MMA Fighting - The 2017 MMA Hour Awards show

Episode Date: January 3, 2018

On The MMA Hour's annual awards show, Ariel Helwani speaks to Demetrious Johnson (00:37:14), Rose Namajunas (00:55:42), and Justin Gaethje (01:11:30). Then Ariel and NewYorkRic hand out their 2017 awards for Male Fighter of the Year (01:24:11), Female Fighter of the Year (01:27:19), Submission of the Year (01:28:05), Fight of the Year (01:31:38), Round of the Year (01:34:02), Knockout of the Year (01:39:20), Breakthrough Fighter of the Year (01:45:00), Most Improved Fighter of the Year (01:52:55), Comeback of the Year (02:00:08), Upset of the Year (02:12:57), Rivalry of the Year (02:15:03), Coach of the Year (02:23:43), Event of the Year (02:33:32), Crowd of the Year (02:37:45), Walkout of the Year (02:47:00), Promo of the Year (02:57:50), Photo of the Year (03:11:34), Impact Person of the Year (03:16:24), Story of the Year (03:20:35), and Feel Good Moment of the Year (03:32:42). Plus, they look ahead to predict the Story to Watch in 2018 (03:41:10), Male Fighter of the Year in 2018 (03:45:53), Female Fighter of the Year in 2018 (03:48:08), and announce their Most Desired Guest in 2018 (03:49:40). Finally, they transition to The MMA [After] Hour featuring Ric's Picks (03:55:59) and the answers to your questions (04:14:23). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visit comex Ontario.ca. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani back inside our New York City studio. Happy New Year to all of you.

Happy holidays. Hope you had a great holiday season. I missed you dearly. It has been a little over two weeks since we've done a live show. Hope you enjoyed the best of show last week. But it is great to be back in the studio, back doing a live show. And this, my friends, is one of my favorite shows of the year. I look forward to it each and every year.

It's our annual awards show. If you've never seen it before, every year around this time, New York, Rick and I give out awards. In my opinion, it's the best and most comprehensive award show. in the sport of MMA, 20 categories. We also look ahead to next year. We make some bold predictions, but we've got them all on today's show. We've got male and female fighter of the year,

knockout of the year, submission of the year, comeback of the year, breakthrough fighter of the year, most improved. We've got some interesting ones and unique ones like photo of the year, promo of the year, feel good moment of the year, walk out of the year. And for the first time in the history of the award show,

we're going to be hearing from multiple award winners. We're going to be hearing live from my male fighter of the year, my female fighter of the year, my fight of the year winner, my round of the year winner, and then also throughout the show, several award winners have already sent in acceptance speeches via text message video. So you'll be seeing them throughout the show, accepting this most prestigious award, the 2017 MMA hour award. Nothing bigger in the sport of MMA. I love it. Now, I also gave New York Rick the opportunity to reach out to his own award winners.

I'm not sure if he was successful in doing so, but there's no handouts here. I reached out. I did the legwork. Some people cried. Some people got very emotional. Some people couldn't wait to come on the program to accept the award. And what's interesting about this particular year, my friends, is look, as I said, during our post-fight wrap-up on Saturday, UFC 219,

and don't worry, we'll talk about that as well. Somewhat of a forgettable year when it comes to MMA, but when you take a step back and really look at 2017, there were a lot of interesting moments, and what makes this year interesting as far as awards are concerned, unlike last year, where I felt like there were a lot of sort of no-brainers, I think there's going to be a lot of debate this year.

I really do. So this is the perfect time to do it. January 2nd. There was a fight this past weekend. Actually, two big events, UFC 219, and Risen had their last two shows of the year. There's a break this weekend. It's a good time to look back on the year that was.

So like I said, later on in the program, around 125, we are going to hear from my male fight of the year. By the way, I don't know who New York Rick picked. I have no idea. All 20 categories. I have no idea. We'll also hear from my female fight of the year. We'll also hear from my half of my fight of the year winner and round of the year winner. And throughout the show, we'll get some video acceptance speeches. So you want to know the rundown? This is the rundown. Male fight of the year. Female fighter of the year. Fight of the year. Round of the year. Knockout of the year. Submission of the year. Breakthrough fighter of the year. Most improved fighter of the year. This one's really interesting. Comeback of the year. Now, how do you interpret? this? Is it in a fight?

Career? That one is always interesting. And I was very tempted to rename it the Ronda Rousey comeback of the year winner because, if you recall last year in one of the lowest moments in the history of this show, New York Wreck gave the award to Ronda Rousey, who was a couple days removed from losing in very dominant fashion to Amanda Nunes and had not done

anything in 2016. So we'll see what he comes up with this year for that one. Upset of the year. Rivalry of the Year. Coach of the year, which is always a tough one. Event of the year, crowd of the year, walkout of the year, promo of the year, photo of the year, which, by the way, first year that we do this. I remember last year, we said that we wanted to include it.

I'm happy that we're doing so. And in my opinion, there's a really great winner this year. Impact person of the year, story of the year. and number 20 is feel good moment of the year. As far as bold predictions are concerned, we'll tell you who we think will be the male and female fighter of the year for 2018. We'll also tell you what we think the story of the year will be in 2018. And we'll both give you a guest or two that we'd love to see on this program.

Remember last year we got Bjorn Rebnyen at the buzzer. So it's going to be a lot of fun. There's a lot that's happened since we last spoke, of course. UFC 219 in the books. Chris Cyborg is the reigning defending UFC featherweight champion. Before we get to 219, so like I said, it's been a little over two weeks since we last spoke. We had the final show of the year, mid-December, then we had the best of show, which featured in-studio guests that we've had come through over the past year. It was a great year, I thought, for the program last year because we got the new studio, got the new set,

and the new set I thought was a lot more conducive for in-studio guests. So we had, I think, 33 different guests come through the studio. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to put that together. And I appreciate the crew in New York, Rick, putting that together, the hard work that they put into it. And then we went off to Vegas. I actually went off to Miami before Vegas. I was there with my family for a week.

It was a great time, a little bit of a vacation, so to speak. But there's never really a vacation when you're covering sports. or covering any kind of beat in the news world because the news doesn't sleep. They don't care the newsmakers, if you will, the people who you cover if you're on vacation or not. So there was some news like the Jimmy Rivera situation with Marlon Morice and of course John Lineker

pulling out of UFC 219. There was some other breaking news like Donald Tarone and Yance Mideras. A few things happened here there. It wasn't the craziest time. The highlight for me that week, in my opinion, or at least for my vacation, was I took my son to a basketball game in Miami Heat game and well I paid $200 for a ticket for him and I

and unfortunately he fell asleep before the National Anthem he never even saw a single basket made and I had a feeling this was going to happen my wife told me this was going to happen but I really wanted to take him to the game because his cousins were going and I said you know what maybe he'll stay up he'll get excited fell asleep before the National Anthem I left at the end of the first quarter I maintain, though, that we will remember this moment more so than if he, you know, stayed up for the entire game. It was a good memory. It was tough to carry him and to find a cab to go back to the hotel and all that. But it was a lot of funny. He was sleeping. I felt bad letting him sleep on the chair and his head was drooping.

And I just felt like a bad father doing that. But that was one highlight. And then the highlight of all highlights happened actually on New Year's Eve for me. I got back from Las Vegas and my wife and two kids my sons went to a New Year's party but I stayed back because my daughter was sleeping who's one year old and secretly I pretended like I was unhappy

that I couldn't go to the party but secretly I was very happy that I couldn't go to the party I was extremely happy because my beloved Buffalo Bills were on the cusp of making the playoffs for the first time in 18 years and some people are saying 17 years

but I maintain it's 18 years because it was like a month off or like two weeks off. Maybe not even two weeks. Like a day off or something like that. 1999. So 1999, 2017, I say 18 years. Anyway, I was watching the game. They were playing the dolphins. They were winning. Then my daughter

wakes up and she won't stop crying. And I finally get her to go to sleep and it ends up that I'm in a dark room. All the lights are off in our den watching as the bills win. And then they go to the Bengals Ravens game and then some way, somehow, the

Bengals won a four and I think it was fourth and 12, 49-yard touchdown. The great Andy Dalton hits his touchdown. It's amazing. And then the bills make the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. The last time the bills made the playoffs, I was 17 years old. I was in high school. And there I was on the couch with my daughter lying on me, crying because the bills had finally made the playoffs.

What a moment. I will never forget New Year's Eve, 2017. I will never forget that. It was a great moment. It was a very emotional moment. It was a great way to start the year, or at least to say goodbye to 2017 and say hello. to 2018. I was so excited. Now we're going to go to Jacksonville. We're going to win that one.

And then we're going to go on and win the Super Bowl. What a great. What a great time. Of course, I was coming back from Las Vegas, UFC 219. As I said, Chris Cyborg retained her title. I thought it was a great fight. I thought it was an entertaining fight. In fact, I actually thought it was one of the fights of the year. I really did.

It was four rounds to one for Chris Cyborg. I know there's some controversy as far as the scorecards are concerned. But these were close rounds. First round, I thought, went to Chris. Second round, I gave to Holly. You could have swapped them, really. And I almost tweeted. I ran out of time because I was focusing so much on the fight.

But I was about to tweet that I wouldn't have been surprised if Chris was up 2-0, if Holly Home was up 2-0 going into the 3rd, if it was tied 1-1. So I don't hate the score cards, which had Holly up two rounds to none going into the 3rd, and then eventually 2-2 going into the 5th. But if you actually look at the entire fight, Chris Seiburg won that fight, and she was the rightful winner. But it was a lot closer, I think, than people thought. And if you go back and tell someone that you had it four to one, they'll think, all right, well, Chris Seaborg rolled. That wasn't the case.

I thought it was the most competitive fight of Chris Seiborke's career. I thought, I thought Holly fought a pretty good fight for the most part. There were times where I felt like she was leaving herself open. You saw the picture afterwards. I think it was her right or left eye that was completely swollen shut, bruised up. But she is the first person to take Chris

all five rounds. She's the first person to make Chris Cyborg have a bloody nose in a fight. So that's somewhat notable. But in the end, as you see right there, Chris Cyborg wins the fight. And now the big question is, where does she go from here?

Who is she going to fight? She's saying, oh, I'd love to fight Megan Anderson in Australia. Well, the next Australian event is UFC 221 in Perkins. earth and from what I'm hearing, Megan Anderson will not be ready to fight on that card. Now, Megan Anderson is not injured. Megan Anderson is not tending to some kind of, you know, body injury, so to speak.

She's dealing with some stuff that isn't necessarily bad, but she has not decided to talk about it. And it's nothing like she's pregnant or anything like that. Like she'll be able to fight. But she has to get through some stuff, clear some hurdles, and the timing doesn't work. right now there are some talks that the UFC is going to go back to Brazil in May for pay-per-view. I feel like that makes more sense for Cyborg's return. Have her headline Brazilian champion, give her the rub, so to speak. And hopefully they can fix those issues with Megan.

There's also been some talks of Amanda Nunes fighting her. Not sure how much I love that, especially with Raquel Pennington coming back. I think that those divisions need to be kept separate. 145, I think, could afford to be playing around like that. but I think for, I don't know, I think for 135 to go up, even though there's not that much going on, stalls things a little bit.

Cyborg has also said multiple times that she doesn't like the idea of fighting a Brazilian champion. So we'll see what happens there. Those are her two main options right now. Once we get past those options, you know, and that's kind of putting the cart before the horse, but there really isn't all that much. They still haven't invested in the 145-pound women's division.

It's crazy. There's no other fighter sign. There's no rankings. The Holly Home Fight was the biggest fight that they could put on by far. And so that's a story to watch in 2018, among many others. What are they doing with this division? They just resign Cyborg. So they're in the Cyborg business.

And I'm very curious to see what the pay-per-view numbers will be because it was a very cold weekend, especially in the Northeast. It was the day before New Year's Eve. So maybe people are deciding to stay home. It wasn't the deepest part of all time. But, you know, people are staying home. it's cold. They have nothing to do. Why not watch this great fight that I thought was one of the better fights of the year. And on paper going in, one of the most important women's fights in MMA history.

And by the way, there's been some controversy over the past 24 hours or so about the social media post by Jackson Wink. Let me just say this. Jackson Wink is, in my opinion, one of the most prestigious gyms and teams in MMA history. And it is because not only are they home to some of the best fighters in MMA history, but they're home to some of the most respected. Not only fighters and coaches

in the sports history. Yeah, there's some black sheep here or there, but we're talking about men and women with integrity and character. You know, you're talking about like good human beings. I mean, the coaching staff from Greg Jackson to Mike Winklejohn to Brandon Gibson,

Israel Martinez. I mean, these are great human beings. and the way that their social media team, because I'll pin it on a team, because I know there's more than one person involved, continues to embarrass them and drag their name through the mud is absolutely embarrassing.

It really is. It's disgraceful. And if they don't do something about it, I mean, I don't believe that Brandon Gibson or Wink or Jackson are posting these things about Cyborg and others. Al Jermaine Sterling recently there was an issue, but they need to do something about it

because just like the John Jones situation somewhat drags their name through the mud, this is doing the same exact thing. They need to stop it. It's embarrassing. It's disgraceful. They're better than that. They should care because it's their name,

their reputation being soiled. So enough with this. And cyborch should stop with the retaliation. It's just, it's all ugly and stupid. It was a great fight. There was a lot of respect between the two going into it, going out of it, hugging, saying the right things.

Just enough with all the other crap is just stop. It's childish. and it's insulting enough with it of course the big story in my opinion on saturday was the return of chbibnurmagam adov he rolls drew etzen barbosa he completely dominates him he he i mean he was one of the more dominant fights of the year 30 to 24 which is very rare so he's finally back i mean this this is a guy who had not fought in 13 months and look what he did to etzen never in doubt he looked incredible he looked better than ever and afterwards he didn't really want to really want to play, you know, the Tony game, the Connor game. But there has been some back and forth

between Connor and him on social media, which is something that Connor doesn't usually do. So we'll see what happens there. But it was just so great to see Habib back. And on a day, by the way, where he welcomed his second child to the world, which is fascinating because I'd even know he had a daughter to begin with. I'd even know he was married. And then we find out, I find out on Saturday morning that he welcomed the baby boy. Back home in Dagestan, his, his wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy. So Mabruch, congratulations. Mazel Tov to the Namaga Madovs.

And I asked him afterwards, why do you keep things so private? And people got mad to me for that. By the way, I didn't go seek out the information that he was having a kid or had a kid. I didn't know that his, I didn't even know he had a wife. They told me. So they clearly wanted it out there. And then I was like, wow, this is fascinating. You look at his social media.

There is no mention of a fatherhood, of marriage or anything. And I respect the fact that he keeps it private. But then I was curious, why do you keep it so private? When there's a, you know, I think that that's probably someone that popular back home, probably the way to go. But even for like select, even in an interview doesn't mention it. Very interesting. Said he wants to fight three times next year.

Said he wants to return around April, May, before Ramadan, fight in September after Ramadan, and then fight again in December. If that could happen, if Habib and Ramagamatov could fight three more times, three times, if he could do that in 2018 he will be a super and if he wins and if he's victorious he will be a superstar he will be one of the biggest stars in the sport certainly worldwide

he has that triple G like quality to him people enjoy him his trash talk his interviews he has a very loyal fan base I suggest he starts finishing people only because he keeps saying I could have finished him but I let it go I think the finishes will go a long way people are attracted to that

like with triple G So I'm really curious to see what happens to him next. Does he fight Tony next? Does he get the Conner fight? And if he doesn't get one of those two, who does he get? We'll talk about that, I'm sure, later on in the program. Carlos Condit returned. He lost to Neil Magny.

Didn't seem like himself. It's always tricky when someone retires and takes a break and a hiatus. And then you don't know why they're coming back. It just seemed like he was rusty and couldn't really put it into the next gear. Credit to Magny, great fight. but yeah that was that was not the carlos conda that i think a lot of us were expecting carlos sparsa beats cynthia calvio uh calvio with a great year she ends four and one in 2017 she loses one time in the ufc three and one in the ufc she won one outside of the ufc she

was disappointed afterwards i thought it was the right call y'all must have forgot carlos parza is a force at 115 she is a former invicta champion she is a former ufc champion she is not a Stone. Maybe her style isn't the most friend-friendly, but she is tough. She is a very tough out. She proved that on Saturday. Mark J. Casey falters again, Owen two in his last two. T-Mobile is a house of horrors for Mark J. Casey. He loses to Dan Hooker, but that was somewhat surprising that he ended the year, Owen, two. And then how about Miles Jury with a big win at 145? Tim Elliott with a very emotional victory after the passing of his coach and mentor, Robert Follis. he beat Mark De La Rosa. Nice little 10 fight card. We didn't get the Jamir Vera against John Lineker fight. John Lineker had a tooth infection and then they tried to do the Marlon Mariah's fight. Marais couldn't make the weight. They tried to do John Dotson. That was not of interest. And so we did not get Jimira and I'm curious to see what happens to him next. Plenty other news to discuss. But now let's start to focus on the awards. Let me bring in Mr. New York Rick.

before we get to our fighter of the year. There he is. Mr. New York, Rick. New Year, new you. Not really. Not really. You look the same. Thank you.

Is that good? Is that bad? I was hoping for a bit of a trim. I was hoping for a little bit of a cleanup. But we're just going all out, right? How long are we going with the beard? This has been trimmed. It's not like it's...

That's been trimmed? It's not like I've just been growing this for like five years. Could have fooled me. It's been... I mean, there was a point where I was worried I wouldn't be able to grow a beer, period because I'm not like follically gifted, let's say. So you're just loving this.

I'm not loving this, but I'm liking it better than when I was a baby face without the official hair at all. No, this is like three weeks, two weeks. Okay. It's not going anywhere. I like the shirt, by the way. I mean, you know how I feel.

I rep. Your mic is covering it, though. Oh. There we go. Me, could we get, yeah, there we go. I rep, does the brand rep me? I know. I feel like you said this last year, too.

Were you wearing this? No, I said this every week. I'm going to say this every week. Has Habib told me in the past that he was a dad? Maybe I just forgot. Someone's telling me that he's told me in the past. I believe I remember a video interview where he did tell me this. He did say that.

Maybe I, I mean, he doesn't really flaunt it, I guess. Yeah, he's not exactly, uh, Connor McGregor with 20 picks of his. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with that. No, I know he kind of took a shot at that, but there's nothing. I mean, you're in that boat. Like, there's nothing wrong with, like, do you? But it's interesting that he is super private. Right?

I mean, that doesn't surprise me based on him. Sure. We have seen situations where, you know, guys are expecting kids around the time that they fight, and this is sort of a talking point to find out the day of his return fight, a very important fight for him that he was, you know, a father for the second time, baby boy, you know. Pretty cool. Habib is, uh, he's a, he's a,

interesting to cat. And he's going, he's going, uh, he's going all out on Twitter these days. It's fun on social media to follow. But we're not talking about this right now. We're talking about the words. Let's, let's talk about, let me ask you first. Um, you went through it all. You have your picks, right? I do. Compared to years past. Was this an easy one for you? Was this a difficult one for you to come down to the winners? Last year was very difficult for a different reason than this year. Last year was very difficult because there were so many for each category that I thought were worthy. I really had a hard time kind of, zeroing in on my winner.

With this one, I think the difficulty was in the runners-up, in picking the notable, the honorable and notable mentions. The winners themselves for me this year were not that difficult. I felt pretty confident in most of my picks. I was pretty happy with all of them. But there were so many honorable mentions this year. It was insane how many people, or how many people fights, moments, whatever,

we're worth talking about. How much time do you invest in the honorable mentions? Like, do you feel that's important? I do feel that it's very important because only one person can win or only one moment can win, but the other people and the other moments are still worthy. They should get some kind of notoriety. So I do invest, I have to admit I invest some time into it. Okay.

You know, it's not just pick the winner and then move on. I do spend some time on it. Now, I asked Sean Al Shadi, at the end of our post-fight wrap-up on Saturday. You know, 30, 40 years from now, he's sitting at home. He's got a bunch of grandkids. They go up to him, they say, Grandpa, what was 2017 like for MMA? What kind of year was it?

His response? Me. That was it. What's your response? What kind of year was it? It was, uh, hmm. Or, hmm? I mean, you could use a word, by the way.

It doesn't have to be a... No, because you can't really encapsulate the confusion. I would say it was confusing. Confusing. The things that happened this year are not things that I could have foreseen two years ago. Maybe last year I could have seen them on the horizon, but two years ago, they're not things that I would have thought could happen in this sport. I mean, the biggest example, obviously, Connor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather,

Jr. doing a boxing match. Right. I could not have foreseen that. I did not expect that. I didn't think that was a possibility for a fighter who's under contract with the UFC. I didn't think there would be so many fights falling off. I didn't think there would be so many interim titles generated. Not that that hadn't happened last year.

They started that kind of process last year. But I didn't. The direction of where the sport is going confused me. I'm not sure where it's going. Do you feel like we're rounding the corner? Do you feel like the clouds are opening up here? it's still confusing as we say hello to 2018? It's less confusing because now I know to expect the chaos.

I kind of, you kind of get used to the, you know, what's going on more. So I'd say it's less confusing, but equally disheartening maybe. Wow. I'm a little pessimistic. This is a very pessimistic take. I mean, you're supposed to be the positive guy. You're the guy who says, oh, you know, Rick's picks is all positive. I have a different take.

I have a very positive take. I feel like we're rounding the corner here. We've got Angano, Miocchich. Yeah. We've got Whitaker now as the official champion. He's going to, you know, I think Connor's going to come back. But what does that mean? Muddaker's the official champion.

And then what? Does that mean that he'll get the number two contender in his next fight? Yeah, Luke Rockold. Some random, yeah, after that. After that, does that mean that some random guy could come out of retirement? At the end of the day, it all depends on the new ownership group, right? Are they going to go back to hot-shotting? like they did last year?

Yeah. Or have they learned some lessons? Well, that's why I don't know. The lesson should be that you can't just book for tonight. You have to look ahead. Because again, for the millionth time, the job of the matchmakers is not to create champions. It's to create contenders.

You need a queue of contenders, okay? So that's the lesson that they need to. And we're going to talk about the story of the year. We're going to talk about the story of this past year and next year. So we have plenty of time to get into all of that. But I say we get into things right off the bad here. I think we just get right into it. told you before the show that you'll go first as far as

as Fight of the Year's concerned, but I think I should go first. I think that's right. So like I said, we will be joined by my fighter of the year in a matter of seconds here. So we'll say goodbye to New York, Rick, as I'll set it up. Here is the official start of the 2017 MMA Hour Awards, the most prestigious, the most comprehensive award show

in mixed martial arts, 20 categories, male fighter of the year, female fighter, fight, round, knockout, submission, breakthrough, most improved comeback, upset rivalry coach, event crowd, walkout, promo, photo, impact person, story of the year, and

my personal favorite, feel good moment of the year. Let's be positive in 2018. The glass is half full. The sky is blue. It is sunny outside. We are rounding the corner. We will not be bogged down

by the negativity that some people want to spew and bring upon our shoulders. We will see the good in MMA. We are turning the corner and things are starting to clear up. I believe it. I feel it. And so let's talk about male fighter of the year. Last year, I like to do this. I like to tell you my pick last year and then I like to tell you my pick this year.

Last year my pick, Michael Bisping. Remember he won a UFC 190. he defended the title at 204. It was the shocker of all shockers. He also won my upset of the year. What a moment it was. But it was a tough one to predict. It was a tough one to pick, I should say,

because Cody Garbrandt went from unranked champ. Steep Ami Ochich became champion. Great run for him as well. Connem Reger, two and one. Avenged his loss to Nate Diaz, but also beat Eddie Alvarez to become the first champ champ in MMA history. And there was also Amanda Nunes. who beat Shevchenko and Misha Tate and of course

Ronner Rousey to end the year. Actually she was in my women's fighter of the year. But she could have been both. She could have been both. Why not? The point is last year I thought there were like surefire picks and you could have made a strong case. This year there was some there was some picks.

I think it came down to three or four people, but I feel like you can make a strong case for each and every one of them. In fact, I put out a poll earlier today I put out a poll and I asked people who their fighter of the year was I don't know, can I see this here?

Let me see if I could see it here. Yeah, here it is. Already 19,000 people have voted on this. I asked them who's your male fighter of the year. I asked if it's Demetrius Johnson, Max Holloway or Robert Whitaker and then I also gave the option of other. 25% to Demetrius Johnson,

52% to Max Holloway, 16% to Robert Whitaker. and then 7% to other. Demetrius Johnson, if you recall, win over Wilson Hayes back in April, and then he followed that up with the win over Ray Borg in October and pulled off one of the greatest submissions

in the history of the sport. In doing so, he also became the most successful champion in UFC history because he beat Anderson Silva's title defense record, and now he sits atop that list all by himself. Very notable. Max Holloway was an action,

in June, he beat Joseo to become the official featherweight champion and then he was going to fight Frank Edgar, if you recall, in December but unfortunately Frank Yeager gets hurt, breaks his orbital bone and he has to fight Josie Aldo again and he beats him again, which is very notable

and very impressive. Robert Whitaker, let's not forget, even though he was interim champion, even though he never actually won the belt, so to speak, I mean, you can make the case that he had the toughest road of all. Don't let revisionist history affect you here.

Going into that fight against Jacqueray in April, most people, if not all, were picking Jacare. That was somewhat of a shocker.

That's a finalist for upset of the year in my opinion. I don't remember what the odds are, but I know most of you did not think

that he was going to win that fight. And then he goes into the Romero fight, and I think most people were thinking

that, like, no one wanted to fight Romero. Remember, like Romero was the boogeyman. No one wanted to fight him. Went in there

and beat him. After, I believe losing the first two rounds won a five round decision then of course the whole thing got a little screwy with the middleweight title and the MSG show he didn't fight again this year and that was another tough thing like

I thought the top contenders all fought two times when last year we had a bunch who fought three times four times Cody Garbrandt so it made it a little more difficult I think if one of them had three wins there were some who did not win belts

RDA I think was in the mix Volcano Osdemier was in the mix There were some who did not win belts But typically when it comes to fight of the year Typically historically This isn't like a hard fast rule But historically it's someone who's holding a title Want a belt, etc.

And so I think it came down to those three I think he came down to Max Holloway With the two victories over Josealdo Does it hurt him that he fought the same guy twice? You be the judge I think it came down to Demetri's John Johnson, who had two finishes over top contenders, one of the greatest submissions of all time. And oh, by the way, he breaks a record.

And let's not forget with what we saw in November, what we saw at 217, holding a belt, like, look at Yowanna, look at Ronda. Like, holding a belt for five, six title defenses is hard enough. Holding it for one or two title defenses. Like, just as Luke Rockhold. Hard enough. Doing it 11 times, I feel like doesn't get talked about enough. Forget about the company. He's just fighting who's put in front of him.

And by the way, he's fighting a couple of guys twice. To do that 11 times, that's going to be one of the toughest records to ever break in this sport. And there's no sign of him slowing down. And so, yeah, I do feel like that should be considered. We saw some great champions who we thought would be dominant for a very long time. We saw some great champions falter a lot sooner than we thought. it is very when you're on top of the mountain when everyone's expecting you to win when when there's so much when there's such a large gap between being champion and and not being champion when that fall is so steep there's a lot of pressure on the champion to stay at the top to keep getting that championship purse to keep getting those endorsements to keep getting those pay-per-view points i mean there is a massive discrepancy between being champion and not being champion and that's why we've seen some guys who have said yeah sure or I'll take the interim belt.

I don't really care. It doesn't really matter because what the interim belt does, it kicks in certain things into your contract. So it doesn't matter to them that it's a fictitious title or a promotional title

or whatever you want to call it. Just get me the belt and certain things will kick in. And they certainly don't want to lose that belt because when they lose that belt, I don't think fans really get that. There is a big, big, big discrepancy between being champion

and not being a champion. A massive discrepancy. in your pay, in your lifestyle, in what you get to fight. And so I think that's important to note when you're trying to break down, you know, who's been the best, who's been the most dominant, who's had the best year, some other names worth discussing before I actually announce who my fighter of the year is. So we talked about Demetrius.

We talked about Max Holloway. I do think RDA deserves a nod for reinventing himself at 170 for the win over, uh, Neil Magny for the win over Robbie Lawler. He had a great year. Three and O is a 170 pounder. And if you remember what happened last year, to him losing the belt,

he had a nightmare of a year last year. 2016 was a nightmare for RDA. And I think a lot of people thought that he would crumble as a result of this. But he moves up to 170. He changes things up dramatically, I think, and even changed a bit of his, his coaching staff, the people around him, his corner,

and look what he, I mean, he is on the cusp of the title shot. I think most people would agree he should probably be next for a title shot. He could also be in the discussion for comeback fighter of the year. He could also be in the discussion for most improved fighter of the year. I think he has improved a lot as a 170-pounder. And then another name to consider is Volkine-Osdemeer. 3 and O on the cusp of a title shot on the verge of a title shot

knocked out the likes of Misha Sarkinov knocked out the likes of Jimmy Manoa, beat OSP who had a great back end of the year he could also be in the discussion for most improved breakthrough fighter GSP as well even though he fought once is he in that discussion could he be breakthrough

could he be comeback of the year in the end though it was a very tough choice. But in the end, I picked a winner who I'm very confident is the right winner. I really, this was to me the toughest category of them all because there were a lot of worthy winners. But in the end, I went with a man who defended his title twice, who finished both opponents, who pulled off one of the greatest submissions in the history of the sport, if not the greatest submission in the history of the sport. And I went with the man. who made history in October, in Las Vegas,

the man who became the winningest champion in the history of the ultimate fighting championship. If Demetrius Johnson did not win the Fighter of the Year award in 2017, he'll never win the Fighter of the Year award. This was the year of Mighty Mouse. He deserves it. He earned it, and he is my 2017 male fighter of the year.

DJ, are you there? DJ, are you there? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? he is. Fighter of the year. Demetrius Johnson. How about a round of applause? It was such a big deal. It was such a prestigious moment. There he is on Skype. I can't believe it. Wow. We finally got him. Yes.

How are you, sir? What's happening? Wow. Can you hear me still? I can hear you. I can see you. This is fantastic. Look at this. Look at this connection. Finally. Perfect. Perfect. Well, congratulations. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I'm happy. you have it. I think you are

the best when it comes to covering the sport of mixed martial arts. Thank you. It's honor. You know, for the world to know, I told DJ, you won the award, you're my fighter of the year, and he said, okay, now I'll finally come on Skype. This whole time, he could have come on Skype. No, no, no, no, no, no. It wasn't that bad.

But this is the perfect time to debut your great stream. I mean, look at this connection. It's fantastic. So, congratulations. Fighter of the Year, two wins, two submissions, two great finishes. I mean, just fantastic stuff. You break the record in October, one of the greatest subs.

When I ask you about 2017, as far as your career is concerned, where does this one rank? Do you think this was your best year yet? Is it your second? How would you sort of summarize and recall the year that was for you? Yeah, I would say it's probably my best year yet.

Obviously, it's submitting Wilson-Haw, Brazilian J-2, Blackfelt, with an arm bar, and then Gidon Ray Borg and the Mighty Wizard. It was awesome. Always doing something new in the Ozegad that nobody has ever seen. I mean, there's been people around the world trying that move. There's people who've been watching mixed martial arts before I was doing around this sport, saying,

I've seen everything, and I've never seen that before. Thank you so much for displaying mixed martial arts at its greatest. So I put up a poll earlier today, and I asked people who their fighter of the year was. You, Robert Whitaker, Max Holloway, those are the choices. because I think it really came down to you three. As far as 20,000 votes thus far, a lot of people, the majority of the people, I think, 50% gave it to Max Holloway.

What do you think about this choice? Do you think they're crazy? I think it's a great choice. Okay. I think a great choice in Max Holloway. Big fan of it is, very humbled. I like the guy. And that's why, you know,

I got to keep setting the bar even higher. You know, I don't see anybody stopping Max Holloway anytime soon. And I think it's a great choice. Max Hollowies beat Joe Zala twice, back-to-back finish. him back to back and he never sheds away from a challenge so um i'm you know i'll cast my vote from backfellar's so i actually voted from backtollary i saw that critical and i voted for him really is that true of course yeah i saw it in may find him i voted this morning he was at 25 and i was

behind him so it was him me and then i think was Whitaker and then you had other right yeah okay wait so wait a second is you saying that i'm wrong are you saying my pick is wrong no no no no no has their opinion, Irr, Hawaii. And in my opinion, you know, I'm like the book

myself. I mean, that just seems very biased. But I like Maxwell. I like what he does. I've hung out with him

before in Hawaii. Very chill. You know, he doesn't believe he's better than anybody. He's a great human being. So I'm like the guy who likes to do good guys.

I don't care if you're a bad guy talking crap by people, but I gained a lot more respect from him after Frankie Agger pulled out. And this day and age and mixed martial arts, you hear people calling each other out

saying, oh, he's a pussy, he's a bitch, blah, he picked the injury, but Max Hallway went above everybody. He says, you know what, Frank Ager? It's part of the sport. Get healthy, get healthy, my man, and we'll see you next time.

Other than that, if there's any way else out there who's ready to fight, hollered your boy, very respectful, very professional, and I love that about him. And that's why I cast him my vote. All right, fair enough. Do you think that not enough stock has put into the fact that you've defended the title so many times? Like, do people take this for granted? I think we've seen this here, so many champions falter.

It is so tough to remain at the top, right? There's so much pressure that so much that goes, so much that goes into it. There's such a fall, a massive fall from Grace. Do people really understand, in your opinion? I'm not trying to get you to teach your own horn, but it is tough to defend that title so many times, no? 100%. I mean, you see champions all the time. They get the belt, then they go on a two-fight, one streak, and then they lose it.

But to be able to defend the belt from 2012 all the way to 2017, hopefully defending it two more times in 2018. It's extremely freaking hard. That's why there's one of, you know, a couple people who've done it. GSP, John Jones, Josie Aldo, me, and Anderson Silva. So there's five guys right there in the span of the time I've been a champion. And I always, you know, I always chuckled because I remember there was a time when Chris White was champion, Joseph was champion, Frankie was champion, Anna Brow was champion. Shit, hell, even DJ became champion.

Donald Drews was champion, but they're not championed anymore. And I'm still here sitting on my throne. So you see those pictures over the year of the time. Even Ron Nett, Misha Tate, you just kind of like, damn, like that's good shit, I guess. Yes, very good shit.

And by the way, while I have you here, we're going to go in order throughout the show, but while I have you here, I don't want to just, you know, hog up one award. The male fighter of the year is a very prestigious thing. But Demetrius Johnson, congratulations.

You also won my submission of the year award. Now, this was the easiest award to decide on. You won the submission of the year award for your submission. of Ray Borg back at UFC 216 in October, one of the greatest submissions I've ever seen. This one, if I put out a poll,

this should be 100% you and zero for everyone else, right? I mean, like, you can't be humble. This one has to be yours, right? Yeah, it has to be. I mean, like I said, there's been people around the road trying this, and that's the beautiful thing about mixed martial arts, and I would tell people with that.

You have to think outside of the box. And when I pulled out that submission, how I learned it was from Matt Hume. Me and him was sparring, and he's having a hard time giving me in the arm bar, Renegra choke. And so he mixed in a wrestling

and snapdown. So basically, a suplex to a wrestling snap down. If anybody's wrestled before when somebody has to sit down, you snap him down and pin him. But he basically did that and mixed it in

and threw me between his things and did the arm bar. Now I said, after he submitting me, I got up, I was going to go, God bless your soul, teach me this.

And then he taught it and he taught him. And he taught that class. And I've been in that submission for years and years. And then each time I'm training and sparring, I'm always pushing myself to send in my training funders. And that was, the week before, we went out to fight Ray Borg.

This turned out to be a 12-week camp. I was sparring, and Matt was young. He goes, hit it, hit it. And so I hit it. And Matt goes, dude, like, you got to hit that. You've mastered it. You've been doing it for years. He goes, that's a $50,000 submission record, DJ.

That's what that is. And so when it came in this fight, I was like, you know what? I got energy left. Ray Borg is my side. He weighs the same as me. I got this. And I popped. threw them up and, you know, managed it.

So I'm grateful that you've picked that submission in the year, Arrow 1 and truly appreciate that. And I hope everybody around the world enjoys that submission. And I got some more stuff out in that bag that you guys haven't seen yet, but I hope they wanted to able to pull it out for you guys. My question is, since you pulled that off a little less than three months ago, how many pro fighters have come up to you and asked you about that? How often do you get asked about that submission?

Because I would imagine on that Monday morning after you pulled it off that every guy was at the gym, every girl trying to pull that off. Yeah Francis Nagano who came with me goes Marty how did you do that

What did that What did that? What did that move? And I told him I told him I thought about I do it on him But I don't want to

Blot my lower back Because he's so big and tall But yeah All people around the world That has praising on it And said that's pretty dope They tried

In the gym And what I wanted to achieve When I did that move Is to open Everybody's mind That it's mixed martial arts So

Even though the submission was a jiu-jitsu move. You can get there by other ways. In wrestling, when I went high school, my coach says you should go to hit every single move from any position. So arm-dragged to AA, you know, snap down to double-A. You should go ahead and hit a move for any more.

So with my arm-bore, I can essentially hit it from any position because it's my favorite submission. I want to bring in New York Rick. Is New York Rick there? New York Rick going once? Going twice? I'm here. Yeah, let's just hear his voice. I mean, let's lie. I'm here. Let's go back to the champ here.

want to hear his voice. I don't need to see the guy. Where's Mighty Mouse back on screen? Where's Mighty Mouse? Did we lose him? No. I'm right here. Okay. Demetrius, New York, Rick, is here. He gives out awards, too, and he put in his vote for a fighter of the year. New York, Rick, why don't you tell Mighty Mouse who your fighter of the year is for 2017? I think Demetrius will appreciate this. My

fighter of the year for 2017 is Max Holloway. Get out of here. Are you serious? I'm going to tell the The champ of Chavs? Really? No respect. Come on. Deep down, you think he's an idiot, right, DJ?

No, no, no. I mean, like I said, everybody has an opinion. Everybody has an opinion. And like I said, I cast him my vote for Max Holloway. I like the guy. I think he's good. I think he has all right tools to be a champion for a long time. As long as he can stay healthy,

I don't see him might be in him, man. I think, you know, I think his toughest test will probably come from, you know, Brian Ortega, a very young guy. Also, Chad Mendez, when he gets back. in there. And other than that, you know, I don't see anything else coming up right now. I mean, I remember if he was going to 145, but they're all high. He was chrulling. I was single one of you guys to believe that. But we'll see. I think Max always going to be a long time. Fantastic good, Max.

Eric, did you at least agree with me on submission of the year? I did indeed. Okay. The Mighty Whizbar is the submission of the year, for sure. There you go. See, now he's got some sense. You can keep him. I'm going to say you should fire him. I or somebody off the street. If anyone gives that submission to anyone else, I mean that you do not deserve to be covering the sport or talking about it or doing anything involved in it. Before I let you go quickly here, DJ, you mentioned two fights next year. That's the plan for 2018. That's what you want?

That's the plan. Next year, two fights, you know, there comes a point in time. I was looking at my Wikipedia page. And there's time I fought four times in one year. I've deferred on belt three times in year and also got surgery between those paddle defenses. So I think it's safe to say that my goal is to get two-tile offenses this year. And we're going to go from there. So it's 2018.

Goals is two-tile offenses and try to stay healthy. And we'll see you then. Don't worry, everybody. Next time you see you on NM.A. hour, I'll be announced on my next fight or what's next for me. But until then, make sure you follow the Twitch channel. My name on Tuesday, 125, Twitch. And the YouTube channel, Mighty Gaming.

Take a look. Have a good time. You've been up in your YouTube game as of late. I've noticed that. So well done on that. By the way, I wanted to tell you before you go, we also do bold predictions. Last year, award show.

So the 2016 award show, we had to make our pick for who we thought the 2017 fighter of the year was. I picked Demetrius Johnson. I just want to let you know that I picked you. And so I was proven right here. But, but wait, wait, there was something on, like a stream that came out on Twitch.

Can you tell us anything about this on Saturday? What were you doing? Look at you. Look at you. So back to the beginning of the YouTube channel. So I'm always trying to expand my YouTube channel. And I think it's very important that fighters always brand himself outside of what they're known for. So I can't fight forever.

I'm 31 years old. As time goes on, my body's never recovered like it usually does. You just put more into your body. So I'm going to focus more on my YouTube channel with my gaming career. And what that means said, I never really show my outside life what I'm doing. So when I was getting ready for the Metro PCS, proper couch at UFC. 219. I'll make sure you guys hit the follow button, follow my Facebook,

live and YouTube and all that good stuff. I was doing a stream, and one of the segments of the show was we're going to have Sean Shelby on the show, and we were going to show all of the previous shows in the segments. And I'm saying, looking forward to 2018, here are some things that we're looking forward to, but we want to get Sean Shelby's piece of it. And one of the pieces was me versus T.J.

Goldshop. We wanted to get Sean Shelby's reaction for that. So when the producer was doing this thing, He goes, we want to talk about TJ versus DJ. Not that the fight is, you don't know if it's going to happen, or if it's a sign or anything like that. That was the segment, and then somebody caught it. Some stupid-ass troll target goes, oh, they got it. I got it.

Yeah, go to it. They read it. That's where it came from. So that's where the whole thing. But there you go. That's what it was. Ah, thank you for clearing that up. So there's no news to announce.

There's nothing. You've been hell hard, Arrow. You've been hell hard. You text me right after and goes, whoa, what's going on, D. like, Jesus Christ, everyone. Why don't get done taking the poop and you're already texting. It's what I'd say.

I need to know. I mean, it was all over the place. Everyone was like, it's just been announced. It's just been leaked. We're going to find out. And so I had to come to the source. That's what a journalist does. Is there anything you want to say about that fight?

Is there anything you want to say about that fight? I'm looking forward to it if it happens. I'm looking forward to it. All right. All right there. Look at that. Look at that stare. Look at that stare.

Demetius, congratulations. on a phenomenal year. What a year it has been for you. Two great wins. You break the record. You pull up the submission of a lifetime. Unbelievable stuff. I called it. I said before the year was going to happen that you were going to do all of this. So I'm happy to be proven right once again. And happy to see you at the top of the sport still for another year. And I'm expecting the same come this time next year. Thank you very much for doing this. I appreciate it. And how about Skype now each and every time I'm expecting this, by the way, all right? No more phone calls. No more crappy service. I'm expecting this type of access to you. Well, we'll make sure. I'll do the best of my ability to make it happen. Obviously, you've got to think Destiny because she's taking the kids of score right now. I took the time off to do this for you, everyone. Thank you. And the MMA fans out there.

Not that bitter trolls out there, just a good one. Yes, thank you very much. And what a moment we had back in May, June, when you went on. I mean, it's been a great year for both of us together on this. You were in Hawaii. We called it. We'll leave it at that. Thank you, DJ.

Congrats on a great year, my man. Thanks, for you, sir. Have a good night, buddy. You too. There he is. the one and only Demetrius Johnson, my 2017 male fighter of the year winner. And yes, if you go back to last year's show when we were doing our bold predictions, I looked ahead and I said that I do believe that in 2017, DJ would win the fighter of the year award.

And lo and behold, in my opinion, he has done enough. Now, this is not a knock on Robert Whitaker. This is certainly not a knock on Max Holloway. In fact, initially I had it for both Holloway and. DJ, I was going to give out two awards. I was going to cut it down the middle. But then in the end, I said, I can't sit on the fence. That's no fun.

So in the end, I went with the, like him pulling off that submission, and then him breaking the record, tip the scales in his favor. If you picked Holloway, I was just kidding earlier. If you picked Holloway, you're not crazy. And if you picked Whitaker,

you're not crazy, by the way. You really aren't. If you picked anything other than DJ winning the submission of the year, he is my 2017 submission of the year. winner. There you see the picture by the great Esther Lynn. That's crazy. That is absolutely crazy. That should be unanimous. That should be 100% of the votes in his favor. But Holloway Whitaker, very strong years. All three of them were two and oh. All three of them champs at the end of the

year. All three of them great wins over top contenders. In the end, though, I go with history. I go with the great submission, I picked Demetrius Johnson. New York Rick, he picked Max Holloway. And it seemed like most of you agree with him. I think you're all crazy. I'm just kidding. Okay. That's male fighter of the year and also submission of the year. And we'll go back to New York, because I want him to talk a little more about his pick for male fighter of the year. But let's transition here for a second. I talked about how hard it was to pick female fighter of the year, excuse me, male fighter of the year. I talked about the candidates and the years that they had. When it came to female fighter of the year, I thought that this was one of, if not the easiest picks to make,

along with the submission of the year, winner. Some of the names considered, Nico Montanio, she wins the ultimate fighter, she becomes the first ever women's flyway champion. Great year for her. Who saw that coming? Who knew Nico Montagnos this time last year, right? I mean, that's just phenomenal. You become a champion first ever in UFC history in that division. You win the ultimate fighter. You beat a lot of highly ranked fighters, respected fighters. Great year. She was in the running. She's honorable mention. Tisha Torres, ends the year very strong. Had a very good year. Came back. She was on my short list. Of course, Cynthia Calvillo should be considered as well.

Yes, she ends the year with a loss, but you go four and one in 2017. You go three and one in the UFC. You start your UFC career, three and O. I think you should be considered as well. So Cynthia Cavio was on the list. Chris Seiborg had a great year. In fact, what a roller coaster was this time last year she's provisionally suspended. This time last year, we don't know if she'll ever fight again in the UFC.

This time last year, she's sitting around watching two other women fight for the inaugural featherweight title and her future very much in doubt. She ends the year as the reigning defending featherweight champion. She wins the belt in July against Tanya Aminger. She comes back and successfully defends it against Hollyholm. She's on my short list. But in the end, it came down to one person. It came down to someone who went 2 in O this year. It came down to someone who finished Michelle Waterson back in April.

And then it came down to someone who pulled off one of the greatest upsets, one of the greatest victories in the history of MMA, not just women's MMA, but MMA period, when she defeated Yawani on Jacek back in November at Madison Square Garden. It came down to Thug Rose Nama Yunus, my 2017 female fighter of the year, and she is kind enough to be joining us via the magic of Skype to accept this award. Hello, Rose. How are you? Congratulations. I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. 2017 female fighter of the year. How does it feel the most prestigious award in MMA, the MMA hour award? It is yours.

2017 female fighter of the year, the easiest one to pick of all the categories. categories, unanimous. Anyone picks anyone else? It's absolutely insane. It's yours. How does it feel? It feels great. I mean, I'm, I'm pretty used to, like, a lot of times in my life where I've almost been in first place, but just didn't quite get there. And it feels great to, oh, wait, what just happened here. Yeah, it feels great to finally just, you know, get that satisfaction of being first. You got over the hump in a big way. You're the chance. I saw you post on Instagram. 2017 was Ann New.

2018 is Ann Still. Before we get to that, let me ask you about, like when I ask you, when you, like in 30, 40 years, you have grandchildren. You're sitting around by the fire. They come up to you and they say, Grandma Rose, what was 2017 like for you? How would you describe this year? It was a huge, I guess, turnaround from 2016. 2016 was very, even though it was, you know, had a lot of success. there was a lot of challenges and, sorry, things I had to get over.

And I think 2017 is just a turning point for me. Everything started to fall into place. Relationships got better, you know, just throughout my entire life, family and friends, and things have been more stable in my life. And so I've been a lot happier and stuff. And I think that has reflected onto my career a lot. So, yeah. be honest with me

if I asked you this time last year so like January 2nd 2017 right you're coming off the loss you know you talked very openly earlier this year about the stuff you empower dealing with like did you really foresee this? Are you somewhat shocked that this all

has happened in the span of 365 days did you really think by the end of the year that you'd be champion? Yeah I definitely knew that there was times where you know I I didn't know for sure like this is how

it's going to happen, but I had a strong feeling that it would. You know, everything was, even though there was a lot of challenges that I had to get over and stuff, the stars seemed to kind of align for me. Certain blessings were, and people that were brought into my life, you know. One just, for example, I just popped into my head like Valentina Shochenko and her team coming into town was a huge help for me and just getting to know them was awesome. So just like little things like that had proved to be like this is where I'm supposed to be. And, you know, it's just kind of my destiny, I feel.

It's been two months since you won the belt. Can you say definitively that your life has changed? Like, you feel a difference in your life? I think we've been sitting around trying to figure out what's different. And I think that's what's different, you know. It's just like there's not really much that has changed, you know. we've gotten some opportunities that have like come by us but not not nothing really that's just like not what I kind of envisioned it would be like all kinds of crazy and stuff you know it's just

um I've had a lot of time to to just sit at home and and just relax even though like I'm like sick right now and stuff but I don't know well you deserve the time off we're getting ready to leave what's up where are you going Okay. We're going to, hopefully, if I don't, if I don't cop up a lump, we're going to UFC 220. Oh. Yeah, victory tour, media tour for that. And then JJ Aldrich, she has a fight in Missouri.

So, you know, Pat's going to be cornering her for that. And then hopefully, well, we're going to L.A. as well. okay all right that's interesting um i envision a scenario or a scene where every night before going to bed you pat and mishka sit down and rewatch the fight the win how many times have you watched that fight oh man a lot okay that's good keep watching um every and that's what i envision and so not only did you win my female fighter of the year you also win the upset of the year award and the upset of the year is an interesting one because like I remember last year I gave it to Michael Bisping and he's like well screw all of you it's on an upset to me I thought I was going to beat Luke

Rockhold when someone says you win the upset of the year award do you take that as a compliment or is it an insult I'm always curious how people take that no um I think it's cool I think um I mean yohanna she was like the most dominant female you know uh she was going down as you know she was on her way to becoming like bigger than ronda you know in terms of her accomplishments and stuff so um to me i think that uh it's just a testament to how great she was you know um and and the fact that i beat her i mean that's just awesome you know i don't think that people were necessarily sleeping on me i just think that you know she was she was definitely um very impressive yeah i also think by the way that that was a pretty easy one and then you win three for me

You want three awards for me this past year, Rose, and this is my favorite category of the mall. It's a very unique one to this particular show and award. It's the feel-good moment of the year. And it happened right after the win. And it happened in the cage, what you said in the cage and your reaction and what you said to Joe Rogan. And just the whole thing, I mean, for people who had been following you for so long

and knew the story of you and Pat and knew what you've been through to get to this point, you try not to get emotional covering the sport. you try not to pull for people or, you know, you want to always be unbiased, right, in neutral. But I think speaking for everyone, we were all so happy for you. And it was so cool to go online like seconds later and just see how everyone was just so happy for you. And I think last year was a weird year in MMA and there was a lot of bad things and there was a lot of confusing things and a lot of things not to be proud of. And you kind of gave everyone hope that, you know, the sport is still okay and that it's still moving in the right direction. There's still good people in the sport. And so that's my

feel good moment of the year, what you said and how you received the belt after winning it at UFC 217. So there's three awards for you. And I don't know how you feel about that. Looking back on it, how does it make you feel? I think it's cool because, you know, like me saying that, you know, this, this belt don't mean nothing. It's not really that. It doesn't mean anything. It's just it doesn't mean as much if you're just an asshole. You know what I mean? And so I like to think, you know, me being the best in world, like, I, it doesn't mean that much to me if I'm not a good person at the end of the day. And that if I'm not sending a good example for other people to be better to each other,

I think that that it's like, what's the point at being the best in the world if, you know, you scratch and claw your weight to the top and you push everybody down instead of lifting everybody else up with you. I think that that's, that's more important is to be a good person. So definitely, you know, again, about that was a, is a bucket list. an item for myself and it's good for my own ego, you know, to be able to say that I'm the best in the world now. Like, that's awesome. But to try and set a better example for other people, I think is very crucial for me. Just being able to go walk outside and feel comfortable that, you know, the majority of people are going to be nice to each other.

You know, because there's nonstop, you know, violence going on or just people with bad attitudes and things like that. That's just really annoying. And I think martial arts can really, if we, I don't know, if we, I think it can be a great tool for people to be, for people to learn martial arts and learn more about it to teach people how to be more respectful to each other and be nicer and stuff like that. You know what's amazing about that moment? It happened only two months ago and people are still talking about the win. But doing this show every week and talking to so many fighters, I've heard more people reference what you said in the cage afterwards and how you have. handled yourself than the actual victory. Like I've heard it come up so many times from, you know, like from big, like from like

the Francis and Gannus of the world, like people saying like that's the way I want to be. That's the way I want to act as champion. Have you heard the same? You know, I've definitely seen like more people, more fighters be more respectful to each other. As of recently, I think, yeah, there's been people that have been more nice to each other. There's been, you know, still, there's always going to be, you know, jerks, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. whatever so but i i think the overall tone of things has shifted a bit great um well well done on that

last thing before i let you go this is more a look back at last year but i'd be remiss if i don't ask you about 2018 um of course you're the champion you want to remain the champion is there anything you could tell us about the next time we'll see you in there any plans yet um you know we're still like still trying to you know uh get together with like a specific plan we don't have any like fight lined up or anything like that. But I think that, you know, now holidays are over with, all the craziness is done with. I think I'll be getting back in the gym and start training and stuff like that. And hopefully we'll have some more solid news coming up soon.

But right now there's still a lot of things that I need to take care of, you know, just business-wise and everything like that. Is there someone that you've zeroed in on that you think will be first up for you as champion or not yet um right now it kind of seems like the three options like for me uh who who is the who is the scariest you know person that i could fight i think that would be cool um to me what six out as of right now is jesska andrash um but at the same time uh a rematch with yowna would be great too but i don't know you know what i mean like it it the the three options right now would be Joanna or the winner of Jessica Andrade versus Tisha. Okay.

All right. Yeah. Okay. I don't know. What do you think? Who do you think? I think because she was dominant for so long, because she had the belt for so long, I like to see a champion get another crack just as a sort of not.

Like if DJ lost his next fight, I'd like to see him. You know what I mean? I'd like to see him. I think if you're a champion for one fight, it's a little different. But I do understand what you said. like it was so dominant and it was so one-sided. I understand for you it's kind of hard to, you know, recreate all of that.

I think the fight that's the biggest, that makes the most money, and that's sort of the era that we're living in now, is the Yonah fight. I think she's done enough to deserve it. So if I were in charge, if I was McMainard, I'd probably side with that one. I think that's the biggest fight.

And I think your buildup was a lot of fun for fans because you guys are such different person. I mean, we didn't have a face-off of the year award, but I would give it to you as well for the, you know, the one where you, gave her the prayer and all that. I mean, that was incredible stuff. So, yeah, I think that's how I'd live. Denver, you know, and where the UFC was born and bring it back here and we have a big

huge show for that. Now we're talking. Now, a 25th anniversary, right? That would be, that's a great idea in November, yeah. Oh, there we go. There we go. There we go. November of 2018 would be 25 years. That's amazing. Well, congratulations to both you, Pat, the rest of your family on a fantastic year. So you win my female fighter. You win my feel good moment of the year. You win my upset of the year. Also, my producer, New York, Rick,

also gave you female fighter and upset. So that's five awards here from the MMA hour. And I'll create a new one just right here. Face off the year, you win that as well. So let's make it six. Why the hell not? Feel better. Yes, well done.

Way to kill it this year, Rose. Very happy for you. Hope you feel better. And hopefully we'll see you out there in Boston at UFC 220. Thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate it. Yeah. much. All right. We'll talk to you soon. There she is. Thug Rose Nominus, the UFC strawweight

champion. She wins my female fighter of the year. She wins my upset of the year. She also wins my feel-good moment of the year. Next year, face-off is a good. That's a good one. I like that face-off of the year. I think that that makes a lot of sense. I don't really see that. I mean, a lot of these you don't see. But that's a good. I feel like we talked about that. Did we talk about that last year? Maybe photo of the year kind of works, you know, under that umbrella as well. But face off, she would be, she would be in the running for, in the running for that one. All right. So that's been a lot of fun. It's amazing. You know, I wanted to have the male and female fighter of the year winner. And then all of a sudden I realized like, these are multiple winners.

So we'll go back and give you some of our, you know, thoughts and, you know, also, you know, our honorable mentions and how we got to these picks. But I thought it was cool. cool to give them all of the awards in one shot. I think that that's a lot of fun. So that's male fighter of the year. That's female fighter of the year. We're going to move along now to the fight of the year. And this one, this was a tricky one. There were a couple ones that were on my short list. In fact, initially, I was thinking, believe it or not, of going with Jones DC, too. I thought that was a great fight. I was on the edge of my seat. I was riveted. I was nervous. There was a lot of intrigue. It was a, it was a entertaining fight. It was a remarkable finish.

The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Cormeanock out of that and more. But I do believe that what happened afterwards of John Jones kind of takes it out of the running. So I took it off my list. Other ones that I considered, Yancey Mederos against Alex Olavera, a fantastic fight at UFC 218. Also that night, Justin Gachie, and, and Eddie Alvarez. That was a fight that had a lot of buzz, a lot of hype going into it, and it lived up to it. That was a great fight. Another fight that I thought was fantastic. GSP Bisping, that was a phenomenal fight. And like the Jones DC fight, not a lot of like, you know, bar room brawling, so to speak, not a lot of, you know, fighting in a phone booth, but riveting a great finish, three rounds,

all that and more. Lando Venata against David Tamor. That was a great fight back in the, what was it, March, I believe. UFC 209. Dustin Pori against Jim Miller at UFC 208. How about that fight? How about Darren Elkins and Miroside Becht. How about T.J. Dillishan, Cody Garbrandt. How about Chris Cyborg and Holly Home? How about Brandon Gertz against Derek Campos? There were a lot of great picks this year. There were a lot of great picks. But in the end, I went with a fight that happened in July. I went back to my emotions that night watching that fight at the T-Mobile Arena, seeing it play out, seeing it go back and forth, seeing both men punch each other with everything they had and refusing to go down, seeing the ups and downs. I won't.

one point thinking one guy was going to win, other point thinking another guy was going to win. In the end, Justin Gachey beat Michael Johnson. And what I thought was the 2017 fight of the year. And we are kind enough right now to be joined by the one and only Justin Gachie. Justin, how are you? Congratulations on winning the fighter fight of the year, I should say, a word. Yeah, yeah, thank you.

Almost five of the year. Yes. You think that if you win that fight against Eddie Alvers, you win the fighter of the year? Probably. Number five and number four, take them out. coming in, probably. Okay, well, let's talk about the positive. It came down to me to three fights.

It came down to you versus Michael Johnson. It came down to Yanty Medeiros against Alex Olivaa, and it came down to you versus Eddie Alvarez. If you were in charge, what are you picking as the fight of the year? I think you got it right. I think Johnson was the best, best fight of the year. Yeah, I mean, he wobbled me twice bad. And the guy came back and finished him.

He never been finished before. newcomer coming to the UFC you know a lot of unanswered questions so yeah it had everything it needed to have to be fight of the year I think how many times have you watched that fight um shoot after it happened I mean I probably watched it like eight times

yeah you enjoy watching it yeah yeah I did I enjoy watching the whole the whole uh the whole show pretty much I like to get home to watch it on my TV I didn't get this last one on TV so I haven't got to watch it on like a real TV yet but my phone is doing just well. Were you nervous going into that fight because it was your debut?

Are you the kind of guy who gets nervous? No, I was so, no, stupid as it sounds and every fighter is going to call me a liar because I would call myself a liar. But, no, I was so confident in my preparation and my skills and my skill set that, yeah, I was ready. You know, I said it before I lost. I didn't care if I lost. So, yeah, I mean, that's one thing that I think fighters are scared.

of is losing maybe like i said maybe i'll be scared of that next time but yeah i wasn't scared of losing necessarily i knew my preparation was there i knew my skills were there and yeah it was i love fighting in las Vegas i hope i fight in los Vegas many times in the future okay so you won my fight of the year i think a lot of people picked that fight i saw some others pick madero to lavera i saw some others pick you versus eddie alvarez it's crazy that you're in you know the finalist for two fights of the year i also gave you my round of the year and and this one was it was really tough but i went with round Round two against Michael Johnson. Same fight, round two, the round in which you finished him.

Because people forget, you go back to that round, and I rewatched it a couple days ago. Like, I thought, and correct me if I'm wrong, like, he had you rocked there at the beginning. Like, you really came back almost from the depths of a finish, right? Like, he had you seriously rocked at the beginning of that round. I'll never be able to answer the question to myself how I didn't go to sleep when he hit me with that left hand. Wow. I don't understand it. I still don't understand it.

Okay, so of the choice, because round one could have been round of the year, round two, all three rounds against Eddie. Did I get this one right? Because this was a tough one, even the Maderos to round one with Madero's in Alvara. Round two, round two was a great, round one of the, you know, Maiderotan, round two wasn't very good. But round two, round one was really good of that fight. That would have been a good choice. Yeah, I think, yeah, it had the same things.

I got really rocked and then came back and finished him. So yeah, it has everything that, you know, makes us fans of MMA, you know, love to watch this sport. It's what it had. Do you remember the final seconds of that fight against Michael Johnson where it seemed like he was going to go down and not go down and then he finally goes down? Are you talking to yourself?

Are you saying, like, please just go away, let's end this? Like, what are you saying? Do you remember any of that? I remember, you know, I just, the one thing I ever see, now that I got my eyes fixed, you know, these last two fights, I'm able to see facial expressions in a fight. And yeah, I could see, you know, quit, you know, like he was over it. He wanted out.

And, yeah, it was just a matter of time. But no, I never had a thought process. It's just, you know, don't get too overzealous, really, because that's when I'm going to get in trouble and take another big left hand. I didn't want to eat another one of those left hands. That's for sure. So, yeah, it was good. It was perfect. I remember being there and just remember pretty much a culmination of events, everything coming together.

And, yeah, just, and then he dropped. And yeah, right when they get, you know, the whole process after the fight, going and doing the interview, it was just such an adrenaline rush. My eyes were all dilated. They were all worried, but I've done some research. I'm pretty sure that was my adrenaline just shooting through my veins. So, yeah, it was a good time, man. So, you know, memory I'll never forget.

When did you get your eyes fixed? I got it fixed probably like a year ago. Okay. And you notice a difference in terms of, like, how you find. fight or how it helps you fight? No, no, just in the things that I've noticed, like facial expressions, the brightness of the lights are really the only two things that I've noticed now since I've got my thick.

And I'm just curious, Michael Johnson, you've faced a lot of great fighters, hard hitters. Is he the hardest hitter you've ever faced as far as punching is concerned? Yeah, I don't think so. I think Paul Amino actually hit harder than he did. Oh, really? I'll still give him credit. Yeah. I mean, he threw,

Michael's, you know, awkward, awkward timing, awkward angles, you know, really fast, really fast. But yeah, he doesn't have a lot of, there's weight behind it, but there's not a ton of weight behind his punches. But yeah, Paul Amino, he throws him from,

starts at the ground, and, you know, the power runs to his hands, and yeah, he hits hard as heck. Incredible. He knows how to punch, that's for sure. I would say it's him.

Eddie Albrez needs the hardest. Okay. interesting well yeah that that makes a lot of sense our producer New York Rick I believe New York Rick did you give Justin Geachey and Michael Johnson the the fight of the year

I did indeed you did indeed now what about your round of the year did you give it to Justin Gehche I did not wow what about that who did you give it to tell us I'll reveal later go tell him tell him he deserves to know I gave it to a fight from Invicta actually

Invicta okay Callie Robbins versus Sharon Jacobson. And if you haven't seen it... This is a hipster pick if I ever heard of it. No, no, no, no. You watch it and you tell me. Justin, have you seen this fight that he's referring to?

No, I haven't seen it. I have to go watch it. Go watch it. Callie Robbins versus Sharon Jacobson. It's short. It's less than a minute, but it's incredible. Wait, so you gave the round of the year to a 60-second fight? I did. Oh, come on.

I did. I did. I did this guy. Unbelievable. A few years ago, you remember. I gave Linneker and I forget who. The two minute fight round of the year. Listen, watch it and then tell them.

Where was Gaychi Johnson on your list? Number two. Okay. But I did have Justin again in promo of the year later in the show, and we'll show it on video. Which promo? Tell them. Tell them. Justin's quotes from the summer kickoff press conference was my promo of the year. Wow. Do you remember this, Justin? I do remember, yeah, that was my first event with UFC.

Yeah, I don't know how I killed it in the promo department, but... Why did you pick this? We'll show it later. We'll show it later. Well, Michael sets him up. He talks about, you know, coming to kill somebody, and Justin had an interesting reaction when Michael Johnson said he was coming to kill him. you remember this just you remember this I want to die yeah yeah

there you go I said please make my wish come true yeah amazing stuff what a year for you Justin let me ask you right before I let you go any plans yet for 2018 what's what's on what's on the schedule

what do you got what's your plan get in shape again okay do it again any fight plans any wishes no I don't have any Nope.

You're taking a break, right? A little bit of a break? Yep. Yeah, I'm taking a break, snowboarding, golfing, hunting. A couple things I couldn't do while I'm in camp. And then back to it, I'm sure I'll get the it sooner rather than later. I say I wanted to wait around until June, July. I'm sure I'll get the it sooner.

You have an opponent in mind or too soon? It's too soon, but we'll see how things play out. I want to beat up Michael or whatever. his name is Kevin Lee. That's what I really want to beat up. Really? Why him? I don't know. I just like punching loud mouse in the face. Okay. All right. That's a great fight. I like that fight.

Quite fool himself. Yeah. Have you had any run-ins with him backstage or anything? No. First and all the time I met him, I was nice. And then he talked shit and said I was I was fan-boying over him. He doesn't know what just showing respect is. But yeah. So I'll never show him respect again, that's for sure. Where did you see him? At the summer kickoff.

Oh, okay, okay, yeah. That kickoff pressure. When he had the whole thing with Michael Casso. I had no idea who he was. He was that Kung Fu star. That was a movie star. All right. Well, I love that idea.

Are you a big resolution guy? Are you big like, oh, this year I'm going to do this and that? I don't feel like you are. No, I try to just do better than yesterday. All right. Well, you had a great year. Congratulations, Justin. And my...

What's your resolution? I just want to be a better person and a better father, that's all. That's a good one. And I want to cover the sport better. I think you do all right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Remember around this time last year?

I appreciate that very much. I saw you in Detroit. Not Detroit. Toronto. We were sitting in the stands in Toronto. You weren't even in the UFC yet. You've come along a very long way in 365 days. Yeah, I came up to you to do an interview.

Yeah. No one even knew who you were back then. Just kidding. Still don't. Now you're like a fan. You're like a cult hero now in the UFC. It's amazing. Do you feel like your life has changed?

I agree. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think it has. You're one of the fan favorites. The UFC absolutely brilliant. I mean, they're the hype machine. Yeah. They're good at what they do.

I mean, yeah. A lot of things have changed. But at the end of day, you know, still living in a one-bedroom apartment. still hanging out so it's all good year. Well, it was a great year. Congratulations to you and your team. We just had Rose on.

She won three awards. She won female fighter of the year, upset of the year, upset of the year, feel good moment of the year. Your team is killing it these days. You guys are, and your coach deserves a lot of credit as well.

Trevor Whitman. Come on coach of the year for you back. I can't get into that just yet. We'll wait on that. But he was certainly on the short list. Yeah, yeah. He's on the short list. He had a great year.

No doubt about it. He hasn't got. He has a coach. He's deserved. of it. Yep, I agree with that. I certainly agree with that. 100%. He's had a great year. The whole team's had a great year. Congratulations to you on a phenomenal year. Looking forward to what's next for you in 2018. And thank you for doing this on short notice. I appreciate it, Justin. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. All right. There he is. The one and only Justin Gachey as my

diamond MMA sperm thing fell. Did you see that? Did you see it fall? I don't know what that means, but I'll just leave it there. All right. So that was a lot of fun, right? So we had Demetrius on. We had Thug Rose on and then Justin Gachey who happened to be teammates. Is Trevor Whitman going to win our Coach of the Year award? We shall see. Let's bring back Mr. New York Rick, who I think we interrupted his lunch earlier. I mean, what was going on over there? Yeah, look, what's happening? You got to get them in when you can. Geez, get it in while the show is live. What is going on? You know, there was a lot of stuff going on before the show, you know, before.

Well, just grab a sandwich. I mean, does anyone really want to hear you, uh, chew? Well, Justin Gachie is on, but in any event. Not exactly my best moment. Yes, yes, yes. We'll add that to the highlight reel. Okay, so let's actually reset here if we can. Sure. Let's go back to Mailfighter of the year.

Right. My correct choice. Because I went down the short list. I went through who my pick was last year. Explain your thought process how you got to Max Holloway. I mean, I think it's obvious. The two wins that Max Holloway had were the best two. wins when measured up against any of the other contenders for this award.

Jokore and Romero, both great. Demetrius had Borg and Wilson Hayes, but if you beat Jose Aldo twice, you're going to win my fighter of the year award. And it comes down to simple math on that. He took out the longtime Featherway Kingpin and did it twice and made both look relatively easy. Max Holloway,

of the year, the only selection, unless you predicted last year that it would be Demetrius and then can choose Demetrius, you know, to make that come true. Are you, are you on? I'm not going to knock the pick. It was down to them too.

Can't be. You can't. You're knocking the DJ pick? That's crazy. It's Holloway. It's Holloway. Okay, sure, but he was, I mean, it's one and two, right? Sure, yeah, it's Demetriot. I don't know, Whitaker or Demetrius is hard for me to choose

one or the other because I think both had sensational wins this year. You don't give a nod to the submission. You don't give a not to making history. That all happened this year. Greatest submission breaks a record. There is a nod to history. And what he did in a fight

and then submitting the black belt Wilson Hayes? Come on. Jacaray and Romero, though. I think those are tougher wins. Those are my three. I think those are better wins than Hayes or Borg. All right.

So I'll say this. The history gets a nod for sure. Demetrius is definitely on my short list, but I think Holloway is the obvious. I cannot take it from Holloway. I think it's Holloway, then Whitaker and Demetrius somewhere in that order. And then there's really not another one after that

that I think is in that same category. There were others, but it's kind of hard not to give it to someone who won a belt or defended the title. Yeah, there's RDA, deserves to be mentioned. I think Volcano Osimir deserves to be mentioned. But there's other categories where they fit much better than fighter.

I feel like these are the guy. These are the three. Did you say your pick for last year was Demetrius, which you made come true? You mean my... Prognostication. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Who did you say it was? I said Connor McGregor. No, that wasn't my prediction.

That was my last year's pick. Who was your last year's thing? Oh, I said, Michael Bisping. Michael Bisping, that's right. Connor was in the mix. There was Steepay with Cody Garbrandt. but I went with Bisping for, you know, the three wins, right? He had the win over Anderson Silva as well. Yeah.

And becoming champion defending the belt, et cetera. That was a very tough one. Last year I thought was tough. This year I thought Holloway earned it. All right. So I picked Demetrius. You picked Max Holloway for male fighter of the year. We both agreed on Rose being female fighter of the year.

For sure, Thug Rose. Easy pick. Easy pick. Maybe one of the easiest picks of them all. But then the grouping underneath her is all kind of lumped together. Like there were a lot of good. So I mentioned Cyborg. I mentioned Calvio.

I mentioned Tisha Torres. I mentioned Nico Montanio. Were there any other fighters? Those were all the ones I had, except I had one more, which was Felice Herrick. I thought had a really, really good year. 3-0, Grasso, Kish, and Courtney Casey, three pretty big wins. And I thought was a good standout. But the other, what is that?

1, 2, 3, 4 that you said, Calvio, Montano, Cyborg, Torres. Those were my other. fighters on the list. Okay. So we agreed on that. We also talked, by the way, about submission of the year, which was Demetius Johnson and Ray Borg, the Mighty Wisbar, I think what we're calling it. We agreed on that. Let me give you some of my honorable mentions, and then you step in as well. Brett Johns against Joe Soto. Yep. The calf slicer, just the second one ever. It happened in December 30 seconds. We had him on the program afterwards. Brian Ortega submitting Cups Watson, Valentina Shevchenko and Juliana Pena.

Those were, I mean, I think this year actually had a lot of great submissions. Those were a few that came to mind. Did you have any others that you want to hear out there? I had quite a few, actually. I thought this was a great year for submissions and knockouts, I think both. OSP, two Von Pru chokes. Sorry, I was about to say Von Flu, but let's give the proper respect. Two von Pruchokes this year over Marcos Regerio de Lima and Yushin Okami.

Alexei Olinic with the first Azekiel choke in the UFC. at USC Fight Night 103 over I think it was Victor Pesta Yuri Alcantara his knee bar on Luke Sanders

where he was down two rounds in the fight pulled a kneebar out of nowhere friend of the show Brian Kelleher making his debut submitting

Yuri Alcantara who's on the list for being good at submissions Brian pulled off the upset submission that was a huge one then there were a few from some outside

organizations that are notable just because of the nature. One of them I featured on Rick's picks earlier this year, Gregory Popov with a go-go plata at MFP 214. I'm surprised you didn't pick one of those for your submission, like just to go

full hipster. Listen, this whole hipster thing is overplayed. I don't even know if I saw your pick for. Just because I watch more MMA than the UFC doesn't mean that my picks are hipster. Let's see.

Diego Brando had a helicopter Armbar at Fight Nights Global 58. That was really, really cool. Rico DiSculio had a Peruvian necktie at CESMMA 46. These were the ones I was able to find video of. There was a lot more. And shout out to

Caposa, Coposa, the number one guy on the MMA Twitter game who compiles all these knockouts, all these submissions. I used his list to find some of these. All the ones I could find video of and actually analyze and see that they were legit. I did mention Ascar, Ascarov had a twister at ACB 58.

There were a few other kind of tricky submissions like that. But Demetrius Johnson, the Mighty Whiz Bar, no doubt about it, submission of the year. Okay. So we agreed on that one. Also, let's just recap the other ones that we gave out. Do we want to give our last year's picks for those other categories as well? Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. My female fighter of the year last year was Amanda Nunes.

Mine was Amanda Nunes. my submission of the year was Nate Diaz, real naked choking Connor McGregor. My submission of the year was Ben Rothwell. Remember that one? I had that two years ago. Didn't I? No, against Josh Barnett.

The go-go choke. You had that? I thought I had that. Wow, that's crazy. What do you mean two years ago? It happened last year. I forget. I thought I picked that at some point in the thing.

That's crazy. Yeah, it happened in January of last year, so it feels like a long time ago. So that was submission of the year. Other ones, by the way, for female fighters, other notables last year were Young Jacek, Andrudge, Pange, Cyborg, Lee, Pennington. Those were some other ones. Okay, let's talk about Fight of the Year here.

Let's just recap that because we had Mr. Gachian. I had Gachie Johnson. You had Gachy Johnson, right? Correct. Some of my honorable mentions, I went through them earlier. So let me give you the opportunity to mention your Fight of the Year Notables. What did you have there? I had obviously Yancey

Madares versus Alex Oliveira Luis Smoka versus Tim Elliott If you don't remember that was a back and forth grappling affair It was really really fun Jessica Androge versus Angela Hill One of the best straw weight fights I think not even of the year but ever

It was really fun David Tammor versus Landovanada Both of those guys going toe to toe throwing not only technical strikes but, you know, exciting, striking. That was a really fun matchup. Whitaker versus Romero, five rounds of what could be one, two, three,

somewhere in there of the best middle weights on the planet. T.J. Dillishar versus Cody Garbrandt, a shorter fight, but I think both of them had moments in round one and two, respectively, that made that worthy. Justin Gachie versus Eddie Alvarez, lived up to the hype. That was one of the most hype fights I can remember,

and it lived up to it, which is insane. Eddie Alvarez versus Dustin Poillier, Dustin Poet versus Jim Middler. So you could have any combination of Eddie or Dustin and their fights they had this year. They were all good. Chase Sherman versus Rashad Coulter, which was a good old fashioned

kind of heavyweight slug fest. And then Derek Campos versus Brandon Gertz from Bellator, another slugfest, a bloody one that I really, really liked. And last one, Invicta FC-21, Amy Montenegro, Celine Haga. If people don't remember, that was the three-round fight where

At the buzzer, Selene Haga pulled off a submission, but the ref and Montenegro went out, and the referee determined that she wasn't out when the round ended, and it was all controversial, but that fight was absolutely incredible to that point, three rounds back and forth. Those were some of my notables. Last year, it was Condit Lawler for me.

For me as well. And if you recall, that was the first event of the year for the UFC. That's right. And it also won my round of the year. year the fifth round won my round of the year. And so it felt like it was so long ago, but on the first night of the year, it ended up winning my fight in round of the year. My round of the year this year, as I said earlier, Gachey Johnson, round two. It starts off with, and what a great quote there. He is so great at verbalizing his thoughts. He says he still doesn't know how he didn't go down from that left

hand. If you go back and watch it, and I went back and watched that fight, I went back and watch the Madeira-Sullivera fight because those were my. final two. At the beginning of the fight, it's just amazing how he doesn't go down and then he ends up actually winning. So that's why I gave it to that round, round two, Gaichi Johnson. I feel like that phrase right there could be the story of Justin Gachi's

career. It's amazing how he didn't go down. Every single fight is like that. But you didn't agree. I did not. I don't even remember what your pick was. Callie Robbins versus Sharon Jacobson and Victa FC-25. 42 seconds, the entire length of the fight. How could that be? It packed

more in those 42 seconds than any of these other fights. If you're out there and you're about to call me a hipster, before you do that, find that 42 seconds and tell me if you don't agree.

It was, it started with Jacobson just brutalizing Robbins on the feet. It looked like it was about to be a beat down at the year contender. Jacobson, a stout wrestler,

goes into a toss, throws Robbins to the ground. As Robbins is going to the ground, she starts locking up a submission and gets an arm bar on Jacobson. It was the fastest swing of momentum I've ever seen in my entire life and my round of the year for this year. It was nuts. It was absolutely nuts.

Better than... Better. Gathe you, John. 42 seconds of madness. You will not find a better minute of action. And again, like I said, who was it that John Linnaker had the crazy exchange with? Hold on. Let me Oh, recently.

No, no, no, it was a few years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. I forget now. It was... I need to find this fight. Francisco Rivera. Yes. Lindiger and Rivera, two minutes long,

but my clear choice for round of the year that year as well. That is the pick. If you can make some more action happen, it doesn't need to go full five minutes for me to pick it. In fact, some of my other mentions are my other notables, or actually only one more of my other notables, didn't go the full five rounds.

Who else did you? The rest. I obviously had Justin Gachi and Michael Johnson, round two. Insane. Yancy Maderos versus Alex Olivaura, round one. Yeah, me too. Dustin Poe versus Anthony Pettis round two. If you don't remember, that's the one with all the crazy grappling transitions. They were going back and forth. The elbow that opened up Pettis happened in that round.

it was absolutely mad Eddie Alvarez versus Dustin Poillier round two that's the one where they were taking turns rocking each other

that led to the controversy and then one from Cage Warriors 86 Nathaniel Wood versus Josh Reed this one made the rounds

absolutely insane the change of momentum that happened there and that round one because it didn't go the full distance also made my list my last year pick

I know remind me You had something from Condet Lawler. I had Holloway and Lomas from 199, the one where Holloway threw down the gauntlet, and Lomas and him went to war. I remember saying that I was a little bit distracted that night because of the impending doom. Extenuating circumstance. Also, you didn't mention Mirosad Bechtick and Darren Elkins, round three, the comeback round.

That was crazy. I didn't feel like that, obviously that is a notable round. because of what happens there, but I don't feel like the action leading into the finish was enough of a change of momentum to me. For my round of the year, I like to see something going back and forth a little bit. It felt like at that point, round one and two were in the books, Beck to Caddam, and then in round three, Elkins started taking over, but I didn't feel like the momentum completely shift is shifted in that round. I feel like it shifted over that fight. That's my only justification there. Clearly, that fight deserves some kind of note.

mention or notoriety because of what Elkins was able to do in round three. I just watched your round of the year, by the way. It was a great fight. Yeah. Somewhat of a comeback victory, right? She was getting destroyed.

No way that's round of the year. I mean, there's just no... Sorry. It's too short. No, there's no length requirement for me. It does not hold up to some of the others that you mentioned. No. That is...

Sorry, disagree. It's a homer pick. I mean, let's just call it like we see it here. That is a homer pick. That is a great, oh, by the way, honorable mention, you may have missed this one. Disagree. Go to Fight Pass and thank you for Fight Pass for allowing me to watch this right now. That is not the round of the year.

Round of the year. I don't want to take anything away from two people who walked into a cage and fought for our entertainment because they deserve the credit. But that one does not stack up. That just doesn't stack up. Disagree. All right. So there you go.

That's round of the year. And now let's move along. How about it? Let's move along now to a knockout of the year. Another very tough category. Why don't you go first? I had, and I think many people had, Francis and Ganu, with the vicious uppercut on Alistair Overeem at U.S.C. 218. Again, for me, this was a category where there were a ton of runner, you know, of notable or honorable mentions that were all very, very good and deserving.

and on any other year would have been in contention but this one stood head and shoulders above for me. It was powerful, it was devastating, it was instant, everything about it, just let me know right away that that was the knockout of the year. Francis Inganu,

uppercut, Alasor Overeem, UFC 218. Uppercut from hell and honorable mentions? I got a bunch one of my favorites, Galore Bofondo, throwing Charlie Ward on his head. Yes. The thud and just the absolute madness of that one.

Marlon Marius, the knee on Al Jemaine Sterling. Edson Barbosa with the flying knee against Baneal Daryush. Paul Daly from Bellator with the flying knee against Brennan Ward. Matt Brown, elbow on Diego Sanchez. Mike Perry, elbow on Jake

Ellenberger. Alex Olivera, upper cutting Ryan LaFlair. Merbeck Tysumov with a huge right hand against Felipe Silva. Holly Holm. Folding up, Bech Cohaya, like an accord.

Jordan, Ovin St. Prue with the head kick on Corey Anderson out of nowhere. Julian Marquez against Philip Hawes on Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender series, the one where Hawes was getting up and took the head kick. Josh Emmett, obviously, against Ricardo Lomas, and Aaron Pico against Justin Lynn. Those last two were super, super clean and in contention, but Francis stands above. Great ones. What about Taiwan Claxton? Speedy Clackston.

The other flying nears, right? Remember that one? When he pushed him off. against Johnny Bonilla Bowman. So that one was on my list. That was a phenomenal knockout. That one hurt just to watch. I agreed with a lot of yours.

Pico one, the Bofondo one. Alexander Gustafin and Glover de Chiro with the uppercut. That was great. Perry Ellenberger. Paul Daly with the knockout of Brendan Ward, Marlon Morais, and his vicious knockout of Al Jermaine Sterling. I really liked the Holly Home knockout of Bechkoheer.

It was great. Visually, that was a beauty. And technically as well. That was beautiful. Josh Emmett and the way in which he knocked out, Ricardo Lama's just a couple of weeks ago. But in the end, I agree it was a no-brainer. My 2017 knockout of the year winner,

none other than Francis Nganoo knocking out Alastroheim. And in fact, there's a new layer to this knockout because they put out the promo for UFC 220. And they just showed this clip. Did you see this of Overeem with his eyes rolled back to the back of his head? I mean, it's just, it's, it's frightening stuff. You will be hard pressed to find a cleaner knockout, a cleaner, a cleaner punch landing, and then a neck just like sort of like cocking back, Overeem, completely out, you know,

one of the legends of the sport, and Ganu cementing his place as the number one contender, but it was just vicious. Like when I think of knockouts, when I want to show someone just how vicious, how dangerous, how dare I say violent the sport of mixed martial arts, can't. be, I think of Francis Nganoe knocking out Alastair Overeem. And oh, by the way, Mr. Francis Ngano is standing by in Paris, France. He's in Paris, France, to finish up his training for UFC 220. He is standing by to accept our 2017 knockout of the year award. Here he is, Francis Inganu.

Hey, MMA, Howard. Thank you from the knockout of the year award. at UFC Jonah has been crazy so far and I can assure you that you're going to be better starting by

on January 20th against TEPA Miotich at UFC 22. I'm going to blow your strength. Thank you guys and happy New Year for every one of you. See you.

There he is the winner of the MMA hour 2017 knockout of the year joining us from France from the MMA factory and thank you very much to the head coach over there

Farnan Lopez, a team by the way that is on the rise that are doing a lot of great things out in France and you see none other than Mr. Engano who is on the verge of fighting for the heavyweight title in one of the most anticipated fights of the year. Very good chance we're talking about that fight this time next year. Maybe with the

finish, maybe with Angano being a fighter of the year, maybe with Mioch, a fighter of the year. But that was very much well-deserved. Last year, my knockout of the year winner was Lando Venata against John McDessie, if you recall that knockout. That was a great one. I had a known complainer that he doesn't get loved.

Gerald Harris, slamming Aaron Cobb, making my awards. I mean, just brutal slam. Gerald, once again, mentioning you, shouting you out for a huge knockout last year. Yeah. He's probably going to go on like a tweet rampage here. There's a good chance that I muted him because it was getting to be too much. I'm not sure.

But anyway, Francis Engano, thank you very much for sending that in. I know he was overcome with joy and emotion when he found out that he won the Knockout of the Year award. All right. So that's Knockout of the Year. We talked about submission earlier. We both agreed it was DJ hitting the armbar against Ray Borg in midair. So nothing more to say there. Let's talk about Breakthrough Fighter of the Year.

And I think that this was a really interesting one. I'll go first on this one. Yep. I see, I look at other people's breakthrough fighter of the year. And it's interesting because I feel like this is one of those things. Let me just do this one second, one second, one second. I feel like it's one of those awards where it can, and there's a couple that fall in this category.

But I feel like it's one of those awards that it can be interpreted in different ways. You know what I mean? like, okay, what exactly, how do you quantify, it's very subjective, how do you quantify what, what a breakthrough fighter is, who that breakthrough fighter is. But in all honesty, I actually thought that this was a really easy pick. And I'll tell you why. And it was an easy pick because this time last year, my award winner was not a champion. This time last year, I don't think he was even on people's shortlist to become a champion. Like we didn't really see a path for him to become champion.

This time last year, I think that if we were talking about who champions could be in the division if the belt would change hands, I don't think people were bringing him up. This time last year, if we said that this fighter, because we didn't know, would get matched up against Jacques-Raisosa and Yol Romero, there was a very good chance he wasn't winning one of those fights. And that's why I gave my 2017 Breakthrough Fighter of the Year award to won Robert Whitaker because this time last year he wasn't the champion

and I don't think that there was a single person who could have predicted that we start 2018 with him being the champion. And oh by the way, very good chance. You can make the case, you can make the argument that he was the fighter of the year, as we said earlier. But to me, this guy broke through. This guy wasn't even in discussions.

You know, last year was Cody Garbrand, who also became champion. He went from unranked to champion. And I remember, like, I did not think that Robert Whitaker would end the year as champion. And yes, he got it in a weird way. But I think a lot of people by the end of the day were saying, like, that's the real belt anyway. You know, I don't know if I subscribe to that. But I think of a fighter who just sort of broke through the ranks, who made a name for himself,

who made an impact, who became champion. I think the Jacques-Rae fight could be upset of the year. I really do. And then he pulls it off against YOL. Just phenomenal stuff from Robert Whitaker. people who I who I considered Tony Ferguson, Rose Nomiunis, Justin Gaiti, Paulo Costa, Cynthia

Cavillo, Jeremy Stevens, Josh Emmett, James Vic, Kamaro Usman, Darren Till, Kobe Covington, Volcano, Ozedimir, Brian Ortega, Max Holloway, and Francis Inganu. All could be considered breakthrough fighter of the year. But in the end, I went with a guy who was not really in that picture to start the year and

then, you know, and then ended up being champ. And I don't think anyone thinks that he's a lesser champion or you know, not the best middleweight in the world. it's just an unbelievable year for Robert Whitaker. So he is my breakthrough fighter of the year, and I know that there can be different interpretations, but I really felt strongly about this one.

He wasn't even in that discussion, and now look where he is. And he is kind enough to be joining us from Australia as he prepares for UFC 221, as he prepares for his first official title defense against Luke Rockhold, my 2017, breakthrough fighter of the year, Robert Whitaker. Here he is accepting that most prestigious award. MAA hour for Breakthrough Fire of the Year.

It's a great honor to be able to receive that award and, you know, stay tuned. I'm going to come into 2018 really, really well. There he is. Robert Whitaker accepting that award. And I like how so far our two video acceptance speeches have all given a nod to 2018. Like, they're onto bigger and better. And Gano is talking about becoming champion. Whitaker is talking about, you know, being the fighter of the year and defending that title.

but I really felt strongly about him winning that that breakthrough fighter of the year award. So congratulations to him. That's my pick, your pick. My thought process is very similar to yours. I like the idea. And last year, my pick was Cody Garbrandt. He came from, you know, bottom of the card all the way to champion. I don't think we'll ever see somebody rise as quickly as Cody Garbrandt did from relative unknown to champion in one year's time.

It was pretty special what he did last year. I always kind of like to follow that same trajectory like you do as well My pick this year was not Robert Whitaker It was Darren Till After not fighting at all in 2016 Till till started the year Do you know where he was on the card

When he fought Justin Ayari in May Do you know where he was on the card? How low? How low he was on the card? Fight past prelims Second fight of the night fight past prelims Come end of year He was headlined

against Donald Seroni. I feel like his rise this year was meteoric, and especially in terms of profile. He's a guy that people are looking at and saying his name when, as early as May, he was the second fight of the night. I think that my criteria is very similar to yours, but I think that he started at a lower place

and got to traveled further than Whitaker necessarily did. I feel like Whitaker started a little bit higher and then obviously achieved much more becoming champion. But Till's distance between where he started and where he ended, I think was the greatest of this year. And that's why Darren Till is my choice for Breakthrough Fighter of the Year.

I don't hate the pick. I certainly don't hate the pick. I just think in the end, Whitaker achieved a little more. He did. And he picked up two massive wins. I think the level of competition was a little higher. But I don't, look, I wouldn't be surprised

honestly, and we'll get to our predictions for this coming year if Darren Till is in the fighter of the year discussion for 20. Wouldn't shock me. And certainly trending in that direction. It's not the guy that I had my finger on to be that guy initially early on. You

mentioned a lot of my other people that were in the running, Whitaker, Oskinear, and Ganoo, Covington, Carvalho, oh, sorry, this one, I don't know if you mentioned, Rafael Carvalho from Belletoir. Ended the year with like a really bad fight against Melvin Manhoff. I'd say it's probably the worst fight I've ever seen, actually.

Comes back to start the year, takes out Manhoff in what was a much more exciting fight, and then puts down Alessio Sakara. Huge turnaround for him this year. I thought that he established himself as the guy. I think at the end of last year, I was thinking, is this guy really the middleweight champion? I think he had a fantastic year and put himself back on the map. You mentioned James Vic. You mentioned Cynthia Calvillo. You mentioned Paulo Costa. I had One more, Mackenzie Dern. I think this year she made it clear, like, I'm here. This isn't just hype that she got to step up in competition and pass the test with flying colors.

I think this was a breakthrough year for her. Maybe a little bit early, maybe next year. Maybe more of a breakthrough category? Certainly in the running there. But I think worth some kind of mention that she had a big year. By the way, I reported yesterday that she's going to be making her UFC debut on March 3rd, UFC 222 against Ashley Yoder. I think that's another big step up.

Another, you know, large jump in competition that will show where she's really at. But I think a lot of the names that we had are the same. I picked Till, you picked Whitaker. I think both great choices. All right. So that's Breakthrough Fighter of the Year. Did you have Garbrand last year as well? I think you probably...

I did. And not only did I have Garbrand for Breakthrough Fighter of the Year, I also had him in my most improved Fighter of the Year category. as well, which is kind of interesting, but I thought that that was appropriate since he went from unranked to champion. Let's talk about Most Improved Now. And this one, much like breakthrough, I think you can interpret it in different ways. I think that there's a lot of very, very deserving people for this award, some names that I was considering. I was considering Derek Brunson. I was considering Camaro Oussman. I was considering Kelvin Gaslam. I was considering

Darren Till, I was considering Henry Sohudo, I was considering Kevin Lee, I was considering Justin Porier, I was considering Rose Nomi Unis, who I think could very well have won the award. I was considering Santiago Ponziabio and also Kobe Cumberton. I all thought that they had great years. I all thought that they made improvements as fighters. I all thought that they took leaps as fighters. I all thought that they had successful years, all that and then some. But in the end, I went with an individual who was on no one's radar this time last year. I mean, you talk about what Whitaker did. This is on a whole other level.

He did not win the belt in 2017, but he is very close to fighting for a belt. And in a couple of weeks, he could become the undisputed champion in his weight class. I went with a guy who prior to his debut, not a lot of people heard of. I went with a guy who fought Ovinst, St. Peru, in his UFC debut back in February. and it was a strong decision win, but it didn't really, you know, knock anyone's socks off. It didn't really, you know,

it was just a nice win. Okay, here's a nice little, you know, new face at 205. Follows that up with a knockout of Misha Sarkanov in May, which I think put everyone on notice. Everyone said, whoa, whoa, wait a second, who the heck is this guy?

Follows that up with a knockout in seconds of Jimmy Manoa in July. And then I think everyone believed that Volcan Ozedimir was here to stay. Came a long way in one year. A guy who had sort of been, you know, like, sort of jumping around and there was a time he was considering retirement, made the leap to the

United States, went to Florida, and he has grown leaps and bounds since starting to work with Henry Hooft and the team over there in Florida. So my 2017 most improved fighter of the year is the one and only no time Volcan Ozedemir of Switzerland. He's styling and profiling this past weekend in Las Vegas. He's wearing the Versace from head to toe, took part in his first official pre-fight press conference and on January 20th, he meets Daniel Cormier for the UFC light heavyweight title. His name is Wilken Ostemir. His nickname is No Time. He is my 2017 Most Improved Fighter of the Year and he is standing by in Florida to accept

said award. Here's Volcan. Thank you, MMMA Hour for the award of Best Improved Fighter of the Year. 2017 was definitely a crazier for me, but 2018 will be even better. I will be fighting for the belts against D.C. in Boston. so stay connected because he's going to be a crazy year for me. Stay connected, my friends. Volcan Ozedemir, well done.

What a great year for him. He has come a long way. Who would have thought in early 2018 that this man, the pride of Switzerland, would be fighting for a UFC title. Unbelievable stuff. He's come a long way. My pick for Most Improved.

Your pick, Mr. New York, Rick. My pick is Kevin Lee. Kevin Lee. Okay. I don't hate it. The reason I don't pick a guy like Volcan and think he's more appropriate for breakthrough is because I didn't even know who he was coming into 2017.

I don't know if he improved because I didn't know who the hell he was. I mean, he certainly improved from the OSP fight, but fair. I think so, but I don't think by fight two he looked any different than he did by fight three. I was, I was, whatever he did was gravy for me. It was a surprise I wasn't expecting anything. Whereas a guy like Kevin Lee and you'll see some of my other, choices, I was able to track the improvement. I saw it and I was impressed by it and therefore my selection. So Kevin Lee, I think 2017 was kind of emblematic of his entire career. He's talking to

talk, that's for sure. But it'll also put in the work in the gym to kind of make those improvements. And over the course of his career, which has been a pretty long UFC career at this point. Now, you know, you kind of forget how long he's been fighting. This is the most complete version we saw. He fought for the title. I thought he fought admirably. Obviously, he had a staff infection that's tough to overcome and how good Tony Ferguson is. I don't want to make excuses because I don't think he would. But I think we saw the best version of Kevin Lee and the improvements he's been able to make not only this year

but the years previous are evident. I think he looked really, really good. Obviously that win over Michael Kiesa was incredible. Kevin Lee, my pick, showed so much improvement this year, my pick for the most improved fighter of the year. Did you do some of your other notables? Yeah, I did. Thanks for paying attention. But let me ask you this.

Yeah. The fact that he ends the year on a loss, does it hurt him at all? It doesn't hurt him because I think going into that fight, I still was confident in him as a title challenger. I think in last year, I wouldn't have said Kevin Lee is the guy that I want to see fight for the title. By the time that he had earned that title opportunity, I thought to myself,

Kevin Lee had done enough and has shown improvements in his game enough that I am comfortable seeing him in a fight with Tony Ferguson. I thought that that was going to be a competitive title fight. So it doesn't hurt him in my opinion because the improvements he made to that point were still clear to me. Even if he wasn't able to get it done. And Tony Ferguson is no joke in the cage. My other choices, Henry Sehudo, his striking continues to improve some of the combinations he was throwing against Wilson Hayes, mind-boggling how fast he's able to improve his striking.

I saw a marked improvement this year, thought Henry Suhudo deserves a nod. And Dustin Poillet, known kind of to this point for falling short in the big opportunities and Hill himself say that. 2017, he didn't fight anything but big fights. Jim Miller, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis,

getting it done in all of them. I thought Dustin looked really, really good this year and improved leaps and bounds. So Kevin Lee, Henry Suhudo, Dustin Poet, but ultimately I'm going with Kevin Lee. I thought he looked fantastic this year. I had both of those. I had all of them actually on my short list.

Another one where I don't think there's a big argument, no it's dumb. All great picks. By the way, one that we didn't mention, I think worth mentioning, mentioned her earlier. Our friend over at WMMA News mentioned her Nico Montanio came a long way. I think this year, no one really knew who she was. But maybe based on your criteria, she doesn't fall under that category because she wasn't on our radar. But certainly on the show, even starting off the show and then ending it with the championship win, she came a long way. She's the UFC's

Flyway champion. So that is Most Improved. This is an interesting one now. Who did you have last year? I said I had Cody Garbrandt. Are you paying attention? What's wrong with you? Listen, there's a lot of... Lunch. What are you doing back there? I said Cody Garbrandt won my breakthrough and Most Improved. Okay, okay. That was a long time ago. We've done a lot of talking since. Who did you pick? Tim Elliott last year. Oh, yeah. He had a huge year.

Because he ended the year with the tough win. It was big. It was big for him. That was a big year. He was out of the UFC and then back in. and showed dressing. Still doing well. Yep. Still going strong. Big win.

Okay. So let's go to comeback of the year. And this is an interesting one because I think I said this at the top. This can actually be interpreted in multiple ways. And I've seen some other awards get out there. And a lot of people when they think of comeback in the year, they think of fight, which is okay. I like to sort of keep it ambiguous because I like to see where you go. And I think you can make the case for either,

direction. How about you go first on this one? Comeback of the year. Who'd you give it to? Come back of the year, the one and only George St. Pierre returning to the Octagon. Walterway Kingpin comes back, makes history, makes money, and then poof, he's gone. You can't do it much better than that. Come back of the year, George St. Pierre. Easy. I mean, hard because I had to ultimately choose between fighter or fight, and my fight would have been Darren Elkins versus Merced Bechtick, which we talked about earlier. in the show.

Never have you seen a guy down two rounds and look more out of it and then turn it around completely in round three against a guy in Bechtick who I think is a really, really legit top prospect. So I had to ultimately choose between Fighter and Fight. I went with Fighter. George St. I'm shocked that you went with Fighter. My choice.

I mean, I was considering Elkins and Bechtick up until the last minute, but George St. Pierre is my bad. Who'd you go with last year? Ronda Rousey. Oh my God. How did I even ask that question? Oh my God. For the same,

now I'll say this. Now I'll say this. That pick has soiled this award show. Thank God we're separate entities here. Because anytime I mentioned the awards, like, even this past weekend, I was talking about it to Casey and Sean, and they're like, oh, like, can you just tell us when, when your worker is on so I can mute him? I mean, that pick has, that, that, you know how DC talks about the stench that he needs

to get off him? That is your stench. Now, first of all, thanks to, thanks to teammates. Casey and Sean. One of the all-time worst picks. More evidence, as I've been saying. No, I'll be the first to say. I'll be the first to say one of the all-time worst picks in the history of a war.

Now, the justification is the same as this pick this year. The worst. No. It's the same. No. It's the same. She has peace comeback would not be the comeback of the year if he lost in 45 seconds. I would still have picked it.

No. I would still have picked it. George and Pierre. I would have picked it. There's no way. I'm sorry. I would have picked it. That was the, okay.

Honestly, like you talk about it. Like, we talk about aging. And like that may be the worst comeback in the history of comebacks. Like that's almost one where it would have been better if she stayed home. That was like the ghost of Ronda Rousey. She was a shell of her firm herself. She did not speak to the media. She acted like she didn't want to be there.

She went in there and the first punch completely rocked her and that was essentially the beginning of the end. How could that, the fact that they just like sort of like carted her out there, WME wanted Rhonda to be there. They wanted to sell some pay reviews at the end of the year. How could that possibly be? why we're talking about this again, I don't know. But it's still, it's still, it's still boggles the mind. I would have picked, if George, if George went in there and got rocked by Michael Bisping first

round and taken out, guess what? It still would have been George St. Pierre. That's it. George St. Pierre. So what you're saying is here we are a year later, you still haven't learnt your lesson. George St. Pierre. Fortunately, he got it done, so there's nothing to, you would have made the same mistake. I would have picked the same thing.

Unbelievable. The justification, exactly the same. The worst. You can't, you can't argue that the stakes don't matter. They always matter. Yeah. So then there's a justification. But if you don't actually like propel, if you don't actually defy the odds, if you don't actually like come back and like it's not the win of the year. So it's just showing up. It's just being there. It's not what you do. It's not how you act. It's not how you like how you handle yourself. It's just showing up.

So as long as she stood in the octagon, that's it. Come back of the year. The fact that she decided to sign on the line, take a fight, get paid. 45 seconds, see you later. That's a comeback. Like, that's, that's not inspiring. Comebacks are inspiring. What Darren Elkins did was inspiring. What GSP did was inspiring. The result was not inspiring, but the, the process of coming back, the people who supported

her were inspired by. Let me tell you about comebacks. Let me tell you about a guy named the Korean zombie. Let me tell you about, let me tell you about a guy who was on, you know, military leave and then comes back and looks the way he did back in February. Let me tell you about a girl named Roxanne Modifery. and what she's done and the comeback that she, after media members said her lone UFC fight

was the worst fight and she was the worst fighter in UFC history. And look what she did on this past season of the ultimate fighter. Let me tell you about a guy named Eddie Alvarez who could have crumbled, who could have faltered, who could have never shown up again

after what happened at MSG and the year in which he had. That is a comeback. Let me tell you about a young man from a corner of the world known as Dagestan. Time out. Time out. Yeah.

why not any of those over George? No, these are my honorable mentions. Why, though? What do you mean why? They all had great years. The circumstances matter, though. Yeah, exactly, but they all won. Roxie lost.

No, no, no, no, no. Well, yeah, I don't know mentions, Cynthia Cavill lost. That's why she didn't win my award. I'm building up to it here, all right? The Dagestani cowboy. You're telling me that Roxanne Mottifery's performance in the Ultimate Fighter finale is on the same level of what Ronda did against Amanda Nunes?

It's not about the performance. That's what I'm saying. The worst comebacks in the history of sport. Not about the performance. I'm not possible. I still can wrap my head around it. I still have a hard time wrap.

George St. Pierre is my pick. But when you're watching a great sports game and a team is down 20 and, you know, like that's one of the greatest comebacks I've ever seen. Sure. That's what a comeback is. Like you succeed. Yeah.

And as I discussed last year, the hurdles that Ronda Rousey got over to come back to that cage. You're, in fact, you're making the case for it. You're talking about how she had to be dragged into the cage and wasn't mentally prepared and blah, blah, blah, and then still stepped into the cage. In fact, you are making the greatest argument for it by saying that she shouldn't have been in there. You're just, now you've lost your mind. No. Same thing.

George St. Pierre. If you are carded out, if you don't speak to any, if you don't come to terms with your laws, you can't be in the running. This is where we, I'm completely separated from this whole, she didn't talk to media stuff. That doesn't matter to me. I don't care. No, but I'm saying, I'm talking about the buildup. Like the whole comeback was botched.

The whole thing was a fraud. The whole, like, it, it was, it was, it was, it was almost, it was almost so bad that it, like, called into question everything she did in the past. I think, by the way, she's one of the greatest female fighters of all time. But it has, it has changed the perspective in which we view Ronda Rousey. It really, No, Rhonda doesn't deserve this.

She does not deserve this music. I'm sorry. Look, I was talking to someone last week, and they were like, Rhonda Rousey stood for something. And then she showed up, and she couldn't even face the proverbial music. She couldn't even face the music,

and then she gets carted out and then, no, she is not cut the music. She is not the comeback of the year. She will never be the comeback of the year. Well, actually, no, I take that back. If she comes back and does it the right way and is successful in doing so, then. Or if she fights at a five-round fight,

then you could be the comeback to you. Oh, so you have to, Okay, you have to fight in a five round five. You have to actually be good in your comeback. Like, you have to be somewhat successful. Forget all that. Anyway. George A. Pierre was successful.

He was. Okay, so I'm talking about the Dagestani Cowboy. Chabeebib deserves to be mentioned. Great comeback for him. By the way, interestingly enough, he was on my short list last year. I hope this doesn't become a trend where he, like, goes away for the year, and then he fights at the end of the year. Hafeld de Sanjos?

Yeah, made my list for sure. A great year. It came back after a horrible year. And how about Jesse Taylor? I know it didn't end well for him because of what happened. But look, remember that moment? Remember that moment? He comes back after everything, you know, the comeback season and everything.

But in the end... I'm willing to forget about the result in this case. No, but he won. Yeah, I'm willing to forget about all that. No, no, he won. Yeah, it's good. Good comeback. In the end, it goes to George St. Pierre.

Because I think we saw with Carlos Cond did this past weekend, and we've seen time and again, you walk away from the sport. It's very hard to regain what you had before walking away. and George St. Pierre came back after a four plus year layoff and went into a title fight, went into a higher way class, and let's not play the revisionist history game. He went in there and he beat and submitted Michael Bisping just the second man to ever submit Michael Bisping. And oh, by the way, just a second man to hold two different belts in two different, no, excuse me, fourth man to do it. Couture, Penn, yeah, Connor and him. Connor is the only man to do at the same time.

but what he did was historic and it capped off obviously a great night. George St. Pierre, my comeback of the year, it goes to him, it goes to the goat, it goes to the greatest of all time, it goes to the pride of Saint-Dizold, the pride of Montreal, the pride of Quebec, the pride of Canada. It goes to the mensch, George St. Pierre, and he's standing by at the world famous TriStar Gym in Montreal to accept the comeback of the year war. Take it away, George. Hi, everyone.

First of January 2018, happy new year. and I want to say thank you for this award and it wouldn't have been possible without the help of all the of you guys see, still training 1st of January there in the gym so if the coach, Ferrazahavi is there thank you again

there he is George St. Pierre accepting the award what a great moment for him in November coming back at MSG of course he's no longer the champion I have to say this about George first of all I mean the guy's at the gym he's giving props his team I see Amman Zahabi there. I see Farah's a hobby. I ask George to send him. And like I still,

I hold him, maybe like he's on a pedestal for me. This is one of the greatest, if not the greatest ever. I ask him, hey, congrats, you won this award. Like, you know, it's a big deal for us, whatever. Can you send us a video? The guy responds within 10 minutes and sends me and he's like, is this good. Does this work for you? He is just such a mensch. He is just such a mensch. What a pleasure. What a great moment. Bold prediction. This isn't one of our questions, but just asking, do you think we ever see him fight again? Yeah, I do. Do you think we see him fight in 2018?

Yeah, I do. Really? Interesting. I asked him how he's feeling, by the way, and he said a lot better. Yeah, I think there's a dollar figure that you could give George that he'd come back. Is it Connor or bust, or do you see him fighting a Walter Wade or someone else? I think he could fight somebody else. In fact, I would predict that he does come back and not Connor. They certainly need him.

I mean, look at the numbers, right? You almost don't want to do your two biggest chips at the same time. You take them separately. It's a different arrow we're playing with here. Because you know that they're quantifiable and you can go George on a different pay-per-view and Connor on another. I mean, I don't know. But I think he does come back and I don't think it's against Connor. All right.

Well, he looks to be in great shape there. He's in the gym training. It was a great moment. And by the way, did you see Dana White's comments recently? Yes. He's getting like increasingly salty. about how it all went down like oh he went back to Canada.

It wasn't great. Come on. It was great. For that night? No. Oh, so now all of a sudden, the things that... Look, that's been the problem with...

For WME, it was great that night because they live in the moment. It is... It was great that night, but now what is the question? Robert Whitaker versus Luke Rockhold. In a sense, it sort of ridded the... it unclogged things.

and now we get to the the active guys. And let him not get, he got to make history, they let him have his history historic moment, he gets to fight, blah, blah, blah,

he gets to fight at MSG. The return to MSG had to be special, right? And it was special? I've got no problem with the fight. I've got no problem with George fighting for a title, but let's not pretend

that this was, you know. No problem. As I said the Monday after, he gamed the system and they let him game it. Yeah, yeah. So don't act after the fact that you didn't like it

or that you're unhappy. And the only reason you're unhappy about it is because now you can't make money off him now. Because he got one up on you. He did it right. As I said, made history, made money,

and then poof, he's gone. Can't do it better than that. And by the way, this time last year, I mean, it did not look good for him returning. Remember this time last year?

He's a part of the union. They tried to make a deal. I mean, the fact that he actually finally came back and he had the eye injury. It was definitely a weird road to get there. It was somewhat botched at times. but it was great to see him back.

It was a cool moment. All right. So that is comeback of the year. Let's talk quickly about upset because we spoke about it earlier. You agreed with me. It's Rosnami Eunice over Ioanni on J-Chic, correct? Before we do that, real quick.

Some fights that were worthy of mention for comeback of the year, real quick. Uriel Contora versus Luke Sanders mentioned earlier, Darren Uckins versus Mercibeptic mentioned earlier. Uriah Hall, which is becoming kind of his calling card versus Christoph Jock, completely dominated rock.

blah, blah, blah. Round two, he comes back and ends the fight. Very similar to what he did against Musassi. And Demir Hadzavik versus Marcin held that well-time knee after Held had dominated him for two rounds. Okay. Upset of the year. Up set of the year. Yeah. You agreed with me, right? I agree with you. Rosamma Yunus versus Yonah and Jacek. Some of the others that I wanted to quickly highlight, Nico Montanio, just kind of winning tough was somewhat of an upset. Freeman over Pico back in June at MSG. Josh Emmett over Ricardo Lamas.

Those were a couple that came to mind. Any others that you wanted to highlight? Yeah. Brent Primus or Primus versus Michael Chandler. So how did you feel about that one? Because it was somewhat weird and inconclusive. Still, I mean, you have to at least acknowledge it. He was a plus 600 underdog.

There's definitely something there. A fight we mentioned multiple times, Darren Elkins versus Merceda Bectick. He was plus 550 in that fight. Cajun Johnson versus Adriano Martinez. He was plus 450. John Maraga versus Magamad Bibbue Latov

Another huge upset But none more than Namayunas versus Yanjachek Almost the biggest statistically in terms of betting odds But clearly the biggest The odds going to that one She ended at about plus 550

Wow That is amazing Yeah huge I mean Yonah looked unbeatable At that point huge Okay So that's upset at the year We talked to Ywana earlier

of course we gave her that award. And I think most people, excuse me, did I say Yuana? I meant Rose, obviously. I think most people would give it to Rose after what happened. So let's move along now and talk about rivalry of the year. And I actually went back and forth. To me, this came down to really two, but I went back and forth on this one.

I thought it was, so there's different takes. Let me get to there. Some others that I was considering. Or I didn't really consider, but they're on my own. honorable mention list. Darren Till and Mike Perry. Some in conclusive, but it was a lot of fun, especially that moment in Poland. Them going back and forth. Awesome. Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley, that is a rivalry that is still brewing, but dominated the headlines for many weeks, especially given all the things that

Colby did and said. So I think that that one should be mentioned. Now we get to the serious contenders. Cody Garbrand and T.J. Dillisha. Remember, they were on the ultimate fighter. The fight got delayed. but that's one of the more intense rivalries and it's still I mean even like in the moments afterwards that photo of them two face to face after TJ beat Cody and we'll all talk about photo of the year as well later on but that to me was one of the most intense rivalries of the year and then it came down to two and I kept going back and forth

I'll give you my first runner up and because I'm looking at the entire year here that came into play. And so if we were talking about the first half of the year, I may have given it to Connor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather. But as I looked at the entire year, I couldn't give it to Connor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather. Now, obviously, when you talk about a fight making money

and dominating the headlines, nothing came close to Connor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather. And yes, I know it was a boxing match, but look, if you don't consider that an MMA fight or at least an MMA story, you're fooling yourself. That was an MMA story. In fact, I would say that the MMA community

and the MMA media covered it way better than the boxing community did. The boxing media did. I mean, that is... It built up. Remember, in January, I did that interview with him, and then it kept going. Like, we were talking about it every week.

And we talked about it after, and we'll be talking about it. I mean, Connor's still talking about it. He's still tweeting about it. He tweeted about it yesterday. And so that was a rivalry. But I think that over time, as I've said on this show,

I don't know if it ages well and I think that as the weeks and months progress post the fight in August, August 26 to be exact, I feel like some people felt like was this a rivalry or was this just two guys wanting to make a lot of money?

I think for Connor he wanted to prove that he was better. I think Floyd maybe thought that it was never really a hotly contested matchup and he was just going in there to make the most amount of money against the easiest opponent in his mind. And I think that that scene after the fight at the press conference

where they were both kind of standing there and Holyay was like, have we been duped here? And oh, by the way, a couple of days later, Floyd Mayweather reveals in his new Beverly Hills mansion that there's, you know, paintings of him and Connor,

you know, like gigantic ones on the wall. So I think that over time people are like, you know, was this a rivalry or was it just two guys, you know, trying to make some money and, putting on a spectacle, which it was. And I certainly think it should be considered, but it doesn't win rivalry with the year

because I think over time it didn't age so well. One thing I'll tell you, though, Daniel Cormier is not having a life-size painting of John Jones in his house anytime soon, and John Jones certainly isn't doing the same. And they're not standing at a oppressor, holding hands and taking a bow. They're not hugging. They're not toasting each other.

Daniel Cormier is my 2000, Daniel Cormier versus John Jones is my 2017 rivalry of the year because these guys hated each other going into 214. They continue to hate each other. And it's still now amazingly unfinished because John Jones wins the fight, of course, but then popped by Usada. And now all of a sudden, Daniel Cormey is the champion. It was a roller coaster of emotions.

Cormier was doing so great in the fight. The buildup was phenomenal. Cries on national television. is on the show he's depressed and then all of a sudden he gets the belt back. I mean, it's just, you couldn't write this script. These guys will never see eye to eye. They'll never be friends.

They'll never, you know, take a bow. They'll never have paintings of each other. They'll never, you know, go to each other's Christmas parties or send each other Christmas cards. They were calling each other crackheads before the fight. I mean, it was just intense stuff. They always dominate, you know, we've seen them now square off 20 times

and I could see them square off 20 more times. There's nothing more intense, nothing better, maybe in the history of MMA, than John Jones and Daniel Cormier. They are not in this to make money. These two are in it to prove that they are better than each other. And you get the feeling, and Daniel

has said it, you know, he would welcome a fight against John tomorrow if that's the opportunity that presents itself. Like he has no problems considering the past of fighting him again. He wants to beat this man. He hates him. He despises him and he wants to win one against him. And so that's my pick for

2017 rivalry of the year. Rividing stuff, maybe we'll see it again. Maybe we won't, but I think it dominated it and it was the most authentic rivalry that we saw this past year. My pick, John Jones versus Daniel Cori-Mea. There we go. In agreement. Also worth noting in this is that these may be the best two fighters who have squared off in terms of where they stand in all-time rankings. This may be the match-up between two of the best that have ever done it, which adds to the intensity of the rivalry, including all the inside and outside the cage stuff. Now, it's hard on the third fight to believe that Daniel Cormier will win now that

John Jones has beaten him twice, which I do think takes away from a bit of the future rivalry. But in terms of, to this point, there's nothing more compelling than John Jones versus Daniel Cormier. My direct runner up, my second place was T.J. Dillishaw and Cody Garbrandt. We finally saw the former teammates do battle. I have to admit being a little bit relieved to at least be over the hump of T.J. Dillowsha versus Team Alpha Mail and that being a perpetual storyline. Now, obviously, I'm sure Cody and T.J. will cross paths again and this will come back up, but it will not be as intense and feels like that kind of rivalry has been going on for years. I'm happy that that's finally come to a head in this year. Chal Sondon v. Vanderlai Silva, we finally got it. We finally saw that rivalry pay off. Now it wasn't exactly a barn burner.

The fight itself, but we at least saw the result of that year, of that multi-year rivalry. Colby Covington versus Brazil. He definitely knows how to make Brazilians mad. So you're not going Colby versus Tyrant, you're going Colby. No, Colby versus Tyrant is nothing. There's not even a rivalry. Ah, come on. Colby versus Brazil.

Tarring doesn't even want to mention his name. So how is that a rivalry? rivalry. Because it's intense because he hates him that much. No. He's not even a fly on Tyron Woodley's. Well, he should be. Colby versus Brazil, even though it didn't give us the payoff, Kabib Nirmaga Medov versus Tony Ferguson,

the match that never was. I still love it. I still want to see it. But there is genuine dislike between the two of that. Yeah, yeah. And I thought that that was it. But John Jones versus Daniel Correme, not even close. Mayweather-McRegger not making my list.

Wow. Because I didn't buy it. I never did buy it. That they were rivals. I was not one of the people who thought that this was outlandish and not worth our time and not worth covering. I just never, I don't think Floyd Mayweather ever gave a, you know, an S-H-I-T about Connor as an opponent. I don't think he cared about him as a viable fighter.

He cared about him as a money-making machine and that's what they did. Didn't consider it a rivalry, but clearly, you know, a huge thing. Last year, who did you have? Nate Diaz and Connor McGregor Couldn't have anybody else Yeah me too They fought twice in the same year And it was huge

Wow Not even a nod to Connor and Floyd It was not a real rivalry You look you said it yourself At the end it was clear where that laid out That was not a real rivalry There's no key

It's still dominated everything Hey it's gonna come up later It's gonna come up later But it was not a real rivalry Ravory Well we agree D.C. Jones rivalry of the year. Why don't you go first for coach of the year? Absolutely. So maybe I was a year early, or maybe this is just becoming tradition, and maybe this is going to be a multi-year thing. My pick once again, same as last year from American Top Team. Wow. Back-to-back winner.

Huge year last year, huge year, this year. Now, obviously, it'll be notable, and people will most readily remember Yawanna dropping her title after training at ATT. But there was still so much success. Nunes retained, looked good. Porre had a huge year. Mazvedal kept on truck and got that fight with Maya, and obviously he was on the losing end. Covington continuing to win. Ponziabio, making himself a household name, or at least a bigger name.

Horaguchi, even though he's not in the UFC anymore, keeping it going over in Ryzen. There were a lot of contenders, but it was hard for me to pick against Mike Brown. I think he gets it again this year. So Mike Brown from American Top Team is my coach of the year. By the way, Horoguchi should get a nod in Most Improved. maybe even breakthrough, but also, I mean, you could put him in that fighter of the year category as well.

He had a great year. So I don't hate the pick. I love, I mean, he's great. He's, you know, very, I mean, you see Mike Brown at every single event almost. Yeah. This one's always tough because no one has a perfect year, right? Like, as you mentioned, Yawanna lost and, you know, she's a part of ATT, but it's impossible. Very rare that a coach has like a perfect year.

It's just impossible in the sport. So some names that I was considering, names who ended up on my short list, Mike Brown, as you mentioned. Farah Zahabi, thought he had a good year with, you know, George and Roy McDonald and others. Trevor Whitman who Justin Gachi noted I mean having Justin Gachi and of course

Rose Nami Yunus unfortunately he didn't win in my opinion but definitely on that short list Matt Hume I think deserves the nod with what he did with Demetrius Johnson

and you see the way DJ talks about him and even when he's talking about that submission I think it's very much worth noting that he's one of the best coaches not just this past year

but in MMA period. Also, the captain, Eric Albarosin, has done some great work with the likes of Henry Sohudo and Paulo Costa and the Pitbull Brothers. The end of which he made a comeback, didn't go his way, but he's developing into one of the best

coaches in MMA. But in the end, I was looking, I was scratching my head. You know, it just felt like every week, as far as, like, big events were concerned, this team was in the mix or developing fighters,

names like Frankie Edgar, names like Etzim Barbosa, names like Sabit Magomed Charipov, names like Marlon Marais, names like Eddie Alvarez. The Mark Henry, Ricardo Al-Meda partnership as coaches to me is one of the best in MMA

and I thought that as coaches, they had the best year. and so I went a bit off script, if you will, and I gave it to both of them because I didn't think it was fair. And I actually think in general, like an MMA that is usually three to four cornermen. It's never really one person. I thought that it was apropos and only fair to give it to both of them.

So I'm giving it to Ricardo Ameda and Mark Henry. They've had a phenomenal year. Yes, that's the Barbosa just lost it to Habibir and Ramayev. But as I said, just moments ago, it's impossible to have that perfect year. year. And you forget maybe that Frankie was kind of like set up to fail against the A. Rodriguez not that long ago in May, right? And I know he didn't get a chance to fight Max Holloway, but I thought that Mark Henry and Ricardo Ameta had phenomenal years and they're starting to really develop something

special over there in Jersey. And I mean, just look at Zabit and some of the other names that they have coming out as well. So that's my pick for coaches of the year, Mark Henry, Ricardo Alameda, and they were kind enough to send in some acceptance speeches. So let's hear from the two men who call New Jersey home my picks for 2017 coaches of the year. Hey, what's up, Ariel? Thank you so much. This award means a whole lot. Not so much for me, but for the guys, you know.

I don't think it's really about me. I think for sure, Coach Mark, I think he's the best coach in the world. And, you know, he was my coach, and I think he deserves, you know, most of the credit. and the rest of the credit goes to the guys. I'm just someone in there who's been in the octagon, who has a good relationship with the fighters, and I just keep their eye on the prize, but truly this belongs to them.

You know, they get in there. It's all about Frankie, Marlon, Eddie, Edson, Corey. We have the new contingent of the Dagestani guys, you know, and they're awesome. We have a tight family. We have a small team. So for us to be able to achieve this together is incredible. But again, all the credit goes to the fighters.

Thank you so much. I just want to thank MMA Hour for a coach of the year for Ricardo and I. MMA Hour is the Academy Awards for all of MMA. There's no one I'd rather be in the Foxhole more with than my brother Ricardo. I especially want to thank Frankie Egger, the general, the glue, and leader to our team. And also Nicotone and all the other amazing coaches that we have. I believe that coaches get way too much credit and you're only as good as the car that you're driving. and our small team is just blessed to have so many Ferraris in that garage that let us take that

amazing ride with them. We have just amazing warriors with that never quit, never give up attitude. Thanks again, Ariel and MMA Hour for this amazing award. God bless everyone and have an amazing 2018. See you in the Octagon. Okay, a couple of things there. Two of the nicest human beings on the planet, Mark Henry and Ricardo Ameda, very much deserved. Mark Henry, lifelong Buffalo Bills fan.

So what a great couple of days for him. Congratulations to our bills. We're going to do it, baby. We're going to win the Super Bowl in February, Minnesota. How about it? Ricardo Alameda, if you go back and watch it, he's wearing a lov mic. You talk about a pro. His acceptance speech, he's wearing a lov mic in the acceptance beach,

filming it on his phone. I mean, that is a pro right there. Amazing stuff. And there it is. You see, he's wearing a lov. He loved him. He miced himself up. Kidding me?

That's a pro. I'm very happy that Mark Henry mentioned Nicotone because he's a very big part. Again, you hate to give it to one guy. And so I made it two. I didn't want to go three, but it's really the whole team there. I really think that they did a phenomenal job in 2018, excuse me, in 2017. And they're in place now with what Frankie's doing and others, Marlon, to have a big year as well this year. but like you watch them

and the way they corner and the way they talk about the fighters and you know they had some fighters that had to make some comebacks this year you know like Eddie Alvarez and the way they've developed guys like Zabit I just thought that they had a great year and so I also love the way they always

it always goes back to Frankie like they truly have nominated him the captain of the team and they give them all the respect every chance that they can and it's very cool to see them continue to do that so they don't they don't like they're not one of those teams like ATT or Jackson Wink or AKA or

they don't really have a team name and maybe that hurts them. And I think I've said this on the show before. It hurts them in terms of branding and recognition. But the Ricardo made a fight team that's sort of a descendant of the Henzel Gracie team. Just phenomenal stuff in 2017 and really to the nicest human beings in the sport. So congratulations to them. Some very worthy candidates, as you said, but my pick. Yeah, hard to disagree with anything you've said about them there. So many, I hate this category because there's so many coaches. And as you said, it's also not just one coach.

There's no, there's no high level fighter in this game that is coached by one person and one person alone. And I hate picking. So I think they're all fantastic. The ones that we mentioned are great. I appreciate manager to the stars Ali Abdel Aziz tweeting out about our pick. He, of course, has a lot of fighters in that stable. Not Etzen. He had Habib going up against Edson.

Quietly, Khalib was campaigning for us to include a manager of the year category this year. He was very confident that he would sweep that one. I mean, you want to do it right now on the fly off the cuff? I probably, who would I give it to? I was kidding. I hope we're not doing it. I'm giving it to, who am I giving it to?

Pat Barry, who manages Rosemianus. You could do worse. That's a good pick. No, but yes, Ali was campaigning for that. I appreciate him tweeting out about the show. Okay, so that's our coach. Who did you have last year? For coach, yes.

I had John Kavanaugh, which a lot of people gave me crap for, but I said, remember I said the way they handled the loss at 196 and the way they came back and not only avenged the loss, but then made history against Eddie Alvarez. And plus the development of guys like James Gallowher, I thought that Kavanaugh deserved it. Yeah, you shouldn't have to justify. No, but I was just... It's a good. A lot of time has passed since last year.

So just to remind people. Okay, why don't you go with a vent of the year? Easy one for me. UFC 217. Top to bottom. I feel like there was a storyline heading into every single fight. Even like the strange stuff that happened with Blades and Illenic and Harrison Godbeer, even that was entertaining.

Like even those moments were something interesting. OSP pulling the head kick out of nowhere on Anderson, James Vic upsetting Joe Duffy, Paulo Costa announcing his arrival against a former champion in Johnny Hendricks Thompson versus Mazvedal a matchup that everybody was looking forward to capped off by Rose with an all-time upset

TJ getting his title back and GSP coming back to make history with the middleway belt you cannot pick against UFC 217 it was the event of the year bar none not only was it storylines for days and stakes for days it delivered on every single fight can't pick against UFC 270

and last year I'm guessing you picked 205 right I did. New York. Yeah. Double, uh, double, uh, double,

uh, double card back to back. Yeah, so also sort of, uh, like Mike Brown, back to back winners. Um, I agree.

My event of the year for 2017, uh, was UFC 217. I thought this was a really easy pick. In fact, can I go as far as to say, uh, there weren't a lot of other great choices.

Like, I had two that I thought were pretty good. It wasn't a great year as far as like total, like there were, there were events that had moments. Uh, let's talk about some of them. UFC 214 was great, right?

I mean, it had, you know, it had the Jones Cormier fight. It had Cyborg Evanger. It had the Woodley fight, Seroni Lawler. All right, it was fine. The three title fights. I also included UFC 218, the Detroit card, right? That was one of mine. That was certainly a good one.

216 was a good card. And I kind of gave it the nod also because it was after the Las Vegas shooting. And I felt that the UFC just kind of handled it the right way. And they went on with the show. still paid homage to Las Vegas and everyone who was suffering. So I wanted to mention that as well. And also the Bell Tour event at MSG. I thought, what is it about MSG?

Always great events there thus far in MMA. They've been waiting a long time, but I thought that that was a fairly entertaining event. But in the end, I went with 217. Everything you mentioned couldn't agree more. I mean, it was, again, one of the easier picks because quite frankly, I thought that there weren't a lot of great events this year from top to bottom.

I also had 218. That was my runner up. I mean, two fight of the year contenders in Averres Gachi and Maderos and Olivera. Plus, Max Holloway, my fighter of the year, showing up and dominating. I thought 218 was great. 209.

Tamor Venata, Elkins Bechtick, Alcantara Sanders. 209 gets thrown out because of what happened with the main event. It was not a great main event. I will give you this.

The whole thing felt like it was under a cloud, a black cloud. We were all depressed. No way. No way. Yeah. No way. The rest of it was so good,

though. It was so good. It really lost momentum. It was building so. nicely. Overreem and Hunt, Calvio getting the submission. Kelly, Dan Kelly with the upset over Rashad Evans, and then it just kind of crashed after that. But top to bottom, it was good. I can't hold that against it. Horrible.

It was so depressing. Maybe because I was there. Maybe that's, I mean, look, it wasn't, no, on TV, it wasn't great either. Heartbreak of the year. But the rest of the card was really, really good. Yeah. Any others? Those were the, I mean, it was after 217, I stopped. You don't have to look much further. That was it.

Yeah, it was an easy one. So MSG is now three for three as far as events, in my opinion. Great events. And you can make the case that 217 was better than 205, as we said after the event. I think it was. Yeah. And you can make the case that that like 90 minutes stretch from the Rose win to the TJ win to the GSP win, like the best 90 minutes in UFC history.

Three champions losing upsets galore, the comeback of GSP, the rivalry between TJ and Cody. For that one night, forget about anything. That one night, they got a right. And everyone went home happy. I mean, unless you were rooting for those other people, but if you were just kind of there to enjoy MMA, I think it's a night that we'll be talking about for a very long time. So UFC 217, we agree on that one.

Event of the year for the year that was 2017. Okay, let's move along now. And let's talk about crowd of the year. I'll go first here. This one I thought was really tough. And the way I view this, one and it may be different than the way you view it because I get to go to events. Yeah.

I like to really look at the events that I went to because those are the ones that I experienced. Yep. And I know that may not be fair. There may be a great event in X, you know, country or city that was phenomenal. I just didn't experience it. And so, you know, it's different. I'll give a nod to one. I'll give a nod to one that I wasn't at.

And that was the Cage Warriors event in Liverpool in April. with Patty Pimlet coming out. That was a phenomenal crowd. And that, like, it came out. You know, like through the screen. Remember, his walkout was incredible. He came across the superstar. Unfortunately, he didn't win,

but that was in my running for a crowd of the year. Also, I wanted to give the nod to Long Island because that event to me, it was a UFC event, and it wasn't the greatest card of all time, but it actually felt like a local card in a weird way because it was weird. Have you ever been to the Coliseum?

I have, yeah. It's like, it's in the middle of this parking lawn and there's nothing really around it. And there were a lot of local fighters. It was almost like the MSG card that we were hoping for, like New York versus the world. There were a lot of local fighters on the card. And a lot of people were wearing t-shirts and there were signs outside in the field. And it just felt like people were like, wow, okay, this is the New York card that I've been waiting for. And I thought that that was like, it was a very, you know, it felt like a ring of

combat crowd. Are you saying that was the New York card that New Yorkers could actually afford and get into? That too. Because I mean MSG, the ticket prices probably kept out some of the New Yorkers. Like I remember seeing like Frankie Perez T-shirts and Chris Wade T-shirts and obviously Wyden and Valante. Like it just felt like, okay, New York was coming together. This was the car that they were waiting for.

And yeah, maybe it's the car that they could afford. So I really like that crowd. It was like an innocent crowd. I don't know. It was a throwback kind of crowd. It was a New York crowd. That's all you got to say. It was real.

Yeah, it was real. we don't get to see a lot of those. And again, as I've talked about many times, like they booked it the right way. It was, you know, like, I think a lot of times we want to see that, especially here in the States, because the UFC just kind of throws anything.

Like, we want to see crowds and cards that have connections to each other, right? Absolutely. As I've talked about with Steepa and others. So I really like that. But in the end, I went with Edmonton, UFC 215 because that was a crowd that was so excited that the UFC was there for the first time.

And I remember, like, the ceremonial. of Wayans have become a complete wash for me. I mean, they're almost a waste of time. Unless there's like a real rivalry, there's really no reason to go to them. And if you're the kind of person that wants to go to that, like back in the day, like to the Wayans, which used to hold a lot of intrigue, like think about this past week. Like there's a lot of intrigue about Chabib making way and all the stuff. But that intrigue happens in the morning. And that's why I do those, those, you know, those, those like the streams and all that, the calls. Because that's

where the intrigue happens. We know what happens later on in the day. So no one shows up to them anymore. Like the crowds are, the arenas are desolate. That crowd, those people actually showed up. Like, they showed up like it was an old time show where the ceremonial wanes weren't a ceremonial wane. Like it was just a real wane in the afternoon. I'll say this. The one thing I do look forward to is the stare down, obviously. That's the one thing you get that you don't get in the morning that I do look forward to. But you're right. I mean, the intrigue is gone. Yeah. There's no, there's no suspense there. They showed up. They were excited. Tons of them showed up to the, uh, the, the, uh, the, workouts on Thursday.

And if you recall, the main event fell through. It was supposed to be DJ versus Borg. And they were still happy to be there and they were still. And I know in hindsight, like it ended in a little bit of a weird way because they booed the main event. But it wasn't the greatest main event of all time. I thought they were hot throughout.

I thought they showed up early. And also, and maybe this isn't fair, when thinking about this, I got to give a nod to that arena because it's still the greatest arena that I've ever been to. I mean, I was in September. But it was just phenomenal. Didn't you also love the Little Caesar? I said, but I said it's number two. It's great.

They're making some great new arenas in North America, but the Rogers place in Edmonton is still number one. It's just phenomenal. And the whole experience of covering the event there was just amazing. So yeah, so like the architecture and the people were so nice and they were so excited. Like they were coming up and thanking me for being there. Like thank you for coming. Thank you for coming.

I didn't decide this. Now they're last on my list. 2017 crowd of the year, Edmonton. And by the way, I looked back last year, 2016, crowd of the year, Toronto. Maybe a little bit biased. Yes, but I don't think it's fair to say that. Because... Yes, go ahead.

Tell me. Tell me why. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. If you recall... What's going on here? What are we doing? Are we doing research?

No, no. Miles, if you could just help me out for a second. There we go. No, no, no. not the right music get rid of that music Miles oh he has it

in his Miles here we got we talked about this Miles yes yes my

they're gonna play it again yeah my streams miles if you can just help me out for the Miles is my stream oh no no no

I'm loving this Miles help me please there it is now this is not owned by anyone, so I could play this out, right? I'm sure this is public domain, but... So let me tell you about UFC 215 in Edmonton. Oh, crowd.

They were so into it. There weren't a lot of Canadian fighters on the card, by the way. And they just were so happy to be there. They were thanking me, for God's sakes. And if you recall, I believe Dana White didn't even show up. And why were they thanking me? They were thanking me because I have become the unofficial promoter of the UFC. I have become the face of the company.

I have become the man who has gotten people excited about this sport. Are you making a run at Prime Minister? Yes, I am making a run at Prime Minister for those interested. I will be announcing my retirement from MMA. No, it was a great crowd and it was a great arena. But let me tell you about 206 last year. If you remember, that card was decimated, right? It was, yeah.

And the crowd was phenomenal. And Holloway and Pettus, remember all that? The crowd had no choice to be phenomenal. That card from top to bottom was a lot of time. But on paper, wasn't that great? No, it was. It was shallow. It was crap.

But it ended up being just like you could not get excited. You could not get excited for that one. I think didn't they even choose that as the replay for the New Year's at the end? Yes. No, no, Christmas Eve. Christmas. Huge, huge card it ended up being. But yeah, you know, shout out to the Canadians.

And their number one advocate still, Ariel Hawaiian. They continue to give us crap. They continue to give us lemons. They continue to give us chicken and we turn it all into positives, right? We turn it into lemonade. We turn it into chicken salad. turn the negatives into positive. So if you want a great crowd, you go to Canada.

That's it. Let me fix this. You're perpetuating now that they can bring crap to Canada, and Canada's going to be thankful. Well, guess what? Guess what? No difference than what they've been doing the last few years, you know? Don't encourage it.

Guess what? Give us a damn good card. You'll see what happened. 55,000. UFC 129. How about that? George, I said George is coming back in 2018. Do it.

What's your crowd of the year? My crowd of the year. not having that personal experience. Let me guess. Kansas City and Victa 24. No, you know what? A capacity. hilarious, but no, it's not. Okay, what do you got?

UFC Fight Night 113 Glasgow. Yeah, that's... Not only did it come across on TV how great that crowd was and how enthused they were to be there, but we've had personal accounts, especially one given on this show by Paul Felder, saying that he's never heard a crowd louder than that,

and he's fought quite a few places. UFC Fight Night 113, Glasgow, Scotland. Okay. Runner up, UFC 119, South Paulo, Brazil, giving Kobe Covington the business. That was a great moment. And by the way, I was on the Glasgow bandwagon first.

Remember their first event in 2015, I gave them a crowd of the year. They actually wrote about it in the newspaper. Well, maybe they'll write about it again, Glasgow. Well, no, I want the Edmonton son to write that I gave them the crowd of the year. It's a big deal for them. We'll see. We'll see. I mean, that's the city of champion.

by the way. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The biggest pop of the whole card was when they showed the hockey team. Yeah, what's his name was there? Connor McDavid. Yeah. Incredible. USC 203, Cleveland, Ohio was mine last year.

Oh, yes. I think there was, we were in agreement there. No? No, I gave it to 206. Oh, that's right. Toronto. It's the worst choice ever, obviously. 203 was a great one.

Yeah, 203. Definitely. Oh, H, I mean, stop. You messed up. What was I thinking? Yeah. Biased. Biased Canadian.

Oh. MMA awards picking. All right. So that's our crowd of the year. Always a fun award. Am I biased in saying that these are the best awards, most comprehensive awards in MMA? No, you're not.

I mean, we spend hours and more hours creating them than actually even doing them. I'll tell you this much. No one has walk out of the year. So let's get to walk out of the year. You go first. Happy to. Easiest choice ever. Wow.

Happened at the buzzer right under the gun. Oh, I knew you were going to go with this one. Of course you did, because it's the best one. So let's roll it out. I don't even need to say. Oh, we got it. Wow. Oh, we've got it.

Thanks to a Twitter user. Oh, wow. This is not what I thought. Mark Chacacy. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Can you explain this to me? Mark Chacacy, walking out to Man's Not Hot by Big Shack at U.S.

2-9. Can you explain this one to me? No, like I got the pick, but I don't know why this is so great. Best song choice. Is this the guy who goes br-da-da-da-da? Why do people love this so much? Because it's the best song. It's the song of the year.

Actually, it's the song of the decade. Is it really? Or the song of the millennium doesn't really matter. Big Shack, man's not hot. Mark J. Casey. I believe the first fighter to walk out to this in the UFC. But why is this song so beloved? Have you heard it?

I mean... You could start there. Is it the video of the guy doing the br-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That is the original song, but then there's a music video for it. But is that the same guy? Or does someone just take that and turn it? No, no, that's him. That's Big Shack.

Is he British? He is British. I can't say I'm very familiar with this song. Is it an actual good song? Do you think that Jay Casey came out to this song, like, to be ironic? No, I think he came out because it's the banger. And also because Big Shack, is a British bloke,

and he was paying tribute to the legends of British hip-hop. Oh, what, in the song? No, Big Shack, the guy. No, I know, but in the song, he pays homage? No, uh, Jacasey is paying off by using that music. It's like, you know, it's like coming out to Biggie or Pock. So, so his, his name is Big Shack? Big Shaq, yeah.

Like, S-H-A-Q? Yep. Interesting. Big Shack. I mean, that's it. Like, I thought you were going to do, uh, King Raina. honorable mention I thought that was the one you were going to do for sure

Live band Teddy Bear and the Chupa Here's the key to this The Chupa Chupes Pop You know the The lollipops that everybody loves With the pink label Like this

And then the yellow She came out with that? She comes out with a big one all the time Like a giant size This big Chupichupes Pop She was a runner up My other runner up was Fador

Walking out too and I had to do some digging to figure out what the name of this song was. It's called Faith is Eternal at Bellator 180 in New York. Isn't it the same song he always comes out to? He switched it up a little bit over the years. There's been different versions of it. But that, I mean, Fador coming out for the first time in years in the United States is a big deal. But, I mean, bar none, easiest choice ever, Mark Jacie.

Man's Not Hot by Big Shack. Interesting. He could have done that anywhere. He could have done that in his backyard. If they recorded it, I would have picked it. Our social media guru, Danny Seguura, tells me, quote, it's hella hype. End quote. It's hella hype.

I mean. Isn't hella something they say in Northern California? The kids from Florida by way of Columbia. I want to do something real quick because we used that graphic and it covered up the credit for the Twitter user. So I want to make sure to give him the proper credit. His name is Michael Rutledge. His handle is at R-U-T-L-E-D-G-E. MJ. So, Rutledge,

Michael Rutledge. This is the guy who took the video. It was baked into the top corner, but we covered it up, so I just want to make sure to give him the proper credit. Thank you for capturing that magical moment, Michael, and thank you to Mark for making that happen. It certainly didn't help Mark

in the fight on Saturday. It's hella. It's hella height. Yeah. It's hell of hype. So, just curious, because this happened just two days ago, what was your pick? It was going to be Feodor coming out in the United States for the first time in six years, I believe. something like that. Last year?

Last year I had the easiest one, and I think you might have botched this too. Uriah Faber walking out to California Love by Tupac in Sacramento in his final fight. That's what I picked. What did you pick? No, I'm pretty confident I had the right pick last year. It was CN Punk coming out to cult of personality.

Like that was an actual news story. Like people were wondering, remember people were wondering would he come out to the song? Over Uriah Faber walking out for the last time. Yeah, well, they botched that. They did the California love. It was like the third fight on the main card. It was like totally underwhelming.

Did they even show the walk? Yeah, they did. They did. Of course they did. No, CN Punk coming up was an actual news story. What do you come out to the song? And then there was a delay. They did a great job with this one.

Delay. And then it was do, do, do do do do do. Anyway, now, okay, so my pick. You know what? You know, this one, again, like with a, it was an easy pick. It came to me in a second. But then when I tried to do honorable mentions, couldn't think of any.

Not a lot of great ones. Because what I look at, for, see, unlike you, I don't go for like the gimmicky thing. I go for like what gets my blood boiling. Like what, like, there's a moment where you said, I'll tell you, can I tell you what? Like, Faber walking out for the last time in Sacramento, that's like, that's low key. That's not anything exciting. That's not.

That was, uh, can I tell you what, before I give you my best walkout? Can I tell you what my worst walkout of the year was? Yeah. Tell me. Worst walk out of the year was Connor McGregor against Floyd Mayweather. Connor in particular. They completely botched that one. Now, you have to know Connor's song.

Connor has the the Chenate O'Connor part and then the biggie part. They bought shit. He was in the ring and the Chenade part was still going on. You got to time it where you got to do the black and this and that.

You have to chalk that up to the boxing walkouts though are typically crap, except for like Anthony Joshua. They're always crap. That one was so disappointing. It was like so overwhelming. It didn't even dim the lights. It didn't feel big.

That one was really disappointing. That was my worst walkout. That's not an award, by the way. But I was trying to think, like I'm trying to think of moments You know, there's moments like in the past when Connor came out against Nate the second time or other fights. I mean, it's just like, oh, this is the song. Or remember, like, I'll give you this.

Ronda coming out to that song. Oh, is she back? Is she not? I didn't end up giving it to her because she faltered. But, you know, it was still, you know, like other ones that I mentioned here is steep. This is last year, like Stipe in Cleveland, Conor at 202. Woodley, John Jones against, against Ovincent Peru. Remember, I'm coming home.

Dry favor's on there. Cody Garbrandt. These were big time, you know, with Maddox Maple. Remember when he came out with him, these were big time walkouts. This year I didn't feel like there were that many honorable mentions, but there was a great winner. And there really only is one winner this year because in the past, like when I'm at events, typically, I sit in the back.

And I sit in the back because they bring fighters to do scrums with us. And also because I feel like I get a better vantage point. You know, like I'm able to watch the action and hear the come. commentary in the post-fight interviews to do my job. Like, of course, as a fan, I want to sit there and take it all in. But I feel like to do my job, I'm better served in the back. In July, when I was at the brand-new Nassau Coliseum, the main event was about to start. And I said to myself, I need to be out there for this. I need to feel this. And so I snuck out. I went in the tunnel, and I felt it. And let me tell you, the goosebumps that over,

took my entire body. The feeling that I had, my heart was pounding. It wasn't like the biggest event of all time. It wasn't the most important event of all time. But in that moment, Miles hooked me up. In that moment when this hit,

just for a second, just give me for a second. When this hit, and it just spoke to the moment. Can you give me a couple seconds? Jesus. Oh, man. Chris Wyman fighting for his career.

at this point. At home, finally back home. Chris Wyman fighting for his career with his back against the wall, with everyone counting him out after the debacle at MSG, after the loss to Luke Rockhold, after, you know, injuring his neck, being in New York on Long Island where he watched his hometown Islanders play to come out to that song, the goosebumps that I felt was just phenomenal. What a great moment it was. Won't back down and just what it represented and the story behind it. And it was just so amazing. I started to get emotional watching it. And of course, he ends up winning.

And we're still waiting, you know, his return. He had the thumb surgery afterwards. And you remember that Monday? Remember what happened the Monday after? After that fight? I do, yeah. Tom Petty pass away. And we had Chris on also to speak about it.

What a great moment. It is a great one. That song just like, in a weird way, that song has symbolized his career on many different levels. Like going up against Anderson, no one thought that he would, you know, be able to beat Anderson the first time. And then the rematch, oh, it was just a fluke.

And, you know, he, and again, like coming back against Gasslam and everything he'd been through in the losing streak and everything like that, it was phenomenal. Everyone's standing up, everyone pulling for him. Again, it's rare these days, and I'd love to see them do this more, where the stars align, where the hometown guy is in the main event and everyone's pulling for him. And usually when this happens, you know, it's a moment like. like Steve A's the champion. This time, the hometown guy had his back against the wall.

So I won't back down. Tom Petty, Chris Weidman, my 2017 walkout of the year. Mr. Weidman, kind enough to be joining us from Long Island to accept the award. Here we go. I just got the great news that I won the award for Best Walk Out of the Year. I really appreciate that. It means a lot. Thank you to all my fans and supporters out there making my dream come true.

The belt is coming back, 2018. There he is. Chris Wyman. curious to see what kind of a year he has in 2018. Zane Wedding tells us another good one. I wasn't there to really feel it, but Mark Hunt walking out in Auckland for the first time in nearly 20 years was a great moment,

and that was a great moment. So there were a couple of them, no doubt about it. I'm sure we forgot a couple, but that's my walk out of the year for 2007. I feel like this one more than most others is very personal, is very subjective. Yeah.

So we're going to get a lot of, you know, I'm going to pick this, but I mean, I know I made the right choice. Okay, this is a fun category. Let's go to promo of the year. This is a very fun category. You know we like the promotional side of things. And certainly we could have gone with my promo for UFC 217 that helped the UFC get over a million buys and just swept through the internet.

One of the most viral videos of the year. But in the end, I didn't want to, you know, stay home on this one. You know, I wanted to give props to other people. So it really came down to two things. And actually, when I sent you my awards a couple days ago, I had a pick and then I changed my pick. because prior to sending you my words, I had another pick, and then I changed it to that pick,

and then I finally changed it back to my original pick. And why did I do that? Because I was talking to Sean about this and Casey, and they're like, oh, no, you promo the year, it's got to be Mayweather McGregor in Toronto. And I said, you know what,

you're right. Mayweather McGregor in Toronto at the open air stadium there. What was it called? Was it the Mulsan amphitheater? I think it changed to the Budweiser stage, but it used to be the Mosey stage. And then it became the Budweiser stage.

That was just, that was promotion one. to just set the scene once again, we were in L.A. for the first stop of the world tour. And then Connor kind of is like taken by surprise. He doesn't really know what's going on. It's not his best stuff. And then we go to Toronto the next day and it's pouring rain.

It's a capacity crowd. I think it was like 16,000 people there. Drake comes out first and Connor comes out guns blazing. There's the moment where they face off. They're going back and forth. He's talking about why you have a book bag. You can't read. It was just phenomenal.

And I remember that feeling, I mean, that feeling after Toronto flying home, I was thinking like, this is, this is not only going to be the biggest fight of all time. This is going to be the greatest sporting event of all time. Unfortunately, Brooklyn happened, London happened. That was the apex of maybe the entire damn thing. But that night in Toronto, like, if you ever want to go back, that was like when pro wrestling met MMA in the best way possible. That was the opening segment of a raw show. It was going back and forth. They were flowing.

Dana's a character. Espinoza is a character. The teams are character. characters, the bodyguards of characters, Drake is showing up, like I said. I mean, it was just phenomenal stuff. It really was. It was riveting.

I was sitting next to other media members who don't really cover MMA. Like, they're just their sports guys. Like, what is this? This is the most insane thing ever. It was so much fun to cover that whole thing. It culminated in Toronto. It was amazing.

And I loved everything about it. But again, the way it ages, right? The way it ages. You just sold it so hard. I loved it. I loved it. But, but. What do I want from the UFC?

As a consumer, as a fan, what do I want from the ultimate fighting championship? I want honesty. I want authenticity. I want realness. I want them to tell stories. I want them to promote their fights. I want them to do it the right way. And I said the night I saw this, that it was the greatest promo in the UFC's history,

their illustrious history. And I stand by it six months later. The promo for UFC 214, in my opinion, is a genuine. 2017 promo of the year. It was phenomenal. It was real. It was honest. It told the story of John Jones. It told the story of Daniel Cormier. It gave me goosebumps. I felt it. I wanted to run through a brick wall. I wanted to buy that pay-per-view that moment. I wanted to go home and buy it a month in advance, even though you never do that. Even though Leonard L.B. kept telling us to do that for May Mac. I wanted to do it because it worked so well because it did not sweep anything under the rug. Typically, they do that, right? But it talked about all of John Jones's warts. And it talked about how Daniel Cormier related to it all and how their stories came together and why Daniel needed him back. It was just amazing. We have that promo, right? In case you forgot the one, let's play it in its entirety.

It's just three minutes long, but I think it's worth it because this was the UFC at its best. I don't know exactly who edited it. I wish I knew the producer. I should have gotten this in advance, but you know who you are. You deserve the credit. I hope the UFC hires you to do all their promos, whoever put that whole thing together from start to finish. Phenomenal stuff. Here it is.

I don't want to look back a few years or not saying, man, I could have been in it, I could have had it all. I could have done it. I'm going for a world title, baby. Let's do it. One day closer to my dreams going true. I never want to do anything that's going to harm our sports image. I know from this day of my life never be the same.

He might be the greatest talent we've ever seen in the UFC. John Jones is the youngest champion in UFC history. The judge are Johnny Brown's Jones. This is where the real challenge begins. And you have things thrown at you. How will I react? This is going to test who I really am. John can do anything he puts his mind to.

He is his own worst enemy. Will I be the right person? John Jones pleads guilty to do a DWI charge. It's over. Tested positive for cocaine, injecting rehab. Will I continue to be humble? I hope he's somewhere crying right now. I always respect people.

Jones is charged. A felony hit and run incident. He's been shipped with the target. He was recently thrown in jail for a probation violation. A lot of questions would be answered about that. I've sworn to protect the citizens from people like you, Mr. Jones. I think some people love the chaos. The parties, the drugs, the alcohol.

He might have needed that in order to be who he was. Some strong demons tugging at him. And until you completely give in to the fact, that these demons have you. You can never overcome them. D.C. is so in love with the narrative. He's obsessed with winning over the hearts of people. I haven't done all these things.

I didn't get stripped of my championship. I'm a good person. And John, you are a bad person. When you get your together and you're ready to fight. I'm here waiting for you. You know it. D.C. feels as if I need some more humiliation. What's this guy going to do to mess this up this time?

I'm sick of being that guy, and I'm ready to go out of my own way. We may see John become the person that he's always tried to convince us that he is. He becomes that person. He loses to me July 29th. You need to win this fight. I need to get my life back. Can I be honest with you? I actually feel like the promo is better than I remembered it.

that what i mean it's just so amazing when it all comes together a couple of highlights his dad talking about him the part where the cop is I'm sworn to protect people the people from people like you mr jones um the dc part

just amazing I'll tell you the one thing I don't like about it is I need to get my life back that line right there I felt like they needed to go one beat longer with the music um But that is just an amazing promo. That is, it's going to be top to, it's going to be hard to top that ever, period.

I mean, that is just the most amazing promo that I've ever seen, really, because it's honest, because it's real. It talks about his warts. It talks about him getting arrested and crashing. By the way, there was a quick Helwani White interview cameo there. It was just so great. it really was. It gives me goosebumps. Someone mentions to me that the promo for 2018

has already been won and that's the 220 promo and it's a great promo. It is a very good promo. But this is a big difference there. The narration kills it. Do you notice there's no narration in this one? It's just them talking. The narration is cheesy. It's so cheesy. Look at this. This is just amazing. Tell the story. Tell it. And I know it's not always going to be.

Yeah, it's not. It can always be. But you know what? You know what's more disappointing? When it is Cormey Jones and it doesn't deliver. But this time it delivered beyond my wildest expectations. So kudos UFC 214 promo of the year. I could watch it a million times. I really could. I really could. Amazing. The poster also delivered on that one. Just top to bottom. It was just so great. Yeah. Your pick? My pick, as I alluded to earlier, Justin Geichi. You know those moments where somebody says something that you think is absolutely bad shit insane, but you believe them and you never look at them the same way again. This was the moment

that I believe Justin Gachi when he said that he's only after the most violent lightweight in the world title and nothing else. And it was this moment from the UFC's summer kickoff presser. Danny Austin.

No, I'm not a gatekeeper of the UFC. Trust me. I'm here to win this title and I'm not here to welcome guys from the C League in here. But at the same time, yeah, of course. I'm a welcome him into the UFC and it's not going to be a good night for him, hands down. You know, I got two months to get prepared to take somebody's life in this cage. I'm not trying to beat him. I'm not trying to win by a decision or a point. I'm literally going to try to take this man's

life. And if you're not, and if you're not ready to die, don't show up. I am ready to die. I am telling you right now. The shit that's breaking my mind. Breaking you piece by piece. Artistically breaking you. I eat my shit whole. I don't fucking take piece by piece. The more you talk, the bigger I'm going to ask you to look on July 7th. That's all I got to say. I don't chew out nothing the whole time. I'm going to fucking eat you up for dinner, boy. Nothing for leftovers.

You are. It's going to be easy, man. You got the easiest fight on this. It won't be easy. Two months are going to be hard. Oh, yeah. It's very easy. You're good.

You're good. You got nothing to worry about that. We're good. That was amazing. That moment right there. Also because everything else in that presser seemed a little bit like it was set up for them to kind of do this. We had the whole Michael Kiyasa and Kevin Lee with the mom thing. Like all the rest of it felt a little bit artificial.

It felt a little bit contrived. I loved it. But yes, go ahead. Do you disagree with that, though, that it seemed like all this was like people were taking cues from Connor McGregor that this is my moment where I'm going to throw something out there that gets me. But I enjoyed it. I mean, look at this past one. It was good. But I thought, you know, the one that we had on Friday, it seems like when they all put them together, they all try to top each other.

And it makes for a fun scene. But yes. No doubt about it was fun. But that moment when Justin Gachie's welcomed death or cheered for it and wanted it and craved it, like I want ice cream. The guy is insane. And I think that was kind of the start of everybody realizing that Justin Gachie is here for fight of the year contenders every single time he steps into the game. By the way, let's give credit to Michael Johnson too. Well, Johnson set him up perfectly by saying like, I'm trying to kill you.

And Gachie ran with it. I don't even that one, the moment it happened, I realized that we were in a different place like right now. Like Justin Gachie is a different

kind of dude. If you hadn't seen him fighting WSOF, that's all you needed to be exposed to for Justin Gachi. Some other things, obviously the Connor McGregor

in Toronto, he had people eating out of the palm of his hands there. That was just masterful stuff. Habib Nurmaga Madov, late entrant, his USC 219,

post-fight interview where he says he'll fight Connor or Tony within an hour. He just needs an hour rest, you know, these bullshit guys. Colby Covington at 119, it wasn't the most eloquent, it wasn't the best executed,

but I feel like he had the stones to do it and Daniel Cormier definitely helped him in that case. I really liked that promo a lot. Last year, my promo was also, I feel like I'm partial to the presser lines. My promo of the year last year was who to footafook is that guy by Connor McGregor. I like the press conference lines.

So that was my promo of the year. Justin Gaichi showing that he's a crazy. No, no, that was great. That was a great one. And a somewhat under the radar one, that one you really pulled out of your hat. But I like it. I like it.

I went with I'm not surprised last year because it led to so much and it was on a mural and it was just so big. But the 214 one, and also it's like you watched that and I'm a little bit sad because of how it ended. But maybe the way it ended leads to more.

We'll see. But that was just great stuff. It really was. I mean, you can't go wrong with that promo. It was perfect. So great. I know your nitpins. Oh, we should you stayed on the musical beat one more?

Come on. That thing was a masterpiece. A production guy. What can I say? Okay, let's go to photo of the year. First time in the history of this most prestigious award show, we have photo of the year. And I think we talked about this last year, right? I think we talked about wanting to include it.

I'm happy we did. Yep. Next year, remind me about face-off, because I think that's important. But anyway, photo of the year, a lot of great ones. Yep. But in the end, to me, I talked about it many times leading up, and I talked it afterwards as well. And I just talked about it moments ago.

Toronto, Mayweather-McRegger, a scene unlike any other. The fans were great. Oh, by the way, I do believe that was in the Great White North. Once again, the fans over there doing their part. But the moment... Post L.A., Conner showing up, knowing what he needed to do, and the moment where they walked up to each other,

and that kind of felt a little bit rehearsed. But capturing that moment, the way it was captured by Esther Lynn, who took the photo, there it is, a phenomenal photo, and she was lucky enough to be working for Showtime, so she's coming at it from the other way. You see all the cameras...

All their photographers. Yeah, all the cameramen. You know what's a lot of fun about this particular photo? It's a beautifully shot. I mean, it's just amazing. The point, the bring it, what they're wearing, you know, like the juxtaposition, but you also look into the crowd. And if I could just stand up here for a second, my favorite part of this,

if I could just stand up, go to the shot, the other shot, the Skype shot. Right here. Yeah, that guy. If you want to take a look at the bottom right, the fan who's taking, you see him? Yeah, the guy dead center isn't bad either. Oh, the looks on everyone's faces. Like, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening.

It was just amazing. It's a great vantage point. It's a great shot. That to me, when I think of Mayweather McGregor, that's the photo. Right there. Captured beautifully. And so photo of the year, you know, it could be a knockout, a submission, action, face, whatever.

This to me, like, this was the, I mean, this was one of the greatest fight photos I've ever seen. Like, if I had an office somewhere, honestly, this photo should be up here. It's one of my favorite photos of all times. So kudos to Esther, who took this for Showtime Sports, for capturing this amazing moment, just amazing stuff. I have to admit some shenanigans here. Okay.

I knew what your pick was, you told me. Okay. Undoubtedly, it's the very first photo I thought of. It was my pick, but I didn't go with it. Wow. For the reason that we're going to be showing two photos, I don't think it's, I don't think it's right that we show one photo and both go. So I picked a different one, but undoubtedly that was the very first photo I thought of was them pointing at each other. So why can't you pick it?

I want to give shine to another photo that touched me in particular because I remember, and there's a story behind it, I remember the first time I saw it, I was working this show and I was loading in the assets into the, into the Tri-Cast. and getting the stuff ready for the show. And I saw this photo and it kind of broke me a little bit. Like it's just so powerful and it's just everything you kind of want from human emotion. So we're going to show that photo now. And it's Chris Wybman's dad. Oh, that's a great one. With Chris after his win in Long Island.

He's just, I mean, and he's become a character over all of Chris's fights, you know, speaking in the cage afterwards. Um, this one is just like, you see the love between a father and son and it touches your heart a little bit. Also by Esther Lin. Yep. Um, this one for MMA fighting. This one for MMA fighting. I had some others. Um, another one that made the running, uh, Dillishaw screaming in Garbrandt's face.

Yeah. Um, that one really stood out for me. But this one, I think had an emotional story that really connected with me. And I remember that feeling I had when I first saw it. Yeah, it was a great photo. Mr. Weidman. Yeah. What a great guy.

Papa Widman. Papa Widman. Gotta love it. All right. I like that one. That's a fun category. The photogs don't get enough credit. So great stuff there.

By the way, we both picked Esther, not just because she's our colleague, but she got great photos. Yeah. One of the best. I believe the T.J. Dillowshaugh screaming at Cody Garbrand, that one, Esther was behind. Yeah. That one is a different photographer. I didn't. Maybe the UFC's photographer.

But, yeah, that one was. also great. And obviously we don't have choices from last year because this is a brand new category. Yes. Okay, let's move along now to Impact Person of the Year. We added this last year because I think we thought, okay, this could be the award where you give it to a promoter. You could give it to a manager.

You can give it to a journalist, a broadcaster. You can give it to a coach. Anyone who really impacted the sport. And again, one of those awards where can be interpreted in. different ways. This year, I gave it, as I did last year, this is my only repeat winner, by the way. I gave it to Connor McGregor because in the sport of MMA in 2017, it all goes through him. Whether we like it or not, he controls many people's destinies and he controls the narrative and he controls the news cycle and he controls, you know, the talking points and what we talk about

on this show and the bead and every other show and you saw it like you can't escape him and I hope we see him back and I hope we see him back sooner rather than later because he's in his prime right now and I hope he gets paid what he's deserved because he should be the highest paid fighter in UFC history and he should be

he deserved what he made against Mayweather you can argue he deserved more because of how big of an event that was so to me Connor continues to impact the sport unlike any other no different in 2017 I know somewhat controversial because he didn't fight in MMA in 2017,

but he was still impacting the UFC's decisions. He was still impacting the lightweight division, the featherweight division. He's a cloud that hangs over the sport. I'm not saying that in a negative way, but he is a behemoth. He is a gorilla. He is the star of stars.

He's the one and only Connor McGregor. So to me, he continues to impact, and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins it again next year. We have never seen a star like him in MMA. Zero to add to that, didn't even fight in the sport, controls it like nobody else. Yeah. If you don't pick Connor McGregor, you're fooling yourself.

It's Connor McGregor. It was Connor McGregor last year. It'll probably be Connor McGregor next year. There's nothing to say. It's Connor McGregor. I don't have runners up because it doesn't matter. It's Connor McGregor. Yeah, it really is.

I mean, Habib wins. We wait for his tweet, right? And then yesterday. It's all Connor. He tweets a bunch of times and it's new stories. I mean, like, everything he does. We are, and whether you like it or not, we are sitting back and waiting to see what he does next,

what he decides to do. Who will he choose? We've never had a fighter who controls his own destiny the way he does. He can say tomorrow, I'm fighting a welterweight, and the UFC will say yes. I have no doubt about it. He could say I'm fighting at middleweight. And the UFC will say yes. Bantam weight, featherweight, lightweight, catch weight, whatever he wants he's going to get.

They need him right now. In five years, maybe not. But right now they need him more than he needs them. Right? I agree. No one brings the kind of attention that he brings. No one brings the kind of press that he brings. No one brings the numbers that he brings.

And I know for sure that people will say, oh, you know, it should be this guy, that guy. No, it's not even close. I think even the most staunch Connor McGregor haters will not disagree. Who else could it be? You can't pick anybody else. You're fooling yourself if you do. Yeah.

Even your pick is looking at Connor McGregor. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who your pick would have been. they are courting Connor McGregor. He is the guy. Was he your pick last year? Yeah. Me too.

I also had Nate Diaz, Lorenzo Fertita, Scott Coker, Andy Foster last year, but this year it felt like, and amazingly, last year he fought three times. This year he fought zero times in MMA. And he's bigger. But it's because the others fell off. The impact of those other people

was not felt. Connor McGregor was more magnanimous than ever. He is on a level with the likes of Christiano Ronaldo and LeBron James, like worldwide, superstars right now. Floyd Mayweather or Tetra. So an amazing year and it's somewhat bizarre that he didn't fight in MMA, but we continue to sort of live and breathe with every tweet, every quote, every interview that Connor McGregor produces. So he is our 2017 impact person of the year. And for me,

that rolls right into the story of the year. Again, whether you like it or not, there was no bigger story in combat sports in MMA, in boxing, and for, you know, a large chunk of time in sports period, then Mayweather v. McGregor. No one thought it would get done. I remember going into that interview with Connor in January thinking to myself, oh, we're going to talk about getting stripped of the featherweight title. We're going to get, you know, we're going to get to WrestleMania. We're going to get to lightweight title, blah, blah, blah. And it dawned on me very quickly that he had one agenda, and that was to talk Floyd Mayweather, that he was dead set on this fight happening, that in his mind it was going to happen, and it was going to happen sooner rather than

later. If you recall in that interview, he predicted it would happen around the end of the year. It happened even sooner. And all of a sudden, like early spring, it escalated very quickly. And then boom, there we were in mid-June. I remember it like it was yesterday. It gets announced. And two and a half months later, boom, there we are, August 26 in Las Vegas. me personally covering the event covering the world tour um was unlike anything i've ever experienced uh for us as a show the the the shows on the road run like anything i've ever experienced um the interview with floyd at his club unlike anything i've ever experienced the sit down with connor a couple weeks before the media days the press conferences um toronto all that

stuff there was no greater story than this one and as i said on the monday after the the fight, I thought that the spectacle became sport. It was a competitive fight. I don't like what's happened afterwards. I don't think it meant as much for MMA as we thought it did. I don't like the paintings on the wall and all that stuff.

I don't like Floyd's saying that he carried him and all that stuff, but I remember just being there at that moment it's one of the few times in my life covering MMA or sports that I felt like, okay, I'm covering the story of the day. Right? Like even if

I'm at a massive fight. If it's UFC 214, there's still going to be, you know, a major event that's bigger than that one. That's going to dominate the headlines. That's going to dominate sports in or whatever it is. Everyone in the sports world in the world that seemed like was talking about this, knew this was happening. All eyes were on Las Vegas. There were some things that I would have done differently. The crowd was not great. It was, you know, it was somewhat empty. I mean, it was empty for like 95% of the night. It was crazy. It was like the co-made event. There's still a thousand people in that arena. And it's a bigger. arena. And of course, like Brooklyn, I would change and London I would change and some of the slurs and things like that. But there was absolutely no bigger story than this one. You know, the second highest selling pay-per-view of all time, second highest grossing fight of all time, go on and on and on. It was a big deal. It was a pleasure to cover it. It was a lot of fun. And it's one of those things I'll never forget. Story of the year, 2017. I felt this was a pretty easy one. no disagreement there very easy the thing i'd say probably comes the closest to being at the event that everybody's talking about is maybe ronda rousie in her peak um there's probably something close to that

where the entire sports world is looking at it the entire world is looking at it um but there's no bigger story there was no bigger story than mayweather mcgregor and probably not a bigger story in fight sports period um than mayweather mcgregor was regardless of outcome that that doesn't matter when we're talking about what the story of this year was and it was Mayweather McGregor. It dominated everything. Yeah. It's still somewhat surreal that it happened. I can't

believe it happened. This is what I was talking about the top of the show. I'm confused. I can't believe that that's a thing that happened. Yeah. But to me, again, it's still kind of aging in front of our eyes. Right now, I feel like it's not aging well. We'll see what happens. The UFC needs him back. Would it be better?

What if Floyd took a box cutter to his photos right now and started the... Yes, it would be better. Venom back up. I would enjoy that very much. Yeah, let's stop talking about the boxing thing. We want to see him back in May.

It's like, yeah. Yeah, it was cool to see Jordan try out for the White Sox, but like I want to see him back playing basketball, right? Like, he'll be bigger and better. Yeah. It'll only be bigger. Yeah. Oh, man.

Can you imagine him coming back how big of a deal that would be for the sport, for the UFC? And, you know, hopefully it's the right fight. It'll be my comeback of the year no matter what. Yeah. Okay. So last year My story of the year was the sale of the UFC Likewise

That was a big deal Other ones for this year John Jones returning And then popping Was a massive deal Which obviously culminated the week Of Mayweather McGregor That was a huge deal

On the Tuesday before the fight Finding out John Jones is like You know what? I want to overshadow this Let me give it a shot Dana White In my opinion

And in front of our eyes losing interest in being a UFC promoter, but then all of a sudden, like finding the fountain of youth when it comes to Mayweather McGregor, like the Dana White who was promoting that event and the Dana White who promoted the UFC last year, two completely different individuals.

He was more invested, he was more passionate, he was more interested, it was all those things and more. So speaking of which, did you watch the presser? You're talking about steep A&? On Friday? Steep A&Fri.

Francis, yeah? Yeah. You watched it from beginning to end? I did, yeah. I was going to note this, but it's like every time you notice, like you're being, I'm being an unbiased observer. We're sitting there. We're sitting there, right?

I mean, this is a big deal. This is the first face off between Francis and Steeper, right? I mean, this is something that we are looking forward to unlike any other heavyweight fight, right? I mean, we are foaming at the mouth when it comes to this fight. This is definitely the best heavyweight fight in a long, long time. We're sitting there. We're waiting. We're waiting for them to come out.

But first we're waiting for Dana White. And I feel like we've been teed up here. Like this is the moment. Like this is heavyweight fighting. Like this, like, okay, it's one thing to promote a strawweight title fight. It's one thing to promote a bantamweight title fight. But this is a heavyweight title fight. This is a fight that everyone can get excited about.

This is a promoter's dream. Francis Sanghanu is knocking people's heads off. Like literally, I think, I think Overim's head was like a little bit knocked off his head. there, like off his neck. Like it was just kind of hanging for a second, and then it came back. Pez de Spencer. Yes, Pez de Spencer.

Perfect analogy. Steve Miochich. Four straight, I think it is. On the cusp of making history, right? About to, if he wins, he breaks the record. For title defense. Walks up. Walks up.

Did you see what happened? Walks up and completely botches the intro. Completely botches the intro. No, no, no. He's reading off a piece of paper and he starts talking about the DC Volcan fight. And even like, okay, let's just forget the fact that that wasn't supposed to happen first.

Even botches that part. And then he says, oh, wait, I botched it. Watch this clip. And then it's the phenomenal promo, the 220 promo, right? That's a good way to recover. How is this possible? And then in the middle, and then in the middle, he's like reading something off a piece of paper about like how getting knocked out by Angano is like the same as getting knocked by like a dodge. Yeah, the force measurement of.

What is that? You can't tell me it's the same. You can't tell me like any punch of the... Like, if that's the case, Overeem is not alive. You can't tell me it's the same. You can't tell me getting run over by cars the same. I was about to get real nerdy on it.

No, get nerdy, please. I was just going to say, like, the surface area of the object that's hitting, you know, the force may be equal, but the surface area of the car may disperse it differently and therefore lead to the fatality. point is it's not necessary. It's the easiest.

It's a layup. It's the layup of all layups. It's Stipe Miochich on the cusp of breaking history. Yeah. He's making history. And count it out. No one has ever. Yes.

And he's the underdog. And he's the every man, right? And he's going in there against a guy who has people like trembling in their boots, right? Everyone's afraid of Francis Ngano. Like you want that to happen to you? And here's Stipe saying like, oh, by the way, guys, I'm the champion. and I'll gladly take this fight in a month and change. Like, what do you need to read off a piece of paper for?

Like, just get it going. Like, just show us some excitement. Like, get us pumped up for this, man. Like, where is that guy? I saw that guy in Toronto. I saw that guy in Brooklyn. I saw that guy in London. I saw that guy in Los Angeles.

This is a dream fight. This is a dream fight. Francis Aganu, who has not been training in MMA for more than four years, who was homeless. Like, you can't write these kinds of scripts, right? I mean, and like, forget about the D.C. Volcan fight, which is a great fight, has a story and it's D.C. coming back and he's doing a great job of promoting that himself.

But you really need a piece of paper. Like, you can't get up there and get excited for a second about that? Can you not get us excited about that? It's happening in your hometown of Boston too. Gosh, darn it. Where is that guy? Where is he? I want to see him. I want to see him. Where is he? How do you not get excited about that fight? Like, how do you not get up there and say, like, guys, I got to tell you, 2017 was a great year for us. Yeah, it was our greatest year ever. Blah, blah, blah. I know most of you don't believe it. But if you are not excited. about Francis Ngano versus Dima Miochich. If you don't think that this is one of the greatest heavyweight fights of all time,

if you don't think that someone's head is getting knocked off within the first four minutes, then I need to talk to you because you are absolutely out of your mind. This is one of the greatest heavyweight fights in the history of combat sports. Forget about boxing, MMA, kickboxing, karate, whatever you want to talk about Taekwondo. This has me excited. This has me pumped up. God, it drives me, like, this is amazing stuff. It's amazing.

Just get excited about it. Where is it? Where is it? Where is that guy? Where is that guy? Where is he? Where is he? Don't get up there and be like, hey, guys, here I am with my hoodie sweatshirt.

And, you know, I just woke up from a nap. Daniel Cormier is the champion and Volkan Ouzdemeir. Wait a second. Yeah, I was supposed to talk about, yeah, could you just roll that clip? No, that's, if I did that, I'd be fired. All right? Let's go. I'll say this, though, when they did turn it over to Francis and Steepen.

Oh, the fighters did a great job. I think they did a great job. The fighters did a great job. Francis, I actually thought, did a really great job. And I thought that he was teeing up Stepe. Remember when he said, like, don't lie? When he says, you know, Stepe is worried about him and he's coming for him. And Stepe had the opportunity to kind of laugh it off.

It was amazing. Teed him up perfectly. It was beautiful. They really... The faceoff was great. Volkan and D.C. were great as well. I mean, let's not forget, Francis and Volcan, they were taking part of it. of their first pre-fight press conference ever.

Right. Yeah. Ever. They've never been in that position before. And I thought they did a great job. So I don't know. I was thinking about that. I'm sorry, I went on a little bit of a rant there, but that was one of my stories. The other one of the year, 2018, Ariel Hawani. Also, yeah. Anyway, what else did you have for Story of the Year?

I think you covered on the biggest ones, GSP coming back, obviously. And what does the title mean at this point? I think we had a year where the title is becoming less and less valuable, which is an interesting story to me. Now, I'll say this, Habib is doing his part to make the title still valuable by saying that that's what he wants. So at least, you know, the end of the year, we're going toward that. But I'm questioning what the title actually means this year, and this is the first year that I've done that. Yeah, it was a weird one. I also had like the UFC's kind of struggles to sort of figure things out post-sale.

and the titles and the interim titles and the hot-shot booking and all that. As you said at the top, a confusing one. Confusing. All right. So our stories are the year? And then finally I said it earlier, my feel-good moment of the year, Rose Nomi Unis. Can we play that? Yeah, we have that.

Yeah, here we go. Rose Nomiunis, my feel-good moment of the year for 2017. Ladies and gentlemen, referee big John McCarthy has called us off to this contest at three minutes, three seconds of the very first round. Declaring the winner by no UFC Strawweight Champion of the World I'm out of loss for words that was unbelievable the winner and new UFC strawweight champion of the world

Rose Namayunis how does that sound to you? Man it sound like butter does this even feel real? No it don't feel like a movie right now There was so much tension and so much emotion leading up to this fight. The way in, she was saying all kinds of crazy stuff to you, and you were reciting the Lord's Prayer. What was going through your mind when all this was happening? There's so much, like, crap going on in the media, news and stuff,

and I just want to try and use my gift of martial arts to try to make this world a better place to change the world. This belt don't mean nothing, man. Just be a good person. That's it. You know, this is extra. This is awesome, but let's just give each other hugs and be nice, man. I mean, I know we fight, but this is entertainment, you know, afterwards.

It's nothing. Rose, out of all the ways that people thought you were going to win this fight, winning by knockout was very low on that list. When you drop bombs on her and she tapped due to strikes, and now you are the new strawweight champion of the world. Tell us how you feel. I feel like a normal person, man. That's it. I'm just regular.

Ain't nothing special here. Is something special whether you admit it or not. Congratulations on an amazing performance. It was an honor to call your fight. Rose, Nama Yunus, ladies and gentlemen. I feel like a normal person, man. There's nothing special here. And Pat Barry in the back with his hands up.

What a great moment. I loved it. I told her how much I loved it. Seeing everyone react to it, warm my heart. And it still warms my heart. I loved it. That was an awesome moment.

Truly genuine and a feel-good moment. no doubt about it on my list, but my winner, and we've covered it on this show. Are you still eating? What? What are you eating now? I'm not eating anything. All right. Maybe I'm objecting because I'm so hungry.

No, go ahead, because you're chewing. You are eating something. You're just doing the old man saliva thing? This is the feel good moment of the year. You've completely changed your persona in 2018. You used to be like the pot. This is your award. You actually campaigned to get rid of this award.

Be honest. I did because it's a duplicate of moment. of the, but we don't have moment of the year. So you wanted moment. Moment and story are the two.

No. This, you could do a feel good moment under moment of the year. Like, you can't now do. I want specific feel good because I'm a positive guy. It's inflexible. It's immalienable.

You've made a wrong decision. Right decision this year, and I know you're on board with this one. Diego Sanchez. Yeah. Isaac, the Shermanator, Marquez,

who we had on the, the show. Go find that interview. Ariel interviewed both of them together via Skype. We had both of them in via Skype. And we have some B-roll. We don't have to play the whole thing, but we do have some B-roll of the fight, which, you know, all this culminated in Diego meeting Isaac in the cage. Here we see at a Jackson Wink MMA event, Diego doing something really, really special. Actually, don't play the clip. You know why? Some weird thing happened with the YouTube flagging it, and they got like, I don't want to do that. Yeah, it was weird.

Yeah. Noted. Noted. See, I'm the one who's looking out for all you. But, well done to Diego. It was one of my favorite segments. Getting both of them on the program. If you haven't seen it, go see that interview,

but you can find more online about Diego and Isaac, the Shermanator. Isaac now looking for another fight against John Dodson. John Dodson, you better watch himself. That's all right. It was an annoying thing to go with that. through. Yeah, so that was one of my picks. I had that Brian Ortega's post-fight speech after his win over Cubs Swanson was awesome talking about helping kids and, you know, wanting to work with charities. That was great. Max Holloway and his son at UFC 218, dabbing on everyone. Left and right, left and right,

dab, dab, dab, dab, dab, dab, dab, dab, dab, daub, many blessed, right. Chris Widman on Long Island, the win, you talked about the photo with his dad and the emotions there. was a feel-good moment. Jesse Taylor winning. I know it has somewhat changed when the year progressed, but in that moment, him coming back and winning was an incredible moment. GSP coming back and winning and the way he, you know, hung around the cage and it was just seeing him back was somewhat surreal.

It felt great. And also the UFC 217 post-fight feeling. Remember just sitting there in the moment? you know, in the press conference, like just taking it all in and doing this show afterwards, like the sport was awesome. Like with all the crap that we dealt with last year, the sport was great that night. And the new champions handled themselves phenomenally and the old champions handled themselves even more impressively. That post-fight feeling is something that I'll never forget. That was a great feeling. And last but on at least, one that I wanted to mention,

again, UFC 216. And it doesn't like perfectly fit under the feel good, but just the way the UFC handled that, I thought was really well done. And, you know, America the Beautiful with, I keep thinking, Everlast, I was seeing Coldplay, Everlast singing. I just thought it was really well done. So those are some other feel-good moments that come to mind. There were a lot of them this year, actually. Last year, my pick was Cody Garbrand and Maddox Maple. Yep, my pick as well. Giving him the belt. Giving him the belt. another one worth mentioning. I had this as one of Rick's picks.

You can find this as well. Danny Castillo and Team Alpha Male teamed up with Make a Wish. And they did something really, really special for a kid named Bryant. More De Noah, who became the Sack Ninja. They helped him kind of become a ninja, I guess not a superhero. In the local area, saving the day. Really, really cool. So you can find some of that on Danny Castillo's Instagram.

and Alpha Mail and all those guys were involved and the Make-A-Wish people as well. Really, really cool what they did and really, really cool what Diego did for Isaac the Shermanator. All right. That's number 20. It's number 20. Thus concludes the 2017

MMA Hour Award Show. How about that? 20 awards given out to some of the greatest people in the sport. We heard from a lot of them. By the way, I was wondering, I didn't hear for many of your winners.

You didn't reach out or? I mean, I figured at least the Invicta winner you could have gotten. I didn't reach out. I didn't want to step all over what you were doing. I still, like your round,

what were their names again? What are you talking about for? Oh, Jacobson. Round of the year. Sharon Jacobson, Callie Robin. Yeah, yeah. So that's it.

It was a great show. I thought it was our best one yet. Before we say goodbye, we have to look ahead, right? We like to do this four little categories here. We look at the story to watch in 2018. We look at the male fighter of the year in 2018.

Lest we forget, I predicted it for this year, Demetrius Johnson. We look at the female fighter in 2018. And then we also look at the most desired guest for this program in 2018. I will start story to watch 2018. There's two. I'm going to hear. The UFC's TV deal, a massive story. Where will they end up?

How much will it be for? Will they resign with Fox? Will they go to AT&T and Turner? Will they go to Amazon? Will they go to ESPN? Will they go somewhere else? Who knows? And how much will that be for?

Because I think that the sale and the $4.025 billion dollar number was very much reliant on a big TV deal coming up at the end of 2018. Also kind of along those same lines, are the fighters going to wake up and are they going to ask for a cut of this deal? I don't think it's going to happen. It's one of the most frustrating stories to watch unfold. We saw them come out with this new fighter policy. And Lawrence Epstein is telling ESPN our hearts are in the right places.

And they're upping, you know, the Reebok Gill $1,000, $2,000. Like the fighters need a seat at the table. If they're content with that, great. Have a seat at the table. Collectively bargain. Have a say. Have a representative. Do this the right way.

That's what should be done as far as the TV deal is concerned. The NBA players get 50%. are they going to, you know, are they going to, are they going to see the light and see that they're missing out a lot of money? Just because you collectively bargain doesn't mean you're all getting paid the same, but it does mean that you're getting a piece of the pie on top of what you get paid. Kevin Duran and LeBron, James and Camelo Anthony and Chris Saps, Rosinguez, don't get the same amount, but they are a part of a partnership, a union, if you will, and they collectively bargain with the head of the union, with the NBA owners, and it all comes together. And it works

very well. Trust me, it works a lot better than what you guys have going on. So will that come to fruition? And then the other one I wanted to add was Connor's future. Does he come back? What does he do? Does he fight? Who does he fight? Again, we are all kind of waiting to see what happens there. So those are my stories to watch in 2018. How about you? Same, same winner. What does the UFC's new broadcast deal look like? What is the future of the UFC's broadcast product? Where is it? What platforms? How is it cut? Is it one partner, is it multiple partners? How does that look and how does it impact the fight cards? Do the fighters get a cut?

So the U.S.C.'s new broadcast deal. What does it look like is my story to watch in 2018? Is Connor McGregor coming back? If so, who's it against? Why? When? Zufa boxing. What is it?

And who's going to be involved? And what does it mean for M.M.A. That's a really good one. I continue to hear that people believe it will be a thing. I actually think it would be just what the doctor order. for Dana White. I think he's passionate about boxing. He needs a new challenge. He wants to prove that he could do it there. It's something he's always dreamed about.

But how will that affect the UFC? Does it actually get off the ground? Does he partner up with Al Heyman? What's going on? Does Floyd Mayweather fight in the UFC? Stop. My story to watch last year for this year was the UFC changes under the new ownership. And I think that that ended up being one of the stories as well.

I'm going to pat myself on the back for how prescient my story to watch in 2017 was which brand is worth more the UFC or Connor McGregor in 2016 Connor McGregor began exerting his influence

in new ways I expect the continuation of that to be the biggest story in 2017 and on about you know which brand is more valuable is Connor bigger than the UFC

and I think we got the answer on that when he flexed his muscles and made a fight between Mayweather and himself happen I think there's no doubt about it that Connor McGregor is the biggest thing in combat sports. And that proved to be true this year. I don't know if we'll see the same level of exertion of his power next year.

I think now that he's done the boxing thing and it wasn't successful, that handicaps him a little bit, but no doubt about it, that he'll be the most powerful MMA fighter by far next year. But the story to watch is what is the broadcast deal. Fighter of the year for me last year, as I've said multiple times, Demetrius Johnson, he ends up being my fighter of the year. Honestly, I only realize this after, I swear, I swear it to the MMA gods, I only realized it after I...

And then you have the video already. What video? I didn't have any video ready. What are you talking about? The interview ready with Demetrius. What do you mean to Demetia? Of course, I set it up, but I didn't realize that I picked them. Who did you pick last year?

I picked Habib Nirmaga made off. I mean... Look, I had the caveat. in there like this could blow up and it could not be healthy. But I pick, have you. My pick for 2018, Max blessed Holloway. You're a year late. No, no, no.

He's bringing it back. Look, I'm not a year late. He was in the discussion, but he's going to be active this year. He's going to fight two to three times. He's going to assert himself as the guy. And that's my prediction, Malefighter of the Year in 2018, Max Holloway. He actually doesn't even make my list. Wow.

Reason being, I just think the options are limited for him. to get an opponent. Not any more so than Demetrius. I think Demetrius and Max are in a similar spot where it's going to be tough for them to have viable opponents. And I think there are other people who are going to have more of an impact

just because there's more fights readily available for them. My pick this year, Fighter of the Year for 2018, Habib Narmaga made off. Okay. I think, look, I'm going to pick them. I've been seeing this for so long.

I think he's the best fighter at 170 pounds or below, bar none, not a better fighter on the planet. Maybe even as high as 185. I don't think there's anybody better than him on the lighter weight classes. He just can't get out of his own way, though. But I think we'll finally see the year where he's healthy. I think we'll finally see the year where he's able to capture the title. I'm picking Habib and crossing my fingers and knocking on wood.

But I think the guy is just unstoppable. I really believe and have been saying for the longest time that I think there's nobody better than him, I think this will be the year he proves it. I was hoping it was this coming, I was hoping it was 2017, but I'm predicting it will be 2018 now. Some other contenders,

I think Luke Rockhold set for a big year. If he can regain the title, I think he'll definitely put himself in good position. Connor McGregor, if and when he comes back, that will be huge. He almost doesn't need more than one fight to be able to be the fighter of the year.

T.J. Dillashaw, I think, will have a very good year. Daniel Cormier. Daniel Cormier is putting himself in great position because he's starting off in January. That matters a lot where you fall on the calendar because then you can get a few more in. But Habib Nirmagamatov is my pick.

Darren Till. Yeah. Kamar Ushman, Kobe Covington, some others that could be in the discussion. But yeah, my pick is Max Holloway, female fight of the year. Last year I went with Yuanio and J-check. As did I.

It didn't come to fruition. This year I'm going with Valentina Shavchenko. I think a lot of people believe if she gets in there, 125, she's going to make her debut very shortly, gets a title shot that she'll reign supreme. So I'll go with Valentina Shvchenko, my female fighter of the year for this coming year.

Your pick? My pick Amanda Nunes. I think this is a very tough one. It's hard to kind of see where these divisions are going and lay out the paths for them. But I'm going with Amanda Nunes. I think she's best position for defending her title, but also for potential super fights.

She could end up in a fight with Chris Seaborg. I think that Amanda is probably in the best position. But there's a lot of people that could be Chris Seiborg, could be again. The problem there is finding matchups for her at 145 to make it worth picking her for a fighter of the year. Rosenami Yunus, defending her belt. Valentina Shevchenko, as you said, could be potential flyway champion. Jessica Androge has a fight against Tisha Torres. And I think Tisha and Jessica are both in that discussion if they can get past each

other, their next inevitable fight would probably be Rosamai Yunus. So there's a lot of good options here, but I'm picking Amanda Nunes, female fighter of the year of 2018. And finally, we like to throw this out. We don't like to, you know, make these awards about the show and all that. Like sometimes I see things like interview of the year and all that. Nah, I don't really feel comfortable about that. But I like to throw it out there into the, into the atmosphere, our most desired guest to be on this program. And we should throw out that, you. you know, we're very lucky that who's who stops by, no complaints, and we appreciate everyone who stops by.

But if we're going to go pie in the sky, we like to, you know, maybe throw it out there to the MMA gods, if they can grant us these interviews. Last year, I swung in a miss. I asked for Joe Silva, who did not show up on the program, who was largely out of the spotlight, although he did accept an award. or actually Hall of Fame induction in July.

And I also threw out once again, I think for like the eighth straight year, Gina Carrano. Yeah. And I must say that I'm very, I'm very hurt. I'm not disappointed. I'm hurt because I tried to get Gina Carrano on the 400th episode. I mean, of all the big names in the history of the poor, like she's the last one left.

And, you know, we have her up there, right over there, the photo. And yeah, it's right over there, the great Gina Carano. Anyway, and tried to get it for episode. episode 400, we were in contact and she said, you know what, I'm going to be in Las Vegas, end of the year, holidays, let's do it in person. Sit down interview, we'll reflect, it'll be great. I said, you know what, that's great. I wanted you episode 400, but I'll wait. That's going to be awesome. Reach out to her, nothing. Reach out to her again, nothing. Reach out to her after the event, nothing. So I'm disappointed. No, I'm not disappointed. I'm hurt. I'm hurt.

Yeah. So if you're out there, Gina, please answer my text. Please come on the program. That's all I ask. I mean, we're paying homage to you right over there. You meant a lot to my career. It'd be nice to have you on the program. That's 2017. 2018, the great Lorenzo Fetita, my good friend. Is this the number one? This is the pick? I'd say this is the pick because he still has not done an interview.

Yeah. Why'd you sell? what do you think of it now? What are you doing now? What's next? Lundsafetita doesn't like me. I don't know why, but he doesn't like me.

I never got the impression that he liked me. But wouldn't it be awesome if he was sitting right over here? Yeah. And we were shooting the breeze. Also, I'll throw out there, Ari Emanuel, because he too has not done an interview.

He too has not talked about his plans or why he bought the UFC or, you know, where he sees it going. None of that. So I'd love to talk to him as well. And because I'm a sucker, Because I'm a pathetic loser. I'll throw Gina's name on there as well

because it would be nice to have her on the program. My list is very similar to last year's. Okay, let me start with last year. I picked the rock. I wanted to see the rock on the show. We didn't make that happen. This year, our answer is actually the same, which I don't think it has been in the history of this awards.

I'm going with Lorenzo Fertita as well. a few other names Dana White Ari Emanuel Joe Silva I'll put the rock again Kobe Bryant I mean

you know these are big names but they're not out of left field they have some kind of connection to fight sports and MMA and they'd be a fit on the show LeBron James

Chris Staps Pris Demi Lovato new entrant for this year Roseanne Rosam Barre Oh yes what a great tweet Gina Carrano

and Prebeck I always end with Gina Carano and Prebeck. Oh my God, Prebeck. Where have you been? Gina Carano and Prebeck are my go-to-enders. But we're in agreement. Lorenzo Fertita is the one I want the most. Should be a fun year. By the way, Ali Abdel-Aziz, guy talking smack all day on Twitter here.

You're a kiss-ass. I'm turning off the show. 30 minutes ago, he says I'm turning off the show because I said that Connor was the impact person of the year. And then sends me a text saying how I lost all respect for you. blah, blah, blah. I'm turning off the show, all this stuff. I write back to him. In the midst of the show, I said,

yeah, well, I bet you're still watching. Just says to me a picture of him still watching the show. It's a 2018 female fighter. He's still watching the show. So he had to have seen the love for Habib. I mean, from the show, yeah. Come on. All right, it has been fun.

So this is what's left today. You know, it's funny? I told the crew in the back, yeah, it's probably going to be a shorter show because we only have a couple of guests for 154. It's amazing. We went right to the buzzer.

How about that? Incredible. All right. So what we're going to do now? We got Rick's picks coming up. Did you take the week off or you got something for it? Got some Rick's picks. Okay. Got a couple of questions? Wow. You actually did your job? Oh, yeah. Did you finish your lunch? This is the show that I really slacked on. This was the one. Did you finish lunch? Did you finish lunch? No, I didn't. Unfortunately. Okay. So it has been a very fun show. 2017 award show is in the books. Hope you enjoyed it. If you disagree with any of our picks, awesome. You're all entitled to. your opinions, send us your recommendations, send us your picks. It's always fun to hear. It's been a great year in MMA. And I suspect 2018 will be even better because we'll be together and we'll get to enjoy together. The ups and the downs, the roller coasters, we'll be there every step of the way.

We'll be doing this show. So do not fret. Okay, what we're doing now, you see you right over there. That's the address. Live.com slash M.M.A. fighting. Time in a few seconds for the MMA after hour in case you forgot, in case you've had too many drinks over the past holiday season. That's when we do picks, that's when we answer some of your questions, and that's where we say goodbye. So, thank you for watching the 2017 MMA Hour Awards. If you've been watching us on YouTube, on Facebook, on MMAFighting.com, minimize those screens. Go to Twitter. I've been tweeting out the link all day long, or go to that address, live.com.com slash

MMA fighting. You'll get the first Rickspicks of 2018. We'll answer some questions. Still a couple of things we haven't addressed thus far. and then we'll call it a day. So go there right now. It's the MMA after hour, and it starts right now.

And we are back. Time now for the MMA after hour. Time for everyone's favorite segment. He has really put in a lot of effort for today's show. Really, he has gone the extra mile. He's had more air time this week than he's ever had before. He's been pulling double duty. He's the one we all love.

He's the one we call New York, Rick. It is time for Ricks Picks. 2018. New Year, New You. You already know what it is. Rick's Picks. Bound, bum, boom. Yeah.

I'm getting a new bubblehead right here. New York City. It's time for Rick's Picks. There he is. The reveal is a little more dramatic when we haven't heard from you throughout the show, but you're back. It's Rick's Picks. What do you got? I'm expecting a big one

this week. I mean, it's the first one of the year. It's 2018. Let's go. What do you got? We're going to start off with some positive news. Oh, yeah. We're going to start off with Misha Tate, announcing that she's expecting a baby. Here we see an Instagram post.

Very long caption that I'm not going to read. Miles, hook me up. Ah, damn it. Keep going. Cementa, no, Mazeltov. Okay. It didn't work out. Misha Tate.

I'm expecting a baby. Congratulations to Misha and Johnny. Who are expecting. Not just any Johnny. You know who this is, right? No, who is this? This is Johnny Nunez of tough fame. Fought for World Series of Fighting, UFC.

Can't say I'm super familiar with Johnny Nunez. But congratulations to Misha and Don. Okay, this is fantastic news. Congratulations, Mazel Tov to the expecting couple. You got to love it. Can I just say one thing that kind of like was like, interesting to me about this post? Sure.

I'm just trying to find it. Okay. This part. I'm proud to announce we are expecting a beautiful baby girl. Phenomenal. This is incredible. Right? Yeah.

Now, you can sit and speculate or you can just be happy for us. I'd like to ask that everyone respect the fact that like we have been, we would like to continue to live our private lives primarily out of the media. That you can sit and speculate line was just a weird one. Like, what do you mean to speculate?

You're a couple, you had a kid? Like, what do you want us to speculate about? Also, if you want to be private, like showing your sonogram? I don't know. I'm guessing that she just didn't mean speculate. Oh, you think? I'm guessing she meant like judge,

like something about. Why do you have to even throw that out there? Just like everyone's happy for you. I don't know. It was just very like combative, I thought. Yeah, a little bit. But I won't comment on specific. Like, how about just saying like, hey,

we're not coming to knock down your door and ask you like how you, you made a baby and stuff, you know? I think we have some. I mean, I'd like to hear. No. It's just, I don't know. I was like, this is bizarre.

It reminded me of the time that I asked me shit to confirm some news, and her reply back to me was, this isn't in my job description. I was like, what? I just asked, like, you didn't really have to, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I definitely see where you're coming from. Seems a little weird and unnecessary. But let's not do what the thing is saying. Yeah, let's just congratulate and celebrate. I'm not actually speculating. No,

you're not. I almost feel like putting that out there leads to speculation. It does. It does. Like, do you want me to bring up? up certain things, I will, but I won't. It definitely leads to speculation.

Anyway. How about we, let's rewind. Let's erase all this. Congratulations. This is Misha and Johnny. You know what I mean? Like if you want us to bring it up, then write lines like that. If you don't, then just say, hey, we're expecting a kid.

Mazel Tov. Mazel Tov. Yeah. Oh boy. Okay. The tweets that everybody's been watching, looking forward to, Connor McGregor saying, truly,

get on your fucking knees and beg me otherwise, I don't give a bollocks, my whiskey is out this year and that's ditty bread. Now, I feel like... But this is not an order. He had another one before that.

Yeah, but those were rantings of a crazy man. No, this was him addressing Habib Nama Gmabedov. He said to Dagestani. No, that part was lame. You botched it. You botched it.

No, that part was super lame. This is, the reason this is the one is because this is the one that Habib replies to. I don't care about the other stupid, like,

that stuff was lame. I thought it was great. No, those tweets were unhinged. This was the one because he talks about the Diddy Bread. And then he went some more about the Diddy Bread, like he went too deep into it. This was the one that was the most coherent. And were you confused by the Diddy Bread? I feel like there was a lot of confusion online about this.

No, no, no. He was talking about money that. Yeah, the money that Diddy had produced his own Sorok. I was so confusing about that. No, there was some people who just weren't on the same page here. I think they thought like ditty bread was some kind of terminology from Ireland. I don't know. But Connor on his ditty bread.

To which Habib replies with this photo of Ambib on a bear, chasing down Connor running with the belt. I mean, beautiful A plus plus on this. To which Connor replies, I slaughter your pets and wear them as coats and I only wear them once. I mean, that is a move right there. Do we think that Connor is going to get a message from Pita? No, no, no.

I did see some quotes, like, or some tweets saying, hey, leave the pets out of it. Come on. That's the worst. I mean, like, really? Come on. No, yeah. I mean, don't be so sensitive. But.

I thought was funny. Good line. Really good line. It's just so rare that he actually replies back to people, you know? Do we see the exterior cracking? Do we see Habib getting to him? No. I think this is his way of saying like, hey, look, I got options, get people excited, go back to the UFC, look how.

He doesn't typically address people. directly like this. I don't know. For Max Holloway, it was a picture of him in the background. I know. Oh, you think he's

itching to get back there? I don't know if he's itching to get back there. I'll tell you this. I would not be itching to get back there against Habib, no matter who I am. But maybe he's getting to him.

Maybe Habib is the one who is finally, you know, giving it back to Connor McGregor. Now we see this animation. From a very talented animator, he does a lot of animations about the MMA

world. Moja Head? Yes. Who does these incredible animations here. You, as we see on screen, are being featured here in the Habib Connor McGregor one.

Can we hear it or no? Yeah, can we bring the audio? But it's happening mid we start it over? No, it doesn't work now. You need to start it over. You can't start it over? No, no. It's too deep. We've got to let it play. It's going to start over in a second because it's only like

A minute long, right? Let's turn it down. This guy does a great job. He really does. His animations are always fantastic. A lot of people have been saying like, you don't feature him, get it on, get it on. There's a lot.

But here we go. We're going to feature this one. Yeah. It's going to start here. Here, we'll give him the credits first. Music is great. Yeah, he always has good music. Okay, here we go.

Salam al-a-a-a-a-brother. We have been waiting for you. I am so happy, Allah-A-A-Bah-Bah, I'm so happy that you're here, my friend. Why you talk with me like friend? For me, his loyal is number one. If you don't know what is this loyal, you have to go Google translate.

Connor champion, you with Connor. Alvarez champion, you with Alvarez. Al-Alam al-a-a-a-a-lame. He's far once in eight years. He had a good performance tonight, fair play, Tom. I need to see activity. I need to see consistency. I need to see me.

You don't have wrestling. You don't have grippling. You don't have conditioning, but what about if I'm wrestling with him all the time? Like Ken Velasquez style. You know what Connor told me. He says, I want... Hish! Hish! Amazing.

Well done. Well, by the way, what's the Hish-Hish? I don't know. I saw a lot of people responding to that. I don't know. I'm sure. Was that Holy Home, by the way? I think so, yeah.

I don't think it is. Oh, you know what it is? It's her punching, the noise that she makes when she punches. Yeah, yeah. That is what it is. The tennis-esque. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, that guy's great. Okay. Next, we're going to a moment captured by zombie prophet from the prelims. Just this guy. And that caption is exactly how I feel about it. Look at this guy. I missed this. I saw people react to it afterwards.

But what point in the card was this guy? Well, I think it was, obviously we see it's on FS1 at some point. Not on the pay-per-view and not on the on the fight pass. I mean, just... You think he's planted? Is this legit? No, he's not planted.

This is just... But what is he reacting to? I don't know, but he's not happy about it. No, I think he's like, did I just see what I think I just saw? I think it's more like, I can't believe that this is what I'm looking at. Really?

Incredulous a little bit. Hmm. I think this guy's great. I could watch this forever. How about the little kid eating the pretzel? Yeah, yeah. Who's bringing a kid that young to a UFC event? What do you mean?

You don't think it's a little bit too much? I mean, my daughter was watching UFC with me. Yeah, she can recently. You know what that reminds me of that? It's completely different, but it reminds me of that one guy, the Laker game, who takes off his sunglasses, that one gift. It does. Very good call.

Somehow he's just like, he's like standing out. Yeah. This guy. That guy's amazing. Very good. I love that guy. But this one's a different one. but I feel like it's a positive reaction.

I'd love to know if anyone out there is watching. Can we interview this guy? That or just why he was reacting that way. I mean, Danny Seguera maybe? Track him down. I want to talk to this guy. Well, Sean was there. Sean, yeah.

Do it. I want to talk to Incredulous guy. Nice little long form on that guy. Oh, God. All right. What else we got? One of my favorites. This is an all-time favorite.

Daniel Strauss. If you can't see him, he's in a pink hospital gown with pink pants on, giving the middle finger with a walker. It's a site to see. So find Daniel Strauss's Instagram. It's at Daniel Strauss. Two days after the doc tells you, quote unquote, might not walk again. Fuck you, buddy. The show just started.

Bless, thanks to everyone for your support, prayers and love, Team Strauss, 2018. Dang it, Daniel Strauss, that is awesome. Like, that is inspirational right there. is incredible. Telling him he can't walk two days later, he's up and about and giving the finger to doubters. I love this.

Daniel Strauss, you're the man. Hashtag. Hashtag, fuck you, buddy. You know what's kind of amazing about this tweet? He actually still has to see this doctor probably, right? Oh, I think it's in good fun. I really don't think he's telling the doctor, fuck you. I think he's using it as motivation.

Yeah, yeah. And how about his get-up? I mean the pink, the pink gown with the pink pants. You're not going to mess with that guy. Daniel Strauss. Hope he gets well soon. Speedy recovery. Also, the tone of it in the beginning is so defiant and then the end is like, thank you to have.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's great. But shout out to Daniel Strauss. Fantastic. John Fitch with a great tweet from New Year's. Wow. Nothing better than strippers telling you they used to watch you fight when they were kids. Wow.

I mean, we can enshrine this tweet. Wow. This tweet belongs in the Hall of Fame. That is incredible. John Fitch, at the strip club, being told by a stripper that they used to watch him fight when they were a kid. I mean... Now, by the way, it is possible that he just met these people at the, you know, grocery store and they just... No, because I was going through his timeline.

I think he was at like a promotional event at a strip club. Was it the Stefan Bonner, Phil Baroney one with the Bitcoin? Maybe. Possibly, probably. It sounds like he would run in that circle, so probably. But, I mean, even if it was a stripper, just, I mean, it's even better if it was a stripper at the grocery store. Because then that means they got into the conversation like, what do you do? Oh, I'm a stripper.

And I used to watch you fight when I was a kid. Fantastic. John Fitch, you've done it. This tweet is magical. Is that a contender for tweet of the year or was that December 31st? That is a contender. No, it's not. It is the tweet of the year.

It gets it. There's no. But if it happened last year. You know what I mean? Yeah, it was 2017's tweeted the year By far Okay You know what?

I'm just kidding I have 2017's tweeted the year Okay I'm going to full screen it right here Because it's not in our It's not in our tag board Here it is, 2017's tweeted the year I had to screen cap it

Because unfortunately What? Did she delete it? I hate to break this to you Ariel She deleted it? It's been deleted That's not true It's been deleted

Okay so my take on this Is that someone like her son or like her manager. Like there's no way Roseanne really likes me or knows who I am. I disagree. Why would she delete it? This actually just confirms. Now I'll say this and I also went through her timeline.

I think she deletes all her tweets. I think she like tweets things and then deletes them in mass and has like very few like tweets. She has tweeted about MMA because I saw her tweet about Cody Garbrand in the past, Ohio guy. And by the way, you know what's so weird about getting this tweet? A couple things. The day before, just the day before I saw commercial. for the new Rosan Show. Did you know that there's a new Rosan show?

I didn't. With all the same characters in the same house. On ABC. And Ariel Holani. No, not yet. You have some bit of break? We're talking.

When's the last time I thought of Roseanne? And then I see this commercial and I'm like, holy crap, there's actually a new Rosan show. And then holy crap, she tweets about me. Can I read the tweet now? Wait, one sec. Before you read the tweet, it's during the Wands. And I get this.

And I got three people, like, within 10 seconds. I think you were one of them. I was the person. They're like, Rosanne. Holy crap, Rosanne. Like, no context. So I thought she died. I was like,

oh, all these people are telling me about Roseanne for some reason. But yeah, that's kind of sad. Like, why, you know what I mean? It was just weird. And then I go on Twitter and, of course, I see that. Now you can read it.

At Ariel Hawani is the best journalist alive, no discussion. Thank God, Habib made weight. And thanks for the coverage at MMA fighting. I mean, honestly, the best. Do you believe that she really was tweeting that?

Like, that's really her? No, I believe that you got her phone and tweeted this. Who would tweet you this other than you? I don't believe for one second that she tweeted. No, I'm just kidding. I really do believe she tweeted this. I know she watches MMA. I think she tweeted herself watching the cyborg and home fight. This is awesome. Yeah, it's awesome. You should feel very happy about this. America's mom. America's mom, dubbed you the best journalist alive. Not the best MMA journalist. Just journalists. Oh yeah. Trust me. I noted that distinction. They're going to make, when they make the movie, this is going to be

of it. America's mom. Wow. My main man, Dave Knowsworthy. Yes. One of my great friends tells me that fellow Canadian and legend comedian, Norm MacDonald wrote the original. Roseanne wrote for the original.

Roseanne N is writing for the new one as well. Did you know that? I didn't know that, but I love Norm. That's an incredible factoid there by Dave Knowsworthy. Real last name, by the way. Yeah. I thought when I first heard of Dave Knowsworthy that he was making a joke about my nose.

That's how sensitive I am. I mean, fair enough. Anyway, it was a great moment. What a great gift there was. Roseanne tweeting me and bestowing upon me these great accolades. Yeah, that's a big deal. Nobody's saying that to me, especially...

Why did she delete it, though? It was the question. I told you. She deletes her tweets, man. It's nothing personal. Listen, you just bask in that glory and take it. You don't question Roseanne's motives. Oh, no.

Sorry. Someone sent me a clip saying that there's a ghost in our studio, but I think it's just the clip of the sperm thing that you're falling on the ground. It's the ghost. It's weird. You don't know about the ghost? I would be out of here so fast if there was a ghost.

Oh, you didn't know. Nobody told you, Miles. You didn't tell them about the ghosts in the studio? What else he got? We got questions now. Oh, that's it? It's like four ricks picks. Look, there's a lot.

Ariel Hawani is over here sending me clips at 11 p.m. What? Clips of guys that I've tracked down? Yeah, they don't just mention. appear. Wow. Someone throughout, you know,

you couldn't have give me like a Bill's celebration video? I mean, that stuff was gold. No, no, no,

this is not a time to, Austin's over here. Austin's over here nodding vociferously. Give me something. No, this is, this is not a time

to celebrate a crappy football team that's going to get knocked out in the first round. Like, oh, we, put that off. Oh,

wow, they, wow, oh. 18 long years, okay? Are we going to, are we going to ask

to celebrate when the Knicks squeak in with the 8C? Like, who cares? They're bums. They're bums. All right, we'll see. We'll see about that. Clip that off, please.

Look, they covered him up. He's gone. He's gone. Austin demanded. Austin called for it. Ding dong. The witch is dead. Not just the drought,

but this witch as well. The witch who stole the NFL playoffs. No, we're going to win. You heard here first. We're actually going to win. This is so gross. No, we are going to win. Who are you going to pick after they lose, is the question?

I don't bandwagon with them. All right, what else you got? Okay, questions. Question of the day asked by Ariel Hawani. Yes. Who's your 2017 male fighter of the year? Choices were Demetrius Johnson, Max Holloway, Robert Whitaker, and other right below. 51% of you had the right answer and picked Max Holloway.

25% of you in second place had a reasonable answer in Demetrius Johnson. 17% also reasonable in Robert Whitaker. And then 7% other don't know who else you would have picked. Osdemier looks like got got some love RDA I mean he had a good year but What he went 3 and O of course he had a great year You can't pick him for

For Fighter of the Year though I think he deserves a mention If he had look if he comes If he had come and won the Walterway title Now I mean he's probably the runaway winner GSP I think got some votes Even though he only fought once It was obviously an important fight

But 51% of you on the right track With Max Holloway fighter of the year. 24,000 votes, all leading toward max. Okay. Have you watched the main event again? Chris Seiburg versus Holly Holohom,

didn't see two rounds for home. Did you have a problem with the scoring on that fight? I mentioned at the beginning, I thought there were very close rounds. I don't think that you can definitively say this is a crazy thing. In the end, I gave the first to Cyborg, I gave the first to Cyborg. It is a bit shocking, like in hindsight, like, holy smokes, like the fifth round was up for that. Yeah, it mattered a lot. fight was up for grabs in the fifth round. That's insane. When you look at the fight round by round,

it makes a little more sense. Yeah. So I don't think it's crazy, but it's crazy. Do you get what I'm saying? I do. I do. Round by round makes it a different discussion than if you're just looking at the fight. If you look at the fight, it's clear who won that fight. Chris Seiborg won that fight. Round by round, it does create a little bit of argument, but I think Chris Seaborg won that fight. I'd say four or, you know, five or minimum four rounds. Okay. Best face-off. Somebody asked about this. If you had the best face-off, what would be your picks?

You wanted this category. Who is it for this year? Who was your favorite face-off? Oh, wow. Put your money where your mouth did. I said it earlier. Rose Nami Unis and Yuanian and J-Chek. It's a good pick.

It's not even a question. It really isn't a question. I mean, her reciting the Lord's prayer to Yowana as Yowana is completely blocking it out and talking to her. It was just incredible. Your pick? I think for me it's John Jones and Cormier. I think everything about that is kind of my...

The one where Jones took off his shirt? Yeah. I think it's just... I'm so in on John Jones Cormier. I've never... Okay, actually, that's not true because I was able to say. I've never been more in on an O-N-2 fighter in the matchup going again for a third time

against the guy who's won twice. But I'd also like to see Benavides face Demetrius Johnson again. So maybe there's two of them that I'm in for that. But I'm all in on Cormier-Jones. I'd love to see it run back a million times. I just think those are two of the best fighters we will ever see, ever, period. I think if John Jones didn't exist,

Daniel Cormier would be into the discussion of the best all-time fighter. And I think, unfortunately, he's kept out by Jones, who himself is being removed from the conversation. So it's not like he's being bumped by somebody else who is in that conversation. But I think Daniel Cormier, you know, in a world that John Jones doesn't exists is talked about as like the legend of all legends because of the way his career is gone and what he's done. And I'd love to see them fight again forever. Like I, you could run it back infinite times and I'd be in. Do you get the sense that you can run it back infinite times and

Jones wins every single time? Yeah, I do. I don't think there's anything I could change that. Well, then why do you want to see so many times? Because they are the two best. And this is the reason I still want to see Benavitas versus Johnson every time. These are the two best in that way class. There's no doubt in my mind and I want to see the best fight the best. If it's a rematch, that's okay with me. I want to see the best fight the best. And I truly believe those two are the best. And you're going with the way in one, right?

Yeah. Yeah, not the other one. No, the way in one. Yeah. I mean, it was great. Jones, that was an uncharacteristic one for Jones. Yeah. It was not the typical.

But I've always said that if you recite the Lord's Prayer in your face off that you win. Automatic. I mean, it's just amazing. And then the explanation, it was just incredible. What was our moment of the year outside the cage? Asked by our friend Ali Basley Who visited this one.

Oh, yes. I thought you said Ali. It's Ollie. I did say, oh, God. Outside of M.A. What was yours in a moment of the year? Oh, outside of MMA? Yeah.

What was your favorite thing that happened this year? The entire year? Yep. Oh, my lord. Well, you go first since you pick this. Easy. I mean, he says I can have two, but I only need one. Yeah, you became a pop.

Birth of A. I mean, what? What? How can I pick something like this? You don't have a favorite moment from this year? Well, there's professional and there's personal. If it's professional, then it has to do with MMA, so it's discounted. Now what's the personal? Well, okay, can I go both?

Sure. Professional, I think, was covering Mayweather McGregor like the week and doing the live shows. Would you say even more specifically that interview on the ring with Connor McGregor? No, I think doing the live show's. Okay, the live MMA hour. Wow. Okay. My man Rob,

Paige, and, uh, see, this is the problem with mentioning, Adam, of course.

Oh, no, no, no, Scottie, come on, Scottie. He's not,

I'm saving the day. He's not in there. Is he right now? Scott, uh, would you like to, yeah. No,

um, no, that was awesome. Um, and now personal? Uh, just being healthy. Not me.

I mean, that's not, my kids. Yeah. My kids, my wife, my family. Family is happy.

happy and healthy. Yeah, yeah. Hard to be mad at that. Nothing better than that. We survived another year. Buffalo Bills making the... No, I mean... Did that happen last year or this year?

Technically, it was last year. Yeah, but... That's over. I mean, I did cry and it was a great moment. I have a picture of my daughter and I watching it together. It was great. You'll see.

You'll see. Gag me. You'll see. Why gag me? Why? Why are you being such a dick about this? No, because you're... What?

What? You're acting like, this is going to be some extended run. This is... I'm not acting. like anything. Yeah, God. What are you talking about? It's 18 years.

It's so easy to pick the little Cinderella. What little Cinderella? I'm a fan. What are you talking about? I've been a fan since I was eight. Oh, yeah, prove it. Prove it.

Yeah, which team did you root for in the NFL playoffs last year? And which team are you going to bandwagon to after they lose this year? I mean... Are you shitting me with this right now? Now you're starting to piss me off. Now you're actually pissing me off.

Are you really being serious? Buffalo Bills? You're actually claiming that I'm a bandwagon Bills fan that like that's an oxymoron if there ever was one. Look, you found a team that, you know, was doing well and everybody was rooting to them. They're the sweetheart.

They're America's sweetheart and you jumped on and decided, you disgust me. Are you serious right now? This is a joke. I mean, it's okay. We know how you do with the sports teams. Everybody knows. My damn pictures.

I'm looking for something to shove it in your case. You're having a hard time. You're having a real hard time. Look, if it was so readily available. I cried When the Redskins beat them I certainly cried growing up in a household filled with Dallas Cowboy fans

Oh my God, it was horrible That's even worse Oh, it was horrendous You kidding me? I have sympathy now, I have sympathy now Where's the camera? Where's the camera? Where's the camera?

You got it, you're one shot, you've got it Oh man, it's so blurry Oh, wait Inconclusive My son You see that? It looks like a middle easy logo There's my boy

wearing a Bill's hat Right there My son, teach him young Now he fights me Every time I give it to him But there it is Proof for you You see it

Buffalo Bills In your face All right Is that Is that the Middle Easy logo? What middle easy logo? How dare you? How dare you?

Look, they've been seen in Steph Curry jerseys too Look, I'm just saying I'm just saying Listen you don't You don't Wait this is perfect This is actually

A perfect You don't give your kids' Bills apparel to be cool, all right? They wear it in the dress. Miles, as a matter of fact, can you hit me just one more time today? What is this? Give it to me, Austin. Dad's baby, dads.

What is this from? What are you talking about? Only real Bills fans know this song. Austin, do you know what's going on? Yeah, you will. Come on. Now, baby. Say you will.

Okay, cut it. We're going to do it, baby. Doug Barone. Okay, okay, I believe you. Here's the question. Perfect segue. Should Ariel Hawani change his profile picture of him wearing that stupid hat? Never.

Just talking about hats. You've long said, that one's staying. It means a lot. It's sentimental. The problem, no, actually, I feel like it's like, if you look closely, it's not a good picture. My wife is cropped. My facial hair sucks. It's like 12 years old, the picture.

Yeah. However. I feel like bad things will happen if I change it now. I'm too superstitious about it. I'm with you on that. So I would like to change. You change yours all the time. Not all the time, but I do change.

I'm not married to them in any sense. I hung on to it for too long is the problem. I should have switched it up. Right? Yeah, if you had switched it up previously, then you would have been more inclined to do it again. Can I just say, I'm not down with the people who change theirs like every week. No, no, no, that's not cool.

It's too much. Like you go outside, you shake someone's hand, you change. it. And also, I noticed that the UFC changed their logo to the 25. How do you feel about that logo? I don't hate it. I know everybody was kind of down on it. I'm fine. I like the fact that they put in the effort that they... That's where I'm at.

But it does look... Can we just change... It looks like a six, right? Does it not look like a six to you? It is a little... If you're not an MMA fan who knows what's going on there, it could be a little bit confusing. But, yeah, I think that they're putting the effort into this is what matters much more than like

oh, you know, as from a graphical design perspective, I don't like that this line... But not a graphical sign. I mean... It's not... It looks like a six. They could have done it very simply, and I saw a lot of people suggest this.

Just encapsulate the 25 in an octagon, and you've done it. You're done. But big celebration year for them. Didn't hate it. Didn't hate it. By the way, Ollie just tweeted me saying he managed to catch some of today's MMR

from 300 kilometers in... the Arctic Circle and it was minus 15 degrees, I believe Celsius because he's British, which is just insane. But he said the picture too. How do you watch this within the Arctic Circle? Ali, let us know. He found a way. I mean, really, there I am.

My first visit to the Arctic Circle. Okay, what else you got? That's it. That's it. Wow. That's it. It was, we did a lot here. A lot of talking.

We covered an entire year of MMA. we took the questions, we did the Ricks picks. We had guess, surprise guess. We had acceptance speech videos. We had acceptance speech videos. All kinds of things. A couple other things before we go. Pietro Manga, released, buying or selling.

Don't like that. I mean, I under, I'm split. I'm split. If you can't make the weight, you took an opportunity away from somebody else, but I think you deserve another chance. Big time prospect, flyweight, European,

giving up on him? What message are you really sending? Is this a punishment? You know... Look, they're saying, don't take the fight if you can't make the way. Don't take the fight if you can't make the way. But if you're interested in this guy's a prospect,

and that's the reason you signed them, you know, it seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face a little bit. I think it's harsh. I think it's a lot of time. Elliot got his fight two weeks later. It's not like people refunded their tickets as a result of this fight falling through.

You only paid Elliot his show. You didn't have to pay him. So, like, it was really no skin off your back. Some flight. hotels. He took an opportunity from somebody else. That's where I fall on it. And that's an important thing to...

Okay, so you actually agree with it. I'm split. I'm not in huge favor of it. I'm not against it. I understand where it's coming from, and I also understand the camp that is saying like, oh, that's a little harsh. I just think he's not just some scrub guy.

He's undefeated, flyway, unique guys like him. He's filled with personality. I don't know. He's a good character. I very much enjoyed his appearance on the show, for sure. Romero Branch, you like it? All for it. Yeah?

Yeah. How about Branch? The Cajonis on him. He goes from Rockhold to Romero. I mean, he's had a few years of not fighting top contenders. Now it's time. And I think this is, you know what? I think this is a matchup that is okay for him.

I don't think this is necessarily... It's done him? It's going to be tough to clinch and grapple with Yo-Romero for five rounds, right? Main event? No, no, it's not. For three rounds, Orlando. I could see David Branch figuring this out. Five rounds would actually help Branch.

No, because I think that's too many opportunities for a killer like Yol Romero, who's shown that he carries finishing power late into the fights. I think you're giving him too many opportunities. I think here you can sneak in and maybe get a round or two. But I'm going with Yol, for sure. But it's not a terrible matchup for Branch. I think this is okay. Nate Marquart

Incredible career Yeah Despite responsible Yeah Look he didn't look terrible in the end There's a lot of fighters I'm talking about you know Getting released and then the PDs

Testosterone all that stuff If we're going to If we're going to You know judge every fighter that way There's going to be no heroes left Like there's always something I think we have to acknowledge it And then go

Over the course of his career He's had an incredible career responsible for some of the most incredible finishes, you know, combo sequences that we've seen a real legend of the sport. Yeah, I mean, almost every guy is going to be tainted in some way. It's hard to avoid at this point. It's almost like baseball where you have to just accept it

and, you know, count them amongst the best. One of the most memorable moments in the history of this program before your time, him coming in studio after getting pulled from that Pittsburgh card to give us the exclusive. of us to what happened. Very emotional with Lex McMahon. I won't forget that one anytime soon.

That was back in the AOL days. Jimmy Smith leaves Bellator. How about that? Stunning. Free agent, contract runs out. I'm hearing there's interest from the UFC. There's interest from him. I feel like things are happening here.

What do you think? Jimmy Smith in the UFC, you like it or you don't like it? Like it? One of the best in the business. Surprising, though, considering the stable of guys they have and how the UFC tends to go with like homegrown guys? if you were looking for

to put together the best team, it would be hard to leave him off, right? If he's available, you have to go after him. Is this the eventual replacement for Joe Rogan? Meaning you'll have the three-man booth for the big shows

with, you know, Cormier Cruz, Dan Hardy, whatever, whatever, Paul Felder is developing into a great one. But that third guy, you know, the Max Kellerman guy,

the Larry Merchant guy is Jimmy Smith. I say in so much, as if John Anick is the replacement for Mike Goldberg, then maybe Jimmy Smith could be that for Joe Rogan. But I think it'll be more of a primary person and then other people kind of filling in around. You know what I mean? It's not like Anik is the only one anymore, although he takes the majority of it. I think I could see Jimmy Smith sliding into that role, but I think they will rotate in other people from time to time. Very curious to see what happens there.

What do you think of Beltor's decision to say goodbye? Don't understand. They got Chale. They got Frank Muir. potentially. Frank Marinard not a done deal, but... Yeah, that's okay. I mean, so. I'm curious to see what happens January 20th.

Who's calling that one? Because Frank is not a done deal, and you know, he does work with ACB. Chales fighting. Chales fighting. Yeah. So that's going to be very interesting. Steffin Struv is fighting Andre Arlofske, U.S. 2-2. Who's your favorite? I think Struv. Interesting one. Yeah. Yeah. I want to see Alexander

Volkov back. Where's he at? And then finally, headlining act for For the UFC's return to Austin, Texas, Donald Serone against Yancey Maderos. Do you like this fight? Like that fight. I think they're meeting at the perfect time in their careers that this fight is a fight. Meaning, is this a fight for Maderos to go over? This is a fight for Madero's to go over or cowboy to say, not so quickly.

Who's the pick? I'm going Yancey. Wow. Really? I think Yancey's going to be tough. I think Yancey's going to be in the fight. Man, you know, it's hard for me to pick that one because I think if it goes to decision it's going to be Soroni.

I don't think Yancy is going to beat Donald on the cards, but I also don't know if I don't know if Yancy can finish Cowboy. It's tough. I don't know. You know what? I don't know. I'm leaning Yancey gut right now, but I don't know.

It's a hard one for me. Because Seroni's at a different point than he was, you know, as early as last year. James Vic very upset. he can't say he didn't deserve one yeah he should have been in there they should have figured it out this should have been like his darn till moment you know i agree he could have been a star i mean like this is this guy is just itching to get the rub he's itching to get the push he's itching to have that opportunity and it's in texas and he's a texas guy he's been asking for like who calls out like

a fight night event i want to headline that one like just give the guy the opportunity so i like the fight but i wish it was the co-main event to a james vick main event you know what i'm saying? I'm with you. Against anyone. Put them against anyone. Anyway. All right. Great stuff. Thank you for doing all the work. Thank you for participating in the award show. I disagreed with most of your picks, but it was fun nonetheless. We'll do it again next year. We're done for today. Regular show next week. And it's also regular time and place, meaning Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern. So this is Tuesday, although it feels like a Monday. This is a Tuesday. we're back next Monday, January 8, 2018.

I love this show. It's always been a fun thing to do to give out the awards, and the award show, I think, has really come into its own. I enjoyed it very much. It was fun to reach out to the select winners to get their videos and things like that. I enjoyed it very much. So congratulations to everyone who won. Again, recapping my picks, Demetrius Johnson, male fighter of the year,

female fighter of the year, Rosnamu Yunus. Thank you to both of them for stopping by today. Congratulations. Fight of the year, Gachi Johnson. Thank you to Justin Gachi for stopping by. Round of the year, Gachie Johnson, round two. Knockout of the year, Francis and Gano over Overe. Sub of the year, DJ Borg, breakthrough fighter, Robert Whitaker, most improved,

Volkan Ozdemir, comeback of the year, comeback of the year, Rowsdowne UNAZ over Yawanna. Rivalry of the year, D.C. Jones, coach, Mark Henry, Ricardo Alameda, event, U.S. 217, crowd, Edmonton, Wau, Wyman on Long Island, promo of the year. 214. Photo. May Mack and Toronto, Esther Lynn. Impact person. Connor, 19. Story of the year. May Mac, 20. Feel good moment of the year. Rose Nomiunis post-fight speech at UFC 217. We say goodbye to 2017. It has been an interesting year in MMA. Looking forward to big things in 2018. Appreciate you watching all year long. Now let's do it again in 2018. Let's do it better. Let's do it

bigger. Let's have more fun. Let's be more positive. Yay. See you next week. Peace. Same time and place, I'm out of year.