MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | 2021 Predictions Recap

Episode Date: January 2, 2022

With 2021 being such a wacky year in the world of mixed martial arts, we felt it was important to look back at the predictions that were made heading into one of the most memorable years in the history of the sport. In part one of our two-part predictions extravaganza, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee look back on some of the responses they had to listener question in regards to what 2021 was going to bring. Topics include Conor McGregor's activity for the year, whether or not Jon Jones would fight Israel Adesanya, for the heavyweight title, or at all in 2021, the return of the PFL finding success, Patricio Pitbull's Bellator championship status, Khamzat Chimaev, Nick Diaz and Nate Diaz competing, who will end the year as UFC champions, whether or not our bold predictions came true, and much more. In addition, we will need you help for part two: our 2022 predictions extravaganza episode. Submit your "buy or sell" questions the same way you send your matchmaking thoughts to Mike or AK on Twitter, Instagram, or email by Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022 — and, please, be as creative as you'd like. 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Everybody, happy new year. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Of course, we are on a rare break from UFC action. They return on January 15th, but we're not going to leave you hanging. As we're bringing you a two-part edition of our predictions extravaganza. So how this is going to work is this first part is we're going to take a look back on our predictions for 2021 and see how, we matched up against each other.

And then next week, we're going to do the Bold Prediction Show for 2022. More of a buy-sell, and then we'll give our bold predictions, who we think will be champions, et cetera. And we're going to need your help for this program, and we'll discuss that a little bit later on. But I am Mike Heck.

Thank you for checking us out. It has been quite the year for matchmaking here on M.AFighting.com. And I couldn't do it without the man, the myth, the legend, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the best friend in the Prince of Positivity, who is joining us once again,

Mr. Alexander Cayley. How are you, my friend? Happy New Year. My best friend, Michael Heck, I am well. I hope you're well also. I am so excited for this show. I'm so excited to look back on all the amazing predictions I made that I know. I think they all came correct. I think 100% of them came correct. I don't even know why people bother making predictions or watching MMA. You just listen to our show at the beginning of the year or sorry, at the end of whatever, the end of last year. you're pretty much set.

You pretty much know what's going to happen. There's really no surprises. I don't remember exactly what I said. You know, I have the memory of a goldfish. I can't remember what I predicted last week. But I'm looking forward to this way. I'm looking forward to, you know, taking a little, having a little fun with ourselves, as it were.

That's not a bad. Yes. But I love the show. This is probably my favorite show of the year. I used to do it with other media members when I was on the freelance gig. But now that, you know, I have my partner in crime here. It's just even better. So basically to kind of go through, we run down a series of listener questions.

And some of them are just sort of easy questions to answer. Some of them are super outside of the box. And we just offer buy or sell answers based on those questions. So we do that for a stretch of them. Then we talk about who would be the champions at the end of the year. And then we make our, as AK said on last year's episode, the Wii Caliente prediction of the year that probably isn't going to come true. And if it does, we are absolute genius.

and there'll be a little bit discussion on our bold predictions. I can tell you that. So, okay, we say, if it becomes true, it wasn't bold enough. Well, this one was, was ridiculously bold, but it might have actually happened, but we'll talk about that in a little bit.

Let's run through these bold predictions that came from the listeners. And before we even presented this, and before I even came on with them a fighting, people knew where to send these predictions. And luckily, we had a whole bunch of them, And then we got a few more that sort of sprinkled in because we had pretty much just gotten the show star. I think we were like 14 or 15 episodes in.

But this was the buy-sell portion of the predictions extravaganza for 2021. So, AK, the very first question that was asked was, buyer-sell, Connor, will fight three times in 2021. I sold. You also sold. So we were both correct. And oddly enough, AK, had he not suffered the broken leg? against Dustin Porreier in July, he might have very well fought three times.

Right? I mean, he fought before, like just at the midway point, he'd already had two fights under his belt. If he had beaten Porriere in the rematch, I think it's pretty clear they would have given him a title shot. He would be, he would have been fighting for the UFC title sometime before the end of the year. But again, I don't think he was going to win either of those fights. I think either way, even if he loses and doesn't get injured, I don't know. I'm not convinced that he fights again. I think he goes on too.

I think he takes a break. the guy has so much money. I think he only would have fought three times if he had won the second fight. So you're right, it was closer probably than we. I imagine we must have been pretty dismissive of the idea at the time. I probably said he's only going to fight once, if at all. But I kind of stand by it. I don't even know if, again, yeah, I don't know if even without the injury unless he won.

I don't know. I don't think we see him ever fight more than two times in MMA in a year again. I just can't imagine it. So we're both on the board with that one. The second question was Patricio Pitbull who had started the year with two Bellator titles would end the year with at least two Belator titles. I bought that.

I thought he would go through the Grand Prix or I thought there would be some sort of delay in the Grand Prix that he would end the year as the featherweight champion. And I thought there's no way he's going to defend the lightweight title. So by default, he would end the year with two titles. Turns out he ended the year with zero titles. So A.J. McKee is the featherweight champion. His brother, Patrici, is now the lightweight champion.

I bought that he would have two titles, AK, you did not buy that. You sold that, so you got the point. Your thoughts on your prediction, because you nailed that one. Yeah, I was more optimistic probably about the tournament be concluding this year. You tried to win on a technicality, Mike. You're very shifty, just like all those Boston sports teams

always are, always getting win at technicalities and little tweaks the rules in their favor. I know how you guys do it down there. But yeah, it was pretty much, you're right. Will the tournament finish? Do you think AJ McKee is going to beat Pitbull? That was really it. the basis of that buyer cell call right so i just thought yeah it's mckee's time and i think they're gonna

i think the fight's going to happen as scheduled and ended next one or the next two actually had to do with the return of the ultimate fighter aka because at this time we didn't we knew it was coming back we didn't know any of the particulars about it and the question was by herself colby covington and horace mazadol will be the coaches for the 2021 season of the ultimate fighter we both bought that we thought it was super obvious they would happen and of course it did not happen we got We got Alexander Volcanowski and Brian Ortega. So we were both wrong about that one. We both bought it in the UFC.

I don't know what happened there. It seems so obvious. And again, it seems obvious. And I have a feeling it's not going to happen again. This is Mazvedal and Covington, right? Yes, as the coaches. I'm glad I was wrong. And I hope it never happens.

As I told people, the coaches are not, I don't care who you have in those coaching positions. It's not going to fix. I'm sorry, you shouldn't have active fighters. Let me put that way. I don't care what active fighters you have in the coaching positions. It's not going to fix the show. The show needs several tweaks and changes, maybe in complete overhaul.

And all that does, honestly, is just delay a fight between the two. If those two are signing on to fight, just make it happen as soon as possible. Don't tell me they're signing on to fight after filming a show and then training. And it's just a recipe for disaster. So, yeah, my whole thing with the only fighter, I've said this many times. Get permanent coaches like Iron Chef, four to six permanent coaches like Chil Sonan and Matt Serra, guys like that. Guys actually want to, are compelling personalities and want to coach. I don't know if they want to be on the show

and spend all that time filming, but there's someone out there who will. Find actual coaches and people who want to coach. James Krause would think would be amazing. That'd be so sick. Again, he'd probably rather just coach and not do a TV show, but still. So that's my thing.

Covington, Massadol would be fun, sure, but I don't care to see them on that show. And mentioning all the changes that need to be made to make the ultimate fighter more palatable, if you will, the question was, will the UFC,

just fold the ultimate fighter and say this is the last season of tough. We both, you were like absolutely not, no way where I'm selling that and I was like, eh, they probably should have this conversation, but they won't. So we both sold that and we were both correct.

The ultimate fighter moves on. We have a new season to look forward to in 2022 AK. So they never die. Never die. Never die. Next question was that Zabit Magamad Sheripov would fight for a UFC title in 2021, A.K., you bought this one.

You thought it was going to happen. No, I didn't. You sure did. I got to go back and listen that audio. Yep, you bought it. It wasn't a very confident vibe, but you bought it. I sold it, I said, even if he does come back, the timing is just not going to line up with how the division looks like right now, because Holloway and Cater were about to fight.

We had no idea what the title picture was going to look like. This is before Brian Ortega, you know, kind of jumped in there. No, no, no. He was already sort of in there, but we didn't know when the fight was actually going to happen. So there's too many unknown, so I just went ahead and sold that for those purposes. He hasn't fought in two years. It's crazy. Two years.

Calvin Cater, November 9th, 2019. Two years. Just goes two years, this guy's prime. He's 30 now. So plenty of prime left, but that's two prime years. We should have watched this guy slam people and spin and do all his fun stuff. Wow, that's wild. It's crazy to think about.

The next question was, Kevin Holland, will equal or surpass his? activity from 2020. Five fights are more. You sold it. You thought about it, but you sold it. I bought it. I thought he was definitely going to fight five or six times, especially thinking now that 170 is more of an option because he kept talking about it.

Like, I'll just go to 170 and keep fighting. Like, I don't really necessarily care about titles. Just want to fight as much as possible. So I thought five fights for Kevin Holland was a no-brainer. And I was wrong. So AK gets the point there. Yeah, I think I just thought, like, mathematically it would be two. Five is so many.

I mean, five is so many. This year, we only had, what, like, Chris Curtis fought, like, of, like, people who eventually made it to the UFC. Chris Curtis fought like seven times, I think, like five times outside the UFC and a couple of UFC fights. But, I mean, even that's hard to do. Even, I think, getting a bunch of regional fights in the same year, you have to have luck with not getting injured and just everything. So how many times did he still fought three times, Kevin Holland this year. Yep. Man, so that's a down year for him, there's three fights.

And most fighters are always trying to get that three fights in every time. So, good for him. Because most of his fights in 2020 happened the second half of the year. So I thought five fights. He had like four fights in like four months. Yeah, true. So now we move ahead to one of the more interesting questions was by or sell that the Diaz brothers would have more fights than Uriah Faber in 2021. We both sold that.

I said that we'd get one Diaz fight. You said we'd get zero Diaz fights. So we were both incorrect about that because we saw both Diaz's fight in 2021, AK. Oh, my gosh, we did. Leon Edwards Robbie Lawler Yeah We saw a Nadez fight

They both only fought once Right I'm not crazy right They both only fought once Yes Still that's again like you said Way more than I expected Yeah I thought I thought Faber would fight once

Against Dilloshaw Which I know the UFC was discussing I was driving the train for that fight And I thought maybe we'd see Nate fight But Nick I didn't think we'd see So I thought we'd be even Stephen But yeah There we go

When did we last see your eye at favor Did we see him, did he fight more recently? Was the Piotr-Yon-Jahen fight, right? Was that more recently than Zabit Megamette Sheripov? That's a great question. I got to look this. I got to look at it up. All right, go ahead.

Was he on? Maybe Yon was 2020? Or December of 2019, maybe? It's so hard to remember now. Again, we always say, just barely. It was a month after Zabit's most recent fight. This is December of 2019. So literally, it's kind of crazy to say that your right favor of his plot

just more reason. like, I mean, just barely more recently than is a beat Mega MagaGyri Pop. That's not how it should be. The next question we both got correct, A.K. Colby Coving, by yourself, Colby Covington would fight for the UFC Walterway title in 2021. We both bought that. He did fight for the title and a very competitive fight with Kamar Usman. He was on the wrong end of that decision.

And I want to see them fight again, AK, maybe not this year, but I definitely want to see them fight again. Colby Covington's actually pitched, let's just do a best of seven between the two of us because we're so evenly match. was almost the most respectful Colby Covington headline in the history of mixed martial arts media. But here we are. Colby Covington wants the best of seven. I don't think it happens. But I would like to see those guys fight one more time. Best of five maybe.

You make it an impromptu best of five now. So Colby really has to fight to earn the other two fights. If he loses again and goes down 3-0, I don't see that what's why do a best of seven series. You just say it was a best of five all along. And again, three and O'SRN, would win the series for Usman. But if Covington beat him, then of course you've been something that. that opens the door potentially for one or two more fights. So that's a bit of a stretch.

Next question had to do with the Professional Fighters League because they were making all sorts of signings in 2020. They didn't actually have a season in 2020, but they were signing all these different people. At the time we recorded, the question was a current top five UFC fighter would sign with either Bellator or the PFL. I bought that, you sold it, and you were correct it, okay?

None of the current top five fighters in the UFC changed promotions to Bellator or the PFL in 2021. So you were correct and I was wrong. Yeah. Who were some of the biggest, I should have this open? Who were some of the biggest acquisitions, like departures or that went from UFC to other to another promotion? I can't really think of any. I think Rumble maybe. Like Rumble was the big one.

That happened in 2020. He did it? Okay. 2021. The signing wasn't 2020. Look, I think a lot of the signings happened that year. And then I think we saw them kind of play out this year. But I don't remember.

I don't think any of the top five guys actually jump ship. Someone will listen to this and be like, how could you forget? And it's just like, you know what? You know what? You're right. Whoever it is is calling us out right now. I'm just telling you now, you're right. I apologize.

We missed it. But yeah, no, I'm just kind of take a quick look at the rankings in Bellator. Don't remember anyone jumping over. So yeah, I think we're okay. Katzen Gano, no, that was last year. That was, yeah, 2019 maybe. Carmoosh, that was also last year, I think. Yeah.

Oh, definitely. Yeah, last September. Okay, so, yeah, really, signings happened in 2020, and it kind of just actually played out in 2021. Next one was John Jones, Connor McGregor, or a big star in the UFC would retire in 2021,

or at least say they were retiring. And we couldn't buy this one fast enough, and we were both correct. Both of them. I know Connor McGregor said he was done at one point. And I don't know if John Jones said he was done at one point. He might have. He might have deleted it.

Honestly, it's hard to tell with him. I screenshot it's hard to tell with him. I screenshoted a lot of his tweets. I'd have to go through them to see all the stuff he deleted it. Yeah, yeah. Connor, I mean, he's always saying stuff like that, John Jones. And we said what? Was it or some other big star?

Or one of the big stars will retire. Or at least say they're retired. Alla, Kinta? Bariacadalia? Come on. Big stars to me. I mean, Daniel Cormier, actually retired. There you go.

I don't know if we put him on the same pedestal in terms of star power. Daniel Cormier, obviously a very popular guy, but... Plus, he announced it like two years ago. Yeah, 2019. I'm going to fight in 2021, and that's it. Stick it with John Jones. Buy yourself, John Jones would fight for the heavyweight title in 2021. We both bought it.

We were both incorrect about that one. I'm sorry, which one was that, Mike? John Jones would fight for the heavyweight title in 2020. We both said that he would. We bought it. And that did not happen. Optimism. That's an optimism by. That's like we just wanted to see it, I think. Next one, buy yourself. During our end of the year awards for MMA fighting, a fighter from the PFL would be nominated for one of our awards. We both sold that and we were both wrong. Housh Manfio was nominated for rookie of the year for MMA fighting. And was that it?

I think Kayla Harrison for fighter of the year? Yeah. So there you go. Wait, we sold? We both sold that. Oh, I'm so embarrassed. We both sold up. I'm such a PFL stand.

How could I do that? We just weren't sure. We just weren't sure. We thought about like Anthony Pettis, maybe, and maybe some other names for like a knockout of the year. But that didn't really, we didn't really have, like, we had some good finishes from the PFL. We had some really good fights from the PFL, but compared to like the UFC and some of the UFC put together and some of the finishes the UFC and Bellator had, it just seemed like a tough one. We both thought about it.

A.K., it wasn't something that we were like, hell, no, that ain't going to happen. But we're like, eh, I'm going to say, we only get five choices. Nah, it's not going to happen. I'm not even mad at myself. I'm just disappointed. But, A.K., the next question was, at the end of 2021, we would consider the PFL season a very big success. And I think we both bought that. And I'm going to go out and say we both got that one correct.

I thought this is a successful year for the PFL. A lot of great storylines. A lot of great stories. some were really good. Some ultimately were not so good, kind of a downfall year for the Anthony Pettises of the world and some of the bigger names that they brought over. But I think all in all, this is a good year for the PFL

outside of just their actual broadcasts and how long these events actually take. You take some of that stuff out of the equation. This is a great year for the PFL, but man, they got to do something about the lengths of these cards and, you know, have some more fun. You have the opportunity to have more fun than really anybody right now, and you got to take advantage of that.

All in all, pretty good year for the PFL, is it not? Yeah, Kayla Harrison, breaking even further into the mainstream. Again, we're not saying, you know, she's a Ronda Rousey level star yet. She probably never reaches that level. But if people are talking about her, that means they're talking about the PFL, at least somewhat. There is some trickle-down, I guess. It's probably not the word I'm looking for. But there's definitely some, you know, some benefit to that league to have her sort of emerge as this, again, as this one star that everyone's talking about.

Will she jump to the UFC? Will she jumped to Belator. Obviously, if she goes back to the PFL, that's huge for them. So they did a great job building her up. But I don't know if, I mean, were we right that it was a big success? As you mentioned, another thing people talked about besides Kayla Harrison was the pacing issues. I think they were postponed once by a Texas high school football game or something, which is just, was that them or Belator? No, it was PFL.

It was BFL because on ESPN2, right? Yeah. And that's brutal. And by the way, that's completely understandable because I think, you know, anyone who knows, like, high school football, college football in the U.S. is so huge. I mean, that high school football game probably did a better number than the PFL for being honest, which is not a knock on the PFL just kind of shows how it's ingrained football is in, you know, in North America. But yeah, I mean, they have to work on that stuff. And the other thing is they're without,

as of now, still without a broadcast partner for 2022, right? Right. So I don't know if we can call an unequivocal success. I think we would need to know that they were, you know, that they did enough numbers that there's at least some sort of bidding war or, or we know at least one or two interested parties they're going to broadcast them again. Because if they end up sort of taking a step backwards from ESPN2 and ESPN, I don't know if we can call 2021 a success. So I'm digging my own, I'm digging my own buy there, unfortunately. Oh, interesting. I think the way we looked at it was because they didn't have a 2020 season. They actually were in the news quite a bit in 2020, despite not having any cards, not having a champion, like an actual season at all.

I think like overall, like in terms of storyline and fighters and people actually caring about the PFL, I thought it was their best season ever, if I'm being honest. I mean, ratings and stuff like that. So it's just a matter of like care don't care. And I think people cared more than didn't care. So to me, after not having a 2020 season, that's a success. People not dumping all over the PFL. I mean, the actual broadcast and, you know,

the pacing issues, that sucked. That hurt them. Those cards seemed like, I mean, literally like going to the dentist and getting teeth pulled out of your face without any sort of masking drug at all. Like that's what it's just watching some of those cards are like. But the fights themselves are really good. It just took 40 friggin hours for the cards to happen. So hopefully they work on that and we have some fun.

Give the PFL a chance, if you're not watching PFL, give it a chance. We need alternatives outside of the UFC, outside of Beltor. We just need alternatives. Yes. Next question was Habib Narmaga Madoff will either fight in 2021 or have a fight booked by the end of the year. So Habib by now would have a fight booked for 2022. Where are we? Okay.

I bought that and you sold it. You didn't see Albi coming back. I took a shot. I said there, but I had a little caveat to it that the UFC and Eagle FC would have some sort of partnership. They would go into business in some way. And that would be like the deal. Like the UFC will back them, but Habib has to have one more fight.

And that didn't happen. So I was wrong and you were right. I love hearing those words. And secondly, I do wonder, this Eagle FC thing, I almost feel like it's such a shame if he doesn't, I don't know if he does a fight, but he has to do, I feel like he has to come back to some sort of exhibition, right? A grappling match? Right, an exhibition, right?

Just to give it that little boost. I mean, the U.S. debut, it's, I guess we'll see how it goes. You know, they have some star power at least with like Rashad Evans and Kevin Lee and all that. But it's definitely, it's definitely missing something. That's when you have Habib's name attached to it. I think people are going to be asking him to do something active inside the Eagle FC like, you know, cage or ring. No, they find a cage, I think so, yeah. Yeah.

I should know this. I'd cover this all time. but I think they're going to need to see him do something. And I still believe if Charlie Olives, if Charles Olivera goes on a run, let's say 2021, let's say he knocks off like three dominant tell defenses. Sorry, in 2022, excuse me. Then I think in 2023, I think Kavu'll be look at that itch.

I think he'll get that itch. And I haven't said this, by the way, since he'll be retired, that if someone else went on a dominant run, I think he would want to come back. But it has to be like five consecutive title defenses, just wiping out guys. like KHG and just like clearing out the division. So still a long shot.

But if you're Habib, I mean, I think you have to sell that competitive engine. And he's a big enough name that he could come back. And I think the UFC would welcome him back, even if they're like, oh, man, he might retire again right after. I think they'd still do it. I think it'd be the GSP fight and that's it. And I don't know if GSP even. He ain't coming back. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think that's happening. So next one was Cody Garbrandt will fight for a UFC title in 2021. Man, does that question just. sting a little bit now. You bought this, A.K. You sure did. You bought it quickly. I sold it. I said it just wasn't going to happen. I didn't think his year would be as catastrophic

as it has been for him. But yeah, I just didn't see it happening. I just didn't. I kind of saw the writing on the wall, but not as much writing as there actually appeared to be on the wall. I just saw it out of my left eye and not my right eye if that makes sense. They wanted to give him a title shot.

He was supposed to fight for the flyweight title last December and then and then we all thought he's if he if they don't give him a flyweight title shot right away when he drops he's one win away surely there is someone at flyweight that he can just knock off and get that title shot so I I'm sure I'm certain this was my thinking behind that that buy a decision and and it wasn't wrong I know I wasn't alone in this but boy I'll say it again Kai Kar-France is not the name that I would have matched him up with and if you had told me that that was going to be the fight he had to win to earn a title shot I would have had a very different predictions. Yeah, I didn't know if that was going to happen or not. Next question was,

buy yourself that Kevin Holland would fight for a UFC title and Hamzat Shamiyev would not. We both bought that. Of course, neither fought for a title. And so technically that's kind of like a draw because Hamza didn't fight for a title either by the wording of the question. So we're both incorrect, but not necessarily. So we'll just call that a draw. I'll take it. Even money. I think we deserve that. John Jones versus Israel Adasania would be booked sometime in 2021. We both sold that. So we were both correct about that one. Yeah, too much to happen. Too much to happen still with both those guys. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe. But this time, why not look a little further to Dubai, a city that everyone talks about

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Insurance, investments, advice. This actually becomes a really interesting question. At the end, by yourself at the end of the air, Mike Perry would not be in the UFC. And we both sold that. And he's no longer in the UFC. And you weren't happy about it, but we both sold that.

But it's funny how that was actually a question, and it turns out he's not in the UFC anymore. So whoever asked that, kudos to you. I mean, you deserve that because obviously they're implying that they themselves probably thought he wasn't going to be in there. So thank you for that. So good job on that one. But yeah, that was probably being pessimistic. People know I'm not a Mike Perry fan.

So I was probably just like, oh, they're never going to get rid of this guy. It doesn't matter what he does or how many fights he loses. UFC likes him. So good on you, UFC for making the decision to cut bait there. next question was buy or sell a ufc star would cross over to the world of professional wrestling in 2021 we both bought that and we were both correct because there were several of them and horhe mazadol definitely checks off those boxes does he not i mean we were both correct about that and neither of us mentioned mazadol we thought colby we thought dc uh and pages in the

pages in the what isn't in the ufc and wasn't at the time that's right that's true that's true But yeah, Mazzadol did, and was the name we didn't even think about. Yeah, AW brought in a lot of people. So, yeah, it was fun to see. Junior Dos Santos, I guess, wouldn't count. I guess he was probably already released by the UFC by then. Arlovsky would count. Arlowski, that's right, Arlowski would count.

And, man, JDS had a match. I mean, he had a match. That was fun. And it was so much fun. He did a Huracanana. It was just great. And so I'm glad. I'm glad that one came true.

By yourself for the next question. Joe Rogan would be part of his final UFC broadcast in 2021. We both sold that and that was a pretty easy sell for both of us. Well, we don't know. Who knows? Maybe 20. What if? Oh, yeah, that's true.

Tomorrow. Incomplete. Incomplete. But no, I think he doesn't sound, he sounded like he was like a little bit of burnt out there for a while. And then once they changed to the, you know, well, you only have to do pay-per-views. And you only have to do the pay-per-views you want. So he's only doing like, what, 10?

maybe 10 or less events a year now. I think he's fine. I think he's loving it. He just does the big fights. And, you know, he's got a good system going. So, yeah, I don't see him. Now I don't see him stepping back at all. There was another one that we were both incorrect about, but I can't read it.

So, all right. So that was the buy or sell portion. So now we're going to go, we actually did pick fighters of the year, male and female fighters of the year, okay? So you're a male fighter of the year. You picked Israel, Adasana. which it's just not right. He just isn't.

You can't even make an argument for it because he was one in one for the year. Do you want me to? Go ahead. If you want to argue it, trust you, your pick was better than that. I mean, I mean,

if you want the E.K.C. Leiden explanation, oh, well, he went the distance with the, with the, with the light heavyweight champion. And he had a dominant title defense.

No, I don't think he made, he did not make my list. That's for sure. I picked Calvin Cater and that was not right. So what did you think was going to happen? For me? with yeah what did you think was going to happen for him to do that i thought cater was going to beat holloway

and then he was going to be wolkenovsky and become the champion whoa so yeah that's what i thought was good that's why i picked him it was out of the box and i sold it as such i didn't i wasn't confident in it but i said you know what if i'm right then i am the genius of all geniuses because i'm probably the only person in emma media and i picked calvin cater as the male fighter of the year and it turns out we're both incorrect the kohone's on this man i know the female fighter we're both wrong on the female fighter of the year as well, okay, you picked Zhang Wei Lee, I picked Amanda Hebas, and we were both incorrect.

They both had very interesting years. So what would our two be, I guess, it'd be what, Rose, Kayla, Valentina, something like that, right? Giuliana Pena. Oh, right, I'm sorry, would be in there as well. Yeah, I'm sorry, that wind just blew me away

and I keep forgetting. I do feel like I probably under, oh yeah, I voted for her in my fighter of the year list. I do feel like I've probably had to, I probably down, Not downplayed it, but you know, Mike, I've been embroiled in a lot of, like, what is the greatest upset of all time talk. And I think in downplaying it compared to some other ones, I've, like, made it, like, diminished what she accomplished.

But that was really, like, an amazing win. I also, by the way, give her points for the Sarah McMahon win. I know people that kind of view Sarah McMahon as, like, you know, certainly past her prime. That's fine. But I still think Sarah McMahon is a quality win. And I think Pena looked great in that fight. And then obviously it looked amazing in the Nunes fight. So, yeah, I think people, I think a well-deserved women's part of the year,

and certainly not who I would have picked heading into the, heading into this year. 100%. I still lean Valentina. Like, I just, I just think she's so far ahead, and she pitched two perfect, perfect games against, I mean, Lauren Murphy's just super durable and tough. But Jessica Androge, everyone thought, like, this is the one. This is the one that's going to test her. And she probably had the best performance of her entire career in that fight. So, I mean, you can't really, I mean, beating Amanda Nunes.

is massive and definitely get you points, but I'll 1A, 1B it with those two. But yeah, great years for both women. Let's go to the champion predictions, AK. We were on the same page for the first three, actually. Straw weight, we both picked Zhang Wei Lee, both incorrect. Men's flyweight, we both picked Davis at Figurato. We were both wrong about that.

Brandon Moreno, the champion. Rosnamu Yun is the strawweight champion. And then the women's flyway champion. No surprise. We're both correct. You both think Valentina Shochenko. Yeah. That is what happened. That didn't count. You know what? Maybe I don't deserve this point in a lot of people's eyes, but I'm going to take it. Men's Bannemwait. You picked T.J. Dillashaw to be the champion at the end of the year. I picked Al J. Stirling to be the champion at the end of the year.

Oh, you definitely count. It's a win. It's a victory. He's the undisputed champion. This is where things got, wow. This is where things got a little interesting. women's Bannamweight and Women's Flyweight Champion, AK. I said there would be no champion in either division at the end of the year because I thought Amanda Nunes would have one more fight, call it a career,

and that both titles would be vacant at the end of the year. I was obviously wrong about both of those. You were in agreement with the women's featherway title being vacant and having no champion, but you also picked Jermaine Durandami to be your women's Bannamweight champion, AK. So we were both incorrect about that. That was a Nunes retire. Yes.

It was retired thing. Featherweight. You were correct. Alexander Volcanowski. I picked Calvin Cater. That did not work out for me. Working on. Moving on.

Lightweight champion. You picked Islam Makachev to be the lightweight champion at the end of the year. I picked Mr. Charles Olivera to be the light of the end of the year. Did you? I did. I got it right. What? Where was Charles at that point?

He had just beaten. He had just beaten Tony Ferguson. Tony Ferguson. Wow. I think I thought, I think I wanted Olavera. I guess I pictured either Olavera winning it and then losing to Makachev or them fighting for a vacant title in Machachem beating. I'm not sure.

I don't know how I came. I'd love to know how I came to the conclusion of Makachev. And you know me, I'm all in on Charles Olavera bandwagon. So it's like I wouldn't make that same pick now. If you asked me to my, if that was the next matchup that was made, who would I pick? I'm going, I'm going, Oliver. Well done. Yeah, I got that one right.

It was amazing because if I was asked that in March, I might not have picked Charles Hollivari. I might not have picked him. I probably would have won't with Dustin Porre if we're being honest. Walter Waite, we both with Kamara Usman. That was correct. Middleweight. You went with Israel Adasania.

Correct. I went with Robert Whitaker. Incorrect, but that could change in 2022. A couple months, yeah. Light heavyweight, we both picked Israel out of Sanya. And we were both incorrect, but we had the chance. I had no confidence in Yianna. And then heavyweight.

And then the heavyweight champion, We were both right. We both said Francis and Ghana would be the heavyweight champion at the end of the year. He might be the most interesting story heading into 2022 about where his contract stands, where he ends up at the end of the year, and will he end up in Bellator, the PFL or Eagle FC, or maybe him and Dana White will and his management team will all get together and be best of friends. So there we go.

Go to the PFL. Go to the PFL. So overall, I'm not going to count all these, but you defeated me in the predictions. Lockedagon. Lockedgonne if you're out there. No, don't tell you these, please. Lockedagon? Come on, do it. No, I'm just kidding. But now we've got to go from our We Caliente bold prediction for the year. We try to reach down into the depths of prediction land. And yours didn't happen, but it was, it's something that is still being discussed. It's still a major story heading into 2022, because right now we don't know what's going to happen with one Kayla Harrison, but your bold prediction is that the UFC would find.

a way somehow to do Amanda Nunes versus Kayla Harrison in 2021. And that is a very real possibility in 2022. Even still, even after Nunes losing the title, but it did not happen in 2021. But it was a good pick, AK. It was a very good pick. And it was something that, you know, I don't know how bold you can get at this point because I feel like we're at a time in the sport where anything is possible. Like anything can happen, right?

Did either of us predict Jake Paul would become the number one name in combat sports in 2021? I mean, what the hell happened, Mike? What, where are we as society? Like, that was, I think, like, around, it was after maybe the Woodley fight. We were all kind of joking like, is Jake Paul like the best, like the most, like the biggest boxer of 2021 or is he the biggest, like, come? And like, we're looking at it now after that knockout. And I know there's some reports of some poor pay-per-view buys coming in, which is fine. I think we knew it wasn't going to do anywhere near the first fight.

It's just, it's just crazy to me. And, you know, when we make our bold predictions, Mike, you're right. I don't know how far I can go now because, like I said, if a prediction comes true, it probably wasn't bold enough. But now literally anything can come true. So, but yeah, regarding the Nunez-Harrison thing, I'm not sure in my mind how I thought the timing would work out there because there was a full season of, like, I guess I hadn't thought about when the season would end and then they would have to do negotiate with Kayla

and have her come in flight in the last like two months of the year. It could have been like a December headliner. or something. I don't know. But yes, I was maybe just to jump the gun a little bit, a little too far ahead on that one. And I'll stand by it. But it's certainly not a bold prediction anymore. There's nothing bold about it if it happens in next year or in 2020. Yeah, I think because they're both in ESPN, maybe they would like come together and just like work out some sort of deal where the fight would happen. So my, my bold prediction, we both laughed at this prediction, AK. We both laughed at it because this came at a time where there were

celebratory dances going on. There were hit piece videos being released by the UFC. And my bold prediction was that the relationship between Dana White and the MMA media would be in a rebuilding stage. That it would be much better at the end of the year, that he would get along with more of the media members. The media members would get along with him much more. That the relationship would blossom much more than it did heading out of 2020.

We both laughed hysterically at that pick. But you know, N.K? There's a chance that that happened. There's a shit. Now, let's just throw this out there. There are certain media members that did not get that shine, certain individuals. But for the most part, I don't think, like, Dana did his whole spiel about certain media members and that were the biggest P-words covering the most violent sport.

He goes on Barstle and says all this dumb shit. But for the most part, I think the relationship was much better in 2021 after 2020. Because, I mean, you know about this video that was since deleted. Because you were part of the damn video, the Fight Island. No one thought we could do it. No one thought we could do it, which is the biggest bunch of BS of all time, by the way. But I don't know. I don't know if I should.

Do I get a half point? Because I feel like it is much more improved. Perhaps there was an element of absence making the heart grow fonder, Mike, you know, because the media hasn't been able to be at every event or wasn't there to say, you know, during the when the pandemic happened. And now we're a little bit back to normal where the media is in person. Even at the apex, we've had the media there. It's some of those.

There's some element of that, but like you said, he called them out, I won't repeat that, but also he certainly bristled at Fighter Pay talk. He blamed the media for the fighter pay, even being in the conversation, which is absurd. So, Mike, if you want to take an ought-no prediction point, I say have at it. But I don't know. I don't feel, I don't know if he just got a little bit better at hiding his disdain or maybe just couldn't muster up the energy to get into these sort of a scratch. a verbal scrap with any of the media. Or maybe I just haven't been playing close enough attention to some of these press conferences.

But I do feel like we're still sort of where we are. I think there's just some goodwill, some relief from things, quote unquote, returning to normal, at least for the UFC. So in that sense, he's probably just been in a better mood. But overall, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop on this. I don't trust him. That's a snake waiting to bite. So I cannot give you that point.

Mike, you can give yourself the point if you like. I'm going to take an incomplete. on that one. Okay. I'm going to take an incomplete. I think we still... I hope you're right. I hope you're right. Me too. Me too. I mean, can't we all just get along. Uh, but I can't wait for the bold predictions for 2022. There should be a lot of fun. We're going to have to dig really deep for said predictions, but okay, so this is part one. This is us rehashing, AK is the predictions extravaganza champion for 2021. 2021. 2022 is coming up. And we need your help. Okay. You guys have been, and gals have been so good at submitting your matchmaking ideas, asking questions for the Ask Us

Anything episodes, you guys have been tremendous. So we're going to ask for your help once more. And we want you to be creative with these. Okay. I mean, you heard some of these questions from last year. Like the Diaz brothers, Uriah Faber comparison. Like that's a great question. All these different things. Making little comparisons. Kevin Holland, fighting for a title, Hamzaa, no. Like just some interesting thought-provoking questions, some buy-sell things. Like, Don't be writing paragraphs about things that you need, you know, these long-winded answers. The answer should be yes or no, buy or sell. But let's get creative with some of this stuff.

So you know how to do that. Just do what you normally do. A.K., you can throw out your stuff because you get the majority of them. I get some, but you get most because people trust you more than they trust me with this kind of stuff. Last week, did I, did I, did I get the buy. I thought you handled getting all the buy-sell questions last year. I did. I did.

We kind of put it together. We got a few, but most of them were just like, people, how, how, I used to do the show is people would just send them throughout the year and it would just compile into this thing. So I just pulled them all up and and went with those. But now we have like, I feel like we have much more of a broader platform where we can certainly both see it. Yeah. Well, guys, you know, guys, sneak into my DMs, please, on Twitter at Alexander K. Lee, Instagram, Alexander KKK Lee, email Alex dotly at SBNation.com. And yeah, let us know. I know some you guys had a prediction. We know we just did the Q&A episode. You ask us anything.

And there was a lot of like prediction questions. And we didn't get to those. We were kind of saving them. So if you guys want to kind of maybe send those again, maybe just rephrase them slightly, just be a little more specific. Send some specific 2021 buy sell questions. Uh, we'd be very happy to answer those. So, um, yeah, guys, be very, like Mike said, be creative.

Cause yeah, we got some awesome, you know, just going over these ones. I remember how awesome, uh, your input was last year, guys. So, uh, yeah, please hit us up. Yes, it's going to be a very interesting year. The next three years. Like I've said before. and I'll say it again, we're in that time where we're thinking about

the future of the fight business. This is like hey, in five years, cars are going to fly, kinds of conversations. Like, we are in a very interesting place in the combat sports world. And people talk about the Jake Paul Tower and Woodley fight, not doing great on pay-per-view. The Emily Arena sold out.

I mean, there was almost 19,000 people in that arena. And they were there from the jump, from the very first fight. It was wild. I couldn't believe it. I could not believe it. Seeing it with my own eyes, They sold out a freaking professional sports stadium for a fight between Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley. There was a ton of people there. They all went bananas.

And people cared. Like, you may not have dropped 60 bucks. But I guarantee you, I guarantee you probably six figures of people watch it through maybe nefarious means. Sure. Means we shouldn't. But the interest is still there. Maybe they just didn't want to spend 60 bucks on that. And the clip went, the clip is viral.

Look, that knockout, that's your mom's asking you the next day. did you see the YouTube guy? Did you see the YouTube guy? Knock out the UFC guy? So that's big. You cannot put a price on that kind of exposure. So like we said, maybe the immediate returns. Not so great for that second fight,

but I mean, this keeps the Jake Paul brand moving and it's chugging along into 2022. AK, do you have an otno programming New Year's resolution? Oh, that's a good question. You mean like MMA related? It's specifically related to our show. Yeah, our show, I mean, whatever you want to throw out there. It can be related to the show. I have one. I want to, for this coming year, I want to dig a little deeper into, like when people, I don't always read up people's explanations for picks. I should do that more. I like, I think people notice I kind of go, I want to include everyone. So unfortunately, this may be at the expense of sort of all the, sort of all the picks being read out. But also, I think there's a lot of people who put a lot of time into why they mean.

make their picks. And guys, I read everything. I just don't necessarily read it on the show. So I always appreciate it. But I think I should make a better effort of reading out some of the more well thought out like, odd no picks. I have two. One is to kind of like tighten up the show a little bit. I mean, the listeners just, just dominate it. And I love it. Yeah. So maybe a little bit. But my other one is I want to, I want to create like we are we have like an otno meme. We have a fan does an not know me page. I just want to create like an ought no Instagram page, like where you just submit everything to the two of us in one spot. Just make life easier. We can just go in there and just go. Like rather than have to dig through like, because I mean, I love doing the show, but sometimes

Sunday mornings are just like, oh my God, we have to go through like seven different locations to find these matchups and it can get a little crazy. My goal is to tighten that up and just find like one home for all these suggestions. I don't mind that. I don't mind that. And then, you know, And just a place people can check and see, you know, just a little post for every episode, things like that. Oh, yes, yes, I like this. I like this. And shout-outs, by the way, Michael Connofrey for the current Otteno meme page, which, again, when we start our own Ottono page, they can live together in harmony. Yeah, I mean, we're just going to be like, here's this episode that is released. But submit your picks here.

Like, it's just going to be for the DM. That's it's like, literally what's going to be. We're not going to steal Michael Connofrey shine because that page is amazing. It's not really an otno page. Sometimes, you know, other members of the staff get thrown into the mix. Roasted. Roasted. Casey Liden is training montages.

It's all good stuff. So, all right. So that is part one of the predictions extravaganza, aka congratulations on your 2021 win. Next week, one of my favorite shows of the year. We knock it out right away. The 2022 predictions extravaganza. Buy sell questions,

fighter of the year predictions, champions at the end. end of the year predictions for the UFC, and of course, the Mui Caliente, bold prediction for 2022. Submit your questions, just like AK said, you can send them to me on Instagram as well, M underscore HeckJR, and that's it. We appreciate you guys joining us very much. Congratulations once again to AK for his victory. Stop. Yes, happy new year to you all, and we're going to kick off. We're going to continue 2022 in a big way with 2022 predictions at Stravaganza right here next week on On to the next one, the podcast.

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