MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: 2021 Mid-Year Awards Show

Episode Date: July 4, 2021

On a special bonus edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee give out their mid-year awards for Male and Female Fighter of the Year, Fight of the Year, KO of the Year, Submission of the Year and Breakout Fighter, and also reveal their stories to watch for the rest of 2021. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR 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 Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. And welcome to a surprise. Brand new edition of On to the next one. We could not leave you hanging, my friends. This will be a little bit of a different show is this week on this bonus episode of Otno. We're going to give out our mid-year awards in our wonderful sport and mixed martial arts.

I am Mike Heck, and joining me this week is the co-host, most of the time co-matchmaker, always the best friend. And indubitably, the Prince of Positivity, Mr. Alex K. Lee. Hello, sir. How are you? Oh, yeah, we're best friends. Nothing's changing that. It doesn't matter whether it's a regular edition of Ot, no, special edition. We should clarify, this is a special edition.

We said, anyone who listened to the last episode will know that we said we're getting very hyped up for our 50th episode. This is not it. This is not the 50th episode. That will be saved for the mammoth UFC 264 show coming up. So this is a special edition. And before anyone jumps on us, it goes like, well, you've had other special editions and those counters. Guess what? Shut up.

All right? We make the rules around here. We number the episodes however we want. This special edition. It's not for the chronology, but we're happy to be recording another episode for you guys. Always happy to be recording episodes for you. Yes. And if you want to attach a number to this, we're going to pull something from the UFC's book of numbering.

This is episode 49 and a half. How about that? I love that. Yes, 49.45. Love it. There you go. But AK, and for everyone listening right now, what we're going to do is we're going to get out some hardware for the half year that was thus far in 2021 and MMA.

and we're going to award our mid-year male and female fighters of the year, the fight of the year, the breakout fighter of the year, knockout of the year, submission of the year. And also we're going to reveal our stories to watch for the remainder of 2021. So this should be a fun show, A.K., right? Like, I'm excited for this. I'm not making any guarantees that I can't legally promise. So optimistic, yes, this will be a great show,

but I don't want to be on record guaranteeing anything, Mike. You know how the people are these days. Well, I have the gusto. I'm going to say it's a fun show. So let us begin, AK, with the male fighter of the year so far. This to me was a pretty easy pick at this point, but I did want to get your thoughts first because something tells me we're probably on the same page here. Are we?

I don't know. I think I went with a choice that I don't know if everyone would go with because I liked, I'll give my runner-ups after. So I'll just say right away, I lean towards for my pick, Fight of the Year. so far half year. I'm going in Ganu. I'm going for Francis and Ganu. I was really just happy to see him

get finally get that heavyweight live up to almost redeem you know sort of what should have happened sorry what the UFC I think would have wanted to happen the first fight. There was such a strong promotional push behind him. There was this time too but it was a little bit tempered I think

just obviously based on how the first fight went. So and it was a this is that apex right? Yes, it was. It was. It was apex. Yes. So that's the other thing is they couldn't really, there's not that same energy hyping up a fight when it's at apex as opposed to, you know, as opposed to being in front of a crowd.

So unfortunately, that part of it was a bit muted. But for me, I was as interested in that narrative as ever of him clearly being the number two heavyweight for, you know, 20, or ever, you know, ever since that first fight, just demolishing the competition, getting his opportunity. And, again, not just having a spectacular finish, but you watch that fight. and you saw how improved he was. I think that, you know, they may fight again someday, and I think Ngano will be an even heavier favorite

than he was in their first two meetings. And again, you watch that fight, you'll know why it was a complete performance. He looks like a superstar heavyweight, this aftermath that we've got so far, unfortunately not as inspiring. But we're just talking about the first half of the year, not what just happened and not what's going to happen soon.

So I'm going to go with Nganyo. I'll give my runners up in a second. All right. Oh, okay. I'm surprised by this. I thought this was, at least in my eyes, this is a no-brainer. It's Kamar Usman, the guy who came into 2021. In a lot of people's minds, AK is the boring wrestler, quote unquote, the guy that's not that exciting.

And he goes out there and has two huge performances, two ultra-violent finishes, most notably knocking Jorge Mazadol unconscious at UFC 21. He battled back from some adversity in the Gilbert Burns TKO win a couple months. prior with, you know, obviously a lot on his mind heading into that fight, taking on a friend and a former teammate. You could, a lot of people don't put a perspective, like what that meant for both of those guys. And right now in my mind and a lot of others, I'm sure, I think he's currently the best fighter on planet Earth, pound for pound. I hope they make the rematch with Colby because those, in my opinion, are the two best

welterweights in the world. So yes, thus far in the year of our Lord 2021, Kamar Usman is the fighter of the fighter of the year. Two and O'Noh, two finishes. Sky's a limit for this man at this point. Yeah, Mike, Usman, obviously my very, very close runner-up, he was. He would have been my second choice. So the only, if I'm going to make a difference between the two, it's that I didn't care for the Mazvedal rematch. I just didn't want to see that fight rebooked. The result was spectacular. I will be giving Usman some more flowers later, as the kids say, so a little bit of a spoiler there. But yes, we're not done talking about Usman. I just didn't care for the Mazvado

fight. He is one of, obviously, the only UFC champion to get two wins in 2021, which is why I think you said he's an obvious choice. But I was a lot more invested in the Inkanu-Myo-Myochich rematch. That, to me, was this coronation that I needed to see. Seeing Mazvedal got knocked up by Usman, I mean, that's a bonus. That was cool. But he had already beaten him. I just, I know the first fight was forgettable, but I just didn't care that much about the rematch until it actually happened, and we had that great finish. So I leaned towards, I leaned towards Inganu. And my other two runner-ups would be, of course, a Brandon Moreno. Just such a

feel-good story. And Jan Blahovitz, I think Jan Blahovitz, I know it was a good, I know it wasn't the most exciting fight, but it was a good fight. I would hope it's a fight people look back on and look it at it. It was a good fight with Israel Adisania. And look, he stopped a guy from becoming a two-division

champion, another pound-for-pound guy. So, yeah, Blahovits, as always were, I'm always overlooking him. I didn't want to overlook him this time. Definitely a strong contender You could definitely make a case for him as having had the best win of these UFC champions in the first half. But yeah, I just went with the little bit, you know, the guys who finished and kind of had just slightly more spectacular performances. Yeah, Blahovic was actually my number two, believe it or not. And Ghana was number three and number four is the gentleman that has already won two awards in my eyes.

So I will leave that until later on. So let us head to the female fighter of the year. And I know she's only had one fight. and I know it only lasted a minute and 18 seconds, but she regained the straw white title against Zhang Wei in emphatic fashion. You know, the build to that, everything in the corner while she's getting introduced by Bruce Buffer. I'm the best. I'm the best.

I'm the best. To me, at this moment in 2021, the female fighter of the year is Rosenami Yunus, AK, what say you? I'm going to sound like, so this is, I'm going to sound like, so this is, I'm going to sound like hypocrite here because now I'm going away from sort of what was the cool narrative. I agree. The Namajuna story has a bunch of, had a bunch of cool. narrative hooks, amazing finish against an unbeaten champion. So, I mean, that's pretty, Zhang really was unbeaten, right? Or she had one loss. She had one loss, one loss. Right.

One loss. Anyway, someone on an insane, insane win streak. So that was all there. But I'm still, I cannot go away from arguably the pound for pound best female fight in the world, maybe number two at worst, Valentina Shepchenko. Because there was this whole thing about how Jessica Andrage was going to be the serious threat to her. And she just, just dominated her, just smoked her. And it's just such a joy watching Valentina every time. I know there's been some, a couple of boring tele-defense in there. Not her fault.

Not her fault. What's supposed to do. So, yeah, for me, the continued dominance of Schenko makes her, made her my pick for the first half. But Namjunis would have been my runner-up. Yeah. Yeah, those are 1A and 1B, I think, in everybody's minds right now. I do feel strongly also about Liz Karmouche. I think she's off to an amazing start in Bellator, has really cemented herself as the number one contender.

Some would say the number one flyway period. Obviously, she has to fight Giuliana Fulasquez now, but I know some of us in our, on MMA fighting, think she's kind of already the number one, 125er. So we'll see. She'll get to prove it. and Carlos Sparza. I thought the win over Yan Shanan. Very important. She was not a heavy favor in that fight by any stretch.

I don't, some people are picking her, for sure. But Jan Shonan, again, a crazy, crazy streak of success and just handled, just handled by Asparza. So, yeah, some good candidates. Yeah, I would agree with that. Let us head to the fight of the year, thus far, AK, because now things get a little more interesting because there are certainly a lot of different great fights to choose from. there's been some freaking barn burners across the MMA landscape over the first six months of action. What is your fight of the year thus far?

This fight, you know, normally a lot of people like to see fight of the years, either, you know, go into like the last round or go the distance. But I'm going to go with Charles Olivera, Michael Chandler. I love this fight so much. It was barely over a round of action. But it was just so frigging exciting. It was like Chandler was just, you know, he's hurting Oliver in the first round. He almost looked like he was going to finish him. And we just had this moment of, oh, Charles Oliver, he gets hit.

He gets, he's chinny. Here we go again. He's won all these fights just to get knocked out by a guy who's in his second UFC fight and just take all his shine. And he battled back. He proved everyone wrong. He proved that he could battle back from a university. And amazing win in the second round.

And for me, I just think he's the best lightweight in the world. That's certainly debatable. very, very debatable. But I thought that win and his other victories has piled up. And I'm just so big on No Bronx. So that was number one for me. Yeah. Like I said before, there have been some doozies.

Runners up for me, Mike Davis versus Mason Jones, Santiago Ponziabia versus Miguel Baezza, Paul Daly versus Sabahamasi. And then my number two, obviously, even with the round, you know, in the change of Michael Chandler versus Charles Oliva, Lavera, like the comeback and everything, that that was in the running. But to me, it's got to be one that lasts just a little bit longer than that fight. The near two rounds of a great A, 100% guaranteed insanity of a fight between Yuri Perashka and Dominic Reyes. I mean, that fight was

so insane, so wild. The ending was one of the craziest endings I've ever seen. That whole fight was ridiculous. So to me, thus far, the fight of the year, and I think it's going to take something really special to beat it. Prahashka versus Reyes, the main event of UFC Vegas 25 in May of 2021. But the way you were describing it, I thought you were teeing up

Paul Daly, Sabahomasi, from Bellator 27, April 16th, which was just a completely insane fight. I think a lot of people will have that as well, probably, in their top three. Maybe their fight of the year so far. Again, I know Bellator tends to get overlooked when we're, you know, comparing

to some of UFC stuff. But if anyone has not seen the Daily Homasi fight, at least find the highlights of it. This was just like knocked, both guys scoring knockdowns, Daley scoring getting the final blow with an amazing knockout. And this happened almost 10, almost 10 years to the day, Mike, after Nick Diaz and Ball Daily. So it was this weird symmetry as well. And that, of course, is one of the great back and forth fights of all time. But it was so this was like, that was April 9th, 2010 or 2011.

This was April 16th, 2021. one. So some cool, a little bit of a cool connection there. And one I didn't want people to forget was Mike Davis and Mason Jones from Fight Island, Fight Island 8. Because it happened to January, I had feeling that no one's going to be talking about at the end of the year. Just a really great high level lightweight fight. I mean, just nonstop action. That was so good. So yeah. So those are my runner's up. Yep. That was definitely on my runner up list as well. Let us head to the knockout of the year, my best friend. And I don't want to be the unoriginal boring guy here. But since he was already coming up to the virtual podium to collect his award for midway through the year, fight of the

year. I'm just going to keep Yuri Pajasca up on the stage to collect his knockout of the year trophy as well because that's spinning back elbow finish on Dominic Reyes. I actually thought he killed him. I thought he killed the man. And that was just unbelievable. Kamar Usman, of course, a close second for K.O. of the year in my mind, Jorge Mazdal.

Obviously, Corey Sanhagan's flying knees in the running too. But right now it is Pahashka, and this was one of the easier picks for me, which. What do you say? I mean, if we're being objective, the Brascon would be up there. I think the San Hagan would probably be number one. Unfortunately, I'm a huge people know. I'm a huge Frankie Edgar Stan. I don't know how many highlight real knockouts of Frankie Edgar I can live with anymore.

The Brian Ortega, K.O. was the upper coat was just traumatizing. This knee was beautiful by Corey Sanhagen. Perfectly timed. Edgar is so tough. I know I said he's gotten knocked out a few times recently, but he's really tough to knock out. So for him to get just straight, I mean, that was scary. Same with the Phrashka thing. Like when it happened, you thought like, holy crap, this guy is, like Edgar, I don't know

how badly hurt he is, right? And thank goodness again, he's tough as nails and seems to be all right. But my number one, actually, like I said, I didn't give Usman my fighter the year. I actually thought Usman's chaos. The visual helps a lot, the whatever sweat or water that had been poured all over Masvedal's head so that, you know, when he hits him, it just says water. fritzing everywhere. It's such a cool visual. And again, the pre-fight height with Masl would all say, he couldn't, he couldn't, has no knockout power. He's a soft puncher. It just made it that much sweeter. So, so that would have been up there. And I want to give one shout out to Larissa Pacheco. This is probably recancy bias. This just happened last week. Her knockout of Atlanta Kolesnik was hilarious. Straight up brawl between the two and Pacheco just cracks her right, the cleanest right hand you'll ever see in your life and knocks her. So hopefully that one doesn't get forgotten six months from now. Yeah, a lot of great choices as we head to the submission of the year, Mr. A. K. Lee, there are a lot of strong candidates for this one, but there hasn't been, normally it's like that out of nowhere, like very rare submission that sort of gets it, but there's been sort of an eclectic collection of just really good submissions and really top spots. So after six full months, who, in your opinion, has delivered the best submission of 2021?

Oh, I'm going outside the box. I'm going outside the box. I'm doing a move that our, our producer, so extraordinary E. Casey Lyon would not approve of Mike because, you know, he's big on sort of level of competition matters, like kind of the promotion you're fighting in matters. But this submission was so bizarre and it happened. Again, I don't want him to forget about it. So I just retweeted this on Thursday. So if you want to check my feed, you can find it. But if not, Matteo Santos submitted Alexander Valladine at this open fighting championship two event. I think there's in Moscow. This is in February 20th. So you can, again, you guys can look that up.

You can Google Miss Fiss, Mateo Santos, it's in there. He's fighting off a face-down arm bar, but it's not, it's not close to being in. And his opponent kind of makes his, has his leg over the back of his neck. And Santos pulls down on the guy's leg, turning into a toehold, bending the, bending the ankle and toe and leg around his own neck. And it's so tight that the guy going for the arm bar taps out. It was really amazing. And I get it. It didn't happen at the UFC level.

This kind of weird stuff happens in the regional and international scene all the time. But this, to me, really, really, really stood out. So I would tell people to find that. Again, you can look up, Miss Fis, Mateo Santos, or Santos-Valadin submission. Look it up. Again, it's in my feed. It was disturbing. And maybe the craziest submission I've seen this year, for sure.

Yeah, that one actually made my short list. This was probably the tough. this one for me, if we're being honest. I actually had to dig pretty deep for this one to actually get one and be like, yep, that's the one because yours is a really good one. Yours is like a sneaky pick that I could have gone with because I didn't know if you were going to go with that. But thinking deep down, I kind of knew you were going to go with that.

My heart. You know too well. This is what hasn't were best friends. I can't even surprise you anymore. I know. My heart was with Brandon Moreno submitting Dave's a Figurato and what a moment that was for him to become a champion. So I really wanted to pick that one.

However, I went with a different selection. I went with a submission that took place in February at UFC 258, a massive upset against a multi-time ADCC world champion. Nobody thought this could ever happen. But it did. I am going with Anthony Fluffy Hernandez, aka the Armin Guilotine against Hidalpho Vietta, such a crazy fight. It was a breakout moment for Hernandez.

And what I loved about this submission so much is that it was one of those submissions that he locked in and his coaches, the crowd, and every single other person watching the fight was like, no, don't do it, Anthony. What are you doing? But then he got the tap and the fight was stopped. And he looked like such a G in that moment. So Fluffy Hernandez gets the nod of my eyes, AK, so far submission of the year. I can't remember with the odds for like Hernandez by submission where it had to be something like minus like 30,000.

I'm sorry, plus 30,000. Maybe not that high. But I do remember it's just the most insane unlikely outcome. I mean, and now if you watch the fight again, I guess people were like, well, obviously, Avaetta gassed himself out. But still, early on, the fight went to the ground. So it's not like it was later in the fight that they just went to the ground. He went to the fight early. Somehow Fluffy survives and then, yes, outlasts him and gets his own submission, which,

I would not have predicted. If I had written that into my predictions for that card, I would have been fired. I would have been fired if I had predicted her. You would have lost your job. You would have had the comments would have been filled with like, I'm wrong enough all the time as it is, but at least I'm like reasonably wrong. That would have just been like people rightfully calling me out for being insane. So that was, yes, that was amazing. For me, the UFC, I, when you, I was thinking of Muniz, Andre, Muniz and Jacques,

dey's, though not quite, honestly, not quite as unbelievable these days. is an amazing grappler and Jacques adé of course is a little bit older now maybe has just lost a step so that wasn't you're right that wasn't quite as mind blowing as fluffy and Vey because yeah right now is a killer but yeah along those same lines yeah that one

Munez is obviously up there Paul Craig is obviously up there so yeah some really good submissions did you throw in your did I miss did you throw in your honorable mention so to speak that was it that would be Oh, yeah, okay.

That and Fluffy would have been my honorable mentions. Okay. Let's head to the always contentious breakout fighter of the year because I was part of the panel for the year-end awards in 2020 for the first time. Oh, gosh. And I was given the role of writing the article for the breakout fighter of the year, which went to Hamzat Shemayev over Kevin Holland. And people just erupted. They were not happy that this is the pick. Some people thought like this is my, just my selection.

I had gone with Kevin Holland, but this award is so crazy because it can be construed in so many different ways. Like it could be an unknown who is now known. It could mean someone who is slightly known living up to their potential. It could be somebody that, you know, was known and then became a superstar. There's like a number of different ways to define. breakout fighter of the year. So I wanted to, A.K., give this award to Katag Plyev right off the bat, because he's the guy. Nobody knew who this man was. He fights, loses, almost loses a finger in the process, and then he became this, like, iconic figure for

MMA. Like, this guy lost a finger and still kept on fighting, and then it gets overturned to a contest, so the loss isn't even on his record anymore, which is awesome. I wanted to give it to him because that is a definition of breakoff fight of the year. But I'm going with Brandon. Thanks for reminding me, by the way. Yes. Sorry. Sorry.

Thanks for reminding me, Mike. I forgot about that horrific injury. Yes. And then what's great about Pliev is like he literally has surgery to get his finger like fully reattached. And then like as soon as he leaves the hospital, he opts in the car and does an interview with me. So that guy is definitely on the list. He's on the list. Yes.

But I'm going with Brandon Moreno. And this is a more. selfish pick because those who know me know that I've been an individual that has seen the star potential in Brandon Moreno for years now. Long, long time.

And I've said this before in other shows. He is my favorite interview in the sport right now and it's not even close. Like, you give me the option of Brandon Moreno against pretty much anybody to interview and I'm picking Moreno every single time. And now everybody is starting to see what I've been seeing for so long

and just how great he is, his personality. And on top of that, he's just one of the good guys in the sport and a very exciting fighter to boot. So to me, it's the flyway champion of the world. Brandon Moreno, he is the breakout fighter of 2021 thus far because not a lot of, I mean, he got a little buzz from the fight of the year with Figurato in December, but to see him go in there and have his moment, a lot of people counted him out in that fight.

They still have that Figurato. Even though, you know, he lost the point. They felt like Figurato actually won that fight, that this would be the same kind of, performance and Moreno wouldn't be able to make the proper adjustments in six months or so. Moreno proved everybody wrong, gets the biggest win of his career. And now I think he's maybe not sitting at the big big boy table yet, but he's at least, he's at least waiting for a table, if you will. He's at least at the podium. He's on the wait list, so to speak. So that's my

pick. What is yours? He's not my breakup, but that has to be the feel good story in MMA of I think there's a bit there's been a bunch of good stories actually in that my breakout tries probably is one of them but I do want to music right on Moreno a little bit as you said anyone has interviewed him the guy is a ray of light he was I think people forget how quickly he became a fan favorite in his first run with the UFC I remember his first few fights after um you know he kind of flamed down the ultimate fighter first he had the unique distinction of fighting before the season was over I don't even remember that he was on the fighter and just because of kind of like a scheduling quirk they needed a they needed him to

step in to take a fight and his season of the ultimate fighter was still airing that he had already been eliminated from so it was very strange he fought before that final happens that was strange and just his energy his fighting style was apparent right away I mean people just got attached to him he you know a little maybe a little too much too soon some of the fights against was Sergio pedis I think was the one that was that Mexico City yes Yeah, you know, a more experienced guy, great fighter, a more experienced guy, no shame in losing to him. And then he was a victim of the numbers game. The UFC kind of wasn't sure what they were doing with the Flyway Division.

When he got cut, I remember it was really surprising. And I do remember there being some fan backlash to it. And then a very positive reaction when he was brought back. And he said all the right things of being Brandon Moreno 2.0. We saw it. That's probably why he's not my breakout. My breakout is because I guess I feel like he's broken out before. but for him to really finally reach that mountain top was just just end his emotion after it was

it was exactly what you would expect if a guy like him ever won a world title and i don't know if we'll we'll get that feeling again anytime soon but it was wonderful uh my breakout fighter again reasoncy bias i got to go with terence mckinney uh terence mckinney a guy of course you've interviewed on on what the heck and then shared a story with a bunch of people there's a lot of layers to this i mean first his background where he's uh you know how he's um you know how he's um you know how I didn't even say I shouldn't say dealt with substance abuse, but had used drugs in the past and had one particularly bad trip where he almost died. And he says was very lucky that he was not shot by police. It's just very scary, scary moment for him to even look back on and talk about publicly.

So that alone is an incredible thing, a brave thing for him to do. 2021. I don't know if people know this. He's four and oh right now in 2021. He has fought four times. He's, he's, I'm just looking at his record now. He fought in March and got a 16 second stoppage, then fought six weeks later, seven weeks later to say at LFA and won in 17 seconds with a head kick and then fought again about six weeks later

at another LFA show and he won by in 72 second by 72 second knockout and then gets the call to turn around on eight days to fight Matt Favola, a very good UFC fighter at UFC 263. and wins in seven seconds, seven seconds. And then bluses us all with a meme that will last forever as he tries to climb the cage, thinks twice of it, and then hurts himself coming back down. So I don't know if we've got an updated injury. Hopefully he's nothing serious. And we do see him before the end of the year. But Terrence McKinney, even if we don't, sir, you are an inspiration.

I think someone who will be a fan favorite fighter. I don't care if he becomes a world title contender or not. This is the guy who I think is just going to be very. very well liked for as long as long as he's with the UFC that's my breakout boy good good for you terence hopefully you're okay and man what a what a UFC debut and what a first six months of the year for this guy yeah that is that is a great pick right there um and i haven't gotten like official word on this but he terence posted something on social media saying like anyone keeps asking about my knee and he was like dancing around and doing whatever the kids do and

seems to be okay so yeah that's a great pick that's a really good pick right there Let us discuss the story to watch for the rest of the year, my best friend. Oh, there's six more months. 2021 isn't over. Yes. There are a number of them to choose from. But what do you have your futuristic eye on as we have veered into the second half of 2021? I want to focus on something positive, I think.

What I think will be sort of a story with a positive outcome. And it's a bit broad. I'm really just interested in what's going to happen with the Bantamweight Division. because, Mike, this is kind of our favorite division, I think, going on right now. I've hyped it up a lot. There is some uncertainty, okay? We have some good matchups coming up. We should have an Al Jermaine Sterling, Peotry, Jan rematch, but that has not been announced.

That has not been signed. We don't know when that's coming. T.J. Dillashaw is potentially about to reinsert himself into the championship picture. A lot of people are saying, look, if he beats Corey Sanhagen, he might even jump Yon. I mean, it might be Dillashot, Sterling, which seems absurd, but that's certainly something that has to be considered. Same with Sanhagen. I would hope Sanhagen gets the same opportunity should he beat Dillishat, but we don't know.

We don't know what the matchmaker is sort of their picking order is right now, their internal picking order. Then you have guys like Aldo, Cruz, Edgar and the mix, not initially for title shots, but just like guys, we'd love to see fight each other. I'd love to see any combination of those three guys fight each other. That is a dream. So hopefully one of those materializes before the end of the year. I'd love that.

Cody Garbrandt, former champion, we don't know. Is he going down to 125? Is he going to stick around and take another crack at 135? It's hard to say. Will there be an interim title introduced at some point? They're the new, they're the hotness for the UFC. Look, clearly, they'll drop an interim title of the job of a hat. And after what happened with Sterling and Yan, I don't think they'd hesitate to do it at all.

And then you got all these contenders, Mirage Vali, Kyler Phillips, Song Yadong, Kyi Kyi Kyi Kyi-Soméi, Kyi, Simone, Shano Mali, Timor Valliev, Barcelona. This picture is so exciting. And so I guess my story line is I hope we have some clarity at 135 before the end of the year. Because it's not guaranteed. I hate to say it's not guaranteed. We could end up with Jan Sterling getting pushed to 2022. We could end up with an interim champion heading into next year.

And all of those are really, I would call suboptimal outcomes. So my thing is keep an eye on everything that's going on in the Bantamweight Division. That is the story most interesting to me as we go into. second half here. Well, as of like five days ago, this was not going to be my answer, but it is now. It is the heavyweight championship picture in the UFC with this interim title fight between Derek Lewis and Cyril Gahn now on the books for August 7th. I want to know what this means, AK.

If this means what I hope it means, deep down in my heart, we will all breathe an emphatic sigh of relief because this would all just be a speed bump on the road to the fight that everybody truly wants. And that's Francis Ngano versus John Jones. So my initial reaction to this news like everybody else was, of course, what the hell is this? But you know me well enough to know. I have a silver lining side. And it's a big one. It's a big part of who I am as a human being. It got the juices flowing for Ngano Jones being booked for later on this year. Could I be setting myself up for a major letdown? Possibly. But I'm not overly emotionally invested in these storylines.

It's just the bright side that I tend to look at on a very consistent basis. And I know that it's a difficult line to tow when talking about Dana White and talking about the UFC. But color me optimistic, AK, I am a believer. This is the road we're heading to. And if not, the answer remains the same. The heavyweight championship picture. Where does this lead Francis and Gano towards? What happens with Francis's relationship with the UFC?

what happens with John Jones, what goes in the aftermath with this interim title fight, all of it. The heavyweight division, for some reason, and I never thought I would say this, at least since the last few years of this division,

the heavyweight division in the UFC is my story to watch for the rest of the year, AK. This is crazy. I'll never tell you not to be optimistic, Mike. I'll tell you. On this episode, you are the Prince of Positiveity. I will give you the crown for this episode

because I could not discuss the heavyweight title picture with any, any, you know, high level of optimism. I just can't do it. But I agree. Let's hope, let's look at the other side of this. Let's hope that this means, you know, just because we got this one, that because we got this interim title fight and those two men, you know, gone and Lewis

are now booked, it somewhat clears the path for the mega fight that we're all really, really looking for. So, Mike, I like where you're coming from. I think I agree. I think that's the one people will be talking about the most. It's that or celebrity boxing, but guys, don't worry. We'll have plenty of that from us in the main fighting. We don't need to talk about that now.

I'm sure many, many BTL onto the next ones will have been celebrity boxing and the two brothers who do not need to be named. So, yes, I think we're right. I think these UFC divisions need to be sorted. I would agree. And with that, we officially put a bow on this bonus episode of On to the next one. A little bit shorter than you're used to. But listen, we got no matchmaking questions. We got no listener suggestions.

This is just us hitting record and shooting the breeze and providing you with something on this long holiday weekend, especially for everybody in the United States. So with that, the bow was put on. Join us again next week as we bring you the official 50th episode of the program where we matchmake for the notable names coming out of UFC 264, which includes both Dustin Porier and one Connor McGregor. So in the meantime and in between time, let us know your thoughts on our selections on the. the Twitter, aka at Alexander K. Lee. I'm at Mike Heck underscore J.R. And always remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun.

And we're going to have a lot of fun next week. Right here on the special 50th edition of on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.