This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Hi, everyone. It is Wednesday, the 17th of March, 2021. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody. Usually it's a day of absolute amateurs getting drunk and making a fool of themselves. Actually, it sounds pretty appropriate, BC. I won't be doing any drinking, but perhaps we can do the latter. This is Morning Combat. My name is Luke Thomas. Over on the other side of the screen is Brian Campbell. And we are from CBS Sports. Hello BC. How are you?

I'm doing great, Luke. I wore this green t-shirt to celebrate my people, although you may typically represent me as a French Canadian Lithuanian mix. Don't forget, Luke. I'm one-eighth Irish. So, Aaron, go bra, indeed. In fact, Aaron, lose the bra already. If you know what I'm saying, right? And hopefully, all us Irish folks this time this fine day will be drinking, slurring our gaelic, all that great stuff. Hey, my great grandmother was a Brady who married a bull.

And Luke, okay, it's in my blood, bro. You represent like every white person on earth. You have every, every nationality of whites is all represented inside you. You know what I mean? Yeah, they love me in Puerto Rico. Believe me. Believe me. Especially when you belittle them at a car rental place is when you're angry. They love that. We have a great show today. Actually, a stacked show in terms of topics. UFC 261 got announced. We'll talk about the card and the location and why that's all important.

We'll also wait title mix up to get to. We'll talk about some news that are related to open scoring. We now have some data to either support or attack. The idea that opens scoring should be in MMA. Plus the Lucy Wheel of Death. We've got fan submissions. We've got a lot going on today. So, please get the video. And Luke, most importantly, even with the fury Joshua news, we have no boxing on today's show. So, you know, 99% of our audience will be pleased, you know. They love it when we don't talk about a thing we're supposed to talk about, but hey, it is life. Okay.

So, if you, excuse me, would be so kind. Thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe. Let's see. If you would like to get some, try Showtime. Showtime.com, get a 30 day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. And then, by the way, look at the URL there. Show.com slash Bellator MMA. If you go there and you sign up, I am told your first six months will be just five and nine for the entirety of the Showtime experience. So there. Look, you can't avoid this deal. I know we sound like chills.

We're here because this is the label that pays this look, but it's exclusive right now. Bellator MMA on Showtime. So April 2nd, we are kicking off. Pitbull, Sanchez 2, the light heavyweight tournament to follow that. Where else the hell are you going to watch Rumble Romero, Luke? Right here on Showtime. Okay. Thank you. Well, I don't know, BC, but I know I'm going to watch it for $10 that month, because I don't get this deal. Your boy has to pay for Showtime at the, not this price. So if you want to get in on the goods, you could get a free stream. But I'm not sure CBS Sports

recognizes your employment, Luke. Hey, by the way, I didn't announce this publicly, but just yesterday I resigned for a, a bunch more years with the folks at CBS Sports. So Luke, you and I, we're going to be brethren. We're going to stay, we're going to stay in this sexless marriage. So congratulations to you on that. Let's keep it that way. Okay. If you would be so kind as to maybe try out some MK merch, you can go to store.show.com. There's a bunch of merch there, hats, mugs, yada, yada, yada, all good stuff. And then I think that's about it for right now, BC.

Would you like to get the show started? Oh, one, one quick, one quick cheap plug. I'm obviously in Puerto Rico. I know none of you have heard that yet. I haven't, you know, announced that publicly yet, but Thursday night, 9 p.m. Eastern, please check out at NBC Sports Network. What me and the good folks are doing rings to the USA. Look, it's Mexico versus Puerto Rico night. So there is going to be some legendary rivalry celebrated. And hopefully some legendary Fisticuffs exchanged inside the ring and other outdoor venue. I can't wait to come, you know, full

frontal with the island. So let's do it. Is there going to be a crowd? No, but last time people were watching from their rooftops and the neighborhood. So it got a little rigly field-esque. I loved it. You know, all right. That's fun. All right. Well, let's get this party started if we can. Let's start with the biggest news that we have yet to talk about. Probably the biggest news in the sport, at least for right now. UFC 261 was formally announced by UFC President Dana White and then the organization sometime later. Here are the details. And there's a lot's unpack here. April

24th. And this will be the UFC's first show outside of either Vegas or fight Island since that initial show for the Ferguson and Gachy Bout. Forget what UFC it was. Whatever 250 something 249, whatever. In Jacksonville, Florida. In fact, they're going to be back there. So April 24th back at the same arena. In Jacksonville, Florida, which by the way, well, how is about 15 K fans. Yes, it is going to be apparently. So we are told at this point,

the whole house indoors. Okay. Look, can I pause you there? Can I pause you there before you even get into how stack this card is? So double salute to Dana and company. We had our bet. I said February 1st, 2021. We'd see full arenas in combat sports or pro sports in general. Again, I, you know, I didn't hedge on that bet, but I acknowledged during this weird journey the past year that I was probably going to be wrong because of how,

shut down shit was, I got to get your reaction first and foremost. I wasn't far off here. April 24th. We're going to see a full damn arena from your Dr. Luke Fauci position of a, you know, concern for the world. Is this the right move right now? Now really pick your words carefully because I could, I, I could see a starring in a four minute video after this, but be careful. No, I don't think so. I mean, people were begging me to react to this thinking I was going to flip out, but I don't.

So look, what days it's today? It's the 17th of March, where let's start with this. Where are we going to be on April 24th? Where is COVID going to be in Florida in Duval County, which is where Jacksonville is in five weeks or so? Right? So the question there is it could be in a much better place. Currently, I think 11% of Florida is at least single vaccinated 9 or 10% double. So maybe that number will be significantly higher.

In five weeks, maybe by the way, we haven't heard the UFC announced what their protocols going to be. Are they going to require masks? So they're going to require negative tests or what's or nothing? Are there going to be or NDAs for the media? What are they going to require? Right? So right? So we don't know anything about that yet. They've not said that because you know, you got to imagine UFC doesn't want to have a super spreader event on their hands. That doesn't mean they won't cause one, but they're at least probably thinking that might be a bad look. So listen, there's a reason to think

that maybe come April 24th. It may not be that bad. It may not be that good, but may not be like some kind of disaster. Like, you know, there's a way to say, let's see what happens once we get there. But the thing that I probably would say is we see like, dude, 500,000 Americans have died. And the entire time, there have been a number of folks in this community who may comply with what a private business or a government ordinance might ask

of them. They're not out there making a show of their fake rebellion. But they never took the pandemic seriously. They did what they were supposed to to make things move. But they thought it was all excess. They didn't care. They thought it was anti-science. Even though, of course, that's the most ridiculous fucking position imaginable. And all of my hectoring all during that time, you know, if you didn't get the message before, what am I what the fuck could I possibly say now? So listen,

do I think it's prudent to go to Florida in April? No, I think what would be prudent is to wait until we reach certain benchmarks in terms of what reopening should really be dictated by by CDC data. Once we get there, yeah, then when the government decides to lift various restrictions. And, you know, UFC announces we're going to have mass whatever. Then I think that's the time. So I'm not guaranteeing to you, B.C. It's going to be some kind of disaster. But it is imprudent.

It seems a little hasty. But if 5,000 dead Americans does it convince you to act on the side of prudence? What the fuck could I say?

Well, you know, look, this is far from the Tai Chi Palace disaster. This is far from a lot of things because not only has Florida, Luke, I don't think ever really recognized that there isn't a COVID pandemic going on, first of all. But number two, you know, we are seeing other states completely open up. Love it or hate it.

Texas, Mississippi, on and on. So, um, Dana White and UFC have been very bold. Obviously this whole process over the past year.

Who are the public health officials that are saying this is a good idea? Cause I could tell you.

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