MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Rio: Oliveira vs Gamrot Preview | McGregor Suspended 18 Months | DWCS FOTY???

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

The fellas are ready to take you into the weekend of combat sports with a preview of UFC Rio - Charles Oliveira vs. Mateusz Gamrot. Conor McGregor was in the news again as he accepted an 18-month doping suspension for repeated testing failures. Plus some news on the boxing front as David Benavidez shot down a fight with Terence Crawford at 168 and the International Boxing HOF ballot spurs Gennadiy Golovkin. Happy Friday, Donks!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Revely, Revely. Look at us now, tip to tip. Oh, Jesus. Oh, ha. Shout for more in combat. Do you want a margarita? Yes!

Oh, my God. It's us doing what we love. Two, three, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, directly into your facehole. Get fired up. Rarely there when you call and almost never on time. It's morning combat Friday, October 10th, 2000 and 25.

Let's get ready. Let's get fired up for UFC heel. Brian Campbell and the chair here from the Hartford, Connecticut suburbs next to me is the most honest man in all of D.C. And maybe the only one. Hey, it's Luke Thomas. How are you? It's a pretty low bar, but

it may or may not qualify. What's up, dude? How are you doing? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's Friday. Most of our viewers are not employed. That's definitely for sure. So they ain't got shit to do. So, you know, we'll raise a glass of the OG, the AG, the AG one. And then

we'll do this show. Yeah. I mean, that's where we're at. you know combat is in a little bit of a lull i mean boxing's dead what the hell's going on with i don't here's what i don't understand like what has happened okay 2023 an insane year 24 a very good year not as good as 2023 but by no means a bad year by the way 21 and 22 coming out of the pandemic we're also very very right right right so there's this like long kind of streak we're like even at a bare minimum bc if you're not getting like primo fights it was busy enough with like the sub-premo but also kind of cool stuff that just kind of had a steady clip and now

I just feel like either Usik is fighting Jake Paul is fighting or nothing is happening. It's insane. Maybe it's the calm before the storm of what next year looks like with the launch of Zufa, turkey taking, oh, I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know what they expect anymore. But yeah, that's where we're at. Hey, what's the next fight you're calling? next Saturday I'll be on the call with the great Chris Algeri Andre Beirno Teofima Lopez and Ock to call Danny Garcia's pay-per-view retirement fight at the Barclays and then the week

Whoa, whoa, hey, thank you very much And then the week after that I'll be in Vegas for the PBC Fondora Thurman pay-per-view I'll be on that broadcast as well Keith Thurman is about to take a beaten We'll see what happens there. You know you do never know but thank you, American boxing. I'll still cash your checks.

Appreciate that very much. Hey, this episode of Morning Combat presented by Draft Kings. Hey, Draft Kings, the crowd is yours. Thank you very much. Shout out to all of our viewers, listeners, the audio only folks, the Just Bleed crew over there at JBR Radio,

and, you know, the wives of the diehard men who forced them to inhale the Dutch oven-like sense of this show. Thank you as well. We would like to have you follow, like, and subscribe this great program. Support our extended YouTube channels, substacks, and various prop quiz shows. And also, there you go. Those are our social handles below. And hey, how about merch? How about it, folks? You want to just like me? You want Luke Thomas on your nip? Then why don't you, well, I don't know if that's

available anymore, but why don't you go to morningcombat.combat. Shop and grab a little bit of that October exclusives. Super Wash Dad's T-shirts available just for this month. And how about the average Joe are? Halloween special, Franken Luke and Donkula. Get it in T-shirt. Get it in autographed posters.

Mix and match the colors. Evergreen items available. Hey, it's morningcombat. Shop. You can look as good in a tight t-shirt as Saulul over there in Louisville. All right. So that's what I'm talking about. Why don't you get this while the get in is good?

Okay, all right. Thank you very much. LT, do you have anything to report about your life? Your liberty, your pursuit of happiness, if you will. Got children's parties this weekend. I've got to take Tewkstra to. Weather is phenomenal. It finally turned a little like, you know, you got to put the heat on at night. Otherwise, it gets a little chilly in the house.

Wet shirt is in his here, Luke. Let's go. Let's go. Fall is, I don't give a shit what anybody says. is the king. I mean, maybe people agree with that. But it's, to me, it's the king of seasons. It's the king. Like, there's nothing better than fall. Yeah. Yeah. I'll, I'll back you on that. It's the chasey lane of the 90s, if you know where I'm going. All right. Thank you very much. Yeah. I'd like you all to say hi to the third member of our team and aspiring podcast hosts in his own right. But for us, he's a director, producer, and bong enthusiast. And you already know about his dad, right? Yeah, it's look, Nocita of Australian father fame. How are you? of Australian father fame.

There you go. What's up guys? Got a new prop quiz dropping after this episode. Chuck Mindenhall versus Aaron Bronstetter. It's a banger of an episode. Wow.

That's a tough one. Friends of the program. Okay, so what's the new structure? Because I'm the defending season one champion. Do I get to defend this title or what? Yeah, we're trying to just figure out who's the next title challenger. And I will just say,

Ben the Bain had a new high score last week, new high score this week. So perhaps there's even a newer challenger for you, B.C. I can you think I can accidentally beat ben the bane I think you could yeah all right all right all right thank you very much long out look we got a fun show for you today um shout to reggie jackson

just flew by uh we are looking i got to let him out in a second we are we're going to preview ufc heo we are going to look back at a fight of the year contender from the tuesday night dana white contender series mix around in the box a little bit and then close of course with your dead wrongs and your fan submissions on this Friday. But without further ado, let's bang, Tewy. Hold on.

Can you give me 60 seconds so I can address Tewster and potentially throw her out the window because I told her not to disturb. Well, let's keep her going, all right? She's had a good run. Give me 60 seconds, okay. No problem. All right.

They put the camera on me. Thank you very much. Look at this. Look at this right here. Oh, seriously, folks, great to have you here. I know I haven't Bcxed you in your face hole in a while. I've been a busy man, but I hope all these listeners out there are doing well. Well, now, look, you live streaming shit this weekend or what?

Yeah, I'll be doing a full card watch along for Hio, baby. Let's go. All right. Let's see Hio in the house, yeah. I was going to say, it's really only three good fights on the car. At least, you know, three fights on paper that look good, but it should be fun time. You know, say what you will about Chuckie Olives, this new nickname, the predator, way better than Lollienda, right? It's a little suss.

Also, yeah, like Ilya, dude, you can't change your own nickname. Come on, do Bronx. That's one of the most classic nicknames there is. Yeah, I know. I know. What is the purpose behind this? It's just to resurrect himself similar to the gray hair dye? I have no idea, but L.T. is better.

All right. We got Luke Thomas here. Can we get an update on Tuki's probability of rushing in the show, Reggie Jackson style? Jesus. It's like literally, okay, when I close the door, do you have everything you need? Yes. She's home from school today because there's, like, I don't know what it is, not teacher appreciation, but like they're teachers development.

Yeah, whatever. All in the back. Like, so they're off like today and Monday as well. So that's amazing. And so we did a bunch of school homework before. I'm trying to get her all set up for it. And I gave her all this checklist. Like, here's everything you need once this door closes.

Cool, cool. Daddy, can you open this for me? And it was a thing of yogurt. I'm like, oh, my God. Yeah, but she's welcomed on this program. Look, just let just open the door, let it happen. All right, there we go. All right, here we go.

Hey, it's time for topic number one to get you fired up for the weekend. And our first topic is this weekend's offering from the UFC. It goes down Saturday in the first return here to Brazil. It feels like in a while, maybe I'm wrong on here. Definitely the first time Charles Olivera is going to fight in front of a live Brazilian crowd since 2019. And the main event of UFC Fight Night Rio, originally Oliver was going to face Raphael Fazeva, knee injury, pulled him out, but we have a rising hungry Mateus Gamrod in his place.

And this UFC Keo preview is brought to you by Total Wireless, the official wireless provider of UFC, get unlimited data that won't slow you down. So Luke, while you were away, we were talking about a new nickname for Charles Olivera, the predator, and the soon-to-be 36-year-old puts his 17-0 lifetime record inside his native country of Brazil on the line against a Mateus Camrod who has won four of five and is ranked eighth compared to the number four Olivera. What is the biggest challenge stylistically that Oliver will face against Gamrot considering here, Olivera is just four months removed from being knocked out for the first and only time in his 47 fight career? I mean, this one is

interesting, right? Because if this fight was before the Ilya fight, meaning he hadn't lost and he hadn't lost via CO, I don't think there's any world where anyone would even consider Gamrod having much of a chance short of just stalling him out, right? Where you could take him down, you could follow the Armin-Saurukian game plan and kind of work from there. Now, there's a couple problems with that is that now on the one hand, I still think that one thing you're looking at here if you're Gamrod is, again, I'm not saying he's intentionally looking to stall, but he might be looking to get to positions that without further development lead to stalling, right? These are stalemate ready positions. That's the thing I think you have to keep in mind

no matter what. But the interesting part is, B.C., on the feet, I think Gamrot's stand-up has gotten better. I don't think it's as good as Olivares. But, But between that and potential susceptibility on the ground to ground and pound, which Gamrod also doesn't have like overwhelming ground and pound. Like the circumstances are where in a normal scenario, you'd look at this and be like, okay, there are ways Gamrock could win, but this is Olivares fight to lose. Sure.

And now you look at it and you say, okay, well, I can still see the contours of that. But the major questions lingering over Olivera, punch resistance on the ground, punch resistance standing, change it to such a degree where now it becomes like well I don't know is this a coin flip it kind of feels like it might be well draft wise or sorry odds wise from our friends at draft kings it has been a virtual coin flip all week but as we stand right now

it literally is minus 110 olivera minus 110 gamrod exactly and look if it was prime for prime if this was three years ago when olivera was riding an 11 fight win streak The champion had a name that was Doe Bronx, and he was, you know, on the verge of creating chaos and finishing every single person that stands across from him. We would have a different prediction, but you nailed it. It's the knockout four months ago. He'll be 36 in about seven or eight days. Now you've got a Gamrot who is like aggressively streaking.

And what I mean by that, Luke, is we're not going to play the video because I think UFC would copyright it. But in one of their pre-fight sort of documentary things for this specific fight, You know, it shows Gamrot literally living at American Top Team in South Florida in a dorm room above the fighting area, you know, living and breathing this at age 34, he already knows what I'm about to say that his time is now to truly make a run. He's won four or five. The only loss was by split decision to Dan Hooker. And this is suddenly falling into his lap a huge opportunity that he went out of his way to publicly campaign for. he didn't have to get ready he is ready and i think that's a very dangerous equation for charles olivera which is why the odds are exactly where they're at right now this will

be though charles olivera back at home first time since 2020 first time for a live crowd since 2019 i mentioned that 17 and o record in brazil and check out this reaction when he came down the elevators to his public workout Damn it! Damn. And Long Island Luke reminded me that the last UFC event in Brazil that the last UFC event in Brazil was UFC. 3.01, the pay-per-view back in

2004. Luke, some people believe we're walking into, I mean, even some people are believing that this could be a retirement bout for Olavera. I don't believe that. We'll get into that topic in a second, but at the very least, this could be a humbling moment, or that home crowd

could buoy, buoy, boyie, buoy, could buoy his chances. We've seen it before into an emotional, spectacular performance. Does Gamrod specifically have the kind of skills that can be an anti to what Oliver does best. Create chaos, make it emotional, and shine through that because he's the guy that will show up

at your college keg party and leave with your girlfriend. I mean, what's interesting to me is like what Gamrod is up against here. Obviously, you just play this video, but everyone who knows, like the Brazilian fans are nationals. You know what I mean? Like they're extremely pro-Brazilian. And Charles is obviously even among their general preference. for cheering for their own countrymen. Charles is a special figure even among that.

So like this is, you know, Gamrod is walking into the mouth of the lion's den here. Something to think about, too, is what that might mean to see if it goes to a decision, which I feel like is unlikely. I just feel like there's no way it goes, the full freight. But, you know, if it does, the fact that there's going to be like a cheering crowd

specifically just for Charles and nothing for Gamrod. Could play a role. Anyway, here's the point I'm trying to make. For this fight, I really believe that Gamrot has to be aggressive here because BC, could he win by trying to play it safe, get the takedown, get to the back, hold it, busy work, just kind of neutralize and nullify what Charles does? He could do that. That's not a thing that's beyond his grasp. But I feel like if he does that, you're going to let a vulnerable guy who's still got some moxie and some willingness to go for it

to hang around way too long. I actually feel like what Gamrod has to do, whether it's in the standing or whether it's on the ground, he has to take the... I'm not saying he has to do what Poeton did at 320 BC, but something with that kind of spirit,

taking the fight right to him aggressively, putting him on the defensive, and really making him suffer as a consequence. I feel like if Gamrod tries to play this one safe in enemy territory, even with a vulnerable Charles, he will miscalculate what the goal is and end up on the losing side of things.

And I don't think he will because, you know, I referenced that video of him living at the gym, FaceTiming his wife and kids. I believe back in Poland, correct? Is that where Gamrod's from? Yes, that's right. I mean, the amount of hunger built into the lifestyle and the separation from family is palpable. I mean, the best fights ultimately are when two guys have equal amounts to prove. For Gamrot, this is about proving that although he's come close before,

although he's lost close fights and won them. Let's not forget he has that disputed decision win over Armand Sarukian, who's ahead of him at the moment in the standings. This is Gamrod's window right now. He absolutely chased this fight because he knows he's ready. But on the flip side, you have a hunger in Olavera, not just to please the hometown fans, but to make this short turnaround on four months

since getting flatlined by Toporia and to show us that he's sick of hearing about retirement. In fact, here's Olivera addressing that sickness right now in this interview this week. I also want to ask you, I've seen some people float the idea around there and asking if this could be your retirement fight. You've obviously had a lengthy career fighting at home in Rio. You know, people are wondering that. So I just want to make sure we still got Charles Olivera for a while

or could maybe this be it? What do you think? In reality, a posentaduria, I'm in the head of you, I don't, listen, this, the retirement talk comes from you guys. I never said, maybe I'm playing, maybe I'm fighting bad. And like, everyone was to be able to retire. And no moment I thought about it in no moment I thought, I thought about it either. So I'm not for the moment.

I'm not thinking about it. Luke, just to be fair about the stats, we already know Alvara is the greatest finisher and submission artist in the company's history. He's third all time and wins. And he's second in terms of active length of his career, only second to Jim Miller. This is his 15th year in the UFC, and he's entering his 48th fight. You've got to believe it's pretty remarkable if he can get a win here and stay in the elite closing in on 36 with a style that almost welcomes carnage.

Yes, although, I mean, the reason to me why it would be so impressive is if you just look at this situation, and again, the odds speak to how close it really, really is given the circumstances. The thing that I really also go back to BC is, I mean... this is the kind of fight historically someone in charles's position should not win right you've got a guy like gamrott who is okay short notice but i mean you know he's going to be ready you know he's probably going to have the cardio he's certainly going to be like a dog on a bone and no matter what it's going to be a tough guy to get out of there early even if you do get him out like if you're in for a fight when you have gamrod at least a laborious one where it comes with a lot of wrestling and scrambling so you know what you're kind of in for but the interesting part bc is you know Um, well, I kind of go back to it, I mean, a little bit earlier, it's, it's, it's, I'm kind of getting lost to my point here. I apologize. I'm just trying to sort of go back to it. It's really the kind of mentality that you've got with Gamrod. And to what extent he elects one or the other, I think it's just going to have a tremendous impact on the fight. I mean, I've already made that point. I apologize. Gamrod leads all lightweights in, uh, six landing five point three success will take downs per three rounds. Also, of course, uh, we've targeted him at times as a bit of a boring or safe fighter. He does have five post-fight bonuses in 11 U.S.D. appearances. Sorry.

Debuting in 2020, yes. I forgot. In conjunction with this, it's kind of related, B.C. Do you remember a couple of shows ago? I can't remember how long ago it was. Maybe it was last show, last Friday, where we saw a video of Gamrod getting the news that he had gotten the fight with Charles O'Fair. Gamrod is a guy that people don't want to fight.

He had a win over Sarukin at a time that was a little bit surprising he did that. And it was supposed to launch him, and it didn't. Sarukin was still just the guy that ended up kind of moving along faster. And again, that, you know, that win was could have gone either way. I understand. But the point I'm trying to make is, dude, this guy has to know if you mess this up, you know, when is the next opportunity against the main event former champion ever going to come your way? Like, you just know.

BC, am I saying this is it? It'll never happen again. That might be a little bit much. But the fact that we even have to contemplate that shows how serious this is. This is a very small window to capture a very large prize. He can't mess this one up. And I do think that will probably change, or at least affect anyway, the way that he fights. Gambrot did bounce back from that split decision lost to Hooker from last year when he took a decision from Ludvolt Klein in May of this year.

And let's not forget, he's got wins over RDA, Raphael Fazeve, Jalen Turner, Sarukian, Carlos Diego Faheda. He's done some things in this rise. I also mentioned the 5.3 successful takedowns per three-round fight. Luke, the question I was going to ask you, of course, was the potential or possibility that their contrasting ground games would cancel each other out. But we've got some sound here. And by the way, I didn't want to not mention on the last sound. Danny Seguura's mustache looks fantastic.

I mean, that's gaucho level right there. I know the- Yeah, Signor Bigote is what I call him. I mean, the ladies must be lining up to that man. Anyway, back to this. here is gamrot by the way on the ufc's unfiltered podcast with matt sarah saying basically he's not afraid to do anything on the ground with chuck matthales a lot of guys are afraid to go to the floor with charles olivera i don't think you're going to be afraid to do it oh bro jiu jitsu and wrestling is my background this is in my hair i feel in my dena like i can roll with him in the

ground. I think this is going to be epic fight in the ground for sure because I don't afraid he's in the ground. I go, I will go take him down and I'm going to try and roll with him in the ground. But bro, this is going to be all rounder fight. I want to exchange punch with him, exchange wrestling. I want to test myself against him in the ground. So this is going to be non-stop action for sure, bro. Five runs, no stop action. But maybe we don't need it fight runs you know so epic fight for sure super excited and bro i go to his hometown to brazil all brazil against me give me this energy give me this energy because i grow up with this every every bull will be power to me bro and you know what wrestling is power brother wrestling is

power pump pump control strange conditioning everything i love dude right he's had a have a cat in he can fight tomorrow jimmy yeah hey you know when look he wants to smoke and i don't know if you saw him when he showed up to his public workout and the crowd was yelling something translated to the equivalent of he's going to kill you yeah yeah you're gonna die what do you make of his words there first of all he's been saying at every interview that it will be a high-paced high-action fight you could guess that to be correct give him the circumstances and the opponent but do you think he's going to have the success on the ground that will not make this need to be a five-round kickboxing match

with the ground gains cancelling out? I mean, the thing about Gamrod is he's got incredible scrambling. That really is the reason why he was able to beat Saurukian. Like, you know, take-downs for takedowns and set-up for setup and, you know, many different components that go into a dominant wrestling game. They both are basically the same or, you know, pretty close. but it was that scrambling BC

that he was just a little bit ahead but of course that's a very different kind of control that's being exerted between Sorukian and Olavera. The question is whether Olavera, you know, I really wonder what he's going to do. I really wonder what he's going to do because I think if he tries to get behind Olavera,

then you set him up for leg entanglements and or potential backtakes. And if you get chest to chest with him, you have to deal with his guard, but that's actually much more manageable if he hasn't hurt you yet. You know, so for example, Hansen Henderson got hit in the body and then took down Pettus and then Pettus

armbard him from guard, but he was already like real hurt from a body kick. Without that, I don't really know, you know, it's, I'm just saying it's much more manageable from that position. So I think that it's how it's, it's the question of whether or not he can use his wrestling and jiu-jitsu and his scrambling to maintain control to me is I'd be surprised if he couldn't, to be honest with you, but how he chooses to do it and what kind of danger he invites is the question because BC you've seen it before guys will also for example you'll see you'll see him roll for a knee bar and then they'll try and stand and what is olivera do he grabs behind

the ankle and then goes daily heva or reverse daily heva right and now he's trying to invert he's trying to go to the back and he's got these leg entanglements that just grow like weeds on a or vines I should say on a fence if he invites that you're inviting trouble but if you go chest to chest with him Now you have to break that to really put it on him. But like, you know, as a camping point, I think that's a winnable fight. I do. Well, we're all going to be camping with him pitching a tent at the excitement in this fight on Saturday night. I wanted to quickly bring in our betting expert Long Island, Luke.

No, Cita, if you're getting plus money on Olavera at home with something to prove, that might be a different conversation. Given that this is a pick-um, how do you look at this from a betting angle? so when this dropped we mentioned the odds like a week ago it was minus 120 olivera plus 100 gamrott i jumped right on gamrod at plus money to me i feel like he should be the favorite here yeah it's a pick him right now i will feel a little fomo when and if charles becomes a dog because i'll feel like fuck i should have taken charles as a dog but i'll take whoever's plus money here so i'm riding with gamrott let's go yo i like momentum gamrots got it he's got the right attitude luke when we look at what's at stake here number four is olivera at lightweight number eight is gamrod if we're trying to look at where the

division is going we know that sarjukian will be facing dan hooker hooker excuse me coming up hucker just god look uh armin is number two right now dan hooker number six there's rumors that number three max holloway could be in the running for number seven patty pimblit and i think we're starting to come to the conclusion that maybe just maybe mid-January the first ufc on paramount car could be headlined by the champion Ilya against number five Justin Gaichi. If all of that is true, what do you

think is at stake here for the winner ultimately in this four versus eight matchup? So you can clearly Gamrot clearly trying to break into the top five. He's trying to get into orbit for a title shot. I don't think that's in any way of some kind of mystery. On the other side, for Olavera,

I think obviously he would, yes, mathematically He would probably drop out of the top five, but it's a little bit more than that, right? To get brutally finished in the way that he did against Deporia, come back in an inadvisable timeline and under this scenario, also lose to Gamrod. And let's just say something, BC, what if Gamrod pounds him out? Like, that is a really bad loss. That would be kind of, you know, I mean, truly adding insult to injury at that point. You'd be clearly out of the top five. And I think most folks would then say, you know, not incapable of giving people a tough fight on the right day.

But that's where you're sort of at, like, Benil Daryush territory, you know, good fighters, certainly, but, and gives the tough ones, sometimes from really, Gabe Gamrod, for example, a really tough fight. But at the same time, you know, just can't quite get over the hump because he's sort of like always floating on that bubble. You'd have descended back down to that part of the, of the division, which he hasn't been a part of in quite some time, BC. So this is like holding on to what you've got in a significant way. Dude, Olavera, he wanted to compete in Brazil, he wanted to be here in front of it. people i make no judgments about the desire to do that but on the timeline he did it he is just courting significant risk if he gets grinded out bc and it's like the sarjukian fight where it's

like okay one guy won but you know this guy is still clearly dangerous maybe we have a different conversation but if he gets battered here a little bit by a guy not known to do battering i think that's a massive uh drop on his stock i'm with you before we hear l t's prediction let's hear one more piece of sound from Gamrod talking about not only what's at stake in this fight, but why he is potentially a problematic opponent for Ilya La Leenda Toporia. I did mistake a couple times when I'm thinking about what will be in the future, the next one. Right now my focus is the Charles Olivera. If I pass him, then I can think what will be next.

But what is, is in my name, but he's huge name in the main. Of course, if UFC give me him, I say yes, the same short notice or something like that. He is from Europe, I am from Europe, so for sure it is going to be the biggest fight in the Europe from the Lightway Division. Ilya is a great fighter, like he proved that the best in the UFC is Feltrow and Lightweight. But I believe like my style is very problem to do his matchup. So the first is the challenge. First is the charts, but in the future when I can meet him, it's going to be in really entertaining fight because, of course, he has heavy hands as a really dangerous in the

fit, but I want to test him in the wrestling in the jiu-jitsu. For sure, I will be a big problem for him. Luke, pre-topteria divorce, would you agree that this man, Gamrock could be a problematic style matchup for the new lightweight champion? Um I wouldn't rule it out But I think that this is not This is not top of my mind

Yeah Granted we it seems like what we're going to get As you indicated is Tuporia and Gaichi And then you would imagine So Yuki and if he stays on the winning side of things That that would be the one after that And I guess if we see that

That's going to give you a much better answer The point I'm trying to make is I would not rule out the possibility that gamrott could make you know gamut's going to be a tough match up for anybody probably right i mean i know hooker beat him but you know that was a really inspired performance by hooker to get there he's a tough fight so i i imagine to be a tough fight for a lot of guys i'm just really not ready to crown him ready for the really top top guys in the division just yet without him proving it a little bit more along the way that's fair but post-divorce tutorial that's a different is that a real thing

that's what the innerwebs seem to create the picture that it's true and while it certainly could go either way when you have that kind of chaos in your life i mean do you remember when Shane Mosley at nearly age 40 beat the bags off margarito while he was in the midst of that divorce trial with his ex-wife gin who who who won the trial so aggressively she even got control of his title belts and was like go fight that fight you're going to lose anyway and he went in there and battered that man with the loaded wraps. We also saw when Merle broke Poetan's heart, he came back and knocked a fool out, but that's kind of what he does anyway. Does this concern you if this emotional breakup causes any change to the current arc of your favorite fighter? I, when I, and you know when I say it, I mean it.

When I tell you, I could not possibly give a fuck less. You know I'm saying the truth. You know I'm saying the truth. All right, Long Island, Luke, reminding us that McKenzie Dern post-divorce from Wesley, probably fueled by her need to financially support him, had a fantastic victory. This is a weird line of conversation, but we can have that supposed.

You know, Bruce Springsteen's follow-up to Born in the USA, the very underrated tunnel of love was completely written through divorce, Luke. So it can produce the best art. I will tell you, you know, what someone told me once about divorce, and this was not my dad, who probably has quite a lot to say about divorce. um is that men typically grow beards after divorces have you heard that oh no ponytails and sports cars we know the midlife crisis that's coming right it's not about midlife crisis so much is it's more like you know you sort of ages you you know it sort of turns you to uh the next

version of yourself uh in a weird way yeah we should probably get off this topic because i'm sure everybody hates it but back to the fight itself luke yes who wins saturday and how I'm going to pick Gamrod and just say, I hope Charles wins. And I know that's kind of hedging, but it's, I think, I bet a lot of people feel that way, right? I bet a lot of people feel like, man, and it's slightly different set of circumstances. I wouldn't be worried about Charles at all. And maybe you still aren't. I'm sure there's going to be some people out there being like, I'm still not worried.

Fair enough. Fair enough. but I'm just saying there's probably also some that are like but the turnaround and the vulnerability that comes with it's not a joke man and I know the best fighters in the world think I'll be fine I'll make a turnaround look what happened to Volcan Islam even if you thought wow Volk was entering that fight under unenviable circumstances did anyone be like oh he's going to get smashed in the first round with a head kick KO like no one no one

even that was beyond what people were sort of considering among the known universe of expected outcomes I'm not saying that that's going to happen here. Gamrot has really shown nothing quite like that in the past, but what I am saying is, to B.C.'s point, this is Gamrod's chance to break through. This is, historically speaking, a fight a guy like that should not lose, especially given like some

of the age differences and the mild difference, I think, as well. I think that Gamrod is a serious threat to Charles here. So I'm going to give it to him, but at the same time, wouldn't it be great if Charles could rally from the worst loss of his career? Wouldn't it be great if he could be received

by his people as a winning fighter. I don't know who else would be against something like that. So Gamrod's probably going to get his hand raised, but man, it would be so great if it's Charles. I understand where you're coming from. I think this does go the distance. I think we're going to see

enough of a slowdown from Olivera coming off. The K.O. lost a short turnaround, the compounding of age and mileage, where he'll do enough to look good, excite the crowd, and make this a fun main event. But I like the momentum of Gamrod. I like the gas tank. I like

like the motivation. And even though I don't, I think we'll see more on the feet ultimately than the ground. I think it'll be the mix of the threat of the takedown that really allows Gamrot to come ahead. I could even see this being a splitter majority, but I think Gamrod will win a close competitive and even fun fight here on enemy territory, which will certainly be the best win of his career because it,

I mean, as long as it's not heavily disputed in the wrong direction, but breakthrough possibilities here for Gamrod. and I just like what I've seen about him leading up to here. Let's stay on this card, LT, and continue down to that Coal Main event. Are enough people talking about Montel Jackson right now, the three to one favorite at Bannamweight riding a six-fight win streak? He enters as a minus 3-10 favorite overall against former multiple-time flyweight champion,

Devison Figuero, who's looking to shake off a two-fight losing skit against the league competition at Bannamweight, and as a plus 250 underdog. Luke, you've got to love this matchup, but the only thing Montel Jackson has missed up to this point is sort of a breakthrough win over an elite opponent. This would give him that opportunity. Yeah, it certainly would. There's a lot of reasons to be excited about Montel Jackson.

33 hasn't quite broken through in the timeline that you would want, but to the point you make, we see he loses to Brett Johnson 2020, and he's been off to the races since then, beating DeMond Blackshare two fights ago, and then Daniel Marcos, which is a very, very good win. That's a good fighter he got that win against, and he did it in a very professional way.

Also, Devincent Figuero, not for nothing, a very good fighter. But he got his knee shredded, obviously, against Corey Sanhagen, B.C., first fight back. He's older. I think he's kind of found his limited bansom weight. Dude, UFC is clearly saying, hey, Montel Jackson, we can tell you might be something. Here's your first really good chance to prove it against the name,

an aging name, a declined name, but a name just the same. Let's see what you can do. This one should be very, very good. Yeah, Montel Jackson, 33 years old, by the way, out of Milwaukee. This is his moment, that six-fight win streak. He did knockout to Mon Blackshare in the first round. He's fresh off of a three-round decision over Daniel Marcos. And Luke, do you know about the legend of his hand size?

Do you know this? Who's this, Montel Jackson? Yes. So doesn't he have the same size gloves as like Brock Lesnar or something? Dude, this is a throwback picture to Montel Jackson. I keep on to say Montel Jordan, by the way, but this is how he does it. how we do it i mean look once upon a time and not so look at that's francis and gano's hand right there that's the predator that's the one of the largest scariest men we've ever met in this

sport that's a bam wait going tip to tip finger to finger with him that's insane that's insane what do you think that suggests what is he backing luke i mean you know what i mean a bunch probably a punch right bcd do you want to fondle his genitals okay thank you very much i am interested in you because you are an undercard assassin and montel jackson is trying to become really a main eventer here how good is this man in your eyes i think he's pretty good i think your analysis is spot on that they're like giving him figgy to kind of give him a name propel him up yep i do feel like he's had a few big names fall through someone could check that for me but like i feel like he's been booked together some names and kind of gotten screwed over there but he should win this oh yeah i did dabble on figgy

with the plus seven and a half meaning one judge has to give him one round and because i think this goes all three uh rounds i think that uh montel or figgy could cover the spread let's go yeah so you to your point he was supposed to have a fight against chris gutierrez in twenty twenty three canceled Saeed Narugamadov in 2024 canceled. Farid Basharat, 2024 canceled. But then after that, he gets the Blackshear and the Marcos fight. So excuse me, Long Island, Luke, right on the money. Yeah, as always with that.

So big opportunity for Montel to break through. And a similar theme, but a different circumstance in this welterweight fight, the veteran Vicente Lucke, is a plus 400 underdog against the former lightweight, Joel Alvarez. Now, Alvarez of Spain, his seven and one over his last eight with the only loss to Armand Sarukian, but he's had weight issues along the way multiple times. He's had some disastrous weight cuts. This is him moving up to welterweight.

Luke, do you feel like this is a full-time move here? Because he's coming in as a minus 535 favorite against an established welterweight in Lucke. Yeah, I mean, I think his body's changing and it's a good thing. I think he ran into a couple of brick walls at 155. but clearly he's exciting he's one of spain's more interesting uh you know uh products i'm very curious to see how he looks here at 170 for his debut yeah he's riding a streak of three straight wins all by stoppage a knockout of jacar close by flying knee the tkio from knees and punches against elvis brenner and then he brabo choked mark jacesey before that did get stopped by saruky and

in a fun fight there but uh big moment and big opportunity for this guy who talked a lot this week about how hard that weight cut was for him. Even assumes this weight cut will be difficult as well at 170. I mean, he's always been a big dude and action guy. But at 32 here, maybe not too dissimilar to Jackson, although Jackson seems closer to the top here at Bannamweight. Big opportunity for Alvarez at Welterway. LT, when you look up and down this card, I don't know if it sizzles,

but there's certainly some offerings here worth tasting. What else is jumping out at you? It's a good question. Let me see if I could pick one here. I'll say Jafel Filio against Clayton Carpenter. It's got a little bit of juice to it for me. That one's going to be on, I think that's the last prelims, or maybe it's the second to last.

I'm not sure how they put it in card order. I think some people might say BC, the Vitor Petrino and Thomas Peterson fight, because it's heavyweight. I might have a little bit of fun to him. I'm not really part of that. The one prospect that I would say is really worth watching, Beatrice Musquita, multiple time, BJJ World Champion,

and actually a good one with a great game. She's undefeated 5-0, taken on Irina Alexiva. That should be a very good fight, or at least Mesquita, BC, her career is worth following, and you're asking like, oh, you know, I know people are kind of down on BJJ prospects, and I understand that.

I don't know how far Mesquita will go, BC, but what I would say is, based on what I've seen from her game and just obviously from jiu-jitsu as well, but, you know, what she did in LFA and early MMA, there's reason to believe she could be quite interesting. Obviously, this is a fight at 135 pounds. Long Island Luke, where are you?

The Lucas Hocha fight? What do you think? No, but I just want to say it's worth noting we open the card and end the card with an Olivera. Simon Oliver in the first fight, Charles Oliver in the last fight. Simon Oliver, too, the only fighter on this card to miss weight, miss weight by eight pounds. Oh, boy.

That will hopefully stay on the card and just be a catchweight at this point. got to give a shout out to my two Aussies on the card con awfully who is winless in the ufc coming off a tough but you know maybe he can beat ricardo homos here i'm not giving him much of a chance and stewart nicoe hocha is a pickum also also bc carolina kovulkevich on this card at one from the one of the last remaining from that 2014 ultimate fighter strawweight season she's 39 riding a two fight losing skid but don't forget she she had that like five fight resurgence before that. So shout out to the former title challenger gave put you on the hospital at MSG. People forget that. And they're true loss there. Also be it a rising Rosnamoy Unis at

UFC 201, probably the best win of her career. It is sad to see our heroes come to the end, Luke. By the way, Luke Hay is only 33. He has lost three of his last five. He's been stopped in all three by some decent names. Oddswise, they're writing him off into the sunset here, it feels like, no? Yeah, and they gave him a guy who's a bruiser. I mean, he was a bruiser at 55. Let's see what that looks like at 70, but he fights, balls out. You know, he's an attacker. That's what he does.

That's who he is. That's his fighting identity. Yeah, BC, I mean, Lucke is not that old, but they might be trying to cash him out. I'm not so sure. Yeah, and Carolina, to close there is fighting Julia Pulashtri at Strawway. Interesting. By the way, speaking of Oliveras, are we long from one of Cowboy Oliver's kids to make his MMA debut? That guy's got a lot of kids, right?

How many kids? Oh, you're right. Like the Antonio Cromartie of M.M.A. Yes. I don't know if he has 10 or not, but he might have some. The guy's got his regular own Brady bunch. He's just filling the streets, if you know it. I mean, right? Yeah. Just. My man, like, whenever you see him a punch in another man, he's actually in his mind punching condoms. He hates him. He just can't stand him. All right. Yeah. Hey, I don't know how to transition out of that, but I'll try.

You imagine if he won a fight? And they were like, what went through your mind in that finish? She was like, I just don't like condoms. And I just saw him as one big old Trojan. And I was like, wow, that's the cowboy we need right there, that guy. Hey, everybody, by the way, Total Wireless is hooking you up with the ultimate fan experience. One lucky winner will score a round trip for two to New York City, hotel stay for three nights, VIP access to the UFC ceremonial way in. at the annual MSG card in November.

Lower bowl seats to UFC 322. Tickets to the Giants Packers NFL game, a brand new Motorola Razor 2025. And how about $1,000 spending cash? I mean, seriously, this is a big haul. Don't miss out. Enter at any total wireless store from September 25th to October 26th and be there in November at MSG.

That is an Islam versus JDM main event that I can't wait. All right. Let's go. How about that Co-Main, too? Hey, look, this year might end with a bang, at least pay-per-view-wise, right? What are we thinking for December? What do you think they're going to do December 6th? Because there's reports that it could be Sean O'Malley versus Song Yadong and the Co-Main,

which is a good fight, but I don't know if that's the Co-Main, but like, what do you think the December main event is? Well, who's available? Oh, Marab. Could be Marab. That's true. That's, that's, that's true. Could be Marob? And now Peyodor Yan is saying that he was physically compromised in their first fight. Yeah, I mean, that happens a lot.

Big Ang had a broken rib, it seems, against Poetan. I mean, everyone's... People don't care. I'm not even saying that they should. I'm just saying it's kind of funny that it's like... I mean, I get that there are always going to be meaningful differences case to case. But it's just kind of funny, it's like, oh, wow, man. Like, one of the lessons I learned was, Poetan was telling the truth when he said, you know, he was injured coming into that fight. And granted, he said it later and, you know, it was, it wasn't quite as immediate. And I think that also changes things. Again, there's always going to be a set of circumstances that affect it.

But then big uncle loses and it's like, oh, I had a broken rib. And it's like, no, you didn't you fucking sour grapes kill joy. You know, it's like, didn't we just see that like guys, A, do this all the time and then B, Poetan proved there's a big difference. Like, like, and these things are real and that they do affect you. It's just kind of funny who gets, who's the recipient of injury grace and who isn't. And, you know, again, it's a broad set of circumstances that affect it, but it's just kind of funny to watch. I mean, everyone's injured, but you signed a fight, you show up to fight. Agreed.

No, no, I mean, I don't have sympathy for Uncle Life because A, to your point, you agreed. And then B, I'm not sure what had made a difference. You know, it just seemed like Poetton had a great idea about how to pursue that fight. So, you know. Angrily. Yeah, working for it. By the way, reminder all you out there, UFC 321 is right around the. the corner Saturday, October 25th.

So three days before that, Wednesday, October 22nd, live and direct from the Metal Arc Studios in Manhattan. It will be UFC 321 pregame preview from morning combat, brought to you by Cuervo. You'll get L.T. You'll get B.C. You're going to get Jed Meshu number two for the second straight time. LT, your thoughts. Yeah.

Yeah, we've got to see that dirt bag one more time. and I can't wait to see him show up to our studios and then get served for, you know, I don't know. S.A. Well, Jesus, I don't know about that, but served for something, something along those lines. Yes, yes, he'll sue himself inevitably, eventually. We are contractually obligated that seems to put Connor McGregor

in our rundown every week. He's back. You do this. You do this. Topic number two, Connor McGregor accepted in a retroactive 18-month doping suspension for repeated testing failures. The Combat Sports Anti-Doping, CSAD, if you will, the UFC's new in-house testing program suspended Connor dating back to multiple times where he was unavailable about his whereabouts

for testing in 2024. How convenient is it, however, that the retroactive suspension will expire just in time for Connor to make his fighting return. this June on Donald Trump's birthday Sunday the 14th at the UFC White House event. Luke, is it too convenient in your eyes? How do you sort of look at this breaking news of some sorts this week? Let me, let me, let me pull Long Island Luke on this one, if I may, because this is really how I kind of see the whole thing.

Long Island Luke, what's up? Do you give a fuck? No. Okay, there we go. Is this the song and dance of the new USADA? Is this like what we're doing? I mean, here's the thing, listen, this is what you have to understand about this scenario, right?

By the way, B.C., did you see that PFL cut ties with Usada? Did you see that? I did not see that. Wow. Yeah, they cut ties with Usada. So, like, Usata's on their way out the sport. I want to point out years and years after I declared all the things that were going to happen, in fact, did happen.

Sure enough, now they're gone. B.C., if I have a curse in my life, it's sometimes I'm wrong. and, you know, terribly so, like when I said Devin Haney was going to tune Ryan up like a guitar, we have bad moments. But one of my other problems is that I'm right too early. And that was one of those cases. But let me just make this point. There is a benefit to what the UFC's new system offers relative to what USADA offered.

Namely, the system is much more humane relative to USADA, right? The punishments are not as onerous. the declarations publicly of who has tested without really having the chance for that athlete to defend themselves. That doesn't happen anymore, right? There's just a series of ways. They don't have like strict liability

in the same kind of way that they do with USADA. Like there's just a lot of humanity and athlete care relative to the way USADA did it baked into this new system. And when they launched it, you know, they were trying to solve for, some of those problems. Like, it just, it created a lot of friction with media,

create a lot of friction with their own roster of athletes. Like, it just, it was a problem. They, they didn't want it anymore to say nothing of, like, the fact that USADA just seized themselves as vice cops, and they wanted the UFC to help them get there. And so they'd no longer had faith in them organizationally. The point I'm trying to make is that's what it's better for relative to the way that it was with USADA.

however it is also an in-house system you know why would a system be in-house at a with a promoter and you might be like well you know doesn't NFL have their own in-house system yes but that's something they negotiate uh well i mean there's independent agencies they do for testing and whatnot but it's something that they negotiate with the athletes like all of the protocols are put in place with their safety and their privacy rights in mind and the punishments are negotiated down for all these other reasons like it's a there's a handshake that goes on here. You don't have that. And even without that, again, it's still more humane than USADA system. But any system that the UFC, dude, like, what about what anyone

understands about the ultimate fighting championship and the way they do business is divorced from the idea of having maximum control? It's just every, it's every, it's part of their organizational DNA. They want to have maximum control over the media. They want to have maximum control over their roster, maximum control over there, the market. And again, Some of that works and some of that doesn't, but that's, that's what they're all, that's their orientation. And so people like, oh, wow, isn't it convenient that like Conner's available, guys, it's an in-house system. Like, what, what did anybody expect it to be? I mean, I'm not, I'm not telling people they don't have a right to feel that that's not a great system,

but when they announced this system and they announced it as being in house, these kinds of things, at a bare minimum, I cannot declare to you, oh, this was done underhanded, B.C., that's really not my point. But you lose the presumption of, oh, well, this is ordinary business because it is in-house. And those things are worth some level of interrogation. It's just, you know, do we really think the UFC is going to keep a system of athlete control and, like, you know, public image maintenance in-house? And it really undercut their ability to do business. That seems unlikely to me.

Yeah, the CSAD press release was quoted the same. and McGregor missed three attempted biological sample collections within the 12-month period in 2024, which constitutes a violation of the UFC's anti-doping policy. Athletes are required to provide accurate whereabouts information at all time so they can be contracted and submit to biological sample collections without prior warning. McGregor's mistests occurred on June 13, September 19th, and September 20th, and were each classified as whereabouts failures by C-SAD under the new UFC anti-doping policy. Luke, that June 13th,

one seems to align with the lead-in to that international fight week main event later that that month that he was scheduled in his return against Michael Chandler. The broken toe got him out of it. Do you think it was a broken toe or do you think it was 375 consecutive days of going ham at night? You know what I'm saying? After he definitely was dirty during the roadhouse filming, let's be honest about that. Yeah, I mean, again, remember he had a traumatic injury and I thought that day he'll probably never fight again. Even if he does, God only knows what condition he's going to be in. I didn't care that he used medicinally, assuming that's what it was, that there was some kind of, what do you want to call it, monitored pharmaceutical process. I don't really have an issue with it.

He wasn't competing at that time. Yeah, of course, you need to tell people what your whereabouts are, but he didn't fight during that time. I mean, of all the things to be bitter about Connor McGregor, I just feel like this is probably for me quite close to the bottom of the list. It's amazing that like this kind of thing gets a lot of attention and like some of his other stuff doesn't. whatever. We don't have to have that conversation. I'm just pointing out, I'm just pointing out, um, you know, yes, if you compete in a system like this, do they need to have your whereabouts? Yes. Uh, did he fail to do that? Apparently. Should he be punished for it? Obviously. But we should also know that the reason why he may have done that stuff, at least initially,

to the extent that he did, again, we're speculating. There could have been a very good reason for it. And then more to the point, this is an in-house anti-doping system. I just think people need to managed our expectations about that. Yeah, Connor did talk this past weekend while promoting BKFC that when he does go into camp soon for this White House return, which probably comes against Michael Chandler, I guess could be Nate Diaz in a trilogy, although some seem that's unlikely. He got Charles Olivera this week saying he'd like to be that opponent. Heck, could it be Max Holloway?

We'll have to wait and see. But here's McGregor talking about how he's about to enter that Spartan lifestyle, maybe even put the parting behind him for a bit. I have eight months and change out to the White House event. It's a six-month operation. You know, I consider it a six-month operation to get ready for this bout period of isolation for sure where the phone will not be answered.

All my people involved with me understand that it is coming. And as I said, it's a six-month operation. I'm under no illusion of what lies ahead of me in my preparation efforts. The phone will be switched off and the work will be executed. That's my focus right now. just eager to climb the steps into being ready

from my return. There's a lot at stake and I'm very excited at the opportunity. I was right there with my last one. I was an incredible condition. Just a slight lapse in concentration led to an injury. I wish to correct that and show what I'm about. So look,

no phone. Let's see if he, so no posting either. No phone, no posting. He's just going to do that woke as he says, Luke. Look, I mean, I hate him. If you will and you know it gives you a lot of reasons to his return on the south lawn will be interesting to see will it be a complete train wreck or just partial luke that's that's sort of the pull or maybe he maybe he majestically pulls out one of those performances that we used to claim he's got

one left in him right he definitely needs some good PR say that yeah uh very good fighter in his prime probably not a great boyfriend but you know we can't judge them all here let's go to uh topic number three, and that was from Tuesday's Dana White Contender Series. Thank you very much. Where a Bannamweight war not only entered the fight of the year discussion, it's causing some other discussions as well. Now, it's certainly not every week that a DWCS bout will have people declaring it a possible fight of the year, let alone the greatest fight of all time, as UFC's YouTube channel did.

But Ecuador's Adrienne Luna Martinetti, his three-round decision win over an absurdly determined Russia's Mark Vologdine in their Bannamweight fight on Tuesday netted both of them UFC contracts immediately after the bout as they were being sent to the hospital. Dana White also gave each of them $25,000 bonuses, which is not a normal occurrence. Both were, as I mentioned, hospitalized there. Luke, some were even comparing this to Griffin Bonner 1 or because of the cuts in the bleeding, Lawler McDonald 2. Now show one more time, Long Island Luke, that UFC post on YouTube that calls it the greatest fight of all time. Are they saying, greatest Dana White Contender Series fight or greatest fight? Luke Thomas, how good was this Slugfest?

Okay, it's not the greatest fight of all time. It's definitely not that. however I will say something about it that I think is maybe not as far away from that as you might imagine first of all easily the best fight in contender series history period not I mean not that's such a I mean I haven't seen every single one of them but I've seen a lot of them and the people who have seen every single one of them also think

that this is the best fight in contender series history I just can't imagine what else it would be so on top of that BC round two Round two is easily, easily, easily, the best round in contender series history. So first of all, let's just be clear about that. Best fight in contender series history, best round in contender series history. And what I'm also going to say is BC, you have to throw in Volok Dean at least onto the list of the best fighters to lose on the contender series. Because, dude, did he not look real polished, especially in round one? Dude, the variety of his striking, even while, under the best fighters, even while,

deress was insane. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe how good it looked. You could hear him breathing through everything the right way and his footwork was clean. I was like, yo, this guy is good. Okay, he had one of those gouges on his chin, but the cut over his eye had different caverns and canyons in it. Yes. It was like when you go to Canyonlands. It looked like he got hit with like a rubber bullet and it tore flesh out and then the flesh tore in different directions as a consequence. But let me say this, B.C. And this is where maybe it gets controversial, but I don't know. I don't know how controversial this is.

You've seen the fight, obviously, yes? Yeah, I watched it this morning and I was loving it. Okay. I loving it. Dude, round two is one of the better rounds I've ever seen. Ever, ever. I'll get, the fight is not the best fight because the problem is round three. They were, I mean, they were still trying their ass off, but it wasn't like, you know, it's a good round.

It wasn't an amazing round. Round one was like a very good round. Round two is just one of the best rounds you'll ever see in mixed martial arts, period. Now, Long Island Luke, where are you? on the round two and then to fight more broadly. It's definitely not the greatest fight of all time. It is 1,000% the greatest Dana White Contender Series fight of all time. Gaff and I were doing a watch along for live.

Shout out to Gaff on one more round fights. He literally 30 seconds into this fight said both these guys are getting a contract. And I said, you're out of your mind. I said, one of these guys could get flatlined in two minutes and they're not getting a fucking contract. He nailed it. He called that literally right in the beginning of the time. Okay, round two, one of the best rounds you've ever seen. anywhere it was i mean dude

they would not stop coming back on each other in the round two it was insanity just i will say round three slowed down a bit but if you still just isolated that round you'd be like oh that was a great round yes it's because rounds one and two were so chaotic that it it i can't believe valedine

withstood that barrage of knees in the clinch i could not fucking and then to push martinetti back at the end of round two battered physically battered was I dude it takes your breath away like it's that kind of thing yeah so like they're exaggerating how good the fight overall is but they're not exaggerating how special parts of it actually oh my

god the first two rounds as you mentioned round two just being otherworldly uh long out luke reminding us the volikdin was a minus 180 betting favorite martinetti was one plus one 30 it would go down as the unanimous decision 29 28 on all three scorecards two rounds to one for Martinetti, who showed just as much resolve, but wasn't under the same level of damage. I think we got a couple pictures on this tweet here of the face of Martinetti there. I'm sorry, I'm Baladine there on the top right. I mean, that, I don't even know how they let him kept fighting with the crevice over his eye. I mean, that is beyond permanent scarring.

But here's what's crazy. Martinetti deserved the decision. He got the better of him for the most part, you know, volume wise. and was certainly nasty with those lead elbows. But dude, the heart and resolve that Volodyn showed in defeat was almost the most special part of the whole fight. Like, I know fights like this will take a certain chunk out of your lifespan and future in the cage.

But am I crazy to say that I'm almost more interested in Volgdine's journey after this loss than I am his partner who was just as, you know, just as responsible for this fight being a classic? No, I'm with you. You. I mean, my heart kind of broke for Volikdin. I'm like, I don't know if I've seen, I mean, the problem was, you know, obviously round two got away from him. And then, you know, parts of all parts of all three rounds got away from the two of them. But there was just enough happening, I think, obviously in the second round as well, where he was in a lot of, well, first round he was in a lot of, well, first round he was on. No, no, first round, it was like he dropped Martinetti twice, right? So he won that one. It was the second and the third one that he lost. But dude, like I said, man, I mean, you could throw. Kevin Vichéjos on this list as well, like guys who lost on the Contender Series. Because I just was watching him,

and I'm like, this guy has everything you would want from a prospect. He has everything. Look how clean his striking is. Look how well-rounded he is. Look how resilient he is. I mean, his defense maybe needs some work. Obviously, BC is not a perfect fighter.

Far from it. Sure. But the reality, here's how I feel. I feel like Volodyn is a more talented fighter. I just felt like Martinetti had, you know, you're going to laugh at the description, but he had the eye or the tiger man yeah he just would not he had the length and the height to that he used you know to his advantage even though they were fighting in a phone booth it was that

just that much of that advantage was a big part of that but i know they don't normally give bonuses so dana giving each 25k is a special moment but if this fight is getting the love in house and also on social media that it deserves and it does deserve it i mean look like these guys are probably going to be remembered here no matter what they do for the rest of their career from this moment, this is one of those break the bake moments where I wish TK was like, oh, F25K, like here's, here's, you know, 500K each because they both fought like there was tomorrow, no tomorrow. And this is, you know, I know that like this is an incubator where Dana wants to reward the hungry and wants these type of fights, but you're, you know,

it's rare that you can get these type of fights because both guys have to be so insanely determined. but I mean I'm not crazy this is a they should be walking out of there with a half million each after that effort there's insane just insane dude those two guys would have fought to the death if you let them yes yes they would have fought to the death uh let's go to uh here's martinetti and exiting the cage here's a fan video you can see just how wobbly he was in victory all 13 people in attendance that's the guy that won i know crazy and then we got a little bushito backstage you know i love moments like this let's listen in on these two embracing you you're very strong bro i love you i love you this by i like you i love you i love it i love you i love yeah yeah you the next the next fighting yeah yeah you you're sorry yeah you you're you you're same you say i like love thank you for the old great great fight thank you thank you my pleasure thank you coach thank you great great moment right there long out

look when you were you were saying you were on gaff's live stream during this is that what you're saying yeah we were doing a contender series watch are you guys losing your mind in round two just i mean just going for it it was sick and again because gaff called it in round one i i would my mind was alone that i was like how did you know this was going to go the distance and it would be a war and they'd both get a contract but yeah dude great i got to i got to give lorsenko and anthony smith who were the analyst credit because both of them had their own sort of moments similar to al bernstein after round one of corralis castillo one on showtime where he's just like if this keeps up at the pace we're at this could be one of the greatest fights we've ever seen they felt that also man i'd

love to have live stream this fight i mean i would have gone full while we way luke thomas style that would have been wow wow what a moment all right right there you go hey everybody i know we're talking about cage fighting but football's back it's the fall it's the autumn and well you know what also is back your shot to win big and with draft king's pick six the official daily fantasy partner of the nfl your game day instincts can score you real money fast now here's the play you just pick more or less on two or more player stats breakout rookies to elite qbs whoever you want and you can unlock the upside that every snap brings. The better your calls, the bigger your payout. In fact, as we look at what's

coming up this weekend in the NFL, Luke's Washington commanders, are we back this week, Luke? And we're back in a big way? Yeah, we should be. Jaden Daniels is back after, well, he played in the last game against the Chargers. We weren't sure, you know, when he was going to be back after injury, he looked pretty good. All right. I mean, look, when you're looking at the L.A. Rams at the Baltimore Ravens, and I'm telling you, Matthew Stafford, 258 and a half yards, Are you going more or less against that Ravens, D? Oh. I'm going to go more.

I think Matthew Stafford and the team might carve them up, you know? Ravens are looking a little more beatable this year than I thought they would be, to be honest with you. The Chiefs also look terrible. I can't believe how bad they look. Yeah, well, they got to bounce back in a big way with Patrick Mahomes, who has a more or less of 266 and a half passing yards when the Chiefs welcome the Detroit Lions. So I'm probably going more on the bounce back there, Luke.

Although a lot of people are learning about Travis Kelsey's pipe, apparently from this new Taylor Swift album. Are you keeping the females in your life away from that? What is the story of his of his pipe apparently? I mean, we should probably get into that offline. My bad on that one, Luke, what I did want to tell the people about is the kickoff bonus because new drafting customers can get $50 in bonus picks with just a $5 entry on your first pick set. Luke, tell them what to do here, all right? That's right.

So here's how this is going to work, folks. This season, play your player instincts. That's what you've got to do. By the way, Bears at Commanders Monday Night Football. Download the Draft Kings Pick Six app now and use the code Combat. That's Combat with a K. Play just $5 and get $50 in pick six bonus picks. Make the call, ride the upside.

In partnership with Draft Kings, Pick Six, the crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler. Help is available for problem gambling. call 8887-8-7-7 or CCPG.org in Connecticut must be 18 plus agent eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. PICS not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited, one per new customer bonus awarded as non-withdrawable pick-6 bonus picks that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer, see terms at pick6.draftings.com slash promos.

Thank you very much. Check it out there on the Draft Kings Pick Six. Tell him M.K. Yeah, good stuff. No, look, I was just talking about the new Taylor Swift album. There's some controversial lyrics. I hear, I hear things. All right. You think I'll listen to do that. I don't understand.

I mean, okay, I realize that people are going to be like, oh, look, we listen to your music and we'd rather die. Fair enough. But what is the charm of Taylor Swift's music if you're not a 13-year-old girl? And I mean that sincerely. Well, now the 13-year-old girls are going to learn something about life from the new album is what I hear. Oh, she's talking about getting dick down. Yeah. All right.

Hey, let's keep the show roll. and hit you right between the eyes with topic number four. One of the biggest stars in boxing. The Mexican monster himself, David Benavitas, has been in the news as he continues to make the media rounds ahead of November's return on the ring champion, or ring magazine card, excuse me, against Anthony Yard. And a series of interviews with everyone from all the smoke fights,

ring champs to fight heb TV. Benevita shared a number of interesting updates, including he's done at 168, even if for Bud or Canelo, He will move up to cruiserweight sooner than later, and he plans to retire in 15 years as a heavyweight. He also teased the possibility of leaving PBC and Samson promotion shortly to start his own promotional company. Luke, considering we haven't yet seen him at his new division of 175 against the two Alzheimer's, Bval, B'Av, how confident are you given Benevita's his hand speed and boxing ability that he can have the same success? potentially here at cruiserweight and heavyweight as his career continues um i'm a little bit more skeptical of that maybe so he's had two fights at light heavyweight correct bc he's had

the the vowsdick fight and then the morel fight if there's a common denominator between them is first of all he's still undefeated he's just 28 years old bc we forget that at 28 he's still like just now entering his athletic prime in certain ways So I want to like preface this by saying to a degree, we should like be very excited about what he can do and not limit him. At the same time, all we have is the evidence that he has given to us to evaluate. Maybe someone else's reading of the evidence tells them something else. But mine tells me, at least for now, some caution about how far he can scale this is warranted. Because he was better than Vosdick.

He was better than Morel. The Morel was a grudge match. The Morel 1 BC was more impressive to me than the Vosdic one, in part because of the quality of opposition and the nature of the fight itself. Here's the point I'm trying to make, though. At 68 and down, it felt like, yeah, he didn't have one punch power, but he could get you out of there if he needed to. Caleb Plant, I know survived, but, I mean, it was really quite difficult.

And then Demetrius Andrade, I mean, he fell apart quickly after what, round five or six, whatever it was. That didn't happen at 75. They were much sturdier. So here's what I'm trying to say On the one hand BC, he won both He's just 28 years old I do believe there's room for optimism

But when you're saying things like Yeah, I'm going to go to cruiserweight And then you know, end it heavyweight I think I don't know why it's unfair To have a question to be able to say What has he shown to this point That makes you believe that those are very likely Places he could end up doing great work

I don't know what that would be Maybe you have a different read I mean I would say physical size meaning height and build. I would say definitely that hand speed, definitely the fact that he does have a pure boxing ability. Now he's able to mix that at 68 and 75 with a pressure predator style behind his high guard.

But what do we always praise him for? His ability defensively to be offensive the whole time without welcoming back a ton of offense. I don't know. And he's hungry too. I mean, the whole key of this segment is that he doesn't want to cut down anymore. for the big names.

In fact, let's listen to that sound first. Here's Marcos Vegas of Fight Hub TV talking to Benavita's. Talking about that tweet from Turkey, who said right after Crawford beat Canelo, can Benavita still make 168? Could you still make 168? Is that a possibility? Honestly, bro, my plan is after this fight,

I want to go down to 154. No, bro, I'm done with Cruiserweight. You know, I want to take this opportunity, though. I say Cruiserweight. I want to take this opportunity to, you know, congratulate Crawford. You know, he put a hell of her performance. He's up there in the Mount Rushmore of the greatest fighters of all time. And, you know, let Crawford do his thing, bro.

You know, at the end of the day, I have no interest in fighting Crawford. I have no interest of going down to 168. I mean, yeah, it's nice that it would be dope winning all titles, but I'm way past that at 168. You know, I would follow the only reason... I wouldn't even go down to 168 for Canelo, and I'm just being real with you, you know. And let Crawford do his thing, let him have his... you know um do you know let him i want to give his flowers man because he's a great fighter man

when there's no other fighters coming up from 147 to beat a type of fighter like canelo at 168 you know in crawford you know he's one of the greatest of all times so you know i have no interest of going down to 168 i'm not saying that i'm scared of Crawford or whatever you know but Crawford's a man at 168 that's his weight class i'm done with 168 so look i kind of like his stance here i i've always liked his stance of like i've on everything I could to get Canelo, and he doesn't want it. So I'm not going to sit around and wait and, you know, not only stop his own development in terms of sitting around and wait, you know, not taking other big fights.

What did he do? He went to 75, fought a former champion in Vosnik, fought Morrell, now has a title that he has been upgraded with and is looking for big fights. I like it mostly because he realizes he'll just compromise himself physically by cutting back down. You know, you could see a guy like him go, no, I want the money in fame against Crawford. I'll do whatever it takes physically, but there's going to be a diminished version of him at the end of the day.

I actually like that he's more willing to challenge himself north, whether that's Bevall and Better Breyev in this division or this talk about cruiserweight and heavyweight. Here is Benavides talking exactly that with Ack and Barack about the fact that he believes he's got 15 of fighting years left in him. I got another 15 years left to me. 15, 43 years old fighting. Wow.

I fight two times a year. I'm able to make this money, take care of my investments. And why would I not want to do that for the next 15 years? You know what I mean? If I take care of my body well enough, bro, two fights a year and shit. You know what I mean? And you have enough time to recover. You have enough time for yourself.

You have enough time for your family. And you have enough time to train hard. This is something I love to do, man. Like I said, like all I have to do is not, you know, not fucking. drink or do all that dumb shit and just stay focused and man this is honestly the more focused I am the harder I work the better I feel I'm more connected with God and like I just feel like I have so much fight left to me that's what I'm saying you know 40 40 another 15 years to 43 is really not that you know it's not that old I mean you see pack y'all yeah he just fought mario barrios

was he 47 yeah I see these other great fighters and it's not impossible it could be done you know what I mean so if I if I program myself if I condition myself now to think like this until I get there. You know, my mindset is that. You know, I want to box another 15 years. So, you know, we're doing everything right on this side to make sure we accomplish that and fulfill that. And I feel like it's going to be easier, too,

because the older I get, you know, obviously the more weight I'm going to put on, the higher I'm going to go up. I want to be at, you know, as a light heavyweight maybe from another five years, then cruiserweight another five years, and then maybe we can get to heavyweight. Shout to the road.

ring champs there, Ock and Brock. Luke, I like this because he's not going to leave this division before he gets a chance at BVal or better Biev, but he's thinking smartly. He don't have to worry about the weight if he goes up to heavyweight. Like I mentioned, he'll have that speed and boxing advantage. He's durable. He's hungry. Do you have any idea how marketable this guy could be as the potential first Mexican heavyweight champion? I mean, Andy Ruiz is Mexican American like him. I don't want to discount what Andy Ruiz did in that one fight. But like, If he has a chance to become the undisputed everyweight champion, this guy could be the biggest

star in the sport. Yeah, and coming up from those many weight classes, and we've said this before, he's been one of these guys, like, you know, if you're in MMA, you may not really fully appreciate this, but he's kind of slowly cultivating a bit of a cult following is a bit of a strong word, B.C., but a genuine following for sure. He's a little more popular

than you might imagine, and I do think, again, there should be a lot of reasons for his optimism. He's got big goals, and I kind of feel for him, that Canello victory should have been his, BC. Canello denied it to him, him. And so you can see why he's like, I can't even, maybe he even could make 68, but it's not really about that. He's just trying to chart a path disconnected from that that nobody can take away from him. And I understand it. It's just a, it's a difficult one. And

curious to see what he does. Yeah. And I won't play the third video, but he basically says he signed for the Anthony Yard fight before realizing that better we have would be on that same card as him. But look, this really feels like a setup for those two to fight next year. You have got B-Vol coming back from an injury. I mean, what is your confidence level just right now that better B-F could beat either B-Vol or better, I'm sorry, that Benavitas can beat either B-Vol or better B-V and maybe a year from now be the undisputed lead heavyweight champion? I, I want to see him do it.

Yeah. You know what I mean? I'm not even one of these guys like, he can't do it. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying there's enough questions there. I mean, dude, those fights are amazing. Those are amazing fights. Like, if they book those, you'd be like,

who hell yes. You know what I mean? I need to see him do it. I need to see him do it. I have enough questions. This is what I mean. I have enough questions at 75 where I'm like, let's see, let's see what it looks like first, you know?

Kick the tires, take a test drive on that Mitsubishi before you plunk down 15K, whatever it is anymore. Those will be wild fights. him against both of those guys. They will be incredible wild fights. Bevall will test his, I mean, they'll both test everything from his hard as chin to his,

his skills. Let's not forget those Beavall better be of fights. We're just technical thrillers, Luke. TTs, baby. And who doesn't like a set of TTs like we got in those first two fights against each other, right? Yeah. Cake lady might start eating some.

Yeah, that's a holly if I ever saw one. All right. Let's hit topic. number five. Hey, I didn't think we'd be talking about this. This debate came out of nowhere on boxing Twitter, but the international boxing Hall of Fame ballots are out for 2006, those that are members of the BWA or voting at this time. And suddenly we're in debate over one Gennady, Gennadovivich, Golovkin, sorry, brutalized his middle name, the retired 43-year-old former two-time unified middleweight champion. And what started off as a few

left field comments it felt like from Ryan Garcia during the Inside the Rings show turned into a multi-day boxing Twitter debate that I'm shocked we even went this far with. Now, the critics are cited Triple G's lack of victories over pound-for-pound rank fighters or Hall of Fame fighters during his career, despite the fact that he was openly ducked by all of his contemporary champions and Hall of Famers like Sergio Martinez and Miguel Cotto and forced to wait out two years before finally facing Canelo at age 30. and then suffering two very disputed outcomes. I know that second fight was very close. Still, there remains a loud minority of boxing critics on social media who believe that Triple G is somehow not worthy of a spot in the Hall of Fame. Now, the votes for the balloting will be released in December, and Triple G headlines what's considered a weak ballot for 2006,

including fellow first-timers, the late Vernon Forrest, and Stevie Collins. Luke, we've talked a little bit about this offline. From what you know of Triple G's run, is there any element of this argument in your eyes that holds up to the idea that somehow maybe Triple G, despite retiring after that Canello trilogy with a record of 42, 2, and 1 with 37 KOs and tied for the middleweight record with Bernard Hopkins with 20 career title defenses isn't HOF worthy? can we can we start this conversation where it starts before we can get to any of this which is who gives a flying fuck what ryan

garcia thinks about anything i mean i mean i mean this genuinely like ryan garcia has spent a lot i know he's in a better place now good he's got a long way to go but he's been the last couple of years trying to do and say the most horrific shit he possibly could he has not made amends for it i mean i know he's tried a couple a half-assed attempts, but they are pathetic. And more to the point, even without that, since when has he ever said anything that anyone ever found intelligent, ever? Like, what, what, what, what about Ryan Garcia's boxing history knowledge or knowledge of the Hall of Fame, has he ever flexed in such a way that merits this kind of response? It's bizarre to me. Like, he's not an interesting or otherwise intelligent person. He has, he's a disturbed person.

so like the fact that him getting on this show and then saying this has spurred this kind of conversation to me is wild all right putting that aside i mean i realize that's the genesis of everything let's say we actually we start here luke then let's start here and listen to it because when ryan garcia did this started that the shotgun was fired in fact i didn't think we need to bring in quervo because this was legitimately some shots fired Shot fired, brought to you by Cuervo. Now is a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila. Here is the Inside the Ring show hosted by Max Cullerman and Mike Coppinger with Ryan Garcia as the special guests talking about this. Well, one, Triple G had no really great victories. I mean, who did he beat?

Well, Canello. A lot of people think he won the first fight. He was a draw, and Conella's a great fighter. Well, he didn't, though, but he didn't. But even a draw against Cinello at Cinello's best. The thing what I will give him, though, is he was one of the super starts in boxing at a certain time for a long time. I will give him that. But for me, I think it's just a little hard for me to put somebody in the Hall of Fame. Like, to say

Hall of Fame, that means like, dang, like, you... What about telling the story of the era? You could not tell the story of an error without including Triple G. What about that? Do you subscribe to that Hall of Fame theory? I do. I do. I mean, I do see that, but we're talking about Hall of Fame. We're not talking about eras. You know, I'm talking about, like, overall, all of boxing. I mean, I just don't see him as a Hall of Fame. Yeah, I can't give him that nod, but hey. I bet that's a legitimate point of it.

I was a lot of the turkey was around back then when he was writing because all this ducking wouldn't have me. We find out. So, Luke, it wasn't just Ryan Garcia, by the way. This started an avalanche of people coming out and just being like, I agree with him. This guy's overrated. From the merit standpoint, is there an argument against triple G in your eyes? I mean, I like how what Ryan says is in no way an argument for anything because what he never does,

and what I'm going to ask you to do, B.C. is he keeps saying things like these are criteria that matter without ever establishing what is the baseline of achievement? What are the markers, the significant markers of achievement that we have to evaluate in order to judge someone's worthiness or otherwise eligibility for these considerations? He never does that. He just says things like, well, he didn't beat anyone great. Okay, well, to what extent does he need to? To what extent does that matter? To what extent is that even true? He doesn't tell you. So, B.C. see let's actually start the conversation in this particular case where it starts what are the relevant benchmarks for consideration that we can now take triple g's resume and measure that against

these particular standards of excellence to see whether or not he makes the the cut yeah all right 2004 Olympic silver medalist from Kazakhstan no no no no category from a categorization standpoint what are we looking for fights against we're looking for essentially a mixed criteria of your impact on the sport, and we can't overlook that because it is Hall of Fame. Arturo Gotti, who was a, at one point a world title fighter, got in to some controversy, but you have to recognize the fact that he was such an attraction and he fought in such a certain way. Triple G captured that, in my opinion. He was a singular star who had a Jordan brand sponsorship. You want to be able to accumulate a certain level of titles. Even though Triple G operated 98%

of his career at middleweight, he's tied for the all-time title defense record with Bernard Hopkins of 20. He had a 23-fight K-O streak in his prime. He twice was a unified champion. Can you hold it against him that he was never undisputed champion, possibly? Can you hold it against him that he never was interested in moving up until that third Canello fight? Could you even hold it against him that some have accused him of ducking Andre Ward during

the brief period where Ward was at 68, Golovkin was at 60, and there was talk? I mean, yeah, I even think you could do that. But I think to some degree, it has to be your performance level. Look, Luke, I argued against, even though Sergio Martinez, the great middleweight champion from Argentina, was ultimately was in the Hall of Fame. And even though he's one of my favorite fighters, I argued against him because I felt his window of being on top from a pound for pound standpoint and a championship standpoint was so small that we have to have some line that

separates who's a Hall of Famer and who's not. not. Triple G's window was not small. He was absolutely dominant. He checks off so many of the boxes from the eye test to the numbers from the title defenses and all of that. But part of this criteria I do acknowledge is who did you beat? I think it was unfortunate for him that the best fighters in his division, Martinez and Cotto, dodged the shit out of him. Canello made him wait two years unnecessarily until he was 35. He got robbed of his biggest. win against Canello in that first fight, which almost no one believes should have gone the other way except for Robert Byrd's wife, Adelaide.

If that's the only thing he's missing, and he is missing that. I mean, when you're talking about his best wins, you're going to talk about Danny Jacobs, Daniel Gill, Darren Barker, Sergey Darvanchanko. I mean, we're not talking about a run of Hall of Famers here necessarily, but I don't think it's as easy to just go, oh, he's. he's some like great white hope that the media got you know was all about and not look back on what we actually saw an absolute destroyer that is very peak saw almost no peer in the division's history i mean at the peak of triple g we were literally having conversations of what

would a fight with him and marvin haggler look like i don't know if you can i mean everyone's resume is going to have a hole somewhere in how you're looking at this criteria i don't think this hole in his inability to get the biggest names. Oh, you got to throw in Kellbrook, by the way, who was undefeated when Triple G stopped him. Kelbrook moved up to weight classes, of course, but that was probably one of the best victories as well of his career. I don't think it's enough. Yeah, I don't think it's enough in this case to keep him out of it, like the younger generation seems to be trying to do right now. So that was a good explanation, right? Here's what we're measuring against, and here's how his resume lines up

with it. BC, I did a little digging, like, what are some of the other middleweights that have made it into the Hall of Fame? So you'd have Bernard Hopkins, you'd have Hagler, you'd have Carlos Monson, right? You'd have a couple of names or a few names like that. And in certain ways, he doesn't quite, I mean, he certainly doesn't have Hagler's career. Not many people do. And even Bhop had wins over elite other pound for pound guys. That is true. However, B.C., to your point, a more than 20-fight win streak. Tidal defense is, I think, 20 of them, yeah, I think 20 of them were title defenses are right around that um multi different different multi title unifications during the course of his career ducked like a motherfucker and they're right you can't count the first fight

against canelo but uh for him but anyone with eyes would probably tell you that that fight is one that if it had been any other like if canelo's not a star i just don't see how triple g lost that fight I mean, this is a guy that partly BC, he achieved less than other people. That is true, who made it into the Hall of Fame in certain ways anyway. In other ways, he clearly achieved just as much as them. But this is also a guy who did not have the luck of the boxing machinery at his disposal. He kind of had the unluckiness of it. And that affects how your resume looks when it's all said and done.

and I do think on some level BC that has to go into the grading. By the way, most people who vote on this, unlike Ryan Garcia, think that Triple G is an obvious case. Yeah, yeah, let's show quickly that. By the way, I scored both Canelo fights for Triple G. And I know you can't just give him that

because your eyes thought you saw it. But imagine what his resume would be with those two wins. Now you're packaging two Canello wins. Totally different conversation. Brooke Jacobs. Here first is a snapshot at the tail end of Triple G. he's run, which does not include the Matthew Maclin knockout before that Rubio fight, but I'm going to acknowledge it's not as impressive as someone with his talent should be.

And then you count in the controversy of those Alvarez fights right there and the fact that he was just trying to stay active and fight whoever was available. But here's Kevin Ioli sounding off on Twitter against the loud vocal minority saying, if you don't believe that Triple G is a Hall of Famer, you're an imbecile of the highest order and not worth debating because you clearly have no clue. hashtag first ballot hashtag damn coming out hard let's bring it dan rafiel of course who was there

for every step of triple g's journey saying moron alert triple g fought everybody who dared step in the ring with him for a decade he was pound for pound number one to sum he was rob versus canello in the first fight had 23 straight knockouts in his prime one of the highest chaos percentages of middleweight history and scored 20 consecutive title defenses

which is insane unified three belts what a rock star olympic silver medal um yeah much to do about nothing i gotta put up dude dan raphael gets spicy on twitter it's kind of funny to watch especially post-d-sbend dan raphael it just gets after it uh here's my boy matt brown from brunch box and i love this guy but this went too far luke come on he put out a meme that basically said if you think triple g should be a hall of famer that you're working on the uh the white cop shift there with mannix so it's got so you got coppinger you got pugmyre manix ioli and raphael all in a row there right come on matt brown come on man yeah i like him i like him too i like but i don't really get this i don't i i understand being like okay he doesn't have the you know the

resume of bhop okay he doesn't but you don't have to have the resume of bhop yeah to get into the hall of fame like that's not the point um i mean it is it does go against him that he stayed in one division for the totality of his career to some degree but then against so did Hagler, so did Hopkins until that late run in his 40s. You know, I mean, I mean, look, when he was on top, he was an absolute superstar, catchphrases on TV. Big drama show. Headline five pay-per-views, had sponsorships with Hubel and Chivas Regal and Jordan Brand,

like, you know, was a legitimate star. Damn, I didn't think we'd get this type of hate this early. It's always like, you know, 10, 15 years later when people were like, well, yeah, that guy wasn't that good. Look at his box wreck. Dude, this is how you know, like, Ryan's a total casual when it comes to understanding this stuff because, and I keep trying to explain this to people, you will think that the biggest stars of your era, oh, these will be the names that carry the test of time.

And then it's over and they're like, dude, GSP was overrated. John Jones wasn't shit. Demetrius Johnson sucked. Anderson Silva wouldn't be that good. You know, and they're going to do it for Volk. They're going to do it for Poetton the next generation's after. They're going to do it for Volk. They're going to do it for Poetan.

They're going to do it to everybody. It's the mark of someone who can't appreciate what. someone meant at a moment in time and what those contributions actually looked like it's like it's like literally the mark of ignorance uh quick story on the way out i once uh i was at the mohegan son and when uh triple g fought matthew macklin on hbo to defend his middleweight title and those of us who were ringside it was like me caran milvaney steve kim will never forget the sound of triple g scoring a body shot ko in the second round that sounded like a gun went off right in front of us and Macklin was broken. After that, I ran into Jim Lampley in the food court. And he's with his family and

there's a crowd of people. I'd never spoken to me before. And he's like, Brian, Brian, come over here. And he did, you know, to give him credit. He was like, love your work. Great to meet you. And all I cut through the, the, you know, the friendliness. And I was like, Jim, is Triple G for real? Like, for real, like all time for real. Can we believe what we're seeing? And he kind of gave a a non-answer, but was like, I'm skeptical. I think so, but we got to wait and see. And after Triple G famously knocked out Curtis Stevens at Madison Square Garden Theater, and I'm not trying to say that the Stevens fight was marquee enough to be a turning point.

But after that fight, everyone from boxing Twitter went down to Times Square and went into Jimmy's corner to the famous boxing bar. And it was this cold, ridiculously cold evening. And as I walked into this tiny sliver of a bar, Lampley's crossing paths to me. your chest to chest with everybody. And he's got the coat on and the scarf and the hat. And I go, Jim, Jim, he is for real. And Jim put whispers in my ear.

He goes, he has the finest craft of any destroyer that I have ever seen in the history of this sport. You're goddamn right. He's for real. And he walked right out and slammed the door in my face as like a gust of wind came in. And his scarf flew around the side of his neck. And he walked off into the night. That was a moment, Luke, all right? Yeah, but then we also interviewed him, you know, and he was like,

these two guys, when they're fighting, they're falling in love. I'm like, they're not, Jim. Yeah. They're not. They want a bang, Jim, all right? These two men are in a romantic affair. Like, they're not. Yeah, that's not happening right there.

But shout out to boxing. There we go. All right. Those are your five topics for the damn week, but a reminder to y'all. You want to reach the show? why don't you hit us up at morning combat at gmail dot com tell mike that you said hi show them a piece of yourself really more like a fan sub than like hey you know when one of the wow right uh but those will be your opportunities to get your stuff heard on friday it is Friday so look

we sit in front of a microphone sometimes we say shit that's just factually incorrect insensitive or just plain dead wrong I think I deserve this one, Luke. This one comes from Greg. He says, gentlemen, this here is a dead wrong. However, this is an anomaly because it didn't come from you directly, but by proxy, you did report it. This is about the post that BC shared from at Velutama regarding Alex Pineda's windstreek, all the windstreaks that he snapped. I also understand all three of you made comments regarding some minor.

mistakes. These mistakes weren't all that minor, in fact. They were actually very dead wrong. Oh, boy, I deserve this. He says the post claim that he snapped Strickland's three-fight win-streek. It was actually only six. Where did they get 18 from? The post-claim that he snapped Izzy's 23-fight win streak. He never had a 23-fight win streak. He had a 20-fight win streak that Jan Blahovic snapped. They also claimed Uncle I was 14-fight win streak, but it was actually 13-fighted to unbeaten, there was a draw on there in a no contest, which aren't wins. Again, per snickery as always, but that's how we MK fans do. No disrespect to Alex, he's a legend, and has done epic things.

But these stats are definitely incorrect mostly, but your mileage may vary. Hashtag drive fast all gas. Hashtag how many chigs? Do you see they gave away another truck, Luke? Did you see that? I can't say that I'm paying close attention. All right. I'll take that L for that graphic.

What a... Yeah, you put that on the show. I did. Luke, we're about to get mahaloed by a gentleman named Daz. Back up on that ass and give these motherfuckers a blast from the past. Dad says Aloha. I hope he bare-knuckle fights Telvin, by the way. Big Papa, Kie Papa, that'd be great.

During have you seen this shit on September 29th after watching Kyle Long down a beer, B.C. asks if Howie Long's son was Kyle or Chris Long, B.C. It was both. Kyle played O-line while Chris Long played defensive end. Both made the NFL. Always appreciate the content. Thanks for all the UFC 320 Fight Week coverage.

I'll take that out. I was unaware, all right? There you go. That's it. I'm old for two. Hey, let's go to number three. This comes from Liam, which is Luke's favorite boy name in this modern era.

Do you think he's white, Luke? Well, not merely that, but he's probably British. Okay, or Irish, possibly. Southern Irish. Yeah, there you go. Hello, Liam says at 2910 of yesterday's show, Long Island Luke said Dominic Reyes hasn't fought a top 13 ranked opponent,

with Kreelov being ranked 13th at the time of the K.O. lost to Reyes. Well, Mr. Dead Wrong, Luke, that statement is what I call massive cap. You see, Kreelov was ranked 8 when he got his chin properly mauled back to the Donetsk. People's Republic by Reyes on April 12th, 25, do better, Luke, jokes, love the show, keep up the good work. Long Island, Luke, are you really dead wrong here? No, he misinterpreted what I said. What I said is he hasn't beaten anyone in the top 13. Whether Krylov was ranked in the top 13 when they fought is irrelevant because at this point,

he's not in the top 13. So, yeah, Liam, you're wrong, actually, all right? Dead wrong, in fact. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you tried to bring a receipt. you tried to dunk on us. Turns out it was charging, all right? No tea bags on this side of the court.

Thank you. Our final one comes from Kane Stewart, Kane with a K. It's Kane, yeah. At around the one hour, 45 minute mark, BC said Rhonda fought Holly in December 2015. That fight actually took place in November of that year. Keep up the good work, fellas.

I did look it up. It was November 14th. I would have bet all my money that it was December of 2015, but that was Connor versus Aldo. It was the pay-per-view after. So I was wrong. UFC 194. Wyden and the Co-Maine?

I mean, that stretch of MMA was just, oh, magic. Great. Those are dead wrongs. They're very pedantic, but, you know, somebody's got to be the ombudsman in this place. It's time, though, for our second segment, where we give the people an opportunity to send in pictures of their wives wearing our clothing, or maybe even artwork that we can put on our fridge.

this is called fan submissions you've got mail viewers our first male viewer comes to us from mount unikey nova scotia it is former donk of the year co-dunk of the year excuse me jay piquette who says good day luke bc l i l i mikey and all of donk nation last week dawn the boss lady and i welcomed a very special friend my non-related brother chef mark piquette flew down from Ontario to visit us at Mount Unike. We toured our great province of Nova Scotia with tons of amazing food and drinks. Luckily, our merch 3.0 arrived in time and we've included some pictures. Much love to all you out there, hugs and kisses to my beloved co-dunk of 2022.

Speaking of, can we get an happy wellness check? Shout out to Dawn the Boss Lady and Jay Paquette. Look, what do you make of Jay Paquette connecting with fellow. MK fan Mark Paquette, unrelated, and then flying to visit each other in like an MK family sausage party. And then chef Mark Paquette is actually making the sausage. I like how they like, I feel like we should have been invited to this. It looks fantastic. Yeah, I don't think we have the travel budget. Oh, is that a lobster? Is that a lobster dog with like remalade sauce and then peppers on top? Yeah, Jeff Mark's legit. I've seen as well. That looks unbelievable. We should

chef mark and chef kaz have like a bare knuckle fight for m k for factory town promotions what do you think yeah and then the loser uh bc gets to bang their wife uh shout out to the becats hope you guys are doing well up there and uh i know that food looked amazing now i'm jealous yeah that was good stuff there uh their second fan sub comes from john he leaves no information let's see what he's got holy shit what what He fucking, are you shitting me? I mean, I'm a simple man, B.C. I'm a simple man.

It is a big booty Latina night. Luke is fired up. Our next one comes from my favorite Hawaiian. Who are the straight guys who don't like that? Are there? I mean, you know, shout out to the Russian ladies, right? Luke, you know what I mean? Right.

I do, by the way, I cannot tell you, did you get a lot of DMs when you were like, oh, the Irish are better looking than the Brazilian? Did you get a lot of DM? I said Russian or whatever it was, the whites. No, I did not get a single DM about there. Or maybe I missed it if I got, I won't say a dozen, but at least seven or eight. And they were all like, they were all like, dude, what the fuck is wrong with B.C.

And I'm like, I don't know what you tell you. Poland is underrated too. Look, I just want you to know that. I'm not saying Poland is trash. That's not what I'm saying. But brother, they're not going to touch Brazil. Like, it's just not a thing that's going to happen. Yeah, yeah.

uh this one's from my favorite hawaiian telvin big papa ki papa who says aloha dogs telvin here i just wanted to congratulate bc on becoming the prop quiz champion yeah and made a meme yeah thank you that made a meme that best describes your victory versus who you all the time all jokes aside bc you are the man representing us factory town workers everywhere keep up the good work guys aloha so luke bc on pop quiz prop quiz excuse me is mark hon what is he winning there is that the pride maybe like a k1 trophy yeah and then that's mark on at the bottom with me regularly okay that's that's that's that's pretty dark right there but i was gonna say i was like what the hell's happening the rest of the time but i get uh kelvin telvin excuse me not kelvin gaslam is my favorite

factory worker in the world right now so shout out to him he gets out at three a m he must be lonely our next one comes from king kim bong eel excuse me and he's got a bc special let's see it sir another kidney has failed the body i think he means liver you only get one of those livers though luke you know you gotta be good to it that picture from the early days of mk back when we were filled with hope and joy you know what i'm saying yes yes and we were much more bloated back then yeah hair was a little naturally darker you know yes in that the pandemic we got fat right wow super fat our last fan sub of the week comes from Jonas. Let's see it.

I feel so swinish. What? American right now. Spoon feed me some ultra-processed bacon and let's bake a baby cake lady because 2001 is going to be our year. I don't understand what the fuck this is

other than it's vaguely me. So it's you vaping looking out at the Twin Towers in 2001 saying that this is going to be your year. Is there like another video that we can't show attached to that long outlook? I don't know. This is all I got for it. It might

be a reference to something that we just don't know, but is this some like, is this some like the fountain head reference or remix or something? I'm not sure what this is. We did have to, uh, with the censors said no to multiple videos of AI that showed you and the cake lady

sitting there on the honeymoon on the plane with the towers out the window and then BC driving the plane. I mean, that's just like. Yeah, it's not a thing we can show. Right. I mean, plus you know, it was like, like can jet fuel, bend, steel beams? I don't think so, to be fair, Luke, you know what I mean? You'd be the expert to consult on this for sure.

Yeah, yeah. Those were fans of missions. Thank you for playing morning combat at gmail.com for you. And a reminder that this here episode of morning combat, it was brought to you by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. L.T. Thank you for playing today.

It was fun. We did what we could with the news available. It's going to heat up, you know, pretty soon, right? We're going to be getting some UFC 321 around the corner. What's next week's UFC card? Is that going to be good or bad? It's the RDR fight. Oh, okay.

That's a good card outside of the main event switch. It's a good card for sure. Shack Majorie is going to be there, which means get the block button going, warm that sucker up. It'll be Manon-Ferot against Jasmine and Jazz DeVicius. I'm into that fight for sure, no doubt. Luke Thomas, will you be providing streaming entertainment for UFC HEO this weekend? No, I had to work every

single day last week and my family had a bad weekend as a consequence. So I'm going to, I might do some post-fight stuff on Sunday, but no live watch along for this one. I have to be a dad. I can't do it all the time. Long Island, no Cita. Can we expect the main card minute, which I hear

has two episodes. No, he's not telling her. He's done, hey, girlfriend, hey, go find someone else to keep you warm in the Long Island winter. Sure with that. But, yeah, full card watch along tomorrow, guys, 4 p.m. starred. Join me then. Also, prop quiz, Chuck Mindenhall, Aaron Bronseter dropping in roughly 40 minutes.

Wow. Win that. You think AB can do this, LT? They're both pretty good. They're both pretty good, I would imagine. You know, I guess, you know, partly it's a little bit of luck. A little bit of luck. Well, AB used to do those trivia videos on Instagram.

Like, he knows his stuff. That's true. It's a good point. Yeah, I'll be curious to see. I mean, even though he was an athlete in high school, look, you got to give him. It's like, bro, if you went to my high school, that would not have been a thing. You know what I mean? Valdosta, baby, all right?

National Champions six times. What was the name of your other high school? Marietta High School. I went to Valdosta High School and then Marietta High School. All right. Changing high schools in the middle of high school is real fun. I recommend it totally. Yeah, it's great for your social life.

Yeah, I mean, it's really amazing. I'm really glad my mom put me through that. It's very fun. But your debate club and mathlet skills are probably still talked about at at Marietta High, right? Yeah. I mean, seriously. I didn't do debate, and Marietta, only at Valdosta. Oh, all right, all right.

Well, it was great talking to you. Thank you to the listeners and viewers. You can follow us right here. Check out our extended universe. Luke Thomas gets political. Am I wrong? Is this thing picking up Steam, Luke? I don't really know what I'm doing, so I don't know how to answer that,

but I do get a lot of emails. People seem to be responding to it. It's kind of funny. You know, it's amazing is my family watches is none of this, the thing that I've invested 20 years in, and they watch, which I got to have to tell you is of enormous surprise to me, as you might imagine. In pride.

They send me feedback on my political stuff. And I'm like, I don't even know what I'm doing with this. Wait, good feedback? Like, are they like good take or that was a strong? Yeah, mostly, mostly. Do you think that your dad would be interested in you and Ben Shapiro going one-on-one? I don't think my dad has any idea. who Ben Shapiro is.

All right, all right. But if you said George Will or something, he might hear about that. Yeah, I read Men at Work when I was a kid by George Will. It was a big baseball book, you know? He's, he's one of those old baseball types that treat the sport as like it's partly religious, you know? Yes, yes.

And I don't like that. Yeah. Back in high school, he can throw that speedball by, hey, how about morningcombat. Shop? Grab our merch, we have October exclusives that won't be. here forever. Why don't you look good in a superwashed

dad's shirt? Or maybe even average Joe Art's other creation, Frank and Luke and Doncula. In time for Halloween, they won't be here, but you can get a signed poster while they are. Put it on your wall. It's morning combat dot shop, mix and match the colors. Thank you.

We've got, you know, items there that you can check out. Thank you. Look like, just like Saul. And maybe be as cool as that guy. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. All right. You ever feel like you want to end the show? You just don't know how. It's not that hard.

All right. Why don't you take it home? I got to let Reggie out. All right. For Long Island, Luke, for the staff here at the show, for Brian Campbell, I'm LT. Thank you all so much for watching. We'll catch you on Monday. Until that time, may all of your gains be loyal.

This is an I-Heart podcast.