LUKE THOMAS *LIVE* UFC 305 | Conor McGregor | Olympic Boxing | Dana White Slap

e e e e e I'm alive I am alive Dons how are you how are you doing everyone today it is uh the 16th of August 2024 my name is Luke Thomas this is episode 2115 of my live chat thank you so much for joining me I greatly appreciate it as you might know let me pull some of this off so we don't have any logger issues real quick quickly we'll do all that yeah um you might know that I've been off on vacation for quite some time I am back now so we are really in the swing of things so we'll go today typically we go for about 90 minutes but since I've been off if there are more questions um we'll go a little bit longer as a matter of fact so uh thank you so much for joining me greatly appreciate it we'll go for maybe hour and then some change on the free questions and then if you want to get something uh directly answered you may contribute uh in the paid portion of uh in the super chat now if you're a member you don't have to do that to do that excuse me because you can contribute for free if you do that nevertheless thank you so much I greatly appreciate let me text alello because I don't see him in the producer room here let's see for there we go um a lot to get to Breaking UFC 307 news UFC 305 is tomorrow the presser was or the whatever you want to call it the pep rally was today there's quite a bit to talk about so whatever's on your mind we'll get to that either in the free portion or the paid portion either way I'm just glad you're here okay so without further Ado as always let's get this party started shall we okay so there you have it fun times fun times um so let's talk very briefly about what happened yesterday if I may so um supposed to do the live chat yesterday typically of course it is at Thursdays at 3 pm Eastern and then uh I was I had to cancel or post I actually did postpone it uh a day later so which is why we're doing it today on a Friday the answer about what happened is that uh basically there were concerns I had a blood clot in my leg uh it good news I don't but what happened is got home like late late late late Tuesday actually it was technically Wednesday by the time I got home uh and then you know just kind of unpacked the whole day and whatever you know had a quiet day at home and then Thursday morning I wake up and my leg is noticeably swollen like from the shin down to the ankle and then to the little bit of the top of the foot and um basically my my wife's uh uncle is a doctor but of course he doesn't live anywhere near us so he took a look at it over the phone and um he was like you need to go to the ER and I was like uh I bet I don't so um there's an urgent care center next to the actual ER where I did in fact end up and they took a look at it and they were like yeah you need to go to the ER so I went to the ER basically what I just I what I was told was that either I had cellulitis or I had a blood clot and if you don't get a blood clot treated it can be lethal but the only way to depending on your symptoms they could not physically tell the difference they could not physically tell what it was the only way to tell the difference is to get apparently an ultrasound on your leg which I got uh all negative I have cellulitis so I am on a dose of uh antibiotics I'm g a dose of some kind of steroid not the fun kind just the medical kind where's Al yeah okay he's coming um in any case so the problem was that seven no excuse me yes seven hours after I got to the ER I finally got the test for uh the I finally got the ultrasound on my leg and then I had to wait another hour and some change just to get the results back and then I had to discharge and then finally it was like not not quite but between eight and nine hours was the whole entire ordeal um so yeah that was my day yesterday and if you're asking how my foot is it's it's certainly no worse but it's big and swollen it's swollen from the from the shin from the middle of the shin all the way down my best guess about what happened was that this trip we were going to Bogata which is kind of cold and then we were going to kataha which is very very hot so you have to pack for two climates your boy forgot his flipflops his chunk clas so I had to buy some there and you know when you buy some new shoes or not really new shoes but like new Chun if spending what the kind they are they can actually they rip the skin on both of my feet uh I'm going to guess that this the the cuts are healed but I'm going to guess that's how I got what I got I don't know I am only playing detective after the fact so that is what happened it was basically to determine whether or not I had something that I mean citis can be deadly but obviously you have to let it go for a long time it's quite treatable I'm confident that my treatment will work um but apparently if you have a blood clot it's like you like I was like I even asked I even asked the both doctors I was like do I have to go now they're like you have to go now they're like cuz if it's clot like if it moves you're in deep trouble and I was like okay and then then you get to the hospital and they're like yeah you're going to [ __ ] wait so anyway I am okay I'm good to go and in fact I had a fantastic trip to Colombia I feel great I feel refreshed I had just an amazing time and it was really really good for me so sorry for taking up the first however many minutes on this nonsense but I do want to apologize to everyone for having to delay it obviously it was something I did not see coming had to deal with it as best I could and there we are what's AA saying okay yeah I'll be here soon all right with that out of the way um can we react first before I get to the questions to UFC 307 again if I have to go a little bit longer today I will UFC 307 a big announcement just came down let me read to you if you haven't seen these let me read to you the fights and then we'll kind of reacted them here um just a little bit to start the show so D UFC president Dana White makes this announ announcement and excuse me and here are the fights this is the announcement itself let me quickly put this yeah yeah so those are the fights let me put this in front of my face those are the fights right there you can take a screenshot you can we just look online so let's go from bottom to top Stephen Thompson Wonderboy is going to take on walking and Buckley I actually lowkey love that fight Roman deled is going to be taking on Kevin Holland okay so I guess he's back at 185 I know he kind of signal that he would go that way way Jose Aldo is taking on Mario Bautista that's a fantastic fight that people might be sleeping on msar iflo is taking on Alain Sterling I don't know how action-packed that fight will be but it will be highly Technical and highly important so for that reason alone it has big- time value Katlin vieiras taking on Kayla Harrison this is an interesting one I actually don't mind the fight but I do think some people might find might mind that Raquel Pennington is taking on Juliana Peña Peña last fought I think in the rematch against nun has lost and just kind of waited out and here she is getting a title shot I think over 700 days later I forgot exactly what the number was but that's an interesting choice and then your main event Alex poda taking on khil round tree so I asked folks to rate this card about what they thought it was from a scale of 1 to 10 what kind of grade would you give it and most people appear to be somewhere in the six to eight range maybe a little bit higher six to eight and a half something like that which I think is right I think a sevenish is a pretty good demonstration of the value of the card I think the fight that is to me again not the one that's most action-packed but the one that is like true Contender versus true Contender uh obviously Sterling a former Champion but now he's at 145 Sterling and and and moar that's the one that I think to me again does not have the highest pure action potential but that is a no [ __ ] fight if ever there was one at 145 between non-champions like that is a big current non-champions that is a big deal that's a really big deal so I love that fight Jose Alo versus Mario Bautista Bautista is aggressive he's in your face he has offense all the time he has high output he is for the most part well-rounded this Jose Aldo even at an advanced athletic age should be able to get past that especially for three rounds but that could be an interesting test also I think Bautista big for the weight class if I'm not mistaken I I know Aldo has obviously spent his his career at 145 and his physical 135 but Bautista even like bigger by but natural frame deled versus Holland seems fine I don't have any issues with it I don't know if it's necessarily amazing but it's a good fight and I don't mind it Thompson and Buckley I actually really like for the style contrast I feel like Buckley's really been making some great improvements we don't really know what's left of Wonderboy he's been kind of waiting for something I do feel like this is a really strong test Buckley at times has performed quite abl then I cut some other times you know still learning the game it seemed like hasn't quite fully developed all of the inherent ability that is naturally sitting within him but this is one of those opportunities to really level level up and I think uh the style of contrast and the problem solving that has to go into it even for an advanced age Wonder Boy is highly intriguing the part where it gets really kind of interesting For Better or For Worse is the vietta and the Harrison fight so I actually don't mind this because like why did they book Raquel Pennington versus Juliana Peña well I you the argument is probably what they could have just done Pennington versus Harrison right and just gotten right to the point I do think that would have been better that would have been my preference here I want to be clear about that I don't think that the way that they did it is a superior way but at a bare minimum you've got a number one contenders fight between vietta and Harrison so there is some first of all Harrison and vietta is not a bad fight it's actually a great fight it's a really really interesting fight um I feel like vietta is going to be a limited but still worthwhile test for Harrison and again every time she gets to 135 she has to climb to sign incredible Mountain to get there um but the fact that she has elbows and she's on this Mission she looked fantastic in her last fight obviously so that's actually a re really fun test I think it would have been better given her last performance to just push her to the front of the line you might ask why is pea getting this well if Peña wins and Harrison wins which I think there is a reasonable probability of that happening you get the opportunity for paena to kind of sell a big fight against a a upand cominging kind of big name I know it's kind of crazy to say about Kayla but within the UFC Universe she's kind of an upand cominging name um and Pia got this because she's going to sell it like you know Raquel Pennington uh has all my respect you know no one becomes a UFC champion accidentally and I I'm not going to sit here and say horrible [ __ ] about her but she's not going to sell on pay-per-view at that's not really an unfair statement she's not it's just not going to happen Pena introduces a level of oxygen into this matchup that really of the four nobody else could quite do Harrison over time could do but I don't think it's quite ready to do and just in terms of the salesmanship angle of it all and so if you get a Peña and Harrison matchup there's a lot to work with there to actually build up the fight and build up Kayla Harrison my my sense is that they're trying to slow play that one a little bit okay the main event is really interesting UFC 3 307 takes place before obviously UFC 308 and a UFC 308 you have Alexander rage taking on the presumed number one contender in magamed anv but anv he's ready and they're putting him after when Alex comes back like they could have it seems like quite easily done poda versus ancv in Salt Lake City or potentially a 308 and put something else there like my hunch about what's happening I'm not entirely sure obviously they needed someone to headline 307 so they were calling on poda but then you could have just plugged in an kalv in that spot uh why didn't they analia fought in the United States in 2020 in January of 2020 so the idea that he can't get into the country and again all these guys who have relationships to ramzan kadirov it's always touch and go but he did fight in the states in 2024 he beat the inny Walker in their rematch he did it in Las Vegas so like he already has been here once this year presumably he can come back to the States so that even that is not necessarily a limiting factor although obviously when they go to Abu Dhabi they're going to want to have you know their top Muslim fighters who are you know uh adored in that region it's very common promotional concern so okay they might be saving him for that but then you look at like how did like here's the thing I don't get like oh Kayla Harrison needs to earn it and and don't get me wrong like I love this round Tre fight actually I feel like whatever else you want to say about POA versus round Tre it's exciting like the the the the possibility that this fight could suck yes of course it could be I poke three seconds in and we do the whole Three Stooges bit and it's over but in all likelyhood it's probably G to be a banger right and and I would expect that poon will win but I think Round Tree could get interesting he could get Reckless and you never know like or he could really just kind of he could have a great outing he could have have a great day he might trust the fact that he doesn't have to wrestle anymore and that could free him up like there's there is a genuine upset potential there and for that reason that fight's cool like I'm not even really mad at the fight but you can't argue it's the most meritocratic Choice like whatever the merits of why round tree is there and there are some real ones it's not because he's the most deserving candidate right he I mean he he had the Anthony Smith when he came off right and then he had the drug suspension they were they were legitimately mitigating circumstance ances to it and he had the Jamal Hill fight which he had to pull out of we all know the story for 303 the whole bit and now he just kind of like gets a title shot again like I I think khil rry is a feel-good story I think khil rry is uh a great Ambassador for the fight game I think his style has become significantly better while being action-oriented over time not really mad at the fight it's just very curious that like Tom Aspen doesn't deserve anything but he's had to now defend an title Kayla Harrison you could have easily plugged into this okay there's some promotional reasons to slow playay it but you know she has to earn it and then C R's been doing he's been doing well but I would have NE necessarily pegged him as like title fight ready or title fight deserving and they plug him right in like so it's a weird situation about like what the UFC is preferring what was available and what they see here I saw grabaka Hitman on Twitter kind of float the possibility that like what they're doing doing with poon is they kind of realize if you give him like a straightup wrestler not that not not that anive is exactly all of that but should you give him one of those what was that ultimately do to him like how does that you know does he just get does he lose like if there was a Phil Davis or Ryan Bader at 205 I might like their chances obviously they're not but you get the idea UFC anyway um and so hey let let the guy just kickbox again dude the fight against rry I'm not even mad at it like it's a perfectly fine fight that's a good fight I love it I'm okay with it it's just who has to climb the ladder I mean we live in a world where Round Tree had a had a nice win over Smith but it's hard to know exactly what the value of that is has this drug suspension again with mitigating circumstances I'm not you know the it happens and then gets a title shot and then Tony Ferguson has to go in one of the most insane win streaks ever and you know some of it was his fault some of it wasn't but never really ultimately gets into one like who gets to expedited and who doesn't and for what reasons at what times there is huge variance and I've seen people complain like oh this new UFC they never used to do stuff like this guys if you watch the sport long enough that is absolutely not true it might be the case that they do it more these days because they're trying to plug in more dates like that could be true that it has accelerated somewhat but the idea of guys getting very dubious title shots or not the most you know like dude Randy Couture got viciously knocked out by Chuck Liddell retired from the sport unretired and got a heavyweight title shot and by the way then beat the [ __ ] out of Tim Sylvia like I'm not saying rry is Randy Couture it's not the point I'm making but rather is it new for the UFC to start granting guys opportunities not in conjunction with you know either the ranking system or like the most obvious deserved guy you know these kinds of things happen I think historically with some degree of regularity again it might be a little bit more these days not as much as you might imagine a go on this card it's not it's a harder argument to make because obviously pñ is on it as well so so an interesting card if it holds together it's certainly an interesting card especially if round Tre upsets that shaks up a lot in that division but of course if poon wins and I guess he would have to face the winner of anive and rackit I don't I don't see how he couldn't but up to this point I didn't see how he could avoid anive anyway so fun times fun times fun times but I think the idea just L to leave it with you like the idea of the UFC's really changed their ways they might have they they might go to the well a little bit more on this you'll see this kind of stuff often you know what I mean like this is not I never I mean Patrick cay was on a win streak when he got a fight against Anderson Silva but I didn't see him as the prohibitive number one guy necessarily he was just kind of the next guy up or whatever but but it wasn't like a slam dunk case I mean you all the greats have guys like this in their in their resume and you know poon has to win first I'm just pointing out the idea that like that this never used to happen before and now it does that's not true like that that argument is historically illiterate okay with that in mind let's get to some of your questions and if you have follow-up questions we can get to them too but I kind of want to give you like an initial reaction to 307 oh yeah so my grade yeah seven seven and a half I think is a pretty good grade for that one all right very good here we are okay let's add to the stage boom let's do it this way like that okay all right first question oh can you guys see that here we go it's a little bit better all right now that you've had some time to rest down in Colombia how's your head you feeling good glad to be back King D yeah yeah I kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier I'll make this quick I'm feeling [ __ ] great I'm feeling great I had a fantastic trip it was exactly what I needed I had to do a lot of different stuff you know I was kind of very busy but it was honestly pretty good I was able to process a lot of what has happened over the last year and I've you know been working sort of steadily working on some plans for the rest of this year as well as 2025 so yeah I'm feeling pretty good I you know it's been a lot at a bare minimum it's been a significant year of change uh and so that change by itself is just a lot to kind of process but as I indicated honestly like whatever yeah did I go feeling somewhat defeated um heading into the break a little bit but I I I have come out I I slept 10 hours multiple times guys I haven't slept 10 hours in you know almost two years like it's the best sleep I've gotten in a long long long long time so um that's not like why it was great but that's indicative of how I feel right all right how is it that the James crra situation seems to be swept under the rug at this point because no one is able to really talk on the record about it that's why you're not able to get on the record by the way this I know there was the Shan Strickland Tiki Goen story that was put out there by I don't know if you can call it a story but a series of cryptic allegations that Shan Strickland put out towards Tiki Goen former UFC fighter manager to ALG man Sterling manager to I think even for a while he was managing TJ I'm not I'm not sure but you know a bunch of guys a bunch of guys and uh I've never dealt with Tiki I don't know him personally I I I have no comment about him one way or the other because hey I don't know him personally I have no professional relationship with him I don't think I've ever exchanged texts with him ever um and about what Shan Strickland said he made a point he's like you know I can't like sneeze without the MMA press kind of writing about it which is true to a to a large extent there are people both mad at Shan Strickland when he does something and then people who are at a bare minimum if not celebratory about it want to use the engagement that comes with the you know uh insanity and the conflict around what follows when he sometimes says stuff so that part is true that there is a willingness to kind of farm out what he says for clicks and yet all of a sudden they're very quiet but it's not so simple right in a lot of States if someone is committing I'm not saying that he is but let's say hypothetically if if someone is making slanderous claims and you just repeat them you could be legally liable too so you can't just run out and do it like it doesn't it doesn't work that way uh unless you want to be party to a potential lawsuit yourself so at a bare minimum you have to get comment from Tiki and you have to get comment from his attorney that's the first thing I'd say the second thing I'd say is like it's hard to know even what you could print because these are all just allegations it's not like they've actually gone to court and they have presented any kind of evidence or there is some kind of direct legal claims being made here um there there's nothing it's just a bunch of and again I'm not saying that they're true or not true I have like you I have no clue but as it stands at this moment because they are UNS substantiated in the public they are hearsay claims to this point you there there I mean there is a significant amount of legal liability that comes with that which is why a lot of places even even even like at MMA fighting which is backed by VOX media or a USA or MMA junkie which is backed by USA Today like there's no way you can write a story about that without legal having their hand in it the entire way through and even then it's really like what could you get on the record so like could they do those stories yes might they they might be working on them as we speak but they are you can't just run out and print that very bad idea to do that very very very very bad idea to do that now that doesn't mean that they couldn't dig into it but that gets sort of to the second layer of the conversation which is we've partly by the way that media now works and by the way in which the media is is bullied in the industry we have drummed out all the people who do stories like this MMA fighting and again I maybe VOX media had a good reason for it I don't know but they recently let go of Steven Morocco this is a story Steven Morocco would have looked into like that but they let him go and there's nobody else who does the investigative journalism that he does um you know we've pushed out guys like Josh gross we've pushed out guys who who like do all this stuff Mark rundi left to go do um NFL like the people who are on these beats to cover these stories they're not there anymore and listen I don't want to speak for bloody elbow uh but bloody elbow would have covered the story no problem again they would have had to gone through legal there would have been a process it would not like they could have just sprinted out and got something out but they would have done a story on this like there's no doubt in my mind in fact I can just tell you I had a conversation uh in the DMS with Nate Wilcox who ran be and I asked him how he would cover it if he wants to tell that story he would he gave me some indication of like some of the hurdles there they would have covered that story but they got drummed out so like this not Shan Strickland's fault but like asking hey why isn't there more journalism happening in the industry after years and years and years and years in years of it being undermined by both the business model and the stakeholders who don't want it to cover their acts there's nothing left the James crra situation is obviously different than that but it is at least somewhat related because even then the same kinds of people who would be able and have the time and the bandwidth to look into these stories they're not covering the sport anymore those functionalities are gone these are very specific beats it's actually a little bit harder to get this information and to know where to look and how to elicit it than you might imagine so I do hope that there is continued coverage of um whatever is truthful about the situation between Sean Strickland and Tiki Goen again I have no idea what that is but to the extent that it is truthful I hope that there is some kind of public ering about it I'd be willing on some level to provide some of that uh if the opportunity arose but I just want to be clear like why aren't there more substantive stories about important events from the MMA media asking those questions in in 2024 when we have burned all of the Farmland that produces it you know I'm not sure what to tell anybody anymore this is why you don't do that like when you when you need people to work on these beats and they're not there anymore like other people can't just it seems obvious oh just assign the next guy to do it that ain't gonna work trust trust me that ain't gonna work all right let's see this is there a chance that we never see Izzy again if he gets audited once more against dupc at 305 maybe I just can't imagine how demoralizing it would be for him fully believing that the Strickland performance is behind him having taken the necessary time off and preparations to rectify it only to deliver another uninspiring performance I don't think what we or you might consider uninspiring would be the Benchmark for him about whether he would continue that said under the world you have proposed in this question which is if he gets audited right or so where if dupy is able to just like take it to him like nobody's business yes yes in that world there's a decent chance he he retires it it like if he gets viciously koed there's a chance he retires on the other hand I still find a I find the idea that he gets viciously koed unlikely now duplic winning different story but outright just you know sleeping is he possible for for sure I mean the guy sto Whitaker for crying out loud like you know he can do it but poon even then was more a TKO not straight up Ko um in that world I think it's possible but like with Izzy you know if he goes to 205 and let's say anive loses or just looks bad against Racket and then let's say it's close between Izzy and drias right you could have like argue like hey 32 two three depending how you want to abortion it are you going to tell me if he goes to 205 you wouldn't like his chances to get a title shot look who they're giv title shots to right and so it's really just the question is not how bad the loss is although that is a relevant question the question is based on the results what opportunities exist after this that's really the question and if the opportunities are still there at age 35 at 185 or 205 might be a little bit premature to get the coffin out uh I tend to think that he he might exercise some of those but you know is he's also a little bit hard to predict at times all right here we go uh Luke you've long said MMA fans have about a five-year lifespan before they get burned out do you think we'll see a drastic drop in Gates and viewership in 2025 and 2026 once all the pandemic fans start to leave so this is a thing that I have confronted numerous times and the first time I was confronted by it I was very surprised by what happened but I've not been since then except there might be a little bit of a difference this time every time that five-year cycle begins to happen again this is sort of a theoretical model there's not exactly hard data on this it does seem mostly anecdotal but let's just take it as a given for the purposes of this conversation in the event in the event that there is a five-year approximate life cycle for MMA fandom and then you see it begin like the people who came in during the pandemic are starting to get burned out or whatever does it mean we're going to have this drop off at the end well it is true under this theoretical construct that yeah those people will depart what I missed the first time I saw this happen and then didn't get missed the second or third time it happened uh I'm now very keenly aware of it is what you cannot lose sight of is those other people might depart but they'll be replaced by a new crop of fans that that is the magic of MMA it's the churn so for as many fans as it burns through it is pretty good the UFC in particular obviously about pulling in new ones into the pipeline and then starting that process over and over again now the key difference is for example like heading into the pandemic from 2016 to 2020 or 2015 to 2020 you had Rousey and McGregor boosting everyone and then the pandemic hit and that was a moment where the UFC was able to capture a lot of attention um relative to other sports leagues for for a moment in time anyway but you have to ask yourself like who is bringing in the new fans poon definitely is doing some of that there's some other guys I'm sure as well but there aren't exactly the same kinds of things for the last two cycles of this that really energized the Boost and energized the Recruitment and energized the new fans and and to bring them in um so that's the interesting part to me but like do I think there will be new fans there yes of course I do it's not to say that they won't they will the question is in all the previous times this has happened the new crop was as big if not bigger I think we're at a point now where I'm asking I don't know I don't know if the new crop is going to be bigger but here's another X Factor right what if the UFC signs a deal with Netflix and I'm just gonna make I'm gonna make something up they either get rid of or somehow substantially reduce the pay-per-view model in their business and again that's very very hypothetical very high in the sky but I'm just sort of pointing out even if they didn't do any of that and they just went to net the level of like what's happening in the world of streaming and what you're plugged into and the the size of the audience that you have access to guys Netflix is more than 10 times the size of ESPN plus 10 times 10x the size so you might be saying well who are these stars are going to bring it in guys if they go to Netflix there's no doubt in my mind they bring in a new crop of fans no doubt in my mind zero doubt in my mind none none whatsoever so this is what you see what I mean like there's always this other kind of undercurrent that pushes everything forward as the stuff at the top kind of gets eliminated and it just produces a new cycle and a new cycle and a new cycle so am I expecting like 2025 26 to go down well it's hard to say right now we don't know how the business is going to be run or whatever and do I have questions about how the next cycle will look sure but if they sign with Netflix I don't I mean I think the process will just take care of itself let's see all right the [ __ ] okay here we go in a best case scenario what does a road map look like for pfl to potentially have a close semblance of success that Strikeforce Pride had in terms of Spotlight and competition it does not who would need to be signed win Etc can that even be achievable with their season tournament format no or will they struggle with people mocking them for Jake Paul versus certain decision-making I don't think people that's really what's holding them back they seem to be dropping the ball despite huge signings I enjoyed de dea's performance yeah I saw some highlights of that when I was on vacation guys there's nothing they can do to replicate strike force of Pride it's not possible when pride and strike for start with pride when I got back into MMA right after college cuz I the first time I ever saw it was not 93 it was 94 summer of 94 I think there were I don't know how many UFC's were out at that point but it was the summer of 94 for me and uh went down to Blockbuster Video which is now a yes grocery store down there on Barracks Row in DC if anybody knows what I'm talking about but um guys Pride was much bigger than UFC at that time 2002 2003 2004 even through 2005 I mean obviously problems start around then but or a little bit before that but long before but you get the point I'm trying to make like you know who was putting on what I mean UFC was doing some good work and Ultimate Fighter changed a lot but holy crap like dude Pride was where it was at for numerous weight classes it they were not equals Pride was better and then it kind of evened out a little bit over time and there was like you know I remember when Tim Sylvia knocked out Gan McGee you guys ever seen that Gan McGee was like nearly a seven-footer not very athletic Tim Sylvia knocked him out it was great I remember after that he called out Fedor on the mic you know and that was a big thing at the time was like who's got the better heavyweight division well it was Pride they had noera they had crocop they had Randleman they had Fedor they had I mean they had so many guys right d Pride was where it was at and they had and at 205 they had vanderlay for time sakuraba they had Arona they had they had Rampage they had Shogun mean I could over you know you can go on down the list in 185 they had a bunch of people too like dude it was it was insane what they had it was insane like they were better for a long long stretch of time and then even then they had the that they had their Scandal and then they lost access to Fuji TV and then everything went tits up and then there you go Strike Force was not Pride not even close but Strike Force was much bigger than anything else you see today like by a million miles it was more relevant it was more important and they had their problems I'm not going to sit here and say everyone loves Strike Force that's not true but relative to what you see today it was also significantly bigger had just had a much bigger Market presence there was there was a lot of people skeptical about it right which made it a big deal when they absorbed the Cormier and The Rock holds and all those guys won championships don't get me wrong there was PL plenty of doubt that they faced but they were much much bigger than anything pfl it's not even I'm not even trying to bag on them like anything that they can do they could change owners they could change structure and they might be able to do a little bit better in some other ways but ultimately they cannot win they cannot they cannot compete it is not possible and guys if the season tournament format were of any kind of relevancy don't you think that would have there be some kind of measurable outcome to demonstrate that there is no evidence whatsoever that the season format not only works but is actually of preference to the audience like it's I don't even know if it's neutral to them much less a positive it may in fact be a negative to them like this idea that it's is it a differentiator on paper sure does it actually matter in terms of brand visibility and audience engagement I don't think there's any evidence that it does anecdotally you can see people people hardcores on Twitter who might like it that like I don't know what you would present as proof that like okay it's different but also different and it elevates our brand how how they've been trying it for how many years now their numbers I think have modestly to marginally to in some cases non-existant stayed the same there's very very little evidence that it has any to no to no evidence that it has any effect whatsoever ever so no like the tournament format can work in limited cases certainly but the way they do it is just sort of absurd Overkill like that this is nothing that can it cannot be done guys at any point in time there are a group of Fighters that the public views as legitimate for whatever reason they do and the public at large views the most legitimate guys as with the UFC there could be exceptions here or there but it's them and not only is it them in particular it is the Champions that is really the one that they View as the most relevant the most important the most legitimate unless your guys can fight those guys for the shared title or a shared title it doesn't you cannot ever gain their legitimacy that legitimacy has to be transferred this is how it has been done in boxing since the initial development of the belt system well the belts grew over time but the sanctioning body system essentially that is how legitimacy is awarded that is how it is done with out that you have no possible way to compete it cannot be done it cannot be done um that's it there's no other argument to it Jake Paul is honestly a boost for them but I'll say this too like for example I I talk with pfl anyone from pfl is watching this guys you got to do me a solid I talked to someone of their media reps they're like are you going to come to the DC presser next week and I would really like to go um but I have an interview scheduled I had was supposed to happen this week I had to move it you guys know Dr Mike isrel the full ROM goat we have an interview with him on Thursday I was like I can move this interview can you get me some one-on ones with I mean who's gonna be there enanu Hena you know all kinds of donks are going to be there right like uh it's really valuable cyborg is goingon to be there the whole bit can you get me a one-on-one like I have to make decisions about what kind of coverage I can reasonably get in order to make my editorial decisions well I mean they're telling me like they're probably only going to have scrums I'm like guys what's going to do better for my Channel scrums about pfl fights or Mike is rellan for folks who don't know who that is go look up some of his numbers like it's a like it will do well it will do really well so this is what I mean it's like you want to promote your product you should be having your guys sit down for one-on ones as many as you can get anyway so guys at the pfl if you're seeing this I would really love to attend but if if you're only going to have scrums I don't I don't know if it's worth anybody's time like make a little bit of extra time for one-on ones and then I think this was a you know it's a slam dunk case all right let's see here thanks for the well wishes by the way all right at this point Who's stringing who along Conor or Dana UFC for the past year it's felt like Connor is the biggest issue ever since the bkfc stuff happened I get the impression AA is done bowing to Connor and the circus he brings I think it's a little bit mutually enforced probably began by Connor and his Antics and everything else that he's been dealing with doing the movie and the injury and the whole nine and so clearly it looks like there's a lack of trust on his Readiness or even his ability to be ready or even his ability to ever be ready they clearly have they're fed up with it like we know the story now when he got injured UFC flew all the way to Ireland and I think they sent Hunter Campbell to go take a look at everything and looks to me like they tried to like talk him into fighting and he wouldn't do it and then he want to get in on the calendar and maybe he'll get in on the calendar in December but it's like I think that that again I said it before I'll say it again if Connor felt like he did not want to risk the chances because of the tow injury for whatever reason felt like it was just too much of a hurdle given everything he's been through and everything he's at it's his right to pull out no question about it like if you're not ready to fight you're not ready to fight we just have to accept that as people who watch the fights on the other hand I think that there is a question to be asked about to what extent any kind of trust or expectation um ability between the UFC and Connor yeah has been uh broken or or a bare minimum diminished like I just doesn't seem like there's a lot of trust um mostly from UFC to Connor but even from I think Connor to UFC I think he's dude the guy's got a million other things going on he's got his beer he's launched and he's got his in and got legal troubles to an extent and he's got the you know bkfc and like he's I mean it's quite obvious he's in another place in his life right I mean it's just obvious he has moved into another place in his life and fighting is only tangentially related to that like this is where we are now a guest fighting hasn't been completely eliminated but it's been largely eliminated it just used to be the nucleus of what he does now it is you know barely and um um I don't know some kind of floating object barely tethered into the gravitational pole of everything that's just where we are with him and I think the UFC probably feels that way and is acting on that accordingly you know obviously he's a big star that he does big business that has not necessarily changed in that particular equation but getting this guy to the [ __ ] finish line or even the starting line at this point is laborious and they see to your point I agree with you they seem kind of done with it the question is whether or not you know what happened in the in the months and years leading up to this Beyond Conor's own success that may have contributed to this I don't know but the relationship doesn't quite seem as you know hand in glove as it once did good question I did not watch this fight during vacation but I watched it when I got back okay with San Haagen risking and losing his ranking to a much lower ranked Umar so was two versus 10 if memory serves and now Whitaker risking his spot against Hamot after doing the UFC a solid I want to ask why do some like Whitaker and San Haagen risk their rankings against much lower ranked but clearly dangerous opposition when both have or had a decent case for a title shot in their respective divisions is there some kind of incentive that I'm missing I feel like either of those two could have waited for a higher ranked opport opportunity so I would say a couple of things one because it is not a pure prize fighting calculation they're going to get more decisions like this understand what I'm saying yes for a main event for a main event on short notice in the case of Whitaker or for Cory there could be potential um factors built into his contract that may make this purse or that purse bigger than um other opportunities he could have had right so it's not to say that there are like you know do guys take fights why does dvon fight this guy why does Canelo fight this guy it's a question of like what's going to generate me the most money for the most amount of friction whatever I'm not saying that that calculation is not in play in MMA I think there is some of that but that because pay is limited particularly for non-championship Fighters it's not as forward a calculation as you might see from other people who have to make a much more deliberate call about this guy leads to this amount of money for this much friction this guy leads to this amount of money for that much friction and then to make a decision so that's the first thing I'd say the second thing I'd say is I I you pick up on something here between Whitaker and sandhagen these are two guys who irrespective of the pay and I think pay would change it a little bit but putting that aside they have a certain kind of worldview and Constitution that makes competing against people like this irrespective of their rank something that they see and Maybe not maybe nobility is not the word but they are not in any they they what they would rather do is test themselves against somebody legitimate and scary and maybe without necessarily the hype in the case of n gamov or the ranking in either case or you know the flakiness certainly of Hamza whatever you know they're willing to put aside these kind of factors that would deter a lot of other people because constitutionally like I've had many conversation I've never I've had one interview with Whitaker I might have another one with him soon but uh I've talked to San Haagen many times including many times you know just shooting the [ __ ] and and guys that's a guy who really really like does he want to make some money of course does he want to have you know some kind of opportunity after fighting is over to do who knows what you know and use fighting to set himself up for that no doubt about it but that is a guy who at his core is a martial artist he wants to test himself to show the world in his mind he is the best to show the world he can do it and I think Whitaker is very very similar in that regard now I'm not telling you that guys who do who don't do that are lesser Fighters sometimes they're better Fighters it's not necessarily correlated but you always have to remember MMA as it currently stands it is priz fighting but a lot of those prizes are constrained and so because of that you get a different kind of calculus about what people are trying to achieve here they're trying to achieve greatness on pure greatness terms and as you can see nurov you know this was not whatever his ranking this [ __ ] guy is tough to beat man you know it's kind of funny I actually didn't see the fight live hold on um here we go okay I didn't see the fight live but I was I was I was actually at the wedding that day in bulat and I was like flipping through my phone and I was looking at the uh results and everyone was kind of making it out like nurov was housing him and I'm like I went back and I watched the fight and I'm like okay norov did really well but he didn't house him like you know he was just a little bit better in most of the rounds basically uh but it wasn't some huge difference between them still doing that to sandhagen is tough tough to do doing that to him is just not easy and so you know you can see like that was a no [ __ ] fight if for sure guys like sandhagen want the no [ __ ] fights they they see real value and nobility according to their personal goals in constitution in in not only you know first of all just in taking fights like that like all these [ __ ] guys w't do it I'll do it and then obviously he wasn't able to get the win but certainly the value of that is extraordinary to these guys you know so yeah good question good question really good question Luke what does your intuition tell you about the current state of Israel I uh are you concerned about the layoff his age and do you feel as though his best days are in the past as a fan I am rooting for him but I'm not nearly as confident about him winning these fights as I was a few years ago definitely not as confident as I was a few years ago how could you be I mean you know the guy's been through a number of different things including the loss to sha Strickland you know where your belief in what he can do I think if you're not taking that into account you're just not being honest about where we are with things um my intuition is that the time off in terms of injury recovery and getting his body ready for the kind of um physical confrontation that he has tomorrow I think that will suit him well and my intuition is that he will come back refreshed and that will also suit him well my limiting belief on that though is I don't know if that's enough to win so in other words again could he get knocked out with 30 seconds in because drias you know winds up a big one and lands yeah of course of course okay but putting that to the side I don't expect Izzy to look bad he looked bad against Shawn Strickland or just you know a shell of himself I'm really not expecting that I don't think I'm gonna get that however you know do dricus is dude he's a [ __ ] man the guy is physical he has complete self-belief you know what I mean like um he is willing to take chances he has I think underrated skill they have good tactical scouting like that dude he's a tough Challenge and he is in the peak of his prime uh physically certainly and on a hot streak I know the fight against Strickland was you know some debate over that but like he didn't perform bad that's a tough guy to look good against and that's about you know not gonna say it's as good as anyone's ever looked against him but in his you know Sean Strickland's tough to look good against by and large especially of late so I I don't think that he's going to come back and be like oh we're gonna be like oh he had ring rust I don't really buy that my in at least my intuition doesn't tell me that my intuition my dude like have you seen the I'm sure you guys have seen the physical shape that the guy is in he is in incredible shape now you might get to this point where we're discussing what happened at today's presser where he is you know brought to the point of tears I did not think that the tears were brought from unrelenting mockery I mean it was a little bit of mockery but I didn't get the sense that he was like bullied to tears I do get the sense that he is um certainly motivated to be back but that that motivation is making him deal with a lot of you know stress um he's got a guy like dricus who is hard to Rattle mentally you know um and my hunch is that there's a big portion of Izzy that is very motivated there's a big portion of him that's like incredibly nervous as well you know not just about like what drick is can do but about like the stakes in particular to the point where it is previously now again if things go well or even modestly well there's some opportunity going forward but like I get the sense that that there's just a lot of that becoming a combustible thing guys I've seen like Elite I'm sure if you watch all the European viewers or anybody who watches World Cup you ever seen a guy cry before a World Cup game like it happens or you know a athletes deal with all kinds of things in all kinds of ways people being like oh he cried he's mentally unstable that could be one interpretation yes who could deny who could deny that could be one interpretation of course I get the sense that more he's boiling with if not rage but boiling with this like determinism with a little bit of frustrated Rage with a little bit of nervousness and it's all making this incredibly combustible mix that he at times like emotionally cannot contain uh but like that could Propel him to Victory I mean people like oh he cried at the presser guys I'm not saying it's not relevant but what I am saying is it's going to be a lot more relevant who's crying after the fight not who's crying before could play a role again let's see but people are treating it like it's this determinative thing like it only means one thing it could mean a variety of things um so I'm not I'm not expecting an unprepared Izzy I think you're going to get a very prepared izy but I'm expecting a prepared dricus I mean let's talk about that right like aren't aren't you guys like I am expecting a very prepared dricus I'm expecting a guy who is going to go in there not afraid of Izzy at all taking the fight to him and yeah he might get rattled and you know who knows like there might be rounds he loses there might be moments that look bad for him but I don't think this guy is going to be in any way emotionally or physically deterred he's he's going to go into this once more into the breach so if you get a prepared Izzy at 35 and I don't think there's gonna be too much physical drop off but we'll see I'm not yeah I'm not convinced that that's at 185 that's just less of a role but you're going to get a dricus that is I mean as I always tell you guys Armageddon when he balls up the fist man like that's why for me this fight is dude you guys know I'm like I've been a big isue supporter for a long time I don't really love the Hitler [ __ ] he's been doing I don't know what the [ __ ] that is but okay put that to the among other problems but put that to the side for just a second like I'm a big believer in his ability at a bare minimum even I think this is a coin flip and sometimes when you think it's a coin flip it can can go one way you know no problem I guess the more the point I'm trying to make is there are times where fights come along where you can't quite tell how the pieces are going to co be put together you have some idea about in certain phases it could look this way or that but this is one of those fights where I have a hard time exactly seeing how the offensive pieces are going to come together to make a larger puzzle and usually when that happens uh it's chaos it's [ __ ] balls out chaos so who's going to win in that scenario the question the answer to the question is there let's see all right here we go has Shan Strickland talked himself out of a title fight with his latest uh tweets about a well-known manager alleged history it comes hours after Dana announced he would get the next title shot but I can't imagine them wanting to put Strickland anywhere near a camera mic and press tour right now well you know it's kind of funny he when when made that initial announcement or whatever that video was you know he was like I'm not making a like a like a truthful declaration I'm only telling you what I heard obviously he must have talked to some kind of lawyer who kind of indicated to him or like even in this job what I do here you have to say things like you know in my opinion XYZ in my opinion you know um I don't know Abraham Lincoln was you know whatever you want to say a hell of a dancer I don't know something but if you don't put that in my opinion up front it can cause you some legal liability so I think he did talk to a lawyer about all of that um but the question is has he talked himself out of it I he may have talked himself into it like I've I saw one theory that like him doing that kind of stuff and then getting a title shot was them kind of being like Oh hey you know we'll give this to you if you shut up obviously it's total speculation and you know I don't know if there's I mean it's complete theorization Beyond just speculation but I don't know man like dude you know um I don't think traditionally waiting around has shown to do you the most favors but it might hear it might hear it's it's it kind of seems to be like what the UFC is mostly excited about selling at the moment you know versus um what is the most rightful fight we can make at any given time I mean I'm not saying again it's it's not one or the other it's not there's no consideration given to what is appropriate rather what I'm saying is the ranking of what is valuable at the present moment can kind just be like what do we want to sell this with right now um that's always relevant too but the privacy of that qu uh question seems to have risen uh someone says this call me bold but I think Izzy makes light work of DDP and we all say yall must have forgot Sunday morning so there is one argument and that argument goes listen Iz he looks like he's in great physical condition you can say oh he was brought to tears of depressor and he certainly was but again I don't think it come it came from like hanging he couldn't deal with exactly I think I played a little bit of a role certainly but not like I just feel like dude there's a lot of people who dislike him and so what they'll do is they'll decide that the that the argument they'll use to make certain claims about his emotional Constitution come from like these like less than basic explanations oh he's scared oh he is mentally weak or he is something else it's like the guy has a record of nearly being 20 you know like a handful of fights in boxing kickboxing and MMA like trying to paste on top of your dislike of him which there may be real reasons for but trying to like explain that with this emotional reasoning that you've ascribed a certain amount of like morality to is a way to never have to deal with the nuances of any kind of complicated situation right the nuances of it are actually that yeah he could be feeling nervous I'm sure he doesn't like dealing with some of the things that are said about him in the public and partly that could be disruptive to him and emotionally you know uh harmful or whatever however I don't think that is the full explanation for whatever you see in the full mental state of him I think there's actually a lot more going on with that including on the potentially if you're a Izzy fan on the positive side terms of his drive and his want and his need uh I think all of that is playing a role and all of that becomes emotionally together combustible and it leads to things like you saw there it's not one or the other it is more complicated and if you decide that you never want to have to deal with the nuances of it because you'd rather just make a joke about it well that's your choice that's fine but you're not making any attempt at getting at the truth you're just having a little bit of fun with it so have fun with it like no problem but um that's not like an accurate in my judgment in general over time that is not an accurate assessment or way of assessing things it's a way of pleasing your worldview by deciding how neatly somebody you don't like fits into it so anyway is there a world where Izzy goes in there against guys who are a little bit Reckless musclebound overcommit positionally is there a world in which Izzy clubs that guy historically speaking there has been historically speaking there has been so you might say if history repeats itself DDP is gonna walk right in right that is an argument I think the counter to that argument is that is something that people have been saying dricus is going to do this whole time in his UFC run and at times has flirted with it you know pulling Darren till on top of him not great I don't think anyone would argue that at the same time I think dricus is a little bit sturdier than Paulo Costa I think dricus is a little bit sturdier than you know pick somebody Derrick Brunson Derrick Brunson is a great fighter but dricus is a championship level fighter and has proven that this is a tougher test in my view so um would I be so would I be S so the question is this would you be surprised if Izzy goes in there what's the word you use makes light work of him a little a little I would not be surprised if he got the best of the standup and stuff some takedowns and then kind of beat him up over time but if he goes in there and just houses him I yeah I would be surprised I would be surprised yeah um but like you know can I he beat this guy yes of course he can like not and more in just a sort of basic possibility sense like yes there are ways in which to look at this matchup and think that it uniquely favors Izzy that is a that is not an unfair argument a good question nice to see you back Luke you've probably seen Ariel is leaving MMA hour yes I did what do you think the future holds for him now in MMA hour also had slim chance to ever bringing back the MMA beat with you Brian Chuck and Ariel well if we ever brought it back we would not bring it back under the former uh employer's offices so in that sense no but getting to the aial question yeah man I I kind of figured he would you know we're living in a media age where I think we have to ask questions about how much longer websites as media institutions will be relevant um probably for a little while longer but I do think there is an expiration date on that so that's the first thing I'd say um and obviously they do more than that they have a YouTube footprint they have social media footprint but at its core they're a website and not just them junkie Sherdog all of them you know and I do wonder what the long-term prognosis of that is I think there is a question to be asked there um two I think you've got a lot of really talented people at MMA fighting both on the editorial side in terms of leadership like Sean ALS shot and then down to the talent that they have there Mike Heck I think has been a revelation and a breath of fresh air for that site um I love Jed Michu he was there when I was there you know and certainly gy Cruz and Damon Martin and on down the list if I'm forgetting anybody I'm sure I am uh Alexander kay Lee all those guys there are all they have a very talented staff Jose Young's so you know they've got people who can do a great job um the only thing that I would say is without Ariel it's not a question about whether or not they could run a good site they can run a good site like that's really not or a good news Operation I don't really have any doubt that they could rather during my time at that company the MMA hour was very much seen as a crown jewel operation and that of which a ton of AD dollars flowed through and a ton of prestige came with and you name it now of course you might say well losing Aral opens up the budget and that's true um but I wonder what kind of long-term commitment there is to MMA coverage in a world where the crown jewel of both Prestige visibility and let's call it importance within the company has been removed and I don't know the answer to that um I could I don't I cannot judge from afar what vox's long-term strategy is in part because I don't think they even know uh I don't know if anybody in the media space really knows to be perfectly honest with you it's a very uncertain time so you know can they churn out a quality product really there is no doubt that they can turn out quality a lot of good hardworking very talented people there but the model under which they currently offer news and the value to the company in a world where Ariel is not there I do have some questions about yeah for sure as it relates to his future I can tell you I've heard a couple of things that are just total rumor which I won't repeat um but I will say and I think the I think you guys have probably seen this too I don't know what he's going to do but going out on his own he'll probably have some Finance year there might be some media brand that really wants to bring him in and will let him have the keys to the kingdom which I would expect any place to do I I would be surprised if Doone plays no role in that now what role they play and how much of one your guess I have no clue or one at all I guess maybe they maybe they will play no role but he has been featured with them a number of times he's brought his MMA hour as like a promotional kind of vehicle for some of their fights on fight weeks for Jake Paul and some stuff like that and he get tons of press to Eddie Hearn tons of press to to match room guys it's been a win-win for everybody and there's really no one who does it quite like him and he's kind of attuned his audiences to watch both boxing and MMA interviews obviously more so MMA I would my my this is just a hunch just two cents um I would be surprised if Doone plays no role in whatever he does next I would expect able to play some kind of role but again there's a gazillion possibilities about what that looks like in practice Beyond just hey Ariel's over here you know all right let's see here uh thoughts on sandhagen versus Umar kind of I've already given that and figgy versus Cheeto yeah dude figgy's got a [ __ ] punch doesn't he who should get the next title shot [Music] um you could be Umar but I wouldn't mind I I I hav't thought about that that's a good question um maybe Umar because San Haagen was so highly ranked and so good maybe Umar uh what happens to Tony Ferguson now I know he kind of retired and then like semi- retired and maybe like all the way unretired he should all the way retire and I mean you know we're not being hurtful or mean at this point we have to be adults like there's a certain amount of baked in damage we cannot get back with any of this um it's high time that we or at least at a bare minimum like the commission will have a final say or whatever but we need to it has to come it needs to stop it needs to stop uh what would here we'll do a couple more of these then we'll get to the paid ones what would be the best rule to get refs to start deducting points for fence grabs eye pokes groin strikes uh the NBA issues a flagrant ones for any contact accidental or not to the head I don't we we don't want that would a strict rule like that work in MMA I get the refs are reluctant to take points but maybe some decisions need to be taken out of their hands first thing I'd say is if you mis weight I saw someone saying uh if you mis weight more than five point five pounds between weight classes then uh there should be a point deduction fully agree that's one way to start getting Point deductions like involved in these fights more but I don't know that you can legislate this one away the rules are on the books that these guys have the latitude to do it they just choose not to so why do they choose not to in part they don't want to have a footprint in the fight I think I think there has to be some like professional development around getting these guys to accept that there should be and more to the point it's the scoring system itself it's the scoring system they don't want to take a point because there are such a few little bit amount of margin in how we score it where taking a point in their view could have this enormous outsized effect and they don't want to they don't want to participate in that well I'm like well that's the [ __ ] job but if they don't want to do that you have to change the incentive structure it's less about the rule because if you just mandate they do it every time I don't know if that's a good idea either but if they feel like we'll mess things up if we do it how do you change that oh we don't want to mess it up well are you actually messing it up and is there a way we can be more proactive about it without you thinking that you're doing this or without even doing it all together um you know you could do fines but then these guys don't make much to begin with so that's not really a great choice either in a world where prize the prize money is not what it could be it's a difficult problem to solve but it's made more difficult this is why I don't like the 10o mus system I don't think it's a great system people are like oh we've got good judges like Ben cartilage who can do great results and that is true he can he is dynamite he I mean no one's perfect but he doesn't miss very often like he is great he's mastered it he will give you great scorecards almost all the time that is true but there I mean he's one of one and there's some other ones that are good too obviously but you know there's like a handful of these [ __ ] guys who can do it anywhere in the world it doesn't seem like a great scoring criteria if only a handful of guys can do it at the highest level it seems like it needs to be something that is more easily implemented and if it has this kind of dissuaded effect where the referees don't do [ __ ] for f dude you can break the rules over and over and over again with nothing bad happening to you clearly the incentive structure is broken it's broken it's broken so there's that uh let's see if there anything else here that's good yeah there's not going to be any cross promotional fight between JN and Francis I can tell you that um Cory versus Umar same thing have I ever cried watching a movie I think I've been asked this one before it's been a while I'm not sure the last one maybe Saving Private Ryan was the last one you know what I mean maybe Saving Private Ryan was the last one I don't really know yeah here we go I'll get to this one Luke I've noticed that through all the UFC divisions and pfl there aren't any ranked NCAA wrestlers below the age of 30 in fact with the exception of b nickel I can't really think of any standout collegia wrestler prospects in their 20s in any major org is this just by circumstance or the systemic reasons for this well uh Jason nof is in the cji today he takes on I think tyru AO so there's a colleg of wrestler I think he's less I'm not sure let's see how old how old is he is 28 there you go 28 years of age so I think that there was a big time after like in the early sorry the late 2000s s starting with guys like Matt Hughes was one of the first I mean he's not I mean obviously Mark Smith came before him but like you know in terms of being a continuous popular attraction the UFC Matt Hughes like they I could not tell you how many times they were so proud to announce that he was a two-time All-American right they did this over and over and over again talked about his farm strength and his wrestling and it's different and a lot of that was true obviously but it was a big deal and of course more came over after that Randy Couture all the all the team the team uh Rico chiparelli guys team raw lindland uh Henderson uh Frank Trigg uh Couture all those guys all those guys were a big part of it too there was this gigantic wave and then that led to the baders and the davises and all kinds of stuff but they that that trickle has died out now in part uh because USA Wrestling has changed a lot about how people get paid and how much they get paid for you know winning in advanced things I think there's a lot of people who advanced tournaments Advanced um you know World medals Olympic medals um I think a lot of the D1 programs have been really good about recruiting these guys and kind of keeping them inside the fold you know Jordan borrow has at times flirted with going to MMA but never really did because because at every interval there was somebody there with keeping him into the sort of financial pipeline that involved in that stayed in wrestling Kyle Dake kind of a similar thing um so yeah like USA Wrestling kind of responded to losing wrestlers in the way they did by changing up some of the pay and in and um um you know compensation structure that they had set up and also like you know a lot of these wrestlers came and like you know the team takedown guys like your the you know the Johnny Hendrick's and the um who was the guy was the time national champion of Oklahoma State uh the roshal brothers right Jared and Jake roshal like you know Oklahoma State Powerhouse and they didn't really get all that far necessarily in Combat Sports so it's not like those guys won't do well they'll always do well but it wasn't like oh this is taking candy from a baby like it may have been at one point right and so that has I think dissuaded him plus you know it's you can get viciously k like there's been a lot of things that have on the wrestling side and the MMA side that have changed the equation a little bit I think to our detriment to be perfectly honest but it's where we are um okay before we get to the paid questions I do have a small little but I think I I think a hopefully a cool announcement I don't know how you guys are going to feel about it but I guess we'll see um let me see here let me set this up very quickly um if you have been paying attention to this channel for any amount of time you might know that I have I've NE so with MK we had a bunch of sponsors but I had no control over that there was a sales department there was nothing in my contract that gave me any control over it we were just kind of at the mercy but this is my channel and so I get to pick what products or anything else we promote here I've never had a true sponsor here it's never happened had this channel for some time I've never had a true sponsor until today until today folks so I would like to tell you very quickly if I can about this company here we go Tula trees Tula trees is now in a look my daughter's and this one too getting back to this tulet trees beard wash this is the new sponsor of this channel uh we'll talk about them briefly in live chats or post fight shows I'll have a quick mention um I have been using this product now for several months before I ever came to any deal because I told them I have to use it and try it first boys I am telling you this is the first product I have ever agreed to endorse and it's very simple but why because it's great I'm not big on fragrance I'm not big on um you know some kind of ridiculous hype job I want something simple and clean and effective does it work does it say what you say it's going to do how does it make me feel how does it make me look and I cannot give it higher remarks than I do with this one now they make a range of products in fact I'm going to show this to you very quickly here we are you can go to the tool itry site now this is a hell of a slogan here by the way hold on the official sponsor of solicited that's the key boys solicited uh dickpics so here's what you can do here's what you can do right now I'll put this back up you can go to use the code lt15 lt15 for any product at tulit trees.com here is the site right here just like that tulet trees.com actually an Australian product which is kind of an interesting thing but it is sold in the United States it will ship to anywhere you want it to go and they have a suite of products I mean I could go on and on about all the different stuff that they have I've not used all of it which is why I'm only talking about the stuff that I've used but this beard wash particularly the coastal Pine variety if you want a beard wash that actually works that actually keeps your face healthy that nourishes the hair that you have on your face um and just gives it a great shine healthy looking hair healthy looking beard the whole nine yards tulet trees.com also uh this is the scrubber they can use to their hair they have a smaller one which my daughter took which is designed for the beard you can hang it on a hook on your shower stall like this and you can rub it in your beard and it it it honestly does a tremendous job exfoliating the skin beneath it pulling out some of the dirt and the oils and then so it doesn't go in your fingers like this when you do it that way and then of course the smell not overpowering real real um uh subtle but but pleasantly noticeable and more to the point uh sulfate and paraben free guys it's a solid product it is the first time I have ever endorsed a product on this channel when I have total say over what I pick and what I don't I pick this tulet trees tulet trees boys and girls tulet trees right there this is the one so go to this site right here tolet trees.com you can use the code lt15 the letter L the letter T the number one the number five 15% off everything that they sell everything all the sets all the tools all the products everything lt15 okay tules boys and girls the official sponsor of me Bara all right very good with that in mind let's get to what you guys have here in the Super Chat all right quite right says which Fringe striking sport is the worst low kick Championship or power slap low kick I mean they're both stupid but at least with power slap people go unconscious I guess guess like what's better uh diarrhea or anal bleeding and I'm like well I'm not sure really any is a great choice Jackson says good to have you back the trip to Columbia Columbia spelled wrong seems to have done a lot of good yes indeed it did yes indeed your Qui-Gon Jin is a [ __ ] rant still makes me laugh at random times he is a [ __ ] he is a [ __ ] of Epic Proportion and people want to dress up the fact that he's some kind of like white Mr Miyagi as you know proof that oh actually he's got he's a great decision maker he's a terrible decision maker he's a [ __ ] idiot right rally says can you ask Dr Mike when he will come out of the closet well he does flirt the line I suppose looking forward to that video um thank you for the donation I appreciate it Jackson again random thought the UFC's aggressive dismantling of legitimate MMA media will hinder Dana's stated goal of making it the biggest sport in the world which is unrealistic anyway real journalism gives sport more authenticity I am not convinced by that I am not convinced by that there is a certain kind of authenticity that engaging with larger scale media would provide him I do think that is true but are you really going to tell me that like drumming folks like Steven Morocco and potentially even me and anybody else in the industry out of it is going to hurt them if they sign a deal with Netflix that that strange strains credulity that strains credulity I don't really believe that the Admiral says how does Connor go from a broken toe to being out for six plus more months or is Dan just in a bad mood again so remember it's not that if you break your toe they can't plug you back in but they've already got a series of things planned out and they probably just don't want to throw Connor in Abu Dhabi and they probably definitely don't want to throw him in Salt Lake um so where are they going to throw him you have to find a spot on the calendar that works you're like yes could Connor work inconceivably any of those places yes but they want to maximize the effect remember they were supposed to have a $20 million gate because he was fighting in Las Vegas you're not going to get a$ 20 million doll gate in in in Salt Lake City you're just not even with Connor you're not going to get that so you have to do that at a time and place that the UFC is going to deem that makes the most sense for them and that's just not going to be the kind of thing you're talking about so um already when he pulls out of the fight they're going to plug him in at the end of the line December makes a lot of sense actually wilster says have you looked into what the Saudis are doing with snooker and how it will fect the UK I have to tell you I don't even know what snooker is one of the more interesting cases of sports watching I'll send you more details if you want please do I I candidly know nothing about that I really really don't Arab Bay Area says according to hos MMA interview with Amir albazi he claimed he got serious nerve injury that ruled him out for a while Jesus um where do you see Amir in the flyweight division D he could be Champion like he's that good also any chance you can collab with the hos guys again yes I love those guys shout outs to the hos MMA guys they're um they're incredible I love them um I I mean I it's hard to know with a medical diagnosis like that about what's really possible but like from a skill perspective how good is albazi albazi is Championship level good whether he'll get that I don't know but he's very much in the running for that morning juat thank you to Welcome to the party Brandon welcome to the party nice to see you does anive actually deserve a title shot Nolan writes in his last three fights he's had a draw a no contest and a KO against the NATO Elite Johnny Walker I'm not even saying you're wrong but if I mean his resume for just in terms of like do you deserve a title shot his resume is stronger than round trees Fred says as a I think you mean veteran what are your thoughts on JD Vance's comments where he accused Tim Waltz of Stolen Valor yeah good question a lot this happened at AAR I mean I don't have a significant amount of thought about it to be perfectly honest um I don't I okay so here's where I come down on all of this um JD Vance's career in the Marine Corps was limited um but ultimately honorable um my career in the Marine Corps as a reservist was limited but ultimately honorable um I reached the rank of Sergeant and I think he reached the rank of Corporal we both got honorable discharges and went about our lives and you know obviously he is doing things well for himself um in the case of Tim Waltz like did he exaggerate his rank yes I have seen so many guys in that role exaggerate their rank D I've seen guys with much less ranked than that exaggerate what they did like obviously it's different when there are political Stakes involved but like this idea that like oh it's verboten among veterans to exaggerate what they did in the military guys it's common it's common it might not be common when you have a political career on the line but like oh it never happens but for the real [ __ ] birds that are out there no not really not really you just don't really hear about it because most cases if a guy is applying to you know some kind of business you have no relationship to and no way of knowing I just know a lot of guys who have done it okay um but that doesn't make it right nor am I saying it's right I don't think it's right uh you know it's not great it's not great that being said the thing that I really want folks to understand is this is the first time I think an enlisted guy because there's two side there's two sides technically three but there's two sides to the military there's your officer class where you have to have a college degree these are the folks that have the metal shiny collars although you can get patches but in general the metal shiny sort of symbols the the the two golden bars the one golden bar the two Captain's bars the the in the Marine Corps anyway it's the for the major it's a uh it's a essentially an or gold leaf then for a light Colonel it's a lieutenant colonel it's a silver leaf that's it's a full bird then it's one star two star three star four star so that's the officer class right and then it's the enlisted class um you know private private first class L Corporal Corporal Sergeant staff sergeant Gunner res sergeant and then it kind of changes a little bit after that depending on what you do what your MOS is right so that's that's kind of how it works the backbone of the military are the enlisted side this is typically Working Class People I was enlisted I was not I did have a college degree but I went to the Marine Corps while I was in college there's no there's no there's no um RC program for the Marine Corps it's either you're in it or you're not so I just went ahead and went enlisted and so that's the backbone of of the the Marine Corps it's the backbone I think of of the armed services more generally this is the first time a guy who has been enlisted has been at the top of a presidential ticket I think ever so so understand something about how unusual this moment is how many you know what percentage of enlisted guys ultimately end up retiring as enlisted 10% 10% like it's a very very rare thing that it actually happens this particular way also more to the point people like oh he abandoned his unit like the the the embellishment of rank well I don't think is uncommon I do think is a fair charge it's a fair charge right however let me say two things about this one first guys if you're eligible for retirement and you put in your retirement package to the military if they don't want to approve it they won't trust me there could be a stoploss order that's going on they might just not approve your package for whatever reason like you can't just be like [ __ ] it you know like the guy in the in the movie like [ __ ] you [ __ ] you you're cool [ __ ] you I'm out the the the Army in his particular case has to approve it they approved it all of that is done above board and he was eligible to retire after 911 and I think he chose to reinlist you know this charge that like he abandoned his unit to me is like complete I just it it does nothing for me and this is really more to the point more to the point is guys what are we talking about here we are talking about a war where George Bush Dick Cheney Paul wolfowitz Donald Rumsfeld and I hate to say it Cen Powell and others lied to the American public they lied to the world they claim they were Weapons of Mass dest destruction there weren't they destroyed Baghdad they killed hundreds of thousands if not more people in the course of doing it they destabilized the entire [ __ ] region in the process all based on a series of [ __ ] lies lies that got thousands of American servicemen killed and I have many many many many friends that went over there and came back and let me assure you having seen the toll that it took on my friends and other people this idea that there was any nobility yes of course there's nobility in service there's nobility in being a marine there's nobility in trying to protect your country but in the mission they were given a completely illegally in terms of international law illegal mission that was predicated on nothing but lies that caused nothing but harm to vast populations across the globe putting in your retirement package so you don't have to participate in that is not evidence of cowardice it is of clear thinking who the hell wants to participate in that if you have a choice and I don't even know if that was his motivation maybe it was maybe it wasn't I don't know the argument is why the [ __ ] were we over there in the first place and we were over there because the people in charge lied about why we should be there and it got thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people unnecessarily killed what the [ __ ] is this conversation even about it's ridiculous to me if you want to say he embellished his Rank and that's a shitty thing to do fine fine say it it's a fair it's a fair critique how how valuable that is you can decide but it's a fair critique but like retiring to whether he did or he didn't to let's just say hypothetically prevent having to go and participate in George Bush's psychotic lies that's that is cause for concern on what [ __ ] planet on what [ __ ] planet I had a friend who stayed here he was a Marine Corps um he he was enlisted he ended up um he enlisted during college so he never went as an officer but he finished as an enlisted man he went to Iraq he lived with me when he came back this [ __ ] was hiding booze in his locker at the gym he was hiding it from not just there he was hiding it at at places at school because he was he was in a grad program at Georgetown there was all kinds of [ __ ] I was Finding here where he didn't want me to see he was drinking like this dude was hanging on a [ __ ] Edge man and it was getting in all kinds of fights and all kinds of problems out in public another guy came back who was a Budd of mine who did end up going to the Marines he ended doing three [ __ ] tours over there it changed him as a person I went to Walter Reid before they ever changed to the new Walter read and I've told the story before this guy who I think was couldn't have been more than 19 or 20 who was a triple ampute and when you see the despondency on his face all because of lies lies that were told to my generation of young men that got thousands of them killed and maimed and brain damage and I'm supposed to believe that avoiding that through all legal mechanism is somehow disreputable buddy no it's not no it's not listen if you got orders to go and you signed up to go go yeah you got to go that's that's the game but if you put in your retirement package and the military approves it and you don't want to participate in this war crime because that's what George Bush is he's a war criminal he that [ __ ] guy should be tried in the hag him and Dick Cheney they should be tried in the [ __ ] heg for what they did you wanted to avoid that [ __ ] what what level of moral reasoning tells you that's the that's the better more ethical outcome that's the better more ethical reasoning and if you're asking about my situation because I see dumb [ __ ] on the internet bring this up a little bit I will tell you exactly what it was I had been with Hotel 314 for miv in Richmond Virginia just south of Richmond Virginia right past the marble factory there's a marble factory kind of like in Petersburg there there was a artillery unit they got coni they got converted to a grunt company after I got out they had to go do prisoner transport in fuah that was a [ __ ] show and they came back [ __ ] up the whole lot of them to say nothing of what happened to them because of artillery that they were using later on in other batteries to go fight Isis as you guys see the brain damage story that came out about that and why it was Isis there because we destabilized the entire region so we had to go send out the artillery units and just shell these guys and it [ __ ] all their brains up all of this because of lies that those criminals told people pure unadulterated lies and by the way people like oh no one knew it was lies yes they did there was a healthy debate about whether that was true or not my dad worked in the state department for 30 years and told me there's absolutely no truth to that whatsoever that is not true they're just doing he only is Saddam is projecting to prevent the Iranians from ever doing anything that's really what it's all about and sure enough he was 1,000% on the money like I get a little bit worked up about this when I hear people talk about it anyway back to my situation so I had a choice to make I had a choice to make what do I want to do um I could take my MOS and go to a different unit if I want but I didn't I wanted to stayed with exactly the one I'd been through all through college 911 happened my senior year and so I stayed with them the entire time even when I moved to New York the officers granted me an exception to be able to do that because my thought was if they're going to send us to war they might as well but here was my Saving Grace thank God I didn't have to go kill innocent people on behalf of George [ __ ] Bush artillery units in the Marine Corps have been seen as a long time as a postor War II redundancy artillery cannons the big howitzers that you fire they are valuable they have clear value but there was a long time post 911 and post Afghanistan at least the initial foray into Afghanistan where they had use for artillery but most of that nearly all of that could have been provided and was provided in fact by the Army the Marine Corp can do amphibious stuff they can do um they can do you know water incursion they can do on land battles they can do anything the other services for the most part can do in a single solitary service that's not quite accurate but there's a versatility to them that doesn't existed the other services independently but what the Army and the Marine Corps realized at that time was we have way too many artillery units so what they slowly did over time was they began to convert those artillery units to whatever they needed a rifle company you know a logistical Battalion whatever whatever they needed so I got out and then my unit got activated or got con I don't think got activated but they got converted uh not long after that into to a rifle company that did prisoner transport I don't know if they ever got converted back to an artillery unit but I grew up in Hotel Battery 314 forth miv from essentially August of 1998 till December of 2005 that was essentially the run that I had I did a year before it what's called inactive ready Reserve when I was in high school which shaved off every contract is essentially eight but more six years so it gave me like basically it gave me all the all the years I had in the P graduating past 2002 so then three four five and six seven and eight it shaved off the time that I needed to so that was really the the time that I got in that was my that was my window and not long after that they got converted in sent I consider that one of the luckiest things that has ever happened to me that I did not have to participate in the crimes of George Bush and Dick Cheney because that's what they are crimes crimes so you know I don't know how Tim Walls feels about it and you can like him or not you know it's up to you I don't really care if if you guys like him or not I mean there things about him I like there's things about him I don't but of all the things that I like don't give a [ __ ] about it's that he formally retired through the retirement process the Army approved it and he didn't go and help participate in a completely immoral war that never should have happened that was a crime against humanity you know of all the things to be mad at him about that ain't it so says miss you like a thick boy Miss katum uh cji watch along later today maybe it depends on what my wife's doing but uh my wife's been sick as well by the way if I get some respiratory illness you now know where it came from because sitting in that ER room not the healthiest people in there you know Johnny says what was your favorite story from your vacation um oh you know what I got one for you so I'm now birds are interesting old that's how old I am birds have become interesting so let me uh let me show you this very quickly I'm not going to spoil the whole thing I who cares right but the national Avary of Columbia is incredible it's in this island called Maru it is amazing the diversity of wildlife is ridiculous like first of all like you know hold on I mean there's I mean these these [ __ ] are just roaming around right the what do they call these how do you say parrot in h Spanish guaka something I forget how you say it but um hold on but that wasn't the one I wanted to show you this is the one I wanted to show you dude look at this [ __ ] dinosaur they had a harpy eagle they had a harpy eagle that was above us eating a rabbit look at this [ __ ] bro what look at this dude it's a she just an insane bird of prey they told us that they had put five mates in in her Habitat to see if she'd mate with any of them and uh she killed all five she killed all five so um a bad [ __ ] if ever there was one uh I regret to inform you that uh you got a minus three stars on wik feet yay yeah that's understandable I sent uh I sent aunt was asking if I was okay CU I didn't know if I had a blood clot or if I had cellulitis yesterday so I sent him a picture of my feet and ankle and shin which are all swollen on my left side and uh you know apparently I have the world's ugliest feet which I knew but you know Nick welcome to the party Daniel welcome to the party slw sauce how do you think a male Judo specialist would do in the UFC I mean we've seen some of this already um hiu yoshid obviously in Pride but he used the ghee a lot um Makoto takimoto um who's the big heavyweight Satoshi isi in general the level of athleticism is going to be high but it really depends on the kind of Judo game that they have but like how do you pronounce the French guy's name Teddy Riner reneer I don't know how you say his name in French so please forgive me the big enormous dude from France like hard for me to imagine he would do poorly right CRA says welcome back I missed you getting the title shot after getting caught for peeds is wild well do you think the UFC booked that main event as an emergency somewhat emergency related but there are mitigating circumstances around it which even the doping protocol kind of accounted for so TI for what it's worth a better Grappler says Luke I'm a new father despite working his hand fighting sense his birth no one has called him yet about the 2040 Olympics where did I go wrong practice good sir work on two-handed stripping you know what I'm saying all right Brandon durret says when Izzy lost to Strickland was that just a bad style matchup that we didn't expect or is it a sign that Izzy is started to decline generally that version of Shan Strickland is a bad matchup for anybody I also think Izzy probably is not at the peak of his powers so this is what I mean I do think he'll be refreshed I do think he'll be ready for Saturday I don't think that like that's to me not crazy at the same same time he's got a dynamite opponent and I don't know if we're at the peak of our powers anymore I mean this is this is what I had said before on MK a lot of the fainting combination and the fainting more generally has been less effective and deterring opposition and I don't think dricus is going to do a lot of waiting around on it anyway but like Izzy has to kind of overcome something he's been relying on for offense or has to have something presented to him in this fight rather than him kind of sitting the terms with the faints and so like that's a huge question mark here about whether that will happen and if so what it will look like you know TJ says thoughts on Craig Jones seemingly assaulting Gabby Garcia at their face off I thought it was a work at first the first time I saw it but now I'm not so sure I'm pretty sure it was uh if it's not then it's gross and obviously that should never happen but yeah if it's not a work then it you should never do anything like that but I know everyone thinks it's a big laugh and in general I do think everything that they do that that sit down you had with her is [ __ ] hilarious part of their stick is like getting her angry and riling her up he's been doing it the entire time like I think that they're actually much better friends like I I again if if it was done inappropriately then there really is no defense I'm just skeptical that that is exactly what happened but I guess we don't know t-ball Paul glad your health is good yes sir well except for the proba liest but can you explain your process on breaking a story how many sources are confirmations do you need before you can report typically two asking for a broke journalist that broke journalist is me um uh okay you typically need two um and those sources need to not be at the same place typically now that's a little harder to do depending on the complexity of the story but like oh if you heard something about a manager you would need somebody either the manager themselves or somebody around them that can confirm a story and then a police report would be a secondary story something like that right you would have a some kind of source and then a source outside of that orbit able to confirm the details in some kind of really knowledgeable and specific way um sorry you got soite JK glad you're okay yeah yeah I mean I didn't get soite like a BBL I mean I got soitis so it's a little different Anthony says I understand it's 2024 but do you know any comedians that are still in the closet I know too great guys never met him um I don't know any comedians Beyond uh very very very very small handful so I'd be the wrong guy to ask defender of autism that's a great name I guess thoughts on the UFC anti-rust lawsuit after the judge named The Waters and it's now going to trial Yeah Boy a lot of Reddit stick on this one um incredible incredible I was shocked at all that because I happened right when I went on vacation too I was like holy mother of God I don't know how it's all going to work I really don't man I don't know if a trial is a good idea I don't know I don't know what they're going to get out of it uh I think I'll say This Dana being like you know starting to feel personal because they went they like had an overlapping time at the most prominent School in Las Vegas to me is not really irrelevant I mean that shows you why they sued right because because if your worldview is so Tethered to the notion that UFC conduct is completely unassailable in every way despite the record of evidence showing quite the opposite like dude the record of evidence shows that they bought out organizations and let him die so no one else could like sign Fighters right so they wouldn't have competition like clearly anti-competitive Behavior right if you can look at that and say that there's nothing about that that is in any way even suggest gesting impropriety or bad for the market or whatever anything the only Refuge you have is that it has to be personal for the judge and in that world where someone is committed to like the notion that it's personal they're never going to change their practices on their own so that's why you can see why the fighters are suing because but for that there's no help coming 9:15 a.m. did you catch any of the track and field competitions just the NOS 100 meter the athletes keep getting better almost every event had the top five breaking a um new record olympic record or world record I don't know what NR stands for National Record I guess um yes but have you I saw something that was like the difference between like the first modern Olympics of the 100 meters and now is less than one second difference it's like 081 seconds so like they're getting faster but like it's not like there was like they always do 5c slower or something it's it's pretty marginal difference Blake says hi Luke you want that if Vox m f lost MMA they'd be toast thoughts on that aial yeah we kind of went back to this a little bit I think that they could run uh again I said before I think they can run a reasonable operation I do they've got talented people but given the business model and given what the company really is about and what that meant to have the MMA hour there and now losing that I don't wish it upon anybody there but I would have if I work there I would have some questions about the long-term viability of that Henry says hope you had a great trip is there a chance Ariel can join you at BC and MK well I mean he could always be a guest but I think he's got his own thing going on I so truly hope you and BC are around in MMA media and other media in general for years to come yeah me too me too I don't really want to go back to the workforce if I don't have to so thank you please don't go anywhere gracias Luke yes thank you Henry 9:15 I thought magaman said he wanted Alex in Abu Dhabi yeah well they didn't Grant it did they Austin would poon run through a prime Anderson Silva well he's a lot bigger I I know I know that Silva fought at 205 I understand that but not like poon just seems naturally much bigger would he run through a prime no I don't think he runs through a prime Anderson Silva but he probably beats him especially at 205 AT 185 it's a little different yeah it's definitely different uh yo Luke huge news Taco Bell is dropping a through the decades menu soon with items from the 60s through the to the through the one or 2000 excuse me which decade will be your all of them all of them Drew welcome to the party good sir thank you for the donation Jose uh what would be the best pce structure to incentivize more finishes in the UFC in a fair way I don't think win show plus performance of the night bonuses are I don't know that bonus I don't know that bonus numbers can do that without you getting a a completely skewed kind of system I don't know that you can arrange it that way I mean I think on occasion you may be able to like really really high numbers but I think if you want to incentivize performance waiting until the day of the fight seems like a strange way to do it um with exceptions you know like for example the cji which is not MMA you know I I feel like if you want the best out of the fighters then you should give them the biggest prize yes but you should recruit the best talent available and put them in the most meaningful fights that you can or the most appropriate ones and leading into the most meaningful ones to get the most out of them that seems like a more winning formula than like let's Chuck a bunch of money at you that is potentially there but may not be there in this like highly volatile violent sport thoughts on Crawford madal paper pay-per-view sale turkey versus Canelo turkey's an interesting one um I I thought that Crawford looked pretty good um I had it 8 to four seven to five is fine I had it 8 to four some of those rounds are close obviously but I thought mov was tough the right hand was successful especially towards the end of those rounds at times uh I thought the jab was really clever for bud maybe a little bit of ring rust hard to say didn't necessarily get the Vibes that 16 was going to go great for him but like Madam mov is a mover and canelo's flat footed so you know there there's very very different styles there um the more interesting one was that turkey announced that it was a sellout it was not like I think of like the most 500 most expensive tickets nearly 300 of them were all comped uh pay-per-view sales not that high which of course how could they be I mean it was a good card but you didn't have a lot of pay-per-view like names on there and also pay-per-view is kind of washed as a format these days um so like you know it was a good show it was a really long show uh I didn't watch it beginning to end but like you know was it eight hours or something [ __ ] like some insanely long number the thing I'll say about turkey is this he is starting to like the nice guy routine is over right the initial thought of that what he would provide was that oh he will come in here and he'll make all the best fights and then get out of the way no no no no no no no that's not what's happening he is providing some of the best fights especially at heavyweight but now you're starting to see he wants to exercise control I hear tons of stuff behind the scenes about some things he's trying to do don't know if he'll do them don't know if we'll see them but like this idea that like he's just sitting back kicking his feet up being like hey I want X to fight y have the money and then like they don't want to have any control over it I have a feeling that the Saudis through what turkey is doing is they want to have control over the sport of boxing and not just in this kind of like nice guy way to make the biggest fights like I think that if they have a chance to be in charge of rankings they'll do it if they have a chance to be in charge of how titles get sanctioned they'll do it if they have a chance to you name it uh anything that can help them exert control they will do that and I don't think that's very good for the sport uh to be honest with you like I do appreciate some of the fights that have been made I do appreciate that like like but for the Saudis we would not have gotten them and I recognize and respect that um but turkey was appointed by Muhammad bin solman himself Muhammad bin solman is the guy who runs Saudi Arabia who was the guy who ordered Jamal kogi to be dismembered by a plastic saw so turkey's boss is the guy that ordered kogi murdered just just so we're clear about like who we're dealing with here this nice guy routine [ __ ] I think I don't really buy I don't really buy um so let's see what happens him versus Canelo like I'm kind of torn because the Canelo fight is like I don't love the fight man I don't think it's that great of a fight to be honest H with you like it's it's a bad fight bad's a strong word but it's no it's not a good fight like it's a bad fight um but at the same time like telling the Saudis like I don't need you and them getting their feathers ruffled about it I don't mind that at all either uh this donk says I think one of the longest runs before a title that meets Dana's ideal fighter is Max Holloway When comparing to on CV's run it does seem to be a dice roll on who is next he had a long run that's true but it was in a much tougher Division and all of the fights were like bangers on the way up and you know he had some wins he had some losses but anv has just been flaky Max was never flaky maybe Max wasn't up for the challenge like for example the first time he fought Dustin porier or Connor but he was never like just making like Bozo decisions ANC has made some Bozo decisions a number of times fad alwadi says hey Luke I'm bet everybody because I can spell words correctly Thomas thoughts on Umar win over Corey I really appreciate your content um yeah kind of went to this one before I did I thought again based on what everyone was tweeting I thought Cory was gonna look bad he did not look bad the thing that got to me was nurma gamov made it very very difficult for Corey to get meaningful offense with his boxing in close he wanted to maintain range to get the down blocking and so some of the leg kicks were being timed particularly from like I think the Southpaw stance and then more to the point you saw because he had his down blocking going on he got hit with the right hand San Haagen did continuously continuously that right hand was constantly creating problems of course numar Umar was getting under it and then coming over the top as well so to me what what Umar really did was he didn't beat up Cory sandhagen by any stretch he didn't like thump him in the wrestling either he was better in the wrestling obviously but he didn't like crush him but what he did do was he really muted the offense of Cory so like was Cory's defense actually pretty good in this fight yeah it was pretty good it's actually pretty good but his offense was anemic because he could not really get close and every time he tried to like get close or um throw that right hand he just had constant problems either with a strike en counter or the wrestling that came underneath it with a shot so Umar very very very clever to sort of like diffuse use the bomb and then be know just a little bit ahead in some of these other areas very very very very like convincing performance if you ask me uh who do you think who the UFC pushes changes over time sure of course guys fall in and out of favor ability that's a guarantee dude they used to hate Jon Jones look at him now maybe they still do but they don't act that way I'm thinking that Max uh went on an insane win streak before fighting Aldo and now a similar situation is happening with anive yeah those are not equivalent things um I appreciate the donation but I I just cannot in any way agree that those are equivalent things aquab budha says before the chat I watched Aaron Broner's interview with Dana I have a lot of respect for Aaron but he asked softball questions what makes good journals like Aaron refrain from pressing Dana about issues well I didn't see the interview so without seeing it I can't quite comment I don't know I like Aaron I think he does great work I don't I have not SE I mean he works for I listen I have no idea aidea what they do or don't tell him about his job what I would say is the UFC is very censorious actually that's not quite the right word the UFC is very uh careful about what message about them is either discussed or gets disseminated they don't really like the official Party Line not being repeated and he does work for the Canadian broadcaster that's their partner there might be I don't I'm just guessing I think Aaron is a standup guy will do the very best that he can every single time and again I've not seen the interview but um in general you know under those conditions I don't know what you're allowed to do I don't know I I genuinely don't know I don't know what you're allowed to do so I can just tell you as somebody who has never worked in those roles I again I cannot say but as someone who's been on the outside I have had enough run-ins not angry run-ins but I've had run-ins about the tenor of my coverage with UFC um employees or media folks or brass for a long long time and you know uh that's not to say it's they've always been wrong or I've always been right I'm not saying that but they are sensitive about that kind of stuff and which is why I was very surprised that he talked to um Ben folks because I feel like you know and this is more like the like the nek or the you know the the some of the bar stool stuff I like those guys at bar stool tool but you know they're a little bit more Dana friendly obviously I think they would tell you that um there's just not a lot of questions that are going to come up with them that will come up with Ben so like I'll tell you what dude dude Dana used to sit in a chair when the presser was over and all the media would stick a microphone in his face and he would just go rapid fire guys remember when if you're new you won't remember this but like this was H what was it 207 209 where Dana White was like Nate Dana White told me Nate Diaz is bigger than me you guys remember this some of you might remember this that happened at a scrum that was at a scrum that was so he used to do this and he might be like what's the difference between that and the the pressers well you don't have to get into a line you know you're not doing in front of every you kind of do it in front of everybody else but it's just the media core um and Danel would just sit there in Rapid Fire da and sometimes they give good answers sometimes you give bad answers sometimes you give smart answers sometimes you give dumb answers doesn't matter the point is he would at least face a series of questions that were better than what he would get sort of curated media um and I he got away from that partly because of the covid protocol or whatever but like I think he got tired of just talking to Media under those terms but dude he used to wield a lot of influence that way and you know I'm not saying that I think all that is great per se but is it better that he face uh more adversarial media and then have to answer for it some of his answers were pretty good I think it's better for everybody including him that and I give him respect I I give him respect for doing that like you know I would like to see more but I give him respect for that for sure Drew said used to shoot oh [ __ ] this Drew I didn't even recognize him from the from the thumbnail in JC with you Dons once chatted about Gojira yes this dude was on set often on his phone no I'm teasing I'm teasing uh you said you didn't listen to them a ton at the time heard you say recently you're loving them yes not long after that conversation they kind of started to come up a little bit in my uh YouTube playlist and I kind of begin listening I don't know much about them but like definitely a few of their hits and they're pretty great did you see Gojira kill the Olympic C cies dude they [ __ ] murder The Opening Ceremonies also Drew thank you very much for becoming a member dude I appreciate you I remember you of course um young guy I think his guy's like 21 22 he saw panta and Metallica before me I was very pissed about that but uh thank you drew yeah dude I thought they killed it I thought with the with the beheaded Marie Antoinette thing oh my God that was incredible 9:15 a.m are the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions any better in other orgs right now light heavyweight maybe maybe um I would say I would say the distance between the UFC's light heavyweight and like the pfl Bellator light heavyweight is not that much um maybe a little bit 1852 but that's about it Jack says hi Luke on your last chat I asked about running your merch store you told me you to email you I did but you never dude I've got a million emails backed up sorry Jack um I do think I have starred this one your story is built do you think it sucked no no no no no no no no no no no no no dude I got a million emails I have to sort through from vacation I haven't even touched so please forgive me um what can we do to gain your business let me take a look at it give me like a give me like another week to sort through but thank you for this thank you for reaching out to me I appreciate that I've not forgotten about you and if uh if you don't hear from me by next week you can kill me on the chat for free but but but I will I've starred everything I just haven't gone back to them um but thank you thank you I will do it oh we did this one already oh wait wait wait this is the one oh yeah same one sorry here we go Connor at what point would your health take a priority over your career I love all the yeah we're not there guys like yeah if if the if the misery from what I was experiencing prev vacation continued then then there might be like a legitimate issue but honestly I have like I needed a moment to process everything and um I did I did I feel you know all my problems went away no but I feel [ __ ] ready to attack let's go maybe the pfl can finally give you the Randy interview yeah I mean they want me to show up to the presser and then they want me to do scrums with everybody else I'm like pfl seriously how hard is it for me to get 10 minutes one-on-one with Francis come on now not hard Chris said did I hear correctly you're going to have Dr Mike on this channel if so will there be chat questions for Dr Mike you did hear correctly there will be questions that Dr Mike will be on the channel uh I don't know if uh I'm gonna have open to the chat or not but yes he will be on Ryan do you think the ruo musami grappling match is kind of weird matchmaking he's probably larger and equally more skillful yeah but they got to make do with what they have right aquab budha glad you're clot free yeah me too given the current apathy among UFC fans if you could have the Vibes of one period in MMA history become The Vibes of the current state of the sport what would it be 2016 yeah 2016 [ __ ] hot morning wombat rushed to fraternity at will and Mary and quit it after several racist and sensitive incidents they sung Dixie at initiation holy [ __ ] did they you have a similar experience no not at all and I went to college in the 90s 98 it was my freshman year I didn't rush till 999 but still um no no that was not what what fraternity did you rush bro let me think was it let me think fah would have done that um Delta Sig would have done that right I'm not sure who else would have done it but those are probably the ones that you had no my fraternity was well we had problems please don't misunderstand me but no I would no [ __ ] no glad to have you back Luke stay pretty hey I'm working on a friend thank you the last stand1 pointless stat in the last five middleweight title fights the younger middleweight is four- one against the older middleweight what's the exception there what's the exception there I wonder the T kogo with Haman apparently unable to enter the US why has a the UFC not confirmed or relas released a statement because it's embarrassing to them and B the appropriate State Department not commented on the matter don't know about the latter but certainly the former is that CRA says do you think Corey can go on another title run I don't know if yes what does he need to do to improve on the level of morab sha and Umar dude on the Striking level nothing he's better than all of them but on the mixing it of it I don't know and he's not getting any younger like dude Corey is insanely talented but it's a division where he's going up against guys who have more time in the mixture of them and some athletic gifts as well um he's got all the brains for the operation no problem he's got the heart for the operation no problem he's got the Striking skills no problem uh but some of the other factors it's those are tough obstacles to overcome and he's not getting any younger glad you're clot free lost my baby sister two years to go to one yeah dude they tell I'm so first of all I'm very sorry to hear that number one I'm really sorry to hear that second of all they are [ __ ] dangerous that's why they was like do I need to go to the ER now and they're like go right now I'm like [ __ ] me led to a pulmonary embolism yep be well and blessed sir we need you around yeah man I'm really sorry to hear that bro really um but luckily um I was able to head it off at the pass Dylan says congratulations on the Mike Israel interview yeah I'm [ __ ] pumped about it huge get there his advice on volume and controlled eccentrics helped my training and his early lectures helped me my knowledge of hypertrophy I have learned I cannot explain to you D like a guy like Mike isrel and the access to fre forget about Renaissance periodization and the app which is a great thing but like the access to just the free stuff he puts out would have like been a GameChanger for me when I was in high school and college lifting weights and like if it's I'm not saying it's easy to get jacked getting jacked is still hard but in terms of having the knowledge to get jacked appropriately that has become so much easier G guy welcome to the party my friend Lee says welcome back Luke what will the UFC have to pay to get Jones to fight Aspen I don't know that they'll pay that I know you aren't but I'm quite happy about the Stipe fight but only if the UFC then pays JN to fight aspel I hope they do man I really don't know what they're going to do and most to that point I don't know what Jon's gonna do either two Changs I feel like FAA is a live dog versus enanu I agree have I been smoking too much crack with smart fence smart cage I agree like obviously I think Francis is going to be favored and probably should be but FAA is dangerous and big and Francis had a horrible tragedy in his life plus was viciously koed and has time off and he's older yeah FAA 1,000% is a live dog no question in my mind about that dude if FAA wins like would I be shocked no it would be a big deal I'm not saying it's not a big deal it would be a big deal but like oh my God how could we have seen that very easily very easily good to have you back what was the most delicious meal you ate on your holiday great question um two things there is they call it Ceviche Oriental from Juan Delmar which is like my favorite maybe restaurant in all of Carta um there's another one called Soro and they have a dish called the kazela gra gra gratina gra uh how [ __ ] do you say that kazela I think gratina it's when they put the cheese over the top and then they bake it forgive me some of my Spanish is limited in this regard um those two things are absolutely out of this world below your mind you know what's kind of funny man um I've I've spent a lot of time in Columbia and I've gone to some of the like their really nice restaurants and they're incredible like they're really nice restaurants are they're great you know but I've traveled the world too and I've come to the realization now at age 45 that the best food isn't like okay is it nice to get like in Crazy gastronomic experience in some place nice sure you know what I prefer show me a dish that is Central to somebody's culture I don't care what that is from where they're from whatever that is whether you're from Columbia or Denmark or Spain or Thailand whatever it is show me a dish that is Central to their culture and then show me somebody who makes that very specific dish well at a reasonable price not like cheapest not most expensive somewhere in the middle but it's a cultural dish and then they get it right and they serve it well that is The Sweet Spot of eating right there give me Heritage Food right that somebody does at a reasonable level in terms of a price that is just done by an expert hand that is good eating right there take on Round Tree getting title shut on yeah we kind of went into this but it doesn't make sense from meritocratic standpoint but it might make sense in terms of not having belief in an kalv wanting to promote poon more it's a sick fight in terms of like ex action I sort of get it even if I don't think it's the best way to do it Tom uh any good documentary recommendations doesn't have to be new aell has one it's called like Windy City something I forget the name of it windy city high Windy City something the last good one I oh Blackfish Blackfish is one that's a little tough to watch but definitely very good Lasha says what do you think of Pao Costa versus dricus as an ultimate rebound muscle match if Izzy wins the title fight well see that gets complicated they could do Strickland but if what if it's really controversial the fight I think drias is just way better than paoc Costa to be honest with you I don't know how competitive that is Devin says where does hughes's grappling rank in today's welterweight Division I think he'd still be good um he was a good wrestler he had that John Smith low single you guys ever seen his finish of Ricardo um almea that sort of front choke that he got like he was clever he was clever a little bit smaller I think for the modern welterweight but honestly like he's one of the best welterweights ever and if he was like young and training with like a modern team and I think he'd I he would be I don't know if he'd be Champion but he would do well he would do very well Anthony does UFC have an actual PR department sure do Michael Chandler for black History Month DDP if he gets the If he if he wins gets UFC to go to Africa when they had three Africa champions in the past what the [ __ ] is this [ __ ] I don't think the PR department makes those calls they have to make the messaging around the calls that somebody else makes also I agree with you that the calls are kind of wild but um but that's not the PR's call Justin says if Ali ever face plants under mov he's going to have material to trol McGregor for years there is not a single doubt in my mind he would do that are you regretful promoting ag1 which is a scam yes I am yes I am which is why I'm being very very uh careful about what I do now um I don't want to have we had no say over that and at the time I didn't know that there was any of that obviously since then we now know a lot so sure like we have to be much more careful now about how any of this works and uh yeah ag1 is in fact a scam it is a scam I'm sorry to say I wish I was in a different world I wish we hadn't done it but we did and we thought it was legit I took it I mean I thought it would do something well for me you know and I thought it was but it it's just Placebo [ __ ] so yes which is why we have to be much more careful certainly no doubt about it two chains which do you consider the fight of the century Jack Johnson Jim Jeff Joe Lewis melling or Ali Frasier one dude but they also called Pacquiao and Mayweather fight of the century too any of them qualify any of them probably Johnson Jeff as maybe the most important but I mean Ali Frasier one Rings heavy too so but any of them any of them that is like these enormous cultural Touchstone it's very hard to discern which is more important once they get to that level they're all kind of not the same but they're not like hugely different either Daniel hey Luke what is the method you use to learn Spanish practice practice prac um that's the it that's the only way like if you don't practice you won't get it like and I know some people like well I don't have a Spanish speaker to go to I'm not sure what the answer would be there how you would find one but to the extent that you have one go to a Hispanic the other part twoo is like we watch Hispanic um you know or Spanish B spanish-based uh Spanish language programming in the house we listen to Spanish language radio at times in the house we you know um there's just a lot of like uh I listen to Spanish language music right and I look at the lyrics and everything but but the reality is that that's fine to get that absorption and it's helpful you have to speak it that's it there's really no there's no you can learn it that's true but you're really going to get good at speaking I mean how do you get good at speaking something by practicing the speaking of it big upset that a beard oil IPA combo wasn't first that's just it boys and girls that's just it I don't like IPA so I'm not promoting IPA huh promoting this tul orries I literally use this every single day every single day I use this I don't drink ipas this is something that I use there we go is your first sponsor the reason behind BC pushing hard for a bet where if you lose you have to save it no that is quite in fact literal coincidence sounds a lot like him it does sound like him it's a completely fair question but no it is just utter coincidence I swear uh please no boss says hey Luke any thoughts on Crawford will kind of went over this one seems like the 154 division is stacked and may have been the most exciting in the boxing right now do you have any dream matchups in that division him versus Zoo him versus Ortiz him versus Fundora if Fundora loses to Spence you could even conce a league maybe run that one back although that one's a little harder to get by but I don't know if Crawford has any interest in um in any of those to be honest with you like I don't know I don't know super steroid says Theory UFC saw 307 would suck panicked and called Alex well if all they had was a Raquel Pennington title fight then yes they did Panic that's right two Changs thoughts on Olympic boxing USA drop continues the only Olympic boxing I even heard about was the Algerian woman who caused a firestorm or I would say a firestorm was caused around her however you want to phrase it and even then I didn't watch any of her fights either I didn't watch any boxing I have no comment on it Joe Lewis was champed for 12 years 25 defenses will anyone ever beat that record probably not because people I mean heavyweight there's really no place to go right so you're heavyweight and then you just kind of stay heavyweight people are moving on to other things too quickly now so I'm not saying it will never happen but it seems like that kind of win streak happened in an era of the sport where of those kinds of things just don't happen anymore Tio says hey Luke longtime follower here from Finland what's up buddy have you seen Finnish war movie Unknown Soldier no I've not definitely should see it keep up the great work thank you for the recommendation I will check it out Frank says in your opinion can MMA news media survive within a nonprofit model I don't know that's a i i and when I say the answer to that question like like I literally don't know I I don't know I don't know I don't know if that can work what problems do you foresee with such a structure uh sufficient funding is there a base of people enough such that you could get essentially reader funded or you know more than that but essentially reader funded nonprofit model that uh was able to do meaningful work with meaningful Talent um without more of the traditional Norms by which the content is funded I don't know the answer that I don't know the answer to that um but it is a relevant question were you in Panama I have been to Panama but I wasn't recently the birds you showcased were the ah yes guacamaya that's how you say it oh and the bird eating the rabbit is in agila harpia yes it's a harpy eagle yes Panamanian here great show so I was not that was actually in baru that was in that was in Colombia but the biod Panama used to be part of Colombia so the biodiversity should be pretty similar thoughts on Izzy's tears again like I'm not saying it's not relevant it's relevant it's relevant um I don't think it's as much of a liability as some of you guys do could be I guess we'll see if he gets viciously ko' tomorrow then yeah I'll be like well [ __ ] there you go you kind of had a window to what was coming I have a feel like they won't be like the focal point after the fight win or lose but I guess we'll see I guess we'll see John tiller thoughts on Kane's plea deal yeah so he plead to a deal that essentially means he can either get probation or life in prison like any any of them uh he pleaded no contest to some of these charges related to you know I forget the exact nature of the charges but essentially like having an 11 11 Mile Chase trying to shoot the guy who he thought had or was is accused or charged with whatever of lusting his his child and then of course he didn't end up shooting that guy he shot another guy and and everything else um I think it's probably the smart call if I were him you want to avoid a scenario like dude when you get like have you guys ever served on a jury I've served on him a few times like you'll get these cases where you'll see a person that is down on their luck but like by the letter of the law very clearly committed the crime and you're like well I mean this is an open shut case man what do you want me to do you know like by the letter of the law did he commit those crimes it appears he did it appears he did like chasing these [ __ ] for 11 he just play guilty to it chasing him for 11 miles and shooting and endangering people like dude if what if he had what if he had bumped into another car and then those people in that car crashed and died like obviously that didn't happen but like these are the risks you're running in engaging this kind of illegal Behavior you know by the letter of the law I don't know what a jury would have done maybe they would have been sympathetic to his case because why he was shooting the guy is another moral dimension of course but you know by the letter of the law he might have gone poorly for him so at least in this case he doesn't bring in the jury which could have blown up in his face and the judge has some leniency my thought is he'll probably get some prison time but he'll minimize how much he gets pretty significantly by doing this I think it's probably the right call is the Texas commissioner the worst fighter safety Wise It's them or Florida them or Florida no Mets no Nets no Jets I'm a DC resident Luke DC food sucks D you are completely out of your mind no real Soul or identity what's your favorite spots in town this person does not live in DC or they don't eat in DC I mean this is a ludicrous thing to say Jesus I mean where do I even begin guys just just on two neighborhood places you can go to the food is sick Union Market which is right next to laosa laosa is Spanish for the Harvest each of these places is a food Hall and everything in them everything in them is fantastic you can go to Peruvian Brothers you can go to La lacasita um you can go to a Union Market they have um uh immigrant food which is a [ __ ] Dynamite place to eat incredible they have an oyster house on the inside there they've got a fish market on the inside there they've got a pizza joint in the back which is like ridiculous there is just in that whole Union Market area there is elid Dente the Mexican place which is fantastic I just went there there is um uh what's the place there uh uh hold on it's such a good like it's an American like Al gastro pub hold on I want to get the name right I want to give him a shout because it's so goddamn good here let's see map what is the name of that joint here I'll tell you here we go what is the name of that joint it's over here it is he oh here we go St anom this joint here here's a great spot you've ever been to DC here you go I will put y'all on how about this there you go there's a phenomenal place in DC to eat St anel cocktails are sick food is incredible and that's just in a little tiny area called Noma you can go to Andy's Pizza which is at the streets Market a few houses a few rows down off of M and First Street that's right there as well I could go I could go neighborhood by neighborhood you ever been to the Balan eery that's down on Barracks row ambar a m b a r phenomenal food what are you talking about call your mother Bakery if you want some good bagels that are actually like legitimately very very good we can do this all day I could I could go neighborhood by neighborhood and give you every single thing we haven't even touched Georgetown we haven't even touched Dupont Circle haven't even touched Georgia Avenue haven't touched Northeast at all except well I guess with n my I did but like upper Northeast Beyond North Capital like no like hardly any of that so my friend to say that there is no good food means you don't know where to find it Chow welcome to the party good friend Street 1234 what was more of a scam ag1 or become no definitely Lord or aired I mean we knew that that was like super dodgy but they were like you're obligated to read it so like okay we got to read it but the ag1 we actually believed so I guess that makes it more I you know what okay Lord and lir thing was more of an obvious scam but ag1 you know we thought was like a i i we thought it was like a legit thing you know and then turns out that there's nothing to it so now we have that's why we have to exercise real due diligence now now we're in the due diligence agage and going forward you're asking by the way we had no control over the advertising before now we do now we do now we have control over the advertising so I think you're going to see a different kind of advertising going forward on MK L&W welcome back SOB your best experience This Time Around in Columbia Columbia spelled wrong two o's in Columbia um best experience I went to a wedding at a uh at a place um it's a school it's an incredibly like ritzy well there's a chapel on the campus of the private school it's called himnas Mna excuse me himnas Moda and um there's a chapel right on the complex and it was a fantastic beautiful wedding and then we went to a club you can look this up we went to El noal which was like very very fancy a little fancier than I ever was used to uh I watch your live shows in MK regularly but just wanted to ask about MK 3 days a week since it's never asked you don't seem to talk about it ever I don't think three days a week is going to happen anytime soon two days a week is what we're working on two days a week now obviously BC is on vacation this week so whatever um he'll be back I I don't know about next week either because I think he comes back like a week from today but two days a week definitely definitely a thing three days probably not emailed an idea to bring back Hammer of the month thank you my friend I'll take a look at it I'll take a look at it what would be your ideal company and job to work for if I can be completely honest with you I would love and I kind of do already I would love to work for you guys like that's who I want to work for I want to work for the viewers I want to work for the listeners I want to work for the readers I want to work for the fans of MMA in an ideal world if I could get everything I did with some exception obviously you know you know brands that I trust brands that I use that's different but if the if the majority of the funding essentially came from your visitation or your membership or something like that I honestly think that enables me to be the happiest and to do the best job that I can I genuinely mean that if I can pick my sponsors I can handpick them and I have the readership or the viewership base of subscribers or members or whatever that fun what I can do that frees me to do the best content that I can do that's who I want to work for you Luke rep Indie in the 28 Olympics and break dancing there is no uh break dancing in 28 DC I live in Noma Union Market specifically okay you was cool but DC food sucks bro I live in nma how do you live in nma and you don't eat at these places I mean dude buddy I'm going to call a little bit of [ __ ] here I'm not sure you live in Noma if you don't know the now depends what side of n you live on if you're liveing closer to the go dude even if you're closer to the eight Street side chupacabra maketto you have you gone to these places uh Queens Vic Granville Moors um like my G you're in between H Street and Union Market you can't get a good bite to eat if you can't get a good bite to eat over there you can't get a good bite to eat anywhere like there's a gazillion places to eat around there no Mets eats chicken fingers and Mayo sandwiches no Mets eats chicken F I don't know what that means but I'll take your word for it and then luk it's safe to say you've never had good food right okay yeah that's it thanks thank you thank you for lying about where you live good sir CU everyone knows where I live or at least the general like truth about my life DC you sir are just saying I appreciate your patronage but you are saying [ __ ] all right uh boys and girls let's set this up tomorrow there will be a postf fight show for UFC 305 I don't know how cji coverage is going to go but we're going to try and get something up for that as well um let me just say thank you to everyone who sent a note for all the emails I have not even had a chance to go through them but I will over the next week or so I'm going to start unpacking all of them um One More Time One More Time boys and girls here we go tulet trees right here everything lt15 lt15 on any purchase on the site 15% off using the code lt15 at tooletries for anything that they make and this is what I use the beard wash Coastal Pine variety this is the one I literally use every day and have been using it um for for basically months at this point certainly weeks forget exactly how long it's been but quite quite some time um first sponsor I've ever brought on to this place okay UFC 305 coverage tomorrow there might be a watchalong but at a bare minimum there'll be a Results post as well but we might do a watchalong and a results show cji coverage and then of course MK with Chuck Minden Hall on Monday all right boys and girls thank you so much for joining me on a Friday thank you for dealing with all the changes oh got a little more here hold on hold on we'll fire through these Luke given six figure ad contract Luke Thomas here let me tell you about how great ag2 is for your health no no I've been offered good money from some places and turned it down that's not true I eat at all these places all the time I don't believe you sir I don't believe you okay I'll catch you all tomorrow be on the lookout for 305 coverage it'll be back here love you guys so happy to be back ready to rock and roll let's have a great rest of the month and a fantastic September we got a lot to get to so until next time stay frosty