MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Weekend Storylines | Kayla Harrison | McGregor-Diaz 3 | Quick Hitters | Ep. 265

Episode Date: February 16, 2022

On episode 265 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian look ahead to the biggest storylines of the weekend. What should we be looking for at UFC Fight Night and Bellator 274? Kayla Harrison says she is considering a cut to 135 for a potential fight with Juliana Pena. Nate Diaz says he is not interested in the Conor McGregor trilogy fight. Ryan Garcia left Eddie Reynoso for Joe Goossen. The boys close out the show with some quick hitters and fan submissions. (6:50) - Bellator Fight Announcements (16:40) - Weekend Storylines (40:00) - Kayla Harrison (48:50) - Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor 3 (52:00) - Ryan Garcia (58:40) - Quick Hitters Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the middle of the week, you ain't got no job. You ain't got shit to do. So let's do some MK. Hi, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I am merely just one half of your hosting duo here in the capital of Estados Unidos, Washington, D.C. I've been calling him the crown prince since Glover Teixeira took the belt. I think I'm going to switch it up for the boss of CT.

The bang-bang, body-bag, click-clack boss from Connecticut. My friend and yours. He's got a little bit of brain damage, but that's okay. It's Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian. How are you, buddy? Hi, Luke. I'm doing great.

Thank you. I wear this old school MK merch shirt today because I'm not only the Donk Club co-president, I'm also a client, Luke. So, you know, I'm out here just living my life. Hump Day. It's an interesting week in combat sports i got showbox uh this week so uh great time to be alive and look how about these temps they're starting to turn it around spring's coming i know everybody listening and you know florida is like you know first of all their their mask is off and second of all they're they're armed but third of all they're like bro we don't have those issues down here okay but uh we're getting there in terms of conquering this winter depression great to see you luke great to be heard by our people um wow

you know i mean look sometimes you got to wake up and choose happy over violence i did that today okay yeah me too i actually did that as well uh i've got my family visiting a little bit believe it or not and uh we're gonna take old tookster to the big park nearby when I'm done with this, men's room because to be fair it's the only uh room on that floor with a bathroom if i'm correct in the layout there is one more bathroom that's not quite what if he walks in in the middle of mk and is like well you know just just like talks down to you whatever what are you doing you know we've got to go to the splash pad he's not he's not he's not boorish like that that would. Okay, but let's say that happens and you're like, hey, dad, you want to say hi to the people?

Could that happen? No, that could not happen. He's downstairs right now working. So, no, there's zero chance of that happening. He's not that kind of guy. Trust me. But all right. Well, I will do that a little bit later.

So let's talk about what we're going to do today. We have a UFC fight card this weekend. We do that a little bit later so let's talk about what we're going to do today we have a UFC fight card this weekend we'll preview a little bit of that we have B a Bellator card this weekend we're going to preview a little bit about that we have some quick hitters we have some Kayla Harrison news on top of that plus BC before we get to this announcement very quickly let's just run through it Showtime is the label that pays BC is going to be on Showtime on Friday Bellator is going to be on Showtime on Saturday. It's a BC Bellator combo. Hard to beat. You can get it for free if you don't already have it.

Showtime.com. 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, do something else. But you will see BC do Showbox on Friday night and then Bellator on Saturday night. Although you're not doing Bellator, but you will be doing Showbox. And you get the MMA the day afterwards. Hard to beat that deal, BC.

I think it's a pretty good deal. You can't beat that with a bat hammer can't touch that luke that you know that's where i'm sort of at with that all right what was that video he had where he had like the eel in his uh dungarees that that would be pumps in the bumps when he wore the speedo i was like wow hammer you really changed your name but not really you know yeah well he wore the yeah he dropped the mc but he wore that speed that banana hammock of a speedo with just like wow bro wow yeah just you know he's got there's just a i mean i don't even know what's down there but it's enormous whatever it is anyway uh there's that i don't know why we're talking about that at all uh let's cbc uh the merch which you're wearing you can get at morningcombat.store that is available now i don't think we have any deals or any new merch but we do have some stuff there you

can catch of course the email morningcombat at gmail.com is the place to send all your stuff including for today's fan submissions and then for friday's dead wrong that will be the place and uh yeah if you're watching on youtube like the video hit subscribe if you're listening on podcast please give us a nice review on whatever format you are listening on. Okay, BC, before we get to all of the major stuff, we do have a bit of an announcement to get to today. Now, I do believe that this got either leaked or reported elsewhere. I think MMA Junkie had it as well, but let's start the show off here. Something of a semi-informal announcement, but worth getting out if you haven't already heard. So Bellator is going to go big. It appears on April 15th, not the 16th, but the 15th, they're going to do a double header.

The two fights on that card, first, there's going to be a rematch. You knew it was coming. AJ McKee will take on Patricio Pitbull again. Yes, McKee Pitbull 2 is set for April 15th, and that, of course, will be for the featherweight crown. On the other side of things, I guess it's the co-main. I'm not sure how they're going to structure the card. Double main event, Luke. Double main event.

Sorry, don't want to take that away. Vadim Nemkov will take on Corey Anderson. You might know this is the finals of the light heavyweight Grand Prix, and these two guys have absolutely earned themselves a place in the finals of the light heavyweight Grand Prix, and these two guys have absolutely earned themselves a place in the finals here. The winner, I do believe, has at least a legitimate claim at being the best in the world in that weight class. BC, your reaction to this card?

Oh, look, this is big. This is a big deal. Scott Coker used to love to roll out that term tentpole event, which he seems to do quarterly each each year to put to put the best foot forward this is bellator's best foot forward this is what you know two of the three best fights the promotion can make and it's going to happen on the same night friday april 15th in san jose uh luke it's massive and you know look first and foremost you could have just put this main event on this card and didn't even have an undercard. And we'd all be siced because on paper heading in Pitbull versus McKee was rightfully the biggest fight in Bellator history, the best fight, you know, maybe fights had that we argued had done

more views or what have you, but history what's at stake. And look, even though the way the fight ended, you know, it, it, it was, uh, you got as much closure as you could imagine. You got a, a, a attack from McKee that led to a near knockout and then a submission win. Uh, but at the same time, it felt a little cliffhanger ish. Like we didn't really get the true answers to all our questions. We saw a budding star go full bloom, but you know, if you're Patricio Pippo, you could have went down to 35 and entered that Grand Prix. You could have done different things. Instead, he gave up his lightweight title to give his brother a chance to fight for it and win it. And he's going all in

back on this matchup. So can you call this once again, the biggest and best fight in Bellator history? Luke, if it plays out a little bit longer and we get more answers to our questions, a little bit more back and forth, it has that chance to do that, even though you can't count out the same thing happening over again because McKee is just that great. Yeah, I mean, that was one of the grand arrival moments.

We likened it at the time, not that it was the same. There's meaningful differences everywhere, but it felt a little bit like what Conor did to Aldo, but of course they never rematched. Well, McKee, and given the circumstances of Bellator and everything everything else he's not only going to have to win this once he's going to have to win it twice and as we just saw with Whitaker we've seen it a million times when those elite champions who get dethroned get a second shot you know sometimes they don't even get it on the second shot but at a bare minimum

at a bare minimum the fight is totally different it's gonna i i am very much you're right we can't rule out mckee going there and blowing the doors off but i do think that pitbull's gonna make it one way or the other a stronger account of himself it's a huge fight as i indicated by the way bc nemkov and anderson have at least some some kind of a claim on number one you know it's debatable but whether or not pitbull or mckee have a debate on number one as the top guy at all of them may but even if you don't want to say any of those winners are number one what how far apart are they two or three we're talking about you know two fights that bellator could make where they have credible claims as the guy being one of the best uh or if not outright the best fighter in that weight class that's pretty rare putting them

on two on one weight class or one card no question and you have obviously tournament final championship at stake one million dollar prize at stake but luke you would say if you're scott coker and company and when you made the brackets for this light heavyweight world grand prix which has been a fun watch by the way what what would have been your best case scenario for commercial meets critical who would be the final two i mean would you have loved something like nemcoff versus rumble i mean or some combination maybe but this is really playing out despite, you know, Yoel Romero never even competing in this tournament, maybe as a plus for Bellator in terms of the potential ways it could have.

Vadim Nemkov, who has that argument of best light heavyweight in the world, did nothing but continue to cement that going his way up the bracket. But Corey Anderson turned out to be that dark horse we predicted he might end up being in this bracket. And Luke's just getting better every win. I mean, he ran through Ryan Bader. So you're getting a guy coming in red hot, coming to Bellator, has changed the fortunes of his life and career. And now he's got a chance to beat one of the best in the world and hold up that title.

So that as the co-main event, obviouslyke we're smitten as mma fans um i i looked at the official announcement i didn't see showtime officially named as the broadcaster for this but you'd have to assume and look at that fight weekend if that ends up on showtime this on friday night and then that saturday night showtime pay-per-view errol spence j Jr., Yordanis Ugas for three of four welterweight titles. So what a time, right, Luke? April is always an incredible month for combat sports to lead into May, and this weekend alone, April 15th and 16th, is going to be special. That's huge. That's so huge.

That's a huge weekend in combat sports, and of course for Showtime specifically. So really can't wait for that big one. Going to get some finality. And by the way, if McKee wins here, I'm not sure what it does for his options exactly. I think he's got like one or maybe two more fights on an existing deal, and then they're going to have to figure out what to do with the kid because if he runs through Pitbull,

they're going to have to get creative at a bare minimum. Oh, no, no, I got the answer for you, Luke. Then he fights Pitippel's brother for the second weight title, you know, at lightweight. Fair point. I guess I should say you have some matchmaking challenges,

but you also have maybe a good problem to have in that sense. Luke, real quick, real quick, now that I'm, you know, real high on AJ McKee's future, which I am, who wins a boxing match at 186 pounds, Jake Paul or AJ McKee? I don't know.

Here's the thing. That's just me asking a question. Here's the thing. I think AJ McKee's probably a better boxer. He's definitely a better athlete. But he's small. I've seen both in person. You've seen them both in person.

Jake's a lot bigger than AJ McKee. That matters at some point, right? Absolutely. And I'm not saying this is the direction anyone's talking about. Oh, I see what you mean. You mean that's the direction Coker should go. You said, look, they're going to have to get creative, right? They are.

They're going to look. AJ McKee is a crossover star potential. He is the potential. He calls himself the Mayweather of MMA. I mean, he's a potential to be like the Tiger Woods. Okay, maybe not, you know, that much because of where MMA is in relation to what Tiger did. But like he has that screaming ability. You're right.

You're damn right. Any promotions, you know, short of maybe the UFC because of the name value is going to have to get creative. That's just, you know, a possible road. Who knows? And I would love to, if there's one person to gamble on, if you're a Bellator, now, of course, calculated gambles, you know, you have nothing stupid, but, but, you know, a little bit of risk taking here or there, I think ends up working for the promoters who are bold.

If there's a guy you want to do it with, it's A.J. McKee. Again, nothing stupid, but he has just all the ability in the world. You talk to him, he is whip-smart, young. I mean, the world is his oyster at this point. And just to hedge, Luke, because I know somebody's watching this going, oh, the Showtime Bellator guys, you know, they're taking checks. Of course they're going to say McKee's the next Mayweather Tiger Woods, but put them in there with whomever. And we'll see what happens. First of all, that's the story of every athlete, you know, the next, the next game or the next fight, let's see what happens.

But the journey of finding out what happens with McKee, knowing that he has that potential to like, you know, just be dynamic on a level we haven't seen. That's the hook. Okay. That's the reason. Do I know if he could defeat all five UFC top five featherweights right now? No, nobody knows. But the whole point is that, you know, the journey is, is the, is the destination in the end loop to watch all these questions being answered.

Wow. BC just in a happy on fire mood right now. By the way, I also want to point out, we did this during the resume review, but it bears repeating now that this is a rematch. Dude, Patricio Pitbull has had some of the most storied rivals in all of Bellator when you actually look at who's had the best rivalries in Bellator, you know, and these are competitive ones. Obviously, the one with Chandler was only one fight, but it was very ugly.

But, you know, he had four fights with Strauss. I think he had multiple bouts with Daniel Weichel, Pat Curran. It goes on and on. This dude has been in the trenches with tough-ass dudes over multiple fights. We should not count out. The last thing I was going to say, should not count out a guy like Pitbull to his ability to get the title back. Yeah.

Oh, no question about it. And normally if somebody in regular society has this many personal rivalries you would say it's a you problem but in the fight game that means that you're a legend and you know i i was i interrupted you only to add the two fight series with emmanuel sanchez in there nobody's more accomplished and battle tested among you know active fighters in the game today than than pitbull oh bc that's crazy no seriously you put what he's accomplished and the guys that he had the chance to face, he's Bellator's all-time greatest fighter

for a reason heading into that first McKee fight. He's got a lot of questions to answer, but he's very capable. So, Luke, I mean, you know, if this ends up on Showtime, hot damn. But to me, this could end up on pay-per-view. This could end up on CBS for all you know because it's that great of a fight.

So I'm just looking forward to it. I'm excited. All right, so let's do this. Let's transition now to the weekend's fights I actually feel like and I don't say this often again oh you guys are showing for showtime I actually say the opposite the majority of the time but I'll say it this time I actually like the Bellator card a lot more than I like the UFC card we'll start with the UFC card because there at least is something relevant about it in terms of what our audience might be expecting was the main event bc it's johnny walker at light heavyweight taking on jamal hill johnny walker has made some changes in his career he's over the sbg but he's still in his

last four one and three now he does have the win of orion span it was a vicious one although he was getting tuned up a little bit but then he tried to rebound against tiago santos and just never really pulled the trigger jamal hill however, however, while he did run into Paul Craig and got stopped there, he rebounded really nicely against Jimmy Crute. When you think about Walker versus Hill, BC, what stands out to you? Well, first of all, anytime you have a fight

involving Johnny Walker and then, look, if you can get a suitable dance partner, you're talking about the potential for fireworks. Obviously, it's going to be a fun main event, but with all the questions surrounding Johnny Walker mixed with the excitement that Hill brings in and the finishing ability, yeah, I think I'm doubly excited

because Johnny Walker is still on, you know, as John Anik would say, the right side of 30, the good side. But Luke, I can't figure out if he's coming or going. I don't think he can. And, you know, there's some parallels to what we see out of Michelle Padeta. Sometimes that's sort of like, damn, if I put it all together, who would I be? Oh, who cares? I just

love fighting and trying crazy shit so much. I think some of that's in Johnny Walker for sure, but I'm not sure, Luke, if it's best suited for him giving his physical gifts to try to tone it and tune it down too much, right? You know, I don't want this guy coming out and working off the jab and being too strategic. He looks like just by who he is, how he's wired, it's somewhat of an all or nothing proposal. So of late, it hasn't been all. There's been some nothing in there. Three losses and four fights all against elite guys, though. I'm not here to say his job security is in question because of his youth, his quality of competition, and of course his ability to thrill. But this is more not about him keeping his job. This is about, can he keep being a main eventer and a potential title contender?

I don't think Hill is the guy that's going to necessarily give us those answers. What I mean by that is this. Hill has potential to win this fight and win it by finish, of course. I just don't think he's the complete elite, well-rounded force or a guy who's on his way there to fully answer that. I think Johnny Walker could still do weird Johnny Walker things and still outright win a fun and great fight here. But Luke,

you can't deny the things you either saw or let's say didn't see against Mahetta where I just can't have any confidence on who Johnny Walker is or what he's going to end up becoming. Here's what I feel like I can say confidently about this. If Johnny Walker wants to fight Jamal Hill the way he fought Tiago Santos and then just, I won't say coast for five rounds, but never really get into second or third gear, he probably could, but that might be in another, it almost likely means another L and it doesn't really show growth. I'm willing as an observer to say you know listen i think what johnny walker's

trying to do is pretty admirable he's changing quite literally countries he trained he changed camps uh obviously he speaks english but he's working in not his native language he's really trying to make something of himself and he's trying to change his style along with it to get a little bit more scientific safer more defensive and you know build it for some longevity and the initial switch over to that which you saw in a couple of fights most notably obviously the last one that Tiago Santos won shows that there's a long long way to go he can kind of slow the fight down he can stay safe but his offense is just missing under that here is another chance for us to see if he can make that turn of the screw and get more offense. Jamal Hill, we know BC, fast hands,

loves to strike, good accuracy, knockout power, but some of the other portions of his game might be a little limited too. He's, by the way, I think he's only, how many fights does he even have in his full career? Just 11 total fights that's all he has that's not that many and so he can be I think talented but maybe this stage stage was grew excuse me a little bit error prone this is a great BC a great opportunity as a tough test for us to see if Walker can still have that new style but just put some offense behind it that's what I want to see yeah I'm sorry I was distracted by Jimmy Crute's mullet there, Luke. Mullet?

Damn, I forgot that thing ever happened. That's fantastic. I mean, come on. That is a huge mullet. But yeah, I don't know if he still has it now, but you get the idea. Well, I don't think you care about this question at all. Would you say Mike Pyle had the best mullet in UFC history?

Is there a Ricky Simone? I mean, who you got, Luke? Here's the thing. Pyle was one of theullet in UFC history? Is there a Ricky Simone? I mean, who you got, Luke? Here's the thing. Pyle was one of the first ones to lean into it. Before everyone else decided to get mullets, Pyle had a mullet for a while at that point. Yeah, he's not doing it for irony,

Luke. He's doing it because that's all he knows, all right? Right, that's my point. It's like, dude, he was original with it before anybody else was. So does he physically have the most glorious mullet I don't know about that but because he was the first one you kind of are the real first one I suppose um you kind of have to give him credit but beyond that BC that we gotta say about this card on Saturday for the UFC not that great not not very strong at all it lost the main it lost

the co-main Luke which or was it the main, which was a damn good fight RDA versus Rafael Fazeev. That's going to get rescheduled. And luckily, you know, nothing's going to break it up, but that wasn't replaced. So you can, you can feel the, you can feel the gap in the loss there, Luke. I mean, there's some names, there's some stories, right? Fazeev was supposed to, yeah, you mentioned RDA versus Fazeev was supposed to be in this car. They almost lost it. Fazeev did get to yeah you mentioned rda versus fazeev was supposed to be in this card they almost lost it fazeev did get according to the reporting by ari helwani he did get his visa so they're going to reschedule that one i think for ufc 272 um a little bit later but you're right so that would have made walker versus hill the co-main that would have made fazeev versus rda a very suitable very good main event um obviously would have led the card after that though bc we

have kyle dawkins taking on Jamie Pickett. It is a 195 pound catch weight. Dawkus looking to kind of, you know, he had that fight with, who's the talker? His name just always escapes me. Kevin Holland. Kevin Holland. But it got stopped because there was that crazy, or he lost it, but then they

realized it was just from the headbutt. So they had to call it back. It was a whole thing. He's not fighting Kevin Holland. He's fighting Jamie Pickett who's talented but there's no real heat between them two other notes on the main card though BC Jim Miller is back taking on Nicholas Mota right Jim Miller still out there fighting guys who've got not even in this case a Wikipedia entry I know they're tough but I'm just pointing out he is still out here in the fucking trenches and I trenches grinding it. Just by showing up, I think he once again either sets or removes the tie on most,

or maybe that means the same thing, on most appearances in the octagon. So every time he fights, he seems like he's got a chance to extend either the appearance or the win streak. And him and Cowboy Cerrone keep trading, and I know Orlovskysky's in that conversation as well luke i like that fight a lot i want people to look out for uh heavyweight parker porter who's won two in a row he's from hartford connecticut luke so i do want to keep you know go over to share a chuck minden hall and us ct boys you know high up in the uh in the focus there he's he's a he's a robust uh uh chubby white guy but he can bang luke uh yes he can i'll also though have to say this fight has absolute chaos and blood and guts written all over it for as long as it lasts joaquin buckley will open the card versus abdul razak al-hassan al-hassan oh yeah has shown a propensity to just bite on the mouthpiece and go and i would imagine

buckley will oblige him, be on the lookout for that one. They're going to bang. Look, there's going to be a banging. Lastly on the card, on the prelim card, Jessica Rose Clark, another Aussie, although she lives in the United States, taking on Stephanie Egger. That should be a good one.

Chaz Skelly is back as well. He's usually good for a spirited affair as well. Any other thoughts on that card bc doesn't chas skelly sound like the perfect name for like the lead singer of a ska band i don't know do leaders of ska bands have names that unique yeah i could see him wearing one of those like hats what not not a bc midlife crisis hat but like the kind of hat that like the uh the mumford and sons or uh or dropkick murphy's guys would wear you know what i'm saying god mumford and sons jesus christ are

they gone yet oh they're not that bad luke they're not that bad but they're not i mean it's pop but there's some there's some heart and soul into that pop my sons love that guy i mean the guy's playing it like dick van dyke this is a boomer reference but he's playing it like Dick Van Dyke. This is a boomer reference, but he's playing it like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, where he's got the one, he's got the, the drum he's playing by stomping his foot and he's hitting the symbol. And then there's a little bit of cowbell. I mean,

there are, what do you say when people, you know, rightfully go, look, Luke Thomas, I respect him. Well,

research, smart, all this great stuff, but for him to take any kind of hard stance on music, given his specific flavor of favorites um how do you respond to that because look i don't dismiss your music takes to the to the aggression of the audience because i i do know that you you're you're more well-rounded than it seems but you lean hard into that death shit bro hard all right yeah i do i don't know i don't understand what me

liking that does to preclude having a larger awareness of musical value with the major problem that everyone assumes is that one if you like that stuff you don't like anything else which is automatically wrong and number two the other point is i'm not trying to sell you on that i mean i'm for the for the art for the show but but I'm not trying to convert anyone to that. If you don't like it, that's fine. But that there is no good reason to like that stuff is just an assumption that people who have never thought about music at all ever make.

So when they make these proclamations, like how could you like that and why do we have to listen to you, what they're actually doing is parading their own ignorance and owning themselves, and I just get to watch. It's kind of fun, actually. Like if your sister brought home a guy that it looked like she was pretty serious with and might marry and, you know, he's good looking, he's funny and he's charming and he's got a great job.

But then you're like, oh, he did serve seven years for, you know, sexual assault. Dude, you look, you might go. At some point, you and everyone else is going to have to accept there is a perfectly legitimate way to understand and accept horror based art without it being secondary to forms of art you prefer this is ultimately what is at the core of this entire debate and it's a fraudulent one you cannot actually make the argument that your forms of art are inherently superior to horror themes they're not they're not at all and so by that by that logic and if i just like that kind of music you would be a little bit stronger but i like tons of other stuff it's just i've been trying

to get you into the maha vishnu orchestra for a while yes and okay objectively that shit sucks i couldn't understand what you were doing with that i was like why are you driving a car high on mushrooms john mclaughlin went into a very Indian phase with his spinoff band Shock T, and I think you caught some of those vibes. Yeah, maybe it's not your thing. All right, let's talk quickly about this. I mean, it should be your thing given your birth country, but we don't have to go down that road anymore.

We certainly do not. Let's talk about this Bellator card, which I agree, or I shouldn't agree, I believe, I should say, is actually better. Your main event, dude, this is maybe one of the best fights all weekend, if not the best. Neiman Gracie has taken on Logan Storley. This, of course, with Bellator 274 will be at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, our favorite place, BC.

But Neiman Gracie has taken on Logan Storley. Logan Storley multiple times, I think four-time All-American at the University of Minnesota. Could have that wrong. If I do, I'll double check here. Neiman Gracie, a guy who was obviously, you know, mostly a grappler for a long portion of his MMA career but I think has really turned a corner of late he works with one of my buddies Chad Wesley Smith over at Juggernaut Training Systems so shouts to Chad Wesley Smith who's gotten this guy in great shape dude this one is

like Logan Storley can wrestle his ass off he's a great athlete but do you really want to go to the mat with a guy who's got active submissions in the way that Gracie does? So he's going to have to slug it out on the feet with him. And Gracie's gotten way better. They're a tough fight. Dude. Very tough.

I, this one that when it got announced, I was like, okay, that's a good fight. But as it gets closer and you really think about it, this is going to be very interesting. Look,

the stakes are huge. Would you say this is a number one contender title bout? What is it? Does it have that feel um well you're hard to say with lima taking on uh jackson over in the bellator card under mvp and amasov but it's right there it's right there but that style contrast potentially on the ground that you mentioned is is sort of subhead you know 1 B in terms of what I want to see. Will Logan Storley work like hell to just avoid going down there and make this more of a striking match where you'll Gracie at times has shown you improved striking, but it's

not something you would call well-rounded or on, you know, anywhere close to the level of his strength on the ground. So this could get interesting. And I think, you know, the third big storyline is where's Logan Storley at? I mean, he looks so damn good against Amasov. Look, it's one of the best fights in the promotion's history. Two unbeaten guys on the way to a title opportunity, and they went at it for three rounds and showed their, you know, their strengths, and they really didn't have many weaknesses. It was back and forth.

But since then, Storlie pulls out of the fight, the next fight with an injury. Then he gets that homecoming, really showcase opportunity against Dante Shiro, and Luke, you know, lucky to get the decision is probably the nicest way you can frame that, because even if you don't disagree with the scoring, that wasn't Storlie that we know, Logan Storlie, that was a safer, you know, little bit gun shy version of him uh you can't beat that you can't be that excuse me against somebody like neiman gracie who can end a fight so quickly or at least put you in a you know trap you so quickly where there's no way out so yeah i gotta

see all of these questions get answered and if somebody looks great in doing so they might get the call next for the title here's the thing neiman gracie lost to jason jackson in april of 2021 so i just think jackson versus lima especially if jackson wins is probably going to be a number one contender if lima wins he was former champ but he's got the three losses in a row hard to say but dude neiman gracie had subbed out ed ruth maybe one of the best college wrestlers ever subbed out john fitch lost lost to Rory, lost to Jason Jackson just via decision, but he's really come a long way. As you indicated, Logan Storley had the fight of his life against Yaroslav Amisov,

loses, and then kind of rebounded, although not all that authoritatively against Dante Shiro. Here is a great chance to get right back where he was, heading into that Amisov bout, and again, it's a huge style contrast. The winner is going to be asked to do something, likely winning outside of their comfort zone. So to what extent have these two previous combat sports specialists really developed the other parts of their game

that they're going to need to ply this trade? Or you might actually do that. That Amosov bout was just nothing but wrestling and scrambling. You might actually seegan's really trying to take this to the mat in which case it could get very very interesting for him look be be honest with the audience were you close close to accidentally pulling the trigger on amaslab as the pronunciation you were like it was in play it was maybe a little bit in the back of my mind but only as because of your idiocy all right your co your co-main event, Andrei Koreshkov taking on Chance Rencounter.

Chance Rencounter went 2-1 in UFC, I think, and then kind of bounced. Excuse me, 2-2. 1-2, lost 2. I guess they called it a day after that. He's been on the regional scene since then. He previously fought in Bellator, and now he's back.

And dude, Andrei Koreshkov, you know, he's been up and down that promotion. Doesn't have quite the acclaim that he needs. He does have the losses to Lima twice. And then Lorenz Larkin obviously beat the bejesus out of Benson Henderson and beaten Lima previously. Has two wins in a row over Adriano Rodriguez and now

Sabah Homasi. Chancellor encountered a guy off the Native American Reservation, I believe, in Oklahoma. Can wrestle his ass off. I think Phil Davis is it? I think he's Phil Davis' trainer. Previously Alliance MMA affiliated. This is a tough ass fight, but I will say, dude,

if Koreshkov wins three in a row, he's not far from a title shot. So you might get the winner of Logan Storley-Gracy taking on the winner of this bout, depending on how things go. Yeah, I like this fight a lot. Luke Koreshkov has really

become the forgotten name of this division because of how long he was out. And, you know, he'll give you a loss here and there, you know, daring to be great or facing an elite guy and has come back from that and won big again. And, Luke, when he fought Sabahumasi, it was like, oh, yeah, Spartan Koreshkov, he's back in this division. And then by the end of that fight, it was, oh, yeah, he's back.

And he's probably not that far giving his name in history to a title shot because he dug a hole in that canvas and buried Sabah Humasi in it for three rounds. I mean, it was very impressive given the time off, the comeback, the energy, the aggression. He's 31 now. If he wants to lean into wrestling, whether he has to in a fight because it gets dangerous or it's just a better strategy idea. Koreshkov has those chops. So I'm very much looking forward to this fight and see if he can get back-to-back big wins. Dude, if Amasov beats MVP, and that could go either way,

it's a great fight, Koreshkov getting in line as a potential next, I mean, that gets you excited, Luke, because that guy, at his best, he goes in there to fight and he's you know i i love his personality he's always been one of my favorite fighters so great to see him back and luke for for chance um dude we don't identify oklahoma as a place that and i don't have any connection so i you know this isn't a commercial for them but oklahoma as a barren forgotten you know place that just produces hard ass mofos, you know, in football, uh, combat sports. Like we're always like, Oh, that guy's Philly tough. Or, you know, Oh, tanks from West Baltimore.

We get it, dude, Oklahoma, man. They got, you know, they got to deal with weather and, and, you know, solitude and, and just, you know, they just come out hard after that. Right. Uh, I got mugged in Oklahoma. How about that? Point proven point proven luke okay my dad my dad is from oklahoma and i'll never forget going to oklahoma was the only place in my life where you would just see rows of strip malls where it would be a pawn shop next to a bail bondsman over and oh is that crazy steve's bail bonds next to uncle bob's you know uh pawn shop or whatever the fuck and they i guess

they did business together i mean they thrive there you know there are a nice parts of oklahoma my dad was from lawton which is a fucking horrific i mean the land that time forgot up in that bitch so it does explain it explains a lot and i know that's a risky statement out loud because you can see why my dad left the country to go find friends. I mean, if he hears this inside your house, I don't know if you've got it piped out to the masses, but you know, I could have a receipt waiting for me, Luke. All right.

By the way, also on this card, lightweight main card, Georgie Garconian, longtime featherweight has now had a little bit more success moving up to lightweight, taking on Adam Piccolotti out of AKA, or used to be out of AKA, a guy who had done a lot of good work and I thought was poised to make a move in the division but ran into some tough losses.

But, you know, black belt in jiu-jitsu can wrestle his ass off. He's quite good. Also, BC, this is big on the preliminary card. You know who's back? Rat garbage. Mandel Nalo taking on Nick Brown. Dude, Mandel Nalo cannot miss material. I didn't even know he was on this card.

There's like two other pretty decent prelim storylines that I thought you were angling towards. You're like, no, rat garbage is back. Dude, this guy was awesome. I mean, he's like a combination of like that guy smoking a cigarette with one shoe on or on the corner of your house and in a budding mma superstar so i like that look but luke brennan ward's back dude i don't know if you followed this story closely i have former welterweight contender from ct let's shout out another ct guy from new london he would always bring a rabid fan base to mohegan for the fights luke we knew him as an all or nothing in the cage guy. If he didn't

knock you out, he was probably getting KO'd quickly. And now we find out he had a long, long battle with drugs that ended his career. He sort of walked away on his own terms, just didn't want to do it anymore. And he's been through a lot of crap, Luke. And he's

still very young. Who knows what his fighting future looks like. But the fact that he got back to this point, I give him a lot of credit because he's now revealing Luke that not only was he doing drugs, like, you know, the week of his biggest fights, he really hadn't had a real training camp in like a long ass while meaning even those big fights when he's fighting Paul Daly, when he looks like a title contender, he's not even like really training Luke. So I'm not saying now that he's coming back, you know, there's a catch weight bout of 175 pounds that like clear the way, you know, he could be a contender. I have no idea, but I'm very happy to see him back.

He'll be taking on Brandon Bell and it's something worth paying attention to Luke. He brought it. He was fun as shit, man. He, he swore like a sailor in every interview. That was an underrated part of him. He has big power. He's a good athlete. But as you indicated, he had all these troubles that were really not just interfering with his professional career, but with his life.

And he appears, certainly it seems that way. We're very happy to hear it. He's turned it around. 33 years old, 34 in June. Still has some time to do some stuff if he wants to. As you indicated, taking on Brandon Bell on this card. And you're right. He would always pull that Connecticut crowd,

which, of course, probably explains why he's on it to an extent now that they're back in Connecticut. So the return of Brendan Ward is surprising to a degree, but welcome just the same. Also, Aviv Gozali, top prospect out of the lightweight division, will be on this card. Deanna Bennett taking on Justine Kish is a perfectly legitimate women's flyweight fight.

Anything else stand out to you? That guy who, Gozali's got a string of highlight reel finishes, like right off the opening bell, dive in, take your legs, submit you. So he's someone to watch the more he starts to step up in class. Luke, look, I don't, you know, I never want to tell Scott Coker how to do his job, but like, I hope they, if Gozali keeps subbing out these mofos, I hope he starts getting a push. You got to get this guy off the prelim card he is fun to watch every single time luke you see we have to get through these everything we have to do in the next hour

because i know you have a flight to catch quickly do you have any thoughts on amir khan versus kel brooke for our audience you know we'll we'll we'll preview it on friday if there's anything to actually preview but it's like i'm's like I'm halfway happy they're finally fighting two stars who have circled each other in the UK for so long. But they're washed, Luke. And I say that with respect, but they're washed. Dude, I don't say this hardly ever. When do you ever hear me say this?

Khan quit against Bud Kroll. He quit. Yeah. Look, yeah. I mean, and they were once great at their specific sort of peaks and americans had high peaks and very low valleys but to see all the pre-fight content that they're putting out like the debates back and forth like a face-to-face type deal like part of it is fun but i'm also like it's gonna be gross and someone's gonna get

hurt but you know look that's the fight game so uh it's an attraction and also uh jorge linares by the way going to make his uh he's now signed with a russian promoter he's got a fight on saturday on the plus that he's going to make his debut in russia and also luke uh your guy uh jami munguia is back this weekend again another sort of like you know fight that makes him a potential number one contender but not a fight not the opponent that's going to fire you up but uh you know at least he's staying busy all right let's go to topic number two here kayla harrison gave us a bit of an update a couple of different ways this one through espn first there's not much to this one so i'll go to it first on free agency now we saw kayla at the mma awards which was what late december bc mid mid to late december something

like that and i had asked her, when do you think you'll get an answer? She was like, you know, by the end of this month. Here we are now in February, and she still doesn't have an answer. So that cannot be great. But she says, quote, about free agency, other things have happened,

and there's some last minute things behind closed doors that I'm not entirely sure now what's going to happen. I marry that with the more interesting piece of news, BC, which is what she says is she's considering a cut to bantamweight. Quote, I'm considering it. I heard that Juliana, meaning Pena, said she'd move up to 145 if they paid her enough. So that's good news. That means I don't have to chop off an arm. I want to be the best. Everyone is talking about her. Why not? I have to conquer one mountain at a time, though. Whatever mountain comes next, BC, true or false, she is at least considering a move to bantamweight because that's probably a condition the UFC has placed on her

to sign her long term. I would have to say true on the intentions of putting this out public because as you sort of teased there, and I think Ariel had reported it about six days ago, they seem to be on the, you know, quote 11th hour, one yard line with her and PFL and the deal fell apart as she sort of cryptically indicated. So it, all of this feels like it's more part of a public negotiation than not, but look on the surface, it's a really bad idea because you know what happens when you cut that much muscle not you know not fat to to go down in weight dramatically think Roy Jones after the John Ruiz fight it's just a bad idea

and I don't think it's physically possible considering she fought at 145 once for Invicta and has said she can't do that for a full year with PFL because of how short in that seasonal format they they package the fights after one another and, I'd be remiss if I didn't add these sort of hedging comments for her that she gave later in the day yesterday to MMA Junkie saying, quote, I was kind of talking shit being goofy. My goal is obviously not to fight at 135 pounds. I have to watch what I say from now on. Obviously, I want to fight the best in the world.

Juliana is now considered a top dog, but I also heard that she would fight me at 145 for the right amount of money, so I probably don't have to fight the best in the world. Juliana is now considered a top dog, but I also heard that she would fight me at 145 for the right amount of money. So I probably don't have to fight at 135. I just want to challenge myself. Do I want to fight at 135? Fuck no. No, of course not.

End quote. Luke, that's probably more accurate in a lot of ways. And maybe that pushes this even more to your point of being more negotiation practiced. But my idea, I don't know if it's my, see, I don't know if I came up with it or I heard somebody, I don't even really remember. I don't care who gets credit for it. But the idea that I push forth on this show that time of, hey, how about just a women's heavyweight division? If we have this gap in the men's between 206 and 265 and it's considered okay, why are we putting out divisions like 45 and the women's side on UFC and

sometimes 35 on the women's side that just are barren. And we know UFC is not going to open up a one 55 division tomorrow. So Luke, this more than ever, it would seem like a great idea for the promotion to consider do the heavyweight division from one 35 to one 55. You still have one 25 for the smaller bantamweights who think that it's better off that they can cut down but that division would suddenly have huge star power

if harrison goes to the ufc and has the chance to fight nunez pena shevchenko moving back up holly holm jermaine durand to me i mean you've got a star-studded women's heavyweight division suddenly that seems to be a no-brainer for me, Luke. Why is nobody talking about this? Is there any chance? Because Kayla Harrison is the right star that UFC would want to make a move like this for. Rousey's star power forced them to create women's divisions. Cyborg's star power forced them to create a 145 division. Nunes' star power has kept it alive, even though it's really just mostly blown up

Bantamweights looking for a shorter path to the title put the money in Harrison's future give her the heavyweight division to star in and you're going to have no shortage of dance partners if she's really that good Luke tell me I'm crazy bro tell me definitely not crazy

I think you're right you get these transcendental figures at times and they reshape the space around them although the thing about 145 you're right Cyborg kind of forced him into this because she had so much trouble getting even below that and then amanda could accommodate their her as well as some other blown up bantamweights but the point about 145 and this is what kayla's up against kayla is not a natural 145 he's a natural 155 so she can make 145 and has when she for example she fought for invicta but the point i'm trying to make here is even 145 is so fleeting that the combined powers of Cyborg and Amanda can barely put it on life support.

I guess they're probably either looking for a way out or just waiting for the sport to mature. I mean, this is really what Kayla's problem is. She's trying to shoehorn an athletic career into a place that's not good for her. Like, dude, the 135 thing, I mean, Kayla would have to have an amputation to really make 135 or something drastic. I don't like that idea at all. But the problem is, as you well know, BC, she's ahead of her time. I mean, her skill set is modern but relevant for the era. But what she represents, like she has her weight class.

Dude, she fought even higher. I think she fought in the 170s in judo. She's coming down from that. It's a much more developed sport, so they have weight classes for her. Here she is in a place saying, hey, guys, I'm ready to play in this sandbox, and there's no room for her because she doesn't have enough contemporaries through this development process to pick and choose. So she's making these drastic, 145, not drastic, not drastic. But 135, dude, 135.

You used to compete in the 170s. You're going to go to 135. I mean, she's not serious. I don't like that. You saw the quote she gave MMA Junkie. It proves that she's just talking. I mean, she did tell Mark Ray Mundy that she was going to hire a chef and consider hiring a nutritionist to try to figure out if it's safe.

It's not safe. Look at when Cyborg tried to, you know, do what she did to get down to 140 for those UFC catch weights. She couldn't even get close to know, do what she did to get down to 140 for those UFC catchweights. She couldn't even get close to 35, nor should she have had to. Luke, it comes down to, does the UFC think Kayla's that it girl, that potential star who can make this worth it? She is. And I think she loses some leverage in this conversation because she's already 31. I think that's going to fuel and inform the idea of her at the end of the day.

She wants to get paid, of course, and she deserves it. But I think she'd be more willing to say, oh, you're going to create this thing around me. I get to fight everybody. This is worth to take, you know, whatever middle ground of money that is to get the opportunity at history and being that person. I know she believes she's that. I'm sure underneath it all, the UFC probably believes that. However it takes to get there, wouldn't it just be more of a powerful statement to if she comes in there kayla to the ufc and turns it upside down like like like she might be able to we don't know yet wouldn't calling her your women's heavyweight

champion i mean that's pretty look that's you that's a that's a better sell than you know featherweight or lightweight or whatever i keep going back i keep going back to this like if the ufc can figure out a way to really work with her, it's a deal that works for everybody. Everyone gets what they want. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.

McSpicy, consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonaldcdonald's in canada i mean the possibilities are dude she's the best judoka in the history of this country irrespective of gender not by a little bit by a lot there is no man in america who has ever won a judo gold medal motherfucker she's got two of them she's got two of them you gotta tell me there's a way they can make this work but somehow i'm completely in agreement with you plus dude she's got two of them you gotta tell me there's a way they can make this work but somehow i'm completely in agreement with you plus dude she's smart she's a mom like her life is centered you gotta make this deal while she's not as while she's nowhere near as charismatic

she has the chance to be like a female broccolini right yes yes like if like if she comes in and dominates people and that's why i think creating a women's heavyweight division that it would kind of also give her advantage if the if the window is 35 to 55 and all she has to do is come in there at 55 she's going to be facing a in the end a lot of smaller opponents that's only going to make her look better and stronger so if you are the ufc it just makes too much sense it's probably more excuse me of a battle between the ufc contract people and ali abdelaziz kayla's you know manager who's you know where he is in his placement in terms of elite you know managers for a reason so it's probably more of just centered around the debate but she's going to the ufc luke everything i was just gonna say last thing on this because we got to move along but i was just gonna say they don't like making deals to

accommodate like they don't what they want is somebody they can sign and fit right into their the machinery that's on the move right they want someone they can just essentially slot in even if it's a high slot and what they would have to do for kayla it looks like is a little bit more accommodation to make things work one way or the other even even if it's just through 145 they tend to not like doing that but they have at times and they potentially will again all right we got to move along BC topic number three Diaz Nate Diaz says says he's not all that interested in a McGregor trilogy I guess he did an interview with somebody from YouTube who's probably wildly successful but I do not know him Adam's Apple Adam's Apple.

Adam's Apple. Is that a guy? Wow. Shout out to, Hey, Hey, there's the guy named the weasel who does great, uh, you know, scoring breakdown videos. Uh, he did one on a style bender. So, uh, he did, he did. He does them all the time.

You should check them out. If you haven't checked out the weasel, he's worth it. Whether you agree or disagree, he's worth it every time. But sticking with Nate Diaz here very quickly, here's what he told Adam's Apple quote, speaking about a McGregor trilogy. Yeah, not right now. He's got a lot of work to do. BC, I call bullshit. I call bullshit. I certainly recognize Nate has options, especially if he gets to this next fight relatively unscathed or even wins. I get all that. But the idea that it's like a distant thing we have talked about, we have talked about McGregor putting out videos,

eating the ice cream, laughing to himself. I don't know what state he's in. He also is still coming off that terrible injury. Never lose sight of that. Okay. So Diaz is playing his options, but the idea that this is some afterthought that he would,

you know, I don't even know any bullshit. I don't believe that for a second. I mean, I would say it's, it's a part of the negotiation with Diaz, but this doesn't, you know,

give him extra leverage in that. I'm sorry, not Diaz, Poirier. And look, you know, I'm getting it's a part of the negotiation with Diaz, but this doesn't give him extra leverage in that. I'm sorry, not Diaz, Poirier. And look, I'm getting to the point, Luke, where most people probably tune into this show and go, oh, again, we're going to talk about McGregor and who he's fighting. You know, podcasters, you guys lean on that crutch all the time. We do. I mean, for rightful reasons.

But even I'm getting like, hey, UFC, can you make Nate Diaz, Dustin Poirier already? Because they both want it. You want it. Like, come on, just sign that shit already reasons but even i'm getting like hey ufc can you make nate diaz dustin poirier already because they both want it you want it like come on just sign that shit already so that we don't have to do these type of debates and you know it's because poirier is now coming out and saying he doesn't want a fourth fight with connor and doesn't see it ever happening which i i support by the way and i think is the right way to go but please let's do this diaz poirier get them out of it and then we figure out who Conor actually is facing when he comes back and you know look I just feel the closer and closer we get it's going to be more

of a aging guy you know I want RDA as that opponent but it's going to be more of somebody like that and I think that makes sense given two losses and a major injury yeah two losses and a major injury and also just exactly where are you in your life that this is the priority? Like when he came up and, you know, was talking about being on welfare and eating blueberries, he was in a position where all he was focused on was dominating. I don't know what he's focused on. Like I'm saying, I literally don't know what he's focused on, but it just seems like fighting. I'm sure it's important to him, but it cannot represent what it used to. That's the issue for me.

And so so you know plus that terrible injury as you indicated like even if you are 100% motivated to come back from that that's still pretty hard to do and so you know we're not here to close the book on the McGregor chapter of the UFC but we are here to say that like you know Diaz has to really think about not only what his options are but what his options are next who is available and while McGregor trilogy whenever whenever they make it, whether it's boxing or MMA, depending on the circumstances, would be huge, I understand.

I still get that Diaz is, you know, I stand by what I said. This is an important fight for him, but I get he has to kind of point and direct his attention to what is more available. BC, this is something you hit me to, which I think is not, well, I think it's a little crazy, but I guess it is the way that things go. Topic number four. So there appears to be a rotating door at the front of Eddie Reynoso's gym for MMA fans who might not know who Eddie Reynoso is. This is like the trainer of the year. This is Canelo's number one guy, but he's not just Canelo. He's put a lot of good work in with a lot of great boxers here's the deal bc uh it appears ryan garcia has left eddie

reynoso for joe goosen but teofimo lopez has indicated he might be heading into eddie reynoso's gym give us the update on what's happening and why it's happening look the garcia update is news itself and there's you know spin-off things to talk about. But the Teofimo insertion comes from an interview he did with Ellie Secback, you know, take a step back, Luke. Reporting, indeed. Shout out to Ellie. Reporting. Where it says, Teofimo has hinted that Eddie could be his new trainer. When asked about Ryan Garcia splitting from Reynoso, Teofimo said, quote,

It might be because of some news about me and Eddie to be continued. We'll see. But my father is always going to be my main second in my corner. So this is interesting, Luke. What's most interesting to me is that Ryan Garcia, who's who they just announced is coming back soon. I forgot the guy he's facing, Luke. And I think that's the whole story. It's not a fight you're super excited about based on the opponent, but seeing which version of Ryan Garcia following this long layoff and him being honest about his thoughts of suicide during this run, which led him to canceling his fight with Jojo Diaz. He's already such an exciting fighter because of his looks and

his following, but because he goes after the KO and he leaves like that vulnerability that he can get KO'd at any time. And we saw him get dropped hard by Luke Campbell in his last outing. Now he's leaving Reynoso, arguably the best defensive coach in the game. And we know there's been some unhappiness of late in that camp with Canelo going public and kind of criticizing Ryan Garcia's work ethic. So that's all part of this. Now he's getting Joe Goosen, who's like the old-school offensive specialist coach that only trains grinders and brawlers.

Who are, like, they named two fighters or something that Goosen has trained, two elite ones folks might know. I mean, recently it was Sergey Lipinets who has that style. He was behind him to win a title. He's done. The Ruelas brothers. I mean, Terry Norris. He's basically had a cup of coffee with so many elite names because he's a flashy elite trainer.

I think the fighter most associated with him is Diego Corrales. And that's, of course, because the theatrics of that amazing first fight with Jose Luis Castillo, where Goosen wearing his typical shirt that he would wear out to the club, you know, was like, you better fucking get inside on him to Diego, you know, before the finish, which is, it's storybook. It's insane. But the point is, Goosen's legit. He's trained everyone. And Luke, Goosen trains you to kind of just, he's not an irresponsible defensive coach.

He's just full force offense that this is going to make Ryan Garcia's career even more fun and crazy and who knows which direction because Garcia is quick and good enough to beat anyone. And I mean that, really. He's in play to beat any of these guys. Teofimo, you know, tank, but he's also vulnerable enough where it's not going to be an elite guy. It's going to be anyone he fights, I think, you know, if they step in and take the damage and land the right shot, they got a chance to finish him. So I'm not saying he's, you know, a mere con 2.0.

I hope not for his sake, Luke, but he's going to be wild and fun to watch. And on the flip side, Luke, do you think Reynoso and the serious vibe that Team Canelo brings, which has Oscar Valdez and Andy Ruiz and other big fighters? Is that the right fit for Teofimo, given all of the major questions he has to answer now moving up to 140 and the circus that his dad and extended family already bring? Listen, I'm sure his dad loves him. I'm not here to impugn his relationship with his father, but I think that if his father interferes with Eddie Reynoso's training it doesn't matter who Eddie

Reynoso is or anything else the question is if his father is hands on or I should say his father is hands off enough dude I think this is huge for Lopez Lopez listen two things can be true at once we were all wrong about George Cambosis and he boxed way better than we ever thought. We have to take that L and accept it. And I do. However, it is also true that Lopez boxed uncharacteristically in part, in part, because George made him and in part, because he also volunteered to make a series of choices that were very suboptimal in response. I think a guy like Eddie Reynoso cleans all that shit up. Dude, Lopez is still athletic. Lopez, when he's on, is still creative and slick and can do counter-striking and all kinds of stuff that he needs to. I think Eddie Reynoso can get him on the straight and narrow. I will say, though, BC,

it's kind of funny in the case of like, you know, in the case of, do you think at all, at all, that Tyson Fury having kind of like a ho-hum fight against Wilder and then going to the Kronk Gym and being this come-forward destroyer, is that influencing other people in the boxing space, or is this totally unrelated? I think it's unrelated. Okay. But it's interesting. It's interesting to me that we see a lot of MMA fighters dialing back their offense

to make it more careful, and that we've seen some box fighters dialing back their offense to make it more careful, and that we've seen some boxers dialing up their offense to get it over the hump. That's a good point. And, you know, Teo is so dynamic offensively that, God, if Reynoso could instill not just the discipline and the culture that you're looking for, given how hard the last year and a half has been for Teofimo, personally and professionally, adding those defensive things back in. Now, look, if Teofimo really is just, I don't say just, is like another Roy Jones-type clone where an elite guy who does things

so unorthodox and is so based on his athleticism that it's not going to really help. Like Roy Jones, you know, people say, oh, but he doesn't have a jab. He doesn't use the jab. Roy Jones could do anything, okay? He could do anything he wanted. And at his peak, you wouldn't want him, oh, but he doesn't have a jab. He doesn't use the jab. Roy Jones could do anything. Okay. He could do anything he wanted. And at his peak, you wouldn't want him to try to be too grounded. I do wonder if Teofimo really is that type of explosive athlete where it is kind of better to let him go.

We're going to find out, you know what I mean? Look, Luis Nettie just left Eddie Reynoso. It didn't work out for me. It's not, each system is not perfect, but I do think when you go to someone like Reynoso you're giving the keys to the you know you're giving the chef the the utensils and saying you know do it so we'll see man it's exciting Luke there's that and also for Garcia for Garcia like with Goosen like he's trying to turn up the heat it looks like and you know get I think he's trying to find an offensive spark to build behind maybe that's it maybe that does the trick who knows

hard to say but it's going to be fun to watch all right let's do some quick hitters these are quick hitters but these are some of my favorite topics bc here we go this is a great one how about uh the ufc apparently working on a booking of yair rodriguez bc versus t city that's right triangle city brian ortega What do you make of that? Fireworks. Just a mouthful of sex, Luke. I can't wait for this fight. And just because I like to do things bigger and bolder,

Luke, can we put it in Mexico? Let's see this video. Can we do this in Mexico, Luke? Oh boy, this is another direct. Luke, can you rate this tat, please? what are we doing here what are we doing well the tat itself is going to be just hard to do in a space like this um i gotta tell you you know there's two possibilities here bc two one is that he when i first started

getting tattoos this was almost non-existent but now it's pretty common there's stuff called vasocaine and um you can get other creams and sprays and you can numb yourself out and so that one possibility is he has numbed himself out himself out excuse me so that he's not really feeling this or not feeling it much the other possibility is that he is just the toughest sob alive and is getting liquid fire sewn into his mouth via a hornet's nest attack. Well, and that mixes weirdly with the other message coming out here. That says, you know, that's Tracy, who's Tracy Cortez, UFC fighter, who's Ortega's girlfriend.

You saw on Instagram they just bought a home together. Look, this is a bold. Are they financially entangled? It looks like it. Luke, this is a bold-ass move. This is like, you know, Mikery's done some moves like this you know this is like uh canelo getting the wife's eyeballs on the arm and this is a a power statement to the world luke uh it's not a cuck move right i don't you know i'm not no it's a

bold expression of love i certainly hope it works out i certainly don't christy used to hit threes for the kings and i remember he'd do all those weird things that say, I love you to his wife, and people were like, man, she got that guy on a leash. Or maybe he's just really in love, Luke. Maybe he just protects his marriage bed. I don't know. He's definitely really in love.

Anyway, Luke, Mexico for this, or you're not buying in on that? If they can do it with all the COVID stuff or whatever, or with all the rules and getting people over, that'd be great. But this is one thing. I mean, I don't want to get back into the COVID debate. I'll just say if they can make it work, it'd be great. But this is one thing. I mean, I don't know. I don't want to get back to the COVID debate. I'll just say if they can make it work, it'd be great. All right. Well, how about UFC goes to TJ?

How about UFC fight night from Tijuana, Luke? Tijuana? I mean, nobody does that, right? Oh, it's not Tijuana. I think it's just Tijuana. Tijuana. Why can't UFC go to TJ, Luke? Dude, I was in the Marine Corps.

This is so funny. When I was at 29 Palms, which is just, you know, it's in the Mojave Desert, they would tell us, like, all right, fuck faces. You want to go to San Diego? You can go to San Diego. You want to go to Las Vegas? You can go to Las Vegas. Do not let us catch your motherfucking ass in a Tijuana jail,

because guess what? You go to Tijuana, we're going to find you in a Tijuana jail. They used to always give us that fucking speech. i've actually never been to tijuana because apparently it was a big deal tijuana excuse me because it was apparently the uh the forgotten 80s movie losing it with tom cruise oh dude it's been so long since i've seen that that's a funny callback jackie earl haley who plays uh Leak in the Bad News Bears the cool kid who smokes cigarettes they go to Las Vegas, I'm sorry to Tijuana

to try to lose their virginity and hilarity ensues Luke, it's a fun watch I need to verify the spelling before I dead wrong myself, is it Tijuana? It's Tijuana Alright, also on Quick Hitters which the fans love how about this, BC?

There's a report out that Lomachenko has signed his side of the Kambosis fight and has told top rank he will take a pay cut, which, by the way, for folks like, oh, that's bullshit, he did it to get the Lopez fight, so there's actually evidence of this. Whatever financial sacrifices Loma has to make, he will. And for folks who don't understand this, this is a big deal. He lost all these belts to Teofimo, who lost all these belts to George. George is having trouble working out a deal with Devin Haney.

Here comes Loma Chanko. He might get all his belts back, BC. Dude, this is so exciting. Not just because it was unlikely. We didn't think about this was necessarily the direction it's going. And this is Mike Coppedger of ESPN reporting. And he did say Devin Haney is still in play, but that all has fallen apart.

And it seems like Loma's the guy. But look, this is a division that's loaded with talent. Most of them, though, as we talk about, are young and unproven and either are unwilling or it's just not probable that they'll fight each other given boxing's politics. Now you got this badass Cambosis who, yes, you said, you're right. We completely pissed on it, gave no chance, more or less. And to be fair, neither did the odds makers or the true boxing experts.

Although people did say, look, the guy's, you know, he's tough. There's going to be a fight. And it was. Shout out to Cambosis. But Luke, he's a rare network and promotional free or network free agent at the very least um you know he's got lou dibella with him and this the fact that he could sort of circumvent all the bullshit and make a fight against whoever they can make a deal with you know and they tried with devin haney and that would have been great considering haney has the

wbc title and cambosis is the wbc what super franchise super, I don't even know what they call it. All that bullshit that, you know, that would have been great, but you know what? Him against Lomachenko might even be a better fight to watch. And the fact that Lomachenko could this quickly turn it all back around and get all potentially all those belts back.

And it's not going to be easy because he's got to go to Australia with the, the pack stadium. And remember when Pacquiao went to Australia against Jeff Horn, that was like an event. I mean, they brought it. There was intensity. And he's got to be, you know, an aggressive, hungry guy in a cambosis. But, Luke, what a badass resume.

Vasily Leviteko already has one of the all-time great dare-to-be-great resumes. And if you don't know, he won two gold medals for Ukraine in the Olympics, turned pro late in his 20s, wanted to fight for a world title in his pro debut. And Bob Arum, like, couldn't make it happen, but he's like, I'll do it as quickly as I can. Fought for a world title in his second pro fight. Kind of got robbed against Orlando Salido on the scorecards, and Salido cheated, and the referee was horrible.

But yet the next fight out his third pro fight, he beats Gary Russell Jr. Like beat, you know, beat some up and wins a title in his third pro fight. He wins it in a second weight class by fight number seven. Then he becomes the undisputed champion in a third weight class. I mean, Luke, he's a, he's a kid. He's a future King. I mean, this is the, you know, we're going to talk about this era of like, you know, the hangover of Manny and, and, and, uh, Floyd, and this is Canelo's era. And there's a future king. We're going to talk about this era of the hangover of Manny and Floyd, and this is Canelo's era, and there's a couple other guys that had big runs or moments, but this Lomachenko career, if he comes back to the table at, what, 34, 35, and regains all four titles, hell yeah.

Or by contrast, let's say this. If you weren't a believer in Kambosis after beating Lopez, he goes in there and he beats Loma. Every hater on earth. I mean, I think he converted a lot of people, to be clear. Kambosis did everything the right way for that. But in the end, if he ends up beating Loma, dude, you have to. I mean, again, I think he converted a lot of people to Lopez win,

but there are some skeptics still. At that point, you just couldn't deny the guy. You just could not deny him. That's a, I don't want, no. And I don't want to act like Cambosis has no chance with this. You know, no, it's not true. He can win this fight and whoever wins this fight, seeing them, hopefully then get a Ryan Garcia or a tank or a tail female.

If he, if he wants to, but I think he's moving to one 40 or maybe Shakur Stevenson after fighting Oscar Valdez moves up. I mean, there are so many possibilities. I love it. I can't wait. But, Luke, the idea, down the road, but not too far down the road, Gervonta Tank Davis versus Vasily Lomachenko on pay-per-view for all the damn belts. I mean, come on, bro. Come on.

I mean, come on. I mean, I just, I really hope it comes to that, dude. That's all I can say. Let's stay with boxing. And, by the way, here he comes, BC. Here comes Jerron Boots Ennis. He has been named in a IBF welterweight title eliminator opposite Kusto Clayton.

Winner, this is the deal. The winner of that bout is expected to get the winner of Spence versus Ugas. These guys, Jerron Boots Ennis, I am telling you, this is probably the best, you know, prospect is not quite the right word, rising contender, maybe in all of boxing, irrespective of weight class. He is a force to be reckoned with out of Philly. They don't want any parts of this guy, but now BC, because of the ordering of this fight, he is now in direct line. If he wins this one, which I expect that he will,

he's going to get either Spence or Ugas probably later in the year, one hopes. You have to be excited for this, for Jerron Boots Ennis, who guys, you know as well as I do, guys are going to avoid him except for fights like this. Here's why this is awesome.

So Boots Ennis has that kind of AJ McKee feel, to a certain degree, right? Of like, holy shit, he might be next, and he's so dynamic that like, you know, if he starts showing us he can beat the elites easily, like he might be something, you know, next, next, next level. None of the guys seemingly want to fight him though, Luke.

And it makes sense on the risk-reward proposition to a degree, yet if this was UFC where the matchmaking had the control, he'd get fast-tracked, you know, forget Jermia, I mean, he'd get fast-tracked. proposition to a degree, yet if this was UFC where the matchmaking had the control, he'd get fast-tracked. Forget Chemaev, he'd get fast-tracked. So here's Boots, who isn't a PBC fighter officially with Al Heyman, yet fights on PBC cards, yet is promoted by Cameron Duncan, and some people believe maybe because he's not with the PBC promoters, that's delayed making some of these fights. He's just like, okay, what can I control? Going out there and winning. So why don't I go the traditional alphabet sanctioning way,

climb the rankings, become the number one contender to where they basically have to fight me or lose their belt. That's where we're at, Luke. And that's great that we're this close to seeing this consummation of boots against one of these elites. Now, Castillo-Clinton can fight. Let that be known. He fought Sergey Lipinets to an all-action draw. He's going to try to mix it up, but the fact that you said you believe Ennis could do this and handle himself maybe even easily

is because Ennis looks so great in the destructions of Sergey Lipinets or in his last fight against Thomas Delorme. I mean, he just looks so freaking special. We may see him fight for three of the four welterweight titles to close out this calendar year against the winner of Spence Ugas. Like, I feel like this is boxing Christmas morning today in Quick Hitters, and I'm just opening up, you know, promissory presents, you know, one after another here, Luke. I do. I'm telling you, for folks who have not seen Jerron Ennis,

you're about to find out. This guy, you see people switch stances in boxing a little bit. Like they do, Tyson Fury plays with it a little bit at times, especially when he's closing range in certain ways or backing up to an extent. You'll see them play with it. Jaron Ennis is one of the few guys at high level boxing will just spend a round in Southpaw, spend a round in Orthodox, or switch depending on what attacks work in the middle of a round. He can use it and weaponize it in ways that it's hard to do in

professional boxing because you can leave so many openings this dude is precise powerful athletic and his fight iq is off the charts all he needs is an opportunity to face good fighters that can take him to the next one as you mentioned clayton mentioned, Clayton, nobody's pushover. I'm not expecting him to pushover performance. But I do think that once Ennis starts tangling with the Spences, with the Ugases, those guys are in trouble, dude. I think Ennis can beat the very best of this division. Maybe not Bud Crawford. I don't know about that.

But do I believe? Do I believe, BC? I don't know this. Do I believe he can beat Spence? Yes, I do. I do believe that. You know, if this was the late 60s and we were at the, you know, the rock clubs in London, Boots Ennis is Jimi Hendrix and Spence and Crawford and Thurman are like Pete Townsend and Eric Clapton calling each other up and be like, this guy's going to put us out of work. You know, there's a day to dad reference. But look, you mentioned the switch hitting. You can't forget Terrence Crawford does that great,

but the difference is Crawford will turn to southpaw at a key strategic time and then go the rest of the fight there. Ennis just floats, and he goes back and forth, and it's not that it's never been done before. It's just very hard to do on a super elite level. Marvin Hagler did it very strategically, but it's so rare that we call it out. It's much more common in MMA to just square up or switch stances,

but in boxing, obviously, you want to avoid squaring up at all times unless you're some type of Nassim Hamed athletic freak. So, hell yeah, Luke, okay? I couldn't disagree with any of that. All correct. All right. A little disappointing, if I could be honest.

You see, I'm not saying this is a bad fight. That's not what I'm saying, but it just feels like, I don't know, does it wow me? Doesn't wow me. Artur Beterbiev, who was, I was the guy I thought Canelo, you know, that should fight him. But that would have been great if Canelo tried, even though Canelo would be, you know, way undersized.

He needs another fight. So it's going to be Joe Smith Jr. Bob Arum says the unification bout, which is what this is, will take place at MSG in June. BC, again, I'm not hating on it. It's a fine fight. Don't hate on it. I get it.

Don't hate on it. I love it, dude. Okay, it's not beave all, better beave for three of the four belts. And it's not Canelo versus, you know, Artur. But don't shit on Joe Smith Jr. He may be a, you know, union carpenter or whatever. It's a fine fight. By day.

It's a fine fight, BC, but you can't call this a grand slam. Well, look, it's for three of the four belts. And if we already know that Dimitri Bivol is the leading candidate, along with Jamal Charlo, to face Canelo in May, then the winner of that against the winner of this, even though that's not guaranteed it's going to happen, but you are talking about a final four at 175. And at the very least, Luke, Better B will be the betting favorite, and he should be.

But Betterbeave's a 36-year-old, and he showed a little bit of human-like behavior of late. What does Joe Smith Jr. do great? He's athletic, and he can knock you the hell out. And I think he's done well to cover up his limitations and become a legitimate champion and i'm not saying you know there's many ways for him to win this but this would be a fun fight and you do it msg hell yeah look yeah the msg part is great obviously there's a huge huge russian community obviously in uh in new york city um i love the proximity for us i would love to go to i do i i there's nothing wrong with this fight that's not what what I mean to say. I guess what I mean to say is, and while I grant that Baterbiev is aging,

right? He is not the same guy he was maybe three, four years ago, and that's a fair acknowledgement. At the same time, do I really think that Joe Smith has a real chance to beat him? Maybe I'm wrong. I've been wrong before i've been robbie wrong again i just don't feel that right now and for that reason it's a little bit yeah not underwhelming but a little bit okay that's kind of how i feel about it you were very shark uh shark tank judge like you know for that reason i'm out okay it was very uh we stick with the ukraine bc although peterio is russian but i mean we were talking about it earlier dude no one's really talking about this in sports uh really even in politics to a degree but it's a kind of an

interesting story i guess we'll see what happens internationally uh currently vitaly klitschko the former great champion in boxing is the mayor of kiev i think has been for about six or seven years maybe longer than that and his brother vladimir klitschko which of course many fans know returned to ukraine to join what is essentially the equivalent of their army reserves over there in the event that there is a Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Now, I cannot get into all the great details of that, in part because we don't have time and the show is not really about that.

There could be, it seems, for a lot of different reasons, there could be a Russian invasion, although the most recent reports we see out this morning indicate that maybe diplomacy will win out. I guess we'll have to see but dude these guys are 10 toes deep in the fuck Vladimir Putin club and they live and breathe their values BC you would agree seeing people who have all the riches all the fame all the acclaim in this world say when it's time to be a patriot for your country, and then they fucking do what is asked of them.

I guess we'll see what happens if there's an invasion. But they've always been critics of Vladimir Putin, and they led protests in 2013 and 2014. These guys are about it, about it. It's pretty admirable, I have to say. Well, good reference on the about it, about it, because there's two people that are maybe the only two I can compare this type of behavior and spirit to.

One is Chewbacca. Two is Pat Tillman. It kind of feels like that type of thing, Luke. And I didn't try to set you up to get you to laugh. And then I mentioned Pat Tillman like that time we interviewed that guy from that documentary. And then six weeks later, Legal's still trying to remove that from our show. And it never aired. That was a fun thing.

It was a dark moment. Seriously, though, like, look, I've always been of the belief luke that you know if you're going to believe something whether i fully agree with it or not go all in on believing that and and stand up and you know i mean like these guys are going all in i mean they there's a lot of reasons why they shouldn't be grabbing arms and going to the front line you know given who they are and all that and they're just like no we are at the end of the day citizens of this country and we must protect this house i mean that you're right in the sports world like nobody's talking about it this is this is pretty wild i mean this is like it's pretty intense shit man this is a real deal google vitaly klitschko he's been in the news a

lot he was complaining because they were asking other countries for weapons in the event that there was a invasion germany it turns, doesn't really want to get involved, so they kind of, just to pacify the Ukrainians, they sent them, and this is not a joke, 5,000 helmets. And Klitschko let them have it, dude. He let them have it in the media. These guys, man, when it's time to act for their country, they don't hesitate even a little bit,

and they've got every reason to want to go fly to the maldives and never come back um pretty and pretty remarkable see what happens again i hope that they don't you see of course i hope that it doesn't come to any kind of conflict uh whether these guys lives will be imperiled or not um but that they that they show this kind of metal and patriotism dude you just don't see a lot of that anymore you really don't and um it's it's admirable it's very i'm not doing a bit here and i know you think i'm doing a bit and i'm not but you do which makes your live chat so unique luke you do have a very good ability at like going off of the sports script and talking about politics in life and you're well informed and all that you and your dad on

the luke thomas solo channel debating you know the the potential russia ukraine uh you know invasion and the u.s's potential role i'd tune into that luke uh it wouldn't be much of a debate it'd be my dad schooling me but if you're interested in watching a beat down intellectually no i don't mean i don't mean i don't want it to be a debate i just want it to be an intelligent conversation you know joe it's funny you bring this up because after we added it after you guys texted around we added it to the rundown i actually told my dad about it my dad's super well informed on this stuff but even he didn't know about it he was blown away learning like all of this he was shocked so i think a lot of people are just like sleeping on the story a little bit but it's it's it's incredibly impressive all right BC, we end the quick hitters on one that you've added,

or maybe Mikey added it. So Deontay Wilder doesn't know if he wants to keep fighting or not. I think he's half-half, which you can understand. He made a lot of money, had a lot of wins. What's left for him? So rather than sort of seek the counsel of, I'm sure he sought the counsel of a manager and friends, the real counselor he's seeking is in the Andes Mountains somewhere,

and he's looking to go take a ayahuasca trip for insight into whether he should continue his career or not. BC, good idea, bad idea? Wild idea. Now, I believe he was on the Boxing Voice podcast where this came out, and he has specifics of he doesn't want to do dmt but he wants you know just ayahuasca but he's looking at this you know he wants to do it with a shaman and obviously do it for the spiritual reasons but like you said one of the major

parts of this is to figure out what to do moving forward i will say this luke i don't you know bring this on here in a joking fashion even though we do hey let's get rashad and go lick a toad and go to the joshua tree together and bring the mk doc cameras what i really mean is you're seeing how much healing is potentially coming from these psychoactive drugs and they're becoming a thing not just for you know ptsd ex-soldiers but now for i mean look at the change i mean you know rashad before and after the change of you know him as a man in person is is you know night and day since then so um i i believe in the potential you know healing spirit of this um but i don't know i mean this could lead to him saying screw boxing i gotta go i gotta go save the world you know we're gonna fight he's gonna find out the

true answers deep inside and luke you know what i embrace therapy therapy and mental health uh you know treatment and all that i think we all want to really know the truth, Luke. I support it in that sense. But if you're going to be the person who, and our producer brought this up quite correctly, if you're going to be the person who goes with him on a journey, you should be wearing gear like a hockey goalie because there's going to be a lot of snot from crying

and there might be some fists being thrown and God knows what else. I would be prepared is all I would say. You might also end up holding a very large man and letting him cry in your arms. That can happen too. You could be vulnerable. You never know. You never know. Look, it's wild.

That's it for our Quick Hitters BC. It's time now for the fan submissions. Yeah, morningcombat at gmail.com is the email address for you to send in your wednesday uh i don't know pictures of your cable managed cable cord management and friday's dead wrong of course which a much maligned segment luke i think dead wrong is so maligned right now that people like fan subs again what people don't understand is dead wrong is necessary i don't

know how entertaining it is but it's it's you we have to have it it's like taking a shit like no no one wants to romanticize it but it's necessary for your body's function luke that's right right it's the it's the taking a dump of your life's functions that's what it is it's friday you just let that shit out all right here we go uh we've got mail fan sub time fan sub all right russell's here he says this big guy and i took a flight to colorado and had to fly the mk flag new merch idea mk dog sweaters wow luke so did he now can you bring a pet into the actual uh you know coach area cockpit or does it have to be does it have to be if it's for like calming like like a

medical you've been in as many airports as i have even more since you have to take connections out of that podunk airport you live near but um wow shout out bradley international wow sorry i'm just being a shithead but what i mean to say is you've been in a lot of airports to see a lot more dogs than i used to for good or for worse the dogs i have seen outside of like a carrying case have either a been too big for one so i think if there's a rule the dog is small enough it's got to be in there at least for part of it or it's been like a service dog where you can actually just walk the thing down the aisle but i don't know if a puppy i don't know i don't know what the rules on that are okay all right well i will say bc he is complying with federal aviation guidelines and mandates and

he's wearing his mask i'm sure he hates it when he was there on january 6th at the capitol taking a shit on pelosi's desk but wow wow but wow that was it was a low blow but uh mikey pointing out emotional support dogs are allowed on actual plane rides so maybe that guy needed support and he was getting it from you on his chest and then you just shat on him. I know, I'm sorry. I was doing a bit. He looks great. The dog looks great. All right. Emily's here. She says,

MK meets pop vinyl. Need some of these in my living room. Keep up the great work, guys. We appreciate you. Emily from the UK. I mean, could I look more like Grumpy Cat? I mean, Jesus, fuck me. I think she nailed it, Luke.

Look at me in that. First of all, the white in my beard looks like the logo of a death metal band number one number two i look like grumpy cat with glasses on and i've just been given a stage four cancer diagnosis i mean could this be worse wow wow i thought the way i like the way i looked in that tie dye luke all right i look kind of like i've been in the gym i guess look they gave you look they gave you blonde hair you haven't had blonde hair since you were four months old fuck face this is all a lie well i have been known to diet many extreme uh shades of uh they should have died in shoe polish brown and called it a day you know if that hadn't stained the side of my head so abruptly it

would have looked real i'm telling you wow all right luke and anyone saying wow they made your head so big on there that's actually the size of my body no that's that was the one part they got right yeah there you go all right aurelius slides in says uh hey what's up mk no mk gear for you to self-promote on your show but i would like to metaphysically give a slap on the wrist to luke for being years removed from the marine corps yet still wearing his core issue dress shoes uh so so so yes and no so yes and no uh when we were at the so normally I would never I haven't worn those in years but when we went to the award show I didn't have any tuxedo shoes I don't know what the fuck tuxedo shoes would even be anymore. And he was like, what are you looking for?

I was like, Corframs, which is what they call the shiny shoes that military service members wear. I was like, I want something like Corframs. He's like, I got you, player. And that's what he gave me. Was that the same guy who was like, no cameras inside the fire tux store? Yeah, that was the guy who was like, get your motherfucking cameras and shove them up your ass like a colonoscopy.

I was like, okay, sir, that's a little aggressive, but all right. How about that sniper, Jake the Documentarian, coming in there and still pulling it off anyway okay i know he was like fuck your rules we're going into fryer talks so all right i didn't do that well he's got two memes for us here gaff what do we got what do we got anything good fans can't decide they can't decide yeah that is fucking hilarious by the way we never talked about this part either uh i don't know if i should because i think actually i have relatives out here i'll save it but i have to tell you what would happen when we were at the beach every night around sunset the instagram the instagram thoughts come out of nowhere and that's when the shade like why are you wearing your shades at sunset it's like right

yeah i'm sure your dad wouldn't be against that conversation luke that dirty old bastard all right brett's here he says cheers from sydney with these down under folks these these blokes these mates sorry mates they love us same one jesus two people had the same idea no that can't be that was brett let's oh this is brett oh that was brett sorry let's give brett from sydney the the uh credit i thought aurelius had two memes gaff no nothing let's see just the one my notes are incorrect all right well done brett let's move on to at charcoal by Dylan. Last episode, BC mentioned Nostradonkmas talking about his picks. Sure enough, as I searched one of my

leather bound history books, there was the old pitch in his washed up glory. Next to the photo, it read Nostradonkmas was a prophet so powerful he could predict how many gas station hot dogs he'd be consuming in the near future just by half closing his his his gammy chewing eye love the show love the show guys uh wow wow that's uh dude people i think i think it was they they left that scene in in the uh part six of the documentary where we went to the uh food place next to the strip club, which, by the way, was great, except they served me 75 dead animals. It was overkill to the nth degree. But they caught you doing the one-eyed bit chewing, and then viewers tagged it in the comments, timestamping it. Jake, when I always say, no, this is the real, this is the raw, and people are like, yeah, right, BC, this is all scripted bullshit, bad comedy.

It's not. First of all, and number two, Jake's not afraid to catch us at our worst and then really build the show around that. Part of the documentary is just what frauds we are, really is a big deal. Probably. All right, Michael's got a meme for old BC here. Let's see it. Let me read it.

Boxing is real. Gaethje was one kick away from beating a beef. My phone case is gender appropriate. Winner could be on a song you last weekend. It's pretty good. That's pretty good. It's funny. I mean, I definitely feel like the case is stronger than the meme would indicate, but it's still a funny's pretty good it's funny i mean i i definitely feel like the case

is stronger than the meme would indicate but it's still a funny joke thank you yeah well done michael yeah you got me you got me all right i have to say the best one of the three is my phone case is gender appropriate remember when we i even asked floyd about that right before we fought him and then he he didn't he didn't really have yeah floyd. Yeah, Floyd was like, no, no. All right. Neil says, hi, Donks. Your old pal Danger Mouse here with some memes and art to hopefully amuse and entertain you. Jesus. First up, Luke's important choice at the awards ceremony.

What does it say? It says, be polite and professional. Scream or blow it up because I can't wait to go. Scream fuck Jay Aaron and drop the mic. professional uh scream or blow it up because i can't scream fuck jay uh jay aaron and jay aaron excuse me and drop the mic i chose polite and professional but uh yes i i definitely had a little voice on my head being like say fuck jay now i was like yes it was george corpse grinder apparently uh let's see the next one this is bc following his argument that biz ping should not be in the hall of fame

bc the next time he attends a ufc where michael bisping is present haha i'm in danger no no he's not we just to make sure everyone was cool before high court i messaged bisping and gave him a heads up and he was completely cool then i did criticize this commentary and then he put out a video yesterday coming back at all the haters. I'm not saying that he saw our show. What did he say? What did he say?

I'm not saying he saw our show or whatever, but he was just like, you know, you guys don't realize how great Rogan is and is to this industry. I could never replace him. And then into the whole like... I mean, it is unfair that Bisping got thrown into this and everyone was like, well, what about Rogan?

It's like, dude, he can't be Rogan. Like he can only be himself. That's it. There's no replacing Rogan per se. And you know, I, you know, just the,

the, the breakdown of the scoring and all that, but we've been up and down that road. Uh, Luke, he's got another one here. Now it's back to Luke for his controversial opinions on MK fan. I mean,

I don't actually believe that. I just like making jokes about it, but that is a funny meme. That is a funny meme. And finally, one for all the true Morning Combat fans out there. Great interviews recently, BC. Keep on donking, guys.

That's true. That is true. Oh, that is good oh that is good that is really really really funny that's good they did they were good this week holy shit i mean we got a couple more and for all you people listening at home you missed it you should be watching us on youtube i think we'll take we'll take your view your listens your downloads on spot yeah it's just hard to get the value of this segment on podcast uh owen says gentlemen some time ago i emailed this is the last one i emailed in to save luke from any future misuse of the word brethren as in brian campbell my cbs sports brethren since it's plural and all and bc is just one dude anyway luke looked me dead in the eye and told me to go eat shit

though he stopped saying it so i guess that tells its own story. Luke, it's not my fault that your mood is ruled by the slightest pressure on your sphincter. I was just trying to help and you spat in my face. But what am I gonna do? Go to the Canadians? They don't touch me like you guys do, Luke. So like in any abusive relationship,

no matter how venomously you shout me down, I'll always come back for more because that sugar is just too sweet. Besides, there's an upside to Luke's visceral anger. The kids in the neighborhood learn a lot of new swear words whenever the audio on his live chat fails again. See the meme attached. Much love, Owen from the Netherlands.

Daddy, why is the big hairy man next door always so angry? Is it because of his music? The music is really angry, Daddy really angry daddy i get scared sometimes daddy what is a mouth breather am i a mouth breather the hairy man yells that a lot of mondays just keep mowing that lawn son jesus it's called a cover bc like a cover band wow uh do you what do you think of uh of what's this guy's name owen what do you think of his long spiel that's name, Owen? What do you think of his long spiel? That's a little bit all over the place, but he tried. That's what matters, right? He closed with, P.S., may all your locker room bonuses be declared to the IRS.

Luke, that is fan subs, John S. Nash of the week. I have to say, this one's an A-. That's pretty good. Yeah, it's not bad. That's not bad. All right. All right, Luke. That's it.

That's it. I got to go. That's it. So let's remind All right, Luke. That's it. That's it. I got to go. That's it. So let's remind everyone you're flying out today because Friday show box. What time does show box kick off in the east on Friday? It's 9 p.m. Eastern. I should probably look that up and have that accurately, but it's don't miss it on show time.

BC. Barry Tompkins, Raul Marquez. It's the main event. Lightweight. It's going to be fun. Jermaine Ortiz against Nahir Albright. And by the way, folks, I say this. BC is not a wallflower on this broadcast, of course, nor should he be.

But what I mean to say is, Barry Tompkins probably talks the most by virtue of his job, right? He's the play-by-play guy. BC does some color along with Raul Marquez. And of course, BC lets Raul Marquez do his thing because he's a smart guy who knows boxing in and out. But I got to say, I watched the first broadcast. They have BC do, like, all the graphics in and out.

It's pretty amazing. So if you don't get enough BC on MK, which you probably do, to be honest with you, but at least DVR it because when you go back and you see, dude, he has a very, very active role in these broadcasts. BC, congratulations, dude. Thank you. I'm happy for you.

It's really good to see. I know, I know. I know you're a talentless faker, but I also know you've been talentlessly faking for like 15 years. So you're due an opportunity. You know what I'm saying? It's like a common law marriage, right?

At the end of the day, it's like, okay, he got there at the end of the day. Exactly, exactly. And also, after BC on Saturday, we go over to Bellator and Showtime on Saturday. So Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. Now's the time. Pull the trigger. What are you waiting on? Store. You can see what BC shirt is and everything else. Morningcombat.store is going to be your place

to be for all of that. Don't forget the dead wrongs, folks. You got to hold us to account. If we're wrong, we need to know about it. We need to know from you. Morningcombat.gmail.com. You can kill us on there. It's fine. That's what it's for. So you can hammer us for all our things we get wrong along the way. And yeah, that's about it, BC. I know you got to get out of here, but we'll be back on Friday for a full-on preview. Then there's Showbox that night. We got a busy, busy weekend. So I wish you good luck on your travel. Any final thoughts? No, not at all. All right. So for Malka, for Showtime, for CBS Sports, for the boss of Connecticut, my name is Luke Thomas.

This has been Morning Combat. We'll see you guys on Friday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.