MMA Fighting - MMA Fighting 2022 Mid-Year Awards Show: Will Anything Top Michael Chandler’s Insane Front-Kick Knockout?

Episode Date: May 28, 2022

We’re at the midway mark of the year and that means it’s time to take stock of the MMA mayhem we’ve witnessed so far. Will our picks for the Best Fight, Best Knockout, and Best Submission of the first half of 2022 stand the test of time when the calendar comes to a close? How did Khamzat Chimaev going toe-to-toe with Gilbert Burns affect their standing in the eyes of the fans? What was better, Molly McCann’s spinning elbow or Michael Chandler’s front kick from Hell? And how do Charles Oliveira and Jessica Andrade’s incredible chokes stack up against each other? Host Alexander K. Lee brings in the esteemed MMA Fighting panel of Steven Marrocco, Damon Martin, and Jed Meshew to talk about the best highlights that we’ve seen so far in 2022. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify Read More: MMA Fighting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Six months, six months in to the 2022 MMA calendar. war or I guess by the time people listen to this maybe a few days away from that mark. But yes, we are approaching June. We got a full half slate of MMA events and cards and highlights and fights and all that under our, under our bells people.

So hi, this is the voice of Alexander K. Lee from May fighting. I enjoined by the rest of the esteemed MMA fighting team, Damon Martin, Jedmishu, and Stephen Morocco. And we are here to talk mid-year awards. And again, I'm sure as soon as I say that, you guys have, you guys were listening, have like a dozen different highlights running through your mind. So please keep those in mind. But I'll tell you right now, our team, the list we came up with for best knockout, best submission, best fight. We were all in agreement. And I think a lot of you will land in the

same place that we did. But by the time you're hearing this, there will be an accompanying article to go along with the mid-year awards. And then on Sunday, hoping to get my timing right with this, on Sunday there will also be a predictions article. And we're going to talk about that on today's show as well. But again, I want to remind you guys, I'm joined by you guys, introduce yourselves. We are here with Damon Martin. Hello. I am so excited to talk about half of your awards because inevitably it's going to irritate somebody. That's why we do this. And a man who knows this better than anyone, Jed Mishu. Yeah, you know, I'm just coming off drafting. I think clearly the best All-Star team. If this was an NBA All-Star draft, my team would absolutely run both

you and Mike's AK. So I'm in a great headspace for this. Jed, still fire it up from our Between the Links podcast, which you guys can listen to on the M.A. Fighting Podcast Network. And then, of course, the brilliant minds, the brilliant, we go from Jed to a brilliant mind who supplied the music that you guys just heard as our show started. Steve Morocco. You're happy bouncy himself. I wouldn't put it past us to disagree. No one is going to know what happy bouncy. I'm sorry. The song is called happy bouncy. I'm getting a little bit inside baseball. I'm starting this on the right foot, I think, is what I'm doing. But if, if our agreement is any indication, I would hope that would mean that, you know, people just meet us with unanimous praise,

listening to all of our choices, but this is MMA and I'm sure somebody will disagree. Everyone has unanimous praise in MMA, Stephen. What are you talking about? We never disagree in this sport. Yeah, I come for the violence and I stay for the praise. I guess I think we're okay, this. We all know it will never be unanimous, but I think like, if you pull nine, out of 10 anonymous combat sports fans who saw the same fights and highlights that we did, I think they would come to the same conclusions. But I could be wrong. I'm going to tell people now, listen, maybe us and the MA media, or at least this particular

panel of the four of us, maybe we have the memory of goldfish. I don't know. But when we came up with our answers, everything that happened happened within the last 30, 35 days, some of that span of, I think, dating back to early April and now to the end, 10 to the end of May. So I don't think we're wrong. I think that the three we picked are excellent. But I guess we just, you know, without further ado,

may as well start and let people make up their minds themselves. And guys, we'll throw, you know, listeners, listen, we'll throw out some honorable mentions. We'll throw out our runner up and try to have all our bases covered. But of course, if we forgot anything, you know, always leave us a nice, polite comment on social media or on the MAAFling.com comment section. And, you know, we'll gladly acknowledge it.

And of course, because it's me, there will be polls that you guys can vote in. All right. best fight pretty easy pick when this fight happened or at least i just say when it concluded i saw a lot of people on social media that's the fight of the year that's the fight of the year going into it a ton of expectation coming out of it still a ton of expectation for both fighters especially the winner i am of course talking about the ufc 273 welter rate clash between chamsat shemayev and gilbert burns uh gilbert burns was definitely perceived to be the biggest test for uh one mr hamzad after Rashima have ran through his first four UFC opponents, just literally crushing everyone in the first

round or second round in the case of one tough guy. But Gilbert Burns, coming off a title fight with Kumar Usman. So people thought, hey, if he gets by this guy, we're talking a title shot right away. But it certainly didn't prove to be easy, even though he came out with the decision when, Stephen, what were your first? I mean, listen, I mean, just describe what were your thoughts on the fight as it was happening after it happened? how did that fight make you feel? Well, I think the thing that surprised me a little,

maybe it shouldn't have surprised me, but reading your entry for this award here, I think the main thing coming out of it was, oh, he was exposed. And as someone who, you know, likes to consider myself a prince of positivity, not the prince of positivity, but a prince of positivity,

I thought it was just better because it was like, okay, now we've got an idea that he's a resilient guy. He's human. He can also fight through adversity. And that's clearly what he faced in Gilbert Burns, who was, you know, there to put on a great fight and really matched him and almost knocked him out at several points in the fight. So the thing that I took from it was that it was just kind of a,

it made me feel better about him as a, as a prospect as a possible champion down the road that, you know, he had some stumbles and he was able to overcome them, you know, and he was a guy that could encounter difficulties and adjust and overcome. Yeah. I mean, that's, like I said, I'm with you. Like I would think people would want to look on the bright side of that performance, not necessarily because he didn't run through Gil Burns that like we should think less of Shemaya. Maybe I'm wrong. Jed, I don't know. Did you, did you feel that way? Did you think, I don't want to say, less of either Friday, but it did specifically Shemaya, did it kind of, you know, slow down

that maybe thoughts in your mind that this guy is a legitimate threat to, you know, to take the title from Kumar Usman. Should that fight be booked like tomorrow? It made me feel a little less about him, but that's only because the expectations for him were just so astronomically high. I talked about this, I think with Mike on the, whoever was on the post show, I think we talked about it. Coming into that fight, I was dead certain of a couple and it was like, Hamzot's going to run through Gilbert. Hamzat's going to take the Walterway title. Hansa's probably going to get the middleweight title.

And he has an actual chance to like do the thing that Darren Till always said he was going to do and go win a third belt. Because like heavy wage trash and he's really good. And in the great words of Danny Sabatello, everybody else sucks. I'm really good. That's just a fantastic trajectory for him. After the Gilbert fight, I was left thinking, man, Gilbert Burns is better than I thought he was. and okay light heavyweight might be a bridge too far like that we he was a blank canvas and we could just sort of ascribe our hopes and dreams onto hamletchamai if he could be anything because he literally

got hit one time in the UFC and was just dumpstering people uh and now we had to at least come down to a more reasonable place to be so by definition it takes a little bit of the shine off him That doesn't mean he is not still a 24-carat solid gold prospect. And he is. I think he's going to get the Walterweight title early next year probably. I think he has a really good chance to be the dude who takes a second belt and win the middleweight title when he does move up. I still have those great beliefs and thoughts for him. But I was just left to be like, okay, he is not invulnerable.

But like Stephen said, I think there were a lot of good things to take away. you have to face adversity. And sure, he faced adversity from blown up lightweight. But that blown up lightweight turns out to be a really damn good fighter. So, yeah, I was left mostly with positives here. Yeah, I mean, look, this could be, if it plays out as you expected to, this could be just remembered as one of the great moments that, you know, before he ascended to the top of this division.

Damon, like I said, we all kind of agreed on this that this was the best fight. What do you think puts it above all the others? Was there any other options that we kind of that we made? have neglected that we kind of, we should have considered to maybe put above this one? I don't know. What do you think? I mean, there were definitely some good fights in the first, you know, excuse me, in the first six months of the year, but I think this one stood out above all the others. I mean, when you think about the hype that had that Chamaa had going into the fight and then Gilbert Burns

kind of doing what he did, excuse me, it was just an amazing performance all the way around. And I disagreed with the odds going into it that Gilbert was just going to get run over by Hamzot, maybe I was one of the few people that thought it was actually going to be a pretty compelling fight going in, and then Gilbert showed what he was made of. You know, there were other fun, I was a little disappointed that we didn't vote Carlos Sparza and Rosammi Yunus number one, but I mean, outside of that, you know, listen, there were fun fights this year. There were definitely fun fights beyond this one this year, but I, listen, I know maybe it's

the wrong way to look at it, but I'm always a big believer in. There was a great fight in, I think it was Eternal MMA, Josh Coon, and you wrote a about it miss fist aka what was the the his opponent i'm forgetting his name um dims uh oh my gosh gillies i think dims skillies exactly oh amazing phenomenal fight phenomenal fight and i actually talked to josh coon before incredible fight i loved it and it's going to be one of those fights we're probably going to be talking about the end of the year like one of those memorable fights but when you get to the level of the ufc bellator or should be showtime m m m mbfl you know when you get to like the big leagues it means more you know it means more when you get into the

fights. Even like we're talking about like a great fight on the prelims of the UFC versus like a main card or a main event. Gilbert Burns versus Hamzaa Shama, we're talking about two of the five best welterweights in the world. And when those two guys can go out and put on a show like that, it means more. So that's also a reason why I think this one is elevated because we're not just talking about any two guys. We're talking about two of the absolute best guys in the world in their division. And what I have said for a long time is one of the best divisions in the sport in the welterweight division. So again, it's not a knock on any other great fights that have been out there this year. It's just this one raised a bar because not only was it a great fight, but it's a great

fight between two incredibly good fighters, two of the best guys of the world. I mean, this is, you know, Gilbert Burns, the guy who landed a knockdown on Kumar Usman. Hamzaa Chamaev looked unstoppable, but then had to go out there. And I think what we learned about Hamza on this fight is a little bit kind of like what we learned about John Jones when he had that fight with Gustafson, the first fight with Alexander Gustafson, you know, everyone thought John Jones was just going to blow the doors off him. And the only compliment anyone could pay to Gustafin going into that fight was, well, he's tall. That's it.

That's all we could say. He's tall. And then ended up being one of the greatest fights of all times. So I think Hamzaa needed to go through that. So, yeah, there were other fights that were solid that I liked. But, I mean, come on. When you talk about two of the best of the world, going to war like that, it's Hamzahn and Gilbert. I do wonder what fight will be talking about more 10 years from now.

Hamzahn Gilbert or Carla and Rosa Amazunas, too. I'm just saying, for better or for worse. For sure, Carla Rose, too. I don't think it's close. So maybe, maybe Dave bring it up was that was for good reason. Carlos Spursa 2 is the best bad fight of all time. Oh. It's the, because it is the worst fight of all time.

Okay. The top of the bad things. Oh. This will be the standard by which garbage fights are judged. Wait a minute. So for the record, and I'm going to get, I'm going to get slam for this. For the record, Kimbo, Dada is a good fight. It's just objectively a good fight.

Oh, that's just a great fight. Okay, that's a great, great fight. Yeah, that's a great. But it's great from a fight circus perspective, right? Right. It's a genre within a genre you're talking about. Yeah, it's not Max Holloway, Alexander Volcanowski, but it's, it is one of my five favorite fights unquestionably.

I watch that all day. I'm just saying this is, as far as Nama Yunus 2 is, it is the apex bad fight. It is the bad fight by which all other bad fights will be judged. And so that is the thing we'll be talking about moving forward because any time somebody has a, it's good. It's like Matt Sarah GSP. Anytime there's a big upset, well, is it bigger than Sarah over GSP? That's going to be Carlos Baza Rosam Youngers. Hamza-Gilbert's a great fight.

We're not going to talk about it after January, 2023 when we do end of year awards. Like, we'll just move on to the next thing because it's not an all-timer of that kind level of a fight. Jay, can you put a pin in us? We got to do a future podcast just dedicated to Kimbo and Dada. I'm amazed we've never done it. In next three hours on that. One of the best fights ever. Not only that for its fallout as well.

Oh my gosh. Serious fallout. He almost died. He did die. Dada died and came back. And then Kimbo never fought. I say almost. He was kind of there for a second.

Kimbo never fought again. And then unfortunately, you know, did eventually pass away. I'm not saying directly related to that fight, but he did never fight again following that about. But anyway, next February, seven year anniversary, guys, marked it down. That's, we'll bring in the seven year anniversary of one of the most amazing fights ever. Thank you for reminding me of this. I'm going to do something for that.

I almost, I almost wish I hadn't brought it up because I'm like, we could spend the next hour just suddenly talking about that fight, going to aggression on fight. But let's move on, guys, let's move on to our next category here. Again, unanimous pick, best knockout, Michael Chandler versus Tony Ferguson at UFC 274. Now prior to this, prior to this, I think we were all in, oh, sorry, I'm sorry, I should have read the runner-ups for Best Fight. I apologize guys. Runner-ups.

I will say I made this list unilaterally, guys, so I don't speak for all four of us here. I had Davidson Figaredo, Random-Rano trilogy bout, UFC 270, great flight, and then some other honorable mentions. Alex Polizzi versus Jose Augusto, Beltor 276. For anyone who hasn't watched that,

completely wild fight, beautiful mid-level MMA bout, complete chaos. Adam Boris versus Mad Brunel, that same card, the exact opposite, amazing technical fight in the main event, and another fight that I think,

think a lot of might have gotten overlooked. People just kind of might have skipped that one. Really, really great back and forth, featherweight out. Brian Barbarina versus Matt Brown, UFC Columbus. I mean, I just say those two names you know it was an amazing fight. And a really wild one. Freddie Camayo versus Xavier Lesu at Ares FC5. That's on UFC Fight Pass for anyone who didn't see that one.

But that's low level at its best. There's one I think that should be on this list. Absolutely. Because I think it's my number two. and maybe this will be a slightly controversial, but Oliver Gaci, I know it was three minutes, but like it had what you want, like it had an arc,

like, because Oliver hurt Gachi immediately, then he gets dropped, then he gets dropped again, then he finally comes like, there was a story there condensed into three minutes that you don't get in, I mean, hell, we didn't get even a quarter of that story in as far as a Nama Hunis,

so it's just that, I know it was only a three minute, 30 second, or whatever it was fight, but I actually think that's my number two fight, of the years before. Even Oliver Chandler last year was like one of the, I think was one of the best fights of 2021 and that was also only, oh no, that went two rounds, right? That went two rounds.

Well, that's like talking about back in the day like Paul Daly and Nick Diaz, like the fight lasted one round, but it was the one of the greatest rounds ever, you know? And the 10 best fights of all time. Yeah, I agree with Jed. I think that would probably be my number two pick, honestly. Like, that's a phenomenal three minutes to 22 seconds, but it was a phenomenal 30 minutes

to 22 seconds. Yeah, we always tend to lean towards like fights that went to decisions when we make these lists and forget about certainly beyond one round is usually. Yeah, yeah. And we always forget about like, man, these like crazy fights that like lasted maybe a minute or just a little over one round and it's just completely unforgettable. So yeah, that's good. So anyone who's looking for misses from that list, we probably miss a few of those.

I would also like to nominate the dark horse or the, you know, indie candidate, the hipster candidate. Regelio Luna versus Socrates Hernandez. Oh, I didn't see this one. At Bellator 277. Nobody saw it. Was it a post limit? No, it was a pre-lim. And these guys beat the hell out of each other for nearly 15 minutes in a way that evoked

Stefan Bonner versus Forrest Griffin in community college. Say it again, Mike, that was Socrates Hernandez and. Regalia Luna. Oh, wow. Those are great. You guys have mentioned more Bellator fights than the fight of the year. than I think anyone has ever done right now. It was a really good fight.

How do you guys, for my fellow Canadians, by the way, all Bellator events are available on YouTube. So what event was that again? 277. 277. Bellator 277. So from my Canadians out there and other international listeners, you just go to YouTube and we have that available.

I think any country that doesn't, where they don't have a TV station or a network that has a deal with Belator on YouTube. How do you guys rewatch Belator fights in the U.S.? Not often? Can you? You can to some extent. Bellator's their main website, usually I will link up. Like if you go to individual fighter pages on Bellator.com,

they will usually link up to videos of them that some of them come through YouTube. Some of them come through whatever the streaming platform they use on their website is. That's how I've gone on back and watched stuff. Their app too, I think has sometimes puts on full fights on their. Theoretically, I could find it on Showtime too. Yeah, you can find. I think they had the full events. on Showtime because I went back and rewatch

a couple of fights. I can't what Carter was, but it was a night that something else was happening and so I went back and rewatched a couple of fights from there. So, oh yeah, I went back because it was the same time I was watching and rewatched Pitbull McKee too, because it was going on at the same time in the event so I actually kind of missed like watching it

so it was on, they actually had the full events on Showtime. Well, we don't have it. No one actually goes back and watches Bellator fights. We don't have Showtime sports in Canada. So again, Canadian's interest for viewers, YouTube. And I just checked the app. Showtime? We have Showtime. We don't have the Showtime like sports streaming

thing that you guys. They don't have like a streaming service. We do have like some. I don't know. I don't actually. We don't know how does that you don't have showtime? Not in Canada. Learn something every day. I know. See, you feel sorry for me now, don't you? We're always talking about quality of life here. Yeah. How do you watch billions? All right, listen. It is also the only program. We have alternatives that care. We have alternative channels that carry, you know, certain programs for the networks. Anyway, it is also available on the app. So if anyone, I know, everyone out there, everyone out there's listening right now and immediately going to their

Bellator app, which of course they do have on their phone as this. This is becoming a bizarre commercial for showcoming Bellator now. If you guys aren't watching this, Belator preland, we just named like nine fights that you should go watch. Listen, we get accused all the time in the media of being two UFC centrics. I'm just telling people these Belter fights. Again, Alex Polici, Joseo, Adam Borenz, Mads Brunel, and Hogerio, and Socrates Hernandez, all available on YouTube, outside of the United States and the U.S. on the Bell Tour app and on, I guess, however you guys watch your fancy showtime, streaming service, whatever that is. Okay.

Can we talk about Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson now? We have to. I mean, there's not a lot to say about it. It was how nasty it was. I'd rather not relive it, frankly, it was that brutal. But I was going to say before this event happened, before 274 happened, I think we all would have agreed, Molly McCann, Spinning Elbow, Juan O'Carlina was the knockout of the first half? Yeah, I still fluctuate on a day-to-day basis, which one I think is better because I think there are some very clear arguments for McCann over Chandler here.

I recognize that most people are probably not going to feel that way, like that the general public is going to put Michael Chandler's over Tony Ferguson's. I think there's a very good argument for the other one, and I just kind of fluctuate depending on the day and how I feel. Jed, at the end of the year, no one will even, you know, we show our ballots. at the end of the year when we do the final voting, no one will fault you if you change your mind to McCann. But, okay, you know, so I'll cut, you know what,

but make the case now right now, Mishu for so far. Mishu. Mishu, make the case now for why we agreed that, you are the man to ask in the situation, especially given the participants involved, why Michael Chandler's, hellacious knockout of Tony Berkson got our mid-season award.

Oh, so am I making the case for Michael Chandler, am I making the case for Mott and McCann. Let's talk about our consensus picture. We're going to take the so the case for Michael Chandler is pretty obvious in that it was dope. It's just

a viscerally impressive CO over a guy who's never been knocked out like that. Actually, maybe it's never been knocked out in general. I don't frankly recall. TKO. TKO. Oh, yeah. I forgot the fifth.

But that was on. That was still on the feet. He was still on the feet. That's like referee stoppage, right? TKO referee stoppage. But, you know, a guy that Tony Ferguson has fallen off, but his chan had never really failed him much or ever. That's just not what he is.

And it was a fight that Tony Ferguson was arguably winning, certainly a very competitive fight. It kind of came out of nowhere with a, again, it's also not a technique Michael Chandler's ever used. He's, that if you showed me a picture of Michael Chandler, like, do you think this man can kick someone in the head? I'd be like, no. I do not physically believe that he has the leg dexterity to get his feet above hip height.

He is the stock bowling ball of a human being. That's not what he does. And then he like he punts him. He, it's not, it's less of a front kick and more of a football punt. And he just punts Tony Ferguson's head to the moon. It's, he face plan on the, the visceral look of it, the quality of opposition. and all of it sort of just screams that this is the KO of the year. And for anything to beat this, it's going to have to be really impressive.

Now, it's not impossible to do. But I think immediately when it happened, everybody's reaction was that's the K.O. of the year. And sometimes just shooting from the hip is the right way to be. I think that there's, again, I'm not certain it is, but there's a really good argument that it is. Follow a question. How amazing is Michael Chandler? He sucks.

Oh, okay. And in our thing that we wrote about, the piece that will come, I don't know when this is going to happen. My argument for why Michael Chandler deserves it is because for a very brief moment, I had to admit that Michael Chandler doesn't suck. But he does, but he doesn't. That moment has passed, it sounds like. Well, he came out and said a lot of real bootlicky things about why he shouldn't get paid more money despite putting his health on the line. and that makes me revert to my previous stance. But his in-cage product is must-see television, if nothing else.

Michael Chandler, maybe a touch of a corporate bootlicker. Judge McHugh's words, not mine. David, but where does this boot to the face rank among the best that you've seen? Because we have had several memorable. Thank you. We've had several memorable front kick to the face chaos in the UFC. Where do you rank this one? Is this the best ever?

I still put it behind Anderson Vitor, even though Vitor didn't get sent to the ether the same way that Tony Ferguson did. But that's just, I mean, that one's just iconic. You know, in the photo, that's just untouchable, in my opinion, Anderson Silver's front cake. I like Leota Machitas on Randy Couture. I was actually at that fight. That was pretty visceral, watching Randy's tooth go flying out of the cage.

That was pretty crazy. Of course, Leoto doing it to Vitor. So there's been some good ones, but I think this has got to be. number two. Also, I'm stealing bootlicky as a new phrase that I fully intend on using in the future. So thank you for that, Jed. A lot of use in this sport. You're going to find a lot of use in this sport. I want to use bootlicky. I want to find a way to use that. But no, I think it's, I think it's number two. I have a hard time for anything, you know, being above Anderson's. But, and again, I know there's going to be the people who are going to disagree with me. I love Molly

McCann's knockout. That was incredible. But again, I talk about like when big things happen in bigger fights, it means more. Whether you like it or not, it's true. true. Tony Ferguson, even though he's coming off, he was coming off three losses in a row, he's still a good fighter. I mean, he's not great, but he's still good. I mean, you get, he got, he's the only guy to actually take Charles Lulliverto a decision in the last 11 fights. That says a lot about, about Tony Ferguson. And then, you know, of course he got dominated by Binaldaryush, but again, didn't get finished, went all the way to a decision, even though he nearly got his leg ripped off in that fight, but again, he did it.

And they get knocked out the way he did. Again, absolutely nothing against, uh, was it Luana Carolina who got, who got, nothing against her, but that's my point. Like, she's not Tony Ferguson. So when you go do that to Tony Ferguson, it just means more. And so, yeah, uh, Michael Chandler is, I mean, it's going to be hard, real hard for anyone to top that, not saying it can't be done because it has been done. We've seen it time and time again.

You think a knockout is guaranteed to be the one you talk about the end of the year and it's not. So, but yeah, I think number two behind Anderson, but right now, number one for the year. I think the Machita on Randy one doesn't get as much love because it was so predictable. If anyone like, because Randy was a thousand years old. Yeah, I mean, like, like Jed, you explained that like Michael Chandler just doesn't throw front kicks like that. We'd never seen seen him do anything like that in a fight before. And, and, and Damon, you mentioned Anderson, but we'd just never seen someone finish someone with a front kick like that in the championship fight. He was the first, the first to do it. And also, it's just like, and also,

to give credit to Magida, his kick was almost like the crane kick because he faked with one leg and then went up with the other one. So he kind of- He had the best like most cinematic looking of the three for sure. Yeah, like those were like there was basically, I'm not saying there was no setup, but like Anderson and Michael just threw a kick. Like Machita like faked with one leg and they threw the other one and it just knocked Randy's head to the fourth row. If people go watch that fight. I kind of agree with that. There was a little bit more intentionality behind it, I think. in both the Anderson knockout and the Machita knockout of Cout. I mean, I'm not saying it was completely by accident, but just something in my part,

I just can't imagine that Michael Chandler was like, he threw that kick, and it was like, yeah, this is the one. Like, this is it, you know? I think it was like, hey, I'm going to throw this thing because the front kick is almost like a transitional kind of strike. You know, it's not the, it's not the main course, it's an appetizer.

So I think that he threw it. I'm more inclined to believe that he threw it like that. And it was like, oh, I hit the ball out of the park. You know, whereas, you know, Silva and Machita, I think that was like expert karate technique executed in the Octagon. And I was going to say, in depth in the Machita case, if you will go back and watch the fight, it really does look like one guy is moving like normal speed.

and one guy's moving at like slow motion. It looks almost fake. Like it's such a weird. It's such a, such a ones. It's like prime machita versus well fast as prime writing quitor. So I like what you said, Steven,

about intentionality. Right? There's something about the intentionality there. Also, just to give, just to give credit where credits do, we all know Esther Lin is the goat of MMA photography.

But when you capture a rubber face photo, like the one that they had with Frankie Edgar, Cheetah, and the rubber and the face and the photo with Tony. Like, it's so, like when Cheeto talked about that on the M. May hour and he's like he didn't really want to talk about it because it's so horrific.

I understand. But my God, there's something so visceral about those photos when you see the Frankie Edgar and then you see what the Tony Ferguson one, like the momentary capture of like the face. Like, I mean, it's, it literally looks like Hollywood makeup. Like it looks like something you would see in like a like a horror film. Like the way that it, they freeze frame that. It's so insane. I was going to ask, am I becoming a bleeding heart guys?

because I have no stomach for these crumpled up face shots. Stephen, you and I are, like you said, fellow princes of positivity, where I think I consider us both to be a little bit of, you know, that won't somebody think of the children part of the media. I think so. You know, you've done extensive, you know, research into concussions, of course, great work you did with Spencer Fisher. Is it, is it, I hate to be a down there.

Does it kind of take away sometimes you want? Like, this was so vicious, the way he fell. And as Damon mentioned, when you see the freezing. frames after in the replays and all the different angles. Are you at the point where it's like it's just a little bit hard to kind of fully enjoy them? Well, I think that's part of the reason it was so devastating. The reason why it was so impactful, this knockout, it's what it's the actual physical effect. But I think there's an emotional component to Tony Ferguson and a lot of fans.

I think and I would argue that it's the trajectory that we've seen from him because the guy has just had so much bad luck. he won 12 straight fights in the UFC and couldn't get the undisputed belt. It's just so many things he's gone through the thing with the domestic violence. I think a lot of these things, they just got fans on his side. They endeared, he's like the crazy uncle that you, you know, that you, that you, that you love and adore, you know, for his craziness. And just to watch his dreams crushed in such a visceral way. it's really hard.

For me, I thought, man, like, knowing his history, knowing what he's been through, you know, the issues that he may or may not be dealing with, my first reaction was, you got to stop doing this. I know it's not going to happen, but my instant reaction was, that's it. That's, it's over. He shouldn't fight anymore. It's, it's, this is enough. Like, you are gambling with your life.

your lights are now getting shut off. It's not about, you know, being dominated or submitted or, you know, doing well in one round. You got your lights shut off. It's only going to get worse from here. You're only going to suffer more damage. It will not get any better. And I think that's the classic issue. You know, fighters, they stay too long.

They think this is just one, this is just a thing I got to overcome and I'm still in the fight. I still got to push against it. And that's when you take those shots that potentially that irrevocably alter your life. So that was a big part of it for me. I will say real quick, I will say, as nasty as that knockout was, Tony seemed to be in really good spirits after the fight. Like he texted me after the fight. He did interviews.

He did the interview with Ariel on the MMA hour. And I, weirdly, as this is going to sound so bizarre, because you're thinking about someone's brain getting rattled around their head with, you know, Michael Chandler, you know, trying out for the Tennessee Titans by punting Tony Ferguson's head in the second round. But honestly, that knockout is, I'm not saying it's better. No knockout is good. But, like, I would rather have that happened than what he had happening against Justin Gagchi.

When he got two rounds of just getting his head just beat around the cage and taking 200 strikes or whatever was to the point where, like, it was hard to watch the end of the Gachie fight where he's like shaking his head and like, you know, taking the punch. It's like, that made me cringe far worse than that. Like, weirdly. Like, that made me cringe worse than just getting hit one. and going down. As weird as that sounds. And I think, I think like both you kind of paint the picture of why this is, why we feel a little bit more icky about this knockout than, for instance, because I know what you're saying to him, but also I think when I,

like when I see someone like Tony Fersion dropped like that, I see that and I'm, I immediately also think about the accumulated damage and the just in case you fight and other fights where he just got battered around and like, oh, he made it to a decision, so I guess it's okay. And it does feel like cumulative. I know that's not how these knockouts work. It does feel cumulative. And, you know, for anyone who's saying like, well, why don't you guys just feel so about every knockout? Again, kind of like the way Stephen said, like we know so much about Tony's story. And we've seen him in so many wars that when he takes a knockout like that, boy, it really is hard not to think about all the other stuff.

So sorry guys. Sorry, listeners, a bit of a downer. But hey, this is part of what made this knockout not just so great, but so memorable, you know, in many good ways and a few bad ways. You know, it would have been how you want to look at it. So any other thoughts that's got, yeah, Jed. Your problem is that you're Canadian and so you naturally have empathy for people. Also free healthcare. So I mean, you know,

because I'll be honest, I have never once felt bad watching that knockout. The only bad feelings I've had is that- It means Michael Chandler doesn't suck. Like that's the only bad feeling I had watching that. I swear, I tell you're going to say, the only bad feeling I had was that it wasn't the other way around.

Well, that as well. Are you ever worried that you're going to run into Michael Chandler one day? No, what's he going to do? Is he going to physically assault me? He would have a laugh about it, though. He honestly would have a laugh about it. Like, he's so the kind of person. Michael Chandler is like the honestly, Michael Chandler is like the nicest dude in the world.

Like he really is. Like I would have a laugh about it. He would probably. You said a lot of nice things about him. What if you were Jed though, Damon? Yeah. He would probably just regularly taunted him. He would probably,

he would probably laugh at it. Even you act as if I haven't had my ass beat before. It's not that. Okay. Okay. Damon. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to make that assumption.

Can we set up an episode of Fighter versus Writer where the fighter is Michael Chandler and the writer is Jett? That would be an interesting conversation. I would be more than happy to facilitate that. You can be there, yeah, please, to make sure nothing gets out of hands. That has to be on video. I'm showing. I would do that. It would be great.

I honestly, Michael Chandler would have a laugh about it. Maybe we'll find out. I don't know. No. I think you, because, honestly, Chandler is a good sport. Like, he really is. Like, he actually is like a really good sport. about. I think he would actually, like, as long as it didn't go out of bounds to the, like,

you know, and I know Jed wouldn't go out of bounds. I'm just saying out of bounds, like, beyond the fight stuff. Like, it would never go that far. I don't think he would, I think he would just, like, laugh and have a good time, like, check. Because he, look, when you look at the way he responds to, like, angry fans who tweeted him versus, like, some fighters who get, like, truly offended and, like, angry and whatever, he always kind of, like, jabs at him and kind of has fun with a little bit, too. So I don't think he would, I think he's one of the guys who would not overreact. There are some guys. who would, I don't think he's one of them.

Yeah. Well, there's only one way to find out. Let's do it. Because look, it's fun to not like people. I don't know why people don't get that. What? Like, it's fun. Like, do you move for sports teams? Is it not fun to root against the sports team that you hate? No, I don't dislike anyone. I have no hatred in my heart.

And I have hate in your heart. It's the most fun is to root against sports teams you hate. And fighters are just sports teams, only a little more. There's just teams of one. A little smaller. Teams of one. So, but I don't know, we've gone off the rails. And I want to put us on track here very quickly just to, I think there, because I do want

to give Molly McCann the props, I think she deserves. Because I think the argument for her having the K-O of the year is what we previously talked about. I don't know how often we will talk about Chandler Ferguson moving forward. Molly McCann may have authored the greatest knockout in women's mixed martial arts history. I'm not staying for sure it is, and it's certainly not the most relevant one. It's not Holly Holm over Rondorowski or Men of Noons over Chris Cyborg. But if you were talking just the visceral impact and what happened,

you know, Carolyn was down for like three minutes it felt like. That was one where she was down so long that I did start thinking, oh, this might be bad. Then she got up and it was fine. But I think if you're just looking at it on the merits of what happened, and what that means in that that sort of a slant of this is the arguably the greatest thing that's ever happened under these terms, then that that deserves recognition. Welcome aboard Air Canada.

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Yeah, listen, that's our consensus runner up. I think you guys will all agree. That's what I sort of listed in the story that's going to go along with this podcast. I'll show, I'll throw out some honorable mentions. And then guys, there's anything I forgot, jump in or any of these that I mentioned that you want to elaborate on. I'm not going to mention them all. like I said, people can check out with the article, but I think Jamal Hill, knockout Johnny Walker, main event, UFC Vegas 48.

More so for the way he fell. I think, Jed, that would be like a Humpty Dumpty Award winner. For sure, for sure. Andre Korskov, annihilating the insides of Chance for Encounter with a spin kick at Belder of 274. And literally breaking apart his entire internal organ system. Like, he literally broke him on the inside. That was, like, bad when you saw it live. And then, yeah, the next day when, like, the reports came out of exactly how much damage.

which was done. You're just like, holy crap, that is terrifying. John Lineker ending the, not an unbeaten streak, but like a 13 and 14 and one run for Bibiana Fernandez over the past, better part of the last decade, an emphatic fashion, just clocking him at the appropriately named one championship lights out. And I want to call out just some, you know, definitely some lesser known ones, Magomed Kabarjia versus UFC veteran Valmere Lazaro at Niza FC-38. This crazy, you're going to talk about spinning elbow knockouts. That one was right up there. with McCann's, but obviously kind of at a lower level, so make of that what you will.

And Mani Akpan and Connor Hitchens at CageWords 136, almost like an accidental looping, like, wheel kick that somehow landed like right on the button. And poor Connor Hitchens was just sent to Dreamland right away. So, guys, you can find those, MMA Fighting.com. I believe Nize FC and CageWare is also both on Fight Pass if you want to check those. And then, again, there's another list. Anything that you guys really feel like bears mentioning? I think we got I think we covered all the bases with those I mean there's always I mean knockouts seem to be a lot more frequent these days than great submissions but yeah I mean those are those are all pretty good that's pretty good list best submission listen we talked about Molly McCann maybe being robbed of the best finish the year we'll see we'll see how the voting goes when when it's all said and done best submission we're going back to the women's end may side of things because it is hard to deny Jessica Andrage the first state the first completed standing armed trance

triangle choke in U.S. City history against Amanda Lemosch at U.C. Vegas 52. Now, I did a bit of a sort of intro blur for this one, and I've said, man, like she, Jessica Andres has finished people in every which way, slams, one-punch knockouts, triangle chokes, whatever, or guillotine chokes, whatever you want to. Trial and chokes, too, probably, maybe before you see, but she's just done it all. She's an amazing finish. You never think that she was going to come up with anything new. Plus, she's facing a fast, you know, somebody's a rising contender at 115 pounds. Yeah, that kind of sketchy win over Angela Hill, not her best performance. But either way, someone who I think a lot of people are viewing as a surefire title contender

and then gets a very tough matchup with Jessica Andrage. And sure enough, the former strawweight champion and one-time flyweight title challenger takes care of business with an absolutely amazing submission. She's really strong, guys. That's my takeaway from this move. I don't know. If you guys want to do a technique breakdown, Stephen, did you want to dive into how she pulled this one off?

I mean, that was when she locked at it. by being really strong. This is one of the moments where the, I don't remember who was doing the announcing, but one of them was like, oh, like, oh, she's, she's, she's going to, she's going to tap.

And I think we're all like, yeah, I think she's going to tap. Wow. That's in there. Yeah. I mean, it felt like it was not, it differed to me from the one and two, the last one that I remember,

2012 Zola Frosto versus Jessica I, in that once Zoyla had it, or once, Jessica had it in, like it was kind of secure already. It feels like in this instance, Andrage muscled it in. Like she muscled it to completion. And the look on, I've had his face, like this look of terror. Like, like I'm drowning, you know, and inability to get away like a, like a bird stuck

in a eagle's, you know, like a small bird in an eagle's mouth. you know, just like it was, it was pretty, pretty insane. So that's what I thought was a little bit different. Other than that, I mean, it's just like, this is a very low percentage choke. Nobody goes for it. This is not something we even see that, you know, attempted that often in the octagon. So the fact that she did it and then pulled it off pretty, pretty amazing. By no stretch of the imagination, am I ever going to pretend to know that much about

jiu-jitsu outside of the few years I did jiu-jitsu? But I will say this. if you've never been put in an arm triangle choke or if you've ever done an arm triangle choke typically the pressure of that choke comes from your arms where you're tightening your grip around the head and the arm it's also from your shoulder pressing down into the neck

and that's kind of like the double part of that choke you don't have that leverage standing that's why you don't see those submissions get pulled off ever because you don't have the leverage to actually use your shoulder to press down into the chest into the neck to get the choke applied beyond the arms that's why you don't see it

That should tell you how freakishly strong, Jesse Androja is that she could actually wrap that up, hold it, and get it to the point where Amanda Lemos had nowhere to go. Like she was trapped and she was done. Like that is ridiculous. Like it's one of those like moves that you just don't typically see outside the ground because you need that ground position to actually apply that hold. Chad,

do you want to give us any further breakdown there? I know, uh, you love breaking this stuff down. But, uh, could Michael Chandler have pulled that off? He's pretty strong. He's pretty strong. He's pretty strong, but I mean, it's relative strength, right?

Like, Michael Chandler could pull that off on me if he's very mad at me after the fighter versus writer thing, for sure. Like, he probably can't do that to Tony Ferguson. But, yeah, I mean, it's just insane and awesome. And Jessica and Josh is the best straw weight in the world. And it's really dope. And I think this to me is the obvious winner for submission of the year. And going back to what we said at the start, like, Like it feels like at the halfway point, all of these are really clear cut number ones,

the lone exception being maybe CO, but I still feel like most people are just going to go with Chandler. So yeah, this to me is the very, very clear best submission of the year so far. Yeah, it's got everything. It's a main event. It was memorable. It has, like you said, arguably the best fighter in her division or the rarely someone who's been a former champion who's a top five fighter in two divisions. again, taking care of business against a solid, you know, up-and-comer. It just really has all the formula.

And it's history-making. We'd never seen it before at the UFC level. It really does have all the makings and a great submission. I'll run down some other ones here. I don't know. So my runner-up, I said Charles Oliverer versus Justin Gates-Gy, but this might have been more like a fight, almost like a fight of the year, comeback of the year thing, which we kind of talked about earlier.

But also, I mean, like any time, and also a stakes thing, a level of competition. You know, you get that kind of finish in the main event against such a tough opponent. you get kind of bonus points for it. I mean, it was just also a great for submission as well. Speaking of that, because you left off of this list here, tell me, a guy in a main event with a unique submission against a tough opponent, Tommy Aspenol straight armlocked Alexander Volkov,

and that's not even like you don't see straight arm locks. He did it against a very tough guy. It was his breakout performance. I think that's my number two at the year so far. And to not even see that on your kind of front of honorable mention was a little surprising. the AK? Well, inside baseball, we were supposed to make these lists together. I was left to do it on my own devices. So thank you, Jen, for adding it. And I would actually rate my personal while I do

like, I do like Oliver Gaichi. I would actually put Oliver Porriere ahead of it, which I was last year. Never mind. Sorry, that was December. I was December. I was thinking like everything's molded together. Everything's mold together from. I was like that was December. I believe that did make the top. I'm pretty sure I'm in our top five, maybe top three. But the same thing with Oliver Gachi kind of the same thing there with this like it would like that could be number one if not for the just the ridiculous rarity of Jess Gondra because I think like beating like tapping at Gachi the way he did because it was such a big fight number one versus number two or however you want to rank them that means more but come on that's like pulling off a Goga plotter or something

like you just don't see a standing arm try like it literally been 10 years since just guy did it to Zola Frosto and Bellator since we could talk about it so it's kind of like when uh you know, when Olenek pulls off the Ezekiel choke for the first time, you're like, what in the hell is this? I've never seen, what is going on here? Like, you just don't see that happen. It's, it's funny you mentioned Gogolata because that was one of our runners up for anyway. So I'll run some of these quickly in the end.

Like I said, literally, you guys already pointed out a few worth mentioning. But Sayy no magomeda was like a 46 second guilty choke of Cody Stamen. A guy who's going to be in the UFC literally any day now. Abdul Abdur Abduroegimov, or better known as the lazy, or better known as the lazy, King, doing a crazy inverted triangle. It's like a reverse inverted triangle, like from behind. I don't even know. On Godafredo Pepe,

Joyce Amara versus Isabella de Pajua, this is the Gogo Plata I was referring to at Brazilian Fighting Series 7. Actually choked her unconscious with the Gagopata, which is pretty rare, but again, also maybe just indicative of the level of defense. But hey, Isabella de Pagua, she fought in the UFC. That makes you legit, right? And Roberto Satoshi at Risen 35 against Johnny Case. Just, again, spectacular, as a mission finish.

you guys can check that one out on all the links will be in the article guys for if you want to if you want to play along at home below links to the article where you can watch all these finishes here's a quick here's a here's a here's a quick test yeah what is the greatest goga plot of submission of all time i can say brad ims back you're back oh no yes gomi diis no contest we don't talk about that because that fight it's a that fight is officially stricken from the record i don't know what you're talking about i'm sorry we'll never be stricken from my record brad ims heavyweight whatever sexy cowboy or whatever Hillbilly heartthrob Don't you don't you disrespect the hillbilly heartthrob Honestly sexy cowboys

A better nickname frankly He hit back to back gogos And it's still one of the funniest things In MMA history to me Those are the best gogos I don't care who he did them over It's still incredible I don't know why I remember his nickname

I really don't know why I remember me I ultimate fighter alumnus by the way Finalist Finalist To Rashad Evans Rashad Evans And Rashad Evans that heavyweight looked ridiculous.

Especially as Brad Adams was like six, eight. He's gigantic. He's an enormous human. That's a very fun fight to watch. Am I forgetting any other submission mentions guys, anything? Anyone else you guys want to throw out there? No, but I'm excited to go watch Got Afropepe get tapped. I didn't know that happened.

That seems cool. So that submission is so sick. Pepe is like a sneaky weird grappler too. He's good. He's flying triangle or armbard Andre Feeley. Like he's crafty dudes. If he got inverted triangle, I want to watch that.

He's actually still been doing damage. Like he has like, he's one of the guys. It's like finish, finish or nothing. Like he gets, he's had a lot of good finishes on the regional scene after. Get a good guy,

baby. All right. Well, we'll touch upon now, guys, before we get to our predictions. Last one. Most memorable moment.

We were kind of split on this. I think two of us kind of leaning one way, two of us thinking the other way. So, Chad, I'll let you go first. I know you've had a lot of fun talking about this incident. You know what?

You can introduce it. What did you think was the most memorable moment of the first half of 2020? This is just, a weird category because if we're trying to keep it relatively positive, because I think there are some more very memorable, very negative things that we're going to not dive into here. But I think the story of this year moving forward in the next couple of years, the thing that I'll remember about 2022, at least thus far, is Charles Olivera botch and wait, like outside of the fact that it's a first that's ever happened that a champion lost his title in the

UFC on the scale, which is insane to think that this is the first time. Everything that surrounded it was just sort of weird and insane. The narrative about, well, the broken scale and or what the tampered with scale. And now the UFC is going to hire a security guard to monitor the scale at the hotel. It's all, all of it got weird and sort of blew up into this huge thing that has mattered a lot. And it's only going to continue mattering because for as much, people, you know, A.K. I'm not going to put words to your mouth, but seem to just kind of be writing this off as, okay, he's still the best lightweight in the world, yada, yada.

History books aren't going to show that. This is adversely affected his claim to lightweight goathood. And sure, maybe he'll get there, you know, whatever. I can't say what's going to happen with Chuck Yala's moving forward. But the reality is he didn't get a title defense for Olavera. He's not going to get a tighter defense for his next one either. He will have two separate title reigns. And if you are just, you know, in 50 years when nobody remembers what has happened and you're just quick looking back and be like, okay, well, who had the longest title reign? It's not Charles O'Levary.

He had, you know, he had two short ones or whatever. It just, it all matters, even though it kind of shouldn't. And it's all very dumb because I still don't understand how it happened. He had an extra hour to lose half a pound and couldn't do it. And nobody has adequately explained it to me because his answer has just been like, whatever, I'm the best, which is sure, you're not wrong, except if you are because the market chip is going to work you, but that's a different thing. But it's just like, okay, if you're the best, why can't you lose a half pound in an hour, man? Like, shave your head.

Do something. You didn't even, like, do something. You can, it boggles my mind. And the fact that we all just blew past it, we're like, yeah, he just didn't make it. It's fine. The scale was weird. Like, I don't understand. And we're never going to know. It's going to be a great mystery to me for the rest of my life. As I've said before, that's because not having the one pound allowance for championship fights is dumb. So that's why a lot of,

it's very easy for us to blow past it. I agree. But a lot of things are dumb. Look, I know, but you're asking why. How are you saying? It's very dumb.

And yet we still operate in the world with it. Hold on, AK, how are you saying that Mr. Rules or rules? Come on. How are you saying hit to half pound doesn't matter. He does not.

Rules. Rules rule. You know, rule is good. the one pound allowance rule. It's a great rule and it should be applied to championship fights. That's a great rule. I love that rule. So that role should absolutely be adhered to. And in my mind, he did because again, it's meant to, it's one of the things that's meant to accommodate potential scale screwiness, which is exactly, not exactly, allegedly what happened in this instance. And maybe, you know, so he barely missed. What does it matter?

28 other fighters may wait. It's all I'm saying. And they're all half over. They're all like, like, like it's silly to me that another lightweight fight can be on the bout and that guy's 155.5. And then olivera can come in the same weight but because it's a championship fight we don't give the allowance and he's not a lightweight like that i agree i fundamentally agree with the silliness makes no sense right but it is like this is just a world we live in no and you know what else is silly the champion of the world who has been a professional fighter for half his life in the last 15 years can't lose a half pound with an extra hour well well a man a lot of that's very silly well a lot of fighters will tell you that once they stop the weight cutting process, it's very hard just like

started up again. Like that's not, that's not inexplicable at all. That that's not as well. And by the way, I will also say, not once, Chad, have I ever said that he shouldn't have mischief to the title. Notice that. I have been very firm with saying, I agree. I'm not here coming to you about your takes here. I'm here coming to you about your takes of saying rules rule. Would you have like strongly gone against that for the past three months? One pound a lounge should be the rule. It's a great rule. I love that rule. But it's not the rule. But it should be. Yeah. So the rules you like rule, the things you like rule, which is okay. That's how all of us go through.

Certain rules. Don't build a motto to put on merch and then not adhere to it. Certain rules. This is true. Those shirts are still in production. It's been a little bit of, you know, it's a little bit of supply shortage. But listen, sometimes rules contradict each other. I think that's one of these situations.

So I had to pick a rule. You got to make hard decisions in life. That's what a man does. And I'm picking the rule that I think makes the most sense to me. I don't even know where to go with this. Stephen, I don't know. I don't know. You've seen the claims from us, well, really only a few fighters, surprisingly,

the ones that actually did miss weight and cost them. Charles Olavera, Norman Dumont, I think I can't remember if anyone else mentioned. Some people were saying that like them being a path pound over was a bit odd. And there's been a response from the commission, or at least Mark Ratner, I say. So people have talked about it now it is, it has kind of blown over. As Jed kind of mentioned, we kind of, it was a story in the moment. It's certainly one we're going to talk about for a long time. But everyone has just kind of like, there's no like real outrage.

I don't know. How much did this kind of bother you when it happened, if at all? It just reminded me that your mileage may vary when it comes to MMA regulation. Sometimes, I mean, the situation that I thought of right off the bat was the GSPDS thing, where the UFC shows up and says, 170.2. Yeah, it's cool. If you're over, it's cool. It's fine. You know, and then somehow the same, the same sort of deference doesn't get paid to somebody like Charles Olavera.

You know, he just happened to get a stickler. I am baffled as well that he wasn't able to lose a half pound. I think it's just very stupid. But I think that at the end of the day, he had to make championship weight. And that's the beginning. and the ending of it. If we want to change the rules, we should change the rules. We should go through the processes, but he was supposed to make weight. He didn't, his, I don't know why he didn't shave his head. I don't know why he didn't, you know, do the things that he had to do. I understand that

it's extremely difficult to, when you stop sweating to get going again, but you got to make weight, you know, any of these counter arguments like, couldn't you just do this, couldn't you just do that, you have to make weight. And the fact is that he kind of gambled and lost. He came up with a stickler. The scale was a certain way. They relied on a scale that wasn't calibrated correctly, apparently. That's on them, you know, that scale should not be relied upon the one back at the hotel. It's the official scale and it's nothing. And they're supposed to sink these things. You know, they're supposed to make it eat. easier. So the UFC didn't necessarily do him any favors, but at the end of the day, it's like strict liability. You know, it's in your, it's in your system. You know, you have to, you have

to do this. This is part of your job. So yeah, that's, that's kind of the way I feel about that. It's, it's a shame. And I think it's kind of bizarre that Charles kind of went the way he did. But I can also see that because fighters are so, there's such creatures of belief, you know, they have to believe when nobody else does. They have to believe against all odds that they're better than everyone else, that they are going to survive this thing, that they're going to be able to beat their opponent no matter what. And I think that Charles was essentially trying to protect himself,

you know, by not letting anything shatter that image. And so in a sense, it's, you know, it's the same thing. He goes in there. He gets paid.

He gets pay-per-view points. My biggest thing is giving the pay-per-view points for the next time out. You know, if you're not going to give him the title, at least give him the money. You know, it's like, because belts, you know, you can't cash belts, you know, you can't, checks are the important thing here. So kind of went off on a tangent there. But yeah, I just, I, it was, the whole thing was just really dumb.

I mean, look, the fact that you kind of went off in some directions with it is kind of justifies why it was one of our picks for one of the best moments of the year because it does kind of touch upon all these other, all these other things about MMA in this, in this one incident. And thinking again, we still ended up with a fight in a really entertaining fight. Damon, you're kind of a wrestling guy, I think, on the staff. So you've seen, you know, you've kept up, you keep up with a lot of wrestling, of course, weight cutting a huge part of that. Have you ever seen anything similar to this in wrestling

or in any sort of combat sport? I mean... Oh, I mean, even further to that extent. I mean, the last Olympic Games, Jaden Cox was, you know, scheduled to wrestle. At 197 pounds, he would have challenged Kyle Snyder for the spot on the Olympic team.

He had a weight-cutting problem that morning, and they didn't allow him to wrestle, so he got pulled. Now, they ended up having a best-to-three match under Arutus a couple months ago, and Kyle Snyder won. But that has no idea that's how it would have played on the Olympics. His Olympic dream was taken away, and then, of course, we can't forget Daniel Cormier, the 2008 Olympics. He went in, had struggles making weight, his kidney shut down, and they pulled him from the game. So he didn't actually get to compete at the 2008 Olympic Games. So those are two prime examples of that. He was a little favorite, too, just to make sure that's out there.

And also in wrestling, you know, again, it's different because you also have to weigh in the morning of. Like, you don't get to weigh in the morning before. It's the morning of. So you have less time. So those are a little bit more extreme cases. But, yeah, I mean, Jaden Cox missed out. He was a bronze medalist in 2016. He didn't even get to wrestle at the 2020 games or get the chance to wrestle for the 2020 games.

Then, you know, again, Daniel Kormier. So those are probably the two biggest examples of guys who had lost the most in those moments. You know, Jayton Cox is a monster. I don't know that he would beat Kyle Snyder. I think Kyle Steyer is the best American wrestling. you know, not named David Taylor right now, but, you know, yeah, I mean, or excuse me, Gable Stevenson, I should say, I just, I forget about Gable because he's already gone to other things, but, yeah, like, Jay Johnson.

He's gone to real wrestling, Damon. Yeah, he went to real wrestling in Wattling in WARRASL. Okay, do they have weight issues in real wrestling? I'm not a wrestling guy. And, and, uh, pro wrestling. Did Rick Flair ever miss weight? You know, it's, you know, it's amazing. I want to say no, because they, they have done weigh-ins.

I don't think any promotion has, I mean, it's like, as a, you know, as a joke. I don't think any promotion has ever done a missed weight angle. What's funny is like, I think when he was in WWE and correct me from wrong, when CM Punk was in W&E, because they always inflate everyone's weights in pro wrestling. So like CM Punk was billed at like 220 and then like he fought the O.C. 170. Like he was he was like 190 soaking wet and they're like weighing it at 225 pounds from Chicago Illinois, CM Punk. I'm like, this dude does not weigh 225. Yeah, yeah. Yes, a slum some exaggeration in the world of real wrestling, as we put it.

But, you know, not enough that anyone should question the integrity of the product, certainly. Listen, the people know I love way and drama. So this was almost too much for me. Like, I was like, this isn't the kind of way and drama. Like, it's really since, yes, I'm a Charles Olaveristan. So seeing him rightfully, rightfully stripped of the title, that hurt me. That, that, I hate to see it because I know he's the best lightweight in the world. But guess what?

He doesn't have a UFC title around his ways to prove that right now. So, you know, hopefully that'll be resolved before the end of the year. But it remains to be seen. Our other choice, I think, Stephen, you can take a lead here. Our other choice, for me, is a little more satisfying, I think a little more positive, though I guess until we see the end of this story, maybe we won't know for sure. So, Stephen, what did you think was the most compelling or memorable or however we want to phrase it moment of the first half of the year?

Francis and Ganu wrestling at U.S. 270. And it's not just how we wrestled. It's wrestling under the circumstances that he did. Wrestling with a domineering promotion too. Yeah. Wow. Nice. Dominering promotion.

There was so much going against him leading into this. And we didn't know the half of it leading in as spectators. We didn't know the half of it. And the fact that he went through all that he did, the injured knee, the promotion's apparent knowledge of the injured knee, his contract situation, you know, I don't know to what extent people have heard of some of the behind the behind the scenes of this, like in terms of what was happening backstage at the actual arena, the day of.

But there was just so much going against him. And to do what he did, considering all that he's been through his story, it makes sense in a way because the guy has been through so much. The guy had to literally go across an ocean and a dingy with, you know, eight other guys several times lived in a parking garage for two weeks. You think, okay, well, I guess it makes sense. But in this context, in this sport, in the history of this sport,

where so many people do not come out ahead, do not come out with any leverage. The UFC is very good at that. They're very good at time, almost too good at it. You know, you think like, is there some, you know, conspiracy here or are they just, it is part of the reason why they're, they've, they've held such a dominant position for so long because they know exactly how to time these things. They know how to set them up, you know, to take fighters out on a loss. And I'm sure that, you know, you guys would be a lot better than I would about remembering all the times where, you know, somebody was just on that cusp of sort of having some leverage and then losing, you know, whether they were headed out of the UFC or, you know, sort of between contracts. So Francis is the interview that he gave with Ariel describing all the

circumstances. I mean, it's just, it's hard not to see it as just this kind of watershed moment. like you said, Alick, we don't, we don't know how it's going to turn out. But just the fact that it happened is, is really, really unique.

Yeah. And I'm glad you ended sort of that thought that way because I was, Jed, I want to ask you, does this, does this moment become diminished or become a blip? If this just ends with Francis Gandhi saying, I'm resigning with the UFC.

I don't, you know what? We came to an agreement. I'll probably not going to be able to box, but I'm just coming back and I'm signed a, I find a signed an eight fight contract with the UFC. I mean, does this moment stand on its own regardless, or will you be a little disappointed and kind of like,

well, now it's just another fight if this kind of ends back at square one? I think however this plays out, this moment will just sort of go by the wayside and won't be this kind of turning point moment. The only way that this would be, and I think if this were to happen, this would obviously be the most memorable, the biggest story coming out of this year, is if this led to substantive change towards the UFC fighter pay or anything in that line.

I just, that's just not what's going to happen here. I was going to say, so we won't. So, okay, so we know we'll. So yeah. So if Francis resigns,

it's everything you said, okay, this was just a title win, great title win in a fight that things were stacked against him, but he's back. And if he leaves, then it's like,

okay, that's, it's more meaningful, but it's still, the UFC's going to put a belt on the winner of John John Stepe, or Taitoivas or whatever, and nothing's going to change

because there's too much momentum. And so that's why this wasn't my pick for kind of most whatever we're calling this, just because I think in the here and now, this is very big and matters a lot and certainly dominated the early parts of the conversation this year. And I think as we get closer to December, we'll again start to redominate the conversation.

But I think it's not, not going to be a thing we we talk all that much about moving forward. So, yeah, you know, unfortunately, I wish that this would be the catalyzing moment where everybody would be like, oh, our heavyweight champions getting actively screwed by the promotion. If they can do that to him, they can do it to me. We should do something about this. But that's not how that's going to work.

So we're just where we are. David, I think you were kind of split on the two moments, right? you kind of, you, you understood, you know, why the olivera weight miss was, you know, such, such an important story of the first half, but also I think you, you, you've had in Ghana thing as well. So, um, where are you leaning now after kind of the discussion we had? Do you think they're about, about equal of equal import, even though they kind of cover very different, like subjects or, um, do you think one's clearly stood out more in the first half than the other? Well, I think when you talk about, again, we're talking about the biggest moment of the first half

of the year. So we can't, we can't look at this in hindsight yet because we don't know how it's going to play out. You know, is Olivera is the, is this going to be it for him? Like, if he fights Islam Makachev and he loses and he never gets the title back, that becomes an even bigger moment because then he just doesn't become champion again. Like he lost his belt on a weird, you know, rule with weight cut, and then he gets beat by Makachev or, listen, not going to lie, I think Benil Dereu is a very tough matchup for Charles as well.

Benil's, you know, incredibly good fighter if that happens, like I think both of those are really tough matchups for Charles when I'm being completely honest. But again, that could be a watershed moment for him because he never gets the title back. That would be crazy. And same thing with Ingano here. I think, you know, in Ghana, again, what happens in December? Does he leave? Does he get a really good deal with the UFC to come back and gets the boxing match with Tyson here?

Whatever it is. So I think a lot of this, you have to base it on right now, right here, right here in this moment. I think, and based on that, to me, it's still in Ghana, because he's a sitting heavyweight champion of the world who defied the UFC and said, I'm not signing your deal. I mean, they were pulling all kinds. We heard in the interview. They're pulling things on Fight Week trying to get him together. They're filing lawsuits against his manager for allegedly, or threatening lawsuits, excuse me.

Threatening lawsuits against his manager for allegedly talking to Jake Paul's manager. They're sending him contracts. I mean, they're messing with him days before a heavyweight title fight. That should tell you how serious this moment was. They took it seriously because they'll never say it. Dana White will never say it, Hunter Campbell, they'll never say, but they did not want Francis and Gondu to win. They wanted Cyril Gond to win and move on.

And then if he left, they're like, well, he lost. We don't really care. Now they've got their heavyweight champion of the world, whether you like it or not, still probably the most important title in the UFC because everyone loves heavyweights, maybe not throughout all time. But right now, it's still a big title to have the sitting heavyweight champion defy everything the UFC wants and say, I'm not going to resign with you unless you give me what I want.

And I'm going to walk away from this promotion, from this title, from this money, from everything. And basically, screw you guys. I'm doing what I want to do. I just think that is such a, again, looking in hindsight six months from now, if he just resigns, does it all go away? Sure. But right now, in this moment, six months into the year, I don't think you can have a bigger moment than the sitting UFC heavyweight champion of the world, basically saying, F you to the promotion and saying, I'm not taking your money. I'm not falling for your threats. I'm not falling for your whatever you're trying to do to me right now.

I'm going to win. Even though I got one knee, I'm going to win. I'm going to take my title and I'm going to be a free agent in 12 months. And then let's see how you deal with me. I just, again, we haven't really, you know, not since like Randy Couture challenged the U.S. when he tried to buy Fador back in the day and that ended in disaster. Has anyone really truly stood up to the organization to this level? And I just think it's a huge moment.

And again, I'm judging it right now, six months in, this to me is the biggest story. It may all go away six months from now. But right now, I just, I can't think of a bigger moment than that moment. It is amazing, though, Damon, that you pointed out that we're almost, with both the sort of choices we went with here in Ghanu and Olivera's weight miss. Like, we are, we haven't got, we've only gotten like half, if that of the story of the, of this story. I mean, fitting because it's half the year. Whatever happens over the next year, the next 18 months to both these guys is going to could completely reconcantel. how we view how we view these moments.

And again, there's kind of a fun to that too, a fun for us, not so fun for the fighters involved. But yeah, thank you guys. No, those were both, I think both great picks. I'm definitely with both of them. I'll tell people now, it feels weird to say honorable mention moments. So we'll just say this is the kind of the options we've thrown into the poll that you can find on the website.

So along with those two, U.C. London, of course, the U.C. London is Stravaganza. Just one of the best, you know, well-booked and well-execis. executed cards. I mean, all the fighters they want delivered, delivered in the most attack their way. You have a card like that, maybe once every two or three years, and it just paid off beautifully. Eagle FC, Eagle FC landing, the Eagle has landed in the U.S. Habibna and Michael Medov's promotion, its first card, held his first card in January. They've had, what, two, three cards now in the U.S.? Three cards, yeah.

Three cards? And again, we kind of had a discussion a little bit about this internally, like, how much has this registered on like a wider scale? But we'll tell you guys, we'll tell you right now, again, Back to this inside baseball stuff. The attention that Eagle FC gets on our website, it is already kind of surpassed some of the more familiar, better-known promotions that have been out there for longer. So this promotion is here to stay.

You know, they've found, again, they've got obviously a huge name behind it, and they've kind of found the right mix of veterans and competitive fights and ideas that it's really drawn people in. So we'll see a lot of time the rest this year and next year. How far can this promotion go? But there's a lot of fan push behind it. So a great moment there for that for Eagle of course. And then also, if you want to get to the seedier side of things, people,

the Colby Covington, O'Horee and Mazvedal feud kind of boiling over one with a fight and then another fight allegedly that occurred afterwards. So that's still a series of well. Allegedly. Of course. I forget all the pictures and Jorge himself recording videos that maybe suggest that it's not so alleged. All right, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to our midseason awards. Now, we were originally going to do this and the predictions together, but we ended up recording enough for two shows. So please. wait, stick around until Sunday, I guess, and you'll have the second part of this

where we talk about what we expect could happen in the world of in May in the next six months. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.