MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vegas 8 Recap: Smith vs. Rakic, Magny vs. Lawler | Canelo Alvarez | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 58

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

On episode 58 of Morning Kombat, Luke and Brian recap everything that happened at UFC Vegas 8, including a big win by Aleksandar Rakic over Anthony Smith and Robbie Lawler losing to Neil Magny. The boys also discuss Canelo Alverez not fighting in 2020 so far.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille, Reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Luke, we're live. Luke, we're live here. It's a live show. Oh, sorry. Jesus.

It's Monday, Luke. Wow, great first show. It's your first day at CBS. All right. Hey, here we go. Hey, sorry. I thought we were counting down to the advertisement. I didn't hear anything, and that's my fault. I apologize as I sit here mouth-breathing. Hi, everyone. It is August 31st. It is Monday.

It is 2020, and it is time for Morning Combat. That's hilarious. My name is Luke Thomas. Hey, there. Slap, slap. The gentleman on the other side of the screen, you know him from CBS Sports. My cohort, my friend, my amigo, the conspiracy to my theory, it's Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian. How are you?

Fired up, Luke, in a lot of ways. You know, it feels like a new dawn is upon us. The kids are back in school today, and you are a full-fledged member of the ViacomCBS network. Welcome. And for you and me, Luke, right? We've had a wild run, but it was a lot like dating. Now we're going to move in together. All right, we can do this every weekend, you know what I mean? Have my people call your people. We've had a wild run, but it was a lot like dating. Now we're going to move in together.

All right, we can do this every weekend. You know what I mean? Have my people call your people. So I'm interested to ask you who your interests are, who you'd be with. Let's do this thing. Who's taking out the trash? Who's doing the dishes? Which one are you?

I'll be the trash, but yeah. There's also a third member of this marriage jay yeah yeah speaking of luke do you think jay's trolling the people a man that technologically advanced is making it sound like he's uh in the lincoln tunnel producing the show i don't know but everyone hates it because it sounds like there's a jet engine that makes it impossible to understand without him screaming spraying his probable covid all over his computer equipment i don't know if that is transferable to other humans or not but nevertheless probably not a great idea so the less we hear of jay i'm gonna say the better while he has that window ac unit you know uh no it sounds good today power it uh it sounds good today i'm sure

i'm positive. Yeah. Many a time we have heard that from Jay, and it has not been true. Yes, BC. Today is my first day as a full-fledged member of the CBS family. I don't have another job to get to. However, I do have some HR meetings after this. All good ones. Much needed sexual harassment training coming your way. Yes.

Maybe a little bit of that as well. But that's it, dude. So I am all yours. I am all Showtime's. I am all CBS's to do whatever we want with this project. I'm all in, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And without further ado, BC, there's a lot to get to over the weekend. So with my mouth breathing and inattentiveness to the beginning of the show notwithstanding.

Can we pub some things? Can we get people out there on the YouTubes to check out our interviews with the stars of the fantastic five-part Outcry documentary on Showtime? Our guy GK, Greg Kelly, as well as the fantastic director. These are worth your time.

Yes. So if you want to check those out they're out a little bit late because we had a few hurdles we had to clear but they're up right now on the youtube channel you can go and hear what it's like for the man greg kelly himself to be what appears to be falsely accused and to talk about him rebuilding his life that is really my fault is it really my fault that got delayed you know more news i know this i know this it sure as hell ain't my fault i know that there's nothing you more news at a later time. I know this. I know this. It sure as hell ain't my fault. I know that.

There's nothing you could pin on me in that whole debacle. Also, if you want to try Showtime to watch shows like that, you can go to Showtime.com right now and get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. And, BC, it should be known we now have a dedicated page for Morning Combat on the Showtime store you can go to the showtime store right now type in morning combat with a k and all of our merch pops up it's got

your face and my face my even even this is true bc even my dad was impressed can you believe that oh impressed enough to wear a sweatshirt around the backyard fire or no? No, not that impressed, but impressed that my face was on the Showtime website. He thought that was actually pretty interesting. And that's a testament to our fine viewers and listeners for supporting us. We said from the beginning, right, as I knocked this microphone over, we're about to blow up. This is phase one. MK, almost every day coming your way.

Luke, we got a lot of good ideas that we're going to be rolling out in the uh weeks and months to come so i'm so fired up to be here sit back relax put on your seat belt you've definitely never been on a ride like this before also one quick point of clarification folks are wondering are we going to be like five days a week starting tomorrow no it's probably going to take a few weeks for us to get going. We still have some planning to do and some strategizing. And believe it or not, without getting into the details, there's a lot of things that have to happen behind the scenes to get it ready.

Even then, I would expect us, no guarantees one way or the other, I would expect maybe more of a three-day rollout at first, and then we'll see how that goes, and we'll plan around that. But I'd say before the end of this month, you'll be getting lots of extra content on a, if not daily, certainly near daily basis. But let us ease into it. This is a slow and steady wins the race kind of thing,

not an immediate let's just flip the switch and go over. This month is over today, so you meant September. Jay's calling it the 31st. You know what I mean, September. I mean September. We'll handle the show from here, Jay. Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah it the 31st. You know what I mean, September. I mean September. Jay, we'll handle the show from here, Jay. Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah, I'm just clarifying for the people, just so there's no...

Jay, why don't you go stick your face in front of that loud AC of yours that's in the window unit. Okay, with that out of like a college student, what an absolute loser. All right, without further ado, BC, let's get to the points at hand that we have to break down our top five number one we'll start with the UFC over the weekend Alexander Rakic winning a pretty clear unanimous decision win over Anthony Smith a lot of different pieces here that involve both Smith and Rakic BC go first was this a statement win for Rakic at 205 pounds? No, it was an impressive win, though. And it can be that without being a statement.

It was well-rounded. He had some great success on the feet, some absolutely vicious leg strikes. And what he did to open the third round with his striking and punches was equally impressive. And then, obviously, the dominance on the ground. It wasn't a statement, though, Luke, for a couple reasons. And look, he took some heat for this, including from Justin Gaethje's Twitter account about his decision to more or less, I don't want to say lay in prey, especially in round two, he was actively looking to land strikes.

But in that third round, he was very content to just control the fight on the ground. And I think the biggest misstep he made in this was the way in which he celebrated the victory with seven, eight seconds left. He got off the ground. He's already jumping up and down celebrating and then lends out one of those screams. It's the kind of scream that tells you,

I just did something spectacular. Here's the problem though. In the interview afterwards, he says, I'm ready for a title shot right now. Not with that performance. That performance was a solid move up the ladder. Let people know you're for real performance. But when you do not actively look to finish that and you are content with getting to this level,

with main eventing and showing people you can win, you did put a somewhat immediate ceiling on how quickly they will match you and the level of praise we will give you in this spot i'm not going to damn him a win is a win and he dominated that fight but he chose to play a little bit safer than he probably needed to because anytime they were on the feet together he was chopping smith down with those legs and really just beating him to the punch this was a beaten man and smith and we can get to that in the future. Great win for Rakic, but you can't be talking about a title shot when you choose to end it in that fashion. Yeah, and even Dominic Reyes was out there calling the main event lame,

although I missed it. What did Justin Gaethje say on Twitter about this? He was basically saying the just bleed inside of him kind of wished Rakic ended up losing it for in the second round, sort of making that active decision that he was content just controlling from the top without really really pouring forward and going for the finish like we saw in round three yeah what's sort of frustrating about Rakic is you can't that's not the performance that gives you an indication of his full ability

or ceiling or frankly even his weaknesses either it's the kind of middle of the road performance that to beat a guy like Anthony Smith you can only say good things about it and it does mean a lot the significance of it is there in that sense it's like kind of a statement right to be able to beat somebody that highly up the food chain and to do it without much of an issue right so if I told you Rakic is going to win and he's not going to have much of an issue, if I told you that on Friday, you'd be like, okay, that's pretty great. And then when you see the particulars of it, you're like, okay, but maybe he could have gone into like greater effort.

Maybe he could have done a few more tricks. I mean, here is basically the problem, and we'll get to a part of this when we talk about Neil Magny here in just a second. But the first part of the problem is Rakic only has 15 total fights he was coming off of a loss he had a camp in Croatia at this time and with the whole COVID thing and everything else I think he was just happy to get back in the win column he was happy to get a win over Anthony Smith and there's nothing really wrong with that I think the part that you raise which is did you really wow anybody did you impress anybody did you really show us that your game had elevated to the next level?

That part to me, I didn't see the last one. In fact, the win over Manuel, while only 45 seconds or so, was certainly much more exciting by virtue of the imagination you got about him afterwards. Wow, what can this guy really do? This time, you got the sense of like okay we kind of know his level but we weren't really forced to reimagine the interesting possibilities of the development of his game which is frustrating because he's young I think he has the capacity to be exciting he is huge for this weight class if there was a UFC cruiserweight division he would

be a perfect candidate for it he is I mean because I've been next to Anthony Smith several times he's not a small fry and Rackish look to be just you love yourself Samantha Smith we know this Luke okay we know well I'm just sort of pointing out I love Rackish too I was high on him a long time ago and so to see the physical difference there was alarming it's just that like there was you just felt like okay you made it there in third fourth gear is there a fifth gear can you find a fifth gear? Can you find a fifth gear? And if you have one, what does it look like? So to me, it was... I'll wrap up here very quickly.

I'll wrap up very fast, which is, I appreciate what it means to beat someone like this, coming off of a loss, first fight since the pandemic. You're still very young in your career. Fair enough. But if you really want to do something special in this division, it doesn't start when you get to the title it has to happen before that this was not per se special yeah and the the end the end of your comment the spirit of that i can agree with i did want to

counter two things one he beat uh vulcanos to me i know he got a split decision loss i went back and watched that this morning he won that fight that was a step forward and that's what each of his wins have been, a solid step forward. And one other thing you said was he didn't necessarily wow us by showing us the full game. I think he lacked the wow of going for the finish, but this was basically a showcase for two-plus rounds

of how much his wrestling has evolved to mix with what you mentioned, really big size for this division. So, again, from what we actually saw in the cage, the positives, I think he actually showed us more of his game. This wasn't that violent head kick of Manowal where you didn't learn a lot. I learned a lot about his three-round stamina at least, about his poise, about his well-roundedness. I just need, if you're going to act the part of a guy that says,

look at me, give me the title shot, you've got to start aiming toward the direction of what they look for in a title contender. You can keep winning. You're eventually going to run into a title shot. If you keep winning, you can go that route. But it's kind of like, I always go back to it, 1991, Western Conference Finals, Lakers win.

They go to the finals. Sam Perkins celebrating the locker room. He looks around. Everybody's sitting there with a quiet face. Magic Johnson stands up, and he goes, we don't celebrate Western Conference championships on this team, right wait save it to the end i don't need you screaming into the microphone after you lay on a guy for three rounds all right they wait wait wait until you knock somebody out and you make a true statement that you're ready for the title so so funny you said i was high on smith because i'm always high

on smith that's true but i'll actually tell you why I disagree with you a little bit about Rakic the reason why I got high on him was because of his UFC debut against Francis Moore Bejosa now I am not comparing Bejosa's skill to Smith but to me this was what was frustrating Rakic won that fight by taking him down and getting on top and using ground and pound not in the totality of it but in long stretches of that fight. And I was impressed at his physicality. I was impressed at his takedowns. I was impressed at everything it means to fight that kind of a strategy,

which was, I believe, his UFC debut. I was like, whoa, who is this kid? So to me, when he does the exact same thing against Smith, yes, harder to do that. I want to see you up the ante a little bit. There wasn't hardly any guard passing. Granted, Smith is a black belt, but we're talking about progressing from 2017 there was some ground and pound probably not enough there just wasn't the kind of signals to me that there is the development

in that portion of the game that there needs to be to really begin to put a stamp on a division you can beat good guys but you know the reason why the Uzdemir fight was even close was for probably some of the reasons why this one was boring, and that's the through line. There just wasn't enough stepping on it when you need to step on it, and that's frustrating given his tools. Now, it brings us to Anthony Smith, BC, which is he was having all kinds of interesting comments afterwards, maybe switching back to middleweight, which I know was a horrible cut for him he was talking about how strong Rackage is there's two losses in a row now what's next for Anthony Smith I think the best answer here to not sound too reactive right because from what you saw on there like he's too young to talk about retirement or walking away but he's

clearly not going in the right direction he's absorbed some heavy beatings in both wins and losses, and I think he's fighting too quickly of late as well. Luke, the best thing I could say is take a break. Take a long extended break, reexamine a camp in your training camp, in your strategies, in everything about your game, what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. I could sit here and look back at his resume and pick apart very critically and say he sort of arrived as a potential light heavyweight title challenger at a time when

there really weren't a lot of names to pick from. He said, you know, he bounced back from that knockout loss to Mejeda, rebuilt himself with three wins, you know, against Ozdemir, against my buddy Rashad, against Wash Shogun Hua, Okay, but I'm going to keep him that credit. He went five hard rounds with Jon Jones, and he didn't take that lazy way out backdoor DQ win to win the title, and I still respect him for that. I don't think he was all you thought he was, but I certainly don't think he's done. I do think he needs a longer look at what's happening, Luke,

because you're going to become the Cowboy Cerrone of 205, and I mean late career cowboy Cerrone pretty soon if you keep just going back in there and just say alright let's roll the dice again and let's see what happens right well I mean the question is what did I think he was what I think he was was disrespected right now I think he is

compounding the problems that he had in any weight class with just ill advised fights to your point taking taking too soon. But when he had beaten late-career Rashad, late-career Shogun, those are nice wins, but they don't tell you much. Well, then he fights Uzdemir and finished him from the back,

which, by the way, no one expected him to do. Certainly the odds makers did not think he was going to. Had the fight against Jon Jones, didn't go his way. Okay, no harm, no foul. And then he goes and turns right around and then submits Alexander Gustafson and retires him by choking him from the back. At that point, I felt like Anthony Smith

was finally getting the respect that he deserved. Folks were saying he was not very good all the way up until that point. And to me, it was like, I don't know what y'all are looking at. He clearly is very, very talented. The problem is he then has two good rounds against Teixeira and then takes an absolutely epic beating that he did not need to.

I actually interviewed him before this fight, and I was like, how are you feeling physically? He's like, yeah, great. I had the teeth replaced, blah, blah, blah. He was treating it like it was very routine, and he is certainly very, very tough, but I just did not like the easiness with which he was treating some pretty substantive injuries and I'm not saying it's a bad psychological beating but that's going to be one that's going to take maybe a little bit more time than normal to get over and now he's lost three of his last four that's the problem to me it's excusable in and of their own rights to lose

to to share especially if you had a good showing early or John Jones this was one that you shouldn't have taken I think this quickly this was one that you shouldn't have taken, I think, this quickly. This was one that should have been a little bit more thought out. This was one that should have been happening towards the end of the year, if not early first quarter of 2021. So what's next for him? I actually do not recommend a drop down to middleweight. That every story he's ever told about how hard and difficult and nasty it was,

that's not the retreat position. Now, maybe if there's some kind of crazy, mad scientist, nutritionist out there who can find a way to get it done without those things, okay, that's an opportunity to explore. But middleweight has gotten young and interesting and difficult seemingly overnight. And now at light heavyweight, this is a place he already occupies at a relatively high spot. I think your advice is right on. Take a break.

Do not rush back. Train. Work on your craft. Everything else that you need to. Find whatever positions in this fight you didn't think went your way. Work on them. And then come back first, maybe second quarter of 2021. And then let's see what the situation is there.

He's not close to a title shot anyway. There's no reason to be a four of your last five fights losing kind of guy. Reset and then from there, you can make some evaluations. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game.

Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. High school. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, 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. All right, which takes us now. Can I jump in? No, no.

You don't have a job to get to. I can stiff on Jay for a second. Jay is losing his shit behind the scenes here, just so you know. Can I ask you a difficult question? And nobody likes being asked these kind of questions about their family. And look, you've identified you're an Anthony Smith guy. I'm a Ioana guy, all right? So here's the deal, Luke.

I'm not going to sit here and say, your wife's a real nice lady, but you can't cook. The two Anthony Smith wins that you're banking on that tell you he's a legitimate 205- pound title contender are Volkan Ozdemir and Alexander Gustafson. True or false. If you're going to be hypercritical, it's not his fault,

but haven't those wins aged not so well based on the performances of both guys in the aftermath that maybe just maybe we were wrong to believe he's this guy. He may have intangibles of toughness that carried him up to that level, but he might not actually be that guy. He submitted them both from the back. That's not toughness, BC. I know, but I'm basically asking you, does the fact that both of those wins don't look as good now as they did then,

does that change anything? I think certainly you could say certain resumes age better than others. Connors has aged really well. I still think those wins were valuable based on who he was beating in the ranked positions at those times. But to your point, Gustafson certainly fallen on hard times, retired after that one, and then came back and looked terrible against Fabrizio Verdum. And certainly Uzdemir has had his fair share of challenges to that point. You could argue, as you mentioned, that he had lost to Rakic rather than defeated him. Okay, sure. There's no denying that those are not,

they don't carry the same shine and luster they did at the time he got them. I'm perfectly willing to admit that. But are those wins over top 10 guys at light heavyweight at virtually in any way you want to slice it? Yes, of course they are. The point about Smith was not that he was the next coming of Christ. The point is everyone said he was a terrible middleweight who went up to light heavyweight and just got lucky.

No, he didn't. No, that's not true. He had those two wins over, we mentioned rashad and shogun and those are you know those are great to build your name and your visibility but they don't really tell us hardly anything the other ones while they don't carry the same lasting significance they absolutely did tell us he belongs and i think that's the only thing i've been asking people to accept he is a very high level though may have been fools gold i got shirts that those are not fraudulent jim luke okay i got those are not the t-shirts cut the right way okay it's fools

those are not fraudulent wins that they don't mean the same thing that we thought that they might have certainly is an argument you could make and i wouldn't really dispute it too strongly that they are worthless or that they really don't mean anything in the end is total overreaction this is what i mean dude there's this constant desire to rob smith of credibility and i don't really understand it look at the losses that he has and use that you don't need anything else to make the argument they're perfectly fine on their own and some of his i think bad decision making and taking this fight too early everything else to me very fair counts in his favor okay you're very very fair response luke i a difficult question fair response i'll give you that all right so with

that in mind bc let's go to you again on this one i've got a lot of thoughts on this neil magny what do you want to say ragdolls easily beats robbie lawler i mean a lot of different ways you could put this out here but he basically controls him for three full rounds and gets the unanimous decision not. BC, let's start on the losing side of the equation this time. Should Robbie Lawler retire? Here's what's really difficult about this, and I got last minute super excited about this fight.

Why? Because I don't care if he's old, young, or in between. You've got to ask yourself an honest question about Robbie Lawler. He may not be your favorite fighter in the traditional mold of that's my guy, I identify with him, I cheer him. But the way I look at it as when it's, you know, 11.30 p.m. on a Thursday night and you're four beers deep and you're flipping around UFC Fight Pass,

who is the fighter that you go to more often than not? For me, it's Robbie Lawler. He freaking entertains. But there's different ways of knowing when a guy is washed. We're just so trained to believe it's the Lawler he freaking entertains but there's different ways of knowing when a guy is washed we're just so trained to believe it's the Chuck Liddell way it's the old gunslinger going out there time after time and just getting sent you know deep down to the deep dark depths and you're just like the chin's not there he doesn't respond anymore it's time to go this was similar to that unfortunately Luke just not in the traditional way that we view it

this was certainly a bad style way that we view it this was certainly a bad style matchup for him but this was just a guy who couldn't pull the trigger and that was tough to see you know he wants to you know there was spurts in round three where he did at least try but overall it's just not the same guy anymore so should he go he could go and it would be fine if he wants to linger. And if UFC can join him in this brigade and give him not Diego Sanchez, but Diego Sanchez type opponents, other older names who aren't going to take him down necessarily, they're going to stand and bang.

He could have a nice little victory lap in a tour, probably win a couple, still make fun fights. But from the standpoint of chasing a title i think it is over luke i just see a guy who's been through a million wars and for whatever reason however that computes inside of him i just didn't see a guy who could adjust to what was happening and you know we and maybe now you go back and look at the covington fight did we see some of that there as well i see a guy who looks a little bit more like tryron Woodley these days, unfortunately, where it's like, I can see it, I know it's in there, but he's lost the ability to get it out.

I mean, how many fighters on the UFC roster can claim that they have multiple pro fights documented that took place prior to 9-11? I mean, Robbie Lawler has three of them. I mean, that's how

long he's been doing this he's been doing this predating 9-11 it is a shocking duration for for his career and to even be in the UFC at this point is amazing in its own right so first I would say the longevity I admire but we are at the other end of what it means to have that longevity. The part where you begin to ask, right, but how much longer? He's lost four of his last five. I really believe this. I don't think either Carlos Condit or Robbie Lawler were ever the same after that insane war they had. And Lawler's had many wars, certainly. Condit to an extent too, but that one was, that was a game changer. Both of their careers never recovered after that. Now, Lawler did have a win over Cerrone. The Askren

fight, certainly not without its fair share of controversy, but the only time he cleanly got his hand raised was that Cerrone fight. That is it. Everything else since then has been a loss. And so you have to ask yourself, dude, what happened on that night and where are they today? So should he retire? Well, I'll say this. If you're not at least thinking about it, something is wrong. Now, I'm not going to say he should retire tomorrow and that's the end of it. Your point, I think, is well taken, which is, is he a title contender anymore? No, he's not. Not even close. And I don't think he's going to be. The other part about it is, what does he look like relative to how he looked like at his peak? Let's say when he beat Josh Koshtek, when he came back to the UFC for his second stint after Strikeforce.

He looks like a far cry from that. Not even close. Which I don't say with glee or, you know, yay. I say it like, ugh, you know. It's just, it's, the father time has come for him. And I don't know if ultimately, but certainly it is, he is making gains on him. He is just not fighting the same way he did before. He doesn't have to seem to have the same zip and pop. He doesn't pull the trigger as much. He's just got a lot of characteristics that happen with fighters

who've been doing it as long as they have. So what I'll say is, he needs to figure out for himself, what are his goals at this stage in his career. Because if the goal is I want to win a title, well then he probably should retire. If the goal is I want to finish out my contract, I want to get a couple interesting more fights, I don't think he has to retire if that is the place he's in, BC. But either way, one, you got to have a view towards the door that has exit over the top of it and two you need to take fights that are appropriate with the stage of your career that you're in which are not top contenders which are not guys who are going to be on a title path

some other version of them for his own health for the sport's sake and frankly as a favor to the contenders who want to move on in different positions. So that's kind of where I'm at on that. Do you think that's fair at this point? It's a function of his goals? 100%, yeah. And in knowing him, can't speak for him, but I've interviewed him a bunch, and I've always been taken aback at how little he cares for the fanfare side of the sport, the money, the fame, all that stuff.

I mean, he's one of those old- school military fighting systems guys from the beginning. At the core, he's about fighting. He's about challenges. So it's going to be up to him to figure out that exact question that you asked right there. I just like to see him at the very least if he wanted to continue, Luke. I think he can still brawl. I think he can still be a part of some

fun fights. And I don't think I'm seeing a guy where it's necessarily, I mean, is it damaging for anybody to take on this type of damage? but i think he can he can still safely do that against the right kind of talent and look we're going to talk about this in a second with anderson silva but i just think that ufc has never really had a firm handle for the most part on how to book aging names who still have life to them you know it's it's a constant let's let's try to recycle them and feed them to the younger guys so the younger guys can make names. And I know that there's a reason for that in some way, and that's how the business and

the food cycle works, food chain, excuse me. But at some time, you know, you got to match them in fights that make sense. And maybe this is what UFC matchmakers needed to see to realize everything you just said. And now I think we all know it. Let's see if robbie does too yeah last thing i'd say about this you can look at the story of mma in the 2000s through his career as i mentioned he has three fights that predate 9-11 he's got fights on king of the cage he had fights in the early stage ufc like ufc 37 to i don't know 40 something or so he fought evan tanner then he fought in super brarawl, which became Icon Sport,

which was a big, fairly international, regional-level organization back then. He fought in Elite XC. He fought in IFL. He fought in Strikeforce, then back to UFC. You can look at what MMA did in the 2000s and 2010s through Robbie Lawler's career. It's an unbelievable run that he's had. But at this point, I think it's time to reevaluate what it all might mean.

Now, there is one thing we really need to get to. I would like to go first on this one, BC. And I mentioned I was going to talk about this with Rakic as well as Magny. So Neil Magny wins. I'm not going to take away the validity of this win from him. Oh, he went a little bit too forward there. Not talking about Canelo just yet, Jay. Got to mind your P's and Q's.

Here's the point I'd like to make about this. Neil Magny and what Rakic did is, I'm not gonna say it's the future of the UFC, but it's gonna be the future of a lot of guys, which is, it's something I've seen in Leon Edwards too, where they get very, very good at at control positions whether that's pressing someone up against the fence on top in a clinch they don't really have full command of the deep levels of that position nor are they trying to it's not the goal but what they can do is they can do

enough ground and pound or enough sort of against the fence, kind of, you know, in the clinch, elbows, whatnot. And what ends up happening is they don't ever really become super dangerous as a function of being a finisher, but they become very dangerous as a round winner position controller. And it's not very fun for the fans in many ways because you're not really ever moving to mount or really, you know, aggressively holding the back with threatening with chokes for long periods. You might get a little bit there, but not really. I have noticed more and more and more fighters are beginning to do this.

Because if you think about it, do I want to learn all the intricacies of mount or do I want to learn it halfway and then spend the rest of that time I could be spending on that in other forms of control positions. And so it's actually a very clever way to win fights, especially if you have good cardio,

but it's not very effective, nor is it trying to be, in terms of being a finishing fighter. I think we need to begin to realize some fighters are going to do this. It's a perfectly rational thing to do if you're physically strong and you have good cardio, but it's bad as an entertainment aspect yeah and look I hate to use words like you know gatekeeper and things like that for a guy in

Magni who's won a bunch of fights in a row and has looked good overall but he's fighting in a style that's more of that right like this fight was to find out what Robbie Lawler had left we found out because Neil Magni is a certain level good enough like when he rallied past Tony Rocco Martin but I haven't seen yet that extra added sprinkle on top and splash that tells me a he's a title contender or b I want him to be one right I mean he's there's no argument he's very good good. Leon Edwards, very good. Rakic, very good. But that idea that you're a threat as a finisher, again, the man who will win notwithstanding, there needs to be more evidence for that, I think.

And you're seeing this intentional, strategic posture that doesn't even look for it in many cases. All right, with that in mind, BC, let's go back to you here. Canelo typically fights on two major dates a year, BC. One is Cinco de Mayo, which is, you know, not necessarily the most historic date on the calendar, but he does fight on one other date that is very historic, which is Mexican Independence Day, which is in about two weeks. And he has no opponent. To my knowledge, he has no intentions of fighting on that date, even though he may have at some point. Dude, what on earth is going on with Canelo and Golden Boy and DAZN?

Not enough. Not enough answers. We've been in this holding pattern seemingly the entire quarantine of we know Canelo is going to come back this fall, but against who? And the conversation of the opponents, which started with WBA super middleweight champion Callum Smith, who's unbeaten from England. He's exciting to a certain degree. And Billy Joe Saunders, another title holder at 168, who certainly can find an interesting

challenge in their style wise against Canelo. Then those names went away and now they're back as the leading contenders. And along the way, we've seen some others of varying degree. against Canelo. Then those names went away, and now they're back as the leading contenders. And along the way, we've seen some others of varying degree, most of the kind of guys we don't want to see Canelo against. This has been a massive fail from my point of view. And look, there's already been a lot of pressure on DAZN overall with a lot of the rumors of their demise. Can they keep putting on big fights under that business model? Obviously, the quarantine came at a wrong time for everybody, them as well, but they're committed and they're on the books to paying Canelo Alvarez $35

million per fight and paying Goldenboy a reported $40 million overall to put on the fight, pick the opponent, all that stuff. Now it's just stretched out to the level where there's no buzz at all about the biggest star in the sport, arguably the sport's most important fighter coming back. Both the

Smith fight and both the Saunders fight, I can get excited about either one from a boxing purist point of view, especially if you did the right kind of media tours to get Billy Joe's mouth out there to insult Canelo and get the drum beating, but now we're talking about Canelo coming back in November, and

I just feel like nobody cares, Luke, and that's a really rough spot to be in. Saunders and Smith aren't going to attract the casuals or the part-time boxing fans. Triple G would, and I know that they probably would be fighting Triple G right now if it wasn't for Gennady's weird decision that he wants to do a mandatory first that he promised against some guy we never heard of. All in all, though, whether you want to put the blame on Dazon, Golden Boy, Canelo, or all three, this is pretty much a disaster. Because we've seen when boxing initially came back from the quarantine and there just wasn't anything happening to grab you.

Now we're starting to see the pickup of some good matchups. We had one over the weekend. Showtime boxing kicking in. We got some pay-per-views coming. Fox is back. We're getting a little bit of momentum. You need that Canelo fight there, as to quote Scott Coker, the tent pole, a placeholder of this is

the weekend I see him. And for this to come down in this spot, I'm not saying it's easy for DeZone when he owed the guy $35 million finding the right opponent that makes sense, but at some point, you got into the Canelo business to sink or swim, right? You paid all that money to make this happen.

Make it happen. You paid Gennady the money. Make it happen. I don't care who you have to please or what you have to do. DAZN launched on the idea of Anthony Joshua and eventually getting us Canelo Triple G3. Just make it happen already because I'm at a point where I'm even sick of hearing about it

and going a whole year with Canelo either not fighting or maybe coming back in November for something that ends up feeling ho-hum. Not a good look overall, Luke. Yeah, I mean, I don't have much to add except a couple of things here. I know that this is a Showtime product, so everyone's going to be like,

oh, these guys are just bashing DAZN to do that. Well, let me say something. I'm a DAZN customer. I've been a DAZN customer since the first day you could sign up for it. I think their name is stupid, but I like, in theory, what the product is supposed to stand for. I did not cancel my subscription during the pandemic, and I didn't log in one effing time. I think the first time I logged in again was, God, I don't know. I'm not even sure when it was, but it was relatively recently. I just spent

months not even using it. I did not cancel my subscription because i think boxing is in a better space when the zone can succeed and i mean that the uh truthfully but here's the thing they basically their premise of launching relied on a few things and i'm not going to get into all of it but two of them are really important one was that pay-per-view was dying even in this pandemic where millions of americans are out of work that is clearly not true and i thought there was a time where maybe we were headed that way because the zone had come around wwe network had essentially moved away from pay-per-view ufc was doing something kind of weird by going to espn plus which was not traditional in that sense but it's still basically kind of pay-per-view

if you had cut out the middleman of the Comcasts and the Verizons and everybody else. Well, okay, I thought that was something worth taking seriously, but they have not been able to deliver on a consistent kind of product even really prior to the pandemic to make us believe that that was something that they were going to help usher in. If anything, there are as many or more boxing

and UFC or MMA pay-per-views than frankly there kind of ever have been. There's been no real decline in that sense. That's the first thing I'd say. The second thing I'd say is, dude, if the most popular fighter in your sport can't get going on a regular clip, and not every fight has to be exciting, we can forgive BC, and I think you would agree, the occasional rocky fielding matchup.

Nice guy, overmatched, okay, whatever. You can let that one go on occasion if the other pieces of the puzzle are there. Even when they have him move up a bunch of weight classes, they still make him sit behind UFC fights, which people then defended in real time. This like, cuck move, where you're allowing another product to run over yours, sort of signaling the less importance of it.

And then you can't find a reasonable fight for him even when you sign the fighters all together there in the same space. I mean, you can make a million excuses about how boxing is hard to get the fights done and it's expensive. And there's just a lot of sort of middlemen who impede progress, and I'm sympathetic to that. But at some point, this was the claim you were making. The claim you were making was that you could get enough of them in-house. You could get enough of them in rotation, that you could put them out there long enough that pay-per-view would go away,

and none of it has come true. I will not cancel my DA my zone subscription unless and until the zone gets rid of its combat sports profile i don't know if they will and if they dwell i don't know when that will be i will keep it but to be clear their central mission which they told the world loudly they were after they have not fulfilled it and they've not even come close bc and i think that the canelo fight and interesting is all emblematic of it final point on this is just to echo what you said it's not their fault that they launch a campaign that says we're going to kill pay-per-view and then boxing pay-per-view becomes more valuable than it's ever been because we can't have live stadiums in a live gate and all that stuff i'm just saying

hey da zone you already got canelo and triple g under under your under your stable you're paying them stupid amount of money you're overpaying them to make your name. The fact that they haven't fought, I'm not saying that fight is the fight that saves anything. I'm just saying you got into it to match those guys together. That's just an example of where are we at right now? What are we doing? Because if you can't even get them together on your own platform

and make it work, then forget about taking down boxing pay-per-view or competing in that space anyway. I'm just talking as a fan. I want to see these fighters fight. I want to see it matter. Boxing needs big fights right now, okay? Let's get Canelo back out there, and let's bang the drum and make it interesting.

Very quickly, over the weekend, Jose Ramirez defending, I believe, his what? His WBO, WBC titles at light welterweight so it's 140 pounds basically defeating Victor Postol are they going to set up the Josh Taylor fight for the full unification what is your takeaway from the weekend there you know that's obviously the plan Josh Taylor has a stay busy mandatory in September against a Asian man who I will not try to pronounce his name but he should win that and we should get this fight look I want to shout to shout out Top Rank. This was a fight on paper. Third time they tried to make it. Unfortunately, Postal had to fly to China in February just to find out the fight was canceled.

This was one of the better hardcore fights. And I think it played out that way. It was a fun little chess match. And you got to give Postal credit for having an argument to have won at the end of the day. He loses a tight majority decision. And now you got to ask yourself this. Jose Ramirez, after the fight, wasn't really happy with his own performance. He got a little bit of the day. He loses a tight majority decision. And now you got to ask yourself this, Jose Ramirez after the fight, wasn't really happy with his own performance. He got a little bit of flack. We do know that as they said on the broadcast, his intangibles are the true elite things about him, his character, his, his cardio, his pressure, all that stuff.

And it's not as if he's not a good boxer. He can do some things in there, but I don't think this fight, which was the final test to really get us excited about him and josh taylor all four titles on the line and oh by the way having that fight serve as the launch pad to maybe finally getting terrence crawford the welterweight champion who's on his own island with top rank espn a an opponent that matters an opponent where you can make a case that this guy might actually be able to give him trouble right now. We may see Terrence Crawford against Kell Brook, but we know it's an empty cupboard right now. He's not fighting the PBC guys at the moment. Top rank is doing a good thing of getting these guys at 140 ready. But Luke, from what I saw there, I don't know.

I've got to like Taylor who had an easier handle against Postal than Ramirez did. And let's not forget, Terrence Crawford destroyed a prime Victor Postal. I just didn't get the feeling that Jose Ramirez has an extra level to his ceiling to get even better than we've already seen. And on this course, look, that's fine. He'll be a tough out. But I don't see him beating Josh Taylor, and I certainly don't see him putting a dent in Terrence Crawford. Yeah, he sort of pinpointed that it was the lack of a crowd which he typically feeds off of that he was supposed to

fight in February and the fight was delayed twice and maybe could be I think you're right it was not the kind of it's like well okay you know you beat who you were supposed to beat post all only lost to who Crawford Taylor and now Ramirez I mean he's not some chump it's a solid win but you're right it wasn't the kind where you're like oh this, this is the guy that's going to take it from Josh Taylor. Still, any time you can get full-on title unification and someone can become only the fifth boxer at any point in history to have all the titles unified, it's something you should make.

It's something we should look forward to. Yeah, do you see, by the way, Rougarou? You see Rougarou getting on Twitter afterwards saying, Jose Ramirez, this is why you avoided me right there. We just saw why. Interesting, interesting. He lost to Josh Taylor in his last contest, right? He did, and that was an absolute classic close fight.

All right, let's get back to MMA here if we can very quickly. So it's not been 1,000% confirmed, but Dana White has hinted at it. I think he even said explicitly this is what they're looking for this to be. Anderson Silva, I think in October or so, is going to fight Uriah Hall. And it's a fine fight in the sense of, okay, I understand it, particularly BC on the Uriah Hall side. He was supposed to fight Jacare, a big-name opponent. That was the one when they did the COVID shows early in May in Jacksonville.

And, of course, he regrettably got sick and they had to call that off. Then they were going to have Yoel Romero and he had to withdraw for undisclosed reasons. I bring those up to say, Hall has gotten with a new camp. He's with Saif Saoud, who is one of the best trainers in the sport. You think, okay, maybe this guy's really going to,

you know, begin to finally build upon all that potential. And those were name opponents. Now you're like, well, what's he going to do? So they give him Anderson Silva. If I'm Uriah Hall, BC, I love this fight. I love this fight because it's winnable. I love this fight because Anderson Silva still has a name. And if I'm the UFC, I understand why they made this fight.

They probably see Anderson Silva is going to be, if not this one, then the next one. But certainly they want it to be done. And Uriah Hall can get that name opponent that they feel like they probably owe him at this point. They tried to give him two, and they couldn't. And if he gets that win, great. They can move him up, and they just need as many fresh contenders for whoever wins that title at UFC 253. You know, not that Hall would be the title shot winner, but I'm just saying, keeping that train moving.

If you're Anderson Silva, I don't know why you accepted this fight other than you were forced to. Why on earth would he take this? Here's my question, BC. It's not that Uriah Hall beating him doesn't confer some kind of respectability upon his name, but we're talking about the greatest middleweight of all time here, maybe the greatest fighter of all time. Beating Hall at this point is impressive, but it doesn't meaningfully change his resume in any kind of way. Moreover, he's probably not going to beat him. Moreover, I did not like that fight that Conor had suggested

in the sense of that's what I thought the best use of Conor's time was. But you can't tell me that Conor going to the French Riviera, wherever the hell he's at these days, not fighting, rather than fighting Anderson Silva is a better use of his time. And I have a very hard time understanding what Silva gets out of this because his chances aren't good. And even if he wins, it doesn't do anything for him versus the Conor fight. Even if you lost that, it's fun. It's sort of frivolous in a way. And it's really weird and unique.

I didn't like that fight either, but I'll take Conor versus Silva over what we have this time any day of the week. Yeah, I hate this. Hated it. Two snaps down all the way here, Luke. I've been really critical of how they've booked Anderson Silva at the late half of his career. Do you know what Silva should be doing right now?

He should be doing what Fedor's doing in Bellator. The reality is Anderson Silva would have a great time in Bellator. Like, the reality is Anderson Silva would have a great time in Bellator. You can book him in fights that he can still win, because even at 45, there's still some real fun things left in the tank. Not title contending things. Not, let's go have him beat these grinders

and these hard-ass guys, but fun fights. Could you imagine him in Bellator right now against, like, Machida, and we'll bring back Rashad. You could do some fun against Fedor. You could do some fun, weird matchmaking. Here's the thing about UFC, though. They can do the same thing.

We always credit UFC because the best always have to face the best. And again, I'm not naive to the idea that eventually your stars face your up-and-comers and you sort of go through the food cycle there. And, you know, Anderson going in there, by the way, against Israel Adesanya was somewhat of that, right? And he gave a great effort and he shined up Adesanya for his next step in the future. All that good stuff. They do not know how to book him overall.

The Derek Brunson fight, what was there to win there? That shouldn't have happened. The Kananir fight made no sense at all. This fight right here makes no sense at all. If he wants to keep fighting and he's still a decent level of a draw happen the cannoneer fight made no sense at all this fight right here makes no sense at all if he wants to keep fighting and he's still a decent level of a draw and he's exciting and he's not out there getting knocked out which you know last time i checked outside of leg injuries and and acting like a buffoon against weidman anderson silva doesn't get knocked out why don't you just

give him his bellator tour run right now in the octagon the connor fight's not a bad idea you know what i'd like some of the fight how about robbie lawler you can't do that how about another nick diaz type fight that's what makes sense he just wants to compete and have fun and take challenges he gains nothing by fighting guys you have to fight to climb the ladder those days are over they made one more fun dan henderson biz ping 2 type run out of it and said hey if you beat out of sonja you get one more title shot and luke like i said to his credit he pulled out what was left inside of him and that's fine those days are over ufc wake up treat him like the legend he is put him in fun ass main events give him the only legend that they've properly known how to book and that's rich Rich Franklin, and that was by accident. He became the reliever in the bullpen.

You need a name at 185, you need a name at 205, call Rich Franklin. He'll make some fun-ass fights. He'll knock out Liddell with a broken arm. That should be Anderson Silva right now. Why do people not get this, Luke? Yeah, and the other part about it is you can't even argue he's never done the UFC solids in terms of matchmaking.

He has taken on the guys like Adesanya and Kananir the next wave Adesanya was not champion at that point so that next wave of contender to set them up with a name and a future and everything else plus filling in for John Jones against Daniel Cormier on short notice at UFC 200 going to fight Michael Bisping in London. The dude has done this part of his career already. You can't say he's never helped the UFC out. Yes, he absolutely has. If this is his last one, why is he not in the funnest fight

that you can make on the roster? And maybe the whole fight will be really good in this way and we're all just being super negative. Okay, fine, I will come on here and eat crow if that fight ends up being tremendous. But I have a feeling it's not going to be. It's going to end up being like, oh, you know, Hall probably wins. And, you know, maybe there's exciting moments here or there.

But it's, you know, relatively one-sided, relatively lackluster. And that's just the end of it. That's how the great Anderson Silva is supposed to go out of the UFC. It seems ridiculous to me. So I don't understand what the motivation is other than they have this sort of myopia about what they're doing with their aging stars. All right.

Last but not least, BC, take us... Wait, we just want a couple more to sprinkle on. Can we throw GSP some money? Or if we're keeping him in the bullpen for Habib, that's fine. How about Junior Dos Santos? How about we put Andy out on a go-away at heavyweight for fun, roll it out there?

There's a lot better ways you can do this. Right, and to your point, even Gsp is saying he finds a fight with khabib very very unlikely even post dana white's recent comments because they don't want him to go off with the title well congratulations you don't have to worry about that if it's anderson silva versus gsp or anderson silva versus conor mcgregor or whatever none of those concerns are in play and at least it keeps everybody busy it's I don't get it I really don't understand because I got an interesting question to ask you you're not in a hurry you don't have jobs no I do have a HR meeting but we got time I know people Javier Mendez the coach of Habib at AKA came out and said an interesting

thing to a Brazilian podcast. He said, um, if Habib ends up fighting GSP for the lightweight title in his walk-off fight next April, we're assuming he would have beaten Justin Gaethje to get there. He says the winner of that fight is the greatest of all time. Now, right when you hear that knee jerk, you're like, uh,

you know, buddy, I got bones Jones on line one. All right. It's, it's the booty call at 4. AM on the street there in Albuquerque. Uhque uh um but the more you think about it though look i think john jones is to go up and down every day of the week don't ask me again right there are obviously still people

who think gsp is right now there are people who think anderson anderson is or fade or whatever there's still room in the argument i think until john goes up and wins the heavyweight championship there's still room to make that case i stopped doing the knee-jerk thing and i started thinking about it if habib retires at like 30 and oh and he beats uh you know connor justin gaethje uh gsp uh you know you add on the, three, four solid ass wins he's had. He's already in a spot being unbeaten and being so dominant where it's going to be hard to know exactly where to put him in the all-time. Maybe that's not out of the question. You could say he's the GOAT after that.

And if GSP won a third championship or a third division, of course he'd be the damn GOAT. I think Javier Mendez is right. You can market it this way, and it's not insulting. That would be very interesting. Because I always said, if GSP can market it this way and it's not insulting. That would be very interesting. Even if, cause I always said, if GSB can't make lightweight, don't do the fight. There's nothing to gain from a catchweight fight at welterweight outside of money. And Hey, I beat GSP, but I think if you bill it the right way and really make it about the goat, you might be able

to get to, to, to, to take that step forward past John Jones in the mythical all-time, who cares, greatest of all-time debate. Yeah, but here's the problem. If Khabib goes in there and does Khabib things to him at 155, then the reverse is going to sort of undo the fight, which is to say you're going to have a scenario where you can look at it and you can say, okay, it's still a nice win. It's a great win, as a matter of fact. It'll probably make the UFC and those guys a boatload of money.

I don't think it's going to be a bad fight in that sense. But you'd be like, well, he beat a GSP who fought two times over eight weight classes for the first time at 155, nearly the age of 40. Doesn't really tell you a whole lot about who's the goat there. That's the problem for me if you're Khabib. I understand that there's a name value to it and a substantive value to it. But I'm sorry, that's not the clincher for Khabib to be the greatest of all time if you beat that version of St. Pierre.

And by the way, I don't even know if that's necessarily fair, but there's no way to know how good that version is, especially if he ends up getting housed. You're like, does it mean that Khabib was that guy? Or does it mean that this dude at nearly 40 years of age getting down to a weight class that was too unnatural for him sort of just depleted him? But you do know that

it would be less about beating gsp for habib and it would be the total body of unbeaten work that you'd make the okay but here's the let me ask you name a fighter that has a better in your mind is floyd mayweather the best boxer of all time he's not right he's up there but he's not right right so name somebody better than him in terms of where you rank them that has losses on their career. Sugar Ray Robinson? Yes, but it was a different era in which you're fighting every book

because you had to. This is my point. And let's not forget, Floyd was all about that unbeaten record, right? He made it the marketing scheme. I understand. It's a savvy thing. I get it.

But here's my point. What is the difference between Ray Robinson's resume and Floyd's, eras notwithstanding? It's not that Ray Robinson has losses, but he has so many more wins over so many more top contemporaries in a much more active clip. The amalgamation of it all really counts there.

Now, 30 wins would make him easily, for Khabib, easily the best lightweight of all time. I mean, that would not even be up for debate. Hell, he might get that if he beats Justin, to be honest with you. That's what we're talking about here. But greatest of all time, when a guy came down

to your weight class, I don't know about that. Then that means, are you saying, and I'm not saying this is wrong, but are you saying that even with a win over Gaethje, that if Habib retires unbeaten next April, he will not have beaten enough elite contenders

due to the gaps, due to injury and fasting and all that stuff? To be the greatest of all time, irrespective of weight class? No. To have a firm claim at the GOAT in your eyes,

not anybody else, in Luke Thomas' eyes. Yeah eyes yeah no of course not why would you to me the losses they count they matter but dude you got like i don't they're not disqualifying from the conversation in the way that people think they are sometimes how you lost them when you lost them insane if you'd only lost one round in 30 fights i mean you would have to weigh that in the conversation luke no dude again he might already be and if he beats justin he probably is the greatest lightweight which by the way that's the toughest division in mma but to me it's like beating gsp now what's harder beating gsp right now 155 or beating kamaru at 170 i'm gonna say it's beating kamaru you might disagree with that now at 170. I'm going to say it's beating Kamaru. You might disagree with that. Now, at 170, I don't know.

It gets a little bit dicier there if both are 170. But St. Pierre never been at 155, fought twice in eight years if they end up making that happen. That's a tougher fight than Kamaru at 170. I don't believe that. And so you have to ask yourself, what is the value of that win? And then it begins to get to a territory where that's the thing you're going to say is the nail in the coffin on the argument i don't i cannot accept that

what if i substituted tony ferguson and for the april fight again best lightweight of all time and then then the conversation gets a little bit dicier because um you know what would it mean he's gonna have a case he's gonna have some fingers on that throne on that you know he's gonna reach for it if he beats's going to have some fingers on that throne. He's going to reach for it. If he beats Tony and Justin to end the career, Luke, he's going to have a hand on that. Yes, and again, if he goes in there and houses both of these guys, then you're getting to a territory where it's like Jon Jones has,

which is, you know, I mean, well, the last few fights have been a little bit dicier, but up to the Tiago Santos fight, just sort of ran away with it. Okay, BC, we don't have to go long just for the sake of going long. Let's quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly look ahead to next weekend. You know, it's funny.

NBA ratings are down and UFC ratings are up, and I'm not mad about it, but it is kind of funny because the NBA is in the middle of their playoffs and UFC is putting out like contender series cards with just a few UFC events at the top so next weekend Alistair Overeem is taking on Augusto Sakai it's the right fight to make BC if you're matching up where everybody is and Overeem still wants to find one more opportunity for a

title shot if he can get there is is the Sakai fight really a meaningful mover in that direction no this this main event sucks is it as bad as the uh remember that time derrick lewis and uh abdul uh what was that guy's name amir khan abdul of you know the heavyweight no uh abdur rakimov yes they fought in ufc albany yeah this is as bad as that in a lot of ways. Look, shout out to UFC. They got a fight card every weekend from now until mid-December. Forget Joe Exotic. They're the MVPs of this quarantine by far. This is just an off week, Luke. I mean, did I prefer Jessica Ai, Cynthia Calvillo to this?

Probably, maybe. Probably, yeah. By the way, your best friend michelle pareda is back this weekend are you going to be excited for his back flipping yeah who's that circus clown fighting uh zaleem amadiev imadiev all right hopefully he can do a spinning back flipped off the cage and catch him with a uh reversed uh yeah whatever whatever look whatever it. It's fine. Yeah, and also OSP versus Benefield. That's a good fight. That one got delayed because one of them had COVID.

And then Jalen Turner versus Tiago Moises and then Cole Smith versus Hunter Azure. So there's some good fights. He needs more women's straw weights, if you ask me, Luke, okay? Can never get too many of them. Okay, now is the portion in the show where you guys get to ask us questions.

You do this every sunday on instagram it is time now for dms from dogs and i'm not going to mouth breathe this time i'm ready for the animation okay bc let's get right to it underscore uh at will underscore excuse me aja do you think the lack of a crowd and subsequent booing is allowing longer grappling exchanges to happen, leading to different fight cadences and outcomes? That's a great question. That is a great question.

Who the heck is Will Asia? Will Aha? That's a great question. Wow. You know what, Luke? I would like to see somebody who's much nerdier than me with a lot of time really kind of try to figure that out because there's been weird pluses.

I kind of like this season of the empty arena fights. You know, I mean, the only time it stands out to me is when there's a giant brawl and you're like, wow, people would be losing their ish over this. Outside of that, I've loved seeing the changes. You know, every fighter I talk to, the first thing I ask, how much does hearing the commentary and your opposing coach's corner like change things I think this might be that might be true Luke I would like to see the numbers verify this intuition I would not be surprised if it's true to be honest with you I mean the referees dude they're human they're human they're going they can say all they want that the crowd booing has no effect on them and

i'm sure that they want that to be true and in many cases individually this one that one it probably is true but is the question does booing overall have any measurable impact on the speediness of stand-ups i suspect there probably are this is a hunch but i suspect there probably is some truth to that how much i don't know but you know this idea that like the fans being removed makes no difference in the end sorry i just don't believe that at all look you can't go this you can't go this whole show by the way and not mention that guy with that giant devil back tattoo on saturday night big win sean brady sean brady yeah i felt like it's not a devil back i on Saturday night. Big win. Sean Brady. Sean Brady. Yeah. I felt like Paul Felder was going to. It's not a devil back.

I think that's a Japanese sort of style of masking. Yeah. Paul Felder was like on the verge of fellatio there in the post-fight interview. Very excited for him. Big win. Looked very good. He was on the verge. He was on the verge of blowing him.

I don't know if that was quite true, but all right. At Dodo Bard asks, do you think the recent nba and mlb players protesting their respective games will help mma fighters understand the efficacy of collective action fuck no can you absolutely not basically if you're asking what was the material change that resulted and i'm not so much from mlb but but certainly from NBA players protesting having those games after the shooting of Jacob Blake, I would say two things. One, it forced this attention on Jacob Blake situation that had kind of not dissipated, but had never really reached critical mass. I'd seen other shootings take greater national profile,

and you may say for better or for worse, but it just sort of refocused attention on it, which was intentional by the NBA players. The second part is, I believe they reached a deal with most of the owners of the venues in which they play to turn those venues into polling stations, which is a real tangible benefit and change. And so the question is,

don't you guys, don't you MMA fighters see if you band together, you may not want polling changes or police brutality you know awareness whatever your cause is don't you see working together gets you there dude they know working together gets you there no one wants to fall on their sword to get there that's the difference so no it's going to do absolutely fuck all in terms of change uh this is a tough spot here because ufc is not really recognizing any of this right company the decision to kind of be look uh you know you saw some of that stuff uh dana saying don't even mention the quarantine on

our air we want to be separate from regular life so no political crossover at all will be your entertainment enjoy us that would be obviously an easier mindset to accept if dana wasn't at the rnc giving a passionate speech and if you are inclined to not uh vote on that side of the line then i'm sure you could have uh issues with that so in light of that is it okay for the ufc to really have zero public statement I mean look I don't even I'm not saying on the back of the NBA jersey it should say all these messages you know there's many ways to to have a statement and put it out there but do you think UFC's across the board just this is not even happening is the right move considering what we're where we're seeing dana on tv well here's what i would say i i am totally in support of all of the movements that the nba players are in support of like i don't

disagree ideologically with them at all but i disagree with my colleagues particularly in media who are like oh the end the ufc should come out and say they support Black Lives Matter. Why? Why? You know they don't believe it, number one. So just giving it stupid lip service is some kind of like some empty gesture is what you want. I don't want that. Number two, I am not one of these guys who looks for ethical and political leadership from sporting corporate entities or any corporate entity promoters fight promoters it's like it's like dude here's the thing but not even forget about

fight promoters it's like do you remember i said this on my live chat do you remember what if it was dove or nevaeh or gillette did that like anti-toxic masculinity ad and they got a lot of shit for it for the way they handled it but it's like dude like i don't need any of these companies to be my compass for what is a moral choice in the world especially when you were not created for those purposes there are companies from the way from the day in which they're founded bc that built into the fabric of their identity they're going to be part of some kind of ethical leadership and you may not agree with that particular form of ethics founded BC, that built into the fabric of their identity, they're going to be part of some kind of ethical leadership.

And you may not agree with that particular form of ethics, but it's part of who they are. I'll give you an example. Fair trade coffee, for example. You can buy the coffee. You can agree with the mission or not, but that's who they are. Part of what they're doing is to take care of what they think is a problem by virtue of how they arrange their business.

Okay, fair enough. Chick-fil-A on Sundays. Deal with it, Luke. Okay? Right, right. Gillette, you sell fucking razors. Like, you can save it. You can can it.

I don't care. And it's the same thing with this. Last thing I'll say on this. The same thing with Colin Kaepernick and Nike. I'm not against anything Colin Kaepernick says. Him kneeling is not anti-troops. It's not against, you know, all the things that

his critics say that it is it's so ridiculous that people are all triggered by it i don't care about it but am i gonna go buy his t-shirt from nike no and more to the point do i think nike is doing that because they really believe in the ethics of it no they're doing it to make a buck their business went up when they did it so nike g Gillette, whoever, these are not my moral barometers. I never will rely on them. I respect that take out of you, and I didn't think you would give that as it pertains to the UFC. What you're basically saying, Luke,

is you almost respect Dana and company more for not bullshitting, for saying, you know, we don't care what you think we believe. You can guess what we believe, but we're not going to make it about this. I mean, look, there are levels to it. I'm not mad at the NBA for doing it, PC, to be clear. Like, if that's what they want to spend their time doing, do it. And I'm not saying that no good will even come of it.

That's also not what I'm saying. I'm just saying when I think about whether or not I agree or don't agree with Black Lives Matter, the NBA pushing it on me has zero effect one way or the other. Yeah, I think overall I do agree with that. I know it's different for the NBA because the percentage of black players in it is huge. So if this wants to be a little bit more of a billboard for that movement, go for it. I have no problem with that. Do I think the back of the uniform is a little extreme maybe to my personal taste as opposed to on the court or a flashing screen whatever i don't care what you do during the national anthem like i'm all for

express yourself but i i may agree with you on that part i think that's the the the full agreeance i am happy that that this isn't an empty gesture from dana and company and i do think you should be able to close the walls down and say that once you turn this channel on this show on, we're not touching any of that stuff. If that's the way you want to present it and just this is the escape, then it is what it is. Also, you know, Dana, they'd ever say anything about Black Lives Matter. And then he goes and speaks at the RNC. Is it a mystery which way that they stand on this? And either way, you want to support that or not?

I'm not going to judge you for it. This is the other side of the equation, too. It's like, why are NBA ratings down? Well, partly they're having afternoon games. That's just like a death zone for ratings. Okay, fine. But I've seen people be like, oh, it's because of their advocacy. Yo, Dana White and I probably agree on nothing.

Absolutely nothing. And that's not going to stop me from watching his product. His product is good in general. Dana White and I probably agree on nothing. Absolutely nothing. And that's not going to stop me from watching his product. His product is good in general. I'm going to keep watching. And these people who are like, I can't stand, I can't stand black players being concerned about black issues. Like, really? Like, this is so awful for you that you can't even watch the basketball?

Like, just put it on mute if you don't want to see. We'll do whatever you got to do. But if you really love basketball that's going to stop you i don't i don't believe that the one thing i'll say this to nbc for that i'm just pumped up you and dana are finally eskimo brothers on something luke this is good well here's what i'll say bc the one thing i do think what the ufc airs is if you don't want to wade into the controversies that's fine and to the ufc's credit when aljamain sterling wanted to say something about it they didn't you know they're not telling you not to say say whatever you want to say when it's your turn to have the microphone

fair enough that that's the way it should be if the play if the athletes want to get out there on their own time either on the broadcast or afterwards and say stuff i'm fine the part that i disagree with the ufc on is like we don't want to mention anything about covid or anything about quarantine it's like dude we know this is at the apex there's no fans here everyone's wearing a mask a modest accommodation of that reality on the broadcast i don't think we'll hurt anybody this idea like we're going to totally block off the world you can't the world has bared down upon you. You cannot separate the two. It's fair.

All right. That's fair to a degree. All right, BC. At JG Rivera 12, do you believe this pandemic has expedited the changing of the guard between old vets and upcoming fighters since there are a limited number of fighters available and fights to create? You there? What do you think? You there, Luke? Yes, can you hear me?

I didn't hear the end of your question, but that's fine. We'll roll on. Expedited the changing of the guard. I mean, we're seeing some of the same fighters fight again and again and again. I think Hannah Cyphers fights every three hours in 2020. Maybe that's availability. I don't know where the fighters live. I don't know.

I haven't really thought too deep about this. I don't even know if it's time to really start thinking too deep about this. But thank you for your question. Yeah, I would need a better explanation of the mechanisms in play here. It's an interesting theory, but I don't exactly know. So we'll move on to the next one at billy big wheels bc the mma genie grants you your one wish to change the outcome of any fight let's say mma fight obviously which fight do you choose and why uh weidman silva one

and i'm not i'm not necessarily you know anti-Chris Weidman or fanboy Anderson Silva. I just, again, I don't think either of those fights answered the proper question of who was the best middleweight in the world at that moment. And, you know, that was Andy playing with the house money a little bit too much and just gambling with the chin and doing all the mechanisms and he became more about the mechanisms in that fight unfortunately and he got served. He paid the ultimate price for it. But

I'm sorry I went back and watched both fights and I'm not convinced that Chris Weidman was better than him then and should have been the champion at that point. What is a mechanism? It's an alternate pronunciation of machinism I possibly's it's an alternate pronunciation of of uh machinism or i i possibly made it up you mean machination uh macadamian i'll have to look it up afterwards i use a different

dictionary than most people i see uh i would go well the biggest upset m well, the biggest upset in MMA history, the biggest robbery in MMA history is Mike Easton, Chase Beebe. I guess on who got done wrong, I'd probably go to that one. But honestly, I'm going to play the recency bias game, BC, and I'm going to go Jon Jones, Dominic Reyes. I thought Reyes won that one. I wanted machinations. I did want machinations. You're right.

You went Jon Jones, Dom Reyes wanted machinations I did want machinations you're right yeah you went you went John Jones Dom Reyes yeah that's a little bit of recency bias obviously but now you're saying if if Dom had won that by split decision you you think that's better for the sport that John has to go back there and get a rematch to win his belt back he can become his I just to me it's a much more interesting world than the one that we got in certain ways. I mean, if he goes up to heavyweight, which I think he would have done anyway, I guess you get that part of it. But here's the thing to me. It's like, when

people said Gustafson beat him the first time, I'm like, I don't see it. When they said Tiago Santos beat him, I didn't see it. I saw Reyes beating him. Reyes won that one to me, and that's the only time I've ever seen John where I scored a fight against him and to me it was pretty clear

I just feel like I wonder what would happen if you if you let that bomb go off and how it changes things it'd be curious or you know Cormier wins the rematch between them or you know something like that where you get a more of a rivalry I don't know it'd be kind of interesting all right last

but not least I think the one the one fight is not an mma fight and it's a little bizarre but if uh if good old maymac had ended uh yeah the other way on on some kind of like lucky punch from hell i mean conor mcgregor could be muhammad ali at this point right can you imagine if like if if floyd was doing to connor what he was doing up until the 10th round right just marching him down, blah, blah, blah, and then Conor hits Floyd with a punch like Marquez hit Pacquiao in their last

fight, flatlining him like that. And he goes face first. It doesn't have to be Al Cole. Imagine if he just wobbled him and he jumped in with punches, rescues a stoppage that might be a little bit too quick. We get a big money rematch. I'm just saying, if there was ever a time for one athlete to like not triple quadruple but like make their all-time footprint in the in the pop culture and sports landscape like connor that

would have been the moment where connor would have went from like uber superstar to like immortal in that one second. For sure. All right, from MT Booble. What celebrity death hit you the hardest, both the people you've met and those you didn't? Now we'll get from me to Chadwick Boseman a little bit later. I'm going to cover that in odds and ends. BC, is there a celebrity death where you really kind of felt it in ways that maybe you hadn't before?

I'll be quick on this part uh you know i don't want to be that guy who's like don't tweet about david bowie i bet you own none of his albums how was he inspire you in a light like you know i do hate the the social media era let's like overly mourn somebody and i will say there's some truth off of that and how i look at it i don't know these people. Whether they're alive at 55 or dead, unless they're on my TV still producing art, I never knew them. It's sad, but I've rarely, Luke,

had that deep emotional connection. Look, Kobe died. It was a shocker because of the age, and I get that people could have lived with the Mamba mentality or been just a huge fan of him. I've just never felt like that with celebrities where it's like that's somebody i know i mean look if larry bird has a heart attack tomorrow yeah yeah they'll probably hurt more than others but is that is there anything wrong with me luke that i can respect the distance i haven't met these people like yeah i listen to their art and i respect it but whether they're alive or

dead in this moment i'm not seeing them is that is that harsh luke no that's okay i think that's okay um i actually um i have a bit of a different perspective which is that there have been people whose works have really affected me or had an impact on me at a very impressionable time in my life that passed away i have three of them very quickly. One would be when Carl Sagan died. It caught me out of nowhere. I was still in high school, I think, at the time. And I've read every Carl Sagan book that there is. I mean, Pale Blue Dot is a little bit harder to read, but I've read all of them, all of them, and all of his essays. And I know his biography, Backwards and backwards and forwards i've seen the original cosmos what's available out there anyway so that one kind of hurt um robert nozick has one of the most formative works ever on libertarian philosophy anarchy state and utopia and he was a harvard

professor when he died i think my senior year in college that one kind of affected me and then more recently on a sort of more frivolous end of things but uh Arnold Schwarzenegger is like my all-time idol and his number one right-hand man for most of his life was this Italian bodybuilder named Franco Colombo he died I think last year and he died by drowning um that one kind of hurt a little bit to be honest with you when he and Sean Price like I have his doll right up here like when he, it kind of affected me too. So yeah. I don't want to act like I don't have a heart.

Like Luke, if you die tomorrow, I'm going to be in an absolute mess. But I don't know. It's just different. I mean, obviously it's always harder when somebody's young and in the prime of what they're doing. And obviously you add some tragic elements, murder, suicide.

The Robin Williams one, that was probably the one I, okay. If you want a true answer to the question, Robin Williams, even though I wasn't specifically a massive fan, the connection with, with through suicide, that seemed to really hit hard and touch. And you realize that, you know, some of these illnesses are, you know, all these illnesses, you know, they're not, they're not, no one's immune to it. So I guess that part hurt i guess i just can't see like am i really that emotionally bruised if somebody who's already old that i haven't seen their art in 30 years am i that i don't know kurt cobain kurt cobain didn't

get you yeah i mean look big cobain they're like in the midst of their prime i'm sure that one could have hurt worse uh the bourdain worse. The Anthony Bourdain one hurt. Because he died so tragically, obviously. Someone so well-liked, so famous, so rich, so lucky in many ways, was so miserable that he ended his own life in a Paris hotel or whatever it was. That one kind of hurt, obviously. I wasn't even the biggest fan of his shows, per se. But just what it said about him. That was a that one kind of hurt obviously i wasn't even the biggest fan of like his shows per se but just what it said about him yeah you know for sure that was that was a tough one uh all right well i don't mean to sound like i have no heart i mean look the you know lead singer your favorite band

goes down it sucks i get it but whatever uh all right well with that in mind bc on that tragic note why don't you why don't you raise our spirits with some comedy fails? All right. Ooh, that's what we do. Here's what we do, Luke. We scour the globe, the good and bad, the ugly, the highs and lows in combat sports and beyond. It is Have You Seen This Shit? Another shout-out as well to the many, the many, the dirty swans,

all these people in my DMs every week, same guys, every time filling me up with these. Thank you. We start in top-ranked boxing over the weekend, Luke. Have you heard of junior welterweight prospect Elvis Rodriguez? Check him out there in the green. He's going up there against Corey Wilson. Beautiful finish, but rate me this celebration dance here, Luke.

A little Pete Townsend action going on here. Need a windmill. Yeah, not the best air guitar, but he is wearing gloves, although he is super talented, this kid. He's a southpaw. He improved to 9-0-1 with nine knockouts, trained by Freddie Roach, so be on the lookout for this fella Elvis.

Elvis is still with us. By the way, people mourned the crap out of Elvis when he died. Like, look, JFK, a president who stood for something that people had an emotional connection with. Go ahead, Luke. Mourn him on the streets, all right? Is Elvis Panamanian or Dominican? What is he?

I believe he's Dominican. Yeah. All right. Am I a bad person because I didn't light a candle when Lane Staley went? I don't know, Luke, okay? That's it. That's it.

I'm done with this conversation. Hey, let's go to... Yeah, thank, wow, that's dark of you. PBC on Fox Undercard. Here we go. Check out junior welterweight Abram Martinez with the tongue out here against Louis Arcon. Pretty brutal knockdown coming here in round two with the hook.

Oh, did you see that, Luke? Did you see some of that shit? Just stands in front of him. Oh, yeah. This fight was wild. It was dirty. There was trash talk. Only Luis Arcon did not stay down, Luke.

Let's fast forward to the final round here. This fight's up for grabs. Check out Arcon on the left rallying. If we can... Oh, wow. Three seconds to go. He scores a knockdown of his own. Fight ends in a split draw.

Good little piece of bingo right there from these guys. Yeah, look at that. Bah. Bah. Hold that, son. Main event, not my favorite with our Slendy Lara, but he rolled on there, Luke. Okay, here we go.

Why? Because he just stands in the phone booth and just fights? Is that because of his amazing gritty style? No, his opponent, yeah. German MMA championship over the weekend, Luke. They call this GMC Fight Night. Shout out to Kaposa for hooking us up. Luke, this is the real Fight Island right here.

Lakeside, what do you think? That's a sad Fight fight island i think that looks pretty badass no no i mean what is the difference here they're fighting near water yeah the winner gets thrown if if listen if they're fighting on a boat and then the winner gets thrown overboard like captain stabbing i'm all in but just fighting next to water like who gives a shit i do luke okay if you can't have fans like wouldn't it be great to be there pull up a cooler and a and a beach chair and a koozie where's my time you know you really yeah you really undersold my captain stab stabbing zing and i'm very upset about that i'm sorry i didn't get it you have to

explain it to me afterwards look we didn't know captain stabbing i don't should i should i and you have the audacity to talk about your bag of porn at the stag parties you lame ass yeah i know jerry jr captain hold on let me just say this i'll be i'll say this as delicately as i can captain stabbing's whole bit was he would take girls on a boat and he would have um he wouldn't enter the front door bc he would enter the back door when he went to his boat if that makes sense you know what i'm saying shake shake for me girl yeah i want to be your back yes and then and then when it was all done he would throw them overboard and then drive away all right hey that's great hey let's get even more ridiculous luke you want to play a game let's play covid conscious or covid reckless luke thou shall not judge from where i stand but you got no problem judging people luke fauci stepping into the doctor chair let's check out

ufc welterweight mike perry with coachore, his pregnant girlfriend. Luke, they're at a pool party. Mike's got the mask on, but pregnant Latore doesn't. Your thoughts? What does his mask say? Something about boobs and eyes? Yeah, don't look at my boobs, look at my eyes. Something like that. It's like a joke of some kind.

Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, I mean, they seem to be socially distancing. Don't look at my boobs. Look at my eyes. Something like that. It's like a joke of some kind. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, they seem to be socially distancing. It's outside. What are you going to do? Are you going to call the police? Just got to let it rock. I'd put the mask on the pregnant lady, Luke.

No? Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. Okay. Sorry. I'm not going to judge. But again, the mask is mostly designed for you to not spread it, not for you to not get it.

Okay. Okay. Sure. Hey, let's roll on to not get it. Okay, okay, sure. Hey, let's roll on to this, Luke. COVID-conscious or COVID-reckless? Check out Uncle Joe in produce right here. This is like an early Bane prototype. What is on his head? That looks like a muffler to me, Luke,

or I'm not a gearhead. I think it's, is that a 68 Chevelle right there? When did they open up a butcher shop at the Mos Eisley Cantina? That den of sin. Yes, yes. Thank you. All right.

Let's go to the next one. Check out this lady on the subway just calmly wearing her mask, but we zoom in, Luke. Oh, that is the... People are getting creative with their masks mine are just like basic colors you know but yeah this lady was like we got to put some dicks on this one yeah it does prevent uh fellatio though i hear so uh the you know the mask does block you from a few different things all right you know tyrone style you know that guy that is things, all right? You know Tyrone style? You know that guy? That is awesome.

Wow. All right. Hey, let's head over to the MLB. Look who's showing up in the crowd these days at virtual baseball games, Luke. They're the Kansas City Royals play. Wait, wait, wait. Is that Weekend at Bernie's, Bernie? Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. Just deader than shit sitting up there. I mean, think of the premise of that movie it's like two guys stumble across a rich dead guy and decide to use his house and money and party with him for a while i mean can i tell you a true story like first of all it's the most creepy ass movie ever because they just got a dead guy that they're hauling around as he's decaying uh i one time saw this like colombian soap opera with my wife's a true story. And it was loosely based on a true story itself. And in it, one of the mafiosos dies.

And when he dies, they put him on a motorcycle, not driving it, but riding bitch or whatever. And the other mafiosos drive him slowly through the town, and everyone's taking shots and celebrating. And I go, what are they doing? And she goes she goes this is actually not unheard of in like certain parts you know very very poor areas of south america especially like you know in the in like the favelas or the ghettos they'll take somebody

who dies and they'll ride them around or you know have them out in front of everyone partying and celebrating for one last ride i i don't know what that's called or how pervasive it is but it was certainly i was like they all do the actual weekend at bernie's bit yes they do you you know the katie vick story in wwe in like 2001 vince mcmahon approved a storyline in which they would sleep with a dead body this girl katie vick it was they would like have sex with her in coffins on the camera. Yeah, really, really bad stuff there, Luke. Okay, great.

Hey, did you ever see Weekend at Bernie's 2? I saw it in the theater. The worst movie of all time. Did you see it? No. Oh, so they go to Jamaica, and every time Bernie hears reggae music, he stands up and walks.

It's great. It's great stuff. All right. Well, that brought the show down speaking of wwe luke we had virtual fans there in their new thunderdome only these fans are on screens at their house and somebody put up a picture of uh murderer chris benoit yikes that is cold, man. That is really cold. Only that wasn't the worst of it. Somebody wore a KKK robe during it. They also put an ISIS execution video on one of the screens.

Yeah, there's some gross people out there in the world. Yeah, maybe a little bit more screening of some of these folks. Yeah, that would be nice. Please, please. All right, hey, let's go back to some fighting, all right? This is man versus machine. Public works guy versus a lawnmower, Luke. I got this 10-8 lawnmower.

Check this crap out, Luke. You know what? I've always wanted to drive those things. The best part about this video, if you can track it down, is that there's a couple in the car just laughing at him for five straight minutes. I would totally sit there and film this. This is great.

That's great theater. All right. That's going to be some moat-ass grass, boy. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Hey, let's move on here. Luke, remember that stupid-ass scene from a great movie, Above the Rim from the 90s,

when Nutso was playing hoops on the roof with leon and he goes up to slap the backboard and he falls off the building and dies look you remember this crap yes yes great movie right just not realistic though luke not realistic a shout out to leon there though dunking on eight foot hoops and uh wearing corduroys check out this in europe though very realistic nutso would die after the first layup, Luke. What is happening? What are these overly white gentlemen doing? What on earth could be the benefit of this,

except for some B-roll? I mean, what happens if you... I mean, you probably get one shot out of that ball, right? Yeah, and then there's no hustling. I mean, you know get one shot out of that ball, right? Yeah, and then there's no hustling. I mean, you know, you got to play that one real slow. Luke, I'd play you on that court. I would take you to the hole, Billy Hole. I would body you in the paint, knock you right off that.

I would just let you have it. I would not. Yeah. No. Thank you. I'm good. All right. And they got this sort of mini Stonehenge to hold the thing in there.

That's probably Russia. I mean, this is where all this stuff emanates from. There's a lot of people have time out there. Shout out to our Russian fans, by the way. Hey, speaking of that power couple, I hit you up on early coach Latorre and Mike Perry. Did you see the picture of them in matching bathing suits that's floating around the Internet? Luke, your thought? Someone photoshopped it. but yes, it's nice.

That's a photoshop you're saying? Yes. Are you sure? BC, do you not see that there are... Yes, of course I'm sure. I don't think that's photoshopped. I think he's doing it out of solidarity. He loves her, Luke. BC, it that's Photoshopped. I don't think that's Photoshopped. I think he's doing it out of solidarity. He loves her, Luke.

BC, it's Photoshopped. Okay. Well, I thought it was a thing because apparently dudes now are wearing these things called brokinis, Luke. What would it take for you to put your man bag inside one of these, Luke? Can we advance the film, Jay, please?

This is a thing. People are doing this. Brokinis. No? No? Wow. That is... It's like a George the Animal Steel thing, huh?

Well, yeah. Look at the unit on that guy. Indeed. I mean, it's not too different from like toga party type stuff, right? Can we throw to one of the greatest toga parties of all time? Yes. Shout it out. Senior year. Bayside. right can we can we throw to one of the greatest toga parties of all time yes shout out senior year bayside i like how there's the woman in the bikini and the only thing you're focusing on that

picture is the dude's package it's ac slater bro oh yeah yeah well let's go uh there have been famous brokinis in the past you said george the animal steel but i think you did mean um andre the giant but i can't think that this idea, imagine the craps that guy would take. Could you imagine? Oh, I mean, he's got toddlers that are coming out of his rear end. Look, they said he would have to use the tub in

most hotels, and that on a plane he would stay in his seat, and they would just put a curtain over him, and they'd give him like a pot. Could you imagine sitting in the row behind that? Yeah, his seat and they would just put a curtain over him and they'd give him like a pot could you imagine sitting in the row behind that uh yeah i have flown southwest yes first bag is free luke okay hey let's go on uh what is luke thomas like the best every row southwest every aisle comes with a free chamber pot. Great. Well, the first thing that I do is make them toss my salad.

All right. Luke loves animal on human violence coming your way here, Luke. This clip nearly set a record for most donks sending it to me, but this horse, wow. That horse is like, not today, buddy. Is that Dennis Seaver with the spinning back kick? That is some stiff strikes right there. Wow.

I wonder if that is Aaron Pico's horse with the hose-sized dong. Which I have asked him about. It's real. That is not a prosthetic, Luke. That is insane. All right. Hey, Luke, I need you to tell me what's going on here. I think it's Russia. It's from over the weekend.

Is there a senior MMA division? Look at this guy in the blue with a fantastic knockout. And then watch the celebration. What does he think? He's Elvis Rodriguez. What's going on here? Oh, snap. Look at that old bastard.

Is that Oleg Taktar old like who the hell is this guy oh it's like two contestants from the biggest loser at like week 16 that split was surprising luke i gotta what seriously what type of legit injuries would you if you right now went for a split luke what would be the outcome oh i'd tear my crotch i'm not limber at all all right all right uh it's stupid human tricks time luke uh do you rate this as impressive or ridiculous this lady on the exercise bike in the gym um wow Wow. No fails on this one.

Why are they always white? Always, bro. I don't know. If Karen can pull off moves like that, Luke, you should think about swiping to the right, you know? You know, Karen, who's in between waiting to speak to the manager, had quite a few tricks. All right.

Hey, Web Scream is the biggest supporter of this show. He's got quite a few tricks. Here's his creation of the week. Check out this MK beard switch. Oh, no! Luke, what do you think? I mean, I think you became infinitely more handsome with that switch. What do you think?

I look like a woman who's trying to be... I honestly look like somebody who is transitioning, honestly. I don't even mean that as a joke. I mean it sincerely. I don't? No, you do. Yeah, that was very apt. I didn't know if we're allowed to laugh at that legally.

But yeah, Luke, that make um the ridiculousness of your beard front and center when you put it on my mug right yeah but you look great you don't think you do you look like this is the first time i've ever looked at you and been like wow he probably does read books uh you i distant, difficult, militant, you know? You look approachable right there. All right. Yeah, approachable. That's true.

Hey, it's MK Merch Update time. We love our people who are out there on show.store.com, checking out our stuff, sampling it for them. Hey, take the Pepsi challenge, as Luke would say. Let's start off with here brent at the brent car on twitter uh cup of joe in the morning top of the morning to you brent uh shout out to that as well yeah badass all right hey let's go over to colorado my sister jen putting on the uh green t-shirt there all right that's a cute dog too man very cute dog

yes yes i believe that's my nephew is that dude i don't know all right hey let's keep rolling on here uh tom kinsley at kinsley 92 on ig look you're gonna love this he put his lady in the mk sweatshirt but look at what this guy's wearing on vacation he's got the old live chat t-shirt that's amazing promotional malpractice are those things still in print can we still order that? I think they might be, actually. Yeah. I don't think I sell very many of them anymore, but yeah.

All right. Well, these clothes not only look good on humans, Luke, they look even better on animals. Can we go to the dog here, Willie Randolph? You know whose dog that is? That is, you know, Maniche on our team? You know Maniche? That is Maniche's dog willie randolph look at this guy a stud right that is a i mean that pooch has some crooked ass teeth but he is

adorable oh yeah oh yeah shout out to maniche by the way that's a soulful white man have you heard his uh his music no all right well hey it's good nice endorsement just the same uh luke let's close on this i don't really understand what's happening here but you like the football so tell me um this guy shit his pants or what what is the doctor doing luke this is me before pepto-bismol this is step one i could see you and abuelo doing this before you start the show. All day sitting in the chair. You don't want to swap ass. You get out that.

What is that? What are they shooting? Chalk? I was going to say, did he cramp or something? And they're trying. I don't know. I don't know exactly what they're doing. Or did he get stung by an insect?

That sometimes happens. I'm not. BC, will you do this for me later in life? If this marriage between us and winds up working well will you you know I don't know dry ice my rear end no no no no no what player is that is that caca caca you mean caca it's hilarious and he's Brazilian although I think this is a Brazilian team all right hey that's all the ish i got for this week i hope you've seen it luke we don't we don't score big every week we try though okay thank you thank you you had some good ones in there bc it is time for odds and ends what

do you got for us on your odds and ends uh r.i.p to um we've seen a bunch of deaths john thompson just as we were getting ready for this show the great georgetown coach yes but um i did want to and i was a big geor big Georgetown fan in the 90s, so that one hit me particularly hard, Luke. I didn't know him, though, just so you know. You know who I didn't know well was Cliff Robinson. Shout out to the NBA great, Luke. Oh, look at Jay.

Look at Jay getting his black people confused. Can you follow the script here? Cliff Robinson was a UConn star. I obviously grew up and live in Connecticut. He was a solid NBA veteran. He played for 18 years. Look, he was on Survivor, one of my favorite shows, the CBS vehicle. But, Luke, I have to shout this man out for one other reason.

I don't know if I ever told you this story, but take me back to, I think I did once, 2005-ish, 2006. I'm in the New Jersey Nets locker room for ESPN. It's early in the day. It's just Cliff Robinson and two ladies from Europe who are reporters-ish, right? And Uncle Cliff walks in and went from zero to ball bag in like two and a half seconds. I mean, if you've got to let me search it. And were you confused whether or not it was Cliff Robinson

or Aaron Pico's horse? Yes. I mean, I was aghast. And I mean, it was only to be honest, it was only two inches, Luke, from the floor. And he kept a conversation going with those women the entire time. It was an old school dirty move. Shout out to the great Cliff Robinson.

Played for many a teams. Loved him in the early days in the finals with the Blazers. Athletic, can shoot, can do some things. So, RIP. Quickly as well, I had teased up that Australian Super Bowl of boxing last week. Tim Zhu against Jeff Horn. And yes, I was wrong. The Australian legends who also picked Horn by stoppage was wrong.

Luke, an absolutely fantastic performance from young Tim Zhu, son of the Hall of Famer Costa Zhu, who looked so much like his daddy in there, was poised, was countering perfectly to be honest Jeff Horn's a good fighter you know whatever you want to say about him he made Jeff Horn look like a raw amateur uh Zoo dominated eventually Horn quit on his stool and this was the type of victory where it's not like you know what other domestic names down under can we get him in there against it's I think Tim Zoo's of the world level it'll be fun to see where he will fit in in that larger 154 pound picture he's you know still climbing still has less than 20 fights under his pro belt but that was a manly win that was a statement win and uh

you know i ate some crow there and i enjoyed watching that so shout out fair enough uh all right and then for my odds and ends i will say over the weekend not really combat sports related chadwick bozeman the actor died of cancer at age 43 this is the guy that played among many other roles black panther interestingly enough he made something like eight movies or more between 2016 and his untimely death and that was when he was diagnosed with cancer which was he i guess he was about 39 years of age in 2016 he still made the black panther movies uh infinity war end game and i think either five or six other ones which would be as i wrote on twitter prolific by any standard shocking giving his illness and then more to the point uh just an absolute fighter of this guy i mean he wasn't just merely in shape

for the movies he was in like superhero shape at times all while battling colon cancer it's incredible and the other point about chadwick boseman first of all howard dc alumnus so you know down the street from me which was kind of a cool little connection but the real big story here is this is a guy who at age 43 he is untimely death number one he played Jackie Robinson he played James Brown he played Thurgood Marshall and certainly T'Challa the King of Wakanda is not a real character but in terms of playing iconic black characters let's say whether fictional or real this guy had more than the Holy Trinity. He had four of them, three real ones, and then maybe the most important one as far as

fictional characters go, at least for the modern age and superhero movies. An incredible run, an incredible legacy. And this is what I always tell folks about Black Panther. It's like, oh, I don't want messaging in my movies. Got great news for you. Black Panther's a great movie, no matter what your angle. You don't have to worry about any kind of messaging or whether or not it could have been told with a different kind of character. It's just so good. You have to like it. The fact that it told the story, that's frankly an under-told kind of story about an Africa unaffected by colonization and slavery, about one that's technologically

ahead of its peers, about one that could lead the world, frankly, in the universe in innovation and technology and in, frankly, self-love and be proud and everything. It was an incredible, incredible run that this guy had. Quite a shame that it came to a close at age 43 BC. But man, if you're going to do it, you do it like chadwick boseman i say that look i mean our discussion about how much you should mourn celebrity deaths notwithstanding this was obviously a shocker because he hadn't made it public but you just nailed that one thing to be able to be this prolific in important roles that mattered artistically, culturally and beyond and know of his, you know,

impending demise. Um, that's like humbling, inspirational, sad, all at the same time. Um, wow. To be able to, I mean, this is, you know, this is like, like walking away at the very peak of, of, of what you put out there and the imprint you were starting to make as an important actor, that this is certainly one that hits hard. And you challenged me to, I, to be honest, hadn't seen a lot of these films. And you challenged me to go back there.

And I watched Black Panther and I was thoroughly impressed this morning. I've actually not seen the Jackie Robinson movie, but I've seen Get On Up and I saw the Thurgood Marshall movie during the quarantine, which was surprisingly good. And then obviously I'd seen Black Panther and Infinity War and Endgame. I mean, it was, you know, I'll say this. Part of the thing that made his death so shocking was that nobody, when we say nobody, I mean us jabronis, we didn't know.

We had no clue that he was suffering from this. And it just goes to show, man, you just don't really know what people are going through. I thought this guy was on top of the world. And in many ways he was. In many ways he was absolutely not. I'm in awe of his grace under the challenges. And I have a completely different life than this guy but I just mean if I can have that kind of poise

and bearing under those kinds of constraints I'll be doing half as good as he did I'll be doing something pretty right so rest in power to Chadwick Boseman Yeah, it's going to make going back and re-watching those performances a lot heavier knowing how much he put into it, whether he knew this was his window to make this impact

and the clock was ticking. And obviously, if you can take anything positive from this, it's that the clock is ticking for all of us. So go do that thing. Go do it. Go get out there and do that thing. You want to make a combat sports show with really gross jokes in it? Go out and do that thing. Go do it. You know? Yeah, go do it. Go get out there and do that thing, alright? You want to make a combat sports show with really gross jokes in it? Go out and do that thing, alright?

Alright, BC, well I have to go to an HR meeting here. We ran a little long. Good timing after this show, Luke. That's probably the perfect, yeah, sensitivity time. Yeah, it is. I'll say this. Please give the video a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel. If you want to try Showtime

for all kinds of reasons, you certainly can. Showtime.com. You can get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, keep it. If not, you can go and do your thing in another part of the world. We have our merch up on the show store. I think it's... Let me see if I get that website right. It is store.show.com

S-H-O. Got our own dedicated page now, thanks to you folks out there. we really appreciate it and as i told folks at the beginning of the show bc we are full time now we're going to slowly move into that it's going to take our time we're not going to rush it but believe me we're going to have plenty of content coming for you at my instagram at your instagram at my twitter at your twitter and then you can see the show there. Hey, true or false, are the rumors true that you reached out to WebScream and said, paint me like your French girls?

Yeah, I actually did reach out to him for some help on a project, and shocker, he was superb at it. So I really appreciate that from him as well. Oh, quick roll call on shout-outs. Shout-out to our guy, L.A. Chargers wide receivers coach Phil McGagan, who got some much-needed press for the— did you see him tear some A-holes on hard knocks there on episode three? Bro, that was amazing.

Shout-out to Phil, a future head coach in the making right there. Big fan of that guy. He loves us. Shout-out to the great people from Tula Trees. Luke, you down with this company out of Australia? They're big MK fans. They make man, shower, and bathroom life so much cooler and organized. They have turned around my shower life,

if you know what I mean. Well, so they actually sent us both products, and mine truly, and this is not a joke, mine never made it. Mine got lost. So they sent me another one, which arrives on Wednesday. So I'm looking forward to seeing that

when it gets here. All right. Very good. Shout out to all the good people out there. Thank you. Well, thank you to everyone. Yes, thank you to everyone who made this possible. The new era has begun. We're going to ease our way into it, but once we hit the gas, there will be no break. Thank you to

Malka. Thank you to Showtime. Thanks to everyone who watched. For Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas. And until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. We'll see you next time. you you