Usman vs. Buckley Preview, PFL Nashville Recap, Royval vs. Van set for UFC 317

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Reveal reveale.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Look at this now, timpted.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Jesus, Oh.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Do you want as doing what we time to beat? Oh? Yeah,
it's Friday, the thirteenth June of the twenty fives, and

(00:43):
this is the best damn sports combats compast composts that
you ever came across. Hey, it's morning combat. It's back
in your face hole and Luke Friday the thirteenth, right,
Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas, you already knew that that means
that any late teenage males looking to have sex and
the summer camp, we're probably gonna get murdered. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
My understanding is young men don't have sex with women anymore,
so I don't think that's as much of a concern
as it once was.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Hey, I mean Grinder, I just met her, right, Yeah,
let's go all right? Hey, Luke Thomas, it's Friday. You
know our listeners ain't got shit to do. We're coming
off of PFL Thursday. We got UFC Atlanta on Saturday.
Are you fired up about life? Or are you hoping
the padlock on your office store keeps Hurricane Tuks away?

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah? Well, I don't know how well that's gonna go
I'm hearing the bombshelter. My daughter is on a rampage.
She has no school today. It's like one of those
parent teacher conference days where you going to meet, so
I have to do that later.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's finals for my kids. Isn't she almost done?

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah? She Her last day is I think next week,
so we're almost done with that. And then the summer
camps began, so fun stuff for people who I'm sure
who are listening in their twenties and thirties don't give
a fuck.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
But yeah, probably, But for those same listeners, I wanted
to let them know. Today episode of Morning Combat is
presented by DraftKings, and at DraftKings, the crown is yours.
Welcome to everybody on the watching on the DraftKings Network,
watching on YouTube, listening on podcasts, or anyone listening while
crowning at the moment. Okay, keep pushing, you'll get there

(02:19):
at the end of the day. Hey, why don't you
like this video? If you like us, why don't you
subscribe to what's going on here? And if you are
free loaded, all you have to do is hit subscribe.
You can mute the notifications, but you hit subscribe. It
helps us further our hope we stayed alive and continuing
to tell the truth in combat sports, whether you're ready

(02:40):
for the truth or not.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Right, Luke, that's what I've been doing.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
That's right. Yeah, welcome on board. Okay, Hey, we do
have a great episode and a third member of our
team the producer, director, bong enthusiast and son of a
horned up Australian man's ballbag. Hey, it's Luke Ocita, who
did a main card minute podcast watch along during an
eleven PM Eastern PFL Nashville card.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Wow, brother, lest I mean it was a good card.
Shout out that Jean getting the decision plus four hundred.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
No big deal.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
You did your girl dump you?

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yet she enjoyed every second of it, you know, watched
her show out on the couch, you know, and she's
in bed by eleven o'clock. Anyway, I mean, what were
they doing with that main card time?

Speaker 1 (03:23):
I have no idea. I can't believe you picked watching
PFL over sleeping in the bed with your girlfriend, that is.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
I mean, I slept in the bed with my girlfriend
just later in the night. What do you know?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Okay, we're getting intimate here, We're getting personal. Oh wow,
Well that looks like I'm out of this bit.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
And when I told you gen Z men aren't banging
their girls, here we go.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Oh boy, look at this. Look at that.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I didn't think it was time for shots fired. Yeah shit,
we'll get there.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Brought to you by Querrevo. Yeah shouting out, shouting out
with our sponsors. Ah luke, power to the people fighting,
the good union fight. I believe it seems like MMA
Fighting and Box have come to terms to prevent a strike,
so our good friends will be back in business.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Always happy to see good people taken care of.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Absolutely, So shout out to journalism, shout out to.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
H I have something for UBC.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Oh please, you have a shirt I could wear on Monday.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Turns out I got a couple of them.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh my good. So do I get to pick my
poison or do you? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (04:20):
So, here's what I'm gonna do, and this is what
I would like to do, And I'm sorry they got delayed.
There was a giant shipping problem. It was a whole
thing tariffs.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
All I heard about was tariffs.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well do they bought both of these out of my
own pocket? Showed it and pay for this. I bought
them but we.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Don't have the showtime budget to get us not gnarly
robes anymore.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
We certainly don't. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm
going to like, you're gonna I'm not gonna let you
pick the shirt ahead of time. You can pick the
shirt on air, And what you're gonna do is, I'm
gonna put it flat on the table and you're gonna
hold it up for the camera and let it see
what it says. You got to read it out, and
then once you read out both of them, you can
decide which one you want to wear.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
And then I have to change on air.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
You can just put it over what you have.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
I'll wear a wife beat her to the show. Then
we'll just put the new T shirt over that. Yeah,
there we go, uh luke. Anything else you want to
say about life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, BJ Penn's forth,
the rest or any ice pickups in DC, because that
is getting serious out there.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's mostly to other Virginia's supposed to be coming. There
is a big ass parade, which I will not be
going to because I'm not a fucking idiot, and uh
I have a kids party anyway. In the middle of
the afternoon on Saturday. So I'm going to be taking
the tuchster to that.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Oh what is the setup? Is like a bouncy house?
Is there like painting?

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, it's supposed to be someone's house and they got
they got out. They're supposed to have like a giant extravaganza.
So I'm hoping that there is a corner for me
to sit in and I don't have to talk to
anyone while I burned two hours.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
You know, well, they'll all be talking Spanish anyway, you
can just go deep.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Oh no, no, this is one of her Uh yeah, yeah,
I mean seriously, do we need those people in this world?
I don't know. But hey, that's the best part is
that go into one of my wives parties. You know,
She's like, I gotta go with First of all, I've
said this before, dude. You know, Latin American people they
just party better. I don't care what anyone says. There's
always booze, and I'm not under any obligation to talk

(06:11):
to anybody. It's actually quite perfect.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
You should draft Uncle Pepe, who uses his pipe to
get down. You should draft him as like your party wingman.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
I could, but he's also a little a little quiet,
you know what I mean, he's not a big partier.
So honestly, it'd be best if you were there. That
way we could go and make total asses of ourselves.
Get Tuki asked about you, she goes, so she goes,
is uncle, gringo and uncle, and I'm like, hence the name.

(06:43):
And then she goes, is uncle, gringo and uncle like,
and then she named some of her actual uncles and
I was like, well, not quite like that. You know.
She was trying to ask like, are you related to us?
And I was like, I don't know if you could tell,
but he's clearly got a chromosoonal issue that's different than
the rest of us, and that makes them, you know, unusual,
all right, I.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Believe believe it. At that You may have seen that
flash on the bottom of the screen. Our merch hole
is back and it's filled. It's Morningcombat dot chop. You
can wear our fantastic design shout out people like average
Joe Art, who is a designer for this here site,
Long Island. Luke running the show quickly no ceda, we're
moving product over there, Morning Combat dotch up, because the
proceeds they go to the three of us.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
We're moving. Product slowed down a bit since the initial launch, obviously,
but the posters are officially sold out. We'll be dropping
new merch next month, but you can still get the
skits and bit stuff for the rest of June. So
if you didn't already hop on.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
And I don't know if you saw yesterday during the
Ryan Campbell ramble, but the fans that are now asking
for autographed bongs on the MK Morning Comeback, are they really?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yes? They are.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
And I don't know if no Cita can get that done, but.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
We would we get fired if we did that.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I think we'd get high. I think that's the point. Yeah,
all right, there you go, fired from who? From who? Luke?

Speaker 1 (08:00):
All right, I've already been fired a few times.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
All right, hey, love of this BS. Let's get into
the show. All right, you guys ready locked up, fired,
Let's do it. UFC Atlanta is topic number one, and
this don't suck. This does not suck. For a fight night,
We're back State Farm Arena and a Crossroads welter weight
till in the main event. In this UFC Atlanta preview
is brought to you by Total Wireless. The official wireless

(08:25):
provider of UFC. Get unlimited data that won't slow you down.
There's a big narrative here. Will the bad knees of
Kamorrow Usman slow him down? Let's get into it. Despite
being thirty eight years old, riding a three fight losing skid,
snapping a six hundred day layoff, and oh, by the way,
having not won a fight in the division since twenty

(08:46):
twenty one, former pound for pound king Kamara Usman will
bring his number five welter weight ranking into this crossroads
about with a streaking number seven Joaquin Buckley. So, Luke,
if you're looking for stakes, right, get him out on
the grill. Usman believes this is just the beginning of
him getting back into title contention in two divisions, while

(09:07):
Buckley has revealed this week that the UFC told him
this fight right here is a number one contender's about. So,
if we know the stakes, what is the most interesting
angle in your mind to focus on stylistically in this matchup?

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Oh, this is a very good question, all right, assuming
that the stakes are as aforementioned most interesting. I mean,
to me, I'm gonna say a couple things. One, I
think that the potential work rate of Buckley could prove decisive.
It's not like usman has bad cardios. Really not what

(09:44):
I mean. But I tend to think that the accuracy
and the effectiveness of what he's doing declines over high
work rate bouts unless he's the one dealing. So I'm
referring to a situation where Buckley is really putting it
on him again, so much in damage, but in just
making him labor his way through things. But to me,

(10:04):
what I'm going to say is the takedown in either
direction it seems like a really important bout. I actually
don't think the bout is going to be decided by
who gets more takedowns or something like that. I don't
really think that that's quite right. But what I mean
to say is to what extent I mean, Buckley goes
for about two per fifteen minutes and Usbin is about

(10:24):
just to shade under three per fifteen minutes. So you
would imagine that they would at least statistically be able
to trade the amount of takedowns here. But it's more
than that. I think if you get Buckley, who is
going to be faster and I think, much more explosive
and mobile on the feet. If He's then able to
get takedowns enough to disrupt a what Usbin is already
being able to do on the feet, which the thing

(10:46):
is going to be largely playing catchup or at least
playing Buckley's game, but more to that point, just kind
of setting the offensive tone here a little bit and
putting him, putting him in a space where he's you know,
what Usbin did to our was just kind of overwhelm
him with offense. And I don't think Buckley's going to
be able to replicate the numbers that Uspin put in,
which is like one hundred strikes landed and ten takedowns.

(11:08):
I'm not expecting that. But what I am saying is, BC,
I think this might be one of those fights where
you've I've kind of thought this was coming for a
while where Usmin is kind of going to be shown
to be a little bit old. We've seen it already.
But what I mean is, you know, here, he had
a break, He had a chance to get ready. This
wasn't Shamaiev on short notice, this wasn't a different weight class.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
He had two years to get ready. Look, I mean,
what are we doing here?

Speaker 1 (11:32):
This is what I mean. So what I'm trying to
explain is to me, like the way in which the
takedown can be weaponized here is not that I think
the fight is going to end there, but rather what
it signifies and what it kind of shows, and then
what it leads usman, unless he's able to dominate with it,
what it kind of leads him to in the later rounds,
which is I think is going to be playing just

(11:52):
a ton of different catchup. I'm kind of looking to
see I'm kind of looking to see Buckley just do
a lot, you know.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
I'm looking to see both sides. Is Buckley truly ready
for the title? Six wins in a row since moving
down to one hundred and seventy pounds, four stoppages in
those six fights, and look, the names have been pretty decent,
as of Lake Colby Covington at the end of twenty
twenty four, wonder Boy Thompson just two months earlier in October.

(12:18):
Uh So, it's been a hell of a run. Vicente
Luke Andre Fiallo in that streak of fighters he had stopped.
He enters in as the B side in terms of
name value on this marquee, but the betting favorite according
to DraftKings, Buckley minus two seventy eight and the veteran
usman plus two twenty five. No, see it if we
can pick these elements out of order, can you please

(12:39):
show me the picture of usman at age thirty eight, Luke,
he shredded. You can see the Clyde Drexler hairline right there. Uh,
he looks both old and fit. Are you confident Kamaru
can still be eighty percent of the man who won
nineteen consecutive fights, captured the welterweight title, dominated as pomp

(13:00):
for pun king for.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
A few rounds. Maybe, But first of all, even eighty
percent is a big drop off, right. I mean we're
talking about a portion of the game where any amount
of change can yield drastic consequences. So like eighty percent
from down from whatever he used to be such that
he had one hundred percent standard would be an enormous
drop off. And I think he probably could do it.

(13:23):
I think he can probably do it for the first
three rounds. And I don't think he's going to fade
from a cardio standpoint BC. I think he's just going
to be made to play catch up, which is kind
of what I was alluding to earlier. I think he
can he can probably win around maybe too. I don't
know if Buckley has it in him to stop him.
I think his attacks appear to be a little less
coordinated and again a little bit more just a just

(13:44):
a wave of offense, you know. But I think this
is probably the time that, like people have been ranking
him highly and like I've said it before, including him
in like, oh, top of the division, let's match make
I think this is the part of the career where
he gets ushered out.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
I mean, in a Crossroads setup, it should be. This
would be seven wins in a row for Buckley if
he gets it done, the biggest name possible on that list.
But Luke, this is a crowded division at the moment right,
Like it's extra crowded by the addition of Islam Mahachev.
So what are we doing here from the standpoint if
JDM is gonna defend against Mahachev next, don't we already

(14:23):
have issues with Hamza? I'm sorry, Shavkat rochmanoff the being
old a title shot when he gets off of injury.
You've also got Sean Brady in a position to claim
a big shot, Ian Gary feeling like he's one win away.
Is it really possible in your eyes, that Buckley, with
a win here, could go from this to a title shot.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
I think only if he beats the shit out of
Usman or stops him early, like if he goes in
there and just just steam rolls him, that, yes, that
would be enough. But that seems relatively unlikely. Now. Buckley
makes a big noise, and I think that might also
put him ahead of Sean Brady, who had a really

(15:03):
nice win over Leon. But you know, uh, I mean,
obviously I like Sean Brady, but I don't know if
he is, you know, the UFC's preferred candidate in the
sense of how much he'll do to sell a fight,
whereas Buckley will do quite a bit, So that makes
a bit of a difference. But you're right, like that,
by the way, they could just be telling him that
this is number one contender. I mean the point you're

(15:24):
raising is like, well, Rockmanov just was and Blall is
probably gonna look for a fight relatively soon, and as
you mentioned, Ian Gary is not far behind, and hello,
there's Sean Brady. Like, I don't know what about this
fight is so different that the winner, under any circumstance
would be placed into a number one contender's position. It
seems to me it'd be put into like one A

(15:47):
or one B, and then those two are gonna have
to fight it out right, because if Islam JDM is
excellent and controversial, they're gonna run that one back. I agree,
you know, so like that. It's just to me, if
you're a caner at welterweight, I just don't know how
you can look at your situation. You can feel very
good about it. You're clearly right next to the mountaintop.

(16:09):
It's not fools gold, but you're gonna have to clear
another hurdle to get to that next spot, and you
cannot leave any stone on turn. He has to go
in here and really put it on Usman.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Indeed, and Usman is thirty eight years old, incredibly inactive,
as I mentioned, six hundred days off, hasn't won in
this division in four years. But Luke, he went to
the media table at Q and a day here and
straight up believes he's got a three fight plan to
I guess immortality. I mean, Usman's already, in my opinion,

(16:41):
one of the greatest fighters in UFC history. He's done
things very few people do. I just think it's ridiculous
for him to retain a number five rating. And I
want to know if you think the about of ambition
he's showing about his short term future is ridiculous too.
Let's listen to the former champ.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Be in mind that the bell is always something you
still want.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
How do you see your path there?

Speaker 1 (17:02):
My path there?

Speaker 4 (17:03):
Oh, just pretty simple. I just lay out the map
right here as a uh finished Buckley this weekend and
then wait for the winner of h I believe Islam
and and JDM.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
Which is going to be an incredible fight.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Uh such a great thing now having Islam come up
into the division. You know who wouldn't buy a ticket
to that former pound for pound and current pound for pound?
And I love Islam. Islam is a great fighter. I
think that's something that we will both remember forever with
that and go ahead and probably vacate go up myself,

(17:43):
Drakis d plus if he is the champion, or hamsat
Ramaia too. If Dracius is no longer the champion, we
do that. And if Drakis is the champion, we do
that in the first card in Africa. I mean, that's
another blockbuster. These are back to blockbuster fight say, you
tell your grandkids about and who wouldn't watch those? And

(18:05):
so and then after that, you know, now you're sitting
with two belts and it's like, uh, what do we
do next?

Speaker 1 (18:11):
You know?

Speaker 4 (18:12):
So that's I would say long term goal in the back.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Of my mind.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Can somebody tell Uncle Marty that it's not twenty eighteen?
Like what? I don't want to be a jerk about this.
I respect everything Husman has done. He's one of the greats.
But Luke, like, how do you go from a three
fight losing skid to let's say he does defeat Buckley
and sort of, you know, prove that Buckley is not
ready for this level. How do you go from that
into a immediate shot in a crowded division for the

(18:41):
welterweight title and then you're gonna fight in Africa to
become a two division champion. What are we doing here, Luke?

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Daydreaming? Daydreaming? It's not at all real I mean just
nothing about that was realistic. You're you're right, dude, I
don't want to sit here in Bachelors Man. He's the
second best walterweight of all time, you know, against only
the only one to do it better in my judgment
was George Saint Pierre, and even then Usman had an
absolutely tremendous career. But you know, this is what he does.

(19:08):
Sometimes we see like, you know, he was out there
kind of advocating for a Canelo fight when he was
champion at the time, and he was like giving these
like in his mind, I think what sounded like plausible scenarios,
and then to anybody else listening, there was like, none
of this sounds plausible, Like absolutely he's selling He's selling
a vision, you know, with Like I appreciate his optimism

(19:29):
for himself, I don't think it's rooted in reality. And
even if he were to beat Buckley, I just cannot
imagine a scenario where they're just going to feed him
to Islam if he wins, or even JDM, they would
feed him to Shavkat or somebody else to build them up. Like,
how is a thirty eight year old welterweight with terrible
knees anything that the UFC wants to plan around. Yeah,

(19:52):
just just be realistic.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
About this fight's important for the title contention picture. But
I don't think either of these guys with a win,
an impressive win, is in line to do that. I mean,
is there a scenario where let's say Islam takes the
title and Buckley wins this in the most aggressive, in
your face impressive style ever. Maybe is there a chance,
you know, we run him into Islam next? I guess maybe.

(20:15):
But do there's like guys that have been owed that
one of these guys that's gonna fight each other. Maybe
they will. I don't know. I still like this matchup
and I still want to get who's gonna win this.
But we got one more piece of sound from Joaquin
Buckley during the face off they had outside State Farm Marina,
where buck was not afraid to kind of cook to
the honor of being so excited to face a legend

(20:37):
like Usman.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
After going up against the Eugenie Too.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
This o real come with wolves with why I mean,
shout out new Manzo. He did show up at a
three Margarita show Luke after it ended. I always support
that move from.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Him right there. Listen, he's jazz for the opportunity, he's
pumped for the opportunity, and he should be. This is
a big one for him. And I know what a
lot of people might say, It's like, oh, Usman kept
it cool and you know, here was here was Buckley
fan boying out, which is true. I mean that's what happened.
But at the same time, Buckley is like right on
the tip of achieving his greatest professional accomplishments ever and

(21:23):
everything he's dreamed of. The whole reason he's been in this,
all the wins, all the losses. He is hungry. Okay,
Usman is well past all of that, and so the
only way to really hold your position is to be
much better than the other guy. Is he. I have
my sincere doubts about that. We'll see on Saturday. But
to me, people are like trying to be oh, well,

(21:44):
you know, he's gonna do a Pat Berry on Mirco
crocop and I didn't get that vibe. Pat Barry was
like reverential to me. Him. Buckley having this kind of
joyful attitude about facing off with Usman is more of
a position that like it's a validation he deserves to
be here. It's a very different thing than like it's
this weird moment where you have to fight your hero.

(22:06):
I didn't get that fight.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, we'll be talking about Pat Barry very shortly. By
the way, the coach of the co main events star.
I want to get though our betting enthusiast and expert
Long Island Luke to chime in three to one basically
minus two seventy eight the odds from DraftKings in favor
of Buckley. This is a five round fight against old Marty.
Where are you leaning from a betting standpoint?

Speaker 3 (22:27):
You gotta go with Buckley here, I mean the layoff
for Usman, the poor knees. I just I don't love
this fight for him, and I just feel like Buckley.
Buckley's undefeated a well to eight six in a row, like, yeah,
bad news for Usman. I feel at least I'm taking Buckley.
I got him parlayed with Rose actually plus one oh one.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
So interesting now, Luke Thomas, from the standpoint of over under,
if Buckley does get this win, can he finish Usmann?
You don't see that often? Maybe never? Right, I mean
when does that happen?

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Well? I mean Leon finished, that can happen?

Speaker 2 (23:01):
I mean out, You're right, the head kick heard around
the world. I obviously take one with that one example back,
but a durable dude who went in there on short
nose against Hamzad and kind of rally late. I'm giving
him as props. But if Buckley stops this man, that's
a hell of a statement.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
After all, he's got big power. His power translated at
eighty five and it's obviously significant at seventy. Buckley again
kind of tends to throw a lot at you that
not necessarily all of it works, But he can do
a lot bc he can wrestle offensively. His takedown defense
I think is going to be tested to a degree
in this one. But on the feet, he's just got
many more weapons, as much quicker, I think, much more

(23:38):
agile at this point. That's good. I think he's gonna
use that to his advantage. Can he stop him? It
wouldn't be my first thought. I do think Buckley will win,
and I think he'll probably win by decision. I wouldn't
rule out a stoppage, and I would say if like
Usbin gets stopped inside too and like looks old and
this is clearly the end, you know what I mean.
But I do think Uspin, this one's crafty, is a veteran,

(24:02):
and he's faced guys all respect to Buckley, but he's
definitely fun guys better than him, so I think he
should be able to make the distance but I guess
we'll see.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
I think we're gonna get a Buckley stoppage. I think
it'll be on injury though I'm serious.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
That is a legitimate possibility, Like could he do like
an obliqe kick and stomp out his knees.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Something like that will happen and then the old body
will break down and you know, but either way, this
would be a breakthrough for Buckley. I don't think title
shot next, but we'll see what happens in that regard
co main event. According to Rose nami Unis, this one
also could have future title implications from her standpoint. Just
two and two is Rose after moving up to one

(24:41):
hundred and twenty five pounds, the losses against Blanchefield and
Farrow and competitive fights, but it just feels like we
have been missing something of Rose during this run. So
Rose saying, look, I feel like I'm finally adjusted to
this weight. She also mentioned in the interview I had
with her on the BCX this week that her fiance,

(25:01):
slash trainer Pat Barry, has really helped her realize some
things about what she wasn't doing to her first four
opponents at one twenty five. But Luke, is it still
realistic in your eyes as Rose welcomes a streaking Miranda Maverick,
who's on a four fight win streak. In a fight
Rose is expected to win a minus two thirty favorite.

(25:22):
Is it still realistic to consider at thirty two that
Rose is a threat to the Flyway title? Or is
her slide of late maybe more to do with the
coaching change of Trevor Whitman being gone during this four
fight stretch and Pat Berry coming to the forefront. Which
one is it? Is it both? How do you look
at Rose's comments of her believing she's still in this

(25:45):
and she's got a lot of fight left to go
after that Bill.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
I don't think there's enough on tape. I mean, obviously
she's a little bit up and down. I think she's one.
I think you indicated two of the last four, two
of the last three, certainly, but obviously losing to Blanchefield.
There's there's not enough evidence to conclude that she's out
of the mix in that way. She's still winning against
decent names, and she's still young enough, and it just

(26:10):
seems like I'm not saying the division is utterly wide open,
but it doesn't seem totally out of reach either. Plus
the opponent she's got, to me, is certainly putting the
best win streak of her career together. But I just
don't think has the same kind of fluid, dynamic offense
as Rose, and so for those reasons, I would not

(26:32):
be ready to count out Rose. On the other hand, BC,
and maybe you feel differently, but it just seems to
me that she's not really passing the eye test. She's
getting the job done, and it would be silly to
conclude she's not, at least in close proximity. But there's
a certain kind of meanness to her game that is missing.

(26:52):
There's a certain kind of dynamism that has been kind of,
I don't know, mellowed out in the middle of it.
And of course you need a more rebel fighter as
you get older. But again, she's not physically over the hill,
and it just seems like there's a little bit of
a quiet instinct to, you know, not push it in
ways that maybe once would have been there. I mean,
part of her game used to be a little bit

(27:14):
of that. This this like great quick capacity for violence
or you know, even inn invicta she's throwing up flying
arm bars and stuff like that. A lot of that
has been kind of drummed out of her. And you
can do that if you're John Jones at light heavyweight
and you're just much, much, much better than the rest
of those guys, and so you know, some measure of
evening out your game actually is better for longevity. I
don't know that this is better for longevity. It seems

(27:36):
like it's a bit of a downgrade, and so I
just I'd be it'd be foolish to count her out, yes,
But at the same time, I don't have a strong
vote of confidence that it's like some kind of inevitability either.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
I agree. I mean, you know, Pat Berry is kind
of right. She's always been on that three or four
fight pattern where she can win three in a row,
and some of those wins look like literally the very
best in the division's history. If we're talking one fifteen
and then lose in such disastrous fashion and being honest
about her anxieties and mental challenges where it's easy to
roof for her, but at one fifteen she could always

(28:10):
come back around and give you that performance You're like, oh, wow,
she's still a killer. She's got a thirteen to seven record,
but it's deceiving. We already know that, but at Flyway exactly,
I haven't seen that edge. I haven't seen that killer
instinct under Trevor Whitman. She just seems to be a
different fighter. Now we do have to figure out is
the weight cut the difference or is it just she
was sharper under Trevor she was more confident. I know

(28:33):
Pat Barry's a big hype man, but I don't know.
It's interesting. So I had her on my podcast this
week and I did ask her specifically about that transition
to this weight class and how she would rate her
performances thus far. Going to and two here's Rhodes. Are
you confident in who you are in this weight class
and that there's still a big run to the top here?

Speaker 5 (28:53):
Yeah, there is because I know I know what I know.
I know that what I'm capable of, and so it
is a little frustrating feeling like I know that I
can do better and I know that it could be
a lot better. And so it's just kind of one
of those things where I said to submit to God's plan,
you know, because at the end of the day, it's
like I just it's just one is playing at the time.

(29:16):
And also I've made some realizations too that I've realized.
I've made a lot of adjustments in my training as
far as like just me realizing that I was like
kind of holding myself back and I didn't even know
that I was doing that, like I thought I was like,
I'm like, I'm like, you know, in training, and I'm
like breathing hard and then you know, or I'm like

(29:37):
struggling with something and past like you're just letting these
people do this. I'm like, what are you talking about?
Then I'll go back and rewatch. It just all of
a sudden until now and it's like, oh, yeah, what
was I doing? Like why am I just like kind
of just sitting there, you know, And I'm thinking, I'm
like I'm breathing, I'm making myself pre heavy, you know.
So so it's just kind of one of those things
where I'm like, it's one of those realizations where it's

(29:57):
like it's better to realize that now and and hopefully
that translates into the fight and hopefully, yeah, oh that's
that's just what I'm I'm praying for that that that
I'm not crazy and that uh yeah, the adjustments are
the I guess the difference maker.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
I mean, look, with respect, she's been mercurial her entire career,
with those highs and lows in the performance, and a
lot of times it does come down to mental Did
she sound mentally.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Ready there?

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Like like maybe some of these realizations that she's you know,
given her opponents too much respect, that maybe that's the difference.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Again, nothing about what you see or hear from her
is like automatically disqualifying. I didn't maybe you feel differently.
I didn't hear anything in there that I was like, well,
you could nitpick this or nitpick that. It didn't sound
to me all the way off. It's just that when
it comes fight time, it just seems like she can
get to third, maybe even fourth gear, but not the

(30:56):
one from the previous fifth gear that really made her
special and set her apart. That that to me, seems
to be the issue. Like you asking how much of
a percentage of kamar Usman at his highest level we're
going to get is going to be eighty percent? Feels
like we're getting like eighty five, maybe even ninety, which
sounds like a lot, But I've told you before, five
to ten percent difference can just yield pretty significant results.

(31:18):
You know, I don't know, I don't know what to
make of this one. I guess. I mean, the thing
is Rose at her best just seems like vastly better
than Miranda at her best. But this is like a
different kind of zend out Rose, and that makes this
obviously much more competitive than it otherwise would.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Be no question about it.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Now.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Look, Maverick has run four in a row, She's won
six of her last seven overall, going back the past
three years, the only loss a decision to Jasmine Jazz Davisius.
They also have history together, and I wonder if this
really favors Rose. Rose told me specifically they sparred kind
of regularly for the past three years, but in the
last year and a half it got very regularly. She says.

(32:00):
They know each other's tendencies all that, And I think, look,
the biggest problem is you look at Maverick's resume and
you're like, Okay, her best winsor Andrea Lee, Priscilla Cacuera.
You know, like we're not talking about the level of Roe.
So with Rose being ranked six and Maverick at twelve,
this does feel like a let Rose get well after

(32:20):
that competitive, but but you know, forty eight forty seven
on all three scorecards lost to Blanchefield. But a lot
of people are still saying with Rose only being thirty two,
and Rose admitted that she hears it too, why don't
you just fight at strawaight? Is it the weight cutter
that's the issue or what is the issue? And Luke,
that's something I asked her about as well. Let's hear
one more time from Rose.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
And I technically probably still couldn't make it. It's just like,
but like the way that I've feel and I feel
like body types are different too, and especially as you
get lower and lower, I feel like the harder it
is like every pound matters more the smaller you go.
So I just I feel like like now and I
have put on more size, and I naturally was just
getting big and bigger each time, so I like, I

(33:02):
don't know, it's just like what we do is already
dangerous as it is, but then when you're adding like
the dehydration and stuff, I just I really I just
really didn't like it. And then and you know, I
only have like I also have this goal of becoming
two division champions still, so like that's my other goal,
Like I've already achieved whatever goals at strongweight that I
wanted to achieve. I became champion and defended and all

(33:23):
this stuff, you know, and like sure, I could go
back down there, and you know, I think I would be,
you know, become champion again if I really wanted to.
But I just feel like I've been there and done
that already, and if I can and if whatever this
and the adjustment to make to one weight class, I
feel like it takes time and it takes Yeah, it's

(33:44):
just it's a lot that has to come together. So
I don't want to waste my time, you know, doing
something that I already did, you know.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
I mean I understand that. I understand she feels like
she's accomplished everything at one fifteen. She's she's actually hoping
Whaley moves up. She wants to fight her a third
time and would love it if Whaley beats Valentina to
do it for the title. But Luke, even though Rose
said she believes she's one or two wins away from
a title shot if she performs like she did in
the last four, I don't think she can beat Valentina

(34:11):
or even for he row in a rematch or anyone
at the top highest level. I'd kind of like to
see her if she wins on Saturday against an Alexa Grosso,
so we can learn more about both of them. But
let's focus in on Saturday. What can Miranda Maverick do,
in your eyes to slow this journey.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
She has to get the takedown and I think has
to mix it up. If she can keep this fight
on the ground the entire time, then I would say, actually,
you can do that. I don't think that's going to
be super likely, but I'm looking. I had her stats
here just a minute ago, actually as I got him here,
excuse me, per fifteen minutes, and this is a fifteen

(34:53):
minute fight. Two point three nine takedowns per fifteen minutes
from Miranda Maverick. It is central to what she has
to do. That's nearly around right, not quite, but that's
about where we're at. That's what she's gonna have to do. BC.
She's gonna have to kind of pancake her a little bit.
She has movement on the outside and it's gotten a
lot better, but I still think she's quite hittable there.
It still seems a little bit robotic, not terribly. I'm

(35:17):
not saying she has a terrible stamp, that's not my point.
But the movement is a little bit robotic and rehearsed,
and I think someone liked Rose who's a little bit
more naturally on her feet, willing to throw and able
to throw, can make contact with that and cause problems.
But if you're dogged enough and you can get to
take done enough, I know that Rose can be a
thread off of her back. But I just don't see
defensive wrestling and defensive grappling or even offensive grappling from

(35:38):
defensive positions as necessarily her strong suit. And here's the
other part. BC if she does get taken down, does
she really have the fire to compete underneath? Like, for example,
Juliana Pania was overmatched right against Kayleb, terribly overmatched, but
on the ground she was throwing hammer fists and like upkicks,
and the upkicks were illegal, saying she was trying to

(36:01):
be pesky underneath right, anything she could to do to disrupt,
and we saw Diego Sanchez do this to very great
effect when he got taken down a plate from guard.
There's a certain kind of urgency. I don't know if
Rose has that urgency in her offense the same way,
particularly from that position, that is something Miranda could get. Now,

(36:21):
the problem with this BC is if Miranda fights this way,
which by the way, seems to me very plausible, it's
a good win over a big name, but it's not.
It's not you know, we talked about it before. It's
not a politician winning an election via landslide. Where you
are now you can just call your shots. It'd be
kind of like a grindy I'm not gonna say obvious win,

(36:43):
but nothing especially interesting about it, which would not be
great for Rose. And you know, obviously Miranda getting a
win of her Rose is important, but it wouldn't be
a big mandate. I'm just saying, it's not like she's
gonna go in there and box her ears off and
then finish her off on the ground. It's not what
I'm saying. I'm saying she could probably find her out
here for a little bit just by being just aggressive

(37:04):
and good with the top control. But I don't expect
like heavy ground and pound, and I don't expect necessarily
fierce resistance from Rose either. It could be for a
bit of a doll affair if Miranda gets away.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
It has tendency to be dull. I just feel like Rose,
any version of her, is gonna win this because she's
more skilled and will know how to win that striking
battle to keep you know, Miranda off of her. And
maybe Miranda gets a take down or two, but Rose
is still showing good strength in this division. No cee
that the only betting intel what I'm looking for is

(37:36):
a Rose finish if if she's back on that pattern
and she locks back in and finds the eye of
a tiger, is a Rose finish possible here from a
betting standpoint in your eyes.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
I was just trying to find the odds on it. Personally,
I don't think so. I think this fight goes the
distance no matter what. Over two and a half on
this is minus five twenty, so odds makers think it
goes along as well. Rose by finish though bee plus
five hundred on them.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Oh I take that bet. I'd give it a roll.
I'll give it a roll. But I don't know if
she's gonna be that. I don't know if she has
it in her anymore. I really don't.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
I don't either. I would have taken the over two
and a half if it wasn't such a hefty price.
That's probably why I settled on Rose. But I don't
feel too confident in her. But she should get this done, right.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
She should? She should. Luke Thomas knows that at the
end of the day, right we can move on. She
should get this done.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I'm gonna I'll take a flyer on Maverick.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Get the frick a get out, as Luke Thomas would say,
get out, Luke, what are you doing here? You're predicting
a collapse because this is a If Rose lose this,
she should retire.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Rose has been a champion in this organization. I don't
think Maverick ever will. But I just don't have great
confidence in whatever Rose has got going on these days.
I hope I'm wrong. Nothing would be better than seeing
her back at the top. Believe me, I'm not mad
about that.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Yeah, but dude, how's Moraverick? How's Mareverick gonna win this?

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Luke?

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Please?

Speaker 1 (38:56):
First of all, it's what's her nickname? It's Fear?

Speaker 2 (38:58):
The Yeah, so how is fear? How's how is Fear?
They're gonna win this? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah, I think she's gonna grind her out, gonna grind her.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
Out even if okay, if if the Rose from the
Asparsa rematch shows up, all bets are off. But dude,
this is I think it's much more of a leap
that that Maraverick controls the aspects here and and does
enough to get a win, unless it's just a horrific
fight that neither deserves to win, and you're saying that's
that's what's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Basically, I think there's a decent chance of it.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
All right, let's go plus five hundred on the row.
Stop it's just to prove that you're wrong here. Look,
let's keep on going down the car to middleweight matchup.
Edmund Schabazian is two and two since he re sence
enduring that consecutive stoppage lost defeat streak that he was
on where he kind of looked like a bust. He's though,
a minus one seventy favorite against a plus one forty

(39:52):
two Andre Petrowski. Is this the same theme in your eyes, Luke,
for this young Armenian that if he doesn't finish Petrowski
the first round, he probably gases out and loses. Is
that what we're looking at here in this matchup?

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yeah. Probably. By the way, how does Shabazi and have
two takedowns per fifteen minutes? That's an interesting stat And
his takedown defense, by the way, is not that great
at sixty five percent. And I think Petrowski, if he
can get him down, who's got you know, three point
three eight takedowns per fifteen minutes, so b see, he's
good for more than one around. Just seems to me
like if he can survive the first couple, you know,

(40:24):
first round and a half something like that, he could
probably overtake him late. I cannot believe that Shabazien is
still having these issues. But he is still having these issues.
He's still dangerous. P see. He is up and down.
So it's not just like, you know, we're not dealing
with some kind of vjpen losing streak here where all
he just can't get right. He'll get right at times.
At times he can still put it on you. I
think Petroski is there to be hit a little bit. Yeah,

(40:46):
his his striking differential between landed and absorbed is almost nil.
You know, he's there to be hit to a degree.
It's just if you could play the game, survive move
this over the long haul. You have to like his chances.
So if you know, du.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
For four minutes and then he gets usually countered with
a hook, and then the gas thing starts coming in
and then he he looks like a like a deer,
a baby deer. Luke.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Well, his takedown defense is good, but it's not lights out.
And for someone like Petrowski, who doesn't have the best
takedowns but he's got good takedowns and the relentless, it's
a bit of a bad matchup.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
I think, Yeah, Petrowski riding in a three fight win streak.
No names on there though, but this is an interesting.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
Hudolfo Vieira, he beat Judelfhood.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
He's good, but he's been he's been gotten before, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
All right, let's get it.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Let's go down to this bandam weight matchup. A lot
of talk about Cody garbrandt here as a plus one
six y four underdog against the rugged veteran Hyoni Barcelos,
who will be a minus one ninety eight favorite in
the SPANDAM weight till we already know the enduring narrative
about gar brand He'll never be the guy again. It
doesn't appear to be that once did the Robot against

(41:59):
Dom Krue was in one of the most eye opening
pound for pound breakthrough performances. But he's also changed the
look up so aggressively with the longer hair, the bald
spot shining through, and now the eye tat. I know,
Luke Thomas, you must be wondering what's up with that
eye tat. We got some sound to tell you.

Speaker 6 (42:19):
Yeah, I just love artwork, you know, tattoos. Actually, I
was getting my armpit done and I was hurting a
little bit, so I was like trying to let it
cop out to my tattooer.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
I was like, let's put one on the face.

Speaker 6 (42:30):
So I went to the face and did it, and
just to give me some time to now I have
like as sissy on the armpit, so we'll put the
the face tattoo on it.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
I just went with it.

Speaker 6 (42:40):
Full send.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Fuck it? Can I ask a question?

Speaker 2 (42:43):
He got his? This is the most MMA story ever.
So I was getting my armpit don after I did
my Sean Brady ash Cheeks. Yeah, what do you got, Luke?

Speaker 1 (42:52):
What do you What is exactly the definition of full send?

Speaker 2 (42:58):
I take it to mean when a young white male
is looking to do something aggressively, whether that means, uh,
attempt something dangerous. Uh make a trick shot? You know
what I mean? Go get that chick's number. It's like
a full scent? Am I misinterpreting the.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
According According to Urban Dictionary, full send, a term popularized
in the online culture, essentially means to do something with
one commitment, even if it means failing or facing potential consequences,
and implies we.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Got it right. There we go, We got it right.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
Yeah, I mean, I'm hip, Luke. I'm a hip dude.
I'm a hip dad. Okay, Al.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
You're You're the most washed piece of shit that I know.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Hey, I'm taking my kids on a tour of Yukon today.
This I feel like it's you.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Know, I don't I don't know what's more washed than that.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
I don't want them to go, Luke, I got one
year left, you know, savor the flavor.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Right, I can move in.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
I feel like I was trying to get They were
pushing me out of the door back in the day.
You know what I'm saying. Now, I'm like, kids, don't leave.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Don't I know? But we were kids. Parents were like, yo,
when you're eighteen, your mother fucking dead to.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Me here will charge you for rent when you're eighteen.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
He bro, I didn't realize this. I didn't realize this,
and I was talking about you know how I was
talking to you about. This was actually Chris Aljery. Chris
al Jerry noted that when he fought Pachiao Hbo boxing
made it a big story that he was living at
home with his parents at the time. He was living
in their basement, right, yeah, yeah, I mean, just an

(44:29):
absolute shithole if ever there was.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
One, no, no, but it was in a real nice
house with.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
I'm just being mean to Long Island. Look, I'm not
being mean to chrys al Jerry, but he was trying
to explain to me. He's like, dude, my dad is
from Italy and my mom is from Argentina. Like in
those cultures, you don't you don't leave the house until
you marry, you don't. You just live at home. He's like,
I was just living at home because that's just what
you do. So you know, there's different parts of the

(44:55):
world where you can stay stay in the house till
your mother fucking thirty. You know what, I think. I
know a lot of dudes who are from that part
of the world who still live with their moms and dads.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah, but the difference is those dudes are getting laid
probably right, unlike that.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yeah, they're unlike Long Island, Luke, they're actually having sex
with women.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
A lady, would you please? I mean, come on, all right,
he's got it together, Luke Thomas.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
My daughter see that, My daughter drew on.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Me that red spot. I thought that was a hickey
f cherry.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
She drew cherries on me? Yeah, all right?

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Would you your wife wouldn't give you a a hickey
this deep into the marriage, right, No.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
She's not. She's not. She's not you know, dub ty
or whatever. The equivalent would.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Be, Luke Thomas, Cody Garbrand plus his soul, he says,
with a win here. The fight that needs to be
made is him versus sugar Sean O'Malley. And he even
said I think it could move pay per views.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah. No one believes in that at all except I mean, dude,
you got him and Oosman up there, being like, I'm
one shot away from from going to Mars. You know,
he might as well just say shiting like that.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
I mean, I want to mcgarb brant. I love him,
Luke he's only thirty three.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Here's what I was gonna say. He's obviously been chinned
too many times. There's just no question his durability is
messed up. However, BC, these are his last three losses. Figaredo,
former champ, kay Car France could be the next champ.
I think it's you know, certainly fighting for one and
then Rob font a very very good fighter. Now the
wins aren't super inspiring kellahern and Jones. But what I'm

(46:25):
trying to point out is.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Though the knockout of Hafaela Sunstow, that was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
That was a while ago. That was a while ago.
But I'm trying to point out he's not losing to chumps.
He's only losing to like, basically very very good guys. Right,
those are the ones that are beating him now. The
Figaredo one happened very quickly and kind of surprisingly, but
nevertheless not surprisingly, just very quickly. But the point I'm
trying to make is he's not losing to chumps, like
he hasn't lost to like just guys who are just

(46:54):
done not that much in their career. So you can't
dismiss him. But I'm just trying to point out, you know,
this statement of like, oh, they're going to give me
an O'Malley, under what circumstance would he ever take that fight?
I mean this like they were not even being serious here.
It's a silly thing to say.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Well, what do you think about Garbrant being an underdog
despite the fact that he only loses to elites. Against Barcelos,
who I certainly respect, He'll give you an honest scrap,
but he's not a killer at this point in his career.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Just thirty eight two. He's not a super young guy.
Although that the Talbot win was pretty restorative. I think
a lot of people thought Talbot was going to go
in there and do something to him, and he got
a little bit run over in that fight. To be
honest with you, I mean, I guess I got a
little bitter three eleven.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
I forgot that ever happened.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Holy yeah, dude. And again, we've been talking this year
about how all these undefeated prospects are losing. This was
one of them. I think this is winnable for Garbrandt.
It's just a question of, like, can Garbrant open up anymore?
Barcellos is going to pursue his fight even if he
gets finished, right, He's got a certain kind of commitment
and it's the only kind of commitment that he can

(47:58):
have in a fight. It doesn't there's no real nuance
to it. I mean, there's nuance to his game, but
the intensity is never really calibrated. He just kind of
goes for what he goes for and if it works, great,
If it doesn't, and then on one hand, that makes
them dangerous. On the other hand, that makes them vulnerable.
But I feel like with Cody, he's been calibrating the
intensity and that's kind of been messing him up. And
I don't know if he can get to a place

(48:20):
where it's a little bit more he's got more ready
made offense. That's that's you know, that's that's good to go.
He just seems like he's reluctant to engage in the
same kinds of ways. I don't know, because we'll see.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, I think it's gonna be a fun scrap by
the way, I think they'll actually match you up very interestingly.
But even him as a as a dog, I mean,
I get it. Hayani just resurrected himself for that moment
as the veteran that stopped the you know, the young
bright prospect whose gas tank wasn't ready for prime time
and he got caught up in a in a bad
fight for him. I just feel like Garbrent's still set

(48:56):
up to potentially get a ko here. But I've all
the confidence we're in recent years. I was like, I
don't have the confidence, but I still believe he might
be able to spark himself into a run. Now the
run he was on those two wins were second, third
tier type. But uh yeah, we'll see what happens. Luke.
I don't know about that eye tat, but you know
it's it's not my life, Luke, Right, I don't have

(49:19):
the balls to get an eye tat, so you know,
I'll just go back to my basement.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
People are like, oh, it's a big deal that he
got a face tat. I'm like his whole neck was blown,
like the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Like yeah, uh, Luke, can you tell me more about
this Atlanta card? We do have Cody Brundage at middleweight
against Mansur Abdul Maleik. I don't know if you care
about that. I do. Paul Kraig is back in the
featured prelim against jdelfo Blato with probably his job on
the line, Old guy Welter waits with Kisa and Court McGee.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Where are you at on this Uh? The one that's
a little bit more interesting to me is Chris Mautino
was back. I don't have any high thoughts about him,
but Malcolm Well maker bit of an interesting guy to
pay attention to it. There's a little bit of hype
behind him that could be an interesting one. Ricky Simon
against Camp and Smotherman should at least be action packed
for as long as it lasts. OBVIOUSLYBC, your pants are
gonna be around your ankles when Vanessa Demopolis is the curtain.

(50:07):
Jernker on this card, I know you'll be greatly enjoying that.
And you know there's some other ones you could pick
on this card as well. Phil Roe and Losa could
be a little bit of fun, fun fights between guys
who put a little bit together. Umar C taking on
Alonzo Minifield. Umar C I believe the brother of Sadabu
c so some decent.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Names and Court McGee. Neither of them have a TK
have a stoppage via strikes in their career. Do you
think one of them gets it?

Speaker 1 (50:34):
In this way, Court McGee doesn't have one.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
That's what I read. I've read that. Okay.

Speaker 7 (50:40):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Also, Luke, you.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
Read that's incorrect. Here's five.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
I was gonna say. That doesn't make I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
I read.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
The interesting stat about that fight is that they both
won Tough. So it's two former Tough winners going ahead to.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Keep getting MMA sent held left and right lately. I mean,
come on here, just a fountain of misinformation your co
host here, Luke. We skipped by Mutino, but for him
to go on the regional scene, aggressively work his way back,
and then get another contract when he was initially just
you know, the guy with the green hair they brought
in so that O'Malley last minute can beat him up.
That seems to be a story. But I don't know

(51:15):
if you saw the interviews he did this week where
Mutino admitted he was like suicidal after being cut from
the UFC and had was going through a bad breakup
and if it wasn't the next girl he met that
sort of saved him, he doesn't think he would be here. Luke,
that's that's a uh. That hit that hit hit hits hard.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
You know, you may you may be holding you may
be right long Island Luke. Where which of his fights
does he have stoppages in that are t ko's.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Yeah, put some respect on my name.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
I'm unsure Doug right now, says Court Miguee has five
KO wins.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Yeah, but I'm looking like he doesn't have any in
the UFC.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
Okay, yeah, not in the UFC. He hasn't one is
submission to punch his.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Okay, that must be the stat. I saw their combined
amount of fights without a stop between UFC.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
It's got to be you were you were pretty close. See.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Okay, So guys, put some respect back on my name.
When I give you news, it's breaking, Okay, That's what
it is. It's not fake. It's breaking, breaking, breaking my balls.
No ce that you like really bad? Mma? What else
should we be looking for? Is Paul Craig gonna survive
this job interview on Saturday?

Speaker 3 (52:18):
I think he could, dude. I mean, he's going against
the guy who had herpes last time they tried to fight.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
In the worst sport. Oh yeah, that herpes guy.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
Yeah, ran through this car. We have pretty much every
fight on this card, So I'm not going to point
out what's what. But I'll just give you a few
interesting fact three. Cody's fighting on this card, Garbrandt Dirdin Brundage,
the Tough Verst tough Thing. Also Michael Kisa. His nickname
is Maverick, Miranda Maverick. Also on the two Mavericks on
the car.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
I mean, I don't fear either of those.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
This is the kind of.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Shit that I find interesting. All right, yeah, but one
is like Maverick is the nickname and the other one
is fear.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
The yeah isn't did she just adopt the baby? Luke?
I wasn't following too close on Instagram, but I think
I saw.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
Do you think I pay attention to these people's lives
in the personal capacity whatsoever.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
He's got a thriving pickle business.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
Yes, yes, dude. Pickles are so gross. People don't realize
they're cucumbers in disguise. I mean, wake ups.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Let me tell you.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
Let's play find the pickle. All right, Let's go to
topic number two, and it is all things PFL. They
had a semi finals in two divisions Thursday night in Nashville.
They were not in a Universal Studios APEX like venue.
It seemed to be an okay, lower bowl and a
small venue. It felt good to see in that regard,
and it also coincides with all different kinds of PFL news,

(53:42):
both good and extremely disturbing. But Luke to kick things
off here. Despite the eleven PM Eastern main card start,
are you kidding me? Here?

Speaker 7 (53:52):
Don?

Speaker 2 (53:52):
With two ends decent action in the main event, that
Gene advances to the welcherweight finals with a really hard
fought split decision over the ass kicking machine Jason Jackson.
He'll take on Logan Storly come August first, as Story
took a grapple heavy decision from Masayuki Kakori. Those will

(54:13):
go down this summer. Is this the best final pairing
so far in your eyes? After what we saw on
Thursday night? Because that Jene Logan story. Okay, I'm in
I didn't think that Gene would win this.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
I I that Jean dropped Jason Jackson in the first round. Dude,
Jason Jackson was.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
The damn jab with a damn jab. Dude.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
You know this was interesting about Jason Jackson because I
watched this fight live last night. He was wrestling like
it was pebby lapew. Do you remember this where he's
like trying to get the cat, and the cat is
like trying to just constantly push him on, and he's
just constantly trying to find another way to like resecure
the hug. You know, That's what it felt like to me,
because he was just hanging on for dear life. It
looked like Peppy Lapu trying to wrestle a cat. Uh.

(54:54):
It didn't look that way to you, looked that way
to me. It was kind of funny. But dude, that Jean. Listen.
The tournament system, it's not like there are no benefits
to it. Occasionally someone breaks out in a tournament and
they look great. That Gene is exactly that guy that
brooke them off win he was not supposed to get,
and probably this Jason Jackson when he was not supposed

(55:16):
to get. And now he takes on logan story, who
you know, is not necessarily turning in the most interesting fights.
But he is a winner. He is very good, and.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
To be honest, since his split decision loss to be
to Amasov for the belt or title way back or
the interim title or whatever, and from that point forward,
I don't think he's improved at all. Like he's the
same exact fighter like he can win certain fights. He's
lost fights he probably should have won. He's still incomplete.

(55:46):
He's tough as nails, and he probably tears up a
saloon on Friday nights in South Dakota. But do you
get what I'm saying. Look, I thought there was gonna
be a big evolution coming to like his striking that
I've that I haven't seen yet.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
There was for a time, like up through the Adam
Borich fight and stuff like that too, But I feel
like now he's just kind of in win mode and
there's really not much else to say about it. Oh
who's this this Reggie?

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Reggie? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's back. He's back. I didn't
pin the door down today.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
So I say, I love the fight between that Jean
and Logan story. I think it's going to be great.
And also, dude, Jesu's Pinato arguably the best fighter ever
out of Peru. What a revelation he is running over
Brago last night. And you know, Movid Habalayev is not
going to be an easy fight for anyone. But these
are good finals. These are good finals between good talented fighters.

(56:41):
And in the case of Gene, he's still undefeated and
I think very tested to a degree, but certainly not
like Logan Storley, who's more than twenty fights into his
career at this point. Fun fun, you know, it's it's
kind of a like striker versus It's not quite right,
but it's something of striker versus smothering rappler in both
cases won and story in the other. So you really

(57:05):
just kind of wonder what Panato and Gene have in
store or to deal with this. A tough fight in
any direction, but you know, listen, you can't say you
got bad finals out of these welter waits and featherweight
no good.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
I mean, hazus Pinato. He needed seventy six seconds to
knock out Braga, and he put together a pretty gnarly
combination of punches.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
I say something about that. I met a guy when
I called xFC in Iowa, Sayid Yokuba Kokromanov, and he
went like two in one in the UFC, and the
one fight he lost was when he was in Uzbekistan.
They called him on short notice to fight, said never
go madev and he gave Sayid a bit of a

(57:47):
tough fight at first. Obviously, you know he lost in
the end, but he won the other two and I
think submitted one of the guys in the one of
the ones he won, like he's a very good fighter,
and they just let him go, you know. And here's
the case of Hazus Pinato, what one in one in
the UFC, very very young. They let him go, and
I don't think that that was mean. Listen, Prospecting is
a tough, tough challenge. It's hard to know exactly who's

(58:11):
going to break out. So it's not like I'm saying
these were obvious calls. They were not necessarily obvious calls.
But in the end they let Panato go and he
has turned out to be quite good. I would say
a top ten featherweight in the world. You know, you'd
be surprised sometimes who can really round the corner. I
think Pinato has done that.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
PFL finals in both the welterweight and featherweight divisions will
be August first. I believe it's all the fun, right,
the championship of all on the sound.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
So they're actually splitting them up this year across three cards,
so those two are August first.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Hey, PFL, you never know, Luke. They make a lot
of changes and we gave them credit for all the
changes in the past week and a half, whether it
be the twenty five dollars tickets, the new PFL app
which will house live streams of all the international cards,
and getting out of the apexes. But it hasn't all
been perfect wives for Don and company. When Don welcomed

(59:03):
famous actor and good friend also accused rapist Russell Brand
to the PFL Nashville proceedings, Brand was on camera. I
didn't watch the full broadcast. I piecemealed the fights this morning,
so I don't know if he was featured or interviewed Luke,
but he did appear on camera, and we got another
video to show that PFL social put out of him

(59:24):
and Don chopping it up Luke. Is this we're told?
We're told officially here that it was just a guest spot.
He's not a he's not doing business with PFL. But
two weeks ago he was facing trial for some shit.
It's kind of in cancel mode if you believe in that.
Is this a PFL not being self aware? What are

(59:46):
we doing here? I mean, can we get the Day
Brothers next? Please? I guess it's what MMA Promotions do, right.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
I know, It's like, dude, I don't want to hear
any and MMA fans will say they don't care. But
then when you insult the sport, or when they hear
insults about the sport, they get bitter, so they obviously care. Dude, Nobody,
nobody has a right to complain about the rotten reputation
that MMA has. More broadly, sorry, it's it's well deserved,

(01:00:13):
it's earned, It's earned in every possible way. There's nobody
they won't say no to. And listen. I don't know
if Brand will exonerate himself be se but just as
like a basic move of understanding how things work in
the world, if someone has just recently, to your point
weeks old, been uh charged with serious crimes at a

(01:00:34):
bare minimum, just put it on the back burner, right
at a bare minimum. And even if this guy is
there in a friendly capacity, they're still putting out, you know,
social media assets related to this that seem, you know,
just totally inadvisable. And I know there's a bunch of
people that are like, you know, he's been charged and
not accused of anything. Dude, I've I've I've met a
lot of people I don't I've never been friends with

(01:00:54):
anybody who's ever been charged with a crime like this,
you know, And I was in the fucking Marine Corps. Like,
what are we fucking talking about here? This is you know,
this is absolutely insane. Like there's people here who don't
believe in anything. They don't have any principles, they don't
have any standards. They only believe in here's my tribe,
here's theirs. As long as you're in this one, it

(01:01:15):
doesn't really matter who you are and what you've done,
we don't really care. It's the saddest, most pathetic way
to go through life. And I'll say one more thing
about it to BC. Dude. It used to be the
case for much of my career that we could tell people, Oh,
you don't know enough about MMA, Right, the more you
might learn, the more you will find that it's actually

(01:01:37):
not what you thought. It is actually much more scientific
of a style of fighting. And these guys are great athletes,
Like you have this bad view of MMA because you
don't know enough about it. And now we're in a
place where the more you learn about MMA, actually the
worse it looks. Right, the more you look under the hood,
the more horrendous. It appears every terrible thing that people

(01:02:02):
say about this sport on the outside is one thousand
percent deserved. We earned it because we can't say no
to dirtbags. So congratulations everyone, Welcome to the hell you
have brought us to.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Welcome to morning combat, brought to you by some shitcoin. Okay,
I mean we're prepared. We're close to that, by the way,
but no we're not. We got great we got great sponsors.
But yeah, Luke, we're in that era. I'm not surprised.
Mother effort. It's comical in a way, it's gross, it's whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Here's did Don Davis see the Tates at Power Slap
and he was like, I gotta get in on that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
I got it, Yeah, I got I got a friend.
I gotta come one up you. I got a friend.
Let me make a phone call. But Luke, here's an
actual PFL development that I want to get your take on.
If we're just being oh, Don made this decision, it's
probably the bad one. So a tweet came out from
the PFL announcing that a lightweight title eliminator between Mansaur
Bernari and Archie Colgan has been added to the twenty

(01:03:02):
twenty five PFL World Tournament six event on June twentieth
in Wichita and airlive on ESPN. The winner of that
fight will be granted a fight against undefeated one hundred
and fifty five pound Champions Series title holder Usman Normagametov,
who we all felt like the promotion was building against

(01:03:24):
for this big rematch against Paul Hughes, maybe the fight
of the year earlier this year. And then we saw
Paul Hughes headline that PFL card in Belfast that looked
like it was calling crazy. He's calling out Usmann afterwards,
and then you top it off, PFL puts out that tweet.
Here's the response reply from Paul Hughes of hey, quit

(01:03:45):
with the rage bait. And now we also have reports
from Hughes that he was texting Usman dermaga Metov being like,
what the frick? What are we gonna do this rematch
or what? And the quote from Hughes was, I texted
him myself last week and I was just like, what's
going on? Rematch now? And Usman said, you have to
win one more fight, brother, And then Paul would go

(01:04:05):
on to say he's trying to delay this Luke, we
got a lot of issues with PFL from a brand
presentation of who are the champions? Are they the PFL champions?
Are they this champion? Like it's so crazy? Are they
just muddying the waters by not making this fight now
when this could be their identity Hughes and Usmann and
the rivalry they have.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
But bro if in defensive PFL, if I may if
Nimagamedov doesn't want it, they can't make him do it.
So what are you proposing? Exactly?

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
Is this? So you're saying the only reason why they
put out this tweet and made this change and are
announcing now that the lightweight title eliminator a bout will
produce the next title contender is because Usman said, no,
I don't want the rematch I want.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
That's exactly what I'm I mean. They may have planned
on that all along, you know. I don't want to
suggest that it's only because of that, But what I
am saying is Usman has clearly said to them I
don't want this fight. So what are you supposed to do?

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
John Joneses repeatedly said he doesn't want the SPN all fights,
So what are they supposed to do? Oh? I know,
wait till they announced their next TV deal, then suddenly
that fight will happen. You know. Yeah, I mean that
that's what John keeps saying. He just said it again
on social media recently. The UFC knows my plans, you
need to wait for them to announce it. Maybe that
means they've already agreed to it, Luke, would.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
Be great, would be great. I'll talk about it when
we have those plan when we have those plans confirmed
one way or the other. But I'm just saying, you know,
people are like, oh, what should the the pfle should
make this fight? If Ousman says no, they can't make him. Oh,
give him a bunch of money. But then you know,
that's like robbing Peter to pay Paul to a degree
with a promotion that I think it needs to be
more diligent about its finances. It's a tough spot for them.

(01:05:53):
I mean I think that they I've been very clear
that I think the way in which they arrange their
product hamstrings them. And this is part of that problem too.
It's not utterly one or the other, but on some level, dude,
I've talked to matchmakers and they they have repeatedly stressed
to me over the years, you would not believe how
many fights that they wanted to get made and they
just couldn't because one guy just didn't want it and
they can't make it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
But it's not Look, it's not a universally accepted rule though,
that if a fighter says no that they're in MMA
where they have most control, anyone could ever imagine because
of the monstopsony and their own league, that they'll be
fine with it. Wasn't Germaine Derandamy stripped for refusing to
defend against Chris Cyborg.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Yes, yes, or are they just not having.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Balls like I Look, I'm trying to figure out when
Usman der Maaga Medov's contract ends, and it appears that
at the beginning of this year he had said publicly
leading up to the Paul Hughes fight that he re
signed with them, and he kind of made a comment
of let's see in a year and a year and
a half, like, you know what they have for me.
So I don't think it's something where he just doesn't
want to fight hughs and he's gonna wait and walk,

(01:06:58):
you know, finish out the deal and then run to
the UFC, Although I think he will be in the
UFC at the expiration of his deal. I just feel
like this is like what they could bank their identity on.
Their identity right now outside of confusing tournaments, is what
their MMA identity. It's Dakota Ditcheva is a breakout star

(01:07:18):
and an attraction. I'm not even gonna bring up that
she had to tell Mike Bond publicly how unhappy she
was before she could get a fight. But this rivalry
should be it. I mean, maybe we're still going to
play into this rivalry and build up to it, but
I feel like twenty twenty five was a make or
break year. They need monster fights to get people to
care about their brand. Isn't that rematch however they want

(01:07:40):
to present it right live on ESPN or on a
pay per view or however it's gonna happen. Isn't that
the biggest thing they can do to get eyes and
be looked at as legitimate Or does it not matter
because the TV deals already signed and the same way
it doesn't matter for UFC right now of trying really
hard because the deal is already guaranteed.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
I do think that the way PFL thinks about their
fights is as a calendar experience, not individually this one
over that one, which I think is part of their issues.
You see, you probably make a good point that there's
more that they could be doing putting pressure on who'spin
to take the fight right. They could threaten to strip them,
they could up the pay, they could do something. You know,

(01:08:19):
who's to say, I don't know, But at the same time,
you know, oh, well, why can't the UFC do it?
But the UFC has much more flexibility, They have much
greater financial resources, they have much greater leverage. They just
have their much more powerful No, what I'm saying is
they'll they'll put you in situations as a fighter where
they have the leverage and you're really sting, right, and

(01:08:41):
you do that doing that in PFL, they're just gonna leave.
They're gonna do media tours talking to people and say
I want out.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
And then you when you'll get released like Pico exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
So the point, the point I'm trying to make is
again I'm not I'm not. I don't want to absolve
PFL from blame here in every way I think that
they all things being what they are making that rematch
makes an enormous amount of sense and they should make
every effort to do it. However, just never lose sight
of the fact that if a guy doesn't want to
do it, that's the end of the conversation. And you know,
I think they've kind of found themselves there to a degree.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Uh, quickly we all uh No Cedar reminded us that
we also have a dirty boxing to the the Mosvital
card this weekend that is filled with UFC names from
Jaira rosenstrike in the main event, uh to Alex Cassis
Luke taking on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Uh, that's the guy I was telling you about, Sayedio
kub kak Romanov.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
There you go. Cochromanov. By the way, if your last
name is Cochromanov, you you better have a big you know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
I mean, like I'll tell him that you want to
see his hog. But what I want to I just
what's kind of funny about this BC is he's I mean,
he can strike, he fought in karate combat, but he's
actually a wrestler. You know, he's just trying to stay busy.
This is what I mean. Like this dude could is
like easily go to the UFC right now and win fights. Easily.
It's just a strange moment and in fighters' lives where

(01:09:59):
they have to just take fights where they exist, and
if that means a weird kind of boxing rule set,
then that's just what you have to do.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
Luke Let's transition to topic three. How about this for
daring to be great? We talked after his most recent victory,
whether Flyway Joshua Van, despite being just twenty three years old,
whether this me and mar future hope is ready for
big time names right now? Well ready or not? He
has accepted one. Riding a four fight win streak, having

(01:10:28):
won twelve of his last thirteen. Overall, Van will make
a twenty three day turnaround when he replaces an injured
Manelkop who has a broken foot, to take the fight
against number one ranked Brandon Royval that goes down International
Fight Week UFC three seventeen, Las Vegas on June twenty eighth.
Van is seven and one in the UFC in all

(01:10:49):
eight fights have come within the last two years. So
Luke straight to the point. Number ten Joshua Van, is
he ready for the smoke that the perennial contender raw
Dog is able to bring in this very interesting fight
come i FW.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
I mean, I feel like it's too much, too soon,
But I don't know. I hate this fight because if
you were planning Josh Van's career, you wouldn't jump this
far ahead this quickly. On the other hand, BC, I
kind of love this fight because he's trying to jump
so far so quickly. Yes, And it's such a big test,

(01:11:29):
and it's such a difficult one because Rod Dog is durable,
highly experienced, you know, I would say at this point
respectably well rounded. Obviously, I think they're gonna have different skills.
Row Dogg's gonna be a little bit more of a
you know, grappler wrestler, you know, mixing it up in
the middle kind of fight versus you know, Van at
mid range, working behind the jab kind of thing. But

(01:11:49):
you know, Van is aggressive, he puts tons of combination
work together. He's going to be there to have openings.
Rod Dog is probably gonna find him. I mean, dude,
this is a very interesting fight, and I have to say,
I really appreciate that Reuval took this contest because you're
giving a shot to someone who is kind of hot
as a prospect, and now you're basically treating him as

(01:12:12):
a de facto number one contender. I mean, I'm not
saying that if he wins, he'll get the title shot.
But I'm not saying if you're not going if he
goes in there and he knocks out Rouval, well, I mean,
you know, you're doing something that like Brandon Moreno couldn't
do basically, I mean, that's insane.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
I'm sure Royval's still getting some form of a promise that, like,
because he's the number one contender, that you win this fight,
just like the same terms if you would have beaten Cop,
you're gonna get a title shot. So since he's about
that life, I would think for him, it's just I'd
rather fight this guy now early, you know, when he's
riding this win streak, when he's still just twenty three,
and if the same stakes are in play, and I'm

(01:12:48):
the raw dog and I get down like that, and
you know our guy does Luke. In fact, we got
video of Royval being like, I love me some Josh Van,
Josh Van.

Speaker 6 (01:12:59):
Yeah, it's not Fairite Flyway, it's not Louis h.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
Josh Rovo wants to make some magic hare Luke on
top of the stakes.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
Right, dude, I it's it's not the fight that I
would have picked, but it's got for fly When was
the last time Flyway had like a bunch of intriguing
fights all kind of being made.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
I mean that great, the Great four fight rivalry with
Figuredo and Moreno, But.

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
Like Josh, Van is a breath of fresh air. I
still am kind of worried that it's too much too soon,
even if he wins, because of what it could do
to his development to just get pushed so far, so fast.
And in fact, we should say there might even be
a criticism due for the UFC that because they have
these calendar demands, that they're now kind of cannibalizing their
own talent and pushing them too quickly. So I have

(01:13:54):
mixed feelings about this about BC. On the one hand,
I absolutely understand the excitement and the intrigue and just
the battle that awaits guaranteed action. On the other hand,
if Rouville loses, he risked a lot to get basically nothing.
And in the same event, if Van wins, that's great
for him, but I wonder what it does to his

(01:14:16):
long term development for a guy who's just twenty three
years old. But here we are, that's what's gonna happen,
Let's see.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
I mean, look, you're right about the calendar filling being
part of it, and if it blows up in their face,
then it's like, oh, did we not learn from Save's
North cub PVZ. But look, if you've got somebody that's
super game, super ambitious, super motivated and is starting to
pick off big names one by one and wants the smoke,
I mean, it reminds you of John Jones getting that

(01:14:43):
very quick turnaround against Showgun to make sure that that
pers snatcher didn't get away before brutally defeating a legend.
And suddenly he's that guy. Right now, he's that guy.
That's what Josh Fann has an opportunity to do. Luke
in Vegas believe this is going to be a real fight.
Minus one twenty five on DraftKings is the raw dog favorite,

(01:15:06):
plus one oh five for Josh fan Now. Van was
on the Aerial Hawani show immediately after this announcement, and Luke,
he had a big reveal. You beat Roy Vall, you
fight for the damn title. Let's hear the kid for there's.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
A strong case to be made. You win this fight.
You're the number one contender.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Do you think that's the case.

Speaker 8 (01:15:25):
Yeah, for sure, win this fight. I'm the number one.

Speaker 9 (01:15:29):
Have you been told this? You win this fight, you're
getting a title shot?

Speaker 8 (01:15:34):
Uh No, But like, who am I supposed to fight next?
You know what I mean? I just like if I
beat the number one guy, that I'm the number one.
So that's what I'm thinking right now.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
Yeah, I know you did.

Speaker 9 (01:15:46):
You did mention Brandon Moreno right for Noche UFC, so
he would be another big name. But I guess in
your mind, you win this fight, You're fighting the winner
of Pantosia KKF.

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 8 (01:16:00):
The only reason why I called out Moreno was because
you know, everybody in the top fifteen got a match
up and stuff like that, you know what I mean,
And it's just me and him that were left. And
he said he want to fight on the note chase,
So I want to fight in Texas, you know what
I mean. So that was that's the reason why I
call him out. But they give me a title, yeah,

(01:16:22):
I'll go for the title.

Speaker 9 (01:16:23):
You see roybal Over there ranked number one, your ranked
number ten. Shout out to him for obviously taking the fight.
Is he someone that you have been watching thinking about
fighting for the last couple of years.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
Nah.

Speaker 8 (01:16:35):
To be honest, I didn't think I was going to
fight him next, you know what I mean. But when
the opportunity come, I was like, hell, yeah, I take it.
But uh, you know what I mean, I don't really
watch fight, so but now when they call me for
this fight, you know what I mean, I want back
and watched all his fights.

Speaker 9 (01:16:53):
So oh wow, did you even know who he was?

Speaker 8 (01:16:56):
I mean, I know who he was, you know what
I mean, He's the top guys in the division and
stuff like that. But I really watch like all of
his fighting.

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
Wow, He's like, you may it's funny. Roy Vall's like
that's my favorite fighter. And then this guy's like, yeah,
I don't know his work. But Luke, I stand corrected.
He did not say the us he told him. He
was saying, if I beat the number one guy, who
else am I going to fight? In your eyes? For Van,
if he gets a fifth straight win and defeats the
number one contender, is there any reason not to give

(01:17:25):
him the winner? Or is the reason that we kind
of saw Steve Verseig just fall apart after.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
Giving exactly too much too soon? No, I don't like
the idea of giving him a title shot, even with
a dominant victory. Okay, I would like to see him
fight at least another one before doing that. I don't
think that that's gonna happen. That's not that's not what
I'm predicting. What will happen if he if he stops
Brandon Royville, but for his own sake, slowing it down
just a little bit I think would really be important.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Yeah, this is this is a big opportunity. He's going
to take it. That's wild here. This should be a
fun fight and it's almost like buried on that card too,
you know, with it with how many big title fights
you got the top. But I'm gonna be fired up
to see it. Let's move on to topic number four. Obviously,
we've been talking about this ad nauseum. We knew it
could be coming, but we really was sure which rumor

(01:18:12):
which report to believe. As far as the marriage between
TKO Boxing, now I guess it's called ZUFA Boxing and
Turkey Ala Chic Saudi Arabia. In response here to this,
Canelo Alvarez Terrence Crawford super fight September thirteenth, we now
know it will be on Netflix. Dana was telling the truth.

(01:18:33):
He's the promoter. We don't have a venue as of yet.
A boxing scene is reporting that Allegiance Stadium is being
sought out aggressively. That would of course mean moving UNLV
football out of there, but I think that's something that
can probably be done given the amount of interest and
income this will bring to the city. So Luke, given
though the inside report from the folks at the MMA

(01:18:55):
draw that it actually was some disharmony behind the scenes,
and it took the level of bringing in the closer himself,
Nick Kahn, WW president under the TKO banner, to be
like the arbiter, to get Turkey TKO and Netflix to
agree and sign and do this. This is gonna happen.
This is gonna be a big fight. There's a lot

(01:19:16):
of history at stake. What are your expectations now that
we're sort of through this soap opera of how big
this fight can be in terms of its build. They're
gonna kick off a three city global press tour in Riod,
New York and Vegas, and what are your expectations on
the Dana White, Tko Zoufa boxing side of it to

(01:19:38):
come out on opening night and announce themselves aggressively in
this boxing space.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
Can they make this work? That's not to say that
I'm not saying can they make Canelo Crawford a successful event?
I don't really have any doubt that they will. I
think that there's too much money, too many power players,
too many people who have experience in the industry doing
this at a high level for this to event to
be some kind of failure. I think it'll be a
massive success. You know what kind of fight you're gonna get.

(01:20:06):
I guess we'll see. But in terms of what they
can do to engineer interest, I think that they will
do a good job. But the way that it was
reported was that the Saudis basically want to retain control
and that Dana White will be visible. But I think
the interesting thing for me to look at BC is like,
once we see what the event actually looks like, is
it gonna look like a Dana White event which is

(01:20:27):
kind of stripped down. I mean, it's it's nice, you know,
it looks modern, it looks sleek, but it doesn't look
fanciful in the way that we typically understand pageantry. Or
is it gonna look like what the saudis like, which
they do, like pageantry, they do, like the big spectacle,
they do, like the circus almost atmosphere, which, by the way,
to be clear, I tend to prefer that as well
for big boxing contests. I think, to me, that's what

(01:20:51):
we're really gonna have to take a look at here.
You know, Dana White getting out there and doing the
media for it is promoting it in a certain way.
But with the word promoting is doing some interesting work here.
Does promoting mean I'm the guy who goes on the
Jim Rome show, I'm the guy who shows up on
ESPN first take? Or does promoting mean that? Plus, the

(01:21:13):
way in which this event will work is according to
my interests as a promoter, like that will be his
signature on the event, Like clearly he was the one
making a call. The Saudi is just writing a check
or are they writing a check with specific instructions for
how this is to look for how this is to go?
To me, that is the interesting question. And one again,

(01:21:34):
one way or the other, I'm not expecting failure nor
wishing it. In fact, we should say BC them doing
a media tour, holding the event in Vegas and putting
it on Netflix is exactly what the American boxing market
needs so desperately. A fight that is easy to access,
that has we think, pomp and circumstance, and is not

(01:21:57):
sitting behind a paywall, with big names that the public recognizes,
in about of at least some kind of consequence, and
again taking place in Las Vegas. This is exactly what
the fight game needs right now in the United States.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
There's no world where I'm in any way rooting for
anything but massive success. I guess the answer the question,
as I indicated, I'm looking to see who's actually in
the driver's seat on this one.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
I agree with you. I think that's the biggest intrigue
in soap opera. Silacious side of this is like we
can read the reports from outlets like MMA draw and
try to decide for ourselves if we believe that's how
it's broken down. If you actually care about was it
Turkey that over extended his you know, his offer there
with Netflix that things got sour or is it really

(01:22:41):
the potential of finding out that Canela ever has told
Turkey he's not gonna fight in Saudi anymore, it has
to be in the US, and that he's not a
Friday Night Fighter as the card was originally pitched to
be the Friday night of that weekend. He's a Saturday
night Fighter. It seems. If that's true, then that's Turkey
sort of bending aggressively to him. Is that the reason
why we had disconnect? I don't really know. And you know,

(01:23:04):
at the end you could say I don't care, But
to me, this is going to dictate how this relationship
will go. The UFC does not in TKO are not
involved in these type of ventures unless they have full
control and UFC has that editorially, they have that in
every possible way, but this time it's not their money.
So will this be a thing Because everyone I talked
to who's ever worked for Turkey, they're like, he's on

(01:23:26):
top of every single decision. It's his show and Luke.
We even have video now from Eddie Hearn who kind
of revealed that, like that's how it is working for Turkey.
When you're working for Turkey, you're giving up in exchange
for the money and you know, the opportunity to do
these big events. You're giving up the control and the
decision making. I don't know yet if I believe that

(01:23:48):
Dana and TKO and zoof or whatever you want to
call them, are going to be down for that or
if it's going to operate this way. Here's Eddie Hearn.
I'd like to get your response on this.

Speaker 3 (01:23:57):
Would you have liked to have been the promoter of
this fight?

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (01:24:00):
Yeah, of course, I mean who wouldn't. I mean, it's
a fantastic fire, but I don't think but the reality
is is the promoter of this fire, he's turkular shake.
You know, it doesn't matter when you know, when whenever
there's a read season event or a ring magazine event,
all the decisions are made from his excetency. I've been involved,

(01:24:25):
you know, and you actually don't really get much of
an opportunity to make any decisions because he makes them
all for you, you know, everything down to the design
of the promo, to the on sale ticket dates, to
the venue deal. I mean that they're financially bank roll
in the event, so they're going to be making all
the decisions. I think it's a good look to have
Dana doing it. I mean, you know, you're not really

(01:24:50):
you know, you're kind of you You're a guest promoter,
and that's really what a lot of us are when
we do read season or ring magazine events. So should
I be doing it?

Speaker 1 (01:25:02):
Not really.

Speaker 7 (01:25:02):
I mean I think Dane's got a much bigger profile
than me in America, so I get the move. I
wouldn't be able to do it anyway because I'm exclusive
to design and obviously the fights on Netflix. But no,
I think he's a pretty pretty cool movere. I think
he's good for boxing, you know. I think, as I

(01:25:23):
said to you before, Dane's making a move into boxing
for a reason.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
Right. Look, there we go on to some lengthy stuff
there in his appearance on his own's Ariel and Ada show.
But what do you make from the standpoint of who
is stamping those decisions? At the end of the day,
can this relationship work if it's set up the way
Eddie just described.

Speaker 1 (01:25:45):
I mean, Nick con already worked a bit of a
I don't know if miracle is the word, but certainly
some careful surgery to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
And by the way, he had just done that in
the re signing of ww's Our Truth and his surprise
appearance at the pay per view last weekend. The report
was that it took after Our Truth turned down multiple
offers from WWTKO to resign because they realized they had
done him wrong. It took Nick Con on that too, Luke,
So is it like, is Nick con the bandy that
needs to be there at all times?

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
I mean, he's a valuable contributor to the operation. Here's
where I come down on this PC. People have asked me, like,
can this relationship between TKO and Saudi Arabia ultimately work?
Because Netflix is here? But you know, who knows how
long they're going to be along for the ride. On
the one hand, their relationship makes total sense, right, huge

(01:26:39):
money meets huge corporation with tons of ties like dominates
the fight business. Like, of course that relationship makes sense, right,
unlimited wealth plus essentially unlimited not quite but unlimited power.
That makes sense. On the other hand, like it just
seems destined for failure too, right on, Like you've got
someone with unlimited power that wants all the control versus

(01:27:01):
people who have enjoyed all the control themselves. They may
not have access to that same kind of capital, but
they're certainly well capitalized. They're used to calling the shots
and they're used to having decisions. How long can this
relationship actually sustain again. I think Kennel versus Crawford is
going to be a success no matter what, and probably
a huge one at that. But I guess I'm a
little bit unsure of the long term of what kind

(01:27:24):
of fruit this partnership can actually bear when there are,
again which that seems inevitable, disagreements over who gets say
and what matters and what goes. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:27:34):
Yeah, no, I think it's a big topic to follow,
and anyone's smart enough to remember, you'll say no BC.
We have seen the UFC be the coal pilot before
in something like this, and that would be obviously Mayweather McGregor,
but that was on boxing's terms and UFC wasn't happy
with their co pilot spot and complain the whole time
about every showtime decision. There was a lot of back

(01:27:56):
and forth behind the scenes between the two sides, and
I think it fueled even further day to going if
I'm doing something like this, you know, and I'm putting
my name on it, I'm going to be in control.
So we'll see how that goes. The current Draftking odds
for this fight ore Canel Lavareze as your minus one
eighty five favorite Crawford is only a plus one fifty underdog,

(01:28:17):
and it's I mean, it helps that Canelo is coming
off that awful fight with Williams School. I think that
brought a lot of people back in on the Yeah,
maybe Crawford really does have a chance. I do believe
Crawford has a chance, but we can't look away on
the chance. The same chance he has to get bodied
and just finding out that this is too big. But
then again, that's part of the reason why we are
going to tune in and now, Luke, if we're talking

(01:28:40):
from a standpoint of any shots being fired here, how
about Turkey Alishic this week being very aggressive in coming
out and sending a message on social media to all
future READD season and Ring magazine card fighters so that
we don't have a repeat. You would think of that
weekend March or May second in Time Square with the
low CompuBox historic numbers there, and then Canelo that next

(01:29:03):
night shots fired brought to you by Cuervo. You already
know now's a good time to enjoy the tequila that
invented tequila. Let's hear it, shots fired And here is
the tweet in question. From this point on, I don't

(01:29:23):
want to see any more Tom and Jerry type boxing
matches where one fighter is running around the ring and
the other is chasing him. We can no longer support
these kind of fights with riances and in the ring.
We want to support fighters who leave it all in
the ring and fight with heart and pride. Now, look,
I'm not saying I disagree with that, or that any
of us disagree with that. Do you think that that

(01:29:45):
stern warning is going to be enough to induce the
type of action we feel like, you know, we deserve
for the money, you know, pay per view prices and
the money that these guys are being paid.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
With Canelo Crawford or do you mean like.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
In general general? No, that's a he sent into the boxing.

Speaker 1 (01:30:01):
Yeah, so what I mean, guys are going to win
the way they know how to win. You know, That's
just what it's going to be. I don't think it's
gonna make much of a difference. But I mean the
reality is, you know, he who pays the piper, calls
the tune, this is what he wants, this is what
he's asking for, this is what he's demanding. I don't
think it's gonna make much of it. I mean, that
makes some difference. I suppose maybe on the margins, but

(01:30:21):
it's like, you know what, an edict over Twitter and
then saying something to someone in person, just one of
these Saudi Arabian purses is enough for some of these
guys to be like content with their situation or they're
always going to have some kind of excuse about why
they had to fight a certain way. I just you
have to change the incentive structure in a real way,
not in a like a threatening way to get what

(01:30:43):
you want out of these guys. It just doesn't work
that way, especially when they're already well capitalized. It's not
like people who need to get the you know, the
rent money so that you know, their lights don't get
turned off or something. You know. I'm skeptical that it
actually works, but you know this is what you're gonna get.
I mean again, Boxing has decided to go all in
on a religious monarchy dictatorship.

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
Well, there's people saying this is kind of coincides perfectly
with the with either the tkophization of boxing, which they're
attempting to do, or maybe just the Dana White influence.
Isn't that a very data move to to incentify action
like that. We've seen it, you know, countlessly in UFC.

Speaker 1 (01:31:23):
Yeah, but there's not a ton of evidence that it
actually works.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
That's the hall I agree with you. But it kind
of feels like it's a data type move in a
lot of ways in their part.

Speaker 1 (01:31:31):
Yeah, I mean again it's dictatorial, which it's to be clear,
it's not like I even disagree with like what he's
asking for in a sense of is what he's asking
for desirable? If it worked? I mean, who would argue otherwise?
What you want to see boring fights? Nobody wants to
see boring fights. But it's a question of, like, you know,
the promoter and what they want out of this, And
it's not a question of are they asking for something

(01:31:53):
that is desired by fans in this case, the question
is if you're making these kinds of edict in public,
imagine what they're doing in private. Right, that's sort of
the issue. Imagine the heavy handedness that comes with doing business.
But Boxing appears to want the paycheck and are happy
to do business with people who make outrageous demands. So
you know, this is the bed they have made time

(01:32:14):
to lay in.

Speaker 2 (01:32:14):
It Somewhat related to this, on the idea of Turkey
being very Dana like. Of late is the way that
Tayo Fema Lopez Devin Hainey fight seemed to get announced
and then fall apart and everyone blamed Tao. Here was
him on a recent podcast sit down where interesting comments
about how that fell apart.

Speaker 10 (01:32:34):
I think I'm a publicly announcer right now, okay, and
this is not talking bad on Turkey, Alashi, It is
not talking bad on any of the guys that was
part of the deal. However, However, listen, I don't mind

(01:32:54):
finding anyone they put in front of me. However, I
am a prize fighter. I am a person that is
about principles.

Speaker 1 (01:33:05):
Sella and I.

Speaker 10 (01:33:08):
We signed fight two and three contract with X amount
of dollars, and when it came to before we actually
signed a fight with Barbosa, my team and I and
my lawyers, we all came to an agreement for fight
two and three being signed before we did fight one.

Speaker 1 (01:33:31):
Okay, now.

Speaker 10 (01:33:36):
With that being shut, we successfully did fight one, which
was against Barbosa.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
Fight two includes in.

Speaker 10 (01:33:45):
Our groupe, Jeran Boots Ennis or any other fighter that
is in that high calibrated level, meaning could be any.

Speaker 3 (01:33:59):
Rolando Romero, anyone that you guys.

Speaker 10 (01:34:01):
Want to see us face against. That was Fight Too,
that was signed and sealed with X amount of dollars
that I will not express here. There's none of your
damn business. When we came to Fight Too, they seller

(01:34:22):
and and and Riadd and all this said, we're not
gonna pay you what we agreed on.

Speaker 1 (01:34:30):
For audis, so they haven't.

Speaker 10 (01:34:34):
And the fact that they publicly announced the fight before
I even signed the damn deal, Like, couldn't they just wait?

Speaker 1 (01:34:44):
I felt like part of me feels like.

Speaker 10 (01:34:48):
I I got kind of like jobbed in the sense
of like, was the Boost fight even something that was
happening or not?

Speaker 2 (01:34:59):
Luke, it was like, thank you there and yet to
hear some chewing while he's speaking. But on that I
look like an IG live stream, not a podcast either way,
announcing a fight that's not signed for that seems uh,
we've seen that before. On the N side. Do you
believe him? Is he a valid voice in this space?
Are we seeing signs of discontent or is this just

(01:35:21):
obvious that the purse is tightening now from the original
rollout of the past year and a half of riadd season,
and that we're ready to merge with with TKO and
UFC here. So is it more of that in your eyes?

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
I'm just amazed he was able to get through a
few minutes without the N word. I'm really just kind
of a blown away. That was an incredible restraint on
his part. Yeah. I mean, this is the Saudi plan, right.
You just show up and you spray a bunch of
money at first, and you don't make a lot of
demands about it, and everyone kind of loves it. And
then slowly, over time the demands start increasing, and then

(01:35:58):
slowly over time the expectations aren't increasing, and then slowly
over time the control starts to tighten and some of
the games start to go off. This is their plan.
They show up and everyone's like, oh, they treat them
like avuncular figures showing up on Christmas Day with presents
for all of their nit nieces and nephews. But it
all comes at a cost. There's no such thing as
a free lunch. This is where we're at now. So

(01:36:18):
I believe what he's saying. I believe him. I believe
what he is telling. I believe that they are announcing
stuff without it being signed, and I believe that there
might be playing games about some belt tightening, although obviously
their purses are still going to be, you know, higher
than what you would normally get. But again, you know,
it's not like they weren't warned. Hey, I don't know
if it's a great idea to do business with a
religious dictatorial monarchy, but they didn't listen.

Speaker 2 (01:36:41):
So enjoy it all, right, zofa boxing coming to a
theater near you. No, this is the big launch though,
We'll see how this fight goes, Louke. Topic number five.
Interesting potential trend here that you put on my radar.
Pfl's Logan Storley, who, of course last night advanced to
the welterweight final on August first, is saying he believes
the nil money available to college athletes, and in particular

(01:37:05):
college wrestlers, is so much that it's actually preventing potential
college wrestling stars from making that transition to MMA, which
has been such a fruitful pipeline in this sports history. Luke,
he gave an interview with MMA Fighting where he went
on to elaborate further. But what are your thoughts on this?

Speaker 1 (01:37:29):
This to me seems like it might be a big
problem people have rightly noted that the bang you got
for your buck by getting a wrestler out of college
and putting him to MMA has declined relative to what
it was circum Matt Hughes, two time All American, you know,
never won a national title, but obviously was very very

(01:37:50):
good and a huge figure in that welterweight division. And
really MMA at the time like what it meant to
have a premier athlete with that particular skill set come over.
That is true. The level of what you get, or
the amount of what you get by just taking a
good elite wrestler out of college and put in MMA
has declined. That part is true. However, you know the

(01:38:11):
factors that put them there, which is that you know,
unless you can make an Olympic or world team, basically
your career prospects were done after college. And again in
a world where everyone was a student athlete, this constrained
their options to such a degree that they had nowhere
else to go. But here comes MMA, and all of

(01:38:33):
a sudden, now you can make some money as a wrestler.
But two things have happened. One, the growth of sport
jiu jitsu has taken many of them that would ordinarily
have done this, Michael Pixley, Jason Nolf to name but
a few. I actually say three things. Two, Now you
can do like seminars and you know, tutorials that you
can sell online, and you can do some coaching, and

(01:38:54):
you can make a pretty decent coin. And now there's
this nil money. And again that's not going to affect
like every there's still going to be wrestlers who don't
make a lot, who don't have a lot of career prospects,
who are still very very good, who might be interested
in MMA. It's not like you're completely shutting off the valve.
But bc part of the reason why EMMA was able
to sell itself for a time was not just because

(01:39:14):
you could say, hey, these guys have college degrees. That
was part of it, but you could talk about their
athletic pedigree and where they came from, and people intuitively
understood this, and more to the point, it was just
feeding the ranks of who was there all the way
from heavyweight down to you know, you name it, virtually
anyway class below it. And now I mean, ask yourself

(01:39:35):
what it means to have this pipeline not again, not
completely shut off, but to be severely diminished. I'm not
saying it's the UFC's fault because they didn't pay enough,
and you know I should say that I don't think
that that helps, Like that clearly doesn't help. But the
point I'm trying to make is who can solve this problem?
Because it's a much bigger problem than just the UFC's.

(01:40:00):
It's a I would argue, something of a global problem
because there's also a broader set of circumstances. You could
get guys like Fabricio Verdom and Josh Barnett and Frank
Meir and you name it to compete at a time
when the prizes weren't necessarily as high because it was
still this new, coveted thing that would attract people who
would make that trade off. But now you're not getting

(01:40:21):
as many people of that athletic caliber or interest to
make that trade off. And then on top of it,
you're adding these issues about what wrestlers can now have
options with either nil or submission grappling and or coaching
and tutorials online in between. So you've got a global
and at least and in particular a domestic supply problem. Well,

(01:40:44):
how do you fix that? It's not gonna I mean
if if to an extent, To an extent, the UFC
has been able and all promotions, but obviously we talk
about UFC because of the flag bear. They've been able
to just receive the sport as it is. There was
enough homegrown things happening, there were enough mechanisms in play
that put the wind at the UFC's back. But just

(01:41:06):
taking heavyweight BC, the wind is no longer at their back.
Even with the growth of the sport globally, it seems
to me that like somebody, some kind of entity is
going to have to change or go on a recruiting
spree or do something to make sure that we have
a consistent level of talent available in order to make

(01:41:27):
this sport work the way that it once did. And
I wouldn't. I recognize that what wrestlers brought is not
the same as what it meant ten or fifteen years ago,
but it's still pretty valuable and it's still pretty important.
To lose that is not a good thing, no, And.

Speaker 2 (01:41:44):
I agree with you that it's not you know, one
person or one entity's fault, that it's the result of
bringing in so much change, and a lot of the
change was necessary, but collegiate athletes have leverage and rights now,
and you know, and get paid and can transfer through
the portal seemingly at will. So it's a different time
in that regard. Interesting from Storly in particular, in talking

(01:42:06):
to MMA fighting, he says he's a lot of the
top guys are making, meaning collegiate wrestlers between a million
and a million and a half with their NIL endorsement deals,
so it's changing the way the top recruits look at it.
His specific quote was, I think the landscape of MMA
has changed with Contender series and less guys on the roster,
with PFL Belator being gone, It's changed a little bit.

(01:42:28):
Wrestling has some money, and there's no security in your
early career in MMA. That's just the truth of it.
The first few years are very, very tough, and I
think with guys making money over there and going into
coaching and coaching rules, you have a little more security.
More guys are just getting regular jobs and don't want
to do MMA. I think it'll be interesting the next
five years what it looks like with wrestlers coming over.

(01:42:50):
It's changing a lot, Lukes. So this is a trend
to follow. But if you can make that kind of
money and not take the punishment and not have to
be dirt hungry and living in your car, which is
a whole lot of them in make careers seem to
start off and you're already famous. It's a day. It's
gonna take the industry to if they really want these
guys to develop an incentive structure of early recruitment, you know,

(01:43:12):
and to foster that relationship. It can't be just.

Speaker 1 (01:43:15):
I also think I know no one wants to hear this.
It's a tired debate and I'm tired of having it.
But better fighter pay might fix some of this. Two.

Speaker 2 (01:43:22):
That's also two. Yeah, I agree with you on that one.
All right, those are our five topics this week. Thank
you for playing. I'm told we don't have any dead Wrong.
So look we passed the test this past week.

Speaker 1 (01:43:33):
Good to know I was right about everything.

Speaker 2 (01:43:35):
There we go. Morning Coombat at gmail dot com is
your pathway to Friday segments of Dead Wrong fan subs
or just to reach out to the show or show
Mikey your peace. But please don't, please don't do that.
Let's do a submission segment where you put up two
picks and tight T shirts of your significant others. This
one's called fan subs. You've got mail fusures viewers. We

(01:44:01):
do have. One of them is Salwool from Louisville. The
finest gutterman this side of anything. Luke Okay, he gets
it done in and out of the ring, if you
know what I mean, he says. Made the trip from
Louisville to Bowling Green, a two hour commute, for a
Buelo's eighty first birthday. My cousin Jessica made the trip
with me and we stopped at the local BUCkies on
the way down, and she drove my drunk ass all

(01:44:24):
that way back. Look, you know, Saoul is reping MK
in everything that he does in life. I love that
he gives us these little snippets of his personal life.
Shout out to Albuela, Shout out to cousin Jessica.

Speaker 1 (01:44:37):
Wa wait, go back to the picture with the cake.

Speaker 3 (01:44:39):
I was gonna say it's a bueilo.

Speaker 2 (01:44:41):
Boilo excuse me my fault.

Speaker 1 (01:44:43):
Yeah, but more than that, look at the top of
that cake that looks like either the logo for con
Mo bol. You know, Coca cap is the North American
Soccer Federation. Essentially con mabul is the one for South
America or it looks like the one for or maybe Ecuador.
I'm not I can't quite tell, but I'd be curious

(01:45:04):
to see what that logo is that's on the well.

Speaker 2 (01:45:07):
Also is also a big fan of pack my ball.
Luke can smoke it, so I'll never forget that. Who
is height of it too? Uh? Well, a dressed man?

Speaker 1 (01:45:14):
Look at these? Look at these they got taheen over
there next to the hot sauce that got the top
of teo ship. Brother, they're doing it right, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:45:20):
We should do I've always said it. Well, we don't
have the budget anymore, but we should do a WWF
in your House contest where MK, if you win, comes
to your house, does an episode from your house parties
with you right there?

Speaker 1 (01:45:33):
Let me look at me right now. I would one
thousand percent do that if somebody, if somebody wants to
make it worth our while we at a bare minimum,
iye will one thousand percent do that. I will one
thousand percent do that.

Speaker 2 (01:45:49):
And he's like, I will blow up your restroom, so.

Speaker 1 (01:45:52):
Yeah, and BC will bang your girl because that's his.

Speaker 2 (01:45:54):
Okay, here we go. Hey. Our second one comes from
King Kim bong Ill he says suppedunks made some memes
of a running joke from the main card min at
live streams thanks to Bong Island Luke's suggestions hashtag main
card memes. Yeah, what's up with that?

Speaker 3 (01:46:11):
Okay, this is a running joke back to when we
were debating in February what was better the UFC Saudi
card or UFC three twelve, and Luke was adamant that
UFC three twelve was better, even.

Speaker 1 (01:46:21):
Though everyone on paper better.

Speaker 3 (01:46:24):
So it's been a running joke in my chat that
UC Vegas one O seven, which was the Blanchefield Barber debacle,
is a Luke would argue it's a better card than
Saudi Arabia because.

Speaker 1 (01:46:33):
He I mean, I would not actually argue that, but
these are funny memes.

Speaker 2 (01:46:36):
Yeah, oh here's a BC one UFC Saudi was better
than you f C Vegas one O seven, lt says,
are you? I think?

Speaker 1 (01:46:44):
I think my favorite part about these photoshops is how
unbelievably they are.

Speaker 2 (01:46:48):
You that's the least effort ever to put a head
on and that all right, thank you, Kim bong eel
that one.

Speaker 1 (01:47:00):
Let's go now that you put that in my head,
we should do the what was the what was the
Metallica thing called MTV?

Speaker 2 (01:47:07):
It was just w w F in your house?

Speaker 1 (01:47:09):
No, no, no, don't you remember Metallica?

Speaker 2 (01:47:12):
No one because John Mellencamp played in somebody's backyard with
that same content.

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
I'm telling you, m K donks, I don't know how
you can make it worth our while. I will show
up to your house. We will do m K. We
will party, we'll hit the bong, we'll do all that
fun stuff, all on camera.

Speaker 2 (01:47:29):
First of all, we got to get Jake there with
the cameras. But also are we are we limiting it
to us or are we going to end up between
the Boss Lady and Jay Piquead in Nova Scotia. You
know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:47:40):
Like I would go to Canada. I would go to Canada.
I'm also going to take a dump upper decker style
in your house and.

Speaker 2 (01:47:48):
Then yeah, see that's that's what the actual in your
house element is. We will break your plumbing MK style. Uh,
I gotta get out here. Let's me up this Joe
m He says, Father's Day is coming up. I found
the perfect gift for BC's kids to get him. Oh
my god, that's an autographed nine to eleven Bin Lot
in Jersey that's signed by Robert O'Neill, the Navy seal

(01:48:12):
who killed Bin Laden for eighty five dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:48:15):
That is you got. You gotta wear that every September
of New York City.

Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
Dude, I get like immediately taken down if I walk
to New York City streets with that, or does it
just fit in on the crazy new ors.

Speaker 1 (01:48:26):
I don't know anymore. I can't tell.

Speaker 2 (01:48:27):
Yeah, wow, Joe, that was incredible. Also to close, Allen
w Is, the Hall of Fame contributor of this segment,
a big fan of that international man in Mystery. He says,
we got five photos here. First of them is Morning
Combats Punch Out Luke. It's I read books, Suck my balls.

Speaker 1 (01:48:46):
Thomas.

Speaker 2 (01:48:49):
Against Lil Brian.

Speaker 1 (01:48:50):
This is great, dude, you gotta send that to me.
That's unbelievable. Over the over the penis.

Speaker 3 (01:48:58):
The score in the top left and the postina, oh,
nine to eleven in the top five.

Speaker 2 (01:49:03):
Oh my god, Oh my god, no, Cina, look at
the points four twenty. Are we able to put this
on a T shirt under on under US law? Please?
Can we sell this? Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:49:13):
We should be able to.

Speaker 1 (01:49:14):
Dude, this is maybe one of my favorite fan subs
I've ever seen. That is fucking awesome with.

Speaker 2 (01:49:23):
The with the DC flag on your groin too, yeah
on the penis. Yeah, that's so good. All right. Alan
W's got one called Deep Thoughts.

Speaker 1 (01:49:32):
Deep Thoughts by Luke Thomas. Just because you don't give
up doesn't mean you will make it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:37):
Look at that garish robe you were too, Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:49:41):
And the loafers. I would never wear loafers like that,
but it absolutely works for the picture.

Speaker 2 (01:49:45):
We got a youth basketball camp is our next one?
Eric Campbell's youth basketball camp in School of Discipline. Yes,
for those hardcorees that hit that listens to the BC ramble.
That's what I do to my kids on the driveway.
I play dirty, I play I talk trash.

Speaker 1 (01:50:01):
Yeah, we got to do a tournament, you versus like
a series of eleven and twelve year olds and then yeah,
they lower the hoops so you can dunk on them.

Speaker 2 (01:50:07):
Oh d that'd be so good Scalabrini style to show
up at your driveway and just ruin your kids, that'd
be great. Yeah, and then probably take your significant other home. Yeah, well,
there you go. We also have a scooter rentals.

Speaker 1 (01:50:22):
Bangkok scooter rentals.

Speaker 2 (01:50:24):
Oh please, could this be a T shirt? I mean, seriously,
if we made this a shirt, how many would we sell?
Am I wrong?

Speaker 1 (01:50:31):
Is it like all of them?

Speaker 3 (01:50:33):
We can't use John Jones likeness like that, But maybe
if we like blur out his face or something, we
could still that you could imply it's John.

Speaker 2 (01:50:41):
Do you think we'd sell five hundred of those?

Speaker 1 (01:50:45):
They should have spelled Bangkok CEOs yes, k, but you
know other way either way, I mean, what are you
employing here?

Speaker 2 (01:50:52):
Let's go to the final one. He says they are
degenerate on the ground. Now they have wings. It's dunk
air Luke, you're uh, you are the what's that guy's name?
The uh, the actor that plays the guy the ball
guy in that movie, John Malkovich.

Speaker 1 (01:51:09):
That's John Malkovich.

Speaker 2 (01:51:10):
Yeah, I'm Nicholas Cage in the middle with the hair.
And there's no Cina. Oh that's so good.

Speaker 1 (01:51:16):
So is no Cita sack?

Speaker 2 (01:51:19):
Yes, okay, yes he is great. Wow, that is great.
Alan w thank you, thank you so much for your.

Speaker 1 (01:51:25):
Artistic that Mike Tyson's punch out one is put it
up one more time. Put the Mike Tyson's punch, the
nine to eleven, the four to twenty, the two O two.
By the way, on round one, two O two is
the area code here for phone numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:51:38):
Oh wow, that's a deep dive right there.

Speaker 1 (01:51:40):
Dude, that is absolutely first fucking And also look at
your face on the bottom right hand corner. Yeah, that's
your that's your rapist face. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:51:49):
Oh hey, go wow. We can call it. We can
call it my French Canadian face movie. All right, I
gotta go. I gotta get out here. Fantastic stuff Morning
Coombat at gmail dot com. Like in someubscribe. Here are
our handles if you if you're ready to handle them,
Morningcombat dot shop. Luke. Luke Mosita is a great guy.
Follow his show The Main Card Minute as well, Luke Thomas.

Speaker 1 (01:52:09):
Anything else, No, I might do a live stream this
weekend for Buckley and Usman, So follow dot com Thomas.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
There you go. Check out the substack as well. I
got to s ratch that Kyle Koulinski interview. Luke, find
out what's going I just put it up this morning.
Well done, right there? All right, that's it. We out
of here. Uh, let's get it done. I don't know.
I gotta go, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:52:30):
There you go.

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