MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Qatar: Tsarukyan Dominates Hooker | Garry Targets Islam Makhachev Title Shot | RING IV Recap

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

Happy Monday, Donks! LT and BC are live in the studio to break it all down from UFC Qatar and more.  Arman Tsarukyan returned from a layoff to crush Dan Hooker and called for a January title shot vs. Ilia Topuria. Ian Machado Garry outpointed No. 1 Belal Muhammad and then called out Islam Makhachev. Did he do enough to secure a matchup against Islam? Also from UFC Qatar undercard, Kyoji Horiguchi returned to the Octagon for first time since 2016. Did he becomes an instant flyweight title contender? The guys also recap RING IV and more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's us doing what we're up. Two, three, two, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, born to be down. You think we learn all these lessons before now. It's morning combat. You do just get it. It'll keep you copacetic, and it's back in your facehole Monday, November 24th,

2,025 with an absolutely a loaded show, live and direct from Metal Arc Studios here in Manhattan. and recapping UFC Cutter. I just met her. And, of course, the loaded ring four to zone pay-per-view. Brian Campbell on here by way of the Hartford suburbs. And, of course, the man across from me, salt and pepper, a lot of salt. A little bit of tahine throwing there, too. From Washington, D.C.

It's Luke Franklin Thomas. What's up, fuckers? Is your first name Luke, or is it something longer? No, it's just, look. Warm. Amazingly. Both, well, all of my siblings and me and I, I'm not sure even more how to write or talk.

Neither of them were born in this country. Well, they all have biblical names. Yes, which is ironic, don't you think? Because the Bible doesn't dictate much of my life these days. Yeah, yeah, I think that explains a lot of it. But I'm happy to have you on this show. I'm happy to be here. We will get into your DMs to close,

pick through the kernels of my Shiite to see if Luke can be... I hate it when you say that, by the way. Can be emoted at all. There's a lot of things I say that you hate. like when I'm like, or am I or a Bali, right? About Micaheck this weekend, right? He was putting fucking hands on people. Yeah, yeah.

He made the Joker swallow his pride. Yeah, all right. Hey, enough 90s alternative radio. Let's tell you about a fantastic show. You're being Combersome. Do have it to. Like and subscribe to what we've got going on here on the Best Damn Combat Sports Show, period. You can subscribe to our extended YouTube channels where I'll be,

back on YouTube this week. I get interviews with Pantosia, Josh Vance, so check that out on the BC experience. That was once a thing. Luke, you in Obama finally sitting down this week? Obama? Yeah. No. Yo, mama, though. Oh, come on.

No, no, no, no. I mean, it was juvenile and stupid, but that's the point. You and Big Mike having a big sit down, or what? Big Mike? It's like a political joke, you know? No, I don't think so. No. You know what I'm going to do this week on my substack. I'm being serious about this. Okay, be serious.

Because I double-checked. Could you put them all together? You can. I'm going to re-watch Patchy Mixes run through the Belator Grand Prix. Dude, I was reviewing the footage last night. Damn, dude, there's a difference. I don't know what happened, but there's a difference. Some people think that he was fighting smaller opponents in Belator who are maybe a division higher than they should have been,

and now that he's fighting full-fledged Bannams. I don't know if I support that. There is something to be said for that. but then he knocks out Stats, you know, inside of a round with a vicious step through knee. And it's like, dude, what the fuck? Anyway, yeah. Thanks very much for that. I'd like to introduce you to our merch, by the way.

Morningcombat.combat. Dot shop. We have November exclusives that are available to you right now ahead of this holiday season. The dripping blood logo won't be here forever. So get it now in T-shirt. Get it in hoodie. And how about the Combat Buddies poster?

Average Joe Art Romero, one of the better people around has designed this. You can get it in a T-shirt. You can get it in an autograph. poster form head on over to morning combat dot shop mix and match your colors plenty of evergreen items for the holidays also stay tuned this wednesday to sunday we'll have a special uh black friday announcement as well so check that out but head in there right now uh get your abuela outfitted before it's too late she did she's had a hell of a run he's had i mean she deserves this please do that uh let's say hello to the third member of our team he is a bong enthusiast producer

director, podcaster in his own right. Here on a one-way ticket from a horned Ozzie's bag, it is Long Island Luke, main card a minute, no CETA, and LIL, A, great to, great to hear from you. B, how about that prop quiz championship you got going? You versus Jose Young's coming. I just dropped the trailer on Instagram if anyone wants to get hyped about it. Yeah.

It's going to be a banger of a matchup. Yeah, it is. Also a pretty good weekend this weekend. I had a good betting weekend. Qatar went perfect. What did you hit? I just had a four-legged parlay on guitar It was Alma Bay of Oz Demir

Over 2 and a half in the Comain and Armin Plus 260 hit that Hit a fight does not go the distance Plus 115 on Oral by Hermanson Wow And uh That was a plus Yeah dude me and Gaff were talking about that pre-fight

Like I don't know why this is a plus Jack Hermanson dropping down weights That was free money Free money It's like ass from the heavens right Yeah It is yeah All right there you go

Luke also I do have to make a mea culpa on this show Oh what happened I was very emotional during our last episode or high your choice of going on there but I ultimately have nothing against mango I'd like to apologize to all you vengo

Did you get us eating up for shitting on mango for looping them in the unnecessarily looping them in the melon department you guys are right I see your classification issue I'm neither hot nor cold on mango it's fine mango is fine but don't be messing with melon with me

I mean pickles dude come on they're cucumbers in disguise I can like crocodile Dundee They're cucumbers bathed in acid. Yeah, I could feel that out a while, a while. Pickles are amazing. And, in fact, one of the big problems with American sandwiches is they don't have enough salty, briny, acid, kind of fermented vegetables that they should have. That's one of the big things missing.

Pickles are a cesspool of a food, all right? Again, I cannot tell the difference between you and a billy goat in terms of the things you eat. So I did want to put that out there. Did people come after you for that? Yes, and they were right. You know, they were right. Also, I took my kids a little begrudgingly yesterday, not because I didn't want to hang out with them,

but because I didn't think there was going to be a need for a remake of The Running Man. I was wrong. Whofy rocks. It's good. It's real good. So here's ultimately why it's good. No spoilers.

The Arnold movie is over the top 80s like you would expect. This movie with Glenn Powell, is that's name? Yeah, the handsome top gun dude, whatever. It is a lot more. 90% closer to the Stephen King novel that this is based off of. Yes, the original Running Man movie is very different. It's completely a dystopian view that is parallel to the times today of the influence of propaganda, media, and where whoever controls the network TV controls the politics type of idea, which is very present in our world today.

It's almost a message, you know what I mean, against that. I thought it was well done. Okay, I want to see that. I also want to see Predator Badlands. I've not seen that one. See, that scares me like it's not going to be well done. You don't like the yautwa? And I watched the previews for the upcoming movie suit.

Everything is vicious. There's like a movie with a chimpanzee that starts killing the family. And then there's a... Oh, that's what I want to see. Yeah, there's a lot of like weird, weird as shit. Have you ever seen that? I think we've talked about it on the show. We'll get the show started here in just a second.

But have you ever seen... It's on Netflix. The Night Comes for us? No, I have not. You ever seen that long, Allen? No. You don't like Gore? No, I just saying I've never seen it.

He voted for Bush in 2000. bro that movie is not for the fate of heart i mean it is that's the direction it's going okay yeah it's uh it's it's an incredible movie but it's i mean the first real big fight scene is in a butcher shop if that indicates which kind of kind of reminiscent of that how that hooker got slain saturday and cutter you know what i mean and cut open yeah you got fucked up yes he did hey that's a good transition point so why we hit it right now with topic number one today yes we're here to break down all things ufc Qatar, cutter, croissant, croissant, croissant, uh, with, of course, a lightweight main event

as Armand Sarukyan, despite a 19-month layoff and, of course, the back injury that pulled him out of what would have been January's title shot against Islam Mahachev. Well, he may have just after round and became the number one contender for the new champion, Ilya in the first trip, like I mentioned, in a long time, looked like an absolute shredded monster and complete fighter as Armant Sarukian scores a dominant second round submission over number five. Dan Hooker after the fight. Armand said, send me that contract for January.

He's ready to be the first headlining bout in the Paramount UFC era against Toporia. So, Luke, after watching how easily your Armenian brethren dispatched the well-traveled but battle-tested hooker, is there even left a possible argument against the idea of Saryukian stepping forward, past Patty, past Gae, past whoever else you got? and setting up a very sexy Tuporia Sarukyan matchup next for the title. I mean, this is not a, I don't think a very, this is a, I would imagine we're going to get everyone on board with this one. Sure. It is quite obvious that the best fight you can make at 155 is Ilya Tuporia versus Arminorio.

Let's go. A veritable sex fest, if you will. Yeah, that's the fight. Yes. That's the one. There can be other reasons why other fights that involve Ilya Tuporia, as we all well know, can be box office friendly or otherwise have some redeeming value. Patty Pimbleau would have some redeeming value as a grudge match,

some interesting fights about the elements of the fights themselves, but otherwise, not necessarily the most meritocratic title shot, nor do I think that he would be the most competitive. Justin Gaci kind of hanging around for one last opportunity. I certainly respect what he's done, and I take seriously what he can do, but also relative to Ilya at this point seems a bit outmatched. Armin does not. Armin does not seem outmatched.

Or to bare minimum, seems like he's got the most amount of threat. Dude, that was the best performance by Armand Sorukin in his career by a million miles because two things happened. Not only did he show you what you already knew, he can wrestle, he can scramble, he comes in pretty good shape. You saw all examples of that,

but here was the difference, B.C. Number one, just on that level, on the skills that you knew he had before, they were applied much more methodically and much more carefully. He didn't have to resort to them. He chose to use them and even had similar setups, not for the same kinds of attacks, but similar setups about isolating limbs with an underhanded grip on Dan Hooker, a much more methodical approach in every way.

And then on top of it, he's adding positional advancement, the submission attempt and the success of it by itself and then on the feet BC couple of things I didn't necessarily love but in general setting it up well using it to chain in the wrestling on its own putting combinations together putting hand and feet combinations together

and he wasn't there to test his five round cardio he was there to finish him he attacked Dan Hooker he attacked him where did Dan Hooker have more success than Armandsor Yuki in this fight and the answer is nowhere just tattoos just tattoos nowhere, nowhere. Dude, we knew, we'll talk about Ian Gary in just a minute, but there's certainly value to incremental growth of your game. As long as you're adding skills over time, this is what matters. But there were pieces of Suryukin's game that were missing that you didn't see.

Striking comfortability, more than just an overhand, again, being more methodical with ground and pound, positional advancement, and submission attempts. And you got all of that. The fact that I predicted, Sauruiken would run through him, and the fact that the odds ballooned to almost where he was an eight to one favorite by the time the fight started still didn't prepare me for how impressed I would be

of, I want to say, the ease of what he did against Hooker. And that's because of everything you said, he put the complete game together. And if you're going to be out for 19 months in an unplanned situation where suddenly people are questioning, you know, your care level, your toughness, all these things.

Well, what do you do at that time? Called in Hamzat Chamaev as part of that time to improve his game, brought him into his team in his corner, and we saw that. I want to get your take on that, but first, let's listen to Armand talking briefly here about the impact of Chimaya. Your last submission win, I think, like, eight years ago, but today we saw a new one. Is that Hamzat effect? Did you guys train for submission or just, it's randomly?

Hamzats, yeah, when Hamzazazaz's in your corner, resting is in another level. I mean, look, thank you. Ultimately, his striking was at another level, which is part of this. but if he's going to be even more dangerous on the ground, not just wrestle, not but just position, but going to be able to set you up to get you out of there. He had very violent setups to get to the position to get the finish that he did.

This Chamaio of effect has to be a big boom. Positional advancement, did you notice? Again, so we talked about Islam Makachev last week against J.D.M. taking that scoop grip, trying to isolate the arm away from him. He was doing it for Camoras and other things, right? But here in the case of Sarukin, what was he? doing it for. He's pulling a limb out to that side because what he's trying to do is set up various forms of positional advancement, you know, to get him to reach on the inside. The point I'm

trying to make is, the other one I wanted to set up, the positional advancement was tied to going to crucifix. Well, dude, who has one of the best moves to crucifix from side control in MMA? John Wei Lee. Well, Zhang Wai Li, but also Hamzaa Chimaev. Yeah. So isolating that limb and then you saw him get into crucifix. Now, he didn't hold it as well as Hamza. He didn't need it really was the other point, but to the point you raise, there's a certain level of intensity that comes with having that guy, both in your corner and your training camp, and then individual skills. We saw Sarukian, for example, in the Joel Alvarez fight, stay in his guard for the most part, but still pound him out. He's such a physical beast on top that that's still a thing he

can do. But when you can do that, plus move to other positions, now you're creating offensive dilemmas for your opponent. Do you want to surrender the pass? Do you want to surrender the submission? Do you want to surrender having a worst spot for ground and pound? He's going to make you pick one of the three and then just go the other way, creating dilemmas. This is the kind of sophistication to a game I've been waiting for from this fucking guy. I've been waiting for it. And he did it brilliantly. Speaking of dilemmas, he was hotter than Kelly Rowland in the Nelly dilemma video. Who weirdly was trying to text him. You've ever watched that. She was in the Excel program on the phone. It's like I don't think texting this motherfucker

spreadsheets. Look like Larry Hughes may have, well, may have tagged that by the body language in the video. Probably. I love you. You know what I love is the idea here of Tuporia versus Sauri and Long Island, Luke, you have future odds to share with us, do you not? Yeah, minus 200, Tuporia plus 170, Suruki. Does that seem about right? Yeah, fine. All right. Well, we had contact between these two because in Cudder this weekend was not only has Bula, by the way, who's taking over the world again, Luke. There was Ilya Tuporia, who was in the corner of his brother,

Alexandre, and was backstage. And not only do we have a run-in between the two fighters, a continued back and forth that got spicy enough that you better believe now's a good time to call on our friends from Cuervo for a little something we call Shots Fire. And, of course, Shots Fired is brought to you by Cuervo. Now is a great time.

to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila. Do we have the video at all? Yeah, so here's the video of the two of them crossing past backstage. There's Sarukian on the left. And, you know, it looked very cordial. It looked like the beginning of the Ian Gary Chimaya video that we're going to talk about in the next segment. A little more awkward, though. It looked a little bit cordial there.

But Elia took that cordial meeting and piled on on social media. Let's see the tweet. Armin, every time we see each other in person, you freeze up like a scared duck with no idea what to do. You know, I handle you however I want. I fight whoever the UFC chooses. And remember, I slapped you and you just laughed. Then you go around acting like a gangster.

So keep going. You're on the right path. Just a few levels below me, kid. Luke, let's show this video one more time because sometimes your boy Laleenda can, can, you know, be a little superlative here, be a little over the top. Is that a slap, Luke? Is that a slap?

It didn't look like a slap to me. No, that looks like a European hello. Yeah, I mean, why not just kiss him here? Here's the response from the Armenian Hulk, though, on social. Bro, you touched my neck like we were taking a family photo, and now you're calling it a slap online. The clip is clear. Your insecurities even clearer.

I don't need to act tough for Twitter. My work is inside the cage. If you want to know what a real slap feels like, go to Mexico on New Year's Eve. No, sorry. I'll be happy to educate you, see you, see you. soon. El Pato. Does that mean the duck? The duck. Look, there's a little petty cringe back and forth

there, but there's some shots being fired. We're building toward a sexy ass matchup in just about every way. Do you think this will also be an intense build like the fans want? Well, just consider what Sarjukian did on Friday where he's headbutting Dan Hooker. Got lucky that, you're right. I didn't see it when we

recorded Friday show when I watched it. I was like, oh, dude, that's aggressive. He got lucky that nothing really bad happened there. So it tells me he might still have some judgment issues, but we're going to look past that because he looked so great on Saturday afternoon slash night. Yes, I mean, I think Sarjukian and Toporia, you want to make the fight for any number of reasons, style, meritocracy, who's a real threat to the title, all these kinds of things. But you know both of them are probably going to sell the fight as best they can.

There's going to be a limit. I do think what that means for the American audience. You have two of non-Americans, both English speakers, but non-Americans here. But it's time to use the Paramount vehicle to convince American fans. I mean, I think we should have some managed expectations about like what kind of box office return that actually gets us. Sure. But just putting that to the side. One more time, it's one of the best fights you can make in the sport. It's clearly the best fight at 155 pounds and no doubt about it, Armand Sauriukian turned into from a caterpillar into a butterfly, I thought on Saturday.

And I know they bumped up Patty Pimblitz and number five. I just don't think now is the time. Let's give Pimlet who looked great against Michael Chandler. If that's the case, then let me ask, if we're going to bypass Pimbleet, which by the way, I'm. completely okay with, what do you do with him in that instance? I don't know if Gaichi will do it because he seems to be title shot of retirement. Let's assume he won't. Long Island?

You can go Max Holloway. If you're going to give that rub to Ilya, excuse me, to Armin. To Gaichi would be perfect for Pat. And Gaichi says no to Patty. What do you do with Patty? I don't think, put it this way. If they book Ilya Armin, I don't think Gauchy's saying no to Patty. That's the only fight that keeps you in the relevancy here.

Well, he's saying, you don't think he walks? No, I don't. I think he's bluffing. You think he's bluffing? Yeah, I do. I'm trying to pull up the rankings. I mean, imagine if you did a big-ass main event in Europe with Patty. Imagine he's not bluffing.

Like, I'm trying to figure this out. What name do you actually go to at that point with Patty? I'm pulling up the rankings. Let me look. I mean, the point is you could plug in Patty now, but why wouldn't you want to build it up, given their backstory? Sir Eukens, the hot thing of the moment, everybody's, like, automatically. That should be the fight. Make that fight.

Make that fight. I fully agree with you, but here's the problem that I think everyone should now focus on. Because we don't have a great answer for what you do with Patty in the event. Well, we will get an answer. What do you got long out with? Give me a name. BSD is probably the only person trending. There's no answer. For this reason, I'm a little skeptical that Armin is next. I think they're going to make something that promotionally makes more sense than this one. Dude, this was, Sauruiken clearly stating he's the guy. There's really no two ways about it. but the promotional side of things here in terms of the other pieces and them trying to,

they probably want this Ilya rain to last as long as it possibly can, right? So do you feed him a Gaichi up front, January, Paramount? Well, they would have if Gaichi was healthy. He's not healthy for January. So he can't make a January one. No, he can make March. March. That changes things.

Which they might just wait and do Ilya Gaichi and March and really slow build this. Because this, I think, Suryucians rise this weekend takes the pre-year-old. pressure off of cashing in on Ilya versus Islam, which I was obviously always pushing for one versus two. It's just that Islam looked so dominant on the size and wrestling side. He's never coming back down and wait again.

And Elia's got a couple killers in front of him so that he's got to kind of prove himself against first and can continue to build his star. Do you make Sarukin fight one more time? No. No. I don't think you do. Not when he's red hot. You've got to capitalize on who's red hot. What if they said Saruki and Gaichi?

There's no need. What's the need there? I'm just saying. I mean, the good news is that Shariukin wants to stay busy. The fact that he was like, no questions asked, two-month turnaround, give me the contract, I'm ready. I love that, by the way. I love that. I think you would get some buzz. So I got to ask you this question. Let's not talk about the version of Armand who pulled out of the fight against Mahathev in January.

Let's talk about this version of him today. Is he a bigger threat to Tuporia's lightweight title or if Islam was still champion? I'm going to say he's a bigger threat to Tuporia. that's clearly I'm making a broad set of assumptions size difference is that ultimately partly I think the size difference is going to be a problem I mean Ilya excuse me we've seen Armin and Islam granted many years ago

but you could see at that time Ilya God Jesus Islam was ahead of him I would imagine in terms of overall technical skill that's still going to be true he's going to have a greater variety of things whereas I think Armin's going to be the more scrambly athletic wrestler type but that only gets you so far With Ilya, he clearly is very, very skilled,

but we've really never seen him pushed by the, this is the issue. We've really never seen Ilya pushed against a ranked guy. Other parts earlier in his career, maybe, but against a ranked guy who can wrestle as well and as physically and as consistently as Saurukian can. Do you agree with Sarkiakian's tweet that Elia has never been a top guy in his prime? no in the opponent's prime i'm saying uh a top guy in his prime in his opponent's prime in his

opponent's prime that you're getting an aftermarket volk an aftermarket holloway and aftermarket emit dude this is the same fucking argument that they make with they made it with john jones john jones beat an old shogun no the fuck he didn't he beat an old rampage he beat an old dur rampage She didn't beat an old rampage. This is what a transcendental figure does in the division. They wipe out the existing establishment. They just come in there and then take it to pieces. So it's to me a hollow argument because this is precisely what the very good ones do.

Could it be boosted by getting a guy in his 20s on his resume who's a top contender? Clearly, that would be great. No doubt about it. But trying to poke holes in his resume, like he's feasting on. Patty is feasting on guys. What's the age of his... You know what? Hold on. I mean, Patty went King Green to Chandler, to Tony Ferguson.

I'll tell you what it is. I'll tell you what I'm going to use this topology tool. I mean, that's really my argument against Patty getting it now when you don't need to rush Patty right now. Give him another name he can prove himself again. So when he fought Michael Chandler, which was the most recent one, Michael Chandler was 38. When he fought King Green, which was the one before that, King Green was almost 38. He was 37. Hold on.

Tony Ferguson, need I say more, he was almost 40 when they fought 39. That's why you don't do that next. Vote on Jared Gordon, who by the way has an argument for beating him, was almost 35 years of age. And after that, we're not even talking about people who are relevant. That, to me, is feasting on elderly. That is different. I'm with you on all that. Well, I hope we get it next.

We got a hug and a tiny slap backstage. We did get a face off, though. The problem is it's not with the real Ilya. It's with the fake one. Did you see this, Lou? No. Liddle, why are you running? I will take your lights out in the first round.

Oh! You ever seen that, dude? He does the Ily impression all the time on an Instagram. I have not seen that. He doesn't look like him at all. He does Islam, too, and I saw him switch between the Ilya and Islam impressions. It was pretty fun. Yeah, he does Chimae, too.

Is he good at it? Yeah, he's good at all the... The doggie stories on it? Yeah, for sure. Luke, let's have a quick conversation about the 35-year-old Dan Hooker who snaps a three-fight win streak two of them by split decision that put him in this spot, number six, I think I said number five earlier, in terms of where he might go next, and right after the fight, the next morning, he sat down with Oscar Willis of the Mack life and was very honest about where he stands

right now. Dan, your future goes. Well, you've got to face a Colorado troops, so you're probably never going to get hands on the title, but I'm going to hang around as long as I possibly can and ruin as many people hopes and dreams as I can because if I can't have nice things no one can

cheese he would go on to say that he wants Moikano next because they both suck I could talk myself into fights like him against Gaichi although there's not a lot to gain there for Gaichi right him against anyone action-wise but will he ever

be in a fight as big as this again in Europe in your eye? No probably not unless he comes in on short notice which can change things if guys ready they can do stuff like this but absent that kind of unusual and quite rare statistical anomaly no okay so like does he end up in a bmf fighter is he just that tough b side that's going to try to spoil it for people the rest of the way yeah yeah yeah but you know also the other part about this he's taking a lot of damage of course in his career yeah he's fought tough fucking guys too

like dan hooker's not fought i mean when he was at his very best against pourier over five rounds dude he that maybe he poured out all the elite left in that fight even though he's getting stretched out three straight losses and then three straight wins and now a loss like he's he's he's bounced back he's rejuvenated but he's never been that elite version of him that he was against poria to be fair that's right sometimes you leave it in the cage sometimes you do i think he did as well all right but a breakthrough performance for armand sarukin ufc has a difficult decision to make at lightweight topic number two they also have a difficult decision to make at welterweight after a co-main over three rounds in which Ian Machado-Garry didn't quite live up to his prediction

that he would knock out former champion Bilal Muhammad in the first round. Yet, Machado Gary looks strong overall in picking apart the former champ and making his wrestling threat virtually non-existent here en route to a unanimous decision win 30 to 27 on two of the scorecards. That's how I scored it, although obviously the rounds were close. He hurt Ballol multiple times and afterwards. Through a multiple different sets of versions, Ian Gary's cut some steamy promos. A little cringe at times, a little aggressive, but this is what you want to do in this spot.

And basically said, if anyone can stop the takedown express, that is Walter Wade, Islam Mahajev, it is Ian Gary. So Luke, considering the bottleneck we have atop this division with everyone from Kamaru, Shavkat, Morales, and Prattesh wanting, calling for, thinking that they could be next for a top. title shot, did Ian Machado Gary do enough to cut the line, considering he takes on tough opponents short notice? He's been more active than people like Chavcott. Is there an argument to make for Ian Gary next for the Walter White champ? Um, I hope not. Hope not. I hope not. I mean, meritocratically, pringely, where are you going with this? The answer is when you ask a question like this the answer is on some level of course yes because you can't be this close to the title and then be that far away from it simultaneously so when you're beating the number one contender

and you did it you know pretty convincingly and you fought for the most part pretty well doing it yeah of course you're in proximate he didn't take a lot of dan one cut under his eye yeah nevertheless i mean look i wanted a little bit more when he had belal hurt i wanted to see him step on the gas he didn't but short of that he showed a complete game across the board no No. No? Okay. What I'm not going to do on today's show is sit here and bag on them. Or talk about Layla. Well, that's your thing, pants around the ankles. First of all, it's a great rock song. Yes. Mr. Captain, pants around the- I think that's very unfair.

Dungarees pants on the ground? Pants on the ground. All right. He fought very well. He is very, very skilled. He is to a point you make, certainly well-rounded, but what he really has is a very, very difficult combination. He's rangy, he's fast, he has great footwork and lateral movement, and he has dynamite takedown defense. And supreme confidence, supreme confidence. But the takedown defense. I'm just saying, like, we're actually wrapping up with people, it's pretty incredible how good his takedown. He'd been, Bilal Muhammad got zero fucking takedowns and was averaging almost two and a half per 15 minutes heading into that fight. Although he leaned down his canello hands a little bit too much.

Yeah, but dude, those takedown attempts got nowhere. It wasn't even like he got him to wrestle to his hand. He got nothing. I mean, the takedown defense of Ian Gary is phenomenal. And that's a tough guy. Think about that. You're tall, rangy, fast, and you have dynamite take down defense. That's a tough guy to beat.

He's got thick legs. I'd like to see him kick more. When he kicks, he kicks over fights. I thought his kicking was pretty active this fight. I want a constant threat of a head kick. I mean, he was definitely throwing him. He was throwing him the teeps, the rear leg teeps, the push. He was doing the oblique kicks to a degree.

He was definitely going high a little bit. It could have done a little bit more to take out some of the wheels maybe, but he didn't want to give up the take out. down too easy to below. Here's the problem with this guy's game, and it drives me kind of nuts. And this is why I really liked what Saryukin was able to do against Hooker. Granted, different caliber of opponent. I think it's worth pointing out, but the guy more recently has been getting, in the case of Gary, nothing but decisions, including some split ones. His game is built for winning rounds, and he does not produce enough meaningful offense that creates fight-ending

scenarios, and even in cases where he's able to achieve a level of positional dominance, his finishing mechanics are so poor he can't close the show. This is going to cost him in the end. This is going to be his undoing. I am telling you now. So when you say undoing, do you mean dismantling or undoing being similar to the Shavkat fight fought very well? Almost gets more credit for that loss than any other win will not get stopped, but also

will not win. This is, I think the Shafkot fight is a prelude of things to come, which is to say, you cannot watch that Shafkot fight and say, oh, Ian Gary's not good. Yes, he is, he's very good. But one thing I want to say is people are like, oh, that's a loss for Shafkot that made somehow Ian Gary look good. I would actually argue now it's the reverse.

Look at who Ian Gary has beaten. Shafkot taking him down twice when Balak could get nothing while Shafkot was not 100%. Actually, pretty good in the end there by Shafkot. But the point I'm trying to make is exactly what you outlined. Namely, he can be comfortable. competitive. He can be stubborn. I think Islam would not get every takedown that he wanted, not by a million miles. This guy is going to be tough. But you cannot let your opponents hang around round after round after round. Even when you're, you've got some clear advantages,

when you're going up against a guy as good as Islam, pound for pound top level guys. If you let them have that much opportunity against you, brother, they're going to take it. And it drives me fucking nuts. So I'm not going to tell you that he's not good. He's good. The lack of that upper level gear of finishing. It's the last 10% and if he doesn't iron that out, it will limit him forever. But does he deserve it is another argument. Before we completely

make that argument, I want to get the first sound out of Ian Gary. This is his shooting is shot at Islam and including himself in the extension of that original rivalry between Ireland and Dagason. I beat number one in the world. I am the best in this division. We have history. Our

countries have history in the game. The biggest rivalry in the sport. Your Kibib's protege, I'm McGregor's protege. Let's win it back for that well-de-weight world title. And Islam, the ball is in your court. You choose when. Are we going to choose where? He's taking down. And I'll be there. But I'm telling you that out loud during the show,

maybe, Luke. But here's what I'll have to say. There's some of his... By the way's not McGregor's protege. I know. He's stretching the truth to bring it together. But even though a lot, and he's had like 10 promos all over the arena after this fight, some of it's cringe, some of it's a little not making sense. But this is a

you want out of a cocky, polarizing guy who's pretty damn close, knows he is, wants to be in this, you can make it a decent build, right? Islam's going to have to get through Ramadan. You can build it up as a destination type thing. And here's some points that MMA on point, our friends over there in the UK tweeted out about Gary in his case here. Yes, he lost to Shavka, but he's way more active than that in terms of being ready and being willing to take guys on short notice. He fought that. well against Chavcott on three weeks notice was the first fighter to take Shavkat down,

the first fighter to go the distance against him, and nearly subbed him in round five. Then he takes the Carlos protest fight on three weeks notice, gives Carlos' only UFC loss. Luke, that's a pretty damn argument, pretty damn strong argument when you mix that with, I just beat number one, Bilal Muhammad. Do I think Saryukian, by comparison,

has a better chance of getting the title shot next in his division, than Ian Gary does? Yes. It's much more bottlenecked here. But isn't it lined up perfectly where you could make Gary next by forcing Usman, Kamara Usman, 38 years old, one win in the division in the last four years. You really want this?

You got to fight, Shaft, Cut Rock Monoff. And then you take the two bruisers, Morales and protest, you put them against each other, and that's how you map the territory moving forward. You can Haiti and Gary all you want. But I think he's kind of acting how you want somebody in the midst of a bottleneck to stand higher and put their arm up and say, look at me look what I'm doing look at how I'm behaving look separate from from the great

analysis you gave over what he might be lacking to go over the top against uh Islam for the title isn't he's doing his part completely by trying to sell the matchup by being willing to fight anybody on any time notice this is kind of I mean he's kind of put himself he's got a much better case than Camaro he's got a much better case than Camaro he's got a much better case he's got to even are you can argue a better case even though the better fight visually is Islam versus Shavka. You could tell me that's the best fight you can make in the sport, and I'm not going to complain.

Right. But that doesn't do anything marketing-wise on what this level can be. Can't you at least put all those facts together and say, yeah, this kid's got a great argument for the fight? He has given the present circumstances, I think I would not disagree with you. But my interest level in having him go up against Islam, where Islam might be thwarted in certain ways, but would ultimately be too overwhelming against another day.

defensively strong fighter not super high a fight that is whose outcome is not so much in doubt and whose complexion probably won't be that great could gary have stopped belal if he stepped on the gap well that's an interesting question he had him rocked i mean that that big right hand he had him rocked first of all we haven't said this i think we should we already knew this but certainly after the jdm fight and now the i and gary fight do ballal is tough as shit yes he took big punches big strikes, a lot of rejection, so to speak, and just kind of keeps moving forward. He took the second round on one judge of scorecard in this contest.

Big respect to Bala Muhammad, whether you like him or not. This is not a guy you can look at and call a chump or a quitter or he's not tough. He's tough as shit. So you're not going to buy into the MMA Twitter revisionist history that says JDM was only a champion because Leon Edwards. Jadm was only a champion because Leon Edwards let Balal into the championship picture. I'm not saying that the two are mutually exclusive. There might be something to be similar.

Like somehow like Leon Edwards was, you know, elite for a couple nights, but largely wasn't elite. I do think that's right. I do think that's right. I think he peaked right at the moment with kind of, he got a Hail Mary, Doug Flutie, you know, win there, which is historic and that's great. And he was able to follow up on it, but against caliber of competition, I think, had been affected or burned out by that point. Again, he was closing the show on an era that needed to die and he helped to die. That doesn't mean he was the torchbearer for the next era. And I think that's where he has gotten into problems.

But Ian Gary's case, to have a title shot is real. But the problem is, promotionally, he's not that exciting to put them up. And I think, too, also just wouldn't make for the best fight. So you cannot deny what he's put together, nor his own advocacy. But you just have to think, imagine if Bob Aram was in charge of UFC matchmaking. If you think like that, you'll get much closer to what the actual truth is. and if Bob Aram was in charge he's going to get a fading legend

who's still got a little bit of star juice and he's going to use that to boost Islam Islam's profile as the number one pound-to-pound guy in the school. And I understand that but this division is too hot for that right now. Usman has not been active enough, has not had you know, I mean the Buckley

win shows you that he's still around at 38. He's still viable. The Buckley win mixed with the performance against Chimae of in defeat on short notice in a division up. But damn, Damn, whether it's Gary or whether it's another guy. I mean, Shavkat. I mean, I don't like this idea.

I know that, I guess, Armand had to pay a toll because he pulled out of a title fight midweek and then sat out a long time and almost didn't fight this year if Hooker didn't give him that chance. But Shavkot, he didn't pull out at all. That just kept getting hurt. Yeah, I think also his wife and kid were in a traffic accident, so...

I don't know, but there is that cring side of Gary. Does this promo from Gary turn you off? I have already spoke to Ilya. I have already spoke to the guys at Wow. I would absolutely love to go back to Madrid, and I would love to look. Hey, when we speak about Georgia, I'm, he can help me out a lot. Do you know what I mean? With my friends in Russia, my friends in Georgia over here, we're going to stop the Russians from having their success.

We're going to stop the Dagestanis from having that success, and we're going to shoot him down, and we're going to take his head clean off his shoulders. So he's now inserted into the Ireland versus Dagestan rivalry. He's inserted himself into the Georgia versus that. I mean, he's such a, okay, the game requires it. So I'm actually not even mad. I don't like it, but like you got to respect the fact he will use any tragedy or horrible situation to self-promote. It's quite remarkable.

Like all you 9-11 fans out there and have you seen this. I'm going to, all this guy's from Afghanistan. Well, I'm going to go train with the New Yorkers. It's like, we're not really doing that anymore. But anyway, putting that to the side, putting that to the side, I like that he is, what? Like Vince McMahon 1980s wrestling booking, yeah. It's like it's doing like, you know, let's get the, be mad at the Iranian guy because of the Iranian fucking hostage crisis.

And it's just like, it's, you know, anyway, it's just a lot for me to watch. You know, he, part of the thing is you, can I, let's talk about this for a second. All right. Hold on. We've been talking about it. But this part specifically. Is it hot in the studio or am I the one? It's a little warm today.

Hold on. Hear me, hear me out. How much should we appreciate his. advocacy for self which on some level you have to do and how much of it is grading because it is so intensely nakedly um opportunistic as well as insincere yes like he comes across quite clearly is like this is all very transactional to him so what how are we supposed to feel about that i think it's part of that polarizing side of him that yeah part of it he can't avoid it's sort of his personality. The other part of his he leans into it.

Yes. And even though you said you don't love ultimately what you believe the Islam Gary fight would ultimately look like entertainment-wise, you sell fights on what they build is. You don't always sell fights on that exact part. The hardcore fans think of it like that, but the casuals could think of it as, damn, this confident kid from Ireland really does believe himself on a stupid level. Like put him in there against Islam, let's see it. I don't I don't know. I mean, if UFC matchmakers sit down and look at 2006 and the opportunity they have with Paramount and maybe matchmake a little bit differently and take advantage of

big opportunities and not look at it as well, we've got this aging great name and Usman who's probably going to move the needle more as a B-side than any of these guys and let these young guys step up and take their swing and organically the fan base grows in my opinion. But this is the right fight to me in many ways. But it wasn't the only fight Ian Gary was in Saturday night or near scuffle. Uh-oh.

He crossed past with one, Hamza Chameyev. Let's listen in. Good job, dude. Good job. Good, nice. Ready to go? No, I don't have it. Oh, we know he's not going to frighten me.

He's good. He's a time. Don't worry. What's on? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. Come on, come on, relax, boy. You know, right.

That's his childish. I meant to be a champion in his sport. Look me, you meant to be a champion in his sport. Your friend just won't. Don't really, thank you. I man, congratulations. Dude, so what, how do you, what do you think happened there? They patted each other on the back and were like, hey, nice job tonight, good job.

But then when the security guard thought they were beefing, Gary said, oh, no, he won't fight me. And then what did Chimaev take that? He's a champion. He's a champion. No, no, no, no, because he says he won't fight me. He's a chance. Like, in other words, he would never do such a thing because that's beneath a person of the stature. And, and Hamsad, like, I'll bite your flesh right now.

Hamsat is like, I am like Jeff Van Gundy biting your ankles. Yes, yes, yes. I will just do that. You're talking about when Marcus Camby tried to swing at Danny Ferry? Oh, no, you're talking about Alonzo Morning versus... Alonzo morning. Versus Larry Johnson, yes, yeah, yeah. Anyway, a point I'm trying to make is, I mean, clearly Hamzot is a loose canon.

I mean, you know, who does... It's, it's... I'm going to say it one more time. It is not hard to not get into fights in public. It's actually very easy to not do that. Sometimes it can't be avoided, BC. Sometimes trouble comes to your door. But 99% of the time, it's actually very easy to not fight in public.

As someone who has been witness to a lot of public fights, there's been very few of them that I've ever thought, wow, man, this really had to happen. Yeah, yeah. They had to do this. Here's Ian Gary's take on the incident. I went up to Sarukian I congratulated him I went up to Kamza

I said hey chap what's up when are we gonna see you back he goes I don't know brother whenever smash oh cool sweet snaps me on the back I'm like all right cool security guy gets in front of us

like we literally were just cool with you he's not gonna fight me and then that childish energy comes out yeah I was fuck you brother fuck you boom tries to push me I just turn around and went you're meant to be a champion

of this sport you're a child you're taken away from your friends win over here how about you calm down slow down and have a bit of respect for your friend over here rather than trying to steal the headlines do you want the honest truth it's little dick energy i need to show the world i'm tough i need to show you're the champion of the world no one needs to see you be tough you don't need to have these anger management issues just be a man sorry yeah i kind of agree with i'll get him one day wow i'm going to try grab a hold of my legs boring it'll i'm not

going to get. I think Gary shows BDE or LDE in general. B.D. I mean, mostly just annoying. Do you want to hear Hamza Staker? Where should we move on? I don't give a fuck. All right, we'll move on. I've got a history lesson to tell you, folks, as we wrap segment number two here. Now is a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. Let me take you back, 1795. Quervo invented tequila. And since then, Quervo has stayed true to its roots. Same family, same land.

You better believe that same passion because 230 years later, Cuervo is still right here in every pour and every margarita in every celebration. So enjoy the tequila that started it all. Quervo, the tequila that invented tequila, proximo quervo.com. Please drink responsibly and Luke Thomas a week from today. UFC 323 fight week, live and direct here, 11 a.m. next Monday in the Metal Arc Studios, brought to you by Cuervo. It's morning combat pregame preview with LT, B. Sizzle, and Jed Meshu Nomardo O'Doo. Yeah. Apparently, he had some, did he have beef with AB?

Yeah, what's going on? Are Bronny? What's the latest on that Long Island? I heard that Abron and Jed were at fist of cuffs. I didn't see it either, but I heard on submission radio, things got testy. I'm going to have to watch it after this. Did they kiss? B.C. wants him.

Jim Lampley believes that if you get so close to fighting a man, that it inevitably, you'll want to... They're falling in love. That's it. That's it right there. Jim. They're not falling in love at all. All right. Let's go to topic. Number three, it's what else happened at UFC Qatar fight night card. And how about Kiyoji? Horaguchi, yeah, baby. The former UFC Flyway title challenger turned world-class fighter across the globe, including

in Risen, where he fought as high as Bannamweight, had big wins, had big losses. He's now back down at the 1-25, making his... first return to the UFC cage since 2016 and absolutely demolishing Tegir Ulan Bekatov via third round submission, Bekhov. So Luke, he's now unbeaten in his last eight fights. Is it safe to say at 35 years old that Kiyoji Horaguchi, who snapped the four-fight win streak of Tegir, might be the most dangerous threat available to his teammate, Alessandre Pantosia's flyway title ring

I don't know if he is but I think he should be fast-track to a title shot immediately I mean Josh Van's gonna have up next Josh Van's got up next and by the way if Van is somehow victorious which could very well happen it might do a rematch just based on how long

Pantoja has been champion sometimes you got to beat a guy not once but twice and you got Roy Volcop coming up as well right but also got Marino Tyra on that same card but Tyra still's got some work to do. So if he wins... What about Moreno? I don't know. Yeah, I mean... You can make Moreno Pantosia 6.

Horoguchi is a fresh challenge. I was going to say if Josh Van wins Moreno is a fresh challenge. Fair enough. Yeah, so there's a few things in play where some other guys might have to get a couple more or not. We shall see. But obviously, this was a phenomenal win, BC. There's no question about it. A little bit slow to get started out of the gate, but by round two, he was in complete and dominant control, closed the show,

really beat up Ulaan Bikov in round three to the point where his corner had later said they were considering throwing in the towel that's how bad it was he was fast as shit at this age he was fast he was agile he was he was technical he set things up well he avoided big damage when he needed to he won wrestling scrambles he was dominant in positions dude he looked awesome you could say that the best win he's had since those back-to-back losses to pettus and mix which was around 2022 which was at bantam weight which is that bantam weight he also got back against pettus in risin at the i think the last five before last So you're asking, like, what's his next big win?

Maybe not Ulambakov as the name per se, but getting back to UFC, 35 years of age, and just showing the vitality that he had, the willingness to exchange. Great Pearl Jam album. Clearly knew exactly where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do in that fight and when the time was to close the show. He did it. Now, you can argue Ulaan Bakoff had a tough weight cut because his own corner said as much. Islam was like, yeah, it didn't go great.

So fine. Nevertheless, 35, proven content. tender he's still great fresh matchup depending on what happens let's and by the way the gooch speaking a little bit of english in the post fight comments he showed a lot of vitality as you said luke uh here is a uh quote tweet of what he said in the cage afterwards uh mhm a junkie transcribed it i feel really good because i come back to the ufc this is my dream i want to get the ufc belt where is pantosia he is my teammate but it doesn't matter i will beat you up now Luke, you know the great King Mo Llewal, the former Strike Force champion, and Bellator star.

I used to do a podcast with him at CBS. I remember him in 2018 telling me the best flyweight in the world is still Kioji Horaguchi, and that was eight years ago. At 35, he hasn't fallen that much. What do you make of the 35-year-old version versus the guy who lost his only UFC defeat as to meet Demetrius Johnson? Like, how different is he from his younger, I guess you would say more prime days, but he still looks like he's got a physical prime, but he's certainly. had a more technical prime now. Now, he's obviously, you know, that lost to Pettis was real

bad. That was a vicious CO, but, you know, um, he got stopped by Kai Asakura and then came back and got him in the rematch. By the Ossukura this morning in Japan on the top-rank fast channels, top-ranked classics, lost the title bout to Inouye's brother, by the way, did just Kai Asakura? Yeah. The UFC fighter was boxing? I'm sorry. I got, did I get a confused with the guy. Tension Naskawa. I got to confuse with the guy that Floyd Mayweather did that exhibition with. I take that back, my bad. You're right. Ossacura is in the UFC. You know, the C.T. You're going to start karate chopping the air as you go through the air?

That's what it was a big setup for to get to that point. Man, I'm having a few of those moments lately. I've lost it. I've lost my touch. You lost your fucking fastball. So the whole point in me saying that is, like, people know at AT&T for years how great he is. Pantosia knows it too. But let's first hear from teammate Hainato Moikano.

He's his American top team, right? American top team. Look at his resume, okay? You get to finish, though, against the gear? I don't know. Maybe not, decision. But look. seven one in ufc on his first run only lost to demetrius jons so that's very good and then he went to

rising and he only lost on the 135 division because he's very small he is very small and he beat caldwell on belato you know he was schooling paddies until he got knocked out you know he got cut on five round fights so he's 34 and five professionally bro he's the real deal let me tell something maddy yeah i saw this guy train with pantosia i saw this guy training at Adriano Morais, I think this guy is the best fighter of American top team overall. Really? Like, complete, you mean? The best fighter. What do you mean by that?

The guy that more train is more, the more skillful, the more disciplined fighter. Bro, so I should put 20 Gs on him, but plus 165? I mean, how does he lose it to get? How does he win? I mean, look, getting to train, to be fair, with Pantosia and Adriano Morice of one championship who had those fights with DJ, uh, certainly ups the game. I wanted to play the sound from Pantosia. happened earlier this year in April, when the idea of Horaguchi coming back to the UFC

and potentially fighting him came up. Here's Pantosha's thoughts on him. All the time, we need a teammate fighting, yeah. But like, Kyosuriguchi helping me to get this belt. You know, if I don't have Qiyuji, I don't know if I had the opportunity to fight for the belt. I don't know if I have an opportunity to be a champion one day, but I have Kyosuriguchi. He on my side, all my camps.

And that's what I say. If Kiyoggi Ruggish helped me to conquer that, he helped my family too. And all the time, I have the chance to say thank you to him. I say, Kiyoji, thank you to everything you did for me. And it's going to be a pressure if I fight for him with the belt. Just for the belt. I don't believe I fight with Kiyoji without the belt, but for the belt, we are talking about that.

And it's going to be a gift, this opportunity to fight with Kiyosu for the belt. I hope I can still hold this belt for so long and wait for that. We really appreciate it. I'm not saying how everyone does it is wrong, but it's very refreshing for him to say. Like, I'm not ripping Aspinol for saying because Ante Delia sat in my kitchen and ate with my family. I'll never fight him for the title, and I would give it up before fighting him. People have different relationships and understanding, whether it's Marab and Aljo, Kane, and D.C. But for him to say...

L.T. and BC. Yeah. Yeah, for him to say my family has, you know, eaten, has gotten to another level. My career has gotten to a level because of this guy that it would be a, quote, gift and a pleasure to fight him for the title and give him that opportunity. That's like Bushito at the highest level right there. That's some great shit. That tells you he came from a real disadvantaged background. You know what I mean?

And understands. And understands what it means for someone to actually help you. You know, because people who don't get a lot of help are really grateful for it when they get it. Sure. And that looks to me like, and also, you know, not for nothing. Horaguchi has to be an incredible training partner if you are, in fact, Alessandro Pantoja and you're getting ready for the guys you're getting ready for.

It has to be one of the best training partners imaginable on planet Earth. So just the fact that you have that kind of help and then, you know, his attitude more broadly, they kind of get the score. I'm with you. Hey, I wouldn't fight him but for a belt before a belt. It'd kind of make sense. That's a pretty good rule.

Dude, he's got to get back through Josh Van first. What do you think the odds would be on the fight? Oraguchi versus Pantosia the next fight. I don't know. if they'll make horiguchi win another you don't know that yeah i think i would favor pantogia slightly that's a question for long island put that up put the odds on that one oh and we can get a horuguchi trilogy under this you could just because we haven't seen enough of horiguchi back yet and he'd just be like number 12 you know it's not really you can't hold him in too high regard yet i'd go pantosia minus

175 horiguchi plus 130 no it'd be like plus 150 right oh yeah whatever the math is god it's hot all right are you that hot i'm not that hot yeah it was that hot yeah it was It was ice cold this morning, which is tit level, you know? All right. Thank you, Ken. Thank you for that. All right. Hey, let's keep it going down this card.

How about Waldo Cortez Acosta? Have heavyweight fight will be available. He improved a four in one this calendar year, taking a fight on three days notice, flying to Qatar, and then delivering a knockout with powerful shots against a Shemil Gassiev. How about the Polk's fight callout, not just trying to. trolling Tom Aspinall, but calling him out for a title shot, and how about Waldo going even further? First you got the troll job of the eye patch. You put it on Bisping. That was probably the best moment for Bisping when he tweeted after. Surprisingly good moment. So glad they got

the eye right. Congrats Waldo. And Luke then said he wants to come back for a UFC record sixth fight this calendar year on one of those fight night card, the last fight night to end the year in December. Where does this year rank in terms of improbability from a guy. who went from just another heavyweight salsa boy to now being like almost closing in on a shot at Aspinall and like quasi-fighter of the year votes going his way for what he's put off this year. The reality is his level of activity

and the success that it's brought in conjunction with the circumstances that you mentioned, not just for this fight, but again, he beat Ante Dalia in the very weird circumstances three weeks to go. One lost to Pavlovich this year. That's what I was going to say. It has made you kind of forget that he did lose to Pavlovich.

Pavlovich, a flawed heavyweight, but a big powerful one, and he was kind of technically better in that one. How many people really remember that? How many people are hanging on to that? It's not just that he has won a lot, BC, and won in ways against unenviable circumstances. The thing that stands out to me about Waldo Cortez-Aosta is that he is kind of showing himself to the world.

He's trying to audition for the fan base's adoration, and he's trying to do the things, which of course come first with winning, but these other things that you mention along with it, along with this demonstration of a little bit of humor and understanding of pomp and circumstance and using that to reintroduce himself to the fan base. And it seems to me, BC, that it is working. People really like what Waldo Cortez-Aosta is turning in, again,

from winning performances, but also that he wants the smoke, that he's going after it, that he is taking some risks. Again, he speaks pretty good English, but he's out there just trying to do this in a not his native language. It's not easy thing to do. You got to really appreciate it.

I don't even hate the troll job on Aspiral. Like, it's petty, but, but like it's giving him an identity. It's memorable. Yes, it is. It is. Was it memorable in his second UFC fight that older brother of Ilya Tuporia, Alexandria, Alexandria, Alexandria, at Bannamweight, improved a 2 and O in the Octagon with a safe but technical three-round unanimous decision over Bexat-Alma-Con.

Should we be looking out for Tuporius' bro here in the Bannamweight division? You know who wants to have sex? with him, Long Island Luke. Tell me about it. Now, I was saying I was anti-Tuporia going into this fight. I really thought Almacan was going to give him trouble, and I was actually really impressed with him, especially his wrestling. I didn't think his wrestling was going to be that good. We knew he had

hands, but yeah, he's someone to watch. I'm actually very intrigued. Striking defense is tight. He gets inside, but he doesn't throw a lot. His scrambling was good, too. That head toss he hit in, I think the first or second round. I don't know against the elites if you can just put up a high guard, back them up and intimidate him.

He moves his feet, too. That's the difference. I'll say this, though. The only issue for me is both support your brothers are like this, but Alexander, Alexandria, is a little bit slower to get off the gate to get his offense going, which is not by itself a problem, B.C., except if you are fighting really good guys and the margin for error in having slow offense can really cost you. That's one of the few things I worry about, but dude, he's well-rounded, he's physical.

Little short and stature for the weight class, but not fatally so. I don't know if he'll be his brother, but he's certainly very good. good. All right. I have a question about both Toporia brothers that goes into an area that you don't like. The potential divorce. I don't really know what's going on with Italy to Porte in his relationship. And Luke has a preference of let's not talk about

that stuff. It's for the weirdos online. Their personal lives are not our lot. It does connect to the training because there's a theory on MMA Twitter that Toporia married into some money and that that was why he had that state of the art gym in his basement. You know exactly what I'm talking about. And that whenever we

see him or his brother training now online after the supposed separation that it's in much more modest circumstances. Will this affect their growth at all if this is true, Luke? Maybe. I think we're reaching a little bit here. You know, I've reached before.

I have, I have. We've reached around. All right. Luke, let's talk about unbeaten light, heavyweight who I didn't think I'd be talking about. Abdul Rockman Yakyaev setting the division records in his UFC debut with a 33-second submission of Raphael Conquerra. Conquerra?

Concair? No. Sarkara. Sir Kara. Excuse me. I can't read either. It wasn't just the sub, though. Having problems at home there, bud?

No, having problems up here. The huge high kick, Luke, he kind of looked like a Turkish Johnny Walker, but with more technique and focus. Look, we got 33 seconds of footage on him in the UFC. Are you impressed? I mean, he was fighting who appears to be the worst guy in UFC history. However, he did what you're supposed to do to the worst guy in UFC history. He just completely attacked and obliterated him. To the point you raised, I don't know what.

to say, except he sure shit didn't look bad. Let's just see him against somebody who can put up a little bit of a fight. All right. How about the battle tested 41-year-old Nicholas Dalby who snapped a two-fight litmus and a good job, too? Went in there against Islam Mahachev protege. Saigid

Izagmak Let's hear it. Zika Zakkwamyov, some shit like that. I just want to say all Zakamayev. All three Abdulmanap fighters on the card lost. So this dude is Jacked his shit. So I saw this Russian, I saw this Russian MMA, I don't know if he's media, but he's like a,

he's like a super clued in fan and he made a point. This guy is like really in the weeds on this. And he made a point. He's like, you actually look at Abdulmanab's camp. There's Habib and Islam at the top. And then just a step down is Umar and Usman. And then what he said is basically everyone after that is whatever. Mid, nubs, buns, but, you know, whatever.

It's not like everyone. with the teenage phrases. Yeah, it's not, it's not like everyone is like a fucking murder up there.

They got four guys who are really good, two are really special. Dalby earned this one though. He did. Against a strong grappler. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, he don't know.

And it's plus 40 to do it. And again, I thought that was going to be a little bit of hometown cooking, you know, but there wasn't. And Dalby at 41, like pushed the pace

against him too. Yeah. Well, he's always, he's just an attacker. Yeah. Sometimes he was on detriment, but in this particular case, I think he hustled enough

to collect meaningful offense here. All right, Brawler and former lightweight Mick Tebeck Orabali. Oral by. Oroby. Oral by. Like oral by.

Kayo bohalio, Kayo Baralho. Like after your female relatives. Is it ear, hear, or ire hair? Is it Fador Bador or Fader Bader? Luke, Mektebeck. I'm five years old. Oral by is now four and one in the UFC.

The only loss in that barbaric war with Rundbechki He won punch-caoed former middleweight contender, Jack, the Joker, Hermanson. Okay, let me just say, this was great, and it was fun to watch. But, and I'm excited for Oral Bay at 170. I did not in any way think like, oh, he, you know, I don't want to see more of this. He has to go back to 55. That's not what I thought. However, isn't the real story here that Hermanson, who we were all like, yeah, I don't know if draining yourself as a giant middleweight to get to Welterweight makes a lot of sense at age.

37, yeah. 37 and he got you know, Oroby seemed to exhale on him and it was enough to send him to the land of wind and ghosts. It looks like when BSD tapped Daryushin, the fight was over. It just, it was over. I mean, it was more than a tap, but it was, you know.

Jack Hermanson is not some scrub, but he's got some questions to ask about his fighting future. Anything else on these undercards Long Island, Luke, that you, because you were smoking during it. Sue Alma By, my dark horse of 2025, man, he was losing to Alex Perez, pulls out that sub in the third round. They called it a standing guillotine. He jumped guillotine.

It's just that Perez didn't go to the ground. He just stood there. We've seen Perez guillotine before, too. Didn't figgy guillotine him too? I think that's right, yep. But yeah, that was pretty impressive. How about Ozedimir knocking out Alonzo Menefield? Dude, Osamere's punches looked.

I mean, he's kind of reformed for a second run. You see the limitations? It's easier to do this at this level, but man, he looked like he's still a problem. Put in good combinations together, long, three, four, five punch combinations. His legs are so thick. Yeah. He should just calf kick the whole fight. Or just check kicks.

Again, I don't know exactly how far he can go, but, you know, also Alonzo Meadowfield's nickname is great, Atomic. I actually really like that. But I think we know what we got with him at this point. You know, it's kind of... Dude, that man Oostomir once fought for a title against Daniel Cormier. Give him a good fight, too. People forget that. It was a long time ago.

Yeah. There it is. Anthony Smith beat him. I keep saying, Anthony Smith's winner of Volcan Oostomeres, it's a good win. It's a solid win. Oh, and there was a former Marine in the opening fight of the night. Denzel. Oh, the heavyweight fight?

I didn't see it. I heard it was ass. It was basically a calf kicking competition. A lot of people compared it to Inganu, Lewis. It was that bad. Long Island, Luke, it was bad. You weren't that high enough of that. It wasn't Inganu, Lewis, bad, but it was a boring, forgettable fight.

Yeah. Well, sorry about that. I can't, I can't police all the Marines. No such thing as an ex-marine. All right. Hey, let me talk to you guys about what's coming up because it's the holiday season. And Thanksgiving isn't just about family and turkey. It's about touchdowns.

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And here's what we want from you, the listener slash viewer, email us at morningcombeat at Gmail.com. Provide a video question of any topic, 60 seconds or less. Hey, you want to do audio only? Same thing, 60 seconds or less. Or if you have to, email us your question, morningcombat at Gmail. com. Luke Thomas and I will be filming a holiday Thanksgiving turkey mailbag. Watch it live Friday after you take down the competition over there at Caldors and Walmart and

Bradley's. Keep the email up. Let me ask along on Luke. Is there a way to maybe give the best question a little bit of swag? What do you have in mind? Well, Merchmaster. What do you think? Can we sign a poster for them? Can we give them a t-shirt? Like, what can we do? Oh, that's what you meant by so? All right. I misinterpreted that completely. Yeah, we can definitely... Wait, you think I'm telling me to give them drugs? Like, are you got pills? No, I thought you meant like, can we present their way with some swag?

No, no, no, I mean like, I mean like, hey, best question gets a signed poster or something like that. Can we do that? We could definitely do that. All right, so there you go. Let's up the ante. Best question gets a signed poster. Get creative. Use the old fan sub spirit. Put a video together, an audio file 60 seconds or less, or just write us

in and writing your questions. We'll be recording this on Wednesday so you know deadline-wise but you can catch the show on Friday morning combat at gmail.com let's go to topic number four it wasn't just a big weekend in the octagon over there in clutter we also were in Riyadh where

the main event got off by the way at like nearly 7 a.m. Eastern time were they doing I don't know but what they were doing though and let's give Turkey Alashik and company credit from the ring these ring branded cards they're matched extremely well this four fight main card which was slow to get going

You got a lot of podcasts between the fights early on. But once we got into these four well-matched fights, they turned out to be bangers. It was a very entertaining night. If you're on the East Coast, which I say for once, Luke, but if you were there, by the way, as that crowd got skinnier and skinnier. I think it ended at 7 a.m.

That's wild. I'd rather die. Let me talk about, though, the co-main event first, because I do think this is the biggest story. Devin Haney produced a largely lopsided comeback victory here on this well-matched card to gain a welterweight title. title, a third division title, and in some ways, humble and expose, unbeaten welterweight champion, Brian Norman, Jr. No longer forcing himself, of course, to cut down so aggressively to 135 and 140.

We saw a fully hydrated, strong Devin Haney, who delivered a second round knockdown, controlled Norman throughout the middle rounds with his big jab, looked like he was hurting him or coming close to stopping him. And then, though, then took his foot off the gas a little bit in that second half, allowed Norman to keep it physical, keep it competitive. In the end, Haney gets the decision win, which was deserved. So Luke, considering his reputation, took major hits with the no contest against Ryan Garcia, in which he was dropped three times and initially lost a decision, not to mention his may come back against Jose Ramirez in Times Square,

where he openly refused to exchange at any point. This time around, you got a much different, Devin Haney. So should we focus on the fact that this was him reminding us of his elite pound for pound skills for two-thirds of this fight or how much should be taken away from it from the standpoint that if you are a Devin Haney critic and you focus on that final third of the fight,

you did not see what looked like a confident guy with a big gas tank looking to take his opponent out of there. Well, I think we have to start where this conversation starts and it's for you and for me. You better not shy away from this. We've got to take our crew on this one. You mean when I predicted that Devin Haney would win by decision? I thought you predicted

Brian Norman. No, you predicted Brian Norman. I said Devin Haney with the added wait. I thought the Ryan Garcia thing, people aren't realizing the PEDs played a big role with the craziness and who Ryan was. And even though I can't defend Haney for how he acted against Ramirez, I didn't think he looked scared or washed. I just thought he was strategically being really annoying. Being really annoying. Well, I'll have to do it for myself then because not only did I get, I can't get him right. I thought, I thought he was going to go in there and walk over Ryan Garcia and that did not happen. And then I thought, okay, well, he's now

damaged goods. By the way, I think Sean Porter has some crow to eat on this Monday as well. Here's my turn at it. And here I thought, oh, Brian Norman, okay, granted he hasn't fought to, we knew he hadn't beat anyone at this level. But he looked like a killer. He looked like a killer. And more to the point, I thought Devin Haney was just ass in his last fight, which again, was not a great performance overall. And then B.C., he looked

great. He looked great. First of all. You want to see the replay here from the ringside view of the knock? This is the knockdown in round two. So he hits him with, I think, a left hook and then finishes him off with the right cross. There's that left hook. That left hook heard him, and then bam. And then taunted him. And he looked bigger, stronger.

That jab was on fire the next four rounds. And he looked fast at the weight class, too. So let me just say this. At 147, Haney looks great, great. I've been so wrong about the guy for what feels like the last two goddamn years. I mean, I guess the Ramirez. I mean, what did I tell you on Friday, that when he cuts down low in weight, his punch resistance gets compromised, like against Lerneris, like against others.

Yes. And again, there might be still some issues to the heat that a different matchup could potentially expose. But dude, he's now a three division world champion. This was not a bum that he fought on Saturday. I think Brian Norman still is quality. It did appear to be too much in terms of what Devin Haney could do. But BC, I think we should talk about something. He lost to Ryan Garcia for, I think, a couple of circumstances.

One, Ryan did offer stylistic difficulties for him that were exposed in that fight. and then also the other stuff he was doing, recreational PEDs, the whole nine yards, certainly didn't help matters. That really affected his stock, but it seems to me the Ramirez fight was a stop along the way to a better recovery. And it looks to me like he has made a substantial improvement

since not merely the Ramirez fight, but the damage that was done to him. And I want to say this. One thing I can say I have been right about on Haney, which is not much. I've been quite wrong, quite a bit about him. but what I'm going to say is we talked about it on this show, dude, there was a time following April of 2024 where Devin Haney was the most hated guy, clearly in boxing and maybe in terms of just the heat of it all, all of combat sports, all because his opponent cheated like a motherfucker. And because Haney sued him for assault afterwards.

Okay, fine. He didn't help matters, but it didn't start with that. That just threw gasoline on the fire. but look at him now look at him now shut my stupid mouth shut a lot of people mentally there was a lot of boxing insiders who who thought this was going to be norman's coming out party shut them all up quality rises to the top devon i'm sorry i let you down with my terrible prediction i don't always love the way him and bill haney his father manager trainer behavior the things they say are how they react to things but when it's go time outside of that ryan garcia fight which again was

Haney cutting down to a weight that diminishes him. His choice, obviously. And Garcia missing him. Him underestimating Garcia, Garcia being on this edge of not just mentally going for it, but I think physically due to the PED, just being that much sharper. Do you know how much you have to rebuild yourself? His record is unbeaten right now because that was a no contest, but everybody treated that as if we saw him exposed, defeated against Jose Ramirez.

No, you're not going to win over anyone with that performance. And then he comes out and does this. So here's my take on ultimately on Devin. He's going to annoy you, if you're a fan and critic of him, until the opponents make him fight. When Brian Norman made this a fight like early on when Norman was tough, I thought in the first round, Norman won it. He was more physical. He landed shots on Haney. That brings out the elite version of Haney.

Lomachenko brought that elite version out over 12 rounds, regardless of how he had that scored. Devin Haney's only going to show you that greatness if you make him. But if you make him, you're going to get it. And the fact that he's finally found the weight class that he's not a weight bully at, that he's not taking a weight, kind of like Islam going up to Walterweight to some degree, even though Islam had an incredible run there. There's just that extra level of durability and confidence that he gets with that. He's never been a big puncher, Luke, but it looked like he had legitimate power in this fight,

fully hydrated, fully healthy. Let's take a look at the tweet that shows his accomplishments. Just to show you what Haynie's done in this career, was the youngest active world champion at age 20, youngest undisputed at 23, two division champions, at 24 now a three division champion at 27 he's good he's got some names on his resume look at the four kings or the four princes or whatever you want to call him the second generation of stars that we tried to annoy and rush out there and say this is our haggler whole you know haggler leonard hernes duran he's kind of doing the best out of the four of them wouldn't you say thanks going

in the other direction we'll see it doesn't loz Lopez has a fight in january did heo femo's still holding strong he's come back from setbacks but like haini's accomplished a lot he really is also also i would say lopez's win over lomachenko better than haynes yes yes um so there's that too so yes but i would to your point overall in terms of again okay the the ryan garcia fight was a blip on you know that was a that was a deviation but in general dude they are planning and executing to i won't say perfection but to extraordinary intentionality and their plan is working dude their plan is working he's long he's big he's smart you got to give him credit. He has huge ring IQ.

He's really smart fighter. Dude, I'm going to say it. I was so fucking wrong about him. I was watching this fight. But that's the thing. I was watching this fight and I was like, this is so much better than his last fight. I was watching him being like, where the fuck was this? And the answer was still damage from that CO. And the last fight was a catchweight of 143.

So this is him at full, full welterweight. So I mean, here's Haney after was talking about those criticisms. Everything I said I was going to do, I did. A lot of people wrote me off. They said that I was a runner. I was a runner. I was sucker for left hook uh you know that that why was i taking this fight i was going to get knocked out and uh you know i proved all all of them wrong redemption yeah i mean this is part of it

you know this is this is this is definitely part of it you guys know that you know i really want the redemption with ryan garcia but you know the best guy at 147 was brian norman and now i'm the best guy at 147 i'm back to you know the man of the division what i once was and um you know I'm willing to fight, you know, whoever. I want to fight the best fighters in the world, make the best fights happen, and, yeah. Now, to his point, the welterweight division is reloading. It's not at its normal, historic, sexy depth.

But, you know, you got title holders like Roli Romero right now, Mario Barrios, who a lot of people think is a dud, and then Lewis Crocker, who no one's even heard of. You don't have Terrence Crawford, you don't have that good sentence. You don't have that great era that we just came out of. But Haney just beat the best welterweight in Brian Norman Jr. On Norman's 25th birthday. So we're going to talk more about what could be next for Haney,

but I do want to talk quickly about Norman. He kind of said the right things after the fight in terms of like, I didn't underestimate Haney. It just, you know, you swing big, you go for it. You had to be, though, disappointed at finding out so sharply that Norman's not at this level and that the experience was a bigger factor than we thought. I did think that he clawed his way back into that fight a little bit. That's the drawback on the Haney performance.

He didn't close strong. I thought the last four rounds, Haney did a really great job. But again, was it super exciting in the last four rounds? No, but the clenching, stopping Brian Norman before he could really get going, smothering him. It worked. It was effective. Brian Norman, though, you see, I thought was landing better punches, not in great volume, but landing better punches in that last third or fourth, depending on how you want to divvy it up.

And I also thought that he was the one kind of pressing the action a little bit. It was clenching too much. He was trying to slow down, Haney, wear him down, lean on him a lot. But they were both kind of doing it to a different degree. So I'm going to say, I'm not ready to write off Brian Norman. He's still young enough where I think he's still got some pretty big wins in front of him. But, dude, again, it's weird. I can't get Haney right.

What I saw in Haney was the guy that I kind of saw a little bit before the Garcia fight, who I don't think he's a big puncher, but got a lot of ringcraft, has a lot of different looks, has a lot of different ways in which to pursue an attack, and a lot of which are ways to nullify one. A forgotten lesson from the Garcia fight was how often, even after getting batter, that Haney got up off the mat and then would win the subsequent rounds that came after that. He's got a lot

of tricks of the trade, even though he's just 27 years old. Now, we'll get to the whole Connor Bent talk in a second. He mentioned Ryan Garcia. They mentioned on the broadcast. Now, the fight is not official, but Ryan Garcia has signed his contract for a potential title fight against WBC champion

Mario Barrios in January. Barrios coming off the draw with Pacquiao that most people think Pacquiao won. Look, if Ryan Garcia wins that fight, and Then we get Haney Garcia, too, presumably a, you know, Riyadh season or ring numbered main event pay-per-view that unifies welterweight titles in all the drama that's taken place to both of their stocks. Remember, Ryan came out of that Haney, no contest, ridiculous, looking like a crazy man,

but also looking like he's the best he's ever been in his career, and then lays an absolute egg mentally against Romero in Times Square and loses that welterweight fight. But if this is a welterweight unification with all the heated, leaning in here. How big is this fight when you look at the landscape of available fights to make in boxing? One of the biggest fights you can make in the sport. I don't see how it wouldn't be. We all thought that the rematch would have been big if they'd done it last April on Times Square, which they didn't for all the reasons that we now know. It's easily one of the

biggest promotional fights. It's a grudge match. The first fight, certainly there are, let's say, plenty of asterisks around it, BC, weight miss, PEDs, you name it. The weight at the time, anyway, a whole bunch of stuff. And it was bitter. And it was ugly. And as we indicated, Haney got absolutely battered by the fan base and the sport more broadly. Dude, even still, I texted you about it. I get that Hern is, you know, he's trying to promote Ben and his possibility of getting a fight with Haney. But he was shitting on Haney, too.

Oh, we're about to roll into that. Oh, okay. All right. So, Connor Ben, who's coming off of the win over Chris Eubank Jr. in their rematch at middleweight, but is now saying in interviews, he wants to cut back down to his best weight of 147 and look for big fights. This is a picture of him ringside with Eddie Hearn, especially during the second half of this fight where they pretended that Ben was sleeping because it was so boring. And here's Eddie Hearn after the fight outside.

You know, they're not happy with my comments, but she's not good to watch. Thinking media, Eddie Hearn is 7 a.m. I think it is cold, tired. David Haney, talking about David Haney. How impressed we were with his performance? I mean, look, you've got to give him the credit because he's become a three-division world champion, but she's not good to watch. he doesn't want to engage he doesn't want to which is right

you know I mean that but you know they're not happy with my comments because I just said the truth like he doesn't look he he's his eyes wide open the whole fight like and he never

he was always been a smart technical fighter but but look he beat an undefeated fighter and he become world champion so credit to him Connor Ben how does Connor Ben beat someone like him who like you said does not want to get hit look he's not easy to beat because he doesn't want to fight

he doesn't want to and that's smart I'm not saying, but it's just not, you know, and it's not like, oh, you wouldn't put your guys in with him because you can't beat him. He's difficult to beat because he doesn't want to engage. He just, he's holding, he's grabbing, he's not doing anything. I mean, after he dropped Brian Norman really heavily, all he had to do was step on.

He would have stopped him. It would have been a great performance. But people are, I'm just saying, people are watching that. You know. There's obviously talks with Connor tonight and Turkey. Are they suggested anyone else? So here's the interesting thing about this. He's referencing an interview that happened on the broadcast after the Haney co-main event

in which Connor Ben and Hern were being interviewed on the stage there, and they both said he looked scared, he doesn't want to fight, blah, blah, blah, and they kind of shitted on him. You remember, Haney was promoted by Hern for a chunk of the biggest stretch of his career, and then the Haney's ultimately at the end of that contract decided to go their separate way, go, you know, independent and now be just basically a turkey fighter. So you understand promotionally now that Eddie's with Connor Ben, that you're talking it up into a fight. But a lot of people thought Eddie went too far ultimately.

Clarissa Shields came out on Twitter and really attacked Herne for kind of just being classless after Haney had this comeback performance. And here's Bill Haney afterwards in the back talking about it. Hey, Eddie, we're in here in the locker room. Listen, listen. On three, one, two, three. Fuck me, Eddie. All right, Luke, let's quickly get into this. That's how my family sends me birthday degrees.

Yeah, I imagine so. I think Eddie's just building a fight. There are some truth to his criticism. I think he should have jumped all over. Norman was hurt for another round and a half after that, knocked down, and maybe it's just not who Haney is ultimately. You get a great fight of him out of him again if you push him. Is there any reason to do Connor Ben Haney next,

given that Ben is a UK-based fighter, his stock is hot. You could put that in a soccer stadium or if you're Bill Haney who does make shrewd moves moving his son around, do you just line up Ryan Garcia? Because they've got to love their chances

in a rematch against Ryan Garcy. That and also, wouldn't they love their chances against Connor Ben? I don't know. Ben might be a little... I mean, Ben's got to prove he can come back in 47

and be great again without the PED room. Yeah. I like Haney's chances. I mean, what the fuck do I know about Haney at this point? But it seems like I like his chances against Ben.

I mean, I don't have a strong preference to see it, but I don't have a strong aversion to it either, right? Okay, okay. Let's go to topic number five, and it was what else we saw. Oh, on that card? On the ring four card. Let's talk, of course, about that main event, addressing the critics who wondered whether his power truly carried up to 175 pounds

after decision wins over Vodzik and David Morel Jr. The title holder, David Benavitas, made the first defense of his WBC strap by beating the raw, yet still dangerous, Anthony Yard, and beating him down, forcing him to a stoppage loss against the ropes in round seven. And after the fight, and Avivis announced that he's moving up to cruiserweight and then he's got a showdown set up on Cinco de Mayo weekend in Las Vegas

against current unified cruiserweight champion and Mexican-born Gilberto Zerno Ramirez, looking to take back the Mexican holidays in Las Vegas from Canelo Alvarez. He did state in the post-fight interviews, by the way, that Beavall wanted nothing to do with him. You've got people now saying, hey, that's great, but isn't any ducking better BF who this morning tweeted that he'd love to get a fight with Benavitas,

that would be one of the biggest there? Considering Benavitas was forced to play bridesmaid at 168 and left out of the title picture, or the unifying, the undisputed title picture by Canelo Alvarez, is this cruiserweight move, the right move for El Monstro? And is it understandable that he would want to control his own destiny in this way given what he went through waiting around on Canelo.

So I definitely think it's a lot of the latter. He's taking matters into his hands. And also, I wonder if he wants to start planting a flag as a promotional attraction around big Mexican and or Mexican-American holidays in the way that Canelo has, where he's fighting on Cinco de Mayo or around it or he's fighting in September on Mexican Independence Day or around it. I wonder, I wonder if David Benavides is getting out in front of it.

Because doesn't Zerto Ramirez have a fight in January? Yes. So Zirto's been out with an injury. He has, I want to call it to stay busy. It's against a ranked fighter. I forgot the guy's name, but he's not a household name. Okay. It's expected that Zerto would win, but it's also another marination thing like we did. We never got a Haney Garcia. Yeah. My thought on this is I don't hate the fight at all. And by the way, against Yard. I mean, I went back and I watched the better be a fight. Watch, watch this little side replay that we have from the ringside view. Let me see. Dude, this is bonkers to watch. I mean, he put it on him. Yard's limited. We've said that. We've said that. coming in but yard is a strong full-fledged 175 right yeah i mean here's the issue for me dude is yard could never get benavides to back up yeah benavides was all over him so much of this fight takes place with yards back up against the ropes a way back and i watched a better be a fight better be have certainly backed up yard a bunch of times but there's a lot of exchanging in the middle sure he was a little bit more of an accurate power puncher bena viz is just on top of you it's insane. However, what I'll say

is, BC, I don't hate the Ramirez fight. I don't even don't hate the weight classes. I don't think it's going to be that hard for him to get up or back down. Okay. But. He is saying it's getting hard to cut to 175. Yeah, but. Which is why he thinks Cruz's weight and heavy weight will be in that future. I agree with you. I think if he's going to do this and move up

and seek history and I give him a lot of credit for it, you've got to at least leave that door open to come back down, defend your title and be in position when be beve all or better be, like, like, those are the two interesting fights that we have to. We, We at least need one of those. And I just don't want him to be on side quests for so long that it gets in the way. It's kind of like when Cannella was supposed to fight Benavita is next.

And he was instead talking, well, I'll go up to cruiserweight and fight, you know, Machaboo. And we're like, okay, like, we'd give you the credit for that, especially your size to try to win a title there. But that's not the challenge we need. Here's Benavita, though, explaining his decision afterwards. I wanted to fight Bevo for this fight. I was the number one contender to fight for the WBC title. That's why I have the WBC title because he really. delinquished it and he didn't uh he wasn't ready to fight but that's the fight that i've been

wanting to get you know i want i want to make my dreams come my dreams come true of becoming a unified world champion and um i don't know what's going on over there you know i don't know he said that he wanted to take the fight will better be of again and then they said that he had surgery so i mean i really don't know what's going on over there and i don't i don't want to wait for nobody anymore you know i mean i waited for canello that fight never happened you know now i'm waiting for bevol that fight's not happening so i just want to I want to achieve greatness and I have an opportunity to go up to fight for two titles at Cruiserweight and I said, let's get it, you know, so we're going to go up there when to fight through the Ramirez

May 2nd. I mean, that's what I'm here for. I'm here to prove myself. Everybody always says that I can't do this, I can't do that. I'm ducking this person. I'm ducking that person. But when I go in there, I get the victory, it's always the same thing. You know what I mean?

I just want to prove myself as a fighter. This is what I'm here for. You know, I'm here to prove the doubters wrong and to go in there and win as much titles as I can. and I want to be like the greats of this sport. I want to be in the same conversation as Usik, Terence Crawford, all those guys. And I still have a long time on 28 years old, and I just want to achieve greatness. Dude, I admire the way he carries himself. I do.

Now, I want to ask you this. Better Beav was originally going to be on this card and sort of a stay busy. They pulled him off. He claims he can't get Beval to give him a chance. Remember Benavitas claims they sparred back in the day, and he claims he dropped him and put it on him. Do those two things lead you to believe that maybe Team Benevita's talk to? turkey and the team and maybe it looks like better be of uh bev uh bevvvvvvvvvvvv could be on the horizon for this year and maybe he's just like okay i'm not gonna again i'm not gonna wait i'm not gonna play the canella

game all over again yep and they i think that would be more justifiable if that was i mean he kind of teased it he kind of teased it but yeah i think that would be more uh justifiable let's close on him how do you think he fairs against bevall and benavita's through three fights now at light heavy weight. I mean, a BVol and Better BF. How do you think Benavis would fare? I think Benavitas beats some beats Better BF for sure. For sure, really? Well, I mean, it's competitive, but I feel like the pressure would be too much. I don't even know if he could because that, because Better Biav is so gnarly. I'd have to see that. Okay, but my hunch is he could get it done. The Bivol one is more interesting because he has that balls of your feet, touch, touch,

he's pivoting, he's rolling, he's landing, he's hard to pin down. Caleb Plant didn't beat Benavides, but was able to hang around, especially through the first six rounds, by doing a version of that, except Vivall is a higher quality than Caleb Plant, and I think can land with more authority. So that, to me, is the more interesting one between them, actually. Better be because of his, not in his prime, but because of his current, and he's not over the hill exactly either, but I do think he slowed down a little bit, and I think that might be enough, certainly given a lane anyway for Benavides to pursue. I think it'd have to be a boxer more at cruiser weight, but

maybe I'm wrong. I mean, look, he's never been a one punch guy for the most part. Even in this one, his best knockout against Porky Medina back in the day was like a 20 punch combination against the ropes. He just puts that pressure on you, wears you down, beats you down, makes you tired. Dude, he's trying to be great. He's one of the pound for pound best. Let's

enjoy this journey. This was, of course, his Riyadh's season debut here in the main event, even though I thought that co-main event was a bigger story, but let's not miss what Bam Rodriguez is doing. San Antonio's Jesse Rodriguez. Super Flyweight titles against a game unbeaten and one of the best in the lower way classes,

unbeaten Fernando Puma Martinez, in a fight that a lot of people, including me, thought was going to be a really tough test of BAM skills. And BAM utterly dominated him here at age 25. Here's the ringside view of the slip and rip in which he stopped him with. He has that Chocolatito class and that his movement is like dance. It's like art.

yet he puts big punches together he's always in the right position and now over two weight classes he's made himself one of the pound for pound best and he's not just beaten but knocked out the biggest names he can find along the way whether that be Strisiket Sor Rungvisai

Juan Francisco and Estrada Quadras I mean he's just rolling through these guys Pua Martinez for those that know is a very tough out and he made it look like he didn't belong in the ring against him so Luke after the fight Bam said he wants to be considered pound for pound wise on the exact same level of the big three we have right now. Crawford, Usik, and Inouye,

all three seem to swap places in almost in Islam and Ilya way whenever they fight, whenever they get a big performance. Is Bam Rodriguez on that level right now? Yeah. Yeah, he is. He's so good. This was my, I didn't watch this one live, and I went back and I watched it later. This one was, I do he, it's not just that his offense is good,

his defense is good too, and he can go from one. to the other seamlessly. So, like, for example, even, even the perfect example, even the final one where he slips the punch and then comes right back and then drills the guy and it's effortless and and forceful. He has athleticism, timing, skill.

He can play both an offensive game where he leads, a defensive game where he evades. He is, he doesn't have yet that kind of win, BC that has captured the public's imagination. He's a hardcore fan's delight. But you didn't ask that. You asked, is he on the level? I think he's on the level.

I mean, could you see him getting votes now? I mean, he's been in top five of my pound for pound of, I think, yeah, I'm at five coming in. Listen, if Ussick stays kind of on the shelf for a little while and he's busy, I think anything's possible. But it's going to be tough to top Terrence. All right. We don't want to miss him, though. Don't miss what Jesse's doing. Here's, I don't even know this fan's name.

I found this on Twitter. Here's a random fan's excited takedown. Take analysis of this fight. I want to see if this guy's going too far. You tell me. It is very fascinating, you know, that despite being only 25 years old, Jesse Bam Rodriguez has defined the generation already. This I like. In my opinion, he is the greatest fighter of all time, and he is not even getting started.

People say this is a ridiculous claim. He's doing a bit. You know that. This is too far. You're going too far. No, no, no. This I do not believe. Jesse Bam Rodriguez is a phenomenal fighter, and I love Jesse Bam Rodriguez.

I agree. I love him. He's not the best of all time, but I love him. He's doing a bit. Do you know the Slovenian philosopher Zizek? Yes. I know that's Zizek is part of his tag name. Where he's like touching his nose, and he's like a really ugly man, but he's got these

really funky kind of interesting ideas. He was doing Bam Rodriguez analysis while cosplaying as Zizek. uh even though he went over it went purposely went too far trying to say he's greatest of all time he's approaching he's only 25 like real greatness and it's it's it looks effortless it looks like he hasn't even truly tapped into that now i don't know what the timelines are could he move up and i mean junto nakatani at 118 already moved up to 22 chasing it in a way fight bam is at 115 right now i don't know what that future is how quickly all that stuff if he's ever going to get that truly generational opponent, but the consistent champions, the old guard,

he's blowing through these guys with such ease, it's remarkable. Let's also talk about the opening fight. 21-year-old Abdullah Mason went in there for the vacant 135-pound title that Kishon Davis left on the scales in his last fight, went in there against a 17-0 Sam Noakes, unbeaten from the UK, who came to bang. And this might go down as a fight of the year contender, an absolute war in which Mason and took home a unanimous decision. But did he show too much toughness, Luke?

21 years old to go out there and gut out a fight on this level was great. He deserved the win. He proved his manhood. But he also fought the fight in Noakes' phone booth. Yeah. Which is what we said on Friday. We didn't necessarily want

to see. We wanted to see a little bit more methodical. There's really no question, B.C., about his talent, right? You don't watch that and you think, well, I don't know if he's got the goods. it seems like he's got the goods but if he doesn't find more like Devin Haney would never fight that way

and you could say oh that's why Devin Haney's boring but Devin Haney is also a three-weight world champion for a reason too. What I'm saying is I think I agree with you if he doesn't start ironing this out a little bit now he will still do great things in the sport I think he's too good not to but does it limit his ultimate upside? I do wonder about that

yeah he also got tweeted out by the Cleveland Browns their support of him out of the Ohio area. Let's listen to Abdulla afterwards. I definitely felt, you know, with a smart fight. You know, I would come out with less less of this. But it made for a really entertaining scrap. It was definitely entertaining. You know, it went 12 rounds. A lot of experience, like I said, but we got the job done. You know, he was definitely durable. We knew he'd be durable and he'd be sitting there for some stuff. But I felt like I fought his fight, but I still came out on top. So, you know, I feel good. Do you talk about this feeling?

It feels real. It feels real. It feels real. You know, we. came in here knowing that, you know, what, uh, what, uh, what, uh, what we was going to do. Yeah. How do you get to prepare for the fight? You did that message for the fight. Uh, you know, just these guys. They prepared me. Uh, your brothers. Yeah. Brother is my father. The ring four. Luke to close here. These ring cards bang. They really do. They bring it on those. You get a lot of Rick Reno.

You get a lot of cop. You got turkeys walk out, all that stuff. But of all the things that Turkey has brought, he's brought a lot of high. level paper reviews. I have to say at each of the four ring cards, man, they fucking deliver. I know. Can we put them in a place where people care about it at a time? I know. The Times Square one didn't fully deliver. Like, that was a lot of... But again, people keep trying to do it. Hey, let's put it at a weird time.

Doesn't help. Let's put it in a weird location. Doesn't help. Yeah. Put it in a sports venue at an appropriate local time. I'm with you on that. I know that they still have to do a certain amount of cards at Riyadh. I wouldn't be upset if this was an afternoon card. Like, much earlier in the afternoon. Exactly. At a bare minimum,

just put it at a time and it makes sense for the local environment. Yeah, it was tough to see like 3,000 people there and, you know, exhausted. But damn, dude, that fight card with Hamza Shahra is in the tennis stadium. That one bang. The first U-bang Ben fight fight fight was it was the first ring card. They're on to something here. I hope they continue to make these type of fight cards and match them.

That was very well done right there. All right, those are our five topics for the week. Now we get a chance for you, the listener, to get your voice heard every Sunday night on X on Instagram at morning combat is our handle. we put out the call to get your questions. This one's called DMs from the jerked-off donk. Well, that guy climaxed. That's BC on top of his date in circa 2003.

Maybe more like the mid to late 90s, you know. Or yeah, I guess 03 I had a good year too. All right, hey, this is from Hawa's famous Kelvin Telvin Kipapa. Can you talk today? You having some problem there? out of the... They're having a stroke on air there, John Fetterman? If Justin Gachie doesn't get the title shot next,

who should he fight, or does he run off to the sunset? We did touch on this earlier. Like the hooker Gachie, but that's a step down when you're on the verge of a title. Yeah, I think if you're Gachia, there's no... Why would you take that fight? Unless they were like, oh, just take it, do us a solid, and then we'll give you the title.

The Chandler's fallen off, so you don't need that series to continue. What about a trilogy with Puewewewee? Well, he's done. wait house long he's done yeah he said you only come back for the white house oh he did kind of said it recently yeah i mean i don't know uh no i i don't know i i don't know i mean he's kind of done most things in the sport yeah i mean that's that's the problem and like you've kind of seen most of these movies i wouldn't mind him fighting patty for example they're not going to do that but i wouldn't i wouldn't hate that at all what if they offered gaichi like pay-per-view money it'd be a main

event and they did it in like a stadium in england which they don't do so what am i talking about they don't do that. I mean, even like a big-ass arena, Wembley Arena in London. I think it'd be great. You'd make a shit ton of money off that gate. The problem of the question is it's like there's really not going to be any answer you can pick that would suck. It's just that the thing is a bunch of the good choices he's already been through. Yeah. And what's available is kind of interesting, but suboptimal. Okay. Let's go to the next one here. This is from at Dre today. Well, with Dylan Danes seemingly having no future with the UFC following that 322 brawl,

how do you think he fares against the top talent in the PFL? Does he beat any of the top five welterweights or middleweights under the PFL ban? Well, let's see. And what, Dylan has two fights in Bellator, one MMA fight on the Misfits brand. But that's it over this. Okay, let me read you the top rankings of the guys in BFL. Magamad Umalatov.

He ain't beaten him. 18 and 1. Stephen the ass-kicking machine, Jackson. He ain't beaten him. It's not Stephen. What I say, Jason? Jesus, Jason, what the fuck? I mean, are you?

My brain's not working now either. Thad Gene, maybe if you could wrestle him down, which I don't think he could. Dude, he doesn't fight. We're giving him too much credit. He doesn't fight. Shamil Musayev, you're not beating him.

Logan Storley, you're not beating him. Andre Koreshkov, you're not beating him. And then it drops off after that, BC. Florim Zendeli, Omar L. Defrawi. Again, I'm sure I'm saying that wrong. Please forgive me. Mukham and Burkamov, who has been caoed viciously a couple times.

Chris Kosak Mixen. And that's the top 10. Maybe outside of the top 10, there's something there. But among anyone who's got a name, no, he would get fucking smoked. If this was like 2009 UFC, they'd bring him in right now and feed him to somebody that would kill him. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. They would see him punk him. He would be a valuable CM Punk. You mentioned PFL quickly. They have added Dakota Ditchiva versus former Bellator fighter Denise Kielholz on that Usman or Magamatov title defense card in February Road to Dubai. Does that entertain? Sure.

Denise is a good judoka. Just gave birth. Yeah, I mean, I was going to say, I don't know if it's the toughest test for Dichiva, but they got to get a name and yeah. All right, there you go. Hey, let's go to the next question from our viewers. This is from at custom underscore reality, which current champion will be the first to lose their belt from a defeat as opposed to an assassination? or just giving it up um which champion are they talking about ufc

urn oh oh yeah durn durn against wayley no against uh even um you're like against anyone in there swarez all right what about the next paper view in a you know almost two weeks i mean you could i i don't think marab's going to lose one never knows he's not fighting a chump yon was had a broken hand in the first one marab is always hurt though everything right so i'm going to pick marob i will say if josh van wins you know there's your answer obviously um are you picking van to win again there's a part of me i keep waiting for the train to fall of the tracks because of all

the damage that bentoja's taken you think volk is vulnerable right now in that division yes a little bit what is it lorone well can evlo have beat him he's got a step on not by not by taking advantage of his chin but yes he can beat him okay okay that could be it too um yeah i don't know I mean, those are good options. Those are good options right there. I mean, I don't think they're going to make the arm and fight next. They should. Tom Aspinall was the next to lose a USC title.

Wouldn't surprise me. You know what I mean? Fighting like that, it's going to get you killed. Okay, that is true. Who else you got here, Chin? What we got from? Matt Flannels and Jitz, our guy. Based on the current state of the heavyweight division,

how many fights will it take for Gable Stevenson, who last night, by the way, improved to 2-0 officially in MMA, he did have that dirty boxing fight in between. How many fights will it take? for him to make his UFC debut. We know there's a great chance will be on the White House card.

Will he get a Dana White Contender Series fight before then? He's technically 2-0. He destroyed some dude last night. He punched him. The dude was knocked out and falling, and then he took him down as the dude was falling. Matt Brown thinks he'll be

UFC champion within a year. I mean, he's ridiculously athletic. He's so much more athletic than anyone else on that roster. Tom Aspinall and Cyril Gaon included. John Jones as a coach is a wild card, but is also, not nothing, right? Not a very reliable coach,

but nevertheless, probably has some skills to share. Dude, Gabel Steven's going to be UFC champion. It's just a matter of time. I don't know if it'll be, I don't know if it'll be 2026, but if not, it'll be 2027. Like, it's, it's coming.

All right, I say Long Island, Luke, I say he will have one day in a white contender series fight and then debut at the White House. You? I think he doesn't do contender series. I think either he has another, like LFA, Anthony Pettis fight on the regional scene and then he goes to the UFC

or they give him someone kind of easy in his UFC debut and then they... So here's the thing. They might make him do the contender series, not because he needs it, but just to promote contender series. Oh, we've got the Bow-Nickel treatment. Yeah, exactly. They kind of punted on that this season, though. They didn't promote

any of them. Like, years prior, we had Greg Hardy, we had Antonina Schifchenko. You know, we had names. Oh, yeah, we just haven't had that in the last couple of seasons. Now she's flying. Well, yeah, now they've got one, you know? Do you think Pavel was the father? I'm not getting into that. Okay, let's go to the next question here from at World's Worst Hero.

How brutal, come on, how brutal of a beating is Jose Young's going to put on BC on main card minutes prop quiz championship? So I won the Gracie versus Hughes, indeed. That's what I've compared it to. Of them, my up against that, I'm asking you folks. So a reminder for Long Island Luke show, I won season one. Jose Young's won season two, but set records after records and put it. it on people. Although Danny Segura, underratedly, in a super fight

against Jose Young's like... Danny's got hands. And then Bain upset Braun. I thought Bronstetter was going to go all the way in that bracket. What are the odds right now? We're filming it this week. Are we not Long Island? We are. I got to, I mean, Jose has to be the favorite. Sorry, B.C., but I'll put Jose at like minus

250 and you're like a plus 200. Considering I want a lot of my matchups on vibes or just playing the rules of the game to my favor or just, I don't know, getting lucky, Luke? And the fact that Jose Young's has been dominating is the Gracie Hughes fight, the good comparison, where I'm the old world. I'm the best of the old world style of doing it. But once they figured it out and they brought in a real ringer,

here's what I'll say, put the camera on me before I get Luke Santer, all right? Jose Youngs, I've heard what you said, that I wouldn't have beaten any of those guys that you took out in the bracket. But the thing is, I do believe. in miracles. I do believe in upset women. I've seen them. I've been a part of them. I've caused them. I'll play you heads up. Provided that Long Island Luke puts in a shot clock and doesn't give you 15 minutes to rack your brain and go through every fight you've

ever seen in history and then provide the answer for 500 points. If we're playing under real rules, we put real recall on the line, the same recall that's slipping every single day I get older, as long as you'll play me straight up like that, don't count them chicken, all right? All right? Because like RFK sexting, the harvest, baby. Like Andre Berto, the harvest, it's coming. Dude, I didn't, I couldn't think RFK could get grosser as a human.

And then you read his sexts and you're like, this is the worst. He's Osama bin Laden to me now. Luke can I beat Jose Youngs you've seen have you seen how good he is have you he's great I mean respect to Jose Youngs he's great at this I mean I am not especially impressed by having great knowledge of Apex preliminary card fights so I've not watched not just Apex though it is like the recall of like at one UFC 178 this guy won the main event but who is in the co-mate event this is not a body of knowledge I find very valuable for understanding but am I am I wrong to put up a fight and say you look look the seasons are over the tournaments are over this is a super fight. Put on a damn shot clock. I agree with that. Power's that be. Can we get one? Every game show has a shot clock, every single one.

We'll have a 10 second shot clock that I'll put up if I feel like it's been too long. There's not going to be like 30 seconds each time. You know what you should do? You should play chess, not checkers. He doesn't know when he's going to press that 10 second clock. It could be he'll wait 20 seconds. It could be when he waits 45, right? Because the guy

can milk it and then get an extra 10. I know what you should do. is get some kind of on-screen thing where if he's... Should I text him nude pictures of men while all the game's going on? You can do the dongs you can do, but what I was thinking was

just get some kind of thing on screen like a flag you can wave that indicates, hey, clock's ticking fuck-o. That puts the pressure on him to hit the 10th second button. That's actually a great idea. One more time, put the camera on me, please. Jose.

There was a real battle of Youngs versus Old. Real battle of Youngs versus Old. And you thought, you thought this was going to be Gracie Hughes Part 2 But I want to remind you of another fight That people thought would go a certain way It was called Tito Ortiz versus Ryan Bader Don't give me a chance to dig that grave afterwards

All right You're a master Bader By the way I've had very Tito Ortiz like speech moments on today's show Have I not? Yeah, you've had the worst show I've ever seen you have All right, thank you very much Any more of these questions from the people?

No, that's it. All right, those are your... All right, I want to see some feces. morning combat at gml.com is your email address to reach out friday fan subs uh normally friday fan subs and dead wrongs don't forget that this friday black friday we're going to have a special mailbag episodes so send in your video 60 seconds or less morning combat at gmail dot com every sunday i scour the globe though for the highs and lows the good the bad the ugly and the in between in the world of combat sports and beyond in a viral video segment meant to touch unprofessionally the feel spot of Luke Thomas and create real emotion. Have you seen this shit? Luke, it's UFC cutter, say it, Mariano. The Cutter, the Cutter.

Buff and Cuckpicks, Luke, this could be us, but you're playing, right? I fucking hated this. This is lame. This is cringe. Stop. Stop. Stop. All parties?

First of all parties, stop. Stop fucking touching Bruce Buffer. Yes. Who, by the way, by the way, I don't know if anyone's noticed, he no longer wears dress shoes. He now wears sneakers. And I'm sure they're very nice sneakers. And I don't even hate him for it. My dad wore, my dad wore tennis shoes to my fucking wedding.

Some numbers. It didn't matter. Oh, what's the new one? Hocus. He's rocking hocus. He's wearing the hocus. But, dude, touching him and bringing him to the forehead. I get that you're jazzed.

Who's going to be the first to go, like, dong to dong with Bruce? Yeah, get behind him and like, yeah. Yeah, rocket. Stop fucking touching him. Fucking stop. It's so terrible. Also in Qatar this week. How about pound for pound King Islam Mahachev getting the skyscraper building treatment?

Dude, that's pretty cool, right? Yeah, he seems non-plus. He loves it. This is great. And they put P for P on there? Brother. Brother. Yeah, there you go.

I love that. All right, let's keep it going here. UFC debutante Luke Riley. He got a nice K-O. And he got a 50K bonus. us on this FaceTime from Hunter. The dad. Did you see his celebration in the Octagon?

Let's get a caged side view of this. First, it was, let me hug my son. Love to see this moment, right? All father's sons love this, Bushito. We love it. I've never had a moment like that with my dad ever in my life. But then he's like, yo, Parumpa. Pahumpa.

Pahumpa. Pahumpa. Oh! Sidewalk slam, baby. Let's go. Was that an R.K.O? I don't know what that was. It looked pretty good.

Hey, Chris Wythman is still my son, all right? That's still my boy. I never had a moment like that, my father was. All right, baby, one day. Speaking of Saryuky and Big Weekend for him, he's known for his Instagram eating exploits, and he was eaten good after winning in Qatar. This is a camel feast. I was thinking about this.

Let me ask a question. What is the most exotic animal you've ever eaten? Most gamey, unusual. Not that exotic, right? Octopus. You should never be an octopus. They're super sentient beings. I threw up four hours later when I did.

I haven't. I'm not that. What about you, Long Island? What's the gamiest food? I was going to say kangaroo, I guess. You've had kangaroo? Yeah, brother. He's a son of an Ozzy.

What is that like? Pest the sugar. It just tastes like chicken. Really? Yeah. I had Rattlesnake once. What did it taste like, Luke? It was not good.

It was almost like, it was the consistency was so shit. It was almost like beef jerky, even though it was not made that way, the way I ate it. It was not. I don't recommend rattlesnake. It reminds me of Chris Rock where he's like, you're eating ass. Do you know you're eating ass? you're sucking D, man. You know it.

I think I botched that, but, you know, it was well done. This is, I'm not kidding. This is the worst MK you've ever had. I was on a roll until that moment, look, okay. Sharukin would top the camel meal on the private plane ride home, Luke, because he's not hard up for money with little Mickey D's.

That's about the most relatable thing about him, can I be honest? My man loves McDonald's and like, he's always going to like in and out and ordering like 10 burgers. And last month for his birthday, Aviator sent him this massive cake. Let's see if Celine jumps out, Luke. Is it cake?

Is it real? It looks real to me. Yeah, he's cutting cake, though. Yeah. He's not cutting TV remotes and window panes. Yeah. But look at the size of the slice he's putting together. I mean, would you eat that aviator cake with him?

No. I mean, it looks delicious. I don't know what kind of cake it is, but. All right. Would you sleep with Celine on top of that cake? Wow. Wow. Wow.

Get after that. Okay. He's got the, he's got the, You know what? It looks like the frosting on top is that fondant. Yeah. I don't like that as much. Me neither. It tastes a little off. Speaking of cake lady, she's back, Luke. Let's check it out this week. Yeah, here she is.

Just eating trash. You fucking gilly, Billy goat-ass bitch. You think that's... Why don't you eat some more trash, you fucking... You think that's plastic? It's not, Luke. It's cake. Here we go. Oh, yeah. Just eat that shit. There you go. Just... Okay. Yeah, you fucking gross ass. Oh, yeah. Why don't you eat your hair?

She's got to get an only fan. Eat your hair. That happened. Okay, there you go. All right. Speaking of ridiculous things, Jake Paul, Anthony Joshua had the face off ahead of their big December Netflix about wow. Wow. Wow. He's going to get fucking killed, right? I know. I don't really understand it anymore. I'm going to be honest. I mean, you give him the credit. Like, dude, you got balls. You got balls. Ask Ken and Adir. What do you think is going to happen to Jake Paul? What's the casual's interpretation of this? What do they think? Can you put Ken on the microphone here, please? He doesn't have to. No, we don't have to make him go along. All right. what is what are they saying nadir thinks it's paid off and that jake is going to win i see a lot of that and then ken same thing yeah ken's like i think i think i'll be high yeah they're both they're both high on drugs right now okay uh luke let's go to the n hl rink yeah check out what happened in the front row here luke check out the lady in the red shirt so we got the avalanche and the rangers playing oh boy okay that's a fully luke yes uh that lady is marriage material just showing

some titty something fight on the glass uh luke you know by the way people don't realize this so who was the guy who our baby got back who was that Sir Mix a lot right yes yes do you remember his second hit no okay this is a true story I didn't know about this doll did he did it was called put him on the glass and the whole video was girls with big ass tities putting them on glass and then hold on and then washing cars and then they was shot on the inside of the windshield put him on the glass girl look uh we have great sponsors on this show we have great sponsors on the show. We used to have a great sponsor with some green healthy juice. Is there anything you

won't promote? There's a lot of things that I turned down. Okay, condoms? We've never been offered condoms, have we? Let's check. I mean, I wouldn't use them. Let's check in on Zufo Boxing Super Prospect Callum Walsh, Luke. Some may just wrap their heads. Kellam Walshrabs.

If your hands aren't wrapped right, you're not comfortable. If you're not comfortable, you're not ready. And if you're not ready, you get knocked. I've teamed up with Trojan to show how their non-latex goat condoms offer comfort outside of the ring, which helped me perform inside the ring. That's why I don't cut corners, not in the gym, and definitely not anywhere else. Callum Wolff chooses the softest and respects.

A real fighter goes raw dog. Dude, condoms are terrible. Those are goat condoms there. You got to, you know, like a fighter, you got to wrap and prepare. Brother, I'm not bringing another animal into my... sexual relations with my wife goat. So you're saying that goats and sharks aren't compatible? Just get

pregnant. Just, you know. Okay. All right. Condoms are terrible. New segment alert, is this art or we are? Is art art? I'm going to show you something that could be art. You just tell me art or fart, Luke. You ready? This is an art display of Wippet canisters for the holiday season. Definitely

art. Yes, yes. Let's go to this painting. I wish I could paint like this. I got this Reggie Jackson portion. Holy shit. that's art yeah hell yeah shout out to that person there and then finally uh you can bring art to the habachi table as well is this art okay he's putting the bean sprouts on the crotch he put the knife as the dog can i take something i went to fogo to chow recently you've been there uh once in las vegas you ever been there long island you've been to fogo to chow i think

this is probably the fourth time you've asked me this on I've never been to that one. I've been to the, what's the, it's not that money. I mean, it's expensive. I know, I've never been to Fogo de Chal. I've been to Tejas de Brazil, whatever that one is. That's a, I don't know if I've been to that one. Don't they make, like, don't they make like cookware? Anyway, it doesn't matter. Dude, the food is like good. It's not bad, but it's not great. And it's just a bunch of it. It's like, maybe serve me less food, but actually make it killer rather than making it like decent, but then give me a shitload of it. Okay. I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud. Let's go back to an oldie but goodie.

here's rate that tat time i need a one to ten ranking here luke ufc theme check out this bisping tat use both eyes if you can that's like a blink 182 bisping combination with that logo in the top of rank that shit that is an extremely high level tattoo that's a that's a nine and a half out of time oh nice let's see if we can beat that rating on the next one one of my favorite movies luke dune uh not as interesting to me but awesome look it's well done it i i think conceptually with the blue stuff smoking out of their eyes. I get it. I've seen the movie. It's a great movie. It's cool scene at the end there when he beats non-Rotha, whatever his name was.

Spoiler alert. Yeah, but I don't love this tattoo as much. Oh, wow. What's your score? Eight and a half. Okay, let's go to our final one involving scissors look. That's a 10. I'd love to see the inspiration for this. That's the 10. All right, it's dad of the year time.

Check out this Mets fan. who protects all the kids from the flying bat. Yo. Just, just mutumboed that shit. That's a 10 out of 10 dad. That's what I'm talking about. And he kept the beer. And he kept the beer.

Yep, well done there. Well done. Very well done. Speaking of being a dad, never forget what the late Kurt Cobain said about fatherhood. Do you like fatherhood? vodka? Yes, I love vodka. That's me on every Friday night.

Yeah. being a dad. Sorry, did you say glad to be at the bar? Yeah. Luke, we'll bring back the Bill's Mafia because they love hurting themselves here. Let's watch this fella. Bill's Mafia, the dumbest motherfuckers. Oh!

You just watch, you know! Well, that's just Darwin award shit right there. Yeah. You fuck Bill's Mafia. Your facial hair of the week. New idea for the Augustine crew, the throaty. You know that? Send him to jail, please.

Send him this motherfucker to jail. All right, all right. Luke Barstools, Caleb Presley, created the ultimate tag team, team up here. Did you see this? Watch it. You have a situation that no one in the world can relate to. You're one of one.

Yeah. As you move forward into the future, I wish I could be the one to help you. But I can't. There's only one man in the world. Who's that man? Who I think knows what you're going through. I want to introduce you to somebody.

A doctor who would hold weight loss? A small introduction. Hasbullah? Al-a-a-a-a-a-l-l-a-l-lakem. Hasbullah. Thank you. Here, we take it from here. He's all yours.

Thank you. You didn't see the training scenes Of them doing like boxing work in the in like the ring I've not seen any of my god it was What a what a meet up right there that is the bringing stars together That dude Kayla Presley's funny He is Hatsbulla had a huge week though

Watch him throwing knives You know of his marksmanship here? Are we back to doing Hasbola content? Yes we are He also squared off with Ali Abdel Aziz This is this is This is Ray Flores' moment. Ray Flores' loves...

Hussbola. Loves him. Here's Ali versus Habsbullah. Come. Let's form. Right. Amman, no, it's not a gole.

Amman's no. Oh, wow. Wow. Look, if we can go into business together one day, I got a great restaurant. idea. Okay. Oral buffet. Okay. Luke is time. By the way, are they still calling restaurants Oriental?

Yeah, because Oriental is like... The Orient is everything from the Arab world all the way over. Right. So you can call a rug in Oriental rug. You can call items. I was told by an Asian woman one time when I accidentally said that in like 2001. But the problem is not so much that it's racist as it's just unclear. True. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Luke, M. M.M.A. in the wild time. How about Ethan Ewing going back to the job site in California? Great stuff. Fuck yeah, Ethan.

All right. So let me ask you a question. There are complaints that this is poverty porn. I mean, they don't make a lot, Lou. Well, no, no, no, get that off the screen because they'll take it down. Is it poverty porn to celebrate stuff like that? No. The guy went, the guy is a hard worker.

Don't misunderstand me. I am glad to see him celebrated. What I'm saying is the fan base kind of, and all of us do it to an extent, reflexively cheer this kind of stuff. But like when you're actually thinking about it, are you cheering a pay structure that makes this kind of aspirational stuff

a little harder to enjoy? Are you saying Dana shouldn't do a series with Netflix about his gambling? Yeah, probably. Okay, there you. All right. Let's continue the theme. Check out CM Punk, former UFC fighters,

basketball skills, Luke. What do you think? That's him? That's him. Well, that's the worst shot ever made. That's not too bad, but it goes from there. Would he have beaten us when we did our one-on-one? No, I would crush him one-on-one.

Absolutely. I won that one, by the way. You don't have proof that you beat me in a free throw challenge you because I have eyewitnesses. You'll never see the footage, apparently. That's also true. This is not good. Wow.

This is, uh, man, I can't believe a guy with mechanics this lights out would miss so many times. Let's keep it going here. Here's Daniel Cormier, who, You know I love some D.C. Okay. Well, that's inappropriate in the workforce. I mean. And how about Mick Tebeck Orobal?

Oral by. Oroby. Out here doing a reverse Jedmishu. Did you see this? Yes, I have a law degree. I'm a lawyer. I already finished university, but I haven't worked yet. I have a goal right now, and that is to get a UFC title.

Once I get my UFC title, then I'm going to pursue my career as a lawyer. lawyer. Can you imagine your lawyer being like doing fisticuffs like this fucking guy? Can you imagine your MMA writer being a lawyer? I have a law degree and not using it. That's, this is wild here, right? All right. A couple more, Luke.

You ever wonder what your first sip of beer would be like? How about your first sip of it makes you a man? All right. You want to try your first sip of monster? Sure. What do you think? Wow. This makes me want to do construction and beat my girlfriend.

Okay. The official drink of the Octagon. There you go, Luke. All right, very good. Awkward waiter moment. You do have to be careful in restaurants. Oh, my God. Oh, my gosh.

I don't even know what you do when that happens. Like, how do you follow that? What do you say next? These sketches are not that interesting. All right. Look, finally, you know, we always had PSAs growing up not to do drugs. You and me for a reason. Let's watch this great one.

Think marijuana is harmless? Yes. There you go. Oh, there you go. No, no. Think again. Is that a real fucking ad? Don't do drugs, kids.

That's all the shit I got for this week. What do we got? I've done marijuana a lot. That's never happened. Not yet. Yeah, Luke. Where I fargo myself. You know what I mean?

I mean, that's like a B. That's a B plus. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. There's some good ones in there. Only right here on morning combat. All right. You already know about reaching the show. Morningcombat at gmail.com.

Please jump in, get ready for our Black Friday special mailbag edition of this show. We're going to record it on Wednesday. Get your video questions, your audio questions in 60 seconds or less. Thank you so much. Reminder about our merch, our merch, morningcombat. Dot Store, November exclusive, still available until they are gone. Mix and match the colors. We have plenty of evergreen items for the holidays, getting autographed Combat Buddies poster.

How about that new dripping red button? blood carry logo. Get it in hoodie. Get it in a t-shirt. Get it all while it's still there at morningcombat. Dot shop. We're going to have a Wednesday to Sunday.

Check out the website. We're going to have a big special coming up. Check that out of as well. Luke, do anything else you want to say here? Mailback. Morningcombat at gmail.com. One more reminder. You can text.

Were you not here the last four minutes of the show? I like to double, triple hammer at home. more time. You can text. You can do audio clip. You can do a video clip. If you're going to send us a clip 30 seconds or excuse me, I'm sorry, 60 seconds or less, 60 seconds or less, which is how long BC lasted on his wedding night, 60 seconds or less. All right. All right. Thank you. Anybody else want to give that read? Long Island Luke, thank you for your contributions to the show today. Are you live streaming Thanksgiving, but any chance? No, I was going to do the family Thanksgiving, but what are you doing to ignore your girlfriend this weekend? Nothing, because there's no combat sports.

So, you know, I'm going to be a good boyfriend this week. We'll have prop quiz on Friday, other than that, no other content. You're going to wish me luck in my matchup with Jose Young's? I hope you win. But if you are, hoist Gracie, in this equation, you're about to get your fucking ass beat. Oh, wow. Okay. Tune in soon.

When will that air? When will that air? I'm going to do it Friday after our pre-recorded M.K. Oh, okay. So, like, 1.30. Big week. Big week for that stuff. He's using M.K. as, like, the lead-in program.

Yeah. For all you great Americans out there, all you patriots, happy Thanksgiving to you this week. For all of our foreign fans, we got nothing for you, but love. Okay, so thank you for joining as well. For the great team in the back, Ken, Nadir, Long Island, Luke, Matt Snyder, we love that guy, too. There's like one guy sober in this entire studio. Yeah, it's definitely mad. Unless he broke out the Mezcal.

He's a big, snobby Mezcal guy. For Luke Thomas, I'm your boy, B. Sizzle. Thanks for playing. Happy holidays for you. Take care. Enjoy your family time. Food, friends, football, all that good stuff. Fucking.

Yeah, yeah, we out, yeah. This is an IHeart podcast, Guaranteed human.