MMA Fighting - BTL Championship | Dana White vs. Jake Paul, Poirier vs. Diaz Talks, UFC 272 Title Bouts, More

Episode Date: January 6, 2022

Dana White and Jake Paul kicked off 2022 with a back-and-forth war of words — which is something that happened quite frequently in 2021. But what does it all mean and can any actual good come from it? That topic will be discussed by on the finale of the Between the Links championship tournament. In addition, the title competitors will talk the potential of a fight between Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz after the former interim lightweight champ recently stated he had agreed to the bout, UFC 272 looking strong with the announcement of Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway 3 and Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan 2, bold but not impossible predictions for this new year, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the championship matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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

Simons insuffles the magic in your time of the festival. Millie unidie of a gift of and hotent of fun of course and the beaute

and the beaute and the box reds and psalmere a new tuesday a new tuesday a year. It's the most two of Canadian

Tyrus early Black Friday sale. These prices won't go lower this year. So you're lying on the floor? Save up the 50% November 13th to 20th conditions apply

details online. You're listening to the Vox Media a podcast network. The Links. Yes, the iconic voice of Esther Lin welcomes you to a very special edition of Between the Links. We have arrived at the finale of the prestigious BTL championship tournament. And it is not the matchup you expected to happen.

But more on that in the moment. But in the next hour, 75 minutes or so, we will have an undisputed BTL champion. It's taken many weeks, many closely contested matchups to get here. But we have now arrived. So let us introduce one of the competitors before I discussed the change to the matchup. He has dressed the part for the most part. He actually sort of inspired this ensemble,

the Mr. Feeney sweater vest, because I didn't want to outdress him, but it turns out I overdress for the occasion. But in all honesty, he has brought the heat and any kind of gray area was vanquished throughout this impressive run through this tournament. He holds the most victories in the history of the show. And he's hoping that at the end of all of this,

he will take his place as champion once again, from MMAfighting.com, Mr. Jedmishu. Jedd, how are you, sir? You're looking, uh, I don't know, not as, uh, as a rapper as normal. I'm doing terrible. There's a reason I'm dressed down because I'm, I'm punching down this week. Like, I know it's for the belt, but come on.

You guys could have just given me the title at this point, A.K. Lee, man has twice as many losses, maybe three times as many losses. And most of those already came to me. I don't even know what I'm doing here. And so I didn't need to put on a suit. You need to dress up. need to dress for success. I just have to show up and I'm going to wax this dude. He's got nothing

for me. I don't even know. I don't know what we're doing here, Mike. I don't know. I've been waiting, but patiently waiting and this is what happens. I shouldn't be wearing a shirt at all. Shouldn't be wearing anything because this is nonsense. Well, as most of you know, Phoenix Carnivali, the undefeated competitor was supposed to be on the other end of this virtual cage. But life happened. She got herself a big time gig in the fitness industry. And with that, she is unable to compete this week. However, there was an emergency meeting of the BTL Championship Committee. And whenever she is ready to roll, she will be right back in there to jump the line to a title shot. But we had a call on Audible, and there was only one person we could call, a man who many believed

actually beat Phoenix in the semifinals. In fact, even Phoenix herself thought she was beaten by this man. the judge ruled differently, but looking to play spoiler, looking to be a Cinderella story, looking to shake up the very foundation of BTL as we know it. The Prince of Positivity, the co-host of the MA Fighting Ranking Show, the co-host of On to the next one, Mr. Alexander K. Lee.

Hello, sir. Welcome to the program. Thank you, Michael. You know, first of all, I think everyone should thank Phoenix Carnar Valley for doing the right thing and stepping out of the way because she knew as great a competitor as she is with all the respect in the world to her.

She knew that I won that matchup. I deserve to be here. When I claim this title, of course, as you said, Mike, she will be welcome to come challenge for it. And I very much look forward to our rematch. Jed, I'm glad to see that he put as much effort into preparing for today's show as he does, into doing his rankings every month.

So, you know, that's good. So I'm not worried at all about today's show. Today is my day. I don't think I've beaten Jed before. I may have come close in the past. Today's the day where I make it over the hump. And he reeks of weakness. I mean, we all see it.

I know it's a cruel thing to say. He wreaks of weakness. And while I wish I was getting the best version of Jen Michoud, whatever that means, I'll take a win over this husk that is on screen with me right now. Weakness. Come on now. You're the man who I kept up all week long with my new rankings. You're tired.

You're coming into this. Not off a good training camp. You'd be down. I didn't need to go. the underhanded route, but I did anyway, because that's what champions do. You play to win the game, even when your opponent shouldn't be standing across the digital arena from you. You know that you wish you were facing Phoenix right now.

I do. You wanted that, yeah, because you know that I'm the tougher competition. You know that she, I get it, she's the bigger name. She's the bigger name. I'm the one who should have been in the finals. Thank goodness I am. You have, I have, you have nothing to gain from this except, except whatever, this, this, you know, this trophy, which is wonderful.

But, I mean, look, we all know. The belt. Phoenix is the one. When I get sent the belt, I'll let you know if it's a belt or not. But Phoenix is probably, people think Phoenix is the one to beat. I'm here to correct people. It's definitely going to be me. Like I said, though, I'll face her when the time comes.

But I'm focused on dethroning this guy right now. All right. Well, I like the fire already. We haven't even asked a question yet. And things are getting heated. So this is good. So let's get into this thing. and do what we're supposed to do.

Let's discuss the continuation of a fiery feud between UFC president Dana White and Jake Paul, who a few weeks back knocked out former UFC welterweight champion, Tartan Woodley, in Tampa, Florida. It began with Dana making a challenge to Jake Paul, saying, essentially, dude, you think I'm a Cokehead, I'll let you test me for cocaine for the next decade, if I could test you for steroids for the next two years.

And Paul makes a challenge of his own. saying that I will retire from boxing to fight Jorge Mazadol inside the UFC's Octavada of Dana will pay his fighters better, give them a better share of the revenue pie. White responds by saying, hey, you didn't answer my question, your manager's a scumbag who used to work for me, you can't sell pay-per-view. My guys are bigger pay-per-view stars than you'll ever be. Paul responded with a fun little retort video and on and on it goes. So, AK, let's begin with you.

What have you made of this recent tete-a-tete back and forth? between Dana White and Jake Paul. I mean, look, it's, I mean, depending who you ask, it's entertaining. There's certainly a large segment of the NBA fan base that is not amused by it at all. If anything, they despise the amount of tension that those of us in the media

have given this particular feud. But look, it's for anyone to deny that it's not a relevant story, that is not relevant to MMA, to combat sports. I mean, that's just naive. Yeah, I get it. You'd rather hear about, oh, you'd rather hear some breaking news about some undercard matchup between two top 35 fly weights. And that's fine. I respect that.

But as far as what everyone's talking about and something that could have actual implications on the business, I mean, how can you not be focused on Dana White and Jake Paul? Now, I don't know if I'm telling people that they have to view this sort of exchange that exists in a positive light. I mean, how do you define something positive coming out of this? I mean, I don't think, at the end of the day, I don't think this is going to change much for people. UFC fighters specifically, I think, is who I'm referring to. I know we all, you know, we like the fact that Jake Paul is sort of this disruptor. He's this mainstream figure.

He doesn't answer to Dana White. He doesn't mean to lose by stepping to Dana White. And it's great that he's bringing up him and his manager, Akisa, bringing up these things about the fighter pay and equity and all that. But Dana White, whether his responses are, you know, on the level, the same level as Jake Paul's or not. He's not going to, you know, he's not going to do anything. He's not going to change, he's not going to change the entire UFC pay structure.

He's not the guy who makes those decisions anyway, to be frank. Let's be honest. He is the one going into Jake Paul. He's not the one who signs all the checks. He's not the one who decides, oh, what do the lower rank, guys? What does the salary become? He is the president, yes, but he's also a figurehead. He's very good at being a figurehead, at least as far as when it comes to taking Slack from us in the media,

taking slack from the fans, taking slack from people like Jake. Paul. So it's cool. It's cool to talk about. I want to, Mike, I want to say that it's this great, you know, this indicates this big C chain. It's going to happen again with someone with such a great sphere of influence as Jake Paul, you know, getting himself into the United Way and the UFC and M.A's business. But I think for now it's just entertainment. And again, as much as, as much as we'd like to believe that, you know, him responding to this YouTuber's taunt, it means something. It really doesn't, even if that that YouTuber is, uh, is Jake. Paul.

Jed, what has been your biggest takeaway from this battle of wits, if you will? My biggest takeaway is I'm going to absolutely murder, A.K., if that weak shit, so he's bringing to this thing. Like, that was a lot of couching and a lot of, oh, I don't know, like, come on, man. One, nobody thinks this is going to do anything, so we could just say that outright. Like, there's not a person of rational thought in the world that truly thinks this is going to make a damn bit of difference. I will quibble with AK's curious assessment that Dana White is a figurehead who couldn't do this if you wanted to.

Like that dude, he could totally just go run amok and be like, all right, Jake Paul, I will answer all your things. But he's not going to because he's not an idiot. And that's just the thing. Like, I don't like Dana White. You don't like Dana White. Not you, Mike or AK even, but the Royal You people who are focused in this sport and actually care about the fighters think that Dana White has outlived his usefulness. a long time ago. But he is not an idiot

specifically in the business of making money from this sport. And the way that they, that the UFC and that endeavor make money is by woefully underpaying their contractors, quote, unquote. Like that's 20%, that's the revenue estimates.

That's their own revenue estimates just so anyone, not anyone who's unclear, that is what the UFC projects to pay somewhere between 15 and 22% of overall revenue to the fighters, which is grossly lower than what the expectation should be. And they do that because they've got a huge overhead from the WME acquisition,

and they got to pay that off somehow, and all that extra money goes not to the fighters, to the people with the purse strings. So nothing's going to happen of this. This is a pound for pound of eight, right? Like this is something that we can talk about that, you know, draws interest and gets people going, but is ultimately fruitless, but great for clicks.

tremendous that way. And the one benefit I see here is I do think there's some level of a totality of the circumstances at play. Like the media has been hammering on Dana White for years about this. And Jake Paul is now doing this. I don't think Jake Paul is directly going to lead to anything, but he is getting the idea of what is happening out to a broader audience than it has ever been given to before. And those kind of things stack up on top of each other. So Jake Paul isn't going to be the dude, but, you know, the next guy does it and more people come to this and more people get on board. And eventually the forces that be kind of have to cave to overwhelming external pressure, Jake Paul isn't going to bring in himself, but he's just another straw on the camel's back that is slowly building up over time. Now, as both of you mentioned, what continues to come from these sorts of things between these two guys, we're shining a light on fighter pay in the UFC.

see, right? Jake Paul continues to bring this topic up. And for whatever goal he has of this all, it gets people talking about it, right? We're talking about it right now. Fighters are talking about it constantly on different shows. Like if you have a serious XM show and you are a fighter, you are talking about this and you are weighing in. You're there on one side of the other. Some fighters think, Jed, that Jake is doing this for clout. Others think he's actually being genuine about it. Anthony Smith, I believe a morning report, maybe even as today or yesterday, was about Anthony Smith saying this guy genuinely cares about the fighters. He's actually paid money out of his own pocket.

Sarah Alpar donated to her GoFundMe. Do you think that Jake Paul actually cares about UFC fighter pay? Or is this just one of these things to Dana, just poking him in the shoulder over and over again until he snaps? It's a little of column A, little of column B, right? Like I don't think much of Jake Paul as an individual. There are a lot of things in his past and recent present. that give one pause.

But I think the J-Paul is a promoter from what we've told and what we've been told and what we know has proven to be better than many in this respect as far as taking advantage of fighters, paying fighters. He's early into the game, and so maybe that changes over time. But kind of what he's done thus far in that regard has been pretty positive at the minimum. But to act to believe that this is a piece. purely altruistic move would be naive beyond credulity, right? Like, he's getting something from this.

And one, he's getting a ton of publicity. His name is staying, I mean, he came after the second Woodley fight, he came out and was like, I'm going to take some time off because he had a really busy year, wanted to take some time off. And a great way to not do anything and yet remain in the news cycle, remain relevant, is to poke Dana White like this. And for him, this is just, it's all good PR. This is an easy win.

And that's why Dana engaging in this, there is maybe an argument that him doing it is beneficial for him as well because no publicity is bad publicity. I think that's probably just not true because he comes off so poorly because he can't win the dozens against Jake Paul. Jake Paul is built for this kind of verbal social media combat. And on top of it, Jake Paul has all the facts in his corner. Dana White has nothing that he can do, which is why he comes out with, hey, Jack, why didn't you answer my question? Despite the fact that Jake actually did answer his question by suggesting he enrolled in Usada and compete in UFC, he would be steroid tested. That was like the one big thing from Dana. So instead he just has to go back to his schoolyard.

Well, your manager is a crook, even though he was the CFO of the UFC. He just sucks at this game and he can't play it. But he does. So to me, this is just nothing but easy wins for Jake Paul. He can sit and party and drink and do whatever he's doing and spend 10 minutes to compose a tweet to get all of the good press in the world. And yeah, this is, it's both. He may want to help the fighters. I choose to believe that to some extent he does, but the primary driver is still going to be that this is a low cost.

a high ceiling for him from a from a marketing standpoint, from a promotional standpoint. AK, what do you think? Do you think it's more column A, more column B? Like Jed said somewhere right in the middle. Like, does he actually care if UFC fighters get a bigger piece of the pie?

Do you think? I mean, it's hard to put yourself in his shoes or in his mindset. You know what I mean. I think on like a basic human level, he does care. I don't think he's like the worst person. I think like Jed said, though, I'm not a fan of Jake Paul personally. I think anything he's sort of doing in this feud is incidentally good.

I think he and Nekisa have to know that, as I kind of mentioned at the top, they are not going to be the ones who bring this big change to the UFC. And he knows that. He knows that. And yes, he's going to keep pushing it. Yes, he's going to keep his feud going as long as Dana White keeps responding to him. But overall, it is just about generating publicity for himself, keeping himself as crazy as it sounds, one of the three top two biggest names.

in combat sports right now. Maybe number one, I'm probably underselling it. But yeah, but to do that, if you're not going to be booking fights frequently, which he's not at the moment, you do have to find ways to poke various bears. He's picked one of the biggest bears you can poke in the business right now, and so far it is going very well for him. Though one thing I'll argue though is that what I was trying to say about Dana White before, that was kind of confused by Jed, which is not surprising.

He's very easily confused, is that I don't think that like Dana White losing this feud, necessarily hurts the UFC. This is the point I was trying to make was like, we can say all we want about Jake Paul making some great points. I mean, obviously doing way better videos than Dana White. Dana White is, this I agree with is just terrible at this. But Dana White, him losing does not mean the UFC is losing. I mean, look, we just saw this today, this broke just before the show.

You know, the ESPN is increasing the price of ESPN plus pay-per-views up to $75 USD now. So business is just booming. It's just booming up and up and up and up for the UFC and ESPN. Dana White looking like a clown really doesn't hurt anyone that much except maybe Dana White and he doesn't care he's gotten into many many feuds

which frankly I think in the public eye he's lost and yet he and the UFC keep falling upwards so if he's I mean if he really if he like cares about like I guess his public image a little bit maybe stop feeding him with Jake Paul

but I don't think he does I think he wants to show like oh I'm not afraid of this kid even though he keeps clowning himself but while those of us in the media and again some really you know some sharper fans can see what's going on here with him and Jake Paul. The general populist still loves Dana White.

Dana White's the man. They love that he's whatever comeback he had for Jake Paul. I mean, as silly as we think it is, they're behind it. So that's the only thing I disagree with is that like Dana White needs to in any way avoid this feud. Because I don't think he does. It is building up publicity for both of them. But I mean, I don't think it's hurting the UFC at all. It's definitely not helping the UFC.

And I disagree with almost everything AK just ended with. saw people as briefly as possible. It's certainly not helping the UFC, because in what world does it help the UFC for them to be predatory business people? Like, that's just not. Fans don't do it that way, though. I wish fans recognize that, but they don't. No, but that's the thing I'm about to get to here is, like,

I agree with you that Dana White doesn't care what his public images, because if he did, he would do literally none of the things that he has done his entire life. But he very clearly cares about what he feels inside and his ego, and more, but more importantly, all of the people that you say, yeah, they still love Dana White, he's the man. Those are the same kind of bozos who are big Jake Paul people. And so when you're pitting those to that inner fandom against each other and one of them is good at this and one of them sucks, naturally the guy who sucks Dana White is going to drop off some. I think this is just a net awful thing from him. And it's just stupid.

Dana White is almost a billion dollars in the bank. dude just grow up and stop caring what people think about you it's just not that hard to click mute on Twitter and go about your day with $700 million in the bank it's very easy uh well I mean we'll see what happens and you know what's funny about this if the UFC bumps bonuses to $75,000 or Dana White even like responds to Jake Paul

and actually answers his questions fans will be like see what Jake Paul did Jake will get the credit for for any sort of move in. That's the thing. Jake Paul is actually hurting the fighters because Dana White will die before he raises a $1 because doing so would be a Jake Paul win and his ego will not allow that at this point. Like that's just the world that we live in. I'm sure 2022 will be very interesting between these two gentlemen. Let us move on. We'll move ahead to our second topic. But the first point of this championship battle goes to it goes to it goes. It goes. goes to Jedmishu, but I will say this. A.K. Lee is like the Peodor Yan of BTL. He gets better as the rounds go and as the game goes. He's a slow starter, but he gets cooking right around this time.

And so let's get to... Nice. Oh, no. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe, but this time, why not look a little further to Dubai, a city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination.

From world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers, and epic desert adventures, to museums that showcase the future, not just the past. Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.ca.

At Desjardin Insurance, we put the care in taking care of business. Your business, to be exact. agents take the time to understand your company so you get the right coverage at the right price. Whether you rent out your building, represent a condo corporation, or own a cleaning company, we make insurance easy to understand so you can focus on the big stuff, like your small business. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at dejerdin.com slash business coverage. So let's talk about some non-Jake Paul UFC-related stuff. I'm sure a lot of people are very happy about this.

but what is going on with Dustin Porre and Nate Diaz, gentlemen, because Dustin Porre is a guy that typically doesn't open the secret chest of news all that often, but this week on Teddy Atlas's podcast, he drops a bit of a nugget, saying that he accepted a short notice fight with somebody and then eventually revealed it was Nate Diaz. And Diaz, who clearly seems to want this fight, said the UFC didn't want it, the UFC thinks Dustin sucks or whatever he tweeted, but our own Damon Martin confirmed from multiple sources that there was in fact some interest in putting this fight together,

but the talk stopped pretty abruptly. So Jed, let us begin with you. Both guys seem to want it. The UFC seemed to have some interest in it. It'd be a great addition to literally any card the UFC could put together. What's going on here, in your opinion? I mean, really hard to ever know what's going on with an Nate Diaz fight, but my guess is it's probably the same thing that happens with every Nate Diaz fight,

which is, Borey signed the short-no-disagreement, and Nate said, that's not enough money. Give me more of that. And so when the UFC was like, no, then Nate was like, see the UFC,

Nate did the Dana White thing where he wanted something that the other party didn't want to do. And when they refused to do it, he was like, yeah, they obviously don't want to do it because they're not meeting my demands. So that's the best guess. I have unless, because I don't, you know, I just don't think Nate Diaz is like a huge liar or whatever where it's, he is actually turning down a fight with Porreier and pretending like he wants one. That just doesn't really jive with my sort of view on who Nate Diaz is. So my guess is,

yeah, pretty simply that the UFC wants to pay Nate either what his current contract states, probably just what his current contract states, they can't realistically offer him any less. And Nate saying, nah, that's Dustin Poirier. That's the. guy you gave Connor and who's a star now, I want more money. And so that's just the world we're living in. A.K., there's a lot of trains of thought here. Obviously, Nate, it's been very public. This is the last fight on his deal.

So maybe the UFC's playing a little bit of hardball here. They're not just going to let him go into a fight with Dustin Porre and the last fight of his deal and then move on to other things. But Nate can be, Nate's a good businessman. If he doesn't like what the terms are, he's just not going to fight, and he's fine with that. So why do you think this fight isn't being put together? Is there just not a spot for it? Is it Nate just saying, no, I want more money?

Is the UFC playing hardball? What's your thought here? No, it's the money. It's always the money. It always comes down to the money. I think, yeah, Nate Diaz has made enough and has played this game long enough with the UFC that he's going to try and wait him out. He's going to try and wait about.

Now, this works better for some fighters than others. Some fighters end up getting title shots in these situations by waiting the UFC out. Some people end up getting the big fights they want. I guess that's what Nate Diaz is trying to do here. However, I don't love his chances of, for lack of a better word, avoiding, you know, a Dustin Porre fight forever. I feel like this has to happen at some point. It just makes too much sense for both guys. I think, you know, one, the UFC would love to see Nate Diaz go out on a loss if this is going to be the last fight of his UFC contract.

probably of course they'd rather like feed him to you know hamza shemayev or some other up-and-coming welterweight that could like you know that would really like beat him in an not necessarily entertaining way and that would send you know send him back and it's okay and a happy trails go box whatever we've used we squeeze every penny we can out of you go away so that's probably what they would rather want rather than giving him a pori fight which i mean i'd heavily favorite pori but i mean diaz if there's a chance he won it would hurt one of their existing stars uh and again it's it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a It would win or lose. You feel like it wouldn't hurt either man's reputation too much. So so I can understand sort of the trepidation on the UFC's part. But I'm very bullish, though, on this, on this fight potentially happening and happening within the first six months of like 2022. I don't know why. I've just got maybe I'm just being too optimistic. Maybe I'm reading too much into the sort of their back and forth, you know, social media stuff.

Like they're saying, oh, it's, you know, Nate's being protesting against it's so much that I feel like it's actually going to happen. It's going the other way. almost like a pro wrestling swerve, like no, no, no, no, I'm not doing it. And then a week from now, you know, week, two weeks from now, we see an announcement. Oh, yeah, this is the five-round, co-mate, non-title, co-mate event of UFC 276 or something. I don't know. I'm not sure. I lost track of the numbers at this point.

But yeah, it's all coming down to the money. And I know Nate Diaz can get more than he's been getting. But I think when he finally signs the contract, it'll be for a lot less than he's hoping for. I feel like so far Dustin Porre is doing everything right here he's saying the right things he wants this fight he's going public with it saying he's accepted fights on other people's podcasts

and I think a lot of us were in agreement that the only way the UFC would put this fight together with the current contract state that Nate Diaz has is that Porier is the ringleader he's the guy that's really pushing forward but the UFC like both of you sort of talked about

they're not just going to give Nate Diaz a big fight quickly and just let him run off to fight Jake Paul or go somewhere else. they're going to try to keep Nate maybe on the shelf unless, you know, it's to pass the proverbial torch, like AK said, to Shemaiah for a Sean Brady or a guy on the come-up. So, AK, you feel like you feel bullish, quote unquote, that within the next six months, this fight's going to happen. Why do you feel that way? Yeah, I think it's best, again, not just for Nate Diaz, but we've talked, like, a bunch about

a dozen pourier, you know, probably trying his hand at 170, if, depending on how long he has to wait for another Conn-Megger fight. And if Connor McGregor, when he comes back from his injury, it's still kind of even beating that drum that's sort of like, I need one more shot with Dustin. You know, the last fight doesn't really count. I got injured. I mean, that seems makes sense. Now, three or four months for now,

who knows where Connor is at mentally? Maybe he sees, maybe he does go after Charles Oliver. Maybe he goes back up to 170 for some fight. Maybe he wants to fight in ADEAS. I don't know. But right now, I think a good option for Desperi is to try his hand at Welterweight. And why not Nate Diaz? Why not that be your first fight at 170?

So for his side, I think he said all the right things. I think he's made it pretty clear. That's the matchup he wants. So having one side of it down, I think is pretty good. It doesn't guarantee anything. I think we've seen a lot of potential matchups throughout combat sports history, have one side locked in and the other side never actually come around. But I think this is different.

I think Nate has a lot of respect for Justin Porier. I know he talks a lot of junk on social media, but how he represents himself on Twitter, I think is probably very different than how he feels about Poria, a guy who he stands in bangs, exciting fighter, goes to things. finished fights. It's just such a logical matchup for him. It'd be so much fun. I mean, you're probably getting a

fight-in-the-night bonus, which I'm sure he'd love. Hopefully, it's up to 75K, as we discussed earlier. But, and again, I don't think Nate cares if you wins or losers or not. And if he lost a decision to Poria, he wouldn't count it as a loss anyway. So Nate just wants to get that last fight of his contract done so he can move on. And like I said, he can wait it out, but for every month that he doesn't sign to fight Porre or someone else, that takes away from whatever his goals are. afterwards, whether it be boxing, whether to do

MMA, you know, form his own MMA promotion with his brother, I don't know. He's going to have to fight eventually. And I just think Pore has such a great option for him. And I think the UFC will see it that way as well. I think I know they want to have their own agenda regarding both fighters, but there's monies you made there. So just make it and then, you know, let Diaz go. Jed, one take that I continuously see that I know you've seen as well.

And I just, I could not disagree with it more, is that Nate's not going to fight anybody unless it's Connor. He's going to wait for that trilogy fight with Connor and do it in the Octagon. I literally could not disagree with that sentiment anymore if I tried. It just doesn't make any sense because one, Nate is a money fighter in his own right. He makes bank no matter who he fights. And two, I'm sure you're going to touch on it so I won't steal the shine. So you can touch on that if you'd like.

But in your heart of hearts, do you feel like, let's say by June, July, are we going to see Dustin Porre fight Nate Diaz or at least have that fight on the books? My guess is, yeah. Look, it's hard to get into the mind of Nate Diaz, like I said at the start, and it's difficult to even want to try because if I'm him or if I am in his corner, you know, if I'm one of his guys, would be like, Nate, just say yes to whoever. It does not matter who they present you. Just say yes and get the out of this contract.

Like, that's it. You have so many other opportunities available for you as soon as you leave the UFC. Just say yes. And so, like, even if it's Hamzaa Chimayev, legitimately, maybe the most D.S. thing ever that would be incredible. And I've been secretly hoping for this the entire time is that he says, screw it. I'll bang with Chimaiv. He gets in there.

He immediately walks across the cage, taps on the mat three times and scoops it up. And it's like, there's your last fight, Dana. Now I'm gone. Jake Paul, where are you at? Like, doesn't even fight him just like, nope, I'm out. I did my fulfill my obligation. now I'm going to go because I want to go make real money boxing Jake Paul and then Logan Paul. And then after both of those, when Connors finally got out of his contract, two fights from now,

me and Connor are finally going to do our trilogy then outside of the UFC. So the UFC isn't getting the lion's share of that money. Me and Connor are making that money because that will sell the same pay-per-views, whether we box, whether we fight in a cage, whether we fight on the street. So like, if I'm him, I would just get out of it. go as fast as you can to make more money elsewhere. That's not Nate. I don't know what Nate's hold up is, what's going on.

The UFC contractually has to, they cannot shelve him forever. They have to offer him fights. And if, as reports are saying, there's interest in the Poria fight, then my guess is that that's what happens. Because, again, also, from the other side of it, poor he didn't have anybody else to fight. Like, he wants to fight Connor and he doesn't want to fight anybody else. Because why would he?

There's nobody else that's really a, a good matchup for him at this point from a star standpoint. So low-hanging fruit is that this fight gets made after they jerk each other around for a really long time, the same way that Connor Poiré finally got made after months of them talking about doing their own thing on Twitter, it's just going to take a little time. Yeah, I mean, well, hopefully this gets resolved. This fight makes all the sense in the world for both guys. and Dustin Poria, like I said, and I'll say it again,

I feel like he's the man that can make this happen, because why make it about losing one fighter to go off to greener pastures when you have a second fighter who's a star in Dustin Porier who could just play hardball as well and say, I ain't fighting anybody unless I'm fighting Nate. I'll sit on the sidelines. I made so much money last year. I don't care.

Just keep pushing my contract back six months. Who gives a shit? But yeah, obviously there's the Conner fight he could take too, but why not get two big money fights out of Dustin Porier before he rides off into the sunset because he's made it pretty clear he ain't sticking around that much longer he just wants big money fights and he's out so yeah what would he stick around much longer he can look at nate and connor imminently going to exit d oc to go box and make a lot of money and be like hell i'm i'm right in that neighborhood i'm i'm below them from star power but jake paul would box my

ass too i'll go do that shit so much money to be made and i've said this a bunch of times the combat sports in the next two or three years is going to be really interesting. But let us move on. The point for round two goes to close round, but it goes to Mr. No Mercy, Alexander K. Lee. It is one to one as we cue the victory music. Let us head to round number three. So yesterday, we got some very big news, gentlemen.

A lot of people are wondering what could be in store for us in March at UFC 272. We hadn't heard anything. No main event, no nothing when there's fights being booked all the way to April. That changed last night. We confirmed what Dana White told ESPN. There are two big title fights that are in the works for UFC 272 agreements are in place. Alexander Volcanowski versus Max Holloway 3 for the Featherway title.

Al Jermaine Sterling versus Peodor Yan 2 for the Bannamway title. We get to settle two of our big rankings debates on the same night potentially. How about that? But personally, this one two punch scratches me right where I itch. This is high-level stuff. the main co-main combo, I would tell casual fans or fans on the fence of whether or not to watch MMA on the regular

to watch these fights. And you might become a fan more than even a Connor fight at this point. But I'm very high on both of these fights, AK, are you as in on these fights as I am? Yeah, look, I love both rematches. Both of them we felt had to happen sometime. There's been a longer build, I think,

for the third Volcanovsky Holloway meeting. It's kind of funny because you could have had them, you know, fight each other again after after that second fight if they hadn't fought the first time. Like that second fight really warranted an immediate rematch, not the first fight that Volkimoski clearly won

over Max Holloway. But again, I guess because of the strength of Holloway's record, they had to fight again. Then he got the closer Holloway, excuse me, got the closer loss but should have gotten another shot right away. But at least he fought his way back. So we've got that one. And at the same time, how can you deny the intrigue

of friggin, the Sterling, Yan matchup, which had one of the most macab and darkly hilarious endings to a high profile championship fight ever. I mean, I think most of us would have said that Jan was winning that fight. Certainly two out of the three judges,

I believe had a 29, 28 Jan heading into that very unfortunate fourth round for Yon where he lands the illegal blows. So that would have been a cool one to see right away too. It's actually almost better that we got to see Yon fight again in between and have that awesome performance against Corey Sannhagen.

And it might explain why Jan, who I think would have been favored in a rematch with Sterling anyway, is even more heavily favored. I think on the odds that we had on our site as of today, minus 310 favorite for Jan. So I'm super high on both fights. Very cool that they got to put them both on the same card. I think there's positives to splitting them up. I think there's positives to have them in the same card. But having on the same card, definitely super exciting. So, yeah, UFC 2702 really looking forward to it.

Yeah, I love both fights. I'm glad they eventually got made. I was a little worried that the Sterling one, you know, we didn't know when he was going to come back, what the situation would be there at Bantamweight, but it's such a deep division. I'd love to have some clarity at the top, so we're going to get that.

And depending what happens with Holloway and Volcanox, you could get some clarity there too, but that one's a little murkier. But yeah, both great rematches. What do you think, Jed? What are your thoughts on this one-two punch when you found out about it? I mean, they are the fights to make

in two of the best divisions in the sport, simply put, I mean, 135, 145 are right up there near the top of the best division in the sport. Sorry, Casey, it's still lightweight. It will always be lightweight

that is the best. But anything from 170 to 135, the fights that happen there are bangers and the top 50 dudes in those divisions are substantially better than the top, like, 30 dudes in other divisions.

So at Featherweight, I think that's, that is not, I am more, interested in the Bantamway fight because the Volcanovsk Holloway, we've seen twice. And despite the fact that those fights were pretty different from one to two, I think the overarching story, the narrative of those fights is pretty clear to me that Alexander Volcanovsky is better than Max Holloway, pretty simply.

You know, in that first fight, he won very cleanly to me. And that second fight, the fight was very close, but Holloway made wholesale changes between the two fights, which is credit to him that he identified weaknesses, created, built a new game plan and enacted it and was having a lot of success. The problem is Volcanovsky in the middle of that fight figured out what Holloway had done and adjusted and then was winning at the end. Whether you think Holloway won the fight or not, I think that that second fight is pretty clear. The middle round was the swing round, early two were Holloway, back two or Volk. So to me, that kind of tells me all that I need to know about that matchup, whereas they are both really, really good.

Max Holloway is the second best featherway unquestionably and will be competitive against Volcanovsky, but if they fight 100 times, on average, Volk's going to win more of them. He can make more adjustments. He can build his game to combat Max more effectively than the reverse there. So I will watch that fight a hundred times, and I'm always excited because it is the highest level of MMA we get, but there is a part of me that's less interested because I feel like I know what I'm going to see, even if maybe exactly what I see or the texture of it, is slightly different. With Bannon Way, totally different, whereas I think there's a large belief that Peoria is going

to whip up on Al Javierstein Sterling because he was on his way to winning that fight against Aljo before he blatantly cheated and lost, because that's what he did. I want to be extremely clear to everyone watching. That was a deserved loss for Peyodor Yan. He stood over top of Al Jermaine Sterling, who was on his knees for seven full seconds, punched him six times in the head, and then said, screw it, now I'm going to knee you. Like, that's cheating flat out.

Ain't nothing about it. But they fight again. Maybe he won't do that. We'll see. I mean, you know, he always could. But I am really interested in that fight for a variety of reasons because I don't know what's going to happen. Part of me does think that Peir de Jan's ability to, as you alluded to earlier, start slow, build, get stronger, and kind of be that snowball rolling downhill is really difficult for anyone to win a five-round fight over him.

But Al Jermaine Sterling, I thought, fought horribly in their first fight. And by that, I mean, he came out and just tried to immediately match pace with Peoria on, which he can't do. And he gassed out. And I think he learned a lesson from that fight because it's impossible for me to think he viewed what happened and is like, I should just do that but better. I think he's going to have a much better game plan. He's going to work with range a lot more. He's going to take advantage of Sterling's slow starts and still be more competitive,

deeper into the fight. I'm really interested to see exactly how it shakes out. If Sterling can make grappling more part of this fight, I just, I'm really fascinated by that bout. So to me, that's the one I'm by far the most excited about. A.K., which one of these fights intrigues you the most? Like, if you could only watch one and you can't know the result of the other for like a week, which one are you picking?

Man, I agree that I need to see that resolution, you know, between Sterling and Yon. And the only thing that would be funnier than what happened last time would be Sterling get like a quick like, I mean, any Sterling win, any definitive Sterling win would just be hilarious and so unsatisfying for Yon and his fans, of course. Sterling being a DQ knee, like... The other way around? Yeah, Sterling are legally K.O.R. and not, but getting away with it. But getting away with it would be funny.

Oh, getting away with it, it would be funny. And it was... Yeah, there's some technicality. It was all. Yeah, that would be even more hilarious. But, no, I actually am leaning towards the Volcanowski Holloway trilogy. And I had to word this very carefully because I think people should know, I'm such a advocate for Volcanowski,

I think being undisputed, the number one guy at 145. If anyone's seen our voting, we have a couple of people on the panel who have kept Holloway up there, that's fine, whatever. I'm a Volk fan. I think the second fight was not a robbery, super close, very strong arguments

he made for Holloway winning, but also very clear arguments he made for Volcanovsky winning. So I think Volkanowski is the number one. I don't think the second fight was a robbery. I think he's a very legitimate 2-0 up on Holloway. But I am very aware

of how close that fight was. The chatter surrounding that fight, the chatter that has persisted since that fight happened, I think the close call against Ortega, I think even that, even though Volcanozzi dominated the majority of that fight, kept those questions alive. You know, because when Holloway was the champion, well, he was so dominant, do you know what I mean? And people don't have that feeling with Volkanowski. They feel he's so, so vulnerable. And that's probably one of the reasons why people still view Max as the champion at 145. So I'm leaning towards the trilogy because I do want Volkanowski to be able to put his stamp on it.

Not that, again, in the eyes of some of us, he doesn't need to, but clearly, I think it's fair to say the majority do need to see him get a one more definitive win over Holly, whether it be by knockout, whether it be, you know, 49, 46, 50, 45 decision, something like that. Is that possible? I don't know. That's why it's so great to see it again. They might always be close fights from now that now that they know each other so well. And if Holloway wins, that's also intriguing because then he obviously stays at 1,4.

There's a ton of great challenges in him. So it opens up this whole other new storyline. Volcanowski probably should get a rematch, but I don't think they'd give it to him. So there's all these narratives that can spring out of it. And if Holloway loses, does he go to 155? Does he stay at 145 and just knock off contenders? I don't think he'd be satisfied doing that, but it's certainly an option. So, yeah, just based on whines through the fight again,

Volcanopsi, quote unquote, still having to prove something. And all the storylines that could branch out of it, regardless of who wins, whether Volcanovsky or Holloway, yeah, if I had to choose one to see first, it would be a Volcanovsky Holloway 3. Okay, very quickly, A.K., true or false, in March, UFC 272, this would be the last time

either of these matchups take place in 2022. Oh, false. Okay. Do I have to live with you? Yeah, just quickly. I think if Holloway wins, I think if Holloway wins, I think you have to give Volcanowski the fourth fight.

So that to me, I guess that says I'm more confident in Holloway winning than I am in Al Jameen Sterling. Well, Al Jain Sterling. Because I think of Yon wins, then you don't see the Al Jolkin Sterling, the third Al Jolmian sterling fight so soon. And vice versa, actually, I think of Sterling wins. I don't think he gives Yon an immediate rematch. So then depending how many, unless you think these guys are defending three times a year, which is hopeful, but not everyone, that's not really regular for a UFC champion these days,

then it won't happen this year. But Holloway and Volcanovsky, yeah, there's that one outcome, Holloway winning in a decision, then I think he has to give Volcanovsky another shot, and I think it happens within the next 10 months. Jay, do you think any chance we see either of these fights more than once this year? No. I mean, there's a chance.

If Holloway wins, I agree, but I'm going to confidently pick Alexander Volcanowski to beat Holloway again. And regardless of the outcome in the Bannon-Wa fight, they're not running it back. That division has too many stacked up contenders. Unless there's like a draw, which would also be really funny. It would be genuinely hilarious if there was a draw. But no, they've got too much other business to handle at 135.

All right. Well, we have one more question in regulation. And could it be the last question of the entire tournament? This will be a fun round. but the point for round three goes to Mr. No Gray area, Jedmishu. It is two to one. When holiday prep means cleaning every corner, reach for Pine Soul original Pine. Pine Soul is the only one you need for multiple surfaces,

cleaning floors, counters, stoves, toilets, and showers, while killing 99.9% of germs. With long-lasting freshness and an iconic pine scent, it's sure to give you that fresh holiday feeling. Shop now and get your home home. Holiday Ready with Pine Soul. Use is directed. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver,

so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it. Want turnips that look light but feel heavy? Easy. Want honey-crisp apples that are firm, green, and definitely not Macintosh like last year when you lost the fall bake-off to perfect Penelope Johnson.

Okay, a bit TMI, but we're here for it. So download the app today and get zero delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacard, groceries that, Over deliver. Service-based exclusions and terms apply. Now, before we get to the question, on Sunday, on the M.A. Fighting Podcast Network, there will also be some video with this as well. The on to the next one, predictions extravaganza for 2022.

Some incredible buy-or-sell questions have come in already from the listeners. Plus, we'll make our Muil-Caliente bold prediction for the year. We'll predict UFC champions at the end of 2022 and much more. But this final question of regulation sort of ties into the bold prediction theme. And Jed, we're going to begin with you here. This could be from the UFC or Bellator or PFL, combat sports in general, whatever you think. The question is, what is your bold but not impossible prediction for 2022?

You're already riding an incredible high with the Giuliana Pena pick from the end of 2021. I don't know how much further you can ride that horse, but I think you're going to ride it until you fall off there. How do we top this? What's your bold but not impossible prediction for 2020? too. Let me just say that when you when you are the only person in the MMA media who correctly

predicts the biggest upset in history, you get to ride that forever. For as long as I work in this space, I will say that to people. And I feel I'm entirely justified in doing so. And so I'm going to stay

in a similar vein, not with Juliana Peña. My bold prediction is that by the end of 2022, we will have the UFC's first ever three division champion. And that champion is going to be none other than the greatest female fighter of all time. My favorite, you know her, you love her, Valentina Bullitt Shevchanko, she's going to go up, she's going to take that title off Pena.

I know they're going to do the rematch. And yet Pena is going to beat Nunes in the rematch because that's how the world works. Once you fall off, you don't give back to the top. You're just done. even if you fall off in the world's most unrealistic upset of all time. Pena is going to win the rematch. Then Chavchenko is going to be like, I would like to have a second belt, Dana. Dana's going to be like, sure.

And she's going to get it and be like, all right, I got two belt. And Nunes is still nominally the champion at 1.45. I want it. Let's do it. If you're going to make a three match, Dana, this is the time. We got my two belts against Nunes, the goat, whatever. let's go. First three division

ever. That's my prediction. 2022, the first three division champion ever in UFC history. Maybe in MMA history, though I don't want to say that

because it's possible that I'm not thinking of somebody from some other larger promotion, or even smaller at this point, frankly. Three divisions

is a lot of divisions be champion of. A.K., what you got, man? I know we're going to get really, really spicy with these predictions later on this week. But what is your bold but not impossible prediction for this year of our Lord 2022? I don't know why for a second there.

I thought, I thought Chad was going to say like, Henry Sehuda's going to come back or something and take the title from Polkonovsky or Holloway. And I was like, why? No, don't do this. So we're clear. A3 division champion. If Sehudo does do that, I think I still get to claim it. I think I still get to claim predictions.

I mean, you'd get a quarter of a PTO. behind Chetanko. Yeah, that's, of course. As they have been for many, I will say, as they have been for many years. I've been driving the Chevy truck, me. Goodness, goodness me. I'm actually, I'm going to stick with women's M.A. I think, and here's what, so I think, and I always say on shows this isn't going to happen.

If we're going bold, let's go bold. I think Bell turned PFL will find a way to do some sort of co-promotion in 2022. I know that's very rare in MMA. It's extremely rare in North American MMA, especially. But I think, as we said, the landscape of comment sports keeps shifting so much. I don't know exactly how the logistics would work out. We need to know where PFL's airing for one thing. Obviously, if they somehow end up as part of the CBS sports family, then that would grease the wheels and make it a lot easier. But we don't know. Maybe they go back to ESPN. Maybe they end up like Axe TV or some other channel I'm not even thinking of.

You know what I mean? Maybe they end up on Twitch. They're going to Twitch stream all their cards. So I don't know how that's going to affect things. But I think they are going to cope promote and it's all going to be. evolving around Kayla Harrison. That's why I'm saying it sticks to, I'm seeing sort of the topic of women's MMA. She's not a star on the level of a Rhonda Rousey. Okay, and she never will be. I know we have to kind of keep making those comparisons

just because of her dominance, the judo background. They train together once upon a time, you know, so there's all those very obvious connections. But they appeal in a very different way, different personalities. But I think it would be worth a shot. I think even though I've been saying for the longest time,

I do think Kayla Harrison will end up in the UFC and, you know, fighting Amanda Nunez, that can happen much further down the road. That can happen in 2023, possibly, if Nunes is still around. But most people say she's going to go to Belator, and I agree. However, I think that would be a tough loss for PFL.

So I think they need to work out some sort of deal, whether it's under the table or whether it is sort of this public thing where they say, well, yeah, she's going to do our tournament and then end the tournament, we're going to send her over to face cyborg or something like that. Or whatever, or we'll send her to Belator to take a fight against one of your fighters, PFL versus Belator. It's a very cool idea.

I think it's something people have wanted to see for a while, especially for the PFL to be able to take any, not just Kayla Harrison, but any of their tournament winners, and wouldn't it be cool to lend their tournament winner out to another promotion to see how they would fare, sort of a champion versus champion thing. It would be a really great way for PFL to cap off its season. And also so its fighters wouldn't be inactive for like four months or whatever, four, six months after the season's over. So optimistically, and just throwing it out there and being bold, let me see this co-promotion. Belator PFL, work it out somehow.

I don't know how the money gets split. I don't know how the viewership gets split and all that. But there's smarter people in this, you know, behind the scenes than I who can put this sort of thing together. Kayla Harrison is the name that can draw that interest from people that can make this viable. So that's my call. We're going to send co-promotion around a Kayla Harrison fight. I love it. Two women's MMA selections for the bold yet not impossible prediction for 2022.

with that the point for round number four goes to the man who's trying to shake up the foundation of MMA as we know it in 2022. Alex Keeley, it is two to two. Coming through in a big way. And now, ladies and gentlemen, as you probably didn't expect at all, but we are here. It is time for the knockout round. One question. We'll decide at all.

Neither of these individuals know what this question is. and they will each have one minute to answer said question. Once that is done, we will turn it over to our judge. And no, it is not E. Casey Leiden. We have brought in a very special guest. And Jed, I'm sure you're worried about this. However, I brought in someone who will be as impartial as possible. In fact, he has never been on this show before in any capacity.

And I think he might be here. You may know him from such things. as the MMA hour. You may know him from the MMA fighting social media team. You may know him as the man behind Rick's picks. So let us say hello to our special guest judge, Mr. New York Rick. There he is. Thank you for doing this, sir.

How are you? I can't have a fantastic. Thank you for having me. It's good to see all your beautiful faces. Wow. Yes. Blessed. Hey, you're screwed.

Look at the similarities between me and me and me and Rick right here. I mean, look at the, look at the vibes we're sharing. That's what you're going for? That's your, that's what's your best? I mean, I don't know. I'm not giving you my best. I'm beating you with my like C skills today. So. Well, normally there'd be some sort of coin toss or anything like that, but AK, you coming in as the alternate. While this is a big opportunity for you, you do not get the champion's prerogative. Jed Mishu gets the champion's prerogative because he is, he's won all his match.

matchups to get here. You know what I want. So you get the choice, Jed. Do you want to give A.K. what he wants and have him go first? Or do you want to go first and set the table? It works because I don't want to go first. So even though this is giving, you know, in combat, never do what your opponent wants you to do.

And I'm going to, but I'm going to do that. I'm going to let A.K. go first. I will take second. And then I'll mop up, uh, mop up afterwards. You're just crushing. All right. So A.K. where you're going to begin with you.

We ended the regulation rounds by talking about 2022 and making predictions, but we're going to go back to 2021, just a couple of weeks, because we had our first ever MMA fighting 2021 award show

to recap an incredible year for the sport. I know it's the first 2021, whatever, but there's the first time we did it, but it was for 2020. We had some very close votes for some of these awards. Some agreed.

Others did not. So my question for you, A.K. is, and this is for all the marbles, my friend. What did the panel, the consensus voters from the MMA fighting voting rankings community? What did we get wrong? What award as a whole did we get wrong? And why? One minute on the clock. Your time starts right now.

This is so easy. Listen, the award we got wrong from the beginning because it had a broken premise was MMA fighting's Rookie of the Year. We, listen, I don't like to give people the inside baseball scoop here. We had a lot of deliberation about what to do with what was formerly the breakout, breakthrough breakout fighter of the year award, okay? And there was good reason for it. There was confusion about criteria.

So we said, okay, let's make it, whoever debuts in a major North American promotion, PFL, Bellator, UFC, there you go, there's your rookie. But we lost out on so many good storylines. With respect to Casey O'Neill, a great fighter who won the rookie of the year award, Chris Curtis was the man that we should have been talking about as breaking through, breaking into the mainstream part of people's minds with respect to the PFL and even if people watched it,

his run with that promotion was less than epic. But this is a guy who's been around forever. We've all ended in the media interviewer. And we love this guy. He's retired so many times and came back and is now suddenly a UFC middleweight contender. This deserved its own article. We missed on that one.

All right. A.K. Lee in the Kenny Lofton spot gets in scoring position. And now we head over to Jedmishu. Could this be the culmination of just a long, hard road, Jedmishu, to get to the undisputed title? Same question for you. One minute on the clock. What did we get wrong on the 2021 MMA Fighting Year End Awards and why? Your time starts now. This is extremely easy. AK is all the way wrong. wrong. He's correct in that. We kind of botched the whole newbie of the year, rookie of the year. I know it went through a lot of iterations. Yeah, we should have been able to give Chris Curtis more shine, but we didn't get it wrong because that's not what we settled on.

We totally got that one right, but you know what we did get wrong? Submission of the year. Look, I'm not here to say the André Muniz snapping the arm of Jacerosa isn't hell impressive. It is. One of the greatest grapplers was ever seen in the sport. Just one of the greatest scrapplers ever getting not just submitted but broken that is incredibly impressive stuff but of the year awards aren't just about in cage things because if so there are a lot cooler knockouts than kamar usman over hori moscadol it is about the totality what it means and what it means when you look back on the year 2021 what is the thing that you think of first and no submission is going to jump over juliana pania submitting a man in nunez the goat falling

even if it's not a good submission is the greatest submission and easily should have won. Oh, boy. Two harsh minutes back and forth they went. I got to say, I'm not really surprised by AK's answer. I'm actually a little surprised by Jed's answer. I thought you're going to go a whole different way with this, but I like your response. I thought you were going to say Jake Paul should have been the fighter of the air or something like that. But here we are.

It was explained to me in no uncertain terms that he did not qualify because I wouldn't vote. for him as number one. I made that argument when we were doing the behind the scenes, and I was told flatly that that was not allowed. And let me just say, this question was Taylor made for Jed, by the way, because he disagrees with everything that the rest of the MA fighting staff has to say. So I was glad, actually, I'm glad I went first still. And then secondly, as I was going, I'm like, man, there's so many ways he could go with this.

He didn't agree with anything we said. No, I was in on a fighter of the year and chaos. Were you? Okay, okay, okay. They were both used to. Jed, Jed. Yes, Jed was a team player. Jed was a team player throughout the voting process,

but he's allowed to have his opinions. And if you haven't listened to the actual award show, it's pretty good behind the scenes, especially when the group gets together and talks about their picks. But now you've heard the arguments. He's a rookie of the year, too, AK? Shit.

I didn't realize that. What? I was a rookie of the year, okay? I also agreed with our choice there. Wow. I was a team player this year, buddy. Oh, then it was Casey O'Neill? That was who I had.

That disappoints me. Oh, boy. All right. He's waiting patiently. Judge New York, Rick. You've heard the arguments. You've heard one minute from both of these gentlemen. The H answered the same question.

It doesn't matter what the rest of the game was like. It was two to two coming into this knockout round. You have a very tough decision to make. Who is the new undisputed BTL champion? Is it Alexander K. Or is it Jed Mishu? Yeah. First of all, thank you again for having me on the show.

I want to give a shout out to both these gentlemen who argued aggressively and with great vigor, a really good effort from both gentlemen. For me, it came down to, and I want to say, I'm putting my personal selection here aside. I'm basing this specifically on the arguments, as I believe a good judge should. I do not count what my vote for either of those categories was. I'm selecting based on the arguments that have been presented. In the case of A.K. Lee's selection for Rookie of the Year, and in the case of Jed Mishu's selection of submission of the year,

I thought that both attacked the rightful winner with vigor and presented did very good cases for who they thought should be the rifle winners. There was one person I thought attacked the system. There was one person who I thought attacked the methodology and really got to the heart of the matter and debated whether we were voting properly as opposed to who we voted for. So if I could have a drum roll,

I would love some kind of drum roll for this election, your winner, is Jed. I thought Jed did a good job attacking the system. Jed, Michoud! He has done it. He has done it. The champion.

He has come through. I told you. I spoke it into existence. The same with Giuliana Pena, upsetting Amanda Nunez. I said from the start that I would go straight to the top, and what have I done? Sure, this last step was like a baby step. You know, I clot keeping ladder steps,

and then it was just like, oh, I'm up here over AK instead of what I thought was going to be a huge jump over Phoenix, but I did it. The belt is where it belongs. And Phoenix, I wish you the best. And whatever you're ready, I'll be here because I'm always here. I'm never not here because these bozos get me out of this chair. I'm too damn good at it.

Wow. Jed Michoud has gone wire to wire. He is the undisputed BTL champion. and we had about 417 champions last year. That's why we put this tournament together, and Jed has come through on the other side. Congratulations. But on the other end, a very unhappy Alexander Kay Lee

trying to make a Cinderella story come true. It just wasn't meant to be despite an A-plus effort, AK. Your thoughts on how this all played out and our guest judge's decision here? This tournament was a sham. This show between the lengths is crap. It's never been good. New York, Rick, not a fan.

I'll be honest to you. I'm really more of a Connor Burke's guy, if we're going to go there. I'm a really big fan of his work. That's the next matchup, Mike. I'm glad horrible things have started happening to the Cleveland Cavaliers again. They are going to go nowhere near an NBA championship anytime soon.

This is horrible. Mike, this is horrible. You're still my best friend. You know, I won't hold this against you. This is horrible. This is an atrocity. I am the rightful between the Lings, in. I may never

pop in the show again. I'm not going to lie. I hate to give an emotional response right away in the moment. I may never appear in the show again. Wow. The Paul Felder of BTL? No, Paul Felder had a winning record. Oh, geez, Louise, dude.

I'm not coming back. I'm not coming back. No, you have to. I mean, Mike, I think we got to do A.K. versus New York, Rick. We got to do Ricky versus Connor. Just really, really makes up let's get some, you know, we don't have to have everything to be a title fight. We can have some of those money back, the red panty night matchups. We can do those. Yes. There's some new faces here, so we could definitely make some things happen. But A.K., incredible effort.

I thought this is your best year ever. I thought you actually had a great showing in the gauntlet episode. I thought you beat Phoenix. I thought you slayed the dragon. And Jed was just too much for you and it's it's and I'm sorry and I hope this isn't the last time we see you but Jed congratulations hopefully we see that matchup with Phoenix sooner rather than later New York Rick thank you very much my friend for

coming on Casey thank you for all the great production and of course thank you to the iconic voice of Esther Lynn who introduces all these episodes just magnificently so thank you very much the tournament is over we have an undisputed champion

who knows where things are going to go next week and in the future. But hopefully you will join us right here next week on Between the Links for the new champion Jed Mishu, for AK, for New York, Rick, for Casey. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn hopefully takes you home. Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Links and MMA Fighting Production on the Vox Media Network. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.