MMA Fighting - 2022 Year-End Awards Spectacular: Celebrating The Best Of The Best From A Roller-Coaster MMA Year

Episode Date: December 27, 2022

When it came to MMA, 2022 was one heck of a wild ride. Join the MMA Fighting staff as we look back at the biggest highs, breakout stars, and most jaw-rattling moments of 2022 in a special year-end retrospective. We’re honoring all the nights that defined one of the wildest 12-month stretches in recent MMA history — and handing out plenty of hardware in celebration of the knockouts, submissions, fights, fighters, and rookies who made sure 2022 was a year that won’t soon be forgotten. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew @JedKMeshew Follow Mike Heck @MickHeck_JR Follow Josè Youngs @JoseYoungs 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to MMA Fighting's 2022 Year End Award show, celebrating the best of the best of the year in the greatest sport on the show.

the planet, mixed martial arts. I am Mike Heck from MMAfighting.com, and it has been a true honor to cover these incredible athletes, the memorable finishes, the remarkable storylines, and roller coaster battles that the sport of MMA brought to us throughout the year. Now, 2022 had mostly clear-cut winners for each category that the MMA fighting staff voted on, but I have to say personally, narrowing all of the options down for each of these categories to the top five, it was not easy at all, as I'm sure you will see and hear as the nominees for each award are revealed. This year, we'll be giving out our awards for the Fighter of the Year, submission of the Year, Fight of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and our first award of

MMA Fighting's 2022 Award Show, The Knockout of the Year. Now once we give out the awards, we'll head over to the MMA fighting panelist roundtable who will provide an inside look into how we got to each winner. If it was unanimous, maybe there was some dissension in the ranks. All that will be discussed. It's going to be a lot of fun, this award show. So let's not waste any time. Our first award, the K.O. of the year for 2022.

And here are the nominees. Demetrius Johnson by right cross flying knee combination over Adriana Marias at 1 on Prime Video 1 Michael Chandler by front kick to the face over Tony Ferguson

at UFC 274 Molly McCann by spinning back elbow over Luana Carolina at UFC London Leon Edwards by head kick over Camaro Usman at UFC 278. Zhang Wei Li by spinning backfist over Yawanna-Jech at UFC at UFC 275.

Ladies and gentlemen, the 2022 knockout of the year goes to Leon Edwards with his stunning head kick KO with less than a minute to go in the fifth round over Kamaro Uzman to become the welterweight champion of the world at UFFSI. FC 278. It was a moment Leon Rocky Edwards, and let's be honest, anyone who saw it happen in August will never forget. So let's check in with the MMA Fighting Roundtable crew to discuss how this all came to be. Take it away, Shaheen Al-Shadi and crew. Thanks, Mike. All right, let's kick off the panel for this year-end awards special for 2022. The whole crew is here. You already know, Jose Young's Jedmishu, Alexander Cayley, also V. Casey Layden, Men, and the

I am Sean O'Shati, and let us start with knockout of the year. Let's talk about it, fellas. Always a fun category. Always a lot of good options, really. I mean, this year is no exception, but in the end, it seemed like we really coalesced around two picks. Leon Edwards over Kamar Usman, Michael Chandler, over Tony Ferguson. But Leon really took it.

Seven first place votes. Going to that one, Michael Chandler stealing away three, and then rounding out the group, Zhang Wei, Yiana Yan Jacek, Molly McCann, Luana, Carolina, and Demetri's Johnson. Adriana Marais, stealing away one first place vote as well. Jed, let's start with you, my man. You voted for Leon Edwards. Why was that your knockout of the year? Because it's very clearly the best knockout of the year. We've got a bunch of categories to get into. And honestly, like,

I don't have any real issues with most, like what most people picked as far as things go. You know, it's all a bit subjective. But my kind of guiding light, the general principle I operate on for these things is in five years when I look back or whatever on this year, what are the moments that are going to stand out? Like, what are the things that I'm going to remember the most? And undeniably, Leon Edwards putting shin upside Usman's dome, especially when you factor in everything else about it too, because other people will come and I appreciate their arguments. But for me, knockout of the year is really a culmination of a lot of different people. pieces, right? Because you can get really cool sick chaos, you know, a spinning tornado kick or

whatever on the regional scene. But it's got to be super high stakes. It has to be a moment. There has to be a lot behind it. And the Leon thing, we're going to be talking about that forever. Not just because Leon Edwards did it, which I super didn't think he could do, by the way, but because of that edit that came out afterwards of, you're letting him bully your son. And like, I still feel that. Like, I just said that. And, thought it and it like it made me feel something in my chest and that's what that co is like there is there are a lot of sick awesome chaos this year but there are none of them that if i just think about it like give me goosebumps and make me feel some kind of way

and that one is gonna forever for as long as i'm involved in covering this sport that is going to be one that i can look back and be like damn that was a moment and so it's it was the runaway if we did like a weighted point system, I could have put nothing else on my board. It would have been that by a mile. No, Jed, I mean, you couldn't have said it better in my opinion. The culmination of everything, right? It's the factors. That to me is what this category is often about with knockout of the stakes. What was the moment like? What was sort of the situation around the knockout circumstances? How late in the fight? Is it a comeback? That type of thing. And also just explosion, right, the actual moment.

How much did it make you jump out of your seat and say, holy, yes, I can't believe that just happened. Like that to me, those three, there is no knockout in this whole entire crazy year that we just experienced. That culminated with a perfect match of those three in my eyes better than Leon in what he did against Kamar Usman. I mean, that's legendary stuff, man. That's absolutely legendary. That being said, I am actually surprised that me and you are the only two here on this whole discussion that voted for this. our number one picks. Jose, you at A.K. We're men of class and substance, Sean, so obviously.

Jose, you and AK went a different direction with this. You guys voted for what ended up being number two, which is Michael Chandler defeats Tony Ferguson. Why was that the one that in your eyes sort of eclipsed what Leon did? Well, for me, the five knockout of the years that I voted for, I think the difference between me and a lot of people that are voting on, not just our panel, but on all the panels of all the, the sites and all the networks that are doing these i was at i was physically at the five that i voted for

um and i just i voted for the ones that were just the most shocking to witness live like everything you everything you guys described like the storyline the culmination what we witnessed between the rounds you know it was for a title all of that is fantastic and i don't don't won't argue against that those storylines matter in the voting. For me, what I witnessed Tony Ferguson essentially get a sledgehammer upside the jaw from a man much smaller than him that I can probably count on one hand the number of front kicks Michael Chandler has ever thrown in a professional fight. Not only did he land it, he just disconnected Tony Ferguson from his sense as a man that for a long time people thought was the best lightweight in the world. I thought Tony Ferguson was dead or was

gonna be in a coma. So the way, the reason I voted for number one is just the shock, awe, and violence factor. Not like the storyline aside, Michael Chandler needed to get back in the wind column, Tony Ferguson needing to get back in the wind column, two of the greatest lightweights of all time, finally fighting the three-round fight in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.

All of that aside, just the image of Tony Ferguson just unconscious and Michael Chandler doing a bat flip just like three feet away, from essentially a corpse will forever be etched in my mind. So that is why I voted for Michael Chandler's front kick knockout over Tony Ferguson as the knockout of the air. AK, is that sort of what your line of thinking was as well when you voted for this? Yeah, it's the feeling that it created inside of me. Not to say that Edwards over Usman didn't create a feeling.

Kind of like Jose, though, circumstances affected my vote a little bit. I saw the Edwards, K.O. like 10 hours after it happened, I was, I was not working that night. I was in another country, a different time zone. So I could replay the moment. I could see all the reactions. I could read about it. And I mean, even watching and replay knowing what happened, obviously, it still landed.

It was an incredible moment. But it was a little bit lessened by the fact that I didn't catch it live, which I did with the Tony Ferguson Chandler, K.O. Even I want to say that even if I had seen both and been there to capture the moments live, I might have still leaned towards the Chandler knockout. Like Jose said, it's the. imagery was just frightening. We had never seen Tony straight up knocked out like that. He had lost to Justin Gatesy by TKO, but we had never seen him just brained. And you could, you know,

based on his recent results, you could say, ah man, like you felt like it was going to happen to him eventually. But we had still never seen it. He'd faced so many heavy hitters, so many tough guys in his career, been in so many wars, to see him failed by a single strike and one that was so expertly landed. That's going to last with me, like, just as long as seeing Leon hit that crazy late game walk off and leaving Kumar Usman flat out on the canvas. It might linger as well. Another thing that gives the front kick just a little bit of edge for me is I think this is the best front kick knockout I've ever seen. And we've had a lot of those, we had a few of those in the UFC, and each one seems to like surpass the last one. Even Anderson Silva, the Vitor Belfer one,

didn't last that long as like the best front kick knockout because shortly after Leodomachita, Randy Couture happened, which I think is a superior one to the Andrews and Silva Vitor one. So it feels like he keeps getting topped. This to me again is the new number one. And I'm going to just throw it out there and say it with confidence. I think it's going to be a long time before this one gets replaced. So I'm kind of, so maybe I'm giving it extra points for something that hasn't happened yet,

like saying like that it will last like another 10 years with us saying this is the best front kick ever or maybe it never, maybe it never gets. replace as the best front kick ever. And if that's the case, and if I'm right, then I feel very comfortable keeping it number one. It was just so vicious and really arguably more memorable than our number one winner for the wrong ways with the way it left Tony Ferguson down. Also, you have to mention the photo, right? Nobody, I'm surprised neither of you have mentioned that photo. I don't want to think about it. I never want to see that photo ever again. It's a much more, I do factor in largely like the just general aesthetics.

It is the most aesthetically pleasing KO of the year. Like it has the best image, certainly. But if y'all, I just want to go cue up the Twitter at it of he's bullying your son and Annik and Rogan and Cormier burying Leon and then it happening, boom, headshot. And if y'all don't feel like emotional about that, you're dead inside.

Like, that is the moment of the year. Also, I don't know how long we're going to stay on this, but I do want to shout it out. M.M.A. Tough, tough game, because last year, Kio of the year winner, Kamaro Usman, for his sensational knockout of Hori Mossadol, turned around and got put on a poster in the other way. So it's tough game, man.

Not only that. Not only was he a knockout of the year winner, he was our fighter of the year, too. and then there you go. In a span of a year, it flips just like that. I agree right there, Jed. Ultimately, like, the Leon is just so iconic, especially with the way Anik was coming in,

right at the perfect moment saying he... Anix call is so good. The cloth from which he is cut, and then that plays out. His call is so good on that. Like... If there's a video out there of someone shooting from the rafters for the highlight,

like they're way up and the nosebleeds and they're shooting down, you can actually see my... exact moment and reaction to that knockout because you could see press row and me and oscar willis both just go like we just jump like backward a mile just upon it came out of nowhere and it really was one of those things where i mean i was watching that fight at home i was off that week because i just had my son and i was so just watching on the couch and i was actually kind of tuned out and i think i wasn't the only one right i think a lot of people had sort of written this off i know several friends

of mine had sort of writing their stories already written their leads and then some people are just to turn off the TV. This was a foregone conclusion, then all of a sudden it wasn't. It's what makes this sport so great. Really quickly before move on, though. Casey, I want to bring you in here because you actually went off the board entirely. You didn't pick either of these two for your number one. You went with the legend. Demetrius Johnson, which I loved that. I love that. I was one of the ones who put DJ on my ballot in my top five as well. But you went all the way to number one. Just quickly, what was your thought there? Well, basically, I agree with everything you guys said about Edwards-Uzman. I mean, obviously,

I had number two. It was clearly just an unbelievable moment in the sport. The knockout was incredibly violent. The call was great, everything. But I went with DJ Marias, mainly because of the loss that came before. The story. Like, this was a, this was a y'all must have forgot type of knockout. And it's freaking DJ.

And it was just, like, just like, technically. Aesthetically, it was just perfect. Yeah, it was just a beautiful knockout. And then that's, you what it was. was, I think DJ uploaded a slow-mo video of it at some point, and it got like, you know, two million views on Twitter or whatever. And when I saw it in slow motion, that's when I realized how freaking incredibly awesome it is. And yeah, and it just reminded me, I think, the rest of the world who Mighty Mouse is. And I think we've known Mighty Mouse has, you know, maybe have one of the

greatest championship submissions ever, uh, of his fifth round submission over Ray Borg. And now he had, to me, he has one of the greatest championship knockouts ever. And this coming off, a violent, violent loss that came from a knee. And then he does the same thing. He returns the favorite with another flying knee to defeat Marais. Chef's kiss. But no issues with Edwards-Uzman being number one, though. Yeah, just aesthetically, the way that he bounces off the cage and then ESSAT final shot is just so, oh, my God.

like you said, Chef's Kiss. So get some one championship representation here on a top five. But in the meantime, that is knockout of the year. Leon Edwards, congratulations. Back to you, Mike. Now we kick things off with the knockout of the year. Let's move to the submission of the year for 2022. Again, a lot of really strong options this year.

But who will take home the coveted trophy? Here are the nominees for the M.A. Fighting 2022 submission of the year. Yiri Prahashka by Rear Naked Choke over Glover Tashara at UFC 275. Stevie Ray by Modified Twister over Anthony Pettis at PFL5. Islam Machachev by Arm Triangle Choke over Charles Olivera at UFC 280. Oliver Nkamp by buggy choke over Mark Leminger at Bellator 281. Luca Poclet by Lucanator choke over Dante Shiro at Bellator 285. Jessica Androj by standing arm triangle over Amanda Lamosh at UFC Vegas 52.

And the 2022 submission of the year winner is Yuri Parahashka for his late rear-naked choke of Glover Tashira to become the light heavyweight champion. the world at UFC 275. Now, this is a fun award to break down individually for all of us in terms of narrowing this down to the top of the top. But Jehine Alshadi and crew, I got a question, did we get this one right? Let's head back to the roundtable. Take it away, guys. Submission of the year, fellas, Yeri Prohaska, Glover to share, I am sure we are going to be talking about this fight a little bit later on too. But right now, submission of the year, winner and really three out of the five of us here on this panel picked this as our number one

overall for the team six people picked this as their number one submission jessica androge versus dama lemo she gets three picks islam machachev over charles olivera gets two and then stevie re and oliver encamp and also luca pulse seat i'm pols lit i'm sure i am not pronouncing that right getting some love at the at the back end of that top five this is always one of the tougher categories most years, it seems. And this year was really no different. It always presents the diverse range of answers that we don't see in, I think, a lot of other categories. First place votes were all over the place this time again, same as last year. Jose, let's throw us to you first. How did you approach this one when you were writing up your ballot? Well, I think it's a lot of what you guys

said when you guys were talking about Leon Edwards' knockout over Kamara Usman being our knockout of the year. To me, you're perhaps a submission over glow of the show. it just checks all those boxes too. A, we're going to talk about it. Just one of the greatest fights, if not the greatest fights of all time. Go over to share how everyone says, even Daniel Cornwallis says it just has suffocating top game. He's a black ball in Jiu-a-Prahaska, not even Ramoli in the realm of being any sort of

finisher when it comes to grappling or submissions, just very much a killer be killed on his feet type of guy, had that year layoff after the Dominic Reyes knockout, which was on a lot of short list for knockout of the year of the year prior and fight of the year said all he did was trained grappling and wrestling bottom game top game everything in preparation for fighting glover to share just an absolute fantastic fight back and forth war which i know we're going to talk about and if you just look at not just the submission but everything else that kind of led into that like when glover and sherri got full amount leading into it and europeur haska sticks his forearm kind of into the wedge of the canvas,

which doesn't allow Glover to roll him. And then Yeripur Haska uses that to then get back to his feet. It's just all of these small minute details that Yerapur Haska basically didn't just try to go from A to Z immediately. He did step by step. And then when he got up and he snatched up Glover to Cher's neck and just squeezed the soul out of him and forced Glover's chair to tap, it had the storyline, it had the blood, it had the violence,

It had the knockout artist submitting the black belt, new champion in Singapore. I was also about five feet away from the submission, if that matter. So it just checks all the boxes of just being one of the greatest, not spectacular submissions. Like I know I picked the Chandler knockout because of just the image of Tony Ferguson, just essentially just getting decapitated in front of us as the reason why I picked that. This was just an epic submission. at the end of an epic fight. And I don't quite understand most people not picking it,

but I'll let you guys explain yours. But to me, this was a no-brainer. Yeah, it's so funny how this stuff works in MMA, right? You go into this fight. The natural line of thought, I think, for most of us is, if Glover's going to win, he's going to win by submission. If you're going to win, it's going to be a knockout. And then we end up getting whatever the chaos we saw was with this.

A.K., was this a tough decision for you? Not really. Again, I love the fight so much. I know we're going to have another opportunity to talk about that. And the ending is such a huge part of it as what makes the fight so memorable, so unbelievable. As Jose was talking, I was trying to see how many submission wins your Prasca had before getting that submission of the great Glover-Deshara. The answer is two. He had two submission wins.

And according to Tapology, the two guys he submitted this early in his career were zero and zero and zero. So not exactly like an illustrious list of submission conquests that our Europe Prakashka had before getting that big win at UFC 275. This is not a submission that people will be replaying and showing video up for tutorials in classes online. This is not a naked choke application. It was just a man reaching down and saying, I have to find a way to win this fight. and I'm just going to grab a neck and squeeze and choke with all the power I have.

And God, please let the other man tap. And sure enough, after this war of attrition, I mean, if that choke had happened in round one, there's no way it finishes Glover. Round five, after everything we had seen, after everything that they had put each other through, that they had put themselves through, that's how you get, again, this incredibly unlikely submission, the best submission of the year. One of the best submissions, somehow, despite it, if you just look at it in isolation, it's really a nothing of a submission.

But somehow it is one of the best submissions I think any of us have ever seen. So yeah, for me, it was an easy choice. But yeah, lists like this are tough. Every year, it's the most diverse range of choices. It's the longest list of honorable mentions because quality competition, what promotion did it happen in?

Had we seen the move before? In this case, a move, a finish we've seen, a finishing submission, we've seen 10,000 times in MMA and somehow just very, very special given everything that led up to it. So somehow the obvious choice for number one and also somehow a strange, strange, strange choice

for number one. It's funny you say the obvious choice because I think I agree with you on that. Jose seemed to agree with you on that. But Jed, you actually didn't even have Gehry on your ballot entirely. You went Jessica Androge versus Amanda Lemos for your number one.

But Yeri didn't even make it. your top five where what was your thought process i guess behind all this so let me start by saying i have no issues with this being the submission of the year uh and i get it totally understand all the arguments put forth and maybe i'm just wrong on this one submission of the year for me is always the one where i can have the most fun um because it's so subjective and i mostly just kind of like to favor really cool stuff and things if you do something that's never been done before you're going to a lot of love for me. And you know what's never been done? No woman has ever hit a standing arm triangle choke in the UFC. And frankly, probably has never done that in like Bellator or a major

mixed martial arts organization. And Jessica And Drog just went did the damn thing. And not against some can. Like Amanda Limos can fight. We have seen that she is good at this. And Jessica and Drogh just literally throttled her to death. So it took my number one spot because I think it's the it's the most unique of the submissions this year that I'm going to remember. And to be frank, all of the stuff kind of that AK was saying, I docked a lot of points for me from Yeri. The biggest takeaway from the Yerey Glover won. And again, if that's yours, cool, no issues.

That I do not remember that fight as, man, that was really sick submission. That fight is, oh, that's like maybe the best fight of all time. That might be the best fight I've, a fist fight I've ever seen. and there is a submission that is ancillary to the entire thing functionally. Whereas the Lim Ocean Drive-Fright, it's entirely that. And maybe this is against the spirit of it, I don't know, but it didn't feel right to give. Like, if Yuri had finished him with like a go-go plot at the end of it, greatest submission that's ever been had ever in the history of the world,

and I'll stand it forever. But finishing it would just sort of a tired, R&C doesn't feel like that merits the same, especially when not to get ahead of ourselves. I picked that fight for fight of the year because it was the best fight of the year. So it felt a little bit like I'm just double rewarding this fight. And if you're going to double reward a fight,

that's a hell of a fight that deserves it. But I started to spread the love about for something where the submission is more forward to, the experience as opposed to just part of the overall thing. It's an interesting debate. It's an interesting argument. But I would say to me, the submission makes the experience of this fight, because the fight itself was already incredible, right?

The fight itself was an all-time classic. But if that fight just ends their decision and Glover wins, because Glover was ahead on the scorecards, I don't think we're revering it in the same way. You don't think so? I think that that whole fight, I was just like, this is bananas and it was also like however that fight ended the submission this that's 100% fair but to me the submission was the cherry on top of that delicious sunda is just like is it amazing

this is genuinely amazing that i'm watching because also to get glover to sherra a man who we know is extraordinarily good at this at grappling to get him to that spot where he is willing to quit where he is willing to relinquish his title to like you said a very tired rnc that's an incredible place to get to. So that's, that's, I guess, where I was coming from. I get what you're saying, and I don't, is this going to sound like I'm nagging it and I really don't want it to be that way? I feel like there's a little bit too much given to the, he submitted Glover narrative. Yes, he did. Glover's a great grappler, but like, that could have just as easily been like a series of left hands. It was not, as we all have established, this technical masterpiece. It was both

men left their souls in the cage and Glover happened to be on the bottom at the final stanza of it. So that's why the submission detracts a little bit. If Yeree had just punched him a bunch and gotten a stoppage that way, I feel like that was in play.

I don't feel like that was a finish because Yere's just like super good at R&Cs or whatever. It was everything that went into it. And frankly, this is probably a weakness of mine because I think I super detract for club and subs because as I'm looking back on it now,

I do not have our third place finisher, Islamachchev versus Charles Olivero on my list. That's probably just straight wrong. And I think a lot of it is because that's a club and sub. Like he hit him on the feet and then finished him. But kind of as I'm parsing through it right now, I'm like, that's going to be one of the submissions I remember the most of this year.

He submitted Charles Olivero, which not anyone can do. Like, that's a really good one. And I think it's just, if your submission comes after other parts of violence, I'm probably not going to view it as much as submission as I am the totality of the circumstances. You know what? I'm actually glad that you just brought that up because let's end with that and then we'll move on to the next category.

But Casey, bringing you in here. I was surprised that you and I were the only two that had Islam over Charles on our ballots, at least on this panel, right? That ends up as our number three. So obviously others on the website didn't. But others on the website did, I should say. But on this panel, it's just you and I. You put that as your number one, though.

So if you could tell me why, I would love to hear it. Well, I didn't have Yuri Glover in my top five at all, first of all, because I think what what AK pretty much said, it was a fight. That wasn't a submission. That was, I mean, there was no Gracie breakdown on that submission. There was nothing technically correct about that. when my criteria for submission the year, like, it's got to be technically

awesome. And Maachev's, and I disagree a little bit of Jed, too, because I really think originally I did think it was a club and stuff, but then I rewatched it. And it was just kind of a shot that dropped him. He wasn't out, but that was very classic Charles Oliver. You know, he gets hit. I'm going to recover on the ground. But Islam

just went, F it, and he dove right down there and did just a beautifully, technically perfect arm triangle. And that's I reward that. I just, I don't, I don't need spectacular like go-go's buggy chokes or anything to go submission in the year. I just want to see technically perfect submissions over high-level competition that aren't, you know, basically at one percent energy level, which whichever was that to me. And that's why, and obviously the stakes

of the fight too. I mean, if Charles Oliver wins that fight, you know, we're talking, oh, maybe he is better than Habib, but he lost that fight clearly. And now we're, it's. living in the Islam Mahachab era right now. So storyline-wise, the opponent, just technically perfect submission, that's why it is my number one. Yeah, I mean, stealing the title away from the all-time submission leader

with a crazy submission like that. It's hard to fault that at all. But in the end, it is Deerea Prohashka over Glover-Techerra that takes submission of the year for 2022. Back to you, Mike. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need,

delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Gold tenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ.

Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. Man, what a fight it was between two hundred, hard-nosed veterans as we go from the matchup that will be in highlight videos for years to come to the newcomers who set the bar very high for their careers moving forward. It's time to give away the award for the 2022 rookie of the year. Now this award goes to a fighter who signed with a major

organization, made their promotional debut in 2022, and with that made just a giant statement in their first 12 or less months with said major promotion. A lot of great options to choose from this year, but here are the finalists, the nominees, for the 2022 M.MA fighting rookie of the year. Jack Della Madalena. Mohamed Makhayev. Jailton Almeida.

Raul Rossas Jr. Kyo Barallio. And the 2022 rookie of the year is Jelton Almeida with his three wins and three finishes in the UFC Octagon in

2022. Now before we head on over to Shaheen Al-Shadi and the fantastic MMA Fighting Awards Roundtable crew let's hear from the man himself. The 22 rookie of the year, Jelton Almeida.

I'm glad by my fight. I'm a lot about by the Premier of Revellaation of the year, 2002. 2003, promise. Gras to get this victory on FC, in Vias Rapids. And, thank you. In January, we'll get more one victory and to get more than 2002.

And Bahia is moor in a head and amass on the ground. Oos! All right, this is always a fun one, rookie of the year, fellas. Another category that was incredibly diverse on our ballots, but really it felt like there was a consensus top three.

And it was just whoever you liked among those street. Jailton Almeida, taking six votes out of 11 for the website, taking our number one spot. And then as you can see here up on this table, Jack, Della, Mattelena, getting two votes, first place votes. He's number two. Mahama Mahiav with one first place vote. He is number three. And then Ralph Roses Jr., the 18-year-old, and Calabarallo, rounding out the group there. A.K., how did you approach this one, and how did you end up with who ended up being our number one, Jailton, Almeida? a lot of good options this year.

Full disclosure, I should tell people, I've kind of been in a culture war behind the scenes between wanting this to be like the breakthrough fighter of the year award. I just feel like it gives more options as opposed to just saying, you know, who made a debut for a major promotion in a certain, in a calendar year. But it worked out really well this year. I think there's at least seven or eight solid names you could have had in your top five and even hovering around the top three without issue. So I had to go with my gut.

I had to go with a guy who like I have just been probably on the bandwagon since his first fight. I had to go to Jelton Almeida. I mean, this guy, he just looks like a champion. He has everything that we look for in a future champion. That grappling ability, he's got a great physique. There's a, he's mature enough. He's 31, so he's experienced. Like, he's in his prime. He's not old. He's got almost 20 fights under his belt. So, you know, calling him a rookie almost seems disingenuous. But again, for the purposes of this award, and as far as seeing him step up against, you know, UFC level of competition, he's a very, very worthy rookie of the year candidate. People can question the competition, but you can't question the results, just finishing

people left and right. He beat the pleasure man, Anton Tercali, which is just fantastic. I mean, listen, people don't say what they want about Tercali, but when you submit the pleasure man in dominant fashion, you're going to be a front runner for rookie of the year. So I'm probably projecting ahead here. I'm probably giving him extra points because I think he will be. a UFC champion, whether it's at heavyweight, as he seems to be planning to do right now, or if it's at light heavyweight, which I think makes sense for him in the future.

Everything is just ACEs for Lameda, super exciting, again, not even really a prospect, again, 31 years old, but a super exciting newcomer and a legitimate contender. And he'd be ranked higher if he could have probably stepped into the cage one more time. If he stepped into the cage one more time, really, we might be talking about him, top five fighter of the year. So just making a number one rookie of year is almost underselling how talented this guy is. Yeah, I saw it the same as you, Jed. You did as well.

Are you all aboard the Jelton Al-Meda train here? Yeah, this one honestly was razor close. So our previous two categories, I felt pretty good about where I was at on my vote. This and our runner-up, I battled really hard. I value activity in this award, which is, that can be problematic because if you make your debut at the end of the year, like Rao Rousseau, Rousseau, Jr., you are functionally not going to hit my ballot. Fault one time, that's that I'm just not going to go with that because, like, I don't know, maybe you suck. You just had one good fight and then you're going to suck, and it's going to go. But if you've had three fights in the year, like Jailton Alameda did, like Jack Delamadalanta did, I can feel really confident that,

you're going to be a going concern in this organization. I ultimately favor Jailton, in part because his division sucks, if that makes any sense. So he's more fun. But like, if you just head-to-head Jack Della Madelena and Jailton Al-Meda,

JDM has faster finishes in a better division over better competition. And like has a really realist, like very real argument to take this. I'm favoring Jailton because as good as I think JDM looked this year. Some of this is projection. And it's like at some point,

he's just fighting in a freaking shark tank. And so he's going to have to, he might not pay this off down the line. He may just be a Brandon Thatch, you know, a guy who is fun and hangs around or whatever, but isn't the top. Jailton Almeida,

for all intents and purposes, looks like he is the truth at heavy or light heavy, whichever way he wants to go. And that kind ended up being the tiebreaker for me because he has been nothing. short of perfect in the cage in 2022. Well, I mean, can I just can I throw in one correction first?

Absolutely. La Rul Rosas Jr. did not fight one time in 2022. He actually fought six times in 2022, one time in the UFC. So I did cheat. I did cheat a little bit. For the purposes of rookie of the year, do those other five count?

Well, I cheated and yes, I counted them. I'm not supposed to, according to our criteria. I'm definitely not going to count the Tijuana fight nights or wherever the hell he was fighting. Oh, ultimate Warrior Challenge. Excuse me. Oh, it's UWC. I'm for sure not factoring that into my company.

Anyway, he finished all those guys in Ultimate Warrior Challenge. So I give him points six and O, one and O in the UFC and plus contender series. But yes, six and no in 2022. Jack Tell of Madelainea knocked out Danny Robertson in like two minutes. Yes, that's true. My one and two were as close to interchangeable as possible. And God knows I love the guy voted third. but his resume is just not as good as those two.

Yeah, I mean, as you said, there seemed to be a top two for most of us, but there is a third man out here who also went 3-0. And Jose, he got your number one vote. Muhammad Maheim, a guy who I've called a future champion, Jed's called a future champion, aka, AK hates young people and only loves old people. Mike Heck is called the future two division champion. Mike Haq has called him a future two division champion. So why was Muhammad your pick?

because I'm not an absolute idiot and pick Jailton Alameda. That's why, because you guys all would have, he could be that, he should be that. He could be that. He's your number two. Mohamed Mahayev was, if we're talking about this being, rookie of the year being this big athletic achievement, of these three, and apparently the top two are no-brainers. Of these three, which one went from unranked to ranked this year?

one of them did. One of them actually finds themselves in the UFC's top 15, and that is Mahab and Mahab. He's also drumming up a lot of interest because I obviously run our social media accounts a lot and our social media, Muhammad Mahayev, if you tweet about Jack Della Madalana,

J. Elton Ahmedahmaida and Mohameda, what do you think he's getting the biggest reaction? It's Muhammad Mahayev. Which of these three UFC fighters needed his own security team because all these people have feuds with him in the fighter hotel. Muhammad Mahamahev checks all the boxes. And yes,

like level of competition, whatever. Like, Jail Talmad is doing what he should be doing to this level of competition. Jack Delah, Madalana is improving every single fight. I was very impressed with Muhammad Mahi

because I've said this for a long time. Fighters that face adversity and then can pull out the win, that's kind of the last boss in the these in the skill set tree like are you good at striking are you good at grappling wrestling cardio whatever how do you face adversity is always the thing that kind of puts you over the edge into these future champions like contender category and mohaman mahaev actually you know facing some sort of adversity in his last fight against malcolm gordon was very impressive to me

and then he comes back and goes i want to fight branroi velle alex prez and emerald baza like next month he seemed down for so mahaban mahaev checks all the boxes that you guys said that jack dale and madalana and jailton al-mada he's just ahead in all of them in my mind because in one year from now of these three which one do you think could probably be fighting for a championship it's maham and mahaev whether he talks himself into it or not is another thing but i think i truly think mahomahev of these three has the best chance of being a champion also jelton on having like that catchweight fight or whatever and he wasn't necessarily a heavy weight it was like a short notice fight now he's just kind of staying a heavyweight that kind of

bumped him down for me a bit in my mind but he's number two that's fine jack dale and madalana's number three but to me it was an absolute no-brainer it was moham mahaia of being number one i mean i will i will point out one or two things here very quickly in terms of the ufc rankings i would say there are maybe 15 flyweights in the entire ufc so there's probably a reason Mahama Hama Haya, who's ranked. Also, Jelton Almeida is ranked and the only rankings that do matter. I will say that as well, the MMA fighting rankings. Also, what are those rankings, Sean?

The MMA fighting global rankings, got it. Yes, yes. Also, if you love guys that have to deal with facing adversity against lesser competition that they should probably blow out of the water, I got a guy for you. His name's Patty Pimblen. He's right here waiting for you, future championship material according to you and these criteria. But I'm just kidding around. Back.

You guys, when you hear what Jose is saying about. Pimla was my rookie year last year. I just want to say that. When you hear what I was I saying about a rookie of the year too. Do you regret any decisions you made? No. All right. Let's keep it moving.

Last thing before we get out of here, I do want to throw it to you Casey because you, once again, went off the board compared to the rest of us. You went to the man who really has only won one major fight this year. Raoul Roses Jr., he was 1 and 0 in the UFC, but he was your number one. Why was that? First of all, I didn't want to, I'm not going to punish you. for basically the calendar. That's all, really.

He came in, well, he's like 12 years old or something in the UFC. I don't know. I know he's not 12, but 18 years old. He just walked through a grown man, a professional UFC fighter, not the best band, not the best band in weight, but still, I ban to weight in the UFC. And to me, I think bantam weight is the toughest division in the sport right now. And he came in with lots of pressure on a pay-per-view,

and the ESPN headliner or whatever, and going to the pay-per-view. And he blew me away, honestly. Is he going to be as good as Madalina or Almeida? I don't know. But the fact that that dude is 18 and lived up to the hype of an 18-year-old and just came in and just completely dominated his opponent. To me, he's what the true essence of what a rookie is.

And yeah, and the problem's all made it. He's like, he's 30-something. I mean, I get it. He's technically a rookie, but by our standards. But I went up at Roses Jr. because to me, he represents what a rookie is. And he showed up and I was thoroughly impressed. The esteemed New York, Rick, also voted at Arroa Roses Jr. number one, Casey. So you're in good company.

Yeah, Roses Jr. was really the most polarizing pick amongst this whole crop here for Rookie of the Year this year. It seemed like half our team didn't have him on their balance at all, but he did get two first place votes, and then the other half of the team did have him on their balance. So ultimately, it goes to Jailton, Almeida. Congratulations to Jailton. We all are very much looking forward to all of these gentlemen and women

on this ballot will do in the future. But let's throw it back to you, Mike. We've got the two big ones coming up. Yes, it's time to award the 2022 fight of the year an award that makes a long-standing cliche very true, doesn't it? It takes two to tango. And in a year with incredible fights filled with technique, pure heart and will, or all of the above in some cases, there can only be one fight that stands above the rest.

So here are your nominees for the 2022 fight of the year. Matush Gamrot versus Armand Sarukion, the main event of UFC Vegas 57, Las Vegas, Nevada. Yuri Prahashka versus Glover Tashara, the main event of UFC 275, Singapore. Hamzat Shemayev versus Gilbert Burns at UFC 273, Volcanovsky versus Korean zombie, Jacksonville, Florida. Stephen Thompson versus Kevin Holland, main event of UFC Orlando. Davis and Figurato versus Brandon Moreno 3. UFC 270 in Ganu versus gone, Anaheim, California. And the 2022 fight of the year is

the main event of UFC 275, Yuri Perhashka versus Glover Tashira for the UFC light heavyweight championship of the world. I'm actually jealous. I can't join this roundtable to recap one of the craziest fights I have ever seen, but I'm always happy to hear from Shaheen Al-Shadi, and the incomparable MMA Fighting Awards roundtable crew. Take it away, gentlemen. All right, and here we are, down to the final two awards, the two big ones.

Fight of the year, first up. And really, fellas, this to me was by far the easiest, or at least one of the two easiest and most straightforward categories of this whole slate this year for me. And it seemed like I wasn't alone. It actually ends up being the only category where all five of us here in this discussion vote for the same pick. Yuri Parasca Glover Tachir gets nine votes, as you can see right now.

Hamzat Shemaiah versus Gilbert Burns steals off the final two first place votes and then rounding out the group Divison Figaredo, Brandon Marino 3, Tias Gamrodot, Armat, Surukian, Stephen Thompson, Kevin Holland, getting in late there. Jose, why was Yuri Prohaska Glover-Teshire, one of the greatest fights I've ever seen in my entire life? Why was this year number one? Well, I'll phrase it like this. Glover-Tosher versus Yuri Parasca in Singapore was the great. greatest fight that I have ever witnessed in person in any promotion, in any way class,

whether it be a main event, whether it be a title fight or not. That is, I've been, I was Cadeside for Yawainan J. J. Jek, Zheng Wei Lee, and it's better than that. It's, it's just, it had everything. It had Glover Tashara just throwing mallets at Uri Pahasca's head. Yerri Pahaska responding with standing elbows and flying knees. I mean, Glover Tashara had full mount like a minute before he got submitted. Like if you look at the like here's how it started, here's how it ended. You could do that in like a 30 second span. And if you show me a clip of round five of your of Scherer on full mount on your

Prahaska, you'd be like, oh yeah, this guy obviously won. And I go, what if I told you 15 seconds from now that Glove to share is getting submitted? You probably wouldn't believe me. This fight was bananas. Like it had everything you want to fight. It had striking, had grappling, had wrestling, it had a thrilling finish. The belt was on the line. There was a title change.

It's a guy that we all talked to Yuri Peraska being this absolute monster of a human being come over from Risen. And how would he fare against high-level competition in the UFC? Starch's Volcanoz-Durner. Like, okay, Volcanoes-Dermere, he might be on the last legs of his career. Just absolutely melt and decapitates Dominic Rays in the follow-up. Didn't age well, considering what we've seen happen to Dominic Rays in his last few fights. How would he do against Glover to share one of the best stories of the previous year, one of the best top games, just one of the heaviest hitters in the UFC light heavyweight division?

How would he fare against someone who all of Glover's strengths seem to be Yer Pahaska's weaknesses? And Yeripaahaska just aced it with flying colors and submitted Gloved to share. This fight was, we're going to be talking about this fight for years as one of the greatest ever. and I pray to God if this fight, if they ever rematch, they will rematch. I'm willing this into existence. I need this to happen again.

It can't be three rounds. It has to be five rounds. I don't care if neither have the belt at the time. They have to rematch at some point because this truly was one of the greatest fights I have ever witnessed, and I'm going to be remembering this fight and telling my grandkids,

like I was Cadeside for a year per Haska versus Glover-Share. It was phenomenal. And I do not. understand how two of our colleagues can pick a different fight. It just, it makes no sense to me. Everything that Hamzat Shemaya, Gilbert Burns had, your Perasca versus Gloveshair just doubled it. Like title fight, five rounds, main event, the time difference is insanity because both of them had to adjust. It was, it was absolutely beautiful and was so violent, and I loved everything about it. Yeah, you know a fight is really good when it ends.

you look around and you're sort of feeling some type of way, and all of a sudden you realize, like, I'm just sweating. Like, I've just been sweaty for no reason. There's no reason I should be sweating right now, but exactly what you said, Jose, the yo-yo nature of this fight. Like, it was almost basically like a five-episode Netflix series, with every round featuring something completely different than the previous round.

I know this isn't MMA necessarily, but in other sports on big comebacks or something like that, you know the charts that the sports websites always push out of like the expected win probability where something will be up here and then all of a sudden something crazy happens and the expected win probably

that people will jump down all the way down there. I would just love to see an expected win probability chart for this fight because I think it would just read like a heartbeat monitor with just up and down,

up and down, up and down. A.K. Jed, Casey, whoever wants to get in here, wax poetic with me. Why was this so good? Oh, A.K. is giving it to me. Then, okay. I think this might be

the best fight of all time. I really, and Sean, that's going to sound like heresy as a fellow stand on the corner of Carlos Condit versus Robillow. There's the best fist fight that's ever happened. This is a real conversation. Like, it is so, for exactly what you said, the win probability chart swings. I was live blogging it, and I didn't even know what to do anymore. It was like it's, it was anarchy for 25 minutes. Your live blogging is a hilarious read in retrospect.

by the way. It's the excitement jumps off the page. It's impossible because like I don't every it's happening here and there. I'm like I don't know what to do with this because there's not a nobody is seizing the momentum. They are just passing it back and forth like like a volleyball. And of all the things that Jose said and I agree with almost all of it, the thing that he said the most preach on. I have no idea how this isn't your fight of the year. because all due respect to Gilbert Byr and Hamzaa Chmaiyev didn't even make my top five maybe I'm wrong whatever this fight is objectively that fight turned to 11 with 10 more minutes like it is all anything that looked cool or fun in that fight happened 17 fold in this with the light heavyweight title of the world on the line it is so complete and if if you're coming for like the most high level technical thing, that's maybe the only thing that's missing from

this. But if what you want out of a fight is to see two men bear their souls and find out who wants it more, like I think that trope is used way too much in combat sports of who wants it more, not in this case, straight up. Like that was not a test of skills. That was a test of will. And Yerey outwilled Glover, which I didn't think could happen. And to watch it play out like that.

that it was one of the very rare times in this sport that it felt like a privilege to be watching in real time. It's the best fight of the year. It's not close. I refuse to accept other arguments for anything else in this. Because it's better than, what was our fight of the year last year? Does anyone have that? That was Justin Gagey, Michael Gailor.

Incorrectly. That fight is, yeah, that probably wasn't a good decision. that fight is good that fight doesn't hold a candle to this one like there is there are at most like four fights

in the history of this sport that I would put in the conversation with this one like at most four and that's probably being overly generous it's the best fight

of the year bar none and one of the very very best fights I've ever seen AK Jed just calls it I mean he has repeated called it, I should say, the greatest fight that he's ever seen possibly.

I'm not ready to go that far for me, Robbie Lauder, Roy McDonald's, will always take that candle just because it transcends just the all-action sort of trope of an all-time fight to me is just what everything around that was just incredible on a different level. But I will say, I mean, light heavyweight is a division that historically has ridiculous fights, right? You have Dan Henderson, Shogun, that whole slew of that whole slew of guys. Anytime Shogun fought. Yeah, as well as I think the standard for a lot of people, John Jones, Alexander Gus,

this to me eclipsed all of them by far. Would you agree? I mean, this is the greatest, at the very least, the greatest UFC championship fight, regardless of division. It's at least the greatest five-round fight, the greatest championship fight, not even just UFC, maybe the greatest championship fight. We've seen it, five-round championship fight. We've seen in MMA history. My rule in life, guys, you know, is MMA is supposed to be fun. I say it all the time. I say it when we're doing award shows, It's like my reminder I want for fans and for us and for the universe. The very concept of May is so ridiculous and so cool.

And at the end of the day, it's supposed to be fun. Once you cut through all the business and once you cut through all the politics, it's supposed to be fun at the end of the day. And I don't know if I've ever had more fun watching a fight. It wasn't the most technical fight. It wasn't like, again, it maybe wasn't the greatest mixing in the martial arts we've ever seen. But my goodness, it was fun. I I I I I the two most fun fights I had watching this year were your pro ask

and gloverte de chera and e.k.C. Leiden and fritz frowneddorf all right those are the two I'm not even I'm not even joking the other was not close yeah exactly one of the fights was close one of them was a complete was complete domination and both set our slack channel a blaze by the way I think if like if people look back because actually I wanted to bring up uh I was looking at our slack conversation for the the the yeary fight and it starts up okay we're kind of just like analyzing the fight, kind of like, oh, who won the first couple of rounds? And then it just breaks down into madness. I start screaming, Yeri, stop throwing kicks slash knees, to which Shaheen responds with just

a big no emoji. Sheehan is having the time of his life. New York Ricks just starts laughing and just says Yeri's fight IQ is amazing. Jed anointed the fight of the year. This is probably in round three. Casey goes, Yeri is the dumbest fighter ever. I love it. A lot of year in round three.

We had nine minutes. It's after I sent that and it only got better. Scrolling down more. At one point, my best friend, Mike Heck, just types out in all caps, why, with four question marks, I believe it was a guillotine. Poor Mike. Mike, the gilly, I'm live blogging the gilly and I'm like, oh my God, that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen in a mixed martial arts.

I write for some reason, I hope Glover test positive for something after this because otherwise I have no idea how any of this is possible. Uh, Jed, you then say it's a top five fight of all time. I'm like, no effing way. All caps, one word, no spaces. Shaheen says that's the best. And, uh, I mean, really, we're just, we're just babbling after that at some point. So, uh, dude, I, I love this fight so much.

It's definitely one of my favorite fights of all time. I think the most fun fight I've ever seen. And, and I don't want to, I'm not going to be so harsh. The two voters on our, uh, in our panel who I did not give it number one. I will. Go ahead, guys. Clear, clear cut number one. my ballot. Damon, Guillermo,

Giam A. Cruz, you all are some suckers. Look, there you go. All the way on board with Jose, here's what I'll say. You could sell me on a separate fight, the fight I picked as my number two.

It would be wrong. But if you wanted to tell me that Suruki and Gamrot was the fight of the year because it was so highly technical and Yeri Glover wasn't, I can at least buy that argument. You cannot sell me that the,

off-brand version of Uri Glover, because that's what Chimaev Gilbert was. It was 10 less minutes and not as good of action, but the same core concepts involved. There is no logical way to make that argument unless you really, really just don't want to give it to Yerey Glover for whatever reason. Well, the rest of us did.

I want to chime in to just be good. Because usually you kind of guys, you bring me in as a contrarium. I'm like, no, that fight sucked. This is no. Because you're 47 years. old. I just want to repeat everything with you guys said. Actually, actually, about the Gamrods Zerukian fight.

Gamrods Zerukian was the best mixed martial arts match of the year. This was the best fight. It was a freaking fight. And I loved it. And back to what AK said, I don't think I've had more fun in years watching a fight than this fight. It had freaking everything. Back and forth.

Just stupid. What did I write in the Slack channel? Yuri's the stupid spider. Yuri's the dumbest fighter alive or something, and then I love it right after. Yeah. I don't, I've only watched the fight twice. I need to watch it again. I need to invite all my friends who've never seen the sport.

Come over and watch that fight. That's what makes this fight special. I feel like you can show this to someone who has never seen it before, someone who's been watching like us, someone who's a lapsed fan. You could show it to any fan, and they will love this fight. That's what I transcends. There was a gentleman a couple years ago before the pandemic happens that DM'd me. I don't have no recollectioner.

I had no idea who this individual was. He goes, I'm about to smoke a bunch of weed. Give me five fights that I should watch. And I gave them like five just really fun fights. This is now at the top of the list of fights that I would have given this gentleman. I think that I think AK makes really good point, which I had never considered. This probably is the fight. I would give if someone was like, hey, I don't know anything about MMA.

If you're like, I want to get my friend into MMA, like, for as much as I goddamn love and respect, lull or conda, as I still think maybe it's best part of all time. I agree. You have to know a little bit more. You can turn this on at any point in time. It doesn't matter. If you just are stumbling across it on TV and it's like, oh, it's two minutes into round three, chaos is going to be ensuing.

and it's just going to get reckless, like immediately afterward. There has never been a fight that, that anarchic. And it's the best one for that purpose, certainly. It's the Don Fry Takayama of our era, frankly, right? Of this area, where you could just throw it on at any point to anybody, and they are instantly going to be locked onto the TV, and there's just no wait room. And like I say that saying that Robbie Lala, Rory McDonald is my favorite fight of all time,

that is very much a sense. slow burn. Like if you throw that on to someone who doesn't know M.A., they're not going to really enjoy that that much, especially the first few rounds. This, completely different story. So in case you couldn't tell. And Fry Tokayama was like five minutes long. This is 24. It's just incredible. Incredible. Congratulations to both men. In case you couldn't tell, we are massive fans of this fight here at MMA fighting. But we have one category left, and it is the biggest of all. So back to you, Mike. to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what?

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but in most people's eyes, this was a two-horse race on who will be the one to become the next fighter of the year. Much like Kamar Usman won the award in 2021. But did you feel the same? Did you feel like this is a two-horse race? Let's find out as we present the nominees for MMA Fighting's 2022 Fighter of the Year. Alexander Volkanowski.

Islam Makachev. Zhang Wei Li. Alex Pereira, Leon Edwards. And the 2022 fighter of the year is the UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira, capped off by his championship victory over Israel Adesania at UFC 281. Now, this is a tough one because Alexander Volkovsky,

in my opinion, had two of the best title defenses in UFC history, but in the end, Pereira entering the year on ranked, beating three very game opponents and then winning the title in the end sealed the deal for a lot of us and this could end up being the most divisive award

in the end in all honesty. Maybe it won't. But for the final time we'll check in with the roundtable panel but before that to accept the Fighter of the Year award the UFC Middleweight Champion of the world Alex Pereira. Fahua, look so, passing

here to share to you that I was elected the year of the year of the year

and you see the work I did you did you were three luts, of these

two knockouts and one of them where I consagree champion of FC. I'm very very

everybody, thank to all thank MMA Fight for the title. We're

we're together we're and there it is Alex Pereira your 2022

fighter of the year for MMA fighting and it was almost unanimous. 10 out of 11 votes for first place votes going to Alex Pereira, who was 3 at 0 on the year. He starts the year unranked, not even really in the conversation. He starts the year, his biggest win is over a Greek fellow who I certainly can't pronounce his name right now, at least in MMA. And all of a sudden he ends the year.

He is the UFC middleweight champion. Jed, let's start with you. Alex Pereira, he was 2022 in many ways. Why was he your fighter of the year? Because of exactly that. I said at the top, the thing I value the most is when I look back on the year, what are the moments that are going to stand out? Leon's headkick is going to stand out for me.

Pereira, we didn't talk about it. He didn't get a lot of love in the CO of the year award, even though the Adasanya one is a very substantive and meaningful chaos, and the Strickland one is just hilarious. One of the funniest things has happened all year. going 3 and O going from MMA anonymity basically to fulfilling the purpose

that he was brought here for. He was brought here. No, no bones about it. He was brought here to challenge Izzy. They were going to give him the simplest path to it and they did and he checked all those boxes and then he did the damn thing.

And I don't, I don't know how he isn't. We're going to talk to one rogue panelist who will tell us how he isn't. But when I look back at this year, the thing that I will remember the most is that Alex Pereira told everybody, hey, MMA sucks and kickboxing is much better, apparently, because he can just own this sport now. That's what he did. In the span of like 13 months, if you factor in his first U.S.

Fight was in like November of 2021. Just an unbelievable run from him. He would have for sure been rookie of the year last year. think if like we did this in February or whatever instead. So unbelievable year, he's the new guy. He's a new middleweight champion. How is he not your guy? Jed, this man, this man was part-timing it until 2021.

He was part-timey it. He was still fighting in glory title fights as of 2021. He did a cup of coffee with MMA, 2015, 2016. So I was like, okay, that was fun. Back to kickboxing where I'm a god and where I'm making money. And then makes an appearance for LFA. this one shot appearance, it takes this guy out,

does not fight again in MMA for another year. But within that year, from 2020 to 2021, the buzz was building because everyone picked up on the, oh, this is the guy who beat Israelida-Desanya

in kickboxing twice. Highly real knockout. This is after he made the LFA appearance. Gwe had written a bunch of stories about him. And there was that swell. And we talked about them almost on the, like the periphery of some of our other He's a side show.

He's kind of like a side show. He's a show. He's a division a little bit. Yeah, and we're all saying, cool, UFC signed him. We know why they did. Outside chance he gets to Israel-Edisina fight. Probably doesn't happen. We're kind of looking some of the names ahead of them.

And it's like, ah, he's got to get past like a Derek Princeton or like a Marvin Vittori. Like, these are tough guys. What are the chances he can get past them? But huge props to the UFC matchmaking team. This is how you build a fun title fight and a compelling contender is you, you clear the path for them. You give them the names that they can be. Listen, they did this with Conor McGregor.

How did Conner McGregor happen? They didn't book him against Chad Mendez right away. He worked his way, excuse me, he worked his way up to Chad Mendez. And that's a fight that if he had fought Chad Mendez in like his second UFC fight, Chadmanus probably beats him. It's probably just, it's probably the momentum just isn't there yet. But you build up a guy the right way, you put him in a position to succeed, and a guy who, again, in his eighth professional fight,

again, who had fought three times in MMA before. 2020 is now a UFC champion and even more illustrious, the MMA fighting 2022 fighter of the year. It sounds weird saying it. I just said it. I said it really slowly to try and make it easier for myself. This is bizarre. Because last year, our Friday of the year was Kamaru, right? Kamar Usman.

That is correct. And now look at this. Kamar Usman, Alex Pran. It seems, it feels weird. It doesn't look right. I'll go one step further. even on that, AK, because I wrote Fighter of the Year, I'll argue, our feature on this for this year. And in doing so, I was looking back at some numbers, some past features. In many ways,

this is historically unprecedented, what we just watched Alex Praer do, because not only did he come in here different sport entirely, having to learn a different skill set entirely, with virtually no experience, he came in here at 34 years old with so much mileage on his odometer already. And again, with just not the skill set that you would expect from somebody like this, I went through all of our past winners of Fight of the Year for MMA fighting. Not one of them. Not one. You could make a case to even have a close comparison to what Alex did, because all of them were already main players by the time their year started. By the time their particular year started, they were either a UFC champion like Kamar Usman or Daniel Korme was. They were either

interim champion like Max Holloway was the year he won it. They were either a top contender already like Israel Ad Sano. Act is still one of the worst of all time. I'll never forgive our Max. That was just an awful one. They were in the picture. Devis and Figuero, Israel Asana, you can go on and on down the list of our fight of the year winners. They were main

players already by the time the year started. Alex Pereiro was out here fighting Bruno Silva for his first fight this year for God's sakes. This is the man who has the least amount of experience to ever hold a UFC strap, at least in MMA since Brock Lezzer. It's just unreal.

And yet, if I really, I felt in my bones when we were doing this vote, this was going to be the only unanimous vote because all the other categories felt like, I mean, I'll say, fight of the year I felt like it was going to be an animus too, but some people made some decisions. This one felt like a shoe in, though. I mean, it was Alex Pereira's year, 3 and O, doing what he did. But there's always one. And this time, our one was Mr. Jose Youngs who pulls out Alexander Volcanowski for his

number one choice this year. Make the case. Now, when I chose Alex Volcanowski, I wasn't a knock on Alex Pareda. And I also thought that I didn't know I would be the only one. I just was more impressed with Alex Volcanowski's 2020 than Alex Pareda. If I, when Alex, when Alex Brada won, I was like, yeah, cool, that makes sense. He had a very historic year. No one's ever accomplished what he did. But if we're just talking about like professional prize fighter, like champion of the year, I just won't Alex Volcanowski because I was more impressed with dismantling the Korean zombie and then beating Max Holloway in a way that we have never really seen happen at Featherway.

Yes, Volcanowski beat Max twice before. But the first fight was a back and forth contest. That was very, very fun to watch. The second fight wasn't as exciting, but a lot of people think. Alex Volcanowski won, but he's 2 and O against Max Holloway. What does he have to gain in fighting someone that you're 2 and O against? And not only did he do it, he just dismantled Max Holloway. That was not a close fight whatsoever.

And this was a Max Holloway that a lot of us consider. I don't, and I'm not saying the people on this panel do. A lot of people think that Max Holloway is the best fatherweight ever. I still am on the Jose Aldo Trun. Max Holloway is still on the Jose Aldo train for, as a matter of fact. but a lot of people put him. The Joseo is the right train. I have to throw it.

The Joseo is the right chain. But I'm not going to argue. If someone wants to argue that, oh, Max Holloway beat Josealo twice and has all these other impressive wins, like his resume is just better in the UFC. Fine. I don't care. But a lot of people thought Max Holloway was essentially the undercrowned champion of this division.

And Max Holloway went out there and just, you know, beat the brakes off of Calvin Cater. And that when he was no look slipping and punching and then followed up with a, a fight of the year candidate against Yeya Rodriguez and in a fight that I don't think he needed to take but he took it anyway and I was on record saying when we did our preview show for that fight because

it was international fight week. I said Alex Volcanowski versus Max Holloway 3 on paper was the greatest co-main event in the history of the UFC and just competitively not in terms of hype or anything like that because obviously Ron DeRousey's been in a lot of co-main events but I said

Volcanowski Holloway was going to be very close both There's no arguments like Alex Volcanowski had said, like, oh, I got all these weird sleeping pills. And you saw it woke me up. And I just wasn't on my game. There was no empty bubble of Abu Dhabi flying across the worlds. This was, there was no Max Holloway and maybe not taking Alex Volcanowski seriously in the point fighting thing that Volcanowski had. Both of these men had had enough tape on the other one to know what they were going to do.

And Alex Volcanowski just showed why he's the number one pound for pound fighter on MMA fighting's global ranking. only reigns that matter in the sport of mixed martial arts. I was just more impressed with Alex Volcanowski than Alex Brata. Alex Brada had the more historic year by far. But in terms of just a fighter, I was more impressed with Volcanowski's wins. But I'm not going to argue that Prada is the number one fighter of the year. It's just he wasn't on my list. How does it hit you guys?

It's reasonable. I don't agree. But that's probably because some part of me has turned into our website's preeminent Alexander Volcanovokovsky hater. Not really sure how it happened, but definitely a mantle I have. The other part of it is if you were strictly looking at how you looked in cage, it's very tough to argue that anybody looked better in the cage than Volcanovsky did. He gets docked a couple of points for me specifically because God love Korean zombie.

He old. and that was not shocking to me to watch him dismantle an old man. And I am not one of the people who thought Max beat him the second time around, and I was fairly confident he would beat him again because I think he will beat him every time they fight. He beat him more thoroughly.

And so he ended up not even be my number two this year. I slotted him. I believe I slotted him at three. He confirmed that. Sure did behind Zhang Wiley-Yi, or Wiley Zhang, because if you're talking about two performances where

buddy, you are dismantling people, Wiley Zhang just ran over Yuanhi and Jacek and Carlos Sparza. So for me, those were better, but I got no huge issues. Because certainly when we look back on this year,

I think Pereira is the number one story, but Volcanovsky is one of the five fighters of this year. But we should talk to our other panel, Sheen, because I have so much respect for him. I wish that I had the temerity to not include Volcanovsky on my list at all. I wish I could have done it. This man had the power to do it. Mr. A.K. Lee right here who had perhaps the most unusual fighter-in-year ballot of all of us,

went off the board with several of his picks. Please. State your case. I was going to say, Jed, you may not be the number one Alexander Volkanowski-Hater because he didn't even make my ballot. That's not because I hate Alexander Volcanozky. If anything, I love him too much, maybe. Okay?

Let me finish. Let me finish. I have been on the Alexander Volkanowski is the far and away best featherweight for a while. So for him to dispose of a Korean zombie who we now, if we didn't know it before, we now know definitely has like one foot out the door. It was a short notice opponent. I'm not like knocking Volkanowski for that being his first hell defense of the year. It's, you know, he was supposed to fight someone else and, um, and a zombie stepped in. It's great.

We were all happy to see zombie get, um, another title shot. And going in, I did not think zombie would fare so poorly. But now in retrospect, I think we see how good Volk is, how much zombies diminished and just how huge that gap was. So that's not like a, like a great title defense, not a huge feather in Volcanopsies cap for me. Um, just because it's a title defense, like, it doesn't make it, it doesn't put it, like, take it to this other level for me.

And the Holloway fight, like the third hallway fight, I did want to see him fight a third time, precisely to get the result we did, which was to show that, like, Wolkenovsky's just better than him. Their second fight was awesome, very close fight. I hated people calling it a robbery. I hated people not understanding

how that fight was scored. So for me, it's like, it just didn't add that much to me to see him beat Holloway a third time. Shutting him out is amazing. Max Holloway, one of the greatest fighters of all time. But, like, it was just another,

like, he had two great talent defenses. I'm not denying that. And is now, I think, our pound for pound, number one, on our pound for pound list. So great achievement took that spot. I would not have predicted that going to 2022. I just wasn't as blown away by the sort of the Alexander Volcanovsky arc this year as I was by some of the people that made my list. I just want to chime in real quick and say, Volcanowski almost didn't make my top five. I think he came in at number five.

on my list. And I think the problem that he ran into is almost what AK said. I love him too much. And I think this is what you go to last year, 2021, um, uh, Valentina Shevchenko, Shevchenko did not make our top five list, even though she had two completely dominant finishes at a championship level last in 2021 and didn't make our top five. And I feel like this is a kind of problem of Volcanowski is that he's just so good. It was almost expected. And I feel I kind of punished him for that. And maybe that's bad criteria. My part, I'm not sure. But does that make sense? I think I just have such high expectations for him. Yeah. And listen, if he if he beats Makachev, immediately Rockets number one on my list and it will take a lot to knock him off the 2023 chart.

I mean, I'll be super high on that. That's that's kind of the next thing I need to see for him. So maybe I'm being harsh. But again, I went with storyline. So just for full disclosure, my other picks that did make my list, Sergey Pavlovich, Drew Dober, Brendan Lochnain, all guys who had just had a lot of fun watching in 2022, great storylines. I may have merged. I may have been a little cheeky here and kind of merged the non-existent breakthrough Fighter of the Year award with our fighter of the year list. So again, I admit, much like with I had done with our rookie the year list and Roroglosis Jr. I may have bent the rules a little bit. But I went with storylines. I went with what will I remember the most from 2022.

And Volcanovsky's tile defenses will be up there. But the leaps that some of these fighters made were just so impressive to me that I had to throw them on. You're going to remember Drew Dober's 2022. You won't? Hey, come on. Drew Dover had up on 2020. He had maybe the three, like three of the most like exciting finishes of the year.

I mean, that's. Drew Dover is making my all-star team for the year for sure. But like. I'll remember it for sure. More than I'll remember the Volkanowski zombie fight. I mean, it was a great telephersoners. If Volkinovsky fights either of those two dudes in November or earlier this month instead of back in the summer, Dober feels recent. That feels like a recency bias.

He literally snuck in there at the end. He literally snuck in there with the Bobby Greenocko. Super proud of you for the Brendan one because now officially the PFL has some representation. By the way, by the way, Brendan is essentially representing all these great PFL stories we had this year. Lessa Pacheco obviously could have been the pick as well. I thought OEM was a great story. Rob Wilkinson, just becoming a reliable fight of the night like banger and then winning a million dollars. So you could have picked a lot of names from PFL.

I sell it on Brendan, of course, because there's that long arc from his contender series appearance and everything. But yeah, just had to give some love to the PFL because this was a great year for that promotion. Absolutely, A.K. And really, what a great year in general, right? For MMA for all of us. It was such spectacular performances all across the board. but in the end, the year does belong to Alex Pereira. He is our 2022 fighter of the year 3-0,

and it is well-deserved. Congratulations to Alex. Back to you, Mike. Congratulations to Alex Pereira and to all of our winners and nominees. The in-cage product in the sport was wild and crazy from start to finish in 2022, and I have a feeling 2023 will be no different, I'm sure.

And for those wondering, the upcoming Bellator versus Rising Card on New Year's Eve, that card, those fights, they will be in the mix for the 2023 awards. So don't worry, we're not forgetting about that event by any means, but that will do it for 2022 in our awards for MMAfighting.com. It has been quite a year for us as well over at the website. So much content has come your way, so much event coverage has come your way, some newer shows and concepts,

and I certainly would plan on much more great stuff to be on tap for all of you. with MMA fighting throughout 2023. And we thank all of you for checking out our 2022 award show. I am Mike Heck and for all of us at MMA Fighting, we thank you for checking out our coverage, podcasts, interviews, shows,

and everything else in between. And we wish you a fantastic rest of the holiday season and a happy new year. Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.