even looked at the rundown. I'm like, okay, all right, well, let's start here, BC. There is Bellator this weekend. There's, of course, Tank Davis this weekend. We're going to get to that, but let's start with a little bit of UFC. We do have an event. Cyril Ghosn is taking on Alexander Volkov in the main event. BC, what would you say, in your mind, is the number one thing you're thinking about

when you put these two heavyweights together? Volkov has been impressive beating Overeem in his last contest. His only losses, I think, were the surprise one to Derek Lewis and then to Curtis Blades, who out-wrestled him, but that one got dicey. Those were his only two blemishes. Cyril Ghosn, through Muay Thai, kickboxing, and through MMA, has zero losses.

He's never tasted defeat. Is he the next big champion? How do you assess what's happening here from a New York standpoint? Yeah, I want to find out which right-hander we're sending over to the bullpen. And what I mean by that, of course, you know the title situation at the moment. It's Francis Ngannou looking to set up a fight with Derek Lewis. I saw a tweet from Muriel Hawane that said that fight UFC was targeting for August 7th, looked like it's probably going to be pushed to September now.

And we know Jon Jones is that other sort of elephant in the room in terms of who could be next, Stipe Miocic lingering. Who's got next, though? Meaning in the future of the division. It seems like this matchup will do that for us and tell us that because Volkov certainly seems retooled from the defeats Luke mentioned, coming in there off of, really, just such a sharp win over Overeem. And then you got gone in 60 seconds here, old Cyril,

who, Luke, if I could spin it back to you, you did once say on this podcast, with that wheel that you spin, spun, spunneth, when I said, look, you know, who's going to wear this UFC heavyweight belt over the next two to three years? You mentioned Cyril Gunn. You know, this is the type of fight you have to win to enter that category.

Theme-wise, it's easy to look at this and say, who's really got next in this division? No doubt about it. So just look at the rankings. Francis is your champion. He's unranked. So therefore, let's go to the numbers. One is Miocic. Two is Lewis.

We think Lewis is going to have a rematch with Francis. We'll have to see how that goes. Three is Cyril. You're asking who's below that. Four, Curtis Blades, who's in a bit of a no-man's land-ish kind of scenario. And then you've got Volkov sitting at five. So this is obviously, BC, for probably who's got next at a title shot. Probably.

Do you think they were, because of the Jon Jones lingering, that whoever comes out of this fight is probably going to have to go through Stipe to get that title shot? Do you think that's a realistic evaluation of the title picture? Because Curtis Blades is coming back against Rosenstrug, I believe, which is another important fight similar to the one on Saturday night. Yeah, they might have to. It really depends on what Stipe wants to do and whether or not John Jones comes back and to what extent that changes anything. Obviously, we don't think that's imminent, but one never knows. But I will say this for Cyril Ghosn.

I think it's something we haven't really looked at. We just had Brandon Moreno win a title, and the first kind of conversation is not just how far Mexico has come to be able to produce something like this, but about the next chapter. Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. keeping praise on him. Murals in Tijuana, coaches getting questionable ink on their skin. Listen, but it's a commitment that you have to assess there. The passion for that and what kind of doors that opens

is big. Folks, Cyril Ghosn is French. His coach is the previous coach from Francis Ngannou and MMA Factory, I think, over there in Paris, France. The French produce on a world-class level

athletic talent in so many departments, including in combat sports. Their judo team is one of the most impressive in the world and has been for some time. We've barely scratched the surface on what a country like that has to offer. I don't know if Cyril Ghosn winning a UFC title completely changes the dynamic, but what I'm just saying is the more you get of that kind of scenario, the more you're going to get better talent down the road. Who is he going to inspire when he becomes champion? Who is he going to lead and recruit and be a shining example for? On the other side, with Volkov, you know,

I remember him and Beltor just kind of getting out-wrestled and being okay. He has come so far past that. It's less about what that would do for the Russian market. It'll obviously be pretty good. But that story to me, the Volkov story, is one about just continuously getting better and becoming a real heavyweight contender. I think he's become a finisher now, too.

And that doesn't mean that he doesn't have finishes in the past, but as you climb up the ladder in any division in terms of starting facing more elite competition one after another, it becomes harder to finish these guys. I see a spirit in him that is more about maximizing his strengths always, which are on the feet, but getting guys out of there. Luke, I think between the two, Cyril Ghosn looks like the brighter long-term prospect, you could say.

We don't know who's going to win this fight. We can break that down on Friday. Here's the issue with that, right? So he's 31 years of age. He only has eight professional MMA fights. Eight! So on the one hand, you look at his wins, Rosenstruck, JDS, Tanner Bosser, Dontel Mays, and Rafael Pozoa are his ones that come from UFC.

He made his UFC debut in his third professional fight. So this is my point. You're like, who's got more upside? Okay, the guy has shown unbelievable potential, no doubt about it. But like at eight fights, do you really know the full totality of Cyril Ghosn? I don't think we do. I don't think he knows it, and that's the key, but what I was going to ask you is when you look at a guy who's rising, you want to say to yourself, can I imagine him in a title

fight, A, and B, can I imagine him winning it? What about Ghosn's game is giving you that feeling that you could see him hoist that title? He's a physical specimen, number one. That's the first thing you notice when he comes on there. As Ben Folks might say, he looks good getting off the bus, number one. Number two, he's got that impressive kickboxing background. He doesn't have many fights there either.

I think only seven or eight or so, but he's never lost any of them. And he did beat some credential people along the way. I think the thing for me is, dude, you don't see a lot of heavyweights fight all that intelligently. I know that sounds like a bit of an overgeneralization, but here's what I mean. Like, Cyril Ghosn understands distance and timing and feints and setup. There's a concept that I'm going to get into a little bit later when we do the next Dissected. It will come back in some form. Can't wait for that. But there's a concept of engagement, right? What do we do in the space between and who manages the

timing and the real estate based on their actions? And it's a concept that a lot of people don't give a lot of attention to. Cyril Ghosn does. His team does. Then on top of it, he's got, it seems like, seems, good takedown defense, some kind of a ground game. But this is my point. It's like, they put him up against another striker, BC. I expect him to shine.

He can fucking strike his ass off. What I'm more curious about is what would happen if Cyril Ghosn faced somebody like Curtis Blades. What would that look like? Blades just has his own issues to fix after having his last loss. You want to ask about who's, like, I would argue that Volkov has beaten better credentialed opponents for the most part. Volkov is 32-8.

He's got 40 fucking fights just in MMA. Hits hard, too. Hits hard. He's a big dude. But at the same time, he's also way more tested. His last one over Overeem. Overeem and Rosenstreich, I would say Overeem is better, but that was a weird fight because Rosenstreich had the last one. I don't want you to discount that because Overeem thought he was on his way

to one more run for a title shot, and that actually sent him out of the sport. Right, right. He's also expensive, so there's that as well. But the point being is this is a highly interesting matchup. It's one where, again, all the questions that we might have about Ghosn, even if he wins, may not be answered. But you beat a guy like Volkov and you're sitting at three, where else is there left to go at that point?

It's title shot or bust, I feel like. This is going to sound like I'm going nowhere off a dark exit. I used to cover high school football for a couple of newspapers in the beginning of my career. And there was this one old man coach, Chuck Drury, loved the guy from Pompadour High, and I would interview him. I covered him for three years, and he'd be Bella Cechian style. He would give the same answer to every single question,

wanted nothing to do with me, did not want to fill my notebook with quotes. What's the difference between you and this team this Friday night? How are you going to win this? Luke, the same answer every time was if our front seven outpushes their front seven over the line on defense or on offense, we will win the game. And it was his way of basically saying, look, like if we do the absolute basics, this is high school football, the foundational basics are what wins this game. If we do it better than they do, we'll get more rushing yards. They'll get less, all that stuff do you think distance management in mma is that same foundational sort of element where if you can can control and master that control the terms of the fight

you're gonna 75 of the time win i i um i do i generally think that that is true but the way in which you manage it can be all different kinds of things it can be your footwork it can be your fainting it can be some of the strikes you throw but like there are people who have this ability when we are at distance. They can do certain things with their behavior and their setups to control the other person without ever putting a hand on them. People don't ever think of it that way. How do I control you, an opponent who is out there to take my head off without ever touching you? Cyril Ghosn, in addition to when he touches you, it hurts, he controls that engagement process.

So does Volkov, though. Yes, he does. And he has a huge reach. So this is one of the few times where, like against JDS, what did Gahan want to do? He wanted to space it out if he could for the most part. Now, he finished him with the elbow, but for the most part, against Volkov, it's the opposite. So we're going to see to what extent he can play both sides of that equation.

It's a good point that you make there. Thank you, Coach Drury. Yes, that's right. Other fights on the card, it's not super deep. Just say it. It sucks. Say it, Luke. Sucks is a strong word.

There are some fun fights on there. Nicholas Dolby versus Tim Means, that should be a lot of fun. The Dirty Bird is on a nice little late resurgent run here coming off that win over Mike Perry, correct? Maybe MMA's most underrated fighter in some way if you think about it. Hanato Moikano taking on Jai Herbert. This will be at 155, obviously. That'll be a lot of fun. This is the one I've got my eye on, BC.

I talked about this guy when I was on Rogan's podcast and I called you co-host, but it's true. Michel Prezeris has taken on Shavkat Rachmanov. Shavkat Rachmanov is 13-0, undefeated, and looks like a fucking world beater. And for all of the hype that has gone into the Chechen kid out of Sweden. Chemaev?

Chemaev. You look at Shavkat's resume, he is way more proven. I'm not saying that automatically means he'll go further. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just pointing out there's virtually no buzz for Rachmaninoff, and he can fight his ass off. 13-0. Michel Prezerich is that tank of a Brazilian wrestler. That's the

one of all the fights on that card I'm the most interested in. Do you think we can get some sloppy fun in that co-main event with a quick turnaround Tanner Boser against an OSP who we don't know where he's going? Is there anything left? Is he playing out the string? Sometimes that creates some... I like Tanner Bosser. I like him. I think he's a cool dude. He's infighting just because it's something he's kind of good at.

I think he would hang out with us, too. Oh, dude. Who would, like, you know that, what's the old test? Because today they're announcing the election results in New York City for mayor. What is the old test of a politician, right? Who would you rather have a beer with? That's why Clinton beat Dole. Most people, if they didn't like Clinton, you'd probably rather have a beer with Bill

Clinton than fucking old-ass Bob Dole. And you can pick whoever you want for every race. Who would you like to have a beer with in MMA? Dude, I'm picking Tanner Bosser. I'm picking Tanner Bosser. What about you? I'd roll with OSP, though. We may see some of this.

We may get a takeover. The Q-Dogs. We may get some of that here. Because that's the guy. I bet against OSP every single time he's knocked somebody out cold. Basically, because he'll come off a bad performance, and you're sort of like, oh, I know how to pick this one. And then he does that.

You're like, bro, fucking Nikita Krylov is just going to. But the answer to your question is Ioana. Really? That's who you'd prefer to have a beer with? OK, what dude fighter would you prefer to have a beer with? I mean, I open it up to all fighters. What dude fighter would it be?

I think we've done this question before. I know we probably have, but it's a good way to think about it. All right. Mike the Mav, he's our wingman. Oh, that's a good one.

Okay, that's a good one. He eats chocolate hummus like a complete fucking heathen, but other than that, he's a great guy. You know, Rashad, we'll get some peyote, go to the desert with him.

Listen, put me on some peyote or whatever he was eating in the bathroom before the show. Not true, not true. And then we can eat chocolate. We'll find out if it's true in a moment. No, just kidding. Okay. So that's that card there. As I mentioned, there's actually a lot going on. So that's the first part of it. Let's go to topic number two. Not a great card. I mean, you know, we are ViacomCBS employees. I'm not going to lie to the audience. This card airs on Showtime, Friday night only on Showtime. But people think that we have changed, Luke, that we have sold out.

Have we? That we are not allowed to come on here and tell you that this card on Friday is doo-doo. Yeah, it's not good. Luke said it. Sorry. There is, like, any card. I always try to tell folks, is there any charm to any card? Usually there's something to be said for it.

So Bellator 261 Johnson versus Moldavsky will take place at the Mohegan Sun. I think there will be some fans in attendance, which will make it a little bit better. They were loud last time at the Mohegan Sun. Yeah, they actually were pretty good. I have to agree. That was a better last time. So Timothy Johnson is fighting Moldavsky for the interim heavyweight title. Why?

As you can see, there's Timothy Johnson right there. Why? Because Ryan Bader is your existing heavyweight champion, but he's kind of occupied with the light heavyweight Grand Prix. Kind of funny how like in UFC, if you're a champ, everyone's like, I'm going to be champ, champ. I'm going to defend both. Amanda Nunes can do it because it's a division and a half.

Not really. But for any other fighter, it's basically impossible to defend the title in two-way classes in the way that you're supposed to. But I kind of like, I will say that I like that Bellator has the flexibility. The problem is, like, are you, Johnson will die. I mean, listen. Our highlight here is him getting kicked in the stick, unfortunately. But no, look.

Listen, he could punch. Timothy Johnson's a nice guy. He could punch. It's a good story, Johnson's resurgence. Yes. He'd been a journeyman. We always knew he could punch. He's got an 80s adult movie mustache.

But the run he's been on in finishing guys has sort of showed us that, you know, at the very least, like, he could be deserving of a title shot. Well, he's going to get that title shot and the platform here, Luke, to kind of stand out and make a big name for himself. Question is, maybe it's not the sexiest matchup to draw the eyes, but does Moldavsky bring enough to the table where this could be a fun fight? I mean, he's an interesting guy. Poor bastard.

Every time, this is true. Look it up on his record. Every time he's fought in Bellator, it's been in Thackerville, Oklahoma. He must think the United States is the worst piece of shit country on earth. But okay, that aside. Shout out to Oklahoma.

I don't think he, he certainly is not in MMA. He's not as experienced as Timothy Johnson is against higher level opposition. Shout out to Oklahoma. I don't think he... He certainly is not in MMA. He's not as experienced as Timothy Johnson is against higher-level opposition. He is not a devastating finisher, but he does possess a lot of interesting physical tools. Timothy Johnson, by the way, you call him a big puncher. He also has a background in American wrestling, folk style. So I actually like Timothy Johnson to win that one,

but it's... I'd say this. From what I've seen from Woldowski, worthy adversary is really the way I would put it. I mean, Tim Johnson is country strong. Let's look at the run, Luke, that he'd been on to get to this point, right? It's been knockout of Tyrell Fortune, knockout of Matt Mitrione, and then the split decision went over to Czech Congo, which he was certainly. He did in Paris, where Congo was the hometown guy, so to speak.

I mean, that is a strong run when you look at the Bellator heavyweight division and who's available. Now, Moldavsky, he breaks off of a very old Roy Nelson, beat Javier Ayala, but he hasn't... I want to say he hasn't won... He hasn't put a stamp on the division at all. That's the way to say it. He hasn't had one of those wins where you're like,

okay, this could be the next guy. This is that opportunity for both of them. It's going to be interesting to see what Ryan Bader's future is, because he looms over this fight because, as you said, he's the defending champion who's occupied in light heavyweight. Are we

over, let's say, underlooking is that a word? Underlook? Are we underlooking Bader's chances to regain his light heavyweight title? And if he does, is he long for heavyweight? Because I thought he was long for light heavyweight. I thought he was going to move exclusively to heavyweight. Because let's be honest, would you favor Bader over every heavyweight in Bellator's division

with the exception of if Rumble moves up? Dude, they didn't land a punch on Ryan Bader in the entire heavyweight Grand Prix. He ran through it like a freight train. I have a lot of respect for Timothy Johnson. We'll see what Moldavsky can do. But I don't think they're on Ryan Bader's athletic level. I really don't. The problem for Bader at light heavyweight is, look at the other side of the bracket. You're either

going to fight Nemkov, who knocked you out, or you're going to fight Anthony Johnson, who also knocked you out. Now, that's a great chance to get redemption. He'll knock you out and your credit line. Allegedly. Allegedly. We don't know what the true story is.

But the whole point being is, man, that's an uphill climb for Ryan Bader at 205 pounds. Going back to this, you know, I think he slides right in. I guess we'll have to see. Here's what's funny, though, is Rumble, when we talked to him, and by the way, I love Rumble. Do you? No, seriously. Did you share your credit card information? Absolutely.

I have, actually. So here's the deal. He talks about wanting to stay at 205. And I think that there's unfinished business in him and his career. He had the knockout against the replacement opponent. Didn't he get to fight Romero? They still want to do that in Bellator. I hope they do.

I'm interested, as anyone, to see how Rumble comes out of this 205-pound tournament. Is he a legitimate threat to Nemkov? We'll find that out. But I think he's the biggest threat to this heavyweight division should he decide to move up long-term. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the only thing that's going to catch him is certainly age. Eventually, we'll catch him.

But if you're asking what... Because here's the thing. There used to be a case in Bellator that they had... Who was the guy that beat... Oh, God. I'll look up his name. There was a guy in Bellator for a time, and you were like, whoa, he might do the damn thing. Are you talking about Minnikov?

Minnikov. Vitaly? Yeah, Vitaly Minnikov for a time. I was like, yeah, wow, Bellator's really got a stud out here. But the whole thing has kind of fallen apart since then. Without him being there, who would you point to to be like, oh, that's the guy? Maybe you would have thought maybe Mitryon. Mitryon took him the distance, but he got completely handled

in that fight. So, like, I don't even know who it would be, honestly. So, yes, unless he really just gets old fast, that's his belt to lose in the most obvious way. You know what doesn't stink? The co-main event on Friday night. Right. So, co-main event is a flyweight. They basically

already said it's the number one contender fight between Liz Karmush and Kana Watanabe. Liz Karmush having two fights at Bellator. One was a bit of a stinker but she won. The other one

she won via submission over Deanna Bennett. And then Watanabe is undefeated technically although she does have a draw and she comes into this fight having won a split over Alejandra Azul Lara.

I love this contest because the winner of it faces Vanessa Porto if memory serves. No, Juliana Velasquez I believe. Yeah, Velasquez is the new champion at fly serves. No, Juliana Velasquez, I believe. Yeah, Velasquez is the new champion at Flyweight. Yes, Juliana Velasquez. She beat Alimole McFarlane.

And to be honest, she looks like a future star now for Bellator. A dynamite. I don't mean star marketably. I mean somebody who can control this division. She might be for Brazil. She might be for Brazil if they want to keep that. I mean, we're not in a state yet because of COVID and everything else where we're bringing shows back to Brazil.

But you have to imagine if you are a promoter and you have a national and international distribution deal in television, having some Brazilian champions on your roster, probably a good idea. And the way she was able to beat Elaine McFarlane, which was kind of like pillar to post. I mean, that was not close. That's good for the brand. So I would say, you know, what are the odds on this one, actually? Who do you think is favored?

I actually don't know the answer to that. I would guess that maybe Karmush's, maybe based on name value. Did you see that? Karmush's, minus 225. Really? Minus 225? That's interesting, because here's the thing. Karmush's is later in the game.

But she's still, as you saw her rebuild herself into a UFC flyweight title contender, into losing that fight to Shevchenko, that she's still solid. She's still a tough out. Yes. Watanabe has the plus striking against her in a one-on-one matchup. But did you see that ahead of this, Karmush is working with Ronda Rousey's old judo coach? Gokor Chivichian?

No. Oh, Jimmy Pedro? The other guy. I don't know. I read a headline real quick. I read the story. Which judo coach? Travis Stevens?

No, I forgot the guy's name, okay? Sorry about that. Yeah, that's a great tidbit. You just hit the floor and just splattered. You're working with that guy, though. The guy. That guy, though. I think Junkie tried to trick me.

They were like, you know, Karmush working with former Rousey coach. And you're like, Edmund? I'm going to go with that. You're like, Edmund? Really? Really? Karmush working? Head movement? What's going on? Former judo Edmund? I'm going to go with that. You're like, Edmund? Really? Really? Karmush working.

Head movement? What's going on? Former judo coach, right? That's what it said in the story. All right. So which one is it? Let's see. I'm going to pull this up here.

Justin Flores. Yes. Yes. No say. I don't know who that is. Sorry I brought the show down there. All right. Well, that was a great little tidbit.

Imagine if we sold these mugs on the new merch site. They'd fly off. I know. Well, we'd have to wait another 5,000 years. There are some other good fights on the card. That is your co-main, obviously. BC, Miles Jury is going to take on Sydney Outlaw. That's probably the best fight, I think, on the card, personally, from an action standpoint.

Daniel Vyshal is going to take on the undefeated Keoni Diggs. And then, yeah, it's a bunch of fights. Is that a fair way to put it? Yeah. Let's just spin in the wheel, right? We'll see who impresses us, okay?

They've got some good stuff, but this one feels like banquet food. But, you know, to be candid, July 31st, only on Showtime, Luke, from the Forum in Englewood, California, it is Pitbull versus McKee, so get fired up for that. Alright, so that one we'll wait for because that's a good card. Alright, BC,

let's get to the one that's the biggest fight of the weekend. Quite obviously, this one's not too hard to tell. Gervonta Davis is going to go up, not one, not two, well three weight classes, right? He's going up two from his last fight. Sorry, two from his last fight, but this will be his weight class in a third title. Third weight class title.

He has the full title at 130 that he took from Leo Santa Cruz, and he's a former champion at 135. He went up to 135 once and beat Gamboa for the secondary title. Now, from his last fight against Leo, moving up two weight classes. This is the third weight class in which he's trying to become a champion, correct? Yes, his secondary belt is on the line. And a lot of MMA people go, hey, BC, what does it mean, a secondary belt? It means, unfortunately, the WBA puts out multiple belts per weight class in certain situations.

So this doesn't make the winner the full WBA champion. It makes him sort of the secondary number one contender. Either way, this is a big storyline from the standpoint of Tank Davis moving up another weight class. Even though things are loaded at 35, he wants to test the waters even higher. Also, for Corey back there, do you have a photo of their face-off? Because nothing will tell you what Tank Davis is up

against until you see they are remarkably different in size. I mean, yes, in the end they'll be the same weight, but Barrios' frame, I mean, he's a true junior welterweight, so 140 pounds. You know, Tank Davis might be able to win this fight. He might be able to go up to that weight class.

He ain't a true 140-pounder. BC, when you think about the number one storyline in this fight, what is it? It's that sort of dare-to-be-great creativity of Tank Davis. So here's what we're going to find out on Saturday night. Two 26-year-olds, unbeaten, both of them, in their absolute primes. We want to find out how great Gervonta Davis is going to be. I know there's going to be some critics

saying, well, he's already at lightweight, right? When's he going to fight these other guys? I want to see that, too. I'm sure he wants to see that, too. I want to talk about that in a minute. Politically, it is difficult to make. Look, look, look, look. Look at the size of this kid. What he's doing in the interim is testing the waters at 40. And this is why this is important, Luke. We've seen in the past fighters start out at junior lightweight or lightweight.

And when they grow into their body, they eventually become welterweights. And they become stars. De La Hoya, Mosley, guys like that. How many, you know, Mayweather. How many, how many. Pacquiao. But Javante Davis has always been small in terms of height for his weight class, but has been such a monster puncher.

He's going to find out here on Saturday night the hardest way possible if his power can carry up and he can be legitimate at 140 pounds. And the biggest storyline is, can he overcome this mountain in front of him? And that's Barrios, who's an aggressive, young, hungry fighter. Maybe not a one-punch knockout guy, but gets in your face, active style, high volume, in your face all night. And as you saw in that face-off, Tank is legitimately giving up six to seven inches in height.

So this is going to tell us a lot about whether he can carry his power, whether his future, Luke, is at the money weight classes. And when I say money, it always means how close can he get to 147? Because in and around, that's where the big money is. If he goes up there against Barrios and knocks him out, it's in play.

We don't know how his power is going to carry. That's the intrigue of why you want to see the fight. I wonder if his future at 26 is now closer to going up higher to that welterweight area than it is staying around 135, where, let's be honest, that 30 and 35, Tank has had some issues in the past cutting down to weight because he walks around sometimes as high as 175 and has to cut down to those lower weight classes. I think we're finding out that the future of both sports right now

is not cutting down in weight and leaving yourself deprived. It's getting closer to a more comfortable weight where you can carry your power and energy and stamina more. I'm interested to see if he goes in there and runs through him, is he going to move up or is he going to go in there and find that this is going to be a very tough night at the office? And I think that will be better entertainment wise if it is, and that will be better in finding out exactly who Gervonta Davis is. And what I mean by that is simple. I can see in small pockets that he can box. He tells everybody in interviews, I haven't been tested in this way yet.

Gamboa fight stretched him to a certain degree, but that was largely one-sided. Can he box as good as he can punch? Can someone pull that out of him? Luke, when you move up in weight and suddenly you can't get people out of there if your power doesn't carry at the same level, then you have to find other aspects of the game.

This could be a 12-round shootout where we're going to find a lot about Tank's stamina, about his adjustment ability, how well he can take a punch, how well he can counterbox and mix things up. There's a lot of questions that need to be answered for this young star, and I think this is a much better fight than people realize for how competitive this one can actually be. Listen, we didn't really show for Bellator because I don't think this is the occasion to say that that's their best card, but I'll say this for what Showtime's

got. I think this is one of the best boxing fights all month, personally, and I know, again, to the point you're raising about, you know, what about these guys at 130, 135, some of these bigger fights you could make against other people in his peer group. Here's my question to you, BC. Let's say that Davis goes out there and looks tremendous, gets him out there in six rounds, stops him cold like the way he's been doing. Does that make the fights at 135, even though people want to see those fights and those permutations,

does it make it harder? Because here's what I've been noticing. All the other guys in that space that he's around, they're not pay-per-view ready. They're not really, maybe Lopez, but even then we're going to try it. That'll be his first jump to pay-per-view in his next one. One of the problems that Tank Davis might be up against is not that those wouldn't be good fights or that they wouldn't sell. And maybe in the end, that's what matters to me. But I guess here's my question. If he goes out there and sells well on pay-per-view and he dusts this guy at 140,

is he going to want to give an opportunity to a Haney, to a Lopez, to a Garcia? Because he's kind of moved on from someone who's not really a great B-side at that point. You could say Barrios isn't, but he's still, this is what, Tank's second time headlining on pay-per-view? He's still kind of early in that process. I guess I'm just pointing out to what extent does not just their differences

between I'm DAZN versus TV, but I'm a pay-per-view A-sider make that fight harder to make. This is why it makes it hard when they're in their mid-20s. Now, the key to this new group, the new Four Kings, Karen Wolvinia of the Showtime Boxing Podcast calls them the Four Princes. I love that nickname. Yeah, that's the best one. Because we don't know how great these guys are going to be long-term

or if they will fight each other as consistently as the great four kings. You can watch the Kings documentary on Showtime. Good plug right there. But what made all those four great? They fought each other nine times in 10 years and carried the sport. It's harder now with the structure in terms of promoters and fighters being tied to a singular network. So Tank has the head start on Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, Teofimo, because he's already now, he's a little bit older than them, and he's already established, not just on the pay-per-view level,

but, Luke, as we talk about, if Tank goes to Atlanta, if he goes to Baltimore, if he goes wherever, he's selling out arenas, and that's not always happening for these other guys. The problem is everybody believes they're on the Alpha A side. So to get somebody like Oscar De La Hoya, the promoter of Ryan Garcia, to send Ryan Garcia to your network, it's just not going to happen. Because Garcia's value to DAZN and to Golden Boy is so high. The way those fights are going to have to get made

is on the pay-per-view level with networks coming together, similar to how Fury and Wilder are going to have this trilogy because ESPN and Fox are going to come together. People only come together in boxing when the financials make sense. So it's more likely that we are going to see these guys fight each other when they're closer to 30, when they're more established to the ceiling. Right, Tank only 26. And that's unfortunate.

But unfortunately, that's the boxing structure right now. So Tank's got to get a little bit creative in the meantime, find some tough matchups, see how great he can be. This is an excellent test under that regard. But to kind of finalize on your question, he's ahead of those guys. Teofimo already thinks he's an A-side. You're not going to see Bob Arum go, OK, you know, Lopez, let's try you out over there on Showtime. Plus, he's got unfinished business. I know Lomachenko is fighting Nakatani this weekend, right? So assuming Lomachenko wins that, I think

they want to do a pay-per-view with those two together. So they got unfinished business anyway, and we'll see what happens there. Nevertheless, BC, I've got to tell you, if you guys have not seen the two All-Access specials on Showtime's YouTube channel, boy, do I recommend watching those. There's a scene in there, BC. For folks who don't know, there was a time when Gervonta and his brother, and by the way, Gervonta, let's be clear about this, he's still got legal troubles he has to deal with, all kinds of charges related to allegedly insanely reckless behavior with his car and nightclub and all kinds of shit. And look, people put comments. You and I just did a really cool video counting down the top five

Gervonta Davis knockouts of his career on the YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. You can check that out. And people are going, I don't want to watch it. Look, I mean, what else do you want to say about it at this point? You know, the guy's got some trouble outside the ring. We've talked about it at every stage. It's fine. Like, it's a real part of the story.

I'm just pointing out, as a fighter, he grew up in a, as a person, I should say in this case, he grew up as a terrible situation. There's a scene in the second episode of All Access where his mom, who was estranged from him for a long time, because eventually Davis ended up in foster care. She explains the story. The story is basically that she was mired in drug addiction on the streets and there was a shooting in her neighborhood. She was gone off doing drugs somewhere. The police came to the door and were going, I guess it was in the projects and place to place.

They went in there and found that not only was she not there, they hadn't seen her in a while. And so the state assumed custody of them. And even that didn't get them back. She was still in rock bottom from drug use. It took a long time for her to get that back out. And yet they were able to find each other a little bit later in life. Dude, that's heavy shit, man.

That's really crazy stuff. I mean, Tank's been through some stuff, and that's not a justification or an excuse necessarily. But it's an understanding. This guy has come from the gutter. I mean, the bottom. So as a fighter, as a person, it creates issues. As a fighter, I think it might will him to victory

if he gets some kind of difficulties. But Mario Barrios, you know, he didn't have it creates issues. As a fighter, I think it might will him to victory if he gets some kind of difficulties. But Mario Barrios, you know, he didn't have it easy either. And by the way, I didn't know this. He was training with Virgil Hunter, who is an absolute genius when it comes to boxing strategy and tactics. Especially defensive boxing strategy and tactics. Virgil Hunter made his name with Andre Ward. And the key element of that is if you can take an aggressive fighter like Barrios, but put him with a coach who can kind of teach him the key element of that is if you can take an aggressive fighter like Barrios, but put him with a coach

who can kind of teach him the other half of it, you can round out and get a very good elite fighter out of it. Right, so they've had, I think, like 11 camps together, something insane. So that's a good partnership to have, obviously, and we're going to see what happens on Saturday night. Because, you know, we'll break down the X's and O's as we get closer to Friday's show. You and I will also

be hosting this week on the Showtime YouTube channel, the press conference stream, the weigh-in stream on Friday, press conference is Thursday, but a big key to this matchup is the distance, and for Mario Barrios, you're going to have to use that jab. You're going to have to keep Tank Davis and that big-time punching power away from you. We've talked about how he manages range with all these other tricks

as Mario Barrios is going to fall for it. You know Virgil Hunter knows them. The question is, did they prepare him to get around it? I guess we're going to have to see, but that's a hell of a fight. That's a hell of a fight. And storyline-wise, you don't want to miss Saturday's pay-per-view co-main event on Showtime, which is, we love this 154 division. It's red hot, right? I mean, you got Jermell Charlo's got three of the four belts. Everything from 147 to 168, even 175 is fire. And PBC has a grip on 154 right now. So you got Jermell Charlo, excuse me, has three of the four belts. The other belt is

Brian Castagno. They're going to fight on Showtime July 17th. But this co-main event Saturday night is Erickson Lubin against Jason Rosario. Banana Rosario is the guy formerly the unified champion who knocked out J-Rock Williams and then lost to Jermel Charlo in that Showtime pay-per-view last fall. Luke, what you love about this

fight is it's two guys that had a big loss by knockout, but we've already seen Erickson Lubin rebound from that, reestablish who he is. Can now Banana Rosario do that? And when you match their styles together, they're both headhunters and punchers. This is going to be an explosive fight between two guys in the physical prime in their mid-20s with a lot at stake in terms of a potential title shot. And we know all the other players in this division. Let me play devil's advocate real quickly.

Okay, but why should the fans care? I'm going to be a hater just for effect. Rosario got dropped with a body shot and lost his fight. Against the best fighter in the division. Fair enough, but he got finished with a body shot, with a jab. And then Lubin won his last contest, but it was very ho-hum. Well, Lubin's been showing us a little bit more side of him. He's been boxing more, but the kid's a puncher and he's aggressive and he goes after it and he turned pro.

Mike Tyson was actually his first promoter. He turned pro as a teenager and did not go the Olympic route. And he's still kind of figuring out who he was. Yes, Lubin got one punch by Charlo in the first round and sort of had to rebound and find out who he is. Yes, Lubin got one-punched by Charlo in the first round and sort of had to rebound and find out who he is. Now we've got to find out who Banana Rosario is because nobody knew this guy at all until he went in there against J-Rock Williams and knocked him the heck out and finished him and took the two belts in a strong performance.

Entering that Charlo fight, the storyline was, not really sure how good or dangerous this guy really is, but he could have a puncher's chance at this. He got stopped. That's going to put a lot on his shoulders to want to prove because when you come off a knockout loss and lose your belts, you can go the long route to get back, or you can go right back against the next live contender in line.

That just happens to be Lubin. So this is Banana kind of doubling down on finding out where he's at and where he ranks. And when you get two hungry guys together like that who can punch, they end up punching each other, Luke. So what's the hook on this? You're probably going to see an exciting knockout, and whoever wins is going to be a major player again

in this larger division picture. And let's not forget Errol Spence Jr., who is going to be in a Fox pay-per-view against Manny Pacquiao on August 21st. And yes, we all want to see Spence against Terrence Crawford. We're going to have to wait and see if Bud Crawford re-signs with top rank or becomes a free agent, whatever. Spence has been talking a lot in the media about coming up to 154 because the weight cuts to 47

are so hard. Luke, could you imagine if you drop that pound-for-pound ranked superstar, well-rounded, amazing fighter in the middle of what's going on at 154? This could get big time. Yeah, here's the problem, though. Isn't he buddies with the Charlo's? They wouldn't fight, would they?

He has the same trainer as Jermell Charlo. The same one at 154? Derek James, yes. They spar together, but who knows if Jermell's not going up to 60 eventually. Jermall could be going up to 68. Yeah, Jermall's gone, but I just mean for Jermell, it's a little dicey. Dicey, dicey, as you might say. I'm busy running a company here as the CEO.

I have no idea where you're going with this. Okay, so that's that. There's a couple more little pieces of news and notes here, BC, before we get to all the wacky fun stuff. Anthony Joshua had some funny things to say, BC. Let me read this to you. I guess Deontay Wilder, you know, saying Deontay Wilder things, oh, Anthony Joshua's running from me, like, okay, maybe you might win that fight, I don't think he's actually running,

but okay, so Anthony Joshua responded, and I want to talk about this for just a second, quote, this is Joshua talking about Wilder, he isn't an elite fighter in my opinion, he's good, it's the heavyweight, so they always know one punch can change the course of a fight. But I've never ever seen in the heavyweight division a fighter going to war with just one weapon, which is what they say is his right hand. As we've seen now with certain fights of elite-level fighters, he struggles at the top level. And there's a lot more of us waiting for that opportunity as well to kick his ass. I'm an elite-level fighter. I'm not one of those tomato cans he's knocked out.

Luis Ortiz is a tomato can, BC? He ain't no tomato can. I thought it was recently a year ago he was the third-best heavyweight. Look, these two don't like each other. They will meet eventually down the line, but there's a soap opera history. Who do you blame more? Their promoters? Who's telling the truth when they had that two-year window where Joshua

versus Wilder was the biggest fight you can make at heavyweight before Fury came back and sort of changed the landscape of this division. And it never got made, and we don't know who's to blame, and really we're just tired of it at this point. Hey, Deontay Wilder, if you knock out Tyson Fury in this trilogy fight, you're going to get your chance against Joshua if he gets past Alexander Usyk, which again, this heavyweight season, we're not getting Tyson Fury versus Joshua right now for all the belts. But if we get those other two fights just mentioned as sort of semifinals to bring us together, then we're still set looped in the next year, hopefully, to find out who's the best. Because it seems heavyweight is more willing than the other weight classes to put the best against the best. Why? Because it's easier to make fights on pay-per-view where everybody gets paid, which is how you make the fights between people on other sides of the line in boxing.

I don't really put much stock on either of them talking trash to each other. I mean, they've both lost. See, it's not the trash talk that I care about so much. And obviously rivals are going to say disparaging things about their rivals. Anthony Joshua's a better boxer than Deontay Wilder. I don't think that's very much in dispute by anybody except Deontay Wilder, maybe, you know, his trainer. At the same time, though, I have to tell you,

there is two things about this that kind of rub me the wrong way. One is that Wilder, in part because it was just the way things worked out, but he has gone, what, almost 20 rounds? Not quite, but 16, 17 rounds with Tyson Fury. You know, I got to say, that's pretty commendable as someone who's got competitive spirit, number one. Number two, that's the only real blemish on his record at all. You can say that Wilder has one weapon, and I agree, it's kind of just one weapon. It is such a fucking potent weapon that he can do all of those things. My point being is this.

Anthony Joshua showed unbelievable skill and determination in that Klitschko fight. I mean, getting up off the canvas, putting Klitschko on there, just an incredible display of grit. But that was to get to become the man. Since becoming the man, certainly in the Andy Ruiz rematch, extremely careful. I got to tell you, if they matched up, I like, I think Tyson Fury is the best heavyweight boxer on the planet. And I think that Anthony Joshua is a much better boxer than Deontay Wilder. Sorry, I'm picking Wilder over Joshua.

I think that that kind of, that kind of power that he possesses and the kind of change that has happened to a guy like Anthony Joshua, he's a little too confident for me. And Wilder, as we've talked about heading into this third Fury fight, you've cornered a wounded animal here. There's nothing...

In terms of retaining his superstar elite status, he needs to win over Tyson Fury. And his back is against the wall, and there's nothing else to do but to come out and be the bronze bomber. And what I mean by that is, Luke, there's something I always talk about, about Deontay Wilder, and people are like,

oh, man, you're crazy. Now you're talking about, you know, the McGregor-Mystic-Mac shit again and the magic in the air. You saw the Bermane-Stiverne rematch when Deontay Wilder went in there in one round, and he always talks about, when I become the bronze bomber. And I know that's the sooty war that we can make jokes of.

But something happens. So, Luke, something happens to every fighter when they step from civilian to stepping into the cage or ring and become that warrior who has to be hellbent on destruction. You have to go in there. We don't like to say, I'm willing to die in the ring or the cage. But you have to go in there with that willingness and that intention. He was scary as frickin' shit against Fat Stiverne. If he can retain that mantra persona and energy and just bring it out, is it a gamble?

Of course it's a gamble. What if he goes out there guns blazing, and somebody like Fury who has the size, speed, and elusiveness can outwork him and stretch him and work on that gas tank and get him out of there anyway. But wouldn't you want to go out swinging? Wouldn't you want to go out with your best shit forward? Deontay Wilder is not out of the picture yet in this division. He's going to be alive out against Fury. And to your point, if he can harness the very essence of his danger and not just be a counter puncher who's going to wait till the eighth or ninth round for you to

make one mistake and end the fight, but in rounds one, two, and three look to walk you down and get you out of there and make it a sloppy barroom brawl, which he seems to be comfortable in. It's going to get scary. This is what bothered me about what he said, which was, okay, you had the first fight with Fury, which I thought Fury won, but it was a draw. Still, obviously Fury got stretched for a bit, but then got off the canvas. We all know the story.

After that, what did he do? He fought Dominique Brazil in May of 2019 and knocked him out inside one round. That was a guy, you know, decent heavyweight. Credible heavyweight, yeah. He just dismissed him. But the big one is he fought Luis Ortiz for the second time. Now, the first time they fought, Wilder had some trouble.

He didn't have any of that trouble in the second fight. No, no, no, no. He was down on the cards in the second time. Now, the first time they fought, Wilder had some trouble. He didn't have any of that trouble in the second fight. No, no, no, no. He was down on the cards in the second fight. Okay, but he didn't get wobbled visibly in the way he did in the first fight. You're right. So you could tell he was doing his strategy of waiting for that big punch. This is my point. He was being extremely patient.

Sure. Because when you have the nuclear bomb that Wilder does, to Joshua's point, one weapon, okay, fair enough. But if you're patient with it, all you got to do is land it one time. And he sent that fucker into the land of wind and ghosts. The only way to beat that is what Tyson Fury did, which is to back that guy up. Is Anthony Joshua that guy? Tyson Fury is that guy. Is Anthony Joshua that guy? Anthony Joshua has more ways to win a fight than Deontay Wilder,

but he is more vulnerable. Straight up to one big punch. See, this gets me excited because I want everybody to fight the best. These three are, it's fun. I had Al Bernstein, where are we? What camera are we on here, Maniche? I had Al Bernstein on Morning Combat. I think the video goes up today. We looked at, again, the four-part

documentary series, The Kings on Showtime. Part four airs Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on Showtime. Luke, what made The Four Kings great is they all faced each other. Can we get The Four Princes at lightweight? Well, they're going to have to all face each other, and in boxing's business structure, it's hard. What happens if Fury, Joshua, Wilder, Usyk, Andy Ruiz, what's left of Luis Ortiz, go on a run the next two to three years and just keep fighting each other. I mean, this is the type of

thing that carries a sport. And you could argue in this last two to three years of this Renaissance heavyweight division, they have in some ways raised the profile of the sport. When Fury Wilder 1 happened, the sports world took notice. You know what I mean? When Anthony Joshua got knocked out by Ruiz, the casual sports world took notice. If these guys could keep fighting each other, not only would it be so great for

the sport, I don't even think people talk about this enough. Like we know we've got fun heavyweights. We know that they're trying to fight each other, but this could raise the and carry the sport. Not really that dissimilar to what those guys did in the 80s when the Ali and Holmes era had ended. And right before Tyson became Tyson, there was this window where those four guys in and around the middleweight and welterweight division made huge fights against each other for record purses, and it carried the sport. I hope the promoters in place, the network people in place, realize this, want this, the same level that we do. Because this group, with maybe the exception of Fury, who seems to be the class of the group,

are largely interchangeable in terms of anyone can win at any time. And that's the essence of the heavyweight division in general historically, is that one punch can change at any time. But the fun interchangeable matchups here are incredible. I want Deontay Wilder to be a thing again. It's almost the best thing for the division if he goes out there and knocks out Tyson Fury. I mean, it kind of is. I just feel like you've got Fury, Wilder, and Joshua.

Two of those guys have fought each other twice. One of them hasn't fought either of them. Like, to me, that should matter in how you assess how they size the other up. If Tyson Fury wants to say he's going to march down Wilder and knock him the fuck out, okay, all right. I mean, I've actually seen him do that. That sounds like a thing he can actually get away with saying. Is Andy Ruiz and Alexander Usyk,

are they players in this conversation? Are they just spoilers? There's a difference. A spoiler can win a big fight. We've already seen Ruiz as a spoiler. So you're asking, can he be more than that? I do think he can be more than that, and I do think Usyk can be more than that. But we have to see. We have to see exactly what happens. Here's the other part, too. He's talking

all this shit about Wilder. And again, dude, Wilder, I mean, I've never seen a fighter handle a loss as poorly as Wilder. I mean, there's just no denying. Him and Ronda Rousey are kind of competing for it. Okay, in boxing. I mean, it was really bad the way he handled it. That was not the way Joshua handled it. The Ruiz fight, he actually doubled down and fixed things, and that's why he won the rematch. Fine.

He's a better boxer and probably a more mature professional. That's fine. But I'm just saying, at some point, dude, you've got to lay it on the line and get out there with these guys. Tyson Fury's done it twice with Deontay Wilder and is begging, begging for a fight with Anthony Joshua, blowing up his mentions and shouting him out on Instagram,

doing everything he can to get this fight. Just pointing that out, man. Hey, Eddie Hearn. Hey, everyone else. Make all these fights, please, okay? We can have a great time in Boston right now. Let me call a quick audible. It's not in the rundown, but I just want to do it real quickly.

Are you talking about Anthony Smith? Is that what you're hearing? No, no, no, no. The Kamaru thing with Nate Diaz. Yeah. Real quickly. It's not in the rundown, so if they don't have any assets. Are you going as far as calling him Cringe Maru now?

No, I don't think it's cringe. Here's what happens. You have Nate and Kamaru tweeting back and forth, essentially to each other without actually adding. So it started with Nate criticizing the fact that Kamaru seems headed toward a rematch with Colby Covington and Nate made a kind of cryptic mention of like, oh now you're going to go fight again the guys you already beat.

And he was like, hey 209, if you want this 187, you can get it. I'm like, okay, alright, alright, stop. Messed around and pulled a 187. By the way, I saw the movie 187 on a date. A first date. How about the Eazy-E album, 1-8-7 Killer? It's a great album. I didn't get a second date,

probably because it was about Russian roulette and Samuel L. Jackson. Speaking of roulette, you played a little gummy roulette earlier. Did not happen, did not happen. It was a conversation. The point being is this. Here was my big takeaway from all this. Listen, again, people say things on social media.

Rivals say bad things about rivals. Okay, fine. But I will say this. We often talk about it on this show, BC, and I said it to you on the text. I don't know what the right answer is to fix the MMA industry, to get fighters more money, to get a little more- Yeah, hey, come over. You're not getting Nate Diaz, all right, bro? We don't want to see that right now. Here's my point, though. This is the thing. I don't know what the right answer is. Is it the Ali Act? Is it a union? There's competing visions about which one would be better. Here's what I do know. If the UFC

didn't make the fighters take certain fights, and again, they can't make them take it, but they can sort of like, hey, we'll offer you this and this. If you don't take it, we'll extend your contract. I mean, they can put pressure on them in different ways to accept certain fights, but they ultimately play the role of matchmaker.

If there wasn't that, let's say, steady hand to make the fights that the fans want to see, this is like living proof that if they change the industry, you'd get a lot less of that. You'd get a fuck ton less of that. So you're saying MMA would become boxing if the MMA fighters had the same sort of rights that boxers have? I don't know if it'd become boxing, but I will say this.

It'd get a lot closer. It'd get closer to it. Yes, it would. So be careful what you wish for. It's like the thing that is the worst thing about big-time MMA is the lack of pay and kind of overall treatment of the fighter. Yet the best thing is the matchmaking control that

Dana White has. Is it dissimilar than when you hear all these stories of Don King getting sued by every fighter he ever promoted that was big and Bob Arum to a certain degree back then and they took larger percentages of the purse but yet we got the best fights all the freaking time. It's a tough middle ground.

I mean... UFC is so smart. They have figured out as a matchmaking model, let's just align what we want to do, what's good for the sport, with the consumer. The consumer's interest in what they want to do lines up perfectly with what UFC management want to do. And that's why people love, for many other reasons, but that's one big reason why people love MMA and love the UFC brand. It makes you think, like, whatever solution, because everybody

wants the fighters to get more money. I mean, most people do, right? How do you get there, though? Be careful about what eventualities it causes by what steps you take. So you're like, hey, Marty, like, we love you, and I love, God, he's my number one pound for pound in the world, Kamaru Usman. He deserves three times the beauty. By the way, he's a great guy, too, in terms of interviews and meeting him. It can be a little cringe at times, but he just kind of had that big money gimme. And I don't want to say gimme because Jorge Maswell is very dangerous, but to Usman's credit, he knocked him out with one punch,

and that was sort of your big money, why are we doing this? Well, because your opponent can sell. You don't get two of those in a row at this level in the UFC. I'm getting some hate for some of our merch. And they're tagging you, and they're going to gif of you on a shopping cart in Puerto Rico? That is part of documentary number three. By the way, are you excited at all that our documentarian, Jake, who's currently working on Doc 4.0, our trip to Miami,

is sitting right here with the long red locks and the mustache and the beard. I think he's got long COVID, so we all now have COVID. Thanks to Jake. Okay. Jake's working on it right now. He had some other projects, but it's going to be out, I think, in the next few weeks, Luke.

All right. Are we doing fan subs or Wheel of Death now? It's time for the Wheel of Death. What are people? We're getting hate? Limited options? One person is out there just giving a shit. Yeah, I don't need you.

All right. All right. All right, so this is what we do. You know, good faith answers to decently faith questions. This puts Luke purposely in an uncomfortable situation. It's called. Oh, wait. Look at the new.

That's not new. The Wheel of Death. So here's the deal. I've got 10 categories plus two bonus tasks. There's also a bonus of Luke picks if you land on it. Where's that? Luke's going to randomly spin this five times and you get

what you get. There's questions, there's activities, there's other things. People know how this works by this point. It's so much better in person though, Luke. It is better. It doesn't really work that well on Zoom. Damn bitch, right? No, no, no. He's trying to change the rules a little bit. Don't spin. Our ten categories this week are Colombian BBL. Wait, so

the ones with the numbers are the categories, and the rest are just bullshit? Pick Your Poison. The Cosell of Acting. Bonus category of Critique, the camera guy's tattoos. We'll see where that goes. Four touchdowns in one game. Lorenzo was never my friend.

Luke's Choice, which would be your choice of any category. Oh, Pick Your Poison showed up twice on that. That's interesting. Oh, pick your poison. It showed up twice on there. That's interesting. Oh, fine. I'm glad you really thought this through. No Limit Thomas. Or maybe I did. Impromptu Improv.

That's a fan favorite. Know your co-host and sent to hell in our bonus category of Arm Wrestle the Cameraman Jake. Because there's more spots to hear, Luke, than there are categories. How many spots are there here? There's like 13 or something. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So there's 14 of these. And you had 10 questions? Yeah. So you doubled up, pick your poison twice,

and then put a bunch of bullshit on there? Alright, spin number one. You get what you get, Luke. This could go in many different directions, Luke. Yes, it could. No Limit Thomas. Alright, here we go, Luke. Let's get this loaded up here. Alright, Luke, we discussed briefly on Monday the plot line to the movie I just watched over the weekend, or the other night, the 2011 science fiction thriller Limitless, in which Bradley Cooper's character, Luke, a down-on-his-luck novelist, came across an experimental drug called NZT-48, which allowed him to access the remaining 80% of his brain,

despite the side effects, Luke, that led to death for those who took it more than once. Cooper wrote a best-selling novel in two nights on the drug, Luke. He coordinated the largest merger in corporate history. He learned to speak fluently any language he wanted. He fought off five attackers in a subway by using self-defense tactics that he watched years earlier in a Bruce Lee movie. And he might have murdered a prostitute while also charming, spoiler alert, charming his landlord's wife out of trying to get the rent money and then sleeping with her after helping her write her law paper. So Luke, not bad for a little pill that will

kill you. Let's say NZT-48 was a real thing. I know there's people that are already tweeting me going, hey, take Modan, Phil. It's the closest thing. I'm sure it's the same thing as NZT-48, bro. I'm closest thing. I got email about it. I'm sure it's the same thing as NZT48, bro. I'm sure I won't fuck up my prostate. I'm sure it's not just a lot of ginseng, okay? Luke, let's say NZT48 was a real thing. And let's say I had three of them on me. Okay.

Let's say I just bought them from a staff member. And we were doing them in the bathroom before the show. Luke, that would give you three days of limitless brain activity. Only the catch in this case is that you wouldn't succumb to the side effects of death because I have the antidote, which is fruit smoothie made with elk semen that you drank right before that. Okay. All right. I have to drink animal jizz. Okay. Knowing that you have 72 hours to be the best you ever dreamed of being, what four things would you focus on doing immediately in the next three days to take advantage of your unlimited brain power?

Okay. Unlimited brain power. What's the first thing I'd do? I would gain fluency in Spanish because it's been something I've been struggling with. I no longer want- You're going to waste one of these four on I want to be able to speak to my wife in her native tongue. It's not native.

That is such a fucking... To go to Columbia, it doesn't happen anymore. I've gotten better. This guy wrote a best-selling novel in two nights, Luke. I don't care about that. I get to answer how the fuck I want to answer. He made millions in the stock market in two days. Go ahead, Luke. Go ahead.

All right. So first of all, I'd probably, if I had that kind of brain power, I would definitely learn Spanish. Okay. That's one. Okay. So what were the ones the guy did? He learned languages, best-selling novel. Did the largest merger.

It took $10,000 and turned it to $2.5 million in two days on the stock market. All right. I would definitely get into crypto and then bankrupt every fucking Bitcoin asshole bro who thinks they're smart and they're not. You think Brendan's into Dogecoin? You know, just pretend internet money. That's two. Okay, so that's two. You wouldn't sleep with your landlord's wife after helping her write a law paper?

I am my own landlord. So you would sleep with your landlord's wife? I would sleep with my landlord's wife. That would be my wife. It's the third thing I'd do. Oh, you know what? I'd become the world's foremost fighting expert. If I have unlimited brain power, right?

So you'd basically, and you'd kind of watch every fight in like a two-day span. Yeah. And just have like- And just photographic memory of every single detail. So your bro-sected clips would be insanely good. So I would bankrupt every Bitcoin loser. I would be the world's most important fight expert. In fact, you'd be so good that fighters would want you to stop doing it.

They'd actually hire you. Hire me, right? They'd hire you. They'd hire you to break down how to beat. Ooh, that's interesting. Yeah, I would train them and shit. So then I got one more? Yeah.

Man, that's a tough one. What's one more? I mean, Bradley Cooper's character fought off five guys just by thinking back to movies he's seen about fighting and stuff. No, is there any kind of sexual conquest available here? You're a married man, Luke, okay? I am a married man, so I guess that's off the table. What's the fourth thing I would do with brain power that's incredible?

You better be finding a way to make money. You've got three days to do it, Luke. Didn't I just bankrupt all the Bitcoin bills? Oh, that's right, that's right, okay. And then last but not least, oh, oh, I'd write a music album. I'd write a, I'd do some kind of music album. It'd probably be like rap, right? Hardcore, yeah.

Like shoot them up shit. Yeah. I'm big me, Larry Hoover. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I would do. I'd have the Luke Thomas rap album and it'd be nothing but hard bars. Bitch.

Bitch. All right, Luke. Luke, spin number two. You get what you get. We don't know if it's going to turn out well. Bitch. Bitch. All right, Luke. Spin number two. You get what you get. We don't know if it's going to turn out well. Can you hold that side down? Yep. Go ahead.

I can't vouch for how good this segment turns out, okay? Know your co-host. Oh, okay, Luke. All right. Luke, this question features a pack of five questions about me, your boy BC. Could your handwriting be worse? Look at this. What fucking

dog wrote this? To prove once and for all, Luke, whether you actually know or care about your own damn co-host in a way that might completely put the regrettable Joe Rogan pot appearance fully behind us for good.

You need to get four out of these five correct, because I often say, you know, you don't know the name of that camera guy right there. I don't. You don't know the name of the girl who works in the back room? I don't. Okay. So here we go.

Number one. What is my hometown? Avon. What? That's where I live now. Don't tell these weirdos. Oh, fuck off. That's where you live, asswipe.

That's not my hometown, bro. I'm from a factory town, okay? No, no, no, no. You think I'd live in a factory town as a successful adult? We have to go to a judge. Did I get that right? What is your hometown? Where you live or where you're from? Thank you. I was born in New Delhi, India. No, not the hospital, okay? Where you grew up. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I think that's bullshit. I thought you were asking where you lived. Random new camera guy. Your hometown's where you grew up, right? Yeah, okay. Thank you. All right. Oh, I think that's bullshit. I thought you were asking where you lived. Random new camera guy. Your hometown's where you grew up, right? Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Oh, this is bullshit. His name's Mike, by the way. It's Applesauce McGee from now on. Okay. Okay.

All right. All right. You going to fail this or what? I guess I am. What's my hometown, Luke? All right. Naugatuck. Wow.

Naugatuck, Connecticut. There's one. Luke's got it. Okay. Okay. Number two. Name one of the two colleges I attended. Fuck boy you where you majored in bedpan technology.

Hold on. One of the two. Definitely wasn't Harvard. You popped the back room. The production room just howled and laughed. Connecticut. Connecticut. Yale. Oh, wait, no.

That wouldn't be you. Not Quinnipiac either. You definitely went to a community college. True, yes. You definitely. I got an associate's degree in general studies, by the way. Wow. How much money did you spend on higher education?

Because that was a waste. I don't know. I don't know the name of your college. I went two years at Nautic Valley Community Technical College. How am I supposed to know this shit? And then I did some time at Southern Connecticut State University. All right. Dude, are these real places? These are real colleges, yeah.

Are they accredited? You can argue that. They weren't online. It was in person. All right, so now I have to run the table. Okay, here we go. Number three, Luke, what are the names of my twin sons? Back room popped again.

All right. Wow. Hold on. I mean, these aren't really difficult questions. I mean, I bet you the listeners could probably pick up on some of them. I mean, I can pick them out of a lineup if they ever commit a crime. I can definitely ID them. Hold on.

Is one of them... Wow, no wonder why you called me co-host on the road. Is one of them... Is one of them... Is one of them an Aaron or an Eric? Wait, I know. Wait, I know, I know. Hold on.

Is one of them an Al Barassin? Is one of them Donald Trump Jr. and another one Eric Trump? Yeah, the one is Eric. Wait, I know, wait, I know, I know. Hold on. Is one of them an Al Barassin? Is one of them Donald Trump Jr. and the other one Eric Trump? Yeah, the other one is Eric Trump, yeah. Wait, I know, I know, it's Uday and Kuse. Nope, that is incorrect. All right, Luke, you're on a great run here. I guess I failed this one. Number four, name my favorite MMA or boxing fight of all time.

Oh, your boxing one I'm actually not so sure of. I've only said both on this show About a hundred times Oh my god I don't listen to you This is proving it Your number one MMA fight Would it be Something with Joanna

Nope Although I was there for that one So my number one MMA fight I was there I did cover it Ding ding ding you got it That's your number one boxing You're damn right it is Number five Luke I did cover it. Oh, Adesanya Gastelum. Ding, ding, ding. You got it. You got it. Gotti Ward 1 would be my favorite. That's your number one boxing? Really?

Damn right it is, okay? I didn't know that. Number five, Luke. Although I don't do it anymore, what is my number one vice of choice that helped create this formerly black liver that I'm working on trying to lighten up here, Luke, at Cumberland Farms? What is my go-to death rod of choice at Cumberland Farms? Wait.

Masturbating in the aisle got you a black liver? Sir, it's 50 cents. Oh, is it? Would it be? It's either the pizza or the hot dog off the roller. It's a roller. Do you know which one it is, Luke? The back one?

No, it's the one. You always say it's the one in the roller. It's a roller. Do you know which one it is, Luke? The back one? No, it's the one You always say it's the one in the back. It's a rolled up pancake with sausage and syrup in the middle. I thought it was like a taquito. Well, I've played with those too. I've done time with those too, Luke. To my own physical destruction. Well, Luke, you don't know me at all. Spin number three.

What's the name? Give me the name of one of your kids. Isaac. Isaac. Fuck. I knew it had like a strong A sound. Strong biblical sound is what you really were going for. Listen, I got a biblical name. This ought to be stupid. Oh, spin again, Luke. All right.

All right. Lorenzo was never my friend. Okay, here we go, Luke. Number five. All right. Lorenzo was never my friend. Okay, here we go, Luke. Number five. All right. Imagine, if you will, Luke, a fictitious scenario in which UFC president Dana White drunk off his ass at an all-night

Eyes Wide Shut party in Monaco was secretly recorded... Dude, are you going to get us fired? ...was secretly recorded by an undercover TMZ journalist taking credit for the success of Zufa and UFC over the promotion's history while dismissing the Fertitta brothers' impact as merely of being financiers. Let's say that the video went viral and Lorenzo was not fucking having it, okay?

In fact, he refused to hear Dana's rebuttal, Luke, and he outright declared promotional war. Money was simply not an object to quench Lorenzo's spiteful fury, and his public declaration of battle was to counter promote UFC 264 on July 10th and the McGregor-Poirier trilogy at International Fight Week by staging the ultimate all-star

pay-per-view card using every other major promotions roster not named the UFC. And to double down, Lorenzo, who has a lot of freaking money, also publicly guaranteed that his pay-per-view would sell more than UFC 264 and bet $500 million against Dana that it would, Luke. That's a lot of money. So here's the word.

That's a bad bet by Lorenzo. And Lorenzo promised to entice these promoters, that Chaudhry, Cokes, Ray Cepho, they would all get to split the profits. Let's say Lorenzo hired you, prominent MMA journalist Luke Thomas, to be a consultant and matchmaker. Here's your task, Luke. Fill out

four fights of a pay-per-view main card to compete against UFC 264. You can use up to one non-MMA fighter if you want, similar to a Paul brother or a boxer, for an MMA match. But the four fights you choose need to be realistic in terms of weight and whether a fighter would be likely to accept it. So they can't be exhibitions? The Paul Brother would have to actually take a real fight?

Yes, he would. I mean, you can match him evenly. And you can't put boxing and MMA on the cards, just MMA? Just MMA. Create for me the perfect non-UFC pay-per-view card to win this bet for Lorenzo. All right. I don't know if it would headline, but I would definitely do Kayla versus Cyborg for sure. Okay.

I'd put that on there. At 155? Yeah. No, no. Kayla can make 145. She did Invicta, so I'd go that direction. That could be your co-main is what you're saying. Yeah, probably.

I wouldn't put it at the top of the bill. Who are some of the biggest stars outside? Demetrius johnson eddie alvarez edward furlong sage north two um patricio pitbull rory mcdonald claressa shields anthony pettis is floating out there right fabricio verdum ray cooper the third oh i got one i would do jay mckee oh i got anthony rumble johnson ul romero ryan bader you know where i'm going okay okay so i would do... AJ McKee. Oh, I got one. Anthony Rumble Johnson, UL Romero, Ryan Bader. You know where I'm going with this. Okay, okay.

So I would do CM Punk versus Logan Paul. In an MMA fight. In an MMA fight. So Punk fought at what? Welterweight? Yeah, 170-ish, I think. So let's... But he had a cut.

So let's say he's coming in there about middleweight size. And let's say you made Logan Paul come down to what? 185 for it? Which is feasible. I mean, I think it's... You're asking was it doable.

I think it's doable with the weight. Okay, okay. So that's your sort of weird fight? Right. So that's one I would do. I would do, it has to be MMA, right? Can't be kickboxing. Is there any way to use Anderson Silva at all?

I don't know if he has any pull anymore. Who would be against him? You can use him. Anyone who's not under contract with the UFC, you can use. Who would you bet him? Because he can play with the weight a little bit, right? Because he can go low 80s. You can do him against Rory if you wanted.

You can do him. Isn't there any buzz to that? Him against Romero? That's interesting. God, you are so good at that. You're much better at this than I am. That's an interesting one. Anderson Silva versus Yoel Romero.

That's big. Honestly, you could still do Yoel Romero versus Anthony Johnson. That would still fucking bang. And then maybe throw Pitbull McKee on there just because it's awesome? Yeah. Are we leaving out somebody?

We're leaving out Eddie. Eddie's just born action win or lose. I mean, you can do... Oh, Chandler's not there anymore. No, Chandler would have been huge. That's not there anymore. But there's somebody we're forgetting. I know we are.

But honestly, you got Logan Paul versus CM Punk. Bro, you're going to fucking slay with that one. That's not bad. I mean, it's a stupid fight, but you're asking what would sell? That would sell. Are you missing anybody from Risen? I always want to respect that.

Oh, what about if we did Jake Paul versus, but if it was MMA, it doesn't matter, because I'm saying you could do Jake Paul versus Dylan Danis. But if it's jiu-jitsu, then. All right. I like the card you put together. Could it outsell? I honestly feel like if priced correctly,

Logan Paul versus CM Punk could actually do gangbusters. Think about it. With Anderson Silva, Yoel Romero, Cyborg versus Kayla Harrison, AJ McKee versus Pitbull, Rory McDonald versus somebody you've heard of. I mean, that's not that. Rory McDonald and Anthony Pettis. How about that?

It's not bad. It's not bad. But I don't think that really moves the needle in that way. Okay. All right. Interesting, Luke. But I feel like that's a decent card. That's not bad.

I feel like for me, coming up with CM Punk versus Logan Paul, that's a little stroke of genius there. Okay. It's not as good as your Paul brothers versus Diaz brothers, which is just genius in every way. Hey, two spins to go here, Luke. Let's see what you got. All right. This is fucking stupid. Columbia BBL, baby!

Yes, finally we get some big booty Latina. This is my specialty. Luke, they say when a man and woman get married that two people become one. Or at least that's what the Bible says. I don't believe that nonsense. But in all seriousness, Luke, our spouses, if we've chosen wisely, complete us in a way that Jerry Maguire could never have imagined. You chose a Colombian BBL for your spouse.

Congratulations. I certainly did. What are the most important fundamental life lessons that you have learned from your wife that have sincerely changed you for the better as both a man and a person? See, this isn't all bullshit. Okay, what way has meeting your wife changed you for the better? Well, it's funny. Every time, have you ever met my wife formally? I have not. I've talked to her over text once. We text each other sometimes. Yeah, when I lost my phone, you fucking ate it.

When you were on the verge of dying for a gallbladder failure, I slid right in there, Luke, right in. That's right. Well, she's not interested in cucks. I'm teasing. Because you were always speaking to me that day. A few things, I think. One was that just on a personal level, she is kind and patient, and she has incredible intelligence about human motivation, and she can really read people really well. Psychology of the human mind?

Yeah, but she just has a really clear sense of that. But more importantly, I'm not patient, and I can be obviously a little ornery, and she's the exact opposite. So I've learned over time to just sort of model, to the extent I can, my behavior on that. I'm sure you don't feel like there's progress, but versus 15 years ago, there's a lot. The viewers have noticed, Luke, that in the past month, you have changed significantly for the better. Well, my marriage is in a good place, too. All marriages have ups and downs, and right now we're in an up, which is great. I'd say first that, but honestly, I will tell you that there's so many things that I didn't know about the world that she introduced me to.

But it's kind of funny. Like, you know, I'm doing this on purpose. I could go on and on about some of the personal things she's done for me and ways in which I've been able to see the world a little bit differently, but one from just a broader perspective about having a wife from a different part of the world was that, dude, like when we grew up in high school, if you didn't take Spanish as like your language or choice, like in our high school, you could do German, French, and Spanish. I didn't know anything about that part of the world at all. I still don't. Right.

At all. I didn't, I mean, can you name three South American capitals? Like seriously. Quito. I didn't. I mean, can you name three South American capitals? Like, seriously. Quito. That's one. Bogota. That's two. Brasilia.

Yeah. That's three, really. Yeah. Maybe we can stop there. The point being is, these are basic questions, but there's this whole life that's completely lived separately down there that I just wasn't exposed to. Montevideo? Yeah, keep going, Luke. Uruguay, yeah.

I was just introduced to this culture, and I couldn't believe how rich and different and interesting and complex it was. Proud. Super proud. I mean, you know, Columbia is often, they do these measurements of like what's the happiest people on earth. Columbia, despite the fact that part of it is first world, part of it is third world, they often rank number one. And I want to say one more thing about her on a personal level that I really didn't appreciate until I met her. She showed me the importance of like family. Cause you know, I came from a family, God bless the Thomases, right? I love them, but. Would you call them broken? Irreparably, irreparably. That's not the way her family works. They, I didn't like,

I didn't know what it meant to have, I mean, I have cousins, but I don't really have any relationship. I don't really know them. And for her, they're deeply intertwined and what it meant to have all of these different relationships in your life and how it buoys you.

Yes, it creates some commitments too that as somebody who's selfish, I don't like to do, but I didn't understand the value of family honestly all that much like Pepe has to live in our house and now you're like I love this guy he's amazing yeah our brother-in-law lives with us I have a separate apartment downstairs in my house and I don't ever want him to move out like he's he's great yeah they'll go pee pee in the house I'll tell you what

like you know and I would be clear about this 99% of Clemens I've ever met have been kind to me and her family in dude, they don't ever make me feel like an outsider. We should have the full house feel-good music playing in the background. Also, let me say something about Latin people generally. This is true. That deserves to be noted, and I didn't really appreciate this until I went down there. Yo, they are better at partying than we are.

I thought you were going to say they're generous. They're generous, too. They are much better partiers than we are. They know you were going to say they're generous. They're generous, too. They are much better partiers than we are. They know how to do it better. They do it for longer. It's just like, you can't, it's, dude, Latin America's the shit. Like, I can't say enough good things about it, so. All right.

The poverty sucks, and the unequal society sucks, but it's cool. I think, you know, if we really look at it honestly, the three pillars that have made you a better person since I've known you are your wife, me, your other marriage, and your medical card have really turned you around for the better. You know what I mean? The people know where I was going with that. Yeah, you know what?

I can't say that that's wrong. All right, Luke, one more spin. Thank you for going deep there. There's some firecrackers on here, Luke, but you get what you get at the end. I can't rig it. I can't rig pick your poison to show up. Oh, we got to spin again, Luke. We've already done that one.

I feel like if I get double, I get to pick one. Well, there is one. Okay, if we get the same one again, I get to pick. Okay. What, are we changing the rules on the fly? Speaking of guys who change the rules. The Cosell of acting. Luke, people would have really wanted us to get Pick Your Poison, you know what I mean?

No, no, no. We can do Cosell of acting. Listen, hold on. If some of these we didn't get to, we can hold on to them for the next time. I mean, the Pick Your Poison was we have actors in the back ready. I mean, it would have been epic. It is what it is. Don't manipulate the election.

All right. All right. Sorry. This time Gore wins, right? All right. Here we go. The Cosell of movies. Luke, this was a filler question, but we can entertain it.

Of acting. We use pound for pound lists to rank fighters from different weight classes who could never prove who's better by actually fighting each other. But we don't similarly use these ranking systems to gauge more subjective things like art and the greatness of acting. Luke, in your movie, Watching History, which began as a child in the 1980s and continues now into your 40s, who are the top three pound-for-pound best actors you have ever seen engage in their craft? And specifically for each one, what goes down as the signature role which you felt cemented their greatness and spot on this list? That's a great, that's a great. So when you say actors, I have to pick dudes?

No, actors, male or female. Okay, so this is, I can pick two right away. First will be Daniel Day-Lewis in The Name of the Father. Is he number three on your power ranking? He's number one. Oh my God, wow. Daniel Day-Lewis would be number, you're asking me, I'm not ranking who are the best ones. You're asking me through my experience.

Yes, through your experience. Bruce Sinema. You don't know what you haven't seen. Daniel Day-Lewis in The Name of the Father, for sure. I think he's one of the finest actors of this generation. I've never seen him in this role that you're speaking of. Oh, dude. It's just he's.

What have you seen him in that he sucked in? Never. You've never seen it. So Daniel Day-Lewis in The Name of the Father, number one. Number two, Meryl Streep, Sophie's Choice. Wow. Meryl Streep and Sophie's Choice is just, if you've never seen Sophie's Choice. I've never seen Sophie's Choice.

You haven't seen when the Nazis came to her and told her to pick a kid? I mean, please respect spoilers here. Yeah, pick your kid, and she had to do it. Ooh, that happened at the end of the movie The Good Son with Macaulay Culkin. I don't think I've seen that. Oh, wow. Snuck into a theater in ninth grade to see that, yeah. Okay, so then-

You know, Bogo, you were there. Okay, keep going. Those two. And then, you know what? I'm going to go a little bit off here. I'm going to go, again, this is just my experience. I'm not telling you anyone has to agree. I'm going to go Morgan again, this is just my experience. I'm not telling you anyone has to agree. I'm going to go Morgan Freeman, Lean On Me.

Wow, that's a great performance right there. Yeah, they call me Crazy Joe, well now you can call me Batman. Wow. That's one of my favorite lines. And he has the fucking Louisville slugger in his hand. You're goddamn right, I hope he dies, and I hope he burns in hell. Oh, that was a time to kill. Also, honorable mention, Denzel Washington, Malcolm X.

I've never seen that either. Oh, my God, dude. That's maybe Spike Lee's best movie. Well, no, no, that's not quite true, but that's certainly one of Denzel's best performances. Ricochet wasn't bad. And I'll add one more to the list if I can, one more good one that really kind of got me growing up. I'll go Edward James Olmos, Stand and Deliver. How about that? I'm going to teach you burros

calculos. Wow. For how badly you potentially would have dropped out or butchered some of these other ones, you brought it on this one. Would you have known Prime Meryl Streep in the biblical sense? Are you asking me would I bang her? I'm trying to clean it up a little for TV. She's not. Is she from Ecuador and or Venezuela and or Colombia?

I mean, does she deserve it? I mean, we're talking like fatal attraction version or the natural. She was kind of cleaned up well in the natural. Let me give you the ranking. Latin women, everybody else. There's number one, and then it's a steady just drop off. Given the Shevchenko sisters spending half of their life in Peru and identifying with it. Honorary.

Honorary BBLs. Honorary. Or SBLs. All right. That's the way. Luke, really, the people I want, the people to know that when I prepare for this in person, I got to bring up my game. There were categories that didn't get picked that would have really tested Luke's moral compass his ability

to withstand pain I mean there were some places we were going to go here but maybe next time Luke okay we do plan on coming back right oh yeah well that's one of the beauties of this I mean we should kind of tell them we had conversations in Miami we're not going to come back every week because that's insane but we intend regular visits here I'll leave it at that

right I think it's a fair way to put it. Conjugal. Conjugal visits. Yes. Where Brian masturbates at the local bus stop. That's just. When are we going to put you drinking off. Can we soft core these jokes?

I like to stay very cinematic late night with my jokes. You're like, no, brother. When are we going to get you touching yourself at the bus stop in the dock? Because that's a big part of your life. I know. All right. Yeah, right. Okay.

Hey, last segment of the week. Fan subs. Let's do fan subs. Morning Combat, this camera, guys. Morning Combat at gmail, no, this one. There we go.

Morning Combat at gmail.com is your email address every week to send in your shit and we'll put it on the show. That's how this works. We don't have a lot of them this week, Luke. Mikey was our filter.

But we've got mail. They're fan submissions. Luke, I follow Bill and Jen RV Adventures Instagram, as does my wife, as you. Luke, they are all over the Rocky Mountain area of this country in the national park scene. This is them just last week at a very underrated national park that I want to see in Colorado, Black Canyon of the Gunnison. And Bill is always rocking the MK 1.0, okay?

Are the dogs blind? No, it's just very sunny out. That's why Bill's got his, like, South Florida, like, woman in a wheelchair Ray-Bans on. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, he's got the I Storm the Capitol. Yes, yes, yes. That's what it is. I'm against critical race theory sunglasses.

Jen was wearing the green hoodie during their trip to Canyonlands National Park. Have you visited any of these places of our great country? Not these, but when they were, did you ever, have you ever seen the big redwoods out in California? I have not been there. I want to see those. Dude, it's fucking stunning to see those. I've seen those.

I've seen those. You've been to the Grand Canyon before? I have been to the Grand Canyon. Okay, okay. And I've been to Acadia in Maine, which is an incredible national park. Shenandoah is great. Great Smoky Mountains. I went this year on vacation.

But Luke, my have-to list. And by the way, shout out to our guy, Antoine, who moved to Alaska and is now living in that with wearing our merch, living in the greatness, is Glacier National Park in Montana. That's my number one I need to get to. You should come to Columbia with me. Grand Tetons in Wyoming. I've never seen those. You should come to Columbia with me. There is an underground cathedral in Zipacara.

I think it's Zipacara. I could be getting the name of the town wrong. It is a giant cathedral in Zipacara. I think it's Zipacara. I could be getting the name of the town wrong. It is a giant cathedral underground. You have to get in there like the miners do, and it's a huge three-story cross built out of salt. They call it the Salt Cathedral. Wow, I would like to see that. I think it's in Zipacara.

Just for the record, Bill and Jen don't send their shit in, but I follow them, and I'm respecting their journey. Do you think, because they live and work in are. Just for the record, Bill and Jen don't send their shit in, but I follow them and I'm respecting their journey. Do you think, because they live and work in the RV and travel the country, that they'll ever end up on the East Coast and they'll stop in Jersey City?

Is that possible? If they do... I'd like Bill to use a clean shitter for once. I'd like to... He can use that one that I tore up in the documentary

down the hall when they had Mediterranean... Just don't use the ones I used in Mohegan Sun because they have to bulldoze that thing. Yeah, okay. Let's keep it going here. Number two is from Greg D.

He's got two of them. The first one, Luke and Brian love the show. And for Father's Day, I woke my boys up at 3 a.m. to make the trek up the 7,500-foot peak. Wow. It's called Sturgill Peak to the fire station. What state is Sturgill Peak in? Can the CRAC research team in the back hit that up quick? Wow, this is great fathering right here, Luke.

I don't know what it has to do with MK. Luke, I've never done the... Oh, there we go. There it is. Look at this guy. Look at this all-American guy, Greg D. Dude, he's got his AR-15 there as well. Oh, my God. Is this straight from the Capitol to the Mount? Yeah.

He said... Straight from Pelosi's office to the Grand Teton. Idaho. Thanks, Gaff. Idaho. They're in Idaho. He says, made sure to bring along the MK mug to watch the sunrise and drink the morning coffee.

What do you need the AR-15 for in that place? Happy Father's Day to you both. Go Army. Beat Navy. Your friend, Greg. Go Army. Beat Navy. Your friend Greg. Go Army! He spells it two G's apparently. Although it doesn't say it. Two G's for what? For Greg. I always don't trust

people. Like if you have a Gary with two R's, what do you need the extra letter for? I really would like to know what he needs the AR-15 for at this point. Well, maybe that's real rural Idaho with like bears and elk and shit. Maybe he's a hunter. Yeah, maybe. He looks like a badass, right? Listen, there might be a very good, I'm not saying that there's no reason. I just want to hear his reason. Okay, that's fair. Luke, I've never done an I Want To where you go somewhere to

hike where you have to wake up like and hike in the dark to be there for the sunrise. Did you ever see that documentary with the dude who does the climbing of the El Capitan? Alex Honnold is his name. Yeah, I love Alex Honnold. And he had to get up in the middle of the night basically because of the way the sun worked and shit. Yeah. That guy's badass. Yeah, I love Alex Honnold. And he had to get up in the middle of the night basically because of the way the sun worked and shit. That guy's badass. Yeah, he's awesome. His fingers must be so freaking strong. I would not want to go to third base with him at all. Can you imagine him double-clicking a mouse?

Yeah, wow. Wow, that's really gross. Yeah. Okay, let's keep it going here. This is from Matt C. He says, Construction town, tough to get rid of BC's face pubes. What is going on here?

I guess he's saying Brian Campbell has that big... Dig, big energy. Yeah, yeah. That's a nice little... That's creative, Matt. Thank you very much, Matt. All right, Tobias slides in. He says, dear Morning Combat...

Nick DiPaolo has a great bit about that, by the way. I have been sitting on this information maybe half a year. Holy fucking shit. Can you blow that up? Big Beige keeps talking about his Lithuanian heritage when, in fact, he is from a line of Swedish ice fishers. Proof, this Swedish sport fisher magazine from 1986. Fucking twins.

Keep up the good work. Holy shit. You know who sent this in? TJ, or I guess his name is Tobias, from Denmark. He lives in Copenhagen, Luke. That does look like my descendant. Dude, that guy looks like you.

If you banged Alexander Volkov and you guys had a kid, it'd look like that. Or if I stayed eating in the gas station for another year, Luke, that's pretty much where I'd be. This dude, I mean, I gotta say though, this is a great picture. My man's out here solo. He's got a drill for the ice and a big ass fish

that he's carrying by the gills in the other hand he just eats that raw like he's bear grills just bites right into it probably and he drinks his own piss do what look to that camera over the other way holy shit dude that is you know what he has manly facial hair though well i do too and you look like you're 13 and you just you know experimenting with yourself the first time. All right. Or as I've said before, you look like you're transitioning from female to male. I will.

Listen, Tobias, if you send forward this, I will autograph your copy of Sports Feast, okay, in my own fluid of your choice. There we go. All right. Let's keep it rolling here. This is from Jack to close off. Hey, Luke in B.C., I know it's sad to hear about Luke's cat, Moko,

a.k.a. Booger, and his health. I found the perfect next cat for Luke. I know one cannot replace the other, but something to lighten the mood. Take care and love the three days a week content, which I can't get enough of. Jack from Melbourne. Luke, is this a bearded cat, Luke? Is this

animal abuse or is this funny? What's the line between it? I think it's hilarious, Luke, okay? Yes, that's a good looking game. By the way, Reggie Jackson sliced me open when I went to pet him the other day. Oh, yeah, he did? Holy shit. I mean, just vicious shit.

You can't really see the scar. I can, though. That's why no one in my family likes him. I have to give Moko antibiotics and pain medicine every day. It's terrible. I love Moko. It's terrible. He's blind now in one eye.

Did I tell you that? Yeah, you did. The tumor has grown behind his eye. He can't see out of his eye anymore. We need to give him a nice tribute on this show. Send him off. Yeah, it sucks. My wife is despondent.

What are you going to do? Yeah, I have no jokes or anything but to say I'm sorry. No, I appreciate that. Okay. Do we have any more fan subs? That's the fan subs for the week. You know what? A little week.

A little week today, I got to say. Well, Luke, if you would have spun that wheel a little better, I wish I could tell you. You would have had three evil choices to pick from, and you had to do one of them, Luke. Save it, save it, save it, save it. It's not going away. It's just like our merch.

But I have a fear that you would have bitched out because arm wrestle with the camera guy, Jake, you were like, I'm not doing that. Here's my problem with it. The concept of the show was initial, or the segment, I should say, was you don't like to answer questions about yourself. You have to answer these and give faith. No, about anything.

You don't like questions about, if you don't like the topic for the rundown, you're like, I'm not talking about that shit. So now BC was like, yes, let's just add in stunts. You know, for the record, I was like, Luke, why are we not talking about Anthony Smith's comments about Jon Jones' Aaron Pico grammer? If you guys didn't see this, the commission called him every day before the day he fought. And like every day, Jon had a problem. And Luke's like, I'm not talking about Anthony Smith's comments about Jon Jones' Aaron Pico grabber. If you guys didn't see this, the commission called him every day before the day he fought.

And, like, every day, Jon had to hop off. And Luke's like, I'm not talking about that shit in the rundown, so I should have put that in Wheel of Death, basically. What do you think about that? What do you think about Anthony Smith? I mean, I've never trusted USADA. And the UFC moved the whole damn card in a week to get that fight off against Gustafson.

And now then they suddenly changed the rules that if somebody's pulsing or whatever and they're constantly failing tests, the public doesn't know about it. Which, by the way, they don't really... It's all bullshit. They have very minimal proof that that's a real thing. There is some of it, I'm sure. It's all bullshit, okay? So if I'm Anthony Smith, I'm not too happy about that. And thank you, Anthony Smith, for not DQing a winner. That's right. They took the knee and

then just didn't take the belt. So... So I respect that, man. Anthony Smith, high character. High character. You know what? You've defended him a lot on this show, and I think we're learning about who he really is. Yeah, he's a good guy. Does this change John's... If you believe the results of this, does this... John has had a lot of reputation abuse

that has been self-inflicted with the arrest, with all that stuff. Do we overlook the consistent stain of drug use because you and I are more of the idea that like, look, they can't really police this shit. It's all a big carnival show that they're doing, right? Just to protect themselves. Just let them all, you know, I mean, if you want juice between the rounds, you want to stick that needle right in your damn schlong between rounds, just do it, bro. Does that make us more liable to

look over when we talk about John as the GOAT because of some of these infractions? I don't think so. I think it makes the fan base who goes the other direction incredibly naive. I think it's more widespread than people realize and it has been for a long time and there's a lot of fighters that people

are like, oh, he would never do it, that I am certain. Imagine if the listeners knew the substances that you and I put in our bodies before the show. In the bathroom. Off a mirror. All right, all right. Off a mirror. All right.

Luke, big week for you and I. We will be back in this bomb shelter on Friday, of course, Morning Combat, the regular 11 a.m. Eastern. But tomorrow, which is Thursday, you and I are hosting, Luke. Yes. The Tank and Barrios Presser. Tank, Davis, Barrios, Showtime, Pay-Per-View, Press Conference. I believe that's what time.

Is it two? I don't know. Or is it one? I think it's one. Just check the YouTube. Yeah, it's one. You and I will also be doing Bellator weigh-in coverage tomorrow at some point. On CBS Sports HQ.

Check that out on CBS Sports HQ. And then on Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern time, Luke and I will be back in the same place handling way in-stream coverage, and that's going to be important for Davis and Barrio seeing the matchup against each other go face-to-face. We'll be back at home on Saturday, though, but we'll still be providing the coverage for people. That's right.

You can follow us there on social media. Morning Combat has the same name everywhere. You want to email us, morningcombat at gmail.com. That'll be for Friday's Dead Wrong, which we will do. Should we tell them about our producer Snidey's plan that him and Mikey are cooking up together?

No. I think it should be a surprise. Okay. It'll be more fun that way. Alright. Jake, anything you can tell us about Doc 4.0 here? Jake, can you come on camera, Jake? I mean, come on. Just get, just, just, come on. Bring this guy out here, Jake. You love giving milk to stray cats. I've never seen anything like it. Guys, this is the

documentarium to himself, less than Jake. See how handsome he is there? Went to high school with Vito Melnecke of PBC fame. Jake, what can the fans expect from number four, okay? There's a boom mic here. Okay, yeah, there you go. You know, it's gonna be art. That's all I'll say. We'll have to find, there you go. There you go. You know, it's going to be art.

That's all I'll say. We'll have to find out. But a lot of things happened. You know, Luke was in love that week. He had a great time. And yeah, it's coming. It's going to be good. Do you have a working launch date for the people at all?

I know it's a lot of work. You're a one-man band. You know, like all art. I'm sure you're aware, too. Like you're painting the Sistine Chapel. I mean, come off it. Okay'm sure you're aware, too. Like you're painting the Sistine Chapel. I mean, come off it. Okay, when it's ready, folks. Like our merch when it's ready.

All right. That was good. That was good. That was nice. Is he going up your pant leg now? No, he's back in the chair now. That was smooth. All right, so. Can we look at Mike's ink?

I mean, come on. We've got to do something special for Mike. Are you here Friday, Mike? We'll do it for Friday. All right. All right, so that Can we look at Mike's ink? I mean, come on. We've got to do something special for Mike. Are you here Friday, Mike? We'll do it for Friday. All right. All right, so that's it for us today. We have a ton of content coming your way the next three days, which is why we're up here.

MorningCombat.store. MorningCombat.store. The merch is live. It's just the first gen of the second gen, meaning we're going to have multiple variations. Yeah, if you don't like it, first of all, turn off your station. Second of all, we're going to keep launching more ideas

and more shirts out to the stratosphere. So outfit yourself, all right, your abuela, whatever you got going on. That's right. There you have it. Let us know what you think. And, yeah, we'll be back tomorrow and Friday, and we've got tons of stuff going on. That's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Thanks to CBS Sports. Thanks to Showtime. Thanks to Malka.

Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.