LUKE THOMAS LIVE CHAT | UFC Class Action Lawsuit | Izzy-Strickland | Wonderboy Pay

today was a better day for me it’s not it’s a it’s oh God boys and girls you just have no idea

you just have no idea um

what a tumultuous time in my career it’s the 10th of August uh 2023 this is

episode 167 of my live chat my name is Luke Thomas this is my personal Channel how

are you guys doing welcome uh on the docket today let’s see

we have just the absolutely massive news about the uh federal judge granting

class action certification for the plaintiffs that’d be the fighters in the

lawsuit against UFC which is just enormous enormous earth-shattering uh news even if there

aren’t any questions about it I’m just going to get to it at some point um so that’s going to be that

please forgive me um because of the stress that I am under

due to the state of things around me I am uh I’ve made myself sick no I don’t

like I’m not like sneezing or anything like that but um I have some issue with my throat where

it has like the sides of it have swollen up and it hurts to talk

it hurts to swallow I have a throat loss engine to help assist me with doing this uh

chat today I just can’t I wish I could get up on here I honest to God I wish I could get up on here and tell you that

everything is Rosy and great and that um you know

the future of all the projects that I’ve been working on are going in the direction that I want them to go in but

boys and girls that is just not that’s just not the truth or at a bare minimum I don’t really know what’s going

to happen but the uncertainty of it all has absolutely taken a toll on me

taking an unbelievable toll on me in all the worst ways

um I’m just having a rough time I’m having a real rough time and uh I don’t really I’ll have some

information soon actually I think no later than the end of this month I’ll actually have some

some pretty good information some some Direction but as it stands today I’m just in a

rough spot a rough spot I haven’t had a good night’s rest in I I can’t remember the

last time I mean there’s some nights I’ve slept a little better than others but um

dude you just put in an enormous amount of work and then you think at the end of the amount of work that you get to it’s

going to amount to something and then sometimes it does in fact for most of the time I’ve been working it has uh

just up until recently up until recently uh and now everything is just so

profoundly uncertain and uh it’s beating me up it’s beating me up it’s beating me up real good

so I’m going to give you the best I’ve got today uh through what I would describe

as unenviable circumstances I’m not asking for pity or sympathy or

anything like that that’s really not what this is about but rather that you know I’m just not going to get up on here and uh pretend that everything is

like awesome when it definitely [ __ ] isn’t it definitely [ __ ] isn’t so

work with me please and um I appreciate it as I said before

um I’ve got this thing going on it’s just making it hard to talk so you know kind of sucks when that’s your job but

uh it is I am where I am in all of this so let’s do this let’s get this party started thumbs up on the video if you haven’t

already there’s a poll please take it about what you might expect from the fighter lawsuit

we’ll get to some of those results at the end of the podcast today we’ll go as you guys know about an hour or so with

the free questions and then we’ll get to some of the paid ones if you feel so generous if not no judgment but you could do me a favor

you can hit that subscribe button because that’s free it doesn’t cost you a thing right so if you’d be so kindness

to do that I’d be really really uh I’d really really appreciative all right all right so enough with the uh the moping I suppose

um let’s try to get this thing going in the right direction shall we let’s go

all right did I lock my door yes so the two store won’t come in um I mentioned the class action lawsuit but

also other things to get to there are fights tomorrow with Bellator there are fights Saturday with UFC there is some

boxing I’m actually going to be calling the prelims for the Rodriguez Lopez fight over in um

MGM National Harbor which is there there’s like a MGM opened up a property just outside DC in this area called

National Harbor which is technically Oxon Hill Maryland it’s funny when I moved I moved back to DC in December of

04 I actually moved to Oxen Hill and um dude it was a it was a war zone it was a

war zone and I guess uh big parts of it still are but they’ve developed this area right along the water and they called it the

National Harbor and MGM built like a pretty nice Casino there I wouldn’t call it like

it’s not as big as a Vegas casino but it’s again MGM built it so it’s like

really nice um this is the this among other reasons is why Atlantic City has suffered

because you’ve got all these other places Baltimore has put a bunch of casinos as well West Virginia’s got a

bunch of casinos you used to have to resort to going to Atlantic City and of course they’ve got

MGM property there in Borgata and some other ones but it’s just it you know it doesn’t hold the same

um scarce resources that it once did now they’re just spread out anyway I’ll be

calling that you’ve got the navarrete Valdez fight and you got Anthony Joshua fighting Robert hellenius on short

notice because dillian White apparently can’t stop allegedly taking Peds so that’s fun

so we’ll get to any of those things UFC card whatever I’m gonna give you what I’ve got for the

next 90 minutes or so thank you for being here and uh sorry to dump this on you to open the show I’m

just boys and girls I’m struggling struggling so

I always feel like it’s better to be honest than not but uh maybe that’s why I’m in the predicament

that I’m in right so all right here we go

all right first things first let’s pull this up shall we

and uh we’ll add this there we go all right uh okay the likely purchase of Bellator

seems like a great opportunity for pfl to Rebrand itself what changes would you make

to give pfl the best chance it can have outside of your suggestion of the Matchmaker model this person writes I

think taking elements from other organizations as well as implementing the changes fans have been wanting to

see would be great in setting the pfl apart while creating a trajectory for success for example

take the Grand Prix kicks in these to a grounded opponent open scoring fixes to gloves for eye pokes blah blah blah all

right it’s actually a pretty good question I think first things first if I’m pfl

and I’m buying Bellator um I don’t think you need to keep the

Bellator brand around I think that it’s not that the pfl brand is like so Grand relative to the

Bellator brand but I don’t know really like if you’re buying Bellator you like for example when the UFC talks about

like what we were buying we were buying three letters we were buying you f and c you know and it mattered because it still had it had at the time that they

purchased it in 2001 it had some cultural cachet and and visible visibility and awareness and so that

brand that identity was quite important and they made all those changes and blah blah we all know the story

it was a grand success uh you’re not really doing that with Bellator I think what you’re doing with Bellator is

you’re probably buying a library right you’re buying you’re buying access to all of the library that they might have

you’re buying the roster I think that’s the most important part right and then

probably you know again there might be talent in the front office excuse me of Bellator that you might want to retain some you some May

come over some may not but in general to me the biggest two assets you’d be buying would be the fighter contracts

and then the fight Library um because you can like that’s going to serve you pretty well when you begin to integrate The rosters and and you need

stuff for social assets and promotional deals whatever so that’s really what you’re buying uh I know there had I’ve

heard that there have been some talks that they might keep the brand alive and have kind of like a separate but equal thing I just don’t think that makes a

lot of sense if you’re buying a rival organization the whole idea is so that there can be

crossover and again you can do that while still having independent Brands but it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to

me so the first thing I would say is is you know understand what you’re buying the

second part is you know it’s kind of funny too I mentioned this to BC on a podcast where like of all of the

organizations bellator’s cage is the only one that doesn’t have a separate identity right so like think about it

this way like um pfl has the smart cage and that’s a very dumb name for it I make fun of them for

it I call it the Ask Jeeves cage just as a joke but at least it has it has some kind of separate identity from the brand

UFC has the Octagon quite famous obviously even WC had though had the had the blue cage with the blue canvas it

had a kind of way to stand out Strike Force less so I suppose those had the hexagon it wasn’t really known as a big

thing but still and some some basic identity

um you know you can sort of go down the list in general what I would say is bellator’s rounded cage just doesn’t it

doesn’t have any unique identity so like you don’t need to borrow anything from that either the changes that I think are

the most important ones really aren’t so much about absorbing Bellator other than the roster and itself

one elbows I think need to be reintroduced uh big time I don’t think that they’re gonna really play too much

and go with borrowing anything that one does I don’t really think that’s in the conversation so I’m not even going to introduce it but what I would say is

important and I would take this from what Bellator does listen I remember quite distinctly it

was about 10 years ago this time I remember it so distinctly that Bjorn rebny and his media people at the time

put out a release saying you know we’re going to start breaking things up where if you’ve been in tournaments before and

you don’t want to go back into it or you either won one or you were a finalist I forget exactly what the rules were but

that you would be put in a separate pool where you didn’t have to go back into tournaments you were just going to be under the Matchmaker model

and a lot of people were like aren’t you diluting your brand does this make a whole lot of sense but the reason why he did it is because

the tournament can be a great place to launch stars that is true doesn’t always

launch one but we all know we’ve seen guys or ladies break out in tournaments

in ways that really put themselves on the map so tournaments can be quite valuable

I think retaining them for that reason is important on the other hand Relentless tournaments

are star Killers because they just get washed back into the grind over and over

again and injuries happen then the fights are supposed to make don’t happen one of the big lessons from the Bjorn excuse me the Bjorn rebny era of

Bellator was that I even joked about it I was like this is the place where underdogs go to thrive

and it’s true that happens all the time so what I think they should do is they should keep tournaments a key part of

what they do as a Grand Prix model as a Grand Prix model Relentless tournaments

and then putting guys back into these like also just the way in which they have to physically get ready all

the time on these calendars where they’re fighting so often it’s just brutal you’re gonna you’re gonna make guys

exit their careers earlier by doing [ __ ] like that right you put guys in

tournaments that often that continuously certain guys who are insanely durable you know like Patricio Pitbull obviously

he’s you know come up against his limits but you know during that time he was able to get through of it but I think you shortened the career of Pat Quran

doing that I do I think I think his career was shortened by how much damage and wear

and tear he had to go through on this Relentless cycle of of tournaments it’s just not good for these guys so once in

a while when it makes sense for a a a a weight class in the way that Coker has structured it under Bellator I think

makes a lot of sense it makes a lot of sense changing some of the rules now that you’re not in a tournament allows you to have things like elbows because

they’re very worried about cuts and whatnot it opens it all up it opens it all up aside from that I don’t think you

need to do much I really don’t make compelling matchups with the roster you have introduce big Stakes continue

to sign big stars they now have Amanda Serrano on the women’s side they re-sign Clarissa Shields that’s big I don’t know

what the future is with Kayla Harrison I guess we’ll see but they’ve got Francis they’ve got Jake Paul they’ve got some

things cooking here especially if they get Bellator and they can adjust their their business model a little bit I

think they can do great things but one of the criticisms I hear from the inside of the industry

about pfl and you can decide for yourself how true this is is that like there are obviously a lot of people in

the operations of pfl who are you know who were born and bred fight game kinds of guys but at the very top the

executive leadership these are not people who cut their teeth in the fight game and they don’t still have the same kind of decision-making sensibility

around these choices that will enable them to make some of the smarter easier calls that the fan base would respond to

and that the market would reward they’ve got different ideas because they it takes time to learn how the fight game

works it’s a very unique slice of sports there’s a there’s an argument that I

hear pretty pretty consistently actually in my time in covering the pfl is that

you know they’re excellent at raising money as you can see um they have managed to broker some

pretty important deals they’ve got some interesting things cooking like they can do certain very smart capable

interesting things in the fight game but that they make some decisions later that

they could have made sooner by virtue of their lack of experience in understanding how the fight fans ultimately reward or don’t

um certain choices so we’ll see what they do that would be how I would go through with it but

I will only time will tell what lessons they take

Luke do you really see Sterling’s excuse me how do you really see Sterling’s career going at 145 who along the top 10

do you see having trouble with strolling style it’s a great question you know I mean

the thing is this with Sterling like I don’t really know how he’s gonna look at 145. he I think his

a physical Powerhouse at 135 will all of that translate up at 145

when you’ve got the Max holloways and Ilya toporeas and you know obviously Alexander

volkanovsky’s of the world who can physically match that or you know um

and deal with it I mean the kind of backpacking style like who would you say is the backpacking guy at 145 you might

be inclined to say Brian Ortega but even he doesn’t really fight that he could fight that way right he’s got a lot of

the same skills that if he were to direct them in that way I think he could make strong use of them

but rather he just doesn’t he just doesn’t he he will play in different ways he’ll jump

Guillotine and obviously he’ll do some stuff from the back you know he can but it’s not a he doesn’t really like Matt

return guys to create back exposure which he then takes advantage of and then you know like silhouette stretching

them out that’s algeman’s game so I think he brings a very unique grappling kind of

threat to the to the division I think my question would be the same question that all of you would have which is physically how does it translate because

we know he can manhandle these guys at 135 we know that but if he doesn’t have to cut weight if you can put an extra

muscle on not we’re not talking a ton here but a little extra muscle on

and then rearrange his grappling Style um

then there would be there would be an interesting threat there but it all

hinges on whether or not that physical style translates also let me see his reach what is

algerman Sterling’s reach his reach would be

see where did the fine metric his reach is 71 inches right so let’s do this so

let’s go we know volcanocity is gonna have a pretty big reach even though he’s got short arms so let’s do volcanovsky

his reach is going to be 71 about the same I think I think Max is

like one less let’s see about toporia uh he’s got a 69 inch reach event so

he’s got some of the dimensions you know this is just a small sample he’s got some of the dimensions that could make it interesting

but the the only question that really matters is is how does he when he physically locks up with those guys does

he retain some of the same kind of advantages that he enjoys at 135 when he was at 145 after adjusting for his own

body and everything else I don’t know it’s a great question that’s a really great question I don’t have a great answer for you but it’s I

think the central question there all right let’s go to this one Luke what do you think

what do you think training will look like for Francis particularly now that he’s enjoying uh excuse me now that he’s joining I

should say Mike Tyson do you think that the massive Payday for Francis will force him into taking no

risks in training quite the opposite do Fighters sometimes train just to get the fight safely and could the risk of

losing the bag by getting injured be something that then affects what he looks like on Fight Night well here’s the thing

boxing is a dangerous difficult sport but as we’ve seen relative to MMA the demands on the body in training now

sparring is different but just pure training they’re not nearly as difficult on the body just in terms of the wear

and tear like dude wrestling wrestling for 30 minutes is is [ __ ]

brutal it’s [ __ ] brutal I mean the reason why these guys go in like two minute periods right it’s a Sprint it’s

a Sprint you know trying to do that at length is just absolutely you’re just asking for problems and I’ve said this a

million times you know what I’m gonna pull it up today I’m gonna show you what Craig Jones says about it

um and dude long-term Jiu Jitsu is bad for the body I don’t give a [ __ ] what anyone else tells you everyone’s a little bit different some people just

want to apply to but for the vast majority of people 15 years of actually trading you know consistently Jiu Jitsu

it will tear your body to Pieces it’s just a reality unboxing will of course too but in a short camp like this

um I think I wouldn’t really so much worry about injury the biggest problem that Francis is going up against is dude

you’re not going to out [ __ ] box this guy right you’re not gonna outbox them you’re just

it’s not going to happen that you’re going to outbox not just another Boxer but a guy known

at six nine with a greater reach than Jon Jones

known for being a slickster in boxing you’re just not gonna outbox that guy

it’s not gonna happen dude listen his coaches know this too they know that they if you go in there and try to out

slick Tyson Fury dude it’s going to be real bad for you real bad they have to mix it up Tyson Fury good with a long

guard good Jabs he’s got a lot of different fakes and faints and he’s got a lot of different

Tempo changes with his distance which he manages real well he uses a lot of posts right again so he’s got Jabs posts on

the lead shoulder Jabs post hook fakes and faints and everything else and his defensive trunk movement and shoulder

rolling is like second to none at heavyweight truly second to none at heavyweight so you know if if

Francis is going to figure out something I think you know this is just me thinking out loud I think going to the

body is going to be absolutely essential you’re going to have to force him to transfer his defense I think you know what’s the rule box of

brawler brawl a boxer you’re gonna have to make it ugly you’re gonna have to make it ugly and on the inside listen

here’s a very simple this is true in a lot of cases and I bring us up all the time but it’s going to be like hyper

true in a case like this if if Tyson Fury is working at the end of

his own jab and there’s space behind him I mean there’s just no chance that

Francis can win you have to we have to fight him here real close real close I mean he wants to

work with the fakes and the faints at range with that I think he’s like 85 86 inch reach so he’s trying to go way out

here dude you got to take all of that away or do your best to do it now you’re asking about training with Mike

certainly Mike knows a lot about the fight game and I’m sure that all those guys have been able to watch tape and be like hey

what’s what’s on here you know um and then make some adjustments but I think it’s going to be about getting to

the inside roasting the body making it ugly and honestly this is you didn’t get to see it in the Spence and Crawford

fight but if you go back and look at my Spence breakdown like what what are the things that Spence does dude Spence

straight up [ __ ] wrestles these guys under hook and then punching to the other side collar tying framing but

framing into the ropes where you’re like you know you’re getting cranked you know another thing he does is he’ll

Circle his head to the inside push you over as he’s got lead outside foot position so these guys either trip or

they have to move in these big directions to get away and then he’s [ __ ] lighting them up as they move go

look at the ugas fight he was literally just using his head posting them over Dude you got to wrestle him you gotta

wrestle him so he has to make it ugly he’s got to make it on the inside the key is to what extent Fury sorry um

Tyson and uh Mike Tyson and Eric nixic and Dewey Cooper and whoever else they

brought in what all those guys can do to get him ready for that you know but it’s it’s gonna be any any any pronounced

amount of time where you see Tyson Fury here curtains for him bro it’s curtains

you cannot beat him that way not not not possible and people are like oh what

about the power of Francis listen don’t misunderstand me I think Francis has the power to

seemingly you know I mean to borrow from uh my my favorite rap or Vinnie Paz it’s

Armageddon when he balls up the fist it’s Armageddon but but dude we’re

talking about a guy who is like inside of boxing slick as [ __ ]

super slick um and for people who are like I like MMA better than boxing fine I’m not trying to talk you out of it but you at

least you got to know what you’re up against and we’re talking about guys who can make people Miss by that much consistently all the time

hard guy to be hard got to be so I think it’s going to be ugly wrestling on the inside Bodywork making him transfer his

defense pressing him into the ropes pressing him into the uh into the corners and just absolutely going to

work on him there you know and also you know last thing on the power thing is like dude he fought Deontay Wilder you

know three [ __ ] times like Deontay Wilder isn’t just powerful among the

current heavyweights Deontay Wilder is all-time level power I’m not saying he’s

the number one but I’m saying if you picked out the top five heavyweight power punchers of all time I think you

have to put Deontay on that list certainly have to put his right straight on that list you know

all right uh here we go Luke do you think Wonder Boy The Wonder

Boy situation will have an effect on fighters on how to react in that situation will Financial stable Fighters

uh back out from the fight more often well

I mean everyone’s a little different right excuse me

I think part of the calculus that went into Wonder Boys situation I

think he said this explicitly was look guys he’s 40. he’s 40. you know he has to be very careful about

some of the decisions that he makes uh regarding some of these situations and you know you can agree or disagree I

think I would tend to think that you know a guy that experienced in Combat Sports knows what’s best for him at this

point and uh you know he knows that his opportunities are going to be limited man so you got to really strike when the

iron is hot you know whether or not this was worth it all in the end I guess you can decide for yourself but listen people have made the argument

like if you pay these guys more then they’ll be less inclined to take risk and my argument

in response to that is like

I don’t understand what that what the problem is oh we we as the consumers would get less

fights yeah I don’t know guys I’m not looking to get maximum number of fights

every single time I mean yeah the more the merrier to an extent right like I’d rather have 12 good fights than nine

good fights yes of course but I guess the point I’m trying to make here is like

coerced labor due to financial constraints you know I gotta tell you the older I

get the less I’m interested in just like looking the other way on [ __ ] like that everyone’s going to be different if you

feel different fine feel different but I’ll just telling you how this is my chat so I’m gonna say how I feel I don’t

really feel great about that I always feel great about that about some guy who is making a choice to

compete not because when the terms of it changed last minute right where either the guy falls out and

they try to replace him or the guy stays and he’s like massively overweight like this that’s not the deal that Wonder Boy

agreed to Wonderboy agreed to fight that guy at that way on that day those were

the terms and then the terms just get jumbled quite literally at the last minute and he’s just supposed to say you know

okay this is great I don’t want to do that I’m 40 years old I have to be I have to be more

um thoughtful about some of the decisions that that he makes I I tend to think I understand that but I’m just telling you as a consumer

yes it’s disappointing when fights fall through absolutely I’m not here to tell you that you don’t have a right to feel

disappointed that we did not get to see a Wonder Boy versus Michelle padetta fight I I certainly understand

but at the same time it’s like dude what is fair to those guys

what is fair to them and what is fair to them is not necessarily going to be an answer that pleases the consumer or is

in the consumer’s best interest I don’t know that it is but it’s not it’s not designed to be

it’s designed to be one where they have more protections and they have more more you know

um ability to fight on the initially agreed upon terms and not have to take

last minute sometimes very difficult changes excuse me

um in order to meet basic financial obligations so you know do I think more guys will do

it listen I think some people will look at a situation like this and say I don’t want the media Hassle and they’ll say no again some guys might be 30 versus 40

and that even if they have the financial means to say Yes um or to say no rather they will still

say yes and listen there’s another type of guy in the in the in the MMA world who

really can get a lot of fans on his or her side when they say hey you know what I am

going to take it like for example and again that’s a very different kind of pressure but when Jose or yeah Jose

Aldo fell out from the initial attempt to make the Conor McGregor fight and then Chad Mendes uh subbed in and Conor was all banged up

it’s a completely different type of fighter it’s on short notice it’s just a disaster form he still took it he still

won like there is a shitload of risk in doing that but the reward is tremendous

it’s tremendous so there’s always going to be guys who are like I see more reward than risk blah blah blah because

they’re in different stages of their career but for a senior level fighter who is you know much closer to the end

of their career than the even the middle of the of their career versus the you know to say nothing of the beginning

when a situation like this arises if they have the financial means to say no do I think more of them might say yes maybe maybe but also like just last

thing on this is this is not something that happens all the time again the last one that happened was when was the UFC 207 we talked about it last week I think

when Tony Ferguson fought or was supposed to fight Habib Habib

doesn’t make it Tony weighs in no problem and he was like what am I supposed to get here like again just

goes back to the contracts I’m not going to relitigate all those things you’re asking about well Financial stable Fighters back out

more often I’ve said it before too boxers do it way more regularly they’re like I’m not [ __ ] no no

I’m not taking on a guy who who did not meet the terms of the agreement and now

just still wants to fight [ __ ] off I’m not going to do it um it’s disappointing for us but at some

point dude if you’re around the fight game long enough and you see who takes L’s consistently

over the long term right who has the most cost to Bear over the long term who has the most issues to

deal with over the long term Fighters saying no to to

short notice changes in deals um I don’t think that’s the thing that I

I again you can be disappointed but being mad at Wonder Boy I don’t I think that’s the wrong way to look at it not

saying that this person is I’m just pointing out more generally you know I just I think um

at some point you do have to ask how the sausage is made and at some point like thinking ethically through these I I I

believe is a worthy exercise um someone’s asking thoughts on the Bulgarian weightlifting system and its

Reliance on steroids combined with a focus on maxing out this is not a question I can give you a really uh great answer on but I tell you who can

um a guy by the two guys I’ll point out um Zach tellender who I’ve been on his

podcast before he’s like a weightlifting coach out of I think he lives out of Austin Texas I mean who isn’t out of Austin Texas these days I suppose but

um he’s a great guy shout outs to coach Zach you can find him on Instagram you can find him on YouTube

anywhere you get your content he does tremendous tremendous work he has done a

great deal about the pros and cons of the Bulgarian weightlifting system and

then another guy you could probably look at who I think trained with them during that era or at least some of the

vestiges of it is Max Ida Max Ada it’s pronounced or his last name is spelled

a-i-t-a he is also a weightlifting coach a high level a super high level weightlifting coach

um I think he has coached guys who are ladies who have done uh really well for the US

during the course of their career I like both gentlemen very much they’ve both spoken about this at length

um also one more I’d give you Chad Wesley Smith out of Juggernaut training systems Chad Wesley Smith was a world record for

a long time power lifter I think he’s got a nearly a thousand pound pull on the deadlift I think he’s got nearly a

900 or plus um squat like this [ __ ] strong he’s super strong uh he has he’s not

retired from active competition he has a company called Juggernaut training systems and they’ve gone over this as well so any of those any of those guys

will give you a great answer better than I ever could so please seek their their wisdom not mine

uh okay Luke do you think arasania at the Sonia’s star power is secure now what do

you think will happen if he goes back to having dominant but uninspiring performances like against Romero ovatori

canonier and Whitaker yeah it’s a good question so let’s assume

let’s assume that given his excuse me

let’s assume that given his last win the one over Alex Pereira that it was

transformative it seemed transformative to me right the amount of like attention it got the virality of it the story

behind it it just seemed like it leveled him up and we’ve talked about this before how long it takes to really

become a star in UFC even if you’re a champion like it doesn’t happen even with the title win in a title defense

sometimes it can take much longer than that it took him a little while took Silva a little while again everyone

being like Oh my God Anderson Silva’s this that and the other dude I remember when people were like didn’t give a [ __ ] about Anderson Silva

I remember this distinctly it took a while before he became it like when he fought Rich Franklin even the second

time people weren’t sold on him you know so um

the point I want to make is let’s assume though that he has really turned the corner and I think that he has you know we had this discussion on the morning

combat pregame preview with Chuck Mendenhall and Brian and I didn’t really believe it when they fought at 281

um but then you know kind of came around afterwards but then at 287 I do think he finally broke through all right so we’re

there so what happens in this world if he goes and has another performance listen are there going to be some of the

same Echoes about oh here’s all it is again yes of course you’re gonna get that no

doubt um there will be some of that for sure uh although he could also add to his

Legend but you’re asking about a case where it doesn’t the fight is he’s dominant but boring you know like the cannon ear fight or something

and what I would say is you will get some of the same Echoes from people like that but there will be

a little bit more I think if it if it matches what we saw from other champions

the criticisms really never go away and then late stage George Saint Pierre was the most boring version of Saint Pierre

now not the one who fought Michael Bisping but the one at the end of the line when he was like you know the guy against Dan Hardy and stuff like that

like go back and watch the GSP who fought even Carl Parisian but like Jay Huron you know Frank Trigg first BJ Penn

fight like just go look at those it’s a different guy and so the point I wanted to make is the criticisms really never

go away in part because just everything you do is so heavily magnified but what you notice is that when someone really

truly breaks through and becomes a you know a pop culture figure or an icon in

the game I’m not necessarily saying he’s quiet at The Icon stage but you see what I’m getting at

there’s just a lot more people who don’t necessarily bite their tongues but there’s a lot more of a balanced kind of

equation where the blue birds are there the critics who don’t like it are there but there’s a lot more it’s just a lot

more people who are like hey man have some reverence for this guy look what he’s done look what he’s built look how we got here

you just began to see people chirp more about that you know against Strickland in in

um uh Australia I don’t really know how all that’s going to play out in that market I don’t quite know how they perceive the

two of them or this matchup in particular I don’t really know but I guess what I would say is when I

just think about some of those things I remember like late stage you know Saint Pierre

the the weight of accumulated greatness ends up kind of

suffocating some of the criticisms that would be there in more early stage greatness

doesn’t eliminate them doesn’t eliminate them but it it limits it to a degree so

you’ll still see it you’ll still see it if that ends up being a fight like that which by the way there’s a decent

probability it could go that way depending on how sean plays it it could go that way

um but I just think if he has truly broken through you’ll see that late stage reverence kind of trample some of

the noise on the way all right here we go

okay finally someone’s getting to the class action lawsuit here we go Luke I saw an interview with Terence

Crawford on CBS CBS mornings where he talked about his harsh upbringing mother paying neighborhood kids to fight him

never saying I love you Etc as you’ve been open about your own Mother’s harsh treatment of you and having similar childhood issues myself

this person writes I’d be interested in interested to know your thoughts on this and the correlation between trauma and

greatness in general well there is one I don’t know what the what the academic literature says about it unfortunately

which would be the really the best answer that anyone could give you let me say a couple things one

I don’t want anyone to think that like I mean listen the people are complicated and they’re and they’re

people have compartmentalized identities they have compartmentalized lives like in the one hand I have told you guys

about many of the things my mom has done that I thought were really Beyond The Pale including some of the beatings that I’ve gotten and some other things and

some other harsh treatment at the same time I should I should tell you the other side of things and the other side

of things is that um you know there’s many reasons why it’s hard for your mother to not be in

your life anymore but one of them was for me in particular that among all of the sort of adult figures in my

life um my mom was the most the most loving to me my sister thinks that I was her

favorite that might be hard to square with some of the things that I told you but this is what I mean about a person like being

both Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde um like you you can be both at the same

time and she was so like I want to be clear like the the things that my mom did I thought were wrong that I have articulated to you those are all real

and they have been impactful but the other side of the story is like dude I genuinely miss her love

I don’t know how else to say it like I she was more so than other family

members in many ways my biggest critic uh but also my biggest supporter too it

it’s hard to explain but it really is true like I remember

I don’t know if I’ve ever told you guys this before maybe I have I don’t know I remember uh

when my mom got divorced for the second time I had a stepdad for a while I think he has since passed away

um we didn’t stay in contact he was a nice guy but we didn’t stay in contact but I remember the one thing he told me when when uh my mom and him split up

and we moved uh he was uh he’s like don’t ever let your mother tell you you’re stupid

because she had done it all the time she’s done it all the time you know she’s done it so many times but at the

same time like you know when I did bring home academic achievements like no one was a greater

um celebrator of those things and so you know you just you can tell it’s disorienting to even

explain imagine being a 13 14 year old kid trying to navigate this [ __ ] like it was it did a number on me but I just

want you to understand um I feel an obligation to defend the good parts about what happened in my

life with my mom and not just tell you all the bad parts so they are both real but they there is another side to the

equation in terms of what Terence Crawford was talking about there’s video of his mom talking about it as well dude that’s just straight up child abuse I

don’t give a [ __ ] what anybody says that’s child abuse that’s child abuse straight up paying neighborhood kids to

fight your your own kid to toughen them up is child abuse straight up 100 knows

there’s no other name for that other than child abuse um again these could be complicated

relationships I’m not here to declare to you how Bud Crawford’s Mom feels about his her child she might love him in ways

that uh would resemble everyone else but the act of doing that is abuse towards a

child and like not saying I love you like dude I tell my daughter every day multiple times per day how much I love

her um I tell her she’s beautiful every day I tell her she’s intelligent every day because if you don’t you can mess a kid

up I mean it’s easy to see a situation like Terence Crawford and be like oh you know like the more adversity the

better they’ll become but that’s not really true Terence Crawford is a very special individual is a very special

individual most of the time talking shitty to your kid and

um giving them unnecessary frankly in this particular case abusive difficulty you’re not going to get a Terence

Crawford out of that you’re going to get an inmate out of that you know what I mean you’re going to get some you’re going to get a failure out

of that you’re going to get a a lonely person out of that Terence is unusual and he is clearly

destined for Grant I mean already has achieved it but I meant as a child it was easy to not easy to

tell but what I’m saying is he has the genetic and whatever other forms of makeup that produce greatness

he had all of those things to take the fuel from that and then let it

and let him become something extraordinary but the lesson to take from that is not oh

if we do this you’ll get a Terence Crawford you won’t you will get a

damaged messed up failure of a person and not

necessarily a failure professionally but if they’re a person if they’re a dad they’ll be a bad father they’ll be a bad

husband um if that even comes to it they could be bad professional you’re just gonna mess them up now I think the question

then becomes we’re like well like isn’t there something to be said for adversity creating greatness now that is true that

is true like the very best people in any kind of professional Endeavor are

the ones who just who accepted that they accepted that uh

adversity was a thing to make themselves better and used it as fuel and to an extent I think all of us have done that

at various parts of my life in our lives I’ve done that to an extent in various parts of my life I you know I had to use

fuel from doubt or anger I felt at something to push me through but

ultimately that can only Propel you so far and for so long there have to be other elements in place and I think

those are the healthy ones about discipline about the value of hard work about understanding

um the the the long-term process at play and then

try to enjoy parts of that too because that will carry you pretty far as well you know there are certain people who

are very successful who are like psychotically competitive really not talking about those so you know you’re asking thoughts on

the correlation between trauma and greatness in general listen I attribute anything I’m not in any way declaring

anything I’ve done to be great um but to the extent I’ve achieved anything I have set out to do has part

of my upbringing helped me get there yes I think that is partly true

but you know dude it [ __ ] me up from all my life

like you just shouldn’t do that to children you just shouldn’t do that to children

it’s you you will ruin them um and it takes a long time and

dedicated work to undo you know adding additional trauma on top

um to motivate someone you know you might get something out of it I’m not here to declare you that it doesn’t happen like you know guys from Humble

difficult backgrounds end up having a certain kind of hunger that makes them ferocious particularly in fight Sports

this is this is a well-known thing but I always try to tell you guys the story

I’m not making any comments about Fighters I’m not making any comments about boxers whose individual lives I I can’t I can’t say enough about in terms

I don’t know anything about it to have an educated comment but I do know some of the guys I served with and I’m

telling you I’m like please listen to me the most gung-ho [ __ ] Marines I serve

with dude they were absolute Savages and they were very good at their jobs they had first class pfts blah blah blah dude

they were nightmare husbands and absentee fathers

you know like they were messed up they were messed up so

I’m glad that Terence Crawford has arrived at a place in his life where he is not as encumbered by these things

um and he has turned out to be just an absolute like dude I said this before you got to live in the bud Crawford era

congratulations that’s how great he is but just telling your kids like you’re

not telling your kids you love them or having neighborhood kids fight them it’s [ __ ] abuse man and there really

is no defense of that all right let’s get to this part because this is the one

that I have been dying to talk about let’s talk about this fighter lawsuit so

what did the person ask here they asked would this class excuse me

Luke with the class action lawsuit moving forward I have a few quick questions in the world the fighters

uh win number one what will the settlement be at least your estimation of the

settlement to what are your what are your estimation of the changes the court would force on the UFC in three in a perfect world if you were the judge

during executioner at what would your rulings be I I I can’t even begin to Fathom what the last one would be but

I’ll tell you the two things that are really sort of standing out that kind of matter here first of all let me say something

now morning combat is nominated this year for best MMA programming we went to

the last two years I don’t know if we’ll win it this year or not um but there’s been many years where I thought

I had done great work and I was never nominated for anything um and that happens like people have

different views of your work than you might have of your own and if you look at the current crop of the nominated MMA

journalist I’m not in any way here asking you not to vote for them Aaron we had Aaron roster on the show yesterday like please please go vote for him but

what I am saying is uh and I’m not gonna bag uh on on um Fighters only for not nominating John

Nash but what I would say is if anyone from Fighters only is listening I really think you guys should consider putting

him on the list next year for whatever eligibility period this covers the

subsequent Awards should put him on that list because John Nash is not out there telling you which fighter is in and

which fighter is out he doesn’t go to slap fighting press conferences you know and I guess listen some people

have to do some of the [ __ ] for their job I it’s it’s a it’s this is a very difficult business and people try to make their way the best that they can

what I am trying to point out to you is this guy does actual [ __ ] journalism

real world Big Time impact [ __ ] and he has been all over this case from the

word Go including uh revealing to the world that this case had finally moved forward with this class action certification John Nash does journalism

he doesn’t do fight previews he doesn’t do you know this manager told me this

[ __ ] he doesn’t do any of that stuff he tries to figure out how does the business run who is taking advantage of

who let’s shine a light on the folks that um on the practices that need more exposure

right so start there now you’re asking about what will the

settlement be or your estimation of the settlement well they have asked my understanding is between I think more

than 800 million to anywhere between 800 million and 1.6 billion uh but that is just the tip of the

iceberg that can hit many multiples by the time this case goes through either

through settlement or if it reaches a jury now I have a feeling this is just not going to reach a jury

I mean this is now Trent guys did you read the judges um decision in all of this I mean he

how do I say this he found the UFC’s lawyer’s argument

deeply unpersuasive not even close to persuasive

whatever persuasive is he found their arguments to be the opposite of that

uh he didn’t Grant identity class certification which would have been anyone with like

video game rights or image rights who in that period of time but those would have been much less in terms of what the rewards could have been it was the bout

class that he certified and that’s about 1200 Fighters unless they opt out and now you’re just talking billions and

billions of dollars literally I mean it could be it could be I mean it’s 5 billion off the table not really not

really right it could be very very well beyond the table this is [ __ ] massive but that isn’t really the biggest part

the the biggest part of the story is not that 1200 Fighters could be entitled to

a spread of a billion dollars or more that’s significant but not the big story

the big story is that the judge through this class certification has agreed that

um the plaintiffs have standing he didn’t Grant it already but he they have

standing which means they could eventually get it they are eligible essentially as a way maybe of saying it for injunctive relief now I’m not going

to get into the Weeds on what it all means but it basically means this he could rule

in such a way as to change the UFC’s business practices and the biggest one he could

rule on and in fact part of the story of this is the coercive contracts in the judge’s mind

so noodle this for a second right noodle this for a second the judge could rule

that MMA contracts could be no more than two years in

length right no promoter but certainly not the UFC could have any contract longer than

two years that would be the max think about what that would do to the MMA industry where every two years you

had a brand new deal and you could go from this promoter to that promoter to this promoter to that

promoter folks it would still probably be the case almost certainly that the

UFC would retain its space as the dominant brand but opening that

and allowing a-level figures to go here here here here and mix and match and

everything it would completely reorder the MMA industry when we talk about how

big this is we’re not there yet but if the ju if ultimately we end with

a court case even through settlement if we end with a court case where uh UFC

contracts can no cannot be any longer than two years that would massively

massively change the industry the fighters would have significantly more

power to uh

seek out any promoter they want essentially and have their wages rise far more through competition

and have much more ability to do what basically like Canelo and Bud Crawford are doing they sign three fight deal

with PBC two fight deal with match room you know whatever and then they just two fight deal with top rank whatever and

then they just jump around ESPN The Zone Showtime blah blah blah blah and they’re moving around and they had this Mobility to go and

Chase the biggest paycheck where now promoters are almost in this sort of like continuously bidding process for

your services now I know what some folks are going to say it’s like oh well then you mean like some of the guys might be much more

readily uh to leave the UFC to go somewhere else yes that’s exactly what I’m saying because what the judge says in his

ruling and I cannot encourage you enough to read it with the judge says quite clearly his ruling is he doesn’t think

that there is anything to the idea that what the UFC has done is like some

otherworldly capacity for fight promotion what he spotlights are

coercive contracts in fact let me pull this up for you here so you can see it

for yourself um here we go

let’s this is from bloody elbow let’s switch over look here so he talks about through all the uh

chicken Kentucky Fried Chicken ads first is how the court found the Ultimate Fighting Championship quote willfully engaged in anti-competitive conduct to

maintain or increase their Market power end quote in the industry and he continues this is the judge writing

quote this was mainly accomplished in three ways first through the enforcement of exclusionary contracts which kept

Fighters locked up in anti-competitive manner second through extra contractual methods to make fighter contracts

effectively Perpetual so like they’re constantly adding on things that would just extend these contracts into forever

and then third through acquisition and shutting down a Rivals so now I might be like buying Strike Force or something like that by the way

the UFC does remember this remember this picture hold on yeah remember this boy that’s going to

come back to haunt him big time big time I mean couldn’t haunt him more

lots of lots of bragging on the front end like people you know I remember when Dana White was like doing his stick in

the 2007 or eight and people were saying at the time like oh it’s so fresh it’s so different you don’t hear CEOs and

sports talk like this and I’m like dude there’s a [ __ ] reason they don’t do that there’s a reason they don’t do that because you’re gonna get sued and all of

the bragging and all of this other [ __ ] on the front end it’s all gonna cost you on the back end well welcome ladies and gentlemen to the back

end because now all of that and not including but not limited to Joe Silva’s

emails bragging about how much they control the industry all got subpoenaed all got used

against him and the judge cited it in his reasoning for why he made the

choices that he made that’s why CEOs don’t go out and just [ __ ] jack off in their Rivals faces

uh because if it ends up being a situation where there are regulatory consequences or implications

you’re only creating problems for yourself down the line well ladies and gentlemen one more time

welcome to the consequences because they have begun to arrive

you’re looking at them now the judge’s ruling is unequivocal

unequivocal and you don’t have to take my word for it oh Luke’s biased against the UFC fine go read what the judge has

to say you don’t have to take my word for it in any capacity whatsoever go read what he has to say

because what he basically argues is there’s nothing really special yes they are they are talented promoters there’s

no denying and they are successful promoters there’s no denying but there’s nothing so crazy talented about them

that explains their market dominance in fact what he argues after hearing what the other experts had to say is it’s

quite the opposite the reason why they have maintained dominance is just because of the contracts they employ and

the way in which they have gotten rid of the competition by buying them out that’s it

flatly calls them a monopoly by the way flatly calls them one and says these practices uh are a huge

[ __ ] problem a massive problem so ladies and gentlemen

if this continues you are going to get just a different MMA industry there’s just really no other way to say

it the MMA industry will not look the same after this if this continues

the question is if you get a settlement how much do they end up giving up and again I’m not so much concerned or even

focused on the dollar amount right the 700 million 800 million a billion 2

billion whatever it ends up being I don’t I mean that’s not to say it’s insignificant but that’s really not what I’m focused on the change would be in how they are

required to alter their business practices and if Fighters can get out of contracts in a year or two routinely by

matter of law oh it’s a brand new ball game it’s a

brand new ball game now now let’s see who can compete

now let’s take a look at what competition looks like because you don’t have competition now I’ve said it before

Bellator pfl1 any other MMA promoter can no longer out compete the UFC unless there

was some kind of scandalous disaster for them from you know I I don’t even want to say but just something that ruined

their business in some kind of way I’m not wishing that upon them because that would be bad for the entire MMA

industry I’m simply saying in a theoretical world you know um like that maybe the other ones could

out-compete them but in the world in which we live as I we understand it today they can’t and as I’ve said it before Bellator pfl one I don’t think

any of these organizations even make money they don’t even make up they don’t even make profit and Bellator does it’s quite

modest um it’s certainly pfl and one don’t right and I guess if belter was making a

ton of money they wouldn’t be on the chopping block for a sale so uh here we are but what happens when

guys can just move around after two years and producing a pit bull can go fight Max Holloway and Jose Aldo can go

fight I don’t know whoever and Alexander volkanovsky can go fight again this is a world where everything

has been reshuffled or whatever somebody who all the fans want to see him fight over there or

um I’ll make something up uh let’s see um uh Jonathan Almeida can go fight Anatoly

Malkin Anatoly Malkin can go fight whoever and then there’s just back and forth and constant like that right now

you have a completely different industry now you have competition now you have a

much more even playing field now let’s see what it looks like

for these otherworldly promotional abilities now let’s see that

that’s what they’re facing that’s what they’re facing I don’t think there’s any [ __ ] way this goes to a

jury no chance they don’t want to risk that at all can you imagine if a jury agrees

essentially with the judge ultimately long term and what they might do they would lay

down the hammer of Thor on them so I don’t think that they want to risk

that at all and of course the plaintiffs might not want to arrest that either because what if you do push everything to a trial and everyone just takes the

UFC side and then this all goes up in smoke this will get resolved but in the end in the end uh they are facing a

world a potential world I should say a potential world where if injunctive relief is ultimately

granted and made official and it changes contracts to being you

know these limited time things brand new ball game brand new ball game

and by the way that wouldn’t even necessarily diminish or um

you might be asking well what happens in the Ali acts in a situation like that they could still pass that

they could still pass that you know so I don’t think that that’s likely uh

Senator Mark Wayne Mullen despite all of his bravado seems to be uninterested in this now for reasons I’m not really

certain about I don’t know what he’s doing but my point being is like this was a

massive massive ruling not merely for the plaintiffs this was a historical

uh well I don’t know if I want to say that quite yet

it’s the news could not be bigger whether or not this will lead to something tangible in the industry Still

Remains unclear there are hurdles that remain but what I guess what I wanted to say and to end this conversation is

you might look back what day is it today the 10th yeah you might look back at August 9th 2023 as one of the most

pivotal dates in all of MMA history that’s not in any way exaggeration

that’s how big this is that’s how big this is if you can’t keep the guys under lock

and key and they’re free to go anywhere and organizations can clearly raise money to sign their services and now you

have access to the pay-per-view end of the Town excuse me the talent roster

and the Conor McGregor’s can go fight Mayweather whenever they want right and then they Diaz’s can go fight

the Conor McGregor’s without the UFC they could do it by themselves think about that right or the Diaz’s we could

do you know you see what I’m saying like the the potential here for the balance

of power to shift in the industry is extraordinary this is no small matter

this is no small matter this is huge huge

we will see what comes of it but um

biggest news in MMA by a million miles you could announce Conor McGregor is going to fight Nate Diaz you know

um tomorrow you know for free uh on rumble or some [ __ ] and it still

wouldn’t even be a fraction as big as this one this is massive news massive massive massive huge extraordinary news to the

highest order you could get it basically a different MMA industry by virtue of this so

what I’d say is be real careful about days like this be real careful and the next time people

are like hey why don’t CEOs ever talk like that very good reason very good reason

um I’ve got a couple other women one more of these and then we’ll get to some of the paid ones someone’s asking why Luke why don’t we

see Baron bolos burrato platas or other more sophisticated BJJ techniques used

in MMA is it because they’re success rates you see Baron bolos and whatnot I’ve seen it

in like Regional level MMA but um you know just kind of inverting to take someone’s back through like a

behind the leg entanglement is you know I don’t think that’s the best

use of your time right any time it’s not a sacrifice throw but

anytime where you’re like you’re going to your back as your first choice in MMA

not to say that’s wrong like we can think of many examples where it’s not but as a general rule like you don’t see

the Dark Side of guys doing that for a reason you just don’t want [ __ ] to go bad and then you’re stuck there you know

um okay

oh gotta get to this one and then we’ll call it a day curious to hear your thoughts on the

laughable statement I believe the UFC release no they did not release it about how the majority of the fighters

from the Utah event choosing to take non-disclosure agreements regarding their pay somehow benefits their negotiation building no no In fairness

to the UFC that was not from them that was from the commission [Music]

from the commission that was from the commission

hey you just you can’t even you can’t believe this is the world we live in but it’s the world we live in no so

basically what Utah says is if you want to release this independently you can a few of the guys did

um Gabrielle bonfim I think Kevin Holland did there were some other ones as well about four in total who did it

not many um but what they had argued was the release of this actually hurts their

ability to negotiate which is like the exact opposite of the truth like other

um unions or trade associations that work as you know the representative of their

uh athletes in the in the major sporting leagues in the states demand it they demand that it’s public because when

it’s public you can say I’m entitled to that or more if you have a similar level of uh you know

um solar stage of your career it enables you the lack of information

gives power to management the more information gives power to uh the the

the union members in this particular case or the trade Association members and you have you have it by the way the

commission apparently paid an undisclosed sponsorship fee to lure an MMA promoter there which is like just a

complete conflict of interest in every way imaginable and then put out a statement being like it’s actually bad for them to negotiate which is like like

like [ __ ] Twilight Zone [ __ ] this is being like this is almost like

your doctor being like what you need to do is stop eating um fruits and veggies and nuts and going

for a walk and I need you to sit on the couch and eat nothing but [ __ ] sandwiches that is what you need to fix

your health you’ll be like what the [ __ ] are you talking about right it’s that this is the eat the [ __ ] sandwich advice

from your Utah Sports Commission like dude we are living in a world now

this is why this lawsuit is like so relevant not just because of the implications of it but we’re living in a world now where all of the centers of

power are working together for their institutional benefit at the expense of

any of the contracted labor who they have to um pay out to work with

that’s a little bit of an overstatement but here you have a case where the athletic commission is in Partnership

essentially not like an official one like hey we have a agreed upon partnership but the sort of informal

Arrangement where we want the promoter to come we’re not going to say that the

fighters can’t get their pay made public but we’re just sort of going to say that if they do it’d be really bad for them

who keeps calling me uh

someone keeps calling um we have this sort of like Arrangement

where um essentially you know you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours right and the

fighters who’s protecting their interests who’s protecting them

sure as [ __ ] the commission not in Utah anyway all right with that in mind if you have

any paid questions we can get to them now let me take a look at the poll here I believe my guy Aunt sent me one

okay here we go so the question was will the fighter lawsuit change the MMA industry don’t know not sure 36 I think

that’s fair I mean even I don’t know like I have I I mean I understand what it could do but like is it going to I

don’t know we’ll have to see yes 33 no 30 wow that’s that that actually makes a

fair amount of sense um so everyone who voted I appreciate that thank you all right if you have any

paid ones we’ll get to them Jesus Christ there’s a lot uh all right let me get through this as quick as I can

have you watched Dan Hagan’s striking video so I bought it I have not watched it yet he’s got my money but I haven’t

had time to take a look at it yet do you think him putting out can help his opponent a little yeah

bonus best instructional video you’ve watched the uh power bottom from uh Craig Jones he’s got [ __ ] hilarious

was it power ride or whatever it’s called The Power Ride philosophy the Craig Jones instructional where he

basically explains the way in which Jiu Jitsu scores points where you you know you knee cut to the side and then you go

to mount and these people can still use their legs to create movement which is how movement underneath is created

this is not a meaningful way to control someone you actually have to control their legs there’s more to it than this

but you have to control their legs and then you can actually have physical control over the other person it was a

really really really well done instructional but you know I know that him and Gordon Ryan are best friends

Gordon’s got great instructionals too so does John danaher let’s go feel better Luke I’m trying

dude I’m trying uh sorry yeah I don’t even I mean I appreciate this it’s very nice for

Melissa thank you Melissa um it’s just a rough time man it’s just a

rough time I don’t know what else to say you know

uh I’ll do my best to make sure you remain on the power slap email list did you

guys see Dana yesterday uh saying like how bad Showtime boxing’s

production was at a power slap post what do they call those post fight post slap press conference

and I’m just thinking to myself I’m like you know to each his own to each his own but

it takes an enormous amount of what’s the word

I’ll put it this way I could never with a straight face

promote how good the technology is on the production side of a slap event

basically a week or so after Showtime boxing just aired Spence versus Crawford

dude you could air Spence versus Crawford in like 144p and that would still be in every way

better than 4K 8K power slap you know there’s nothing there’s absolutely

nothing from a technological perspective that slap could ever do

that would ever put it on par get Spence Crawford with a respectable

boxing match I mean they couldn’t even touch Spence Crawford like it wouldn’t even like not even there’s no there’s no

technological Gap it’s like I mean I’m sure I I’m sure that the people who work on the

production side of slap are talented you know like they have a job to do they’re going to do it the best that they can like you

know I get that but it’s just two garbage pale kids hitting

each other it’s much easier to show and it’s two Garbage Pail Kids hitting each other with no defense like

that that will no matter what you dress it up with whatever technology you put that will never

ever be anything worthy of exaltation

ever uh just want to say thanks for

everything y’all have done for the last few years thanks man appreciate it bro thank you um my wife is from Lawton oh damn bro

she might steal your wallet every time you dunk on it I pause the video

dude what in Oklahoma man I swear to God this is what you hear you wanna you wanna know Lawton Oklahoma here’s Lawton

Oklahoma ready there’s four Fort Sill is in Lawton Oklahoma so I had to spend time there for two reasons one my dad

grew up in Lawton but two the Marine Corps uh is now not they don’t I don’t think the Marine Corps does much

artillery anymore but they did when I was in and so we would have to train um sometimes you go to 29 palms and they

would have we would do like what’s called a cax a combined arms exercise but sometimes you would just have to go to army bases to train Fort AP Hill uh

Fort sell so we would go to Fort sell and we would use their facilities bro it’s strip malls and it’s angry Steve’s

Bail Bondsman next to um you know crazy Bob’s Pawn Shop that that

is Lawton Oklahoma dude like anyone I cannot believe my dad got out of that place and like I managed to be you know

uh I managed to the fact that my dad got out of law in Oklahoma and did something more important than stealing car stereos

is a miracle a miracle okay I mean guys I appreciate these

questions I’m just not I’m I’m so [ __ ] done with this topic I appreciate the donation I’m sorry to I

can’t give you an answer that you are or are not looking for but I’m just I’m I’m so [ __ ] done on this

thank you Christian I appreciate it bro uh thanks man these are very nice

everyone I feel bad now I didn’t I’m not trying to generate um

um donations off of sadness which it appears I have done but uh

but thank you thank you uh what role does a manager play for fighter great question just relationship with the

brass mostly I feel like a fighter could represent himself almost as good as if needed okay so again we’ve been over this a little bit but the basic idea

would be as follows like what you would really want from one is to the thing is it’s like a lot of guys have managers

when they don’t really need them and what they really just need is an attorney or if the industry changed now that’s

different where again let’s imagine contracts are two years and you’ve got multiple bidders at the same time coming

after you in a fairly regular rotation like in an eight-year rotation this would be happening of four different

really important occasions yes the manager would be very very important to create to to get you the best kind of

deal and help you with career advice something like that would be important but basically there’s two kinds of managers there’s guys like Nate Diaz’s

manager who um helps them navigate media opportunities

uh business opportunities um what they should do with the UFC because they’ve got you know a lot more

leverage than other guys do relatively speaking that kind of a thing I think nates is only MMA client like that sort

of thing and then you have the other ones who basically from what I can understand they’ve they’ve they’ve not made it clear to me otherwise but from

what I can understand they just seem to act like brokers where they end up the UFC like goes to the manager and they’re

like hey we need a 170 or blah blah and then they kind of fill it in and they make money at scale

um whether these guys are successful or not but because they’ve got so many of them they can they can still um derive a nice income

um that’s basically the the sum total of it most guys don’t really need the latter but they well the other part is

the manager ends up acting like a gatekeeper to the UFC where the matchmakers then look to the manager like you know show me what you got and

so having that relationship between manager and Matchmaker can be quite important but what I would say is in a

healthier industry you would not want that relationship in a healthier industry you would want there to be some

firewall separation between them but that’s really not the industry that we have

um Alexander gave a nice donation thank you buddy that’s very nice of you so did Jeeps uh this person okay so oh yeah same dude

do we know what show money is it doesn’t exist Does that mean weigh-in show or the cage closes and can a good manager

affect this I kind of went over this before but it’s basically like this these are terms that commissions have used at various times but they don’t

exist in UFC contracts I don’t think they exist in Bellator contracts either but the basic idea would be this and

from again I’ve not seen every single UFC contract but every single UFC contract that I have seen

splits your pay into two parts now some guys are different they get a flat sum but in general it would be purse and

then bonus and the purse you’re entitled to upon about completion so you’re asking could a manager get you some

Protections in the event that you weigh in and your opponent does it or whatever and you get some measure of that in a

different industry you could but I don’t know what existing leverage they would have to to make that work

thanks bro that’s very nice appreciate it uh

oh you will oh you will you will I don’t know exactly when I don’t know exactly when

but you will you will uh al-azov versus Gregorian in one did

you happen to watch I still have not seen it yet I’m sorry guys there’s so many things I have to prep for and I have kickboxing his ends up kind of

taking a bit of a uh you know back bench kind of position

uh do you think belter 300 or EOC 300 will look better not the whole white gloves or Grand Prix or Goldman um

so people didn’t like UFC 200’s gold mat I didn’t hate it I don’t know if I loved it but I didn’t hate it

I hope is the answer I hope the promoters do something a little bit special I think that would be really cool

pork roll or I don’t eat pork so there you go uh Sofia Vergara or Selma Salma

Hayek boy I mean this is the Sophie’s choice of um

middle-aged uh Latin women um you know I’ve always been I have to go

Selma but Sophia is it’s 1a1b you know

if you were stuck in a life or death team trivia game but your partner had to be [Music]

I mean listen I have great respect for the career of BJ Penn I have great respect believe it or not for the career

and listen to the words I’m saying the careers of BJ Penn and Tito Ortiz but uh

in the situation that you had posited I think I just forfeit

do you think the commanders might actually change the name back there is no way they’re going to go back to I’m going to say it one time there’s no way

they’re going back to Redskins not gonna happen not gonna happen not in any way

shape or form is that going to happen I think all the people who are pushing for it are out of their minds you might get

a change from commanders that’s true that’s true you are not going to get the

old name back it’s not going to happen depression runs in my family uh

biological dad hung himself sorry bro and Mom attempted pills when I was nine Jesus that’s a lot I recognize when I

start to shut myself off in the world you also catch yourself when stress gets you yeah dude yeah PS sounds like strep

it might be dude I don’t know what I have I don’t know what I have um I don’t have a fever or anything and I you know I can you know go to the gym

I mean I have my own gym here in my house I’ve kind of built but you know I’m not like down that way but like just

dude my throat is swollen like I can feel it swollen here you know um yeah dude I can always catch myself

the good news is I’ve been lucky to have people around me who have helped me Identify some of the things some of my

own like negative self talk uh that has been clarifying

um but yes I think having some self-awareness of your own limits and your own

um Hang-Ups or uh

routines that you go through that put you in bad places I think is critically important

how would Umar do if he moves to the UFC at one you mean Usman

Umar is in the UFC Oh you mean Umar if you moved up well dude I don’t know I mean let’s see how well he does a

135 first right Luke hope all is well with you uh what

should Crawford’s next three fights be Charlie Spence and then Zoo

gracias what I would say is for Crawford so he’s gonna have to do Spence next

probably no matter what after that I gotta tell you the Charlo fight I just love it I don’t know if that’s

gonna be possible I don’t know what’s gonna happen with Charlo and Canelo I don’t have a faintest idea but I’m sold

on that one I’m sold at 154 Charlo versus um Crawford would be

amazing and I tell you what I’m I mean okay if if Crawford goes to 160 or 168 I

might pick against them I’m not picking against them 154 and below nope

learn that lesson

what’s wrong with Dad rap what aren’t you in that demo do you like any current rappers Drake Lil Baby J Cole Kendrick

Lamar um not really listen dude I’m a 44 year old white guy who gives a [ __ ] about what my opinions

are on any of this stuff um who do I no

um I like listen I like uh some stuff from the baby I like some stuff from

Drake very little but some I like some stuff from a little bit of

Travis Scott not much you know little pieces here and there uh in general but in general no I don’t

Mr Stonewood just doesn’t do anything for me but like you know it’s not I’m not the audience like hip-hop is for

young people and the artists say this new hip-hop is for young people

it’s not for me you know there doesn’t hinge on my participation like I’m just a guy you know so

um Curtis Dukes thank you Curtis again I feel now I feel embarrassed that people are doing this but it’s too late now I

guess Do You Feel That back control is what Mount used to be in the early days of MMA yes there seems to be few guys

with great back escapes and back triangle yes Mount used to be like the end of all things and even back is not

like that now but um yes it used to be just much more of a

fight ending position and a dangerous position than it is today it’s guys can’t even hold it today

favorite unranked UFC fighters to watch well I’m not sure who’s ranked and unranked let me see here very quickly

um uh you know what

he hasn’t had the best run surprisingly but gurram kutetelazi if he’s [ __ ]

good um is Kevin Holland ranked I don’t know if Kevin Holland is ranked is he right yeah he’s ranked at 12. okay

so I can’t quite bring him in you know but I grew him girlazzi is [ __ ]

awesome you know Pat sabatini I think is pretty good um yeah there’s a lot of guys shots to

Billy Q I love Billy Q you know great guy so yeah there’s there’s lots of unranked guys who are fun though and

ladies too who are fun to watch uh anything you can tell us about why

voting in the world MMA Awards is so much more important this time around um

what could I say the first one was a surprise

the second one was also a surprise but because we’ve got the first one it was

like a cool bonus but it didn’t really change much for us um this would be massively important to

set up I think it doesn’t hinge on the award it’s not

what I’m saying what I am saying is there is going to whatever the next chapter of MK looks

like it will be influenced by that award whether we get it or not I’ll put it

that way uh Colby zero wins in the top ten Dustin

p in the last five fights only one win over a current top 10 challenge top 10 Chandler same all are ranked in

the top three in division privilege somewhere in there is a question I don’t know where it is

I don’t know what you’re saying like I’m not sure how to answer that

uh from corrupt okay American Revolution from corrupt Supreme Court Justices to Old

politicians that belong in a retirement home Congressman openly insider trading is this just the status quo how do we fix

this you know I’m reminded by um previous periods of History uh in the

United States government where corruption was this is more than you’re sort of pointing at like corruption

gerontocracy self-dealing we’re just living in an age where uh

I’ve said this before where the elites of the country are not really held to account and they’re not really charged

with things that they should be charged with and uh

we My Hope Is that there’s going to be a future era where a lot of this stuff

there have been the there have been previous administrations presidential administrations that made this kind of

rooting out of anti uh they’ve been anti-corruption Grant in particular a staple of what they did and had a

great effect at it I am hoping that um we can get a a future version of something like that

because other than that I don’t really know what to tell you thank you Christopher Jesus these are very people are being way too nice to me what if all

four of the Bellator title fights go the distance that is the risk they are running so I remember when Bellator Fahad King Mo fight Gengar Musashi

kingma one that was one of three title fights on CBS I believe all three of those went the distance they’re gonna

add a fourth it’s a risk they are running it’s a risk they are running

happy birthday to our girl e oh I know what you did I know what you did

I’m not mad at it it’s kind of funny you almost got me but you didn’t but nice

try here we go best piece of advice you received when it came to moving past childhood trauma

um I don’t know if you just move past [ __ ] like that bro you don’t just you don’t just wake up

one day and then decide you’re done with it um

I I think I would just say though that uh

the best way to explain this um you don’t get to declare to yourself

you’re done with it it’s it’s the the demons are not so easily uh

esjude but what I would say is um

you have to realize that the things that happen to you and the

negative the the the events that happen the negative things that happen to you

um virtually all of it is correctable with the right kind of help it seems like it’s not correctable it

actually is for what it’s worth I think journalists do add some value to the sports coverage

it’s hard to put into words but promotion self-covering athletes influences type all three don’t do it for me buddy that’s the future

that’s the future Sports media won’t go away in particular or I should say all together but it will

dramatically shrink because there’s just not an incentive unless they have a large audience there’s just no incentive

to work with them well said Luke child abuse is a terrible means to ensure future success we just

don’t pay as much attention to the broken people who don’t make it so like Terence has yeah man like Terence is

amazing Terence is an amazing guy for a lot of reasons but just [ __ ] on your kid like that you are not going to

create a Terence Crawford you’re going to create an inmate how would you improve the BMF belt in

the future people keep asking it’s a great question Chris and I appreciate the donation I don’t have strong feelings about BMF doesn’t I I you know

I don’t I don’t hate it I don’t mind that it’s there but it doesn’t do anything for me it’s like the fight is

good or it’s not and like you know the UFC has done this well where they picked Jorge and Nate and you

knew you were going to get action they picked Justin and they picked Dustin you knew you were going to get action but like

if they keep doing it you might end up getting a situation where like

uh look at this home by the way look at this look at this look at this

watch power slap 4 live and free on Rumble close thank you very much done

with that um what if you get a scenario where the fight kind of sucks and then someone

gets the Bell like you know it it doesn’t it’s not going to change their fortunes I mean I guess it helps them

with their contracts and the kind of money they can make but you see my point like it just doesn’t it doesn’t

I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean I I don’t I I don’t hate it I don’t love it it’s just there for me you know

I just agree with so many things especially politics however I don’t think you will ever understand how much of an impact oh that’s Jesus [ __ ] cry

dude this is very nice of you every week I look forward to your Thursday uh me a couple videos uh inspiring Semper Fi

well again I didn’t I don’t think I did that video very well and it caused a lot of backlash and hurt to people I like

and uh it could have been better um should have been better but um you know listen I

the best thing that someone could say is I don’t agree but I want to hear you know I don’t know if that’s the best thing but that’s a great thing you got

to listen to people who you don’t listen to me but you have to listen to somebody out there who says

things that you’re unaccustomed to hearing because over time you’re going to be like oh [ __ ] uh again not me but

someone else in your life you know wisdom comes from unusual places and not from necessarily from the

same worldview you’ve been cultivating all your life it’s you have to just kind of develop an ear for it and we all get

it wrong I’m going to continue to get it wrong we all do but it’s an important exercise that will benefit you long term

to do those kinds of things just started from the top and heard you were sick and still doing this she’s uh

no well okay guys I mean I’m just a guy like this is very nice of you I really appreciate it but

um not sure if my question about the Utah fight or ndas made it but yes it did make it so thank you

Endeavor about to back out that WWE deal why I didn’t hear anything did something happen

Scott Coker just again I don’t think that’s going to help Bellator at this point uh

five add in the

how to avoid being cynical EG inflation UFC drying the lawsuit with their money late stage

um boy that’s a great question I don’t I had to avoid being cynical as an MMA fan

if you’re like upset at the state of the industry um

I don’t bring this up because I don’t know how much you guys want to hear it I get letters I shouldn’t say letters but

I get emails I get emails from MMA fans I’d say about one a week but I got there’s certain

weeks where I’ll get like two or three I’m not even doing a bit here and you can choose to believe this or not I

don’t care of people like just cashing out you know we talk about how people

as fans kind of get burned out and then kind of just slowly fade away but there’s another kind of person who gets

rejected and this by the way happens in other sports too like dude here in DC now there’s been a massive return

since the change in ownership but like how many people just abandoned the Washington football team whatever you

want to say how many people just abandoned it because they were just so depressed about the state of things like people

just left they just left you know they were like number one or close to number one in attendance and they’re like one of the worst if not the worst like you

know if I’m worse to first or from first to worst um people just kind of Zonk out there’s I

get emails from fans all the time being like I just can’t stand the way the industry is structured I can’t stand how

this works I can’t stand it and then they just say they leave do they mean it I don’t know do you believe them up to

you but it is unusual that I get emails like that fairly regularly it’s kind of I mean I won’t say it’s

surprising because I guess I understand it but um it does happen it does happen more than

you might think do you think that the UFC’s war on the media has messed up the collective

knowledge of the fan base I you know um war on the media is a strong word I don’t know if they’ve declared war I

mean they still welcome them there to the most of them anyway to the uh to the events war is not an accurate

description but they like to have listen the guys who run the UFC like to have

control they like to have control over lots of things and they don’t want anyone to influence that level of

control that could all be avoided and that creates friction

um do I think that has messed up the fan base to an extent I think the bigger issues

just turnover though it’s not that thoughts on the boat fight in Montgomery

Alabama man we should have got to that on MK was that not amazing the the the the Montgomery Alabama

just beat down and then when you hear the story it’s like dude they had this boat the Riverboat couldn’t dock for 45 minutes

because these [ __ ] drunk rednecks wouldn’t move their [ __ ] this is this one talking about like when I left the South dude I don’t miss the south at all

at all I know some people think that the South has its charm and it does there are obviously wonderful people who live

in all parts of the world including the South and there’s miserable people who live in all parts of the world and stuff but dude drunk rednecks on a boat is

like it just is such a turn off for me I couldn’t I couldn’t I can’t I can’t be around people like that I just can’t do

it I can’t do it you know everyone’s gonna be different fine I’m not telling you how to live you like if you live in

Montgomery Alabama and you like it fine man cool enjoy it not here to take it away from you but it ain’t for me it

ain’t for me it ain’t for me at all and uh you know and then just beating up the [ __ ] guy working on the dock for

doing his his job like dude like you know

I don’t know if every form of Beatdown that was handed out was entirely ethical

or fair you know because it was just this melee in every way but like the people the the people on that boat

who [ __ ] with that guy and then everyone with them boy I gotta tell you I don’t feel bad about the ass whooping they

took not at all in fact I kind of enjoyed it to be honest to be honest with you uh just miserable awful

people miserable awful people you know and and and uh God I cannot

stand certain entitled redneck dude entitled rednecks are the worst they’re the worst they’re the worst they’re the

worst dude and you know they were drinking on that boat dude you know they were out there doing whatever the [ __ ] they were doing drinking on that boat

all this and they they can’t even the business can’t even dock you know so people are stuck can you imagine being

stuck on that goddamn boat because you can’t dock because these [ __ ] rednecks don’t want to move their pontoon but I mean

you know I I gotta tell you I just had zero

Sympathy for the ass whooping they took just none of it I couldn’t you know again I’m sure that there’s some version

where some people took it too far or whatever sure let people who want to zipruder that film do that but

I uh you don’t often see righteous beatdowns they actually a truly righteous beatdown

are actually pretty rare you know they’re not that usually situations are a little more muddled and someone could

have done this I don’t know man that one seemed pretty fair for the most part that one

oh God I cannot stand Sun tanned drunk boating rednecks ugh

the worst kind of people the worst the [ __ ] worst the worst the worst dude

because I had to go to high school with people like that dude and you oh my Lord the [ __ ] they say the conversations they

have these These are these are these are deeply incurious

people deeply and curious you know and then and then to turn

that’s why listen and you can be in curious that’s that’s no that’s not a crime but then

to then hit the guy and you’re the one who’s [ __ ] with the boat for 40 I mean

just watch the OC 263 when Nate wobbled Leon in round five why didn’t Nate follow up with the w it’s a question people get asked I don’t really know

what the answer is uh seemed like he gave Leon three seconds to recover P.S I bumped into you

at Brooklyn Pine thanks for the pick oh [ __ ] so uh Brooklyn is a neighborhood in

Northeast DC they got a restaurant there that’s pretty good called uh Brooklyn’s uh Brooklyn plant there’s one called Brooklyn’s Finest as well and um it’s

right off the Metro so we like to we like to hop off and go and uh and there was a I think this was the waiter that

we had that one day we had a waiter one day it was like an MMA fan and uh he was super cool he was he was all quiet and

stuff and um anyway long story short I get recognized in DC sometimes but um

why didn’t Nate follow up that’s the million dollar question I don’t I don’t know if he thought he didn’t have enough

time he also likes to play games where he does that [ __ ] where he like points and laughs like it’s all part of the show and he didn’t have the same kind of

like focused um he didn’t have the same kind of

finishing Focus that he probably should have it’s it’s an important question

but at the same time it’s like the Jake Paul thing he got out of it what he wanted to like when when Nate was

hitting the guillotine on Jake everyone’s like yeah that’s the real thing that’s all he had to do and then of course he kind of came on late in

that fight in the tenth that’s all you have to do it’s really all I had to do against Leon it’s like that’s all his fans want you

know how many years did Francis versus Tyson Fury take off of Dana White’s life

um probably not that much but the fact that it’s on ESPN plus that that probably isn’t his favorite

I mean Usman as Islam is Champion 55. I don’t know what this is in reference to so I’m sorry sir that you have to give

money email me if I if you would like a better answer than I’m able to give just reference this please

hey mate thoughts on kaikar France versus Manila cop I haven’t given that

too much thought that is a hell of a fight

I think that I would favor kaikara France but I think cops

unpredictability make him a very very dangerous Foe and that makes it a very

exciting fight as well so kaikara France to me has got overall he’s got a little more technically sound game but I think

cop’s a better athlete and is vastly more unpredictable with it

again same thing kind of been over it I highly encourage researching

peer-reviewed published research all the best yes can never go wrong well I won’t say you can never go wrong but in general you can go much more right that

way uh just felt like saying morning combat is the best combat show out there dude this is really nice of you guys I feel

embarrassed that I even started the show that way but I’m just you know I am where I am but thank you Timothy I appreciate it uh

oh well you’re trying to this man has this man has spent like 50 bucks today

on open mic comedy right here and I haven’t fallen for any of it I don’t think but uh I appreciate the donations

last but not least legit MK is the only anime show I watch uh I disagree with you on a Lot Faith

and politics but man I’ve been riding with you since MMA B days well thank you bro I appreciate that and love you NBC whatever you do I’ll be sure to come

along um well thanks man thank you buddy I appreciate I appreciate all of you the last one

had a weird disagreement with my girlfriend a couple weeks ago at what stage of point of any would you interfere in any observed crime you see

it would take a lot I’ve seen crimes uh if someone’s shoplifting I’m not

gonna do [ __ ] I’m not I’m not dude I live in the United States of America there are over 300 million guns in

circulation in this country you think I’m gonna [ __ ] risk some 15 year old pulling it out at TJ Maxx because they

wanted to steal some [ __ ] clothes I’m not I’m not interfering at all the only time I’ve ever really interfered was

when I saw a guy uh hit a woman um on the street in New York City me and my buddy of mine was with me thank God I

wasn’t alone and we were able to to interfere while one of us called the couple he called the cops I got in the

middle and then kind of like defuse the situation so she didn’t get

continuously hit on but he was [ __ ] big he was a [ __ ] big guy um that’s the only time I’ve ever really

I mean there may be another one I’m not thinking of right now but that like [ __ ] like that or you know there’s road rage

incident yeah I’m not I’m not I’m not dying on 395 because someone’s having a

bad day I’m not I’m not doing that you know this is a dangerous country in certain ways like that I’m not not

playing that game at all all right last but not least how many rounds of powerslap will BC

Abraham and Shaq last I don’t know I I’m five I don’t I don’t

know I don’t know I don’t even know what the numbers would be I don’t know um listen guys I really appreciate today I’m sorry I started such a sour note but

like I’m just having such a rough time but um you guys have made me feel uh better so

I really appreciate that I will get this on podcast tonight thank you guys so much I’m gonna call it a day

um can’t say how much I appreciate you guys today and every day thank you so much I’m out of here until next time