MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vegas 57: Tsarukyan vs. Gamrot | Bellator 282 | PFL 5 | Quick Hitters | Ep 315

Episode Date: June 24, 2022

On episode 315 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian have a packed preview show for you. The boys preview UFC Vegas 57, Bellator 282 and PFL 5. What are the biggest fights of the weekend? They close out the main topics with some quick hitters before getting to dead wrong and fan submissions. (12:00) - UFC on ESPN 38 (52:00) - Bellator 282 (80:00) - PFL Preview (86:00) - Quick Hitters Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah.

I mean, you just just you can hear it you can feel it the art is back in the building it is Friday June 24th 2022 and this right here is the best damn combat sports show period yeah it's morning combat it's the bbc with the bde on the ones and twos today that american alpha himself brian campbell but you're not here for me though although i do believe

you'll stay because of that you're here for the guy next to me the best damn combat sports analyst in the game today among people who refuse to actually compete in combat sports. He's a great man. His name is Luke Thomas. I love the backhanded intros, BC. Nice to be here. How are you? Good, sir. Very good, Luke, because I'm rocking AG1 in my morning combat glass while I'm wearing my morning combat factory town MMA shirt while I'm drinking coffee out of my morning combat mug while I'm contemplating wearing a very low tea offering on my head according to our producers. But

Luke, I'm fired up because the weekend's here. Friday shows are always the best. Luke, why? Why? Well, because I'm hosting. But number two, Luke, because we set the stage for a loaded combat weekend to come. so if you want to look like us and feel like us why don't you go to morningcombat.store right now and have your say

put a little scratch down you won't get itchy with this on you it's top quality merch across the board get luke's face whatever you're into just get it but luke we're gonna get it done in this episode today setting the stage for a must-see lightweight clash atop UFC Fight Night. A really good Bellator card tonight only on Showtime, Luke. We got PFL, BKFC. We got a lot of bullshit going on, right? I mean, there's a lot to talk about in this game. We'll do fan subs.

We'll do dead wrongs. And if you want to watch Bellator tonight, and why wouldn't you? Why don't you stream it for free right now? You got 30 days to try it out. Go to Showtime.com. Get the stream. Get the app, okay? Get it on your cable package, whatever you want, however you want to get it. Just get it. 30 days

free. Pound sand at the end and make your decision. But, you know, after getting a little taste of the box, the MMA, the docs, you know where you're going to end up. Luke Thomas, when we talk about this weekend ahead, give me a 1 to 10 excite level. 10 being you have a phoner.

7 or an 8, something like that. Okay. I'm browsing the front page of RedTube. I haven't clicked on anything, but there's some interesting things i've seen in the thumbnails you know yes yes yes yes you're on the drop down menu for the category breakdown you're like i do i need a third per do i need an old woman watching i don't know i don't know what i need but uh i need something yeah i need help there you go no it's it's not it's not ufc 276

has title fights and like it's you know the biggest fighters in the game and stuff like that so it doesn't have that but like short of having the most significant kinds of fights in the sport it's got something right next to it and that's pretty great yeah and tonight don't forget we got uh brit and beltran beck rawlings part two luke okay so uh yeah who won the first one uh beck rawlings by split five rounds split decision but luke bro it was brit you are the official bkfc historian i don't know anyone in my orbit who gets as horny for bkfc as you do brent brookhouse of cbs sports does now i don't know for the horny part but for the uh like he just this is his product he loves this stuff he knows it uh no luke the first one it was brit

and heart beltran's you know debut in this in this art form. So she's looking to run that back. We'll get into that later. Luke, we talked about liking this show, subscribing, because what we're doing here is building something monumental. I mean, we win big awards in these parts, and it's not necessarily because of Luke and myself, BC. It's because of the fans who back us, vote for us. And because of that, Luke, next week, UFC 276 International Fight Week,

Las Vegas, Friday, July 1st. We want to give it right back to these fine folks with a live reminder, live show. After the ceremonial UFC 276 weigh-ins around 5 p.m. Pacific time, outside the doors of T-Mobile Arena, don't forget, we'll be at Beer House. Luke, BC, Mikey Morm's on the ones and twos. Gaff will be there. We got a lot ones and twos uh gaff will be there we got a lot all of our all of our all-stars will be there uh luke we can say without knowing what it's going to look like or taste like that this is going to be something special correct you've done these before there you've done this i've done them there before you i did a show there with uh

misha tate i did a show actually you know it's funny the day after uh Izzy beat Brad Tavares he actually showed up from his hotel room rolled in and uh sat down with us for almost a full hour great day so um I don't know if we're gonna get Izzy this time obviously but yeah that's a fun atmosphere it's gonna be packed on the strip. Dude, don't miss it. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. And, by the way, BC, this is the best part. We're not charging tickets.

All you got to do is just roll up. Just roll up right to the bar. I think everybody's got a live show that weekend of our brethren in the MMA space. But you already know we're the best. You know what I mean? How many more people have to tell you? Come find out for yourself. Live on the air. DMs from Donks. In-person edition. We'll spin the wheel. You know what I mean? How many more people have to tell you? Come find out for yourself.

Live on the air, DMs from Donks, in-person edition. We'll spin the wheel. We'll do whatever the other ideas, the other shows steal from us. We'll do it all, Luke, okay? So come, relax.

There it is. Luke, I also wanted to add, when you subscribe to the show, it's not just our three live episodes a week or our post-fight Saturday night instant analysis is, analysis, analysis is analysis,

analysis, you get some prime content, youtube.com slash morning combat. If you go there right now, okay, Luke and BC, a watch along for parts one and two there of the Max Holloway, Alexander Volkanovsky rivalry. There's jokes, there's legitimate technical breakdown, and Luke, you and I rescore all 10 rounds of those first two fights. Interesting exercise we went through there.

Yeah, I really enjoyed it, actually. You always pick up something new. You always see it slightly different, especially with the passage of time. You know, you can kind of reflect on everything that's happened since then and with the two fights the guys have had since then. So it would be, obviously, for Volkanovski, his title defenses, and then for Max, it would be Yair and Cater. But, but yeah it was a fun little exercise you can score a lot right along with us there's a round timer so you can play it with us at the if you want to do that as well but i enjoyed it we

should do more of them i think people liked it yeah they want us to re-examine other kind of close-ish could have gone either way fights you know john jones dom reyes fights like that again i'd be into that for sure luke also in bonus department, don't miss the resume review on one Max Holloway. Why? Because look, we're talking about Max, right? We're talking about one of the greatest fighters in the sports history, one of the greatest resumes in the damn land. And also, Luke, I was thinking about this yesterday when I was mowing the lawn, right? I was pushing the lawnmower, old school style, because my rider's broken. If Max Holloway isn't in your top five of favorite fighters,

like, legitimately, there's something wrong with you. Like, no joke. You need to look in the mirror and reexamine your life choices and why you are the way you are. He's like a damn superhero. Like, he's an automatic fan favorite, first-vote Hall of Famer, but there's a lot of superhero like he's an automatic fan favorite first vote hall of famer but there's a lot of like reasons why and we we had a fun time living that journey over again luke i love max holloway i love him yeah he's a special guy with a special skill set who's done as we said i

think at the beginning of the video or at some point in it or maybe it was the resume review right because we did that one as well you can check out both but he's he's a he's a hall of famer already whether or not he wins the title next saturday which by the way he well might which would only cement the case but he's done incredibly special things and uh it's it's a joy to be able to cover that guy's career it's a privilege quite frankly so here we are he's he's great to chat with he's a he's a he's a good dad like there's a lot like with the guy, even though I've kind of picked against him nearly every step of the journey. Hey, we'll see what happens next week and who we're picking ahead of that trilogy fight. But don't miss any of our bonus content. Luke's got good interviews with Danny Sabatello, Johnny Eblen.

They're both in tonight's Bellator 282 card that's going to stream only on Showtime. 9 p.m. Eastern is the main card. Like us, like the people that back us. Drink some AG1 along with me. Maybe it'll turn back the tide of, Luke, by the way, this is how old I am, okay? I mowed the lawn yesterday after work. You know, I'm panting because

it's like hot as balls everywhere, but even in Connecticut right now, I drink a half glass of wine after dinner. You know, wife's like, hey, you got to try this. You'll like this. It won't hurt you that. I wake up with a pounding hangover.

Just someone just banging on the door of my skull. Luke, it's not fair. Are you dehydrated? I don't think I was. I mean, probably in medical terms, but I did pound water throughout and afterwards. But just like that, you wake up in such a, like, there's nothing to feel the rest of the day, but damn, I'm an old piece of shit. Maybe you have the ho-rona virus.

You know what I'm saying? Just being a ho. All right. And like those hoes, Luke, I ain't loyal. So always remember that in the back of your mind. Luke, unless you got any other good brain teasers or one-liners, let's start the show. You ready for this?

Let's do it, bro. Let's do it. All right. This weekend is loaded in a level way, but they're pretty damn good fights. And maybe, seriously, among the best of this group is the UFC on ESPN Fight Night main event. It goes down in the Apex in Las Vegas. It's talking about the future of the

lightweight division right here. Arman, Sarukayan, Sarukyan, Arman. Arman Hammer here, as far as I'm concerned. This Armenian Hammer going up against a different breed from Poland, but a Hammer indeed, and Matuis Gamra. Dude, Luke, I tried so hard not to just butcher the names, and I butchered them both back to back, but you already know what I'm about. Luke Thomas, in terms of what this fight is about, as we speak, Caesar's Sportsbook, Armand Sarurkian, minus 280 favorite.

Mateus Gamrot, plus 235. We know what's at stake. We know that this is one of those hardcore fans just dream matchups. I want to find out right now which direction both are going. Who's more alpha? Who's more man? So here's my key question to kick it off to you, Luke.

Who will have the edge grappling in this case? And is there potential that it cancels them out? Because when you watch tape on both, they can do it all. But holy shit, they can do it all chasing a high single leg and just grinding you into the dirt. A high single leg? You mean a high cr leg and just grinding you into the dirt a high single leg you mean a high crotch high c yeah well i mean it's also a single leg because i'm using the leg and the in the shaft and just you know yeah i mean you can certainly transition from the high crotch to the single leg but to answer the question that's really that dude that's that's not just a question you can ask

about this fight that is the question you have to ask about this fight there's really i mean again someone could come out throw a punch not see it coming and the fight gets over in 30 seconds but in all likelihood right in all likelihood the most important consideration here is what is going to happen when they begin to wrestle um fight metrics richard man put out an article yesterday going through some of the stats they're not really worth going through here for that purpose, but the basic insight is Gamrot goes for a lot of them and gets a lot of them. He has a consistent kind of drumbeat of getting takedowns. The knock on that is, A, he doesn't get them very efficiently, although that's really not the most important one. It's something worth paying attention to, but not the major consideration. The major

consideration there is when he gets them, he doesn't necessarily do a whole lot with them. So he's able to accrue a lot of time going for the takedown, securing it at least for a moment or two. He does have some control time. It's actually Saryukian who has less takedowns than him, although still a very high number, but he does a lot more with them. A, he keeps control time a little bit more more and B, and this is much more significant,

he actually does some decent ground and pound with it. In fact, in some cases, some very good ground and pound with it. This really is the central question. Is Gamrot going to be able to either A, get him down or B, let's say get some takedowns but not do a whole lot with it or is Soryukin going to turn the tables,

get the takedowns and do something with it? Or, BC, are both of those going to cancel each other out and they end up having a bit of a slugfest? And this is the other part to remember as well. It's not a three-round fight. It's a five-round fight. Yes. With a wrestling-heavy game plan

that Gamrot typically brings to the cage, what happens if he does have some success in the first or second round, starts to fade in the third, and what if Sary you can comes on the fourth and fifth again these are just sort of you know um ideas i don't really know exactly how it's going to play out but i do wonder in a modern mma game against an opponent who also has good wrestling how valuable is it to have good takedowns without much behind it and i would say that the the returns on that have always been pretty diminishing they're very diminishing these yeah i mean that's why they

cancel each other out that's why you see fights like phil davis ryan bader too and you know some of the moments we've seen in covington versus uh usman although obviously we saw some good action for most of those stretches um i think they're pretty even across the board, Luke. In most categories, that's why we love this fight so much. Sarukin, a little bit more battle-tested at the highest level, of course. This win streak he's put together since that first UFC defeat to Islam Mahachev has been impressive. But in a shorter window, so has Gamrot. I mean, his UFC debut, he loses to your boy, I'm not going to brutalize the name,

Kuta Tl Ladze, Luke. Kuta Te Ladze. Yeah, and it was a split decision loss, Luke, in which Gamrot would later say, I know now I didn't have the stamina then to go over the top and beat him. And dude, let's not forget, even Stipe Miucic had to learn that lesson in his first five-rounder

against Junior Dos Santos. It happens. So I set it up that way to say, although the edge in experience on this run is all Sariukian, no debating, who do you think has grown more from that first loss to kind of put any errors or vulnerabilities behind them? Ooh, that's tough. I think Sariukian has grown more well-rounded.

I'll say that. I definitely feel like both guys are very good fighters. Both guys are top prospects. Both guys can give anyone inside that, certainly the 11 to 15 space, a very difficult fight and probably even higher than that. But I don't, Gamrot might have, here's what I think is true,

and I guess we're going to have to see. But my hunch, BC, is that Gamrot might have, here's what I think is true, and I guess we're going to have to see. But my hunch, BC, is that Gamrot tightened up some of the deficiencies in the existing style that he had. Saryukian, to me, probably tightened up some of those as well, but did more to fully develop the well-roundedness of his game. Another interesting point about this is neither guy takes a lot of damage. Saryukian takes a comically low amount, less than two strikes per minute has ever landed on him. That's extremely low. And so part of that is obviously the way in which he has some control and has good ground to pound. The other part is he just, for the most part, makes pretty good

decisions about when to engage, when not to engage. And you saw in his last bout, and actually the two previous bouts, I would argue, you saw a little bit of a development in his overall striking arsenal that to me is a development so it's not like neither guy learned from the loss previously it's not like neither guy didn't get better I definitely feel like both of them got better I feel like Gamrot got better on not the same path but the kind of overall thing he was already in on where Saryukian tried to branch out a little bit now that could get you into trouble too BC because you can start to branch out and still not have it all worked out and then the other part of your game becomes lacking these are tough choices to make for a young fighter in terms of how you want to get better but I do think if you believe in the

ultimate upside of Saryukian and his overall I would say probably a better athlete although that remains to be seen as well it probably does make sense for him to do more in the stand-up department to really get his game to the next level Yeah, absolutely that's well said and it illustrates why we love this so much there's two fighters seemingly in the same place both about to break out, both have learned

from a tough loss against really good competition you can say nothing about the run Saryukin's on he's won five in a row since that Mahachev loss. And after three decisions, he stopped his last two, including that Joel Alvarez one that was, you know, it just shows the destruction power and the potential. But, damn, Gamrot bounced back huge from that initial split decision loss

to your boy there. Because, Luke, that second round knockout of Scott Holtzman showed the power. That, like, 65-second submission of Jeremy Stevens showed, like, oh, shit, man, he's kind of next level down there on the ground, too. And then he, you know, stomped a hole through Carlos Diego Fajedo, Luke. So it's been explosion after explosion for this guy in a row to try to figure out who has the brighter ceiling or who you know is more likely to score

a sensational finish here uh i think once again it's hard to it's certainly hard to answer that but you can say nothing about this run that gamrot's on in terms of each step of the way showing us something different or or at least surprising us at his upper bound limits i mean to go out there and just you know blow a through one guy, submit the other guy in no time. I mean, it was eye-opening. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. I mean, we're dealing with guys

who have a lot of different capability. I think for me in this one, BC, again, the wrestling question is the most central. But now that you bring it up a little bit, now that I think about it a little bit more, I am curious to see about the other levels of their game. Because if there is a canceling out function to all of this, then that development on the other portions of the game

becomes significantly more relevant. I want to be clear. It's not like Gamrot can't strike or something, or that he might not already be better than Soryuki, and he actually might be. But I do wonder about the trajectory of their development and what any kind of potential cancellation means for all of that. A lot of interesting questions in this one, dude.

A lot of interesting questions. Yeah, and even though we're giving experience edge to Saryukian and when there's some unknowns about going the full five rounds, the final bout for Gamrot, excuse me, when he was fighting with KSW in Poland, he did go five full rounds to defend his title there, Luke, before making his debut in the UFC. So he's been there, done that.

Yeah, but that ain't against Saryukian. No, for sure. But just to add in, the last three fights in KSW, he went five, four, and five rounds. So it's all part in the end of the day, Luke, why we love this matchup. Okay, why do the betting oddsmen at the end of the day like Saryukian more? Because his one loss in the UFC was to Islam, which he gave, I'm not going to say he gave Islam hell, but he was fighting continuously throughout, showed real wrestling. I just feel like he's shown a little bit more promise.

Now that might be wrong because to your point, Gamrot has great experience as well and has beaten some really good guys and the fight against Kutete Laze was close. By the way, he did really well in the takedown department there as well in addition, although obviously as we've seen the stats sort of tell you that there's not enough control and ground and pound, but I just feel

like with Soryukin, you've got someone who's got all the athletic ability they need. They've got all the wrestling that they need and that by itself can carry you pretty far. He's got a tremendous gas tank as well. Again, go back and watch the fight with Makhachev, dude. He was scrambling his ass off up until the very last minute of that fight. And so you just feel like, man, if they can put a little bit more together with this guy, he might be able to do amazing things. Gamrot, in many ways, I think is something of a more finished product. Again, still developing,

I want to be clear about that. But, and again, you're asking what the odds makers see. What I think that they see is he doesn't quite have the same ability to extend, not that he can't go much further than he is, but that Saryukian's ability to extend how far he can go seems a little bit higher, right? Seems to have just a little bit more of the natural gifts that hard work and the right kinds of people around him can develop and to turn into something. Now, to people who might be favoring Gamrot, these are all just guesses. We don't really know. And there are things to be said about Saryukian not being as well-rounded as he needs to be. And again, sometimes, yeah, I think that well-roundedness would be the issue there more

than anything else. So that's what they see. They just see a guy who's got like, you know, a thoroughbred horse. Man, if you could just get the right trainer, just get the right nutrition, the right kind of situation, you can do something with that. That's what I think they're banking on. But he has to do something against Gamrot to really prove that that's a fair assessment. You know, Luke, people don't look at me as a hardcore UFC fan. But I'm getting that hardcore itch, you know what I mean?

That like, let me turn the volume down, pull the shades down, everybody leave me alone, I got to watch this main event. I got to inhale it, you know what I'm saying, Luke? I got to freebase it. So freebase it, bro. Look, I've seen the future, so get ready to join me in this process luke here here's what the future looks like the wrestling does cancel each other out but the stakes on this fight like cannot be overlooked like they're both you know i mean

obviously so you can's younger 25 years old or even 24 i mean he's so young it's ridiculous whereas gamrot's 31 ready to go now but saryukin's talent has shown he's ready to go now and go to that next level. So, Luke, these are going to be two hammers that are going to put on five, I think, growingly spectacular rounds of striking, of kickboxing. Because the deal here is, Luke, they're both not reckless, they're responsible, but they're hammers. This could end up looking a lot like Dustin Poirier and Dan Hooker at the end of the day. That doesn't necessarily answer who wins per se, but if I'm going to lean one way,

I see a little bit more from Saryukian that I've loved and so have the odds makers, but damn, this is a great fight. Do you echo at least, forget about who wins, but echo my sentiment here that this could be the fight of the night, five rounds of pure joy here for us as fans? Oh, yes, I think so. I think so. There are permutations where this fight could be a little boring. There are, again, fights can go in a lot of different directions.

It's going to heat up over time, Luke. It's going to organically heat up. You know. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think, listen, both guys can do so much from a technical standpoint, especially in the wrestling department. Again, they're going to fight. That battle is going to be fought a little bit.

The idea that this turns into like Usman versus Colby right away, or I should say Usman-Colby one, right, where they just go like, ah, fuck it, we're not going to wrestle, we're just going to strike. Again, could be that way. I tend to think at least wrestling will play some part in the larger picture of things. But yeah, dude, I mean, this fight is a big fight. It's not to say that the loser of this fight can't still climb the ranks or won't still climb the ranks. In fact, I think that they will.

But it does tell us that the person who wins here is going to be fast-tracked i think i mean this is going to be one of those fights where like okay who is the next generation of 155ers in the ufc who you can look at and say who's coming up the pike to make a make a title run not right away but like you know forecasting a year or two down the road it's's going to be the winner of one of these, of this fight. No doubt about it. It's going to be the winner of this fight. That's how important this is, but they got to get out there and beat a very, very tough peer in order to get there.

Luke, you know how, like when people say clean and jerk, like these lifting terms, like, oh, BC is going to make a obvious low hanging fruit reference there, you know, to like dicks and you know, you know, to like dicks and, you know, whatever, Luke. But when I hear DC say run the pipe, dude, how is this a regular term, Luke? I mean, I'm sorry. I fall right back into the quicksand of ridiculousness when I hear that term, all right? I mean, because not everyone is a 43-year-old man with a 13-year-old brain. Like, I'm not sure how to answer that question.

Luke, to aid in my idea that it is an organic brew that breaks out into a not slugfest but a very technical war in some ways uh gamrot's also a southpaw luke so they're gonna be there's gonna be some feeling out in that yeah and i honestly that might actually uh in enhance the amount of wrestling you see especially early on again we don't know how the wrestling like one like gamrot might be able to take saryuki down and like that's enough or conversely saryukian might be able to take him down and that's enough like that could change it but what i mean is if both guys have that lead leg on the same side or at least you know uh yeah it would be the same side because it'd be an open stance i think that will only increase the chances that you see a a at least early at a bare minimum

early a real wrestling contest. Like, how is this going to go? Who's going to get the upper hand here? You know, obviously, if they were in either stance, you would probably get that too in some level, but I just feel like that lead leg's sticking out, man. It's going to absolutely entice the other one to go after it. Yeah, I heard a little 90s commodity.

I almost thought you were going to veer into, like, how's it going to be be but you didn't but look the thing is when dc pet packages phrases together and he's like all right now going for the high crotch let's let's run the pipe i mean you have to admit you you put those two together a little dicey a little dicey okay high crotch and then run the pipe yeah i mean look you know you're saying i'm immature it's kind of it's kind of speaks for itself in that regard, all right? Luke, are you going either way? Are you making a pick here?

I mean, we're all going to win here, but are you making a pick? Certainly no one is hiring me to be a talent evaluator for any of these promotions, but the two guys I've been the highest on in the last year or so, I mean, some of the obvious ones, like everyone's been high on Shemayev or something like that right? But I mean, outside of that, it'd be Rachmanov, who I know we're going to talk about here in a little bit, and it would be Saryukian. Those are two guys who we talk about all the time. Obviously, Teofimo Lopez shit the bed in his last fight, so that's kind of out. But in his previous fights, I had said to BC, like, golly, this guy just, when he's dealing, his talent jumps off the screen.

Rachmanov's talent jumps off the screen and Saryukian's does as well. In different ways, to be very clear, Rachmanov is much more put together as a complete total fighter than Saryukian is. But Saryukian, as you're asking, like, why are the odds makers leaning towards him? He just has thoroughbred horse written all over him. I mean, he really, really does. Not to say that Gamrot doesn't. And again, I fully respect Gamrot's capabilities here.

If he won, I wouldn't be surprised in the least. But Saryukian appears to be quite special to me. And with his relative youth and his relative ability already and how much time he has to get better and what he's already showing, I think that guy has, at a bare minimum, title fights written all over his future. We shall see. We shall see. But I'm going to ride with him.

And a loaded weekend. Look, we just gave that main event the real breakdown it deserved, and it's going to be a great one. But will we be exiting Saturday's fight card talking about the winner of the main event or how great the co-main event guy may end up looking? It's not going to be easy for Shavkat Rachmanov here at welterweight from Kazakhstan yes he looks to be very much in the same category as the guys in the main event as potentially having next maybe even more Luke I mean this guy can give you

some excitement some put some UBL for days but he's got Neil Magny coming in here and Neil Magny as we talked about on Wednesday's storylines that that is like, you know, on a nice run. Like, has really put it together. He never not wants to fight the people that no one else wants to. So he's going to get a big opportunity here. A plus 320 underdog, Neil Magny. Minus

390. Rachmanov, the favorite. Luke, you've been the day one guy. The redcoats are coming. Shavkat is the next hammer. We need to get phoned up about how tough of a challenge is Magni to Shavkat becoming the lead story after Saturday's card. This is, to me, you know, if you want to see if, listen, if Chemaev had to fight Gilbert Burns right in the way that he did,

like, okay, Gilbert Burns is, you know, as proven and talented and accomplished as any welterweight can get short of winning the title. I mean, he is an extraordinary fighter, and so Chumayev beating him is a big deal, and especially because Chumayev, you know, kind of fought, as we always talk about, very undisciplined and still kind of won. But short of that, like, when you're thinking,

who would tell us a lot about where Rachmaninoff's going to go? Boy, Neil Magny is just a fantastic candidate. Number one, battle-tested. I mean, win or lose, this fucker has been in there with very good fighters. And even some cases where he's lost and lost badly, at times he has shown promise even in those bouts. But the other ones, he has won spectacularly. He's been counted out a lot. And the reason why Magny is respected but the other ones he has won spectacularly. He's been

counted out a lot. And the reason why Magny is respected is not just because he's beaten good guys. A lot of times he's beaten people that no one expected him to beat and he rose to the occasion. So he has been in there with very tough guys. He has, as I mentioned, he has found his moments when he needed to. He has phenomenal cardio. I mean, whatever else you want to say about Neil Magny, the concept of him being tired, especially in a three-round contest, is inconceivable. So there's that. And then on top of it, he's got great dimensions for the game

and a great team behind him. And he's got good training. He's very well-rounded. That dude can do a lot. Now, he's got limits as well. No fighter is perfect. But if you're just asking, what is Shavkat Rachmaninoff going to prove by beating someone like that dude that is a very important measuring stick and I talked about this yesterday

on my on my live chat which was one we're going to see if some of the stuff he's already shown us can scale up to the higher end of the division but more so there's still a lot as much as we know about Rachmanov there's still actually a lot we don't know like how good is he beating someone with that kind of cardio and that kind of experience and a great jab and who understands what his assignment is in wrestling positions who understands what his assignment is in various standing situations like he understands what needs to happen if you can beat a guy like that That was a fight. But in the end, Shavkat Rachmanov, to me,

he might be the future of this division. He is exceedingly talented, and this is a tough fight. Make no mistake, but he might be up for it. God, the short-term reloading that's already going on at Welterweight between him and Shumayev is enough, you know, as it is to get you fired the hell up. But there could be some very good fights, old versus new, in the future across the board.

Luke, if there's any area in Rachmaninoff that gives you pause that you are drinking the juice because at a certain level he has looked insane but not everybody you know carries that up at that same level when they face equal or better competition is there a scenario here where like Shavkat can win in a boring fashion where Magni's good enough to not become a highlight reel but Shavkat's too. Do you have any fears that this guy doesn't have sort of the gene, that bone you need to finish and know when the time is right to finish and know why it's important and this platform to get that finish if it's there? Are you worried about anything from Shavkat?

No. Not in that sense. It's like, dude, he's got, I don't know, are all of his UFC wins finishes? I have to go back and look. I don't know off the top of my head, but most of them are. He demolished Michel Prezerish. He demolished the gentleman from South Africa. He gave him the business as well.

Dude, like he is a fucking destroyer. Now, if you're asking me what parts do give me concern, I will tell you a little bit. One, there are times in the fights, and understand something, I talked to his manager, and what they tell me was that the first contract he was on, he wasn't making a lot of money. So they just kind of wanted to get through that contract and then go to the next one, and then from there, once the pay was a little bit higher, then start taking on some of the tougher fights, which I think makes sense. Also get your feet wet. Oh, and he demolished Cowboy Oliveira as well.

He's fucking good, dude. He's really good. He's undefeated. I think, again, I think all of his finishes are by way, all of his wins are by way of finishing the UFC. But in any case, you can dead wrong me because I'm not entirely sure about that. I don't have his record in front of me.

But the point I want to make is there have been times a little bit where he allows the fighter who he's going up against to not dictate the terms, but he kind of lays back a little bit. Now, sometimes he does that because he's setting traps, especially along the fence line. I want everyone to pay attention to this. If you see someone press Rachmaninoff, including Neil Magny, if you see Magny press Rachmaninoff up against the fence, there's a decent chance that Magny's going to go for a ride because that's one of his major, major setups. All he needs is an overhook and you're done.

You're going to have problems. So there is a little bit of a method to his madness. But I wonder against a guy like Magny who can jab and set a pace, if he might not find himself in certain situations giving away moments, getting his head popped back. By the way, he can slip and counter too, right? Because Rachmaninoff's really good. But there are times when he'll let other guys do what they want a little bit.

I think that could get, you know, against lesser opposition, you can get away with that, right? Because it's not a big deal. Against Neil Magny, I don't know if I would want to play that kind of a game. So let's see. He doesn't have to force the fight. That's not what I'm talking about, but I do want to see in the moments where it's neutral-ish how he sets up his offense and what Magni either forces him to do or what he allows Magni to do and to what extent that defines moments of control, punches that might land, that kind of a thing where he then has to

fight out of a deficit in certain circumstances. I don't know that that will happen, you know, that kind of a thing where he then has to fight out of a deficit in certain circumstances. I don't know that that will happen, but that's kind of the thing on my mind. Not lazy, but almost has not the same urgency that he needs. The urgency is what I'm going to be paying attention to here. Yeah. And pardon me for not mentioning Sean Brady's name, the unbeaten fighter and Room Service Diaries veteran in the same conversation. So, Luke, transitioning to those rankings where Brady is number nine, by the way,

Neil Magny number 10 and Rachmaninoff number 15. Should the upper bound limits come true here? Should Shavkat Rachmaninoff just, you know, look sensational and finish Neil Magny? We know that's a huge statement how huge what type of fight could be next for him like what can like is he if he does the the the best performance possible in this setting is he now fighting the Gilbert Burns level guys next like is it is it going to happen that quickly yeah he beats well first of all just to clarify all of his UFC wins are by finish which is important to note because all of his fights are by way of finish he is 15 and 0 and he finished

off 15 of these opponents I mean that's who we're talking about here you're concerned like does he have that killer instinct yeah yeah times a thousand he's got it so that's the first thing I'd say well you're asking will he chase it Luke I meant more will he chase it because there's guys you give it to them they'll make it happen will he chase that if it's a boring fight you know and then the other part too is like you know Neil Magny's not like some kind of scrub like you're not just going to beat the shit out of him and walk off I mean maybe maybe Rachmaninoff does which would be incredible but like you know there's a real there's a real clear case here where this could very well go to a decision, even if Rachmaninoff is the winner. You know, Magny is a very, again,

I have a great deal of respect for what this fight represents and for what Neil Magny has done in his career. But I forgot your original question. I'm sorry. I went on a tangent there. I enjoyed the tangent, though. Yeah, I guess I'm just trying to point out, I have, oh, he asked you who the next opponent would be.

Yeah, Gilbert Burns, maybe not. just trying to point out i have oh you asked you who the next opponent would be yeah uh gilbert burns maybe not something just south of that five six to eight or six to nine winner winner of luke a2 yeah well we'll blow already won that oh that's right that already happened all right luke i'm i'm you know part of of my brain is a few weeks behind there. Why don't you keep drinking wine at night, fuckface? Yeah, just the same. Obviously, Neil Magny at number 10 would make a serious leap into probably the same level of matchmaking with a big win.

Luke, does Shavkat Rachmanov get it done, the product of Uzbek, of Kazakh nationality, and does he do it spectacularly? What is this going to look like, Luke? Because it could be the toughest test to date, or it could just be another wall to kick through on the way. I think Rahmanov's going to have to earn it. I don't in any way think he's just going to blow the doors off of a guy like Magny, in part to something you had identified.

He doesn't rush the fight. Now, once he hurts a guy, his finishing ability is extraordinary, hence the record. But yeah, I think Rachmaninoff is going to win. And I think in the end, however it looks, which by the way, includes going to a decision. I want to be clear about that. I think he's going to look spectacular throughout the process. One thing to pay attention to, in addition for Rachmaninoff getting backed up against the fence, and all he has to do is have that whizzer and then all these guys are in trouble. The other one is that he does a little something that's kind of interesting. He'll rock a guy on the feet. He's got the ability to slip and counter too, by the way. So like,

you know, that jab is going to be good for Magny, but he has to be careful with it because if Rachmanov times it, he's going to eat a huge punch. One thing that Rachmanov is incredible at, and I call it standing ground and pound, which doesn't really make sense, I understand, because GMP, that's what ground means. But what I mean is, in a lot of his fights, Carlton Harris was one where he did this. That was the guy from South Africa.

I previously forgot his name, but I apologize. He'll hit a guy, then they fall, and he doesn't fully follow them to the ground. He occupies a position sometimes where he'll put their legs back where they can't just fully extend, and he'll rain punches over them, bending over at the ground. He occupies a position sometimes where he'll put their legs back where they can't just fully extend and he'll rain punches over them bending over at the waist. And you might say, well, what is unique about that? He does it in a very coordinated specific way where he doesn't allow someone to grab a collar tie and overhook, wrist control, feet on the hips, anything that would allow some method of body control over him, and he punches.

And that's really important because what happens if you're doing ground and pound, what do they tell the person underneath to do? Collar tie, overhook, C-grip behind the head, or double underhooks. Bring them to you so they don't have the separation to go after you. Rachmaninoff has this ability to rock a guy on the feet, and only then, he doesn't take someone down and then try this. He only tries it when he hurts them first on the feet then he lets them fall a little bit and he stands over them and dude he

puts on an absolute clinic doing this he doesn't need a lot of time to land three or four huge shots that in many cases can either end a fight or define a round he is vicious with it pay attention to something like that if neil magny is not careful with his jab he is going with it pay attention to something like that if Neil Magny is not careful with his jab he is going to eat a huge shot pay attention to the bending over at the waist of Rachmaninoff it seems simple but it's actually very very clever that he doesn't allow that control by going to the ground with them it allows him to land monster punches damn I love this fight seriously we're going to find out. We could really stamp two guys sharing the headlines,

the winner of the main event and this one, especially if Rachmaninoff does big things in this one. You could have instantly in two divisions two major players ready to tussle. So fired up, I think it's going to be Rachmaninoff. I don't know, though. I don't know how hard this test is going to be. That's why I want to find out. Luke, up and down the card, it's hard not to mention the Umar

Nurmagomedov return at 14-0, cousin of Habib, taking on Nate Maness. Luke, Umar put it on our dude Brian Boomkelleher last fight, like, quickly overwhelming submission. We were a little hesitant at first to, like, put him in the Habib

Islam Ahachev level of hype or what's coming next, and there's a lot in that family and in the surrounding team there under RIP coach Abdulmanap. How good is Umar Nurmagomedov, though? Because that last fight seemed to take the hype to a real

good level it's never been before. He's good. They've got him at a minus 1 000 favorite i gotta say i like in mma anytime an odds maker goes over a thousand my eyes are always like word like not because i don't think he's better than nate minest that he might not win i i think numberov will win. It's hardly some kind of brave pick, but I don't know, man. Nate Maness can grapple a little bit. Not like Nurmagomedov, but I don't know. I always get real... Unless it's

like, I don't know. For example, Julia Budd is out of her fight in July with Kayla Harrison, and so Kaitlyn Young is going to fill in. Now, Kaitlyn Young was, for a time, the Invicta matchmaker. She has fought for a long time, but she's 12-12 to fill in. Now, Caitlin Young was like for a time the Invicta matchmaker. She has fought for a long time. But she's like 12 and 12 in her career.

Yo, like, and she's not even a natural 155-er. I mean, it stands to reason that Kayla Harrison is going to rip her apart. Okay, fine. You can make her a huge favorite. But in cases like this where two guys are basically like, you know, in their greatest moment or close to their greatest moment of their fighting career, certainly in a very developed position, I always get a little bit of the heebie-jeebies when they give someone a minus 1,000 like this. Don't you?

Am I crazy? No, I agree. I was surprised it was that much. I would have thought it was a minus 500. That's where I would have thought he was at, 600. Yeah, that sounds about right, yes. And that's still a lot at this level, to be fair. But do you think, has he not, Umar,

has Umar not dazzled you that even a young, in the way that a young Usman Nurmagomedov under the Bellator banner has? Because, like, we're all waiting for Usman to get that title shot, you know. I mean, Usman versus AJ McKee could be mind-blowing someday, but the whole point is, do you not think, has Umar not

tickled you to that level yet not to that level but I also hold Usman Nurmagomedov in very high regard for folks I mean I know I he is almost certainly going to be the Bellator lightweight champion at some point probably sooner rather than later maybe even this year we'll get as we'll have to see I don't know that I hold Umar in exactly that kind of regard. To me, Usman Nurmagomedov is just a phenomenal striker. He's a phenomenal grappler. Obviously, he's well-trained. He's got a lot going for him in the right direction.

Umar Nurmagomedov certainly has many, many, many of those things. But to your point, I just haven't quite seen that, which is why I'm like minus 1,000. Again, I think he's going to gonna win but that is high so I guess we'll have to see that is high uh Luke do you think your boy Rodolfo Vieira gets it done on Saturday you could you know he could use one here I mean is there time for him to put something together uh in this division of middleweight against Chris Curtis I see I don't know man like Rodolfo Vieira was just an outrageously good grappler.

He gave Boucher many of his toughest matches. He won nearly every prestigious title that you could win and sometimes multiple times. And he's got a great, you would think he has a great game for MMA because he can do a lot of mobile passing. He can do a lot of pressure passing. And I guess it turns out that a lot of his judo game was kind of gi-based,

but he was one of the guys in jiu-jitsu that was hitting a lot of judo throws that was somewhat unusual. But I don't know that that's fully translated. But still, he's built like a fucking brick shithouse. The dude has got a lot going for him, but he just hasn't seemed to be able to turn that corner yet. I wonder if he took to MMA too late. I wonder if other parts of his game just haven't seemed to be able to turn that corner yet. I wonder if he took to MMA too late. I wonder if other parts of his game just haven't come to him as naturally.

If he just spent too much time working on jujitsu, I guess we're going to have to see. But Chris Curtis is also, you know, this guy retired before and came back, but he looks rejuvenated. He doesn't overly stress the fights. It looks to me. He has a real calm demeanor. He's got good power, good striking.

So if he can play prevent defense in the grappling game, it seemsanor he's got good power good striking so if he can play prevent defense in the grappling game it seems like he's gonna piece up Vieira they've got Vieira at a very very slight underdog plus 110 I think that sounds about right um I don't know man I don't know like again jujitsu for jujitsu he's gonna smoke everyone on that fucking card but that's not the game we're playing yeah this is I'd put some money on Vieira here, Luke. I got a good feeling about this. Maybe we'll reconvene on Monday on that. But anyone else you want to spotlight here?

We know that Carlos Olberg could come back and could use a big push here. CKB product, Luke. Probably has an active lifestyle outside the cage, being that handsome. Probably, Luke. Yeah, and the other kid, again, I'm going to mispronounce his name, Tafon Nchukwe out of camp springs maryland heavy heavy puncher um look at those odds luke they're both in the in the minus yeah which is a little bit surprising to me because olberg definitely has i think he'll have a better

gas tank i don't know if that's exactly true but i think that probably is true but certainly he's got a more upright but stick and move kind of style could he use that range that ability to tag and go to land on Tafon probably so but Tafon is a fucking murderous puncher I mean that dude lands and he starts spinning heads like it's the exorcist I think if he begins to land on Olberg at all he's going to demolish him so I actually, I take seriously Olberg's chances of winning, but I actually think that this is Enshukwe's fight to lose a little bit more so. And I think eventually he's going to find that chin.

But we'll see because he's had some ups and downs in the octagon as well. Yeah, there's some big room to grow there for Olberg if he gets a win. He's going to have to mature here and show us what he's got. Luke, I know that you're like a good person. You know, you're a fan of happy endings. No gross connotation at all.

Does life karma say that, you know, are you cheering for J.P. Baez, given the fall out of his relationship and the possible deportation now and all that soap opera? Deportation, really? Remember that? You don't remember when Cheyenne left and went to Europe? JP put out on social media that they only got married for the green card and now for the visa. See, I don't follow them on social,

nor do I care about the sordid romantic relationships that they're involved in. I know you're not a big Days of Our Lives fan, but are you cheering deep inside against Cody Durden here for JP Bays to get some life karma back listen here's what I always say about these fights I just hope that the guy or the lady who deserve to win wins which is to say that if it goes to the judges no but dude here's the thing this shit is difficult man this shit is difficult it's extremely difficult to do what they're doing and at some point you just kind of have to look at this and say, I just hope that fairness reigns.

The person who was better doesn't have some stupid injury. Or if it goes to the judges, they don't get fucked by him. That's the only thing I ever care about. But beyond that, I don't have a rooting interest. Okay, thank you.

Thank you for that speech. I know. What you want me to learn here to say is, I hope he sticks it to that Jezebel and blah, blah, blah. But that's not who I am, bro. That's not what I do. Yeah say is, I hope he sticks it to that Jezebel and blah, blah, blah. But that's not who I am, bro. That's not what I do. Yes, I hope he dies, and I hope he goes to hell. Yes, yes, yes.

You want me to be Samuel L. Jackson in A Time to Kill. But, bro, I'm more snakes on a plane guy or whatever the fuck. That's not what I do. Luke, we mentioned on Wednesday the sloppy Super Bowl of the week is this opener as Vanessa Dimopoulos makes her return after the viral victory and leap she made against Jin Yu Fry, but Luke, Fry is

minus 250, Dimopoulos plus 210. Are you feeling like a frisky upset here? Ooh, that's a good question. I mean, tell the people how to invest their money at least luke don't buy crypto that's the first thing i'd say uh second thing i'd say is see here's the thing man jinyu frey can piece her up on the feet and demopolis gets hit more than i would call what is advisable yeah yeah but but frey can kind of she's a little bit older and I don't know that

her game holds up under pressure through the course of the rounds and Demopolis has some dog in her man she kind of gets after and she'll take punches to kind of deliver it which is like okay I can see why the odds makers did what they did because I do think Frey is the better striker of the two and can put it on her in a much more calculated way, probably through most of the bout. But if Demopolis can hang on, make it a little bit of an uglier affair, bring into the grappling a little bit, it's very, very winnable for her. So I understand favoring Afrai. I'm not sure how you say it anymore.

Afrai's more consistent. She's more consistent. Yes, that's correct. But Demopolis, dude, she can rise to the occasion in ways, I think, better than her opponent here. This is not an insult. Would you say that Demopolis is the American Betch Kohea? What would that mean?

Kind of like it has underdog vibes, but yet carries themselves like I do on morning combat, basically. And, you know, takes damage, can get solved, can get served, can get beaten, but also can raise to get dramatic wins that almost make them like folk heroes. I mean, Kohea got to the title level. I mean, the style of eating a punch to give one, that works for a little while, but if you start climbing the ranks, you're going to get annihilated.

For example, this is a very different division and a very different matchup, but you can't play that game against Rachmaninoff. He will fuck you up. That's not going to work. Yeah, like Shevchenko versus I, Luke. It's not going to work, okay? But that didn't work for a lot of other reasons other than that. But the point I'm trying to make is you can do that for a little while so to your point there might be some elements of that for

sure but that has there's a there's a ceiling on how far you can take that all right now let's take it to another good mma card this weekend in our second topic luke what a nice show what a great show we've already been giving the people bella's tour 282 airs only on Showtime this evening, 9pm Eastern. But do not miss, by the way, I think it's 6pm Eastern start on Pluto TV, also on the social media and YouTube channels of Bellator and

Showtime Sports. That undercard is stacked with names. So, I mean, from Rat Garbage to Kat Zingano, I mean, there's a lot going on there. But Luke, damn, do we have a really good main card as well. Middleweight title atop it, Gegard Mousasi, maybe doing some of his best work at age 36. 12-1 in his last 13. Taking on Johnny Eblen, who is rising, unbeaten, can wrestle.

It seems to have that next level toughness and and go get it in him luke you and i were up and down cbs sports hq this week we interviewed musashi we've been breaking this shit down now it's time to really find out what it's going to look like luke musashi minus 230 the favorite does this go the distance what is their momentum swings what does this thing look like it's not going to be like vanderford it's not going to be over like that luke that's right that's right i don't i i think eblin's going to be a much tougher fight than vanderford now vanderford kind of imploded relatively quickly so there is that but to your point um i i do think

there's going to be some pretty critical moments in this fight where eblin is able to establish contact get him down or at least get him to a scramble like what's going to happen here kind of position make musashi work and whatnot but the thing that's hard for me to overcome is like if that gets taken away or minimized or isn't the deciding factor where the deciding factor is actually what happens on the feet that to me is going to be a very difficult fight for Ebelin to win. Ebelin has to me to win this fight. If he's going to win, he's got to do it like, again, he's got more in the tank and he's got more to give than what Darian Caldwell does in terms of well-roundedness. Darian Caldwell is not very well-rounded at all. I think that's not unfair to say. Ebelin is much more well-rounded, but in this particular fight, striking for striking, who believe, again,

this is MMA, crazy shit happens, I understand, but does anyone really believe that Eblen is a better striker than Musashi? Because I certainly don't believe that, but I do believe he's a better wrestler, but this isn't a wrestling match. All you have to do is play prevent defense and you can nullify it. Musashi doesn't have to have a wrestling game with him. He can, if this is going to be a wrestling match, it's because Eblen has to force Musashi into a space where he has to make it that way. And I think he can do that for parts.

But do I really believe he can do that for the totality of 25 minutes or at least enough of 25 minutes, I should say? I'm skeptical. I think he makes it tough, dude. I really, really do. But I'm skeptical he can do enough of 25 minutes, I should say. I'm skeptical. I think he makes it tough, dude. I really, really do. But I'm skeptical he can do enough of that to win. Well, first of all, this fight's tonight, Friday, so we've got to drop that lower third on there.

We've got to get our editing team. Oh, yeah, they put up Saturday. They fucked that up. That's going on tonight, Friday, Bellator 282, Mohegan Sun, only on Showtime, as we talked about. Luke, you nailed it, though. Can Eblen do it better over five full rounds?

Can he finish the legend? Not likely. Certainly possible. Not likely though. He's going to have to show us something, Luke, beyond just having moments where maybe he does get some success on the ground like you're saying. I don't expect him to maul. Nobody mauls Musashi

like that. This is not that type of fight. this is going to be whether eblin can play chess on this level so like how confident are you in his striking really not his striking for one round his striking for for 25 minutes should should the you know the wrestling success not have great success and this is a fight on the feet dude my view is like if this is on the feet for several minutes i think eblin can like i just don't believe there's going to be a a lasting striking battle on the feet which is to say the following right one? One, he's either going to, Ebelin's going to get tagged with something big. So that's one problem. Or it won't be a prolonged striking battle on the feet

because Ebelin will constantly, if not get the takedown, close contact, mix it up, shoot for the hips where he just won't allow it to be. Now, again, we all know if the takedown has to happen and you have to put something behind it for judges to count it. So either way, I just don't see a long striking battle.

I guess I should ask you, what do you think happens on the feet to the extent that let's say Evelyn gets a takedown, but can't do a whole lot with it. There's still two, three minutes left in the round. Give me your sense of what the rest of that round looks like. You know,

from distance, he's going to have a problem. He doesn't have the same technique and experience. You know, it's like you can watch his highlight reel and go, okay, he's got looks like? You know, from distance, he's going to have a problem. He doesn't have the same technique and experience. You know, it's like you can watch his highlight reel and go, okay, he's got some hands, you know, but it's against various levels of competition. I'm not fully secure that he can go win three rounds against Musashi if this is 75% of striking battle.

No. So he's not going to be able to win the jab game in that. But can't Luke, can he, though, use the youth and physicality in that chutzpah? You know, he's never lost. You know, he's walking around like he's got a secret, Luke, that he's carrying a gay guard-level hammer. And by the way, a lot of talk about gay guards' hammer lately. I don't know. It's like flooding.

You know, it's not my favorite topic, but it's out there, Luke. I don't have that confidence that I've seen Eblen do that yet. So he's going to have to be a guy, Luke, that can raise his game considerably to something we haven't seen and really make that leap. I don't know if I see him as that guy, Luke, and he may have to be that guy because the Musashi of the last two fights is different than the guy in previous years. He's on a run Luke he's focused yet he's also said he had to cut 24 pounds in 24 hours he was like yeah yeah it was hard but it wasn't a big deal I don't know what to make of Gegard to be fair right now yeah I mean dude if you if I if I'm Ebelin I'm making I'm making Musashi work even if I don't necessarily

win the first round or even the second dude I'm gonna drain that fucker as much as I possibly can right that's what you want to do and then I mean I go back to this people think that's some kind of like silly game plan dude that's exactly what Habib did to Conor folks are like oh Habib didn't do anything in the first round dude score the first round for Conor if you want I don't give a shit that wasn't the point the point was what however good you are at striking it is significantly diminished talking about conor mcgregor when he is fully ready to go first round we know the story about conor he gets shot out of a cannon he's dialed in he's got his distance and everything's cooking

early hubby was like i'm not playing this fucking game with you so he takes him down wraps him up and makes him work and what happens at the beginning of the second round he steals on him and drops him that's what happens in that second round because there was a much less of a threat by virtue of making him work that is eblen's task eblen's task is not like dude this is eblen's 12th mma fight 12th musashi is going for his 50th win tonight i mean that's just fucking insane to think about the experience difference there so if a guy had a big weight cut and he's like, and we asked him on CBS Sports, what does this win mean

to you? He's like, fuck all. It doesn't mean shit. It means another win I have to go get. Blah, blah, blah. I'm not saying he wasn't taking it seriously, but he didn't see it as some kind of significant career moment. Dude, if you're Johnny Ebelin, the task is not to imagine you can outstrike Musashi at his best. The task is drain him into something less than what he ordinarily is.

So that could come in the clinch, although I would never tell somebody go fight in the clinch with Musashi, right? Like that's not an advisable position, but those may be the areas he has to be in to lean on him and really get him into something. Because it was weird to see Gegard pass off in the interview we did with him on CBS Sports HQ about the weight cut like it didn't matter and then just say look from here on out I'm smashing everybody I'm just going to walk through everybody does he mean that I don't know does he just mean he's loose and free and believes in himself now and you know more than ever like is he going to come out guns blazing here Luke I don't know if I'd advise that either. If I'm him, I make the young guy come to me and make a mistake. Yes, that's right. I think Musashi,

there's a question like, do you want to fight on the front foot or the back foot? More metaphorically than literal, but if I'm Musashi, you have to play that game a little bit carefully because I do think you want to set traps for the over-eager guy. Like, if you know that guy's going to come out and first thing he's trying to do is take you down you have a clear sense of like

okay this is how he wants to pursue this and of course you have to defend that out but the other part is like Vanderford was for example walking into punches all the time Musashi's real good about intercepting intercepting over committed fighters so that's another sort of wrinkle here that Ebelin has to kind of navigate okay you, you want to put it on him. Amazing. He's not just going to let you do it. And I don't think that walking Eblen down until later in the fight makes a whole lot of sense. So Musashi has to play

a version, I'll say, BC, of rope-a-dope here, potentially early, where he doesn't give too much away if Eblen is actually overcommitted. But he doesn't want to get overwhelmed either. You don't want to have to constantly be laboring in these situations. So you kind of have to play it a little bit strangely, but I do think that is in play. Dude, when, when Musashi starts to go downhill, when he feels like he's figured it out and he

starts working behind that heavy jab that, you know, that's not easy, dude. There's a lot of power experience and precision behind that. He he's able to take a lead and bury you. So we're really going to have to find out what Johnny Eblen is if he's going to be the next Bellator middleweight champion. I'm looking forward to it. I think he gets to the finish line, Luke. I think we'll see a competitive fight here, both having their moments in the particular strengths that we talked about.

But I can't get past the minus 230 favorite, Musashi, surviving and advancing and, by the way, looking good doing it. I think so. Again, people have just slept on Johnny Ebelin. Like they think he's just some scrub that Bellator found out of nowhere. And yeah, he beat a couple of Bellator guys. He can't be that good. No, I mean, listen, for your 12th MMA fight, fighting Musashi is an enormous task.

It's almost, I'm not going to say unwinnable. I don't think that's true. But you would agree, BC. This is for your 12th MMA fight. Dude, I'm not going to say unwinnable, I don't think that's true, but you would agree, BC, this is for your 12th MMA fight. Dude, this is a lot to ask out of somebody. Or 12th or 13th, whatever it is at this point. But, you know, in very few fights he has. So in that sense, this is an enormously,

you know, I don't even know if you, it wouldn't even make sense to favor him to win, to be quite candid. But at the same time, I do think he's talented. I do think he has a bright future I take what he offers pretty seriously and I do think it is at least winnable for Johnny Ebelin but to your point unless he unless something goes wrong for Musashi he should have certainly the experience and certainly the overall task to get the job done here I favor him to win probably by decision, that's a very good main event, but these two

pair, pair of Bantamweights, the Grand Prix rolls on to the quarterfinals. The title, the $1 million, all that is at the end of the rainbow here, although technically what is it, Raffion Stotts is your interim champion at the moment? Yes, and then Pettis is the full-on champion. Absolutely. But as we've talked about a few times,

Luke, this tournament looks different than we thought. Pettis out with an injury. Kyoji Horiguchi out with a loss. So it's wide open. So you got two fights here with different sort of storylines coming in, both the same goal. At the end of it, somebody's going to fight Patchy Mix and somebody's going to fight Raffion Stotts. And we're going to end up figuring out who the new millionaire champion is. Let's start, though, with the one that's getting all the attention.

That's Danny Sabatello. You interviewed him this week. Check it out, youtube.com slash morningcombat, along with the Eblen chat, by the way. But he's getting the love, the, oh, my God, this guy. He's brash. Stop sitting on your aeroplan points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach.

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Conditions apply. He's a minus 520 favorite, and he's also, by the way, was a much larger favorite just a few days ago against Leandro Higo. And Luke, Higo plus 410, like he told you, Sabatello's been saying it for a year now. It's seemingly, he goes shit. You know, he fucking sucks. And I'm going to show you all, I'm going to make him quit. I'm going to do really a sadistic things to him at the end of the day.

Like when you're a brash loud mouth, Luke, you got to back it up. He's backed it up so far. Is there any reason to believe he isn't as good as he says he is? Um, I don't think he's, I don't think ego is as bad as he says he is. I'll put it that way. It's not that I don't believe in Sabatello. I think he's actually quite good, but you know,

when he says ego sucks, well, let me just sort of like spoil the narrative here. Ego does not suck. He is, he is quite talented, but at the same time, man,

Sabatello, dude, he's so quick. His, he has, it seems like phenomenal cardio, good strength, decent to good ground and pound.

But it's not like he's got the kind of control from Colby where you never really imagine someone's in danger, but they kind of have to take it seriously, and he kind of rides out the fight sometimes. Now, again, I know he's had some other fights where he's had good ground and pound. Sabatello is more than that. He's got a much more physical style of control and he really took it to Lugo in his last fight which I thought was going to be somewhat competitive it wasn't competitive at all um ego does have he's a son of a bitch Luke he fights like a son of a bitch Sabatello he fights like he's gonna he wants to actually hurt you and probably bang your sister like he really comes with really foul intentions into that case yes that's the other part like he's

just got a mean streak and that's what you want out of fighters too now not everyone's going to be that way and some can you know some of the very best like gsp never had a mean streak and he was you know obviously a hall of famer but um boy sabatello has just got a real edge to him so there excuse me there are some questions about striking on the feet there are some questions about exactly what kind of ground dominance he's going to employ but there's not a doubt in my mind ego gets taken down there's not a doubt in my mind he has gonna he's gonna have to fight out of a lot of difficult positions in this one sabatello is a hammer make no mistake yeah this is gonna be good this this and it could i mean it could be a one-sided yeah sab Sabatello is what he says he is moment there.

But, you know, Lee Stego has both the resume to make that mean something, but also he's good enough where this could be an interesting fight if he fights him at even terms. And then we'll see what Sabatello could do with the adjustments and all that. But, Luke, Danny Sabs, I mean, the bleach blonde hair, I mean, it's so 80s pro wrestling. So when he showed up at ATT and I liked him telling the backstory when you chatted with him that like you know it's overused to say bet on yourself but like boy did he just show up unannounced at att and was like i'm here i'll do whatever it takes you're gonna you know build this whole gym around me basically eventually dude when dan lambert first like smelled this guy given his pro wrestling flirtations on the side, given the fact that he

has been credited by those who know with making Colby Covington's character, at least the original rise of what that was. Dude, this sounds like a mentor-mentee match made in heaven for the commercial side of it, Luke. Bellator needs more guys like this.

Not everyone has to be Danny Sabatello, and not everyone can, and it's not what I'm saying. But just sort of brash, loud guys who are actually really, really good. Guys who make it ugly. Guys who make weigh-ins memorable or something like that. And Sabatello is just getting started. This is hardly, you know, this is hardly, he's been around forever. He's been fighting for, what, four years or something?

But the point I'm trying to make is that he's just got a lot. If you're a promoter, man, you ask for guys like Sabatello. Mean, nasty, tough, but when it comes time to get down there and be hard-nosed, that is what he does. Dude, look at him. Lugo was able to stop a bunch of takedowns. Here we are 90 seconds into the fight, and Lugo's on his back, and he's starting to have to deal with this dude.

I mean, that's just what he's all about, dude. He is unrelenting, unforgiving, and I know he talks like that in interviews, but when you watch him fight, he's like that too. It's not like Sean Strickland, who is a very good fighter, obviously, but will say things like oh, outrageous shit that gets him banned on social, and then he fights in a

very calculated, somewhat safe-ish kind of way, which I have no issue with, but it doesn't match the rhetoric. No, it matches the rhetoric here. Yeah, that's a great way to sum it up. It really, really does. I mean, he has gotten our attention, and there's obviously going to be those

that hate it and don't think he's that great and want to see him get KO'd acting like that, but damn, does that put butts in seats and interest? So if you're Scott Coker, you've got to love when Sabatale has been telling everyone this week, like, I love Bellator, I want to retire here. Like, you know, okay, let's see if he's good enough to get to that level. Luke, let's see if he is the next, you know, what Pitbull and Chandler have meant to this promotion

and now AJ McKee as well. You know, we'll see what happens. But let's see if he can do this. He go tough enough to make it a good fight, but do you think we've seen enough striking from Sabatello to carry that same confidence we have for his intangibles and obviously for what he can do on the ground? Big question marks about that. Big question marks.

For as good as he is in many respects, not really seeing a whole lot in the stand-up department that either tells me much, so I want to be reserved in my judgment, but what we have seen... He's better than Ben Askren in hand combat, right? Yes, for sure. I mean, he's got some abilities there.

It's not like he's got nothing going on, but we talk about A and B skill sets. Does he have enough in the B skill set to win if the A one isn't there? Not that I have seen. So this potentially could tell us something. I don't think that it will, but something to pay attention to. Not that I have seen. So this potentially, potentially could tell us something. I don't think that it will, but something to pay attention to. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, if you're going to be cocksure like that, Luke, you better hope it's not all cock. You better be sure. You know what I mean, Luke? That's the kind of spirit, right, that he's bringing to this fight. You're so awful. The other quarterfinal matchup, damn, really good as well. Magomed Magomedov, a minus 145 favorite.

This will be his first appearance since losing to Rafi on Stotts in a very good three-round fight, in which he kind of was solved at what he does best to some degree, although he did rally back. Luke, tough matchup with Enrique Barzola, who's only plus 125. We did talk about that on Wednesday. I was surprised

Barzola was that close, despite being a guy who's fought in the UFC and in many respected federations around the globe here. Can he handle, though, that ragdoll technique that Magomedov is all about from Dagestan and really has caught my eye as one of these guys who has next? I'm not that dismotivated by the Stats loss. Are you?

I will tell you, I had a conversation last night with danny segura and he's like oh you're sleeping on el fuerte which is uh and as barzola and uh so i was like all right the odds are already close like for example sabatello and ego sabatello is a minus 520 favorite now again ego is not a bad fighter but those are pretty wide odds Sabatello probably should win this one um if not comfortably but you know certifiably but this one with Magomedov and Barzola I don't know so I went back and I watched some of Barzola's fights and his UFC fights like dude he fought Evloev like nobody looks good fighting that guy so not like you can ignore it but I don't know if it tells you a whole lot for this one. And then I watched his Caldwell fight at Bellator 273. Dude, Barzola is a handful. The big takeaway I had in that was, one, he has a lot of good scrambling ability, a lot of good defensive wrestling ability. But the biggest one

to be seen, this is the one that Stotts was able to use to his advantage. Stotts ultimately was able to use offensive wrestling and offensive grappling. I don't know if Barzola is going to have that in play against a guy like Magomedov. He has some of that for sure,. I don't know if Barzillo is going to have that in play against a guy like Magomedov. He has some of that for sure, but I don't know if that would be the deciding factor. But I will say this, dude, he was unrelenting in not giving up the takedown, or if the takedown happened, constantly fought position. Whatever Caldwell wanted to do at every stage of whatever was happening in the grappling he would not accept the position ever ever and so finally by the third round Caldwell was tired as shit and uh we all kind of just went oh that's Darian Caldwell like

like somebody hit the one spot in the death star but it was let's give Barzola more credit for making him get to that point right yeah that's what I'm trying to make is like people want to make oh well Caldwell kind of just does this stuff but dude pay attention to the first two rounds where Caldwell could not keep this guy down or if he got him down it wasn't for very long or if he got into a position he just couldn't do anything with it he resisted that's the point I'm trying to make. He resisted with urgency every step of what Caldwell was trying to do in the grappling game. That has to pay dividends. Then by the time Caldwell shot in late, he stuffed it, took the back, and then pounded him out in the third and called it a day. Now, again, Caldwell is not Mega Madoff.

Mega Madoff is not Caldwell. But do I understand why people believe in Barzolo's upside and why they think he can win this one? Yeah, I really do. I think this is a coin flip, to be quite honest with you. And Magomedov probably has more polish and has more outside skills than what Caldwell was able to show. And for that reason, I slightly still lean towards Magomedov. But dude, this one is not as in the bag as a lot of folks.

Oh, it's a Dagestani hammer versus a guy who got cut from the UFC. That's the wrong way to look at this. Yeah, that's the wrong narrative for sure. And am I overrating Magomedov and I'm not being this nervous after seeing him go head-to-head with Stotts and not be able to find the answer and lose that fight? Why am I so confident? Well, Luke, I mean, he beat Peter Jan in an absolute war you know what I mean he

you know and of course he lost the rematch but he like he can do some things in his first couple Bellator fights where we got really introduced to him you know they were like holy shit this guy can really do it I did like some of the things he did in the second half of the Stotts fight, was it alarming to see him contained like that? In some ways, yes. But I believe the motor's there. I believe the pedigree's there. If he beats Barzola and does so where you're like, damn, I mean, he's the favorite to win this tournament, Luke.

Maga Medov? That's what I'm saying. If he goes out there and handles Barzola, which I agree with what you're saying, it's the odds speak for themselves. It's going to be a tough-ass fight. If he makes the statement he's capable of and bounces back from the Stotts loss

in the way that I believe he can, he's going to exit that fight as the man. I know that's tough because Sabatello's there and he's still largely unproven, but he's coming on. The old patchy mix is no joke in in respect to uh um who's the other who's oh stats is the other guy in the other bracket yes that's what i'm saying like if he wins this one he has to fight patchy mix and i would okay i might favor him to be patchy but then he probably has to face the winner of Ego Sabatello or Stotts.

Oh, it's not going to be easy, Luke. But we'll know, obviously, in this fight, if he can make some kind of statement, whether he's got a chance to go back and right the wrong against Stotts, which would be an incredible fight again. And the first fight with Stotts clearly winning, but still, it was an evenly matched fight for a lot of it. You know what I'm sayingke yes no no it wasn't some blowout no no no no no that's not what i'm saying but like what i if magomedov beats borzola here would i see him as the favorite to win the

tournament no i would not yeah yeah favorite was the wrong word because it implies that everyone agrees with that i guess i'm saying probably more of the you know the guy you're sleeping on but still he could be coming on and the same for barzola who fought his way in like sabatello winning a qualifying round now he's in the big dance we know the names that are remaining uh luke is it uh who are the two who are the two that are coming out of this tonight mohegan sun i think sabatello gets it and i'm gonna edge towards mega madoff sabatello gets it, and I'm going to edge towards Magomedov. Sabatello, I'm reasonably confident. The Barzola and Magomedov fight, dude. Again, I'm going to lean Magomedov, but I don't know.

Dude, this tournament kind of rules right now. It's pretty badass, Luke. Dude, that's one of the best things Bellator has done. It's a shame that everything kind of didn't get going on schedule that they needed it to, and it kind of sucks that Horiguchi's out. But, like, dude, you know. And then also that Sergio Pettis is not in it. It's not the...

Well, that could have been damaging. So to bounce back like that and suddenly have a guy like Sabatello, and if Barzola gets the win here, holy shit. Like, to have those two names just inserted in to kind of mix it up a little, it's been great. It's been absolutely great. I agree. The tournament is phenomenal. And for folks kind of sleeping on up a little. It's been great. It's been absolutely great. I agree that the tournament is phenomenal.

And for folks kind of sleeping on it, you shouldn't be. These are going to be phenomenal tournament fights tonight. Luke, also on that main card with the local flair, because boy, does Irish Brendan Ward pack him from the New London, Connecticut area, wherever he fights in the greater area. He'll be taking on Cassius Kane. This is more about the get well. If you're not aware,

Brendan Ward was out of the sport for five years with drug addiction and in a really bad spot in life and was able to turn it all around. And, you know, he's now revealing, Luke, that those big fights that we saw him in where he's always been all or nothing as a slugger, like he wasn't even doing training camps for those. He's like all like completely doing drugs

and partying like crazy and just living the rockstar life. And so it's, it's great that he turned it around and that he's back, but I don't know if you saw his comeback fight, Luke, it's still all or nothing in terms of what he brings for the style. So it's going to be worth watching.

I don't know how good he can still be, or, or, you know, he seems like he's always going to be that guy that you, if you get them first, you get them. But at the very least, like great to see him back in the, in great to see him back in a spot in life where he deserves to be.

Sure. His story, as you indicated, was he was headed in an extremely dark direction. Could have lost his life. Could have lost a lot of things. But again, I think he's a new father and has you know um gotten back to a place that seems significantly healthier and he's an all-action fighter he's from connecticut he'll be selling more tickets in that building than anybody else will including the headliner i firmly believe that um so if you're asking who's going to get the biggest pop on the main card

it's going to be brendan ward for sure yeah for sure um always fun to watch. So I'm cheering for him in that regard that he's back at it. We'll see what Cassius Kane brings to the table. And if Brennan Ward keeps winning, some fun fights always with a guy like that. Gunslinger, for sure. Luke, can Brent Premis, he'll be back in the prelim feature bout against Alexander Chabili. Premis, a plus 190 underdog. He's been the champ before, although it came with the injured ankle the Chandler on what the checking of the kick uh either way we've seen that he can do it before

he's getting a little bit long in the tooth what do you see happening tonight um that one I'm not so sure because Primus can kind of fight in a lot of or I should say happens to fight in a lot of different ways at times I'll be curious to see what role close distance fighting and or the takedown plays in how Primus answers to Shibili's pressure. I think that's sort of what I'm paying attention to. I would say winnable fight in either direction. I do believe that. This is not some blowout at all.

But Shibili is good, like really, really good. This is not an blowout at all but I Shabili is good like really really good this is a not an easy fight for premise and by the way you're talking about like dark horses you know in that Bellator organization generally but certainly in that division Shabili is at the top of that list and this undercard the prelims uh 6 p.m eastern start on all those social media channels youtube of Bellator Showtime Sports, Pluto TV. It's going to be worth watching. We've got Kat Zingano against Pam Sorensen. We got Anatoly Tokov is coming on at middleweight, Luke. He's bringing it against Muhammad Abdullah, Sabah Hamasi, Cody Law, the must-see prospect, Alejandro Lara's back in a fight she really must win,

Kylis Mota, Luke, Rat Garbage. I mean you know on and on luke there's a you know a lot of interesting candy in the international aisle you know what i'm saying look there's a lot a lot to pick and choose from here the yeah the whole card's got some fun stuff i agree it's 12 20. thank you luke all right you know what sometimes when when you're in the flow time is irrelevant it's about the quality of the moment, Luke, okay? It's not, but okay. All right. Luke PFL, also this evening from Atlanta.

They're back at it, Luke. And in the main event, a guy that we love talking about because he seems to be that good, the defending heavyweight champion, Bruno Capoloza. We saw him in his season one offering. He did nothing to disappoint. Mateus Scheffel is the opponent here, Luke. Let's buckle up.

Bruno's won me over, Luke. He's won my heart. Yeah, he's fun as shit. All action, big power, big, big dude. Great story. Love everything about it. Well, again, not crazy favorite. Again, Umar Nurmagomedov is a much bigger one,

but minus 560 to Sheffield's plus 430. I'm going to guess, BC, and this is just me thinking out loud, I'm going to guess that someone's going to be sent to the land of wind and ghost in this one and is likely to be Sheffield. Kapeloza, minus 560 favorite, plus 430 is Sheffel luke anthony pettis seems to be in a great spot physically mentally um he's a promoter on the side he's still a fighter though and his submission win over uh miles uh what miles prices is the gentleman i believe he put it on um showed us that in his offering to start off this year first First round submission victory. Now he'll be a minus 200 favorite

against the plus 170 Stevie Ray. Could Showtime Pettis win this season in PFL? Is it in play here, Luke, if he keeps up this look? I don't know. He seems to be, listen, Anthony Pettis did a lot of great things in his career with the Wheaties box, the UFC lightweight title, the WEC title, the jumping off the cage.

He has had a very memorable career. And I think he probably beat Stevie Ray tonight. But Stevie Ray, for all his limits, can grapple. He does have good experience. can win this one. I just feel like Petis is taking a lot of damage. And I think it's affected him. And he Pettis is, he's taking a lot of damage.

And I think it's affected him. And he's also older now. And he's got a lot of other things going on. You know, can Pettis win it, you know, three, four years ago? Certainly. Today, I'm skeptical. I think he wins tonight.

I want to be clear about that. And you're right. He had a good bounce back performance in his last contest. But I think that the sun might be setting on what he's fully capable of doing at this point. Yeah, I mean, it would be asking a lot of him to put that little cherry on the end of his career, being a PFL seasonal champion and the $1 million and all that. I mean, it's great.

He shouldn't be getting into wars with people, because as we saw against Clay Collard, there's a certain level where he's life or death against these guys if he wants, if he lets it get there. You'd like to see him develop that same old age adjustment where you become a little bit more efficient, like Glover Teixeira focusing on the fundamentals of the ground game. Different fighters, I don't expect Pettis to do that, Luke.

But if he can maybe be more strategic in how he's looking to take people down and lean more things in his favor, potentially, Luke, rather than going how he's looking to you know take people down and and lean lean more things in his favor potentially luke rather than going out there and looking to flow and dance and hope to hit something big you know a lot but a lot of times dude he's just fighting off people kind of constantly trying to take him down and his answer to that in ufc was to light him up on the feet and then you know like for example he hit benson henderson with that body kick henderson tries to take him down he hits him with an arm bar from the guard that's nice but that's just not going to happen very often

and it's not like he's got bad defensive wrestling I don't mean that but have people shown an ability to occupy his time in advantageous ways in grappling situations for long stretches of rounds and ultimately fights, yes yes they have and in the process he's taken a lot of damage

over time. Can Stevie Ray execute on that? Certainly in play, I don't think it's likely, but even if he can't, I think someone else in this tournament could. Luke, you're going to have to look out for that heavyweight, that 6'7 Brazilian. I told you that we showed the highlights, and have you seen this shit that one time?

You remember Henan Fajeda? Yeah. He's back as a minus 450 favorite against a fellow by the name of kid clinson abreu who was plus 360 um i'm not i don't know i don't know how good this guy is but he makes really fun for highlights luke so he's athletic as shit too yeah fajita is not just a big puncher that dude's like a phenomenal athlete and he's enormous i i tend to think he'll win tonight as well. The big one on this card, dude, is the Wade and Bokniak fight.

That's the one that's most interesting to me. Yeah, that kicks off the main card there. Plus 380 for the UFC vet, Bokniak. Chris Wade, minus 475. Does that make sense to you, Luke? Because of his wrestling, yes. But Bokniak is a very, very experienced fighter at this point. I think he knows what he's in for

like you know if you're fighting Chris Wade you know what the what the assignment is right easier said than done uh and again I favor Wade to win but Bokniak and also Bokniak is a fucking savage dude like he can be down the entire fight he is never going to not want to knock your head off so it creates some danger no even even if wade has like two great rounds creates a lot of danger no matter what um so that'll be a fun one to watch and by the way it should be noted pfl is not just going to be on espn tonight which is a big thing it's got a three-hour broadcast they normally are again on espn 2 for two hours now they're on linear espn the big one and they're going to be on for three hours. I hope the pacing doesn't suck. Yeah. I mean, can their cage really vacuum my rug and order room service, Luke?

I don't know. But that's not nothing to be in that spot. Also on this preliminary card, Bubba Jenkins will be a favorite there. Brendan Loughnan's back is a big favorite. But also Lance Palmer versus Shaman Marais, Luke. And the odds are very close. That could be an interesting one. Yeah, Stryker versus Grappler there as well. Shaman Marais can Luke. And the odds are very close. That could be an interesting one. Yeah, Stryker versus Grappler there as well.

Shaman Marais can do damage if you let him. Palmer's not going to try to do that. But will he be successful? Very, very difficult fight to assess. Also, I think you may have said it, Brendan Loughnan on this card opening it up as well, minus 600. And he's looked good, dude. He's getting better every fight, man.

He's coming on. Quick hitters time, topic four, dude. He's getting better every fight, man. He's coming on. Quick hitters time. Topic four, Luke. It's official now. The August 6th previously announced Showtime pay-per-view Jake Paul boxing return. Madison Square Garden, the big deal. Well, he got the opponent he wanted. Now, Tommy Fury has made it official. There was a back and forth on social media.

Paul putting out the details seemingly with the $2 million purse, the drug testing, all the things that Tommy Fury said he needed. Well, they got it now. Fury's going to do it. Luke, the holdup or the thought about a holdup was that the Fury family, the extended clan, can't travel at the moment. Obviously, we know Big John Fury once took a man's eyeball out in a bar fight, which is a felony. That's assault, brother, for sure. So he can't fly to the U.S. Right now, Tyson Fury, heavyweight champion, because of the whole Daniel Kinahan situation,

not allowed to fly to the U.S., which a lot of people are getting in our DMs saying, why don't you guys talk? What do you want us to say about it? I mean, like, it's there. We know it. It's not a good look altogether. Any big fight for Tyson's probably going to be in Europe anyway right now, so it doesn't really matter as much.

But Fury said F it, Luke. Tommy, that is. I'm taking this fight. It's happening, Luke. Amanda Serrano and the co-main now has an opponent as well, Brenda Carbajal. I've seen the odds closer than I thought the early odds luke in terms of people believing tommy fury's quote-unquote the real the first boxer that jake paul's ever going to fight you and i both believe this is a jake paul setup to look great because fury has not

looked great of late is there some fool's gold in there is tommy fury been he's been playing you know rabbit luke what's the animal possum possum roadkill is he playing possum luke i don't know i saw i don't even remember who his opponent was on the uh fury versus dillian white undercard i just remember watching tommy and being like i this dude that'd be a long con that'd be a long con. That'd be a long, invested con. It would be an amazing con if he's been playing Possum all this time and he comes out and just blitzes Jake Paul. I mean, I'll say this. I think Fury has enough ability to win rounds.

This will be an eight-round cruiserweight contest, I believe. So I think he's got the ability to win rounds. Does he have an overall more pure boxing game? He might. Again, it's very hard to tell with two guys with this limited experience and ability. But I do believe this. I do believe Jake Paul is firmly convinced

he can beat the brakes off this guy. And it looks to me like Jake Paul is clearly a much harder hitter than Tommy Fury um Tommy Fury against uh the guy who he fought when we were there in Ohio the guy who fought in Bellator forget his name um but you know I was expecting him to shine in that one and he didn't it's almost like he is not making the progress that you thought he would have made to this point because he has what eight fights something like that um you know not that's a ton of experience but you would have thought he would like from where i saw him at two three four fights where he is now i just haven't seen the progress and again it wasn't like jake paul versus tyron the second time was

amazing that fight was not great until jake paul just absolutely destroyed him and again you go back to it uh woodley thought it was going to be a body shot because Jake did set it up, brings his hand down, opens it up, and he just gets drilled with a shot. That's good boxing. That's good boxing. It's pretty good for this level. And I think even in the U.K., they look at Tommy Fury as a reality star fighter. So it's like he's got the Fury name.

He shares a father with Tyson Fury. They have separate mothers. We've joked about it. He's so the Fury name. He shares a father with Tyson Fury. They have separate mothers. We've joked about it. He's so good looking. It's clear he doesn't take after the family in many regards. Also, I think as a fighter, unfortunately, or at least up to this point, I just don't see anything that gives me confidence. I don't.

I haven't seen a thing that gives me confidence. I've watched a couple of his fights. It's like, he's okay. He's not good. He's a big, strong kid. You'll give him that. I'm sure he works hard. I give him that. watched a couple of his fights it's like he's okay he's not good you know you know he's he's he's a big strong kid you'll give him that um i'm sure he works hard i give him that but like again like where you're supposed to be at eight pro fights in i just don't see a whole lot there but at the same time i'm gonna go back to it i think jake paul has more ways to win but do I think he's got like the razzle dazzle on him in ways that like

Tommy Fury has no answer for I'm a less convinced by that I mean dude think about it Jake Paul could have easily moved on from Tommy Fury if he really felt like there were other great opponents he could easily defeat and get some good money from I don't know that he actually views it that way I think he views this as another important step in his own actual boxing development to see, this is like a trial balloon, could an Anderson Silva fight make sense? Could something else

out there make sense that I could reasonably do? Can I get my boxing to a point where those are actually in play? Again, I firmly believe he probably will beat Tommy Furyy fury and i think he believes very sincerely that tommy fury is a level or two below him but what i think this is really about is not just making money and everything else it's a bit of a test case for

like okay what is actually possible among other guys out there who i can escalate to that would say something about um my ability whether that's a Chavez Jr. who we, you know, whispered about before or Silva, which I think is a really tough fight at this point. Although the longer you wait for it, Silva's going to be 50 before we know it. But yeah, I agree largely on everything that you're categorizing Jake here.

There's a narrative though that can develop. Like you look at this, you go, okay, it wasn't, you know, he's not fighting Nate. So it's not going to be maybe what it could have been and you know having tyson fury in your corner physically could have helped things and that does that can't happen here either but what about a scenario where this becomes a war maybe an accidental war maybe you know jake paul gets dropped by a big shot and he's got to really navigate stormy waters only to come back and deliver a knockout himself there is a way to grow certainly in the entertainment factor if this ends up being the best fight of this journey so far but i think even in the public like that's the best way you

can win people over that are skeptical or that don't like you go out there overcome it but still deliver luke it's possible in this matchup yeah i mean do i think that jake paul can't there's no way jake paul loses like no i don't i think there's very much a way he loses this one i just don't see it as the likeliest again dude jake paul's got a lot of like real there's a design in all of this there's real clear intentionality design and i think he believes that's the next appropriate step for a lot of reasons money fame blah blah blah but also i need this guy at this moment to see exactly where my boxing is yeah and what is reasonably possible you're right after you're right because the one that's probably the greatest skill that jake has had this journey

along with the marketing side of it. You know, he's been pretty savvy there too. But he's not defensively irresponsible. So we've seen things fall apart for him when he's looked winded at times against Woodley. But he's always sort of navigated those waters safely without, like, you know, leaving his hands down and his chin out. So I think that's preserved him. I do want to see him like everybody else in a real fight, meaning he's given and taken. The Woodley fights had moments of that, but it wasn't sustained where it's a three, four, five round fight, getting up off the deck, fighting your way out of it. Maybe this is that one. Who

knows? We'll find out. August 6th, Luke Serrano, as I mentioned in that co-main. A couple more quick hitters. Kat Zingano, who is fighting Pam Sorensen tonight, she kind of thought she already should be fighting Chris Cyborg for the featherweight title and now they're going back and forth Luke on Twitter what did you make of this it was do we have the physical evidence here we should

it was Zingano basically saying I'll only fight Kat or I'll only fight Chris Cyborg excuse me with a drug test which we've heard people say that before, but almost, Luke, it sounded like she was criticizing the drug test system within Bellator and saying, look, under this system,

I don't trust that I'm going to be fighting a clean version of you. But also, you had the champ Chris Cyborg coming back and saying Kat was 9-0 with wins over Misha and Nunes. Then USADA comes around in 2015 and she goes 1-4 then she goes 2-0 after leaving USADA and fighting on YouTube meaning Bellator on Friday night there. Luke

does Cyborg win this Street Justice Wednesday beef on this show or you don't care? Well first of all she definitely wins the Twitter back and forth such as that's a thing you can win. And I definitely would... I mean, listen, dude,

is it a foregone conclusion Zingano beats Pam Sorensen? You might favor her to win. Okay, again, I take that seriously. It's not like Zingano's been setting the world on fire in Bellator. She's had... It's been okay but like this idea like she's you know i i do believe that if she beats sorensen for sure she probably will get

the title shot okay that's that's a fair thing to to sort of plan for and and then you know consider but it's not like it's a foregone conclusion she beats pam sorensen um again you might think it's likely but i don't know if that's possible even if she does like i would heavily favor cyborg to beat um to beat uh yeah cat another part too is like i mean i mean just mma fans can sit there and pretend that they i want a fucking clean sport get the fuck out of here with this nonsense just it means absolutely nothing to me dude coker and bellator have been doing commission testing which is not in any way rigorous not that rigorous testing makes all that much of a difference but probably some and fans have never cared they don't do jack shit

and overseas promotions and fans never care it's kabuki theater it doesn't mean fuck all i don't care if they did testing at all i wouldn't care if they handed out fucking d-ball and giveaway bags at the front door it means nothing to me at whatsoever and you know like if you wanted to like if you if you want like rigorous testing and that actually matters to an athlete i don't have a problem with that i have zero problem with that like athletes who don't want to compete under those conditions should have the option to not do that but then don't sign with an organization that relies on commission testing, which is what happens here because Cyborg is going to be subject to the same rules

as every other fighter in this space. And you signed up for it. This is a thing that athletes who compete in Bellator agree to. Now, also, I don't think it's wrong to say, hey, on top of that, for a championship-level fight, we should do vada testing but dude like cyborg was under usada's um governance for the time that they were they overlap for her time there in ufc are you going to tell me that her performances in bellator look radically different

they look exactly the same opponents a little bit different that's fine but to me it's like all of this hemming and hawing if an opponent won't if a fighter wants it they obviously have the right i support cats and gonos right to ask for these kinds of things but but fans getting out there and being like this really matters to me it's just so completely disingenuous that i cannot take it seriously for five seconds all right hard words from a hard man right there for sure how hard is it like i i just i just feel like the drug debate is to me how many angels can we fit on the head of a pin it's the dumbest fucking debate it's about the larger picture we know that um i'll give zingano credit for still being at this level at this age. She's been through a lot personally, professionally, injury wise. Like she's been through a lot and she's still here.

But Luke, she's not the, you know, that's not the fighter who kneed Misha Tate in the face brutally and knocked her out in a great fight. Like that fighter's not here anymore, Luke, unfortunately. So she's gonna have to be that to make this beef really matter. Because that would mean that she's got a i mean look anything can happen chris chris eibor's getting older too but i agree with you i couldn't i couldn't find a huge path to victory for her if she gets to that point or or or not uh luke what i do kind of care about though is tonight hollywood florida bkfc uh 26 uh luke i've been following the soap opera that is Britton Hart, now Britton Beltran

who, she's an effing feeling she's a BKFC star, Luke and she's going to have a rematch on this card against Beck Rawlings Rawlings won by split decision, it was Britton's debut Luke, Joey Beltran now in the head of that household I cheer for them do you care about this fight britain heart beltran brings it luke this first fight was a scrap fest beck rawlings still has something i think she goes

by beck rodriguez these days luke uh you don't care at all right is this all me this is all i mean i is when i say i don't care i don't mean to like impugn athletes who are literally fist fighting for a living and to say that like these are people that no one should care about that's not what i'm saying but of all of the limited bandwidth that i have bkfc just doesn't occupy any kind of meaningful space and i have to make choices about how i apportion my time i just i'll just say this this women's strawweight division is a women's uh flyweight excuse me there's a lot of like you know you got rachel ostovich you get you had pvz there you got uh i don't know if you know about taylor starling luke i mean there's like this is like a reality show it's like it's almost real pro wrestling like it's so like

like if there's a county fair version of jersey shore luke this is what it is okay i mean it's it is what it is luke all right but i i kind of dig it and the fights are ridiculous too um listen i'm not here's the thing it sounds like i'm like oh no one should care about bkfc that's not my argument that's not what i'm saying at all people like it i do think there's a market for it and i've said before it's not like they sign all the free agents but they are an interesting player in the mma free agent sweepstakes by virtue of like they get a couple person people here they got chad mendez got Jimmy Rivera they got Greg Hardy they got some interesting names that they play with that kind of shakes things up people seem to like it I'm

just telling you man I got I gotta I gotta make choices about my time all right I don't have time for that look Brett needs this win okay so this is gonna be a tough hill to climb we'll break it down on Monday in detail uh in the main event by the way elvin brito defends his bkfc welterweight championship against luis palomino that does do luis palomino is a goddamn savage believe that i know that for real do you ever see his interview with danny segura no i should now it's probably not i mean now that i asked now that i asked that i realized it was in spanish but it was on his personal youtube channel and i saw it well here's the thing pal Great interview. Never understood it.

Yeah, go ahead. Well, I mean, okay, fair enough. But the point I wanted to make was Palomino, like Glover Teixeira, because he asked him, like, how did UFC never sign you? Because you think about people, and I'm not saying he would have gone and won a title in UFC, but you think about people who had big careers on the regional scene, who never went to a real major promotion. Now, he did fight for World Series of Fighting,

but you know what I'm saying. UFC did want to sign him. He was here illegally. Luis Palomino was here illegally, and he didn't have the kind of papers he needed to get that. Now, I think he's since resolved his immigration situation, which I'm happy to hear. But his career kind of suffered a little bit

because he didn't have the proper immigration status. I know everyone says, oh, get in line. Yeah, but America's immigration system is completely fucking broken. So he had to do what he had to do, and I understand that. It's just a shame we didn't get to see him on the big stage. But here he is. Dude is out there just handing out brain damage left and right in BKFC. I'm happy to see him in a much more stable place in his career, let's say.

Dude, he's 41. He's still a hammer, as you mentioned, from Peru. He's won all six of his BKFC, I think all of them, by knockout fights. He's the reigning lightweight champion for BKFC, and now he's moving up to welterweight to fight for this title. So that's a story in itself. Also, there's an interim middleweight title bout with Yuli Diaz against Francisco Ricci.

I know you don't care about that. Do you care about Jimmy Rivera making his bare-knuckle debut here against Howard Davis at Featherweight? Yeah, I'm curious to see how Jimmy... Jimmy's got great striking. He's always had a pretty good jab. He's always had... You know, he was a good fighter.

And when I say was, I mean when he was competing in MMA. This is obviously not MMA. He could go back to it, which I think he had indicated previously. Curious to see exactly how that translates, because he also had something of a reserved style in MMA, and BKFC is many things. Reserved ain't one of them. So I will be curious to see how that translates.

That is something different. Yeah, it is. It is something different. Luke, hardcore fan alert. I don't promote this from the sense of, like, you've got to work your life plans around it but DAZN has like a 4 hardcores only boxing card on Saturday from

San Antonio, so here's the deal in the main event, Jesse Bam Rodriguez who's trained by Robert Garcia he's only 22, he's a champion in the WBC at 115 pounds this is super flyweight this is the division that Chocolatito all those guys had wars now he's defending his title This is the division that Chocolatito, all those guys had wars.

Now he's defending his title against that guy who beat Chocolatito twice and, in fact, knocked him the hell out. And that's Shrisaket Sor Rungvisai. Luke, this is the guy that eats rats. That's his delicacy. So when he shows up to the airport after fights, they give him trays with, I mean, it's ridiculous. He took like a year off recently because he had a breakup in a relationship,

and he was like, the heartache is too much. I can't go back. Like, he's a real dude, Luke. Bro, I'm not going to shit on him. I've been there. That shit will break you down to the ground, man. So he actually hasn't fought elite competition in like four years, but after finishing Chuck Luchito, winning twice, finishing him,

he then split fights against Juan Francisco Estrada, and we want to see a trilogy between them. So, dude, he's that dude. He's 35 now. He wears Keith Van Horn socks up to his neck. But Luke, him against Bam Rodriguez, dude, this is going to be a war for the title at 115. Chocolatito's still around.

Juan Francisco Estrada's still around. Like, this division's great. And how about this in the co-main? Muradjan Akhmadaliyev, yes, the guy who has the other two belts in the 122-pound division. He's got Ronnie Rios who's nobody's joke in front of him on Saturday.

If he wins, Luke, it seems like him and Stephen Fulton Jr. in a four-belt undisputed fight is realistic for later this year. I don't know. There's some network and promoter play that has to go down there, Luke, right? Here's the church. Here's the steeple. You know where I'm going with that and see all the people.

The people will show up for that fight. So you care about this one for MJ? Only if they can make an Akhmad Aliyev and Fulton fight. Other than that, I don't care. Okay. We were supposed to get Julio Cesar Martinez back in a title defense. You should have cared about that.

He's off because of injury. But Jessica McCaskill will also defend her all four women's welterweight world titles against Alma Ibarra. So interesting, you know, like I said, hardcore's only card. Check it out. Couple other quick nuggets, Luke,

and then we'll get the hell out of here with this fan bullshit. All right? UFC 276, that's next weekend international fight week prelims are going to air on espn and abc is that big yeah so i think the early prelims will air on espn and then the sort of middle prelims will air on abc excuse me sorry early prelims on espn main prelims such as you can call them that on abc and then of course the event itself will air on pay-per-view but that is a big dude can you can you believe that on abc they're just going to air you know not even ufc's best product i mean that's they're good fights but the best product obviously the one they're

going to sell uh shocking shocking yeah i know they've done it before they had cater and and whatever but uh and holloway but i'm just saying like but this is prime time like this is legit shocking shocking I know they've done it before they had Cater and whatever and Holloway but I'm just saying but this is prime time this is legit Saturday night prime time

July 2nd Luke they've reshuffled the lineup a bit it's now going to be Jessica I. Macy Barber in the early prelim main event featured fight

whatever you want to call it and they put Cowboy Cerrone who's going to fight Jim Miller a second time we'll get to that in a second but they put that in the main card and they put that in the main card, and they pulled down. What was the main card that they pulled down?

Did you see that? I know they pushed O'Malley versus Munoz. That's it. So O'Malley versus Munoz will now be on ABC, Luke, in primetime. That's not a bad idea at all. Not a bad idea. No, not a great idea as a matter of fact. Not a bad idea at all. Not a bad idea. No, not a great idea as a matter of fact. Not a bad idea at all.

You know what I'm saying? Like, this shows, Luke, that they want to be in the Sugar Sean O'Malley business, right? Like, I know there's always talk, is this contract going to run out? Is he going to go do whatever? No, they want to be in that business, Luke. And I think he wants to be in business with them, too. I think it's pretty mutual. And I'm glad to see he's getting, like, now it's like, okay, you got all those fights

under your belt to get your feet under you, your career going. The Chido Vera thing didn't work out for him. But it feels like when's the Sean O'Malley push going to happen for himself and by the organization? Right here. Right here, right now. So here's what's happening. It's almost like I talked this into existence.

Bobby Green's out of 276. For undisclosed reasons, he was going to fight Jim Miller. So UFC's taking Cowboy Cerrone, who lost his fight a few times with Lozon, and matched them up together for the second time. The first time, Luke, you may remember, second round knockout for Cowboy in 2014. But here's where they're at. This would be Miller's 40th UFC fight. It'd be the 38th for Cowboy. And both are currently tied with Andrei Arlovsky for the most wins in UFC history. I know that I sort of staged it as a, let's give these two legends one final bout. So the winner walks away for however long it lasts as the winningest fighter in history.

And then they both go off as heroes. I don't think that's going to happen, Luke. But are you into this idea to sort of like, let's give these guys not only a huge victory lap, let's put it on the main pay-per-view card, and the winner is the winningest guy we've ever had? That's not bad. I kind of like it. I kind of dig it.

I think Jim Miller's in a good spot to win here, but yeah, it's kind of cool. I mean, if you're going to do old guy fights, there's right ways and wrong ways to do them. This feels like more of the right way. This is almost a BMF-type presentation, right? It kind of has that feel. I don't know if I'll go that far.

There's no fake title bell at stake, but they're fighting for the freaking records of most wins in appearances. That's pretty badass to circle back. It's definitely very cool. I agree with that. So it's like you can argue that that that record itself which is based on longevity and a lot of things like some people say well you know it's a little overrated it's more just showing up but

it's not obviously but like to have to basically say okay if you want this record beat the guy you're tied with that's fantastic luke that's central casting all right that is very cool somewhat poetic good opportunity uh luke um sources from fight hype.com which has long been Fantastic, Luke. That's central casting. That is very cool. Somewhat poetic. Good opportunity. Luke, sources from fighthype.com, which has long been the mouthpiece for Floyd Mayweather, he gives them exclusive interviews, and really nobody else. Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor 2 is in discussion for a nine-figure Mayweather payday. It's certainly big news if real, but this mean that dana and company would get back on board for something like this luke because even if they did a half of that first fight

it's a freaking blockbuster luke yeah i mean it's the first one seemed almost unicornish even though it spawned a million imitators that we either uh promised and never delivered or got some kind of version of it i golly because floyd would it still be part with showtime i i don't know what his i would have to i would i would guess without knowing it would be a two network showtime espn deal that's what yeah something like that i mean do these parties want to do that again? I guess for the money, they would because it was so big. To your point, even if it did half, it would still be enormous.

I don't know, though. I feel like the warm... I mean, you know, when the news got out there yesterday, and again, it's not exactly clear if there's a whole lot of legs to it, but I figured there'd be a lot of chatter about it. I didn't see a lot of chatter about it, man. MMA fans seem like they're like, eh. Yeah, I think most people assume, okay, did Floyd and Conor's teams maybe talk about it?

Sure, but there's that big elephant in the room. Like, if Dana White and company are going to go back in on this, Luke, it would make sense. It makes sense for Disney, ESPN. Like, it makes sense, dude, because Floyd's even older. It's five years later, right? Or four years or whatever it is. Hey, bro, you want some breaking news? Yeah.

Along these lines, similar to this, Katie Taylor versus Chris Cyborg is reportedly in talks to potentially take place as a boxing match in December. Cyborg, of course, an MMA fighter, former UFC champion, but has not had a professional boxing match before. She did fight Yarina Bars in kickboxing and got demolished. Yarina Bars put it on her. But what do you make of Katie Taylor versus Chris Cyborg? Yorina bars and kickboxing and got demolished Yorina bars put it on her but

what do you make of Katie Taylor versus Chris Cyborg it's certainly a an attraction fight that almost is like old school like it should be in pride or something it's not quite Jose Canseco with a bat walking up to the ring believe that I mean it's much different than that but I mean it's like who could be the

most credible person to fill this slot? The slot that Chris Cyborg is forming for this, which would be, which would probably do big business. It certainly is a, Oh crap. What does that look like?

Type of fight for sure. But if somebody is going to get that and almost earn it without even having a professional boxing fight, is Chris Cyborg the closest, like, is she the, is she the one, is she that unicorn?

She probably is Luke. I don't know what that means to the idea of her being competitive or winning this fight. I really don't. I mean, I could see it. Yeah, Katie Taylor is going to beat her and going to beat her handily. I watched the Yerina Bars fight happen live. I was watching it.

Dude, it wasn't close at all. Yerina Bars crushed her. And, dude, Cyborg's an amazing, amazing MMA fighter. It will never cease to amaze me how much MMA fighters will fight on something that they know is an outrageously uphill climb for checks that they just can't get in MMA. It is, it is, it will never cease to amaze me. So certainly we can both see it being one way traffic potentially. Maybe it's competitive. Maybe it's, I mean, who knows? Probably not. but would you want this for chris cyborg though like this is this is her pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would you want i mean i'm always of two minds of these

kinds of things like on the one hand i'm like tired of watching mma fighters take l's for cash yeah you know like it sucks to see it's like you know and i had a similar kind of feeling when james tony came and fought randy couture it was like i felt bad for james i mean tony wanted the money and you know everyone's gonna make their own choices and he was probably happy with it in the end or oh dude if he wasn't fighting that night there he would have been fighting off tv and like in like detroit or something like dude that's where he was i know i know but at the same time it's like dude like what is the and i keep going back to this am i happy if this happens and Cyborg gets a check that she otherwise couldn't get an MMA? No question. No question I'm happy about it. And I don't know what the answer is to the question I'm about to ask. I don't know if any of us do. But what is

the long-term cost of MMA fighters who are, because of the way the industry is structured, can't get the money that they're owed, constantly, I'm not going to say debasing themselves because that's not quite right, but constantly putting themselves in positions to get overwhelmed and sometimes very badly lose in an effort to chase money that is otherwise unattainable unattainable to them maybe the answer is nothing maybe folks just realize well mma is different i don't know man i wonder i wonder about what the long-term cost of that is no one's going to hold that against them even getting an you know even an embarrassing long-term cost of that is. No one's going to hold that against them, even getting an embarrassing loss. You sure about that long-term?

No, I really don't think. Year after year after year after year of getting viciously knocked out, badly embarrassed. I mean, it's not one person getting viciously knocked out four or five years in a row in these unless somebody becomes that star level where you'd pay for it. But I think it's more of what's the long-term vibration to the fighter pay talk and all that. That's where, like, how does that affect?

Because that was the question that you rightfully interrupted me with the breaking news. The question was, would Dana go back to this side of the street for Floyd Conner, too, just because there's so much money there it's ridiculous, and not do that for Francis on a Tyson Fury thing? Would he draw that line, or does this mean he's opening the door back for Francis to do it and whoever gets to that level? To anyone paying attention, this is the answer to the fighter pay question. Let's just be very blunt about it. The fighters are not going to unionize. They're basically afraid, whether

rationally or not, they're not going to do it. The Ali Act don't you know congress doesn't pass laws anymore that meaningfully improve anyone's life so i don't know when the fuck that would ever happen it did have bipartisan support but you know um the trumps and the emmanuels were closely tied even if it somehow made it to his desk i'm certain he would have vetoed it again he's a fan of the ufc like that would that would pay long-term dividends he might be back in office in two years who's to say so there's that. And then on top of it, you have the lawsuit, which is just who the fuck knows what's going to happen.

Boxing and losing in fights that you're almost certain to get your ass kicked in, that is what MMA fighters have chosen as the solution to the fighter pay problem. That clearly is what they are electing to do. So you're asking what it means. Dude, what it means is it's already here. This is what they see as their release clause. This is what they see as their parachute to get the money that otherwise wouldn't happen. They're not going to unionize.

They're not going to do anything else. So what it means for that is nothing to me. It doesn't mean jack shit. What I'm asking is a separate question, which is what does it mean to consistently watch MMA fighters get their asses kicked in fights for checks that they can't get in terms of MMA's reputation and standing and otherwise versions of popularity? And you might be right, BC. Your answer might be, yeah, people just forgive it. And I can't disagree with that because I don't know.

All I'm asking is for people to not be so glib about what the long-term costs are of watching your favorite athletes go to a different sport and get constantly humiliated that's what i'm saying more than look it's very hard to pull off an event like that and make huge amounts of money despite all these fights that we say maybe sometimes wrong we're like oh that fight would be a million and a half maybe we're long maybe we're wrong some people think tyson fury versus uh in ghanu won't do anything because neither have been overwhelming pay-per-view brands on their own. But the deal is, Luke, I think more than likely if MMA fighters were getting starched, that

would be the end of it. That balloon would pop. People wouldn't be interested anymore, right? Maybe that's true. And then, you know, do I think you could sell Floyd Conner, too, five years later, an older Floyd? Yeah, I think you could. I think you could sell Floyd Conner, too, five years later, an older Floyd? Yeah, I think you could. I think you could, Luke.

You could almost talk yourself into the idea of Conner having a better chance now than ever. Or maybe Floyd looks at him as a broken sort of brand and thinks he can cash him out. I don't know. It's interesting. We'll see if it comes alive. Luke, the transition here is that the final quick hitterter was ali ali abdelaziz uh saying that are we doing this are we really doing no it's my transition to dead wrong he believes right now habib who's 200 pounds could fight a middleweight and stop adesanya for uh for the title luke um do

you think he is uh onto something luke or is he? Dude, MMA sites must be desperate for shit to post because it's not like I'm even mad at Ali. Have your opinion. You want to believe that Habib can win? Maybe you can believe that. You can say that. Why are we posting? I also believe that pears are tastier than oranges.

Would someone like to post this as something? It's as equally relevant as that. I mean, it's just I cannot believe that people made the rounds or something. Luckily, we have a segment, unlike Ali, where we'll sit in front of the camera and take our L if it's necessary. If you have proof, I'll straddle that fence. I'll tumble for you, okay? Morningcombat at gmail.com is your entry point,

but you better have receipts to make sure we were dead wrong. Dead wrong. All right, this first one is from Court. Hello, BC. At an hour 31 of last Friday's show, you said James Toney finished Vasily Jirov, but that is dead wrong. It is, in fact, dead wrong.

It went to the judges, and they awarded Toney a controversial unanimous decision. I'm not sure if you forgot this fact or if your brain is malfunctioning due to the backlog of unrecycled gas station donuts clogging your jaundiced liver. Thanks for the show. Wow, that is just like... Dude, the gratuitous insult at the end really with sells that. You just Zorro'd me on the way out there. Wow, that was great. Yeah, no, actually in the moment, I realized I was dead wrong.

I was referring to the big, was it a knockdown or whatever? It was that big surge that Tony had and Emanuel Stewart went crazy. It was a decision. I realized that in the moment. I didn't train wreck the show to say it. I was dead wrong. I'll take that L. You got your shots in court, okay? Congratulations. Let's go over to Ghazi

from London, Luke. He says, hey, Donk, said an hour 58 of episode 311 whoa dude was our last episode episode 311 i don't even know because i i on i made like two 311 references that day i was like hey hey lady is your name amber or is that just the color of your energy okay maybe i didn't say that one but that would have been decent look no i'm saying today is 315 so that would have been 314 all right forget it he says that episode 3 11 luke says this is the uzbek flag i believe when referring to an amc ring walk during have you seen this shit that was in fact the azerbaijani flag disappointing from luke with azerbaijan

being a neighbor of his home country ar Armenia. Yes, a warring neighbor. The Uzbek flag is blue, white, and green for future reference, not the blue, red, and green of Azerbaijan. Love the show, though, guys. Yes, my flag knowledge is certainly lacking. I will cop to that. I'll take that L. All right.

This one's from Taff. He says, huge fan of the show, but during episode 312, Luke says that whales used to be called Cymru and claimed it was their old name. I am Welsh and can confirm that Cymru is simply the Welsh tradition for the word whales and is stalled referred, is something often referred to as Cymru by all Welsh speakers. I think that's what he's saying, Luke. It's garbage. it's it's garbage

it's it's gaelic here uh that is an old name the whale's name has never been changed huge fan of the show dude i hate this segment sometimes yeah see that that one to me is a little pedantic it's like i understand what he's saying but okay i mean just whatever okay if they're saying it's the same thing and you're dead wrong so luke take the l okay i guess i'll take that i'll sit on it uh this is from toter t-o-d-o-r toad to door hey donks i guess half the uk will be in your inbox tonight to correct luke's claim at 133 of wednesday's show that sean connery as well this one i did fuck up yes he's actually scottish love the show and please release that i

don't know why i thought he was well i went up completely i knew he wasn't british i knew that but uh yeah fuck that up did you hear to door sign off he says please release that high court episode already dude i say that in every meaning i don't know why you guys want to punt when you could actually wait and get a lot of traffic from it rather than publishing it and getting probably a fraction of the views. Like, what on earth is the urge? I don't even remember, like, what stance we took or what jokes I made.

Like, I actually want to see it myself. It was so long ago in my mind, dude. All right? I don't know why that matters. It's performance art, Luke. People want it. They know it's there. Do more art.

All right. This one's from Chandler. Hello from North Idaho, Donks. I'm 21, and I've been a huge fan of the show for years, but I'm here to slide into the DMs for a dead wrong. On Friday's episode 312, at 3215, the BBC with the BDE stated that Kevin Holland's win over Buckley came immediately after Buckley's spectacular knockout of Kasonganai.

This is dead wrong. Holland's win over Buckley actually came the fight before the Buckley's spectacular knockout of Kasangani, this is dead wrong. Holland's win over Buckley actually came the fight before the Buckley knockout over Impa. Maybe BC should stop drinking his AG1 like a bozo and mix it like any sane human would to better support that aging that is clearly resulting in memory loss. Stay frosty, it's Chandler. Wow.

Yep. Remember Eric Morales in the third pacquiao fight when he got knocked down he was just like nope yeah you got me you got me there luke i i what do i say here's how i know we're both getting old and certainly in my case there are things i used to know like the back of my hand like it was just i had a view of certain things like there's no way i'll ever forget this and now tasked to like recite it or whatever the details of it i'm like it's all hazy that's how you know you're getting old as fuck yes yes uh look this is from somebody named kai ky and they wrote will bc once again make a ky jelly joke probably would that was the first thing that came to mind when you said that.

This is Kai from Ontario. On Wednesday's episode at 1542, while discussing the potential title shot for the winner of Cater Emmett, Luke states, quote, they would be, you know, in the on-deck circle or something like that. They wouldn't be up next to bat. Referring to the UFC's likely preference to give this title shot to Yair if he beats Ortega. Well, Luke, kind sir, the term on deck actually means next up at bat,

while the proper term in this context would have been in the hole. The weather where you are broadcasting. Do fuck baseball. Eat a dick, baseball. If you're a baseball fan, fuck off. Drop dead. You know, I often, when I, Luke, when I go for the high crotch and I run the pipe, I often do it in the hole where this guy's mentioning.

Luke, the term in the hole refers the player next in line to bat following the on-deck batter. BC, how is the weather where you are broadcasting from? Did you get caught in the rain for an extended period of time this morning? You look washed as fuck, bro. Kai. Wow. All right. Our viewers are just assassinating yeah i mean if the shoe fits what am i gonna do about it you know and i do have gross toes under that shoe because they tell the story of my life phil mckagan coming in hot luke uh wow luke uh breaking news from the university of Colorado at Buffalo.

Phil McKagan has been named assistant head football coach in year one here, Luke. Awesome. So happy for him. Shouts. Shouts. Dude, big Phil. Congratulations. What a great guy. We love you, brother.

Well done. Well done, okay? We love that guy. All right, let's finish off with, hey, guys, during Monday's resume review, Brian Campbell's shit out of his mouth once again. He keeps on claiming that Max Holloway's odd interview with BizPing is what got him pulled out of the short notice fight

with Habib right behind me here at 223. You're dead wrong, you goof. Max got pulled from fighting Habib because Nysak said the weight cut was too dangerous. The interview with BizPing got Max pulled from his original bout, International Fight Week against Ortega

that was supposed to take place in July of 2018. You've been dead wronged on this before. How do you keep getting it wrong? Wake the fuck up. Wow. Yeah, bro. They're right, dude. I did F that up in real time.

That was a rough year. So to see Max end that year by doing what he did to Ortega, it was like, like damn this guy's a superhero this is randy couture from hawaii luke right indeed thank you uh we close quickly with the fan subs that we never hit here luke hopefully this gives us a bang on the way out this one's from anthony hi mk family it's anthony from chicago emailing the boys for my third fan submission you may not remember but my second was last year when my girlfriend V took me to her home country of Ecuador.

Back then I made her a promise that I would propose once MK hit 100,000 subscribers. Well, I've made good on that promise this past Saturday, the 18th, I got down on one knee and I asked V to be my wife. I rented a private sailboat and proposed on Lake Michigan with the Chicago skyline in the background.

To add a cherry on top, I made sure the orchids of combat were with us on our special day. As our family continues to grow, we will sure to bring MK along for the ride. It's not a good parenting move. Thank you for everything you do. P.S. See you boys at IFW. We are taking a family vacation to Vegas and we'll be at the Friday live show. show take good care it's anthony luke that's some wholesome shit right there that is wholesome you don't think he did the captain stabbing bit and then chucked her i mean dude he wore our shirt to his engagement moment that's incredible i'm making a stupid joke

about 90s pornography but uh that is truly a wonderful moment by the way he went all out for the proposal that is renting a boat I have learned is not cheap it's not like renting an Uber congratulations Anthony and V really seriously felicitaciones congratulations great story continuation

in this narrative that you're painting I enjoyed that alright this one's from Danny good morning fellas I'm a day one-er. Here's a combo donk, DM, and fan sub all in one to save some time. Me and the wife are expecting our second child in January, and she gave me the gift

of my life with my first UFC live event on Father's Day. We met more MK donks while we were there, and even sat behind a guy wearing a GWAR t-shirt. BC doesn't know nothing about that GWAR. Yeah, dude, they got that mouth, and then the guy comes through the mouth. Yeah, I know a little bit about GWAR. On Friday's show, LT and AB spoke about how UFC champs don't have real leverage,

and that, for example, fans wouldn't be too mad if Aljo got stripped and Dillashaw and Yan fought for the vacant belt. Are there any current UFC champs where that isn't the case? Where the outcry of the fans would be larger than the want of a fight between the next two guys in line? For example, Francis gets stripped,

Jones and Stipe fight for the vacant title. MK all day. There's virtually no champ I would say that would be true for. Are you okay with Danny, like first of all, congratulations on the bun in the oven. Thank you for, you know, going and representing MK and happy Father's Day, but then using this fansub moment to ask Luke an unpaid question, like in your chat where you have to pay like $10 to get your question.

I mean, that's a great scam, Luke. I love it. That's a great scam. But are you okay with that with your stupid assessment of what I do on my private YouTube channel no I'm not okay with that take it to OnlyFans if you really want it to take off Luke

but you're going to have to take off I will say I took my pregnant wife to a dying fetus show so I can hardly talk that's true that's true alright Jesse G is here hey what's going on Luke in BC making it look easy. I was killing some time at my local Big Lots store in the Clarence DVD bin like a true degenerate,

and I found this gem. What the fuck were you doing outside? Smoking meth in the parking lot? Supreme champion with UFC stars Stephen Bonner, Sean Shirk, Gilbert Melendez, and more. And it was only 75 cents. Love the show, show guys keep it up I cannot tell you there was a period there

like post UFC 100 where every MMA fighter was making B not even B movies like D movies straight to DVD shitholes and all of them were like fight to live or you know

dude WWE was doing so many of those, they built their own movie studio to put them out. They do those with every wrestler. There's a backlog that's ridiculous, and they don't all suck, Luke. They're all like, if it's not Randy Orton, it would have been Billy Blanks in that spot, right? No, these all sucked. These all sucked, complete ass. All right, all right. I would watch that movie, by the way, with you and do an MK Watch homework reaction all right um i would watch that movie by the way with you

and do an mk watch uh you know homework reaction luke i would do that would you you know what we should do like a mystery science theater thing where we pick like hey remember that time fucking you know uh i don't know fart sack mcsniffer was the former uf middleweight, was in a movie, and it's called Caged Innocence or some dumb shit, and then we have to watch it? Yeah, I'd do that. I mean, how deep down the fighter roster would you consider Dakota Cochran classics? That's a different kind of program. Okay.

Let's keep it going here, Luke. I'm just the messenger of the humor luke don't i mean don't attack the uh you know please oh humor is that what you're doing yeah sorry uh dude saul is a regular here the wife and i went to new york city for the first time this weekend the fight was canceled and had the choice i'm sorry the flight was canceled had the choice of to either road trip it from kentucky for 12 hours or lose a bunch of money on a hotel room that was non-refundable we went though had a great time ate expensive food and saw some stuff and even bought some weed but I was missing my weekly art so I filled the void with a trip to the modern museum of art and the following day the wax museum here are some of the stuff I think

you'd all like a Picasso call that what did you call the museum uh what he said it was a the museum of modern art and yeah i thought you said the first time but yes the moma i think and the following day the wax i've never been to either but i should i should go look i'm a i went to madame tussauds one time i i don't know how they're in business it's the fucking worst experience ever all right well luke he's posing next to arnold schwarzenegger there in the wax museum you into that for saul he's posing next to Arnold Schwarzenegger there in the wax museum. You into that? For Saul, he's like a regular around these fans.

I do love Saul, and I appreciate him arting it up. But Madame Tussauds, I'm not sure that's exactly where he went, but that's sort of the famous, hey, look at these wax figures that bear vague resemblance to famous people. But when I say vague vague what they more look like is what you know uh a fever dream of some kind of cyborg race of uh i don't know overlords would i mean it's it's it's it's not in any way a pleasant experience and they don't really look like the

people they say it looks like and even if they did it's like oh luke let people have their fun at the damn wax museum it's like oh here's a wax museum and it looks like i don't know make up somebody up joe biden looks like joe okay here i'm next to a wax statue that looks like joe biden why do i give a fuck like what what is what does that mean i i would argue the real joe biden is kind of a wax statue yeah all right with the with the mad Madame Tussauds Joe Biden also fall off a bike? I don't know. This is from Hurricane Aug. The attached meme was inspired by the bits and pieces of Encanto.

I was able to catch over the shoulder of the lady watching at my flight this past weekend. It depicts BC in his very own BBL. Only for him, it stands for Big Bicep Latina. I wanted to include an alternate version with Abuela and the donk on your staff with the granny fetish. That's filthy Phil, dude. So anyone who remembers that creep's name can feel free to steal

my idea. Anyway, hope you all get a good kick out of my art and remember to stay frosty. Luke, they are talking about filthy Phil. We met his roommate the other day randomly and I was like way too into it, Luke. I'm like, oh my god, you live with Phil? Yeah. Dude, Phil is I don't want to get fired

by HR, but he is alarming. I'll put it that way. He's one of my favorite downloadable characters in the greater MK doc arc. I'm trying to get him This show is going on fucking two and a half hours. Can we wrap this up? It's so good though right now, right? It's sort of like, you know, I shouldn't have the extra piece of cake.

No, it's not. It's dragged on so long. We did like 50 minutes on the PFL. What for? All right. You want to just end it here? We'll do these. We'll add these to next Wednesday's, Luke.

All right. No, no. We can finish it off. All right. Adam says, hey, Donks, after Luke's early live chat this week, it had me cracking up at the mic issues. So I had to drop a few memes first up his fellow former marine frank castle aka the punisher yes embodies luke's energy as he repeats for us to

wait and hold on as he clicks around his computer like my four-year-old when he sneaks into my i know these assholes think that my problems are because i'm fucking completely computer illiterate the problem is because i have gear that is a little too advanced. But what are you going to do? You were putting out hostage video updates. I enjoyed those. Those were good. Alright, next. You don't like my success. You cheer for my failure, which I find highly annoying. No, I'm not like your family.

Come on, Luke. I'm your real family, okay? Thank you. Next, after dropping some of the casual listeners, we have a live look at all the P1s that hung around and finally got decent audio. Keep your head up, Luke. You guys still have better AV than Ariel and DC did in their entire run, and they were bankrolled by the House of Mouse.

Wow, that's Adam talking right here, not BC. Wow, Luke. Wow. Was that true? Did they have tech issues? I don't know. I wasn't a big fan of that show. I don't know.

Just kidding. I mean, I was asking that in a nice way, but okay. issues i i i don't know i wasn't a big fan of that show i don't know just just kidding i mean i was asking like in a nice way but okay uh brennan is here with a you'll wanna fan sub let's see if this gets us uh in trouble luke yeah yeah i think it will i think it will all right okay i mean look you know dude i want to point out i want to point out, by the way, you post pictures on your Twitter, like your header image and then your thing, of everyone you've ever worked with except me. You have like Barry Tompkins, Rashad, Paulie Malignaggi. Luke is nowhere to be found in any of those shits, bro. One day, though, I'll surprise you, Luke, okay? It'll be a big moment.

It'll be a big day, okay? Maybe I'll just put a picture of you. I've never seen you so happy to not be pictured with me. It's like, wow, this fucking guy. I spend a lot of time with you, Luke. We get enough love back and forth. That's true. That is true.

That's fair. At Ben Ballard TX, he says, Bert and Ernie, the MK crew, and the MK crew, when I say I'm going to catch up on my shows while on the plane, I mean it a little differently than most. Here's me catching up on MK while on the way to altitude for jump number 214. Holy shit. This weekend, I earned a C license in skydiving,

and last weekend, after 13 long years, my BJJ black belt cheers from Dallas and keep up the good work. It's Ben Ballard. Wow. Look at that American Luke. Amazing. What are you going to get more injuries from? Jiu Jitsu after all those years it took to get the black belt or falling out of a plane

when the parachute doesn't open. It's probably neck and neck. Shout out to this guy. Look, I still want to skydive. Would you do it with me? Yes, I would. So here's the thing. I've actually never, I've done a lot. lot i've jumped i've jumped out of a helicopter before

i've done that a fast roped uh i've never done skydiving i have never done it i would do that yes let's get showtime to pay for it then i'm yes if showtime pays for it we'll do it okay okay wait but you have to have a tandem so it's like a large guy with his arms around your waist, right? What if they put you and me back to butt just fucking the whole way down? Yeah, okay, I'll stop there. We would get fired if I kept that going. All right, this is from Danger Mouse. Hi, BC.

It's Danger Mouse again, starting with you just being you. Yeah, BC just loves... I think what they're joking is how long you take to do this shit. Oh, no, no, you're saying you're faster, but this isn't more efficient. This is much slower. It's just a distraction, though, says Danger Mouse. I have something special for you this week, a meme in two parts.

Almost six months in the making from original template to today's submission. This meme needed a story, but it would have been too long for you to read out. However, thanks to the great guys at Castle Labs, I was able to make that story into something special. So a huge shout-out to them. I'm giving you fair warning, though. This is going to be some amazing foreplay, followed by a potentially disappointing climax.

Okay, production team, roll it. And they're rolling it. Episode CCLXXIV. I don't know enough there to do that. And no sound here. This should have the Star Wars music, but Luke, we don't want to get to it. It is a dark time in the MMA media.

The revelation breaks that Dana White is a Sith Lord bent on taking over the whole world. The horror is only increased by the terrible news that the fans of Morning Combat have fallen under his sinister spell. All right?

With no other choice available, to them, our heroes, the Jedi, Luke Delta A. Thomas, and his heroic gas station food smuggler companion, Brian Black Liver Campbell, have fought the final battle.

Here we go. Emerging victorious, they must be sure that none of the fallen are pretending to be dead. Oh, fuck. Where is this going? Okay, can you fast forward this part, please? Yes.

I mean, this show is interminable. All right. Can you blow it up? Can you blow it up? How do we know if they're actually dead or just pretending to be dead? I watched Volk vs. Max 49 times ha ha ha ha ha are you they have you uh uh yeah in that last got me stabbing one of those guys which i take yeah yeah you're stabbing him all right luke you know what i'm saying wow all right more like

tossing his galactic salad luke right mean, what's going on right over there? Okay. You know what I mean? Let's keep it going here. Thank you, Danger Mouse. Thank you. Our final fan sub, and then we can finally end this epic. This is at least a top 50 show all time, Luke.

Maybe. Sean says, this one is recorded with the awesome chef at my local bar. His wife dropped some philosophy regarding Brian's art and makes it clear that Japan is ready to welcome the Donk Show anytime you're ready. Wow, can we restart this and blow it up? I gotta see this. I gotta see this live. Did you see the Risen show?

I'm gonna really hope. I have not seen this to this point. I am desperately hoping this is not racist. Asakura was shit hot. Yeah, this is a little dicey look. This is fair satire, but this is uncomfortably close to racism for me. Yeah! This is fair satire, but this is uncomfortably close to racism for me. Okay, we've got the idea. We've got the idea here.

Thank you for that submission. Good to go. Appreciate it. On to the next. That's nice. No need to go further. Point taken. We don't need rising coverage very well here.

Fine, fine. At this point, we can show that circus freak getting eaten by the snake right at this point right just show it already i mean just go out in a blaze of glory let's just show pornography fuck it let's just have a date hey luke i did want to shout out uh abner morris showtime championship boxing he hasn't fought in four and a half years he had the eye injury he almost fought tank davison it fell apart he's back on the andy ruiz pay-per-view undercard in september against a live body in moises flores luke it's been a long time coming you know i hope i hope abner does well he had a great uh career for a long time and this show has gone on far too long you like my abner morris bandana luke dude can you i mean dude we're at two hours and 20 minutes of commercial-free shit.

Can we please, for the love of God, call it a day? All right. Let's put an end to this, Luke. For our great staff, Gaff, Corey, all the... Is this what you wore on January 6th? This is my tribute to Mexican boxing. Leo Santa Cruz, Abner Morris. They had two of the greatest battles of the modern era here Luke

okay for my great staff and team for Luke the Vaporator Thomas remember take care of this okay stay happy stay healthy enjoy the weekend enjoy the fights and remember also may all your hoes no wait forget it they'll never be loyal

we out oh Luke Thomas too thanks Luke thanks