MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vegas 79 & Bellator 299 Picks | Prochazka-Pereira | Edwards-Covington | Morning Kombat Ep. 492

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

On episode 492 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell give their picks for UFC Vegas 79 and Bellator 299. Can BC maintain his lead in Ok, Bet? Next up the guys react to Dana White's news drop. The boys break down Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira, Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington, Alexandre Pantoja and much more. They also react to PFL's Championship card. As always we close out friday with dead wrong. (00:13:00) - Ok, Bet (00:38:00) - Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira  (00:48:00) - UFC 296 Main & Co-main event revealed (00:59:50) - More Fight Announcements (01:04:00) - Weekend Preview (01:17:20) - Israel Adesanya (01:28:00) - Dead Wrong Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts 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

oh yeah like a frozen rope in time at the mayweather McGregor way. And we are rock hard with emotion and fired up. Oh, to the yeah, it's morning combat. And it's back in your face whole Friday, September 22nd, 2023. You know it's Friday. You know you ain't got shit to do. So welcome on in. I'm the BBC with that BDE, that beige guy. I mean, looking so sweet in this average Joe Art-inspired

Arnold Allen father-conceived Pacers gym PED workout shirt. I mean, how good would I look with this shirt and the same juice running through old Pacers veins? But you know why you're really here. The guy next to me, that cantankerous fool who's cleaning his glasses, dressed in MK merch. He's Washingtonhington dc's finest he folks is luke thomas my glasses are smudged hi bc how are you happy uh friday to you it's going to be a great day uh today it's going to be a great weekend of storms and uh i'm going to end up probably seeing a terrible movie this weekend. So there you go.

I can't wait. Which one are you going to see? I'm going to take the family and grandma to the big fat Greek wedding three. For real? Yeah. My family gets down with that. Like, seriously gets down with it. Like, they're fired up, okay?

I'd rather have my prostate checked than see that movie. Oh, get out of here. You go to all the, you're like, I went to the Barbie movie. I went to this bullshit. No, I didn't go to Barbie movie. I didn't see it. Oh, okay. My wife went.

I'll tell you what I did see. Everyone was raving about it. It's good. It's not quite as good as everyone said it was, but it's good. It's definitely good. Talk to Me, the horror movie. Ooh. Have you heard about this?

Was it like next level horror? Like really smart horror where you're like, damn, this is going somewhere. Yeah, it's definitely much more thoughtful. It's not like a traditional slasher flick at all. Now, it's not as sketchy and fucked up as Hereditary where the lady saws her own head off with piano wire. Well, spoiler alert. Yeah. So it's not quite as bad as that but uh or as dark and twisted as

that but it's pretty dark and twisted also last note you know i gave up on the karate kid tv series because i was like i just don't care about the lives you by the way you you missed it you you actually are wrong on that history will show that you are on the wrong side on that okay let me let me issue an amendment to that idea i definitely don't care about the lives of teens in any kind of entertainment product unless it's a horror movie because they're all getting killed. Unless those girls are going wild, then I'm back in, right?

All right. Well, I mean, you just ruined the conversation here. I was talking about wanton teen death and you made it horny, but that's what you do. That's what you do. Well, Luke, if there was a film that would describe working with you over the past six months, it would definitely be Titanic. Okay, but the band's still playing right now, so we will move on.

Mikey Mormile of CBS Sports on the ones and twos. Thank you very much. A fantastic show today. Maybe the most important head-to-head okay bet we have ever had as that race gets more tighter than the junior prom, Luke. Hey, Mikey, put the camera on him. I got to switch my earpiece. It's not working

how about a little please how about a little manners in there that's really nice oh sorry i thought i was parenting my sons here so yeah back on me look at this merch this merch hole right here i want to talk to you guys about something it's called morningcombat.store it's the home of our merch and for a limited time this average joe crossover you know you want wash dads you want teenage mutant ninja dads that you know i you want Wash dads, you want teenage Mutant ninja dads that, you know, I mean Girls do love guys that eat out, right? That's what we saw from that, hey, go to Morningcombat.store right now if you're into that

Stuff, and for a limited time This great merch is available, also Please, frequent Arnold Allen's Merch home, wherever that is, because the quality on This t-shirt that they rocked and sent us is Fantastic, thank you Arnold, and by The way, dead wrong me later, yeah You're not a a lightweight you're a featherweight okay we'll get to that later we're also going to look at the latest news including some big ufc fight announcements for

295 and 296 to close this year a little weekend preview of some off the menu stuff one championship is back today there's also some boxing of note uh yeah and that's what we do here we recap what's going on in your world the combat world in my world which is being a ridiculously pos washed dad thank you very much oh luke anything else we need to get into or or get on or get around or or uh get through i'm getting my new iphone today so we'll see how that goes are you getting the 15 i'm getting the 15 you're always ahead of the trends luke i don't well i mean the the the iphones are not that great dude people like if you've only ever had an iphone i have terrible news for you the android phones are better they're better than a lot no no dude that's like that's like trying to wipe left-handed luke that's you're not it's iphone or nothing. I know, and you stand in the place where you...

I'm sorry. The camera, the 48 megapixel camera, the new lens they've added on the 15 Pro Max, dude, the Samsung S21 Ultra, so the Samsung from 2021 had that. You're just now getting it

two years later on the iPhone. People who are Apple users don't realize this. I have all Apple products but i have some pcs and android stuff don't need it don't need it it's not as good it's just not as good it's not i'm sorry you know i always tell my dad imagine what you could do with those 10 hours a day that you watch fox news with you know what i mean luke i don't need whatever options you have okay what does he say when you tell him that it doesn't end well but you know we still have a great relationship just the same you want january 6th yeah yeah we'll see you there thank you very much can't wait for september 11th as well uh for all those different reasons looking forward to it looking forward yeah thank you uh thank you i i know i had other stuff to talk about we always have great

bonus content by the way at youtube.com slash morningcombat, whether it is our recent Room Service Diaries interview with one Matt Frivola or my chat with one championship submission star, Danielle Kelly, ahead of her inaugural title bout. Luke, are you into this Jessica and Danielle Kelly rivalry? Or you're not into that? No, I'm not, no. Okay. A little saucy.

I'm kind of scooping it up. Look, not bad. You know what? Okay, Mikey, here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to do from now on, because we can't hide it anymore. Do you remember in the Dukes of Hazzard when the General Lee, which was the car,

would come shooting into the air, it would always play the same tune. It's Dixie. I don't know if we're going play that one but we're gonna get something just like it every time bc does something horny we're gonna sound the horny alarm that's i can't get excited about the horny alarm on the show you're you're gonna have to pay to the horny alarm yeah although mikey's favorite meme is that horny animal with the thing that he's going to horny jail going to horny jail horny jail our our good friends over there at MMA on point in the UK.

You know our good friends. Luke, what are their names again? Great guys. MMA on point guys. Yeah. There's Jason. There's the other guy. There's Jason, Balian.

There's a few guys. Well, Balian has like, is that his real name or his video game name? He lives in different worlds, right? I know. His name is probably like Steve, but he goes by Balian. All right. Well, Luke, somebody, one of our donks, I forgot. I should have shouted them out. It was like, hey, you better talk to your boys over there.

And on point, they just slam dunked on you. Let's watch one of their recent videos, if you don't mind here, talking about the rise of Page Van Zandt. And racking up 3.2 million Instagram followers, which is far more than anyone else on this list. And yeah, I'm sure at first it was a lot of MMA fans that joined that particular online platform. Brian Campbell knows what I'm talking about. But the fact of the matter is, although she was a well-known figure in MMA, as a model...

All right, all right, laugh it up. Laugh it up. I do not subscribe to anyone's OnlyFans But you know cameo.com Slash Brian Campbell is a great way To be a patronizing patron of my Patreon So check that out I got a couple videos in the hopper that I'm going to carry out later today

Like a Luke live chat question But with more effort That's what I'm talking about here Luke anything else you want to say So we can wrap this long intro To me long intros are like You know what I mean talking about here. Luke, anything else you want to say so we can wrap this long intro? To me, long intros are like, you know what I mean? It's part of life. It's breath.

It's communion among donks. If you fast forward through the intros, I don't know if I want your subscription anymore, Luke. Is that too hard? I like doing long intros too, but every program director I've ever had hated them. So take it away. All right. Well, let's get to the point. Here we go.

Head to head head a big weekend of fights including ufc fight night at the apex and how about bellator 299 on saturday in dublin it's all gonna fuel this competition that has been sweeping your attention across this great nation and maybe even beyond two washed men hovering around 500 willing to go head-to-head five times on a Friday to figure out who's worse at making predictions and who's going to have to watch a concert that they uncomfortably do not want to be at. Is it Jam Band City or Abortion Rock to the Nines? Let's find out.

This one's called Okay Bet. It's not going to be. It's not going to be. I mean, there's a chance it could be Cannibal Corpse or Dying Fetus, but I don't know if they'll be touring at the time in the event that I win. It will probably be something a little bit less insane than that. A little bit less insane. Yeah, yeah.

All right. Well, just to recap, we went over it earlier this week but luke went two and three last week i went three and two and a reminder on the overall standings as we begin i think percentage wise you're in the lead here here's the here's the record 65 65 and four is luke thomas at 500 i'm just under 500 at 66 67 and one luke having three more ties which i guess you would get on what a draw or no contest maybe a tie maybe yeah we got to figure out exactly how we're scoring it but uh either way interpretation i'm comfortable saying luke for this probably the last time you are in the lead you get the champion's advantage you get to overrule my picks you get to pick if you go first or second uh you're the king for now luke but i am already lighting lighting silent

but deadly farts onto your throne just like like luke crop dusting through first class on his way to the middle seat and coach you know what i'm saying like no i don't sit on the middle seat i don't do that i don't you. You can feel me right now. All right? Yeah. I can. Da-da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. There it is. See what I'm saying? My must is so strong. Yes, yes.

All right, Luke. Are you going first or second on this fabulous? Let me go second. I've been going first, and it's been going very poorly for me. So let me pick up something that has nothing to do with the outcome and use it as a way to change up the routine a little. There you go, Luke Luke flipping the script. So let's do it.

What we have deemed our biggest fight of the week. Obviously Johnny Ebelin is defending his title in Bellator, but he's a much bigger favorite here, but the UFC fight night main event will serve as our okay. Bet main considering how close these odds are in this main event at the moment, Raphael Fazeev minus one 55, according to Caesars, plus 130, Mateus Gamrot. Anybody's fight in theory.

So, Luke, for my main event pick, I did see who you were going with first. And not only do I want to spice up this okay bet, but I still believe in this guy. I'm going to take Mateus Gamrot right here, okay? I'm looking at his patterns of wins and losses he does only lose to the super elite i realize that there's times in big fights with him where we just want a little bit more in this category to offset to be a complete fighter and be well-rounded but i'm gonna back him right here luke i've got a feeling here against a very capable rafael fazeev who is obviously motivated to bounce back from this very close loss to Justin Gaethje. But what if Gamrot can get that mixture of controlling the terms at times

with the wrestling, but also keeping that jab out there? And if he can step up his offensive output, is it possible that he could control the terms enough to win a close but disputable decision here after five rounds? I'm going to say yes, Luke. I'm going to say after five rounds i'm gonna say yes luke i'm gonna say yes i'm gonna say yes right here give me gamrot by slight upset in this main event even if fazeev feels like still the guy with the brighter long-term ceiling okay i mean i can't say it the pick in either direction for this main event is wrong this is another good ufc fight in

terms of uh just who's battling. And we talked about the stakes. We talked about some of the contours of what the fight might look like. I'm going to stick with the favorite here. Not favorite by a lot, but the favorite in just the same, Rafael Fazeev. I mean, certainly you just know Gamrot has the ability to take over a fight with his wrestling. Not so much to do a lot of damage with it, but certainly to, at times, win close contests, to really control his opponents. He can do that.

On the feet, he's terribly overmatched, and I do just kind of feel like Fazeev is going to probably lose a couple of rounds maybe. It may go the distance, and it may be really close. But his ability to do damage, his ability to create scrambles, I think is going to really mess up Gamrot in ways that like Jalen Turner wasn't fully able to take advantage of. Give me Rafael Fazeev.

Luke, let's talk about the potential here with the takedown defense because if Fazeev can keep this on the feet longer than not, his chances are going to increase. We know that. You laid it out perfectly. Does recent history tell you any direction in terms of whether he'll be able to do that against Gamrot? I definitely feel like he's going to... I mean, Gamrot is an overwhelming wrestler,

not a lights-out wrestler, right? It's not like once he gets a hold of you, all of a sudden problems emerge. Even the great Habib Nurmagomedov wasn't that way. He had a sub-50% completion on his takedown attempts, attempts right but it didn't matter because he would chain it and then chain it and chain it so that eventually he just got you down gamrot's not quite the same as a b but there's just this i mean he'll shoot as many times as he has to so he can get that one takedown and once he does he's pretty good about maintaining control on the mat so the question is really you

know can fazeev stop the takedown yes but that's not really what we're. So the question is really, you know, can Fazeev stop the takedown? Yes, but that's not really what we're looking at. The question is how many can he stuff? And to the extent he gets taken down, how quickly can he scramble? I think he's going to be able to do that enough to get the win. It will be close, I think. I mean, you can imagine a case where, in fact, he gets that just a little bit too, not but again gamrot overwhelms him you can imagine

that where it's very very close but gamrot did enough good work to take the decision i'm just sort of betting on the idea that fazeeb will struggle like everyone does when they fight gamrot but we'll have enough success for it to matter yeah i think we're both laying out the potential here of a close fight i do like what Gamrot can do over the totality of, of the chance here with five rounds. Can he mix the wrestling? I mean, he's going to have to level up in some level. Cause like we said, Gamrot feels like he's like one key part away from really starting to put it

together. Maybe it's being more of an offensive presence in top position once he has a takedown, or maybe it's just leveling up his, his striking to a certain degree where he won't get overwhelmed. But look, I don't, I don't see him getting stopped here by Fazeev for as dangerous as Fazeev can be. And if he can hang in there, it really could come down to some, the way it scored, you know, or it can come down to control time.

It can come down to some of those elements here. It's an interesting fight, man. You love, you love what it's all about the stakes here. And in terms of what this means, I just, I don't know. Gamrot feels so damn close to putting it together. And even though my knee jerk is telling me Fazeev is the hotter you know prospect of the moment gamrot's gonna show us something here i'm feeling it i'm feeling the polish luke i'm feeling all right i feel very polish okay not so much legendary polish power but but just very Polish in general.

Luke, let's keep it going on the favorites here. And I'm going to stay on this UFC card in a co-main event that certainly demands our attention in the featherweight division. And when I'm picking favorites here, I like Bryce Mitchell bouncing back minus 200 against Dan EG. We laid out perfectly on Wednesday, really what this fight means to both of them.

And the questions facing both, even though he goes entering on a more of a hot streak for sure with two straight wins, he had just lost three in a row before that. So if Bryce Mitchell is wearing some level of receipt from the Teporia loss in the, in the big layoff, yes, this could be a troublesome fight for him, but I've been watching the interviews close Yeah, like everybody else, I watched him debate Flat Earth and all of that on the BYM podcast, Luke, and that had All of our audience demanding A room service diaries

With Bryce Mitchell so that you and Bryce can go Deep on Building 7 and the rest Of, you know, maybe we'll get a little JFK on that too, a little Zapruder action, Luke But here's the deal Bryce should be able to have control on the ground and be a constant threat here. I do, for as damaging as that loss was to his ego,

to physically, and we saw some very, you know, you know, very like the reaction of him showing us, you know, weakness in that moment. Sure, you can jump on him for that, but it was also the real feeling he had after a defeat that hard. i think he's wired in a way that he's set up to bounce back and if it's skill for skill and both of these guys are where they need to be i still think bryce mitchell's the better fighter i'm comfortable with this pick luke i hope you're picking against him here because i'm back in this guy now the flat earth thing it's quite you know we got debates but

i think i can get in bed with some of his ideas, maybe more about reptilianation Luke, but that's really just for another podcast at another time. You're going to take the side of the guy who shredded his own nutsack with a power drill. Okay. You know, maybe not take the, I mean, maybe this is more of like the Kurt Schilling incident with the snarky ginger Luke. You know, I liked Kurt as a baseball player. He had Moxie. It doesn't mean I was a great baseball player.

I remember the bloody sock game. I mean was it was remarkable i was there in the crowd it was fantastic you know um i mean listen i think bryce is gonna win too i like danny gay a lot now you would agree though i think minus 200 is probably right for bryce uh winnable fight for danny gay i think you would agree it's a winnable fight for him they're not so far apart that i think he couldn't get it done. It's just that Bryce has got an overwhelming style in terms of his grappling control. You know, he said something this week. I didn't think to pull the audio, but he said something at media day.

And he was like, it was very, dude, he was very right and very reflective of himself. And I actually like people were kind of killing him for it because they're like, oh, he's making excuses. Dude, these fighters hide injuries from their coaches they hide it from themselves from commissions from anyone they can sometimes for good reasons sometimes for bad reasons and he realized he had no business taking a fight and he admitted it being as sick as he was um i think he had some kind of viral infection uh taking a fight and he even said it with a fighter as good as Ilya Teporia. It was a stupid mistake. He's right.

He's right. You cannot fight Ilya Teporia handicapped in any capacity. So people being like, oh, he's making excuses. I would still pick Ilya Teporia to win, but I can understand how Bryce might feel a lot of regret about being, I'm tough enough to get through it. Mindset is all that matters at some point no that's not all that matters like other factors come into play

I really enjoyed hearing him say that I enjoyed like the reflective ability he had in that moment so I do think highly of his ability I do think he's a very good fighter he's got some wackadoo ideas about the world but he's got great ability in the cage and that's really what this is all comes down to so I think winnable for Dan Igate but that's not my pick bc um i think bryce mitchell is a good pick for my favorite gonna go a slightly different direction same card i'm gonna go with tamirez vidal who takes on monserrat um what's her last name i forget her last ruiz say again ruiz no it's it's a different young lady. Montserrat Rendon. Oh, you're not talking about Cornejo? No, Cornejo, which, yeah, would be rabbit, but no.

She's a 5-0 Mexican fighter, 34 years old. Her last contest was in Invicta. Tamir Esvidal out of Brazil, she won her last contest with a double switch knee, and the knee went to the liver. A beautiful shot, first-round stoppage. She's kind of heavy-handed, spark plug, gets after opponents, backs them up. Heavy strikes can be hit a little bit, but it's really overwhelming against somebody who has gone to quite literally nothing but decisions in her fight and has more of a grappling based game i think she's probably going to get overwhelmed give me tamir as vidal in the uh all right card uh minus 230 vidal one plus 190 monster ad i'm not

sure if you said that luke i have a barking dog and i did not i did not a cat trying to scratch this door in this off it's just regular life problems luke uh quickly do you think like i wanted to get a gauge on where you think bryce mitchell's stock is i mean obviously look he's got to answer all the questions from that to prairie loss but as things stand right now does he at least get to the title challenge for a title level do you still believe in that how old is he i believe he's about 28 i'm going to double check while you speak it uh i'm going to double check too 28 28 speak it. I'm going to double-check, too. 28. 28, yeah.

Yeah, I think it's possible. Yeah. Especially if Volk moves along. And, you know, as good as Max is, Max could reclaim it. But, you know, he's getting up there in age, too, in terms of the miles, in terms of the miles he's accumulated. So I do think that there's going to be some turnover in this division a lot in the next two years. Next two years, there could be a lot of turnover.

I don't think that Bryce is going to be much of a match in the end for Ilya Teporia if he becomes the ascendant name in this division. But, like, you know, dude, how about Brian Ortega versus Bryce Mitchell if Bryce Mitchell looks good against Dan Ige? Oh, hell yeah. Give it to me. You know what I mean? And this is a tough fight for him, but I think it would also be winnable if he can really show

improvement which is um Yair Rodriguez versus Bryce Mitchell again we're positing a world where he comes back and looks very good against Dan Ige much more like the version he showed against Edson Barboza do I think he could contend for a title he has that kind of ability I do think so but he has to start with I mean dude Danny Gay is not the is the wrong guy to look past the wrong guy to look past I mean at some point you do need to be like BC stop betting against Eric Nixick fighters right at some point right I like that I like the Bryce Mitchell pick I'm just saying for if you're Bryce Mitchell and you're trying to get back and get right and really show your potential, you cannot fuck this one up. Like, and especially

if what you said was true previously, which was, you know, I took a fight when I was sick. I should not have, that guy was way too good. That was way too much overestimating my own, my own ability. Well, if you have a healthier sense of your ability and you're not sick, this is the time to show it right here against a very quality opponent in Danny gay. Absolutely. Let's keep the okay. Bet train going.

And here's what I'm going to do for underdog. We're going to get into this fight a little bit in our preview later. Uh, but I'm going to pick the underdog here. Joe Joyce plus 100. And this immediate rematch with China's young July, they fought in April for the interim WBO heavyweight boxing championship, which really just means like a claim on getting in line to fight the champion

when he's available. And actually Usyk might become available because of Tyson Fury's schedule. But I'm going to take Joyce to bounce back. He was stopped by Zhang Zhelei in round six of their first fight. But I got a lot of info to share regarding that. Give me Joyce, the juggernaut here, the slow-footed and even slower-handed juggernaut to avenge the defeat. Okay, fair enough. I will go for my underdog pick.

This is the one that I consistently do the worst at. So take that for what it is worth. I'm going to give a bit of a nod to J.J. Wilson. This is the one that I consistently do the worst at, so take that for what it is worth. I'm going to give a bit of a nod to J.J. Wilson. J.J. Wilson, you might recall, we've talked about him before, one of the much better guys out of the oceanic region, he's Kiwi in particular, who fights for Bellator. Not even that, you could say just outside of that CKB world, who are some other Kiwis who are doing great, he's one of them.

So his fight against Mansour Barnaoui who we thought was going to do well against Brent Primus but Brent Primus overwhelmed him in the end he's sitting according to our friends at Caesars BC at a plus 210 Mansour Barnaoui at minus 260 again Barnaoui should win this contest but JJ Wilson is scrappy as hell his wrestling has been a little bit deficient but his grappling is very good he has a good guard he has great back takes he has good back attacks and as he's sort of growing into his body as he gets a little bit older i'm not sure how old he is at the present moment i will look that up here actually let me tell you he is jj

wilson currently joins us in the, Oh God damn it. Where is it? This card is so long. Why don't you ask the smart cage for help? Luke, please. I should, I should ask the smart cage for help.

Uh, there it is. JJ Wilson joins us at a ripe old age of 26. So he's at that stage where every time you see him, he's going to get better and better again, bar. Now we should win. We're making underdog picks among underdog opportunities.

I think this is a decent one. Mallory Kidd, J.J. Wilson. I hope you're the one afterwards that's man sour if this pick doesn't go your way, Luke. Okay, yeah, all right. Luke, I know people do want to know, not if you think Eric Nixick is a better trainer than Eugene Barabin at the moment,

because sometimes that fluctuates based on performance, but has Eric Nixick stole your heart more than that CKB Bonaire you've been carrying around for, you know, a couple calendar years here? I mean, can we put Oceana away for a while and focus on this American hunk? I'm telling you, I'm telling you. I'm telling you. We need it. We need it. We need the horny alarm on this show for you.

I mean, you're the guy that texted him about his jewels. Hold on. I got to let Reggie Jackson out. You made me. You made me. How about that? There he is. He's going to go let his cat in, everyone, because that's the kind of man he is. The kind of man who gets bossed around by his own cats. No, I had to let the cat in everyone because that's the kind of man he is the kind of man who gets bossed around by his his own cats no i had to let the cat out luke i had to let let reggie out back into

civilization there we go okay let's go next pick my guy yeah i guess it is luke you're not gonna answer the question i guess we're just gonna move on uh the correct answer was eric nixick thank you let's go over to uh over and under luke, uh, going to go off the menu here. Uh, I did find odds on this, although I don't need odds for this pick, but I guess there's a BKFC 50 event this weekend and the cruiserweight championship will be at stake. Lorenzo Hunt, who has, you know, really, really built something here with this knockout streak in BKFC and the, uh, winning the championship, despite not having an overly decorated MMA run. He's got Chris Camozzi, who we certainly know well from MMA.

This is a cruiserweight title bout. And Luke, it's not going to go the five-round distance. Lorenzo Hunt produces knockouts. And I'm hoping this one goes early here so I can take over the lead and maybe, you know. I mean, I don't know what this jam band is going to look like, but it's going to be, wow, it's good. Luke, there's going to be a lot of patchouli. It's going to be fantastic.

I'm just going to OD on sleeping pills and call it a day. I mean, that's just, you know, that's how I'm going to take in your. I'm going to mail it in. Like I do a lot of these MK episodes. Oh, I don't want to hear it, bitch. I don't, I'm first on the calls. Not you. We should have a, we should have a high court, you and I,

just airing all of our dirty laundry. Now, BC, Mikey says that the KO or subcategory is the only one I'm worse at than underdog. That's true technically, but it misses the spirit of it, which is I often identify fights that are destined to come to a halt. I just sometimes get the pick wrong. Whereas on the underdog, I'm just matter of factly way off, like not even in the ballpark of something that actually is going to happen.

So it's a little bit different in that way, but okay. For the over under on this one, you're like, oh, look, you're farming this for results, which I am. But of course, you know, picking a BKFC fight BC is the exact same fucking thing. Oh, no, it's not. They go the distance. Yes, it is.

They go the distance. Those guys get cut. Those guys get fucking teeth knocked out. I hope you're about to pick a women's fight right now because every time you hang back for that easy layup, no, no, no, Mutombo. Who else wants a sex with Mutombo? No, that's not true. The last one time I did it, the last one time you did it, it did that. But previously, that's not the case.

You're cursed right now. And of course, give me Marina Rodriguez versus Watterson Gomez going the distance. Luke, your picking ability has a venereal disease. Yeah, I'm in a batting slump. There's no denying. I just don't have my confidence. I can't see the pitches coming. Yeah, I hear you.

What's going to break you out of this bubble? I'm going to go over KO or sub on this. How do we read Mohamed Ousmane right now, brother of Kamaru? He's got a big motor for a big dude. He's going to be taking on Jake Collier, who's on a three-fight losing skid. It kind of makes sense you could see a knockout here given their styles and their size um even if it's a TKO ground and pound which Usman you know can smother people Collier is on a bad run give me this one to

envy a KO and I think it's going to be an Usman brother getting his hand raised they're probably I mean I think Collier is going to get tagged and then try to wrestle I don't know how successful that's gonna be usman is like just a better athlete in a natural heavyweight whereas collier's just kind of i mean i'm not trying to fat shame him but he has blown up i mean that's just the reality um so i actually think it's a pretty good pick but you know with heavyweights it's always like you know hard to know for my ko or sub i don't know about this one either but i'm trying to figure it out here's the thing tim means is 39 years old he is well rounded but he still likes to strike he's been finished i think in at least two of his last four if not three of his last four fights so give me tim means versus andre fialio uh ending in ko fialio also i

think is either coming off of a ko loss or was the one previous to this one those two are going to slug it out when you got a 39 year old welterweight it's like i don't know how this one's gonna go so we'll see no i think that's actually a decent pick right there and fialio bangs i mean that guy that guy looks to throw bombs and he eats he's got a good chin too so that could be a wild fight he's the william hung he banged he banged yeah oh yeah he does um oh tim means is the dirty bird right that's right great great nickname and it fits him yeah he's got kind of this lanky appearance whenever i hear that i i instantly imagine jamal anderson and the 98 atlanta falcons luke oh my god do you remember that got stained

when uh eugene robinson got a whore the night before the super bowl and then like they suspended him and i don't remember that that's so funny yeah that like it was like them shooting themselves in the foot before the game even happened uh luke we didn't end up picking the bellator 299 main event which is going to go down in dublin on saturday only on showtime by the way 4 p.m in the east is the start of the main card the prelims begin on youtube at 11 a.m eastern and if you want to check this out why wouldn't you how about take a free run with showtime for 30 days by going to showtime.com but we do like this fight johnny eblin against the brother of leon edwards luke uh Are we going to stop calling him, though, the brother of Leon Edwards

if Fabian can get a big win here? Johnny Ebelin at Media Day was asked something that we had a video out about that I think Johnny Ebelin even retweeted, Luke. The idea of where he kind of stands in the middleweight world rankings right now and his quote on Media Day was, I believe I am one of the best, if not the best, middleweight in the world. I can't take anything away from Sean Strickland. He's a great fighter.

I have nothing but respect, but I'm the most consistent champion for now. I just recently got the belt. Let's let history play out. We expect him to win here against Edwards, Luke. Is there going to be areas where you think there could be a banana peel, or is this going to be one-way traffic in your eyes? It should be one-way traffic. I mean, I'll say this, though.

If you look at Fabian Edwards' record, first of all, he beats Johnny Ebel, and that's the best fighter he's beaten. I know not in name, but in quality at the time he fought them, it would be his biggest win by a mile, if you ask me. It would be a big, big win. So with that in mind, it's still something of an uphill climb he has he's never been finished but he got controlled and decision by austin vanderford

and so if you're just doing some math and you know mma math is tricky and uneven but if you're thinking you're like dude if austin vanderford can wrestle him, probably Johnny Ebelin can. Because Johnny Ebelin is coming off wins over Anatoly Tokov and some other fighters as well. Like John Salter, who can wrestle. He's shown against other gifted grappling fighters. He's still more dominant than them. Yeah, it's a tough fight for Edwards. Johnny Ebelin should win this one walking away.

Dude, you got to say it. Like if Bellator does end up merging with PFL eventually in some sort of buyout in what we feel would be the right move right now, I know like we knee-jerk be like, wow, wow, it's AJ McKee, it's Aaron Pico, it's Yusman Nurmagomedov, it's Vadim Nemkov. But how about Johnny Ebelin and Yaroslav Amisov as well? Like these are like legit guys that fit into the top 10 world rankings globally. And yeah, so you've got to give Bellator that credit. How about the Bellator 205 division?

Absolutely. Full of good fighters in there. You do have to really give Bellator. That's been the greatest win for Bellator, I think, in recent years. They're not all homegrown, right? People end up coming from somewhere but like all these people made their their name their bones became elite under the Bellator banner like that matters yeah I mean here's the thing dude like patchy mix is homegrown so if he wins against Sergio Pettis you've got that but the other part

is Sergio Pettis has matured under Bellator's banner into the guy he has become. Now, he matured over time in UFC as well. I'm just saying the most current iteration was not the guy who came over from UFC. He has grown into that role. And so I've seen people be like, what would be the value in buying Bellator? Why would you even want to do that if you're PFL? I'm like, dude, guys, stop it.

Look at the roster. There's a shit ton of good names you would absolutely want to have if you could get it at the right price, which it appears they may have done. Well, Eblen also said, Luke, he feels he's going to be too slick for Edwards. He feels he's going to break Edwards' face. And he said, I have no problem staying with him for the whole fight. And he referenced going toe-to-toe with Sean Strickland. So is there a long history of those guys going at it and sparring and stuff?

Oh, yeah. And they're apparently great training partners. And you would just have to imagine, dude, these guys are perfect for training partners. One, they're both like high-intensity spar guys. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.

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The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. But more than that, you've got really great wrestling from Johnny Ebelin, which we know Sean Strickland has great takedown defense. He has very good takedown defense. It's only going to get better working with Johnny Ebelin and Johnny Ebelin working with you know we've seen

we saw what he did to Izzy working with a guy like that under pressure under duress being able to move keep your cardio still wrestle find an opportunity to strike that's going to be this is going to be very very valuable for you so these guys are going to level each other up big time yeah and of course Aaron Pico going against Pedro Carvalho, a win there would be among the biggest of Pico's career. And Pico did say this week, this is the last one. I win this. I deserve the title shot next.

So, I mean, could you imagine him and Patricio Pitbull for the featherweight title? I could, although I'll say this. They've got Aaron Pico. That's badass, dude. That's a badass fight. That's a badass fight. That's a badass fight, but I've got to tell you, they've got our friends at Caesars have Aaron Pico

as a minus 1,100 over a plus 700 Carvalho. Guys, I think Pico's going to win. Please don't misunderstand me, but plus 700 on Carvalho? That's a bit strange. That's interesting. That's a bit strange. That is very. Wow, they're expecting a steamroller to happen. Yeah, they're treating him like he's just some other guy he's not some other guy

no no he's not uh luke time to transition off of okay bet and into our topics here on this friday uh and we're going to focus on some big fight announcements topic number one ufc 295 madison sewer garden in november yeah john jonesus Stipe Miocic we were waiting To see if we were going to get a big one we were promised The potential of a big co-main Event oh wow Dude we got it we got it the vacant 205 pound title

Brings us Yuri Prohotska The former champion And Alex Pineda It is officially announced as for The vacant which ends some controversy over the last week where jamal hill's name on screen is still being called the champion the ufc rankings page hill still listed as champion so people were wondering did a and did a changeover actually take place apparently it has luke this fight bangs i mean it, dude, what does this do to the overall value now of 295 MSG in your eyes?

I mean, people are going to say this is crazy, but in terms of being an intriguing fight, it might be more interesting than the main event. I know that's going to sound crazy because, folks, there are a lot of MMA fans who missed Jon Jones' prime and missed Stipe's prime and now want to just pretend they're still in their primes but neither here nor there dude you're a bigger hater on the on this fight than you are on Raul Rosas Jr. taking over the world not not a hater on him either just don't think it's wise to start your career at 18 unless you're a prodigy and we he's not a prodigy so why would

you do that but neither here nor there on that one too. This fight, this co-main event, first of all, just BC, you would surely agree with this. Just getting some order in this goddamn division is welcome as hell. Like, let's get a champ. Let's get this queue moving. Let's get some sorting happening. I want to interrupt you. The chaos, though, has not been without merit it's been

entertaining as shit the fights that the outside of the ankle i have draw the fights have been the uncle i have and blow which fight was outside of that one and that's a big one vacant title i get it outside of that the fights have been balls bonanza on the regular saying like there's this there's a bunch of new and fun permutations you can play with, but you've got to keep everything moving. This fight is so fucking great for just any number of reasons. First of all, welcome back, Yuri Prochocka. I hope he and his shoulder are doing well and he's really ready to resume his career.

That's great news. How about Alex Pareda, dude? This guy is going to speed run, potentially becoming a double champ, not at the same time, but in the way that Couture was or bj penn was he's going to speed run that um in just the most amazing of of potential ways so fast so dynamic made a huge name for himself in another sport and has made absolute best use of his time while he has been here you kind of almost rooting for him on that level alone but of course Prochocka has a great story in terms of the redemption arc he's looking for and bc the

style contrast where you've got Pareda as a well both guys as heavy hitters but Pareda a bit more of a surgical one when he wants to be certainly the more decorated stand-up guy but at the same time prohachka is fucking wild as shit well dude it's absolutely unpredictable this fight bangs okay it bangs on every level and even if yuri gets like injured in the fight he'll fight to death with half of his body hanging you know by one thread i mean this is going to be a crazy fight in line with glover and jamal and obviously the other earlier permutations of Glover Prochazka and some of the craziness with Blachowicz who had some good fights also some stinkers there but I want to say this if Pereira wins this and you can almost make the argument already but obviously if he wins this becomes a two division champion when you talk

about the speed of transitioning from a separate sport directly into UFC, instantly thrown against some pretty damn good competition, but then right after that, right into the title picture and wins titles in two divisions, that's actually more impressive than Brock Lesnar getting out of a WWE ring and then getting out of Vikings practice to tryouts and then becoming the UFC heavyweight champion in three or four fights, which is just different era, but still remarkable. That's crazier than that, Luke. That's sort of the go to of like somebody walking off the street from another profession.

I get it's kickboxing. It's close. I get that. But this has been, dude, like when entering the strickland fight because we didn't know if he was going to win that right he could have lost that got exposed we had no like imagine if entering the strickland fight somebody told you oh by the way he's going to have two title fights with with izzy including knocking him out to win the championship oh and then two fights after that he's going to be the light heavyweight champion. You'd be like, wait, what? Seriously?

Wow. Okay. Okay. I mean, think about how many UFC fighters, and I'm being serious, like in terms of the amount that they sign per year and whatever the churn is, what percentage of UFC fighters ever get a title shot? It's a very small number. What percentage get title shots in a different weight class, right?

So one and one and one and another. And then what's the percentage of guys who ultimately win titles in two weight classes, and even if they do, how quickly are they able to do it? If he wins, it's truly, I'm not even joking, it's one of the more remarkable championship runs in UFC history, not for its BC, not for its length, but for its girth. I'm serious. That's what I'm talking about. You know what I mean? Can we finally score one for maximum impact in the shortest possible window? I frankly kind of ever seen.

Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, about time girth getting the shout out. It deserves. I mean, Prochaska bouncing back off an injury and winning back the title. He never lost would obviously also also be incredible and go a long way and continuing to build his unique sort of uh because you know he doesn't he he just comes from mma a little bit more off the radar i mean he got obviously significant high level experience before coming to the ufc but he also has made a dramatic turn from like ufc debut to champion and now back in the championship spot again uh yeah this dude this pay-per-view, which is not overly deep, but Luke,

in my opinion, when you have a main and co-main like this, I don't even care if you should, if you just, if you soil the carpet with the rest of the undercard, because this is elite promoting. This is a major. I mean, MSG is already a major, but now it really feels like a major right indulge my romance for a second here yeah i mean i think certainly as listen i love the co-main i'm less in love with the main but we're talking as promotional attractions this is this is fantastic they're gonna do gangbusters with this card now i will say though

the one thing and it's quite a different conversation my understanding is the cheapest ticket available for this event at msg like the nosebleeds was 900 so and that was 900 during the pre-sale luke so like the people that were like ahead of the game their best option i have multiple people that tried to get tickets this way and we're like yeah 911 for the last row at the top of the so i mean i just can't believe people are paying ticket prices like that like either you're either either everyone is much richer than i realized or people are just you know going into insane credit card debt but the point i want to make was if the ufc can get these prices that's amazing but you know they've been bragging about like all these records they're setting and they are but i gotta wonder

like they'll do well for this one but dude these ticket prices are fucking crazy yeah not just them everyone's ticket prices are this is the debate right like are you cutting off your ability to create new fans as quickly if if if so many you know of the regular fans can't go to this because this is above the prices that we sort of accept as an American sporting public at face value. If you get a chance to buy Superbowl tickets or, you know, college football, like giant bowl or sec championship or whatever that people are seem to have been okay with. Yeah. Well, that's a $500 outing. Right.

And you know, we'll indulge if it's a concert, we must see for a couple hundred bucks, but like, this ufc 300 it's ufc at msg which matters but it's not like this is like well this is the biggest fight card in five years it's not that that's like what are you you know and i'm not going to throw stones because if you set the price and people pay for it i come from boxing luke they jack up at the mgm grand or at t-mobile jack up the prices they get insane live gates a lot of the tickets are you know casino owned high rollers and all that for sure but that also squeezes the regular fan i get that but now we're talking last row is almost a thousand dollars that's a different argument i think really so i just say be careful

with that i mean it's they're going extreme greed, it seems, in every category right now. And I think the educated fear is what's the cost to the product of living like that? What's the eventual cost? We'll see. But I fear that, Luke. Yeah, I hate that. Yeah, I mean, this is what monopolies do. They can't make the product much better, but they can extract wealth.

So they're going to. Every drop, Luke. To be that's this is boxing style boxing takes its hardcore fan base and is like you are going to have to pay up the freaking kazoo but we know you're addicted we know you're gonna do it the funny part about why mma fans hate boxing so much is is because slowly over time mma is turning into it. So, you know, enjoy. It is what it is right there. All right, topic number two is yet another monster announcement. The MSG pay-per-view in November is just big enough, but we know we close the year every December,

usually around the second weekend since the ESPN deal. With a major, a legitimate rager. The December pay-per-view seems to always kick a ton of ass. This time it's December 11th, UFC 296. Now I think we know the main or co-main, and the only question here is, does this stand out in the same way I feel 295 does? Luke, the main event, welterweight title. Finally, we have resolution on this.

Leon Edwards will defend against Colby Covington and in that On fire flyweight Division Alexandre Pantoja Makes defense number one against Raw Dog himself Brandon Royval Look both fights are Very good but Luke Thomas

Your reaction if it stays As put I think you kind of need Patty Pimplin In here or something else big, right? You kind of need an anchor here. This ain't enough. I'm not sure where the market is on this, to be perfectly honest. I can tell you that I don't love this main event. I don't know how the rest of the fan base feels, but I don't love this main event um i don't i mean just from a meritorious meritocratic

standpoint the the case for for colby over ball all is like shockingly thin it's there is there it doesn't even really exist um i get why they're doing it because i think what they're saying is if we're trying to maximize hype it's people have said like oh is colby a draw and there's some kind of debate to be had about that but he's probably a bigger draw than balal at this stage although balal's resume at this stage is i think much better um so i don't love this main event i don't know how the rest of the fan base feels i guess we will see i will tell you that i do like the co-main event for a very good reason. One, listen, Pantoja already beat Raw Dog and I think submitted him.

His jiu-jitsu was just much cleaner. But I would expect a fun fight in that one, no doubt about it. That fight's going to be awesome, straight up. For as long as it lasts, it'll be great. But I'm really heartened by Brandon Moreno taking a step back. I mean, that guy between the Figueredo Wars and then the last fight he had with Pantoja, he really needed a break.

I mean, honestly, Pantoja might not be the same after a fight like that either. So that's something to pay attention to. But certainly on the Brandon Moreno side, he will be back. He's young enough and he's good enough. He'll be back in a title fight before too long, but he needed a break. I'm glad the division can move on and then he can circle back when he's ready. Great call on his part. UFC making a fun fight. I agree. They probably need a Patty in there somewhere. I don't know what they're going to do. Give me Patty Frivola, please, on this one. I don't even think you need that for 295. I think

those two fights together are just big enough commercially and critically. This is more of hardcore. But, I mean, I don't even know what this Leon Colby fight. Like, there are ways this could be a fun fight. But I think we're all sort of stuck in the, like, you know, how deserving is Colby? How much is this holding up the division? Is this fair? Blah, blah, blah.

Do you side with – I think this is a Brent Brookhouse take, my CBS colleague, our CBS colleague, that UFC's hoping Colby can win this so then Trump's campaign could have the UFC title around his shoulder. Look, I think you just buy a replica one if you want. Just give it to Donald, right? I mean, the more he gets indicted, the more they seem to love him. So probably. I mean, if Colby could win this luke i mean the fight it's not horrible but there's it's also not awesome it's really not awesome colby's 36 like you definitely would not want to it'd be dumb to be like oh he can't win but i will say that leon

getting those two back-to-back fights against kamaru and again in particular the second well the third but you know the two close ones the third fight uh his takedown defense was so goddamn good so good it's like I mean Colby could win it but I think Leon knocks him out to be fair I think this fight is fun and then Colby gets knocked out I mean Cole if Colby knocks out can you imagine that Leon sorry can you imagine if Leon Edwards knocks out in his career both Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington can you imagine that? Sorry, can you imagine if Leon Edwards knocks out in his career both Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington? That's wild. That is wild to think about, but certainly a very real possibility.

Because Colby, we learned from the first Usman fight for sure. I mean, he'll get in there sometimes and prove a point in trade. I mean, he has worked on his striking. Luke, you'd say he's got his striking up to capable levels? I mean, not overly elite or advanced. It doesn't do a ton of big damage, but he can handle himself. Passable.

He's tough, but the real, we all know the score. The score is if he stands with Leon, he's probably going to get chewed up. He's going to want to wrestle. Let's see what he can do. There we go. We have a Colby quote here, right?

We have two videos of Colby and a quote. Let's go to this quote here. All right. Let's see the quote, if we can get that up here. Here's the quote. He said, quote, I've already made the promise that I'm going to win the undisputed title on December 16th. Of course, UFC 296 BC.

And I'm going to bring that title back to the UK UK and I'm going to defend it there for those people. They deserve a show because they're electric and the most thoughtful, most genuine fans I've ever met in my life. BC, he's putting the Brits, he's putting the Brits over. I mean, I don't even disagree with him, but he's, I'm telling you, he's kind of turned this corner into, he's still a bit of a troll and all that stuff and, you stuff and pushing buttons and insulting people. But he's also kind of trying to become the

grandfatherly, elderly statesman kind of role about I'm an institution who's been here a long time, love me for it kind of thing. So you think it's a slight face turn? Yes. Slight, yes. I mean, sometimes he leans hard into the american hero thing and then you know he's certainly playing a hero role even if he has villainous tendencies but let me set this up if i can uh because it leads into the other video that i want to play mikey do it if we

can play the video where he talks about colby talks about sean strickland let's see that one i'm surprised you don't like strickland a little bit. You guys seem to have some of the same values as well. Why are you like a fan of him? I was just curious about that because he's outspoken like you are. Outspoken in the most just obnoxious manner and just belligerent and just so low IQ, bro. That guy has no wits. I mean, he just says some of the most just egregious, nasty stuff.

And, you know, I can't identify with anything with that guy. So, you know, he said some really stupid things about women, and I respect women. I think it's equality out there, and everybody should be entitled to someone. It's not who, if they're a woman, what the color of their skin is. It's about

who's most qualified for a job. So, dude, he's an idiot, and he's even a f***ing weaker fighter. He got lucky that Izzy cashed out already. I got to tell you, I did not see this one coming. You're talking about the slight face turn. I'm like, yeah, a little bit. A little bit, right?

A little bit. It seems like an educated pivot because we did say after Trump lost Luke originally, you know, what's going to be the pivot? Is he going to go hard in the DeSantis paint? But it seems like he stayed hard Trump, but he is trying to at least work this image and keep some people happy. Luke, serious question. Let's say Colby does win the title, outworks Leon largely with wrestling. It's not overly exciting, but it's impressive. Does the UFC do

a Leon rematch in England, or do you do the Kamaru trilogy next? Because a lot of people are saying, hey, with Strickland winning the title, how about Kamaru and Strickland rematch for the middleweight title? But Kamaru's not in that division. It's hard to really fully justify that.

Could you justify a Kamaru Colby title trilogy fight? No. I mean, they might do it, but that would be kind of weird. Well, the first fight was great. Dude, was the first fight great, yes or no? First fight was great, yes. I mean, Kolbe doesn't think so because of the stoppage.

But the fight itself was very good, yes. He could. You know what? Honestly, honestly, I think Mikey's probably right. Like, anything is up for grabs. Anything is possible here. Any but. They're going to make the kind of fight.

I mean, we're talking about these ticket prices, right? Like, on some level, they're delivering the goods with UFC 295, but if you're just going to be putting ticket seats at a maximum amount you have to be making matches that give you enough license to do that kind of thing which is to say which ones will get the biggest consumer pop as long as that's like they're guiding north star and as much as it has been recently shit yeah dude anything's possible that's why i brought up the leon edwards rematch even though i wouldn't want a knee-jerk rematch in this spot but colby's even talking about when i win the title i'll go to england well who are you going to fight in england leon in a rematch at a big stadium hey that's not a bad idea right they make

those decisions luke they make the decisions for the big live gate that's the ufc aim right now because they can't really make too much more on the pay-per-view level, right? Is that the agreed theory that with that ESPN deal, unless it's like Khabib-Connor 2, this is their best aim to maximize revenue, right? By aiming at that live gate and shooting up the ticket prices and focusing on single matchups that would drive the most local interest? That's right. That's exactly right. And also, you know, stacking a card is, you know, depending on your business model, if you really stack a card with like three, four, five good fights, those are fights you can't use at subsequent events

where if you're going for a live gate audience, you also want to be able to maximize revenue. So some of that has been peeled back a little bit because of the way in which they get they get heavily rewarded on a perk on a per event basis with their guarantees on pay-per-view then they get a little bit or they get some depending how much further it sells so of course your point is if something just doesn't sell crazy big the difference is not so significant so why if you're not if you don't have those kinds of fights available why worry about that worry about other ways to generate revenue off of it and here you go yeah this has

been a much different year like a stark change in direction in terms of that matchmaking it's it's it's interesting but nobody asked them about it ever that's weird oh we already played the james lynch video with colby and the oscar willis uh twitter or x quote but we have one more video colby talking about hamzat Chumaev. Let's listen in. Someone who doesn't seem like he's in your division anymore is Hamzat Chumaev. How do you think he'll do moving up to middleweight? He's fighting Paulo Costa coming up here.

Yeah, of course he's not my division, James, because he ran for me. That dog face looking motherfucker was scared shitless. That's the reason this, you know, they took so long for me to get a fight.

The UFC was trying to book that fight with me and him for like six months to a year. But he's not a professional. The guy couldn't make weight. He missed weight by nine pounds. Didn't he also have visa issues or am I making that up? That seems to be like – Remember those reports being like, oh, his passport got taken and they were like, it didn't? It was like, what happened there?

I just find it amazing. Dude, I mean mean i'll say this for colby dude he'll talk shit about people that will 100 run up on him you know what i mean yeah like in public people that will absolutely run up on him he'll just say whatever he wants i mean i don't know how advisable that is but he does it i mean is when you have a double leg like that and you you can break that out in a public fight that's got to give you extra confidence all right it must it absolutely must because that'll prevent you from getting the shit kicked out of you right for the most part depending

on the matchup in the situation yeah but unless it's multiple attackers and they're you know and you're in line at a food place in a casino and then people are chucking trays and you know yeah get a little dicey there well mikey in all caps telling me no more immediate rematches i know people love me everyone's like could we do three or four of these i'm like can we just do one and move on how about that let's do that yeah yeah one at a time there uh let's go to topic three this is luke's reaction to the fight announcements of the week and we have a ufc fight night on december 2nd two women's bantamweights who can use a rejuvenation misha tate versus julia avila luke does that move you i'm curious to see what misha tate has left yeah you know she had

that long break she worked for one championship for a while. I think she had like a VP role with the company. Um, she was doing some broadcast work and then she quietly wanted to go back to fighting and there has to have, it's became a mom. Huh? She became a mom. Absolutely. That was part of it too. Yes. But, uh, yeah, there was, I mean, she went under what a lot of changes and was gone for a while. I think the return has been a little bit up and down. Um, so curious to see if she can put together some momentum put together a little bit of a winning a winning way here she's very experienced she's been around the fight game a long time i'm curious to see what she's got left luke that same night one of my favorite unsung action heroes puna sor Going to take on Dustin Stolfus. Stolfus.

Stolfus, Luke. Stolfus. Stolfus, indeed. Fuse. Wait, what? Wow. I feel like that would be a core fight. Yeah, just like, wow, okay.

Does that fight get you all Jake Haggard, if you know what I mean, Luke? Okay, right? You know what I mean? It should be a fun fight. I wouldn't say much more than that. It should be a very fun fight. I mean, Luke, how many times did I argue that we should have had in today's rundown the Jake Haggard comment that he's retiring from MMA because, quote, Bellator jerked me off for too long?

The guy literally can't process any event unless it's referenced and explained sexually yeah they jerk me off like well yeah i mean me and jake hager luke yeah yeah all the way real americans for sure uh let's go on over to the pfl championship which is going to take place i don't have the date in front of me luke it's going to be in your city though coming up it's going to be in dc and it's an espn plus pay-per-view so black friday it's black friday well here's your here's your card and this is on pay-per-view uh main event looks like it's going to be olivier aubin mercier versus clay collard for the lightweight championship you got goitzaan Fajeda. For the heavyweight championship. Larissa Pacheco against Marina Makrat Kina. For the women's featherweight title.

The special attraction of Kay Harrison versus Julia Budd. Then it's Sadabusi and Magomed Magomed Karamov. For the welterweight crown. Gabriel Braga and Jesus Pinedo. For the featherweight strap. And finally Impa Kasangane and Joshua Silvera for the light heavyweight strap. Remember, a lot of the big names here were removed

from that drug test failure, which became a month-long pandemic, though, for the Smart Cage. They have swum out of the BS, Luke. Also on the prelims, you're going to get Biagio Ali Walsh back again and Bubba Jenkins versus Chris Wade. Luke, is this a pay-per-view?

What do we got here? What do you think? No, it's not a pay-per-view. It's not a pay-per-view. I mean, they're going to charge, but it's not. It's going to tank on pay-per-view. It's good. It's pretty good. It's funny that you asked the question the way that you asked,

which is the right one, which is, is this a card that can reasonably earn money on pay-per-view? No, it is not. That is a very different question than asking, hey, are these good fighters and interesting matchups? Yes. In many, many cases, they are. Excuse me. The Sadu Busi versus Magomed Magomed Karamov fight,

it might be one of my favorites. Let's see what Kayla Harrison looks like here against julia budd again remember at 145 curious to see about that one and of course conan silvera son taking on impukasangana who's had this incredible resurgence through pfl clay collard versus oam yeah dude there's a lot of really good fighters on this card in fun contests just not ones you can put behind a paywall and expect to make a profit yeah that heavyweight title one could be something special too with henan fajita that big uh different and also biagio ali walsh is on the prelim card rematch again between bubba jenkins and chris wade like there's some fun fights up and down

this card luke topic number four is uh what's what's left of combat for the weekend we do have a somewhat interesting uh heavyweight title bout that we talked about for the interim wbo strap as jean-julie and joe joyce meet for a second time this one will be at wembley arena 5 p.m eastern on espn plus so look back in uh what was it back a few months ago uh i have it on april 15th john could not miss with that left hand and joe joyce just seemed to kind of crumble from the inside out until his swollen eyes became too much and he was stopped in round six we're running it back quickly here i mean it's kind of a title fight but not really right usic has three titles fury has the other there's always some of these BS secondary ones, but I do think that first fight

was interesting because Zhang had been, I mean, he won silver at the OA games for China, but Luke, he had been a padded record. I mean, he's 40 years old. He hadn't really fought big names and he's been in a lot of fights where I remember he dropped Jerry Forrest three times in the first three rounds and then completely gassed out and hung on for a draw. Like he's had weird moments. And then we found out that he doesn't drink water while training and that's why he felt dehydrated and why he guesses out him and John Daly. Yeah. I mean, he's had this up and down career, meaning like he's never really looked like the goods, although he definitely can punch. He's six, six.

He's in decent shape. He's kind of quick. He could not miss with missiles. Yeah. And so, Luke, that was a big upset against Joe Joyce. The real question now is what is this rematch going to look like? A lot of criticism that Joyce may be taking the fight too quickly after being beaten down and stopped. But here's the deal with the weights. The first fight back in April, Joyce was 256 while Zhang was 278. And that 256 really wasn't a norm for Joyce. He weighed 271

in his best win the previous year when he knocked out former champion joseph parker around 11 so what do you do to come back for this fight this morning he weighed in at 281.2 it's the heaviest of his career but luke i'm here to tell you he looked great it looks like it's muscle it looks like he's deciding that whatever experiment it was on trying to get you know smaller to maybe be quicker whatever it was he didn't have it against jong on that night he got his ass kicked i actually support this his quote right after the weigh-in was i took constructive criticism and came in heavier because i knew the weight was light last time this time i corrected all my mistakes i've been more conscious about what i'm eating i'm

making smart adjustments all around and my focus and drive is to win this time a lot stronger we get him at plus 100 as an underdog here i'm telling you luke i've seen jung's entire career what he did in that last fight felt a lot like an aberration like best moment of his life it all came together against a somewhat let's say compromised or overwhelmed opponent who got rocked early i think joyce just a better fighter i know he's slow as shit but he's the better fighter overall do you know guys he's beaten like legitimate like six seven eight nine legitimate names jung hasn't beaten anybody but joe joyce luke this is going to be interesting i i think i thought i didn't care about this fight and then then when I got into it, I was like, no, there is something here. Well, the issue was the last time Joyce just didn't have great answer for what I'm going to call is Zhang's southpaw tactics, right?

It was just southpaw versus orthodox. My memory serves. Yes. And, and dude, he just didn't have a great answer for lead foot positioning setups, lead hand fighting. You know, Zhang just obviously being the southpaw was just much more ready for that kind of thing. So the weight change will be interesting. I think that will probably serve him. I generally agree with your assessment.

But BC, he's going to have to fix the tactical issues that got him in big trouble, and that's not really weight related now if he comes in with no head movement and it's just a statue yeah what i think he is going to come in is a more powerful attack looking to come in and do damage and not be chasing zhang's you know leading him the whole way leading him right into left hands there's going to have to be some defensive change there's no doubt but i think he's coming out to be the hunter. And I think he realizes that like Zhang has this history, like I said, of like gassing out or falling apart right when it looked like he was putting it together. He's kind of looked like a guy who they've been keeping with a padded record,

hoping he can get the one big shot. That one big shot came in his only loss against Philip Urgovich. It was somewhat of a disputed fight, but I didn't think he looked like the world beater, even in that fight that he looked like against Joe Joyce here. So it really comes down to what you believe. Now, look, I've never been overly high on Joyce. Now he's 38 years old. Like he, he was a, he got a late start, but he does have a background amateur wise. And he's beaten like a string of names you've heard of to get here. And that Joseph Parker fight from, from last year, I'm telling you, I never thought he could look that good. Do you remember that fight?

He had a motor. He was just bad. He looked like young George Foreman. I mean, he was just battering Joseph Parker, who is still, you know, absolutely legit and way more legit than anyone Zhang's ever faced. People thought that was going to be reasonably competitive, and Joyce just moved downhill on him i mean joyce stopped daniel dubois he beat former title challengers like brian jennings carlos tackham uh bermain stuverne and these are all stoppage wins and he's got a bunch of other wins that uh he's look he's coming back quick he's still got actually a black eye on the on the eye and jong all week has been saying i'm gonna i'm gonna you know your eyes not healed

i'm gonna come back and break it right away so it's been a little it's kind of fun all I'm saying is this fight went from I don't give a damn to now I'm in so we'll see what happens with these heavyweights this weekend Luke how much should we be fired up for the one championship fight card with

Rod Tang versus Super Lack which is supposed to be for the one Muay Thai title there at what division was that? Flyweight Muay Thai. Flyweight, but then I believe Superlek missed weight. Now it's a non-title fight, but this seems to be tearing up the internet, you're telling me. So I'm not going to pretend I know the significance of this fight. We are not close Muay Thai, and this is remixed Muay Thai because they're wearing wearing the four ounce gloves. I can't tell you the importance, especially now that there was a

weight miss. It's non-title. I think it's only three rounds. Like they really downgraded what it was supposed to be. But I have noticed that something interesting is happening. If you guys were around like when I was, when MMA hit after the post-Ultimate Fighter boom around 2005, for years there were big and small kickboxing organizations that tried to take advantage of the MMA boom. I'll give you an example. The organization that Wonderboy fought in, the Chuck Norris World Combat League. And I remember specifically they had a catchphrase, knockouts, not tap outs.

They wanted to find a way to tap into what they thought was what people actually liked about MMA, which was the striking and not the wrestling part. But all of those pitches failed. And so, yeah, you'll remember that Glory was on Spike in 2011 or 12, whatever it was, 13 maybe. I can't remember anymore. And I remember that people inside Spike at the time believing that the reason why kickboxing hadn't been famous yet or successful in the U.S. is, you know, yes, there weren't enough American names,

but that what MMA fans really wanted was this, and that didn't work in that way either. Like, I have seen kickboxing orgs fail to attract MMA fans by saying that they have the good alternative to MMA. But that's not what one did. First of all, one is like an MMA first organization. So I think that automatically got people who are MMA fans, obviously to like them, but they didn't pitch kickboxing is better than MMA. They just pitched a remixed version of it that uses MMA gloves. It leads to all kinds of violence and it's controversial. Again, from what

I understand, BC, Muay Thai purists hate this shit. It mostly appeals to MMA fans, but folks should look out. One has successfully found a way to get MMA fans to watch kickboxing, whatever you want to call this, remixed

of Muay Thai in a way that I've never seen any other promoter who puts on kickboxing fights ever come close to getting. It's all the rage among hardcore fans and you can like it or dislike it, but their effort BC is working. It is working quite well. Yeah. And Rod Tang Luke against anybody is uh must see tv in my book but this matchup in particular like has people fired the frick up but what's with the weight miss i don't know it was a substantial weight miss as well again i couldn't tell you the like here's why it's so important for muay thai flyweight i don't know the ins and outs of

this world but i've just never seen mma fans gravitate to a kickboxing org quite in the way that i'm seeing them go to four ounce glove muay thai again whatever you want to call it even if it's not because i know muay thai fans like it's not even muay thai i don't call it that fine i don't know what to call it but whatever it is that they're putting on mma fans love this shit we just just call it Les Sky, Luke. All right? Okay. I mean, that was a halfway decent dad joke. It was a halfway decent dad joke. I don't even think it's racist at all.

But that one is not an Amazon show. That's one of the ones that they run. It's on right now. It's on right now on YouTube. It's going on as we speak. So you can have a look. That's the Bangkok show as well. So, Luke, also this weekend, there's a DAZN card.

And by the way, for hardcore boxing fans, the main show as well. So look also this weekend, there's a zone card. And by the way, for hardcore boxing fans, the main event is great. Oh, unbeaten Richardson Hitchens, who's 16 and oh, and is a top 140 pound prospect steps up by far to the biggest, toughest opponent level of his career against Jose Zepeda,

who we've seen against the very best in this division, including his very close title loss to Jose Ramirez a few years back. And then he had that unbelievable brawl with Ivan Baranchik in the nasty knockout. And he just lost to Progray for a 140-pound title. He got stopped. But he's at a very high level. That fight is great.

But, Luke, the whole story seems to surround this Orlando, Florida card that Connor Ben's going to be on it, who hasn't fought in 17 months and has popped dirty in two separate drug test scenarios that have made constant headlines and hasn't really cleared him. But the state of Florida is like, yeah, man, come on down, bro. Freedom, right? I mean mean this is this is how to live i mean this is wow um if you need a commission to sock puppet so they can um you know give you the legal stamp of approval boy florida's got you covered wow i mean he got into it with dan rayfield on twitter did cotter Ben and on X I'm sorry and really sent Dan to hell in a very rude way but uh there's a lot of talk about this he's a heavy favorite as you might expect uh minus 3,000 yeah against Rodolfo Orozco who's plus 1,100 and they made

this fight on just a couple days notice uh but I'm sorry Hitchens into the main event 16 and 0 with seven knockouts new york city prospect uh a good boxer so that's interesting over there but uh yeah i mean it's i mean i'm not surprised not surprised luke just like he hasn't had his pro basically the the there's it's complicated to a degree but the basic idea is that he has not in any way had his process fully adjudicated he has not been exonerated he just has this very unique uh legal situation that allows him to have this fight in florida without legal penalty yeah by how jurisdiction matters in boxing over anti-doping and who can get a license from what.

So there's a lot of like, oh, he's cleared to fight. Sort of, sort of. He's cleared to fight in Florida. That's about it from what I can tell. Also, I got to say this, man. Eddie Hearn has taken a beating over this story. The English fans, man, they've really turned on this guy. Yeah.

In a way that just wasn't happening like six months or however long, pre-Conor Benn situation. English fans are pre-wired to call out BS on the regular. You know what I mean? That's true. Yeah, it is interesting there. I mean, still, Connor Benn could be something big. Look, he really hasn't had his, like, major breakthrough American moment yet.

But at 154, he's an interesting villain in the B side of big fights who's got great ability. Who knows if he'll put it all together and, you know, and see where his career plays out. Also, there's a BKFC 50, as I mentioned, with Lorenzo Hunt and Chris Camosi for the Cruiserweight title. Luke, I don't feel that you're all fired up for the rest of that card. You're not here. BKFC, I mean, I definitely don't want to hate on anyone who does BKFC. They hand out big purses to a lot of these guys, so God bless them. It's just not a lot of defense.

It's not a lot of, you know, just a lot of. Well, if defense is not your thing, Luke, okay. You know what I mean? I got something for you. Let's go to topic five. Hey, the former champion Israel Adesanya, depending on which side of the co-host chair you're sitting on, lost his middleweight title to Sean Strickland.

Didn't say much in that press conference appearance before giving way to his coach, Eugene Behrman. We'd seen little droplets of stuff he posted on social media about needing a break, but he came back, interviewed by his brother on his own youtube channel and spoke about the loss and where his head is at i believe we have a quote we're going to throw to here luke to kind of put this in full uh reflecting on the loss to sean strickland he said that just felt like a bad dream feeling it and watching it are completely different i called eugene afterward and the same thing he said,

we're quietly confident. I do have a couple other here. He said, I just wasn't able to get my rhythm because of Sean Strickland's pressure. He was right there constantly. And whenever I was setting him up because he's right there, then his coach would help him. And I'd be like,

fuck, it was just a good game plan on their end. But also for me, I just wasn't able to adjust on the fly. So Luke, from the little pieces of him kind of humbly, finally addressing this, you still can make the case that Sonia getting rocked in round one to the side of the head, which, you know, can be an equilibrium shot that sometimes you don't always recover from. That may just be the story of the fight right there. But he's also saying he just couldn't get out of park,

that he was seeing it, he just couldn't react to it. Either way, Sean Strickland deservedly gets all the praise here, but does this help you better understand the former champion of where his head's at right now? No, I think what he's saying is is I was actually quite delighted to hear this, not the admission of it didn't go right for him, not that in that way. But what I mean to say is I was very curious to see what response he was going to take. Listen, him and Eugene being quietly confident, you would expect them to be.

You would expect them to believe that they can climb this hill together, that they can figure out a way to solve this problem. Again, they solved the Alex Pineda problem in a way that was pretty dramatic as well. I'm going to guess that they feel like they have the tools and the skills necessary to win in any subsequent rematch that may happen. So I understand that. But the more important part is he just kind of understood that he he didn't adjust on the fly he admitted it which meant he couldn't and he i think the reason that he couldn't is because sean

shut him down and he didn't take anything away from sean he just sort of talked about how internalized it was an awful experience that he couldn't stop he couldn't figure out a way to do it dude he's telling you sean beat him on the night like he's not he didn't i didn't feel good this is a style that doesn't work this is bullshit he didn't say anything about that he gave credit to sean for the win he gave credit to eric nixick for the reads he admitted he didn't adjust on the fly this is exactly if you're an izzy fan um i think given the circumstance this is what you want to be hearing you want to hear him say he shut me down he shut me down so it's my job to figure out how to overcome that i think i can that's you're an izzy fan this is

good news not bad now you know you can over obsess i'm trying to figure out the loss and sometimes we do that luke um but i you know i i still think part of it is is he overlooked him didn't think that the strickland style would, would be that effective against him. And then when it suddenly he was, I didn't think so either. It was like, Oh shit, how do I adjust to this? I also think it felt like a wake up call to the corner. They're just not used to being in that spot. And I don't think they handled it amazingly under, under the duress of Strickland starting to pull away on the scorecards.

But you know, we'll see. So Luca, if we could adopt, you know, I wrote a story on CBS sports yesterday about the future of WWE and UFC under the TKO brand and the do's and don'ts as we've debated on this show about like, you know, cool that you guys are partnering, but don't F up my thing. One thing I think you could adopt related to the middleweight title picture. And we kind of talked about this in mapping out the future is WWE style booking. And here's what I think they should do. So we both established that we wouldn't be mad if Strickland fought DDP next with the assumption that Adesanya faces the winner. I think you put that fight in Australia or New Zealand early next year. And then obviously you have Adesanya play a big role in the broadcast and being around that because he's guaranteed to face the winner.

If you're setting up for the winner to face Adesanya at UFC 300, which we also talked about, that's just setting yourself up for big business. But I think you do that in Australia with Izzy there. That's storyline building right there. And obviously the fights are going to be what they will be, but that's aggressive marketing. And there is something they can gain from the WWE that's aggressive marketing. And, and, and, you know, there is something they can gain from the WWE if they choose to look. Okay.

I tell them. But, you know, remember how this fight came to be. They wanted the DDP fight. He couldn't do it. And they had to like rush through the immigration paperwork for Strickland to make it happen.

It was an afterthought for UFC. I hope that they can get, if there is a rematch and in the way you described, right. I hope that there is a way that they can put a little bit more of a white glove treatment on it. Yeah, but what about Chimaev? What about Robert Whitaker if he bounces back?

He's fighting Jon Jones next. Mark that down. That's for sure. Middleweight, fun as balls. Luke, I don't think you had this on your who could Adesanya fight next bingo card, but Tyron Woodley joined rampage jackson on the jackson podcast and he said there's only one fighter that he would return to the ufc for quote

the only person i would just want to beat the fuck out of is israel adesanya i don't like him because he capped he was never israel adesanya i think he just called him fake as shit Luke I didn't see this coming right well you know what I mean no I yeah is there demand in any capacity no no no no nobody this is this is a a mood a moot point Luke but I I really like moot points to be very fair with you this is was an interesting one you know yeah this was out of nowhere i mean he got some headlines um you know i thought tyron had a great i thought tyron had a great mma career i don't know what the fuck this is well he was you know pretty good as sensei odell in season five luke of that teenage drama that you refuse to watch unless the teenagers are getting ripped to pieces and stabbed i just don't care it's also about the drama of middle-aged men like

ourselves luke i guess we are let me see more of that sadness porn that uh you know i just can't get enough i'm 45 years old guess what got delivered yesterday are you ready uh a suppository no my first recliner my first what did you get you know i got i got a smaller late my living room's not that large. I got a smaller Lazy Boy, but it's kind of cool and it's comfy and it does, you know, legs up and it goes back. It's perfect. Dude, I literally told my wife, hold on a second. I told my wife on Tuesday I wanted a Lazy Boy in the house. On Tuesday I had that conversation with her.

Okay, that's great. So let me ask you this. My wife already calls it, you know, the official symbol of my midlife crisis now, because it's the same thing as growing a ponytail and driving a convertible, which I'm also talking about Luke. Um, what does this say about me that I'm giving in? I mean, I'm tapping out that, I mean, I think Alistair just felt it, Luke. I honestly believe this. The older I get, the joy of aging is just not giving a fuck anymore. People always wonder, like, man, that old man didn't give a fuck. Exactly.

Exactly. They don't care. And you always see, we always talk about it, like the old men in the locker rooms, they put on their shoes first. Balls and dicks just go, you know, flapping in the breeze. It's like, who doesn't have shame? I'll tell you who. Old men.

Old mother effers. Wow, Mikey's saying he got one for Christmas last year. Best gift. Christmas gift ever. Can you imagine how many edibles he's just crushed and then laid down on that thing? Dude, if I ever sit down in Mikey's chair, I bet I can reach and find a handfuls under the cushion. Just like all different varieties. You want uppers?

You want downers? Yeah, it's great. Hopefully some loose change too in there. Oh, in there. That is I would love Mikey. We got Mikey's chair truly is the sunken place. I want to go to the sunken place on Molly and Delta eights in the middle of those couch cushions. So much resin in there. It'd be great. Wow. Let's transition here to a segment where we we stand trial. Right.

No, I did not have relations with that woman but sometimes in front of a microphone i do say some absolute bullshit that's either offensive or just straight up wrong i mean and that's why if you come hard and you come original with receipts you might just find out that luke and i was dead wrong just no audio on this thing all right we've got angry male viewers luke let's start with nick good day degenerate degenerates on today's episode wednesday september 20th when displaying the sweet pacer allen shirt that i happen to be wearing right now luke uh you referred to pacer son arnold allen as a lightweight bc you're dead wrong he's a featherweight i could call you all sorts of shit but the fact that you shouted out my favorite musician jeff buckley on one of your solo episodes you get a pass yeah so i'm talking about great 90s album one of the best

of all time there that grace album look anyway uh i'm wrong it was a featherweight in real time um i'm the ct from CTE, right, Luke? Or maybe that's the other way around. Yeah, I was dead wrong. He's a featherweight, obviously. I mean, come on. Glad you know that now. Where's my white belt?

Okay, let's keep this going here, Luke. We're going to go over to Minha. How would you pronounce M-I-N-H-A? And how would you assign gender status status or should we just avoid that? Well, I don't know much about Portuguese, but it's probably like Spanish where if it ends in an O or an A, it tells you the gender. Minha, yeah, that's going to be my best guess. Well, hey, Minha. Hello, BCNLT.

Roughly 39 minutes into episode 4888 there was a graphic displaying fighters that had lost and immediately regained their ufc title the graphic stated amanda nunes lost to pena at ufc 256 and gained it back at 63 but that's dead wrong nunes lost her belt at ufc 269 the same night dp lost to olivera and she regained it at 277. I would say MK needs to be more professional, but the unprofessionalism is why the show is the greatest. Much love, Minha. Thank you. Thank you for that compliment.

Hey, Mikey's catching strays. Yeah, a couple got through there over to Mikey. Usually it's me and you just in front of the firing squad. Yeah, that's pedantic as all heck. But something triggered in the fan of the P squad yeah that's pedantic is all heck to uh but that you know something triggered in that in the fan of the p1's mind look they know stuff they remember they know the wisdom of crowds yep uh yeah let's finally end with daz this guy d-a-z-z luke he he gets in here on every dead wrong you know what i'm saying oh yeah daz back up on that

ass and give these motherfuckers a blast from the past oh shit uh he says aloha donks during episode 489 at 19 minutes 30 seconds luke mentions the stat about the 1 and 11 record of women 35 years old or over in ufc title fights stating that one win is amanda nuneunes getting it back from Juliana Pena. That one win is... Okay, he's claiming that you claimed that it only happened once and it was Nunes over Pena. Luke, that's dead wrong. The only time Amanda fought for a title since turning 35 on May 30, 2023 was her retirement fight against Aldana at UFC 289.

She was 34 years, two months months against pena in the rematch mahalo for all the weekly and bonus content thank you daz yes look you're dead wrong it wasn't that one it was the last fight but that's the only one all right well hey guys if you have further dead wrongs or you want to join this fan sub parade go to morning combat at gmail.com luke i did hear a whisper that uh average joe art was going to press pause on designing the our future merch and maybe put on a red hat and try to make uh fan subs great again luke i heard a rumor i heard a rumor okay i hope he does by the way don't forget to tell folks to vote for us for the World MMA Awards. Yeah.

Hold on. There's the graphic. Let's hit it hard now. Guys, we have a chance to win three in a row. We're up against people like Ariel Hawane and Dana White and John Anik. All people I love. I love a lot of those people, to be fair. You can hit that QR code, though, if you believe Morning Combat is the best MMA show of the last calendar year.

I believe the awards dinner is December. We'll see. But we have a chance to do it three straight. You can go to worldmmawards.com to do it that way. I think you have to sign up, but you don't have to give your credit score or declare yourself a lord or a laird. You can leave me five bucks in the super chat, though. Yeah, you can. Join the team in the super chat though yeah yeah you can join the team there okay become an investor in luke's hot ass tanks yeah so i'm talking about

luke's right um there you go with that i had some other bs to to regurgitate i forgot to be very fair with you i forgot what it was but um uh what else you know luke what else you can you do you have two minutes to just shoot the s with me i mean what's going on yeah sure you know i mean you're gonna make it how are you doing uh i'll be all right it's supposed to rain like a motherfucker this weekend and that's gonna kind of ruin things but um you know i'm making it i'm making it i got a call with no um personal trainer later oh nice i have to have lift. As soon as the show is over, I have to lift. So we'll see, man. We'll see.

I'm excited about Canelo next week. I'm excited about Canelo. Dude, I'm really excited about Canelo next week. And I think I've been very early on the, hey, I get why Canelo is more than a three-to-one favorite, but Jermell's in this fight like this could be a fight dude i just got an email from freddie roach's publicist that that had a quote from freddie saying my prediction is charlo by knockout now that that is an extreme prediction

but i know it's never even been knocked down i do that's a great point as well i do think people need to realize though that like germel does have what it takes to do this like this is a this is a badass fight absolutely badass the thing for me is it's like oh it's two weight classes for me it's like it's it really is one because i do think he could move to 160 and do really well um but still and canelo you know canelo hasn't looked the same you know know, but I don't know, man. I talked to Derek James yesterday, the trainer of Charlo for a feature I'm writing.

And I was like, you know, you guys have seen the odds. So what's the one thing you think everyone's missing when they, when they assign, you know, the great Canelo Alvarez, those odds. And he said, this is a 154 pound fight people need to realize that that yes Canelo's won titles at 68 and 75 but he's fighting at at a closer to a walk around weight to do that that really these are two junior middleweights who you know I mean you hear that great soundbite that Showtime keeps playing in these little infomercial things of of Charlo saying basically my whole career has been

preparing to fight canelo like i've been on this track since i turned pro like canelo was in my crosshairs um i'm getting fired up here luke that size difference did not look to be that much i mean the girth and the power and the chin all that is is going to have a say here charlo is also going to be very good at this weight i think it really comes down to either can he out working out box canelo or can he actually bring the firepower that forces canelo to to make changes luke do you believe he does do you believe charlo can bang with canelo a little bit his left hook is one of the best left hooks in the business now we should peel back the curtain here a little bit on wednesday after all the stuff we did we did a couple things we shot regular mk and then we did some stuff for

cbs and then i did a dissected on a bit of a preview i don't know how good it's going to be but i tried on charlo versus canelo bc left right in the middle of that he actually just went home and didn't even say goodbye he didn't say i can't interrupt your your recording to say that i mean i finished at like 5 27 and you were already gone for a car that wasn't supposed to be there at six but you know that's what you know the driver arrived early luke and i took advantage of that i got the hell oh you did you certainly did yes you got the fuck out of dodge but uh i would say this we went over it and that when i did the charlo breakdown i picked the rosario fight the second harrison fight the second Harrison fight,

the second Castaño fight. I think those are three pretty good representatives of what you're going to get with Jamel Charlo. His left hook is one of the best in the business. I mean, he has a phenomenal left hook, powerful, aggressive, does it with level changing, and can spring into it. He's dynamic. The problem for him is, dude, he backs up to the ropes relatively easily.

He can be hit. He's not a defensive wizard. He's not terrible at it, but he's not a strong suit per se. And he gives up rounds, and you give up rounds against a guy like Canelo in Las Vegas, dude, it's going to be hard. Also, I picked the underdog in Plant Benavidez,

and I picked the underdog in Spence Crawford and ate shit for it both times i'm picking the fucking favorite yeah you should i mean in the whole narrative of is it true that canelo saying i'm healthy for the first time i can train at full speed i'm different when i can train at full speed is that a way of just talking himself into the idea that even though he's 33 he does have a lot of mileage i do believe believe when it falls for him, it could be swift because he does have a lot of mileage since being a pro since he was 15. Yeah, when I said I was looking forward to Vegas and Canelo,

what I mostly meant was walking to the weed store. That was really top of mind, you know what I'm saying? Well, I will say this, Luke. I love this fight. I mean, could you imagine what Jermell Jermall Jermall can say about himself? If he goes from becoming the undisputed champion at one 54, then moves up to eight divisions, takes on the guy there with four belts. And it happens to be the biggest name in the sport and the head of that division.

Like, Oh, Oh, dude, the Charlo's like, it's funny because, uh, Jermall obviously he's got a lot of issues going on. It seems like he's trying to work on it so we'll see how that goes but germell is an undisputed champion he has all the belts the four major belts at 154 right but you know the charlos have been slow to get i think the kind of critical respect that they believe that they deserve and um you know because he did lose to harrison the first time and then he was losing long stretches of the harrison rematch before he stopped him the castagna one was a bit more back

and forth um and then rosario he just completely ran over but the point i'm trying to make is even an undisputed charlo at 154 you know he doesn't like when you talk to boxing heads they don't necessarily pick him as like oh this guy this guy's really, really great. They kind of begrudgingly acknowledge it. And the point I wanted to make, BC, was even if you wanted to say that Canelo is diminished even at age 33, by the way, they're both 33, if Charlo goes in there and beats Canelo, and to the point that the publicist had made,

let's just pause it by stoppage, which I very unlikely but you know whatever dude you want to talk about all the critical respect that Charlo has been looking for all of his career from boxing media from boxing fans it it might ruin him in the sense that it would be a tidal wave it'd be what Crawford just he's lacked like look at what Terrence Crawford has gone since beating Erickson he's become like an overnight sensation and he had a baby face turn and everything I mean like everything not that he was a villain but just that he was sort of always so quiet and wasn't trying to put himself out there now that he has the chance to to peacock a little it's been great doing it and then can you imagine the cool thing is luke i don't

know what's going to happen with the spence rematch i did see the reports that that crawford made the stipulation with the weight welterweight and not 154 and that's where you have to ask yourself is he trying to get spence to not accept it i'm not sure i'm interested in seeing but imagine crawford against jermell win or lose against canelo. Imagine if that was the next big one, Luke, for all four belts at 54, and Crawford has a chance to become a three-division, four-belt undisputed champion. I mean, these are the fights you dream of, right? I'm going to get emotional.

Crawford was explicit this week. He wants to be the first, as as you indicated triple undisputed champion and then just be done so dude what he wants to do uh and he gets dude here's a crazy part about it now if charlo ends up beating canelo he's not crawford's not going to get either because they're going to rematch like there's just i mean no way that that would go without a rematch but i would i could say that even if charlo won and there wasn't a rematch invoked him fighting charlo would accomplish that goal and i think would be very competitive but what he really wants is for canelo to win and then to take on canelo and i gotta say bc canelo wins you know we were there for benavidez plant i I would love to see Canelo fight David Benavidez.

Oh, wow. But that takes a backseat to talking about. I'm sorry. It takes a backseat to Terrence Crawford. It does. It does. I mean, look at the look at the wealth that we have at the moment as boxing fans and journalists. I mean, the possibilities right now, they do feel endless.

I mean, should I start to wake up that hey maybe tank could fight haney one day or shakur i mean you know what i mean look like sometimes sparks lead to momentum and then the house is on fire but as long as the fights on the tv are great i could feel the heat look because we are firemen we live in the heat we live in the basement we live in the fire i mean come on now is it all right to just boast, you know what I mean, as a boxing fan and just peacock that shit around for a second? Wow, what a time to stand around a water cooler or be in a barbershop, right, Luke? Talk some fights, like men.

What kind of pornography are you going to watch in Las Vegas? Okay, all right, there we go. There's the end of it. I hope we run into Chop Rank Chairman Bob Arum on your travels like we did that one time remember that time in that store that that left-handed cigarette store that was great you know he was he was experiencing significant allergies bc because his eyes were really where they were red okay true story when we approached bob and this was like midnight you know i was like i'm like oh tuesday or wednesday or something we were in a 24-hour weed store by the way and and you know what did we drop on him hey bob fuck coppinger yeah yeah he was like what

dude his eyes were so watery when he looked at us i was like he was like my man's been eating some cookies on the way here huh yeah wow so good i love bob so good i mean shot that fuck up you little prick i mean that's shut the fuck up you little prick that's just um i mean look you can catch strays in this business right dan rayfield's been getting it lately from people on on x not ecstasy luke i don't mean molly but uh you know i'm talking about are you calling it x now elon musk just running the shit into the ground he's like you're gonna be able to make calls on this like guy i've already got like 10 ways to make phone calls why the fuck am i gonna do it i don't like talking on the phone at all

stop me i know it's like you're enabling features i do not fucking need at all yeah yeah that's great luke that's great a lot of people with blue blue checks though and like no followers it's it's weird it's a weird world now you know because dude all it does is amplify them in replies but these people can't generate an audience to save their fucking life so they can't really make effective use for the most part they can't make effective use out of the changes it's like i mean everyone's like the future of humanity rests i'm like the future of humanity this this fucking guy is just gonna crash and burn the new myspace humanity's got fuck all to do with this dude's quest what do you think tom from myspace is now he's gotta have

millions in the bank right he sold he sold for hundreds of millions, and he's probably, I mean, just. Planning fire. Somewhere, right? That guy's probably had a lot of gross sex. Look, I don't know if it's been. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The gross.

Yeah, that's just. Wow. All right. Hey, maybe we should wrap on that note. Okay. Yes. Sorry, Mikey. You know, Luke, yeah. The grossest. Yeah, that's just wow. All right. Hey, maybe we should wrap on that note. Okay, yeah. Sorry, Mikey. You know, Luke, they... We ended today's show wondering if Tom from MySpace had gross sex. Yeah, the Apollo hook is right around that corner.

A special thank you to Mikey Mormyle for producing our final broadcast from CBS Sports. And that's the great Luke Thomas. You can enjoy the fights this weekend. A reminder that Bellator 299 is on Showtime Saturday, 4 p.m. Eastern from Dublin is the start of the main card, the middleweight championship and the main event, a pretty damn good card up and down.

And you can check out those prelims beginning 11 a.m. Eastern on the Showtime and Bellator, the Showtime Sports youtube channels uh morning combat dot store for our fantastic selection of merchandise uh let's help let's you know get outfit i mean if you put on a bomber jacket in the fall while you're drinking a pumpkin coffee i mean that's the best probably or you can climb mount fuji in a bomber jacket and like that that gentleman did so shout out to that guy uh also i want to say luke that uh did. So shout out to that guy. Also, I want to say, Luke, that YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. You know, there might be some videos you haven't seen on there.

Interviews we've done. We got a new room service diaries. We do those pregame previews. So check out the goodness going on over there. Stream Showtime for 30 days at Showtime.com. Luke, anything else you want to sell? Nah, we're good. We gave it to him this week. We banged.

All right. Luke will be selling his soul moving forward on the Thursday live chat. So great talking to you people. Have a great weekend and take care of yourselves. And we love you. You know, we don't always say it probably because we're afraid you're going to remove our organs systematically, you know, like in like dim lighting somewhere, you know, with like less than ideal health standards to be fair. But just the same. Thanks for voting for us all the time. Three in a row.

We might do it. We might do it. But that's up to you. Until then, we're out of here. We're out of here.