MMA Fighting - Rankings Show: Has Alexander Volkanovski Been Robbed Of P4P No. 1? Plus Predicting 2023’s Biggest Risers & Fallers

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

Has an injustice been inflicted upon the MMA world? With UFC 284 in the books, the Rankings Show returns to sort through the wreckage left behind by Alexander Volkanovski’s loss to Islam Makhachev. Co-hosts Shaun Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee are joined by Jed Meshew and Damon Martin to discuss the uproar over Volkanovski losing his No. 1 pound-for-pound ranking (5:40) and debate the fallout from a matchup that was supposed to determine the best fighter in the world. Was Makhachev’s performance worthy of the rewards it has reaped? Or has Volkanovski been robbed of what should still be rightfully his? That panel hits those topics plus the debut of two new welterweights in the top 15 (33:20), Johnny Eblen’s place in the middleweight landscape, and more. Then, we bust out our receipts to see who won last year’s predictions competition (57:00) and turn the page anew to predict the three biggest risers and fallers of 2023. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow Damon Martin @DamonMartin 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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I hope all you out there, having a great February enjoying your morning or afternoon, I guess, or rarely whenever you're listening to this. This is the MMA fighting ranking show. My name is Sean O'Shti. I am joined, as always, by my co-conspirator of this whole thing, the Prince of Positivity, the King in the North. Alexander K. Lee, an AK Baby, 2003.

We're just rolling now. We're in the thick of it. We're in that post-paper view glow. How you doing? I'm doing great after that show. Thank you also for the great introduction. Shaheen Al Shaddy. Yeah, listen, we all know, 2023 started off with some not-so-great-related news.

But once the fights started rolling, getting a little bit better, 283, maybe didn't, you know, didn't thrill from top to bottom. bottom but 284. I mean, nothing but good vibes. Great highlights. Some people are making good debuts, some people cementing themselves as future contenders. We'll talk about at least one of those names today. And a main event that might already be the best fight of the year, certainly might be the most controversial fight, even 10 months later, you know, by the end of the

year. So we'll see how that goes. We're going to talk about it a lot today. It's been talked about a ton just in the last 48 hours. And again, I don't think that discussion is going to go anyway. go away anytime soon from the action itself to the implications of the result to what is next for both of Alexander Volkanowski and Islam Makachev. So really, we couldn't have asked for more as media members from a from our UFC pay-per-view. Yeah, not only are we in the thick of it now, not only is this year rolling, it looks incredible the next few weeks here, the next like few months even where we just got these pay-per-view events lined basically like two weeks after each other every single time now.

The next three just looked tremendous. But today, let's dive into it a little bit. As you said, AK, this is our monthly peak behind the curtains of the MMA fighting global rankings. And let's bring in the rest of the gang here. Of course, the brains joining us on the panel this month. First, the legal eagle, the brains behind No Bet's Bard. Damn, they were good.

Do very good podcast. He is your friend in mind. He is Jed Mishu. And also the man, the OG, the host of Fighter versus Writer. He is Damon. How we doing, fellas? I'm doing so great right now, guys, I can't stress to you how excited I am about the conversations that are going on in MMA this week. So I'm pretty stoked to get to do this instead.

This will be a nice change of pace from the UFC 284 discussion. Oh, wait. That's where we're going to be, too. I just fully expect Jed to explode whenever I'm on these podcasts and I just revel in the explosion. That's what we're here for. We've got to give the people what they want. So as we said, I mean, we're coming in a bit of a short ranking cycle here. It's really only been a few weeks since we were last in this space.

We had one terrible, terrible fight night in there. One decent bellator event. But really, I mean, what is, can we say? The headline stealer, the beast of the pay-per-view that we just saw on Saturday, UFC 284, as AKC, headline front-runner of the fight of the year, at least the conversation setter for fight of the year, Islam Makachev, Alexander Volkanowski. Incredible scenes, gentlemen, just incredible scenes.

The fight totally lives up. the hype. We were coming in. It's number one versus number two pound for pound. And in the end, I mean, would it really be MMA if we didn't leave an event like this with all sorts of people? Just very upset. All this narrative out there, Islam's supposed to destroy

Alex. Instead, what very much happens is something different. Volkanowski shows up to scrap. He blows away everyone's expectations. He does better against Islam than anyone has in like seven years. Islam wins the decision. But in a weird way, I don't know if Volkanovsky wins the war.

but he certainly does something. He wins by pride rules. And now here we are. This fight was supposed to decide the number one pound-for-pound fighter and instead it feels like it's almost blown open this whole pound-for-pound conversation entirely. You have people out there questioning what pound-for-pound even means.

I'll admit this ranking cycle was hard for me, fellas. But here we are on this Tuesday morning. We have a new number one on MMA fighting. That's Islam-Machache. Our pound-for-pound top three right now, in order. Islam, Volkanowski, and then Leon Edwards, rounding it out. Six out of eight of us on the panel sided with Islam. You had two dissenters for Volcanowski. Jed, going to you first. Did we get this right? No, we didn't. And I say this as a man

who had Islam at the time we had to put in our ballots. But full transparency, guys, we had to do those pretty quick after the event. And I spent the whole evening while we were doing other stuff like vacillating between it. It was like I don't really know who should get here. And then I ultimately defaulted to Makachev because that's, I think, honestly, I think that there's a lot of the experience here, not to put words in other people's mouths, but it's very close.

And we just, I defaulted because he won the fight in a fight that was built pre going into it as the battle for the top pound for pound fighter in the sport. But I don't think he's in it. Certainly by, I think, the broader traditional definitions of pound for pound, it's a super nebulous term. But I think by those, it definitely should go to Alexander Volcanovsky. And I think I was listening to, been imbibing a bunch of content. I was listening to a podcast from the great Jack Slack,

who did his sort of after the fact. And he said the thing that sort of resonates with me now and has made me think that Alexander Volcanowski actually should have the top spot, which was just pound for pound, very simple form is pound for pound. And one of those men had more pounds than the other. And the fight was close. Granted, I thought Islam won. I don't think that there's any controversy whatsoever about it.

But for it to be that competitive, it seems to me like Alexander Volcanowski should still have it. So I don't think we got it right, but I also don't think. think it's that big a deal. It's wrong by by the smallest of margins in this case. It should also be noted, Chad. You had Islam. The other reason that you, I think you were comfortable putting Islam number one is you had Islam number one going into the fight. Yeah, that is certainly true. I was one of the few people who had him as the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. And again, none of that was based off of like true accomplishments because his wins don't stack up the same. But to be frank,

Volcanovskis don't like if it was just based on wins over competition like actually Francis and Ganu should be the pound number one fighter because he is more dominantly beaten more top guys in his weight class but everyone factors in some other stuff

and so I ended up going Makachev Volk Marino and Ganu Edwards I think to me those should be the five and honestly I don't really care much which order you put it in. But I do think if I had more time,

I think I would have gotten to Volcanovsky's top pound for pound fighter, but based on the way our cycle worked, here we go. And I don't think it's wrong to have Machachev at number one either. So I got to say, I'm a little surprised. This is not how I expected you to start off this show. But then again, I feel like I'm coming around to where you are right now as well. What? It's really hard.

What is going on here? What is going on? Hold on. It's really, it's really hard. I thought Jed was going to explode. I think my head's going to explode. David, do so. Do something.

All of my anger is about all of the stupid parts of this fight that have come out afterwards. Not the fact that the fight itself and the competitors therein were unbelievable and the best in the sport. Can't take that away. Every single narrative that has happened from the moment the scorecards were in, should die in a fire. That's all idiotic, but this is totally valid. Well, so I want to say one thing I want to note in your, you know, so opening conversation about this, you mentioned this is all just fun, right?

Like, this is not serious business. I want to get that out there right ahead of time. Like, this is not serious business. This is just barbershop talk. This is just the fun part of the sport. None of this is real. There's no objective right answer. That being said, you're right.

We filled out our ballots right after the event. It's very late at that point we're making quick decisions because we have to turn this around very quickly. When I did my ballot, I put Islam number one as well. And a lot of that was the same reasons as you, right? This is the conversation we were having leading into the event. Hey, the winner of this fight is the number one guy.

This is what it is. This was the whole pitch line when they were in the cage together last year, Volcanovsky saying my number one ranking, your belt on the line. That's what this is. I didn't feel good about it at the time when I put Islam number one, I felt weird about it. And we talked about it a little in the post-fight show where this is one of the most unique

fights I can remember coming out of in terms of how people are regarding the victor and the loser and just the conversations around each other because I think there's a very valid way to come out of that fight thinking that Islam Anka-chev objectively won the fight. He did win the fight. That is not controversial for me to say it. I had a three-two. It's a very close fight. Pride rules, bulk wins.

But Islam won. But I come away from it still being more impressive. by Alexander Volkanowski. And that just feels like a weird place for us to get to. Damon, did you struggle with this as much as Jed? And I did, because you had Machachev number one as well. And it feels like you feel good about that. And I don't know that I feel good about it.

I feel good about it because they fought an Islam Makachiev won. Also, that, important note, they fought at the same weight. Yeah. So, okay. Let me, let me, two things I would say with the whole thing about Volcanozky coming up and yes, he's giving up size, that's part of the, that's part of why you can't, we can't negate Makachev's win simply because Volcanovsky is moving up in way. That doesn't count because then we're going to negate everyone who's ever moved up in way because, well, they were giving up size. Volcanovsky took the risk. He lost. End of story. Now, if you wanted to argue with me better overall resume, I could start to see that logic a bit because, in my opinion, the biggest mark against Islam Makachev being number one is he has two wins over top 10 opponents. He has Charles Olivera and now he has Alexander Volcanowski. The rest of his resume is a lot of guys sitting outside the top 15.

So if you want to say, well, Bobby Green and all the other wins he has on his record, he has Armand Syruki and very early on Armand's debut. You can't sit there and use that one because that was way before Armand was an established lightweight. that argument, I would start to understand because Volkanowski has a much deeper, much better overall resume. But they fought. Islam won. That to me is the end of the discussion. They fought.

They were right next to each other. The guy who won gets to be number one. And I think that just to me settles the discussion. Now, did Volcanowski show him to have a great fight? Absolutely. Did he do better than a lot of people gave him credit for? Absolutely. Did he win?

No. So to me. that settles the discussion. They fought at the same weight. You know, we've seen, I mean, Connor went up from one feather weight and light weight and won, so we can't hit center and say it can't be done.

We've seen lighter guys go up and wait and win. So yeah, I just, I don't see the argument for this one again. If you want to make the argument to Islam doesn't have a better overall resume and he shouldn't be number one based solely on that, I actually would agree with that more than making an argument based on the fight itself, because based

on his resume, he doesn't have, as deep of a library of wins as Alexander Volcano three wins over Max Holloway trumps the one win over Charles Oliver that Islam had before Saturday night. But again they fought

Islam won. He is now ahead of him. Is it that simple though? Right? Like what is this? It can be. It can be. I guess it can be. Here's my thinking. Sheen, you said something that really summed up how I felt. I don't

feel good about it. But the truth is, if I'd gone the other way, if I'd gone Volk-Machachev, I wouldn't feel good about it either. I think that there's just no good, like, I wouldn't feel good about any of these. There is nothing that I am like, yeah, bulletproof, ironclad, that's what it, that's what it is. I don't know what you got. Until John Jones, maybe wins that way. I don't know what I was talking about. I slept like a baby. I, oh, so we should tell people now, I'm one of the two. Yeah. Let's get to these. I'm one of the two of Okunovsky guys. Oh, no, no, add the second part of that where do you have Mockachev ranked? What do I have Mockachev ranked?

Not two, I believe. It's not number two. Yeah, I'm okay with that. Yeah. You have a guy. Crazy man here. Oh, am I now? Oh, am I now?

Just to give people context. You were sort of the first one to light this whole discussion on fire. Almost immediately after the fight ends, you had Vokonoski number one and you felt I wasn't going to be the only one. And apparently now I'm not. Because I have foresight. I can think, you know, I have, I can think ahead. and process my thoughts quicker than others, I guess.

I'm special. I don't know what to tell you. I slept like a baby. How do you have foresight? Explain to me the foresight. I knew I wouldn't have any regrets. I'm like, how will this fight? How will I think about this fight in come Monday morning?

I'm like, you know what? Probably the same way. And guess what? I'm fine with it. I have no regrets. So make the case for us because right now it feels like there's two factions in this discussion, right? What is it? because there's no actual criteria.

This is all fake. Like all of the pound-for-pound stuff is a fake conversation. So there's no, the people will say, oh, that's not the definition of pound-farbata. There is no actual definition. Yes. The problem is, should the criteria more heavily favor who wins an actual head-to-head matchup

between fighters who are, you know, somewhat comparable in size, like these two gentlemen were, like, they're not the same size, but they were somewhat comparable? Or do we take a result like this and just light it on fire and limit it to strictly this high, hypothetical, who'd win a hypothetical head-and-head fight of both these guys are the exact same size

rather than they didn't just hitting it for like two minutes on way in day where they were at the same number and then everything falls apart. Like where do we go with this? Make the case because I lost right now. Gentlemen, this is another reason why I slept so well because I have a system. You guys know I have a system. I don't just make rankings capriciously. I have a system. I've had a system for many years. I'm a man of science and I'm a man of science. So, So I don't have a lot of... Are you a man of corn nuts? That's a, I think that's a pseudoscience for being honest, but that's a whole of the discussion.

We don't need to get into that on this podcast. So I have a prime hydration zone. That is still being tested and I will not rule it out. Can I be the man of cocaine bear after Saturday night? Is that possible? We'll have to talk to Voxleyglego. You can have a lot of competition for that, Damien. It seems like such a lost marketing opportunity to not have cocaine bear be the John Jones

the John Jones event. Come on, man. So much tie in opportunity. They didn't do that. Let me preface this even further. I know I had to get into this at some point. But the other person who has Volcanowski number two is our own rogue panelists, the man, E.K.C. Leiden.

And he did something interesting. He had Makachev number one going in and switched Volkanowski to number one after. So he's the, I think he's the only. only one who did that, right? He's the only one who has. So that's, oh, yeah, it has to be because you and. Totally fits with everything Casey has ever gone. That is the most Casey.

I will try to make the case both for myself and for Casey someone. So I mentioned the science. So I do have criteria. It's probably not consistent up and down my top 20, but generally I'd favor first body of work. So body of work, we've talked about that. We'd all agree Volkanowski has a better body of work. And then my second would be hypothetical head-to-head.

This is when you get into the, you know, more broadly like, oh, if Franciscan Ghanu was a flight weight, how would he fare against like Demetius Johnson? If it's the same skill set or Tametrius Johnson were a heavyweight, vice versa. If they were somehow in the same weight class, how do their skill sets compare? Who would win if you paired them up, you know, 10 times, who would win the most fights? Like that's a sort of a hypothetical way to do it. And based on what we saw on Saturday, I do feel like with a little extra poundage I do think it would have affected the fight.

I saw enough from Volcanoz. Hold on, Jed, hold on. I saw enough from Volkanowski that I think he could win if they were. You're going to say they wait in at 1-25. No, I just want to ask a question. This isn't even comment. It's like a legitimate question. Please.

I'm understanding your criteria. Yeah. Do you think it makes sense for the criteria to be theoretical fight when they actually do just fight? Yeah. And as I was a third. is actual head to head, which is we barely. Oh, so that's a whole separate thing.

Okay. That's all separate. Because that actually like is part of my thing. We're like, honestly, if this same scenario happened pre-Paheta, pre-Edward Zussman, and like how we addressed it on this show, how that's sort of really janked up our whole rankings in some ways. It was the same thing. I was like, I don't know. They fought.

So, and the other people who fought and beat, I just sort of moved them. I was like, all right, well, it's fine. We'll move it to the top. and that's kind of where I defaulted here. But you have, you're looking at it from two separate ways of head to head. Yeah, yeah. That's hypothetical. And actual.

Yeah. And we don't often, obviously, we don't often get to see actual when we're looking at the top, like five, six, seven names in the, you know, in the pound for pound rankings. In this instance, we did get to, which is, first of all, we were blessed. So cool that we got to see it. And Volcanowski, in my mind kind of had that advantage going in where, like, as long as he doesn't get smoked. And I actually thought, like, one, people should know I scored the fight for Makachov four rounds

to one. though two of those rounds. A one true scorecard. 49-46, that's what I had. But certainly, listen, I don't hate 48-47 Volkovsky. I wouldn't score it that way. But there's a couple of rounds, very close.

That's fine. So I had, so Makachep won the fight. But in my mind, I was like, well, Volkanowski, as long as he doesn't get tool, doesn't get finished in the first or second round, just completely dominated and choked out, this is the advantage of being daring, of being the little, the smaller guy going up,

is that you have theoretically less to lose other than 22-fight, you know, win streak, 12-10, UFC record. That's what he was pointing in the line. Same with with Izzy going up to fight Jan Blockovich, right? It's like for me, it's the smaller guy has a little bit of an advantage reputation wise. They always going to have that in the pocket of like, well, I'm the smaller going up. So if I lost, it's because I was smaller. And I'm not saying people have to agree with this. Because again, you show up, you weigh in the same. That's how it goes. You are signed,

you know, you shouldn't necessarily be viewed as having like a any sort of handicap. But I personally think those 10 pounds make a difference. I know, I don't know how you put. put them on, it's fine, but it's just never going to be the same as fighting in your natural weight class. So, so Volcanowski had less to lose, had less to lose here than Makachab would with a loss. So there's a lot of scenarios for Volkanowski to hold onto his spot. There's only, like, again, one scenario for, for me, for Makachov to take the spot, or two, sorry, a dominant finish or dominant, you know, 50, 45 win. Then I probably move Makachab up. But, yeah, but the main point is to sum that all up is actually head to head is like the third criteria for me.

And again, mostly because it rarely gets to apply comparing so many other people on the list, right? So it's cool. We got it. It's just, I don't know if I can prioritize it. Can I ask a question, though, because here's the thing. When is he lost to Blahovic, we all said, well, size matters and he ultimately lost to 548, 47. He got dominated in the third round because he got taken down.

He couldn't get the heavier guy off of him. But to me, that was a worst loss because Blahovic, and I love Yon Blahovic, but Blahovitch wasn't a, It wasn't really seen as a dominant champion. He beat Dominic Reyes and he became champion, but Blahovic was being set up to lose to Israel out of Sanya. Let's all be honest about what was supposed to happen in that fight. He was a sizable betting underdog in that fight. He was supposed to lose that fight and Izzy ended up losing.

This time around, we were looking at a situation where Mahathev was a heavy favorite, and then he ended up in a much closer fight to most people anticipated, despite the fact that Alexander Volcanowski was everyone's universal number one pound for pound fighter in the world, yet going up in weight 10 pounds less than what is he had to deal with, going up 20 pounds to fight Blahovic, yet the expectation was lower on Alex because we're like, well, you know, Islam's so freaking good and he's so dominant that he's just going to blow him out of the water and it's going to be a lopsided fight and this is he's biting off more than he can chew. Are we rewarding Volcanowski like after the fact, simply,

because he went in and performed as the best pound for pound fighter in sport going into the fight and kept it close now he lost i thought he lost the fight 48 47 i'm very very happy with that score card i don't feel it was a contract i had a close fight also let me also mean when we say close fight could have gone either way that kind there's no robbery here i know no one said robbery that's when people's always right he was not robbed it was a close fight but because wolkenovsky kept it closer than most of us intended are we just posthumously rewarding him for keeping it close. We all expected him to lose. I think that's what we're doing here because

Volcanovsky's incredible. He's an incredible fighter, and he came within one round of becoming lightweight champion against a very, very, very good guy. But I think that we're, I think we're almost overselling the accomplishment simply because he kept it close. But at the end of the day, what's the old saying? Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

He didn't win. He did not win. He came close, but he didn't win. So I just don't know how you can reward him for losing. But I'm not. I'm not penalizing him for losing. I already had him number one. So that's the thing. You could say maybe we shouldn't reward him.

So that would be that if you want, that's the, you want to talk to Casey if you want to talk with that because he technically did kind of reward him for losing. I simply didn't penalize him. I had Volcanowski number one and he's still number one. But the thing is like he didn't, he didn't lose. Like he lost the contest, right?

I don't know that he lost the fight. Oh no, don't do it. Don't go down that road. Jed, Jed. Jed, Jed. Like we don't even need to go down there. By your tongue, Jed. I've made the journey.

I'm back on Islam as my number one. So good discussion, guys. You got me back. Yeah, because I think that I was just overthinking it. And it's just like, and maybe this also is probably a personal thing in a lot of ways. I, the narrative has gone to a crazy place. Like what Damon said is true. Yes, when Izzy moved up here.

he was supposed to win and it wasn't against a guy that anyone really even respected. And we have some people, me, were super on the Islam's going to wreck him. We have acted as if I am the determiner of the entire narrative space. Because like if you watched our pros predict YouTube video, a majority, a vast majority of the fighters picked Volcanovsky. Well, there was a lot of hometown bias going on there. There's a lot of Australia fighters. My point being also everywhere else, if you talk to people in the media, very few of them, I was won.

So it's weird for me to be the one saying it. But I can also say it definitively because I was one of the few guys on the corner of Islam's going to beat the shit out of him. Everybody else, all of y'all included, said, well, I think Islam's going to win because he's too big and stuff. but man, Volk's really great, and this could be really interesting. But that narrative has just entirely morphed into the thing Volk's been saying of none of you's believed in me. And it's so, I don't think that that's real. And I think that that is absolutely influencing our takeaways from this fight because the entire takeaway is, man, Volk is super, super good, which is a fair takeaway because he is super good.

It's great performance. but it's not, holy shit, Islam-Machachachachov outstruck Alexander Volkanowski for 25 minutes, which that could be the, like, that could easily be the same thing, because for whatever you think about Islam's going to run him over, if you don't believe the stuff I just said, it is undeniable that the narrative was, if Islam can't take him down, he's going to get murdered. And that is not what happened at all.

But that's not what's happening here. And I think it's entirely a facet of people don't really like Islam, the way they don't gravitate to him. He doesn't have the it factor that Habib did. He didn't handle his win great. I'm also, I'll be first to say he didn't do great there. But Volk is a charismatic guy that people are into, and I think it's all shaping this conversation

in a way that is really, really warped. And so I'm back on it. I'm back on Islam. Top pound fighter, baby, let's go. People don't understand this man has been, he's like, Jed, like all of us, enjoyed that fight immensely. But the discourse around it.

The discourse around it has driven him mad. I will say you are watching a man break down. Also, I'm getting the discourse directly because it came to my point, I was one of the few people who was really on that corner of, I'm going to beat the shit out of this dude. And so all of the haters have come for me. And that's okay. Like, I am fine with that because I went out on that corner. You got to reap what you so, buddy.

But it is insane to me that 20 minutes after that fight, I thought, We'll be like, that was a hell of a fight. We're going to talk about it and think about it for a long time. But now we can move on with our lives and go back to business. And now it's, did he rehydrate? And are they going to run this back? And maybe Volk won four of the rounds because reality doesn't exist because we just want him to be the best. Because it would make us feel good if we were part of watching the greatest fighter of all time instead of we came to the sport too late to see Fador in his peak or whatever.

I don't know what's shaping it, but it is driving me insane. I don't know. This whole conversation hurts my head, and I don't feel good about it. And I don't feel that I would, I don't know that I would have felt good about it either way I went. And it's to me the weirdest example of pound for pound just being a very bizarre, nebulous thing.

Because even when the Izzy, Lecovitt's fight happened, people weren't ranking Yon above Izzy after that fight in a pound for pound discussion. Like that just that wasn't what was happening. So it's all weird. I just, it's all weird. I just think it's,

first off, let me do, to agree with what you're saying, pound for pound is such a weird one because there's no right or wrong answer. Let's be clear about that. There is no right or wrong answer because there's no set criteria. But again, I just think wins and losses have to matter. And because what you said, I agree with you in theory and a lot of what you said about hypothetical matchups and are you doing accomplishments versus, you know, the matchup of, you know, if Demetri's Johnson was a heavy way, I

understand all that. But in the rare instances, when we do get these pound for pound fights, so to speak, we do get to see two guys within that ranking fight each other, results to me, how have to matter. And it matters in this particular instance because of how Islam was already near the, again, if Islam was like number 10 and he, and he won a close fight, maybe I wouldn't, but he was already right there. He was already like number two at worst or number three at worst on everyone's ranking. So to be the number one guy, to me, right, the result has to matter at least a little bit. And that's why I put him number one. Now, I'll be honest, this is all a moot point because I'm going to throw a spoiler on here right now. March 3rd, March 4th rolls around.

Yes. John Jones wins. Sorry, Islam, you're getting bumped because I'll tell you ahead of time. I'll give a spoiler for our rankings coming out on March 5th or whatever date that's going to be. John Jones will be my number one pound for pound fighter in the world, assuming he beats the real God. I don't know if that, I don't know if he's going to be surreal gone. But if he does, sorry Islam, sorry Alex, you are now number two and three respectively because John Jones will be number one. John Jones can't be number one.

You can't do it. He hasn't fought in three years and wins one. I can't do it. He won't even be my number one heavyweight. like Francis and gone who has to lose that title for you for you to get that spot. You can't be the number one pound for pound fighter when you're not the number one in your own damn division. Again, I think John Jones is the goat, period. But if he comes back and absolutely wipes the mat with Surrogon, unlike no one has actually done yet in the UFC.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying. I think the narrative will change. I don't make the list. I can't move him to one. I don't have Sudilgan in my top 20. So beating him does not make you the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. Like, it just can't. There's just no way I can.

I can't do that. I'll say, I'll say this. If he was still the light heavyweight champion and did up, that probably would be enough to be like that. But he just hasn't fought in three whole years. He's not relevant. Don't relevant to the conversation right now.

Yeah. Don't fool yourself, Jed. No offense to Jamal Hill and Yuri Parascia. John Jones is still the O.C. Light heavyweight champion. I'm just throwing this out there. He's not. He lost to Dominic Reyes.

Last time I saw John Jones, he basically lost a fight to Dominic Reyes, who hasn't won a fight since. John Jones lost to Dominic Reyes more. convincingly than this stupid lightweight fight we're talking about. John Jones hasn't looked like John Jones since like Obama was president. Like this is not a, this is just not. John Jones, I'm telling you, John Jones comes back and wrecks the roll gone.

The conversation is going to change in a hurry. I'm just telling you. It will. It will be undeserved. It will never, for me, it will never change to he's now the number one time for time fighter again. That ain't happening. Not right away.

I mean, obviously he can get there. He's frigging John Jones. But with that, with one win, he could finish gone. in 30 seconds. I'm not making number one. What if, not trying to put this out there, knock on what doesn't happen, what if terrible thing happens, zero gone, gets injured in the next week. John Jones faces Jailton Almeida for the U.S. the heavyweight title.

Almeida beats him? Will that make him the number one pound for Belmont? Will that make Jelton Elmada the number one pounder? 100%. Yeah. Yeah, if that's what you're asking. Last thing, really super fast. And then let's move on because we've talked about this for two old.

This conversation now that's sort of arising today in the past few days, past 48 hours, is baffling to me a little bit of the idea that they should now book a rematch. I don't know why this is in the space. Why did you bring that up? Jen's already. We're going to do this super fast. Yes, no, that seems crazy to me. Absolutely, you should not book a rematch around the horn here.

What? What are you guys saying? Immediate? No. Immediate. No. God, no. No.

I don't think it's ridiculous to want the. best featherweight in the world to fight other feather weights that aren't max friggin holloway or if they want to do it he has to drop the featherweight belt at least that's acceptable it's still stupid and really bones benel darius who deserves to fight for a title but come on people he lost the fight no he took a shot he missed no he took a shot he missed go back to your division do you think of feather weight and there we go we'll leave it at that uh excellent moving on. Two quick notes I wanted to mention before we hit our last segment here,

which should be a lot of fun. Bellator doesn't always give us a ton. We're being honest, but it does, it did this past cycle give us two at least more noteworthy moves of the month. Johnny Ebblin, undefeated Bellator champ. He vaults way up the 185 pound rankings.

He was number six. Now he's a consensus top four middleweight in the world in the eyes of MMA fighting. He even got a first place vote from someone. Will he can into that in a second. And then the other development over at Welterweight. Actually, two new names, not just Bellator.

You had Lorenz Larkin and Jack Delamadalina, Jackie three names, debuting at number 15 and number 14, respectively. This was probably long overdue for Larkin. He's been quietly killing it over there for a while. And this was actually probably sooner than expected for Delamadelaan. I mean, Walter Wade is deep as all hell. And the fact that we are already talking about him in this space and he's appearing on this list, just four fights into his UFC career.

I think that speaks volumes. But let's start with Eblen. Damon, top four middleweight in the world, Johnny Eblen. Does that sound right? Yeah, I think it sounds right. I can't remember I have to look at my rank and see why I ranked him. I admit six. The problem, here's, here's, I think Eblen is that good.

Let me say that. I didn't rank him in the top five, but he is that good. Here's the problem. And this is the problem a lot of Bellator guys run into is that the lack of competition. He just beat Anatoli Toecoff. He's a pretty solid guy. And he beat Gaggard Musassi who's a legitimate legend. We all agree on that.

I can't put him any higher, though, because he's not, who else is he going to fight at middle weight? So is he that good? Yes. Can he go much higher? Probably not. Because, again, this is the problem, unless you're in a deeper division, like, let's say, Bantamweight, which I think Bellator has an incredible Bantamweight roster. You can argue featherweight, of course, I had Patricia Pitbull, pretty high at featherweight,

and that was a lot to do with his rivalry with A.J. McKee, where they were battling back and forth, and I thought A.J. McKee was that good. now he's out of the division. But yeah, I think it all comes down to that. Is he that good? Yes. And stylistically, I wish we could see him in the UFC because Johnny Eblen is stylistically a nightmare for guys like Adasania and Pereira.

But we're not going to see those fights. They just, you know, they're locking that dude up to contracts and he's not going anywhere. And again, is he good enough? Yes. Will he ever climb higher for me? Probably not. You know, guys faltering and falling from the UFC, sure. But again.

Who's he going to fight? I mean, Yel Romero, God, I would love to see Yel go back down the middleweight and see that fight, sure. But I don't know if Yel is going to want to cut to 1 85 again. Yeah. And for transparency sake, for the audience, number four, obviously below the UFC Big Three, which is Pereira, Izzy, Whitaker. Now, I will say, people at home probably sitting here wondering, wait, did Sean really say something about Ebling getting a first played vote?

Yeah, I did. I did. Faithful listeners can probably guess the source of that first place vote. Jed, please explain yourself. The rogue panelist? Is it the, oh, no, it's me. I'm a little bit of what he didn't. I'm a little of this way he didn't join you.

Jed, please explain yourself, explain why you enjoy giving A.K. and I headaches so much. I'm really disappointed. The rogue panelist didn't join me either. So look, there was a thought, there was a method behind the madness. And I think you guys are going to be on my side once I reveal it. Maybe not the listeners. They're all going to be mad. but it comes down to a couple of things.

First and foremost, if Johnny Ebblin fought Alex Beheada, he would beat the holy hell out of that dude. And I feel pretty good about saying that. Do you guys at least accept that that is possible, if not probably true? I would favor Johnny Ebbler. I would favor Ebblin, but I would not favor him against Robert Whitaker in the slightest. So no, so that's definitely true. That's the thing.

if Pahetta wasn't the middleweight champ, this wouldn't be the discussion. If Izzy had won the rematch, he would have come in at three behind Whitaker and Izzy. Because I definitely wouldn't favor him against Whitaker, and I wouldn't favor him against Izzy, though I do think that he could have a chance against both guys. But I was looking at it.

I was like, I would favor him pretty comfortably to be Pahedda, which I don't think is insane. And I wanted to reward a great performance and an emerging talent. And being very honest, because of what Damon said earlier, there will never be a time

moving forward where I can justify putting him at number one. He just beat the only dude that they have for him. He's coming off to Musasi win and the tokoff win to top 15, top 20 wins. There is nothing better for him to do as long as he stays in Bellator, barring a Francis Ngano-like exit

for somebody from the UFC. You know, Paulo Costa, I know, is sort of in that range, maybe, but there's just never going going to be another time where he could get his flowers in this way. And so it was like, okay, the middle weights are going to fight it out. Behead and Adasania are going to run it back in April. And whoever wins that fight, depending on how it looks, may end up making them retake

the top spot. You know, we'll see how it all shakes out in that regard. But I wanted to reward a great performance by a great emerging young fighter. I wanted to, you know, give him his flowers. and also it still feels super freaking weird for Alex Peretta to be the best middleweight in the world, guys, because I think all of us could pick four different names on our ranked list. And that's not including several unranked fighters, because I imagine we'd all pick Bo Nickle to beat Alex Bejahda.

And that dude doesn't even fight. So it's like, it's still weird. It was like, I can justify this. So this is kind of, this might be a temporary ranking is what you're saying. It could be. It could be a temporary. Like, it's a reward. It most likely will.

It's a reward, but if Adasanya beats prayer, you're saying Adasanya will almost certainly jump back over him in that spot. Correct. Unless it's like some sort of a robbery decision. But if Adasanya beats Pahetta, he's going to jump back. And when he jumps back, Whitaker will also jump back. Weirdly. But as it sits right now, I have to have Pahedah in front of Wittaker in front of Adasania. And I have to have Adasania in front of Whitaker because I would also pick Whitaker to beat their shit out of Pahedah.

But those three dudes have fought and we can order them as everyone else has. So I was like, oh, I'll just put Eblen here. And this kind of solves a lot of problems while rewarding some dude. And it's okay. Well, I don't have it ranked that way. I will say weirdly, I actually kind of like Jed's justification because he's not saying it's a forever kind of thing. He's not saying it's like, because he's, I mean, he's admitting. He's like, you know, because if Pereira goes out there and just absolutely washes Izzy,

which I don't think is going to happen. He hasn't done that in three fights yet. I'm just saying like hypothetically, if Pereer goes out there and just lays waste to Israel out of signing the first round. I think we all feel pretty justified keeping him number one. And same thing vice versa. Ata Sondi goes out there and finally gets a win over Alex Brer. We're probably all going to feel justified putting him number one.

So, yeah, this might be the only time Ebelin gets that shot because he ain't getting it by beating anyone else in Bellets. I can tell you that much for Dancer. It will never happen. It will never happen over the next two years. I will also know. Beating a bloated Douglas Lima ain't going to get you that spot, buddy. I'm sorry. I will also note for the discerning listeners who may have heard the terminology I use.

I caved this week as well, in part because of this middleweight move. I don't know if you guys recognized that Leon Edwards is now the unanimous number one welterweight in the world. Oh. But I moved Leon to number one. I dropped Hamzot both because I was doing this Eblen nonsense and felt that I had to rob Peter to pay Paul, but also because Hamzat is starting to really look like he might not fight it Walterweight again.

and what with the calling out Robert Whitaker things? Like, well, this is how I'll justify all of this. Leon Edwards can get his flowers as the undisputed number one well-to-wait in the world. And I can also give Johnny Ebblin his flowers. A.K., this is what we get. This is what we get. We try to run a respectable rankings establishment,

and this is what we're dealing with. Gene, I was not like... You're the one who said it's about fun, Gene. It's about fun. Gene, I alerted you ahead of time. and I did say I had sort of I said I told Jed specifically not to do this move

I will say actually Jed did not tell me what he was going to do he just said should I essentially you know should I be a line stepper as I am known to be and I said habitual definitely the definition of habitual and I was like please don't and so I didn't know it was that everyone thing until later

but now that I see it like that's not as bad like that's not as crazy as I thought it would be I'm not sure what else I thought he was crazy I'm not going to stand It is crazy, but not based on Robbittaker. No, no, it is crazy, but not based on Jed's criteria. I will say, this is consistent with... Just because a crazy person has crazy rules that they follow.

It's consistently crazy. It's consistently crazy, but it is consistent. You know, I talk about... It's predictable. I said, listen, I told you, I'm an MMA scientist, but I also, that requires a master's, a master's in MMA math. And there's a lot of theoretical in there. and so I have to wrap my mind around some pretty crazy concept. We don't have the budget for the calculator.

I was going to say, are you bringing out the calculator, AK? I'm not allowed to. Are we breaking the budget for that? No, I'm not allowed to anymore. They've specifically told me in 2023, do not use the calculator. But Jed is using a combination of his own methodology plus classic, very traditional MMA math. And when you look at that way, it's not great.

Because Jed has said many times he bases a lot of his rankings on, would this guy beat so-and-so people ahead of him. Even if he hasn't fought them yet, his resume might not be as strong. So in this case, again, because Alex Perrer screwed everything up by becoming UFC champion, he really did, man. Jedd really has no choice but to butt him above Pereira. If he firmly believes that Evelyn would beat Pereira, and I think we all agree, Evelyn would be favorite.

So again, I don't rank that way. For me, I don't go based on hypothetical matchups. It's, again, it's maybe somewhere down the line in my criteria. I prefer to go based on accomplishments, but it is, Jed is being consistent. He's being consistent. I don't even think this is the most insane ranking I have, like my objective standards. I don't think so.

No, we're getting mad about the wrong thing, really. If you didn't want to be serious, right? You looked at almost any other way to mission I put a ranking in it. I think I have something way less defensible than this one and many of them. Ultimately, that's why it pays to have an eight-person panel because a lot of us will offset your crazy with reasonable. But he has top five. Congrats, Johnny Eveland.

Top five. It's a top five. Well deserved. To me, he fits right there after the trio, the UFC trio. Pivoting, talking about the welterways. Getting these two gentlemen here, Lorenz Larkin and Jackie three names. Damon, which Welterway newcomer were you most happy to see get in there? Let me just say to my tweet to my good friend, Alexander Kaylee, yesterday,

the person on this panel who voted Jack Delah Madelena as their rookie of the year, in 2022, that would be me. That would be me. Now, to be fair, I don't feel bad about Jelton. I'll made a winning rookie year, by the way. I didn't know what to. Are you trying to load it over Jelton? I'm just saying, I'm just saying my faith in Jack Della has been well established.

I think that dude's a monster. And Randy Brown is really good. Now, Randy Brown may not be, you know, top 10 guy. I'm not going to say that, but he's a good welterweight. And he just laid waste to him. It wasn't even a fight. He went out there and absolutely destroyed Randy, Brown. Jack Della is a really fun guy. And again, I think we're going to have to wait till

he faces some wrestlers to see how that Australian wrestling holds up to guys like a Colby Covington or even a Bilal Muhammad or even a potentially a Gilbert Burns, who's an incredible grapple on his own right. But I am all in on Jack Della right now as the guy. And also, listen, we all kind of admitted privately, and I'll bring it up publicly now, we all kind of forgot a little bit about Lorenz Larkin because he's quietly been winning in Bellator and weirdly on the prelims a lot and just kind of like out of sight out of mind. I don't understand their balance. I just don't understand what Pelham is done with this man.

It's such a weird thing in retrospect. Yeah, quietly putting together a really good resume. But again, here's the problem, you know, obviously if he ends up fighting, you know, MVP or he fights, you know, Logan Soorley or Amasov, one of those guys. Of course, he's going to have a chance to jump a lot higher. But we haven't seen that yet. So right now he's kind of stuck there. Jack Della, man, I am sold on this guy. I love the Vicente Lucke matchup.

I think that's a really, really fun fight. I think that's a fight just begging for a knockout. I think him and Wonderboy be a really fun fight. Again, we got to see him against the ground push to see how high he can go. But I'm all in on Jack Della Madalena. The Larkin thing, just from what you just like, he's probably like a top 15 talent Bellator has on their roster. Like, he's disappeared.

Like, though, we even amongst the team. We had forgotten that he existed. They didn't even get that knockout on CBS during all that downtime. Oh, that's crazy. Can I say something? I did not forget about Lorenz Larkin. I just didn't have him ranked and I still don't. So I want to nip this in the bud.

It's not, why? I agree with everything Damon said, super talented guy and Beltor has done him at a service with their booking. But he's not a top 15 Walter Wade. I don't know why we feel like we have to apologize to Lorenz Larkin. So, So give me the case of why he's not because the case of why he is feels.

Hold on the case of why he is feels very, very simple to me. I mean, maybe in the top 25? Like, I don't like, why are we suddenly? Where is this reappraisal of Lorenz Larkin coming from? He, we know he can't beat like top guys at 170. We've seen him by top guys. He fought Paul Daly and lost. He fought Douglas Lima and lost.

Those are his two most recent like big welterate fights and he lost. And it pretty convincingly, it wasn't like, It wasn't like close. So we will also say that he's beat Neil Magny, who is like a widely ranked guy. We're knocking out Ponsonibio, knocking out Magni and beaten George Mazvedol, who you kept in the rankings forever. If he was a top 10 welterweight after the Neil Magnny fight, fine, then he loses Douglas Limit. He loses Paul Daly. And then that bumps him down.

That bumps him out. You're out of the top 15. You lose to Paul Daly. You're out of tough. Paul Daly is not a tough Dene welterweight. You lose to him. You're out. You don't get back in with, and I'm looking at it was five years ago.

And I have to Wikipedia this. doing this, well, the Magni and Masmedo fights were six years ago, and you bring those up. So now, so which would we, we were not counting his losses from six, from five years ago, but we're counting his wins from six years ago. That's how this works. That's a little weird. You don't bounce back. And again, I'm doing this for all of us because I know none of us remember any of these fights.

A catchweight 180 pound fight with Fernando Gonzalez. So he'd fine, good. Jan Pascoo, incredible win. Andreikorikorik, I'll give him credit. I think Coruscos is really good. Spitz decision win. Corzkov, Colvalo and Nakamura were good. Good ones.

Cavalio is a middleweight fight. Nakamura. Markle, you're getting real frosty. I'm not against what you're saying at all. I don't think that he has to be a ranked welterweight, but you're just coming in real hot. I am.

I was like, I don't, you got me when you were like, he's proven he can't be cop dudes. Like, well, he has done that before. No,

and I want to say like everything that's happened since, Nakamura, catch weight, he missed weight for it. He didn't make weight for that fight. Cavalio is a middleweight fight. Kyle Stewart, Kyle Stewart,

Kyle Stewart, It's Kyle Stewart. What are we doing? Did you even remember that fight happened? I have, and I like the Bukamov win, and that's about it. I have more of an issue with Shaheen's ranking of Lorenz Larkin than I do with, with Jedd's ranking of Johnny Eblon.

There we go. Thank you, Damon. Shaheen, I love you, but I actually am firmly on board with this line of thoughts. I love you. You are my brother from another mother, but Lorenz Larkin in the top 10, really? We're over compensating. A top 10, well, to wait, Lorenz Larkin. justify justify yourself

justify yourself on that one you have it you have it above amosov you have it above amosov I want to have tables have turned I'm not saying this didn't turn out like I thought it would I don't have Lorenzo my top 15

I do think he is good and I do think he's been completely undervalued but sure but top 10 that's a bridge too far my friend this is this is the the old man

called the ambulance meme but not for me, Shabee. Was I expecting, was I coming into this expecting? I felt like I was going to be on Island with this. I don't think I, I don't think this is very surprising to me. You want the defense. To me, the defenses, this is someone who left the UFC as a top nine welterweight in the world. And he lost to Douglas Lima, which at the time, he lost to Douglas Lima.

Douglas Lima was a top 10 welterweight in the world. And then he got knocked out by Paul Daly, which people get knocked out by Paul Daly, man, I'm sorry. Like, that's the thing that happens in the world. I can't fault somebody too hard for that. And since then, he has not lost. And he's fought some actually good people during that. And I just know, like, I have, what do you talk about?

We just said, Koreshkov is a good win. Carvalio's a good win. Kavanaugh is a good win. That was a middleweight fight. That doesn't count. That's a middleweight fight. Dude, you're talking about Volcanofsky and fighting it at lightweight. Like, people fight in different divisions.

I'm not faulting him because he fought a very good person at a different division. Even the last fellow he just fought. Burk, Berk-Ovoff, I don't know how to say the name. Like, that dude had a very legitimate record. He's not fighting cans out here. He has someone who has proven to be a top welterweight in the world, or at least not like a top, like in the conversation type of welterweight in the world. And the fact that he disappeared in the jungle in Bellator,

to me, like, that, okay, cool, that's just bad booking. Like, I'm not going to fault him for that. I don't have Lorenz Larkin as a top five welterweight in the world. But to me, he is pretty disrespected on the global scene. and if I was to put him up against, like, just say, Vesite Lucke, Jeff Neal, like, I don't know that I'm crazy, it seems crazy to pick Larkin to win that fight to me.

Like, if you put Larkin up against Michael Kiesa, I'm pretty sure Larkin would win that fight right now if I was picking it. So that's just where I'm coming from. He has a better resume than Jackie three names. As much as I love Jack Della Madelena. Like, Rez Larkin has a much better resume at 170 than Jack Della Madelena. if that's what we're really getting in our craw here. That's all I'm saying.

I like both of them. I'm glad both of them bring our rankings, but coming at me for this seems a little ridiculous. I'm not coming at you for ranking him so high. I'm not saying you. Fringe in the top 15, I'm okay with that. I had Jack.

And here's the thing. I had Jack at number 15. I would have felt completely okay ranking him higher, but Walterway's a snake pit. That's the problem. Like I bumped out Logan Storley, the current Bellator interim welterweight champion because we all know what's totally is, but I had him in number 15, but then I looked at the

range, like, you know what, Magni, he's fought a, you know, I'm looking at my 15, by the way, Magny, you know, again, loss is in there, but he's just a killer list of guys he's beaten. Kiesa is probably the guy that's going to get knocked out soon because, you know, obviously he's got to fight coming up with Lee Jing Liang, but he hasn't really fought a lot. I still believe in Brady, obviously Schavkots a monster. I'm a big believer in Amosov. It's just Welchewid so deep. So, like, Larkin being number 15, I'm okay with that.

Like, 15's cool. top 10 that seems a bit extreme to like make up for lost time yeah she and i think what makes it so strange is that there's we had if we go back to our like when we started the rankings i'm i'm pretty sure we had larkin in there or some of us did anyway he might have been a far he might have been in there maybe definitely a far and i think there's a reason he fell out he fell out around the carvalio fight really because it was just like well i don't is he coming back yeah yeah that was two fights in a row he didn't make 170 yeah and i don't and i don't think he's done enough to earn a spot back. That's that thing.

And it's not his fault. He's getting bellatord. He's getting bellatord. He's getting bellatord. He's getting belatord. We know this. This is a fact. He's been belatorchkov.

Korskov is a good one. Listen, I'm not going to take away Korskhov's like top. That's a good win. That's a good win. Ultimately, if your best five wins at Welterweight are some combination of Mazvidol,

Magni, Ponzi, Koreshkov. Like, if those are your best four, like that's solid. That's a solid best four at Welterweight. Like, I don't feel bad about this. y'all not going to make me feel better. I'm going to try to make you feel better about it.

But you guys, but I remember back in the discussion when I had Corey Anderson number one of light heavyweight for like a month before obviously he lost and other guys won. But you guys gave me hell for having him and I can bring it up the, the Glover to share thing. Okay, okay, maybe you were the one because everyone else like, oh, it was so long ago, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said it happened.

And yeah, listen, overall resume absolutely matters. It does. And I, that's what I said. We initially had Lawrence Lark and discuss. especially privately. I was like, geez, man. I kind of forgot how good this dude's resume is. It's absolutely killer. Again, I don't have a problem with him being on the fringe of the top 15. I really don't. I just, I can't, I think going top 10, when you look at the absolute murderer's row of welterweights, when you look at Shavka, when you look at Chama, the guys who don't even

have the resume that he has. Well, Chamev obviously has the winner of Burns, but I'm saying, they don't have as deep of a resume. I just can't see him top 10. I can see him top 15, but not top 10. But I don't have him above any of those people. Like I, for context sake, here's who I have Larkin above in my top 50. And I have above Kiesa, Madelana, Brady, Luka, Neil Amasoff. And the only one I probably feel bad about and that is Brady. And that's just because he's kind of had a weird road at this point. Doesn't have a signature win yet. Other than that, like, I feel perfectly fine with that. I think Larkin could win any of those fights. You have Larkin over the current Bellator champion. Yeah, Amosov's best win is Storley. Like this is, look, ultimately,

Whoever said he got Bellatord, that's the best explanation of all this. Man got Bellator. If you put together a top 15 list of the worst Bellator crimes, you can go 100 deep on that. But, like, Clarkin would be in that list of what they've done to this man in his career because there's no reason. Let's give some, but let's also give some flowers to JDM for that dude coming in and looking like a monster so far, man.

I'm a big believer in JDM. I can't. I like I said, whether it's Lucke or another fight, I think like I don't know what the ceiling is for him because, you know, I mean, eventually you're going to run into a tougher competition. And as I said, the wrestlers, I am curious how he's going to deal with guys trying to take him down. But so far, JDM, man, that dude's awesome. Monster.

I wouldn't put him up with like the Shemayev and Shavkat tier quite yet, but it feels like that is very attainable for him. That dude looks sick out there, man. I love JDM. I think that dude's a monster. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.

Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrantz sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. All right, fellas, well, let's move on. Last thing on the docket today. we wanted to do this last month. We just didn't have enough time,

so we wanted to squeeze it in today before it gets too late in the year. You see, around this time last year, we made some predictions. Some of us were very good with our predictions. Some of us were not. A.K. AK, I'll just do this momentarily.

I will just beat this. We predicted two things. Who was going to rise the most in 2022? And who's going to fall? Very simple. Three fighters each. And those three fighters could either be two things. They could be names who currently weren't in the divisional top fives.

At that time, I think we did this in January, but we expected them to be there at the end of 2022. Or names who did reside in those top fives, and we expected them to tumble out by the end of 2022. So basically that's a long way of saying either prospects you think are going to take the leap or vets you think are just going to have a rough year. Here are the results. We got the receipts.

Coming in last place, I'm sorry. He's not here to defend himself. He's off today, so we couldn't get him on. Mike Heck, who went 0 of 3. He had Armand Sarukian and Andre Munis making the jump and Jan Bakovets making the tumble, none of which actually happened. They all kind of happened, but not enough to get him to where he needed. So that's last place, AK now coming in third place out of four,

AK, you got Manin for, Manin for Firo. I can never get that name. You got her, you nailed that. The other two, Mosaar Evloev didn't happen for you, didn't get the opportunity. I'm too far ahead on that. And how dare you, Demetrius Johnson, is, well. I was right. What does that mean? I said he's not going to be a top five flyweight by the end of the year. We're not doing that. No, he competes at 135 pounds. He's not top five bantam weight. So what

are we talking about? Where's he ranked in the UFC in our rankings? Not the other rankings. I mean, listen, our rankings are a little screwed up. I don't think we, I think we need to reappraise. You run the rankings. No, I know. But I'm just saying, I think we all know he's really a bantam way. and I think Qifada 135 is clearly not a top five band to play. We're not doing this. I got two out of three here. Let's be honest. I got two out of two.

I love that every rankings pod inevitably goes back to the same three top. It's an important. I don't even know what you're talking about. This is pretty clear. It's pretty clear if it's at 135 and it's no longer a top five flyway. That's what I said. I said he wouldn't be a top five flyway and I'm right. So A.K. got one out of three.

I got two out of three. I had, I predicted the fall of Gagar, Musassi, which made me very sad in the moment. And the rise of Mago Medan colliam. I also had Holly Holman there, which I feel like I got right, but she's still number five because that division. That's so wrong. If women's bandit weight fought ever, if women's bandituan had fights, like I would have gotten that right, but I didn't, so I got three.

How is she not fall now that's tough? You got it by default because the women's bandway division is the worst, the worst division in mixed large lines. For the audience, now on our ballots we fill out every month, there are now two people that have burn it to the ground written on their women's bantamway ballot. Jed has put a trend here. Jed has started a shredder.

And then I feel no happiness saying this. This just pains me to say this. But Jed here coming in first place, you kind of got three out of three. I don't know that I would call it three out of three. I'm going to give it two and a half out of three. You had Kikara, France, Risen, nailed it. You had Glover DeSherra falling.

He retired. We'll give it to you. He'd still be in the top five, but whatever. Nailed it. And then you had Stepe Miochich falling as well, which, you know, he didn't even fight. He got removed for inactivity. If you want to call that a win, call it a win. I think most people are right.

He may never fight again. That's a full point. Yeah, that's a full point for sure. I'm giving them a half point. Falling out of the rankings definitely counts as falling out of the top five. That's a full point. I have more of a problem with the Glover to share. share it when he retired it's it was so funny he would have been

I'm sorry that you guys didn't have the foresight to pick a 45 year old man well I bet in this athletic endeavor he's probably not going to be as good as he will be in a years from now I'm just a genius I'm head of the curve guys so we'll give jed first place on this just like our introductory conversation with Islam invulc this is the decision I've made I don't feel good about it though either way we're going to do this again. We're going to do the 2023 version. So let's get to it.

Are you allowed to have overlap or no? Yeah. Okay. In terms of like picking the same ones. Yeah. Let's try not to, but if we have a ton of choices. Yeah. I have a lot of backups if in case I need them.

Okay. We'll try to zoom through this. We don't need to take a lot of time on this. But Jed, since your first place here, start us off. You want to start with some happiness. You want to start with some sadness wherever you want to go. The board's ears. The question is, so I have, I could name probably five guaranteed sads.

And sad is maybe not the right word. I'm not sure everyone would be sad. It may be a little cheap, but I'm just going to get on the board. You know, lead off hitter. You just want to get the ball in play. I'm going to go to the women's flyweight division. And Caitlin Chukagin, who has been a staple of this division since its inception, there's almost no chance.

She remains in the top five. of this weight class by the end of this year. So I'm going to lead off with Chukagin. I don't think her Chukagianing days are over. Yeah, that's true. She's going to Chugin a couple of people this year and just hold on to that five spot. The thing is who? She just lost a furor.

Is she going to replace Chivchenko and drug? No, she's just going to hold on to five. Like she's just going to hold on to five. Like that's five. That's my concern. There's too many young up-encumbers. You got Grasso, you got Blanchfield. O'Neill, there's just too many of them.

I don't think she can hold five. I think she's gone. She may not drop like all the way out of the whole ranking, but I don't think she can hold five anymore. I don't disagree with that pick. I don't disagree with that pick. I think that's a solid pick. I just love the uniformity of Chukagi

and Ian being a verb. It's just so good. Yeah. We all know exactly what it means. The split decisions will eventually go against her. So, you know, she'll get a few in there where she's just not going to win. You can't high roll it every time. Yeah.

All right. A.K. Hit us. I guess I'm taking the obvious one. I think this is what Jed was talking about about there being overlap. I mean, Jelts and Almeida. I left that one for you.

Yeah. We're all going to talk about it. Yeah, Jalced Almeida. I mean, I think this guy, if he got a shot at the title, could be a UFC champion,

like, by the end of the year. So that's not going to happen most likely. But will he be in position to fight for the title, like early 2024? Yeah. And it's going to be with a firm top five ranking behind him. So not a lot. Where is he right now?

He's number nine? I mean, he might even be too low. He jumped force boss after his last fight. I get it. He hasn't faced the best competition yet. But that's what's going to happen this year. He's going to line up a couple of top 10, top five names and just comfortably be a top five fighter. All right.

I like it. You know, I like it. Damon, where are you going? I had two risers. And I'm debating which one I want to pick first. But I'm going to go with probably the most obvious choice. So I'm just going to stick with this one. Shavkat Rackman off.

I think he is top five. and I think he will get there. He was my most obvious riser. Damn. Yeah, that was the one. I was torn between him and one other guy, but I decided to go with Shavkat. I think him beating Jeff Neal. That's a tough fight.

I don't think it's a foregone conclusion. He wins, but yeah, I got Shavkat. I think he's like the other Chamehav level guy who will get in that top five this year. It's just a matter opportunity for him, right? He's just got to get the fights. I was going to say it's tough because our top five right now, Leon, obviously, Kamzat, Kolby, and Gilbert. I guess Colby could fall out with.

in activity or if he gets the wrong matchup. But he sure it's tough to fall in. It's tough to break into that like that very specific five names. It's tough to get a fight with them and also they're tough to beat. I'm also betting he got Jeff Neal which was a good step up for him because Jeff was coming off to

win his winner of Lukey but if he wins that fight I also I'm also playing into the prospective futures rankings that we do here at the podcast because at MMA fighting because like Jed has Chimaya number one or number two now, I think there's going to be some Shavkat believers who are going to put him in that top

five, even if maybe he already has Shobot. I have a three and shop cut at four. You're already out of what I'm saying. I don't think it's going to take that much more. He goes out there and Rex Jeff Neal. I think we might already get some top five votes. You're just playing to the audience. You play it.

I am. I fully am. Hey, I like it. That's good strategy. All right. I'll go next. It seems like everyone's kind of picking safe so far. So I'll be the first one to light this whole thing on fire.

and maybe take a step out there that I'm not sure about this, but I could see a road. And so I want to paint that road for you. I hate to do this. I really do. It pains me to do this because I like this man very much. But there feels like a very clear path for 2023 to be the year from hell for Charles Oliver.

You son of a bitch. Did I steal one from him? That was like my number one that I wanted just so I could make A.K.'s eyes green on this pod. That was my. That was my backup pitch, Jeanne. That was one of my backup picks. I was like, maybe I'll pull out the Charles-Lavar card. All right.

We're all burning it down because look, the case is there, right? Like he has this fight with Benil Daryush probably. If he loses to Benile drops a little bit. Then he loses to one of the other guys out there, right? A physiof, a Gamera, a Serukian, whoever. Suddenly he's kind of out, right? Like this division has been clogged up for so long, and we have been banging the drum on this.

but I've been fighting for so long of just these guys are not getting their opportunities. These youngsters are not getting their opportunities at the dudes who are just squatting on rankings. And this does feel it feels like 2023 is the year where that starts to change. And these people finally start to get the opportunities that they've been needing. Charles Oliver has a ton of mileage on him. He's much older in fight years than he actually is in actual age. He's out there on the Roy McDonald program. Like he is 33, but he's really like 37 probably, right?

When it comes to fight years. It happens to everyone at some point. You never knew who could come up and surprise. in this division and sometimes the fall off is quicker than we ever imagine. Dude's been living on the edge in all of his recent fights. He's been dancing with the devil. He's in an incredible amount

of wars. Eventually, that just burns you up. I think this might be the year. I like that. It hurts me. It hurts me, but it hurts me because it's the truth behind it. I mean, it hurts. I don't feel attacked. I feel like enlightened. You know, that pain that comes with a lesson. You know what I mean? And also

lightweight is incredibly deep. So it doesn't take much for you to have one bad loss, another one in a really, let's say he loses the baniel badly, and then other guys are winning, you could easily drop six, seven, eight, you know what I mean? It doesn't take much. Say physium. Physium might just jump him over by getting a win over somebody else. Like, it's out there.

Plus, they might just give Volcanowski six shots at the light one until he finally wins one. So that's one spot already taken from him. And he won't squat. That's the problem with Charles, is of all these guys we're looking at the top. five, he's not going to squat. He's just going to be like, yeah, I want to fight. Just throw me. I like to have an exciting fights.

Throw me out there. So damn, he's too good for this world. I like it. Let me bounce off this one. Because Sheen, you've given us Charles Oliverer, which I firmly agree with these on my list. It's going to take him, but I'm not going to overlap. I'm going to go happy this time.

Oh, because as we remove the desiccated corpse of Charles Oliverer from the top five because he no longer serves a purpose and is useless. Why? He's going to replace him with the new. the exciting. The current champion and soon to be Grand Prix winner, Usma Nirmagamadov. When he wins the Bellator lightweight Grand Prix,

he will move into the MMAFining.com lightweight rankings. If he runs through that whole GP, which I think he will, I think that'll, it'll certainly be enough for me to have him up there, and I think everybody else will bump him into the top five as well. Yeah, he's number 10 right now. pick. That's a number 10.

He moved up one spot in our last cycle, so he's already trending upwards, big time. If he wins the lightweight GP, will you guys not put him in the top five? Because I feel like everyone kind of just will. I might. In that world, right, he probably has wins over Benson Henderson,

AJ McKee, and one of the tough Eastern Europeans. Yeah, dude, like, everybody in that lightweight Grand Prix is, is legit. Like, the worst fighter in it is Benson. It is a real, run. I'll go ahead and throw water on that and say no because Belator, Belator's lightweight division has been pretty awful for a couple years now. Beating Benson Henderson, solid win, beating Aegee

a guy who has not looked great at lightweight. If we're being honest, he's looked okay. He's not great a lightweight. No, I mean, not saying Oosman is not incredible. Usman is absolutely incredible. He's awesome. I think he's amazing. I would love to see him fight some of these top guys, but no, not for me. Not based on how deep lightweight is. And that's the problem. them because you got guys like Sarukian and Gamrot and Physia and guys like that. Tony Ferguson's, I know, yeah, let's not mention him. But yeah, I mean, they're still, you know, and they're still going to be, again, that's the, it's not, it's not that he's in a division that's so deep.

It's going to be tough for me personally to jump him, even with wins over A.J. McKee and Benson to say those are better wins than, let's say, Fizia beating Gachey or, you know, Suruking coming back and getting a big win over whoever, you know, I just, it's just To me, it's a little harder road for me to put him there, even though I think he's amazing. It's fair. This is certainly a riskier choice. I didn't want to go all safes. It seemed not as fun.

And this was definitely the most fun one I thought I had for for happiest, because I don't have a lot of happys. I have mostly sads. It definitely depends how he does it. If he's like super dominant finishing guys to the Grand Prix, it'll help us talk a lot. If like Michael Chandler, we have Michael Chandler at seven. If he loses to McGregor, I'm not putting McGregor at seven. I'm bumping Chandler out of the top 10.

So there you go. that his mom moves up a spot there. There's a way he can get there. It's tough because he has to get in there with like Justin Gaichi, Benil and Dustin Pori, it's tough. It's tough. The other thing in his favor, though, is we,

I mean, assuming he wins, which I am doing, we know he's fighting three times, which is, whereas the rest of these competitors maybe once, maybe twice. Like, do you think Pofil Fasiv is fighting three times this year? Every time, every time someone fights,

they usually get some kind of bond, right? It helps him. It should, yeah. So I'm playing the numbers. And plus, I need a new guy. You know, I was all in on Islam. Now I have a new number of men of them to be the champion. I almost put Umar in here,

but I actually just don't think there is a path for him to make it in the bantam weight rankings from where he is right now. Uh, AK, it is. I hate that I have to, I'm going to go a faller here. I hate that I have to go with another top women's fighter. I, but I do it, do it. And I'm a fan of this woman too, but I think the writing is on the wall for Carlos Barta.

Oh, that was my. Oh, yeah. I think the writing is the wall for her. A lot of people would have go like, well, duh, but it's like, listen, she's number, in our rankings, she's number two. She is the number two straw weight in the world behind only the champion, Zhang Wei. Some people might want to put her behind, I don't know, Rose Nomazunus, just because

they want to pretend that that second fight was like a toss-up or whatever. But listen, Carla won the decision. So she is our number two. I could just see, I think strawweight's a little bit underrated as far as like some good up-and-coming names. Not like, not quite like flyweight where we have like some clear blue chippers, but there's some good names of straw weight. And also just, I don't know, I guess she'd have to fight a lot.

The benefit is if she doesn't fight a lot, then she might not drop. She might build a squat on her spot. That's the reason she wasn't my number one pick off the board. Yeah. Is if she only fights once this year, she might hang on to it just just because if she like fights Lim motion loses, she might just. she might just, but if she fights twice, I think she's gone for sure.

Yeah, and again, this is no disrespect to Carla who, you know, leading up to her title fight where I was like so excited she got that second shot at Rose, got a chance to regain the UFC title, did it, it was very cool. Again, the fight, I know, not exciting. But yeah, she's just been in this game a long time.

And I think at some point it comes for everyone. So if I was going to predict a big drop, going from number two to out of the top five is, I mean, about as big as you can get. So I had to go with the spars on that one. It's fair. It's fair. It makes a lot of sense. Makes me sad a little bit because I feel like she's just been disrespected her entire career, even though she's a two-time UFC champion, but it's true us wrong.

Prove us wrong. I know she can do it. She's continued to prove us wrong, but it might be the end of the road. Damon, hit us. So I was going to go another riser because I do have another riser on my list, but I'm going to go with a sad one. And this is going to be one that's probably going to be one of the most shocking picks on this entire podcast. And I'm just going to go and say it. the guy who will drop out of the top five this year

Leon Edwards oh wow talking about the people who have consistently disrespected I think I think Leon loses to Usman I think Leon loses to Usman and then he has one more fight this year

and I think Leon has a lot of bad matchups at Welterweight because here's what I think could happen if he loses to Usman he ain't getting that fight again we all know that And then it's a matter of where does Chameh go? Is Chimayev going to fight a middleweight or welterweight? Because obviously we were supposed to see that fight several times. I could see the UFC being cruel and be like, here, fight Chimayev now.

He can fight Burns and that could potentially be a bad matchup. I could see him fighting Covington and that's still potentially a bad matchup. I could see him fighting. Below, I know Bilow had one round with him, but below's looks so much better lately. Are we going to sit here and say, Bilow would be that much of an underdog? to not potentially pull off that fight. Yeah. So again, I'm betting on bad matchups

near the top of that division and the fact that he was losing pretty handily to Usman until he pulled off the great comeback. It was an incredible comeback, incredible knockout. But I just think the Cinderella story is going to crash down at, you know, 12-01 in a bad way. So I'm going Leon Edwards dropping out of my top five. Wow.

Spicy. Well, here's the other thing. Spicy. Here's the other thing. He has, again, we talk about all the resume and like accomplishments and things like that. Leon has one really good win. And it's Usman. That's it.

He doesn't have a deep resume beyond that. So if he goes out to let's just say. Doesn't he also have a win over Lucke? That's a good win. That's a good one. Years ago, yeah. I mean, many, many years ago. Nate DSS.

Come on. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. That's the thing. Leon, again, Leon was another one we talked about when he beat Usman. We were all kind of like, God, what do we do here? is legitimately Leon doesn't have a resume that matches a lot of the guys at Weldaway, but he has the win of Usman. Again, it's not as, it's not as, it's not as, it's not as, it's not as, um, crazy as Pereira,

obviously, but I'm saying like, it's not like Leon has this deep, deep resume where he has wins over Burns and Mazvedal and, you know, Covington, all these big way, he doesn't. So if he loses to Usman, I get, if he goes out there, he goes out there, he's washed by us when it loses in a pretty lopsided fashion. And again, I'm not saying he will because maybe Usman is. towards the end of his career as well. But if he loses that fight, am I crazy thinking he could already draw back to three or four?

I mean, Chimae's still up there for a lot of us. Burns has been on a great streak recently. I mean, I'm not saying, like, I wouldn't be shocked if Edwards already drops back a couple spots and he gets washed by Usman.

And then I'm just one loss away. It's a compelling case. I am nowhere near on the same page with you on this statement, but I love that you did it. I think Leon will be okay with the next, next year. But I love that. I respect the bold. I'm also betting. I'm also betting on I'm trying to get in guys who actually might get two

fights in this year. If he loses to Usen and Marsh, chances are he'll fight again October November. Because again, a lot of these guys who don't have fight schedule right now, we're gambling on them fight. Like, I'm with Jed. One of my picks was going to be Umar. And I started looking at. I'm like, God, who's he going to fight? How many times are going to get to fight this year and get in there? Like, that's the problem. Like, I don't know if there's a pass for him. Whereas Edwards is fighting in March. He could easily fight again in November. And if he loses that one, then my pick is a lot safer.

But some of these guys may only fight once this year. I like it. I like it. There's a layup just sitting out here for you. I am astonished. We've gone this deep without one certain individual not being chosen. So I, there are actually two layups.

There are a couple layups still out there. And I'm going to leave them out there. I'm going to leave them out there for whoever wants the low-hanging fruit for their last one. I thought this was so on. Maybe I'll grab one of them, but right now I'm feeling a little dangerous, you know. History and opportunity are against me right now with this pick. History tells me that I'm going to be wrong and I'm going to be disappointed, but I'm just following a gut instinct.

I'm following the talent. And we talked for a while about how Lorenz Larkin got completely belled toward and how he's just become a forgotten man in the space. There is a woman out there who has become completely forgotten to such a crazy degree. And it's rightful. There's a reason she's forgotten. Tatiana Suarez, for a long time, I thought was going to be a UFC champion sooner rather than later. And it just didn't happen because she just couldn't get healthy and she couldn't actually get the fights.

She ostensibly is getting the fights this year. She is back already once, booked for later this month, I think February 25th against Montana Del Marosa. And at that point, if she is able to make up for lost time, I see a very quick road for her to get back into this conversation, whether it's at 125 or 115, whatever she picks, she's going to be fighting for title contention if she's able to just get a couple of fights. That's it, because we all know that she's good. We all know that she's like one of the best in the world

in general in women's MMA. We just haven't had a chance to actually see it play out. She demolished Carla Sparza at her own game in one of the last few fights we ever saw her. I think Tatiana Swares, everything I said about her from 2017-2018 range, I still believe it's just a matter of her getting out there. If she is able to finally get out there this year and just get a couple of fights in,

I think it is a very easy route for her to be in the top five of whatever division it ends up being. And I think the UFC will want her there because they need challengers. They need compelling challenges, compelling contenders to actually fight some of these champions. And she fits the bill perfectly. And I'm just banking that this is the lucky year. I don't feel great about it, but maybe it happens. I almost, I'll be honest with this, she and I almost pulled the trigger on that when I thought about it. but then here's the two things that they're preventing me.

One, the injury history just terrifies me because, you know, one wrong move, that that gets injured. She's out again. That scares me. And also the other thing that it worries me a little bit is she's coming back and flyweight. If she was coming back in a straw weight, I'd say one win because she was already right there. And she's kind of like in that position where she just needs to get back in there and fight

and she's back in the top five because that's how good she was. But she's coming back in flyweight. Is her plan not to eventually drop back down to 115 at some point? Yeah, I will note. I think her plan right now tentatively. is that she's going to drop to 1.15 after this fight. This is the get back fight. Yeah. If she gets one more

win and it's a straw weight, I'm with you because if she gets one, I mean, she was right there. She was when she beat Nina Nunes, she was supposed to be one fight away from a title shot. And then, you know, the wheels fell off. She got injured and she's been out for two or three years, whatever it's been. This is the year, this is the year.

Year of Svores. Damn, that's an inspirational pick. Jed. Pick number three. Last one of the day. Lots of easy options on the board for you. What are you doing? I thought you were going to go with a different fighter who hasn't fought in like half a decade, who you have consistently backed sometimes to your failure.

I'm not going to take that gentleman because I still don't ever trust him. Is it cheating? I guess I should clarify, is it cheating to take Davidson Figurato? Because he's not going to be a ranked flyweight at some point because he's no longer. longer competing there, but he's on the table. So if we allow it, I'm going to take him. But if we deem that cheating. It's 100% allowed because I got a point for Demetrius Johnson no longer being a flyweight.

So, yeah, absolutely. That's totally. We agreed. I got a point for that. So Jed, yes, that's an excellent thing. Okay. I just want people to remember that I would have chosen him and angled the system here. But in the spirit of things that are going on,

uh, F it. I don't, I'm going to hate myself for this. Give me a happy, I suppose. Jonathan Dwight Jones, who is currently unranked and will be challenging for the heavyweight title. Wame. Is that also, and we're calling that cheating. No, you can do it. You can do it.

It's fine. It's lame. Screw it. Fine. You want me to get out on a corner? I'll get out of a corner. Oh, my gosh. Max Holloway.

Get the hell out of your, Matt. Max Hollow, let's go. Okay, you went too far. You went too far now. Come and B. Shee. You just went to zero a hundred months. Real quick. Look, Max Hollowey's going to lose to Arnold Allen, and that's going to be okay.

Like, he's not, he's just going to drop to three or whatever. But here's the thing nobody's talking about. Here's what they won't tell you in the in the NRA world, because they're too busy talking about how Volk should fight Machachev again. I watched UFC 284. and there was a gentleman there named Yayae Rodriguez who beat the holy hell out of Josh Emmett and he kicked him

so very, very hard. And you know what else happened at UFC 284? Is Zamakachev kicked Alexander Volkanowski a bunch to the body and Volkidens didn't super like it and I'm going to go and say Yairo Rodriguez better at kicking than his Lamakachev. Yaya Rodriguez is going to beat Volcanovsky when they fight Arnold Allen is going to beat Max Holloway when they fight

and Max Holloway is going to fight one more time, and when he loses that, he's going to drop to six because it will go Rodriguez, Volcanovsky, Arnold Allen. I guess we'll still respect Patricio Pitbull because we seem to continue to do that here to Mayfiting.com and then unnamed fighter in the future. Maybe it's Ilya to Pira. Who knows who's going to be the guy to send Max on his way, but Max is done this year. you can't say that's lame you have somehow angered both Volkanovsky supporters and Maxhologist supporters

in the last 24 hours and that's incredible I didn't think someone could do that but I mean he did in the last two minutes he predicted Volk to lose too he just slipped that in there's a reason they're not telling you there's a reason Volk wants to be fighting Mokachachiv again because he's scared of Yair he don't want them problems Big Featherway is not telling you these things I'm just saying it's a lot easier to lose to a lightweight when everyone's going to go around being like, well, they're

so much bigger than me. Whereas you just get your body kicked out from you by Yair, a lot tougher to sell. I don't like you for making this pick, but I respect you for making this pick. I won last year, so I thought I should really go out on a limb. I appreciate that going around. Can I ask quickly, if John Jones loses, let's say, competitive decision to Sidio-Gone, will anyone rank him at heavyweight? Yes.

Yeah. There is a road panelist who will for sure rank him at heavyweight. I'll rank him at heavyway. He's still a top five heavyweight. Top five? You put it above like, I guess, time to him,

I won't rank him, AK, but I'll understand that. But if it is competitive and he still loses, but he loses, I'd be like, yeah, if he shows this enough,

I don't know. Okay, you know what, this will put a pin on this for the actual post-225 podcast. You have a panelist who's ranked Volkanowski at lightweight. So I suspect if the same thing happens. John Jones will also get a number. Y'all are lose a lot of faith in John Jones.

I know he didn't look great his last time out. I lost faith in John Jones when he barely beat Teago Santos on who was on zero legs and then didn't beat Dominic Reyes. That's when I lost faith in John Jones. I've always disrespected Anthony Smith and I lost respect for John Jones when he didn't demolish Anthony Smith. He just hasn't fought in three years. So I just have no, I don't even count it if I'm disrespecting him or I just, he's

off my radar. I'm the lone Navigator on the John Jones hype train right now apparently So that's all right, that's all right I can I can handle it Hey you in New York Rick Eric Jackman's right there with you

I think there gonna be a lot of people I'm not hype train as March gets closer Yeah it's gonna pick up There's gonna be tickets being sold for that AK Hit us with you all right I'll quickly throw on my last one I won't go into it too much

because I've touched upon it I have to mention this name Because I've kind of committed To this guy having a great year it might very well be the year of the raw dog this year. I don't have a specific path for Brandon Royval becoming a potentially UFC champion. That's sort of one of the bold predictions I made on when Mike and I did onto the next one and predicting like year-end champions.

I just wanted to like not just to go the boring pick and say Brandon Moreno. I'm like something will happen. Maybe maybe you know, Pantosia beats Moreno and then Royval beats, he has to be Nicolao and April, beats someone else, gets a shot of Pantosia. wins a rematch for Pentonoguer or fights Moreno wins a rematch to Moreno. He's lost to a lot of good guys this division already, I understand, but I kind of just want to go on a limb. I also think he's a really talented fighter and just has had some just some weird luck. Even the first Moreno fight, he kind of got injured during the stoppage, and I'm not saying it would have gone any differently, but it was just a little muddy.

It was a little muddy. And then Moreno went on to fight Biggie and Roy Valigan has kind of been sent on this weird spiral since. But he's got some wins. getting back some wins. If he beats Nicolao, he's really on his way. And again, and yes, I just wanted to, I will say it if it happens, that is the year with the raw dog, but I'd really prefer not to. So Royval is kind of my weird pick.

And again, not necessarily become the champion, but we're saying getting to the top five, very possible, very possible. Has to get past Nicolao in April. And then after that, really just one more big win. I think he's in there. Flyweight top five right now, Brandon Moreno, DJ, Figaro, Adrian and Marius, Kai Korn in France.

So at worst, Figgie's going to be out of there, right? Then you have probably, and Tosia. But DJ and DJ and Adjana Marias we're going to take out of there too. So really,

I think, I think Flyway is a good mathematic choice, which I was looking at. I was just like, is there's, I thought about Manel Cop just to be fun because like

pretty reasonable to see a world or three of the top five are gone. Yeah. Totally agree. Damon, what do you got last for us? So, Jed almost spoiled there. I wanted to go Manel Kott because if you remember correctly,

I picked him as like my random could be champion by the end of the year, guys. So if I'm going to ride with him, I'd kind of have to say he's going to be top five. But here's the thing. I weirdly think there's an easier path for him because he beats Alex Perez, who's only one spot ahead of him in our rankings. But again,

so many guys are leaving. And I feel like, you know, it's just going to be a little bit of an easier path for him to get there than that. So I'm going to skip that one. I'm going to go with another. I say sad, but is it really sad because I don't think anyone's really going to be that sad to see it go.

But I'm going to go dropping out of the top five, Colby Covington. Not only because he hasn't fought in a year, but when you really look at his resume, Colby Covington is living breathing on two close fights with Kumar Usman. That's it. Losses. Too close losses. Important to stipulate that. He beat Tyron Woodley, who was not the same Tyron Woodley he was years ago.

He beat Robbie Lawler, who was not the same Robbie Lawler he was years ago. though. And right now, I mean, are you, Colby Covington fights Chimaeuf. He's a massive underdog. He fights Gilbert Burns. He's probably an underdog in that one. And he's, and I, listen, I wouldn't discount Bilal Muhammad being Colby Covington either. Yeah.

Shafkat Rakmanoff, I would probably pick to be Colby Covington. So yeah, between inactivity, which we still have no idea when he's coming back. I mean, it's coming up on a year already. He hasn't fought. And his last one was over Jorge Massvedal, who isn't a top 10 fighter. Um, yeah, Colby Covington. I think either the three inactivity or getting beat one time this year, which if he fights any of those top five, top six guys, there's a good chance he's going to lose unless they give

him Leon Edwards and then maybe I kind of cancel myself out by Colby staying in by eliminating Leon Edwards. But otherwise, I'm going to go with Colby Covington, uh, joining Leon Edwards outside the top five this year. The classic stat, five years since Colby beat somebody coming off a win. Five years. Just saying. I feel more confident that big.

I feel far more confident in that. Yeah, I feel far more confident in that big than I do Leon Edwards. So what we're saying is Tatiana Suarez has more recently beat someone coming off a win. Yes. That is what we are saying. John Jones, guys been out for three years. Guys who have been out for multiple years have more recent wins than Colby Covington does. I don't hate it.

There's very much a path for it. I can see it. I'll close this out. my last one. A lot still on the board, frankly, right? Like,

I'm kind of proud of us that we didn't do some easy ones here. You could go Syrucian with that. You could go Moonez at middleweight. I think Tidesui Vasa at heavyweight feels like

one who could drop out. All three of those were in my list. Ilya. Elliot Teporia was one, but I didn't take it. I didn't take it. Teporia, Evloy of another featherweight.

Aaron Blanchfield also still sitting out there. She's a giant fight coming up this week. Yeah, she's going to get killed. This is a problem. She's about to die. Until this fight changed, if we had done this last week,

Bledgefield would have probably been a pick for me. Not anymore. Which, you know, probably the right call, but we'll see. But so I'm coming down to two last names for my last pick. One's the easy pick and ones maybe a little bit more out there. The easy pick is obviously Muhammad Maheif, right?

Like, we've all talked about it at length. At this point, it feels like inevitability that this kid's going to be up there. I just don't know if he's going to get the fight to get up there. It seems like they're either committed to slow play in him or no one in this division is willing to fight him. And also I think his last few performances

has maybe slowed the roll a tiny bit. I haven't particularly blown people out of the water in a way that we thought he would be. So I'll round out my group by going a bit out on a limb, something I don't know that I believe, but I could see a road for it. And it feels like a fun one to root for all year. Johnny Walker, baby.

This dude is tied for 11th. Tied for 11th right. Oh, those sound effects, whatever that reaction was. I love that. This man is tied for 11th right now at light heavyweight. He's one of the few light heavyweights in the world who's not an old man. I think that's a big credit to him. That's a big point in his favor.

This division is just a very weird division that is very much in flux. And Johnny Walker right now is about to fight Anthony Smith, right? That's the next thing up. that will instantly put him in the conversation if he beats Anthony Smith to get a big fight next, whether it's against a rackage or a Yombo Kovits or even an Anklea of somebody, Yomboviz is not going to be in the top five at the end of this year. He's a very old man. He's in his 40s.

I just see there's, I could see a road where Johnny Walker does weird Johnny Walker things and somehow ends this year as that number five guy. So I'm putting it out there. And I like it. I like, that's a fun thing to root for. That is riskier. Two words. Two words why Johnny Walker will not be in the top five in my opinion.

And it's not Anthony Smith. Two words. John Cavinole. There's the reason why he's not going to put my faith in Johnny Walker. I'm sorry to tell you. You can't argue with results. I think, you know, maybe it just took him a while to mesh his style with the SBG style. I don't know.

I know you. I know you. I know. I mean coming out here saying you can't argue with results in the wake of UFC 284. Oh, let's not bring that. Let's not free that full circle. But I mean, let's say Johnny Walker is trying to close this out like a professional. We all know you either win or you learn, guys.

Okay, we all, we all understand that. But I've learned that training with John McAvinal doesn't generally mean good things for your future. So I'm going to stick with you. I didn't mean good things for you on Kutelab and Paul Craig because John Rie Walker just smoked them both. So I don't know. That's a sneaky good pick, Chehene. That's a sneaky good pick. And you're right.

Just going based on the eight, people aging out, possibly the top five, top six, like, I don't think he beats I'll pick against him again I don't even think he's beating Anthony Smith I'm gonna pick against him in probably every fight but it's like a fun thing to root for in a weird division where no one knows what's going on and no one knows what 205 is gonna look like

at the end of the air so I got I'm so desperate I'm still I'm still like I really really wanted to go to Omar Narragabel because I think that dude is a monster I'm just so terrified he's just not going to get fights he's just going to end up getting you know he's going to get and this is not a nod I'm not saying like it's about I'm saying he's going to get Ricky Simone he's going to get

you know, some guys in the French, but that's not going to get him close to that, you know, the top five Bantamweight is really good. And that's the problem. Like he's not going to get those fights, you know, unless he, you know, unless he gets the loser of De Walshvili and Jan, which I guess is a possibility,

he's not going to get those fights. And so he's stuck. It's such a long climb when you also include, again, the Bellator Bantam weights that are in there too. Because I was going to say, Adrian Yanez might have a chance, but he could go 3 and 0 in 2023 and still not, like, barely crack the top of the team.

It's just so deep. Patchy Mix and Rufion Stats is a good fight. Like that's a really quality Bantan Wade fight. Like the winner that should get a pretty decent. I'm not saying they're going to be top five, but should get a pretty decent bump, you know? Like there's some good fights out there. And Umar,

I think Umar's the future of the division. He's just stuck right now. He just doesn't have a clear path to me to get there. Yeah. I knew that somebody, a UFC champion was going to be picked for this to fall as the faller. I just really thought it would be Jamal Hill if somebody did it. No one touched it though.

So there you go. I think he'll still be top five. I haven't know what to do with him. He might even be really good. See, he loses the title. Like he might, I think he'll still be on the top.

He might be really, really good. I'm with AK. I'm with AK on that because we lost Glover already. And that division is a wasteland outside of the top five. So like, he could lose and still be top five because who the hell else is going to take that spot? All I'm saying is,

listen, we are in the realm of possibility of Jamal Hill fighting Johnny Walker in a UFC title fight sometime this year. Like this is going to, this could actually happen. Let's go. And then really Paul Craig will just remain the uncrown player. And let's end on that.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us. As always, it's been another episode of the MMA fighting ranking show. We appreciate you guys. It's a really fun stretch here coming up over the next month, two months. We got two pay reviews in March. So this is going to be a lot going on, a lot to talk about. I can't wait for it. In the meantime, that man is Jed Mishu, Damon Martin, for A.K.

I am Sean O'Shti. We love you guys. Keep it locked in the M.MA Fighting Podcast Network. We'll talk to you again soon. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those.

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