MMA Fighting - OTTNO 2026 Predictions Extravaganza | Does Conor McGregor Fight? Look Ahead For Ilia Topuria, More

Episode Date: January 4, 2026

Following a chaotic and unpredictable 2025 in the world of MMA, 2026 is shaping up to be even crazier — both in and out of the cage. Could this be a year that will see Conor McGregor actually fight in the UFC? Does Jon Jones return? Will Khamzat Chimaev keep his hands on UFC gold? On a very special edition of On To the Next One, those questions — and a lot more — are presented during the 2026 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, Chimaev, Ilia Topuria, Francis Ngannou, Dana White, Tom Aspinall, 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 2026. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠@MikeHeck_JR⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. I believe this particular episode is the official kickoff to the new year in mixed martial arts. And even though Larry David says it's now too late to say it, I'm going to say it anyways. Happy New Year, everybody. And now it is time to embark on a journey that is the 2026 onto the next one, predictions extravaganza here on the M.A. Fighting YouTube channel. If you're listening on the podcast network, we appreciate that. I am Mike Hack and joining me for this program one of my favorites to do all year long is the co-host the co-matchmaker the co-predictor

the prince of positivity and my best friend the one and only where is he Alexander cayley aka how are you i hope uh 2026 is treating you well so far happy new year everyone happy new year yeah man's been pretty good can't complain we're only a few days in so you know knock on wood everything stays good um but yeah i'm revitalized i'm ready to jump into a new year of MMA, UFC, I mean, one championship, BKFC, PFL, whatever you want, whatever you want to fight circus, I'm looking forward here. We've had a nice break from the UFC. We've had some other, we have had some other events to cover, obviously, a little bit of boxing, a little bit of influencer boxing, a little bit of Risen, a reason kind of put on some. Super, actually, a super exciting New Year's Eve show.

So, yeah, man, felt good, I think a fine exit to 2025, and I hope everyone is ready to step into the world of tomorrow. Yes, we are indeed here. Time to ramp up the excitement for 2026 for major MMA. I know the Caposas, the lazy beds of the world have not skipped a beat. They have not missed a day without an MMA event. So for grappling enthusiasts, there's been a lot of grappling, Armin Surukian competing grappling. As a matter of fact, AK, M.M.A. fighting is hitting the road this week.

Myself in particular, heading to beautiful sunrise, Florida just outside of Fort Lauderdale for Real American Freestyle 05 going down a lot of lot of notable names in the MMA space and I'm looking forward to to watching some wrestling some real old you know real American freestyle wrestling and we got Colby and Luke Rockhold and Armin Surukian Lance Palmer

Yo Romero and Bo Nickel I mean all sorts of craziness going down so we will have coverage of RAF5 this week so try to get back into things while we wait for the UFC but as far as this particular program goes AK if you are new to this for those who are watching and listening right now first of all welcome but how this all works is for the past couple of weeks AK and I we have asked you for your buy or sell questions in regards to the UFC PFL MMA we want to throw some boxing in there that's cool just different scenarios where the only response at AK and I can have here is buy or sell.

And while we usually get a bunch every year, AKs you can attest to, this year, so many questions. It was like overwhelming. By far, the most amount of submissions we have ever gotten, A.K., right? Pages. Pages upon page, so many. Some people sending multiples,

which is welcome. But yeah, man, people were just letting their imaginations run wild. Some of these are, you know, what you'd expect. Typical. I see some people in the comments already like, please, gosh, no Connor. No, Will Connor. fight questions. I know we have some in there. I don't know if we're going to pull those out. Um, but yeah, some of the outside the box. We really like the outside of the box ones.

The multi, the cross sport ones. I think those are some of our favorites. So, uh, you guys did an amazing job of sending those in. So thanks for everyone who, uh, who submitted. Yeah. And so what we're going to do is for the next 45 minutes, maybe an hour. We're going to answer as many as we can. And then AK and I are going to turn the page. We will head to our champion prediction round where AK and I shine. If you listen to the recap, show. This is this is where we do our best work. Okay, we predict who will be UFC champions in each weight class by the end of the year. I think we were like, what, two, you got two right? I got three because I somehow got Jan right. I can't believe you got Fyodor Yan.

Unbelievable. I was reading the, I was reading Jed's write up of our, you know, we do it as a staff as well. I was reading Jed's staff write up of our champ picks. And I think, I think he assumed, and I don't know if this is what you told him that your logic was, uh, you know, um, Umar would beat Marab and then, and then Peter Ian would beat Umar. I'm not sure if that's what your reasoning was. I don't know if you remember why you picked Peotryon, but you got there. I mean, the math was different, but you got there somehow. Yeah, so, yeah, because we, I predicted Yon on this show last year before we actually did the write-up.

And then it was like, at that moment, I was like, yeah, I think Umar might beat Marab. And then by the time we got to fight week, I was like, what am I talking about? Marab is going to beat him. Like, he's going to beat Umar. And in fact, like, I was convinced. Like days before the fight, I'm like, Umar will never be Marab as long as like Marab is still at this level. So the Yon pick just kind of aged well. I guess they got pretty lucky, but still, that is probably the best pick I've ever had with this.

And then after we go through the chat predictions, AK and I, like we do at the end of every show, we will bust out our Muay Caliente bold prediction of the year, some out of the box thinking. And that's how it'll work. So one thing I will say is, if you're thinking to yourself, hey, I didn't even know about this. I didn't get the chance to send by buy, sell question in. We're going to give you a chance here. You could super chat it in. We have so many.

We have so many. We're trying to get so many you can. But if you do super chat, we'll get those in as well. So, AK, are you ready? I'm so ready. Okay. So this is all random. Okay.

I randomly put stuff in order. randomly put it into the system fluffed up the order a little bit was jogging, toggling a whole bunch of stuff so I have no idea what these questions are going to be until they actually come up on the screen and okay, I'm ready, A.K., are you ready?

Yeah, my fingers on the two buttons, the buy cell buttons. I'm ready to lock in. All right, number one. Buy or sell, UFC Whitehouse continues to get teased but ultimately does not happen. Mike, define happen.

That an event on the White House lawn takes place sometime in 2026. Okay, so they can't, they can't like... They cannot go to the Washington, D.C. NBA arena and host an event. And call it UCC White House. No, you can't do that. No, you can't.

It has to happen at the White House. Like, everything that they've teed. And I'm not saying it has to... Like, none of the fights matter. it does not matter who competes or anything with this with this question okay it's whether or not all this talk leads to an actual event taking place on the white house law that's how i that's how i perceive it okay so if we're saying buy we're saying no buy is no sell is yes according to this yeah buy buy is it continues to be talked about but it doesn't happen sell is

they're going to keep talking about it and there will be an event at the white house well i'll tell you again i'm up here in canada but you guys you're president he seems to be he seems to be able to he seems to be doing things let me put this way i don't want to make this a political podcast he seems to do things that i would not assume could be done and perhaps that extends to his entertainment goals as well um i don't know how this uc white house thing honestly the the genesis of it i i would love to one day get an unfiltered look at how this began because i mean i'm sure the ufc will have its own story sort of behind the scenes thing and that's great. I've said this many times. I still feel

like President Trump announced it unilaterally and then Dana White and his team scrambles to like, oh no, I guess he just said it during a speech. Now we have to do it. And that's probably not the case. It probably was at least in some sort of informal discussion before, you know, President Trump was the first one to kind of break it. But the whole thing just feels so chaotic. I just don't know how real it is. I let's go. Let's go. Let's go. let's start with a bang mic i'm gonna i'm gonna buy this i'm gonna buy this and for the reasons i kind of sees the beginning i think they will have an event around july fourth or at the end of june um you know in the spirit of celebrating uh what do you america 250 or whatever it is you

got you guys call it um i'm just having a lot struggling with it being on the white house law and on white house property despite all the sudden previews we've seen all the kind of uh you know at least logistical suggestions for it like the guys warming up in the white house and the gang to walk out and fight on the lawn. It still feels a little too fantastical for me. So I'll start with a bang here. And I'm going to buy this question. I'll sell it.

This would be an absolute disaster if it doesn't happen, like of epic proportions. This will be, this is bad. Like if they don't come through with this and there is not an event at the White House, it is bad. Like real, real bad. Like the faith in data and company, I mean, it could always come back because they will just try to bring in new fans from the the streamer era who like data because he gambles on people's streams but overall like we just like what why do we waste so much time talking about this i think they're they're in a position

where like it is a must do at this point so i think it happens will the card be like as electric as they say i probably not because nothing can ever live up to the expectations that they they put forth with some of these events. But I do think it ends up happening to some degree. And it'll be a big deal. But I don't know. No matter what the lineup is, A.K., some people are going to be pissed about it.

I hope we just get like a UFC Apex event that we can with a special message from President Trump on like a screen. That's it from the White House, from the White House, obviously. And there you go. That would just kill me. And Dana will be there with him because there's no way he's going to be at the apex. exactly oh man all right so i i think it does happen but to what degree how big will it be

it's i'm going to be on big cbs it's going to be a paramount plus exclusive so we'll see all right question two wow oh for all the mcgregor fans oh of course uh by herself at least one of these fights happened in 2026 connor mcgregor versus michael chanler john jones versus Alex Pereira so if you buy this one or both of these fights happen if you sell it none of them happen yeah this is so hard because i do feel like if connor gregor does fight in 2026 the fight that makes the most sense is just to come back into the channel their feud like it just seems so obvious so easy to set up for both guys and same with jones like i think the only fight he wants to have is the alice pareda fight and when you know paredo got the felt the light heavyweight

back wants to go up to heavyweight that make like they both make a ton of sets they and they have for a long time. I just don't believe. I have no faith in Connor and John Jones fighting again. And this is reflected. You guys have seen our 2025 show, 24 recap shows. You guys have seen, we almost always bet, again, sell any sort of Will Connor or Jones fight, et cetera, et cetera, amount of times.

You might. I don't. Oh, you don't. And again, and it's done me well. Again, the last two or three years, it's done me very well. um so i i will sell i'll sell i'll sell we're not getting either i'll sell we are we are on different paths again i'm going to buy this and which one i kind of want to wait to to reveal that okay okay i'll just say it i think jones for i think

jones perera happens i'm not really i actually feel somewhat confident we're going to get Connor versus Chandler um this is without any insight and perhaps every year I do this I'm like not only is Connor fighting I pick the date I pick the arena I pick the opponent like I always trying to figure out a way to get him in there um I do think one of these fights happens it's probably jones Pereira and maybe that leads to something I'll talk about later on in the show but perhaps I'm just an idiot that is quite possible it's been proven on this here channel many many times no one would say that i get these wrong every single year like truly every single year i get it wrong so uh i'll buy this i think we get one of them but very much could be wrong

let's go to the next one oh buy or sell pfl and francis and ganu officially part ways so buying or selling aka by the end of this year francis and gano was no longer part of the pfl roster yeah that's good um because the seeds have been planted over the last couple of months right it just feels like there's just a bit of discontent it feels on both on both ends i don't know what their plan is for him i think him and benedem nemkov would be an amazing fight but it's so weird i just don't see the league like pushing it hard enough yeah maybe maybe they're waiting until january or february for some like big social media post and some interview with badem some interview with francis to like kind of build the blocks there but um like that's for you

getting pushed so hard already and I just don't know and Francis I just don't know if Francis cares for it I think he may have tweeted like positively to it something you know quote tweeting PFL or something saying like I'm looking forward to it so like he's not avoiding the fight I'm sure if they booked it that it would happen

but um we we've spoken about this before the clause that in Kanu that they've discussed publicly often put in his contract that he has to he makes X amount of money and his opponents have to make the same amount of money So if, you know, Francis makes $2 million, they've got to pay the opponent $2 million. At this point, Francis will probably want a little more, excuse me, a little more than $2 million.

And thus, you know, they'll match that for an MECOV. That costs a lot of money, man. I think this is one of the main reasons aside from some of the, you know, unfortunate things that have happened in Encounter's life with, you know, his, of course, losing his child and then the accident that happened. But I think in addition to those things, why he hasn't been fighting is it costs BFL a lot of money. So I will buy. I will buy.

I think they're just not going to be able to find. I think the dollars and says just don't add up for PFL. I want to say he's going to fight at least one more time before he goes. And maybe that's the case. You know what? Let's be optimistic. Let's say maybe he fights again and then parts ways before the end of the year. But there is a very good chance.

It does not fight again. And we have just already seen the end of the and gone to PFL experiment. This is so hard, okay, because like my brain is telling me there's no chance he's on this roster at the end of the year but my heart is saying like pfl like absolutely needs to have him or they are like in such trouble because they need like they need it they need a deal like they have no tv after this year they're out espn until the end of the year and then they are they are officially nowhere so like you kind of isn't jake paul a pfl he's another um madisorado is a pfl fighter neither are even like close to fighting at all so i think they i think they absolutely have to keep him

and i think they will pay him so much money to do so but like i just i i i'm supposed to be talking to someone who will have some insight in what francis is thinking over the next couple of days i will sell this he stays okay we haven't agreed yet we're we're three for three on on splitting i think i think he stays because there's nowhere else to go like where is he gonna go like his bot like he could still box a little bit but like is anybody interested could he fight dante wilder and people might still have like a sliver of care i guess but like after he got obliterated by Anthony Joshua like a lot of that those ships have sailed he ain't ever going back to the UFC I think that's pretty pretty obvious at this point

and there's no Bellator could he go to like KSW or what like one is like not really an MMA promotion anymore like there's literally nowhere else to go and I think PFL needs to have him so I think like eventually they will figure this thing out and work on something I just gotta say I'm no interest in like I understand Francis and Nemcoff is like I guess an interesting fight but like if we're playing this game where it's like he only has one fight left on this deal and then he's like a free agent again I one billion percent do not want to see him fight Vidiam Nemcoff like let's just get super weird with all of this so let's do the Eddie Hall fight like I don't want to see Eddie Hall fight Dylan Danes I don't see any hall fight Francis and Ganu

like this is the kind of shit I want to see and this is the kind of shit I want to see and this is kind of stuff pfl should be doing if we're being honest they got to be as fun as possible so i think they keep him because i think they're they have to and i think he needs to stay so you're saying uh he stays does he fight in 2026 yes okay interesting because because like you said they they're trying to get a new tv deal they could just keep him as sort of like this face of the company this nebulous face of the company who just like he'll fight in 2027 give us that tv deal he'll he will fight next year yeah i mean there's some interesting points in here like maybe dirty boxing but like you really think dirty boxing could afford for us i was gonna say like bkfc they're chucking money

around pkfc maybe but like look where's the where's the bkfc money coming from that's what i want to know i mean i truly want to know so pfl has money guys like they get investors all the time um they get like Saudi investments and all that stuff. So like, but I also think they're just going to overvalue Francis. I think they overvalued them to begin with. I don't know. Like he's,

he has this perception of being like this tremendously huge star. You know what I mean? But he's really not. So I don't know. I honestly don't know if this is going to go. But my, my heart is saying that they figured this all out. And yeah,

he stays. the pfl but again could be wrong been wrong many many times all these are all good ones these are all good ones so far i mean they're all good in general but these like been tough so tough again you and i have yet to agree yes i think we might agree on this one aka wow buy yourself dylan danis is two or more fights of any kind in 2026 i can sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell golly just throw it away sell it okay i'm look a huge sell i'm looking at in his topology page now okay so he fought one time in 2025 he was supposed to fight anthony this is two or more so it's essentially over one and a half i guess two or more okay yeah uh

he was supposed to fight twice this year mike we were really close and then again on the other hand it is him so we should never have maybe we should never have expected the anthony taylor fight to happen but hold on now hold on a second what does any kind mean like grappling um he did did get in a fight in the crowd at Madison Square Garden. Does that count us any kind? I would hope not. I hope. All right.

We have to define these. Sanctioned. Sanctioned. I forgot. That's right. KSI earlier in the year. Totally forgot about that. That didn't happen.

Yeah, he spoke for three fights. Tony Ferguson, GFL, too. What's that? Oh, four fights. I've never heard of that before. What is that? What is GFL? I've never heard of that before.

And surely there will be no GFL related questions in our Bicels. And then before that, there was an exhibition boxing out with Logan Paul. That was in 2023. Man, this is crazy. And then, of course, he had not fought since a Bellator fight in 2019. So he's fought three times in the last, it'll be six, yeah, six years. He ain't fighting twice. Come on.

Could he get? Are you going to buy this? No, I'm not. I'm selling. I'm selling. I'm just like, I'm just wondering, is it absurd for someone to consider buying this? You can get it for cheap right now, that's for sure, because it's not. not the stock is not high right now um but imagine if he did a misfits boxing match and like a

random ass grappling match like that would count that would count i just but yeah that's a good point he's not going to do like r like raf or something please raf no raf is doing some very fun they're doing fun stuff too far please don't do that okay all right where you agree ak for the first time today yes easy one all right what's the next one Oh, cross one. All right. Buy or sell, the women's divisions in the UFC will have more finishes in 2026 than Yokic will have triple doubles in the entirety of the 25, 26 regular season. All right.

This current season, this current NBA season. All right, I want to pull this up real quick because in case this question did arise. Where was it? Oh, you're going to check how many he has. So just to explain this question to some folks. This is what was written in the question. Quote, to put this into context for you and AK, the women's divisions combined for a total of 31 finishes in 2025.

At the time of me sending this message, Yokic is sitting at 16 triple doubles this season through 31 games. He had 35 total last season, which was his career high. We should note, this is a very well-timed question, because I think this was sent in before Yokic tweaked his knee. Suffered a bit of a knee injury recently. Oh, yes, you're right. Yes, yes.

He will be out until at least the end of January, possibly first week of February, possibly longer, possibly longer. The prognosis is returned to end of January, February. So he's going to miss something like, I think they play 16, 17 games this month in January. So that's a big chunk. That's a big chunk to lose. He has been an insane triple double machine this year. Like he said, 16 triple doubles. And then, okay, but then this is for versus finishes for the women's divisions.

And all of 2026. in the entirety of 2026. And he said, and he said, they had 31. Wow, this is a great question. So that means, let's, so if they match that number, which is not a guarantee, if the women's division matched that number in 2026, then Yokish would need 16 more triple levels

before the end of the year. This is going to be close, honestly. And again, and this is assuming that it could, you know, the women's divisions could be less than 30 finishes this year. It might not be 31. Put the question up again? there's sunscreen. It's up there. More finishes. Oh, I'm, I'm, gosh, I just don't know how much time yoke's just going to miss. This is such a great question. I have faith in the women's

divisions actually trending upwards this year, which is not saying much. I know it's been a bit of a dry spell as far as like, you know, super compelling finishes and contenders and some of these divisions over the last couple years. So I'll take, I'll, I'll, I'll buy it. I'll buy it. Mike, I'll buy it. They will be, and again, this does have to do with the fact

that I also think I don't know how much time Yokitch will miss. I will buy this too. Shut up being mosquito. Let's go. There's like two or three

right there that she's going to give us. Okay. True. Maybe if Fatima Klein gets a couple. I don't know. They, I mean, look,

they did, they had 31 finishes. I think they'd do better than 31 this year. I think they do a little better. Ed Yokch being hurt kind of hurts a little bit. it but i do think it i do think it's going to be like real close at the end of the year i feel like it's going to be super close yeah i'll go with the ufc women's divisions here wow boy that's a

great question i see people a little some some our international viewers confused by the just for their guys a triple double is uh when a player in basketball gets 10 points 10 rebounds and 10 assists so there that's a that's a triple double or 10 blocks or 10 steals which rare but possible Uh, great question. Love that. I hope there's more of those. And let's continue on. Uh, buy or sell. We'll see at least two new faces at the commentary desk in the UFC in 2026. We're talking cage side. We're not talking analyst desk. We're talking commentary. Caged side. Yeah. Yep. I saw this question before. I remember. And I'm going to say, I'm going to buy not necessarily permanent guests, by the way. This, this is almost actually an easy buy. Because like, if they have like, you know, Justin Poreen for like a guest, like as a one-timer, if they move someone from the analyst sets for like a one-time, like, there's replacements, there's events where like,

oh, maybe someone just couldn't show up and then they call someone up. So at least two, yes. Will anyone new full-time commentary members? I would probably say zero. I'd probably say zero. But will we have two new faces that show up and get a chance? Yeah, I think so. So we're talking with this question.

We're talking a full-on UFC event. We're not talking contender series. We're not talking road to UFC. We're talking UFC fight night event or pay-per-view, right? Two new faces? I'll sell this. I think we'll see Michael Kiesa get a shot this year because they gave him reps last year.

He did Contender Series. He did the Road to UFC card that was headlined by a UFC fight before the, I believe that it was the Shanghai card. I think he gets a rep or two this year. But I don't think anybody else does. I don't think anybody else does this year. Maybe they'll bring somebody else in. Maybe they'll give Anthony Smith a crack on like contender series or something.

But I think we see one, but two just seems like a lot to me. We should add it has to be for at least like a full portion of the card or something. Not just like what. Like I don't know if they, again, I don't know what changes they can make a paramount. probably nothing big but you know you see if anyone's watched other sporting events like baseball they're like oh here's our guest for one inning you know one inning we have someone come in so that doesn't count it has to be like oh this person's doing the whole main card or this versus this stuff where they're brought on just for the prelim so i have to do a whole portion of a card

not just like one or two fights again they've never done that before um but again i don't know what they're planning with paramount if they want to try doing stuff like that yeah although the paramount thing is kind of interesting maybe they want certain fighters i don't know but yeah i think one but it could be celebrities too imagine they brought in some Oh, as I'm saying, I don't know how, it'd be fun and it'd be dumb, but we're not counting that. We're not counting if they bring in a celebrity for like, oh, you know, we're in H-town and whatever, bringing some, some, you know, H-town celebrity. No, I would not count that as a new face.

I think we mean an actual professional commentator. Okay. All right. I like this. Good question. We're on opposite ends of the spectrum again. This is great. Next question.

What do we got? Buy or sell. Josh Van finishes 2026 with more title defenses than Hamzaa Tshamayev. Wow. And they don't need to be, they don't need to be successful. They just mean, oh, this is seem successful. Yeah, I'm going to say successful. Gosh, Hamza.

Well, this guy even going to get in the cage in 20s? I don't know. I'll go first, AK. Yeah, go ahead, Mike. Give me some time to make about this. I will sell this. I will sell this. I think he's going to lose.

I think, I don't know, it's, it's, God, it's tough. It's tough. I would pick Pandhuja to beat Van. I would probably pick Benal Cop to beat Van. But if they go with Tyra, then it gets interesting. Although he could, or he could probably, maybe lose the tire or two.

I think Shama, God, now, now I'm like, now I'm thinking about this. You had it, Mike. You had it. You were, you were honest. Well, now, but now I have to like, now I'm looking at this at a different, in a different, in a different, through a different lens. Like, what if they both, what if they both have zero?

Then it's a cell. That counts. No, sorry, that counts as a cell. Yes. That would be a cell. I'll sell this. I'll sell it. Yeah, I think I had to sell it too for kind of where you just got there.

Because, like, I think at the most I see Van defending it once successfully. So really, I'm saying, do I trust Coms not to get in there to defend his title once? Because it doesn't, because it wouldn't count if, like, based the way the question is worded, let's say Shemai went up to 205 or something and won the title there. That is not a defense. So technically that would, and then Van Defend His Tell Once, then this would be correct by. But I will sell. I just think there's too many permutations that are, like, working against it.

So, yeah, it's either both guys get one or Van doesn't successfully defend and Hamzat gets one, that those are really what I'm looking at. All right. Good question. I mean, that's, that again, it's like, it's a 50-50 one. I don't know. It's really, too good. It's not like the, like, the Dillon-Danis question is like the only obvious, like, only

obvious one so far. Imagine, imagine, though. Imagine if we're wrong on that. Yeah, he gets five. He fights in a friggin tournament and fights like four times or whatnot. That would be our luck. If he does some fight where he beats up two guys in one fight, does that count as two fights now?

Oh, okay. No, I like this. Buy or sell, a title fight will take place on a fight-eye card in 2026. Notting vigorously. For you guys on the podcast network who listen to this, nodding vigorously. Of course, of course, bye, bye. Again, the model has changed now, right? There are technically no pay-per-views.

I think I'm going to keep saying paper views for like forever. I know they're whatever. I don't know if they've embraced the PLE thing, the W-P-L-E thing. I'm not sure what they're calling their number. They're just calling numbered events. Yeah, it sounds so. It's terrible. Horrible.

But yeah, they have so many events now. And again, the line between like a fight night. That's either on the road or international and a numbered event is like thinner now. And I do think they have these opportunities where they should, we've said it before. It was a Joshua Van in Houston. Tom Aspinall in London These are opportunities they need to jump on

For the home crowd And for the fighters themselves Who like Especially we're talking about Van and Aspl Both coming off kind of weird title fights You put them in a favorable like home situation And then boom That's what people see on TV

People see them cheering They're a big deal Like you gotta help the perception Of these fighters sometimes So yeah I think they have to do it Maybe it won't be Van Maybe it won't be Aspinall But second half of 2026

I have to think they'll get a little creative And throw a title fight Yeah like if they go like van van and cop should be headlining the houston fight night card like that 100% should be happening yeah you know what i mean or van versus whoever that should have been happening in houston um make them look like a star and i understand they have a main event there but you can still they have money they could do two main event type payment fights do strickland fluffy for five rounds and then do the title fight after that you could definitely do that i don't understand why they're not but i will buy

this i think they i think they have to even if it's you know valentina defending or you know they do one of the women's titles or some there will be some sort of title fight for sure does the white house count as a fight night of it are you putting that in its own category because if it does and that's a lot because that's going to have one title fight on it like that's a lock i think white house has to be in the category of of a numbered event does it not or even like bigger i think that needs to be yeah i i i would say not outside of the white house yeah outside that does feel like guaranteed that there's going to have some sort of title fight did this say like undis does this did this count like bmf and stuff like that or um it shouldn't okay well okay

we're saying uh yeah uh yeah normal divisional titles yeah it's it's yeah it's got to be one of those situations so not counting what yeah uh okay next question where are you why is this is not coming up what is happening my whole thing is frozen here why is this working i'm just looking some of the comments here thank you everyone for uh leaving comments and the youtube chat i don't know are we broadcasting also on like facebook and uh we're on the twitch oh the oh they are always electrifying if you are on twitch uh hit me off my dms on twitter or something guys because i i know we have a a booming uh twitch audience and uh if there's any comments i'm sorry i'm not i'm not seeing them right now uh yes i don't think we've had any twitch comments yet but we're up there okay we got it fixed

now we can uh we can go to our next one which is here oh by our cell gable steveson is a ranked ufc heavyweight in 2026 uh this is a super duper duper duper by uh the second he debuts he will have one fight. He will be, it's heavyweight, AK. If Talos and DeShera can beat the worst heavyweight on the roster and get a ranking and a main event, Gables, Gable Stevens, it will probably be a top 10 heavyweight after one fight. I could not buy this fast enough. The only way, the only thing that shuts this down is if, like, he gets, like, injured or something and the UFC doesn't sign him. But even so, if they sign him and they have a ranking cycle, he, they'll probably rank him anyways without even competing. So, yeah, this is.

is probably the easiest buy of the show so far yeah the question is really this to me is the same as is he going to debut in the uc in 2026 that's it's the same question for me because yes i like you said telson to share are currently holding on to the uh number 15 spot in the official rankings uh yep big big time by they're going to attach the rocket to this guy if he once he steps in the octagon um there's just there's just a lot of things they like about him obviously he's he has the potential to be a legitimately has potential to be a uc champion within the next like three years like i mean the the potential is that high uh and i know we've said this a lot of players in the past for sure just like any prospect you know gable stevenson could fall on the proverbial

like banana peel right it happens it happens right um you know you run to a certain level of competition it completely reveals who you are but just on paper just based on this wrestling pedigree and all that stuff like it'd be shocking if he doesn't end up ranked at some point if not in 2026 it'd be shocking if he doesn't end up with a number next to his name he will probably be fighting for a world title before the middle of 2027 like they're going to brock him they're going to brock lesnar him he's going to have like two he's going to get like one ufc win maybe two and then they're going to throw him in a title fight like that they're just going to they're going to rush him as fast as possible so yeah easiest buy of the program so far so thank you

next question oh all right uh buy or sell collectively Aaron Pico, Patricio Pitbull, and Patchy Mix will earn more wins than losses in 2026 UFC competition. Damn, this is, this is a question, A.K. I'm going to buy. I'm going to buy with some confidence, Mike. I'm going to buy with some confidence. Because I think they're going to recalibrate their expectations for these guys appropriately. Also, some of these, I don't know, I have a weird feeling patchy just might not. not fight in 2026. I just have a weird feeling.

Maybe he just needs to take a year off and just kind of, he's not an old guy. And I know he's an older guy in a division that doesn't favor them. But I think he's only 32. So let's say he took a year off and he comes back at 33 or I'm not sure when his birthday is closer to 34 in 2027. I think he'll be okay. I think he'll be okay.

So let's say, let's say patchy makes it just O and O. And then we're just talking like Pitbull and Pico. Yeah, I think they'll get enough matchups where they can go like three and one, even like three and two, two and one. And I don't know. This is just, it only has to be one, right? One more win than loss. I'm not saying these guys are going to like three and oh, four, no,

and like be ready for a title shot going to next year. Just will they get more wins and losses? Yeah, pretty confident. Bye. I see some people saying this is like easy. Everyone's selling. Everyone's selling. They don't want no piece of this.

I don't think Patchy ever wins a UFC fight. Because you can't like at this. point like you cannot give you cannot throw him in there where it's like oh we have to get this guy a win yeah it's not that anymore they're going to give him literally the toughest fights possible Mike that's why I'm factoring him out for this year I am saying zero wins but also zero losses like he's not he's not no he's gonna fight oh you think so oh absolutely he's gonna fight um pico should not be fighting until like June or July after that knockout because that happened one that was in August right he should not be

be fighting for a long ass time after that knockout. I know he, like, just got back in the gym and started training again. But even so, he should be, he should be out for a while. Pitbull just had surgery, I believe. So he's going to be out for a while as well.

And then when he comes back, like, are they going to give him? I think they're going to get him like a really tough fight. I'm going to sell this, AK. I'm going to sell this. I think patchy fights at least once, if not twice. They're just going to try to ring out whatever's left of him before they send him on his way. Honestly, at this point, it's a bummer that it had to be like this,

but it's just kind of what it is right now. There is no sense of urgency to rise him up the ranks anymore. It's done. Pitbull, I think Pico gets a win. Pitbull is going to get a super tough fight. and him getting surgery and being out for a while hurts him badly because he's not getting any younger so i say i'll say under 500 here okay between the three of them so patchy mix is really kind of ruining it for the other two guys and pit bull too because i just don't know what they're going to

do here like if he comes back at like june or july like what kind of fight are they going to give him are they give him like milky costa who's like on fire and like i would probably might pick him to beat pit bull right now like he could he could be pit bull like they're not going to give him like they gave him the daddy gay fight but like they're only going to get tougher from here you know what i mean so if he fights twice i'll say he wins at least one of them but am i confident he wins two i don't know does pico fight twice this year i don't know i'm confident he probably does the best of these three so i mean even at work like even if they go 500 that's still a sell correct yeah so I'll sell this I believe I still

believe so yeah okay all right what do we got here buy or sell the GFL hosts their first ever event sometime in 2026 is this easier to sell the Dylan Dennis Mike you go first so I will never buy this until they actually do it. And even then, I don't know if I'll do it if I, if I will buy it again. Yeah, exactly. I'd have to see them hold an event and then like something like the GFL will hold three events next year. Then I might be like, okay, let me think about that. But yes, I need to see that you're right.

I need to see one in reality first before I even buy on one. So the chat agrees. The chat is going crazy right now selling. There's this stock is worth nothing. And you got to sell this right now because this is worth nothing already. Oh, my God. gone no i love the question though of course they keep saying like oh no we're still working behind the scenes like tired woodley still out here doing interviews like

yeah i don't think they're done just shut i don't think they're done oh this is unbelievable god with that would be honestly the story of the year if they host an event my ball lock it in my bold prediction should have been gfl well it's not spoiler for later my gfls not the host event would have been really bold GFL signs a TV deal and hosts 42 events in 2026, unbelievable. Oh, okay, buy or sell, two or more of these fighters will get a title shot, an undisputed title shot in 2026, just getting promoted to champ does not count. Sean O'Malley, Justin Gachie, Kamar Usman.

Two or more of these fighters get an undisputed title shot in 2026. Okay. It's a great question, because the paths are all pretty obvious. for the three of them. Sean O'Malley has to beat Song Yadong. He's very marketable. The UFC loves him. He has the previous win over the current champion, right?

I mean, it's controversial for sure, close fight, but he has that. That's a great easily sellable storyline in addition to all the other stuff they like about O'Malley. Justin Gatesy is fighting Patty Pimblit, and they are not guaranteed, but the language seems to be that

whoever leaves 324 with the interim title will fight Ilya whenever Ilya comes back. So they go, that would be another one. And of course, Islam has been sort of stumping for his buddy, Kamar who's wanted to get the Walterway tell a shot. But will all three, but will two or out of three of those happen at least, Mike? Golly, I hope not.

I really hope not. So I'm going to, even though all the signs are pointed to like, again, could be three and all on this question, I will very likely sell. I think there's just other factors and other contenders that could throw a wrench into these plans. But yeah, this is not a confident sell at all. I have to buy this and I hate myself for it. I mean, Gaichi is kind of like,

at least Gaichi is like in a position where he's in a number one contender fight. He's fighting for an interim belt. So essentially it's a number one contender fight. So at least he will have the opportunity to like earn his shot. So if he beats Patty Pimblit, even though Armin Saurucyan is more deserving, at least he is in a position where unlike O'Malley and Usman, he is at a spot where it's like,

if you win this fight, you're getting a title shot. And I think he's going to be Patty Pimlet. I'm going to pick him to be Patty. Maybe wrong. Patty continues to surprise me and continues to get better. But I think this is by a floppy Jillian Miles, the toughest fight of Patty Pimblet's career. And it's not even close. Like so, so tough is this fight compared to his others.

The question I have, because Oussman's going to friggin, does Oospin get it? I don't know. Like, Usman is literally going to have to, like, whenever they offer to him, he's going to have to say, yes, I will be there tomorrow. There is no hesitation. And even then, I think, like, honestly, like, the longer this takes, the worse it is for him. So I'm going to continue. I'm going to put this out into the university.

He doesn't get it, even though he probably is. And I'm going to, again, I will do a live reaction to it and I will lose my damn mind. Sean O'Malley is the one that I'm on the fence about and it's not because of Sean it's because of Yon do they go right to the does the UFC go right to the trilogy with Marab or do they wait

and that's that's what I have an issue with Sean still has to beat song but if he does man this is tough how does the UFC view this right now. Do they view Jan Marab 3

is the bigger fight or Jan O'Malley 2 is the bigger fight? Currently right now, how do they view this? You only need two to buy it though, Mike. You only need, if you're confident in Gachian Oosman. I'm not confident at Oussman. Okay, okay, okay. It's even though it's going to happen.

If I could wish one thing to not happen, it's Uspin, not getting it at Welterweight. Bannoyt's bad. Like, O'Malley getting it at Bannamweight is bad, but like, But Rob, like, at least gets, if Barab's injured or something and gets to fight the winner, then, like, okay, it's justified, like, we got to do something. But, like, literally, there's five dudes ahead of Ousman in the pecking order right now that deserve it more.

So, like, that won't upset. It'll piss me off O'Malley getting it. Usman will just be a travesty, in my, in my opinion. So. Podcast listeners, Mike is frozen right now. Sell. I'm selling it. I'm selling it.

I'm putting good vibes into the universe because like a lot. Because if Gagey loses, I feel like sell is the way to go here. Like, I feel like it's going. I feel like O'Malley and Oussman aren't getting it. It'll just be one or the other. Okay. I'm going to get this one wrong. I know it.

That's a perfectly worded question. Yeah, it's so good. All right. Next question. you got. Oh, another PFL parts ways with question. Buy yourself, PFL parts ways with either Usman or Magamatov or Paul Hughes during the year. I believe Usman has come, Usman or Magamatov has come out and said, like, he has maybe two more fights left than this deal. I don't know. I think his contract is running up. I don't know where Paul Hughes is at this point.

But even if we get to a point, AK, where these fighters start to air their grievances, saying like, hey, I'm not being booked or hey, I'm not getting the right fights. Release me so I can go elsewhere. PFL, for the most part, has done a pretty good job just being like, all right, if you don't want to be here, then don't be here. Aaron Pico can go, Pachy Mix can go,

Patricia Pitbull can go, so forth and so on. But they are paying some much better money than the UFC is paying. Vanim Nemcoff wanted to go to the UFC. PFL gave them way more money. I don't know. This is a tough one, AK. So, buy or sell that either one of these two guys is no longer with the PFL by the year's end. Sell, this is just early.

That's all. This is just early. And I don't know how early. It could be, it could be, um, um, 2027, like in the first quarter, 27, 2027, like these guys finally move on. So I don't know how, how early it is. I just don't know if it happens to 2026. I actually, I enjoyed a lot of the PFL this year. I know it kind of flew, many of the events flew under the radar.

So I think there's generally good vibes internally, I would imagine. And I think there's like there's something to that. I think there's something to be said about wanting to stick around in that kind of environment. Their future, Usman and Paul Hughes, their future is the UFC. Don't get me wrong. Of course, at some point, they're both going to fight the UFC. Just not, not the ground won't be laid for that in 2026, in my opinion. I think, God, I think Hughes should absolutely stay.

And, like, get that bag. You know what I mean? Usen is tough. Especially now that Islam is up at 170. So now there's a path for him to enter the UFC's lightweight division and immediately make a run of the belt. Start. I'm with you, AK, I'm selling this.

We're a year too soon. We're a year too soon before he could. really start talking about this i think but i usman ushman puzzles me that's the one i'm i'm struggling with right now is the ushman amaga made off deal now could the ufc like do an event in ireland or something paul hughes would be a great name to have on that card perhaps they could do something there um yeah i think we're a year earlier here good question though yeah Buy yourself, Darren Till re-signs with the UFC AK.

A weird question, but not like, not unreasonable to ask. It seems because it kind of seemed, right? Like when, because he lost it, you got finished by DDP. And it just kind of seemed like the two needed like a little bit of a break from each other. Right? It was like, Darren asked for his release and the UFC's like, cool. But apparently like based on what all both sides have said, the door's not closed. I guess, but Darren has found a lot of success doing the influencer boxing thing.

I don't know. I'll sell this, but I, the question makes sense, it's a weird time for the UFC, but I say, I say no. Yeah, I'm also selling, um, it's just so random. It's not that it can't happen. I just weird. I've heard really no real rumblings about it, um, which doesn't mean anything. I mean, we, we have seen signings. We've seen moves without, uh, any sort of, you know, foreshadowing before.

But I think Till's kind of still enjoying his life outside of UFC, outside of MMA. So I don't know. I don't see why he would want to end that right now. He's kind of his own boss at the moment. And I think that's very appealing. But I hadn't even thought about him returned to the UFC someday. And now I think that will happen. But much like with the last question, just not in 2026.

All right. Thank you very much. Next question. Oh, okay. Byers, so the UFC will book their first. two-division champ versus two-division champ fight before the end of the year. Maybe it's Islam Ilya or Jones Pereira. Maybe something crazy happens with Hamzaa Chamaev.

I mean, I'm going to buy this because I, I mean, if I bought the question from earlier with Jones Pereira, then I have to buy this. So I'll buy it. You have to buy it. Well, no, you could have meant, oh, that's right. You were more confident in that than McGregor and Jenner. So I have to buy it by proxy. yeah i think i'm selling i think i'm selling i just again this is going to be such a funny year for the

um because of the whole new sort of the new paramount deal and um i don't know what their expectations will be for certain cards so i just don't know if they can afford to uh put two of their champions like that um like to do a champion for a champion for like that this year um and i because i think they're going to need to spread their champions out so that's really my reasoning behind it i know that's a very boring thing to say but um i don't you guys notice the ufc is kind of boring with it's decision making at time so I think they're going to play it safe that's a sell for me it's most I would I still

want to see alia versus Islam someday that was almost definitely not happening this year and like I said like and then it's either that I kind of have to put my faith in Jones and Padena which I'm still not really confident about next question more than one by herself there will be more than one

interim lightweight title fight in 2026 wow that I so I mean see this is such I don't know if I like how this is because obviously we are already getting one like we obviously we have patty and so just will there be another right the question is will there be another right doesn't you have to me i would have like set the number like two and a half or something right um will be in a specifically lightweight will there be another uh i get it because what if topori doesn't come back right what if topore doesn't come back i guess they would have to elevate the winner of patty oh no i mean they

would probably have one of them defend the interim title oh my gosh so stupid this is so stupid Guys, you see why the 324, like why we complain about the 324 title fight, like being an interim thing? Like, why? Just why. And I'm glad the fighter is getting paid more, blah, blah, blah, but just pay them more for number one contender bouts. I'm optimist. I'm just going to sell. Please sell.

Sell. Please don't make this happen. Either because ALEA comes back or they promote whoever wins the Patty Gagey fight to undisputed. That's my reason. I like I just I don't know what this Ilya thing is like I don't know how how I don't know what it means for him at this point it's all it's all sort of speculation but even so like Ili is not like the most active dude in the world and there is a part of me that feels like if Ilya does come back like say Justin Gehchi wins I don't know I don't know what he's going to do. I feel like he's going to be like, I just want to fight Islam and nobody else.

And if not, I'll just leave. Like, there is a part of me that believes that. But just for the sanctity of the greatest division in all of sports, I'll sell this. I'm selling. And this is more of a, I need this to happen here kind of thing. I need to feel good about things.

But if Armand Suruki at least gets the interim title shot, against the winner then i'm okay with that but yeah i think i think gilea comes back okay uh all right what other weirdness do we have mike mike i am frantically by the way trying to log into our twitch uh i don't have our m a fighting account but i there's someone left a comment in the twitch at our tv we have a couple have you responded already i did not respond but i did i did pull them up i believe i'm gonna try and i'm gonna there it is right there shout out to mora nice see the twitch stream what is that we've done it Twitch getting after it sweet um buy or sell Jake Paul fights for a boxing world

title in 2026 did we not get this last year I feel like did we not get this no or what he would be ranks maybe that he would be ranked or something I don't know I think we got um I think we got his MMA debut will be announced at least be announced by the end of the year last year I get it there's so many world titles and I assume by the way we're talking the four primary not some weird like junior title or something um or some title that's made just for him like legitimate w b a wbo w bc etc etc i'm going to sell i'm going to sell like my only thinking is like because i i i'm hoping he returns to some freak show stuff i want to see some dumb stuff happen i'm going to beat up some youtube or something uh even then and even if he

doesn't do that and kind of keeps trying to stay on this legitimate path whatever however you guys wanted to find that uh doesn't feel like anyone should be too hungry to like throw him the title fight just yet but maybe i'm wrong i don't know what the scene is at like cruiserweight and heavy weight and um maybe there is some some you know unpopular champion that they're just like begging to get the title off of or uh threatened to get the title off of and uh they think paul could do it so but that's a sell i'll sell it too but i could see this one coming back to to bite me with how boxing is right now. It's super weird and dumb. We have a super chat

buy or sell question, AK, and this one I think relates more to you. This is from John Shin, aka buy or sell. Canada will have more World Cup wins than Mike Malott will have in the UFC in 2026. Yeah. I mean, for me, this is an easy buy.

Maybe I'm being a little too optimistic about Canada's chances. I think they get out of their group. I'll have to look at it again. Guys, my World Cup following has been lackluster. But I don't remember thinking their group was like, nightmarish. So let's say they get I think they get two wins in the group. I think they get two wins in the group.

And then one win in the next round or whatever, however it works. So I'm predicting three, three wins in the World Cup tournament for Canada. If Mike Malak gets three wins in 2026, that would be amazing. I just think it's really hard to do that. At Welterweight, it's hard to even fight that many times. So just barely, just barely. I'm going to go three to two. Two wins from Mike Malat, three wins for Team Canada.

I mean, I'm just going to go with whatever you say, because you know more about this than I do. So, sure. We'll go ahead and buy that. Yeah. And Mike Blot wins three fights this year. He's going to be in the fighter of the year run because he ain't fighting anybody easy. He's going to be fighting like all ranked guys this year more than likely. So I feel like this is the year where they have to like take a run at him and see if he can be the face of Canadian MMA.

So we'll see. I'll do a few more next. all Dakota Ditchieffa loses this year. I don't see how that's going to. So she was supposed to fight. She was supposed to fight. Who she could? Oh, Denise Kielholz.

Yeah, obviously got a little bit of an injury. I don't think she has said that she expects to be something long term. So hopefully we do see Dakota, you know, sometime in the summer or maybe after the summer, but before the end of the year. They did sign some new names, right? They signed R&M to Silva. Who's other flyway veteran they signed? again another former UFC person

oh montana de la rosa montana de la rosa i think either of those matches were pretty favorable for dakota uh i think arani ariani just would be a little bit tougher i'd still would favor her quite a bit she'd be like a minus 400 something favorite still um this is just so much hype around her and she's look good she deserved it she looked good so uh yeah

easy sell i just don't think they have someone who's really a stiff challenge for her right now and she might not even fight honestly maybe i don't know i don't know i i hope his injury is nothing but who knows maybe maybe she ends up not fighting so that certainly wouldn't count as losing i am going to i'm buying it i'm buying it what's the what's the game here mike liz carmouche and they're going to fight more than one time they're going to fight more than once it's got to be like some wonky ass split decision type thing and then they they run it back liz liz is definitely the best opposed she would have faced i don't know man these injuries are

starting to worry me a little bit starting to starting to worry me a little bit so and look like freaking chris cyborg called her out if she fights chris cyborg you pick a decoded it's fit to beat her that fight it's never going to happen anyways that was funny um but like would it be shocking if this car moosh beat dakota ditchieva no wouldn't be i don't think it would be shocking so i feel like this is i feel like every year there's one question that like could decide it and i feel like this is the one so i'll buy it uh i mean the talas santos win was pretty good tell of you know it's very good tala beat liz and then you know dakota so i mean this is i mean this style like fights and all that stuff so uh wow i'm surprised you're buying this one my best

friend i'm gonna take a shot shot in the dark here shot in the dark why the hell not uh thank you for the question i mean again very likely could be wrong there uh terens thank you buy or sell if rose gets past natty ice uh her and val is more public appeal than Nunes v. Harrison on the website. I mean, this is also 135 Valas champ. Okay. It's kind of a weird.

So like if, so hypothetically, AK, Rose beats Natty Ice. The UFC announces that Valentina Shifchenko will defend the flyweight title against Rose Namibunis. Does that fight get more buzz on M-Mayfiting.com than Kayla Harrison versus an Amanda Nunes has been getting leading into UFC 324? Rose is really popular, but I'm going to sell this.

I just don't know. I don't know if there's a lot of juice to her matchup with the Val. I really don't. I'm disappointed that the Nunes-Harrison matchup has been treated so haphazardly by the UFC. You know what I mean? Making it a co-main event and just like. really just not making as big a deal out of it as it should be. Neither Nunes or Shepchenko have been, like, crazy, like, needle movers, at least for us on our website.

So I understand, like, the gap isn't that big. But there is something, I feel like there's something so meaningful about the Nunes-Harrison fight. I just don't think Rose is, like, honestly, I would not give her much of a chance against Val. I think Val's so locked in, and Namunis, at least the stage of career is so up and down. She does fight great as the challenger. I know that's, like, the story we always like to tell. like she's going for a title she's the most dangerous um but i just think that's like such an intangible thing that i wouldn't bank on so um and i think i would imagine a lot of fans feel

the same way so this is this is a sell i think nunes harrison's slight edge it's not like either matchup is lighting the um mainstream world on fire yeah i mean at the end of the fans that the ufc is catering towards have no idea who a man of nunez is never seen her fight don't know anything about her sorry beat up ronda yeah and even then they don't even know about like they don't know she headlined ufc 200 yeah they have no idea who amanda dunes is no clue they're like what's ufc 200 what's a pay-per-view like these people have no idea so yeah i'll sell but slightly i don't know they're going to push kale a lot this year i think it seems that way all right next question uh buy or sell more than one of these fighters fights for a belt in

2026. Derek Lewis, Anthony Hernandez, Michael Morales, Yuri Perashka. This is one of my easier buys of the year, okay. You're still writing Derek getting a title shot. I assume he's won one of the names. No. Okay. Maybe. Fluffy? Yes. We're both on Michael Morales. We don't think that he's. And I think Yuri is going to fight further. I think Yuri's going to get a title shot this year. May not be against Pereira, but I think he's getting a title shot. I just feel like Michael more else going to get screwed like i want to buy this i'm going to sell i'm going to sell i want to buy this i think he's going to get screwed so more than a so i could say one i don't know which one of those names i could see one but um i think some of the guys that i want to see get it aren't going to

get it so also all right we'll do a few more uh buy yourself at least one of these fighters returns to the uf brian battle or mohammed mokai if i'll go first sell neither of these guys No, not Muhammad, Makaya. Either. I don't think either ever fights for the UFC again. Honestly, honestly, this might be the hottest take I've ever had. I think they would sign Brian Battle before they would resign Muhammad Makaya. That's not a hot take.

You have established many times that the UFC just does not want to be in the home. They do not want to be in Makai. They do not care. He can win his next 20 straight fights. And they apparently just are just like, nope, we're good. We are. Sorry, sir, you are not worth the hassle. yeah so i'm selling this neither of them are coming back plus braddle just battles with pfl anyways

now so um and they're not going to resign macaiaf so wait sorry what happened with battle he said battle is with pfl he is with pfl yeah these are i still think though he will fight in the ufc against something battle yeah not this year but not this year so this i'm i can see i can see him back yeah i'm with you i'm selling on this brian battle's coming back i still am wholly on hope for Makaya, but it sure as hell will not be in 2026. Okay. We don't need to.

We know how you feel about it. All right. Lazy Bed. UFC removes their fight library from Fight Pass in 2016. I hope not, because we're still rocking fight pass in Canada, so I really hope not. And I love it. I'll stop.

You know, maybe from the U.S. at which point, it's fine. I don't care about that. But hopefully they'll have us keep having those fights in Canada. So you're selling, Mike? I'm selling. think it stays oh boy man but i mean they got to make they got to make you know paramount plus have more bang for its buck right i mean don't they want that to be the exclusive place of they did it with the spn so again we don't have espin plus in canada um were you also able to

did they also archive like not just recent events but even stuff before esPN you you would use espn plus to go and watch i think so but i always watch everything on fight pass anyways right okay so I'll sell this too okay but I think I don't know we'll see if I'm wrong I'm wrong but I think I think it'll stand I knew this is gonna make the cut by or sell the Patriots will win more 2026 NFL playoff games and Hamzat Shemai if and Islam Makachev get finishes in 2026 UFC title fights is the is the playoff bracket set is the NFL it's set no it's set I don't no Because they still got one more week to play.

Where are your New England football Patriots right now? They have the number two C. Okay, but they're locked in. So they're playing Buffalo. I don't think that's locked in, though. No, okay, no, no. I'm sorry, I'm just some website that's projecting. Okay, so we don't know.

Okay, interesting. Yeah, it's all, it's all TBD, TBDs. All right, all right. And then Hamzat Shemaya finishes. Hamz on Shemaya finishes. Let's say if they even, let's say if each guy even fought one time. So, Mike, I'm sorry. I am selling.

The disrespect. I'll buy. I'll buy in the Patriots. I don't think Hamzat or Islam get a finish in 2026 title fights. And I think the Patriots will win one playoff game. At least one. They'll win one. Wow.

So you go one to zero. At least at least one to zero. Dang. Overall. But most of it is just like, you know, belief in the squad. Yeah,

you have to. You can't, you can't sell this one, like you can't do it. I can't. Next one. Buy our sell, Benoit Santini gets a title shot in 2026.

I mean, this is, this is as quick to sell as Dylan Dattis fighting twice this year. Yeah. And I love. No,

and it, I do too. But this is, look at this division right now. There's no chance. He gets a title shot. Yeah. And I had him as one like the,

I just, this week, well, I'm going to put out sort of the biggest movers and shakers in the rankings. and obviously he was one of the he just completely turned things around 2025 after like some very disappointing performances so will he get a tell shot someday yeah but this just a little early

all right we'll take uh we'll do like three more here we go uh buy ourselves riko verhoeven has two wins in the ufc in 2026 aka so what's still a free agent okay reportedly one of the organizations interested in acquiring the services of Rico Verhoeven is in fact the ultimate fighting championship would be pretty interesting if he joined the roster and as a matter of fact okay if they brought him in they're going to give him like a couple tune-up wins more than likely does he fight does he sign with the UFC and if so does he have two wins in 2026 for the UFC Mike I don't know if you've heard me say this before there's a movement I'm part of it's called uh it's called hashtag uh uh

Keep the martial arts apart, okay? Keep them apart. Rico, you are one of the greatest kickboxer of this generation. Why are you? Just do not mix the martial arts. And I can't imagine the UFC is going to pay him that much more than if he just stays in his lane and keeps kickboxing. That's what he does, and he's freaking fantastic at it.

I think it's a negotiation. I believe there's talks. I think it's a negotiation thing. I'm sure he's driving his price up with other fighting promotions. Again, kickboxing, which is what he should be doing. even if he debuts, even if he signs of the UFC, which I think he's unlikely, even if he debuts, I think it'll just do one fight, one fight this year. I just don't think he'll fight more than once anyway.

So this is a very, very easy sell for me. Yeah, I'm solid. I don't think he ends up in the UFC either way, which makes this question null and void. PFL? Sure. She probably try. Just for Francis. The one fight.

Yes. That's it. I'm okay with that. I'd rather watch Rico than the Nemcoff. And we know, again, they would pay him at least. a few million. So again, I don't know how that compares to kickboxing pay, but, you know, I don't think it'd be terrible. All right. What else we got? I'm just going to e-nie-meany a couple of these. Speaking of PFL, buy herself, PFL signs a lucrative new TV slash

streaming deal that will have people excited and positive for the future, A.K. Hold on. As we discussed earlier, PFL, final year with the ESPN deal. Could he could, could, ESPN does not have an MA organization anymore outside of PFL. Maybe they want to keep MMA in their realm. I don't know. But either way, this is the last year in this current deal. So does PFL come through with a sick TV deal? It won't be like in the billions, but at least something good. We're like, oh, this is like a really good win for them type of thing. Mike, I have to sell just because this is like a two-part question. Do I think they'll sign a lucrative new TV deal?

Yeah, sure, possibly. Do I think anything will get people excited and positive about PFL right now heading into 2027? Probably not. And that's not, and I say to that something like I love, I really like the PFL, but they had a good year this year and like nobody cared. Just I just, I just nobody, they had guys, they had people step up like that John, I think is a legitimate guy. They had some real names, like emerge as I think legitimate, top. 15 possibly top 10 fighters in the future costel events dean is one of the most exciting like results of the year and i i don't know how much it resonated with the broader mma fan base i can say i think

for our website it did like nothing which is unfortunate because it was a great story it was a great story great fight great submission um so yeah they'll sign a new deal but people excited and positive for the future like these are they are they're commudgeonly by nature so this is so I guess the second half of the question is what's throwing me as well. Like what would make people excited and positive for the future? Is it because of where they land? Is it like how to watch them? Like if, you know, because right now PFL,

their events are on that like unlimited, ESPN unlimited service that nobody has. Because it's like 30 bucks a month. Like, why would anybody buy that to watch PFL? People were barely watching them on. freaking ESPN Plus. So like, I mean, what are we doing here? But like if they sign with like Netflix or something, like I think people would be pretty

damn excited about that. I'm not saying that's going to happen, but they'd be pretty damn excited. Like Peacock signed them. I think people would be like, this is pretty interesting. I'm really curious to see what they do here. But I'll sell this. Because I don't even know like, because I just can't define either. Like what's lucrative compared to the UFC?

Like they're not going to get anywhere near them. so i don't know i'll just sell it uh let's see two more we'll do two more uh buy or sell either julietta pae oh god why did i pick this one uh julietta paedia colby covington or brys mitchell has a massive turnaround goes from heel to hero ends 2026 being beloved in the eyes of fans this is almost like the last question where i have to like you got to remember uh you know you and I and us in the lefty MMA media, we might be very critical of like Kobe Compton and Bryce Mitchell stuff.

Like Kobe Compton and Bryce Mitchell are popular with a segment of the fans. So I don't even know how to phrase this because I think to suggest, I can't blame defending these guys, I think to suggest that like Bryce Mitchell and Colby and even Julian Payne's a degree are like universally unpopular is just, it's not true. It's not true.

They do have fan bases. They do have people. Well, Colby for sure has a lot of people who love his schick. I mean, I think what they're meaning is people who are here watching this program. Okay. This are the, again, not the Twitch streaming fans who know nothing about the sport, but who the UFC are advertising towards. Right. The ones who are here and have been here for years and years and years,

that's the hardcore fans, us, all of us. Hard sell. anyway hard sides i don't know i can't i don't know i don't know cobbies what he's wrestling uh uh uh rock hold right to kick out soon yeah that's happening right him beating up rock rock hole would be very funny and uh i'm sure i love people would like that depending how he you're right depending how he chooses to sort of um adjust his character going to twenty six you're right maybe maybe there's character tweaks he can make uh that will make it um i think we're kind of seeing it i don't i have not i've honestly do not follow

Colby coming into social media for my own sake. I have no idea what he's doing. Bryce No chance. I think Bryce is just like, people just think he's the stupidest person on earth. When Dana does even have your back, like you're in deep

shit. Colby like Colby at least had, Colby has to fight. Like the only way Colby's persona can change is if he actually gets in a fight. And like, fights in the octagon you know what i mean like i do think he fights i'll just sell this because

like i don't again maybe we just cancel that question maybe we don't even count that one because it's like no we don't just but like who how do you even define this that's the thing i'm selling whatever however whatever interpretation of this question you guys want to have i am selling it i'll just tell you that right now all right i think i got four more here we'll just go through all of them How dare you offend our Twitch watchers, by the way, Mike? They took it the wrong way, I think. Obviously, you meant like streamers, not our. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, yeah. I've been, you know what I mean. You know what I mean? Not trying to, I'm trying to do damage control now. Not Twitch. Or kick streams, kick streams. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're not on there.

We love you, Twitch. We love you, Twitch. See, I'm an old, I'm an old carbudgeon. I'm an old curmudgeon, okay? I kick and Twitch. Twitch is new to us. We love you, Twitch. we love you um yeah but like i said you guys who are all here do not count okay the ones who are

commenting i'm not talking about you you're here uh all right bkfc signs than more signs more than one significant mma slash ufc vet name to their roster in 26 significant defined significant okay no okay i'll someone who was ranked in the ufc oh at some point at some point more than one more than one more than one yeah oh yeah I'll buy this I'll buy this yeah I think BKFC I mean I know I know there's sort of like obviously forced out their own niche now where they don't need to rely on you know former UFC people to sell sell their um you know sell their product yeah they already have former UFC people on the roster who you know kind of serve that purpose but I still think there's always time to add more and I just think the business is is is so in flux right now and I do wonder how many of sort of these more veteran UFC names will still be on the roster by the end of the year just as far as like I meant how much it costs to keep them on. So yeah, they may have to pursue other opportunities.

I think BKFC would make a lot of sense. So yeah, I'll buy that. More than one. I don't know, man. Knucklemania, like, I'm trying to think like who, I'm trying to think who could it be. it won't be frances what if it was though no there's zero chance zero chance i would love

that luke ruckled already did it so he's off i'm gonna sell this i don't think they're gonna get i don't think they're gonna get two i just don't maybe one but that they ain't getting two No chance. All right. We'll just right with these last three. Buy yourself. Meaningful steps are taken to address eye pokes. Sell.

So I needed a sign. We need like an auction. We should look like we need next time. Next year, I'm going to bring just two signs. So for this part, it's true. So yeah.

As lazy bed has pointed out on many shows, uh, the meaningful steps they have taken is steps they've already taken, but just decided we're not going to, we're not going to actually enforce these steps that we've already taken. Idiots. Okay, buy ourselves, two or more current UFC champions announced their retirement by the end of 2026. Two or more, oh, gosh, this is so bad, but I actually need to remind myself who the champions are.

Current. Also, I mean, I wonder if this will apply. Okay, no, we'll get to our future, because I'm trying to think like future champions thing. You ready, A.K.? All right, I'll run a bomb. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Josh Van, Josh Van, Peter Jan. Nah. Volcanovsky. Okay, possible.

So let's put, let's put a one finger up here. Tuporia. Nah. I'm thinking about him a little bit. Uh, Bacachev. Possible. Not strongly. Okay, let's say.

Keep going. Hobbsat Shamaif. Nah. Alex Pereira. Not yet. Tom Aspidall. Oh, gosh. I hope not.

Valentina Shafchenko. Right. Mackenzie Dern. Yep. Kayla Harrison. uh so so so i can't i can't i can't picture oh two or more so just two or more not more than two two or more i still will sell i still will sell so current champions right now and not actually go through with it correct this i'm buying this i'm buy it i'm buying it i'll

be bold here and hopefully we'll remember this by the time uh next year rolls around i'll be bold here i'm going to say like zero actually zero i don't think any of our current james will retire okay yeah i think kail's going to retire this year damn just like that even if she beats amanda like what out like literally what else there to do she goes out there just scorches Amanda. What happens? She fights, maybe she fights Valentina.

And she wins that. Norma Dumont, Norma Dumont. Come on. Jacqueline Calvacante. Be a mosquito. Ronda Ronda Rousie. Ronda Rousie? Gina Carano.

Chris I work. Yeah. She ain't retiring. I don't feel great about it, but I actually feel a little bit better. Because I think Kayla, I think Kayla will retire. Like if she loses to Nuna,

she fights her again. And then like, that's it there's like nothing left for her and if she wins she fights valentina and then she's done all right last one that we're going to the chair predictions by herself one of these former champions gets a title shot in 2026 brandon moreno davison figurato charles olivera we're talking undisputed not bmph israelada sanya yon bojovitch rose domi unis juliana pania one one just one just one i mean they pick the right names i tell you they they picked the right mix of names one of these former champions gets a title shot boy that rose

one is really compelling right i think we kind of discussed earlier on the show is he beat natty ice that's the question exactly and i certainly don't think so i'm gonna i'm just gonna go ahead and sell this okay i don't think either of these fighters gets man that's so many names though i almost be like the value like i feel like it's such a high value by you know i mean because that's a lot of names like that's a lot of names like that's a lot of names who have fought for you know former champions people have fought with that's a lot do you want to know the only name that's throwing me off is paid yeah because you oh yeah and if new does if like new does beats kela like they there is a story there is there

what's the story who else is there she'll at least try like pay you'll at least try to sell the fight uh i'm buying anyway i'm buying anyway you know it may so maybe i'm i'm buying anyway just because again that's a lot of names honestly i'm just i'm just buying just for the like you know i feel like it's like almost like the feel picking the field there's just so many high profile names there so sure i just feel like there's marino no chance figgy no chance olivera no matter the result this is going to be one of the funniest ones to look back on yeah it can't be olivera this will be one of the funny yeah this will be one of the funniest to look back on no matter what happens, whether, whether it's, it turned out to be a good buy or not.

Adasanya, no. Blahovic, no. God, Rose is interesting. But she's not going to be an adie ice. And Pena, no. Okay. I'll sell. I'll sell.

Not going to happen. All right. That was, uh, the buy sales. Let me just go through real quick and just, uh, just check if we got, uh, if we got any shout out there's one here this one here yeah UFC uses the stars for cardio kickboxing B or what is this B or B or buy or so like they sell so like they sell oh like a DVD ships like a DVD of Blubert to this do they do this or YouTube series or something maybe International Fight Week you can do it a cardio kickboxing class with Natty

ice that's so random uh yeah I'm gonna buy that I think that's so that's such interesting question Sure, we'll buy that too. That's just a fun one. I think one of those, like, DVDs, like, work out with Poetan. You know what I mean? It's like a 45-minute video. Anyway, shout up to Dave Sandine, by the way, the goat, man, gifting 10 MA-fighting membership.

This is not the first time Dave has done this. So shout to the goat. Yeah, he's the man. Yeah, so good. Shout to Dave. All right. A.K., it is now time for the thing we do best. Yes.

I'm looking forward to this, this time, Mike. Predict UFC champions by the end of the year. This is always a fun activity to look back on at the end of the year. because we usually do a pretty terrible job at this so uh okay so we'll do in the same order we always do we'll do the women's champions that we'll go all the way up to the heavyweight division aka we will begin with the women's strawweight division the champion is currently mackenzie durn shout out to jed and shaheen who always believed since day one uh will it be mackenzie dird will it be somebody else okay uh this is such a weird one let me by the way to say

i'm very excited this year to do this because this year i went almost more with people i just wanted like i just went like you know what i i've tried to do the sensible thing now i'm just like being optimistic you won't see that now but um soon enough i'm so here i'm doing the sensible thing i think jang as long as she wants to stay at 115 uh will be the champion for some time i'm sorry to mackenzie durn i feel like jang can come back and take that belt any time she wants maybe jang's on our retirement list i don't know maybe she just like runs through durn maybe she scores another tile defense during the year and just says, that's it. I'm good. I'm hanging it up. I've had a great career. I've made a good amount of money, and now I'm just going to go coach and train or live my life

and be happy. So there is that element. There is a chance that the belt is once again vacated and we end 2026 with someone else again. May McKenzie Durn again, two-time champion. I don't know. But I'm hoping we get one more good year to Zhang. I'm such a fan. One more good year at 115. And then she calls in a day. So we'll see. But I'll go with her for this year. at least. John Wei Women's striweight champion. John Wiley.

Let's go to the women's flyweight division, A.K., currently run by Valentina Shepchenko. Valentina Shepchenko defeated John Wai Li to retain that belt. Will it be her again, AK? So obviously I want to say Nadi Ice.

But, but, but, same thing I said last year, Mike. Same as the last year. I feel like I don't want to just repeat my, I don't want to keep doing this. Oh, I was just early and I was going to do it again. No, I'm going, wild card here. I'm going the wild card contender of women's 125. I'm a fan man. Alexia

Tainara. Oh! I don't know how she's there. Yes. I told you. I'm not having fun this time. No more like, oh, but if this person beats this person and what does this person? I don't know. I don't know how Tynara gets to a title shot just yet, but she's exciting. She's like one of the more exciting 125ers. So just based on that, if she can get a finish or two and stays active and stay healthy. So with some luck, yeah, man, I think she could be fighting for the title like in November. or December. So this this is going to be, this is probably like the, the weirdest route I'm taking through all

of this. The women's flyway champion is going to be men on fewer. Go on. Men on. Going with men on. And the reason is, because of who I'm picking as my women's span and weight champion at the end of the year valentina shifchenko because she's going up she's got up she's going to beat natty ice valentina's got beat natty ice okay that's she's getting the right

thing's going to happen natty ice can be rose valentina's got to fight natty ice valentia's going up she's going up and she's going to beat whoever it is whether it's Amanda Nunes, whether it's Kayla Harrison. Julianna Pena. Whether it's, oh God, if it's Julia Pena, this is the greatest prediction I've ever made. Valentina Shufchenko, women's

bantamway champion, thus declaring even Damon Martin himself will have to declare Valentina Shufchenko the fighter of the year in 2026. All right. Love it. All right. So women's flyway champion will be

men on Fior who will fight somebody else for the vacant women's flyway title. And Menon will win that fight. So I'm going Menon Fior, Valentina Shipchenko, as women's band and way champion. Okay. I went safe there just with Kayla at 135. I just went with Kayla.

I think she beats Nunez. I think she either, and then beats whoever, God knows who, at 135 next. And then just sits in the belt for the, until, until 2027. Hey, listen, I see some people questioning me, but there is only one, there was one person, literally one person on planet earth who picked pewter yon to be ban on weight champion at the end of 2025 and that's me you can do it every one you can do whatever you want now mike you're untouchable you you are untouchable i'm doing it uh all right let's go to the men's divisions the flyweight division aka currently the champion is joshua van who will be flyweight champion at the end of

2026. Muhammad Makayev. Oh, your face didn't even move. I was trying to, that was, he knows, Mike knows a troll when he sees it. He knows a troll when he sees it. Okay, fine. I'll go, but I do have a fun answer, though. If, if you really picked Makayev, I would have been so proud of you.

You saw right through that. You saw right through that. You knew I was messing with you. Kyoji. I'm going Kioji. I think Kyo is still so damn good. I know he's one of the older guys in the Flyway Division, but damn, I, I would pick him to beat Cop again.

They fought, right? And then Qioji beat him, right? So I'd pick him to do that. Really, again, on any given night, I would pick Kioji to beat anybody. So I'm just wondering what his path is. He is already booked, right? He's fighting, no, I keep getting Albaozi and Albaio confused. He's fighting.

Albao. Kioch is fighting Albaozi. He's fighting. Oh, okay. Brandon Moreno is fighting Albao. Yep. I knew I was going to mess that up. Okay.

So good fight. totally keeps him in contention. And again, I don't know if it's that he ends up fighting Van or we can't finally get that Fantosia fight, which I really want. But I think it could happen. And boy, that would really have us reframing, like, who is the second greatest flywood of all time. Like, I think if he beat, obviously if he beat Pantosia, he'd be a conversation.

But even if he managed to gain the UFC title, no matter who he'd be, whether it was Van or cop or someone else, I still think we'd be like, man, this guy's been doing, like, serious work over in Japan all this time. Some of it at 135, admittedly, you know, not all at 125. but he's just so good and I'm still high off his return right so I'll go I'll take a long shot here with Horaguchi I'm going middle cop it's time I feel like this is it like he it has to be now if it doesn't happen this year it's never happening because these this division is just going to continue to get better and better and I was really close to

with going with Tatsuro Taira because I was just so impressed with what he did in the Moreno fight and I see some people comment. commenting about, you know, how big he's getting, how developed, he's getting physically and mentally. And I think he's like a year away. I think he's a year away from getting that shot. I think his division is going to move a little slow. I don't think it's a move as quickly as people think, even though Vann's a champion. So, and I think cop, I'm just, it's just time to push the chips in the middle.

So I'm going, I'm going middle cop. And because this is this is probably the last chance I'm going to get to make that pick. So I'll go with Medall Cop and abandon away, AK, how can I go against my guy? How can I go against my guy?

It's Peonor Yan once again because I think he beats Moraab again and I would pick him to beat Sean O'Malley, obviously. So it is Peodor Yan. I think he fights twice and I think he wins both fights regardless of who it's against. And here's the thing,

A.K., even if it's Umar, I would pick Peodor Yan to beat him too. I knew you would say that. I won't. I wouldn't, Mike, because Umar is once again my pick. This is a repeat pick. I believe I did the same thing last year. I still think this is the man to lead the next generation of Bantamain into a golden era.

Not an easy fight at all. Listen, we saw what we just saw Maraub put on a flawless performance against Maraub. And if you fought the same way against Umar, it would be a hell of a long night for Umar. But I really believe. I really believe we have not seen the best of Umar and Armagamatov. And I think when we do, uh, he will be the champion. This to me might be the most interesting division of all, okay, the featherweight division. Currently, the champion is Alexander Volcanovsky.

I bet we pick the same person. You want to do one, two, three? Of course, of course. One, two, three, Volcanoz. Like, Laura Murphy. Yes, Lorone Murphy. Lorone Murphy. I went there.

You think they're going to give Lorone Murphy a championship fight? eventually he just had like the knockout of the year and they couldn't give him a title fight i'm going with i'm going with volk okay because here's here's why i think he's gonna beat dago citch i was going to say dago citch i think he's to beat diego lopez again and in our and here's it in our eyes a k after he does this in front of a home crowd we're going to be like okay it has to be lorone murphy or it has to be boves are a lawyer right the ufc is going to put those two dudes together one of those guys is going to win one of those guys is going to lose it'll be given to us presented to us as a number one contender

fight and then one of the guys will win and then knock at the shot volk will end up fighting like yair rodriguez again or someone ridiculous like that and volk is going to go two and oh and the year is featherweight champion it's it's reasonable like i I don't think it's crazy, but I don't know. I just, I think someone's going to knock him off. I think someone's going to knock him off to the Lauren, Lorone gets the title shot. At some point, they will, they don't have to, but I think they will give him his shot. But it sucks because he's probably going to get another tough matchup next.

He's probably going to have the Mosar test. I mean, he might be the one where they're just like, yep, Mossar, it's you or Lorone. But I think Lauren can beat him. And I love Mossar. I think Mossar's great. I actually think Lauren can beat him. So let's go with that. Let's go to the lightweight division, AK.

Carly, the lightweight champion is Ilya Taboria. A lot of people believe Iliate Tuporia is the best fighter on planet Earth. There are some people who have told me and said to me confidently, Iliate Tupori is the greatest fighter they've ever seen in the history of the sport. But a lot going on here with Iliate Tuporia. And so, A.K., I think everybody knows where I'm going here. I'm going to continue going in this route until the UFC does the right. thing, the actual, in my humble opinion, best lightweight on planet Earth, the man who I was

picking to beat Islam Makachev in January, the man who I predicted to be champion at the end of last year, the man who two years ago I predicted to be champion, and I'll probably do this every year, Armand Sarukian will be the lightweight champion. Yes, agree, agree. I didn't even want to do the countdown there, because I think it's pretty obvious that if Armand gets his shot, he will become champion. Would he have beaten Makachev this past January? I don't know. I don't know.

He certainly had a chance, Mike. I know you were picking him. But the guy is so good. He is so good. He is at worst, I think the second best lightweight in the world. Like even if you want to put Islam over him, I still think he's the second best lightweight in the world.

Yes, I'm putting him over Ilya. Yes, I'm putting him over whoever else you want to throw in there. So, Mike, we agree. Welterweight, AK. Do we agree again? I hope so. But this is a rocky path for this guy. again especially if the oozman thing unfolds like one two three michael morales we did it i think we

did it friends forever first one of the year never the first time ever that we've actually pulled that up michael morales i it's a belief thing i believe it i believe it in my heart uh i want to see this guy and there's so many unknowns here there's so many unknowns like if islam like if if if is if they do islam versus Usman, he's done. He ain't fighting again after that. Like, she's just not. He's done. So, and then Michael Morales

versus Kamara Usman, come on. Michael Morales is like a minus 12,000 in that fight in my opinion. So, yeah, let's go, man. Let's go Michael Morales and we'll see what happens. Middleweight, okay. The middleweight division currently run by Hamzaa Chameyaf, the band that we

always pick in some way, shape, or form, whether it's at welterweight, whether it's at middleweight. Some people I've seen predict him as champion at late heavyweight at the end of 2026. Who will be middleweight champion at the end of the year, A.K. Hey, this time he delivered. I think a lot of us picked him in 2025. He's end of the year as champion. And I'm doing it again, man. I'm doing it again. Again, I don't know. So what I'm saying is I don't think he makes that jump up to 205 yet. I know he keeps talking about it. I think at least, at 185 defend your title one time um just just fight just stay busy comes out your legacy could be so good just stop horsing around stay healthy please if you could fight twice in like at middle

weight in uh 2026 it would just do so much for his profile i think and i know he's already very very popular but we just want to see you in there we want to see you in there competing so i'm I'm sticking with Hansa. Hamzaa Chamaif will begin the year fighting Nassardini Mavov, and he will win. And at the end of the year, the UFC middleweight champion will be Hamzaa Chimayev's kryptonite. Anthony Fluffy Hernandez, AK, Fluffy Hernandez. Let's go. Of course.

Fluffy has got a wrench on Strickland. This is going to be a super hard fight for Sean. And I just think it's Fluffy's time, man. I think it's his time. So, light heavyweight, AK, currently the light heavyweight champion of the world is Alex Poetan Pereira. He is the guy, but again, so much uncertainty right now. Does he stay at 205? Does he fight Carlos Oldberg?

Does he fight Yuri Parashka again? Does he go up to heavyweight and fight John Jones? Does he go up to heavyweight and fight Tom Aspidol? We don't know what this man is going to do, AK. Who is going to be? The light heavyweight champion of the ultimate fighting championship at the end of 2026. I think put out of defense at least once in this division one more time. And win or lose, he's going up.

So I do have prayer not finishing the year in the division and not finish the year as light every way champion. So I got to go with, I want to say dark horse, but he shouldn't even really be a dark horse. He's impressed every time he stepped into the cage in the UFC and just feels like he's ready. He's not a young guy either. So like he's in his prime now. I just feel like he's ready to fight for the title soon. I would pick him, I think it's a good chance to meet anyone at 205.

I'm going with Azamat Mirzikanov. I was not ready for that. No, no, I wanted. I told you, I had more fun this year than previous years because I'm just going with things that I think would be cool, some names that are kind of out of left field. This is very different. If people look at my picks last year, it's almost very chalky, like, a lot of people just like who are already champions are just going to retain.

So I went a little different this time. I went outside the box because conventional hasn't been working for me, Mike. I'm not being conventional either, AK, Yuri Prohachka will be the light heavyweight champion. All will be

I mean, the world's kind of right right now at 205, but like the world will be so right. I mean, it's just so right with Yuri Pohashka, Yuri Pahashk during his way to a title. Let's go for that, lazy bed. Let's go for that. Yuri Pyrhachka.

Heavyweight. heavyweight you got prayer i'm moving up too right tom aspedal is a champion right now we assume they're going to run this back with cyril gone but we don't know when we don't know how bad tom aspedal's injury is we the eye we don't know we don't know if this man will ever fight again at this point okay who's going to be the heavyweight champion of the world yeah my initial answer was just like not tom aspital and i say this

as someone who thought, you know, Tom and Aspinall, well, I shouldn't say, I shouldn't say that he, I would have picked him to beat John Jones. I would not have. I would have picked John Jones. Not that fight's ever going to happen now. But outside of the John Jones fight, I did feel like Aspinall has the skills to, you know, going on a long run. But it is also heavyweight.

Like heavyweight still, it just has no stability. And I just feel like we have interesting names there. Some people who really burst in the scene, of course, of Waldo Cortez-A Costa, who's, you know, close to the title picture now. So I don't know. Like, I just feel like somehow, Tom's going to lose the belt either I don't know he beats gone to lose someone else maybe he

actually loses a gun you know a lot of people are saying oh that first round was telling the whole story of the fight like I don't agree but it's not as if we can't beat him like I don't think anyone would say that's unreasonable so I just think it's really hard if Tom fights like you know let's say he defends once and that has defend again I just think the odds are not in his favor to retain so I'm going with Alex Pereira again I don't know if he beats espinal I don't know if he beats someone who beats Aspinall. I don't know if Aspinall is out of the equation for some reason. You know, I hope there's nothing wrong with his eye, but maybe he does sit out a large chunk of 2026 and just vacates, right? If he vacates almost for sure, Alex Panetta is part of that

equation. And so I'm really confident that Poetan can end the year as the guy who won UFC championships in three divisions, which sounds insane. I want to pick Derek Lewis so bad. I know you do. Again, that's why no honestly just to keep up the gimmick that's why i went like honestly that's part of the field i'm talking about though like i just think there's so many ways for tom to lose the title unfortunately and that could be one of them i don't know what's it going to be my best friend i haven't even picked this one yet i can tell i can tell you're you're flying blind here i don't know what to do all. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. Okay. I'm going shock. Redemption year.

Not even, it's a, it's barely even shock at this point. They're not going to strip them of the belt. I mean, well, uh, Scott McCrane in the comments thought you were going to say Gable. No, no. Not yet, not yet. It's just not yet. 20. I, you best believe. You best believe 2027, it'll be Gable. Derek Lewis will get a title shot in 2026. I've been putting this out into the universe more than anybody. Derek Lewis is going to fight for a title in 2026. He should have been...

Just think if the UFC and the rest of the M.A. Community, just listen to me. Just listen to me after Derek Lewis beat Talas and DeShera. Just think of how much better of a position we would be in as an MMA community looking at this heavyweight division. If we got Tom Aspinall versus Derek Lewis in October, we'd be in so much... Like, we'd be in so much of a better position right now than Cyril gone getting a title fight.

I've never seen Derek Lewis poke anyone in the eye, mostly because his hands are bald up with a fist at all times. I've never seen him try and, you know, poke somebody. But here, and a lot of people are surprised they didn't say Waldo. Waldo could do it. But then that just ruins Waldo. Waldo is that, like, we want to see Waldo fight all the time. I don't want to see Waldo. If Waldo's champion, he fights twice a year, nobody wants that.

nobody wants to see that he's the people's champion he is he's the people's champion and sometimes it's more important than being the actual champion just asked derrick lewis he's the people's champion making a bag kevin hauling for a long time was the people's champion probably one of the highest paid guys in the sport right now never won a belt that's okay that's okay but i think it will be tom i think he fights once this year maybe it's against gone maybe it's against derrick lewis who the hell knows maybe they do an interim belt wouldn't surprise me if they did But I think Tom gets one fight in for the end of the year and probably wins it. And then he's going to lose to Gable in 2027.

It doesn't really matter. So, uh, okay, okay, we end things with a, the wee Caliente bold prediction of the year. Last year, your bold prediction, AK, for those who forgot was that Francis igata would leave the PFL. He would re-sign with the UFC. and that by the end of 2025, the UFC will have already announced that John Jones versus Francis Nagano will be happening. My bold prediction was Sean O'Malley would lose two fights in 2025

and then retire from the sport of mixed martial arts. We were both obviously wrong. None of our bold predictions have been correct. By the way, if you guys want to leave your bold We Caliente predictions for yourselves to let us see them, and so they live forever on the internet at mayfiting.com go to the feed there is a post in there that asks what is your bold prediction for 2026 and I'm very curious here where you all have to say about that but AK what is your bold wee calliante prediction for 2026 whatever bold and we

caliente can mean in this current state of mma I don't even know how bold this is because combat sports is so silly now I mean there's so many things that have in 2025 25 that I never would imagine Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua if you had said Jake Paul is going to box a you know at least close to their prime heavyweight star I would have said no he's not going to do that that's insane and we just got that we literally just saw it so um my rule with these things is if your prediction is correct then it wasn't bold enough so I have no regrets about what we did last year Mike I don't want it to be correct and I'm kind of really hoping this one isn't correct um though I shouldn't say that because it would be kind of fun in a dumb way Mike I'm going

to wager that a current UFC champion or contender or top contender, let's say someone in the top three of their division. I guess it depends on the division. But anyway, we'll be granted a ZUFA boxing title shot before the end of 2026. Wow. Yes, they will move over and immediately just no, no warm up fight. They're going to take a star from the UFC, put it up against one of their, I guess, stars are growing.

I still don't even know how the Zufo boxing roster thing is going to work. but one of those guys will face a UFC star before the end of 2016. I'm not saying it will be announced. I'm saying the fight will happen in 2026. So again, like, I don't, like, that's not even like, that is pretty bold. That might be as bold as you can get this year. I don't think I'm that bold.

But I'm going to say, like, this is something that, like, I think people can kind of see a little while from now. But I'm going to say that before 2026 is over, AK. In fact, before the snow starts to fall in Canada in 2026, the UFC will announce maybe not full-time, maybe a few times a year, but way more consistently is at least giving us the path that I believe we're going to be on by like 2028, the UFC is going back to a pay-per-view model. they're going back to pay-per-view

and it is going to be buyer's remorse more than anything from Paramount and those who own it they will want to recoup some of the money that they dished out look happy for the sport happy for the UFC they won $7.7 billion is a lot of money and most television experts right now are like this is the most insane thing that I've ever seen in sports.

7.7 billion over seven years for a sport that obviously has a little bit more of like a casual cachet appeal due to like some of the non-fighting aspects that the UFC promotes and but the popularity of the sport overall outside of like gates and just think of like words.

and just think of like where most of the money they make comes from. It's not from fans. It's not from, you know, streaming and all of that. It's, it is from streaming, but it's from like states and commissions and tourist boards paying them an absurd amount of money to come host events at their show. It's the gates. It's them overpricing tickets and pushing out like the big fans. So I think before years.

this is my bold prediction uh i don't know if it's going to be dana i don't know if it'll be paramount announcing it i don't know if it'll be mark shapiro announcing it on uh on one of the stock calls that they say hey look we're going back to pay-per-view and data white did say if you guys do recall that and i know he's he's kind of like changing course a little bit But within, what, 48 hours after the deal was announced, they said, you know what? This isn't the end of pay-per-view. Perhaps something will be so big that we have to put it on pay-per-view. Remember when he said those words?

This is why it's a bold take. I don't think it's going to happen, but we could be living in this world, okay? And I hope for everybody here, I hope for everybody here who have been really excited about this, that it does not come to this. but don't be surprised if it does real talk that's real real talk to close out to well i guess again this is 2026 now real talk to start up to begin to begin to trying to set the expectation you know what i mean man those are some great uh buy cell questions we got i got to say yeah before we wrap up here amazing stuff guys i mean i i we couldn't get to all them again you guys have no idea how many there was just so many so we couldn't get to all them so anyone who

didn't get it read just know we appreciate that you sent it in at all um hopefully some of it overlapped with some of the questions that were asked. And like, you know, you kind of got satisfied that way. But thank you for everyone who sent in. Thank you for everyone who tuned in and listened and listen to this. Yeah, always one of my favorite shows of the year. So far. But the thing about the show guys and gals is this show started well before I came to

M.A fighting, which is like me and a couple of people in the industry would come on and do this. And the questions from like, there's probably like 12 or 15 people who have been listening for like over a decade since I started doing this, that people start submitting questions like literally throughout the year. So like by the end of January, something will have happened that will lead to a question already being submitted. So keep that in mind.

You guys could fire those over at any point at any time. We'll keep tabs and do all of that. So very excited for 2026. It's going to be an interesting year with the UFC being on Paramount and being on Paramount Plus. And, you know, we're still going to do all the stuff. We always do the watch parties. Hopefully we get to do a lot more stuff.

We're going to dip our toes in some different things. Like I said, we'll be on the road covering the RAF event on Saturday. We will be doing a draft for fantasy. I don't know if we're going to do a promotional draft again. Perhaps we will. But the fantasy stuff is just so cool now. I think it's kind of taken over the M.A. fighting drafts in total and see if I can defend my time.

who am i going to keep that seems to be the the big question who is going to be on team heck in the first half of 2026 okay so uh a lot to be excited about what would you like to you have to keep waldo you can you owe him you owe him your championship him and uh and feodor no was it you i'm yon and uh and goatee i kind of feel like gottie might be like that's got it yeah boy i have it dude i have ilia i have kela i have like I like more than half my roster didn't fight like did not fight at all arbin none of mosaar none of them fought literally none of them fought so I don't know what to do I don't know what to do we're gonna be taking some of those guys for your team Mike I'll tell you team hack we're we're approaching that team you should be you should be maybe perhaps the but my roster will fight for you guys uh okay any any thoughts any final words for the peeps before we get on out of here uh man I just hope everyone's optimistic about what's to come in 2026. Like, I know it's hard. It's hard. Even us, you've heard us

doomsay all the time. You've heard us put out glib tweets about like the, you know, where MMA is going, where the UFC is going, what does business decisions mean for the fans, what the, you know, what it all means for the quality of fights and the quality of fighters you see. But I just, you know,

we're all in this together as far as like wanting to have fun, right? We might disagree on certain things, but we want to have fun. That's why we, I like to think that's why we watch MMA, excuse me, why we watch combat sports. So I hope you guys leave this show and head into like 2026 with like a sense of anything is possible, hopefully more good than bad. And guys, if there is bad, we're here for you. We're going to roll with it together.

Let's make this another incredible year together. Completely agree. I've made it a point to myself to one of my goals to be, I'm still going to tell you how I feel most of the time. okay if i think something sucks i'm gonna tell you it sucks but more so i'm gonna i'm gonna try to find the positives and things more and i feel like i've i've done that but i think i could do a little bit of a better job so that is gonna be one of my goals uh for 2026 is to not just dump on every apex card because they're at the apex and i'm hoping they put in more seats and then you won't get any complaints about me because you put a soul in the place and that's all we want we just

want again this all comes back to one thing i just want the best promotion in the world Try. Just try. And if they do that, yeah, there you have it. Let's do it. The next time you'll hear from us, A.K., we'll be live here again. January 25th following UFC 324, which is coming up in a few weeks. It's going to be here before you know it, folks. And as much as we dump on Armin Saruki not being part of the interim championship discussion. discussion as much as people gave the UFC a lot of crap and I think it's just uh Kayla Harrison Amanda Nunes not being the main event of this card UFC 324 friggin rocks Justin Gaichi Paddy Pimbled is the main event for the injure and belt that fight needed to happen it's terrific Kayla Harrison versus Amanda Nudez fight rocks unbelievable Sean O'Malley massive fight for him against Song Yudong Waldo Cortez Acosta versus Derek Lewis

I don't even know I might just have to abstain from betting from that fight I mean my two boys almost hurts my soul that these two guys have to fight each other Arnold Allen versus John Silva Nikita Krilov versus Modestis Bukascus

Umar Nomagam Adov will probably be on the prelims fighting Davis and Figuido Figurato Atiba Goti versus Andre Pulaev Alex Perez versus Charles Johnson Josh Hokit versus Denzel Freeman. Natalia Silva versus Rosamma Yunus.

Michael Johnson, big fight, big fight. Perhaps a title shot on the line there. Michael Johnson versus Alexander Hernandez. Finally. Finally. I know, right? I feel like those guys should have fought years ago. Yeah, finally.

Ricky Terseos versus Cameron Smotherman and Ty Miller versus Adam Fuggett. That is UFC 324, A.K. spectacular yeah amazing stuff i i can't wait for mike of course you'll you'll be doing btls in between now uh yeah i'm in on this show yeah you you are going to have to do also obviously your live reaction when kamar luzman gets a title shot against uh asa machachev so you guys don't don't worry you'll be seeing plenty of us uh in some form another even before uh even before i mean yes we will have we will have btles don't you worry uh we will have reactions to i assume we're going to get some fight announcements before ufc 324 happens yeah

uh perhaps we'll figure out what april is um i don't know we shall see but you guys are the best we appreciate you oh so much especially the especially the twitchers out there shout out to twitch we love you love you especially all you guys uh you guys have been here with us uh through the good times for the bad the ups the downs and uh it's spectacular that uh that we're back getting you ready for a very fun year in 26 so for a k i am mike heck bring it back the golden rule. Let's just have some fun. MMA is supposed to be fun. Let's just have it. We are out of here. Have a great rest of your weekend. And we'll see you here and on to the next one after UFC 324. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.