MMA Fighting - Rankings Show | How High Can We Rank Khamzat Chimaev + Are Bellator’s Best Better Than Glover Teixeira?

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

Khamzat Chimaev is already flirting with one of the greatest statistical starts to a UFC career we’ve ever seen, but what does that mean in terms of the rankings? How high is too high when it comes to Chimaev’s current place within the welterweight ladder? Co-hosts Shaun Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee dive deep into MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings to debate Chimaev’s torrid rise, discuss the biggest risers and fallers of October and more. Then, the two are joined by fellow rankings panelists Damon Martin and Jed Meshew for a heated debate over the 205-pound pecking order. Should Glover Teixeira be the undisputed No. 1? Or does his next contender Jiri Prochazka or the Bellator twosome of Corey Anderson and Vadim Nemkov have a case? Catch new episodes of the MMA Fighting Rankings Show on the first Wednesday of every month. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow 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

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose

to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. What is up, my friends? How is everyone doing? Hope you're out there,

having a great day, having a great week, crushing it as usual. It's a wonderful day. The sun is shining. a beautiful time and welcome to the MMA fighting rankings show. Let me be the first one to wish you guys a happy and wonderful November. I hope October just treated you beautifully. My name is Sean Oshaddy and thank you once again for starting your month here with us. I'm joined by

the nicest man in M.A. These is the Prince of Positivity. Alexander K. Lee and A.K., we are here again, my man. October's in the books, perhaps our busiest month so far in rankings, in terms of rankings movement since we started doing this in the summer. How are you feeling? Look, I'm not the nicest man in MMA. Listen, the nicest man in MMA, I think, just became the UFC light heavyweight champion. So I'm still riding that high, Sean. I mean, I don't know the man personally. By all accounts, Glover DeCherra, one of the nicest, most decent men in this sport of ours,

which is not always filled with reputable characters, to put it nicely. But even if you don't know him, personally, I think we're all aware of his professional journey and the way he's carried himself in the public eye. And it's just a wonderful story to see him when. So I'm still on that high. I'm feeling good. I imagine a lot of people are. And I hope that's pushed people to get through there.

They're Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week. And I'm glad. If not, I'm glad we're here, Sean, to maybe help them get them the rest of the way to this next weekend's big card. I love it. The feel good vibes continue, man. I mean, I had said it in my post-fight column. But Glover to share it to me is now the number two feel good story basically of the last decade in this sport. But obviously Michael Bisbing will always have number one,

but Glover to share, number two for me. And it's going to be hard for somebody to take that from him. That was incredible what we saw on Saturday. But let's dive into it, man. So quick preamble before we get started. This is our once-a-month look at the MMA fighting global rankings, first Wednesday of every month, our little chance to inject some transparency into the process,

talk some stuff out, settle some grievances. You know how it goes. Really just let you inside, let you know what we're thinking with some of these decisions. And later on in the show, AK, we're going to be joined, as always, by two of our esteemed fellow ranking panelists. This week we're welcoming in Damon Martin,

once again and Jedmishu as well. We're going to be hitting the biggest debates we had internally as a team over this last ranking cycle. It's going to get a little spicy probably. Some people's feelings might be getting hurt, but that happens on this show. First, A.K., though. Let's go a couple quick rounds here.

You and I, as we do, three rounds hitting the biggest movers and shakers of October. And let's start here. Incredibly busy month at the top levels of the sport for us. I mean, 23 ranked fighters competing in total over the course of October. So among all of that chaos, AK, I throw it to you. What was the most meaningful or important result of the last month in your eyes? Well, I mean, I want to say it's the Tashara win, but that's only when views sort of in the lens of everything else that happened in light heavyweight. So it's kind of a tie

because they're related to Shara, you know, a Glover to Shera beating Yombovich, become the Uzi champion, but also Corey Anderson beating Ryan Bader in the Belator heavyweight, excuse me, Belator Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix semifinals. And Vettine Nemcov winning as well. But the Anderson one raises a lot of, kind of raised a lot of questions, which are only amplified by this past weekend's result because Corey Anderson, again, maybe the number one guy in Belator right now. He's not the champion.

He's going to face Nemcov. We'll find out. Clover DeShera is by, if we're going by belts, the number one guy in the UFC, Corey Anderson is beaten Glover DeSherr. Corey Anderson is beaten Jan Blahovitz. He did lose the rematch by first round knockout, but that's convincing wins over two of the top two names in the UFC. John Jones is out of the picture.

And I think it's important to mention that too because light heavyweight has kind of sneakily been this division. I think it's gotten better over the last couple of years. I think it was on a down note for a while with John Jones so dominant on top for so long and some of the contenders kind of not reaching their potential. But now I feel like it's moving again. And I think that all came to a head in October. I think we saw a real shift.

And that will be reflected, Sean. And I think in our top five, when people see who's number one, who's tied at number two. I don't know if you want to break this all down. And then, of course, and the Bellator gentlemen who are rounding out the top five. But it's very cool to see. I don't think people have been talking about Led Heavvy for a while. But they certainly are now. And I think the conversation is steering in a way that one Mr. Scott Coker is very

enthusiastic about. Absolutely. I mean, we're going to talk about, we're going to get into this topic a lot more later on with Jet and Damon. But you're right, light heavyweight right now is such a fascinating division for me. Because for so long, like you said, it was sort of this, I don't know if stagnant is the right word, but it was this very predictable division where either you had John Jones or Daniel Cormier at the top, depending on John Jones's alibiology status at the time. That was basically what it was, right? Like it wasn't much mystery at all to it. At any given time, you knew exactly. who the best light heavyweight in the world was. And now, I think there's real debate to be had there. I mean, what Glover accomplished is utterly ridiculous. It's incredible. I'm not going to take a single thing away from it. But he's very much a champion, like I said, in the Bisbang mold, where this is sort of like

a late career magic, he kind of catches fire at the right place, right time, catches the right matchups on the way up, the right opportunities. And he's able to really rewrite his story at the end of this career in a way that no one expected. So sure, he is the UFC champion. Glover to share is absolutely the UFC champion and he deserves to be. He gets that title forever now. No one can ever take that away from him. But the thing for us, when it comes to rankings and all of this, this side of the world, is a 42-year-old Glover to share of really the undeniable best light heavyweight on the planet right now. I don't know. I don't know if he is. I mean, I think are there two or three matchups straight away in the division

where you could probably, if you threw them together, Glover's probably the betting underdog against his challenger? Absolutely. Would you be surprised if any of that like foursome beneath him of Yuri Prohaska, Alexander Rackich, Dean Nemcoff, Corey Anderson, any of them were favored to beat him in a fight tomorrow because I wouldn't. And to me, AK, I love that. I find that sort of dynamic so fun. Yeah. If only, if only cross-motion could finally happen and we could see an Anderson to share a rematch or, again, Anderson versus Yuri Prohachka, kind of see where they sit on things. because like you mentioned,

Yidi is in some people's eyes, including a couple of our panelists, the uncrowned champion of the UFC. He just needs to get that title shot and people seem to be pretty confident he's going to take that thing right out of, out of Glover to share his hands. I mean, if that matchup eventually gets made,

Uri is going to be close to a 3-1 favorite. Maybe I'm being conservative. Three to one, wow, you think? I think that it might open around there and honestly, it might move even further in his direction. Like I feel like 3-1 might be low. That's how high people view, you and rightfully so. Great fighter

has looked awesome in the UFC before the UFC very strong resume. A lot of finishes, super long win streak. He has all the makings of a guy that really just needs his shot to get the belts and he's going to take it. And I know it sounds like I'm disrespecting Glover, but I'm just saying that's what the narrative is going to be for a lot of fans, a lot of people in the media heading into that

presumed matchup if that gets made next year. So yeah, it's just, it is fun to be able to have this conversation though. And I mentioned Scott Coker before. He has said definitive. I mean, he started this conversation like last year, I think. And now he said definitively, he said, look, whoever wins the Grand Prix, this is the best light heavyweight in the world. And I wish the Bellator marketing machine was a little more powerful and the show was available in just a few more homes. Because I do feel like he could really make something out of this.

Like this should, I wish in McKee Pitbull was bigger. I wish this fight was bigger because these things have real implications as to potentially who is the best in their division. I'm right there with you in terms of the Bellator marketing machine because if you're Scott Coker and you're that promotion. This is it, right? Like, this is your moment as a promoter. You have to use this opportunity right now to shout from the rooftops, right? Like Corey Anderson, we talked about it going into UFC 267, but he was two and one in three fights against those two men in that main event. And the last light heavyweight to defeat Glover to Sherry, you already know. It was Corey Anderson. And it's not like that was long ago. Like that was a couple years ago. The fight

wasn't close. He was the top five light heavyweight when he left the UFC. He has done nothing but destroyed every man put in front of him since arriving in Belator. It honestly doesn't get much better than this, AK, like for a non-UFC promotion to have this good of a claim or this good of a case at making a claim for having the best fighter in a given division under their roof, it's a rare thing. I feel like this is about as good of you as it gets

when it comes to just having the ability to make that claim. Yeah, look, not just that. Like, this is, it's a shame that I think, I feel like, you know, Belator viewers, ship numbers are not exactly wowing people, not exactly blowing people off the page. Because we now have legitimate cases that if things keep training the right way for Belator, they could have not just the best light heavy weight. They could have the best feather weight. And again, am I the one to make that argument? No, but I'm also very UFC-centric. I am admittedly someone who I still see UFC is having

the 80%, you know, 80%, if not more of the best fighters in the world. But that 20% is very, that other 20% is very real. And some of that 20% is in Bellator. And so I would really love to see how things, again, McKee, you know, his situation with the company is a little up in the air. We don't know how many, how much more he's going to fight for them, unfortunately. But Corey Anderson, they would love to, I think they would love to have him win. He's obviously an American champion that helps. He's a little bit easier for him to do interviews with outlets and things like that. And also, he's been so vocal. He's a very good interview lately. So vocal calling. He has gone. But Vidim Nemcov is kind of like, you know, if he's asked about it, he'll talk about comparisons to the UFC.

Corey Anderson, as someone who has fought in the UFC and beaten a lot of UFC guys, is going out of his way to antagonize Jan Blahovic. He was antagonizing Jan Blahovic before the, you know, before UFC 267. He's very happy to say, yeah, I'm the best light heavyweight. We have the best light heavyweights in Belator. I don't care about the UFC. This is really the best are. And that's what you want to see in a champion. We've never seen something like that in Belator.

It's hilarious because you wouldn't expect it. But Corey Anderson is the single most polarizing, the single most controversial figure in the entirety of the MMA fighting rankings. Almost. Every division, every whatever, there is no fighter with as polarizing of a range as that man. And we're going to get into that a lot more later in the show. Oh, I can't wait.

In the second half with Jed and Damon. So in the meantime, let's move on and let's move to round number two. Hamzat Shemayev. That's it. That's the question. Honestly, like I don't even, what else can you even say, man? That's the answer. That's not the question. That's the question and the answer.

AK, I don't even understand this, man. Like, I tried so hard to not be hyperbolic last year. When all of this was happening, I tried so damn hard to keep some perspective, right? You don't want to be reactionary. You don't want to be the guy who, after a fight, is just like, oh, my God, that was one of the most impressive debuts I've ever seen. No one's ever done this. You don't want to be that person. But at this point, Hamzat was in many ways the biggest story on a UFC two-season.

47 card that was just loaded with big stories. He's 4 and 0 in the UFC now. He put Lee Jing Long to sleep in three minutes when no one in the world has ever finished Lee in less than three rounds. He outstruck now his opponents in four UFC fights, 254 to 2 in total strikes, and 112 to 1 in significant strikes.

He's outr wrestled his opponents, 4 to 0 in takedowns, 11 minutes, basically 12 minutes to zero in control time, and he's done all this in two different divisions. barely been touched neither of them. And this to me is the real stat. And this is the one that really just freaks me out. He has more UFC wins than he does strikes sustained in the UFC. And it's like double, right? Like he has four UFC wins and two strikes sustained. That is mind-blowing, man. I don't actually understand what that stat means. No hyperbole. We're looking at one of the best

starts to a UFC career ever, of anybody ever. And AK, to go with that, he debuts this month on the MMA fighting rankings as an immediate top 10 fighter. He jumps right in at the number 10 spot. Three of us had him as high as number 10. But everybody had him in that range of 10, 14. Thoughts on Hamzat, AKA, what we're seeing, and did we get this right? How did nobody catch him with like a random hammer fist

from the bottom or something? Like anything. Anything. A slap, a gentle slap to the chest, a Rick Flair chopped to the chest. Yeah, that's insane. It's insane. And yet anyone who's,

watched all four fights, you're just, if anything, if you watched all four fights, you're like, wait, he got hit twice? When? Yeah. What? I don't remember him getting. There was one significant strike from, like, I think from John Phillips. When?

When did John Phillips? How significant was that strike? Yeah. Are we being generous with the terms of significant here? So the reality is even more like crazy than the stats you outline. You know, sometimes stats and sports don't tell the story. And this is like, no, if you saw the fights and you saw the stats, you just, you just nod your head. Like, yep.

Yeah. Yeah. Stats are telling the whole story. Confirmed. Yeah. Science works. Science works in MMA. But I was with you. I was very like, okay, I need to see after, I mean, John Phillips,

Reese McKee, guys who are no longer in the UFC. So it was, it was cool. All the two wins in 10 days, Fight Island. It was a good, it was a good, it was a good. It was a good. I'm not going to lie. I was still, I picked a Shemaya to win, but I think I said decision. I'm like, you know, he's got a real test now.

He's going to fall back to Earth. Yeah, real 185. I think he'll look good. I'm a believer in a town. But I think Gerald's tough. he takes him, you know, it goes, it goes through good, hard three rounds with them. Knocks him out 17 seconds. And I believe I put out like an all caps tweet that was just like, Hamzad is the real deal.

Everything, everything people said is true. I just lost it. I just lost it. And then it was such a shame that, you know, COVID-19, of course, happens. And he was so badly afflicted by, you know, talking about like coughing of blood and going to the hospital and rumors coming out. Not from his, I don't think from his camp, but some outlets, a lot of outlets were saying he was considering retirement. He put out something. I remember then he deleted it.

So I shouldn't say it wasn't, it was not coming from him. But there was something very murky coming from his side. But now he's back. And I thought he'd beat Li Jing Liang. I actually did pick first round submission. But it was kind of like if I'm all in on the hype, if the hype is real, which I still wasn't sure. I just thought, let's go with this as the pick.

And the hype was very real. So, yeah, I think we got it right, man. Number 10, that's where I have him. I'm glad he ended up in that spot. I know a few of us had him at 10. I think that's highest he went and most people are lower. But overall, I don't think anyone's going to. going to complain about where he is.

He's for real. I can't lie. I had to almost hold myself back from not ranking him higher. And I knew it wouldn't have made sense, right? It's like one of those just like this. There's no justification for this other than just your gut telling you, this dude could be like nine of these people ranked ahead of him or something like that. It's a really interesting just sort of situation we now have at Welterweight with a lot of really good names.

It's a really deep division just all throughout the world across. all these different promotions. And we're going to dive into it a little bit later on the show, talk some Ray Cooper as well. But in the meantime, let's move on round number three, a, okay, we don't talk a ton about pound for pound lists on this show. We do occasionally, but very little for the most part. But with Kayla Harrison,

don't really have a choice, because that's really the only way you can talk about her when it comes to rankings. Her division doesn't actually exist. But it has been a busy year for Judah Kayla in 2021, and it's been a busy climb. She's now another four wins in six months. months, another tournament crown, another million dollar check. And here she is. She debuted in our

pound for pound top 10 for the women in August. And now she climbs her way into the top eight spot. And it's there that she's going to sit while she embarks on what I think is going to be one of the most compelling MMA free agencies we've seen in some time. So I wonder for you, A.K., it feels to me as if in many ways the fate of the women's pound for pound list could be decided by what Kayla chooses for this next move. Because she goes to the UFC, she has our number one ranked fighter there, her teammate, Amanda Nudas, just sitting there,

waiting, massive matchup. Same in Bellator. You have Cyborg, who we have sitting at number four. Huge fight. And then there's the PFL route, which I've said before on different shows, previous shows,

that I think Kayla's PFL gig might actually be the best gig in the entire sport, just overall, like for anybody. It's as close to as guaranteed of a million dollars per year as you could find in MMA. Lease risk, most money,

that type of thing. But I do think it's also fair to say that it artificially caps how high Kayla can actually climb in the rankings, right? It gives her a ceiling that if she's just not testing herself against the same level of competition, she can only go so far. So for you, AK, in your mind, is it possible that Kayla holds the fate of the women's pound for pound list in her hands right now? Hold on, hold on.

You said number eight. She's number eight in our pound for pound. Kayla Harrison. Kayla Harrison. Has never fought for Belator, never fought for the UFC. is number eight in our pound for pound rankings. Yes, sir. I don't know if, so now I have to ask, does she need to fight in the, like, I agree there's

a ceiling. I don't think, I think without fighting, of course, like you said, without exploring her free agency options and actually signing with a bigger promotion, she can't pass Amanda Nunez, Shevchenko, Namjuna, Sout, okay, like this sort of top four, top four, top five that's kind of locked in there. Here's who she passed this month, Sean. She passed Carla Esparza. the number one contender at 115 pounds in the UFC.

And she passed Holly Home, a former UFC champion who has faced nothing but elite competition pretty much since she's come to the UFC. Kayla Harrison passed those two names with wins over Taylor Gardado, Jenna Fabian, Cindy Dandua, and Mariana Morice this year. I do think she, of course,

we all want to see her sign, but she still can make some moves up that pound for pound rankings, clearly, because she just did without fighting in the UFC or the Bell Tour or somewhere else. That's crazy to me. And I, not even that, but like, if you look at sort of the overall spectrum of R8 panelists, she was as high as number four on at least one person's list above Wiley Zhang, above Rosamma Unis, above Jessica and Tras. Like, wow, that's, that's a wild claim. I'm not ready to go there. I had her at number nine below Holly Home in a above Carla, but it's getting hard to deny the level of dominance, right?

Yeah. You know what's, well, you know what's funny is, and this is a discussion, a greater discussion for another time, I think, though, but if we're talking like, if there was a strawweight version of Kail, let's say, you know, that there was a strawweight version of her with her exact skill set and strength, but, you know, could make $1.15 somehow. I probably would favor her in most match, even against Rose. I probably would favor that version, a 115 pound version of Kail Harrison. I would favor, I would definitely favor

1.25 pound Kayla probably over just Gondrash. So it's almost like, and again, I'm fine with where we have her. I think eight is maybe the right number now. I'm still shocked that she's over like some really established names. This is crazy. When people see the full list, they're going to be like, it's going to look weird when they look at it

and then when they think about it, depending on their definition of pound for pound, Sean, it might make more sense than it sounds. It might make more sense than it sounds. But that's still, I'm just looking, I'm looking at it right now. and it looks strange to me. I think it speaks to how important this free agency is because it's frankly impressive

that someone could get that high on a pound for pound list without fighting that level of competition, right? Because I can't think of many examples in other organizations of someone even being able to break into a top 10 like that or get to a number eight spot without having those names on the resume.

It's a very unique thing that Kayla's doing right now and she's doing it really well. She's about to make a lot of money and she's already made a lot of money. Yeah, again, like you said, it's, this is, you know, there's, there's, multiple ways to rise up the rankings. It could be one big win. It could be compiling wins against

top 10, top 15 competition, or it could be dominating your level of competition to such a degree that people cannot deny that you deserve to be ranked higher. So that is where Kayla Harrison is now. She is, and doing so again in a division that really does not exist. I want to say in North America, really in the world, I don't think there's any promotion in the world that's consistently having 155 pound women's fights. So PFL had to make this. And again, bring in competition, again, some names who from other divisions, Cindy, Dan Dwight, I think is known.

The rest of Pacheco, of course, fought in the UFC. Jennifer Fabian is a kickboxer, I think. So Sarah Kaufman was one. They wanted to fight her. It didn't work out. Credit to the rest of Pacheco for sort of derailing that. But they created a division for her. And frankly, Cyborg was a similar story coming out through Strike Force.

If you want to look back, now her competition was definitely. definitely better. But I mean, there was fighters there at 145. Again, 135ers that had come up. So she, if Cyborg could be the number one pound for pound women's fighter for so long, never having fought in the UFC, those again, strike force, you know, equivalent competition. I don't know. I do wonder how high Harrison go, if she just says, screw it, I'm going back to PFL for another million dollars. And depending how the rest of the division shakes out, of course. Huh. Quickly before we open the floor to a group discussion. Oh, Lord.

One word answer. This time next month, Kayla might already be signed with someone else. We already might have our answer. Prediction, AK, where does Kayla end up? Bellator. Bellator. You think Scott Coker opens the coffers for her?

I think he does. I think it's going to be, yeah. I think he's eyeing that cyborg Harrison fight, and he's certainly going to open the coffers more than Dana Whitewell. That's my nice way of putting it. I think she ends up back in PFL. Oh, again, I just don't, I don't, I think PFL's going to make a big, big push for her. I think they know how valuable she is to them, but also, why leave that?

You're making a million dollars a year. You're basically, it's guaranteed money every time. I don't know. We'll see. It's going to, again, I feel like right now Kayla holds the fate of this pound for poundless in her hands because there's big fights out for her in every other way she could go. So we'll see. In the meantime, AK, we're going to take a quick break.

And then we are rolling. On the other side. Oh, yay. All right, y'all, we are back. Joining us now, two of our good friends, esteemed members of our rankings panel, Damon Martin, Jedmishu. We appreciate you, fellas, as always, for joining us. So three topics we want to hit today, and let's start, of course,

by putting a little bow on what happened these past few weeks in the light heavyweight division. Fellas, it is the year of our lord 2021, and the UFC champion is Glover to Chera. No one saw this coming. really, when you look at the rankings, how they came out this month, it threw the light heavyweight rankings into absolute chaos. There was no consensus at all. We had multiple fighters received number one votes. We had fighters getting ranked number two for some people and barely inside the top ten for others. Now that this Yombov's safety blanket is gone, this division appears to be kind of anyone's game. We're looking at it like this right now. Number one in our

rankings is Glover-Deshire. Number two is Yeri Perhaska. Number two tied is Yombovus. Those two are tied. And then four Vidim Mkov and five Corey Anderson. So Belator rounding out the four or five spots there. Damon, let's throw it to you first. Thoughts on where we landed. Did we get this one right? I think to a certain extent, yes, we did. I think number one is Glover.

I mean, when you have such a dominant win over the guy who was clearly the number one guy, it's hard not to put him number one. Glover had a dominant finish over the number one guy in Jan Blahovic. At that point, you kind of become number one. It wasn't like Glover was coming up from number 10 or anything. He was in the top five already. He gets in the number one spot. makes sense. It was a little surprising to see Jan tied with Yuri Prohashka, I'll be

honestly. That was a little strange, not because Yeri isn't great, but mostly because Jan, you know, while he did lose to Glover to Cher, he had just been the champion. I was a little surprised he actually came in tied only at seconds at that point. And then again, you know, but again, that's basically like two and three. And then I think Nimcoff and Anderson rounding out the top five makes a lot of sense. I personally, and I hope no one cares, I'm giving out my personal rankings. I personally had Anderson a little higher only because he beat Glover so dominantly within the last couple of years. He's the last guy to beat Glover to Cher and he beat him in a very one-sided fight. But I honestly, I don't really have a problem with that. I mean,

Nimcov's the defending champion in Bellatorre. He hasn't been beaten since he lost a Yuri Pahashka, whatever was it, five years ago, four years ago, whatever that was. So I really have no problem with the way the ranking said. The only thing that really surprised me was the tie for a second more than anything. Jen, is this a weird setup? Do you think, I mean, Glover just is the UFC champion. No one can ever take that away from him. But he's also 42 years old, right? He's a 42-year-old man who's approaching year 20 of this MMA run. I think it's fair to ask. Is he really the singular best light heavyweight in the world right now? And for me, that's a hard question for me to answer because I feel like if he gets thrown out against a Yuri

Prohasker of a Dime Nemcov. He's probably the betting underdog. And I don't know. Should that matter? Like, how do you assess these things ultimately? So yes and no. I mean, it comes down to what you value. I do not think that Glover Tresher is the best light heavyweight in the world. I voted him number one because his resume is clearly that of the top light heavyweight in the world. And I think those are different things. Like if I, if this is, we go to Game of Thrones, because this is always the analogy we use

and you get to pick a champion and your life is on the line, I don't think a lot of people would go to Glover Tresera. And I certainly wouldn't. So that means by definition I can't view them as the best, but that's not. not what rankings really are about in my opinion and certainly not how I cast my ballots. I there are a lot of I mean look we talked about this from middleweight before I think your mayor is probably the best middle weight in the world because he beat both iserada son yeah oh my god uh and Robert Whitaker but I can't vote him at number one Lord

he has losses on the thing and that's it's the same thing twice yeah yeah yeah okay losses quote of it. The point being, though, that, like, results do matter, and that's how I mostly cast my ballot. You know, there is some. I think we're only human. Some of that's going to come into play of, yeah, you know, I just don't know that Glover would beat X, Y, or Z. And I probably docks him a few points, but I think for me, he's unquestionably the top guy just based on what he's accomplished. In that Game of Thrones scenario, because I'm curious, who would you actually draft as your number one? Like, who do you feel like is the most talented light heavyweight if we're not? counting John Jones is a light headway.

If it's just on who, if I get to first pick, it's going to be Yuri Brahashka. Like, and that's, I think I had him third in my individual rankings, again, because Jan Balovic's career matters, like what he has accomplished matters. But yeah, I think if I get one guy to bet my life on, it's going to be Yuri at this point. I think I'm, I definitely don't think. I do agree with you because I actually was one of the people who had Yuri number one for this month, and that was sort of my, the genesis of my ranking was, if those two fight, if Yere and Glover get matched up, I feel like Yuck Glover is like a significant underdog.

And maybe that's not the right approach to take to these type of rankings, but I feel like that's generally the approach. I try to take up just who would win in this fight and who do I feel like is a better fighter. I don't think there's a wrong or right approach, by the way. I think as long as you're consistent, so across all of your rankings, that's how you're doing it, then that's fine. Like, I don't think there's a wrong or right answer. This is just how you feel.

Yeah. I mean, AK, bring you in here. Where do you feel like we land on this conversation? Do we get it right? And also, I mean, who's your number one draft pick in this hypothetical draft? I mean, I admit, you know, the first name that came out of mind when you asked that question, it was easy. It was here when you brought up the Game of Thrones scenario. And yet, in my rankings, I have him, I think among the lowest.

I think none of us have him lower than four, I'm going to say. I could be wrong. I'm just seeing a glance at our rankings here. And I am one of those people. I'm one of those people who has Uriot 4 below the Belator champ and the top two UFC light heavyways. So I think that just fought. So I would go with him and sort of this life for death scenario. But kind of like what Jed said, it's accomplishments matter, your resume matter.

And Yiri has some incredible accomplishments. Again, this is a very, obviously my comments are very UFC-centric. Anyone who looks at Prakka's pre-UFC resume, it's pretty strong. Like I said, went over Nemcov some years ago. But even after that, and he's on a he's on a hilarious. delicious wind streak. And I think he has three career losses. He finishes fights. He looks like on any given night the best light heavyweight in the world. I will give people that. But I'm fairly conservative. And again, I know I just said this, fairly UFC-centric with my rankings. So

I do need to see, I would like to see a little bit more of him in the UFC. But I would pick him to be DeShera. I would pick him to be Blahovic. Nemcov's an interesting guy. I don't know in a rematch if I would so comfortably say Per Hajska would beat him. But I obviously see Opeel people would say that because he already beat him. So it's kind of fine to look at. Sean, are we are we, are we, are we calling people out yet? When do we get into the calling, calling people out portion of the show? And I don't even call you out. Jed, I would never call you out. You and I have been through too much. You just do we have a bone to pick with Jed? I feel like I feel like I know it's coming and I'm ready. Oh, you know what's coming. I'm just curious. I'm just curious. So,

Damon, do you mind if I say, you said you had him ranked higher. Can I say how high you ranked Anderson? Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. Okay. So this was our, we had a very wide range of Corey Anderson rankings. So, Damon, you were the highest number two, just behind Glover. Jed, you were the lowest number 10 behind Ankaliev, Dominic Reyes, Anthony Smith, and some others. And the rest of us, even the rest of us were all over the place. I have him five. Some people have him three, four. So there was no consensus on where, where Cory Anderson should land, which makes sense, given that we've seen him succeed in the UFC and Bellator, but the level of competition has been a little bit different in Bell Tor. And so, so I just want to know. So, Jed,

how do you, how do you put Corey a 10th? I would also like to know this, please. So, Sean, Sean hit me up with this the other day when I submitted. It was like, how did this happen? And the first thing I would like to say is, yes, Corey Anderson beat Ryan Bader. I realized afterwards that I probably had Ryan Bader ranked way too highly. And so then I just course corrected that as part of this. But I think that there's totally an argument for Corey Anderson to be higher. I want to be clear here. I don't believe that I have a definitive ranking of light heavyweight. I think once you get outside of the top three, who to me are unquestionably, Glover, Jan and Yerie, I think it gets real muddy, real fast. And then, you know, I think there are a lot of

arguments that can be made either way. And if you want to have Corey Anderson forth, okay. For me, though, recency matters a lot, and Corey Anderson has won, and that's great. His wins over the last two years have been Melvin Manhuth. Okay. Some dude, I'm not even going to pretend to pronounce his name. And Ryan Bader, who is very likely washed at this point, kind of seems that way. And also, like I said, at the beginning of this, I think I had unfairly rated higher because certainly initially I was trying to

I think I lean too heavy into the I want to not be prejudiced against Bellador so I maybe gave some of them some inflated rankings major chief among them like I said if you want to have Corey Anderson high or cool he does have a win over the now

UFC champion and a very solid win at that but that was several years ago if they fought tomorrow that was several years ago what are we talking about three or four years ago 2018 I'm the definition of several Fair enough. I'm going to jump in here.

Go ahead, John, please. I do a follow-up, but you go first. I feel like Damon Martin right now. I'm just like ready to jump through the screen when I'm hearing you say it. Yeah, yeah. You say the last two years, the wins that Corey Anderson has and you sort of named him off. If you went back one more year, you'd be able to say the name Glover-Teshara on that list. It's a weird cutoff point that you're making.

And I just want to read you a couple names you had ranked over Corey Anderson, Jed. Just a couple. Oh, Dominic Reyes is bad. I will be clear. That was going to be. My number one. He should be below Uncle I have and Anderson and probably way dropped down. As I looked over this again, this one, 100%.

I agree that Reyes above him is a bad placement. But, again, you can argue about points. I fundamentally agree in general that I don't think Cory Anderson's like a guaranteed top guy. Just a few names that you have ranked above Corey Anderson. Dominic Reyes, who hasn't won a fight since 2019. Tiago Santos, who hasn't looked good in a fight since 2019. I didn't realize looking good was the same as winning or losing. Oh, he also lost three fights in a row relatively recently.

You might have seen it. And then the other one. All to better fighters than Corey Anderson. Hold on. Magomed and Kaliiv, who has exactly zero wins over anybody ranked in your top ten, is also above Corey Anderson, who has a recent win over the UFC champion. I guess my question is, why do you hate Cory Anderson so much? Well, one, Magomed, I mean, do you believe that Magogamund?

about Ankelyev would lose to Corey Anderson they fall because I sure don't. I think that definitely factors in. I think a series of wins. If I'm being honest. He might be favorite. I can't speak for Vegas, but I think Ankalyev wins. Look, maybe I hate Corey Anderson. That's totally fair.

I just keep coming back. I keep coming back to Daniel Cormier's quote to Jimmy Manua, as Jimmy Manoa sat Cade side and tried to call for a title shot of. Jimmy, I like you, but you beat Cory Anderson. sit down. That doesn't matter. And that's, I can't get past it. Like, he's, he's a totally fine, light, heavyweight. Maybe he's a top five one, because this division is awful. But like, I, he, his wins, he has the win over Glover. Great. He beat Alir Latifie and Johnny Walker, who are competent fighters, but not ranked fighters. And before that, like, what's, let me turn

it back to you, outside of the Tashire win, obviously a very good win, especially now, given what Glover's done. What's his big win? It's bad bad bader? Like, I don't, I don't know that we need to stay on. Hold on. Hold on. Wait, wait.

Let me the beta ranked at number six coming into that month. As I said, as I said, that was an inflated bad ranking. I'm not here to say everything right, but I just don't know why Cory Anderson and Scott Koker saying he's the best, like, heavyweight in the world or whatever, means we all now need to believe it. Right. He has, we don't need to believe it. We don't need to believe it.

need to consider it when that one good win is the man currently holding the UFC title, and it was a relatively convincing win, and it was not that long ago. Yes, and can I defend the Johnny Walker win, too? When he, Johnny Walker definitely, if we had been doing rankings, would have been ranked probably top 12 or top 13 if we had been doing ranks. He was four and O in the UFC coming off. If I had a wagon. No, no, no.

This is, I mean, we have to, we have to contextualize it. You can't say, like, that Johnny Walker win wasn't a good win. At the time, it was a really good win. People were talking about him fighting like John Jones, if he'd be, Corey Anderson. Like, this was a real thing. Like, this was a real conversation that was happening at the time. So for Corey to like starch him, like that was a big deal at the time. So I know in retrospecting like, oh, was that a big win? Like I think it was at the time and I think it's still held up pretty well. So, but I do want to give a Damon. Damon, can you know, I think we should

go to Dame for the other side of it. Well, that's what I want to ask, I want to ask, I want to just, Sean, yeah. There's no one in our rankings right now who is more polarizing than Corey Anderson. No one fighter in any division has a bit broader spectrum than two to 10. then Corey Anderson. And I think that sort of speaks to the place where we're at with this light, heavyweight division just in general. Damon, why do you think that is? And who do you feel like between you being at number two, you having him at number two and Jet Hammett out of number 10? Who do you feel like is closer to being on point in their assessment? Well, clearly I'm right. Let me just go ahead and start there. Because when you look at Cory

Anderson's body of work, he is seven and one in his last eight fights. His one loss, of course, was the knockout to Jan Blahovic, which doesn't look all that bad to consider what Yon has done over the last couple of years. He went out there and I know you can sit here and say maybe Ryan Bader is washed. He's not the fighter he once was. But the fact is, Ryan Bader still deserved the ranking he was at, considering what he had done up to that point, Ed Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight. I mean, we can sit here and say that, you know, we don't believe he's the fighter he

once was, but he still had the resume to back up his ranking. And Corey Anderson knocked him out in 51 seconds. He had a lopsided winner over Johnny Walker, who at the time was one of the most tight prospects in the UFC, knocked him out in 207, got a performance of the night there, and then his fight with Glover Tashara wasn't close, wasn't remotely close,

wasn't anything on the scope of close. It was a three-round, lopsided decision where Glover got dominated. That matters. Performances matter. And right now, Corey Anderson is a guy who's building a resume. You're going to tell me that those seven wins.

I mean, I'm not saying that, I'm not trying to say that Yuri Pahasca is a bad light heavy, I think I think Iar Prosska's a great light heavy way. Actually, and we had that whole Game of Thrones argument, I would probably pick him too. He is a monster. But he has the, when you talk about his wins, he has the Nimcoff win. Of course, that was several years ago. That actually was several years ago.

And then you actually talk about his two wins in the UFC, both very impressive, Ozdemear and, of course, the winner were Dominic Reyes. But then here, you know, we're sitting here and listen to your trashed Dominic Reyes. Well, how meaningful is the Dominic Reyes win compared to Ryan Bader? I mean, again, I mean, if Dominic Reyes is a, as good as everyone made him out to me, then how quality is that win? Vulcan Osdemeer is a solid light heavyway, but come on now. I mean, you're going to tell me the Vulcan Osdemeer, that win is that much better than,

you know, some of the other wins on Cory Anderson's record, really? I mean, come on, Ryan Bader's not a more quality win than Vulcan Osdemear, really. And so that's why I think when you look at Cory Anderson's body at work, combined with the Glover to Sheriff Factor, again, three years ago, in fighting three years isn't that long, because fighters typically only fight twice or maybe three times the year. This isn't, you know, college football or this isn't the pros where you get a chance to avenge a loss four games later. You know, you have a record that goes back and we're not going back like nine years. We're going back about three years.

And within the last three years, Corey Anderson has a very, very convincing win over the current UFCLA heavyweight champion. That matters. If that matters, though, why does Jan Bolhovic's convincing first round knockout of Corey Anderson last year, last year not matter because you have Corey ranked above Yon again you want to put Corey above yeary fine I'm I I don't agree but I can't make a great argument that you're wrong and I'm right I don't understand how all the things you said don't apply to Yon knocking out Corey literally last year that also goes in again this ranking really goes into recency bias in terms of what just happened meaning Yon got dominated by Glover I mean he got dominated and finished in the

second round. He wasn't really in the fight. And he got beat. And again, that's a judgment call. I'm not going to fault and say that Yon couldn't be above Corey. So Corey's win over Glover three years ago matters more than Yon's went over Corey last year. Cory's one of a dominant decision as opposed to a first round knockout. I don't understand this.

Corey's win over Glover combined with his last three wins in a row, again, highlighted. I'm not going to sit here and St. Belvin-Manhoff and the other guy, I'm not going to try to pronounce his name. Ryan Bader matters. He was the Belitzer Light Heavyweight champion, you know, six, seven months ago, whatever it was. And he's still, I mean, again,

I know we're saying that he didn't really, you're saying he didn't really deserve the ranking he had, but he had the ranking. I mean, we can't sit here and ignore it just because now in retrospect, we say, well, maybe Ryan Bader's washed, okay? We absolutely can, by the way. You can, but we're saying that after he got knocked out in 51 seconds.

I mean, he got beat by Vendim Nym. There's no shame in that loss. I mean, Vadim Nimcoff is one of the top five guys of the world. And he got beat by the better guy. Okay, I'm fine with that. But what other, I mean, he went out there. And again, I know Leota Machita's not, you know, Leota Machita's not, you know, Leota Machita of a decade ago,

but he still went out there and beat Leota, had a quality win after the Nimcoff fight. And then he got starched in 51 seconds. Now, afterwards, we could sit here and say, yes, Ryan Bader, maybe he's washed. But going into that fight, there were a lot of people picking Ryan Bader to win that fight. And Ryan Bader wasn't like this. huge underdog and no one said Ryan Bader was washed going into that fight. Maybe we're saying it coming out of it because he got knocked out in 51 seconds, but it doesn't erase that knockout. So when you take the Glover win combined with everything else he's done plus the three wins

recently and it capped off and with the exclamation point of a 51 second knockout over another top 10 ranked light heavyweight and Ryan Bader, that's why I put him there. I'm not going to, I'm not going to argue that Yon and Corey couldn't easily be flipped. I'm not saying that. They could be easily flipped. And I wouldn't argue with you saying, yes, Yon knocked him out more recently. I just go by the resume. And the resume says, Corey just got a legit win over a top 10 light heavyweight in 51 seconds in Ryan Bader. And Jan got dominated and finished in the second round by Glover Tashara.

And then again, when I combine in the Glover Tashire, went a lopsided three-round decision over the current light heavyweight champion. That's why I put him there. I don't have a problem if they're flip-flop. But my problem is if you have Corey Anderson much lower than that, because what? What else does this guy? I mean, what else can he do? If he goes out there beats Vidim Kempov, what's he going to bump to number four? I mean, come on.

Like, how many top 10 wins does this guy have to get before people show him some freaking respect? If he beats Hidimkov, he'll move up to either three or four. And that's where he'll stay because now he fights in an organization where he can't get good wins anymore. Wow. Well, that's what I was, guys, that's what I was going to ask all three of you, actually. Well, first, and by the way, guys, Dolvetszan, Yajshimerdov, please. Okay, put some respect on his name. Look at that.

that professionalism. You had to stop to pause to get that right. And I'm not even confident. You did. Don't mock us for knowing our own limitations. But I said it was such confidence, though. But I was going to ask all three of you, let's say Corey Anderson beats Nemcov in the most dominant fashion pot, like first round knockout, whatever, first round knockout, five rounds,

you know, 50, 45, 44, whatever, whatever you wanted to find as the best, like, that Corey Anderson could do against him. How high, I'll start with Damon, because he already hasn't been two. How high can he go, Damon? Would you put him above Glover? And in Glover, let's say Glover doesn't fight until middle of next year or something. I would say it would be close because, again, you got the win over Glover and another win over a top five guy.

And by the way, just to dispute what Judge just said there, no offense, but he can't, there still are a couple quality wins. Are we going to say, I mean, again, I understand people have kind of forgotten about him, but if he goes out beats Rumble Johnson, that doesn't matter anymore. Rumble Johnson doesn't still matter. That's a great point. I mean, that's out there. Your boy, U.L. Romero, who just lost.

to Phil Davis, by the way. Phil Davis is still out there. Phil Davis isn't a great win. It's not like beating him as high quality as beating a year in Pahasca, but beating Phil Davis still matters. He's still a quality light heavyweight

at this stage of the game. So we're clear. Phil Davis is a good win. Rumble Johnson is not. We have no idea if Rumble can fight. His one fight is against a dude nobody knows in Bellator earlier this year. We need to see him compete again

before I'd consider that a good win. You just called Phil Davis a good win when you have him ranked below Ryan Bader, who you call the bad win. I don't get it. Yeah, I look, I'm not saying that I did a perfect job on this. 100% I came clean immediately. Mine at least isn't as objectively awful as having Corey Anderson a spot above the dude who knocked him out last year. That seems crazy to me.

But there are people in our ranking. And to answer your question, A.K., I don't care if he obliterates Vadim K. he doesn't get to move past Jan Blahovich. He gets to move to third. He gets to move in front of Yuri Parajka if Corey Anderson comes up and blows the doors off of Nimcov because he got knocked out last year. If you look at our rankings, and I'm not going to call anybody out by name, if you look at our rankings, there's a lot of people who have Phil Davis ranked.

I think most people have Hill Davis ranked. A lot of people have a lot of people have Rumble Johnson ranked and ranked pretty highly. I'm not saying like top five, but like, you know, decently ranked. So Anthony Johnson is still a quality win, and that's based on Anthony Johnson's resume. Is Anthony Johnson the same guy who fought and destroyed people a couple of years ago? Maybe not. I don't know. But there's still enough prospect being shown to him to have him in the rankings on some people's rankings.

So I think that's still a quality win. Again, now, will he eventually run into that roadblock beating Nimcoff and beating, let's say, hypothetically beating Johnson, will he kind of run into a roadblock at that point? Yes. And if Yuri Pajasca goes out there at smokes lover Tashara, will he probably be number one? and he'll stay there as long as he's champion? Probably so. But again, I just, when you talk, you know, wins count and quality wins count,

of Corey Anderson beats, he beat Ryan Bader. If he goes on beats Vidim Kov, and again, hypothetically, he beats Anthony Rumble Johnson. I mean, that's three huge wins in a row, and I understand he lost the Jan Blahovych. I get that. But, yeah, if we're going to play that game, and I know that was more recently, but, I mean, you know, Corey does have a 30, 25 win over Jan Blahovitch from several years ago.

Now, that, again, again, I get it. realm of reasonable discussion. I understand that. No, I understand. That's what I'm saying, though, but at what point,

what can, what can Corey do that will ever get him past John Boehovic? Yes, he lost that fight. But if he beats, if he beats Bader,

Nimcov and Hypoidal, let's say, Johnson or Davis, in three in a row, those are three top 15 fighters. That's not good enough for him to jump over one win over it, one loss to Jan Belhovic?

Not if Jan keeps winning. If Yon loses, sure. But if Yon's one loss his two of the champion, then no. Like, that's just,

Not it. He's still got the, and Corey Anderson wanted to make this whole argument about, yeah, I also beat you, but that's however many years ago. You got knocked out last year, man. That's just the way the cookie crumbles as far as I'm concerned. Again, it's all subjective. And you obviously, Damon are valuing this differently. But as long as Jan doesn't lose again to somebody who's not the champion, then I just think he gets to hang on to that spot. in my eyes, if Corey Anderson continues to stay unbeaten in Bellator and does the same that he's been doing to these people to Vadim Nemcov, you have a very, very real argument there for top two placement. Like, just in general, like, it'd be hard to keep him out of the top two for me at that point because I do think so highly of Vadim Nemcov. But we have to move on. We've spent a long time on this one.

Let's move on to the second topic now and let's hit the 170-pound division. Because the Hamza at Shemaya Party is back on, fellas. It's like it never left. We went over the numbers, AK, in the first half of the show, but there is just some nonsensical striking stats out there, take down, control stats,

whatever you want to look at. A lot of these stats just don't make sense. He was sort of the biggest story on a card that was loaded with big stories. And now we're here. He's 4 and O in the UFC, and he shoots into our rankings this month. He debuts as an immediate top 10 fighter.

He's the number 10 spot at Welterweight right now. That's him. Everyone on this whole team had him in their 10 to 14 range. But his is now, this weird case where it feels like the hype is justified and he's clearly this top tiered talent. He's a tierly a talent that needs to be contending for in that sort of realm. But he doesn't really have the resume yet to really get him a higher spot in these rankings. So I just wonder for

you guys, how do you approach a situation like this when you're putting your list together? Well, for me personally, and I had him the second lowest ranked of anybody and it's not because I don't think he's great. It's resume to me because as quality and beating Lee G. Lang matters. I mean, that's a good win. And there is potential there. And I'll rank him above Michael Page and Douglas Lima, who I've ripped on this show before, especially, well, not Douglas Lehm, more Michael Page, you know, his list of, you know, the tomato cans he's beaten up to Douglas Lima. But Chameh has potential and he now has a quality win. But I can't rank him much higher than that than the bottom half of the top 15 because he doesn't have other quality

wins. I mean, Reese McKee is his one other win at Weltonway. Reese McKee's McKee's lightweight and he's not in the UFC anymore. That doesn't stand the reason when you compare his resume to, let's say, Anil Magneur, even a Ray Cooper in PFL who, you know, beat Roy McDonald in a very one-sided fight and then went out and knocked out Magamad, Magamad Karamov, who is a solid, you know, Welto-way, not saying he's a great, you know, amazing top-10 guy, but he's a solid, you know, solid welter-weight fighter. So I think Chimaev has all the potential in the world, but he's got to get a few more

way. He's got at least another winner, too, for me to start. ranking in much higher because again wins matter quality wins matter and right now, Jamive has one. So let me let me tell you how the sausage is made for my rankings because I think

that that will explain where I've put Shemaiv. I think I've got him at 11 and I totally agree with what Damon said wins matter. I think that there's a really good argument for Chamaev actually to just not be ranked at all because he doesn't really have like Li Jion Ling is probably a fringe

top 15 guy. I don't remember if we had him ranked the last month or not. But, you know, he's sort of in that neighborhood. This one win maybe should get Chamehiv in. But other than that, he doesn't have a lot. But for me, we go back to the Game of Thrones argument. I'm in. I'm all in.

Line it up. Rocket ship to the moon. Chimayev is going to win the belt. I would pick him tomorrow against everybody except maybe Kamar Ustman. And I might even pick him over Usman. Wow. Really? Strictly because I've been waiting for Kamar Uzman to stumble for the last, like, three years,

because he's low-key old for the division. He is, yeah. And he has, like, self-admittedly doesn't have functioning knees. And I've been waiting for that shoe to drop, and it just hasn't because he's so damn good. But, like, at some point, that will catch up to him. And so I totally believe that Ustman should be a favorite over Tremayev, but I keep thinking, this might be the time for Ustman. and I, Shemayev was so impressive against Li Zhang Ling, who, you know, I respect.

I think he is a solid welterweight. And just the overall totality of his career is so impressive. And because he's got that top, you know, Game of Thrones spot for me, that absolutely colored kind of where I placed him. And so I just kind of looked at the rankings and was like, all right, I know this, I want this guy in here. I can't put him above people with like very clearly established resumes. And so I figured the exact line of who I could comfortably live with him being above and put him above it. I was just like, uh, Neil Magni has a lot of good wins at welterweight.

I can't in good conscience put Shemai of above him. But Ray Cooper, Michael Page, Douglas Lima, Bilal Muhammad, they're all very good welterweights. But they all have obvious criticisms against their careers. They're in Bellator, PFL or they're Bilal Muhammad. I was like, oh, Hamza could go right there. That's just where I put him. So I'm actually, I'm glad both of you guys brought up Ray Cooper because I was looking at the difference between them too.

And to me, it's sort of an interesting case study with how these whole rankings work in general because I think I was the only one on the whole team to have Ray Cooper in my top 10. I had him at number nine. I think everyone else sort of had him in that 1115 range just outside of the top 10. But you look at him.

He's undefeated in his last seven, right? Two-time PFL champ. He beat Roy McDonald, like Damon said, dominated Magelmed, Magmaa Kareemov, who I think all of us respect. He's a talent at 170. He ends up jumping up from number 14 to number 12 now in this month. But it is one of those things where Hamzaa Shamaev has already ranked above him with, you know, what, like a 4-0 UFC record, really one UFC win that matters.

A.K., how do you, how do you, when you have a situation like this, we have a UFC blue chip prospect who I think all of us agree, future title contender probably like future contending for that top five spot, like that's Hamzaa-Shimaev right now. When you have that versus someone who is in a lower league, a PFL, but is on a hot streak and has been doing so well. And I would say the PFL 170 pound division is actually pretty decent, right? Like, that's a talent-riched division just across the world. So whatever talent, PFL is able to get there. It's pretty decent talent. How do you measure the two? Like, how do you really determine who comes in above somebody else?

Because I think you had Chimaev with me at number 10. Yes. Yeah, we had him at 10 and one of our other. also Adam 10, we were the highest rankers of Mr. Shemayev. Yeah, listen, that win, I'm assuming our colleagues aren't looking too closely at my rankings, that win was so impactful, the win over Lee. It actually made me reshuffle sort of the bottom half of my top 15, even with some of these guys not having fought recently.

I had to rethink like, okay, well, I know this guy has a better record, this guy, this guy's a better record, this guy would beat this guy, whatever, whatever. But and then I'm like, but I really think Shamaev can beat, say, you know, this guy. And then so I had to shift some things around. So my rankings look a little screwy. I think you and I were talking earlier, Sean, and you mentioned I actually somehow Cooper went down despite proving that three seasons into the PFL, he has proven definitively he is the man to beat in that league.

He has a lot of good wins in that league. I somehow dropped him down two spots. And, and again, it's on your list, right? Like he dropped on my list. Yeah, on my, I think he'll move, he'll move up when our, on our actual rankings. But on my list, he actually fell down. I dropped him below Michael Page, Douglas Lima, two guys from still very high on. But you can make a very strong case that his resume certainly recently is stronger than both of theirs.

And I have no issue with that. So the Shamiya thing is both who he's beaten. I know only 2 and 0, Walter Wade, but I kind of have to look at all his performances, regardless of weight class. He's a hard guy to define. There's just nobody that started a UFC career like this. I don't think, at least in the modern era, dominating his opponents in two. weight classes and really dominating. I mean, we're talking first round, just insane finishes, not getting touched.

So it's the Game of Thrones test, is the I test. And I think that has to factor into it so much. As much as I definitely favor results, like what actually happens, who have you beaten? The eye test results on this guy are so undeniable. They're so off the charts that you have to make some leeway for hypotheticals. And is his performance so strong. that he can be put above more experienced guys who have beaten better competitions. So that's where I really am with this guy.

There's really just no precedent for it. He's essentially really messing up the rankings. And God forbid, if the UFC actually lets him compete at 170 and 185, then I really don't know what we're going to do. He might be someone who has to be ranked at two and two standings. It's possible. We don't know it with this guy. 185 has like seven good fighters in it, so pretty easy to manage.

just he just gets to be one of the top 10 guys. I know, but we don't have anyone in two divisions, Jed. He would be the first guy. We've only been doing this for a few months officially. He would be the first guy. And that's your candidate, of course, Amanda Nunez, two division champion. Oh, wait, there is no. Never mind.

There's only one division. We actually rank. So he would be the first guy to kind of break our rankings as we have constructed. What about Ryan Bader? You forgot about him? Well, he's not heavyweight anymore, is he? Yeah, he's still ranked in heavyweight. He's not a heavyweight champion.

No, no, but he didn't make. He didn't make our heavyweight rankings this time. Oh, he did. Yes, he's tied for him. He's hanging on. Tide for 14. Okay, well, there we go. So he's a, he'd have to, uh, he'd have to match the illustrious Ryan Bader in that regard.

Should he, should he be allowed to compete in two divisions? So much Ryan Bader talk. What is this? 2016. That's the, that's coming in the headline, man. That's going to headline. Like, Ryan, that's a real come for. Ryan, one guy saying Ryan, Ryan, one guy's saying Ryan and Bader's wash.

Another guy saying he sucks at heavyweight. What is going on here today, guys? I didn't. I didn't. Ryan Bader's, poor Ryan Bader is catching strays all day. I didn't say sucks. I didn't say sucks.

I said he's a non-factor. I said he's a non-factor and I forgot he was a heavyweight. That's not sucks. Come on now. That's a new word to him entirely. That's worse. That's worse. And,

come on, don't misquote me. Don't misquote me. Come on. To me, the two cases just get back to the welter weights. They're very different, but I do sort of see comparisons.

And I guess maybe this isn't a welterweight. but like with Islam Makachev and Hamseh Shemaya where it both feels to me that they're in this weird spot that I look at them much higher than their actual ranking is if that makes any sense where it's like Islam might be the best lightweight in the whole damn world right now and it's it's really hard for me to not put him in that spot just in these rankings just off my gut like I have him the highest out of anybody on the whole staff I haven't number four in the lightweight rankings everyone else sort of has them in that five six seven range but to me it's just so undeniable to like how can I not have this guy?

in the top four of these rankings. And that's sort of how it felt with Hamzat, where it's just, he's a top 10 welterweight. Like, I know we haven't maybe seen the evidence of it, but it feels, I feel it in my bones that he's a top 10 welterweight. And I just, it was hard for me to leave it off. I mean, I don't, like I said, I think, you know, potential matters. But again, I got to always balance potential with record.

And again, with Shima, I agree. I think, listen, I said it in my post-fight column. I think him and Usman could be one of the biggest, you know, if things keep going in that direction, him and Ousman could be a monster fight for the UFC. And it's probably what Ousman needs right now because he's staring down a ton of rematches if he gets past Colby at UFC 268. Like he's looking at nothing but rematches pretty much right now. And Chameh might be the one guy who would actually, you know, be a serious challenge to Kamar Ustman right now.

So I think he's there. I mean, I would pick him to beat a lot of the guys in the top welts away right now. But he's got to beat him. I got to see he's got to earn him like I said I can say on an on eyesight test I think he beats you know maybe everybody but Usman but we don't know that quite yet maybe maybe gilbert burns submits him gilbert burns is no joke maybe gilbert burns pulls off you know maybe gilbert burns goes out there and pulls off a wild submission because he's a freaking you know multi-time grappling champion maybe you know maybe vicente luke the master of violence himself you know somehow you know

draws Tremayev into a fight and he catches him and clips him and puts him down. I don't know that I'd bet on those things to happen, but it could. And so until they do, I can't quite put Chamaev, you know, much higher than where I have him in that top 15 because he just doesn't have the wins. Yeah, I will, I'll just sort of adding on to that. Exactly. That's, that's kind of where I, like I said, I put Shamaev. So to just give a little more clarity on mine, he's above, the people directly behind him, sorry, MVP Lima Cooper. And then ahead of him is where we get to these veteran welterweights, Keisa, Masviral, Lucke. So, and exactly what Damon is saying is, is I would certainly pick him, I think, to beat any of these guys at this point. But also, I could see

them, one, I can see them beating him, as Damon said. And two, their resumes are just so strong that that's where I have to draw the line. But I can, I can really see people like projecting just, you know, the biggest things for Shama. I mean, I was Dana White's all in on them. And some fans, I mean, I don't know if they keep fans out there, if you keep your own rankings and you're Jerome Shemai of at like the seven, six, five, top five. I think it's crazy, but I think it shows you how he has captured the imagination of the fans and the media and everyone who has seen him fight. It's really unique, man.

Like I wrote in my column over the weekend that I can count on one hand the number of times I've really asked and called over like a decade in this industry for a prospect to sort of be instant push into title contention. It doesn't happen often. But for me, this feels like one of those rare cases, man. one quick question to wrap this up before we move on to our last topic one word answer from all you guys i'm just curious where we're sitting shemaiah versus the oosman covington winner who are you picking tomorrow aka one word ozman jed jemmyov damon oombeam oombeam i think i'm oombsman

i'm usman i'm not sure also you're all just assuming oombein beats covington well that's what i said yeah that's exactly what happened you said oomyevon coming to winter and they are But he said Usman. Exactly. I am not at all confident Usman wins this weekend. Very confident. I am very, very confident he wins this week.

Y'all forgetting how close that first fight was. I think everyone's forgetting that Colby was arguably winning until the fifth round. Yeah. Not on two of the judges' cards. Regardless, let's move on last topic of the day. And we had to revisit it because on our inaugural episode of this wonderful show we do together, the four of us debated. the bantam weights at length.

Peter Jan, Al Jamein, Sterling, who at the time we had tied for the number one spot. Damon, you and I were on team, Peter Jan. We felt like he was the number one bantam weight in the world and he had shown it. A.K. and Jed, you guys were on team Sterling. Damon, our argument was you got to trust your own eyes. And now wouldn't you know it?

You pull up the rankings today in a post-UFC-27 world. And who's all alone at number one? A.K. You absolutely coward. I will say this is perfect. This is perfect because we have you two who already made your case. I'm sorry, YouTube being Damon and Sean. And one of us turned, I turned.

I turned. And one of us, as you can imagine, the illustrious Mr. Jed has dug in your heels, your proverbial heels. So sorry, Sean, what are you going to say? So just to finish setting this up, six place first, six first place votes now for the UFC interim banditimweight champion. and Al Jemaine still has two. Jed is one of those. A.K., you were one of those defectors who moved over to the Yon side.

Why now? Why was it this one win over a guy that Al Jermaine has already beaten much quicker and easier? Why was this the thing that set you on that side? Okay, well, first of all, Yon need to beef up his resume a little bit. I don't apologize for having Sterling number one at all.

I think Sterling, I don't know why fans have this whole, yes, he was, I think obviously he was losing to Yon in their fight. But the thing is, again, that fight did not have, a conclusive ending. And if the official ending is that Sterling won. He won by his qualification. So technically he has a win over Yon. That sounds pretty conclusive, okay. Well, I mean, it's not if you watch the fight, which we all did. And I think we all know, I think it was heading towards a Yon decision

win and possibly a finish, honestly in the fourth or fifth round. We don't know. You know, Jan Belhovic was heading to knock out Glover until he got tapped. Sure. I mean, if that's how you saw that and you're willing to go on record saying that, you, I will let you have that, sir. if that's how you saw that fight going, just like Nate Diaz was about to turn things around on Jorge Mosvital. Like, I agree. I mean, again, these are all things that we know are facts. They were about to turn these fights around. But just to give credit to Aljo, again, Corey Sanhagen, like you said, fast finish, Munoz, Jim Rivera.

I'm just looking at his resume right now. Hennon Barrow, when that mattered. I know it was at 140. That mattered when that win happened. It's funny. And just people, because he had, again, I think what was a losing performance against Yon, that people just counted all that. Now, Jan, now that I'm looking at it, again, I think he was beating Sterling, so you give him partial credit for that. The win over Sandhagen was awesome.

I don't care if it wasn't a finish. I don't care if it wasn't a finish. The Jose Aldo win, which I kind of didn't think that much of when it first happened, I think has greatly has aged very, very well. And he also has wins over Rivera. So that Sandhanging win puts a little over the top. But what really does as well is we don't know when they're going to fight or if. Sterling does say he wants me back early next month. It seems to me absurd.

I'm not judging Jed. I'm saying, or the other panelists who had who kept Sterling number one. Sounds a little bit like you're judging Jen. I mean, you know, people can infer what they want. Don't worry about to judge real hard right back. Okay, okay, but I'm saying it seems absurd. Let's say this fight doesn't happen to like February. That's like three more months where I keep, I would have kept Sterling above Yon and there's nothing Yon could do.

And what if that fight doesn't happen? Let's say for some reason, and Sterling's not ready to come back and another matchup gets made, then how long am I waiting to put Yon number one? So it just didn't make sense. I was just looking, this was looking ahead a little bit

and just thinking, what's fair is fair. This guy has proven he's the champ. He's now, according to Joe Martinez, the two-time champ. And I would pick him to beat Sterling. So all those, in a rematch. So all those things are why I'm going to,

I feel very comfortable having him number one now. But don't regret, do not regret having Sterling number one up to this point. Jed, come in, defend your honor. I don't even know where to begin. So first of all, A.K., never again do you get to say that rules rule because you just threw that out the window immediately with this. That was all within the rules.

That was all within the rules. Explain to me this. Is Al Jermaine Sterling's win over Peter Yan? Is it Puritan? Is it legitimate? Yes or no? Is it legitimate? Sure.

then how in God's name can you justify putting Peoria on above him? There's no, I get it. If you're the person who wrongly believes that Peoria Yan was unjustifiably D-Qed, then yes, he, he wins the Game of Thrones. If they're fighting tomorrow, I'm putting

Peoria on there. But as we have conclusively established this whole time, results matter, activity matters. In my monthly rankings, I move Peoria on. because the last time we had this discussion, I thought there was a good argument that he was not a top four, you know, three or four guy,

because his resume did not warrant that, especially if you accept the Sterling loss as what it is, a legitimate loss. But because he beat Sandhagen and looked so damn good, I moved him up to number two. I think, like you said, A.K., the win over Aldo is looking better and better. I think the Sandhagen win for my money,

Sanhagen's the toughest fight in the division for Jan. and I think he won that very cleanly. So he's number two, but I 100% believe that he justifiably lost the fight and his belt, that I don't care how the fight was going, or if he hadn't done the illegal thing, that he probably would have won. Because he did do the illegal thing, and we don't live on Fantasy Island,

or he didn't cheat his ass off. Because, again, everybody just wants to forget it because he would probably beat Al Jermaine Sterling if they fought again. It was not a controversial knee. He stood over the top of Al Jermaine Sterling, hammering punches into the grounded fighter for seven seconds and then need him. It wasn't Sterling was playing the game. He made a choice.

It wasn't a legal one. He got DQed. Totally legit. I think everybody on the call here believes that that is a legit win for Sterling. And if you think that is a legit win for Sterling, there is absolutely no excuse in my mind for putting Yon above him unless you are entirely basing it on the fact that all of your picks are who would win tomorrow. Because if that's the case, I'll go redo all my rankings,

and that's the only way that I will vote moving forward is who I would pick to win in a fight tomorrow. But if results matter, which we have all hammered home, and Sterling's win was a legitimate result, you're all insane and AK I am so disappointed to you. This is shit. This is, Jed, I feel so bad for you what's about to happen to you. Okay, two things.

One, is it a disqualification the same as a decision win or if it? Is it the same thing? No. In your eyes, it's the same. It has the same value. If someone beat someone by disqualification, you're saying, you're going on record saying a disqualification win has the same value in your eyes as someone beating someone by decision or finishing them.

I will give a very minor caveat to that the DQ isn't like total garbage. but yes, I believe it's the same. So hit me with your haymaker. You value in the same. Okay. And results matter. Whitaker beat Romero twice. Yeah,

that's why I don't have, that's why I don't have Romero ranked over Winker. It's a fun thing. It's a fun thing that I say, but it's not a real thing I do in the rankings. Now we're just having fun. We're doing the Alex Jones in court. Oh, I'm just having fun.

We're just here for entertainment. I just want to be sure. I just want to be sure. Go look at my rankings. Where's Robert Whitaker? I'm just saying this has come up many times in conversation. I'm just saying it's coming many times in conversation. Yeah, I like to joke about your own memory being great,

but I understand that he technically did lose. David's made, absolutely won. To that point, to that point, though, Jed, let me just put you on the hotspot here. You said wins matter, right?

Yeah, we all said that. Okay. Ryan Bader, you had at number six at light heavyweight. Corey Anderson beat him, and Corey Anderson didn't. Why are we relitating this?

I'm just saying. Because you're not consistent. You got to be. No, because I already answered. I already answered that question. I incorrectly had Bader high. He is above Ryan Bader now. We don't need to re-argue the light heavyway point.

I'll even stipulate. Sure, I'm wrong about Corey Anderson. Cool. I could give two tons of a dead dog's tail arguing whether Corey Anderson is a top five fighter. We got it, John. We got it. We got it.

telling me about Peotrion aggressively deserves to be the top Bannam weight, but in the same breath, believe that Aljo one legit, you're all crazy. Mission accomplished. I cannot believe this. Mission accomplished. We got the audio, quote, unquote, Jed, I was wrong about Corey Anderson. We got it. Sure. That's it. That was all we needed. So stipulated. Now everyone, please adjust your Peota, Yon and Al Jermaine Sterling rankings, because this is nonsense. All I'm is Damon a couple months ago, you and I said trust your eyes. Trust your eyes. That was all.

We were just trying to get you guys to trust your eyes. And now people are trusting their eyes just a little bit more. And someone's on the losing side. Damon, you can take a victory lap right now if you want before we get out of here. Yeah, I mean, listen. A.K. is now on the losing side. Peter, yeah. I feel good, actually.

Sean, you and I had a number one. We still have number one. And it only is solidified further by the winner of Corey Sanhagen, who I'm not, I don't think I'm outing you because we have the exact same ranking. San Hagan, I still have number three because he beat T.J. Dillishall. Those judges were horrendous. He had that win. And I agree with what Jed said, that San Hagen could be the toughest matchup for a lot of people at Bantamweight, including Peter Yon.

And Peter Yon beat him four rounds to one. I mean, uh, that, you know, that's, that's as clear cut to me as anything. So my ranking of him being number one is only further solidified by the fact that he just beat another great Bantamweight in Corey Sanhagen. And listen, we'll get the rematch with Sterling. And all this will be clarified, hopefully, by February or March of next year. We can all walk away and saying, you know, that Peter Yan is the best band to win in the sport because Peter Yan is the best band to win in the sport. And let's end it on that.

There we go. Well, thank you so much, everyone, for joining us on yet another episode of the MMA fighting ranking show. The fun doesn't stop, y'all, because, I mean, we had one pay-per-view last week. Now it's a new paper-view coming this week. Two title fights, Usman Covington, too, as we already said, and then also Rose-Nobing. Juna Zeng Wei Lee too as well. Also, all sorts of fun stuff on that card. Justin Gagey, Michael Chandler. You got Frankie Edgar, Marlon Vera, ally of Quinta, Bobby Green. I mean, there's just, I'm leaving out a bunch here. But it is a good card up to down. And it's going to have a lot of

effect, I would imagine, on what we talk about next month on this show. In the meantime, keep it locked to MMA fighting, y'all, for your pre-post-fight coverage, everything you've come to expect from this wonderful website. And thank you so much to Jed, to Damon, for joining us. that man is alexander k lee i am chan al shoddy we'll see you guys next month i cannot believe you i'm going to read you i'm going to read your ball and go home my rankings