MMA Fighting - Rankings Show | Conor McGregor Plummets Out Of Top 15 + Predicting 2022's Biggest Movers

Episode Date: January 5, 2022

Co-hosts Shaun Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee ring in the new year by rummaging through the chaos left by an unforgettable run in December, anointing a new women's pound-for-pound No. 1 atop MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings and more. Then, the duo are joined by old friends Mike Heck and Jed Meshew around (24:30) to discuss Conor McGregor finally falling out of the rankings, play a round of "Ever Again?" to examine the futures of some down-on-their luck veterans, predict three names each (55:00) who will either rise into the top-5 or plummet out of title contention by the end of 2022, plus much more. Catch new episodes of the MMA Fighting Rankings Show on the first Wednesday of every month. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow Mike Heck @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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A happy 2022 to everyone out there from the M.M.A. Fighting Family, you guys already know. This is our once-a-month ranking show. My name is Sean O'Shti, and I am joined by my good friend and co-host, the Prince of Positivity, the King in the North. Alexander K. Lee, and a new year is upon us, AK, a new ranking cycle. And boy, this one was a doozy, my man. Upsets all over the place in December, including one of the biggest in the history of sport.

Obviously, that was Giuliana Pena. But really, both the men and the female bantam weights underwent a total reshuffling. You had Sergio Pettus, Jose Aldo, Dominic Cruz, Sean O'Malley even crept in the rankings. We have a new women's pound for pound number one. Connor McGregor finally fell out, so did Frankie Edgar. We're going to get to all of that on today's show. But it was just pure chaos over these last few weeks. A.K., when you look back on December 2021 and all the changes we just saw, what for you

stands out is the biggest story to affect these rankings heading into the New Year? Well, I'll tell you, Shaheen, the story that I'm most satisfied about is one Mr. Charles Olivera becoming the undisprime. Let me, let's look, let's, this isn't, I don't think this is the number one story, but let me just touch upon this quickly. Take your victory lap. Take your victory lap. Everyone had to shift around their lightweight rankings a little bit this month, except for this guy,

because I had Charles Olivera and number one the whole time. So I barely had to change. And I don't know if I did change anything. I'll have to go look at my rankings again. But yeah, I don't think I had to change much. And I certainly did have changed number one. So that was the victory last. So for me, I should say, this really doesn't answer your question because you're asking,

what was the biggest move? For me, that was nothing. The Charles Oliver win did nothing. That was status quo for my rankings. I know. I mean, clearly, look, we've had some, we've had some, you mentioned, you know, we've had some slow months during these ranking shows. December was definitely not one of them.

there's a lot of stuff that happened. Most importantly, holy crap, Julianna Pena, clearly becoming the number one ranked bantan weight. And also really, you know, shaking up our pound for pound rankings. We're all over the place in that one.

I don't know where you settled on what's to do with Julianna Pena as far as pound for pound goes. Sure. I mean, the question of Giuliana Pena and just in general, women's pound for pound was an interesting one this month

because obviously, first of all, we had a new number one. Yes. And it is a number one we've debated on this show. I think a month or two ago, we had Mike on who was forced to defend his take of why he put Valentina Shepchenko number one and all of a sudden he too now looks like a genius because Valentina Shepchchenko was unanimous across the board the new women's pound for pound number one and it's a very weird and murky top five there because obviously she's lost

twice to Amanda Nunes but then Amanda just lost to Juliana I think I settled on Juliana being number three with Shevchenko, Rose, Pena Noon's, Cyborg. That was sort of my five. How did you approach? approach that. I don't have it in my top five and nor does, uh, nor does, uh, nor does, uh, the esteemed E. Casey Leiden. So, so we took a different, so, you know, this, this kind of speaks one to the, uh, what does pound for pound mean a question, which we always say we're going to address, you know, head on at some point in the show, and we will, but we always, you know, we can touch upon little aspects of it, uh, on every episode when it comes up. So one of the things is, I think a lot of people view power for pound as body of work. So it's like you,

you don't necessarily lose your spot unless you have a similar body of work to, the person you beat, then you clearly jump over them. In this case, I don't think anyone would look at Pena's resume and Amanda Nunes's resume and say, oh, yeah, well, clearly, you know, Julianna Pena is a better fighter. It's like, she beat her on that night, but boy, I mean, comparatively over the last few years, Peña, yeah, she's only had a couple of losses, but also there's that inactivity. So for me, I still have Nunes over her. I kept Nunes at two.

Probably the wins over Shcherchenko matter to me, even though they did happen at Bantamweight. So, again, if we're talking pound for pound, you could theorize if a 100,000, 25 pound version of Nunes wouldn't be Shepchenko, whatever. We all agreed with the loss she does have to drop down and Shifchenko has been untouchable. So she's number one. So Pena, again, and that's it, but I only have read six. That's a huge jump for me. I think I had her, I believe she was not ranked.

Yeah, I think she was unranked on pretty much everyone's ballot for the pound for pound. It looks like Gwe and Mike had her on there, but not very high. So we barely bumped her up. Mike bumped her up all the way up to number two. And again, just to five Lisa. I'm not faulting anyone else's call on this one. If you think that beating her, she just takes her spot, then you have to put her in the top two because, I mean, Nunes was either one or two, depending who you were.

So Pena deserves it. But for me, the body of work isn't strong enough. So I bumped her way, way, way up to number six out of nowhere, but didn't penalize Nunes that much, kept her at number two. The resolution at women's pound for pound, and in particular, the way this all played out with Valentina now being this unanimous number one, that's probably the biggest story of the month, just overall. And in particular, when you look back on it like a year or two from now, I'm sure we'll all remember December as the month that, It happened. The craziness, the insanity, the impossibility happened there. But for me, I kind of shy towards what you mentioned at the beginning of the show, the clarity that we finally received at lightweight when it comes to the stories that I'll remember. Because, I mean, I'll admit, AK, you were on this one early.

Like, you were on Charles from the beginning of these rankings, and he proved all of us wrong. I mean, Dustin Poirier was almost a unanimous number one lightweight for MMA fighting. You were the one holdout heading into that fight. And it wasn't even that controversial of a ranking, right? Like, I think a lot of people felt the same as us. I think a lot of people in the space looked at Dustin Poirier as this uncrowned champion, as the number one lightweight in the world. And now there's just not a debate. Zero losses.

Well, we'll get to that. We'll get to this later. This is a little teaser for later, guys. I said everyone had to shuffle their rankings. And they did, they did not all shuffle them, believe it or not, and end up with Charles Oliver, number one. One of our, again, this will come up later, guys. one of our rankers has a new number one that is not to some Porre or Charles El Levera. You guys can just stay tuned to hear who that is.

Well, aside from the lunacy of that one man, it's Charles, it has to be Charles O'Don. Zero losses now since 2017 with that one fight with Paul Felder. But since then, 10 straight wins. He's proven old narratives wrong, left and right. Like you have these back-to-back come from behind finishes of Chandler and Porier. And to me, it's really important the way these fights played out too, because obviously, I mean, we've talked about it at length on other shows, but just dispelling.

all of these myths and these old narratives and the way people used to think and talk about Charles Olivera, it couldn't have happened in a more perfect way for him with these last two wins. A war chest of UFC records now for this man. You were right, AK. You were right, and we were all wrong.

You know, a broken clock twice a day, I will take it. This is one, and again, this is one like, can I even boast about this? This is me championing, like a guy who, like you said, hasn't lost in like 10 fights owns the US. Yeah, I was really cheering on an underdog here.

You know what I mean? But no, I will take for sure. I'll take some credit because, yeah, look, he had to beat some tough people. And he had to shake, like what you said, one of the toughest things to shake in any sport, whether we're talking about MMA or, you know, traditional team sports, being a quitter, not being able to get over the hump, not being able to win the big one. There are many, many great athletes throughout history who never, who still had great careers, but never answered that question.

So it was very much in doubt for Charles Olavera for a long time. And 2021 could not have gone better. In particular, in MMA, it is so hard once people have dug in on whatever they believe about you, it is so hard to shake that. Now it's Dussain-Pourier. Now it's Dostin-Porye, right now. People say, oh, it's Porriere. He can't win the big one.

He'll never become undisputed champion. And like, that's crazy. Which is so silly. He could still someday. It's timing. All of this is timing. All of this is matchups. It's not, you know, we've seen Dustin Poyer, quote, win the big one.

He just won twice. against Connor McGregor. Like, it's all of it's very silly, but it's just a crazy way that all of this played out in 2021. Moving on now from the champions, though, so the contenders, because there were two other big risers of December.

Bilal Muhammad and Andre Muniz, just two monster wins for each. I think Balal stunned us all by dominating Wonderboy worse than anyone has before in the UFC. And then Andre Muniz out here just looking like the real deal, man. Like our submission of the year winner in 2021,

I know we're going to talk about him a little bit later in the show, so I want to hit Bilal really quickly. He vaults up from number 13 at Welterweight to number six. First off, are you surprised? And then second, do you just see this? Like, is this his peak, if we're being honest? Is this the ceiling for Bilal in this division, or do you feel like there's more room for him to go?

I've been a big time, Balal doubter. I think I'm not doing that anymore. I could not have called the Wonderboy fight more inaccurately. My prediction is it's on MAPFline.com. If anyone wants to go back and laugh and laughing. No, because I said, I said, oh, I don't think his wrestling is good enough. You know, Stephen Thompson usually excels against wrestlers. That was the prediction, the wrestling?

That was definitely a part of it. Oh, man, that's right. And I doubled down on that one of our shows before the event, someone asking, someone just asking, do you think Muhammad can just like kind of lay in, I think their phrase was lay and prey? And I'm like, no, like, who's been able to do that to Wonderboy? Like, he's faced some very strong wrestlers. And he has never lost like that.

I was like Gilbert. Well, I mean, he just had against Gilbert Burns, which is why the question was ass, but I thought, Muhammad is not on the level of Gilbert Burns. That is what I thought. Look, I don't know, maybe he's not as good at Jiu-Jitsu as him, but wrestling-wise, did great, perfectly executing against Wonderboy,

a guy who is still, I think, at a tough out. I don't care how old he is. I don't care how much Mahalji has. Very, very difficult style matchup. And like, someone, again, who I think Wonder Boy was pretty favored. So, Muhammad, yeah, I bunt him all the way up to six on my charts. Where did he land in our, and he landed at six? He landed at six?

Yeah, that's nice. Pretty much everyone on the one. website had him either five to eight range, but almost every, I think the majority of us had him at six. And right now, all of a sudden, Welterweight is kind of starting to make a lot of sense, right? Like, this was a division that was log jammed for a long time, but the way that this division has now played out and Camaro, the quickness with which he's churned through these contenders in 2021, it feels like we have a very definitive top five or six. I don't know if you want to throw a ball in that top tier, but if you do, I mean, it's him, who's, who's, who's, who's, he's,

Usman, Covington, Edwards, Burns, Lucke. And there we go, right? Like, that feels figured out in a way that is really nice and tidy in the welterweight division has not been nice and tidy in a really long time. Yeah, and I hope the UFC and Kumar Usman view these guys. Maybe all of them are one fight away, but I do hope they view these guys as like good, solid title challenges. I know Leon Edwards would be a big underdog.

Bal would be a huge underdog. He's beaten Lukai already, right? Kumar Usman, they fought a while ago, right? I've been saying this for years. Edwards has the best chance against Usman. And he might actually win that fight. I don't know if he'll be the big underdog, but he could easily win that.

Not easily, but he could very conceivably win that fight. Edwards and Lucay would both be rematches, right? I know Edwards for sure. Lucay would also be rematch, I think? I'm not crazy. With Usma? With Usma?

No, no. They've never fought? I believe they used to be teammates. Oh, they used to be team. I'm sorry, they were on the ultimate fighter, the same season. That's right. I should remember that.

I'm one of the old people who watched that season. Which was a very good season, by the way. But yeah, I hope Uzman does see these. guys as fresh challenges and interesting challenge. I know he's in he's in this mode now where everyone's asking, will he just fight in another division? Has he cleared it out? Will he go do boxing, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff? And it's great. You know, it's great he has options. We want great UFC fighters to have options. But I also see lots of good title defenses for him. Maybe they don't move. Maybe Belal Muhammad doesn't move the needle. Maybe Leon Edwards' rematch

doesn't move the needle. But this is how you build a legacy. I mean, this is really, you know, you can't be lucky and have all your guys be, you know, super B-Sides, super compelling B-Sy So if I'm, if I'm Usman and these other things don't come up, you know, these other opportunities, I don't think he should be that unhappy. I think there's a lot of good title fights ahead of him. Also, don't every title fight needs to move in the needle, you know? Like, not every GSP fight moved the needle. Not every DJ fight or Anderson Sova fight move the needle.

Like this is ultimately where legends are built is just through this, through the grind of these contenders and title fights, regardless of whether it's one that is going to sell a million paper views or sell 200,000, you know? I will say, Balal is a really interesting. sort of question to look at now in this division because you would think he'd be looking upward and instead he is looking downward and he's looking straight at Hamzai of Shemaya.

And I like it. I actually really like the idea of the callout. I like the idea of the matchup for Balal. Like he's not going to get one of these fights probably with, you know, a Colby Covington or something like that. So why not look downward and why not look at pretty much the biggest name available in this division? If they book that fight tomorrow, who you favor in?

I mean, I would favor Hamza, but this is kind of like what we said for Usman. No respect. Still no respect. But this is kind of what we said for Usman, though. If you want to get Shemayev, the time is now. Because he's probably not as good as he'll be a year from now, 18 months from now, two years from now. He's obviously amazing. Again, depending who you ask, might be, I mean, the number one contender right now, might be championship material right now.

I, of course, a question. I'm very skeptical when it comes to these things. The talent is there. The results have been incredible so far. I just need to see him do this against right. that next tier of competition. So yeah, it's a great callout. This is the time to get him.

If you want to beat him, the time is now. And if you're Muhammad and you beat him, you probably jump over Cumberington Burns. That might be a title shot. And you get a title shot, right? Because Hamz out would probably get a shot if he beat Muhammad. So that's, it's a great callout. It's very smart. You still just can't respect below Muhammad.

Even after all this. Wait, what did I say? Oh, then I would, well, I mean, I'm not like, you know, like, minus 200. That's still very disrespectful, actually. That's pretty, yeah, two to one. That's pretty strong. I would agree with you, though.

I mean, I would favor Hamzat Shem I have two. But yeah, what can you do? Last thing here, before we bring on the big guns, Mike Heck and Jen Michoud and open the floor a bit to some roundtable discussions. So we've spoken about the champs. We've spoken about the up-and-coming contenders. Now, quickly, I want to point our eyes at the next level, the prospects, the new blood. Because, AK, there is something interesting happening at women's four. flyway. And we saw it this past month. Aaron Blanchfield and Casey O'Neill both debuting tied for

number 14 into our rankings. Both were finalists for MMA fighting for rookie of the year. And actually Casey won that award. Is there something going on here at Women's 125? Is there something worth keeping an eye on, do you think? Yeah, I think we need to stop like being surprised sort of that the women's 125 pound division has movement, has compelling prospects. It is just even movable at the top with Valentina Shepchenko, and it will remain that way for the near future. She is in her prime. She is, again, as we said, the number one pound for pound women's fighter in the world. That's not going to change for a while unless she books a trilogy fight with the men in Nunes. But I mean, I think the interest in that has, you know, that comes and goes, comes and goes,

depending on who is far recently, who's won and all that. So I hope people understand that this is not something like, this isn't surprising that talents like Casey O'Neill and Aaron Blanchfield and such are coming up. This has been building for like the last year. And, and maybe a little bit before that. So it's unfortunate to say some of the older, more veteran fighters probably will have to drop down at some point. Oh, wait, you didn't mention that Manalfiero as well. Some of the older fighters will have to drop out. But that is a good thing for the division.

That is a good thing for fans. We will, again, and look, we'll see. Roxanne Mottafari is fighting Casey O'Neill next. And then Jessica I is fighting Manalfioreau next. So the moving has only just begun. The moving and shaking has only just begun. If you are a fan of these prospects, like you said, the two that are now in our rankings, you're not mistaken to be so because there's a lot of talent there.

Some of them are going to hit some bumps. Some are they going to take them steps back. But I would be shocked if a year from now we're not still talking about Blanchefield and O'Neill and Firo as actual like, you know, future contenders, if not already someone right in line for a title shot. Yeah, and you mentioned Mannon. And I think she was like right on the bubble, the cutoff bubble for our top 15 too. So she's right there as well.

And she also was in the Rookie of the Year conversation. The Rookie of the Year conversation was essentially Women's 125. And it's an interesting thing because, I mean, you mentioned the Valentina Shepchenko cloud that sort of hovers over this division. I think that makes it very hard for a lot of people to get invested in the contenders like the, or not the contenders, but the prospects that like we are talking about right now, right? because it feels as if, ah, is anybody going to beat Val? Like, are any of these three going to actually beat Val?

But, man, this is where it starts, right? This is, it's a long road. It's not as if any of these women is going to be fighting Valentina probably in 2022 even, or, you know, maybe we're looking at 2023, the earliest for any of them. I don't know, man. These things take time and you see it, you see the groundswell of a very deep division starting to build here at 125. I think there, very soon this could be the deep.

deepest division for the women in the UFC. Yeah, and it's not just, you know, Valentina's one problem. There's also two, like, very powerful gatekeepers in Jessica Andrage, who may, who may return to 115 at some point. We don't know. But if she doesn't, I mean, she's such a de facto clear number two. And then Caitlin Chigigan, as another very powerful gatekeeper. So these are two fighters who you have to, but I would say powerful, but I would say

effective. Powerful as far as like, effective, yeah. Powerful is, you know, as far as how difficult is to get past them. I mean, you, and look, look, we said sort of with, with the Bala Muhammad, if you get the right matchup and the right, you know, string of wins together, you could theoretically jump over these fighters, you know. It's not like you, but so far they have been sort of the key to getting a matchup. And I don't think either of them will be rematching Schifchenko anytime soon.

So I don't know, there's a lot of time for these names, these three, you know, prospects we've mentioned to simmer, to build their resumes, to get good names, to get good experience. And who knows? Who knows? One of them shakes out and gets just the right timing to fight Valentina Shepchenko, again. Again, I don't think the timing is going to line up that well for any of them. But like you said, this is MMA. This is how these things begin.

And, you know, 18 months from now, we could be looking back at this conversation and saying, man, we undersold some of these prospects. Yeah. It's going to be fun to watch. I'm really excited for that division as we move forward into this new year. Quickly, news and notes to go over before we head into our discussion, the round-tail discussion. Two notable names that we haven't mentioned already, exiting our rankings this month, one from retirement, one from inactivity.

Claudia Godelia, stalwart of the women's strawway division. She calls it quits, cites head, you know, problems with head trauma or worries and concerns with head trauma. I think a very successful career for Claudia, regardless of whether she won the UFC title or not. And the Juicy A. Formiga hitting that 18 month mark for inactivity of those two, A.K., who will you miss most on this list? Oh gosh. Well, I don't like to play favorites. I do want to say it is, it is kind of, well, I also, I'll miss, you know, Cloudicadilla a little more immediately just because I, I'm as of, I mean, as of, you know, a month, two months ago, we were thinking, oh, who's she going to fight, you know, she's still in the contender talk. Is someone going to, you know, is she one of those high level gatekeepers? Someone has to beat her to get, you know, get up to that, you know, top five in straw weight. But she just hadn't fought for so long. So it wasn't that surprising when we heard that she had decided, you know, just to hang it up. And for good reason, she's going back to school. She's studying health. She's studying nutrition. She's

And it makes sense for her, someone who's very concerned about sort of what was happening to her brain, you know, from these very difficult fights she's been in. I think if you watch on her fights against like, Yajic and Nina Nunez, now former Nina Anstrov, excuse me, Angela Hill, she took a lot of punches in these fights. She took like a lot of punches. Jan Shaanan, her last fight. I mean, that's a scary thing. She just turned 33, so thankfully she's still like in her prime and very healthy. So it's good that she's walking your way now. But it's amazing when you talk about her and Formiga.

I don't think people remember, you know, Shaheen, we always talk about how this is such a, what have you done for me lately business? Cadelia was the number one or number two fighter at 115 for a long time. And even probably before Yawanna Yachachia came along, I think some people put Godelia number one. Or, of course, there's some fighters in Japan as well. It has always had a strong, you know, lighter weights division for the women.

She was supposed to be the champion. Like, when I introduced this division, she was being kind of that era parent. She just couldn't compete on tough because she couldn't make, the weight that many times in a row. Right? And she probably would have won. I mean, if we're going on, she probably would have won that season and been the inaugural stradweight champion instead of Carlos Spars.

So it wasn't to be. Juicy Formiga clearly was the number one best flyweight in the world once upon a time. This was before, of course, WC came over and guys like Joseph Benevides and Demetius Johnson dropped down. But there was that window where he was the best. Ian McCall took that from him. Shout out Tachi Palace by the days, right? Shout out Tachi Palace, man, for the old schools.

And it's so crazy now to say that both, one is retired, one is now out of the rankings. I don't know if Jersey Vermeger is retired. He turns 37 this year. We haven't seen it. Like I said, 18 months. He's lost our con-ups. So if he retired, it wouldn't be that surprising. So two people who were once considered number one or number two in their divisions are now, at least the moment, no longer a factor.

Yeah, and it's tough for the flyweight. There's just not a lot of opportunity out there in the greater MMA world for them outside of the UFC. But as we said, December was a crazy, crazy month. So much movement. You love to see it. I love these kind of months where just so much happens and there's so much chaos. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm here for chaos.

Anyway, we're going to take a quick break. And then we're bringing in Mike and Jed on the other side. To succeed in the future of work, forward thinkers use AI to deliver measurable results. Workday is the AI platform for HR and finance that frees you from the mundane so you can focus on more meaningful work. Workday, moving business forever forward. We are back Join now By our old BTL favorites

Mike Heck Jed Michue We appreciate your fellows For coming on Especially on such a big week I know we have this big championship match Coming up And there's a late wrench

Getting thrown into it We actually have a little bit of a preview Almost on today's show My co-host himself A.K. Lee Getting thrown into the finals of the BTL championship in place of Phoenix Carnivalet

Jed I don't know if you can handle this man You know I mean I know I can because I've handled it many, many times before. But I won't pretend like I'm not disappointed. You know, everybody, everybody's been paying attention. They've seen what the plan was.

I had a mission. And now my mission will be unfulfilled for at least another week. But, you know, you got to roll with the punches. I'll dust up AK real fast. And we'll get back on track as soon as Phoenix, the undisputed, undefeated champion can finally put her belt on the line. line for real. AK coming into Daniel Cormier, this thing, he's going to ruin this whole tournament.

I love it. That was amazingly respectful. I was able to say, I'm happy to step in for the ducking. More like duck, duck carnivali, am I right, guys? You know, good one. Good one. Yeah, it took me a second. I don't know.

You know, you guys, I think you're right, Jed. I think, like, you're right. People were waiting for this moment. Maybe your chance to finally topple her. And I think maybe she felt it too. So I don't know. I'm sure that matchup will happen again in the future, but I am happy to step in and face you again once more, my timeless rival. Well, we'll keep it civil today because the tournament hasn't restarted yet.

So two big topics here to hit for you guys. And let's start here because there was a lot of movement on this last ranking cycle of the MMA fighting rankings. A lot of underdogs, a lot of new blood. And anytime that happens, there's only so many spots. The old guard eventually has to clear out and make way for the new. And this month we saw two names who have really been fixtures of these ranks. ranking list of all of these ranking lists for the past, what, six, seven, eight, nine years. They were finally casualties. It finally happened, fellas. The original champ champ,

Connor McGregor, and AK, I know this next one hurts you dearly, but the old dog, Frank Yeager, they are both out of the rankings as of today, kicked out by the flood of all these new names invading the lightweight and bantamweight ranks, who I think we all agree are just the two best divisions in the sport. And so we're going to start today's little roundtable with a little game, and we're calling it ever again, as in what we ever see these guys again in our rankings. This is pretty self-explanatory. We've got four names here,

four for the four of us. I'll throw them out, and you fellas just let me know if you think those names are ever going to find their way back into our rankings. It's simple. And we'll start with the cheese, the bread, Connor McGregor, for the first time in history of our rankings,

he's not there. And if we had been doing these for the last six or seven years, it'd probably be the first time ever. He would not be there in some capacity. Jed, Connor McGregor. Is you ever going to be right? ranked again? He is by far the most interesting of these people, just because you know he's going to get the big fights that a win kind of puts him right back in there. And, you know, if he does

fight Tony Ferguson, right? Like, I know that that's probably not going to happen with everything else going on, but that has been thrown about. I would favor him to beat Tony at this point in time, and that would immediately get him back. I will err on the side of stardom and say that, yes, he manages to sneak his way back into the top of the rankings strictly because he's he's going to get the chances to get the win that'll put him back there. Yeah, like in situations like this, I kind of compare it to Tiger Woods in golf where when Tiger Woods was going through a lot of hard times and he wasn't winning tournaments and he was getting in trouble and doing dumb things, people were talking about it and they were talking about this fall from grace. But what happened

once he won? Everybody's, it's not like it was forgotten, but in, a way it kind of was. Winning changes everything. And when you're a star like Connor McGregor, you just need one. So it, I think the UFC would be very careful with who they match him up with. I don't know if we'll get a Saroni-esque type matchup, but I think, you know, someone like a Ferguson or a winnable fight for Connor is probably likely for him if they don't go to one of the trilogy fights. So I think one win and he gets back in there, but it all depends on the opponent. So like Jed said, I will agree with him.

I'll air on that side of caution. And I think Connor will get back to his winning ways. And if he does, he'll be back in the rankings. So yes, I think he will be back in the rankings and sometime this year. As a long time Tony Ferguson, Mark, and maybe the last holdout in the whole MMA space on this. It really saddens me to hear him just getting thrown around as like a free cheap win for Connor McGregor at this point. But I can't argue with it, I guess.

Like, that's kind of where we're at with him. He's number seven in our lightweight rankings right now. So that would certainly put Connor back up there. What do you think, A.K.? Yeah, I mean, look, he's already in my, I'm the only one, as you kind of mentioned before, that still hasn't ranked. I have him as high as 11th. Again, some of this is based on what he's achieved in the past, matchups that I think he would win. I think this is going to be a theme with a few of the names we discussed here, sort of like,

opportunity is probably the biggest thing. And, of course, he has pretty much any opportunity he wants. But we mentioned he could maybe beat Tony Ferguson. I see some other favorable matchups, too. I think Dan Hooker, he could beat Diego Faheda, who I think is, I don't know if it's still ranked hitting an hour. No, he fell out, too. Okay, so he fell out.

Radell, Fazeve, I think he could win those fights. I don't know if he'd be favored. He probably would be favored. I'm sorry, betting-wise, but I mean, amongst sort of the hardcore, you know, the topology crowd, he might not be favored. But again, anytime you put him in there with the striker, I think he's dangerous. It's not like he didn't have his moments against Porrier. I mean, I do think Porreier convincingly beat him in both fights.

I mean, the second one was a bit wonky, but I think he was on his way to beating him again. But it's not like McGregor looked awful. It's just Porreier is really frigging good. I don't think getting beaten by Porreier. And, of course, Habib, before that, necessarily dings up what a talented fighter McGregor is. So, yeah, I mean, I probably still have ranked, one on reputation and two, thinking that he could win some of these matchups. Based on accomplishments, I mean, he's, I totally understand why he's not in the top of Dene anymore. But yeah, I'm with, I'm with Jed and Mike.

I don't think he's that far off. He just needs one win against any of these ranked guys who would gladly take a fight against him. Actually, I lied to you, AKA Diego Fahara is clinging on, man. He is like number 14 right now and he is just absolutely clinging on. Yeah. It's really interesting what's going on right now at the bottom of lightweight because I think we see it reflected in a couple other divisions too, namely Bantamweight, where you just have a lot of these new guys coming up.

Like it's a real sea change happening in several of these divisions. And you look at the 10 or I guess 11 through 15. So the last five names of Lightweight, we have half to. Phil Fiziev, Gamrot, Riddell, Ferra, and Manfio, and then, you know, a couple, like 16 and 17 are similar type of young up-and-comers. Something's happening in a lot of these divisions right now, and it's a really interesting time and place for them. But I have to make it unanimous with this one.

It does feel as if it's just, it's Connor. They're going to give him a cheap fight. They're going to give him an easy fight, or at least a fight that's a winnable fight, and we'll, everybody will throw him back in there at some point because he is Connor McGregor, and that's sort of how this whole game works with him in the UFC and their matchmaking. I would imagine, like you said, A.K. Dustin Porier, all of us on the team except for you felt like Dustin Poirier was the number one lightweight in the world going into last month. So it's not as if losing twice to Dustin Poirier is the worst thing in the world for a guy like

Connor. But let's move on. Next up, and this is the real heartbreaker of the round, as we mentioned, Frankie Edgar. Do we have to? I'm sorry. We do have to. Do we have to? Forty years old, it's so weird to think about this man as a 40-year-old man, but he is, he could conceivably be on a five-fight losing streak too if that Pedro Muno's split decision went the way I think most people scored it, knocked out in three of his last, or in all three of his last losses. Mike, man, it's been a good run. It's been a legendary run, a Hall of Fame run, but will Frankie ever again be ranked to you?

Man, this is, I have to say no. I just, I don't feel, I feel like him and Connor are two totally different conversations because Connor, they're going to try to get him a win and, make him look spectacular while Frankie Edgar is kind of in that place where his name is just going to put over some of this younger talent. And he's going to fight somebody like, like a Song Yudong or Ricky Simone, somebody of that nature next. And I don't like his chances in either of those fights right now because 15 minutes is a long time. And all it takes is one. And song can turn your lights of. And we saw in the in the last card for the UFC in 2021 that Ricky Simone can also put your lights out. He's finally. finding confidence in his striking. So, I mean, I hope deep down, they book him against Dominic Cruz, but even then, I still favor Dominic Cruz to win this fight. So, yeah, I just outside of maybe getting a Cruz fight, I think he's going to have to take on one of these young hungry lions and I don't see it going well. So unfortunately, for AK and all the other

Frankie Edgar Marks out there, I think his days, at least in the M.A. fighting Banimate rankings are behind him, unfortunately. God. It's such a cruel. world we live in, man. We're at the point where we're talking about Frank Yeager like this, right, of just the guy, the token name, the veteran who's going to get thrown up against the young lions so they can make their name off of him. He feasted on these people for so long. I remember Yaira Rodriguez four years ago, same spot at UFC, what was that, 2-11? And Frankie just destroyed him. And we all thought it was happening then. Man, it's cruel. It's a cruel, cruel, cruel game. A.K., I throw it to you, man. Is Frankie ever going to be coming back into these rankings?

Man, he finally drops down to like his right division, I feel like, you know, physically. It's just too late. And it's, when it's too late. And he also dropped down during a time when Bantamweight has now become again, like the hottest, probably the last two years, the hottest, most dangerous division that you can be in. Not that featherweight and lightweight where a cakewalk, he's pretty much been in like killer divisions his whole career. But right now, Bantam had so much movement and so many young prospects and killers coming

up and he just happens to land like smack in the middle of it. And there's still, and other veterans coming in, right? Like, you know, Jose Aldo also dropping down, right? His nemesis. So the timing is just so bad. It is really hard to imagine him coming back up. There's just a lot of great names that I don't see him beating both again, people with his experience level and people who the UFC will try to match him up with to make their name off of him. And the other big thing is I'm not sure.

Well, in my world, Frankie Edgar never fights again. So, but also it doesn't retire, if that makes sense. So my world, so the next three or four years of Frankie, and he's turned 40 in October. So the next three or four years. They call that the Uriah Faber, okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Jed. Yeah, that's the best way of putting it. But no, I want him in the situation where he maybe gets like, we hear like rumblings of him fighting every year. He maybe gets a fight book. For some reason, it falls through. And this happens for the next like three or four years until he's like 44. And then he's just like, you know what?

I'm probably not coming back. And that's it. Because I love Frank Edgar. One of my favorite part is all time. I cannot see him go through some of these finishes that he has gone through in his last seven or eight fights. I mean, he's not just getting knocked out. These are like all time, like vicious knockouts. And they're all happening to the same person.

So, yeah, he's not going to reenter because he's not going to fight again in my mind. It pains me to say, but I think I have to agree with both you. I love Frank Yeager with all of my heart. Like, I love what he represents. I think honestly, like, if we're looking at it, realistically, most fans today probably don't understand, right? Like how much of a wonder this guy was at his peak? Like, I would, I would, how, what percentage of fans do you think actually have seen

the Maynard trilogy? Ask fans today about him or BJ Penn and, uh, newer fans, complete like question marks. Complete like, you know, people who just look at their records. I'm like, what? What are the, these guys were like, legends once? Huh? How? And it's like, man, you, you had to be there.

If I put the, if I set the over under on 40% of fans these days have seen the mainer trilogy, do you think that's too high or too low? Too high. I think so too. That's so weird. I can't handle getting old like this, guys. But it does feel as if it's over for Frankie. I mean, the lighter weight divisions are just not kind to 40-year-olds

and people in this age range. I think I agree. I think this is probably the last we've seen of them in these rankings. And it's so weird to consider him in that way. What do you think, Jed? So I can't decide if I think he's got. Yeah, I've been pondering this last little stretch here. I'm going to put him at 30 to 35% to get back in the rankings for one very specific reason.

I would favor him to be Dominic Cruz. And I think there's a 50-50 chance Cruz gets that they booked the Cruz Edgar fight next. I think the other way they might go would be Cruz Aldo. I don't know what Aldo's appetite for that is versus a Dillishaw fight, which he specifically called for. But I could see them going either way. And I would favor Frankie to beat Dominic Cruz because Dominic Cruz is not a hitter. So that really kind of minimizes the chance of Frankie taking kind of that shot that has proven very, very difficult for him recently. And Frankie, I think Frankie would just outwork Dominic over 15 or 25 minutes.

I think he'd do a lot of leg kicks that would score points with the judges, even if maybe they weren't like the most effective weapon in the world. So I would favor him to beat Dominic Cruz. And if he does that, he's going to sneak his way back in. But that's his only route. And if Frankie was going to be more proactive in wanting that fight and saying, I want to get this, I'm going to call for it and make that happen. I think you have a lot better chance. But he's also Frankie Edgar.

He probably will just sign on the dotted line to fight any random monster that the UFC wants to put over because he's fearless. And that will result in him losing again. And then he'll be forever out of it. So 30 to 35% if he gets Cruz, that's the only way you can do it, though. The sort of brief nightmare I have in my brain right now is that a guy like Marab de Walsh Willie is going to have a really hard time getting the type of fights that he deserves right now. So at that point, like what's the best sort of outside scenario?

They're not going to book Cruz against DeWallish Willie. I can certainly see the UFC trying to book Frankie Edgar versus DeWallish Willie, which I just don't even want to say out loud. I thought you were really seeing it. I thought you were my best friend. I thought you were my best friends don't do that. Best friends don't do that to each other. Why do you put that in the world, Mike?

Heck, I can't. I could not handle something like that. That would be criminal to book that fight right now. But it's certainly within the realm of possibility. I'm actually surprised both Jed, you and Mike, mentioned the cruise fight because that's actually not one that I guess I've considered at all since Dom's last win. It feels like Dom's sort of on the up, the escalation.

Like he's sort of on the upswing looking for. for a bigger name, like you said, Jose Aldo or something like that, I'd be stunned if they actually went that direction. I mean, I agree. I think Dom would be less interested in it, but they're just so few options for Dominant Cruz in my mind. They're really the same.

Both of these guys are past it, whether they're hanging on to a top 15 ranking or not, like they're not the guys they once were, and they are not reasonably going to get back to a title. And so in my mind, when you've reached that stage in your career, promotionally, you should just be doing fights between those two.

Like, sure, occasionally use them to get over young, up-and-coming names that you think can do something, Ashana Malley or something like that. But for the rest of the time, like, I don't have any interest in watching Dominic Cruz fight Maraub Dolishvili.

I don't think that does anything honestly for really for Maraub or like, and it certainly doesn't do anything for my entertainment value. And so, like, I know that Cruz probably doesn't want that. he wants the Aldo fight. And I'd be okay with the Aldo fight because I feel Aldo is only a slight step above kind of where that Frankie Edgar Cruz is.

He is also a legend in the game who's probably not going to win a title given Piotr Yan still being in the division and likely going to compete for the title next. But if they don't, like I said, if they don't do that, I would still be interested in Frankie Edgar Dominic Cruz. And I think that that's the biggest name Dominic Cruz can get, even if it doesn't, you know, necessarily move him up the ladder. Well, let's keep it moving. Next man up is actually a man whose story may come to define,

at least to some degree, 2022 in how this whole year plays out, because he's also lost three of his last four, but he is in a very different spot. He is Nate Diaz. And to me, this is an interesting one because he is the true wild card, right? Like, you never actually know where Nate's going to end up. You never know who he's going to fight. I never thought he would take the Leon Edwards fight.

He was calling for Lukey after that. It's obvious what he's trying to do and what opportunity he's, angling for. He has one fight left on his UFC deal. And hell, maybe he's a boxer by the end of 2022. You have no concept right now of what Nate's going to do is the Dustin Poirier fight going to come together. That's sort of up in the air. A.K., I'll go to you. Nate Diaz, is he ever going to be ranked again? So we mentioned the opportunity thing at the beginning. And kind of like Connor McGregor, he does have a lot of, you know, chances to potentially move up. We have guys like Vicente Lucke calling him out. Stephen Thompson would love to fight him. Mazra, I don't, I mean,

that's business taking care of. I don't think he cares to fight him again. Everybody would love to fight him, right? Yeah, everyone would love to fight him. But the difference between him and McGregor in this case. So I'm going to go no. I'm going to go, no. I don't think we see him ranked in the top 15 again because I don't think he wins a lot of these fights.

I do have this horrible image of him fighting like somehow pummeling like Sean Brady or something like that. Just like catching Sean Brady at the wrong time of their career. Like Sean Brady's not quite ready for a Nate Diaz, you know, a guy with that level of experience yet. But again, I would probably favor Sean Brady. I think most people would. other than that again hamzaa neil magni these are all really good welterweights guys who i think i just don't think nate dyes can beat them so do i think he's done fighting ranked opposition certainly not uh whenever he steps in there it probably will be against either someone in the top of

dean or some sort of fan favorite veteran that's fallen out or you know conne mcgregor um so he has many many big fights ahead of him but as far as uh being successful enough inside the cage and putting on like strong enough performances to be considered among the top of dean and again and what has traditionally been a very, very strong division. No, it's over. Yeah, I mean, we mentioned Connor earlier. And I actually, I think there's a strong argument to be made that Diaz is further above rankings than even Connor is right now because we're, I would agree with that.

I would totally agree with it. There's more of a conversation with Connor and people would react to it. But not seeing Nate in any rankings, no one's going to really say anything about it. That's like, Diaz is too cool for the rankings. And I feel like that's kind of the case. Like he defies rankings. He defies all sorts of insane conversations about merit and MMA. It's just a crazy thing.

The guy could go out and just get bolted for 23 minutes, but then win two minutes and he wins the fight. Like it's just crazy. Everyone's talking about the final seconds of Nate Diaz versus Leon Edwards when Leon was beating him the entire fight up until that point. Like it's just, it's so crazy how this guy, his popularity. And it's just really, it's been. been amazing to see. Like, I was in Tampa for the Jake Paul, Tyrone Woodley rematch. And Nate Diaz is a,

is a true superstar. I mean, miles and miles of people just wanted to line up and take pictures of this guy. He had security guards walking him around to each beer station at different points throughout the fight. They closed off and had private beer stations for Nate Diaz and his team. So he could go and line up with his guys, grab a Coors Light and then walk back to their seats. And then they would close another one so Nate and his team could go get another drink. Nate Diaz is a legitimate superstar. even more so than I thought. And I always thought he was a very big deal.

But seeing it live and in person and seeing how people reacted to Nate, I mean, it was just, it was kind of awe-inspiring. I was just like, wow, it's got to, like, it must be so hard to be Nate Diaz. Just you can't go anywhere without hundreds and hundreds of people, thousands even who want to line up and take your picture and bother you and want to take selfies.

It's just crazy. So, yeah, Nate is beyond ranking. So with all that being said, I don't think he will be ranked, but I don't think it matters. I will be. absolutely flabbergasted if Nate resigns with the UFC because it would be the stupidest thing he's ever done. And that man is not an idiot.

He is really smart about business. He is especially smart about his career. He is going to fight his last fight, get done with the contract, and he is going to go box Jake Paul and make all the money and wait for Connor McGregor to finish out his UFC contract and then box Connor where they can both make all the money from it instead of the UFC. making the money off their trilogy. That's what's coming. And so there's a 1% chance that he gets ranked because he is gone. Yep. That says it.

I mean, that says it all. You're 100% right. My answer is no as well because what's going to end up happening is he's going to box Jake Paul in 2022. And he might even lose that if we're all just kind of being honest here. Like, I don't know who I would favor in that fight. I probably would maybe favor Javit Paul because he's much bigger than Nate Diaz and he's a boxer.

But is he going to lose it or is he going to Nate D? lose it, where he loses it, but also his everybody still just kind of doesn't accept that he lost it because his Nate Diaz. And Nate is undefeated. The only time Nate Diaz ever lost was to, who kicked him in the head. Josh Thompson. That's the only loss that Nate Diaz has ever had. And his brother to the towel in.

His brother did he wasn't done. He wasn't done. No, no. No. Because when Nick throws a towel in, Nate will admit that he loses because it's Nick. Nick says it. So it's, it is written ball. And so, yeah, that's the only time that Nate's ever lost and he's undefeated and that's how it will be forever.

So, you know, he might lose to Jake Paul, but he's not going to lose to Jake Paul. I love it. He's the only person we could say that exact sentence and it actually makes sense. You don't even need to explain it. Final one here and then let's move on, fellas. You go back to mid-2017 and this is a man who has lost five of his last seven. I still don't know why, though. I just can't give up on him.

And to me, he's a big entry going into 2021, or 2022, I should say this, just because of the circumstances. Kevin Lee, the newest signing of Eagle FC. He's going to be competing at 165 for them so that'll make him a welterweight for our consideration. Despite everything we have been through with this guy, he is only 29 years old. And he's still only really been knocked out once in his career. So the odometer seems like it should have mileage left. Mike, Kevin Lee ever ranked again.

What do you think? This might be the toughest one of all because. I just don't know if the quality of opponent that he's going to get at Eagle FC will merit a ranking. Like him fighting Diego Sanchez is a freaking joke. And it's one of those things about Eagle FC that has me worried. There's a number of things about Eagle FC that I have questions about. But this, the matchmaking in particular is one that that kind of worries me. Like we taught like some of the putting Bigfoot Silva in a fight like just makes no sense in 2022 against anybody.

in any sort of combat sport. But then putting Diego Sanchez in there who, listen, the guy's tough as nails and all that, and he's a warrior and he's been doing this for a long time, and he could take a beating. But I don't want to see him take any more beatings. And a win over Diego Sanchez clearly does not have the same merit that it once did. So if he's going to be fighting the Diego Sanchez of the world

for the next four or five fights at 165 pounds for Eagle FC, I'm not ranking him. It just depends. He needs to get a quality win. And I just don't know if he's going to get that. quality win with Eagle FC. I just don't see it happening. So I'll say

no. I don't think he will be ranked. Counterpoint, though. I know the Diego fight doesn't make sense for Diego, and I certainly don't want to see Diego get beaten up anymore at this point in his career. But this is a very boxing type of matchup, right? Like, the bounce back fights, the buildback fights are absolutely necessary in combat sports.

And that's something we never get a chance to see in the UFC. And that's something that Kevin Lee is desperately needed. And this is the exact type of fight that maybe you can get him going, get that momentum rolling, get him back on track. I don't know, Jed, what do you think? I actually think he has a really good chance to be ranked again. Not this year, though. So I wrote about this.

I think it was, it had to have been after the Daniel Rodriguez lost. What Kevin Lee needs more than anything is a year or two to just stack up soft wins. And that was never coming for him in the UFC. they were not going to give him an easy one. They were not getting him a softball. He didn't want one. He would repeatedly just try and talk himself into fights with guys who are really damn good. And that is super detrimental to his career.

And I think that he kind of recognized that. Sort of the comments he's made sense exiting the UFC about Sean O'Malley picking and choosing his fights and developing like that. I think he's starting to realize that like it's a lot better to just go out there and beat up people than it is to be. competitive fights time in a timeout, especially when a fighter like Kevin Lee is a lot of confidence is like a lot of what he needs. He needs to be confident in the cage.

And you could see him fighting like Ally Iquinta who he should absolutely just rock. He should run Ally Iquint off the rails and he struggled because he just lost confidence in that fight. So I think what he needs is to reset his career by just

chalking up some wins over dead money. And that's what he's going to get in Eagle FC. Like, Diego Sanchez, like, to your point, great matchmaking. He's going to get a very comfortable win. He's going to get to show out. And he's going to get to do this in Eagle FC while building, quote, unquote, a division he has been kind of the figurehead for for the last five years or whatever. Like, he gets to develop the 165 division.

He gets to do all these other things. And I think when his time's up with Eagle FC, I'm going to assume, I don't remember his contract details. I'm going to assume he probably finishes it sometime next year, so 2023. I think after that, he'll look to get with a bigger organization, either PFL or Bellator. I would suspect PFL. And I think, I used to what, 29, 28? He can absolutely go make a run through PFL, and if he does that, he's going to get ranked again.

So I think he's got a really good chance. Look, our number 15 consensus right now is MVP, Michael Venom Page. And I'm a fan. I think he's probably ranked at all because I think I have, MVP ranked somewhat highly, or at least higher than most. But I think Kevin Lee's better than him. I think if they were to go, if they were to fight, Kevin Lee would beat him in a fight. Now, by the time, I think Kevin Lee puts together a run that makes him like close to being

ranked again, MVP probably won't be in that 15 spot, that 15, 14, 13 spot. You know, there's a lot of fluctuation there, right? Ray Cooper's in there right now as well. You know, Jed mentioned the PFL. So that's kind of the range of where you need to be, if you're competing outside the UFC to be ranked. Like, you can make it. You can make it.

You just need to make a run. So, yeah, the Diego Sanchez fight, definitely a bounce back thing. And then I think, like, you know, Jed and I have sort of watched a bit of EFC just from keeping up with it for around, like, Miss Fist, we've seen a lot of the highlights. We can't, like, gauge the sort of the overall talent level, but they definitely have some good fighters there. It's just guys who aren't, you know, obviously don't have names yet. And certainly the ones they're breaking out for the American debut, the US debut. They're going more for name power than necessarily future contenders. But I'm not, I'm not worried about them finding talent.

I think they will find worthy welter weights and guys who, even besides Kevin Lee, we'll be talking about outside the UFC. So it's such a promotion to keep an eye on. And yeah, I think if Kevin Lee rattles off like five, like he needed like five straight wins, then in 2023, I wouldn't be surprised if some of us throw a couple of our lower, lower ranked votes his way. And he does end up 15, 14, 13. So I'm actually leaning towards yes, you will see.

You will see Kevin Lee ranked again. I have to agree with both you guys. I think to me that the hard reset is exactly what he needed, exactly what Jed said. I mean, just two years ago, this is a guy who K-O'd clean Gregor Gillespie. Like, he still has the talent. We know he still has the talent.

Kevin Lee might forever just be one of my MMA blind spots where I have no real reason to have faith in the guy at some point, and yet I'll still always have faith in him, that he'll turn it around and fulfill whatever kind of potential we felt like he had. But I feel like he's in a nice spot. It seems like they're really going to build around him and sort of try to build back up his career and maybe build some sort of level of minor stardom for EFC.

see around him. So I don't know, I'm optimistic heading into 2020 when it comes to Kevin Lee. What, fellas, that was ever again? You know what else? You know what else? I think when Habib comes back and rolls over for him to boost him to give him the rub, pro wrestling style, give him the rub, right into the top 10. That's part of my issue too. Yeah, that's part of my issue as well is that Kevin Lee while he's saying the right things right now, he said the right things a lot throughout his career. I've had many conversations with Kevin Lee. But then he gets a win and then he says just kind of insane things and he lets his confidence get the best of him at times. And that's kind of a worry that I have with him is that he shoots a little too far.

That's the benefit to Eagle FC though. Like there's nobody for him to do that with. He can't talk himself into like fighting a real guy because Eagle FC doesn't have all. We'll see. We will see. But anyway, that's ever again. We're going to have one more quick break and then we're putting our prediction hats on, fellas, and we're getting into it. All right, y'all, we are back. And actually one quick tangent before we get to our final segment here, I believe, AK, I will give you the floor.

Yeah, look, we're going to be talking about rankings here. And I actually, I mean, you're giving me the floor so I can give so I can give Jed the floor. Because I, when people, when the next edition of the rankings come out, I think people are going to see some curious things. and I just want them to be addressed. And Jed, you know, I'm not coming after you for your rankings. I want, the rankings would be boring if we all had the same rankings in the exact same methodology. I think that's important for people to know. Certainly, I think most of us try and follow similar guidelines.

But generally, like, you know, there should be some deviation. Otherwise, why would he even have a panel of eight people? We could just like pick one or two of us to do it. So I think it's good to be different. So, Jed, I know you're, you've done a bit of a reshuffling with a new year, a new, what did you say? A new year, a new methodology. or something. New Year new rankings, baby. New Year's new rankings, okay.

Just look. Let me, let me call, let me explain why I felt this need to be mentioned. Okay, so here's some of the, let me throw this in. Let me throw this in before AK explains. Yeah, Jed, I just want you to know that AK DM me so mad when he saw this. Like, I have not seen A.K. I've known AK a long time. Only because.

I have not seen him this upset in a long, long time. Now, and mainly only because you had done a reshuffle. as with your last rankings. However, you've made it very clear to me, and I believe you, Jed, that, I mean, this is a different kind of reshuffling, and this is pretty much how you'll be going forward. So, anyway, I'll let you explain. But here, so some of the, you have, said, gone number one. You have Justin Gaithji ahead of Charles Olivera and Justin Porriere now, when you had

Porreya above Gates G before. And then you have Makachev, your new number one, at lightweight, Shemaiah, number two, at Welterweight, and, you know, some other things. So there's some big, I mean, some pretty big, dramatic. movements there. Honestly, there's some fans I don't think would disagree with you. I know there's a lot of people who would put Shemaya from their top five already. A lot of people who think Makachev is already the best lightweight. So, I mean, I might not necessarily agree. The rest of the panel might not agree. But where is your new, you know, where does this new philosophy coming from? Well, it boils down

pretty simply to results don't matter because that is what I've learned on these ranking shows as everybody here, everybody on this call, other than myself, has three months now, ranked Peyoteurian ahead of Al Jermaine Sterling, despite the fact that Sterling has an uncontrovertible win over Peoria Yon within the last calendar year. So when that happened and a couple other things, we went through all this on several of the previous shows. You can go listen to those if you want to hear, hear me get violently angry at the lack of uniformity amongst our panelists.

And I've been threatening to do it. And I figured, you know, 2022, let's get to where we need to be. Because the reality is, rankings aren't about what you've accomplished in this sport. They're about what we feel, you know. And so my feelings tell me that these are the people where if I, you know, we've talked about it before,

it's the Game of Thrones trial by combat rule. If I am picking one of these fighters, if I'm picking a lightweight to defend my life in a court of law for a battle to the death. Charles Oliver, unquestionably, has a better resume than Islam Makachev. But if I got to get one dude to be my champion, at 155 pounds, give me Islamakachev or give me death baby. And that is the guiding ethos behind all of my choices.

Now, that might change. The ethos won't change, but, you know, some days maybe you would feel like, Oh, okay. When we're getting down to like the bottom 15, it's pretty tough to be like, ah. But certainly at the top, it was really easy for me to make my rankings this month. I was just like, yeah, it's a mockshend of a beat that ass for everybody at 155. He's number one. Gachie's number two.

Like, let's just go down the list. And there's a lot of overlap. I mean, guys like Usman and Adisanya, you know, they're still my number ones. But I'm really happy, frankly, with my rankings now because it makes it a lot easier. I don't have to go look at their resumes and be like, ooh, well, I don't know. Is a win over the number nine heavyweight better than? I'm just like, nah, if they fought tomorrow,

Cior Gons, beating that ass. So that's the number one guy. Let's go. A.K., does that satisfy you? I said, I told you in between segments that I'm not going to respond. I'm going to let him have his say. And that's it. I'm not, I'm just going to let him.

He kind of went at us there, but I'm going to be the bigger man here. I'm just going to let him go. That's it. That's it. We have other stuff. We have other more important things. talk about. So just for anyone, that's on the record. You guys heard everything he said. Direct all your comments. If you don't like my individual rankings, direct your comments to him.

Thank you. He's inviting it. Go for him. He welcomes it. He loves it. He loves it. He loves it. He loves it. He loves it. He loves it. He loves it. He loves it. He loves it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My He needs this. Here's the thing. Let me call on this. No, no. My rankings are on this. You closed. You have closed.

You have closed. You have closed. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My co-host is staring the ship and he says you've closed. We're moving on. I just have to say I am glad that we have a panel of eight people so that your one ballot doesn't really actually affect things too much in the overall scheme. Because all of us can kind of override your silliness.

And that's good for me. for me. You tell that to Renna Derrida. Let's keep this simple. Let's keep this civil. Anyway, it is that time of year, fellas. It's prediction time. This is the final thing we're doing today,

and we're going to try to look ahead and not make fools of ourselves as we forecast what the OMA landscape could look like this time next year. And so to do that, we have developed a very simple exercise. We have all picked three fighters. These three fighters can either be one of two things.

One, they could be guys who aren't in any of your divisional things. top fives, your own personal top fives, but you expect them to be there by the end of 2022, or they could be names who do reside in that top five, but you expect them to fall out by 2022. So basically there's two ways to go on this. Either prospects you think are going to take the leap or vets, you think are going to have a really rough year. And again, this is your own personal top five is not the cumulative rankings we have as a group for the MMA fighting rankings. So three each, we're going to just go through this quickly. There could be some overlap. And Mr. Heck,

I would like you to start us off. I'm going to go with like the biggest rise in my opinion. Armand Sarukian is going to be a tough out for anybody at 155. I know he's not ranked in our rank. You've been banging this drum, baby. You've been banging this drone.

That's a good one. That's a good one. He's not ranked in our rankings right now. I think I have him at number 13. He's got that fun fight with Joel Alvarez coming up next month. And we know Alvarez has had his troubles on the scale and I don't expect that to change all that much. Like he'll probably make 156. but he's probably going to pay a very hefty price to get to that weight. And Alvarez is very powerful of the strikes, but Surukian is an absolute killer. When he gets you on the mat, it's going to be very tough to get back on your feet. And if you do get back on your feet, you're going to spend a lot of energy to do so.

This guy in his UFC debut to kind of build upon what Jed Michoud feels is the best lightweight in the world. On less than a month's notice, if memory serves you correctly, this guy makes his UFC debut against Jed's number one lightweight in the world. Islam Makachev and he won around in that fight in my opinion and it was a very close fight and it won the fight of the night. How many people can say they got a bonus fighting Islam Makachev. Two, if you can include Adrian and Martines

but he also knocked Islam out but he got a fight of the night against Islam Makachev in his UFC debut at 22 years of age and he hung with him better than most. He is going to be a problem for a very long time and now he's starting to finish dudes with strikes

inside the octagon. I think this guy could, I think he's going to be a top five guy at the end of the year. I think he's going to be active. I'm glad he's fighting early in the year. Beating Joel Alvarez will be big. And then he's, he's going to be fighting some guys and some decent names and some good resumes that they have to say yes to. And he's just going to run through them. So yeah, I think he's going to make the biggest move in all of our rankings, my personal rankings, to go from 13 to top five. And our overall rankings, unranked to a top five guy in 2022. This guy's a monster. And I think this is his year. Yeah. I love it.

If we were going by, like, who do I think would win up? Like, Jedson, who do I think would win a fight? Like, I have Haush Manfio number 15 in my rankings. I think Surukin would murder Haush Manfiel. Like, just disintegrate him. So if we're going by like that. That's a good reason to have that guy in your top of 15. I mean, look, well, you don't have him there either.

I think he'd absolutely obliterated by a dude who's not ranked. Look, you have Oshry-Yoon in there. And so I don't think you either think that he's better than Sirukian or, look, don't drag me into this, all right. But I'm saying, I, I'm sorry. Like Mike's pick. Like I think he gets definitely, yeah, definitely making it to the top five by the end of the year. It's a great pick.

It's a guy who is slept on right now, 155 in a major way. And you know one thing I like about you, Mike? You're a loyal guy. You've been loyal to this guy from the very beginning. You called your shot and he is still here. And I believe you. I actually believe he could be. It's just going to be a matter of getting the fights, getting the type of fights that could get him up there.

Because I think he's probably destined for top five at some point. AK, let's throw it to you next. Oh, yes. Okay. My first name, this is a pretty easy one. I gave a little bit more of a boring answer than Surreykian. Menlo Fioro at Women's Flyweight, I think is, I think she's in the right division where outside of the very top spot, there's a lot of movement.

You have some sort of veterans up near the top, and then you have these up-and-comers with her and, of course, Casey O'Neill. So really the question is, do you think it's her, Casey O'Neill that'll make it or make it the top five first? Or Aaron Blancho. I think Erin Blancho is a little bit further away. I think we don't forget how young she is. She's very, very young.

And I know people see her as a future champion. I think she's like, I think we're not talking about her top five to like 2023. And I'm talking like mid to late 2023. And I say this is someone who has followed her career like before UFC, you know, so pretty closely. I know how good she is. She needs a lot more seasoning, a lot more time, but she's insanely talented. So for me, it's, you know, mainly Fero or Casey O'Neill.

And I just give Fero the slight edge. I think her pre-UFC work was a little more impressive. I think she's a fight finisher, which of course the UFC likes. Oh, I got Casey O'Neill. I should say Casey O'Neill is. I should say Casey Neal as well, but I just, I think Fioro is also a little bit older, so a little more physically mature. You really can't go wrong either way.

I do like the matchup she has next. She's fighting, I forgot. O'Neill is getting Jessica and Fial is getting Jessica I. So they're both kind of on the right track, getting that veteran next. Very winnable fight too. Yeah, right. So you could really go with either one. I've just leaned towards Meno.

But Casey O'Neil is another good option. But yeah, I think Meno, by the end of 2022, absolutely will be that five, four, five spot. I love the way the name rings off that tongue of yours, A.K. You really nailed the accent. It's really spectacular to listen to. And also, number five in our MMA fighting's Rookie of the Year votes, Manon. She's killing it. Jed, let's go to you next. First, I would like to say, I really like AK's pick because Manon was right there. And along with what you said, you know, Casey O'Neill, Aaron Blanchfield, I think all three of those women have a really good chance. For me, let's be happy. Everybody's been very positive.

They've been going advancing. I won't go for my sad one of who's going to fall off. We're going to go to the men's flyweight division. And I care of France, man. I think that dude is a hitter. And I don't know what we have him ranked at. I have him somewhere in the middle of the top 10. You currently have him nine.

Yeah, that's most of us. Yeah, nine around that range. Yeah, somewhere in that. I think this dude's a hitter. I know he's got the loss of Brandon Hoyval and to Moreno. but I'm not as confident that I think he'd beat Royval if they rematch this year. I know that's a year and a half removed, but I think he'd win the rematch. And I just really like, I really like him.

I love his camp. Cody Garbrandt is Cody Garbrandt, but he's done it on him. And yeah, I think KKF is going to certainly make a move to the top five this year. And, you know, if he's not fighting for a belt by the end of the year, I think he's going to be right on the cusp of it. I believe he has a big fight already lined up, right? Asker Asker-R-A-R-A-R-R-F. Oh, they did book that fight.

Yes. Oh, yeah. Dude, he's going to beat Asker-A-Sker-R-F, like straight up. That's a tough fight. But if he does, man, he's right there. He's immediately in the top five if he wins that fight. Yeah, if he does, he's immediately, but I think he's going to beat him. I don't know.

Asker-R-A-Skroff is, it's really tough to get behind dudes who can't finish fights. Like that's even if they're Even if they are dominant smothering forces Like it's just hard to believe that a guy who can't He only missed weight once Is it's just hard to believe that they're They're gonna beat a dude like like Carre France who can finish the hell out of a fight

I would feel like every flyweight is like a lot at one weight miss It's just like almost like a write-up passage in the flyweight division We're like yeah you got your one type of thing I don't know about that A weird weight class I don't know about that It's a weird way class. If y'all are going to be living in happy, happy sunshine and cookies world, I'll be the first one to introduce some sadness under this podcast.

Oh dear. Do it. Break my heart. This one really actually kind of does break my heart. And I hate to do it. And it's like, it's the guy I was going to say. It's struggling to like come out of my mouth. It's struggling to come out of my mouth.

But he's turning 37 years old this year and Gagard Musassi. I just don't. I just see it. I see it happening. It's, it's going to. hurt me a lot. It's really going to hurt my heart when it happens, but this man has been in our lives for so long. Between boxing, kickboxing, and MMA, he has a ton of mileage on him, and he has looked particularly mortal in these last four fights. He's number three right now on my middleweight rankings,

but it really just comes down to one thing. It comes down to his circumstances, right? Because the competition he is facing and the lack of really great options at Bellator and middleweight right now, all he needs to do is lose one. He just needs to have one bad night. The most, in Austin Vanderford or a Johnny Eblen catches Gaygard on just the wrong night. I think that's all it's going to take for enough people to drop the moose out of their top fives, especially if you have guys like a Derek Brunson or an Andrene Moonez or whoever else you have over in the UFC massacring people in this division. I think this might be the year Gayguard finally drops off, guys.

Oh. I can't do it. I can't do it. Oh, I think you're totally right, but it's a very smart pick. It's a very smart pick. Obviously, I think he's going to, I have a little. favor him over Austin Vanderford. I'd love to see if there's any preliminary odds on that.

If there are, I haven't, I have not checked those out yet. I would hope he's at least a two to one favorite. But you're right. I don't know. Maybe people are looking at his age, Austin Vanderford undefeated. As you said, in Bellator, wonky things happen. I don't know if people want to take that into account. All it takes is one good shot. You know, your reflexes aren't quote what they were used

to when you were 33, 33, 32, 31. So that's what my necessity is facing right now. Gosh, I didn't want to think about that. But I will say, I don't think he'll fall out. And this sounds obvious, like, as long as he keeps winning. I know, I know you brought up the competition thing in Bellator, but I mean like, no, because there's some people who like, if he, no, because there's something like if he beats,

it's a really high take. No, if he beats Austin Vanderford, Johnny Eblen, like just by facing these guys and not facing anyone else in the top 15, there's people who will drop him naturally. They'll just say, well, look, Derek Brunson just beat, you know, Ken and ear. He has to jump over Musassi. Marvin Bator, you know, maybe rattles off another two wins against top 10 people. He has to jump over Musassi. A lot of guys, Sean Strickland keeps winning.

How can you not put him over Musassi, right? And for me, I wouldn't, for me, I think I will not ding Musassi for, again, beating whoever he has to beat at 185. But I think a lot of people will. I think so for me, he won't drop out. But I also think he doesn't have to lose for him to drop out of his top five, even though I think personally that should be the case. I could see people just drop him without it. It's going to hurt my heart so much when it happens. Mike, what's your number two?

All right, I'll go, I'll go set as well. I will say I thought about Gagar Musassi, but I think he beats Austin Vanderford. And I know Bellator and Musassi have been talking extensively about Musassi fighting the winner of the late heavyweight Grand Prix. So I think they will end up going that route. So this might be his only fight at middleweight in 2022, but we'll see what happens. But as far as picking a, I guess, fall from grace, boy, this might hurt some feelings. This one hurts to say. But I'm going with Yanni Blocko because.

Because that loss to Glover is going to sting. And I feel like there's sort of a blueprint in place that Glover gave everybody in how to beat him. Like you can't let Jan stay out in space and get comfortable and start landing that legendary Polish power. You have to try and bully him and go right after him. And I think Alexander Rackich could give him a lot of problems on March 26, especially over 25 minutes. And then what's next? He fights Ancolaev, Jamal Hill. Like even, you know, Anthony Smith has found this new surge of confidence and almost anger that could cause some problems.

And what if Glover beats Yeri Perashka? What if that happens? No. And you might throw Blahovic in there with that bad man. I mean, and then you got like guys like Paul Craig who's looked incredible as of late. Guys like Dustin Jacoby who's getting better and better. Michelle Olegzachuk, who I feel like is just getting into his prime. And I just feel like the road is only going to get tougher.

And you mentioned the age of Musassi at 38. Yon will be 39 by the time he fights Alexander Rackich. How quickly can you make the improvements you need to make? So while I think Jan Belhovic's 2020 will go down as one of the UFC's like all-time feel-good stories, I think this is the year where Bojovic might have to take that long look in the mirror. So that's my pick and sucks to say it. That does suck. Let me piggyback off that then because I'm in the same neighborhood.

just slightly higher higher fall for me Glover to share he's done this is that's where I thought you were going I mean those are Yon and Glover Yon and Glover were my two alternates they were my top two

I mean most of the arguments are the exact same for Yon that Mike just made but I think Glover is going to lose to Yeree when they fight and obviously that wouldn't necessarily drop him out of the top five but I think one, there's a really good chance he just retires this year after he loses the belt,

in which case he will, by definition, leave our rankings. But even if not, if he loses the year and he still wants to come back, run it back again, it's the same thing for Yant. Then he's going to fight Magerman Ancalaev, Alexander Rackich. Like, he's going to fight one of those dudes. And look, Yonni Blockos 37. That's Spry. Glover's in his 40s, man.

Like, I, his, his ascension to claim the title this year was some, and probably an even better feel good story than John Blavich is like unprecedented, frankly. And I'm so glad it happened. I was stunned that it did. And I think that this is it. He gets the one. He, he doesn't get to Michael Bisping and get some softball first title defense over another dude who's ancient. He's, he's going to lose. and then he's going to lose really rapidly after that and probably retire.

So I think Glover's done. You want a prediction, Jed? You want a prediction, Jed? I'm going to give you a prediction right now. Give it to him, Mike. Glover Tashara will submit Yuri Perashka and retain the title. I'm saying it now. And when that, and when we make our fighter picks, I'm picking Glover by submission.

Noted. It should also be noted. I'm marking this down. I'm marking the time stamp. It should be, it should be noted that Glover falling out of the tie five would not be a big job for you, Jed. You have him ranked fourth. Hey. I do. Look, he has, he has

Prohachka number one. Hold on. He has Prohachka number one. He's not the only one. He has three of our panelists, including him, have Prachka number one. He did put Nemcov above him, which is fine. I mean, again, he put Nemcov and Corey Aniston, and it's hard to say, I mean, Corey Anson has a win over Glover de Chere from some time ago. Nempcob, we don't know. They haven't fought. I'm just saying, I don't agree with this ranking, but I'm saying

it's not crazy. When you lay it out like that, it's not. It's super not crazy because more of the point. You would pick those three guys to beat to share in a fight. And that's fine. And most of you all would too. And that's the thing. I can mock more rankings for having Connor McGregor ranked

despite him having no relevant wins at lightweight. He's talking to you, A, K. He's only talking to you. You can't really come at me for mine. My answer is, I think this dude would beat that dude. And that's not really arguable. Jed, I'm your only advocate here. I don't know why you're coming out.

I'm the only one here who like, I wasn't, I wasn't even going to let you, like, they didn't even want you to explain yourself. Like, I'm the one who let you explain your, and again, I'm not jumping into this muck with you. Your rankings are barely defensible and I, and we're only wasting time here if I gave you even more about to defend them. But, but I'm just saying like for you, it's like, you have to share on his way out of the top five already. Like you kind of already are seeing the writing's on the wall for you with him, right?

Like he's just, he's going out. Oh, yeah. Well, like I said, I genuinely don't. I think this is last year competing too. I think he fights maybe twice and he's gone. So then he's all the way out of everyone's rankings. Yeah. All right.

Well, I'm going to keep this pity party going since we're just going hard on the old people. I know. And I'm going to keep it going. You picked two dropouts, Chehen? You went two dropouts? I did pick two dropouts. Oh my gosh. What's wrong with you guys?

I know. I love some positivity, but it just feels like one of these years. I didn't get my second. We'll go to you next, okay. I feel neglected. We'll go to you next. I just want to keep with the theme of the four. A lot of issues are coming up now.

So for my next one, this is simple. She is 40 years old. She's going to be 41 years old by the end of 2022. And same with the Agar. She is quite a bit of mileage on her odometer between the boxing, the kickboxing, the Kikboxing, the MMA over almost 80 combined fights. Holly home. My number four for the bantam weight rankings in the women.

She hasn't fought in over a year. She was dealing with knee injuries, illnesses, all of 2021. Eventually, it's going to happen to Holly. Like eventually she's going to start losing. losing these really close decisions to some up-and-comers and that last 10% of whatever that skill set is that just needs to deteriorate just enough to matter, it's going to happen. They're up-and-comers at women's ban. I was going to say.

Actually, that was the problem. That's my problem. My biggest worry, my one worry about this pick is just how bad this division is right now, outside of these top few. Because if you look at the names like 6 through 10, 6 through 12 at 135, there is nobody who inspires He retired for five years and is still a top 10 fighter. It is rough right now, at 135. But I will say, last thing for me on this, it happens to everyone at some point, this decline,

and you just never know who can surprise. We saw it in 2021 with all these unexpected champions who no one thought we'd be talking about Brandon Moreno, Juliana Peña, Glover de Chara, Charles Olivera, all these people, no one thought they'd be champion. I think 2022 is the year it happens to her. I just can't pick any of these full. So Raquel Pennington, I still think Holm beats her again. Yonakun Skaa is a mom right now.

So she's out of the picture for now. Ketland, Cala Vanna, maybe. Sarah McMahon, again, it's kind of in the same range. Misha Tate, we talked about this. Stuff like could happen. Look, it's a rough division. It's rough. Carol Hose is tough, man.

There you go. There's one of your options, sure. There's one of your options. I feel the worst about this pick of my three, but it might happen. I have to throw it out there. All right, AK, hit me with your second. You're a positive person. You didn't want to, I think you didn't want to pick another drop.

So I'll save my drop for last. I think my drop pick is super depressing. So I'll bring us back to the positive here and shine a light on one Mr. Moussar of Loyaev, who some people, I'm sure would have in their top 10 already. I wouldn't go that far. I have him just outside my top 15, 5 and O in the UFC, 50 and O's a pro. There's not a lot to say about it. I mean, he's not the most exciting guy.

I get it. Classic, you know, classic Russian wrestler. he's in that mold. Big fight with Ilya to puria coming up, which I would favor him to win. And after that, he just needs a big finish. And he needs a big finish signature win. But great resume so far. I'm just looking at Sungwu Choi, Mike Grundy, and then his last two wins, Nick Lentz and Dawadu. So there's a veteran. There's another guy who's sort of around in the top 20, in Dawadu, top 20, top 25 in the ranking. So he really is just kind of taking a very steady, somewhat unexciting path to a top five ranking. And I do think he makes it by the end of

by the end of the year. It is a deep division. But I guess I could see some names. I could see him hopping somehow finding way to hop over maybe Patricia Pitbull, Yair, and Ortega. I'll go that far. That's how good I think this kid is. All right. Mike Heck, give us your third and final one. So I decided to go the compliment sandwich route where we start positive, negative, and then we end positive. And it was a good strategy because I'm surprised this name is actually still on the board. but I know it's not like a huge reach, but Andre Munez definitely sticks out to me because he's number 10 right now.

I definitely can see him being in our top five at the end of the year because at some point he's going to get matched up with a Derek Brunson, Marvin Vittori, Jared Canonier type fighter. And I would favor him to beat all of those guys. Vittori might be the toughest of the three. But I don't know if there's kind of like we're talking about with Marab. I don't know if there's a lot of guys who will jump at the chance,

but probably the loo. of Cannonier Brunson or the loser of Hermanson Strickland could be next for Muniz. And yeah, I think if he's healthy and can fight three times this year, I think he's going to be a top five guy. Hard to argue with that. He has looked so damn good. He could be the champion. Absolutely. I'll go that far.

I'll go that far. MMA fighting submission of the year winner, Andre Moonez. Put some respect on that man's name. Jed, what's your third and final one? man, I really wanted to compliment sandwich, but I can't, I did, because I wanted, I wanted to pick Mattaj Gamrod because I think that dude's a friggin monster, but lightweight is such a mess. I just don't know if he's going to get the opportunity that he would need to crack that top five. So, I've decided to do what I do best and come with the heaters to close this one out.

I'd like us to go to the heavyweight division for just a moment. And in that division, in the top five, and most people's top two, there's a man named Steppe Mietjich. Oh, no. Oh, no. You're a old friend. Your old friend. A former UFC heavyweight champion, many consider him to be the greatest UFC heavyweight

of all times. Some wrongly consider him to be the greatest heavyweight of all time. Those Philistines are idiots. And they'll be proven to be the greatest. such because 2021 is going to be a bad year for Stepe. Look, all I'm saying about

Stepe is, well, I'm saying a couple things. First, he's 39. He's going to be 40 this year. Granted, heavyweight you can age a little better than in other divisions, but he's 40 this year. He's coming off a just horrifying, horrifying, horrifying Kea loss

to the current champion, Francis Inganu. And more to the point, you know, the thing about Debe, I'm not here to question his wins. They are excellent. I'm not here to downplay any of those. But do you know how many wins he has over guys that are currently ranked in our heavyweight rankings? Take a guess.

Two. The answer's two. It's Francis Ngano and Alistair Overeen, who frankly shouldn't be ranked because he retired from MMA. So he has one win over a guy that's currently ranked in the state. the heavyweight rankings, and it's the same dude who just blew his frigging doors off last year. Like, Stepe is still a very good fighter and probably can win a lot, but we just haven't seen him compete against any of the top guys, and he's going to have to this year.

He is, like I said, I think he loses a rematch to Angano. I think he loses to Ghani. I think he loses to John Jones if that ever happens. And I think just given what we don't know, there's a big opportunity for him to lose. to some young up-and-comer like Tom Aspinall or whatever. Like for me, I won't be stunned if I'm wrong. Like you can age well at heavyweight, but he's 40. He's going to be 40.

And I think that this is just it, you know. I think the wheels are going to finally come off. I'm not wrong. I was just early in saying that Steepa sucked and was terrible. I wasn't wrong. I was just early. And 2022, I'm finally about to get paid on that. You are never welcome in the city of Cleveland ever.

If I didn't go to the land. That's horrible. I was saying, lucky you. I was insane. It's okay. Damon's not here. Listen, I have to ask then,

Jed, why did you still have a number three? Why not drop him out of the top five? Why not drop him out of your top five already? Because I think, I think if they were to fight tomorrow, I would still pick him over Derek Lewis. I agree.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah. is, you know, he's very susceptible. So if we went way deep in my picks, there were a couple instances where my philosophy was hard to implement because I think, I straight up believe Curtis Blades would beat Steep Amyichich. I am less confident that he would beat Derek Lewis because we literally saw that fight happen. So there's a bit of like shunshundling.

So they're kind of clustered together. It's a bit of a rock paper scissors. Right, right, right. Kind of the broader rule I adopted was when that sort of thing happened, I defaulted to, you know, resume and wins over a world field. Yeah, secondary fact. Octagon control. Octagon control is your second.

Yeah, it's the octagon control of my philosophy. So, yeah, like, I think if Steepa fights Kurtz Blades, he's, he is just screwed. Like, I think he is straight up in trouble in that fight, and that totally could happen. And I still think, you know, it's hard to pick against Steepay for guys like Tom Aspinall who are unproven. But if I'm putting my life on the line, I think I'd rather go with 27-year-old or however old Tom Aspinall is and like what he, the flashes he's shown. I'd rather be on the rocket chip going up instead of the one who is uncontroversially on the downhill. Even if you think where he's at the downhill still above other guys, Steepa's not at his best anymore. So I'd rather

ride the train up than down. All right, AK. Hit us with your third one. Are you going to end on a high note, Gene, because mine's really sad. I am going to hand on hide-up. Oh, thank goodness. Okay, yeah, let me go first then, please. I hate to say this, but I think a lot of us are thinking it. And based on the ranking, I think a lot of us are pretty much sending him in that direction anyway. Demetrius Mighty Mouse Johnson.

It sounds, it's unbelievable to say it. Like, we're not far removed from him winning fights. I mean, he's coming off one loss. Winning fights. I look, Danny King Gad, I think it's solid. I like you, Yao Wakamatsu. But I mean, we're far removed from, you know. He's my number two ranked dude.

Don't have to sell me on him. Well, yeah. Wait, who's your number two? Oh, wait, who's your number two ranked dude? Oh, wait, no, I haven't at four. No, you have, yeah. We pretty much all have him at three or four. Yeah, we all have around four.

Stephen, Stephen has him at five. So we're all kind of, and look, it's a combination of one. The guys he's fighting are, again, good fighters, probably not as good as the current UFC Flyweight roster, which is very underrated. I think we all know. Flywood's in the UFC are really good. and some other promotions, but primarily the UFC.

So he's beating good guys, but not anything that's like kind of wowing us, not just blowing our doors off. Of course, he suffers that unfortunately lost to Mardais. And then his next fight, he lines up with Rotang. You know, he's going to do this sort of special rules like Muay Thai fight. And that's cool. Like I want Demetri Johnson to do other things outside of M.A. He's always said he wants to do kickboxing.

He might want to do a grappling competition. Who knows? He's kind of done everything he can do in MMA. You know, so I understand him being like, you know, if he rematches Adriana Marice, great. If he doesn't, he doesn't care. He just wants to keep fighting and making money, whether it's an M.A. But, I mean, as far as our rankings go, that means he's either going to get removed

for inactivity at some point, as far as in activity in MMA, or he's just going to fall out from not fighting anyone of note or possibly suffering more screwy losses, which can happen when again, when you sort of reached the stage of his career and I don't know how dedicated he is to just MMA anymore. So it really hurts me to say it. This guy was, as well, as recent as I went, two years ago was arguably the pound for pound or top three pound best fighters in the world. And now we might say he might not be a top five flyweight.

So I don't know. It's horrible to say. It's going to be 36 years old by the end of 2022. It's just that thing, man. The lighter weight divisions, it's so hard to age gracefully. Also, he's kind of like fighting bantam weights and he's not a bantam weight. And that's not helping. That's not helping.

I'll end on a high note. Please. I'll end with some positivity, and I'm actually like really stunned that this guy is still around. I had backups because I felt like this guy would end up getting picked way before this. But this is the inverse to my Holly home pick. With her, I felt like it was finally time for the decline. And with this gentleman, I feel like it's finally time for the proper escalation to happen. Because the truth is, if Magelmaid hadn't lost to a miracle Paul Craig Hail Mary triangle

at the buzzer in his UFC debut, this dude probably would have already been champion or at least fought for it. because we are up now to like seven straight wins in the UFC since then four finishes, fairly one-sided wins these last few against Nikita Krilyov and Volcanozimir, both of whom I respect immensely at 205. There is a sea change approaching right now in this division. It's inevitable. We've talked about it at length today with Glover Tashara and Jan Bolkovich. The champ is 42 years old.

Yon is 38 years old. You look at all the young talent coming up. I feel like Aunt Clive might be the best of the bunch. He's getting Tiago Santos in March. that to me is kind of like more of an awful fight for Shantos. Like that's more of like a lateral step than anything because I don't know how we how well we regard Tiago at this point. But I get it.

You get a win over a former title challenger. It'll probably be entertaining. After that though, I think they let go of the reins. And they just let 22022 become the year Ankylai have ascended at least into title contention. I don't know if you actually get that title shot, but I think he'll probably be in the mix by the end of it. Who knows though?

He might even leave the year with the belt strapped around his waist if things get a little weird. I'm just saying. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy that in our rankings. I didn't pick because I have him six. You have him high. Yeah. He's not moving up much for me.

It's weird. He's kind of all over the place in our rankings. Jed has him as high as six. We have him as low as someone else has low as 14. And everything in between us. And then there's eight. There's I see 11. I see 9.

I haven't been 10 currently. Right. So we're kind of all. We know he's a top five talents. I don't think anyone's disputing that. He's so clearly like one of the top five like most talented. light heavy weights in the world. And I like where your head's at,

Shaheen, like, yes, this is, it feels like everything's speaking at the right time. And it was, and that, that lost to, that freak loss to Craig is so far in the rear room mirror. For me, it would be shocking if he does not challenge

for the, the UFC light heavyweight title by the end of the year. I think, I'd be very surprised. Well, gentlemen, this has been a lot of fun. Oh, no. I have a question.

Okay, that's an important one. Hit me. Hit me. I assume that this guy would be taken. I could not take him because I have him number two how did nobody put Hamza Chamaev?

I didn't take him because I assumed everybody would. It's just too obvious. Yeah, it's just too. It's weird. I just can't because he's number two. It was out of respect for your rankings, really. I think we all saw him. I'm like, oh, he's already top five. Like, why would we even, why bring it up?

He's clearly at top. I thought you were going. He was like, oh, okay, finally we're going to close in the Hamzot show. That makes sense. We should have. Can we put him in the headline still? Can we still put him in the headline

in the tweet because no he feels like the given like he feels like the obvious choice right like I think we all kind of deferred almost to like whoever was going to choose him because he felt like such an obvious choice but that's a great point to call it out we all deferred to each other and I think also he's just sort of in his own

Hamzai is like on his own weird path where so many people I think already view him as a top five like a sure fire title contender and probably this year like it's almost not worth mentioning it's like we just it's yeah he's gonna he's gonna be in the top five almost no doubt by the end of the year. So, yeah, it wasn't just deferring to each other.

It's almost like deferring just also to like popular opinion. Like we're like, yeah, you guys all know it. Like, what's there to discuss? If we dedicate an entire ranking show to you, then you're not like a low key riser. There you go. Thank you. Yeah. So when we had the Arm on Sarukian show, when I won't pick him next year.

Well, that's surukian is actually probably the best choice of all of these. That was really good. I'm just saying, we have Chimaev at 11. He's not even in the top 10 of our. rankings and that's with me putting him at two by the way. I know. That's what that's trying to stop you. That means people are really low ball in Shemayev and it just felt like we should mention

him. Great call. Great call on that. Definitely worth mentioning. Put that in the URL for sure. Well, gentlemen, this has been a lot of fun. I look forward to at the end of the year looking back on these and just feeling very silly at all of us of how wrong we were about all of this.

But, you know, maybe we'll get lucky and hit a couple. In the meantime, this has been the first edition of 2020 for the M.A. Fighting Ranking Show. We appreciate all of you so much for tuning in. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I hope this year is incredibly successful and happy and just a good time for everybody listening. We love you all.

Thank you so much to Mike. Thank you so much to Jed for AK. I am Sean O'Shahti. This has been the NBA Fighting Ranking Show. Tune in next month. We'll see you there. Man, I'm glad we didn't get into pound for pound stuff, y'all, because my pound for pound rankings would make everyone.

more mad. I don't think that possible.