MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Wilder vs. Fury II, Jan Blachowicz, Ryan Garcia

Episode Date: February 17, 2020

Luke and Brian give you an in-depth preview on everything involving Wilder vs. Fury 2. They also discuss Jan Blachowicz' big win over Corey Anderson and what's next for Ryan Garcia after another impressive victory. MorningKombat #WilderFury2 #RyanGarcia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Wow, it is Monday. I think it's the 17th of February, 2020, and it is time for Morning Combat. Welcome, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas, along with my co-host, Brian Campbell. You might be, like, rubbing your eyes because it may not look familiar. It's the same morning combat energy, the same dynamic duo, but Brian Campbell, it is a brand new set.

Luke, some got hopes and dreams. We got ways and means. Check out this new motif, right? You know, we're blowing up like they probably thought we would, but you can crawl the crib, same number, same bomb shelter. Just some added decorations here. Your side, very peaceful, very zen. Which, by the way, I did not ask for. They just put it that way, but I'm not mad. I like it, actually. Some people on Twitter are saying very massage parlor-esque. Mine's a little bit more rugged. There's tips, there's construction. Yeah, again, mine is Orchids of Asia where the owner of the Patriots gets handies, and then yours is

the Narcos set or something. I don't know. Hey, this is a moment, though. Maybe we can shoot to it later, all right? We will shoot to it later. Shoot your shot, yeah. We will do that later. We're not going to do shoeies because that's overplayed at this point.

By the way, every time I see Tai Tuivasa on Instagram, he's just routinely drinking beers out of his shoes now. It's like, you know you don't have to do that. That's the level below eating your three meals a day out of a gas station, right? That's next level stuff. I think that is true. But in any event, we're very excited to be on the show today. We have a new set.

We have new logo. You can see it there. We have new colors, new graphics, the whole nine yards. We're all growns up, Luke, and we're going to go further. But what it's going to take is the people. It's going to take you guys. Showtime has done their part. The media company that makes this whole thingtime has done their part. The media

company that makes this whole thing happen has done their part. Now that's where you come in. Please like the video, of course, subscribe to the channel and tell a friend about it. Word of mouth is how this is going to get to the next level. For anyone who's done that already, we appreciate that, but never stop. Send it around. Let folks know right now. If you love us and you've been watching for a long time, but you haven't subscribed on YouTube, make that happen. We want to keep bringing this to you. In this house, maybe we'll show up in your house, in your basement. We want to take this shit public. It's free. It's free. All you got to do is just say yes. What do you need from us? You need more dongs? What do you need? All right. Just hit that button. Here's your dong provider. Yeah. Okay.

With that in mind, let's kick off the show if we can. First up, at UFC Rio Rancho, Jan Blachowicz defeats Corey Anderson via TKO in the first round. So we are dealing with a bit of an interesting scenario. This would kind of make him the de facto number one contender, depending on how the rankings eventually work out. But we are still living in this shadow where Dominic Reyes kind of has this interesting relationship now with Jones, where he maybe should get the immediate rematch. We don't really know. where Dominic Reyes kind of has this interesting relationship now with Jones, where he maybe should get the immediate rematch. We don't really know. Brian Campbell, I will start with you, sir.

What should happen next? Has Jan Blachowicz done enough to get the next shot at Jon Jones, or do we run back UFC 247? It's tough, Luke. I think in some ways we're still in the same argument I had last week, which is what is Jon Jones' future? Is it going to heavyweight? And if that's the case, then you sort of take a step back and start to build around Dom Reyes. Give him an interim title or a full title shot for the vacant one against

Tiago Santos, against a Jan Blahowicz who certainly, I don't know if I want to outright said achieved and deserves a title shot, but he's damn close. All right, he's won what, six of his last seven? Yeah, there's that argument to say the three best wins, the three finishes, or I'm sorry, the three most recent ones have come against maybe blowing up middleweights. I've heard that argument out there. But Rian Blahowicz achieved and did exactly what he should have done

is he's coming off that win over Jacare, which was very boring. He did not show a better side of him. It was almost survive in advance. For him to come out against a red-hot brand in Corey Anderson, who was, you know, fighting with such purpose, such anger on top of him, and to finish him as quickly and defiantly as he did, he's in the conversation.

So I think it comes down to this, Luke. Dom Reyes, Jon Jones, too? That's going to do some business. That's going to move some product. Do you want to do that at International Fight Week? Do you want to pair that with Jorge and Kamaru? That's a damn good sort of Super Bowl card this summer in Las Vegas if you want to do that at International Fight Week? Do you want to pair that with Jorge and Kamaru? That's a damn good sort of Super Bowl card this summer in Las Vegas if you want to do that. I don't think you can really go to John against Jan next without kind of flipping the middle finger at Dom Reyes,

who everyone believes won. So many people believe, not everyone, so many people believe won that fight. And I don't know if you've seen the subsequent sort of post-documentary things that have come out from UFC on Fight Pass, where they have the guys mic'd up afterwards, and when Jon Jones and Dom Reyes embraced, Jon said, man, this rematch is going to be, he basically said, this rematch is going to be fire, can't wait for it. Interesting. Yeah, here's the thing. If they gave Jan Blachowicz a title shot, could you really cry about it? Could you really say, oh, this is a travesty. This is a

miscarriage of justice. This is just not fair to the division. I don't think you could make that argument. So at this point, if they gave it to him, you'd be like, well, I sort of understand it, right? I mean, listen to the win streak he's been on. Now, I know he lost to Thiago Santos back in 2019, which feels recent. But before that, he had beaten Devin Clark, Jared Kananir, Jimmy Manoa. He finished Nikita Krylov. He obviously ended the career, basically, of Luke Rockhold. The Jacare fight sucked, but he came on the winning side of it.

And then, as you pointed out, Corey Anderson wasn't just a guy he beat. Corey Anderson was red hot going into that fight, and then he stopped him in the first round after losing to him. By the way, did you go back and ever watch the first fight between Blachowicz and Anderson? Have you seen it recently? No. Blachowicz lost on two scorecards in that fight, 30-25. Like, Corey Anderson beat him from pillar to post, okay?

It was not close. And then to come out and look like this. Dude, I take my hat off to Jan Blachowicz. He has clearly, clearly gotten so much better. He is not the fighter he started out. Listen to some of these old losses. Corey Anderson, Jimmy Manoa, Alexander Gustafson. Okay.

And then Patrick Cummins. He lost to Patrick Cummins. Yeah, he wasn't the same fighter back then. He is such a different fighter now, and it deserves to be recognized. That being said, I just didn't like what John and his team were doing. Look, it's their right to do, of course. But they were standing outside the cage, acting like the Dom Reyes fight didn't happen. Well, look, if you're John Jones, Jan Blachowicz, for as dangerous as he is.

It's a winnable fight. It's a very winnable fight. I mean, Jon Jones could decision the crap out of that. But just to act like last weekend didn't happen, it was like, again, it's absolutely their right to do that. But that told me that they see the Dom Reyes fight as a lot more difficult. Because you can't argue that the Blahovic fight, while new and not necessarily undeserved, is more lucrative. It's not. I think there's a way to let everybody win.

This is the scenario, okay? John has been very busy lately, right? He fought four times in what, like a six, seven, or three times in like a seven-month window, then now he was just back. If he wants to fight Jan Blachowicz like on a quick turnaround, like two and a half months from now, and then you set up, you know, provided that he wins,

then you set up to that Jones-Reyes rematch later this year in a prime spot where you're essentially saying, this is Jon Jones' swan song at Light Heavyweight. He's either going to go out on top, and then we can still do Dom Reyes against somebody else for the vacant title, depending on what would happen, or he might go out losing the title and passing the torch and then moving on to Heavyweight. If you're going to set up for a larger event that way,

and you want Jon to just get a chance to break the division titles record, I believe he's one behind Mighty Mouse's record right now, that kind of pleases everybody. But I would think Dom Reyes would not need an interim bout in between. If you're basically telling Dom, you got next. We're going to run this one back, and you got next. Okay, again, I don't think that's the end of the world if they did that, but the one thing that is missing from Jon Jones' career

is he's never had to have an immediate rematch. Dom Reyes arguably won that fight. Again, he didn't, but arguably did. And if you get right back after it, here's the thing, dude. Jon Jones is really good about making in-fight adjustments and then adjustments between fights, adjustments two different ways. I'm not saying if you do an immediate rematch, you take away that advantage because he still has all that information processed and he can go look at the film.

But it does keep it on a more level playing field. To me, the longer this goes, A, the less people will care. They'll be like, well, does Dom really need it? Because by the time May comes around, let's say he beats Blachowicz, okay, so it's two, three, four, five months after that, the division begins to roll. What if Anthony Smith goes in there and just bludgeoned? Let me finish.

No, I want to call time out on your Anthony Smith boner right now. Let me just make a scenario here very quickly, and I'll be quiet. Where Anthony Smith, let's say, beats Glover Teixeira in April in Nebraska. Then folks are going to say, well, what about Dom Reyes versus Anthony Smith? He can't hold on. Either he has next or he doesn't. You've got a hard-on from here to Harrisburg on Anthony Smith. You want him next for Jon Jones, you want him back in there.

I mean, the guy lost five one-sided rounds for the most part. Where is this coming from? Fair enough, but he also rebounded against Gustafson, finished him, by the way. This should be noted. Now, he has been on injury, but he has a Glover-Tashera fight coming up. You beat Gustafson, you beat Tashera, you're still at the top of that division. Even that wouldn't necessarily demand

a title shot, but the point being is what they're going to say, what they're ultimately going to try and produce is a scenario where they say, well, wow, Anthony Smith has rebounded. He's back at the top of the division. He should fight Dom Reyes. Which, by the way, would be a great fight.

I'm not even saying that. But my point being is, if you're going to give Dom Reyes a rematch, it's now or it's not now. That's my whole point. All right, what about this extra scenario right here? Shoot. Shoot. What if Jon Jones' next fight, I mean, because we've already established that. Look, if Israel Adesanya comes out here against you, Elmer,

I want to fight that, like, good Lord, like, shovel it down. Like, let's do it right now, please. Do that again? Do that again? No, no, just, no, no, no, no. Tips will not be accepted. Luke, I mean, if he just blows him away and calls out Jon Jones, that's something that could happen as a distraction.

The same thing with the idea of Jon going up as a one-off rather than sort of just moving full-time to heavyweight. If any of those things happen, would you accept? Now, I hate interim titles, and I hate it when they're not necessary. When somebody gets in a motorcycle accident and they're out for a year and a half, they're necessary. UFC now uses them as essentially number one contender bouts, right? Jan versus Dom Reyes for the chance to fight Jon Jones when he would return to 205.

I guess in a way you please everybody with that as well. I will say that if, okay, here's what I'll say. If Adesanya goes in there and blows the doors off Romero, not just wins like, you know, some split decision that everyone contests, but I mean really truly puts it on him, okay? If he does that and then calls out Jon Jones, I'd be okay with him skipping the queue for what it might mean. And in that sense, yes, Dom Reyes, you have to say, well, Dom, you had your chance, you couldn't do it. A super fight between this, you know, essentially in UFC anyway,

undefeated challenger in MMA coming up and making history, yeah, I would step aside for that. But for any other light heavyweight in the queue right now, no, I would not say Don Ray should step aside for that. But there's a lot of ifs going involved. And we've got to just double down on, hey, Jan, you got the job done. Not only did you get the spectacular knockout against maybe the hottest guy at that moment in the division outside of the two guys that just fought for the title,

but then he turned right to Jon Jones and sold the point. Sure did. And pointed at him and went back to the well to the camera. That is how you do it. I'm going to give Jan Blahowicz a lot of credit for that bounce back right there. That was very well done. And again, a lot of people want to write him off. I even tweeted about it.

I was like, you know, again, I still think Reyes should get the immediate rematch. But I even said, man, this guy's improved a lot. And it's not just that night. And people were like, oh, but he beat Corey Anderson in the first round. What does that really mean? Well, first of all, Corey Anderson is a good fighter. I wouldn't call him an elite fighter, but he's not just that night. And people are like, oh, but he beat Corey Anderson in the first round. What does that really mean? Well, first of all, Corey Anderson is a good fighter. I wouldn't call him an elite fighter, but he's a very good one. And number two, it's not about just that night. It's about what the tape shows over the course of his career. A lot of

guys get pegged early on. Oh, here's this European guy who can beat the lowest level of UFC light heavyweights, but he's not much more than that. But he is much more than that. He did get better. He has improved. You got guys like me calling him Jan Blackowitz for years before realizing it. But now you're, this is the whole point. It's like, don't even need to learn this guy's name. He's going to be out of here in no time. But the reality is he actually really, truly did get better. Now, how good is he?

I don't know if he can beat Jon Jones. We can have that debate a separate time. But he's a legit high-level UFC light heavyweight. And that's not a small thing. That's very hard to be, especially when I think a bunch of us have been like, eh, just a European donk. Who is he? Ah, he's a good fighter. And he got better even at age 34, 35, and 36. That's hard to do.

And he did it. Credit to him. I do want to say this. I felt bad for Corey Anderson. He had been on the kind of run, and by the way, I love when you go outside the cage to try to get a fight. There's levels to this. He went to the car show in New Jersey or whatever it was to get in Jon Jones' face. Remember when Antonio Tarver

wanted Roy Jones so bad? Yeah. He was showing up at press conferences and grabbed a microphone. He's like, Roy, what do I have to do? Piss in your front lawn to get a fight? To see that end,

it was very reminiscent. Remember when Matt Brown went on that run where it looked like a real title contender and it ended at the Robbie Lawler fight, but that build to that, it was like,

this guy's going somewhere, this might happen, and then it just stopped. I kind of feel like even though Corey Anderson will give him the chance to bounce back, I feel like this was that hot run where he had a chance to go all the way, and now, before the fight even started, really, first attempt at a shot, you know, it looked like he was shooting, Jan caught him.

Yeah, I mean, it's sort of like, we'll move on to the next topic, but between the last fight and this one, it shows you why people are wrong about Corey Anderson and why they're right about him. Like, everyone had counted him out in the last fight. He goes in there and just shows you what he's made of. And then in this fight, people were like, what did he really make about Jan Blachowicz, who, again, lost on two scorecards, 325 the first time they fought. Now is much better.

And also, oh, right, Corey Anderson sometimes loses in these bigger fights against just much more seasoned, not much more seasoned per se, but much better strikers when he makes a critical error in that way. It's like, okay, we might have been wrong about you, but we're also kind of right too. Hey, Luke, before you transition to the next topic, my producer is heavily in my ear wanting us to christen the set right now. Okay, well, the producer can go and, you know. Does he know that you have producer credits? He can. Chupar Mispelotas, if he would like to.

Let's move on to the next topic. Can we go on to the next topic, please? We're going to christen the set J at the end. Like real men. The ultimate heel, this guy. That's what I picked. What did you pick? Look at that.

A little pro wrestling? Some pro wrestling? A little Piper, Ultimate Warrior, Ric Flair, Savage. Okay. Come on. Let's go on to the next one, because this one I think is a little bit of a difficult conversation, but it's one that we have to have. I like difficult conversations.

I like awkward conversations, too. That's all that we really have around here. Okay. So Diego Sanchez wins in the co-main event, but not without a fairly strong degree of controversy. He was fighting Michelle Pereira, this guy who was known for the backflips and the weird antics, and he was huge. He's physically a large welterweight.

And we all know the story about Diego Sanchez. He's no longer with a reputable camp. He's just training with some guy who does magic tricks, I guess. I don't really know what his qualifications are because they don't appear to be very strong. He was clearly losing two rounds. And in the third round, he takes a knee while he is downed.

Referee Jason Herzog separates them. And Brian, this was the interesting part. He asked Diego if he can continue. And Diego responds, if the fight can't continue, if I can't, do I win or do I lose? Now, Herzog did not tell him the answer. He just told him he was going to follow basically the commission and the commission protocol. But yes, the answer was, in that particular state, under those conditions, if the fight did get stopped due to an illegal shot, it is a disqualification. He ended up winning. Now, the question is this.

Did Diego Sanchez quit? Did he quit? You're going to put me in the hot seat? Let me go first if I can on this one because I'm going to give you the first one and the next one and then the one after that too. I think he did. I think it's actually pretty obvious that he did. But there needs to be a couple of caveats.

Number one, I give credit to Mike Chiappetta. Mike Chiappetta was like, dude, for 15 years, and the guy's 38 years old. He's the only member left from the Ultimate Fighter 1 who's competing. For 15 years, this guy was a blood and guts fighter who gave way more to the sport than he arguably ever got back in terms of financial compensation, among other kinds of accolades. He fought for a UFC title. He fought at 145, 155, 170, 185 inside the UFC when he won a tough one that was at middleweight, for crying out loud.

Granted, against Kenny Florin, who was also a blown-up middleweight, but nevertheless, at middleweight. And I just remember, for example, you could pick any fight, but it was the one against Martin Kampmann where he kind of got a bogus decision there. But his face was falling off from the kinds of cuts that Martin Kampmann had put on him. If anyone has, even if you want to argue that he gamed the system, maybe he's earned one to game the system. Also, Ben Fulks at The Athletic, I thought, put out a really good piece about it, saying, look, dude, look at the rational incentives here. If you keep going, you're probably going to keep getting your ass kicked. You look at his money, you're going to get half.

Because if you say, I'm going to continue just so I can get an attaboy pat on the back, well, now you've cut your money in half. You don't even have a rational incentive to not game the system. So why are we mad at these guys for taking the easy way out, but doubling their money when he's at the very end of his career? And I respect all of that. I think Mike Chiappetta is right. Diego has earned one. And I also think he made the rational choice about his future. Here's the part that stands out to me. I don't care that he quit. It doesn't mean anything to me. Guys quit in MMA all the time and we don't say anything. We quit under striking conditions when we think they can keep going. Somehow this is somehow categorically

different. I don't think that it really is. But I will tell you what it was for me. It was very much out of character. In that fight with Martin Kampmann, there is a video at the time, because it was UFC on Versus, they go backstage and Lorenzo and Dana visited Diego because, dude, he took a mountainous amount of abuse. And he pounds his chest the whole time while the doctor is stitching him up, talking about his corazon, his heart, and how he had it for days. You're with this guy who, I don't know what his qualifications are, this trainer, giving him the most fucked up, weird corner advice. He does push strikes, right?

Yeah. He's like, I can do it with one finger as I apply force behind it. Like, what the fuck are you talking about, guy? He's no longer with Jackson's, and maybe that bridge is burned. But my point is, if he's making decisions like this, while rational about the end of his career and while rational for his money, and I don't judge him for it, it is out of character for him. And if it's out of character for him, to me, that tells me that the greater context around him, from the trainer to his dislocation in terms of his community, to everything around him, they are not putting him

in a position to win and they are not getting the best out of himself, and you're not getting what makes Diego, Diego. I don't care that he quit. I care that he is clearly not in a position to be fighting up to, not only up to his potential, but to do right by himself. Luke, I mean, let's be honest right now, okay? We love Diego Sanchez at this point because he's a warrior, but because he's freaking weird.

When he does these pre-fight interviews at the media days, and he's talking about, you know, the moon and the sun and the stars, and we laugh at it because it's weird. But then when you combine weirdness with, oh, my God, this guy's taken an insane amount of punishment over the years, that starts to, you start knocking shit over on your thing. That starts to really fuel the idea like, yeah, this guy's not making smart decisions for himself.

And this was a sneaky decision to step out of this fight knowing he would get the win. Why? Because he knows he's at a point in his career where you package a couple losses together, they're going to start having these conversations about, oh my god, this guy's taking so much punishment. Remember when the battle cry was for him to retire after UFC 200 when Joe Lozon beat him in like a minute and a half?

And then he's sort of been a survivor alternating wins and losses since then. I think this was just him saying, I lost the fight. I got a chance to gain a cheap win to extend my career and get more paydays. And I think there's a larger problem here with the rule set, Luke. We've talked about Anthony Smith. He could have been your light heavyweight champion against Jon Jones by doing the exact same thing when Jones hit that illegal knee.

And you know what? It would have been insanely cheap. And the fact that Anthony Smith didn't do that shows me what kind of man he is, to be really honest with you. Didn't want to take an absolute cheap victory to get a guaranteed rematch and get a footnote in history that he was light heavyweight champion. He wanted to do it the right way. The fact that fighters

have this chance to do that, Luke, it doesn't go right by me. Why should that not have... No contest? Why should that not have been either a no contest or either let's go to the scorecards at that point because there's no way that Diego Sanchez was leading at that point. So

we can have a whole side conversation about the circus clown Michel Pineda. Do I like, obviously, some of the fireworks that he does? Yes. But you know my take on him. It's like if you're not doing that in the avenue of winning and him coming out to all those boos while he's doing the dance routine and burning up all that energy, that's on him.

Because it's now two fights in a row he should have won. And the first one he gassed himself out and got beat to an inferior fighter. And this time around in the fight he was dominating, he sort of just mentally took him out of it with a bad foul. But I don't think you should be able, especially on the title level, to be able to backdoor a cheap victory like that. If you cannot

continue, there's got to be some kind of like, look, there's no winner. It's a no contest. I'm sorry. I think that's a fine conversation to have. I don't take issue with it. Do you take issue, though, with – do you think Diego has earned the right, as I do, to, okay, if this happened again, well, that would be a problem.

But for all he's given, for all the damage he's taken, can't we just look the other way one time? We can look the other way from the idea of going down Hot Take City and going, they quit, the warrior quit, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, he has enough in the bank to earn our respect, but it's still a broken system if you can win fights like that, and I personally still think I'm not seeing a guy who can compete on this level anymore

because he got his ass kicked in that fight. Also, I'm just going to say this one more time. If you're around Diego Sanchez and you have the ability to influence him in any capacity, someone needs to have a hard conversation with him. This is not the only time he's ever left Jackson's. You'll recall when St. Pierre came there the first time, he went and trained with the Hibero brothers,

Saulo and Shanji. And he had some losing in that time, but he was still learning jiu-jitsu from two of the best jiu-jitsu players ever. He had real martial artists around him. Dude, he doesn't even have any of that anymore. I think he has an astrologist now. I mean, I don't know what's going on in this game. If that, if that. So the point being is, you can say, as I'm going to say, I'll let him slide on one. You got a mulligan on this one, fine. But the greater context is, dude, they're going to book him in another fight. And he's

going to be, listen, he's going to be right back here again, and we and we're gonna be having a conversation what the fuck is happening can we learn from the bj pen thing right can we can we can we learn as an organization from this just letting a guy keep getting extra fights that mean nothing to give him paydays there's a way you fix that better give him a lump sum of money and say you've done a lot for us you're an ambassador here's a you know here's a prize you know what i mean or or you want to you want to keep fighting this organization find a camp find a real camp or we can't book fights with you anymore. How about no, Luke? How about we want to save your health?

How about you're not a high-level contender anymore? You're only going to get hurt at this point. I'd be happy with that, too. Why else are we seeing him anymore, right? I got excited about this fight because it was weird and there was potential. There could be weirdness. The bad potential came out in it. It was one-sided and it had a crappy ending.

All right. Well, we'll move on now to the biggest fight coming up this weekend, and it is a heavyweight doozy. I cannot wait. The rematch, it is finally here, ladies and gentlemen. Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury will lock horns for the second time, this time at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Brian Campbell, you will be there.

Brian, first of all, before I get to the question that we have listed here, what would you say your level of enthusiasm is? Because the press tour for this, great, it's the second time. I mean, how many times can you call a guy a dosser before you get a little bit tired of it? But it feels, my enthusiasm for it is high because of what it all could mean. But in terms of, I think, what I read in the public,

I do think it's going to sell well because this stuff just builds late. It doesn't have quite the same feel as the first one. No, it doesn't. And you're asking me, am I excited about it? Yeah, right now I am dialed in. I'm freaking fired up. But it was a late, slow build.

It's not a bad thing, though. Because what Tyson Fury didn't do this time around was be Tyson Fury. Be the crazy guy in the build-up. Go Dosser like crazy. In fact, there was no real acrimony between the two. There was no heated face-to-faces that ended in a shove. There was barely a press tour. But you know what it was about, Luke?

All the storylines building up to this was about real things that actually affect the fight. Tyson, Chip Fury changing trainers at the last minute, changing philosophy and strategy at the last minute, all that stuff. So now, why am I excited about this fight? I'm excited because of the historical context and how important it is, the fact that the winner's probably in control as your sort of pound-for-pound best heavyweight in the moment and would have the lineal title, depending on what you feel about that i'm personally a lineal guy i think that's the true currency in the sport but i'm actually more excited about it not from the two personalities

from what the fight will look like which in theory luke especially for the hardcores that's why you should be excited about it this doesn't have the type of commercial catnip that we had the first time around in terms of like Tyson Fury's here in America he's throwing you know he's here he's gonna put it out there oh Dosser all this you know mental health comeback all that great stuff that's to attract and pull in the casuals we may be lacking on that but we have a much more intriguing storyline about the actual fight than we did the first time around because you have to remember the questions coming in about Tyson Fury after that layoff after getting two soft comeback fights and going in there. Now we know who both guys are. Now we

know the success that each of them had in the first fight. And now it's sort of like which style is going to work better. I'm fired the heck up for the right reasons in the end. And I also, I would argue before I pitch the first question to you, I would just make a case that given what we know about Deontay and his style, given what we know about Tyson and his style, we'll see what kind of strategy he employs ultimately, it's actually a time to reflect on the nature of heavyweight boxing, the state of the current division, its past, its future. It's actually a pretty cool, interesting moment.

When was the last time we had a title rematch between unbeaten guys? I mean, probably never because it's so rare to have a draw in the first fight and then come back to a high-level rematch. But think of how rare this is. They're both at the very top of their game. They both have a legitimate title to bring into place. Deontay WBC, the lineal belt for Fury, the idea of control of this division potentially and what could happen if they can ever make a Joshua payday, and the whole idea of, are they going to do it again?

We know that there's language in the contract that would say the loser has the right to activate a rematch clause at the 60-40 money split. So we could be seeing two of these fights this year. Look, there is some legitimate history here coming off of that horrifically bad heavyweight era. We had like that Joshua Klitschko fight that kind of kicked it into gear through the Wilder Fury fight in December 2018. And now we get to see it again. This is going to be a hellacious fight because there's so much at stake. Deontay can end it at any time. And Tyson Fury just might be the heavyweight of this era. This is crazy. All right. So given those considerations, let's

play a little bit of a game here. We decided we were going to basically flip a coin and say, make a case for either fighter. You would like to make the case for Tyson Fury. I'll play the opposite. I'll make the case for Deontay Wilder, even though I'm not sure if he actually can win, but I will be his lawyer in this court. Can he win? He can beat anybody with one punch at any time. But you know what I'm trying to say, in terms of what I think is a probabilistic outcome, not whether it is a possible one. So with that being said, make the case for Tyson Fury. Why does he win this rematch on Saturday? Well, here's what's interesting about it. Here's

where it gets juicy. Here's where the biggest theme coming into this fight is so sort of like, I don't know where to go right now. Nobody changes trainers two months out from the biggest fight of their career, right? Ben Davison, the 25-year-old guy who was sort of like a best friend, buddy, instrumental in sort of helping Fury develop that defensive style that kind of won him the first fight, depending on how you scored it, and really emotionally a guy who helped him sort of overcome his demons, come back from all that he did in that miraculous story that he had. That guy's gone.

He's going now to Sugar Hill Steward, the nephew of Emanuel Steward, the late Hall of Famer, Cronk Jim, with the idea of, I left something on the table in the first fight, meaning he left it to the judges' hands. He didn't know his full stamina ability at that point. If he can go 12 rounds, if he could have Wilder hurt and try to step in there and finish him. Twice he did that.

Wow. So the idea that Fury at every stop on this build has said, I am going for the knockout. I'm learning the Kronk way so I can sit down on my punches is insanely intriguing, Luke, from the idea of that this is going to be a more exciting fight. But is it crazy, though, is the question. Let me just ask you a question. Do you believe him when he says that? Because I don't.

I didn't at first. But doubling down on it, tripling down on it, me on a conference call just the other day, really asking him about it, talking to his trainer and asking him about it, yes, I actually think. Do I think he's going to recklessly go out and try to brawl? No.

I do think there's an interesting avenue to have success. You remember his last fight against Ado Valin. Supposed to be a walkthrough, right? Tyson Fury gets the vicious cut early in the fight. Has to essentially go into crazy man mode because that fight could be stopped at any point and he loses his title because of the cut. So what did he do?

He used his 6'9 size, leaned all over Wallin, brawled on the inside, did a lot of shifting, but it was all power punches all the way. He was trying to get a stoppage. I think Tyson Fury remembered something when he went through that, that this is kind of more of the style he employed early on in his career. And his dad, Big John Fury, has been talking for years about Tyson needs to be bigger. He needs to be 270 pounds. He needs to

come in with that weight. Very few fighters historically in the heavyweight division loop can fight well on the inside. Remember when Riddick Bowe was like this dream, the six foot five guy with quick hands who could do it on the inside. Deontay Wilder is still this raw guy who needs to set up his right hand and use the jab to do it. What if Fury is thinking, I'm the bigger guy. I weigh more. I'm the more skilled guy. Where the first fight he did his best to avoid the big right hand. What if now he tries to smother it and get inside? You're thinking, wow, this is a crazy strategy. You know what's a crazy strategy? Trying to go 12 full rounds against Deontay Wilder at any point. Look, he almost got his head knocked off in the 12th round after basically pitching a perfect game to get there. Maybe it's not so crazy to hear Tyson Fury's

reasoning and say, the judges took this fight away from me for the first time around. I can't get a decision in the States. I know what I'm up against. I'm going to put it into my hands and try to win it. I know the knee jerk reaction is, well, you're not a power puncher. It's proven it. You don't have that. But if you go back and watch that first fight, I know both fighters dispute this. It looked like Wilder was hurt on two occasions. The first round. And also in the 12th round. Yep. And Fury is saying, I didn't believe in my stamina enough to try to finish him. Here's what you have to ask yourself. Is Fury the best fighter of this heavyweight group? Is he everything he says he is? Is he just a con man, or is he everything he says he is?

So what is he? He's a fighting man, right? In his lineage that goes back to bare-knuckle champions for generations. Luke, there's a magic inside of him that we rarely see in sports, right? We talk about that a lot with Conor McGregor, where he was just calling his shot and winning fights. We certainly had that with Muhammad Ali, who built up this sort of idealism in the 70s

that he could win a fight no matter what because of these sort of hero type of moments. Rope-a-dope against George Foreman in Zaire. For Tyson Fury to pull this off in this rematch against Wilder and do what he says, which is go in there and fight and actually stop him, would be a modern-day rumble in the jungle. And as crazy as it sounds, if anyone can do it, it's actually him, Luke.

It's actually a 6'9 guy with a rare speed, length, better boxing ability than his opponent. And what we've seen from him outside the ring and inside the ring, an ability to bite down and get the job done and find a way to win that's really incomparable in this era. Yes, Deontay Wilder could finish him at any point in any fight. If they fought 10 times, he may finish nine of them by knockout. But I actually believe Tyson Fury is going to carry out this game plan. Deontay Wilder could finish him at any point in any fight. If they fought 10 times, he may finish nine of them by knockout. But I actually believe Tyson Fury is going to carry out this game plan. And with this type of trainer, with the crunk style,

and seeing what he could be as a fighter on the inside, use his weight, it may be a boring fight because of that. It may be a yuck fest because of that. But I think he can win this fight, and I actually think he can stop him. So that was a moderately compelling case for a boxer who deserved better than what you offered him just now. I'm teasing. I actually think that the... Okay, here's what we know to be sure.

Clearly Tyson Fury is the better boxer, right? Who's going to be the better fighter in the end, which is more than just boxing ability? That's what we're going to find out in this fight. That's right. Exactly correct. But we both agree that the better boxer, by far, is Tyson Fury. So Tyson Fury is going to outbox him until the fight either expires, or I don't think he's going to stop Deontay.

You can tell me what you want, but I just don't believe that. Or Deontay knocks him out. Really the only one of two possibilities. I thought he won the first time, but okay, he didn't. Here we are. What is the best case for Deontay Wilder? Well, it's almost his worst case. It's almost his reality, which is to say we have a debate about who are the best power punchers of all time.

George Foreman has even said Deontay Wilder is certainly on the top of that list or right near it. And I would agree. But he's not an Ernie Shavers. He doesn't have power in all circumstances. He has some power with that left hook, but it's usually after the right straight. It? It's usually in combination, like the one he dropped Tyson Ferry with in the 12th round. But by itself, the left hook, it's powerful, but it's not game-changing. Even then, does Deontay Wilder have a good uppercut? Not really. I mean, a little bit. He doesn't have what Lennox Lewis had to be able to take guys out. Absolutely. So where does Deontay Wilder's power typically come from?

It's a right straight. It's a right straight. He doesn't have power in all those circumstances. Now, in that right straight category, you're talking about an all-time puncher. An all-time puncher. Doesn't need a full extension, doesn't need a setup, just can get you out of there. I mean, again, no lack of full hit, didn't have full extension in the second Ortiz fight. Look what happened there.

He had him doing, you know, he had him, well, I didn't want to get into it. But the point being is this. So what could be the case for him that I'm saying all these negative things about him? The reality is he cannot outbox Tyson Fury. And I do think, I agree a little bit that one strategy you could implement, which I think is just a version of what he did the first time,

slightly amended, is, and we'll get to it on Dissected this week, is occupying that right side. Because to the extent that the right side has to get defensive, or he can't simply use it because it's being smothered, Ortiz, even from the southpaw position, kind of smothered the angle. Yeah, that works. That actually is absolutely effective. Hanging on him, I'm less convinced about. But, okay.

But it also is an opportunity for Deontay Wilder. Deontay Wilder, I argue, much like Dominic Reyes against Jon Jones, Dominic Reyes, what do we say about him? He's not that good at setting traps offensively. He's good at creating them, backing up. Deontay Wilder has knocked out so many guys, not backing into the ropes, but kind of angling backwards, and then waiting, waiting, and then popping them.

So to me, if he's playing the matador against this bull, against Tyson Fury, not to say Tyson Fury's not the better boxer, because he is, not even saying Tyson Fury won't win that way, but to me that raises the chances of one Deontay Wilder. Secondly, what I would say is, if he does have to be the bull and not the matador, we're not talking about having to set a ton of traps, Brian Campbell. For example, what is one of the punches he's really good at? He's good at left hooks to the body. He's good at jabs to the body. In fact, some of the punches that he ends up landing on Luis Ortiz in the second fight,

you can see Ortiz go to down parry, and then the punch comes and drills him right in the face. So it's about all he has to do is a little bit more than he did the first time. If you go back and you look at Deontay Wilder in the first fight, dude, he didn't do a good job. He had hardly any feints. He had hardly any shot diversification. It was a lot of from far distance, throw a jab, and then a cross over the top. Well, you mean to tell me if you can add just a couple of feints,

and you can use that to back Fury up against the ropes, and then from there you can begin to unload on him a little bit, and you can go to the jab to the body. All I'm saying is, you don't have to be somebody you're not. Give me a little bit of offensive trickery, a few feints, some shots to the body, some left hooks to the body, and then eventually, your right is so powerful, this is why he finds the shot later in fights. His power never fades.

It never fades, and he's not that good at setting traps, so he has to wait until they get comfortable. Luis Ortiz in the seventh round got comfortable. You even saw... Well, and you gotta give Wilder credit, his stamina compared to this heavyweight era is insane. He comes in lean... To carry power the way he did in the 12th round, you haven't seen that in a long time. So my point about this is in terms of fighting Fury, dude, when he says Fury has to be perfect for 12 rounds, he's right, dude. People can say whatever they want. He is right. You mean to tell me there's not going to be a time where he gets the stance of Fury to be squared, to lean against the ropes, to turn the wrong way, especially if he's looking

for the knockout? Dude, that's a terrible strategy. Here's the thing, though. What's the alternative for Tyson Fury? Go out and try to outbox him again. Dude, he boxed him the first time. Right. Try to walk that slippery slope and hope and hope again that the judges reward you for what you did. Either way is a sort of suicide mission. Either way, you're going to have to go up close to the fire and get burned.

Because Deontay Wilder, whatever you think about him, is a special heavyweight in this era who, like we talk about, can end a fight at any time. But there's really only one man, I believe, who can snuff that. You have to have size, you have to have speed, you have to have technique, and you have to have the crazy, the crazy like a fox. Fury is going to be willing to walk that tightrope, Luke, like no one else and have the attributes to potentially pull this off. Is it likely he gets a knockout? No. We've also never really seen Deontay Wilder have to fight backing up for a long, sustained period. He usually has such a threat where even when he touches you partially, guys sort of change their ways, rightfully so. You go look at the first fight. Where did Tyson Fury have the most success in the first fight? He circled the way. He took

away the jab. Where did he have the most success in the first fight? Towards the center. Even against the ropes, there were times when people... Deontay's not good at setting traps. You know what he is pretty good at? When he wants to be, he can kind of cut off the ring very quickly. There are times... Remember Luis Ortiz? Luis Ortiz was the one who was pushing into him.

Deontay on the ropes in the back. What did Deontay do? Just circled right around and then shut his lights off. It happened... Then he shut his lights off. A happened, then he shut his lights off. A couple times that happened to Fury the first time as well. Fury needs to keep that in the center. Now you can smother there, that's possible.

I think another thing is, is, is, you know, getting low and then driving into him and then closing the gap. Now, brings into questions about that cut. That's another X factor we should sort of consider. Um, but I'm just pointing out, to me, it's like Deontay Wilder has to do what he did the first time, only polished. For Tyson Fury to do the Tiger Woods bit where you're just going to reinvent your swing, you're not going to win your first tournament reinventing your swing. That's a fair point. Look, the smart money here, if you're a betting man, the smart money is Deontay Wilder across the board,

even though Fury is a slight favorite in most books. I actually favor Fury to win. I'm just making the case for Jeremy Lowe. You know, after that first press conference, I thought a Wilder knockout was undoubtedly this case because he's so dialed in. He did not allow Fury to get in his head in this build like he did the first time around.

I don't think he's going to have the same problem that Wilder admittedly had in that first fight where the moment got too big for him. He really wasn't himself. He wasn't relaxed. But here's the thing, though, Luke. When have you ever seen Deontay Wilder in extended brawl? Never.

Okay? When he gets most wild is when he has an opponent hurt. Maybe in Fury's mind, I've got the better technique. I know I have the balls to try this. What if I can get him into chaos? Typically, Deontay Wilder dominates in chaos because he's got the helicopter craziness and he just catches you. What if Fury, who we know is comfortable in chaos in all forms,

is thinking if I could keep him off tilt, rather than just having him wait back and let me outbox him and just wait for his moment with the right hand, what if I can get him into craziness? Can I catch his wild technique and catch him on the chin at the wrong angle and hurt him? Which he did in the first round. I'm saying the entertainment potential in this fight is double from the first time around. It's not just, you know, strikeout pitcher against home run hitter. I think it's going to be a little bit more crazier.

And if anyone can do this impossible task, Luke, it actually is Tyson Fury. I do think he's special. I do think he is the heavyweight of this era. He very well may get knocked out on Saturday night, and that may change the course or produce the need for a third fight. But as crazy as this is, I think you can do it. I don't think Berman Stiverne is Tyson Fury, and I don't think Luis Ortiz is Tyson Fury.

But those are the two rematches that Deontay Wilder had. Not only did he win them, he won them much quicker the second time around. I just want to point that out. I'll just go to you on this one. I won't even answer. There's no big sports on Saturday night. There's no big UFC. There's some Auckland. We'll get to that in a second. But there's no pay-per-view. There's no college

sports of any significance. There might be some basketball, but basketball sucks for college. There's no, I mean, there might be some NBA. There's no real big thing on the sporting calendar. Plus, you've got ESPN and Fox coming together with this pay-per-view. Give me a sense of what you think. To me, it's like a perfect time to see, wow, how big can a boxing pay-per-view be in 2020? You know, we did mention it doesn't have the viral moments on the build, right? The big near brawl at a press conference or something that just sticks to you. But they have had the advertisement of that first fight. And, you know, showing the highlights of Tyson Fury getting dropped in the 12th round and getting back up sells itself. I always thought the ceiling could have been 1.5 million pay-per-view buys under how we used to track them, right?

I think we're looking at at least a million, no question. You have to consider it did, what, 300,000 the first time around, which was a different scenario, different circumstances. Yeah, Tyson Fury's breakout moment, essentially. I mean, he's been in WWE. He's been in breakout in these two machines pushing them. I think it could do 1.3, 1.4, and that would be a huge victory for all of them

because at the end of the day, you do have two heavyweights who can talk, who have very distinctive fun styles, and you have that ability to sell the rematch off of those highlights. We haven't had the sort of circus WWE stuff that we thought, but I think it's going to be a late build

because you have to see what happens. You have to. Heavyweights are starting. They're back. They matter right now, and this fight is so pivotal to what what happens. You have to. Heavyweights are starting. You know, they're back. They matter right now. And this fight is so pivotal to what happens next. So I'll go back to you on this one. On DAZN over the weekend, Ryan Garcia, the Instagram star,

had a great first-round knockout over Francisco Fonseca, a check right hook, I believe, if memory serves, blitzing him and putting him on the canvas. Brian Campbell, is he, Ryan Garcia, the heartthrob of boxing's Instagram, is he now actually ready for a real challenge at 135? I went back and looked at his record. He's, what, 20-0, 21-0, something like that?

Only four of his opponents, including Francisco Fonseca, have a Wikipedia entry. Only four, okay? But, but, and also, by the way, he was a minus 3,000 to win. Yes. Okay, so he was playing against overmatched opposition. But he looked good.

He's got all the makings of a star. It seems like... First of all, you've got to check out this highlight. It seems like a step up is due. What do you think? He made a massive statement about who he is and who he potentially could be in this fight. That check hook knockout with the left hand was sick. It's so fast. Was it the left or right? I don't remember.

It's with the left. You almost have to slow the footage down to properly see it. Now look, is Francisco Fonseca a world beater? No, but he only had two losses coming in. They were at the title level against Tevin Farmer and Gervonta Davis. I know he was moving up to lightweight, but to blow him away in one round, less one round like that he just made the leap from from my perspective from a guy who was potentially more sizzled than steak right the good-looking 21 year old 4.8 million girls on instagram can't be wrong following him you know he's you know he used to be all over twitter taking california high school girls to their prom and all that i think he now looks like a legitimate threat against any elite. And when you consider how freaking red-hot lightweight is right now,

the fact that Devin Haney, the WBC title holder, came in the ring afterwards and they went nose-to-nose. Haney, a DAZN fighter, they have a lot of history that people don't know about in the amateurs. I think they fought six times. I think they split the fights. Ryan Garcia has had huge success against Haney as an amateur. I would have thought, Luke, and I've said this before, Ryan Garcia's fun, he's got some talent,

but there were too many holes that I saw potentially. I always said when he finally moved up to the highest level, you'd almost be selling him. He'd be an underdog, right? You'd be selling off his name and everything you built. Now I'm wondering with that kind of punching ability, if he could beat these elite guys. And everything changed when he joined forces

with Canelo Alvarez's team, with Eddie Reynoso and his dad, Chepo Reynoso. They've sort of ironed out the defensive deficiencies that he's had. They've made him a safer fighter, but still have taken his explosiveness, his speed, his combinations, and made them much more offensive. So now you say this, Oscar De La Hoya has been calling out Floyd Mayweather and Gervonta Davis for a while. Just recently went on. Radio and said, Floyd, let's do our rematch that we've been talking about for years. But instead of us, you put Tank on the table. I put Ryan Garcia on the table.

Tank has responded on social media with, like, make me rich. Let's do this. That fight is obviously hard to make with the networks in play and the streaming and all that. But if they can make that, I'm not saying I'd favor Ryan Garcia to destroy any of these guys. I absolutely would not favor him. But he has legitimate skills and real fast hands. You're never going to know about his chin until he's really in the deep water against somebody like Gervonta.

Good God, who is the Mike Tyson of the smaller weight classes. But he's showing you ability now to box as well. The kid's got it. The kid's got it, Luke. And I wouldn't have said that. I would have said more pretty boy than anything else. That's right. And now it's suddenly like, there's players at this division. Right. The kid's got it, Luke. And I wouldn't have said that. I would have said more pretty boy than anything else. And now it's suddenly like, there's players at this division. Right.

So here's what I would say. We have to move along. But by the way, he might get Jorge Linares next, who had a knockout on the undercard. And knocked down Vasyl Lomachenko. And that is a great matchup for this point. We will learn everything we need to know about Ryan Garcia if he fights Jorge Linares this spring. Here's what I would say.

We did not learn what his upper bound limit was in this fight. But you know what we did learn? We did learn that the idea that he is all sizzle, no steak is clearly not true. We learned that he is clearly deserving of a big opportunity. We've learned that the idea that he is just some kind of promoter manufacturing nothing is just not true. He's a real fighter who deserves a real test. But how far he can go, I think that part to me is just not true. He's a real fighter who deserves a real test, but how far he can go,

I think that part to me is not exactly clear, so we'll have to see how that goes. And they are going to match him fast. I mean, obviously, you step up to the Linares level, there's already people going, no, that's too soon, that's too soon. Yeah, now, this is why I don't want to see the, well, the farmer just lost,

but I mean, the tank fight, if they can end up making it, would be great, but it's like, that seems also like a big, too much of a step, whereas Linares, while it's a point of no return to an extent, it's like after McGregor beat Seaver, it was like, dude, after this, you're not going to get any easy fights after this.

It feels kind of like that, but at the same time, it's also the appropriate next step probably. All right, we'll have to see. With that being said, there is UFC coming this weekend as well. UFC Auckland, Brian Campbell is going to be next in your main event. Cannot wait to see this one. A fantastic lightweight affair between Dan Hooker, your native son over there in New Zealand, and of course America's own slash Ireland's own slash something in between,

the Irish dragon, Paul Felder. So that should be a hell of a fight. Now, the question is, Brian, what does a win do for the eventual victor here? Because, yes, you get Dan Hooker on your scalp. You get Paul Felder on your collection of scalps, I should say. Wow, you're doing something great. But, like, in the end, what does this exactly mean? And I'll tell you exactly what it means.

You look at some of the wins that, for example, Hooker has. Six out of his last seven. Six out of his last seven. And he lost to Edson Barbosa. And that was a bad loss. That was a bad one. That was a baptism in a way to find out what he's really made of. Fair enough.

Fair enough. He was overmatched in that one. But he has beaten James Vick. He has beaten Al Iacquinto, I think, very seriously as a challenger. You look at Paul Felder. He's got some great wins, too. I mean, he'd just beat Barbosa, who beat... Which, controversially, but fair point.

And then also, you know, stopping Olivera the way he did with strikes and from his guard. Both of these guys are just nasty savages. We all know that. But here's what stands out to me. You had two guys who hadn't quite figured themselves out. You know, we talk about Jared Cannoneer. How can you be that senior in your career and not know that middleweight was the best weight class for you?

Some of these guys just can't figure this stuff out. You had Dan Hooker going down to 145 and just not being himself. You saw Paul Felder going and trying 170 against Mike Perry. Just not a good call. Again, these guys can be competitive to an extent down there, but they're so far from their best, it made no sense. Well, now they realized 155 is where they need to be. And they've had some hiccups there too, but they've had enough good wins, enough maturation, enough devastation in their games, where whoever wins this, to me, it's another point of no return. Well, now you get to

play. Oh, now you're in the deep end. Now you're in the... I'm not saying you're as good as these guys, but after this comes the Fergusons, the Habibs, the McGregors, the Diazes, to an extent. We'll see how that goes. Future champion Kevin Lee. Kevin Lee's. The Poiriers. That's the kind of level you're

playing at now. Now you are playing with the deepest end of maybe MMA's deepest division. In any other division, you win this fight, you're getting a title shot because of their resumes, right? Six of seven for Hooker, five of six for Feld. They're coming in. All of the recent wins are hugely respectable top 10 guys, but there's such a log jam. There's such a log jam of talent. Conor McGregor continues to loom heavy over this, probably going to get the winner of Habib Tony as Dana White would want it. You're going to need another win after this, probably going to get the winner of Habib Tony as Dana White would want it. You're going to need another win after this to really enter that title conversation. I

mean, you get invited to the party with a win on Saturday night, and it's going to probably be hellacious to get there, whoever wins that, knowing the history of both of them. But you're probably still going to need to win against a victorious Kevin Lee a second time again to really enter that. But this is the best division in the sport. Let me ask you a question. Either Dan Hooker or Paul Felder. Is either the other fighter's best win, depending who wins? No.

I think I value Iaquinta's win. Really? The win over Iaquinta at that point. A little bit better. Over Paul Felder? Yes. I mean, it's close. Yes, but styles make fights, so I still think that for Hooker, Felder's a tougher fight.

It's tough for Paul Felder. He's won five of his last six, yet I'm still looking at him as almost a more elite-level gatekeeper, and he's proving me wrong each and every time, right? He wins here, that conversation's that we're never having it again, Luke. But until right now, I still see him as a very elite challenge for Dan Hooker. But one Dan Hooker should and will win if he's everything we think he is.

And Luke, I think he is. You got a prediction for that one? Yeah, Dan Hooker's going to win this one. Think so? Yeah, I think so too. But if Felder wins, could you be surprised? No, no, if Felder's going to pour the jar out, he's going to give himself every opportunity to win that.

I just think Hooker's natural skill set is at a higher level. And he's a ranger as well, which will be interesting. And he's coming from that gold mine down there. Yeah, he doesn't have to travel, too. You see the pictures on Instagram with him and Adesanya almost doing a Miami Vice type thing. You know what? The Adesanya-Hooker-Buddy cop thing is unexplored territory.

It's the second best in all of MMA behind you and I. That's right. That's right. Hey, how about this? Would you be Chris Tucker or Jackie Chan? I'd be Phil Brooks, by the way. You know, I was thinking you hate this shirt, right? Rightfully so.

I did get it for $5, so don't get on me too much. But this just kind of represents us, Luke, right? In what way? We're stubborn. We come to this sport. People say we couldn't make it. Look at us now. We're inside the massage parlor.

We're not afraid to take hard L's in front of bright cameras on national television. We do it every week. You know, we keep coming back, right? We are the CM Punk of MMA journalism. Yeah. That's sad. Yeah. That's very sad.

All right. Let's get this. He's got a hot wife, though, given that, right? Wasn't he a great wrestler, as I understand? Yeah, he's one of the best of all time. Is that right? I mean, I'd be dead serious. That's legitimate. I mean, he wasn't

a pure athlete inside the ring, but his ability to be an anti-hero on the microphone and build the brand and all that. He was amazing, right? He was legit. He was very legit. By the way, apparently he's a pretty decent commentator as well. Him and John Morgan. And Jessica Penny as well. Hey, you should get a blue shirt

gimmick like John Morgan. What do you think? I mean, I know you got the whole, like, I hate the world. Have you heard why he does that? It's a father-son story. It's heartwarming. It's touching. No one travels more than the globe to cover fights with John Morgan. He told me that. I was like, oh, now that I'm a dad, I kind of felt that one. I feel you, John Morgan. You should go to your barber and order the John Morgan special. I know you like paying $100 for haircuts. I don't like paying it. I just do. Okay. Time now for where you get to ask us questions. It is DMs from Donks.

Look at that. Oh, look at that new animation. They put some money in that. All right, let's go first here with the time we have remaining. Mr. Brian Campbell. Well, you don't have a job next. We can go all day.

You want to go three hours? I do have a train though. From underscore Delgado97. Why has, you kind of been into this a little bit, but why has the promotion for Wilder Fury 2 been minimal? Isn't this the biggest heavyweight boxing match in quite some time? For the casual fan who doesn't understand it, what's the basic reason?

I don't think they committed. They didn't commit to a full press tour. They did two press conferences. Originally, they weren't going to do any. They did them both in LA. I'll give them credit. That second one was broadcast nationally on Fox, ESPN News, everywhere across the board, all right?

I think it was hurt, like we mentioned, that Fury didn't do the full theatrics. I think Fox and ESPN were more focused on taking each fighter and putting them into their elements that they already have, their TV shows, their whatever. I think they're going to be on The Masked Singer or something, I've heard? I don't know. Which has a stupid amount of viewers every week. Yeah, nearly 20 million.

So in the end, they may reach that one and a half that I said is the ceiling, a million point five, right? It could get there in the end. But why did not have it? They didn't do the traditional way. The traditional way is to do an eight-city tour, do a couple different countries, and at each stop, right, at each stop have those crazy moments. Let them go face to face. Have a mock pushing session, all of that stuff.

We didn't see that. Why did Mayweather-McGregor, which was the perfect storm of all time, reach that ungodly level of what, like 4.4 million pay-per-view buys for a fight that was really a fun thing because of that tour? That tour was genius. I mean, also, people are donks. Right, but we didn't even get a quarter of what that tour could have produced in my eyes. Now, we're going to find out with the final numbers what it means to have a Super Bowl commercial on Fox, right?

What it means to have these guys on College Game Day on ESPN, all that. We're going to find that out. But it wasn't a traditional bill that was more sort of piecemeal. We're going to invade your different areas of your life, and Tyson Fury is going to be standing. Let me ask you a question. When I watch those ads on the Super Bowl, obviously, dude, we're talking about, you know, over 100 million people watching. At the same time, be honest. Irrespective of the number of people watching, did you find those ads during the Super Bowl memorable?

Because I didn't. Well, it's hard to say because I'm a boxing fan. So everything that they're telling me in that commercial, I've seen a million times. Dude, my wife was like, who are these people? And she likes boxing. You know what I mean? That's a very casual fan. I understand that. So you would maybe redesign the commercial with them talking trash and show a little bit more of their personality? I don't

know. Like, it just, you know how we always get on the UFC for like every time they have a new event, they have like a generic highlight reel. And in part because they're churning out so much content, how much can be individualized. Okay, fine. It felt like that, but it's like, dude, you had time to do this in a much more, they just took stock footage and edited it and put a little animation on it. I was like, really? Shout out to sweet baby Ray Flores. Yeah, who, by the way, his calls are amazing. I love Ray.

I'm just saying, I don't know. It felt like a missed opportunity. I'm not saying it didn't work. I'm not saying it won't be effective. You know, as Floyd Mayweather would say, the proof is in the pudding. We're going to see at the end of the day here what the numbers say. See if they did it right. All right, well, at Suspect Monkey has our next question.

That's a great username. Thoughts on reports of the UFC draining its cash reserves to pay out its celebrity investors. Should fighters be pissed? Do you know the story? Yeah, 100% fighters should be pissed. But hold on. Let's set the story up. So if you guys don't know this, it was reported in the New York Times.

I had this person on my show, the show you don't listen to. Can we get it right? What did I say? Times. Oh, sorry. Yeah, New York Post. Alexandra had this person on my show, the show you don't listen to. New York Post, Luke. Can we get it right? What did I say? Times. Oh, sorry. Yeah, New York Post. Alexandra Steingrod, I think is her name, Steingrod. She wrote a story basically saying $300 million in cash reserves that the UFC had generated was split in half.

Half, $150 million went back to Endeavor, and then another $150 million or so was dispersed among celebrity investors. Mark Wahlberg made $500,000. Gisele Bundchen, $150K. Dana White, Ari Emanuel, $3 million each, and so on and so forth. And the reason why it was considered to be a little bit weird is because they had about $300 million in cash reserves, which means your dividend is typically going to be around $30 to $50 million. Well, they just drained the whole shit.

They gave the whole thing away. Goodness gracious, the papers, right? Where the cash at? So the New York Post was like, why are you doing that? And their reasoning was, again, this is probably debatable. UFC did not comment. Neither did Endeavor on the story. But remember, Endeavor in 2019, among other businesses, Uber and other ones we work,

had that failed IPO. And a bunch of people were expecting money from the IPO who had the stock. This was apparently their way of using essentially the UFC as Endeavor as an ATM to pay back pissed off people who were waiting for an IPO that never came around. Your thoughts? Until the fighters organized, and I'm not talking, let's call it Bjorn Rebny and have five people sit like- For the MMAAAA. Like they're hostages at this press conference. And by the way, didn't all five of those guys kind of pay for that? Except for Cowboy.

Company man Cowboy somehow survived. No, none of them paid for it. Actually, so TJ and Cowboy, people don't know this, or at least it's not common knowledge. You know those series I do with that guy Eric Kerner from American University? He's the Ph.D. student. He looked into it. Apropos of nothing, after that press conference, both TJ and Cowboy got raises out of nowhere.

So the belief is they're probably like, okay, let's chuck them a little bit more money and be quiet about it. We know what the stakes are here. UFC fighters are not paid on the level of what their company has made and sold for and even on the level of what the big-time boxers make, right? You know, Dana will always argue that they get more behind the scenes and that we're all idiots and we don't know that. Which we're not because the court documents show us exactly what they do. So until they get a group of people that are current champions

and make a public stand, then this is going to keep happening and it is what it is, right? They're just pissing in their face. We are going to look back at this as the dark ages, right? We look at the dark ages of UFC MMA now as sort of like gloveless, rule-less, Joe Song getting punched in the balls by Keith Hackney. No, we're going to look back at that time that they allowed themselves to,

Diego Sanchez to put his life on the line over and over and over again for that much money when they could have been making that much. Yeah, I mean, that same report had argued that, or not even argued, had shown that the UFC had generated, you know, through total revenue generation, $900 million. And of that $900 million, how much of that was fighter compensation? About $150 million. You know, it's like, so about 16%. 16%, which is actually, which, by the way,

lines up with the reporting from HeyNotTheFaceJohnNash. Yes, who is exhaustively. Who is exhaustively going over the court documents. It's every, people don't realize this. Every year, the UFC essentially pegs compensation at about 20% of operating costs of revenue. And that's not, that doesn't mean 20% of money goes to them, which by the way would already be low.

Part of that is also USADA. So it's much closer to 17 or 18%. And with 150 of 900, that's 16%. The numbers line up. They pay around 15% to 18% in fighter compensation. And in most pro sports with unions, right? Isn't it like 47%, 51%? Yeah, even with a union, it wouldn't be 50%

because there's some market mechanisms that wouldn't give them the same leverage. But it would probably go up to 25%, 30%, 35%, maybe. At the end of the day, as a fan, it's not our money. It's not our brain. And if this lets the UFC's bells and whistles be brighter and make these big fights and have great production, I mean, that's all great. But I don't know how the fighters can keep going on like this.

I've often said this. Forget this money. Forget ticket sales. Forget which Floyd gets a cut of everything, right? And a Floyd special, but I'm just pointing out what's possible, let's say. They didn't get any money from the TV deal. A $1.5 billion deal with ESPN, they didn't get any of that, none of it. And if you look at the money, if they had gotten half of nothing else,

just half of the television revenue, I think it would have paid six figures to every fighter for the term of that deal every year. Every year it would have made, I think, $125,000 to every single UFC fighter every year. Here's just your check for TV money. Thanks. And you say on the flip side in boxing, Al Heyman can be a polarizing figure, the founder of the PBC, doesn't talk to the media, doesn't go on camera. But along with- His fighters get paid.

Along with helping bring boxing back to mainstream TV, his legacy will be he helped the fighters get paid. He was always fighter first. You never see fighters complain about that in the money that they get. So I don't think we have an Al Heyman in MMA.

Certainly not beyond Rebney. James Avery says, true or false, Dylan Danis is the goat of clout chasing in the MMA community. I'm 40 and aging. Can someone accurately

describe what clout chasing is? Can we bring in one of these young whippersnappers, like young less than Jake over here? Yeah, but they're dorks. They don't know either. No, no, no. He's an Andy King of the show. He'll do it. What is... Jake, can you appear on... Actually, what is clout chasing?

It's like fame, like attention. He attaches his name to Jake Paul. Could you use the word like more in a sentence, please? Is it like chasing, like you're just going to post stuff to get attention? Chasing clouds, chasing the fame, the attention. Dylan Dennis calls out the Paul brothers all the time, right? It's sort of just inserting your name in every, he calls out John Jones. It's basically just trying to put your name in every scenario.

For somebody famous, right? They're usually always picking a fight with someone bigger than you, right? Yeah, which is a little bit different than you because you're always picking a fight. That's right. I don't know. I don't follow him on any social media. So is he? I love his shtick.

Do you really? Look, there are certain people that are polarizing that you either love or hate, right? That's the whole point of the word polarizing. For some reason, I love everything about what Dylan Dennis does publicly. I think he just sort of gets under the skin of the opposite kind of people to me. I just look at it all as fun and games.

And I think every time he fights, I need to see if he's for real. It's probably going to be a long time, Luke, because he moves his career on like a snail's pace. Snail's pace, yeah. I mean, I don't follow him on social, but you know what's funny? A buddy of mine who doesn't even like MMA, he follows Dylan Dennis.

He's like, hey, do you know who Dylan Dennis is? I'm like, yeah, why? He goes, dude, he's a great follow on Instagram. Now, this friend of mine is brain damaged and a very stupid person. But nevertheless, for him who does not in any capacity like MMA, for him to say that, I was like, wow, really? Is your friend's name Corpsegrinder by any chance? I wish. I wish he was my friend.

By the way, I get spammed a lot by well-meaning fans of this show on my DMs. A lot of pictures of the Shevchenko sisters. Again, I've seen them live when they came up on my IG feed. But Luke spams my DMs like crazy with these feel-good articles about the lead singer of this metal abortion band, Corpse Grinder, just donated money to the charity. That's nice. And you just ignore them and it hurts my feelings.

His Valentine's picture with him and his wife. That's really great. I like to send him Instagram posts of death metal singers or death metal band members and their utterly normal lives, even boring lives. The guy's name is Corpse Grinder, Luke, okay? His name is George. His bandmate is in jail.

Well, he's got problems. What are you going to do? All right. He's the Coach Sandusky of that group, right? I don't think he's that bad. Jesus. He wasn't raping children, for crying out loud. He just went a little insane.

All right, so from Brandtendo64, if you had to send two fighters back to the 90s to star in a slapstick comedy, which two fighters would it be? Well, you just talked about the idea of Adesanya and Hooker doing a nice little... No, but it's a slapstick comedy, though. Slapstick comedy. Have you been seeing the videos that Dean Thomas is making mocking Stephen A. Smith? Oh, he has been.

With King Moe and... Yeah, and Moe is deadpan as shit. It's been amazing. Moe's real funny, by the way. Yeah, he's very funny. Shout out to King Moe. I guess what this question is really asking, Luke, is which current fighters today do you think have the best personality?

Michael Bisping would be, I know he's retired, but would be absolutely fantastic. I don't agree. I'm thinking someone who's a little bit goofy. Rashad Evans. How about Tom Lawler? Remember his famous weigh-in? Yes, he's a pro wrestler now.

Yeah. But don't you remember he would come out like Dan Severn? Or what was the esoteric wrestling reference he had with the guy? Had the silver Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet and he tripped? Yes, the Shockmaster. Shockmaster, I guess. He had done that as an esoteric wrestling bit. He seems to be perfect for that.

Tom Lawler and Dean Thomas could do some things. We should probably hang out with Rashad Evans more. Did you see him on the Rogan Show? I saw part of it. We should go on The Desert and do peyote or something. He has done drugs. Wow. I love him.

By the way, I do a podcast every week. Stay to Combat on CBS Sports. Yeah? Rashad Evans. He's my bro-man. He's super bright. But anyone else? Who's a funny guy we're not thinking of?

Diego? I like Tyron Woodley. Slapstick comedy? No. He takes me as the very much not that kind of fight. Not that kind of comedy. DC? DC's possible. DC's possible. I like that. I like where your head's at. All right. All right. These two guys could probably do slapstick comedy. Those guys would just do Gator One. We got to find these. So Jay, you know, Jay's had a lot of bad ideas in our ears, but one time

Jay had the idea of if we can, why don't we put the, why don't we put our people on this? You see these two? Look at these guys right here. Look at the intensity right there, okay? We need to find these two men, Luke. We need to find them, get them on the show, connect by Skype, tip to tip by Skype, and we need to get the inside story before someone else beats it to it. So I challenge our viewers.

I challenge our listeners. By the way, because a lot of people only listen to the show for some weird reason. That's weird. Yeah, I don't know. Do what you can. Research this picture. I don't know the league. I don't know the country.

I'm assuming it's Polish regional MMA. But we need to find out the origin of tip to tip. I'll tell you what. We don't have an official no fighters policy on the show. We'll have them on occasion. But we've done nearly 40 of these and never had one. You hate fighters, Luke. I love them. I just don't think talking to them all the time is a great idea,

but I'll make a grand exception for those two. I will make a great exception for those two. We got the King Dong on board. I like this. Yeah, that's right. I would do that. Okay. Last but not least, from Divad underscore HC Step, Brian Campbell, what are your thoughts on the XFL? D.C. Defenders, 2-0, baby. So I've sampled it very little, but I'm woke to the rules changes and what they've done, and I can't believe that they have pulled this off. I thought coming from a pro wrestling fandom that Vince McMahon essentially selling all the stock and taking his career earnings

and putting it into this would once again be a failure. That old genius has teamed with the right people and they've figured out how to make something that's alternative to the big NFL and is exciting. They've done it. The first time around, it wasn't. They didn't have the right rules. They didn't have the right sort of, you know, extra crap.

Remember they tried to do skits in the locker room that failed miserably. I feel like this could work. I think what you need to do, though, is you really need to chase after those non-NFL guys, right? Like the Tim Tebow's, people like that, the Johnny Manziel's, the people that have name and have clout. The Colin Kaepernick. You know, the ex-college guys, the Colin Kaepernick would be a perfect example. You need those guys to be your face. But if you can have this fun-ass scoring system that inevitably, by the way it's set up, Luke,

because you can get, what, nine-point touchdowns in the end? Yeah, so one or two or three. You know, every game is going to be set up to be close down the stretch. They're quick. I mean, it's working. It's working from what I've seen, watching highlights, watching a little bit of games. I think you're right about the Tebow and the Kaepernick thing,

because it's like, can you name, who would your team be? The New York Guardians, I guess? The tri-state area? Can you name anyone on your team? No, I couldn't have named the team. I'm sorry. Yeah, well, they played D.C. over the weekend in D.C. They're playing at Audi Field. God, you love D.C. Which is the new, well, they're D.C. over the weekend in D.C. They're playing at Audi Field.

God, you love D.C. Which is the new, well, they're playing at the new D.C. United. It's brand new, the Audi Field. It's only been around for one season. Cardale Jones, the famous Ohio State quarterback. Did you see that triple reverse play they had with them? It's cool. Here's the thing.

It's like the games are real hit or miss, man. Like the games I've seen for the D.C. defenders have been pretty good. And then I watched, I don't know which one I watched the other day. After that was, like, unwatchable. Well, my timeline of combat people who love football are, like, going nuts about this. Well, also, I've not checked around the league, but just for Audi Field, attendance, because both of them have been home games the first two games, week over week they had a 12% drop in attendance. And I remember

when the first XFL was around, they had a dramatic drop off week over week. So here's my thing. Let's just see how it goes. I like it. I'm going to go to a game because I actually think it looks pretty cool. The only two problems with it are one, it's like I've noticed that the one, the two, and the three point line for the extra point, no one can get the three-point because they're, hello, shitty football players. And the other part is, it's like the old XFL, I remember, was like real renegade. Everyone could make their own name tapes. He hate me. Let's try to get CTE on everybody.

Yeah, and now they want to go the safe direction. And it's like I appreciate some of the innovation. I don't think it was, you need to be innovative enough to make it high-scoring football. They've not done that. Well, they've done that to a degree, but I think you need more sort of gimmick CFL indoor football type elements to it.

Yes, exactly. And they've done some of those things. I wish there was just a little bit more of it. And then you need one or two stars per team that everyone knows that you can tune in for. By the way, nobody loves their home more than you. I'm from Factory Town, Naugatuck, Connecticut, but I would

not get a tattoo that says Greyhounds or Naugatuck Pride on it. This guy, Luke, is like it's really CM Punk in Chicago. Yeah, dude, people don't understand if you've lived in one place as long as I have and I have moved around as a kid, so it's like I was living in D.C. for years and then I moved around. Did you have any cutter tattoos on you or old Marietta?

Why are you weird? Why are you weird? And then I moved back to D.C., and I've been there most of my life, and I don't think people really appreciate how much where they live in that community shapes their identity, and I do. So there you go. Hey, shout out to Nogatuck, Connecticut. You want to come by my old hood one of these days? No. No no I don't

alright well with that being said though it is time to go to your neighborhood it's time for have you seen this shit oh we got new poop emojis look at that

Luke I wanted you to know that that what this segment is we scour the globe for the good the bad the ugly in combat sports and beyond, Luke. If it happened in the world, I'll find that shit.

Look at the Octagon branding there. I kind of like that. A little bit, a little bit. Nicely done. Let's start out here, Luke. Okay, you ready? We're going to go to Thailand. This might be the round of the year,

maybe the round of the lifetime. Oh, I've seen this. Look at this. Guy in the blue gets sent to hell. This is what? Max Muay Thai in Thailand, okay? Yeah. That's the name of the lifetime. Oh, I've seen this. I've seen this. Look at this. Guy in the blue gets sent to hell. This is, what, Max Muay Thai in Thailand, okay? Yeah. That's the name of the promotion. I'm going to lean on these ropes, player.

Luke, this turned out to be the Gotti Ward of Thai fighting. Watch this. Watch this. He's like, nah, bitch. No, it ain't going down like that. Hold that. Hold that, son. Oh, yeah.

Anyway, the guy in the blue won. Long story short. Oh, did got up he had no business getting up from that and he won it okay thank you thank you i couldn't find the video though but did you see bkfc over the weekend dat and win knocked the guy i saw the result i didn't see the fight shout out to hector lombard here all right luke we roll on it's probably going to get weird soon oh Oh, no. User submission here. Another user submitted KO coming up from Battlefield Fight League in Vancouver. The fighter, 19-year-old Johnny Lungblood Broad. Johnny Youngblood Broad. Johnny Broad. Look at this spinny shit KO, Luke.

This was at BFL 65 in Vancouver. David Klonsky getting sent to hell. Do you know what that reminds me of? Go ahead. The promoter sent in this video himself, Luke. Dude, promoters, keep hell. Do you know what that reminds me of? Go ahead. The promoter sent in this video himself, Luke. Dude, promoters, keep sending it.

You know what it reminds me of? Did you ever see Phil Barone beat Dave Manet? Yes, yes I did. And Dave Manet is knocked out and he can't drop because Barone is firing punches so fast

he's levitating him. Look at Johnny Broad, right? Spinny shit and then just sends him to hell. And look, does the dance, does the split.

He's been watching too much cheer on Netflix. This is great. Wow. Bob, hold that. Look, if you can... Oh, and by the way, you know the dude who was on last week at John Hazelwood MMA? Yeah, he messaged me. He's been all in my DMs.

The blood on the back of his head, he put the guillotine on and he got backed up to the cage and got cheese grated on the back of his head. Yeah, that's a tough dude. There's like permanent scarring right there. That's a tough kid. Shout out to Hazelwood MMA. Shout out to these guys here at the Battlefield Fight League. Love that. All right, let's roll on here, Luke.

A fight in the crowd here at Cleveland Brown Stadium. Here's how you end it, Luke. Look at this. Look at this old guy coming in and changing oil. Wait, what happened? I think he stuck his thumb up his ass, Luke. Did I miss? This is how you break up a fight nowadays.

Oh! Wow, dude, that's real Cleveland. Yes, look at them searching for gold right there. I think you found it, Luke. Wow! Look at this old guy

just walking around. I love the Instagram handle at Nutshots. Luke, the subhead on this was, gave him the old-fashioned Cleveland Steamer. Indeed.

That is not a Cleveland Steamer. Wow, wow. I know what a Cleveland Steamer. Wow, wow. I know what a Cleveland Steamer is. That ain't one of them. That'd probably be a good submission move in MMA. Can you change oil? I don't... I don't think that you should do that.

Rimshot. Fucking... Do we have any... We need to add exits to the studio for you. All right, Luke. We're going to roll on here. Hey, the tip-on-tip revolution started by these two Polish gentlemen behind me. Now it's coming into Major League Baseball. Check out these Rays outfielders, Luke. Touching dicks. You see this? They scissored.

This is ridiculous. Tip-on-tip action. I hope they're okay, Luke. I hope they didn't get injured, but check out the hustle. That's scissoring, dude. That's scissoring. And they bounced. That would be common law marriage. Wow, Luke. Yikes. That's up close and personal, Luke. Barum. Wow. Wow.

Luckily, they were wearing cups. All right, we roll on here. Luke, if we get to 100,000 subs, I think the people are going to want you and I to do this, right? Tip on tip, brother. You in? No, I'm not in. Wow, look at the dedication from these two guys of course they're white they are the spirit animal of this show back to at nut dot shots your I didn't know this was your favorite account yes PBC boxing over the weekend in Nashville Luke I don't know if you saw this upset

Bryant Perella is in the black trunks there the guy on the left gets dropped in the final round he's ahead on all three scorecards, but Abel Ramos will not stop coming, Luke. That was a little weird. I knew you were going to be like, get it? All right, so check this out. 20 seconds to go in the round. Jack Reese, the referee.

Abel Ramos trying to pull this upset. Same ref from Tyson Fury and DeAndre Wilder won. Perela hanging on for dear life. Do you remember the ending of the 1990 classic fight? Julio Cesar Chavez against Meldrick Taylor. Richard Steele stopped the fight with three seconds to go. Jack Reese channeling

in that there. Brian Perella up after the second knockdown. The clock's ticking down. He's ahead on all three cards. Jack Reese makes him walk to the left. That's it, Luke. With one second left on the left. That's it, Luke. With one second left on the clock. He stumbled when he walked.

You be the judge, Luke. Is that an acceptable stoppage? Yes. He stumbled when he walked, dude. Go back and look at Tyson Fury when the same ref makes him walk the line. You ever seen those guys who have 50 beers and then they pass all the field sobriety tests? It's like that, dude. He aced it. He aced it.

It's a lot like Chavez Taylor where you've got to ask yourself if you know the guy can finish. And I know the referee doesn't know the exact amount of seconds in his mind in that moment. But it's not the rule. The rule is not you can just eke it out to the end. The rule is are you capable of continuing, yes or no? The bell cannot save you, Brian Campbell, in any round. Heartbreaking. All right, let's go to etiquette here.

When you go to the beach in a Speedo and you bring a horse, you've got to be careful. Check out that guy getting kicked in the pills, Luke. Dude, again, you're back to atnut.shop. You've made terrible choices in your life. Why the fuck is a horse on the beach? How did the horse, we just got random horses on the fucking beach? Look at this guy wearing the European Speedo.

You deserve getting kicked in the nuts on that, right? Come here, horse. I have a beer to give you. Oh, God. May all your horse be loyal, Luke. Okay, horses. Sorry. All right.

Have you ever just been on a beach where there's a random-ass horse? Anyway, Luke, let's roll on here. Headkicks are us time. Let's get some spinny shit going. You see this grounded fighter from Wawan MMA? Oh! That's Hussein Kassou with a head kick KO from the ground. Have you ever seen that, Luke?

Capoeira kick, yeah. Damn! You know who almost landed one of those on, I think it was Tony Ferguson. It was Anthony Pettis. Got pretty close with one of those. Have you ever heard of Wawan MMA? I know Wawa, the gas station. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This was

in Jordan, Luke, almost near your home area. I've been to Amman, Jordan. It was cool. Speaking of head kicks. A lot of stray cats there. Check out this classic one from 2017. This was at LFA8. Did you see the mouthpiece come out here? Michael Andre with a head kick from the Deep Dark Depths.

Jesus Christ. Damn! Block him! You think they just buried him just like that, Luke? Didn't boy who landed that on him. Jesus Christ. Damn. Block him. You think they just buried him just like that, Luke? Didn't even put a shirt on him? You see the mouthpiece carom off the cage right there? That's ridiculous. You kick a guy in the mouth, you're going to show up on this show, Luke, all right? Sounds like it.

You never look a gift horse in the mouth, by the way, especially on the beach wearing a Speedo. That's not what looking a gift horse in the mouth means. Thank you. Luke, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. How many words you got for this picture, Luke? Okay. I think her water broke. Okay.

That is, um... I, um... They need psychological counseling. Okay, okay, we're going to roll on there. Look before they cancel the show. Slam dunk contest over the weekend. I don't know if you saw Aaron Gordon get robbed. Let's see, could this guy have won it?

What? Oh, my God. I think he broke his back. Doctor said he needs to back out. When I told you I could dunk in high school and college, I think you thought I looked like that. Yeah, yeah. Not that bad.

That's just poor planning. I mean, there's no sandbags to hold that thing down. I mean, come on. I mean, do you get credit for killing the backboard or no? He almost broke his car too on top of that, Luke. I know he's probably gonna be in the hospital for a long time. I mean, that car is worth less than the rim.

All right, we got more slam dunk fails. Check out this one. You ever set up seven kids in a row, see if you can dunk over them, Luke? Oh my God, that poor kid got a teabag. You see that, Luke? Wow. I think that's called going hard in the taint.

How long have you been saving that one? Like 48 hours. It's just been waiting. I mean, how long have you been waiting? I know you were probably in the bathtub. I got an idea. Shampoo is, yeah, okay. Stop looking at me, Swan. All right, Luke. Let's go. We got one more slam dunk fail This is in a college dorm room. This just happened Luke this weekend. There's not a fail big sexy right here

Look at this big fella, but oh my god watch if he like does the throat slash an escalate Sure, our IP escalate by the way. Mark Jackson's older brother. Oh! Check out the face on this guy who comes in in a minute and realizes his security deposit in college just went to that. Hey, that Chick-fil-A 2 player, I see you. Get the fuck out. I think he wins the slam dunk contest with that, though. I think it's real, too. What did they think was going to happen when a 500-pound man does this?

In the face, Luke. Yes. Yes. All right. Wow. I got the best stuff. Hey, Backyard Football Play of the Week. Check out the commitment of this cornerback right here.

The guy in the black shirt. Look at this. Going deep. He's got it. He's got the pick. Oh, my God. He's never going to walk again, Luke. What is this?

Oh, my God. He's never going to walk again, Luke. What is this? Oh, my God. That's helmet to helmet. That's an illegal hit right there from the tree. Right, Luke? I like how vegetation is like a better pass defender than Josh Norman. Oh, my God. Make like a tree and leave or at least get paralyzed. That's awful, Luke.

Right? Dude, will you stop with the dad humor? Cut it out. All right, all right, Luke. We want to close on this. Did you see this footage

of a sword fight on a boat between drunk trips, drunk chicks? You know what? Can I tell you honestly? I think they touch tips, Luke.

Can I be honest with you for just a second? I literally forget you're obsessed with dicks and then every time we do this, I'm like, okay, we're going to go over highlights. First of all, let me finish, let me finish. I literally forget you're obsessed with dicks. And then every time we do this, I'm like, okay, we're going to go over highlights. Hold on, let me finish. Let me finish. I always forget. And then you always painfully remind me that you are obsessed. I think I'm obsessed with hot drunk

tricks, drunk chicks. Only if they're wearing giant inflatable dolls. You have to understand, unlike you, I know our audience. I know their wants. And more importantly, I know their needs, Luke. Do I have to sell a little bit of my soul to satisfy them each week, Luke? Yes. You are abusive. Okay, but I will do that. Do your kids watch this show? No, Luke. As far as they're concerned, this show isn't on the air, Luke, okay? Is this better or worse than Paul Blart and Molkop? Oh, this is way better, but I would never show them this, okay? Okay, Luke, all right. This is for our people. Again, and you went back to nut shots? You know, you need to vary it up a little bit, my guy. Well, you know, I spent three hours on the couch the other night,

and I couldn't sleep, so I just took the... I got a lot saved for next week. That's all I have to say, Luke, okay? Shout out to nut shots on Instagram. I think every time you feature any kind of rubber or inflatable dong... Good head movement, though, there. Edmund would have loved that. You need to put it on the wall behind you

as a monument to your body of work. Because I think that would... Actually, you know what? I don't know if that would deter you. This guy giving me the shaft. Unbelievable. Why are you the way you are? Hey, you want to salute the set yet? In a minute. In a minute. We have or not done yet.

Time for odds and ends. Brian Campbell, what do you have for odds and ends? I don't know if you saw PBC Boxing over the weekend. Caleb Plant, the IBF 168-pound title holder, had a homecoming bout against some German hapless fella named Feigenbutz. But here's the deal. Caleb Plant looked absolutely fantastic. Stopped him in the 10th round. The drums are already going, Luke. I'm glad you pronounced that with the long A, by the way, not the short A. Yes, yes. The drums have already been beaten for the idea of Caleb Plant unifying against David Benavidez, who has never lost, right, lost his belt with a drug suspension, won it back with a nice victory over Anthony Durrell. That's a hellacious fight, potentially.

You're talking about a pure boxer with amazingly fast hands and guts. Where would it air? Fox? Because Caleb Plant's like a— That's a PBC Showtime or Fox, baby. Yeah, all right. And you're talking about a guy in Benavides who puts punches together in bunches. But here's the deal.

Caleb Plant's really freaking good. And, of course, there was this knee-jerk reaction right away to be like, oh, who's this white chocolate guy? Who's this, you know, white guy that they're going to push to the gills? But he's really not that great. When he won the title and beat Uzcategui, I know he had to take some big shots late, and he slowed down a little bit.

The Colombian. Your wife's a fighter, right? I think he's Venez take some big shots late, and he slowed down a little bit. The Colombian. Your wife's a fighter, right? I think Venezuelan, but yeah. Okay. Well, you know. It used to be Gran Colombia under the Bolivarian days. Close enough. Okay. He's shown us heart.

He's shown us ability. I know, look, he beat up Mike Lee, he beat up this German fella, but I'm starting to think here. You're a big Caleb Plank guy. There are very few fighters who I believe, with neutral judges, which we never find in Vegas,

could legitimately defeat Canelo Alvarez. I think in Vegas, could legitimately defeat Canelo Alvarez. I think Caleb Plank could legitimately beat Canelo Alvarez. Would I favor him? No. But I think he has the kryptonite for what Canelo does so good. I think that speed, that daring toughness, he would have to show a chin. Canelo, of course, goes to the body. Canelo's an amazing counterpuncher. He was able to send Sergey Kovalev to hell at 175 and finish him.

But I think, would Caleb Plank get screwed in Las Vegas? Probably. But I think that he would have a shot at beating Canelo. All right. He's showing me things, Luke. He's showing me things. All right. Stay tuned, all right?

Dick pics, dongs? He's going to have to get by David Benavidez, though. I don't know if they asked Caleb Plank if he would fight Canelo, by the way. Would he fight him in May? And he was like, no, not on a three-month turnaround. He's been getting some flack for that. All right. He wants to make sure he's all right.

Last but not least for me, I got it from the Beyond Kickboxing account. I think we have a video of it. There was a tie fight. Now watch the referee here. This guy's going to eat an elbow from the right and then watch the referee. He actually not merely catches the head and the neck, but guides the concussed and knocked out fighter to the ground. Watch it one more time. Just pay attention to the referee and then watch the lack of head bounce on the one who gets knocked out.

Look at that. That is unbelievably good. It's like a midwife right there or something, you know? Something like that, bro. Because that dude, you get hit like that, or I should say like that, and then your head gets a second bounce.

You're going to have problems. That referee. What league is this? So full disclosure, this was going to be in Have You Seen the Shit, and I've seen other highlights from this organization. It's some kind of Muay Thai league, and I think they have slightly amended rules about what they can and can't do. Well, the refs try this a lot.

They don't always get it, but they try that dive to try to catch the player. Is that the future? Could you see? I don't know, but I was talking to Duke Rufus commented on my post about this, and he was like, dude, all the Thai refs apparently can do stuff like this. Like, they're very good. I saw one guy throw a kick after the bell, and the other ref, not with his shin, but with the sole of his foot, checked it so it didn't impact the other fighter.

Apparently, they're amazing about this stuff. Anyway, whoever that referee is, is a just, I mean, absolutely world-class refereeing from him. So salute to you, good sir. Shout out to that. I think Aaron Gordon got screwed in the dunk contest over the weekend. I know you didn't watch it, but I was just happy to see the dunk contest back at that level with a real kind of duel that brought back the memories of the great ones like Jordan, Dominique in 88. Remember when Jason Richardson and Desmond Mason, I'm sorry, had that face-off in 03? That was fantastic.

My favorite was the Isaiah Ryder. It's one of the worst dunk contests of all time. Yeah, but Isaiah Ryder had sort of stood out for that. The East Bay Funk dunk. By the way, you can make a case, though, even though he's... I went back and I watched the highlights. Even though Aaron Gordon's never won, you can make a case he's an all-time top-ten competitor.

Absolutely. I mean, he lost to Zach Levine that first time around. That was another classic showdown. Which, by the way, I didn't think he was robbed in that one. I thought Levine was better. This time you could argue he should have won it. In terms of dunk contest performances, your tops all time are Vince Carter, Jordan and Dominique are there. Of course.

But then I think you've got to have Dwight Howard in there. Remember those two years in a row? He was unreal. I forgot about old Dwight. Maybe Aaron Gordon sneaking in there. Which of his nine games in D.C. were your favorite? Blake Griffin's in my... No, that was a crappy dunk contest. I know he jumped over the car. That was the first of a four or five year stretch

where the NBA helped them come up with the ideas for the dunks and come up with the extra stuff. I hate that. Let the dunker come up with his own crap. Jay, I know you must have enjoyed that, Jay. Too bad they didn't jump over a DeLorean. Can I tell you what puts me on mega tilt about Jay? When he wants us to transition to the next question or segment,

he does it with this tone that makes me want to hit him with a giant inflatable dong off of a boat. He'll be like, okay, next. Let's go. Rather than being like, all right, next. You know, next question, next question. You're starting to sound like my wife right now. He's go. Rather than being like, all right, next question. You're starting to sound like my wife right now. He's talking. He wanted us to do shots right off the start.

The buzzing of flies. Yeah, I know. Does Jay not know you have producer credits? I got intellectual property credits. Let's do this. Here's what we have. We have this Los Hermanos terrible tequila. Why don't we release the Kraken?

What do you think? We have three olives. What am I looking at? Three olives. Go back. Go back. Three olives. And then we got the Jaeger. I feel like there's not enough for both of us to have Jaeger, though. Oh, yeah.

My choice was between this and the Punisher. So I went with old Joker. So we have to christen this set, Luke, okay? Do we have to do some kind of weird Colombian ritual where we strip down and pull our pants? No. That's not a Colombian ritual. That's just you being weird.

All right. I only did the Colombian thing with Danny because he's also Colombian. Well, we did the Colombian thing on our drinking episode, too. We closed it. I don't know if you remember. I was also very drunk and also mad's also Colombian. Well, we did the Colombian thing on our drinking episode, too. We closed it. I don't know if you remember. You were very toxic. I was also very drunk and also mad at you.

Okay. Well, how about this? Hey, were you ever going to let go of that grudge? Yes. I love you. It's fine. We're great. People think that we hate each other.

No. Brian is one of the great things that's happened to me in my career. I truly mean that. I really care about you. Sometimes I want to fucking kill you, but I also... I love you. See you soon, boy. I love you, Brian Campbell. I think you have great views. I really care about you. Sometimes I want to fucking kill you, but I also... I love you. See you soon, boy. I love you, Brian Campbell.

I think you have great views. I really respect you. And even though you make me watch dongs every Monday... And that's why I didn't hit the people with that video that's out there of you and Eminem trying to get a selfie? No, I wasn't trying to get a selfie with Eminem. I was trying to torture one of our interns. Which people, again, because they're stupid, don't know.

You're allowed not to, like, you know, stripper polls or Eminem. Here we go. No, then why don't you do the toast? Hey, Luke, this is to the future of morning combat. How about one day we go afternoon combat, late night Patreon combat? All bets are off on that show. Evening combat. Evening combat.

We're going to be on the road. We're going to be doing big things together. All right, so enjoy it. Thank you to the team at Showtime, Malka and are amazing amazing fans out there Look, and I will say salute to everyone watching. I'll say thank you to Showtime and Malka for making all of this possible This is to you and to two great possibilities. Hey, let's do this thing shoot your shot. All right You put your dick in here first. Oh Yeah, yeah, I oh yeah yeah

I loved it that was really really tasty I would do a second one Luke I'm that kind of guy you know time for social here's our social put the graphics up Jesus Christ I feel like balls all of a sudden Luke most

men just take the shot and they just bite down I know. I don't normally feel this way after shots, but that was wow. Okay. You can follow me on Instagram, hereish, Brian, over thereish. This guy's in trouble right now.

This guy's struggling. I'm teasing. I'm fine. So then you've got Morning Combat. We're on Instagram. We're not on Twitter. We use Below the Belt for Twitter. We're on Instagram.

We should probably make Morning Combat on Twitter a reality. You know what? We have to do before we do that. We have to add subs. If you are watching, please like the video and subscribe to the channel. Tell folks about it. Let people know.

Word of mouth. Spread it around. Social media, email. Whatever you've got to do to let folks know about it, please do that. We do want to say that we've heard your many cries for merch. They're heard. It is on the horizon. I do want to shout out one guy on Instagram at Sammy,

S-A-M-M-I-Q 089 at SammyQ089 who created this incredible design right here. Can you zoom in here, Jake? Less than Jake,

a little bit more than Jake. Less than Jake, good ska band. Who created this incredible design here. Wow, that's about as good as it gets right there.

Yeah, so we see what you have said. We have heard it. Believe me, Showtime has heard it. We're working on it. Look, here's the thing. Let me just say now. Yeah, so we see what you have said. We have heard it. Believe me, Showtime has heard it. We're working on it. Look, here's the thing. Let me just say this last thing, and then we'll go.

You might be like, why didn't you guys do this set the first time when you rolled out normally? Because when we rolled out normally, Showtime and Malka put this whole project together in, what, nine, ten days? Like, you couldn't believe how fast it was. And rather than just doing it very quickly, they decided to wait till the new year have a big 2020 refresh Well, welcome to the 2020 refresh. What did you think the old set used to look like you said earlier? something about somebody having a period Yeah, okay

Wow well that right Luke, uh But hey, we made it out of the bomb shelter, and I'm proud to be at this spot, okay, Luke? You know, when this show started, Luke, who knows, right? Who knows, okay? Bro, it's still touch and go. All right.

I mean, shit, bro, it's still touch and go. So that means we need you to subscribe. People are like, oh, how can we help you? You know who can help us? Subscribe. Send it to somebody else who should subscribe. And support our other stuff. Luke, you're doing great stuff there with your live chat. I don't care about that stuff right now.

I don't want to get it confused. I don't want to muddle the message. Keep the message clear. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. That's what we need. Alright, Brian. Check out our podcast on radio.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much, my friend. Thank you. Well, that's it. For Brian, I'm Luke.

Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. We'll be you next time. you