MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | 2023 Predictions Recap

Episode Date: December 31, 2023

With 2023 being such a crazy year in the world of mixed martial arts, we felt it was important to look back at the predictions that were made heading into a memorable year for the sport. In part one of our two-part predictions extravaganza, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee look back on some of the responses they had to listener questions in regards to what 2023 was going to bring. Topics include Conor McGregor's activity for the year, whether or not Jon Jones would retire at some point, if Dana White would be punished for what happened at the start of the year, what the year could bring for the likes of Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal, Shavkat Rahkmonov, and Khamzat Chimaev, UFC champions in each division, bold predictions for the year, and more. In addition, we will need you help for part two: our 2024 predictions extravaganza episode. Submit your "buy or sell" questions the same way you send your matchmaking suggestions to Mike or AK on Twitter, Instagram, or email by Thursday, Jan. 4 — and, please, be as creative as you'd like. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. ...to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Everybody and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. No, we are not matchmaking this week because there's no events to matchmake from. But instead we come through the final stretch of 2023 in the beginning of my favorite time covering this sport.

We get to do our two-part predictions onto the next ones, where we start with looking back on the year that was the predictions we made at the beginning of the year. And then part two will be a live show next week as you hear this where we do our 2024 predictions and more on that coming up later on in the show. I am Mike Heck and joining me to recap our predictions from 2023, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. It's my best friend to Mr. Alexander K. Lee, A.K., hope you had a wonderful holiday. It's the final day of 2023 when this drops. How are we feeling right now? Are you ready to turn the page this year just go by so fast?

No regrets, Mike. No regrets on my year. 20 for 20 on the predictions I expect. Yeah, I swear we were just doing this show, like the actual prediction show yesterday. Were we not just doing these predictions yesterday? Weren't we predicting, you know, that nothing crazy would happen. Sean Strickland would not get anywhere near a title fight. You know, Sean O'Malley wasn't going to become champion in 2020, 3.

I feel like we just did this. It really was an eventful year. Every year in combat sports, it feels like there was something to talk about. I don't think it's a stretch at all to say that if you made a list of like the top 10, wow, this most interesting storylines this year, you'd probably be omitting 10 others. It has been something else. Absolutely. And some of the names you just mentioned, the two Shons, O'Malley and Strickland, two of the newer champions.

Not one question about either guy in the buy sell prediction. So we're going to run through all these, AK. And I'm glad I love doing this part of the show as well. I love the predictions show, the buy cell questions. We'll get into how you can submit yours. I've already got a whole shitload of them. But going back to the predictions from earlier in the year, like you said, I felt like we did it yesterday.

But then after like three days, I totally forget what happened. And I totally forget what we talk about. And I totally forget what we predict. There's some wild questions here. There's some wild answers to. There's some things that we're super confident in that we're dead wrong about. And there are some things. I think we're going to look back on and be like, why do we say this? Why do we say bye to this?

And I think you'll know where we're going in a minute. But, A.K., are you ready? Because you're coming in cold. You have no idea when I'm about to read you. I watched last year's show on Sunday while I was at the airport. You have no idea what's coming, do you? My only, I feel like there's some John Jones or Connor McGregor-related predictions that I just nailed right on the head. Yeah, and I feel like they're easy. And I feel like I nailed that. So I feel confident. I got at least. least one just like spot on. And if you get one, I feel like that's, that's pretty good. Well, let's go into the list. The first question we got, shockingly enough, coincidentally enough, it was a John Jones question, AK. It was a John Jones question. The question was, will John Jones

retire at some point by the end of 2023? And what we meant by that was whether he officially announces his retirement in the Octagon, or if he just goes on Twitter and says I'm retiring, all of those things who are in play, I bought this. I was wrong. And if he ended up fighting Steepay in November, I might have been right about this. But it didn't happen. You sold it, AK, and you nailed it. No John Jones retirement this year, I don't believe. Yeah, you were robbed. You were robbed because, yeah, I do think we might have, we had, there was a high chance for double retirement at UFC 295 if that had gone down. Of course, it didn't.

I think I did. Again, I didn't go back and listen to the episode. You expressly told me not to, so I go into this cold. I wonder if I said that because I didn't even think John Jones was going to come back in 2024. It might have been related to that. I can't remember my reasoning behind not expecting a John Jones retirement. Let's go to the next question. Speaking of retirements, this is the reverse of that.

It was buy or sell. T.J. Dillishaw would announce his MMA return. Now, it wasn't Biersel T.J. Dillishaw fights in 2023. It is whether or not he announces that he will be coming back. You bought this. I sold it. I said it wouldn't happen until 2024.

I think I get this one because T.J. Dillishaw did notify. Usada that he was retiring, did notify the UFC is retiring. Yes, he has vowed to make a return, but there is a there is a only if attached to this. He vows to return if his shoulder heals correctly. So he has not officially announced his return, and he won't do so until the shoulder is completely healed.

He tested it all out, maybe goes through like a mock training camp. He's not giving up. hope on a comeback, but he has not officially announced that he's coming back yet. So I think I get the point for this. I think you do. I just looked it up. T.J. turns 38 in February. Does he really? He does. How confident are you feeling about the second part sort of of your, not the second part, but the basis of your prediction that he wouldn't come back. He wouldn't make an announcement 23 that it might be next year. It's got to be. You got to be going back on that now, right? No, he's definitely good or not.

He's going to get him. He's 38 in the phantom weight division? Boy, that is a long road to ho. But he's T.G.G. Delish. He thought he could beat Algemane Sterling with one shoulder. He did. I mean, did he really believe that, though?

Did he really believe that? Yes. Yes. I talked to him before. He said he had a big secret that he wasn't telling anybody. Oh, man. And he'll reveal it after because he's so confident. And it's because he's fighting with one.

Iron and probably shouldn't have been fighting. So, I think we're both on the board here. All right. Buy self-prediction three. This is the one that I felt the most nauseous about because we should have been right, but we also should have known that we're definitely going to be wrong and we should have went opposite immediately. Dana White will not be active UFC president at some point in 2023.

Now, when we did this show, this was. a week, maybe eight days, maybe even less, after the video was released of Dana and his wife having their spat and Dana striking her in Mexico. And we still at that point had not heard from, I don't think we had heard from Dana just yet. No, we definitely didn't hear from Dana outside of like the TMZ interview. We heard nothing from the UFC.

The UFC told us basically revert back. to TMZ article for any comments. There was no comment from Endeavor. There's nothing. So we were wondering if Dana would just get like a suspension of some kind. Like none of us were asking for Dana to be fired. We knew that wouldn't happen, nor probably should it have happened. But we were hoping for some sort of repercussion like 30 days.

I give it a week. I didn't care. Even that was a little short-sighted for us. But it's some sort of donation to a DVU. charities, things of that nature. We're both hopeful that the UFC and Endeavor would come through with this as expected, as we should have probably expected. Nothing happened. There was no suspension. Dana didn't miss a beat. And we both bought that at some point he would be suspended or would not be active UFC president at some point in 2023. And we were both wrong about this, okay?

Were we though? Because he did have a change in title, my best friend. He is not UFC president, Dana White anymore. He is UFC CEO Dana White. I think we get... That's a great point. Right? I think we get this one. Okay. All right. We get a point.

We deserve it. We deserve. He's not the president. He's not the president. Officially. It's so good. Loopold. That's so good. Let's move out to the next one. This was probably the funniest thing from going back into the show because this was the

shortest. back and forth we had of any of these buy-sell questions because we were both so confident that there's zero chances happens. And we both sold this immediately and AK were both wrong about this. The question was, buy or sell, Dylan Danis will have one sanctioned bout in some sort of striking combat sport. And he did. I mean, he didn't throw any strikes, but he was, at least took parts in some sort of striking combat bout against Logan Paul in probably the worst fight of 2020. I still can't believe it. That would have been one of my locks.

If we did, if we did like a lock, I don't know if we said like, oh, what is your lock of all these by cells? That probably would have been a strong contender to be my lock. I don't think I didn't expect him to fight at all. I still barely believe it. You said this is the easiest question. Yeah. You said this is the easiest. This had to be the easiest question.

Sell, let's move on. Can't believe it. That hurts to miss on that one. And it hurt, again, it hurt having to watch him fight. It just hurt on multiple levels. That one hurt, and then this next one hurt for me. By herself, Davis of Figurato will move up to 135 after his UFC 283 fight with Brandon Moreno. We, you sold this.

I bought it originally and then sold it. I talked myself out of it. So we're both wrong. Although Figgy was booked and it was announced that he was going to fight Menel Cops. in July, but the fight obviously never happened. His next fight after the Moreno loss was against Rob Fondt at 135. So technically he did move up to 135 for his next fight after the Moreno fight. So we're both wrong.

Both sold it, both wrong. Why were we so adamant that we didn't? Why didn't we believe him? I think he had waffled. He had waffled. It's not like he wasn't waffle. I remember he hadn't taken like it never felt like he had two feet into 135 until they actually did it.

Wow, but I felt like we were pretty confident. I guess we thought there might be, there's just more big fights for him to take or that he would, maybe just, it was more of a 2024 thing. I think maybe we were waiting for 2024. You were also, not like overly confident,

but it seems like in your response, you were picking Figurato to win that fight. That too, yeah. So you expected him to retain the belt and then defend it. I thought Moreno would win, but maybe they would do Figgy Moreno again. Like somehow, some way,

we get this one again. So I initially bought it, and then I was like, they probably will have these two guys fight again for some reason or not, and it didn't happen. So we're both incorrect there. Happy to be wrong. Happy to be wrong.

Great to see Figgie at 135. Let's go to the next one you were super duper confident about AK. Buy yourself, Shafcott-Rukmana fights for the UFC Welterway title in 2023. You couldn't have bought this fast enough, AK. You bought it immediately. You clicked on the link. You said, take all my money.

yes, he's fighting for the belt this year. I didn't know it would take four. I guess this was also, so this was before the Usman Edwards 2, right? That was in March? Yes. So Shafcott at the time was booked to fight on the first card of the year against Jeff Neal. And then Shafcott, Neil got hurt. I kept saying Shavkat should just fight a jobber and just get a win and then fight Jeff Neal

because they rebooked it for March. And then maybe he could have gotten it. But yeah, you just, you were, you were super duper confident. Man. And I'll tell you, Mike, I would have been, as, if you told me in April, when I like to revise my prediction, I would have been like, no, he's still going to do it. Because I didn't think that the Covington Edwards booking would drag on forever. I thought that was going to happen maybe at like end of second quarter.

But we don't, for whatever reason, that booking just never came around until, until the, you know, landed in December date. And obviously, by then, a chance of Shopcott fighting for me over. But I thought that, but I still would have picked it. If you let me have a few months into 2023, still would have thought Shepkat. But we had to go through this whole debacle with Covington instead.

And 2024, I'll say it again. Yes. Shopcott, Rukbawt, I sold this basis at 2024. I think he would need, like if he fought three or four times, he would get it, but I didn't think it was going to happen. So I ended up selling it. The next question, speaking of Colby Covington, Jorge Mazidol or Colby Covington,

Byer Sell would get a title shot in 2023. And we both bought this, A.K., and we were both correct. Either, both of those are more confident in Mazadol, and I took it because you're giving me both guys. Yeah. Yep, so we both got that one correct. I really thought, again, this was before the second Usman fight with Leon,

but I really thought that Covington was going to, going to get a title shot. But again, into the middle of the year and I would still get shot caught. So the predictions were kind of tied together. It's super sad. Only one of them came true, the worst of the two. Yeah. Let's go to the next one.

And this is before we even knew what the entire lineup was going to be. And I still don't really know how we do this, AK. I still don't know, this might be an incomplete because of how everything played out this year. here's here's the question buyer sell usman nirmaga made off will lose the bellator lightweight title in the upcoming ground pre we both sold this however usman did test positive and belator was sold to pfl so we don't even know if usman is the champion we don't know if he's been stripped of the title we don't even know if the ground pre is going to continue we don't know if usman's going to be part of the pfl season we don't know anything but i guess during the actual time the

the Grand Prix happened, even though the failed drug test happened against Brent Primus, there was no announcement at all of him being stripped of the belt. So we both sold it. We both said Ousman would end this whole thing as champion. And technically, I guess he still is, right? Yeah, unless for some bizarre reason in the last, what, 10 some days of 2023, Bell Torr decides to come on and say, oh, yeah, by the way, we're stripping Ousmunder Megamatta I don't foresee that happening.

or I should say have happened by the time people hear this. I don't, I don't think so. So we should, yeah, we get the point for that. We get the point for that. He is technically still the champion, even though the circumstance, who knows, they could be a hard reset in 2024 and PFL just says the Belator titles are vacated. I have no idea. Or at least just Usman's because of the drug testing.

But yeah, he's a champ. We get that. Let's go to a question we've gotten pretty much every year since we started doing this. And I would be stunned if we don't get it. Next week we do the 2024 predictions. Buy yourself. Hamzaa Chimayef will fight for UFC title in 2023. I bought this very quickly.

You said, fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice. Shame on me. You said too much weirdness going on after the Nate Diaz debacle. And you sold this. And you were right, AK. No title shot for Hamzaa Chamaif in 2020.

We did get a Hamzaa Chamaa fight, though, against Kamara Usman and then he got dinged up. So maybe 2024, AK. Yeah, the guy's way too unpredictable. If there is a Bicel, if someone sends those in, I cannot say it my answer will be. I'm going to have to think about it. I got to read the T leaves a little here because the Apollo Costa win probably would have pushed them towards a title shot. The Kamar Usman win, even though they said it was like a number one contender fight,

I don't think anyone thinks that that Kamsat's getting necessarily getting the next. Well, you know what? We'll cover that if it comes up in Bicel. We'll cover that if it comes up and Bicell. Yeah. Let's go to the next one. Buy or sell at least three Magomeds. will hold titles in a major MMA organization.

And after a tremendous poll by you, AK, where I asked the question, does Nirmagamadoff count? And the poll voted yes. You sold this, I bought it, and I think you're right, because we have Usa Nirmagamad Maghamedov, and we have Magamad, Maghamad Karamov.

However, you did say, the super buy, if Magamad, Magamad Karamov wins, that's technically two Magamad. Yes. Maybe we're both right? I don't know. My head hurts now. Wow, so is it really just Usman, Namaegombed, Megamad, Megamukkirma?

Yeah. Right. No, yeah, Umar, no. No, Umar. No, Syed. Magumad and Kalayev, no. Not yet. That was, that was why mostly why I picked because I thought he was going to be a champion by the end of this year.

Not a great year for the Megamad name, I guess. I mean, it's always a pretty good year, but not a great year. I mean, still really good year. Just, you know, only two champions. That's a slow year. Just two champions. Wow, you guys are terrible. Let's go to the next one, AK.

This is one where you were going to keep my integrity and check throughout the year, which I was puzzled and a little hurt. We're going back and watching this. I know he was all out of love. The question was, buy or sell. Bo Nickel will be a ranked top 10 middleweight by the end of the year in either the UFC or the MMA fighting. global rankings.

You bought this AK. You bought this very confidently. I sold this because I didn't think you'd get enough fights, and I certainly didn't think you would get the competition to warrant such a rating. Even in our crazy ratings rankings where upside plays a part, but we only saw Beau twice. He beat Jamie Pickett and he beat Val Woodburn. Not going to get you in the top 10.

Yeah, with respect to Bo and his two opponents, it doesn't scream. Even with everything we know about Bo, his decorated collegiate wrestling past and his status right now as a super heavy-may prospect. Not ranked. I'm trying to remember if anyone in our

global rankings even has him on the ballot. I think he's on one or two. I think when the, whenever the... I believe so. I want to say our own Jed Michoud has him up there somewhere. Jed, one of the more aggressive panelists, for sure. Definitely more of the ranking by

based on like, well, if I pick this guy against this guy, would I pick him to win? and that's enough for him to take their spot. So I think Jet, but I don't think he's the only one. I want to say there's two people, but I know at least Jay. So he's on one ballot for sure. So that didn't happen this year, so I get a point. I bought.

You bought this. You were very confident that he would end up in our rankings at least. It's Jed's fault. Let's go to the next one. And this is before middleweight got super interesting, too. There's been so much movement in middleweight. It's become one of the more fascinating divisions. Speaking of middleweight, by yourself, Chris Wydenman will return from injury.

and go at least 2 at 0 in the UFC. We both sold this. I hope so. Yeah, we both thought, we both thought, I think we're both confident that he would come back and fight once. Yeah. And maybe win, but we didn't think he'd fight twice. No, that's a lot to happen.

And he did fight once and lost. Yeah, more than one fight and to win both of them? Oh, boy, that was an easy sell. Yeah, it was a pretty easy self. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Boating will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-1-2-60 or visit Comex-Nex-T-O-MtX-O-MtX-O-Mtore. or visit comexontera.com. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. I love this question. Buy yourself, three or more of these names will no longer be on the UFC roster before the end of the year.

Tony Ferguson, Kelvin Gasselham, Robbie Lawler, Dominic Reyes, Steve Amy Hitch. The one we were so confident in that would still be on the roster is the only one not on the roster. We were both so confident Robbie Loller would still be on the roster

at the end of the year. Wow. Wow, that's why we do this. That's where we could take the difference. And the one guy we were probably the most confident would not be on the roster at the end of the year

is still on the roster. That would be Dominic Reyes, who did not fight at all this year. But he is fighting in January, So maybe that's another name we could add to a similar question next year, but Tony Ferguson still on the roster. Calvin Gasolm, new weight class, still on the roster. Steep A hasn't fought in three years, but still in the roster.

Probably going to fight John Jones sometime next year for some reason. I don't know. So there you go. Did we say, did we buy though that, what was it three? At least three of those names would be gone? That three or more of those names will not be on the roster. We both sold. We both sold.

Okay, so we were right. That's, yeah, but that's, that was a, that's a great question. That was a great question. I remember that. It was a great question. But also pretty easy to say that not all, like, three out of those five. No, I think, I think that's, that would be too much. Yes.

We just, Steve A was the close one. We were trying to figure it out. And he's barely on the roster. He's barely on the roster. It was just a matter of, if he fought. Like, if he fought this year, he would have been, he would not be on the roster anymore because he would have retired. Yeah.

True. So maybe a robbery, but still, even if SEPA was gone, we still would have been right. So next question, this was very close. I actually threw this in the Slack channel, and you were probably wondering why I randomly threw this in the Slack channel. There was buy or sell over two and a half UFC ranked fighters. At the time we did this, we'll see the million dollar prize in the PFL and go to greener pastures and sign with the professional fighters league.

You sold this because you felt like, hey, Hey, it happened last year. There's no way it happens again this year. I bought it because hashtag math. You got this right, AK. The only two names I could think of off the top of my head. And I looked everywhere, tried to find others. And if I'm wrong and you could find tangible evidence of this,

please send it my way. Francis and Ghanu and Derek Brunson. Other than that, I don't think there is anybody else. Yeah, and Francis, obviously, as far as we don't not participating in a million-dollar tournament, doesn't sound like that as a plan. And Brunson might at Light Heavyweight, right? We think Brunson might jump into next 15-DU a Light-Hiveweight tournament. Yeah.

But we also didn't know what, like, this would all become such a weird thing. Yeah. So I guess essentially, like, it was just signing with the PFL as a ranked fighter in January of last of this year. Yeah, it really wasn't. Again, I think a lot of fighters, the word is out that it's not for everyone. Like, you can be a really good fighter, but that whole their weird schedule of like, is what, three fights in six months and then you wait for the tournament.

It's not for everybody. I think it's a whole separate skill set to be able to fight in a tournament like that. You sold this, but then you bought this next one, AK. Buy or sell a current champion from Bellator, PFL, or one will sign with the UFC in 2023. You bought this, AK. You bought this.

MVP, now I'm joking. One-time interim title challenger, all right? That's as good as being a champion in Belator, I feel. I sold this and got it right. Next question. By herself, Patty Pimlet would get knocked unconscious in a UFC fight. And we both sold this because we felt like he might get TKO'd or something to that effect, but he would not get finished.

And then we just had like a bonus question of By or sell, he would have a winning record in 2023. And I don't even think we actually answered that, honestly. But that was like, because there were two different Patty questions. But I think we both just talking about it, bought it because you would only fight once and they would probably give him some sort of a, not a layup, but a fight he could probably win. And that's what happened. And who knew what that fight would be?

You did. Who knew what that fight would turn out to be? Ah, man. And this is where I just fell off the wagon altogether. Buy yourself, Connor McGregor's next fight will be during International Fight Week or at Madison Square Garden. You sold this. I bought it.

I even predicted he'd be on both cards. And that did not go very well for me. So you got that one correct. This was before the Ultron Fighter announcement, I'm pretty sure, right? Did we know that by the end? We didn't know that by the end. That was a 20, that was a 2023 announcement, right? Not end of 2022?

I don't think so, right? I don't think so. We didn't know until way later. Yeah. So even if I had known that, I don't think it would have changed my prediction. I just have no confidence in this guy getting back in there. I'm hearing the UFC 300 talk now. And I'm like, I honestly don't.

I don't know. We've gotten sent a few. We should tell people we're going to ask course for Biasel predictions. This year, we've gotten a few already before the show, Mike. But I don't know if any of them are McGregor-related. I think people might just be sick about asking about them. But we'll see. That'll probably change by the time we do the Bicel show.

Oh, definitely. No doubt about it. And of course, this question led to this question. And I had a, I was already Pock committed. So I had to be super duber wrong. By yourself, John Jones, and Connor McGregor will fight three times combined. you could not sell this fast enough. How could you buy this?

How did you buy this? Well, because I already picked John, I said John Jones would fight. Mm-hmm. And in the previous question, I said he was going to fight at both International Fight Week and Madison Square Garden.

Connor, that is. So I was like, well, I have to say yes now. Yeah, mathematically, yeah. So I screwed that up. Combined three fights for the two of them? Combined three fights for both. What a year that would have been if we'd actually seen that,

but I don't think we'll ever see. I'll go on. We almost got two John fights. Mike, here's an advanced prediction for you for the rest of fraternity. You will never see those two fight a combined three times in the same year ever again. Wow. Ever. Ever.

Either it's because one guy doesn't fight at all and the other guy fights twice or both guys fight once. You will never see them both fight three times in the same year again combined. It's not happening. It's not happening. Oh, man. I might have to. There's going to be a similar question on this year. So we did do good.

but we didn't do terrible. So I guess we have that going for us. But now we go to round two, AK. Oh, no. Now we go to round two. This is where we made our predictions. This is January 9th, 2023. We made our predictions for UFC world champions by the end of the year.

Let's get into this. We'll start with the women's strawweight division. Alexander K. Lee selected Zhang Wei Lee. I also selected Zhang Wei Lee easy, easy, easy money, yeah.

Correct, correct. We go to the women's flyweight division, AK. You selected Valentina Shepchenko. I selected Valentina Shavchenko.

We're both wrong about that. Let's go to the women's bantamweight division, the Cadillac Division for women's MMA. Uh-huh.

I selected Valentina Shepchenko. You selected Amanda Nunes. You said she wouldn't retire. Back to the full me one. Shame on me. Every year is like, is Nunez going to retire? And then she actually freaking

retired and we have no champion. So we all would have been wrong anyways, unless we were crazy to say vacant. Or said Bia de Buenos Silva, the true women's band-oamweight champion, but that's a whole other issue. That could be coming. That could be coming. We also I also brought up, do we want to predict

145? You're like, I don't even count that as a division right now, so let's move on. Let's go to the men's Flyweight division, AKA, I think everybody knows what you selected. You selected that this year would be the year of the raw dog. And it was very close. To your credit, you did a damn good job.

Brandon Royval was your pick. I selected Brandon Moreno. We were both incorrect. The champion is obviously Alessandra Pantoja. And he's a good one. Happy to be wrong. Happy to be wrong. Great champion.

Great champion. We go to the Bannamweight Division. Who would be Bannamweight champion at the end of the year? my best friend Alexander K. Lee selected Al Jemaine Sterling. Hmm. Your best friend, A.K., selected Marlon Chito Vera. I didn't, it didn't happen. It didn't happen.

You could be early. I think I was early. Because I felt like Sean O'Malley, I felt like Sean was going to win the belt and then fight Cheeto. And Cheeto would win. But I thought this would happen a lot quicker than it did. But yeah, I had Cheeto, I was wrong. We also did not predict that So Hutto was coming back, right?

So like that's a title fight that could have been O'Malley earlier. Yeah, I mean, sorry, because O'Malley had beaten Piotr-Yon. So we were all like, oh, well, O'Malley's going to definitely going to fight for the title next year. We didn't think it would take until August. We thought he'd be the first crack at it in 2023. For sure. Instead, Friggins, Sehudo steps in and gets a title shot for no reason. And mumble, grumble, Mike.

I'm mumbling and grumble. And this is where things got super weird, okay? We go to the featherweight division. I selected Alexander Volkanowski. You selected Yaira Rodriguez as your featherweight champion. And I'm not going to get into any explanation why, because now you're going to hear it. Because for the lightweight champion,

I selected Isla Makhachev. You selected Alexander Volkanowski. So your reasoning for Yair was Volk would beat Islam Makhachev, at UFC 284, he would try to maybe think about defending both belts and then realize all the big money fights, all the opportunity is at 155, and that he would vacate the featherway belt, and Yai'i Rodriguez would be one half of the vacant title fight, win that fight, and Volk would be the lightweight champion, okay? And we're not super far off because the year did win interim title, be Judge Edmund.

Volcanopsi got a second crack at Makachia. There's a chance to cold pulled off a wild upset in that short notice replacement opportunity and had ended the year as the lightweight champion. I don't think so. Like I had picked Makachov in both fights, I think. I might have picked Volkanovsky the first fight. Second fight, definitely picked Makachov. So it was in play.

It was very much in play for that to happen. I stand by that prediction. That was a fun prediction to make. It was a fun prediction to make. That's not even the most fun. That's not even the most fun prediction. We'll get to that in a moment. Welterweight, AK, I think you know who you picked, right?

Shavkat. You did. Yeah. I picked his, what many believe will be his longtime rival, Hamzat Shemaya, if I thought he'd go back to 170. That did not happen so many wrong things there. Middleweight, AK, do you remember who you picked a middleweight? I must have just, did I pick Izzy?

You did. You picked Izzy. Pereira was the champion at the time. You said Izzy would get the belt back. I picked Robert Whitaker. I picked Robert Whitaker. That did not happen. Because you thought Padetta would win, would beat Izzy in a rematch, and then Whitaker would take

Pettado. Yes. Yeah. Whitaker would get his track and get his belt back. Sean Strickland was probably somewhere down 20 names down our respective lists. I shouldn't say that because he was someone, he was kind of a weird dark horse lingering for some sort of title shot in the future. I just never thought it would be this year.

I never thought it would. Nobody did. He would beat Israel. Like, again, he was a top 10 ranked guy and, I don't know, it felt like he could talk his window into a title shot someday, just not so soon. Boy, and actually win it. Get starched by Pereira, loses to Canaanair in the last car to 2022. And no one saw it coming.

If you're out there, if you're out there and you have a ticket or if you have some sort of message that you can prove, like something better at the screenshot, like an actual tweet or something, that you predicted Sean Strickland would be a world champion. Even if you thought as another division, I don't know, he drops jack down to welterweight somehow or jumps up to light it. If you somehow predicted that Sean Strickland would be holding some form of U.S. gold by the end of 20203, please hit one of us up on Twitter, whatever, just sliding into my DMs.

I don't care. I'm sure there's some madman out there predicted it. If you're listening, please let us know. Yes. 205. We're both, like, almost there. Like we both could have done this in some weird way. You went with Yuri Phrashka.

Yeah. That he would come back and win the belt. I went. I went with Glover to Shera because he was fighting Jamal Hill. And then I changed my answer to nobody that there would be no champion at the end of the year. That Glover would beat Jamal Hill, that he would eventually vacate the belt and there would be no champion. So we're very close. We had the belt vacated by November.

By October to bed, there is no champion. None. Absolutely no champion. But now it's Alex Pereira of all people. So it is. I guess I was somewhat close because I said Glover and Alex is the right hand man. So, but nobody gets that right. That could easily end in the double K.O. And you would have been right. So 100%. Yeah. There's a lot of ways you could go. And then we go to heavyweight, AK you went with Curtis Blades. You said the time is now. This is it. He's going to find his way in there. Some way by hook or crook, Curtis Blades would get his day. in court. That did not happen. I was correct. I went with John Jones. John would get his shot. John would be the champion. John went in the year as champion. And that's what he did.

I assume. So by this point, obviously Francis had not fought in over a year, well over a year by this point. And we didn't know that he was going to be stripped, but I think we were having some idea that he was going to leave the USC, right? That was the idea, right? What, Francis? Yeah, we were counting the days until he was, he was whatever he was going to leave. At the time, because I had just spoken Eric Nixick like a couple days prior and he was like, I'm putting out good juju like that this fight happens. Oh, oh. And there were other people that I talked to,

they were like, they were optimistic that this was going to happen. And then it didn't. And then France's like, nah, I'm piecing out. So there you go. I don't know what I was thinking with Curtis plays then. I must have been predicting some sort of vacating of the belt. I don't know.

And then him being part of half of a half of a vacant title bout. But again, I obviously, I didn't expect John Jones to come back. I think that was part of it. I was like John Jones is, I don't know, maybe he'll fight, but I think maybe just do a super fight with Steve A or something. Not super fight, but, you know, a legend's fight with Steep A. Heavywit's messed up.

Heavyweth messed up. Did not have faith in John Jones coming back, that's for sure. And probably didn't expect Tom Aspinall to even come back and win an interim belt either. Super weird year for heavyweight. 2024 is going to be a super weird year for heavyweight because Tom Asinol has probably get to defend his interim title before John. on defense's actual title. It's going to be a super weird year.

And now, speaking of super weird, we wrap up today's recap show with recapping our bold predictions. Yes. For 2023, where we think outside the box, we get a little crazy with things, and we look like geniuses if it comes true, but none of these would probably happen because they're so crazy. I have to say,

I was kind of close with this. I was very, very close. I will read mine first. Bellator MMA will be sold. We'll continue to run shows as Bellator throughout the year, but under new ownership. They will live on still with the same everything. But then by the end of the year, they would announce a name change with a new look and new everything. So I was kind of close.

I was kind of close. Didn't all come true, but I was kind of close because the Belator name is still going to live on. It's a great name. Would you like to roll this over to 2024? Some variation of this prediction to 2024. Do you think that Belton name will be gone by, again, this time next year? Oh, fuck yeah. And not because of the name.

You said that with too much glee. Oh, dude, it's gone. It's gone. The brand has no value right now. The fighters have value. There's some good fighters, but the Bellator name, there's a reason why there is no more Bellator, like run by it itself, because nobody watched them and nobody cared.

And I think they're going to do this for this year, upcoming stay with Bellator because I think they have sponsorship deals that they need to kind of get through the year with. And I think that's all they're, the only reason why they're doing this. But I think heading into 2025, there will be no more Bellator. Roll it over, Mike. That's a freebie.

You know what? We're not even going to count that for the next one. We do the next round of predictions. This is a freebie. Let's just keep this on the back of our mind. Maybe tweet it. Maybe tweet it or something. Here's your prediction.

And I love this so much. This is so on brand with you, AK. This is the most on brand AK prediction there ever was. Your bold prediction for 2023. Alexander Volkanowski wins the lightweight title from Islam Makachev. and Habib Naramagamatov announces his return to face Volkadovsky at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, Texas, and Volkanovsky will send Habib back into retirement with his first professional loss intact. So how is your bullet prediction?

That is about as AK of prediction as there could ever be. That was my, we made how many, we made like three bold predictions each or as one, just one? Just one. Just one. Okay. I thought we were doing a like least spicy. seats. I was like, was that my least my... There's a lot going on in that prediction.

There's a lot going on. Obviously, a carryover from my hope that Charles Oliver would have beaten, you know, Islam and brought Habib out of retirement. So clearly I haven't given... I've not finished with the Habib experience yet. I guess I'm just a Habib fan, and I want something to bring him back out. This is like my Jed Bishu version. I'm gaslight. Hashtack Gaslight Habib. It's becoming increasingly clear. He probably does not fight again. And that's great for him if he never fights again, that's a happy heading to the

Kabby Nurmaggo met up story. And then I don't know why I keep right off the Dallas Cowboys Stadium Show. That's, I still think that'll happen someday. I'm just now starting to struggle with, aside from McGregor being part of it, but again, we don't know how many fights this guy's left in him, like wanting to take big fights. I don't know if how the U.S. he's going to fill up that show. But it's going to happen someday.

I'm going to say not 2024 now, but I had hopes, Mike. I mean, you were so specific with this. You named the location, the stadium, and the result of the Habibir return. Mike, I could picture it in my head. It was such a glorious image of 2023. What a beautiful utopia we could be living in. Instead, we got Dylan Dennis in a boxing match. So to say that my dreams were not fulfilled is a bit of an understanding.

Dylan Danis ends up in a boxing match. is one of the worst fights in the history of the sport is one of the worst performances of the year in all of combat sports and somehow this man there are people saying like the UFC should sign him Dylan Dennis

and that might be a preview for a buy-sell question for 2024 I'll give you the preview I'm one of them I'm one of them I mean might as well might as well get something out of this guy I mean Jesus but that's it those are the predictions

Those are all the buy cells. Those are all the title champion, the title holder predictions for the ultimate fighting championship. And as all these shows go, we got some right. We got more wrong than we got right. And the bold predictions didn't cash as they always never do. So that's 2023. I cannot wait to do the 2024 show after this year

and everything that went down, how the year started, how the year ended, everything that happened in the middle. To what could be at store for 2024, we got so much going on right now. We have the co-leader, PFL. What kind of moves can the co-leader make? We have the antitrust lawsuit against the UFC, which apparently is going to go to trial sometime in April. And things are already getting super weird and hectic with that. There's going to be so much coming out.

It's going to be unbelievable. So a lot to discuss, a lot to ask, a lot to answer. So however you submit your matchmaking suggestions on this program, go ahead and submit your buy or sell questions. Let's have some fun with this. You've heard the examples of some of the things we're looking for. Over two and a half UFC ranked fighters will sign with the PFL. Three or more of these names will no longer be on the UFC roster. Let's have some fun with these.

So submit your buy or sell questions. However, you submit your matchmaking suggestions, whether you hit up AK&I on Instagram or AK on Twitter, email, whatever. We got a whole bunch of them already. But basically what we end up doing is we get all of them. We put them on a list. We sent the list. Last year we sent the list over to Casey.

Casey produced the live show for the first time. And then he just pulled up questions. We had no idea which ones he was going to pull up. So send them on over. And we're going to have a damn good time. A.K., any final thoughts for the year that was 2023 from a matchmaking perspective? Do you want to take one more victory lap for Patty Pimble versus Tony Ferguson. No, no. That's the past. That's the past. We're moving on.

Guys, we're moving on. It's been a great year, fun year, especially thanks to all the listeners, all the readers, everyone who tunes in MAAfighting.com stuff. You guys are freaking amazing. So I'm just very happy with how, just how everything went this year for the most part. I can complain about results, fighters I don't like, whatever, but this tops a to every world of combat sports continues to be, you know, fun and fulfilling and sometimes depressing and sometimes frustrating. But, you know, that's why we do it. That's what we do. That's what we like. to cover it. So I will just say for 2024, Mike, and for all the listeners, be bold. Be bold with your predictions because if you had predicted some of the things this year and put some money down on it,

some of these things that actually happened, you're probably living on an island somewhere because we would not have, I cannot believe some of the things that we saw in, in 2023. And I'm sure 2024 will be more of the same. Yes. I'm looking forward to it. I'm a little nervous too because 2023 just got super duper weird I think a little negative a little controversial almost too much so even in this sport but

maybe it all gets rained in maybe it'll be worse than ever and either way we're going to watch it and we're going to talk about it and after the cards we'll matchmake because that's what we do here so thank you all very much hope you had a great holiday season happy new year we'll be back next week we'll be live on the YouTube channel you can find

the show once it's done right here on the podcast network as well. We'll do all the predictions. And then it's on to the matchmaking because I believe the UFC is back the following Saturday, back at the world's most famous apex, baby. And then it's on to UFC 297 where you will be in attendance, AK.

Yes, in Toronto. I return to Toronto, return to my hood. I will be in attendance to see my favorite UFC champion who I've never questioned their character publicly, my brother, and Sean Serfman is also. buddy. Yes. So lots coming up. Thank you all very much. Happy New Year. And always remember the golden rule, everybody. Don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. And we're going to have a whole bunch of fun in 2024 right here. And on to the next one,

the podcast.