MMA Fighting - Between the Links: Episode 25 | RDA's Successful Return To 155, Bellator 252 vs. UFC Vegas 14, Fighter of the Year

Episode Date: November 17, 2020

Check out episode 25 of Between the Links as Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jose Youngs and Alexander K. Lee as they give their takes on Rafael dos Anjos’ decision win over Paul Felder in the main event of UFC Vegas 14 and where “RDA” now fits in the 155-pound landscape.  In addition, the panel discusses who had the better week between the UFC and Bellator, the three stars between UFC Vegas 14 and Bellator 252, Patricio Pitbull’s ranking at 145-pounds in the world, whether or not UFC 255 is flying under the radar, and if Deiveson Figueiredo—or Alex Perez—would be the frontrunner for the 2020 Fighter of the Year with a victory in the main event of Saturday night’s PPV even in Las Vegas.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome to Between the Links, with your host, Mike Heck. All right, the iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links as we bring you an MMA fighting versus MMA fighting matchup this week with a lot to discuss coming out of a very busy week of action. Another busy week is upon us in the world in mixed martial arts. Bellator has another event. on Thursday night headline by Darying Caldwell versus A.J. McKee. What a ridiculous fight that is.

And then UFC 255 is coming up on Saturday. Really fun card, two flyweight title fights. So let us get into it right now. Let's introduce the combatants first. Victorious last week on the program, he defeated Jose Shorty Torres. And he called out one Sean Al Shottie. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen this week. Sean will be paying close attention to this matchup, he tells me, from the A side, Mr. Jose Young. How are you, my friend? Sean's not going to pay attention. He knows I'm going to win. So he's basically like, I know I'm going to face Jose next.

So this is just a formality. So he's, I guarantee he's not paying attention now because I know as of recording this, some crazy news with the Phoenix Suns has happening. So I feel like his mind is elsewhere. But he knows I'm going to win. So it's only a matter of time before I throw down with my fellow Arizona and Sean Alshaddy.

Well, he's got to, Jose's got to get by this week. He's got a heck of a match of ahead of him. A man looking to extract a little revenge. The co-host of On to the next one, the soothing voice of the way-in shows, which will return this Friday ahead of UFC 255, the Prince of Positivity himself, Mr. Alex Galey, A.K., A.K., nice to see you again, my friend.

Hi, hi, everyone. I'm not Sean. I'm not Sean, as you can see. I am A.K. Lee. I'm my own man. I'm happy to fill in for Sean. I imagine who was headed into a collision course. So, Zay, could be headed to collision course

for next week. week, but I am here possibly to play spoiler, or at the very least, injure Jose in such a way that he goes into, he goes into his duel with Sean, less of a man. You think I, you think I need to be 100% to beat Sean? Wow. Wow. Come on. Listen, you can say that crap about Mia, right? You don't say that crap about Sean.

I'll shot. Crap? Or honesty? Straight up, straight up crap. Right, right, right. Wow. Well, we're off to a great start here. There have been people asking me, where the hell is Phoenix Carnivali?

I have been trying. She's been very busy as of late. We're going to try to get her back on at some point. We have to figure out what to do with the championship here. And we'll figure that out down the road. But let's begin this matchup. Let's begin with Saturday night in Las Vegas. We had Hafeel de Sanjo successfully returning to the lightweight division.

Defeated a very game. Paul Felder via quote unquote split decision. Absolutely ridiculous that I have to say those words into a live microphone. But RDA looked pretty darn good in the fight. We talked all about it on the post-fight show. If you want to get our specific thoughts on the fight itself, go back into the archives and check those out. But, AK, we'll begin with you this week.

You were very high on Mr. RDA heading into the fight. He emerges victorious against Paul Felder. Before we get into what this all means, and we discussed this on the preview show a little bit, as good as he looked in this fight, did the impact of the victory mean as much now that you see it compared to what it could have been against Islam Makachev?

Despite Felder being ranked five spots higher, did it have the sort of impact that RDA would have hoped for? Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely did. Definitely did. Look, Felder is a more well-known fighter than Islam-Makaj. I mean, that's undeniable. He just has more exposure, of course, in his role as a broadcaster.

And he's got a style that's a little more fan-friendly for people. So in a way, even though the fight was put together in less than a week, they kind of got a more high-profile fight among, I guess, if we're talking about, like, casuals and mainstream, than Makachev. RDA was, of course, hardcores know that. RDA was really more, more, stronger implications for the title picture, right? But, no, aside from measurement, aside from just his performance, how good he looked, like the timing couldn't be better because, again, we presumably, we don't know what's going on with

Habib, but it sounds like, it sounds like either he might take a fight, you know, at another weight class, or we don't know if he's defending the title again. And again, and he could stay retired, you know, Dana White, of course, has been saying that that might not be the case. But right now, I'm comfortable saying we don't have, that we don't definitively have a lightweight champion. So the field is wide open. And after this win, there are fights ahead of Dos anos that are very winnable for him. As you mentioned, I was very high in him in the previous show. I picked him and he felt by decision. I think a lot of people did. But there was definitely

some doubters as to what was left because he's got a little bit of a slump competing at 170 pounds. But at lightweight, I really never felt he lost that much. I know he lost that before Felder, you know, his most recent fight. He lost to Tony Ferguson. It's Tony Ferguson. You know, That doesn't say anything about Dosanos's diminishing skills. At his age, is he, like, you know, at 90% of what he was in his prime? Yeah, probably. That's still good enough to beat a lot of the division. And good enough to beat someone who I think he would face, I mentioned this on our matchmaking show,

someone who I think he could face in a vacant title fight, vacant lightweight title fight, Justin Gavejee. I think how felt those nights could win that fight. I think he ends up fighting the winner of Pori v. McGregor, I think he can win that fight. So not just is he still, I think, one of the top five best lightweights in the world, the opportunity is there and the right matchups there for him to become a champion again. Jose, the reason that I bring this up, because, you know, heading into the fight, it was, oh, my God,

Paul Felder is a legend. He's a hero for stepping in to save the day. And RDA, in a strange way, became kind of an afterthought in this fight. And again, after the fight, he makes headlines, getting the win. He's getting Connor McGregor's attention. But the story became Paul Felder taking the fight without stepping into an MMA gym in four months. Paul's not retiring. Paul's calling out those pesky weight cut weight missers.

And it feels like in a weird way, RDA's win is kind of lost in the shuffle. That's how I feel. Do you feel the same way? It might be lost in the shuffle in terms of headlines and what people are talking about. Because again, Paul Felder is a very charismatic individual. He knows how to use his mic time perfectly. Like you give Paul Felder a live mic. He's going to take advantage of it to say whatever.

Hafeo de Sanjos hasn't really been the, the type of person to, I don't know, grab headlines outside of what he says. I know he'll tweet a few things, but he doesn't really captivate the audience with his microphone skills. He does that inside the Octagon, as he said, at his media day, he just wants to fight and he thinks if you're ready to fight, you should fight whoever. That's what he did. So yes, his big win is lost in the headlines, but let's not forget, he picked up the win. He's in the W column. He gets the second half of his paycheck. So I think that's in the end, more important because now we're talking about

what are we talking about? We're talking about him facing all these guys in the top five possibly fighting for vacant lightweight title. If you ask Paul Felder, I guarantee he would probably want that position rather than to dominate the headlines to what he says. He wants to be, who could Paul Felder fight for the vacant lightway

title? Who could Paul Felder fight in the top five of the lightweight division? We're not talking about Paul Felder in that regard. We're talking about Hafeld Losanos in that regard. So yes, he is lost in the headlines, but I don't think he really cares. And I think Paul felt it would much rather be in Hafeel de Sano's position. So, Jose, if he fought Makachev in one or if he fought anybody else in one,

do you feel like we'd be having the same conversation right now? It would depend on how he wins. If he squeaks out a narrow decision, then we're probably talking about, like, did he deserve to win? Did he do this and that? And also, I think, would have to do a lot with how his fellow fighters respond. If he goes out there and knocks out Islam-Mach in about 30 seconds, people are going to be calling for him to fight Habib again,

because of what he did to Habib's brother, teammate, and all that kind of stuff. If he goes out there and squeaks out a controversial decision, I don't think Conn McGregor's going to be tweeting about him. So, yeah, I guess if he wins, if he beat Islam Makashv, he'd probably do more in terms of the Dagestanian audience, because we all know the dogstanding audience and fans is one of the most vocal in all of mixed martial arts. Michael Chandler himself said the second he said he wasn't going to fight Islam Makachev, his DMs exploded. And now everyone at Dagestan knows who Michael Chandler is. probably the same case if Hafei al-Dasanoz had beaten Islam-Machshiv, regardless of how it is, but he didn't.

So it's, I don't know how, I don't know if he had, if I don't know, because he didn't. He beat Paul Felder. If he had beaten Connor McGregor, sure, he'd be the biggest star in the world right now, but he didn't. He beat Paul Felder, and he's in the wind column, and now we're talking about what's next for Hafei al-Sanios. What do you think, A.K., I mean, I feel like the impact of the wind just wasn't,

I don't know, I just feel like it's not there on a Monday as you're recording. You know what I mean? Like most of these main events, we're talking about a Monday and Tuesday. And I don't think it's really fair to RDA. I thought he performed pretty well. It's not his fault that Mockachev got hurt. And he fought a guy who hadn't trained in four months. Still, he went out there and had a fun fight.

I mean, Felder wasn't like a wasn't lost out there. He had his moments and he beat RDA up a little bit at different times in the fight. In fact, even one judge scored it for Paul Felder. So at the end of the day, should RDA be getting a little more of a rub on this Monday? Yeah, I mean, look, we said like the buildup, a lot of it revolved around. Feldor stepping in and it's and it is not RDA's fault that Judge Chris Lee lost his damn mind and scored the fight 48 47 for for for for Felder maybe maybe the 5045s were bit much I don't if you want to give around to Feldor maybe two but giving him the fight was patently absurd I think it's

fair to say so but look you're right but look this is what we're talking about right so it does say a little bit about how much of an impact the actual win itself had but I think when people when people look back on it and I think anyone who actually watched the fight I don't know what the viewers your numbers were like I said as much as I said it's his chance of getting another title shot or about how the landscape of lightweight looks right now i don't want to discount what he did you know what he did to win the fight he he he looked again a lot like the old rda i think it was uh i think it was our man in the truck case alidon who said he he thought it could look or maybe it was jose he said it could look like the pettus fight

and it kind of reminded me a little bit of the five round uh championship win that rda had against pettis maybe not as well no i mean it reminded me a bit a lot so if that's the rda that you saw that you feel like you saw on Saturday, then, I mean, again, how can you not see him as a factor and see him back near the top of the division? He just turned 36, as did I. So, you know, I might be a little biased. This is one for the 36 years young guys. Okay, so I'm rooting for RDA to get it. I can't lie. So, I mean, RDA shoots for the stars. He calls for Connor. Pretty unlikely to happen anytime soon, but you never know ahead of January 23rd. We are in a very strange time in the world. but A.K., when you look at RDA,

and you kind of talked about what the landscape of this division looks like with some of the names that are up there, but the main reason he wanted to go back to 55 is that he feels he could be the champion once again. So did that performance, did that fight, did that win make you feel like, you know what? I think he can get back there, or do you still need to see some more before making that decision?

I think he can't. Look, Habib is the only guy who I would say, as long as Habib is around, let's say tomorrow, he's announced that he's not retired. Guess what? Nobody, I don't think anybody is getting the lightweight title. That's not named Habib. So that's not just RDA, that would be Connor McGregor, Justin G, Tony Perkins, anyone you want to name Habib is the guy to beat.

But if he's out of the picture, RDA is more than just in the mix. Like I said, I can't imagine him being more than like a, like if he's an underdog at all to some of these names, more than like a 150 underdog to a Porreier, McGregor, Gaggie, the guys I just named. Maybe Ferguson, because Ferguson's already beaten him. So I'd understand if Ferguson was heavily favored. That's about the only name. otherwise he has the skills just skill what to match up with any of these guys of one d five you know i know the age is a big sticking point for some people but just from what we saw on saturday

it didn't look like he lost that much of a step so i'm uh yeah i really can i don't know if i can't say it enough that i think don't be surprised if there's some circumstance where some injuries happen some matchups you know don't materialize versus he scheduled and rda slots into some sort of vacant lightweight title fight, maybe it's him and Michael Chandler, you know, in the summer, who knows, right? We just don't know, MMA is so unpredictable.

And in a fight against Chandler, I wouldn't count him out either. So the words, Raphael Dosanos, UFC lightweight champion in the year of our Lord, 2021, is not that crazy.

Jose, do you think it is that crazy? Or do you agree with AK? The only crazy part I would disagree with would be 2021. I don't think he's going to fight for the lightweight championship in the year of 2021, just because there seems to be a lot of fights that need to happen first. So I don't, and again, if he got the title shot based off of like we had talked about, like being that standby fighter, I think that would be the best case scenario for him to get

that lightweight title shot. And 100% I think he could be anyone not named Habib Nirmigamatov. But I would say the same thing about Justin Gaichie. I would say the same thing about Justin Porre, Khan McGregor, Tony Ferguson. Anyone in the top five at lightweight could be the choice. champion of the world if Habib Nervig Madov retires. And I would throw Hotfield Los Angeles right in there. He could be any one of those guys. If you do this big round robin, this big tournament of everyone,

fights everyone. And then you move forward, kind of like the World Cup. It would be hard, man. There's a lot of fights in there that I think would be 50-50 matchups. Of course, I would slightly favor some guys. But like if Connor fought Justin Poir, I would slightly favor Connor. That's had no way means Dustin Poirier can't win that fight because he is a completely different fighter from their first rematch. So I would absolutely grew up Hotfield Osani. into that category. Same as Michael Chandler,

same as Dan Hooker. Any of those guys can be any of them on their best day unless they face Habib Nirmugamayn Maneoff, who's going to probably retire undefeated unless he fights George St. Pierre and either catch weight, or if he goes up to 170,

if George drops to 155, I would heavily favor Habib Nirmat Madov, but that's an entirely different conversation we can have down the road if that ever happened. So, yeah, Hafeel de Sainos could absolutely be the lightweight champion in the world. I just don't think what happened in 2012,

21. The moral of this round, ladies and gentlemen, is put respect on RDA's name. Okay, Paul Felder is a freaking G for taking that fight. But Dosangos is also a G for accepting it and winning the fight. So we will see where he goes from here. The point for round one in this great matchup goes to Alex K. Lee, very passionate. I'd like that. I dig that. That's annoying.

What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the round. radio. How's this? Oh yeah, way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance simplified. Conditions apply. A.K. on the board here, as we had to a round of compare and contrast because the UFC had an interesting car. We talked about the main event. We had an insane knockout from one Chaos Williams in the co-main event, some good performances, some bad weight cuts and the removal of a few fights on Fight Week.

And then Bellator, a couple of days prior to that, Thursday night, they had Bellator 252. And I have to say, personally speaking, it was a fantastic night for Bellator. Patricio Pitbull continues his dominance, Nakato Pedro Cavalio. Manuel Sanchez looked phenomenal. Aaron Pico was among a slew of great highlight real finishes. This was the kind of card Bellator needed to get some buzz and get some positive juju going the way. So, Jose, we're going to begin with you. It's been a little while since we've had a conversation like this.

But who won the week in your opinion? Bellator or the UFC? I would probably say Bellator in terms of like what in terms of what were the better fights. Because Petrusio Pitbull, like I've said this a million times. Anytime you can watch the best at what someone does do what they do, it's a treat. And Petruso Pitbull is the greatest fighter in the history of Bellator.

And there's this whole argument, like remember a couple months ago, like who had the better roster is a light heavyweight, like Bellator or the UFC, who had the better wealth away, Belator or the UFC. we might be looking at the best featherweight in the world and that's Patricio Pitbull. And I think what adds to this is Alexander Volcanowski responded to someone on Twitter with eye-rolling emojis

when someone said Patricea Pitbull said he was the best feather way in the world. So not only are fans talking about it, the UFC featherweight champion in the world is responding and he's playing into it. So of course it's Bellator because everyone keeps saying, oh, Bellator is the B-Leaks, this and that, which is completely disrespectful because Petrucio Pitbull is one of the best fighters in the world. but now UFC champions are responding and reacting and they know what's happening. So it's, of course, Bellator won this week.

Yes, Paul Felder had the feel good story. Yes, Hafield-Lasanos picks up the W in his first fight a lightweight. But Petruccio Pitbull was supposed to fight Pedro Carvali all months ago before the pandemic. They weighed in and stared down and then the next day their fight gets canceled because of the pandemic hit. They basically have to weigh in completely all. They have to go through their fight camp again, weigh in again, stare down, down again, all this stuff with the face mask, and then they fight in front of no one, and Patricio Pitbull puts him away in less than three minutes.

So, of course, Bellator won this fight because the face of their organization did what he does best and put on the best performance he could have hoped for. So, yeah, I would absolutely say Belator 1. Plus, Emmanuel Sanchez wins, beats Dan Fico. He moves on. Aaron Pico picks up a skull-rattling knockout, and he's one of the most marketable fighters in all of MMA, not just Bellator. So, of course, everyone that I think Bellator would, I don't want to say Belator hopes they would win,

the more marketable fighters won, Aaron Pico, Patricio Pitbull, Cari, Taylor, Melendez. So I would say Bellator is the big winner of this weekend. A.K., who won the week in your opinion, the UFC, or was it Bellator MMA? Well, for that, I will just add that. That's actually a good point, that none of their fighters slipped on the proverbial banana peel, as it was. And one guy we didn't mention, I do want to shout out Yaroslav Amasov, now 25 and O in MMA. not easy to do. I don't care where you're fighting.

And I think eight of those fights are, like, in Bellator. So he's been fighting against a good competition. And he was facing another unbeaten. So if anyone thinks this guy and a very tough guy in Logan Storley. So if anyone thinks that Amosov is kind of like can crushing, I assure you he is not. I think Ed Ruth, Dave Rickles are in there. So, but I'm going to give the filthy casual perspective here and say that UFC almost wins by default just by keeping the show together after losing its main event.

And then having some late cancellations, you know, on Friday and Saturday. So it's almost an unfair question because like I said, because again, as long as the UFC runs an event, they're just always going to have more general interest. Belator, you know, has to do something like they can't just have a great show.

There has to be like something absolutely insane has to happen for them to, to win the battle as far as like recognition goes. So I'm not, I'm not saying which one had the better card necessarily. I think comfortably, I think anyone who watched Bulls cards would say Beltaire 2. But as far as again,

what have more impact? I mean, still the guy people were talking about the most, last week were Hafeldos anios because he was scheduled to be the main event and Paul Felder because of his incredible story of coming in on less than a week. So we've talked about them a lot. I won't dwell on that. Patricio Pitbull obviously

has to be the third star. I mean, it has to be again, if not number one as Jose said. But he's in this unfortunate no man's land where if he blows away and dominates his opponent as he did with Carvalio, then then people say, oh, well, he's just fighting guys who

aren't a high level. which is completely untrue. It's just he's so good. He's just so far ahead of his guys. And if he fights someone who people, and if it's a competitive fight, let's say he went five rounds of Corvalho back and forth, then it's the opposite. People were saying, oh, well, Pitbull's not that good. He couldn't even finish Carvalio in a round.

So he really can't win right now. And I think something to sort of support my argument of why the UFC just kind of wins is immediately after these fights, anytime Pitfall takes someone out now, and it was happening with Chandler, too, for the longest time when he was with Bell Torres. The first thing we'll ask is, yeah, but how would he do in UFC? How do you see? This guy needs to go to UFC. He needs to stop fighting guys in Bellator.

And I'm not saying I agree with that. I'm just giving the perspective of, I think, the way a lot of people view these things, unfortunately. And again, why I think they, objectively speaking, won the week, as it were, you know, whatever that means. I think people were still talking about RDA and the UFC, even though, and RDA UFC and Paul Felder, even though, again, that card for me was subpar, I think. I would not call it one of the most entertaining cars of the year to be generous. But I imagine people tuned in and the takeaways that they'll take from it would be the main event, the Chaos Williams, K.O.

And that's really enough to keep the UFC in the lead, fair or not. All right. So you kind of alluded to it, A.K., we wanted to incorporate one of our favorite segments to three stars into this topic because we've got an even larger pool to choose from since we're talking about two events. And you can certainly make the argument

that more stars could come from the UFC, more stars could come from Bellator. It was really a fun week to look back upon kind of looking back at these performances. So who are your three stars coming out of these events? It seems like Patricia Pippel is on there, but it's pretty wide open here. Who are the other two guys or gals?

Yeah, I mean, look, I mentioned Chaos Williams. I don't think it quite exploded as much as the Buckley COO. Really, no finish doesn't explode like the Buckley COO anytime soon, unless, again, someone does something just as crazy, maybe a two-footed head kick KO off of the leg getting caught. I don't know. Again, we didn't see the Buckley CIO. coming. I shouldn't say, you know, that these things can happen because it's MMA.

Literally anything, anything can happen. So yeah, I'm standing by kind of what I said about Doniaziozio, Diozain Yelso Feldar being the biggest stars, but I'll put, I'll put pit bull over, over, over anyone else who fought on Belator, over anyone else who fought in the UFC. And I'll just elaborate a little bit more in this point of like kind of why he's not the number one star. It's, it's, you know, people don't understand how good he is. The recent wins again, I think Kovai was high quality opponent, Archeletta, of course, the current bantamweight champion, Michael Chandler, Superfight, Lightweight Champion, and then Manuel Sanchez is really tough. And that's just the last four.

I mean, he's had a lot of great wins his career. I'd probably, and I'd probably rank him in the top five. Jose said maybe number one. I would definitely have them just kind of give people an insight to like, I think, what I'm thinking, and how other media people might be thinking. I'd rank him behind Volcanowski. I'd rank him behind Holloway and Ortega, but I'd have him ahead of zombie, Yair and Zabit. So maybe I'm underrating him a little bit, like as far as the star of the week, maybe he was number one.

I'm still comfortable putting him third. I still feel like RDA and Felder were the most talked about. And I think the performances didn't let people down. So it's not just the buildup to their fight. Like I said, I thought RDA put together a really great, complete fight, reminded people why he's back in World Title Contention, as we've already discussed on the show. And Felder got so much credit.

I mean, I mean, credit to Michael, props to Michael Bisping for helping out his broadcasting partner. Because if you asked him, it's like, Felder was like, Felder might have won the fight. If you just listened to the Bisping commentary, He loved, it was such a valiant performance in his eyes. And he wasn't far off. It really was an impressive performance for someone on five days fighting a world-class

opponent who then later said he hadn't been in the gym, and made gym training for four months. So I still have to put them above Patricia Pitbull. All right, Jose. So AK's list is RDA, Felder, Patricia Pitbull. What is your three-star list? I can't hear you. He just picks three of the four people in the main events.

That's not hard. like picking all the number one seats to go to the final four in the March of Madden. And guess what? It works. It works a lot. It works a lot. If you want to go against track, go for it. If you want to make this harder than it has to be, have at it.

I'm not going to do it. Very few times as all four number ones ever made it to the final four all at the same time. I think it's only happened maybe twice, maybe three times. Anyway, producing people, I mean, at least two of them, at least two of them have made it like 90% of the time. So it's not a bad strategy. Sure. I'm not in no specific order because I don't really rank them like one, two, three.

Patrice and Pipple, obviously, anytime, again, like I said, the best at what they do, like not only showcases what they do well, but does it in an emphatic fashion, he has to be included on the list. I really think our own Guillermo Cruz did a phenomenal job covering this event when Patricio Pipple and Pedro Carvalio, he did that piece where they interviewed each other. And any time Guillermo does that, I am thoroughly entertained,

but their level of trash talking was so unique because they both speak the same language. Petuco People is obviously from Brazil, Pedro Cavallo, from Portugal. So they both speak Portuguese. So it was very fun read. And there was this level of kind of animosity between them and Petrusa people, of course, tweeted that Brazil is still the king, which alludes to the healthy rivalry they have in the soccer world between Pedro Cavallo. I mean, between Portugal and Brazil. So Petruza people, of course, Gris, Belator fight, whoever lived, doing so,

as a featherweight, lightweight champion, and I honestly think he could drop to bantam weight because he's not the biggest featherweight. He could be a natural bantamweight like Frankie Edgar, and with one archeletta holding that belt, Petuso Pitbull could be a triple champ in my mind. He could be the lightweight, featherweight, and bannamweight champion.

Whether Bellator wants to allow him to do that and hold up three divisions, because if they want to do like a bantamweight Grand Prix, he would have to hold up two divisions at that point. I don't think they want that. So Pucosopil, of course, I'll throw in Aaron Pico, because Aaron Pico made the meeting,

rounds right after he was on the TMZs he was on instagram he was on all this stuff so erin pico uh was on that devastating losing streak of back-to-back violent knockouts uh to adam borch uh and uh henry corallis when everyone thought erin pico was the next coming of jesus christ and he was going to be the new george st pierre and he could walk on water and turn uh water in a wine and everything and then he goes on this this losing streak to back-to-back violent knockouts like i said all of a sudden he's a bust never should have been signed should never fight in the main event, how dare you consider him to be this, the next

pro, this big protege of the next George St. Pierre. And now he's quietly rattled off a few very impressive wins in the way he, in the way he should be winning against the level of competition he is facing. He should be winning this way. So he's doing what he needs to do. With him at Jackson,

with him and Brandon Gibson, he is a completely new fighter. And then he calls out, who does he call out? Henry Corrales, and Borges, not because he hates them, but because they made him better martial arts. He wants to go challenge them and get that win back. So I'll throw in Aaron Pico, and then of course, I'll throw in Chaos Williams just because he got another knockout.

And I don't, I'm only, I'm not including Dosanios and Felder because we've talked about them at nauseam. And we don't need to spend more time talking about those two because they're fantastic. Chaos Williams, Casey and I were at his fight in Houston when he knocked out Morano. And it was absolutely devastatingly violent. And then he goes and he turns right around and he gets another one in less than a minute. I think someone said that he's on some sort of list of like most sub-minute knockouts in like one calendar year or something crazy like that. I don't know the exact stat.

But he's up there with like Rumble Johnson in terms of that. And then all of a sudden, people are saying, if he turns around and gets one more win and wins the same way again, why is it he fighter the year? How come we're not talking about him instead of Hamza? Like he if he turns around and fights on like 11 days notes against another sub-minute knockout, he gets three like sub-minute knockouts of one calendar year, and all of a sudden he's fired the year. we should be promoting him instead of Hamza. And then I can't remember off the top of my head, but apparently he was wearing some sort of pin to bring awareness. And it's really going to bother me because I wrote it down

and I can't find my notes anywhere. He was wearing a pin to promote awareness for some sort of cause. And he used his platform spectacularly with the best suit I've seen in years. So autocastling, it's in my three stars of the weekend. It was for autism awareness, which now they... Now they mention it, I'm embarrassed. I did not give him. I want to fill the director of those signings.

So I'll say Chaos Williams because he promoted autism awareness and had the flyest suit of the year. Yeah, it was a fun week. It was a great night for Bellator. Let's see if they can keep it up this week. Pretty good card on Thursday. We mentioned, you know, the main event. You get Benson Henderson back against Jason Jackson.

Jeremy Kennedy makes his Bellator debut against fellow former UFC featherweight Matt Bissette, baby Slice is back. Kevin Lee's brother is fighting Rafi on Stats. Keith Lee. should be a good card, but it's a good matchup here on BTL. The point for round two goes to Jose Young's.

Jose Young says, evened up the matchup. Sean Al-Shallie, hope you're paying attention. I would get him that one too. I mean, you basically gave it away. I can't believe I forgot of the Cass Williams, the autism awareness thing,

a lapel, that he was wearing. Totally forgot. Yes. So let us move ahead to the next offering for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. UFC 255.

And we've talked about this quite a bit over the last few weeks on the live preview and post shows. This thing is flying under the radar amongst fans. We get two flyaway title fights. Davis and Figito defending for the first time against Alex Perez. You get Valentina Shvchenko, one of the best fighters on planet Earth, regardless of gender, defends her title against Jennifer Maya. Interesting main card. Prelimbs have a lot of cool things on it.

But for some reason, this one is just not generating any buzz. So we're going to go ahead and attempt to do the fans. Maybe in some degree the UFC a little bit of a solid. and try to sell this card because I think it's super underrated heading into it. So, AK, you are the Prince of Positivity after all. You're going to put your promoter hat on.

And listen, maybe, you know what? Maybe you're going to take that promoter hat and throw it in the garbage. Maybe you're not into this card as much as I am. But either way, give us your thoughts on UFC 255. Why should folks tune in and spend their hard-earned $65? Or maybe you feel they should save their money on this one. What do you think?

Oh, no, no, no. Look, if there's anything, I'm going to throw in the garbage. It's the scheduled lineup for this car. because first of all, I would have had Valentina in the main event. Look, I'm not saying that I expect that to be a better fight than Figuero and Perez. I actually think the Figueroeroz fight is really good. But at some point, I think you have to realize what you have in Chivchenko. I'm not saying she's a rousy level, John Jones, Love and McGregor-level star.

I'm not, you know, I'm not saying she's that, she's that tier. But she's in the next tier of someone who I think is really marketable, is someone people, at least the majority of dedicated NBA fans will pay their hard-earned money for. And those are the people you want to retain and appease. You know what I mean? And some of them will drink in a little extra casual interest, you know, I tell the friends about it. And that's good. So whatever you get, that's just great.

Right. So I would have had her as the main event. I think she's got the kind of personality for it. This is her fourth defense of the world title. If we're talking about same weight classes, I would have gone with a fighter who's had more title defenses and really dominant, right? So that's that's kind of the first move I would have made. I don't think there was anything we can do about that.

I don't think they're going to change that. But again, I'm going way back and I'm bending the rules a bit. I would have gone on the fly weights too. I know as soon as you'll hear that, I think like, that's pay-per-view poison. You know what I mean? They couldn't sell peer reviews of Demetrius Johnson, the greatest flyweight of all time at the top. When Henry Sehudo was doing superfights, doing that superfight with Dilsha, that wasn't like a huge drying event, right? So I get it.

I get it sounds crazy. But as we said, it's under. the radar. It's not generating this crazy amount of buzz anyway. So you may as well go all in and go back to that kind of the old thing of like, oh, this is the fastest division in sports or tell people it's the most skilled, tell people it's hot. This is marketing team's job. Okay, you don't have to, you don't have to tell 100% the truth. Follow your boss, Dana White and really sell this. And I would have put more. I would have, Brandon on Brandon obviously would have been in the main card, Roy Val versus Moreno. Maybe not all flights. Like I said, there's a Shogun fight, which I think

you have to put on there, putting that at prelims would be crazy. I don't I don't think anyone would stand for that. But friggin, I mean, this is kind of my third point I was going to make was friggin Mike Perry. Get the F out of here. All the way out of here. Okay. We don't need this guy. If it was the Robbie Lawler fight, I completely understand it.

There's no way I'm saying bump that off the main card. But him and Tim Means with respect to Means, that could have been the prelims. I would have bumped up on the flyweight cards. Good for means for taking that fight. But, I mean, Mike Perry's trash. And the farther we get him away from a card, the better market of that card can be. That's in my mind. So those are three things that I would.

have done. The crowd is erupting to that answer. Jose, your thoughts on this card. Should people spend their 65 bucks on it? Yeah, I mean, but I'm also a huge mixed martial arts fans. Like, if you're telling me to sell it to the casual fans, they're not going to listen to me because those, the casual fans will tune in to watch

John Jones, Connor McGregor, the heavyweight championship of the world. I mean, we made up a belt for Nate Deez and Horne Mazu, and that was one of, that was like one of, if not the highest selling pay-per-views. the year. So I'm not going to try to sell it to them because their opinion doesn't matter. So Davidson Figaro versus Alex Perez and Valentina Shoshenko versus Jennifer Maya. Those are two awesome fights. I'm not as like offended by the layout of the card as most people. I get their arguments, but I don't particularly care because from the amount of fighters that I've

talked to, they don't really care when they fight. A lot of fighters actually prefer fighting sooner. A lot of them prefer fighting on the preliminary cards. I know your interview with Bratton Roy of all. He was like, people aren't even going to buy the pay for you. So this is the actual main event. So if that's the attitude he's taking, good on him for getting the slot he wants. Who are we to argue against it? If he got the actual person

entering a cage to fistfight a human being, if he has no complaints, I don't know why we should have any complaints because we're not the ones getting inside of a cage, fist fighting another human being. Figureato versus Cody Garbrandt would have made sense as the main event because Cody Garbrandt is obviously probably the biggest name of the four between Figurato, him, Valentina, and Maya,

which is unfortunate because Valentina, I think he could be the best female fighter of all time. I know she has the two losses to man in the news, and I'm talking solely like how talented she is. People compare it to like a female James Bond. I'm all for that comparison because she knows like

a thousand languages. She's always shooting guns, throwing knives, jumping out of planes, doing photo shoots, and then she goes out there and just get crazy spinning wheel kicks on just guys. So yes. 100% on favor of the James Bond comparison. So, but would you spend money on it? 100%.

I think Figurato is the only thing holding him back from being an absolute, not a megastar, crossover star, but from being one of the most interesting fighters in the UFC is the fact that he doesn't speak English. Some of the, like our own game, my crew spoke to him after his big win over Joe B on the first fight on the car. And he was like laying out a lot of the jobs he had. He was a mason.

He was a sushi chef. He was a hairdresser. He was a taxi driver. He did all of these weird things. And I am all in favor of Davidson Figurato going back to his old job with jobs with his championship belt and just showing us and doing those jobs. Would you watch that? I would if we saw Davidson Figurato making sushi with this big championship belt on and

then giving them to the customers. I'm all in favor of it. He also takes phenomenal photo shoots with all the cows and horses he owns. The only thing holding them back from being the most. interesting man in the UFC is the fact he doesn't speak English, which is unfortunate because he is by far the most violent flyweight in the world. If people want to get sold on the container series, Alex Perez is absolutely phenomenal. The only person he's lost to is Joseph Benevita's. He's beaten everyone else. Everyone complaining about flyways not getting stoppage wins.

Alex Perez has those. David Finiro has those. If that doesn't sell you, I'm sorry, you're a lost cost to me. All right, Jose, let me go back to you because, as you mentioned, we have two very dangerous champions defending their titles. Right now, Figuado, more than a three to one favorite. He's around a minus 315 in the betting lines. Valentina Shavchenko, anywhere from a minus 1,200 favorite over Jennifer Mai. And I know that for those who are watching you and have watched the preview shows, they know that you give a 1% chance for anybody to win most of these fights.

In your heart of hearts, on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely will we see an Ann new on Saturday night? 1%. 1%. That's only because, like, there are obviously some fights. Like, I knew Habib was going to be Connor. I knew Rhonda was going to be Betch Gahia. There are just some fights that you are so positive that the other person is going to win, you give him 100% chance.

I give Jennifer Mahera a 1% chance because, yes, she has missed weight, which is the big knock against her. But she's also, like, she's beating Alexa Davis, Roxanne Mottafaris. She just tapped Joanne Calderwood, and she's only lost to people who have fought for the title. who's like Calvin Chiqua and Liz Camusu, Valentina has both beaten. So I would give her a 1% chance

because she's very good on the ground. She comes from a shoot-to-boxing background, so I don't want to disrespect any of her training camp. So 1% chance, but that is about a small 1% chance. If I've given any other, any fighter in a very long time, I think I am pretty confident when I say Valentina should get this done inside three rounds.

What about Perez? Perez I'll give, man, that's a tough one. 25%. He's an awesome fighter, but I just think he got out classed by Joe B. And I think Joe B could be the fourth best flyaway in the world behind Demetius Johnson, Henry Sehudo,

and Davis in Figuero. And I would still think, I still think Demetius Johnson's best flywood in the world. I think Henry Sehudo is the second best in Figueroero. It just happens to be the most violent of the three, but that can oftentimes be a detriment when you're fighting these guys with such high IQs, fight IQ's like Demetius Johnson, Henderson, Hutto.

Alex Perez is awesome. I just think David Sufredo is a whole other beast entirely. When he hits people, their face changes. So I'd give Alex Brez maybe a 25% chance of winning. But I think that fight is going to be absolutely awesome. So A.K. on a scale 1 to 10, Jose is giving it around a 1.75 that we would see in Ann New. He's given 1% for Maya to win. 2.5% for 2.5 out of 10 for I suck at fraction math so we're not even going to go there but

around to 1.75. What's say you? What's say you? Let's say you. I think he's giving a 0.01 out of 10 for for for. Why did we start doing math, Mike? Yeah. You're the host.

You're supposed to stop these things. All right. So let's say one to 10 for you. What are the chances that we have one new champion crown on Saturday? Sorry, sorry, can you repeat that? My audio broke up for a second. On a scale 1 to 10, how likely will we see a new champion on Saturday? Man, I'm going to go.

I probably like Perez's chances a little more even than Jose. Again, I wouldn't go past like 50%, but so if I'm not going past 50%, and I don't think Chavchenko loses out of 10, I'll go 4 out of 10. I know that doesn't sound super exciting, but that might be higher than something. I bet you, if you ask most fans, they're probably going one or two, out of 10. They don't see either Figuredado or Shcherchenko losing. But I actually really do like Alex Perez's chances. If anything for me, I think the Joe B fight was a sign of kind of how much further he had to go. But again, that was two years ago. That for me was the kind of loss that

that he learned a lot. I think he learned a lot from. And if they fought again, I would, if he fought Benavides again, I would probably favor Perez. So saying that, I think he's a much, much improved fighter. And I do like his chances against Figurato. The Figaro, I think as we've said after the beating he have to be Benavides the second time does look like he has the makins to be maybe one of the next dominant UFC champions but I'm going to need to see this first defense how he handles

this first defense to really be convinced and I'm a petty person so I actually want to pick up on one thing Jose mentioned earlier I like that he said Shevchenko knows like a million languages it's such an American thing to say I think she knows like four I know for Americans that's like a lot that's like a million that's like you know

you uncultured swine that's like a million languages I think she's like, it's like probably like Kyrgyz, Russian. In Russian, I know, Kyrgyz, I would assume. And then Spanish and English. That's four languages. It's very impressive. But guys, it's not a million. It's a lot of, you know, it's very common in other countries, you know, more, more cultured

countries, Canada being one of them, of course. You still talking about this, bro, move on. Yeah. I'm very petty. I'm very petty. So, yeah, but at answer, four out of ten. Four out of ten. I think, I think Perez does have a really, a really solid chance. math and foreign language,

just what you wanted to see here on between the links. We're going to continue on this somewhat in our next segment, but I'm telling you, I have this UFC 199 vibe to this card where people want to skip it, but it ends up being really good and you end up getting upset that you didn't watch it, but don't get pissed at me if I'm wrong,

but as it stands right now, I think it's going to be a lot of fun. But the point for round three goes to Jose Youngs. He takes the lead. Yeah, he takes the lead. He takes a leader. I love your positivity, A.K. I sense a robbery review coming. I'm just saying. I'm already fired up. Good. This is perfect. Just the question that you want to talk about because you're excited for this one.

So I figured we would round off regulation this week with one of the big talking points recently. It's the fighter of the year topic. I know it was briefly mentioned on the show earlier. But this year is pretty wide open right now. And you can make an argument for a lot of people. And some are champions. Some are not. but one who knows maybe more of those options potential nominees are competing this Saturday at UFC 255. So Davis and Figuado has been a name thrown out there quite a bit. So Jose, we're going to start with you here. Sure, there's still some fights left, but for the most part,

fighters of the year are typically fighters who are champions or who could win champions. And if Figgie goes out there and beats Alex Perez and does so decisively, is he now the frontrunner for Fighter of the Year with his two wins over Benavides, winning and defending the title, but the one negative knock against him, he does have a weight miss. So where does a win over Perez put him in this conversation? If he wins on Saturday,

I would probably put him number one, but that's not a locked-in number one. Because like you said, it's usually champions. And it's unfortunate this year. A lot of the champions have been tied up. A lot of the other promotions had to take those long pauses.

Like if Pitbull had gone on this run and won the featherweight Grand Prix decisively, we could be talking about him as fighter of the year. but because there was that gap in action of everyone outside of the UFC, we really can only look at the UFC. If Figuero wins on Saturday, I would probably put him number one. But that's to say, like if Kevin Holland goes out there and beats Jack Hermanson, he goes to 5 and 0 in 2020 and beat Jack Hermanson,

who is one of the best middleweights in the world, like a legitimate middleweight contender. If he had beaten Darren Till, we could be talking about him, maybe fighting Robert Whitaker for a number one contenders spot. Kevin Holland goes out there and beats Jack Khamsansen. We have to talk about him. If Hamzaa Shamaev goes 3 and O'Noh in the span of like 60 days and then goes and beats Leon Edwards, he's an unranked fighter and all of a sudden beats Leon Edwards

who has a legitimate argument to be fighting for the wealthyweight champions of the world right now. Hamza Shamaia probably beats Leon Edwards and then fights the winner of Burns and Usman. I can see it. I can see it coming. The UFC really wants that. Dana is very high on Hamzai. He had his own beating scrum on the second fight Island card. He sat next to Dana White Octagon side during the fight.

So if Hansa beats Leon Edwards, you have to throw him in there. So if everyone wins, if everyone wins that I said, it's going to come down to Figurato, Kevin Holland, Hamzaa Shemaya. I have a feeling the fans are going to lean toward Hamza Shemaya because he's the most popular. But Kevin Holland beating Jack Hermanson, you have to really seriously take into consideration because he also cut weight to fight Trevin Giles.

When his fight fell out, he's called everyone out. He even offered to fight Ed Herman after Trevin Giles fell out. and Ed Herman was obviously, he couldn't be reached. So Kevin Holland was getting ready to take a short notice opponent on like 30 minutes, let alone one day. So, yeah, you'd have to throw those to him. But if he wins on Saturday, Figueroa, for me, would be the frontrunner. A.K., what do you think?

Well, we all know, as I mentioned, I think, an earlier appearance, Mike, Kamar Usman is already my part of the year pick. Far away. So really, I have to stick to it, right? What kind of man that I think? anyone who didn't see when I had past appearances. I panicked, I panicked during your question, and I picked Kamarizma in front of the year.

I'm not proud of it, but I'll own it. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I know it happened. People can check the tapes, I'm not going to deny it. So obviously, it's not, it's not, it's not, it was mine. He would have been up there if the Gilbert Burns fight,

pardon me, had not been postponed and he won any beat Gilbert Burns. And Gilbert Burns also would have been in there if he had beaten Usman. So, which I'll kind of say the same for this question, before I kind of get into my sort of my other possible picture Friday of the year is, I think if Perez beats Figurato, Man, he kind of is in that talk for Friday of the year. I was just looking at his resume.

So he also beat this year Formiga. And oh, geez, what was the other? Espinosa. Spinoza. Yeah. So that's, and then obviously you put figure out on top of that. Then in this year, which unfortunately has been hit by the pandemic and has prevented a lot of champions from fighting more than once, a lot of stars from fighting more than

once or twice. Perez's resume would be right up there. And again, I think since a lot of people are viewing it is a pretty big upset, you know, that adds to the story. A lot of people let's see that. It would have to probably be like a knockout, something like that. But I think even something convincing, a knockout or even like a lopsided decision. Like if he just outworks Figurato for five rounds, I think that would get to pull on the side.

It sounds crazy to say Alex Perez's part of the year, but it's not just crazy to say Kevin Holland. I mean, Kevin Holland, like we said, could be the fighter of the year. So for me, though, just to sort of argue against Figurato, who I think is a great fighter, but to say why I'm not, you say, oh, I don't think he's just for the year. Two wins over Benavides, as great as Benavides is. It's tough. It's like two guys against the same opponent. The second fight shouldn't have even happened because he should have made weight. You could argue that he would have gotten another opponent instead of Benavides if he had made wait for that first fight.

Like there's a lot of sort of little factors you can take into consideration to say why Figurato's sort of arc in 2020 would have been different and arguably better if he hadn't had to fight Benavita twice. But again, just with the data we have, I don't know. I don't know if he's the frontrunner for me for a fight of the year. And again, it's not his fault. People could, most of these fighters champions could only fight one or two. two times. So I get it. I get it. Him winning three title fights, even if it's two against the same opponent, I get why I put some up there.

Would it would not be the front of my list? I don't think we'll have to see. But other names, I mean, I'm looking at like Blachovitch, you know, two fights, yes, but won a title. Schenko, maybe two dominant wins, but I know people don't view her quality of competitions being that high, which don't remove her from it.

Holland, he's just missing that signature win. Hermanson, of course, would be it. So I think he takes the lead if he wins. And then you have a bunch of other stars. who have kind of fought twice. I got like Calvin Cater on there, Jan Shaanan. Chris Cyborg,

two title fight wins, you know, becoming a way, adding another title to her. I don't think a lot of people are going to put her on the list. She might make my top five. Again,

competition, whatever, people can judge it how they want. And one little sleeper, Carlos Sparza, who could go three and O if she beats her key bus. But to answer just the question,

I really can't give my, my fighter of the year pick just yet. Clearly I'm not qualified to do it. I think we found that out. But I can say why I don't, but I mean, that is my argument for why don't think a win over Perez necessarily makes Figuero the front and runner for a fighter of the year.

Yeah, Sparzo will not be in that conversation because she's not fighting Amanda Heapis anymore. What happens? He was fighting Michelle Waterson in January now. And to think I do a mastermaking show. It's all good. I will say, okay, you made a very good point. You made a very, very good point. And I want to get Jose's take on this.

What if Alex Perez? What if he beats Davis and Figuerreedo? is this fight potentially for the front runner for fighter of the year? Because no one's talking about Alex Perez and his resume stacks up. Finishes of Jordan Esbenosa, finishes Juicier Formigo with leg kicks,

which is just gnarly and nasty to watch. If he goes out there and finishes Davis and Figurato, that is an impressive year. And he caps it off of the championship. Is he the front runner if he wins? Probably. But like I, so I don't probably. Three and O, he would be the front runner on Saturday.

But like I said, there would be other fights like the Holland, the Holland fight and the Hamza fight like what if what if Jennifer Maya wins and she's 2 and oh and she beats Joanne Caldewood and Valatina Shoshenko who were supposed to fight in June she knocks off the one and two fighter in the world back to

back fight so there's a lot of what if we could talk about so yes if Alex Perez wins he's probably the front runner on Saturday same as Figurato and if Maya somehow pulls a horseshoe out of ass she could be up there too but there's what we have to see a Saturday plays out first

all right okay actually Jose I go back to you on this because we mentioned like the non-champians that could win this award. We got Hamza at Chimae. I have obviously tons of buzz, three and O, both the headline against Leon Edwards. There's Kevin Holland, four and O, a lot of buzz getting ready to headline against Jackramansen on December 5th. There's also guys like Brandon Royval. If he beats Brandon Moreno, three very quality wins, probably out resumes both of those guys, if we're being honest, considering rankings and who they're fighting and stuff, because Brandon Moreno is the number two ranked guy in this division. And a lot of people's eyes,

the number one rank guy in this division, the guy that should be fighting for the title on Saturday. but is there a chance, like, whose resume stacks are better? If we're talking to these three guys, if all three of these guys win, all three of these guys do so impressively, are you giving it to a guy like Royval? You're giving it to guy like Holland, or are you giving it to Shemayev based on resume and what they put together? It's very, it's three very different scenarios in my mind

because, yeah, Royval would have been in three quality opponents back to back to back, which is phenomenal. And he would have to be in the conversation. on the flip side, Kevin Holland, who's 4 and 0 right now, what is fighting competition that is right on his level in terms of where he is in his career, if he beats Jack Hermanson, that is one of the biggest upsets,

if not the biggest upsets of 2020. So you have to take that into account, like him fighting up, taking a massive step up in competition on short notice to save a card. In his first main event, you have to take that in consideration. And then Hamza, fighting Leon Edwards,

because like we said, Leon Edwards is supposed to fight Tyne Woodley. If he had gotten that fight, I think Leon Edwards would have won. He could be fighting for the championship, not Gilbert Burns. Leon Edwards is also an actual welterweight. Hamza has fought basically two middleweights and a lightweight that move up to welterweight in Reese McKee. So it would be his first welterweight. Leon Edwards is a level of competition going from Reese McKee and Gerald Mirchart to all of a sudden.

Leon Edwards is a huge jump. It's probably the biggest jump. I've seen in a very long time in the UFC in terms of like four fights in such a short amount of time. So it's three different scenarios. And if they all win, they're all in the conversation. But it also depends on how they win. If Kenner Holland sneaks out a decision, that's still a win over a massive, over a massive. If for whatever reason, he goes out there and knocks out or if God forbid submits Jack Kermanston in the first round, I would put him at the top of this because Jack Kraman's bread and butter, knockouts and ground games.

So we have to see how they win first, but it's, I don't look at them all in the same scenario. All right, A.K., let's just say it's the end of the year and we're thinking about December. Let's say Kevin Holland goes in there and finishes Jack Hermanson in the first or second round in the main event. Then all eyes are on Hamzaa Chamaev. Let's just say Hamzat Shamiyev knocks out Leon Edwards in the first and second round. So if we're talking about non-championship winning fighters of the year, if both of those guys get great finishes, who are you giving it to, Holland or Shamiyev? Taking into account all their other fights as well, an impressive win over Hermanson would mean a little bit more to me than an impressive win over Edwards. You can't really compare the rankings.

I think Hermanson is higher ranked, and not even kind of the stupid thing with the UFC taking Edwards out of the rankings temporarily. I think Hermanson is higher ranked at middleweight than Edwards is a welterweight. I could be wrong. But either way, taking into account the other wins that Holland has and the other wins that Shemayev has, I like Holland's resume a little bit better if he wins an impressive fashion. as opposed to if Shemaya wins an impressive fashion. Shemayev with a win over Edwards will be the runaway newcomer slash breakout friday of the year, however you want to put it. Sometimes, gosh, not from that also make it onto the fight of their year list.

Leon Edwards is number three, and Jackerman's number four. Okay, okay. So close, close, but it would still mean more to me, I think, to see Holland get that impressive win. I suppose compared to Shamaev doing the same thing to Edwards. He'll, again, he says, Shemai will be the frontrunner for breakout front of the year. There's like Sean Brady's on there, Daniel Rodriguez, Devalchrelli, guys who, I guess, again, not necessarily guys who debuted, but yeah, breakout, right? So he'd win that easily. Does it make him the fire of the year?

I would lean towards Holland. I think on DeVeros, a newcomer sure, but I think Darren Stewart, Buckley and Hernandez, I think are better than the McKee sort of, the McKee and Phillips wins. Mears shirt might have the edge over some of those names, but it's really, really close. But again, a few more, you know, one more win for Holland. I think the quality competition was just a little bit higher. And I think the Hermanson win would mean just a little bit more. So Holland, man, he might be the fighter of the year. What a crazy year this is.

This is going to be a long lasting conversation as we approach December 19th and beyond. And the awards will be given out. And it's going to be a difficult one to do. But as far as this conversation goes, it will continue. It will continue. It will continue. It's A.K. Lee, you have tied things up, my friend. Nicely done.

I might have to take back what I just said, but, you know, the phony, phony pistols aside. We will head to the knock our own. If incorrectly predicting Carla Sparza is going to fight in a few weeks is not enough to give me the point, then finger guns isn't. I went for a spin kick. I went for a spin kick. I whipped on it. It happens. It happens to the best of us.

I fell on my butt. I fell on my butt. Two things. One, everybody makes mistakes. And two, everybody watches the show knows exactly what's going to happen anyways. going to the stock around question. I'm glad. Don't say that.

Don't say it. Everybody knows this by now. No, no, no. I don't. This is all. No. Everybody knows that I'm a coward. As far as I know, I'm not a coward.

As far as far as I, and I know the comments below we're going to say, I'm up for oh. I, oh, wow. I just, I, I hope those shots I just fired off. We can still be monetized after those live rounds that I just fired. Sorry. I do apologize for. that celebration for that obscene celebration and uh let's let's just get let's get back to business frankly i want to see more and uh thank you and i just want to hear how AK performs in uh in the knock

round and for those of you who are new to the program the knockout round will consist of one question the competitors have no idea what this question is and they will have 60 seconds to answer once they do we will turn it over to the judge the jury and the executive producer case he lied and he will render the final verdict Jose you are last week's winner Would you like to go first or exercise the winner's option and pass it on over to Mr. A.K. Lee. Mr. A.K. Lee can go first. Okay.

Just like I wanted. As people who watch the show, know Mike, I'm at my strongest in round of five. When round five comes, I'm a new man. All I'm going to say is that you need to thank the PFL and Fabrizio Verdum for coming to an agreement. Because had they not, you would have hated the question I was going to go with. But we have to go with this.

Big news surfaced, Fabrice Over Doom, as you may know by now as you're watching this, who apparently is the freaking Tom Brady of MMA. I'm not even going to address the Tom Foolery from that press release. But anyways, so Fabrice Overdome, no longer a free agent. He has signed with the Professional Fighters League and will compete during their 2021 season. And there seemed to be a lot of options for Verdoom

coming out of his win over Alexander Augustus. but the PFL didn't honestly seem like one of the top ones, at least in my mind. A lot of talks about Bellator, maybe having the rematch with Fador, won, but he signs with the PFL. So what are your thoughts on this move? And do you feel like this was the way to go for the former UFC heavyweight champion of the world? 60 seconds are going to be on the clock. Any matter of seconds, there they are. Your time starts now.

Well, first of all, thank you for PFL's CEO, Peter Murray, for so eloquently to summing up Fabrice Verdome's career as, yes, the Tom Brady. We've often said, you guys are from New England. I'm sure you guys say all the time that Tom Brady is the Fabrice of Redoom of quarterbacking and football. So it goes both ways, guys. It goes both ways. But I think it's an incredible move. I love it.

I love almost any time a fighter, a quality fighter goes to the NFL, not just because it's good for the league, but also I usually give them better than good odds to win it. No disrespect to some of the talents that they've grown in the PFL. There's some good guys in there. But I cannot lie. I had to look up who won the last heavyweight, the last PFL heavyweight tournament and that $1 million prize. So Ali Asaya, for anyone who's wondering,

I did not remember that at all. That's on me, by the way. That's not on the league and that's not an Asiah. You know, credit to them. I've got a great performance. But Verdume has a shot to end his career with winning a million dollars. If he sticks around, maybe to the Lance Palmer, maybe win an easy $2 million.

How can you go against that? We all want to see the fade-or fight, but this is a great choice for Fabrizio Verdu. All right, Jose, same question for you. 60 seconds about to hit the clock. Fabrice Overdome signs with the professional fighters league. Your time starts now. I think it's fine.

That's what I, it's fine. If he wants to win a million dollars, I'm all four people entering the Oxygon getting paid. What I think is going to be easy money for Robesio Verdum, he's easily the favorite to win. We can also have some fun light heavyweight matches. Like you remember when Brandon Lockney jumped over, he had that random fight before he was going to answer the contest.

Like, I know Vinnie Magal H beat for BCO Verdum in the 2011-80-C tournament of finals. So if they want to run that back in MMA, I'm fine with that. But I was really hoping Verdume would either hop over to Bellator so you can see the Fadour rematch maybe in a ring on a rise of New Year's Eve show or hop over to one championship. Verdume versus Bader would have been a fun fight. But if we're strictly looking at this as Verdoom wants to an easy paycheck before he calls it a career, that's fine. me all power to him. He's one of the five greatest heavyweights I'd probably say in MMA history. So if you want to go out with a million dollars, so be it. All right. Horisha Verduim signs with the Professional Fighters League. And now this matchup in terms of the

debates have come to an end. We turn it over to Casey Lydin, the judge to render the final decision. Casey, who wins? Well, I'm sorry, I was Googling Tom Brady. I never heard of the guy. so one moment. Oh, the truck always on top of things. Oh, he played sprats ball. Cool. Okay, okay. Yeah. Okay.

I see. All right, well, let me tally the points up. Jose did call the PFL Cajun Octagon. He did. Which I did. Actually, I approve of. Your winner, Mr. Jose Youngs. Oh, man.

What a bad. You know, it's probably a bad sign when I'm nodding along with some of his choices for Purdue. You guys didn't see him off. He was saying stuff in his last question. I was off camera going like, hmm, that's pretty good. That's probably not a good sign. That's probably not a good sign. So there you go.

Jose Young's, victorious yet again. And with that, you get 30 seconds to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about, good, bad, and differ in the sport of mixed martial arts. Maybe a recall out of Mr. Alshaddy, whatever you want to say, sir. Well, let's get one thing. great. This three to two decision is right up there with Paul Felder getting one of the judge's scorecard. This was a clean sweep. This was 5-0. We didn't need the championship round. I know the comments are going to agree with me because, come on, it's 5-0. I beat A. K. Lee. Like,

like, I beat it fair and square. But all-power to me, stepped up on short notes because Sean L. Schott had decided to once again run away. But I guess he gets some sort of pass because Chris Paul is now on the Phoenix Suns. Sayanari, Kelly Ubre. Thank you so much for everything you did for the city of Phoenix. Phoenix Carnival, I don't want to call you out because I respect the hell out of you, and you are one of the few MMA reporters

who I see eye to eye with on both comic books and music. But if you want to go come, because we all know I won that first time we threw down, and I think she does too. So either one, bring them forth, and they can lose. I don't want to talk about what's his name. Ted, Ned, Led, whatever his name is, he's gone, he's out of the picture,

he's off cosplaying this binky from Arthur he's out of the equation but hey Kaylee thanks for stepping up and losing once again so so respectful right there

so respectful AK you're the bad I appreciate it my friend of course anytime anytime you know what these are free title shots for me

it's all gravy you know these are all I'm like a your riot favorite Frankie Edgar give me all the title shots I don't care just give it to me I don't need to earn them

Holly Holm home right Holly Hump, give me all the title shots. I love it. Well, that's going to do it for this week's episode of Between the Lanks. Of course, UFC 255 going down on Saturday. Jose Young's, I believe you will be in Instant City with all the coverage. Excellent. So that means the Wayans show is back, AK, you have something to look forward to?

I do as well. No one does a Lake Alexander K. He gets excited. He barely even sleeps the night before. He just wants to get in there and talk about Wayans and all sorts of craziness. So we appreciate that. And so stick with us. Lots of fun stuff going on this week.

In the meantime, for Alex K. Lee, for Jose Young's, Casey Latin on the production, Esther Lynn with the intro. I am Mike Heck. We'll see you back here once again next week. Between the Links. Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Links with your host, Mike Heck. Brought to you by MMA Fighting, a production of Vox Media. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.