MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vegas 66 Picks | Showtime Championship Boxing | Fight Announcements | Ep 387

Episode Date: December 16, 2022

On Episode 387 Luke and Brian kick off the show by giving their picks for UFC Vegas 66. Next up the boys preview the Showtime Championship Boxing card this weekend. What should we look for in Michel Rivera vs. Frank Martin? They also run through some recent fight announcements. As always the boys close out friday with Dead Wrong. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher 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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Reveley, Reveille, dogs 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, can you hear that passion can you can you hear that character can you hear that charisma

can you feel the bde pouring into your ear hole as we speak right now right no ah well we're here folks. The best damn combat sports show. Period. The best sports podcast in the globe, according to a bunch of voters as well, on a few different things. My name is Brian Campbell. It is Friday, December 16th, 2022. And you know what we're here to do. Set the weekend straight.

We're talking about UFC picks. We're talking about Showtime Boxing. We're talking about the news that is. But you might not be here for me. You might be here for that other guy. A native of New Delhi, India. Who's forgotten more than one of his cultures of old there as a Doha native and alum. It's Luke Thomas.

Welcome back, Luke. Fridays, we F around and art up a little It's Luke Thomas. Welcome back, Luke. Fridays, we F around and art up a little bit. How are you feeling today, Luke? I'm feeling okay. I'm feeling okay. I had a crazy busy day yesterday, but excited for the weekend, excited to have no free time and just cater to my child's life at all times, so it should be great. That's the life we live and we willingly will live it, Luke. I mean, that's the life right there, okay?

There it is. But, Luke, a lot of reaction in the interwebs and beyond to our brash announcement. I mean, was it all that brash if you didn't live in the U.K. or the surrounding area, Luke? That's what some people are wondering. I mean, what did they want? Did they want you to finally come out, Luke? What were they waiting for? Yeah, I don't know what they're waiting for exactly.

I mean, listen, I get the point on the side of folks being like, well, I live in Wyoming. What good does this do me? Fair enough. I can sort of understand that. What you also have to understand is like as a show product, the more you get to do that kind of stuff, the more you get to do all other kinds of stuff.

Everything builds. Everything cascades. Can't say that we're going to be going to Wyoming anytime soon necessarily, but if you want the brand to grow and succeed and do other things, cheering this on is pretty important. Well, just a quick reminder from Wednesday's big reveal, February 8th as part of the overall inaugural pod live podcasting festival put on by the Sports Podcast Group. Your boys BC and LT, Morning Combat, one of the headliners.

We are going live at King's Place in London, February 8th. You can scan that QR code on the screen right now to get to our live show. Only, I believe, 500 or so tickets that we're selling. But Luke, already i'm overwhelmed with love and joy to hear how many fans are like i don't even know yet if i can make it but i just bought a ticket just in case or you know hey i'm gonna make that my vacation this year i mean we got people coming from north america luke i mean this is you know this is it's got to make you feel good at the end of the at the end of a hard week luke it feels great and by the way like we haven't even

announced all the other extra stuff that's going to go along with it some guests some other fun stuff so like this is it's only going to get better from here of course we will make sure that we can air it for any kind of live audience and blah blah blah but i guess we're going to figure that out but in any case um it's going to be a good one this is mk to the uk perhaps the one time only make it count folks make it count thank you you're in ireland you're one of my fellow welshmen you better be that you better be there i'm sorry you better be there okay by book hook crook boat whatever you got to do to get there uh it's something special is going to happen okay it's a it's our gift to you the people for helping us get this far and beyond thank you very much much. Luke, quickly before we start,

obviously a shout out to Showtime, the label that pays. You want to catch Showtime Championship Boxing Saturday night, Bellator around the corner, you know, all movies, all that good stuff. Go to Showtime.com right now, get your 30 days free. And don't forget, what is it? Six months, Luke, at $3.99 if you go on from there? That's right. Six months of $399 after your first trial period. So pretty nice. Pretty nice deal. Pretty nice. Unbeaten Lightweights this Saturday that we'll get to in a couple segments

when Frank Martin takes on Michelle Rivera. So that's going to be a big one to watch there. Your boy BC on Showbox back in January as well. So take the plunge for Showtime. We'll be glad that you did. Shout out to Malka CBS Sports. All the people that love us. Shout out to RJ Dunkelganger.

Luke, what is the preferred alternate pronunciation of Mr. Rowan Gartner's last name in your eyes? Is it RJ Nasserbang or we're not doing that one anymore? I was going to make a joke, but I don't want to get us in trouble. So I'm just going to say RJ. I can't do it. I've got like five things I want to say. All of them are like deeply pornographic. That's a great, that's a good point.

Let's take back all that stuff. RJ, our fantastic merch maven, is wanting to remind us you can go to morningcombat.store right now. Although we have passed the guaranteed phase of getting your flat rate shipping to your house by Christmas, gift cards are available right now on morningcombat.store if you missed the deadline, but you want to put your hubby in a sweet bomber jacket,

you know, one of these t-shirts, hats, mugs. I'm sure Luke's got merch all over that office right there. It looks fantastic. It feels even better, okay? So there you go, morningcombat.store. Get your gift cards now for whichever holiday you celebrate. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. Of course, our extras, our bonus content, our channel.

I got a nice sit down with Jerron Boots Ennis. He's not going to fight until January 7th on the Showtime pay-per-view tank return in the co-main event for the interim IBF welterweight title. But how about his thoughts on Spence Crawford, everyone at large, where he stands in, what 2023 will look like check that out luke you got any anything else to sell i mean i got this mug of happiness right here they call athletic greens you know what i mean uh yeah we can get to that in just a second just a reminder that january 7th card here in the capital of estados anitos washington dc my hometown bc i was looking at some of the the of needles, Washington, DC, my hometown, BC. I was looking at some of the, the tentative schedule for stuff we have to do that week.

I cannot tell you how exciting it's going to be to go do that. And then I get to go back to my house and my own tooks. Tukes is going to love that. But did so wait. So January 7th, Showtime pay-per-view tank Davis versus Hector Garcia there. We can't wait. But January 6th is an anniversary. It's also the day of the weigh-in.

Do you think the folks, you know, Showtime, PBC, they would be brazen enough to put that on the Capitol steps that weigh-in, Luke, just to commemorate history? Well, January in D.C. can still be pretty cold, so I doubt it for those reasons alone. Also, that would be fucking weird to do that. Also, a lot of those spaces are closed off anyway. Some of them used to be more open to the public like 5, 10 years ago a lot of those spaces are closed off anyway some

of them used to be more open to the public like five ten years ago but it's all pretty closed off now they're like well morrow couldn't be here but we'd like to welcome pat milotic back to the showtime broadcast like well the timing is suspect alex jones barking into a megaphone you know i can't wait for that though uh speaking this mug Luke You know what I do every morning I wake up I take 8 ounces of this This This magic I pour it into this glass

Fill it up with water Or 8 ounces of water with one scoop of this green You know where I'm going with this Luke And I feel like I'm cutting the line on health Like I'm cheating my way back into the game And Luke it's coming It's taking time I'm cutting the line on health, like I'm cheating my way back into the game. And, Luke, it's coming. It's taking time.

I'm working on this extra weight. But on the way there, I could be doing worse than starting my day with an injection of AG1. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's right. That's right. You want better gut health. You want more energy. You don't want to take a bunch of vitamins and pills.

AG1's got you covered. Tastes super healthy. Mild tropical taste. Doesn't taste like you're just swallowing and chewing up raw broccoli or something. It's got a little punch to it, but not too crazy. Pretty mild, pretty easy for everyone. It's hard to go wrong with AG1. Indeed, indeed. I take it on the road with me, and the reason why I'm willing to take it everywhere, Luke,

is because this special blend of ingredients that you mentioned, it's not just gut health, nervous system, immune system. It's kicking you in the ass for energy, recovery, focus, aging. It's just another additional thing you can do it. In my case, Luke, when I restarted my health, this was the only thing I was doing at first, but it started me each morning, putting something healthy in my body, setting that table. And now whether I'm lifestyle friendly in the direction of keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, I know it's okay for me because it's got less than one gram of sugar. No GMOs, no nasty chemicals. Luke, it still tastes good though. It must be a dream, bro.

It's not a dream. It's reality. A little bit of investment each day in your health can go a long way. And of course it costs less than $3 a day. So you're investing in your health, as I just indicated, cheaper than your cold brew habit. And it's something you can do every single day, just one time a day. Again, not a bunch of pills, not a big old gallon of something, just a very simple process to take great care of yourself. Would I recommend chasing it with watermelon vape? No, Luke, but talking about recommendations, you're looking at stalwarts in the industry, like Tim Ferriss, Michael Gervais, health experts who said this right here, try, how about those 7,000 people that did five-star reviews? Because they basically said they took the AG1 plunge and now they're not leaving this pool. They're living in it. They're swimming in it. So Luke, if I was to call our

people to action, here's what I'd say to them. Right now you go to athleticgreens.com slash morning combat. And with your first purchase, you go to athleticgreens.com slash morning combat. And with your first purchase, you're going to get the five free travel doses that we mentioned. And how about a year's supply of immune-supporting vitamin D drops? I'll put that shit right in the middle of that AG1, Luke. It's like a little truth serum. And my body starts getting real for the first time, Luke, since they shut Cumbies down. You know what I'm saying?

No doubt about it. And, of course, as we mentioned, mentioned athletic greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune supporting vitamin d by the way flu and cold season coming up keep that in mind and then five free travel packs with your first purchase athletic greens.com slash morning combat take ownership over your health pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance athletic greens.com slash morning combat booyah chicago have you been watching the shack documentary at all not yet no okay it's i've enjoyed it i've been entertained um uh before we get into whether you're going to watch ufc vegas 66 anything else big tv wise going on for you my wife finally had

the well she so it's funny one of the showtime producers here matt has been in our ears for a long time to watch White Lotus, which I guess... Oh, Daniel Snyder's kid. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Daniel Snyder's kid. That's right. And so my wife even like, I hadn't even told her that. I just been kind of putting it in like, you know, filing it in the back of the filing cabinet. And then my wife yesterday was like, hey, we should watch White Lotus. So we're going to start White Lotus tonight. We'll see how that goes. All right. All right. Get after after that i like that i like long island luke supporting your choice they're saying our producer luke no cita brother so uh i mean yeah there we go luke if he ever gets supported he's got a home in australia at least right long island luke i don't think so i think they'd boot his fucking

ass out too but yeah he might go he's yeah yeah there we go all right let's get into this weekend topic number one uh we set the stage we previewed it we hit the storylines right now you're going to get some odds some picks and the reasons why it's ufc vegas 66 back at the apex the last ufc card of this 2022 calendar year and long island luke jumping in to say don't worry folks i'm an australian citizen i'll be just fine. Thanks, Luke. We're talking about the UFC, though, right now. And we're talking about middleweights,

two guys that got pretty damn far. Kananir losing to Adesanya last time on the title level, Jared Kananir. But he's back here against a comebacking Sean Strickland, who maybe lost his potential number one contender fight against new champion now, Alex Pareda. But, Luke, they both need this win to keep contention they are varying levels of danger though that they bring to this and I think because of that it's very hard because it's the power of Cannoneer it's the volume toughness

consistency of Sean Strickland but our friends at Caesars at the moment. Minus 110 either way. A pick'em for the main event. So we know how big this fight is, Luke. What separates these two X's and O's coming into this? Man, this one, the odds I think, sometimes they're right but most of the time they're in the general proximity of right, even though of course that's not what they're

used for. But in this case, the 110 to 110, both minuses, total pick'em as you indicated. Man man I've had a really really hard time went back and watched some tape on both of these guys if you look at some of the numbers for example on Ken and ear you know his knockdown rate in his overall UFC career is fine but not commendable but if you look at it at middleweight it's actually pretty good it goes up significantly because obviously he was at heavyweight then light and then of course middleweight as everyone knows so you look at him at middleweight dude then light, and then, of course, middleweight, as everyone knows. So you look at him at middleweight, dude can thump, and he is in great shape,

and even for 38 years old and comes from a great camp. All the things that we talked about on Wednesday. So I'm going to tell you, BC, I'm going to make a pick. This is seriously a coin flip, but here's what I'm going to say. I do think that Kananir is going to make it interesting and hurt Sean Strickland, but I tend to think that Strickland's volume and work over the course of time is going to be the difference maker. I think it could be one of these situations where it's three rounds to two.

It could get dicey in certain spots. We'll have to see. But if you've got youth on the case of Strickland, and he does sometimes get hit with a big bomb. I mean, his defense wasn't great in the Pereira fight, but in general, he's got 64% striking defensive rate, which is very high. I'm just not convinced. I mean, I don't know.

My hunch is that Kananir, as the one big punch guy against Strickland, is not going to be enough. I think I like Strickland here to win. Although I wonder if you have the same feeling or you're going a bit of a different direction. Cause this is a tough one. It's a very, yeah,

you know, I mean, the odds tell you alone that you really can't be wrong here, but something's got to separate them. And I certainly get the argument for Strickland, you know, even if you're just going age and momentum. Okay.

Yeah. He just got knocked out by Prada. But again, there was something that was out of character about that. And nowiton's the champion so it's you know it lessens the blow to a certain degree but he's the guy with the larger brighter future in a lot of ways but is he the better fighter or the more the more dangerous fighter in a certain setting i don't know not you know definitely not on the ladder when you're comparing power, but is he better overall? I think a lot of this comes down to Kananir's mindset

and what strategy he picks. Because, Luke, in theory, being as filthy casual and distant as possible, when I look at Kananir, I'm like, okay, you know, you can try to just be the counterpuncher like you kind of were against Whitaker and try to land that big blow. You can try to box and establish and get off first, I don't think he does enough of Luke you know or you know you can you can go for broke and make it a fight and make it a war at times I almost wonder if Kananir's too technically skilled for his own good that sometimes he mutes his output

or his intention to go in there and just say look look, I'm going to will and pull you into this action fight. It depends how he looks at this, because we talked about it Wednesday. The Adesanya fight's weird. He lost a wide decision. He deserved to lose a wide decision. But there were certain things that he did very well on an elite level that put himself in position to potentially, you know, make a run at taking over that fight. Whether it was Adesanya's greatness, fear, or whatever, you know, he just never really stepped on that gas pedal. This is a step down in the, you know, overall craft technique and wizardry, even though

I'm here to tell you Sean Strickland can box. I mean, you know, there's a lot that he does technically well. I mean, if I'm going to see a cannoneer that's coming in there to do damage create big moments but not looking around to just hope he lands that one shot if he doesn't i need him to tone down a little bit the game planning and realize what's left of the window in front of him paired with his age which can be a little bit more of a scare tactic because he hasn't he hasn't act that age in the cage but look i need this guy to go after Sean Strickland and make this a fight. Do you think he can win it if he tries to play the angles

and the X's and O's like he did against Adesanya? Can he win that way? Am I sounding like an idiot over here? Because I'm looking like you've got to break Strickland down. If he tries to go in there and like, you know, I'm going to be the slicker of the two. Okay, you definitely need to create openings but i think what you're getting at is like i'm going to take a calm measured pace it's five

rounds again you don't want to be insane but can i really be the guy who's just going to be the one who finds this shot and then two minutes later that shot and then a little bit later that shot and then just kind of ask the judges to weigh the accumulative effect against a guy like sean strickland i don't really i mean it's always possible but I don't buy that's his best method to victory I think listen box a brawler brawl a boxer and uh I think Sean Strickland of the two has got as you indicated probably the better boxing pure boxing anyway at least the more consistent boxing so I think trying to rough him up get him out of the space he's comfortable in backing him up making him make bad choices through pressure through activity that kind of not like the crazy activity, but like, you know, really like

putting hard shots together. I think that's probably his best chance if there is one, not the other way. Because look, if I look at what's a, you know, in terms of picking them in a pick'em, again, it's something very slim that's going to lead the direction of where you're going but look when i do look at strickland fresh off of where his style can go completely wrong like it did against perera man if i'm you know if i'm canonera this guy almost has the style to me that plays to me meaning look i don't think strickland's a huge knockout threat against canonere but he operates at such a close distance letting his hands go that, that in a lot of ways, that's where, at times, Cannoneer's going to need him to be.

He's got to take advantage of that. He's got to slug with him. That's right. I would agree with that. I would agree with that completely. Whether he will, whether he can, how it works, I guess we'll have to see, but I would agree. If I'm thinking about what he does differently and better

and what that means as a path to victory. I think you've laid it out for Kananir in about the best way, from a macro perspective anyway, that he can get. Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, Luke, when you look at Strickland's style, which against the step down, meaning the solid contenders of the division, man, his craft looks really good.

But can he be that same fighter on the championship level without being known as a knockout guy? Like, is he slick enough to do that style, which can be dangerous at times, crowding a guy, putting on constant pressure, when, you know, you don't look at him and say, that guy's got cannon near Poiton-level finishing ability? No, I think that this style doesn't sk it i think the style it works for uh it's funny like there are certain styles that work really well for

any kind of opponent and then there are certain styles that work well up to a certain point in the division and they just fall apart i think strickland would find against the whittakers and against obviously saw it happen against potato but against izzy too it just wouldn't it wouldn't really get him over the hump. It may not get him over the hump against Cannoneer. Again, I want to say it one more time. Minus 110, minus 110. A true pick-em in every sense of the word.

So we'll see if it actually gets the job done here, but certainly against the proven championship guys, right? Izzy held the title. Pineda holds the title. Whitaker held the title. Against those guys, I don't think it works at all. No. I like Cannoneer's chances here, Luke, because I like that he's got the championship round experience.

He's got a good gas tank. He's very poised and patient. Sometimes, I think, to a fault on the higher he matched himself, but that can be a plus when you've got the totality of a potential five-round fight here against a high-volume guy in Strickland who's going to ultimately test your cardio just by executing that style. But again, he's got he's gotta i mean you can't i don't think you can go point for point against strickland you know with the fear of if you go to the scorecards that constant volume could sway the judges so luke we don't expect cannon near to shoot but what level

will strickland's wrestling play in here because we talk about skills working up to a certain level at a certain level strickland can be grinder, take you down and be nasty with elbows on top. I mean, there are, there are, that's part of his arsenal, but does that work in this fight? In your opinion, he might go to the wrestling. I don't think that he really will. I think the bigger issue might be, uh, Strickland's how Strickland's defensive wrestling holds up and his defensive wrestling is very good like it's legitimately excellent and the takedown it's funny the takedown of both guys have better defensive wrestling than offensive wrestling which can be true for a lot of folks

but it's especially acute in their case sean strickland very good defensive takedowns and if you look at like the jack hermanson fight with cannonier and how cannonier was able to like to sort of athletically continue the scramble to get out of things, that really benefited him there. But if he wants to take down Strickland as a way to mix it up or whatever, I just don't think that's going to work. It might work for Strickland because, again, Kananir's got good defensive wrestling relative to his offense,

but still not quite as good on the defensive side as Strickland. So something to be said for that. But either way, I just don't think the wrestling will... Okay, again, one never knows. My hunch is that the wrestling won't play a very dominant role. But watch me say that and come out, and these two fuckers are going to wrestle each other like, you know, Gamrot or Yukin or something.

You know, I'm playing a heavy canoneer card because I like him better in this matchup. He is my pick, but I do wonder if he's got to... He's more dangerous. He can say that. Sure, but I do wonder if he's got to stop him. Sure, but I think it's not just can you stop him. He's got to be the more physical fighter in the clinch. He's got to come out hard with the leg strikes because

again, in my belief, Strickland's style is to Cannoneer's advantage because he'll be coming at him and it'll be close to him, but I think he's really got to work in those kicks and really try to make Strickland as stationary as possible to begin to chip away and get him out of there but on the flip side look i don't want to make it all about uh cannon near strickland is coming off you know a really big loss i don't discount that strickland is a smart fighter despite you know the very person

purposefully crazy persona that he puts out are we overlooking my overlooking the potential for him to really learn from that as short as that poeton loss was it was devastating so you know is the is this that was that a wake-up call in ways that we may that we may not be thinking about because when you put a microphone in front of strickland you get now what you should expect to get just you know political weirdness i mean it's it's he's more likely to get fired than we are luke and that's saying something right you know what i mean yeah um i tend to think that like there's a positive and a negative in the way he took the poet on loss on the negative side he was like yeah i'd fight him the same way again it's like well then you would probably get the

same result like yeah that doesn't seem very wise. On the other hand, it looked like he didn't take it to heart too much. You know, like he didn't seem, I'm sure he didn't love it. I'm sure he wasn't happy about it. I'm sure he was sad about it in whatever ways that Sean Strickland can be. But it didn't seem like he really got down about it. He wanted to get right back in there and get going. He likes hard sparring.

He likes consistent activity. That's sort of what keeps him sharp. So in that sense, I think it will benefit him a little bit the question is you know if he goes in there with a very odd game plan against cannoneer you know i mean he's not going to switch it up right like so the whole point is he has to have the right idea up front otherwise i think it's going to come apart but if he has the right idea up front then it becomes the cannoneer obligation to disrupt it right that's how that right and when you when you when we're thinking about potential additions or rounding out of strickland's game to have potentially use the poet on loss as a

you know a change mechanism here i mean him adding the jab and adding the ability i mean it's not that he doesn't have a jab i mean him owning the space in front of him more often, using that jab to hold distance. I don't know if he can pull that off against Kananir, who is a much more underrated boxer than people realize or give him credit for. Again, he doesn't always let his hands go. Sometimes Kananir's too patient. He waits for the perfect moment.

But that guy can move his head, play angles, work off the jab. I don't know. As much as if you're Strickland, okay, you might want to keep Kananir at distance, that may be playing into something that Jared does well. I don't know if I agree with that. I think if they just had a striking distance at range, more often than not, Strickland's going to win that. Like, I don't see him as the great disruptor, perhaps in the way that you do.

I could be wrong. I guess we'll have to see. But I don't quite see him as playing that role where he's got, like, the excellent craft. Dude, like, what the Izzy fight showed, what it showed a lot of guys, is that he had, we talked about it before, a great ability to game plan. His team is very smart. John Crouch, those guys at MMA Lab, dude, they know what they're doing.

They know exactly what they're doing. But the problem he had was that he could defensively neutralize Izzy and not really put any offense behind it. He just couldn't get it going. He has to make trade-offs, right? He has to make trade-offs. So he has to make the right trade-off here where he's not too defensive without getting lit up, obviously,

and then allowing the rest of that dangerous part of his game to breathe. It couldn't breathe against Izzy. It might be able to breathe against Sean, but I don't think he can balance both quite as nimbly as you suggest. Yeah, well, it's hard because he plays chess, meaning

cannoneer, better than people realize. That's what allowed him to make that Adesanya fight interesting to you know make that make that um Adesanya fight interesting if you felt that pockets of that were interesting obviously it was more like I'm just screaming at the tv go for it throw your hands but you know on this level Strickland is not of that super elite level Luke and I have my questions I think Jared's boxing is going to do fine here I mean look he boxed very well after losing that Whitaker fight in those two wins. It was Brunson and I forgot who the other one was that he got.

Who did he beat? Oh, Gastelum that he took a decision from in a close competitive fight. Gastelum really put a lot into that camp and came after him well. I don't know. Either way, I like Kananir's skills better. My biggest fear for him, though, is if Strickland has consistent success, volume punching, getting inside without leaving himself open for big counterstrikes. Will that lead to Kananir being too cute, too perfect in trying to land the right shot and have his overall offense suffer in terms of scoring close rounds?

That's the biggest fear I would have for him. I do, though, like we talked about, have questions whether Strickland can use wrestling to his advantage and how that may alter this game. I mean, we don't expect Kananir to shoot at all, right, Luke? Under any circumstance, correct? I wouldn't say under any circumstance, but highly unlikely. Possible, but I would bet against it. For sure, I would bet against it.

All right. In postscript, what does the winner get here, in your opinion? Who's next for the winner? This is a big fight. I still think that there's, so they just added a fight to, well, it was announced yesterday between, like, Marvin Vittori and Roman DeLizze. You might get the winner of that.

Like, you might get the winner of somewhere like that, and then the winner of that, you're not far from a title at all at that point. You could potentially even get it. Now, it remains unclear, because Whitaker has this fight allegedly with Paulo Costa although he suggests it's not really there and I guess the winner of that would get the winner of whatever eventual rematch there might be so title shot you can't be like oh yeah guaranteed but it puts you one or two fights away I would say probably two fights away I would say something like that

the only wild card to that scenario, in my opinion, is whether they ever break glass and go, oh, Chemayev, we need to replace this main event. Go fight a top-ranked middleweight. You know what I mean? If anything like that crazy happens, to alter that. And again, that's a great point. There's always the Chemayev sweepstakes out there

and how that could change things. But I still feel like you get a win like this, especially if you're Strickland, and you can bump back up in the rankings, this can do a lot for you in terms of getting you the marquee matchups against former champions or would-be kind of guys. Would you say a loss is

devastating to either one? There's a time crunch to a setback here if they lose, meaning they've got to work their way back around. Yeah, it's devastating for Kananir. That's who it would be. It wouldn't be great for Strickland. It would be bad. like remember we didn't discuss this you know the guy got viciously ko'd by potato now that wasn't exactly like yesterday but you know other he spars

fucking hard you know like what kind of lingering effects could there be that could open him up for the knockout in a in a subsequent contest i guess we'll have to see. But we talked about it on Wednesday, BC. 31 years old for Sean Strickland, 38 for Jared Cannoneer. Like, you know, if he beats Strickland, he's still kind of in the ballgame. But if he loses to Strickland. Yo, let's just be real here. Cannoneer's going to win by knockout, Luke. Probably in the fourth. Cannoneer by fourth round knockout.

He might. He might. Dude, this is a coin flip. Honestly, I'm going to go Strickland, but he might. He might. I just feel like, you know, there's going to be that moment where strickland bites off more than he can chew at a distance where he can pay for it and and it's not just because of that the way that they have with poet on but uh you know it's you know we do have to see him bounce back mentally from that just the same so interesting fight big stakes good match

making happy for that but luke you have indicated that this week's sex ball comes in that co-main event lightweight it's bull season yeah i mean holy freaking crap we're talking about hammers we're talking about the future of hammered them we're talking about very close betting odds here arman sarukian has only lost in the UFC at the very highest level. Gamrot, Mahachev, we know about that. He'll be a minus 190 betting favorite when welcoming in the unbeaten in the UFC here, the red hot Demir Ismagulov, if you will. Somewhere in there is a correct pronunciation. Plus 160.

Luke, to set it up like this, I thought back on our discussion on Wednesday. I crunched tape like Tom Cruise said I need to. I think you're underrating Sarukian's striking game and the improvements he's attempted to make since when he started off when it was merely a vehicle to set up his takedowns. I mean, do I need him to be at his very best striking-wise in this matchup? For sure. But, dude, he's got the power and intention, and I think he's got the vehicles also to make that a big part of this fight. And, look, I heard the interviews with him.

I found out why he's taking on such a hard fight. Nobody would fight him in the top five or ten. He said he doesn't turn down fights. He said this was the only fight offered to him. And Luke Thomas, he also said Demir and him did some wrestling sparring in Thailand in the past. And he felt that that gave him the confidence that he knows what he's getting into.

He's taking this fight because that's how he's wired and made to make as big of a statement possible. Damn, did he come close against Gamrot. As much as we got to respect Demir, dude, your boy Armand Sorokin's coming on, and he's loaded and armed and ready for action here, Luke. Don't fear at all about the well-rounded threat aspect. He's going to show you something striking-wise in this one.

So that's my opening statement to you, okay? Yeah, yeah. So I'm picking this Magulov in this one, which is something I never thought I would want to do, but I have been cornered, and I don't have much of a choice at this one. to do, but I have been cornered, and I don't have much of a choice at this one. I do not like this fight. Cornered is pressured.

Why are you pressured to go against Armenia here? Well, again, of all the fights, I mean, here's the thing. I think Saryukian's long-term potential here is championship level. I really believe that. I think he's extremely talented. But, man, I just think everyone and their fucking brother has slept on demir ismogulov and i don't really understand why um if you watch the tape on him it is not fucking difficult to figure out he is extremely good he has been uh taken down one time

through his ufc fights it was against another, by the way, is eventually going to enter the rankings, Guram Kutateladze, a Georgian guy who's just a fucking hammer himself. That was a brutally difficult fight. And what you notice is it happened very quickly. It was off a trip from the clinch, and he didn't even get him to get his hips turned over. His hips were still facing the mat,

so it wasn't even really a full takedown. That is it. And every other fucking guy who has tried to take him down hasn't even gotten close at all at all you add in behind the fact that he also can wrestle offensively he's not just a striker who can like defend the takedown he's like well versed as a wrestler he's got one of the best jabs in the UFC listen to the words I'm saying he's got one of the best jabs in the UFC he doesn't take a lot of damage. He manages around well. His balance is incredible.

His feet are always under him. This is, in my judgment, I would, believe me, believe me, nothing would make me happier than being wrong about this. I'm sorry, Yuki, in getting his hand raised. But I think it's too much too soon. I think Demiris Magulov is going to wake up a lot of people here who, because this dude doesn't speak English and doesn't do interviews in English like no one has ever.

What was your favorite Demir Ismagulov interview this week? It didn't make the rounds. Yeah. I think a lot of people are about to find out the hard way how good this guy is. All right, look, if he's the goods, if he's another hammer, Luke, that I've got to find room for, that we're pulling out, hashtag holy hammer,

then maybe you're right. But if I'm going to devil's advocate that take, and again, I got to find room for that we're pulling out. Hashtag holy hammer. Then maybe you're right. But if I'm going to devil's advocate that take, and again, I mean, your guy's on fire. He's great. I watched the tape, too. He's very good. I mean, he's technically amazing. But Luke Thomas, he's coming off a split decision. He hasn't been a finisher on this level.

And he went the distance against Joel Alvarez, who Sariuki, I mean, turned into a horror film against Luke and violently finished. Experience-wise in the UFC, you'd have to, even with the defeat, you'd have to give a heavy edge to Saryukian. So how much does that matter? Or is Demir just, you know, another Shavkat Rachmaninoff, another guy who's just like, it doesn't matter who they fought or haven't fought. Give them the chance and watch what happens. Luke, I think you're, I mean, so your guys are meaningless. I would actually say, I would actually say Ismagulov Gamrot fight not

withstanding, but I would actually say Ismagulov's actually had a tougher run through the UFC. In the UFC? In the UFC? Yeah, I mean, the first, okay, so let's go through these here very quickly I'm not saying he hasn't fought anybody dude I'm not saying that but I understand you know so he fought Alex Gorgies who you know was totally overmatched that one doesn't mean much for me

but then he beat Joel Alvarez okay quality opponent then he beat Tiago Moises quality opponent then he beat Rafael Alves quality opponent and then he beat Guram Kutateladze and I know that folks don't know who that is. You're gonna. Trust me when I tell you, you're gonna. Now, Saryukian has had an interesting run as well. He had, well, he had Makachev. So the Makachev fight, okay, that would make it over the top.

But in terms of the wins, OAM, Davi Hama. OAM, come on, dude. That's your PFL champion. And I didn't need the smart case to remind me of that Luke put some respect on Canada it's a quality win but you know who's tougher Kuta Terladze or OAM like Kuta Terladze is way

tougher okay who's you know I got Gamrot and Islam in the middle of his resume he's got Matt Frivola and Christos those are not especially difficult in my judgment and then he has the loss to Gamrot so like you could even... Because of Makachev being his UFC debut, fine, I will grant that overall he has had a tougher run. But that initial debut notwithstanding, since then, like their last five,

I would say Ismagulov's last five have been probably just as tough, if not tougher. Would you say, though, though that sarukin's the only person that like made islam work and that like oh yeah at that point it sounds like i'm shitting on the guy that i like i'm not shitting on the guy that i like i think that this is too much too soon i think that's the problem he's got good positional control he's got phenomenal athleticism he is a better wrestler than ismagulov but the question is like how much better i guess that really that's what this fight comes down to right like how much better of a wrestler is armin saryukian than ismagulov

and if the answer is substantial within all of my analysis is out the window but watching what ismagulov has done previously i tend to think that there's a there's a difference but not a substantial one and because there but not a substantial one. And because there's not a substantial one, there won't be a substantial difference. And also, by the way, the win of Rakuta-Teladze, they have it wrong in here.

It was a majority decision. And by the way, the one judge who had it a tie, ready for this? Douglas Crosby. Douglas fucking Crosby. That is perfect, by the way. Wow.

We are getting emotional here, but this is still a you know not a pick them but pretty damn close and yes both of these guys in the long run are probably going to do great things but it i don't know it's interesting so you're framing it under the idea of which the stats will tell you you're not wrong to suggest this that if saryukian cannot consistently take him down and make those takedowns matter then on the feet he's going to have problems with someone like Demir that's what you're telling me right now yeah and I think Demir is aided by the fact that he can wrestle like he's again I want to speak it's not one of these guys who's like a striker who just learned how to wrestle I mean that may be his story but you just look at the way he wrestles he can do it fluidly in both

directions he's a very good wrestler he is aided by the fact that folks under they sleep on this his jab cannot say it over and over again without like really being like as emotive as i am his jab is excellent and that helps him define the range it helps him set up his other punches it helps keep him safe here's one thing i will note bc all of his ufc fights have gone to a decision all of them all of them he is not a power puncher so if this were a five round contest i think we'd have to somewhat alter how we're viewing this but it's a three round and i know what folks are saying wait a minute it's magulov saryukian's three and strickland cannonier is five they got five. They got it backwards.

They got it backwards. But that's how it is. That's what we've got this weekend. And so for three rounds, it's Magulov's cardio will not drop. This is too tough too soon for me. And listen, I want to warn folks, I am a negative person. I think that's a... You're a negative Nancy, a Debbie downer, an old bitch. We know.

Yes. Yes. So, so, so couch, whatever analysis I'm giving you with that in mind, but truly, I mean this, I think that for 25 years old, Saryukian is just a superb fighter, but the very unique contours of this fight give me a lot of concern. All right. As much as you framed it your way my way yes i need saryukin to be able to use offensive wrestling and potentially you know do something with it for sure no i agree

he can't i don't you know i think demir's too technical for for saryukin to just try to purely outbox him or anything or i'll kickbox him on that level although again saryukin even in the gamrot fight look much more confident and sharp with his boxing. But he's got to inflict some level of physical damage. He's got to use the three rounds to his advantage here and make the magic happen with aggression and be physical in the transitions like the clinches and stuff like that. I mean, he's got to step up. I just feel like we all believe he's wired to do so. So, Luke, he's Armenian but from Georgia so look he's our he's armenian

but from georgia i want to make sure i get this right right no he's armenian but lives in russia there's there's a close connection between armenians and russians i mean obviously it's a former satellite state but um but yeah he was born in georgia or something yeah he was he was born in georgia i got it now i mean you know, so both of you guys came of age in Georgia. That's interesting. But, Luke, the thing is, you know, as much as we're going to need a lot from Saruki in here, I just think he has the goods already. It's just about, you know, shifting things around on the shelf

and get it in the right order and balance it out. I don't discount what Demir can do, but you also mentioned he's been a decision fighter up to this point. He's going to have to control a lot of this fight technically while avoiding danger. And I need Armin Slyukin to create that danger. I think he can. I think he can win an exciting close. It's going to have to be close against a guy this skilled than Demir. But, you know, I have questions if Demir can then continue to make the leap on the run. Like, look, if he comes out, if your boy wins this,

we already established that he's got to kind of win it on his own terms and control it, which is in play. I mean, maybe he's not Shavkat Rachmanov part two, but, like, that level of, like, oh, shit is going to be behind him. So you're basically saying this guy is fucking the goods, right? Like, I mean, you're putting the stamp on it. It's a funny comparison. Obviously, Shavkat Rachmanov is a very different fighter, different weight class, the whole thing.

But if I had to say what unites Rakhmanov and Ismogulov, it would be that Ismogulov doesn't have any of the danger of his game that Rakhmanov has. Rakhmanov can fucking knock you down, ground and pound. He's got great subs, whatever. But in terms of being defensively sound and patient and calm and making good decisions

and kind of fundamental everywhere, yeah, I would say that unites them for sure. Rakhmanov, though, is just a different fucking animal. I mean, he's going to be a champion. He's amazing. You got 29-28 Demir. Yeah, I think Demir's

going to do what he's been doing. I think in the end, if they fight in two to three years, I think it's a totally different ballgame. But I think Demir is a little bit ahead in his development relative to Saryukian, and I think that's going to show. But, listen, if we get it wrong, I'll come here and eat crow pie on Monday or whatever. whatever yeah i'll serve it to you luke happily

uh saryukian has leading man potential luke okay he doesn't you don't need to put this guy in a buddy cop let's let's make him the star he's coming on it's it's time okay all right arminia has risen all right this is this one's for edmund all right he will move his head i know armin he will he will luke okay there we go hey let's keep going down this card. Dude, the more and more I think about it, Drew Dober versus Bobby Green, Luke, they are going to bang and the odds are very close with Dober minus 150, Bobby Green plus 130. But something we didn't mention on Wednesday, I did want to ask you, Green is coming off of this USADA hiccup. And Luke, I don't know if you heard his interviews this week, but they, damn, they've been colorful, Luke.

There's an interesting rant about, you know, he thinks Islam Mahachev has been taking steroids since he was a child, and that's why guys from that region are so strong. I mean, Bobby Green was going off on the mic, Luke. He's going to get stopped here, isn't he? I don't know. I don't know, man. Bobby Green is a slickster. Bobby Green is a slickster.

Bobby Green is a slickster. Bobby Green has good boxing. He has good, I think, pretty good defense. Okay, his striking defense, according to PhiMetric, due to over 51%. That's about normal. About 50% is about right. Bobby Green's at 62%.

62%. That's pretty good. 72% takedown defense. I think Dober is massively improved, which we saw in his last fight against Alves. And he's a better kickboxer. But Bobby Green's a better boxer. And I think this is really going to come down to

who defines the terms of the range. You said the odds. I did not. I'm going to go back and look at them one more time. How do they have it? They have Dober as a minus 150, Green as a plus 130. Yeah, that's probably right. Dober, I think Dober takes the fight a little bit more intentional, whereas Green kind of just reacts to what his opponent does

and then tries to box him up a little bit, which may or may not work in this case. But Bobby Green can definitely win this contest. I think the odds are probably just about right and if dober is not careful by the way dober gets dropped a lot like dober got oh yeah hurt in his last contest you know this is on the table for sure this i'd be curious to hear why do you think dober is that much of in your, a favorite? The last two fights, consecutive knockouts. Yes, he welcomes damage, but right now he's a pocket rocket, Luke.

And I think he's figured out some levels of his craft to rein in his defense a bit and try to just be smarter in his game planning. Although I think, look, at the end of the day, he's an athletic striker and goes after it. But I do think this is a very important fight on Bobby Green's career arc. And, you know, he had kind of like raised himself above the level of, of, you know, every man with that recent run that led him to the match have fight and, you know, and he's always willing on short notice, but, you know, he's also advanced in age and experience, Luke. And I think, you know, if he's going to win this, he's going to have to prove that he's, that that wasn't like a Masvidal season of, of just,

you know, light in the bottle, figured out how to be as good as I can for a season. I have questions. If you can maintain that is really my biggest question here. And I think Dober's coming on and is going to make this a fight where even though the odds are giving respect to this, the skills that green really does have,

I mean, greens, you know, fun to watch as he flows as a striker, but look, he welcomes danger as well at times and is willing to go mano a mano. And I just think Dober has figured out right now how to be as offensively dangerous as possible

while still being somewhat responsible. I mean, to a point, Luke, right? He's coming to that party to steal your beer and probably kick your lady. I'll say this. He's definitely gotten more resilient over time. Learning how to fight hurt, we don't ever talk about that, but learning how to fight hurt

and learning how to fight tired and then learning how to fight when you're hurt and tired, these are skills. These are skills you have to work on. Sometimes they're very difficult to work on. It's easier to work on them being tired than hurt in a training situation. He's gotten really good at that.

It cost him a little bit in the Riddell fight where he wasn't really able to work that through. But in general, in the last contest, he was able to make that work. And that's a real big benefit. He can get dropped and not lose actually the bearing that you think someone in this case might. You know, I don't know how I feel about Bobby Green. Like, he's kind of all over the place a little bit two years older um you know it's a little bit hard to pin down in terms of like what you can count on from him uh but the thing is i do think he's got good defensive movement i do think you know what i might pick green here i might pick green just for shits and giggles i'm not even really sure if he's gonna win but just for fun on the show, I'll take Green and say

I think that his slick boxing might be the difference maker. Yeah, well, look, nobody, as you like to often say, nobody actually knows who's going to win, Luke. I mean, I knew Woodley until I fucking knew that. You know, Woodley gone to wrestling. Picks are stupid, but people like them for fun, and I hope people understand my picks are bad. Don't bet on them.

But, you know, if you can get some insight one way or the other, I hope it works. Yeah. I mean, we all get hooked on a feeling, but you know, how many times is a fight going to going to plan for your prediction? And then it falls apart.

This sport is wild. Well, I mean, look, you could do everything right. And then it goes wrong. You know, it's like life,

right? Yeah. I mean, I'm mostly been doing it wrong this whole time, but yeah, things have been going right. The last three years, say that right look at i sacrificed three needles to get you these three years of joy luke okay us coming together wow right what a what a collision in the desert and the sparks and then you know what totally lacked joy was the pre-show call today

luke i i love i love creativity and and and i love our fans okay that's all i'll say i love that you know i'm not even disagreeing with you it wasn't but folks who know what i'm i don't know what i'm joking about what bc and i didn't have a disagreement we're fine but bc and some other motherfuckers had a big old disagreement don't don't try to put my passion in a bottle luke okay that bottle will burst on your on your loins it'll spoil your loins yeah believe that uh luke are you know short of me taking this this this next one in the direction of cheyenne vlismas was there anything else you wanted to say about the fights above or below hers luke uh of course you went that direction let me just see if there's anyone you know the julian

arosa alex casares fight is kind of interesting. I think Arosa's probably better at this point and should win this one, but he gets hurt and dropped and fucked up and finds ways to come back, but then sometimes doesn't. He kind of is like a wild card in that way. Also, the other one I think is worth paying attention to, you could say Saeed Nurmagomedov, but the one I really, really like, the one I think is kind of interesting,

is Jake Matthews, who looked unbelievable in his last contest. There was a guy who I thought they'd fucked up his development and you know, one fight doesn't completely upend it, but he looked so good against Fialio. I was just like, wow, we got to see what this kid's all about. So the fight against Semelsberger should be fun. He should win that one, but it should be fun. Look for our Polish fans who love punch keys and Joanna as much as I do, you never talk about Al-Faran impersonator Michal Olekszyszek, who's a minus 275 favorite, fresh off

his victory against Sam Alvey against Cody Brundage, a husband of ABC. Luke, you don't care about that fight at all? Is that what you're saying? I like either fight. I think they're fine and good even, but that fight doesn't like do a lot for me i mean just look just do this so we understand okay yeah yeah yeah yeah right yeah that karate chop in the air has never gotten this

show in trouble yeah i mean you gotta say what it meant it didn't mean what you thought it meant luke okay all right oh god all right luke uh as a minus 190 favorite potentially here in the espn plus prelims featured bout the women's strawweight division offers us the return of cheyenne vlissmiths as a favorite in a featured role looking to extend to three wins in a row plus 160 cory mckenna stands in her way lu Luke give me one reason to stay here or I'll turn right back around why should I not put all the money on Cheyenne why should you not put all the money on Cheyenne yeah you got it you know if you believe in your favorite fighters you got to put your money where your mouth is unless unless you're like James kraus and you're like too in deep you know then you gotta respect the boundaries uh why should you not put all of your money in cheyenne let me think

that through that's an interesting question all right so she's taking on cody mckay uh cory mckenna right if i'm not mistaken so that's yes that's correct um bc she does have high output bliss miss i think that's important um mckenna's defense is not superb the only issue here is mckenna will go for a lot of takedowns two per 15 minutes list miss almost nothing so really the takedown defense has got to be on point 73 existing for list miss she's gonna she's gonna need that so really you know i'm not gonna say striker versus grappler that's a little bit overwhelmed because here's listis on top right doing uh phenomenal ground and pound work so it's not like she can't do it there either but i will say that probably against this particular opponent

keeping her on the feet for at least the majority of the time is going to be in her interest can she do that probably probably is the answer but we're going to have to see i think she's just starting to put her striking together meaning she has like a gymnastics background. Lukan is a very good athlete in, you know, her, that one finish she had two fights ago kind of showed that, but like if she starts to figure this out a little bit more and can make more dangerous offerings in the striking game, which she's been doing, could knock on doors, could be a problem, you know, to, to sort of be a factor. I mean, you got to prove it in this division against some established people, and she's not quite there yet. But interesting to watch.

I mean, look, maybe all that training with Roman Delizze was coming on as well, iron sharpening iron, Luke, because you're talking about Roman maybe getting Vittori. They're believing in him too. They're believing in her with this placement. So we'll see, okay? Okay. Someone call horny jail.

I think there's someone who needs to be in prison you know i mean you know did did i really want to ask you if you would support a catchweight fight between jp and roman for the passport luke would you i mean for the visa would you be into that kind of like reality tv matchmaking no i knew that i'd watch i'd watch that before i watched fucking slap fighting by the way bc i didn't tell you i'm starting my own league where people throw dog shit in each other's faces. It would be great. That's great. Luke, we are supposed to let the fans know that in 2023,

you and I will be competing every Friday on Morning Combat making fight picks. I don't know if we're – I see, no. That's a suggestion. That's not like a guarantee. So does our producer, Mikey, want the fans to help us produce this segment yeah i mean the email so for the email for the show is morning combat at gmail like what do you guys want to see if we did a regular pics segment because you know i hate doing them but i'll do them for the art because that's what they're all they're good for is art uh let us know let us know

do you want us to compete have a head-to-head or do you want us to compete against the fans do you want to like how do you want to structure these uh do the fans want to compete against each other potentially for some prizes like there's a couple ways we could sort of chop this up what do you guys want to do let mikey and the producers know morning combat at gmail.com we kind of want to make picks a bigger segment in 2023 but we want to make sure we're doing in a way that the fans would like the most maybe maybe something a little bit original bc whatever yeah yeah fans competing against fans luke i live for this shit you know that but if you know if they make me go against you in an effort to avoid doing something embarrassing on a public level i'd you know

i might you know i am a gunslinger in some some ways luke i got a little brett farvin me not like the defrauding seniors out of money, but the other side of it. I'll throw into double coverage, Luke. You know that, okay? You know that, all right? Dude, Brett Favre will steal. Will he not? That dude will just steal money.

Oh, that guy's the worst. Remember he sent those dick pics? He'll steal money and then send you a picture of his purple hog. He's the worst. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember when he was on the jet set one year. That was a weird year. That first game, he was awesome, and then he started showing his dick.

But then he got real good with the Vikings, like all-time good again. Do you think he ingested the windstraw into his prick, Luke, before sending that pick? What do you think? Yeah, I wouldn't. I mean, I don't know about that, but do I think a dirtbag like that was doing everything he could yeah get a dub yeah of course i do yeah all right do you give him credit on the night his dad died at that monday night football game against the raiders when he threw like 12 touchdowns that was i mean that was incredible

that was incredible i mean that was just a totally triumphant moment of the human spirit you know maybe he i win straw but still dude he was in the zone, Luke, okay? That happens in sports. That happens on morning combat. Sometimes, Luke, you got to get out of the way and let the BDE splash the screen, right? Yeah, that's not what happens here ever, but if that's a thing that you imagine happening

and it helps you do a better show, then I let you enjoy the flotsam and jetsam of you know, the lots of them and jets them of your mind. Fridays are for the art. Luke, you already know that. Uh, let's make picks and topic too, as well. Showtime championship boxing. I'm telling you, this is a must see main event in terms of the future of the lightweight division and very good matchmaking. We're two guys on the rise, unbeatens, rivera versus frank martin showtime championship boxing uh luke where's this emanating from i forgot off the top of my head uh oh vegas the cosmo in vegas yes yes i think that's where one of the showtime producers is this weekend absolutely so uh triple

header saturday night was that 9 p.m. Eastern? Probably like that on Showtime. Luke, a reminder that you and I, is it 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube? We go live on the YouTubes, by the way. So the show is at 10 p.m. on regular Showtime. You and I go live on YouTube, not here at Morning Combat, but at the Showtime Sports YouTube channel at 8, 8 p.m. in the East. You can catch me in BC. Love it. Love it. We'll be calling a calling a couple fights having a good preview to set the stage for the evening and luke this triple header i mean i love this main event so luke both unbeaten both ready like to make that leap to the title level but to be fair both really have yet to face that that big name that would propel them so they're basically saying let's face each other both in their 20s entering the peak of their you know the early peak of their physical prime but still putting

the complete game together if you're trying to separate who these guys are michelle rivera more of the pure boxer uh when he's allowed to to jab from distance and set up that right hand sometimes he can be a bit too formulaic but if he can control the terms of the fight, he is slick. He's got great technique. He's got confidence in that. The biggest question on Michelle Rivera has been, can he paint? Can he get abstract? Can he get outside of that and make the big adjustments? Luke, how much have you seen of Frank Martin? Because he comes from the Errol Spence camp there in Dallas. And he's almost like a mini compact version of some of the stuff that Errol Spence does well. It almost looks a little bit like Spence Light. The way the Southpaw Martin can get inside and break you down with punches.

Contrasting styles. Both guys want it. Luke, this is going to be the balls. The full bag. This is bag-o-sex Saturday night. It's Michelle Rivera versus Frank Martin. Yeah, and Martin's coming off that win over Jackson Marinas, which was an interesting

result back from July, I believe. Obviously, I've not seen the entirety of either of their careers, but I've seen a little bit of both. To me, BC, you kind of buried the lead there a little bit or indicated what this really is going to come down to. Now, obviously, it's going to be Southpaw versus Orthodox,

so I think Martin's lefty stance could make things a little bit interesting. But to me, to me, I think what the tape shows is that you want Rivera to do other things other than kind of the steady, sort of well-rounded stuff he has done, which has been really good. Hello, both guys undefeated and in their 20s. But to me, it's going to be the jab. The jab of Rivera is really either going to tell us what's going to happen here one way or the other.

Either a guy like Martin is going to be able to neutralize it, get around it, set angles, bulldoze through it, go to the body, back him up. Or conversely, what we've seen most of the time, nearly just about every time from Rivera is that jab is really really really good he sets it up he's consistent about seven jabs per round in addition to all the other things he's doing according to CompuBox I feel like that the fight is going to be won or lost on those terms because if that jab is landing Martin's in trouble conversely if he can't get

that going now bc that's the other let me actually pitch it back to you do you think rivera has something in him that he hasn't shown us yet such that let's say actually martin does a really good job of shutting down the jab does he have another gear to go to because i haven't seen that yet but maybe this is that's the question that's the question so even though michelle rivera has never lost even though in step-up opportunities look when he took on unbeaten joseph adorno who isn't without some questions whether he's ever going to live up to his own potential but is a hard-hitting tough out i mean luke you know rivera controlled on his terms and just suck the air out of the balloon. That's what he does. But even in some of these step-up wins, the only criticism has been, can you do more? When you're

dominating the same guy for, you know, five, six, seven rounds, just jab, great footwork, good technique, one, two, a little bit of pop on that right hand, but you're not doing anything extra to create the opening to finish or, you know, can he make the adjustments when somebody else is, is leading the dance is a big question. It's not only a question of, of, you know,

is, is he hiding it? Is it, is it there at all? That's the big question because sometimes Luke people can play one or two notes, but they can play them great or, or,

you know, it tastes great, but it's, it's vanilla. It's plain vanilla. The big question on Rivera is can he raise his game when the moment demands it when it's not on his terms when he's losing the reason why this is such a perfect contrast is not just because it's southpaw versus righty but Rivera a hundred percent needs from what we've seen so far to control those terms to win martin is gonna walk

in try to you know try his best the entire fight to dart in and out use angles which he does so well it's like rivera's the orthodox stereotype coming at you you know what you're you know what you're getting but man i do it well martin's the guy who thinks outside the box he comes in darting in and out but defensively he leaves some holes on the way in. So it really does, like Luke said, come down to that jab. If Michelle Rivera can control it right there, the fight's not going to be super exciting, but he's of the ilk where it's in play

that he can win this fight that way. It's certainly, I mean, when you look at the odds right now, it's plus 185, by the way, Michelle Rivera as a small underdog. But in play that he can win that way. The question is, Luke, how good is Frank Martin? Because he has such an interesting story where he was a teenager caught up in in the wrong side of the law and had a situation where jail time was almost looking possible. Then he had the charges dropped on a big situation when he was 18. He finds a boxing gym that same year and he goes on charges dropped on a big situation when he was 18 he finds a

boxing gym that same year and he goes on to become like a decorated amateur and like i mean he beat virgil ortiz jr in the final of the national golden gloves this guy's legit in that regard but came to it at 18 which is so rare to get to this level he has shown us flashes of like next level brilliance you know when he walked down and took apart Jackson Marinas, it was impressive. But Luke, you can't deny though, he's also still a work in progress. And because he's shorter and because he needs to get inside to have success, he's going to be in punching range all night for Rivera. So it's like defensively, he's also going to have to make a leap here.

How do you sort of stack up how potentially offensively dangerous Frank Martin can be? See, that's the issue for me. If they can, show the highlights again from the Mourinho's fight. You get a sense of who. Now, that was, by the time the ninth round was around, it's a little bit one-sided. So, you know, he was moving downhill at that point anyway.

But the highlights are important here because you get a real, I mean, just look at this guy. Not a huge mover. Obviously, there's a little bit of the Phillyilly show a little bit of the leaning outside there and what he does is he loves to back people up and then bulldoze into him you mentioned the spence comparison he doesn't quite have the angular slickness and you know the punch selection brilliance of a guy like spence but the kind of steady drumbeat of the jackhammer. That's what he does. He jackhammers these guys consistently over time and breaks them down.

He is definitely a forward pressure, not brawler. He's not Isak Cruz who's just doing this and then coming over the top. That's not what he's doing. But there's this unrelenting pressure where guys feel like they're getting a little bit rained on a little bit bit where they just can't find a place to get dry he does this over the course of time and you saw the defensive there bc that's why this jab to be this jab question anyway is going to be important he doesn't move his feet he does use his feet a little bit for defense that's what i've seen on the tape but if you notice here yeah

like he'll bounce out a little bit, but a lot of it is leaning. He doesn't roll under hooks and then reset angles. He kind of stays where he is a little bit, slightly slides outside, which is good, right? Because you don't want to get so far out that you have to come back in. I'm just pointing out, a guy who is fast, who is

slick, can give guys like Martin problems, because then Martin has to chase a little bit rather than guys exceeding to the pressure. Dude, this is an interesting one. This is a very, very interesting clash of styles. Again, I want to be clear to the audience. Two guys, 24-27, both undefeated.

Southpaw versus Orthodox. This is a fun one. This is a really fun one. Yeah, and if you're wondering what's at stake, the winner becomes the mandatory for that secondary title that Gervonta Davis owns at Lightweight. I don't usually like to promote and go nuts about secondary titles. I'm not in this case. Devin Haney is

the real Lightweight champion. He's got all four official belts, but dude, this shows you what level the winner will now be on looking at a potential opportunity against Gervonta Davis. But Luke, I think Frank Martin, it's weird. It's like, can Rivera take that style all the way to the top? Yes, but he has to control the terms perfectly.

And I question if his chin is next level. I question if his punching power is truly next level. Frank Martin is showing, we don't know yet of Frank Martin's next level, but I think we've seen flashes in his willingness to make a fight happen. It may be his downfall in the long run because there are some defensive holes. Like you mentioned the Marinas fight was competitive until it wasn't. Dude, Jackson Marinas was timing him with those counter right hands like all day. It's just that Marina is not a big puncher. Martin was able to take it. Martin's TV friendly because he

stands in the pocket and tries to make you fight there. But if you stay open to the counter right hands from a Rivera, who's much more sharp, you know, that's where there's potential problems here. But, you know, Frank Martin's got Derek James as his trainer and that, that really matters right now. James is, is, you know, it's either him or Eddie Reynoso is who are the best boxing trainers of the moment, pound for pound level. I mean, look, James has Jermell Charlo, undisputed champion, Errol Spence trying to become undisputed champion, two of the best pound for pound in the game. I don't know yet if Frank is of that ilk.

He welcomes more danger than those other two guys do. Although, you know, Spence welcomes danger too, but Spence is more slick, has more plays in the playbook. Martin may get there, but you got to pass this test to get there. That's why you love the matchmaking. That's why both guys are willing to say, let's find out right now against each other. You don't

see enough of that, Luke. It's good that both are under the same network and promotional flag. It wasn't impossible to make, but kudos to both guys. Now let's see two hungry guys go out there and leave no doubt. Who wins and why, Luke Thomas? So as you indicated,

the odds have Rivera as the underdog. Plus 185, Martin minus 245. I have been higher on Rivera to this point, but Stiles make fights. I might go Martin. I might go Martin here. I think that we're going to learn Man, this is a tough one.

I'll go Martin because I just think in the end he's got more firepower, and I think that will make the difference. But he's going to have to earn it. He's going to have to earn it for sure. You and I both indicated that Rivera's ability to control distance and consistently keep Martin away with that jab or you know because Martin's a southpaw whether it's the right counter either way if he can control that distance that's got to happen for him to win I think Frank Martin's going to have to give up

rounds and give up situational you know moments to try to continue to get inside but once he does and he makes this a fight the even bigger question is whether Michelle Rivera can win that style of fight, can dig deep and find another gear, can come back over the top and win her and finish another guy. I think Frank Martin has the perfect marriage of great intention and confidence and just enough compromised defense based on that style that he does that he's going to welcome a car wreck. He's going to make it into one, and I think he's going to stop Michelle Rivera and get the upper hand and make a big statement about the direction that he's going.

In the long run, Luke, I need Frank Martin to add some, I think there's room for him to grow, and I think he'll get there. But this is a tough night out, and I think he's got to make it a fight to win it, Luke. I think he does. This is going to be fun to watch. Don't miss it.

Don't miss that Saturday night. The back half to the slash last third of this fight is going to be the most important part. Yeah.ose who's caught to be in that co-main event against vladimir shishkin a showbox alum so don't miss that this triple header saturday night 10 p.m eastern but a reminder that 8 p.m eastern before the main card goes live on showtime check out the youtube channel of showtime sports lu Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell of Morning Combat, will be calling the Showtime Championship Boxing Countdown Show. Luke, we got Omar Juarez versus Austin Dulé in a 10-round super lightweight bout,

and Elijah Garcia in Cruz Stewart in an 8-round middleweight bout, Garcia 12-0. So a lot of folks looking to campaign to make that leap themselves to the showbox, the championship level. You and I will be there, Luke, early on along on along the way all right we'll be the soundtrack of their lives fun yeah don't miss that ish all right luke topic number three brings us to some fight announcements i want to get your reaction you know man great i got a phoner i mean there are levels to reactions here luke Thomas. Are you ready?

Ready as I'm going to be. All right. UFC Vegas 68 has a rebooked headliner. Derek Lewis versus Sergei Spivak. This was the fight that was supposed to happen before. Fell apart at the last minute. I think all the same concerns or hopes, whatever you want to say, either way, that we had for that one are in play.

Nothing changes, and they get back to it pretty quickly. So looking forward to seeing it because it tells us a lot about the direction either guy is headed. That's a yay for me. Yeah, that's a yay. All right. I'm trying to find the date. I couldn't find it, Luke, so I gave up on that fight. But it's going to be fight night 68.

Let's go to March 4th, UFC 285. Cody Garbrandt versus Julio Arce now is this another stop in the bantamweight division here or this or I mean another in the in the flyweight division Luke or is this bantamweight all the way for for Garbrandt I have to double check I believe this is bantamweight I I'm not sure I thought Julio Arce was a bantamweight I can double check that right now uh Julio Arce is as it stands uh let's see he competes in the well he yeah bantamweight because he's also fought at featherweight so it'd have to be a bantamweight here so it's back to bantamweight but the reason why the match make is interesting

because julio arce is very well rounded very well schooled and uh comes from the tiger shulman camp and so like you watch him fight he's pretty. But if there's been a criticism of him, it's that he can't, he's not necessarily, he's, he's dangerous in the sense that he can control rounds. He can control long stretches. He's,

you know, as I mentioned, very well rounded, but there's a question of like how dangerous he is. And I think for a guy like Cody, who there's a question about how much damage he can tolerate and how good his chin is, basically this is the kind of fight where it's like, Cody, who there's a question about how much damage he can tolerate and how good his chin is, basically.

This is the kind of fight where it's like Arce is talented and certainly capable of winning this, and dude, even potentially putting Cody's lights out. But he's not like a devastating knockout threat, I think is the point I'm trying to make. So it's an interesting matchmaking here. On that same night, UFC 285, March 4th, Vivian Arujo versus Amanda Hibas. That ain't bad, Luke. That ain't bad at all.

Oh, right. Yeah, you dropped down to the bottom of the list. Yeah, love that fight. Love that fight a lot. What was the other? Oh, we were supposed to get Tracy Cortez and Amanda Hibas, and that was the one that fell through, but Viviana Rougeau. They robbed us. Yeah, they robbed us.

I don't think that's quite as good as... The Cortez fight with Kibas is better, but this is still a good one. Yeah, this is going to be a good one. Bellator on that February 4th CBS card, Bellator 290. Of course, that's Fader Bader 2, Luke, or Bader, depending on your pronunciation. But we got two more bouts added. Chris Gonzalez versus Max Roshkoff. Jornell Lugo versus Jalen Bates.

Are you moved by any of those? Okay, yeah. For sure the Chris Gonzalez and Max Roshkoff fight. For folks who may not remember, Roshkoff was the guy who kind of quit on his stool in between rounds and then his coach tried to get him back into it. But then at the end, his coach was Robert Drysdale, and then Robert Drysdale at the end actually kind of acceded

and told the referee he didn't want to compete. That whole controversy that played out, that whole thing that was there. He had a bit of a falling out, obviously, with I think all the places he was training and whatnot, and has gone to Bellator and is on

a bit of a redemption tour. Gonzalez is the guy that got run over by Usman Nurmagomedov, but as a Team Alpha Male guy, very good wrestler, good fighter. That's a tough fight. That's a really good fight, actually. I like that one a lot. Jordan Alugo was the one who got run over by Danny Sabatello in a fight where Sabatello actually did have a lot of ground and pound.

Don't know much about Jalen Bates, but Jordan Alugo is a pretty talented fighter, just couldn't quite get it going against Sabatello. Look, speaking of getting run over over on the Today Show this morning, they ran a poll of the most hated holiday songs in the world, and number one was Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I mean, most hated? Really? It's one of my favorites.

I mean, that's a classic, Luke, you know? Where are you on the stupid... You know how one of the dumbest debates on the internet is, here a hot dog a sandwich it's like i know you've never read a book i know that i know that part where are you on the stupid debate about whether die hard is a christmas movie um yeah i mean it's stupid but yeah it's a christmas movie look i mean i wouldn't you know i wouldn't i wouldn't be on the front lines of fighting that war to, to defend it as one, but yeah, I would, I don't, I don't, you know, I don't throw up at the idea.

How about this? You can watch whatever fucking movie you want on Christmas. How about that guys? Freedom. Make your own traditions. Freedom prize. Yeah. Yeah.

That's right. You want to watch hardcore pornography like the neighbors do at, at, uh, Malka, not Malka, but the neighbors of Malka across the street when we're recording on the roof. The pregame preview, which hasn't been on the roof for like seven months, but you know what I'm talking about anyway. Like, if you want to watch pornography like that on Christmas, you're allowed to do that. Well, Luke, I mean, it's not a family-oriented operation there, but I mean, there's much worse Christmas songs in history. Like, last Christmas, I gave you my heart. The very next day, you watch Pornography.

Oh, no, no, no. That's, that's, I haven't heard that, that remix edition. Wow. Look, I'm not moved by any of the other fights listed here. I don't want to mention them. Yeah, the other ones I don't care. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You're wrong about one of them.

You're wrong about one of them. Javed Basharat versus Mateus Mendoza. UFC Vegas 67, January 14th. Javed Basharat is a very good fighter. Mateus Mendoza is an... They put Mendonca here. I think it's Mendoza. But was one of the guys, I think,

who came off the Contender Series who looked very, very good. Javed Basharat was the dude who also came off the Contender Series whose opponent, I believe this is correct, or maybe it was one of the regular shows he was on, but his opponent was the one who called him a dirty Muslim, and he was an Israeli guy.

Yeah, I don't need that. And then Basharat came out and gave him the fucking business. So Basharat is a guy who trains out of Extreme Couture. I think Jake Shields is his number one coach. He's very talented, super high on him. Tough him tough fight man tough fight against mendoza yeah bashar i was like cashing me outside how about uh right luke yeah right let him know what time it was so that was a good one as well uh luke topic four hey i actually watched this thing ufc fight pass invitational three uhling in our face.

In our freaking face from the Apex in Las Vegas. And the main event, a rematch of sorts between former teammates. But Nicky Rodriguez coming in last minute to take on the hero, the master. What's his nickname? The King? Gordon Ryan. So, Luke, this is very new. I don't like this shit but i i tuned in and tried to give a good faith effort and you know i was i was so decently entertained i saw the

misha tape fight as well um shout out to michael kiesa on commentary always a big fan of that but luke let's talk about gordon ryan here he wins in overtime via fastest escape they had a 20 minute match instead of a normal 10-minute one, and then they went to the third overtime. I don't understand what that overtime is all about and how it actually worked. I was constantly confused because, you know, Nicky got out of the submission in X amount of seconds.

Then Gordon got out of that same submission faster. Doesn't he win there, or do you have to kick a field goal first and then get the extra point? Like, I don't understand. Is this Kansas tiebreaker, Luke? What happens there? Yeah, I'm not sure exactly. I think there's a predetermined number of rounds of overtime.

I don't think it's just – it's not like college football in the way where it's like, hey, they scored first, kick it back, and if they don't get it, it's over. I can't remember how the rules go in college football anymore. But you have to do the full number of rounds, I think, unless there's like no way you can catch them how the rules go in college football anymore. But you have to do the full number of rounds, I think, unless there's, like, no way you can catch them after the fact. You know, there's a question about who likes those overtime rules. Like, they're largely borrowed from EBI where, you know, essentially, like, you know how people don't like when soccer games end

and then you have to go to penalty kicks? And then people are like, well, this is a very – this is not a very satisfying way to end a soccer match. It's like, well, they also just ran around for fucking four hours. Like this is the best you're going to get. So I don't love the overtime rules. I don't hate them. I just think it's the best that they can do.

The thing that folks don't understand is there's a, there's a company called us grappling. And if you've never heard of them, they have a very interesting tournament, which is all of their matches are no time limit. So when you show up and you get into a bracket, dude, the matches go for a while.

And if you go to the black belt division a bracket dude the matches go for a while and if you go to the black belt division dude the matches routinely uh go longer than an hour i've seen them up to two sometimes three hour matches like it's fucking crazy so i bring this up to say you have to have some kind of overtime apparatus if you're doing this as a televised product um because you know 20 minutes is never going to be enough but 20 minutes is long enough to learn something nikki rodriguez to me had a much more like traditional game this time he was using his body lock pass which for folks who don't know he's like famous for body lock passing he couldn't quite get it but he was able to use it he did get a toe hold briefly on gordon that popped

his ankle after the fact um but Gordon Ryan's just too good. He's too clever. He's too, he just understands leverages and positions. BC, did you see the video of Gordon Ryan rolling with Martins, Lisas, and the Mountain from Game of Thrones? This was actually yesterday. Yeah, I got that in the hopper for Monday's HYSTS. Yeah, I'll save it.

So in the end, this is the interesting part, BC. Gordon Ryan accused Nikki Rodriguez of greasing. I don't know if you heard that. Okay, because I have a lot of questions about this match and this grappling stuff in general, Luke, because I'm trying to understand in a good faith effort, okay?

How dramatic was it when everybody was screaming in the second overtime when Nikki put Gordon in a choke? Gordon pointed at the clock, waited for the buzzer, and then tapped out. He knew the buzzer was over. Was that a major moment? What's the history of Rodriguez proving that he's on Gordon's level?

I'll be honest. I never really watched EBI because the early iterations of EBI, to me, like, dude, no-gi grappling has changed a lot just in the last five years. And even longer than that, it's been like a dramatic alteration. But I did not watch early iterations of EBI because in its earliest stages, the A-level guys in no-gi jiu-jitsu did not do that tournament, right? At the time, whoever was the very best in nogi they would go into adcc but they weren't doing ebi but it turns out that the guys who

started and making a name for themselves through ebi the the dan her death squad at the time like your eddie cummings and obviously and and and uh gordon ryan and there's a lot of guys out of that dan her death squad that was originally part of the group they began to run the table on it and really popularized it. And it has led to a change in how the sport is conducted and how it's promoted. And it was just this massive alteration on both the marketing side as well as how people actually did no-gi jiu-jitsu. It changed a lot. But I never really watched EBI for that reason

because my initial impressions were like, these are not A-level guys. Turned out to be wrong over time. It was true at first, but it wasn't true over time so i'm not really familiar i don't quite understand if he had gotten the choke um i don't think that would have been the decisive factor in winning but it would have slowed the amount of ride time he had i'm not candidly i'm not entirely sure although even just getting gordon to tap at all would be a fucking minor miracle but in that case he did get the two minutes of writing time.

But, you know, there you go. So are you saying that that tap was him just like, hey, dude, the period's over? Yes. He looked at the clock and was like, he was waiting on the referee to intervene. And he saw that it had hit two. So he was like, well, this is over. Like, just get up. He wasn't actually like, I can't take this anymore.

Okay. I'm surrendering. He was like, we're done here. All right. So this guy, Gordon Ryan, is the best in the world, Luke. He's had a couple draws, but just all wins. You have to go back to 2018 for the last loss. It was against Vinny Magalhaeschen.

He lost on points. Ryan was against Vinny Magalhaes, and he lost on points. Ryan called out Vinny afterwards. Is that going to be a destination rematch, or people don't care? I don't understand it, Luke. Here's the deal. Vinny was supposed to be the original opponent last night. I guess, according to

Gordon, what had happened was Gordon came in around 223, I think, at the weigh-ins, and they had told Gordon that Vinny was around like 270, maybe even 280. Remember, Vinny fought 205 in MMA. And I guess they were still some kind of weight limit they wanted to enforce. Gordon apparently said, and I believe him, Gordon's like, I've gone against guys 280 or higher, like a bunch. Like, he can be as big as he wants.

I don't care. But apparently, either Vinny wanted to cut the weight or UFCfc did or whoever i'm not entirely sure about that part but he tried to cut the weight and it fucked him up and he had to go to the hospital because he his kidneys got all jacked up which of course i hope he's okay and he can be fine again um i'll say this i watched that match in 2018 that vinny uh had won and um he had a very specific game plan against the game that I would argue is not even close to what Gordon does now. Gordon in four years since then is like way better than he once was. So I still want to see the rematch because what Gordon's trying to do is,

like there's guys like I I think, Lucas Barbosa. He's beaten on points but never subbed. He just wants to go back and sub, but like he's beaten basically any peer at this point who's at the top of the game. He doesn't have that win over Vinny from four years ago, but my belief is that Vinny is very good and deserves your respect, but Gordon is untouchable right now. Luke, he has succeeded

in getting on you know my radar and kind of you know softly crossing over to a certain level with the you know the tattoos the hair the look the pro wrestling trash talk the persona um i know there's been rumors i remember he got signed by one championship and then that didn't happen right after it happened yeah will he ever yeah yeah will he ever fight in mma because that's the next logical step to get uh people to really really care right or is he just too good in this one area why the thing is it's like dude like how do you make money in jujitsu like you know you can get sponsors you can open up a school you can get some money from prize tournaments and blah blah blah blah blah but it's very hard gordon has been one of the few guys who has made a very good living if you guys have never heard

of it there's this company i talk about them all the time i am a customer i'm not paid to say this they're not they don't ask me to do this but there's a company called bjj fanatics and what they basically do is they get these guys to go and do what you might ordinarily see in one of their seminars and they essentially put it in a very detailed breakdown it's all organized in terms of the information and presented to you almost like an instruction that you would get um again in a in a seminar even over the course of like many months depending on how long some of these breakdowns are Danaher and Gordon put down like lengthy takes I think I've I finished or i'm almost i'm almost finished with danaher's first of like three standing to ground uh instructionals from bj fanatics and it's

just the first one is 10 hours just the first one we haven't even gotten to the other two yet and these guys make a motherfucking killing on this a killing plus gordon r sponsored by Joe Rogan at least he was for ADCC he's got some other ones so Gordon Ryan is a millionaire without ever having to throw a punch if you can do that without the head trauma wouldn't you want to I think he might competitively because he wants to do that but like he's the guy that's done what people can't do in jiu-jitsu in terms of making money he might just ride it out. Yeah, he might be smart enough to realize that he'll always win if he doesn't. I just wondered if he had that Brock Lesnar crazy side of him where it's like, probably not the best idea, but fuck it, I'm a cowboy.

No, not quite like that. No, he's not quite like that. He's a little more strategic than that. All right. I know he's tapped Dylan Danis in the past. Are you moved at all by Dylan Danis no-sh the his own boxing press conference with uh ksi luke if he if if dylan dennis had it uh like the only way i remembered that he was boxing ksi which is just the saddest shit on earth i mean really uh i only remembered it because he he no-showed the presser dude you know if him and gordon went

at it again like gordon would fucking torture him like a little child pulling the wings off of an insect or something i mean it's they're not even remotely in the same fucking ballpark anymore dude dylan's a weirdo man like i run the game dude you don't even no you don't you don't run anything uh man you don't even no you actually don't at all you don't you don't it's really weird so i don't have any interest in yeah much of what anything dylan dennis has i mean that's a stocked in 209 move right just no show on the presser yeah i guess it worked in the sense that a we're talking about it and b i was like oh yeah he is boxing ksi but now i'm like oh right i don't give a fuck again so yeah yeah there you go uh i don't think uh ksi or dylan danis luke will end up getting on our radar

to potentially drop the kind of hashtag that makes people's emotions moved i'm talking about hashtag holy hammer hashtag hammer of the month. Luke, we're getting closer to the end of this month and you know what that means? Almost time to select the Money Lion hammer of the month. For those of you who may have missed it a few weeks back, we decided that we wanted to start spotlighting the undercard fighters or fighters who are just under the radar just a bit, who were coming on, who were taking out that hammer and making big moments happen. It was Aaron Blanchfield last month. We have no shortage so far of potential nominees this month.

So our friends at Moneyline who know how to money, one of our favorite sponsors, came up with this idea for the Hammer of the Month that invites you, the viewer, to nominate which fighter you think this weekend is coming the hell on. Boxing, MMA, combat sports in general. You only have 13 days left to vote. So go to MoneyLion.com slash Morning Combat to learn more and learn how to enter to help select the one who's going to get that incredible piece of art, Luke. That's called a hammer, right? It's a hammer. It's a freaking hammer.

It's a big old hammer. Yeah. All freaking hammer. It's a big ol' hammer. Yeah. Alright. There you go. Very, very good. Luke, we close Friday by opening up our emails to the public and saying, hey, morningcombat at gmail.com. You know, you're already sticking us with your fan subs there every Wednesday. Fridays are a

different tune. That's when we turn the mirror back on us. You know what I mean? That's when you guys ask us to change our ways right uh we're going to straddle the fence here of being right or wrong and and we'll put it on trial we'll stand the test of time we're brave enough to possibly be told with receipts and a few insults added in that we was dead wrong yeah there definitely will be insults that's what we should call this segment instead of dead wrong just there will be insults this is uh from wes who says i'm a p1 aka at uh eight

bit imaginations i don't know if he's just trying to plug himself there luke but he got plugged uh he says at one hour and 53 minutes of wednesday's mk during during fan subs Luke referred to the lime salt as tajin which is correct tajin but he also referred to sweet spicy sour liquid that you rim chavella and or michelada glasses

with also as tajin this is not tajin that is the savory fermented plum candy goodness we call chamoy or pronounced chamoy or professor salt and pepper you you old is he saying they don't put tahini on the rim because that is matter-of-factly he's saying chamoy goes on the rim uh luke you uncultured swine these condiments are met for a person of elaborate taste who can enjoy the complexities of such varied flavors but mr thomas you're out here sounding like a dumpster diving

man who puts a1 sauce on a well-done steak in public love the show oh no no i didn't call okay so mikey is saying that i called the gummy part tahini that's not what i'm saying what i'm saying is and i would love to see the tape on this, that they put tahini on the rim. BC, do you know how many fucking bars in Cartagena I've been to where I have literally watched them put tahini on the rim? That's not up for debate. They matter-of-factly do that.

Not every place, but some places do that. It's like the first thing I do when I make them toss my salad is put tahini on the rim. Yeah, I mean, they put tajin on it. I don't know about the gummy part. I'm pretty sure I didn't talk about that. Nothing kills a good party like a pedantic pirate like that guy. Well, I'm just saying.

My whole argument was, do they put tajin on the rim? Motherfucker, I have seen it with my own eyes. Yes, they do. Oh, hey, hey west did uh what's his name get you down the other day these nuts yeah right i mean come on west right i mean you know uh what's next f in him yeah let's go to mike he says hey luke in bc it's liverpool's own mike owens media right here oh that, shit. That's our guy. Luke has repeatedly referenced that Alexander Hernandez's first two UFC fights

were knockouts of Dariush and OAM. This is dead wrong. As Hernandez beat OAM via decision with two judges giving a round to OAM, had to flag for respect to the Canadian gangster. Thanks for the shout-outs. It means a lot, Mike. Shout-out, Mike Owens. He beat Hernandez and knocked out Darius in his first two fights. That's a fair one.

I'll take that one. By the way, Mike said he's going to be at our live show, Luke, February 8th, Wednesday night. King's Place, London. So that's awesome. He knows he didn't insult you either. He could have. He could have went after a few different guys. He could have. He could have hammered me, but he's a nice guy, so he didn't do that.

Shouts to Mike on his media. Kevin says, my second dead wrong is for Luke regarding Sergei Pavlovich's performance bonuses at 47 minutes, 10 seconds of episode 382. Luke said, and by the way, he got the performance bonus as well. His first one, I believe, in the UFC. I think that's right, or certainly some gibberish was said here first in some anyway end quote but no it's actually his third in the ufc and his second this year his first was marcelo gulman april of 2019 the second was the abdurra keemov fight of march of this year so luke take that you were wrong okay how dare you all right i'll take the l on the uh

inventorying of sergey pavlovich's bonbon you know luke there is a growing vocal minority who think we've been we're past this that this is slowing down the friday show that no one cares on this pedantic bullshit i don't know if the if the if the donks have come correct this week they're supporting that narrative, right? All right. I've got one here from, I think, Luke, your mic is dead. Did you hear Long Island, Luke? Yeah. Put the shit on me. All right. Hi, BC here. So this next one, I believe is from Kevin or Dave. One of those two, something was wrong with BC's memory on this one. I know the pandemic feels like one long week, but BC said at 20 minutes, 30 seconds of episode

382, quote, I know the interview clips that make the rounds when he was on Ariel's show. What was it? 2019 was the most recent time that he talked at length. You know, it was a couple of years ago. So they're referencing when James Krause was on Ariel Hawane's MMA Hour. And then when the James Krause news happened, I had mentioned that that took place in 2019. He's saying, no, BC, that was August 4th, four months ago. All right, I'll take the L. You're right. It was four months ago. So yeah, that interview, by the way, in light of everything we know is the reason why I mentioned it. It's got,

got some juicy details in there about how deep in Krause is as a successful better. Um, it doesn't necessarily suggest, I mean, it suggests, but it doesn't confirm any additional biases or, uh, foul play regarding the Derek Minner situation, but you know, that's why they have investigations, I guess, at the end of the day. Right now, Long Island Luke is investigating why you people can't hear or see Luke Thomas. So, Luke, do you want me to wait or you want me to go right into the last one here? Yeah, if no one can hear you you're right a long island luke where are we at on this all right nobody can hear luke so you know i'll kill time right here just uh you know cheap plug for the uh the bc live chat the last two tuesdays and who knows when it's coming back youtube.com slash morning combat to hear the inside of what my brain sounds like. It's a wild place. 90 minutes of fun and games for your viewing pleasure.

We've got one more dead wrong. It says dead wrong debate from Oso, O-S-O. Not like O-S-P, but like O-S-O. Here's what Oso has to say. Hello, MK family. Much love. I am a day one Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell fan. I wanted to present a dead wrong debate and I want to defend the PFL's MPH or miles per hour stat.

Here we go. This is this man's debate. That's how you debate. All right. It may not be for you, this donkk says but i have noticed on over 10 different occasions when i'm on social settings with casual fight fans that they like the miles per hour stat when a ko or a massive strike stat is on the screen they respond to it and say stuff like dang that was fast a casual fight fan wants to be engaged in the conversation and banter

while a fight is happening and they don't fully comprehend what they are seeing true that's true since they don't train or watch fights often enough so the mph stat becomes a way they can make a comment or become involved with the conversation furthermore mph also plays a role in the entertainment element the speed of the strike the mph connects with surrealism and movie fight scenes elements that a fight must have since casuals don't have a lot of reference points to effective fighting or combat the only reference they are are movies that what kind of bullshit take is this to continue this guy says in that the mph stat captures the imagination of the movie when the when it's on the screen i get that this is a matter of taste this this is making me more sterile than i already am luke this is the

fourth needle having to read this wow um uh he's just yeah hopefully people can hear you right now luke but yeah um okay great yeah i mean look i understand having trying to have gateway things to casual fans it helps that's why nhl coverage remember they used to have that glowing thing around the puck i thought that was cool i didn't you know i didn't i didn't care about that you know luke sometimes they have like cheerleaders so that like people that are only watching for like the tna and not the football okay i guess i get that too luke but um mp i mean you know i don't think it's a movie i don't think people go oh wow is this rocky four no it's the fucking smart cage brother all right it's the pfl welterweight championships and here's sadabusi against uh some other guy no

i mean look that i mean that cage is so. I wish this guy was smart enough not to send in a losing battle, right? Oh, they can't hear you. Alright. Well, that's the show for you. MorningCombat at gmail.com Hopefully we get some clarity in the future on what that guy was really trying to say, but you know. I mean, do I need stats?

It's just interesting. People don't like the PBC on Fox how they always had, in know, I mean, do I need stats? Like, it's just interesting. Like, even the people don't like the PBC on Fox, how they always had in boxing the punch stats of both because, you know, so it's like, oh, who's winning? Oh, that guy has four more punches. He's winning. Well, no, it's you know what I mean? It's scored on. And I know even UFC shows stats when it's relevant.

But does PFL show too much too many stats, which is why this this question was a birth? Yeah, I think they do. I think they do. But if, you know, if that helped a few casuals, then cool. Hopefully those casuals also love them some Magomed, Magomed Karamov. You know what I'm saying? There you go. All right.

I think they can hear me now. Can they hear me now? Are you back, Luke Thomas? Yeah, they can hear me. Yeah. Hey, that argument about the MPH is really fucking stupid. Maybe Luke's muted. I don't know.

Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can't hear you. This is great. I mean, you know, Luke, you would think for a show that wins this many awards that I wouldn't have this bad of a Wi-Fi, but that's not the show's fault. That's, you know, that's... Hold on, hold on, BC.

I got you covered. Hang on just a second. I got you covered. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Apparently the fans can hear you, Luke. I just can't hear you. You can hear me now. Can you hear me now?

You should be able to hear me just fine. Yeah, I got you now. I got you now. Okay. BC, I i was gonna say about the mph thing uh dude casual fans may watch it and be like oh that's interesting it doesn't tell you anything about the fight other than some shit is faster than others like what does it mean that it's 20 versus 17 what are the overall statistics about what mile per hour leads to in terms of knockouts or knockdowns? We don't have any context about the significance of it

other than it's like, oh, it looks really interesting. But it doesn't meaningfully tell you anything about the fight. And more to the point, if all these stats and the smart cage were interesting, I'm not trying to be a dick they'd have more fans like you can't tell me like the casual fans like it and then also that the casual fans don't watch pfl because i got news for you they don't so which is it like it does it's a useless tool that seems interesting it's got the it's got the form of interesting but none of the substance you You know what would be awesome? If we restructured our Jersey City studio and put, and I know it's like so stupid. Oh, let's have an MMA podcast inside a cage.

I mean, that's the lamest thing you could do is put up like a cage behind you. But what if the smart cage has other relatives in his smart family that do this type of thing, and we got our own smart cage that could like talk back to us like like kit did on night rider luke and you know like in the moment we could get dead wrong by the smart cage you know we could order uber eats while doing the show you know what i mean we can we can check if you know appy is a sex predator legally you know like we can we can look it up we got the the Google, you know?

Yeah, yeah, the smart cage. Yeah. Oh, Luke, do you know what I did the last... Dude, do you know what I did again last night? Masturbated in an olive garden? No, no, no, no, no. They know. It is in the family, though.

Is that their catchphrase? It's in the family. What's their catchphrase? We'll keep it in the family then. Okay, catchphrase it's in the family what's their catchphrase we'll keep it in the family then okay yeah yeah oh yeah um what did you do play fortnight until you wept i did play a lot of fortnight yesterday i bet you did yeah yeah um i re-watched dune again the you know the again dude you know why i did it because the dune instagram account put a picture of paul atreides you know like the main character uh in the desert and said filming wrapped or whatever said something to the degree of because you know luke the sequel is coming out in 2023 right you know this right and luke uh they filmed they they wrapped filming

and i got all fired up web scream screen knows what I'm talking about. You know what I'm thinking about doing? Look, you know, I don't read. I'm not a reader, especially not fiction, dude. I can't handle that shit. Luke, I'm going to go to the library or go to the bookstore and get the damn book and read it. You know, the 1965 novel that George Lucas stole everything from by Frank Herbert.

But Luke, I rewatched, uh, villain Jacques Villanueva's version. Dude, that is it's one of my three favorite movies ever. In the theater was a cinematic masterpiece from the experience. I know it's too long, but I think in this weird, like the only thing I do weird, okay, I do a lot of things weird. The only thing weird

sci-fi that I do, the only sci-fi thing I do weird sci- Okay, I do a lot of things weird. The only thing weird sci-fi that I do, the only sci-fi thing I accept is that love affair I have with Star Wars. Look, this is better than Star Wars. In fact, this is Star Wars, because this is all the ideas that George Lucas silently adapted. I mean, look, I know I get in the sci-fi movie genre that everybody has stolen from the Dune book

because it was the greatest piece of sci-fi fiction in that area. But, Luke, you can't tell me after watching. Because it's good. Remember Rogue One? Sci-fi fiction? Science fiction fiction? Sci-fi fiction. Luke, do you know that?

Remember Rogue One felt like Star Wars but something way cooler? Dude, this Dune remake is immaculate in this space. And it's the only weird space i accept i love this shit okay look i like the movie you're not gonna hear me hate on it but i've never wow man you love love love that i do also once again i'm rock hard with emotion right now luke okay again are you going to watch black hawk down i cannot believe you dude you just don't know what you're sleeping on you really okay i was always taught by my dad that mattresses and cars you can you can barter a little bit luke it's like buying you know at a flea market in a foreign country you know i mean you can you can you can

talk them down not that i encourage that luke i want people to get you know rightful pay for their goods produced okay but luke thomas will you re-watch dune with fresh eyes and a lot of Delta 8s? Will you rewatch Dune? I mean, can we make it an MK homework assignment or something? I want you to make love to this film, Luke. Well, like, not like actually, but like, you know, like in like the embracing in the in art. I mean, you know what I mean?

Luke's Luke spread the cheeks of this film. Please find out about it. OK, and eat it. Experience back. All that kind of stuff. I mean, I didn't imply that. Okay. All right.

To be fair, I did not imply that. You know what I mean? We can end this show at any point, but I would happily watch it again. I really enjoyed it. I would watch it again. I just don't know if I can ever get to the level of like religiosity that you confer upon it. I didn't say you had to join the cult. Okay.

I didn't say that. All right. I joined the benedict i mean are the benedict just a bunch of witches that don't feel like jedi at least lucas you know clean that up a little bit so that like kids could welcome it right yeah i mean he made it palatable so he could make some money off of it but you know fuck that old bitch benedict's like yo we're satan right here okay dude this remake we can end the show at any point we did two shows very long this week we can

call this one early if you want dude the sequel is going to be so good you know it's the second half of the first book luke i can't wait for this shit all right oh really now we gotta now now the pretty yeah let's end it all right uh for luke thomas and the rest of these people uh morning combat dot store is where you can get great merch and you can get some gift cards by the way for uh why don't you do that you missed the deadline for christmas so why don't you get a gift card and you know shop the last minute like we always do uh showtime.com get your 30 days watch championship boxing saturday night 10 p.m eastern rivera versus martin two unbeatens but you can get 30 days free if you like it go six months more at 3.99 per month come on all right you can't beat

that with a bat hammer can't touch that uh watch out for hammers of the month at money lion on twitter at money lion inc on instagram hashtag holy hammer you know what to do luke thomas anything else you want to say to the people yeah february 8th february 8th february 8th come see us london england live show special guests and more king's place you can put the qr code on the screen now if you're in ireland fly over come see us if you're anywhere near that europe market wherever come say hi to us we don't know when we're going to come back we're going to make this one as special as we can february 8th get your tickets come see us we can't wait wow do you have any um early odds on what you will put in your body before that show luke or dirt and anxiety will you chase that with a margarita for old time's sake i probably will i probably will all right there you go uh like us follow us. Shout out to Mikey Mormal, Luke Noseda on the ones and twos today.

I'm sure Gaff is around somewhere. Somewhere. All right. I'm a big Maniche guy, too. Love my team over there. Take care of yourself. Enjoy the fights this weekend. And that's about it.

I got two more words for you from BCLT and the MK. We out.