MMA Fighting - On To the Next One 2024 Predictions Extravaganza | Look Ahead For Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, More

Episode Date: January 7, 2024

Following a chaotic and unpredictable 2023 in the world of MMA, 2024 is shaping up to be even crazier — both in and out of the cage. Could this be a year that will see stars such as Conor McGregor and Jon Jones compete multiple times? Will Khamzat Chimaev finally get his hands on UFC gold? Will Francis Ngannou continue to shake up the boxing world, and also make his MMA return? On a very special edition of On To the Next One, those questions — and a lot more — are presented during the 2024 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 McGregor, Jones, Ngannou, Sean Strickland, Dana White, Colby Covington, Israel Adesanya, Nate Diaz, 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 2024. 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. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. And welcome to a brand new and very special edition of On to the Next One. We're back for the first time in 2024. Now, normally, we are here on this program to Matchmake. Next week, the matchmaking crowns will return following, what is it, UFC, Vegas 84 that we're going to be starting off with, the trip back to the world's most famous and hallowed apex. But today, ladies and gentlemen, it's one of my favorite shows of the year, the second part of our annual predictions series. Last week on the podcast network, we looked back at our predictions for 2023.

Neither of us did very well. And now it's time for the 2024 predictions extravaganza. And thank you for being here, especially early on a Sunday morning. I am IAC. And joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. And gosh darn, he's my best friend, the incomparable Alexander Kay Lee, AK, happy new year. I'm freaking pumped for the show.

Happy New Year, everyone. It's me. It's 20, it's 24. We all made it, guys, we all made it to another exciting year of MMAing. We're already a week in. Gosh, where does the time go? I swear I was popping bottles and watching fireworks in the sky just yesterday. But here we go.

We're already on our way. And my best friend, we have to look even further ahead, apparently. That's our job today. We can't even, we can't even, we did. We've done our lookbacks, our looks back on 2023. We've done our best ofs. And now it's already on to the next one, as they say. As I say, remember the taste in our mouths to start last year, how the like,

first week, eight days in the world of MMA had looked heading into the show. It was pretty rough. We were in a very dark place we did this show last year. This year, nothing has really happened of note to this point. We're still waiting on a whole bunch of fight announcements. We're still waiting on how UFC 300's got to look. So it's actually like a little bit of a better feeling, but that makes the show a little bit more interesting. So here's how this is all going to go down if you're not familiar with how we do this. Because I don't think, I think we did it for the first time on YouTube last year. But throughout the year, and most notably, probably like the last six or seven weeks,

we asked you the on to the next one, listeners and viewers for some compelling, some interesting questions, buyer sell questions. Now, I will admit, I have looked at a lot of these. I haven't studied them. I haven't done any deep dives into them. Basically, I took the questions that I got and I put them in a dock. And truth be told, Mr. E. Casey Liden, who is producing the program right now, he will have control over these questions. So we technically have no idea what questions we're going to be

answering. But what I can say is we got more questions this year than we've ever had. And there were a lot of good ones. So we're going to go through this buy sell round. We'll converse about them if needed. We'll talk ourselves into some answers if we need to do that. And we'll that'll pretty much be the meat and potatoes of the show. And then in round two, AK and I will make our predictions for who we believe will be UFC champions in each division at the end of the year. And then we're each going to make one bold predictions, somewhat out of the box, which I have to say, AK, these aren't as easy to do as they once were because it's so hard to be super bold when literally anything seems to happen in this crazy sport of ours and nothing would really surprise me at this

point. It's hard to be super bold and not sound like an insane person as well. Like what if one of us had said, Sean Strickland is going to, you know, get the title shot against Israel Adisina and defeat him. Because at that point, Izzy wasn't even the champion. I'm pretty sure, right? Izzy wasn't the champion. He'd already lost the belt to Alex Podetta by the end of 2023.

And as we've gone over on many shows and many articles, Sean Strickland was pretty far removed from the title picture. Like, he was, people did bring him up in conversation as in like, wow, you know, Sean Strickland's ranked and he does a lot of talking and the UFC likes him and how crazy would it be if he just somehow ended up with a title shot. So there was like a remote. like possibility could happen, but to say that he would then, again, one, end up fighting Izzy and completely dominate him, it would sound crazy. And it wouldn't be, in retrospect,

it would have been an amazing prediction to make. But boy, you would have had to sit on that one for a while, right? Because when did Strickland, then, when did they actually fight Strickland at Disney? September, September. For nine months, you would have had people calling you The dumbest human being on the planet, I'm bold, Mike. I'm not that bold. So, yeah, it is getting more difficult, especially in the wake of the complete chaos for 2023. Your bold prediction last year was incredible.

It didn't come true, obviously. I was actually really close to coming. Mine was really close to coming true. And at the end of this year, it might actually come true. Because I said Bellator would get sold. They would run as Bellator throughout the rest of the year. And then by the end of the year, it would be rebranded under a different name. under different circumstances but still run.

I was pretty damn close. Yours was unbelievable that Volkwood beat Makachchev lured Habib back and then they made up at Cowboy Stadium and then Volk would beat Habib and sent him into retirement 29 and 1. I mean, these are the kinds of predictions we're looking for. It's not quite as crazy this year, but it's also somehow less likely.

So there we go. There's a little teaser for later in the show. All right, well, let's get into this. It's time for the bioccurial. Buy sell question round and we'll get through as many as we can. So Casey, what is the first buy cell question that we are going to attempt to predict and probably get wrong? Buy or sell. People made a big deal out of Magamed record, but clearly Alex is the greatest determining factor of championship potential.

Grasso, Pantosia, Volk, Poetan. Buy or sell, Alex or Magamed will be in more than half of the UFC champion names at the end of the year. Well, Mike, you said at the top that, again, you've seen the questions, but you didn't really do a deep dive in any of them. I didn't do a deep dive either, but especially for this question, which is one I picked out. I love this question so much. I did have to do a bit of research just to try and think about the possibility of it. Now, you tease before that we do have our, we will give people our 2024 end of, sorry, end of 2024 champion predictions later. So just based on that math, I'm going to tell people I have to sell here. I'm just looking at

the names I came up with. So I am going to sell. I won't see how many yet, like I said, we'll reveal those lists later. But Mike here, I'll help you to maybe buy or sell this. So I'm selling. But let's see he was in play here. So obviously, Grasso, Pantosia, Volk, and Padena, there's a chance they all retain. So that's four right there. If you think they're rotating, that's four Alexes on the board. If you want to add in Magomeds, it's a bit trickier. We've got Umar out there, obviously, top contender. Is he going to get a tell shot? Ankelyev, of course, very like this. one. If you want to, if you want to count him already as your favorite, that's like five.

Shara Bullet maybe could sneak in there. I think it's too early. Saeed Naramatov has been very solid of bantamate and weight. But again, if Umar doesn't get a title shot this year, I don't see on Saeed would. And then the wild card maybe from Belator, Usma no Magamato comes over. So I don't know. So that's a lot of potential Magomeds to add to this Alks as if we say all the Alks are retaining. So I'm like, I don't know how much you want to give up of your Champions prediction list here and go buy or sell. on this one. I'm selling this and let me just look at this real quick.

I think I only have one, one person notable that would even make my list. Of Alex or Macomede nomin. Correct. Oh, interesting. So stay tuned for that. So I'm selling this as well. All right. What else we got?

I love the design of the buy or sell box. It's beautiful. Buy or sell a, current Bellator champion. fights for the UFC in 2024. Are there actually bellator champions at this point? Okay, let's go. Let's do. This is true.

What is a bellator champion? I think is what we have to ask ourselves. They're out there. Technically, yes. Mike, you ask, of course, somewhat somewhat, what are words? I've forgotten how words work in 2024. Sarcastically, that's not the word I meant to say.

Anyway, somewhat jokingly, Mike, you're asking. So we have Ryan Baderie. here we have Vidyem Nemcov Johnny Eblen Jason Jackson Usman and Megamara Patricia Pitbull, Patchy Mix, Chris Cyborg, Liz Karmouche. Mike, I don't know. Any of those jumping out at you is definitely going to the UFC or returning to the UFC. Right now, no. I say, I'm selling this. I just don't know what this is all going to look like. I don't know how many fights are on each of these title holders deals right now. we don't know what's going on

Usen or Magamatov at this point like is he actually the champion because of everything that happened with the Brent Primus situation and the failed drug test I know you know we've kind of gone into some of the particulars with that but I just don't know

like for instance like Patchy Mix and Johnny Abiland would probably like the top two I think they would try to get over but patchy like there's no band of waits for patchy to fight right now so like when they do this if they do this Bellator versus PFL event,

Patchy's like not even going to fight. There's no Bannonweight division. Johnny Eblen has nobody to fight. He has nobody to fight. So it's not like Johnny Eblen can just go, be like, hey, D.D., Don Davis, J.Ebb. What's up, man? I'm going to go to the UFC.

Oh, sure, sure, Jayab. Head on over. Good blessings to you. No, they are under specific contracts. The only value in PFL purchasing Bellator are getting these contracts, especially the guys like Ebelin and Patchy, Mix, et cetera.

So until these guys fight out their deals, they ain't going anywhere. And without actually knowing how many fights are on each of these deals, guys like Mix and Eblen, I just feel like they're going to be, they're not going to be very active this year. They're not going to fight a whole hell of a lot.

And I think they're just going to be kind of, we're going to be here. I think from Eblen, because I just saw the comment, like, Eblen's going to want to go to the EFSI. And I think there's some truth to that. But I think we're going to be dealing,

with some situations where Johnny Eblen's going to go on the MMA hour and be like, I'm frustrated, I can't get fights, et cetera. I want to go to the UFC and he's not going to be able to until he fights out his deal. So I will say, I will sell this. Long story short, this won't happen. But 2025, I think it's going to be a super interesting year for this question in particular. Facetious. That's the word I was thinking of before, Mike.

You were being facetious. Guys, it's 2024. I'm older than you think. All right. It takes me. I'm slow. All right, I'm facetious. Mike, I am going by.

I'm going by, and I'll tell you who it is. I'll tell you who it is. You brought up some good names, you're right. Eblen, of course, very much in the discussion. He's talked about wanting to fight the UFC. Fans, I would argue of all the current UFC champions, probably, I'm sorry, Beltorcham, excuse me, probably Pachy Mix and Eblen.

Yeah, so the two names you mentioned are the ones who fans are most interested in. Maybe because Cyborg coming back for, actually, I don't know who would she fight the UFC at this point. not Chris I work, but Evelyn and Mix. I think both are possible, but I actually think, you know,

it's more likely. I got a feeling this should have been, this is, again, why one reason our bold predictions so hard this year because we're going to have

plenty of bold answers to these questions, I think. Ryan Bader, I think is coming back. I think Ryan Bader will end up back in the, one, the barrier to compete

at heavy weight and light heavy weight, to contend, excuse me, at heavy weight and light, heavy weight is lower than, you know, than Bantamweight, some of the divisions we mentioned. So Brian Bader comes back and gets one win.

He's like a top 10. I don't think he's playing at 205 again. But let's say he decided. Let's say he decided. You know what? I'm back in the O.C. I'm going to make one more run at 205 for whatever reason. One win at 205, he's top 10.

Actually, heavyweight's the same way. He gets one good win at heavyweight. He's in the top 10. There's not a lot left for him to do in Beltor as well. I know we could say that a lot of the other champions. But I think, especially for him, he's been around for so long. He's won titles in two divisions. I think he'd want to, if it's possible, come back and see if he has any negotiating power whatsoever,

being a two, you know, former two division, Belator champion and that would matter to the UFC. And I think he'd want to almost like a pro athlete retiring with like, oh, I signed a one-day contract, maybe like with their hometown team or something, maybe like that, but less ceremonial. But just to say like, oh, I started with the UFC. I won the ultimate fighter. I did the top contender of the UFC. I won titles in Belator. And now I'm coming home.

just to say I retired in the UFC. I think he could, he would think about that if the money was right, most importantly. But I got a feeling I'm going. There's one of my bold predictions here. Bader's coming home. I think you're, I love you, A.K., you're my best friend. I think you're absolutely insane, especially with, look, we don't know what's going to happen with Francigano, but now he's going to box it to the Joshua.

You can go, like, he should just go and try to fight Francis. Like, it doesn't seem like is any interest of going back to the UFC. I don't think he's going to the UFC. I don't think he's going to. I don't think he's getting the Francis fight. That's the thing. He should try. He should try.

I don't think he's getting that. Well, we'll see. If this happens, this will be a tremendous pick from you, AK. This will be outstanding. Coming home. All right. Next question. By yourself, Jake Paul makes his MMA debut in 2024,

or at least has his first MMA fight announced with a date and opponents for 2025 before the year is over. Ooh. This is interesting. Want me to go first on this one? Yeah, you can go first on this one. first. Reluctant self. Reluctant cell. I have a feeling I'll be eating my words. So this is, just has to have a fight announced in MMA at some point in 2024. Was that right? Correct. So we asked so, so even if like December 30th rolls around and they announced Jake Paul is fighting

Nate D as March 2025, this would count as a bot. As you should have bought, yeah. It's hard for me because I've been so aggressive in the past, I think about saying one of the Paul brothers would compete like specifically in the UFC then of course jake paul started his feud with dana white which made that unlikely and logan was very much in play then he's you know signs with w e and has been a huge hit there so that seems remote um so i'm i'm really flipping course here like if people go to our show a year ago this i don't know this prediction show or any show we're talking about the paul brothers and m i've definitely been on the oh yeah they're definitely going to fight in the cage at some point i mean jakes are the pfl still i still i still still

think it's too early. I still think it's too early. I think this year is Jake's, uh, Jake Paul's whole, um, I'm a real boxer tip. You know, let me just keep fighting quote unquote legitimate boxers. Uh, I don't think he's going to want to muddy that up with M. May talk. I know he's the kind of guy who has a lot of pigs in the iron normally. So he could easily juggle a lot of that stuff, but I think it's too, I still think it's too soon. I know I'm going to regret this like 10 months from now, but I'm going to go sell. He's not fighting. He's not fighting. He's not. not going to have an MMA fight this year. I would be shocked if that happens. It doesn't seem like it's going to happen this year. Even after the Andriagas fight, Nikisa was saying that this is

going to be a big box, 2024 is going to be like you said, the big boxing year. He's going to try to move up the ranks, however that works, and then prepare for an MMA to debut in 2025. So I kind of take Nikisa at his word here. You know what? F it, I'll buy, but I'm only buying, I'm buying the second half. I'm buying the second half that they, like, during maybe like the PFL championship broadcast in November, this slog of an event that we're going to have to watch the day after Thanksgiving. And Jake's going to show up from his living room to be a guest commentator on a fight. And we're going to be like, why is this happening?

Because this is done. Hot tub. Hot tub, Mike. And Jake is going to announce. Jake is going to announce I am fighting in March opponent TBD, but I am fighting in March in my MMA debut. So I'll buy this. Oh, no, but we need opponent too.

That seems like a lot to ask. Okay. So if Jake says, hey, I'm fighting in March. We're working on the opponent, but I am fighting in March. I've already signed a contract to fight in March. That counts? I think you should get a buy for that. Yeah, yeah.

Who ever said this question and let us know. Let us know if you feel like Mike should get a buy. Because opponent is a big ask. That's a lot to ask for. I'll buy if we just, if just the intent is there. And there's a graphic of some kind, Jake Paul, MMA debut in March 2025. But they don't name an opponent.

Like right now, he's got a boxing matchbook. We don't even know who he's boxing yet. So right, right. There you go. So I'll buy this if that's the case. case. There we go. Next question. By herself, the UFC will re-sign Pac-a-Porter or he signs with in fights for a major MMA organization in 2024. Mike. What is considered, so this has to be either UFC, Bellator, PFL, or one, right? Is that we're considering?

Rising. Rising? Rising. Rising counts too. Sure. Oh, KSW, what else looking at? But I think KSW is a long shot, but I mean, yes. That would be amazing. If Park Reporter signed KSW to fight like PUDs, my God. Would a BKFC or like a GameBread count? I don't think either. I don't consider GameBread MMA to be major.

And BKFC, I mean, specifically this says MMA. The question we're looking at does specifically say MMA, so BKFC, you love it, is not MMA. So I won't. But Game Bread is bare knuckle MMA. It is. but I don't consider it major. It does, a game brand of a lot

does not have the major thing. Well, the answer should be unequivocally by because every organization should be on the phone with the greatest heavyweight of all time, a man who has already shared the cage with John Jones. And if I'm PFL,

if you need an opponent for Francis in Ghana, Parker's the guy, because he's fought John Jones and Francis will never fight John Jones. So Parker can shove that in his face for the whole build. But unfortunately, I'm going to sell this and it hurts my soul.

that I'm going to sell this, but I hope I'm wrong. I've never hoped I'm wrong more in my... You know what? I'm buying it. I'm buying it. I'm buying it just because of positive juju. I'm buying it.

Parker Porter. Parker Parker Parker back at the UFC. I'll buy it, but this is just for positive juju. So wait, but were you picking Sell because you think he's going to do BKFC? I don't know. I don't like,

I don't know if PFL, I mean, maybe PFL brings him in. I don't know. Maybe he sticks around with, maybe he just does the CES thing. I don't know. But maybe he does the bare knuckle and made thing. I don't know.

There's money to be had there right now and they're trying to build something. I mean, they're going, they're trying to fill an NBA stadium for their March card. So, I mean, who better to put butts in seats than Pock Reporter? But, you know,

is this going to be like a Chase Sherman-ish story? where a heavyweight apexy bout needs filling and they call the goat to come through, just, I'm going to buy because I want to see good things happen to Parker Porter. So positive juju, let's go. I'm surprised you're even so cautious with it. This is an easy buy for me.

This is like an easy buy. I think PFL, a PFL, heavyweight division, you know, a very natural fit for him. As you just suggested, he's probably not far down the call list for UFC fight nights still. Again, it's, I can't remember if it was a release or his contract running out.

Either way. It was a release. It was a release. Either way, I don't think he's far off from getting his way back. It's not that difficult to get like highlight real heavyweight wins on the regional scene. So I could, I could expect him to pop up on this fist sometimes soon, him just walloping some dude. And then, yeah, and then getting that call back as a short notice opponent or even just to take someone on from. the Contender Series or there's a lot of ways to get his foot back in the UFC.

I don't see why the PFL wouldn't be interested in him. I think this is, yeah, this was an easy buy for me. I think you will see Parker Porter's name back in on the marquee, a recognizeable marquee soon enough. I know it's, I know it's heavyweight and the heavyweight prime age is so much different than the other weight classes. But man, I wish we were talking about a guy who was 34, about to turn 35. and not a guy who's 38 about to turn 39. That's the big pause here.

But come on, let's do it. Get on the horn. Get on the horn. And let's make this happen. There's a reason Parker Porter is the only fighter to appear on the watch party twice. There's a reason for that. And we're going to make sure that happens more than once in 2024 as well. So let's go.

Get on the horn and put this man under contract. Ooh, buy yourself. Alex Pereira will fight. for the UFC heavyweight title. So before we answer this question, because as you know, A.K., heavyweight is weird. It's very strange. We have two champions right now.

We have John Jones, who is the heavyweight champion, and we have Tom Aspinall, who is the interim heavyweight champion. And I have a feeling that both of those titles will be defended this year at some point in 2024. So does this question mean that prayer is going to fight for the undisputed heavyweight title? or could this, if you bought this and he fought, let's just say, Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight title, would that count as a buy? I'm going to sell on both anyway, Mike. First of all, we only have one heavyweight champion.

His name is Tom Aspinall. I don't recognize that. As Jed would say, you can't be a coward and be the UFC champion. You can't, you can't. And John Jones is scared. John Jones is scared of Tom Aspinall. And since we all accept that as fact, how can we call him a legitimate? heavyweight title holder of any kind.

So we have one heavyweight champion, is Tom Aspinall. But whether it's Alex Podetta versus John Jones or Alex Padeta versus Tom Aspinall or I don't know, Stephen Amioch is down there. I have no idea. That would be hilarious. I don't think that happens this year.

He has enough to do at 205, I think, right? I mean, we have been saying, I still think somewhere down the line Izzy comes back this year. And if Alex Padeta is the champion, that's the trilogy about it. The trilogy about 205, It just makes so much sense for everyone.

I still think that's possible. The Jamal Hill fight, of course, is out there. We'll see what happens with Rocket Jim Blakovitz. I wouldn't Monday year rematch down the road. If Yuri can get a big win this year, one or two big wins, maybe only one, maybe one big win. 205 has he has options. That's the one thing. It is very intriguing the idea of Alpsa, just bolking up a little bit and going for that

three division status that pretty much no one has done. I just don't see it happening in 2024. He's staying at light heavyweight. I'm selling this too, but it's just one of those situations where could they pull out like a Volk Makachev type situation here where the timing actually isn't bad. Like if you're going to do this within the next two or three months, like you could do it. You could do like, you could book him in Aspinall for like UFC 300. And it would make sense because we have Ankleif and Walker fighting next Saturday.

and that's like the first real major fight. There is Izzy, but we don't know when he's coming back. Jamal Hill will get a shot when he's ready to come back. But dude, an Achilles injury sucks, and he's going to be out for a hot minute. So I would say if he comes back July, August, that would be like the best case scenario. And I'm excited to see Jamal Hill fightouts prayer.

It's one of the fights I'm really looking forward to seeing. So if you're going to do something like that, now's the time to do it while we're still trying to get the pieces in place, like Yuri's fighting rackets at 300. So we have things that need to go down. And if Machim and Anklei goes out there and beats Johnny Walker in a boring fight next Saturday, which is a very realistic thing, then Alex just has to kind of wait. And do you want to bench him for even longer while we wait for like a legit guy,

not legit, but like a compelling option for him to defend his title against? This is a different UFC. this is not a meritocracy. This is not next man up. This is compelling stuff. We want to try to sell paper views and put butts in seeds. Having said that, I am going to sell this as well. I don't think he's going to get a heavyweight title shot,

at least not this year. But I would like to see him back first half of the year at some point fighting somebody. Like, we can't just, he's got so much momentum right now. We can't bench him for seven months. So we'll see what happens. But I don't think he fights for the UFC heavyweight title this year. 25 perhaps, maybe. Let me throw out something random for you.

They don't do this anymore in the UFC that much, unfortunately. Is there a chance he does fight a heavyweight and like a stay busy, like an Anderson Silva type thing? And like give him some low level heavyweight. Just see how he looks at heavyweight and just get him get him in there with like a with a banger. I don't like that would be a really fun thing to do. I don't think the UFC does anymore. Is there a chance he dips his toes in if again, like you said, this slight heavyweight title picture doesn't move as quickly as we'd like it. to, is there a chance he dips his toes in and fights like a smaller heavyweight just for

just for poops and giggles? No, because he could just go fight Tom Aspinall right now. You know what I mean? Like if he's going to do it, he could make, if he called the, if his team called the UFC right now and said, look, I'll fight Tom Asman all UFC 300. What are they going to say no? We're going to wait and, because like, who's Tom going to fight right now? Cyril gone who has just said terrible things in terms of like putting himself in this

situation. He is handled. Oh, he is not doing the thing at all. He is on. He's belawling it. He's first team not doing the thing, right? And then Curtis Blades at Jelton, Almeida, are fighting at $2.99. So none of those guys are going to be able to turn around for Tom if they're going to put

him at UFC 300. So if Alex wants to do heavyweight, like, call the UFC and be like, hey, I'll fight for the interim heavyweight title right now. And what are they going to say? No. I think it's like a good option for him. So a stay busy fight doesn't really make sense, but he could just fight for an interim title right now.

And John Jones would probably be interested in fighting Alex Pereira for the- Of course he would. Of course he would. So I'm still selling, but, man, what a story. A lot of people think he's going to do the thing and fight for a third title this year. You're great for 300. It'd be great for 300.

Oh, yeah. They need that. 500 plus 30 equals three. John Jones will compete in more MMA fights than Francis and Ghanu. Now, this is a great question. This is a freaking great question. We had a luxem. We had a lot of variations of like Jones and Ghanu like activity stuff.

So this is good. This kind of lumps all those together. Yeah. So buyer sell that John Jones will compete in more MMA fights than Francis and Gano. Oh, okay. So I'm going to go sell. And this is with the expectation both guys fight once. And that's by no means safe.

There's a very good chance we don't see France. in MMA this year. He's getting the freaking Anthony Joshua fight. It feels like his boxing career is soaring. So with apologies to the PFL, excuse me, guys, unless they want to, unless the PFL can

manage to get him a boxing match under the PFL banner somehow, which is what they should really be working towards, because that's really what he wants to do right now. He might not compete in MMA at all, but I think John Jones will. I do think we finally get John Jones back in there. Once he heals up, gets whatever fight.

Gets the Steefe fight, gets the Aspenov, whatever fight he wants. Alex put it out, I don't know. So, I don't, did I say sell or buy, Mike?

You're selling. You think that's both that's all right. John Jones will compete more. Okay, so I don't think John Jones will compete more than one.

So I think we're getting one. And I think, God, it's almost like the Jake Paul thing. I feel like they're going to announce a PFL will announce a Francis fight near the end of the year, but not actually get a France fight this year.

But I'm optimistic. I'm optimistic. The, the, the future co-leader in M.A. will find a way to get Francis in there. I don't know how.

This is just a really optimistic sell that both guys fight once and no more than once in MMA. But I don't have a plan for France. I'm not sure how it's going to have with Francis, but give me a sell. Give me a sell on this one. So each guy fights once.

I'm buying. John's going to fight at least once in MMA. I'm not sold Francis fights at all in MMA. And if he does fight for PFL, I don't think it's going to be an MMA fight. I think it's going to be some sort of mixed rule. sort of weirdo circusy fight, which I'm not against, by the way. I just, I mean, even Don Davis himself is like, we have nothing compelling for Francis at all in MMA.

So there's only two fights that would make sense for us. It would be John Jones, which is never going to happen if they co-fis, UFSI will never co-promote with them. And they shouldn't, by the way. I've said this a million times. And the other option is a Deonté Wilder type fight with four-ounce gloves and like a boxing match. but like in an MMA cage and I think if we're going to see

Francis compete for the PFL it's going to be in something like that so I will buy that John has more actual mixed martial arts fights than Francis Ngano does in 2024 yeah it's really it's really one to none

right it's really it's really do it's really do you think Francis will compete in an MMA fight in 2020 no I don't I don't yeah it's really it I'll stay with myself stay with myself don't feel strong about it stare at myself. Yeah.

That's a good question, though. I love that question. What else we got? By yourself, Leon Edwards, will compete in a fight with someone not named Belal Muhammad or Shafcott Rachmanoff in 2024. Damn.

I love this question, too. There's so many ways this could go. There really is. Mike, you go first. This is tough, man. Because, like, without knowing what Leon... So let's just say... Let's say we take Leonette as well.

word and he fights at 300 so that's april he did fight in march last year but then didn't fight again until december this is tough i will man michael page is a wild card here oh he pulled the MVP card oh my god he is a wild card because if he beats kevin holland and wins one more they could give him a title fight and they could do it this year depending on when they go to the UK. It's a lot of ifs though. Normally I'm going to sell. I think he fights Bilal, beats Bilal and then fight Shafkat and as you'll hear my predictions, you will see how that fight will go. So he will fight twice. He will fight both of these guys and that's it. I don't think he fights. more than twice.

Yeah, this is really a beautifully worded question because I think most of us are expecting Leon to fight two times in 2024. That's the standard for UFC champs. Again, if you're Sean Strickland, you're a maniac, you might end up if, you know, and he gets, you know, he beats DDP. He'll probably try and get like four title defenses in this year. But it's generally, too. That's the expectation for our U.S. champion.

And for Leon, it does seem like the blueprint is there for Edwards. and I'm sorry, excuse me, Balal and Shavkat. So I'm, but I am buying, buying that he is going to fight someone else. I feel like there's a lot of random options

that could sneak in there. Mosvidal's coming out of retirement. I know the ship has sailed. I just, I'm still, Mike, I'm on the boat. I'm on a little boat

chasing after it, though, waving at it. Like I still have not, the boat is not gone for me. The ship, it's sailing away. It's sailing. It's so far gone, but I've got my, I've got a little light.

I'm shining a light at the boat. Like, no, don't leave us. Like, I still want that fight. I get it. I guess at this point in their careers, it's probably not close to competitive. Leon very likely just destroys Jorge, either finishing him in the first three rounds or just like a domine, like 50, 45, 54 decision. I understand.

I still feel like there's heat there. So I still want that. You mentioned MVP. I feel like Wonderboy is in the same situation. He just doesn't seem like Wonderboy is that far off. ever. Ian Machado Gary has a lot of

definitely a lot of reputation rebuilding to do after unfortunately not making it to that last fight. And the other one, Mike, because his team has put it in play,

I feel like Gilbert Burns, like being a backup, he's going to be a backup fighter for one of these fights for Shavkat or Balal. And I think, like,

knowing the weirdness of MMA, there's a chance one of those guys you know, get whatever gets hurt for some reason and just can't make the fight. It gets sick, gets ill and can't make the fight.

And Gillip Burns gets an out of nowhere, someone out of nowhere title shots. So that's kind of a cheat saying like, oh, he'll fight. Leon will fight someone that's not Shopcott or Ballal because they get injured. But I think that falls under the parameters of the question. Yeah. So, yeah, there's just a lot that can happen at 170. And it's never that neat, right? We think it should be Ballol, should be Shavcott.

How often does the title picture play out that neatly? I'm going by. I'll tell you what. If he and Gary had fought at 296 and beat Vicente Lucke, I could, I wouldn't sell this fast. I mean, I could not sell this fast enough. It'd be so quick, I'd be so quick to buy this one. You know what I mean? Because Gary would probably jump a lull at this point if he went out there and dusted

up Vicente Lucay. So, yeah, him not fighting kind of slowed that train down a little bit. But with everything Ian's been saying over the last couple of years, it's probably not a bad thing. So if he goes out and beat Jeff Deal probably gets another win, he's there. I just don't know if Leon's going to fight three times. That's the whole kicker for me. So we'll see. It's a good question, though.

Imagine if Mazadol gets a 300 fight? Oh, my God. It would do better on pay-per-view than Leon below. I can tell you that right now. Of course it would. But I don't know if Mazadol is fighting an MMA. Buy or sell. Oh, it's one of these.

Cool, big list. Okay. All right, Byers, at least one of these former champions will either be booked in a title fight or have won a title back in 2020. So we need one,

just one of these names has to at least fight for a title. Domina Cruz, Cody Garbrandt, Connor Greger, RDA, Usman, Jan Bolovich,

Cyril Gahn, Jess Gondraj, Rose Domi Unis. So one of these fighters will at least get a title fight in 2024. That's so many names. It feels like it has to be a buy, right?

It feels like there's just a chat. Hashtag math, okay. Yeah, hashtag. I don't even need to break out the MA fighting calculator for this because what's like a 10? What's their name? Like eight, nine names there.

And one of them just based on name value, like falling like bass backwards into a title shot. If there was Vegas odds, buy would be like what? minus, I think on this would be like minus 200, like 300 or something like on this, right? It's just there's so many names, but

I feel like we should have been odds on this one, Mike. I feel that, let me, let me think upon this. I don't know, do you have an answer? Do you have a buyer sell? I'm buying. One of these names? One of those names.

Rose could get a title shot anytime she really wants one. Like if she called the UFC right now and said, I'll fight Zhang Wei at UFC 300. She has two wins over John. The UFC probably wouldn't say no. Cyril Gahn will probably get some sort of title shot this year,

whether it's interim. It won't be for the real one, but I could see that happening. If Connor beats Michael Chandler, he's absolutely getting a title shot in any division he wants. Cruz, no, Garbrandt, no, RDA, no. Wolhovic, no.

Andrage, no. Usman, maybe, but probably not. So, Rose, I could see. just because hashtag UFC. Gone, I could see just because of the landscape of the division. And Connor beats Michael Chandler. He's absolutely getting a title shot if he wants one. So out of all these names, I could see two or three possibly getting one.

And at that point, that's enough for me to buy. Yeah, Connor makes it so favorable. Even though getting him to fight twice in one year at this point is getting him to fight once. That date is very far away, by June 29th. It's very, very, very far away. So if they get the one fight out of Connor this year, I'm sure the UFC will be jumping for joy. I don't think they should be looking ahead to, oh, but if he beats Chandler, what kind of title fight can we put him in? Let's just worry about the 29.

Yeah, but I think Mike, I think we're agreeing. It's just the sheer volume of names given the name power, how easy it would be for some of these fighters to just dial up a title shot. I'll go by. I'll go by as well. All right. What else we got? I love when we have the list of names. Questions.

That's just a lot. That's a lot of names. Of course. Oh, buyer selling, a.k. you have to go first. I'll go for it. Patty Pimble will end the year as a ranked lightweight.

Now, is this, I assume is the UFC? Maybe global rankings counts as this as well. One or the other. One of the other, Patty Pimble be ranked. Listen, I'll go anywhere.

I'll go anywhere. Will he be? And by ranked, I think we mean top 15. We assume the standard, I think, in most people's top of being. I think the ringer only does a top 10.

So if he was how about cracked the top 10 of the ringer, I'd be like, okay, that's insane. I think Sherdog also does the top 10. But if he makes like Sherdog honorable mention, I would consider that like ranked. Sherdog, again, is just like us. They do beyond the UFC, they do all promotions. UFC or MMA fighting global rankings.

That's a regal one. Oh, okay. We'll stick. Let's keep it simple. UFC or I may find global rankings. Yeah, because if he's made one of those other lists, for sure, he would have cracked. Especially UFC, USC.

So I had to, I looked at this. Oh, what are the names? What are the names on the list right now? I think it's like 13 to 15. It's like Moikano, I think Bobby Green. Oh, Judeover and Judeover. Okay. So that's your 13, 14, 15 right now in some order is Moikano, Bobby Green, and

Drew Dover. So really, I'm asking myself, is he going to get one of those fights? And can he beat any of those guys? Moikano would probably be the scariest one. I think he has ways of beating Bobby Green and Jude Dover. Also, both very tough matchups, of course. So I have to buy, I have to buy, Mike, right? I think even just based on my history with sort of predicting Patty Pimble's future,

I've been one of the most vocal about, on our staff anyway, about saying like, he's, I agree he's not great. I agree he's not like a surefire title contender. I still think he's better than people give him credit for. and at lightweight, again, maybe that's not good enough to be top of dean, you know, being just better than extent people think. But even though he's in his prime already, he's what, 27, 20, 20, he's not like some young up-and-coming guy.

I still think there is room for improvement. I still think they've built him up the right way. And when the UFC does that, I think he would be surprised how much someone can improve when they're given the right matchups, when they're tested the right way. And I think that's what they've done with Paddy's. So top 15 is, if they said top 10, pretty easy sell. But because they said ranked,

pretty easy buy. Even if he doesn't make the global rankings, I think that's a bit of a taller order. If he wins one or, if he wins two fights in 2024, he will be in the UFC's rankings. I don't know if that's true though. I don't know if that's true.

The matchups are so important here. Like they really are. I'm selling this. I just don't know if he's going to fight any of these guys. guys. Like maybe do they give him like a Dan Hooker and even then I don't know if I love that idea for him. Bobby Green, maybe they go that route.

But even again, I don't know. I just don't think he's going to be in the top 15. I don't think he's going to get the right matchups. I do think he fights more than once next year. I just don't think he gets a, I don't think he fights a Fiziv or a Daryush or, you know, maybe they throw him Dan Hooker or like, Him and Moikano, that's a tough stylistic matcher for him.

They ain't, UFC ain't putting him anywhere near Jalen Turner or Ben Wausantanique. You can tell you that right now. That would be insane. That'd be insane. I'll sell this. I think he's close, but I don't think he's a ranked lightweight. Unless there's Tom Foolery with UFC being like, this is how I want you to rank Patty to the panelists if he wins this fight,

which, you know, if you follow the Twitter trends in the past three years, when it comes to people who have been on that rankings panel about how the UFC wants you to vote. Not saying you have to vote that way. I think things have probably changed since then. But I just don't think he gets there. RDA being back at lightweight changes things a lot because for a while he's like, I'm never fighting a lightweight again. Now he's fighting Matush Gamrod.

So no matter what happens in that fight, he's still going to be where he's at. Yeah, I don't think he gets there. I don't think he gets there. Even if he goes 2 and O, he's probably like knocking on the door. There's one name you forgot, Mike, and I brought this up in a previous hunt of the next one, and people are saying, I'm crazy, but this is my new Al-Kaku-Ka-Ki batty, right? If by some chance, Michael Chandler slips on a banana peel and loses to McGregor on June 29th, he's going to need a name to come back against Mike's, a Mark-it-old name.

And that name will be Patty Pimbleau. Michael Chandler, if he loses to McGregor, there's also a chance if McGregor doesn't make that fight and they needed a replacement for June 29th that Patty the Baddy gets the call to fight Michael Chandler. I am manifesting this fight. Now, the one problem with, as confident as Zand, this fight will happen in 2024. There is the fact that he would have to beat Michael Chandler to earn his ranking. And that I have no idea how he would possibly do.

But since we're going crazy with it, let's go all the way. And I say that is one other way from to get a ranking. Not necessarily beating the 13, 14, 15 guy. somehow jumping over all of them and getting some Michael Chandler fight, and I don't know how pulling up a win against Iron Mike. So, yeah, I'm standing by. I'm standing by my by. I think there's ways he can get into that top of team. There's ways. There's definitely ways.

I just, I don't know. I just don't know if he's going to get the right fights. We'll see. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games

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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. Next question. By yourself, fighter not currently anywhere near the championship discussion in the UFC

will become champion much like Sean Strickland. How do we define this, A.K.? Again, we had like an internal discussion about this on Slack a while ago. Like, we have what counts as unlikely as Strickland's wrong? Because we've just never seen anything like that before, where he ended 2020 on a loss, right? He ended 22 with the loss of Jared Canineer, I think, right? I'm not going to hear, right?

That's the thing to happen. Yeah, he lost his last two fights in 2022. Right, and then makes a quick turnaround and then wins his first two fights of 2023 and then gets a title fight. So it would have to be someone who's ideally coming off some sort of loss, especially a loss where, and the Cantonier fight wasn't bad.

If people can go back and watch the Canineer fight, I thought a clear win for Canineer, but it was a competitive fight. It wasn't like Canineer just watched him for a fight. five rounds. It was like, yeah, I'm sure there's a case in that you made for a Strickland win. Again, I scored over Canier, but I get it. So, by the way, a loss, a loss against a ranked guy that I thought at the time kind of put a ceiling on him. Now, I'm trying to, is there a comparison? Is there anyone who suffered a notable loss near the end of 2023? I mean, look,

you're saying, you said earlier that Gilbert Burns could find himself in a title fight, who is coming off a loss against Bala Muhammad. Pretty one-sided loss. So the other, the other, Gilbert's a great shot. But the other factor to the Strickland, like craziness, was that he had not fought for a title before. He had not been really, he had never even been one win away from a title shot.

I don't know, maybe he couldn't argue if he'd beaten Padera, but I don't think that that's, I think that, like when he fought Padreta, there was a thought that that was, that bout was made to push Padreta towards a title shot, not necessarily put Strickland towards Telas shot. So I know that sounds weird. I know we can look back and say, well, obviously, if he'd be beaten Padetta, he would have gotten a title shot instead.

And I don't think that's actually how it would have worked. So Burns has been one, a top five guy forever. He at least has previously fought for the title. So he's somewhat more believable than Strickland. It's really hard. It's really hard to. I think we couldn't come up with a really strong name, which again, speaks to how rare Strickland's path was. So I actually, I think I have to sell if only because I can't.

not come up with a name that can match that. And again, the problem is, like, if something happens, we do have some unlikely champion. There's certainly comparisons that we made to Strickland. So I don't even know how we evaluate as this as successful buy or sell by the end of the year. But we'll revisit it and probably have this discussion again. But I'll go, I'll go sell just because I cannot think of it. I mean, I guess I have to sell based on the definition that you just provided.

I mean, look, like if Kevin Hollins wins the title in 2023, then that that's I would count, right? Because he's coming off. That's up there. That's up there. That's up there. And he's similar to Strickland and being like a name has been ranked is somewhere in the rankings like maybe not top 10, but certainly hovering around and middle way.

He was top 10 for sure. Um, and also very active. That's the other key. Very, very active, very active company man and someone who fans like, that's actually a really good. That's a really good pick. Do you want to change to a buy, Mike? No.

No, I'm not. Just because you, you don't think he would be a good guy. Yeah. That's a really good. We're all kind of pushing for Bobby Green to maybe be that guy heading into this year. But then he got Jalen Turner and that did not work out very well. So God, would like, would be Neil Daryush count? Again, a guy who's like consistently higher ranked, but also certainly would fit the, like,

I feel like we've all given up on him getting a title shot, right? Yeah. So in that sense, that's pretty similar to Strickland. And in a different way, in a different way, Strickland's more like we never thought he'd get a title shot. But Darius is just like, oh, gosh, he was so close. And we all thought he deserved it. And now we're all really, really confident. Oh, but it's anywhere.

Okay. Okay. Oh, near. Oh, no, but they have to become champion. Okay. Okay. Never one. So I'll sell this.

If it was getting a title shot, I might have a different answer. Yeah. But yeah, I'm selling this. To become champion, I'm selling. Yeah. I think we're guys, we're being, I know we're being a bit boring with this one. Be ready to throw this one our faces again. When Kevin Hall,

becomes champion or Benille or I'm trying to think some other crazy name. Page could. Page definitely could. Bryce Mitchell. Imagine Bryce Mitchell. God, Bryce Mitchell would be a really good one. Just coming back from the dead and just

becoming USCG. Gosh, I don't know what 2024 is going to give us. I'm still reeling for 2023. I know I said we're moving on to 2024. Now, just every time we talk about 2023, everything flashes my mind. I'm just reeling. What a year.

I want to jump in real quick. Okay. Would Buena Silva, was she already be the Sean Strickena this year if she wins? Was she any sort of discussion in the 2022? No, Casey, because she's already the uncrowned Bantamway champion in my mind. So she has already won the UFC title,

removing her from this discussion. She is the UFC women's bantamway champion. All right. And she's fighting, And she's fighting for the belt in 12 days. It would have to be not scheduled. Yeah, something not scheduled. But she is an unlikely story.

She's the closest thing we have to, I guess, as Sean Stricklandon since that a year ago, there was no discussion of her actually having a title, a title belt. Yeah. She had an insane rise. And I remember I was not in, I was not in the country, I think, when that card happened. And I remember I was just like, oh, Mario R. Silva, Holly Holie Holmes, like Holly Holmes, the 3027. that was what I had in my mind.

And when I came back and caught up with the news, I'm like, whoa, Mayor de Bono Silva, holy crap, someone finally definitively beat Holly Home, whatever, it's in no contest. I don't care. Yes. In that sense, at the beginning of the year, I did not think we would be talking about Maraubon de Silva

in any meaningful way at all. And I like her. She's a very good fighter. I just didn't think we'd be saying, like, oh, she's about to become a UFC champion. Wild. By herself, the UFC will lose their antitrust lawsuit in business as we know it.

will have to change forever. I think they will, I don't know, man. I think the fine lose. Does lose count as if they buy a, if they settle, if they settle before, if it doesn't go to trial or whatever, I'm bad with law guys. If it, you know, if the USC does the thing where they pay the people money and make it go away, does that, that's not a lose, right? I don't know how I'll be.

I think it has to go to some sort of trial. Yeah. Okay. Um, God. I mean, look, it's not looking good for the UFC, but even if they lose, I don't know if business changes forever. Now, there is a world where it could. If they, I think for it to change forever in any meaningful way, it will have to go to trial. If they settle, I mean, at least just based on my limited knowledge of the legal space, if they just settle and pay the ex-fighters and everybody involved in the plaintiff's spot a whole bunch of

money, then business won't change. They'll just lose a bunch of money like the NFL just did not that long ago. And even if they, from a financial standpoint, you look at all the money that the UFC could possibly lose here and it seems like a lot, it's not going to really affect them financially. Like it will for a little while. But it's also something that if you look at the NFL lawsuit that they lost against ex-players, the NFL gets to pay this over, I mean, decades, decades, just bits and pieces every year overall and over and over and over.

So I really think this will be similar. I'm going to, I'm going to sell this for this reason that the UFC and their crack legal team, they're going to do everything in their power to delay the shit out of this thing. And they're going to push this, they're going to kick this can down the road

for as long as they can. So because of that, I'm going to sell this because I don't think we're going to get an actual and I don't think we're going to get closure on this this year. That's my prediction. I think this will continue on. I think this will carry on through most of the year.

And I think 2025 is when we'll get our answer. But again, I have no real insight to this. And even if they lose, I don't think business is going to change forever. So I'm going to sell based on I don't think this is going to end this year. Yeah, I think that's the easy. I was as you were sort of answering the question before, I was like, that's the easy way to sell this is, we might not get a resolution until like 2026.

And honestly, that might be optimistic. This is a huge, huge case, which is already like all the pretrial stuff, follow follow, you know, follow John S. Nash, follow. A lot of these great journalists have been covering the story. They've been covering it for years, years, years, years now. We're seeing the most significant movement. We saw the most significant movement in 2023. Documents actually being released, so much stuff becoming public.

You guys saw a lot of stuff written by us, by bloody elbow, by other websites. So it feels like, oh, something's going to happen soon, but that's not, we really are just still in the preliminary stages of an actual trial, right? Assuming it goes to some sort of trial. So you're right. 2026, even, resolution might be optimistic. So in that case, it's an easy sell. In the spirit of the question, I guess, it's also an easy buy, like by the time it does get resolved. Let's say it's not this year.

But I do think it's an easy buy. One, I think there's a good chance to UFC loses. Two, I do think it changes the business forever. And when I say that, I'm cheating a little bit because I'm not mentioning like to the degree to which it will change. Because changing the business forever can mean, okay, like some slight tweaks to the contracts and that's it. And technically it means the business will have been changed. Yes. But changed in the sense that, oh, this will be a major hit to the UFC, that it will open the door for like, you know, the competitors to catch up to the UFC.

I sincerely doubt it. I sincerely doubt it. Because the next version of UFC contracts, no matter what happens, when or lose, they're going to be able to change it to have certain language to avoid situations like this happening in the future. So UFC, no organization is too big to fail. But right now, the UFC is in a position where they're too big to fail, at least for the next, like, I don't know, 30 years. Like, it'll be really, that's why, let's say, let's be more, more conservative here, 20 years, 20 years, who knows what can have in 20 years. I'll be, I could be nothing but dust by 2026.

But easy sell, if you're talking that this has to specifically happen in 2024, which I guess is the question. But again, I'm buying that the U.S.A will lose and it will change things, just not in like a way that's going to really shake us up in a significant way. But I'm with you, Mike, sell, just because, yes, it's not a 2024 story. All right. Let's continue on. This has got to be one of the biggest stories of the year.

Buy yourself. The NFL will have their most successful year ever positioning them to unequivocally be a legit threat as a potential co-leader. What did we just say in the last question, Mike? There's no. I mean, how do we define success, honestly? Because they're not going to make money this year. They lost a ton of money last year. So much money.

Yeah. And yet they had like some momentum because they got. Francis and that's like obviously a big thing. And, you know, they get the SPN deal and they're doing all this stuff. But like, no one views them as a threat right now. Like, no one views them as a threat. So, I mean, how do we define this? I guess what I'll just say is I'm going to sell this. This will not be the most successful year they've had because they're going to put on a couple of pay-per-views that are probably going to bomb and that will not be all that compelling. I think they'll have some ideas that may seem compelling in a future sense, but in reality,

when it happens, I think people, I don't think, 2020 to me was like their best year ever. Like, they end of the year with momentum. The pay-per-view, like, not a lot of people bought it, but those who did, it was a good watch. And Kayla losing was a huge story. Loris Pacheco did, you know, got over a bit. And there were some compelling story lines heading into 2023. But Cedric Dumebe was a big story. Francis Agano was a big story.

But other than that, this was a whimper. I mean, obviously the Bellator deal. But I just don't think it. I don't think they get a ton of traction here. I really don't. So I'll sell this. I don't think, will I enter 2025 with the same positive vibes that I felt? Heading into 2023?

No, I don't think that's going to happen. So no, they will not have their most successful year ever. And there will be no very, no, the antitrust lawsuit could change things, but also it's going to affect them as well. Yeah. So no, they will not be an unequivocal, legit threat as a potential co-leader at the end of 2024. So sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell.

Yeah, I had to sell. I do think there's a chance it could be their most successful year ever. They need to get more shine off of their partnerships with Francis and with Jake Paul and with all these other names that keep bringing in. I do think there's potential for a lot of notable buzzworthy fights we made with having the Beltaire roster there. They're saying all the right things so far about how they're going to utilize the roster, at least what little they have said. So I'm excited about that aspect. So I like the could it be their most successful year part? Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think so. I think. So like you said, 2022 was a great year, so I'm not saying it would like blow that year away. But could it be like by the end of the year could some of the positive vise that we've had from the last two years carry over and even like sort of push it, you know, push it to another level name value wise? Sure, sure. I don't know about the profitability. I don't know about the dollars and sense of it all. Probably not making money hand over fist by the end of 2024.

But as far as that, you know, firmly establish themselves as a well-liked number two and may promotion in North America. yes that is an achievable goal and one that they should they should you know chase that should cement that but the co-leader thing is such a joke and i love don davis and again like i said i want to believe in 20 years maybe the pfl or someone else could emerge as a co-quote co-leader um but it's extremely difficult designation to achieve especially again we are talking about a major league sports now there is no like there's no co-leader to the NFL there's no co-leader to the NBA there's no co-leader to major league baseball NHL blah blah There's other leagues.

There's other leagues that have relationships with them. There's other leagues that are successful. But unfortunately, this is the way these things work in the United States, at least. There's really room for one big dog. And that's the UFC. And the big dog don't share. Like, the big dog don't share its meals. I'll tell you.

So while the UFC, I'm sure, I'm supposed to be for the purposes of the antitrust lawsuit, we'd be happy to say that, oh, PFL's healthy competition. And these other promotions are healthy competition. They're not. They're not. And PFL can be successful in its own way, but this co-leader business, the question should have been, will we, will we, by the end of 2024, will we no longer hear the phrase co-leader again? Because I may have bought on that, but no, I got a sell on being a legit threat. It's not.

And I love BFL. I hope PFL lasts, again, for decades as an alternative to the UFC. But right now, it's in no position to usurp, much less right along with them. They don't have a Bannamweight division. They don't have a middleweight division. They don't have like the compelling women's division, some of all the women's. They don't even have all the divisions.

They don't have any of these. They have some potential stars in the rise. Like I think Dumbay could obviously be a star for them. Dakota, Dachaba could be something. But how do they position her? Do they throw her into the fire right away? And what if that backfires? So they have like decisions to make.

If their broadcasts are more digestible, where they're not 14 hours on a Thursday night watching nine fights, that could be helpful. Stop with the stupid smart cage statistics. Those are ridiculous. Disagree. Stop with zooming in people during fights. That's dumb.

And the championship pay-per-view needs to be a two-day event. Stop with this one pay-per-view thing. Those are horrendous to watch. Those are horrendous to watch. They take whatever. It was so bad. It was so bad. It took forever.

So turn that into a two-day or a two-week thing. Do half of it on ESPN Plus and then do like a pay-per-view that's more digestible. So I'm selling, but maybe they could change my mind. Maybe they could change my mind if they could do things that. But they seem very stubborn in their ways where they're just like, oh, what we're doing is work. And we're almost co-leader. So what we're doing is fine. You get to change a lot of shit.

a lot of shit. What else we got? By yourself, the UFC makes any meaningful change to tough that makes it seem different than the same thing they've been doing for 20 years, aka this is your lane, but I'm just going to say sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, this show is the same as it's always been.

It has not changed one iota and it will not change one iota. Casey, I thought we took this question out. I thought I took this question out of the rotation. How dare you put a also a fighter-related question? I know we all had a great time with Tuff-Hang, Casey, you and me, Connor Burks. What a magical time that was in our lives. But even I have to admit, yes, yes, that's an easy sale, Mike.

They're not going to do anything new with the show. They're going to try and at best, again, try getting some sort of provocative coaches in there to really say, like, ooh, it's like a, we're bringing the edge back to the ultimate fighter. But yeah, they've had no reason to. I think they see it as a really cheap show to produce that is just more content for ESPN Plus right now. the one thing is Mike we don't know where the UFC's will land in 2025

the broadcasting rights they are shopping them around it could be back on ESPN obviously I imagine ESPN is a frontrunner to just re-up with the USC there's a chance to go to another network some other sort of network or you know multiple networks multiple networks right and who knows perhaps perhaps one of these networks will ask them hey

We want to do something different. Some enterprising young man at one of these networks is a huge Older Fighter fan like myself and says, I have some ideas about how we can spruce up the Yelden Fire. Put me on as a producer and let's turn this show into a product that fits our brand more strongly. So there's a chance that happens. But this year or next year, like with the next edition of the Elder Fighter, I doubt it. Again, and we won't know until 2025. Oh, sorry, we'll know this year, but it won't be until 2025 that if they do another season,

Ultimate Fighter. I know there's one coming up. Sorry, that there will be an ultimate season of the fighter and an ultimate season. God, I got to start talking for the show. A season of the ultimate fighter that's not on ESPN. The next one will be on ESPN plus and then after that we'll see. So we laugh, Mike. And it's probably, it is an easy sell this year. But let's, I think we need to revisit this in 2025. Let's see if they, if they're not in ESPN anymore. And if there's a new channel or streaming service that might come up with something different. Spoiler alert. You could ask you this question in 2025, 2025, 2029, 2034, and I will sell this every single time. There are some things the UFC will be willing to do business in regards to.

This is not one of them. This is his baby. This is Dana's baby. He ain't budgeon. And let's be clear, they have all the leverage in the world right now. So, yeah, this shit ain't changing. Basketball jerseys till the end of time. What else we got?

Ooh, at least one of these names will announce their retirement in 2024. Dustin Porriere, Justin Gaichy, Michael Chandler. Holy moly. Mike, this was actually like a really easy sell for me. I don't think I... Really? Yeah. Yeah.

I know poor... I guess Porriet feels like the closest. He is in this like he is in the super, super, super, super picky stage of his fighting career where it feels like he doesn't need to. fight. He only, you know, gets back into, you know, I mean, he's in camp all this training all the time, but, you know, gets into serious fight camp when he has a, you know, a name that's lined up that he feels like can, can either, you know, whatever, sell pay-per-views or, you know, get, you know, widespread attention. It's a style matchup that he likes, an entertaining fight.

So, Puri is probably the closest. I get it. I just don't feel like all three guys have more money to make in MMA. It's a good, again, really well-phrased question, by the way, whoever sent that in. To say, just pick one. Pick one of those names. But I don't think Chandler does. He'll be hotter than ever after he KOs, you know, McGregor in 45 seconds

and then fights Patty Pimblet. Gatesi, I know it feels like, okay, he's going to get one more title shot, and then if he loses that, he'd probably walk away. But I don't think he'll, I think he would do get a title shot and loses. I still think there's a few more fun fights that he would want a piece of at the UFC can at least sell him on and pay him properly for.

So Dustin's the closest. So it's a, it's not an aggressive cell here, Mike, but I'm going so. I think we will see all these men fight again at least one more time in 2025. Hmm. Chandler is not going to. Porre is interesting. Gaichi's really interesting. Because I mean, since like 2016, we've been waiting for Gaichi to be like, all right, this is my last one.

He's been teasing in so many different ways over the years. He's like, well, I need like three more wars and then I'm done. and then we see him go through all these battles, but he's only considered like one of these fights of war, which he's just that insane. Gachi's the one that gets me, because if he ends up fighting Islam Makachev next and loses, I mean, what else?

There may be like another fun fight for him. Like maybe he tries to get the Connor fight, but even at that point, like if Connor loses to Michael Chandler, I don't think he's got to go fight Justin Gachi. And maybe he does like a max holocaid. away fight just for like one more like fun one and that could also happen this year. God, one of those three names.

I'll sell. This is like this is one of those questions where it's like it could be next year. It could be next year. So I'll sell this but I'm not confident at all because I could see Gaichi losing like if Gaichi loses the Makachep, I could definitely see a world where he's like, all right, this is bought everybody. I'm going to get out of here and play some golf. Do we do we count it as like a bot? Will you change to buy if we count say G.

Luz de Mokachev and leaves his gloves in but doesn't leave his gloves in the cage but doesn't say retirement and sort of does the, you know, I'm waiting to see what's next? I haven't made. Do we count that? Do we just need to see the gloves in the cage? Also, Mike, what if near the end of 2024 and fighters rarely do this? What if they said that 2025 will be my last year? Does that count as announcing a retirement? Yes, but I don't see either of these guys saying that.

Okay. So even with those expanded parameters, you with me, holding on to that, like, a sell. Because even like, like Paul Felder after the Dan Hooker fight was like, I got to go home and spend time with my kids and we're like, oh, yeah, he's retired. That was his final fight. And then he fights RDA. And we're like, okay, that was his final fight. And then it took like a year and a half later while he's commentating on a broadcast at the apex that he's retiring.

So I'll sell this. Yeah, I'll sell it. It's not reluctant. A little bit. I feel like you're going to regret that you're going to regret this one. I won't regret it because I feel very strongly, but you've made a very good case why there will be at least one and then still went sell.

That's a very AK thing to do. Because Porre is a good guess. He's basically said, you know, I need fights that get me excited. And right now, like, he wants to fight a UFC 300, but like, what is actually available to him right now. Like, what is realistic for him? You know what I mean? Like, if they go, if they go with Islam versus Olivera,

like, they will probably pair dust it up with Sarukian. Is that one that's going to get them all excited? I mean, maybe it's like the best fight he can get without a title shot. Does he fight Colby? Does he, like, who does he fight that, like, gets him excited? So, I don't know. I just don't know. I think time is running out in regards to Poria getting like these big fights that he thinks he can get right now,

especially with this division moving forward the way that it is. So we'll see. But I'll sell it. And again, I'm not very confident. We'll take like one or two more. And then we'll move on to round two. Buy or sell. UFC and WWE will come together for a major event in the same city during the same week and weekend.

Do we see a mega UFC? WWE conglomerate week slash weekend. I think you've got to buy here, right? You've got to buy. TKO, so wait, that just formed in 2023. And I think, didn't I see some release the other day that they've moved further towards whatever becoming a, I can't remember.

It's always like announcement, and then now it's this official, and this official, this official. Either way, the gears are well, the TKO machine is up and running. The gears are in motion. It would be very strange for them not to, considering how many events,

both promotions do. The word major is in the question, so I assume they're implying a paper view, which could be a little bit trickier. But even something like a Noce UFC, or again, they have gotten back on the road a bit. So I would count that too. I would count like a UFC, I don't know, Atlantic City or something. I know that's already coming up, but for example, I would count one of those road shows also as a major event for the UFC because paper views would be great.

holding a pay-per-view the same weekend as a WWE, what do they call them? Because they don't really do a special event or something. What do they call their pay-per-views now? Premium live events. Thank you. A PLE, a PLE, yeah. The WWPLEs. But again, they just hold so many events.

Both companies are, I think, are saying all the right things with this partnership. This is such an easy buy. Again, I don't think it happens, maybe not first quarter. But let's look at the summer. I feel like this would be something really spectacular do in the summer. Really fun for fans of both. Yeah, I just don't see how it doesn't happen. Unless people are saying it'll be more of a 2025 thing, which is possible, but I think they're

going to hit the ground running and arrange something. The only question is major. How major will the events be? But I think it'll be enough that we'll be like we'll be talking about and saying, yeah, this is a pretty milestone moment in combat sports entertainment, as it were. So, yeah, very easy buy when I saw this question. I'm looking up what, do we have a June PLE announced yet? I have no idea of the bank. Money in the bank is July 6th. In Toronto, right?

In Toronto. Yeah, in Toronto, yeah, baby. So if WWE is part of UFCX in any way during international fight week, does that count? If W is in part anyway, yes, I would think, yes, that definitely counts. Yes. I'll buy this. I'll buy this. I could see them doing like an NXT show. Maybe they do an NXT show in Vegas that week, which would be frigging cool. I'll buy this. I think they'll do something. I think they'll do something. I don't think it's going to be like WrestleMania weekend. And it's like WrestleMania on Saturday and the UFC on Sunday or WWUE on Saturday. No, I don't

think it'll be anything like that. But do we see some sort of event where they come together? Sure. I can see that. Yeah. This will be a fun one to revisit at the end of the year. Because I think they'll do, they're going to do all kinds of promotional things. Well, they make some near misses. They're like, oh, they almost did. They did it like one week after or the same month or like they themed it. It'll be fun one to revisit. I don't know if it's going to hit, but they're going to come close.

They're at least going to close. Some fun combination things here. I've been saying for a long time, international flight week should have like every MMA organization on planet Earth should be trying to host some sort of event out in Las Vegas that week, just in some way. It doesn't even have to just go 20. 25 minutes down the road. Like, international fight week should be like MMA's equivalent of WrestleMania. I would love to see that.

But, uh, EKC just chimed. Casey, do you want me to read that on air? Give me a, give me a reg. Oh, go ahead. Oh, I'll just jump in. Yeah, sorry. No, I was going to say 100% giant sell. Considering how the UFC just promoted their last event with the press conferences of

Sean Strickland and, uh, who else? Uh, Colby. I just can't see the WWE risking to put their name on the same week with events that could happen like that. WWE is a family event. Yes. UFC is not a family event. That's why I say big sell as far as like on the same week type of co-promoting each other. That's the only reason why.

But Casey, but Casey, who do you think helped them book the UFC 296 DDP Strickland crowd segments? You didn't see, come on. That was obviously, I heard, I heard, I heard, I heard, I heard, I heard, I heard, I heard, was the, was the hands-on production agent for that segment. I don't know if you heard about that. I was, I did see Paul. I did see Paul Heyman in the back. Yes, you're right.

Yeah, clapping. Yeah, he was like, well done. Oh, well done, boys. That's good business, boys. That's good business. All right. Buy yourself three or more champ champ fights in 2020. Oh, I didn't think about this.

Selling. Oh, yeah, it seems like a, ah, is 300 going to screw things up, though? Do you think it because if you think at 300, we get at least one? Do you think they try and sneak one in there? So that's one off the books. No, I don't. Maybe they do Zhang and Grasso, but God, I hope not. So that's one.

You said Pada, Aspinall, good chance. That's two. Maybe. I didn't say good chance. I said if they're going to do it. Yeah. No, I'm selling this just because I don't want to see it. No.

I don't want to say he's going up. Islam keeps talking about it's going up. No, because I don't think he's going to fight enough for that to happen. So this is three or more. I'm selling this. No, it's not going to happen. I'm, Mike, I'm reverse jinxing. And I know you shouldn't say it out loud when you're reverse jinxing something.

I'm going by. I'm going by. I hate it. I'm with you. I hate it so much. I hate that I'm even speaking into existence. But the good news is, as people will know, my predictions are usually very, very wrong. So I think this will work.

I think I'm affecting the universe as I say this out loud. So yeah, I'm going by. We will see. three. Oh, God. God, I hope that's not true. All right. Last one.

We'll do one more. Give us the best remainder. I don't even know how many we've done. The UFC will have more than, buyers of the UFC will have more than two interim championship fights. Nah. Oh, God. Sell, sell, sell.

More than two or two or more? So it's more than two. It says more than two. That's what's getting for me. Two or more, you convince me. I think three is a lot. I don't see why. I don't like that look in your face, my best friend.

I don't like that look on your face. I'm buying this. I couldn't buy it because I think Tom Aspedal is going to defend the interim heavyweight title twice. So there's two right there. So all I need is one more and we're going to get one. Oh yeah, I'm buying. I'm buying. Yep.

We will have more than two interim championship fights. Aspidal will be two of them by himself. Oh, gross. Gross. There you go. Bye, bye, bye, bye. That's gross. All right.

Do we have any more? That was a quick one. Case, what do you got? Oh, we have, we have dozens more. Oh, yeah. Give us another one more. Okay, one second. I was getting my, uh, do, do, do, do.

Oh, that's right. We said, oh, right. We did our champion predictions. I forgot. I know you're so excited for this. I can't do worse than last year, Mike. I can't, I apparently can't do worse than last year. You were also very close to having the pick of the year.

I was. I was. I like this. I was. Buy herself. Mahab of Wahev, Mavzhar of Loyaf, Marab du Walsh, Rih, or Jailton Al-Meda get a title shot in 2024. Jesus, that's a lot of names.

I have to buy this and I'll explain why. I'll explain why in a moment. But yes, I'm definitely buying this. You know me. I would have, I'm trying to jump all over this Jelton thing. But the way, with the way they had. way title picture is right now, it almost feels like it's impossible for him to get a title shot in 2024?

Marab's never going to... He might get an interim title shot. I don't think Muhammad nor Mosar. Marab really needs to get a title shot. This is just getting silly. Yeah, buy, buy. Maraub or Shelton? Maraub or Jelton.

I'll buy. I'm not buying this for either of those two names you just mentioned. As you'll find out. As you'll see. as you'll see Buy or sell The interim heavyweight belt is defended

before the next undisputed heavyweight championship fight takes place Bye, baby I'm buying this one Tom Mike did you sell I was putting the intro medal first

Did you sell on the last one All four names? Wait, is all four names get a title shot? No, no, did any one of them? Yeah, I'm buying that one Yeah, I bought. Who?

Which one? Who? You'll see. Oh, okay, I have to wait. Okay, okay. So you are buying, okay, sorry. Yeah.

I want to get, get on tape. Yeah. So buy or sell, I'm buying the interim heavyweight belt is defended before John Jones defends the other belt. Okay. So my only caveat here is, is there a chance the UFC comes to their senses and when Aspenol gets his title fight book, they say, you know what?

We are just to goose up whatever show Aspenol is on, we are promoting. And perhaps there's an update on, well, we know John Jones won't be back until whenever whenever. So we are promoting, we are promoting Aspinall to undisputed status. Does that, that eliminates this question then, right? Then he is no longer interim. It would eliminate this question, but you and I both know, that's not going to happen. We don't. So I am selling, I am selling, Aspinall going into his next title fight, he will instead be anointed as the undisputed champion. And the UFC will, as they always do, and Data White and the UFC always do, they will do the right thing and say,

well, we got an update on Jones. It looks like he'll be out like longer than expected. So in his absence, Tom Aspinall is promoted to undisputed status. We are still dedicated to making John Jones versus Steepamio-Japen because this is the part they won't say, who gives a crap, why does the title need to be on the line? It's insane. You can do that fight.

It doesn't matter. You can make it a five-rounder. It's not going five rounds anyway. And Tom Aspenol is our undisputed champion. So that's my sell on it. it won't be interim much longer. After what we just saw, Walterweight in 2023,

this is, this is what we're, this is what's going to happen. 2024 is going to be the year of order. If 2020, it was a year of chaos, 2024 will be the year of order. Oh, man.

Hey, listen. Well, as you'll hear my bold prediction, maybe you're right. Maybe you're right, A.K. We'll see. All right. Should we move on to champions

or is there another spicy one last? No. Casey, Anyway, as we want to throw up there? All right. This is the last one. Buy or sell, we see a champion defender belt three times in 2024. Only if Sean Strickland gets past CDP, and that's a tall order.

So I will go. Again, this to me is books three title defenses, not successfully defend. If it's successfully defend, that's a lot. I want to say it just has to defend. So at least wins twice and then whatever happens, the third bite doesn't. still sell still sell hard to do i'm selling hard to do yeah strickland's the only one i think that i'm with you if anyone's gonna do it at strickland but boy he's gonna have uh it's a lot it's a lot to ask for especially in that division with what it looks like right now as we'll get to right now

with amx platinum 400 dollars in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug but your taste buds too that's the powerful business that's the powerful business backing of Amex. Conditions apply. 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. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Rexcus. Trust training tread plus at one peloton.ca. Round two, time to predict UFC champions. I know you've been looking forward to this AK all week long.

We did tease this a little bit. I believe on New Year's Day with an article on MAAfighting.com. It's a tremendous website. But if you guys missed that, we'll be our championship picks right now. So AK, we'll start with you. Women's straw weight. Last year, we both said Zhang Wei. We're both correct.

Zhang Wei is still the champion. This year, are you sticking with Zhang Wei Li or are you going to a different fighter at 115 pounds? It should be Tatiana Suarez, but they have made such a weird mess. And I shouldn't just blame the O.C. or the matchmakers entirely, because I don't know. There could be reasons on Zhang's end.

There could be reason on Yan Shanan's end why that fight was not made at the end of 23. So I don't want to point fingers, but it really felt like the division was moving along. We had a very logical title fight. we'd be a fresh slate for Zhang Wei Li in 20, 24. Now, I feel like we're still waiting for the on-chanan matchups we made. And my other reason, so I am sticking with Zhang Wei Li.

My other reason is I'm not quite ready to go all in and say, oh, well, once Tatiana gets in the cage with her, it's Tatiana's, you know, title to win. I think she might go in slightly favored. I think a lot of money will come in on Suarez, to the point that, like, when Fight Night rolls around, Suarez will be like minus 150 or something like that. But I think Zhang is actually a really good matchup for her.

I think Zhang's, again, I shouldn't need. We'll dig to this matchup someday when it actually happens. And we need to get this matchup. I'd love to see it. But my point is, I think either Zhang beats, gets the Yan Shanan fight, beats Yan Shanan, and then either doesn't fight again in 24 for whatever reason or fight Tatiana Suarez and beats Tatiana Suarez. So boring answer, sticking with the champ.

I'll stick with John Wiley as well for almost identically the same reasons why. I feel like the Tatyana Suarez matchup is not as bad of a matchup as people seem to think it's going to be. Like Tatiaz is going to go in there and run over Zhang Wei Li. I just don't think that's the case. I think Zhang is just in the prime of a really long run. Doesn't mean she's going to fight a whole bunch. But I think her lack of activity helps in this situation. So in there is a world, this is the UFC.

We had a question like this before. could we see Zhang Wei Lee go up and just fight Alexa Grasso while still the straw white champion? There's a very real world where that could happen. So for that reason, yeah, I'm going on Zhang Wei Lee. Women's flyweight, aka I'm going with Aaron Blanchfield. I don't think that's a surprise to anyone listening to the sound of my voice right now. Matt, it's again, kind of like the whole situation with Zhang, schedule is going to be everything. Aaron Blanchfield is scheduled to fight Man in Fioreau in March.

March 30th in Atlantic City, I am picking Aaron Blanchfield to win that fight and then go on to fight for the belt against whoever is the champion. And in that conversation, it doesn't really matter who the champion is. I think Aaron Blanchfield's going to win. So I'm going to say November, Madison Square Garden in the first of three title fights, Aaron Blanchfield becomes the women's flyweight champion. Yeah, it really comes down to again, do you think she's going to beat Menna Fero? I think most of us think yes. Then do you think she'll beat Alexa Grasso or Valde? Tina Shochenko or, I'm trying to, is there anyone else that could possibly have the,

Zhang Wili, if Shang Wili goes up, I don't know. But yeah, again, I don't think Zhang's going up this year. So it's for me, it's Will Aaron Ishkinchi beat Grasor, Schochenko at this point in all of their respective careers. I say yes. I think Aaron is that good. So yeah, safe pick, boring. But did anyone pick this last year? Do you remember on our staff at Van Nukech picked Aaron Blanchfield last year?

I feel like someone did, right? Maybe it was too early. Jed might have. Jed might have, but it might have been too soon. Okay. I'll take a quick look while you move on. But yeah, Aaron Blanchel for me as well. I think Women's Bannamway were probably on the same page, Mr. A.K.

I almost called you to Jed, but I'm going Myra Buena Silva. I think she beat the Hell Pennington, and they'll probably do her in Giuliana Pena. I would pick MBS to beat Juliana Paine as well. And I don't know who else she would fight after that. So, yes, Myra Boeissela. I will say I almost threw a wild card wrench in here. I almost went just off the board completely, but I didn't want to go off the board too too much here.

I almost went with Misha Tate, almost just threw a wild card wrench in there because I honestly think if she just needs one win against anybody and she's probably going to get a title shot in 2024, and what a freaking story that would be, but I'm going with MBS. Before I, I will say, the one person who picked Blanchefield for 125 last year

actually was our own E.KC. Leiden, who's on the show right now. So, EKC, well, EKC, you may be, you're not wrong. You weren't wrong. Woohoo. Probably, you were probably just early. So, yeah, EKC. Yeah, I picked MBS as well. I like the tape pick. I'm a little disappointed. Neither of us said Ronda Rousey. No, we're not supposed to because I can't, I can't imagine anything more women's Bantam-Wa-Watty than Rhonda Rousey coming back at U.S. 3-100, just beating the crap out of whoever's the champ at that point and then just not fighting not retiring but saying like oh i'm sitting around waiting for me

and just not fighting again in 2024 or until like summer 2025 that'd be very women's band to witty and i don't think the ufc would have a single problem with it i mean it's fair to ask uh it's kind of the annual ask but we kind of laugh and shrug it off before we move on question uh do we want to throw any women's featherweight champion here oh right because we've done it before we didn't last year we shrugged it off and we're like No, let's move on. Here's the real question. Who do you think, Mike, will be number one in the MA fighting global rank?

Oh, we don't do at moments rather. But let's say we did. Who would be number one? And I think the three names would play, obviously Chris Cyborg, perennial champion, Kayla Harrison, and Larissa Pacheco. I want to believe by the end of 2024, we'll all be saying, you know what, Larissa Pacheco is, she is the best at 135 and up.

or sorry, I should not have been about higher at above 135, there is no better fighter than Larsa Pacheco. If people aren't saying that already, I don't know. But I know she still doesn't have the name recognition of Chris Seymour. And still, not even Kayla Harrison, even though she beat her in their most recent fight. Kayla Harrison is much more famous than Brisa Pacheco. So it's interesting. But I'll go with Pacheco.

I would think at least among our staff and among the media and, you know, the most knowledgeable fans, will be viewed as the number one featherweight at the end of 2024. I can see that. I can definitely see it. I hope, I don't know. I hope we get some answers here. And who knows? Kayla might just sign somewhere else.

I know the PFL really wants to retain her services, but maybe Kayla goes to the UFC. Who the hell knows? Let's move to the men. Let's go to the Flyweight division, A.K., this flyweight was the division for you. You were very, very close to nailing one. You said it was going to be Brennan Royval last year.

He did get himself a title fight, but lost to the current champion, I was under Pantosia. I said it was going to be Brandon Moreno, who lost to the car, champion, Alexander Pantoja. Are you picking Pantosia to end 2024 as champion, or do you think this

division is just so wild, so crazy, so up and coming that Pantosia meets his match? Man, this is one of the hardest divisions to pick. I don't know if it was the hardest, but I remember it was one of that spent the most time on it. There are so many good fighters. Moreno could get the rematch. I actually, I think, scored the first fight,

not the first, excuse me, their first championship fight for Marino. So he's right there. But then he has to beat Albazi. Abazi could throw a wrench to the whole thing. He could bring Marino and then he could beat Pantosia. I think Obazes is really good, even though he had a really close-up Car Carfranz. And then we have what, Makaya, we have cop, we have other guys.

Tatsuro, Tyra, I don't think in 2024, but I don't know, guys are wild card. It's really hard to do. I think that's why I stuck with Pantosia. I just think he's a great champion. I think he has what it takes to win any of those matchups. Some of them are kind of coin tosses. But again, that's, when you're the champion, a tough division. Being a coin toss with a lot of people is not a bad thing. I think it just says

how good you are, how versatile you are, and how well you can perform on, you know, when it's your night. And we've seen Patosia as best as, you know, as good as anybody. So I went with that. It's boring. I'm just, I'm finding it really hard to project how the flyweight title picture is going to shake out at all. So, Mike, I hope you have a better, more bold choice than me. I don't. I think Pantosia continues to bring stability to this division, at least for a little while. this is a division that, like you said, has all the makings to be like a hot potato division. But I don't think we start playing those games until 2025.

When we get the Mahayevs, the Tetsu Ro-Tairas that are in the top seven, top five range, and then things start to get real interesting. But yeah, I'm going with Pantosia. He'll probably fight the Albasi Moreno winner next. I would probably pick him to beat either of those two fighters. Maybe he fights Bid L. Kopp. I would pick Pantosia.

to beat cop again at this juncture. So I think it's him. And then 2025 is going to be super, super interesting. Now, Bantamweight, AK. Bantam weight is where things could get real interesting. Because right now, Sean O'Malley's the champion. Last year, I ended the year, or my prediction for 2023 was Marlon Vera, who I was just a little bit early on that.

You went with Al Jermaine Sterling. Sterling, not even in the division anymore, AK. Who's going to end 2024? as the Bannamway champion and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, AK. Who's it going to be? It better be frigging Umar. I swear it better be Umar.

I can't. Holy smokes. It was so screwed up because he won in January, right? I'm not crazy. He won in January of 2023 and then we just didn't see him again. He was supposed to fight. What was the big? He had a big fight like that.

He was supposed to by Sanhagen, right? And then that would have gotten him a title shot either end of the year or, you know, we'd be talking about the upcoming title shot. he in my mind I don't I haven't gone full yet I haven't put him like number one in the NBA fighting global rankings I am so confident

this guy is the best band to win the world his resume sure not not as strong as Alasman Sterling or Patchy Mix or some of the names ahead of him but if you get him in there with any of these guys I am telling you he's going to beat them so my prediction is is probably early I know I know it's early

it's probably more he gets a hell shot in 2025 but call this an optimist pick call it a magic wand pick. I'm waving Magic Wand, hoping he gets in there somehow, gets one big win early in the year and gets a title shot sometime in the last six months of 2024 and takes care of business

and is one of the, one of the Magal Mids on the buy-sell choice. This is the toughest one for me. And I'm sticking with the current champion, Sean O'Malley, because I'm not even all that confidently beats Marlivera, but I think somehow, some way, just because of the vibes.

He gets it done. And then you kind of think of like what could be next, right? You would think that Marab would probably be next. But I think we all understand that Sean O'Malley being in the position he's in, if he goes out there and finishes Marlon Vera is not fighting Maraub. He's not going to fight that man. He's going to fight somebody else. And knowing Sean O'Malley being a prize fighter,

it kind of almost goes back to one of the earlier questions of, you know, when we mentioned that list of nine fighters who could fight for title, this year. Dominic Cruz is one of them. There's a real world where Dominic, where Sean O'Meke be like, hey, I already beat the guy you thought was, at least in this modern generation, the best Bannumweight of all time. Now I'm going to go fight this other dude who people think is the best Bannumweight of all time. I'm going to go beat them both. So Sean's going to have a little more power. Could Sean move up to 145? That's possible. I really hope that doesn't happen.

But I don't think we're going to see a Sean O'Malley that fights four times. I don't think we're going to see Ashon O'Mal who fights Marr or Umar or any of those guys. I think he's going to be very smart about his matchups. It's gotten him this far as it is. So I'm going to go with Sean O'Malley. Fights once, maybe twice. And if Mara Bts Henry Suudo, I think he's going to have a pretty frustrating year

waiting around to see if Sean will fight him. So that's where I'm at. John O'Malley, not thrilled about it. That's I'm going with because in Bellator, this is probably not going that way. He's almost going to have to fight these dudes. But I think he's going to be smart enough to match just perfectly, which leads me to featherweight, AK.

And this is normally the division where I think way outside of the box. And this is normally a division where things, my predictions could end very, very quickly, as they did in 2021, I believe, where I picked Calvin Cater to be the featherweight champion. And then Max Holloway did Max Holloway things to him in January. And then that was over immediately. I'm putting myself in the same situation here, AK. I'm going off the board. going outside of the box here.

I'm going with the man who is fighting at UFC 297 against Arnold Allen. I am picking Mavzar Ilyev to be the featherweight champion of the world. I think he's going to beat Arnold Allen. And I think he's going to find his way into a title fight before the end of the year. And I think Mobsar of Loyaf is going to have a Sirukiyan-ish type of year where people are still have questions about the guy. Oh, he hasn't finished anybody, yada, yada, yada. and then he just goes out there.

It has a tremendous year where he picks up some quality wins, fights dudes that are up a level than him, at least the way people perceive him, and he matches them, if not best them. So this is my shot in the dark pick out of all these. I think I have two of them. This is one of them.

Bob Zar of Loyov, going a little bit off the board to be the featherweight champion. Who do you have? I like that pick. It's a shame. The UFC, I feel like has not done a better job of promoting him.

And at the same time, it's not entire their fault. a couple of his, I think of his big matchups have fallen through. So it'll be weird because like MobStar could be like 8 and 0, 18 and O in his career heading into a title fight and like your average fight fan does not know who he is, which is just silly. Again, somewhat the UFC's fault, somewhat just bad luck. I almost regret this pick because it goes against a bold roundtable pick. I had to recently for Yosey 300.

So I went with Ilyotoporias, which essentially means I'm picking him to beat Volcanowski and logs some sort of title defense against someone before the end of the year. It could be most hard. Could be someone else. Could be an immediate rematch with Volk. I don't know. God, I hope they don't do that. But I think Volk will have earned it, I suppose, depending what happens in the Deporia fight.

So I'm going with Ilya. But yeah, I don't feel great about it because we did a UFC 300 roundtable. And I said, man, how cool would it be if Volcanovsky beats Ilya and O'Malley just starches Cheeto in, you know, 35 seconds. somehow, both fighters are relatively unharmed, and they say, let's turn around, let's main event, U.S. 300, O'Malley versus Volcanowski for the Featherweight title. So I like that, wild, bold thing to happen. I think that'd be so cool. But if we're being realistic, that's a lot of dominoes that have to fall for that to even become

remotely possible. So safe thing here, Deporia becomes a new champion and then defense once either in a Volk rematch or against a floy of course. Now we go to the best division in the sport. Yeah, easy. Lightweight division. Easy. Easy.

So you're going in. Easy. I'm going to Islam Bakkerchief. Easy. He's the best fighter in the world, Mike. He's holding on for another year. I'm cash- this is it.

I'm cashing in the money-in-the-bank briefcase right here. I've been holding on to this briefcase for five years now. And finally, I'm going to take this briefcase. Now I'm going to cash it in. The lightweight champion of the world at the end of 2024. Armand-sur-Rukian. It's going to happen. Now, here's the thing.

Either he's going to fight. I don't think he's going to, a fight is on Makachchev to become champion at the end of the year. I think Islamakachev is going to probably defend his title once, maybe twice. I do think he's going to go up to 170. And he may vacate, I'm going to predict he vacates the lightweight belt in order to do this. And then he's, he may just become the welterweight champion of the world. I don't know. He's going to take, he's going to shoot his shot or at least, you know, in principle, get ready to shoot his shot and go up to 170.

Or he might just be done. Like I don't, I, isle-Makachev is such a mystery to me because he could fight like Justin Gagian and just be like, nah, I'm done. Or he could fight like five more times or he could fight two more times. I don't know. But I'm going with Arm and Sarukin. I'm cashing in the money in the bank briefcase. This is finally it.

Finally, we're going to get some movement in this division with some names we haven't heard in a long time. And Serukian's going to get his day in court. And I have to say, I'm making this pick. I'm putting in the positive juju. There's no other fight in the world that I want to see more than Makachep versus Surukian, too. I have to see this fight on a full camp for both guys.

I want to see what it looks like. I really, really do. But I kind of feel like Surukin could become the champ without that fight actually happening. I think something real weird is going to happen, but Suruky Dan Zier's champion. Okay. So you obviously want to see the Surukian Makachev rematch, but not predicting that that is necessarily part of Surukian's path to becoming the champion. Yeah, I wish it was. I agree. I love to see that fight. I wish it was. I think it could happen. So I'm saying I think Islam will beat him again in a really good, another good competitive fight. But I like where your head's at. And yes, Mike, as Surikian is the rare prospect, I think almost all of us in May fighting, even before his first Eofc fight, a lot of us had heard of him. We're familiar with him because we know people who had talked, if not firsthand, we know people who had talked about him who had said he's going to be this blue chipper. And when he got the Islam fight in his very first fight, even

Islam before he was a champion. We knew he was a killer. So we're like, wow, what a tough first fight and what a good matchup it turned out to be. And I think even among us, Mike, you have been really trumpeting Surukhian's chances of becoming a UFC title holder. Of course, you thought he won the Gamrod fight. You thought you'd consider that a robbery. So he really only has the one loss. So it's just if you count Gamaraj, it's really just Makachev, right, that he's lost to, right, in the UFC? Yes, and he gave Makachiev.

A handful in that fight. Yeah. Yeah, this is your guy. Like you said, you're cashing in. That briefcase, I'm taking the briefcase from you. And the bell has run, Mike. So we will see the bell is wrong in 2024. And we'll find out.

Let's go to Welterweight. Who do you got here, AK? We got Leon Edwards. There's Bilal Muhammad. There's Shafcott. There's, who knows? You said, as you said, Wonderboy could be in the mix?

Like, could Michael Venom Page, Kevin Hall? Who the hell knows? Walterweight is just one of those divisions, Ian Gary, perhaps. who's the guy? I'm sticking with my theme where I think it's just I'm just going with the best guy. I'm not trying to predict

this happening, this happening. Mike, I can't take you on a journey like you can. That is your specialty. I got it to see. I like to project

that the best guy will get a title shot and finish the year. So I have to go with Schofcott. He's not, it's not like he's my arm and again, he's another guy who I think pretty unanimously

once we saw him fight a couple of times. We were all just like, you know, this guy's fucking amazing. He's going to be a killer. So it's not like some, some cool pick. The tricky thing is, will he even get his shot in 2024?

I hope so. A lot of shenanigans are going to happen. Again, people who don't deserve title shots jumping ahead of him. Leon, I don't know. Again, going up trying to chase a middleweight title. But if everything falls logically as it should, Shavcott has to get in there at some point and get a title around his waist. When we make these predictions, we're saying undisputed, right?

These are our undisputed picks, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. So anyway, I'm standing by that. Shavkat Rokmanov. UFC, do the right thing. Give this guy a shot at some point, please,

and make him your Walterweight champion. He's fantastic. It's Shafka. Again, the only thing that takes this pick out of equation that he just doesn't get a title shot. But if he gets a title shot, he's winning it. He's beating either Leon or Bilal. Yeah, it's Shafka Rkmanov.

I think he gets it done this year. A.K. Middleweight. Middleweight division. I'm going to go ahead and go first. So many times I have thrown this man's name out there in other divisions, and now it is time. Hamza Chabaev is going to be the middle-eight champion

at the end of the year. I think he's got to get his shot. I know he's posted some pretty scary things about his health, but I think the moment, I mean, literally the moment Hamzaa Chamaif is ready to come back, he's going to get a title fight. And no matter who he fights, he's probably going to win.

So Hamzat Shamiyev is my pick. I don't know. how confident I am in that. I know I just seem very confident, but I'm going with Hamzot. This is the year he finally is a pick and actually gets a title shot and wins it. Mike, why do we keep doing this to ourselves?

Because I'm with you. Yeah, listen, I went Hamzaan. I have run Hamzaat. Why do I keep doing this shows? I was looking at last year, we had four people picking Hamzot to be the middleweight champion, the wonderful Eric Jackman,

Damon Martin, Jed Mishu, and Jose Young. All wonderful, by the way. That was a wonderful for all of them. And New York, Rick and Jed actually had Hamzat also as the welterweight champion, which several of us did that as well. So seven people picked into the V welterweight champion, four people picked into be middleweight champion, and two people picked into Veltry and middleweight champion. That's where we've been with Hamzat and we can't seem to get out of it.

And frankly, again, nothing has happened in his career to deter me from thinking, He will one day, he will be a UDJJB. I think he's one of the 10 pound for pound best fighters in the world. Maybe number one. I'm so impressed every time I see him. Yes, the Gilbert Ferns fight was really competitive. But again, for me, pretty clear decision win for Hamzat. You would have won it so you get the finish.

You wouldn't want to seem to dominate more. But that was his first UFC fight against a top five guy. And he won. He won that fight. Could he have done better events to Camaro? Sure, another example. But Camaro is one of the pound for pound greatest fighters of all time. I thought Hamzat did great against him

and again won a pretty solid decision that one actually that fight actually was closer than the Gilbert fight if you ask me but I still have no problem scoring for Hamzat so yes he's going if he gets a title fight in 2024 at middleweight

I will pick him to beat Sean Strickland I'll pick him to beat DDP I will pick him to beat Michael's in the I don't know Brendan Allen Brandon Allen's in there going to get us a title shot I don't know what Jared Kennedy Anyway, I, yeah, Apollo Costa, if he starts to go through Paula Costa at some point before getting Intellestrian, I pick him to beat all these guys. I have no problem.

I think Homzot is really good. Could we have egg in our face by the end of the year, Mike? Of course we could. He could be quote-unquote, hashtag exposed by one of these top 10 middleways. If that happens, that wouldn't surprise me either. But forget it, Mike. Let's keep riding this Comzot train. One year, we're going to be right.

One year, we're going to be right. Maybe this is the air. Let's go to 205, AK, right now Alex Pereira. the light heavyweight champion. Not a lot of people saw that coming. Will Alex Pereira end the year as champion? I'm saying, no, he will not. I'm going with the man who was the champion

before getting injured. I do think Jamal Hill comes back. I know Jamal Hill himself. He thinks our website hates him for some reason. It's just really not all that true. We just don't have him ranked as highly as he thinks he needs to be. But he will end the year. the UFC light heavyweight champion

and he will end the year as MMA fighting is number one ranked light heavyweight because he's going to come back, he's going to fight Alex Pereira and he's going to win the title back that he really never really lost that he vacated after getting injured

or got stripped of wherever you want to phrase it but I think Jamal Hill's really good I think he matched up with Perre very, very well and I think he's, I think that's the fight he's going to get when he comes back and I think he's going to win it so I'll go with Jamal Hill. Yeah, it is a really good matchup. I only favor Padetta because of the death touchery, the death touch factor, which, again,

Shemal Hill's got plenty of knockout power too, so I could see him putting Padetta down, but I would favor Padetta ever so slightly. So he is my pick. A Poetan is my pick to retain the title. Again, and this is, goes with something we talked about earlier. I just don't see him going up to heavyweight this year either. So I think he's focused on 205 this year. Again, fights Jamal Hill, defense the title one more time, and has a really good year. Probably finishes again, yet again. the top five of our fighter of the year list. This guy's on an unbelievable run since come to the UFC.

Heavyweight, AK. It seems like I know what you're going to say. Is it a guy whose song we don't, whose name we don't just say we sing? Are you going with Tommy Aspinall? I, oh, I should have looked at my predictions before I answered that question about will one of those, whatever three names mentioned before,

can tell if I, it's Johnson Alveda, Mike. Oh! It's Jelton Alveda. Didn't you just say that you don't think he's going to get it to, like it probably will line up that he doesn't get a title shot in 2024? That it almost is impossible. You know, Mike, avid listeners on to the next one,

we'll know that before we did this episode, of course, we did a recap of the 2022 predictions, right? Or the 22, or 22 going into 2023 predictions. You know, and it's funny. It's funny to look back what we got right, what we got wrong. People might not even need to wait that long to, to review our picks because I do feel like I've contradicted myself multiple times already. So just rewinding to the beginning of the episode, you'll probably get to do a episode

in review. Forget year and review. You might have to wait 12 months, people. I'm surprised I didn't. Last year I said Curtis plates. I cannot remember. I cannot remember my thinking behind that. I really can't.

I still stand by it. It's still possible. Maybe he beats Shelton. I don't know. He's got to, you know, my Jelton picks go look silly now because my 2023 pick, like Wompsom. It's entirely possible. But I have a lot of faith in Jelton. I have been, this is my surrogion.

This is my guy. I think since he's being the UFC, I've been like, this is the dude. I love this guy. I want to see him fight for a title. 205, heavyweight, whatever. Maybe heavyweight, maybe it could be this year he finds that heavyweight isn't where he should be. You know, maybe he gets humbled this year, drops back down in 205. But I don't believe that. I don't believe that.

I think he's going to at least win the title. Will he defend it? I don't know. But I think Jelta mate is the baddest man in the plan. So I have to stand by that. And that means he's going to be the heavyweight champion by the end of the year. The heavyweight champion at the end of the year has a name. And his name is John Jones, AK.

I'm sorry. Michael. What are you doing? It's got to be John Jones. How can you say this? This isn't a new take for me. John Jones is going to fight in 2024. He's going to fight Steepay.

He's going to run over Stepe. And then he's just going to milk this for everything it's worth. He's not going to retire. And he's just not going to fight again the rest of the year. It's going to end the year as champion with one defense against Stepe. And there will be no decision made on whether or not he's going to continue fighting or not. He's going to go back. He's going to talk to his team.

I'm going to talk to my family. I'm going to see what the best move is for me. So inconclusive in terms of his fighting future. But he will milk this to the point where he is still the heavyweight champion in the same position he's in now at the end of the year. That's where I'm at. You had picked John Jones last year. You were correct. I believe if I'm looking at the dates correctly.

So our 2023 champion predictions article I'm looking at now went out January 20th, I think Jones Gone had been announced the week of, if I'm not saying. Like literally days before we did that article. So maybe that's what made John so easy to predict there. Not easy for me. I picked her his plates. Michael, you are not helping us to gaslight John Jones, I feel like. I feel like you're not.

I mean, it's hard to gaslight a guy who tore his peck, but I also understand, too, if you're John Jones. And even Jed himself, while he's gaslighting, Jed has said himself, like, if you're John Jones, he would do the exact same thing. Go fight Steepa, get the bigger, you know, the bigger name, I guess. And then just win, that's price fighting. This is price fighting. This is what made Colby what he is. Colby is a prize fighter. He took, you know, the biggest name, but the least amount of competition at the time he fought them.

And look at work on him. He's the freaking number one contender at Welterweight all year without actually fighting anybody. It's incredible. So John's going to do something similar. I would say he probably does a fight to like July or August. And then he just doesn't fight the rest of the year. And then he ends up champion. And the gaslight John Jones campaign will be bigger and better than ever after Tom Asmodal defends his interim title two times in 2024.

That pick made me feel bad. I'm sorry. I know. It's your truth, listen, you got to keep it real. That's why we're best friends. You know, best friends, sometimes they pump each other's tires, but sometimes they got to be real. They got to be real with it.

And I got to live with that. But please, Jalton, save us. I don't know how. He feels like he's actually very far from a teloshot now with the way the top of the division is and after the Derek Lewis performance, but Jelton, save us, sir. Be a backup or something. Be the first backup to actually get the title shot and save us. Oh, man.

We'll see what happens. All right. We will wrap things up with a bold prediction from each of us for 2024. A little bit out of the box here. Something that probably shouldn't come true. But if it does, we are the absolute geniuses of geniuses. Last year, I already read it down. You picked that Volcanovsky would beat Islam in February to become the lightweight champion,

which would be enough to entice Habib Narbaghama Adolf to come out of retirement. We would get Habib versus Volkanovsky for the lightweight title at Cowboy Stadium. and Volk would defeat Nirmagamadoff to put him back in retirement at 29 and 1. That was your bold prediction for 2023. My bold prediction was, as I said, Bellator would be sold. They would run as Bellator the rest of the year. Then the new owners would rebrand and relaunch the promotion under a different name, new broadcasters, new coat of paint everywhere.

I was actually very close to coming true, but not fully true. AK, I'm so fascinated by this. What is your 2024 bold prediction? Man, first let me say, people sent us such amazing buy-sell questions that it made it hard for us to do a bold prediction because you guys set us up in such a way to like have to make bold, give bold answers or give bold buys or give bold sales. So amazing job by all the listeners, everyone who sent in questions. It just made our jobs really hard when it came to putting a bow on this whole show. I'm looking at some of the questions we didn't get around to answering. So I almost wanted to go with these.

Someone asked, like, will there be an apex card that's only Contender Series fighters? And I'm like, I almost like, buy. I was like, it's going to be close. I don't think we're quite there yet. That's like a 20, I think that's a 2025 question. There could come a day when we sit. So that would have been a fun, bold one saying that will happen, but I'm not quite there. Someone else asked, will we finally see another trade between like the UFC and the

PFL or one or something? And that was another fun one because I was massive. like could the PFL trade with the UFC to get heavyweight for Francis? Could we get, again, the UFC sending one of their starfighters who they don't really have a direction for anymore, Al Jermaine Sterling, to one championship to bring in like a Malacan to the UFC or something like that. But I couldn't come up with a really great surefire trade. And I'm also doubtful. I just don't think that that trade might have been just one of a kind.

So Mike, I went in a more positive and some might say Fendon. fantastical route. Some might say unbelievable. I'm actually glad that ultimate fighter question got brought up earlier because it let us talk about how there's going to be the new rights deal. And, you know, the UCC is going to have a new, very likely we'll have a new broadcasting partner or if they're back with ESPN, maybe at least some new broadcasting standards. Because we saw some nastiness at the end of 23rd. Let's not, let's be honest with ourselves. We saw some nastiness with Colby Coventon, talk about Leon Edwards's dead father and all the stuff that Colby said.

Sorry, also, I hope he said, Sean Strickland is a, you know, just a nightmare in social media. But the UFC has a policy that we let fighters say what they want. It's a free country. They can have their opinions. And that's fine. That's how the UFC runs their business. So my prediction is at least one major fighter. Hang on this is part of the deal.

This is either ESPN, a new deal with ESPN and ASPN tells them to tighten up or a completely new partner that kind of sees how the UFC handles things and says, hey, can we kind of clamp down some of this behavior and some of these inflammatory quotes? So at least one major fighter, meaning a top five contender or champion, will receive some sort of public slap on the wrist, that including Dana saying something to the effect of like, hey, we don't like to police what our guys say, but we've got to draw a line somewhere to something like that. And then this is a more broader prediction. So someone gets a public slap on the wrist. And Mike, December of 2024, we are not, when we're making our year end list, we are not having to make a section for. biggest villain or biggest, you know, or worst quote, whatever, that involves some sort of heinous trash talk. So this is a Prince of Positiveity Read prediction.

I understand it. I know this is not the way the business works and it never has. Like, because whatever, saying horrible things to each other to promote a fight is not a 2020-threat phenomenon. That's a fight game phenomenon. But I'm just going to say, so I'm essentially saying it just, it won't be as bad in 2024. There you go.

That's my prediction. We've peaked, I want to say we've peaked with our nastiness at the tail end of 2023, and obviously we're still going to get some of that in 2024. This DDP and Strickland stuff is so ugly and gross. But by the end of the year, we'll be talking about other things and not complaining about, I won't be being a full soy boy about, oh my gosh, why are these fighters saying things that hurt people's feelings? So maybe this is dumb prediction.

Maybe it's impossible, but that's my bold prediction for 2024. for. Yeah. Again, like, I don't know what is bold and what isn't anymore. Like, there are a couple things I was going to go. One was, I was to say, like, Colby Covington retires before the end of the year. But that's, like, not really that bold. That's, like, something that could realistically happen. And then there were, I thought of PFL could buy one championship and get them out of financial trouble. But then, like, they're almost in the same position the UFC as in now where they become, like, almost not monopolized, but not, that Bellator and won. And, you know, one within a calendar year, like purchasing the assets of both those companies.

So I didn't do this. So I went with something fun and a little more pro wrestlingy. Scott Coker. Scott Coker will be back in the MMA space, AK. And he will come to a deal with the UFC or TKO or Endeavor and something in that family. He's not going to go to PFL. He's not going to remain with Bellator. This is going to be Dana White's stuff.

stubborn spiteful, let's take a fun jab at the quote unquote co-leader move. And the UFC will make cocker an offer to be a part of the team, whether it be in talent relation, some sort of organizational face. When Dana White doesn't want to go to events or doesn't want to travel overseas or doesn't want to go to cards at the apex, which he is not alone at, if we're being honest for a lot of these cards, you throw Scott Coker in there. He can go and do the press conference after. and give Scott Coker-y-like PR-positive directional answers.

I just think that would be the funniest thing in the world. Dana is in the middle of the Octagon, and we have the newest addition to the UFC team, and he brings out Scott Coker a la Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff, and they hug in the center of the octagon. Scott Coker, abandoned ship with Bellator, after PFL buys them, and then he joins forces with the UFC to be the fresh face of the company.

And then Dana doesn't have to do a lot of that. that stuff that he doesn't really want to do anymore. John Anna could do all the press conferences and Dana could just speak to the media when he wants, to the media members he wants to. And then we only hear from Dana after seven or eight pay-per-views and after all the contender series cards. So that's what I'm going with.

I mean, this is like bold as I could get because you want to try to be wrong. But if you're right, like you just look like a genius. And there's not a lot of other things I could think of that check off all those boxes. So Scott Coker joins the UFC is my bold prediction of 2020. Immediately when you said the Vince Fischoff handshake and embrace, popped it to my head.

Yeah, it'd be so perfect. Maybe it goes along with my prediction too, my best friend. Who knows? Maybe Scott Coker becomes the, because, sure, Dana White is the in-your-face. I let my fighters say what they want promoter. But maybe when it's time to crack down, it's not Dana that has to be the disciplinarian. It's like, oh, someone says something about. Scott, you're the guy.

You go out in front of the mic and you do the, Yeah, you do the, oh, this guy should have. He's the VP of Talent Relations. He's the Gano Oronitis. Exactly. And then people can still say like, oh, see, Dana's trying to stand by his fighters, but obviously the corporations, like, we're not letting him. So that's why they're putting Scott Coker out there to say the spider's,

whatever, suspended or something. Like, wow, this could go together. We did not plan this, by the way. I had no idea. It's a damn Scott Coker again. Oh, he's such a, he's such a stooge, undercutting Dana White. Damn. Oh.

Maybe we've got it. I think we've got it. Friends forever. I think we ended the year with the Friends Forever. We don't have to sing the song, but I think we ended the year with one. Wow. Wow. So there you go.

I like that. The bold predictions. A kinder, gentler, more Scott Cokery UFC in the year 2024. That's just what we need. That's just what we need. So this is fun. I always enjoy these. I'm excited.

I will forget everything we just talked about three days later. And then I won't know what we talked about until like December 15th when I'm flying to New York or the watch party for whatever pay-per-view happens in December. But the matchmaking, first matchmaking of 2024 on this program next Sunday. That's when we'll record. That's when we'll go up on the podcast network for UFC Vegas. I believe it's 84. Magamette Ankelaev versus Johnny Walker, the main event.

This is actually a pretty damn good card, honestly. Mateus Nicolao versus Medell Cop is the co-main event. Jim Miller for his warm-up fight for UFC 300 apparently against Gabriel. Benitez, Ricky Simone versus Mario Batista. I didn't even realize that was happening next week. Phil Haas versus Bruno Ferreira. Andre Arlowski. Let's go.

Waldo, Cortez, Acosta. Matthew Semelsberger versus Preston Parsons. Marcus McGee versus Gaston Bolognes. Fareed Basharat is back against Taylor Lapilis. Weston Wilson, John Silva. Tom Nolan, who was very high on off the contender series, faces Nicholas Motte. and Felipe Bunes versus Joshua Van.

That is UFC Vegas 84. Pretty good. It could be a big year for Josh Fan. If we change our Rookie of the Year award to Breakthrough Fighter of the Year, this coming calendar year, I have a feeling Josh Van could be in play for Breakthrough Fight of the Year.

He is going to, I think he's going to be a good one. He's a fun fighter. That's it. Casey, thank you very much. You could hit the music now. This is fun. And we'll be back to Matchmake next Sunday, UFC Vegas 84, so subscribing the podcast network for AK, I am Mike Heck.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Always remember the Golden Rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. M&A is supposed to be fun. We'll have more fun matchmaking next week right here and on to the next one, the podcast. Good night, everybody.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hi, I'm Sophia Loper Caro, host of the Before the Chorus podcast. We dive into the life experiences behind the... the music we love. Artists of all genres are welcome. And I've been joined by some pretty amazing folks, like glass animals. I guess that was the idea was to try something personal and see what happened. And Japanese breakfast.

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