MMA Fighting - BTL | The 1st Annual UFC, MMA All-Star Draft — Is Khamzat Chimaev Top Welterweight Pick?

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

With the UFC, Bellator, PFL, and other major North American MMA organizations on an off-week, rather than debate open scoring and the same old topics, the MMA Fighting crew is doing something a little bit different. This week on an all-new edition of BTL, host Mike Heck is joined by Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee to draft their 2022 all-star teams — which will be based on what has transpired throughout the year thus far. Selections will take place in all weight classes, men and women, as the panel shines a positive light on the mid-year accomplishments throughout the sport, which includes surging contenders such as Khamzat Chimaev, and new champions such as Deiveson Figueiredo, Carla Esparza, and others.  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

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. The I'm A Fighting Studios. This is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn,

welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. I hope everyone's having a fantastic week. And you know what? With all the open scoring, judging, robbery talks over the last several days, and I guess if we're being fair, several weeks, several months, I figured we all needed a rest from the typical stuff we would do on this particular program.

And instead, we decided to pivot. And we have deemed this all-star weekend on this off week for most of the major promotions. We decided to do our own our selection show this week on BTL, where we will shine a light on those who have made big, strong moves in 2022 thus far. And thus we will award them and rewore them for the show. their efforts. It'll be myself alongside an esteem panel of all-star general managers. First, Mr. Jedmishu, let's give him a break from getting crushed by fan voting. How are you, sir? I mean, to be fair, the fan votes I'm losing are, I'm expected to lose them, right? For whatever reason,

Drake has like an army of people that are just super into him. And then the other one was against a professional fighter. It would have been a really bad look for me to, and let's be clear, I absolutely gave that man the business. There was not a contest. T-Rex got T-RECed, but the fans, you know, they got to do what they got to do. And that's fair. Like, I understand it. You know, I know, I know when to go out on my back, right? And that was one of those moments. But yeah, it'll be nice to do this sort of different thing and be a little less combative today. there you go. And of course, let us introduce my best friend,

the Prince of Positivity, who is mostly here to make sure we're heading in the right direction towards positivity, Mr. Alexander K. Lee, AK, hello, my best friend. My best friend, I'm so happy. I was told everyone knows I am not a big,

you know, I'm not super enthusiastic when it comes to wanting to be in between the links. This kind of competition makes me nervous. I get the sweats. I don't enjoy it. But when you reached out and told me This will be a non-competitive episode where I get to share time with my best friend, you and also Jed,

that I got super excited. It's non-competitive. We're celebrating positivity of all the good things that happened in the first half of 2022. So I am ready. And I hope not that I somehow don't find a way to lose this somehow. So, you know, no need to add to my record of L's. All right.

So a couple of ground rules. Let's just go through the rules real quick. We're kind of flying on the seat of our pants. Yesterday, I made the pivot at around 5 p.m. Eastern. We're not going to do a regular show. We're just going to do something completely different. I think it was needed to change pace. But here's how it's going to work.

One, we're going to each select one fighter from each weight class to represent our all-star team. And it has to be somebody who has competed in 2022 to this point. So you cannot pick Kamar Usman since he hasn't fought. two, we have to have at least one fighter outside of the UFC on our roster. A Bellator fighter has to make the list. So there you go. We can't just be all UFC fighters. Three, for the women, we're going to do 115, 125, and we're going to do 135 plus,

which means we'll pick one fighter and they can represent either the women's Bannamweight, featherweight, or lightweight divisions. Four, obviously, once a fighter is gone, you cannot pick them again. Like if I pick Fighter A, you cannot also pick Fighter A. They're on my All-Star team. You have to go somewhere else. And lastly, really off topic, but it pertains. I have two massive softball games this evening.

Playoff hopes are on the line. So we have to be done in like an hour. So other than that, I think we are good to go. Gentlemen, are you ready? Not at all. But I mean, sure, why not? I'm so ready. I am putting, I am making a pin.

comment in the chat about the rules you're just read out. Oh, okay. No, it's not. This is a pinned. I don't want to distract today's presence with a poll. It's the draft rules have to fought this year. We need, all of us need to have a fighter from outside the UFC. And women rosters will be 115, 125, and 135 and up.

So for anyone who tunes in, you know, late, they can just look at this pinned comment on YouTube, and they will be caught up. All right. Now, before earlier in the day, I put all three of our names in the magic random generator that I got for free. So I didn't have to use the MA Fighting Magic computer. Jed, you actually get the first pick, AK you get the second pick, I get the third pick. There will be no snake draft.

Oh, so I get the first in every round. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, here's how it's going to work. It's kind of, it's not really like 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3. So, Jed, we're going to start at heavyweight. You'll make the first pick at heavyweight. A.K. will go second. I will go third.

And then at 205, AK will go first. I go second, Jed, third. middleweight, I go first, Jedd's second, and then once it goes back around, Jed will go first again. Not saying, rotation, a rotation, rotating.

We're letting everybody in. Okay. Yep. Yes, exactly. So, Jed, your heavyweight all-star selection. Who is the first representative for the Jedbishu All-Stars?

Well, this is going to be an easy one. I, this is the category I had the most names written down for because I didn't know where I'd come in the picks and I wanted to make sure I had options. my heart wants to take Andrei Olavski because he has competed twice this year and has won both times just so we're clear that man has given you 30 minutes of combat thus far this year and two dubs that's four total paychecks he's gotten is hard to argue with the

year but we're doing this you know the spirit of this there's one choice Tommy Aspenno Tommy Aspenov it's got to be Tommy Aspinall the man is He's a rocket ship. We talked about he's going straight to the moon. He headlined the big return to UFC London, one of the, basically the bright spots of this year. And frankly, one of the bright spots of the UFC of the past couple of years, just from a feel-good standpoint. That whole event was magic.

And he was the star around which it was built to some extent. And it was so great they're going back. And he's going to do the damn thing again. So for sure, first pick, give me Tommy Aspinall the heavyweight, the future heavyweight champion. that's a great pick a tremendous pick way to start it off AK we go to you who is uh who's part of team positivity I want with a more obvious choice I well I think it's a more obvious choice apparently there wasn't one uh though I promise I did not just pick all UFC champions

from our top picks but there were several that were certainly worthy of being an all-star representative I am going to go with Francis and Ghanu now you can say you know that win over Cidal Gahn was not as impressive as, you know, the atmosphere that Tommy Aspinall created in London, Taito Ivasa emerging as a contender. There are certainly other great options. But I think it's the way in Ghanu did it showing off the wrestling, yes, mixing the martial arts, which often I'm not a proponent of, but in this, in this fight, it was just so cool because we had all, we had all, sort of got into it. We had all gone into it going like, well, God is, you know, God's probably technically the better striker. And we, and we know Francis is going in with an injury.

So I was like, how's Francis going to win this? And it kind of played out as a lot of us had thought through the first couple rounds. We're like, yeah, God is a handful for him on the feet. And then, and Ghana just said, listen, I'm at MMA fighter. I train all this stuff. I'm going to my wrestling. You know, he wasn't like Prime GSP or Habib out there, but he did enough with the wrestling, did enough offense to win the fight.

It was great. And of course, beyond that, that it was the last fight on his current content. As we know, that it now kicks off this sort of prolonged period of, unfortunately, inactivity as he tries to, you know, get his freedom from the UFC, tries to set it up so he can take all these boxing fights. So the fight itself, I get it. Maybe not one we'd all want to rewatch again,

made parts of it, but his performance performing under those circumstances, winning under those circumstances, and possibly now fighting a battle beyond anything that he's done before outside of the cage, I think that to me makes him my all-star representative heavyweight. Another great pick. There is a number of ways I could have gone with this.

Obviously, Tai Tui Vasa would have been a great name to throw on here. Curtis Blades, big win. He's going to be main eventing. But I'm going off the board here. I'm going off the MMA fighting global rankings, although I'm not exactly sure if he's going to make the MMA fighting global rankings

for the month of June, but he should. His name is Alexander Romanov. Alexander Romanov is the first pick on the Mike Heck All-Stars. Never has a fighter outside of maybe Valentina Shifchenko just because we want to see how great she is. Never has a fighter that was like a floppy

minus floppy jillian favorite, gotten so much attention and put so much buzz on a fight that everybody knew the result of ahead of time. And Alexander Romanov did that, built himself up. He's suplexed in his coaches. He's a fun loving dude. He's getting shredded.

He actually lost more. They were supposed to do the Chase Chairman fight like two weeks prior or a week prior, and he actually ended up getting more shredded in between rebooking that fight. So to me, Alexander Romanov should enter the MA fighting global rankings, and he will enter our hearts and enter my All-Star roster as my heavyweight selection, although there were some others in there, Ty-2-Vos, like I mentioned, Taitouvasa, Curtis Blades, etc.

But I'm going with Alexander Romanov. First All-Star bid, he gets the nod. So good round, gentlemen. Good start. I like it. Let's move down to 205, light heavyweight division. Team positivity is up, AK, let's keep this positivity. train going? Who is your light heavyweight representative? Yeah, this is tricky. This was a little

tricky because technically he didn't win in his fight, his first fight in 2022 so far, but he essentially was on his way to doing so. He lost because of a freak, I don't want to say a freak thing, you know, one of those freak fouls. I'm getting my belt or pick out of the way right away or my non-USC pick. One, I think of several, depending on how the draft shakes out for me. Corey Anderson, Corey Anderson. Number one, I think on a couple of ballots, I want to say, in our in our MMA fighting rankings now. He was already on first, yeah, okay, two panelists in our MMA fighting rankings have Corey Anderson number one. And there's a strong case to be made for it. Again, he's got a win over Glover-Teshirea.

He's looked amazing in Bell-Tor. He looked great, but when he left the UFC, he's not one of those guys who he fell into a slump and then, oh, and then the UFC cut him. He landed in Bell-Tor. I mean, he is, he has the skill set, he has the resume, he's the kind of guy if you match him up with a lot of people in anyone's top 10, top 5 would be favored against a lot of them. I wish he'd gotten, you know, to finish that fight against Nemcov, but anyone who watched it pretty much said this is the number one guy in Beltor. And at the very worst, like the number two, number three guy in all of light heavyweight across all the promotions. So Corey Anderson, you are my, you're my all-star guy here. Nice. And this is a smart move by you because now you have your fighter outside of the UFC. You have your Bellator representation. And oddly enough, I'm going to do exactly the same thing. And I'm going to take this man away from Jed Mishu. I hate you. I hate you.

Yoel Romero. You're an awful person and bad thing she happened to you, Mike. He's back. He's back. He's back. He's back. He's making the list. I've checked. I've checked. it twice. He is there. He broke Alex Polizzi's freaking jaw as a, as, as, is an underdog for his fight. Dominated Alex Polizzi, got him out of there with like one second left in the fight. It's a tremendous performance. And by the way, Jed, you shouldn't be allowed to pick Yol Romero because you went on the broadcasting scene picking against Yol L. Romero. And now Yol Amara is part of my squad. So maybe there are other guys who may deserve the nod ahead of Yol Romero. But in my eyes. tremendous start to his year and there you go he's on the team now it's up to you

did you call him an underdog against policey he was not he was the dog wasn't he wasn't i thought he was no that's why i bet pelisi is because pelisi was the dog and y'all's joel he can beat anybody he also could just decide to not fight because that's the thing sometimes he does that's why i love him so much i knew one of you was going to do this fortunately i had a backup plan and i can't believe I can believe it because Corey makes sense and then someone was going to be a hater but I think the actual clear best light heavyweight of the year

thus far for our intents and purposes and maybe we're going to stretch it a little bit Jilton Almeida I mean look he's fought twice this year granted one of those was the other week and it was a heavyweight fighting against park paca porta but he competed first at light heavyweight he's a natural light heavyweight he's got two dubs on the year two dominant performances this guy is one of the

own bright spots in what is otherwise a Garbo division. So give me Jelton Almeda because he's probably going to fight two more times this year. So I'm going to look even smarter at the end of the year when we go back and look at this and say, wow, Jed nailed that one. I was, uh, I was, uh, I was actually going to cheat and use Jelton as my heavyweight if my first two picks got taken. I mean, I was actually speaking about it. I mean, technically not.

He again, at the UFC, at least this year, I would say, sorry, he's fought. once it light heavy and once it heavy. And he said, he's told our own GMA crews that he's like, I might stick around at heavyweight. He's like, I like it up here. So, and that was before the fight. So I don't know, maybe this guy just a young man. He's a well-built young man.

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Sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. Let's move to 185. I get the first pick this round. There's a lot to like here at 185 for this kind of selection. There are fighters who have multiple wins who have multiple finishes. But I think I have to go with Israel, Adisania,

getting the win over Robert Whitaker, tough fight, gets it done. He's about to headline International Fight Week, UFC 276 on July 2nd in Las Vegas. So I'd be probably crazy if I didn't pick the UFC middleweight champion. That's what I'm doing. Israel Adisanya, Jed Bishu, where are you going? Oh, man. Honestly, Izzy was only on my radar because he's the champion, but he, I would have never taken him. Now you're giving me a choice here between two guys that I don't think either of you are going to take,

but I think are objectively the best two choices. So I'm going to stick to my guns. I'm going to be my guy. I've been back in this guy longer than anybody else in MMAFiting.com. I am the original RDR guy. He's like six or something in my middleweight rankings. And the man has two fights this year. Now, only one of those is a fight.

The other one, he went to a draw with Andre Galvowal. Yes, that's the Andre Galvow in a grappling match. So this man is giving you content. He's given you performances. He's going to be taking all the belts at one championship. Hennier de Ritter, just to make AK mad. Hine A.K. Hennie A. All right.

Can you, no, listen, can we once and for all help you to, you are, credit to you? No, it's way more fun. You are number one on the RDR train. Can I help you to pronounce his name properly? It's actually much easier. It's much easier than you're making it sound. It's way more fun to give in the Brazilian pronunciation. That makes no sense.

Henier de Hitter. He's the hitter. I don't even think you're getting it right if you were Portuguese. I don't even think that's the way to do it. Probably not. Let's get Gion. He can explain where I'm mispronouncing Renier de Ritter. Listeners, it is, it is so much easier.

It is Reiner de Ritter. It is Reiner de Ritter. It's not Reiner. It's not Heinier. It's not Reinhier. It's not Renier. It's not Renier. It is Reiner to Ritter.

It's Reiner de Ritter. Regardless, you know who I'm talking about, and he is now on my team, one of the best middle weights in the world, and one day he will show you all. The president of one championship's grappling committee. Who do they announce to the vice? They raise that one championship's vice president. Oh, Leo, oh my gosh, what was his name? Leo ladies or whatever? I have no idea what I'm talking about.

You don't remember. You've got a press release. We had this discussion with. With key. When I get one championship press releases, do you know what I do with them? I immediately just highlight and delete. Like that's, I don't even open it up. That's anyway.

What if RDR is the topic, the subject matter? He just texts me where boys like that now because I'm the leader of the fan club. So he's just like, hey man, I got a fight coming up. I'm like, thank Taney. AK, how do you top that pick and that pronunciation? Oh, God, I got two close ones here. Well, there's a good middleweight who you could also butcher his pronunciation if you want to take him. 100%.

He's on my list. I, well, you guys have something that is because I kind of just want to go Gayguard? I'll tell me what I'm thinking here. I kind of want to go Gayguard. I kind of want to go Alex Bejada just because he has done everything he's needed to do to set himself up for a UFC title shot. Because we all knew, like, when he signed with the UFC, even before he signed with the UFC, every interview he did with like everyone was like, are you coming to the UFC? Are you going to get that Izzy fight? And he's, you know, he's always, of course, looked forward to it. He has a couple of wins over Izzy in boxing, kickboxing as everyone knows, excuse me. The first one very close, controversial. The second one, he was losing, come back knockout. And people want to see, oh, can he beat him, can he beat the unbeatable Adasania in MMA as well? So all he had to do was take care of business. He got a win last year, won a tough fight this year. I'm going to, you know what? I've talked myself into it.

Alex Paheda, Alex Pahedda, with respect to Gagard, who just keeps getting it done in Belator, took care of business against Austin Vanderford. I mean, I know everyone's like, yeah, it's Austin Vanderford. And I was like, yeah, he did what he's supposed to do. He wiped him out. It wasn't close. But Alex Paheda, he'll be fighting again soon. He's maybe one win away, one very, very tough win away.

It's going to upcoming fight against John Strickland. But we'll see. By the end of the – I mean, right now I'm saying he's my middleweight all-star pick. By the end of the year, we can be talking about. him for top five on the fighter of the year list. We'll see. So the other person, the number two on my list was Chitty and Jokwani. He's got two badass performances this year already.

Yep. Yep. So I had Adasanya, Chidi Musasi. That's who I had. Those are my top three. Pahed is a great pick. RDR is a great pick. Lots of fun ones at 185.

Let's go to Welterway. Jed. I don't know. This one seems pretty obvious. But Welterweight, who you're going with? And why is his name rhyme with Schm-Smam-Schmashmack? Schmishmayev. It's not. I'm not going.

I'm going to let somebody else have that, even though I have been driving the Hamzot bandwagon, because there's another man that my compatriot on this show was with me in supporting early and often, certainly in the hallowed panels of the mystifice column that we used to do before he unceremoniously kicked me out of that. But that will litigate that at another time. I'm taking Michelle Bahia.

Look, he has fought twice, and they have both been very entertaining, very good fights. More importantly, he has won them both and established himself as one of the top 15 or 20 best welterweights in the world. I know rankings are coming out sometime next week for us, and he has now cracked my top 15. Look, two fight of the night performances. I don't actually remember if he got bonuses for both of those, but as far as I was concerned, they were the best fights on the cart.

perspective cards. Yeah, give me. Hamzat's great. Hamzat had, you know, a fight of the year, if not the fight of the year. But give me a guy who's done it twice. And Michelle Paheya, I love you. I love you forever. It's a great pick.

He's on my list. A.K. are you going, Shimaif? Yeah. Paheda was my, I'm talking pronunciation. Pereira was my number two pick, though, because for all the reasons that Jed mentioned, like this is a guy who, when the O.C. signed him. We were like, he's going to put on some fun fights at the very least. Will he be a contender? Well, we didn't even care. We're kind of like, if he becomes a contender, great.

We just want to see fun stuff. I know Jed's a little disappointed that he's kind of cleaned up his act and has become a contender. But for me, I'm amazed. This is a guy who's almost like 40 fights into his career. So for him to put forth this changes to I think it's so admirable. So yeah, I mean, excellent number one choice, but I am going Shemaya of fight of the year contender frontrunner, I just say with Gilbert Burns. I thought a really good. win. I don't think it was controversial at all. A close fight, but I don't think it was controversial. And the Shemaya train just keeps rolling along as it should be. So for sure, he would have been my number one pick, but I'm happy to take him number two. I thought Jed, I thought I was going to end up

with Michelle Paheda, because I thought that Jed was going to do what he said he was going to do and draft the new interim welterweight champion from Bellator, but he did not do that. He did not take Logan Storley. So it threw me off by Gay. So he went with Baheda, which is a tremendous pick, aka, I mean, how can you not take Shemayef in that spot? I'm going with the other half of that tremendous fight. I'm going with Gilbert Burns because even though he did not win, I think his stock rose tremendously. He proved a lot in that fight. And I feel like people, even though he's really good and he earned a title shot and he gave Usman some problems in that fight, I think this is the one that people are going to remember him the most from when his career is over.

even if he becomes a world champion, I think we're all going to circle that fight with Hamza at Chamaif. So yeah, give it to Gilbert. You get into war like that. Everybody wins. And you may not have gotten the second paycheck, Gilbert, and the judge's decision, but you got a spot on my all-star squad.

So congratulations to you, Gilbert Burns. And sometimes that, you know, maybe not this year, but next year or the year after, that's going to be worth more than getting a split decision nod over a Hamzat Shemayev. So congratulations to you, Doreno. deserved as we head down to one of the best divisions in the sport jemishu this is the best division in the sport in your opinion super high talents up the top it's getting deeper we got some fun

main events coming up involving this division but a k we begin with you this one seems clear but maybe it isn't mr rules rule who is your uh who is your all-star selection yeah listen listen it's it's clear to me it is clear to me but uh certainly this man could be disqualified from this category altogether as technically, well, he didn't technically. He didn't compete a lightweight. It's a catchweight bow. Oh, no, he did. No, no, no, no, he did. No, no, he did. No, no, he didn't. No, he didn't, 155. 55.5.5.5 is a lightweight belt. No, it's not. It's not a, it doesn't, it doesn't get the catchweight. It's not a lightweight. He made, he made the normal, he made the normal white

lightweight limit. Yeah, no, because no, he did not. The lightweight limit is 155 and they are afforded a one pound allowance. He was not afforded that. So he did not compete in a lightweight bout. That belt did not have the by the rules that you love rules. Any other, well, hold on, any other time than someone weighs 155.5.156, then we shouldn't count that as a lightweight belt then because that's over the limit.

The limit is 155. I mean, I think that there's an argument for that. I'm just saying that that bout, based on my understanding of things, should not count as a lightweight bout because the lightweight limit is not a weight he made. And that bout did not have the one pound allowance that other lightweight bouts are given. It does not, for me, it doesn't count as a lightweight championship bout. But is it in the range of a normal lightweight belt? Absolutely.

Now, we do have a mid-season, his old teaser for the weekend, guys. We do have a little mid-season awards article coming out. And Jed does make a very compelling argument why my. a all-star pick for lightweight Charles Olivera, obviously. Embarrant, not what was, is embarrassed too strong a word, Jed? Maybe he, he messed up. I don't think he embarrassed himself because he messed up. He messed up, he clearly doesn't care.

But he lost, he messed up and lost it. Yeah, he messed up. He lost his belt. I'm sure everyone knows that, you know, he came in the half, as a Jed said, half pound over. There is no one pound allowance for a championship fight. So it was, it was, it was not a, it was not a lightweight championship opportunity for him. But for me, I don't think there's any argument that he's not the best 155 are in the world.

UFC belts are props. Championship fights should have the one pound allowance. Not to get into this whole discussion, but the whole reason the one pound allowance exists. Well, not the whole reason. One of the reasons the one pound allowance exists in MMA for non-title fights is specifically because if there's any weirdness with the scales, differentials between the scales, that's why they allow the 0.5 or the one pound over. So it's exactly for situations like this.

and we kind of arbitrarily decided that championship bouts should be on point because it makes it more special, but then you create a situation like happened on at that 274 where all these people were complaining they were half a pound over anyway. So that's a whole other thing. So yeah, I mean, look, by the letter of the law, he's not the lightweight champion anymore, that's fine. By the letter of if you ask anyone who saw that fight

and that amazing performance against Justin Gates, is this guy the best lightweight in the world? Did he put on the best performance by a lightweight fighter in the first half of 2022? too for sure. So I have no issue making it my lightweight pick here. This is tough because there's another direction that I want to go. I really want to make a case for this.

But I just can't over this guy because Jed's not going to pick him. He's just not going to. At least I don't think he will. That's because he sucks. Why would I pick somebody who stuck? So I'm going with Michael Chandler. How can you not after that knockout of Tony Ford? Ferguson.

You know, maybe the things he says after these incredible knockouts don't merit such awards, but at least the performance in the cage, what he did throughout the fight week, along with Tony Ferguson, Michael Chandler gets the nod. There's another direction I really wanted to go. We will save it. Maybe Jed will take that pick and break my heart. We'll see. Jed, who is your lightweight representative for the Jedmishu All-Stars?

Look, everything is lining up so well for me. in this draft. I've gotten every single person that I like all of my top picks and I knew I'd get this one because I knew exactly what would happen here. One of you would take the guy who sucks because you're blinded by the parts where he maybe doesn't suck, but he sucks.

And then the other would take Charles Olivero because even though he claims to love rules and that rules rule, he just never supports that with his actual actions. So for me, I'm going to take, I'm going to argue against something AK said. What guy delivered a better performance

and lightweight in the first half of the year. Well, the dude who didn't get hit, Islam Makashchev is the best lightweight in the world. He's going to prove it by the end of the year, and he ran rough shot over Bobby Green. Yes, Bobby Green came in on shore notice. That was still a fight where a bunch of people were talking themselves into it. It was classic Habib.

Well, this is going to be the most difficult test of his career. And, ooh, Michael Johnson might be able to know, Habib is a wrecking ball and he runs through people. And Islam did the exact same thing. everybody tried to talk themselves into Bobby Green's Wiley you know he's he's tough to hold down really wasn't Islam took him down held him down and won real quick perfect performance you know it's he didn't get dropped twice and granted Bobby Green is not the same as Justin Gachie but he didn't get knocked down twice in his fight he just did the damn thing give me the best lightweight

in the world is Lamakachev and I'm running rough shot over both of you with my draft right now Islam wasn't going to be my pick. It was going to be Mr. I know. Mr. May event himself, Armand. You should have.

Wow. I don't practice what you preach, Mike. Why wouldn't you take that man? I just want to show some love to Clay Collard and Howishman Fio. Can we do that? Can we do that guys? PFL season is underway.

Clay Collar is the best week to the year with Jeremy Stevens. Clay Collar collard is not on my list because I only had the three names because I knew exactly how these three would go. But if we were making a more. comprehensive list, he would certainly be top five. Yeah, love that car. That fight was unbelievable. Big knockout over Don match for Manfio as well. So we'll see.

The good thing with the PFL guys is, they know they're going to fight at least three or four times a year. So they always kind of find a way depending how they do it to kind of sneak into the fighter of year discussion. So we could be hearing from more from one of those guys in a few months. Yeah, house, house was was was nominated for sure last at the end of last year. So featherweight, I mean, I, this needs no explanation. I have, in my opinion, he might actually be the best fighter on planet Earth right now. July 2nd, he's going to have the opportunity to take another step forward.

And maybe by the end of the year, maybe he'll have the opportunity to fight for a second title. But the man's name, Volcanovsky, easy pick. This required no thought. So there you go. I'm happy to take Alexander the Great on my squad because he deserves it. One of the all-time great title defenses, in my opinion. Top 10 for sure. pitched a perfect game against a guy who was really, really tough and really, really

gritty and he's a gamer, but Volcanovsky treated him like he was a one-and-one amateur fighter. It was incredible. So Volcanovsky's my pick. Jed, to you, 145, who makes your squad? Yeah, I mean, I think Volko is the clear number one here. Can't argue with that one. I have two others, and I don't know which one of these is better. I'm going to take it off of strictly performance-based, and I will leave AK to assemble a team of non-UFC fighters. But even though Patricio Pitbull's win over A.J. McKee is an incredible story, and it was a great fight and showed really how great he is,

I still don't think that was as good a performance as the first UFC card this year, where Calvin Cater just beat the absolute bricks off Gika Chikaze. And this was Cater coming off himself, getting mauled by Max Holloway and one of the biggest beatdowns we've ever seen inside the cage. Giga Chi Kadez is the new hotness. He's going to come do the same thing. And no, just not even a little bit. Cater just whooped on him like he was the redheaded stepchild of a rented mule. And it was awesome.

So that's the best performance outside of Volkinovsky. I think that's the best performance we've seen at Featherweight this year. So I'm going to take that man from. a squad. That is a tremendous pick. He was number two on my list. Number three was a great choice as well. Maybe AK will take my number three pick, AK, 145, who you got? I'll say the guy who was left for me was actually my number one. I actually didn't think Volcanovsky was a clear choice. If we're basing it just on... Please tell me, finish that sentence. If we're basing it on what is Volkanowski not the best thing? It's sort of like what the win meant to that fighter's career.

I think I'm having a perfect game against Korean zombie means more than Pitbull winning a third Bellator title. Okay, no, but let's be fair here. Chan San Zhang, beloved, a great fighter, was not viewed as a great challenge for Alexander Volcanowski. Yeah, but that's okay. It's how you do it. Yeah, but you can't ignore that. You can't. You can't ignore that part of it.

No, I'm not ignoring it, but I still think this is a contest. That's why I give Pitbull the edge because Pitbull, everyone was just assuming, oh, this is, this is, you know, Agent McKee's going to, this is part of his victory tour. He beats, he beats Pitbull again and he moves on to whatever it is that's next for him. And Pitbull's like, I don't, I don't believe in that BS. I'm one of the greatest. I'm one of the best 145 was on the planet. And he silenced a lot of people with that win and probably made Bell Tour very upset. Probably screwed up a lot of Bell Tour plans, unless AJ is moving on from Belter anyway.

But so it's the it's the it's the odds were against him. It's how this, I think this adds to his legacy. Because he really, I think a lot of people really did expect this to be just A.J. McKee goes up to O. On Pitbull. As much as everyone respects Pitbull, I think also we all think very highly of McKee. I certainly did. I certainly did.

I thought McKee was going to beat him again. Not as maybe not as definitively as last time. But I thought it would go to a decision. It did, but it went in pit bull's favor. So for me, that that makes Pitbull the easy choice. And again, it's not Volkanowski's fault. He had, he was originally supposed to. Mike Holloway at third time, and then all this stuff just fell through, and he had to fight

Chanson-Jung. Again, a very well-liked fighter, a very tough fighter, no matter who you, you know, what age he is, it doesn't matter. But he took care of business. I think Pitbull did what was unexpected, and that just kind of gives him extra points for me. So I'm going to, I'm leaning towards Pitbull. Again, it doesn't matter. He's my third pick anyway, but I actually would have taken him number one.

Wow, that is a bold pick. I wouldn't even pick pit bull my number three pick. Arnold Allen was my number three pick after that win over Dan. Hucker, but pit bull is in the conversation. Yeah, people's in the conversation. Yeah, I would take pit bull, but I think you have an argument with Arnold Allen. You may have heard of the sex cult nexium and the famous actress who went to prison for her involvement, Alison Mack. But she's never told her side of the story until now.

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Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. Let's go to 135, AK's favorite division, but Jed, we will kick things off with you. We have a undisputed Bannamweight champion in the UFC. We have a champion in Bellator, but he did not fight this year, and he won't fight this year more than likely. we also have a champion in Belator we do have a champion in Belator we have we have an interim champion as well I forgot about that who was a tremendous fighter in his own right he's very dumb I'm not going to take the interim champion champion in Belator and I'm going to do

this is the this is the pick that the fans that are watching are going to be like oh Jed went full Jed and did a dumb thing and I don't care don't you do it Jed don't you do it I'm doing it I'm of a bitch. Doing it. Look, you get one chance to put on the promo of a lifetime. And at the end of this year, I don't care about Michael Chandler who sucks yelling into the microphone. That's not a good promo. What's a good promo is saying, this is a really good fight because I'm really freaking good

and Leandro Ego sucks. Danny Sabatello is my new spirit child. I want nothing but success for him watching him versus Leandro Eagle later this year is going to be banana grams, it's going to be awesome. His performance against Jordan Olugo was exceptional. He wrestled the crap out of him and not like Logan Storley wrestled him.

He like really, really wrestled the man and then cut, like no joke, I think one of the five greatest promos I've ever heard in my life. So Danny Sabotello, for 100% sure, join the squad. We're going straight to the, top baby. Damn, dude.

That was going to be like my steal of the draft. That was going to be my steal of the draft. I thought, you know, be picking third at one 35. I'm like, there's no way anybody's going to pick him. You can get Stots. Stots is great. No, I mean, I'm going to end up with my top two picks, but I thought for sure I was this scatatatatatel is going to fall on my lap.

But not the case. Great pick, Jed. A.K., who do you got? Oh, man. It would be the boring pick here and just go with Aljo. I mean, I actually thought, you know, I wasn't going to get first here and someone else take Aljo. And I had some more fun picks. I'll say them after, but I won't spoil in case, in case Mike, you happen to go in one of these directions.

But yeah, listen, Aljo, I know the fight was controversial again, but in a different way. Thankfully, thankfully, in a more entertaining way than the first Peoria fight. But for me, I had a 48-46 Sterling. I think at worst, a draw for Sterling, which would have also been, meant he retains the title. So the guys dealt with a ton of haters since the first fight. I know he's still dealing with haters. I don't know. This result might have made it worse.

I'm not sure. Peotryon, an amazing, amazing, amazing fighter. So for Sterling to beat him or even take him to a draw and retain his title, I think is huge. Hopefully they fight again someday. But for now, guess what? It doesn't matter. Sterling officially won the decision. He is, I think, the undisputed best 135er in the world.

It's hard for anyone to make a case against him. And if you're him, you've got that big gold belt around his base. I know I call him props, but it's a hell of prop to have when you're trying to say, hey, nobody in this division is better than me. And I'll stick with him. And I actually really enjoyed that fight. I know people didn't like some of the, I don't know, grappling parts where I don't know, there wasn't as much offense they would have

liked to see. But I thought it was such a fascinating mixture of styles and strategy and competitiveness. And I love both. I think both fighters are fantastic. I hope they do fight again a third time. But Al Joe, best band-in-weight of the first half for me. Rafián Stats would be a great pick here. But I'm not picking him.

I'm not picking him. Wow. I'm picking Cheeto Vera. Yeah. He was number three online. Yeah, got to pick Cheeto. That went over Rob Fon. He's a player.

Like, he's a legit player, 135 now. I thought he was a player before, but he's a legit player. And everybody believes that now. He's got a big fight coming up next against, I don't know who. Could be Dominic Cruz. It could be maybe he gets a Sean O'Malley rematch. If, uh, not that he really needs it, but it would be a huge fight. if O'Malley could beat Pedro Munoz.

Regardless, no matter who he fights next, it's going to be a very big deal. I didn't want to penalize him for the Jose Alito callout. It was not a good one, in my opinion, because that fight just happened, and we all saw how that went. But all in all, the way he's come back, that performance against Rob Fon,

yeah, I'm happy to have Marlon Barra on my team. No doubt about it. 125. Oh, go ahead. Hold on, Mike, I want to apologize to America because I went with, listen, I had to stick with my list, my big board here.

had Sterling, you know, the number of one spot, so I had to take them. But like two more, way more interesting answers would have been Patchy Mix, who convincingly beat Kogi Horikuchi. I mean, amazing performance. That was for the, wait, was that was for the interim? Who's the interim champion? That's he is, right? Stots.

Stots is the interim. Oh, okay. Stots, anyway. Patchy Mix on the other side or another part of the bracket, great performance against Horikuchi. I could see him not being top three just because Horacucci is also coming off a loss. So it's not like he like ended Horoguchi's win streak or anything. but boy I did not have Patsy winning that one

and I was amazed at his performance just so good and then we got to show some love to John Lineker we got to show love to John Lineker I should have made him my pick knock no it would have been a great pick if I'd made it Mike but I chickened out knocks out Bibiana Fernandez and for anyone who hasn't been keeping track of Bibiano

he hasn't he's lost one time in the last 11 years and the one guy he lost to he's beaten that guy three times and avenge the loss twice over. I mean, they ran it back twice over after because one of the stoppages was bad. So he had one loss,

the last 11 years before he into Lineker, and Lenaker caos him. And I think, I think this might actually be a changing of the guard at Bantamweight in one, but we'll see. I'm sure they'll rematch it at some point. But John Lineker, man,

he's just doing damage overseas. What a little beast. Excellent name drop. Excellent name drop. 135 is good. There's a lot of options there. Let's go to 125, AK. You have, I mean, again, this is your pick.

You could end up with another UFC champion on the squad if you would like. I can't hear you, but I mean, maybe that's what you're pondering. And I will, and I will, sadly. Man, you're just taking all the belts, huh? I know. A man who says titles don't mean anything. You're just, no, I didn't say that. I said, ah, whoa, whoa, whoa, I never said tells them anything.

I said they're props. And props. You like props. I like props are cool. Just carrot top over here. Nice. Relevance. It's a top.

How does no other prop comic ever come along and take that spot? He is the prop comic reference, like for the last 20 years. Maybe. I don't know where the time train got. I would say, I don't know. Gallagher also just had a bunch of props. He just remembered for the hammer. He's the watermelon guy.

Yeah. He's not the water guy. But the rest of his bit had a lot of props in it. I chickened out again. It went UFC champion, Davidson Figaro, but well deserved. One of the best fights of the year. My runner-up right now for the best fight of 2022, personally, again, it's not like a big upset. I think him and Moreno, anytime those guys step in there, yeah, whoever has the belt might be favored, but it's pretty much a toss-up.

They're just so evenly matched, so competitive, right in the prime of their careers. You run that back 11 times. It probably goes, one guy wins six, one guy wins five, and so on. Keep adding how many fights you want. It's just going to be one above 500. Just an amazing, or it'll be a draw like they did before. So just an amazing duo. So great to see.

In this case, if Moreno had won, Marino obviously would have been my pick, but Figgi got the belt back. So Figgi gets the props. I'll give him that all-star nod. I mean, that's right there for you. I'm torn between two. I'm torn between two.

One just seems so easy, and I might just give him to Jed. I have like four different answers that I'm comfortable with. So whatever you're feeling. I mean, I mean, it's the theme of the year, right? It's the theme of the year.

It is the year of the raw dog after all. So 2 and 0 in 2022, a guy who wants to be the backup for this interim title fight between Brandon Moreno and Kai Kar, France on July 30th. I'm going with Brandon Royval. Let's go. It is the year of the raw dog AK. So, yes, I have to make sure that Brandon Royval has a spot on one of these all-star rosters. Hey, it's a great, great pick. He was certainly in my sort of top group. But once again,

I love that you guys are just just giving me all the things I want. We're going to get heat for nobody taking KKF, by the way, because KKF has emerged. But give me the most electrifying prospect that the sports seen in the past year. Like, I think the best debut that we've seen in forever. Muhammad Mikhail. Like he's 21 years old and has the world at his feet making his UFC debut against the toughest test of his career in Cody

Durden and taps him in less than a minute. Like on that London card couldn't dial it up better for this guy to finally make his UFC debut and I mean we talked about it afterwards Mike would just strap the strap the rockets to him. This guy's going forever

up and up. Two division champion we talked about on one of these programs. We're envisioning that for him. So, yeah, plus just a baller performance. So you guys just keep giving me all my favorite people. And this is great. Shoutouts. Shoutouts to Kekar, France, you mentioned. And Adrian of Marais, number one, guys, he fought this year. He finally got back in there and defended his title. Number one guy in two of our panelists and may fighting global rankings. Now, unfortunately, I think if I asked the average person, who did he fight, who did he beat?

Probably going to get a lot of like expressions, but... You want to ask a person who works in MMA media instead of the average person? Jed, do you know who he beat? Haven't a clue. I believe it. I believe it was Yu-Yoakamatsu. And I... Well, okay.

Hey, Yu-Iwaka-Matsu is a good fighter. It's a good fighter. I mean, clearly, like, it was not... Yeah, well, it's Yu-Wakamatsu. And a great performance by Adriana. So he was in my top three. He was in my top three. So you weren't among the billions and billions, Jed?

I probably watched. I just don't remember because I probably did watch because I probably had to do something with it. I just don't remember it. Before we move on to the women's section, Mike, have you taken a non-UFC fighter yet? Yo or Merrill. Oh, you took Romero. That's right.

I want to make sure we're all above board here. rules rule I picked Romero and if I didn't get Romero I thought for sure is going to get Sabatello so I was prepared I was ready to go

You took Romero from me I picked Danny Sabs from you I picked several I really wish I had picked I really wish I'd pick John Lineker instead of Aljo I could have had this whole non-UFC roster thing

I just bring it up because 135 plus is there have not been a lot of fights that fit that category this year in general and almost none of them have been good.

Yeah, the two obvious choices are both outside of the UFC. But I'm actually, it is my pick. I'm going to shine some light on somebody else who got a victory. She actually looked really good in her fight. And she's had a pretty tough year because of the stupid trial that is going on between Johnny Depp and Amber Hurd. So I'm going to give Raquel Pennington the rub here to join the All-Stars. the Mike Heck, heck of it all-star team.

Beats Aspen Ladd, she's on a nice run right now. She's close to getting back to a title fight. Just when we thought she might have been just down and out and just maybe a litmus test at best, she has come back and done the damn thing. So Raquel, not that Raquel Pennington. We're talking about UFC fighter, Raquel Rocky Pennington. And if you don't know the reference, if you're not paying attention to this trial, like I'm not paying attention to this trial.

Apparently there's somebody named Raquel Pennington, who's nickname is also. Rocky, but Raquel talked to our own Stephen Morocco and sort of gave her side whose name is funnily enough also Rocky. Isn't that amazing? So Raquel Pennington, welcome to the team. I just feel like she just deserves it.

There you go. Yeah. They don't even look alike. I've seen people like going like, oh, I can see the similarities. Like, what? I've seen the pictures of both women. I'm like, they don't look alike at all. Are you like, this is cognitive dissidents. Mike, did you see her off us there?

Twitter John Jones doesn't look anything like John Bones. Jones either. That's a whole other, that's a whole other realm of stupidity. Mike, did you swerve me there? Because I swear, when you started saying like the diversity of the swam, I thought you were going to go with a woman you had spoken to recently, Alenna Kolesnik.

I thought, because she had won a PFL, obviously, is dealing with the war, you know, what's going on in the Ukraine. So I thought you, I was like, I thought you swirved us there. But shoutouts to her. No. Split knot. Split not at the NFL. Yeah, it just was part of the draft.

If I was the third pick in the draft, I would have picked her in a heartbeat. But I, I wasn't. with Raquel. I just felt like she deserved it. And yeah, here we are. Elena, shout out to Elena Kalesnick. She got the win in her PFL debut this year. And, you know, I hope she wins the whole damn thing and wins that mill. Jed, your pick, 135 plus. Three points on the board. Oh, man, this is this is not what one would call easy. So I'm going to take the softball, mainly because I want to keep AK from just doing nothing but collecting champions. So, uh, give you a good. And Give me Chris Cyborg.

It wasn't the greatest thing that's ever happened, but her fight with Arlene Blinkau, Blinko, honestly not entirely sure how to pronounce that, AKA, please enlighten me when it's your turn. I think you said it, Blanco, Blanco. It was honestly a really good, it wasn't a good fight, but it was at least entertaining because Arlene is just shoe leather tough, and she withstood an absolute savaging from Chris Cyborg and now Cyborg is like maybe a free agent, maybe she can go to Box. I don't know, but she put on one of, I mean, frankly, probably the best performance and most entertaining fight for this particular weight class classes this year so far. So give me Cyborg.

Yeah. I mean, right there, it's a good pick. A.K., who you going with? 135 plus. I'm glad you picked her because I would have felt stupid if you picked someone else. then I had to pick a person, this person who I had ahead of her on my big board. I probably would have switched it up and just gone on cyborgs. I'm going to go with, this is going to make just make just make you old mad. Ketland Vietta for ending. I knew you were going to do that. I knew it.

Listen, ending the reign of terror of Hollyholm in the top. I think that's a fair choice. I have her top six. I mean, I guess she's still in the top five of the rankings or something. But the top three, that stranglehold. As soon as if you, of course, you remove GDR as well. And just kind of freshening things up. Now, she should be disqualified for not finished,

not being more definitive for performance and kicking off a whole new round of open scoring debates. But for me, I want to reward her for, if anything, exposing why the discussion is so silly and why the bigger discussion should be people need to understand the criteria, guys. I did a robbery review for this fight. I explained very clearly why there's such a strong case for Vietta

or at the very least for anyone calling this fight a robbery is absurd. My pal, Aaron Bronstetter, check out his Twitter. He did a great short 10-minute video where he talks about the criteria, possible misconceptions, why people thought Holly Holm was a clear winner and why that's not the case. A lot of people have done great work on it.

Sean Sheehan's always doing great stuff with this. So not to start the discussion again, but I thought to the point, I thought she put on a really great performance. I think she did everything she needed to beat Holly Holm, who's still at age 40, an extremely tough opponent as many other fighters have discovered recently

who think that, oh, she's right for easy pickings. Holly Holie Hulam is not that. I think whoever she fights next is also in for a toughout. So, Ketland Bay had really gutting it out over five rounds. And maybe not the strongest finish of the fight, but did enough to win. And when you're facing someone like that, that's all you need to ask for. So happy to have her on my team. Excellent choice, AK.

Excellent choice. She definitely won that fight, too. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Go back and watch it again, and you will feel even more confident that Kailenvira won the fight. Just watch it by yourself. take the live and the Twitter out of it, just watch it for what it is on an island,

you will score for Caitlin Vera. I pretty much will guarantee it. There are some times... I'll say, there's some times where if you go find stuff I've ranked on MMA decisions that it looks weird or insane, that's one that's going to age really nicely.

As is me and I forget who also want. Nick Baldwin. You and your old pal, Nick Baldwin, from the score. Man, that makes you feel like that. less confident about my score now. Let me say this. If anyone out there, if anyone out there scored, I've written this, I've said it multiple

times, if anyone out there scored round four for Holly Holm in that fight, you should never score a fight again. You have no idea what you're watching and you should never, ever comment on scoring again. That round four is one of the most clear like things where like, all three judges got it right. All three judges scored it for, bad. But I saw people going like, oh, Holly Home clearly won round four. You cannot talk about scoring anymore.

out. You're out of the conversation. Never score a fight again. That's it. The more we talk about that fight, the more we're going to talk about open scoring. And somehow that fight has instituted a week-long debate on open scoring, which is just dumb because it shouldn't have. But here we are. We're down. We have two divisions to go. We head to the women's flyweight division, Jedmishu. You get to kick us off here. Who's it going to be? Dude, this is, I'm so happy that I got this one because there are other choices beyond the first pick, but there really aren't because one person deserves this. And I'm going to continue with my strategy of just taking people who fought at UFC London.

Molly McCann authored what is probably going to be the second greatest knockout of the year. What is honestly, I think the greatest knockout I've ever seen in a women's mixed martial arts contest. If not, it's certainly right up there. And she made me a genius because the gambling column I do every week, she was my long shot of the week at plus like 3,400 for a third round TKO. And she's spinning back elbowed me straight to the bank. So give me a meatball mile in the can, please.

And I'm feeling great about that. I like the choice. Well done. AK, it's up to you, my man. Yeah. And I'll say that's a great number one pick. And I would make the case, no one raised their stock more than her. I mean, there's one other option in which I think Mike might pick after I make my pick.

But that fighter kind of went from like being viewed as like a shirt. fire contender to now, like, is just in the thick of the contender ranks. While I think Molly McCann, I mean, I'm not saying people saying she's a world title contender, but like she went from kind of being a fun, well-liked firetonal, people are saying, like, she's one of, you know, one of the most talked about fighters in, in the division. So, yeah, great, great finish, great pick. I'll go with, listen, team of champions, Liz Carmush. I loved that her title shot was somewhat, a lot of people were saying that she was sort of

the uncrowned queen of that division in Bellator. Her work in the UFC and Strike Force, everything is just that she's beaten a lot of good opponents. And with respect to Julianna Velazquez, everyone thought that when she ran into Carmuch, that would be the real test. Now, Velazquez did really well in that fight, but Carmoosh did what she had to do and did not leave it in the hands of the judges, as they say, finished that fight with ground and pound. Controversial stoppage, certainly, not Mike Beltran's best work. But whatever, at the end of the day, the result is a T-CQ.

Keo victory for Liz Karmouche in a belt around her waist. And again, well deserved. It was just a great, great feeling for, to see a fighter who's had so many opportunities, say I am the champion of a major organization. And regardless of, you know, they'll have a rematch and regardless of how that goes, you can never take that away from her. That's always going to be on Karmouche's resume. And I was really happy to see it.

Solid choice. I was looking at originally, probably until about five minutes ago, my pick was going to be Alexa Grasso for getting the finish over Joanne Calderwood, moving up the ranks, probably a win away from a title fight. But I changed my mind because oftentimes when you watch corners say dumb things with a live microphone and then you have to insert both feet in your mouth because the fighter you said stupid things about went out and just beat your fighter. This is no disrespect to the fighter that was actually beat, but the cornerman kind of deserves the cumuppins and he's going to fight Adrianianas on June 18th at Austin, Texas. but Viviani Arrujo, great performance over Andrea Lee.

She took a bit of a verbal beating in the corner really not necessarily towards her, but I think she probably heard it after the fact. And I think a lot of people were very happy with how the result of that fight and how things played out. And with that being said, big win for Viviani Arrujo, an important win for Viviani Ariruzo, and just kind of add that. That's cherry on top of the Sunday with the whole corner stuff, the dumb things that were said so give me vivi are ujo for for an all-star selection i'm happy with that pick happy with that pick respect and now we go to the division that at least in up until ufc 274 never let you down

the ufc strawweight division 115 pounds we have a brand new champion in carla esparza aka you get to go oh no we add another one are i'm i'm i'm saying number one are i Speaking no one, I actually kind of wanted to dodge this bullet because I'm going to take so much crap for saying that Carlos prizes my all-star choice. Listen, let's it. Dodged the bullet? Like me or Mike were going to take her? Come on. No, no, no, that's what I'm saying.

I wish one of you had. Yeah. Yeah, I guess you wouldn't have taken. You're going first. It wouldn't have mattered. She was going to be on the table. Would you have taken her second? No.

No. He's not on my board. Listen. Listen. Oh, by the way, full disclosure. This is, this is, I don't feel honest. I actually didn't see the fight. Great.

Keep it, I was literally covering, much like Dana White, I was actually covering Canelo as if I was happening for the site. And then they don't put, and then I didn't bother to find like an illegal version. I think the paper view is on, I assume it's on Fight Pass at this point.

So I haven't seen the fight. So I didn't go to the pain, I admit, I did not go through the suffering that everyone went through. So I might think differently when I review the fight. I understand it was bad. I understand people saying, you know, for both fighters, probably one of the worst performances they've seen

in the UFC championship fight. I completely understand that. But again, I am struck by the journey. I'm struck by the adversity that Carlos Barzer went through. I know that's not part of the first six months of 2022. I'm kind of cheating here. That's like saying, oh, I have to take this stuff, everything that happened over the years.

But we just wanted her to get it. We waited so long for her to get a title fight. And look, she won. She now has two wins over Rose Namajunus. I don't know if that fight's going to happen again. just one because she has two wins and two, no one wants to see it. But for her to be able to claim that title again,

the longest stretch ever between two separate title runs in the UFC history is absolutely incredible. And listen, the fight might have been terrible. She went to her wedding without a scratch on her face and wore the belt. So you can say what you want. I think she's winning in multiple ways other than maybe winning over the good bowl of the fans

after that performance. But I will defend the pick. I think she deserves it. I know there's other good options. I did have other good choices in 15. And I'm sure you guys will gladly swoop in and take them. So I respect it.

Yeah, I mean, good for you. We're charged Dennis Hallman. You take her. Stay inconsistent. So I'm torn here. I'm torn between who I actually believe is the best straw weight on the planner right now with the way things have shaped up.

Or someone who just deserves a spot. And on top of that, I kind of want the cheap, the cheap pop, if you will. I don't know what either of these are. So now I'm, I'm interested. You've baited the hook. I'm not going with the best. You know what? I'm not going to the best straw away in the world right now.

I'm not going with her. I'm going with somebody else. Casey, get the air horns ready, baby. I think you know where I'm going to be off the board. I think you know where I'm going with this, making her inaugural. I mean, everyone's making their inaugural. your all-star team debut, but making her team heck all-star debut the one, the only, Lupita, Lupi Godinez for her incredible performance over, just an incredible performance.

She dominated Ariana Cardozy. She looked great. And she didn't get any, she didn't really get any attention after the card, despite the performance because of all the storylines that happened after the fact at UFC 274. So, Loopy Godinez, welcome to the team. I'm happy to have you. And I knew we're going to get picked. It's unfortunate you probably should have got picked.

And I gave up the best straw weight in the world to have you on my team. And I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not unhappy about it. I'm proud of my selection. And I'm proud to have you as a member of the team, Loopy. Jed. Thank you. Close us out, Jed.

Yeah, I'm going to take the best straw weight in the world. And the woman who authored the frontrunner for submission of the year, the first standing arm triangle finish in UFC history or whatever. Give me Jessica Androge because she's, I thought she's been the best drawaway in the world for a while, though I'm interested to see how a rematch with Yohanna would play out. And that division is all just sort of tumultuous, but I thought she beat Rose in the rematch, and she just went up to lose to a bullet because everyone loses to the Chevy truck. So she's still the best, and she's dope.

and my team is way better than all of yours. Hey, listen, this is not about whose team is better. This is about recognizing all the fighters who deserve to be recognized. This isn't a competition. And by the way, yeah, you probably did win, but I like my team. You just gave me all the people that I like the most, which is the best. It's like, ah, this is a bunch of people I love. This is great.

I mean, listen, this is awesome. I don't like the knock that I only pick champions. technically I picked two guys who are not champions in Charles Olivaa and Corey Anderson. So it's back on. Yeah. AK probably has the better. AK is probably the favorite with his team right now. I mean, if we're like fist fighting them all, maybe, even then I'm not sure.

I feel like I have cyborg and Androge and that's going to do a lot of work in the women's fights. I feel like you, you pick the more all-stars. Like your team has like more of the speedy, like the point guards with like good passers. You got a lot of dunkers. You got the finishers. You got like the highlight reel finishers. Picked a lot of people who put up good numbers this year thus far. Yeah, yeah.

Statistically, yeah. Highlight reel. I think we've done a good job of recognizing those who deserve to be recognized. Even coming into the show, I don't think a lot of people expected Danny Sabatelo to be on an all-star team. And he was actually going to be picked by at least two of us. There's a guarantee. It might have been the most guaranteed pick on the entire board because If Jed didn't pick them, I absolutely was picking Danny Sabatel.

You took Vera instead and, AK, you took, who did you take? Aljo? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, Bannon Way did have a lot of good names that did a lot of good things this year. It did. It did.

Less far. But, I mean, when you drop one of the five all-time promos, you should get recognized for it. Yes. Well, agreed. There's no poll, but if you guys just want to hit us up on Twitter, we could talk about it a heck of a morning tomorrow. Let us know who you thought actually won this thing. I mean,

this isn't the whole thing. I mean, if we want to turn this into a competition, we can say who won, but it's subjective. No, we can all just leave here thinking we all won, and that's okay. That's the best kind of competition. I like that. I like that.

I crush you. And all of the all stars we selected are also winners. And yeah, I'm definitely the winner. I have youth. I have style. I think, I think Lupy Godinez could give, could give a lot of run. It could give a run to the money.

Run for the money for both of your selections. Wouldn't favor her, but wouldn't come back. I would count her out against Jessica and Judge. I would be willing to do that. Last thing I want to say, John Linderich, I'm so sorry, I didn't pick you. I have been thinking about it ever since. I should have put John Linnock coming team. What a terrible misfire on my part.

Missed opportunity. I feel so bad now. He's an all-star. He is an all-star. of my heart if nothing else we live we learn and uh now we have our strategies for this year and we can we can only improve upon it so jad aka thank you i think most of the people who have watched this entire thing also thank you for joining me on this journey to not talk about open scoring even though we still kind of talked about it at certain points throughout this broadcast let's give

open scoring a break i think we need mhm a fighting merch that says give open score scoring a break. Give the debate a break. And there you go. So thank you all for watching. Casey, your thoughts. Just real quick, Casey. Your thoughts on what just transpired here.

Open scoring. No. Do you think, hell no. Did you think we represented the All-Stars? Well, do you think we spread things that's the right way? You know what? You're happy. Do you miss somebody obvious?

Loopies on the team, so I'm happy. Lupy's on the team. So I won. That's all, yeah. You, holy crap. Wait a minute. We missed one person. I'm with you, A.K., I just thought of it.

They fought in March. They fought this past March. Go ahead. 3024. No. 3024. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Oh, I thought the staff was off, off limits to be in the kids, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That was just. I'm, you know, we all lost for the rest of my life. We all lost.

We all lost. And that's it. And with that, on that somber notes, I think we are done. Thank you, Casey, for being a part of this, recording our beautiful faces for Jed Bishu, for A.K. Lee, I am Mike Hack next week, back after it. We'll be back to a sort of a normal schedule. The UFC will be back.

Not a great main event, but we'll talk about it. We'll certainly talk about it right here next week. Between the Lanks, the iconic voice of Esther Lynn perhaps takes you home. Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Links. I'm Esther Lynn, and I love Open. scoring. Let's talk about it. Happy birthday,

A.K. Hit some dingers, Mike. Oh, I'm gonna. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.