MMA Fighting - 2021 Year-End Awards | Celebrating The Best From An Unforgettable MMA Year

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

Join the MMA Fighting staff as we look back at the biggest highs and most jaw-dropping moments of 2021 in a special year-end retrospective. We’re honoring the nights that defined a roller-coaster 12-month sprint — and handing out plenty of hardware for the athletes whose incredible accomplishments will stand the test of time when we remember 2021. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Mike Heck @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow José Youngs @JoseYoungs Follow Guilherme Cruz @Guicruzzz Follow E. Casey Leydon @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the 2021 MMA Fighting Year End Awards. And now, your host, Mike Heck. Well, hello there, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2021 MMA Fighting Year End Awards. I am Mike Heck, your master of ceremonies for this inaugural event. We have done awards in the past, but we have not done it in this kind of a format, so we are very excited to bring this to you.

for the very first time. 2021 was a memorable year, not just for mixed martial arts, but for combat sports in general. One of the most memorable years that I can remember, and we are going to celebrate some of those incredible moments

by giving away five awards. We're going to give away awards for the knockout of the year, the submission of the year, the rookie of the year, the fight of the year, and of course, the fighter of the year

will be announced at the very end. The main event of the evening if you will. So here's how it's going to work. We will introduce each award. We'll run down the nominees. We'll award the winner for each respective award. And then we're going to turn it over to a panel of MMA fighting judges, if you will, who will weigh in on why they chose to vote the way that they did. Some people will agree with who won the award and some people will disagree and we'll hear from all sides for all the awards. So with that being said, let's kick this thing off. Let's get to the awards. And we're going to kick this off with a banger. Just like your favorite party mix CD, you got to start off hot. And we're going to start off with the 2021 MMA fighting knockout of the year.

The nominees for Knockout of the Year are Corey Sandhagen by Flying Knee over Frankie Edgar at UFC Vegas 18. Yuri Prahaska by spinning elbow over Dominic Reyes at UFC Vegas 25. Sergio Pettis by spinning back fist over Kyoji Horiguchi at Bellator 272. Kamara Usman by right cross over Jorge Masfidal at UFC 21. Francis Ng by left hook over Steppe Miochich at UFC 260. And the winner is Kamar Usman for his incredible knockout of Jorge Mazadol in April at UFC 21. Let's hear from the panel about how everybody came to that decision.

Thanks, Mike. And now we welcome in our panel for this year end award show. Of course, you know the whole crew. My Arizona brother, Jose Young's there on the left down below me. We have AK, the Prince of Positivity from the North, and then man in the boards. the best producer in the business e kacy laden and let's talk about some knockouts fellas because chaos of the year this year all across the board uh on our year end ballots i mean you see it right there the first place votes all across the board but the majority coming in or at least the most

coming in for kamar ozman horay mazvedal two the rematch uh one of the cleanest chaos you will ever see in your life and jose me and you were among the people who voted first place for usma and masbidall too let's go to you first why was that your knockout of the year. For a few reasons. One, I was there covering it for the site. So I was inside that sold out arena in Jacksonville. And let's not forget, that was really the first card back with a packed house outside of Las Vegas.

And what? Israel-Aisana versus Yo-O Romero. Like, I'm not really counting the Fight Island fights because at the end, like, especially like the Connor Pore 2 fight because that was still limited over there on Fight Island. but this one was packed to the brim with people in Jacksonville. They were just so, they were foaming at the mouth to finally watch mixed martial arts in front of them. This was one of those rare moments where pretty much the whole arena was filled for the first fight of the night, which is rare for an MMA, for UFC pay-per-view. Usually people trickling for the preslin, the ESPN prelims and then for the pay-per-view.

But this was, this was also a night of violence. If you go back and look at all those finishes, this is when Rose head kicked Whaley. This is when Valentina just barreled through Descandraj. Anthony Smith kicked Jimmy Crout's leg into oblivion. Chris Wyman's leg snapped in half. So this was just violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, from beginning to end.

And then Kamar Usman and Jorge Mazudal, like they talked a whole lot of greasiness. To begin with, Kamar Usman was, again, still, you know, he knocked out Gilbert Burns, but he still kind of had that snoozman moniker tied to it. to his name. This was his first or second fight with Trevor Whitman. And he turned the lights out of Jorge Moswell to the point where I couldn't hear a person talking to me who was about four inches away from me. He was, someone was talking to me and I couldn't hear them. That is how loud

that arena got when Kamara Usman just, as I said, decapitated Jorge Mazel. And Corey Mazel had never been knocked out like that in his life. How many fights he had? 50. And this is a man who fastest knockout on UFC history, knocked out Darren Till in London, stopped Nate Diaz with cut. So this was a man who was just like violent, violent, violent. And then Kamara Usman, the wrestler, the division, what, two,

Marty Snoosman just knocked Jorge Mazibald dead, absolutely dead in his home state of Florida. So that is why it is number one. Something we hadn't seen, a fighter who was not known for his knockout power. Not a TKO, a knockout, a knockout, a flat line knockout and the arena, the environment, the ambiance was just absurd that night in Jacksonville. So that is why it was number one knockout for me.

Because just all of those, it was a perfect recipe and it was fan. It was a moment I won't forget in M&A. It is just so cruel, how quickly the wins of fate turn in this sport, right? You're right. You mentioned the Mazvedol knockout of the year a couple years ago. One year you're winning knockout of the year for one of the craziest flying knee chaos we've ever seen. And then a few years later, you're on the other side of it, man. Sometimes do the hammer. Sometimes you're the nil. It really is. The photographs that came out

of this knockout too are just when you can spawn that many iconic photographs from one moment in Jose, you put an amazing compilation together for our graphic for our year-end awards right here. Go look at that graphic, people, if you haven't already seen it. It's just beautiful. It's it's Pantera. It's a Pantera album cover. It's Vulgar Describe. It's Bluble. It really is. AK, for you, why was this the knockout of the air? Well, everything that Jose said,

but one thing, he mentioned the greasiness, you know, kind of what people were, what they were saying to each other before the fight. And let's say you had never seen Kumar Usman or a Mazelal fight before.

And you, but you did keep up with the hype to this match. Let's say you're some crazy casual, I want to get into the UFC. I want to know about these guys. I'm going to listen to all the press. Something Mazel had been pushing for so long, was this guy has no power.

He said, this guy, in the first fight, I felt his punches, nothing. He has no power whatsoever. So not only had Mazadol never been knocked out in that way, he was saying that this guy has no chance of knocking anybody out. So to get finished by strikes, and not just strikes, but a one-shot, KO, a one-shot, no-doubt-KO,

sweat and water from his hair and face flying everywhere, it was just an incredible statement. And the kind of justice, you kind of only get in sports, right? You know, when someone says something, you can't do this, you can't do that. There's no chance you're going to do this. You're a 10 to 1 underdog. This is going to happen. And yet, that's why they play the games, right?

And it's like we all, I think a lot of us pick Usmond to win. I think all of us thought maybe, I'm sorry, most likely a decision. Maybe if he's ever going to knock Mazadol, it would be like a, he has him down in the fourth or fifth and kind of like, you know, raining down, punches on that kind of TKO. None of us said he's going to throw a rocky Balboa haymaker and just completely rock him. So give us some credit to Mazadal. as well because he made this scenario seem even more unlikely. And that's been to pay off that much more sweet. Yeah, it is one of those things.

You hear all the lead up, right? All the talk of, oh, you know, I wasn't satisfied with how I did this last time. I'm going to do it one better this time. And it's so easy. We heard so often, it's so easy to just shake that off and dismiss it. But, man, Kamar Usman was serious that time. He really did deliver. Casey, I want to bring you in here because second place on our list ended up being Sergio

Petis versus Kioji Horaguchi, which is a recent knockout. we just saw over in Pelotaur. And actually, Alexander K. Lee, my man over there, voted for this first place as well. That ended up with three first place votes. You were in that group. Why for you was that the KO of the year in your mind? Well, first of all, everything Jose said about that,

Uzma knockout is true. It was an unbelievable knockout, incredibly violent. The crowd was electric that night. The timing for that knockout, just in terms of the storylines for these gentlemen's careers was perfect. So I totally get. And I totally get why it's knockout the year. And for 99% of the year, I was like, oh, that's knockout the year.

I'm already done voting. And then this one main event in Bellator came up. If I was super excited for, Sergio Pettis, he was you a horaguchi. The Horaguchi, of course, was the champ. But he vacated the belt due to injuries. So no one really believed that Sergio Pettis was the champ yet. He was kind of the paper champ. He was losing that fight, losing that fight.

That fight was done. It was like, okay, this is a 50-45 fight. Let's get through it. It was it the fourth round? So halfway through the fourth round, he's down three rounds. He's losing that round. He listens to his coach. He's like, just go for it.

And he throws this head kick from boxing range. And just Horiguchi even getting out of the way that head kick was really spectacular. But then Horgoo just makes the slightest mistake and just backs out with his hands down. and Pettis throws this amazing pinpoint, so freaking violent back fist that knocks out... Now, if we talk about Mazadol going out cold, Horgouchi might still be unconscious.

Like, it was scary. Like, it was so scary to knockout. In fact, I was actually upset at the broadcast that they weren't, like, sending it, landing a helicopter in the cage to take Horoucci to the hospital. They... Horgouchi was out that cold.

And it was, to me, like, I've seen, we've seen right cross knockouts. They look great. Of course, it was Mazvedov. The guy who did it was incredible. The knockout Mazda was incredible. But to me, knocking out Horoguchi like that is equally as incredible. And the high-stakes championship fight losing the kind of the Sergio Peta storyline, kind of like, you know, this, you know, just living the shadow of his big brother.

Now that's gone. And I just think it was incredible. And we, I wish there was like a dual award, a dual award, a co-euvre. award because both those knockouts were just incredible and I just felt that that one needed to be recognized as the top knockout of the year. Yeah, it's certainly the best Belator knockout of the year and easily the best non. You have C knockout of the year and you have absolutely a case if you want to throw it number one. Quickly here, let's go around the horn. Can we get some credit to Casey mentioned the coaching. Let's give DeGroof some credit for some.

That was some Mr. Burns talking softball level coaching where he's like, you, you go out there, do something and then he knocks him out and it's like the i told him to do that and it's like it worked he just said do so you're not doing enough do something and he did coach of the year you got to love it you got love it rufusport way to go rufus sport uh quickly here let's move around the horn i want to just get one word one sentence answer everyone on their ballot had at least one knockout that they gave some love to that a lot of people didn't for me it was the big man the fat man chris barnett john valante spitting back kick like that how does that not get more love. I cannot believe I'm one of the only people who voted for that.

Jose, for you, what's the one knockout you want to recognize quickly? I mean, it's a lot of like, because again, like the Corey Sandhagen, Frankie Edgar knockout, the problem with that knockout is it happened, what, the first quarter of the year, so it feels like last year. So let's not forget that. Corey Sanhagen, what, how long was that fight? 45 seconds, a minute, maybe, and through a first. flying knee and knocked out Frank Yeager. And what's Frank Yeager's known for? How tough he is.

How much damage he can take. How he can walk through punishment and keep going. And Frank Yeager was coming down to Bantonway to make another run for a title. Corey Sanaghan was trying to erase that being put to sleep by Al Jermaine Sterling by submission. So he does that against Malmerey. So what's he going to do? It gets a flying knee knockout on the chin of Frank Geiger in front of Dominic. Let's not forget, Dominic.

Right away, as soon as he landed that knee, because Dominic Cruz, commentary, just goes, that's title shot. That's title shot. Like if Dominant Cruz, the one, like, you know, this big pessimist that is always negative and is always pointing out the flaws of everyone that on commentary, if he's praising you for a knockout, you know, a fighter in his own weight class, you probably did something right, Corey Sanhagen. Any other year is probably one, probably number one, maybe number two, but now he's

probably three or four, which is just crazy in 2021. It's crazy. It was a good year, man. It was a really good year. A.K. for you, what do you want to recognize? Well, I just want to say, I'm a big Frankie Edgar Mark. So that was traumatizing. I did get number two.

Maybe just to deal with it. In my mind, like I said, it's so long ago, I'm probably remembering it differently. But, like, I have this image. Like, it's a samurai duel where they cross and then one guy falls while the other guy just kind of, like, walks off. I don't think it was like that. I'm pretty sure he hit the mat pretty clearly and then San Hagan walks off. But I'm just, it's such a horrible memory.

I just want to shout out. Emily Ducote, her knockout of Danielle Taylor. I made a few of our, our, our, our, our, our, number five spots. And if people haven't seen it, and I'm sure a lot of people haven't, check it out. It's one of the most cold-blooded finishes

you'll ever see. Like, she rocks Danielle Taylor with this one, too. And it's just, it's over. Like, Dan Taylor's out in her feet. She's about to fall down. But, Dakota, without missing a beat, just unloads this head kick right on the button and just annihilates her.

And it is, it is amazing to watch. It is horrifying to watch. And it's really, again, probably the best knockout of the year that a lot people miss. Casey, what about you? I have to give Corey Sanhagan more love. We don't have to talk about this anymore.

That's all. That was just unreal. And why I love that knockout so much was because most time when, like I was talking about the Horaguchi knockout, Horouchi made a mistake. Pettis capitalized. Masvedo made a mistake. Usman capitalized. I watched that fight.

Frankie Eger did it make a mistake. Corey Sanagan just knew, just recognized every move that Frankie was going to do before he did it. That's all it was. And he just timed that flying knee perfect. Frankie was just doing his little jab in. And whenever you throw a punch, there's always a slight opening to get hit. And that's what Corey capitalized on. And that knee was just so incredible.

And most of the time when I see spectacular violence, you know, I'm on the couch going, wow! This was the one time of the year. When I saw that knockout, I actually kind of shrieked because I was so scared for Frankie Edgar. I'm the biggest Frankie Edgar fan. But, you know, if he loses, but just I shrieked in horror. He was like, he killed Frankie. I was like, so luckily everyone was safe.

You know, he had a headache for a week, I'm sure, and he's back. But so I just got to give Corey Tannig and a little bit more love. Oh, man. Luckily, Frank Eger is alive and well, but it was a violent, violent, brutal year. That has been knockout of the year. Back to you, Mike. Thank you, gentlemen. And congratulations to Kamara Usman, who is nominated for some other awards as well.

maybe he'll take home multiple trophies. We'll find out later on in the program as we move on to another award. And I know that headlines are normally made with ferocious knockouts, strikes, punches, kicks, if you will. But some of the more memorable moments in 2021 came via submission, including one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, according to a lot of people. So now the nominees for the 2021 submission of the year. for submission of the year are Vicente Luque with

a dars over Michael Chiesa at UFC 265 Anthony Fluffy Hernandez via Armin Guiatine over Hadoffel Vieira at UFC 258 Andre Muniz by inverted arm bar over Jacques

Seuza at UFC 262 Juliana Pena by rear naked choke over Amanda Lunas at UFC 269 Charles Olivera by Rear Naked Choke over Dustin Porrier at UFC 269. And the winner of the 2021 MMA fighting submission of the year is Andre Munez for his inverted arm bar submission of Jacerese at UFC at UFC at UFSI at U.S.S.2 in Houston.

What a crazy moment that was. Hello, guys, my name and my fight. I'm going to be in my wife, I'm going to say to the UFC. I'm very happy in saying that my finalization against Ronald Jakaer, was elected the best of the year. Just to thank you to my team, everyone who gives support.

I know that I did a story in finalizing a one, I'm really happy. And I hope to continue to represent it on the Midea in the UFC, and get great finalizations. And I hope that in 2022 I can be able to be able to be able to be able to be again,

a great realization. Very thank you, again, that God thank you back to the MMA fighting panel

to discuss how this decision came to light. Thank you, Mike. And now, submission of the year, fellas,

and this one was really, we're going to talk a couple different times about votes being all over the board, but this one was really votes all over the board. I mean,

the winning submission didn't even get the most first place votes. That actually went to Juliana Pena versus Amanda Nunes. But still, everyone pretty

much on our team had Andre Monez versus Jacques Re Sousa on their list and that actually ends up getting it to number one. So, A.K., I want to go to you first this time because that was, you were one of the three people on our 11-person panel to vote Munez Sosa for number one. Why was this your submission of the year? Yeah, I don't know if I'm remembering it wrong, but so this, this was one of a trio of completely unbelievable, uh, jiu-jitsu masters getting submitted. Now in the And in Muniz situation. I mean, that's one, that's really one jujitsu A submitting another. But then you also had, of course, Leonardo Santos,

Clay Guida, and Fluffy Hernandez and Viera, Hadoffa Viera. And the Viera and Santos ones were kind of similar. They kind of gassed themselves out. They looked like they were going to, they might have been were going to dominate early. Then they gassed themselves out. So those are very identical. You could have had one of those at the top as well. I certainly wouldn't blame you.

Munez, it was, I don't think that was the case. Munez definitely there was a sense that he out grappled. Yes, an older sort of more shop-worn fighter, but we're talking about Jacques de Sousa. And this guy is known, along with, you know, like Damien Maya, Fabrizio Verduim, as being like, these are the guys who have implemented jiu-jitsu the best into MMA.

And if you go to the ground with them, you're dead. Like, I don't care who you are. And then, again, like I said, in this case with Muni is a little different, because now, as people will know by now, he is also, maybe he is now the preeminent MMA a jujitsu guy, at least in the UFC. But it was just shocking to see that.

And this, again, this happened before the other two, so maybe that's why I gave it extra points. Also, he broke his friggin arm. I mean, this was like, it just, it was, it was not pleasant to watch. It felt like a passing of the torch in the most gruesome way. And so for that, for that reason, again, the name who he beat, again, Jacare, to submit him. And in such a beautiful,

gory way, I just couldn't go in any of the direction, but number one for him. Yeah, and I think this ended up actually being the only submission of the whole ballot where every single person

on the panel voted for it in some fashion. The other ones, one or two people would leave out, but this one just landed on everybody's ballot. And I think for the reason you just mentioned A.K.,

the brutality, the sheer brutality, the visceral nature of seeing a guy like Jacques-Rae Soza, right? We have such a long history with Jacques-Rae of being this feared

submission artist to see him get his arm actually snapped in that way in the way that it did where it ends his career he goes out he ends his career getting his arm broken it was just an incredible sightman but I'll throw it to you now Jose because our second place was actually tied Pennian Noons and Hernandez

Vieira and you voted for Hernandez Viera why for you was that your submission of the year well basically just take everything AK said about this is the guy the name that like just submitting Jacques de Reuzeuze like he raised Shakira Suza's name and put in

Adolfo Viera. Adolfo Viera has won every grappling tournament, every gold medal you can possibly name, but not just once or twice. This is a man that would go on stretches for like three or four years, but he would enter a tournament and like that's a rat. He's just going to walk away with a gold medal or at worst silver medal.

He enters 10 tournaments. He wins nine of them. And he's winning by submission. So Adolfo Viera is the guy. He is like, like, I'll put it like this. Andre, I was at Andre Meney's last fight when he won by submission. I can't remember who he won against, but that's neither here nor there. And they asked him, someone in the press asked him, does this make you the best submission specialist in the middle of the division?

That was me. That was your boy. That's what you said. And he said, no, I can't say that because we have someone like Hadovo Vieira in the division. So the guy that won our submission of the year is already anointing Hadovo Viera, the best submission specialist in his own weight class. So he goes out there and fights Fluffy Fernandez, who's lost to what, Kevin Holland, Marcus Perez. I think he had like an overturned fight because he smoked a bunch of weed.

I might have been on the contender series. So this is a guy like fun, exciting guy, good interview. And he goes out there and submissions to Dolpho Vietta. It was 30 to one him winning by submission. Joe Rogan was losing his mind. I could hear Joe Rogan going ballistic, octagon side and commentary like yeah I don't forget

to gas himself out I don't care some like that's like if Anthony if Deontai Wilder came in and it was all of a sudden UFC heavyweight and he gets matched up with I don't know who's a really random heavyweight that I can that I who's the

who's the Polish heavyweight that just that just lost I don't know it's just how about George's Danho George's Danho there you go And all of a sudden, he gets matched up with one of these guys and he gets knocked dead in the second round.

That is the equivalent of this fight. The guy, the best submission specialist, the guy that the winner of submission the air is saying is the best submission specialist who loses to a guy who doesn't even have 10 fights, 30 to 1. To the point where how many times have we talked about, Dana White doesn't watch the prelim, so don't ask him about a prelim, fighter at the post-fight press conference. Dana White talked about this fight. It wasn't a fight

that was on anyone's radar on Dana White. I asked him about this at the press conference and his eyes lit up and he was like, oh my God, did you see that fight? So the winner's submission specialist calling the guy that lost, that got submitted the best. Dana White actually talking about this fight, Joe Rogan losing his mind inside an empty UFC Apex. Everything's there on the well, that is why this was my submission of the air, because it is something that I'm still, I still can't get over. Like, when that happened, I was like, good luck being that submission in the air.

Was it the most spectacular, but it was who he did it too and how he did it. That was so just unbelievable to witness. Oh, my, the sight of a passionate Jose Young is just, I love it. I love seeing it. One aspect of this fight, too, is you mentioned it sort of with the matchmaking. It was obvious where the matchmaking was going with this, right? Like, this was sort of being built to be.

be a gimmy win for Vieira to style upon this guy and get that submission. And he almost did it. You look at that first round. He has in mount. Like he was ready to submit Fluffy and it just didn't happen. Man, that was 31 odds like you said. I have to say the for me, I voted number one for the other fight that sort of rounded out the three that everyone pretty much put in their ballot. And that was Julianna Pena versus Amanda Nunes. That actually got the most first place votes. Four of us put that as number one on our ballot. And I was stunned. I'm not going to I know the last two knockout or submissions we've talked about were incredibly impressive. And also you just didn't see it coming.

But I was absolutely floored once the results came in. I expected Peña Nunes to be the number one. And I'm surprised it just ended up at number two. I mean, you have Juliana coming in there in a fight. Very few thoughts she was even going to be competitive in. And just choking out the goat with a no-hook's rear-naked choke. Like I don't know what it takes to be submission of the year for some people. But for me, like this felt like, this felt like,

an easy one and I was blown away that this one just didn't get the credit for number one. Casey, I want to throw it to you because your ballot was a little bit interesting compared to everybody else's. Everybody was more or less in the same ballpark with a lot of these. You were all over the place and you actually threw McKee versus Pitbull as your number one. Can you talk to me a little bit about your thought process here? Pit bull to me at the time, he was a top four, top five featherweight in the world. he has been he hasn't had a legitimate loss

I'm not counting the Ben Henderson lost because he had a shin injury during the fight so I'm ignore that as far as a stoppage but he had to have a legitimate loss since 2015 he had just knocked out like a year ago Michael Chandler and now he was fighting the

protege the mercenary AJ McKee in a highly anticipated probably one of the biggest belliger fights ever AJ McKee finished him of a guilletting the first time he was finished, legitimately finished in his whole career. It was off a head kick, grabbed the neck, choked them out.

Technically perfect. I don't know. You just submitted Pipple. I thought that was incredible and I think that deserved number one. And I know, and I have no issue of anyone giving style points, I mean, giving points to Philadelphia Hernandez, Pena, and those submissions. But I felt those submissions were just, they were too heavily based on the fact that those are their opponents were just incredibly tired.

Now, I realized pit bull did get hit in the head, so he was probably concussed when he got choked out. But I just think who he did it to and how great fighter pit bull is as the MMA fighter, not just a jujitsu specialist. I just think that was number one, and that's why I was actually surprised. I know you were shocked at.

No one voted for, not more people voted for PINIA. I was shocked that. I think people kind of forgot how incredible that submission, that guillotine was. Maybe because Pitbull kind of disputed it, maybe. I think they kind of soured a bit, but I thought it was a completely clean submission. And yeah, that's why it's my number one.

And it's hard to ignore that it was like one. It was the culmination of an amazing tournament. That feathered tournament was awesome. And also the entire Aegee McKee story as far as you know. That could be his last fight in Beltoe, right? We don't know. Like that could be, he might have just be winning the title and just leaving, right? So this could literally be the end of that Aegee McKee storyline.

And what a story it's been because Belator has. tried to homegrow a lot of people. They signed a lot of star Division I wrestlers and All-American champions. And some of these guys have been okay and had careers, but not really panned out on the level as far as being stars. This guy from day one is like he's the son of Antonio McKee, respected veteran. Everyone's saying he's got everything it takes. He's going to be champs someday.

And they bring him along real slow, just like facing again, you know, an unrecognized competition for like the first three or four years. So he's like 12 and 0, 13, no, whatever. And then they really bring him along the right way. And to the point where when he, with this fight comes along, we're like, this is it. Like, he's probably going to beat Pitbull. I think that maybe the picks are about 50-50. But a lot of people are very confident that he was going to do it.

And for him to, I think, realize that I think that's also part of what makes the submission. And he won about even breaking a sweat. And I didn't even realize we talked a little bit before we hit record. According to my ballot, A.J. McKee has back-to-back submission of the year. I think that's incredible, too. Amazing. And that's one thing I was about to mention is, I do wonder if there was a little bit of AJ McKee fatigue

because he won last year with the same category. But it is interesting, the points you mentioned with that fight because in my eyes, when I look back at that fight and I remember that fight, the submission doesn't stand out to me. It doesn't stand out as a standout submission. It's more of the performance as a whole, right? I don't view that as some crazy submission win.

I just view it as a very impressive and crazy performance. And I wonder what that is and what sort of... That's how I saw the pain. That's how I saw the pain in a fight. I didn't see it as a submission victory. I saw that as like just her, Pena sticking to a game plan and beating Nunes, the smartest way possible is to get her tired. And that's what, and be tough. And that's what Pena did.

And that's why I couldn't give Pena that kind of credit for a submission of the year because I think from a technical basis, it just, in my opinion, it wasn't the most technical submission, technically, right, submission. But I completely understand why people, why would people vote for newness? because it's just the nature of who Amanda Nune is this. Well, last thing on this category, and then we'll move on. One fun thing about submission of the year, always, every year. No, without fail, this always happens for some reason, is it's the one category where we can really sneak in a lot of, like, under the radar stuff, right? Because really crazy submissions happen outside of the highest levels of the leagues

because you have, you know, good fighters fighting, maybe fighters who are not at that level of competition, and you can see crazy things like a Boston Crab or whatever else you want to throw out there. Jose, for you, what was your under the radar submission that sort of flew by that you want to mention? I mean, Mattias Santos. I think that was, yeah, that's number two for me if you look at the numbers right there. I can't even describe what he did. So anytime that someone, I've said this in like various other sports too when like there's arguments over like, oh, who deserves. Like when Miguel Cabrera hit for the cycle in Major League Baseball, there was this argument over does he deserve MVP just solely off of that, even though Mike Trout had like,

higher analytical stuff. I'm like anytime you make history or like it's like or similar when Russell Westbrook had like the triple like the average of the triple dope for the first time since Oscar Robertson and there were people arguing should he be MVP. Anytime you make history, I think you deserve to be number one. That is what sets you to at number one. For Mateus Santos is number two for me because he pulled off something that I've never seen and I don't even think has a name. It was just this this crazy. smart like I don't know what it was like it looked like a bowl of pasta like all everything like swirled around and twisted like you just looked at a plate of spaghetti I just have no idea

how to describe it was like an inverted triangle Kimora on his like like like Peruvian necktie type thing I have no idea what it's called I've never seen it I probably will never see it again we wrote about it and I'm may fight I'm pretty sure it was a missed fits miss fits when it came out. So we like the diehard saw it. So I put that number two because I don't know what I saw and it looked crazy. Similar to AJ McKeewan last year of the submission that we had never seen. I don't know what Mattia Santos did, but it looked wild. And that's why it's number two. I don't know what he did, but it looked wild is the best description you could possibly have for some of the machine. You mentioned you mentioned like a Boston crab. I think, Jose, I think there's almost, this was almost like

a real life like stretch muffler that you would see like because he kind of depends the guy. He kind of, he's countering an arm bar and he kind of bends the guy's ankle around his neck. But there's other parts, as Jose tried to explain, there's other parts of their bodies that need to be tied up for this move to work. And you can't make your opponent do it. Like your opponent kind of has to go for something and then you have to like kind of counter in this very specific way. So yeah, people find the clip.

It's Mateo Santos and Alexander Valladine. And you see if you can figure it out. It's out there in gift forms. You watch it look over and over again. The first time I watched it, I'm like, did he? tap out because his arm hurt or his neck hurt is his shoulder getting popped up i honestly don't know where the pressure is involved in this i think it's his ankle it just it looks bananas yeah and i can't like i'm looking at the i pulled up the photo note i'm like i don't see how his ankle hurts i can't tell

uh okay you actually ended up voting for that as number two on your ballot as well kasy uh what's your under the radar submission you got lots of them your your ballot was full of them what's one you want to mention before we get out of here. I'm going to say, I want to talk about McKenzie Dern versus Nina Nunes, the arm bar. And it's just for the opposite reason what Jose said, because Jose was like, they were doing something crazy, like some Peruvian,

you know, it was like spaghetti, spaghetti twister, you know, knots. I love, I wanted to give McKenzie Dern some shine because it was her arm bar finish. I think she got it in, yeah, the end of the first round. it was just technically and fundamentally perfect. She got the takedown, went to half guard, side mount, grabbed the arm, just got complete control. I don't even think she even had there when he strikes.

I think it was just 100% jujitsu at MMA match. And a lot of times I think we kind of go for the spectacular or something we've never seen before as far as submissions. But I just want to recognize that the fundamentals, that's what's important. it and McKenzie Dern's, her fundamentals are so there. And if you do everything like you're supposed to, you will get that arm bar. And she did, and that's why, because there was nothing spectacular about it. It probably, probably, we'd even probably talk about it that much, even in our post show.

It was like, okay, arm bar, McKinsey Dern, whoa, big deal. You know, but I just, everything was just technically perfect about it. Like, if you were, like, just first day, jiu-jitsu, you know, how to do an arm bar, that's what she did. And to do it against someone with someone who has so much experience, has Nina Nunes. I think it's awesome. and yeah, McKinsey Dern. Hard to argue with that.

So many good submissions this year. You'd love to see it. Back to you, Mike. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe. But this time, why not look a little further? To Dubai. A city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want

from a vacation destination. From world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers, and epic desert adventures, to museums that showcase the future, not just the past. Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.ca today. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your

ear off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk business. Thank you, panelists, and congratulations to Andre Munez for an incredible submission, the submission of the year in 2021. Of course, there's a lot of talk about pound for pound grates, the Mount Rushmore of fighters, if you will, but before they can get to that point, they got to start somewhere,

right? And in 2021, we had a lot of upstarts. A lot of surging prospects. We are going to give away the award for the very first time. For the past years, this is called the breakout or the breakthrough fighter of the year. This year, for the very first time, we are going to award a rookie of the year. And the definition of this award is for a fighter who fought on the regional scene somewhere around the world. And then ultimately got that life-changing phone call to fight in a big promotion,

whether it be UFC, Bellator, PFL, etc. making their debut in 2021 and then just creating some memorable moments, whether it's one big win that got everybody talking, or multiple wins that move them up the divisional ladder. So with that being said, here are your nominees for the 2021 MMA fighting rookie of the year. The nominees for rookie of the year are Manon Furo, Usman Nirmagomadov.

Casey O'Neill. Runeau Silva. Rausch Manfew. And your MMA Fighting Rookie of the Year for 2021 is King Casey O'Neill for her 3-0 start with three incredible finishes. Congratulations to Casey O'Neill. Hey guys, I just want to say a massive thank you to MMA Fighting for voting me as Rookie of the Year for 2021. It was a great year for me and I look forward to having an even better 2022 and beginning my takeover of the Flyway Division. And there you go. You just heard from our rookie of the year. And fellas, let's talk about it because this was a brand new category we introduced this year. Controversial category somewhat within the team. We didn't really know the parameters that we

were setting. But ultimately it was Casey O'Neill who won it. Three and O'O. She gets five out of the 11 possible first place votes. And so, AK, I want to throw it to you first. Casey O'Neill, why does she come out as the MMA fighting rookie of the year? Yeah, look, again, as people can see, not number one on my list. I actually had her kind of neck and neck with Menon Firore for who was kind of the flyweight, you know, rookie of the year. Eventually, I did give the nod to O'Neill.

Manon, you can certainly make an argument for her. But Casey Neal, I mean, look, she's got finishes. Okay, finishes are always huge. and I have some of that too, but Shana Dobson, who was coming off that huge upset of Maria Agapova. So she had a name there. Lara Procopio was 7 and 1. I was going to say undefeated. Sorry, it was 7 and 1.

And Antonia Shepchenko, maybe not the best flyweight, but certainly she's had that name. And people very highly respected as martial artists. So for your first year in the UFC to go Dobson, Procopio, Shetchenko, and get finishes in all those fights, I mean, that's amazing. I mean, you just say it's amazing. The other thing is women's flyweight has quietly been one of the most kind of

one of the busiest most like well developing divisions in MA not just this year really for the past couple of years it's hard for people to view it like that because of course Valentina Shipchenko has been in the top for so long and just no one seems close to her

and that's still the case don't get you wrong I think I think the division is very strong but it's still the case where the difference between number one and number two is just miles but her dominance should not take away from how many good fighters are coming into this division, whether it's because they're dropping from 135

or moving up from 15, or, again, are being signed by the UFC, like Firore, like Casey O'Neill, Miranda Maverick. Miranda McAvoy. She's a, yeah, flyway, right? I don't know. But a lot of good names. Excuse me if I messed out. But a lot of strong names coming in at 125.

And Casey Neal just happens to be the best of that bunch. So if you're acknowledging the strength of women's 125, as you should, it is hard to argue that Caseyone is not the leading prospect right now against some of the other names I mentioned, but all these finishes, quality competition, about to fight Roxanne Modafari next, kind of possibly add a veteran name to her resume, one of the most respected veterans in the history of women's MMA, and who knows what her 2022 is going to be like. But a lot of people are already saying, you know, she's definitely being a world title contender. Maybe not soon, but by 2023, depending how, whether Valentina Shcherchenko is still around,

Or even if she is, could be Casey O'Neill. That's the next compelling challenger. Casey, I want to throw it to you next because it was interesting. I had Casey O'Neill on my board as well. I think most of us did for the most part. You did as well. But me and you, it was interesting the way rookie of the year, the pockets of voting sort of worked out because everyone who had a first played vote more or less grouped up together.

There was five and then two and two. And the two for you and I, we went off the board with the UFC. We went to Bellator. We went to Usma and Nirmigamatov. And to me, that was a clear pick because this is a guy who we have been hearing about for a long time. You talk to any of the AKA guys for the last several years, they've been hyping this sky up for a long, long time. And then he comes to Bellator and he is just a monster right away, right? He goes 3 and 0.

The last two are just first round finishes. And he looks like everything we have been advertised over the last couple of years. Why for you was Usma, Nirmatmaid Madoff, your rookie either? I think he kind of fits the description of what we think of as a really. rookie. He's under 25. How many fights as he have? Yeah, so he came in. He was about 10 and 0 in the regional scene in Europe.

When I saw his fights, even though you may not recognize the opponent's names that he fought, he went out there looking like, okay, this guy is going to be a future champ, a future top contender. And it's not trying to discredit KCACO NIL or anyone else that may have gotten votes, but

simply put, when he went out there, he just, he didn't looked like a rookie. He looked like a guy that belonged in contender fights very soon. And I was just blown away how just a well-rounded fighter he is. And only 23 years old, man.

And I feel just, you know, a lot of, um, just, he just with a lot of these fights for Belliger being, you know, empty casinos and no, Budaphyr, Uncisfill, Connecticut, we may just kind of forgotten about it. And he didn't get a lot of, I don't think he really got too many high profile fights on broadcast. They were kind of,

maybe I think the first two were in prelimbs. So I get people just kind of forgot about him in a sense. And just because he's not a big trash talker. We just don't do a bunch of interviews of him. But just on his time in the cage this year, three and O, two dominant, or three dominant victories, two finishes. To me, it was a pretty easy pick, actually. I like what you said there because that description of a guy who came in

and instantly looked like a future champion, that was sort of my thinking as well. of who among this group looks the most ready, the most polished right away, and that was him for me. Jose, I want to go to you next because your first place vote didn't actually end up even in the top five. We had two people on the staff, Eric Jackman as well, New York, Rick, voting for Patty Pimbleit, the batty. He ends up falling just short, a few points shy of fifth place, so he ends up in sixth. And for you, Jose, why was Patty your number one? Well, I think it's a no...

It's pretty obvious that why Eric and I picked it for two reasons. reasons. One, we both run the social media for our site and pretty much Patty Pimbleit is just the guy that people want to talk about. Number two, we were both in New York City for UFC 268. There's a few things that kind of add to this like mystique of Patty being number one. And if we're just talking about martial arts, wins and losses, they're going to be a contender. I have no issue with Kaysu O'Neil and I have no issue with Nirmagameh Madov. Those two individuals clearly had the best year of these quote unquote rookies in terms of high level martial arts in the octagon. Patty Pimlet walked into the ceremonial way-ins for UFC 268 and basically the sea parted

as he walked through. The New York crowd went ballistic for Patty. This is a man that was 1 and 0 and was already being advertised to do a fan meet and greet Q&A in New York City. Flew all the way from England. Number two, I went out to eat. I think it was Friday night. turned out Michael Bisbing and Darren Till were in the corner doing their thing with like some other people. Patty Pimbled walked in. Place went nuts. Three of them took a photo as the past, present and future of English MMA. So anytime you're attaching yourself to fighters like Darren Till and Michael Bisbing as quote unquote,

now you're the future of an entire country in a specific sport. You're probably doing something right. And then finally for the big one for me, we talk a lot about like there's a lot of people out there that complain or they pretends that they're up in arms about fighter pay, which is a very serious issue. And they say, like, they bang on the drums and they say, we need, fighters need to get more money. Fighters need to do this, this and that. Patty Pimlet is one in O in the UFC.

And he has a million dollar seven-figured deal with bar stool to do stuff for them. He's one and oh. And he's already one of the highest paid athletes on the roster. He lost his Instagram. His Instagram had about 100,000 followers. And Instagram took it down because he was being to, over the top. He makes a new one, and he's almost at a million. In less than six months, he's almost generated a million Instagram fathers. A.J. McKee did all of this great stuff

for Bellator, beats Pitbull, who many people consider it to be the greatest Bellator fighter ever. He doesn't even have 200,000 Instagram followers. And Patty Pillman's almost at a million, and he's not even ranked, and he's one and oh, this is basically Sean O'Malley all over again. Like, yeah, you can knock him for level of competition, but the man, people want to talk about him. And what, like, this is prize fighting. We say this a million times. Wins and losses are great, but it's a, this is a prize fight. This is prize fighting at its best.

Chale's son might not be the best fighter. He's the greatest prize fighter. He's the greatest prize fighters ever see. Con McGregor just happens to be a combination of both in Patty Pimbled. Sean O'Malley's talking about Patty Pimlet, and they're not even in the same weight class. Like, Patty Pimlet is the guy to me. To me, it was a no-brainer that he was number one. Like, the fact that he's 1-0 unranked, already has a million-dollar contract.

Already almost has a million Instagram followers and doing me and greets with UFC, fans chanting his name when he walks into Madison Square Garden and he's not even fighting. It's the reason why I had Ian Gary on my top five. People are already comparing him to Connor and he hadn't even fought. So to me, this was very much word of mouth. Fans being interested in fighters, making a lot of money for themselves. To me, it was a no-brainer Patty. It was number one.

Oh, my gosh. I might need to change my ballot after the fact. You made a compelling case there, my man. It was an interesting category because the way we defined rookie is just somebody who had come from the regional scene and made their debut in 2021 on some form of major show, whether it was Risen, Bellator, one championship, whatever you want to throw out. That was sort of the parameters we set. And you made a compelling case just there for Patty, even though he was one and O. It was sort of the same methodology that I used for putting Alex Pereira up on my ballot as well, I think in the number three spot. just because, again, it's a guy who came in,

really lived up to the hype and made that big debut in a way that was very memorable. Of everybody we sort of have in this group, let's close it out with this question. Who are you most high on moving into 2022? Meaning who among, whether somebody you voted for or not,

who among this list do you feel strongly about that they are going to be either a champion or a title contender very soon or maybe even by this time next year? Jose, let's go to you first. probably Casey O'Neill just because of the depth of the division I think she has the quickest route especially if you beat Roxanne if she beats Roxanne Modifier in Roxanne's last fight in her career I think that kind and plus what this is flyweight so they're looking for new blood for Valentina Shevchenko she might

she might get the rocket to the top so I don't think she's going the best of these top five top ten but I think she just has the shortest path I think Uzman Nirmagamatov is I think the easiest pick to be a future champion I just think Casey will reach the title fight quicker. Casey, what about you? Actually, I didn't even realize it, but I just noticed outside of my top pick in America Madoff, two through five are all female fighters. And that's why I'm going to talk about Aaron Blanchfeld.

I think I'm the only, I think me and only one other person even put Aaron Blanchfield in the top five. Stephen, yeah. But, yeah, me and Stephen were the only ones out of the top five. Aaron Blanchville is 22. Her two performances, even though she got two, two decisions. She basically 30-20 forward

both fights. She was, in Invicta, she was a very good grappler, but now she is, at 22, she looks like she is turning that corner and becoming just an amazing mixed martial artist. And her fight against Miranda Maverick, a person, I

maybe, like, if she would have won that fight, I would have had her as one of the rookies of the year, but since she lost in Blancheville, I put Blancheville in that spot. Blancheville, I think, freaking amazing. I love Casey O'Ne. I think, I think Casey O'Neill is a more exciting fighter, but I definitely think Aaron Blanchfield is going in the long run going to be a much more dominant fighter.

And I don't think they're going to rush her too much, only 22, but maybe they will. But I expect, if all the women rookies that we saw this year, I expect Aaron Blanchville to fight for the title first. AK, who are you highest on heading into 2020? First of all, I mean, who's going to be a champion? One of the people are, our guy who came in second is already a champion. House Monfeo.

Somehow we didn't even mention him up into this point. He's already a league champion. He went four and oh this year. He took out Anthony Pettis, Clay Collard, who beat Anthony Pettus, so he took some of his heat. He was supposed to fight Netan Shulte, the friggin, the godfather of his child.

They were almost going to fight, and he was going to come out of a, this was after recently coming off a three-year layoff for Hoosh. We'll have, we'll have Greon later to talk about him a bit more. But his story is just insane, and I just had to bring him up, because he finished second and somehow we are just mentioning him now. But he's all technically again, we're saying who's going to be the next champion?

This guy's already a champion and a millionaire. So the outlook for Housman-Pio is bright no matter what. He could not fight next year. And I guarantee you he's going to have a great 2022. He's doing all right. Who I think will get a title shot almost for sure this coming year. I think Usman Numeragamev is going to get in there. I think he's going to fight frequently.

He might only be maybe two wins away. I think you easily see him fighting for a Bell Tour title by the end of the year. So that to me, I would put him at the top of the list. And I'm going to go off the board for a guy who I guess he might end up being the 2022 rookie of the year. Though I think obviously KSW should count as a major league. So it sounds kind of weird to call him a rookie. But Roberto Solditch has done pretty much everything he can do in KSW.

I mean, he just destroyed Mehmed Kaladov, to fight he wanted forever, just to kind of take out this KSW legend. And I'm sure they have some good challenges in scrape up for him. But he's so, so ready to come to the UFC. Not that he needs to. Like I said, he's doing great work in KSW. If he doesn't come over, that's fine. But there's a lot of great fights from the UFC.

And he is so, so, so good. I think if he comes over, he's one win away. All he needs is come in, one win. And I think he's next in line for a total shot. So I kind of gave you three different answers there. But watch up for Solich. I love it. I love it.

I absolutely love it. And I have to agree with you. I mean, Usman, Nermagamatov, to me, he might already be the best one. 155 are in that division right now for Bellator. Like Patrici Pitbull is the champion. Like if they fight tomorrow, I'm not sure that I would favor Patrici. Essentially the Hamzot of that division.

Usman's like a three to one favorite. If that matchup gets made, I guarantee the opening odds, three to one favorite, I think, at least for Usman. Also, AK, you mentioned House Manfield, who you're right. We totally have not mentioned up to this winning a million dollars. And then Jose, you mentioned that million dollar deal for Patty as well. Look at that. Two different millionaires already. Way to go, guys.

Rookie of the Year table. Way to go, we gentlemen. Just making that. Go funders. Go. I love it. The Chetta makes it better. Back to you, Mike.

Congratulations once again to Casey O'Neill, and here we go, everybody. Two last awards to give away before we turn the page to 2022, and there are two of the more exciting awards. We're going to start with the fight of the year. We've had some incredible battles. This is one of the closest competitions in my. opinion that we had to judge and vote on throughout the year. Some incredible fights, some incredible moments, whether it be a fight that only lasted seven minutes or a fight that went 15 or 25 minutes. Lots of great options to choose from. So here are the nominees for the 2021 MMA fighting

fight of the year. The nominees for Fight of the Year are Justin Gachey versus Michael Chandler at UFC 268, Usman v. Covington 2, in New York City, New York. Peter Jan versus Corey Sandhagen at UFC 27, Blahovich versus Tashara, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Alexander Volcanowski versus Brian Ortega at UFC 266, Volcanowski versus Ortega, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Max Holloway versus Yair Rodriguez. At UFC Vegas 42, Holloway versus Rodriguez in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Yuri Prahaska versus Dominic Reyes. At UFC Vegas 25, Reyes versus Prohaska in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here we go. Very tough choice here. Very close vote. The winner of the 2021 fight of the year is the main card opener for U.S. UFC 268, Madison Square Garden, New York City.

What a way to kick off an incredible pay-per-view. Justin Gagee defeats Michael Chandler via unanimous decision. What a battle it was. Much deserving of this award. Let's go back to the panel and see how this tough decision came to be. Fellas, fight of the year, our penultimate award here. And what a category this one, man. This was this year, man.

I mean, these were votes all across the board. I think the top three and really even the top four were somewhat on everybody's ballot, but in particular that top three, you see it right there. The first place votes. Four for Gaichi versus Chandler, four for Peter Jan, Sanhagen. Two for Volcanovsky Ortega, also one out there for Pajas and Reyes. And my goodness, man, this just goes to show what an incredible year this was. And for me, Gachie Chandler was the easy pick.

To me, I know it's a three-round fight and some people, faulted for that, and I know it was maybe not the most technical fight, and people will fault it for that. But there was no fight over the course of 2021 where I felt so engaged and so on the edge of my seat throughout the entirety of it. I mean, there was no chance that you could take a breath during these 15 minutes. These two men were just going to war in a way that was absolutely astounding. And Justin Gachie really capping it off with his line at the end of the night saying, you know, if we were gladiators in another time, we'd be doing this with weapons in a Holocene. It was just pure theater, pure magic. And I think at this point, this has to be Justin's

what, like third, fourth fight of the year award that he's won for this website. I can't even imagine, but him and Robbie Lawler have dominated this category over the last several years. Jose, I want to go to you because you wrote this article for our website. And also you were among that Jan Sanhagen contingency. Again, very, very close at the top here, four first place votes each. tell me a little bit about your fighter of the year ballot and why you believed Jan Sannhagen should have gotten the nod. I just like

part of it is what you said the three round fight I always five round fights to me always kind of like that's what tips it in the favor that's what tips it to me and and Jan Sanhagen I know like Casey AK and I have done a million preview shows and Mike's always like Jose

what's which fight is just a fun martial arts competition that you don't need a crowd for and to me that was Yon Sanhant I'll watch, I'll watch those two fight a thousand times. I think that those are the two most talented bands and weights in the world. I know Al Jermaine Sterling is the champion. If this was a ranking, if I was on a pound for pound ranking, I would put him number one just because he is the champion.

But in terms of talent, I think these are the two best band and weights in the world. I think Corey Sagan just got caught with a submission by Al Jameen when they fought. And I think that this was, and a lot of people thought Sanhagen beat T. And obviously, Yon was on his way to beating Al Jermaine. before that foul. So to me, this was the actual title fight. Corey Sandhagen, Peter Yan, was just beautiful martial arts. Everything that they, everything they did.

Like from every, every, they had a counter for everyone's counter, whether it was on the canvas, whether it was in the clinch, whether it was in the wrestling, whether it was in the boxing, kickboxing. It was just high-level violent chess. It was beautiful to watch. I was also at this fight. So, again, that just kind of adds to it. It was in Fight Island.

and the crowd is going nuts for this. I mean, every punch, the crowd, every punch, every kick, it was like, it was the setting in that fight was just so fun to be in. I'm out of loss for words. I don't know how to describe this fight. Like, I described it as like live action bay blades in my write-up because it just felt like two tops,

just spinning around a can of it for 25 minutes, clanging into each other with hoping one of them stops. It was just so fun. It was just high level martial arts. Gachy Chandler was fun to watch. I got a concussion watching that fight, but it was number three for me just because it was three, it was three rounds.

It was an awesome fight to watch. It was exactly what we thought it was going to be. But is that even the best fight of either man's career? I don't know. Like, was that, Sean, was that fight better than the two Luis Palomino fights, World Series of fighting that we were at in Arizona? Maybe.

No, maybe they weren't. It wasn't. Exactly. So it's like Justin Gachey versus Michael Chandler, obviously you're going to have a fight of the year candidate. You could have penciled that before they even fought. To me, Pure Yon versus Corey Sanhagen was the best martial arts fight that I had seen in years.

And I just had so much fun watching it. Hang it in the Louvre. That's what I said. Make a gif of that whole fight and stick it in an arm museum. A.K. A gift next to the Mona Lisa. No, we're getting rid of it. We're over that.

A.K., I love it because. this category to me this year really typified the argument for fight of the year as a whole, right? And it comes down to what do you value most for your fight of the year? Do the rounds matter, to the circumstances matter, to the stakes matter? But also, are you more of a brawl fan, or do you just like the pure technical nature of these fights at the highest possible level? I know you also voted for Jan saying Hagen as well. Can you tell me a little bit about your methodology and sort of how you look at the broader spectrum of fight of the year when you're coming to this? Yeah, part of it has to do with me being such a big bantam weight mark,

but not that lightweight's far behind. If you ask me, of course, what are the two deepest, best, most entertaining, most diverse divisions? I'll go bantam weight. I'll go lightweight. One and two in some order. Right now, I think bantam weight has the edge. Lightweight has been the answer for so long, and it could still be, again,

if you just go up and down the roster. But just focusing on Jan Hagen, I mean, again, it was just the ultimate, for anyone who, like, maybe was not aware of why we're always saying, man, the band who weights the best, the bandwigs of the best, the band whoits the best, this fight encapsulated so much of that because as Jose said, these are maybe the two most skilled, with respect to Aljemian Sterling, these are maybe the two most skilled 135ers in the world. So the two most skilled, the two best guys in the best division, just really going at it for five rounds. Sandhanging with an early advantage, Jan showing off why he is just this computer now.

He has Anderson Silva-like computer where he adapts. He can adapt to anyone, any style. and by the end of the fight, you have no question. He's the better man. I mean, he just finds a way to adapt and pull away. And it's just so awesome to watch. So from a technical standpoint, this delivered, from a pure entertainment standpoint, swings the momentum.

It delivered from a statement storyline. I mean, a lot of people, again, believing that Jan is the true champion. I don't know, again, if this seals that for them. Of course, him beating Al Jermaine Sterling would be the ultimate vindication if he truly is the best phantom weight. But until that happens, and it looks like we'll be waiting for a while, this is about the biggest satisfaction you can get is

Peyodor Yan regaining the title, technically becoming a two-time bantamweight champion. I'm sure some people just kind of view it as a continuation of his first reign. But technically two-time. And yeah, the only edge, again, for me, it has over Chandler Gaithi.

The round thing, not so much, because I think Chandler made a great point. If it was a five-round fight his fight with Gaithi, it might not have been his balls to the wall. They might have paced themselves a little. So you really can't divorce it from it being a three-rounder. I think near the end it gets a little wacky. Maybe to some people...

Chandler's really playing it up that third round. And it's like you almost like that's almost like a wrestling match. It's like, guys, don't break cave. Okay, you got to, let's try and maintain the competitive illusion here. But some people might like it more. That's a part of the fight. We might look at that and just be like, oh, no, that's why I love that fight. So that, again, that's really a subjective thing.

I like just the pure technicality and the competitiveness of Jan Sannhagen. but boy that that gaitchi and chanelner fight is just so wild and you can't beat that atmosphere i think it is a very very valid point that i think both of you have made now that for chanler gaichi and i'm i voted number one for chanelan gaiti but the crowd played such a big part of that fight if that fight was in the apex yeah it's not the same it's just not the same and you know you can't say the same about peter yon versus sanhagen uh casey we've we've talked about the lightweights we've talked about the bantam weights the divisions we both i think all of us here believed to be the two best divisions in this sport.

But then you look at our number three and our number four on our list, and it's the featherweights. It's Volcanovsky Ortega and it's Holloway Rodriguez. And you, along with, I think most of us, had these four fights in some order on your ballot as well. Hit me with the featherweights, man. I mean, they really did deliver this year? Volcanowski Ortega was just, even though it was incredible, did Ortega, was that, did that go to decision or did Ortega finally get finished? No, they both went to decision, yeah.

Ortega finally made a day. That's why I was so wild because, like, Ortega succumbed. to Holloway's power, and this time he, like, got over that hump when he fought Volcanozka. He reached the finals. Yeah, I think what, what, we're going to remember two things from the

Volcanozegovina fight. Just the massive, just punishment, Ortega can take in a fight, which is really scary and it's impressive and fun to watch, but you're like, geez, dude, I don't know, you got it, you can't take so many shots to the head. That's two now. That's two now. Yeah, that's two fights in a row, but no, that's

we'll talk about that later. But it's just a Pure entertainment is like, oh man, that fight was incredible. But the fact that Dose Ortega should be featherweight champion. He should be. Volcanozky was dead to rights. That guillotine was first it was a guillotine, then I think a triangle. I think that it was the guillotine. It was in.

It was in. I don't understand. It doesn't make sense. It was in. Volcanowski somehow got out and he still the champ. So that's why that fight was incredible to me. And it was just, and beyond just incredible, just martial. artist too. And then Yair and Max Holloway. We talk about the crowd,

Chandler Gachie being in front of a sold-out Masked Square Garden Arena. Hollowayor, if it was more than like 26 fans or whatever, whatever, I mean, fans to get in there, put that in a sold-out arena. God, that fight just feels so much different. I'm a big Iyer-Ir-Riguez Mark, and I went in there expecting a very competitive fight. I know a lot of people kind of thought that a fight was going to be a blowout for Max Holloway, but I was expecting a freaking war from both gentlemen, and we got it. And it was just two extremely high-level athletes in the featherweight division in two completely different fights, both fights.

So in both fights, I think all four men went to the hospital. I don't know, we did a, or maybe Volcanovsky stuck around. Oh, okay. So 75% of the featherweights had to go to the hospital after that fight. I'm I'm sure Volcanowski took a serious beating too. But, yeah, just one through five in our selection. I mean, it's like you can't lose, honestly. It's just, it really comes down to preference. I get it if you want Gachy Chandler.

I had Gatji Chandler as a number five pick, but I understand what people have number one. From just a pure entertainment standpoint, yeah, Gachie Chandler wins every year, I think just entertainment-wise. but if we're judging the full mixed martial arts aspect and the technical parts of it just feather weights were just unbelievable this year. Yeah, I want to have one thing to what Casey said. So I was actually at Holloway-Yair, and I don't want that fight in a giant arena

because the way they set that crowd, they were like, I want to say maybe 100, 150 fans in there because they're selling sort of tickets, but they said, the way they said, the way they seat the fans is like this half is Yair and that half was Max Holloway.

It was almost like a soccer game or like a college game. It was a high school game. They had a bunch of just crazy Mexicans and a bunch of crazy lines with dueling flags going nuts and they were just yelling each other.

It was a regional scene when you have like Sean, when you go to regional season you would see like the old Power M.A. versus like Arizona Combat Club sure. where there's like the crowds are trying to fight each other. I don't want that fight in Madison Square Garden. I want that fight

with like 150 people where they can individually look at someone and yell at them. That was a lot of fun. Absolutely. And also too, I know we don't vote for round of the year. That's not one of the categories we do. But if we do, I mean, round three of Ortega versus Volcanowski is probably amazing. Right.

Alzheimer. Al-timer. All-timer. Best round of the year, one of the best rounds you'll ever see in mixed martial arts. a fun thing always happens with these sort of awards too with our ballots i think four four votes for most people usually go to sort of the group and then i think a lot of us like to send one vote out whether it's a last place vote or whatever it is to sort of something that we feel like is under the record under the radar and we want to recognize for me it was

paul daly versus a bahamas which was the best fight in bellator the whole entire year that was just chaos for as the short as it was it was chaos the entire way through uh aka talk to me about your last place vote here. I know you in Bellator as well. Absolutely. Lay it on me. Hit me what this was. And by the way, by the the daily homasi fight, like almost, I think it was 10 years to the, not to the day, but the 10 year anniversary of the Diaz daily fight. Wasn't it like only a few days off from the Diaz team? Right. It was this crazy intentional homage. The greatest one round fight ever. And Homasi and Dealy also had these insane swings. So anyway, yeah, that was an amazing fight for sure. But I had to show some love to

Karatano from Congo. I mean, that fight, hey, Canadian. By the way, all the Ben Chung Congo getting on the list. All the Beltaura cards are free on YouTube in Canada. So if you're in Canada, guys, you have no excuse.

Go find this fight if you missed it. Go find Congo and Karatanov. It's just such heavyweight fun. Just two old guys somehow digging deep. Like the end of the fight is just insane. It's just digging deep and really a fight on paper

that had all, frankly, all the makings of a snooze fest or either hoping for like Karatanov maybe a quick K-O. And that's the otherwise, you're thinking, oh, Congo decision. Like, Congo's, I mean, this is going to, you know, this is how that's going to go. But he's heavy ways to have a way, I see these guys with experience, they have a way of surprising you.

And every now and then, something, I just would like, Congo, he's submission, Congo by submission. Like, in this year, like, I don't know. I can say, guys, go watch the play. He lost the first two rounds, right? Congo was, he was down the first two rounds. He was Congoing him. Congo had like the right strategy. Like he was fighting a smart fight.

He was fighting a smart fight. He was fighting well. But, you know, he was defending himself well. And then care. And then, oh, sorry, over the other round. Anyway, but it's, this is heavyweight fun at its finest. Oh, yeah. And again, if you saw this main event and PooPoooo and Poooooooo, as I did, actually, I don't think I want, I don't remember. I don't think I watched it live.

I think I, you guys reacted to it. And I was like, well, I got to check this out. Yeah. And so I would. I think it was me that was selling everyone on the staff. Guys, guys, I know you took the Friday night off, but you got to watch this fight, yeah. I remember, I remember.

I remember vividly for this one, because I was the one that bit the bullet for the staff, and I was like, I'll do this bellator card. Like, no one wanted to cover this bellator card. I'll go ahead and do it. And that fight was awesome. That fight was so much better than it had any right to be. You go in with below zero expectations.

And then you come out, like, really, you know, surprised and happy. I mean, that was what, I think he submitted it at the final second of the second round. Like it was just crazy the way that played out. Both men over 40, you love to see it. Jose, for you,

what was the one that rounded out your ballot that you had that nobody else did? It was the Ponzanibio versus Miguel Baezza fight. I wasn't at this fight. And I agree with

like everything everyone is saying. And I know number five in Os was you at Prohaskin and Dominic Reyes and that fight was bananas for as long as it lasted. But I vividly remember a lot of Ponzibeo and Baezza.

Because it was like at the, it was also a lot of culmination of the storylines for that because at the time Miguel Baezza was an undefeated Welterway prospect. He was beating Matt Brown and Takashi Sato and he was just like the guy. Like he was how we're talking about Adrian Yana

is now at Bantamway is what we were saying about Miguel Baezza at Welterway. He was the future top 10, top five violent like bunch of performance bonuses in a row. And San Diego Ponce Nibu had that weird blood infection. He had fought in like three years. And then he

comes back and he gets knocked out. by the leech on fight islands and he was like really emotional in the octagon and then he gets this young hot upstart rookie and miguel baez and this was i would imagine the ufc is like well you know if miguel baezza wins he continues on the streak and he gets a big name and that fight was just bananas for 15 minutes and Ponziadio won and just immediately started crying like that fight had a bunch of just crazy crazy back it was a back and forth war that panzinebio i think won fair and square i think that's how i scored it uh it's it's it's a bunch of you showed that Ponziadio was still a contender it showed Miguel Baezer could hang with the best of the best of welterweight

Santiago Ponzinovio just so emotional after missing so much time and then coming back and getting knocked out it would just all of those things just added to it and it was just a very very memorable scene on that fight and i can't even remember what card it was uh but it was a lot of fun it might have been what the the the main it was clearly like the second that fight happened i was like yeah that's just give them 50k now. I can't even remember the rest of the car. But that fight was just so, there's a lot going into that fight that was memorable for me and it just delivered. Well, Casey, let's close this category out with you. You actually had two Michael Chandler losses on your ballot. Tell me why Olivera Chandler was one of the best fights of the year for you. Actually, yeah, it's interesting.

I actually had Olivera Chandler higher than Gaichi Chandler. This fight, we just learned a lot. It was just, I think the fight was maybe about six minutes long, five minutes that was entirely Michael Chandler almost 10-8ing Charles Oliver. And to the point where Michael Chandler, he should be the UFC champ. But he went for

that dang guillotine, but you know, that's what the sport's about. People make mistakes in fights and the other fighter capitalizes. Gaichi had Oliver hurt. He got a little too confident of his ground, tried to guillotine Oliver. Oliver got out of it. I think even

into the round on top, and I'm not even sure. But still, coming into that second round, you thought, okay, Michael Chandler is now going to win this fight. And then all of a sudden, Charles Alavere's got hands. What?

What? I mean, Michael Chandler, he went 15 minutes with Justin Gehche. And then, maybe not what it was afterward, but Charles Laudera, you know, just Mr. Little Jiu-Jitsu,

former featherweight, knocks Michael Chandler out. It was unreal. It was a great, I think it was a, as a hook and then it was just incredible fight

it's six minutes it's just super high level just chaos and the stakes were incredibly high and from that fight the story of Charles Aldaver came about you know he was just

you know we talked about he was just kind of this guy up and down never consistent didn't have that heart and everyone's like yeah once he starts going once he starts getting beat up he falls pretty fast so

I don't think there was I don't know I don't even about you, but I had zero expectation of Charles Oliverer coming back and winning that fight. And we saw it. And that's why it was my fight of the year, but it was my, I think, the third best fight of the year. So I think it needs to be, I think people, people kind of talk about Gaichi Chandler, but to me,

Oliver Chandler, that's the kind of one of the best Chandler fight this year. It's such a bizarre year from Michael Chandler too, right? He loses these two fights, but I think all of us, it's one of those situations where, you lose and maybe you'll lose some stock in the division just a little bit, but ultimately, like, all of us are tuning in for the next. He's a bigger star than ever. He's a bigger star than ever than he's ever been. At worst, is Michael Chandler, what, the third best lightweight in the world right now?

Yeah. Worth? He's up there. He's definitely up there. Anyway, that has been Fight of the Year. We have one more left, and it's the big one. Fighter of the Year coming up next. Back to you, Mike.

To succeed in the future of work, forward thinkers use AI to deliver measurable results. Workday is the AI platform for HR and finance that frees you from the mundane so you can focus on more meaningful work. Workday, moving business forever forward. Congratulations to Justin Gagey and Michael Chandler for putting on such an incredible fight. And a big shout out to all the other nominees as well because, like I said, at least in my mind, this is a very close decision. And Gachi and Chandler definitely deserve it. So congratulations to them as we move on to the main event. the fighter of the year in 2021.

And we had some incredible year-long performances from multiple fighters, fighters who became champions in 2021, fighters who overcame some early adversity in their careers to finally reaching the pinnacle of this great sport and other dominant champions who remained at the top of the mountain. Ladies and gentlemen, here are your nominees for the 2021 MMA fighting Fighter of the Year.

The nominees for Fighter of the Year are Juliana the Venezuelan vixen Pena. Cyril Bongamong Gung. Thug Rose

Namayunas. Camaro, the Nigerian Nightmare Usman. Charles Dobranks Olivera. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time. The 2020

Fighter of the year is the reigning, defending, undisputed UFC welterweight champion of the world, the Nigerian nightmare, Kamara Usman, 3 and 0. Two incredible finishes of Jorge Mazadol and Gilbert Burns, along with a unanimous decision win over, in a lot of people's opinion, the second best Walterweight in the world, Colby Covington at UFC 268. Kamar Usband is the 2021 fighter of the year. And with that, for the final time, let us go to the M.A. Fighting Panel

to discuss how this decision came to light. Thanks, Mike. And now the panel, once again, we're joined a new edition, Gere Mae Cruz over there in the bottom right. We appreciate you, Gary Me calling in from Brazil. Fighter of the Year, fellows, this one felt like, of all these categories,

it's funny we're doing this last, because of all these categories this year, this one felt like the most straightforward it was the easiest for i think a lot of us it was also the biggest consensus on the website we had of 11 first place votes 10 of them went to kamara usman the one dissenter was my man down there in brazil gier me cruz so hose i'll start with you man this did feel like kamara usman's year i mean again this was the easiest decision for a lot of us three and oh this year he defends his title three times uh he gets the knock out of the year as well as we've already gone over.

For you, why was this year, Kamar Ustman's year to own? Well, I just remember how it ended last year. Like, he had these epic performances, what, 2019, he had what, like, how many times if we heard Dana White say how much he just loved the first fight between Kamar Usman and Colby Cunnington.

So he builds up all this hype. He's a world beater. He's finally no longer Marty Snoosman. He puts on a fight of the year candidate because let's not forget, on that card also had a hollow, Volcanowski, I believe Amanda Nunes and Jermaine de Randme, and everyone said, well, if there's one fight that's going to be a snoozer, it's probably going to be between the two wrestlers, and then

Kumar Usman and Colby Compton have one of the best fights of all time. And then he goes out there and he foot stomps Jorge Mazudal for about 25 minutes as the follow-up, and all of a sudden everyone just hates them all over again. And then so kicking off 2021, everyone still considers Kamar Usman just a boring foot-stomping fighter who couldn't beat a guy on what, like 10 days notice in Jorge Mazuriel. Goes out there and just eats Gilbert Burns alive, goes out there and just decapitates Jorge Mazvedal, and then goes out there and beats Colby Covington again in another exciting fight inside Madison Square Garden.

And now, like, right away, anytime you're mentioned in the same sentence as the greatest fighters of all time, you probably had a pretty good year. And the fact that after the third, the second Colby Covington fight, the questions are all, is Kamar Uzbin now the greatest welterweight ever? Has he surpassed George St. Pierre? That's an argument we'd only take. have right now. So Kamara Usman went from exciting fighter to a fighter everyone fans thought was boring to now all of a sudden the greatest welter rate of all time. That's a pretty good year in my book.

It is so funny how the short-term memory in the sport works because you're absolutely right. Go ahead and out in 2019 people who were all over Kamar Usman talking about how he has turned the corner and he is now this exciting fighter. And then 2020 happens he gets that one fight and everyone forgets. AK, I think Jose made a great point there, and it's one that I also made in my column I wrote for Fighter of the Year, which is anytime you can end the year getting comparisons to George St. Pierre thrown out there and they actually feel valid to some degree, like there actually there's some basis there, that probably means you're in the Fighter of Year conversation.

For you, AK, why was this Kamar Usman's year? I mean, this was the year for him where I think the results finally caught up to the hype, you know, kind of what we thought Kamar Usman was, you know, From the old joke of the 30%, that I only gave 30%, and then eventually, you know, becoming UFC champion, there was still this sort of this sense around him that like we had not seen his best. We know he's the best. Everyone knows he's the best 170 pounder in the world. But where are the outside of, you know, again, the super exciting Colby Covington fight, the first one, like, you know, where is that, where is this guy that's supposed to be this beast? As Jose said, like that first Mazvado fight just proved nothing.

And that's just kind of how we are. We, you know, we're smart. MMA fans are smart for the most part. They know when someone is good, but you really still want to see them prove it. You know, the proof is in the pudding, as they say. And getting finishes, getting the knockout of the year, another exciting fight with Colby Covington, which I know he didn't get the finish, but in some ways, I think it was just as convincing as the first fight, if not more so.

And at least there was certainly no controversy, no, not that there really wasn't the first one, but no fodder. for, you know, Colby Covington to say, oh, I was the blame the ref for the stoppage and all that. This is a clear-cut loss. Colby Covington knew it. He at least acknowledged that on Fight Night. And acknowledged that he's the number two guy in a strong division behind the man,

Komaro Usman. So, yeah, it's kind of a safe pick. It's weird to, because I think he proved a lot, again, how entertaining he can be. Some of the people might have had some a little more dramatic narratives. I'm sure, well, you know, we can get to that, some of the runners up in this category. But if you're just saying, when you watched MMA, who was the best fighter, who had the best results at the highest level.

It was Kamaruzma. Well, Guillermo, I want to bring you in here. So let's go down to Brazil because we say there was a consensus, but there wasn't actually because, again, 10 first place votes to Kamaru, but one, the one dissenter, and that was you giving it to our man, Charles Oliver. And when we threw this article out on Twitter and social media as well, a lot of people coming back saying that Charles Oliver was their fighter at the year. So, Gierreme, for you, why did it feel as if Charles Olivera was the deserving winner for you?

I mean, I agree with it. Pretty much everything, Jose said. Camaro Wisman had an incredible year. He deserves to be the number one if you think that I won't debate that. I won't say you're wrong and I'm right. But I think Charles de Vera guess they're not because it's, it's, Camaro Wozman was the heavy favorites going into all those three fights

and he won impressively. He just destroyed Gilbert Burns. He destroyed Mazvedov and he won impressive against Kobe Covito in the second fight. But he did what everybody thought he was going to do already and Charter Zote Evita gets no respect still by a lot of people. He got into this year campaigning for a title shot. He said he won a title shot.

Desimportier just pretty much ignored him to fight Conan McGregor a second time and then a third time instead of fighting Charles Zeraveta for the UFC belt and then he thought Michael Chander people thought he was going to decapitated him after knocking out Dan Huckin his UFC debut Charles Zadavita is his own dog he goes there almost gets finished but comes back and knocks him out

the second round and then he fights Desimportier who's all of a sudden the man the uncrown king the guy in the library division and he gets hurt again in the first round and finishing in the with standing rear naked choke just ridiculous. Extends his record

for most submission within UFC history. We were talking about Sean about how we have the short-term memory in this forge and I think it's just like the opposite with Charles of the Veda. We can't ignore we can't let go

the fact that Charles of the Veda was finishing the past, that he was knocked out, that he was submitted, they had plenty of losses early in his UFC career. This guy has won, like, a dozen in a row. He's finishing everybody but Tony Ferguson. He's doing an incredible job, and this year was an incredible year for him as the underdog getting there, finding get his shots, and winning and defending the UFC belt. That's why I think, I know what Kamada Wiseman did was impressive, but the, all the

the narrative and the drum involved around Charles of the Veda. That's why I picked him as the fighter of the year. Man, I want to change my vote. I want to change my vote now. You and I have been on the Olivera is the best lightweight in the world for a long time. Me too. And Jose, excuse you, Jose. I don't vote on the panel, but I've long listened to all our arguments in our meetings about Porta and not.

Olivera was always. Well, we and I have been putting our neck out there with our fellow coworkers. and they've been seeing every month our Charles Olivaara support. And I do feel redeemed. And I think, I agree, I think you summed it up amazingly well. Yeah, and it kind of what I said about,

it was one thing. The arc of Oliva is definitely more impressive and more memorable. So, I mean, yeah, like, if you voted him first, I don't think anyone can make a strong argument against that. An amazing story. Just like an awesome story.

And I think you really summed it up. And, Guy, I think you made a good point when, it's almost the opposite of the short-term memory problem that we usually have an MMA. With Charles, he's been in our life for so long, right? Like he, 20 fights into his UFT career, he's barely above 500. Like, he was sort of this

guy, he was who he was. We sort of knew what he was going to do is that it's the frontrunner thing, right? Like, we've heard it for a lot at this point. It's the front runner aspect of it. But it is crazy how it all came together for him in 2021, and I think any other year he probably takes this award

by a landslide, but it just was hard to overcome what Camaro did. One last thing before we get out of here on this note, the way the top voting Fourfighter of the Year played out was actually really interesting because it felt like everyone had a consensus, for the most part, top four, where everybody had Usma and Olivera, Cyril Ghan, and Juliana Pena, for the most part. So there were some exceptions.

But that was the most consistent little group of four that were in everybody's ballot. And then that number five spot was a total wild card for everybody. We had votes for Rose. We had votes for Gailette Harrison. Shevchenko got in there. Islamakachev, Sergio Pettis, you can see the table right there.

Jose, A.K. Gee, what was it about the number five vote? What swayed you for your side for this final vote to round out your ballot? Let's start with Jose. I believe I voted for Kayla Harrison, if I'm not. Who did I vote for? Was it Kayla or Sergio? I know I won him. Sergio? Yeah, for Sergio, it was the sense where

that was more of a feel-good story for me. And the fact that he has long been known as Anthony Pettis' younger brother. And I've covered a few of his later fights in the UFC. I was at his fight against Rob Fawn, and he kind of got the red carpet treatment in his hometown of Milwaukee, and he lost. And he wasn't, it felt like he wasn't going to live up to his potential as this future title challenger.

He'd always falter. He'd stumble at the finish line to get that title shot when he was at Flyway in the UFC. And then he moves over to Bellator and this big signing, and he gets all these awesome matchups that I've always wanted to see. And he just delivers on all cat all across the board. And then he fights Horaguchi. And he's losing the entire fight until he decides to throw one spinning back fist and knock out the man that never lost the belt.

So to me, we're talking about a career trajectory. And I feel like Sergio made the biggest jump from someone that was dwindling around the bottom of the top 15 to just being the champion. No controversy. The man won fair and square. knocked out, like the big knock on his reign as the Bellator, uh, Bantonway champion was he didn't beat the guy that had the belt, Gioji Horoguchi just got hurt. And then he goes out there and knocks him unconscious. Like he was, his senses left him. So to me, that was a, that was

an absolutely fantastic moment, uh, in the world of MMA. So he got my number five spot for just career trajectory to that point. Okay, what about you? Uh, I had gone, see, gone at number five. I don't really want to talk about my number five guy. I want to talk about my number four guy who I had to make sure he got on, who I had to make sure he got on the chart. But thankfully, it wasn't just me. It was the American Will Arnett, Connor Berks also. Shout us to Connor Burke's. Also putting Chris Curtis on the fighter of the year list. Christopher, the action man Curtis, who in another year, we would have had him as a leading breakthrough fighter of the year. Obviously, we had a little bit of a different award this time around this year. But he,

for me was, again, just one of the best story. We've been talking about stories a lot. I don't know if there was a better story. I also have to remind people that Chris Curtis fought seven times in 2021. I think seven times or scheduled. Right, six times. He fought six times.

So four times before the UFC and then two finishes in the UFC. It's, I know what, you know, again, we're focused mostly on UFC stuff, Belator, and we do these fighter of the year awards. But again, you fight six times. You get six wins. Six wins is MMA. Six wins. I mean, that's impressive as hell.

And then, again, he proves it at the UFC level, taking out Phil Haas, heavy underdog. Brendan Allen, pretty sure he was the underdog again. So it just could not, these year-end awards, I feel like, would not be, you can't tell the story of MMA in 2021 without talking about Chris Curtis, finally making it to the UFC, finally getting some wins. Everyone's known he's UFC caliber for so long. His story is very well told.

Multiple retirements. contender series you know he tried that didn't he won didn't get on so many weird near misses were trying to make it to the big show and i want to say never gave up but again as we said a lot of times he did kind of tell himself maybe it's not going to happen maybe i'm going to walk away somehow stuck in there got new life with the pfl even though like his run with the in the league was not great i think he got one win and retired again during that run so i i honestly can't believe we're talking about him um at uh at the end of 22 one but my good Three-weight classes.

Unbelievable, this guy. Three-weight. Middle-weight. Yeah. He is something else. You're right. We talk about stories so much on this show, but there are few better than the action, man. Because, man, there are so many times in this guy's career where he just assumed it wasn't going to happen, right?

How many retirements are across the board on our list of award winner here? I probably zero, except for that man. He's got like three. He's got like three-o. Who would blame him? Who would have blamed him? Who would have blamed Chris Curtis? We retired like three years ago.

Nobody. Gareme, last to you, man. Who rounded out in your ballot? Yeah, I think I was impacted by the few good story about Haush Manchu, my number five on the Friday of the year. I mean, he hasn't fought in three years. He didn't have a job. He was a former Titan FC champion,

but he has no contract. He was offering, literally offering to fight for free just to get a win to try to get in the UFC. And he couldn't get it in the opponents. He was literally going to Florida to aspire with Jake Bull to get paid $100 to get some money in his pocket. He was working again as a janitor in a hospital to get some money. And then PFL comes around.

He gets, he enters PFL. as an alternate and just gets a chance to fight Joyuton Peregrino, who has another surname now, wins the fight, and then he fights Anthony Paddy. He was scheduled to fight Nathan Schult, who was a former champion, two-time champion. And the fight fell through, and he has to fight. And Anthony Paddy is like the biggest signing in PFL

this year. He wins that fight, and then he fights Clay Collard, who has all this high. about fighting boxing, fighting in MMA, and he wins again, guess to the million-dollar fight, and wins one more time. He had four wins in six months, and wins the season.

It was just surprising for someone who was out for three years, had no contract. He started this year without a job, without no money, and then he hands this year as a millionaire win the whole season that was impressive. It was a few good story as well. You can't hate on it. You cannot hate that turnaround that that man had.

It is, again, a year full of so many great stories. It is just too many to pick from. But that is Fighter of the Year. Back to you, Mike. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate all of your incredible work throughout this broadcast. It really means a lot. And congratulations once again to Kamar Usman.

He began the award show, winning an award, and he closes the show in the main event spot with the 2021 Fighter of the Year trophy on his mantle. I mean, oh, it's not the UFC Welterweight title, but this is a pretty darn cool thing. So congratulations to all of our winners. And thank you to all of you for not only watching the show or listening to the show, however you are consuming it, but for sticking by MMA fighting throughout this entire year.

It's been a crazy couple of years. Really appreciate all of your support. And if you thought 2021 was a great year, 2022 is going to be even better. We have some cool things lined up here on MMAFighting.com. So with that being said, for the rest of the crew over at m-afighting.com. I am Mike Keck.

Thank you again for watching, and we wish you all a very happy new year. This has been the 2021 MMA Fighting Year End Awards, a Vox Media production. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.