MMA Fighting - On To the Next One 2023 Predictions Extravaganza | Look Ahead For Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, More

Episode Date: January 8, 2023

Could 2023 be a year that features both Conor McGregor and Jon Jones competing inside the UFC octagon? Will Khamzat Chimaev find his way to a UFC title fight? On a very special edition of On To the Next One, those questions — and a lot more — are presented during the 2023 predictions extravaganza. Hosts Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee will go through a slew of buy/sell questions presented by listeners about a variety of topics — including Dana White, Nate Diaz, Nick Diaz, Paddy Pimblett, Dillon Danis, Francis Ngannou, Amanda Nunes, Jake Paul, Bellator, the PFL, and much more. Additionally, they will make their choices for who will end the year as UFC champions in each division, along with their bold and spicy predictions for the world of MMA in 2023. 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

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Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. I am Mike Heck, and yes, this is typically a matchmaking show. No, there was not a year. UFC event this weekend. Yes, it has been a just awful start to 2023 for the sport and a very, very dark month for the sport. But today, we're going to do our very best to try to have a little bit of fun because today, my friends, we're going to do something that I enjoy doing so much. It is one of my favorite shows to do throughout the year. It is the third annual on to the next one, predictions extravaganza, as we will attempt to make sense of what this new year,

2023 is going to look like in the space of MMA. But before we get to that, let me introduce the co-pilot, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. Boy, can we use some positivity right now. He's also the best friend, Mr. Alexander Cayley. Hello, AK. Look at this background. Hello, everyone.

I'm on safari. I'm on safari, as you can see. Actually, let me just tilt it a little bit. Okay. What's up, everybody? I'm on safari. That looks just a little bit better at the angle, was just slightly off.

Yeah, listen, Mike, we need some positivity. I'm so happy we're doing this show. This is the real, I think, bookend on 2020 for us, I think, for M.A. fighting. We've had our best of list and everything last week. Jed has been doing some amazing year and review stuff this week. We've been doing a bunch of podcasts over the last couple of weeks. Looking ahead, looking back, best bets. That was great stuff.

The M.A. Our award show was phenomenal as always. And I think it's I think you and I are in the closer spot, right? I think this is it. I think after this, no more, you know, broad prediction stuff or year and stuff. This is it. We are, we are sealing the deal here. Agreed. And truth be told, the delay of the show is completely my fault because I have a multiple

computer set up here in Command Center 4.0. And normally I'm looking at like exactly where I'm looking because there's the desktop right here and I usually run everything off this desktop. and then there's another desktop in the other side of the room. But my mouse for this new desktop completely died. Like absolutely died. And I couldn't even like click on the link to get into this room where the show is being produced right now. So I'm running like two or three different.

So I'm looking at this camera that is at this desktop that's not even working right now because the mouse is not working. And everything is off to the right here. So when I look over here, it's because I can see AK's face in this incredible background that I just cannot take my eye off. off of. So my fall for the delay. But before we get into everything, I do want to say before the show starts, thoughts and prayers go out to the Lee family after it is revealed on Saturday that 18-year-old super prospect, Victoria Lee, the sister of one championship title holder

siblings, Angela and Christian. Golly, man, just passes away and the cause of death is unknown. But Angela Lee said in a statement happened right around. on Christmas time and AK, just awful, awful news. Again, thoughts of prayers to the Lee family, friends, training partners, anybody whose lives that she touched, just so sad, AK, just when we think maybe the news cycle might turn somewhat around and it hasn't seen that. It just gets worse hearing a story like this. So before we get into this, I wanted to turn it over to you and get your thoughts on just

this horrendous news. Yeah, we've had a lot of awful news lately. This was awful news of a different kind. It just seems like the MMA community is just getting it from all angles right now in just the worst possible way. So shocking, I had been, this was kind of a vacation week for me. I'd been working a little bit of a vacation week, which meant I'd sort of been able to stay away from social media. A big part of our work is obviously staying active on social media and paying attention to the news store. So it wasn't until I sort of randomly logged on, I think, shortly after the Victoria Elite news broke out.

and to stop people commenting on it. I wasn't sure what they meant. I don't know if they meant another Victoria Lee. And then sure enough, you know, I went to go check all the other, see what our community was saying and it was her. And it was just horrible. Mike, I don't know if you've interviewed anyone from the Lee family. I think I've interviewed both Angela and Christian.

And yeah, they're just top class people. And to, it is unfathable. It's, it really just put a damper on, again, what has already been a tough time. So much potential, just 18 years old. We people have been writing stories about Victoria since she was 16 years old. So in a way, she's sort of been growing up with us and with the other than community. And it's just it was so unbelievable.

Like I said, I just wanted to think it was, I don't know, wrong or that it was just, I mean, if it was any 18 year old, it would have been horrible. But again, much less someone that we feel some sort of ties to. And who knows where her life could have gone, whether. it was becoming a world champion MMA fighter or leaving MMA and doing something else, we'll never know. And that part of it is just horrible to think of. And of course, all the pain that her family and loved ones is going through. So we can only hope for peace and some sort of reconciliation moving forward with this kind of thing.

But yeah, I think everyone's feeling this one. Yeah, 100%. Just very tough to transition from that news. but we're going to try. And for those who have not listened or seen this particular show that we do, here's how it works. And let me just say this.

Big shout out and thank you to the fantastic Otno viewers and listeners because you all came through in a huge way. For the last several weeks, we have asked for your prediction questions. And good Lord, did you guys ever deliver? The first round of the show, we're going to answer a whole bunch of these questions.

These are buy-sell questions that you guys have sent along, some over the last few weeks and we asked for them. Some have been doing it throughout the year because I was doing the show before even MMA fighting. And the questions will pop up on the screen. We will give our predictions, our takes on them. We will buy or sell them.

We have seen these questions in theory, but they have been narrowed down. They have been selected by our absolute Savage 3024 producer E.K.C. Liden. So we actually don't know which questions are going to be popping up on the screen. we'll go through about 25 to 30 of these, one would think. And then after that, we will then predict who will end the year as UFC champions in each weight class.

And finally, we will each give our wee Caliente prediction for 2023, something really outside the box, something that probably shouldn't come true, but it could. And if it does come true, then we look like absolute geniuses. So, AK, my best friend, are you ready to do this? I'm shifting over to the screen now so I can actually see what? is happening here. But are you ready? I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

I'm a little scared. I saw some of these, but I don't know. I don't know if I can, if I'm ready to give our bold predictions. Because I think we did the recap recently, Mike. And we actually, you know, we did okay. We were, I think we did respectable with some of our buy cells. Some of them way off. And I can't remember our bold predictions, but we'll deal with the consequences later.

Exactly. All right. Casey, what is the first question? Oh, buy or sell? that John Jones will retire by the end of 2023, A.K. He hasn't had a fight. We're sniffing over, it's been a long time since John Jones has fought. It's been a very, very long time.

All this talk about moving to heavyweight. Body is obviously at a heavyweight frame right now. There's all this talk, some positivity, if you will, behind a Francigna v. John Jones fight, possibly as early as March of this year. But could it be that before 20, 23 is over, John Jones just says, I'm out of here. I'm done. I think we're going to be saying this with a lot of these questions, Mike, and maybe some of our own predictions that it's maybe a year

ahead. So get used to that. It could be a theme of some of these questions. It could be a year ahead, because I don't think he retires at the end of this year, assuming he even fights, assuming he even fights. Actually, I should say, whether he fights or if he doesn't fight, he's definitely going to drag on this non-retirement for another of the year. For some reason, we don't see him fight in the next 12 months. And if he does fight, I think that'll, you know, that'll keep his gears moving a little bit enough to push him back into one more year of competition. If someone to, I see already a comment saying 24 from Kink Panther in the YouTube comments. And I agree. I think 24 by end of 2024 would be more realistic. 2023 is sort of more the, again, if he fights the comeback year or more of this

dragging on and us at an NBA fighting writing articles like, John Jones says he's ready to fight in April. John Jones is he's coming for that heavyweight title at November, Madison Square Garden, and then maybe it never happens. But 2023, a little too soon. So that's a sell for me. This is just one of those weird questions where, like, how do you define this? Because does it count as a retirement if John Jones tweets out at any point this year that I'm done?

Like, does it count? Does that count, AK? Like if he just tweets out at any point this year that he's retiring, even if we don't 100% feel like he's going to, does this count? What was the wording of the question again? Can we? Okay. Will retire. If he will retire, not will be retired.

It does not say we'll be retired by the end of 23. Will he at some point retire by the end of 20? I'm buying it if we are accepting the fact that at some point this year, he will say he's done. What if he deletes it? Well, what if he tweets and deletes it? What's the ruling there? He tweets and deletes, good morning. How are you?

So he could tweet or delete that too. But if there's a story out there that if M.A. fighting at some point writes a story, it says John Jones says he's retired. Does this count as a buy? Would that count as a point? Yes, it would. But in a case, I'm still selling. I'm still selling.

I just, I don't think of that. I'm still saying. I see what you're saying. He's pretty erratic with his rate of tweeting and deleting. easily come up and be gone in five minutes. By that point, one of us would have screenshoted it. And as you said, written a little post about it on MMA fighting. But I'm still selling.

So I'm going to say no tweet, no hint of it. No, no direct. Maybe a hint of it, but no direct I am retiring, then deleted statement. No, I think too soon. I am buying this just for that reason. I'm not saying he's going to be out of the Usada pool or anything like that, but it'll be. Connor does, Carter retires like four times every year.

and John's like an every other year kind of guy and I don't think he actually announces retirement in 2022 so I think odd numbered years there is a retirement of some sort so I'll just play the historical numbers here and say that he will just for that reason the social media stuff he will say he's retired at some point

even though it may not be 100% accurate so I will buy that for that reason next question right at the bat you and I are I love it okay let's see usually the first usually the first question is the false sense security but now we got Casey in here mixed it up. Friends forever, I thought.

All right. Buy or sell. At some point in 2020, this is the opposite here. T.J. Dillishaw, who announces retirements not long ago, or at least we confirmed that he is retired, announces he's unretiring and he's going to return to MMA. So an agreement and principle that he's coming back. Buy or sell this, okay?

Yeah, absolutely. Listen, I'm going to buy because definitely by the wording. of this. It's not it's not returns in 2023. It's announces he's coming out of retirement in 23. And then we might see him fight in 2024 or knowing him how long he goes between fights 2025. So yeah, I'm not super convinced T.J. Dillashaw is done. I never have been. I mean personally, if up to me, I would hope the man has made enough money to retire. I know I say this. We say that's a lot of fighters. But I don't want to see T.J. fight anymore. I just think there's still winnable fights from Bantamate for sure. But I think,

to think that he could beat anyone in the top five, top six anymore. Those days might be over. It's just such a tough division. It gets younger and younger. It's based a lot on speed and athleticism. And he's a great athlete, but just every year it's going to be diminished, not just from age,

but from wear and tear, injuries taken, whatever it is, whatever crap it is that he's put into his body. So I do think he's not done. The fact that he went into that fight with Sterling with one shoulder and thought that, I think realistically did actually think, that he thought he would have a, that he would have a chance tells you where his like his fighting mentality.

So I don't think he wants to go out like that. He will announce his return in 2023. Yes, he's not going to fight in 2020. So that's a buy. This is a tough one. I thought about this one quite a bit because I do think at some point he will say he's coming back. I just don't know if it's going to be this year. So we'll differ again.

I will sell this, but I think we'll be very close and we'll be having conversations whether or not this is going to happen early 2024. So I think it will happen maybe even as early as January, February of 2024. But I'm going to play the positivity role because I don't want to see this either. I don't want to see him come back at this point. Unless he like comes back for one more fight with like your eye of favor just to do that, then I'm cool. Other than that, there's no need.

And this division doesn't need it. It didn't need Henry Sohudo coming back. But it looks like that's a thing. And I think we're probably like a year plus away from. Dillashaw entertaining this. But who knows, the way this year has been going, T.J. Dillashaw coming back from retirement or a very short one

will be like the 38th most impactful news story in MMA. So I will sell it, but we're going to be knocking on the door, I think. These are a close one. The first two, not only do we both do we disagree, Mike, they're close ones. They're not like, now they're these are like a home run. Yeah, we're like, oh, we think it's definitely like huge buyer,

huge sales. Like, it's the matcha or the three ensemble Cato, Siforan, de Faye, that I just of deniches that's the ensemble? The form of standard

and mini regrouped, what are you know, and the embalage, too be able that's pretty to do you know,

and I know I should be these offriday, but I'm sorry, the summer Fridays, the fairos of the fadow des the fathes

and stuff and stuff, and stuff, and stuff, and stuff, and many, regrouped for a better quality

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big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. All right. Buy yourself. At some point in 2023, Dana, White will not be active UFC president. To be clear, any form of termination, resignation, or hiatus, however temporary, from the role of UFC president qualifies. I think the however temporary makes this question much more easy.

Because if you're asking me that, like, at the end of the year, Dana White will have, like, he's gone as the president of the UFC, I would sell the holy crap out of this. because obviously we know what has happened. We've talked about it. The slapping incident, everything that happened with his wife, the fact that nothing has been said by anybody outside of Dana with that interview with TMZ, we have heard nothing from anyway. Everybody else has refused to comment.

And we're going to keep talking about this, ladies gentlemen. You can roll your eyes all you want until something is done. I ain't going to stop talking about it. And we are not, as a website, going to stop talking about this. But we are wondering what the punishment. could actually be, even if it's like a temporary, let's step away here, a suspension, he's off TV for three months, he's stepping down for three months, so forth and so on. That makes this kind of interesting. Not that I think this is going to happen, but I think if something does happen, it's going to be a very

temporary bandaid to this whole thing and at least some decent PR for the UFC that something is done, that the collection of everybody involved comes together and says, dude, you got to get out of here for a little bit. buy or sell this, aka that at some point, Dana White is not the president of the UFC in 2023. Man, I do love that temporary thing. Because if there's one thing we know

that the UFC loves, it's interim titles. So what would be more appropriate than interim UFC president, David Shaw or something? Interim UFC president McMaynard. I don't know. Throw a name out there,

well-recognized UFC executives, officials name in there. And like you said, it would essentially be a, It could be a temporary post. It doesn't erase Dana from the equation entirely. The company, listen, the company loves Dana. The fact, I don't know how we want to take them not speaking upon, again, not releasing an official statement about this whole incident.

I don't want to say they're like protecting him because them not say anything is arguably as bad as saying something. But clearly, they're conflicted about how to handle it, which I think wouldn't be the case if he was some, if they weren't happy with his, the services that he's provided, so to speak, for the promotion for the last. however many years. So yeah, I will buy. I will buy. All these caveats open up a lot of doors to make this a possibility. And I do think we could see an interim president.

Again, we've had people who have stood in for Dana sort of and spoken to the media at Post-Fi press conferences. There's more to being the president than that. But that's a big part of it, just being the public face. And there's people who've shown that they can be comfortable being the public face. And more importantly, give sort of different touch than Dana. You know, I get it. There's a huge segment of fans that love Dana's.

in your face confrontational, you know, watch the UFC dummy personality. But someone again, like a David Shaw, if anyone seen him, he's got a bit of a softer touch to him. He's got a bit of a, you know, he's a little more of a friendly guy. Definitely not like, not like no one would compare him to Dana personality-wise. So you bring in something like that, again, or you go, you know, one of the matchmakers or, you know, another recognizable personality. And you're fine. You're cruising along. But I still think by the end of 233, he'll be back.

But regarding this question, yes, a bye. They're going to, you know, do a little, hopefully some good PR here and just maybe move them out of that position temporarily. Again, this one's close. Like, the answer should be absolutely buy. Like, it should be a buy. 1,000 percent, this should be a no-brainer. But we're not, this is the UFC. This is what it is.

The fact that no one has said anything about this tells me that nothing is going to happen. Now, I've been saying this a million times, and I'll say it once more. No one's asking for Dana to be fired. No one is asking for Dana's job to be completely taken away from him. What we are asking for, and Jed Mishu had the perfect word for this, contrition, contrition, show you care. And Dana came out and said everything he said,

and I thought he handled himself very well. But something needs to happen. Going on TMZ for a fluff interview where they were feeding him softball after softball after softball is not enough for me. It needs to be, Temporary suspension, three to six months. He needs to pay a heavy fine, which would go to a DV charity of some kind,

and cut a PSA, something like that. You do that. That's some contrition. I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be back. The second thing, which I don't think anybody actually understands at this point, the UFC doesn't need Dana White anymore. He doesn't need to be the promoter anymore. The promotion is going to run fine on its own.

and Dana is a huge part of that, and I will never take that away from him. 1,000%. He will always be attached to what he has done for this company, what he has done for this sport, being the face of the sport, and being the most powerful man in it. But he's done his job.

He's done everything he can do. There's nothing more he can do now to help grow the sport. There's nothing. The sport will grow in its own. And who knows, if Dana is out, just think of some of the other names who he's had issues with in the past,

that might want to come back. Look at WWE. Once Zinc McMahon was gone, a lot of the guys who were fired and had bad relationships with Vince McMahon, popular people got brought right back and they're thriving. So do I think he'll be gone forever?

No. Do I think at some point the UFC is just going to have to be forced to do something, come together with Endeavor and come to some kind of a decision like this, a temporary suspension, whether it be for a week or a month or three months or more, I think they're going to have,

have to get to that at some point. But that's up to us. That's up to us to keep this story out there and to keep talking about this. Fans as well. So I will buy this. I will say I will buy this somewhat reluctantly, but I'm hoping that some of this contrition can actually happen. And we can,

it can be shown to all of us that at least somebody cares, at least somebody cares about this entire situation. So reluctant buy, but this is more of a hopeful buy, okay? Yeah, again, listen, how many times, Mike, I don't know how, we haven't done been doing the show for too many years, but on at least one show, or I know I've, any other prediction shows I've gone on, I've done the Dana White will no longer be the president of the UFC. And this wasn't even years where there was, again, following some sort of misconduct,

just like, you know, based on whatever his seeming, you know, apathy towards promoting, things like that. So, yeah, it's, it's weird to keep predicting it. like, you know, it hasn't happened. And why would it? He makes a lot of money being the UFC president. As we said, the UFC's very happy with him. But it does feel like this year of all year that should put some crack in that relationship.

So, yeah, and neither you nor I are super optimistic that it's like going to happen, that there will be some accountability, but we can certainly hope for it. And it would send a really, really strong message to, frankly, to a lot of people in the MNMet community who need it, including some of our commenters in the YouTube. I'm sure. I'm sure it's awful. Don't look at it. Mike, don't look at it. I'm not going to. All right. Next.

Let's move on. Not forever, but for now. Oh, come on. Dylan Dennis will have one sanctioned bout in 2023 in some sort of striking combat sport. I mean, come on. This was, Mike, this was going to be my bold prediction. I was joking with Casey before the show.

I said, Dylan Danis fights in 20. And then I reminded myself, Mike, when we make a bold prediction, it has to at least somewhat be based in reality. So this guy's never fighting again. This is a joke. So this is a hard sell for me. I don't know where you're going with this. I wanted to sell this before I got to 2023 in this question.

So sell, sell, let's move on. That was the easiest one. He's not fighting in some sort of combat sport. And let me just say, let me just say, I want to apologize on, I don't apologize for us having stories with Dylan Downs is fine. People are interested in them. But I will apologize for us, you know, possibly playing a role in Dylan Dennis, you know, whatever, reaching, you know, having any sort of infamy, every, every, every, every, every, every, every, every, every, every, every, every website that covers him, I'm sure we all, none of us are proud of it, you know, people, it, he's there, people talk about him. Ariel, look, Ariel gave him a platform. Ariel, I'm sure he was happy to do it.

He has, he has, it's ridiculous that Dylan Dennis has ever, has even said anything, ever said anything bad to Ariel because Ariel has been, along with Conimer, Gregor, maybe the second most important person in promoting him, like even more than like Scott Coker. Like, so listen, for anyone out there who criticized the media for, uh, for covering Dylan Dennis and making him bigger than he should be, uh, I will, I'm not speaking. I shouldn't speak for anyone else. I should rephrase it. I shouldn't speak for anyone else.

I'm going to apologize for that. Uh, I don't think I've ever talked about Dylan Dennis that much, but if I've talked about him at all, if I broadcast his brand at all, uh, I apologize. This guy is a joke. Uh, I'm not saying there won't be stories about. in the future. Again, he's a person of interest. We write stories about him. It happens. But I am apologizing from the past. I'm apologizing in advance. Let's hope this man goes away. Let's hope this man gets the help he needs because I'm going to echo Ariel again and say, I don't want to

inherently believe this is a bad person. I just see like a lonely person, someone who's really gotten lost in the sauce, work themselves into a shoot, whatever you want to call it. And I don't think he knows how to get out. I don't think Dylan Dennis even knows who Dylan Dennis is anymore. And I wish him the best in his life and health. But yeah, we definitely need to stop talking about him in sort of the realm of actual fighters. I don't think I could have said it any better. So, yeah, let's move on. Next question.

Double sell. By yourself, Figgie moves up to 135 after Figgie Moreno 4, AK. I don't know if he does it right after. This is the first of this is off February, right? No, this is next Saturday. What? Not this Saturday. Not this Saturday.

Yes, next Saturday. The UFC is back. MMA is back. Major League MMA is back. Wow. No, I can't say right after. I do feel like there's another, this is another one of those close ones that we, they've all been close to far.

Great job, people, by the way, on the buy-sell questions. This is what they should be. They shouldn't be layups except for the Dillon-Dannis thing. that just gives an excuse to trash Dylan, so that's fine. But they're close. They're close. So not right after. If we're just saying some point after in 2023, I think big buy, big by.

I could see Davidson, you know, wanting to defend the title in a flyweight title fight that isn't Brandon Moreno. They've just seen each other so much. And I mean, I'd be fine with seeing that fight five more times. But I think if you're Davidson, you want a different challenge. So there are a lot of good names still at 125. And if Davidson is comfortable making the weight, I know it's not an easy one. for him. Definitely defend one more time. So not right after, but will he move up before the end

of 23? Strongly, yes, that's a buy for me. But going by the exact wording of this, I'm going to go sell. I believe this person is asking, will he move up right after, like vacate the title and move up right after? I don't think so. I think we see a title defense at 125 after Marano. If, if, oh, it doesn't even say if he wins. That's it. That's tricky. Oh, well, I know what you're going to say now. But okay, so just as he move up either way. Well, now I have to predict if he's going to win the fight, which is like, which is so difficult.

But I'll stick, I'll stick with, uh, with sell. I just, win or lose, I don't think he moves up right after. I'll stick with sell. I'm going to sell this as well because if Figgie wins, then he'll just defend that belt. But if he loses, I could see a world where the UFC is just like, eh, we'll just do it again. Like, you know what I mean?

I could definitely see. number five happening. I don't think this will be the close of the show, if you will. So I'll sell this. I'll sell this with you. But I think he might, I think a decision will be, and again, this is just like you prefaced earlier. We could be, we're setting ourselves up for like 2024. And I think this is going to be more of a 2024 question. I think so too. These are good questions. People are really looking ahead. These are good questions. All right. What else we got? Shafcott Rachmanah fights for a title this year. Now, A.K.

Shafka Rokmata was supposed to fight this coming Saturday, six days from now against Jeff Neal. Jeff Neal was out. They had a fight with Brian Barbarina, dropped on their laps. Both sides are in. UFC said, no. I have been advocating from the beginning here

that Shafka should fight on this card, even if it's like a WWF superstars type thing where he just trucked somebody. because in order for this to be a complete buy, you need to get this guy on television. He can't just fight once or twice this year. He needs to be out there fighting three, four times. People need to get to know this guy as much as possible,

even if he's beating guys as a minus 2,500 favorite. I don't care. Now the Jeff Neal fight is rebooked for March 4th. Do you think, by yourself, that Shafka Rukmanov will be fighting for a UFC title this year? Let me first say, I fully have supported your, WWF superstars idea for

Shafkat. Yeah, it's very important just to get these guys exposure. That, him and Barbarina would have been the Welchewate equivalent of Islam Makachev and Bobby Green, right? It's like, you just need to keep these guys busy. You just need to give them a recognizable name and let them go to work. And if they trucked that person,

great. You want people to see this fight and be like, oh, wow, like this guy could beat anybody. Or I don't know this guy could beat anybody. But the way they ran through Bobby Green or the way Shavkrat might have run through, you know, Brian Barbarina. it gets the imagination going and it gets people, whether a title shot is next for them,

at least thinking like, yeah, yeah, I got to see this guy fight for the world title someday. So, but I'm, Mike, I'm buying hard on this one. I'm buying hard, man. He is coming for that title shot. There's a certain element of whether people think Hamzat is going to be able to sort of stick around at 170 this year because if he does and gets a win,

he should probably be fighting for a title. I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical of Hamzot. returning to 170 this year. Really, figuring out what's going to happen next for Hamzad is crazy. So I'm going with what I know, and that's that Shafkat is putting a work at 170, is a guy who looks like a future champion, is a guy who will fight for a title this year. Probably second half. Obviously, we're thinking second half, maybe even end of year, but I do see it happening.

He's just on the right track. And I'm not pushing this one back to 2024, Mike. This is a 2023. Bye. I agree with you. However, it's just, I just, he's got the talent, absolutely. And if the UFC wanted to kind of give him the Alex Pereira treatment and just give him Jeff Neal and then give him one more strategically placed fight that you could argue would get him a title shot, then I think he would get it. I just think this division is in such. such a weird place right now because it appears that Kamar Usman's going to get the rematch of Leon Edwards in London. I know some people have been rumoring that that won't happen. Maybe Mazadol come in. I don't think that's the case. It would if Leon wins. Like,

what if Leon wins again? Mazadol could slide in there. Like merit doesn't matter, folks. Merritt doesn't matter. That story writes itself. It's super easy. You just saw the clip of the three piece of Minnesota over and over and over again. You got Colby. You got Hamzod. You still got Gilwell Burns, you got Bala Muhammad. All these guys are there. All of them have arguments to being in the spot. I just don't think Shavkatz, this is why I thought fighting January 14th was so important. Because guess what? He could have ran over some poor soul or even Brian Barberina, still thought Jeff Neal March 4th, and then you put him on International Fight Week and who knows who he'd be fighting by then. And then maybe he slides into a title shot at the end of the year. I don't know.

the problem is I just don't think he's going to get enough guys to say sure I'll fight that dude and that unfortunately is going to be the sticking point as to why I'm going to sell this he could get there I would love to see him fight for the belt I'd love to see him fight Leah I would pick him to I would pick him to beat Leon Edwards right now I would pick him to be very competitive with Kabbar Usman and most guys in this division I just don't think it's going to happen I just don't think he's going to get a top five I don't think he's going to get the guy to say yes to fighting him to get him over that hump with this division being where it's at.

So skill-wise, he could absolutely get there. He's going to have to fight like five times to do it. And I just don't think that's going to happen this year. So unfortunately, this is a sell, but he could definitely get there. And he could beat the champion right now, in my opinion. Yeah, there's a lot of math not working in his favor. But I'll go blindly optimistic on this one and stick with cell. Hey, I hope you're right.

I'd love to see Shofcock get his chance. All right. What do we got next? How appropriate. How appropriate. Jorge Mazdal or Colby Covington will get a title shot in 2023. A.K., what do you think? I think you're really right about the Jorge thing.

And let me tell people, I am, I shouldn't be. As a fan of meritocracy, which, by the way, doesn't exist in M.A., let's be honest. I need to see him and Leon fight before it's all said and done. I want the three-piece in the soda thing to be resolved. I think it's such a strong storyline, such a great backdrop for a grudge match. And I know if it happened under these circumstances, it's less than ideal. Like we'd rather see, you know, Leon maybe loses the title to Camaro and then his next, and then, you know, to sort of maybe get a third fight with Kamaru.

He has to beat Jorge Mosvidal in the grudge match. I get it. That's a perfect world. That's a perfect world. But it's really hard to plan ahead like that in MMA. Like once you start, listen, this fight with Mazvedal should have happened freaking two years ago. And for some reason, things just keep happening that keep their paths, you know, going in different directions. But like, it's for that, for the UFC to fail to make this fight happen would be a huge, huge loss of money, frankly.

I was going to say like a huge loss for the fans. It's a huge loss for the company. There's just a lot of money to be made with this fight. And I'm all for it. And I always tell people of belts or props. And I almost hate the fact that Leon being the champion removes this money fight from Masvedal's reach. because it is a big money fight for both guys, but I get it.

I totally understand why people don't want to see it. Mazel just hasn't been winning fights. If you're not winning fights, how the hell can you get a title shot? But for me, at the end of the day, the bottom line of M.A. is one, M. May so will be fun. And part of that is, do I want to see these two people fight each other?

That to me is, if I'm booking anything, if I'm, sorry, judging a booking, that's my number one criteria. Do I want to see these two fight each other? And I really want to see Leon and Jorge fight someday. again, it shouldn't be for the title. I understand. I understand people will be outraged, disgusted,

diminish the meaning of the belts, whatever. Again, belts or props. But I need to see it. And if it has to happen sooner rather than later, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that because I think if they keep trying to plan a way to have these two run into each other, it's just not going to work out.

So if the star is a line where you can just book them, you just go for it. It's just a great fight for both guys, especially for Mazvedal, who shouldn't be near a title shot. So the answer to the question, yes. kind of what you just laid out before in the previous question, Mike. Mazadal's right there, man, right in position whenever he clears up this legal thing, they would very happily slot him into a title fight with Leon if Leon's still a champion by the time that happens.

So that's a buy. I'm going to buy. I'm going to, I mean, more or less I'm playing the odds here. You're giving me both guys in this situation in the way the UFC conducts business. when putting on pay-per-view cards and putting fights together where it's not always the top contender gets the rub. A lot of things need to happen for Mazadol to get a title shot. Like, Leon has to beat Oosbert again.

Like, I could see, if the question was, will Leon Edwards and Jorge Mazadol fight in 2023, then I'm buying it 100%. It's either going to be for the belt or even if Leon loses, that's the fight you make. 1,000%. But now you're throwing Colby in the mix, too, who feel how you want.

lot about the man. The guy has figured out prize fighting. He's figured it out. And he has found himself in some pretty positive places for his career just by not fighting or fighting lower level competition. He has done a tremendous job with the prize fighting aspect of what the sport can entail. So to me, you're giving me both of these guys. I'll buy it just for math. Hashtag math rules and you give me both these guys at one question. I just, I have to buy it just because I feel like one of these guys could get slotted in somewhere in some strange way.

Yeah, that's a bargain. That's a bargain. It's a bargain price. That's a two for one deal. Yeah. Yes. What else we got? Ooh.

All right. Let's go over to the wonderful world of Bellator. So Bellator has announced that a lightweight Grand Prix is going to take place beginning in 2023. The current champion is the young, just up and coming terror that is Usman Nirmagamadav, by or sell, A, K, that he will lose this title in the Grand Prix in 2023.

Do we have the bracket yet? No. No. I don't even know who's all in it yet. Yeah, let me, let me do a little quick, googly-lugly here. My first instinct, by the way, obviously, I'm going to say sell. I think Uzman's the real deal. I think he could hold on to this title for a long time.

I'm trying to look. What names are we talking about here? I would say, AJ McKee. Yep. Maybe. Yeah. We still know. AJ has said many times he still wants to get that other shot at, you know, at Patricio, right?

He wants to get that, the trilogy about, which is, which is smart, which I think you should resolve. He also, I talked to him last week and he said he's still down to do that. But if the, if Belleter calls him and says, AJ, your next fight's Patricio for the featherweight title, he won't be in the lightweight property. He already knows. That's what I'm taking a long time. Yeah, and I think that fight does happen.

So I have to take AJ out of the equation. Other than that, boy, if I'm forgetting someone obvious, people, please let me know. I'm just overlooking, looking over some of these names. I don't see anyone super threatening to Usman.

Maybe they put in Mansour, Mansour, they put him in there. That'd be nice, but I feel like he's not going to be part of the tournament either. They might go as some of their more veteran guys. But yeah, I'm going to stick with, I'm going to stick with Sell. I'm going to stick with Cell. I'm going to stick with Selman's going to put together a run.

And let me tell something. He's going to put together run up our rankings too. He's one of those guys who it's going to be hard for us to move him up there because, you know, I know there's that Bellator bias or the other way. I got bias against Bellator fighters moving up because they can't beat a lot of the names that are in our rankings and most people's rankings. But I think it's going to look impressive enough. that we're going to be like, okay, this guy might be like at least in the top 10. Top 10, maybe as high as like number 9, more than that, we'll see.

But yeah, I'd love to see him going a big run here. That's the sell for me. He's holding on to it. Yeah, I think I have Ustman as number 10 in my lightweight rankings right now. So here's the Bellator top 10 right now underneath Ustman. Patriki Pitbull, Tofeech, Messiaf, Benson, Henderson, Alexander Shabli, Sydney Outlaw, Brent Primis, Islam Momitoff, E. E.J. McKee, Peter Quilly.

Godzie Robinanov. I just don't see me. I think AJ could be interesting just because he's such a wild man and he has just no fear whatsoever. And I think that's, I think that's sort of how you have to approach a guy like Usman Amaga Madoff.

But I just feel like Guzman's that good and I have to sell this. Like he might end up losing in the end, but I just, they're not going to wrap this Grand Prix up in 2023. And unless they go back to the which is super cool thing where they bring each of the higher ranked fighters out and they get to choose their opponents so good please do it because you know

because you know ozman's going to just pick the toughest challenge there is he's not just going to sit there and pick the number eight seat or anything like that so i think they'll probably just give him the lower edge guy and find his way and they'll probably try to set up him versus mckee or him versus msive or something like that so yeah i'll sell it i'll sell it i'll sell it he might lose it but it won't be this year yeah a lot of this was dependent on whether you think a jay will be in it or not i think he does the petruchio a pit bull fight instead. If he's in it, definitely makes it lean a little closer to the buy. But I don't think he is.

So, yeah, we're both selling Mike Green. Or you could just have your cake and eat it too and just do put Patriciaio in the lightweight Grand Prix and just that could be the first round matchup. Wow. Right there. Are you trying to make a M. May fun again, Mike? Are you trying to make M.A.

fight again? Come on. We need it. We need it. Patrick, he's not the champion anymore. So Patricia could just slot his way back up there and try it for the second belt. story rights itself. Or you put them both in the tournament

and we actually have the chance of them fighting each other. That's not going to help. They would never. They would never. Petruchio would never get in the way of that. Would never do it. No way.

All right. What else we got? By yourself, Hamzaa Shamaif gets a title shot, A.K. It could be at 170, could be at 185. Hell. The way they were talking at the end of last year, maybe at 205. Have you seen what this guy looks like?

He's putting on some mass, getting in shape? What are we thinking, AK? Will 2023, B, the year that Hamzaa Chimaa fights for a UFC title. This has to be some kind of course correction because I feel like last year I was saying Comzat would be the welterweight champion or something or at least one of the, some sort of outlandish Comzaa predictions. And listen, our our expectations for him haven't changed that much.

Like anyone who's seen him fight, he's, that Kevin Holland fight was like a weird again, 190 pound whatever and the whole circumstances around the event were just a debacle that were caused by him. But when he gets in the cage, man, this guy is good. Other than Gilbert Burns, who's, again, is amazing taking him to the limit. This dude is just absolute force. And again, I always say that Gilbert Burns fight only made me think higher of his skills because we talk about getting dragging the deep water.

I mean, Burns pushed him to the limit. That fight was frigging awesome. And Hamzat, whether you feel he won or not, he went the distance in an absolute slugfest, a great fight. So he looks like a champion. He should be. If you gave him a title shot this year, I would predict him to be. beat Alex Pereira. I would predict him to beat Leon Edwards. I would predict him, I would predict him to

beat. Well, we don't have a light heavyweight champion, but I'd probably pick him to beat either Glover Toshera or Jamal Hill. And yet, I'm selling, Mike. I'm selling. I don't think he's getting a title shot. I think this guy is, he's got to sort out the weight thing. He's got to sort out, I don't know, all this stuff about how he's always like, oh, nobody wants to fight me. And the UFC saying that nobody wants to fight him when we have all these people publicly calling him out and like two divisions. It's so confusing. There's just a lot going on behind the scenes with Hamzat.

And really it came to a boil with that, with the missing weight incident. It really just had us all going like, what is going on with Hamzat? Is he serious about fighting and fighting in a certain weight class? And it was so bizarre. So it's just a little too much weirdness around his situation for me. Again, he should be a world champion by the end of 2023 in some division. But I just think his situation is so screwy that he's not even going to get a title shot yet. I think he needs to win some fights, put on a show,

keep building that highlight reel and get things sorted. Pick a division. Pick a division. That's a good start. Just please pick a division. Are we going to have a Friends Forever moment right here, A.K.? No, we are not having a Friends Forever Moment. I was queuing up the band.

The answer is yes. He will fight for a title. And more on that, perhaps in round number two. So stay tuned for that. Next question. Let's see. I'm still working on like a multiple. monitors right now. At least I moved

at center so I don't have to look over here. It's so awkward. This is a good question. Buy or sell, at least three Magameds will hold titles in a major MMA organization at the end of 2023, AK. By or so

at least three Magameds. Boy, this is going to go against, again, you mentioned sort of our next thing we have coming out, Mike, but this is probably going to go against my champions futures as it were, but I'm still going to, at least three. You know, I'm going to, when I first saw this question, I was going to buy and then I put more thought into who I thought was going to end our UFC champion predictions.

And so I have to go sell now, I think, because this obviously assumes Megamad and Goliath will be one of them. Oh, does Megamemad, Megamad Karamov count as two Megamets? No. No. It's confusing. I don't know. There's Maga Men, Magamadav too, so there's another one. Technically, if Magamemad Karamov and Megamad Megamadov both win titles, that's four Megamad's, I think.

That's four. That's way over. That's over by far. So I'll go sell. I'll go sell. The Megamad name is in whatever form you see it as is so powerful. But three in major organizations talking UFC, Bellator, PFL and one championship. I don't know if it wants to horizon in there.

I said that's a lot that's a lot to ask for so I'm going to go maybe two tops so I'm going to a tentative cell that's not a super confident cell but I do fall on the cell side so does this does this just include first names or does magomed have to be involved I'm counting any any include if magomed is anywhere in the name I'm counting that as a so so nirmaga made off would work would count oh I mean, I feel like it should. Man, that makes, that makes things. YouTube, what do you guys say?

YouTube, what do you guys say? Go on, go ahead, Mike. I'm going to take a look at what you. You know, I'm going to run a really quick poll here. Oh, get a really quick poll? Hey, we're going live. We're going live. I'm going to run a poll.

All right. You know, Mago Medov. I'll do a quick 60 second poll here. If it's, if they answer to that question is a no, then I'm selling this. if it's a if it's a yes we already have one with usban yep it's already one guaranteed and we both feel like he will end the year as champion so that's one like a lock there's many other nirmaga made-offs in play here okay i'm gonna wait till we have a sample

size of about a hundred i'm gonna go family family feud we pulled 100 people and i'll let you know I have to know what the answer is before I decide. It's leading towards yes. So 55% yes so far. I'm a little surprised because I see the people who are actually commenting saying a lot of people saying no, but the voting, oh, heavily yes now. Heavily yes. I'll let you know. Yeah, but it's definitely leaning to where 50 votes in and it's leaning towards yes.

I'll stop it 100. If this is a no, if this is a no, it's a definite sell because I don't think, I don't think we're going to get three. Just Magomax. Yeah. If it's a yes, it's really close. I almost have to buy this just for, again, the same reason, the same exact philosophy behind the Colby and Mazadol answer of buying that because of just you're giving me both of those options right now.

And now for adding the Nurmaga made off name to it, it's almost like we're both insane if we don't buy this. Sorry, did you name them if we are counting them as Mago Mets? you said, Usman and Goliath. There's Umar, there's Saeed. There's Magamemann and Ghala. I don't think either Umar, I don't think either Umar, I don't think either Umar or Saeed are getting the title shot in 2023.

Maybe. Maybe. That's a deep division. Um, and, uh, Magamemad, Megamon Karamov. Let's not forget he was, uh, going to the PFL playoffs and they had their very, very silly visa situation because they chose to, uh, to surprise the fighters, say, hey, we're holding a card in, uh, in, uh, in the UK. And they're like, what?

We can't travel there. So, Magumben. Mad Mago Med Karamov could have been the BFL like to watch on the championship this year. I assume he's coming back. The vote is almost done, but it looks, Mike, it looks like they're counting their Maga Medovs. So, uh, I think I have to buy this. You like it. You like the by included.

It's, I don't love it, but I feel like I have to play the, the odds here. This is just, now that we're adding a lot more. And I think if we dug a little deeper, we might be able to even add more caveats to this. So I will buy this. with very little confidence, but at least, yeah, I got to play it. It's like I'm getting plus money on a Hamz Atchamaya fight. Sure. I'm ending our poll at 92 votes in.

57% yes, Nirmagomadobs should count as Mago Meds. Okay. All right. Next question. This has been a fun show. The element of surprise is making this. Of course. Oh, I knew this was probably coming at some way.

Buy or sell, Bo, Nickel will be ranked in the top 10. of the UFC's middleweight division by the end of the year, okay? This is our, we had our easiest sell, our easiest sell. The Dylan Dennis was like Will Dylan Downis fight in 2020, right? Easiest sell we've had so far. That was automatic sell that. You're not even getting much for that. You're signing that for a nickel at that point.

This is, I think, our easiest buy so far. Will he be ranked in the top 10? One, the UFC's fake rankings? Yes. And I think he'll be good enough to crack the illustrious. fighting global rankings as well. Let's look at our top 10 now that closed out 2023. And people should remember our global rankings, of course, include other promotions outside

the UFC. So Alex Podeda, number one, followed by Izzy, Robert Whitaker, Marvin Vittori, cannoneer. And then our first Bellator guy, Johnny Evelyn, number six, Belator champion. Brunson and Muniz, tied at seven, Bellator, Skaggard, Musassi at nine, Paulo Costa at 10. So pretty decent top 10, but not a top 10 that is so like, it's hard to crack into there. And unlike some divisions of the UFC, lightweight, I'm looking at you,

we don't have a lot of squatting at middleweight. Like these guys are pretty good about, yes, they fight each other. Sure, they're in the shuffle fighting each other a lot. But they're pretty good about fighting guys ranked below them as well. Bone nickel might be an exception.

I could obviously see guys like Brunson, cannoneer, Paula Costa, like having no interested in wanting to fight a Bo Nickel. I mean, he has, what is he now? Like two and O? Like two pro fights, right? Three and O, I think. Two, it's one of them with amateur, I think, right?

Is he not, is it one of the amateur fight? I got a lot of it. Was this contender series fight? I'm looking it up right now. He's three and now. Yeah, he had one. All right. Pro before, yeah.

And then two contender series. Right, yes, yes. And then two contender series fights. A lot of guys, that's the exception. A lot of guys in the top 10 won't want to fight him. However, so it might be tougher for him to get into the UFC's rankings. I will say that it will be difficult. But I guarantee, I think our global rankings, I think our voters are already pretty high

on Bonickle. He's not got a vote yet. He's not a farve. But I can tell you, our own Jed Mishu, probably after his debut, we'll probably have him, like, throw him right in the top 10. Number three in Jedds, right?

Number three, yeah, after one win over, before Mr. Pickett. I won't go that far if you will know, but I wouldn't be surprised. Like, he's looked so, so, so good. And if we're talking about the end of the year, we can give it 12 months, let's say he has a,

let's say he doesn't fly anyone in the top 10, but goes like 3 and 0, dominant victories. Man, he's going to make my, rankings. He's going to sneak in there. It's a good. Top 15 is looking pretty good right now. Oh, sorry. Excuse me. I mean 185, the top 15 of 185.

He's looking pretty good right now. But he has the talent to get in there. So this said top 10, right? Specifically. Top 10. Top 10. I'm still going to buy. This is the easiest buyer for me. He's going to be in the top 10 of the UFC's rankings and the global rankings by the end of the year. I'm a little torn on this one.

Because it should be. It should be an easy buy. But is he going to get the matchups to get there. That's like how is the UFC looking at him? Are they just going to push him to the moon, set him up to fight for a belt by 2024? Because if that's the case, if they're just going to, let's get this guy to a title shot as fast as possible, even if it takes like two or three fights, then the answer is going to be yes, because they'll give him the favorable matchups to get there. I'm going to sell this. I'm going to sell. He will be ranked. I think he will be ranked. I just don't know if he'll be top 10. I don't know if he'll be top 10. I don't know.

if he's going to get the match. I don't know, I don't know how much time. I don't know how many times he's going to fight. He's going to have to fight. He's going to absolutely have to fight three times this year, at least. Maybe four. I'll sell it. I'm selling it.

Do you think he makes the top, are you saying either ranking? And you don't think he's, you think it'll be tougher to get into the top 10 of both, both the global rankings and the UFC's official rankings. With Jedmishu involved, I think he has a better chance of getting in the global rankings at top 10. Because we talked about the area of grievances. We tend to favor potential a little bit as a point to raise rankings. And obviously, his is incredibly high.

But he will be ranked. Like I'm not saying he won't be ranked. I just don't know if he'll be top 10. Like April 2024, he's probably inside the top 10. I just don't know if he's going to have enough fights against enough quality competition to get him a top 10 rank. ranking. Could he be like the 13th best? Sure. I just don't know if he'll be a top 10 guy. So potential through the roof. I just don't know if he's going to have enough time and enough

proper fights to get him to number 10 or better. It'll be a fun one to revisit as we said, because we're probably going to go like, you know, if he's in one of the rankings, not the other rankings, we're going to say, does that count as a, you know, a successful buy? I, by the way, I will keep track people of Mike Hex voting because if it's close and he's like near into the top 10, I will make sure that Mike Heck does not tamper with the voting to keep Bo Nickel out of no way. I don't know. I'm just saying you might want to get another buy on your, like a successful buy on your record in your portfolio. And I don't know what links.

You're my best friend. You know, I love you. But I don't know what lengths you'll go to. So I will be keeping a close eye on your voting. If he ends up at 11 because Mike Heck, like, excluded him from the ballot or put him way lower than there. I'm just saying, I don't, you, I don't. Let me tell you how this all works. Two weeks from now, I'm going to forget we even.

did this show. And then in December, I'm going to go back and listen to it and be like, oh, yeah, we talked about that. So it happens every single time. No, you're right. You're right. You're right. You're not that conniving. Oh, good question. By yourself, Chris Wydenman makes his incredible return and goes at least two and oh in 2023, AK. This is the second easiest sell of the show. No, he's not. Chris Wyman, I'm such a huge Chris Wyman fan. I have been, I mean, probably since a little bit before he came to the UFC. I mean, just from what people were saying about him and hyping him up,

I was like, yeah, this guy's the real deal. And then you saw him fighting. You're like, this is serious. So it seems like a super nice guy. His injury was just heartbreaking. And I know it's been a really difficult recovery. So I'm super excited to see him return in 2023. I do think he fights.

But one, I'd be surprised if he fought more than once. Again, he's of the age where I think he has to be a bit picky with what he wants to do with his opponents. I must say opponent choices. He has to be picky with that, the kind of schedule he keeps. Because keep mind, he's not just coming back from injury. This is a long layoff, man. It's tough to come, like, to get back into that busy fighting mode.

And taking two fights a year is, I know, I'm all of people saying, well, you know, a lot of guys fight three, four times a year. But again, he's a little bit older. He's a little bit older. And I don't think he's ever been the type of guy to be super busy in the cage. Let's look at, let's a quick look before, obviously before the injury. And, you know, when you're champion, that slows down your schedule a little bit, but before the injury he fought once in 2020, once in 2019, once in 2018.

So what you're saying is not counting the injury year, he's going to have to fight twice, two times in the year for the first time in four years. It just seems unlikely to me. The year before that, he only fought twice, 2016 only fought once. He's not an active fighter as it is. Now he's coming off injury, long lap. And he has to win two fights. if they gave him like the right competition fine but you're probably throwing right back there with someone in the top 20 and like I said middleweight's kind of healthy right now it's not like filled of like easy wins in the top 20 like outside the top 10 just say this is a second easiest sell for me besides the Dylan Dennis question love Chris hope he comes back hope he gets a win I don't think he's fighting twice I definitely don't think he's winning twice will he return yes will he give us maybe the best moment of 2023 yes will he

he win his fight? Yes. Will he finish his opponent? Yes. Will he fight again after that in 2023? No. So if this question was Chris Wyden makes a return and goes one and oh in 23, I would buy this. But for almost the same reasons that you're giving, I just don't think he'll fight twice. I think he will come back for one. And it's going to be a moment where the UFC sets him up to succeed, at least to the best of their ability and to have this incredible moment because I think we all know why. But yeah, I think he does come back. I think he wins.

I think it's an awesome moment. But I think it'll be a one fight. That's it. UFC, don't drop the ball on this. Do not throw him in there with someone in like the top 10. I get it. He has name value. And I'm sure he-

If you throw him in there with Bo-Nichol, at any point this year, I swear, I mean, I'm not going to do anything because I write about M. May and I'm a fan. I'm not going to stop watching. Who am I kidding? I'll shake my fist. angrily and I'll write a very

biting tweet. I will tell you, oh, you watch out, UFC, if you'd make that matchup, I will tweet at you so hard. With all of my finger strength, I will tweet at you. From hell's Twitter account, I shall stab at the,

all right? I'm sorry. I apologize to the, I got to calm down. I'm sorry, guys. Wow. Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so worked up.

Who knew? Who knew the Chris Wydenman feel-good question would lead to that response. I could get a sued, Mike. I applaud from making threats like that. Public on video. Casey, can we edit that out of the podcast and the video later? So we can get sued for that.

I really apologize. Incredible. Wow. All right. What else we go? Oh, wow. Okay. Buy or sell AK.

These are always the fun ones. Three or more of these names will no longer be on the UFC roster before the end of the year. Tony Ferguson, Calvin Gastilum, Robbie Lawler, Dominic, Stipe Meachich. Three or more of these names at years end will not be on the roster. Whether it's straight up release, they fight out their deal, UFC doesn't resign them, retirement, all of those things in play.

They will just no longer be on the roster. Yeah. Whoever sent this in, great names. Like, they pick great names. Perfect question. Yeah, there's not a name on there who I'm like, oh, I'm sure they're going to stay or I'm sure they're going to, all these people are right on that.

right on that fence of like, yeah, I could see them continuing fighting for another two years. I could see them retiring by like by April. Man, they're all like, good job, whoever sent this one in. Three or more, three or more. So at least three. Mike, should we go case by case? Should we break this down? Should we go case by case name by name and see what we come up with?

We can. Okay. What do you think, Tony? Let's go Tony. I think he will be on the roster by the end of the year. You think he will be, okay, I am also leaning towards Tony. So they will stay. So that's one.

Yeah, we'll not retire. So that's one. That's one for both of us. Calvin Gosselman. So he is main eventing against Nasardine Imovov this coming Saturday. I don't think that fight's going to go well for him at all. I will say he is not on the roster by the end of the year. You think maybe they part ways?

Because he's, what will that be now, like four, quite a few consecutive losses for Mr. Gossel. Yeah, let me pull it up because we talked about this on the airing of grievance episode. Three straight one and six since the, including, I'm sorry, including the Adisania fight since 2019. So including the Adisania fight, the loss that started. So since 2017, he lost to Chris Wyden, the Bisbing win, which, come on now, the Jacaree win, which a lot of people actually felt like he didn't deserve, then losses to Adisania. I mean, look, I think that fight in particular has given him such good grace overall that they might, the leash is definitely longer. No doubt about it.

Darren Till fight was what it was, gets tapped by Hermanson just over a minute. Ian Heinish, who's one in four in his last five, he beat, lost to Whitaker, lost a cannon in the year. Seemov fight's probably not going to go well. And look, the competition's been pretty damn good. but I just feel like 1 and 6 over 7 he'll be 3 and 7 over his last 10 without a

who's I mean I'm trying to think if there's Bisbing would be a top 15 win but that was his retirement fight Jack Carrary is probably bottom end to the top 15 at that point Heinish was not ranked I don't think so I just don't know what else is for him and I don't think he's going to want to cut to

170 because I think that's probably where like most of his late career success would come from. And it's like we talk, what's crazy about this is we talk about Calvin Gassum like he's 40 years old right now. He's 31. Like he's 31.

He won't be 32 till October. Which is crazy to think about. But I just don't know. I don't know if the, he's fought for it for an interim title. So he's probably making decent money. I just don't know. Like if he loses his fight convincingly to

aim of off to kind of put him over maybe he has one more maybe throw maybe that's a good bow nickel fight right there maybe you keep him around for for bow on the way up yeah that could maybe that could get boat to the top 10 so but like you said before the end of the like that could still that could be the fight that they use them and then happy trails and and look Calvin i'm not saying Calvin is not a good fighter like he's he's he could be a good fight I think for some fighters just eat a fresh coat of paint and maybe a different promotion different layout, different roster, different ownership, just different, less pressure perhaps out of the limelight,

but still somewhat in the limelight, that could do well. Like if Kevin Gasolm joined the PFL as a middleweight, I think he could do pretty well. If he went to Bellator, he could beat a lot of the top rank guys at Bellator. He would be a pretty good name to have on the roster. Yeah, I'm going to say, I think Gason will be off the UFs roster. I'm not saying he's out of M.A.

I think he'll be off the roster by the end of the end of the year. So let's say Tony is still on the roster, Calvin. So we're one in one so far. Robbie, I weirdly think he's sticking around another year. I don't know why. I just don't have this feeling that this is the last we see of him on the UFC roster. I think there's still exciting fights for him. I think he hasn't been able to get there.

We've had a few cancellations over the last few years. You know, they've been booking him. They've been booking him, right? A lot of these fights have just fallen through. He still wants to compete. I don't think he's, I think he wants to stay. in there as long as he can and we know the company loves him. So maybe you push this as 2024.

I think it could go even further. I just think Robbie's just going to be around, fighting once a year for a while. So that to me is I'm picking him to stay. I am also picking him to stay. Okay. Because he has, it's just talking to him. You don't get a ton from Robbie Lawler,

but he doesn't be Escher either. Like he's got Bull Durham-like answers to certain questions. but when it comes to what he wants and what his career looks like, he only's even said, he said it a million times, I'm going to only take fights that get me fired up. Like fights that get me excited. If they offer me somebody who doesn't get me excited,

I'm just not going to fight. He'll just say no. But if there's a fight that gets him excited, he'll say yes, and it'll take it seriously and I'll train hard and he'll get after it. I'm sure he knows at this point. He's not fighting for a world title. He's just doing it because he likes to do it.

And he needs that extra push to get him in the gym and get him working really, really, really hard. So I do think he'll be on the roster at the end of the year because he's not going to be asking for too much. He's just going to go in there and they're going to offer him fights. He'll say yes. He'll say no.

And yeah, I think he'll fight maybe once this year and be fine with that. So I think Laller will still be on the roster. Okay. So we're on two stays right now, Tony and Robbie and one one parting ways, Calvin, Dominic Reyes, I think he'll be gone. I think I just don't. know if he has if he can pull that trigger anymore he's had to face some tough competition no question but we talked about he's a classic case of a guy we're talking about maybe he just needs

a step back brian span is a very good fighter is was he was the step back ryan span was the step back from yury from yon from john jones and it just did not end well for dominic reyes a really talented guy no question man like and again if you put him in there with you know light heavy weights outside of the top 20. Sure, he's probably still picking up some knockouts here and there, but I don't know how far down you have to go now and how much it's worth his time, his investment, the UFC's investment in him. He's 30. He just turned 33. It's not like super old, but there's somewhere in there from MMA, from previous sports has competed in. I have a feeling it's either retirement or release from the UFC this year for Dominic careers. Listen, maybe he can bounce back on another

promotion but i think it's i will i'm going to add him to i'm going to even up the the releases and keeps here and i'm going to say dominic uh is not not with the uc by the end of this year yeah because i think whatever fight he gets next it's going to be against an absolute he's going to have to fight like a cleo round tree or somebody like that like and that's just not fun for anybody let alone dominic ray is so yeah i think they'll give him one more and if it doesn't go well they'll part ways and I don't think that'll be the end of his career. Again, maybe Dominic just needs a fresh coat of paint,

a different promotion, different stakes, different layout, whether it's PFL or Belator, even one champion, who knows, but yeah, I'm with you.

So, but Stepe, this is probably the, this worked out perfectly, Mike. This worked out perfectly. The decider right here, Stepe,

whether you're buying or selling. So we're two and two. Steep A is interesting because, I'm fully convinced he never fights again. I don't think he ever fights again. And I don't think he needs to and I don't think he really wants to. And I think the only thing that could get him back

is a John Jones fight which by all accounts was on the table, a Francis fight, but for Bucco dollars. Like so much, like it just life-changing, cannot say no to this money. And I don't think he's going to get it. I just, I think,

I don't think he's going to get it. I don't think he's going to be able to have his cake and eat it to at this point. I think he's very happy with where he's at in life. I think he's very happy of what his careers looked like. A lot of people consider him the greatest heavyweight in UFC history. Some, I've heard some people say and tweet out and comment that he's the greatest heavyweight of all time. He's coming.

I mean, I just don't know if he's going to get everything he wants. I think he gets the opponent. He's not going to fight Curtis Blades. He's not going to fight Sergey Pavlovich. He's not going to fight Alexander Romanov. He's not going to fight Cyril Ghan. Like he's going to fight Jones or he's going to fight Ghanu and he's going to want to make a ton of money to do it.

And I just don't think he's going to get all of those things that he wants. And I think he'll be just fine, just not fighting. The question is whether or not he remains, if it's just a quiet, just not fight. and he stays on the roster or if there's just an outright release or parting of ways. And that's where I'm torn on this because I don't think steep fights again. But it's just a matter of like, does the UFC play hardball and just like, okay, don't fight. We're just going to keep you on the roster and you can't do anything else in the combat world. So steep will be on the roster at the end of the year, but he will not fight this year.

Okay, okay. We landed on the same page then because I was going to say, yes, he will also, so we're both, you know what, we did the math. We did our due diligence. We're both buying this stock. We've looked at, we did a lot of, we had to do a lot of looking into this stock and we are buying, we're both investing in this stock because, yes, I agree. I'm selling. No, I'm selling this. No, you said, you said he'll, oh, three days will no longer be. Yeah, so we're selling. I'm sorry, we're selling. We're both selling. We think Tony, Robbie, Robbie. Stepe, three of these names will be on the roster before the end of the year. So, yeah, we are selling. Everything moves slower at heavyweight. Mike, we know this. So Stepe, I think you're right, is pretty much one and a half, one and four toes out the door. But, Jess, you're right. It's still kind of like, you know, just going about this business, has that, has that call, you know, that phone nearby waiting like, oh, hey, they're going to, if a big fight comes long, yeah, of course I'm going to say yes.

So, you know, get that paycheck. And he's going to wait. He's going to wait and wait and wait. It's going to wait six months. He's going to wait 12 months. He's going to wait until 2024. And even then, who know, I don't know how long it's going to take for him to finally say, you know what?

I'm essentially done with fighting, barring something crazy, but otherwise consider me retired. It won't happen this year. It's going to take a lot of time. It's going to drag out. It's been dragging out. And that will continue. So, yeah, we're selling. All right.

That's a good one. Take a couple more. These are some really good questions. Oh, they're so good. Yeah. I wish we could read them all. there's just so many worse good ones that didn't buy or sell over two and a half current ufc ranked fighters we'll see the million dollar prize in pfl and sign with them now last year we

had a similar question at least three currently ranked fighters in january 2021 would sign with the pfl in 2022 and at the time we both bought this and we were both correct because shame burgo's aspen lad mara rice at the time had not retired yet and all of them signed with the pfell So, and we didn't even look inward any further than that. Just those throughout the bad nailed it. So same number here. Over two and a half current UFC ranked fighters will sign with the PFL in 2023. I'm oddly skeptical this time.

I don't know why. It's an even technically, well, no, it's essentially the same question. What do you think more than more than two and a half? So three, do you think three people? I'm oddly skeptical. Maybe because I feel like there's been a little bit of a year. youth movement or some positive movement for up-and-coming fighters and the UFC's divisions this year, at least the ones that they share with the PFL that would make sense for those fighters

jumping over. So this time, I'm going to go sell. I'm going to go sell. I think it'll be, I think two, I think we could see two. No names are immediately jumping to my mind. I'm kind of just grabbing that number. I'm also not looking at their official rankings. I have our rankings open, and obviously that's a little different. There's going to be some names in there. And the, you know, even on the fringes of the U.S.C. Top 15 that are more likely to make this jump. So I'm going to go with two. If I'm forgetting any obvious names, people in the comments, please shout them out on YouTube. But Mike, I'll go sell this time.

I'm looking at them now as well. I'll buy this. I'll buy this. Because, I mean, we're talking one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, twelve, thirteen. 12, well, 12. We're talking 12 divisions with 15 people in it. And three of them. By the way, Kelvin Gasselm is ranked in the UFC's middleweight rankings.

So I'm just putting that out there. So you're saying, yeah. I believe Paul Costa. Yeah, Paul Costa is still ranked in the rankings. That's the popular one, right? Everyone wants to see what Paula would do in a PFL tournament, whether he could do light heavyweight, right? He wouldn't even have to cut weight.

He could go do light heavyweight tournament, right? That's the beauty of it and probably do very well if we're, you know, You know, if we're gauging polo-cats of skills trick, we probably do all right. Dominic Reyes is ranked, number 13. Sure, sure. And then there's others as well. There's, man, yeah, I'll buy this. I think we'll get, I think we'll get three out of one.

100s. He's not ranked. So, yeah, I'll buy it. I'll buy this. Because the UFC can't hold on to, they're just not going to be able to hold on to every single one of them. And PFL is going to be a very popular. free agency option. Yeah.

If this hits again, two years in a row, this could be our new, for anyone who watches, no bets bar. This could be our version of flyweight overs, Mike. It's like every year, always take the over on how many ranked

UFC fighters will go to the, like, maybe I'm being too careful here. Maybe I'm doing like a 50-50 thing, right? Just don't believe that it's going to happen two years in a row. But if it does,

because it could be our flyweight overs. Every year you could see two or three or four ranked UFC people heading over to the PFL. It's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea. Okay. Next. If any.

Oh, okay. A current champ from one of Bellator PFL or one championship signs of the UFC by the close of the year. So a current champion from Bellator, PFL or one signs with the UFC this year. Okay. I'm so tempted to say yes because I really, I know it's very likely never going to happen. This man's very happy where he is. I so, so badly want to be sure Johnson to return to the UFC and, you know, fight Figurato, fight Brandon Marino, fight this amazing new crop of flyweight.

He's got decent competition over there in one. But with respect to all those guys, it's just not compared to the division that the UFC has built up at 125. It's so, so good. So, I mean, that would be my dream pick. But again, he's never made any indication. He's like, he's a, Demer's Johnson has ever said he hates the UFC. He's just, you know, made no indication that he's been unhappy since moving to one. If anything, he sounded very happy since moving to one.

And in all, you know, reality, it's, he stays there. He finished his career there. But I would love to see that happen. Looking at everyone else, PFL, I think who's gone the other way? What does I have? Philip Lins did it. He went from PFL to the UFC. So PFL is certainly possible.

I can see like what, Bruno Capolo. Is this a current? Oh, current. Who is our PFL? Olivia and O'Bin-Mersier, he's not going back. Brendan Lachene would be hilarious. I would love to see that. You know what?

I'm speculating so much. I'm going by. I'm going by. Yeah, that's a pretty wide range of champions. Belterer PFL won by close of 2020. One of them, yes, I will go by. I will go by. That's a wide range.

Okay. So a current champ. So it could be Pacheco, Locknain, Antigelijah, OAM, Sadabousai, Rob Wilkinson. And then for one, there's Bueller, Malkin, RDR, Christian Lee, Tankai, DJ, Jared Brooks. That would be any, Jared Brooks would be an interesting one. Jung Nanganaan, Angela Lee, don't see it. Belator Bader, Nemcoff, Eblen, Amosov, Storley, Usman, Petricio, Pettistotz, Cyborg, Carmuch.

I'm so torn. But I have to go with math. I got to go with the numbers game again. So I will buy this, but again, this is a, this is just straight. I have a bunch of options to choose from. And I feel like one of the PFL champs could probably sneak in there with like just a normal. I don't know why they would do that though, to be honest. I'm changing my mind.

I'm selling this. It's not happening. Not happening. So many potential names, Mike. So many potential names. There's certain times math comes into play here, but I think with kind of all the uncertainty going on at the UFC right now, I think it's going to, at least for a little while,

I think it's for some of these other established names and these other promotions, I don't think it's going to be just as easy as getting a call from one of the UFC matchmakers say, yes, my dream is to fight there. I think there might be a, I think it might be a little tougher in 2023, if we're being honest. So I'll say you can almost rule out Bellator, right? Who was the last Bellator champion to go over to the UFC? It's not a frequent thing, is it? Was it Will it Will Brooks?

Was he the last one? Or I guess Chandler, Chandler, Chandler. But he wasn't the current champion though Oh you're saying current yeah no I'm just looking at like really any former champion going to the UFC And it's like even that's not a long list It's really not a long list of people so yeah I mean They're good Beltor is good at retaining their champions

I mean that is one thing they do they do retain them So yeah maybe I'm maybe I'm looking at the math wrong You mean we can kind of rule out Belator But I don't know predicting some kind of weirdness So I'll stay on the opposite side of the fence here Another just fantastic question though I'll take like two more because I want to get to the other stuff.

Oh, right. We've got to give our, oh, gosh. I'd rather just keep doing these. By yourself. Wow. All right. So I saw a couple different questions. One was, maybe we'll just combine them here.

Patty Pimble gets a knock. We'll go with this. Patty Pimble gets knocked unconscious in a UFC fight in 2020. The other question I saw was, Patty Pimble will have a losing record in 20. Or the question was, Patty Pimble will have a winning record. in 2023. So,

I or Sally gets knocked unconscious in a UFC fight in 20, 23, A.K. Sell, sell. He's really, he's, again, he's got that young man's chin. He's really tough to knock out. I think anyone who's watched his fight seen, like, he gets hit pretty hard. One I think is a good chin. I think his defense is, it's not great, obviously,

because he gets hit quite a bit. But it's good enough, good enough to avoid getting knocked out. This definitely depends on who you think. he's getting matched up with. There's definitely some people in the top 10 that if, God forbid, they threw him in there with them, would probably knock him into another country. But for now, I think they're still going to play it pretty smart with him.

And even if they put him in there with a heavy hitter, not someone who's like guaranteed to land that, that kill shot, as it were. So pretty easy sell for me. Like, I don't think he gets straight up caoed. This, by the way, rules out TKO as well. TKO early stoppage. I am looking at this as a.

straight up knockout. Like we're talking like humpy, dumpy fall. You know what I mean? Like face down, ass up in the air or spread eagle on the ground, whatever, slumpting is the cage, like really nasty highlight,

real stuff. I know a lot of people want to see it. Not, not yet. Nothing is happening. Yeah, I don't think so. Even if like,

even if they make the fight with Ilya, I think I'll stop them, but I don't think he knocks him. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I'll sell this. The other question was,

will he have a winning record? I'm selling that. Because one in one is not a winning record. So even if he wins a fight, loses a fight, it's not a winning record. So I will sell that he does not have a winning year in 2023. Yeah,

I'll, I will sell the winning years. Well, yeah, I agree. I could see him either having some bad luck, again, going up considerably in competition and finally running to guys

that he just can't beat and going like one and two or as you said, one and one. you know, which technically not a winning record. But yeah, I can't see him going two and one, three and oh in 2020. But who knows? He's been pretty good so far.

Have we had a Conner-Berreger question yet? No, thank goodness. Is it coming? Oh, there, okay. Oh, there it is. There it is. Buy yourself, Connor McGregor's next fight will either be international fight week or at MSG. I mean, is this even a 20-23 question?

Does this assume he fights in, this is a 2020? Like this assumes in 2023, right? Yeah. I don't know. Listen, I'm going to get more into this later. But like, I'm not making, I don't want to make any predictions for Connor McGregor or John Jones until I'm convinced that they're in a training camp, actually preparing for a fight because, I mean, Conner's a whole other thing.

Conner just got this whole other level of like celebrity where you just, you wonder, does he even care about fighting anymore. He talks about it as much as Dylan Danis and fights about as often as Dylan Danis. So at what point do we stop like analyzing these questions with any sort of seriousness, with any sort of actual critical thinking? I'm just going to go sell. I'm just going to go sell. I don't think he fights.

I don't even know if he's going to fight this year. And to whatever his schedule is, I don't know if it's going to fall conveniently into International Fight Week or the Madison Square Garden cards. So that's a sell for me. Just no, I don't even want to think about it. It's crazy to think about that. even had to ask that question like do we even have we even answered a conner question because all the years we've done this even when he was out there were like a million connor questions yeah this is a

good sign we're trending in the right direction but i will buy i will buy this because they're not just gonna like chuck them on like some rando card like he's it's going to be one of these two i think monkton monkton bring connor to monkton yeah it's gonna be yeah it's jupiter jupiter Jupiter, Florida, UFC Jupiter, Conner McGregor headlines. Send him to another planet. I think this is a very big year for the UFC, especially with the way it started. They need to deliver something memorable.

And Connor is a big part of those plans. So I will buy this and he will fight on either of these two cards. See, but that's why I think this year, they're even less inclined to bring in the Connor McGregors and the John Jones's These super unreliable guys. Like these are the last guys I'd be relying on to help, you know, bounce back, give us a bounce back from bad PR.

How about this? I say he fights on both cards in 2023. Whoa, Super buy. A super buy. We've never had that. We've never had that before, Mike. You can't just do it.

You can't invent that. You can invent a super buy on the spot. Because by all indications as well, he's only got two fights left on his deal. and if he comes back, he's just going to want to domino those. Just boom, boom, get on out. Go fight Jake Paul, go to PFL, go box Nate,

go fight Nate on your own and make all the books, all the mullah. This would be interesting. I'm not confident in that pick at all, but I think if he fights on one, he fights on the other. My best friend, that is a prediction. That's a bye.

This is probably your favorite question right here. John Jones and Connor fight three or more times combined in 2023. I have to buy this now because I super-bond. I didn't know this question. This is the, listen, we have a new winner of the easiest sell of this year. This is easier than the Dylan Dennis. Dylan Dennis might fall ass backwards in some random like combat jiu-jitsu thing,

all right, by accident. Like he might show up and then just like throw him in for some exhibition fight, you know. There's three, sorry, can I see the question? Three or more times combined. Get out of here. Get the hell out of here. I have to buy this now. I have to.

Now you have to because you think John Jones will fight and you think Connor will fight twice. So you're pot committed, my friend. You accidentally, you super bought so hard. You accidentally invested in something else without even realizing it. It's easy sell for me. There's no, there's no way. I'm not even convinced both of guys fight once each. I think maybe one of them will fight.

I don't know. Easy sell. I got like 32 big blinds left, so I have to push him. Yeah, I'm pocketed. Let's go. Do we have anything else? Or are we ready for the? the UFC championship predictions.

I think we can move on to the prediction. Okay. All right. Thank you, Casey. Great job. Thank you, Casey. Thank you. It's so much better that way.

How did we not think of this before? And thank you to all the listeners, by the way. So now, A.K., because those questions were, those are probably the best crop we've ever gotten. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress.

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Let's go UFC champions. We'll start with the ladies. Ladies first. Who will be the UFC Women's Strawway champion at the end of 2023, A.K. Let me just let you guys know. My women's champion UFC picks are going to be super boring. So start off right away, Zhang Wei Li. I think she's, I'm a believer that if the time is right for her to have this dominant run.

Yeah, Rose, listen, she has to fight Rose again. Rose is getting a title shot whenever Rose decides to come back. She has two wins over Zhang Wei Li. Fine, more than deserved. But I think this version of Shang beats whatever version of Rose shows up for their next fight. She got her with the head kick in that first fight. And look, it's not a fluke in any way. Rose, the better fighter that night.

The second fight, super close. Whether you thought Rose won, whether you thought Zhang won, there's no question that you could believe that Zhang could beat her. It was a very, very, very close fight. And then obviously, Zhang's performances since have only reinforced what a powerful straw weight she is and what a truly dominant champion she could be. And I think she is going to go that run for as long as she wants to stay at 115. So I like her winning the Rose rematch, getting another sneak into the title defense in there.

And again, maybe putting together like a GSP like second run because let's not forget, GSP his first title fight defense lost to Matt Sarah and then went on to become the greatest of all time. I think Zhang could do a similar thing and become put together one of the greatest runs by a women's champion in anime history. I'm going to Zhang Wei as well. I don't know if she fights Rose. maybe she fights Rose again. I'm not sure. Because again, we don't know what Rose is going to do.

Rose is teased a possible move to 125. We don't know how many fights Rose just has left in her. She has like an in-out relationship with MMA. She's told me that she wants to do a lot more grappling competition. So not really sure what's going to happen there. She wanted to lift a lot of weights, change her frame a little bit. Who knows what that means? I mean, there's Amanda Lamos there.

Always the just-gand-drage fight, which I would love to see again since the first home, just it wasn't never really got going jang just kind of trucked her um so i'm going with jang way i think those two losses arose were so crucial for her and i think she's turned that corner and she was super good anyways but i think now she's really turned the corner into being soon in that conversation of maybe she's the greatest trout weight of all time it's not a two horse race she enters that conversation as well probably won't be in that conversation by the end of year, but at least she's on that road to possibly like 2024. I think she's also not the most active fighter on the planet.

So I think she'll fight twice and win both for her fights, still the champion. Women's flyweight, I assume we're on the same page here and other friends forever. Is it Valentina or are you going somewhere else? A big time friends forever is definitely Valentina. I mean, I just mentioned Zhang potentially going on a historic title run. Valentina is in the middle of historic tellerun, and I don't know if people, I mean, I would assume she definitely realizes,

like she's close to breaking the record. The record is what, Mighty Mouse 10 or 11? It's the record. What's the record? 11. 11. 11. So she has four, four consecutive.

And I believe she's going to be there as long as she wants to. I know everyone's saying, well, maybe she goes up to 135 and it goes for a champ champ or and then which never really would result in her probably abandoning the 125 division. I don't know if, one, I don't know if that fight, the third fight with Noon is ever happening. We talk about it a lot, but it really feels like it's just not something that the UFC's pushing towards. And again, the second fight was terrible.

I understand why. And there's still fresh blood at 125. We've mentioned this on many, many, many shows. Aaron Blanchfield, Casey O'Neill. I know I'm just, I'm forgetting another, Mano Fioro. She has challengers. She has challenges who people are interested in.

Now, because some of these fighters eventually beat her, sure. I know people think Aaron Blanchfield is champion, you know, waiting to happen, but I don't think she's at that level yet. Talasanto's rematch has to happen as well. I would favor Valentina in that rematch. She could go for the record. Imagine her putting, like the next couple of years, putting together 12 consecutive title defenses.

Hard to do. Hard to do. Again, everyone loses. is that, you know, Demetius Johnson. He didn't just vacate the title. You know, he lost a really close decision to Sehudo. Maybe that happens to Valentina down the road. Again, this flyway division has fresh contenders.

And eventually someone's not going to miss and is going to have that night. Talasadoz almost did. But if we're talking just this year, Montana, stay at 125, keep casting checks, keep rocking up title defenses. She'll be the champ this time when we're talking in 12 months. Valentina Schozochenko is the correct answer. And she will also be.

the correct answer. And I'm going to make a bold prediction right now. This is not the Mui Kaliante prediction. This will be the last year of Valentina is the name on that list. Hmm. Because she is going to be the Bannamway champion at the end of the year as well, I, okay. I went down this road last year.

I didn't get the opportunity to see this come to fruition because the UFC didn't book Nuneshe of Chanko for whatever reason. But I kind of feel like you have to do it now. You have to. because I just don't know how many I just don't know how much more Nunes has left and who else is she gonna fight

like I feel like you have to do it now so I'm going Chofchenko double champ at the end of the year and who knows I think she probably will drop the flyway belt and just be like I'm a 35 or now like bring it on but I think she'll

I think this year they have to put this fight together they have to do it and I'm picking Chef Chanko to beat him in and Nunez so I'm going to gone with it again. I didn't get my chance to cash this in last year, but I'm going to try again. Shevchenko flyweight, Shevchenko Bantamweight. Damn. Like I said, I don't know if they do that fight or she even needs to go up. There's just, there's just good fights for a 125. So I'm sticking with Amanda Nunes.

My only, I think we've said this was previous predictions. The only caveat would be is Amanda says, listen, I've done enough. I'm walking away. I'm vacating the title. And then we end up with like Getland Baerra or Holly Holm or something as a champion at the end of the year after winning a vacant title. And wouldn't the fans love that? So I don't, but I don't think she retired. I think she defends the Bantamway title one time, enjoys the money that comes with that one title defense, chills out for another year, and then retirement, 24 or even later.

But I'm done predicting Nunes retirement. Not saying it can't happen, but I think I've suggested it a few times, both in 2021 and 2020. So enough of that. Maybe this will be the year. I don't predict it and it happens, but whatever. I'm planning it safe. She's a champ by the end.

I'm going Amanda Nunes still the featherweight champion because I don't think she will have retired yet. Didn't even include this on my list. Yeah. So there you're. Let's go. Let's go to the men. We'll start at 125 pounds. The belt is on the line.

Unification boat, Davis and Figurato, Brandon Moreno. Part four, the Tetralogy is on. Will either of those men, AK, be champion at the end of the year? Yeah, look at the name I put down here. and I'm not going to lie first of all I may have done this for the fans but before I say what it is let me preface it by saying uh I do think this is chance Davidson moves up to 135 so that kind of removes him from the equation even if he beats brandon merino he's going to vacate may vacate go up it's a tough weight cut it's tough weight cut phantomweight's a fun division he'd love to get in there and mix it up then so then that keeps brandon at 125 I don't think he's moving he might I don't know he could in the future but I'm pretty sure he stays in 125 and you know has to fight for a vacant title has to It's a deep division.

I don't know if Brandon necessarily beats everyone else in that division. It's just so tough. There's five or six names. You throw them in there depending on the matchup, depending on the night. I would pick them to potentially be champion. Mnell Cop's in there. People know I'm not the biggest Mel Cop's fan. I don't know.

On the right night, you throw him in there with Brandon Moreno. It's not crazy to me that he could beat Brandon Marino and become a champion or interim champion or win a bacon belt. So I went a little weird here, Mike. I went a little funny. I've been fighting this. Mike, I've been fighting this for a long time because saying it, makes me uncomfortable.

Oh! But he's on a good run. He's on a good run. I think if we can just get his fights to stay together, we might see Brandon Royval be the champion by the end of the year somehow. And that means a 2023, it could be the year of the raw dog. That's unbelievable.

That's incredible. That's all I have to say, Mike, go ahead. I love your answer so much. And I weighed this out. and I almost did the exact same thing. The problem is, I just, the way I think January 21st plays out

will be kind of a roadblock for him because I think Brandon Moreno is going to win that fight. And I think Brandon will probably fight once more against somebody. And I think he'll avoid like the Amir al-Bazis of the world because I think that's probably really one of the more dangerous matchups for him stylistically. So in the end,

I'm sticking with Brandon Moreno. to end the year as the champion, but boy, oh boy, is that a really tough pick? And I just don't know if they'll go to the Moreno, Roy Val fight that quickly. So Moreno figure just going to beat the hell out of each other. So he's not fighting three times this year. So I'm going with Brandon Moreno to beat the champion.

And let me add, let me add. I think in the last year's bowl predictions, I picked Pantoja. So maybe I just didn't want to pick Pantosian back-to-back years. But I also think there's a definite possibility that guy finally gets his title shot and wins it. Yeah. But officially, year of the raw dog.

I'm not going back from it. I may maybe, maybe I was just early on Pantoja and maybe I should have stuck with it. But I'm just going to change my answer. It's more fun. It's more fun to say it. The men's divisions, like you can make a case that all,

that there will not be a current champion being still champion at the end of this year. And that leads us to the random weight division, AK. This could be really, really interesting. Flyweight is interesting. We've got Mateus Nicolao is in that conversation as well. If he gets re-signed, there's lots of options. at 125. There are a ton of options at 135 as well. Currently, the champion is Al Jermaine Sterling.

He does not have his next title defense booked. Seems like they're heading towards the Henry Sehudo path, which you know I love so much. There's Sean O'Malley. There's other names as well. Who will be the guy at 135 in your opinion? I'm sticking with Aljo holding onto it and maybe only fighting once in 23, like one title defense. I just got this weird feeling even if the Sehudo matchup happens, the MMA gods will justifiably laugh at it and make something happen so that fight doesn't come around, either some sort of injury to Sterling, injury to Sohudo, some sort of illness, just some reason that fight doesn't happen. I don't care for it.

If it happens, it's certainly interesting. But, you know, him getting in, Sehudo getting an immediate title shot is just so uninteresting to me, despite the fact that I engage, I get it. It's a cool thought. But man, even for someone who calls belts props, I need a little more convincing than that to give Zahudo another shot. But whether that happens or not,

I do feel like Aljo will have a successful defense, whether it's against Sohudo, whether it's against O'Malley, whether it's against, I don't know, someone else who sneaks in there, the winner of the Sanhagen, a Cheeto matchup, I don't know. You know, maybe that fight happens instead.

I just have a weird feeling that Aljo doesn't end up fighting more than once in 2020. And whoever he fights, he is going to beat them. And then we just get that one title of offense. So sorry, guys, not the most exciting answer. I love Bantamite. I would love to see Bantamite.

Keep moving. I'd love to see the top of it. Keep moving. But I just have a feeling at the top. It's going to be a little bit of weirdness, a little stagnation. So that's good for Aljo. He'll still be the champ. Not so great for us as fans as we might not get to see a new champ.

Weirdness indeed, A.K., that's what I'm going with. And this will not be a friend's forever moment. And not for the reason you think. Al Jermaine Sterling will not be the Bannamway champion at the end of the year. However, he will also not lose that title on his own, well, technically he will on his own accord, but it won't be in a fight. Al Jermaine Sterling will probably fight Henry Suhudo. I'm picking Al Jameen Sterling to beat Henry Suhudo. He will stick around a Bannamway to fight Sean O'Malley because he'd be a lunatic if he did not do that and try to get that big bag because that's the biggest fight for him at 135.

I will pick him to beat Sean O'Malley. And then when he gets the microphone and Joe Rogan speaking with him, he's going to say, I am out of this division. I am moving up to 145. See you later. I'm no longer the champ. My boy Marab, he's going to get his shot. But Maraub will not get his shot because at the end of the year,

Marlon Vera will fight somebody and end the year as the Bannamway champion of the UFC. I'm going with Cheeto. Vera winning the vacant title at the end of 2023 against maybe they just do O'Malley again. Maybe O'Malley gets two title shots in 2023. But that's what I'm going with. That would be fun. That's a much more fun outcome than I picked Mike. I'd love to see your scenario play up.

Featherweight, I feel, is pretty easy. But this was actually tougher because if Volcanowski beats Islam Makachev, I don't think he's fighting a featherweight anymore because it makes no sense for him to do that you drop that belt you you just fight the poriets and the chandler's and the conners and all the big stars at 55 but i don't think he's going to be islam machochev i think he's going to be super competitive he's going to give a really tough fight and then volk will have to go back to 145 and i just don't see anybody at 145 beating him right now that realistically will get into the octagon with him this year whether it's josh emit or or Yair or any guy that's kind of in the quote unquote title hunt right now.

So I'll go with Volcanovsky. But if he beats Mokachev, then I'm going to be wrong about this, I think. Your thoughts? Well, I'll say I am leaning towards Volkanowski, not being a fairer way by the end of the year. So I do think we will have to see a new champion. Good crop of fighters here. A lot of directors you could go in, as you kind of just alluded to, Mike. And I landed on Yai Yair.

I think we might see a year win the interim title and then, you know, become, either gets promoted or wins a fight. Yeah, well, I may have to get promoted because I don't think he's fighting Volkodovsky and beating him. So that title gets promoted to the undisputed title by the end of the year. And Al-Pantera finally kind of fulfills his destiny as this, you know, everyone's kind of seen him as this world title contender. He's either fallen short in good fights or just weirdness has happened with matchmaking and just not be able to get in the cage. but this could be the moment. This could be his moment in 2020. So I'm not saying he's going to be Volcanovsky.

I do think Volcanovsky vacates the title. And, yes, and years after he wins the interim belts, eventually is promoted to undisputed status and stays that way until next January. So by this pick, are you saying that Alexander Volcanowski will be the lightweight champion, AK? Yes, I am. Wow, I love it.

Alexander Vokonovsky, I think he beats Makhachev. I don't know if he even defends. It might be again, this might be a one, it sucks to say, but this happens this day's in the UFC. It might just be a one-title fight for Volkanowski this year, which is why he'll vacate the featherweight title. He'll be like, listen, I don't know if I'm fighting again this year, so it was not fair for me. And I, if I'm not going back to 145 this year. So it's definitely getting vacated. I do think he beats him.

I think the track record, Mike, of fighters growing up, is pretty good, right? I mean, all the champ champ. I was looking at all the people who have become champ champs. And again, these are just the ones who succeeded. So if I'm missing anyone that missed, obviously, you have to take those into account. Randy Couture, who was the heavyweight champion first and then went down to light heavyweight and then went back to heavyweight. But either way, didn't have issues going, you know, winning titles, a higher weight class.

BJ Penn, he won the World to Weight title first, but he had contended for the lightweight title before. I just didn't get it. It was a draw. Anyway. So, but either way, won a welterweight title for a guy who was a career lightweight and later a featherweight. Conner McGregor, obviously, GSP went up to middleweight. Kormier had competed at heavyweight, but won the title first, light heavy heavyweight champion. Amanda Nunes, you know, obviously, less than whatever you want to say out of featherweight division. She does compete a higher division. And then we just mentioned Suhudo, who went back up to Bantamweight to become two divisions. So pretty decent, going the other way, not as great, hasn't gone as great for some fighters.

But going up, it's been okay. Now, has any of the end of face is formidable a challenge as Islam Makachev is looking right now? I don't know, but I like Volcanovsky's chances. I just think on paper, it's, you know, a lot of people have good reasons why Volcanowski can win. And I'm buying into all those. And again, whether he defends a lightweight title or not, I don't know if he does defend

it for the end of the year. I think he wins this fight. And then hopefully he can get in there. It is early in the year. Hopefully, can get in there and defend, but these things happen where you can't.

But either way, I'd pick him to beat a lot of guys in the lightweight top five as well. So I'm all in, Mike, Alexander Volkanowski. I love it. I'm going with Izzyl-Machachev.

I do think he beats Volk. I think it's a super competitive fight. I think it's a super compelling fight. And it'll be Macha-Chief's toughest test. And I think he might fight one more time. He'll probably win. So I'll stick with him to be the champion. Welterweight AK.

Currently held by Leon Edwards. What a moment it was in 2022. He's expected to rematch Kamara Usman and be an underdog once again. We mentioned Jorge Mazadal. We mentioned Colby Covington. There's Belal Muhammad. There's other names in the mix.

Give it Burns. Maybe you said Shafkat Rakhmadov. We'll be fighting for the title sometime in 2023. So who will be your welterweight champion? My best friend, those predictions go hand in hand together. He is going to. to fight for a title. He is going to win a title. He is going to be the champion by the end of the year. And again, he doesn't even have to defend it because we have kind of both said,

if the math works out for him at all, it'll probably be a title shot in the third, sorry, excuse me, the fourth quarter of 2023. So we're talking about a title fight that, that closes out the year and sends Shafcott into 2024 as the new welterweight champion. So yeah, I'm sticking with what I said before, not just getting a title shot, but taking it all away. A lot of fans are going to be happy with what I'm about to say because ladies gentlemen, in 24, the fight that you have been talking about for the last two years, the fight that you continue to talk about now, the fight that you have talked about nonstop since we found out Jeff Neal wasn't fighting Shafkat Rakhmanov. It's going to happen in 2024.

But it will be Shafkat Rokmanov challenging for the title against the man who will end the year the champion, and this might be a shock to you, AK, but I'm going with it. I think whatever hurdles that Hamzaa Tshmaev needs to overcome, I think he's going to overcome them. And I think he will get a shot at the welterweight title in 2023. And if he does get that shot against anybody, he's winning it. He's winning it. And therefore, Hamzaa Tchaimai F is going to end 2023 as the welterweight champion of the world. Setting up a blockbuster with Shafkat Rachmanoff sometime in 2024. So I'm going with Hamzaa Shemayev.

I hope he doesn't let you down. Totally confident. Yeah. He has let you down many times. And when you let down Mike Heck, you let down his best friend, A.K. Lee, too. So Hamzat, get your stuff together, sir, and make Mike HEC's predictions come true, please, because we have been very high on the Kamsat Shemayev train as far as being a future champion. And I have now taken a step back. You have kept your faith in this happening and I hope

it's rewarded. Let's go to middleweight AK. A lot of people think this is a two-horse race between Alex Pereira, the current middleweight champion and the former champion, Israel Adasania. Is it going to be one of those two guys, AK? Yes, the fans are right. Is he's going to get it back. Will he get it back from Alex Pereira? Because if they do an immediate rematch, yes, then he just gets it fact. My one, I do wonder if that rematch doesn't happen. Does someone else take it from Alex Peretta and then Israel Ed Desaenae beats that person? I can see that happening. And then maybe you set up a fourth, uh, fourth combat sports matchup with, um, uh, Izzy and, and, uh, Pareda in 2024. But, uh, yeah, I think some way or form, whether he wins, uh, another meeting

with Pareda finally gets a W over him, um, or, uh, someone else beats Pareda and then Izzy steps in there. Either way, I feel pretty strongly, but Is he getting it back, having another rain. I don't know how long will the second rain last? Is he going to make a future move, permanent move up to light heavyweight? Certainly possible. But there's unfinished business in 185. And I think Izzy knows that.

So I think he's six around 2023 gets his belt back. I'm curious about how active is he's going to be in 2023. I mean, this dude's been in the limelight a lot. He's been very active over the years. Fought three times in 2023. It was kind of an emotional one for him for. from fighting Whitaker is a tough fight, headlining the international fight

he gets Jared Kinnair, kind of got booed out of the building, had to deal with that. Pereira fight was great. He was winning and then he got knocked out. I mean, with how much he's risen as a superstar over these last few years

and then to have a year like he had, it takes a lot out of you. So I don't know if this is going to be the kind of year where like, Izzy's coming back in March in fighting Pereira. again. It could be quite a bit of time before he comes back. Having said that, I'm going with Robert Whitaker. I'm going with Robert Whitaker because I think somehow, some way, because of that,

he slides in there. Maybe he gets a win beforehand. But I think Whitaker slides in there, fights Pereira, beats him. And I don't know. And I'm going to say he doesn't fight Izzy again until 2024. I think that's just, it's just a weird timing thing. That's just how it laid out. This is a tough one for me. So I think Robert Whitaker fights for the belt,

wins it, and then doesn't defend it because that was the second fight of the year. That's what I'm going with. Bobby Knuckles back on top? The Nuckman. Going with the Nuck man. Yeah, that'd be kind of fun.

It'd be kind of fun. Okay. Yeah. Then he gets his chance to fight Izzy one more time, and I think we already know how that fight's going to go. It'll be competitive, but Izzy will probably get his title back, and then we'll see you,

from there. 205, AK, we don't have a champion right now. Who's it going to be? A lot of people are calling for a hot potato. Is that what's going to happen here? I think this guy is the best light heavyweight in the world, and he just needs to get healthy. Uri Pajatra.

Yuri Prakashka is going to come back. He's going to win his title back. I don't know if it's again, who's going to have it by then. I don't know what's going to be, Golda de Chera or Jamal Hill or Malcolm Nank Kalayaev or whoever on the name you want to throw in there. I have a lot of faith in Yuri. Um, you're getting it back.

I was probably one of the slower people to get on the Yerry bandwagon. That's probably why I'm, you know, now I'm maybe overdoing it and supporting him as, as the best 205. Um, yeah,

listen, I love that. We've said so many times how much we loved, uh, that fight. And I have infinite faith now in this man to win any sort of, any sort of scrap. I don't care of the style matchup is.

I don't care how decorated the opponent is. I don't care how skilled the opponent is. He, he, he just has that ability to just go to war with anyone and find a way to win. How long will that, does that make you a long running champion? I don't know. He might be a guy who takes quite a bit of damage in fights.

I may limit his lifespan here. But do I think that he can win it back and maybe get a title defense in there and have himself an actual run as champion? I do think so. So I'm going with Yuri to come back. This is a tough one for me because I'm torn between two. And I'm actually to give both answers. and I feel like I should get credit for either one.

And here's why. I'm picking Glover to Shera to end the year's champion because I think he's going to beat Jamal Hill. I don't know how they're going to... I just think Yuri might try to come back a little too soon and by the time they rebook that one, maybe we just find out he's not ready to come back. And I do think if they fight again,

I do think Glover can beat him. So I'm going to just go there. So I'm going to say Glover. But the other option I have is none. Zero champions. Still, because if what I say let's say Glover wins the belt and then fights Yuri and wins again, what else does this man have to do?

He'll just vacate and retire and be done. So I guess my answer is it'll be no other answer but Glover-Teshira. it's either Glover or there will be no champion if we're going to start 2024 without a light heavyweight champion once again so that's what I'm going with not a ton of confidence there I just think the timing of this division

and where we ended up last year it's a mess man it's a mess and I think Magamette Ankelaif could probably be the guy I just don't think he's in the good graces of the UFC right now and I think his road to getting back to a title shot is going to be a really long one after that last fight I almost did that for featherweight

going no champion I had a weird feeling of Okonoski vacates and then just bizarre things happening where like we get you know that championship fight doesn't have a proper result or that fights fall through that is supposed to establish a new champion I almost went that way with featherweight mic

so I will definitely you will definitely deserve credit whether it's Glover or Glover wins and then vacates I think I think that's fair I think we can make that ruling now AK heavyweight who's gonna be a heavyweight champion at the end of the year you know I want to say Jelton Almeida you know I want to but it's too soon

It's too soon. That's a 2024 prediction. I want to say it because let me tell you something. Whenever he fights for a title, I don't care who Jeltsin Alameda fights. That dude is winning a world title, the UFC. That dude is winning a UFC title. I don't know if it's a heavyweight. I don't know if it's a light heavyweight.

I will pick him to beat anyone in either of those divisions. I'm so sold on Jelts and El Mada. It just, you know, we just need that step up in competition. And that's fine. People need to see it. I totally get it. So then you have what? Francis Ngano

Cedil Ghan, John Jones, Depe, certainly some other names in there. You got Sergey Pavlovich coming on through. I just I'm not ready to put any faith in, I don't know, the situation was in Ganu getting resolved.

Like I said, John Jones even fighting this year. Stepe, like we said, is he going to get the matchup he wants? That's going to convince him to come back. He's essentially, is he kind of quasi-retired? I think some somehow this opens the door.

I haven't drawn up an exact map. This man's finally going to get the fights that he wants, and he's finally going to be a UFC champion, and he's going to, and it's going to still be that by the end of the year. It's time for Curtis Blades. It's time of Curtis Blades. I don't know what the map is.

Honestly, I don't know. I don't know if John Jones actually does come back, and I don't know if John Jones beats Inganu, and then Curtis Blades beats John Jones. I don't know what the map is. I don't know. It's heavyweight is. We've said it's slow.

It's also so, so, so unpredictable. I will say I'm confident with Blades beating Pavlovich. I think he can do that. I'm having Alexander Romanov, some of his other names coming up. As long as he doesn't get matched with Jelten Almeida. I like his chances a lot. I like his chances against Cedalgan. Engano is the only one who I feel like, again,

we've already seen him lose that fight twice. And I'm not saying he can't win a third one, but I'm not convinced that I would favor him against Ngano. And John Jones might be a good at heavyweight. It might be a good match for him, too. We don't know. We don't know what John Jones looks like in heavyweight. So, and again, I don't even think John Jones is fighting, so you can take him out of there.

And I'd like Blades against Miochitz. So just doing that, like, thinking that all these fights that he could win, I think it happens for him. Curtis Blades, sir, I am rooting for you to get his title shot. And if you do, I think you pull it off. And I think we could both be celebrating your victory by the end of the year. I'm invoking the chaos clause again, AK. Get ready for this. The correct answer is John Jones.

John Jones is going to fight Francis and Gano. it's going to be a very close fight and a lot of people are going to feel like Francis won and then the judges are going to score for John Jones he becomes a heavyweight champion everyone's going to be clamoring for a rematch to put these two guys together and then it's just got to take months and months

and months of negotiations and John's going to want more money and if I fight this guy again you got to pay me more it's huge blockbuster if you really feel like it was a robbery then you got to pay us more because it's even bigger and I don't think the UFC is going to give him what he wants So he will fight once, win a very close controversial decision. And then we will be clamoring for part two. It will not happen.

The UFC will institute a interim title involving France and Ghana and somebody else. And John will do as I predicted at some point during 2023. He will go on Twitter and he will announce his retirement from the sport, but not actually retire. And the hope will be that John Jones fights again in 2024. But that's what I'm saying. John fights once. It ain't going to be the prettiest thing we've ever seen. It's going to be a controversial decision.

But in the end, John will end the year as the heavyweight champion. Potentially, an interim title will be put on the line at some point involving Francis and somebody else. But I think we're looking at this John Jones thing with rose-colored glasses. Like this is just going to be a perfect thing that's going to happen where we get this big blockbuster fight. It's going to go exactly the way we think it's going to go exactly the way we think it's going to go. But if 2023 and how it started is any indication, I'm just going to, I'm going with the, I'm invoking the chaos clause once again, John Jones, but it ain't going to be pretty. Mike, that was an incredible full circling from the top of our bias up predictions to the end of our,

because that was one of our first questions are the John Jones, like a retirement or if he retires, yeah. Did you do that? How do you do that? Did you in case he planned that? Do you guys do that? That's incredible. That's incredible. That's what you're the best in the business. That was amazing. Wow. What a way to bring those two sections together. Incredible stuff. Thank you.

I feel like I'm a Mr. Rogers neighborhood right now. So it is now time to close the show with our bold prediction of the year. And AK, you and I were talking about this on our Slack channel earlier this morning. With the way this year has already begun, it's almost impossible to come up with like the right bold prediction. Because this isn't just like, this is just something that. could happen. It's something that, like, it would be like a, oh, wow moment. And if it happened, and we'd look like the geniuses of MMA if this actually happened. Like, we have to think outside the box. We have to do something a little crazy here. And this year has been freaking crazy already.

And we're barely a week into it. So what is your 2023 week, we calliante bold prediction? And for those who forgot what you said last year, your bold prediction was that Hamzaat Shemayev would lose a fight. That did not happen. What is it going to be the, share. Oh, that was it. That wasn't very, that wasn't very bold. This is, uh, I'm going bold this time. I'm going super bold this time, Mike, because, oh man, like it was, it was a little tricky. It was a little tricky coming up with something here. Uh, listen, people, to some degree, Mike, I, I owe, not an apology, but I, I got a little over-enthusiastic about the possibility of, um, Charles Olivera having, you know, continuing his dominant reign by beating Islam Makachev and bring Kabibna, and bring Kabibna,

I'm not going about out of retirement. That was a, that was a drum. I had been beating for many, many, many months, probably since Charles, like when he won, when he beat Tony Ferguson, I think I was saying, I need to see him fight Habib someday. And then as events unfolded for both fighters, I was like, well, Habib's retiring, but you know what? I think he's going to come back, some of you fight Charles. So I got a little crazy.

And I'm on video with saying I thought Charles going to beat him. And when they finally got matched up with Islam, that Charles is going to beat Islam and fulfill that last part that convinces. to come back to avenge his boy and fight Charles in 2023. Obviously, that's not going to happen. Charles lost, Islam's the man. But Mike, I did just predict that I think Alexander Volkanowski is going to beat Islam Makachov. So maybe I was just a little bit early.

Maybe it was a little bit early. And maybe I had the wrong name in this equation. Because I do think Volkanowski is going to beat Islam. And now we've had all this talk recently. Oh, Habib, this smoke. I've seen a lot of smoke about Habib stepping away. He's not going to coach. Obviously, this whole Eagle FC thing can't want to fun.

One's kind of funny. So he's stepping away from managing that. He's putting that in the hands, some other people that he trusts. And he's going to step away from the MMA picture. But that's a trick, Mike. He's stepping away to get back into training. Go back into fight shape. Do you see?

Not because he expects Islam to lose. Just for fun. Just in the back of his mind. It's kind of like, that's what train, get back into shape. But then when Islam loses, that will be the last spark that has him go. Oh, well, I have to come back now. I got to take a shot. I got to prove that I can still come back

and take the towel anytime I want. And this fight will happen. Finally, Mike, the UFC will get their Dallas Cowboys Stadium Show headlined by Alex Volcanowski depending his title against Habib Nomago Medov. That is your bold prediction. The lightweight title fight to end all lightweight title fights. And because I said Volcanowski will end the year as lightweight champion,

he will hand Habib to bring him out his first and only lost before Habib retires again. That's it. I'm going super bold this year. Let's go. Dude, that was super bold. I loved how you ran through that whole thing and I was already stunned. And then you had a and there was an and on top of that. There's another thing added to it.

Wow. Mine is bold, but I don't, I mean, it's nowhere near as bold as this one in the grand scheme of things. I need you to listen to me when I say this, okay? Listen to the first thing I'm about to say, and then it's all going to, it's a journey, okay? My bold prediction is that Bellator MMA will be no more at the end of 2023. As being rumored, Bellator is on the market. so to speak. I've heard rumblings of the same. I think by the end of this year, somebody will come through and they will purchase Bellator and they will be under new ownership. And they will carry

on and we will have Bellator M.A shows through 2023. But before this year ends, it will be known with some kind of announcement before the end of the year that Bellator MMA will not be Bellator MMA anymore that finally it will be a new name. I don't think it'll be Shaheen Al-Shadi's Showtime MMA, but I think heading into 2024, Bellator, with the momentum that they will garner, not just from the news of the sale, and because of some of the cool things they're going to do, and I think they ended 2022 with a lot of momentum. I think somebody will come through and they will purchase this promotion and things will run. They will get the fresh coat of paint that it needs. including getting rid of the Bellator MMA name.

Same promotion, same fighters, new look, new name, new everything. Bellator MMMA will still be a promotion. In theory, we'll remember it as the old Bellator MMA, but it'll just be named something different and cool and more sensible by this new ownership ability, by this new ownership. So that's what I'm going with. I think Bellator will be sold, and then by the end of the year, we will know that it will be called something different.

That's what I'm going with. Bellator MMA is dead. Long live Belator MMA. Is that what you're saying? Or whatever the new name, long live, whatever the name changed. But the spirit of Belator M.

A will live on with a fresh quote of paint, with a rebranding, with Scott Coker, with a new name. I like it. I like it. And I say this as someone who has never had issue with the Belator name.

I understand why people do, but I'm just tired of all the XFC and LFA and U.S. But sure. Listen, there's a reason these initials work in combat sports. It's effective. It's fine. So they try to do something different. A lot of people don't like the name.

I understand. It's never quite caught on. It's never quite hit in the way that they've wanted to as like this big alternative to. Again, yeah, the usual, you know, initials, three initials, four initials, whatever. So yeah, I'm not against a new name. I've always liked Bellator, but yes, a rebranding might help, especially with kind of what we've voiced in the past. is people always kind of viewing it, I don't know, in a certain way as like inferior to the UFC. And, you know, I felt that they've done a good job of kind of striking out in their own way.

But every time they bring in an ex-UFC guy, you're going to draw those comparisons. Maybe that'll continue to be part of their plan going forward, even with a new name. Who knows? But a new name can't hurt and a new, maybe a slightly new direction. Yeah, fresh coat of paint. I think, like I said, I think they have a lot of momentum right now. I think the end of the year, great. I think 2023 is going to be a very good year for them.

but I also think that we got to mix things up a little bit. We got to shake it up a little bit. And I think that's what's going to happen here. So we'll see. We'll see if the sale goes through, the rumored sale. We'll see if this is all real. But again, these are bold predictions. We're thinking outside the box here.

We're trying to be on our own island, if you will. So there we go. That is the 2023 predictions extravaganza, capped off with the Muay Caliente, prediction of the year from each of us. We have definitely gone a lot bolder than we did last year. Last year you said it was Shamiyaf wouldn't lose. I said that Anderson Silva would win more boxing matches than Hamsat Shemayev won

MMA fights. And we're both incorrect to that pick. But that is this. We'll see, we'll check back in in December and see how we did with this to kick off the two-part predictions extravaganza for 2024. Back next week. AK, we're going to be putting the matchmaking crowns back on our heads following, I don't remember which one this is.

I think this is UFC Vegas 67, right? Is it 67? 60, should be 67. Yes, 66. Yeah. I believe we ended on 66. So I'm looking at this card right now. Calvin Gassel, Nasor Deneimova's is the main event.

Dan Igay versus Damon Jackson. Excellent co-main event. Poudisoriano Roman Copiloff in the featured spot as of right now. Katlyn Vieira, Raquel Pennington, Umbar de Maga Madoff, Hanoogaemadov, Hadoo, Aubero, Abdul Razak Al-Hasan, Claudiaeo Ribero, Matush Rebeki, Nick Fiore, Matush Mendoca versus Javid Basharad, Alain Nassimto, Carlos Hernandez, Daniel Argeta versus Isaac Gilgarian. Jimmy Flick, returning from his retirement,

takes on Charles Johnson and Priscilla Kachua versus Sejoubanks. That is our first offering for the year for the ultimate fighting championship. And AK and I will be back on the program next week on the podcast network to do the matchmaking for the winners of the main card and our wild card picks and get your picks as well. So AK, any final words before we go from the predictions realm into rewearing the matchmaking crowns for 2023. Yeah, I just want to say, look, there were a lot of highs in 2022. Again, I also recommend people, you know, please, read Jedd-Mishu's year-in-reviews articles that went up on M-Afighting.com this week. But we had so many highs.

If you just look at sort of the best of the best of the best in 2022, it was as good as like any other year, some of the best knockouts, best fights, best moments, best submissions, everything. Like there was so much fun to be had. And following on a week-to-week basis may not have been the most thrilling experience. So to everyone, all the super, super-hardcores out there who don't miss a fight night, who tune into like one championship cards at God knows what time of the morning, rising cards, God knows the time of the morning, watch Bellator every month, to have their eyes locked in those PLFL standings.

For all the hardcores, I hope you are richly rewarded for your dedication to MMA and to combat sports in 2023. Because again, at its best, combat sports is so fun. And despite some of the horrible stories that have come out recently and horrible behavior from some of the athletes involved, I still think there's so much good in this industry, so much good in this business. And I hope we see more of that shine through in 2023 and less of the ugliness. But that is, that's the hope for every year. But I think specifically in 2020, especially given recent news. So I hope everyone has a great time watching combat sports. And really

thank you everyone for who tuned into today's show and is going to tune into the rest of our programming this year and check out our coverage of all of the, the MMA on MAAFighting.com. Yeah. This has been one heck of a show. I think. we're over the two-hour mark right now. It's definitely the longest predictions, extravaganza we've had, but we've had so much fun. The questions are just so good

that it wasn't just buy sell, move on, buy sell, move on. A lot of them had debate, and we appreciate that very much. We appreciate all of you guys sending in your matchmaking suggestions every single week to us and continue to do that

because we'll be back of the matchmaking show coming off of UFC Vegas 67, or UFC Fight Night, Dasselm versus the lot. But Casey, you can hit the music. We are done. We appreciate it. And as A.K. likes to say, and I agree with.

Always remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun, ladies and gentlemen. And we will have more fun starting next week and throughout the year. Right here and on to the next one, the podcast with myself and Alexander Kaylee. Good night, everybody. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.