MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vegas 77 Picks | Toughest Champ to Beat | Jamahal Hill | GSP Grappling | Morning Kombat Ep 464

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

On Episode 464 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian give their picks for the weekend of Combat sports. Next up the guys have a debate about who the most unbeatable champion is in the UFC. Do the guys agree with Michael Chandler that Alexander Volkanovski is? The guys also preview Frank Martin vs. Artem Harutyunyan and react to some of the biggest videos in combat sports this week. We close out the show with Dead Wrong and some MMA Trivia from the MK Discord. (8:20) - Jamahal Hill Vacates Title (22:30) - Ok, Bet (43:00) - Toughest Champion to Beat (65:00) - Weekend Boxing Preview (73:00) - Combat Sports Reactions Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Oh yeah, oh friggin' yeah No, hey, no gross French voice today, okay? But get fired up just the same It's back and it's the best best selling. Well, it's free.

I'll tell you what. It's the best damn combat sports show they ever created. The one you've been waiting on. Well, it's here and it's in your face hole. It's Friday, July 14th, 2023. Not a great, not a great combat sports weekend ahead of us. But your boys right here are going to show you what the ubl the upper bound limits of 240 something dads can be getting you excited entertaining you just the

same welcome on in i'm the bbc with that bde the beige one the american alpha brian campbell you're here though for the guy next to me right he's cantankerous right he's he's a lot of things but he's the best damn analyst today thomas yes yes i'm definitely not but i have hair that just keeps getting bigger apparently so yes there you go look you put the a n a l in analyst so i had a friend in high school who on did you ever have to wrap your tech your textbooks in high school and then like return them in like a reasonably similar condition yeah so he would wrap them and then you know let's say it was like i don't know trigonometry analysis or whatever he would write anal in big words, like big-ass letters, and then have Y-S-I-S in the smallest letters possible. And the teachers did not like that, as you can well imagine.

He's probably the son of the same genius, Luke, who invented those Cox hats. Remember the white, the game hats in the 90s at the University of South Carolina? Cox, baby, right? Actually, this will blow you away. He actually works for the navy uh on jet propulsion um he actually is actually really smart in the navy i'm sure they propulse there

luke we got a decent show coming your way okay bet look at the biggest topic setting the stage of course for that much anticipated ufc fight night this saturday in the damn apex showtime championship boxing a few other scattered lingerers and how about this luke thomas in anticipated UFC fight night this Saturday in the damn showtime championship boxing, a few other scattered lingerers. And how about this? Luke Thomas, in addition to standing trial for dead wrong today, you and I are going to go head to head in sort of a discord MMA trivia, but Luke, I gotta, I gotta ask you now. We didn't do this pre-show probably because you were tearing porcelain,

like a humanized version of angry birds luke what are the stakes today in our head-to-head trivia i believe it's 14 questions whoever gets the most right will be asked the same questions here what does the other one have to do uh i actually don't know the answer to that i thought we were just doing it for fun is there i don't do anything for fun luke that's why I almost get myself punched in basketball games. What about, here's what I want for your punishment. If you lose, you should have to do the entirety of Monday's MK episode in that same Fred Durst red Yankees hat that that one random day on that mailbag

you pulled out because your hair was too puffed up. And you're like, you know what would be cool? Let me back to 1998 and put on this uh colored yankees hat you know so first of all it wasn't red it was black it was black on black i know that because i got it at a uh lids in cartagena columbia get it out of swap meat loot no no i got it i got it out of lids in downtown cartagena columbia that's a true story. I actually gave that hat to my dad. The only hat that I have is the old school Washington Nationals when they had the DC logo,

not the curly W, which I fucking hate. It's not enough, Luke. What do you want me to do? First of all, you're going to lose just so you know. Just so that's very clear, you're going to lose. What is it? What fantasy of losing would you like me to entertain for the purposes of this game? DC flag on the motherfucking hat that's not enough luca do you have any redskins hats left over that you can wear the whole episode i have a bullets i have a

washington bullets hat yeah not enough here's what we should do look we're going to be doing this segment at about i don't know 12 30 p.m eastern time can the can the p1 live viewers the same people who mix misogyny and racism into the recipe luke like they're adding rum into cake can they can you guys you know hit us up at twitter and tweet at us and come up with something come up with something okay i like that yeah we'll see what we're doing there uh luke we have uh we've got a like i mentioned uh we got a lot of great backers why don't i mention that how about morningcombat.store for your merch fix? You see me in the t-shirt.

You see me in the mug. You never, ever see Luke in the material, but he owns it. Believe me on that. Fantastic merch. Tell him. RJ will be there. Tell him BC saying, yeah, I'm sure it'll be great. You can follow us as well.

You already saw those social handles. There you go right there. Mikey Moremile, CBS Sports on the ones and twos today. And as well. On TikTok, BC, I'm telling you, MK is starting to get a little bit of traction there. I'm not going to do it, Luke, because of what it does to your brain. So, but hopefully all those other people out there that have no,

nothing holding them back. I mean, I did a lot of things already that was bad for my brain, Luke. Historically, you know what I mean? Like that, that row we all put it in so uh brian campbell did whippets in an arby's parking lot i just want to point that out by the way this is what's great about this show there are people from my hometown of naugatuck connecticut luke who either are related to me or are you know old school friends of mine and they pop into the show once in a while but i never caught an organic one.

Some dude reached out to me the other day. He's like, from your same dirtbag hometown, also did whippets in parking lots. Look, that felt good, right? He stumbled into the show without having any idea who I am. He's about 10 years younger than me. I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. You see, I got to say, are you putting on a little muscle, or did you shrink that shirt in the wash?'s happening there fella you'd put a little exercise either

this is a medium or i've been actually listening to my doctor and doing you know 20 to 30 minutes of of uh of weights every morning to try to fight off the black liver luke but you know that with the aerodynamic uh military cut shows you that at 45, basically, Luke, I can't, you know, you know what's happening. You're Teen Wolf's dad. If I grow in any hair, the gray just comes in so aggressively, Luke, that I think I have to go to the military cut to feel good about myself. I think that's the future. Well, I'll tell you what.

I don't know what's happening, but, you know, I'm looking at you like you look at Brett Okamoto. That's how I'm looking at you. That's not fair at all. That's not fair at all. Do not want to fornicate him or Jed Meshew the second, although you keep bringing him up, Luke. OK, thank you very much. Showtime dot com.

Right. The label that pays us. You can get 30 days free right now. We're talking about Bellator MMA. We're talking about championship boxing and so much more. Check it out you won't regret it look final thoughts before we head directly into some breaking news in the you in the uh ultimate fighting championships from the last uh 24 hours uh there won't be a post-fight

show for holly holm versus uh myra bueno silva. So don't wait up. No bueno. Indeed. Look, before we get into, okay, bet before we get into the show, no better place to put this piece of information. Then right at the top, Jamal Hill has relinquished his UFC light heavyweight championship.

He posted a video on social media last evening. Wow. A torn. Is it a torn Achilles? Luke? Did I torn is it a torn achilles luke did i read that a torn achilles yes so damon martin of mma fighting is reporting through sources that hill injured himself in that mma slash ufc basketball game that they had during international fight week in vegas you may have saw people god yes that's God. Yes, that's Damon Martin's report. But, Luke, I don't mean to pile on. It was a tough break for Jamal Hill. And like I said in the video, you know, he showed the anguish in his voice

in terms of what he's up against here in a long recovery. But, Luke, he was carrying extra weight during this post-championship victory lap, so it's tough to see that injury and see that whole situation break out, including, Luke, the chaos that this brings to an already chaotic division. But first and foremost, your reaction to Hill's injury and now a vacancy atop this once great division. I mean, there's just – he was carrying a little extra weight, BC,

and I don't know. I mean, it's hard to stay close to 205 year round for these guys like if you've ever met a real like bc have you ever met in person like right in front of you chuck liddell or tito ortiz or you know some forest griffin like dude these are big guys these are really big guys they're heavyweights in real life, right? Yes. In real life, they don't look like somebody who's sub-heavyweight. They look like fucking monsters, you know? I mean, I interviewed Tito in his prime and in person. He was huge, you know?

So it's hard for these guys. I mean, they're going to walk around at some point like 240 in many cases, even higher than that probably. I don't know what he was and you could say he should have been lower and maintaining lower and that would have lowered his risk of injury that that's not that's not utterly unreasonable but bc here's what i think about i don't really know the full extent of what contributed to the injury inside the basketball game or in his training regimen before that or the extra weight game here's what i'm more thinking

about it's done his achilles has ruptured dude there is no guarantee you're going to come back from that no guarantee at all now this is not basketball where the importance of getting the rehabilitation correct is absolutely critical given how much of running and jumping and lateral sprinting and all that kind of lateral motion and and uh push off and all that kind of lateral motion and push off and all that kind of stuff that you would need ankle and joint integrity for. Nevertheless, if you don't get it right, it will manifestly impact your ability to move, throw, balance, position, weight, you name it. It will just cause constant problems for you. So I hope his recovery, I hope he takes as long with his recovery as he needs to, to get as far along back as he can,

because I would not wish that kind of injury on anybody to be quite, I mean, that's a devastating, devastating injury to suffer. So let's hope he gets the proper medical care, the proper rehabilitation, but then BC, it leads to the obvious question,

which is what the fuck are they going to do with that title? Here's my first, first thought BC, I then, BC, it leads to the obvious question, which is, what the fuck are they going to do with that title? Here's my first thought, BC. I just want to pitch it back to you. The first thing I thought of, the very first thing I thought of after, I was like, oh my god, that's a devastating injury. Wow. Alex Pineda versus Jan Blachowicz all of a sudden takes on

an extraordinary amount of new significance. Do you think the UFC might say that's the number one contender fight or even put a title on that one? What do you think? Something's got to be done. I mean, that fight is suddenly huge now considering this, but let's take charge of the whole situation and how we got here.

I think the most disappointing fact about Hill, Luke, is that it feels like he finally just arrived, right? He had three straight knockout wins after that Paul Craig submission loss, and then he goes to that war with Glover, And it's this big moment where in your head, you're like, man, this guy, what is this guy? 25, 26, 27. He's about to show us how great he can be. No, he's 32 Luke. So knowing that this is, you know, going to angling toward a year recovery, that's tough to see, but also take into account in order to figure out who fights for it next. Let's take into account how we got here.

Jon Jones gave up that title over three years ago. Jan Blachowicz beats Reyes and suddenly, you know, we've got an interesting new start to this division. And it's not as if this division has not given us insane, almost all time great wars since then it has, but to see the way things have broken out from Yuri Prochazka winning the title in such incredible circumstances in that five round war against Glover Teixeira, right? Not even counting Glover Teixeira's turning back time to upset Blachowicz to win the title.

And then Yuri gets hurt. He's out. Then we put the title on the line for Ankalaya versus Blachowicz and they fight to a draw. So Jamal Hill breaking through felt revelatory to have a new player on the scene who kind of picked the perfect night against Glover to really show us how great he can be, how much of a dog he is, all of that. Well, now he's gone for a full year. So to answer your question, Luke, we do have Pineda versus Blachowicz coming up, which has to hold a huge amount of meaning. But if you look at the rankings in general,

we are under the impression that Yuri Prochazka is set to be healthy after his own disastrous injury later this year. He's the number one contender. You have Emkalayev at number two. Blachowicz at three. Obviously, Poitin's making his debut here. And then you've got the players you expect after that at four five and six Rakic, Krylov and Johnny Walker is it fair to one and

two Prochazka and Ankaliev to just say okay Poiton you just got knocked out and lost your title in a division below but circumstances are what they are you're fighting for the championship against Jan I don't know if I love that Luke I don't know if I love that, Luke. I don't know if I love that. I do need to find out. I was about to say, I was about to say, dude, Pareda can luck his way into two UFC titles and barely defend a takedown. It's crazy. And, you know, he didn't, I mean, okay.

Like he didn't luck his way into the Izzy title shop. You know what I'm saying? No, no. But the dual fact that that division needed a new player because Izzy had cleaned it out, mixed with the fact that Poiton had a storyline in an age, right, post-35, that could have escalated him and made it happen quicker. It did happen. We got a great rivalry.

But let's answer this, Luke. Well, let's go to the Prochazka tweet. Yuri Prochazka did respond to this and said, at Jamal Hill, man, I'm so sorry. I was really looking forward to our fight. I appreciate your release of the title. Only a person who has experienced this situation can appreciate such a thing. And then Yuri asks, who is next?

Winner of Blachowicz versus Pineda or question mark? Hashtag, I am the champion. Luke, if Prochaska is close, I don't love giving Poiton a day one title shot against Blachowicz, even though Blachowicz has done what he has had to do to keep himself in this title picture. You've got Ankalayev above them who has the same rights as Blachowicz, you can argue. And what if Prochaska is ready? How about announcing?

How about taking charge and maybe announcing a final four? We still go forward with Blachowicz versus Poiton but if Yuri can come back and take on Ankhalaev and then the winners can fight that'd make great business but Luke I have to believe if you're the UFC they'd love to put a title on every single fight they can I kind of expect there's going to be some form of a title on the line in this Blachowicz fight coming up I don't like it but I kind of expect it I feel like kind of expect it. I feel like worst-case scenario, it's going to be number one contender explicitly.

Worst-case scenario. And when I say worst, I mean, it depends on what you want. But I say worst in the sense of what you can expect in terms of what's the least they're going to do. There's simply no doubt in my mind they're going to say that that fight's probably for number one contender. I think your plan is right you do either though either depending on the return schedule of yuri you do uh this uh 291's blohovich taking on pareda and either that one fights uh on kalayev

for the outright belt which in which case you might have on kalaya versus blohovich too although i don't know if the UFC wants to do that because the first one was not all that awesome, so maybe that's not so true. But I guess if Pineda wins you could do that. Or the one you set up, which is if Yuri comes back a reasonable amount of time, you have him fight Ankhalaev, keep this fight, and then the two meet in the

middle. But I don't think they're going to do that. I think what they might end up doing is if Yuri comes back on a regular schedule, like in enough time to plug him into things, they'll keep 291's bout as the number one contender and then just put the belt on the line for Ankhalaev and Yuri and then have these four. So it wouldn't really be a final four in that way. The championship would already be on the line, but I think they're not going to wait around and get two fights to figure out who the champ is after two fights. They're going to just assign it to one of them and then let the chips fall where they may after that, I think.

Yeah, a wild turn of events. You hate to see it for Jamal Hill, who, you know, didn't do anything wrong in maximizing his opportunity and getting that fight against Glover. Like, he wouldn't have gotten that title fight if the Ankalaya of Jan fight didn't go the disappointing lane of not being overly exciting and then being a draw, he did take advantage of it. I didn't mention the, the weight on him to, to dunk on him, Luke, but I have to wonder if that was contributed at all. You know, I'm not saying don't play basketball in between. It's just a bad turn, right? It's a bad turn of events. The division still set up to give us bangers.

If you look at the people involved here in this mythical final four, whether it out that way or not but luke this doesn't answer that that that bigger question that you would want it to of like who's the definitive best 205er on the globe it's this probably goes further in the direction that it's actually vadim nemkov whether people care about that debate or not what do you mean who's the the best 205-er in the world right now? I mean, some of the guys in contention unfortunately can't stand up and fight at the moment. Yeah, I don't know how to answer that. I really don't.

Like, I don't think... Dude, it feels... Do you know what, Light Heavyweight? It feels like we had just had this conversation, right, after the Pantoja and Moreno fight. It feels like Flyweight. It feels like... Who's the best one?

On any given night. I don't know what to say. I kind of felt, I had thought that on Collab was inevitable and then Blachowicz made him look very human. So that's not really a case. Pineda 205, who knows what he's going to look like. Blachowicz is very good. He's getting a little bit older though. Yuri has had a terrible injury and he's a wild man. He gets hit a lot. So I don't know, but he's forceful as shit. You know, there's just a lot of ways. There's just a lot of ways this could go. So, um, I, and I will say this in five years, that title being vacated four times is just a disaster. It's just a complete disaster. That division has no identity really at all. And so I really hope that whoever it is, whoever it is, can really plant a flag

and give that division, you know, some more than identity, some, I don't know, some continuity of some kind, you know? For sure. All right, two quick questions related to this on the way out. One, Glover Teixeira's not getting up in the bullpen, right? We just established that they don't need him.

But he has come, you know, I mean, the two last couple of fights have been absolutely incredible. What he's given out, how close he came to beating both Yuri and then Jamal Hill. And finally, Luke, what do you think about this trend now in this division? When Yuri gave up the belt after the injury, we kind of argued like, hey, that's a great move for business to stay on. But that's not the move most people do. He very well could have been

a, you know, almost a champion in recess. And that's why you would need that. That's the type of situation, in my opinion, where an interim title is perfect. If the champion is going to be out for a year, you know, but not more, I don't think you need to strip him. You could run an interim belt. Do you think in this case that Jamal Hill made this decision straight up like we assume Yuri did for the betterment of the division, or was there company pressure to put this into a vacancy? I don't know how that works behind the scenes. I suspect that they – listen, I'm not saying that he was like,

I'm not giving up my title. I'm not saying that. But I do feel like the UFC was like, okay, well just given how long you're going to be on, here's realistically what we're likely to do. we're likely to just strip you just the same so you know they let him i think have the ability to say he relinquished it right and i don't think that's nothing altogether but the reality is i mean listen to your point you said he could be out for a year could be could be longer could longer. Could be longer. No guarantees at all.

You can come back in a year from an injury like that. Really depends. Of course, you could come back in nine months, too. I've seen something like that. But in general, it's at least a year, if not longer. We're talking about not just getting back to feeling normal, getting back to elite athletic competition training schedules, right? That's what your Achilles is going to have to endure.

The idea that you can get back to that in a year some people can't a lot of people can't it is not a guarantee and I think the UFC was like dude we can't wait for that and I understand UFC's perspective there actually to be honest we cannot wait for this shit to happen so let's just put it in circulation and you'll get first dibs when you come back I think that's pretty fair to be honest with you yeah and Jamal Hill did say in his video on YouTube that the UFC has promised him a title shot upon return. So if that's the deal, you get it. We wish Jamal Hill the best, but this wild and crazy wide open division

is going to stay that way. Luke, what a time for Poetan. This could be, you know, and what makes this crazy is the DDP win obviously changes Izzy's direction, right? That's going to be a big fight we're going to get to but is he's what happens in the meantime if if is he's old running mate alex pineda turns this division upside down as well a lot of big fights could be in our future

luke a lot of big wins i'm sorry big losses when it's talking about okay bet which is in our future right now uh luke let's look at oh first of all, let's go to the opening animation. We go head-to-head each week with five picks in five different categories to find out who's worse at betting and who has to watch a concert that they hate with a documentary crew that no longer exists. This one's called OK Bet. There we go. The last week's standings.

They exist. The documentary crew technically exists. Well, Luke, you went three and two last week on UFC 290 weekend. I went two and two because Jack Della Maddalena's fight was canceled. He'll be, by the way, in the co-main event like we prophesied this weekend at UFC Fight Night in the Apex, arguably the worst card in modern history. Luke, so I will do an extra bonus pick this week in the same category, which was KO or sub, and hopefully that'll bring us back even. Here is your updated standings as you briefly saw there.

Luke, 49, 47, and 3. BC, 43 and 55. So I'm within striking distance here. Very early in the second half of the year. Luke, as the defending reigning champion, are you going first or second? Yes, I want to remind the audience, I am basically no better than flipping a coin. And BC is decidedly worse. So please. But to be fair, fair luke to be fair on that because people have criticized this segment a lot of the categories we're picking are straight up upset categories like right somebody who's not we're

not going through the card and being like x is going to win all the way down we're not we're playing a game in a way so people have also suggested, Luke, that we're allowing ourselves on the over, under, and KO sub too easy of a layup potential by not playing the odds. I know. These people need to blow me because this shit is hard, and we need a couple of gimmies. Hey, Wood. Is that you?

Hey, Wood, did you blow me? Yes. Use your mouth to do things to me. Okay, there you go. That's what I would say. I don't want to get fired. All right, BC, if I can go do things to me. Okay, there you go. That's what I would say. I don't want to get fired. All right, BC, if I can go first here on the main card pick. I mean, you know, not really a ballsy pick,

not really an interesting one. I'm just going to go with Holly Holm. You know, Bueno Silva, I believe, lost to Manon Fioro, who, you know, was just keeping her at distance, kind of kicking her, which is something that Holly Holm can do. Holly Holm's got pretty good takedown defense. I do think that if it gets to the ground, that Bueno Silva is decidedly better there.

That, to me, would not in any way be surprising if she can get the fight to the ground and then work from there. But I don't know if she can. I think Holly, even at age 41, is a pretty good athlete. So, yeah, not an interesting pick, not an interesting fight, but I'm going to take Holly Holm in the main event, good sir. I like that you did that, Luke, because it challenged me to be bold, be different, and stop getting stalemate picks against you.

And as I look at Myra Buenosilva's odds here at plus 160 against Holly Holm, I started thinking about things, Luke. Holly Holm is getting heavily criticized on the second half of this run where she's staying very relevant in a weak division at 41. And a lot of people are saying, look, all she's doing is holding against the cage. You know, yeah, she's doing more, you know, grappling and takedowns, but it's not really leading to anything. It's very strategic. Luke, we have seen her in big moments come up surprisingly empty. I'm referencing, for example, the featherweight title fight against Jermaine Durandamy,

which we all kind of predicted and expected Holly to win to set up a cyborg fight. And, you know, she came up very empty and kind of dropped the ball that night. We've seen it before. Is there a potential here with all the uncertainty in this division where Holm comes out, plays it a little bit too safe as she has of late and considering as you mentioned silva's on a three-fight win streak the last two by submission she can be a threat here can silva equally being a stinker here with holly home but out stinker in terms of control and timely striking to pull a home versus GDR-esque lame decision out of here where nothing really advances. Well, here's, we got to ask ourself here, Luke.

This is Silva's opportunity. Her first really big opportunity to do something major. We don't know what the future of the title is in this division. Who's going to fight for it? I mean, does this fight being booked tell you it's probably Rocky Pennington versus Juliana Pena? I mean, I guess, but it's not like people are going to be going out of their way to see that on a pay-per-view either.

This could be Myra Buono Silva's chance to really crash the party and make some difficult decisions happen. I'm going to take her with the plus money here to do that. Holm is steady and solid, but if we're being honest, she hasn't been to the next level in a while, Luke. I mean, that Megan Anderson win still stands up as being solid a bunch of years back. And, you know, if Betch Cohea is going to run into her with the hands down like that, she can still head kick her out of there. But sometimes she plays it a little bit too safe.

Let's give Myra Bueno Silva a chance to have her moment here, Luke. I'm going to take that what a shitty card are we really doing this right now wow okay yeah by the way you think she can follow GDR's game plan not necessarily the game plan but it's like I've seen home in a big spot before a couple times you know come up kind of disappointingly empty Luke what if Silva makes this a real fight what if so you know what I mean or what or what if she has her own moments of control I don't think she can follow the GDR game plan but at the same time I take your point that like do I have like high confidence in Holly Holm in this regard probably she just lost the decision to Ketlin Vieta in a fight that wasn't awesome right

it's it's there it's there for you if you're gonna go out i agree the odds are pretty close too by the way so it's not like a runaway okay for my underdog pick bc uh i wasn't exactly sure which way to go on this one um i might be making a mistake because his opponent is in uzbek in nazim uh sadikov or however you pronounce his last name but i'm gonna go with terence mckinney he's my underdog here the odds makers are friends over at Caesars. They've got him. Let me pull up the numbers here. They've got him at a slight underdog plus 125 to Sadekovs or however you pronounce it, minus 150. Not a tremendous one. I know he's coming off the Bonfim loss, which was a terrible one for him, but Terrence McKinney still heavy handed, still gets after it against a guy who doesn't have a ton of experience. He's going to get blitzed

on. McKinney can thump. He's got fast hands. He gets right after it. I understand him being the underdog, but since we're picking an underdog here, I don't know. I think he's worth taking a flyer on. I don't normally get these picks right, although I got the one right last week in Robbie Lawler. So

give me that Lawler energy carrying over to Terrence McKinney. Yeah, McKinney has been stopped two times in the last three fights, last 16 months, but he goes after it. He's a tough guy to bet on because he goes big, Luke, and that can be a big breakthrough win or that can be another

humbling, disastrous ending there. I don't hate that pick. You went underdog here, Luke. You always flip underdog and favorite. It's weird. We go favorite first. I don't hate that pick my what you went underdog here luke you always flip underdog in favor it's weird we go favorite first i don't i don't understand that but i'm gonna go to underdog here luke i'm feeling these margaritas i think so i'm gonna take the 209 here i'm gonna take chelsea chandler at plus 120 against norma dumont is this the last fight in women's featherweight history i don't know luke but you know that there really isn't a ton at stake here we don't know if this division is you know that there really isn't a ton at stake here.

We don't know if this division is even going forward. Is Norma Dumont the better fighter on paper from what we've known and seen? She's steady. She's solid. I can argue with that. But Chandler at 29, Luke has been, you know, trying to be bold of late in the way she can coming out of the Nick Diaz army. She made those comments that Rousey's coming back uh at 145 and then ariel had to shoot those down but she has won five in a row she won her u.s ufc debut by first round tko in october of last year against stoliarenko give me chelsea chandler and the 209 luke to make some noise and give me an upset pick here at plus 120 yeah i got that i got that shit i know what i'm doing all right so for favorites bc you can't go crazy so for example i none of us picked jack dylan madalena right couldn't pick him as a favorite even though caesars has him as a minus 500 i'm surprised it's not even bigger than that

to be honest with you but uh okay neither here nor there in my particular, BC, let me pull up my notes here. I am going to go with taking a flyer for my favorite on Alexander Munoz. Alexander Munoz in this particular regard, again, let me pull up my notes here. Not exactly like blowing me away per se. Carl Deaton, his opponent, has a lot more experience, has an interesting look and whatnot, but Munoz or Munoz, however he pronounces it, I understand he's coming off of two losses, but against much better opposition, I would say. This one, to me, is a bit of a step down, Carl, again, relative to who he has been fighting against. And yes, it's true that Deaton's coming off of a loss to Joe Selesky, who is really, really good in his only UFC fight

to date. I just feel like Munoz, a little bit more physical, the two, probably a better wrestler of the two, and that's going to matter in the end. So give me Munoz. Interesting, Luke. I like what you've done there. We'll see if that plays out for you. For my favorite, Luke, I'm going to go on an interesting one here. It's the curtain jerker of the night on the prelim card women's bantamweight division. Not a lot of fan night on the prelim card women's band and weight division. Not a lot of fanfare on this one, Luke, but Aileen Perez. How would you pronounce A-L-L-I-N for a female? Is that Aileen?

Aileen? Aileen? Aileen. She looks, she goes by the nickname Fiona. She's seven and two, but did lose her UFC debut by second round rear naked choke against Stephanie Egger last September. But Luke Thomas, she is as a minus 220 betting favorite against 36-year-old Ashley Evans-Smith, who's coming in having lost four of her last five. And you could argue, Luke, it's win or go home here.

I'm going to take the younger, fresher fighter, though. I mean, Ashley Evans-Smith makes an interesting podcast asking sexual questions of fighters I follow on Instagram, Luke. But i can't listen to the whole thing it gets too deep it's like too much info i didn't sign up for this only yeah how much of them is like angry sex is like therapy for whatever the hell happened yeah i realized i i didn't actually want to be there and i got out of it but i think she's gonna lose give me aileen alin perez with minus 220 here i'm trying to win this competition luke there you go yeah it's pretty it's pronounced just like we would pronounce aileen but we just

don't spell it that way but they they change the spelling to like make it sound like the english word aileen yeah i told you bro like they like you'll see yesica's in columbia but they pronounce it jessica you know yeah you see uh you see jeregis they pronounce it horror, you know? Yeah. You see Juregui's, they pronounce it horror guy. I know, Luke, right? The Portuguese, although I've been up and down. Yeah. All right. We're doing, just to clarify, we're doing over under next, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, BC, this is the easiest thing in the world. This is something we've been whiffing on the entire time. If you want to pick a fight that's going to go the distance, in all likelihood, a women's bantamweight or women's featherweight fight is probably going to go the distance especially or you can have respect for yourself luke in respect for true competition and not not try to cherry pick with the lead constantly cherry pick with what with the lead you're like not only am

i in first place in this week competition here where we're not doing well i'm going to try to take as many women's fights that won't go the distance as I can. Well, I'm predicting that it will go the distance, right? Because statistically it's like 70 something percent. Right. That's right.

I'm going to sandbag in this category because the other one they do, having to pick an underdog every week when you're not good at betting is very difficult. Like that thing. Really not that hard. Really not that hard. You just do it says the guy who's 43 and 55 you're literally worse than flipping a coin i still sleep at night

you sound like you always sound so upset you're like you know they have rules in this segment where i can't pick somebody who's minus 700 it's like remember we used to do those hq hits and they'd be like luke what's your lock of the week and you'd be like sorry i know you guys don't want me to do this but i'm gonna pick a minus 1200 favorite as my lock yeah that's your lock of the week? And you'd be like, sorry, I know you guys don't want me to do this, but I'm going to pick a minus 1,200 favorite as my lock of the week. Yeah, that's my lock of the week. That's not the point of that. The point of that is like where can somebody potentially make money that you're really confident is going to happen?

Yeah, I'm not confident on betting picks or just straight up and down picks. MMA is volatile. I know. Look, you have gaps. You have blind spots. No. But tell me what you're picking. It sounds fun for air air to do which is what we're doing we're having fun you're pissing on that you're turning the segment into a urinal cake by showing that you don't care

well maybe the segment's ideas are not that interesting uh for me it's like asking people to predict the future unless they're exceptionally good at it is not an effective use of time that's just me well i could see that if your counter wasn't you know what's interesting picking minus 800 favorites that's that's oh yeah i mean that is also stupid i i mean i want to be clear i mean there's no point to that either but i just really feel like a lot of people in the space like to say what they know is going to happen in games or in fights and the vast majority of time they have no fucking idea so neither here nor there here is my best guess for over under give me dumont and chandler norman dumont and chandler going the distance bc i feel like that's a very safe sandbaggy pick also like my balls when i take over first place in this competition luke i will be betting only only ufc women's fights

taking all layups the rest of the way because I, Luke, am, yeah, yeah. No, obviously, Luke, I'm a competitor, okay? I want to step on your throat the proper way. Thank you. Let's go over to my over-under. I'm going to go to the Showtime Championship Boxing Main Event. We'll have more on this shortly to preview it. But give me lightweight Frank Martin to not go the distance

against Artem Harutunian, the German living Armenian, Luke. I'm going to take the under on that fight. We'll get to more of those specifics coming up. What's your KO or sub pick? Another one, just going to sandbag the balls off of this one. Give me De La Maddalena Hafez ending in KO. All right. Well, Luke, I looked up.

Do I need to say any more than that? Well, I'm trying to win this. So I was like, hey, Jack, Bob Dabolina is coming off a submission win in the UFC. Give me Della Madalena versus Hafez to end in submission, Luke. So there we go. I'm trying. OK, that's an interesting one. I like that pick.

I like that a lot. And my bonus pick on KO or sub to make up for Jack last week is going to be a KO, Luke, in the Otman-Azatar-Francisco-Prado fight. Okay. You want to know why? That's actually a decent bet. The Azatar brothers are wild men. They are bangers, Luke.

They are bangers. But, Luke, you know, we have um it's you know we're more than halfway through the year and you talked about me looking nice in this medium t-shirt luke and since the beginning of the year i've got to tell you my fitness journey has had its ups and downs but luke with fit bod i can build a dynamic workout catered to whatever fitness level I'm currently at. That's right, BC. Smart technology is all around us. You wouldn't use a printed map when you have your phone's GPS, right? So using technology to improve your workout is the same thing, basically. FitBot's technology improves my workout by creating routines I can stick to.

And sometimes when we're working, Luke, or at a fight, or just living life, I can often forget the types of workouts I need to do at the gym. And this app helps me keep track of that, of what I need to exactly work on to not look washed. That is true. What's great is that the workouts on the app improve as you get better. That's such a cool feature. And it understands your abilities and studies past workouts

and adapts the equipment that you have available in your front yard like a real man yeah like a real one but luke doesn't this make like all gym sessions suddenly fresh and fun by mixing it up would you say that on the record i would say that you can create a personalized workout plan designed for your fitness level and goals and fitbot is easy because you can never excuse me you can also view over 1400 exercise demonstration videos you can learn all of the right movements right there on your phone and look you can track all your damn achievements right on the app you can build your fitness habit and stay consistent all summer long because luke it's time to take that t-shirt off summer season is here okay okay it's it's time it's time for you to show-shirt off. Summer season is here. Okay? Okay? It's time.

It's time for you to show the world all of your chest hats. By the way, I booked an appointment September 7th. Your boy's getting another tattoo. So there you go. Where, Luke? On the inside of the arm here. What are you going to get? I am going to get an American traditional knife through a rose.

Wow. That's very violent and loving at the same time of you, you know, I heard Luke that, that, um, sorry, I dropped my joke.

And here we go. Look, I, Luke, I heard that you like pleasure spiked with pain in that, uh, hardcore death metal music is your aeroplane. Aeroplane. Yes. Uh uh last but not least bc

just want to remind folks you know you can track all your achievements on the app keep your fitness habit and stay consistent all summer long so wherever you are in your fitness journey get the most out of every workout with fitbot isn't that right bc yeah why don't you get 20% off your subscription right now by going to FitBod, that's F-I-T-B-O-D, .me slash combat with a K. FitBod.me slash combat. Yes, F-I-T-B-O-D. There you go, whole thing. There you go.

BC, would you like to know that I am now working out in my front yard more than ever, but here is the catch. Here's the catch. I have been getting up at like 4. 30 in the morning to go do it so the only other people out are people like running with their dogs okay shit okay let's get this right here it's already weird enough that you work out in the front yard in a city it is by the way it's not like you live on a farm and with bryce mitchell and his trailer and you're just out there picking up hay bales over your head with purple stains on your shoulders as you pull out of fights. Luke, you're waking up at 430 in a city where there's people living close by up in the window and you're like clanging, clanging weights together like a loud.

Yeah, not caring. Luke, do you not have self-respect for for the decency of what that tells the people, that their sleep patterns mean shit, mean shit to you? I don't think I'm that loud. I'm not nearly as loud as you might imagine. All of my plates are rubber. They're bumper plates, and I can't drop the dumbbells because they're Newell bells, so if you just drop them, they shatter.

So I have to be somewhat careful, but I do bring the Bluetooth speaker and the dying fetus gets going around 4 45 AM out there. That is a real thing. Are you seriously this level of an asshole that you were playing death metal at 4 30 AM audibly for people to hear as you lift? I don't think you can. I've checked it.

So I think if you're walking past my house, like on the sidewalk, you can't actually hear you have to be right up where I'm at. The more I learned you, Luke, the more I leave you, my neighbors, my neighbors complain about lots of things.

Like when I leave the light on overnight or something, they have never once complained about that. They know me. I know my neighbors real well so they complain that that time you decided for about a decade not to care about sculpting your lawn at all they definitely get bitter about that they did get bitter about that they were like uh you know the city's complaining we don't want to say anything and i'm like yeah you're probably right about that but they don't complain about me uh getting to getting to you know the weights early no they don't mind all right well look we had breaking news we had okay bet let's get into the

meat of the show topic number one hey interesting piece of sound from one michael chandler he may or may not be headlining a december pay-per-view with a christmas tree emoji against conor mcgregor i think actually look they should change the rules on tough. Get this for an idea. The coaches should have to fight each other at the end of the season. You like that? And if you're wondering – That's an interesting idea. I never thought of it that way. And if you're wondering where in the world is Conor McGregor this week, Luke,

he improved to 0-7 as tough coach earlier this week. Well, Michael Taylor – Hold on a second. I will say this. Hold on a second. I will say this in defense of Connor right getting guys who made it to the UFC who washed out some of them are gonna not be all that great but some of them are gonna be pretty good like Roosevelt Roberts is pretty good you

know there's some other ones there too like they gave Connor a bunch of guys who are very unproven against some guys who were you know also, also rams. I understand. But it just feels to me like, you know, is Connor a bad coach from what I can tell? Yes. He doesn't seem to be doing fuck all for his team. However, he wears three piece suits while he's coaching. I mean, I know, I know, I know. But here's what I would say.

If you switch teams, would he still be 0 and 7? I don't think he would be right. I don't think he would be an interesting proposition. But know as i've said before luke this is his coaching style punch him in the fucking nose like it's just it's it's ridiculous you know and also apropos apropos of uh uh wednesday's episode tyson fury has already called francis and gano a big dosser i just want you to know that. He called him a big dosser on social media. There you go. Oh, look.

Oh, we'll get to that later. Let's stay in this. We have sound from Michael Chandler. I'm not sure where it's from. I'm sure we'll label that, though. Talking about one Alex Volkanovski. Interesting. Let's listen in.

Is Alexander Volkanovski unbeatable? Alexander the Great is just that. I break it down to three Cs of why I think Alexander Volkanovsky is the most unbeatable, not just unbeatable champion, but the most unbeatable guy in the entire world. There's a reason why he's the pound for pound number one. I break it down to three C's. Completeness, cardio, and composure. He is the most complete fighter that we have on the roster in the UFC, the most complete fighter in the entire world. Those three C's, Luke, getting close to gimmick infringement

on Brendan Schaub's thick boy, right? I mean, you know, I think the- You will find any angle for skits and bits. I honestly admire your orange-faced to this bit it's it's quite amazing only those c's stand for comedy connoisseur right in chambis there you go luke all right uh luke that's an interesting leave me out of this shit please luke michael that was michael chandler's youtube page hey hi production All these fighters are getting gear. Luke, they are making it so the MMA media is not needed anymore. Yeah, MMA media.

I don't know. They haven't quite picked up on the reality that they're definitely not in demand at all. The MMA fighters have just taken all their jobs. Is this the darkest time? Didn't the New York Times just lay off their whole sports department, although they own The Athletic? Is this the darkest times for sports media, Luke? They didn't lay off their entire department, so athletic is going to do their sports and i think

that they reassigned everyone who was on their sports desk but it's like emmanuel morgan was covering sports for them he was a great he was the guy who wrote the francis and ganu big piece and everything else it's like what the fuck is he going to do now like science and technology i don't know how they're going to reassign them. So yeah, it's a horrible, horrible time. All the athletes are taking all the jobs that media once had, which you can be mad about it, but it ain't going to stop. And yeah, terrible, terrible, really terrible time. All right.

Back to Michael Chandler's comments. I did like the three C's. He's right. Is though he right about this Luke, obviously Volkanovski is the pound for pound King, or you could have Islam. You could have John Jones. I get that, but he's right there. But sometimes beatability is dependent upon the competition in your own division as well. Would you say right now in the UFC that

the hardest champion to beat, the most unbeatable champion, is exactly that, Alexander the Great? I don't see how you could say it's anybody else. I mean, you could argue, again, number one, number two, based on accomplishment, is it Volk, is it Islam? And that's a fine debate. Again, there's going to be differences of opinion, and I'm okay with that. But what you can't say is that I just don't feel like Islam is as far ahead of the other 155ers, even though I think he is ahead of them, in the same way that I think Volk is ahead of his contemporaries.

I mean, Volk is able to do things in terms we talked about this before in terms of computation in terms of strategy in terms of adaptations folks just don't appreciate this it is not automatic that even a high level fighter can look at what is happening in front of them make diagnoses about it and make slight alter alterations in different ways, such as to problem solve for them and maximize their own chances. This is by no means a given. It's like some guys can do it, some guys can do it well, and some guys can do it extraordinarily well. Volkanovski is at that end. He's the guy who can do it effortlessly, is what he can do at this point, basically. And so because of that, when you ask who's unbeatable, you marry that BC with the things like he made it three C's, which is like

easy to understand about cardio and then composure, which I think is important. But you think of it this way, he is such a professional that you're not going to catch him slipping on his training in terms of, is he in shape? He will be in shape. You're not going to catch him slipping on his training in terms of is he in shape he will be in shape you're not going to catch him slipping like unable to make weight he is going to make weight so all of the base layer conditions necessary for success those are all covered he's a pro's pro he then adds to that this adaptability which is so next level I just I just don't know what guys are going to be able to do with that. For sure. He is the toughest champion to be right now.

For as long as that window lasts. And at 34, even with that dooming stat, you like to share lingering out there, obviously like the fall off the cliff was going to be, is going to come in the fall off the cliff. Doesn't have to be knockout loss. The fall off the cliff could just be going from super elite,

all time. Great to just very, very, very very very very good but you look at like that's why i've been comparing him to demetrius johnson of late he's one of the rare fighters in history who like across the board has raised each and every part of the categories of what makes up a great fighter and built them all up to the super elite level where it's just like, there's nothing he can't do in that regard. But the reality is that everyone's human. Nobody is unbeatable. And that's what makes upset so thrilling and so amazing when somebody implodes or gets caught or makes a big mistake because Luke as strong and

dominant as Volkanovski is right now. And I do agree with you and Michael Chandler that he is the answer to the question of who is the most unbeatable champion at the moment. True or false to you, Valentina Shevchenko before the Grosso fight, considering the division, even though it's getting better, in my opinion, was even more unbeatable

if we're going to stick a label on that. And look what just happened to Alexa Grosso. She got submitted. It's like, that's wild. But I actually would have said that compared to the level of competition I almost considered Shevchenko even higher up of a distance separating them from those below them I don't think that's an inaccurate statement oh that's interesting. So hold on. She's more unbeatable. So the way you're imagining it is the distance between her base layer of ability and their base layer of ability.

Like, what is the actual distance between that? And in your mind, that's what made up the difference. Not so much like particular fight ability or something. That's part of it. You've got to be well-rounded across the entire board so that you can solve every problem. But I think until recently, this one 20 to five division, like was almost historically bad.

And then it got a little bit better, a little bit better. Now it's pretty damn good. But even within that Luke, I don't know if you have the same level of finishing threats that you do at women's flyweight that you do in a killer division like men's featherweight at the moment so that only adds to the danger but i think even you know it's a flawed point to even bring up valentina because what did she do

last fight she just got completely bamboozled and finished i mean she tapped out to rear naked choke no one is really unbeatable but yeah right now it's Volkanovski. I do think Valentina and really at some point, Amanda before her, before the Pena fight, maybe before the GDR rematch, it did feel for a bit like Amanda was going to be unbeatable for a while, but that also, again, had to do with the competition level across from her. I mean, I've made this point before, like champions, it's not that they never get tested. It's that even when they get tested, they find ways to persevere. So I'll give you two great examples. I go back to it all the time.

You know, Fedor in his prime got his shit rocked by Kazuyuki Fujita, who was a guy he was widely expected to demolish. And even after he got rocked, he demolished him in the most brutal of ways. It was one of the best body kick where I think it was a right hook combo. Maybe it was a left hook combo. I can't remember. But it was a body kick and then a hook combo that just sent him crashing to the mat. But he got, I mean, he was in horrible shape before that. He just found a way to persevere.

Or, BC, for fight fans who may have missed that when it happened, how about Brian Ortega nearly squeezing the life out of Alexander Volkanovsky? He just found a way to persevere. But boy, he was tested. He was pushed to the limit. So in that fragile sense, in that unbeatable sense, it's not like the people are never able to ascend the mountain. It's like they are rarely able to ascend the mountain.

But even when they do, the guy just finds, or the lady, one more little extra gear to get to he calls it composure in his list to move them up the list so BC it actually makes me wonder like when we look at the champions how would you rank them in terms of least beatable we've got Volkanovski at the top I probably would put Islam number two but where would you put number three would you put a guy at flyweight probably not certainly not 205 you can and in heavyweight maybe John Jones but he's not gonna be around long enough so it's harder to say so I was thinking like would you put Izzy three because

we just saw him get beat and then he comes back and he wins and he's been champion for a while but you wouldn't call him unbeatable who's behind Volk and Islam in that ranking of most unbeatable I think it's Izzy that seemed like a special case scenario it's not like Izzy is unbeatable but the the fact that he did lose it did come in a fight came in a fight in which he was leading clearly in the fifth round and against a rival who had his number he obviously did the only thing you can do to completely change that scenario, which has come right back, immediate rematch and knock that guy the frick out. I think that puts him up into third in that regard, even though he's not as well-rounded as some of the guys in this contemporary listing, meaning Islam or Volk.

He's so strong. He's closed the areas that he's not as strong at. I'm saying he's sort of figured out how to avoid getting into trouble in those areas. He's able to use his lead strengths in terms of striking distance and timing and all of that to such a high degree to control the terms of the fight. I think it's okay to have Islam at two because, look, we have seen him lose before.

He's better than that fight. We've just never seen Volk lose on this level at all. We just haven't. You know what I'm saying? So that separates that. But I do think Adesanya with Valentina losing, with Amanda retiring, I think Adesanya's right there at three. And after that, it's like...

Well, let me say after that. Let me say after that, because I have an idea. I don't know where I would put Aljamain Sterling right now. But after August 19th, if by August 20th, Aljamain Sterling is still your bantamweight champion, if he beats Sean O'Malley, I mean, just consider this for a second a second BC number one ranked contender is Murab it looks like they're not going to fight so that's not even a question we can really ask two would be Sean O'Malley three would be Suhudo four would be Sandhagen five would be Jan he would have basically beaten and cleaned out the top five at that point again not including Murab who you might think could beat him but

they're not going to fight how relevant relevant is it? It's not. Dude, I got to tell you, again, because we're not past the Sean O'Malley fight, I'm a little bit more unclear because, you know, the Cejudo fight was, he eked one out there. But if he goes and beats Sean O'Malley and you're beating basically all the guys in the top five, you might have to put him number three after that, to be quite honest with you. Especially because he has been creeping up the pound for pound list with these victories even again if some of them are you know like the tj fight you don't really learn anything from but it's another big win against a

big name it you know he's it's hard you can't keep aljo out of the top five of your pound for pound at the moment so i would agree i want you to stop saying though john won't be around for long luke you don't know that you don't know that you say it's so matter of fact if he sticks around then it's a different equation but if he beats you know Cyril God who was just utterly unprepared for that moment and then a 42 year old or whatever old he'll be Stipe then calls it quits it's like how dominant a champion was he's not calling it well after that well you don't know that he I think he made one comment and you're living and dying on that but John is an interesting factor in this Luke only because we I'll say this again and I'll stand by it. We don't know who John Jones really is as a heavyweight because of the, the way, how quickly that gone fight went. I don't actually know how

unbeatable he is. You see, obviously he has such deep and changeables from IQ to chin that, you know, he may just be more skilled than all these guys and, and, and has retained some of that light heavyweight speed to just use that long reach and keep him away. Or he could get knocked out by Stipe. I mean, we don't really know. You don't really know that. You don't really know that. But Luke, when we're talking about like who's an unbeatable champion, it's not an all time

thing in terms of the totality of your career, because inevitably, unless you retire on top like Habib did, you're going to get to a point where you're beatable to some degree, or just look, bad luck will catch up to you. There's so many ways to lose. But when we ask each other, who do we think was the all time most unbeatable champion? I think, correct me if I'm wrong. I think what we're asking is at the very peak of their powers, however long that was three to five years, one year, one fight, however it was at the very peak of their powers. And you look back and you're trying to debate who was the most unbeatable champion because you and i just did the resume review of fedor and i got to go back fight after fight in order and relive that pride run against all killers

and see what he did against prime big nog who was destroying all the other heavyweights in there and see how he almost got finished, but would come back miraculously after being dropped on his head, all that kind of stuff. It's fade or is my answer. How do you counter that? No, uh,

it would be BJ Penn when he was working for the Marinovich is introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada.

I just, and here's why I say that, BC, because the Fedor choice is a good choice. It's not a bad choice. But the reason why I go with Penn is because, for example, after the Diego Sanchez fight or something, you could even say after the Shirk fight, whatever one you want. I remember thinking about what he was so good at

and saying to myself at that time, I don't think anyone is going to beat this guy right now. At that moment, and I still don't think Frank Hager beat him the first time, although he obviously did the second. But there was a moment in time where he was working with the Marinovich brothers where he was at that moment fucking untouchable. Untouchable. And I'd never seen a fighter quite like that. You know, you couldn't take him down. You're not going to beat him in jiu-jitsu.

He was working with Freddie Roach. He had a ridiculous jab. He punched hard. And if you watch the Nick Diaz fight or even the John Fitch fight, but if you watch the Nick Diaz fight, you can't really appreciate it. But there was a time where BJ was hard to scar. It was hard to lump him up, even when you hit him. He had just a rock chin and tough skin.

And when that faded, the whole thing went. But at that moment, when he beat Takanori Gomi at Rumble on the Rock, I was like, holy fucking shit. You couldn't fathom anyone beating him. I'm glad you bring that up to remember that stretch. It's the same reason we have to bring up WEC version of Jose Aldo, who was just a next-level beast

and so far ahead of everybody. Jon Jones in the light heavyweight run has to factor in here again. His intangibles pulled him out of very tough fights against Hall of Famers, and he was able to get the edge all of the time. Amanda at her peak. Valentina at her peak are in this discussion. Rousey's interesting, Luke, because the women's game was so –

some of these ladies were so overmatched. But, yeah, in that dominant stretch, it started to feel like who could she not submit in 20, 30 seconds. gotta offer habib back into here luke because he did walk away at the very peak of his powers and at that very point at the very peak of his powers it's really hard to make an argument for anyone historically in and around his weight class to have been able to figure him out and and him. I mean, seriously, how great was the Habib who survived those leg kicks and then instantly submitted Gaethje? Like that dude or the dude from the Poirier fight before that?

Who's beating that guy, Luke? Anyone? I mean, here's how you know, and Mikey is saying Anderson Silva. Dude, I remember when Anderson Silva, like, obviously, you know, it's funny. Like, when did he look the most unbeatable when he was fucking styling? Not just on Chelsana, but even later, Stefan Bonner. The late Stefan Bonner, rest in peace. But then, of course, he lost right after that. He lost to Chris Weidman right after that.

So, you know, there's certain moments in time guys look like that. The Jon Jones one is interesting. But Habib, like, here's what I mean about these guys, like, with Penn and Habib. When they're beating the shit out of their contemporaries and then they're using tools that the shit out of their contemporaries and then they're using tools that the rest of the game hasn't caught up on like BJ Penn had a jab before people had a really good jab he was using even to this day BJ Penn's ground game would still be considered advanced by today's standards that is how far ahead he was in jujitsu like him using

octopus guard octopus guard back takes like the kind he hit on matt hughes he actually separated his rib doing it at the time which was i think the second or third hughes fight no the second hughes fight um octopus guard back takes are only now coming into fashion or have been about the last year or so bj penn was doing that over 10 fucking years ago this is what i mean these guys and habib too like guys are now catching up to the dagestani style of like wrist control and and you know and then wrapping the legs and elevating them and then using that to you know control movement like what craig jones has gotten guys like mock excuse me uh guys like volkanovsky to do you know they're ahead of their

time right john jones was ahead of his time so ahead of his time GSP ahead of his time to what degree they were unbeatable we can decide but that to me is the common denominator they're doing things in the game that their peers simply do not it's not just that they're better they're doing things differently and I hate to dunk on our boy Rashad but welcome to the Machida era it did feel like he wasn't going to lose for a while after that title knockout win right it did feel like it yeah it did feel like it to close on this category mikey has written down who's the most beatable champion of the moment that sounds disrespectful who's the most vulnerable ufc champion at the moment based on either the parody in the division or maybe you know the fact

that sometimes people win the championship but aren't the best fighter in the division at that moment definitely feels like flyweight is up for grabs as and again nothing none of these guys are bums it's not what we mean we just mean a lot of them are really good but they're not really much much better than the other guy right it kind of feels like brandon moreno could have won that on a different night you know so that one certainly 205 i mean who's the best guy 205 i don't fucking know. I don't really have. I kind of feel like, you know, I've got a cleaner sense. There's no champion, Luke. So that's a moot question.

But even then, even if like there, even if none of the divisions had belts and I had to ask you, who do you think is the best guy at 205? You couldn't give me a definitive answer. You'd have to kind of guess at it. It's not, it's not so clear. So, so there's that on the women's side Grasso's pretty vulnerable because she has to beat Shevchenko twice back to back that's fucking hard to do yeah Whaley looks in a good spot even though she's been yes she does yes she does she does I'd say her position

at least it feels more secure I guess we'll see what happens yeah Rose moved up in weight we've got Amanda Lemos coming up for Weiley for better or for worse. Interesting topic posed by one Michael Chandler. We'll see what his future brings. You want to see Chandler versus Volkanovski in any iteration, Luke? Do you think that could happen or no? In any form? Not next, I guess, but like

no, not next for sure, but in any form. I wouldn't say no to it. Yeah, I wouldn't say no to that at all. Again, to your point, next I don't know, but in general, sure, sure. I'd't say no to it. Yeah. I wouldn't say no to that at all. Again, to your point next, I don't know, but in general, sure. Sure. All right. Topic number two, Luke takes us to the inside the box, right? Step three, put your, wow. Wow. We will do that. Luke a couple of cards of note this weekend. How about Las Vegas at the Cosmo Saturday night showtime championship boxing has a triple header headlined by rising unbeaten lightweight Frank Martin. Yes, trained by Derek James, 17-0 with 12 KOs,

and fresh off a breakthrough, dominant unanimous decision win over unbeaten Michelle Rivera to close last year. Luke will be welcoming Armenian-born, German-residing, and unbeaten Artem Haritunian 12 and 0 with seven knockouts. He won Olympic bronze at the 2016 games for Germany. But this will be his U.S. debut. Luke, it kind of feels in the you know, on paper like let's set up a nice showcase here for Frank Martin, who could be a monster player in this 135 140

window with so many bright young stars but you know we've done this before in boxing and the reference point I always make when there's a tough fighter coming in making a U.S. debut who we've never heard of is the slugger Ricardo Torres when he came in there against Miguel Cotto back in 2005 knocked him down nearly upset him Miguel Torres was a monster puncher, though. I don't know if Artem Haritunian has that same reputation. When you look at this matchup, we're going to tune in to see what Frank Martin's got, but can Armenia have a huge day with monster head movement

and make this a real fight? What do your expectations come in to say? No, I didn't see anything on tape. I'm not an expert on Haritunian, but having seen a few things what's online i didn't see i mean it's a tough fight against frank martin right so for folks who don't know frank i mean you've kind of indicated but frank martin let's remind everyone this guy trains with errol spence this guy trains with jermell charlo technically this is the same camp where ryan garcia is where anthony joshua is

so like you know he is in a very special elite camp for very special elite guys, and I like what his game brings. It's a little bit patient. It's very careful and yet still plenty offensive. And more importantly, BC, the thing that Frank Martin really thrives on is making guys make mistakes and then making them pay for it. He is very good at setting traps and then absolutely demolishing it. I've said it before.

He's got maybe the best pull-to counter I've seen in all of boxing. It's fucking absurd how good it is, how often he gets guys to make those over-commitments, and then he torches them for it in the most absurd ways. Frank Martin is not the high-IQ pressure fighter that Spence is. He's a little bit more careful and considerate. So this one could potentially go the distance BC. I don't think that's crazy, but he doesn't make a lot of errors. He is very fundamentally sound. He does have good power. He is excellent at setting traps

and really, really good at making guys pay for mistakes. I cannot overstate that enough. And I feel like Haratunian is going to walk into a lot of shit. This is a fight where Frank Martin should win, and I'm going to say by a comfortable margin. Well, Haratunian is aggressive. You know, he doesn't have a huge amount of power, but he is aggressive and makes fights happen. That's going to mean that they're going to collide in the center of the ring.

And I'm picking the under here in the OK bet terms because I think Frank Martin is a better fighter and poised to continue this breakout. He's 28 years old fights out of Indianapolis, Luke, but trains there in Dallas and arguably the best camp in the sport right now. Why I love that a guy like Derek James is on top because he's a guy who he's the perfect kind of coach. He leans on defensive fundamentals. He was a former boxer himself. He's smart, but he trains killers who offensively can handle themselves. And in the second half of these fights,

particularly do they go after it, right? Think Spence, think Jermel Charlo, think Frank Martin. But now we're adding in guys like Anthony Joshua and Ryan Garcia into the same gym. Dude,

when you're rubbing elbows like that, you can only benefit that from that. If you're a guy like Frank Martin in this spot. So pressure's on him to come out and make a big statement, but that's what he's done. Last year, he won three fights. He knocked out Romero Duno, knocked out Jackson Marinas, a guy who we thought had beat Roley Romero for a world title. And then what he did to Michelle Rivera was like, wow, open up your eyes. He's coming the hell on. Part of this triple header, by the way, Elvis Rodriguez, another one of these Dominican fighters, is making huge news.

He did rebound from that upset loss he had to Kenneth Sims a few years back ago. But now he's welcoming former champ Victor Postal. So this is a really good test of exactly where Elvis Rodriguez is. I believe Freddie Roach is his trainer. There's always, you know, there's been big fanfare on him for years. Let's see if he can put that together. But if Frank Martin comes out of here, Luke, so many big fights you can make for this guy at 35 or 40

if he wants to move up. I don't know, man. Could be a monster breakthrough night, Saturday evening showtime. I don't think it's next or how should I say this? If you're PBC and you have Tank Davis, you're probably thinking Davis Haney maybe is a way to get something, whatever. But like if you're thinking in the PBC family, you could do the Cruz rematch. That's another one you could do. But the other one you could do is you could do Tank Davis versus Frank Martin. Now, I'll just be honest with you, that's a tough fight for Tank Davis. Tank obviously is a talent, an exceptional one, one of the best power punchers we have in all of boxing, but I'm going to say it one more time, dude. Frank Martin has an airtight game, does not make a lot

of mistakes. You never, I won't say never, you rarely see him get hit cleanly. He has good positioning, his balance is good, his distance management is good. He is fundamentally sound. That's a direction you could go to. I don't think it's crazy, BC. Tell me if I'm missing something. I know 135, maybe Tank doesn't want to go there. He wants to go to 140, but if he's going to stick around 135, Tank Davis versus Frank Martin,

not the craziest idea. No, that was the idea I had after Frank Martin beat Michelle Rivera. After Tank beat Ryan, it was, you know what, maybe we start building in that direction. That would be a very, very difficult, look, difficult fight for Tank. And Tank Luke is currently incarcerated, but I have to assume when he comes out later this year, he's going to be fired up to get back in the mix. the best thing that can happen outside of they're trying but outside of the best facing the best in this 135 to 140 window regardless of side of the street they're trying right ryan garcia fought tank we're making you know look fulton's fighting a new way off of a pbc network coming up on july 25th so we're seeing people try this but the best thing that can happen if they can't fight each other is for each one to come out and one up one another and sort of

like put the pressure on them to go out, seek bigger names, create bigger moments to continuously prove who is the best. And, and, you know, I talk about it a lot, Luke, that I feel like the climate has changed for the young American fighter fighters. Talk to boots at us about that. And he agreed like they, they want it now. I mean, look, you know, millennials, they don't want to wait. They want it now. That's going to, that's going to continue to play into our hands there as old wash guys who want to reclaim that glory of the 70s and 80s and 90s when you watch the sport. I want fighters to care too much about the internet chatter

and want to prove their greatness. That's what we want, for sure, indeed. All right, also this weekend, Luke, Saturday from the Masonic Hall, the historic one in Detroit. It's going to go down on the zone. Alicia Baumgartner, your undisputed women's champion at 130 pounds, will defend all four belts against the only fighter to beat her as a professional. That's Christina Linard to the two. I'm butchering that name, but Luke, they fought to an eight round decision back by the way, in, uh, what was it? Three, four years ago. I'm trying to read my own notes here. I'm trying to get you excited about this. Um, she won, um, the split decision 77, 75, uh, on two

and the other way, seven, seven, 75. So 2018, they fought. Very close fight. Lenarditu got the decision. Luke, from there, the 35-year-old from Greece has gone on to big things. She lost to Delphine Pursun later that year, who of course gave Katie Taylor two amazing fights. And then she worked her way back into a title unification bout with Katie Taylor and dropped that fight in 2019. So this is a big moment for Baumgartner, Luke, who had unified titles in this division

by upsetting Michaela Mayer in that fun fight in 2022. And then she became the undisputed champion when she beat Elham Mechaled in February for the fourth and vacant belt. That fight, look, in women's boxing, Luke, there's only a certain amount of elites we love when they fight each other. But I think Alicia Baumgartner is becoming must-see in that degree that there's a plus level to her game. I mean, she's figured out she's always been elusive and quick, but she's really working on technique.

Toni Harrison in her corner, and she's becoming something right here. So, hey, let's give her a chance to run back against the only person to beat her as a pro. I can get down with that storyline. And she's a dog. Like, she kind of out-dogged Michaela Mayer. Yes, there was more than that. It was, you know, obviously the sweet science,

but you would be wrong to deny that she's got some dog in her and she's got some fire. And I think that carries her in fights, but also it carries her competitively as a mindset into what you're talking about exactly, BC, which is I got to get this one back. I got to beat. You got to do got to get the, I got to beat, you got to do the GSP thing.

I got to beat all the guys who beat me in this particular case, the lady. So indeed she's a, she's a very dangerous counter puncher. And she had a good quote in regards to the impact of that loss. She said it was needed for growth. And I want people to recognize what growth looks like. It's ugly. It hurts, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. And it tells a story. Her story of coming back from that has been strong.

Luke, she's one of the top pound for pound fighters in the game at the moment. This card though, Luke got brutally depleted. We're supposed to see Richardson Hitchens versus Montana love, which would have been a good, you know,

two up and coming guys against one another. That's one of three fights that just got canceled the last few days. So eventually even I was going to say, eventually we're going to get a Michaela mayor bomb Gart bomb gartner rematch because that fight was so disputed afterwards but mckayla just moved up to 140 luke she said her body is naturally growing so she went in that direction they'll fight again they'll fight again all right all right luke uh time for topic three i want to get some quick combat sports reactions out of you from some of the things that have sifted like sand through the screen here on the combat sports news sphere. Let's go to your new UFC flyweight champion, Alexandre Pantoja.

How do you pronounce his first name correctly, Luke? As I understand it, it's Alexandre. Alexandre Pantoja. We had sort of referenced it, or maybe we didn't, but it needs referencing. He was on the MMA Hour with Ariel Hawane talking about what this win means in terms of life-changing financials from where he was just recently. This is, if you didn't hear it or even if you already heard it, it's time to hear it again.

This is a crazy story. Let's listen in. And my wife started to clean houses and I started to drive Uber. But this is like, I do this again if I need, you know, because it's not just about like myself. This is about my family, you know. This is about my kids, my two boys. Now both have a better English, much better what I have, what I never gonna have. And I give like a support for my kids, you know. And I drive Uber, I make some jiu-jitsu tournaments to help.

And after the fight with Roy Val, one week before that fight, I'm delivering Uber Eats. And that's running. And I'm sick. And when I go to the fight week, I'm very sick. And I'm very scared to take the COVID again, you know. And I just pray to to take the COVID again, you know. And I just pray to not be a COVID because I just have like

one month for my bills, you know. And when I make the weight and everything's okay, I just say thank you for God because I have my injury in my knee. I have my ACL like completely broken, you know god because i have my injury in my knee i have my acl like a computer

broken you know and i have sick and but when i get the money of the the fight you know i know okay that's good i have like a six month to live you know but then god give me the fight i win the fight and i win the bonus and uh i can make my surgery i can like a relax for a couple months you know do my surgery and recover good and uh i have like a the best wife of my side you know this woman give me all support i have and give me all the power to keep going, you know? And if you have, like, one good wife, you can do everything. I mean, that's just... It's humbling as shit. Obviously, his moment on Saturday was, you know, it touched you.

It gave you the feels in so many real ways. But, Luke, that's the current UFC fight structure on display, meaning they create the scenario where you can literally go from nothing to something and become that 1% overnight. That sometimes it creates insane performances like Pantoja and Moreno put on. Now in Pantoja's case, the reason I think he won it, Luke, was Will just constantly risking it all over and over again and pushing through. That's kind of what this structure for better or worse, in a lot case worse, creates that

like rabid hunger to produce these all-time great fights. I'm so glad that he got over that hill and now he can reap the rewards. But like, think of the guys who give all and can't get over that. Think of Josh Emmett. Think of that. It's like, damn, is this the right way? Well, I mean, it's quite obviously not the right way. We should just say what the truth is, which is that there is, I want to be very clear,

not that we're suggesting anything other than that, but I want to make my opinion very not murky, right? There is not a thing in any way wrong with working for Uber Eats, of course, or your wife having to clean homes. There's nothing disreputable or you should be looking down upon it. We had a family friend. In fact, they lost their job and couldn't do anything else but drive Uber so they didn't lose their apartment. And it worked out for them. They now have a job on the other side.

But there's nothing wrong with that. Or people who make it a career in general or dude I know this guy who moved here from Venezuela and uh uh the only thing he really could do was drive Uber and um he does it 16 hours a day every seven days a week like he's working himself you know to death trying to provide for his family like I have great respect for people who hustle like that. That's a survivor's mentality that you saw. So I want to say, I'm about to say like what he shouldn't be doing. He should not be driving Uber Eats, but I don't want people to say that I'm saying this is some kind of disreputable job. That's quite the opposite. Like this guy has a great husband and a great father and he has a survivor's mentality and it's what kept him afloat. Rather, what I am saying is he's having to do all of that

while being one of the very best fighters in his weight class at a time in a year where the ufc that year he's talking about they made 387 million dollars in profit profit right they had that to go around and he has to show up and deliver people nachos and he has his wife has to go into clean people's bathrooms and that's not disreputable but why the fuck do they have to do that in a world where Dana White has a closet that is so full at his office he doesn't even have to go home to pack complex went through his sneakers in his office and he I mean you could a 40-minute reel out of how many times he said, I've actually literally never worn those. And I'm not against Dana White being rich or having extraordinarily wealth,

but who the fuck in their right mind can look at the same week a revelation where Dana White has a closet like this and that one of the very best fighters on his roster, literally one of the very best fighters on his roster, doesn't know where the money is going to come from if he gets derailed before he can even make it to fight week because Uber Eats and cleaning houses is not enough, and think, and really truly think, that this is the best way to do things, that this is a fair share,

going to the guys, putting the most on the line you got to be out of your fucking mind to think something like that that it means quite obviously this is the worst fucking way to be doing this so you know bc i mean i please chime in here i just want to add we're not in any way putting down people who got to work hard and nobody agrees in their lives for a living no no because i'm what i'm saying is why the fuck is this guy working uber eats not because it's shameful but because he's a fucking high level pro athlete right and he had been a high level guy and i know i don't mean to do the evil umpire ufc thing while these guys suffer like not every situation is the same not everybody manages their money that they do make the same there's so many

scenarios but it was just a few years ago that I remember Jessica Andrade after having been UFC champion, there was a headline that said she had to sell all of her memorabilia and the fight kits that she wore in the, in the, in the championship fights, just to afford the next training camp. And, and then you also saw Luke, I don't know if you remember that Jessica ended up posing nude for photos. I read a story in the past six months where she said she obviously deeply regret. I mean, obviously, because not every you get my point.

She regrets it. She felt forced into it. And looking back in that time, she said she was willing to get exploited and knew she was doing something that she didn't want to because she had had no literally no other way in that moment to kind of afford the lifestyle you need to be at your peak to be able to win these fights. And that's where the, that's where the system's broken. That's where the structure's broken, you know, and, and, and so many fighters on the way up in all combat sports have to juggle sometimes full-time jobs, right? I see it even on the showbox level where guys are like, you know, full-time manual labors, but you know, if they can can win this fight they can get to the title level and they can do it full-time dude a guy like Pantoja was like already past that already there to sort of see this struggle it's yeah it is rough Luke it's it's pretty damn rough um what I loved about that complex interview was not just

every pair of days like I've never worn those I've never worn those and it became a montage that would he would mix in a lot that was a gift from this famous person and i'd never fucking be caught dead in those so it was like one after another of like oh yeah i never would she like does dana white have a right to be rich yes of course of course he has a right to be fabulously wealthy like i don't really take issue with any of that but what i am saying is if the company that he is running in the year where one of their very best fighters is like living hand to mouth and they made $387 million in profit, you have to be fucking deranged to think that the fighters are getting an equitable share. You have to be completely out of your mind. Yeah, indeed. Luke, George St. Pierre, he had breaking news during International Fight Week from the standpoint that he'll be grappling in a ufc fight pass invitational in the future so a lot of fun

fantasy matchmaking if you get down like that i know you do i don't tend to get excited about these luke but the matchups are interesting that are being thrown around and then people ask gsp himself and by people i believe it was a Ariel, saying who would be your preferred opponent for this type of spectacle? Let's listen in. Many guys that could be an option, that are guys that are veteran fighters, that have a good grappling background. I'm talking about maybe the Diaz brothers

could be a guy, I don't know. I'm a competitive guy and something like that, maybe I think the fans will want to see. Or it could be someone that is active, you know, right now that is currently active. I don't know, Usman, Covicton, something, someone like this. You know, it depends. I want to give the, I think's up to to the audience to choose who they would like to see and i think it needs to be a formidable opponent too like someone that is

from a grappling background i'm not really an interest on fighting someone who's more like a from only a striking background look i saw a lot of fans say uh habib was their choice but doesn't this just feel like a tease though i don't know i don't know i don't know it's just like a tease it's like we should have seen these guys fight in the mma cage i don't know i'd still love to see them compete uh in grappling i actually think that's a great idea but i will say i saw like for example this is one of the problems with like trying to get mma fighters to do grappling which you know saint pierre's a black belt and a very good one but even then like folks you know you got to appreciate like the guys who do this professionally

are you know they're going to toy with guys like saint pierre so you have to find the right like level of competition and so for example i saw gilbert burns being like hey i'd love to do it and i'm like dude gilbert burns was like a multiple-time black belt world champion he's gonna roast saint pierre like no i don't want to see that at all so the nick diaz one is the one that i like the most i actually feel like that's a really good one i mean that could be a fun spectacle just because it's too you know huge names no no no nick is real good on the ground well obviously excellent but you know i don't i guess i i real good on the ground well obviously but you know i don't i guess i i guess i'm i'm putting out there luke that when i look at these matchups

it's not necessarily about like the competitive side of the grappling and who would win it's just sort of like oh wow they're doing this thing like could that make me care about it maybe i don't know i'd yeah that's just me i got white belt on my mind look you know that um got my mind on my money and a white belt knowledge of mma on my mind there uh but gsp is going to grapple whether you care or not uh maybe he'll grapple with coach craig luke and then then the cameras will follow them to the uh hakasan afterwards for um no spares coach craig would sub him in under five minutes like under three maybe you know okay okay uh luke so here's the deal when when we when we debated the in cage face-off between israel adesanya and a victorious

stricus duplice and obviously it spilled into into the race elements of it and you know i'm we talked about it the other day i made a quick editorial on that some of the reaction there thanks everybody who was nice but um the basis of my of my issues with izzy did center upon the idea of the look of that situation the language that he chose i get why but it's sort of that but also luke some of the whole idea of pot and kettle. Here's this. We'll all explain it better when we look back on UFC history on the pre-fight embedded sort of documentary series of when Adesanya first won the middleweight championship by knocking out Robert Whitaker and some criticisms he had about Big Rob there about being raised in New Zealand, but moving his life and becoming a champion in Australia. Let's take a look. Unlike Whitaker, Israel Adesanya is a longtime resident of Auckland. He takes issue with the self-proclaimed Kiwi visiting from across the ditch.

He's completely Australian. He just saw New Zealand in a way. I live in Auckland, and Auckland's my home. New Zealand's completely Australian. He disowned New Zealand in a way. I live in Auckland, and Auckland's my home, New Zealand's my home, and Australia's his home. There's a line in the sand, and you're on that side, you know, I'm on this side. So if you're on the other side, **** the other side. I don't have to prove my New Zealand heritage.

You can go back and look at my interviews. I am so proud of my New Zealand heritage and the strength I draw from my Mā Zealand heritage. You can go back and look at my interviews. I am so proud of my New Zealand heritage and the strength I draw from my Māori side. It's there. You can see it. And I'm very proud of that. But I live in Australia. I was raised in Australia. My kids were born in Australia.

My passport's Australian. But I'm proud of both. I don't have to pick one. Screw yous. So, Luke, here's the thing. I can't just say, isn't that exactly what DDP did to him? Because the whole point of the way that Usman and Adesanya took umbrage with the original comments from Duplessis was obviously they're interpreting a deeper meaner behind that. And that's what's fueling this larger debate on race and what GDP trying to spin, you know, stir it up or whatever to begin with, or was Adesanya's counter just

about the mental warfare and the build to this fight. But that is exactly what GDP did to him. And it's not different than what Leon Edwards did to Bisping from winning the championship and saying, Michael moved to the U.S. to do that. You know, I did it in the U.K., even though he's not even from that country. Can we shut up about this after all? That doesn't make Izzy look great. It doesn't make him look great.

Well, here's what I would say. It doesn't make, to your point, it doesn't make Izzy wrong about the DDP thing in my mind, but it makes him wrong about Whitaker. Like, it's like, that to me is like you're right like whitaker's right like i don't have to prove that i'm new zealand or that i have new zealand roots or that i'm proud of them i don't have to pick one he's right he is very right he doesn't have to do that that's totally true uh and so i don't understand exactly the whole Maori, New Zealand, Australian thing very well, but it does appear on his face to be quite contradictory from Izzy.

So I can say that, but it's still like nobody should be second guessing anyone else's attachment to places they're from or represent. And BC, I actually really take issue with the Leon Edwards Bisping one because it's like, dude, I remember when Bisping was on the come up the the fucking idea he was going to be champion staying in the UK at that time was just absurd there weren't the people around him it was there was not going to be the infrastructure it's just nonsense like the real way to say it is like so for example should Leon Edwards be proud that he stayed in the UK and became champion in that way yes of course but the reason that there exists a UK infrastructure for guys

to stay is in not like totality but in big part because of guys like Michael Bisping because of guys being able to create this buzz and foundation and like show a path and the idea that that was going to come from the UK and granted he got the title on what 2015 or 16 or so you know yes by that point there was there were some better gyms but on his come up no like it wasn't gonna happen like why are we taking this from him it drives me nuts I hate it yeah I mean look the race element does change the comparison to some degree depending on how you interpret it and i do have to say us being so i guess honest and open and trying to properly debate this based on how well we can

understand it from where we come from has led to some of our own mk listeners reaching out to me telling their story people that that live in south africa actually but were born in other african countries and just sort of saying luke that hearing hearing DDP say the comments he did and the voice he did, you know, definitely stung them and reminded them of, you know, some awful instances and experiences they had. And I never want to look over that. And also some people have said, and it could be true, this could be just he just trying to stir things up himself and just kind of come back and get himself fired up to beat this guy and if he needs this angle luke to do that um in that regard it's all going to conspire together to make this a very big fight but some of this is does seem pot and kettle like who cares what

like luke do people really get on you for for for leaving india and never looking back you know what i mean no but like here's a question for you my daughter speaks spanish as well she speaks english is my daughter colombian um we were well we can give her citizenship like tomorrow it's not that hard like is she colombian like probably in ways most colombians would recognize maybe not you know maybe not um but i always tell her you know she always asks, you know, maybe not. Um, but I always tell her, you know, she always asks, like, you know, we, we talk like, you know, where am I from? What am I like in these sort of like fun little ways. And I always tell her, you, you are as American as you

are Colombian in my mind. And I treat her that way. I don't want to deprive her of that identity. So in the end, people will make up their own mind, but people who live in two worlds, it's not easy to navigate all of them. And I just feel like if people say they are from a place and they live there you know give it to them we're global citizens all right i think the closer we can get to that idealism helps to some degree um yeah it's just i don't know luke i don't really it's complicated dude identity is complicated people think it's a neat category it's not so neat and it does fuel fight storylines like you know this was fine i mean uh but mikey brought up a good point luke do you think that kane velasquez got kind of forgotten by the ufc when originally he was you know

yeah first mexican descent champion but then brandon moreno is the first mexican born so suddenly it's like kane never happened but yeah it was weird dude this is weird too like i've told i've said this story before i didn't occur to me back then, but my wife would hear Kane Velasquez speak Spanish. I don't know how it is today, but like back when he was a champion. And she said it was like nails on a chalkboard. Like his accent was terrible. She said Fabrizio Verdum spoke much better Spanish, like way, way better. And so like that was a weird thing just for I think other Mexicans to hear was like, you know, this,

this guy with like a clearly American accent sort of working through the language, but you know, Mexican Americans are one audience. That's, that's kind of distinct from Mexicans. It's kind of distinct from the rest of America. There's a lot of different let people be who they are, man. I mean, deep in the boxing history, right? Like there's always been, there's always been built-in rivalries if a great mexican-born star like julio cesar chavez senior takes on a rising mexican-american like oscar de la joya in their two fights which had such like

hatred and you know in there because it was like well here's a real mexican against a guy who's you know leaning into the american side i mean so jududo's been through that battle too, Luke. I mean, I guess it works. It raises the attention, but I would like to see DDP Izzy slide deeper into who's going to win this fight and why. Let's get into that, Luke. All right. Yeah, fair enough.

I mean, I'm a little sick of this too, but it is part of the fight, especially in boxing too, where it's like Mexican versus Puerto Rican and everyone is just, you know, identity doubt. It gets, it makes it good, but it makes it old too. Luke speaking of boxing, staying with these headlines here and our reactions undisputed lightweight champion recently moved up to 140 pounds. Devin Haney arrested yesterday in Hollywood on felony gun charges for carrying a concealed weapon.

So he was in the backseat of a car he owned driven by friends on the way to a popular rooftop catch LA Hollywood restaurant. The driver told police officers, according to the report that Haney was packing heat, they found a semi-automatic weapon released on $35,000 bond. He has a court date next month. If the felony charge was prosecuted to the full extent of a law there is a one-year prison sentence but that does appear unlikely here luke

um how do we react to this it's not a overly like aggressive and dangerous scenario it's not great either it's a felony offense luke so what do you do here listen i'm not going to sit here and beat these guys up this is amer. People roll with guns. I don't think that's great, but it's the reality. This is the only thing I would ask. This is the thing that drives me nuts about firearms, people, because I've been around firearms my whole life. I don't know if people understand this.

You can 100% be like a super hardcore pro firearms person and also be pro safety. They they're not in any way mutually exclusive whatsoever. And in fact, some of the most enthusiastic firearms people I've ever met in my life were very good about it. So all I really ask is one of two things. If you're going to have someone who's strapped, because what happened was the cops found it in the car and no one took ownership of it. Here's what I would say. Put someone in your entourage who is allowed to carry, right, and have them carry it.

So there's no fucking question about it. More to the point, get security. If you're Devin Haney, you can afford security, right, BC? I'm not saying he's Deontay Wilder, Rich, who also had this issue, right? But if you're young and you feel like someone needs to be strapped wherever you go, fine. I get that, to an extent anyway. Make it a professional. Just do, BC, this is all I'm asking.

Professionalize the gun use. Either by having someone who's got a right to carry for whatever reason or having someone who's got a right to carry and is designated as security personnel. Simple, easy, done legal. How hard is that?

How hard is that? Not, not, not that hard. Luke, I don't, I don't know. I don't know.

It's tough to see this, but I get it to some degree. Uh, well more Haney news and it ties into tail female Lopez, Luke, who is apparently not retired. Uh, the head of the WBO

put out a tweet basically saying the game is over, that he has talked to Lopez and Lopez will now keep the title and come back. No one really believed Luke that he was retired. Some had pondered whether that had something to do with his custody hearing with his ex-wife. I don't know. But Haney's in a great spot, as we know, coming off the disputed win over Lomachenko, because Devin Haney is a network and promotional free agent. And one of the big time suitors looks to be Teofimo Lopez, who tweeted, Yo, real Devin Haney, since you were so quick to jump in the mix for my belt, let's make the fight happen so the world can see who is about that action.

And no, you will not be the A-side. I hold the king title of the division as well. So don't run away, biatch. Devin Haney quote tweeted and said, let's do it. The conversation would continue with Teofimo tweeting, came out of retirement because the next move was for Haney to fight sorry ass Arnold Barboza for my title. F that.

I'm tired of helping this kid be something that he's not. And that's a real champion. Well, Haney would quote tweet that message and say, yo, whole ass never retired in the first place. Let's see if you really want the smoke. I'm going to be 140 champ regardless. You asked for 20 million last time my pops talk to you. So, Luke, for those who don't know,o fema lopez is still aligned and under contract with top rank slash espn there had been some belief that haney was headed to the zone to take

on regis pro great immediately for a 140 pound title uh what do you make of this little back and forth you'd love the fight right first and foremost you'd love it you'd love it right yeah i mean i'm amazed that people's um not knowing the difference between to and too but neither here nor there i think my biggest pet peeve on twitter bc i know this is not what you asked in any capacity whatsoever i'm just going to say just the same if you don't know how to conjugate the word someone is not by yes someone is biased b-i-A-S-E-D. You have to conjugate it, right? All right.

So don't accuse someone of being biased. In combat sports, we don't really conjugate. We just put the message out there, right? Yeah. Here's what I'll say. First of all, wow, Teofimo Lopez, shortest retirement ever. By the way, he didn't give up all of his titles. I think he's keeping, which one?

B-C-W-B-O, I think is the one he's keeping. That's the only one he has, Luke, Teofimo. He just won a 140-pound title. I thought he gave one of them back already. Well, whatever the fuck. It doesn't matter. Either way, I was going to say this. I love the fight.

I love it. What is there not to like about this fight? Two young guys, different styles, different ways of approaching the game. Good style matchup in particular. Sign me up. It's a great fight. I love everything about it.

Certainly it'll come down to money. And if Haney will resign with ESPN, but Lopez did quote tweet the yo ho ass message and said, what 20 million. I didn't even broken English, broken English, let alone put a price on it, start losing weight and we'll figure out the rest.

So we can give the fans a dream that will take over the sport of boxing using both of their nicknames creatively. But look just the day before, by the way, tail female had tweeted at Loma Chang. Did he, who tweeted that? Was it? No, it was, it was Shakur Stevenson who tweeted at Loma Janko trying to get him into a

big fight. Now that Haney might be leaving either way, we want the best to fight the best. This is playing into that. We'll see which direction Haney goes. Luke, how about this? So we remember the PFL, which has playoffs coming up, had a somewhat controversial situation with Natan Schultz in the fight with his teammate. Schultz was supposed to advance to the playoffs after winning in a fight that lacked action.

Then we found out the PFL suspended both fighters and took the much more TV-friendly Shane Burgos of UFC fame and plugged him in the playoffs. Natan Schulte had originally called out Francis Ngannou saying, look, if you're the PFL head of players organization, do something about it. Apparently it's been crickets. Here's a tweet from shoulder and IG posts saying,

I am very unsatisfied with the decision that was taken by the PFL to favor Burgos's entry. Oh, this was his original thing about Nganou and Luke. He would go on to say, um, basically, where are you, Francis? Look, Francis has Tyson Fury coming up in a fight that the PFL is not involved in um what responsibility do you think Francis has after that big PFL MMA announcement to actually this was part of the onus to be fair in him leaving the UFC and getting into a more fighter friendly deal he's the he's the union rep so to speak for a union and that's not even alive but should he step in here or should he be like yo Natan fuck off I

don't fight there till next year yeah I think he should I mean you know responsibility I don't know what the word would be there like legal responsibility he has none as well I'm aware of but like you know making everything about fighter rights and then picking organization because it was like fighter friendly and then they do all this shit like i don't it's not his problem to fix but i don't think he should be silent bc right that's my only issue just don't be silent like say something and the fact that he said nothing is kind of not great uh yeah i was trying to find the uh updated exactly what schultz said this time to call him out. You see, I don't know if we're going to make it

at the pace we're going, because Mikey's got to get out of here at 120, my guy. Yeah, yeah, we're going to bang. We're going to get out of this. So look, Schultz said he's still training for the playoffs, was my point here, and that's why he's calling out Ngannou to do something to fix it. But he's not scheduled for the playoffs.

We have found out the new dates from the PFL. August 18th and the 23rd, they will be at the theater at MSG in New York City. August 18th will give us in the main event a heavyweight playoff bout with No. 2 Henan Fajeda against the Crochet King Maurice Green. Larissa Pacheco, your defending women's featherweight champ, is in the co-main against Olena Kolesnik. Goitsov at heavyweight in a playoff against Jordan Heiderman. And a reminder that a couple of those divisions were so ravaged by USADA, Luke, or ravaged by a lack of USADA that PFL

recently signed. And on the 23rd, we'll get Clay Collard, your number one lightweight seat against Shane Burgos, the aforementioned, and OAM against Bruno Miranda and the co-main along with Sadabusi against Carlos Leal. How about this for the all Magomed matchup? Magomed, Magomed, Karamov against Magomed Umalatov.

Umalatov. There's a lot of Magomed going on there. I know you don't care. Do you care? You don't care. No. I mean, I like Clay Collard. I'm interested in his stories. A couple other good fights at 155. Shane Burgos is a fun fighter, obviously. But no, I don't really give a shit.

I mean, listen, the Ask Jeeves cage. I've been waiting for Francis to get into the Ask Jeeves cage. All right. I'll put this car into drive now, Luke, and we'll go to the one time per week that we humbly get on our knees and take what's coming, Luke. It's called dead wrong. Luke, we say a lot of shit into the microphone.

Sometimes we're wrong, but at least we give you the chance, but you better come hard and you better come with receipts. This is Owen from the Netherlands. He says, Hey guys, the two of you have some wonderful idiosyncrasies that we are all pretty familiar with by now. Luke, for example, cannot contain himself to just marinate you in his knowledge any chance he gets. You want to lecture on DDP's Dutch ancestors and howplicably goes back to the well of Kobe Bryant is deceased, Middledog is not elite, and Justine Kish shat herself in the cage. He also represents or reps Lithuania to a fault, to a grammatical fault this time. At one hour and one minute of last Friday, BC referred to unbeaten welterweight Imantas Staniosis as his Lithuanian

brethren. BC, that's dead wrong. Brethren is plural and Staniosis is just one dude. I know Luke has been calling you CBS sports brethren for years, but that doesn't make that shit right. Please never change guys. Not too much though. Owen from the Netherlands. So, Luke, the pedantic police here are telling me that that was a plural reference of brethren. He's still Lithuanian, Luke. Who cares? You know what I would say is when chameleon air called Paul Wall his brethren, I didn't fact check him. You know what I'm saying? I believed him.

Well, okay. Was I wrong? I guess I was, Luke. I'll take the L. Thank you, Owen, for playing. Let's go over to JB. He says, good day, MK. Don't think I forgot about you BC during episode four 63 at an hour 13, our beloved factory town fight commenter mentioned tied to a Vasa admitted to rushing his last fight due to wanting more money for his daughter during the holidays. Well, BC,

we all know you look at the world through those 125 pound women's flyweight tinted glasses, but that child next to tie that's his only child. And it's a son named Carter to Evasa. Ultimately, this maintains your title to the best director chair, tumbling mailbag, sniffing dead wrong,

bloviator of our era chairs. JB. Yeah, Luke, apparently I mixed up the. You ever notice like your parents or your aunts and uncles, once they get past age 60, they can't identify the sex anymore of an animal. Every like male is suddenly a female to them. I apparently did that early on early onset. Sorry.

Sorry. I haven't noticed that. Oh, watch closely, Luke. Next time you're around grandparents or great uncles or your parents or your dad, you know, he'll be like, you know, your, your female dog will run by that. He's known for 10 years. It'd be like, Oh, look at him. He's so cute. And you're like, yo dad, what's wrong. Okay. I'll be on the lookout. All right. Thanks JB. I guess I'm old for two to start off here. Let's hear from uh i believe this is leo he says uh at episode 462 at 14 minutes luke states that volk is making guys

with significant height and reach advantages yes the distance battle he may be shorter but volk has had a reach advantage over every single one of his ufc opponents except tkz who had a longer reach by a half inch luke i thought you were the guy who cares about stats. Stick to the 35 and under line. You washed piece of shit. Love y'all. It's Leo. Yeah, that's fair.

He is the shorter guy. I mean, you know, Max Holloway's arms got shorter as they measured him. So, like, whether Volkanovski literally has a less reach advantage, I don't know, but certainly on paper, it's not quite true. Short, but, you know know here's what's interesting volkanovsky's greatness of late luke has had a couple people make almost like floyd mayweather references in that regard both floyd and volk have deceptively long reaches and it's been a key to their success like like floyd is looked at as a smaller right not heavy hitting guy but that that not only does he have an insane

knowledge of of commanding reach and playing chess having that sneaky long reach is is sometimes the difference look in big sequences you know i agree no we i made that compare well not the one you're making but the floyd mayweather comparison on uh 290 post fight show yep luke here's our final ones from jb good day, Team MK. I have the most pedantic, uncivilized, and idiotic dead wrong to submit. During episode 462 at an hour 17, Darth Thomas claims the greatest heavyweight in UFC history, Stipe Miocic, is 41.

Unfortunately for Lieutenant Doucheflute, that's dead wrong. With Stipe's birthday being August 19 19th 1982 that would make him 40 i know you're rounding up those numbers like you wish the bud tenders at your favorite local dc dispensary would do to your orders of sour bale bag kush but details matter steepay's 40 you my vaping comrade are are still a Dodge Omni. Cheers. Best regards, JB. You going to take that L? He will be 41 in a month, but I'll take the L.

All right. Rook, we close with a fun segment. We're going to do a little MK Discord trivia. We have a message here from Captain V, listener of the show, says to Mikey, so I run the official MK Discord account. I'm running an MMA trivia. I'm curious how Luke and BC would do on the first iteration. So Luke, I believe they have 14 questions in total. You and I are going to go head to head. There is a 15th. If we need a tiebreaker, how we did this was Mikey independently asked you and I seven of them, half of them, and we will read the other

half to each other in real time and keep updating the scorecard as we go along. I know we're going to do this in 28 minutes or less. So let me ask you this, Luke, what are the stakes? Do we get one from Mikey? Mikey did the people put some stakes on this, on this grill. All right. Did they? Did they put some shrimp on the Bobby? Yeah, they don't care. They don't give a shit. All right, Luke, you have to wear that DC hat on Monday, the whole show. Yeah, I don't care about that.

Fine. All right, what do I have to do, Luke? You tell me. You got to blow Brett Okamoto. I mean, you just got to go over there and get it done. I just wouldn't do that. It's just not what I'm interested in, Luke, okay? All right?

All right. Hey, well, maybe we won't get there. So for Luke, here's what mikey wants you to have to wear the the one love bob marley reggae hat the next time it's not gonna fit my melon i got a tito size melon it's not gonna work i had i wore seven and five ace in high school and it's only gotten much bigger since then dude i've got a i've got what size is this one that fits that's like a a nine and a half. I bet. Look, what size does that say? I can't read it. Seven and seven eights. Yeah. We probably have the same size. I'm not,

as you would say, I'm not doing a bit. Every, every adult in my family on both sides has huge melons. Yeah. I mean, my head is, I, you know, I look like I. I've got some kind of special needs issue. I look terrible. All right, Luke, we're going to ask the question. We're also going to reveal how we did on it. We've got 14 questions.

I'm calling up the questions right now. And here we will begin. Do you want to alternate reading ours, Luke? I'll go with number one. Here we go, first one. Luke Thomas, question number one. Who has the most all-time consecutive UFC title defenses? All-time most consecutive UFC title defenses.

That would be Anderson Silva. Incorrect, Luke. Anderson's 10 was passed by my correct answer of Demetrius Johnson, who had 11 consecutive before the one championship trade. I believe John Jones might be able to equal that in terms of total title wins, Luke, but his reigns were all interrupted. So the one nothing BC after the first one, go ahead, Luke. All right.

So the one, this is, I didn't, they gave me this. So this one's pretty easy. Name all the current UFC champions. Okay. Vacant, vacant, Bantamweight and featherweight on the women's side. Alexa Grasso is the 125-er. Zhongwei Li is the 115. On the men's side, we can go Alexandre Pantoja at 125.

Bantamweight is Aljamain Steraine sterling featherweight at 145 is alexander volkanovsky mahachev at lightweight uh leon edwards at welterweight izzy at middleweight vacant at light heavyweight john jones is the greatest of all time that's a point for bc yes also i got that one right as well okay Okay, so our updated standings, Luke. Two to one. I mean, Mikey is counting the ones we've just done, but we've already done seven of these already, so I'm not sure how the point total is supposed to look.

Oh, he's going to add them up in real time. Okay, I see. Okay. Yeah, we just had this conversation to kick off the segment, Luke. It's a weird way to do it, but I don't like it. But, you know, whatever. It is what it is. What else would you do? How else would you do it, Luke? Bring in Mikey. I mean, the thing, Luke. It's a weird way to do it, but I don't like it. But, you know, whatever. It is what it is. What else would you do? How else would

you do it, Luke? Bring in Mikey and Evan. I mean, the thing, I get it. You want to save it. They don't want to reveal the scores up front from the seven we've already done. I understand. Just fucking ask the question. Just fucking ask the question. No, I was giving you more room to complain, Luke. You can have as long as you want. I'm okay.

I'm okay. Question number two on my list luke here we go rosinami unis has a ko loss in a title fight who beat her and how did it happen just gone draw slammed her on her head that would be correct luke i have the same answer correct ding ding ding our updated scoreboard bc3 lt2 luke let's go to the second question on your list very good uh gsp has only lost to two people name them okay gsp has lost to bj penn and no wait okay definitely matt sarah is it bj pennner matt hughes luke i'm gonna go with matt hughes and matt sarah are the only people that beat him because he beat bj twice yes the

mats there you go correct all right luke thomas did you get that one right as well yes i got that one right four to three in real time we'll go to the next one luke izzy adesanya has had one split decision win in his UFC career. Who did that come against? Marvin Vittori. Correct, Luke. And I also got that right, but I was nervous about Yoel Romero. I thought that was a split decision in my mind, but I did say- It's a split decision. It is a split decision in your mind.

Yeah, in my mind, because I gave it three to two to Romero, and people still hate me for it. Your updated standings are five to four. Luke, read me your third question, please. Third question. Who coached the fighter nicknamed Platinum to victory against Mickey Gall? That would be... LaTorre Gonzalez?

It's correct. It's correct. I also got that one correct as well. Okay, there you go. Coach LaTorre. Luke, he has made an honest woman out of her. Congratulations once again. She has made an honest man out of him. That is a great point.

That is Ocean's daddy right there. Luke, name the fighter who just wanted to bang. Let him bang, bro. Julian Lane. He got it. Luke, I also got that correct the updated standings are bc7 luke six this is tighter than the junior prom right now luke i'll go to my next question no no isn't it mine wait whoa isn't it mine yeah you're right thank you thank you fill in please

thank you my okay so question number four correct question number four, correct? Question number four. Who has absorbed the most significant strikes in UFC history to date? That's a very interesting question. It would have to be somebody who has been in there a shit load of time. So my two answers would be Max Holloway or Frankie Edgar. I have to pick one. I'm going to pick, Luke, Max Holloway. Frankie Edgar. I have to pick one. I'm going to pick Luke. Max Holloway. That is correct.

I also had it correct. So, so far so good. All right, hit me, hit me. BC in the lead. Luke, who has the most leg kick finishes in UFC history? Edson Barboza. Correct. And you pull even in the standings, Luke. Edson Barboza correct and you pull even in the standings

Luke I had guessed Jose Aldo and as soon as I almost said Aldo I almost but then Faber didn't go down you know what I mean like Faber just kind of took it right yeah as soon as as soon as he said Barboza I was like damn eight to eight Luke your next question please

all right BJ Penn lost twice to this fighter as a challenger for a UFC title. Who was it? Frankie Edgar. That is totally incorrect. Oh, as a challenger. Frick. Frick. You submitted it, fucker.

You're off. Sorry. I got that one right. Go. Let's go. It was what? George St. Pierre? St. Pierre. St. Sorry. I got that one right. Go. Let's go. It was what? George St. Pierre? St. Pierre. Ah, man. I went too quickly right there, Luke.

Premature. Premature. Updated score, 9-8 LT. Wow. This made a turn for the worse. It was like our free throw contest. Remember that? Yeah. The one that never made the light of day. Luke, this fighter appeared in season five of Cobra Kai, barely had any lines, but he will still, quote, beat your ass. Who is he?

Tyrone Woodley. Correct, and so did I. I believe I should have gotten a bonus point for mentioning that his name was Sensei Odell in that show, Luke. Oh, I did not know that. I would have missed that one. 10-9 LT. Wow, this thing's hot right now, Luke. Oh, I did not know that. I would have missed that one. 10 to 9 LT. Wow, this thing's hot right now, Luke.

What do you got? And I got to tell you, I haven't seen it because I don't care about the lives of teenagers. All right, I don't find... Teenagers, you're not interesting. You're such an old man, Luke. I mean, I'm sure if I checked your search history, there'd be a few teens that fell in there.

No, I'm not into that. I'm not into that. All right, Larry, go ahead. Go to God. You might find some milfs in that search history. I'm just saying, it's possible. All right, Larry. Go ahead. Go to God. You might find some milfs in that search history. I'm just saying. It's possible. All right.

All right. All right. Question number six. BC. This one's a hard one. Who was the first UFC women's flyweight champion? Who did she beat to win the title? Two-parter.

That would be the ultimate fighter champion, Nico Montano, who defeated late replacement roxanne mata furry who once i got it right once rolled with mrs thomas you know what i'm saying she did yeah several times so we both got that right 11 to 10 luke in the lead i've got one more question and then you have one more question right so we got correct i got i got to get both right and you've got to get one wrong here let's see what happens happens. Luke, who was the first UFC lightweight champion? Jens Pulver. Damn.

Not only did you get that right, Luke, I had panicked and said Pat Miletic. And then as soon as Mikey said Jens Pulver. He was welterweight. I know, but I thought it was one of those scenarios where it was called lightweight back then, but it was really welterweight weight because there was small weight classes. So I got that wrong, Luke. You now have a two-point lead entering the final question, which means you have already won, but let's play it out.

This one, actually, I feel like you can get some redemption. You can get some redemption. Okay. Conor McGregor threw a dolly at a bus. That we know. Name three fighters on the bus. Ray Borg. Rose Namajunas.

So. I'm sorry. You zeroed out on my screen do it again michael kiesa question mark correct you got him so did i very good very good all right so the final score 13 to 11 i win again so luke what's my punishment. You didn't agree. You didn't, you didn't stipulate. You didn't put it out there. I'm going to call Brett Okamoto and we're going to figure this out. All right. How about instead? Brett has to appear on Monday show.

Luke. Uh, I don't mind that. That's fine. That's fine. If you can, if you can figure out, you know,

Oh wait, that's not a punishment to bring my old friends. I don't know. You know what? I'll make you eat a hot wing next time we're in studio or some shit i don't know all right no fellatio but thank you very much thank you mikey for setting this up in our hey thanks to the discord folks yeah yeah captain v over there at the mk discord overall final score 12 for luke 10 for bc that's your fantastic show for today i mean mean, how good is this show, right? This is the best two hours of your week, guaranteed. It's a long show.

It's definitely a long show. In all the good ways, Luke, right? All the phallic ways. Yeah, there you go. What a fallacy this show is. You can get Showtime right now, 30 days free. We got Showtime Championship Boxing back with a bang this weekend and so much more. Check that out.

Buy our merch fantastically over here at morningcombat.store. Luke, what would you say honestly is your favorite piece of MK merch that you own? If you had to throw them all away except for one, which one would you throw? Bomber jacket. Black or green?

Green because it's military green. I like it. Yeah. If you're going to keep the green, I'm going to keep the black. Yeah, that's great. That's probably our best shit right there. We have a drug rug that's tremendous as well. I would love to get Izzy in studio and then him just call you the N-word like six times just to see what it would do to you.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I know. I know. Look, I'm just a book. Yeah, I'm just a book. Yeah, I'm just all that stuff. Thank you'm just, yeah, I'm just all that stuff. Um, thank you, Mikey more mile for having our back as always, not just in today's show, but in life right there. Look, Mikey's one of those warriors, right? I mean, that guy will go

to ride or die, ride or die. He will go to bat for the brand for the MK. I mean, Gaff's got an MK tattoo on his arm. How come no one talks about that? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That's actually a good question. But Mikey is definitely in the trenches. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

The other guy who got a tattoo on his body of MK just disappeared off the side of the earth. Does that mean he's incarcerated, Luke? Where is Damien the Donk? Probably in a van down by the river, right? No, he's like a single dad. I'm hoping that guy's held it together and that maybe he just hates us in like a JP type way, Luke. That'd be nice, you know?

Because we can fix that. We can fix that. Yeah. Do we want to fix that? I mean, with JP, yes. With Damien, I'm... All right, final question about our donks. This will end Friday's show.

If we had a WWF In Your House MK contest and the winning donk got to spend a weekend sleeping in the guest room and being in the house for a weekend, but you get to pick the donk, Luke. Non-fighter, non-broadcaster. I'm talking about an MK donk, and you can't pick Oteel either. All right, give me a real MK donk. Who is spending the weekend in your house well the

answer would be w camille bell but if we're talking about non-famous people non-famous people non-famous people oh boy that is a good one i'm like yeah give me the lead singer portugal the man i'll have john hang out in my office all weekend yeah that's a big one i would say like you know dude average joe art has been kind of on fire recently obviously um it has to be appy right because you don't know if you're going to wake up and your house is going to be on fire or he's going to be drunk by you know six a.m that's not reason to pick him luke that's not a reason to pick him sort of in a in a like a watch this despair of a human man just you know collapsing on itself like a dying star or something what about doc was it dr mike the guy from arizona with the

tattooed wife from the live show they were very friendly but they were very they were very friendly normal people like i'm kind of looking for like if i'm gonna have an mk doc i want to see you know i want to see some weirdness if i can be honest with you all right i'd like to extend the conversation to mk fan couples and luke you'd have to be the meat and a donk sandwich in your own bed oh this is this is great. This is great. Real reality TV. And it's fine. We can end the show. We're good.

We're good here. This is better than tough, Luke. All right. For everyone I mentioned. Thank you. Thank you to the listeners out there. Enjoy this weekend, guys. Take care of your mental health.

Put it first. It's not selfish, right? Take charge. Take control. We love you. But, you know, hoes are a different breed. They're never loyal. we're out of here thank you you