welcome class do you guys know the theme of the book The theme is the NFL and CBS
streams live on Paramount plus that’s not the theme of the book Josh hi class that’s Josh Allen but Tony meant to say
was the NFL on CBS streams live on Paramount plus that’s exactly what he just said what this has to do with
English Lit because the NFL on CBS streaming live on Paramount plus is lit
feels good to make a difference Tony
I Want To Make History that’s why I’m here when you want to win something this big
you gotta risk it all but I’m ready and I prepare myself for a different kind of fight my whole career
has been about Jason Canelo Undisputed versus on disputed
[Music]
look at us now tip to tip this is our life this is our passion that’s the
spirit we bring to this show I’m Luke Thomas I’m Brian Campbell this is morning combat
oh yeah I mean get it right grab it two hands right bite down it’s morning combat back in your face hole Wednesday
September 13 2023 we win the awards for this you know go figure Brian Campbell
with you the BBC with that bde that beige guy that has 1980s hair right now
I mean look I am just wow I’m looking like a 100 bucks at least uh next to me
though is the best damn Sports combat analyst that they have here uh he’s from DC it’s Luke Thomas Luke get fired up
all right hey people write me a lot saying they want me to stop wearing this shirt and I want them to know I’m not
gonna well you are on like a four and a half shirt rotation for Mk yes that is
true uh because I’m on a four and a half row shirt rotation in my life well that’s middle I well that’s hot right
now minimalizing seriously like getting down to like just the bare bones if you don’t love it get rid of it you know that it’s comfortable it’s uh I like it
so you guys can keep writing me if you want but I’m just gonna keep wearing it eat [ __ ] I love you okay all right Luke
I wish you had the same standards for other things but we’ll stick by that uh we got a great show for you today you
know we’re gonna bang that drum for Noche UFC this weekend and of course the women’s flyweight title rematch so much
to talk about in terms of trying to figure out is Valentina part of Luke’s favorite stat club or not right we’re
gonna see that there in the immediate rematch we’re gonna also touch on the uh the full bloom of TKO the unity between
WWF UFC and Endeavor and what we saw yesterday what we heard and what that
might mean also going to look back it’s been five years since 2018 right Connor versus Habib how much has
the organization changed who’s still standing from those days just five years
ago and look at your fan Subs but Luke it is uh merch says and I don’t really have any on me Beyond this fantastic mug
but this Average Joe thing seems to be blown up in terms of collaborations right this is like I don’t know like
that time Pearl Jam and Neil Young got together to do that that record in the 90s right like like I said it’s the
Judgment Night soundtrack right oh it’s the Judgment Night soundtrack which was one of the first forays into like
hip-hop and metal putting being put together um yeah so you know what my daughter
loves loves these shirts but in particular she likes the uh the like the
ninja turtle one yes yes and she told me she’s like she’s like poppy you look like Raphael and I was like yeah I do
dude you’re a hero that’s fantastic that’s like a wholesome moment there in the end until she’s a teenager and then she hates my guts but for right now I’m
killing it I’m killing yeah my dad says you have until 12 Luke and then it’s all over and it’s all over that’s what I’ve heard that’s what I’ve heard at 12. they
took a turn and then you’re cooked and you and it may not come back for like 15 to 20 years you know that’s why that’s why I have sons Luke you know worked out
better I guess in that regard but then again if I had somebody as cute as Tookie Luke I would be giving her the keys to the car and say I would never
discipline once I don’t know how you discipline a uh an angel like that you know what I’m saying How Do You Talk to
an angel how do you hold her close this is my wheelhouse there right that’s
the heights of getting me excited that’s great I love to hear that uh don’t forget also if you want to vote for us it’s up to you guys you guys have made
us right how about for the third straight year World MMA Awards we’re going for it for the three-peat not one
not two you can scan that QR code right now or go to world MMA awards.com uh
friend of the program Aaron bronsted are trying to make her The Impossible journey to unsee Ariel hawani from I’m a
journalist of the year uh My Heart Will Go On whether we win or not Luke but I’d really love to win this again I’d love
to it’s been you know it’s been a it’s been a weird year it’s been like a great year in boxing it’s been a weird year in MMA
you know we’re all navigating our own walks and ups and downs but if we could come out of this pile of mud or puddle
of Mud if you want to get 90s 2000 Rock and carry that flag one more time this will be like what Valentine is trying to
do I get knocked down but I get up again right this is a tub Thumper yeah listen we started the year strong with the
February show in London and then I think this award ceremony will be in December so we might be able to both start and
end the year strong despite it being one of the weirdest years uh in my career so absolutely yeah all right all right Luke
are you sleeping any better can can we give the people an update on that uh okay so it’s funny you asked that so last night uh Violetta crawled into uh
the you know parents bed because she just didn’t want to sleep in her bed anymore and then you know it was
everyone was kung fu fighting in that [ __ ] because she’s just you know kicking and everything else and turning but but that aside the Sleep has
improved dramatically dramatically better um so I’m on some sleep meds not you not
anything with Unisom in it but um they’re working and uh I’m even able
like last night I went to bed and then didn’t get up until the alarm went off and that hasn’t happened in a long time
except for maybe a little bit of vacation but in general at home it’s much much improved I am very happy to
report happy to hear that as a friend but as a co-host and part of this weird MK family does this mean a happier Luke
in the future uh well I mean I’m sort of existentially just you know mad at myself and
everything else but a better slept one will be easier to get along with I’ll put it that way there it is and also of
course uh the label that pays a Showtime you can get 30 days free right now by going to showtime.com I hope everybody
is checked out the first episode of all access Canelo versus Charlo of course the pay-per-view is September 30th
Showtime pay-per-view on distributed versus Undisputed but look they pulled our voice in that all access Am I Wrong
somebody they pulled yours did they pull mine oh I hope they did but uh yeah they
pulled mine when I did that that’s when I did that last show on August 12th here in Oxon Hill the MGM National Harbor
when I was doing the show with bread man they pulled a clip from that but I think they made another one that was from the
presser you did with stack and Raul Marquez I forgot that you were not at that one yes okay so I did hear that
promo you mentioned but um that gets me fired up I know it’s like a perk of the job but Luke that gets me fired up I
want to be part of the soundtrack for this incredible fight because this is this fight is mine it’s not that I
wasn’t jazzed for God Spence Crawford we finally got it tank and Ryan I mean even plant Benavides got me really pumped up
as like a true boxing fan but this is my fight right the history at stake the balls of Dremel this is gonna be
something Luke it is going to be something we will be there on the ground as well so that’ll be exciting and you
know fingers crossed we’ll see how it goes we’re gonna try and do some extra stuff while we’re in Vegas you know nothing I
don’t want to make any promises we can’t keep but that’s certainly on the agenda if we can make it happen so be on the lookout we’ll see what happens well I
don’t want to take what you can’t give Luke but I will tell everybody about our bonus content One Last Time youtube.com
morningcombat Luke caught up with Eric nick6 so you want to hear the inside dish on Sean Strickland’s epic upset of
Israel out of Sanya you can check that out uh some great interviews as well that sometimes slip through the cracks you may have missed pre-game preview
with Chuck Mendenhall I mean look we’re just hitting them we’re hitting them right oh dude room service diaries with Matt frivola
what a time to push we’re pushing out content like all the women in cowboy Oliveira’s life right now right
the Antonio Cromartie of MMA yes yes uh speaking of the Jets he was like dude
Roger’s going to take us to the Super Bowl man I know I am sorry to report that he won’t I’m sorry to report that
yeah not or at least not Aaron Rodgers yeah that’s for sure yeah right but now it’s up to that backup right to Make
Some Noise to make a run what’s his name Mike yeah forget because I saw by the way they were trying to contact they
were trying to contact my team to get the backup Jacoby Brissette Zach Wilson yeah Zach Wilson it’s the Zach Wilson
era [ __ ] we’ll see what happens yeah For Better or For Worse it’s time I’m acting like I watched the NFL Luke I
don’t I mean I am Sundays you know I watched Aaron Rodgers entire season it was about 75 seconds yeah uh look people
hate extended intros but look it just really it gives me like good feels um you’re are you fired up for uh the damn
Redskins right now like are you like commanders are you like all in are you like I mean don’t get me wrong anyone’s
better than Dan Snyder I don’t know if Josh Harris is going to lead us to the Super Bowl but uh there’s a lot of enthusiasm they had a sellout in their
home uh opener they barely beat a shitty ass team in the car Cardinals but they won they won so listen I’m not expecting
the world this season I just you know Ron Rivera is kind of checked out and whatever but I’m very happy to be back
cheering for the local football team I’ll put it down all right there we go back out of the Shadows it’s Luke Thomas let’s get into this program though today
and you know what we’re fired up for it’s going down Saturday night it’s a free TV well free-ish right I’m excited
about this card man Noche UFC and obviously it’s coinciding with Mexican
Independence Day weekend a a Combat Sports tradition you would say from you
know De La Hoya Mayweather now Canelo from the idea of them typically fighting on Cinco de Mayo first weekend in May
and of course the second weekend here in September or third or whatever I don’t do the math but my point is Canelo
pushed his date for whatever reason back to September 30th so UFC’s making an aggressive effort in an area where
there’s so many Mexican-American boxing fans and really boxing fans on the west coast come out in droves to Vegas for
the big ones so Luke you have to love the match up on top of the Marquee of course the immediate flyweight title
rematch Alexa Grosso versus Valentina shevchenko this it’s weird Luke this
should have felt like a bigger upset re-watching the fight I feel like damn I owe like Alexa Grosso
so much more respect and we’ll get into that that this does you know this didn’t feel like a fluke or it almost didn’t
feel like an upset when you actually watched the fight but obviously the rain chefchenko had it felt huge and we’re on
a run of crazy upsets right now but even though you could have gone the next
fight for for Grosso for any number of these big contenders on the way up lancefield and Pharrell dude this is a
real badass fight and I really love what the UFC is doing all things considered taking it off of pay-per-view and making
a run out of here I love the card I mean you can you know is it the best car they’ve ever had or whatever no it’s not
that but as BC indicated taking it off pay-per-view it was a huge upset the first time it’s a highly important about
the second time around you know the Mexican Takeover in terms of the championship run that we were expecting
this year was kind of short-lived but if Grosso can win they will prove that there’s some staying power to the whole
thing it wasn’t a flash in the pan not that I thought that their Mexican scene hasn’t arrived I think it’s more than
arrived but you know really really really kind of uh planting the flag about how good they’re going to be for
some time to come at the elite level we shall see about Saturday but something kind of interesting yesterday happened BC which was Dana White after the
contender series uh show which I watched and was not good let me back up a step the first bout was really good and
everything after that I was like I don’t know about this but Paul look what I’m trying to make it be on every Fight Night card for the next two years I was
just like dude what are the I mean some of the talent level was like very questionable but okay either here nor
there he was asked about UFC Noche and what he had said was that they are going to evaluate whether this is going to be
an ongoing thing because remember you asked like you didn’t know why Canelo moved Canelo moved his date because UFC
took T-Mobile on this date first that was the reason why they had already locked it up he had well he didn’t have
to move it I guess he could have had it at MGM or something else but the point being is he took T-Mobile on this date
so he just decided to push it back a couple of extra weeks sure so that was the big thing they’re going to see if
they want to keep doing this you know on a annual basis but what he said that they also might do is whether or not
they do September 16th or Mexican Mexican Independence Day they might do a Cinco de Mayo card now what we should
note Cinco de Mayo is not a big deal at all it’s not a holiday in Mexico it’s more of an American or somewhat
Mexican-American kind of thing it’s not really a Mexican holiday nevertheless BC
you would agree some of the biggest fights in Mexican boxing that have take taking place in the United States have
in fact taken place on Cinco de Mayo weekend Canelo often for example does fight on Cinco de Mayo weekend so I’ll
say this the UFC leaning into this fan base leaning into this tradition I won’t say long overdue because it took
a little while for the Mexican uh MMA scene to really show itself to be world class but here they are now the UFC’s
taking a second look at it I’m liking what I’m hearing I really am I am I am too for in a lot of ways and just to
remind uh May weather De La Hoya Mayweather Pacquiao both of those Cinco de Mayo but Luke this week is the 10th
anniversary of when you and I met just a reminder Canelo versus Floyd which is was my first trip to Vegas remains my
favorite fight week I ever covered because the Canelo fans came out in droves like that was the biggest I
always say it but you have to remember that was the biggest super fight since Mayweather De La Hoya what like six
years earlier so people were craving it and they showed out and I remember thinking like is this how all Vegas
Fight weeks are it turns out uh it’s not Luke and at all also don’t forget on that don’t forget on that card Danny Garcia versus Lucas Matisse which was a
very fun fight all right uh here’s a last point on the whole marketing of this and the push and the connection
there to boxing especially if they try Cinco de Mayo it’s not that we haven’t seen somewhat regularly the head-to-head
competition of a really big boxing Pay-per-view on the same night of a pretty damn big UFC pay-per-view I mean
Canelo kovalev went up against the the first BMF fight remember that very well but even wasn’t Spence Crawford looked
the same night as a pay-per-view just recently do you think the UFC is now going to like not just put out a card on
the same night but try to make Cinco de Mayo a major for them in the same way boxing did and will we see potentially
like the biggest boxing fight up against the first or second biggest MMA fight on the same night I mean here’s the problem
that MMA is up against right this is the problem um one Canelo is still arguably the
biggest star in the sport and has been championed for a long time has been a star for a long time he’s just a
reliable boxing Institution for Mexico like you just know it’s a if he’s it’s
like you know it’s imagine Conor McGregor being more active and then like being able to compete in Ireland on
occasion like it’s just it’s just reliable as a thing like that it’s not that’s not a one-to-one comparison but
it’s something kind of like that and so you know you can really plan around that plus just the amount of Mexican talent
in boxing is like overwhelming I mean they’re just one of the biggest you know countries in terms of success and and
then just population wise how many how many people in boxing overall how many active boxers are of Mexican descent
like a [ __ ] ton right a whole lot in MMA it’s just harder to plan around that
because dude it’s hard to hold on to a title there are so many variables the game moves so fast so I can understand
why the UFC is like excited about it at the same time being like let’s see what we got because do you want to do a UFC
Noche whether it’s you know Cinco de Mayo or Mexican Independence Day whichever whichever holiday you want to
pick if you don’t have any Mexican Champions and imagine you don’t even have any Mexicans in the top five like that can happen and it can happen
quickly too it doesn’t take very long so it’s just a more reliable thing in
boxing than it is in MMA and I think that’s some of the trepidation but you gotta say right fighter right time for
the UFC to try this with Alexa Grosso and before we get into Luke the whole idea of chefchenko trying to show that
you know it was either a bad night or she got out beat or whatever and regain it and see where that fits in in recent
history I want to bring up the line here to start talking about you know look I put on my dom Cruz hat in my Luke Thomas
hat and I took the advice Luke and I went back and re-watched the first fight aggressively and you know re-watch key
sequences many times and Luke I gotta tell you this very very fun fight by the
way from like a X’s and O’s countering each other in that sort of way and you know really both trying to find what is
the strength that’s going to get them the Victory and don’t forget that it did appear if chefchenko was up two rounds
to one in round four at the time of the submission but this line currently for Caesar is our friends plus 145 for Alexa
Grosso minus 170 for Valentina Luke as I re-watch this clearly Valentino uh
relied on the wrestling to sort of take the lead on the cards and be in this fight but she was getting pissed up on the
feet in ways in in a in a more aggressive way than I remembered in hindsight so obviously I
have to do a white belt Mia culpa and I do over reference the idea that it was a chefchenko error or misstep that opened
the door for for Grosso to steal this fight uh I did lean on that in an ignorant way and saw some people making
comments and you’re right upon re-watch Luke it’s a reminder it’s a swift punch in the face of how much Grosso had
evolved entering this fight and how tough of a performance she put out that
I’m here to tell you from my white Bell eyes I actually think roster should be favored heading into this rematch
because even though shevchenko the true tried and true champion made the
necessary adjustments to to find a path in this fight Grosso was out working her outlasting
her and I think chefchenko finally found like her match and somebody who had a better gas tank than her and I think
that played into huge about how chefchenko’s wrestling Advantage early started to fade in the second half
um I really I think Russell should be favored here am I crazy crazy I don’t think I mean listen she’s
not an underdog by a substantial margin you know it’s a would you say plus 145 for for Grosso that’s not you know
that’s pretty close to being um not the favorite but you know close to a pickum at a bare minimum I somewhat
understand that again also betting lines are designed to induce betting so there’s there’s that as well I I I I’ll
say this I understand where Vegas is at on this one I mean this is really what it comes down to BC if you watch I went
back and I watched all of the takedowns that Valentina got in this fight so here’s what Grosso did that had success
if you notice she was able to get a big one two on her right why because you
have if your so she stands Southpaw right so um not well chip Grasso goes
back and forth but chefchenko stands Southpaw so what she’ll often do is she’ll paw with that lead hook as like a
check hook or she’ll jab to try to intercept but she uses that to kind of counteract people and she doesn’t step
off at an angle with the check hook she does it quite linear and so what ended up happening was us you would see Grosso
go in with a big jab and then the cross would come behind it because it would be able to get the inside Lane and it would from the speed of it it would beat the
hook so there had a whole game plan on beating her hook or beating her jab depending what she wanted to do with it from her with her right hand and it
worked beautifully but in order to do that whether it was from the Southpaw stance or the Orthodox if she got to
take down on both she had to take a big step she didn’t just jab from the outside just you know you know pulling
the shoulders back she took a monster step in and if it was the step in off the cross whether from South whether
from Orthodox right and that’s when she got under it so it’s like on the one hand they built a striking game that was
very precisely built to get to the problems uh I should say the
deficiencies of shivchenko style however that particular style opened up the
wrestling game very particularly for someone like shevchenko who’s got a good wrestling B is physically strong and C
has good timing they’ve got to solve that problem how do they land the strikes without opening up the wrestling
as much because I do think BCC can get better at the wrestling I do believe that but the physical difference that’s
going to be hard to overcome with a single Camp here’s what I’ll say about that physical difference though was Valentina having like on you know like
she was having unguarded success taking her down for a stretch yes of course he was taking her down at Willa in some
points she was not able to translate that into offensive success in top position Beyond a couple spare shots
here and there she never I mean I know there was a submission threat but it wasn’t you know it wasn’t anything too crazy or gnarly and Grosso was not only
really working to get up and in a lot of positions would get up and then land the big clean strike off the clinch but I
think she matched and overtook the gas tank of Valentina and nobody does that to her that that is the real issue
underlying at the end because her takedown defense went from non-existent to like the key to that fourth round to
set up you know again it wasn’t I over I over talked about the mistake this wasn’t the mistake Weidman made against
Silva or you know Chael Sonnen and the silver rematch uh it was you’re the people were right the critics were right
Valentina tried to attempt a strike that she lands and tries often and it was just perfect execution timing and
knowledge from Grosso but I don’t think that moment happens Luke unless Grosso
kind of visually wears Valentina out by being able to accept the takedowns but
really not be in vulnerable spots now vulnerable enough to lose rounds yes but I think we people really need to go back
and watch what actually happened in the exchanges on the feet because Grasso was outshining her huge yes Valentina could
land key shots here and there but grosso’s boxing was way ahead of valentina’s there I mean they were you
know it’s a competitive even fight but when she rocked her with that two punch combination in round one that was a huge
message to chefchenko and turn the the path in this fight obviously she’s take was great enough to make the adjustment
as I said and still be ahead on the cards at the time she was losing but she was not the fresher fighter and I do
think that played a role and when we look at Grosso it’s not just the evolution of her game her gas tank is
sick that’s the thing that jumped out to me huge re-watching that first fight she’s built herself up to be a tank and
yes obviously she’s gonna have to work on some takedown defense techniques but she’s not just a dog in the sense that
like if this becomes a war she’ll be fine she’s a smart intelligent like machine out there like reminding me of
Whaley who’s just like a physical presence but Luke the thing that chefchenko always does best is she’s got
a complete game but it usually always comes off of the success she has in Striking she was not having success in
Striking here not any kind that that change the momentum of this fight outside of some leg kicks to the body
and I think if your team chefchenko you’re gonna really want to amp up the leg kicks in the rematch kicks to the body I’m sorry kicks to the body and
kicks to the calves I do that often I obviously I think that should be a part of her style to try to
to try to make the Striking a more even basis but dude correct me if I’m wrong Grosso was well ahead of her in the
Striking and when when chefchenko can’t lead with that to have success to take to set up takedowns or to set up you
know high kicks or some dangerous strikes she’s not as dangerous she had a younger hungrier tank coming after her
who had the intelligence to create the moment to end the fight but I think in this rematch Grosso set up to have big
advantages on the feet in my opinion here Luke and I think it’s while this upset came in succession with
the one we just saw last weekend with Strickland and out of Sonya I don’t think the comparison here is necessarily
just the fact that it was Champions we didn’t think would win obviously Strickland we thought much less of a chance that Grosso had but I think it’s
the the improvements in boxing across the board that this might be and we’ve said it
before it’s not like I’m Reinventing the wheel but it really became evident to me watching this fight off the heels of Strickland’s fight that that’s the area
where people are that’s the next area where people are leveling up huge and think of the success chefchenko has when
she can constantly get off with strength she needs and change the Dynamics and bring the advantage in her favor when
she can’t do that because the defense of Grosso is so legit but the the footwork
the MMA stance Luke as we know depending on your base a lot of times you’re squaring up you’re there to be hit think
of how many guys we love like Ortega or whatever defense is really just not an active part of their game they get
pieced up Valentino feasts on Fighters like that she knows she can piece them up Grosso has a boxing stance she’s a
liable to Dart in and out and set up shots and make herself feel a lot longer with those overhand lefts that she is a
problem for even the great kickboxers like like chefchenko in the same way that Strickland’s awkward word
consistent pro boxing style in a way was a problem for the kickboxing style of arasania because if you can get the
kicks off it’s not going to be a problem you’ll level the field but if somebody’s got that boxing footwork and get in and out and you can’t land clean that
changes that Dynamic instantly I have a few responses to that Mikey first let’s talk about the the takedowns here just
one more time and we’ll Circle back to the Striking component of it I believe we have a full screen graphic for this so these are their historic takedown
numbers not just from the last fight but overall takedowns for 15 minutes gross so obviously not a dynamic takedown threat herself Valentina almost good for
one around which is kind of what we got not quite yeah it’s more or less what we got in the end takedown defense 61 not
very high for Grosso I think that is going to be a problem obviously I don’t think that Valentina shivchenko is going to be facing
um much of a takedown threat herself and then from a submission you know neither is a gigantic threat per 15 minutes
although we do know that Grosso won this one via submission um and did so quite ably so you know you
wouldn’t want to dismiss it but like is it you know she’s not she’s not Hydra Gracie or something like that okay but those are the career numbers you’re
asking about the last fight she got four of six Valentina did she got four of six she got two in the second two in the
third and then she went over one in the first and the fourth so something to be
said for that like what if you’re asking what the numbers were but BCU at you you made something kind of interesting she’s like she got
outstruck well she got qualitatively outstruck um on the feet I would agree with that
in general in general but listen to this you know and again we don’t know what the judges saw I had to look up what the
I don’t know I should have had the judges what they had that scored up to that point but nevertheless Valentina
numerically no not qualitatively but numerically outstruck her in every
single round these are the numbers 26 to 24 round one 12 to 7 round 2 27-15 I
granted a lot of that was on the ground but even in the round that she got finished she was had numerically 22 to
13 and in fact while Grosso threw more 308 to 228 for uh Grosso to shipchenko
so she threw more she landed significantly less so even though Grosso threw nearly a hundred more strikes she
landed 59 shivchenko 87 right so there is an alarming step but
my point being is that I agree with you that like what I took from that fight
was wow dude I mean Valentina was getting hit with stuff you just never see her get hit with big shots and big
shots in combination I totally agree but there’s a work rate issue not just on
the ground or the bare minimum an accuracy issue because I think Grosso throws a lot of volume that doesn’t go
anywhere and I do wonder if this goes to a decision even if she’s able to stop
the takedown does that accuracy and that overall ability to land more win her
some of the judge’s favor we shall see well I think we have to also take into account and how it relates to this
conversation that she’s Rising she’s peeking she got I mean that performance Luke it wasn’t fluky it was a leveling
up like stricklands was it was a step up to a new level I do get what you’re saying in how the stats counteract the
vision I took away from it but look the key part for me was the defense now the numbers aren’t telling you that but are
those numbers counting calf strikes which I which can either be big or can be sometimes tapping throwaways because
the strike the only striking success Valentina really had were the kicks to the body sometimes to create separation
sometimes just to mix in but my point is Grosso was able to cut inside and not be
there to be hit now that you know when when Grosso would commit to combinations chefchenko is so great she could line
her up and land a counter shot and a lot of times they would have these big exchanges but it was grosto who was seemingly Landing the cleaner and bigger
shots and I think once that power connected in the first round and Valentina got staggered she became a
wrestler quick and I think she did that for a reason Luke because I think she saw the road it was going down does that
fully explain now the stats are those also the ground up pound numbers I’m again I’m not trying to imply that these these these don’t matter or shouldn’t be
considered in the scoring but I did think on the feet there was a market difference especially in the boxing and
that Rosso is she’s getting great fast this was not the fighter we saw one division below
right we saw certain elements of it but dude her her ability to put on that submission in that moment it felt like
khabib against gaichi right it was just like damn I think sometimes we love to lean on
what aging Champions have done more than sometimes right it happened at Usman like I know how to sign your one back
his belt but then we just saw him lose it again when they’re getting near that 34-35 and chefchenko’s 35 we just think
they can keep pulling on that Luke in finding the greatness but I think sometimes it comes down to how good is
the younger Rising Challenger and if anyone has the chance to level up more even entering this rematch I actually
think it’s Grosso because I think her confidence has got to shut up huge from this performance I did see the
scorecards and they did align with how I saw it 29-28 for chefchenko on all three
that’s about right she did win two and three with wrestling there’s no question and she also got robbed I thought from a
[ __ ] stand up from Jason Herzog which came right in the middle of her punching twice to the body and then trying to come over the top so again
that explains you know the success she did have on the ground and maybe that adds to the Striking numbers but um all
this is to say Luke that I’m really excited about this rematch and I’m really questioning the great Valentina
because it’s not just can she make an adjustment or whatever I think she might be outgunned here Luke and the key in
the most key area on the feet so it’s going to be up to Grosso to to keep it there ultimately I will say this which I
find kind of interesting which is if you look at strikes per round by targeting so what were they aiming for now of
course if you’re aiming for the body that could be a punch or a kick but just a leg it’s hard to punch a leg so all of those would be leg to leg contact
interestingly enough chefchenko landed seven of eight in round one so that’s pretty active but listen to this two of
two in round two one of one in round three and then one of one in round four
now there was a takedown attempt that Grosso had in round one which she couldn’t get so I wonder if she was a
little hesitant to Target the leg I suspect that there might be more of that this time right because if she’s
stepping heavy with that jab that’s gonna be somebody you’re going to want to counteract if you can find a way to do it getting your head off the center
line at the same time when she comes with the cross rather than just trying to wrestle her that’ll be interesting
but to your point that wasn’t very heavily targeted that wasn’t a thing that she threw it and she threw a lot in
the first round and then completely abandoned it basically through the rest of the fight that is going to be a key
battle a key battle next time but I think your general point that like basically grosso’s positioning and
boxing kind of beat valentina’s kickboxing if we can say it that way yeah you know was that a was that the
story story of the stand-up in general yes in general yes and what’s funny about that is
now I’m no kickboxing expert but I have seen a lot of discussion within the kickboxing Community anecdotally anyway
that you know there’s a there’s some guys who are having success just kind of boxing their way through a lot of these
kickboxing elements or these kickboxing fights or Fighters and it’s sort of having a surprising level of success I
don’t know how widely true that is but uh there there might be something more to this idea and I do think in MMA
you’re seeing these guys who have these boxing heavy styles and the trade-off of course is that they do get hit a little
bit more than often but they’re able to pressure and if they’ve got good accuracy and combinations really
leverage that for a lot of success over time and Grosso in this particular
exchange she didn’t you know there’s there’s ups and downs to what she did but she was able to make use of it make
no mistake so I do think that broad stroke view is basically correct yeah and it’s not lost on me again that
chefchenko was up on all three score cards uh at the time of the stoppage in round four but the momentum in my eyes
had shifted and as big as I’m moment that first round exchange was where Grosso landed the three-punch combo and
chefchenko was physically rocked and it’s like oh [ __ ] I think an even bigger moment happened in round two when
chefchenko started to take her down with ease and do you remember Luke what’s the term I don’t know what is a grapevine
when she takes the the r the other arm of Grosso and pins it between her legs or setting up the crucifix right
crucified that’s essentially what she was doing that’s the area Luke where the
b b plus even sometimes a minus Fighters that are going to go up against shivchenko will crumble she was stuck
down to one arm and that was when chefchenko had the most striking success in that exchange with the with the ground impound and it did look like a
weary moment the fact that Grosso bounced out of that and then was the fader fighter because chefchenko really
took a foot off the gas due to fatigue in that stretch through round three even though she her guile won her round three
she had to work for it and I think all the wrestling success she had in round two yes it won or the round but it may
have lost her the fight Luke it really did so if I’m Chief chip shenko dude I’m going to calf kick the crap out of
Grosso to try to slow her down and minimize the effects of her movement because her movement sets up her boxing
so well her footwork but I I can’t stress it enough Mike Strickland her defense different defense because it’s
more High guard the whole time where Strickland’s more the shoulder roll Philly shell but her defense Luke that’s
a huge reason why Val that’s that’s the reason Valentina became a wrestler in this fight she couldn’t get off and she
was taking more in terms of power shots in return I mean that first round was largely all Grosso let’s not forget that
they had like I said before if you just look at the Striking in terms of what the game plan was that Grosso and her
team implemented they had valentina’s striking weaknesses down to a t yes they knew exactly what
it was going to be so to me what’s really interesting is one to what extent can she shore some of that up by
changing things and then two on the defensive end for Grosso what can she do
on the defensive wrestling slash grappling end to shore up some of those deficiencies and where they all kind of
meet in the middle it’s a it’s a I say this you know was it the was it the most exciting fight well it was actually a
very good fight I mean it wasn’t exciting I’m just I’m just saying it wasn’t like you know the most amazing fight you’ve ever seen in your life
plenty good but I will say this in terms of the strategy and the Tactical battle
at play this is a great test not just of Two fighters but of two teams and what
they can come up with to really solve this riddle for the each of their each of their cases because they’ve both got
great strengths and very obvious weaknesses and how they solve that it will be a very very fun test I just want
to say this about Valentina who you know is now 35 but I think she’s starting to learn something I think there was a
point Luke where if you know Valentine’s obviously she’s skilled in every category she I mean this is her life she’s in she’s incredible and everywhere
right but normally if she can’t best you with technique I think she knows at the end of the day she’s also in better
shape than everybody but the way grosso’s striking Force Valentino to wrestle I don’t think
Valentina can win a five-round fight just with the wrestling because she gave that’s why that moment in round two was
so big she gave Grasso her best shot on the ground and she couldn’t you know she couldn’t get the submission or or the
ground upon knockout she really had no other success in top position okay so if you can get takedowns and score rounds
how much is that going to cost you in the championship rounds that exertion level against the younger fighter who is
a a brick [ __ ] house Luke to be fair okay well you can ask it another way too which is all right let’s imagine if it
goes five rounds Valentina can win two of them on wrestling but that’s it can she get another one any other way
um you might think that she can I can see why the oddsmakers think that she can but I can also see why they think
it’s very very very close very close fight I mean sometimes the greats think Joanna
in the second fight with Claudia they can they can just lean on that that either that dog or that extreme
world-class conditioning and just get it done and Outlast somebody if you can’t do that to the younger fighter and that
younger fighter at least in their strongest skill can out technical you that’s it you can say it’s gets dicing
it gets dicey so well look a good transition here at 35 what chefchenko is trying to do
when you look at recent history and I think the best comparison in this case since it’s the immediate rematch for
both would be just that although there’s all different variations and uh Mikey and you and I this morning were throwing
it all around the people you know the Moreno won the first fight was a draw that made it different there’s all different iterations even DC and stipa
even though Stipe won the belt back immediately DC had the title defense against Lewis in between so when it
comes to just the champion against the Challenger they have a transaction and they run it immediately back what do
those what does history say about valentina’s chances Here In Your Eyes
so these are the ones that did it Randy Couture versus Belfor from 46 to 49 and that was an interesting one if you guys
don’t remember so Vitor Belfor like the first punch he threw if hit Randy in the
eye and it actually uh it didn’t just cut the eyelid it separated the eyelid
almost from the eye from his face so his eyelid was dangling they had to go and
restitch the eyelid to his face um and it was like the first punch he threw so it was really really really
weird and then when they actually fought for real Randy beat the brakes off of them and then you have Amanda Nunes
Juliana Pena we all saw what happened there and then uh Izzy and then Alex and we all know the story there as well
so if you look at the Randy one bit of a fluke I would call that a fluke circumstance if you look at the Juliana
and Amanda one um semi-flooky right semi semi flukey in
that Amanda was not like you know fully ready and you know what what again when you beat one of these great Fighters you
got to beat him twice you gotta beat him twice that’s really the the issue and so if they can make adjustments what does
that do to the fight and then in the last one with Izzy it was the fourth time he fought him so he really had
three different chances to kind of get a look at him this is different
meaningfully from all of that because chefchenko looked to be in great shape for this one and you know uh did win two
of the rounds like there’s a lot you can look at we’re like damn man like you know I can understand why this one doesn’t fit the other one I would say
that it bodes reasonably well for for Valentina but the big difference BC is
that 35 year old marker and again it’s not an iron it’s not it’s not a rule written in
stone it’s not biblical it’s not what we’re saying it’s a helpful demarcation line that sometimes can tell you the
difference between winning and losing especially at the more Elite levels when the margin is very very thin so I I go
back to it dude I can see if you have like you know Valentina as a slight favorite in your mind I understand that and the the converse I think could be
true just as easily like this is a really close fight am I am I trying to heavily paint grosso’s chances here yeah
because maybe because I I watched it differently in real time and now re-watching I’m like damn she she knew
what she was doing in that fight but Valentine obviously has to have a certain level of confidence too that at least she was winning in that situation
can’t she turn the tables there it’s hard to compare to some of the other ones that kind of qualify here Luke because even the DC Stipe you’re it
Stephen you’re in uh DC wow wow you’re in the territory where you’re old and
you’re at heavyweight but age doesn’t really matter but I do think Luke DC in the second and third fights against
Stipe age kind of caught up with him from the standpoint of nagging injuries and he didn’t have the same stamina to
be able to keep on the wrestling success in the rematch with stevia that he had in round one and Stipe was just fresher
at this older age um I don’t know if there’s any kind of equal comparison there I mean Robbie
Lawler kind of did this remember he lost the vacant title to Hendrix uh and then won it back but it wasn’t an immediate
rematch for both only for Johnny he had a couple of tune-ups in between did Robbie so like in just in this terms the
first fight was so close and Valentina is the betting favor going into the second didn’t work for kamaru though and
I know now he’s coming out and saying like I shouldn’t have taken the re the trilogy against Leon so quickly
but at some point you level out with age and it just comes down to is the person the younger fighter you’re fighting
are they great are they you know what I mean are they pound for pound great in this era like turned out Leon Edwards
was and you know he he found a way to to make sure that second fight wasn’t a fluke at all you know and
um this is interesting if if Valentina can do this Luke how much more do you think this adds to
her Legacy because it’s not only doing it at 35 but it’s always a badass move for the champion to lose the title when
they’re aging but then come back and win it think Muhammad Ali Leon Spinks right that’s a badass old guy move now in this
case it’s an old lady move but I ain’t calling her that Luke yeah one more time Mike if you can throw up the ones who lost it and then also lost the rematch I
mean look at the guys who couldn’t do it no I actually thought BJ’s these are just notable ones there’s much more than
this obviously fine fair enough fair enough but just look at the names BJ Penn uh couldn’t get it done Frankie
couldn’t get although I thought Frankie won the second of those for sure but Anderson got finished twice although one
of those obviously an injury Jose Aldo did get cleanly finished twice by Max and then you have the Joanna fights and
then komaru obviously uh having what’s happened to him you know getting head kicked and then not being able to reclaim it it’s just it’s just
remarkable you’re talking about some of the best fighters who have ever done it who like when it’s time to go like you get old overnight in the fight game you
know that you really do like sometimes guys you know slowly age out that can happen but the elite ones the margin of
error is so minimal that any kind of drop off or any kind of Ascension of a
rival it can mean just a profound difference in the results themselves and
the outcomes themselves and so you know if Valentina can get it back I mean that would just be I mean hugely impressive
she’s already the best women’s 125 fighter in history I don’t think that’s you know for debate so winning it
doesn’t change that if she gets it back nor does really losing it again actually because she would still be that but it
would also just tell you that if even the great Valentina chefchenko can’t get it back dude father time is a uh yeah
he’s a [ __ ] man and here’s like I don’t think Valentino’s gonna get old overnight in this rematch if if my hunch
on Grosso just you know coming on and peeking and and having a chance to do it again is true but sometimes remember the
first Roy Jones Antonio Tarver one Roy won that first fight where he was kind of he was heavily affected by cutting
back down from heavyweight he won that on like the fighter deep inside the warrior because Tarver had his number
early and he used every veteran trick he had to pull off that win and then in the
rematch Luke you saw what happened right the the younger fresher fighter who is this tonight Roy yeah who it meant more
to came through in a big way same thing in a in a weird way with the uh
chocolatito sirisiket sorang visaya first fight was just this bloody war that could have gone either way and in
the second one SSR sent him to hell um sometimes that happens Luke do you do
you think there were any elements from Valentino where she may have exhausted all options in trying to hold that lead
in that first fight and I know she lost it she got stopped there but did you do you still see her as being as Prime as
she was just three fights ago let’s say because now it’s been a couple a couple close ones here with Tyler no no the the
the division has matter-of-factly caught up with her again we’ll see if she can you know extend her magic on Saturday
but like the difference between it’s the same thing with Izzy dude it’s the same thing it’s like you know can Izzy win in the
rematch I think he could I think he’d be foolish to think he couldn’t but at the same time you just look around and
you’re like have his contemporaries at a bare minimum shorten the gap or in the case of Valentina have her
contemporaries massively shorten the gap between which or relative to what she used to enjoy there can simply be no
doubt there can simply be no doubt so even if she gets it back I don’t think she’s uh you know gonna go on some other
long Reign I just it’s just not it’s just not really in the cards but before we transitioned I did want to show one
graphic if we can BC on Raul Rosas if you want to get touch on that we haven’t
talked about that fight yet but yeah sure well do you want to get to it now or do you want to what do you want to do I did have one more thing I wanted to
tell you but I forgot it so let’s get right into it let’s keep going I don’t have much to say about this fight I haven’t looked at the odds these are the
Striking stats these are the total stats if you’re asking who’s who Rel Rosas in the left-hand column and his opponent
Terrence virtual in the right hand column but just focus on Rel Rosas Junior for a second strikes landed per
minute he lands less than one a minute I mean I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that in the UFC before other than his
opponent which is also that way and then he absorbs more than he takes and of course if you look at his opponent it’s
like lopsided in that way but if you didn’t look at the grappling they both are good for a lot of takedowns
um and you know more submissions on the side of Rel Rosas Jr thank you Mikey I appreciate it I just want to point this
out to say two things one I mean it sort of shows you his game is just like get the back and hunt for the submission
there’s not sophisticated other parts of it that need to be there like ground to pound other forms of control striking on
the feet setting it up it’s just a very hurry up kind of offense to the back and there’s not much more to it I mean once
he gets to the back he can be a nightmare but there’s not much more to it than that however however this
opponent is like tailor-made for him because he goes to the exact same [ __ ] and I suspect he’s probably not as good
and so you know I’ll just say this if Rosas can’t beat this guy you’ve got
real problems real problems so we’ll see what happens is saying Rosas according
to Caesars minus 700 Luke so are they giving him a layup to get well I mean
this is one you do oh yeah you have to be careful true or false you got to be extra careful on how you handle him yes so when you say are they giving him a
layup let’s be Curt to you I’m glad you asked that because let’s talk about that for just a second we I thought Sean
Strickland was a layup for for Izzy and looks like he wasn’t so what I mean to say is MMA is crazy and unpredictable
based on what we think we know it looks like this is a fight that is tailor-made
for Raul Rosas however however the guy he’s competing against is 33 has many of
the same strengths otherwise you can see from the numbers some clear deficiencies as well no those are all based off of just the one fight he had against
Cameron Simon and so you know that went quite poorly for him but you can see that they have a lot of the same
features uh in terms of the style of their game but they’re trying to give him somebody and this is what we can say
very matter-of-factly who’s going to accommodate him in terms of not striking
a lot on the feet going to want to make it a ground battle and they’re kind of banking on the hope I suspect that that
kind of fortuitous matchmaking should lead him to Victory but as I said before I do think he’ll win but if he doesn’t
that would be the red flag of all red flags so let’s see how Saturday goes I
mean do you take him out of rotation if he loses now because the hype was so large do not leave him there if he
cannot beat this guy and what I’m not saying is a bad fighter again it’s the idea is it’s tailor-made if he cannot
beat a tailor-made opponent like this he just simply is not right I don’t think he is ready for it but that would
be the most definitive proof one could really uh put together yeah wow uh the
other point I just wanted to ask you quickly on chefchenko do you think the UFC hopes Grosso wins not just for Mexican star in
her prime no Che let’s let’s you know that’d be a slam dunk but so Valentina can go breathe some life at 135 with the
vacuum belt yes I mean you know listen like this idea that they’ve given up on Valentina they just put her on the
[ __ ] video game you know what I mean they just put her there next to vulcanovsky now of course that that was
in the making long before I understand but like you know they believe in her and like she’s obviously been an
institution herself at 125 but to your point BC I think she could still go and I like the way you put it breathe life
into 135 and the UFC would love nothing more than to have a Mexican Champion
that they can parade around both in Mexico and here as a star to build around there’s just no denying so yeah I
do think they do I’m gonna get overly excited for Valentina Holly too and you’re just gonna have to deal with it
Luke okay all right that fight wasn’t that bad also we should tell folks yeah that was a good place counter punch
technical yeah I’ll be doing a post fight show for UFC Noche on Saturday night so join the youtube.com
morningcombat for a post fight show Absolutely slam dunk Luke the only other fight of note to be very fair right like
we love this card it is coming during a busy time Paris two weeks ago a pay-per-view last weekend and at least
there was the big result on the so we’d have to talk about how the the card was kind of weak but this is a good ass
fight the ultra weight division Kevin Holland Jack Della madalena and Mr Bob dobelina there Luke is coming off a
close fight against a non-world beater in a replacement situation last time there are some truth they’re saying look
that fight was not as close as people think blah blah blah maybe you just have an off night new opponent who can use
this win more uh better you think in the short term to make a run up the rankings
like like how who does this fight bigger four in that regard as we look at it here gotta be Dela matalaner gotta be
gotta be Kevin Holland to me has already proved a lot I don’t think he’s peaked but he’s proven a lot like
easily beating Michael kiessa and then before that Santiago ponza nibio and of course he’s got wins over Jacques a
bunch of other big names Joaquin Buckley dude Kevin Hollins great he’s a very
good fighter we already know that and we think we know that about JDM we think we
see a guy who’s got real potential but this would be the ultimate Proving Grounds to this point in his career and
so both guys are still young I don’t think a loss in either direction is fatal um but the guy who could get the biggest
bump I think would be JDM now let’s also sort of pause it here if Kevin Holland
beats JDM and does it in like a striking fashion and it really knocks him out this is not to say that would not be a
huge boost for him I do think it would be you know a great win streak he’d be putting together I think three in a row
at this point and if he stopped him holy [ __ ] that’d be that’d be very very impressive but there would be a little
bit of well he beat a guy who we thought was good and maybe you know needs a little bit more seasoning is not quite there it wouldn’t be the same as beating
you know top five guy who’s established in the the whole thing there so both
guys would benefit but JDM a little bit more just sort of given where they’re at in the their respective careers I just
had a uh dystopian Back to the Future Part Two vision of the future when uh
Colby Covington and Kevin Holland fight for the Welterweight Title that’s going to be a Wild Bill Luke but I do agree with everything I mean wild that’s going
to be a wild build um I agree with everything you said right there I mean look if JDM loses even in a competitive
really good fight it almost would confirm suspicions from the last fight even though there were weird scenarios
but but outside of that last fight which he was the better fighter man he has looked like a million dollars so I think
from that lightning bolt perspective and he does come from Australia and there’s you know he’s got some fantastic pecs
Luke as well okay I mean that guy guys got a great rack right I don’t know if it’s Big E level but uh you get my point
there but back to the serious side of it dude Kevin Holland could be really good
Luke and it did feel like the last it was sort of a confirmation that if he
stops being the cowboy and taking the the tough fights last minute for money and she really stops trying to prove his
toughness and to some degree stop with the in-cage Antics although I know trash talking stuff fuels him but we’re seeing
him get down to business lately and when he gets down to business uh cutting down in weight has not stopped his gas tank
from being a problem for people in terms of his wrestling and dude he’s a one punch knockout threat at this weight so
I love this fight’s insanely good I mean I don’t feel there’s enough Buzz about it this is a great ass fight where the
Winner’s gonna gonna go somewhere gonna go and I want to tell you about this too if I may listen to this I didn’t realize
these were his numbers I didn’t give them to Mikey we don’t have a Graphic but just very quickly Jack Taylor Made Elena listen to this [ __ ] strikes landed
per minute 7.27 God damn that is high and then
absorb 3.5 so he’s two to one basically a little bit more actually two to one on
landed versus absorbed Kevin Holland 4.11 which is I think above average certainly good absorbs 2.96 so he eats a
little bit more but he’s fought much better competition over time and proven himself in sort of interesting ways
neither guy a gigantic takedown threat although daylight made Elena 81 takedown
defense um so I think he’s a little bit better in that sense if he if Holland wants to test him there but I don’t think that he
will I don’t think that he will I think this is really going to be a striking battle and uh you know Jack dailym
kind of all over his face which tells you that’s the style of fighting he prefers he’s gonna get he’s going to get
everything he wants we’re going to see if his hands are full uh orb his cup runneth over on Saturday yeah we’ll find
out if it’s past the shuga on Saturday Luke how do you like that right Joe hatcham poker
uh before we get into our second topic Luke I want to talk about one of our best friends in this industry somebody
that I put inside of my body every single day and I’m talking about a G1 the daily foundational nutrition
supplement that supports whole body health um I don’t have your part for this all
right well I can tell people that I drink it literally oh yes I do yes I do sorry uh BC and I both drink it every
day I gave ag1 a try because I was tired and taking so many supplements I wanted you know a single solution that supports
my entire body and my overall nutritional bases every day yeah I drink ag1 in the morning before working out it
makes me feel Unstoppable it’s ag1 in the morning and a freak in the evening yeah that’s right giving your body
nutrition that it craves and needs covering as I mentioned before the nutritional bases
yeah indeed all great athletes have one thing in common Luke they take care of their bodies and a huge part of that
starts with optimizing your whole body health and look I put it in my shake every morning my protein fruit shake and
it’s it’s it’s really cleansing me out in a good way Luke yeah I’m happy to hear that you have regular dumps a lot
of them also drink a lot of folks drink ag1 that’s why I’m a huge fan with each daily serving setting myself up for
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Cass told me to buy the atomic habits book Luke and I did we’ll see if I can turn my life around with it but I’ll tell you this how about a micro habit
that delivers macro benefits yeah that’s ag-1 and it helps just about everybody take great care of their health every
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drinkag1.com morningcombat and that’s drink Ag and the number one.com and that and uh yeah
check it out okay thank you very much let’s get to topic number two Luke we already knew that endeavor the parent
company of UFC had purchased WWE at an evaluation of 12.9 billion and had began
the ideas of forming a super company and opening up on the stock market publicly TKO it all went down yesterday making it
official part of that by the way Vince McMahon the first time he’s not in at least from
a stock ownership standpoint as the majority shareholder the power seat since 1982 in as it pertains to WWE so a
historic moment but we saw Vince Ari Emmanuel Dana White all the big players
go down there and ring the bell Luke at the stock exchange a lot of comments probably worth reacting to but let’s
start off with this strategic question who which does this benefit more you think in terms of the short term and
long term WWE or UFC the the unity and bringing this whole thing together
um I couldn’t tell you I don’t know who it benefits more it doesn’t benefit me at all I can tell you that
um it makes it awful for me but uh I I think that listen they’re not
I mean I it’s dude the UFC is being sued for antitrust violations so like how
much bigger could they get I’m sure they could but they’re already like the dominant figure in the industry by a you
know the most the widest of margins I don’t know how pro wrestling works so I do see aew is on TV pretty regularly I
don’t know to what extent they can compete with WWE but it does seem like they have a bigger foothold in that
industry than any second place competitor does in MMA so I would actually argue that maybe there’s a
little bit more of an opportunity for WWE to increase their foothold than the other way around but I do suspect that
some growth together is uh is certainly possible and they’re going to explore every opportunity look the combined
company here TKO with the two Brands evaluation of over 21 billion so there’s
a lot of talk about the genius move and how Endeavor and then WME IMG or
whatever other letters were part of it when they bought the UFC for just over 4 billion in 2 2016 there were the
naysayers you know the idea that they’d never pay this debt back and that this would be an albatross turns out UFC was
carrying the company through some very hard times in the end including covid which love them or hate him on Dana a
big par he I mean he Endeavor is going to owe him for Life how the new Power structure is set up just a reminder that
Ari Emmanuel would be the overall boss there uh Dana will still run the UFC Nick Khan former super agent will run
WWE Vince McMahon will be the guy above them and then Ari above that so Luke um
it’s hard to really know what this looks like until we get there are we going to see WWE commercials on UFC pay-per-view
and vice versa probably how far is too far though I think that’s the key question if you’re an MMA fan only and
obviously I used to be a big you know fan and journalist of pro wrestling in WWE until it kind of wore me out I’m
either all the way in or all the way out I happen to be all the way out right now so you know I’m not I don’t even really
look at it all that favorably although once in a while I’ll check in and watch some something and feel the old feelings again but Luke I I think I Echo what
you’re saying in a way where it’s like if anything like this has not been a great year for UFC but luckily it’s been
a very good depending on how you look at it luckily though the you know they’ve delivered on Main Events we’ve gotten big fights we’ve got Jon Jones back he’s
going to fight Stipe we’re getting some big [ __ ] but there’s been watered down Croc uh cards across the board there’s
the fear of that lawsuit there’s the whole fighter pay issue and there’s power slap and all this other BS okay
by the way no I’m setting up a point so the point is Luke it hasn’t been great
in what that is starting to feel like is this is already the corporate era of UFC
right like money is winning out more than ever in some very aggressive ways the raising of the ticket prices all of
that well if you’re going to join with WWE in this super thing and kind of benefit from each other and begin to bleed over in ways Beyond just Rousey or
Lesnar switching back and forth uh what I don’t want is this really badass thing
cage fighting and at the highest level in the UFC to become Disney five to become microwave cheeseburger fast food
to go extreme in that direction do you think we can trust the way the corporate
structure is laid out in the recent history of Endeavors you know putting their stamp on the organization that
it’s not going in that direction because obviously UFC can further their move into every household and become an even
more legitimate Power Sport I don’t know if it’s ever going to be a big four maybe this gets it there but there’s
still a certain part of the population that’s like no no to cage fighting this could get past that but at what cost at
what price to the purity of this badass uh you know brand where we’re allowed to say the all these F words in the word
[ __ ] in the corner between rounds and be okay with it you know yeah I mean Disney doesn’t care
apparently so I don’t know you know I don’t know what that has to do with anything but listen
um my preferences are well known so I I want to be as Fair as possible I
would not start catastrophizing until we had really good reason to do that like
we had really sort of uh a a massive change in the way in which
matchmaking worked or they were just routinely giving fights to WWE stars and
this kind of uh almost grotesque way if we’re not there then I think we should be very careful about being like oh this
is bad for us I mean okay I joked at the beginning that it is because I think any Unity with pro wrestling is uh
nauseating for me but you know not necessarily some kind of deal breaker or
something like that on the other hand I mean this is what folks need to wrap their head around right
and this is true of any Monopoly in any industry the more intense and sclerotic it becomes by virtue of just not having
any competition challenge it the less they’re going to deliver on Innovation
um of the uh of the Integrity of the product the less they’re going to be able and willing and even necessary that
they’re going to be able to stick to their core Mission and the more they’re going to try and derive and find uh
sources of revenue or value somewhere to extract I mean that’s just what all monopolies do over time they’re less
responsive to the market because they can be and they’re more willing and frankly eager to extract any source of
wealth they can from the fans I mean you know here’s a great example be like why are ticket prices so high now in general ticket prices are high everywhere but
this is what I mean it’s because you as the consumer don’t have a choice if you want to see the very best let’s say
lightweights in the world I think Baltimore has some of them but in general most of them are in the UFC you
don’t really have a choice this is where you have to go so they can just do this [ __ ] and and people will only some
version of the market out there I don’t know if it’s hardcore fans but certainly some version of the market will just pay for it um so you know on the one hand BC
the answer is let’s before we declare that the sky is falling let’s see what they do on the other hand there is a
long-term Trend in place that any Monopoly in any Market is going to
suffer from and the fans are just going to have to deal with that one way or the other let’s see what they do to extract
well the last point I was going to make I wasn’t trying to interrupt you I was only trying to compliment it which was if man when Dana White was caught you
know people say slap at his wife but of course it was a back and forth that whole thing if you had told me by
September of this year they’d be doing this thing at the stock exchange and he’d be you know he said it’s a lateral
move but it’s actually something of a slight promotion to CEO that that would be in the cards boy that I would I don’t
know that I would have seen that coming but like there truly is zero penalty for
being rich if you’re rich enough in this country like people don’t give a [ __ ] so there you go well here’s my fear okay the fear you wrote raised about you know
if we get into too many CM Punk type stupid fights right there is a way it could work in a big enough Superstar
even in an attraction fight if you took Roman Reigns Luke and put him in there against somebody another famous ex
wrestler I don’t know maybe it’s maybe once in a while something like that could hit but I don’t necessarily want that we have enough of that in boxing
right now to be fair we got too much of that at the moment even though some is still hitting right some of it doesn’t suck but we got too much of it in
general but you can’t I don’t think you can watch this year as closely as we do in fans you know the fans that are on
the level that watch all of our P1 content do and not look at this that in
this year ticket prices are going like astronomically through the roof like to a level of extreme let’s just wring it
out at the same level that matchmaking is going in the other direction and it’s not that matchmaking is getting worse to
offset the fact that they’re paying the fighters up to a level that that you know critics would think is is decent or
acceptable for their power position there but I don’t think you can ignore those two things and wonder whether some
of that is to start paying off the initial debt of of acquiring this like even though all the stuff Ari is saying
and all these interviews on CNBC and all these you know these money interviews he is saying and using numbers that make
sense are impressive and they they did spin that sale of the of UFC did Endeavor into something even bigger now
but at what cost the actual product you know what I mean like am I going to get
too aggressively mad if Izzy does an Undertaker WWE entrance even though I thought that was really lame it’s almost
like I want do I want more theatrical and fun stuff yeah in boxing they’re starting to really do that in the big
fights and it’s great I’d like UFC to be a little more open to that but I don’t want to just take WWE gimmicks and hit
us over the head on that level just like I don’t want too many pro wrestlers being involved on real fight cards but
what about that other aspect that acquiring this until you can make back that money I have to believe that the matchmaking
and the raising of prices and the water down of the overall quality it has some connection to this TKO thing in this WWE
thing right Luke so those are the fears I have that essentially the public are going to get going to get a little bit
less of the pie in terms of what the value was of of putting your money down for a pay-per-view and all that and you
know that’s the sacrifice of being able to put a fight card on almost every weekend to have a deal this big but I’m
nervous how this all comes together moving forward one quote I do want to bring up to you Luke and get your
reaction is Lawrence Epstein what’s his role in the UFC is it like head of money Luke
um it was maybe Chief Financial I’m not I’m not yeah he may have been UFC CEO
and now he got moved around I have to double check his quote that Mark Raymond uh tweeted out and did a nice story
wrapping up all the details of this for ESPN was where we want to get is where every UFC fan is a WWE Fan and every WWE
Fan is a UFC fan now Luke that can either make you cringe if you’re like MMA purist hardcore that’s not gonna
work but I have to say from experience I I get that that’s their goal and part of
that which is in Mark Ray Monday’s story for ESPN is that you know they’re talking about selling the idea to cities
of you’ll get a WWE pay-per-view and a UFC one in the same city the same weekend think of the tourism push will
that lead to more aggressive WWE fighters showing up on UFC broadcast maybe probably but look I don’t actually
think there’s there’s as big of a crossover as people think and that comes from years being in the podcast
journalist space and going to pay-per-views and big events I mean Dave Meltzer is proof in the fact that he
covers MMA and pro wrestling on the same level in his wrestling Observer newsletter that there there is a a
crossover but dude go to a WWE pay-per-view like 75 of this audience is
the comic book superhero movie like that side the cosplaying side like that’s you
know the the parents with little kids side um I get that that’s their goal and ambition and putting you know there’s
going to be crossover it’s going to create something it’s probably going to work for them in the end but again at what cost and look I don’t think it’s
going to be that easy to make that Lawrence Epstein quote come true also as I understand it like I don’t think the
pro wrestling fan base is as militantly right-wing as the MMA fan base right no no it’s it it isn’t and and it’s also
been a wholesome PG product WWE for a while now where you know obviously in the Attitude Era in the 90s and then all
even all the way through the first half of the of the 2000s I mean there was crazy blood there was crazy storylines
you you’re not getting a lot of that anymore so I don’t know how it’s going to fly with some of the the way politics
crosses into to UFC or Luke maybe it really won’t affect on the level of my stand on the street corner with a sign
type of you know fear-mongering is saying maybe it won’t I guess I just don’t want to see it hit the level of
where the matchmaking gets worse what did you make of Ari Emmanuel’s comments on that interview show where somebody
brought up the pfl getting the Saudi Investment and the idea that that if
that relationship works out there could be an unlimited amount of money and that could rise fighter pay and pfl to really
become a rival of UFC uh Ari basically said in his response that they have the
money to sort of fight that battle if necessary right that’s kind of what he said yeah I mean there’s a there’s a there’s a battle between the Saudi
Sovereign wealth fund and the uh the Emirates essentially the UAE Sovereign
wealth International wealth as well uh and it’s interesting though WWE has the relationship with Saudi Arabia which
that kind of makes it like you know they’re able to get a little bit of the both there but I’ve said this before dude people think oh the Saudis have a
limited money well they basically do that’s true but I’m gonna say it one more time and I hope folks are listening
there is no circumstance short of some Scandal or catastrophe
rocking uh UFC or federal legislation or you know really losing on the merits of
this lawsuit short of any of those things there is no way no way that one
or pfl or Bellator together can out-compete UFC it cannot happen it will
not happen it’s not possible I don’t give a [ __ ] what kind of check the uh
the Saudis are cutting them it’s not enough if the market forces are constrained because of the way in which
a monopoly has taken over the industry with cop fighter contracts and everything else it’s not [ __ ]
possible that’s what folks have to wrap their head around oh they’re going to get Saudi money great doesn’t mean jack
[ __ ] if the way in which they can control the industry is unchanged and right now it remains unchanged so I can
understand and why Ari is quite comfortable and confident they can win that battle I agree they will win that
battle short of anything else intervening what I took from his comments was him basically saying well
you know he did the whole well fire pay has been improving despite what people think you know it’s been getting better and all this stuff yeah but you can see
what happens oh I’m trying to say what I’m actually trying to say what I’m trying to actually say is Luke it sounded to me like he was saying
um if we have to pay to make sure we keep our people we will so like until we
get to that point we’re not worried and we’re happy with what we pay them now okay our Dividends are great you know I mean like that’s what he was really
saying yeah I understand but even that’s not true uh John Nash was tweeting that uh quote so so the UFC filed I’m not
going to get into the legal ease of it but a motion of petitioner to leave a to leave to file a reply and brief in
support of rule 23f petition you might be asking what the hell does this mean here is what he wrote quote kind of
interesting how when making the rounds today to sell their new TKO stock Endeavor coo Mark Shapiro boasted that
fighter pay had grown faster than revenues but in this legal filing they can see the opposite that it has lagged
Revenue growth they had there they had filed uh a motion that essentially
agrees that their revenue that the the fighter pay has not kept up with Revenue
growth they actually admitted it in this motion or they’re trying to get a larger brief where they can talk about it and
then the CEO of Endeavors like nah it’s totally kept up like they’re just saying [ __ ] well dude they’re picking out
whatever metric they want to lean on right they’re they’re they’re creatively lying but they’re also leaning on whatever fact obviously money like dude
like your money pay is going to go up over time no matter what you know what I mean so they’re probably looking at look we gave more bonuses here and that
proves that we’re paying more like it’s all Bs I’m just saying that they’re I’m just telling you what they’re saying in
court flatly contradicts what they’re saying in the media of course of course and that’s why every time Ari says that
it’s like I know you’re probably leaning on a stat but it doesn’t seem to be the case we’ll see if that lawsuit has a
monster effect on all this um I mean are you hoping it does Luke are you hoping that lawsuit creates some chaos so that
the I mean obviously you are if you want people to get paid what they deserve right I mean I’m not looking for chaos in the industry I don’t think that’s
quite right and also there’s like a weird scenario where like what happens if they you know they get these two-year
contracts that the UFC has to abide by but there’s no sanctioning bodies to kind of order certain fights I know
everyone’s got opinions about the sanctioning bodies and they are you know there’s a I mean an ever-growing list of
problems with them but they do at its core serve something of a valuable function if the industry doesn’t have
that it would be missing some key regulation in order to make it all work so there’s a lot of ways that this could not go well but if you’re asking in
general am I looking for fighters to get a bigger piece of the pie and have less constraint by promoters like is there is
there an imbalance there is a [ __ ] monster imbalance and however you want
to correct that I don’t care but it needs to be corrected uh topic number three Luke uh the next big pay-per-view
right we had 293 last weekend how about 294 it goes down October 21st in Abu Dhabi and the UFC has announced the four
fights that’ll make up what is expected to be a five fight main card uh there seems to be reason to believe the fifth
fight is still coming but here’s where we stand right now the main event your lightweight title rematch Islam Charles
Oliveira Paulo Costo and Hamza chamaev in a very important positioning fight
for middleweight title Futures there how about magomed and Goliath finally back
taking on Johnny Walker is he still the Dark Horse for the title in this division after fighting blahovich to a
title draw and then kind of being forgotten about in National Dean imavov against ekram alaskerov Luke that’s a
there’s a lot of oh you know vowels and V’s in there that’s going to get you fired up for all the right reasons how
how do you grade this four fight main card so far um so far A plus uh or a minus maybe I
mean it’s [ __ ] great I don’t have I mean you’d have to be I mean I’m a salty dog and even I’m telling you like I
think it’s great like it feels like a major really great kind of feels like a major right this feels like yeah it really feels like a big one they listen
you know like it a lot don’t but the cards they take to Abu Dhabi have of re of late they’ve been bangers they’ve
been absolute bangers and this is certainly one of them just need one more piece to the puzzle those people get what they pay for look they do they get
the big stuff same same thing when WWE goes they start calling people out of retirement to try to please Saudi and it
works out there uh the confirmed undercard bouts at the moment are Tim Ellie Elliott against Muhammad mokaya
which I love Jin you fry against Victoria dudikova Bruno Silva against Shara Budden Mago Madoff Luke if you had
to play matchmaker here and provide a fifth fight to really make this a dominant a plus huge major across the
board what is this missing give me something here so I saw somebody’s I cannot remember who it was so I apologize because I cannot remember it
but I saw somebody suggest on Twitter uh Orman saryukian versus banil Darius oh
yes boy that’d be a [ __ ] great one huh stop Hammer Time Luke yes wow now
you know Darius the Persian was up in there trying to proselytize Christianity it’s all Muslims I’m not sure they
appreciated that or not but um nevertheless nevertheless what is that’s representative that would be that is
represented in the brand right there I was I was I was interested of that Luke um yeah I’d take that instantly do you think though or let me ask you the
question I mentioned chefchenko could be in the running for a bantamweight title shot if they ever figure that out what are they waiting for Luke is it going to
show up on the MSG card the final card in December could it show up on this one
what are you thinking for that oh I uh that’s a great question I don’t
know I don’t probably more New York than Abu Dhabi yes okay yes just based on
timing alone but um you know they’re giving it I honestly haven’t followed it you know home will
be in that fight Luke home Pennington three no no probably
all right uh let’s keep this moving there um topic number four Luke fight news and
announcements I’m gonna want you to agree what grading system are you going to use to show me whether you care about these fight announcements or you don’t
uh one to five stars all right here we go five stars being great Luke uh how
about six stars for this one UFC Vegas 80 is October 7th they fight night card Carolina
against Diana balbita yeah brother two and a half three stars
well how how I mean how freaking Dare You Luke hovikovich won’t go away she’s coming on I mean come on I will say what
does she have like three wins in a row stop winning yeah she’s leaning on technique and toughness you notice she
goes I say this as a compliment she goes spaz like once around she just starts coming off with like eight punch
combinations and like you know after she gets hit she’s going after it again after that long losing streak it’s interesting to see the same night how
about oh oh my God Alex morono Joaquin Buckley oh bro bro three and a half
stars but that could almost be a four new Manzo will make sure that that is an uh oh Banger
yeah indeed uh let’s go over to November 11th it is UFC 295 Madison Square Garden
Jared Gordon versus Marco Madsen wow that’s kind of so I didn’t see that one coming but I like it yeah that’s an
interesting with three stars definitely um with the potential to go a little higher
that’s a good one I like it I don’t love it but I like it let’s see if Mark let’s see what Marco Madsen has left here Luke
let’s see if well you know you you stop believing in him right he’s a little old he’s a little old UFC
Vegas 81 goes down October 14th Fight Night Terrence McKinney versus Chris Duncan
three stars like McKinney’s on Pace for like 14 fights this calendar year I know
that dude is just insanely active I hope it works out for him all right our final topic Luke and the five here uh we’re
gonna coincide here with with some great coverage this week on cbssports.com MMA uh looking back five years removed from
not just 2018 for the UFC but of course the big flag on top of that mountain the biggest fight in pay-per-view history
Conor McGregor versus Habib nurmaga medoff UFC 29 Emma biggest yeah the MMA
history yeah yeah for sure um Luke this is coinciding with with some great content we’re seeing this
week looking back at how much things have changed so here’s a recap the company sells to Endeavor in the middle
of 2016. 2017 was a hangover year do you admit this looking back Luke there were
no it wasn’t I mean and also again 2016 you either got Rhonda or Conor once a
quarter so it was crazy it was crazy 2017 also that was the year where Connor
stayed away fought Floyd so that you know even though UFC was a part of that it just that year didn’t hit you know
gdr versus Holly Holm was sort of like I’m the poster for what that year was all about in the end 2018 though Luke
they were back with a bang and year in full year too for endeavor we got to see this machine running it doesn’t hurt
when Conor McGregor comes back and not only happens to UFC 229 but that April
UFC 223 card Luke I have a piece out just looking back at the five biggest events and biggest moments of the year
and number three on my list is just that in April UFC 223 because you could you
can look at Conor McGregor versus Habib in the bus and the dolly as being almost bigger than what happened you know on
the fight night that night with Habib winning the vacant lightweight title against late replacement late replacement late replacement Al I
aquinta but Luke if you take that as a whole the dolly incident Habib cornering
the go artem lobov Conor getting on a Jet Plane Rose is scared to fight
rightfully so Ray Borg and kiessa have glass in their eyes and they pull out and then you’ve got Max Holloway and
Anthony Pettis kind of half an ounce for the main event in some ways after Tony Ferguson six days before the card slips
on a court in the Fox Studios dude like that is one of the craziest weeks in the history of this sport I remember being
here on H Street with my wife at a dinner and then I saw the news broke that Tony was out after tripping on a
wire and I’m like dude what the [ __ ] is happening here and then I actually went to fight week I was at that media day
where Connor eventually showed up and the Mac live guys let him in and then all hell broke loose I was actually taking the subway back from Barclays to
the I had to do my radio show uh for times uh in near Times Square
essentially for SiriusXM and um and while I’m looking at my phone being
like you know Conor’s doing this that and the other and I’m like dude holy [ __ ] like this is insane everything
that’s happening you know and then all that obviously building up to later on what they had at UFC 223 it was just it
was just it was a crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy ass time and obviously that
that meeting between Habib and Conor remember they had the were you were you at the Radio City Music Hall was the
weirdest press conference of all time all the time Conor was like kind of drunk and there was no fans and it was
dude he was reading as [ __ ] like he was like in a dark like Stan like trance
Luke he was going out he was like I [ __ ] on bus and I’m like BC he’s done that a million times I mean that’s that’s
happened it was almost like he thought I I the only chance I have to break this guy is to go down dark and dirty and
change you know method act and channel the dark side there Luke and he tried it was weird but don’t don’t forget by the
way Max Holloway came in on late notice remember he had that TV interview and they pulled him from the car
oh that was the first Ortega fight it was supposed to be right I could use that sometimes but he accepted and then
got pulled off because of what the weight cut uh yeah he was supposed to fight he was briefly going to fight
um Habib this was going to be in Brooklyn but then it ended up being Ally Quinta you know the whole thing but
I was going to say it the poison carried all the way through to 223 and then obviously we saw what Habib did
afterwards and we were there I was there I think you were there too right I was there was I there I was in the front row and
don’t forget after Habib did the flying drop kick on Dylan danis you know habib’s co-manager with the Russian name
I always forget it he got handcuffed on top of my laptop because you know it was a brawl and people were trying to grab
people and they just I the cops just thought he was in the middle of it so they handcuffed him and I got a video of I should have played it right here Luke
where it’s just that was one of the more okay I say this and people look back and they don’t have the same fear or
feelings because they weren’t in the arena but if you were in the arena that felt like we were going to a palace
brawl situation it felt like because I was watching like five six people at a time Jump the barrier and get you know
into the melee outside the cage and then out of the corner of my eye Conor’s fighting members of habib’s Team you
know and like it was like I literally thought that was going to be the moment MMA was taken off of like TV and fans
were gonna get you know Brawl on like remember Bo versus Galata at Madison Square Garden 1996 that Big Brawl
between the African-American fans and the Polish fans like I thought we were on that way between the Irish fans and the Russian fans look like would you get
straight up race Wars in in boxing it’s crazy but uh I I will say in the I I was
in the media tent so it didn’t feel quite I mean it did feel tense it felt tense but not quite as tense as that but
I’m just sort of pointing out like look at how long that line of poison continued and then when Connor actually
not Connor when Habib came back to the media tent and was like you know this guy insulted My Religion insulted my
family like you know and the commission’s gonna be mad at me you know I was you know I just I apologize to the
commission but you can’t do that like he was straight up and I remember to kill me my dad’s gonna kick my ass he’s like
my dad’s gonna kick me and I remember I was talking to uh Chuck Mendenhall because I was sitting next to Mendenhall we were there in the media tent and then
we did an interview with the submission radio guys like electronic process like what the [ __ ] just happened and dude
Chuck was right he’s like dude that was cold from Habib like he had a steely-eyed yes you know ice water in
his veins determination about that it was one of the darkest but I will say biggest chapters frankly in UFC rivalry
history yeah that’s what you got to say like there’s a reason why this was the biggest fight of all time in MMA 2.4
million pay-per-view buys and remember that brawl like that that didn’t happen before the fight that didn’t affect the
pay-per-view sales but this was this exceeded DC versus Jones in my opinion of how intense the Rivalry was I mean it
got to Crazy levels Conor and handcuffs Connor after the April Dolly incident kind of going to court dates in New York
but look that’s what people focus on but there’s a reason why it bested all those
other ones on that graphic and it wouldn’t have gotten there in my opinion if it didn’t have that Ali Frazier one
element where Connor was the lightweight champion the world got stripped of the belt due to inactivity but never lost it
in the cage but then the next guy that came up after him was unbeaten and looked like you know an absolute World
beater it’s very rare Luke as big of a big as a perfect storm as Mayweather McGregor was in its own way it’s very
rare when you can get a fight that means so much and the fact that they were both in like the top three pound per pound to
the title spot there but also be this dark insane War like deep rivalry I
don’t I mean I don’t know if you’re gonna see that again because both elements were there at the same time you know yeah you know I don’t think that
you will and I remember being like that was a lot of people’s introduction to the idea that the dagestani guys the the
Muslim guys they don’t [ __ ] play games like they have a Old World style not that I necessarily share this world
do I do not but they certainly they have a certain view of what kind of discourse
is acceptable and if that discourse is broken there is hell to pay you know they have
a very different way of learning about it but you know it’s kind of funny is that because of experiences like that
all of us got real nervous when kamaru and Colby had their first kind of media
before they were doing them they were on stage after like a post UFC weigh-in show or whatever it was or you know post
UFC result show and it had to be separated remember Karen Brown was there and everything and we were like dude
this is going to turn into some kind of like I don’t know like weird race thing and it’s going to be terrible and it it
didn’t actually get that bad it never really lived up to it like it just goes
to show that moment in time between the the fir that was Conor McGregor at his
Peak too to a degree right because coming off the Mayweather fight he was larger than life
colliding with this other different side of the world different kind of fan base
and it had all these fault lines that were cultural religious yes you know you name it like if it was a powder keg and
if you were a casual fan who didn’t really know Habib yet he looked like Angry Bad Guy Foreign villain in a movie
right you know what I mean because Conor is the fan favorite in a way yet he’s being so dirty he’s acting like the bad
guy and and like think about how badass Habib is scores like the biggest win of his life
instantly runs at McGregor’s Corner throws his mouthpiece hurdles the cage
and drop kicks still in Danish and starts a massive melee that like you
know I mean look they could have you could lose your job for stuff like that you know what I mean you could be arrested it could have led like I said
to a full brawl in the crowd and put a stain on the sport luckily it didn’t and I give credit to the the police on staff
they they put that out quick from being as Extreme as it was but I mean members of his team jumping Conor almost like a
movie scene dude I’ll never forget that that was the most
bizarre like action movie turns into real life moment I’ve ever seen yeah and you know I remember the strike force
brawl in Nashville I remember that very distinctly that wasn’t nearly as bad like it was I’m not saying that was
great you know it wasn’t great but it wasn’t it was on CBS and you know and obviously Gus Johnson didn’t do anyone
any favors being like these things happen in MMA were like Gus uh buddy gentlemen but but you know if you’re
looking at melee versus melee it wasn’t nearly as bad but it sort of told you
maybe certain rules don’t apply to UFC in the same way that it might apply to other promoters but more than that how
much more accepted MMA was and I think also we were looking like if if you didn’t live through the 2008s and the
nines and then the early 2010s you just don’t appreciate how sensitive it was about like whether MMA was going to be
accepted into the mainstream this was the conversation around everything and eventually we let that go around 2014
when Rousey was around I were like wow we got women doing this now on a high level and everything you know but but in
when when the brawl happened this was still a very relevant conversation and
uh and it you know obviously changed strike Force’s trajectory it changed the trajectory of MMA on TV for a little
while the good news is it didn’t set back MMA but you know I think that was
the first time since the strike force brawl BC we were all like uh oh what is this gonna mean for MMA borderline it
was it was Mikey can you throw to that full screen one more time of the biggest Pay-Per-View fights you want to see Conor McGregor’s Legacy in full here
Luke look at that brother right damn I mean damn you know what’s not on there
UFC 100 or 200 Luke Connor has a Mayweather style grip on the top five
right there yeah there’s just no denying how big he has been and how transformative but look at the dates on
these things too 20 21 and then 16 uh then obviously 18 uh not much since 2021
huh but that’s not that list doesn’t even involve the Aldo fight the the Mendes fight I mean the Diaz won which
was I think at the time that may have been like number two all time at the time UFC 196 happened so McGregor owns
that top ten I think Brock still lingers maybe um Luke to close out this idea of 2018 and looking back
in some ways a lot has changed in some ways things are still the same now 2018 was the second year of the Dana White
Contender series which was a you know a big major change between now and then I did a little bit of uh digging on the
statistics here there were 28 title I’m sorry there were uh 14 title fights in 2018 that means sorry that number’s
wrong there were 28 fighters in 2018 who fought for either an interim or Undisputed championship and half of them
are no longer on the roster now another four or five probably won’t be soon guys
like delisha sahudo steepe maybe even Jon Jones but Luke it gets even crazier
when you go Champions that were still championed then five years ago zero the only one
who still has a title is Jon Jones but he took off three years and moved up to
another weight class so what does that tell you about even 25 30 years into
this game how crazy this sport still is wow dude this is what I mean first of all it tells you about the enduring uh
uh capabilities of Jon Jones that’s that’s one thing it tells you about but secondly this is what we talk about all
the time you know it’s always funny to me when people question like my MMA fandom I’m like [ __ ] I’ve been
here longer than you’ve been here and I’ll be here long after you’re gone you know this is what we talk about when we
talk about turn around and turn over these guys that fans fall in love with take a long time to become stars then
they finally hit for a little bit and then they lose and then when they start losing often they can’t get it back and
then the fan base just turns over because their guys aren’t on top for very long it’s very very very very very
difficult and exceedingly rare forget being a champion just to stay relevant in MMA over the course of five years and
these live again I’m making it up about a life cycle it could be three it could be seven I don’t really know but you can you can get a good sense of evaluating
MMA and five-year increments because the beginning and end of them are radically different and that tells you about the
fan base and the churn that gets experienced with it it’s a weird dynamic but it’s the one that exists I mean if
you even if you look at who’s champion right now in 2023 and you want to talk about who actually has an ongoing true
Title reign is it really just Alexander volcanovski right now Luke you know what
I mean because even like Zhang Whaley won the title you know won the title lost it won it back and there’s been so many upsets of late that there’s really
very few even in the moment right now obviously Islam is trying to build a run here Leon Edwards on top but to see how
to sign you lose it twice in 10 months is crazy I think we can look back here at a full screen of who was on top just
five years ago back in 2018 here’s cbssports.com’s countdown for the fighter of the Year award Luke uh we
don’t have that one present but it was Amanda Nunes who defeated Rocky Pennington and then moved up in weight and knocked out uh Chris cyborg to win a
title on a second division we have a look back though look at which of today’s Stars debuted just five years
ago hmm and there you see it three that reached the championship pavlovich Corey
stanhagen could be next I mean Luke what about the rest of the names from Johnny Walker through Kevin Holland do you see
any future title Reigns in that group Mackenzie Dern kind of always remains a
point of intrigue if she can turn it around Macy Barber is very young so we’ll never know Johnny Walker I think
you know he had some real ups and downs but has appeared to be and you know it was in a very wide open division let’s
say and then San Hagan’s an interesting one uh pavlovich you know I’ll say this like Bryce Mitchell and Kevin Holland I
don’t know that’s possible um Barbara I think has a long way to go too but from Dern to pavlovich could you
write them off as title uh uh our potential title winners I don’t think
you could but they’re not shoe wins either you know it’s a it’s a tough div it’s it’s it’s really tough and you can
see man it’s just success in anime is hard to get anything and it’s even harder to stay on top a very very fast
moving Sport and then the conversation look my big five moments were of course 229 Conor and Habib don’t forget DC
International fight week knocking out Stipe miocic in round one not only because coming champ champ joining only
McGregor for simultaneous at that point but that was the only way he was going to kind of get out of the Jon Jones
shadow that was above him and never beating his career rival right to beat him to becoming a two Division champion
and he did of course then he had 223 and all the all the craziness how about number four Luke the 25th anniversary
Denver card in November that year right and the Chan song Jung versus yair Rodriguez the one second left in what
was already a very good action fight the craziest man no that’s the craziest finish of all time that is dude it
probably is yeah yeah you’re down on the cards ducked a punch throws a Haymaker blind elbow and knocks one of the
biggest one of the greatest action stars of all time out cold with no time left and then number five uh was
um Dustin Poirier against Justin gaichi one which was one of two Fox main events for Poirier in a three-month span where
he knocked out both Eddie Alvarez and their rematch and three months earlier Justin gaichi in what I still think is
the best action fight of this great lightweight era over the past decade yeah a lot of fun there to look back
Luke thank you for taking part let’s close with this so we give our fans a chance every Wednesday to uh you know
Force us to put their artwork up on the fridge hey look fan Subs ain’t for everybody right but for those deep P
ones how about for The Average Joe’s of the world how about for the Donk of the years that have become something in
these parts to us family members we call this fan submissions You’ve Got Mail
viewers yes we do and you know at the very least
we could at least make fun of our fans look morning combat gmail.com is your path to get here how about John he says
hey Luke and BC would love to know what you think of the tattoo I got a while back from artist Alex zahorski at the
shop in Port Jervis New York as a trade for tickets to Bellator NYC at MSG it
was a super fun event I think I came out pretty good on the deal though keep up the award-winning stuff I’m a day one
donk it’s John baltz Luke are you going to send John baltz to Hell in a Mr um he
boss level here or no no no no this is a well done tattoo uh it’s sort of a mix
between like portrait realism and um American traditional but so I the
concept’s a little different but it’s well executed again I I don’t like yellows and greens and Tattoos I don’t
think they look very good but that’s me personally speaking I’d say this one I mean that skull is very well done and the saturation
everywhere else is pretty well done and the line works pretty well done so it’s it’s it’s a conceptually different
tattoo but it’s it’s well done all right happy to hear that well done donk I do like that purple color look if that
means anything and he’s from Port Jervis New York which is the New York New Jersey border town on I-84 so I’ve taken
many a poop in the McDonald’s right right off that exit so hopefully that guy you know caught a little on him or
something wow that’s gross let’s go to mark good afternoon Luke and BC this is my goat artem obviously named after the
best man to ever do the damn thing artem love tell me what you think Luke and if you guys are ever down to London Ontario
I’d love to have you out at my restaurant to whip you up some food it is at the I the cast iron kitchen 2021
on Instagram cheers boys I’m a day one it’s Mark Paquette and I’m probably not
related to Jay but who the [ __ ] knows what my dad did
um I like it mostly I mean I would say that like first of all it’s a very difficult
tattoo to do it’s very difficult so my only issue with it is you can see the hair well differentiated on the sort
of bridge of the nose and then the forehead but not really anywhere else on the body and then you know I realize
it’s eating hay but it like from the bottom of the nose around it’s not as
well done so it’s really well done in parts and then the rest of it is kind of not
um it’s a I would say this it’s overall a good tattoo this is not a bad tattoo but not every part is as good as the
other part all right well I love the story and I do Wonder Luke if his dad is also Jay Pickett’s dad which would make
these piquettes Brothers all right and others donks in arms there uh I do love
having a a goat tattoo named artem that’s amazing that is that is great that is yeah that’s that’s a guy who
gets it right there let’s go over to Phil he says what’s up dunks not necessarily a fan sub maybe more of a heavy scene than [ __ ] but on a recent
episode of the ringer MMA show with helwani pizza Carol and Chuck Mendenhall a question was asked about which
journalist or media member would win in an MMA tournament well they determined that ekc Lighty would mop I’m sorry E
Casey Leiden would mop the floor with everyone our boy Luke did give a shout out from PT although Chuck quickly
provided a foolproof game plan for defeating Luke do we have the video here before you know who though [ __ ] Luke
Thomas is a big [ __ ] he’s a big dude I was just thinking that but I think you just gotta you just gotta drag him into
the deep water and I think that’s about the two minute Mark for him like so I think you just kind of avoid contact let him wear himself out
now look that’s our that’s our quarterback
just sending you to hell right there I can’t I mean here’s the problem I would love to say he’s wrong he’s [ __ ]
right like it would not take long you know I don’t I’m 44 for [ __ ] sake like my fighting days are long over Luke I
will say you’ve had many a great Zinger when it comes to like our MK documentaries or the intros to like our
pre-game previews or room service Diaries the way your comedy sort of subtly bounces off of mine is always
been brilliant that comment you made to for Volo when he’s like damn you’re bigger than I thought and you’re like well it’s mostly old and fat and you
have like a dejected look like you sold it like that was just chef’s kiss that was beautiful I’m good for I’m not good
for many things but uh funny self-loathing I can do pretty well there we go uh Phil closes by saying how about
this although Chuck quickly proved oh wait I personally think pizza Carol would be a great addition to the MK
extended family and possibly even a great RSD interview the man can put away
some Guinness so so he’d be great for the pregame preview love all you guys uh Luke I’ve never met him but I’m he seems
to be a fun colorful guy and if he’s he is he’s funny he’s fun to be around and what did we learn when we went to England I mean obviously he’s not
British he’s Irish but I’m saying those dudes from across the pond they they’re better at conversation than a lot of the
American dogs so uh I think according to shop he is from Britain though Luke one time I’m not doing a skater I’m just
telling you like the truth I’m I’m moving through here so what did what did Brendan say this time that I’m not aware of I I it’s not this time it was like
two years ago but I think he was like oh yeah that that English guy right about pizza Carol yes yeah definitely not
English definitely there you go uh this one’s from Brian he says Uh there’s no I’m sorry there’s no text in here but
corpse grinder the vocalist and Cannibal Corpse does this cool thing where he wins a bunch of claw games on the road
and donates all the toys to the Children’s Hospitals look we’ve been through this before what are they what do these people want from me I wanna
still I don’t have to like abortion Rock just because this guy’s got a charity well I will say you know you got you
think that all these guys are Disturbed and it’s sort of proof that the music is kind of separate from it all okay true
or false one of the guys is deeply Disturbed true or false he’s not in the Band anymore they like they already was
he was Luke he was okay all of your favorite rock musicians are all super rational and [ __ ] spoke uh Spock like
Vulcan with their uh their train of thought I always liked R Kelly A Lot Luke you know I can forgive a lot of
things apparently right yeah all right kidding kidding anyway corpse grinder is a is a great
dude and um yes that’s what he does all on tour he uses the claw machines to get stuff and then when he gets home he gives it all to Children’s Hospitals
it’s pretty great dude those claw machines are not easy and this guy’s like the master it seems he apparently is like you know the Mr Miyagi of that
[ __ ] he can just go in there catch the fly like Daniel did US here’s
Scott and he says uh Scott Luke here from Las Vegas I’m visiting Cumberland Virginia not much to do on this Farm but
took a little hike in the woods banjo playing and came across this magnificent feather-like Yankee Doodle Dandy
probably got some bird virus but anything for the MK fight on so Luke he’s a turkey feather if I’m not
mistaken yeah he’s only doing this to show us what he looks like in the tank top and you know Scott impressive bro
you know you you know where the gym is bro but look this feels forced this is like a Instagram stunt right well he put
a turkey feather in his hat and then you know he called him macaroni he did I mean the guy’s jacked his [ __ ] let’s be
honest though right yeah good for him all right thank you Scott here’s Rob from Long Island he’s got a video that
explains it all good morning dogs happy Friday Long Island Rob here
I don’t have any fancy Graphics or music or anything like that I just got a question for you
depending the retirement of Jones out of the Four Horsemen of that heavyweight division who do you got
touching the title first pavlovich gone Almeida or aspin all let
me know shout out LT shout out BC keep doing the Lord’s work
uh this doesn’t feel like a fan sub but it’s a great question Luke from uh Long Island Rob who’s trying yeah I mean he’s
making his move right he’s going after him what is it what is Long Island Rob wearing he’s got a do-rag and like a
polo shirt and it’s like rob you white buddy I’m not sure what’s what’s happening there I put peanut butter and
cheese in the same sandwich okay you know you could Two Worlds Collide rival Nations um who’s right here on the if
both of these guys retire who will grab the belt first in your opinion
problem is man I’ve been wrong on it’s okay so partly it’s just who’s got the favorable matchmaking in terms of uh not
getting easy opponents but like getting to it first right yeah yeah I’m gonna say aspinal you think he could so so do
you think it would need the UFC to make aspin all pavlovich next and and then he would win it there is that where where
you’re going yeah something like that he might win it with takedowns or you know ground a pound or submission or something like that you know uh
I I don’t know it’s hard to it’s dude it’s like this is the like honestly I saw Jack slack going back and forth with
fans on Twitter because everyone is like oh it’s Jon Jones versus Stipe this is amazing and his argument has been well
these two guys are like well past their Prime how good can it be I’m sort of somewhat in the middle I don’t think
they’re like they’re completely shot but I understand the argument that like you know you’re not getting anything approximating the best eBay or even the
approximating Jon Jones though the more interesting part is the pavlovich gone
aspinal side but I don’t know how that’s going to play out I agree with you I love Almeida as a dark horse Luke I just
do you think the Striking is good enough no but everything else is everything else is has to be interesting all right
uh Luke I gotta press pause on the Phantoms I gotta catch a bird so I’m gonna be Friday night 9 30 p.m Eastern
on Showtime it is ShowBox the new generation live and direct from San Antonio so catch me outside how about uh
uh Luke Thomas we want people to buy our merch at morningcombat dot store the average Joe limited time collection is
still there hey look I seriously if you can take this off the shelves we can get more of this great Average Joe Arden
reach out to him on social media great guy low-key nurses uh an injured dog he’s got 10 cats this guy I love this
guy oh look really seriously buy his merch yep yeah please I don’t know I mean I don’t know if he knows Chris Hansen Luke that could be a deal breaker
but I still eat at Subway so you know what do I don’t know what a lot of seat over there have a seat over there it is
right there thank you to Mikey more mile on the ones and twos check out our great content right now at youtube.com
morningcombat pre-game preview for Noche UFC we gotten that for vola on the couch and
he was really good guys talking about somebody right really good stuff their room service Diaries and Luke just chat
with Eric nixik and that’s a must watch friend of the program big win for Sean Strickland find out more for yourself
Luke any final words don’t forget Saturday night UFC no Jay post fight show I got you covered all right we’ll
hit up the rest of the uh fads fan Subs maybe later this week if not we’ll see you back next Wednesday thank you very
much for all the parties and all the people that pay us take care of yourselves guys we’re out of here let’s
do it we’ll be back on Friday we I gotta go I mean what do you want me what do you guys want me to do just just keep
sitting here like just you know you know [ __ ] them do you guys know the theme of
the book The theme is the NFL and CBS streams live on Paramount plus that’s
not the theme of the book Josh high class that’s Josh Allen but Tony meant to say was the NFL on CBS streams live
on Paramount plus that’s exactly what he just said what does this have to do with English because the NFL on CBS streaming
live on Paramount plus is lit feels good to make a difference Tony
it’s about try it’s about Legacy
I Wanna Make History that’s why I’m here when you want to win something this big
you gotta risk it all but I’m ready and I prepare myself for a different kind of fight my whole career
has been about chasing Canelo Undisputed verses
