MMA Fighting - 2023 Year-End Awards Spectacular: Celebrating The Best Of The Best From One Of MMA's Craziest Years Ever

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

The MMA world will never forget the insanity of 2023. Join the MMA Fighting staff as we look back at the biggest highs, breakout stars, and most unbelievable moments of 2023 in a special year-end retrospective. We’re honoring all the nights that defined one of the craziest 12-month stretches this sport has ever seen — and handing out plenty of hardware in celebration of the knockouts, submissions, fights, fighters, and rookies who made sure 2023 was a year that will go down as one of the wildest ever. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Eric Jackman @NewYorkRic Follow Mike Heck @MickHeck_JR Follow Josè Youngs @JoseYoungs 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

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. Welcome to MMA Fighting's 2023 Year End Awards. And now, your host, Mike Heck.

Well, hello there, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MMA Fighting Year End Award Show for 2020. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us once again. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic end to the year, which in our world of mixed martial arts was one of the most chaotic and unpredictable years in the history of the sport. We had multiple champion versus champion fights. We had massive underdogs cashing in, sensational finishes, some pretty terrible trash talk, but also moments where fighters just straight came out of nowhere at the beginning of the year, only to end the year at the top of the mountain.

And today, we celebrate the best MMA had to offer in 2023 as we give our awards for Fighter of the Year, fight of the year, rookie of the year, and of course the always popular awards, the submission of the year and knockout of the year. And speaking of knockout of the year, that's where we're going to begin, ladies and gentlemen. Let's kick this off with some of the most vicious COs of 2023, but who, according to the M.A. Fighting Voting Panel, had the best of the best. Here are the nominees for the 2023 knockout of the year. Robbie Lawler by left hook in his final fight against Nico Price at UFC 290. Patchy Mix by step in knee over Rafion Stotz at Bellator 295.

Israel Adasagna by counter right hand against Alex Pereira to regain the middleweight title at UFC 287. Josh Emmett by overhand right against Bryce Mitchell at UFC 296. Justin Gaichi by headkick over Dustin Porre to win the BMF title at UFC 291. And MMA Fighting's 2023 knockout of the year winner is Israel Adasanya, knocking out Alex Pereira, exacting some revenge against a longtime rival in the process to regain the UFC middleweight title and close the show at a very fun UFC 287 event in Miami back in April. Now, MMAfighting.com, not only is it a great website, but we are open books, my friends. We don't just come to these decisions willy-nilly.

A lot of thought goes into this. So let us introduce for the first time on this year's award show, deputy editor of MAAfighting.com, Shaheen Alshadhi, and our tremendous panel to discuss how we came to this decision. Shaheen, take it away, my friend. Thanks, Mike. Let's kick off the panel for your 2003 MMA fighting year-end awards special. And I love the panel we got this year.

We got the whole gang, the Road Warrior, Jose Youngs, for the on-site perspective, the social media maven, Eric Jackman, for the social perspective. And, of course, the most fearsome producer in the business, E. Casey Lane Manning the Boards, who's really probably been on more post-fight shows than anyone this year.

I'm Sean O'Shahti. fellows, knock out of the year. Let's talk about it. Israel Adasanya versus Alex Pereira. That ends up taking our top spot. Josh Emmett versus Bryce Mitchell gets the second place. Robbie Lauder versus Nico Price, Patschy, and Justin Gachie also round out the category.

And this one really, I mean, you look at the first place votes. You can see it right there on the graphic. Seven first place votes for Israel, Asana's revenge against Alex Pereira. And three of us here on this panel, me, Casey, and Eric, all of us ended up taking that for.

our first place spot as well. And Jose, breaking away from the group, taking Justin Gaichi with his first place vote. Josh Hammett also stealing a couple and Rabelah getting one as well. Eric, I want to start with you. Israel out of Sonia was the runaway winner here. You voted for it. Why was this the runaway winner? Why was this the clear first place in your mind? Yeah, there's different ways to kind of think about these knockouts. When you think about the technicality, the style points of a knockout, there's probably a knockout on here that that's, better than this one. When you think about the stakes of a knockout, this one's pretty high, but there's probably one that can be competitive with it. But when you combine those two things

between the style points and between the stakes involved, this one was a clear winner for me. You have Israel-A Asana in an exchange very similar to their first MMA fight, being able to get it done in beautiful fashion. And then you've got the idea that this is potentially is he going down across kickboxing and MMA really deep into the bag against Alex Pereira and you get the celebration afterwards. For me, it was a no-brainer that this had to be the knockout of the year when you're combining all the different elements. And on its own, it was an incredible knockout by itself. But when you include the stakes, this felt like it had to be it. Yeah, I have to, I have to just echo what you're saying, right? Because these categories are always so, so individualized, right? Because there are so many

different ways you can parse through it, so many different ways you categorize it, so wade through it, was what you prioritize. It's like you said, the stakes, the aesthetics of it, just sort of everything that surrounds it, even the storyline beforehand. And to me, you look at this past year, there was nothing that eclipsed this in terms of knockouts for what Izzyr Adisanya was able to do. This storyline has dominated our lives between Izzy and Alex in a way that a few others have over the last couple years. And this is a storyline that we, I don't need to explain it, right? Like, it goes back almost a decade at this point,

the animus between these two guys and how heated it got. And the fact that, like, Alex Pereira is just existence in MMA on itself is basically because of Israel out of Sanya. Like everything that went into this, this felt like such a make or break moment for Izzy's legacy. This felt so important for the sport itself. It was such a spectacle, just the lead up to this and everything that went up behind it. And then the way it plays out, too,

in that moment, if you can remember back to that moment, at this point, I don't even remember what it was, what actual event it was, UFC 287, it was back in April. If you can remember back to April, the tension that we all felt in those first two rounds. And in particular, that second round, where it feels like it's happening again of like, oh my God, Alex is about to do this to Izzy again. Then it turns on a dime. And then the knockout itself, the reaction from Izzy, the celebration, just everything, what this all meant. It still gives me chills, man. I mean, we still know, like, obviously what happened from there.

Izzy's downfall against John Strickland and just the fact that this might be the last good highlight from Izzy we ever see in MMA, who knows when he'll come back. But goddamn, man, the Izzy Alex story to me is one of the greatest stories in combat sports of my lifetime. And if this is the way it ends, it feels like a very proper conclusion to me. And just all of it, the aesthetics, the stakes, everything that went into this, to me, there was nothing better than this in 2023. I am interested though, Jose, you went a different direction with this,

and you went a direction that really nobody else in the team went. I mean, we have 11 people on this panel, and you were the only one going for Justin Gaichi. So what was it you saw? Why was that your number one? Well, I'll start with saying, like, of all, since I've joined MMA fighting, this seems to be the year where I don't disagree with any of these top five.

I'll even throw top six. Like if Islam Mahadshav's knockout over Alabama, Volcanowski, if that got the number one spot, I wouldn't have argued against that either. So I just, if you look at the top five, outside of the patchy mix, Ruffian Stotz, I was at four of them. I was cage side for four of them. I was about eight feet away from Alex Pereira getting knocked out by Israel Adasania, and I was about eight feet away from Justin Gagee head kicking Dustin Poyer. And I just remember sitting there next to our colleague, Oscar Willis, and seeing Israel Adasania back up against the fence.

him kind of baiting in him. And I remember saying, Israel's about to knock this guy out just by baiting him in and punching him in the skull. And that's exactly what happened. Now, if we're talking about the reaction of the crowd in attendance, I can't remember a knockout in my life outside of Chris Wyden & Anderson Silva and Rhonda Rousey, Hollyholm, that generated this amount of noise, this amount of chaos. Because if you remember that audience, there was all celebrities there. They were NFL players. They're musicians. They were politicians. sitting Cadeside, and they were all going berserk. I chose Justin Gagey versus Dustin Porey solely because when I was watching, that caught me off guard because I even asked

Dustin after the fight, I go, Justin Gage does not throw a headkakes almost ever. And Dustin Pore even laughed at. He goes, no, he doesn't. So it was unexpected. Dustin, I know he got knocked out by Michael Johnson, and I know Connor T. K.O.ed him at Featherway. But since then, Dustin Poree has been in these wars, and he's known for just his sheer durability and his ability to fight through pain and pull off these unbelievable performances. And yes, Justin Gagy also hits hard, but he's also in all of these wars. And just the fact, seeing a, seeing Justin Gajey throw a headkick, seeing Dustin Porrier, his eyes roll in the back of his head just out cold, not TKO'd, out cold from a Justin Gagy headkick for the BMF title to me was a more shocking image.

It wasn't nearly as violent as Israel-A-Sanis Altsburgh, but it just, I did not, this was not on my bingo card of how that should have, that fight could have possibly ended. And the crowd didn't even, wasn't expecting it either because it just kind of caught everyone off guard too. There was no this visceral reaction. That could be because it was in Salt Lake City, and Miami and Salt Lake City are just vastly different cities. But the crowd just seemed to be like, what are we just witnessed? So that is why I put that as number one. I had Israel and Alex number three, but I'm not. complaining that at won. It was an unbelievable knockout. No, I mean, I think that's perfectly

valid. And also, you've got to think that that Justin Gachey knockout crowned one of the best cards of the year, right? Like, the momentum is definitely a factor in that as well. And at the momentum that night, like, that was off the chain before that. So it reached that sort of crescendo. I will say, too, what a damn good year, 2003 has been for knockouts. You look at the aesthetics part of this, right? The fan edits, the photos from a lot of these finishes, in particular the Izzy one, out of control with some of the stuff that the fan base has been able to produce. And again, the photographers and cinematographers within this industry has been able to produce from these knockouts. We didn't even mention Josh Emmett basically murdering Bryce Mitchell

on the last card of the year, which was maybe the scariest knockout that I have ever seen, or at least in a long time. And of course, Robbie Lawler having the greatest retirement in UFC history. if not MMA history. Awesome year. Awesome, awesome, awesome year. I think we got the right pick, though. Back to you, Mike. And that leads us to our next category,

ladies and gentlemen. We already gave out the award for knockout of the year. Now we head to submission of the year, and there were a lot of great options to choose from. So here are the nominees for MNBFightings 2020,

submission of the year. Alexa Grasso by Rear Naked Choke over Valentina Shavchenko at UFC 285 to win the women's flyway title. Davy Grant by inverted triangle choke over Jafiela Sunsau at UFC Las Vegas. John Jones by guillotine choke over Cyril Ghan at UFC 285 to win the heavyweight title. Louis Glysmann, by inverted Omaplata over Melvin Van Saitam at Octagon 43. Shafcott Rockmanoff by standing rear-naked choke over Jeff Nguyen.

Neil at UFC 285. All right, and I just realized there are three submissions on this list from UFC 285 in March. It's pretty crazy because that was a pretty crazy event for sure. But the winner of the MMA Fighting 2023 submission of the year is from UFC 285, Alexa Grasso for her fourth round submission win to pull off the MFA. massive upset against Valentina Shavchenko to win the UFC Women's Flyweight Championship. They, of course, ran it back in a classic in the main event of Noce UFC in September, fought to a draw, and maybe we'll get ourselves a trilogy fight in 2024.

But Grasso wins the title at UFC 285, and now she has another title, submission of the year. How did this happen, Shaheen, Al-Shadi and crew? Take it away. Thanks, Mike. And yeah, what a year it was for the submissions in MMA. But my God, I do not know if I can ever remember something quite like this. You could see the graphic up now.

11 first place votes out of 11 for our winner. Alexa Grasso, this is at least in my mind the first time I can remember our big panel being unanimously decided on a winner like this, unanimously coming to the same conclusion all outside of each other. we do not speak to each other about these ballots. We file them in. They're all secret ballots. And yet we all came to the same conclusion. I don't know the last time I remember that happening in MMA fighting history with any category. And it's funny because usually submission is all over the place.

Usually submission is one of the harder categories for everyone to sort of choose. Where there's a lot of like two people over here, three people over there. But now this year, it was all Alexa Grasso, every single person on this four person panel picture and every person on the team picture. Jose, why was this so easy for us? Because it's similar to, it's not, it is not the most thrilling submission. Like we've seen Twisters win this award. We've seen whatever A.J. McKee, whatever he calls that from like 2021, when he won our submission in the year.

So this is by no means technically the most thrilling knockout or, I mean, thrilling submission we've ever seen. But just the fact that Alexa Grasso, who, if you remember when she submitted Valentina, a lot of the narrative was, oh, if Valentina gets through Alexa Grasso, like, will she face Aaron Blanchfield? Will she face this person? Will she face Manor-Ferro? Will Tatiana Suarez move up? So that was the conversation. It just seems like people had written her off right away.

and then when Alexa Grasso goes out there and not only submits Valentina Shoshanku who was the most dominant her and Amanda Nunes at the time we were the most dominant women's champions but puts on that was if you watched that fight that was an incredibly competitive fight

against those two and then Alexa Grasso times a spin it I can't remember for it was a spinning back elbow spinning kick or whatever but Valentina threw some spinning stuff and Alexa Grasso jumped on her back and choked and grabbed her neck to the point and squeezed to the point when when she let go you could see

the imprint of her arm and the top of Valentina's head was bright red from the blood just being forced into her cranium. So it was like I said, by no means the most technically unbelievable submission we've seen. But similar to what you said with Alex knocking out, Israel-A-Sahony, just like the story was there, the setup was there, the crowd was there at UFC 285 because, again, that was an unbelievable fight card as well. I think it just checked all the boxes for a submission. talking about for a long time because for all the twisters, all the flying whatevers we've seen, they're unbelievable at the time, but they rarely come when the stakes are at its highest, when you're fighting the best of the best.

And this is what happened. Alexa Grasso cemented herself as one of the best fighters on the planet, pound for pound, number one, as we film this. And it's going to be a submission that's going to go down throughout, like, we're going to be talking about this forever, similar to the Anderson, Silva, Chris Wydenman knockouts, the Verdume, Fadorn submission, not the most thrilling, but one of the most exciting. Yeah, I mean, she's pound for pound number two,

so I'll correct you there. But she started the year unranked on the pound for pound list, and that to me speaks about what was so crazy about this. Because, I mean, I can remember, I'm sure all of you can, when this fight was booked, less than zero people were giving Alexa Grasso a chance. No one in the world was giving Alexa Grasso a chance. This was considered a walkover, as you said, Jose.

This was just a placeholder until Valentina does the next thing. Maybe she goes to Bantam, wait, whatever. This was all assumed that it was going to be the easiest fight in the world for her. And like you said, it was close from the beginning. That round one happens. And all of a sudden, all of us are just like, wait, is this about to be something? And if Sean Strickland didn't exist, like this would have been probably the upset of the year too. And like you said, all of it, the narrative, the storyline, but then the aesthetics,

the actual submission itself and the image that comes from it, of that two-toned, like, just color on Valentina Shvchenko's face. It looked like the world's worst sunburn that she had just suffered. And Alexa Grasso had nearly ripped her jaw off. Like, this wasn't even a rear-naked choke as much as a neck crank of all things to end. Yeah, I was going to ask. Such a dominant rain. Like, well, that's your thing.

Like, what do you even call this, Casey? What is this actually? I think it was actually a neck crank. That's like the jiu-jitsu joke, you know. It was like, oh, it wasn't a choke. goes a crank, you know, which doesn't matter as long as you tap. But I'm, I'm very satisfied with our, our voting staff to pick this one because I feel a lot of times people go for flashy submissions, but like I am a big fan of just technically perfect submissions. This isn't a rare

submission at all by far. But outside the storyline, she just, she just, she game planned it. She saw opportunity. She took the back, took her down, got her, got her hooks in, got her arms around her neck and just put her and put her forearm, this part of your forearm, just right across that jaw. And she made Valentina quit. Otherwise, her jaw gets broken. And just, so good. So legendary submission.

Legendary submission. And I think we can, I don't know what's actually more legendary. The submission itself or watching Jed Mishu's reaction on the watch party. Well, I was going to say it. I was going to say. that the image of the like there are a few things that unite the mixed martial arts community than watching jed have a meltdown and i think us collectively as a whole of a fan base just kind of took delight in that so yeah props to lexigros for pulling that off as well yeah you

i want to you guys yeah you just you guys nailed everything go ahead go ahead go ahead she i just i just want to ask eric like you you're such a you're so tapped into the social media side of this that when you see an image like that two-tone Valentina Shvchenko had of white, or I'm sorry, red and then just pure white, what goes through your mind when you see that? That's just gold, right? Like, that's so instantly just visceral in a way that few things have been this year. Yeah, it's social gold, and it speaks to kind of what we've kind of danced around, but I haven't quite put the nail on, which is that this was a shock, right?

If you're thinking about going into this fight, if somebody's going to get a submission, it's Valentina Shavchenko, right? it's almost like the shack meme that I wasn't familiar with your game. Nobody had Alexa Grasso winning and nobody had Alexa Grasso winning this way. And that's what made it so potent, right? In a vacuum, if this happened in the second fight, I don't think the world is kind of tilting on its axis. But because of the shock level, because of the idea that this outcome was so unforeseen,

it absolutely exploded. She deserved everything. And it gives her team and her a lot more credibility and accolades when it comes to the grappling. and creates this whole new kind of way to view her. It's one of the most incredible moments, one I'll definitely remember, and I think kind of defines her legacy. Like from here on out,

there's something that she has that very few people are going to be able to say they have, a very special moment like this. So just an incredible moment. I am very happy to see that it was unanimous, but it makes a lot of sense that it would have been. One thing I think that we like, I think that we all are talking about this mission

is like we all had this kind of collective experience watching it because it wasn't just like it didn't just happen out of nowhere like you kind of saw it coming in the sense like the check no the take down the choke so there was a good like 10 15 seconds you're like no way no and it was near the end of the round I think too right wasn't near the end of the round it was yeah I believe this late so like you're kind of like oh no okay she's got the choke in but she's going to survive the round and you're like no she's not no she's not no so like we all had that same experience so we all had that same experience I think that adds just to the historic nature of this submission, just the championship rounds too.

And championship rounds too. Just, yeah. Actually, the more I'm talking about it, I'm like, wow, I'm just like kind of reliving at my head. It's really fun. And that's the thing is you would think that a rain like Valentina is someone who is so preternaturally tough, just like above all else, talented, whatever, but like tough, you ended this with a neck crank. like this is a pain choke and you got Palantino

Chavchenko to get to the point of like that's too much I tap out unbelievable one last note on this category that I want to throw out there just because submission of the year is always really fun to me because it is really the one category

among all of them that we can sort of throw weird stuff into little nuggets from regional scene and just dumb stuff because a cool submission is a cool submission regardless of where it happens what else stood out for you guys

this year from the submission of the year running because I'll just say for me going back and rewatching, I had forgotten how ridiculously brutal what Shavkat Rachmanoff did to Jeff Neal was. That was obscene on like a lot of levels. Literally the fight before Alexa Grasso-Valentine too.

Oh, wow. Crazy. Really? Literally the fight before. I didn't know that. I forgot that. Wow. That's why. But that standing choke,

that standing bulldog was just absurd. And you go back and rewatch that fight. Like, it is brutal what that meant to Jeff Neal. What else stood out to you guys? I love the What's her name? Krina I forgot her name

Sylva. Yeah, Krina Silva, yeah. Kina Silva and her kind of knee bar, ankle lock. Remember that? And like in the video, I mean, the submission so much worse

because of the video and the slow mo. And you just see her opponent's knee just goes, bloop. And you say, oh my God. So, great, great violent submission. of Queen of Silva. I was surprised at how many people were impressed with John Jones submitting high-level

Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Cyril Gahn. Has gone ever been submitted before? I guess so, but I don't know. I wasn't overly impressed by the performance. I was impressed to how quick it was, I guess, but like, I don't know. I think that matters. Yeah, I'm not saying it was a bad submission. I just thought there were five more impressive submissions than.

the John Jones submitting Cyrilgan. I think it's fair because I think that one, I think that's one that ages worse, right? As it continues to go on, we kind of think less and less of Surreal God's grappling and think, yeah, that's what John Jones was going to do. But when you think back on the uncertainty of John Jones has been out this long, John Jones is moving up to heavyweight,

how is he going to look? And then he just goes in there and blows the doors off him, it felt like a moment. It felt like a moment and how quick he was able to get it done. Because we've seen Surreal like, you know, Francis Ngano was on him. Exactly. But the difference in that fight, we know Serriogun wasn't expecting that kind of game plan from Nangano. So that kind of shocked all of us, including Surreal.

We knew what John Jones was going to bring in this fight, you know, in the sense of, you know, good grappling, good wrestling. So you would think surreal would have been ready for that. And I think that's why I put it, I think I put it number two. I had my second number two submission. because of the high stakes because gone was prepared for this and even knowing it's coming John still did it with ease. It was the culmination of journey. It was the culmination of a journey.

It was kind of the whole package for that. It was a 13 year journey to heavyweight for this man. There's also something very impressive. There's an idea of like when it comes to submissions getting caught, right? Like there's a scramble. There's an exchange. There's a moment and get it. John Jones didn't catch Cyril Gunn.

He imposed his will. He did what he wanted to do from start to finish. That's a very impressive kind of thing to do in my estimation. But ultimately, it all comes back to Alexa Grasso. Our first, I think, unanimous winner ever for this website. First and a long time, certainly. She deserves it. Back to you, Mike.

Thanks, everybody. Excellent breakdown, as always. And we'll hear from them throughout the show. following each of these awards. Let's go to the fresh faces for the sport in 2023. The fighters who burst onto the scene on the big stage, who debuted in a major promotion this year and did so in a big way.

Here are the nominees for the M.A. Fighting 2023 Rookie of the Year Award. Cedric Dumbay. Bo Nickel. Jesus Panado. Iqram Alaskaroff Diego Lopez Just seeing that list

It's official The future is incredibly bright In this sport and all of these fighters Could have a big, big year in 2024 But MMA Fighting's 2023 rookie of the year is The man who would probably

Win the award for Best Hair of 23 as well Diego Lopez Congratulations to him. What a year he had. And he just has tremendous momentum heading into 2024. With that said, let us go back to the panel to discuss how Diego Lopez ended up in the spot. Shahid al-Shadi, take it away. Thank you, Mike. And yes, rookie of the year. Another category this year that was just incredibly diverse on all of our ballots. This was actually the closest margin of victory for any of our major five categories. You can see it right here. Lopez beats bow nickel by.

three points to take that top spot. And those first place votes were all over the place. Four people voting for Diego Lopez, number one. Four people for Bo Nickel. One for Cedric Dumbay and one for Icrum Alexander. I'm sorry, Alex Geroff. Jose, I'll start with you because you were among the Diego Lopez hive. How did you approach this one?

I approached it both. I actually struggled with this for a while in my top two picks. I had Cedric Dumbay number two, I believe, which I think if I had been one of the people that voted Bo Nickel number two, obviously it would have changed a lot of scoring. But Diego Lopez came in on short notice against Movzar of Loev, and not only was competitive, but almost damn near beat a top 10, maybe top seven featherweight right out of the gate to the point where he was one of those guys

that he lost and more people were talking about him and were more excited to see his next fight, then Movzar's fight, and he's the one that has a more real chance of fighting for the title relatively soon, especially if you beat Donald Allen. And then when he came back and won again, and then he won again in Madison Square Garden, and Dana White goes up on the press conference and say what you want about Dana White, but when Dana White goes up on the press conference, and we've said a million times, placement of your fight matters, and Dana White rarely watches prelims and this and that, but when he goes up there and says, I think we have a legitimate superstar in our hands with Diego

Lopez who fought on the prelims, then you know, when you can make Dana White watch early fights on a pay-per-view, you must be doing something right. And I've since seen him around a lot, like he's cornered a lot of fighters. He cornered Alexa Grasso who won our submission of the year. I've seen him at the Noce, the Noce UFC fight, just mingling with fans. And there are lines just to meet this man. Like, he just checks, he has got the unique haircut. He's one of the nice people in the world. He can speak three. three languages. He has an incredibly high action fight style. So again, I actually, similar to the knockout, I don't think we could have been wrong with anyone in our top five, but just the fact

that Diego Lopez went from, if there was like a story of the year, like a emergence or breakthrough, if this is breakthrough fight of the year, I think it would have been more, the terminology would have fit how I voted more rather than rookie, because he's not a rookie. He's had a ton of fights outside of the UFC. And we've had these conversations amongst our staff, but I vote for rookie of the year based on breakthrough fighter of the year. And I think no one broke through more than Diego Lopez in 2020. Yeah, this really is a multi-prong type of vote too, right?

Especially with him, there's the in-cage stuff, which was tremendous. There's the haircut, which is just delightful. It's really a signature piece to him, right? Like it's all part and parcel. It's something memorable. But then also there's the outside of the cage stuff. There's the coaching aspect where like this guy's out here coaching several people to title wins in the UFC. Eric, I want to go to you because you went a different direction in this.

And it's not the first time. I remember you had Patty Pimbled in 2021 when he'd only fought once in the UFC and he was your number one as well. And now you've done it again with Cedric Dumbay, who was 1 in a major organization. Is it the social media footprint? Is this another Patty situation? Why was Cedric the answer for you this year? social media isn't a factor in it but i'll start with a quiz right how many instagram followers do you think dago lopez has uh i can say from first time experience that instagram's not

really a thing in mexico so probably not that much 120 he's got a hundred close 144 how many instagram followers do you think bo nico has oh penn state wrestler probably well half yeah way more Half a million. 552K. Oh, I'm good at this. How many Instagram followers do you think Cedric Dumbay has? 2.3 million.

I'm going to guess. I'm going to guess we're in, yeah. No, you're going too wild. One point. He's got 900K. He's got 900K. He's got 9006K. Okay.

All right. For me, this award is and will always be about impact, right? You can talk about the wins and losses. That's fine. I'm completely happy. with anybody who makes that argument, it's completely justified. If you're going to look and look at the resume and say, this person had three wins and this person had won,

I won't begrudge you. But for me, the one who had Killian Mbapé sitting at his fight, the one who set the internet on fire, is Cedric Dumbay. The biggest impact, the one that when we look back on his rookie year, that's the one we're going to remember. We're not going to remember the two wins over some guy in the apex. You can't argue that this is,

this is the one that got the most attention, that had the most eyeballs. So much so that PFL did everything they could to make sure that nobody in the United States of America could watch this. Wow. And we all still know about it. And we all still remember exactly what happened in that fight because he knocked the guy out so quickly that we all saw it within five seconds on Twitter, X, Instagram, wherever you are. So for me, as you mentioned, I voted for Patty Pimbled in the past. For me, this is an impact award. This is when you come onto the stage, who.

makes the lasting impact that you remember. And for me, that was Cedric Dume, narrowly edging in my mind, Bo Neckle, because I think Bo Neckle lived up to a lot of the hype and kind of burst onto the scene as well. But for me, he was head and shoulders above everybody else on rookie campaigns that we will remember. Nine seconds is nine seconds.

Anyway, you slice it. Nine seconds. It wasn't just a nine seconds. Remember the, remember the face off and everything? Just, yeah. That was, I can't. That was. as far as

as I'm sorry sorry Jose but like as as MMA debuts and it wasn't his MMA debut but MMA debut on a I don't want

you can call it on a big stage I can't think of someone that's milked it more than he has in a good way so yeah

it was theatrical as hell yeah I put a lot into because like since I've been at live events more a little more

than you guys in the last few years when Dan Hardy was on the MMA hour and he said I was calling the fight for Conner's fight in Dublin and I was calling the fight for

Cedric Dumbay's fight in Paris and they were comparable in terms of reaction. That kind of sealed the deal for me in terms of voting for Cedric Dumbay number two because one and O and two and O and one of them was in a fight that no one saw. But I agree. Eric made a good point. We didn't even get to watch it and yet we're still talking about it. It's a great point. The only reason I I slightly disagree with Eric as far as the biggest impact

because I guess for me, Eric too, Cedric Dunbe was already a star. He was already a combat sports star. He was just now. I don't know that that's true, though. I think he was a combat sport star, but he was not an MMA star. Not for MMA.

I know that. I know that he wasn't an MMA star, but he wasn't a combat sport. You know, that's what I'm saying. He was already a star. That's what I'm saying. But yeah, he became an MMA star. So I know what kind of,

you kind of getting the scimit. Do you think, and I'll present this to the panel, if he didn't have that back and forth of the UFC and was really, he was one of the first big guys to say no to the UFC and then go to PFL instead, if that didn't happen, he just flat out signs with the PFL,

would he have had a big of an impact? I think enough people knew his name that, like, if he came out and did this, yes, but if he came out and just had like a ho-hum, unanimous decision performance. I don't think it would have gone over as well. I think the UFC attaching itself to him definitely matter. But kind of to Casey's point,

like there were enough people that knew like, oh man, this Cedric Dunebe guy could be good. And there's enough goodwill built up by Alex Pereira and Israel, Sonia that like glory kickboxing has a name when it comes to like people crossing over to MMA. There were some mixed results before this, but those two in recent years have really put it on the map.

But, man, there were a lot of people who were just like kind of like, kind of like, eh, we'll see what he does. And then that's what he did. It was, it was brilliant matchmaking. Yes.

Yes. I'll just say for me to close us out. I was sort of off the board here compared to everybody else. I went Icrim Alaseroff. I was the only person on the team who went Iqram number one. And I did so because I'm simply just terrified of the man.

He is ferocious. And to me, maybe bone nickel counts in this conversation. But to me, Icrum is the best chance of anybody we have on this whole crop to be a immediate contender in the UFC right away, right away.

Like I think you could throw him in there against anyone at middleweight and he'll survive if not do well. Bo Nichols is going to need some time. Cedric's going to need some time. Ickram came in the UFC right away and beat Phil Hawes and Worley Alves in less than four minutes combined, basically.

I think you can throw him in there and he's just swim with the sharks at 185. And I cannot wait to see how, what kind of factor he's going to be in this 185 pound division because this 185 pound division is all over the place right now and it's a lot of new names coming up and injecting a lot of excitement at the top and i think ikram is someone who from 2004 onward we're going to be talking about in that type of way and i love it icrum's interesting because i the difference doing him and bow nickel is not necessarily i don't think because you

said like maybe bo nico's not ready for the top guys i don't believe that necessarily he just doesn't want to fight the top guys yet his road is going to be a lot longer his road is right And that's voluntary. He's choosing that. I don't think. No, I think I would disagree. I think Bo Nickel, from the few times I've interacted with him on Meaday, he's like, I want to fight Hamzat like now.

I think it's the UFC that's like, relax, bro. Like I think both men could fight the top seven, top five right now. But Icrum, he got famous because he, Hamzot famously said he's the toughest opponent he ever fought. So when he came into the UFC, he had that aura about him. Bo Nicol came in being the second best wrestler in his white class. The only one above him is David Taylor, who's arguably the greatest American wrestler ever

and called out Hamzot after one fight, basically. So I don't know if it's as much voluntary as we think. I think the UFC is going to try to slow the role of Bo Nickel. Either way, it's a hell of the crop we have for us. The future of this sport looks tremendous. I'm excited for it as we move into 2024. Back to you, Mike. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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We'll close out with the Fighter of the Year category. But before we get to Fighter of the Year, the next piece of hardware that we're going to be giving away goes to not one but two combatants. That's right, because there have been some spirited battles in cages, octagons, and rings around the world in 2023. But there can only be one fight of the year. And here are the nominees. Take a look.

Alessandra Pantoja versus Brandon Moreno at UFC 290 for the UFC Flyway title. Arrini Aldana versus Carol Hosa at UFC 296. Justin Gaichi versus Raphael Fizzi. at UFC 286 Shafcott Rachmanoff versus Jeff Neal at UFC 285 Islam Makachev

versus Alexander Volkinovsky 1 at UFC 284 for the UFC lightweight championship All right everybody MMA fighting's 2023 fight of the year goes to

Islam Makachev versus Alexander Volkanovsky at UFC 284 back in February, Perth, Western Australia. One of the most contentious fights of the year, if I do say so, as Mokachev gets the job done, there are a lot of people out there that thought Volcanovsky won that fight and still believe that Volcanovsky, the still current featherweight champion,

was still the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet, even with the loss. And then obviously Mokachev silenced that noise, Eight months later, when he knocked out Volcanovsky at UFC 294. But the first fight was absolutely incredible. And to talk more about that fantastic battle and all the other great battles that happened on our list in 2023. Let's throw it to Shaheen Al-Shadi and crew. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mike.

Yes, we're down to the two big ones of the year. And we start with fight of the year. And to me, I mean, not even to me, to the whole team, this was a two horse race the whole year. You look at the graphic now. nearly half the panel went from Islam Mankachev versus Alexander Volcanov won the other half for Pantosia versus Moreno. You could see it split right there. Me and Jose both with Islam Volk.

Eric, you and Casey, both with Pantosia versus Moreno. So let's start with you guys, Eric and Casey. Both do you pick the fly weights. Make the case. Make the case for why we were wrong. This is going to sound maybe like pretentious. Just go back and watch it. Like it is absolutely insane.

from from bell to bell it's one of the craziest you're not wrong you're eyes to watch it like from bell to bell it's one of the most nuts electric fights i've ever seen like you know like each year we kind of break these by years we do these awards but there are certain ones that stand out and i think there's quite a few of them this year the ko that we selected uh israel isani over alks perrera i think that is one of the best ever when we think about alexa graso over valentin to chenko for sub i think that's one of the best ever. This fight for me is one of the best ever. And I think Alexander Volcanowski and Islam Makachev is also in that category. So we're kind of blessed to have this many amazing fights this year. But these two fights, and in particular I'm speaking about right now, Pantosia and Moreno, is one of the

best fights ever. Like there's just not a moment, there's just not a moment to breathe down each other's throats, there's momentum swings, there's near finishes. It's just, it's just electric. I don't know. And then you combine the idea of the stakes, right? This is a title fight. This is a rematch. There was just so much on the line here and it delivered across the board. And I think you could say that about honestly both of the top two choices. But for me, this one narrowly edged it out. I definitely think there was more excitement and like kind of on the line in Volkanowski and Makachev, but fight alone, if you're just looking at it in a vacuum and then adding on the stakes after, this was one of the most exciting fights I've ever seen. Yeah, I've written about this a couple

different times over the course of the year, but I just, it delights me to no end the place we've gotten to with Flyway, where Flyweight is just so obstinely fun, consistently just like every time out it's delivery, and especially these title fights over the last couple years have just been exceptional every time and it just it's so it tickles me that like we almost lost this division just because DJ dared to stand up for himself in night not fight freaking tjah dillishaw for some dumb contract that the ufc was offered him it was just all so so dope we have such high standards for flyweight championship fights now that we just saw pantosia roi vile which was a great fight and we're like yeah kind of disappointed in it you know that's like that's like the worst flyweight

championship fight in several years it was a very good fight it was a very good fight And yet it was like a B minus. It's like a B minus fight and it's like the worst than seven years. Yeah. Jose, you and I both went Volk Islam, which ended up taking the top spot. For you, why was that the number one? Because since I've started being the road guy at Evan May fighting, I cannot think of a more tense fight in terms of being there than Alexander Volcanowski versus Islam-Oakchever UFC 284. It had everything, like the drama of the week being in Perth.

Remember the Ivy arguments, the Wayans being at a different time. It just had all of this drama surrounding it, like Volcanowski submitting Charles, Alex being called into the fight. So the buildup was unbelievable. It was one of those rare, like we had it with John Jones in D.C., but it was number one versus number two. And Eric, I'm saying now, if you guys do the awards and Alex Volcanowski's, entrance at USC 284, does not win entrance to the year, you all done goof because I was there, and that was one of the most memorable moments I will have ever witnessed in my MMA media career. The Alex Volcanowski's walk from the locker room to the cage, there was not a person standing,

there was not a person sitting, and there was not a person not screaming at the top of their lungs. I don't even know what I said right there. That's how much I love this fight. It was from the second that first bell rang to the end of the fight, It was who's going to make the first mistake. Everyone was at the edge of their seat. It was the opposite of Moreno and Pantoja, which was just absolute chaos for 25 minutes. This was just incredible.

High-level chess, high-level martial arts at his finance. Each of them seemed to have a foil for the other one's move. And it was just an absolute perfect display of martial arts against the two best fighters in the world, for the, which I can, what I consider at the time the number one pound for pound title, I know that's obviously a subjective term and we have a panel for it. I am not on. But when those two fought, the winner was going to be the number one pound for pound fighter in the world.

So the stakes were there, the drama was there, the tension was there, the skill set was there. It was the only thing missing was the blood and guts that usually wins this award. And I'm actually really happy a fight like this won because we, I don't think, I didn't vote for Justin Gachie, Michael Chan. I didn't think that was the best fight of the year. I thought it was Corey Sanging and Peter Yombe because it was a high level five round martial arts display. That's what this was.

It is one of the best fights I've ever seen in my life. It's top five fights I've ever seen live. The crowd is pound for pound, one of the best crowds I've ever experienced. Checked all the boxes for me. Yeah. I echo everything you just said wholeheartedly and then one note that you missed,

it lived up to the hype. Yeah, yeah. How often can you ever ever, ever, ever say that about champion versus champion fights in the UFC. You just cannot. There are no good champ versus champ fights in the UFC generally ever. There's been seven all time. And this was by far the best one.

And there isn't even a close second because you're right. Everything about this, the lead up to it, the storylines that it was so good of, hey, the winner of this gets number one spot pound for pound. How often do you get number one versus number two in the pound for pound rankings? And then just what this fight became too, right? for 10 months out of 12 in 2023, Islam versus Volk was one of the prevailing storylines. It was the rivalry of the year, essentially.

It was the rivalry that defined most of the year as we continued to talk about it before, during, and after. Just everything. It lived up to it, and we never, ever can say these champ versus champ fights live up to it. They are memorable for their own sake, whether it's D.C. winning the heavyweight title or whoever you want to say,

just like these type of moments are legendary, moments, the actual encage themselves, the incage action is never as good as we saw it from these guys in February. And God, I love this fight so much. I've watched this fight probably four or five times since then. It's so good. And to me, it's a very deserving winner of fighter, fight of the year. And like you said, Jose, it's nice too to not get a Gaichi Chandler type occasionally, right? Like, it's very rare that we get the very technical mixed martial Contest winning this award, but this one deserved it in my eyes. Do you guys agree with me, though, that like these two are historic?

Like, both of these, in my opinion, will stand the test of time. Like, I feel like these are two of the best fights ever. Yeah. These were my top two. These were my top two easily. If somebody had anything other than these two, I'd be curious to see it because these were, like, far and away from me. Aging Stephen Morocco, who didn't have Pantoja Moreno and had,

Volcanowski, Mockenschev at the five spot. Wow. Just straight calling him out. Also, special shout out, though, to Arena Al-Donna and Carol Housson. We really turned in a gem out of nowhere in the middle at the end of the year. Amazing fight. Yeah, I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian as far as Marketschev, Volkanowski. The reason why I had only had number four, I wasn't, the, the fight didn't feel like it was the right time.

Because I was one of, I'm kind of like Jed on this. I was like on board the whole, Volcanowski hasn't cleared out the featherweight division. So that's why I wasn't super excited. I was more slightly annoyed that this fight was happening. But I accepted it. And I got that number one versus two pound for pound. But the other reason why it couldn't be that fight of the year for me,

it's like when I watched it live from home, from TV, I wasn't in the arena, so I didn't have that experience. It's like, I was kind of like Islam. I had it for one. So coming into the fifth round, I had Islam winning the first four rounds. So, like, all this kind of controversy that came after or who really won the fight, I was just kind of like, I just didn't feel it. So while the fight did live up to the hype as far as, like, super high-level competitors,

you know, fighting in a main event in Perth, sold out arena. It checked out those boxes. The fight, to me, just wasn't close enough to be fight of the year. But I have no issue with what you guys are saying about it. That makes any sense. And I still put Volcanoski even though he lost a fight

I still had him as number one pound for pound I was one of those people That raises a question for me Do your fights of the year have to be competitive Because I've done this in the past And I did it again this year

One of my top five was not a competitive fight One of my fights was Because how else do you rate a performance That wasn't a finish How else do you celebrate Sean Strickland beating Israel to Sanya. Other than to say,

it is one of the best fights I've ever seen. On behalf of Sean Strickland, it doesn't have to be back and forth. It doesn't have to be blood and guts. Now, don't get me wrong. I did not put it as number one, as number two, as number, I put it as number three.

I do not put it as top two because, as I said, I think those other two are going to live forever as competitive fights. But sometimes I feel like the fight category can be used to celebrate, like,

these performances that didn't necessarily end in a KO or didn't necessarily ending us up where we saw something truly special in a fight. I mean, everybody has their own scoring system, scoring metrics for this sort of thing, right? That's what makes it fun in my eyes. And that's why it's so fun to have such a big panel as we do.

We always have such a big panel. Get a diversity of opinions. Also, I do want to shout out before we go here, go back to you, Mike. Alexander Volcanowski was what made this special in my mind. Because the whole entirety of the fight was me marveling at Alexander Volcanowski being able to do what I think very few of us expected him to do, which was keep this competitive, keep this close. You see a guy like that, chasing greatness and reaching for it in the moment, it is incredible to watch. And ultimately, like I said, that their rivalry played a big role in

how 2023 played out for the majority of it up until October. That was what we talked about pretty much every week was Islam involved. That says something to it. What a year. What a year it's been for fight of the year. We have one more category left. And it's the biggest. of all, back to you, Mike. Just a wonderful job, guys, as always. And now, just one more award, the 2023 fighter of the year. And we've had some incredible moments. Unbelievable years from a lot of fighters.

There are a lot of fighters in play here, not just from the UFC, but Bellator, PFL, et cetera. And we had to narrow it all down to just five nominees with only one fighter, just one, who could take home this prestigious, Award. And now, the nominees for MMA Fighting's 2023 Fighter of the Year. Francis Inganu, Sean Strickland,

Islam Makachev, Patchy Mix, Leon Edwards. And the award for MMA Fightings 2023 Fighter of the Year goes to the UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland. I mean, talk about out of nowhere, folks. Sean Strickland enters 2023,

coming off of a loss to Jared Kannonier. He takes a fight on short notice against Nasardine Imovov in January, up a weight class wins it, and then this man was just off to the races. He gets a main event fight in July. He finishes a boost maga made off. And then he gets his first. title shot, opportunity knocked, man did this guy answer. He goes out and dominates Israel

Adasania bell to bell at UFC 293 in September to become a world champion. This sport is just wild, isn't it Shaheen Alshadhi? Let's throw it to you and the rest of the crew one more time. How the heck did we get here? Thank you, Mike. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. It is the year of Sean Strickland, as you can see, six first place votes for the UFC middleweight champion to take fighter of the year. One first place vote also for Islam Mankachev coming from our own Jose Youngs. Francis Inganu, who didn't actually fight an M.MA this year gets two first place votes. And then Patchy Mix. He's getting one vote from our own E.K. C. Ladden.

And of course, Eric Jackman, going off the board there with Alex Pereira. So gentlemen, I want to start this off just by talking about Sean Strickland because you look at the way these awards shook. out. It is the second biggest margin of victory for this category, for any category. Other than Lexa Grasso, just being unanimous with the submission of the year, the margin of victory Sean Strickland had is relatively staggering, right? You look at our point system, you can see it there, 90 points for him, 38 points for second place. And if you look at number two to number seven, 38 to 31, that is the difference. Unbelievable. And to me, it makes sense. Sean Strickland, whether you like it or not, love it or hate it, he represented

2003 for better of worse. This was a very weird year. It was a very ugly year in a lot of different ways. There's different elements to this, right? There's the shock factor of seemingly every time a shocking outcome could have happened in 2023, it more or less happened. Sean Strickland was the most shocking of those outcomes. Then there's also the other side of this.

I don't know what you want to call this, but dumbing down of the game, the ugly of the game, the question of, is this sort of who we are going to be now? And that question feels more pertinent now than it has in a while, especially coming off of this recent pay-per-view and the lead-up to it and how ugly things got there. But then putting all that aside, there's the in-cage work. And Sean Strickland entered 2023, or sorry, entered 2023 coming off of back-to-back losses to Alex Pereira, which one of the most brutal knockouts you will ever see. And then Jared Cannon-ear, which was not a memorable decision. was a total woodwork, periphery figure, someone who was not in the conversation.

His first two fights of the year, Naserdin Imabov and Abis Mago Medov. There was no way that this was supposed to happen. None of this was ever supposed to happen. He chances his way into this title shot because DDP was not available to take it. And here we are. Sean Strickland somehow heads into the new year with a massive fight already ahead and booked with a lot of people talking about it already. And there's a real chance, Sean Strickland's, because,

comes like a top three star in MMA if he keeps winning in this new year. It's an unbelievable story. Jose, I go to you first. A, what do you make of this way that our team voted? The Sean Strickland, so unanimously being it. And then also B, you were the only person on the team that went Islam. So why did you go that way? I went Islam solely because, you know, I hold his wins over Alex Loflanovsky.

I think those, the fight of the year and then our. arguably one of the top five knockouts of the year, which is more impressive to me. I don't think Sean is an incorrect pick. I just beating Abu Magomadov and beating Nasor D. Imovov are not as impressive of beating Alexander Volcanowski twice. Now, is the way he beat Israel out of Sonia just essentially 50, 45, during 49, 46th him, the greatest striker of this generation,

just outstruck the greatest striker of our generation for five rounds? Is that singular performance more impressive than two wins over Alex Volcanowski? I am more than willing to hear that argument, and I am happy to say you're right. I don't think there's a wrong answer. I think Islam's year impressed me more because Alex took that fight on short notice, but also Islam had to take that second fight on short notice too and basically change his entire game plan up to fight a completely different fighter from Charles Olivera. I just thought, I thought, as you said for the, the Islam.

Alex Volcanowski rivalry for 10 months of the year was like the story of the year. And Islam is 2 and O against who Casey had the pound for pound fighter of the year. I don't know how the rest of you guys voted. Essentially a lot of people had Alex the pound for pound fighter for most of the year. And Islam was 2 and O against him. I just thought that was more impressive than Sean Strickland's win. But I am happy to hear your guys' arguments for Sean Strickland. Eric, I want to go to you because it is a weird year.

It was a really weird year. Yeah, he went well for it. And I'll hit your selection in a second, but first I just want to ask you, if this award is instead called Prize Fighter of the Year, is Francis Singano the unanimous number one pick? Probably, yeah. I mean, I don't think anybody expected him to be competitive with Tyson Fury.

It was by far the hardest kind of matchup than any of these fighters had. If we are including boxing, then maybe you make a case for like an Errol Spence, but Francis Inganu is right up there somewhere. Oh, sorry, for Terrence Crawford. or win over Errol Spence or Francis Inganu. Certainly one of the performances that will stick out in all of our minds.

Now, in a losing effort, but I think what's important about this ward and why I voted the way I did is the context matters. It's not as simple as look at the numbers, say, this person won three times and this person won one time. And the context of all this matters. For what it's worth, I had Sean Strickland as my number three. And I did a very similar calculus to Jose, which was when I'm totaling up these wins, and losses, I'm looking at level of competition. I'm looking at competitiveness. I'm looking at the difficulty of what was achieved. This is a who tried and achieved the most in the calendar year award for me. And that is why I voted the way I did. But I had Sean Strickland third and I had

Islam Makachev second, which was Jose's vote. And I agreed with him. Ultimately, I think two wins over Alexander Volkanowski mean more in the scope of it and our tougher achievements in the scope of a year. But for me, nobody had more difficulty ahead of them. Nobody did something that nobody else was able to do more so than Alex Pereira. Alex Pereira starts his year, getting flatlined by Israel out of Sanya and then decides, let us let us knock out of the year. Your fighter of the year. Your number one fighter of the year got set in the knockout.

Got knocked out in my knockout of the year. Because from that moment, what he did was picked himself up and went up a weight class. And I will say when we're looking at the different weight classes, 20 pound gap, right, between middle weight and light heavy weight. And did what others have rarely been able to do. which is capture a title in the division up,

with wins over two former champions in that division. He came up and beat Jan Blahovic, came up and beat Yuri Prohaska and captured the light heavyweight belt. Now, you can think of the loss as something to detract from, but for me, the achievement that he was able to do in the course of that year was the hardest thing you can do.

We just saw, the reason Islam Makachev is on this list is because he was able to defend and beat the smaller man from coming up. This is one of the rarest achievements. This is one of the rarest feats you can do in MMA. And he started his year by getting knocked out and then still achieved it against two former champions in the division. To me, nobody had a tougher sledding than Alex Pereira. Now, I think a lot of people just consider him a light heavyweight. That's just not reality.

Like, that's not how this works. He's giving up the same amount of pounds as everybody else. If it was that easy to just go up when you're a bigger, quote unquote, fighter, then everybody would be doing it. He was the one who did it and achieved it. And to me, nobody had a tougher task ahead of them than Alex Pereira, and he was able to successfully do it. To me, that is the achievement of the year.

Well, you're in awe of Alex Perrier's achievement, and I'm in awe of your achievement, because I don't know that I've ever seen someone submit number one fighter of the year as the guy who got slept down knock out of the year. It's really quite a feat that you've been able to do here. You're welcome. step in, you were begging to talk.

I mean, I want to hear the Sean Strickland argument, but it's just, I remember there was this dark time in our life when Kamaro Uzman was voted breakthrough fighter of the first half of the year based on just conversation people had. Like, people are talking

about Kamar Uzman now. Is Sean Strickland the breakthrough fighter of the year of 2023? Do we blow it? Like, why is Sean Strickland not? Why is he not the break two oh going oh and two to finish off 2022 and now all of a sudden he's a top three like superstar in the entire promotion i think after hearing y'all talk i think we blew it shot shot strickland might be this breakthrough fighter of the year 2023 well we don't we don't have

breakthrough as a category but if we did he would win it he would absolutely win it because it was the year of shon strickland it was a massive at all type of year except it didn't come at the end of his career it came like basically in the prime in a way that no one ever ever saw or thought possible. Like, this is crazy, man. You put anything Sean Strickland related out there right now, it's going to do big numbers. You are the guys of the social team.

You guys know this. Like, it's nuts. It's absolute nuts. Casey, I want to get you in here, though, because you also went off the board. You went patchy mix. And patchy mix, it may have been the year of Sean Strickland,

but it was also the year of patchy mix because this man got a lot of different love on a lot of different categories. I had him in my knockout category. I had him in my fighter category as well. Why was he your number one? Hatchie Mix went technically 2-0 this year, but really I'm going to go 3-0 because he had a fight in December of 2022 where he finished Margomed Megamadoff. So I'm going to go in and count that because it was just, you know, right there.

But I don't like these hard-lying dates. But really it was just, it's about dominance for me. It's just three fights in a 13-month span. just I think all part I think two was this pedis fight part

of the tournament or was that was that the Stats fight the Pettus fight was just a just a championship that was the final okay yeah

yeah whatever so all super high level bantan weight fights bantam weight for me is the best division worldwide and mixed martial arts and the fact that

just patchy did it just was just just so much dominance I mean I'm not even sure he even got hit hard or was in in any serious bad position in any of those fights against Pettus, Stottes, or Marga Madoff. The Stats knockout, I think I had that as number two knockout of the year.

It was just an incredible step-in-knee from the submission specialist and then just, and then just destroying Sergio Pettis. Yeah, just an unbelievable, I haven't ranked, I think a few of us haven't ranked as the best bantam weight in the world above the UFC champion. And that's a pretty great, very rare, very rare, very rare that were we, where there's a good argument that there's the best person in division is outside the UFC. And there's a good argument for that too. So, yeah, that's why patchy mixes my guy this year. And it's solely with him being above Strickland, I think Strickland in my second number two fighter of the year, it's just based on the dominance and the level of competition to get there.

Of course, Strickland did be Izzy, but I'm going to be a bit of a hater of Sean Strickland right now and just say that I think that was the biggest upset. I think that was the best Strickland we ever got, and that was the worst Izzy that we've ever seen in the cage. And credit to Sean Strickland, he did it that night, and that's what matters. But overall, Patchy Mixes my guy for 2023's Fighter of the Year. I would have to push back in that. there's certain elements of what Strickland brought to the cage that caused Izzy to look so bad, whether it's the pace pressure, just generally the way he coached.

I mean, he defensively things like that. I mean, but. And also, I will say the coaching from Eric Nixick, who in my mind is the coach of the year should also go into that because there were several, even Izzy called it out. There were several moments where Eric's swung the tide. For me, the fact that Izzy's going like, you know what, I'm taking a big break. Not like, I got to get back in there, get that back. To me, that says to me that Izzy was not in the right.

frame of mind to be fighting at this high level so much. And Izzy's, I don't want to make this, Izzy, but Izzy's like his, the amount of title fights he had back to back to back to back to back was pretty incredible for UFC standards. So, um, Sean Shenzhen showed up. He showed up and he did it and all credit to him,

all credit to him. Just, um, but that's why he's only my number two. I mean, he's still my top five. Me, he's just still there. He's just my number two. That's all. I think ultimately it says something about Israel-A-Sahnya that now this is back-to-back years

where the fighter of the year is the guy who beat Israel-A-Sanya in a very big stage. We had Alex Pereira last year, and now it's Sean Strickland. I'm going to count the Alex win over Izzy for this year. Casey went back to an end-of-year fight. He's attaching it on. I'm going to do the same thing.

You're doing that. The calendar year for Alex Pereira includes the win over Izzy capped off by the light heavyweight title. So now he has wins in both. championship fights because I'm going back and stealing that one too. There you go. There you go. Ultimately, to me, what Fighter of the Year means is who am I going to think of most when I think of that year? And when I think of 2023, I will think of Sean Strickland. For better or worse, this was the year of Sean Strickland. And what a year it was. And again,

if you look at our list, if you look at our year-end list, the difference between two and seven is so small. It shows, it just shows you how many incredible different campaigns and performances as we saw throughout the year. That is our final award of the year. It goes to Sean Strickland. Back to you, Mike. There you have it, folks. Sean Strickland.

Sean Strickland, MMA Fighting's 2023 Fighter of the Year award winner. Man, I'm curious who you all think will win Fighter of the Year in 2024. Because nobody thought it would be Sean Strickland heading into 2023, but the twists and turns of the sports,

You just don't find it anywhere else. And I'm curious what you think. So make your predictions in the comments section here on YouTube. We'll have some fun with this. Just like we had so much fun with all of you all year long. This year went by so darn fast. I can't believe we're about to kick off 2024, which could be a super interesting year, both in and out of the cage.

But that's going to do it here for us. This has been the M.A. Fighting 23 Year End Award show. Thank you to everyone watching and listening. And the year end content is going to continue to burst out, everybody. A lot of predictions will be coming up for 2024 as well. And of course, the most comprehensive award show in all of sports, all of MMA, the MMA Hour Awards will be coming your way. We'll be back in your life live on January 3rd.

So stick with us for all of that incredible content and so much more. I am Mike Keck and for all of us here at M-Mayfutting.com, thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your 2023 with our coverage and the content is just going to keep on coming, everybody, in 20204. That I can promise you. Enjoy the rest of the holidays, everybody. Have a happy new year and we will see you all in 2024. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. With MX Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means

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