MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vegas 75 | Bellator 297 | Conor McGregor | Tszyu vs. Ocampo | Morning Kombat Ep 453

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

On episode 453 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian break down a weekend of fun fights. The guys preview UFC Vegas 75, Bellator 297 and Tim Tszyu vs. Carlos Ocampo. What should we be looking out for on these cards? The guys also discuss Conor Mcgregor's current situation. Is the Michael Chandler Fight off? As always we close out Friday's with Ok, Bet and Dead Wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille, 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, right? I mean, get your vapes and energy drinks ready it's time to get washed this is morning combat Friday June 16th 2000 and 23 I'm your co-hostess with the mostest I got cats all over me here right sorry about that Brian Campbell the BBC with that BDE, all alpha, all the time. You know my partner in crime. He's the best damn combat sports fight analyst in the game today. It's Luke Thomas. And Luke, we've had a fun couple days. We didn't go live on Wednesday because we were all tied up in the Spence Crawford press

tour, which we'll get to in a bit. But we're back with a bang Fridayiday live bellator detailed preview and a big card tonight ufc boxing we'll react to some conor mcgregor news and oh by the way luke uh i think we were dead wrong a few times this is going to be a great show uh what did you say you were always alpha alpha all the time is that it all alpha all the time luke you know what i'm saying that is a bold claim that's a very bold claim but i mean not yeah maybe not all the time luke i've seen you around that cat you're not even the alpha in that room motherfucker no that's a fair point the animals tend to uh walk all over me and assault me luke but

you know i i i did it all for the nookie luke the love of these incredible beings you know what i mean luke yeah when are you going to euthanize this cat oh stop that this is zoe she's she's a very violent it's like fatal attraction every day luke but you know what are you going to do right wait i thought this was reggie jack is reggie jackson short-haired or long-haired yeah reggie skinny short-haired this This is Zoe. She's very puffy. Very puffy. Yeah, Zoe will scratch your fucking eyes out. Don't think she will. Oh, yeah, she will.

Yeah. Oh, she's looking for you, Luke. It's great. Anyway, Luke, fantastic show today. A lot to talk about in an already fun week of combat sports, minus maybe some of the distressing news coming out of Miami. But are you fired up? Big weekend coming our way.

You know what? I got to tell you, tonight's Bellator is just fantastic. It's the best card of the weekend. You know, we don't say that all the time, but when it's true, you have to. It really is. It's the best card. Pitbull going for history tonight.

That's incredible. Obviously, we're going to get... And by the way, the return of Little Pettis. He's been gone for two years. Two years he's been gone since that Horiguchi knockout. So that's kind of interesting. Obviously, Yoel Romero and Vadim Nemkov, I don't know what's not to like there. I think tomorrow's UFC card is

not great, but Armin Saryukian's in the co-main event. Can't complain. Pat Sabatini's on it. So there's a few pieces all around that make the whole thing kind of interesting. Indeed, Luke. Absolutely. Can't wait. Should be a very fun weekend. You can go to youtube.com slash morning combat. check out all of our bonus material from the OG RSD 1.0 that we put out Wednesday to interviews with a lot of fighters who are coming back this weekend Tim Zhu uh we

talked to Regis Progray Luke and I chatted with Yoel Romero and Luke minus some audio difficulties very fun and interesting chat with old Yoel you know I had a good time with that hopefully people will definitely some audio difficulties so I apologize for that I'm not sure what happened there but uh okay but nevertheless Yoel seemed to be in good spirits the guy's at 205 and what he's closer to 50 than he is 40 and he's got six back abs it's like what a freak what a freak. There's still some Yoel Romero magic there, you know? And he's incredibly fearful of heights, as we found out at Thursday's press conference. Or Wednesday's press conference.

Excuse me. So plenty of bonus content. You can get this merch right here. Hat, sweatshirt at morningcombat.store. There you go right there. And, of course, one of the fantastic labels that pay us at Showtime. And you can get 30 days free right now on Showtime.com. Guys, it would be a great time. You want to watch

you old Romero try to make history tonight and become the oldest major MMA champion or maybe watch Patricio Pitbull make different but just as impressive history. Those things and more going on tonight at Bellator. So check it out. 30 days free with Showtime. Luke, I would say that's the end of our business but you know we welcome business

partners left and right if they're willing we're able and we've got a new partner right here brother we do um why don't you tell us more about it well luke i'm gonna let you know right now that we're halfway through this year and since the beginning of the year, my fitness journey, it has had its ups and downs. I think a lot more ups than downs, but you know how easy I could slip, Luke. But with FitBod, I can build a dynamic workout that's catered to wherever my fitness level is at. Sometimes, Luke, I'm two weeks on and two weeks off, right? I'm highs and lows.

But FitBod can keep me getting closer to that consistent level that I want. No doubt about it. And listen, when we're working or at a fight, just living life, you can forget the types of workouts you need to do at the gym. Like, what am I supposed to do this day? What am I supposed to do that day? Everything kind of gets jumbled up. FitBod helps you keep track of what you actually need to work on.

It improves the workouts as you go along and everything gets better because you're telling them what's working, what's not, what's great, what's not, and they're adjusting it in real time over time. Takes all the guesswork out of it. Yeah, I mean, look, we have smart technology all around us. Look at the PFL smart cage, right?

I mean, wow. You wouldn't use a printed map when you have your phone's GSP, right? I mean, it's the same't use a printed map when you have your phone's GSP, right? I mean, it's the same thing when using FitBot to improve your workouts. It makes your gym sessions fresh. It makes it fun by mixing it up. And what you can do is create a personalized workout plan designed for your fitness levels and goals. With FitBot, it's easy because you can also view over 1,400 exercises, demonstration videos. I know I need that.

I need a life tutorial, to be fair. Learn all the right movements with FitBot. It's fantastic. That's right. As BC indicated, you can track all of your achievements. By the way, all of your PRs right there in the app, and you can keep your fitness habits and stay consistent all summer long. So here's what's going to happen.

Wherever you are in your fitness journey, get the most out of every workout with FitBod. 20% off your subscription right now. FitBod.me slash combat. That's F-I-T-B-O-D dot M-E slash combat. Combat with a K. BC, give me just a second. If they can, I need to go blow my nose.

I'll be right back if I can. We can't wait to see what discharges Luke to figure out which communicable disease you did acquire this time from the Newark Penn train station. There you go. Special thank you as always. Special thanks to all the donks who reached out to P1s

and said we saw you guys at Spence Crawford press tour. We see you. We're fired up. I have to tell you guys I am fired the hell up we already knew how great this fight was we'll talk about it today but man inject me with that passion and that readiness zoe fantastic zoe's the oldest animal we have here uh three cats two dogs zoe's the only one from the old generation the old world you know the old but uh you know she still feels in old world customs and tendencies,

usually through extreme violence, you know, repackaged as love. And that's, you know, that's a, it's an acquired taste to be very fair. Thank you very much. Luke Thomas is back with us. Of course, Gaffney, Pierre, Long Island, Luke, and Bianca on the ones and twos there from Alka today, Luke, but it's time to get into the show. Are you ready to bang? Big weekend coming your way.

Let's bang, Tooey. we all right here we go topic number one is what goes down in chicago tonight win trust arena it's one of them tentpole scott coker plans and it's a big one bellator 297 two must see title fights atop the marquee a really strong four fight main card all together and you can watch that tonight only on Showtime. So do not, do not miss that Luke in the main event, Vadim Nemkov continues his incredible run from, you know, team Fedor guy. We didn't know a lot about to how many more big names can he add on his

growing resume? Will he just be Corey Anderson there in their rematch to take home the $1 million. Now he's got the living legend, sure, but the ageless wonder in 46-year-old Yoel Romero, who has challenged unsuccessfully for pieces of the UFC middleweight title in the past upwards of three or four times. Depends on whether you consider that after he'd missed weight,

an actual attempt. Either way, at 46 46 Romero 2-0 since joining Bellator both wins by stoppage against Alex Polizzi and Melvin Manhoff this is a pretty damn large step up but it's time Luke Nemkov versus Romero uh I love this fight even if it's got some built-in questions expectations expectations on it. But Luke, the biggest question when measured against those expectations, how much of a chance does 46-year-old Yoel Romero really have of defeating a guy who might, really, might be the best 205er on this planet? Not great. Not great.

He is a fun contender. He's a name contender. He's an interesting contender because I think most folks would recognize he doesn't have a very clear and direct path to beating Nemkov. But what makes him exciting is not just because of what he's done in the past or his athletic potential even. I mean, look at him. He's 205 pounds, so he's not 185 obviously. So he's going to be a little bit thicker and And he's nearly 50, and the guy looks like he's in incredible shape. So his explosive ability, his ability to just kind of find an opening where there usually isn't one, I think is what's going to save him here, should he ultimately have any success.

But, like, you know, is he going to march down Nemkov with his jab? No. Like, obviously he's got great wrestling, but he's not really a strong hold you down type he's not a Habib wrap the legs and pin kind of guy he's not wrist ride kind of guy and so you know you just think Nemkov's got great speed great athleticism great takedown defense much more conventional and also very dangerous striking. He should win this unless he makes an error. So what makes Romero kind of interesting here is he could throw a flying knee

out of anywhere or a spinning back elbow or something so he could cover distance very quickly. He can do some kind of thing to shake it up, but even in these two sort of redemptive wins that he's had recently in Bellator, those were against very overmatched guys. Nemkov just ain't that dude. So Nemkov should win this one unless he makes an error. The question is, can Romero bait him into something like that? Yeah, absolutely. Romero still has those difficult, sometimes annoying tendencies

of slowing down the pace of the fight, trying to parry and paw and make it seem like he's uninterested only to strike like a cobra and coil up. Does he still have that? Can that still be a fight changing strike, an explosive moment that brings him back in? And I mean, look, power is the last thing to go. He's still in great shape. Incredible, by the way, that he didn't go to the press conference Wednesday, which was

up in a tower and did it zooming from his hotel bed out of a fear of heights, but he fears nothing else. Luke, even if he doesn't utilize his wrestling in the MMA space, which would, which would live up to the credentials he brings in as an Olympic silver medalist odds makers are friends at Caesars though, have minus five 50 Nemcoff, your firm overwhelming favorite to the plus 400 Romero. Luke, we're not going to play any UL sound. You can check it out on our web on youtube.com slash morning combat.

A very in-depth interview, but it did have a little some of that audio twang going on. Any takeaways from hearing UL with a translator? Really kind of dig into what this means to him in terms of like let me frame it this way he's come really close before and he did it aggressively against Whitaker but came up short he did it by slowing the pace down against Adesanya and maybe not doing enough but leaving you know leaving his mark there leaving some questions in a weird and close fight anything from this interview give you the confidence even though he denied my offering that this would be his final title shot or final chance at a major

title that he's willing to throw caution to the wind in ways he might not always because of this chance this opportunity at this age um i think the way i would answer that is that i have great admiration for the depth of his purpose he sees things broadly and in and in and puts things together in his life in important ways um he thinks deeply about his life he thinks deeply about I think his purpose and everything else religious or otherwise and you know you take great admiration from that because you feel like that lifts him ultimately and I do I believe that it does lift him in ways that perhaps a different worldview might not the question is does it lift him in a way that makes me reconsider Nemkov's chances no not really no not really so you know I I I was with you with that interview I hear what he talks about

and the significance to him and what it means and like how driven he is and how good he feels and like all of those things are tremendous but like at the end of the day those aren't reasons for thinking that Nemkov has got the uphill climb here. It's quite the other way around. So I appreciate, I just appreciate, this sounds kind of weird, but I really appreciate Romero's personality and like youthful spirit. I really do. I think it brings a lot to the fight game.

I just don't think that really matters against Nemkov. I mean, nemkov's only bout of weakness now it doesn't mean he's been perfect across the board right he's had two very close fights with phil davis uh but the only time we've seen him remotely matched humanized on this run luke of beating many former and current bellator champions was the first fight with Corey Anderson. Do you look at that as more of an aberration based on what happened in the rematch? I mean, is it legit to really offer that Nemkov is no worse, right?

The first or second best light heavyweight in the planet right now? Is this all? There's not a doubt in my mind he beats Jamal Hill. There's just not a doubt in my mind. Like, he absolutely would beat him. But, you know, there's a question of whether Jamal Hill is actually the best 205 or in UFC. I recognize that he's the champion. He earned it fair and square, but you know, you know where we're at on this one. So, so yes, like if, even if he's not the very best, he's right behind the

guy who is. So I will say that the Corey Anderson, the Phil Davis fights, you call them both close. And the second one was close, but it was also clear that Nemkov was just the better of the two like it wasn't I didn't go to the scorecards being like I don't know if he's got three rounds like I knew he had three rounds and then against Corey Anderson he was losing or at least certainly up against it at a bare minimum in the first fight and then by the second fight really turned it around and was just way way better than I thought he could be like he is still that's the part about Nemkov Like he's already very good and young enough and still at a part of his career where he's getting better, legitimately getting better.

So that's why for Romero, it's like, if Nemkov is injured or loses focus, yeah. I mean, all bets are off at that point. But if he's dialed in the way he has been, I just don't know what it could be that he could be better at than Nemkov. It's just, I don't know what that is. Crazy how this be better at than nimkov it's just i don't know what that is crazy how this world works i know you already know this this little factoid but luke but nimkov's first career defeat came by knockout against yuri prohotska

december 31st 2015 in the world grand prix of of ryzen and look at where we are now they're both still in this discussion really of who is the best from all hill as well it's probably those three that you're really zooming in on and trying to figure out. We'll see if Yuri gets back from injury later this year. Yoel Story, I love his character. I love a lot of fun moments in that interview we had with him. But yeah, it's going to be really hard in this fight against such a complete practitioner there, Luke. Practitioner, is that the right word?

I don't know. Luke, this co-main event, though, the second title fight on this card, really is the best fight of the weekend, true or false? Yeah, it's the best one. It's the most interesting one. And to be honest, we said this about Spence Crawford. I'm not putting this on Spence Crawford.

What I mean to say is, what did that fight have to offer? You could point to their undefeated records. In that particular case, you could point to what's for all the belts. You could point to the pound for pound number one slot. And that has nothing to do with how good of a stylistic fight it is. This one has a little taste of that, right? Stylistically, it's actually an interesting fight. But on top of it, it's for the bantamweight belt. Hello, Sergino Pettis back after two years being off. What the hell is that all about? Pitbull trying to become the first to get a title in three weight classes in modern MMA. Hello, Sergio Pettis back after two years being off. What the hell is that all about? Pitbull trying to become the first to get a title in three weight classes

in modern MMA. Yeah, that's the number one fight for sure. Absolutely. Sergio Pettis won this championship against Juan Archuleta by decision. Made the only title defense in that incredible comeback win against Kyoji Horiguchi, the former champ, in which he was losing ostensibly every second until he

wasn't. But 18 months out, missed out on the $1 million and the World Grand Prix. Patchy Mix came out of that tournament with the interim title and all the cash. But man, I love this matchmaking from Bellator so much. Questions about Pettis. Pitbull coming in at 35 yet as confident, fired up, ripped, shredded as ever to try to do that, Luke. And you've had a video out this week about doing that. What would it mean to the great Patricio Pitbull's legacy, his all-time ranking potentially,

to do what nobody has done before in a major MMA organization, win a world title in three different weight classes? Luke, I really enjoyed your video clip in a cue. What's the word I'm looking for? Hope everybody goes out there and checks it out. But let's be absolutely realistic here. Patricio Pitbull, his chance at history, they got him as the betting favorite right now.

Minus 170 to the plus 145 Sergio Pettis. If he does this, Luke, that might be the hall pass to get up to really just cut the line historically and really achieve something pretty damn remarkable. But how high? How remarkable? You know, it's not to say that this is the end of his accomplishments, but if he goes out there and defeats a very credible quality Sergio Pettis, what do we do with him all time? Because I love this topic. I do. It's a great question.

Where does that put him all time as best fighter to never compete in UFC? You know, obviously the answer right now on that one is probably going to be Fedor. It's like, and I don't think that beating Sergio Pettis puts him on the same level as Fedor, certainly not reputationally, but to the point you raise, it really puts him in a very unique position. MMA's first modern three-weight champion, like that is, that is enormous. That is so remarkable to be able to do. And, you know, I want to say something about this too. They showed the weigh-ins here next to us. I'm glad they did. Shouts to the boys at Malka for the good timing on that. Pettis obviously looks pretty good, right? He's a natural 135er at this point. Came in at 134, you can see there.

Pitbull, he looked drained. I'm not going to say he didn't. I'm not going to say it's not a big cut. Look at this. Pitbull was always a small featherweight. So to me, it's less remarkable that he went down to 135 than it is him going up to 155 and icing Michael Chandler like that was a little bit more surprising to me like honestly if you had only seen his featherweight campaign what would sound more

difficult to you going up to 155 and beating Chandler and then going down I mean I don't know I guess there's some some debate there but I will just tell you personally, it's a big cut, but his face doesn't look nearly as drained. I had crazy coach Eric Albarracin texting me last night. They wanted to watch the resume review again. I forgot to tell you that. I should have told you that. They wanted to see it again, so I sent it to him because they loved it so much.

He told me the weight cut was the easiest cut that they've had. Maybe that's just a little bit of, you know, lying about it just to set up the fight. But I don't think so, dude. Like these guys are ultra confident. So here's what he's up against. What challenges him is this problem of legitimacy, where most of the public,

and even a lot of the inside of the MMA community, they know that the UFC is the dominant brand, but they also kind of see that more generally as the place where the best fighters are, is the only way I can describe it. And so to get on that Mount Rushmore of legitimacy, you have to fight one of them. But Pitbull is just really not going to do that. Not anytime soon, probably not ever. And so where does that place him all time?

I'll just say this. He beat Michael Chandler inside of a round, up a weight class. Now he's going down a weight class. And if he does, he's going to beat someone in his late twenties who was a UFC veteran. Now he wasn't a UFC champion by any stretch, but let's just see what he does with it. Let's see what it looks like to me. You know, I would say if he gets this done BC and, you know, we'll see what happens with the rest of his career. It's hard to put him in the top five all time, but I would be very, very, uh, loath to put him outside the top five all time but i would be very very uh loath to put him outside the top 10 i don't know i think he would really earn a place in immortality with a win like

this it it's it's incredible to think about how much he can make a leap here he's already obviously the greatest fighter in bellator history and we already respect him a ton but a lot of times it comes down to who you beat had you gone to another organization that was considered a step down and had you beaten you know guys that were considered second rate or third rate that would mean one thing but you nailed it he one punch ko'd michael chandler who went on to get you know as close as you can be to being a ufc champion against olivera i mean i mean you know you get my point really close knocked him down hurt him but is a star is a pay-per-view headliner is an absolute stud. How about Sergio Pettis, who's still just 29, by the way,

with all of his layoffs and injury comebacks, and has victories over the current UFC flyweight champion, Brandon Moreno, and Joseph Benavides, who is on that short list of greatest fighters in history to never have won a UFC title. So, look, if Fedor crashed the upper room in history despite never fighting in the UFC, but he was on top at a point where Pride arguably had the deepest roster on the globe, so that changes that.

Nobody's done what Patricio has the chance to do. And if he does it again through a guy like Pettis, who's absolutely legit on the global level, damn, Luke, does he end up in that second tier? And what I mean by that second tier is there's that upper room I like to talk about with the names that we already know, but there's that second group below them that I believe is the Jose Aldos, the BJ Penns, the Max Holliday, Randy Couture, Daniel Cormier. I mean, a list of absolute greatness, but there's got to be some line of demarcation. Can Pitbull crack that group here by pulling this off?

Reputationally, it's just going to be hard to make the argument that he can, which isn't to say that he wouldn't beat. I don't think he'd beat Volkanovski. I think a fight with Max might be interesting, but either way, like he could knock out like who's who hits. Okay. Of the three Pitbull, Patricio Pitbull, Volkanovski dude who's who hits okay of the three pitbull patricio pitbull volkanovski and max who hits the hardest the answer is pitbull and like by a wide margin by

like oh it's very wide margin he's a much heavier handed guy than both of them at 145 um and even at 150 his power carried to what fucking 155 against chandler like ridiculous i mean the problem just is there's just not enough of a frame of reference around the known quantities of greatness to make the argument that he belongs in that upper tier. And I know what some folks are going to say, too, BC, and we should get to the point of this argument, which is they're going to say, oh, well, he's only a three-way world champ because he competed in Bellator. And there is a little something to that, right? There is a little something to the idea that a promotion not like the UFC that's a

little bit smaller is going to be a little bit more nimble and potentially take more risks in allowing a guy to make moves around like this right it's you have to partly getting a a third shot at a weight class is just convincing a promoter to give you one when it's not really in their interest because they usually have to drop another belt to do it right so so there's there's that component so I think that that's true and again you could say well it's not really in their interest because they usually have to drop another belt to do it, right? So there's that component. So I think that that's true. And again, you could say, well, it's relatively easier opposition. And so there might be something true to that.

But BC, here's what we learned from boxing. The guys with the biggest weight jumps are in order. Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, and then Floyd with 8, 6, and 5. And even with that 8, it's not really real because he did 154, but he weighed in at 144 for it. So we're talking about anywhere from roughly a 30 pound, 25 pound spread for the most weight classes ever accumulated against titles in boxing history, right? About 30 pounds or so. This will be 20. What I really believe is going to happen here is if Pitbull gets it done, it's actually going to create a bit of a copycat phase. And there are going to be a lot of attempts in other organizations,

including UFC, for guys to get a shot at a third weight class. Because if boxing is an indication, it may be that that 30 pounds is actually closer to what a real push through weight divisions could look like if granted more opportunity. I think Pitbull is going to plant a flag potentially as the first one, again, if he wins, to win three. But he definitely, if he gets it done, will not be the last. And that, to me, is the most exciting part.

Yeah, I love the history here. Our colleague Shaquille Majury, CBS Sports, you know his Shaq MMA channel, caught up with Sergio Pettis. Let's hear his breakdown ahead of this fight. I feel I'm going to have the biggest advantage in the standup department. You know, I got a, I believe like a four to five inch reach on him. And I just feel like my style is a little too creative. He's not going to have the traditional jab, cross hook, low kick type of thing. Like he's going to have to deal with the range deal with um evasions

you know i don't get hit too often so he's gonna definitely get flustered and uh come a little bit harder and that's what i'm planning on but uh for him you know i feel he's gonna try to go out there and use his size advantage um he's got a little bit more weight on him than i'm used to obviously but uh not only that patrice was good everywhere, man. He could take me down. He could put me against the fence. He could stand up as well. So it's just a matter of whose night it is, to be honest. If he's on and I'm off, man, it's going to be a shitty night for me. But vice versa, too.

There you go. Right there. Thank you, Shaq. Luke, let's continue these conversations you had mentioned how absolutely ripped pipple is but doesn't look deathly cut i don't know if you know that after the uh media day there on wednesday uh pipple talked to a bunch of reporters including mma junkie who broke this down here's the quote i can't believe how easy this process is going down a weight class i've been diet. I am only eight pounds over. It's never been easier.

It's easier for me making this weight than it ever was for me at featherweight. I'm great. I'm ready. It was easier, easier than ever, easier than making featherweight. I'm ready to shock the world. What? Pettis would respond to that by saying, Pipple's getting greedy, man. I mean, he's trying to make a legacy

but i think he's looking past me luke separate from the looking past sergio pettis part we're talking about a 35 year old fighter going down in weight which is never easy jose aldo just did it recently at the very highest level and i commend him is this crazy talk to now talk about the potential of him cutting 10 more and trying to seek a fourth title? What do you make of this? Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure how... I will say this.

Part of the argument that Pettis makes that his style is creative and that a guy like Pitbull, who's a little bit more conventional, that that could trip him up at times, I think that's fair. I actually feel like that's a pretty decent argument. I don't think that will ultimately be so confusing for him that he can't get through. Also, he's very good at slipping and countering. That's actually how he got Michael Chandler, right? So, you know, and he carries power.

So, you know, he's going to have responses too. But I actually don't think that's a bad argument on Pettis' part. The question is, can he keep that up long enough? And also, here's another part too, like what's going to happen to Pitbull's power? But I want to go back to it. it again he was a small featherweight look at how many times how many times have you seen pitbull in a face-off with an opponent and the guy he's facing off against is noticeably bigger sure with a bigger frame daniel strauss pat curran i mean i could go on and on all these fucking guys all of them are like that this is the first time where he's slightly bigger in frame than his opponent.

He has always been able to trend. And I think he just didn't diet right for 145 because he didn't really need to all that hard. I guess he had to mind his P's and Q's a little bit more to make 135. But doing it, I think he just, he like unlocked a new level. Like, I'm not one of these guys, like, you know, Pacquiao started at 112 and then worked his way up. Like, Pacquiao didn't start at like 130 and then try to cut backwards and then also go to 140, you know, 1 and 135, 141, 147. So I'm not the biggest fan of cutting back,

but I guess Patricio is in a slightly different part of that conversation where it's like his natural weight class is 145. He was always on the small end there. He might be one of the rare guys who could make the cuts of 135 but because he's such a physical dynamo even smaller at 145 he can go do promising work at 155 but that's a you can see look how look at what kind of athletic profile and weight class profile you have to have an MMA for all of these pieces to work it's very rare and again he has to get it done tonight we'll see if he does yeah i mean but we're talking about 125

luke and just for the record macchio debuted at 108 pounds but won his first title at 112 obviously what i'm saying is he didn't start in the middle and then go backwards a little bit and then up a little bit you know look i love this type of ballsy talk i don't know if it's realistic that pitbull i mean we got to see him look great in this fight and win it is that realistic they can cut 10 more pounds i'll tell you i love the balls on him and i'd like you to put respect on the captain bc and not hold on hold on and not refer to him as crazy eric anymore okay that man is a fashion icon a fashionista the great captain eric albarasi i agree with that yes luke i certainly do what i was going to say was the one thing we need to note beyond his punching power this is

why i'm talking about cutting to 125 this is where you start getting into dillashaw levels of you know ambition where you're just going to you know recklessly look past all the limits let's see what pitbull's punch resistance looks like at 135 against pettis who is not necessarily a super dynamic puncher but that he could be an accurate one right so let's see like what it looks like here because if it looks at all compromised even if he could make 125 you know it's automatically a bad idea let's just see first things first and uh we got one more bit of sound i want to play here on pettis uh further talking about pitbull in this way cut in this matchup if guys if you can throw to that next one please what kind of toll this cut down to bantamweight might take on touch this pitbull i mean if he didn't prep the right way i think for

sure it could uh affect a lot for him you know he's getting older as well. Like you said, 35, I think he's old now. And as you get older, you know, it's obviously harder to lose weight. I feel it as well. So yeah, when I was fighting at 25, I just felt more fragile, not really believing in my body as much. And at the end of the day, you still fight. But you know, I feel he's ready, man. He probably put a lot of time and a lot of money into this camp. And he's going to give himself He probably put a lot of time and a lot of money into this camp. He's going to give himself the best possibility of winning this fight. I think he'll make weight. I think he'll rehydrate.

I think he'll have no problem. Dude, I am so fired up for this. One final bit of the soap opera part of this, Luke. Did you hear that? You know how Pettis changed coaching staff three years ago? He said Pitbull brought in his old coach. I'm not sure which coach he's referring to into his camp he said to to make mind games against me pettis isn't upset he says it's a business the guy's got to feed a family but luke i love when they get saucy and juicy like that yeah like let me bring in your old coach right now let me bring in your ex-girlfriend okay how about that right

you know what i'm saying luke let me let me know? You're not into doing stuff like that, Luke? I'll play dirty if I have to, okay? Pitbull's final quote, Luke, on his spot. It would be like no one could do that to me. Like no one could bring up like an ex-girlfriend and be like, oh, yeah, look what I got going on. I'd be like, dude, I don't care if that person lives or dies. Like, enjoy. You know what I'm saying? Okay.

I bet you I can get it inside on you, Luke. You wouldn't see it coming, right? I don't. I'm not saying you couldn't, like, I mean, there's easy ways to make fun of me. I mean, I can get it inside on you, Luke. You wouldn't see it coming, right? I don't. I'm not saying you couldn't. There's easy ways to make fun of me. I mean, yes, I understand that. But like, oh, I'm with your ex-girl. I'd be like, cool, brother.

Have fun. I mean, enjoy. All right. Pitbull was asked about the idea of goats and where he would stand with a win. His quote was, there's a lot of goats in this game, but nobody has three titles. That's the difference. So, ha, damn, am I ready for this fight, Luke? It's the punching power, the submission threat of Pitbull.

We'll see how he adjusts to this lower weight class, but the speed of Pettis, Luke, will be interesting. I mean, do you see that as a gap for a sound advantage for Pettis, foot and hand speed in this one? He is the natural 135- 135er I expect him to move more naturally at the weight class um Pitbull doesn't have a heavy movement based style anyway he's a he's not a bouncer he's a step and slider um so I think that would have naturally been the case let's say they had fought at 145 but yes I do think it'll probably be quicker he's gonna move

he's gonna be a little bit harder to track. It might take some time for Pitbull to get going. The big question for me is this. I'll say this. If Pitbull's power at 135 is even close to his power at 145, it is probably going to be true no matter what that Pettis is going to be quicker, but if he does have that power, right, Pitbull, he's going to find the target. And then the question is not merely is Pettis faster, but then what will that do to him once he gets a taste of it, right?

Does he walk back into the fray? Because I do think the more accurate of the two actually is going to be. Like if you look at some of the UFC stats, we don't have any Bellator stats, but you look at some of the UFC stats on Anthony, excuse me, Pettis he throws a lot of junk volume so it doesn't really land all that much and so his overall striking uh accuracy is depressed at least statistically but you can there's something more to that um I'd say the more efficient of the two is going to be Pitbull so he might be quicker quicker, and he might be moving a little bit more, but once Pitbull finds him,

that's what the big test is for me. Does he have the power? And if he does, what does it do to Sergio in terms of his reaction? Indeed, can't wait. We'll get to our picks a little bit later in OK Bet. Also on this card, though, Luke, a light heavyweight tilt that has some interesting

future title positioning when Corey Anderson returns against Phil Davis. Wow, very high level matchup here. Let's look at the odds of the moment. Minus 180 Corey Anderson plus 155 Phil Davis. Luke Phil Davis is that guy that's just hard to beat, hard to look good against, hard to retire because he's still very much in the mix here in his late 30s. Always in incredible shape. He's just a difficult out, Luke. Corey Anderson, though, he may have to get explosive here to make a statement and get back into this title picture.

This is a tough matchup. You see that in the odds. A very tough matchup for Corey Anderson. Yeah, a really tough matchup. Phil Davis is in such a weird part of his career. I remember in Baltimore uh, in Baltimore, when he was supposed to fight the returning Anthony Rumble Johnson back from world series of fighting. And this was John Jones versus Glover to share. Uh, um, we did a media day

and they did a face-off. And when it was Phil Davis's turn to pose off with rumble, he tried to go pose off with John, you know with John to create some media buzz for him. And I realize he lost the fight with Anthony after that. But his splash in Bellator was kind of big. Has he done an interview in years at this point? I don't even know. Sometimes I forget he's even on the Bellator roster, to be honest with you. He has disappeared as a um you know kind of promotional

entity but then when you watch him fight you're like yeah he still trains he's he's still in there doing the do like he is still as tough as ever he is he's hard to hit he's hard to control um his top pressure is ridiculous his he's he's got those same kind of not like identical to habib but what i mean is of the top control guys he's got good wrist rides he's got good leg captures he's got good you know uh turks and everything else like he's got a lot of those games that keep guys tied up he's still physically strong his timing is good his experience is good so like he doesn't get hurt in fights he doesn't get tired in fights it's only a question of like in the case of Nemkov are they able to stop takedowns and then create enough separation where you can then use your jab a little bit more effectively at range because he

doesn't fire back as often that's really what it comes down to so you have to ask yourself is Corey Anderson that guy and you think you think okay he definitely can be, right? Like, Corey's got ridiculous cardio, very good takedown defense, high volume, but who's the physically bigger, stronger of the two? Phil Davis is the physically bigger, stronger of the two, at least we think. And who is like the better pure wrestler? Phil Davis is the better pure wrestler. Phil Davis won a national title at Penn State, for folks who may not remember. So, and even in MMA, I think that is translated. So it's a real, real, very, very difficult toss-up fight in my mind. It just comes down to Corey Anderson being able to get enough down blocking, separation, volume on the feet, and then moving constantly.

I really believe that it's either he can stuff those takedowns enough and create separation, or he cannot. That's it. Yeah. 38 years old is Phil Davis, but when not fighting Nemkov, he's 7-0 since losing his light heavyweight title to Ryan Bader all the way back at Bellator MSG. And look, the two Nemkov fights, he's fought him closer

than everybody in Bellator except for Corey Anderson, right? So it's like this is the perfect matchup to see who survives who advances but not going to be easy for Corey and look the other one Daniel James coming on as a 41 year old heavyweight making a late push we know he was a security guard for the rapper Twista well now he's like actually settling in as a legitimate heavyweight contender he's got Gokhan Sarakam in front of him. 2-0 in Bellator with two knockouts, but he's got a long win streak, Luke. This is a shallow division. Is Daniel James knocking on that Ryan Bader door at the moment?

Yeah, I think they want to set him up as a contender. He's from Chicago. This fight will be in the Chicago area. They call it the Chicago land area. I don't know why they do that. People from Virginia, I was like, they don't call it the state of Virginia. They call it the Chicago land area. I don't know why they do that. People from Virginia. I was like, they don't call it the state of Virginia. They call it the Commonwealth. And I'm like, just shut the fuck up. It's a state. Okay. You neither here nor there. Um, yeah,

listen, James is long in the tooth. He is a lot older, but he is a huge man, a gigantic figure in this weight class. If he wasn't training consistently, he would easily be above 300 pounds. Not a doubt in my mind. Look at the size of this man. He's huge, right? He actually has really good, improved wrestling. He doesn't make as many bad choices in those lock-up clinch positions. He is a huge power puncher on the feet.

Dynamite ground and pound. So if this guy starts laying the punches on you, it's not going to be long. It doesn't require him to make a lot of contact for that contact to cause serious problems. I think he only has to worry about maybe some of the wrestling here a little bit. I still think he'll be enough.

Give me some Daniel James hand raising tonight. He's on a five fight win streak, two in Bellator as I mentioned. He's knocked out Tyrell Fortune and Marcelo Golem, so it's not nobody in this division. Also, Luke, he made his pro debut in Bellator back in 2014 and then never fought again until last year. Interesting prospect, though.

That's tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern time, only on Showtime. It's Bellator 297. Can't wait. You can catch me before and after on CBS Sports HQ. Luke, let's go to our second big one this weekend in the MMA space. Saturday night, back in the apex, back in Las Vegas with a fight night is the UFC. But you know what? I really like this matchup. Jared Cannoneer versus Marvin Vittori, a pair of former title contenders and as we settle in right now to this main event caesars has minus 125 for the favorite vittori plus 105 for jared cannoneer luke we were unable

to set up this matchup this week with everything else we had going on in the combat sports world you you you geeked up a little for this this i mean, high stakes. It has a potential to be a very technical matchup as well, although we certainly can see pockets of explosion here. Where are you leaning right now? Are you into this? You fired up for this? No, this fight is deeply uninteresting. I don't care about it at all, unfortunately.

Wow, dude. You obviously don't care whether this fight lives or dies in true Louis Thomas fashion. Whether the fight lives or dies, you're right. I don't, I mean, I do like, do you like, is there, let me, you know, and not every fight can be this. I understand, but we're talking about a UFC main event. Like, does this fight meaningfully do anything for anyone other than the two combatants themselves?

Like it doesn't really mean a whole lot more to the point the point, you know, it just doesn't scream action. Now, of course, MMA is unpredictable inherently. I understand that. I accept that. It could be fine, but like Marvin Vittori, we talked about it. He's got a lot of things he's good at. He needs a couple of things he's much better at to really begin to make difficulty for his opponents. Right now, it feels like he's good enough to play catch up with some of the better

ones, right? He went the distance twice with Izzy. He went the distance with Whitaker. They all won, but you know, like he can play up there a little bit, but there's never really anything to get him over that hump. And even against Roman Deleuze, he struggled a little bit, maybe even got a little lucky with the scoring. So we're just waiting for him to level up. For Kananir, it's a little bit different. He really has leveled up getting to his third UFC weight class. He rebounded after his loss to Izzy against Sean Strickland in a, not a fun fight, but you know, an admirable effort. So listen, these are very talented guys.

These are admirable guys who have accomplished a lot. That's worthy of, you know, respect. But in terms of a fight itself, like is this a fun or otherwise interesting fight or interesting style matchup or anything? No. Do we really believe that either of the winners here

are going to be soon either a credible contender or a fun one for the champion? No. Like, so it's just a, it's a fight you can take, have at middleweight and we should respect it

on that level, but we don't need to dress it up as anything other than that. Well, I do acknowledge the potential for this to be a slow plotting, again, chess match between these two until somebody lands, and then maybe we speed up a little bit. Obviously, Vittori pushes the pace, tries to take the fight down at times. It could go a lot of different ways, but I don't know.

I like it, Luke. I like what they're both fighting for to remain relevant in this weight class yeah i'm i'm interested in this fight their number cannoneer comes in at number three vittori comes in at number four obviously the elephant in the room in terms of both of them advancing back to the title is that both came up short in a big way you know for vittori in the rematch and cannoneer just i mean he just didn't let his hands go enough luke unfortunately even though he was very defensively responsible and seemed game plan wise to be really you know there and ready just couldn't get it done but they come in at three and four the elephant in the room is what about whittaker versus dupless c which is coming up and dana seems to have hinted will produce the

next title challenger cannoneers only losses in this weight class, too? Adesanya and Whitaker. Our boy Shaq Majore caught up with Cannoneer this week and, you know, really talking about could a title challenger come out of this fight or is it really, you know, Big Rob and Drikus over there for the Battle of Africa? Luke, let's hear what Jared had to say. I want to open some eyes and drop some jaws, you know? I want to let the guys who make those decisions say, you know, we've already said this is a contender fight,

but that looks like a more appealing fight, you know, me versus Israel part two. I know the first one didn't go too well, and a lot of people weren't too happy with it, but, you know, I wasn't happy with it either. And I've made the changes that I need to make myself satisfied. If I ever get in the octagon with him, I'm going to be satisfied. So that's it.

You know, I'm just becoming a better fighter, you know, approaching this thing a little bit differently. And I'm not taking any shorts. So, you know, I'm ready to put on a performance that's going to make those guys believe differently than what's already written out there in the ether, if you will. Luke, at 39, we know he has crippling power when he goes after it. Sometimes he's almost a victim of how, in my opinion, technical he can be as a boxer, that he doesn't utilize his biggest strength strength enough which is sometimes just letting his hands

go he tries to find the perfect punch if he knocks vittori out could that be enough to re-energize the middleweight title discussion or sorry bro you had your chance okay if he knocks him clean out which is unlikely because Vittori has a chin, and it's possible that that could do something interesting for him. I mean, here's what he's up against, right? He's not just 39, but he's going up against a guy who is hard to hurt. So getting that is going to be difficult. And even if you do, you already lost to the guy who is the champion again in a fight where you just kind of

underperformed and you can forgive Izzy for that because he's still the champion again he gets that opportunity to be forgiven but it doesn't work that way for the contender it's like I'm not putting it on par with uh what Aldana just turned in which was just she was just scared to throw that's not the same but like in the end he just couldn't get much going even though he was trying they're not going to be quick to give you one I don't think just icing Vittori as that would be which would be big I'm not sleeping on that that would be huge but by itself that wouldn't be enough because again Whitaker kind of yes there was a moment there where obviously um uh Kananir came back against him which was kind of admirable but Whitaker was the dominant figure in that fight too so yes this that I agree that icing Vittori, while very unlikely, would do a lot for him. He's in

such a disadvantageous position for those ambitions, it would take a lot more than that too. Well, Kananair rebounded from the loss to Adesanya by edging Sean Strickland by split decision, and Vittori bounced back from his loss against Robert Whitaker with that up and down performance against Roman Delidze. And same, same equation here for, uh, for Vittori. His only losses in the last seven years have been to Whitaker and Adesanya.

Let's close with Vittori talking about this fight, catching up with Shaq Majorey. And the more the time goes on, the more that the fight goes on, I think I'm going to take over. You know, that's, uh,

that's, uh, that's what you guys are going to yeah and it might happen that I might catch him early because yeah man I'm you know I've been working a lot on just like you know like more to let him punches go and like he's just I'm just tapping now into into my real potential i i believe you know so you guys are gonna see like a great great great fight by now i can't wait to to get in there with him see luke that might be just talk to you that fires me up because their themes are the same and

who they've beaten and lost to and both didn't't pull the trigger. Well, I mean, look, Vittori tries to pull the trigger, but he needs a statement when really badly. As much as we're talking about what would Kananir do by icing him, Vittori needs a statement finish. He needs to take all that aggression that he sometimes brings and translate it into danger. He's telling you he's ready to change and we'll see in this fight. Luke, if you come running after Jared Kananir and try to fight him, I mean, he's going to fight you back. It's going to change and we'll see in this fight Luke if you come running after Jared Cannoneer and try to fight him I mean he's going to fight you back it's going to get exciting you may get KO'd but I kind of feel like Vittorio really needs to take those big chances that he just talked about or these guys really are that a step below the elite and that's where they're going to stay Luke they got to crash they got to splash the back here's the thing again at 39 it's

just hard to say that Cannoneer has has level up moments in front of him. Who he is at this point is who he is, and he has to make the best of that. And he might be able to. We shall see. Vittori, I'm still waiting for the level up moment. I still think he's got one in him. He's too young and too good for this to be his peak. Now, I don't know when he's going to round that corner.

And it may not be this fight. It may not be the next one like it could take a little while but I still think he's got a level up in him so if it is this fight great that would be that would be that would be amazing like to your point it's not like people don't lack confidence in Vittori but they do lack confidence in him as a real title threat like that has been for the time being that flame has been extinguished what he needs to do is rekindle that so if he goes in there and he's right he's letting his hands go and he's just causing problems and let's say he iced his cannon here which I also find to be unlikely but let's say that would be really interesting to me that would be a very like wow okay Vittori is really sort of coming into his own here maybe but we just need to see it and it may not be this fight and i think

having a little patience it's probably going to be better for us long term in terms of just a realistic timeline okay true or false if if vittori ices uh cannoneer you know let's say ground and pound shocks us takes them out of there lorenzo picks up the phone and goes put the italian guy back in the main event let's go get him right back in there for izzy forget driscus and the other bro all right make that happen big stakes here potentially luke it's all i'm saying okay they want an italian champion you better believe they do luke those zufa guys you know it driscus you mean driscus yeah i was i was being you know disrespectful on purpose, almost like, who cares about the rest of them?

Let's fast-track the Italian, Luke, okay? You know what I mean? Let's keep this going to the co-main event. Your guy, the number eight lightweight in the world, born in Georgia, but he's Armenian, correct, Luke? We're talking about Arman Saryukian. Yeah, he is Armenian. He's also the biggest betting favorite on this card, Luke.

It's incredible. Minus 1,100 to the plus 700 Joaquin Silva from Brazil. Luke, you could argue he beat Gamrot or should have gotten the decision. He's only ever lost to Islam back when they caught up with each other early on outside of that one in the UFC. He's putting the striking and the aggression together. We know what he can do as a wrestler. This feels like a setup fight, according to the odds,

to catapult him right back into contention. Your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, this was not the original fight that was supposed to happen. I believe they had another one in mind. This is ultimately where they ended up. He's a huge favorite, Armin Saryukian, and I think he deserves to be. I will tell UBC,

is this the best fight this weekend that they could ever find for Armin Saryukian? No, it's not. I will tell you, though, I'm glad it is here. I'm glad he's getting this. He is very young, and he is very good at wrestling. He is very good at control.

He's been working, though, on the other parts of his game, some on his stand-up, which has gotten better as well, and a little bit on his ground and pound, too. Those two parts, to me, are not where they should be yet, although it doesn't necessarily matter in terms of wins and losses because, again, his gas tank is ridiculous. Everything is absurd. Maybe he faded

a little bit in that Gamrot fight, but you know, BC, that was, that was one of the most insane wrestling battles you'll ever see in MMA. I mean, yeah, guys are going to get a little tired at the end of that, but he's got so many things working for him is kind of what I mean. I know he rebounded, as you can see here against Demir Ismagulov, which I thought he wasn't even going to win because I've had some concerns. Here's what I'm trying to say as I get a little long-winded. He's so good that they could fast-track him just based on the results if they wanted to, but I feel like if they were a little bit more patient and they gave this guy a little bit more time to get camps and training under his belt, he would be really able to maximize his time there. Joaquin Silva is desperately overmatched in this contest.

I think he's got like a 60% takedown defensive rate. You know, he's a good striker on the feet, but he's a little bit reckless. He's a come-forward guy. Like, sorry you can't be able to get this fight to the ground quickly, easily, and overwhelm this guy. What I want to see, BC, are some of those other pieces put together i want to see him execute good control and then good solid ground and pound on top of it or on the feet if you want to play the game with that guy show me some new wrinkles right so yeah this is a great

fight for saryukian to take a temporary break on the fast track, still get a quality opponent. Like there's not a pushover, but being a very advantageous matchup where you, the threat is not so overwhelming that you can't work on things that you've been developing in the gym. I like this fight for Saryukian a lot for those reasons. Yeah, I want to see the jab. I want to see him go to the body more with the punches, Luke, especially in the clinch there. He's very tough, very aggressive.

The storyline is already set should Islam Mahachev hang on to the title that we one day rematch these two at the highest level. But you do have that BMF battle coming up. You do, of course, have the recent results that broke out, Luke. Number eight in the division is Saryuki, and you won't expect him to make a big leap considering the odds in the opponent but put some win i mean that that that last win he had was very solid so you know he starts stringing these together it's not going to be long in this division luke and he is fun as shit to watch where else are you

looking up and down this card remember originally this was josh emmett versus ilia tiporia that got moved off you certainly would say this continues the trend although the the two fights on top are very good a couple other matchups i like but luke this is this is an in-between fight night card at the apex right yeah that's not to say that there aren't some interesting fights happening up and down the card nothing uh particularly speaks to me other than maybe pat sabatini against lucas almeida which is also on the main card itself pat sabatini i think has got some genuine potential and i'm curious to see what the next step is in this campaign at 145 so um yeah other than that though a whole lot that

huh he got stopped in the first round by damon jackson last time so this is a bounce back opportunity for him so i'm curious to see what happens there armin petrosian's a fun fighter but you know i think a little limited but we'll so we'll see what uh what happens with him but the rest of it again it's not like there's like these fighters are battery like that's not that's not really what i'm saying it's just are any of them uniquely exciting to me not necessarily you know no this undercard like the early prelims outside of my lithuanian brethren modestus bucalchis in the curtain jerker luke this is uh this kind of kind of sucks luckily it's a great weekend for fights and you know this main card's decent but

i don't have anything else to say about it luke thomas i'm sorry yeah i'm gonna go to a sports game on saturday night um so i'll have to catch it later you're like take that f you all right luke also it's not even that it's just like what's a better use of my time you know also this evening uh pfl5 is that tonight luke or tomorrow night it is it is tonight tonight it is tonight yeah i didn't know that i'm gonna be really honest with you i did not know until this morning that this was happening. I did not realize that. This is what I mean. It's like, dude, why'd they sign Francis?

Yeah, I can't imagine why they would want to pivot to a different sector of fighters that could do something for them other than this system they've built, which will get them absolutely nothing. The main card is on ESPN. Everything else on the plus, Luke. Ante D'Elia, I believe, is the defending heavyweight champion. D'E delicia he'll be taking on maurice green of crochet fame the co-main event brings back larissa pacheco who

upset the hell out of kayla harrison in the third meeting in last year's championship in women's featherweight but then you have that head-scratching decision to not put kayla back into the this season so larissa comes back without really much fanfare, taking on Amber LeBrock in this one, also on that main card. LeBrock, excuse me. Look, I can't read any more close up. No, the only reason I know that is because,

dude, actually, you know, it's funny. One of her trainers, the CSA gym, which is Kieran Fitzgibbons, I've been paying attention to a lot of his tutorials that he puts out online. He is a very impressive coach. He is a very impressive coach. He is a very impressive coach, and if you look at her numbers through 2019,

she was like 3 and 4. It wasn't going well for her. And then since then, I'm not sure how long she's been with CSA, but certainly in the last, since basically the pandemic, she's been undefeated and against good quality opponents. So that's an interesting... Pacheco should win because that's a tough fight. She's really, really good.

But the surge of Amber Leibrock in this kind of semi-unusual spot with her very, very gifted coach is interesting for me to watch. Women's featherweight division. Also, Aspen Ladd coming off a loss in her PFL seasonal debut here at 145 is going to need a big performance to get in the playoffs here against Carolina.

So back on. Okay. Heavyweight opener there as that giant from Brazil, Hennon Ferreira for the Fajita, excuse me, takes on Mateus Sheffield, who I believe was in the finals last year. Dennis Goitsov in the preliminary featured bar against Jorgen DeCastro.

I think it's Goitsov. Maybe tune in early for Julia Budback. I don't know, Luke. PFL needs, they need something, right? They need something. They need Francis to fight Sergey Pavlovich. You know what I mean? You know what I mean?

Like, this is a path to nothing. This is a path. Or did you see Scott Coker confirmed yesterday to the media that the PFL is one of the potential buyers of Bellator? Did you see that? I thought that was now wasn't ariel reporting that that was now not not a thing okay so the way i understand it is they're not one of the leading contenders but that they were in talks for it and that that was

an ongoing process and i don't think they're fully out of it um he confirmed that that was that was a thing so like you know you never. Someone could surge back to the front of the pack with a new offer or, you know, a new system. Who knows? But he did confirm it on the record yesterday. So I thought that was pretty interesting. Maybe they end up buying. I'll tell you what. Like, you know, you think more promotions are better.

And in general, I think that would be the case. But if you've got a monopoly in the market, which you do, I mean, because this is like the part that folks really need to understand about PFL and Bellator. None of these guys, including one, certainly in the state that they're in, none of them are going to out-compete the UFC into changing the market. It's not possible. You actually can't do it.

There's just no way to actually do it, short of some catastrophic mistake the UFC would have to make from a business standpoint or for federal legislation to change the structure of the sport. But competing their way out of this problem simply won't work. However, what might be kind of interesting, BC, is a big number two kind of promotion where it's not a true competitor to the UFC, but it's got a couple of these combined forces that at least make it a lot more interesting than they are when they're kind of atomized all by themselves.

You know what I mean? So I wonder about that. All right, Luke. That's an interesting thought. Let's transition here to topic number three. That's a bold thought. What's the thing? It's a bold thought, Cotton.

Let's see how it works for them. Bold strategy, Cotton. Luke, we were already going to talk about Conor McGregor here on topic number three, but overnight things escalated in an alleged incident that is rumored, that is alleged to have taken place here. Remember Conor McGregor was at the NBA Finals, Game 4 in Miami. We saw him on Have You Seen This Shit earlier this week. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Hold on, Tookie on toky all right tookster all right tookster just walking on in just all right now

let's say hi let's say hi school's out for summer toky yeah toky all right you want to say hi say hi me more you have to talk hi okay what's your name uh violetta that's your name? Violetta. Violetta, that's your name? Yeah, and why are you wearing this on your head? Because I'm almost too sad because I was really sad because I just really sad because.'m just really sad because... I'm just really sad because? Yeah. I want to be a mommy.

Okay, Meemaw, you're already a better public speaker than Daddy. Can you believe that? Yeah. All right. We have to get the show going, Meemaw, so I appreciate you coming to say hi. Hold on, Tuki. This is Uncle Gringo talking. Can she hear me?

She can't hear but i'll tell her go ahead all right can you tell her that i just recently purchased a new pair of glasses i'd like to get her to tell me hey tookie he bought a new pair of glasses you want to see him she says yes let's see ready what do you think of his glasses oh yeah luke that used to produce tears look i'm on a roll right now he's more he's like blippy say bc is a moron yeah oh come on okay look i love you my cats will scratch the ever-living heck out of members of your family if you keep this all right there we go there you go everybody tuki thomas there that's the reason why we do this show, Luke. Tukey needs shoes as always.

That's great. Great to see her, Luke. She ready for the summer? She's fired up, right? Yeah, bro. She's super ready for the pool. All right. Don't sleep on that.

Back to distressing news, Luke. Last Friday was game four of the NBA finals. Conor knocked out the Miami Heat mascot who went to the ER. We all talked about that. But behind the scenes, he is being accused of sexually assaulting a woman by forcing her violently into a VIP men's room

inside the arena. A letter was sent to McGregor and his team that allegedly he aggressively kissed her and attempted her to perform multiple sexual acts while he had a bodyguard inside there with him,

keeping the crowds outside of the restroom this is all alleged luke and the statement from mcgregor's team and lawyer was that mr mcgregor will not be intimidated the ufc went on to say that they will continue to gather additional details and let the legal process play out before they make any moves or comments uh this is also a lawsuit against the mba and the miami heat this was all reported by tmz which is also as you can see there has videos backstage of connor what appears to be dragging someone by the hand to this men's room and then you'll see his security on the outside keeping keeping everybody out. Luke, when we consider that we have been talking in recent weeks, not just about, hey, what the heck's going on with McGregor and USADA and his return.

But hey, every time I see him on camera, man, he looks really drunk or high or worse. It doesn't look like he's doing the Spartan training lifestyle. He's all over the globe partying it up. Now you add this on top of it. Luke, it's all allegations. We'll let the we'll let law play out but this is another step in another distressing trend for mcgregor going back to what i guess the last time we saw him in the cage but even further luke it's almost like the before and conor mcgregor career and the after. We're still in the after, and it's still getting worse, Luke. So let's go through it. Ready?

Again, to your point, these are just allegations. I mean, who the hell knows? And I know that TMZ video came out, and it puts him together with the victim, or the alleged victim, I should say, in this case. But the video itself is not necessarily incriminating to my knowledge. I mean, there's a lot of this that's unknown, that Miami Heat have pledged to launch an investigation, The video itself is not necessarily incriminating to my knowledge. I mean, there's a lot of this that's unknown.

The Miami Heat have pledged to launch an investigation. I guess we'll see. The police have been informed. This person did go to the police for whatever that is worth. So, you know, do we have any idea about what the truth is? We have no idea. But what we do know is what is at least he's been accused of or at least had run-ins with. So, for example, in an issue that happened in December of 2018 that ultimately rolled into 2019, the first time he was accused of sexual assault in Dublin, that's one.

There was an arrest. Remember, he was arrested off the coast of Corsica from an incident as well. He was eventually let go and then charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence. That woman in that case also went to the police. And now you have this one for whatever that is worth. So those are three accusations with all three cases of someone going to law enforcement with it. But someone might note nothing come of it from a law enforcement standpoint, but there's more than that, right?

So there's throwing the, the dolly at the bus. That's one. There's the Miami phone thing, which I don't really count, but okay. It's there. Knocking out the old guy in the bar, right? No, not gonna, not gonna have the old guy at the bar. That's another one. There's the Miami phone thing, which I don't really count, but okay, it's there. Knocking out the old guy in the bar, right? No, knocking out the old guy at the bar. That's another one. Obviously, jumping into the Bellator cage because you cannot do that.

That is absolutely illegal. That's not great. Either shoving Mark Murray and Mark Goddard, and it goes on from there. How about punching or at least allegedly attacking the Italian DJ? How about in January, I believe, of either this year or maybe just the end of 2022, there was the accusation by that woman. Now, she did not claim sexual assault, but she claimed that Conor McGregor did physically assault her on a boat, which she then had to flee. She also went to the police about that and I guess ultimately dropped charges. Well,

there's some interesting reporting around potentially why she did or dropped for her participation in the investigation when we're the other. Like, I mean, and again, the old guy, he can't even deny it because it happened on tape, right? Like everyone saw it for what it was. So listen, what does any of that mean about Miami? Who knows? I guess we'll see.

But would it really be out of character if it came true? I mean, you know, you have to kind of ask, like, there's this broader pattern of what's happened in terms of, like, physical interaction and to what extent it does or does not fit in it. Everyone gets to make their own assessment there. But, like, these are, you know, it's just weird to me that someone, I know what folks are going to say right like how could someone be accused that many times and like all of those incidents be not true now we're not celebrities we're not under the microscope in that way so it's hard to say but it is weird right bc like to have that kind of bizarre track record which doesn't have a huge law enforcement footprint sure but nevertheless seems to be this

pervasive thing that follows him everywhere one way or the other he's insanely famous and insanely rich so i'm not going to act naive luke that when you have those two elements there that's stuff like this meaning the situation dragging a female into a men's room as your security staff as that video appears you know is blocking the door whether or not anything happened in there that was illegal luke it's like the trend he's on the road he's going down i watched the mcgregor documentary on netflix and talked up in my breakdown that day you were off about, you know, it's entertaining. It fills in some gaps of watching behind the scenes leading up to these four fights. But man, is there a ton of propaganda about this, you know, pure, clean cut family man who's just such a rabid competitor and, you know, has this vision of excellence for him in his country that, you know, sometimes that takes over and he makes bad decisions.

But win or lose, man, he comes back fighting. And man, did I do we tell you how much he loves his wife and kids and all that, by the way, is probably true. Again, I'm not naive to how celebrities roll or the or sometimes the power they think they have in polite society. But if you're this married man who is also supposedly like should be in camp, getting all kinds of ready for this big fight that the reality show, the ultimate fighter is being used as a commercial for, is this where you need to be? You know, we always say we don't want to be the old guy on the porch, but if you're going to hang out at a, at a nightclub at 3am and get embroiled in stuff, you have to start asking yourself, why am I at the nightclub at 3 a.m.? Is what I have to risk worth risking it for another night out and a little bit of fun, right? There's other ways you can do that. If you're at an NBA finals

game and separate from knocking out the mascot, which was its own incident, and you're doing things like this and dragging women into restrooms while security holds the door that suggests to me that this is your lifestyle this is how you roll um it's leading to this really downward trend luke where you know people because he's so polarizing people you know that i've heard you know he's finished as a fighter really ever since the alvarez fight ever since the mayweather money ever since the stepping away and all that but i don't know how to respect or nostalgia i've always wanted to believe that he can put it back together and come back and it seemed by the way ahead of the cowboy fight he did do that to a large degree

but in general luke this second half of his career has been an absolute train wreck and this whether the allegation is actually true or not just the setting just the foundation of this packaged with all of the recent public behavior this guy's finished as a fighter luke and i and i and i wanted to be the last person to say that because i wanted to believe because it's more fun when he's in the game there is always been this sort of like not a hero side of him but you know against all odds i'm gonna i'm gonna reach for the highest star and show you i can do that that can become intoxicating to watch but separate from how despicable if this allegation is true this actually is i might be the last one to finally admit it luke but he's finished if you

can't get this together now after this long time away and this big exaggerated comeback and you're still living your life like this you're still you know showing up to the ultimate firehouse looking all kinds of rabid and having people tossing out suspicions and now the uncertainty of will he actually even fight or is this ever supposed to be a fight like what the hell's going on this is disturbing as shit across the board so you know also like mma mma just has a conor mcgregor addiction you know we understand it like dude we like let's just you know none of us are going to sit here and claim we haven't tried to ride conor mcgregor's popularity way for our own self-aggrandizement of course we have sure it's

just you know part of the reality and when he competes you know you're very excited about it because you know it's going to be a great month for you for traffic. Like, that's the reality too, you know. But at some point, you got to call, you know, you have to pay attention to the details here. You have to be fair to what the reality is. And, you know, I don't know if he's finished. BC, you might be right. I can't say one way or the other. But it's like, dude, what about anything that is happening leads you to believe he wants to compete anytime soon? And even if that he did compete anytime soon, that he would be in any kind of state to do well. I mean, just like nothing about what he's doing is in line with that. And it's like, dude, I kind of get it.

I mean, BC, we talked about this with Conor McGregor, dude. Like, I feel like he's hanging on to some old ideals from a past life. His life is interesting because he's lived like a bunch of it all at once. I mean, how old is Conor? 34. I mean, for 34, think about where his life has gone so rapidly from being sort of like a working class guy with maybe not necessarily the brightest future in Dublin, Ireland to this global superstar doing this, all the stuff in between. And we had said it, dude. Conor McGregor beat the game. He beat the game. He got to a point where he was able to get a ton of money from fighting, then fighting Floyd, and then using that money to set up a post-fighting future. And he did it. Dude, we never even talk about that. He did that in one of the most successful ways with the whiskey business. Now, the whiskey is

not very good, but it doesn't matter because the money is the money was tremendous for him and it set him up generationally dude you beat the game you beat the game and he wants to hold on to this thing where like he's still he's still got that competitive fire and he still wants to be around the fight game and it still interests him and And I guess on some level it still might, but here's my point, BC. He is, irrespective of what criminal activity he is alleged to have been involved in, just put that to the side for just a moment. He is in a warp speed, different stage of development in life, so far past the concerns of the fight game that it's this old ghost kind of haunting him that calls him back but he's just not really there for it in the way that he needs to be for it to be even good much less real uh

it's just bizarre to see people thinking like this guy has got a big future in the fight game in 2023 dude i mean if he never came back would you be surprised i you know i'm not saying that's the likeliest outcome but that does that seem crazy? It should not. It should not. Well, I think it's spiraling towards something worse than that, Luke. I mean, his life seems out of control and you do hear the on, you do hear a lot of speculation with organized crime and mafia and tie-ins there that haven't been proven as more just speculation. But when accusations continue to pile up connections to you know things outside a certain lifestyle start piling up dude he's spiraling aggressively in the wrong direction here and i mean i mean look what was this halftime of an nba finals game i mean if this is like

how you're operating well you know again whether the alleged crimes happened or not like what are you doing there like what is like you know like i don't know if, if, if like, I should be more upset at the actual allegations, which are absolutely despicable and are consistent, as you mentioned across his recent timeline, whether that means some of it is because he's a big star and you become a target or not, but he seems complicit in operating in spaces, which set up these certain situations, which is just not, you know, so I don't know if I'm, I'm more mad than I should about get your shit together, dude.

You know what I mean? Like, like you, you have already in, you've already executed one of the most outrageous careers that we've ever seen, you know, on such crazy high levels and marks from finances to crossover appeal to the accomplishments inside the cage.

It's really sad to see him just be this clown shell of himself who is finished, meaning mentally I think he's finished from this game. It doesn't mean he won't stop fighting. I just think he's finished. Finally, I've come up to speed with all where the haters were four fights ago, right? Yeah, it's over, but it's really disappointing to see with everything he has accomplished. The disappointing part is not that it might be over. it's over, but it's really disappointing to see with everything he has accomplished, you know, uh, the disappointing part is not that it might be over.

Like, of course it might be over. Like all of these things are going to come to an end. And again, we talk about all the time, dude, if you're a prize, this is true for everyone, but it's a special,

it's acutely true for prize fighters, which is that the end of your career, um, is a definite and it might happen sooner than you think. And for all kinds definite, and it might happen sooner than you think. And for all kinds of reasons, it might happen sooner than you think. But, you know, the guy is 34. He gave away some of the best prime years, 31, 32, 33. That 33 is getting a little up there.

But these were prime years where he could have competed. He's 34. He's almost at the edge of, like, what is even possible in terms of beating elite lightweight. It's just from a statistical standpoint. But the point I'm trying to make here about all of this with Conor is just that there are natural ends to all of these things. They come apart in different ways at different times for everyone. But when you beat the game so quickly as Conor did, when you ascend to the heights he reached so

quickly, I don't think he's ready necessarily to give up on the fight game completely, but he's just living a life that is disconnected from it in every way other than celebrity. Well, the fight game, you know, may have already retired him, whether he's, you know, retired from it or not, Luke, you know what I'm saying? From, from the way he's acted, you can't, you can't operate like that. You can't do it. So, Luke, there were already reports before this allegation at the Heat game about, you know, we've seen some people on Twitter come down and say,

look, what I'm hearing is that Chandler McGregor is actually not going to happen. It's off. And we've seen some additional reporting that Charles Oliveira is trying to jump in and throw his name into the mix. Best you can. What the hell does the second half of this year look like for McGregor or Chandler? Or like, what is the fallout here of this ultimate fighter?

So here's my thought on this. If McGregor really changes his tune or whatever, just puts himself in a space where he wants to get back, the UFC would obviously welcome it. So there's that. And I think if it really came down to it, McGregor or USADA, they're going to pick McGregor. What I think, this is just a theory, by the way, like this is, or even a hypothesis, much less than a theory.

But my view is that if he's going to come back, they want to wait until a point where he's not going to test positive for anything that maybe he had used to rehabilitate himself and again I'm one of the guys who has no problem with him taking stuff to rehabilitate after that devastating injury like zero issue with it whatsoever so like what the UFC probably wants to avoid at all costs is a situation where they let him skip the six month window and then he tests positive on top of it. That would be really like, that's like worst case scenario for them, because then Connor's going to be involved in all of these bad headlines and it's going to do all

the stuff to his reputation and blah, blah, blah. They want to avoid that. My guess is at all costs. So they're at a bare minimum beyond Connor, like whether or not he even wants to do this or not there might be again i'm just speculating there might be a bit of a window here where they kind of want to make sure that um they're not going to get caught like they did with lesnar where they wrote him that six months hey you can skip it and then first fight back it blows up you know yeah man this is it's tough to see. This is some despicable bullshit here. How it pertains to the fights, though, yeah. I mean, I don't fucking know, Luke. Apparently the deadline was today that he would have had to submit a clean opening sample to make him eligible after the six months for the final pay-per-view of the year in December.

Obviously, with this allegations breaking out, I don't expect that to happen. I mean, do you want and or need to see more from UFC here than their typical response of like, the law will take care of itself? You know what I mean? Like, we don't, he's already paid enough. You know, I remember that after the Dolly incident. He's already paid enough millions in fee, in lawyer fees and penalties. We don't need to, you know, we don't need, you know we don't need i mean look they haven't

jumped in on john jones through any of these really awful headlines of late they've been pretty consistent about the across the board on that but what do you what do you expect from them in this in this regard if he gets convicted is he done i mean what nothing nothing seems to stop people well i mean dude he has let's be let's slow it slow down. He hasn't even been charged. I mean, we are far away from that kind of a scenario. But, yeah, what's the UFC going to do? Nothing. I mean, Dana White did not get charged with anything, to my knowledge, about his incident where he exchanged blows

with his wife on New Year's Eve. But the penalty was shame, apparently, that he was supposed to feel, which is like, I would love to be rich enough, BC, where I could argue a case with a straight face that I only deserve to suffer the shame of the incident and no other repercussions. Well, you got to be like, you know how like completely disconnected from the rest of us, you have to be wealthy for that to even be a thing in your mind where you would say in public, but okay. So no, they have set the tone that like they don't want to be involved.

The UFC has really kind of said with all of these incidents, unless it's like crazy egregious or the person involved is easily expendable, they have basically just said we don't want to be viewed as an entity that's going to take a stand here and just leave it at that and i think that they will i think that they will well there you go luke that's some uh that's what it is uh do you think do you echo any of our fan base and i got a lot of dms on this topic saying wow did you see yesterday ufc made a big announcement with with big main events, the same couple-hour space as Conor was negatively all over the news.

Is that related at all, Luke, that we now have Max Holloway versus Korean Zombie in Singapore coming up in August and a couple other fight announcements? Is that related in your eyes? I doubt they're coincidental. If you're the UFC, would you want to put that out on a day with Conor McGregor news if you didn't have to well it pushes it down in the news cycle luke we just saw that with francis right yeah i mean that's the whole point like everything runs on a reverse

chronological order so it pushes all that conor mcgregor news down a little bit but you know the fights they uh announced were pretty good if they're all true announcements which remains to be seen um then great. You know, Corey Sanhagen versus Umar Nurmagomedov, two thumbs up from this guy. Let's just see if it's true. Quickly,

Luke also in boxing, this whole Teofimo Lopez Jr. Retirement. This one got you by surprise. Admit it. Yeah. And by the way, he also showed up at the second day of the Sprint Scrawford press tour

Wednesday and in New York City in Times Square and did a bunch of interviews. And then right after that, Luke officially announced he is vacating his WBO title. Okay, so he's 25 years old. He just scored an incredibly resounding victory. Bob Arum is claiming that Teo is under contract for a lot longer. Teo Fimo was complaining publicly that he's not going to keep taking these big fights for a million bucks.

It was pointed out to him that the New York State Athletic Commission reported that he actually made 2.3 million for this fight against Josh Taylor. So now he's telling Luke, everybody, that that price he can't afford to pay anymore. What is this? Because some people are saying,

well, look, he's got this custody hearing coming up with his ex-wife, divorce hearing, where he's fighting for custody. Would it be better for him to have less assets and make it look like he's got this custody hearing coming up with his ex-wife, divorce hearing, where he's fighting for custody. Would it be better for him to have less assets and make it look like he's a retired fighter? I mean, I don't know about that. That seems like a reach here, Luke. But he is doubling and tripling down on, yes, I'm retired. This has to be a public play for more leverage, almost a Henry Cejudo type move.

But can it work in this structure if he's under contract? What's really happening here in your eyes, Luke? I don't in any way believe we've seen the last of Teofimo Lopez fighting. I don't in any way. He's 25 years old. I don't believe that at all. What on earth is he going to do to make the kind of money he's making now elsewhere? Come on earth is he going to do to make the kind of money he's making now elsewhere? Like, come on. He's he like, he's going to do commentary. Like

you can be really good at boxing and be real bad at commentating. Like they're not necessarily like, you know, aligned skills. So what's he going to do for money? If he's complaining, he didn't get enough. That means you didn't make enough. Like, so what, so which is it? So I just don't believe that he's in any way done. What I will say is BC, is he willing to take an extended layoff? He is very much likely to take one of those. A year or two, I think is probably very much in order, potentially even three. I mean, think about it. He took three years off. He'd still only be 28 years old. That's still plenty of time to make some big money. You wouldn't advise taking that time off so i think there's a lot of issues going on with his relationship with his promoter relationship with his father relationship to the sport quite

frankly relationship almost to frankly anything in his orbit it sounds like right bc he's got a lot of shit going on that just seems to be sorted i almost don't even mind that he has taken the break yeah the only question in my mind is how long a year a two a three let's find out i don't think it'll be that long so i think it might have look it's certainly related you would guess in some regard to the turmoil in his personal life meaning let's take some time off we're not getting back in a training camp let's go like try to you know try to fight for for a custody control of his son and and you know whatever else goes into the the what could be a very messy public dispute dispute over a divorce but it look i don't know if staying out and doing this whole retirement thing can ultimately give him more leverage though he seems to have some detailed plan

remember he was part of the orchestration it seems luke on getting that cambosis fight to become a purse bid meaning the two fighters being unable to agree to the terms financially that aram was offering which then produces a purse bid and then eddie hearn swept in and stole that for one fight um that seems calculated and orchestrated to some degree uh this is an extension of that but you know bob arum's been through this before so maybe it's just time off and here's hoping that his value can be raised while he's away and then come swooping back when when the next big fight approaches itself the problem is there's a large number of big fights available in and around this division of which he just had

not only a world title but sort of a lineal claim from having beaten the most recent undisputed champion, Josh Taylor, and soundly beating him from what our eyes told us, despite those scorecards. There's still some crazy talk, it seems, coming off his mouth, Luke, and he's still being inflammatory. Part of the interviews he gave at the Spence Crawford Presser afterwards was like, he said he tried to reach out to ESn to become a commentator during his retirement they said no then he began to insult them in top rank for making female world champion mckayla

mayor a part-time commentator on like the undercards and saying man she doesn't know shit about boxing look he was shitting on mckayla mayor i don't know if there's a riff there or what the connection is but along with that other inflammatory comment about espn and probably just good old-fashioned sexism is what i'm gonna get yeah favoring the black fighters over him he's he's leaning all over the lines here is it purposeful is he losing control but he put the he put humpty dumpty back together in the ring against josh taylor i don't know where he goes next i have no idea staying on the topic of where we were how is he going to ask ESPN for a commentary gig I mean the balls on that you know what I mean like what would make you think that like you're good at that you know I just don't even understand that

because you again because you're boxed well he's a great talker he is a great talker but dude no no he is a great okay i don't mean to say he's not an interesting guy i want to get him on the rsd couch like i actually i actually like lopez but i just mean there are moments where he says things that are so out there that you're like let's rein it back in a little bit dude being somebody who gives a decent sound bite on like interviews for like youtube-based media is a completely different skill set than being a polished broadcaster for sporting events on a lineal linear tv network like they're not even remotely the same fucking thing um he is there's to my knowledge no evidence he's good at the other one while being pretty good at the former indeed indeed uh it's just follow for more

luke we'll see what happens it's a wild life living spence crawford days one and two of the press conference they were tuesday and wednesday we hosted the remote one from la on tuesday the next day we were in time square luke i am so damn fired up for this fight after this experience we got a chance to interview both fighters you can go to youtube.com or showtime sports's youtube page excuse me to see our extended interview with both but let's start right off the top luke how much did your anticipation excitement level change from going through these two days and what ultimately did you learn about these two that that has you fired up for july 29? I don't know how much I learned new,

although I thought the stories of them getting on FaceTime with one another to make the fight happen was really admirable on both their parts. I think a couple things stood out to me really a lot. I know that the fans are saying, well, we're glad that this fight is happening, but couldn't have happened sooner. And the answer, of course, is always that it could have happened sooner. Why didn't it? Man, when you really begin to think about the weight of this fight about what it means for these two individual gentlemen undefeated a combined record of 67 and oh when you think about the the welterweight division when you think about um bud tried to become undisputed in not one but potentially two weight classes during the course of his career. We think about what it means for pound for pound and living up to the De La Hoya Trinidad

and other sort of major fights that have happened in this weight class's legacy. Like, it's such a huge and important fight. Those fights are hard to make. I mean, somebody has to, you've heard Spence say it, somebody has to risk something here. We have to show the suits that it's worth it that we did this, that's worth it. Like there's a value to doing it, you know, and I'm really glad he's leading by that, but you can see, man, there is a, this was a hard fight to make for good reasons. That's the first thing I would say. Not that I'm saying fans would just have to accept it, but that like, geez, man, in the real world, like these fights are difficult to make.

The other thing I took away from thisc was just how absolutely ironclad resolute their competitive spirits are yeah i mean it was undeniable that both of them cannot even fathom anything other than their hand getting raised and probably after a tough fight you know a competitive finish for that for them in the end like they just are you they can't even bring themselves to see a world where anything else happens and so for that reason stylistically BC I just could not be more excited for this fight I'm excited that it's here to put it mildly and more to the point I'm just grateful a fight like this gets to take place and that we get to watch it.

Yeah, we already already knew, always knew why this fight could be so great, why it needed to happen. And then the delay either, you know, helped it or in some some parts of that run hurt it. But neither of them have lost. They're still operating at the peak of their games at 35 and 33, respectively, with Crawford a couple years older. And they you know, it's like they've beaten everybody else that they could Keith Thurman didn't look like he was trying to get in the ring with Spence at all so he never got that fight but he fought every other welterweight he could we've long known Kieran Crawford had less access to big names tried to fight everybody he could well after you've cleared all those guys out they both got to fight Kell Brook and Sean Porter so

there's some overlap at different times but now you got to fight one another and it's for all the marbles like you said in every metric from the division to pound for pound to like who's the face of this welterweight era but it's that old school thing that they keep mentioning we keep mentioning because these guys have old school spirits in fact at the tuesday at the uh wednesday's presser in new york city even though this is a showtime pay-per-view event, I like that Spence said, look, when I was a kid, I grew up watching legendary nights on HBO and watching the documentaries of these old fights

with Hagler and Hearns and Leonard and Duran and hearing their soundbites and talk about the mentality. And, you know, Luke, that's the kind of stuff I came up on too. A lot of us did like that. You know, same thing with Showtime's All Access series and all that, like get you fired up about

that true feel. Like, look, there's money involved. There's glory involved. There's all this stuff. But at the end of the day, the great ones are about legacy. It's about, like, I can't sleep another night knowing that there's somebody out there that the general public thinks might be better than me. I got to get back in there and prove it. It took a long while on this modern business set up to get here.

That's boxing's fault. But this fight is, I mean, it's better timing than Mayweather-Pacquiao for sure in terms of that one just exceeding the expiration limit from what it could have been. this is going to be a you know this is going to be a killer fight because they bring with them that old school mentality that same mindset that all those heroes had in the 80s uh we talked with them about what this fight could look like you know action wise as opposed to you know sort of a safe chess match which in some ways may whether pacquiao was and they just both seem so dialed in on on i don't want to walk away from this sport without proving that I'm better than that guy. The guy that you have all asked me about every single day for five plus years.

And we didn't get, you know, like a lot of great one-liners or pushing and shoving, but we didn't need it. And that's what I really like. You hear a lot of people in the comment section are talking on Twitter, like great to see that these guys respect each other so much, but it hasn't slowed that commitment, that resolve to know I'm not only going to win this fight. I'm going to go through you to get it done. You get the highest level of skill mixed with the highest level of want and motivation. And you put it together, you get classic all-time fights on a

big stage with so much at stake. Let's go to some sound that we got. We had a chance because of Terrence Crawford's tight schedule to get them both at the same time after Wednesday's press stop to hear from their mindset about what goes into this matchup. Let's throw to that now. Guys, day two of the press conference. It got fun. It got a little spiky. But Terrence, I want to ask you one thing.

Amid all those fishing analogies, I did hear one thing. I'm reeling him in. To me, that says I know to ask you one thing. Amid all those fishing analogies, I did hear one thing. I'm reeling him in. To me, that says I know I'm in his head. I saw you grab the lapel of Errol Spence. What was that motion? With the belt. No, I don't think I'm in his head. I just think that it's been a long time coming.

I've been calling for the fight. I've been asking for the fight. For whatever reason, it didn't happen. But he took the fight. I've been asking for the fight for whatever reason it didn't happen, but he took the bait. And now July 29th, we got the fight and I'm going to get him to the, to the bank. All right. All right. Errol, I've covered you a long time. I'll never forget ahead of your victory over Sean Porter. You said, look, I'm faster than you. I'm all these things, but that doesn't even matter. Cause when it comes down to it, I've got more dog than you, and I know it. That night you proved it.

You got your hand raised. Do you believe you have more dog than this man who's never been stopped, never been beaten, that that's possible here July 29th? Oh, definitely. I feel like I'm the apex. I feel like he's definitely going to come to fight. He's definitely going to try to put on a great performance. But I feel like I'm just a better fighter overall.

I feel like I'm going to break him. He said he's going to reel me in and bring me to the bank. So we're definitely going to see. I don't think he can reel me in. I don't think nobody's got big enough fishing pole to reel me in. Luke, I have to say my favorite quote of the two days was when spence got a little cheeky there with uh well we're from jamaica so we smoke bud i mean he had me he had me right there luke a lot of fish he got a good pop from the crowd too there yeah i like how you put in the sound of your questions being like yo you think this guy's a

bitch yo let's say it let's say it right now oh i didn't put that sound in luke that was that was chosen but uh it was it was a good one just the same to set that stage july 29th what are we 43 days away at this point but uh luke you'll be there i unfortunately will be covering from home but you will be there it'll be man this is as good as it gets i'm uh yeah yeah hey we had a good chat with steven espinoza too luke about you know how hard this was to make but about you know pushing back on that boxing narrative that was part of that stream of the big fights not happening i mean look dude this year's been really good i mean we got in a new way coming up i mean dude right now it's like can we get the rest of our shit together

tyson fury could you stop fucking around yeah dude tyson fury spent the part of the week being like yeah i will fight john jones and some other bullshit and people just stop paying it people just stop paying attention they're like tyson fury whatever we love you but you're ducking alexander usic right now you are absolutely ducking him right now enough with the carnival fights you know like either fight francis or don't but like almost again we don't care look the big fights are being made elsewhere in this sport, Luke. It's a great momentum trend to go. I mean, are you seeing these Canelo, Jamal, Charlo rumors? I mean, things are picking up there.

Yeah, for September, which if my math is right, BC, let me see if I got this right. That would mean, if that were to happen, and let's be clear about this, if that would likely be Canelo signing some kind of deal to be promoted in part by PBC to work with a PBC fighter essentially anyway and because that's what Charlo is which would mean that that fight again if it were to happen could uh be on Showtime pay-per-view as a likely destination which could mean we get to cover that fight so i'd be yeah i'd be really excited about that and you heard samson lukowitz the promoter of david benavidez

who had sent a big offer to canelo but didn't get a response they're talking about hey how about david morel instead against david benavidez this fall if all of these things fall into place that's a hell of a final four at 168 it's such a deep and amazing division right now damn damn luke let's keep it going topic five here on the way out is boxing from this weekend saturday night showtime sunday in australia from i i forgot the name of the town there luke is it queensland australia somewhere down by the beach boy tim zoo's back so luke here's the deal it was supposed to be Tim Zoo versus Jermell Charlo for all four titles at 154 back in January then injury to Charlo delayed it we had Tim Zoo take on the only man to have beaten Jermell Charlo Tony Harrison and blew him away on a

Showtime International broadcast we thought that meant July was the showdown between these two unfortunately Charlo has pulled out with injury again of the talks and says at the end of the summer is a more likely comeback for him. So Tim Zoo has chosen to stay busy. Carlos Ocampo comes his way. 35 wins, just two defeats, both in title losses. It was a first round knockout against Errol Spence at Welterweight. And you may remember that interim 154 slugfest

he put on in defeat against sebastian fundora this is tim zu kind of you know keeping the ball rolling the best he can while we all still wait for charlo it's going to be a showtime broadcast this weekend i caught up with tim zu before i throw it here to luke let's hear tim zu's mindset coming in he's got to wait for charlo but nobody nobody makes tim zu wait in the corner okay let's hear Tim Zhu's mindset coming in. He's got to wait for Charlo, but nobody makes Tim Zhu wait in the corner. Okay, let's hear this. Yeah, well, I think in the super water division, I think Tony Harrison's got probably the most superior boxing skills.

His IQ is up there at the very, very top. And he comes from a bloodline of boxers. So I knew to be able to send that message, even though I had the Jamel Charlo, I had the shot at the fight, I could have waited. I wanted to send that message that, you know what, I fear no one.

I will take on anyone. Even if I've got opportunities, I'll risk it all. That's the message that I will take on anyone. Even if I've got opportunities, I'll risk it all. That's the message that I wanted to send out. And I think the message was loud and clear. Look, another message he sent out after that Harrison win was yelling, say my mother effing name into the microphone, which he said was his way of telling the general boxing public, I'm not my dad. Don't compare me to him. The hall of famer coach Jizzu on my own fighter.

And I'm making it happen right now. Look at the very least you got to applaud him staying busy when he could easily just be sitting back and waiting for the payday in the, in the four title opportunity with Charlo. Instead, he's adding to his resume in between. Yeah, listen, it's a stay busy fight. I think it's a fair way to put it. It's a stay busy fight, but I'll take that far more than I will inactivity. And as we saw, like, you know, did Tank Davis need to fight Hector Garcia? Probably didn't need to fight him, but he did. It was a fun fight. It was probably a little bit valuable for him to stay competitive. And I think when he, by the time he fought Ryan Garcia, you know, many factors contributed to Tank's win, but in retrospect, him being a little bit more active was probably one

of them so you know I don't expect anything other than a Tim Su victory I'll be honest about that but just the same I'm glad that this this is much better than the alternative just for what it is well look something uh Tim echoed with me and you can check out that video in full on our YouTube channel, is that he's become such a better fighter from this experience. I mean, he went in there against Tony Harrison, the only guy to beat Charlo, a guy who's such a good boxer with some pop. And, dude, he just walked him down and bullied him. And when you consider that he made his U.S. debut a year before against Terrell Gauchet,

and even though he won a decision, he got dropped in the first round. His defense was all out of whack. He was just running into contact, trying almost too aggressively to make a big statement to now get the experience of handling somebody as difficult as Harrison. And look, in this matchup, Tim's a big betting favorite. We expect him to win, but Ocampo's got a chin. He comes to fight. This could be a fun one in that regard.

All these experiences are keeping that momentum going, like you said, like Tank did. Staying fresh, staying sharp, adding paydays, all of that, and continuing to build the brand. Tim Zhu's 28 years old. He's kind of putting the entire thing together here as he looks to get closer to making history and take on the four belts with Charlo. But, you know, potholes come your way. I'm happy the way he's sidestepped them and tried to make something of it. And we'll see it this Saturday night for the Showtime International Boxing Telegast.

Also this weekend, Luke, on DAZN, Regis Progre makes the first defense of his new title reign at 140, taking on late replacement Dan Alito Zaria. I've covered Zaria before luke uh on ring city with nbc he's from puerto rico he's a big time puncher but pro gray is a rightful betting favorite this is a better matchup though than the original one liam parro it's rare when you get sort of an upgrade in that so it'd be interesting to see old regis here who i did talk to as well in the build up to this one luke 140 red hot right now So if Regis survives in advance here, you know, it could be Haney. It could be Tank.

It could be Ryan Garcia in the future. I mean, look, did you see Tank's trainer, Calvin Ford, went public again and said the only two names we care about now are Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney because you guys said that they're better than Tank. So let's figure it out. I'm not saying those fights are easy to make but this is the type of public speech and momentum you would want from team tank sure let's just see what actually happens let's just see what happens he's got to get out of prison first Luke we got it we got to clean something I mean I mean

that's that's one issue beyond that I mean once's over, it's not a lengthy stay that he has there. Once that is over, what do they actually do? I don't, I mean, there's a lot to, it's the, I listen, I love Calvin Ford.

I don't have anything bad to say about what he is saying. I'm glad to hear it, but the, to what extent that ends up matching reality, given what we know about what can happen. Let's just see let's just all right luke we transition to our weekly betting segment where you and i go head to head five picks a piece whoever's best at the end of the year gets to force the other one to go to a concert

that they definitely don't want to be at with mk doc cameras present i hope yeah I don't know about that. You mean us carrying cell phones? It's called OK Bet. Now, BC, can I just say I went 0-5 last week. I think I've gone 0-5 twice. You never have. No. So I just want to point out something i've whiffed completely two different times and i'm still beating you dude that is fucking in that you are indefensibly bad

they're giving you a draw how are you getting a draw here they say you went oh four and one last week uh then maybe one of the fights fell out or something i think that may have happened that's right okay so either way either way way, got them all wrong. Let's just be honest about that. Your boy BC went three and two last week. Not bad. So I'm catching up a little bit. You're updated standings.

No, you went two and three, bitch. I was told three and two. What is going on here? No, you went two and three. You went two and three. Listen, dude, you could literally look at my numbers. You could literally flip a coin and have the exact same result. You should never take betting advice from BC and I.

We are fucking horrendous. Okay, you can take that back, Luke. I've had some big wins in this stretch. All right. You are now just barely over 500 at 39, 38 with some change. And I am 33 and 46, six games behind only. So this week, Lukeke you're the champion's advantage here you've been in first place this entire run you're going first or second i will

go first if you're okay with that oh yeah oh yeah all right here we go hold on quick quickly mikey's letting me know that chris curtis was a no contest which produced the draw and you're ah fair enough yes because it would have been a loss otherwise, but okay, fair enough. All right, so neither here nor there. Very quickly, so for Maine, I kind of messed this up, but BC and I already talked about this before the show. He let it slide, so I'm going to leave it where it is.

For my Maine pick, it's not really Maine, but because there's a title on the line, we're going to let it stick. Going to go with Pitbull. Pitbull over Sergio Pettis. Now, Sergio Pettis being off two years makes this a strange one. I don't really know how I feel about it. It could go a lot of different directions,

but I kind of just feel like he's got the slight edge here, and I think in the end, oh, I should say he's got at least a slight edge for all the unknowns. So I'm going to ride with Pitbull here. Give me Pitbull. Do you think if this fight goes to the ground, he's gonna have a a big edge with the submission ability luke dude uh who's got one of some of the best guillotines in the sport it is patricio pitbull i think he would very much have an advantage on the floor yes do you like pettis's takedown uh

takedown defense and his his ability to uh to work in the clinch here against a stronger opponent? I do, and I also like his footwork to largely keep him out of trouble. I mean, don't get me wrong. I think Pettis will make it a difficult fight for him in a lot of ways. The question is in a five-round bout, how much can you really resist the overwhelming power and pressure? That's, to me, the part that I just have a hard time seeing him get around. But we shall see.

Minus 170, Pitbull, your favorite, plus 145, Pettis. My main, Luke, I'm going to go to the UFC here so we can differentiate a little bit because I also like Pitbull in that matchup. My main event pick is going to be the UFC Vegas middleweight tilt. And I'm going to take Jared Cannoneer here as a slight, I believe, underdog in this matchup. Is that the truth, Luke?

Yeah, I guess we are. Plus 105, Cannoneer, minus 125, underdog in this matchup. Is that the truth, Luke? Yeah, I guess we are. Plus 105 Kananir, minus 125 Vittori. Look, unless this is Vittori's night to make that ultimate statement, to go plus level. I mean, look, he does a lot of things well across the board. He's a competent

wrestler. He's aggressive. His boxing and technique, look, he's able to some degree stay with the very elites and get to that point get to that title level but unless this is the fight where to that soundbite we showed with Shaq he really does go after it um I still like Kananir here as the more technical better fighter and if if Vittori goes after it you're still going up against a guy who's got the biggest weapon in the battle and that's Kananir's counter shots, especially with that big right hand here,

Luke Kananir, I think in his heart as a true competitor knows that he laid an egg against, against Adesanya. He stuck to the game plan too much, right? To try to get as close as possible. His defense was sound. He was in that fight,

but didn't do enough to really be in that fight. And that's got to eat at him. He's still operating at such a high level in his late 30s here but he's the better fighter of the two at the end of the day with the bigger power you still you're telling me we're going to get an aggressive vittori i'm telling you that's the best way to make cannon near shine so i'm going to lean that way in my main event pick all right fair enough so on my end of things for the underdog i could not believe some of these numbers but they are where they are i I think he's at a plus one 45. I'm trying to find it. Oh, here we go. Yes. Phil

Davis plus one 45. According to our friends at Caesars to Corey Anderson's minus one 70. I'm not even saying I disagree necessarily with him being the underdog, but just given how careful and still how good Phil Davis is, I think that's a worthy kind of bet to make. Uh, give me Phil Davis plus one 45 as my underdog pick. That's a tough fight for Corey Anderson. I, uh think that's a worthy kind of bet to make. Give me Phil Davis plus 145 as my underdog pick. That's a tough fight for Corey Anderson. It's a very tough fight. There's no question about it. My underdog pick is on that Bellator card to open. I'm going to go with that big heavyweight, six foot six, 41 years old, Daniel James, only a plus 100 underdog against Gokhan Sarikam. Luke Gokhan, every time he steps up, he does get stopped against higher level

competition. Is Daniel James that higher level? And Bellator, I think he is. He's on a nice run. He seems to be decently durable in there, and he does have big power and finishing instincts. I think he gets to that title shot. Give me him plus 100 here. I think he's going to get a KO. He's got to avoid the ground here and

not get caught here, Luke. You've got to be careful, but this is a big moment at home for him. Let's see him shine. Yeah, I think that's pretty fair as well. Again, that's a tough one to call. That one could go a lot of different directions. All right, for my favorite pick, I don't think he's a substantial favorite. In fact, I think it's fairly slight,

but they've got Pat Sabatini, our friends over at Caesars, as a minus 190 to Lucas Almeida's plus 160. Not to say that the Damon Jackson fight was some kind of fluke. Damon Jackson's pretty good and has actually improved a lot of late, but I just don't feel like that was a fair reflection necessarily of the upside of Pat Sabatini. I think this fight is going to get us a little bit closer. Could take him some time to really work towards a more dominant control of the fight,

but I think he'll get there eventually. Give me Pat Sabatini as my favorite. All right, my favorite. Luke, I'm going to go to that Bellator. Interesting fight there at light heavyweight that you took the opposite of. You took the Phil Davis underdog. I'm going to take minus 180 Corey Anderson as your favorite.

We identified the million ways that this is a very tough matchup. It's just hard to look good and get off enough offense against Phil Davis to, to sway the judges. He's hard to hurt. He's a lot of hard things fighting him, but look, we had Corey Anderson on the RSD couch ahead of the Nemcoff rematch. And man, was he operating at such a high level of confidence in, in bringing his whole game mentally and physically together.

I was impressed by chatting with him. And then he underachieved in that rematch with them cough and, and, and, and was humbled in a lot of ways. I still think there's enough left under his hood. He's going to have to make this a fight. He's going to have to try to take Phil Davis down, even though that's going to be difficult.

He's going to have to operate at a high pace and bring the fight to Phil and try to make this a fight. But the hunger of Anderson, he does have some sneaky boxing, especially with that left hook. I'm going to take a run here on him, Luke. It's weird. I'm picking the favorite, but it almost feels like, because it's such a close fight on paper that he's going to have to do some things and make a leap. But I think that's his motivation.

Look out. Corey Anderson's coming on. I'm going to take him here. All right. Fair enough. For over under, will the fight go the distance? Will it not go the distance for me? Give me Marvin Vittori versus Jared Cannoneer as going the distance. I feel like this one's going to be one on volume. It's going to be one on accumulation. It's going to be very much. Who did you give that round to? And

did they get three of them or did they not? One of those kinds of fights where it's almost arithmetic in that way it's certainly possible with two guys this good um that a crazy finish could happen you don't want to ever deny it but both guys in addition to being good are also kind of careful at this point in their careers as well when you get careful and sturdy at the same time it likely goes the distance my over-under goes to the showtime International main event in Australia. Look, Carlos Ocampo's tough. That's a ballsy call. Carlos Ocampo's tough as shit, so

he's only been knocked out by a body punch against Errol Spence. By the way, he went 12-0 with nine KOs between the Spence loss and then that Fundora loss. He's a tough out, but he also has a style coming straight ahead with reckless defense sometimes. Head down. Tim Zhu's going to be able to control mid-distance against but he also has a style coming straight ahead with his, with the, you know,

reckless defense. Sometimes head down. Tim zoo is going to be able to control mid distance against him and tear him up with power shots. It may end up coming due to a cut, but I'm going to take the under, give it, give me another stoppage, a big one here for Tim zoo on home soil,

home soil to really start to churn that butter and get us fired up for Charlo Luke. Okay. This is a, this is, I like that pick. That's Luke okay this is a this is I like that pick that's a ballsy pick by you I like that one uh last but not least KO or sub give me Armin Saryukian versus Joakim I think that's how they spell it or I pronounce it excuse me uh Silva ending in KO for that one which by the way could mean Silva on the feet getting the job done

because he is something of a KO threat a little bit. But more likely than not, I think it ends up with Silva getting finished off, probably on the ground. I like the fight to end that way. Saryukian, Silva, KO. Luke, I'm going to go to my PFL5 main event tonight in Atlanta and tell you that Ante Deligia is going to knock out Maurice Green in this main event. I'm going to take the KO in this fight. It could go either way in terms of the rules of this,

but I think the defending champ comes back with a bang here against Jon Jones' teammate. Thank you. Okay, let's close with some pedantic bullshit, Luke, so you can hit the restroom, correct? Yes, I have to go number two. I have to go potty. Are you crowning like the king of England, or we don't talk like that?

You cannot believe how much I'm sweating right now. I really need your help to expedite this. A turtle head just popped out. Let's go to this dead wrong segment. Here it is. It's your chance i really need your help to a turtle head just popped out let's go to this dead wrong segment here it is it's your chance to shit on us all right i need to be like cartman you know who's got his mom holding a dish under his rear end when he's playing world of warcraft you know morning combat at gmail.com is your chance to call us out on our bs and this one's from daz in hawaii. Aloha during episode 452 at 1 hour and 50 minutes. When discussing

Justine Kish's accident in the octagon, BC incorrectly mentions that the ish came out all over the octagon after she got submitted. BC, she actually lost via decision to Felice Herrig and was able to escape a tight

rare naked chopa attempt in round three possibly when the ish snuck out no definitely when that shit came out for what it's worth BC your description makes it sound like she went unconscious and she shat herself as always enjoying the content mahalo it's Daz Luke I guess that's an L it's certainly an L because I said that she got subbed out and put to sleep so it was a decision win but do you think she was put out briefly and that's what that's what caused the brain to tell the the uh the waste management system to begin that would make sense that would make sense right that is disgusting as shit luke maybe we should wear sweat you've got about 60 seconds with me we better use them effectively because I can't hold this anymore.

Our final dead wrong is from Michael. On the Monday morning show, BCNL and LT were dead wrong in discussing Jim Miller saying he had no big wins when he has beaten Cerrone, Dobronks, Takanori Gomi, and a few others. Contradict your take. Love you guys. No. None of those guys.

Maybe Cerrone was. I have to double check that. But Dobronks, Gomi uh none of those guys maybe maybe seroni was i have to double check that but do bronx go me none of those guys were ranked when miller beat him i still a big win if you beat charles olivera in any setting i i didn't mean he didn't have we mean big wins i'm not saying i'm not saying that i'm not saying that there's no value to beating him that's not what i'm saying what i'm saying is what you are measured against if you want to be in the hall of fame is how good were the guys when you beat them and they were not nearly at any respect at the level of their peak when Jim Miller beat them the Soroni one I have to double check but I know for a fact that's true for Gomi and Oliveira because I did double check those ones so the Soroni win is nice but again another guy who didn't win a title. How many wins against former champions in their primes area?

Did he get them? There's just not many like that. There's just not. Standing in the Hall of Fame. All right, BC, I love you. I know we have to do some stuff after the show, so I'll stay on, but I'm going to pull a BC, and I just have to go. I have to go.

That's it. I have to go. I'm done. For Gaff Pierre, Long Island Luke, Beyond the Scenes, Mikey Moore, I'm always lingering. This has been a great episode of Morning Combat. A reminder, youtube.com slash morningcombat

for all of those full-length interviews we teased. You can go to the Shaq MMA YouTube channel to check out Shaquille Majorey's work. Here are our social channels below. Morningcombat.store if you want to dress like me. And don't forget about 30 days free of Showtime. Go to Showtime.com right now. Why? Because tonight, Bellator 297 from Chicago. You can't miss it. If you want more from Bellator,

I'll be on CBS Sports HQ. After the fight, check out Showtime Championship Boxing International on Saturday night. All the info there below thank you to you folks thank you for those patronizing uh my only pipes at cameo.com slash brian campbell big fans of checking out and and connecting with all you guys out there for our great staff for lt in the commode yeah it's like it's like nakasaki over there. Right. You know, wow. Hiroshima, too. We're out of here. It's B.C. We're we're. Thank you. It's over. Thank you. That's all I got. Enjoy your weekend.