MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Shanghai Recap: Johnny Walker Stuns Zhang | Sterling Beats Ortega | Pavlovich Wins Again

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are live in the studio to break down the biggest news coming out of UFC Shanghai. First up, Johnny Walker rallied to stop Zhang Mingyang in the light heavyweight main event. At 33, did Walker show you any legitimate signs that the best run of his career could be right around the corner? The UFC Shanghai co-main featured Aljamain Sterling shutting out Brian Ortega. With a 2-1 record since moving up to 145 pounds, does Sterling have any leverage at all to ask for a title shot following this performance? In the UFC Shanghai undercard, Sergei Pavlovich outpointed Waldo Cortes-Acosta to keep pace near the top of the heavyweight rankings. Given the extreme lack of depth in the division, is there still one more run to a UFC title shot in the card for Pavlovich moving forward?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Oh, my God. It's us doing what we love. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, it's just another manic Monday. Wish it were Sunday. You don't want to know why? That's my fun day.

Yeah, I don't have to run day to a Joseph Apex men's room. Hey, it's morning combat. We're back in your life here on August 25th of the 25th's here on a Monday, back in Your face hole, where we belong. Brian Campbell from the Hartford, Connecticut suburbs coming to you live and direct from New York City. Metalog Studios. This man came on the train from D.C. today. They took away the National Guard is still patrolling Union Station.

But they removed this morning anyway. I don't know how long this will last. But there were no more vehicles out front. They took all the vehicles away. They removed as many migrants as they were looking for. Is this what happened? Well, I've often said, BC, if you want to crack down on violent crime, rhyme in DC, you know, the first thing you need to target are the Hispanic guys delivering

pad tie on scooters. That's the real menace, you know. So would you say I'm an ex-door dash driver or a former one? Well, you know what? I don't know if you're ex or former. You might just be inactive. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, right. Not retired yet, just in case. We'll see where my career goes. We have a show plan for you today. Will it be good? I don't know. We're going to break down. My idea for the show, they didn't like this. The North Korean censors did not approve of this, but my idea was we should just watch pornography on the air and then talk about it. But they didn't like that idea, and I don't think that their idea is better.

Yeah, see, they don't think, but you know what, your idea is not better. Your idea is to talk about these blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, bullshit-ass fights. Remember when you got mad at me for bringing in the AG1 bottle today? I didn't say anything about it? My wife called me fat over the weekend. Do I, am I getting there, Luke? No, you were definitely not getting fat. All right.

Well, I'm working on it. Thank you. I think your wife just doesn't like you. There's also truth to that. Hey, we have a show plan for you today. They'd be heavy on UFC Shanghai. We're going to kill some time and play over-under. And I'm told it could be fun, Luke.

So get ready for that. I'm ready for some over-under. Then we'll get your DM questions. We'll close by picking the kernels out of my Shiat. Luke, did you have a nice weekend in the greater capital area? I did. My brother came up. He brought his son, my nephew, and we took the Tookster and his son to the National Zoo together.

Wow. And they got to ride. There's a carousel in the middle of it. Did you pay a donation? did you walk in for free? So the, so the, you have to get tickets, but the tickets are free. I gave, you can give $10 to the pandas. I gave $10 to the pandas. I paid for a parking pass. And of course, if you buy any kind of refreshment, it's, you know, $89,000 for a hot dog. So we did some of that, too. They get, they get their money from you. That's you was very nice, though.

It is, but they get their money from you. They find ways to extract it. When I took my family to DC a couple years ago, my favorite spot was down by the water. There was like cherry blossoms and there was an FDR outdoor museum. You know I'm talking about? That area rules. What's that called? Tidal Basin? Yeah, I'm a big tidal basin guy. Yeah, title basin. That's where I got married. I got married at the title basin at the Jefferson Memorial lawn.

I thought it smelled like shit there. It was like, cradustin lingering, lingering. You could be nice about my weather. Yeah, that's true. You have a fantastic family. I'm happy about that. Speaking of which, I need to make an announcement. Oh, you're coming out? No. Well, first of all, I mean, you should have seen the crime scene that I just left in the toilet. But no. But not in the no shit bathroom.

No, I should have. I'm dying to go back You know what? My favorite thing is I'm going to take a dump in the no dump bathroom Except I'm just going to do it in the sink You know, I'm going to do it like

What's you call it? What's the bowling movie? What's the bowling movie? Oh, um, um Don't get Monson. Kingpin. Yeah, like Kingpin. Thank you.

Putting that aside, I couldn't beat her this morning So I just want to say Today is the first day of Toekster going to first grade. How about that? How about that? So,

to my little one out there. Does this say bilingual school or Spanish only? I know she does some Spanish only stuff. It has, I'm not sure what the split is in first grade, actually. It's a good question. I don't know. But she's going to be, is she already fully finally? She's completely fluent.

That's awesome. Yeah, she's completely fluent. Every once in a while, she'll get an English word she doesn't know how to say. You know, so she'll just shoehorn an English word in there, but in general, she's completely fluent. That's fantastic. Shout out to the Tukes, big fan. All right. First day of first grade.

Let's introduce our third member of the team. He's a producer, director, bong enthusiast. He's got a new spin-off podcast on the main card minute called. What hell's it called? My girlfriend is nowhere to be seen. Yeah, hey, Long Island Luke Noseeta direct from a horned-up Aussie's ballback. Hey, hey, no-seida, what's your show called? It's called Prop Quiz, guys.

Yeah, I appeared on it, yeah. Yeah, we had another great episode this week with Jed and Mike. Got another one coming out this week. Would you say you have a healthy relationship to gambling? Yeah, I do. I do think I have a healthy relationship to gambling. Which relationship in your life is the strongest? Gambling, weed, or your girlfriend?

I mean, be fair right now. It's probably a three-way tie. Oh, I don't think it's a three-way tie. I think you'd be surprised. I think you'd be surprised. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. He's like Velasquez would kick your ass. Yeah, there you go.

Also, please like and subscribe. It helps the show. It really does. We've been sitting on 176,000 subscribers for a long-ass time. Get us over the hump. Also, you can follow us on social. are extended YouTube channels. Everyone on the show has a YouTube channel.

Luke's got a few of them, right? Apparently. I didn't plan it that way, but that's kind of what happened. Do you have anything to report? Yeah, I have an interview out this morning on my substack with a guy by the name of Martin Ostermule. He's a long-time journalist covering just local D.C. affairs. I sat with him in the park that I grew up in.

And we talked about... The Great Basin Park? Say again? The Great Basin? No, no, no. Lincoln Park. It's over on the east side of town. And we talked about what's going on in the same. city. There you go. Oh, interesting stuff right there. All right. I like that. Just some anyway.

Just some. Also, if you like this shirt I'm wearing, I don't even know if it's available anymore. Oh, let's let's put the camera on me. Look at it. Yep. There you one, two, three margaritas, right? Because there's got to be someone we can trust out here among us. Go to morningcombat.combat. I had two margaritas on Friday night. Did you, uh, lose your mind and swear out your co-hosters? No, but I drove. I drove, we were all the way across town and I was, I was, I was buzzing. They were some Cadillac joints And then I drove my I drove my e-bike home

Wow, that's pretty masculine of you. Hey, morning combat's not shop We'll give you your merch needs August exclusives, you're running out of time For Beavis in Butthead MK style brought to you, of course, by average Joe Art Vaping is for closers And how about the autographed

Super Wash Dad's poster? LIL, how many of them we got left? I think there's just one left. That one is still lingering. Hey, who's it going to be? Who is it going to be? Hey, happy, oh, yeah, so morning combat dot shop, September exclusives right around the corner,

get your shit today. Happy anniversary today to Jay Piquette and Dawn the boss lady of Nova Scotia. Also, average jarred adopted two animals over the weekend. I love that guy. He's got a bigger heart than me because my brother brought his dog this weekend because they didn't want to board it.

The last time they boarded this dog, the dog escaped the boarding facility. Did you make euthanization jokes to them or only to me? I told him about the euthanization jokes I made to you. They thought it was very funny. Anyway, he brought his dog up here, and we let the dog alone for an hour just to go get some bagels. Like, not long. We don't leave dogs at home alone.

And he still chewed up my doorknobs. My metal doorknob has, like, dog bites in it. Damn. And I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. I had enough of this. So nice dog, though. Nice dog. All right.

Do you feel just uncomfortable when you get in a car? Like, the seat isn't how you normally have it? Everything I sit in is uncomfortable. and it has been that way for about 30 years. Speaking of sitting, did you get out on the new Amtrak super trains yet? They haven't, so if you go, what I boarded, the answer is no, but all the other rails have them all fully loaded there at D.C. So I saw all the new trains.

There's new trains coming out. And what Amtrak says is, B.C. D.C. to New York, two and a half hours. That's what they say. What did it used to be? Four. Damn. So what they're saying is this one is a.

major upgrade and the seats have their own sockets and you've got 5G wireless free you can use on the thing they're supposed to be nice they're supposed to be rolling out this week they didn't roll out today but it's supposed to roll up this week would you like a train where each seat has its own toilet like you just like pull up the why would I do that when I can just go

on the commode and leave it there maybe I am turning fat make people look at it oh that's so disgusting all right enough for this bullshit hey speaking of shit let's get into the weekend recap let's go to topic number one put the camera on me there we go ufc shanghai over the weekend a fight night card breakfast with the ufc 6 a m main card starred on the east coast that was kind of interesting i got up in rhoda recap for cbs sports but in that main event johnny walker is back guys and he's back in a big way

in his first fight with new trainer eric nixick of extreme couture light heavy weight wild man johnny walker snapped a two fight losing skid survived a hairy opening round and chop down the tree that was red-hot Chinese slugger Zhang Mingyong and delivered the upset T-K-O in round two. Luke at 33. Let's be straight up on us here.

Did Johnny Walker show you any legitimate signs that the best run of his career could be right around the corner? Fuck no. We've got a dumb-ass question is that. Okay. Kind of a dumb-ass question is that? I mean, who?

I mean, dude, you're being serious with these fucking dumb-ass question? Did he show you he was ready to make a lame till the hundred? No, the fuck, no, he didn't. You know he didn't. What did he show you besides his dong? Can we go to the picture? Is this the best moment?

This is the best moment. It's like, what the fuck are we doing here? Listen, I'll say this. We kind of thought he was going to get stopped because, you know, Zhang had walked in with a series of stoppages and Johnny is unreliable. First of all, I just want to point out, Johnny's first thing in this motherfucking fight is he runs across the octagon and then accidentally pulls guard. No, he tried a double leg, didn't he?

I understand. That's what I mean. He said, but he misses it, rolls over and then has to pull guard essentially. But it all kind of happened in almost like one fluid motion. And I was like, my lord, this man, what are we fucking doing? You pulled that kind of mistake against somebody else, man. You probably wouldn't even get up after that. But here's the reality, dude, Zhang, this is what we were talking about, like with the KOs.

The one thing we were saying that gives us some positive. about it is not that he didn't beat some decent names along the way or look good doing it again. He had performance of the night bonuses back to back to back. But dude, you don't know how good someone is until they get a little higher up the food chain. Or a little deeper into a fight, 17 consecutive fights had not gone out of the first round. Exactly. So once they get to a second, third, fourth round, and obviously didn't go that far in this particular case, but such that the bout continues on in that way, that's when you begin to see what the real game looks like. He didn't look bad. Jane did not look terrible, but he looks relatively

conventional. I don't know what his strong calling card would be, except he has good pressure and he's got a decent punch. But there's nothing like particularly noteworthy about his game. I mean, look, 17 consecutive fights where he didn't get out of the first round. 14 of those he won. Three he was stopped, but those came in the early part of that run.

Is there something to be said about what? Like the Edgar Berlanga thing with the 16 straight first round KOs? Is it the lack of experience and going deep? Or is it the lack of quality competition that allowed him to get some money? The answer is quality competition. I've seen this so many times, and to your point, I've seen it in MMA and boxing, and this is how you know it's true.

If you see someone, I'm going to make something up 10, 15, first round KOs, obviously they've got some ability and obviously they can punch a little bit, right? There clearly is something to be said for that. But none of that means anything until you move up the food chain. And then you begin to see, does this mean anything for this end of the division, which, by the way, is the most relevant end of this division. It's not like I come away from this being like Johnny Walker's Reborn. I did think he did some things pretty well. I thought he was better about sustaining attack. I thought he was better about, for the most part, peeling out when he needed to be,

kept himself safer. So listen, under the tutelage of Eric Nixick at Extreme Couture, I definitely think you can point to a couple of things that he's gotten a little bit tightened up in the short amount of time he's been working there. But the reality of like this bout was, Zhang's not very good and Johnny Walker has pretty severe limits, but can surprise. you and...

I mean, he's still all or nothing. He's either going to get spectacularly flattened or he's going to land something. Nothing about this fight really questioned is he all or nothing. It just kind of reinforced that he's all or nothing. I don't know what you're supposed to do with that. How disappointing to Chinese MMA

and the potential push that Zhang was getting getting a main event here in just his fourth fight in his home country, not just to see him lose, but to really, and I'm not saying I could take those kicks, but it was basically like three really hard calf kicks. It was kind of done. Yeah, he doesn't, I mean, he didn't check him very well from what I could tell.

He didn't have great resiliency from what I could tell. He was not, maybe not, I don't know, you know, what kind of sparring partners does he have? Should they just shut down the Chinese Performance Institute? No, I think actually priming the pump like that is actually pretty important, but us pumping the brakes on, you know, the problem is, Zhang Wiley comes out of here and she looks and has been world class. She's a champion. She's like really good. Did you see she got a Trump walkout with Dana? Did you see that?

Yes, I did see that. She looked like a star. That was great and, you know, good for her. She deserves it. And then she was like, migrant workers, this, ice. And I was like, okay, you're taking the Trumps, they're like a little bit too far. But the point I'm trying to make is, you know, we have to just slow down about the state of Chinese prospects. I think in certain weight classes and in certain cases, they're going to be ready for the very top of their division.

But in many cases, especially at the heavier ones, you're going to have to slow roll it. China has obviously a huge population. There's a lot of different names you could pull, but we've got to pump the brakes on this a little bit. All right, Johnny Walker scored a big win for his native country of Brazil. Did you know about the stat coming in? The last 10 Brazilians to main event a UFC card were 0 in 10. Who's the guy that can break that streak? Johnny Walker can.

And look, those aren't bum names, although Johnny Walker was part of that streak, to be fair. But like, look at the studs that have shown up on that list, including Poetan Perere, including Hobocop, including Money Makano. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, these are good fighters, too. I mean, I don't know about the Talasin Tasharo won, but... Maybe this re, as you would say, reprims the pump for Brazilian MMA, too? Dude, I look at this look on Johnny Walker's face.

He looks as surprised he won as the rest of us. Like, he just, oh, my hands getting raised? I can't believe it, you know? After the fight, it was a brief fight, Johnny Walker got hurt. It looked like he got hurt a couple times in the first round. So he was talking up his chin afterwards and saying, I train with tough guys. You guys don't give me any respect. Then he called out the Polish power himself, Jan Blahovit, who did not respond on social media.

Is that a fight you need to see? Or you don't need to see any more, Johnny Walker? Yeah, I mean, let me be as clear as I possibly can be. If they closed light heavyweight, it would only improve UFC. Long Island, look, can we bring in some sensibility here? However, I wouldn't hate that match up. Long Island, Luke, did Johnny Walker's turn here do anything for you? No, this is kind of one of those fights doesn't really tell us much about either guy.

I want to see Johnny Walker versus Bogdan Guskov. I feel like that's a perfect step up for both of them. It's a heck of a call off. No, rather than Yon, I feel like Yon's actually a tough fight for him despite being 42 years old or whatever. Yeah, the issue is like Yon at his best is clearly better. But like, where is Yon today now that he's so old, relatively speaking? I don't know.

Look, if, thank you, Long Island, Luke, if the brief run that, or maybe it wasn't that brief that Walker had with SBG, John Kavanaugh, it didn't end up working. There was a brief period where it looked like it was going to improve Johnny's ground game. He had that submission win. What do you feel like Eric Nixon? sick and company can do for this Johnny because it wasn't like it was a perfectly clean performance. It was a Johnny Walker performance. Only he wasn't doing like backflips. Yeah, I mean,

they gave the problem was they gave him at SBG a defense style first. And I think that put him on offensively the backflit, which actually didn't make his offense any better. And it didn't really make his defense as good as it needed to be. I think giving him more of an offense first game with defensive sensibility built in. I don't, again, I don't think he's got what it takes to get to the top, but could that meaningfully improve his chances? Yes, I think it could. But again, it's not like he's been working with that team for very long.

Like, you know, I certainly it's a nice win for him. I'm glad I bet the team is quite happy. Eric Nixick seemed pretty happy about it, as they should be. But there's a lot of work that has to get done. This guy has been damaged real bad, you know? And he makes a lot of bad decisions, or he executes on things improperly. Like you saw that dumbass guard pulling at the very beginning of the fight. Like he has to fight out of disadvantageous positions all the goddamn time.

That's Paul Craig's entire gameplay. Yeah, but he's got great submissions. That's a little different. You can kind of play that game a little bit. Both have torn up Scotland, though, to be fair. And both have just plow through Scotland's trim, you know, it's unbelievable. It's all the jokes we have for this guy. But anyway, I'm just pointing out, like, you know, I think making him put pressure behind his jab,

making him put pressure. Like, so you're using length, but you're using it, more offensively to crowd the other person. Sure. I think that's going to go further than him just constantly being on the bat. He's not a back foot guy, a back foot fighter. Crazy to look back when he arrived. What was that, 2018-ish?

Scored three consecutive, like, amazing highlight real first-round finishes. And then went into a Corey Anderson fight that we would find out afterwards. If Walker had won, he would have gone directly into a John Jones title fight. What the hell would have happened if that went down that way? John would have taken him down and pounded him out. at that time probably By the way, speaking of Corey Anderson who will be fighting for a PFL light heavyweight title soon

Did you see that quote he had recently in an interview Where he said that he was once told by a UFC matchmaker That they cannot put him into a title fight Because he doesn't have enough social media followers Do you believe that? Of course I believe that. Why would you? I'm not saying Corey would lie, but like that's pretty

Why would that in any way sound implausible? I could understand thinking that and that playing a role but to tell a fighter that directly. Yeah, I believe him. I 100% believe him. I mean, but also at the same time, like, okay, I don't want guys not getting title shots because of that. But, and I hate being this guy, but it's important to do it now.

Are you, is this surprising to people? Like, what is it you think goes into title shots? Meritocracy, Lou. Yeah, no, no. No, no. Yeah, that's a huge component. But it's definitely not the only one. And we know that it's not the only one.

Yeah, you know, you know, I think. I think I am getting fat. Are we fucking children? Like, why can't we just say this out loud? Say it, go ahead. No, no. I don't, you're fine. You're fine.

Are we fucking children about this? Like, I believe that Santa Claus delivers it. And the Easter bunny fucking brings us, you know, treats and shit. God, the one time Tuki will watch a show to get a birthday shout out. She hears this also. I'm saying, like, don't we know that this is exactly how this fucking shit works? Like, people would just infantilizing the moment. I didn't think they would tell a fighter that.

Like, hey, pick up your Twitter following and maybe we'll consider you next time. Tell that to Mold, Mosar, Evloev, I've told that to him. I suspect that his lack of a following might be doing him some problems as well. Interesting. It is interesting. That's topic number one for you. But hey, speaking of a good time, now's a good time as ever.

To do what? To remember where tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila. And since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots. Okay? We're talking about the same family, the same land, most importantly, that same passion. 230 years later Cuervo is still here

in every pour in every margarita in every celebration so enjoy the tequila that started at all Cuervo the tequila that invented tequila ProximoCwervo.com

please drink responsibly and we're going to have a long September here for the UFC but you better believe that MK's pre-game preview for UFC 320 is not that far away Luke I'm fired up for that card

by the way with Ancolaev Pereira 2 Marab versus San Who do you want to sit in this third seat for this fantastic program when we get out that devil's reserve? Angela White. Great stuff, great stuff. I don't know. Maybe a Jed mesh you, maybe a Chuck Minut. I don't know yet.

We're trying to get lice? I don't think it's been decided. Didn't spoiler alert. Didn't Jed get sent to the woodshed by Mike Heck on your show? That might be coming up in DMs. Okay, okay. We'll get to that. All right.

Let's get to topic number two, a fight that probably excited Luke a lot more than the main. Just kidding, no, it didn't. Hey, here we go. The Co-Maine-Event, Al Jermaine Sterling, shutting out an overweight Brian Ortega

over five rounds and calling for a title shot and the former Bannamweight champ was efficient, but far from exciting as he largely dominated Ortega who looked really like didn't want to pull the trigger until the fight got into the later rounds. There was an elbow injury for Aljo.

We'll get into that. and there was some self-admitted fatigue late in a five-round fight that he said coming in, he doesn't understand why it's there. But Aljo did circle away because of that in the final two rounds, even drawing booze from the typically polite Chinese crowd. So, Luke, with a two-in-one record since moving up to 145 pounds, does Sterling actually have any leverage at all in your eyes to do what he did? Ask to be next in line for Alexander Volcanovsky.

No. No, he has no leverage to ask for it. I would say that I don't necessarily mind it. I think starting to plant the seeds and begin to force a conversation is actually the right call by him. So I want to be clear, like, I think he has started the process in a way where, you know, he's planted seeds. He's trying to foster it a little bit, trying to try to get it going, trying to make something happen. Are we even at a place where that, I think, becomes a relevant concern? I don't, I don't see how it could.

I mean, the problem is this, right? We talked about this. We talked exactly about this. Part of what Aljo was up against is something he can't even control, which is the state of Brian Ortega. And Ortega, you said like the later rounds. How about like the last couple of minutes of the last round? He didn't do shit in round four.

And he did a little bit in round five, but it was not much and it was too little too late. And it doesn't even matter. I tried so hard. Yeah, I was never a Lincoln Park guy. But dude, I'm serious. Like, how can you? And then the win over Ortega was relatively. ho-hum at that. There was some decent ground and pound from that in that fifth round

where he had, you know, again, as I tried to explain to the people who don't know what they're looking at, when you create posture, that's what, that space, that's how you can then land powerful ground and pound. Sure enough, he, if you get a posture as it kills the triangle and he can go for it. So you got a little bit of that, but like, I'm not even blaming Aljo. He shouldn't have had to fight two more rounds with the same amount of money. He should have gotten an opponent who kind of pushed him a little bit or, you know, could have made this a more meaningful battle. But it had sparring energy for an opponent who looked like he either didn't want to be there or was barely hanging on. Aljo had some good moments for sure.

Yeah, I mean, he was efficient boxing from the outside, but he didn't look bad. Why not take him down? Why not try to get us? He did take him down later in the fight. He did take him down. Fourth and fifth, he did take him down. But, however, the point I'm trying to make is, like the offense never got out of, I'll say second gear in this one, was really kind of the problem.

And you had an opponent who just couldn't manufacture hardly anything in the process who fought in the most bland way. How can anyone from those circumstances think that a title shot could be in contention with a result and an impact like that? It's just unrealistic. He certainly has a name. He's got a reputation as a former champion for being an elite fighter. Doesn't always fight in the most exciting way.

Did what's coming off a close loss to Eve Lowe, before. that, so two and one right now. Here is a quote tweet here of Aljo who at the press conference afterwards would say, look, I'm 36, Volcanovsky's 36, let two old Unks get after it. Unks, Unks. Lerone, he's got some

time, he's got some youth. Me and Volcanovsky, why not? End quote. That was, of course, on the UFC Shanghai Post-fight show. The only problem is, isn't Murphy like 34, 35? He's a damn near Unk himself. In fact, Lorone Murphy would respond to that on Twitter with a simple L-O-L. Yeah, dude, he just iced Aaron Pico in the first round with a spinning back elbow.

How on earth can Aljo think he's ahead of him? Long Island, you tend to protect your island under all circumstances. I'm not even being a hater. I'm simply asking. Dude, you're being honest, okay? Yeah, no, Long Island, look, am I being, I swear I'm not trying to be a hater. How can he think that's even remotely going to get? You were just making the point, though, on behalf of Corey Anderson that you understand

title shots are based on followers have the time. Do you think that Aljo has a better following than Lerone Murphy? I can I think we can all agree on that. Um, yes. Again, these are, these are these are weighted competitively over time. Do you think that there is fan enthusiasm though for another title shot

for Aljo relative to Lerone Murphy? I don't I don't buy that there is. I think you could sell it. I think you could sell it because it's former champ versus champ. Is that his Long Island talking you think? Yeah, this is this is deeply unconvincing. I mean, I wouldn't hate this fight, but I don't think the Ortega win is the one that is going to catapult you. I understand because Aljo's 36 that he's got to fight for his own brand. So it's not like I'm mad at him for saying that. I just don't think it's realistic. He doesn't have a history of being a favored son in

UFC by any chance. I mean, we talk all the time about- Did you have to get momentum? Where is the momentum? This was a good notch on whatever he's trying to do with the featherweight campaign. We can't take that away from him because that could prove useful with the next win. And now you're beginning to put together something a little bit bigger. But this particular step, relative to the step that Lerone Murphy just took, and more broadly, his father-of-way resume, these are not comparable things. That's not being a hater. That's just a fact. Sterling would say in the cage afterwards that because he's getting old, it was fatigue in the late rounds that slowed him. But after the fight, he would add in the injury. Here's a

snippet from Sterling's IG Live. Good morning. From Shanghai. This is from the spinning back elbow as you can see I now have a titty on my elbow because it looks like a titty what do you hate it so I can't really bend my arm oh that's like the first I could get it it hurts right there so after the third round when I landed the elbow I immediately felt it in the corner I told the guys were like shaking on my arm or I started rub it in i think it was him but yeah that looks not great and it doesn't feel great either normal normal elbow titty elbow and yeah all right i've had about enough tities on my elbow tities on my elbow who got them titties on their elbows so look obviously

to sterling's credit with his name and the fact that he's two and one in this division the only loss was a close one a competitive one to eve lewev he is worthy of a big fight yeah When you look at who's got fights coming up, if Murphy gets Volcanovsky next, then we have Lord Gian Silva against Lopez, right? Yeah, what about Aljo versus Yeya-Rodriguez? I love it. And in fact, since he already fought Mofsar,

and we would imagine he's somewhere in that title picture. Oh, yeah, who's he going to fight that? Exactly. Lopez is sitting at two in the rankings. As you mentioned, he's got J-on-Silva. Rodriguez is sitting at three. Murphy at four, he's obviously going to get a title shot, it looks like. Ortega sitting at.

at five, Arnold Allen sitting at six, Sterling at seven. So for sure, that's the one that makes the most sense to me. Now, of course, Arnold Allen was also on Twitter this morning saying a fight with him versus Yai Rodriguez actually makes a lot of sense. And I have to agree, I think in either one of those cases, a fight with Yaira makes sense. It's going to be very, very interesting to see which one UFC picks because that seems to be the one that they're going to lean towards, hey, we should give this person potential title So do you think Yves will be forced to win another fight before getting a title shot?

I don't... Because he pulled out, so it's not like he has favor going for him at the moment. He recently pulled out of... Didn't he recently? Yeah, the Pico fight. Yes, he had to withdraw from the Pico fight. Yeah, if they were going to make him fight Pico, they're going to make him fight again. But the problem is he recently fought both Aljo and Yai...

I mean, not your, Arnold Allen. Yeah, very good possibility that they will. Okay. Very good. Interesting stuff right there. You know, Andy Hickey? Yes. He had a tweet clowning Ortega.

Can we see this, please? Ryan Ortega would have a bright future if GFL was alive. So, Luke, at 34 now, Ortega has lost four of his last five, five of his last seven, if you want to go deeper. He's clearly no longer an elite featherweight. I mean, let's just be straight up honest. I'm his greatest protector. How is he ranked fifth in this fucking division? I mean, he has fought big names.

He fought credible at times. But, I mean, look, four losses in five fights should take anyone out of the top 10, let alone the top five. could a move up in weight re-energize his career? No. Or do you get the feeling that as is right now, whether he fights on or not, that it's already over? Yeah, I think it's over. I mean, not over, but basically, he's damaged goods. He's taken an enormous amount of abuse.

He had to, as a consequence, take a lot of time off. Remember, here was another guy who got kind of fast-tracked and then rescued himself in a bunch of bouts. He was losing the Clay Gweedabout. He was losing the Moikano bout. There was a bunch of these bouts where he was kind of behind and then rescued himself. Then he gets fast track. Then he goes, you know, he ises Frankie Edgar.

And then, you know, Max puts a beaten on him. And, you know, he's just never been the same sense. I don't think he had some nice wins over a Korean zombie who doesn't have great boxing. That was a nice win. There's been one other. Slow footwork and everybody looks slick. Exactly. But like, in general, he looks to me like he's out of ideas.

It looks to me like, you know, I don't even know if he can make weight. He looks like he's in bad, bad, bad shape. I don't know why you would have confidence about his future. Still, he's an action fighter. He didn't show this in this fight. But he is an action fighter. lightweight as an action division with a lot of aging names, would you be against Ortega versus Michael Chandler, for example,

Ortega versus, you know what I mean? Like any of the old lingering fun action names, or maybe to be teed up to like a BSD type who seems to be back on the way up. Wouldn't rule it out. I think if that's the direction he wants to go and he's cutting less weight, fine. But in order to have enthusiasm about what he's doing,

I'd have to see some results first. Remember when he gave that speech about the eagle? That was real weird And then he went out and beat Yair Yeah, and also the eagle speech Wasn't even based on any kind of scientific fact whatsoever and in fact is the opposite of scientific fact He was saying that the eagle essentially

You know, gets rid of its own beak and it grows a new one But like it doesn't do that at all That's not real whatsoever So he should shave his head again He made up a like The eagle goes through this biological process And it's like it doesn't ever do that That's not a real thing at all

It's literally just invented But what I will say is these guys will tell themselves anything to get ahead. If it works, keep telling yourself that. All right, let's go to topic number three, and that is the UFC Shanghai undercard. And in particular in that heavyweight division, at 33 former interim title challenger, Sergey Pavlovich,

relied on distance and accuracy, surprisingly, to earn a second straight decision win this calendar year following a recent two-fight skid against elite foes. That's the good news. Now, the bad news is that Pavlovich also was not overly exciting

for the second straight fight. Given the extreme lack of depth in the division after Pavlovish outpointed a red hot Waldo Cortez Acosta on Saturday. Do you believe there's still one more run for Pavlovich toward another title shot? I guess if he gets back to his, you know, menacing, hulking ways of old. He's ranked number third coming in. He got a win over a guy who was on a decent win streak. By default, this may happen anyway, but do you have any feeling like Pavlovich has rebounded from that two-fights kid? he's more technical right patient he did some good work in this fight and i can buy that he can get back to a title contention place i buy that now title contention is going to be about what we just

discussed to what extent they see you as somebody marketable that they want you to be also aspinall's a champion and he walked through pevel that's a big problem too so i don't know if i can declare like oh he'll be right back in a title fight but what i can say is I didn't love the biggie boy fight, and I didn't necessarily love this one either. But he did some good work in it. He maintained range. He stayed out of the worst of what Waldo. He had Cortez-A-Costa, you know, leaping to try and find him.

And that was that you could tell he was having a problem with that. The jab was there working. He kind of leaned on his strengths in this one. Yeah, and he landed some big right hands ultimately as well. So there's definitely some good work that he did, you know. But I just, to your point, like even if the UFC favored him, oh, we're going to give you a rematch with Aspinall. Would you pick him over Aspinall?

I sure as fuck wouldn't. No, no, I'd have to see him go in there through Volkov a second time and win that. Once again, I think the real move that the UFC should honestly consider this juncture is just eliminating the division altogether. So you want them to eliminate light heavyweight and men's heavyweight? I think the best thing they could do is if you're over 200 pounds, call it a day. Yeah, go to BKFC. Call it a day.

Yeah, there you go. Or GFL, actually. None of you are all that interesting anymore. Well, Pavlovich agreed with us that he wasn't fully happy with this performance. Let's hear from. Sergei. Thank you very much for the congratulations. You know, to be honest, a little bit disappointed in my own performance. I mean, I wanted to knock him out. I want him to get him out of there. I hit him on the head. I don't know how many times, but he just wouldn't go down. He's got

a really strong head. So just wanted to get him out of there. You know, obviously no problem. Good thing that I got to win. But, you know, if you remember the last fight, that was to be the three-round fight. This one was supposed to be over quick, right? Wanted to get him out there. Got him a few times, but didn't even really rock him. that much. So not happy about that, but happy with the victory. Yeah, I should have added more combinations. We worked on combinations back in training, but you know, maybe two is not enough. Maybe you should do three and four. More combinations I think would have got him out of there.

You know, obviously just a lot of hard work, working really hard in the gym, but I don't usually like to say this, but today this fight I must have shown like 50% of what I can actually do. It's, it's, I'm a little disappointed than that should have done more, but other than happy. I think he's right needing more combinations. Let those hands go a little bit more, though. Maybe that would have opened up takedown opportunities for old Waldo.

It's awesome, boy, you don't care. You're like, I'm out of this conversation. Once again, I think the most important thing UFC could do is simply fire everyone. Fire everyone, all right. Fire every last one of them. Hey, good news story on the undercard, after four consecutive wins on the regional circuit, particularly under the Cage

Fury banner, Kyle Dawkes returned to the UFC on Saturday. And needed just 43 seconds to upset veteran Michelle Pineda via first round K-O. And, oh, by the way, it came just seconds after Michael Bisping claimed that Daucus lacks the fight-ending power. And that has been a big problem in his career. Michael Bisping had a few problems, including his editorial on Peru and maybe the fact that he's tried to do play-by-play and color at the same time. Luke, how redemptive of a win was this for the 32-year-old dogus? He talks a lot.

Dawkins or Bisping? No, Bisping. He does a lot of, he's the... I think he wants to go back to those old days of where, like, remember in boxing, there'd be like, just one announcer? Yeah, where they just do the whole bit. Don Duffy, just do the whole bit.

It's like, this is, I couldn't tell if I was watching a fighter or a filibuster, but either way, he was chatty. For Dawkins, this was so great to see. A guy who's been kind of, I thought he was very good when he was in the UFC, but, I mean, physically overmatched in certain ways. And, you know, he had to go back to the regional scene, collected himself, I think made some meaningful

improvements. Three stoppages and four wins under Cage Fear. Yeah, exactly. And which is a good regional promotion. It goes out here and blows the doors off of Michelle Pereiro. Damn. And, you know, finished him off nicely. Violently. You have to feel good for a guy like that. Really, really happy to see him back. On the flip side, after

posting eight consecutive wins across two divisions, Michelle Podeda is now 0 and 3 with two stoppages in the last 10 months alone. Luke, what the hell happened to this guy who I used to criticize when he would dance and gas himself out on the weight of the cage

before doing backflip kicks on to people. It looked for a brief moment like he was getting more efficient. He was taking people down. He was looking to gas him out. What happened in these three fights? He's a little shop worn at this point. I think he's taking an enormous amount of damage. It's like 31 though. Yeah, and his confidence has been totally drained.

It looks like he's not competing with the same kind of belief in what he can do to keep himself safe, to land meaningful offense. I mean, he looks the part. He's in incredible shape. He's a very good athlete. But I don't know. He seems to be fighting, I'm not going to say scared, but fighting, what's the word, B.C.?

Limited, fighting constrained, fighting safe, almost. Lame? Lame? Something like that. Something like that. Yeah. Long Allen, Luke, you think this is sad to see? I mean, I've never been a big Pareda guy, but people love this guy.

Yeah, I was high on him in this fight, too. I got to give Gaff credit he was big on Kyle coming into this. But to be fair, you were also high. Yeah, true. But Michelle Pade. I thought he was. would run through, Kyle. I'm going to be honest.

So this is eye-opening for me. I think his other two losses weren't because he lost to Fluffy. Like, that's not a bad loss. And he lost to Abus Magamatov, which he's TBD. We're still yet to see. A boss. He got Sean Strickland of a title shot by sucking. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is eye-opening for me. All right. Let's talk about the opener on the main card, Luke. Let me try to pronounce this guy's name. Can anyone help me here? Tailaki Nuraji? Tailak Naraji.

Tailak Naraji was making his UFC debut against Kiefer Crosby. Nuraji landed a flush illegal knee, was docked two points. 30 seconds later, the fight restarts, and Nuraji finishes Kiefer Crosby. So was MMA Twitter right for going ham

after referee Mark Goddard, or for not dequeuing him? Or in some ways, is this more against Crosby, who could have potentially taken a DQ win, rushed right back to restart the fight, and then got caught and got stopped? Is it just bad luck for Crosby?

do you sort of sort out this mess i'm not sure what the proper i'm a little confused on this one so long island luke what is is what keifer is arguing is that he should have been given more time to recover is that right i don't i don't know what he's arguing he had five minutes he did not take the five minutes he also could have said i can't continue which he arguably should have said right and he chose to continue and then got finished 30 seconds later i mean here's the problem if you choose to continue and you choose to continue without taking the full five minutes why is what i'm asking yeah why is that goddard's problem i didn't think there was an issue with goddard long out look i saw a lot of people coming for his head in his job though i didn't in the moment

i didn't think anything of goddard i was thinking that was a stupid decision the way that crosby talked about it on i did see his post there was that he kind of indicated he felt hurried by goddard well when you're potentially concussed by a strike like that should do you believe that like his his coach should be allowed to be a part of the decision making no because they don't want them to the the the problem only from afar okay because what ends up happening is if you bring the coach in it'll be like all right let's watch out for that jab yeah yeah yeah stay under the right hand blah blah blah because it's got to be hard in the midst of a fight when you were potentially concussed to make a credible decision yeah that's right so i can understand if he felt

pressured and then because he felt pressured he just said yes i'm ready but you know if you give consent to something, you have to live to a degree mostly with the consequences. Like, you agreed to start if you had the full five. It's one thing if they didn't want to give you the full five, and maybe that's what he's claiming. Maybe Goddard said something to him that we didn't hear. Yeah. But again, from my powers of observation, I've had a hard time of discerning how any of that... Understand something, dude. When people regret their decisions in M.MA, they just yell at the referee about it. If a fight doesn't go the way that they want fans, too. They yell at the referee about it. And even last week, we were like, oh, you had Robert Whitaker and I think

some other guys being like, you know, Mark God, or there's no what he's doing. No, you don't know what you're doing. Herb Dean stuck up for him and I'm, yeah, because Herb Dean's right. And this doesn't mean, by the way, that I'm saying that Herb Dean always makes great decisions. Dude, half the decisions he makes, I'm like, I don't like these. But the amount of people who think that they know how to score fights or that they know what the rules are and then can't actually recite to you what the rules are. And this is true for fan media. fighter all up and on the food chain it's pretty endless so so suck your paloatas you probably hate women anything else you want to tag on the end of it I mean a lot of you all do so crosbie falls

oh and three in the UFC and by the way I watched an interview before the fight and he said coming in that the SPG gym where he was there under john Kavanaugh has changed for the worse and he has not had a trainer for his last four fights yeah that seems problematic yeah yeah I mean there's a big question about like what's the legacy of the spg's gym if you remove Connor what what can you say It's not good at all. Yeah, it's not especially... Shout out to Artem Lobov. Yeah, it's not especially decorated.

We got a little bit of sound. You can cut this before it gets too long, but can we hear from Niraji talking about this incident? I feel really good about the victory, and also I have to thank my opponent. He chose to keep fighting after, and obviously I break the rules, but he chose to keep fighting. Actually, I never thought about I got to go to the decision,

so it don't matter to me. It's either you knock me, or I knock you out so I don't worry about the point deduction but I do feel I make sense you know my opponent decided to keep fighting so I'm like I broke the rules and he kept fighting so thank you all right Luke there were some bangers on this undercard I don't know if you watched them you know long island Luke was dude did you really get did you really get up at 3 a.m. to live stream this I got up at 2.30 a.m. so I could have a little breakfast I don't even know what to say about that when your girl leaves you okay all right all right all right you will know why you will know why

She was happy. I had Saturday night off. I got this Saturday night off. We got next Saturday. You're not going to watch CJI, too? Oh, is that on Saturday? Oh, yeah. Saturday and Sunday. But didn't go? I'm not going to ditch my girlfriend for it, but I might tune it. Didn't Gable Steven just pull out of the super fight against Greg with an injury? Yeah, with turf toe. Oh. Yeah, I have to tell you that I find that not the most credible explanation.

Interesting. He will be having his, we'll get into that later than the show. But he's got a pro-MMA fight September 12, allegedly. to be part of over-under coming up. Luke, who else stood out to you, if anyone, on this undercar? Not a fucking one. Oh, oh, Kyle Dawkins was the big one. Put some respect on energy.

Charles Johnson. Yes. Now, we have to say, Loner Kavanaugh, good fighter, not going to say he's not. Not going to say that Charles Johnson didn't get a win over a good fighter because he did.

However, brother, how do you pull out of the clinch like this? Hands down by your fucking waist. Do you see him pull away in the video? Yeah. He pulls away like this, like straight up, just chin unguarded. And of course, Charles Johnson, as the vet, always throws punches on the, on the clinch break.

Baugh, crushes him for it. And I was like, I mean, good on Charles Johnson for just presence of mind. I know when to throw, throw on the clinch break, good habits, you know, over time yield results like this. That's a clean, fair win. But Loner Kavanaugh is going to want that one back big time because it didn't have to go the way that it did, you know? Long Island, Luke, you were the only man awake in America watching. What else did we see early on?

Oh, Yizah, he knocked out Weston Wilson in like 30 seconds. That was a gorgeous knockout. I saw that highlight, yeah. And then the curtain jerker, uh, salty by, Satibaldia of something like that? Yeah, yeah, Salpe. He got an Ezekiel choke. It was only like the 10th Ezekiel choke in a taxi history. So it was pretty cool.

Look, when you hear Ezekiel choke, which fighter do you? immediately think of. What's his face? Ben Rothwell? No, the Ukrainian guy who joined it. Oh, yes. Alexio Lenick. He has a few of those, right?

Yeah, yeah. He has a, from Mount and from underneath as well. All right. Long Island, Luke, is there any M.M.A. this weekend that you can get up early for? No, there's that misfits boxing card. I think that's it. Oh, that's right. Tony Ferguson against Salt.

This is Tony Ferguson versus Salt Poppy. Luke Rockhold. Oh, yeah, Salt Poppy. Not the, not that guy. Luke Rockhold against Darren Till, correct? Yep, that is right. That's going to be. real sad.

There we go. Actually, it might be kind of fun. It might be kind of fun. I want to talk to people. I might actually watch it. Hey, all you sports fans out there, not just fight fans. Did you know that the NFL, week one, it's coming your way. And week one gives you your shot to play free and stack a million dollar cash bag with who?

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Luke, when we're talking about these Washington commanders, what do you think about that quarterback? I think Jaden Daniels, I'm going to take the over. That's what I'm talking about. Just about everything he does. By the way, during the course of this show, they announced the team had signed a three-year $96 million deal with wide receiver Terry McClure. And so scary Terry, back with the team.

Give me a hip-hop horn. Fuck your life. I want to hear something there. Very excited about that. But boys and girls, BC kind of indicated to you what you can do. You can, of course, enter for free and pick more or less on the six players on week one. He already told you all about that. So, folks, here's what you got to do.

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terms at pick6.draftgings.com slash promos. And you said, you know, boys and girls, but we mean men and women. You know, men and women. Well, you know, I'm trying to be youthful. All right. 18 are over. Hey, let's go to a fun segment to kill some time. We used to do this a lot. I got seven of these bangers for you where I present a number and all Luke Thomas has to say is over or under. We won't have an animation for this.

All right. You ready for this, Luke? I'm ready. Okay. Number one, Francis Ingano recently posted at Deonté Wilder ends on Instagram and said, quote, it's time to settle the debate, end quote, which debate? The debate of who is the hardest puncher in all of combat sports. Can you You show, can you show the thing right there? Look at these two behemists recently working on the pads. Shout out to Dewey Cooper right there on the top. Luke, according to Sky Sports in the UK, Wilder has responded and said he is interested in boxing in Ghanu in 20206. Now, given their ages, given their current forms and the fact that both have been brutally stopped in big fights in recent years, here's my over under for you.

Three and a half, the total number of rounds. that Wilder versus Inganu would last in a 2026 boxing match. That's a tough one. Wilder is mega-washed. Francis is not. But Francis is like legendary chin. We don't know what it looks like now after that Anthony Joshua fight. Yeah, I mean, he did have the rebound against Henne Faheda,

but he wrestled him obviously in that one. Wow. That's a tough one. I'm going to take the over. Because it may take time for them to. There may be a lot of, like, cock in the right hand. Yeah, and then, you know, Wilder might take a minute before he really hits the spiral. I would, would you favor Francis in that one, wouldn't you?

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, if Wilder looked at all like himself at his peak, then I, yeah, of course I'm picking him. But like, I mean, the problem was for as much as Ngano overachieved against a fury who clearly was under trained and maybe got caught off guard. by that big left hook that floored him in it changed that fight he didn't look like he had the head movement or defense against a j like he had like almost remedial level for boxing right yeah he just got picked apart does wilder pick him apart and hurt him early i don't even know i don't think so wilder i mean josh was just a better boxer pure boxer then wow i would take the over i think i think

no matter what it would take a minute for that it's not like moses etama in there who just you would blow right through both of them it's not that's not who's in there you think this would be a main event like would this be a turkey main event or would this be an attraction on another loaded turkey card in in saudi uh if there's a way for them to ruin the fight they'll figure out a way so let's but you'd be pumped up just for straight attraction purposes right you'd be pumped up to see what happened no i mean i would okay so so i don't want to sit there in front like i'm not going to watch yeah i would watch but this would have been interesting to me a couple of years ago now i'm not so sure yeah it is a little aftermarket but that's probably why it makes the most

sense right now. Let's go to number two. In inaugural morning combat producer Jay Aaron, aka the artist formerly known as Pennington James, continues to post... An unbelievable loser. Continue... God. Continues to post workout videos on his

Instagram. Look at this. Possibly as an aggressive form of a midlife crisis. Dude, look at this. Look at this. Like, I mean, I mean, couldn't have less natural strength if his life fucking depended on it. You didn't even get the joke out and you've got the hip-hop more here. He's got the athleticism of an, you know,

an arith... I'm not, I almost said arithmetic. An arithmic. What the hell is the word? Arthritic. An arthritic grandma. He's got the range of motion of the tin man who can fucking barely... He's been producing those Jonas Brother concerts.

Have you been following that on IG? Why would the, why the fuck would I be watching a Jonas Brothers concert? He's been posting it like crazy. So here's... I don't follow him on social. He's a loser. Okay, Luke, so after watching that video and taking into account his late 40s musculature riddle me this what musculature

190 pounds over under the amount of pounds that j aaron could bench press fucking right now fucking under under okay what are you going to go with here i'll give him 175 for for a full max rep that's it that's all he's got one max rep at yeah would he have shop level raise his ass or would you force him to like i mean you can make fun of you can make fun of shop he's strong as shit fucking way stronger than j air in for crying out of. Yeah I mean his yeah again his his his his his form needs a little work too but you know it's a different kind like he is actually strong you can say whatever you want he's strong as shit uh Jay jay couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag did you know what I imagine

us putting a weight bench right here putting 190 on there and getting jay in here to see if he can do that brother did you see uh no spotter either so if he if he can he just gets pinned Did you see Eric Adams and Zohran Mamdani trying to bench at this event over the weekend? I did not see that, though. Both of them, both of them, didn't do a single fucking rep unassisted. And Eric Adams. Was it close enough like Phil Sims' pull-ups back in the day? Yeah, once again, you thought going from here to here is a pull-up.

When I'm trying to explain to you, it's full extension dead hang. Well, this isn't an Olympic event. This is just like, oh, we're just counting real reps. We're just counting. If I do push-ups like this, these are not push-ups. It sounds like you have a real- That's a push-up. Real disdain for Pennington, James.

I have real disdain for posers like you who let people get away with half-reps. All right. Let's go to number three. Hey, Gable Stephson, the 2020 U.S. Olympic gold medalist, the two-time NCAA champion from Minnesota, will make his pro-M-M-A debut on September 12th. Will he? He's got turf-toe. He's got turf-toe.

In Pryor Lake, Minnesota. Luke, two and a half. The over-under-here, the nether-hear. number of regional MMA wins, if he continues to win here, if he starts off his career hot, before Gable Stevenson would make his debut at the Dana White

Contender Series. And if you want a comparison, Bo Neckle had one win on the regional circuit before getting that call. I'm going to take the under. I could imagine it being two. I could not imagine. I cannot imagine.

Of course you could. But I tend to think three seems excessive. they're going to try and lock him up as fast as possible. I mean, do you think he'll be good? I feel like people are down on him, not just for off the field, you know, bad turns, but also it not working out for WWE. I know he's, you know,

training with John Jones and friends with Gordon Ryan and all that, but do you think he will be good right away on the regional level at it? I mean, I saw the guy he's fighting. If he doesn't beat him, then, you know, you're going to have to work at Allstate or some shit. Like, it's going to be over for you. Long Island, look, you got any enthusiasm on this guy or no?

I do, and I actually think he might be one of the few people that could kind of bypass contender series. Like if he gets two, three wins in LFA, I could see them just given it. No, they made bone nickel. Yeah, but the difference is they'll make him do contender series just to promote contender series. All right, sure. But the contender series needs that. Speaking of, doing a watch alone tomorrow night for contender series, it's been weak this year. They need some names.

This guy, this guy. The first, I watched the first episode, and afterwards, Dana was like, you're a bitch, you're a bitch, you're a bitch, you're a bitch. You're a bitch, you're cool, you're a bitch. It was insane to watch this guy's live streaming Tuesday night contender series. Once again, once again, when she eventually leaves. Oh, hey, I don't like that talk. I don't like that talk. I don't write that John dear letter. Dear John.

Dear John. Mow the lawn, dude. Come on. I saw a headline with it because they had to lay off a bunch of people today. So that's why I got up my brain. Yes. When he gets that dear John letter, what are you going to say? You can't say he didn't know.

He knew this was coming. He's trying to make some money for the family. All right. Let's go over to number four, PFL, founder, Don was he on LinkedIn, talking about B2B sales? Continues to draw criticism each time he appears on camera. This

time, for telling front office sports that he believes PFL is, quote, a substitute product. Let's go to the videotape. So, MMA is now mainstream. MMA should be part of every sports portfolio. That clearly benefits PFL when we come up for our media rights renewal

next year, because PFL is a substitute product. Unlike other athletes, we have one-third of the top athletes in PFL. UFC has two-thirds. So this is not like the big four sports leagues where the NFL controls all the talent. The NBA controls all the talent,

and other leagues have zero. We have one-third, UFC has two-thirds. So it's like soccer, where the Premier League has a lot, but League one, Serie A, Boozza League, has a lot of top athlete talents. So, PFL, substitute product. We don't have a substitute brand yet.

We're new. We're six years old. They're 35 years. old. So great for UFC, great for MMA. But the meteorites deal, great for PFL next year. Dude, you're calling your product a substitute product. But like, that does not come across favorably. Don, stop it. I don't. That was front office sports today, by the way. You know, it's amazing is when they finally collapse all the people telling me that like, well, you know, who gives them? No, okay. Well, here's the question. Nobody cares. Considering that UFC will begin its new rights deal with Paramount in January of

2006 to the tune of 1.1 billion per year and by comparison, top rank is ending an ESPN deal this year that paid them 84 million per year. So over under $50 million dollars, the amount

per year that PFL will make in its new broadcasting deal, which is yet to be negotiated and finalized, but is for 2026. Wow. UFC at 1.1 billion, top rank recently at 84 million for you. This is a great question.

Do we need like acts from the MMA draw to answer this, or Zach Arnold or John S. Nash? I mean, where are you at with it? This is an interesting one because obviously the UFC deal is insanely lucrative. And you have to ask yourself, Is ESPN going to want to stay on some level in the MMA business? Because if they don't, where is PFL going to end up and who's going to pay for it? I don't really know what the answer to that would be.

Fox Sports, would they really buy PFL rights? It just seems unlikely. Or Time Warner, I suppose, is maybe. But even then, I don't know. Nevertheless, 50 seems a little low, just given the state of the market. they do have one third of the best fighters in the world they don't always know what to do with them but they have them they definitely don't um but they've got some

I'll I'll take what's the current one to tell you that they have not disclosed that never disclosed it um they might you know what I'll take the under I'll take the under I don't know if they can there's a temptation to be like oh well because the UFC got this yeah we're not even close to them

but we'll be able to piggyback their momentum and I think their momentum is entirely specific to their brand, and not specific to the state of the broader support. And their TKO connection, too? Like, it's a larger thing that's being offered. That's right. There's a big machine behind the UFC that helped make those numbers, not by

itself, obviously, but, you know, a few factors together that helped make the price as high as it was. All right, Luke takes the under. Let's go to number five. Speaking of TKO, the Dana White supported Irish junior middleweight boxer, King Callum Walsh, has received the co-main event slot for the

November 12th, Canello Crawford fight on Netflix when he takes on fellow unbeaten prospect Fernando Vargas Jr. Should Callum Walsh win, it wouldn't take a genius to suggest that Walsh could be the early face of Zufa Boxing when it launches in 2026. So let's imagine a scenario in which Zufa Boxing has its first non-netflix card, right? Part of their new monthly series that they, let's say it starts in January and there's rumors that could even be Paramount CBS, by the way, that's not official. right um over under is two and a half the amount of monthly zuffa boxing shows before the first

tko title is put at stake i'll take the over because if it's three then that seems right to me now first they would have to pass the the amendments to the alley act which would make them eligible under a ubo to have their own titles that's right that's right so i mean some of that presupposes some legislative victories that I think are likely but not foregone conclusions. Yeah, I just don't think they do it at first, but I think that they would get around to it pretty quickly.

So this would put them third quarter of the year. That sounds about right to me. Yeah, I'd take the overall. That's a hell of a push for Cal. I'm getting the co-main here? That's huge. How do you size up his chances against Vargas Jr.? He should be favored.

Vargas Jr. is 17-0 with 15-KOs, but he is of the three Fernando Vargas' sons and they're very good. He is the one with the, I guess, the lowest ceiling in terms of picking out. That doesn't mean that Calumash is going to roll through him. I think Wall should win. That's what people tend to believe here.

The problem is that neither have really faced super elite competition. So this is good matchmaking in the sense that they're going to have to really prove it against one another. But obviously for Calamash is a monster opportunity. I mean, he could very well be the face of the brand. I have been, he's had some nice wins, but he hasn't beaten anyone noteworthy. No, and I feel like in the last year he's kind of been in neutral as they wait for this.

Yeah, I was going to say he had a bigger 2024 than he did 2025, right? What? Got pop. He's got Freddie Roach. He's got Dana behind him. He's very poised. He wants the smoke. So, you know, if they're going to match Zufel boxing aggressively like they say they are.

It's good promotion. This is the right guy to get after that. Definitely good promotion for him. Let's go to number six, Luke. Former top 10 UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub recently became. What the fuck. This is, I'm not dunking on him. Recently became a spokesman for Rewind at 10 men.

hair dye and was quoted on. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. I saw this. This is real. I thought this was a bit. I'm not making fun of the man. I'd love to endorse this as well. I'm not only the hair club president, Luke. I'm also a client, okay? On the website, Schaubb is quoted this saying, Rewind keeps me fighting father time without telling the world. Now Rewind at 10 has celebrity endorsers far more famous than Big Brown, including Big Pun, DJ Collid, Travis Kelsey, Tyson, Tyson, Beckford, Wonderboy Thompson, and N-O-R-E-E. Norie. How can Big Pund be a figure when he's dead? Oh, I'm sorry, Fat Joe. I swear that up. Sorry, Fat Joe. So this is Fat Joe's product. Luke, we all know your reluctance to fight the aging curve by joining the legion of

distinguished men like myself in hiding a few of those grays, okay? But hear me out. I'll steal your girls from you looking like this, motherfucker. $8,500 over under. The amount of money, rewind at 10, would need. to pay you for an endorsement deal for you to agree to dye your hair live on morning combat. I'm being straight up with you. Like we brought like a money dresser in here, right?

We brought a hair. Someone could do it properly. We'll bring in neon Dion to do. Neon Dion from Jersey City. Oh, I do trust him. Yeah, yeah. He comes in. We are going to use their, they rewind at 10 product. You will go jet black. Why do, why do I have to die at like Wayne Newton? Okay, go Brown, whatever you want. Put the camera on me so I can see. Let me see.

Go blonde like shop did for the chambis. Look, whatever you're into, all right? What do you think? I think going from this to Jet Black is probably a mistake. So I'm not saying you have to do this. I respect the fact that you don't want to do this. Todd Grisham said Bruce Buffer told him, don't diet. Chicks love the salt and pepper.

That's true. That's very, very true. But you are a man, like, we're businessmen. Body for days, motherfucker, don't forget. You'd be motivated by an endorsement deal for money, okay? I am also a whore for money. So I'll just, I'll be honest. I'll take the under on that.

You could come in here and die, I'd do it for eight grand, yeah. Okay, what would be your, what would be your number, then? $3,000. Oh, $8,000. Yeah, I'll do it for $8,000. Okay, but you got to have a cash, like an elk boy, then a white gift. Long Island, look, think of the ratings for that segment, right? Think of that episode, right?

It would be good. That would be great. All right. Yeah, I'd do that. Now, if they wanted to do a deal per month, that's a little different. Now, what do you think about the fact that Shob had been lying that he doesn't color, but now he's endorsing a color product? was he lying about what was he saying

he's saying that his mustache only gets gray like after it grows really long he's been dying it yeah I mean haven't you been a little bit fibbing about no I'm straight up I mean my wife my wife rips me the fact that it'll be gray one week and jet black the next and brown the next week after

you know I'm a floating mess I don't fucking all right I got one more for you okay there we go Luke Netflix and Zufa boxing recently announced it's 12 member broadcast team for the September 13. Got enough guys on that fucking panel? Super fight in Las Vegas between Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford.

Now, to update you, John Anick on play-by-play, the analysts are Max Kellerman and Andre Ward. Which is, by the way, that should be... That's a great trio. That's a great trio. The ring announcers are Michael Buffer for the big fights, our good friend and I'm not a good friend, but I love his work. Joe Martinez doing the prelims. So far, so good.

Ringside reporters are Heidi Andrel and the Hall of Famer Jim Gray. I mean, I'll just say this. I got nothing bad to say about either of them, but it should have been Brian Campbell. I'll just put that out there. Thank you very much there. Skipper Kelp, former boxer, by the way, lost to Raul Marquez as a pro.

He's going to play like the Dean Thomas role with scoring and coaching. I worked with him on one of those Callum Walsh cards. Great dude. He's Dana's boxing coach. Yeah, that's when it starts to get real bad. Now we go to the desk above the arena. The host, A.C. Slater.

Yeah, I don't understand that. Then Mark Kriegel. Antonio Tarver. Tarver, I don't. Tarver, to me, can be good, actually. And then they got cop. I mean, what are we doing? Okay, so here we go, Luke.

four and a half imagine a scenario that you and I go to Vegas and cover this fight and afterwards all of the talent is walking back into the same hotel

and we offer all of them a chance to join our MK Blunt rotation four and a half the amount of Netflix announcers on that card who would accept our invite to go around the corner

and pass the MK Blunt around after Canello So I think we're definitely good with John Anick that's one regrettably I think cop would take the offer so we'd have to smoke a jail there's two there's two which I wouldn't really want to do but you know we would do okay Ward Andre Ward would be a no and I respect that okay fine so he's out I feel like the buff would be an out without he's out

all right so Joe Martinez is interesting Joe is a joe is a tweener for me wild card what do we think about Heidi androl would she smoke weed no no no I would think she would be out on this just for and I feel like gray is out too yeah yeah yeah all right don't know skippers uh well Lipper looks like he gets down with the blood. I bet you he would get down. He's ripped by the way for like a 50-year-old layer. Would he be like, I don't want to hang out with a bunch of hers? No, Barrio Lopez definitely smokes weed.

First of all, you know Tarver's going to smoke with us. I mean, let's just be real about that. Definitely. What about Max Kellerman? That's the one that I'm not sure. That's the wild card. Like, I don't, like Max may smoke, but I don't know what he smoke with us. That's the question here.

So what are you going? Over under on 4. I'm taking the under. So who are you identifying as a yes right now? I would say cop, Tarver, and Annick. No, Krigal? sophisticated? I might actually just decline to even get him an offer. A.C. Slater? So that's four if you get

A.C. Slater. I don't know if I can count on that. I'm going to go skip her kelp for five. I'm going five here, all right? You are ambitious. I'm going five here. All right. Most of the time in combat sports, when I ask people to do things with me, the answer is typically no. You know what I mean? Yes. M.K. Nightmare Blunt rotation. That was over under for you. All right. Let's get into now, please, a chance that we give you every Sunday night when at Morning Combat on Instagram and on

the X. We give you an opportunity to get your questions heard, okay? If your name is Daz, then we say Mahalo to your ass. Shout out for flannels and jits for being here, too. This one's called DMs from the dogs. That's all right. That is fantastic. Number one coming out way. What do you got? This one's from this guy, 1888.

That's cool and all. Yeah, I knew this was coming, but Can we talk about Rampage's son, Raja Jackson? Holy shit. Can I just say something before we even talk about this particular situation? I'm not playing the video, by the way. That is not to have you see this. Dude, that video was... The thing is, there's a lot of videos, and they're all incriminated.

Okay, let me just say something first. These, first of all, these people who call themselves streamers, now there's guys who do it who I think largely are entertainers at heart. Guys like I Show Speed. Are you familiar with him? Yes, I am. Remember he got speared at the WWA thing? Yes, yes.

But he does a lot of racing contests and, you know, he jumps over things and visits cool places. I don't need people to live stream their life 24 cents. I will say this. The people who live stream all parts of their lives, this seems to me incredibly poisonous, terrible incentive structure. My understanding is that this dude was looking at the comments on his live stream and they were calling him a pussy because he let the guy. All right, let me frame it real quick.

Yeah, so set it up. Rampage Jackson's son, Raja, who is 0-1-1 as a pro-M-A fighter. I don't know if it's pro or amateur. I believe it's pro. He was live streaming himself at a pro-wrestling event. It was Rikishi. Remember the guy who put the ass in the face? It was his promotion.

And outside of it, another wrestler who's called, what, what was his name? Psycho Steve or something like that? Psycho-stoo. Sicko-stee or something like that. So he's an Army veteran. He does pro-wrestling because of his PTSD. that guy crossed the line on the live stream by doing a worked crash of the bottle over his head on there.

Raja Jackson was like, what are you doing here? The wrestler said, what, you're not going to sell it. But, Luke, there's an additional video where they make up afterwards. They apologize to each other.

Everything is good. They worked it into the pro wrestling show that night that Roger Jackson was going to jump in from the crowd, do a double leg take down on sicko Steve, and then supposedly land at least one real punch. Unfortunately, Raja Jackson picked him up so high, he slammed him down on his head, Catoed him, and then landed 22 consecutive punches to break basically his entire face. And sicko stew or psycho stew, excuse me, whatever his gimmick name is,

was choking on his own blood and teeth, not to mention that because the live streaming is just keep going, there's some very incriminating post-event videos in which Roger Jackson is defending himself as, you know, I'm sick of people thinking I'm a bitch, blah, blah, blah. Rampage, who was elsewhere also live streaming from a restaurant finds out about it in a poor example being set. Finds out about it in real time and then goes on Twitter and basically says my son got K-Oed and sparring like four days ago and should never have been there. By the way, that K-O. and sparring was also live-streamed.

So, dude, what are they doing? The wrestler is recovering, but he's got a, I mean, he was, this looks like. like, I'm not a, you know, I don't have a law degree, but this looks like attempted murder. How is he not been charged yet? I mean, the police are now investigating it, but they have on camera the talk beforehand about they're going to let me go in there and throw one punch. And then it was just, dude, full steam unanswered. This is really bad, really gross.

I don't see how this isn't like major jail time. And also, just like Rampage having what I've seen, maybe I'm missing something, a fairly nonchalant attitude about what happened. I mean, I know he put out a video and he put out a statement. He said he wasn't defending his son. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't like he was, you know, trying to cover for him exactly. But he didn't seem to grasp the seriousness of it

and tried to dismiss some of the events that had transpired. And by the way, tried to say that they were closer in proximity than they actually were and tried to downplay, I think, some of the seriousness of it. Why weren't the other wrestlers jumping in earlier? I mean, they could see that this was a... I don't know. Being there, seeing things like that, it can be weird.

I don't know. I don't know how to say anything like that. I would just say, dude, these people that stream their lives, this seemed to me like such a bad idea where the people in your own chat are calling you a pussy, and this conceivably, I don't want to say it did or it didn't, but conceivably puts you into a place where you now feel like you have to act out.

Like, you're taking order, I mean, going to a pro wrestling event is not an ordinary thing. your daily routine. But there's, to your point, this guy lives a certain life, he's having ordinary events in the course of that life. Now you have to be performative about every version of it and what are you willing to do? What risks are you willing to take? And what kind of lines are you willing to cross in order to make this palatable entertainment because you have an audience that's expecting this, essentially the mundane expanse of life to now be

entertaining, to now raise the expectations? It seems to me dark. very dark. Now, if you only saw the video of the wrestler, hidden him with the worked bottle and trying to create a moment without talking to him about it beforehand, you could be like, okay, well, this was some level of payback. But they're on video apologizing multiple times and like hugging and being like, okay, everything's good. And then they worked into it actual storyline. Um, this is, this is tragic on a lot of levels. I mean, the guy looks like he's going to recover, but still, this is really bad, dude, for, for pro wrestling, for live streaming, it's going to, damn. I, I mean, Dave,

Meltzer quote tweeted saying, like, that's the worst thing I've seen in my history of covering for us. Is that what he said? Yeah, like in terms of like, you know, there's been many matches that turn into shoots where people took advantage of somebody. I mean, remember New Jack and ECW throwing that dude off the top trying to kill him. Oh, my God. But this, this is pretty damn bad. This is gross to watch. I really didn't like waking up that video yesterday.

Yeah, I saw it yesterday and I thought at first, I'm like, this can't be real. And then it just keeps going. And I'm like, and then all the other videos start coming out, or at least that was my, I inter, that was my understanding of how I took in the situation. But you want to talk about like building a legal defense, everything's on camera. Everything's on camera. Everything. I mean, again, they're trying to probably piece it all together so they can, would you be surprised if there's no charges? How could there not be? I don't know. I don't know the law. Because if I don't know how he's not

arrested already. I'm with you. I mean, if it was agreed upon that they were going to do a certain thing, it wasn't knockout slam and 22 unanswered punches where you break the guy's face and teeth i mean that is and also like you know if or listen raising a kid is hard i've barely done it my daughter's only six that's the only skin in the game i've got but first of all can we just talk about kick where people are just streaming like the like the nastiest streamers are on yeah i don't want anything to do with that kind of you know what i mean like just as a general place where reprobates go kick has some questions to ask themselves more to the point just the example that rampage is setting again I'm not telling you parenting is easy

and there's a straightforward answer for everything. It's not. And I'm not saying that for some reason Rampage can't seem to handle his own life streaming. Maybe he can do just fine. But it looks to me like Roger can't and it looks to me like he didn't understand how to navigate this situation

and they threw gasoline on the fire with the way which he was trying to perform for an audience's expectant. Dude, this is dark, dark stuff. Let's keep it going here. What else you got, Chin? All right. Let's go to at World's Worst Hero.

How wild is it that Jed Mishu got absolutely blanked? He did. 3,800 to zero in, what's that called? Prop quiz. To be fair. Jed did have 500 points in the end. He wagered it all on the final question. Dude, Mike Heck took him to the woodshed.

At least you and I were back and forth. One would be up, then we'd lose points. There's a little drama in our game. Well, you know what? I mean, would you ever sign on to him as your return? You're going to jail, right? 100% you're going to jail. Let's settle this.

Yeah, that's great there. Shout out to John. I don't want to have to go against Mike Heck now. I mean, he took that, dude. Yeah, I mean, he's going to smoke me too. I mean, I'm a community college graduate. Yeah, but MMA knowledge is different. I mean, it levels the playing field.

That is very true. Let's keep it coming here. Thank you, World's Worst Hero. This is from at lowercase three. Rank these fighters from who would be the best to worst against their current divisions. Johnny Walker with Vitori's chin, Erie with Anderson Silva's head movement, Ortega with Wonder Boy striking,

Gastilum with Clay Guida's cardio. So if you could take a fighter, add a huge strength that they don't have, who would be the strongest within their own division current? Gastilum with Clay Guida's cardio is pretty decent. But Gastilum's issue isn't necessarily cardio. Cardio, that's the problem. That only solves one of the issues.

He's in the wrong division. He's too willing to get, you know, So that's what I was going to say. Ortega with Wonderboy striking also. What about Yerry with Silvas? I was going to say, Yuri with Anderson Silva's head movement. That's...

Johnny Walker with a better chin would be crazy dangerous. Yeah. So it'd be one of those two. It'd be Walker with Vittori's chin or Yuri with Silva's head movement. And even if you improve Ortega striking, his lack of defense or willingness to... Yeah. Also, can he make weight anymore?

I don't know. You know what I mean? The problem with Ortega and Gasolam is that they've got... a series of problems that one giant fix actually doesn't fix the whole thing. Dude, I want to see Prohatska at heavyweight and just be quick and explosive. I want to see them close the heavyweight division today. Oh, boy. Let's go to the third one, the fourth one here from at Sticks plays time.

Who are the fighters who inspire you the most, not just for their fighting abilities, but also for their... Is this a joke? Excuse me, for their ideals, beliefs, and actions. There are some fighters that... None of them. Dustin Porre? Okay, Porre. he's not active anymore, so.

I respect Daniel Cormier as a man a lot. I respect Timothy Bradley, the boxing hall of fame, a lot. There's no one you're going to be like. I don't, I'm not going to play this game. I'm not going to play a game where we look the other way on all of the insane nastiness in the fight game. The rampant racism, the rampant homophobia, the rampant. That doesn't mean that there's not nice gentleman, Luke.

Bowing down to dictators, constant fucking, just the, the, worst behavior and the least enlightened, stupidest shit you've ever seen in your life. We look the other way on that. And then I'm asked to now talk about like the way in which they inspire the world. Excuse me, sir. You can leave your high horse outside. There's an answer to this question. How was it a high horse? How was it a high horse? I don't think, I don't think racist shit is cool. Okay. We're not, we're not counting those guys. We're trying to pick through that. That's the overwhelming majority. It's a pile of shit. There's some kernels in there. Can you

identify anyone that you respect? I'll leave that to somebody else. I'm not going to play this game where we do this anymore. I spent 15 years. talking about all of these kinds of things, all for it to blow up in my face when we actually get a chance to see who most of them actually are. There are some, to your point, there are some, there are some. Somebody else can do that part of the job. Wonder Boy Thompson seems like a very nice man.

Seems like a very nice guy, sure. There's plenty of nice guys, actually. Corey Sandhagen, nice guy. Ryan Hall, nice guy. There's a bunch of nice guys. There's not to say you couldn't do this, but I did that for 15 years, and the brand basically expects you to just tell only that side of the story

and never the other side of the story, which it turns out is actually the bigger part of the story. But that's not what the question's asking. They're asking. Yeah, I understand that. I understand that. I understand that. Who inspires you?

Who is somebody that you're like? I think people need to reckon with the state of the game before we just start doing this pretend bullshit. So that's my answer. Can you come to parties with me? I'd love to just clear the room out. You know, I'd be like, dude.

You can't drink that until you know how it's sourced. You can't question my bona fides on trying to answer that question. You're receiving that question. in the entirely wrong way. This is the equivalent of you of you saying, you only hate women's fights because you'll hate women. Like, they could just think the fight's boring. It could happen that way.

Oh, believe me, I think women's MMA is boring. But I also think a lot of these people just have unresolved issues. But the question is not, to your point, I'm actually not disagreeing with what you're saying, which is, hey, couldn't you still identify some names? Yes, yes, of course. What I'm trying to help you understand is I did that game where the editorial vision for the vast majority of the time

in MMA media has been, and talk about how great these guys are as athletes and people. And even if they're complicated in between, because, of course, most people are, no one is all one way or the other, still lean towards the side of this ultimate redemptibility. And I'm trying to explain to you, like, we did all that. And the game decided that that was less important

than letting all the bad acting simply just go unrestrained. And it has been so nauseating for me to watch that. I no longer wish to participate in this phony game. That's the point. Fans out there, Luke is not here to play your reindeer games. Let's go to the final question right here at Frank Furter, 67. Pound for pound, don't know. Can you guys make a pound for pound?

So does this mean fighters who fight like donks at times? I mean, I feel like. Or does this mean a pound dongles of our fans? I don't know. Is there clarification on this? Long Island, Luke, what do you think they're asking? So I initially thought fans, but right when you guys read it for whatever reason, my mind went to Uncle I of and I thought of fighters.

So maybe they mean fighters. I think they mean fans I don't know We could do both I mean if it is fighters You got Johnny Walker on that list right Yeah Michelle Pereira's

I guess he used to be on that list I don't know if he'd still be on it I mean Yuri Prozka is kind of Aondonk too in a way right I definitely feel like he in that So I feel like in that hill fight He began to turn away from the donk side But to your point

There's been some of that In the past Who in the women Who's like a donk women's fighter Jessica Androge Ah, is that donk? Kind of walks right into Whaley, kind of, you know. A little bit. A warrior, too.

I mean, it doesn't mean that it just means like champion, you know what I'm saying? I don't know. What about if you flipped the question? That was Yuri. I mean, people like average Joe R. Saul A from Louisville. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're pound for pound donks right here.

Although would you want to check their voting records before you're willing to put them on? No, I don't care. What way? You think of voting records of some mystery? I can guarantee you I know most of the ways that went, you know? There you go. That's not disqualifying. Enough of that DM bullshit, all right?

Let's get into the real shit of this show. You know what I do every Sunday? Oh, sorry. Also, Morning Kombat at Gmail, if you want to put that down there. You want to reach the show. You want to get your pedantic dead wrongs or your fan subs of a picture of you and Saul's wife in an MK's shirt.

Go to MorningCombat.git.com. Tell Mikey, we said hi, don't show your prick. Thank you very much. Send him pictures of that. What I do Sundays is I scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly in the world of combat, sports, and beyond. But last week, you know, you made me feel bad.

You basically called me a misogynist without saying it for this shit. So no women were harmed. I don't think in this. So today we don't have women being gored by bulls. I don't think so. Either way, this one's called, have you seen this shit? All right. Whoa, UFC Shanghai this weekend gave us some serious Marab memories.

Let's start with Marab meeting a bunch of female fans here in China. Oh my god. Damn, Marab is cleaning up. Good for Mara. She's like, I'll never wash this chest again. Marab would also meet a tiger head on. You guys crazy. Yeah, I'm not doing that with the tiger.

Even a little one like that. Or relatively little, you know what I'm saying? You guys think he's joking, bro. He's joking, bro. He does not care at all. He doesn't care at all. Marab does not care about anything. I'm not getting in the tiger's face, bro. He actually crawled in his face, playfully, but it's wild. So, can I touch? Go for him. Go for it.

That's what he asked to Eileen Perez, too. Can I touch? Remember? Go for it. Don't worry. I thank you. I didn't hear what you said. I was watching him. Remember he asked Eileen Perez, Fiona? He's like, can I touch? And she was like, yeah. And he's like, he did that? You don't remember that? He horny? Also, Marab, who's, by the way, two months out from a title. fight shadow boxed on the edge of a four one thousand four hundred foot building in shanghai that's literally on the edge i know he's hooked up but that's wild so is he about to jump

off this thing yeah it's like a skywalk thing that they do where you can like walk on the side of the building and just last year i found this bonus clip of marab on the edge of a ledge of a building in naples italy no i remember this no harness this time just maraub bro he lives He lives, quite literally, he lives dangerously. You know what I mean? Luke, if there's a punching bag machine, you know you're going to show up on this show, right? Let's watch.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, okay. Hell yeah, brother. You killed that. Let's head out to the old ball game. Watch this umpire on this home run. He crushed it. We smoked that.

Bob. Oh, is he going to, oh, he does the old drum. Oh, God. Oh, Brissito. Oh, boy. All right. Hey, let's go to the Phillies game here. Let's check out this jersey.

It's the most Phillies fucking jersey of all time. Of all time. Oh, yeah. All right. Let's keep the baseball theme going. Watch this strike three call from the umpire. Mikey sent me this, by the way. All right.

Okay. Did the old Adasanya bid. Okay. It's great right there. Let me see that one more time. Yeah. Am I imagining things? Is this AI?

Yeah, and suck my dick. Yo! Yo, what's the ref got against the pitcher? Leslie Nielsen? Or the batter, I should say. Naked Gun, remember when he was, when he became the umpire in that? Did you see the new naked gun?

Not yet, but I want too bad. Anyone in studio see the new naked gun? Nobody. Dude, everyone who I talked to who actually saw it said, you got to go see it. It's hilarious. It's like a laugh a minute. And then now Liam Neeson is dating Pam Anderson because of that movie.

You know what? Listen, she's had quite the run. Kid Rock hit that. I don't think he's the only one. All right, it's time for your awkward manhandling moment of the week. Remember when DC got picked up and paraded around by old... You got spun around by Hamzot. By Hamzot.

Strong as shit. Let's go over to the Ariel show. No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, yes. You're like that. You're like that one. Right here. You're in here, bro.

Oh, thank you. All right. Luke, it reminded me of another awkward thing I once chronicled inside a studio similar to that at the MMAB. Do you remember this picture? You're like, Danny, come over here. Let me show you this move. This is my lost child. Yes, that was that I adopted from Columbia. That was weird and wonderful. His name is Daniel.

Luke, do you ever go to swap meet? I have been to them. I've not gone to one recently. Yeah, you never know what you're going to find. Look out for the pink item here. Is that Connor McGregor at the Mayweather Wayans? It's pink panty night. Yeah. Bro, this is no bullshit.

Like one thing that I saw when I went to Columbia the first time is like this is less true in Bogota, but it's definitely true in like Cartagena. You'll go down like the street and you'll pass these shops that sell like clothing for women. Yeah. The mannequins that they use to put women's clothes on have cans. gigantic titties and like a huge big ass too the mannequin shape is absolutely unlike anything you would see here

first time I saw it I was like is this fucking real and they do this yes they do that look you ever see those losers in public around their cell phone they don't even realize they're about to get hit by a car like a Brian Campbell yeah watch this guy hell yeah brother oh my God oh no are you okay

Even got cloned by the singer song. Oh, my God. Even the lady's singing is like, hey, everybody, look who brought the dick to the party. What's up, dig-head? Luke, I believe I can fly. Here's your hat of the week. It started out with a kiss. How did it end up with piss?

Yes, well. I've definitely seen some action that goes that direction. Speaking of R. Kelly, here's your fortune cookie of the week. A kind stranger will piss in your ass today. Okay, what is this? All right. Hey, speaking of ass piss piss, Connor McGregor made the footy. Do you remember that with a guy

had to Tourette's on South Park? Yes, I do. Piss from my ass. Look, Conn McGregor made the footy rounds this week. How many grams were in his pocket

when he met David Beckham? Hey, babe, the kids won't eat these brown bananas. Oh, I'm kidding. Throw them out. Why? Because Mommy doesn't love you. What the fuck?

Sorry, that was your bad parenting of the week. I jumped ahead. I would pick kids over bananas, but, you know. Oh, he's. Here's Conner and David Beckham. Thank you, Long Island, Luke.

I mean, what do you think they talk about? Nothing interesting. Women? Could be. Okay. David Beckham, Real Madrid Hero. I will say that. Great Conner's footy skills.

He went to the, is this the Napoli Stadium? Yeah. He said? I mean, he's juggling a ball. Okay. Could you put him in at halfback for your old Barcelona? team that you love? Yeah, Barcelona's not my team.

Oh, you're a Madrid guy. That's right. All right. Of course, Luke, we will never forget that time Connor throughout the opening pitch at the Cubs game. Remember that? Holy shit. Okay, just to be an outside.

Hey, 50 cent. What happened there? Do you ever see the John Wall one? No. It's like, dude, it's like one thing it's like, okay, 50 cent throws it and it's terrible because whatever. But then, you know, John Wall. Who just retired. Well, he did.

But, like, you know, we would agree. and his prime, good athlete, right? Throws the ball like your grandmother. Like the worst throw you've ever seen in your life. Cody Rhodes was just at like this fan event where there was like how fast can you throw? And he also threw a baseball as if he had never thrown it. You'd be surprised.

There's some good athletes who just can't do that kind of thing. That is interesting. Was it, I don't know, like I feel like growing up, we played every single freaking sport outside every day. You had to know how to throw a spiral. You had to know how to throw the ball from outfield, the baseball. You had to know how to shoot hoops. And you had to know how to hit a tennis ball.

Like, I'm not great and was never great at any sport, but there's no sport that I can't just, like, pick up in a ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. I'm terrible at all of them, but I can, you know, it looks like I have played it at least once. Yeah, that is interesting. Oh, let's go to the dentist office for some more hijinks.

If she does a handstand, what's going to happen? Lunch for everybody. Okay. I already eat so on you. Oh, yeah. No one's eating after that. All right. All right.

T-shirts of the week time, Luke. Sir, a second penis. has just entered my ass. Okay, that's aggressive. All right. Speaking of conspiracies. Dude, what is that shirt? It's a gay sex, 9-11 joke?

Yeah, like, what is this? People love conspiratorial t-shirts. Let's go to the next one. Epstein did kill himself. Jet Fuel can melt steel beams. JFK's head just did that. I believe in all three, you know? You know, this person probably doesn't read a whole lot.

All right. You love weightlifting. Would you ever wear this shirt? Osama bin Lifton You got a swole ass Osama bin Laden All right You know, probably not in public Okay, what about this final shirt?

Would you wear this? They call me pre-com The way I be dripping Okay You're fired Yeah, let's keep it going Just get the fuck out of here. Luke, would you eat this?

I was with you until she honked a booger on it. There was no part of that. I was like, oh, this is now inedible. And then she honked the nose on it and I'm cool now. I mean, it kind of turned you on a bit, right? You know, when she spat on it a little bit, I was like, all right. Yeah, yeah, you were into that. Hey, fight of the week came from the adult rec soccer league.

Check this out. Oh, and then he stomped on him Bro, they're getting busy out there. Oh, he's fucking doing too much, what the fuck? Wow, this is why I quit, you know, old man wrecked basketball. Have you ever gotten to a fight to an old man wreck basketball? No, I've had people threaten to punch me a couple times. Did you deserve it or not?

I felt I was in this, in the, is this from a hard foul? No, I'm not that kind of player. I'm the kind of player that within the lines, I'm not going to like make fun of someone's family or anything like that, but like competitive aggressiveness. It's like when I step out of the lines, we're friends. We're asking by each other's family. But within the lines, I'm going to try to get into your head.

Oh, you didn't think, you didn't think that ball went out of bounds off you. You're like, you know what I'm saying? I'm going to, I'm going to play things up and people. That would hard foul you. People reach their boiling part, but I, you know, you got to identify who plays better when they're, matter who plays worse. And once you can get in some guy's head,

that's an advantage for my team. I would hard value. I'm going to win that game. Hey, who's your favorite recurring hero? Recurring segment performer on the show, on the heavy scene. If you put it on the cake lady, I'm stabbing here. Hey, she's back again.

There we go. Yeah, why don't you just eat your hand, you disgusting creature from Mars? Yeah, cut that off, you fucking ape. We got to get her on here. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Why you cut some slices in there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, is there fucking chocolate in that turkey? Absolute Creighton. All right, Luke, you know how to play rate that tat, right? 1 to 10, 10 being the highest quality, okay? All right, all right, all right.

Let's start off with this Star Wars-inspired Yoda leg tat. Wow, that's a 10. Wow. That is, that's extraordinary tattooing. Okay, shout out to killer ink tattoo for that one. That's extremely good. I love it as well. Let's go to this UFC-inspired Thug Rose shoulder tat.

So this guy who does this, there's a one guy who does this where he puts faces of famous people, typically innocent people, like a young Justin Bieber or something, and then does like almost like graffiti on their face. It's a little dark. It's a little dark. This is a very good tattoo. I'd give it a nine and a half. But it also is like a little alarming.

It's a little, yeah. I mean, you know, how would Rose feel about it? It's kind of the question I would ask, and there's no way to know that. But it's definitely a good tattoo. All right. So far we've got a 10, we got a 9 and a half. pretty good tattoo. You sent me this armpit tat. How do you rate it, Luke? I sent you this? Yeah.

That's a two. It's creative. You got to admit it's creative. It is. I mean, you know this guy has been to prison. All right. Our North Korean censor himself, Daniel Snyder's nephew, sent me this one last night. Rate that tat, Luke. Holy shit. That's a one. Oh, come on. You can't go two just for the symbolism. I can give it neither a nine nor an 11. Okay. All right. All right. I see where you're going with that. Finally, Luke, we found a tat up your alley.

Rate this Marine tat. That's the backside. Why the fuck would he do this? And then when you turn it around, Luke, with those mobs, that's the front side. That's a zero. Is that guy, are we allowed to call that guy an ex-marine or what?

Yeah, you can definitely. make fun of him. Also, play it one more time. You don't have to play it the whole way through. Correct me if I'm wrong. When he turns, does he have a U.S. MC tat on his arm? Yes, he does. Motherfucker, you got enough Marine Corps tattoos? He wants people to know. Jesus. All right, we got two more here, Luke. Have you ever vaped in an airline bathroom yet? I can neither confirm nor deny that has happened. You don't want to do it. Watch this news report. Tonight, an American Airlines flight from Milwaukee to Dallas forced to divert. The airline says a first-class passenger would not stop vaping. My bad, dude. I thought this was American Airlines. Oh, I can't red, white, and blow

an O. Then you got a freaking go, dude. Whatever. First class, kiss my ass. I'll do it again, dude. That guy's a comedian. You know that, right? Yeah, I know that was big. Finally, Luke, you'll never know what you're going to find in the fast food drive-thru. Am I right? That's true. I'm sorry. What did I just see? Play that again? Play that again? Play that? again is that a foot and a mouth yeah yeah there you go that's uh that's that's the man serving you your whopper right what fast food outlet is that i don't know but i'm not going one more time can we guess off the uniform carls junior maybe i don't know luke where we're i feel like that's hearties yeah you're dead definitely gave out coupons for that one right there

for Halloween uh that's all the shit we can handle a free mouth suck on your toes But that is the grossest fetish. I mean, there's a lot of gross fetish. If you put someone's toes in your mouth, you deserve to be shot into space and left there. Like, I'm not a, like, okay, I have gross toes and I know it. I have some family members, like my wife and my son who are like, I don't even want to see your toes. They gross me out. But like, everyone's got them.

If you took your socks off, I wouldn't, like, throw up, right? But to go to that next level of that is so disgusting. Once again, if you do something like that, you deserve to be publicly executed in front of your family. Wow. I want to be clear about that. You big toe guy, Long Island, Luke? No, I can't say that I am. You big ass guy or just live streaming at 3 a.m.

You know what I mean? Yeah. No horns on that one. All right, I broke this. Morningcombat.com. You already know reached the show that way. Also, please, you can like, follow, and subscribe to what we got going on here at Morning Combat.

Also hit up our YouTube channels. I have interviews on the Brian Campbell experience with Paul Hughes. How'd that go? Very well. You can check that out right now. I've also going to be I spoke with actor Eric Roberts you know the legend of actor Julia's brother you remember the 1989 cult martial arts classic best of the best so best of the best is a banger certified so he was in one and two that's right there was three and four

he didn't want to be a part of it he is going to be in five and they are having a like fan meetup Q&A seminar thing in October at a dojo in Las Vegas the ticket information is in the video but I got to chat with him about his career about working with Sly Stallone and The Specialist. Remember that movie? With Sharon Stone in 94? I haven't seen that one in so long. It was so much fun.

Dude, wasn't Eric Roberts, like, one of the criminals in the Batman? In the Dark Night? He talked about that, yeah. Actually, it was pretty good in that movie. I mean, relatively minor role, but he was pretty good in that. Dude, I rewatch Best of the Best for the first time since my dad rented it in, like, the early 90s. Dude, James Earl Jones is in that. Amad Rashad is the announcer in that?

Conan, was it Conan the Barbarian or Conan the Destroyer? Which one where James Earl Jones was the snake lord or whatever? Like he did some cool ass He was the voice of Darth Vader obviously Like he did some cool ass shit So James Earl Jones Even though he was African American Had like the same face and voice

Of my grandfather, Pippa So we always referred to him as black people James Earl Jones That's a little on the racist side No I mean it was Yeah all right Maybe I'll take that back In the edit process afterwards

So there you go Check that out Check out Luke's You got some big political interview Coming the way I know you do I locked up one What I didn't lock it up But I got the ground started

it on one that I if it goes through I might shit myself Obama no I I I first of all I would never get one like that second of all I don't know if I would want one like that what is what is he got to say at this point I was talking about his daughters them too why the fuck would I want to hear from them I don't know it's like a DC thing or something yeah I don't know yeah I don't have any interest to talking about if you had to talk to one child of a president which one would you pick Hunter Biden oh it's got to be Hunter Biden brother like if I could secure a Hunter Biden RSD? Would you be down for the? You better book Hunter Biden.

I'm looking right at our producer. You better book Hunter Biden and we're going to smoke crack on air. He said, what about Barron? That's what our producer just said. You think he knows crack like Hunter Biden? No. Don't forget Hunter Biden bank prostitutes and smoke crack in my town at the Nogato. I want to be clear. I've never

smoked crack before, but I've never wanted to smoke crack more than after listening to Hunter Biden. Well, he is very passionate about it. He makes doing crack sound like the most awesome experience imaginable. All right there it is right there. Long Island, Luke, what can we expect on the main card minute?

I'll be doing a watch alone tomorrow for Contender Series and then new quiz drop in Friday. So tune in for that. Also, I want to be clear about something. We obviously have Contender Series tomorrow. There is, as you indicated, Luke Rockhold Darren Till on Saturday. The word is not getting out enough. I know we discussed it a little bit on the show. Just one more reminder. C.J.2 is both Saturday and

Sunday. And remember, it's team format, royal rumble style. Oh, wow. So they're doing a royal rum. So you don't know who's coming out. That's right. They're on the clock and then the team picks who comes out next. Former MK producer Alex Wendling is one of the talents on that show. That's right. And I suspect new Black Belt Brendan Lynch will also just be there in attendance. I'm guessing. I'm just making that up. I don't know if it's like ripped up, right? So CJI 1 and sorry, CJI 2 on Saturday and Sunday. What are we going to talk about on Friday show?

Once again. We may have to play prop quiz. We're going to have to get Hunter Biden on the show. and just smoke crack. There it is. There it is. Shout out to espresso cannabis on Instagram, a fan of this show, who sent in a gift package, Luke. Did you open the gift package? I think you did too.

I didn't open it. Someone just left things in my bag. There you go. There you go. We love you. Thank you very much for that. If the dogs catch me at Union Station, I blame all of you. Mortycombat.compt.shop to get your MK merch needs.

Remember, the August exclusives will not be here in a week. So, wait, 31st is Sunday, is it not? I believe, I believe it is. Yes, I will be dropping. Well, guys, Monday is Labor Day, so I believe we discussed internally. We're going to go Tuesday, so Tuesday merch will be dropping. Okay, there we go. The new merch next Tuesday, your last chance to get M.K. Beavis and Butthead from

Average Joe Arts design. We got one poster left. Vaping is for closers with Luke Thomas and the super washed rose autograph poster. New exclusives next year, but next month, excuse me, but if you go to morningcombat. dot shop right now we do have evergreen products and don't forget and i mean this mix and match the colors all right i like this little baby blue three margaritas of luke thomas right here morning combat dot shop anything else you want to tell the people i love you all thank you so much for watching today even though we had to discuss fights that were a fairly low significance um let's have fun

on friday yeah we're gonna have a lot of fun you know what let's have motherfucking fun on friday wow you know what i always wanted to do was like secure guests but don't tell you who they are royal rumble style and then like a new guest is coming on and you're like all right and then it's like Damien the donk and you got to like actually give a like a good faith interview I just put it in my two weeks at that point just log off

yeah there you go. It's like where did Luke go his stream dive? Wow for Long Island Luke L.T. and the B to the Sizzle. This is Anderson Silva style blowing a kiss so he doesn't go on the lips. Yes. He covers his face like like the alien thing. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no do that no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no he

He wasn't giving his heart to the people. Yes, indeed. Wow, I love that. We love you. Take care of yourself. Shout to Tuki, first grade. We out of here. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you.

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