Reveale.

Look at this now, timp it.

Jesus?

Oh do you want to.

Us?

Will?

It's time to beg.

Oh Yeah.

Friday July twenty fifth of the twenty five's and you've entered Morning Combat.

Welcome in the best damn combat sports show they ever put together.

Rip Hogan.

Still not really sure where I feel on that, but hey, anyway, I'm your boy.

VC Brian Cample Luke Thomas on vacation for the final episode, but that hasn't stopped or slowed the news cycle, as we are ready to hit you right between the eyes with a fantastic show today featuring two two first time guests.

Around twelve to fifteen ish Eastern time.

Today, we'll welcome in Boxing podcast or insider Sean a Tell as we look at the latest things going on with ZUFA Boxing, the Ali Act and so much more, along with a look ahead to the weekend.

But we've got another first time guests here, one of the more elite MMA artists in the journalism game.

Today one of Canada's finest exports as well, so we got a lot to talk about, from all things UFC Abu Dhabi on Saturday to some big fight announcements in the future before I welcome them in.

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All right, let's do it.

Let's bring in my guest to kick off the show from MMA, junkie with love and the host of the Fantastic Bonfire podcast.

He's also a bearded individual.

Let's welcome Mike Bone.

I wanted to say for the first time, but I'm wrong, cause Boner, you were on the three Margarita show.

Brother, Welcome back to MK.

I was that was a memorable day and happy birthday, Brian.

Oh, thank you, thank you, sir, thank you so forty seven.

Never look this washed, but happy to be here, Happy to circle the globe one more time with you, Mike, big fan of your work these days.

How's life?

How's everything?

You're you're you know, you're you're tearing ass over there at Junkie.

Thank you.

Yeah, life is good.

Man, can't complain.

I thought New Orleans was an awesome time last week.

I hadn't been there before.

It's always cool to go to like a first time city.

And obviously, like personally speaking, you know, Max Hollway and Dustin Poorri are two fighters I've gone back further with covering this than almost anyone in the sport, and they've been very good to me over the years.

So a little tough seeing them fight again.

But I thought the whole week was amazing, and you know, Dustin went out and about as good a fashion as he could have outside of a wind.

So that was a fight week that will stick with me.

You know, they blend together so much at this point in time after doing it for so long, but that one was a special one.

So yeah, I'd just stay an extra day out there on Bourbon Street.

Saw a full on bar brawl on my last night, which was insane.

But yeah, you sure took some video.

We could have put it on heavy Suit.

I do have a video.

I'll send it to you after the Factor maybe if you know one of the producers wanted it was wild stuff.

Thank you, thank you.

Hopefully you didn't wait in line too long that Cafe Dumont for those overrated powder donuts.

But shout out to New Orleans.

Shout out to that warhat behind you, very shabesque.

I like that from you there you go.

Yeah, no, a gift from Dustin directly.

So what can you say?

Put it on the set.

Yeah, you gotta gotta wear it all day.

That's what I'm talking about, all right, Mike.

We got a lot to get into today.

Very appreciative that you would fill that chair of Luke Thomas, and probably filling it with less violent ibs to be fair, right, that's sort of a theme of that man's aggressive life.

But let's remind everybody that today's episode of Morning Combat is brought to you by DraftKings.

With DraftKings, of course, the crown is yours.

Shout out to everybody watching right now on the DraftKings Network, listening on your podcast feed or on YouTube, however you consume it.

It's time, Oh, it's almost time.

One more thing, I almost forgot about that.

Austie Kid.

Hey, our producer, our director, our bong enthusiast, one of the nicest guys in the world.

How about the main card minute podcast Luke Nocita also on the Ones and TUESDA today.

Luke I even introduced you without men, referencing your dad's nuts.

So that's a good thing.

Almost you were that close.

You were that close, guys.

I'm hip Bobby Knuckles fighting tomorrow and we got a day card.

I mean, I couldn't be happier.

So that's well done, right there, Luca, happy to have you with us as always.

All right, let's hit a topic number one.

Who know, Yes, it's UFC Abu Dhabi this Saturday, and that's a pretty damn good fight night card with a middleweight main event that you must see, of course, with title implications, with former champion Robert Whitaker having surprisingly lost three of his last six entering this matchup against a red hot Dutch Night and Ranier de Ritter, who is the on a three fight stoppage spree in the nine months since he has joined the UFC.

Saturday's middleweight five rounder feels a bit like a crossroads fight with the winner catapulting pretty damn close to the top of this division.

So, Mike Bond, what aspect of this matchup Knuckles versus the Night has you the most intrigued as we head into Saturday.

I think just finding out if Robert Whitaker still has it right, Like, is this as you said three and three in the last six where just is he because you look at the fighters he's lost to all due respector in here he hasn't obvious like in the UFC accomplished what those guys have and we'll find out if he is capable of being that.

But yeah, like this is one you gotta think Robert must have.

There feels like maybe a path to one more title shot for him.

He's saying it like this is my last run.

Here.

He has history with no matter who comes out of that title fight, which could make it, you know, both like a backstory for a rematch, but also tricky because he did get finished by both guys, the Hamzat one being particularly definitive.

So he's just got to prove that he's still here.

And I still have faith in Robert Whitticker.

I don't think he's someone who's fallen off dramatically, just had some hard fights.

But if he loses that one, I think we start having to ask some more serious questions about what his future looks like and is he still that guy who has held a spot in the top five to six of this division for what like a decade.

Now?

Yeah, I think that's very well said about what this fight really represents and how we look at one of my favorite fighters of all time, Bloody Knuckles himself, the reaper, Robert Whitaker, thirty four years old.

So, Mike, you never really know if we're going to see the beginning of someone coming or going, so to speak, from the aging factor.

I think the biggest shock I don't want to say disappointment, because you know, you never know who's gonna win these things.

But the biggest shock wasn't necessarily that Whitakers three and three in his last six, largely against the Leite opponents.

It's more the one sided nature in how he lost.

I mean, we are.

Literally talking about a living legend right here.

And I don't offer that nickname libor.

Or is that the right word?

I don't know.

Off to ask Luke later.

But let's throw to a quick graphic here showing the names that this man has gone.

Through, whether win or lose, in his in his lifetime.

There you're talking about two title fights with aut Asania.

I thought he won the second one.

Maybe I'm crazy.

I don't know.

How about ten rounds with Prime Eoel Romero, DDP Chimaiev you see it all the way going back to the welterweight days.

This man is one of the best fighters in the history of this promotion and certainly a top three in this division.

Although Ddp's crashing this picture quickly, Mike, how will we tell if Rob still has it here on Saturday?

Because it is an interesting matchup where we don't expect that our dyr is going to be looking to strike with him.

You would think not, But you know, I think some people would have said he would have welcomed being on his back against Bo Nicol, hoping he could hunt for a submission or whatever.

And he's has to have gained tremendous confidence as striking.

But yeah, I don't think if you ask for Neir like, where do you want this fight to unfold?

I don't think you would say the majority on the feat.

So Robert has always had really good defensive wrestling, offensive wrestling when he wants to pull it out.

So if we just see him failing to stop that first wave of takedowns the second wave, because RDR does have some tricky moves, Like, just because he shoots for that first takedown, doesn't mean his his takedown series or his grappling chaining ends there.

He's gone a lot of tricks up his sleeves.

So if Rob is not like shutting down that first wave that second wave, I feel like he's still very much that guy, and that's enough to be competitive and win a lot of fights in this division.

We were wondering, you know, could he do that with Hamzad And the answer was a defit of no.

RDR is absolutely not the takedown machine that chimaiaz with the same force.

But that would make it even more telling.

Right, like a guy who's a little slower, who doesn't have that intensity, if he's just chucking Rob around in there, that's a big problem.

To echo once more to the times that Whittaker in recent memory has not only been handled, but handled without care, been kind of destroyed.

Is it a size thing?

I mean, like, he's the four middleweight champion, he's one of the greatest, you know, champions we've seen.

But as he's slowing down just a bit.

When you look at the DDB and Tremaiah losses, how much do you think size in Brute's strength played a factor there?

Yeah, well those got to be the two strongest guys in the division are up there, right, So I don't want to make it a complete indictment.

But like the if you ask Rob, which I did, like the Tremaia fight, he feels that was more a technique mental laps, like you don't hear him be like he was just so powerful for me, and then he seemingly got him in the perfect submission technique with some pre existing jaw issues as well.

So it's almost hard to know exactly how to read into that one.

And if he says that's all fixed and it's good now, that you would imagine would get him even more confidence where he wouldn't.

Just have to top so quickly.

If RDR gets his back and wraps the forearm around the chin or the throat or whatever, so I don't want to think it's entirely size dependent, like he looked fine in there and not regard.

I think it's just fighting some really good guys.

And I don't know.

I still don't even know what to make up the DDP fight because it was just so weird and he was doing well and then he got clipped and it was just like an insane downhill after that.

Yeah, I mean, you know, and he.

Has had some injury illness situations that compromised that very peak of his prime.

Maybe that led into how badly he fell apart, you know, on the knockout loss to Atasania in the first fight.

You never know, but he has been.

Able to reinstall his greatness and show us what he still has.

That early knockout of Ellis Karev was a nice reminder.

Regarding the mouth, the teeth that Jemaia have just crushed.

That was a big topic, of course this week as we're seeing Rob show up to media day with the new kneers.

Let's hear from Whitaker talking about the recovery from that mouth surgery.

How are you feeling, how's the health?

How long did it take to rehab from the last fight.

And if it's not a secret, how much did the teeth cost?

Yeah, I'm one hundred percent recovery, And honestly, it wasn't too long afterwards because I just got them taken out, so got in place, put in, just had to wait for them to settle.

So if anything, they're better than that were before.

And the price, you know, it was paid by Uncle Dana, So it's a work injury.

The fight against Hamzad, you said it before that your problems with the teeth started way before the fight.

So the reason why the jaw cracked was because it was on a badly heard Joe before.

What do you think if he locked the same type of move on somebody who didn't have those jaw problems like yourself, would he crack that jaw as well?

It wasn't the jaw, it was the teeth that that got moved.

My jaw was fine, honestly, though I shouldn't have been in that position to begin with.

You know, it's it's on a a strong position to be in, but who knows, you know, maybe we'll find out in a few weeks.

Rob would also say at media day that if he has it his way, of course, this fight will be contested.

The entire time on the feed.

It would be interesting to see what Ranier de Ritter would look like late in a fight.

He doesn't typically get there.

He is that submission expert at great success, of course at one championship, winning titles in two divisions before coming here.

But obviously, Mike the run he's been on in the last nine months, escalating seemingly.

In difficulty of opponent.

Although you can certainly question how dangerous was bo Nickel really at that point that was more of a a we needed to find out type of moment all in all, And I'll tell you the Draftking odds right now, Robert Whitaker is still a slight favorite at minus one fifty five, but that wild card Jjutes expert of RDR plus one thirty Mike RDRs a while meaning if things go his way, they can really go his way.

We've also seen, albeit though against a much bigger fighter and antoty Malcolm and that like if it's a pure striking war, oh boy, he could get handled in there.

Do you look at him?

Almost like in boxing we say a puncher's chance, like if it goes his way, he's got a shot or even if this fight goes five rounds, could you see a path of victory here for RDR.

That's a tough one, just because I still regard Whittaker as one of the better five round fighters like I've seen, especially in this division, Like you look at those fights with Darren Till and Cannon Near and Paul Acosta and the list goes on and on.

This man knows what he's doing over a five round fight.

I haven't seen that out of Vernier.

So the idea of him going out there and winning like a forty nine, forty six, forty seven type of decision, that doesn't feel like a realistic outcome to me.

Obviously it can happen, but if he's winning, it feels like it's gonna be in a finish and if he can't get it, like I could see Whitaker maybe getting a TKO in the later rounds or maybe winning that decision himself.

So I don't think Rainier even plans for that, cares about that.

He's going in there, I think to finish the fight, and he can do it.

Man.

They just had their face off what like an hour ago at Ceremonial wins there.

He is a big freaking guy.

And I know we talked about the size and the strength to Rob earlier with some of these opponents, Like he's gotten another one here.

Rinier is massive.

We know he's being a champion of multiple divisions.

So like, if he goes out there and he can bully Rob and wear him down and lean on him and pull him and all that stuff and then get the fight to the ground, he can do this.

He can finish the fight.

And he's got one of the most important things you could ask for right now, and that is confidence and momentum.

Yeah, momentum is huge.

I want to get to that in a second.

First, we've got to listen to what the Dark Knight has to say when basically asked what we're debating here, is your plan to kind of save that guess tank for the later rounds, or is your plan to be de ritter and get after it.

Let's hear from them.

Considering this is your first main event in the USC, you envision yourself changing your approach a little bit, pacing yourself because of the potential of it going twenty five minutes or.

No, nah, I think just hit the gas.

It's kind of what I do see.

If I can get him out there early or maybe get him tired, and then both of us might might get tired in the last couple of honds.

Must be a big podcast fan with that all gas no breaks way of living right there.

But let's go to quickly to long islanlook our betting expert.

When I look at the odds here, Luke, your boy from Australia is the better fighter.

But I feel like the odds makers who always know, even when we question them, they know.

It feels like they're not sure how strong the momentum of our dr is and how much Rob has left.

You get that same feeling, Yeah, I feel like it's more what Rob has left or maybe like what Rob's teeth have left kind of thing there.

But Yo, Rob at middleweight, he's lost to champions, He's only lost to Hamsat.

Seven of his last ten fights have come against current top fifteen guys.

RDR, Yah's on a nice streak, still hasn't fought anyone in the top fifteen.

I feel like good value on Rob here too, minus one fifty five.

I would take that all day.

But uh, on the other hand, RDR, I feel like you just got to take by finish at that point, because if he doesn't get it done early, he's probably not gonna get it done.

But you know you already I'm running with Bobby Knuckles.

Let's go Bobby Knuckles with like you, Luke would say this week that he believes in his BJJ.

He believes he.

Will have no problem if the fight does go there.

But this is what we're trying to figure out, Mike.

Is this just a red hot streak against the right names at the right time.

Did our dr who used to shoot for the moon and you know, try to win the heavyweight championship at one but yet came into the UFC with a fucking attitude.

I'm just gonna go out there, fight who they give me and see what happens.

When you look at this and you're ready to make your prediction.

Does the Dark Knight, the Dutch one get this done?

I'm gonna say no.

Oh, but he has He's capable, definitely, And like we talked about, like this is everything this man has dreamed of.

Right like he was in purgatory, no one was talking about him.

He was stuck in a horrible contract with one and there was a path to him never being relevant again.

So the fact that he's here, that he made his debut one in September, and here we are with his fourth fight and fighting a former champion in a main event, Like this is the things he could have only dreamed of two years ago when he had no idea what his future looked like.

So if there's anyone who's you know, we're not talking about skills here, how they match up and you know, striking wrestling, like I'm just talking about the mental side of things, like this guy could not have more motivation and drive to get this done, whereas Robert Whitaker, Like when was the last time he fought someone ranked number twelve?

Like it's been years and years and years.

So this is like I'm still here type of fight for rob and this is just for a near Like you know, I could everything I want, all my dreams, title fight, it's all on the other side of this.

So this is the moment for him to show up and show his best that could translate into a win.

But until I see the fall off from Robert Whittaker that we've talked about and you know, pondered about, I can't pick against him quite yet.

I'm exactly right there with you and I am a big fan of our DR interviewed him a bunch in his one days and really really believe a great dude, really believe.

But I believe when things go his way, and this might be a fight, it'll probably be a fight where it won't go his way.

So I like Whittaker by decision.

I don't throw out the idea that he could stop him on strikes just the same.

But when you look at.

What's really at stake here, I don't think already ours a win and you get a title shot, because we do have some big names atop this division, it would certainly set him up for big things.

But even though Whittaker's coming in on a one fight losing streak, we already know if you're a former champion with a big name and you get a viable win, you could be knocking on the door.

Is there any chance Whittaker could with a win here, could be facing, in your eyes, the winner of that August Middleway Championship in Chicago between Jamaiah and DDP.

It feels unlikely just based off this one win, but it really depends like who deserves it the most.

It's I think the winner of Nacardini, Mobov and Kyle Barraljo, Right, But I don't think Imbov is someone in the UFC is tripping over itself to put in a title fight, like he was supposed to be the backup and then all that weirdness with the Paris main events, So like, I think they would reluctantly give it to him if no one else was available and it was best for their timing.

And then you look who else is out there.

There's no one that feels like this is so clearly the next guy outside of that, of course, so Rob, all those things you said, the things that he's done, the name value, maybe they do a show in Sydney, a pay per view in like February, and the timing line's up there.

Drikis has fought there multiple times.

If he wins, so like it could be a location dependent all that stuff.

He's at least got a chance if he goes out there and does something, and given like what he'd be four and three in the last seven fights.

That's all you can really ask yourself for the person that feels like they would be more sellable for the title fight right away would be renier if he does something impressive finishes the job because he has trained I think pretty extensively with both guys, and he's you know, we wanted to see the awkwardness of the rainier Diritor versus strictus super ces fight.

It would be awkward and delightful just the same.

Let's get in to this co main event in the bandamweight division.

As former champion, I always struggle pay Yoder.

Potento my man.

He'll be by the way minus three seven to five favorite according to DraftKings.

As he bounced back from that streak in which he lost both the title and four out of five to win two straight in title contention, Suddenly you could have argued he should have gotten the last title shot in a potential rematch with Morob This time, though, like Whitaker, welcoming somebody from the backside of the rankings, we'll get a thirty five year old Marcus McGee who is riding a six fight win streak now largely.

Against secondary opposition.

The decision went over Jonathan Martinez last time was a nice boost to really give him what amounts.

Here for me a tryout on the elite level.

Would you think Marcus McGee has shown us yet that this is possible, that he could get through Yon as a by the way plus two ninety five favorite, and that he could prove to us on Saturday that he is of this elite.

Ilk he could.

He's shown a lot of good stuff and they picked him in this spot for a reason.

If Jan was gonna fight way down in the rankings.

This is someone I thought deserved a chance like this, and it makes sense from the style stuff and all that.

I'm still super high on Yon and think he is capable of a lot of good things and big wins and maybe even getting that belt again.

So well, I'm sure get into it.

From his side.

I love this fight and for McGee, like, yeah, could he land something crazy out there.

But Yon's chin is very good, obviously his striking is elite, so the path to victory is gonna be very, very, very tough.

But if he hurts him, if he really is aggressive in there and wears Yon down, perhaps he can win this fight on a decision.

But I just I don't see it.

This is a real tough uphill climb for him.

It really is.

It's a huge opportunity though, and given his age in the window that is available to him, you certainly have to take your best swing and jump through it.

He's almost looking like a tourist on Instagram on you know, being a part of a big card like this, in a big spot in the co main event and seeing his name in light, seeing his face on the poster, that kind of stuff.

He certainly can fight.

But Mike, at thirty two, Yan's not done.

I mean he feels in his last two fights decision wins over song You Dong Devison figuredo like he's a lot closer to being not only in contention, but possibly, as you mentioned, regaining that title.

Then he is only in the other direction.

So when you look back at that streak of four defeats in five fights, we certainly have some explainable situations, including the disqualification there.

But do you think maybe it was a grind of so many big names back to back to back in a short period of time that maybe there was a burnout or something there that slowed him down.

There could be some complacency.

Bantamweight is just insane, dude, Like these guys are so good.

Who put those four fights in front of anyone, maybe outside of Morob, Like who's coming out with the significantly better record and winning all those instead of losing them, So like I in that sense, I don't want to beat him up too much.

There could have been some of that, like he was in a weird spot after those Aljo fights and maybe it just took some time to pick.

Up the pieces.

But he feels like he's fully back and motivated, and I love that he took this fight.

It is very smart of him.

I think.

I know the risk is immense, but like if we're talking about him maybe getting a title shot and getting that helt back, like he said, he was offered Umar and Omega Madoff in the main event of UFC Baku and Umar couldn't make it, still dealing with the hand stuff, But like, if you could get a title shot off of either of those just because of the situation, isn't this the significantly easier fight.

And it's a three rounder, like you know, one win and it gets them there.

And I'd much rather have that fight come against Marcus McGee than Umar and Omega Madoffs.

So he's the benefit of some good timing.

And you know Rob beats Corey Sandhagen, the Sky's gonna need someone to fight, So I think he's in a real, real good spot here if he gets the stuff.

Yeah, And I think I really agree with you on that regard, And I mean he he kind of should have or could have already gotten a title shot based with off of those two wins.

This is such a pick your poison.

I mean, like you said, the difference between McGee and what the difficulty of Umar brings.

And I wasn't really sure about the Umar setback on the injury.

I was actually gonna ask you that, like why are we not getting that fight this time right now?

But I wonder if it's better for Yan in terms of getting that next fight if it is depending on who wins, or do you think he can get it either way?

I think he can get it either way, just because if Marob beats Corey, like who who's the next guy after that?

If not this?

So it's a.

Bit of a tough sell, like we we remember that first fight.

I think Morob shot what forty something takedowns in there.

Yan, to his credit, stop most of them.

And there's a lot of personal stuff between those two, like leading in at the waynes, so you can definitely sell it.

And if Yon goes out there and and styles on the dude, I think it is something you could sell.

Like, he is a guy that I think still has a pretty passionate fan base who a lot of people think is extremely talented.

He's picking up on the English more like there's there's ways to go, and it seems like Morob is down to do that fight again too.

He's talked about it being open to it, So it's a it seems like a pretty strong path here.

And I've been saying.

This a lot in recent months, like I would love to see more fighters do this in terms of just like trying to get some forward movement of their own in the division by fighting a guy who's down like the rankings.

Like in theory, Yan should win this fight with the highlight something spectacular and that is more valuable than winning a competitive five round decision over Umar and like you know, your sellability all that stuff.

It's an easier fight, like go out there and treat the number of twelve guy, number twelve rank guy or whatever McGee is, Like, he should be treated by a guy with your standard and I think that does more for you than if you go to a blood and guts decision with number six.

Yeah, damn right on that one and the maniac certainly has his own form of danger here.

But I like Yan in just about every category.

I hope Yan continues to add onto that English, by the way, because he's whole blooded, seemingly at every turn.

I even like when he stood up against what was that whole habib bit that went on this week of do you remember the specifics of that, even pushed back against that.

There was something that Habibeb said that the media was like, does this apply to you as well?

And He's just like, no, Hope, you can have that thing.

I'm different whatever.

Yeah, well while showing respect though at the same time he's certainly cold blooded.

Uh quickly Long Island, Luke, you're not throwing plus money at McGee here, right, We're all in unison.

No, but I don't like the fucking odds on Yon, So I'm.

Taking the over two and a half.

Also worth noting McGee trains at MMA Lab where Sean O'Malley used to train, maybe possibly still trains.

Sean O'Malley got that flukey split decision against Yon.

Maybe that team knows something, you know.

We're just saying, we're saying, maybe Tye goes to the runner when it comes to a big time fighter like that.

And I like, by the way, the cold bloodiness of Yon saying, uh, yeah, I'd rematch o'melly again, but only if it was, you know, on the path to the title, because he believes that guy was a fraud all the way.

Uh, let's keep going down the card.

Sharp Bullet at middleweight here, coming off of that first defeat in the UFC against Michael Venam Page will be a monster favorite minus six seventy five against the tough Canadian Mark Andre Burial at plus four ninety.

Mike, we knew char Bullet had some flaws even during the one eyed Pirate wind streak that he put on there.

Did the MVP fight pop the balloon at all for you?

In terms of trying to figure out exactly where his ceiling is?

I think so, Like it feels like he lost a lot of momentum energy around him coming off that loss.

It was it was a tough one.

Like even just look at the numbers that we have this week, like it is nothing compared to his first three four UFC fights, So he's got something that he needs.

To rebuild here.

And yeah, like there's a lot of pressure in that regard and fighting.

My fellow Canadian Mark Andre Berrio, I think I can't avoid this man's fights.

He's just fighting in front of me every few months.

And last time we saw him put a guy out on a stretcher out there in Montreal.

So yes, I think in this fight, and yeah, Shara needs needs to show something here, some evolution, because he made a lot of excuses after that loss too, saying he was sick, all these different things.

You got to prove it here, but it does feel like there's just not that excitement and interest in him that there was prior to that fight with MVP.

Certainly he then maybe this is that perfect setup as you said, to get him that.

But Burio damn near killed.

Bruno Silva, who we always have to say was blinded permanently in both eyes by Wideman in that ridiculous fight before earlier before that, but that snapped a three fight losing skid for Burial.

Still, I don't know.

I mean, Shara looks good to pretty good at times, and you know he can break out spectacular strikes like a double ass three sixty spinning double reverse elbow type of tilt.

That's like some video game shit, right, there.

But even more than him doing something spectacular right here, I want to see him control every terms of you know, all the terms of this fight and put on the kind of victory that would give you more confidence in him moving forward, because certainly there's a very marketable side to him and you know, one eyed fighters have won.

A UFC title in the past.

Just to be fair with that regard.

Uh, there's more to talk about in this car, but I want to specifically talk about the featured prelim bout as Bryce Mitchell drops down to bantamweight in a very interesting fight against said Nermaga Metoff.

Now Mitchell will be a minus one two betting favorite against the plus one twenty Normaga Metoff in this reinvention.

Here comes after a time in which Mitchell was finished in three of his last five fights at featherweight, including the end of that insane grudge back in back war with Lord g An Silva, which seemed to be a lot more about stomping on weird Hitler ideologies than even the real beef between them.

Ultimately, Mike, is this the right move for Bryce at this point in his career in your eyes, to go down and try to find new life.

Yeah, why not?

Like, what's why not?

He's clearly hit a ceiling at featherweight, he's not getting Yeah, he already fought Iliot Taporia, right, we saw Hadakka, We fought other elite level guys.

He needed to switch something up if he didn't want want to just be a guy who goes out there and wins one, loses one, all that type of stuff.

Can you make a run here?

Like Bandsa waits a deeper division than featherweight in my opinion right now, So he's got a lot of work to do.

This is gonna be a tough challenge, but this is a good new layer of paint on his career.

I guess to see if he.

Can try to make something happen, because it feels like Featherweight was going nowhere.

You're starting to wonder though, is he of the strong the Sean Strickland ilk where it's like, is it dangerous to bring this guy to other countries?

Right?

Is somebody gonna throw a boomerang at Colby Coventon again?

Is gonna be one of those stars?

So?

I mean it seems like his day one, that story about him in the change room or whatever, just like you know, going going full hanging out was the worst at god.

I haven't heard anything bad as far as horror stories from over there, so it seems like he's been on his best behavior at least.

The media day was interesting.

But yeah, the media day was weird.

Let's investigate it just a bit because we do play up the weirdness on this show.

Here's Bryce Mitchell at media day.

Uh, misunderstanding who he's talking to.

Bryce previous to say, so does nice pistan m m a.

He's still.

I shoot crown, he baby salammbu Dhabi.

He spoke Russian, by the way, alfous in shala al fous in shala alfous in s La hondla la, thinking I'm from Russia.

Oh yeah, I thought She's speaking Arabic.

No, the question was Arabic.

Boy, Oh boys, guy's a wild card.

Look, some people still, I don't even say rightfully, want to cancel him or see him.

I don't know, maybe change his tune on some of the more disastrous things he said publicly.

One media member did bring that up one more time.

Let's see Bryce's reaction.

Like people were saying they should be canceled at some point, is it is this this thing, or like some people are still mad at you back at home.

Revelation two nine, Revelation three nine.

The Synagogue Saitan has formed an army against me.

They compassed me about.

Yeah, they compashed me about.

But the Lord will strike them down.

Thank you.

I don't remember the book where Jesus fished with Hitler there, Mike, I have read that book front to back.

You want to let you know, Yeah, no, I'm a stot chapter.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Do you think he gets this done here?

How good in your eyes?

Is?

I mock him at off?

He's good.

This is a tough fight for Bryce.

It'll be interesting and that will be the telling thing of whether this was a big mistake or not right.

Because Bryce considers himself an elite grappler and said is very subficient, competent, and a great grappler himself.

So like you know, he said, the reason he dropped down is because he felt like he was getting dummied a bit by John Silva.

If Sayid goes out there and is able to handle him in the same way, then it's like where does Bryce kind of go from there?

And I think he's capable, Like say, he's had his up and down moments in the UFC, but he's clearly a very skilled guy and has some solid fish and instincts both on the feet and the grounds.

So this will be like, I know what he is, and I don't think he's gonna be a champion or anything like that at bantamway, but he can be a top fifteen guy for a while.

This will be telling if Bryce can get through him, if he could actually make some noise in this division, because say, it is very competent.

So he'd thirty three years old, has lost two of his last three, but certainly put together an overall pretty good run in a very difficult division.

I have seen the side by side photos by the way of Bryce, you know, for the photoshoot four feather and ban.

It kind of looks the same, you know, it really does, right, A little.

Yeah, a little more to define, but yeah, pretty.

Much all right, Mike, When you look up and down the rest of this card, what storyline, what fight stands out to you the most?

Ooh man, it's hard to say, Like there's a lot of meat on the bone for this one, right, Like I'm a big Nikita Krilov guy.

I think he's uh, you know, like the comeback fight after what like two years away did not go well for him last time.

But light heavyweight, man, this is a wasteland out there.

So a guy like him, he hasn't had his title shot.

He puts together a few wins in a row and has some consistency, he can be there and at worst it's gonna be an exciting fight that ends in a finish because I think he has only been to the scorecards once in his entire career.

So that's always uh, always good.

I'm always down for a Nikita krilof fight.

Dude.

There's a lot of interesting things on.

Against Tabitha Ricci.

First of all.

First of all, you'll get people in the comments saying that's, you know, shorts or underwear only fight.

But I'm telling you that's a good ass fight on top of that, right.

Yeah, it's solid.

I mean, I've been high on Rebus for a while.

I don't like that she did the jumping up and down weight classes so many times.

Thing.

I think she is a significantly better straw weeight as she is than she is a flyweight, and hopefully she's finally settling in.

I understand why she bounced back.

These are the fights the UFC was offering her up weight classes, down weight classes.

They clearly want to give her opportunities.

But when I look at her and the opponent she has to fight, I always think she performs better as a strawweight, and I think the record reflects that.

I think she's five and two in the UFC at strawweight, in like three and three at feather or flyweight.

Yeah, she has to lean on her chin too much.

She gets hit a lot when she fights at at the one two five.

Right there, our baby Shark is coming off that loss to Yan Shannon, which snapped a wind streak that seemed to say that maybe she's turning toward contention here at age thirty.

This does feel like a big fight for Ricci in terms of trying to turn that corner.

Yeah, she needs to win this one if she wants to be something here.

And jangwaally needs people to fight and needs people there.

Interesting, So assuming she sticks around this division, I don't know what's going on with her, maybe moving up and fighting Valentina and if she would come down after that win or lose, But yeah, this division is in desperate need of fresh faces.

Interesting challengers, and do I give her a chance of winning that title fight.

No, but you know, fans seem to like her.

She's got that relationship with Cal Walsh and all that stuff, so like there's there's something there that you can at least work with.

Yeah.

I saw horn from Paulo Costa.

I think he likes it too, very interesting stuff, but he likes to stir the pot in a lot of different areas and shake during press conferences.

I'm gotta say, Long Island, look your boy a flywait asu almabaya if you are hyping him up for some time.

He lost to a very almost absurd looking Manel Cop who was virtuoso striking wise in that fight.

Does he bounce back here against Ochoa?

Yeah?

I mean he also got I poked a shit in that fight from Menel Cop, So you know.

He's got Jose Jose.

You know he looks good, but he's a little unproven.

He knocked out Cody Durdin.

I don't know how much value we can really put in that win a sue.

By the way, I got it plus money earlier in the week.

He's now minus one twenty five.

But either way, also got to give a shout out to the curtain jerker Marcus Bucca.

Making his UFC you here.

I mean, I feel like Luke Thomas would speak on this better than I can.

But BJJ legend, so let's go.

Yeah, Luke Thomas would take his thing out, no doubt.

But Mike, is this like the curtain jerk thing seems a little like we're not sure who you are, so you're maybe our next robellus d'spanie.

Let me keep you there until you show us that you have life.

Do you think this guy who's only lost in MMA is to Umar Khan, the current one heavyweight champion?

Are you expecting much here?

I hope so please.

I think they put him in the spot, maybe because you know his jiu jitsu background.

It's a nabu dabi.

Maybe there's some sort of connection trying to.

Get people in the door earlier and get them excited by you know, a high level jiu jitsu practitioner.

But we'll see.

Man.

Another guy, as I talked to you with Ranier durrid Or earlier, like was in one championship Purgatory, felt like his career was over and he was never getting get an opportunity like this and he gets it, probably later in life than he would have wanted to, but he's here.

The heavyweight division could not be more or wide open and desperate for someone to do anything interesting, So like, please, can we go out there and get a quick submission, do something to drum up some interest.

And you know he's fighting a rank guy right off the bat.

It doesn't take much at heavyweight.

A couple of good wins, a couple smart comments on the microphone and he's right there fighting and you know, title eliminators all that type of stuff.

So he needs to deliver.

We'll see how much he's improved his game in terms of being well rounded.

Budai not the most exciting guy, but solid heavyweight.

Nevertheless, he needs to go out there and do something dominant to get some traction there or we.

Need heavyweight, we need some viable heavyweights.

It's time, like I don't I don't.

Want one to blow up and there not to be a third season of Chatre's one Championship Apprentice edition, But wouldn't you love Umar Khan and uh and vitally or sorry, what's Mallikin's for his name?

And totally that Mallekin.

Excuse me, I'd love to see those guys toiling in the UFC just the same, all right, that is you, Oh real quick too.

TV Fighter Alert Turkey's Ebo arslon it led heavyweight who got got submitted by the Hulk last time out breaking a wind streak.

That guy makes fun fights every single time.

Maybe not full on Slava clause level, Mike, but you got to tune in to see that guy brawl.

Yeah, he's a killer in there.

All right.

That is your UFC Fight night for this Saturday.

But let me talk to you a bit about summer travel, right we all go through this.

We can get away with the wife.

I've been taking the kids on these college tours and you know about the frustration in this hot weather of staying you know, you know what I'm gone talking about right there?

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Yeah, Mando's got you covered, protect your pits and smell great doing it.

It's time to be a man, right, All right, let's go to topic number two right here, and let's bring back a well smelling man.

I'm sure Mike Bond to talk about the slew of events for the fall that Dana White and the UFC have announced.

Mike, Look, I get on them.

I get on them aggressively.

I'm gonna get on them later in this show about this ali acbs.

But main event wise, late summer fall, we're what and shit together?

Are we?

Not?

We are?

This is a great, great streak.

The summer main events were good and looks like fall is gonna be very nice too.

I mean, you add Islam and Jack to the back of the slid in November, which is seeming likely, and then hey, if you can get another Ilia Toporia fight to close the year in December.

I know he had said he was gonna be on that card.

We'll see if that comes to fruition.

But this is this is good stuff.

The fighters are fighting BC.

Can you what I need?

That's what I need.

Okay, we got to stop talking about promoters.

Let's get into it here.

UFC three twenty of course, is October fourth in Las Vegas, and this was the centerpiece of this big announcement from Dana.

Even though people are trying to guess Pereira's weight on Twitter and trying to guess if he was Aspinall's next opponent.

No, Alex Pereira will get that immediate rematch against new light heavyweight champion Magamet and Klaia.

That's the main event.

And how about this for a damn colemane Morob de Vos Pili will look for his third title defense this calendar year and his quest to set a UFC record for four in that twelve month period when he defends against the always dangerous Cory Sanhagan.

And they also added a banger live Sir, I just met her.

How about Yeerie Prohatska and Khalil Rountree Junior at light heavyweight bombs away Michael three twenty big business dude, Yeah, I love it.

It's a that's a great trio of fights.

We haven't really felt like they were straying away a bit from the double title fight cards, as you know, unless it's a bantomweight or a women's bandom weight, or a women's fight or the flyweights on the men's side.

But this one, like this one two punch is amazing.

These are two prominent title fights featuring two amazing athletes, four amazing athletes, and yeah, let's go.

This is this is good stuff and I'm really curious to see as I'm sure we'll get into what this means for Alex Prayer and what he can do with a win or well, let me ask.

You that, well, let me ask you that I'm very happy that they didn't send him to heavyweight just to fill the whole of John Jones putting on that soap opera and now he wants to come back.

You know what, John, why don't you off?

All right, that's BC talk and not Mike Bone.

All right.

Let me ask you this, though, how happy are you to see him try to fix the glitch?

Meaning no disrespect to Anklelive.

I probably would have favored him against Pereira at any point when they fought, given the tough style matchup.

But you did hear Alex say he wasn't one hundred percent, not as an excuse, but we know this guy turns around on no notice, injuries aside, and still gets it done.

He kind of needs to fix this hole in the resume, in my opinion, before going to.

Heavyweight, definitely, And it seems like that's what he wanted to do, right Like people are asking why are they doing this fight?

No one cares about Anklive?

What's the upside?

This announcement for this particular one of the title fights was kind of met with like, eh, that's because we knew it was coming.

But it depends how we got here and why.

If Alex said this is the time I want to go to heavyweight, I'm sure they would have put him in there.

Does that like right away for the title shot?

Maybe not, Maybe he does another fight first.

But Alex has earned himself the right to ask for whatever he wants, and if he went to the UFC and said, as you would put it, that was a glitch that night.

I need to make this right.

This is the fight I want, even if it's the one that you guys don't see.

Is the most upside.

He's earned the right to call a shot and try to fix that.

There can be downside, a lot of downside for him here.

I think like people just assume, Oh, if he loses again, he'll just go to heavyweight.

Why why ism at heavyweight appealing if he loses this fight.

I don't understand that, especially if he gets knocked out.

Damn right, you just said it.

That's the truth.

That's the damn truth right there, and that's what you get on Morning Combat.

Two pay per views in one month, though, Mike, because October twenty fifth is going to give us UFC three twenty one from Abu Dhabi, where we tend to get very good fights.

Probably has something to do with a large site fee they get at these global destinations.

But Tom Aspinall will take on Cyril Gone in the main event, his first defense of the full undisputed heavyweight Championship.

We're also going to get Alexander Ratkich against Asim Matt Murza Khanoff at light heavyweight and alex Or Volkoff, who I know, probably the UFC didn't want to run back a Aspinall Volkoff rematch, even though Volkoff did lose that very questionable decision to Cyril Gohan.

But when Danil White came up to and said, we'll take care of you kid, I apparently he met Jalalton Almeida, and I don't hate that fight either.

What do you think about what we've seen here on October twenty fifth, Mike with Aspinall fighting Gon, who's not coming off a great performance.

Yeah, I'm fascinated, just more so like by the outside optics.

Like we can all agree we think Tom Asmall is gonna win this fight, right like I think he's he's gonna be heavily favored unless he slips on a banana field or you know, heavyweights heavyweight and someone lands a crazy shot and fish is the fight there.

I'm more just interested to see how many people care about this fight, what kind of movement movement it has, because you can talk about Tom Aspinall being you know, a big deal.

He's done great in the cage, amazing fights, amazing knockouts.

This guy's never headlined a pay per view, this is his first one.

He's being co made about on the other ones.

This fight Skate Side will be in the middle of the day, one of those afternoon pay per views, and it's.

Just a hard sell.

Currel Gone is not going to go out there and start talking shit and trying to build this fight out.

He already has the fight.

You know.

Tom's doing his part saying, you know, this is his third title shot.

I'm going to rid the division of Cerel Gone as far as being a title contender for good.

But beyond that, what's like the hype and all that stuff that it's going to draw the interestedness.

So this is a big time like moment for Tom Aspital.

Is he someone that fans will want to watch an afternoon pay per view against an opponent that's not doing much to drop up the fight.

That will tell us a lot about how much people care.

If this does banger numbers and everyone's talking about it, I think that's something that maybe perks up John Jones's ears a little bit.

Don't even want to go down that road, but uh yeah, this is gonna be very telling in many ways of what Tom Aspital actually is as an asset and an interest point for the fans.

Yeah, and it would be telling as well if he you know, got pushed rounds, which no one's really been able to do, so that would be a big part of the entertainment factor.

Long Island.

Lucas shared with us the DraftKings odds for these fights on the Horizon aspen all minus three forty five to the plus two seven five gone makes a lot of sense.

And we have real quick sound here from Tom Aspinall reacting to the announcement of this fight.

Thanks, he's back.

It's a it's about time.

It is about time.

It's been over a year since I thought it's crazy in it over a year and the whole time, I've been fit the whole time, everywhere to go doing what I've been told to do, which is stay ready.

I've stayed ready.

We know what's going on.

We're not going to talk about that.

But we now have a fight.

We now have a.

Fresh fight that I've been waiting to fight this guy for a long time and we finally get a chance.

Twenty fifth of October.

It's on heavyweight title is being contested.

I'm very excutedspute, Yeah, I'm very excited about it.

Say it was gonna stood cross from me because this is the fact that we've talked about for a long time.

It could have should have maybe happened a little bit earlier, but we're finally here and getting the opportunity to defend undisputed as well.

You gotta when you're in when you're in any any kind of position, you can never be looking past your opponent.

So I'm not doing that by any stretch.

So ultimately I want to beat everybody.

That's that's my plan is.

I don't just want to beat the next guy.

I want to beat the next however many guys there are.

But so it was a tough testment.

I'm not looking past him at all.

He's really good.

He's really good.

Like I said, new wave of heavyweight doesn't move like anyone I've ever really fought before.

But also I don't move like anyone.

So it's going to be fun, you know what.

It felt like a disappointment when this was announced, although it's like what else are they going to do?

I do really like the lessons that we have to learn here and the anticipation of seeing that I don't want necessarily gone to finish him.

And then John Jones is like, see, guys, I was right all along.

I plan this you know what I'm saying.

But Tom seems to have the right attitude.

This is the right match up here to keep this division moving and give him a shot, So I'm fired up for that.

Also, UFC Vancouver October eighteenth.

We're gonna get a three round menon farroh Jasmine Jazz, Davicius bout.

I'm all in on that at Faro can bounce back from that competitive title loss to Valentina and UFC No.

Ch Three, the downgraded Fight Night card from San Antonio that will go head to head with Canelo Crawford on Netflix with Dana White there announced the full card, just four Mexican born fighters on the card, in the third tribute to Mexico's heritage history, Diego Lopez versus Jan Silva.

Yeah, Tatiana Suarez A Mandalemos, Yeah, Mike.

Is anyone gonna watch this card?

Though?

If all the bosses and all the fans are watching Canelo o' Crawford, so all the Vexican fans are gonna watching Canelo?

You know this?

Yeah?

So from what I see here on ESPN's website says the prelums start at three pm Eastern.

The main card starts at six pm Eastern, so I wonder how much overloap there will actually be.

I would assume they'll effort their best to have it minimal.

Maybe we're getting the main event is like the first or second fight of the night walks.

I can't imagine a world where they're, you know, going forward with the Canelo Crawford fight, as they're still UFC event ongoing.

I just don't see that, So I think it'll be okay.

But yeah, the note Chay.

Card is far from inspiring.

They had this one's being a disaster right, Like the spear was the most spectacular, amazing thing, and then they try to go to Guadalajara for this new arena.

It's freaking not finished.

Like you have the card, Yeah, you have the card.

Coolest level of scrambling in a little bit for something like this, But they're doing their best.

The card as of right now is a little bit weird, but I'm sure they're going to do their best to maybe convince Alexa Grosso to take a fight.

It's getting pretty close though, like we're like seven weeks away, so I'm surprised, Like Arena A Donna doesn't have a fight confirmed as we keep.

Going there, so I think they'll try.

But man, that main event is awesome, Like I can't wait for Silveraz.

That's gonna all in on that, just the same.

Also quickly on the DraftKings odds Anklia minus one eighty over the plus one fifty Perira and their rematch Morob minus three eighty against the plus three hundred Cory Sanaig And all right, let's keep it going here with topic number three, Eliot Taporia in the news after a uh after a long Sojean with the Nelk boys at his house produced some very interesting content, including further juice to the headlines about a potential title defense against armand Sarrukian that La Laenda himself doesn't seem to want at all.

Let's go to the videotape.

Listen.

When you put so much effort in the game and you have a guy in front who you don't know.

That maybe he could pull out.

From the fire, that's not something good for for us.

It's not my back, bro.

I don't fucking care you're gonna give him a fight before the title shot, because there is no wave I'm the world champion.

I'm never gonna give him a chance to fight for the title.

I will be like, listen, if that's the case, take my belt.

I don't do it.

So, Mike Bone, I really want to love this guy right here.

Okay, I really do.

But that is some shots fired.

Oh, by the way, brought to you by Quervo.

There.

Well, geez for the mis execution there, but you get the point just the same.

I want to back to Poria because you cannot deny the talent, the star power, the guy.

We need to take that baton and in some ways be the face of this company and build towards this inevitable eventual super fight with this with Isla Maha che number one to two pound for pound, no matter.

How you have them.

But when you see this from him, the arrogainst the the level of like, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fight this guy.

I know sar Yukn has one fight in six hundred days right now at this moment, I know he pulled out of his title shot.

What do you make of the aggression to say no, not you arman.

Well, if I'm correct, I'm pretty sure.

After he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski, Ilia Taporia said he was not gonna fight Max Hollway and not give him a title shot, and that's the fight we end up getting.

So I put little to no stock in this.

I agree Armand's not gonna be next like Ilia.

I think it's probably gonna end up fighting Justin Gatchee next.

That's my personal opinion, not reporting anything here, just the way things seem to be trending from what I've seen in recent days and weeks.

So I think he's just messing with him a little bit, trying to troll him.

I do think if push came to shove in the UFC said Ilia, this is the fight we want.

Here's the contract, he's gonna sign it.

Like he's not gonna take a stance and say no, I'm not doing this.

Take the bell and book justin versus Armin for the vacant belt, like that's not happening.

So he's messing with him.

He knows that fight isn't there anyways, and maybe it's, you know, some promotional stuff that he's working on.

But for him to sit there and say like I would rather give up the belt than do that, I mean, come on, bro, that's yeah.

I And of course shots fired brought to you by Quervo.

Now is as good a time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila.

Let's get into it.

Thank you, Brought to you by Cuervo.

And of course they're behind our pregame previews UFC three nineteen on the horizon.

Who will be our third guest?

Get ready to get fired up for that.

We do have some responses though, in this conversation, and that's a tweet, first from armand Saryukian, who said, imagine calling yourself a champion, but you're already looking for a way out.

You can vacate it or I'll take it.

Either way, it's mine.

And then the creative video meme idea here from Arman bringing out his pet duck.

Yeah, good boy, I'll make it quick.

No wise, good boy.

That man lives a good life.

It seems okay.

I'm not trying to talk about his bank account.

I'm also not trying to talk about to Pouria putting over the Nelk Boys' podcast with Nitt and Yahoo and all right, that's it.

I know that's for Luke Thomas's political podcast right there, But uh, would would Arman try to sit out in and in further this inactivity to try to get a title shot, or would he have to go through a Patty Pimble and a Max Holloway to try to keep keep pace atop this division.

He's gonna have to go through someone.

I mean he credit to him.

He's doing what he's trying to do that video, like he's putting himself out there a little bit.

This is some obvious tension.

You know, no George and Love here.

It seems to be Georgian hate between these two.

So it's, uh, it's building to something.

But this guy needs to to prove something right.

You don't out of a title fight on way and day for any reason and just automatically get the good graces of another title shot.

Like it's just it's not the way it's ever been.

It's not the way it's gonna be.

He needs to do something here and he knows it, like he did step one by making Wade as the alternate for UFC three seventeen and said he would do it again for UFC three eighteen.

Wasn't needed, but he's at least efforting.

I think his big f up along the way is when they offered him Mattias Gamrot for the Saudi main event or maybe Abi Dabi on this car tomorrow.

It was something on that side of the world, and he said no for what we're still We're here seven months ish after that fight was supposed to happen with Islam in January, and nothing has happened.

You've really made no forward progress.

You haven't fought, you have no fight booked, like before we know it, he's gonna be out for a year, and like it's just not the right situation.

So who knows if they offer him any fight, you got to take it on whatever car and just get to win.

Make your statement on the mic.

We have it all building here with you and Ilia, and maybe you get that fight, but right now it's not next for them, So this is all just window dressing until we get you know, Ilia's next fight, in their next fight, because maybe they're on a collision course, maybe it happens if they both lose, whatever, but right now, like I would be shocked if Armin Shrukin's next fight was for the USC lightweight title.

I'm with you, but this division very fun at the top.

We got Max reinserted, we got Patty looking for a big fight.

Gechee still linger and lets fin go all right, let's go to topic number four as we close out our time here with a very generous here Mike Bond of MMA Junkie and the Bonfire Fame.

But when we do have first time guests like this, we like to close with a little bit of fun.

Sean's Dettel still the come around the Corner.

But first let's play a little segment fun we call getting to know Mike Bone.

All right, I've got seven personal questions.

Let's see if Mike has seven personal answers or pype we find out he was a varsity athlete, just like Aaron Bronstead or back in the day.

Mike, let's go number one here on this personal hot seat.

What do you believe makes you different from everyone else in the competitive MMA media space.

I mean, I think the thing that allowed me to stand out early was just my you know, leaning on the facts and the stats and that type of stuff that no one was really doing at the time when I came in.

I don't even know if fight metric was a thing when I started doing this.

Coming up, it'll be thirteen years that MMA Junkie on August first, so it's been a long time there.

And I think the ability that when I came in MMA Junkie was not really doing any video, no social media presence outside of a Twitter in a Facebook count, I think, and I had the opportunity to kind of shape all that stuff and what we do and start, like, you know, moving towards videotype content and all those things.

So I think, you know, it's hard to replicate.

I can't sit here and be like, do this to anyone else who's inspired, like aspiring.

I got in at a great time, at a young age and was given a platform, an opportunity where I could do a lot of the things I wanted to do and try to grow things, and that's all kind of coupled, you know, what I've been able to do, and definitely the opportunities to travel to some places around the world, Japan, Brazil, like five times, Australia, all these things which a lot of people in MMA media are not fortunate enough to be able to do.

And I've been really grateful for those opportunities.

But you know, the more you're on the road, the more you get to know people and entrench yourself in this industry.

And I've been given a lot of chances to do that over, you know, a dozen plus years, so I guess that's I'd say the opportunities I've been given have been maybe different from people, and I'd like to think I've tried to take advantage of them to the best.

Yeah, it's clear that you have, Mike.

You're not the young kid on the block.

You're in the midst of your prime and doing a great job.

And I see the rapport you have with the fighters.

That shows me that you're a fair and friendly individual.

And certainly you have been in your coverage of the big stories and sometimes you gotta take sides on things like that.

Let's keep it going here and find a little bit more about Mike.

I'm not sure if you've heard, Mike, but I was cage side for a little fight called that out of Sanya Gastel and at UFC two thirty six.

That damn near changed my life.

In twenty nineteen, Hey, shout out to Max and dustin part two couldn't live up to it.

I had that same feeling when Wayley and Yowana damn near killed themselves in the first fight in twenty twenty.

What's the best fight you've ever covered?

Cage side?

As an MMA journalist, that just gave you those unforgettable feeling.

There's a few men the two you mentioned, I also had the privilege of being there amazing nights.

Other ones that stand out Yuri Prohaska and Glover to Shera and Singapore was a cool one that was an amazing fight and always weird when it's happening out like eleven in the morning local time, right.

I think the first fight of the day on that card in Singapore was like five am or something.

So those are always like, you know, a little bit more eerie, especially you know in that part of the world where the crowd just has a bit of a different energy when a war like that is going on.

But another one here in Toronto, the first UFC event actually ever covered for MMA Junkie was John Jones versus Alexander Gustafson one UFC one sixty five.

That was like literally just right down the street here and that was still to this day one of the greatest fights I've ever seen in person.

Had the chance of sitting next to I believe we'll talk about a bit the late Jordan Breen.

That almost special to me.

Another Toronto shout out cub Swanson and do Whu CHOI was amazing and Connor McGregor versus Nadas two was a pretty special one as well.

At UFC two O two.

Well, I think you could fill Luke Thomas's shoes.

You gave me twenty five answers for one question, but one I did appreciate hearing the big moments that meant a ton to you.

You never, you know, you are changed to some degree by these crazy fights, you know what I mean.

You'll never forget how you felt.

You'll never and I'm always thankful for the access we do get in those situations.

We're not only ringside cage side.

A lot of times we're backstage interviewing them right after too.

So that's what keeps us a fan, and that's what fuels our passion ultimately for this game.

All right, Mike MK culture is wild.

It's you know, we make fun of each other on an aggressive basis, and you know, maybe to a negative degree, you've been framed as a handsy airline passenger and a ladies man.

When it comes to the ladies and airplanes.

I gotta ask, what is the real story Luke Thomas referenced about you meeting a chick on a plane and maybe even making out with her right there.

Then what happened.

If it wasn't for the show, this story would have been left in the past for no one to reference or recall or anything like that.

But speaking of big fights, it was on the way to a big fight, Mayweather versus McGregor, Max, you know, get on the plane and sat on the tarmac I think for two or so hours.

A nice woman sitting next to me.

We started chatting while we were waiting.

They bring us some drinks and then we find out we're getting deplaned, which was not ideal because I think that's when they were doing the grand entrances for that fight week, so I think I had to write off being able to make it down there in time for that.

But when they deplained us, I think they said it was like a four hour layover that we'd be waiting for.

Gave everyone like a fifty dollars gift card to go spend at the bar, so you keep drinking a bit, get back on the plane.

Seating's the same, And that point had had a few hours with this nice a little bit, so I mean, maybe it was just a kiss goodbye.

We'll see I'll leave it at that.

Okay, okay, we'll leave that in history.

It doesn't make it any less impressive that you had that in between time, but you did use you use that in between time outside the plane to your your advantage.

I mean, that's how a real man operates.

Apparently, well done, Mike Bone.

Hopefully there's no females in your life watching right now, Let's go to question number four.

You shared, obviously to go from ridiculous to serious, touching tributes regarding the end of former MMA pundin you know, ahead of his game and podcast and radio, the great Jordan Breen.

I remember his work on Showtime fondly and the role that you played as a friend in his life, maybe who kept track of him at times, and certainly his passing is a very tough moment for many in the MMA industry, including you, Mike.

But on a positive note, what would you say are the most important thing you learned from Jordan Breen that you've tried to apply to this industry.

I think just nott to take it too seriously, right, Like, at the end of the day, this is people fistfighting in a cage, half naked, in front of the whole world, and as much as we want to treat it like a real sports or you know, put it in the context of oh, it's just a niche sport and all those things, Like the end of the day, it's pretty amazing and goofy that we got to cover this for a living and that it's turned into what it is, and just his appreciation for those ridiculous and weird and wild aspects of this or which is his biggest passion early on Japanese MMA.

Things like that.

Really learned a lot about a lot of people, a lot of fighters through him.

Just knowledge that I could never ever.

Have gained myself because it doesn't exist out there for you know, stories to read or things like that.

He had a supercomputer of a brain, probably forgot more about the finite details of the sport than I'll ever learn.

And you know, I think that's saying a lot.

So a special mind.

We you know, lost a great person for our MMA community, I'll just say.

And closing on this, his memorial service is actually tomorrow.

Out there in Halifax.

All the information is posted on my x account with a link and there's still the link to the GoFundMe in his name.

We are trying to launch a scholarship at the University of Queen's College in his honor and hopefully give someone who's passionate about sports media, mixed martial arts, media, whatever it may be, the opportunity to, you know, be in a scholarship under his name and help their educational efforts be guided with DOT.

So if anyone has the means to donate, we're still working towards our goal.

I think we're about sixty percent of the way there, So appreciate.

You sharing all that, Mike.

Definitely a great tribute to a unique individual with a unique style, So certainly appreciate the friendship you had and the nice things that you've said about him after his passing.

A couple more and then we'll get you out of here.

Mike, I mentioned earlier in the show that I was wrong.

You had appeared on an MK episode in the past, and that was the twenty twenty two Beer House Live three Margarita's show that was a debacle from start to finish and Luke Thomas drank himself into podcast legendary status with his with the Fury of his frat guy Marine histrionics.

What do you remember most about trying to be part of that Q and A given to give and take talk session we have.

Yeah, I think you said it trying to be I don't know if I'd love to go back and rerack the tape and see how many words I actually spent comparatively to the amount of minutes I was up there, because it is lopside, and to say the least, I think it was just weird because I think I came straight in from ceremonial wins or the press conference, whatever it was that day, and I was not on the level or even remotely close.

I tried to catch up a little bit, but I was not in place with the vibe of that, and it was just like, Okay, when can we make a clean exit out of this situation.

I love being up there, but it got to the point where you're up there for fifteen minutes.

I think I said two words and I was like, okay, guys, let's work on an exit point here.

I felt bad, I really did, but it turned out to be a legendary.

Moment in MK history.

We appreciate the role you played in it.

Mike.

Three months ago, on your Bonfire Podcast.

Congratulations on launching that.

You set up shopping Kayla Harrison's backyard.

We got a fire pit, we got an EMU.

I'm a big fan of Kayla's personal journey and really the image, the inspiration she puts out there.

What was the biggest takeaway you had from that very unique episode of your podcet.

Just on top of that, we did like a big feature on her life for MMA Junkie, So just the access, Like you know, she led us into her home there for hours, like completely care free about our presence there, and you know, like welcomed us into her home like it was our own.

And she's got an incredible compound there her her guest house I could only aspire to have as my real house at some point size wise.

So she took that PFL money and made it very well invested in and like she's got a freaking classroom where she homeschools her your children in there.

She's got everything she needs and it was really cool to be there.

A lot of bugs.

Running around, but a lot of you know, animals that she intends on, I think even expanding more like her farm and rebuilding all this stuff.

So yeah, it's very cool.

She's a very wholesome and down to earth person, and I already knew that coming in, but once she lets you into her home and you know, you see how everyone behaves there, it's it's even more impressive.

So I guess the most memorable thing was that moment from the screenshot right there, like that was that was one hundred percent genuine.

I'm sitting there fully focused on chatting with her, and I turned around and felt like I was about to get my eyes pecked out, and I according to her, it was because I have the silver chain on there and he liked shiny things.

Oh all right, put my eyes off of that.

It reminds me of that time in Phoenix ahead of that Jake Paul fight when he had it when he came in on a horse and the horse bit Luke right away was like, oh, I know this guy's not trustworthy.

No, but good stuff.

Big fan of the women's bantamweight champion there in the UFC.

And to close, Mike Bone your visit today, thank you very much.

We all have goals and dreams, right, some people even have ways and means.

I've been lucky of late to call boxing on the highest level, which just tickles me, you know, incredibly, it's the greatest job of all time.

If Mike Bond had his way, where would you be in five to ten years from the standpoint of that's my dream destination.

Yeah, So is such a tough one because I thought like I got the dream jobs so early on, right, Like, there's so many years where I was watching everyone in this industry do their thing Ariel Luke, the list goes on and on, John Morgan, and just dreamed of being, you know, in that spot, being able to talk to these athletes and you know, engage with them every day.

And you know, as I said earlier, thirteen years at MMA Junkie coming up on August first, and you know, it's an honor.

MMA media is is a difficult landscape.

There's a lot of you know, risk of burnout and it's just a number ending, no off week type of thing.

But I am still feeling like I'm as passionate as ever about it.

And you see, you know, the shrinking opportunities things like that, Like if there's still a position like this add an MMA junkie at things like that in the next five or ten years, that would be awesome.

In itself, and of course, just naturally you want to keep progressing up and doing their thing.

But I love being on this side.

You know, I'm not gonna sit here and be like I'd love to be, you know, an ESPN analyst on a UFC, you know, broadcast or.

In the booth ring like that.

Like, I love being on this side and engaging and hopefully as things evolve, you know, with the podcast continuing out, Junkie, I can just continue trying to be an important presence on the media side and tell these people's stories and educate the fans and all that type of stuff.

Like I've already lived in the dream.

I would be honored if I could continue to do this for another five to ten years.

Oh yeah, you know, with the natural progression that comes along with them.

Hell yeah.

And you did bring up the obvious part that this business changing so fast in front of us.

You know, you might be either working for Dano or not one day.

Okay, but hopefully not, we don't get to that point.

Mike Bond MMA Junkie the Bonfire Podcast.

There.

I don't know why we waited this long to get you on.

Appreciate you taking the time to fill in for Lou Thomas today.

No, thank you so much.

BC.

Hope to come back at some point, and you're definitely in the queue for an appearance on the Bonfire.

So let's make it happen.

That's what I'm talking about.

Let's get so, let's crack some beers.

We'll go hang out with some EMUs right there.

I love to hear that.

Follow him on the social media handles, were you Mike bon Mma.

Probably Mike on x Mike bon emme on Instagram?

There it is Toronto's finest.

Thank you so much.

We great having you on this show.

Sean's a tel right around the corner.

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All right, we let off with some MMA, but you know, my heart beats box and I'm very excited to bring on a first time guest analyst here as Luke Thomas rounds out this vacation.

A boy, we got some big things to talk about from Las Vegas with love, but he's in New York this weekend to cover the final top rank card on ESPN.

He's a boxing podcaster and insider.

Sean Zetel Brother, thank you for joining us today.

How are you.

I'm good, I'm good, Brian, Thank you for coming here.

I hope it's not amateur hour on my part.

I thank you for the opportunity.

Shout out to Luke as well.

And I'm actually at the world's most famous arena right now, getting ready for Xanders Aos to weigh in for his vacant WBO Super Well Toway title fight against Orge gar Cfres, who upset Charles Conwell.

I was at that fight back in April.

Zios is fighting for a belt.

Sebastian Fundora vacated who just knocked out Tim Zoo in the rematch you commentated on Amazon Prime.

So That's where I'm at right now, Brian.

That's where yeah.

Well, You've been doing fantastic work.

I came across well, I saw you in person a lot of fights, but didn't know you.

But when I started to see the work you do on the porter Way podcast with Sean Porter, I realized, not only yeah there it is now only do you have a shitload of NFL replica jerseys in your closet, but damn you got some great opinions you haven't been afraid to share them of late.

So what outlets are you?

Where can people find your work these days?

So for the longest time I was at the Boxing Voice and Fight Hype, proud to have had stops there.

They both are continuing to have a lot of success.

Shout out to them.

And I went the independent route.

Brian, I've oh yeah, and I've turned down some gigs, so you know, it's not for lack of opportunity.

Some of them were gigs funded by what went on to be the Ring magazine owned by Turkey Ala Chek now so, but I wanted to stay independent so I could be as truthful as possible while remaining respectful of course, And so between the Portaway podcast, I had some appearances on The Fight Life from ESPN in the last couple of weeks.

But I'm really just holding it down on my channel, trying to do with Joe Rogan and Pat McAfee and Jason Whitlock and with all these guys and yourself and Luke have done.

Just build your own platform to where you don't have to compromise so much and what you want to say, well.

I certainly respect that in a very big way and wish you luck and hope everybody follows your work moving forward.

Let's get into our big story today.

It is a big one, it really is, even though it crosses over to both Combat Sports Congress preparing a TKO backed bipartisan bill that would amend the Muhammad Ali Boxing REFORMAC that first came to life in nineteen ninety six and then was briefly amended in two thousand, adding Ali's name, and the whole goal here, of course, is to create a UFC like business model for boxing now Sean.

The reactions have been polarizing and aggressive in each direction, even though this bill has yet to be voted on and to really hit where it's gonna hit later this year.

But even though we knew this was coming, seeing the details, the two representatives, one Democrat in Sharise Davis representative, the former MMA fighter, and then Brian Jack on the Republican side that I'm seeing, you know, rightfully journalist in the no go and hold up, hold up.

This may be billed as being all about the fighters, but this ain't nothing but all about TKO.

But I have seen on the flip side boxing fans going, well, what are we gonna do?

Go back to the four belt system and the ridiculous rankings and all this stuff.

A lot of people want to see a unified boxing.

They want to see a cleaned up boxing.

What do you think this announcement really says?

Though, after digging into the details and trying to figure out what TKO's trying to.

Do here, well, I have a I have a different name for the Act.

I don't think this twenty twenty.

Five bill should be called the ALI Act.

I think it should be called the Ari Act.

You know, change, change the L two n R.

This is the RI Act for Ari Emmanuel, who of course heads the TKO group.

This bill really has nothing to do in the spirit of the original ALI Act in two thousand.

It's about UBOs, unified boxing organizations, and.

You know that's what it's really about.

And before we get to how boxing fans should do this, because they're right, I mean, boxing has been become so fractured and the last two plus decades have seen the sport decline that I understand why they're trying to pitch this as the American Revival Act.

But before we get to that, Brian, I know I may look like I preface this because I know I may look like a long haired hippie and all that, but I'm actually not.

I'm actually an independent.

So but this, this critique I'm about to have does not come from the place people may think it comes from.

I'm center of Aisle.

I don't.

I actually don't vote.

But anyways, point being, the irony is not lost on me that mister free market capitalist America first, Dana White is trying to institute a socialist pay scale with the with the lollipop being free healthcare.

That's just very funny to me.

That he that that's that's kind of the pitch to get to get people again.

I'll say it again, Canada's pitch.

I think that's Canada's pitch too.

Right, And and he's doing this, mind you, so Dana said, if you have just a little bit of savage in you in today in twenty twenty five, you can go straight to the top.

This is not savage of Dana White and Ari Emmanuel.

This is subversive, not savage, subversive because they to hold hands with Turkey Alas she literally hold hands if you're Dana White and have him kind of lean on you to subvert us law.

And then Ari Emmanuel, we know his connections.

He was once Donald Trump's agent.

His brother was worked in both Barack Obama and Joe Biden's political cabinets.

So this is a guy who who wields more power than just about anybody in Hollywood and then politically has his hands in both aisles and can get what he wants done.

And then Brian Jack, of course, I think it'll be mentioned on the show later he accepted thirty three thousand dollars.

Let's show that.

Yeah, you can show that tweet Long Island, Luke.

So this is a tweet.

You can back it up on that website OpenSecrets dot org that Congressman Brian Jack one of the two representatives, this one on the Republican side that is aggressively pushing this for TKO.

He received thirty three thousand campaign fund from BGR Group in twenty twenty three to twenty four.

That same group represents the Muslim World League and NNGO funded by the Saudi government.

Right, So, Dana's group is actually trying to hurt free market les fair capitalism in boxing, which has produced a Floyd Mayweather produced the Mike Tyson.

And it's amazing to me that Congress could even entertain trying to pass this bill by when the ink's not even drive from UFC's three hundred and seventy five million dollar lawsuit, and that lawsuits only number one of two.

Right, Brian, it's amazing that you could be trying to establish a UFC like model when you're about to undergo your second antitrust suit for said model.

It's so much to impact at once, and if this comes at a time where UFC is not firing on all cylinders the Connor McGregor's look.

Even I don't watch mixed martial arts, Brian, but even I know John Jones, in so many words, kind of ducked Francis and Ganu and then certainly ducked Tom aspinall.

So Dana is running in Connor McGregor.

He can't get him back in the octagon, no matter how many times Connor says he's gonna come back in the octagon.

Ronda Rowsey's long retired.

Once he actually produces the Star, he runs into the same issues you run into with fighters in boxing.

They want autonomy and they want a piece of the pie that they're entitled to.

And what's not outlined in this bill is any transparency to the fighters.

To the fighters, Look, this is your fight more than it is hours right at the end of the day, you guys gotta do something, especially the more higher paid fighters and the fighters who are getting overpaid right now by the system.

Look, I read the whole twenty one page bill, but I don't I tell the audience you don't really have to do that.

Two plus two is four If Turkey ala Chic is coming in overspending fighters, even making Eddie Hearn and al Haymen blush who wants overspent fighters to try to get their model off the ground.

They they are the Canelos, the Crawfords, the Devin Haney's, the Shakur's, the eggar Berlangas, on and on and on.

They are accepting getting overpaid and maybe closing the door behind them for fighters to ever be able to do that again.

There's a reason why, despite there's a reason why, despite the UFC being such a well boiled machine compared to the Wild West Cluster, you know what that boxing is.

But despite that, it's kind of like the free market.

Yeah, sometimes you get poor people on welfare, but then it also produces a lot of innovation and riches.

And that's your Floyd Mayweather's, that's your Mike Tyson's, and that's why you're Conor McGregor's, your Francis and Gan who's had to play the B side to this guys, to these guys, And I really feel like on the part of Ari and Dane, uh, you know, Ari's already representing the NFL, the NHL, they got UFC and WW these are not people who love boxing and have a passion for buying.

I get it.

I'm an adult.

It's about business.

At the end, they Stitch ran in the back, Stitch came all morning combat.

Hell yeah, you've.

Never been a friend of mine.

Stitch, I appreciate you, thank you.

So it's I I look at it as this is just my opinion, This is really just Ari sending Dana out to tie up a loose end.

Is how does this tact?

The Mimi boxing stuff?

Every now and then managed to lure one of our guys or our ex guys and give them a record payday that we never had to give them and.

Wind up producing these random astronomical gates and pay per view numbers.

This is them more and that should be I think it shouldn't that be if we are to consider combat sports, which is this this term that came in the lexicon of the new millennium.

If then this this is an attempted monopoly of not just mixed martial arts and boxing, but combat sports.

And then when you bring in the WWE combat Sports and entertainment, Yeah, it's it's for the fans.

Yeah, yeah, they're they're like, well what do I can't why why does this matter to me?

I'm sick of because it has been like pulling teeth a lot of the fighters, the American champions, they have become divas.

It's we spend more time talking about who's the A side we all know, and it's tired and it's it's over with.

But UFC or t k O is doing this at a time where they're not firing on all cylinders.

They're struggling to match their top dogs with their top dogs as well.

Their pay per view numbers are down, they can't stay out of lawsuits, so I don't know much.

Ticket price is ridiculously so it's like that's what's coming to boxing.

So here's the point here.

To me, this isn't about.

Not liking or not trusting anyone from a Dana White to TKO to Turkey Alachic and all that.

This is about.

They have an extremely unfair advantage in mixed martial arts that they absolutely use to crush, keep out the competition, control their own fighters under draconian contracts that are constantly getting updated to have even more control, especially after in Ganu crawled through.

The shop ship pipe to get out of there.

And now they not only want to bring that to boxing and use their political connections to change all the rules, they want to be the only game in town and have those same advantages that's going to shut everyone else out.

And that's really the evil brilliance of this bill.

They got muhammadad leaves widow Lani to sign.

Off on it, because what does it say publicly, it says we're gonna have better medicals, We're gonna have better this, We're gonna have you know, better, guaranteed to pay on the lowest end to try to sell you to the fact that what they're really gonna do is be able to build up those walls and slowly kill the rest of boxing from the club show level all the way through the rival promoters that still exist today.

And if you want all your food to taste like the cruise ship buffet every single day, and you love what's going on in UFC and WW right now, and from my looking at the fans, they don't right now and in a lot of big ways.

And anyone that watches the show certainly knows the issues we have with how much moneys UFC is making compared to the effort they've been putting in lately.

This is them walking right in and changing boxing.

Will it be for the better?

Will you be entertained?

I mean, I.

Don't know long term, but this isn't like they're just adding themselves to the party.

This is them taking completely over and kicking everyone else out.

And I really don't know how people don't see this right now, or maybe they just don't care.

Because boxing is that red light district sport, as Bird Sugar said, and because yes it's completely disorganized in a shit show almost all the time.

That's fair.

But just because we have somebody who's.

Armed to take it over doesn't mean they're necessarily the right person or doing it for the right reasons.

That's where I STI.

Let's see this tweet from Representative Sharise Davis, the Democrat and former MMA fighter, who says, as a former profighter, I know the risks athletes take every time they step into the ring, So I'm teaming up across the aisle to make sure pro boxers get the fair treatment and safety protections they deserve.

Sean from your interpretation here when I mentioned that the club show level people could be completely pushed out, and by the way that people that don't know the UFC's done that in minor league MMA to.

A large degree too.

Only they bring them into the UFC fight pass, pay them enough to keep them alive, but create a system where there's no separation between manager and promoter, which is what the ALIAC does, by the way, and you have to go through their system on their terms, at their pay scale.

To ever make it.

That's exactly what they're trying to do right now in boxing.

I forgot what I was trying to tee up here ultimately, Sean, because I'm baffled by this but really overwhelming.

It's a tapestry.

Yeah, it's arrogant.

So I don't think it's just as easy to say, well, boxing's broken right now.

You do have to be careful who you're given the keys to.

Ultimately, Yeah, and people I think have overrated what Turkey's done in the short term.

I think Usik and Fury weren't as great a fights as Fury and Wilder, for example.

I think if you can go back to twenty twenty one, you had a six month span where Ramirez and Taylor fought for undisputed, Canelo and Plant fought for undisputed, Fury and Wilder concluded a historic trilogy for the lineal title, Crawford and Porter fought, and I think Charlo and Castano fought for undisputed that around that same time they did in May of that year.

Nobody was saying, oh my god, we're getting the fights we finally wanted and look better be a BIVL and Fury Usic for example, or we're both excellent fights with the highest stakes possible.

I don't think either one was a Trinidad Vargas esque, you know, classic, So I even think the that's been a little overstated.

And you could even look at Turkey's public investment fund with Saudi could be weaponized by TKO to do what you're talking about, to drive out all the other promoters like they did with live golf.

Eventually, you privately owned companies cannot compete with a government fund of a country, and that's what you're gonna so once you could see a scenario where once the privately owned companies, i mean top rank, they made a lot of mistakes to this isn't all Turkey's fault.

Same thing with PBC.

They may be they're having their last show and Dan Rafael had a great tweet saying this could this could be the last show.

This is the last show on American after the show concludes, this will be the first time since the forties American boxing isn't on a major American network.

So but you could you could see that as weaponizing Turkey's public investment fund from Saudi Saudi Arabia to drive out competition and then once they're driven out and the fighters don't have that that freedom of movement to to pit promoters against each other in bidding wars, and they're the only game left in town after turkeys driven everybody out.

Now the fighters got a real problem on their hands.

And when you call boxing the red light district, there's a beauty to that that's kind of part of the point of boxing.

And it's gotten way, it's gone way too off the rails the last two decades.

But there's a phrase people still say in boxing, which is, hey, when boxing gets it right, it's the best sport in the world.

You still love it, even more than the super Bowl.

And part of why that is is because boxing is not a sanitized, corporate, three letter conglomerate.

It's not UFC, it's not NBA, NHL, NFL, even in the UFC, which is like boxing always been more uncut, less politically correct than the other sports.

But even that's changing.

Dana has phased out real media.

From what I've heard, he puts useful idiots that he calls influencers now to get them in there.

So even that's getting more corporate and sanitized and gimmicky, and boxing as fucked up as it is.

And I excuse the language on.

The podcast, but it's real that the Wild West and late and and like there's that there's even a beauty in boxing when fighters get robbed, because that sometimes is a microcosm of life, that you could do everything right, You could do everything right, you deserve it, and guess what, you didn't get it anyways.

And that's just another way boxing is a So I think that's something.

And so what I suspect could happen if they succeed in their plans is you will get a more consistent baseline product in boxing.

You will get again a consistent baseline product with those those nights that come together that make people say, wow, this is when it does it right.

Boxing is still the most special sport in the world.

I'm not sure that Dana and then have that touch.

You have to be a boxing guy to have that touch.

Even the zone which is put on big fights.

The reason why it hasn't captured the critical acclaim of an HBO or showtime.

There's there's a little something to it.

You can't just go about it the way you do NFL, NBA, NHL.

Yes, boxing has needed more of the structure that those three letter conglomerates have.

But part of why boxing is boxing is the reasons it's not like those other groups as well.

I think there there is a big charm to that.

There is a part where a love hate what.

I prefer a more organized front, yes, but this isn't an organized front.

It's a it's a proposed dictatorship and monopoly.

And what I was trying to spit out before, and I couldn't find the words in that moment, was we're seeing them really minimize in and take the teeth out of the regional MMA scene.

That's exactly what they're trying to do with this.

With this, you know, raised standards in healthcare, they want to make the minimums so expensive that the smaller promotions cannot survive at that level.

In fact, this whole UBO thing or whatever they're calling this this new idea in writing, they're trying to say that you basically need your own UFC performance institute if you want to be a boxing promoter that can put on this type of sting.

And while that sounds good on the surface of oh yeah, more protections for the fighters, it's aggressively pushing everyone out just is how they're trying to frame what they're really trying to do.

Let's be honest about what they're really trying to do with this UBO thing.

They're really trying to circumvent every aspect of what the ALI Act is really supposed to protect.

Most importantly, this idea.

Even though I hate the four sanctioning bodies, I hate their rules, I hate their lies, I.

Hate them at least even though we're going to.

See a foreign fighter fight for a title that we've never heard of, only because that guy's promoter paid, you know, one of the sanctioning bodies.

Even though there's that bullshit, they want to eliminate that.

Why so they can make their own belts, they can control their own rankings.

And if you fall on a line with Dana our Turkey, well look we can strip you with a title too.

If that's the control you want a promoter to have, and no separation of church and state in boxing, then get ready because it feels like it's coming.

Yeah, and you know it's unfortunate because it would.

There's there's a karmac resolution to this for the fighters who have priced themselves out of fights and they've screened bloody murder if a promoter tries to pay them anything that they're actually worth as opposed to searching for the overpaying fights.

And to your point about the club shows, dude, they're gonna be on the hook for a twenty five thousand dollars minimum to provide health insurance to the fighters.

And you know, the.

Real play economically as a fighter is to have the freedom to generate so much revenue for yourself that you don't need anybody's free health care.

You can afford your own.

So again that it's the irony, is hilarious that Dana is trying to offer up free healthcare to keep a socialist, potential socialist.

Kind of pay scale.

It's amazing, is yeah, the opposite opposite of what he claims to be standing for.

What do you know?

Check out a couple more tweets here.

Here's Eric mcgrack in bringing up a very good point about the Association of Boxing Commissions led by Mike Mizzooli.

The fun fact is that the ABC never can the Athlete's Voice Committee, which is part of the ABC about this ali Boxing American Revival Act.

They are telling the world that the ABC board is in and quote unanimous support, yet the athletes were not consulted.

Oh, that's very convenient.

And then we also have another guy who's on top of all this, John S.

Nash, bringing out a very.

Important question, saying the twisted logic from various actors in combat sports is that the ALI Act is a relic of the past and doesn't apply to today's environment.

And I'm gonna insert that, Yeah, there's holes in it for sure.

When Nash goes on to say, besides, nobody enforces it anyway, is sort of what you hear.

If that's the case, then why why a push to change the protections?

It's it's it's obvious, you can see right through it.

And why was Al Hayman in court twice from Golden Boy and Top Rank for the same stuff?

And fast forward to now Golden Boy and Top Rank can help accelerate this this monopoly played by Turkey and TKO really so yeah, And there was gosh, Brian, there's so much to get at that.

There was another point I wanted to make and I apologize.

No worries.

Let me let me ask you this.

Okay, as we look at boxing moving forward, it's weird because the powers that be, even though Turkey and Dana telegraph this aggressively with that press conference March fifth to announce the union and really announce that, like hey, other promoters, we're not going to be using you in about you know, twelve to eighteen months anymore.

And Turkey even saying that Dana and I will crush the competition.

We've seen us still seen that competition line up to to suck on the teep there of Turkey, maybe for financial survival in this climate in which American boxing is dying and you can't get it on the networks.

But it really pisses me off that a big part of this, uh this this a New Ali Act amendment in paper, was to try to fix American boxing.

Yet it's obviously Turkey that's systematically broken American boxing by putting so many big fights with young prominent Americans in Saudi Arabia, Canelo fighting at seven thirty am in front of three thousand people.

We've talked about it ad nauseum right there.

So it's another one of those ironies in that regard.

But when you look at boxing moving forward and whatever time left, the powers that be have to either compete against this or or what you gotta.

I guess look at the evil brilliance of Turkey, meaning that these promoters, even after knowing that they're on the outs, are still lining up to get their share.

And all Turkey's doing is taking each of these young fighters, paying them their ring magazine ambassadorship, and really building that relationship that's obviously going to lead to, you know, two fights from now when the contract is up, do you want to go back to the old promoter who doesn't even have an American TV deal, or do you want to stay here with us now.

I think Turkey's missed the point on a lot of this, most importantly putting all fights onto his own where you're only watching if you're a boxing fan.

But as you look ahead to the next six months to a year, do you see the powers that be remains and boxing surviving, attempting to aggressively survive because it feels like right now they're like, we'll take the free money as long as we can get it.

Well, I think that guys like Eddie I'm gonna I do remember a point I wanted to make, which was before we get to guys like Eddie Hearn, I think trying to reverse course a little bit and say, well, okay, I see the riding on the wall.

Now you let the mass slip that you want to eventually do away with all of us.

Let me see if I could play you for a money mark, and in the meantime, see what my next plan of action is, knowing what the long term goals you've revealed are now, but to boil it down to the fighters at first being overpaid as a trojan horse and then the door potentially getting slammed shut behind them.

Look at to.

Turkey in New York when he recently hosted that sparring session where fighters were getting knocked out.

Those were fighters that was That was a microcosm of what's the calm.

Those were fighters seeing the money that's being handed out, rushing to New York with their sparring year literally fighting, not even sparings, fighting and not realizing you're not scrapping each other at full speed to try to get a turkey bag, one of these fame turkey bags that's been going around for over twelve months now.

No no, no, no, you're fighting for free to claw your way onto an undercard.

Will you to fill a roster spot for an eventual TKO league that'll only guarantee you one hundred and fifty dollars around.

That is the microcosm right there.

Young fighters thinking they're on their way to a road paved with gold, they're gonna get the turkey bag, when you're really just being used as another live body to eventually fill up the roster they want to fill up.

Now.

As for what the other promoters plan plans are, you know PBC right now having to send David Benavidez overseas for the Yard Fight is a loss.

They've tried to hold strong as much as they can, but they have a very thin roster and an aging roster, and then their biggest star, Gavonte Davis, can't stay out of trouble.

But they have an ace in the hole with their AM deal, and there's a lot of speculation about that.

Is it just a distribution deal?

How much is Amazon really in it in terms of years and money committed?

But as long as they do have a network, they have an ace in the hole that no other promoter in the United States has right now, and that is a premium network in Amazon.

So we'll see what they can do.

I think they're gonna have to entice the Golden Boys.

They're gonna have to hope the Golden Boys and the top Ranks and even that Eddie Hearn say, well, we'd rather work with you guys on Amazon and continue to kiss the ring with Turkey, which will eventually slit our throat long term, even if it's making us money.

Now, Burn I think is the one who sees the writing on the wall the most and is beginning to plan accordingly.

He already changed his logo, which was funny, but he sees the writing on the wall, and then top Rank.

They're in a tough spot when the genius behind the business is turning ninety four soon and.

Bob Aaron they're about to be without a network.

Todd the buff got them caught up in a mess with in the hand in order to secure Fury, so they But I do think what's disconcerting though, is this fight right here Zaias.

This could have been Zayas and Fundora in a two belt fight.

But even with death looming them in the face, with even with the British in the Saudis, I mean, you know, like using the British are coming, but in this case the Saudis and Tko are coming.

Still not working together to do a fight, which is like, okay, then you almost ultimately deserve what's coming then.

But I uh, maybe maybe they can consolidate and do some fights on Amazon since TVC is the only one that has a deal, but they need each other because PVC has a deal.

But they have the thinnest roster out of all these companies.

All those other rosters have deeper All those other companies have deeper rosters, but they don't have anywhere to show their fights outside of the Zone, which lost over a billion dollars in its first year or so under Leonard Bobotnik, And they stop telling us how much money they're hemorrhaging since so do with that what you will?

I don't know, We'll see.

I could talk about this for you with hours, including how you know tko Zufa Boxing gets from Plan A to Plan B and actually takes over the sport without buying a promotional roster.

But maybe that's the calm.

But I would like to get your insight on some more positive news as we continue to look ahead and behind, because last weekend we had really good fights from Alexander Hussik to Manny Pakio's return to a breakthrough victory from Sebastian Fundora.

So I want to talk what could be next for all three Pakiao at forty six fighting Mario Barrios to that majority draw.

And then suddenly you had Sean Gibbons of MP Promotion saying, hey, moving forward, we want Roly or we want Tank And suddenly you're opening your eyes.

Now Rowley would say I'd love to get a Hall of Famer on my resume.

Here's Many Pakio's response.

To that coup.

He said that he would like to have.

Me as Ryan Garcia tweeting his hope or interest in a Many Pacio fight, saying it's something that you dream of.

I'm always up for the challenge.

I'd be lying if I said I'm not interested.

If Many wants to throw down, let's do it.

And I'd be remiss if I hadn't mentioned the elephant in the room and the big money potential of even forty eight year old Floyd Mayweather.

I want to hear your thoughts on the quality of the performance from pakiow and whether you believe he could go on and sell a big pay per view with a guy like Rowley and even win it.

Where are you on this Pacquiao comeback in light of Barrios not living up to expectations.

I think the fight itself wasn't really particularly the good fight.

It was very average, ordinary fight, and the drama in the fight was Wow.

Many Pacow forty six might really do this, and he's winning up until Barrios closed strong and managed to hold onto his title in those last three rounds.

But I think, you know, it was a great What was so surprising about it was the fashion in which Paco fought was able to be effective.

George Foreman, you know, long gone from his peak athleticism days, reverse of the cross arm defense and with stans rounds of punishment just to set up one big moment Bernard Hopkins defensive wizardry, you know, not not relying on any athleticism.

Packow at forty six basically still tried to fight the same I mean, at a different level of pace, which he's been fighting at a slower pace for the last decade, even more so in this fight.

But for him to be bouncing around and using those big calves and his athleticism and speed and in and out at forty six, I did not expect, and that's what was impressive about it is I've never seen a fighter and maintain their athleticism that deep into their forties.

That's what was impressive.

You know.

I do think in the fight itself, pat no worse than the draw.

I don't see I didn't see seven rounds for Brios.

I could see seven rounds for pack Out, no problem.

And I think Sean Gibbons is talking about the Roly fight because again.

The first fight with Barrios, it wasn't that great.

It wasn't that good.

And the would yeah, we don't need to read that.

And and you know what's funny is if Rowley actually knocks Manny Pacao out and retires him.

Remember Rowley wished us all a happy Easter.

Rowley is a born again Christian.

Yeah, it would, it'd be pack Ow.

It may seem like the most blasphemous handing of the torch retirement because PA's knocking pack is making it painfully clear to us.

He's like He's like Ali, He's like Roy Jones, He's like Bernard Hopkins.

I'm cut from Eric Morales, Marera, I'm cut from the oldest school of Fox.

You have to knock me out to get me out.

Of boxing.

One of you young fighters got to send me home.

I'm not going home until one of you.

Send me home.

So it may seem blasphemous of Lely Romero is the man to do that.

So one of the greatest fighters that ever lived in many packyaw.

But Rowley's actually a born again Christian, which is what pays about more than belts and anything else, right, Brian, So maybe he's the fitting man.

And what's so great about what's interesting about the fight not great about the fight, because what's sad about the fight for PBC is with Tanks not being able to stay out of trouble.

Right now, Benavitez has to fight in riad season, You're left to a forty six year old well passes Crime, pack Out and Roly Romero as your best options potentially, right, But what makes the fight interesting is Roly is actually a good counter puncher with some timing, Like that's what he did to Ryan.

He countered his left hook with his own left hook, catch and shoot, and Rollie can knock pack Oo out with a counter punch.

But Paco still has so much better feat than Rolie that he could step around Roly make him look silly.

Rolie's easy to get off balance.

There's a chance, man he puts Roly on his ass.

Dude.

It's a good fight.

It's like a right It is.

Like it could be sad that Paccio's at this level, but he's also forty six and he's at this level, and Roie's never been hotter.

This is kind of perfect.

But there'd be no trash talk.

I always read the Bible from front to back three times.

He says there'd be no trash talk, you know.

I think he'd give us a little something, but it'd be tongue in cheek.

It'd be playful and respectful.

But I think Rowley believes he knocks Packyo out.

I think he fully believes that.

And then Manny will look at this guy like, I'll beat this guy at any age.

You know.

I just gotta be weary of his punching power.

But the Givante fight, if you think about it, can't be taken off the table.

I don't like that fight, but it can't be taken off the table because the Roach fight isn't signed.

Roach is starting to talk about, Look, this guy's bullshitting.

I'm gonna have to move elsewhere.

Potentially, and for PBC, which needs all the views that to get right now, back out and Tank is the fight that brings the most viewership.

And I don't think Floyd Mayweather is entertaining a many Packyu rematch.

I think the only way Floyd Mayweather would ever entertain a many packy rematches if it's some unforeseen money issues that we haven't heard about yet, right, and it had.

To be drastic because is packed.

The rivalry with Pacow is an exception to the money madeweather mentality a little bit.

I think that's.

One that means something to him in a boxing sense, that he's not trying to give up risking another payday for That's what I think.

So I actually think Rolli and Paco might be the most likely option.

And that's an interesting fight.

We talked to I look, I'm in.

I've talked myself into Pakio versus Rollie.

Tank would be big business, but it's a weird fight.

I don't even know if people would be overly excited about it.

I thought they should have done two years ago.

I'd still I'd still call that fight.

By the way, I believe that I wanted to get into the guy in the co main event of last week's PBC pay per view, and that Sebastian Fundora because he's really starting to stand tall pun intended as one of, if not the face of the one fifty four division.

He no longer has two title belts.

He gave up one Xander's eyes.

He's gonna fight for that tomorrow night where you are.

But Fondora not stopping tim Zoo getting a second victory, but looking for half the fight at least like a destroyer who keeps his his height in reach and uses it as an advantage and sits down on his power shots.

There is a plethora a fun fight you can make for him at one point fifty four, from Murderzaliev to Virgil Ortiz to so many more.

Which direction do you believe Fundora and PBC should go next?

Because I gotta take my head off to Freddy Fundora, the father and trainer him Sebastian have worked hard on refining what was a fun attraction brawler.

Now he might be the best in the division, but respective glut of course.

Yeah, he was the guy who'd win wars of attrition with his upper cut, being a six to five.

Guy and all you want to do is wing his left upper cut on.

The inside, and everybody agrees Fondora hasai approved right.

And we're all saying he's using his height better, which means he's using his jab better.

Brian, let the audience know what's the most important and best punch.

In boxing, the jab.

Yeah, the jab.

So if we're saying his jab substantially improved, that means we're saying he's substantially improved.

Period.

And Fondora now has grown into a quality champion.

And I'm brainstorming this, Ran, I'm kicking this around.

I think there's three tiers of champion in boxing.

There's average champions, Mario Barrios, Ta Boris Cloud back in the day he called Bernard Hopkins.

Then you got your quality champions, and then you got your pound for pound guys.

I think Fondora has definitely grown into a quality champion.

Now he's not just another guy with a belt.

He's a quality champion.

And he's still vulnerable.

You still saw Tim Zoo catch him with shots, but with him using his hype Moore now and keeping you at the end of his jab and pelting you with it, it's harder to find him than it once was, and maybe he's He makes the weight comfortably, which is scary for the rest of the division fighters.

Virgil Ortiz is going straight to the straight to the upstairs to get off his feet after away in.

So's back from even boots coming up from forty seven.

I imagine to be that way.

Fondora will hang out two or three hours after a weigh in because that's how easy he makes the weight, and he's it looked to me in the Zoo fight.

He's starting to take the shots better, like his base is underneath him.

He's growing into himself, even despite coming off that knockout from Mendoza, so he's harder to hit.

He's taking the punches a little better, he has a better sense of distance, his offensive repertoire off that jab is getting more lethal, and he's tough as a two dollars stake.

The dude is a dog man like Freddie Fandora built him and Gabriella into two pit bulls.

I still think, so you're asking where should he go.

Virgil Ortiz is the interim champion.

Fondora in Ortiz isn't a good fight, it's a great fight.

It's a fight of the year.

Potential candidate, can't miss type of fight.

I still give the edge to Virgil Ortiz because you look at the shots.

Zoo was catching him with bombs, absolute bombs in between the shots, and Ortiz is busier than Zoo.

He's a little bigger than Zoo.

His feet are fast than two and his hands are faster than too, so he could build upon those bombs that Zoo was landing.

But if he can't put Fondora down or knock him out, I don't know if anybody beats this guy over a twelve round war of attrition, which is exactly what a fight with Virgil Lortiz would turn into at Forrtiz can't put his lights out.

So do I favor Fondora over the field.

Not necessarily, But this quality champion who was once looked upon as a freak show might just be your next undisputed super welterweight champion.

I wouldn't be surprised.

It's wild because he already had those superpowers of insane stamina and sane toughness, that willingness to brawl, all that stuff.

Now you add power, Now you add a jab boxing ability.

Now you add where he's not.

Jumping into the deep end of the pool and brawling off the start.

I wouldn't favor him against Virgil Arts or Boots, but I would against almost everybody else in this division.

And by the way, you got some veterans like Keith Thurman and Jimo Charlo still with PBC still around.

So we'll see where he goes moving forward.

Alexander Usik getting the flowers finally that he really deserves after that knockout of Daniel Duban in the fifth round last weekend, in which he walked.

Him down on the road again in Wembley Stadium and took it to a guy who was arguably the most dangerous in the division at that moment.

So you're hearing the top ten heavyweight of all time potential of people that are starting to rank him there, You're hearing a lot of stuff.

We're also hearing for his next opponent.

The WBO made Joseph Parker the mandatory in that fight.

I'm in Joseph Parker deserves it, but Turkey don't want it.

Let's go to the tweet that Ring Magazine put out saying Riad season in Sela not interested in making Usik versus Parker.

We know Turkey wants Moses a talma who is gonna be great, But I think he just graduated high school.

What do you think is gonna be next?

And don't say Jake Paul and the MMA Cage four the champion of the World of Pomper pound King Usik.

I actually am I not Turkey about this one?

Just to show the audience.

I don't just immediately it's Turkey means I disagree with it.

I get what Turkey's coming from.

Look, Parker is the most deserving veteran I think clearly Parker in a geek kaball.

If you're gonna pick one of the veteran guys who have bought their way to the front of the line, it's one of those two.

Both very interesting fights.

Kabyall is an interesting fight because he's the best body puncher in the heavyweight division and Usik doesn't like it to the body, so easy enough there.

Parker is an interesting fight because he's not a huge super heavyweight like Anthony Joshua Tyson Fury, not a two fifty plus.

Well now with these days, he is about that high, but he's originally kind of like Usik.

He's six' four and he can challenge usk in areas just most heavyweights.

Cannot he could challenge him IN iq, boxing, ability foot, speed and speed.

Positioning i've loved that fight Since lusik came to the.

Division there's an old TWEET i could dig up from twenty, twenty twenty twenty, one Whenever usak came to anyway THAT i love that.

Fight who's sick In?

Parker but we know that even Though parker is having this great late career, revival and even Though kabayel is the definition of a dark.

HORSE i apologize about the.

Audio mostama is the next.

Supernova you know it's a stretch to call it A Canelo mayweather type matchup Because Canelo beadolson, troump he was forty three and oh unified world.

Champion itama has done.

Nothing he's gonna knock Out danny And white next.

Month the speed difference is gonna be.

Crazy BUT i understand Where turkey's coming.

From itama as an proven as he is the eye test is, impeccable and he's the next supernova of the.

Division so he wants to put the next supernova is, unproven is unready as he might be against the current supernova to, him that's sexier than the most, deserving very good, veterans AND i actually understand where he's coming From, itama he'll probably get cooled because experience.

Matters at that.

Level but eye test, WISE i understand why if you.

Want to see, IT i kind of want to see it.

Too But parker is the more logical, choice and it is an interesting fight because he could challenge you sick in areas heavyweights other heavyweights can't compete in NO i appreciates great.

Analysis it is heating up, There.

Sean just about time at the end of the.

SHOW i know you've got some press activities Coming xander Z ayez fighting for that vacated one point fifty four, belt the final top rank ON espn.

Show it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on, here SO i don't want you to be a stranger TO mk moving, forward tell us as quick as you can with the loud.

Noise where can people find?

You BECAUSE i hope people will be following your work moving?

Forward just my Name shawn's.

Hotel you know it's an ugly last.

Name thank You brian for having me on and just have my Name shawn's to tell on.

YouTube shawn's to tell On, Twitter, instagram follow me.

And yeah keep it locked in.

Everybody thank.

You Morning combat shot out To moon and thank you so, Much.

Brian hey appreciate what you're the voice you have in this space and you're doing great, work so keep it, up, hey enjoy the.

Fights this weekend we got one of the young vargas Is Shushu.

Carrington should be a good show there the final top break ON espn card.

Shawn'stel thank you for.

Playing we appreciate it all, right good stuff.

Today appreciate and special thanks once more to both of our, Guests Mike bond OF Mma junkie And The Bonfire, podcast and of course that independent Journalist, shawanzatel who you can also check his work on the Porter way podcast With Sean Porter and as you already knew, right this episode Of Morning combat has been brought to you By.

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Support that's the best way to support the.

Show all proceeds going to B clt and The Long Island one.

Himself thank you so much for joining enjoy the fights this, weekend.

Folks it's been fun this.

Week luke will be back with a.

Bang we're gonna give it to.

YOU x is gonna give it to you Right, hey how about?

That take care of yourself up, here, guys and thank you so much for being here For Long Island luke and our incredible crew here ON mk and our special.

Guest IT'S bc signing off forty seven years, old.

Folks, okay, Happy that's.

What i'm talking.

About thank you so.

Much you Know i'm gonna be In Greasy pizza and Playing fortnite with my kids and Watching Happy gilmour two On.

Netflix what a time to be.

Alive we out of.

Here thank, you