MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC on ABC | Hooker vs. Chandler | Leon Edwards | Usman vs. Burns | Ep. 102

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

On the latest MK, Luke and Brian discuss the UFC's return to broadcast TV and what it says about the sport and company. Plus, they breakdown Michael Chandlers UFC debut matchup vs. Dan Hooker and talk about Leon Edwards recent claims that he offered to fight Chiesa or Magny. Also, the boys talk Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns finally being rebooked for UFC 258 in February.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You hear that? Ugh, paid. And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month.

Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. 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. It is Wednesday, January 6, 2021, and it is time, donks, for Morning Combat. Today is going to be an absolutely batshit day in American history because about a mile from where I live right now is just craziness all the way around. So let this show, Morning Combat, bring you some sanity, some regularity, some normalcy to your lives. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo. I am from CBS Sports. I am joined by the king of Connecticut, not named Apathy. He's the conspiracy to my theory, the one and only Brian Campbell, also from CBS Sports. Hi, Brian. How are you?

I'm doing fine, Luke. Nobody wants to hear about your local BS, by the way, okay? They want to hear. Is it local? They want to rise and shine and hear about some Japanese MMA, okay? So can we please get ready? I mean, Luke, I got some heavy reading to do, looking up these gains while you finish telling me about what the streets of D.C. are going to look like.

Good God. Oh, shit. You got the encyclopedia. Bro, that thing will change your life. I got this when I was, I think, 19 or 20 years old. Look, please tell me you're just now realizing that I own this. Please. I mean, one, you could see by my physique.

I am just now realizing you own this, please. I mean, one you could see by my physique, but... I am just now realizing you own this. This is probably the third time in the last week that this book has made an appearance on screen, at some points for stretches that have extended more than a minute and a half, Luke. I know you

like to think I just look at you all show long. I don't. Sometimes I don't even have the window up to see what's happening. I mean, wake up and smell the gross water that the hot dogs get cooked in. Please, Luke. Come on now. How are you doing otherwise, Brian, aside from dismissing the federal concerns that are happening

just a couple of miles from where I live? No, I hope you guys are all safe and they're in our country, by the way. I hope can mend itself. I'm doing great, Luke. It's a new year. You know that means no limits, okay? So every week we're just stiff arming trying not to get fired trying to cash these checks trying to raise this family trying not to go crazy from uh seasonal winter depression so that's fun you know but we'll get through it look we you know we're doing great doing great here uh shout out to my favorite hemp infused seltzer calo by the way keep going go

ahead luke yeah we should point out that you out that Kalo probably helped to do a really great UFC 257 preview with CBS Sports' Sugar Rashad Evans. It is up on the YouTube channel right now. We should post a link to it in the description box, but it's literally the video before this one in the feed. You guys sort of talked about what. Like what would happen with the mental side of things and the implications of the division

look at the storylines early look at the x's and o's without really getting into what will happen but it's a fight so big luke and i think you might agree maybe it's covid maybe it's the holiday season a fight that's oddly not up at the like come and get me level that you would expect for how big of a fight it is that's why we wanted to get out there early and just be like, let's start banging that drum now, right? Let's bang that thing. Like let's Def Leppard that thing. Let's bang that thing, right?

Come on, man. Does that mean bang it with one arm? Yes. Shout out to that guy, right? Yeah. All right. We have a lot to get to today in terms of, to an extent, UFC 257, but more just what was going on in the sport right

now. So please thumbs up on the video, hit the subscribe button. Always appreciate that when you do. We also need to say, if you want to try Showtime, who makes this show possible, you certainly can. Showtime.com, get a 30 day free trial. If you like it, you may keep it. If not, you may go do something else with your life. You can get our merch, store.show. That's S-H-O dot com. That is the best place to be for any of the merch that you like to get. Hats, shirts, mugs, tumblers, condoms for your balls, that kind of a thing. Seriously, I'm prime Masvidal with this on.

I really am right now, you know? Yeah, fair, fair. You look a little bit like it. You got the reservoir tip at the top of your hat there. Just for a second. Looking like a weirdo.o yep just to see how that feels up there um before you get into the actual show luke i did want to say i reached out to a a villain of this here show right here right jason aaron about uh the the slander job you did over his uh music career aspirations on monday show me how about how about we he had not seen it uh up to this point shocker right jay not knowing what's going on on the show that he supposedly

works on but he said he will be back on monday and you better believe he will be back uh with a response to uh to your continual uh this is me editorializing but your continual destruction of that man's fine character you were the one that put it and have you seen this shit i didn't do that yeah it's pretty hilarious it's pretty i mean i mean have you seen it it's pretty hilarious you know it's great it's great yeah uh so you haven't seen that that's on monday's episode you can check that out if you want to see jay just acting in the worst way imaginable uh short of committing a crime yeah you can go see that there uh and then last but not least, what was I going to say?

I had a point I wanted to make, and now I forgot it. So, you know, couldn't have been that important, I suppose. Okay, well, with that in mind, we have a show to get to today, your fan submissions. We're going to try out a new segment, but first we have to get to a bit of news, BC. So it is now official, good sir. We now know that the next UFC show to air which

will be on the 16th of this month which is not far away that of course will be Calvin Cater taking on Max Holloway. That will air the main card anyway on ABC. Now the main card kicks off at 3 p.m. in the east a very early time. It is believed that this is in part designed by ABC to counter program the NFL playoffs, which is to say everyone knows the NFL playoffs are going to do well, but to the extent you can offer up some kind of alternative, there may still be enough of a spillover audience to do pretty well. BC, your thoughts on the UFC returning to network television officially? This is huge in the and look if it was if it was a separate one-off it'd still be big but i think you have

rightfully muted that this doesn't mean as much in 2021 you know i mean look the ufc went nationally on fox in 2011 so but the whole point i think this is is it kicks off this what four card stand in a week and a half or two weeks or whatever at fight island which includes conor mcgregor's return against dustin poirier and a monster pay-per-view rematch so just business-wise alone putting this you know the afternoon on abc on a saturday it's going to be the best sort of commercial for people to buy that conor pay-per-view of course but it's also a really great fight at a great time. And look, this is an old debate,

especially for us old-washed East Coast sports journalists who are so sick of these fights coming on. You know, forget Saturday night. How about even sometimes these Friday night fight nights coming on at, you know, 11, 12, 1 a.m. main event to see something go off early, like Ryan Garcia's fight did last week, like a lot of the big UK-based Anthony Joshua boxing matches.

God, is it just refreshing to see a fight on. And, you know, if this main card kicks off at 3, you're probably going to see the main event right around where we saw the Ryan Garcia fight last Saturday. Everybody's awake, okay? No matter what coast you live on, it seems like, you know, at least in the U.S., everybody's ready. Everybody's near a screen. I get why you don't traditionally do this during football season of all places.

But if this is just a continuation and an extension to get outside the box in combat sports that Saturday is everything and Saturday night is the finest window after all the football games end when us old bastards are half asleep and the, everyone else who's young is out at the club. Can we go back to where things used to be? I mean, you know, obviously in the eighties,

great boxing was on, we didn't have MMA, but great boxing was on Saturday and Sunday afternoons on network TV, a big time pay-per-views were on Monday nights, randomly and Tyson Spinks on a Monday night. You probably could get more people by your TV at that time. Maybe not against Monday Night Football, but you get the point there. So, look, this is really big just from a – we're in the ESPN Disney family.

They have ABC if you're the UFC. Let's extend out to there. It's counter-programming, as you mentioned. It's a lot of things. I think Max Holloway is a great sort of face to put out there. If there's anyone left who hasn't watched UFC since the beginning days and isn't sold on this, you get a smiley face like Max, who if he gets a big win here could catapult him right back into that title picture, right to the front of the line for all we know.

Everything about it seems to ring like it's a good decision, Luke. Yeah, there's nothing. It's just hard to know what on earth could be bad about it seems to ring like it's a good decision, Luke. Yeah, there's nothing. It's just hard to know what on earth could be bad about it, right? I mean, obviously, ABC at that time, you know, is that their biggest viewing window? Probably not, but given the nature of what's happening around the world in sports, I'm sure it will be a good one for them. It will be interesting to see what kind of ad revenue that they get as a consequence of this.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of numbers they pull or what it does for the winner. But the thing I'm actually focusing on, BC, is less some of those things, although they are pretty critical and pretty important, but what kind of copycat or competitor effect that it might have. Full disclosure, I have no idea if there are any plans, but we do work for ViacomCBS. I wonder if the ratings end up being good for this. Will CBS want to leverage their previous relationship with Scott Coker in a way that they once did? I know things ended poorly with the Strikeforce Nashville card. Fair enough. It's a day that will live in MMA infamy. But there are always possibilities going forward.

How much would people really hold that against them today? I don't think it would really matter in that kind of method or situation at all. So that's something to think about. More to the point, when the UFC went back to network TV through the Fox deal, right, so they had won every quarter back in that Fox deal, I honestly feel like, and I might be getting my dates wrong here, BC, so correct me if I'm missing something, but I fully believe that that was part of the impetus,

at least some of the early strategy that the PBC did of going to Spike TV and going to CBS. And they had a lot of different national partners. But the point being is it kind of kickboxing in the pants just a little bit to maybe go and see if there were bigger audiences and bigger networks to seek out. Will this one show do it? I don't know. But if you look at the reporting from John Aranda, the Sports Business Journal, he's saying this is definitely not a one-off.

They could go back to this repeatedly or however much they want to. I tend to think that's probably going to motivate other players in the combat sports space to get a taste of what the UFC is enjoying. Yeah, no question about that. And I just love that it's kicking off this stretch where we get this on a Saturday afternoon on primetime television. Okay, you know, it means what it means, whatever. Then we get a Wednesday

morning, 9 a.m. Eastern start for that Chiesa card and then we get the big-ass pay-per-view and don't we come back the next week with something big as well on Fight Island? I think this is Irish dude who's fighting, I'm not sure. No, that is that weekend.

I'm talking about, don't they have a fourth one? Don't they come back right after that as well? Oh, they might. I'm not sure. Yeah, I mean, look, UFC doesn't take any time off, right? They took the least minimum amount of time during the quarantine off. This is a short little holiday break. They are coming back with a bang.

So, again, Dana, keep me out of your videos, but well done, sir. Any expectations for ratings? Do you think that they'll hit like 3 million, 4 million? No. Well, I mean, look, there's bright potential. You've got the ESPN arm to promote it on SportsCenter like crazy as well, but it is going against the NFL playoffs. It doesn't mean what it used to mean with streaming, right?

It's not as like the old model of just some old guy sitting at home flipping through the six channels that he has. I mean, that's not there anymore, right? You know what I mean? Does anybody flip anymore? Does anybody actually flip, Luke? Is there a person left who has traditional cable that their only method is flipping through? Probably not.

Everybody knows what channel they like or they've got their favorite shows vod'd so what can it do i think two to three million i think that would be a a plus a solid maybe three and a half luke but you know it's certainly not going to do when cbs made that giant move and did you know kimbo with elite xc and did fedor with Strikeforce and was doing you know six seven million on a Saturday night and you're just like holy crap it was a different era and setup for network television back then by the way on that card just

to remind folks it's Holloway versus Cater Omar Yakmedov taking on Tom Breeze Carlos Felipe versus Justin Taffa Nick Lentz taking on Mike Grundy and then David Zawada versus Ramazan Amiev. Not like the biggest names ever for, by the way, Wikipedia is calling it UFC on ABC1 to sort of consider that.

Yeah, Wikipedia still calls it like UFC on Fuel 38. Like they don't care, but it's either a pay-per-view or it's a UFC fight night where I come from, but that is the drizzling shit, short of that main event. I mean, come on, Luke. Try to get me fired up for Akhmetov coming off a Weidman loss. Please, come on here. What are we going to do with this?

Yeah, I mean, there are some other interesting bouts. You might get Ricky Simone on that one. It was supposed to be against Boom Kelleher, but he got COVID. However, you do have the return of Joaquin Buckley taking on Alessio DiCarrico. That should be interesting. Hey, put that in the co-main, dude. But seriously, put that up in the damn co-main. Or the other one.

They got Santiago Ponzinibbio back after two years taking on the Li Jinglang. I'm a little surprised that that's not a little bit higher given that like Felipe versus Justin Tapa, but it's a heavyweight contest. So maybe they're hoping they'll just gas out and knock each other the fuck out. Who knows?

But yeah, not the best card ever, to be clear, unfortunately. Luke, real quick on this whole idea of, I mean, look, it's 2021. The whole idea of UFC going mainstream. I mean, look, the Fox deal in 2011 was a massive step forward, right? They were on the heels of the Brock Lesnar pay-per-view run. And ESPN had MMA Live, which became an actual TV show and was going to fight. massive step forward right there on the heels of the Brock Lesnar pay-per-view run and you know ESPN had MMA live which became an actual TV show and was going to fight so that was a point of legitimization that was a major step and it was all part of Dana you know his mission statement

back then was like UFC is going to be one of the four majors right it's going to kick NASCAR to the curb and kick the NHL to the curb and it's going to be nba nfl you know in college football baseball and the ufc um to his credit he's gotten as close as he possibly could i mean you know just the espn tv deal in general uh lt is pretty damn massive is there another hill to climb like what makes a guy like dana successful is he can't sleep right he's always looking to expand in china or, or, you know, do anything to keep UFC going, but is there anything left in this whole sphere of like mainstream commercialization that would make you go? Wow. That the UFC could do. The answer is yes, but not with this card. I mean, they're going to, the, the UFC is going

to be going up against the, I think, the divisional round of the playoffs. Yes. So there'll be four games that weekend, two on Saturday, two on Sunday. I mean, basically, those will decide who goes to the conference championships. And then from there, the Super Bowl, right? So at that point, you're dealing with some of the very best product that the NFL has to offer. This main event between Holloway and Cater certainly would fall along those lines, but in general, this product is not.

To me, to really get a sense of like, what is possible, how far could you push this relationship, you'd have to have the UFC approximating something much closer to their more premier end of their product. And again, the main event certainly is that, but overall, it's not.

All right, let me interrupt you and just ask you this then. They would never do this, right? Never. But let's say they announced Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier was going to air on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday night, January 23rd.

Could that do 10 to 15 million views? Like, could it be so astronomical that they could say, we are the number three sport in the U.S.? You know, we have cracked that core. It's not just college football, NFL, NBA, and everybody else. We are there. Could they do that?

Like, what would Connor Dustin, too, on free frickin' TV in primetime do for ratings? Luke, what would be the damn number? Tell me right now. Promoted properly, right? So you had a big lead in time um you know maybe you had fans in attendance right we're talking about like so there's the vaccine has been at that point widely distributed so you have media in attendance uh for the build-up you did a press tour right that kind of a thing i honestly feel like 20 million would be underselling it i really really feel like you could do what a big NFL game could do.

Not $40 million. I think that seems a little bit too much. But $20 to $30 million? Yes, I think you could do that. I really absolutely do. If you had a premier product promoted properly, and part of that promotion is not just selling the fight, right? Like Dustin's going to fight McGregor.

But saying Conor McGregor is going to fight for free on network television. You do not have to pay for it. You just got to find a TV set or a phone or a tablet. That's it. Gratis, no charge, all yours. That is such a selling point. You would get so many people who are, you know, they look up McGregor results or they buy the occasional McGregor pay-per-view, you would get them tuning in in a way that they wouldn't ordinarily do. I really think people don't have nearly enough imagination about what that... We don't really know what the very premier side of the sport draws. We've put championships on there.

We've put some big fights on there, but we've never put championships with big, marquee, pay-per-view-selling names in any kind of real demonstrable way when they were at the peak of their earning potential, I think it'd be huge. You give Dana and them credit in 2011 when they did put the heavyweight championship on national television.

I mean, that was a ballsy move, although JDS and Kane, you know, not household names at that point, but still a big move. It would never happen with Conor in like a real big fight. You always wonder though whether it's connor or the floyd mayweather business if anyone would take that gamble on a softer fight because floyd mayweather's last fight of his original uh showtime deal uh they had

talked for the andre burto fight that ended 2015 it was the fight after the pacquiao fight steven espinoza said on this show even there were talks for a short season of putting that on big CBS. I mean, that could have been, you know, freaking massive, even though it's a one-sided fight on paper and it played out that way, you know, when the fight actually happened. So, you know, you just always want, it would never happen because there's too much money to be made. I just always wonder, could Conor versus anybody do 10 million views on a Saturday?

You wonder, you wonder. Oh, I absolutely think he could. Again, under the right circumstances. You start playing with that formula a little bit, and the numbers drop off pretty substantially. But the right promotion, right time, right opponent, the right kind of promotion, it would absolutely fucking slay. So to be clear about that.

All right, so it was also made official for that third paper, excuse me, for the third card on this month from Fight Island, UFC 257. You're going to get Michael Chandler taking on Dan Hooker. It is now official, BC. A lot of different questions to ask about this. But the one I want to go to first is, let us imagine a world, and I don't know what's going to happen, but chaos certainly seems like a fair assessment and a fair bet. But let's imagine a world, and I don't know what's going to happen, but chaos certainly seems like a fair assessment and a fair bet. But let's imagine a world where Michael Chandler goes in there and loses. And let's say loses like in the way that Dan Hooker puts away opponents.

Maybe it's competitive for a time, but he gets finished. What would that do for the career of Michael Chandler? How bad would it hurt him? You know, there's levels to losing. So if he got starched, it would look bad. It would look like, I mean, look, when Eddie Alvarez came in as the big deal from Bellator, he lost a competitive fight with Cowboy. So it wasn't a disaster. If Chandler comes in there, big guns, big balls. I mean, he's talking about beating Hooker so badly that he could convince Habib to come, you know, to not retire to fight him.

Yeah, it would look bad if he got starched. But anything short of that, Luke, an action loss, a competitive loss, he's going to be fine. In fact, this is in play. Let me tell you something that's in play. We did an exercise on CBSSports.com, something that you hate, Luke. Good God, do you hate this type of of thing making bold predictions for the damn new year it's not even bold predictions it's just masturbating the audience just shooting from the hip right shaking up that champagne bottle without a sonia and just you know i mean just just doing

that thing and i'm like you know what's a bold prediction the great michael chandler could come in guns blazing to the ufc in 2021 and lose two fights in a row and still, you know, be considered great. He could, it's just that we're in a killer lightweight era. It's in play that he could lose to Dan Hooker. Let's say he rebounded against anybody in the back half of that top 10. It's in play. He could lose that fight. I mean, look, match him up against the Kevin Lee, a Paul Felder, any of those type of guys. You're like, it's a good-ass fight. I got to see it. So the whole point is, short of just getting dominated, he's going to be fine.

It's more about the debate of the top end. How much will Dana and company look to give him the world if he comes in there and beats Stan Frick and Hooker in his UFC debut? Does he cut the line in front of Gaethje and Oliveira? I mean, does he, how far do they want to push this guy knowing they're going to have a short window of really fun action fights and he's a great fighter, he's a great dude. We've never really seen Dana, like, overly push the guys who came over from Bellator. I mean, look, Eddie Alvarez got every opportunity and he cashed in those opportunities.

But, you know, they gave him a pretty big fight here to kick off. So I think it's more about where can he go if he wins. If he loses and it's a fun fight, he's not going to go that far, Luke. Right? It didn't kill Eddie. I think there's actually a possibility where he could lose, and his stock might even go up, which is to say, stock in terms of are you the best at lightweight would take a hit no matter what

if he lost to, you know, again, not some controversial decision, but like a fair way to say that, you know, Dan Hooker won. Yes, I mean, his stock in that sense would take a hit. But if he goes out there and this is very much, you know, I don't think that this is likely. But if he has a kind of, I'm going to say, you know, a version of Lawler versus Condit, you know, where's just, I'm talking balls to the wall action. These two guys are trying to kill each other for the duration of the contest. This one will be three rounds, not five. You might say to yourself, Jesus Christ,

this dude is just going for it. I mean, we knew he did that before, but maybe in different ways than he even did because even against Benson Henderson, the first time he went balls out, but then had to really resort to the wrestling. If he doesn't do that, if he just goes up there and just absolutely bludgeons the guy and gets bludgeoned in the process, the UFC staff might say, okay, well, maybe he's not

the best lightweight on earth, but we got to get this guy back in there. We got to get this guy in rotation. He is exactly the kind of thing we're looking for. So I actually think that there is a way where, I should say there are real, I think, plausible scenarios where a victory is, excuse me, a loss, I should say, there are real, I think, plausible scenarios where a loss for Michael Chandler is not in anywhere even close to the end of the world. To your point, though, what would be a bad thing is if he goes in there and gets outclassed. I think that's the part where you're trying to say, okay, getting finished by Dan Hooker

is not the end of the world. It doesn't ruin your career. Gilbert Burns got finished by Dan Hooker, but Gilbert Burns was younger and moved up a weight class and just got a lot better. You don't really see those opportunities possible for somebody like Michael Chandler. At this point, at age 34, if you get outclassed, even for Eddie Alvarez losing to Donald Cerrone, you have much less opportunity to repair the damage that could come as a consequence, particularly if you are measured and careful and you throw your best weapons at them and they don't work. If you throw your best weapons at Dan Hooker and they work pretty well, but not enough

in the end because Dan Hooker's a very special talent, I don't think it's that big a deal. But if you actually try to beat this guy and you look poor in the process that would be very very very bad for him and i think it would damage his stock considerably because you know i'm sorry for cutting you people think all i do now is cut you i remember when the back in the days when people used to get mad that you would cut me off luke one day i'm just gonna cut you how about that one day i'll just cut one day i'll just sever the artery just to help the audience understand we're trying to talk to each other through zoom and it's hard to sometimes hear or stop. It's not like normal conversation.

You don't get conversational cues. Look, obviously you could go disastrous. Will Brooks, great Bellator champion, disastrous UFC run. But do you remember, what do you remember two scenarios? One, when Eddie came over and lost to Cowboy. And two, when Anthony Pettis, coming off of that Benson-Henderson fight, went from WEC to UFC, and I'm thinking this guy's going to start printing the Wheaties box. In fact, screw Wheaties.

Let's put him on the Boo-Berry or something. Let's put him on something that actually tastes good. And then he lost to the damn Carpenter, right? In either situation, the Guida loss for Pettis or uh alvarez do you remember thinking that their stock got destroyed or just oh man it's tough loss of a tough fight um i don't know why don't you answer it for me i don't i don't know i don't know i remember just being like oh that sucks i thought this guy was gonna win a title but he fought well he fought hard let's see him again.

So obviously Chandler, I think, is an even, well, I don't want to say a much bigger action fight potential than those two names. Anthony Pettis and Eddie Alvarez both bring the freaking action. But yes, you're right. He could lose twice and be the new Justin Gaethje for the UFC. The new shiny toy that you throw in there and you make fun action fights. You never know. We'll see. So yeah, there's a lot to gain here win or lose for Chandler and I'm loving Luke the Dan Hooker quotes did you see that specific quote that he gave to some Australian podcast where he said

you're going to give me the new toy I'm going to break the real the new toy real quick he says Luke it's a horrible style matchup for Chandler and Hooker believes he'll need less than five minutes to break him. I love when people talk tough, alright? I love that shit. Yeah, we should talk about what it means for Dan Hooker. And by the way, we'll do the reverse of this as time gets closer, but it is worth sort of assessing, BC. What if Dan Hooker goes in there

and A, has a great action fight and wins, or B, just looks dominant, like the kind of Hooker that beat, let's say, Gilbert Burns. Again, that version,'s say a Gilbert Burns again that version anyway of Gilbert Burns dude would would he skip the line would he get a title shot would they want to have a situation where you have Adesanya maybe with one two belts possibly and then another guy from that region plus Volkanovski I mean can you imagine what it would mean for that gym for that region that region, there's massive implications there for a guy like Dan Hooker. Yeah, massive implications.

And anyone here who's ready to print you a CKB t-shirt, I'm sorry, I'm with you. I think Adesanya's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think Dan Hooker's right behind him, even though he gets into a little bit too willing to get into wars. Luke, does your CKB hard on go all the way down the roster to like Kai, Cara, France?

I mean, where does your infatuation end with that club? It's not that I think that they're the best club on earth. It's that I think that the guy who runs the club is one of the sharpest minds on earth. Adesanya is the very best version of what they have to offer, and then it goes down from there. But, you know, do I have respect for Kaikara France? Yes.

So I think he's the best flyweight in the world? No. I don't think there's evidence to conclude that. But I'm curious to see what Brad Riddell can do. I mean, he's actually one of the more experienced and credentialed kickboxers in the entire UFC. So I'll be curious to see what he can do. Shane Young, I think, is a good talent.

You know, it's not that everyone there is out of sonia it's that the guy running it i don't think people realize how smart he is and if he lived in the united states and could just recruit from you know the vast amount of people that were here i honestly think he would be if not the preeminent mma coach something pretty goddamn close to it you know it'd be really fun if we got eugene barrowman and your brother matt thomas together we only used your brother to make those burgers with like the the the steak inside of it and then maybe to maybe you know maybe to pass around the peace pipe and then we just picked eugene's brain stem right that'd be that'd be a fun night at the office

that would be that would be a fun night um you know my brother would not be good for the conversation uh i told you this my brother graduated from my brother got i think his phd in math and he graduated recently didn't tell us didn't know and actually was so good in his he he went to University of Virginia for all of his schooling, was so good he won some kind of award for outstanding accomplishment in math, and literally did not, I had to find out about this from my dad. My dad was like, hey, you know, Matt graduated,

got his blah, blah, blah, won this award, and I was like, I'm sorry, when? Like, oh yeah, like two weeks ago. I was like, dude, your DMs never stood a chance with that guy. What do you think would happen sooner? Matt Thomas respond to my DMs giving me dirt on you or Rob Thomas? It's not 3 a.m. because that guy would be up pissing if it was. So he must be lonely watching this show.

Wow. What will happen first? The desert will be flooded or the arctic will be full of sand um yeah well either way luke um hooker chandler uh fantastic fighting of hooker this might be the closest it probably the closest the hooker got to the ufc title since that time in dana's office right hey cut it out baby i got more i got more bro all right uh last. What is better for the lightweight division for Michael Chandler to win or Dan Hooker? That's a tougher question to answer.

I don't think there's a, there's a wrong result here. Right. But I do think that to steal a term from, okay. Upper bound limits is a Luke Thomas term. Dan Hooker has a higher upper bound limit to win the ufc lightweight title i believe that michael chandler does but michael chandler has a much higher upper bound

limit god that's so weird to use your terms uh to be uh did you never take calculus to i mean yeah i'm from a factory town so did i sit in the class was there a textbook yes listen jaime jaime escalante taught fucking calculus to all the boroughs in uh south central la if they can learn calculus there certainly you could learn calculus in connecticut no yeah money yeah yeah i don't know i mean i was from a very uh armpit area of connecticut though okay like the grunt workers of the state holding it together i don't i don't i don't actually believe that but okay come with me come with me okay in fact we'll bring the cameras it'll be part two of our documentary uh uh Luke what I was saying was um you know damn it if I remember no Chandler's got a higher ceiling as a b-side to a pay-per-view

true or false obviously right I mean Chandler's an action star. He's good looking. Yeah, I think that's true, yeah. So that would make it, if you want to do this question, better for the UFC if Chandler won. Yeah, because, I mean, is Chandler Gaethje and Chandler Connor

and Chandler Tony bigger fights than Hooker in those spots yes they're bigger fights Luke and that's the whole point of who's it better for I would say that it's impossible to go wrong either way I think you would probably agree it doesn't really matter who wins UFC is going to have a great situation on their hands I do wonder like on some level they probably want a balance they probably want a fair number of american champions that they can take around to american media outlets that the american media could get familiar with and on the other hand i bet that they also or english speaking

certainly um if they're going to be international right so how many do we have that are local how many do we have the international because they want to be able to brag about both. And does Hooker fit into those plans? Obviously, Adesanya fits into those plans in a pretty major way. They're going to give the guy an opportunity to leapfrog the division and get a title shot in a division above his. Does Hooker meaningfully add to that? I tend to think that he might, but I don't know what the UFC has in mind.

But it's always something to think about is what kind of balance do they want with elite championship-level fighters between international and then homegrown and where they all fit in. It'll be interesting to see. All right, point number three here, BC. I do not know what the UFC has against Leon Edwards. So we all know that that fight is off. We talked about it on Monday, the Leon Edwards fight with Kamzat Shumayev,

who apparently is now boys with Ramzan Kadyrov, which is a whole other story. Is it really, though, Luke, or can we separate the art from the artist and let people befriend or vote for whoever they want, Luke? Here's the thing on that. This is what MMA fans love. They love the ambiguity enough to give exoneration.

They never love ambiguity for anything other than exoneration. And not just MMA fans. I should say the MMA community in general, right? Because there's media guys who do the exact same thing, which is to say, do we really know if Ramzan Kadyrov is actually boys with the people that he forces to have dinner with him or asks to have dinner with him? Are they like-minded folks? Are they just doing it because they don't want to die and no one really ever knows the answer to those kinds of things it's very very hard to tell i suspect a

fair number of them don't actually want to do it but because they live in this gray this moral gray where it's like we don't know but they're probably doing it on some level for self-preservation but maybe not oh well you know what let's just decide that that means that they're probably doing it on some level for self-preservation, but maybe not. Oh, well, you know what? Let's just decide that that means that they're probably doing it just for self-preservation rather than coming to any other conclusion about their moral culpability here. And I don't know why that's the default. I don't know why we always have to say, well, because it's plausible that they just want to do this for self-preservation. It must mean, therefore, they're doing it for self-preservation it must mean therefore they're doing it for self-preservation we actually don't know that either and i don't know why the reflex

is the one that's more charitable but okay i think to the extent that again another luke thomas forced phrase uh people are just upset that you put qualifiers upon your mma analysis you'll be like hey hansen rising prospect in good God, shitty conspiracy DMs or something. You know, like, no, it's like, no, is she a rising prospect or not, Luke? I don't want to hear who she voted for. I mean, look. I do that. I do that on my breakdowns.

I don't really get into any of the other stuff on my breakdowns. But on these shows that are about the wider perspective of sports, it's fucking malpractice to not mention it every time, all the time. No, but enough that it matters. Yes. Okay. Okay, Luke. People have. And also, those people can suck my balls. I mean, let's just be real about it. mention it every time all the time no but enough that it matters yes okay okay look people have and also those people can suck my balls i mean let's just be real about it they don't know what

they're talking about wow luke you know some people have friends in low places you know by the way you mentioned uh adesanya jacking off with that champagne thing that you showed on monday remember i was talking about the dude and the white dude in the back who had hit adesanya's belt and was like cheering him on as as that dude dm'd me did i tell you that no no i love this story here he dm'd me the other day uh who showed him the video i don't know i don't know he didn't tell me how he got wind of it but here's what he wrote me i thought this was actually pretty funny his name is joey i don't know what his last name is he goes let's be honest bruv if you watched izzy jack off you'd be hyped too smiling emoji laughing emoji water shooting emoji you know sadly luke i i bet a dissected video would follow that

that experience yes yes i do can i say he's wrong bc i cannot say he's wrong look you know you again you can't pick who you love, right? I mean, did I wake up one day and say, I'm going to be the biggest advocate for Kevin Lee one day winning a UFC title? I didn't plan it, Luke, okay? He planned that head tat. I didn't plan this, but I'm going to go down with that ship if I have to because he's got that talent.

I'm a big Ioana fan, trying to stay away from the IG. Hopefully one day in 2021, you and her can do. You know, Luke, how mad would you be if I, like, because you think I, Osama bin Sabotaj, you constantly, okay? How mad would you be if I was like, hey, Luke, just guess what? I just secured a big-ass interview. And you're like, oh, who? And I'm like, Dan Hooker. I got Dan Hooker on Thursday, 3 o'clock.

You want to join me on this stream? You're like, yeah, brother, yeah.'m like, Dan Hooker. I got Dan Hooker on Thursday, 3 o'clock. You want to join me on this street? You're like, yeah, brother, yeah. And then we get on, and you're already going. I'm like, Luke, so sorry. Dan couldn't make it. But good news, I got Ioana. Here she is. Bam.

How mad would you be? I'd be mad, less because, one, I don't have anything to say to her. And two, why would you be dishonest with me? Why couldn't you just be honest and be like, yo, we should do a Ioana interview together. You know what I mean? Pitch me on it if you want me to do it. Just be a man about it.

Oh, wow. Be a man, Hogan. Okay, all right. All right. I'm down with that. I'm 40. I'm a man. Come at me.

You understand? Thank you. Mike Gundy, thank you. All right. I would never trap you like that, Luke. All of my bits are all good-natured, okay? Please tell that to JMMA. They're all good-natured, okay?

Please. Yeah, exactly. That's why I like them. I mean, you know, either we'll do things or we won't, but we're honest about what we're doing here. All right. So Leon Edwards, obviously, his fight with Kanzaki Chima had been replaced by Magni versus Chiesa.

We talked about the latter of those two fights, one's a theoretical, one's going to happen, and how much we liked it, sort of broke it down. But Leon Edwards, BC, said something kind of interesting, which is that, quote, I offered to fight Neal or Chiesa in the main event January 20th, and Chema straight after, but the UFC decided against it. Edwards said this on an Instagram post.

Why would the UFC decided against it. Edwards said this on an Instagram post. Why would the UFC decide against it? The lack of context here makes it too easy to continue the narrative that Leon Edwards can never get ahead. Why does UFC hate him? Is his given name Loretta Hawn Edwards? What the hell is going on here? Sorry, Brian Campbell Edwards. What the hell is going on here?

But I think that we need to know the full context. Did they turn it down? Because they love the Hamzat Shemayev fight even more? Do they look at Shemayev as their next big, giant, big thing? And they think going through Leon Edwards with an eight fight win streak is the best way to legitimize that guy while getting rid of a fighter they don't want to market. Could be. It also could be they're thinking, you know, we do want to make Masvidal Covington this spring, but if we can't make we might as well do masvidal edwards before edwards stops being a thing they did have that backstage fight over the uh the three-piece so uh maybe it's good news like that luke and maybe it's not like nope fu right yeah the lack of context we don't have the UFC side of things. Here's my best guess on this BC, and it's just that a guess, is that because Chemaev is out, not because he tore an ACL or whatever, but because it's COVID, and they can usually get a quick turnaround again to get them back into action once they've had COVID.

Not all the time, but there tends to be a fairly quick-ish rebooking process when one of the competitors gets COVID. My thought is they still want to hold on to it for the reasons that they made it because there's going to be a quick turnaround. Now, I don't know if that's actually accurate, if they're going to do it when that's going to be. Here's what I would say. If that is the reason, right? They still like the fight. They can make it in reasonably short order. Let's keep things as they are. Okay, I understand that. But one, I think Edwards should be financially compensated to at least some degree.

And then two, if that falls out for any reason unrelated to anything due to Edwards, they have got at that point to put him on a card, frankly, against almost anyone at that point. You can't keep the glane. This guy has fought since, what, July of 2019 in many ways by no fault of his own um which we've been over a million times i just think if you're gonna keep delaying him and you have the best reason is that it's just a very minor delay in the grand scheme of things okay but if that falls through at that point all bets are off you got to take care of the guy. I think that's pretty reasonable. You could argue, you know, I'm not in the business of protecting the UFC's interest,

that if they didn't care about him, they would let him fight in this main event at 9 a.m. Eastern on a Wednesday morning against a difficult style matchup in either guy and just hope that he loses quietly, right? So you'd have to believe that there's better news coming, Luke. You would imagine. You would imagine that they're trying to roll all that out dana white did a q a yesterday talking about how francis versus steep a2 is tentatively set um for april he also sort of hinted about some other fights that they were working on so we'll see i mean there's no way to really to to know this we're just dealing with too little amount of information but i just feel like it's like dude at some point you've got to

get the guy back in there you just just make it happen yeah um okay uh one of the things that we know is now rebooked is ufc 258 february 13th kamara usman taking on gilbert burns okay bc true or false it is much better for the welterweight division and the potential matchups that it sets up for Kamaru Usman to retain his title on the 13th of February. Much better. I mean, maybe because he had such a great fight with Covington and there's a built-in war there.

And, you know, he beat Masvidal on short notice circumstances. What if they did a full camp? Maybe there's better stories to tell. And they've already invested enough in Usman and he's, you know, lived up to expectations each time they've made a larger investment. Yeah, business-wise, probably a little bit better for them, but he's not a giant massive star, and I'm really interested in Gilbert Burns' chances in this fight. God, this is going to be a great fight. Luke, this calendar year is going to be freaking insane in the UFC. I mean, every two weeks, we got a great fight. Sometimes we got really big fights. Sometimes we got really

big fights that are also great fights. This is just a great-ass fight. I'm glad it's happening. I'm glad Burns didn't lose his spot in the line. Yeah, better for Usman. Dude, Usman, it's funny. We did the typical predictions that you hate also of who's going to close the year as champion. Even though this fight's really hard, and you can make many a case for Gilbert Burns to win it,

and I may end up making that case when the time comes, I feel more confident about Usman ending the year as champion in his division than I do most other champions. So this guy's rising. I don't think we've seen the best of him yet. I think that little tease we saw of the wrinkles he added with Trevor Whitman for that Masvidal fight, it's only going to get better. I mean, let's just sort of go through the matchups.

So let's say Usman wins, and again, in a way that's not controversial, whatever that means. The rightful winner was Usman. He gets his hand raised. Okay, now what do you have? You have Usman versus Colby, too, that you could do. You have Usman versus Jorge, too. I don't think you could go right to it,

but it's certainly somewhere down there in play, right? Those would be your top two choices at that point. If Gilbert wins, you have a be your top two choices at that point. If Gilbert wins, you have a fresh set of matchups at that point because you could do Gilbert versus Colby. You could do Gilbert versus Jorge. You could do Gilbert versus Kamaru too if you wanted there to be some kind of a rematch at that point. Let me pull up the rankings to see what else is up there.

You're forgetting the idea that if Hamzat Shumayev beats Leon Edwards and does so in the fashion that he has been doing, you're not going to keep him out of a title fight in 2021, Luke. You're not going to do it. You personally, you're not going to do it. That's probably true because Leon Edwards is currently sitting at three, but you have Wonderboy at five. And from there, no one's really entitled contention

because six is Woodley, seven Maya, eight Chiesa. We'll see what happens with him and Magny sitting at nine and Vicente Luque at ten. But still, those guys are still fresh rising contenders, but they're not in title contention just yet. Still, I feel like you get brand new fresher matchups with Gilbert, but I think you get more lucrative fights by doing it with Kamaru. Of all the permutations I mentioned BC

what fight from a commercial standpoint and I'm not saying it's a blockbuster but what fight is bigger than Kamaru versus Colby 2 Kamaru versus Jorge 2 oh sorry what am I saying Colby versus Jorge but that's not for the title I'm talking about if Gilbert wins or Kamaru wins, right? So one of them has to be in it. What is a bigger fight for Kamaru? If you're like a pay-per-view, uh, standpoint, which one is a bigger main event than that?

Jorge, Jorge too. Okay. Yes. But I mean, he just lost. You can't go right. He's got to come back and beat somebody,

which, which is kind of why maybe they should throw Leon Edwards at him and just cash that in. I'm not saying that's an easy fight for Jorge. I'm saying there's a built-in storyline. We have to see it. If Jorge wins, dude, you're back to banging that drum to get him back into there. You know what I'm saying?

Sorry, we're back to doing that, alright? Yeah, man. Do you want to see the UFC make Jorge versus Colby independent of any kind of title yeah i would love that fight i would love that fight but i don't think they have to force that in but when i say force i mean you want both of those guys to potentially be kamaru usman's b sides in 2021 after the gilbert fight if kamaru's going to fight three times this year you kind of want the second to be against colby the third against jorge right so i don't know if you have to have them against each other right away now

typically ufc matchmaking they will fight each other because they always tend to circle around and make the best fight the best but if you were trying to keep both of their brands alive there are competitors in this sphere from stephen thompson to leon edwards that you can match people up against. Sure. You're right. It'd be interesting if it happens to Kamzat Shumayev, dude. If he goes in there and beats the brakes off Edwards, which, you know, I'm not declaring to you as likely or inevitable, I don't know,

but let's say he does, dude, for sure he's getting a title shot after that. Edwards is sitting at three. Your top contenders are Kamaru, who's unranked. One is Colby. Two is Gilbert. Would they bypass Colby to give Shumayev a title shot? at three your your top contenders are kamaru who's unranked one is colby two is is uh gilbert would they bypass colby to give chamayev a title shot yes yeah they absolutely would do that right i mean is there any doubt in your mind they would do that no they would do that i'm more interested

if we can get a uh loser leaves town final four bracket going with Lawler, Woodley two on one side, Matt Brown and Condit on the other. Winners face off. All losers retire. You into that? You're a bad person. You're a bad person. Yes, is the answer. I'm into that.

Okay. Okay. Oh, there it is. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much all right last decision making i make in front of the rollers at cumberland farms you know like nope nope can't nope won't do it yet yep i'll take three of them so you know what i'll

just have just give me the fucking store i'm gonna buy the store all right last but not least i didn't think much of this people seem to think that there's a whole lot to this i don't but okay maybe your mileage will vary. Dana White was, you know, characteristically going after people in his comments because somebody had written through some, you know, clownpenis.farts

78934 on Instagram wrote that they could not wait to pirate UFC 257. To which Dana responded, can't wait excuse me,7 to which dana responded can't wait uh excuse me the dana responded with and i can't wait to catch you i have a god i'm gonna translate the english here i have a surprise for you motherfuckers this year bc what is his surprise well i was thinking there's a few different things one could be a four minute hit job video showing all of their faces luke right to just say like all these people tried to come against my business uh

uh two i don't know um if anyone's going to lead the charge on figuring out how to try to in any form stop piracy which seems like a it seems as losing of a battle as trying to stop performance enhancing drugs, right? Your whole drug testing debate. To me, it's one and the same. I feel like the abusers are going to be ahead of the people trying to shut them down, you know, from as easy as just taking a, like, periscope and putting it to your TV and people watching it. I mean, look, people are going to find it on the damn dark web, but if anyone's going to be ahead of the game at putting, doling out some serious fines and,

or arrests and really spending the money to police it, it's obviously Dana White and company. So it's interested to see how far they will attempt to go. I don't think he just does a veiled threat there without some plan in place. Interesting. DAZN is now shutting down anyone, Luke, who put out any form of video on Twitter from the Ryan Garcia, not only the knockout and the win,

but they banned my video of Kate Abdo making that sperm joke. In fact, my Twitter account was shut down for a few hours the other day because DAZN slash Perform Group went after me. Um, so maybe that maybe Dana has new weapons in his arsenal to try to stop this. Or, uh, you know, maybe he's got a new reality show. Dana white, uh,

found a fight where him, Matt, Sarah and Dean Thomas knock on the doors of all the people who were caught in piracy. And maybe they beat their ass right there or, or, or bring them to a top of a cliff and take their shirt off and refuse to jump either.

Or Luke, it's going to be interesting to see. Yeah, I mean, people were asking me, I had people emailing me, like, oh, is this one of those new pieces of legislation that passed with the stimulus bill, where if you guys may have paid attention, it made illegal streaming in certain cases a potential felony, 10 years in prison, a whole lot of stuff could go wrong for you. But if you actually read the legislation there, it's designed for people who are actually broadcasting the streams, not for individual users who might be consuming it.

People calling me in the middle of my show. So no, I don't think it has anything to do with them. Are there better tools now to detect piracy than there used to be on various forms of social media or the web. I'm sure that is the answer. But this brings up a bigger question to me, BC. And let me see what you think about this. You mentioned the doping debate, which is kind of funny because I actually have views. I didn't really connect them in this way, but now that you mentioned it, I think I should. Where is there some level of piracy that's, if not good, you should just leave alone. Let me make the case

for just a second. I'm not sure that the answer is yes. It might just be yes by virtue of just the way the world works, but here's how I think about it. If everybody pirated, that would just be totally untenable, right? I mean, there's no way a business could survive and it would just, you know, mass illegal behavior would just not be right, right? So that's not okay. On the other hand, what if there were zero piracy? I mean, absolutely not one person able to get something that they did not pay for. To me, you'd be excluding probably a lot of fans because we know, not a lot of fans, but enough of a portion of a fan base where it's very expensive to be a fan from enjoying your content,

which is to say, is there a small but relevant segment of fans where the extra mile you have to go to police them is A, expensive for your business, B, even if you caught them all, you wouldn't meaningfully change your business fortunes and see they're still fans and they get to enjoy your product. Yes, it's illegal. Yes, this is not a thing you would want to extend beyond a very small and

manageable group, but in that narrow scope is piracy. Okay. No, I don't think it is. I get the point you're trying to make. Bullshit. Okay.

So, so you're saying if I got a saying if I got a fast food restaurant and I know people are stealing some of the items, but hey, it's good. At least they'll eat it and tell their friends it's good and come back and buy it again. I don't see where that's a plus. If you want to make the argument against cracking down on-

You're going to make the comparison between one brick and mortar fast food restaurant and the entirety of the worldwide web? That's the only comparison i understand based on my life experiences uh i'll say that if you were trying to say that like stop policing the highlights of a big knockout afterwards like let the whole world put out the gifts on the internet because that's the best advertising for someone to come back to your product i get that argument i don't necessarily get yours and if i really had to take all the jokes aside and really look at this what dana and company are probably going to do is they probably got off right dana well

dana probably got his rocks off on that four minute video he certainly did trashing the media trashing me uh trashing a lot of people and why do you have to go victory lap on our buddy josh gross leave the guy alone already all right um And I think that he's probably like, oh, I'll do the same now to the pirates. Not I'll put out a video of them, but let's spend money and grab a few of them and pursue them to the full damn extent of the law and then publicize the arrest to make a major warning to everyone else that if you pirate us, I'll come after you. I'll put you on the screen. I'll put your life history on the screen maybe he'll do that a few times luke i i don't i mean what's the argument that that you know losing 30 of your potential business is is good

how is that a good argument because i don't think they're losing 30 of your potential business i'm not talking about losing i mean if dude if you're talking about losing three out of every ten viewers, yeah, of course that's untenable. I mean, that's, yeah, I would never advocate for such a thing. I don't know exactly what the number is. I suspect it's single digits, right? The question is, it's always about this. For example, if you have a crime in your neighborhood, right? So if you have police in your neighborhood, crime goes down, you live there 10 years, you never have

a break in, no one ever steals anything from your porch, whatever the case. You live, your kids can walk to school, right? This is a pretty safe way to live. Now, is all crime eliminated from that neighborhood? No. And so what would it take to eliminate all crime from that neighborhood? Literally every form of crime. It would take the amount of extra effort to get that extra benefit would be onerous.

There'd be constitutional rights concerns. Could a city even afford that extra? What I'm pointing out is at that point, it's just not worth going to that extra mile. My thought is there is probably a segment for very savvy internet users to avoid detection, a very small, small group who can get the UFC product for free, become fans, still spread the word in gospel, contribute financially in other ways, buy tickets to shows, blah, blah, blah, whatever they may do, where they're not hurting the UFC business in any kind of meaningful way. It's not a meaningfully sized group.

And the extra effort it would take for the ufc to police them it's just not really worth it you're still making all the money that you basically would otherwise make i think that's my argument for that very very very very very narrow subset of piracy i can't tell if you just tried to make a case for the gentrification of uh mma at pay-per-view piracy or not i'm not that educated so i can't tell But I think that was probably a great point, Luke. At some point, I just feel like, you know, and I'm not saying we're there. I don't know enough to say we are.

But my feeling is on some level, leaving well enough alone is probably better than just trying to like, I'm going to fucking slash and burn the entire internet on my way to get something. It's like some piracy probably is not that big a deal. That's all I'm saying. All right, BC. We were going to do some predictions for 2021 we should have done them on monday but we don't plan these shows very effectively so we're going to do it today on

wednesday big prediction one one big prediction for 2021 and one big prediction for mma for 2021 bc give me your big prediction oh luckily i picked mma i didn't know it was mma only uh luke here's my big prediction i think you could make a strong case uh in terms of trying to forecast who's going to have the best year who could potentially be your fighter of the year adesanya's in play with the chance to become a champ champ and maybe get closer to a john jones super fight obviously conor mcgregor's in play if he comes back and beats Poirier and can win the UFC lightweight title. But how about this?

How about this bold prediction? We're going to have a different champ champ to close 2021. And I've seen her Instagram page. It's Valentina Shevchenko. What about this, Luke? What if she faces the only remaining really difficult potential challenge in her division to open the year against former strawweight champ jessica andrage what if she wins that and what if she gets that trilogy bout with amanda nunes because both are going to

be out of you know i mean amanda news is already out of opponents right and you know valentina's maybe got one big name left so if you put them together for a third fight and you do it at 135 pounds I just feel like we've already seen the best of Amanda but yet Valentina is still kind of getting better and I think this whole turn considering before she moved down to flyweight she came as close as you can possibly come to beating the the greatest of all time and Amanda newness in a great five round tactical fight that really was a coin flip first fight also close at ufc 196 valentina came on a little bit too late had a huge third round would have benefited from championship rounds there what if they did it again and i'm just not seeing the

same amanda who's been challenged and who has destroyed people and who spent more time at 45 lately who would have to cut down to 35 for this big one yet we've seen Valentina go down to fly weight become an absolute destroyer Luke as a bantamweight because of her size differential she had to be a counter punching machine she had to be strategic she had a out point Holly Holm over five rounds right she had to really be like that at flyweight she's learned more how to be strategic she had a outpoint holly holm over five rounds she had to really be like that at flyweight she's learned more how to be in her natural weight and be a destroyer if she's a little bit more offensive think how close she came in that second fight against amanda i'd like her chances in a third fight i think she can win this bantamweight title i think she can also with that

win have a hipster argument won't have the same resume as Amanda, but have a hipster argument for being the greatest of all time in this short season that women's MMA has been at the highest level. There's a lot of potential here for Valentina to have a monstrous year and not just be stuck in monotonous title defenses every quarter against whoever is next in line. That's interesting. I'll say this bc i would be very surprised if we get through 2021 now this is assuming that they remain active uh and both john jones and amanda nunez win all their fights um i'd be very surprised and you're always like oh who would beat them well on jones's case i mean i think he has some pretty reasonable threats i don't think it's crazy to say that those guys,

Francis or Stipe, whoever, are genuine threats to beat him, whether you think he's going to win or not. But this is a lesson I've learned in MMA. It's like the best, the very best, eventually collapse in ways that when you wrote their collapse in your mind, it never looked that way.

It was much more sudden, and it was much more authoritative than you ever imagined. Even GSP beating Johnny Hendricks, for example. Like, I didn't think he did. I thought Hendricks won that. I thought Hendricks won that pretty cleanly. And, you know, he walked out of that cage, you know, barely on his feet. It was more on his hands than his knees, certainly metaphorically. But more to the point, did I see him losing to Matt Serap?

Never, never in a million years. Or pick anything. Ronda Rousey losing to Holly Holm. It makes sense in hindsight, but certainly going into that fight, there was hardly anybody who thought Holly Holm had a shot. You could pick any really upset Chris Weidman over Anderson Silva or you name it. These things come.

Even Robbie Lawler getting knocked out by Woodley. I was like, what? Exactly. And it happens suddenly, and it happens in ways you never expect, and it happens where there's no question about it. So to me, it's like Jon Jones is approaching, not quite there. He's still in his early 30s, but he's going to get close to his mid-30s as the year progresses. I think it'll be 34 this year. I have to double check that. I think that his defense is tremendous, but I think his offense is not nearly what it

once was. In the case of Amanda Nunes, she is so far ahead of her competitors, but can she maintain the level of enthusiasm she needs to stay on top? I thought Duran Demi was giving her problems that Amanda's well-rounded and saved her, but how many times can you pull that rabbit out of that hat? She's got money now. She's got a kid now. Again, are these declarations to you that I can pick the day that it's going to happen? No, but I just feel like there's enough reason to think that that dominance, it's so hard to maintain. This might be the year that some of that begins to unravel.

It's interesting. It's interesting. Although I liked everything you said, except for the John Jones losing at heavyweight. I mean, I don't, even if he wins his first one, it becomes champion,

right? So let's say he beats steep, basically wins and he beats steep or something. I get your point. Francis can beat anybody at any time. And also, you know, time will catch up. You can't be perfect for so long, right? And John has

been tough long. Who is a boxer that you just revered as a fan? Not as a media guy, but as a fan. And when their collapse came, it shocked you. Roy Jones Jr. is the greatest example of this because he fell off a cliff, right?

It was the knockout loss to Tarver in the rematch where you're like, oh, my God. But there were factors, right? The weight cut coming back down from heavyweight, not as motivated, blah, blah, blah. But then when he fought Glenn Johnson and got hammered, you're like, he might be done. And then he fought Tarver a third time and was just sluggish and not into it. Yeah, that was just like, I can't believe that happened and it was over like that and yeah he lingered for another 20 years but you get you get my point i mean it was over right right uh all right so for my big prediction i'm gonna say this and i wrote this on cbs sports as well but i think it's worth repeating here you know i'm saying this in a very speculative, but I just feel like the stars are aligning a little bit.

Where I'm going to say that 2021 is going to be Bellator's best year since 2015. Now, why would I say it on those terms? Well, 2014 was the first year that Scott Coker took over. But if you recall, he took over, I think, late in that year from Bjorn Rebny. It was not his first full year. 2015 was the first full year that Scott Coker had in terms of control of Bellator. And that was the year where they began to roll out

Bellator kickboxing, which I think had some success overseas. But again, I don't really know how much of a product there is for kickboxing outside of what goes on in parts of Southeast Asia and in Europe. But more to the point, they had the Dynamite event where they were sort of borrowing from the Japanese side of things. They had foster relationships with some of the Japanese promotions to have kind of a talent-sharing agreement.

It was a big, bold resetting of the Bellator brand. And some of that, in fact, a lot of it I don't think didn't work because it felt a little dated. Like you were trying to bring back stuff that wasn't necessarily a time-honored practice. It was a practice that worked at a certain point in time. But I have to say, if you're looking around now, it does feel a little bit different. There's been a lot of turnover in their roster, both coming and going. But they've got a lot of interesting pieces.

They've got a lot of youth happening across many divisions. We talked about Logan Storley and, not Askarov, but Nemkov, and their incredible bout. Joey Davis and Antonio, excuse me, AJ McKee. And you can go on through the roster. They're really developing the women's side of the game. And we saw that with even Leymah McFarlane's last fight, which she lost, but still sort of beginning to show the development that they have been in process plus we talk about all of their signings where you would you have you know Anthony Rebel Johnson and Yoel Romero and blah blah blah I mean so many different pieces plus even I think they have a claim to have the best light heavyweight on earth as well like they've got this ground up top down thing that is really beginning to to to mature to something to a

much more stable, recognizable product. Then on top of that, you add what I think is going to be Viacom really kind of leaning into it. Now, what that's going to look like, I don't exactly know. I don't know if they're going to end up on Showtime. I don't know if they're going to end up on CBS. I don't know exactly if they're going to move off Thursdays on CBS Sports and go to Saturdays. But I just feel like with all of the investments and development that they have had and seeing what that looks like,

and UFC going back to ABC, I have a hunch that, I don't know when, I don't know what it's going to look like, BC, but I have a feeling you're going to see a Bellator show on a bigger kind of broadcast, let's call it situation, than you did previously. DAZN was interesting because it gave them some money,

but that relationship never really matured. I tend to think that sticking with just the ViacomCBS side of things is probably going to be better for their overall visibility when they have something worth really sharing with the product. They're not going to look to play the old Japanese-style playbook. They're going to play a modern game with a modern, updated roster full of young guns, full of some recognizable names. I don't know, man.

I got a feeling that I don't know how successful it's going to be, but I feel like this is going to be the first year in a while where Bellator really has a bunch of interesting things going on aside from the tournament I mean from a visibility standpoint yeah I think it's right I think if you're Scott Coker you have more diverse tools and toys to play with in this moment than just like old name over here hoping this young guy works out I mean the fact that you know arguably the face of their franchise historically Michael Chandler they they kind of let them walk the fact that they were able to do that and not really miss a beat and look and say

you know we've got different and and for our circumstances better guys to invest in you know when you when you consider someone's marketability with their ability inside the cage um it's an interesting time for sure to to be you know uh in the spot they are looking to carve out their own niche in the in the greater sphere of things mma these were big gets the from romero to rumble and and those aren't even really the core reasons if you're bellator to be excited i mean uh but i think the success of the grand prixs of late have shown that it can be a more fun one like the heavyweight one, which is about names, or you can do like they're doing right now with the featherweight

one, where you're seeing some of the best in the world at that weight class take place. So, yeah, I think that's a good point. Me wearing this fantastic long-sleeved black t-shirt, notwithstanding our relationship with the promotion due to our parent company, notwithstanding, I think we obviously can put

that aside and just say things are looking up heading into 2021. It'll be fun to see what happens. Oh, I mean, don't get me wrong. There's still going to be plenty of Bellator slander here on the show. It's just, I do think that what they've lined up is, they're poised for something big. They're poised for something big.

Now, who's that with? What's it going to look like? Hell, your guess is as good as mine on that one. I just don't know. With all the talent they've signed, with all the talent they're developing, Rich Chow's done a really good job. I'm expecting there was a lot of Bellator shows that

felt like were good last year, but that maybe folks just, you know, it just happened. It was but the bus going by it was nothing anything in particular i think they're going to do a little bit more of the dressing up of the content in 2021 so we'll see what that looks like the timing makes sense because you know we're seeing ufc cuts at a at a fairly rapid rate and they're coming from you know fairly big name people and look you can understand why a yoel Romero would get cut giving age and what have you. It was surprising, but I guess in theory you can understand it.

But, you know, can Bellator become not just a viable free agent landing for guys who are still in their prime, but, you know, a destination because of some of the limitations that we've talked about, you know, Reebok deal, stuff like that. And just sort of the way you're treating, I mean, like, look, you know, I'm not a fighter. I don't know if it's better to be in the UFC or Bellator. I do know that Scott Coker doesn't trash his fighters publicly, right? So, you know, there's certain guys that are looking for more of a family experience, Luke,

and more of a, you know, a different style of treatment. And it's certainly out there for them. All right. Well, with that in mind bc it's time for uh the readers the readers the viewers the listeners to give back it's time for fan submissions is it not yeah please uh we've got mail luke all right let's play the animation animan animalization of this animation all right luke we know it's morning combat at gmail.com is the landing spot you can also slide into my dms sean k gonna kick off our fan submission of the week he's saying look luke we're going to start this off with a bang and all you international girlfriends take note this is from sean k my fiance jennifer o'neill is a very casual mma fan but every monday night here in dublin we sit

on the couch and watch have you seen this shit she absolutely loves it and thinks it's hilarious without me knowing she took note of your merchandise info and on christmas morning i opened up a present to find this epic jumper here jumper what kind of uk talk is that she even had to set up if he's irish if wait if he's Irish it's not the UK but okay maybe he's northern Ireland no he's from Dublin all right uh she even had to set up a PO box in America to get it shipped from there to Dublin Ireland you're right not part of the UK uh send your uh dead wrong stuff to me uh shout out here to Sean K uh his lovely his lovely fiance Jennifer O'Neill.

She also added, BC looks like a great guy. Huge hog. Credit to his community. Wow. Didn't see that coming, Luke. But, you know, I will say he circumvented the system and he looks great for it. He looks fantastic in that jumper. Okay.

He circumcised the situation. It looks great. Yes. Yes. I wish he would step back from that ledge, my friend. Okay, Luke, moving on. Oh, we need to, Mikey here says, we need to give Jennifer O'Neill a huge shout out because not only does she pretend to enjoy our show

to make her fiance happy, she's also a frontline worker who had to postpone her wedding this year. So big shouts out to Jennifer there. All right. Thanks to all those folks, yeah. Absolutely. No jokes there.

Bob M. is next, Luke. He says, what's up, guys? The name is Bob, and I got some cool stuff, including a morning combat t-shirt. And also, my older brother forgot my gift, so he gave me his bag of goods. You guys are the best. Tip to tip forever.

Is that a bag of weed? Oh, that's what he's referencing okay so for anyone who can't see this there's a pantera t-shirt a cannibal corpse t-shirt a morning combat t-shirt and about an eighth of an ounce luke that's that's enough to get us high as shit yes yes it is the room service diaries have never been better after hanging out with uh bob. I'll tell you that much. Luke, what do you think of his choice of paraphernalia here? I mean, it looks like my closet, to be quite honest with you.

Weed and all. This is great. This is great. I love it. All right, all right. Our next submission does not have a name. It's anonymously delivered. It says, this guy didn't leave us a name, but he said,

I ordered a bathroom for work work and look what we got. If you zoom in, it says, welcome donks to the MK throne. Oh, that is amazing. We made it, Luke. We made it. Yes. Dude, on the inside of a port-a-john is where our constitution will be written. Wow.

Wow. Do you think this is a setup though the guy who who said sent it in also wrote it or do you think this is like a random you know circumstance i think it's probably uh the guy wrote it but it doesn't matter because now everyone else has to see it so who cares yeah everyone else has to try to sit on the mk throne you know it's it's not easy up here okay you ever looked at a port-a-john You ever been to like a summer concert, and then you're like, damn, I got to pee. And then you go in there,

and you look down at the Civil War bandages that get thrown down there. Dude, there's blood and piss and just stacks of shit. You just can't believe what comes out of people, those things. Yeah. I once went to Bonnaroo, Luke, in 2005, and I took a crap the first day,

and I don't know, 104-degree weather as you're just dripping and the smells. I held that thing for the next six days, Luke. I couldn't do it. That was the worst. Oh, God, that was bad. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Great show, though, right?

Great show. Cameroid blood, all kinds of stuff. All right. Hey, Connor F. f is next and he says i would have sent a picture of me with some merch but i don't know the cheat code to unlock it in ireland so luke he sent in this nice uh uh excuse me i got something in my eye uh this nice shut the f up j meme of course from uh what the hell is that movie? Big Lebowski. Big Lebowski. There you go. Thank you. Is that me as the dude right there? That's

fantastic. You are the dude. You are Jeff, not Jeff Daniels. It's what's his name? Jeff Bridges? Jeff Bridges. Yeah. And Luke, of course, as Big John Goodman there. Yeah. Okay.

Great. All right. Moving on here, Luke, we got two of them from a guy named Dave E., whose handle is at the Dave's underscore 666. So he's certainly a man after your own barren soul. And Dave E. says on the first one, Luke, here's a is the lost Christmas card that went with Luke's amazing Christmas gift. This is fantastic, Luke. Dong, parental advisory, dongs galore. that went with Luke's amazing Christmas gift. This is fantastic, Luke. Parental advisory, dongs galore.

And so this is someone's dong hitting me in the face, and this is the picture I had when I had nose surgery about a year ago. It's Dana's dong, if you look close. That's Dana in the background. And you're the tip of the spear? I'm the tip of Dana's dong? Are we really dissecting? This is really our job. We're dissecting this.

This is CBS. CBS Sports pays us to look at dicks that you're on. Yeah. So I guess I, you know, Dana has bludgeoned your nose with the tip of his dong, which looks a lot like me, Luke. So that's a vulgar display of combat. Indeed. Dave comes back with a second one. He says this second one is a meme.

Brian texted me, but didn't want Luke to see I put the live chat off of my own channel and I put it on the MK channel y'all can just absolutely L my B's if you know what I'm saying that's great work Dave Dave, by the way.

I think that was supposed to be the Luke Thomas Sunday Digest, not the, yeah, there you go. All right, great. Hey, Todd M is back in the next one. He takes Luke and BC to Flavortown with this one. Stay frosted. Dude, I look like a much fatter version. Jesus Christ, I look terrible here.

Look at my hand. It's got the onion rings as fingers. That is Guy Fieri in the house. Fantastic. I look like I manage insane clown posse. No, dude, you look like the lead singer of Smash Mouth. Somebody once told me. Oh, man, I hate that band. Hey, that first hit they had remember uh walking on the

sun not that bad right might as well be walking on the sun all right um the next one from anya burry is back and he's uh his name is scott in real life and and he has made Brian's newest album, Lonely at the Top. I get the Lonely at the Top reference, but what is on the actual album cover? Dana White standing at the top of the cliff of Wyoming Bay as the sun's going down. Are you shitting me? Dude, that is so good. Wow. Wow. Oh, God, I need That is so good. Wow. Wow.

Oh, God, I need this as a poster. That is fantastic. Dude, that is one of the most clever ones we've gotten. That is very funny. Yeah, that is great. Great stuff there. Wow. That's some meta on meta web screen type shit right there.

That is well freaking done. Yes. Wow. Thank you. All right. Kevin L is back back and he's got an idea for bc's sunday digest so what hot dogs uh curly fries taquitos and two raw eggs the only thing that's fucked up about this is that the egg should have been still inside the plastic

bag yes yes yes uh wow nice grillers on there uh what is that red spot on my chest gaff what is that is that my heart i think that's the blood that just sort of oozes out of your nose from acid reflux or something oh that is well freaking done right there these people go to the ends of the earth to find that that picture's from a uh a now canceled show pbc face to face all about that in LA at the Fox Studios. Remember when I used to cash that check, Luke? I think that's how you got COVID. No, that was a long time ago.

I probably got COVID. Oh, you know what? I think I got COVID from that weekend you and I spent in Brooklyn for the Showtime fight. I didn't get COVID then. Or maybe, you know what? Maybe I actually have had COVID. I just didn't know it.

I don't know. Maybe you gave it to me. Maybe you't know. Maybe you gave it to me. Maybe you were asymptomatic and you gave it to me and I was patient zero. Okay? Maybe. But if that was the case, I would be patient zero. But okay. Or just a big zero.

All right. Hey, Scott M. Rizzo is a fine contributor to this channel. He's pretty upset that we named Web Scream the Donk of the Year. So he made a nice little meme here, Luke. I can't quite see what he's doing on the bottom one. He's put up the picture of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift to say that Beyonce had the best video that year. Oh, yeah, but I'm saying the bottom one is unedited other than the hold my beer part?

Yeah, that's him. That's him jumping in to say sorry, Web Scream. Scott M. Rizzo had the best video. Iedited other than the hold my beer part yeah that's that's him that's him jumping in to say sorry web scream uh scott m rizzo i know i get the reference i just couldn't tell if the photo was manipulated anyway no no it's pretty the joke is pretty straight up luke it's it's unadulterated unfiltered it's right in your face all right uh hey let's move on to matt s matt the smith smith says web, you're taking everything I worked for. I want my edits to be chosen over your effing ass. You know who makes the real money edits? The real money edits come from me.

And he has a Home Alone meme with Jay as Macaulay. And it says, He's been in their ear. Now they're in his house. Shut up, Jay. With you and I as the wet bandits. Luke, this is brilliant. Dude, so you're Joe Pesci, and I'm the guy that steps on the nail.

Yeah, the Daniel Stern, the voice of the Wonder Years. Yes, yes. I got to tell you, I think that's a very appropriate grouping. Wow, wow. They know us better than we do, Luke. This is incredible. They really do. Matt the Smithith smith wow well done mad ass whoo all right now it's time for uh at omniscient 12b he goes by the name jt he's got

a trio of movie posters luke here's the first one a play on the travolta cage face off it's tip off luke in order to trap him he must go tip to tip tip off we would we would replace the the bell ends of our of our with each other that sounds really gross yeah that's pretty gross that's pretty gross jt comes back with another one luke this is more pro wrestling style i like this the mega powers of randy macho man campbell and uh racist hulk thomas over there i love it love it how come i gotta be the one that drops the n word that's not fair well you yeah yeah you know we you like to make sex tapes with your best friend's wives so yeah it makes a lot of sense there i'm yeah okay in that case i get it the mega powers is the greatest pro wrestling

story ever told if you don't know the reference, the storyline heading into, of course, WrestleMania five, the full year storyline. Love it. And Luke, it's probably apt. This is probably apropos,

a preview of you and I, we don't know who the miss Elizabeth will be to break up our mega powers union here of taking over the fight talks fear, but it will end very badly for us. Okay. Is Jay Miss Elizabeth? He might be. I don't think he tears us apart.

He just tears our soul, our patience out. Let's go to JT with his final one. This is a play on the movie Predator, another play on the movie Predator, Luke. Look at you. A little bit of a copycat job there on the previous stuff that web screams put out but uh it did but he added the nice update as you as the predator it works yes and you know we got to close this segment luke with dickles he's back and he's got something called basketball dads it says it's a new show on pitching. It's a twist on basketball wives.

Except this twist is 40-year-old white dads staying active in an effort to hold on to their youth. It stars Brian Chunky Milk Campbell and here's hoping CBS picks it up. Let's watch this for the first time.

Here we go. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this.

I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm not sure if I can do this. Dude. dude i'm telling you i'm telling you dickles is doing something special out there oh my god that is so true tuesday nights once covet ends you'll be seeing me with that same free throw wow oh my god that was great luke that is it for your fan submissions if you want to join this party of rejects morning combat at gmail.com also you can hit me up on the old uh ig and twitter dms you can see our handles later in the show there it is all right good job with that these get better and better every week dude uh i am very impressed i did not know how much of a culture there would be but dude photoshopping and mma memeing that's been around since like mma.tv you know the original

mixedmartialarts.com it's a huge theme song too when you wake up and it's life that has one oh fist fight with your dream nobody has has topped that yet, Luke. No, not yet. All right. Let's see. If you would like to try Showtime, you certainly can. Showtime.com slash nothing. Just go to Showtime.com.

Get a 30-day free trial if you like it. You can keep it if not, pound sand. There is also our merch, store.show.com. I got a merch question for you, Luke. Do I just have a really large head, or does this hat just not look good on me? See, I'm not the right person to ask because we both have large melons, and it doesn't look good on my head either.

But my wife put it on, and it looked great for her. So if you have a normal mammalian brain and a normal mammalian head, you should be fine. If you're an ogre like me or a mutant like Brian, not the choice of apparel for you. So there's that.

Okay, as he mentioned, you want to send in anything for the show, submission for, you know, fan submissions, a question, something for Friday's Dead Wrong, morningcombat at gmail.com is the place to be. And in fact, we are all over social media. Beyond that, it's going to be Morning Combat everywhere on YouTube,

on Gmail, on Instagram, because email's not social media, but you get the idea. It's just Morning Combat consistently. BC and I are both on Twitter and Instagram, but our names there differ a little bit. Take a screenshot and then give us a follow. If you so please. Friday we'll do Dead Wrong.

We'll react to the latest news and notes. There are no big fights this weekend, so we'll kind of get creative, a little bit fun with it, I think, for Friday's show. But after that, all the fights start kicking into high gear, so Friday's show will be the last sort of funnish one for a while. We should call up Chuck on Friday. I haven't talked to

him. I know that we should probably do a wellness check on Chuck behind the scenes and make it more personal. Why don't we just cold call him on Friday's show and do it as ridiculous as we can? I love that man. I love that idea. I'm down for that. Let's do it. That'd be great. I'll text him in advance and say, keep the hat on, though.

All right. All right. We'll do that. I think I've got everything, all the plugs I need in there. So appreciate everybody watching. Take care of each other. Be safe. Come back for Friday, 11 a.m.

That is Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. For everyone at Showtime, Malka, CBS Sports, and the like, we'll see you Friday. Until then, may all of your gains be loyal. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.