MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vegas 105 Recap, Volk’s Return, Riyadh Season Dominance Ending?

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Top of the week MK is here, and we’ve got a loaded show. The fellas discuss this past weekend’s UFC Vegas 105 results, including Lerone Murphy’s uninspiring decision and Torrez Finney’s split-decision win. They also look ahead to the biggest storylines with UFC 314. On the boxing end, Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson’s comments against Turki Alalshikh have us wondering whether we’re seeing an end to boxing’s reliance upon Riyadh Season. We’ll also discuss Tim Tszyu’s big return and a Boots-Stanionis unification.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1. Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil. I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known. At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9th on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. of a killer. It's hip. Oh, Jesus. Start the morning combat. Do you want a margarita? My God! It's us doing what we love.

You, me, you, me! It's time to bang. Oh, yeah. Can you feel it? It's Monday morning. Put a smile on your face. It's morning combat back in your face hole here, April 7th, 2025. Shout out to all our waking bakers, pregnancy fakers and anyone else in between. Hey, it's Brian Campbell at BBC with that B D E alpha style coming at you right now. My cohost though, from Washington, DC, home of the great eight himself, the all time leading goal scorer from the Washington capitals, Alexander Ovechkin. It's Luke Thomas. Luke, are you fired up about life or what? Super fired up. Yesterday was a great day. O, Vetchkin broke the record, which was amazing. He did it in Long Island, which, you know, sorry, Long Island.

Luke is a fucking dump. But aside from that, if I may, who got the win yesterday, just saying Islanders who cares, who cares? Who's in first place at Eastern Conference? We're fighting for a playoff spot. So it was a big win for him. I hear a lot of we in there. What's going on here?

You on the team? Who's in first place? But all right, but that aside, and then I took the toaster to it's because it's like a comic con, like not rip off, but you know, they can't call it comic con. It's like, it's called awesome con. And saw a lot of nerds in their costumes yesterday. But BC if I may say something, these were amazing costumes. Also, I gotta tell you, I guess I'm ignorant about this. I didn't realize how vast and expensive the lightsaber market is.

Did you know this? No, I'm 46 years old. Okay, there were lightsabers on sale yesterday. I'm not kidding. Well, in excess of a thousand dollars. Well in excess. Anyway, it was a great time. They sell them sit fingers at all, Luke? Anyone shooting things out of their fingernails? They did. There were people doing, they had Iron Man masks, there were people selling web shooters. And also, BC, last thing, if I may, last thing. I get asked all the time. Hey, Luke, I'm visiting the nation's capital. What's a good place to eat brother? I've said this before. I will say it again. Cause I went back yesterday. Cause it's actually right close to the convention center where the, where awesome con was.

Let me guess peto pizza. No, no, no, no, no. What you mean? Like pink, you're doing like a pedo joke. It's not even a real thing that they're talking about. So much material. You know, it's great. It's actually right by the convention center. It's called uncon a real thing that they're talking about. I got so much material. You know what I mean? It's great.

No, it's actually right by the convention center. It's called unconventional diner. And I brought it up before because they've got an amazing burger. I went back yesterday, BC. They had a tres leches strawberry shortcake. Might have been the best piece of cake I've ever had in my entire fucking life. Unconventional diner. There you go.

Wow. Well, we raise a glass to everybody who lost all their stocks and yeah, don't check your 401k because it's not there. Welcome on in though as well. We got a great show for you today. Look, I mean, we might not have great topics or great material, but you know, we'll fill in the blanks. Don't you worry. UFC apex recap from over the weekend. Tim Zuse back with a TKO on the boxing scene and we will look ahead to Saturday's UFC 314 loaded card with a little taste of early storylines, but do I need to remind you of what's going on guys? Two days from now, this Wednesday, April 9th,

11 a.m. in the East on the YouTubes in lieu of Friday's episode. We're gonna move it up two days earlier for my vacation. Thank you very much. And it's pregame preview brought to you by Cuervo, UFC 314, BC LT, Jed Meshew, Deuce. It's gonna be a great time. Do not miss that.

Also, we'll take your questions today from the DMs. We'll look at my shit. It's gonna be a wild ride. So buckle up, enjoy the show. And if you didn't already know today's episode of morning combat is presented by draft Kings and with draft Kings, the crowd is yours. So shout out to everybody listening on the YouTube's on the podcasts, on the draft Kings network, Luke, we're going to absolutely bring it today.

Okay. You want to dedicate today's show to anybody to our, to our viewers who are watching us recap UFC fight night, Emmett versus Murphy. How about that? Well, in lieu of that, in honor of that, how about you like this show? How about you subscribe to what we got going on? How about you follow us on the socials, including our extended YouTube channels. And now is the time where we hear from the man who came to us directly from an Aussie's ball bag.

It's the main card minutes. Luke, no seat. Hey, hey, what's up, guys? UFC Vegas 105. Not my favorite card. Did you did you do the whole card again? Now, I just did the main card, but even the main card was bad. I mean, we started off with the Terez Fini fight. It only went, you know, oh, we'll be talking about it. That Terez Fini fight is one of the legit worst UFC fights I've seen in.

I don't know how long. I agree. It was bad. All right. There you go. So buckle up, get ready. You're going to get a lot of great analysis from these guys right here. And I think the show starts right about now. Let's go topic number one. UFC Apex was back, Lerone Murphy played it safe in the main event, improving to 16-0-1 overall

as the featherweight contender scored what the internet called a very uninspiring five round unanimous decision win over Josh Emmett, three rounds to two on two scorecards, four rounds to one on the third. So Luke, let's put it out there. Considering Murphy was legitimately booed during his post fight interview, while exiting the cage and roundly accosted on Twitter slash X,

does Murphy actually deserve the vitriol he had received here? Or should you in your opinion, there be more room in elite mixed martial arts for efficient point fighting, regardless of entertainment value, maybe even under the old mindset of Floyd Mayweather hit and not get hit. Does the MMA community have a right to drop a doogie all over Laron's efficient and winning performance on Saturday?

Um, okay. This is, this is a tough one. Let me, I don't want to get up here and I'm not going to, I'm not going to get up here today and be like, Oh, if you didn't like that fight, you know, you've got terrible taste in MMA. I'm not, I'm not going to get up here today and be like, oh, if you didn't like that fight, you know, you've got terrible taste in MMA. I'm not I'm not going to make that argument. Or if you didn't like this fight, you know, something's wrong with you. That's really not at all my point. I don't think that's quite true even a little bit. Now, that is not me saying that I hated this fight. In

fact, I did not. I thought it was fine. I thought it was fine. What I would say too, on top of that, in addition to the fight being fine, was that Lerone Murphy is obviously incredibly skilled. He has outrageously good footwork. He is defensively quite sound. It certainly wasn't this fight. It was a very defensively sound performance and undefeated, good athlete, fantastic cardio. He's kind of on the back foot for basically the majority of

the fight and was able to move as well in the fifth as he did in the first. Something I'd like to point out too. You'll note that Lerone Murphy went the distance with Josh Emmett. So did Ilya Toporia. Now Ilya Toporia landed 152 significant strikes and recorded three takedowns and one knockdown.

Lerone Murphy didn't do that. However, Emmett landed 87 significant strikes and recorded three takedowns and one knockdown. Lerone Murphy didn't do that. However, Emmett landed 87 significant strikes against Ilya Toporya. He landed just 41 against Lerone Murphy. I'm not telling you he did better against Lerone Murphy. Excuse me that Lerone Murphy did better against him than Ilya. He got hit a little bit less, but of course he did a lot

less on the offensive end. And I think to me, BC, that's actually where the conversation is. There's nothing by itself really wrong with what Lerone Murphy did. It's not like you can look at this fight and be like, man, he didn't step on the gas in a way that he could have, or he didn't live up to his potential.

I mean, or some other kind of way where you can describe that Lerone Murphy in a way in which we understand him better, didn't perform up to his capabilities. But what we can say, and I think what the fans are feeling is one, and I know we'll talk about it, the Torres-Finney fight on this card was an absolute disaster, just a disaster of the highest order. The Koeman was, again, not a disaster, but not thrilling. The Pat the Pat Sabatini retool fight was not super thrilling and and so that's part of it but the bigger issue to me is two problems are happening. One you're getting some talent that is just not really all that capable of doing certain

things that's not necessarily the case here in the main event but there's this accumulative feeling that we're not getting the case here in the main event, but there's this accumulative feeling that we're not getting the same kind of action that we have been accustomed to over time. And I think the bigger problem, BC, is that MMA appears to be as filled as I've ever seen it at the elite level, which to be clear,

Lerone Murphy is at, he's an elite fighter, of guys who are round managers who don't appear to have very good finishing ability or instincts. And when you kind of add up all of this together, Lerone Murphy was, you know, I'm not going to say the straw that broke the camel's back because Finney got booed several fights before that. But BC, there is a bigger story involved and I know sometimes like we don't want to start the show on a negative note. Again, I thought Murphy fought well. I think he is a talented guy. But the broader set of circumstances to which he is

partly a contributor, I think is wearing a little bit thin on people. I agree. It's more than one thing because all I heard about, I fell asleep right before the main event, to be fully honest with you, and ended up finally watching it this morning. But I had read so much vitriol that I assumed he avoided contact altogether, you know, just had fought one of the purposely worst fights you'd ever seen. I'm not going to come back and say it wasn't fully that case,

but you know what I took away from the performance? I'm really impressed. Murphy has elite skills, his cardio, his takedown defense, his defense in the pocket as Emmett is throwing bombs. Like I said off the top, his ability to hit and not get hit is truly elite, but it's sports and entertainment at the same time. So I understand people not wanting him in a main event.

I understand people rightfully saying he's probably going to have to win a ridiculous like the the John Fitch story. He's probably going to have to just win and win and win and win no matter what and hope for the seas to part at the right time for a title shot to come. But I do think there is room in all sports for different styles. Even if those styles are not TV friendly, I think that there's some element of misdirected hostility here from the Torres Finney fight. From the fact that after Mexico city was rocking, we're back in the

apex, you put this guy in the main event. It wasn't a deep card. Not only are we complaining about the overall watered down effective UFC at the highest level, but it feels like the fans are finally bubbling up and joining us in that because they're the ones that are actually paying. They're not getting to expense the pay reviews, although they're probably stealing them most of the time anyway, but that's neither here nor there as one DC native likes to say. So will this hurt Murphy's long-term progress? Yes, but not everybody has to fight

Dana White Contender Series Factory style and drop their guard and bleed for everybody. So it was kind of like wrong place, wrong time for Murphy, yet I exited that being like, damn, he's going to be hard to beat at the elite level. I kind of want to see that style against some of the better fighters in this division. But I fully understand if the UFC watches that, if the matchmakers go, oh crap, we probably shouldn't give a guy this platform again. That's the game we're in right now. It is entertainment at the end of the day.

And Luke, I never expected him to get booed mercifully during that post fight interview. I didn't even expect this piece of content that John Morgan shot cage side, excuse me, of Murphy getting heckled as he exited the cage too. ["Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring ring Ring Ring ring Ring ring Ring ring Ring ring Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring I mean, it may have been hard to hear there, but there's one guy screaming, you ran for five rounds, you ran away. And I don't think he ran away. He was in the pocket.

He was just slipping shots and did the whole hit and not get hit thing. So you know, both, both sides of the argument are correct in this case. He was boring as F in the larger scheme. It will affect him in the long run. But he also apparently climbed another notch in the rankings. And Luke, I mean, true or false? It's going to be hard for the elites to overcome this guy. Dude, John Fitch used to be a guy who you were like, not that there's one of him, but there's just not many of him. He was kind of like, I'll just say this, there's just a bunch of john fitches. Now, there's just

a bunch. There's a bunch of guys who are very, very skilled. By the way, I like John, he's a good fighter. But what I mean by that is, or he was a good fighter anyway. But what I mean by that is this like, you know, very, very labor intensive kind of singular way of fighting that is hard to pull off and you have to beat good guys all the way around. But A, to the point you raise very difficult

to get a title shot off of that. I mean, Lerone Murphy just beat a very good fighter, but he did it in a way that is just simply not going to move the needle, I think for his interest. And this is at a time when featherweight is very, very hot, meaning there's gonna be a lot of other pieces moving. And I think a lot of other people are gonna get title fights ahead of him,

even if maybe they're not necessarily as deserving. Well, I guess we'll have to see how that all goes. But it's just a really weird time. And I was talking with somebody on social media about this, and they also added this point too. It's like this other part to Lerone Murphy where now maybe BC were feeling this because we're across the pond. But there's just a lot of guys who like don't do interviews who don't do a lot of media. You see them show up on the apex or some kind of main

card. And again, dude, the role Murphy is very, very good. I just think it's silly to try and argue anything other than that. If you didn't like his fight, fine. If it's not interesting to you, fine. But I don't want to hear anything about he's not good. He's very good, but he's good quietly in a non finishing kind of way. And then doesn't do a lot of media. It's like, dude, I don't know what like, that's not really serving their interest very much.

It's certainly not serving UFC's interest. And that sort of question, if it's serving the fans interest more broadly, I don't know what the answer is. I don't want guys to get out there and just say things for the for the effect of it. But I, it, something's missing. Something's missing a little bit here. And I again, dude, I know, I know what the fan all here, these guys complaining again, what the fans really feel differently after Saturday? I mean, it's one card. It's not the entire roster, but I don't know. I felt like a few things that have been in the pipeline, some kind of problems that have been things that we've identified or

otherwise are noticeable kind of came to a head on this, on this card. Right. And I always say in all sports, there's many different ways to do it. I've I cover high school basketball for years. I remember this one team that had no player above six feet tall was playing another state powerhouse with a six, seven center in the tournament. And they held the ball in a pre-shot clock era. They held the ball and they won the game by one point. And it was a brilliant strategy to do that.

But you don't want that in the main event during a time when the apathy is growing right there. And we have a meme to show in three parts. This is basically what the fans really believe, Luke. It seems a little bit blurry. Is that Lerone Murphy? Let me check my glasses here and find out. Next one.

Oh yeah, it was. It looked a lot like Leon Edwards though, Luke, right? I mean, that's that's unfortunately the lot that that Murphy's being thrown into because the apathy for Edwards at this point is not as high as well. But we the fans had their opinion. We had our opinion. But it may be time for shots fired brought to you by

Cuervo, to hear Lerone Murphy's opinion. Now, look, if we can begin with the tweet from Murphy. He says, clinic, real MMA fans will appreciate the technicality of that fight. That's fight IQ, punishing elbows in close, body kicks, neat footwork, had him hurt a few times. Why would I stay in the pocket with a power puncher, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, baby?

And we also have sound from Murphy to add onto this. Let's listen in. Yes, people feeling great after the fight, took no damage, master class, broken down, stuck to the game plan. Didn't get involved in any scrappy, scrappy stuff and he couldn't hit me. Luke, it was technical. It was no thriller. Can't put those two words together.

But in your opinion, does Murphy have a point here? He does have a point. Yes. I mean, it's not a question of excitement. I think that one folks are more than I mean, let me not a question of excitement. I think that one folks are more than, I mean, let me just ask the question here because I do think it's important to listen, upcoming next week or this coming weekend,

we have UFC 314, right? I mean, just an excellent card, no matter which way you wanna look at it, not just on the main card, but in particular that main card. It's very, very easy to understand how a promotion could be like like hey it's going to be worth taking time out of your schedule to make this a night for us. To you know to to dedicatedly say like on that Saturday night we're watching UFC and I'm pushing anything else I might want to do to the side because look at what it's offering me.

How on earth do you make that argument for a card like that? Now again, it's not nearly the same argument in terms of like the prestige or the value or the importance, but time away from doing other things to watch it. What is the argument there? And I simply don't even know what that could possibly be. I don't quite get it. So when Lerone Murphy says what he did was impressive, he's right. When he says float like a butterfly, hit and not get hit. All of these things, these core tenants of what fight sports are kind of about to be honest with you. I agree. But here's the part that he's missing BC.

Here's the part that he's missing. There was an interview sometime in the 2010s. I'd have to go find it. I remember it because it was a big deal at the time that the Atlantic magazine had spoken to both Dana White and then also Lorenzo Fertitta. And we've talked about the way Lorenzo describes something, but when he was trying to explain why UFC was so exciting to people, his argument was it's full of oh shit moments. These moments where something happens and you're like, oh my God, did you see that? You're looking around. This is like crazy kind of an event. And it it's like you just went 25 minutes and you

didn't even get close to one of those. Now again you don't have to every time but if there's bigger issues and then in particular the one I'm kind of identifying which is you got a lot of good fighters now who don't have big media profiles and are not aggressive finishers are we getting enough of the oh shit moments as an entertainment quotient? I leave that question to the fans, but it's certainly something I'm wondering. That's a very, very fair point. And that was shots fired brought to you by Cuervo. And by the way, now's a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila.

And of course you'll be seeing a lot of Cuervo come Wednesday for pregame preview. I think you make a lot of great points there, Luke, preview. I think you make there Luke regarding that forward. He Laurel Murphy 10 coming in. I believe e eight right around there. post fight press conferen as well. You did get Murf Brian Ortega next. And th

says is that Yair Rodriguez Brian Ortega and he went directly into a, into a first and interim title shot and then the full championship opportunity. He wants to follow that same path. Is Ortega the right call out in this spot and how high do you believe before we get Zuck in the AI rankers in here, will Murphy move up or should deserve to move up in these featherweight rankings? All right, so he beat a number eight guy. I could see him taking that spot, but I mean,

you know, Al Jemaine Sterling is sitting at nine and I understand that, you know, he's coming off of that Mozart loss and so, you know, your position is going to be somewhat affected by it, but I would still rate him a little bit more highly in terms of upside, believe it or not. Uh, at 145, at least in terms of who I think he could be at the best end. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think taking Emmett's spot is probably fine, but you know, you mentioned Ortega at six. I don't know if Ortega is going to want that.

You also have Arnold Allen sitting at seven and then all real quick Ortega is threatening to move up and wait constantly. Yeah. There's also that obviously as well. I mean, there's, there's a bunch of factors kind of involved here. Arnold Allen sitting at seven and then all real quick or take us threatening to move up and wait constantly. Yeah. There's also that obviously as well. I mean, there's, there's a bunch of factors kind of involved here. Now again, pit bull is going to get added to the mix. He's not in the rankings currently. We'll see what happens after this next weekend and the like.

So it's not like enemy. I mean, this is going to sound like we're just beating up on the Rome Murphy for the fuck of it. And we're not, he turned in a very commendable performance not just because he beat a good guy but because he beat a good guy who barely touched him in over the course of 25 minutes that's extremely difficult and very very impressive to do but it's the kind of question you always have to ask yourself it's like a politician winning an election do they win it by a little bit or do they win it by a landslide and And the bigger that you win, it gives you a mandate to do more with it.

This one is valuable, but I don't think it's kind of like rocket charging him up the rankings or to the like rocket charging him into some kind of future big fight. It could but I wouldn't bet on it right away. Yeah, I wouldn't hate if he fought Arnold Allen in the UK to actually give the fans what they want. But Luke, did you want to address there's there's heavy rumors overnight on Twitter, not necessarily from a huge, reputable account, but that Aaron Pico could be entering this featherweight division, the former Bellator, huge prospect. And then, you know, after a couple

collapses did bring it back around. And there's rumors he could be in a fight night main event against Movstar Evo which is interesting politics unto itself but uh Lerone Murphy versus Pico or is that promotional malpractice? I mean Pico is fighting another guy one of these guys we just talked about very good highly okayly okay, so the rumor is that he's fighting Mozart, which by the way, I didn't see bigger reputable accounts back up yet, which doesn't mean it's not true. But we kind of have a wait and see approach with it. But here he is, they've got to match up against Mozart, who is you know, another one of these john Fitch types that, you know,

they don't have great finishing instincts or ability, but they're very, very tough. And they're hard outs for everyone and they're very, very skilled. I think Lerone, I'm not sure what the right answer is, to be honest with you, because his whole game is predicated on neutralizing. You asked me on Friday, like what stands out about his game. And I think you saw a lot of it there. It's just a lot of blendedness where, you know, he didn't go for takedowns a whole lot,

or I don't think hardly at all in this fight. It was more about sticking and moving, working behind the jab and footwork. But you know, when he needs to, everything kind of gets mixed in together. But the real common denominator is the sort of neutralization. And I don't know who the right matchup is

to get him out of that instinct. I don't know who the right matchup is to get him out of that instinct. I don't know exactly what that would be. So I think an incremental improvement or an incremental adjustment to his next dance partner is probably the right idea. But BC, this is the problem. You bring in Pitbull and you can start thinking of like, oh, I got all these matchups in my head that'd be great. Or conversely, you just mentioned they might bring in pitbull and you can start thinking of like, Oh, I got all these matchups on my head. That'd be great.

Or conversely, you just mentioned they might bring in Pico, right? All these matchups in my head. I mean, I could think of a thousand matchups that'll be like, that one's good. That one's good. And not just a 45, 55 potentially as well. But with Murphy, it's like, does he deserve a quality guy? Yeah, he deserves a quality opponent. He's a quality opponent who just scored a very quality guy. Yeah, he deserves a quality opponent. He's a quality opponent

who just scored a very quality win. But can I think of a thousand different matchups that I would want to see him in? No, I think I'd be, I think I'd be lying if I said that. Yeah. He doesn't deserve another main event. I mean, that's a big part of this. He got his closeup opportunity. He survived in advance, but that will cost him in the end. I just wonder, you know, you made a, you made a broader statement off the top of this segment that there are a lot of fighters these days who are fighting a quote unquote boring style to the fans who are tuning in, putting their bets down,

and they just bleed, baby, right? Just bleed, honey. Do you think there will ever be a correction or adjustment to the rules? I guess I want to say similar to the NBA, where in the early 2000s, the lockdown of defense was bringing scoring down so much that the NBA responded by opening up the lane,

further removing the hand check, putting defensive three seconds into it and look at the wide open offensive game we have now. Do you ever see any type of a correction attempt by the UFC to counteract this or is it cyclical in terms of who's on top and what styles of fighting are most preferred? I don't, I, I am a little bit more pessimistic about this. Now, when I,

when I say that BC, what I mean is I agree with the broader way in which you framed it, which is there, some of this just will be cyclical. I think that is true at the same time. I don't think it's like the NBA. Dude, I mean, you know, basketball to a degree, to a degree BC has been solved, right? Where, you know, the teams just kind of know that, you know, shooting as many threes as possible is kind of the idea and there's various ways to set that up.

And if you have to go to the post, there's various ways to set that up. And if you have to go to the post, there's various ways to set that up. But, you know, they kind of all play a similar way of basketball, like there's not a lot of team identity a whole lot anymore. There's some of that, but you know, you get the idea relative to, you know, the triangle offense and how like unique that was

to the players who implemented that under Phil Jackson. So that's kind of, I don't think we're there, but I guess the point I was trying to make is you're getting just a lot of these athletes who are very good at extending the life of a fight and not getting close to the finish, but never letting their opponent really get all that close to them in terms of their chances of victory. But the bigger issue is not that BC the bigger issue to me is I mean consider

right. I might I might have this wrong long. I don't look. Are you an American football Island Luke, are you an American football fan? Are you a Jets or a Giants guy? I side with the Jets, but I truly don't really care about football. I'm just going to be honest. He's like hockey, gambling and bongs. Yeah, I mean, he's an MMA fan. Like, do you like other sports? Like, not really. You know, that's an MMA fan's answer. But my understanding is they moved kickoff to the 35 yard line for

next season BC they've been playing with that for years they moved it I think 25 to 30 and then out 30 to 35 and you know they've changed how are you where you can start and everything but point I'm trying to make is the NFL the way in which it is organized allows them to more nimbly make adjustments to rules or tweaks that they feel like are important to preserve the integrity of the product, particularly as they get new information about player safety, team tactics, you know, will there be a tush push going forward, all kinds of stuff, but they have the ability to kind of address this. Well, dude, you're talking 50 different state athletic commissions and yeah, you could fix New Jersey, California, Nevada, Texas and Florida and that would be a lot of it,

but that still would take you when you go back to Arizona, you're fucked. International organizations or territories, you're messed up. This ability to define what the rules are, they've vested that power to these vast balkanized world of government agencies. That's a lot of work to get that fixed even if you can do it at all. And no, I guess I don't have a lot of faith in that. I agree with you and I think it also could really if you go too far in trying to do that, I mean you could you could do soft changes of having referees stand them up even faster than before, but I think you're you're gonna mess with it in a lot of ways.

And I didn't know if you said tush push in light of that viral Terrence Howard clip going around Luke, no? Are you not aware of what the tush push is? I am, I'm just also aware of comedy. Sorry, sir, I'll continue. Hey, look, to close on this topic, what did this performance say about 40 year old Josh Emmett? He had the five round stamina.

He tried hard. He got dropped to a knee around five when he was doing the point down. He seemed frustrated at Murphy's elusiveness. Is he, could he have one more run? Like, or is this sort of gatekeeper role moving forward? He didn't look physically shot to me. I don't know how you felt about it. He looked like physically fine, but it's like BC you brought it up on Friday.

He doesn't game plan. That was one problem that looks like, or just, you know, I mean, how are you gonna beat the best guys in the world without a game plan? I honestly don't know. I really don't know the answer to that. And the second part is BC, he doesn't faint. He doesn't faint hardly at all.

He was just trying to like intercept Murphy or catch him with like timing or something, which you know, fine, some of that is okay. You know, you can you can get away with it. But like, look at the results. Look at the results. It's like, dude, like, I don't know how many times, you know, what makes the best fighter? What like it's a big question. Right? Luke steroids, steroids. You know, if you ask Craig Jones, autism would probably play a role as

well. Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. No, no, I'm just doing a Craig Jones bit, but I'm just, wow, someone just like lost side of comedy there. All right. Well, you led me there with your no-diddy block, all right. I never even heard of the thing you're mentioning, so I don't even know what that is. But in all seriousness, it can be a combination of athleticism, the right mindset, a certain degree of hunger and tolerance and chin and like all these factors that that that that go into it. And I don't know, I think in the case of Josh Emmett, he still got a lot of the physical tools.

And I don't think he's a dumb guy by any stretch of the imagination. And we know from talking to him, he's certainly quite driven. But if you're not accepting of the reality that that pre fight planning strategy and best practices around striking implementation all show you, you're just handicapping yourself. You're handicapped. Yeah, I'm going to play I'm going to play baseball with one hand behind my back. All right, well, you might you might still be a good player, but you're not probably going to be winning the home run derby doing that. You know what I mean? So this is just where we are.

I mean, but credit to Murphy for the takedown defense, the well-timed kicks that constantly caught Emmett when he was stepping forward. His footwork is good too. Look, some of those outward intangibles Murphy's brilliant at, it's just not overly exciting to everybody. But speaking of not overly exciting, Luke, let's transition into topic number two. And this was your UFC Apex undercard where yes, there were a few bright spots that I do hope we mentioned, but it's hard to avoid this one thing. Did you guys smell what Torres

Finney was cooking? Luke, after being forced to earn a spot on the UFC roster with an unprecedented three appearances on the Dana White Contender Series, Torres Finney's split decision win over Robert Valentin was incessantly booed and mocked as Finney would go on to land just four significant strikes over 15 minutes of largely dominant grappling control. Was world famous boxing referee Tony Weeks, who was a judge and scored it an outlier card of 30 to 27 for Valentine justified in your eyes, a massive troll job. What do you stand on that after Finney produced, let's say at one of the worst UFC debuts in modern history? Dude, that scorecard from Tony weeks is the greatest.

It's the greatest thing that's happened at the apex. Maybe ever, maybe ever look at that car. Tony weeks showed up and was like, I'm not playing ball with this bullshit even a little bit. Go fuck yourself. That was a waste of everybody's time. You don't belong here. I didn't need to be here. Eat shit to the world is what he basically said. I fucking love this from Tony weeks. By the way, they called him a boxing judge. He's been referred

or well, I don't know if he's reffed any MMA, but certainly reffed a lot of boxing too. But he's done a lot of judging in MMA for years. Like this was not multiple decades. They tried to act on the broadcast. Like they even ripped him. They're like, well, that's what you get when a boxing guy judges a wrestling match. It's like, dude, that guy's been there forever. And also if we're just having wrestling matches, they'll stop calling it MMA.

I mean, let's what the way, you know, I don't need a boxing judge at a, at a, at a wrestling match. You're right. But I didn't sign up to watch a wrestling match. I signed up to watch an wrestling match. I signed up to watch an MMA fight. Tony Weeks had the right idea one more time about these stats. Torres Finney landed zero of one attempted significant strike in round one and landed zero of

one attempted significant strike in round three. You could argue he there were seven strikes total that he landed that none of them significant. He did get five takedowns in the first BC. You could argue that some get five takedowns in the first BC. You could argue that some of the takedowns were slams and that that counts because they do count the, the takedown itself is like a hard takedown. They'll count that as like not, not, not exactly a strike, but that, you know, it contributes to the damage quotient that they're trying to evaluate, you know, but

I just want to say first Tony Weeks giving this a 30-27, whether he scored it that way or whether it was a protest vote to me is absolutely immaterial. It's the most brilliant response possible to the way in which that fight went, number one. Number two, look, Torres Finney seems to be a nice guy, but I don't understand what the

case is for signing him and you're not signing guys like Saladin Parnas or Artem Bakhtov, especially if you know, we know that those guys weren't asking necessarily for like the world in terms of money, but something, you know, a little bit greater than what they could offer at the contender series. And listen, my understanding is sometimes the matchmakers do want to sign a guy and management doesn't want, or the promotion that those guys come from play like games with their contracts. And UFC just says, I don't want to play with those. We're just going to keep what we get. So it can be a lot of reasons why guys don't get signed beyond just, hey, we don't want to pay them, blah, blah, blah. So I can understand it's a mixed, it's a mixed situation, but BC,

you're getting what you pay for. If you're, if you're not going to pay top dollar for top guys, then you're going to get situations like this where guys who are clearly not ready for this level and don't have even remotely approximating the kind of well-rounded skill set or even like a threatening skill set that they need to have in order to compete. This is what you're going to get. We talked about it on Friday. You know, when you when you're landing 10 takedowns per 15 minutes, it means you can't hold somebody down.

Sure enough, five of eight takedowns in round one, one of three, he was able to hold him down a little bit in that one, but then two of six in in in round eight, eight takedowns in round one, one of three, he was able to hold them down a little bit in that one. But then two of six in in in round eight, eight takedowns totally eight takedowns in a fight in a 15 minute fight, dude, what the fuck are we doing here? That's really three around, there has to be development on wrapping the legs and holding them there risk rides. Nelson's Turks to look at Sean Brady. Sean Brady would get Leon down bitch.

You're staying down for the rest of that round. If you even survive the round, look at the difference in ability. Look at the difference in skill. One guy is elite and one guy just got this opportunity because I don't know the internet kind of wanted to boost him to this position. And I'm sorry to say this again, Taurus Vinny seems like a good guy and it seemed like afterwards. He understood that this performance didn't exactly blow away the world. But if we're just observing this from afar, what is the fucking argument for signing a guy who's at this level versus some of

these international prospects that we've seen except that one comes at a much more discounted rate? Well, that part's what you pay for. But I do believe that, like, they gave him three chances on the DWCS, and he did get more exciting with each opportunity for whatever that means. I obviously would feel bad for someone like Brendan Loughnane watching this and going, what the F, right? Or even Mohammed Mukhaev, although I know that there's other factors that led to him being released. But, Luke, back to the scoring for a second.

I did chuckle at the Tony Weeks one. I liked the statement that it potentially sent. I did see though, way more like really angry MMA fans that I thought basically being like, this man should never judge again. Now for the record, I think you have to give Valentin round three because he came out angry, talking trash, landing big strikes before he ended up

on his back like the rest of those rounds. Is there an argument here for 2-1 Valentine on the first two rounds in your eyes or no? Because I did score it 2-1 for Finney giving him rounds one and two even though it was a very frustrating lack of entertaining style. If there's no striking on either side and he completely controls a guy and frustrates him and put him on his back. Don't you under the law have to give it to him? No. Why do you have to give it to him? So how did you score it? I don't know if either guy belongs in UFC. That's how I scored it. That's one of those

fights where I looked at it and I was like, you're getting fucked like weird ass situations like this because you have two opponents who are probably not good enough for this level. Now Valentine or Valentine's arguments a little stronger. Obviously. I don't know if it's entirely fair to him, but certainly in the case of Finney, I was like, what are we doing here? I mean, I did go back and rewatch. It was hard to stomach 15 minutes of this, but I rewatched the some of the takedowns and all of the rounds to see exactly how many of them were slams. Round two I think is probably the strongest Finney round because of the ability

to keep him down off just the one takedown he did land some strikes in that one of note. There were some slams in the first one but they didn't seem to have a very big material effect. The problem that you have, and I want to make sure I'm saying this without, yeah, the problem, you have one reversal that they credited Valentin with in round two, which was nice. He was able to do that, but you'll notice he doesn't have any sub attempts. And I know he's landed some strikes throughout six in round one. Valentin did three in round two and then 14 in round three. That was obviously the clearest of them. But it wasn't like he was scoring a ton of damage either, you know? So this is what I mean.

This is what I mean about Tony Weeks's scorecard. It's like to me, I think 3027, uh, uh, Fini would have been like absolutely bizarre. I don't think you could have done that, but anything from 2928, Fini all the way over to 3027 Valentine would have been okay by me to be perfectly honest, because I can understand how you could arrive at those positions. Also, I'd note Ben Cartolich, who I sort of considered to be the gold standard in judging, he had it 2928 for Finney. I don't know why he scored it that way. We without a chance to speak

to him. It's hard to know. But that is a very, very, very good judge. But Tony weeks to me looking at this for what it obviously is, which is a gigantic waste of everyone's time. And somebody who's got one, one dimension of a skill set, just trying to ride that out for 15 minutes and then hoping he gets blessed with the decision. This was a gigantic waste of everyone's time, including Valentine's. Well, I get that the story here is that Finney was not entertaining and might not belong in the UFC,

but, and not necessarily people caring about one round the other way, was it judged right or wrong outside of the outrage of what weeks did. But I do go back to the ABC definition, the Association of Boxing Comm back to the ABC defini here's the actual fine pr base of fighters impact t in the round, even though

of the action. Impact inc such as swelling and lase happen here. But impact s when a fighter's actions using striking or grappling lead to a diminishing of their opponent's energy, confidence, abilities, and spirit. So didn't do it. Didn't do any of that. It didn't do a single bit of that.

So long out Luke, how did you score you? You're into this on a betting side aggressively. So was was two to one Finney, even if we hated it, the right scorecard in your eyes or how do you weigh in on that? Yeah. So I had to res Finney in a parlay. So I was like a root and form. I thought he clearly won rounds one and two. Gaff was making me sweat. Cause Gaff's like Gaff was going to Tony Weeks route. He was like, dude, I don't know, man, I think there's a world Valentine's winning these rounds. Uh, I think two ones, the right scorecard you give Valentine round three,

you got to give any rounds. What he had, what Luke five takedowns in round one. I mean, yeah, five in round one. That's got to be enough to win the round in my book. Yeah, if he's not getting lit up, Luke, it is it really is. I do. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to go to the mat over it. I get I, I consider Tony Weeks's card not to be like the most glorious card because it had the best fealty to the rules, but just as a kind of card that was like a fight, you know, like a fuck you to this whole thing, which is really how everybody felt when it was over.

That's why I mostly admire it. It there, there is an interesting debate over the scoring to a degree, but it's more like the protest of it. That's where I'm at. No. And I, and I liked that it was out there. So it warns people that this will not be fully tolerated and accepted.

It reminds me of the tail end of Guillermo Rigondau's, the great Cuban boxer's career, Luke, when he's dodging punches left and right, but not making you pay. There are a lot of judges that would score fights against him in that case, even though it kind of looked like he outclassed the guy. I get it.

You gotta have offense with that. Let's hear it from Torres Finney, who definitely came out and agreed with everybody that it was not his best performance, and in his eyes, here is the reason why. The biggest critique coming out of this fight is you did not throw a ground and pound. Was there a reason for that?

No, the plan was to throw a ground and pound. Maybe I was in this fight, I was too much position over obviously striking, you know, usually you hear the position over submission, but I was too much position and not looking for openings. And there were sometimes openings that I had, I didn't take advantage of, and I don't know what it was that was holding me back, a mental block, confidence,

but man, that was so much left to be desired in there for myself, I did not like. I would say it's a weird performance. That was a dud, in my honest opinion. It happens. I ain't gonna lie, I feel great. This is the best I've felt going into a fight. Like, just was a dud.

And heck, I felt way worse in this going into a fight and I've had incredible performances. So you know, it just, it just the night sometimes. And tonight was that one of those types of nights, you know, like I said, came out with the victory. Yeah, that's the main thing, but just, just got to grow. You know, I've only been looking, it would go on from there, but you get the point of it. I like his reaction, but I got to ask you the hard question.

If we all kind of agree he's not fit for prime time, would it be awful to A, cut him or B, set a precedent that fighters that aren't ready but you don't necessarily want them to go away, could he go back down to the data? Could he get demoted to the Data White Contenders Series for for a fourth time? Like, what do you do right now? If you're the UFC, where he became a big headline out of this event. I kind of just feel like if you have to go to the contender series three times, it kind of tells you you're not ready. I mean, the economics of the regional scene is a lot at what is at play here where, where you know whatever the complaints about UFC fighter

pay it's obviously going to be significantly greater than what your typical regional promotion can pay. I mean, obviously there's some exceptions in places like continental Europe or whatever, but you know in general, especially in the American side, you're just going to make a lot more money

in UFC so these guys have a strong incentive they think to get up there. And I listen it's I don't have the answers for them and I know it's not very fair and I don't know what to say but what I do know after watching this for you know, almost my entire adult life and then some you have to have requisite skills to win and do damage and make a name for yourself. Otherwise, all of this

is going to backfire. You're going to go there when you're not ready. You're going to underperformed and then you're going to find yourself in exile with not much of a path to return. And even if you do, it could be a lot longer before you ever find yourself back there. It doesn't make sense to rush this. And it just feels to me like, you know, I don't know exactly his life circumstances or exactly why he tried to push for contender series when he did. You know, we know the story.

These guys get the call up and all of a sudden they just want to head. Uh, they wanted, they want to dive right into it. And my response is this is a mistake. This is absolutely a gigantic mistake that can only backfire long term, unless he's all of a sudden able to make vast leaps in his technical ability. My, so you're asking what the UFC should do. I mean at this point, I think you can give him another fight, you know, put down on the prelim somewhere and if that goes poorly, you know that I think they have a different conversation to make. I wouldn't cut him off of this.

I think that's a little punitive, but you know, it's not about what you do about this fight. It's what you do about a talent pipeline where guys who are clearly green, clearly uncontestably green, getting fast-tracked to main cards, I know on the apex, but UFC main cards, when they simply don't have enough ability to compete properly at this level. It's a waste of their time, the opponent's time, and the consumer's time, and frankly the UFC's time too. To me it's a bigger issue than just what do opponent's time, and then the consumer's time, and frankly, the UFC's time too. To me, it's a bigger issue than just, what do you do with Torres?

Finney, Torres, Finney spotlights a broader issue. Agreed, completely. Like some Fight Night cards, you know, I thought they suck. Some of the hardcore fans are the betters, like Long Island Luke are like, no, it's good. This one felt like it wasn't good top to bottom. And I think it might be a reflection

of the Dana White Contender Series Factory to what you're saying, where people aren't ready. They're coming in on low salaries purposely. I mean, look, you know why I'm really, one of the reasons why I'm so excited about 314 on Saturday, because there's 23 fighters on the card and 15 of them have Wikipedia pages.

I'm like, yes, this is a win. Where, this is a loaded card. This is what it should be. But Luke, to speak to this card in totality, I do want to show you a tweet that the great Kaposa, Grabaka Hitman put out there. According to his research, Saturday's card was the fourth consecutive UFC event

where no fight of the night was given. And that's the first time it happened since 2015. And by the way, 2015 came during a great era. So that was probably an anomalous like stretch is this current stretch anomalous if that's even a word or is this also speaking to the larger issues right now too small of a sample size to say it could be what we're spotlighting is contributing. I don't know if you feel differently. I'm a little bit. I'm always a little bit like when I say broader trends, I mean, like things that are like somewhat years in the making for fights being like this is certainly catches your eye and could be could be, but I'm a little bit hesitant to ascribe a significant amount of meaning to it at the moment. Well, Luke, if Dana White isn't showing up and caring about these cards, should fight

fans. Let's see where Dana was over the weekend. What's up, everybody? So I played in the Baccarat tournament at the MGM mansions. I lost. I'm out. I'm a loser, but you're not. So this is what they gave us in the invitations. That's a thousand dollar bill from like 1934. And this is an ounce and a half of gold. So two of you will have the opportunity to win this. I haven't figured out how I'm gonna do it yet, but stay tuned.

So, you know, the two of you he's talking about are not the fighters. And look, I'm not sitting here saying, Dana White can't have a night off, but it is telling about a lot of things when Dana White entered a $10 million Bacharot tourney on Saturday and we can't get Jones Aspinall and we got 12 and 12 guys stinking it out in the cage. I don't know if that's related, but it's a, it's part of the larger people will always say, Oh, like Dana white can spend his own money, which of course is true. And also like, you know, if Dana white's going to take a night off, taking a night off on this kind of a card is probably like, you know, you'd rather him be off this night

than let's say a UFC three 14, right? But, um, at the same time, it's like, well, where do you think that money comes from? You know what I mean? Like, oh, he can spend his money how he wants, right? But how did he generate that? You know what I mean? Like, it's because again, I can't get, I mean, I'm not going to do this shit. Like, I can't. Give me the good.

Give me something good from Saturday's undercard. Okay, yes. Well, there was, to be clear. There definitely was. For me, first of all, Ode Osborne had a nice third round stoppage over Luis Gurule, which I thought he had fast hands, his hands were looking sharp the whole fight. And the way he kind of slowly found his opportunity there was I think it was with that uppercut, the uppercut, it was a left hook that he landed. And then he polished them off. That was pretty

sick. Rees McKee going in there and just absolutely giving Daniel Froonza the business beating his ass. Had him basically stopped. I thought to me, the guy that looked the most interesting by the way, the the short notice opponent from Uran Satyabaldiev, you know, giving up an enormous amount of weight, I thought still perform pretty ably, but that's not it. The guy who to me looked the most skillful on this card, skillful, and in the broadest way in which I can say it, and I don't know how you can even disagree with this. Victor Henry, Victor Henry is a Josh Barnett trained fighter. Obviously, that's going to give him some pedigree right

there. And he's had some tough breaks in the octagon, including with being the victim of fouls and a whole bunch of other stuff. But dude, he is a very skilled fighter. He is skilled on the ground in transition on the feet. I thought he looked awesome. He nearly put Pedro Falcao away a few times, came very close. His right hand could not miss in that fight.

It was incredible. He to me stood out far and away the best fighter on that car, at least the best performance, I think in addition, amazing. Yeah. I also, I mean, look, the stakes are lower on the first fight of the night, but to lead Alan Carr absolutely dominated Vanessa Demopoulos over three rounds and really just put her on her back, which is, uh, you know, a place where Demopoulos normally shines with that counter grappling and those, you know, she's rallied to a lot of submission wins in her career. She got absolutely suffocated in that fight by that grappling and there was heavy ground and pound mixed in. So shout out there. Long Island Luke, do you want to echo any

of the matchups we talked about or any big bets that you pulled off this weekend? I just want to bring up what I think should have been the fight of the night. Cortevius Ramias versus Chang Ho Lee. That fight was bonkers. It was only like eight minutes long, but it was crazy, dude. In like a 30 second span, Lee had full mount on Cortevius. Then 10 seconds later, Cortevius is on the back with both hooks in. Then 10 seconds later, Lee is on the back with the fucking body triangle. It was just crazy scrambles, all action. Cortevius's nickname is Are, are you not entertained? And I got to say, I was really entertained that entire time. That was a great fight.

Yes. To me, that fight was a little sloppy, which is why I didn't put it in there, but I can agree that there was plenty of action, plenty of momentum switching. It's not a bad choice at all. Certainly. Yeah. Cortavious did miss weight by a lot, but he did come in and lose entertaining. By the way, and Joe, Joe Martinez announced it and he, when he was announcing the weights, he was like, and, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, since WEC days was amazing. Yeah, I've worked on the same boxing cards with him. He's a gentleman. He's a great guy. All right, let's go to topic number three. This should get you fired up. Why?

Because UFC 314 hits Miami this Saturday. It's loaded. In fact, before I even tee up a question to Luke, let's take another look at the main card that we're going to see there. Of course, headlined by an interim featherweight title about the main event pairing Alexander Volkanovsky and Diego Lopez,

but you can see up and down all bangers. So Luke, we have a lot of potential storylines to work with. Obviously on Wednesday, we're gonna take a few shots of Cuervo and get into it big time. But from the title return of the 36 year old Volk to Patricio Pitbull's debut,

Patty Pimblitz step up, which storyline of this very exciting card on Saturday has you the most jacked up, focused and excited for? Man, there's, I mean, obviously that main event is tremendous and I know you've got a different answer, so I don't wanna step on it. We kind of talked about this ahead of time,

but I think, you know, where my head is at in all of this is two things I would say say BC. Let me say the first one then I want to add the second very quickly. First thing I'm going to say is I think the introduction to the UFC of Patricio Pitbull, there are ways in which this goes where it's a big bust. We have to acknowledge that he can go in there against Jair Rodriguez on this main card, get flatlined or beat up or just kind of made to look lesser than and fans are going to go, oh, that's the best fighter in Bellator history. He got his ass whooped by Jair Rodriguez, who's a good fighter, but you know, has already

lost to Volk and you know, lost to Max and you know, you name it like has proven to be good but not the best in this division. Certainly not by a long shot. That is a real risk that they run, which by the way to to me makes it exciting. And as we've indicated, this is not prime pitbull. This is a 37 year old pitbull. So even if he were to lose, you're not beating the best version

of this guy's ever been. And you have to kind of acknowledge that. However, BC, however, you know, you mentioned over the weekend that there was at least some rumors of Aaron Pico being added to this division. Now we know for a fact, obviously, that Pitbull is here and if Pitbull can get a win at age 37 over a top five guy, I mean, understand what's happening here. Who would be in front of him in the rankings, BC?

Movsar is sitting at four, but if you're the best fighter in Bellator history and you come over and you knuckle Yair Rodriguez into the canvas, you're gonna leap him. After that, it's Diego, Diego's already in the main event, Max Max is up at 55. And then number one is Volk, who's also in the main event. The point I'm trying to make is with the right kind of performance, the best fighter in Bellator history is knocking on the door of a title shot. And he's doing it again, if he gets to that place against a known credible action fighter

of an unimpeachable degree. I mean, that is just so freaking awesome for all the people like me who watched the possibility of Fador getting signed to the UFC and then it passing and then it passing and then it passing and then it just completely passed. You know, it's kind of like a thing where you understand, but it's lamentable.

I watched fador in pride and to see that guy never get an opportunity in the UFC. And I know that the negotiations fell through whatever, but you know, never. Yeah. But dummy, but dummy messed it up, which by the way, it's kind of funny. Scott Coker co-signed on that. So like, so apparently Dana and Scott Coker don't like Vadim, whatever his last name was, but not me, but Finkelstein Finkelstein. That's it. But what I want to make with pitbull is to get a guy who's basically maybe fador is the

best fighter in MMA history who never fought in the UFC. But Patricio was right on his heels. And now we get to see that in action. And the stakes are such that it's kind of like a dark horse candidate for a title shot and BC, let me add my second point, which is I don't know if Pico was going to be added, but if he is, it only makes this point stronger, which is I'm so mad at Ilja Toporia for leaving this division. I am so bitter about it because if he was still here, not only would you be getting some epic rematches, but look at all of the other potential amazing fights that

could could be available at this unique moment in time for all the belly aching that we do about 205 or heavyweight or you know, you name it dude 145 with Ilya at the top, adding pit bull as a, you know, and then as still as a viable contender and adding Aaron Pico, dude, you're talking about an, a, a red hot division in that way. And it's still pretty great. It's still pretty hot, but I'm bitter about it. I'm bitter about it. I mean, look, Ilya against all those killers is fun, but do you realize what has lately been rumored on Twitter for the international fight week main

event come, come early July or end of June, whenever the date is it's Ilya versus Islam for the lightweight title one versus two pound for pound in the world. So look, that fight trumps all of these. Okay. And you know that at the end of the day, but Ilya is apparently waiting for the results of three 15 and if JDM wins, he's just going to jump to go fight JDM. He's not going to fight. So now what are you going to do for all that? They're going to tell him you have to fight Elia first and they're going to pay him to make him do it. I'm, I'm, I'm starting to get confident. We will see that. I don't know about Jones Aspinall, but if I get Elia Islam, I will have a phoner from here to Hanover, Iowa and Ohio. And I think you know that Luke. Okay.

We do have some sound and I echo what you're saying about Pipple, I think he's got an opportunity, especially since he said I'll fight at 45, 55. He even said he'll fight at 70 for the right matchup. He has an opportunity to do the Michael Chandler plan. Is he past his peak? Yes, but can he potentially lose big all action fights or sneak a win in there? He might be able to do the Chandler thing.

We'll find out, but here's Pipple speaking in English, giving us in there, he might be able to do the Chandler thing. We'll find out, but here's Pippel speaking in English, giving us a breakdown of what he expects now that he's inside the Octagon. It's a great time to me. Like I'm all this year, waiting for this moment and I feel very happy for that. Pray to God and say thanks because he's a top five contender and it's put me in a

great place in that division. The most complete and violent federate on the planet. It's all good. He's a very respectful guy. He's a very laid back guy. You know, we're only going to show violence when we get in the octagon. It's a good moment to put my feet on the air, take that belt. It depends on my performance.

I really don't know, but I fight against him. Like Dana said, would be a great place in this division. He's a top five and he will be a great victor to me. And I believe that it will be good for, you know, maybe can fight for the title. Let me pause at a scenario for you here. Let's say, even though Diego Lopez is an underdog, I believe in the main event,

let's say he wins and becomes the outright champion there. Could we see Lopez Pippel at UFC Noche and Guada Lahara later this year? Well, Guada Lahara, you might be able to see that. Yes. And Guadalajara, that's, that's not like years at the top of his game, right? He's lost two of his last three. It'd be interesting. Yeah. No, no. I mean, again, I it's it's one of those situations where the UFC's kind of, you

know, like we're kind of rolling the dice there and kind of seeing what comes up and they're going to make a play based on all these options, but that's the point I'm trying to make like dude 45 is so freaking hot. It's so good. Even with like, you know, you got Brian Otega still sitting at six, I don't think he really deserves to be sitting at six. But you know, he's gonna be fun for the right kind of matchup, depending on how things go. So, you know, dude, you could get you could

get Yair versus Lopez, by the way, for that Noche card, you could get Pitbull versus, I don't know, Volk. You know what I mean? Like there's just a bunch of really fun possibilities. I am concerned like everybody else at 37. I have some managed expectations, but I'm telling you, MMA is funny and crazy and Pitbull coming over here and making a name for himself at 314 is only good for the rest of us.

All right. Let's show this face off video from that kickoff press conference. They did size difference seems big, but I guess, you know, people's always the shorter guy against everybody. What do you make of this? This face off? Yeah. I mean, he's a he's I don't make much of it. I you know, you know, he's going to have the height and reach disadvantage. That's just everything he always does. You know, remember for folks who haven't seen it or don't remember, I remember when he moved to the moved up to 55 to have the height and reach disadvantage. That's just everything he always does. You know, remember for folks who haven't seen it or don't remember, I remember when he moved up to 55 and basically one punched Michael Chandler. I mean, it was a little more than that, but not much more. Um, you know, his power carries, make no mistake. It's just

a question of BC. And we'll talk about this on Wednesday. Can he get close enough, quite literally physically to Yair to make this work? And I guess we're going to find out. Well, look, uh, you could, we could have each gone a few different ways. It's because this card is so good in terms of what we're focused on. For me, it's 30 year old Patty Pumblet. It's now or never time in a lot of ways, right? It's time for him to step up. He's, he could given the veterans in this division and he's getting one that's after market, of course, and Chandler, although he's exciting and maybe a little bit dirty, depending on your opinion. But the whole point here is that this is Patty's closeup moment.

Let's see if he can make that leap. It's one thing to beat an old ass Tony Ferguson and an old ass King Green. Well, now you got to beat an old ass Michael Chandler, but we know the stakes. We know the drought and star power. This is a big opportunity for Patty to make a massive statement or have it all fall apart spectacularly. But Luke, check out the shape. We know Patty gets big between fights. Check out those abs and the shape that he's coming in. It seems like no stones are left unturned here. Dude, I am so fired up for this matchup. Are you as confident as I am? Not that Patty is

necessarily the real deal, but that what we saw in the last fight against King Green, he's turning a corner, he's adding as he goes. He might end up in a title fight Luke, it might happen. I have been down on Patty and I still have some concerns about exactly how good he is but like he's not only does he look chiseled BC he looks big at 55 now he was kind of a little bit scrawnier he's kind of grown into his size a little bit and do I think that Chandler's overhand right could send Patty's chin into orbit of course I do but at the same time Chandler fights recklessly and Patty has good control from the back. And you've seen Chandler submitted that way and multiple guys have gotten his back before.

Like there's a lot of ways this goes real bad for Chandler who was waiting on that McGregor fight, which just ain't never coming. I fucking love this dude. This card, this card rules. It does. I know I hated starting, starting to show being all negative about that fucking fight night card because I'm sorry, there's really no other way to talk about it. But negatively for the most part anyway, but this 314 card has so much going for it. I can't wait for Wednesday's sit down with Jen, which I can't believe I'm saying because he is terrible.

Long Island Luke reminded us of the Draft Kings odds for that main event, by the way, minus 130 for Volkanovsky, plus 110 for the younger Lopez. So that's gonna be fantastic. We do have one last bit of sound. I know everybody, when we say the name Michael Chandler, follows it up with the word dirty. But Luke, it is about time for his arrival. And here's Mike Heck taking Chandler to task

about that dirtiness. How do you rea and also just this notion Michael Chandler guy, he fights. Yeah, I mean the man. Um, people don't rea me like unless you're in don't know who I truly am

of the camera. People hav that I'm some, you know, I play nice in front of the camera and I'm a bad guy behind the camera. You're always gonna have those accusations, right? But I know who I am and I know who I am at my core. I'm a guy who tries to do things right, tries to treat people right, do things with honor and respect.

So the cheating narrative is a little tough for me, but also it's all part of the court of public opinion, man. Did I grab Dustin Poirier's mouthpiece? Yes, I did. Cause I thought it was his chin. I've already, I've already addressed that one. Things happen in a fight. Are you going to reach over and grab the cage? Are you going to, you know, get your fingers in the glove? Yeah. Those things are going to happen in a fight in the last fight. Charles Olivera dug his chin so deep into my eye socket that I thought I was going to go blind which is illegal it's an eye gap right he was grabbing

my gloves when he was trying to choke me like there were there was these things happen when you're inside of the cage I would never say that Charles Olivera is a cheater his body is reacting and doing things without his brain's permission all right you're in fight or flight things happen things without his brain's permission. All right. You're in fight or flight. Things happen. Um, so it's, it's a tough narrative. Um, with that being said, I also respect Patty for not making a big deal out of it. I mean, I think it's a sign of weakness when you start talking about a guy cheating. Well, look, there is unfortunately a long, uh, there's a long history. People are playing old early bellator clips of him grabbing the

fence to get up. I mean, it, it's kind of part of his game. Maybe the large, I don't want to hear shit. The referees don't enforce it. Why the fuck would you not do it? You're an idiot if you don't do it. I texted you Jason Herzog when Lauren Murphy got, got a put his fingers in Josh Emmett's eye during that fight on Saturday. He did say, look, you do that again. I'm taking a point. So that was a step forward. But do you think the larger narrative should be that Chandler's 38 and he's lost four of his last five with the only win being Tony Ferguson,

even though he obviously fights super elite competition and goes for broke at all costs? Should it be, you're asking what should the narrative be or surrounding what about Chandler? Instead of him being dirty is should the narrative be? Oh, have what it takes at this level. I, I think I'll say this to the extent the fight is one or lost

is going to be decided by those broader factors, but I'm sorry in a world where the referees absolutely refuse not not all of them. Not all the time obviously, but as a general proposition in a world and in a sport where the referees do not penalize fouls, why would you ever get mad at a fighter for fouling? Oh, that's dirty. No, it's not. They don't do shit about it. Play the, play the rules to your advantage. You get one shot at this every single time you're out there.

You don't get any do-overs, hardly likely anyway. Make it count. They're not gonna penalize you for it. Fucking do it. I don't care. I don't care even a little bit. Well, 11 a.m. Eastern all Wednesday from Metal Arch Studios in Manhattan.

We'll be bringing in Jed Mishu. We'll be drinking some Cuervo. It's going to be your UFC 314 pregame preview. Get ready. It's gonna get wild. And oh, by the way, now is a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila, and since then, Tequila, excuse me, has stayed true to its roots. We're talking the same family, the same land,

that same passion. 230 years later, Cuervo is still there in every pour, in every margarita, in every celebration. So enjoy the tequila that started it all. Yeah, that's Cuervo. The tequila that invented tequila. ProximoCuervo.com. And remember, please drink responsibly. So we were all set up here for Wednesday. We are going to have a great time.

But let's transition now to the sport of the box in topic number four. Interesting question to kind of kick it off. Has boxing's reliance upon Riyadh's season come to an end or are we watching it come to an end? You may ask what I'm talking about. We've got a couple pieces of business here to set this topic up. First of all, being Shakur Stevenson,

the lightweight champions, response to Williams Apeyta promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, who said, after Shakur Stevenson, the lightweight champion's response to William Zapata promoter Oscar De La Hoya, who said, after all the shit talking, Shakur pulls out of the Zapata fight. Shakur comes back with it. Is that what they told you? Turkey promised me a number, and now he's going back, way back on that number

that he promised, and sending his towel boys, an unfortunate remark, to run me the info instead of telling me straight up what he trying to do. Bow down to nobody, Mr. De La Hoya. Now let's negotiate. And then also Shakur would say this about the fight itself, that he's done negotiating, because one thing, he's the champ.

So whether the fight gets done with these people, meaning Turkey and Riyadh season or not, I'm stepping on dude, but the fight will be made next. So Luke Thomas, I want to start right here. The March 5th announcement that Dana White and Turkey Al-Ashique are going to form this upcoming TKO boxing lead has appeared to supercharge everyone else in the business who's trying to figure out where their place is moving forward. Not only are PBC and Top Rank rumoring or straight up planning to work together in the future, you've got more fighters like Shakur, Teofimo Lopez, who we'll show in a second, speaking out, it seems, against Turkey.

So has the mass exodus of boxing's reliance upon Riyadh season begun, or does it appear possibly to you that Saudi Arabia has begun tightening up the purse strings for everyone not named TKO ahead of what we expect to be this September TKO launch on Netflix of Bud and Canelo? Well, I don't think we're ready to declare mass exodus yet. I would have to see a lot of maneuvering for that to be the case.

But I do think that there are some interesting things in place BC with let's piece them all together here for a second. First of all, we'll see what happens with this May 2 show that's supposed to take place in Times Square. I don't know what the status is of it. It could be a big hit for them. But we'll have to see how that goes and how that's executed. That's the first thing I'm going to say it's small note, but keep in mind. The second thing I'm going say is BC, this remark from...

By the way, I know he said towel boys. Isn't that just a reference to like country club people? Like, you know, like an errand person, not a turban wearing... I don't know. I assume the worst because it's Bach, it's combat sports, but I don't know. I took it to be a statement of you're a servant, not a not a cultural, but I don't I don't I mean who the fuck that's actually a fair a fair possibility. But I think like this Luke, it is what it receives. Right. Right. Yeah, it is what the people it's not what you say is what they hear. Okay, fair enough. The point I'm trying to make is that to me was shocking that he did this over the weekend. Very, very, very surprising that he was now creating

some distance between himself and listen, here's the here is what Shakur Stevenson is saying. And I think it's what all these guys would basically say. But some are more likely to say it than others. Namely, yeah, I'll do business with Saudi Arabia. I will do business with Turkey. I'll put on a happy face. I'll show up. I'll fight hard. I'll train hard. I'll do business with Saudi Arabia. I will do business with Turkey. I'll put on a happy face. I'll show up. I'll fight hard. I'll train hard. I'll do everything you want me to do and I'll play ball.

And we can even fight in Riyadh. We don't have to fight in Newark or pick your hometown. In the case of Shuker Stevenson, it'd be Newark, New Jersey. But if you're not going to pay top dollar for that, then I don't really have any interest at all. It's not like he has any great affinity for fighting in Riyadh. It's not like he's got any great affinity for Turkey on a personal level. It's not like he's got any great affinity for the broader potentially social or sporting project that the Saudis are trying with their investments in sports more

generally. Not just this, but of course there was the live golf tournament over the weekend in one of President Trump's properties. So if you don't have any attachment to that at all, other than transactionally, if you overpay for me, I'll go do this. Well, what happens when you start winding down what that payment looks like? All of a sudden, that entire business proposition becomes a lot less attractive. I would add something else on top of that BC, which is what we already know the 18 months or even now, I guess, 17 months left on Turkey's deal with these other promoters like we know that's coming to a close. And I feel like the closer we get the

uglier it's going to get. That's just a personal feeling that, you know, kind of having seen this movie before, I mean, this is a particularly unique situation, but when promoters stop working together, it gets a little bit uglier at the end. And the last thing I'm gonna say too is, you know, I don't, I'm trying to be as honest as I possibly can be. I'm not trying to make an argument for invoking

some kind of political discussion here. What I am gonna say is BC, should there be a market downturn, and particularly on the price of oil, that could have a pretty important cascading effect on what the Saudis are able to spend on any of their sporting ventures, particularly one at boxing,

which is a little bit at the margins. And I think the question you have to ask yourself is even independent of that, if you don't even want to get into that, BC. It's why is Turkey turning the whatever the price was, why is he dialing it back? To me, that's a step that to me is like, what is the impetus behind that at this moment? Because that will probably tell you the foreshadowing. That probably is, in fact, the foreshadowing, that probably is in fact the foreshadowing

that awaits a lot of these guys who've had deals with him. I mean, we all knew the money wasn't gonna last. Just like when PBC came out in 2015 and put boxing on every network and everybody was getting these huge salaries, we knew that that was not possibly sustainable for the long run. It was more about trying to attract a big TV deal.

We feel like we know the motives of Turkey and Saudi Arabia coming out as aggressively as they did. So I think all the points you made could very well be it, just like all the points I'm trying to make of how many promoters thought they were in bed with Turkey, maybe even for the long run, only to get that announcement on March 5th that basically said, you're on the outside looking in, even though we oddly still have this contract to work together for a while. I do feel like Saudi Arabia is pulling back the purse strings. Could it be situational because Shakur Stevenson currently has such a poor reputation,

excuse me, from a marketing standpoint? Remember, he fought on the greatest last crescendo card of all time against that last minute of electrician and you know didn't necessarily sizzle. Is this just Turkey making a statement against that? I don't think that's the case. I think it's the larger picture of okay we've we've announced it we've we've called our shot in the distance and I and look there are people on the inside by the way who believe

the timing of that announcement on March 5th was a retaliation to the rumors of the money that Jake Paul was trying to put together and the prospect of him getting on Netflix with a series before TKO could launch. So there's a lot of competing factors right here, but it is interesting how many people are coming out now that used to be in Turkey's back pocket are coming out against him.

Also, it's interesting that that Times Square card has been changed now to a pay-per-view on Dazon as has the fight card in two weeks I believe when Connor Bett and Chris Eubank kick off the Ring Magazine series. That'll be a pay-per-view in the States as well on Dazon. So let's show this final tweet from Shakur which feels to me like a grand statement here. Real men stand up never bow down to nobody but the creator. I mean look which feels to me like a grand statement here. Real men stand up, never bow down to nobody but the creator. I mean, look, that feels to me like he's saying exactly what you said, like, hey, if Turkey's gonna give me the money, that's fine.

I'm not begging, I'm not taking a knee, I'm not gonna hold his hand on the video. I think that's what the rest of American boxing is doing. That's why PBC and Top Rank are willing to publicly show now that they're gonna work together. We have one other tweet here that was deleted, or I think it was an Instagram response, from Teo Fimo Lopez, the one on the left that's circled.

It says, this is in response to a Ring Magazine tweet of one month away, the May 2nd card, and Teo said, the promotion you guys been doing on your card has been shit emoji. And then Luke that got deleted and he tagged he tagged turkey and that got deleted and he came back and said May 2nd is going to be a super stardom night of boxing great job to everyone and HEE meaning his excellency turkey as they like to call him. Luke you could also put that as Tao be crazy. He's saying all kinds of crazy shit.

But I think that people are starting to realize that you're going to be with take TKO slash Turkey or you're going to be against them very shortly. I don't know how you can draw any other conclusion. This is the problem when like they're doing business with somebody. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but if they just overpaypay you just kind of look the other way. If you reduce the pay, like there's nothing left. There's absolutely nothing left. This like comical again, everyone was going to want the highest pay. But I'm saying if the only thing keeping you there is comically overpriced, you know, totally beyond what the market calls for paydays. I mean, get them while

you can get them while you can. But if you're not going to maintain those, it's going to be hard to maintain the business that was underwriting it. Right? Well, look, one more person who has been in Turkey's back pocket is Oscar de la Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. And he used part of his infamous clap back Thursdays this past week to go hard in the pain against Dana TKO. And if you're going to do that by extension, I think it means Turkey too. Let's hear part of it. And speaking of scumbags,

you can't run a boxing organization when you don't have any fighters. And right now, TKO and Dana have zero fighters. No fighter's going to fight for these pennies. The majority of their prospects will fight one or two times a year and be forced to survive on minimum pay. And keep in mind they will be fighting tough fights. Dana said the best must fight the best. So their careers will be short. No pay-per-view fighter will fight for $750,000.

You're telling me the Canelas and the Ryans of this world are going to agree to this kind of pay cut? We might not like it. No! The UFC fighters will be so pissed the TKO boxers will be getting paid so much more than they are. UFC fighters are already disgusted with how little they get paid for putting their lives on the line. Dana already tried several times to get into the boxing space in the past. Remember Zufa, which never even got off the ground. The reason you've never seen me do anything is because when Dana doesn't have the funding and the business brains already in place, like the frititas or turkey, he always fails. How

about the ultimate surfer? Or the power snap? As for Dana's character, it speaks for itself. I don't even have to say anything about a guy who publicly slapped his own wife and whose own mother wrote a book about what a terrible person her son is and it's available on Amazon if you want to read it yourself will I work with Dana in the future if he's in the boxing space? Sure! Because 80% of the folks I deal with in boxing are scumbags anyway! Look it seems the little glass house on there from Oscar, but you know, I mean, I would hardly take a, you know, an insult fest from Oscar as like some kind of brave truth telling.

I will say, however, those are getting smoother in terms of delivery. Like he's clearly hired a writer or something, you know? Yeah. Joke writer from the beginning, I think too. Yeah. But, uh, that is interesting. We'll see where the marriages and divorces within boxing promotion continue to play out as the year progresses. Topic number five is a quick look back and a very quick look ahead at what's actually going on in the sport of boxing and over the weekend Tim Zuh, the son of the Hall of Famer, had his Australian return after an absolutely disastrous 2024 stopping Joey Spencer in four rounds. So after a close start, Zoo would go on to mop up Spencer using hard combinations and

building off the jab to end that two fight losing skid. Luke, did the soul taker look like he was all the way back from what happened last year? He looked good for as long as it lasted. I just don't know what to make of Joey Spencer. I mean, it's kind of funny. Joey Spencer's from Minnesota, yeah? I believe that's right because I don't know. I don't know. Well, Ilhan Omar, who is the congressman or one of the congressmen from Minnesota, was tweeting about it early. And then as the fight wore on, she was like, my God, is he even going to fight back? Like even, I think even the local congressman was like goddamn dude do something about it

so here's the thing I think Joey Spencer is a fine fighter. He's from Michigan by the way. Say again? Michigan. Joey Spencer he's from Michigan. Well maybe he's got residence in Minnesota of some kind I don't know. I don't know I don't fucking know but she was tweeting about it like she was all disappointed anyway neither here nor there. What I'm trying to point out BC is it

wasn't like a stern test. This was not another Murtazaliev. You don't mean that's not who this was. And it's not another certainly not Keith. I mean, even like a washed Keith Thurman. I don't think that's what that's what this was. But you know, did he a perform well? Yes. And B, this was the most important important part of BC and I think we have some sound to this effect It was what he said afterwards. It's like yeah, it turns out if you don't fight like I mean he didn't say this exactly But it was kind of like if you don't fight like a dumbass and you just don't rush into things you get better results So this was a downgrade an opponent

It was a get-right fight by the way get-right fights are important tune-up fights are important They can absolutely rebuild confidence and get you going again. But it was to me the understanding that you know, he was the architect of his own demise and that murder Zalia fight and hell, he's not going to do that anymore, dude, a hundred percent. So even even though Spencer is not a world killer, he's largely responsible defensively. He's quick. He can do some things and the whole point that I took from it,

which you kind of echoed, was he just didn't come out with his hands down, getting hit with the same punch. When he builds behind his jab and his godhead movement and the defensive sound, which it was, dude, he's a completely different fighter. He's a near super elite fighter. That's the facts.

He didn't have that against Murtazali. The same mistake he made against Gauchet in that first round when he got dropped. You can't just go to terminator mode. You gotta build it up. I think he's now learned that lesson. I'm not saying that this tells you he's gonna knock out Terrence Crawford in an undisputed match, but I do believe he put it back on track. Let's hear from him in the ring with Ben Damon after the fight. Learn from my mistakes. You don't go in

like a hothead from the first round and just abandon everything. So I learnt my lesson and I had one hell of an opponent with me with Joey Spencer so I'm blessed to share the ring with him and he's going to have plenty more opportunities in the future. Who will you share the ring with next because we had Keith Thurman out in the country a little while ago. Do you have a message for him or someone else? Yeah, you know, man, if the fans want to, and we can bring a mega show to Australia, the boys are no limit. You know who to contact and we'll do a big show here.

Well look, Thurman put out a video in the middle of the night that said, send the contract, I'll sign it. Zoo would outland Spencer in that fight according to CompuBox, 81 to 25 connecting on 54% of his power shots. And again, the best news was he wasn't getting lit up in return. So big win there. Luke, there was a couple other boxing notes that we saw. One of them, of course, was Joe Joyce, who really looked washed here in his late 30s

as he would lose again, this time to Philip Bergovich. It was a fight that was boring as heck. It heated up a bit at the end. And then we got this tweet from UK announcer Adam Cattarall that's really just asking, he says, Joe Joyce is absolutely entertaining, but he's the Hugh Jackman kind of greatest showman. Come see the bearded lady way.

The money is irrelevant when his later quality of life won't allow him to enjoy that wealth. I hope his loved ones encourage him to stop. I think he put out that tweet in reaction to Joyce coming out in the post-fight interview and saying, I wanna keep fighting, there's a lot of great matchups for me. But let's look at his box truck page up close.

I mean, look at that fall from stopping Dubois and unbeaten Dubois knocking out Carlos Takom knocking out Joseph Parker to what we've seen in the last five fights. You can't make a guy stop. I mean, there's journeymen that go on to their forties and fifties, but I don't need to see any more of him at the elite level. He just gets beat up. That's just, that's just the facts. Yeah.

I mean, maybe he's hoping for a big Saudi payday of some kind and I can understand that, but I actually, I echo what Adam Ketterall says that this is it's time. Yeah. And Luke, I forgot to hype this up on the, uh, on the setup last week, but on that Richard Torres, Jr. Top rank card in Las Vegas, the co-main of, I'm sorry, not the co-main, one of the undercard fights saw Abdullah Mason on his 21st birthday go in there and get a nice stoppage win against his opponent Ornelis. And look, he's 18 and 0 with 16 KOs, but like Bruce Carrington a week before, dude, he's talking about title shots at lightweight like soon, maybe next. Let's hear a quick sound here from Mason.

But like I said, we got the job done. You know, Cabrera, we would have did the same thing. What were your takeaways from tonight, man? That'll help you going forward, I guess, Ornelas. You know, just go back to the drawing board. You know, it's always room for improvement. No matter how you do, it's always room for improvement. So, you know, that's what they showed me as well.

You know, every fight. And I did great, you know. Durable opponent, I was touching him, and I got him out of there. Do you feel your star breaking out? I mean, you see how quickly everyone swarmed about and you had the crowd saying happy birthday. Do you feel your star is beginning to break out? Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

It's only a matter of time. Bob told me right after the fight, keep stay focused and you're gonna be the face of boxing. So, you know, that's what I see myself as, the face of boxing coming up. What would you, would you rather, do you have a preference if Keyshawn can't keep making the weight

and you eventually have to fight for a vacant title? But would you prefer to fight one of the champions instead of winning a vacant title? Does it not matter to you either way? I mean, boxing will determine who, you know, what would happen when I get there, you know? If I get there and I fight somebody who already has a title,

may end up taking that title, or if I have to fight for a vacant title, it doesn't matter. As long as I keep stepping it up like I've been doing, making these guys, keep stopping these guys, I'm making them look how I'm supposed to make them look. We get our job done when we get there, so that's what we're looking forward to right now.

That's what's here. Luke, you score four knockdowns in this fight, just turned 21 on the night. Dude, these young Americans want the smoke. I cannot stop saying it. Like, do you want to put the brakes on him or do you want to send him right into something? I was not overly impressed with the caliber of opponent.

So, you know, I'm not sure what to say about that. Also, there was a video that would emerged of Shakur Stevenson talking to him backstage, which was amazing. Shakur Stevenson gave him the best advice for a young fighter. That was from the fight where Mason was knocked down twice in the first round last year. Okay. I thought it was recent, but either way, the advice is still great, which was, it doesn't matter who it is. Every fighter is dangerous in the first round. Everyone, every single one, you have to take your time and, you know, methodically apply your game.

And it might happen that you stop them in the first first but it might not. So you got to plan for that and I'll get the same advice to Tim Zuh I'm sure understands it now but you can see a lot of fighters kind of get that calibration wrong and anyway, that being said, Abdullah Mason obviously is the goods but I didn't. It was a good performance against an opponent that didn't tell me much. Yeah, also Keyshawn Davis is rumored to be making that title defense against Edwin De Los Santos in June in Norfolk. So that'd be an interesting fight.

We had Jannebec score a big knockout in this Kazakhstan homecoming. Didn't get a lot of pub, but it was a beautiful finish right there. But look, this Saturday, we do have a card that I'm sure you're gonna be interested in. It's gonna be on the zone and it be on the zone a title unification from In are your odds according t boots, Ennis will be a mi the Lithuanian, the unbea who is plus 4 50 the under

bring together the IBF and at a time when this divis some life here. Luke, Boots got criticized a lot for that kind of lifeless performance last time out in that unnecessary mandatory rematch with Chukotzin. Are you excited about what can happen here on Saturday, which is without question the most dangerous fight of Boots' career? Yeah, I've been waiting for Boots to get a dangerous tough opponent that forced him out of doing whatever he wants to know to get on in that last one. Or to case you and however you want to say it, he did better than the first time where he just ran that

ran but you know, was on the outside the entire time. He kind of brought the fight to boots a little bit more. But at the same time, you just you know, he's a good fighter, skilled fighter, certainly, but wasn't likeots got really pushed. There were issues that emerged though from that PC, which was to what extent is Boots somewhat lackadaisical about defense? I feel like Staniosus gives us another, not really another chance to assess that, but to see to what extent that is a real liability against somebody who's a better fighter and a championship level fighter at that. So it's one of these fights where you're like, we've been kind of waiting for boots to round the corner, round the corner, round the corner. This is not the name opponent. And there's other

levels beyond this, certainly. But this is definitely one of the more meaningful ones in his career, maybe the most meaningful to date. Yeah. Staniosis is tough. He's strong. He could take a punch. He gets inside and goes to the body. So it could be the type of style that could corner and slow down Boots, but we do know Boots is gonna have big advantages in speed, athleticism, and just dynamic ability, which is why the odds are where they are. And just a reminder, the other two welterweight champions,

Brian Norman Jr. with top rank, Mario Barrios with PBC, if we could see that relationship produce them in a unification fight, and then have Boots, the winner of Boots, stand, Yose's fight the winner, that could be interesting. Here is Boots talking to me on the BCX about that criticism against him after a lackluster performance in kind of the recent stretch leading up to this. You know, nothing, nothing we never seen before, you know, come forward, hands up high, try to jab, try to throw a lot of

punches. Like there's nothing we've never seen before. And like I said, I'm ready to show the world why I'm the best in the world. What do you plan on showing? Do you look at this fight and think you can out slick him and almost not get touched or are you willing to go through him if you have to? Yeah, y'all gonna have to tune in on April 12th and see, you know, like I've been telling everybody from before, don't get up to get no popcorn, don't go check the door, don't nothing, just keep your eyes glued to the screen. I love it. I love it.

Well, look, I teed up the wrong clip there. He would say about the controversy, that's my fault. He would say about the controversy in the criticism that if you give me an elite opponent, you'll get an elite performance out of me. And you have to feel for him not being able to get those tough challenges along the way. He's put some crowds in Philly. He's done his job, but Saturday's the true close-up. I can't wait to see it. Yeah, same. This is potentially the first step in a real important turn in his career. I hope, I hope it goes well. All right.

Those are our five topics for the week. Now we transition to your questions, because as you know, every Sunday night at morning combat on X on Instagram, we put out the call. It's called DMs from the diggity dogs. Oh, Oh wow. We've asked for that to be replaced. I don't know the status of that. I think you're trolling us at this point, Luke. Our first question comes from Kyle JC

Wagner. Does landing zero significant strikes in a round merit a point deduction on the basis of timidity? I think he's talking about Torres Finney here. Look, if you're only gonna grapple, you're not grounded pounding, you're not connecting, should you automatically lose the round or should you go as far as losing a damn point? No, the question was automatically. No, not automatically.

I could imagine a world where you get picked up and slammed hard. That would not be a case where they're landing significant strikes, but there's still damage being done. So it'd be a weird one to do that for five minutes. But the question was automatically. No, not automatically.

I didn't see the word automatically in there. Did you throw it up one more time? OK, so you didn't say automatically. I invented that. All right. Does landing zero significant strikes in around merit? So I'll say the answer is it could, it could, but okay, let me answer it this way. I wouldn't automatically make it that way. I would, it would have to be a case by case basis because you can have damaging offense

without it. It's just a little bit weird and rare to do it that way. All right, there you go. Let's go to question number two from C Cody Sanders S. Do you think last week's PFL event was better than this week's past UFC Apex event? Yes. Yes, that's not even a very difficult question to answer.

Yes. I would agree. I mean, on paper you can argue, but it's how it played out ultimately. And it- I mean, Lerone Murphy might be the best fighter on either of those two cards. That's somewhat debatable. But that that's that could potentially be true. But event to event, I mean, but

here's the thing, like, the PFL event was very good, but had its limits. And that that UFC event was like, you know, of all the good that UFC can do that was much closer to the bad of it. So to me, it's like, yeah, did the PFL event surpass it? I mean, it's not impossible for other events to surpass UFC events. It's just, they can't surpass it at the high end. For sure.

Number three comes to us from frankfurter67. This man must love the wiener. Ben Slack in on my UFC watching. What's the best upcoming fight to get excited for it? Luke, everybody knows what's loaded on 314. Do you want to answer beyond that? Or do we just say check the 314 main card and get fired up? I mean, it has to be the 314 main card. It's just such a good card. Beyond that, I mean, I'm still waiting on Ilya. I'm still waiting on

Islam. I think there's a couple of interesting fights on 315. Obviously the Ian Gary, Carlos Brodges fights a big one. I would go with that. That's April 26th. And then also you have Sanhagen versus Figuereta, which is a pretty damn good main event in Iowa. Great main event. Yep.

It's another great one. Also on that card, RDR versus Bo Nicol and the Coalmane. That's not not fantastic. Yep. Fantastic. So there's that. I mean, dude, UFC puts on good fights. Absolutely.

Are you feeling at all what I'm feeling for May 10th in Quebec when, uh, Shevchenko and Farrow put it together at 125? Nah, I'm not super pumped for that. I'm not, I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I don't hate it, but I'm not like crazy pumped for it. I appreciate your honesty there. Also, we have a question from Noah underscore gosh show UFC one style round robin tournament, I'm going to go to the Yeah. And then unlikely, unlikely. Really? Yeah. Tyson Fury is possible. Possible. Yeah, possible.

I mean, Tyson Fury gets dominated here. The real, the real wild card is Rico, isn't it? The real wild card is Gordon. Uh, I don't think Rico or Tyson have a shot in hell. The question is Gordon, um, does he have a shot for submission in again? Let me just be clear about this. This was like submission grappling. I picked Gordon, you know, easily.

I mean, it was very easy, but with strikes, it becomes a very, very different, different ball game. You don't think Rico could stuff a takedown and hurt these guys. He has fought MMA. I think he could, you know what, to that point? Yeah, he could. He's fought MMA. I don't know how recently he's trained his wrestling or what it looks like today,

but you know, to the point you raise, he's done, he does have some MMA experience. So that's something to count on as well. And while Gables athleticism, physicality and wrestling are obviously assumed, we assume that they'd be very good. Can he take a punch? You got to figure that out too. You know, I mean, would you say Brock Lesnar couldn't, I mean, he could, he could take a punch, but it would, it would change him in a fight quickly.

He lost composure under fire yes. Yes all right there you go I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with Gordon Ryan in the end yeah I think he just makes it gross on the ground and gets the tap. Possible absolutely possible. I mean if it's UFC one style there's no time on there right? Yeah I mean you could do like the pride 10 minute rule. I mean, it's heavy weights. They're not going to go that long anyway. Whatever the rules are, you know? Yeah. As long as Gordon is healthy, right? I think he's healthy right now or health healthy enough. Uh, we have one more from a MT boobal thoughts on

Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky's all time scoring goal scoring record. By the way, I don't think anyone's going to touch Gretzky's assist or points record for a long, long time, but this is so impressive. And then they want to know what other record in sports would you want to see broken? So Luke, you touched on it earlier. I know there's a DC connection, but if you separate DC, the fact that Ovechkin did it, I think in the same amount, isn't it the exact same amount of games that Gretzky did? Same amount of games to break it. That's crazy because like LeBron James crushed all these records, but he's got so many more games due to his longevity than a lot of his contemporaries. Right, so he's got the scoring title or whatever, but you know he's been competing

since I was in college, you know it's's fucking insane. Um, it's amazing. I didn't think it was possible. They people in DC had been talking about this for like three or four seasons. And I was three or four seasons ago, I should say. And you know, he was like 30, he's 39 now. So he was like 35, 36. And you're like, ah, I don't know, man. It might be slowing down.

His hair's getting gray and whatever, but he's had amazing longevity to, to get to this place. And what's kind of interesting for me is, you know, I grew up on the days like Peter Bondra and whatnot, like old kind of capitals heroes, but I moved back to the city permanently in December of 2004. They drafted him in 2005. They got April, they got the bid for it and then they drafted them later. And so my entire time back, like the second kind of big chapter, because I remember I would lived here before and then my drafted them later. And so my entire time back like the second kind of big chapter,

because I remember I would live here before and then my parents were divorced. So I would be constantly coming back, but I didn't live permanently here for quite some time. And then I came back and then my entire like last 20 years of this chapter of my life, Ovechkin's been for the capitals anyway, at the center of that experience. And I as good as he's been dude I just never do I had to live with like the capitals kind of like failing to make you know enough like to win he's won one Stanley Cup and there's been a bunch of times they bottomed out and like there was a long time where like the talk of the league was Sidney Crosby Sidney Crosby Sidney Crosby who's very very good obviously right I'm not I'm not shitting on

Sidney Crosby he can play but for Ovechkin, right? I'm not I'm not shitting on Sidney Crosby, he can play. But for a veteran to just kind of keep chipping away at this in the way that he did, dude, it just even there's a video that came out yesterday of him an old interview where they asked him years and years ago, do you think you can break that scoring title? He was like, it's impossible. It's it'll never be done. It's impossible. And then he fucking did it, man. It's crazy. It's amazing to watch really, really quite remarkable, especially because you know, Gretzky did some gaudy totals in the eighties when

goal scoring was on fire before the prevalence of the left wing lock. Luke. Wow. Did I just pull something? Wow. Uh, so it obviously Gretzky had a long career, but that's why his points and assist totals are crazy. So to compare here, Gretzky is the all time points, which obviously combines

goals and assists leader with 2,857. The second place person is Jaromir Jagr, who played deep into his 40s with 1,900. So Gretzky has almost 1,000 more points than the second place person in NHL history. If you want to know where Ovechkin comes in, he's 11th overall with 1,600 points. And then particularly with the assists, Gretzky has over 1900 assists.

The next is Ron Francis with 1200. So yeah, Ovechkin is a more limited player certainly than Gretzky, but as you can see as a goal scorer, he is fucking awesome. They asked that question. What are the record in sports? Would you like to see broken? I bring this up the 100 points from Chamberlain, well, Chamberlain in 1962.

I never thought somebody would get as close as even Kobe's 81, but you know, that game where he scored a hundred, like they kept following, they kept throwing lobs to him to try to get the record. I don't know if you can do that in NBA game without changing the competitive nature negatively by like gratuitously forcing it in, right?

Or maybe with a three pointer, if you hit 25 threes, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I guess you could. I don't have a, I mean, I kind of like it that will still holds that, you know, cause he was just fucking everything that moved. Um, I'll say this BCR like other records. I would love to see, I mean, we haven't't seen it since what 86 dolphins. What was the last time

an NFL team went undefeated 72 dolphin say again the 1972 dolphin 72 excuse me 72 dolphins where they went undefeated. I don't know why I said 86 but 72 dolphins that went undefeated but that was a when they had a shorter season now they've got longer season. So our however many games it would be at this point 18 plus the playoffs basically 17 plus the playoffs anyway that I would love to see I'd love to see someone go soup to nuts all the

way undefeated just so we can shut those motherfuckers from Miami up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I hear you on that 56 game hitting streak somebody will get that eventually in baseball, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean even bonds is 73 home runs. Eventually somebody's going to somebody's going to touch that. I would, I mean, they

play 170 do with these, with these fucking, what are they called? Torpedo bats? Yeah. Have you seen these things? Oh, yeah. They got to change that. They got to know. Fuck that. Leave it. Oh yeah. Dude. Every time someone is like, Hey, let's make baseball more exciting. You've got dullards who go, Hey, let's make baseball more exciting. You've got dullards who go, no, no, no, we need to make it shitty and slow. I'm like, guys, that's absolutely not what we need to do. They're going to blow away the records with bats like that. Great. Awesome. Can't wait. Oh God. This guy, Luke Thomas is unbelievable. Look, before we get into my feces, uh, do you have any comments about the Conor McGregor

shit coin, uh, failing failing so miserable? How bad is this motherfucker? Like in terms of his timing could not be worse, right? World markets are just obviously in freefall. And more to the point, like his star power is absolutely collapsed. Man, as the question you have to ask yourself is BC. Does this make it more likely he returns for a fight? You would have to imagine that it would, but at the same time, dude,

Chelsun and I think is right where it's like, Connor comes back and they put him up against anybody good. He's gonna get his ass whooped. Like, I don't really know what's next for this guy. If Patty beats Chandler, it's gotta be Connor Patty in the UK. It's gotta be, it's gotta be. Why not Chandler?

Because he'll get knocked out by Chandler. Oh, you think Patty is like, oh, I see. I see. Oh, because you want to make it a more competitive fight. Yes. And I want to give Patty the chance to get that huge star rub. What's Chandler going to benefit from the rub of of beat him? You know, yeah, let's use the place is almost 40. Like, who cares? Right. And I think even if you give him to Elia Connor, which like it would give him the rub,

but I don't think that's a competitive matchup. I think Ilya would absolutely stretch him. Yeah, I agree with you. All right. It's time to pick the kernels out of my feces. I scoured the internet for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in-between in the worlds of combat sports and beyond to try to see if Luke Thomas can lose his shit. This is called HYSTS. I have you seen this before I have you seen this before I have you seen this before Luke, BKFC had a double header in Dubai

over two days on this weekend and it gave Conor McGregor speaking of the chance to wild out. Let's watch this chick weigh in that ended in violence and check out the phoner that Conor McGregor brought to those shorts. For the inaugural BKFC Women's World Featherweight Championship, Anna Rankin and Jessica Barga.

All right, let me get a word first, Jessica. Look, imagine a promoter in another big combat sport showing up in like tight running shorts, just, you know, erected shit after two chicks brawled and on the scale. Speak KFC, dude. I don't, you know. All right.

Well, after the event- I just gotta take it for what it is. Connor tried to Mac these two ladies in the lobby and it looked like he went 0 for 2. Let's listen in. Is there sound? There was supposed to be, but just so you know, Connor's yelling, I'm from an island in Ireland.

I'm from an island in Ireland. And these chicks are like, yeah, whatever guy, get away from me. It was weird, Luke. It was really weird. Dublin is an island is an island. Dude, you got, I can't explain this man. Okay. But here's Connor also at the club after the first night of events.

What do you think about that? Luke. I mean, it's, is it sad or comical right now? Where are you at on this? I don't have great sympathy for him, but it is kind of sad, you know? Yeah, there we go, there we go. It's like, here's the thing. I don't mind the guy partying or whatever, like it's his life, you know,

but to me it's like the amount of partying seems overwhelming. And the fact that he's getting in trouble with the law on top of it kind of tells you it's probably part of a broader set of things he's doing to himself that are destructive, you know, and I think that's the part where you're just like, God damn man, like this, the dude who won the I'm telling you the dude who won at UFC 205 is gone. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Well, a fan apparently tried to attack Connor inside the arena after the first BKFC event in Dubai Let's watch this. It's gonna be on the left of Connor as he's meeting the fans and signing autographs Did you see this piece of business Luke? See I did not see this and

The security team gives it to the fan as we'll see in the end here So it's the guy right there in the white shirt. I believe No, that guy in the black shirt. Yeah, look. Oh, yeah. Oh dude. They fuck him up proper Man, you know, you're gonna get stomped out trying some shit like that Yeah Oh, he got it looks like he got a drink poured on the back of his jacket too. But watch this guy's face coming up here Which one is it? You won't be able to miss it shortly. If we get there, we might get there. We'll get there. Hang on. He's

trying to play peacemaker here. You got some some gordita in the ring there. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, they got him good. They got him good. Uh, Luke, do you know, speaking of future president, Conor McGregor of Ireland fame, there are people out there who believe he can win the election. Do you know this? I don't know enough about the Irish system to say confidently, but from what I've heard, it seems like a long shot. Well, let's hear. There's somebody that believes to fight and it's running for president of Ireland. I like everyone's like, you don't have a chance, you know what they're doing. Like, buddy, did you not learn from the Trump shit?

You don't have to have a background in politics these days. Politics are not what you grew up with as a kid. It's not your dad's politics. Usually the most famous guy wins. Yeah, but he has this dark history. Did you not learn from Trump? He has some shit in his background too. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. People just want to change. You're not voting for him to marry your daughter.

You just vote on something different. That's all it is. No one gives a fuck. And they're going to run on that and try and smear his name. None of that works. Look, um, that's an interesting take. He went on to say that we do skits and bits here. No, he went on to say that he doesn't know a lot about Ireland, but he believes Connor can minute can win it. Let's go to the Ireland tabloids. They did a poll. They Yeah, they don't think it.

And 90% felt that there was a report from I think Sky News and there is actually a couple of ways that he could get nominated and one of which is that enough members of Parliament have to essentially agree to nominate him and they there's 234 they asked all 234 now they didn't get a response at all one way or the other from a hundred of them But of the 134 who did respond, every single one of them said they would not support it every single one. So that was an update from 2023 where 89% said they would not support it.

And now that's gone up to 90 following the civil rape trial. So interesting stuff there. I like the attribution wasn't actually his show, but it was the Reddit. Hey, wherever we have some, uh, let's go to regional MMA. Luke, where, what? was actually his show but it days, kick them in the balls, kick them in the face, each shit. There you go. There it is. Tell you, bro, you fight regional MMA or even regional kickboxing. You're taking your life into your hands, brother.

Make no mistake about it. The following clip is the wildest 60 seconds you'll see in regional MMA. Check out this sequence. Okay. Overhand, right? Let's see. Okay. Oh, he's just unloading guys covering up.

He's moving. He's moving. Oh, he's getting hit. Oh, okay. Let's see. Oh, he's just unloading guys covering up. He's moving. He's moving. Oh, he's getting hit. Oh Okay, let's see. Oh, he's gonna he's gonna get knocked out. Isn't he the guy punching? It's wild it gets wilder Look at that. He's doing he's doing those overhand like the standing hammer fists. That's always a bad sign Yeah, but the tides about to turn McGregor of Diaz one style here Luke. Oh the tide is about to turn McGregor DS1 style here Luke. Oh man.

Did this guy's dirt all spinning back fist. Okay. All right. Our back elbow. Excuse me. Punch punch. Okay. All right. All right.

It's good. He's coming back. Let's see. I mean, it's not the best technique, but it's wild, you know, this is regional MMA dude. This will have. So now the guy who was getting dealt is dealing. Oh, that is Luke would say. Good Lord.

Dude. Wow. All right. Hey, let's go to the regional karate scene. Luke, have you seen a KO like this before? Bop bop.? Oh he did he he turned him into a heroin addict on the on the on the Alphabet City. You're

damn right he did. Wow. Bob. Do they send him face first to the canvas? That's when you know it's bad. Well, not all regional craziness happens in a cage. Luke, let's go to Latin American baseball. Oh, oh, he's starting with the bat. Oh, good lord. Halfway swung it. Where is this Dominican? I don't know. It looks like it's, uh, could be, could be

Mexico. I'm not really, you know, that, that well in on it, but wow, that's my BP versus VCL. I don't know who that is. That's some violent ish right there. All right, Luke. This is probably the worst day in this truck driver's life, right? Oh shit. Oh, yo, yo, show that one again. Show that one again. Yo, Optimus Prime was like, get the fuck out of my car, bitch. All right, it's time for your falls of the week let's check in on this rent a cop. You fucking. Oh let's keep it going they tell you not to play with fire kids. Look you ever do stuff like this as a teenager? Yeah, of course. I've done all that stupid shit.

What does my guy here do? Fall in it? No? All right. All right. Oh yeah. Yeah. Why don't you fall in that fat guy?

Why don't you stop, drop, and roll? All right. Let's check in on some drunk chicks. They always fall for us. The giant connect four bit. I play this one at this local bar I go to. Oh, you know, white girls falling over at the bar. I've never seen that before.

No, no, no. Let's go to the airport. You know, if you've seen this before. Hey, you know what? Why don't we fire more airline personnel? Because I'm sure we got the best and brightest right there right now. You got to be careful climbing trees, too. Let's see this gentleman. Is he going to jump from this?

Yeah, he wants you up, you fucking bitch ass Lord. Oh, boy. Wow. The these guys fall from these fucking heights, and it looks like a fucking ECW match. You know what I mean? Look, like looks like New Jack and Vic Grimes jumping off the top of a scaffolding. Yeah. Wow. That's hard to believe. I'm not going to get that garbage. You know what I mean? Like, looks like New Jack and Vic Grimes jumping off the top

of a scaffolding. Yeah. Wow. That's hard to believe. Paralyzing. You're like, was it worth it? I don't think that it was, you know? No, not really. Not really. Alright, Luke. Uh this kid is going to have a future. Check this out. Wow.

It's going to be a dark future though, Luke. Is that sugar? It is. You know, that kid's mom is going to have all what? That's I'm about to get high as fuck off the sugar. Luke, you love two things on this show, scorpions and gym fails. Let's put them together. I believe I can fly. Okay. He goes, you're gonna swing, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh shit. Here we go. I'm gonna go with the I believe I can fly. Okay. He's going to swing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Oh **** Here we go. Oh, wow. I don't know if he lived Luke. We may have to add that to the circus performer with the snake. Somebody hit the Lunk Alarm at Planet Fitness. He had a boo boo. Luke, I've been planning ideas for Tukey's next birthday party. Give me a thumbs up or thumbs down on this one. All right.

Was a human shit. What is this? Dude, what the fuck? What AI shit is this? I think it was real Luke. Wow. Just try to traumatize these children. What the fuck are we doing?

No, I think Luke. Wow. Just try to traumatize these children. What the **** are we doing? Oh, I think so. Wow. Uh Luke, let's look back on greatest days in Magic Johnson history. You think that was the day Luke? Well, you know, could you say it was a bad day? You could say it was a mixed bag, you know, it could have been that day though, alright, let's get. Yeah, that seems like a possibility. Uh, speaking of magic, it's time to head to the hard word for some March madness. So, you know, these halftime, uh, spectacles where

they bring civilians in and you can make a couple of shots. Okay. You know, win money. Yeah. This is why he's not in the Marine Corps. Just a bit outside. I mean, come on, like, you're like, how good are the athletes in the arm services? And I'm like, it depends entirely on their MOS. Yes. Yes. And whether they have a train ticket for, for Osborne or not. Also, Luke, check out this youth hoops fight between, uh, just watch it. So there's a hard fall right there. You see that in the corner. What the yo mom comes out but dad's going to come out in a second. Get ready

for this. Boom. Oh. Plowed him. Damn. He got jacked up there. That is wild and Luke, you know, when you get hot in NBA Jam, you are on fire. Check out these Darwin Award winners. Oh, he made it. I mean, can we just arrest these guys? Can we the I mean, there's, I'd wear that. There's better things you can be doing with your time than this, right? No, I'd wear that. Are you kidding? All right.

Would you, the question is, would you, would you be, see, would you banger? That's, that's, that's really the, I'll tell you on our Patreon after show. Let's go to this next guy. We can call him the golden boy. I'm actually into this. Luke, it's a little Cisco esque, right? Yeah. You know what? My man is quite literally shining. Yes. Yes. this next guy. We can call him the golden boy. I'm actually into this. Luke, it's a little Cisco-esque, right? Yeah, you

know what? My man is quite literally shining. Yes. Yes. Quite quite literally. Look at that taper. That taper's sick too. I like that. Uh finally, Luke. Uh some people call this art. Other people call it offensive. What is your, what

are your thoughts? Oh my **** god. Enough of that. Hey, let an end to it right now. Look, that's it. Okay. No more. No more on there. I'll go over to the the next clip. What do we got here? Brazilian soccer tunnel. Maybe we can rethink

the design, Luke. Yeah, they didn't have to come out of a vagina. That probably was the bad idea. Luke, kids say and do the darnedest things. Let's check out the brazilian soccer tunnel. Look, I'm going to put a I'm going to put an end to it out of a vagina that probably was the bad idea. Luke kids say and do the darnedest things let's check out this clip. I don't really understand those stickers that say baby on board because what is this supposed to do

what's the point because like the only thing that I can think of when I see that is the lady driving must have some milk bags on her. You know what I mean? Look is that Jake Vaughan Amsterdam by the way? That looks like somebody who would work on this show yes. Yes all right I meant to say this is the clip where kids do the darndest things. Okay all right we're dancing we're dancing. We're dancing. Why guys? Oh, is that New Orleans? Where was it? Yeah, that looked like it. Alright,

uh let's go over to the toy horse. I'm dead. I don't know why this is my life. Look, they have weight limits on those. I noticed as soon as Big Bertha got on that and the baby was sitting behind her where this was going. And finally Luke you can find influencers for everything. Look I'm not handy with my car. I have no idea how to change my own oil but that's why I follow people like this.

Hi my name is Stacey and today I'm going to show you how to change an oil. So first, I'm actually not Stacey, and I don't know how to fucking change an oil, but for $7.99 a month you can see my... That's the shit of the week, I hope you saw it. Wow. Do we happen to have her contact information? I'm going to do it. Wow. Do we happen to have her contact information? I have

follow up questions that can only be answered one particular way. Well, I spit all over the microphone. Hey, today's episode of morning combat has been brought to you by DraftKings and presented by DraftKings where the crowd. The

worst part is like if she had a kid, she off the money she's making for OnlyFans, she'd be able to put them through college. No problem. Whereas you and I have to fucking sweat it out. You know what I mean? Yeah. We want to make it honest living out here.

We have to show her clips to make money. It's unbelievable, right? Basically. Wow. Yeah, basically. All right, Luke, that's the show for the week. I think we gave them a great effort, but it's time to go home now. Yes, it is.

I mean, listen, we, you know, we have to work with Emmett versus Murphy as our anchor. I mean, what can you do with that? But hey, Wednesday, got a totally different ball game going on. Wednesday, live at 11 a.m. in the East. Your boy, BC LT. Well, J.M. I guess we can call him an MK altogether going to get you ready for the best card in quite some time. USC 314. Yeah, guess what? We're not going to do on Wednesday complain. We're just going to drink Cuervo and have a great time. So

check us out at 11 a.m. Eastern. Thank you for supporting this show. Long Island Luke, can you say goodbye to the people at all? Goodbye people. Look out for my bet breakdown coming out this today, actually. UFC 314. Looking forward to that. There it is. And Wednesday. Oh, and I'm doing No Bets Bared with Jed this week for MMA Fighting. So tune into that. Yeah. Not bad. We're launching his career. He's going to take over and surpass us, BC.

Probably. And also, look, I saw that you're on submission radio breaking down that card as well. So shout out to Dennis there as well. I am. I am. All right. For Luke and Luke, it's your boy BC. Take care of yourselves. We will see you on Wednesday. Don't miss it. 314 is coming and so will we. We're outta here. Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season One. Every time I hear about my dad,

it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil. I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known. At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9th on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.