MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC on ABC 2, Bellator 256, ONE on TNT Results | Luke Thomas' Live Chat, ep. 71

Episode Date: April 9, 2021

Today on the podcast, we'll preview two big mixed martial arts (MMA) events this weekend (Bellator 256 on Friday, UFC on ABC 2 this Saturday) while reviewing last night's losses for Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez at ONE on TNT 1. We'll also talk Pantera albums, Thor's deadlift record, Dagestani fighters, Conor McGregor's remaining championship ambitions and more. --------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alright, well that's a fucking mess. So let's just get right to the other stuff, shall we? Jesus Christ. Just kill me. Just kill me. Just kill me. Just kill me. Alright, well, you know.

What are you gonna do? I don't think it's ever going to get better, is it? It's just never going to be anything other than fucked. Ah, damn. Alright. First question. At least I didn't get to any of the questions. At least I got to this part first. Alright. First question. At least I didn't get to any of the questions. At least I got to this part first.

All right. First question. What's the story behind your first tattoo and what got you into tattoos in the first place? What got me into tattoos in the first place? I do not know. I don't know if there's a moment or anything. I just thought they look great and I wanted one. First one I ever got is here. It's on my ribs. It's on the left side of my ribs and it is the,

basically the identical information that you would get on your dog tag tattooed on your rib cage. And it's called, they're called meat tags, like meat, like M-E-A-T tags. Instead of dog tags, they're called meat tags. And I don't even know if this is true, but the way it was explained to me at the time was that if you worked in combat arms in the Marine Corps, you could, I think plenty of bubba's did it who weren't combat arms. But the idea was if you were combat arms, you would get that tattooed on your ribs here. And it would be, I mean, it was sort of like an old school way of identifying as, you know, combat arms or. And that they, my understanding was, again, this is what it was told to me. I've never really looked this up, but that they, that the meat tags kind of predate or run over the invention of dog tags.

They used to actually just write this information on the troops rather than having a dog tag to hand out. Actually, they give you two dog tags, one so you can wear, one so they can take off of you. But in any case, so I went to Red Dragon Tattoo in Richmond, Virginia. I have no idea if they're still around. I was in college at the time. I was like 19 and drove over. It only took like an hour or so and hurt like a son of a bitch. Hurt really bad. And then that was it. That was it. And I've just added pieces since then, but all like fair, not small, but like I've never been like, oh, I'm going to get my arm done. I've never done like giant body part tattoos. This one is sort of halfway there, but not even really, um, you know, not even really that. So that, the, I, I, I, why I want to get it because I just want to get it.

And this is the thing I, this is why ultimately I didn't get some of the bigger ones I've gotten and the ones I'm going to be getting until I turned 41. I've, you know, I make more money than I used to. And then two, they're always like, oh, you don't know how you're going to feel when you hit 40 or later in life. And it's like, okay, well I hit 40 and I still want all of them. So, you know, if you're going to take the plunge on that kind of a thing, you got to do it. So I had sort of tested, I had tested the market at 20 and you know, 25 and 30 or something like that but then no not even 30 I think I got my last I don't think I got this one until I was 40 so most of them I got in my 20s yeah I think the most of them I got them all my 20s and then I stopped for a solid 10 plus years

and then I decided okay let's pick this back up so there we are are. All right, this dude wrote 1,000 questions, so I'm going to read this one, and that's it. Imagine Francis Ngannou losing via KO to Derek Lewis and not getting an instant trilogy. What are the possibilities? If he got KO'd? Yeah, with Jon Jones on deck, who knows? No, God only knows how that's gonna shake out um there would very likely be a trilogy very likely because you'd have

a KO would be satisfying but you would have a unsatisfying you know if you had any kind of a competitive uh excuse me if there was no competitive bout whatsoever like 30 seconds passes and then one guy just gets viciously KO they might just run that back to see if you had any kind of a competitive, excuse me, if there was no competitive bout whatsoever, if like 30 seconds passes and then one guy just gets viciously KO'd, they might just run that back to see if you can get more out of it. We'll have to see. How much money would it take for you and BC to go to a Flat Earth conference? I mean, you know, to just go and then just sit there and I'll have to like, I mean, how much listening do I actually have to do? And even if I'm in the room, can I just be on my phone?

Like it wouldn't take much for me to get me to do. I mean, I've been to, I mean, listen, there used to be a tradition, and to an extent there still is. On college campuses to entertain debates or have speakers who have unusual or unorthodox ideas. Flat Earth is dog shit, but, you know, let's call it far outside the mainstream. Yeah, would I at least listen to what they had to say on, I don't know, some sort of curious level? Sure. But, you know, the issue isn't that I hate them so much that I just can't stand it. That wouldn't really be it.

I don't take it seriously. No one who has a serious understanding of the world does. So it wouldn't bother me. It'd be a waste of my time, but it wouldn't bother me. I think this person meant to write, hey Maniche, hey Manish. How about using Notorious B.I.G.'s Dead Wrong soundtrack to introduce that segment? Well, if Showtime would like to pay for the royalties, I'd be all too happy. I just don't know. That's where we're at. Would you be able to get a Nate Diaz interview if you really wanted it or would you even be up for that? It's a great question. Um, that's a funny

one. Yeah. I don't know whether to oversell or undersell myself. So I've gotten very close a number of times. Well, first of all, I've done it before. And I've had subsequent attempts gotten really close and then at the 11th hour fall apart or not so much that. I've never asked Nate directly. And obviously you guys know, I've told a story. I've had his phone number. I've never, ever hit up Nate directly for one. And I have the feeling that if I did, that might improve my chances. I have a decent relationship

with his management and you know, they're very selective about who they want to give that stuff to. There's also pressure on that person from UFC and other entities to make sure that Nate goes through the official channels. I'm not saying that the folks who work at ESPN don't have big audiences or that that wouldn't be a coveted spot. It is, but there also is some organizational pressure

to pipeline them that way. Same as Bellator through Showtime. I i mean there's no different in that way um and we we we've gotten very close with him a couple of times um but i would either stop pursuing it or there'd be a change and like nate was i think one time we were like very close before the nate or either either either right before right right after it was announced that Nate and Poirier were doing that fight, and they announced Conor versus Khabib at that press conference. Y'all remember that one. And then Nate storms out of it,

and then the whole thing kind of fell apart, and then Dustin pulled out. I was pretty close at that point. To answer your question, I don't really know. Again, there was a time I would have said easily, and not just before Nate blew up, even after he blew up. But I've not really exhausted my efforts, and the ones I have tried have sort of gotten close, but not really. So maybe the answer is if you really wanted it.

I feel like if I really wanted it, I could get it. I do. But I've get it. I do. Um, but I've not, not recently, but I've, I put in no effort these days. Like I'm not trying at all. Don't care. Uh, yeah, I mean, listen, it'd be nice to talk to Nate, but I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going out of my way to have a conversation, you know, uh, with almost anybody at this point. Thoughts on cannabis, and they mean, can I bus the rapper? This will be hard for folks to understand who watch modern hip hop, or maybe not even know who cannabis is. There was a time where cannabis was legitimately the most feared, you know I don't want to say roamed the earth, but there was a moment in time where he was the hot rapper among hip-hop heads, and he was especially known for his lyrical prowess. I forget where it came from.

I think it was like a mixtape I heard. He's got one bar where he's talking about arm wrestling his pen. And I remember the first time I heard that, I was in a friend of mine's car who put me on to hip-hop. He was like a really big hip-hop head, still is. And I remember just being floored by what I was listening to. But then came the beef with LL, which I still thought Cannabis did really well in, but he just disintegrated after that. His commercial work was a flop. He seemed to have lost his mojo in the whole process after LL came back with whatever the fuck that song was,

The Ripper Strikes Back or whatever it was. So early cannabis, it was just another level. And I've heard he's done some stuff recently that's pretty good. I've not heard it. But watching that decline after the beef with LL was surprising. It was surprising to me. After hearing some of his other stuff, I was like, well, this guy is quite clearly the truth. But it didn't work out that way, did it?

Thoughts on the Olympic team trial results, especially Dake beating Burroughs and the whole situation with Jaden Cox missing weigh-ins and not being able to compete. So I didn't watch all of the Olympic team trials. We're talking about the trials for freestyle and I think Greco-Roman wrestling to make the Olympic team. By the way, the guy, Gabe

Stevenson, the big heavyweight out of, what is he from, Minnesota, I want to say, something like that, who did the backflip after winning the NCAAs just a couple of weeks ago, made the team by beating Gwizdowski, formerly of NC State, which was crazy to see. He's a force to be reckoned with, that guy. But I did see one of the Dake matches. I saw the ending of the second match. Dude, Dake was just better. Burroughs is not what he once was. Burroughs used to just...

I remember Burroughs when he was a graduating... I think he was a senior at the time. Yeah, he was graduating. He must have been. What I'm saying is, I don't think there was no retro implications. He was either a junior was a senior at the time he was graduating what I'm saying is there was no retro implications he was either a junior or a senior and he won the national title basically I'm not kidding

he would just double leg people and then stand up they would get a point for escaping you know and then he would just go back and beat everyone with double leg, double leg, double leg, double leg. It was crazy. They could not stop his double leg.

And he was hitting, there was, there were times when you would have thought he was going to tech fall a guy, but because they would get the point from the escape and he would get the two from the takedown, you know, the scores would be, and he would add another point here or there throughout the process. So, you know, you'd see scores like 20 to 7 or something crazy. But there was a lot of times where he actually couldn't get the tech fall because of the way in which he would just give the other opponent points. And he's had to become, I would argue, much more of a complete wrestler,

especially to make some of the more noteworthy podiums he's made late. He's had to really become much more than that. And I thought he transitioned really well from folk style to freestyle. And dude, when he was first out there, they could not, they just couldn't handle the guy. He was overwhelming. And then you'd see guys like Frank Chimizo come up. And now you got guys like Kyle Dake. Dake's just

better. Dake's an overall better wrestler at this point. And he was even beating Burroughs at his own game. And he was just, Burroughs couldn't keep him off. He just couldn't stop him. He couldn't make him, there was just not much he could do. And the rest of the ones, which ones did I see? I saw some other ones.

I saw, God, I have to look up the results. Oh, I saw Kyle Snyder just demolished. He got a spot at the 97 kilos weight designation. He looked tremendous. And then I saw Helen Maroulis win the whole thing. I had her in studio. She brought her gold medal to the studio. It's actually quite heavy and surprisingly interesting

when you see a real Olympic gold medal and hold it in your hands. It's an interesting piece of gear. I saw her win. And there were some big questions because they were supposed to have done this a year ago. There was a delay in the year. The Jaden Cox thing I missed until after it already happened. Jaden Cox, they thought was going to be the guy, I think, at 97 kilos. And there was going to be a big showdown with Kyle Snyder.

But because he wasn't there, Snyder just basically ran through everybody without much of a hiccup the whole way. And yeah, yeah. Let me see. Who's going to be on the 2022 men's freestyle wrestling team? Or 2021, I should say Excuse me Who are all the other ones

I'm assuming I would have heard If Bo Nickel would have made it So I'm assuming he didn't Because when I first interviewed him He said he wanted to make the Olympics And then get into MMA And I'm guessing he didn't get it So

57 You have Thomas Gilman I think I did see that one The guy Arujao Was the legacy guy. Finals, Jordan Oliver. I did see Jordan Oliver. Jordan Oliver has been knocking on the door of greatness for a long time.

Former guy, I think, out of Oklahoma State, if memory serves. Finally breaking through, Kyle Dake taking the spot at 74. David Taylor just beating Bo Nickel, 4-0, 6-0. Jesus. Two Penn State guys there. That's pretty impressive. God, David Taylor beat Gabe Dean, 4-0 too? Jesus. And then Bo Nickel beat Zahid Valencia.

Zahid Valencia, I think, is out of Arizona or Arizona State. He's been a beast too. Jesus. Kyle Snyder defeating Colin Moore. Colin Moore, excuse me, 97 kilos. And then Gabe O. Stephenson defeating Nick Wazdowski been 97 kilos and then Gable Stevenson defeating Nick Wazdowski over 125 kilos

those are big boys 125 kilos women's freestyle Sarah Hildebrandt defeating Victoria Anthony she tech followed her to win or 10-0 in the second one Jacara Winchester

defeating Rona Heaton Hela Maroulis at 57 kilos Kayla Miracle 62 Tamira Mensah 68 Winchester defeating Rona Heaton. Hela Maroulis at 57 kilos. Kayla Miracle, 62. Tamira Mensah at 68. And Adeline Gray at 76. I did see Adeline Gray as well. Yeah, some good results.

How do you feel about Thor breaking his deadlift record in his own gym as opposed to an official event? Also, would you rather just see Thor and Eddie compete in Strongman again as opposed to what they are doing now? I don't know. I guess at this point I have a morbid curiosity about how well they'll do in boxing. How do I feel about it? In general, I don't feel like the way he did it is the way that it should be done. I think if you're going to break a record like that, it shouldn't be done at your gym where you're comfortable with no one else pushing you. I just don't think those are the same kind of atmospherics and challenges that

other folks who do record setting or near record setting lifting have to deal with. On the other hand, I remember the day before I had spoken to Chris Duffin, who's the guy who's world record powerlifter himself. Well, that's strongman versus powerlifting, although the deadlift is something that they share. But he was like, oh dude, he'll smoke it, no problem. And he did. You go back and you watch it. It was not difficult for him. It was not. I mean, it was hard in the sense that, you know, you had to really prepare for it. But the kind of struggle he put up to get the record-breaking weight, he probably could have done more.

And I just feel like the ease with which he got that means he could probably do that in another environment as well. So I don't think that that's really the way that records should be broken. They should be broken at an international competition or some kind of staged competition between professionals, you know, in a real setting. But I don't think this is the hill to die on about why that record shouldn't stand because there was just everything about it where you thought he was going to get it.

Certainly I did. And many other observers who know far more than me seem to believe the same. Luke, on a scale, would you rank these 10 2020 prospects by your excitement level and or their upper bound potential? Rachmanov, I don't know, rank my excitement level high. Chimaev, high. Lazez, moderate. Vazaev, very high. Prohachka, high. Maverick, high.

Hibas, moderate. Yanez, don't know enough yet. I mean, he looked awesome, but I don't know enough yet, so I'll say moderate until I see more, but he does look like he might be the real deal. Aspinall, I'll say high, and then Levitt, moderate. What are your predictions for this Grand Prix eight-man featherweight tournament if it were to happen all within the next 12 months? I know it will never happen, just to hear your opinion on these UFC Bellator matchups.

On one side of the bracket, you have Pitbull versus Cater. I think Pitbull wins. And Holloway versus Zabit. I go Holloway. On the other side, you have McKee versus Ortega. I'd go Ortega. And then Volkanovski versus Emanuel. I would go Volkanovski,

which means I'd have Volkanovski in the finals, which means you'd have to decide between the winner of Pitbull and Holloway to face Volkanovski. To me, those are your top three. I mean, you can make a case for Ortega, but he's still only just got the one win since the comeback. A very nice win, a really good win, but just one win. I tend to think Pitbull, Holloway, and Volkanovski, those are your guys. Those are the ones who are going to be one, two, and three in some kind of order, and it's not going to be a huge disparity between them, however you want to rank them. On a scale of one to ten, how likely is it that someday we get to see Patricio Pitbull in the UFC? I would argue probably unlikely. Possible, but unlikely. Michael Chandler made the move to

UFC when he was 34, but he's kind of creatively peaking in terms of how good his offense is. And that's probably the last chapter of his career as a high-level fighter in the next year or two, something like that. After that, it would probably be decline city. He might make it to 37, but I doubt it. Pitbull's 33, and I think he's locked up for the foreseeable future. So don't know, but unlikely. Petition to get Luke a real wheel to spin. Yeah, I feel like there should be.

I feel like there should be a real wheel to spin for me on Wednesdays. Why don't you think we see the Kimura much in UFC? It's such a versatile grip to be used for subs, sweeps, and even takedown defense. I don't know. I feel like you see it more than you should, quite candidly, or at least I see it in a lot of scenarios that I don't think are necessarily all that valuable. Yes, you can use the Kimura for trips if you're standing. You can use it for reversals. You can use it if you're standing to throw someone behind you. There's all kinds of grips there.

Certainly from sweeps, you can do it as well. And if you can isolate the rest of the body and move the arm around it, you have some subs. And if you've never held a Kimura grip, it's powerful, right? It's when you grip it and then you put your subs. And if you've never held a Kimura grip, you know, uh, it's powerful, right? It's when you grip it and then you put your other hand here after you come around their arm, I'm not doing it cause it doesn't really work that well here. But once you do it, you know, that, that, that grip on grip there, it's powerful. It's extremely powerful. It's a very, very strong, sturdy grip, which is why you see a lot of guys go for Kimura from half guard

and they don't really know what they're doing, or at least that's not a thing they're very good at, but they'll hold onto the grip because once you get the grip, you feel like you're in control. And it does like if so, if you can feel someone's about to pass you and things are going kind of bad, you can lock up that grip and it can stall them out and it can prevent them from passing or at least slow them into a considerable degree. So it's a way to like reduce the difference between yourself and a superior grappler if you're willing to stall um you know that's a thing you should consider but in terms of like people who know how to use it like a sakuraba or underneath like a ryan hall is very very good with that grip you don't see him use it a lot but i know for a fact he's very, he's very, very good at it and using the varieties of that grip for, you know, functional change.

It's overused in bad situations. You could maybe make a case it's underused in ways that it should be. I think like all things with the Kimura grip, it's going to come back into style a little bit. Someone is going to show you really good versatility with it. I think, let's say, along the fence line, like, you know, the successor to Sakuraba in some kind of way. And I think, you know, MMA is very much a copycat league. You know, I was watching this bout the other day. It had just popped up on Fight Pass. I spent a lot of time on Fight Pass. And it was Goran Reljic taking on Wilson Gouveia. You guys might not remember these names. Certainly not Reljic. He did not have a very long tenure in UFC.

Gouveia did to an extent. Gouveia was the one who got hit with like the punch, spinning back fist, flipping all the way around into a kick. When Christian Allen was training Nate Marquardt. In any case, and you know, everything's on a straight line. There's no fainting whatsoever. There's no nothing.

You watch it, like how much fainting happens now. It's almost universal. Not quite, but it's pretty, relative to what it used to be, it's nearly universal at the UFC level. So,

you know, these things with these Kimuras, they're overused in bad situations, and perhaps it's underused a little bit now, but if it is, like most things, it'll be cyclical. Which of the individual MMA disciplines, if any, is easiest on the joints? Asking as a healthy 31-year-old

with rheumatoid arthritis, but wanting to start training some form of martial art. Arthritis doesn't affect my ability to exercise, cardio and weights, but I'm wondering if taking a BJJ or boxing will significantly speed up the duration of my joints. That's a better question for a doctor or a medical expert, I can tell you that I don't think training, I'm just going to say this, I don't think training wrestling or jujitsu or striking for anything beyond the recreational level is good for your long-term physical health. That might be debatable. I mean,

certainly there's an argument to be made about the kind of cardiovascular conditioning you have to achieve and then maintain to do it at even an amateur competitive level. You still have to have good cardio, high level conditioning. But in general, people always ask me when I'm going to go back. I ask myself, when am I going to go back? I don't me when I'm going to go back. I asked myself, when am I going to go back? I don't know if I'm going to go back. I felt awful all the time. Not all the time. I felt awful a disproportionate amount of the time. And not even from being tired. I don't care about like the fatigue of, you know, being worn out or both after the fact when you go home and

you're tired or in the moment where you're trying to like huff and puff through. It's not even that, like I actually prefer, you know, it's good to get your lungs blown out, you know, once in a while to really get that kind of rejuvenating experience that it can be and you sleep well and it has a great way of regulating body chemistry and things like that. But I got to tell you, you see so many people with chronic injuries and they don't do anything for a living that would ever suggest to you that jiu-jitsu was any kind of a long-term path. And it's like at some point you have to ask yourself, what are the long-term effects of doing this?

Now you also may want to ask, okay, what's the long-term effect of doing anything? To what extent is jiu-jitsu meaningfully different from that, right? If you do anything long enough, chances are you're going to get some injuries and some setbacks and some reduced capabilities as an athlete over time. I'm just telling you, like, I had so many ligament issues and shoulder issues and finger issues. Oh my God, my fingers to this day, to this day, when I do overhead press on anything over a hundred pounds, meaning I can really only not use it on the warmup. I mean, maybe one set of 95 for warmup or something, overhead press I have to wear a wrist guard on my right which is it it's my left or excuse me either wear a wrist guard on my left wrist that's right because

I take my watch off to do it because I got wrist locked by my old instructor one time I'll never forget it years ago he caught me was by surprise he hit it from guard he's very good Pedro Sauer black belt. And he did the kind where the, let me see if I can see myself so I can explain it. He did the kind where I was holding onto his lapel too long. So he took the back of my elbow and gripped it. And I think with his other hand, he gripped my wrist. I can't remember how exactly we set it up. And then he pulled me to him. I had to stop my weight, but with my other hand, he gripped my wrist. I can't remember how exactly we set it up. And then he pulled me to him. I had to stop my weight, but with my other hand, because what he had done was he had laid this part of the hand flat against his chest. So I'm like this, but with my arm bent. So it's hard to do this way, like this. And I got a skin rash, as you can see. So what he did was

that he pulled it so that the wrist went this way and then he put more pressure on the back of it as he grabbed the back of my arm like this into him it hurt like a motherfucker i thought my wrist was broken or something and it wasn't like i kind of shook it out and the rest of the day it hurt a little bit maybe it was sore a little bit the next day didn't think much of it finally go to grab a barbell and you know if i'm just holding the barbell like this i don't really feel it but then i begin to put even 135 which is not hard for me to overhead press it's not a lot of weight it hurts like a bitch it hurts really bad and you try not to let your wrist flex behind you if you can at all avoid it try to keep as wrist straight as possible and that helps if i can do

that but under load there's going to be form breakdown. And you know, it's like, like, okay, it only happens under the kind of loads that you, uh, that you have to bear when, um, when you're doing heavy, heavy exercises. It's not like I'm doing it when I'm taking the groceries per se, but maybe it will be in 10 years, right? Maybe it'll be like that in 15 years, five years, I don't know. So you have to ask yourself, it's like, you know, and that's just the, I mean, have been folks talk about his neck, his pile of trash neck. On some level, I think recreationally doing any of those things on balance is probably going to be okay for you, maybe even good, maybe even great for some. But I also think that there's this conversation that none of us have where, you know, learning to attack and defeat another person, whatever modality it may be

striking, wrestling, jujitsu, whatever. It's not really, it's not nearly as great for you long term as they would like, like you to believe. Oh, you can train jujitsu when you're 65. You could train it like a hoe. Yeah. Yeah, you can do that. You can train it barely. If you want, like, to me that is such a fucking lie. Yeah, you can do it. You can run through armbar exercises.

You can do light rolling, maybe. You can do some of the warmup. If you eat clean, you never know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, like, I can't imagine in 25 years or whatever it is that I you never know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like, I can't imagine in 25 years or whatever it is that I'd be doing like that. Even now, I just think about like how much it's going to damage me if I, if I decide to go back. Whereas I feel great when I lift weights, not just in the moment, but over time, like my body composition changes. Uh, but more than that, like it used to be for the longest time before I did

deadlifts. If I walked three miles, you know, my lower back would start to hurt. Just that was, that was just what I thought things, I thought every human was that way. Oh, if you walk a lot, it's no, it's cause your core is some shit. And so, uh, deadlifting was the one thing that really helped me have a core where I could walk around for hours all day long and feel nothing. Um, and you can be like, well, why don't you do weight training and jujitsu? Well, I don't have that kind of time. And, um, some people do and God bless them. But I tend to think that like, you know, these, you see it all the time. You'll, you'll see some person, you they work at fucking verizon and that's a fine place to work there's nothing wrong with it but it's like dude why are you working at

verizon and then showing up and you're limping and you're telling people like uh if you catch my arm i'm gonna you know don't pull too hard and like they just walk around all fucked up and it's like dude that's that's good for you long term? I don't believe that. I don't believe that at all. I think that's quite terrible for you. And then you could say, well, don't train. But then they still want to show up and get something out of it.

They're paying a lot of money for it usually, especially if you live in a major city. So they just kind of exacerbate these injuries over time. God help you if you want to train judo at 30. You're going to fucking throw your shoulder out of your joint i i would love to see what the data says about this but my hunch is that and i'll say one last time the amount of damage you will accrue long term and doing these kinds of things that anything above and maybe even including but certainly above a recreational level the juice ain't worth the squeeze unless that is something you could really take to its final conclusion. Like if you're Gordon Ryan and you get injuries, you know,

because of jujitsu, well then that's just an occupational hazard, right? Because there's a real cost benefit analysis that heavily leans in the favor of the benefit for the rest of you jabronis. And then I, listen, there's gonna be some people watching this being like, I've never had that injury problem with jujitsu. Great. Great. If you're one of those few, I've seen those too. They just, they have a hard workout. They tape their fingers and when they're done, they're back to normal. If that can be you, that can be you. Same with wrestling. If so long as you feel good and you're not denying what's actually happening, if you do suffer any kind of setback physically, then just keep doing what you're doing. But the amount of people who show up to these classes fucked up with no real reason to

be doing that and then making shit worse all along the way. And plus the training, it's like, you're going to tell me that training, you know, stack passing is good for your neck. It's a fucking nightmare for your neck. And if you're at all getting put in those kinds of positions because the training partners or whatever, you guys ever seen, let me see if I can pull it up. Let me see. I want to show you something here. I want to show you a picture. Okay. Let's see if I can get this up for you here. Hang on. I want to show you this.

Let's see. Okay. These are the fingers of Paulo Meow. Okay, when they took this, I believe he was in his twenties. Let me zoom in. Okay. Now, Paulo Meow is going to be a very, hang on. Paulo Meow is going to be a very, you know, unusual example because he does this all professionally. And again, he comes into that part of the risk analysis where you're saying to yourself, the juice might be worth the squeeze.

I just want to point out, look at the arthritis on his fingers. And he was in his 20s when he took this. And this is from heavy, heavy gi gripping right these were guys these are heavy heavy gi grippers um but you know this idea that like oh long term because they you know they're all thin like henner gracie and then they they eat acai and they're rail thin. They're talking about how it's all spiritual and it's yoga and shit. Man, fuck all that. That's not what, you know. I don't buy that.

I really, I don't buy that framing of it at all. I think it's hard on people. I think you can mitigate how hard it is and it's probably fruitful for you at a certain level. But there are challenges to training like this. Training at any kind of, you know, hard level, which you are going to have to, if you want to get good, that comes with fucking you up, man. You know, so that's a, that's a, this is an outlying example I get, but that it can even produce something like this, uh, even among the obsessive pros, is alarming, if you ask me. There we go. Can you get Eric Kerner to discuss the Jon Jones pay issue? I haven't spoken to him in

forever. I think he's finishing his PhD, but maybe. I'll hit him up, see what's up. What are your thoughts? Okay, here we go. What are your thoughts on the stoppage in the Eddie Alvarez fight? It looked like the shots were close to the ear. And then when you returned, they hit the back of the head. This is another one of those questions where it's like, okay, was the target legal? Yes or no. And then there's a question of, did he intend to do it?

Yes or no. And on those, I did not see a whole lot of it personally. I did not feel like there was conclusive evidence that they was hitting the ear every time. Um, granted I wear glasses, but I didn't see a lot of that, but I can,

I can, this is the problem for me. Certainly. I don't think Eddie did anything intentionally. There's a question about whether or not he was warned and kept doing it. Um, but the other part was that Lapikus was kind of here and then turned much further even after Eddie kept punching and even after I think Eddie was warned. And I understand that just as a natural reaction, you're going to want to turn away from a punch.

That's what people do. That's why bad things happen to them after they turn away from a punch because it's a bad thing to do, but it's just such a natural reaction to just turn away like that. But there's a question about if you actually turn into a punch on purpose, to what extent is now what Eddie is doing not disqualifiable. So that's probably to me what it comes down to. It looks to me like Lapikus is intentionally turning away from the punches in the sense of this natural reaction to just get away from it, when in fact all you're doing is then just exposing the head. It's a terrible situation.

I mean, I thought Eddie would look good. He was in good shape. I thought he was going to win that contest pretty clean. I wouldn't pitch the biggest fit if they overturned the results. I do like that one has a red card and yellow card system. I like that. I just don't know. I mean, this is what I mean. You know, listen, if you're

going to have high level MMA, and I said this on my personal channel, I'm going to keep saying this till it breaks through to people. It is amazing to me that people think you can do that job in the modern game effectively with one referee. You might only need, in fact, it might be very diminishing returns to put a second referee inside of the cage, but having another one on standby who can make decisions, particularly if they are related to, or at least also in concert with talking to someone else who is a replay official. Ideally, that replay official would be separate from the other ref. I grant that these costs and commissions, although commissions aren't an issue for one,

but these costs might be prohibitive and that's why they don't want to do that. I'm not saying these are easy answers. I'm just pointing out, to me, I keep seeing over and over again humans asked to make decisions in the role of a referee that are hard to make when you have a lot of information and when you get to make it slowly hard to make when you have a lot of information and

when you get to make it slowly, much less when you have very little information and you have to make it quickly. I think that there should be more dedicated, trained observers of fights there and have a much more collaborative assessment of what is going on to make better decisions. I think just relying on one guy, I don't even, did he even look at the replay? Are they allowed to at one? I don't even know what the rules on to make better decisions. I think just relying on one guy, I don't even, did he even look at the replay? Are they allowed to at one? I don't even know what the rules are there related to that.

When I watched the broadcast, it didn't seem that way, but who knows. Nevertheless, even if you watched it, I think having a conversation with another referee, it's not going to eliminate decisions that you otherwise disagree with, but I think it might minimize some of the, at a bare minimum, like the low-hanging fruit around some of these controversial decisions.

I think it's very hard for one referee to do all this kind of stuff, and we just keep on doing it because they can do it in boxing or pick any other mano-a-mano sport. Even in wrestling, you can have the challenge brick, and then they have the desk to go review things and there's like a whole process about it there's other officials watching even that is more thorough than what we have in MMA which is you know well did he mean to did he not mean to does it in the first round was it not in the first round you know did it did it catch the ear did it not catch the ear? It just doesn't feel like

we're, we're doing the kinds of things that creates the best outcomes consistently over time. What would be your game plan if you had to prepare or prepare someone for a fight against Francis? Fucking getting, getting a, uh Fucking getting your passport and getting the fuck out of town. I mean, you know, I don't know how you beat that guy. How do you beat this version of Francis? My guess is we still have some questions about his cardio. We'll see how that goes. But you know, good luck surviving against that guy. Luke, am I correct in thinking that if one championship were to hold an event in the U.S., they would have to submit to the oversight of the athletic commissions? Yes, by law.

Unless you went to Native American territory, but even most of them have their own commissions. If so, how do you think they'd cope? Poorly. They'd have to go by what standards exist on the books, which is why they don't. Would they still be able to use their hydration testing methods? Probably. Probably. It would just be whether the commission would be compliant with that.

I suspect that they might be. Can we talk about this for just a second? Y'all got to just stop doing this, man. You got to stop doing this. I don't give a shit what anybody with the organization says at one, if they do not provide corroborating evidence. And I don't mean what they want you to think is corroborating evidence. I mean, actual corroborating evidence. You are under no obligation to believe it. And listen, every promoter Bellator UFC Showtime, they're going

to say things that are time to time untrue. And some of that can be just a spur debate. Some of that can be malicious. Some of that can just be stupid. I mean, it can run the gamut of why they might be telling falsehoods, but it's part of the job at a bare minimum to stir debate with that kind of a thing, right? Okay, so it's not here to,

I'm not asking you to think that all the people who promote fights are always, you know, totally untrustworthy vermin. They're just the worst people on earth. There might be some of that to some of them, but that's not really what I'm asking you to consider. What I'm asking you to consider is, dude, how do you know that the hydration system that one has employed is A, enacted above board, and B, even if it is tried to be enacted above board, that it is handled competently and thoroughly, and all the processes are what they're supposed to be. There's no third party telling you that's true.

I mean, those weigh-ins that the UFC has, they call them UFC weigh-ins, but the commission runs those shows. UFC runs everything around them, you know, posing for pictures or having the table with stuff for them to have after they weigh in or who goes in in what order, depending if it's a ceremony or whatnot. They can run that part. But when it comes to like the actual weighing in, it's the commission that has the first say and the last say. When you get those numbers, you're getting commission numbers. And again, the commissions aren't perfect because they can be totally, if not on the take,

certainly incompetent or deferential to power to keep business in the state. It's not perfect, but you're getting their numbers. You at least know that someone else other than UFC or Bellator or whatever promoter it might be, someone looked into it and said, what's going on here? Okay, let's see. All right, you want to scale, you want to scale, you want to scale, and so forth.

Now, I also believe that commissions have been and continue to be a massive hindrance to rule progression in MMA. It's not a complicated thing where it's like commissions are good, commissions are bad. They're good for some things, they're bad for others. What they're really good for, and this is how they were developed, commissions are a function of the early 20th century in places where states wanted to crack down on promoters who weren't paying people or who were otherwise engaging in illegal or fraudulent conduct. And they wanted to make sure that there was a purse that they could hand out,

that gambling was not part of what the, in some states, what some of the principles were doing. And they had other fights, even remotely competitive. And some of their responsibilities have grown over time, and they have shown themselves in many ways to be sclerotic entities where it's like how do you get a rule change well you can change it in Tennessee but you can't change it in California and you now have all these different rule sets that fighters are expected to remember and it's a bit of a mess and just to get any of those changed is this Herculean process you know handing the keys to

the kingdom of them what that does is it creates foundational, at least in theory, foundational oversight and trust in the system that more or less somebody who doesn't have a for profit, uh, incentive and works for the interest of the state here. Uh, you know, a government entity that has regulatory say, is making sure that everything is at a basic level, above board.

Someone took a look at it, saw if it was fair, made sure in the modern context that there were health protocols that were followed, that money was laid down by the promoter ahead of time, that they can then make sure as handed out to the fighters, that there is all the small details that foundationally set the table for things. And the kind of things you take for granted, the trust that comes with it. One is surfing off of the trust that is built from North American promotions, in some cases, you know, overseas, that work with commissions. They're surfing off of this air of legitimacy without actually doing any of the legitimate work

that comes with that trust. So listen, I'm not here to tell you that their program of weight hydration is a total sham. I don't know what it is. Here's what I do know. Them saying that it works is evidence total sham. I don't know what it is. Here's what I do know. Them saying that it works is evidence of nothing. It is evidence of absolutely nothing. And I saw one time, we're going to stream

these weigh-ins. It was a single camera shot on a fucking desk. You couldn't read a single paper. You had no idea what the scales were actually reading. Nothing. It was not at all transparent. Dude, remember when they came out and they said Eddie had signed some deal that was like a 10-figure deal? And I'm like, listen, I don't know whether, I have not seen one piece of paperwork. I don't know if it is in fact a 10-figure deal. I'm skeptical that it is, but let's say that it is. Them saying it is proof of nothing because every other time they have said things about the health of their business, the reporting shows opposite.

They have grotesquely overstated the reach of their audience, to what extent it even exists at all. And, you know, let me tell you something, dude. The amount of one fighters who like to reach out to me and to others to tell them horror stories, some of which were able to publish, some of which were not, but it's endless. There is what they say in public, and then there is everything else. And I would strongly, strongly caution at accepting anything they say at face, anything, literally anything they say at face value. I would demand independent

to the extent that one can, corroboration. So folks might be asking, well, what about this issue with Marais last night, Adriano Marais, who beat DJ? Well, Marais has made flyweight a bunch. But is there some weight cutting going on? It would not surprise me in that fight or any other fight at all if there was some weight cutting going on. Because I got to tell you, what the reality is, I don't know. But my hunch, my opinion, is that the claims they're making, they don't prove them for a reason because they can't. I don't think that they can. I don't think that they can actually show that you can use the system that they're using and have a third party, independent of their interests, validate it

and say that everything is working the way that it's supposed to. I don't know that. I legitimately do not know that. But that is my opinion. That is my hunch. And until I see evidence to the contrary, I have absolutely no reason to give them the benefit. What reason could you possibly have to give one the benefit of the doubt on anything? Because they look like nice guys.

Their product is good. It's a good product. They had Rich Franklin on there with Michael Schiavello and I think Mitch Chilson. The fights didn't go their way, but one's not a bad organization if you're a fight fan. If you're a fight fan, your mileage may vary on whether you like Muay Thai and the cage, but it's a good, I liked, I love the red card. I tend to think that judging fights as a whole versus round by round gets you a better result. That's an opinion as well, but it's nothing against the, I like the product. I just, there is nothing that anyone in that leadership class has said

that has ever been like independently verified as true. When people do look under the hood, it doesn't look good for them. So I would very much encourage you to, you know, be skeptical is what I would say. Be skeptical. Have you watched the docu-series Q into the storm on HBO max? My wife watched it. I saw maybe one episode. I'm less interested in the, cause if you guys haven't seen it, and I might be talking out of turn here,

but from what I saw, it was a little bit more about like, who is the guy who actually was Q? Where did this come from? Who are the people who are principally behind he or she or they's success, and how do they deal with each other. It's more of a story of the infrastructure behind Q,

more than it is how it has affected the real world. I've actually been doing a lot of reading about the Q phenomenon, because I've been trying to understand how could something so fundamentally fucking stupid, just so obviously idiotic, how could so many people, and then sometimes like highly educated people you would think would be, you know, um, centered, how can they fall for this? You know, just nakedly moronic shit. And the answers are pretty complex and interesting.

Actually, partly it's understandable. From what I understand and what I've read, part of it is, you know, listen, people are not wrong. This is the one thing I will give them credit on. Two things I would say I give them credit on. The first thing I would say is, you know, when you feel like the institutions of government fail you and that the rich keep getting richer and that the middle class is shrinking and things like, those people are right to feel that way. I mean, all of the numbers justify the claim that the middle class is

shrinking, that wealth inequality is growing, that, I mean, you had Joe Manchin, the senator of West Virginia, essentially saying, I'm not going to do anything to eliminate or undermine the filibuster. If you guys don't know this, here's what's happening in the United States Senate, the most august body in all of representative government. I mean, hee-haw to that nonsense. Here's how this works. You guys may not know this. You need a 60... The filibuster is being used retroactively without people speaking about it, almost like they're just sending an email, essentially, for anything related to any kind of policy that can't be judged as affecting deficits and the debt. So you can pass through something called budget reconciliation. You don't need the 60 votes. You would need a supermajority to beat a filibuster. You only need the 51 or 50-plus, the vice president, to get it through.

So what they're doing is they're trying to ram through. Both parties are doing this. They're trying to ram through as much legislation as possible through the budget reconciliation process because they can't pass it really any other way. There's no other real way to pass it because neither party can't meet, neither party can really meet the 60 majority threshold. You have this intense polarization

that is happening along voting lines and the public and then voting lines inside the Senate. And so getting 60 is virtually impossible. And so, but the problem is like, let's say you want it to either positively or negatively, depending on one's view, or whatever policy prescription you have for guns in America, whether it's additional control or it's the reduction of control, whatever you view, you couldn't pass that through budget reconciliation. There's a process and there's a person called a parliamentarian who tries to make sure that anything that goes through budget reconciliation

directly deals with that. So you can't address climate change. You can't address, to an extent you can address healthcare because again, there might be some relationship between it, but there's not a whole lot you can do. You have to fudge it. And so, you know, you have to make the argument to someone that the way in which the filibuster is currently making budget reconciliation the only means by which the Senate can pass meaningful legislation, that's good governance? That's good? How is that good governance? That's idiotic governance. That's the worst

governance imaginable. Neither party can enact the vision that the people voted them in to do because they don't want to get rid of a filibuster because it just basically fucks over. I mean, here's what they're doing, right? Both parties have done this. McConnell was really the author of this, but both parties are going to do this if you don't want to get rid of a filibuster because it just basically fucks over. I mean, here's what they're doing, right? Both parties have done this. McConnell was really the author of this, but both parties are going to do this if you don't want to say they're equal at this point yet, unless they change the filibuster. What incentive does Mitch McConnell have to make sure that the legislation that the Democrats pass is good for America or is well-liked? Nothing. In fact, he has a strong incentive to not allow that. And he gambled early on in his tenure, if we just say no to everything Obama does,

everything, that he can't pass otherwise through budget reconciliation, he's going to get the blame for it. And you know what? He was right. Mitch McConnell was right. He did get the blame for it. That is a fact.

So, that's a long-winded way of saying this. You know, you now have one half of the representative branch of government that is worthless is a strong word, but not great, Bob. Not great. So, when people say the rich are getting richer and Congress doesn't do anything and they don't care about me and they're mired in gridlock they're right these q folks the problem is as i understand it well actually i'll get to that in just a second but the other part that i understood about q that i thought was kind of interesting was that they basically said that like the reason why it was so popular was one it had this explanatory value like you know somewhere that

the elites are fucking you over but you might not know exactly how they're doing it so they give you some kind of theory and you know worldview about that but but more than that it's collaborative it's a whodunit who is q what are these what are these q drops what's he trying to say what's the code here and people would work in these sleuthy, whodunit, online community kinds of ways to try and patch together what these meanings might be. And some folks have roles in these communities as official interpreters and blah, blah, blah.

It's a whole thing. But it's a communal exercise, and it's for the benefit, ostensibly, of children. Who would be against such a thing? So when you explain it like that where you have this you know real world that is bearing down on people that they feel you offer them an explanation and you offer them this immersive collaborative communal environment of trying to do good they think for the benefit of children um that to me is actually pretty profound. I finally understood why it was for some

such a profound discovery and habit in their lives. It's still idiotic. It makes no sense. And it's just the dumbest shit ever. But when you've been pushed around by life and you're looking for a life preserver, although that's not totally why people join. But in some cases, many cases, I think that's what it is.

I don't know that the due diligence there is really as exhaustive as it could be. Would you recommend that Bellator exchange their untraditional brand name for a three-letter abbreviation like other promotions to avoid potential marketing hurdles? Or is Bellator a captivating name in your opinion? I don't think anybody likes the name Bellator. I'm pretty sure Scott Coker doesn't like the name Bellator. It's one of those names that sounds good in a meeting with executives at a round table. If you were trying to come up with something like like what's a punchy, catchy name? Bellator. But, you know, it's just never caught on with anybody. You know, and this isn't even like,

I can't imagine that folks at Bellator would get mad at me. They might, who knows. I can't imagine they would get mad at me for this because they weren't the ones who created it. that folks at Bellator would get mad at me. They might. Who knows? I can't imagine they would get mad at me for this because they weren't the ones who created it. They inherited it from Bjorn Rebny and in 2014 they didn't want to

change it. Maybe they should have. The question is like, I mean, yes, I tend to think that like one, it used to be one FC and then it just became one championship. It's catchy. UFC, catchy. PFL, you know, whatever. It's not a major promotion in that sense. But I don't know what you do because you're so pot committed to the name at this point.

But no one likes it. So, you know, your guess is as good as mine. Yeah. Your guess is as good as mine. With Mighty Mouse getting knocked out for the first time today in one championship, can it be reasonably assumed that UFC does not have all the best pro fighters in the world? You should have assumed that before. UFC is going to have about 80% or so of the world's best talent, maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less. So where did the rest of the 20% go? Are you going to send your kid to public or private school? And if you could give reasons why I almost certainly would not send

them to private. I didn't go to private. I went to private one year in eighth grade and I fucking hated it. Uh, I went back to public school after that. Um, almost certainly public, but you know, I would like to go for her to go to a good public school if at all possible. I don't think as a parent, that's the worst idea in the world. And I just don't, I don't, I honestly, my wife has looked into this. I have not looked, I went to DC public schools, you know, and I turned out great. Um, but in all seriousness, uh, yeah, she will go to public school. I mean, I can't, you know, unless it's an emergency or something, I, you know, I'm, I'm sure there's some scenario I might encounter that would make me want to put her in private school.

Like you win a billion dollars in the lottery and you just have money to burn. All right, in that case, yeah, fine, here, go to private school. But in general, even if it wasn't cost prohibitive, I would much prefer her to go to public. I just feel like, A, you can get a good public education. B, I think you should be surrounded by your peers that you live near and are in your city or your neighborhood or your county, depending on what kind of school you go to. My wife graduated from, she went to private school in Columbia. She had like 40 people in her graduating class. I had 500. And I'm sure some of you go to schools that have even more than that. I had 500. You should be

around a lot of different people. You should see a lot of different socioeconomic backgrounds. You should see a lot of different things that public schools have to offer, especially if that school, you know, can get you prepared at a scholastic level for the next, for the next level, the next type of education. So, you know, I would say 99.9% sure she's going to go to public. I'm trying to find some good ones here because I got to get out in that front yard and oh with that in mind here I was saying this earlier and that was when the whole thing was fucked up let me uh here we go this is what I have I have uh they're not I'm not sponsored by them or anything just want to be clear I'm just going to try it. I've had it a couple times. This is the Gorilla Mode Nitric. This is stimulant-free.

This has a high degree of L-citrulline and citrulline malate. A little bit of creatine, too, actually. That's good. This is the stuff that Derek... He also takes steroids. But this is the stuff that Derek from... He reps Gorilla all the time, and he put out a video, I forget on what,

that I thought was pretty, maybe it was like he was judging AthleanX's pre-workout and it sucked. Most pre-workouts, dude, they underdose their ingredients. Lane Norton doesn't under, Lane Norton has good stuff. Shouts to Lane Norton. And then,

um, Derek from workplace more days has recommended this. I've had it twice and both times I've got, you know, felt pretty good. It's a little chalky. See, it's a little chalky right there. And I would normally just take it straight to the dome, but the, it's a big ass scoop. So I'm just going to do this. All right, let's put some wah-wah in there. All right. You guys want... I should make up...

Lore! Lore! Lore! Lore! Hang on. Nina! She's outside. All right, well, I fucked that up for her. I apologize, y'all.

Let's see if I can get to a couple more of these, and we'll call it a day. Are you ever going to tell the embarrassing story that you promised? Yeah, when the subs go up. Thoughts on Jim Miller only getting a portion of his pay after his fight was canceled? I think I said this on a recent Morning Combat.

It's just Groundhog Day with me, man. There's a new generation of fans that come around every three to four years or so, four to five years maybe, and they all have the same new questions that the last generation had, which is the last generation asked this about Tony Ferguson when he got shafted once, I think in 2017 or so, in the Habib fight. And there was this big debate about it. Folks, why would you, like, should he have been paid more than he was paid?

I think so. But the fighters have not undertaken any effort in any kind of collective sense to secure their future or no one has been forward thinking enough or have enough leverage anyway to include in their contract any kind of stipulation related to pay in the event of a cancellation that's not their fault on fight week

due to either weight or COVID complications. There's no protections for them. So what you get at that point is simply, in this case, the UFC, but you get the promotion's generosity. They may think that's very generous because they don't know. Dude, UFC in that context, they don't owe Jim Miller shit. You might think that they owe them, but by what argument do you owe them? Morality? Okay, all right, fine. Die on that shit. You might think that they owe them, but by what argument do you owe them? Morality?

Okay, all right, fine. Die on that hill. You're right. They morally owe it to him. Now what? Now where are we? Did he get paid from that moral and ethical obligation? No, of course he didn't.

Of course he didn't get paid for that. So there's no legal mechanism by which to get him more. It sucks. I feel terrible. I've had this debate and these conversations a million times. Unless they... I'll say it one more time for folks who might be new. But if you're OG to this, you've seen it before.

There once was a time where MMA media did not shine enough of a light on stories of fighter pay and contract burdens and the intersection therein. Uh, and so you can make a claim that if the, if the media just paid more attention to it, this would help foster change. Well, careful what you wish for because you actually got a world where the media did, in fact, do that. It did not result in any kind of meaningful change whatsoever. It didn't work at all. Now, there was that lawsuit, but we'll see if that works. But in terms of associations or unions, those have died. AliAct? We'll see. We'll see.

But even then, it's not current fighters doing it it's all case former fighters thoughts on Conor selling his stake in proper 12 I bet he got paid he also spoke about it as a long term investment seems like a strange move they might keep him on as like a figure to promote it you know um they probably paid him a fuck ton

i don't think that's going to be his last if not drink his last business that's uh consumer facing that he'll do um he's probably got a lot of irons in the fire. Conor's good about that. He's got a lot of irons in the fire. What is the benefit of recording the show, MK, live as opposed to pre-recording and being able to edit out any technical difficulties.

One, a lot of the other stuff that the Showtime does from a podcast standpoint is that. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just another method. But, you know, Brendan's like that. Brendan Schaub. All the Smoke is like that. I think Mark Sanchez

does one about the same company. They're all kind of like that. We want to do something a little bit different. The other part is that it's actually easier to do. Sort of. It makes the live show very much a high wire act for the production crew, which you've seen every single time. But what it also does is that once it's done, it's already uploaded.

You don't have to edit anything. So if you go live at 11 and let's say you're done by noon, the video is up at 11. Of course, it's still being recorded. But let's say you came there at noon. It's already up. You don't have to record it at 9. You know, send the file to the editing team. The editing team has to make sure and go through, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You get a cleaner product in the end, right? Because they can edit out all the mistakes, but it just takes a lot longer. It's not turnkey. Live is turnkey. I can just go boop and it's up. I could do this podcast, not live. I could just call it the chat or just give it some other name, but there's got to be some kind of a value, right, to doing it live, to getting that there.

And I don't have to do any editing after the fact i don't have to worry about mumbling i might try to edit out the first five minutes of me and my daughter shouting to a microphone that wasn't on but you know you get the idea let me tell uh i want to see if i can get my baby back on the air. Let's see. Hang on. Let me see if I can. Let's see here.

I want to try something. Danny Segura texted me at 3.03. No sound. Yeah, I know, Danny. Sorry. My bad. All right. Let's do one more and then we'll call it a day if Triller reached out to you

and BC with a multi-million dollar contract for BC to box the Canadian in a six round exhibition on the Jake Paul vs Ben Askren undercard with you and Daniel Cormier as cornermen would you two accept? I certainly

would not. I don't know if BC would. I'm not into stunts like that. Also, like, I don't really see them as competition. What I mean to say is, dude, they do huge numbers. I mean, don't misunderstand me. Ariel and DC are big names, and people care about what they say, and they do really well.

I mean, they're doing great. They're doing great. But MK is very different from what they do, both in terms of the show itself and then all of the other MK parts that we're building, like live on set together for fights, which I think is coming on May 7th. You know, we just do a lot. We have a podcast within a podcast, which is the room service.

I mean, they're quite successful. It's not a dig in any capacity. But I don't feel like we do what they do. And I suspect if you ask them, they might say there's some similarities. But they might feel very different about it too, which is fine. Like, you know, I don't. I'm not really worried about it. I swear to God.

I swear to God, I'm not really worried. BC seems kind of obsessed with them. But I'm not really worried about what they're doing. Because they're already successful, they're already on their way, and we're doing something different. So, it's fine. Who is the most overrated and underrated MMA journalist today? Good Lord, that's a great question. Boy, overrated. I mean, you could just say MMA journalism is overrated and you'd be right. I won't say overrated because I think there's a lot of people who are working really hard, even if it's not really journalism. Let's say underrated.

Who's underrated? Well, it depends how you rate them. I'm going to say people who I think will have a bigger following soon, but aren't quite there yet, although they have a following already, but, you know, not what they will when they really have a chance to get wider exposure. I would say Aaron Bronstetter is really good. I think, um, who else do I read? I mean, I think John Nash is probably, yeah, he's probably your most underrated because he doesn't do the kind of stories that are good for virality. He does the kind of stories that are good for virality.

He does the kind of stories that are important for the industry. He doesn't do it full-time, so you can't really leverage him with like, oh, we won't let you into shows. He's not trying to get into shows. That's not what he's trying to do. And it has massively consequential reporting for the industry. Yeah, he's your most underrated. That's your guy, John Nash.

But Bronsider's great.'s your most underrated. That's your guy. John Nash. But Bronstetter's great. Who else is underrated? I think BC's underrated. I think Jeremy Cruz is underrated. I mean, some guys are highly rated and deserve to be, right? Like Chuck Mendenhall or Sean Elshadi um yeah John Nash for sure okay all right that's it for us I am so sorry about the initial fuck up uh you know what are you gonna do I'll get my daughter on again next time. And I promise it'll be better than it has been.

Like the video. Hit the subscribe button. Back tomorrow with another live show. We'll get you ready for the weekend. There is no post-fight show that I'm aware of tomorrow night, but Bellator is tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that. And, yeah, love you guys. All right.

Thank you guys so much for watching. Again, one more time. Sorry about the cut.