The Ariel Helwani Show - The 13th Annual Helwani Nose Awards: 2025 Edition

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Ariel Helwani, The Boys in the Back, and Petesy Carroll ring in 2026 with the long-awaited, never-duplicated 13th Annual Helwani Nose Awards.Before getting into the categories, the show pays tribute to MMA media member Abbey Subhan and Anthony Joshua team members Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele (08:28), then looks back at some of the moments we missed over the break (21:23).The gang jumps into the most comprehensive awards in sports, with categories including Performance of the Year (36:00), Fight of the Year (39:51), Knockout of the Year (52:19), Rivalry of the Year (1:33:33), Story of the Year (3:11:24), Female Fighter of the Year (3:25:18), Male Fighter of the Year (3:33:56), and many more.Finally, Ariel reacts to some breaking news about Jon Jones and rival Daniel Cormier (3:44:51) and answers your Super Chats (3:51:03).

Hello, friends, and welcome. And perhaps more importantly, welcome back. We've missed you. It's been a long two weeks. But as you know, for the past 12 years and now this 13th year, we always love to start the year with our prestigious Helwani Nose Awards. Yes, this is the 13th installment of said awards. And this is the year, and this is the award show, that we look back,

perhaps in a greater form than ever, in a more robust form than ever, in a more prestigious form than ever. I'll explain all of this in a moment. What a year it was, what a time it was, the year 2025. And on this here show, we will be going over the year that was in mixed martial arts, in particular, 13th annual Helwani Nose Awards. Why is it so prestigious? Why is it so special?

27 categories in total. There is no show. in all of sports. There I say, all of sports and entertainment, which covers the year that was quite like this one. Not just myself, not just Rick, not just GC, not just PT, the whole gang is back. We're all back to do this. We've got our tuxes on. We've got some new wrinkles, some new trinkets to show all of you. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the 2025 Helwani Nose Awards. Live from the Uncrowned Studios in New York, New York. We proudly welcome you to the 13th annual Helwani Nose Awards.

The 2025 edition of the show will celebrate the greatest achievements and moments in the sport of mixed martial arts. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the 27 categories that define the year in MMA. Now, here's your host. Ariel Hellwani. Back in your life! On this Monday, January 5th, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone.

I sure hope you're doing well. It is so great to be back. It has been two long weeks since we sat here in this chair talking to all of you about the great sport of mixed martial arts. I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing, peaceful, prosperous holiday season. Hopefully you are around some friends, loved ones, family. Had some good times, had some good laughs.

But hopefully, most importantly, you are revved and ready to go for this 13th annual. Yes, 13th annual. First time we did this, I wasn't even a dad yet. Could you believe it? 13th annual Helwani Knows Awards. We've been through many different places with these awards. Of course, the Vox days, then on to the ESPN days. And who could forget, New York, Rick and I,

ringing in the new year back in 2018, heading into 2019, the dawn of the new ESPN era for the UFC. And now here at our home, the uncrowned HQ in partnership with Yahoo Sports, our second year doing it from this very studio. Last year was, dare I say, the best one. This year will be even better. Why is it even better, you ask? Well, first things first, we've got 27 categories.

And in case you're a stickler for, you know, history, that's one more than last year. Yes, for the first time in many years, probably four or five, we're introducing a new category. You know the usual ones. We can show them to you right here and now. Yes, male fighter, female fighter, fight of the year, round of the year, crowd walkout promo. But there's a new one, nuzzled in there, performance of the year. Yes, I thought it was very important to include this new category. So those are the awards, 27 in total.

And as I said, at the very, very top, we're leveling up. Not just with a new category, but my friends, we are leveling up. Some people say you're leveling up, but you're not really level. You're leveling up when you've got this in your possession, the most prestigious prize in all of sports and entertainment, the actual trophy. Some of you thought it was AI? Some of you thought it was AI? Are you kidding? Our good friend, Sarp Unger, to be exact, from all the way over in beautiful Turkey,

designed this for us in what felt like a matter of days, shipped it over, and now here I have it in my possession, the most prestigious prize in all of mixed martial arts. There's little trinkets, there's little nods to the past, There's the number one unbiased here. There's all kinds of things here. I could talk to you about it. I could show it to you, or I could really show it you. Play the tape, Andy!

Ah, yes, look at that. I mean, it's really... One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. You see the who me there. Shout out the Alexander Usses against his team. You see the peace and love, most important. You see the uncrown crown. Shout out to the BITB and the crack.

You see the Clover. And of course, shout out to Bob. Who's to check? Yes, them's the awards. An absolute beauty. And there he is. Sarp Unger. Shout out to him who made this happen for us.

Yes, followed by Ari Hwani Psi Caro, New York, Rick. The whole gang follows him. He's an unbelievable designer. He put this together for us. The nose is my actual nose into a microphone with headphones. 13th annual. I mean, I'm actually smitten. My breath has been taken away.

It's a beautiful thing. So it's going to sit with me. I'm going to find a good spot for it. Maybe I put it right in the middle. What about that? Who is to check, right? I don't want to drop this thing. Who's to check?

Yeah, thank you. First, who's the check of the new year? Do I put it right in the middle? Frankie, what do you say? Right in the middle. Right in the freaking middle. There it is next to Mr. Aspen all over there. Okay, yeah.

Look at that. That's freaking great right there. Let me get that straight. Oh, my lot of it. daddy we likes the potty yes and of course you heard frank right over there it's not just me here the whole gang is back gentlemen are you back yeah the boys are back in town hello everyone and pizzi got the memo yeah i mean i couldn't pull the same rabbit or the same hot twice in a row you know what i mean but uh look at least i won't get connor all upset like last year

i thought he was going to swing for me he was so mad so uh very happy to make him happy you look fantastic. I mean, a little stubble there. You're a little bit tanned. You look refresh, not lamenting the fact that your team sacked its gaffer earlier this morning. I mean, you look too ready for that. Come on. You look fantastic. New York, you look fantastic as well. Is that the same

t-shirt from all of those years ago? I feel like there were like two different iterations. This is the same from last year for sure. I don't know how long this goes. Certainly not 13 years. Happy to be here. Happy New Year to everybody. Oh my gosh. You look great. nice little haircut there. You look refreshed. And of course, G.C. has the glow of someone who went back home, got to spend some time with the folks back in the peach state, is it? The peach state, yep.

Yes, welcome back, G.C. Welcome back. I appreciate it. This is the same old tux, but for the first time in the award show, I got to dry clean before the show. Wow. Wow. This is a big deal. We're all wearing tuxes. Rumor on the street is Mr. Frankie's also wearing a tux today. Damn right. Yes. A little itchy around the neck. but I'm happy to be wearing it with you guys Let's get a shot of the control room Everyone's back Proud Papa Jordan is there Yep, there he is Andy's there

Shout out to the good people of Venezuela Much love, much love Stay strong And everyone is very excited Everyone is very excited To do this like I said 27 categories I cannot wait

But my friends Before we have a great time And before I know a lot of you Have been looking forward to it Trust me we have been looking forward to this More so than all of you We love this A lot of planning goes into this show

We've been talking about this for like two months now. Unfortunately, we do have to start with some very, very sad news. We cannot start today's show without acknowledging how tough the break was. You know, this past year was really tough for the MMA media fraternity. Earlier in the year, we lost Jordan Breen, the prolific Jordan Breen. Then over the summer, we lost Tom Gerbacy. We love him and miss him dearly. We still have his book right over there.

And then shocking to all of us came the news that our dear friend, Abby Suban, of MMA Junkie, shockingly, tragically, suddenly passed away. And I can't even believe that I am saying these words, honestly. If I could put it in the easiest and simplest way possible, a salt of the earth, sweetheart of a human being, truly, a sweetheart of a human being. First met Abbey in 2014 in Dublin. I considered him an extended part of the family because he was so supportive of everything that we did here at Uncrowned and all the other stops, was always writing, was always

checking out. You know, Frank, honestly, if there was an audio issue, it was usually coming from Abby who would listen to the show and send it to me with the exact time code. A brilliant editor, a brilliant videographer, a member of the MMA junkie team for for quite some time, I was introduced to him by the great Shemadkar Sandu, and getting the news over the break, just absolutely heartbreaking, gut-wrenching.

Just spoke to him a couple weeks ago and spoke to him quite often, living over in London. I wanna just send our best to his wife, Charlotte, to his children, Santino and Omari, Loverly, Marley, his mother, Merlina, and his sisters, Salma and Anna. Can't believe that I'm even talking about this

because he was just such a great guy, a huge MMA fan, and just an absolute, a gem of a human being and a very valued member of the MMA media fraternity. I was close to him. Petey was even closer,

a very good friend of his. And so, Petit, I just wanted to give you a couple of minutes, seconds, as long as you want to remember our dear friend, Abby Suban. Yeah, obviously very, very tough Christmas. He mains the world to the AMI community here. He's a legend of the European

scene he helped everybody i mean if it was your first day on the job he was over helping you asking you if you needed anything introducing you to everyone or he met him at his first credential event which is just a few months before uh you met him harriel it was the london event and straight over shaking hands and the m m ms scene there was very competitive and every outlet was kind of like it's a little gang and abby just didn't apply himself to any of that stuff he would be over making friends with everybody he was always the glue that brought everyone to together on Press Row. He was a very motivational person. He was the one who told me to get the finger out and start the podcast, which eventually became part of this brilliant broadcasting team.

That's the first logo for the crack here with the new logo, of course, for Uncrown in the top corner. Originally, Abby put this all together. He named the show just to get it going. There he is there. And look, I can remember whenever my fighting started sending me to events, I had been a Twitter up to that point. And I was going with a camera and a microphone and I didn't know how to use it. And I was freaking out, like visibly freaked out, trying to get this stuff to work because I had no idea how to do it. He'd stand beside me, do absolutely everything.

And he'd just say, just press the button now, Pizzi. And I'd do it. And then every time I'd have to set up again, he could see me visibly freaking out. And he just shout, just press the fucking button, Pizzi. To the point where nearly everybody on press roll was saying it in unison. and you know just a brilliant brilliant fellow I can't I'm so sorry for his whole family

Charlotte of course young kids and Marry and Santino and then obviously he has all their kids as well Marley and Loverly you know they're a credit to him too it's it's all he ever talked about to be honest if it wasn't MMA he was talking about his family I just have so many videos

of him just walking around his house in South Hall just like putting the hammering his kids face and in Charlotte's face just beaming about how much he loved life and absolutely devastating. He sent me this picture two days before he had the heart attack and it's just so weird, you know, like two days before like and then that happens. But obviously it devastated. I love him so much and we're going to look after him and his family as much as we can. Very sad news. I'm rambling. I'm sorry. No, no, no. Beautiful words. one of the last conversations I had with him

was him sending me one of those videos of him and his son having pineapple and olives pizza and he would say it's actually pretty good that was just the kind of guy that he was and he would always joke with me and this was the actual last conversation that I had he would always joke with me that he was the one

that introduced me to the influencer boxing scene I remember one time when we were doing the crust first pizza pod with Rick at the ESPN days in the early days I was confusing Jake and Logan Paul And I was like, what is going on here with a guy named KSI? And he gave me a whole breakdown. He told me who an Nissan Gibb was and all this stuff. And on the Wednesday morning that I was flying to Miami, he brought out the receipts of him explaining to me who Jake and Nissan Gibb was way back five, six years ago.

And I was like, you were the guy. You were the guy. Now here I am boarding a plane to watch Jake Paul fight, Anthony Joshua. and I will say this about Abby and I want to give Rick a moment to talk about him as well I will say this ever since the move back to Vox he would always tell me that it didn't quite seem right

when he heard me cuss on the show always tell me as recently as just a few weeks ago it doesn't quite seem right don't know if I like it it's it's not you it's not you and so I would like to think Abby is listening to us and enjoying our show right now somewhere in a better place hopefully he's relaxing and you know I pray that he has a smile on his face and my vow to you Abby up there is that I'm going to do

my best to stop the cussing because you would always tell me that you didn't like it and and you're right and so I hope you recognize that and understand that I want to do that in your honor among the many things that we will do in your honor but you would always harp on that one and so that's my my resolution for this year is that we are going to dial back on the cussing because that is what you asked for. Rick, I know you knew him as well. Any, any thoughts that you wanted to share about Abby? Yeah, thank you both for your beautiful words. Abby was a very special person as I think we've all kind of gotten across and, you know, we all talked about like our different interactions

with him through the MMA space and how he's impacted that. And there are hundreds of people out there who have those stories, right? Like from the person who's just getting started in MMA media to the veterans of the sport who have all kind of interacted with Abby and Abby has helped in some way or supported in some way he was super motivational he would send everybody messages of encouragement i don't think there's anybody who could even have a lukewarm story about abbey let alone a bad one every single interaction with him was a positive experience and so i think that was his superpower that was his gift was when you're in the presence of abbey you feel like you're the most important person in the world and he had a way of kind of doing that for everybody

um and i remember a story when sorry i remember a story when i had my first daughter avery he was one of the first people to message me and he told me to take a picture of avery's little hand wrapped around my finger excuse me because it's something that would mean something to me down the line and it's one of the pictures i cherish and so um i'm a little broken up about it, but I'm just trying to get across that. Abbey was truly a special human being and meant so much to so many. And I wanted to give a special shout out to Chmachar Sandu, Mike Bond, and some of the others who have really got the word out about this and made sure that the GoFundMe was publicized and supported. Obviously, so many people, including

yourself, Ariel, made very generous donation. So thank you, everybody, and thinking of his family. Yes. And speaking of that, GoFundMe, it's actually pinned right now. at the top of our chat. So if you are so inclined, if you are an MMA fan, if you're an MMA junkie fan, I can assure you you have enjoyed his content. And he was a true blue MMA fan,

but more importantly, just a beautiful human being. Honestly, it's right now pinned at the top of the chat on the YouTube channel. The best thing that anyone could say about Abby is that in this world of, you know, us being all competitive and working and its cutthroat and its media.

There was no greater teammate to everyone in the MMMA community as far as media is concerned than this man. He was always so supportive. He didn't care which site you worked for or whose team you were on, so to speak. He just had a beautiful way. And for me, and I think for Eric, as well, he's five hours ahead, so you'd wake up.

I'd always wake up to a message about the show, about some joke, about something that we did or talked about, and I will miss that dearly. I will miss him dearly. So again, our love, our heart, our soul goes to his family. We will do our absolute best to never forget Abby and to his friends as well. As Rick mentioned, Sandu and so many others who worked so closely with him, our friends at MMA Junkie, our condolences, our sincerest condolences. Hopefully we will see him again soon and we will miss him, but we will never forget him. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only tough news that we had to digest. It was a week ago today.

You know, we ended the year, two weeks ago today, talking about like, holy crap, Anthony Joshua has just, you know, exploded. It's like America just found out about this guy, and he's been a pro for 13 years, and you would see all these posts about him and all this chatter about him. And then, you know, he's enjoying Christmas and he's enjoying the holidays and he's there with Eddie Hearn and they're talking about, you know, the great win. And then you wake up on Monday of last week and find out that he has been in a horrific car accident back home in Nigeria. And you find out that two of his closest friends, Sinagami and Lateef Latsa Iodele, tragically passed away. and these were you know these were mainstays on his team since the very beginning and all the stories about them were that they were so close to him that they were so loyal that they had his

back they were integral parts of his team and and you know there were shocking scenes of a.J. you know being removed from the car and you come to find out afterwards that he was perhaps inches away from suffering a horrific fate and just another reminder of how, you know, fleeting life is and how we have to take every day and live it to its fullest and never take any of the gifts that we are given for granted. Yesterday was their funeral. Can't imagine what Anthony Joshua, who, you know, I remember noting during that fight week, like, just seemed to be in such a peaceful, beautiful Zen state. I can't imagine how he's doing right now. I can't imagine how he's feeling. I can't imagine his mental and physical state.

who knows who cares at this point if he fights again I just wish him the best I hope he has a speedy recovery I wish the families involved the best and we want to say rest in peace as well to Sinagami and Lateef Ayodele so just some tough tough news to digest over the break and wanted to start today's show and want to give a shout out to MVP most valuable promotions who had the first major boxing show of 2025, excuse me, of 2026 this past weekend over in Puerto Rico, and I thought they did a beautiful gesture by having their names written on the canvas. Tonight, we honor two extraordinary young men who have impacted many lives and helped create one of the greatest boxes of all time.

This is for Sina and Lats's loved ones and team Anthony Joshua with respect, Sinagami, and Latif Iodale. Thank you for helping MVP put on a massive event. You will be remembered always. And there's Jake with respect and remembrance comment underneath. So like I said, a tough, tough break. We will do our best to transition and smile and celebrate the year that was with these awards. And to bring you up to speed really quickly, a lot of people in the world of MMA, a lot of notable names, had a very happy and prosperous break and were quite busy. I just wanted to take you around the world of MMA real quickly here before we get into things

to catch you up on perhaps some items that you may have missed. You know, everyone over the break is always trying to get into the best of shape possible. And, well, you can look no further than over in beautiful Paris, France, where Monsieur Benoit-Saint-Denie was doing this little number. I mean, golly, look at this. I mean, this is just... This is craziness right here. Look at that from Mr. BSD. Had a big year in 2025.

Some very good news for one, Alex Pantosia. We all remember at the beginning of December, he suffers that gruesome elbow injury, loses his belt to Josh Van. There was talk of a shoulder. It was really an elbow. There was worry that he would have to go under the knife, that he would have to deal with all kinds of consequences.

from that entry will now you see him during the break and look at how good this guy looks it's unbelievable look at that that's mr. alex pantosia using both arms and looking pretty damn great look at this guy even doing a little bit of a of a sparring sesh unbelievable and I can break this news. This is according to his team, Alex Pantosia will not need surgery. I have been told he will not need surgery. Just the tendons were affected. No fractures. Ligaments are intact. No surgery, hoping that he'll return maybe mid to third quarter of 2026. But that is incredible news for one, Alex Pantosia. Beautiful to see and we wish him the best. Perhaps some, you know, some promising news for Tom Aspinall was that he did announce that he did have an eye procedure

and he may need another one but it seems as though he is hopeful that he's going to be back at it at some point in 2026 here's the announcement via his YouTube channel and just for everyone wants to know as well obviously you've been pretty clear in what you've said back to cyril but surgery now is the focus and then we'll we'll kick on to 2026 right that's the plan that's the plan by the time this going out, probably I've had surgery on one side already. The next surgery is coming mid-January, so we're working towards getting back

and that's the plan. Get up, young Tom. We wish you the best and hopefully all go smoothly and we'll see him back sooner rather than later. Some new friends got together guys during the break. How about this little one? Mr. Paul Hughes and Alex Volcanowski

doing a little training session. I presume down under, of course, Vogue up next in very early February defending his title down under against one Diego Lopez. And I think we all need a friend in life like Marab Diwali-Shvili. It's no secret that Ilya is going through a rough time. Look at the, I mean, look at the adventures of Marab and Ilya in Georgia. This was a fun thing to chronicle and monitor over the break. It just seems like, it seems like Marab is just the ultimate bud.

What didn't you say, pizza? I mean, isn't this wholesome stuff? What is that, by the way, that they're eating? Is that pizza? What is that? I think that's a cachapore. It's Georgian food. Oh, yes, that's right. What is a cacepore?

It's like cheese and bread. It's similar. But tastes. It's fantastic. Do you not get the feeling that like Marab, who's coming off a title loss is like, you know what? I'm going to go down there and I'm going to lift your spirits, right? This isn't about me.

It's about you. Yes. You know? Let me prop you up, brother. That's the kind of the feeling. you're getting here. What a good. I love it. Fantastic. I love to see it. Could it be two guys

lifting each other's spirits? You know what? Well, that's actually a beautiful way of putting it. A brotherhood. Yes. An absolute Georgian brotherhood. We did have a nice little hard launch right at the buzzer. Or maybe it was right after the buzzer. It was at the very beginning of the year. Look at this one, guys.

In case you are just listening to us, that is Alex Pereira and Tracy Cortez going with the hard launch. usurping Dakota Dichiva and Dalton Rosta who we're the frontrunners for a hard launch of 2025 but it does appear as though the two are madly in love and we do wish the happy couple of the best. We even saw them doing a little training sesh

over at Tashara MMA. Look at this bit of a height difference but seems like a very equal matchup. Yeah yeah you're right. Look at this a little tit for tat showing a little faint yeah that's good stuff and they're so madly in love they're even filming some

some heartwarming videos together here's yes here's well not those videos PT let's not get crazy just make a show here's a nice little fun one from the new happy couple maybe are you gonna want to marry me

oh Alex the poor guy is like What is going? Show them. Oh my God. I mean, this is unbelievable stuff. It is sleeping on the plane for that. That's a flag.

Yeah. We wish them the best. It's a beautiful thing. Alex with the hair and the goatee looking great. I like the look. By the way, a very busy break for Mr. Alex Pereira. His kids were in action over the break in a bit of a grappling match. Here's his two sons, who you know well.

Alessandro Vidal Silva and Lohan Vidal Silva, getting together to not compete against each other, but to compete on the same card, it appears, and both victorious. And you'll see the proud father there cheering them on. That's beautiful stuff over at the Mohegan Sun. I love that. Look at this.

Look at that bloodline. I mean, that is incredible. That is absolutely phenomenal. So congratulations to the boys. everyone enjoys their time and the great outdoors over the break in different ways some go to warm climate

others go to cold climate others go to dare I say Arctic climate here's the new UFC bantamway champion Peiryan enjoying the climate over in Russia I mean look at this

this is I feel like we should all do this no I'll do it this later build different who the fuck is we yeah that's right but gentlemen And then I am going to go out on a limb and say, no one, and I mean no one, enjoyed their break and did more things, and did more things than the great Armin Surukian.

I mean, could we just sit back and enjoy this highlight reel of all the things Armand Sarukian did over the break? Here he is, I don't even know. What is this? What are we doing now here? Lathering a pig. What is that, Frank? Can you narrate this for us? What's happening here?

So now he's carrying a pig on a stick into what appears to be some sort of orifice of heat. He is then throwing in what appears to be mud. He's sealing it up with mud. Oh, dear. It's just next level. Looks at the camera, pulls the pig back out of the orifice of heat. Orifice of heat is a turn of phrase. And now he's eating said pig.

Look at this. I would listen to a frank narrate series. Look at the tree in the back. The tree is suspect. Gigantic bow. No, everything is top-notch. The butcher's knife is crazy. All for himself.

No chance he eat the whole thing by himself. You don't think. He's full-on food influencer at this point. The gigantic plates, do you hear the... Dryest pig you've ever seen. Are you an influencer to a T? The noise is part of the influencer. Yeah, people like that, like, A-S-M-R.

Interesting. Well, it's all just that, guys. Look at this caviar. How much caviar do you think this is? And how much can one man consume in one bite? What kind of toast is it? I got to be honest. Every time a new Armand video pop,

I mean, I couldn't help but watch it multiple times and then drop it into the chat. It was just, well, look at this one. Now here he is eating the Wadarish, as we call it back in the motherland. What do you guys call it, dolmites or something? Yeah, dolmas. Dolmas.

Look at this. I've never seen that. And by the way, what's the stuff on the top? Is that yogurt? Look at this guy. Some sort of yogurt dipping. sauce. He's putting those things back, man.

I have five or six. I'm like, and then you're done. Yeah. I go to the bathroom. Pizzi, is your mouth watering like us here? I don't know what they are. You don't know what the grape leaves are? Never experienced or have seen one of them things.

So it's like looking at an inanimate object to me. Sure. It means absolutely nothing to me. Well, it wasn't just eating for Armin. There was a little patinage, some skating looking like a young Alex Ovechkin out there. Who knew he had these moves? Look at this. And then he just.

like chainsaws a UFC logo and then decides to go for a I mean who is doing who's doing life better than this guy right now it can too that's the second time we've seen that blue can oh yeah and let's have a let's have a little grappling match on the ice what you know here we are getting all up in arms over the fact that this guy isn't fighting for the belt I say he doesn't really seem to care all that much look at this that's this is actually pretty impressive, by the way. You have to have great control of the skates. It's going to end in tears, isn't it? No. Nice little take-down attempt there. A rare

spoof. Ah, see? Yeah. His hoop would be in bits after that now. A lot of snow back home, but that's no match for Armin. Look at him, just going to town here. What's going on? What's so funny? I mean, we're sitting through a three and a half minute, Armin Saruki and Day in the Life highlight reel. I was laughing at his hoop would be in bits. I just want to say, you know, later in the show, there is a social media. We are rioting if he doesn't win the social media influencer of the year. You got to tune in to find out. I got to find out.

I got to say, like a shovel to a car like that. It's crazy. Oh, yeah. Caviar on toast. We're making an exclamation marks. It's a G-wagon, and he's just using a metal shul. Yeah, what about the C-Doo here? How much is that bad boy?

Oh, yeah. Much is the G-wagon, honestly. Oh, and by the way, in case you thought he was just, you know, messing. about. He grappled Mr. Sharibola. Yeah, there he is with a nice little take that. By the way, what's with all the people around the ring in this event here? He just completely annihilated him.

That is a break right there. He did it all. And now, by the way, he's in sunny Florida because he's grappling Lance Palmer on Saturday at the RAF event. So the guy is just... He stays busy. He stays busy. All right, jens. No time to waste. No time to waste.

All right. We're 30 minutes in. We've said a lot, but now it's time to do. what you all are here to watch and that is handout 27 27 of these i mean this is something by the way a nice little intro here to kick us off here we go here we go here we go have we ever leveled up like this is this the glow up of the year already on january 5th dare i say this the glow up of the year gentlemen here we go and i thought it would be apropos gentlemen um rick Maybe the magic game can be saved for later. You know, we're here for the 2025 Halwani Knows Awards.

Yeah, we're getting a little loose with putting me on camera when I'm not ready. It's happening a little too frequently lately. This is how we do it. Now, guys, I thought it would be apropos to kick things off with our newest award. Our newest award. Here we are. It is the performance of the year award. This is one that they give out a lot in boxing.

And I thought it was, I thought it was important to introduce this one, much to the chagrin of, you know, the team in the back. And by the way, before we get into things, I want to give a huge shout out to Jordan who really worked very hard behind the scenes because he has to field all of our picks and whatnot. So, on-air, Jordan, real MVP of this year award show. Frank did a great job, Andy, of course,

but he's really slaving away during the break. So thank you on here, Jordan. I'm so waiting on some of your picks, so please get them in full of the show. And we did have a meeting at the very beginning of this process, and he instituted a December 26th hard deadline. I scoffed at it, but in the end,

in a day under i believe i was working on christmas so you know not that i was celebrating christmas but you know just wanted that acknowledgement as well anyway uh new category new category performance of the year and what does this mean well you know you give out fighter of the year you'll give out knockout submission but this is about someone man or woman we're not doing male or female but just one person who just freaking rose above who had an all-time night who had an incredible performance on one night seemed to be the best fighter in the world will kick things off. And then we'll go around the horn and then everyone else will start when we move on to a new category. And so you think of some of the great performances. I'll just throw out

a couple. Just throw out a couple. Islamachchev's win over Jack Della, historic win. That could certainly be in the mix as well. Back in November at Madison Square Garden, UFC 32. Of course, Alex Pereira getting revenge on Magomed, Ankaliev at UFC 320. After losing the belt in March, he comes back in October with incredible win. A dominant performance from Valentina Shepchenko. at UFC 322 as well, over won Zhang Wei Li to successfully defend her flyweight title and stop Wei Li from becoming a two-division champion. Iliate's knockout of Charles Oliva, of course, over the summer was tremendous. But in my opinion, the performance that wowed us the most and that meant the most,

and that really kind of, in at least some people's eyes, came out of nowhere, was Peirrera-Yan back at UFC 323, defeating Marabdo Wai Shvili. and I picked this one for my pick for performance of the year for multiple reasons. Number one, he lost to him two and a half years prior. It was a shutout. It wasn't even close. He comes all the way back and he does what he did to Marab. In some people's eyes, say, 50 to 45, and it was dominant and it was virtuoso, and it was textbook,

and he had an unbelievable game plan. And his coach afterwards showing a whole tree of how they would deal with the different circumstances. Peerreryan over Marab Dolishvili back in December, the final pay-per view of the ESPN air and the final pay-per-view ever, in my opinion, the 2025 performance of the year. Rick, your pick. Yeah, same thing. Performance of the year. Thought it was one of the best performances we've ever seen. Considering how Marab looked, considering the run that he was on for Jan to be able to come in in a rematch in which he did not look competitive to do that, the game plan implemented there and the execution by Jan, it couldn't have been anything else for me. Although there were

some very good ones, that was the one for me. G.C. Yeah, we're going to make it three for three here. I also had Jan. Stuff, 27 takedowns, outstruck them all but one round, got the belt back when all the talk was about Fighter of the Year, greatest year ever in UFC history from

Rob de Lashvili, and Peter Jan, turned the tide, got the belt back. Unreal performance. Pizzi. Yeah, that's 4 out of 4. Wow. Yan as well. Incredible. And for the reasons you said, I mean, this

was a terrible matchup for him as far as we were concerned going into this. Marab was an awful matchup for him. As far as we saw, we had evidence to prove that. And for him to flip it like that, absolutely unbelievable. This guy has been a brilliant fighter for a very, very long time, right back to his fledging years in ACB. He's proved it once before into UFC, and he's proved it again. And I cannot wait to see that trilogy fight if it happens. All right. So a couple others that I can mention, Alex Volcanowski, defeating Diego Lopez at UFC 314, Joshua Van. defeating Brandon Royval at UFC 317, Anthony Hernandez's win over Roman Delizze at the Fight Night event, Jack Della's win over Bala Muhammad in Montreal 315, Kioji Harguchi's big return

to the UFC late in the year. And then, of course, Hamza Chamev's somewhat polarizing, but very dominant win over Drichis duplice. But in the end, 4-0, Peter Yan. Yes, Ray. I was just going to point out, when it comes to these, and I think fight of the year, a lot of us tend to gravitate toward, like, decisions or, like, thorough dominance that is, like, expressed over a long period of time. But truth be told, like, Iliot-Taporia, Charles Olavera, Alex Perr, and Magamette on Kalayev, like, you don't have better nights in the office than that, except if maybe you're Peotryon in this year, I do think that those deserve mention and probably are, like, some of the best performances, even though when we think of this award, we do think of maybe, like, more of a sustained type of thing. I agree, yeah. I mean, and to that point, Pereira and I thought in particular, quick fights, but incredibly impressive. Want to add two more things before we move along to the next award.

Number one, over on the substack, I asked all of you to give us your people's picks, and we have those. I want to give a big shout out to Alex Weber and moderator Lewis, who helped out with that. We added performance late, so this is the only one that I don't have a people's pick for. So stay tuned. more of those are to come and a very, very, very special shoutout. I say that Jordan is, you know, the real

MVP, and he is, but perhaps a co-MVP is our good friend Caposa, who does tremendous work behind the scenes for the award show, for all of us, for all of us, and also to our good friend Alan Murphy who does amazing work. Ovin did amazing work as far as the graphics are concerned,

Spencer and Kell on the social side of things, so they are all huge contributors to this award shows. So I want to give a shout out to all of them as well. We move along now to the very fun fight of the year, very prestigious award. New York, Rick, you go first. Yeah, this one was pretty easy for me. I knew it when it happened. I did have to go back because I, you know, I didn't want to forget anything that had happened previously just to verify. But I had the feeling when it happened that Joshua Vann versus Brandon Royval was going to be my fight of the year. Three rounds of

just absolute madness, complete performances by both at the highest level, right? You have to know that if Royval wins, he's going to get a title shot for, sorry, Van wins, he's going to get a title shot for Royval. You have to imagine that he's going to be in the upper echelon still despite his standing with Pantosia. And they went to war. They did not have to, and they did. And it was extremely enjoyable.

Over, what is it, 300 significant strikes each, absolutely crazy. Shout out to Brandon Royvon, Joshua Van. That was my fight of the year. It was a tough one. I am going to go out on a limb. I don't know everyone's picks, by the way. I only know mine. I'm going to go on a limb and say not a consensus for this one,

because I think there were a lot of good choices. GCU, you go next. I'm going to agree with Rick. Okay. He said the stat there. Only fight in UFC history where both fighters landed more than 200 significant strikes, and they did it in a three-rounder. That right there should be enough to get fight of the year.

But then you add, like you mentioned, the title implications, then Van drops him with 10 seconds to go when it's 1-1 going into the third round on two of the judge's scorecards. That leads to Van getting in the octagon later with Pantosia, gives him the title shot, and then he gets the belt six months later. Just all of the title implications around it, and then delivering on that stage, just pure violence on the main card of International Fight Week, a fight of the year for me, Josh Van versus Brandon Rodel. Wow, wow, wow, okay. Two for two for that fight, and by the way, the people agree with you guys so we could say it's three for three pizzi are you in agreement i'm afraid i'm not guys

even though that's a brilliant fight it's right there of course um would not dispute that anyway i'm going for the greatest pfl fight of all time between oosman of magamadoff and paul hugh's the first round in january and i watched it again because it was like am i all you know am i being biased here because an irishman in this fight but honestly the drama of this fight there's two stoppages one in the third round and one in the fourth and it almost feels like a Formula One race. It's like, who is this break serving more? Obviously, PFL, and I wrote about this at the time, went into this kind of saying, this is Dagestan, Villarland, and we won't get into that again. But I was like, this is absolutely stupid. It's so different. And these guys come away from this

with a completely different story to tell. I taught Paul Hughes did enough on the day. There's a lot of differing views on that. They both had a brilliant, brilliant fight. And it might not have the most significant strikes of all time, but the tension, the skill that's on display and just the drama really of the fight right up until the scores are announced, I thought it was brilliant, it's my fight year. It's a great choice and I actually was very close to picking that one. I had a

hard time with this one. I want to give a shout out to some others so as of right now the people like I said picked Royville van that was UFC 317 International Fight Week, the one headline by Ilya Tepore versus Mr. Charles Olivera. Pizzi's pick is a tremendous one and the rematch was great as well. Some others worth mentioning Nassim Sadiqav against

Nicholas Mata on the Hill Roundtree card in June. Murab Dwalashvili versus Peter Yan back at UFC 323 that we talked about earlier. What about Marab versus Umar Namar Madhav. Matheus Rambeki against Chris Duncan. Also

that Yiri Prakashka-Kal roundtree fight was a banger as well but in the end I agree with Rick. I agree with GC. I agree with the people and I too picked Joshua Van, Brandon Royville, back at UFC 317, of course, won by Joshua Van. And really the coming out party for Mr. Van, his second fight in June. He fought in Newark, came back a couple weeks later, won this fight, an incredible back-and-forth affair.

He comes back at the very end of the night, has the face-off, owns the moment with Alex Pantosia, puts his arm up, and then, of course, some, what was it, six months later, he ends up winning the title, obviously a bit unceremonious, But them's the brakes, and he heads into 2026 as the UFC flyway champions. So congratulations to all the great competitors. It was a tremendous year. And by the way, a couple of little nuggets here while we're talking about fights. In total, as far as 2025 is concerned, and the UFC in particular, 21 title fights guys in 2025. They had 19 in 2024 and 19 in 2023.

They also had a BMF title. So if you want to count that one, they had 22 title fights in the year 2025. Any guesses as far as how many title changes this past year, guys? Well, I think 11 was the number I had heard, is that right? Yes, 11 total, including three vacant titles won by McKenzie Dern, Ilya, and Alex Volcanowski, defending champions combined record in 2025, 9 and 8 with 1-no contest. and currently right now there are no undisputed champions

with an active title defense on their resume could you believe that that is a that is a crazy crazy thing most fights in 2025 anyone know

who had the most fights yeah although Cortez Acosta was fun yeah five hey nailed it how about that by the way I read that undisputed thing am I wrong Does Valentina have a title defense?

Yeah, I believe she is the one. She might be the only one. She's the one. I think the statistic is no male fight. Male, male, yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so no male fighter, Valentina Shetchenko, don't want to take that away from her. Yes. Most fights five, Waldo Cortez-A-Costa, went four and one.

And so shout out to him. And while we are talking about our next category, which is actually round of the year, so I'm going to save the rest of this for later. But I do want to tell you the ones who won the most performance bonuses, that was three, the aforementioned Marab de Wally-Schfili, John Silva, and Diego Lopez. They all won three over the course of 2025. All right, let's move along now to round of the year, gentlemen,

round of the year, which is sometimes a tough one, and sometimes it falls under the umbrella of fight of the year, and sometimes it doesn't. Mr. G.C., you go first. Yeah, this is a tough one. It's a tough one every year, and this was almost my fight of the year when it happened back in September at Noce UFC in real time.

I was watching it with Rick out in the kitchen, And I was like, oh my God, that's going to be my fight of the year. I don't think that's going to be able to be topped. I went back and rewatch the fights, though. And ultimately went with Josh Van Brennan-Roy Val. But for a round of the year, round two of Diego Lopez versus Jean-Silva in San Antonio, back and forth a fair. They're just throwing haymakers.

At one point, like halfway through the round, John Silva is just flowing downhill. It looks like he's going to get the finish out of Diego Lopez's chin, just eating huge shots. He gets a takedown. It looks like Diego's going to be able to do something with that. John Silva pops back up, and then John Silva, who keeps going for the spinning back elbow all round, even Dominic Cruz is like, man, that thing's getting close.

That ended up being his demise. Diego Lopez hits him with the spinning back elbow. That leads to the TKO finish. Crowd goes nuts. Maybe the biggest crowd pop of the year in San Antonio. Diego Lopez jumps up on the octagon, giving the double birds to crowd. Incredible moment, incredible

round. Shout to Diego Lopez and John Silva. What I love about this pick is that's the round in which the fight ended. So you even get the five minutes, right? Yeah, but it was incredible. It went like 440. The first round was nuts, too. It looked like Diego had him like fully flattened out.

It looked like he was going to get the finish there. But yeah, just incredible fight. Those guys brings fireworks every time. Pizzi. I've gone for one of the events of the year, UFC 323, a meeting between Baronevsky and Ibo Aslan. And this fight was absolutely insane. I think there was six knockdowns in this round of fight.

And Mark Goddard, of course, one of the best referees in the world when it comes to those frenzied fights. We've seen him in that role over the years. I just thought it was brilliant. And do you know what else did? Your good friend, Daniel Cormier, because throughout this event, he could not stop speaking about this fight.

I mean, think about the fights around this card. Marab, Jan, you had, you obviously had Peyton Talbot and Suhudo. Carmier is bringing this fight up even when these guys are fighting. It was absolutely tremendous. Kind of reminded me of Pat Berry and Czech Congo back in the day.

That's my round of the year. Okay, interesting. All right. Maybe we're actually going to disagree on this one as far as all four of us are concerned. My pick for a round of the year goes back to the Jamal Hill versus Kalil Roundtree card in June. And it's the first round of the Nassim Sadiqav versus Nicholas Mata fight, which was an incredible back and forth affair. Some stats for you, significant strikes. Sadiqav landing 39 of 63, Mata, 36 of 82. strikes for Sariqav 45 of 70, 44 of 91 for Nicholas Mata.

One knockdown for Nicholas Mata. Back and forth they went. It was an incredible fight, an incredible back and forth affair. And it was ultimately won by the Black Wolf, Mr. Nassim Sariqav. It was a tough one. There were a lot to choose from. I was very close. I will admit, I was very close to picking the final round of the Yiri Prakashka

versus Khalil Roundtree fight. UFC 320 round three I was very close to picking that one but in the end I wanted to give a shout out to Nassim Sadeha versus Nicholas Mata round number one back in June of the Khalil roundtree

versus Jamal Hill card Mr. New York Rick final one your prediction comes true we are four separate answers for this mine was Adrian Luna Martinetti versus Mark Volak Dean from Dana White Contender Series week nine

you could pick any round from this fight, but round two in particular. These dudes are bombing on each other to a level I have not seen. I cannot believe that the fight did not end in this round. There's fights like Roy Val versus Van, where they're throwing volume, volume, volume, and it is just nonstop. It was that, except including knees and elbows and just devastating fight-finishing fights. I don't know how this got out of that second round.

I don't know how this fight wasn't like more talked about. There were some people online kind of talking about it, and G.C. was like, yo, you got to watch it. When I did sit down to watch it, I could not believe my eyes. Round two of this fight is in the pantheon of violence. Like, you mentioned Pizzi, your winner being like the Czech Congo. It was that, except sustained for the five rounds, the Pat Barry and Czech Congo. It was nuts, and they were bloodied and really, really badly beaten after the end of it.

It's good watching if you enjoy violence. I encourage you to find that one. It's an incredible fight. You say people didn't really talk about it. I saw people saying it was the greatest. fight of all time. So much so, the UFC, I just wanted to double check this. They put the full fight on their YouTube channel and the title of the video is, all caps, the greatest fight of all time. Wow. Wow. Wow. Great shout by you, Rick. I don't know if it's the

greatest fight of all time. I stood by that in October. I stand by that now. I'm not going to get all caught up and all the hype and everything like that, but it was a fantastic fight. That round might be the greatest round of all time, though. I'll tell you that. Whole shit. I mean, Congo Barry and then that. It's great. It's great. It's great. Congo Barry and, uh, Frank Mir and Todd Duffy. Shout out to that knockout. Paul Daly, Nick Diaz. That's a tremendous round.

Chris Duncan, Terrence McKinney, back at UFC 323. Prochaska Roundtree, like I said. Prochaska Hill, that first round was pretty interesting as well. What about the Jelton Almeda, Sergei Spivak, round one? There were a lot to choose from. It's always tough. I think this is one of the tougher ones to pick. And by the way, we're 0 for 5 as far as unity is concerned,

because the people pick Prochaska, round. country round three. That was their pick for round of the year. So a great year as far as rounds are concerned. And I love the fact that we all had different picks. Okay, let us move along and go with knockout of the year. Knockout of the year is always one of the most prestigious ones to give out. And a lot of good candidates. I'm curious who Mr. Pizzi Carroll has for his pick for knockout of the year 2025. Biggle, Manchester. It's a Ronald Morphe. and Aaron Pico that is my knockout of the year

you know the context of this fight is very important Pico is this guy that we saw is this blue chip prospect for a very long time Belator won the lot of when they got him and they redlined him straight out the door they put him in tricky matchups very early on

and he got caught a few times but there was a lot of people that thought he could come into the UFC and be a top dog a fed away Ron Murphy is this guy that is doing it the hard way we often compare him to Leon Edwards, and that's what it feels like with him. Ariel has been saying for a very long time, he should be the guy fighting for the featherweight title.

He comes in against this dude. Everyone's hyping him up and scores one of the most beautiful, spectacular knockouts we've seen all year. Well, in my opinion, the best one. And I just thought it was a fantastic moment for Lerone, fantastic moment for UKMMA and a fantastic moment for Manchester top team. Couldn't agree more. That is my pick as well.

You laid it out. There was so much pressure on Murphy. He felt like he was being served up as the opponent. to the new, young, shiny toy that is Aaron Pico. I think Pico would have gotten a title shot had he won the fight. He's coming at him. He's looking to be in incredible shape. He's replacing the injured Mofsar Evloev.

I mean, look at this. Look at this. I mean, it's just a vicious knockout. Let me be clear. He was supposed to fight Mofsar, and then Mofsar gets hurt, and then he gets moved to this one when they needed that co-made event, if my memory serves me correct. In any event, he just looks phenomenal.

and he's going out there, you know, like a freaking raging bull. Like he's bringing the fight. He's bringing the fight. He's bringing the fight to Lerone. And then out of nowhere comes this spinning back elbow on a card, which of course featured the Carlos Prachas spinning back elbow, which could be someone else's pick. Didn't see it coming from Lerone. It was fast.

It was vicious. It was shocking. It should have been the exclamation point to get him that title shot. Of course, we know that it wasn't, but that takes nothing away from the knockout itself. That is my knockout of the year. Lerone Murphy, Aaron Pico, UFC 319. back in Chicago in August. Mr. New York, Rick.

Yeah, I think this one's going to be pretty obvious once you see the silhouette of my pick. Yeah. It's a great one. Hoofie versus King Green. So good. Insanely nasty, insanely clean, as we've kind of seen with some of the clips resurfacing, like style points matter to me when I'm picking some of these knockouts.

And I don't think there was a more stylistically beautiful knockout than this, in addition to being extremely effective and finishing the fight and the way Bobby Green King Green rather fell this was just beauty this was just what I this is peak mix martial arts for me

like this is what I'm after when I want to see a clean knockout it's it's ones like this it's the Edson Barbosa Terry Adam's spinning wheel kick like this is what I come for and hoofie delivered

Yeah that was a really What's going on with the graphic there What's going on with the graphic? Pizzi's 20 what did that say? Oh my Pizzi's 2024 of knock out of year Come on me You get a Mulligan once in a while

Yeah What if Lauren's watching this And he's like, hang on a fucking second. He just said, he just said, oh, you had the award. Go ahead, go ahead, go off, go off. Sorry, no, I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. Is it possible that you gave him that pick earlier and changed your mind?

No, it isn't. That is not possible, okay? I have the document in front of me. So back in the day, Terry Adam, tremendous stuff. All right, G.C., your pick. I'm going to agree with you and Pizzi on this one. I'm going with Lerone Murphy's spinning back elbow on Aaron Pico. Don't have much to add to everything you guys said, but the stakes co-main event of a UFC pay-per-view. He's won his last five fights by a decision.

We need an exclamation point to get that title shot. He does that. Unfortunately, he doesn't get the title shot, but it was the shot heard around the world that night and an unbelievable knockout by Lerone Murphy. Huge, huge. Some others that are worth considering as well, Eliy Tuporia's knockout of Charles Olvera, the right hook back at UFC 317.

Quillian Sal Kield's knockout of Nasrat Haqpras. That was my number two. That one like, I was like, oh my God, when it happened. A coming out party for him at UFC 321, the aforementioned Carlos Pratchez knockout of Jeff Neal. By the way, Carlos Pratchez with two contenders, in my opinion. The knockout of Leon Edwards was incredible as well. Maybe not like as flashy, but in my opinion, very notable as well. Yuri Prakaska's knockout of Khalil Roundtree.

What about Bo Nichols' knockout of Hadolfo Vieira? And I'll give another mention to Kevin Vallejo's knockout of Giga Chikaze. On and on it goes. One more just to call out. Don't forget Sergio Pettis on Magamette. Oh, tremendous. Because of all the spinning elbows, that one kind of got lost, but that one was insane. And you talk about stakes, like that's the ultimate stake.

So, yeah, that was a big one. Huge, huge, huge. The people agreed with some of us they gave it to. Lerone Murphy and his spinning back elbow knockout of one Aaron Pico. So shout out to them. Shout out to all the big winners. Shout out to all the great knockouts and submissions. By the way, do want to let you know. As far as knockouts are concerned, the quickest knockout of 2025. That distinction in the UFC goes to Benoit Saint-Denie, who knocked out Benio Darius in 16 seconds back at UFC 322.

Quickest submission, that went to Kyle Dachis, who submitted Gerald Mirchart with the Dars Choke in 50 seconds back at UFC 322 as well. We had them in studio after the win, and so with that in mind, let us go to our submission of the year, and this is always another tough one as well, because sometimes with this one, guys, it's like, do you go for the technique? Because of submission, you know, there's so much that could go on, there's so much beauty. There's so much technique. There's all these little intricate details. Do you go with the stakes? Do you go with the viciousness of it all? I'll have to say, like, this was one of those

that I was going back and forth. I'll usually like cross off the ones that I feel, you know, 100% good about. And then, um, and then I'll leave some others for the very end. And this was one of my final ones that I had to, all right, say, here it is. This is my pick. And in the end, I went with the Bellator middleweight title fight back in. July in South Africa. It was Costello Van Stenis, the pride of Spain submitting Johnny Eblin in the final seconds of their title fight. You see right there at 22, 21, locking in the rear naked in a fight by the way, in a fight by the way that he was losing, 3937 heading into the fifth round. And unlike John Sina, Johnny Eblen, shout out to him, refuses to tap. He goes out

officially at around eight seconds, eight seconds left in the fifth round, Costel Van Steenis, with the submission. And so given that, given the stake, given the comeback, given the fact that there was so much, I'd say, given how good Johnny had been in Belator slash PFL, did I say Belator title

fight when I set this up? I perhaps did. I did. He'll always be the Belator champion. To me, it just occurred to me now that I said, but it was for the PFL middleweight title, Belator champion going in. You know, it's all very confusing. Costel Van Stenis's submission. back in July in South Africa.

That is my pick for submission of the year. New York, Rick. It's a great one. And not only was he losing, heading into the fifth round, one minute prior to the submission, less than a minute. At the minute mark of the fight, Johnny Eblen was on his back. And that fight ends with him choking out Johnny Eblen.

Insane. Insane. I'm, you mentioned that, you know, do you do stakes? Do you style points? I kind of try to combine the two. I try to thread the needle on this. I did not have the same one as you. Mine was John Silva's ninja choke on Bryce Mitchell.

The slickness, the speed with which he applied this, and against such a competent grappler in Bryce Mitchell, blew me away. It just blew me away. Because obviously we think of John Silva as this dynamic striker, crazy dynamo of activity and energy when it comes to the striking. But when he was able to apply this choke and the speed at which he put Bryce Mitchell to sleep,

it had to be that for me. It was just too clean. It was too brutal. Loved it. Much like my knockout. I was high on style points for this one. Well, I can tell you the people agree with you. They also gave it to John Silva's submission,

The Ninja Choke of one. Bryce Mitchell, there was a lot of tension going into that fight. He asked for him. All the crazy podcast talk going into it. It was a great time. Mr. G.C., you're up next. Yeah, I'm actually going to disagree with both of you here.

Oh, yeah. To Munich, Germany. Oh, yeah. For Octagon 80. Man, it's a great shout. Henrique Madreira defeating Iroglent Prisarini

It's such a great shot I had never seen anything In my life like this I believe we have the video The inverted I didn't even know you could get a submission from this inverted triangle choke

At this one I'm just like All right he's gonna fall off right Like this is This can't lead to anything right And it eventually ends up leading To a victory For Enrique Madreira Insane

Shades of Toby Amada and Jorge Mazvedal from way back in the day and by the way this was my finalist it was either this or Costello in the end the stakes for Costello put it over the edge for me but that's just absurd technique right there it's a great show

it's an unbelievable pick yeah insane I haven't seen anything like it Octagon had a great year as well Pete's your pick I'm at Rick and the reason why like this is this is the biggest submission of the year like there is no submission

bigger than Silva and Mitchell. This was a public bloodletting. I've never seen anything like this in my life. So Mitchell goes his first ever podcast, hard to believe to this day, and says he wants to go fishing with Hitler and he's a good guy and all this stuff. People are crying out for him to fight Silva

pretty much immediately after that. The UFC go, oh, okay, let's do that. Dana White does an interview saying, the best thing about this sport is, we can see these guys get their ass kicked if they say something crazy. And he even said, like, you know, Mitchell might be the stupidest human being alive

or something to that effect. We all watch this fight nearly like with this anticipation the combat sports world has. And it's John Silva hanging off the cage, frothing at the mouth to go in and do this thing. In the lead up to the fight, Mitchell is saying he's been attacked in his dreams

by women sent by the possessed John Silver. And then when everyone just thought John Silver would go in and K-Ome like he usually does, he submits Mitchell, who's an incredible grappler? I think it's the biggest submission of the year. I don't think you can pick anything else, even though you guys have made some great arguments for your two. An incredible bit of technique for GC's pick.

And then, of course, the Eblum one that you've talked about already. But I think if it's the submission of the year, it's got to be silver over Mitchell. I love it. I mean, I don't think there's a wrong answer. There's rarely a wrong answer unless it's like, you know, Ronda Rousey's in the year. On the way, I think I've got some.

Prediction show, 2026? Okay, you know, I mean, it's going to age beautifully. It's going to age beautifully. Some others worth mentioning, Marab Duolishvili's submission of Sean O'Malley, the North South choke back at UFC 316. What about Sean Brady submitting Leon Edwards back in London at that fight night event at the O2? Shout out to Jake Hadley's submission over Mateus Matos in the PFL tournament, the Twister, Kayla Harrison's Camorow win over Giuliana Pena.

Peña, Jimmy Crude's submission against Ivan Erslan, the camel clutch, as it was referred to. And of course, Mr. submission himself, Walter Walker, with the heel hooks. You can give it to any one of them, perhaps the Kennedy and Zetchuku one.

You could even give a shout out to Isamha Chazha. Can I give one more? For Hanata Moikana. Yes, of course. It's my favorite and the one that will stick with me the most from the year, even though, like, John Silver is my pick for sure, and it will stick with me.

but the visual of Fluffy Hernandez getting the rear naked choke no hooks in standing lifting Roman DeLite backwards just straight bullying him and then choking to sleep immediately was crazy like Fluffy is insane

and that one will stick with me much like the visual of Kapilov in his rear naked choke as well when he's sticking the tongue out Fluffy has a way of making it look good unbelievable that was my number two I agree and a great year for him looking forward to his return

Okay, perhaps, perhaps Mr. Fluffy Hernandez would fall under your breakout fighter of the year award category. Perhaps he will get a mention there, Mr. New York, Rick. That is our next category. You go first. Breakout fighter of 2025. Yeah, this was another no-brainer for me. And it features one of the other people that I said wasn't a no-brainer in the fight of the year. Josh Van.

You cannot have a better year. than Josh Van at this point. Fight of the year contender, my fight of the year. Second youngest champ in UFC history behind John Jones. This is doing it. This is the Alex Pereira Speed Run Award

this year for Josh Van. No notes, no blemishes. You've done everything you could possibly do to put yourself in the category for breakout fighter. It has been on a tremendous rise, but this was really the year that Josh Van became the household name,

at least for combat sports fans and was a no-brainer for me. G.C. I am actually not going to go with Josh Fan. I'm going to head to the heavyweight division devoid of star power. They're hungry for a name to emerge, a contender to emerge. And here we are together. I'm going to go with Mr. Waldo Cortez and Costa.

What a story. A leader of a nation, salsa boy nation, that is, that I am now proudly a part of. But in all seriousness, fighting five times, going four and one through those, and then ending the year with the back-to-back first-round knockout, stepping in on extreme short notice against Shemiel Gadsiev, and then begging for another fight before the years out. Now he's getting one at the start of the year on the very first pay-per-view, a very first card of the Paramount Plus era, and he's getting it on the main card against Derek Lewis, him diving into the social media of everything, starting this sort of brand of the fighting pirates going off of the Tom Aspinall I poke, and then the week after. getting eye poked by his teammate and going on to win it, him sort of just capitalizing on all of this, making a name for himself, finding himself in the top five, the division. I felt like he really broke out at 265. I love it. And like we said earlier, five fights for him in 2025, four and one,

three knockouts, the pride of the Dominicana of the Dominican Republic. Love that. And what a, what a comeback for the two of you, right? I mean, you were hating him and then you loved it. Yeah, we really had some hard times. Yeah. We really had some hard times. but you proved that you were able to get through it all. So that's a great pick. Wow. Pizzi, do you agree with Rick? Do you agree with G.C.?

Or are you going off the board? No, I agree with Rick with Josh Van for this one. You know, might have called this. One of been on the old short list there in last year's predictions podcast. Wow. Jordan will let us all know about that. But fantastic fighter. Brilliant year.

I know a lot of people are trying to take away something from this man because of what happened with Pantosia, but that's completely out of his control. Couldn't have gone better for him. Perfect year. Great fighter. I want to give a shout out to a few others who haven't been mentioned yet. John Silva.

I know that the year ended, you know, poorly for him with the loss of Diego, Lopez, but he had the Bryce Mitchell win. He had the Melsick win, a coming out party for him, if you will. Frank's favorite, Ms. Fatima Klein, had a huge win.

A huge year, I should say, 3 in 2025, with a pair of finishes and an impressive win over Angela Hill to end the year. What about RDR? I know again, it ended poorly for him, but it felt like a big breakout year for him going three and one

in 2025. Thad Gene of PFL fame had a very, very strong year winning the Walterweight tournament. Michael Morales had a great year as well, going 2 and 0 in 2025 over top opposition, of course, the big win at Madison Square Garden, highlighted it all.

But I agree with Rick with PT, with the people as well. The people as well gave it to Josh Van. I'm giving it to Josh Van 4-0 in 2025, including a fight of the year over the number one contender, Mr. Brandon Royville wins the title in December, injury or not. That's an incredible year for a guy that a lot of us weren't talking about in this type of way. Certainly a lot of us didn't think that he would be a champion by the end of the year.

I know some of us did, but that is a true blue breakout year. opinion. So shout out to the man Joshua Van, the pride of Myanmar and Houston. He wanted the Houston title fight. It doesn't look like he's getting it. Will he get the Japan title fight against Tatsura, or perhaps today's news regarding Alex Pantosha? Does that change things for Josh Vann's first title defense? We shall find out. But for now, congratulations to Joshua Van, at least in my opinion, the 2025 breakout fighter of the year. Most improved fighter of the year is up next. And this is always a very tough one because, again, it's like, it's subjective, right? And I know a lot of these are, but it's like, okay, how did you rate this person going into the

year? How do you rate them now? How did they improve in your eyes? This could be all over the place. We could go, you know, in five different directions here. We'll start with you, G.C. Yeah, we saw the improvements happen in real time over the course of the year. He starts the year as a minus a thousand favorite to Heone Barcellos loses that one. Next fight, Felipe Alamed, National Fight Week, a lot of people thought that he was not going to be able to win. Lima is on a 14-fight win streak, and then he ends the year against Henry Sehudo, Olympic gold medalist wrestler, double champion in the UFC, and he 30-20-7s him on all three judges' scorecards.

For me, Peyton Talbot, the improvements we saw across 2025 for him, earned him the title of most approved fighter for me. Love it. Love it. Pizzi, do you agree? I absolutely agree. Barcellos, South African, so South American wrestling champion

back in his wrestling days, completely overwhelms him in the grappling department. And then a few, like, you know, at the end of the year, he is, he's taken down an Olympic gold medalist. It's very impressive. It's Peyton Talbot and overcame so much. Overcame everybody getting off the hype trainer,

as G.C. pointed out with the Barcellos loss. A lot of people against them for Lima. You know, I had him as breakout last year. Like, you know, I thought he'd be breakout. A lot of people laughing at that. I think you make an argument for him as well in 2025 based on how we're finished. He was on my short list for breakout Friday of the year, but then he loses at the beginning of the year.

And then you wonder where he's going to go from there, gets the win in June. And then a win like that and a performance like that over Henry Sohudo, yeah, to me, it had to be Peyton Talbot. So we'll go three for three. Peyton Talbot gets my pick. He showed such great improvement. If he would have won that third fight of the year and just like won via knockout

like we had seen him knock people out in the past it's like all right how much did he actually improve but to do it with the wrestling against someone like Suhudo old man or not end of the career or not

by the way he's signed with RIF and will debut for them in February in Arizona pretty amazing pretty amazing to see no one saw that coming for him to score those takedowns against someone like Henry

shocking stuff concerning what happened in January the improvements he made and will continue to make it's an amazing thing to watch he's going to be one of the guys to watch this year as far as like okay where do he start the year and where does he end the year if he could get three fights in I think he could be very

much in the mix at 135 my most improved fighter of the year won Peyton Talbick Rick do you agree four for four okay easy there it is well there it is and by the way shout out to Wing C he honored him with that tattoo

that circle tattoo just kidding just kidding the people agree by the way. The people agree. They give it to paint Talbitt. Some others worth mentioning. What about Fabian Edwards? He entered the year coming off the lackluster loss to won Johnny Eblen, reinvents himself, and ends up winning the PFL middleweight tournament.

Same way that his brother won the, the welterweight title a few years prior. Edmund Shabazian ended the year, 3 and O in the UFC. It looked like maybe he was, you know, on thin ice as far as his career. career is concerned. Joseph Morales was cut from the UFC in 2018 after going one and two in the promotion, comes back and has a very, very solid year after going through Cage Warriors and A1 combat, worked his way through the ultimate fighter. Alfie Davis, who we had on the show at the end of the year and is going to be fighting Uzmanur Magamatov in early February, had a bit of an up and down run, and then all of a sudden goes on this incredible one, winning three consecutive

upsets over the likes of Clay Collard, Brent Premis, and Gatsi Rabadamanov to win the lightweight tournament. We mentioned Josh Van throughout the show. I do think it's worth mentioning him for our most improved fighter of the year nod. And Melchizio Costa ended up stringing together four victories in 2025, including a fight of the night performance against Julian Arosa and finish both Andre Fili and Morgan Chariere. So those are some names that come to mind as far as most improved fighter of the year. Okay guys, are we having fun? Are we having fun? Yeah. I'm having a great time and it's so good to be back and by the way, please in the chat, let us know what you think of everything. Way in in the comments if you're watching this after the fact. What about

this trophy? Isn't it great? One more time, can we take a look at that video of the trophy where it shows it? You know, yeah, Oban. I mean, it's something. Look at this. I mean, look at this thing. It's something else. Ah, yes. Peace and love. Peace and love. Everyone's talking about it.

Everyone's... It's trending on. Exist. You guys happen to see that shot where, like, the leaders of the free world were doing some stuff and the X was in the background? Crazy. Crazy. Anyway, comeback fighter.

I thought you were going to say the trophy was in the background. No, it was not. It should have been. So, guys, we have come back fighter of the year and comeback fight a year. And comeback fight a year. of the year. These are two different categories, right? So comeback fight of the year is a more career-based award, someone who came back. And then comeback fight of the year is someone who comes back like they're down and then they come back within the fight. So, you know, a lot of other people

go, just come back. No, we want to make the distinction. We want to give a hat tip to those who are down on their luck. But then in 2025 came back bigger, better, stronger, more successful, victorious than ever. And then in a moment, we'll give you our comeback fight of the year. So GC, comeback fighter of the year. Who does it go to? I'm going to go out to France. I'm going to go to a man who was 0 in 2024 and then finds himself at 3 and 0 in 2025. All wins coming by finish.

And that is Benoit Saint-Denie. He put the stamp on it at MSG against Benile Daryush in just about a minute. Now he finds himself at number six in the division or at least going against the number six guy in the division and Dan Hooker. Massive fight for him to start the year. So BSD, massive, massive 2025 for him. Such a good shout. I mean, it was a nightmare at 2024. And people were writing him off.

And then the year that he had was phenomenal. So shout out to him. Great, great shout. Pizzi, do you agree? Is it the Frenchman? I don't agree. I have Yuri Prohasker. Wow.

This guy, even in his fights, he has come back. You know what I mean? The round tree fight, like, it's like a religious experience watching it, where he starts coming back. And then he knocks him out in the third round after chasing most of the fight, Jamal Hill, you know, competitive fight. And then he just turns into a demon. The later it goes, the more you hit this guy, the more possessed he seems to become. You know, after the loss to Pereira, the second one, you're kind of going, how does this guy figure out his way back into the title mix?

Even if he wins, even if he beats everyone. Like, how would that be interesting? But, I mean, isn't it interesting? And how the hell did he manage to do with that? just two fights, it's Yuri Prohasker for me. Another good shot. I feel like I say this before all of my picks, but I really did have a hard time with this one.

In the end, I went with the very first fighter in UFC history to become a champion after once holding the belt to regain their title after going on a three-fight losing streak, and that's the one and only Peter Yan. He had the belt, lost the belt, went on the losing streak, and then came all the way back at the very end of the year. year to win that title. Of course, against Marab in the fight of the year candidate, just an unbelievable story. One thought that he would never truly rebound from the devastating first loss

to Al Jemaine Sterling. He ends up losing in the rematch and then comes all the way, and it goes through a bit of a tough time, and then comes all the way back to win this year. Did not see this coming at all. Did not see this coming, especially after how good Marab looked throughout the year. So, Pierre Yan, my comeback fighter of the year. out to the big man or, you know, smaller man considering he's a Bantuway. Anyway, shout out to him for winning this beauty. I can't stop touching it. It's just so nice and shiny and so beautiful. Mr. New York, Rick, your pick. Comeback fighter of the year. Yeah, this was my most difficult category, but in the end, the boys in the back are aligned on this one, and it was from BSD.

To be where he was at the end of 2024, where people were acting like he couldn't fight at all, he was a bum, he was fraud checked, he was no good, he was and never was. to be back on top in the way that he did it and the way he just kind of carved up the competition, it was a real drastic comeback for BSD, so I had to lean in that direction. But there was a few other names that I really couldn't, I had a tough time deciding between.

You are aligned with G.C. The people are aligned with me. They gave it to Pura, yeah, and some others. Worth mentioning Alex Volcanowski, had the back-to-back knockout losses, returns to defeat Diego Lopez and regain that title Haoni Barcellos

entered 2025 going two and four in his last six fights then beats Peyton Talbot and follows that up with victories over Cody Garbrand and Ricky Simone Kioji Haraguchi coming back after the stint overseas and winning in his return to the

UFC back in November. My good friend, Kamaro Usman, what about that? Two-year layoff comes back and beats the the top 10 Mr. Joaquin Buckley shout out to him I also mentioned

Joseph Morales who's cut from the UFC in 2018 wins tough 33 goes 2 and 0 in 2025 Mason Jones PTC cut from the

UFC in 22 returns and goes 2 and 0 in 2025 and shout out to the aforementioned Kyle Dawkes who was cut in 223 and returned

to go 2 and 0 with some big wins in 2025 so can I give one more inspiring stuff yes of course that I thought is eligible for

comeback and most improved but I ultimately couldn't go with it, Alexander Hernandez, who looked like he was on a skid that was going to take him straight out of the UFC and went 3 and O absolutely reestablished himself. Like, him and Volk were

right there for me behind BSD. I had a tough time, but Alexander Hernandez could have been most improved, could have been come back. He had a great year after looking like he was on the skid. Yeah, and he's turned into one of my favorite interviews of the year as well, interviewees of the year. So shout out to Alex

Hernandez, 100% Okay, so that's comeback fighter of the year. Now it's comeback fight of the year. And again, this is about a specific fight in which someone was down and then pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat, Mr. Pizzi Carroll, you go first. Yeah, I mean, you said earlier,

it's Koslow Van Stenis v. Johnny Eblen. Rick pointed out why, I think it's less than a minute, Rick. This guy is hooked in on his back. I had the exact time. I was trying to look for the tweet. And you're like, I can remember people text to me being like, oh, it's a bit of a dud of a, you know what I mean? Eblen's running away with this thing.

He's three rounds up. Then Van Stenis just goes wild in the fourth round. And you're like, could he make a fight of this? Eblen gets that position in the last minute. You're like, that's it. It's over. Somehow manages to do it. Absolutely crazy.

He sets up a massive, massive fight with Fabian Edwards in Madrid. Cannot wait for that. Cannot wait to see Major M.M.A. in Spain. That is my comeback fight year. I just want to say, if this didn't happen, you wouldn't have been able to stop me picking Sean Abannon against Pugetumar, head kick into Armbar, absolutely fantastic. But how can you go against Kastlovan Stannis?

Both great shouts, but ultimately, I agree with your first pick. I mentioned it earlier. Down 39, 37 on two judges scorecards heading into the fifth round, maybe going to lose that fifth round as well. And obviously the fight, seven seconds left and pulls off the submission win to not only beat Johnny Eplin, who was on

a tremendous run in both Belvoir and PFL, but to win the middleweight title. Now they're building a whole event around him in Madrid, an incredible win for a guy who was an underdog going into a title fight, and I think a lot of people did not think that he had what it took to beat Johnny Ebblin. I want to see that rematch. We're not getting it off the bat. We're getting the Fabian Edwards fight, and Fabian deserves it as well. I mentioned he had a great year and showed a lot of improvement.

I want to see that rematch, but a tremendous comeback win for the new and inaugural PFL middleweight champion. That was back in July in South Africa. Mr. New York, Rick, do you agree? Three for three, baby. It had to be. That was an incredible comeback. The turning of tables, both in the fight itself and in the round itself. Shout out to Castello

Vincenis for an incredible performance. Mr. G.C., do you agree? I will not be making it four for four. Your comeback fighter, P.C., Mr. Uri Pajshka. How can you not be romantic about a Yiri Prohashka fight? His performance against Talil Round Trees.

down. It's great. 2018 on all three judges' scorecards. He is down and out. He pulls it from the fire, eats big shots to land big shots, and eventually gets the knockout of Haleo Roundtree, cementing himself at the top of the division. You know, obviously I had a light reaction to it. I was very happy about it.

So, yeah, my comeback fight of the year. Performed. I'm coming. Back. Uri-Brahashka versus Haleo Roundtree. Finning elbow from Yeri. Two minutes to go. I love it.

I see the tank, man. I don't think I've watched this since this happens. He's trying. Oh, a couple big shots from Yeri. He'll have a slap. He's down. It's over. Yerry!

Look at the disappointment. My skin's crawling. I want to rip this tuxedo off. Look at the disappointment on this face. He has a mortgage on this point. Come on. No bullshit. First time I've watched it since it out.

Oh, God. It's so good. G.C. Look the heirs, man. How could you not love G.C.? I'm going to have to take the headphones off when Uri starts off. Yeah, I can't listen to it.

So good. Look at it. Oh, when he looks off to the side. Delivered. When he looks off to the side, it's, what do you think of that, Yuri? Well, I think they... I can't listen to it.

Okay. Okay. Because they are on the, before the cameras. Ah. But I really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. If it's really natural. it was it was it is from the heart i can tell you that it is from the heart it is very natural okay okay

i can promise you that i'm crying i'm happy to man i'm really happy that i found it right i can just keep just going we just i just love how long jordan cut this that this is like three minutes of torture so i didn't hear what he said you see you're you're a comeback podcast host of the year after that you know what i mean it's it's a tremendous shout And by the way, the people agree with you, G.C. They go with Yuri Prakaska's win over Kalilash. Nobody for Sean Abandon. Nothing.

If you had taken Sean Abandon over Puget-Tomar. I would have said, great shout. Great shout, Pete. There's a head kick to an arm bar. Like, she's out cold and she arm bars. It's incredible. That and the Paul Hughes pick from earlier. But, you know.

Strap yourselves in for some of them later on, I'll tell you. That fight in particular, I feel is like my number two in so many different categories, which is a crazy thing. A couple others, a couple others, guys. What about Waldo Cortez-Aacosta against Antidellia? Remember that? Yeah. It gets poked in the eye, comes back and knocks him out.

Jared Cannonier against Gregory Rodriguez. What about Phil Roe against Angelusa? Nassim Sarikov and Nicholas Mata, crazy first round. He comes back and wins in the second. What about Neil Magni and Jake Matthews? Remember that debacle? I feel like you're just doing controversies at this stage. well you know those are those are comebacks uh what about mason jones and uh his win over bolagi oki remember that one

yeah uh back at the nassadidium of offices cayobohalio fight in paris so those are a few that come to mind but yes in the end uh some of us think yri prochaska and uh some of us think costel van steenis congratulations to all the big winners congratulations uh look at this look at this okay guys next up upset of the year now some might think upset of the year is like, okay, who is the biggest underdog? And that could be it. A reminder, we do have, you know, the betting specific picks coming up very shortly. So some might say it's that. And others could be like, all right, this guy had no chance in a title find knee pulled it off. I'm going to go out on a limb here, guys, okay? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that none of you pick my winner.

I'm going to go out on the limb and say that none of you picked my winner. I will go first. Let me take you back to earlier in the year. And there was a youngster from Augusta, Georgia who was knocking everyone out with a lethal right hand, a lethal right hand. Nobody has this. And they were fetting him. They were celebrating him throughout the streets of not only Georgia, but here in New York, because he made his way over to New York City. And he starts his week off with a beautiful interview in our studio. And he bonds with New York, Rick, throughout the streets of New York.

That's his story to tell. And he's got a big fight coming up. and everyone's excited about it and then all of a sudden a couple days before the fight literally a couple days before the fight his opponent pulls out and then all of a sudden

it's a young man named Ethan Ewing who is called upon a man who just fought a week prior at Uriah Faber's A1 combat he wins a title over there and it's like Ethan Ewing Ah Ewing at MSG Oh my God, what a story

And there walks Ethan Ewing The Inspector walks into the Mecca walks into the world's most famous arena and just shuts down the hype train that was Malcolm Wellmaker. Now, I do believe Malcolm will be right back and this time next year

and perhaps he's the comeback front of the year, the most improved fight of the year. Who knows? I believe he will be right where Payne Talbot is, the way in which we're talking about Peyton. But Ethan Ewing's win on 48 hours notice, flying cross-country, UFC debut, against the hype train,

who was worthy of it, but still the hype train of Malcolm Wellmaker and the systematic clinical victory on the world's greatest stage, the Mecca, Madison Square Garden, to me was my upset of the year. No one saw this coming. No one was picking Ethan Ewing.

No one had even heard of Ethan Ewing unless you're a part of his family or A1 combat, a huge win for him, my upset pick of the year, won Ethan Ewing, upsetting Malcolm Wellmaker. Newark, surely that's not your pick, so who is your pick? It is not my pick, but it's a great pick.

And yes, shout out to Malcolm Walmaker and his whole family. Jodor Ghan versus Marab de Balasvili in the rematch. Like to be in the position that he's in after the way that Marab dismantled him the first time and to come out with that result,

it could win every award. It could win every single award that's ever been awarded. It was a performance for the ages. And to get this rematch and to be counted out in this way, against the guy of Marab, who was tearing through people and looked like he was never going to be stopped. It had to be Piotr-Yon. What an incredible upset. But there were some other great ones. This was the one for me that was head and shoulders above.

Do you see, you agree? I do agree with Rick. I make it two of three so far on Piotr-Yan. If you go on Tapology, you can click on the fight and scroll down and see the fan voting. On almost 10,000 votes, 90% had Marant of Alishvili. 14-fight win streak, top three, pound for pound. Any way you flip it, people are talking about fighter of the year. Greatest year in UFC history. It just felt like he was just a machine moving down the mountain.

He had all the momentum. He had already 50-45, Piotr-Yon before, and then Piotr-Yon comes out and puts together a performance that was dominant. However you scored it, 49, 46, 48, 47, 50-45, whatever it was. It was dominance from Piotr-Yon to systematically beat down Mirob like that. For me, it has to be upset of the year. Yeah. A quick look at the opening odds for that fight. Marab, I'm looking at it here, was a minus 3.30. He opened as a minus 330, and Jan was a plus 240 heading into that fight. Ethan Ewing, by the way, plus 575 against a minus 800. Malcolm Malcolmmer. Just pointing out the opening odds. I'm just pointing out how things opened. Pete, who do you agree with? You're not going to believe this Ireland. The same one is you.

I thought I went off the grid. I mean, I did too. I was like, there's no way he's going to say doing over a megap. Here we are. You know, for all the reasons you said. Sure. All right. Well, shout out to some of the others who pulled off some big upsets.

Hano Barcellos, by the way, was a plus 710 against Payton Talbot. RDR was a plus 295 in his win over Bo Nickel. Remember that one, guys. I do believe you were there for that over in Iowa. aforementioned Costel van Steenis was a plus 420

against Johnny Eblen. Do you want to know who my number two was? My number two was Alfie Davis plus 1100 against Ghazi

Rabadamanov a big win for him and of course who could forget one Jordan Zibo was a plus

$1,400 against Mr. Bakke at Aris FC 35. I can forget that one after. Remember that?

Yeah. Do you know ball or do you know ball you know about nearly 40 year old michael johnson versus dano zell huber you know about that one plus 555 for mr michael johnson at uh would have been pa using up and robbed the car split uh daniel rodriguez uh where is then anyway uh plus 450 against uh kevin holland uh went for him so those are some others that come to mind um alonzo mennefield was a plus 500 you know what's one flies into the radar that I don't think a lot of people were calling back when it was announced Tim Elliott plus 250 against Kai Square. Not the biggest odds, but I don't think a lot of people

were picking him to win back in August. So those are some of the picks for, or at least notable comebacks, excuse me, upsets of the year. The people, by the way, they agree with some of you, Peter Yan over Marabdule-Schvili. That is their pick for upset of the year. All right, we move along now, and we go to rivalry of the year. Again, like I said, we leave no stone unturned here. Every single aspect of the fight game is honored and discussed and broken down here. And I do want to remind you, it is the start of awards week here at Uncrowned HQ tomorrow. It's the second annual Ariel and Adde Boxing Awards, as robust as these.

Looking forward to that with my good friend Adelaide. If you're not a fan of boxing, that's no problem. On the nose is tomorrow as well, so there'll be plenty of MMA talk for you. And then on Wednesday, we have our 2026 prediction show. We'll look back at our picks from last week, see who got them right, who got them wrong, and then make some bold predictions for 2025, excuse me, for 2026. We'll look back at the 25 picks and then make some bold predictions for 2026. All right, rivalry of the year.

rivalry of the year, of course, doesn't really need much description. Sometimes it has been a person versus an entity. I recall the days of Jake Paul versus MMA. This has happened in the past, or it could just be two guys or gals who hate each other and that rivalry played out over the course of the year. Mr. New York, Rick, why don't you go first? Yeah, I have the same pick as last year. It dominated the discourse. It was the topic of conversation. And if it should ever heat back up again, it will be the number one headline in MMA. And that is John Jones versus Tom Aspinall. It continued from last year into this year. It dominated every single part of the discussion, even to the point that when it was clear they weren't going to fight, John Jones was

taking shots at Tom Aspinall and that was still getting major play. So John Jones, Tom Aspinall, they dominated last year's discourse. They dominated this year's discourse. This was the rivalry of the year. Okay, you know, the people agree with you. So shout out to them. They also gave it to those two gentlemen. Of course, they didn't fight, and who knows if they'll ever fight, G.C., do you agree? This one I actually struggled with. I ended up not going with what Rick had. I went with a trifecta, a rivalry triangle, and that is at the top of lightweight, which is Patty Pimblit, Ilya, and Armand Siru Kian. If you just go on their social media feeds, we know about all the jabbering in interviews and everything like that. Twelve of Armand's last 14 tweets are in regards to either Ilya or Patty Pimbley.

All of their most recent tweets are about each other, whether it's Ilya about Patti, Armin about Ilya, Patty about Armin. They're just always taking shots at each other while circling the top of this division, and yet none of them are fighting each other. We're getting Patty Pembleau versus Justin Gachi. Maybe we'll get one of them versus Armin or one of them versus Ilya down the line. But there's clear vitriol, the whole, was it a slap, was it a hand on the neck thing with Ilya and an Armin? Will we see one of them fight in 2026? I don't know, but it would be fireworks from the press conference

all the way to the Octagon if they did. That's a great shout. And by the way, you can almost go like a foreheaded monster and include Islam Mahachav in there too who kind of like gets involved. Yeah, you could. I mean, that would be a fight that I really want to see. The only thing is Islam kind of, he's more civil with it. They're all always

going at each other. No, no, it's a great shout. It's a great shout. And none of them fought in the year 2025. So a bit of a theme there. Mr. Pizzi, who are you picking? It's Tom and John Jones for me, for the same reasons, Rick said, talked about, like for the first, what,

three, four months, we had to do daily updates about this. Dana White involved there as well with the guarantees and 100% and all this stuff. Of course, it didn't happen. It broke all our hearts, but it is something that we continue to talk about.

And the heavyweight division will continue to reel from what happened with John Jones there. But I think it's going to be a far. more exciting year for the division. So I will give you, I will give you a bit of a spoiler. I give a nod to this one at some point. But, you know, I'm a stickler. I'm old school. And I kind of feel like the rivalry of the year has to have some kind of payoff. Like there has to be at least some kind of payoff for it to be a true blue rivalry. There has to be some sort of like, they got to touch each other. And with that in mind, I go with Alex Perev versus Magomed on Kalayaev. They fought back in

March. It got a little bit heated. It got a little bit personal. And it was a very, very underwhelming performance from Alex Pura. And then in the aftermath, and of course, Magomed won the belt on that night. And not a lot of people saw that coming. I mean, that could have been one of the upsets of the year, at least certainly a candidate. And then in the aftermath, it got quite personal between the two of them with some tweets and, you know, some, and who knows who was writing said tweets and all that stuff but I felt like as the rematch you know and there was a time where Magomed was saying like oh this guy doesn't want to fight and I'll see you in August and let me fight this guy or that guy because he's not you know ready and willing to step

up and then by the time the rematch was booked and then of course we get to fight week it felt like there was a lot of heat there the faceoffs the back and forth remember this stuff at the at the PI and all that he's like yo man let's let's not talk anymore let's settle they're using the Google Translate this was this was intense stuff

I know it doesn't look necessarily intense with Alex sitting there with his legs crossed but you know it was intense shit talk between the Google Translate app it was intense and then of course it pays off with Alex Pere getting the knockout and then the and it was a little bit different than one that he gave to on Jamal Hill

like this one had it had emphasis emphasis and now he is reigning supreme and to the victor goes the spoils and the girl it seems because not only is he champion once again but he is also madly in love it appears

and he might be getting married who knows on the video that we just saw so shout out to Alex shout out to Magametta was a fun. It was a fun one to Chronicle, and I couldn't agree more with you guys as far as both of those picks, you know, Tom and John or, you know, the three-headed monster. We did really talk about those guys throughout the year, and Tom and John in particular, but I kind of felt

like there needed to be some kind of, maybe not even like a finality to it, but some kind of payoff in the midst of it all, and that never happened. I also had Armin on mine, but I had it as Armin versus everybody. Because like Justin Gachie was getting it on social media. Don't forget how good to build for Hooker and Armin Sarukian was, like when they were going back and forth. Like, Armand was coming for throats in 2025. He was fantastic.

And I really enjoyed his work in building things up. Well, hopefully he gets his just due for social media influencer, the Caposa social media. Tune in to find out later in the show. And that will be coming up later in the show. For now, though, we move along with, honestly,

can I just say, guys, this might be the toughest one. You know, I know I said but this I think is the toughest one coach of the year. Do you know why I think it's the toughest one guys? Because it's like, all right, how much credit do you give the coach? How much credit do you give the fighter? And truth be told, like when the

coach is really working their magic with the fighter, we're not there. We're not at the gym. We're not there like in those like real rugged in the trenches moments, you know, weeks out, months out. We're not there. So it's really, really tough. We used to have coach and gym of the year.

Remember that back in the day. People also have multiple coaches. It's a very, it's a very difficult thing to bring. Very, very tough one. I had a lot of trouble with this one. This might have been my toughest one. No joke. G.C., you go first. Coach of the year, 2025. Who are you giving it to? Yeah, it was my toughest one as well. It felt like there was no true like auto standout that you just knew you could, you could rely on to choose here. So I actually went with Nicholas Ott, coach of BSD, Naserdine, Imov, and William, go me. They go clean sweep 3 and O on UFC Paris, but obviously BSD, my company. back fighter of the year, 3 and O. Nasser Dienimov, the win over Israel out of Sanya and also

Kyle Bajlio, which to me seems like he locked up a title shot with that, 5 and O between those guys at the top of their division, just really incredible work from the guy. That's a tremendous pick. That was actually my runner-up, an incredible year. And you know why? BSD in particular spoke many times about like the changes that he made in his career and how good it is to have a coach like him in his corner. So that's an incredible shout. shout out to Nicholas Ott Pizzi do you agree I do not agree

although it is a great shout I went for Habib no Magamadoff coach Usma Na Magamadoff Umar obviously and Islam Makashchev became the 11th two-way champion in UFC history It's a great shout

And then again with that one Is it like is it Habib and Javier Mendez Is it just Habib They seem to be some other course Massive role in there Yep a two-headed monster had the Mowlid Chibulev infraction so I did consider that I was I was thinking of Habib too but that one I don't know and again how much do you you know how much do you

dock him for that so a great choice the people by the way went with John Wood and he was another guy that I was very very close to picking because he had an incredible start to the year back into the year there were some tough losses obviously the Marab fight the round tree loss. There were some tough losses and, you know, they look good. They looked ready. So I really struggled with this one. In the end, I'm at peace with my pick and I like my pick a lot because I feel like it's recognition for someone who has been in the game for quite some time. He is one of the head coaches over at American Top Team. He is Marcos Pahumpa Damada, who is the headman for Alex Pantosia. And look at all the great work that he did with him, is by Armour.

Norman Tsuruki inside by Kiyoji Herguchi side. You saw him in his corner as well. Hanato Moikano, Bia Meskita, who's a big time prospect that a lot of people are excited about. Austin Vanderford had a great start to his UFC career, getting that win back in February as well. He's got a very, very strong stable of fighters, also Carlos Shuface Jr., the PFL champion. So Pahompa is someone who has been in this game for quite some time. And I think, in particular, given his work with Pantosia, at the very top of the list, I think he deserves credit for all the great coaching.

So my coach of the year, Pahumpa, but Nicholas Ott, Habib, John Wood were very much in consideration. And I wish I could give it all. You want to sometimes do that, but then you don't want to be like Jason Kidd, Grand Hill, like split the award. So you got to make a tough choice. Mr. New York, Rick, who is your pick? Yeah, I actually thought this was my easiest because I mentioned. not seeing the work, but we see the work. We saw the work in the octagon

when Piotr Yan went in there and beat Mrab de Valshvili, and then we saw the decision tree. Wow, wow. Then we saw the decision tree from Kairat Nirmaghan Betov. Yes. Coach to Piotr Yon, and we saw what went into taking apart the machine, and for me, this had to be it.

Like, as soon as I saw this image, I knew that this was going to be my coach of the year to map every single thing, down to this decision tree and have Peter Jan executed to perfection to me is showing a relationship between coach and student that is very hard to achieve

and then he was able to execute it to perfection that was enough for me that once I saw this it had to be tremendous pick that's tremendous so we don't agree with the L4 yeah I love that and the people are different too yeah they had a different one too

John Wood love that shout out to Plinyo Cruz and go over to share they got Alex's belt back and shout out to Pavel Feditov of Valentina Shevchenko's team, long time head coach, two title defenses for her, two victories this year, and then of course

the big win over Zhang Wei to end the year, very one-sided fight. So those are some names. And you know what? I like that, you know, this showcased some new names. We haven't talked about some of these names in the past, so this is good. The sport is growing.

There are new faces, new coaches, new leaders. That pick is an timer right there. I wish I could zoom in and actually like read everything that's on there. You don't want to give it with a game plan. You got to keep some things. It's a tremendous pick. It's a tremendous thing. Oh, I love that. I love that. Actually, yesterday I was watching

the bills dismantle the jets and one of the guys, Mitch Trubisky was looking at an iPad and my son goes to me. He's like, they have iPads on the bench. I was like, yeah, of course, this is the way of the world. It's not just for watching YouTube shorts. You can do all kinds of things like, you know, breakdown title fights.

Yeah, yeah. guys event of the year is a very fun one and that is up next for this very prestigious award look at this thing right here again shout out to our friend over in turkey the great sarp who's done tremendous awards for other entities and now he's a part of our family as well can I give you some factoids courtesy of our friend yes Alan murphy regarding UFC events in 2025 as I tee this this category up 42 events for the UFC in 2025 42 and 24, 43 and 23, they are figuring to do about the same for this first year under the Paramount Plus deal. They had 10 contender series events, 12 Road to UFC events. Number of events in the U.S., 28 versus 31 and 24 and 33 in 23. So they got out a little bit as the world continues to open up. Number of international events, 14 versus 11 and 24 and 10 and 23. Two in Canada, two in Australia, two in UAE, one in Brazil, one in China, one in Qatar, one in Azerbaijan, one in Mexico.

Only one in the UK, London, to be exact, one in Saudi Arabia, one in France. They debuted in both Qatar and Azerbaijan in 2025. For the second straight year, the UFC visited Canada just twice. And, you know, back of the day, they would go four times, three times, although this wasn't an upgrade over just once. in 2019 to 2023. They visited 13 different U.S. states in 2025, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri, Washington, and California. So a little bit more old school spreading the love. Obviously, site fees are a big deal these days.

16 events in Nevada, that's the most. 12 at the apex, four numbered events. 12 events in 2025 took place at the apex, 17 in 2024, and 17 in 2023. So we've knocked five off of that list, which is tremendous news. Hopefully it's even less come 2026. 38% of all UFC events happen in Nevada. 29% of all events happen at the apex. Return to Atlanta, as you know, G.C.

For the first time since 2019, return to New Orleans. for the first time since 2015, and to Iowa for the first time since 2000. So there you have it, as far as the UFC is concerned. Can I give you a couple more event factoids. Yes, please. As we try to wet the app. You're not enjoying this.

Well, perhaps you're loving it. I'm loving it. Shout to Atlanta. Shout out to Des Moines. Europe. Europe. Not too many events as far as UFC is concerned in Europe, but large-scale events, as you know, PTC.

Octagon in Czech and Germany. FNC in Croatia and the Balkans KSW Poland and France and wow in Spain really were you know big events that happened over in Europe

2025 marked the first year since 2008 that we did not see a Bellator event first time in 17 years that we did not see a Belator event how about that PFL stage 24 events

8 in the U.S 16 across eight other countries Benin, Rwanda, South Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Belgium, and Northern Ireland. PFL officially launched PFL Africa, as you know. You may be wondering

about the GFL, they held zero events. Yes. It's the best book and song, though. They smoked everyone in the soundtrack's actually, I'll tell you, not much. Tremendous song. How many UFC events in Europe

last year, PT? In Europe, France, U.K., two? Yeah, crazy, right? Well, some of these other promotions, like I said, are doing big things over there. We all know about the upstart victory fighting league. Kron Gracey didn't end up fighting for them, by the way, but they did hold an event in Times Square a few months back. So shout out to them. And you know what?

Shout out to Risen. Shout out to Risen held eight events in 2025, three of which reportedly drew over 40,000 fans in attendance. You know, I noted over the break after their year-end event that, you know, perhaps they'll never reach the pride levels, but they seem to be enjoying their most success and popularity in Japan in particular since the pride levels, certainly more than the Sengoku days or the dream days. It's really been one of the great stories to watch over the past year.

And that tweet, guys, seem to have offended a lot of people. I even had the matchmaker Shinjo coming after me. Like, what do you, you know, you don't talk about rise. I mean, I feel like we give them, you know, are we talking about them on a weekly basis? Are we having a ton of interviews on the show as much as UFC? Obviously not. There's just way more UFC events, as we mentioned, you know, 42 versus 8. But we always talk about how we want to go there.

We show like Yeri over there and Mark Coleman and even Saki Kibara with the, you know, the incredible opening ceremonies and whatnot. I was like, guys, geez, why so hostile? I don't know if they... Did you notice that, PTC? I didn't like it. Yeah. I didn't like his attitude. I mean, you're trying to compliment the guy

and he goes off on some tangent. You know, we're here to serve the public interest at the end of the day. Yeah. You know what I mean? And sometimes the public isn't interested. And Ariel was trying to redirect interest towards Reisen. That was what he was trying to do there. It was absolutely no need for that.

Thank you. I appreciate that. And some people were like, yeah, actually, they're bigger than pride because, you know, pride has never... I'm like, really, are we doing this? Pride, by the way, I hope they get to be bigger than Pride and 10 years is incredible and Pride enjoyed 10 years and they're going to outlast Pride. There's no doubt about that. But there were, there was at least one year where Pride did

four events over 40,000 and you know, had the likes of Fedor and Mirko and Big Nog and so many others. Yeah, I mean, it's even had one event that was like almost like 90,000 people. So I was giving them all the props. Every year, like it's a time honor tradition after a rise in event. If you comment

on it, the comments will always be like, Well, did you stay up for all nine hours and live blog this whole thing? It's always like this badge of honor amongst the hardest of the hardcore. And God bless you guys. A great contribution to the sport. I was trying to give you props. But nevertheless, nevertheless, not to go on the tangent. A great year as far as...

That was my fault. No, no. I did that. It was me. It was me. International MMA is concerned. A great, great year, I thought. And it's nice to see the sport growing with other players involved.

Mr. G.C., your pick for event of the year. Yeah, my event of the year. There was a couple options that I went back. and forthwith, but ultimately I'll go with UFC 320 you get. Pereira getting his belt back against Magamette-on-Kalive. You have Marad Vashvili and Corey Sanagan in an unbelievable fight. Yuri Khalil, which won my comeback fight of the year. Some people's actual fight of the year.

Zalal with the arm bar in like 90 seconds against Josh Emmett. Joe Pfehr finishing Abis Magamatov. Atiba Goteer round one knockout. Willie Kat, Koeing, Jusang U. patchy mixed losing his second fight in the UFC the card delivered and mourn it felt like it was one of those one that crescendoed into the end

especially those last three fights okay great choice Pizzi agree disagree disagree great shout though 317 I went for Tuporia Oliver in the main event you had Pantosia underlining his legendary status with Coikara France

you had the fight of the year by most people's explanation in Van v Roy Val Darius Moikano and Talbot V. Lima, which was, you know, there was a lot of expectation on that boy too. That was the one I went for event of the year. So I thought that there were a lot of like good to great events, but none that really like jumped off the page for me. Um, but in the end, there was an obvious one and it's not 322 and it's not 317. And it's actually one that I think you guys are going to be surprised by because, you know, GC said and and rightfully so, he said that 322, crescendoed with a great finish.

Mine didn't necessarily crescendo with a great finish. It crescendo with a historic moment, but the last two fights weren't great. Nevertheless, UFC 32, in my opinion, was my event of the year. Number one, MSG, everything always feels bigger. But remember this. Like, everyone will focus on, you know, Machachev's win over JDM, which JDM has now since said in a stream with neon that it was somewhat boring. And Valentina Schofchenko's very one-sided win over Zhang Wei Li.

But there was a stretch there in the middle. of the card. Ethan Ewing pulls off the upset over Malcolm Wallmaker. Aaron Blanchfield submits Tracy Cortez. Rodriguez over Coppilov. Bo Nichols' headkick knockout win against Adolfo Vieira. Benoit St. Denis' vicious knockout of Benile Darius. Carlos Proches' vicious knockout of Leon Edwards.

Michael Morales' vicious T.K.O. win against Sean Brady. Like, that was just... And I don't know if there was any event that had that much action and that much excitement in and some shockers back to back to back to back to back. And so ultimately with that and then you consider the fact that Islam makes history, gets the two belts,

has that moment as he moves up to 170, and even giving a knot to Valentina's greatness. Like I thought John Wiley was going to win that fight, to be honest. That was my event of the year. UFC 32 in November at Madison Square Garden. Mr. New York, Rick, do you agree

or disagree? I'm aligned with Pizzi on this one. 317, fight of year between Roy Val and Van, the Pantosha Masterclass, the nasty Ilya K.O. We saw Peyton Talbot get back on track there. It narrowly edged 320 for me, GC's pick, but for me, 317 had everything I wanted from a fight card. Well, the people agree with Mr. G.C. They went with UFC 320. Some other ones worth giving a shout out to 314, Volcanovsky, Lopez. Remember that one in Miami? That was a fun one. The Patty Pimble fight against Michael Chandler. 311 at the very, very beginning of the year,

the Isamachathev versus Henato Moikano and how different would this year be if it ended up being Isamachachathe versus Armitterukian? We shall never know. What about the UFC Fight Night event in Paris which is always a fun time? Mr. Nasrudein Imava versus Kayao Bahalio. It broke the single event K-O-T-O record,

Rise in 50, Rise in Landmark. The Suhudo Song card back at the what is it, the climate pledge arena in Seattle that ended controversially, but that was a good shout as well. And the Armisturikin versus Dan Hooker card over in Qatar was a pretty solid one as well. So all over the place on this one,

UFC 320 is the people's picks. And yeah, I thought, I thought, you know, overall, like the UFC didn't have a blockbuster, blockbuster, but a string of a very good event. And I thought back into the year with 323, 32, 320, these were all very good PLEs, as we say now, to end the 2025 campaign. Okay, this is always a fun one. Walk out of the year, guys. Walk out of the year.

You know, usually this one's a very easy one for me, but I had a little trouble with it. NGL. Walk out of the year. Mr. Pizzi? Did I skip one, by the way? No. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Who's the check? Yeah, it's not on my... I just got excited because he went to me for the first time here. I was like, this is my moment. It's actually not.

Can I stick with this, Jordan, or is that mess you up? Walk out of the air, and then I'll go to the next one. Walk out of the year. I have gone to you multiple times, PTC, so I don't accept. I think we'll have to replay the other one.

I don't accept, but please go ahead. This is such bullshit, by the way. I have gone to him. I'm actually trying to do this in my brain, like who went last. It's actually becoming a bit of a habit. I will go, then you'll be like, Pizzi, do you agree?

And he's just like, no, I don't agree with Connor, but a great shout nonetheless. You know what? I'm trying my best year. I'm trying my best year, guys. All right. By the way, how come you guys aren't wearing your glasses? Let's wear them. Mine are, y'all got the nice ones, man.

Someone ordered me the paper ones. These things are breaking down. Oh, wow. Ptie, where are yours? Yeah, there he is. Oh, there was a dude who scored against the Forrest over the weekend that did that. McKenna or something? thing, it really annoyed me.

Do that exact thing. Is that why you did it? It is. Nobody's watching Forest this year, me. Oh, fuck. Say, fuck you. Go first, all right? Go first.

Can't read shit now. Go first. Boy, one is Paul Euse in Belfast. And look, yeah, I know. You're going to say it's a hometown, whatever. Maybe it is, all right? Here's the thing. I never thought we'd see Irish people feel this way about MMA again.

Can we listen to it? Or will we get dark? This is Roy Vance playing Grace. And if you remember. Yeah, let's not. After his fight with Usman Amaga Madoff, there was a whole tip for tap with Connor McGregor, who suggested that Paul was not Irish

because he is from the north of Ireland. He comes out to this song that's synonymous with the Republican movement in Ireland, grace about a man who gets married just before he's executed by the British. It goes into Nipsey Hustle as soon as he walks past Foyvance. And, you know, there's 8,000 people there.

absolutely just buzzing for this guy. I hit the town early that day just to see what the crack would be like and it was mental. The whole city was just turned onto this fight. We thought he was fighting to get that rematch with Usman Amaga made off and it was all that kerfuffle

afterwards but honestly I don't know how they could have looked in any other direction after this. This is absolutely unbelievable. He killed Bruno Miranda in 30 seconds but just a spine tingling moment and look people have done this in Ireland before the Irish get behind fighters but this was in a different era than the Bellator events where Galaher had these entrants,

where Kiefer Crosby had these entered, Peter Cuelly famously had these entrances. Ashting Daly, all these people had these entrants during a time when MMA was very popular. For Hughes to do this three hours up the road from Dublin, at a time where opinion on MMA was so low, I thought it was absolutely exceptional. That's my walk out of year. Well, I am delighted that I went to you first because you did a tremendous job of breaking down and explaining why my walkout of the year was so special because I had it for Mr. Paul Hughes as well.

Would you believe that? Would you believe that, Pete? You didn't think I had it in me. Yeah, it was a great time. And I'm so happy that you went first, truthfully, because you gave it, you know, that same sort of jerniceiqua, which reminds me of when we were walking around the streets of Dublin and you were telling me about this artifact and that door and whatnot.

It was a great scene. Unfortunately, we can't play the music for all of you because we don't want to get dinged on YouTube, but trust us on this one. and then go seek it out, a tremendous scene, emotional, it felt big, it fit the moment. I love that there was a backstory, that it was localized, beautiful stuff from Paul Hughes. So shout out to him, big year for him, and a tremendous walkout as well. Mr. New York, Rick.

Yeah, this is one of those guys that could win any year, any walkout, any different thing, but this one in particular stuck with me, and that's Elliott-Tuporia at USC 317, and what stuck with me the most, in addition to obviously when that music hits and everything else. The smirk on his face, and I remember saying this on the watch party as me and G.C. were sitting there. He knew something that the rest of us

did not know. And it was that remember he did the party beforehand. And everything just led me to believe that this man was going to achieve what I had initially doubted in becoming a double champ. But when you see him start to, and I think we're going to start to see it in a second

here when it switches to the tunnel view, when you see the smile on this man, face. It's as if like he's going to do one of his favorite things and not get into armed combat with Charles Olivera, on armed combat rather. But he's just smirking, smiling, couldn't be more happy to be there, couldn't have less of a concern in his mind than in this moment right here, just going, just sauntering out to the Octagon to dispatch of Charles Olivera. He's cold. He's cool. He's the man, Ilya Teporia's walk out at 317. we pray everything that he's dealing with ends up, you know, working out and, you know,

I don't want to say in his favor because we're not taking sides here, but just has a positive ending. And it seems, it seems dark and grim at the moment. And you see him there and he seems so happy and there was so much to be excited about. And so hopefully everything gets sorted and that everything's okay for his family and his kids and that he's able to go back to doing what he does so well. But yes, 100% accurate with that description. It was an incredible moment.

Mr. G.C., do you agree with Pizzi and I, or do you agree with Mr. New York, Rick? Well, I agree with New York, Rick, and the fact that Ilya's walk out of UFC 317 was tremendous. I've rewatched it probably 800 times. The smirk, when he hits out the tunnel, he starts doing the shadow boxing, and then he starts trotting a little bit.

And then I actually wrote it down. John Anik, as he's making the walk, has this incredible line. He says, enter the former featherweight champion, Ilya, 16 have tried, 16 have failed, and when the weight cuts seemingly became too arduous with the greatest feather weights in his wake, to Poria, D.C. He moves up, and tonight he will try to join the group you are in

as a two-division UFC champion. And this is why he's got the smirk on and everyone's going crazy, all-time walkout. But that is not my walkout of the year. I actually head to Paris. Not for UFC, Paris. For hexagon 23, Theo Ulrich. I'm a sucker for props.

I'm a sucker for production. and I was a big fan of the show The Walking Dead and Theo O'Rick walked out with three zombies in tow with the bat wrapped in barbed wire Lucille and he's playing the role of Negan here. Wow. I mean, even the RMC sport, the camera crew, they're adding in some sort of effects here.

So good. I have to give a shout out to the production. I know you can't do that in the UFC. They're not going to let you do this. So the effort put into this. And then he goes out and gets a night. knockout in the second round of this fight. Shout out to Theo Orrick. Shout out to the thought, the effort, and really, really trying there with that one. By the way, shout out to you. I mean,

five years ago, you don't know what UFC stands for. And here you are with an octagon pick and a hexagon 23. Yeah. He actually, Theo Ulrich, stay tuned. He fights this weekend as well. I'm very, very interested to see what he's got in. Everyone's lamenting the fact that there's no UFC, you're locked into hexagon 24 or maybe not 24. I don't know. How many people have they had some. You know, I think they've moved on. That was January of last year. Oh, gosh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, the Octagon card over the break. Sure. Yeah, the Rising one. I was on my burner in your comment section for sure. Oh, hell yeah. You never even talk about it on that fucking show. I know, I know. Shout out to Will Flurry, by the way, for the big one of Martin.

Smashed him to bits. Pizzi hit me with the update, too. Oh, he was like, you guys watching this octagon card. And then he was like, main event walking. If you guys are interested, I was like, you're damn right. I nailed it. Dustin Porrier's walk out prior to his retirement. at UFC 318, James Brown.

You know, to me, this one didn't quite make the cut. You know why? Because Little Wayne seemed completely disinterested from the proceedings. Remember that? He was just kind of like... Not even disinterested, but why have him there if he's not going to do anything of entertainment value? No, no.

Wasn't there like an M&M with Terrence Crawford in the same situation as well? Yes, but he kind of like, he mouthed like six words at least. So you give him that. Yeah. Low Wayne should have been to Dustin Porre what 6'9 was to Jake Paul. Or 50 cent was to Chris Eubank? Yes, right?

Boy, Vance, was to Paul Hughes. That, that too. Diego Lopez, his walkout at Noche UFC, La Chona is the name of the song. Remember that crowd? That crowd exploded when he walked out. Absolutely exploded. I want to give a very, very special shout out to our good friend, Chris Bungard. Remember his walkout at Cage Warriors 187?

He may or may not have been in my DMs over the weekend campaigning for the win. Was this the bray one? Wyatt inspired one? No, this was him coming out to Jerry Cinnamon's Disco land. You know all about that. Disco land. Yeah. Look,

he deserves a show. I'm sorry, Chris. I wonder how Chris's feeling today with the departure of the Celtic manager. Can I imagine? The one that he was propping up on this show, 33 days, I believe it was.

Out, out, out, sacked. It's a cruel business. It's a cruel business. Charles Olivera's walkout at UFC Fight Night Rio was a great one. Kyle Dawkes coming out to the boys are back in town, back in Shanghai, you know, kind of signaling the fact that he was back in the UFC as well. And I'll be 100% honest. You know, sometimes I, you know, I tap others for

some help here. Mr. Caposa gives me a list of fights. I mean, can I just, can I just read the promotions that he's giving me fights from? All right, you know, Octagon 76. There's a hexagon 24 shout here to GC so I don't know if you spoke to him CFFC 148 Fury FC 101 Pro FC 16 LFA 208 Hexagon 32 and 34

Combat FC11 Alish Pride 113 I don't even know what Alish Pride is and then KSW 113 as well so all kinds of great walkouts happening How many fights is he watched in his life? Oh boy in his life golly

who knows. The people, by the way. It may sound normally is too, like, right? You think a guy who just watches this many fights would be somehow deranged or something. He's a walking, talking encyclopedia. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Dustin Poria got the nod from the people for his retirement walkout back at UFC 318.

What a great crowd that was over in New Orleans there to celebrate one Dustin Pori. Unfortunately, he didn't get the win, but it was still a great moment. And with that in mind, let us go to crowd of the year, guys. crowd of the year again sometimes a subjective one you know it's usually a hot crowd it's usually a crowd

that you know everyone's going crazy you know throughout the event and they they really make their presence felt and in the era of apex events up the wazoo dare I say now more than ever this category is so important to recognize because we miss the crowds we love the crowds we want to see that you know there was a time where

you know like we were doing this award show and I don't even I have to go back and look like after 2020 what was the crowd of the year I don't know. I remember Darren Till's walkout with no music was my walk out of the year because it was just so symbolic of the time. Anyway, Pete, why don't you kick us off for crowd. Thanks very much. Yes. I'm doing this too much now. Go to your loads. No, no, go ahead. Please, please. Give the guys a chance, you know what I mean? They're all stars too. Um, sorry, uh, what are we doing? Crowd of the year. Uh, UFC Paris. They're going to win every year. It's going to be some

Parisian event for me. I'm looking at you, Madrid, to take the helm this year, but they're unbelievable. It's the biggest hotbed of an MMA in Europe at the moment, possibly the world. They are so tuned in. They become a feature of the event. It's almost like the cage. You know, you cannot watch these events without just constantly going, Jesus, that crowd are unbelievable. UFC Paris crowd in September is what I went for.

Okay, so I kind of agree and I disagree. I agree with the country. I don't agree with the city an event. And it's just a few weeks ago. And it's PFL Leon. I mean, they've got the freaking fire. They've got the fire in there. It looks like a Bundesliga matchup.

Yeah, the flares. They got the flares. Patrick Habirar comes out like a freaking superstar. That crowd was unbelievable. And, you know, what I love so much about, you know, the PFL France crowds and whether they're in Paris or Lyon, it's a lot of local guys who, you know, us here on this side of the fence, maybe don't know about it. And they come across the superstars, and I want to learn more about them.

I'm like, you know, we were introduced, obviously, to like, the feud with Bakke and all this stuff, uh, Cedric Dumbay. And you're like, wow, they're, it's, they're so entrenched in the local scene over there. It's a beautiful thing to watch. So that PFL Leon crowd, in my opinion, was spectacular, really. And, you know, they got the, they got the two, you know, title fights at the top. And they were probably like least interested in those, uh, even though it had Cyborg and Vadim Nemcov or to some people, that's why I didn't pick it. Yes, yes. Because they, they trailed off. Yeah. No, but I mean, I was debating. I was like, it's, it's going to. through a French crowd one way or the other.

That's the reason why I didn't pick that one. Mr. New York, Rick, do you agree with me or do you agree with a Pizzi or no one? You agree with no one. Neither. You had mentioned the era of the Apex. My pick, UFC Apex. Don't even talk. This is such a joke. Go on, Rick. This has to be the

worst. No, no, it's not. It's not. UFC 319. Chicago had been dying for a card. They finally got one. They delivered. We had gotten infinite, like, I have never gotten more messages about any single thing in MMA than people asking when the UFC is coming back to Chicago. They finally come back. They got a great main event and the crowd delivered. So for me,

a tribute, a tip of the cap to Chicago and UFC 319. Great show. Yeah. That was like a question that we would get, you know, every few months for like five, six years since 2019, since their last show. And then they finally went there and they delivered. Shout out to the United Center. All right. So that's UFC 319, GC, your pick. Yeah, I'm actually going to side with Pizzi on this one. Just pencil it in every year, UFC Paris. Go ahead and schedule the tweet. Oh, man, this Paris crowd, it's so crazy.

They deliver every time. And honestly, to your point, just a French in general. The PFL Leon crowd was incredible. They do it for UFC, PFL, WWE. Anytime we see a combat sporting event there, they deliver. Well, the people agree with you guys. They pick the UFC Fight Night event, headlined by Nasrini Mavov versus Kyleo Bahalio.

And you are right, I was just going to say that, whether it's pro wrestling, whether it's MMA. Not so much boxing for whatever reason, but those two entities. Did they have good boxers? Over in France. I mean, not really. You know, they had the young man who scored the upset of the year,

knocking out, um, gosh, I'm drawing the blank now. Uh, golly. I scored the knockout of the year and then they had the, they had the rematch over in Saudi Arabia. I can see the guy you're talking about. Because you told me about him.

Oh, my God. I'm sorry. France, upset of the year. Not Cedric, I keep thinking, Sedgaret, upset of the year, boxing. Come on, hit me, hit me, hit me. Bruno Soras. And he beat Jaime Mongia, and then they fought again in a kind of stinker fuel. But yeah, no, I actually was talking to a coach from France, who I saw in Montreal.

And I was like, why does it seem like French boxing isn't as popular as France? MMA and wrestling. He says it's coming. So let us see. But yes, those are the picks and the people agree with some of us going with that Paris event. Okay, this is, this is always a fun one for me, promo of the year, and you can go with, you know, a few different routes with this one. You could go with like the old school promo on the mic. You could go with like the promo, you know, there used to be some great ones back of the day, D.C. Jones, Connor and Aldo, less these days. it could be something promotional. The way I'm looking at it this year

is old school promo on the microphone. And this was a tough one for me as well because there were a few great ones. There were some emotional ones. There were some ones that stood out. But in the end, I went with one that we got towards the end of the year because it came out of nowhere.

It was memorable. It was fun. It was to the point. It sent a message. It was a storyline to watch. It was a massive talking point. It was Kiyoji Haraguchi on the microphone after his victory at UFC Qatar.

His submission win over Tajir Ulanbekov gets on the microphone and delivers this masterpiece. Of course, I want to get a UFC belt, you know. Where's the Panthogia? He's my teammate, but doesn't matter. I will beat you ass. Wow! It's very, it's very rare that we see a teammate wanting to fight another teammate, but you don't care.

You just want that belt. Yeah, I don't care, Buddha, you know. I'm really, respect for you, for, uh, for, uh, Panthogia, but fight is a fight, you know. Business! Ah! So good. I love that one. Was that Frank's drop right there?

Fight as a fight? That is it? That is a fight, you know? Business. There it is. good that it gets immortalized it gets immortalized frank you don't agree with this one you don't like this one it's just a little long oh my god i mean it's a drop it's fantastic promo not the best drop sure sure sure sure sure um anyway love the promo love that he called out his teammate love that

he had pahumpa in his corner calling out the guy that you know he's the head coach for uh love the comeback, loved everything about it, my promo of the year goes to the great Kioji Horaguchi. Mr. New York, Rick. I've been noticing a trend, which is that the best promos are coming out of the fighters themselves. The best promos are coming from the fighters and their video teams and their social and other teams and that the UFC is not the delivery method for these promos anymore, right? And when I'm saying promos, as opposed to what Horaguchi did where he caught a promo, I'm talking more produced promos, right?

We used to get the UFC producing some of the best promotion for their fights. Now, we are getting that out of fighters, and the one that stood out the most to me was Nasradi and Mavov ahead of UFC Paris. He played with the storyline heading into it perfectly. The editing is absolutely insane. Whoever his editor is, this guy needs to be paid more because he absolutely killed it. So his promo ahead of the UFC Paris card was absolutely incredible. That was so good.

He's a Russian. He just used French. as a tool. He's not a guy that respect the French people. You know what's

what's what's look at this shit so good so good I forgot all the this is just from Nassardine himself

yeah this is so good yeah it's a tour now it's juve okay I'm afraid we're gonna get dinged here

with the music yeah yeah this is so good it's so good so good so good so good yes PT

gave us a whole breakdown of the historical significance the football, France, and Brazil. So you're going in a different direction as like a promo material, which is fine. You can go whichever direction you want.

I love that. That's a great, great shout. And yes, a lot of guys are taking matters into their own hands. You can see the UFC, I think even the UFC Europe account reposted that. Anyway, G.C., do you agree? A fantastic shout by you, Rick.

I had honestly forgotten about that one. That video is insane. But I actually agree with you on this one, Hawani. Oh, Hora Gucci getting on the mic afterward after the comeback and a very impressive win over to Girolin Bekhov and then to be in his second language

the where is Pantoja is fantastic calling out his teammate like you said fights a fight don't care while still showing respect to him was tremendous stuff okay love that love that we're in agreement we haven't been in agreement a lot throughout today's program so this is nice

Mr. Pizzi your pick yeah that's three for Haraguchi hell yeah and just one of the things is it mentioned you, you both have covered it so well. Like, this is such a departure from the first Horiguchi we met, the Quaya fisherman who, uh, you know, we'd rarely hear anything from to see him then roaring into the mic, calling out his mighty mate, as he put at Pantosia, absolutely brilliant. Okay, wonderful stuff.

The people, by the way, agree with none of us. And they went with, uh, Brian Battles promo after his dirty boxing victory. Remember Brian Battle, uh, won this award. Last year. Yes, with the, uh, uh, you know, you think I was going to lose to a Frenchman? Anyway, he had a great one. Dirty boxing, does that fall under?

It's an MMA award show. I don't know. It was good. The crowd got it wrong. The people got it wrong. I don't know about this. Hard look guys. Terrible fucking choice.

Haraguchi wins. By the way. Candidates, can you give you some candidates? Yeah, yeah, please. Mario Pinto in UFC Rio saying he knows he knows nothing about B.J. Then receives his brown belt and pretends to only speak Portuguese and then has perfect English.

Remember that? That one was fantastic. That was a great one. Big London Gaser in the end. Yes. Oh my God. Josh Hokit. Remember his win, a not too long ago, gets on the microphone, cuts a memorable promo.

Intender Series 1 or U.S. No, the UFC one. We're going to go the U.S. Yeah, the UFC one. I want Kutilaba, UFC Seattle. Who now is power? I am power. Do you remember that?

That was a great one. Derek Lewis, after his win in Nashville, I need some more of them taxi cab drivers. They got in Brazil. I want my wife next. It's going to be a lot of GnP. Kayla Harrison, now on a bit of a more emotional. Her win in Newark was great, but then she gets on the microphone.

This is for anyone who ever felt hopeless. And she has an incredible, you know, speech about all of her trials and tribulations. Ethan Ewing had the great line about the, what was it, the warrior with the sword. Do you remember that line? I didn't write it down Ethan Ewing

promo it was like a sword or something what do he say Do you remember that thing that he said Anyway Yeah yeah for sure

We all remember it Are you serious I have a tattooed on my back That's so great that You don't remember at all We definitely remember The sword is deadliest In calm hands

That was a great line It was a great line Rob at UFC 311 When he went on the speech She said, don't let them boil you, don't let them underestimate you. I believe in myself. I believe in hard work. I don't give a shit what people think about me.

I thought that one was good. Jalen Turner very recently saying that he almost gave up on his dreams, emotional. And the one that was my runner up, believe it or not, Mr. Alex Fulkanowski, adversity is a privilege. Man, that was this year? Yeah, in Miami. Wow. I don't know why.

I thought that was 24. Yeah, that was a good one. So I love that one. but the Horaguchi one felt like it had more impact but the Volcanovsky especially coming off of like Izzy doing a similar thing in Miami and he referenced it

I see you shaking your head there PT you didn't like that one huh? No no I was giving it at all I was given it that like you know what I mean it's halfway like I think you just you you you know you're confused by my head

and the one I forgot about that maybe could have taken Horo Gucci was the pento Pinto I should have picked that although the Naserdin one one is great. For more like that one, Nasserdeen also did one after for calling out Kyle earlier this year.

Same editing style. Absolutely incredible. And don't sleep on. Joaquin Buckley actually had a really good fighter-produced promo for a head of UFC Atlanta. Like this is where I'm feeling the creativity and the energy coming is from the fighters as opposed to from the promotion these days.

Yep. It's not quite nah. Well, thumbnail the search? Nah, no, the clowns? No. All right, let us move along. Let us move along. Poster of the year, speaking of artwork, speaking of our work, who is going to get? You see, this is why I call this the most robust and comprehensive award show in all of sports and entertainment

because, you know, we don't, of course, anyone can do fighter of the year, knock it of the year, and not going to the year, submission of the year. And still to come, our very prestigious male and female fighter of the year. But I love, these are the elements that make the fight game. These are the elements that make the fight game posters of the year. And this is somewhat of a lost art in our sport these days because some just, just kind of do rinse and repeat, Photoshop, all this stuff.

Poster of the year is a very fun one. I just want to throw it out there. I have long been a stickler. You know, people like to throw out those artist series ones and all that. It has to be the official. In my opinion,

it has to be the official. And last I checked, it's the hellwani knows it. It has to be the official, all right? It has to be the official, Mr. New York, Rick. Please, proceed.

I went with the art. No, I didn't. Oh, wow. I have normally done that. Wow. I have normally done that. But this year, the official poster broke through. And it could only come from one source.

It had to come from Risen. It is Risen. So good. Otaku Matsuri for their May 4th event. And I'm sure you've seen this one. So good. It's punching the drum. Absolutely incredible.

Like, they just, they do things at a different level when it comes to these posters. Like, it is never just head head. facing off. In fact, most of the time, it's like 100 heads, right? They're trying to showcase every single person on a lot of the posters. This one, they went in the opposite direction with simplicity. That poster, you can instantaneously kind of feel what they're trying to convey there. Absolutely loved it. And that was my pick for this year. You know, you can almost go to like their tapology page and just go through their events and pick from there because they're usually one of the finalists. It's a great shout, no doubt about it. Mr. G. G.C., your pick. Yes, every year you give the speech about no artist series poster every year. I continue to pick an artist series poster. Honestly, because this one was such a no-brainer. One of the most impressive artist series we've seen to date, and that was for UFC 320. My event of the year, shout out to Warwick Wong, who put together this masterpiece.

Oh, shit, that's cool. How this isn't the official poster, and the UFC sells it as the artist series? How this wasn't the official poster boggles my mind. It's truly incredible. It's kind of video game style. You got six of the fighters from the card on there, all in their own ways that's very them in terms of art style. Absolutely fantastic.

This was my poster of the year. You know, I feel like I say that with every art, what do you call them, artist series or something? How is this not the official one? They're always better. It cannot cost the UFC that much more to make those the official. It probably does, though, because then they have to give royalties and they have to get into a negotiation.

they probably just have to save the money. Or what if you just hired like a few quality artists? Like, does Risen have the insane poster budget to always be in this category every single year? Come on, man. Are you defending? They usually pay people so well. No, no, I hate it as much as you do,

but I'm saying that the reason is probably because they don't want to pay royalties out to these artists and they probably just give them a lump sum say, it's going to be the secondary limited artist poster and yada, yada. Definitely wouldn't make it cooler, you know. let's keep throwing up the face off slop with up this one will be neon well this one will be purple that's how they're in montreal we'll make it blue and white yeah i know how's that turkey

appreciates a good poster uh mr mr ptze your pick look i obviously shouldn't be able to pick this because i was obviously i was featured and i am the model in the picture but i went for the same one as rick wow that's you that's me yeah oh my lord yeah it's i see why you get 30 months for the kitchen scrap with a back like that. You know what I'm saying? I really shouldn't be able to pick it, but look, that's the way it is. And look, if I'm being honest, look, and I probably shouldn't be saying it on air, but

I think we should be talking about a reason a bit more on this show. I'm just saying. Yeah, you know what? You're 100% right. And we are going to rectify that. In fact, I have said that one of my wishes for uncrowned films is that we go to a rising event. And we were actually thinking of sending Casey alone. I was like, no, I have to be there. You can't go before me. You've been banging that

rising drum for a while, P.C., metaphorically and literally in that post. say I was and you're going to say like everyone should back. No, but Pizzi hit the hit the drum literally in the poster. How about we prove it to everyone. Mark it on the calendars. Rise in New Year's Eve. Oh, I tell you want me to get shortless. I tell you want me to see

the back in real life. There's some incredible scenes like the fighter who got an incredible knockout, Ilholm, Nazimov. Do you see that knee? He had an incredible knee in the fight, took the fight on short notice. He was like, he was mob by people. He had like a meeting greet with

fans and they had to shut it down. There's so many people. Jose Shorty Torres of Fight Circus fame lost and had a meeting greed and every single fighter, I've noticed this, even Pat Sabatello, who won a title, shout out to him. They all start tweeting in Japanese

and every single one of their tweets gets 3,000, 4,000 likes. You notice this, G.C. Every single one of them who are attached to the rising cards. So there's obviously a deep love and appreciation over there. All these Japanese fighters get insane engagement. There is love for Sports and Risen is not short on that.

Speaking of which, my turn now, I did want to give a couple of honorable mentions. First, a big shout out to Rise 7. How about this one? Black Combat Rise 7. This is an honorable mention. It was featured back in August, August 2nd, Iron Hip. There we go. Here are some of my honorable mentions.

Wow. A beautiful one on the left over there. So Black Combat Rise 7. Look at that, the yin and the yang. I love that Risen, speaking of Risen, don't show them any love, World Grand Prix one. I love that it's like the guys at the bottom, and then it's all roads lead to the arena. Do you see that in the faraway distance?

Beautiful, beautiful stuff. I love the sun. I love all of that. It really tells the story of the Grand Prix. Yes, look at that. The tournament, the first round tournament poster. Always beautiful imagery and the design and the colors. I adore it.

And then deep jewels is always featured on this list. I love the pins. I love the look of the pins on the T-shirt. Again, the colors, the imagery, it all pops. But can I say, guys, and don't show mine just yet. Can I just say, my pick for poster of the year, this might be not only pick for poster of the year, but upset of the year as well.

Because in a million years, in a million years, did I ever think that I would give poster of the year to the PFL because I find their posters to be uninspired at times I thought they absolutely smashed the poster for Usman

Ramagamatov versus Paul Hughes too don't believe me look at this this is a tremendous poster for multiple reasons it tells the story of the first fight while selling the second fight the blood the marked up Usman face the cuts remember that

iconic shot of Paul Hughes standing there upset that he lost and you have the venue in the back or you have iconic Dubai imagery there the color like that's a very nice looking poster and very rarely do you get a rematch poster that kind of tells the story I think

of the first fight of the war that they engage I thought it was phenomenal they need to do more posters like that that's my pick for poster of the year what do you say what do you say PT I'm surprised you didn't have this one to be honest it's a weak category for me I remember last year I picked the AI one.

Yeah. A good old laugh at that. Oh, yeah. I forgot you AI. You thought what journalism is? Yeah. Yes, it is. Thank you, Jamal.

And then at the time, I forgot what I picked. And then he flashed it up on the screen. And I then had to make a case for that being my poster year. So I made sure to actually put in a bit more work this year. It's something that I should pay more attention to it. Pitchie, you were part of the making of it. Like, they took photos of you for it. You would think that you would pick that one.

Oh, wait, didn't you say the same thing last year that it was like a picture of you also sitting sitting on the throne? own or whatever. You know what? He actually did say that. Just go back to the well, man. Just go back to the well. Cycled material.

Jolly. No, you did not, you didn't mail it in. I feel like the people mailed it in on this one. Wait, wait. I want to show one more of my honorable mention. I got an honor. There's another Risen one that under the gun, their New Year's Eve

won for this year on the right side. I also had the Art of Series because of Warwick Wong's and gangster and that's incredible. But the right side here, the double fist for the this year's New Year's Eve card was incredible as well. Risen is just number one.

I'm not going to believe it was hand that is. It's you, PT? Hey, QP. Both? Is it both or is it another one? I'm just doing this. Right in front of the camera. My honorable mention is also from Risen, Super Risen 4.

Sort of like a inspiration. You don't like this. Why is P.T. laughing? I actually love this one. Sumo inspiration. Yeah, I love it. But you got the rising glass. loves on it. Someone on Reddit said, in terms of the art, the tagline for this event is midsummer

fight festival. Summer, it's a festival, it's a fight. Directly ties into the Japanese tradition of Summer Matsuri, which is festivals, which often feature sumo demonstrations, fireworks, and other entertainment. It's just great, man. You got all the pictures of the bottom. That's all you need to know on who's on the car, date, time. Obviously, it looks like it's hand drawn. It's tremendous. I feel like Frank really appreciates that one. That's great. I feel like that one speaks to you. Yeah, he actually stood up and gave me a standing ovation here in the control room. Someone has to.

I don't know why Pizzi was laughing. Yeah. I tell you what I was laughing. I was like, whatever comes up here, I'm going to say, that's me in the picture. You're laughing at your own joke. I respected. Can't wait for poster of the year, 2027. Where we can hear the exact same joke.

The people gave it to an official UFC poster. No. No, what the fuck? Forier Holloway. Do you remember there was a lot of yellow and black? We don't have it up here because I don't remember. Bro, what? No.

I don't care to remember. That's almost as bad as yours. That's crazy. As mine? Yeah, you know. I wasn't as enthralled by the... The UFC variation of floating heads. Wow.

It looked kind of the same. By having the old injuries on the back one, you sold me a little bit. Still not my poster of the year. No, you guys are two hipster. You guys are too hipster. Yeah, you guys are too hipstered. Next thing we know, you're going to be saying

UFC Apex 112 is posted for the end. Wow, I'm a key surprise. Look at UFC 318 here. We got Max Holloway facing off with Dustin Poirier with yellow on it. This is bad. Bravo. With scratched out names. Yeah, with their former foes.

That is fucking shit. Another absolute winter hand. Yeah, the people really, uh... That's awesome. This is like, this is akin to me how people have become with the Venom shorts, where they're so beaten down that they'll take anything. They're like, oh, we did some clip art dragons on it. Isn't this the most amazing thing ever, but everybody loses their mind?

these posters are shit just because this one's less shit than the other one doesn't mean it's any good don't forget the very next event UFC 319 the poster they really you know broke through with it

it's DDP facing off against Tom Zat Shamaia but instead of yellow it's in black and white no those will never win I wish they would get rid of like those little boxes it's the same format

and remember when Gary Cook came in and he was like oh everything's going to be uniform and here's our little like our movie board and our uniforms and our posters and they're all going to have this and it's all going to be like it's all going to be uh it's going to say like 19 June set it'll be like a very European it was like what are we doing here Gary what do we mean last long did they Gary yeah but

this lasted long this has been like 15 years of that's fair you know I'm looking at the artist series of UFC 319 it's tremendous oh I bet they're all they're all great um all right so uh you know prior to this year you know we we introduced of course the much talked about performance of the Year Award. Congratulations to Pierre Yan. Our latest addition to the awards prior to this year was the photo of the year, which, you know, we want, again, we try to give love to all aspects, not just a poster, but photo. There's some great photo journalism that happens each and every event. And so many great ones to choose from, honestly, a ton of great ones to choose from, a lot of great moments, a lot of great photos. Why don't we go with you, G.C. first up.

Yes, I would be happy to So back in May Me and Rick and everyone At UFC Des Moines And we watch Bo Nickle get fraud checked by RDR Everybody's hating on him Everything like that

Now he gets his next fight It's going to be at Madison Square Guard And he's going to be on the main card Against Adolfo Vieira In what to me was sort of like a must-win situation You can't lose two in a row You can't drop those two after being undefeated, having all this hype behind you.

He delivers in the biggest way. He's dominating the fight and then finishes it with this emphatic head kick knockout, which leads us to this picture right here. Him sitting up on the octagon, hyping up the crowd. I think at this point he's given the double birds to the crowd. Adolfiare is completely knocked out cold. He's getting helped out by the referee and everything. Just an incredible picture.

I have to shout out, Ashika Samant, who according to her Instagram, is a Texas A&M Aggie, who is just an interesting. turn at Getty Sports, who took this one. This picture didn't even make her carousel from the event, but it made my picture of the year simply tremendous. I love that. That's great journalism on your part. We got all that intel.

That's tremendous. Pizza, your pick. I just went for a classic, you know. By the way, when you set it up with I just went for, it feels very sort of like. How home? Yeah, yeah. Like build it up a little bit. Give us some panache.

Well, if we want me to build it up a bit, you know, we're talking about a guy here stepping out of a shadow. Yes. That was, you know what I mean, cast by one of the greatest fighters of all time, by some people's estimation, certainly one of the greatest lightweights of all time. Well, guess what? He wasn't doing it a lightweight. He was doing it at Welterweight. And, you know, back in New York, first ever event, an Irish man got in the cage with two belts on his shoulders. Sure.

Big moment. Islam Makashv doing the same thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's the white champion. There he is screaming. He's probably saying, look at me! Look, I'm better than Habib now.

I told you. That's what I think he's saying. Or I told you's. It told you. He's breath. Yeah. Do you think that he was doing that to either pay homage to Connor or mock? Do you think he had anything to do with the Connor moment?

Or was it just completely coincidental that it was. They all do it. Carmier did it. It's just something that they do when they get the two belts. It's like, they just. What else can you do? Yeah. When you get the two belts around.

swing them around? Yeah. What do you want them to do? I don't know. I don't know. I guess because it was in the same place, it reminded me of it. It's not been bigging up, Connor, lately. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Bigging up. Well, maybe to slight is, uh, it's a slight ilia he's doing it. But, um, you know, it's just, uh, if I see that picture, I'll go 20, 25 immediately. No, tremendous pick, tremendous choice, not ho-hum at all. Uh, can I give you some honorable mentions for me, if I can. Our good friend Cooper Neal had a great one with, uh, Dustin Porier as he was laying the gloves in the middle of the octagon beautiful stuff there cooper neal who works for uh getty images

and uh zufa um yeah there it is look at that one with his team uh in back of him sabah homasi mike brown tago alves uh wonderful stuff what about the aforementioned alex perra who did the uh what is this guy called what is this cabby lomet yeah yeah it was a great Sean M. Haffey of Getty Images. Snap this one. It might have actually been my winner if Herb didn't kind of ruin the shot there by blocking Magomed

if I'm being 100% honest. Oh, would you believe another nod to our good friends over in Japan, over in Risen? I'm not trying to start a thing here with Risen, by the way, but here's a great one of Nobuyuki Saki Kabara. Okay, we don't have this one. As I'm bigging them

up, is it possible to get that one? It was a great one. Jordan, it's in your Slack if you just scroll up a little bit. Should I move on or should I give him a second? Let's move on and then come back. Okay, but can he get, can he grab it? I wanted to give a shout out to the aforementioned Paul Hughes.

This photo was taken by Jose Penuela. How good is that, right? That is a sadistic fucker, that man is, huh? That is the 2025 version of the, the Rory one, right? Right there. Yeah, absolutely. Brilliant. Okay, we do have the rise in one.

This taken by Sachiko Hotaka, Nobuyuki Saki Kibara. And that's the only pick you need if you're Saggibara. Yeah, he looks fantastic. I mean, what is he doing, man? He's getting on and he is looking so good. Yeah. The hair? But in the end, my winner is this snap from Chris Unger back at Madison Square Garden,

my favorite event of the year. I mean, does this not tell the story of the fight? Leon Edwards, climbing Carlos Pratchez is back and Carlos Pratchez is completely unbothered. That face, snapping that moment right there where he's just like, yep, I'm not bothered by this at all and I'm going to knock you out in short order. I just love this.

I love this. It tells the story of the fight. It tells the story of Pratchez, his personality, snapping that moment, great stuff. Shout out to Chris Unger of Zufa and Getty Images. Mr. New York, Rick. That's a great one. I didn't have it on my honorable mention somehow,

but I should have. That one meant a lot to me. But this was mine because, and I often go this direction with photo, because the emotion that it brings out of me, to me this is the most important, one of the most important rivalries, if not the most important rivalry in UFC history.

That has now turned friendly, and that is Stylebender, Israel, and Alex Pere are sitting front row. Such a good one. Just, there's a few images of it. There's this one. Then there's one where I think Israel from his

social media photoshopped them onto a roller coaster together. Just the idea that these two could be sitting together in the same vicinity and enjoying themselves and watching the fights after how heated their rivalry was and how much significance and held in the history of this sport

is very significant to me and it brings the emotions out. I think one year I picked Israel and John linking up. These 10 to be the moments that I go toward when it comes to the photo. So just seeing Israel and Alex in that state did something for me. Great one. Whitaker and Izzy had a great moment earlier in the years. Well, you know why I can't quite give that one the nod?

Are Izzy's eyes closed in the picture? For the record, that's not the one I provided and selected. This is the one that Jordan chose. Wow. Wow. The teeth look great. Honestly, the teeth look so good it takes away from the eyes being closed, so you don't even notice. And why is Perr wearing his uni walk out there?

Did he walk someone out earlier? He was, okay, okay, okay, okay. He was busy. Is he so happy he's closing? He was doing a laugh hard to like. Yeah, I know, but they're like two clothes for that. Like, there has to be a sliver, no? There's somebody to take that up with, and it is not yours truly.

Is that Aaron Blanchfield behind them holding up? I thought there's a Caitlin Clark in there. Yeah, what is going on? No, it's not Aaron Blanchfield, but that definitely is a. Caitlin Clark, whose heads are they holding? Maybe it's like a Bachelorette trip or something? I was thinking the same thing and I was afraid to ask. But I mean, a Bachelorette trip to a UFC event seems out of place.

Yeah. Who knows? Anyway, shout out to that one. The people, by the way, gave it to that Alex Pereira. Yeah, it's a good one. It was definitely on my honorable mentions list. Yeah. I'm surprised Aspinall with the I isn't on there.

Like, I was thinking about that, but I didn't want to bring a painful memories from my show. Sure, no, I mean, it tells the story. Tells the story. It's one of the more talked about moments. Were there any other honorable mentions? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got a couple in there. If we want to rip through him real quick. Ilya, celebrating after knocking out Charles Olivera.

Oh, that's great. That's by Jeff Botari. B'Neil, completely face planted against BSD. That's also by Jeff Botari. Yiza, melting Weston Wilson. Oh. This one is, this is the Yiza versus Weston Wilson. It's also by Jeff Bautari.

And then Chris Unger grabbed the Mohamed Yaya. This is obviously after the, I think it was six knockdowns in that fight. That was insane. The pregnant ice up. Oh, it was crazy. JDM, Neon Belal. This is also by Chris Unger. Just a great shot there.

Pantosia, after dominating KKF, just sort of walking off. I really like the walk-off shots. That one by Jeff Otari. And then Charles at the Homecoming by Ed Mulholland. We might not have that one. That, I mean, but either way. You've seen a lot getting splattered, GC. That's the thing, that's a core, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, the walk off with the, with the, with the body behind you is, is, is about as hard as it gets.

Great ones. I mean, I mean, honestly, you can, uh, you can give a shot so many. I feel like for the longest time there were like two or three people that we would just go through the stuff. Shout out to, you know, one of the greatest of all time, Esther Lynn, but there's so many great photographers, so many people doing great work wanted to give them, uh, a nod as well. So shout out. So shout out to all the great photogs, doing great stuff, capturing these great moments. All right, we move along now to a very fun part of the show. Love this one.

This is the Caposa social media user of the year. And this, you know, it's ironic when we introduced this one in honor of the great Caposa, who is the most prolific MMA tweeter or Xer or poster on the planet and watcher on the planet, this was New York Rick's award. What's ironic about it is he's probably the least on social of all of us these days. Well, certainly of myself or G.C. Ptzee kind of hard to say. G.C. is definitely off social more than me. G.C.'s off social more than you?

Yeah. I post more than Rick. Rick is in the trenches on TikTok. I'm alert. I'm alert. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. In any event. I could have excluded that part. The point is, the point is, this is your award. Explain to the newbies what it is, what it entails. Yeah, it's a little bit straightforward, which is who on, you know, via the vehicle of social media had a tremendous year, right? Who was able to get attention, do creative things, capture the minds of the MMA fandom via the vehicle of social media, right? We obviously have very few interactions with a lot of these athletes through their actual job, right? They fight very infrequently.

You're getting a max, like a five out of Waldo Cortez-A-Costa. Most of the time out of the top-level stars, you're getting a one or two times that you see them per year. So to fill those gaps, we need to have these hopefully not parasocial relationships with a lot of our fighters. And for this year, I think the choice was very obvious. And for the record, as I've stated before, but worth mentioning again, I do consult with the one and only Kaposa on this every single year. I'm not to explode here if this doesn't go. Yes, go ahead. We always tend to find some kind of middle ground. This one, I think, was very obvious. Neither of us even considered any runner-ups. This was the one. Dylan Dennis once, no, I'm just kidding.

It had to be Arvin Saruki, and we did a four-minute promo earlier. in the show of him just doing social media things that the eating content has been a staple of it but there's just and also G.C. in highlighting

his rivalry was talking about Armin in this triumvirate as I expanded it to his claps at Justin Gaichi his claps at Elliot Toporia his claps at everybody in this division and outside this division

yeah here we go just like side note no Gersilla Bitch that that build up to that fight everything that he did on social media this year. I don't think he missed. I don't think he missed at all. Whoever is writing these,

whether it be him or people around him, is nailing it. Whoever's producing the food content is nailing it. He had a tremendous year on social media. If there's a breakthrough, like social media specific award, it's him. But what a year for Armin on social media.

You know what's funny? Early on, I feel like people didn't think that this was him and now he's become like this incredible you know it doesn't matter if it's him at this point that's the best part but the videos are so entertaining great and i know it's just him eating or just like he hardly ever speaks in any of the videos right but that's the brilliance of this and why i think this is important and i did marab win last year marab yeah was a contender for one of them the importance of it is you have to find a way to convey your story with what you're good at right Armin is perfect in this element.

It's like, hey, you know, do these luxurious, lavish type things, and we're going to record it. Just eat. He doesn't have to cut promos. He doesn't have to sit there voicing to the camera. And so I love how they've been able to enhance his profile and do what they've been able to do with him. Shout out to Armin Saruki. What a year on social. There's no wasted posts by him either.

It's always like some sort of entertainment or like a fight announcement or this or that. on Twitter, he has 194 tweets all time. The guy doesn't even have 200 tweets yet. I'm just admiring the haircut here. It's almost like, you know, like he shows like a lavish lifestyle and he shows riches and all this stuff.

It's like a more wholesome Andrew Tade in a way. Like there's nothing toxic about it, but he's like he's kind of showing off a little bit. Oh, no, he's flexing on our ass. Yes, he's flexing on it. But it's like, oh, you know what? I'm enjoying this. If this all start with the Dave's Hot Chicken,

Can we take a little bit of credit for being like, what's with the Dave's Hot Chicken? You know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe you're right. I think that was the OG food video was the Dave's Hot Chicken. But he did have a lot in that thing. So whoever came up with that idea, but yes, you're 100% right. We did find that very, very funny.

But you mentioned the, like, flexing on him. I also think it's important that it becomes, like, it becomes part of the persona, right? Now we have this image of Armin, and he continues to kind of, like, keep it up. It played into that amazing build that I said about that Dan, Hooker and Armand Sarucyan fight, where Dan's like, he's posh, he's a rich boy and blah, blah, blah, blah. That plays into and actually provides, like, credence to some of the storyline building that you're doing for the actual fight part of it itself. It's great. It is fantastic.

He is my choice, Caposa's choice. Shout out to Caposa, who's a living legend for our social media user of the year. Any runner-ups? Any honorable mentions? No, it was too obvious. Wow. There was no reason to even dig deeper. Wow, wow, wow.

I love that. With a bullet. He smashed it. As I said at the top, if he didn't win, I was going to riot. I can't even think, I mean, there were some others, of course, you know, who do good stuff. Aspinol's YouTube page is good. Patty's doing stuff. There's people, you know, Jamal with his great show, Joaquin with his great promos on.

John Pork. John Pork, yes, John Fork. But he's trying to, like, you know, move away from it. You've got to lean into the jump. Yeah. No, you're 100% right. That's a great one. And by the way, was Coposa on board from the jump?

I said, I have an answer that I am resolute in. I don't really have any runners up. Tell me where you're out on it. And he said, we have the same answer. Okay. And it was Armin Suriki. I love it. All right.

So that's New York Ricks Award. No one else weighs in on that one. That's all him. And we'd like to keep it that way. Although we like to have opinions, of course. You know, I may have threatened that I was going to write. But it was all his. It was all his.

Now time for GC's picks. These are his awards only, of course, a bit of a betting focus. He is our resident gambling guru around these parts. And so G.C., explain to the people what the awards are and who wants that awards. Yeah, so we got three quick awards for you here. We got betting underdog, lock of the year, and then most profitable fighter of the year. Betting underdog, obviously, it's in the title, who essentially was the biggest betting underdog that was able to pull off the victory? Lock is, who is that guy that you are most confident in? You could throw him in the

parlay, you could take his money line. You had nothing to worry about. about the entire time. There was no sweat. Always a lock. Got it done for you. Made you a lot of money. And then last, but not at least, most profitable fighter is who, if you just threw $100 down each time they fought, who is going to be that most profitable guy? We'll start with betting underdog. And this one, for the first time, was like, a little bit tough deciphering lines because a lot of these smaller promotions, the line moves a lot. There was Justice Harris beating Nick Gebhardt is a plus 950 at CFFC. Richie Miranda beat Richie Lewis and LFA as a plus 750.

Ronnie Gibbs against Biazio Ali Walsh as a plus 700. You mentioned Alfie Davis. I've seen plus 600. Tapology has plus 705. I saw plus 1,000, plus 1,300 for his win against Gadsie Rabadanov in August. Zibo at Ares plus 1,400. The biggest thing with all of those, though, is that it doesn't feel like they're widely bet. They're not a widely available market that's going to be getting a ton of action on them,

maybe other than the Alfie Davis fight. So I had to go to the UFC. I had to go to the main card of a pay-per-view event where we saw a top 10, or a top five, according to Tapology, upset on the betting odds. And that was Haone Barcellos upsetting Peyton Talbot plus 7-10. Tapology users, 98% Talbot, 2%. Barcellos. I think we have it here.

The top five. Marie Agapov as a minus 1,400 against Shana Dobson, minus 1,400, Rodner Rousey versus Holly Holie home, minus 1,300, George St. Pierre against Matt Serra. And then minus 1150, Peyton Talbot, plus 710 against Hione Barcelos at UFC 311. An upset for the ages that I know a couple people that were on, so unbelievable call by them. Wow, wow, that's incredible.

By the way, how do you go through all of that? How do you find all of this? Yeah, a lot is, a lot is depending on topology. Topology actually has biggest odds upset for every sport, including boxing. So you go through that and then you, you know, control left, 2025, and then you narrow it down from there. We go to the lock of the year. Lock of the year. What does this mean lock of the year?

Yeah, so this is the guy that, like, you know you can throw them in a parlay, you know you can just bet on them and you don't have to worry. It's never a sweat. It's not like, oh, we're going to the judge's scorecards. Come on. Like a Nathaniel Wood bet earlier this year where you're like, oh, fuck about it. I hope he pulled it off 29, 28. This is just like, you bet it, and then you're counting your winnings. And for the first time ever, this isn't a parlay piece, this isn't even a money line,

this is actually a method. Your lock of the year is Walter Walker by submission. Wow. Plus 400 against Don Tel-Mess, plus 550 against Kennedy and Zichukwu, plus 120 versus Louis Sutherland. But look at how quick he gets it done. It was never in doubt. Minute 17 against Mays, 54 seconds against Kennedy, and then a minute 24 against Kennedy, and then a minute 24 against And even if you were sweating because you took a method and you're getting big plus odds on it, you didn't sweat for long.

Less than four minutes of total sweat time between these three fights. Shout out to Walter Walker by Suther. I mean, essentially, it's becoming a bit of a meme here. Wow. He gets the necklace with the heel on it. Shout out to Walter Walker. No heel is safe around this man, I believe three in 2025, but four straight heel hook victories for Mr. Walter Walker. So I imagine you're not going to be getting the plus 550 on him by submission anytime soon.

And then lastly, can I just say one thing. Number one, is that the first time? I mean, we've only been doing this like three, four years, this particular category. First time that it's a prop that would be to lock? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. First time it's not even just like a parlay piece guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's only like an Islam Makashchev or Ahamai where it's just like, I know they're going to win. No sweat. We'll throw it in the parlay. But yeah, Volta Walker. And I'm still unclear on this one. I saw a bit of news over the break that Walter Walker is going up against Zion Clark in karate combat. Did you guys

see this? Yes, yes. A wrestler without legs? Yeah, they've had beef. Is this a real thing? I've seen some Instagram messages shared of him and he's calling out Walter Walker and he's just like, yo like are you just like doing this for the fans or like you're actually talking shit and Walter Walker's like, I'm going to have a grappling match

and and so basically obviously no heel hooks this is wild. Zion seems to be open. to it. I mean, they announced it, February 13th. It's very karate combat, you know. Yeah, no, I guess. It works. All right, and what is next? What is next? Lastly, most profitable fighter. Who, if you just put a hundred down on them, who's going to give you the biggest return on the year? And like I mentioned earlier, couldn't find like an exact line, but I just

went on the first line I saw of someone betting on Twitter. And that is the Axeman, Alfie Davis. Three and O in 2025, all three coming as an underdog. And then And obviously the Gadsi Ravadanov. It doesn't matter if you got him at plus 700, plus $700,000, plus $1,200. He's going to be the most profitable fighter of the year because he paired it with a plus $150 win and a plus $130 win in the PFL season.

Clay Collard, Brent Premis, and Gadsie Rabadanov, your most profitable fighter of the year. And this is, I believe, the second time it's come from PFL. Wow. Is Alfie the Axeman Davis. Wow, wow. Shout to him. What was the other one? Like Hosh Manfiel, right?

Yeah, shout to Housmanfio. Unbelievable 2021, I believe it was. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. That was your first one probably. Yeah, yeah, shout out. All right. So those are the, the sort of betting, gambling-esque award.

So great stuff from Rick. Love that. Great stuff from Connor as well. And obviously, there's four of us, and I'm doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. So I wanted to give it up to Mr. Beetzie. Thank you very much. Got out there. go ahead for his uh inaugural uh crack of the year award that we're all looking for to uh so much so pt please

take it away i wasn't aware of this um no nobody told me this what does that mean what does it even mean to be a crack up here you did the talk shit last year man yeah go ahead we said rick has you know social media user uh gc has his gamley picks your shows the crack every friday i want to So we thought crack of the year, good time, fighter, good time. And you said, yeah, you were all good. Yeah. Come on. No, no.

Jordan, flash it up. What's going to happen? Our Shamrock's going to follow up. What are we talking about here? Nobody told me this. Or even rang, Jordan. I said, Jordan, do I have anything to do? He said no.

Really? What am I meant to do it? What is that crack of the year? Are we talking about? What is we talking about? This is a joke, right? You're winding us up. I don't know what the, I don't know what's going on.

What are you talking about? crack in the year C-R-A-I-C not C-R-A-C-K I was looking forward to this I don't even know what this is so crazy I literally texting you yesterday and said are you good look I knew this look what look at this Littler is unbelievable media he's the greatest ever after Phil Taylor can't believe United couldn't beat Leeds this is our conversation there I'm I having a stroke I don't remember this your face is not as bad as fourth wait keep going keep going I said, are you all good for crack in the year tomorrow?

I think it will be great. You said, ready to go. Bill's of clinch. Remember the bills of clinch? Perfect. They'll be fun. Yeah, it depends on the seating. Sound.

You don't remember any of this. This is so crazy. You know what's so crazy about it? You know it's so crazy. Oh, Bonn Elliott, one of our biggest fans, sent me a video today about this specific award. This specific award. Here it is. I sent it to them because I was so touched.

I don't have a time. I was so excited about this. Here's Oban Elliott. And if we can keep, can we keep Pizzi on here? Because I want him to see what Oban had to say. I don't know if it's too late for that. But here's Oban Elliott talking about this specific award. What's happening, boys?

Happy new year, 2026. Really looking forward to the award show this year. You guys always give out the best awards. But this year, I'm really looking forward to the crowd. of the year awards obviously last year you boys spoke about it so pizzi you're the other man for the job mate i'm really looking forward to see you that you've picked who's going to win the inaugural crack of the year award there it is i can't wait to find out see you soon boys much love okay here's the show funny it's so funny because you know what it oban elliott

It's the winner I was only joking I knew it the whole time You know what I mean Oh by Okay So it's all worked out General banter

And love for life It's Oban Elliott Of course it was open Elliot It was always Oban Elliott Wasn't it Jordan Who's to check

Yeah That's not who I had Okay Well you know We all thought You were gonna go With Paul Hughes Yeah

He was on the short list Sean Abannon yeah I had this guy with the mustache yeah oh yeah he's funny we thought that was a good crack

right there oh what about this one yeah Chris Bungad was on the short list who even gave these to to Jordan to set up the vibe for crack in the year

gave honorable mentions yeah yeah well done I got so many messages about this picture they were like how many drinks did you

had at this point and I was like actually none it was very dark crack in the year yeah well doing Alban you know what I mean

congratulations you nailed that you nailed that peter well done I appreciate you reading all the messages and forgetting about our conversation

from yesterday yeah well you know I don't actually I tried to check there and I'm like you know I'm worried something's happening

to my brains too that was right you asked me about the bills and everything yeah yeah littler

shout to littler as well back to back some crack he was on the short list too he had a great crack

he had a great crack because it happened in January he couldn't be on the list, but I knew he would win. Is there anybody who wasn't on the short list for Crack of the Year? It sounds like it was like, why rich? Actually, everybody was on it. Okay.

Real quick, though, something suspicious about these text messages. He said, trying to think of something we could do to trick Frank. Let me know if you have any ideas. Great idea. Let me have a think. How much time did you spend thinking on that pizza? Are you all right, man? Yeah.

Can we go to that full screen of pizza? He can we go to that full screen of pizza? Yeah, listen, I haven't been drinking that much this Christmas. Maybe that's the problem, man. If this was any other Christmas, I'd be like, you know, this could have happened. You know, this, but I think you're fucking with me, guys. I think you're all collectively fucking with me, okay? And if not, we need to get me in an ambulance very quickly.

Paranoia is an MRI. Because, I'm worried. You know, I do have to say you can consider it payback for yesterday's tux or last year's Tux Reveal. I am very upset of myself. I really botched the I am sweaty free

pre show area I was like we're gonna get him so good are we is he and then you're I couldn't

I couldn't keep it I couldn't keep it before BT go ahead I couldn't I couldn't even crack it

I was worried I was like when everyone was just dead potted me there I was like we had the text messages I changed Connor's name

to your name we did a whole conversation we had Obon send in the video we had everything. We had the pictures and I botched.

You know what I was in there I was like I was actually my as you were rounding out you know like the the gambling awards my heart was beating so fast I was in anticipation of this moment because I wanted to get him so

and I wanted to see him explode like this we got we did get some of it it was great oh it was very worried especially when he's all dead Tommy when I was like ha ha ha yeah then everyone was like I was like oh God so we did get you

he got me but you know what I mean it's been fairly sober compared to most Christmases. Any other Christmas I would have been like this happened. I definitely wrote back to him, shit-faced and I was like, this is great. And completely forgot. Any particular reason for that, by the way? Just, you know what I mean?

Your new year. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's it. That's it. By the way, speaking of which, I got a You don't get a back like that for nothing, boys. You know what I'm saying? Of course. Of course. Easy work. I do think we should institute this for years to come, crack of the year. Is it about arces or just?

No, just about people who gave us So I think that's a bit, you know what we're a good time. It's whatever you want to interpret it as, you know, like who's good banter, who's a good time, you know. Think about it. You have about 365 days. I did get a call. I looked at my phone, New Year's Eve, and I have a missed call from Frank. And I'm like, oh, gosh, something like, who's calling me on New Year's Eve, who's part of the show?

And I got a call from Frank. And, you know, he made me, I don't know, a couple of grandpa's cough medicine, would you say, Frank? or just straight crack at that point. Fair point. Like CRA? I was like, Frank, is everything okay? You know, I'm on vacation. I'm, I'm on vacation.

I love you. It was, it was one of the nicest conversations that I ever had. He had a couple of Grandpa's coffee. It was really nice. Can I actually break the fourth wall? Oh, yeah. Go ahead. You know, get into town on the 30th.

Family was getting sick, everything like that. I was sleeping on an air mattress. You had enough. You had enough. It was 10 days. Ready to get home. Last minute on New Year's Eve. just like, oh, you know what, I'll shoot out a couple feel or text, see if anybody wants to come over.

Send one to Frank. I was just like, hey, man, if you and, you know, your wife want to come over, please feel free. He responds, we have decided to stay in this evening. We will not be going out. Thanks, though. I was like, all right, no worries. At, like, 630, he calls my roommate completely unrelated to me and was like, hey, Connor offered for me to come over earlier. Does that offer still stay?

Wow. I'm on the way over now. And I was like Behind your back Yeah Why get out of the shower And I'm like Oh Frank's coming over

And I was like A couple cough medicines And I'd say Wow wow Frank Was in bed by 930 Your version of the story That's exactly what

He's also like I was just talking to Ariel On the phone outside And I was like What's wrong? Yeah It's exactly It's funny you say that

Because he He walked up I think no He showed me a video Of him talking to your roommate And your roommate goes like Ariel Stop bothering him on New Year's.

And I was like, I didn't even initiate this call. I wanted nothing to do with him. I was happy to get a phone call. It was the highlight of my night. I was in bed by 1030 as well. What's up? Sounds like this beef between you and Jesus. No, not at all, but I didn't appreciate the insinuation that I was bothering Frank on New Year's

when in reality he was calling me to spread good cheer. I think this is most interesting to me because over the break, I tried to call Frank because of something that was very important and I didn't even get a call back Wow Frank Frank please I try to call Franks

about something very very important I don't want to do I want to say what it was this is a good this is a good debate internal debate happening right now Expenditures Frank Frank was buying things on my credit card Wow

you know let's just say I have a very intimate look at his Apple history of like you know season six of this show and whatever he was trying to buy. And so this is all taking place on my credit card. So I, you know, I try to do the math. I'm going over my credit card statements

and I try to do the math and I'm like, who would have access to this and then be buying things from the Apple store? But also, it couldn't be fraud because one of them was returned. And I was like, no Somali pirate guy is like, you know, returning it. And so I'm like, who could have access to my card that would be making

such a silly error. Oh, I know who it is. It's Frank. I call Frank. No answer. No answer. I call Apple and I'm like, can you tell me who's doing this. They're like, we can't, unfortunately. You're going to have to guess it. I'm like, is it Frank Lenz? And they're like, yes, that's exactly what. Wow. Wow. What a segue to Frank's fraud check of the year. Take it away. And so I, I call, I text Frank and say, hey, Frank, you're committing fraud and, you know, making charges on my identity theft and you're making charges on my account and then finally I get a text back that's like oh shit my bad but

Frank why did you have his credit card why did you have his credit card and why didn't you call him back look these accusations are unfounded and if there's anything you'd like to say Jordan the text messages that I sent you yeah no but seriously why why was it linked Frank had purchased something with my card that I was

going to lay out for and then he never switched it back accident interesting so do you put it in your wallet basically and double clicked on it like he had like a in his Apple account, he put my car. But I wondered if he had it, because sometimes you have it in your Apple wallet. Literally, I used it last

on my Apple account, and it just kept going back to it. In total, how many? How many charges? No, you know, we don't want to... Wow. What are we doing, Ariel? Was there any, like... You have to tell us. How much? No, you know, it was just... Was there any questionable charge? I'm on a good time, you know? Any porn?

Any porn? He was definitely telling his wife. He's like, I got a corp coach. Honey blue. Come on. I only bring this up. I only bring this up to say, you know, some people get a proactive call from Frank, then he's calling back GC or his roommate to try and come over to the house. I'm calling Frank to alert him to the fact that he's committing identity theft on me,

and I can't even get an answer. So that's where we're at in the relationship. Was there any blue there, Frank? Be honest. What does that mean again? You love a bit of blue, Frank. I know you do. I know you love it. What is blue?

What is blue? Why is it blue? Yeah. And you love a bit of blue. It's fucking crazy. Frank, there's definitely blue on there. No one is saying no. Nobody is saying no.

Listen, I don't want to talk about what was purchased, all right? Crank and his blue movies, one. What the fuck? I mean, you know his favorite Christmas movie, right? No. He's talked about this many times. Listen, you know? It's blue.

Everyone knows it's drama dressed up as blue. That's what it is. I got to put that into my daily vernacular. Gosh. A bit. Might want to clip that one off for a few. You'll have a little blue there, Frank. All right, gents.

Let's move along. Finding games over. Four left. Just four left, my friends. The most robust, prestigious and comprehensive award show. Just four left. As we say goodbye to 2025, look ahead to 26. And a reminder.

prediction show on Wednesday boxing awards tomorrow on the nose tomorrow as well story of the year you know us media guys we love our stories you know us media guys we love our stories there were a lot and and to me it could be like just one massive story that was like atomic bomb or it could be a story that kind of threaded throughout the year you know that just kind of happened at the beginning and was a constant theme throughout the year

I don't remember what's our order at this point you guys just had your fun and so I'll kick things off to reset the order. My story of the year was a story that was mentioned earlier. It was mentioned when we were talking about rivalry of the year. It was John Jones versus Tom Aspinall. And so I didn't give John Jones versus Tom Aspinall and their saga, as I put it. I didn't give it rivalry of the year because there was no crescendo in my opinion. There was no, I'm not going to say finality, but there was no payoff.

But it was the story of the year because we wanted to see at the beginning of the year, we all said Aspinall versus Jones. Dana White told us it was going to happen at the end of last year I start reporting on the 30 million I tell you that he says yes I tell you that he says no by mid year finally they pull the plug

Dana White reveals John is retired in Azerbaijan of all places they're going to do the Aspenol fight Aspinall obviously fights but like two days after Jones retires he says he's coming back he wants to fight at the White House so he's still lingering

he's still lingering Aspinall gets hurt the eye pokes Jones is mocking him and I still feel like you know while Asperon has this thing with Sorrell Gunn and Jones is trying to go

for Alex Pereira this is still you know one of the most talked about rivalries and and fights and stories in the sport and so to me the story of the year a story that threaded throughout the entire year John Jones versus Tom Aspinall

there's a lot to choose from but since I'm going first I'll save the honorable mentions New York Rick you go next yeah I had that as my number two but my number one was the end of the ESPN and pay-per-view era and the start of the Paramount era. Like this was the conclusion to a seven-year relationship with ESPN that I think was not profitable, but beneficial maybe to both sides of the equation.

And now it has concluded, and the pay-per-view part of it, I think, is going to be one of the most relevant parts for a lot of the fans that are watching this show and continue to watch the UFC product as we head into 2026 and the beginning on power. That was my very close second, 100%. I felt like it was just a story that happened, and then it became like a story throughout the back end, but it's a great shot. And obviously, we will feel its remnants throughout this year and beyond the people agree with you as well. Mr. G.C., what do you say? I am with Rick. I am also with the people. UFC signing a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount Plus, leaving ESPN, leaving pay-per-view behind is massive. There's no telling how this will. shaped the sport over the next seven years and, you know, it could end up being the story of the decade by the end of it. Had a massive amount of water in my mouth.

I wasn't expecting you to throw it to me there. Yeah, you see the stats right over there. First show, January 24th. Close second, by the way, for me is TKO getting into boxing. I know it's technically not an MMA story. By the way, their first show, January 23rd. It's January 5th. January 23rd is 18 days away, and the event not officially announced,

but we do know the apex was put on hold. Still no fights announced, which is a little bit surprising, but let's see what kind of rabbit they pull out of their hat. Nevertheless, Pizzi, your pick. On with you, Ariel, the Aspinall and Jones saga, for me, dominated the year, first half of it, certainly. And it's still, like, we're still having after tremors, I feel. Like, it's just, it's been around for so long.

I don't think Tom's able to do an interview without being asked about John Jones, which pisses them off a lot. And I don't think John Jones able to do an interview without being asked about Tom Asmel. So that's for me was the biggest story of the year. Yeah. Both great choices. Some others that come to mind. A massive one was the Isaac Dalgarian betting scandal, which still doesn't have any sort of finality to it. Neither does the James Krause won.

The official death of Bellator. like I said earlier, first time since 2008, Nobel Tour events, the restructuring of PFL bringing in John Martin and getting rid of the tournaments and all that. That's really coming into play this year, but they announced all of that last year. You can really say the John Jones retirement and unretirement could be its own story, but I think very much tied to the Tom Aspinall saga, as I put it, the GFL story, which kind of died mid-year. Remember, this time last year, we were gearing up for the GFL draft, which happened in January.

And then a massive one, which will really play out this year, was the announcement that the UFC will have an event at the White House. And now it seems like every fighter talks about it. Every fighter is asked about it. Donald Trump announced it on July 4th weekend. And since then, it's been talked about. And we've seen pictures and we're debating who's going to be on it. And that ties into Connor McGregor and all that stuff and more. So I feel like the UFC White House story breaking midyear was a.

gigantic one as well. Any other honorable mentions? One more, just the massive championship turnover at the UFC. I don't think any of us expected. All of us came in under the number that it actually ended up being, but the massive turnover for the UFC's champions to the point that

as the stat you read earlier, like Valentina Shavchenko is the only one with a current streak in title defense as a UFC champion. It was kind of startling to see all the new faces as champions. Agreed. Yes. I had those those stats earlier, nine, eight, and one for the champions going into title fights in

in 2025, which is a crazy stat, 11 title changes, and the one being the no contest, obviously, not a draw, 11 new, 11 title changes, three victorious in vacant title fights during Deporia and Volk. So yes, a lot of turnover, and we'll make our own predictions regarding those champions on Wednesday on our prediction show. We move along now, three to go. And this is one of my favorites, feel-good story slash moment of the year. Love this one because there's a lot of darkness,

there's a lot of sadness, there's a lot of heartbreak in combat sports, in sports, in life in this world. Very important to highlight the good, the moments that we love. We've talked about a whole bunch of them throughout the show today, but let's pick one each. and let's go with Mr. Feel Good himself, Mr. New York, Rick.

You kick it off. It's apropos you say that, actually, and I'll tell you why in a second. All right. I actually had another one for a long time. I thought I was going with this to the point that I had to make a last minute swap with Jordan, which I don't normally do. But this was the one that when I was thinking back on the year, after having already locked in on something, I was like, oh, it had to be this. I remembered it, and I couldn't believe I forgot it. It was Yuri Prohaska and Ashley McGarity's relationship stemming from this initial

Reddit post where she posted that before shaving her head she was going to do Yuri's hairstyle as pictured here and then obviously Yuri getting involved with it and having connection with her then cutting his own hair the donations that were made to help support and other

like fall out from this was incredible and as and you say like Mr. Touchy-Filling me like Yeri himself is not always so great with you know people paying tribute to him as we've kind of seen on this show. And so the idea that, like, they made this connection to me was very special. Oh, yeah.

This was incredible. Great stuff from, from Yeri. One of a kind he is. And so many others, too. Obviously, this was a Yeri and Ashley's story, but then it became a bigger story in the community and so many people wanted to help as well. So just a really good feeling story from this year. Love that one.

That's a tremendous choice. I thought you were going to go with the Pereira-Adisania moment, but that's an even better one. means a hell of a lot more. What about you, GC? I'm going to go with Dustin Poirier getting his retirement fight in New Orleans. Rarely do we get to see a fighter go out on a positive note. And I understand he didn't get a win over Max Holloway, but he got to headline a pay-per-view in his home state, a place that the UFC hadn't been to in like a decade. He gets all the fanfare. He gets all the tributes, the touching moments, the picture right here. And then I believe we have this video that they played for him as well.

Austin Porier, you are an absolute legend. One of the best to ever do it. Okay, I'm worried about the music, though. You've got me scared, but yes. Just for him to get all of that tribute and all of that love for a guy that was never an undisputed champion just shows how much he means to the company, truly paid in full, as he says, legend of the game. So it was great to see him go out like that. Obviously, an incredible choice, an incredible moment, an incredible week, an incredible distinction

for a guy who earned it. And as you said, rare to see that happen, especially in the UFC. Pizzi, you agree with either of them? I don't, but it's funny because Rick says, Yuri Pro Haska, not a guy you'd associate with feel good moments.

I happen for a completely different moment. It is his emotional reaction to Alex Pereira reclaiming his title against Ankyloeff. And honestly, it's just, man, poetry could be written about this kind of thing. I want Ben folks to write something about this. Like a guy watching a dude who has knocked him out twice,

knock out a dude who's beat him, and just having this beautiful reaction to it. Like really emotional and just very real reaction to this happening. I think it's one of the coolest moments to fight games all year. And it could only be Yuri Pulaska. You know, I considered that one as well. We ended up asking him about it on the Monday because I think a lot of us thought that we,

I think a lot of us thought that he was. so happy for Pereira and then it seemed to me and guys correct me if I'm you know misinterpreting this it seemed to me like he was so happy because it meant that he was going to fight for the belt next

he seemed to imply that he was very happy that he got some clarity yeah like it cleared the picture up for what he needs to be able to do which again I'm still feeling the emotion of that somebody who's that like locked in Zen samurai type of thing but it wasn't necessarily like

I'm so happy for Alex it was more like, I know my path now, I know my destiny, which is very eerie and also pretty cool. Incredible, yeah. You will never see something like that. Only he can produce a moment like that. There were a couple that I thought of. Kayla Harrison, like I said, when she won in her post-fight interview was a beautiful moment. Volcanovsky again, just seeing him at his age get that belt back after those two losses, those two knockouts. That was like my close second. I thought of the Prakaska moment with the young woman back in Englewood at the start of the year back in January, but in the end, I went with G.C.'s pick, which is the Dustin Poirier retirement

fight, and it was mainly because of all the emotions that we were subjected to throughout the week, and I couldn't, I kept thinking to myself, like, how's this guy going to fight? How's this guy going to fight? It seems so emotional that, that video that they, that they played, the tributes, him getting a fight in his home state is such a rare thing. And for a guy who never won the undisputed title, he won the interim, and he has nothing to absolutely, like, you know, hang his head down about, for him to get this, no one gets this, you know, like even the greatest fighters of all time, the greatest champions of all time, don't get these moments, don't get the retirement fight in their home city, hometown, home state,

even their home country sometimes. For him to get that, it was everything other than the loss. Like, it had it all. He didn't get the result, but he got the moment and he seemed very much at peace with it because he showed up on the show on on the Monday after which I very much appreciated and he gave us this great moment where his daughter gave him this best dad ever belt and as you see it's it's from his daughter Parker and I remember that you know him telling us like oh you want to see the belt that my daughter made when I came home and he was so happy he was so excited to show it that belt meant so much

more than the BMF or any other UFC title just a you know a diamond of a human being great family welcomed a baby boy later in the year. I was struggling with this one because it's like in the end I felt sad not because Max won because I was rooting against Max and Max handled it so great. Remember Max gets on the microphone said it's not about me and he gives the floor to Dustin the moment with Rush and Dustin as well dating back to their first meeting or actually their second meeting in 2019 and he has that moment with him in Atlanta and then they kind of tie the bow in New Orleans. It just brought out a lot of good. And it felt, yeah, you just kind of felt happy for everyone involved. And yeah, that was a great one. You know, the linkups there, we talked

about Izzy and Pereira. Izzy and Whitaker was just as heartwarming, in my opinion. Ian Gary and Carlos Prachez, you know, there were some nice linkups throughout the year, Zhang Wei and Yuania and Jacek. So always some great moments throughout the year, and it's good to highlight them. Some mention moments. Anything else? that we we didn't mention guys my other one was going to be Josh van buying his mom a house oh yeah that one hit me in the fields yeah shout out to that guy what an incredible year and to be able to make that gesture for his mom was special amazing all right guys rounding third here final two awards for the

absolute prestigious 13th that why you guys I just can't from the base I can't oh yeah I know I had to pull it I just can't get over this thing. It's unbelievable. What's so funny? That's going to be a drop. What? What? No, nothing, nothing.

In any event, again, I could show it to you, but as we gear up for our final two awards, female fighter of the year, male fighter of the year, take a look one last time, what they are fighting for. Look at this. Look at this. I mean, look at this. Look at this, PT. Have you ever seen anything quite like this? No, it's stunning. Male fighter of the year.

That's the one of one. Female fighter of the year. One of one. Peace and love. Peace and love. Oh, look at this. Wow. We have truly leveled up.

And again, shout out to our good friend, Sarp Unger, who made this all possible for us. The pride of Turkey, who's told us some great stories about listening to this show on his way to work in a different lifetime. Now, a part of the family. This is tremendous.

We don't want Tom to feel. said, so we're going to put them like that. Okay, guys, female fighter of the year, up first, and then we'll end the proceedings with male fighter, our 25th and 27th categories of this very prestigious award show. Mr. G.C., why don't you go first? Yeah, no-brainer for me here. Valentina Shepchenko, Female Fighter of the Year, beats Manon Firo as an underdog, and then goes on to put on a clinic against Zhang Wei, who was my pound-for-pound number one, defense. the 125 belt, stops her from becoming a double champ, two incredibly impressive performances. Now she's set up for a big 2026 as well.

Incredible, yep. There were some tough choices to be made here, but Valentina I've seen pop up on some people's list. Of course, everyone waits for our winners, because again, most prestigious comprehensive, unbiased. Pizzi, your pick, your pick. Same as GC, Valentina Shevchenko, could above the rest. Okay. Short and sweet, there she is.

the pride of Kyrgyzstan doing her thing winning at the end of the year against John Willie a lot of people thought that would be the end it was not it was very one-sided

Mr. New York Rick do you agree three for three Valencia Shepchenko wow wow three for three Valentina Shepchenko and the people

agree with you guys as well they say Valentina Shavchenko can I give an honorable mention can I give an honorable mention to the great Kayla Harrison who became Bantamway champion of the UFC UFC Women's Bantamway champion

She did go 1-0 this year But won that belt in a weight class that she said That she thought she would never be able to make That 135 pound weight limit She said she'd have to cut off her leg To make it back in the day Liz Karmouche guys went 3 in O She won the PFL women's flyweight tournament

McKinsey Dern Not enough talk about McKinsey Dern She went 2 in O She became the vacant champion She won that vacant title Becoming the Strawweight Champion defeating Verna Jean Giroba beating Amanda Hibas earlier in the year. A bit of a comeback year for her as well.

Sika Izawa, I know our Drake Riggs, a big fan of hers. She defended her Risen title and was victorious. She went 3 in O last year. Fatima Klein, who I mentioned as well, Jocelyn Edwards, Lupi Godineas. But in the end, in the end, guys, of course, it has to be Valentina Shvchenko. the wins over Mano Furo in Montreal, the win over Zhang Wei Li at Madison Square

Garden, the super fight, she really dominated that fight. It was never really in doubt. It was never close. And the Fioro win was quite one-sided I thought as well. Mano Furo was on a great run. Again, some people are

a bit down on Valentina right now because they feel like there's not enough style points, but she is systematically breaking down her opponents and she's beating them at their own game. and she's neutralizing them and she's just showing her dominance and she's been doing this for so long. I mean, I'd love to know how many times,

how many years have we given her the female fighter of the year award? It's got to be a bunch. It's got to be a bunch of this point. Yeah, she's definitely been deserving of it. Can I make a meta-proposal that I feel is important? Losses should not eliminate you from

Fighter of the Year contention. And I say that to say, as an example, right? Menon Fuero. I think had a very good year and is not ever mentioned in any lists I've seen or anybody talking about this. But to, I thought that was actually a closer fight. Like I thought, unless

I'm mistaken, I think Valencien only one by one round, to be in that competitive of a fight with somebody who were now unanimously calling Fighter of the Year in Valencien of Shevchenko and then the dominant performance against Jasmine, to me is like worth maybe more than two wins over

lesser competition. And so I do think there's this tendency that people eliminate somebody with a loss, but I would just propose, I think Manon deserves mention, and I think that a loss should not eliminate somebody from contention for a lot of these awards. If you put it in the proper context, to lose to Valentina

in the way that she did, I think is more significant than maybe a win over lesser competition. It's a great point. I just put that out there. By the way, that might come up for our male fighter. There he is. I have a feeling. It might come up later. A nice little, what would you call that? A little foreshadowing. A little sprinkled. Yeah, a little foreshadding. By the way, the people

agree with us, as I said, Valentina to Shevchenko, I fail to mention that their pick for a feel-good moment was Alex Volcanovsky's big win back in April. But yeah, I really didn't see a lot of other, like I said, I think those other people that I mentioned, Kayla and Mackenzie Dern, Liz Karmouche, I don't think, got enough attention. Tremendous years, but Valentina, very dominant. And really was that win over Zhang Wei and how she beat her, considering how good Zhang looked back in February defeating Tatiana Suarez. I really thought that that cemented her place as the 2025 Halwani Nose Award winner for Female Fighter of the Year.

And thus, my friends, we have reached our final award. Wow. It's always a little bit emotional when we reach this point because so much goes into this show. And I know everyone across the world of mixed martial arts, everyone waiting with bated breath to see who will win the Male Fighter of the Year award. There's a lot at stake here. There's reputations at stake. there's legacies at stake there's you know major milestones and accomplishments at stake there's

you know people want the justification they want the you know they want to know that hey this was all worth it and it was all worth it because i won this award i had the blood sweat and tears is what i'm trying to talk about in any event i'm rambling here my friends let us get on with it i will go first here my 2025 male fighter of the year i will admit it was a little bit tough because I had to look within myself. I had to look within myself. I had to consider the things that Rick was just talking about. And in fact, I do believe, I do believe in our 13 years of doing this, this is the first time that my male fighter of the year or even female fighter of the year winner has a loss on their record in the calendar year. But in the end, I looked at what Marabdolashvili

did going three and oh and then of course losing to pierre dion but the activity trying to make history for title defenses in a calendar year being active coming back giving himself you know hardly any rest breaking records to me he you know he symbolizes everything that you want in a great fighter and a star and a champion it didn't work out in the end he will be back but yeah, we came to the conclusion that, you know what, a loss shouldn't, shouldn't derail everything else that you did throughout the course of the year. And you know how I ultimately came to this conclusion, guys? What if you would have started the year with that loss and then went three and no? And I know it's, you know, it's a chronological thing, but, you know, maybe we'd be not even

having to talk about any of this. In the end, I felt very comfortable with the fact that Murab deserved it. He was more active than anyone. He put it on the line four times. Again, didn't end the way he wanted it to end, but I thought he had an incredible year. So shout out to Marab, my 2025 male fighter of the year winner, Rick, you go. If there's one thing I've always said about you, it's that you're a very smart man, Ariel. Thank you. Congratulations on being on the right side of history. The answer is Marab de Valishvili. And for me, it wasn't particularly hard from the perspective that as I kind of alluded to when I was talking about Menon in the female fighter conversation, you look at the three wins. You look at the wins over

Umar, O'Mali, and Corey, and you look at the loss to Piotr Yan, and you just put that up against other people's resumes, and to me, the math says that it's still Marab. Now, if Jan had gone out there and maybe got one more win against somebody, because when you put that win over Marab, tie it with a win over Marcus McGee, that's a fantastic year so far. But I feel like he needed one more to make the math kind of work out and be close to equivalent. for me, the body of work that Marab submitted this year and then in losing to a pound-for-pound guy now in Piotr-Yan did not equate to him losing the discussion

for a male fighter of the year. So for me, it was still Marab. When you put his resume up against any other resumes this year, the math still looks right to me. The logic still makes sense that it was his year. And so that's where I ultimately landed, and it sounds like you did as well. Okay, okay. GC, G-G-C?

Yeah, what Marab was able to do in 2025, is, I mean, it's the stuff of legend. Three Tadour defenses, the activity off the charts that we rarely see, dominant performances, and then truly going for greatness against Piotr-Yon in December. But I think when you go for greatness, you put everything on the line, and I think he did that against Piotr-Jon, and unfortunately he came up unsuccessful,

and credit to Marab, the accolades, how incredible he is as a fighter, the guy that beat him, then, I believe, deserves the fighter of the year, and that's why I'm going with Piotr-Yon. as amazing as Marab de Valishvili is. Wow. The accomplishment that Piotr Yon was able to do by getting his belt back and defeating the man who was having this unbelievable year,

to me, earns him that credit of getting this accolade. Marab knows what he was doing when he was putting the belt on the line four title defenses, greatest year of all time and everything like that. To get systematically beat down like that, I think the award should go to that. Wow. I mean, it's a great shout. Can I break the fourth wall? This is what propelled me to introduce the performance of the year

because I was struggling. I was like, how do you not give Peter Yan any type of award here? How do you not like shout out that performance? And so it was like, okay, that performance was great, but I thought Marab had the year. You're 100% right. And yeah, I struggle with it. I struggle with it.

First time ever. What do you think, Pizzi? What do you got? Who's your pick? I don't have either of those guys will tell you that much. Wow. Paul Hughes again, huh? It's Paul Hughes.

No, um, well, who's this? It's similar to, uh, oh, I could see, I could see, I could see, female pick, uh, you know, the greatest female fighter in the world, Valentina Shepchenko, I went for the greatest male fighter in the world, prove that again by winning a second belt in a second way class, Islam, like a chef. Wow, wow. So two and no this year, uh, a January win and then the historic, uh, win in, in November, yeah, those were the guys.

Honestly, I was, I was going back between Marab, Jan, and Islam and I was I think I overtaught it you know I just kept on weighing them all up I think they're all good picks I just went for Islam because the historical ramifications of it and the fact that he is the best fighter in the world and a lot of people I think including everyone that is on the pound for pound rankings committee decided that this was a win that keeps him a top there and keeps him on top of the world so that's why I went for he completely dominated jack della madalena and he's a savage you know ultimately in my opinion it came down to four people it came down to Islam it came down to Peter Yan it came down to Marab or Josh Van who went 4-0 I don't think anyone else had a

really strong case obviously guys like Ilya had to win and Hamzad had to win Volk had to win but like those guys were the most active and I wouldn't hate any of those picks like if anyone here said Josh Van I'll be like yeah Josh Van won 4-0 and won the belt and even if that accident didn't happen

that was a great year So in the end, I think we, what is it, two of us agree, the rest not. And the people, by the way, they went with Marab. So say what you will about the people. No, I've always said they're very smart. Yeah. I really was thinking about it and I probably could have looked through the archives. I don't think in all my years of doing this, like to me it was always automatic, you're

disqualified if you have a loss on your record in the calendar year. Well, what I think is unique about this one and why that happened is nobody is as active as Marab has been. Yeah, no one tried to really go for it. Let's be very clear. We have to state this. This is very important. Three title defenses

is still tied for the record in a year. Marab was able to do that. He didn't fall short on that. He did that. He would have set the record and been alone in that if he was able to do four. But he tied the record for most title defenses in a year in a year that he ended up losing at the end of it, you can't just disqualify that because he had the loss. And so

to the reason that I believe this happened is because champions typically are only going to fight two to three times per year, which he bucked the trend. And so if one of those champions loses, they're often not going to be in your fighter of the year contention. But because of how active he was, because of how willing he was to put it out there and put it all on the line four times in a calendar year, that is what allowed this opportunity to happen where somebody who could lose ends up. Like if it was the second loss

in the year, I'd still look at his resume and go holy shit, he defended the title three times this year. It didn't really matter that it was at the end for me. Yeah. I think for me it did, to be honest. And that's fair. It mattered, but if he had lost earlier in the year, then he wouldn't have been fighting for the title in the following fight.

If he gets a rematch though, it could be. If he would have lost, P.D., if he would have lost in January, but then, you know, won two and then wins the belt back in December. Absolutely. Fighter of the year. Yeah. So it's it's how he ended it. It's a belt risk though. Yeah. It's a sport. Like, you know, you are putting

things on the line when you compete. He had the risk. He's like Icarus flying too close to the sun. And he deserves all the credit in the world for that. But the consequence of that is losing the fight. And for me, he can't be a fighter of the year. Just my opinion, if he lost the last fight

of this great year to Piotr Yan, I'd be more on G. C's side of that. he's the guy who beat him, he should be fire of the year. But then Islam comes in with the historical ramifications. But I understand what you're saying. I don't criticize just of a different point of view. The criteria is different. My criteria

is different than your criteria, right? Because if I put Islam's resume up against Marabs, I don't think it's even close in terms of the level of competition that he faced. Like Marab faced better competition. Like, Hanato Moikano, being one of the two wins that Islam had this year, is not that significant to me. as opposed to names like Umar, Corey, um, O'Malley, and then, uh, Jan.

And so I wait that more than I might, the history of the second belt. But to your point, like the narrative sense or what he was able to accomplish as an achievement in the sport and getting that second belt, that's very significant. And so there's different criteria as this weighs out, but that's how I break it down and that's how you bring it. I get it. I get it. You know, ultimately I zeroed in on that word, fighter and I felt like he was the quintessential fighter who had the highest stakes attached to his fights. That's fair. And, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be winning his fighter. And like I said, I think it's the first time that I've had someone who has a loss, but I just felt like

he defined fighter. He was so big for the UFC. He came back to fight time and again. And he really probably, I think, should have ended the year with the Khor Sanhagan win in October. He went for it. Didn't work out. But I have no problem with Islam. I have no problem with Josh Van. No problem with Dion, no problem with Marab. In the end, there has to be one. I don't think we've ever done a co-winner. We might have. Some people back, there was one year where I think it was like Mazvedal and Izzy and people were giving out co-winners. Oh yeah. Yeah, you can't do that. You can't do that. You can't do that way. You can't do that way. We can't do that way. We haven't really had that criteria. I mean, Islam, I'm pretty close. So I don't want them. Sure. Yeah, 100%.

100% Ireland and Afghanistan Fronts forever Can I tell you I think I don't remember because I didn't look

because I wanted to keep it fresh I think I might have picked him before my fight of the year in the prediction show last year I think so I kind of wanted

to say like oh I told you so you know that's really So you just Oh you told us so I don't know I could be completely wrong

version of way I was like I kind of said I don't I wanted to check but I was like you know what let me just

revel I'm pretty sure I missed everything on that prediction show yeah I think it was breakout was locked

dog, female was Zhang, male was Tom Aspenall. You're ruined a Wednesday show. You're ruined Wednesday show. Oh, whoa, whoa. Oh. How do we feel, gents? That's it. That's it, man. We did it. We were just getting dusted. Again, going through the Beast, three, what, three hours and

43 minutes, going through the Beast, really do have to give a massive shout out to on-air Jordan. Yes. We did a lot of the heavy lifting there. Massive shout-out, Andy, going through everything. No issues, no issues, whatsoever. No slip-ups. No Day, nothing.

Some nice new wrinkles as well. Frank, I thought this was one of your cleaner shows. We'll have to listen to the podcast after the fact. We're going to need to talk after. Yeah, I thought you did. Okay. And massive, I don't like when, you know, he's been through. Oh, and there goes.

Oh, no. This is a disaster. Massive shout out to our good friend, sorry. I mean, can we just talk about this one more time? I mean, it's a beaut. One more look. One more look if we can. Oh, watch out, Tom.

Hold it by the base, please. I could show it to you or I can really show it to you. one more time guys look at this oh there it is in all its glory the 13th it smells fantastic too I mean oh yeah look at those nostrils um gc true or false my real nose right this is your nose yes yeah it looks familiar yeah it was in the planning stages with old sarp and it was he had every angle of it unbelievable one of you sitting in your living room weird what is he spying on me or something what's going on anyway uh this is phenomenal they are they are All 27 categories including the crack of the year.

Yep. Oh, what a moment. Shout to Sarp, man. Shout to Sarp Angkor. Go give him a follow on IG. Legend. Incredible. Incredible.

All right. We're almost done. One bit of breaking news that has dominated the newswire. Our old friends, Daniel Cormier and John Jones, are back. They are going toe to toe, not quite as you think, but they have been announced as the new coaches not on the ultimate fighter which would have been a great idea

but on that Russian reality show 30 million for the kitchen scrap all over again yeah here it is here it is what is this Alf they did they did the Yan Aljo one

is that Alf in the middle I don't know on Monday Jones and Cormier were announced as coaches for the Alf MMA reality series they've had Hamza, Jan Aljo NACIS.

Coaching. God knows what happened after they're not fighting with another man. That's true. In the kitchen? Yeah, well,

I didn't say they were fighting. Did I say they were fighting? No, I'm asking. I've been seeing them in the kitchen yet because that's where it gets spicy. This is 30 million. Well, that's their first face off

right there, that picture. That's their first face off since 2017. I had to look at it as like, that doesn't really look like D.C.' But I guess it is. I will say that that was filming over in Thailand, some of us may have been on the inside

and one member of the team actually spent time with DC over that you will see that over in Thailand you will see that in the weeks to come so some of us may have known but again lip sealed you tell us something we put it in the vault off the record is off the record

but can I ask you know we look Hold on hold on John Jones and DC are in the same locale together Yeah they're hanging out seeing each other every day This to me smells like there's going to be a friendship on the other side of this.

I think they will soft into each other. Are you surprised, though? Wait, let me ask you guys. Are you surprised though, like this poster here, like they're holding the UFC titles in the poster? Like, that's, like, are you surprised the UFC allows this? That's a little rough. I don't know if the UFC is, like, fully aware.

Like, the league goes. There might be a letter. There might be a letter going to some, you know, offshore. They for sure had to okay their involvement. I guess I'm just surprised, like, if Jones and D.C. we're going to do this, and I'm sure they got paid a pretty penny. Yeah.

Why wouldn't you have them coached the ultimate fighter? I agree. I imagine this penny was prettier. You think? Prettier than, certainly not that they could afford, but maybe that they were willing to pay, right? It's kind of like, it's kind of wild that the Jones D.C. reunion happens on a reality show, I guess a Russian reality show. Yeah. Which is why.

I'm not trying to diminish it, but it's just like, wow. No, I get it. I feel exactly the same way. It is weird that the first time we see them That's why I'm like they're in the same place The first time we see them actually like cross paths again And re you know Ignite those those emotions that they have from their rivalry

Is on a reality show like Yo Alf Reality too Jones versus Masvedo did did big numbers on their YouTube channel But it's you know it's like Joe a misfits way in This whole show is just like that the whole thing Yeah just lads going for each other You know we'll get the clips Does it does it cheap in

the way is that guy that we saw in the middle there. Yes. The poster, his name is actually Alfredo Auditor. 5.2 million followers on Instagram. Wow, legit. Worker shoot. This is the same show that did Jan Aljo. Yes. Those numbers were big for that, too.

Worker shoot, though. Fair play. Who is to check? Who is to check? That's a good one. That is a good book. Does it cheap in the rivalry? If they fly in the kitchen? It depends. Well, yeah, it depends on what the result of this is. Is it? If it's both of them just coming in and getting a bag and being like, well, still hate you. Fuck you.

See you later. Like, it's kind of useless. But if they're like, if they either become closer and actually become like semi-cordial or friendly with each other, that'd be interesting. Or if the rivalry gets even more heated. But if it's just like, hey, you getting paid? Yeah, you getting paid? Cool. All right.

See you never. Fuck off. If they were willing to do it, I can't believe that it didn't happen on the ultimate fighter. Like, could you imagine first Paramount Plus? Yeah. doesn't want to pay for that. Yeah. Yeah, I think they just got insane money for mouth.

Oh, 100%. 100%. Yeah, it will be interesting. I mean, it's made a big splash. Everyone is talking about it. I don't think it ends with a fight of any kind. Maybe down the line of grappling match. I know D.C. over the break said to someone that he'd be open to a grappling match.

But remember, when John Jones turned down the $30 million, he was filming this, I think it was the version where it was him and Nate Diaz and then Nate left and then Jorge entered and he's getting a lot of money for these shows. This is his second go-around and so I think that that was part of the thinking like hey I'm getting a lot of money to do this I do the thing over in Chechnya

I don't need that 30 million so we don't know we don't know if Rath can put together DC versus Jones as a grappling match that would you imagine did you actually watch that one Rick yeah I'm already in for the Yoel Romero Romero this I would go out Romero Bo Nichols gigantic yeah that's fun

That's fun. Harmon, Lance Palmer. So there you have it. You get y'all to wrestle that lad that he just sat in the courtroom for it. Which one? Which one? The guy who was in his house or tried to harm him in some way and then he just showed up at the courtroom and was just me and mugging the whole time. Yo-O Romero?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know this story. Like 20 days in court just sat there looking up. Wow. When did this happen? Last year. It was fucking crazy. Was it last year?

I think it was a few years ago, maybe two or three. I didn't say that. Yeah. This guy did him wrong. It was an M.MA for her, too. Yeah, this guy did him wrong, and then he basically, like, haunted him by just being stuck. Oh, Marrow courtroom. I'll just be like, lock me up.

I'm done. Do you know what? It's better off in there. Federal fucking prison. No, the story that comes up is when he was awarded $27 million for that in New Jersey. Do you remember that story? No, there was another story. A guy attacked him.

Crazy. Crazy. All right. Well, shout out to you all. And shout out to Alpha MMA. Any super chats before we go? Super chats. First was, it says, go Bulls.

Yes, oh my gosh. Bill's Jags, 1 p.m. Sunday. Who can hammer them. Ptie, this is the thing, you know. I'm telling you. No Mahomes. No borough. No Lamar.

The path has never been more wide open. And yet we're a little bit weak. Josh has banged up. We said goodbye to High Mark yesterday. a lot of emotions. James gets the rushing title. Shout out to James. Go dogs.

No, not that one. The other one. But I don't know. I don't know how to fit. That was great time. No home field advantage, which is crazy. How are the Broncos the number one seed? I can't believe it.

I mean, shout out to Chuck. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pittsburgh beats Baltimore the last second. Oh, go crazy game. Where's the title of Luke? I think you need to pick it up, Palwani. I know I know how hard this. I'm trying to, like, do reverse psychology.

I feel good. Listen, this is what's going to happen? Trevor Lawrence is going to beat Josh Allen. No fucking way. No fucking way. No fucking way. We're beating the Jags, then we're beating the Broncos, and then we're beating the Patriots to exercise all the fucking demons.

And oh boy, please God, please God, because you know when they won the division, when they lost the Eagles last week and the Patriots won, the inbox, oh, the fucking DMs. Oh, Bill won't stop. Bill won't stop on the show. He won't stop. He won't stop. But we'll have our moment. I'll be watching in the middle of the night in Italy.

It's going to be perfect. It's going to be poetic. It's going to be poetic. Maybe you come over and watch with me. I'll fly over. Of course I will. Yeah? Bag of the crack?

Yeah. Let's go. Absolutely. All right. Well, thank you for that. Anyway, anything else, Frank. What else? Speaking of the inbox and the DMs,

someone says, favorite part of the break was watching my beloved Eagles with the bills. Wow. It was legendary. That's not true. Eagles are terrible to watch. That can't be true.

It was a crap game. And then they put a bald eagle after it. Yeah, it was a crap game. Josh, Miss Shakir, two-point conversion, missed the field goal prior. Not the field goal, the point after prior. The Bultonois absolutely killed him. Yeah, that was a tough one. It's a pretty good slate of games, right?

Great slate. Wide open NFL playoffs. It's fantastic. Great slate. Can I say, hate the Monday night playoff game. I'm with you. Hate it. I'm with you.

I despise it. Texans? Who's playing? Yeah, Texans against the Steelers. I don't mean I hate the matchup. I hate the matchup. hate that there's a Monday night playoff game. Playoffs should be Saturday Sunday.

Right? By the way, me versus Tony Conn again. Remember what happened last time? Yeah, we had the tracker and everything. Yeah. And the difference, of course, is I'm a fan of the team. He owns the team. So it's not quite, you know, apples to apples to. They had to move them out to London to get more fans. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Oh, we don't have enough where we live. Let's take over London and hold people by the jerseys.

And they don't. What's that, Jordan? You own them after this weekend. I hope so. Yeah. Oh, you think that's at stake. Yeah. I assume you win by 50, you own the team. What are the cons win if the Jags won?

Tony gets to host the show for one week and one week only. Wow, one week. All AEW. Imagine he's like doing one of those posts like, thank you so much for watching. Incredible episode of the Tony Khan show. This is the misfits method. You know, he's coming in like the new CEO.

He gets to run the show. So, Pizzi, your official prediction, Bill's winning. Bill's win. Wow. in a contest. G.C., what do you think? Yeah, he's going to be a good game. I'm looking forward to it. Bills, what is that? What kind of pick is that? Whoa, what the, we have money on Bales. What?

Bills minus one and a half. Yeah, Bills, Bills, Bills. You're still upset about... A little bit of disrespect to Trevor Lawrence. I mean, well, you're SEC guy. No, ACC guy, but he was like, you know, he's the number one recruit coming out. I won a national championship in college. It was the number one over six. Is he from your neck of the woods? Is he from your neck of the woods? He was ACCC, Trevor Lawrence? Yeah, Clemson. Clemson. Clemson, number one over. What's the link here?

He's a quality quarterback. I've been hearing slander about him all day today. I was watching Get Up for the first time in about a half decade. Horrible program, horrible program. Yeah, they were slandering Trevor Lawrence there too. Really? They were like, Josh out in the same sentence as Trevor Lawrence? I don't buy that.

Josh is banged up, by the way. Josh is banged up. But no, bills. Bills by 50, yeah. Bills by a billion. Down with that, too. What's going on, GZ? I don't like this.

don't you're freaking me out because I thought we're all in the same singing off the same hymshy here and it goes to you and it's a bit laissez-fair I think he's still down over the CFP right? Yeah, the dogs man again We tried to watch it

An early exit You tried to watch it Best game at that window You tried to watch it and like It wasn't enjoyable enough Or you just couldn't stay up Couldn't stay up I believe yeah

Wow, I've never heard you say that by the way Fantastic game It's the best game Credit to Old Miss I'll buy you win at all. I can't get enough of these Indiana edits. Oh, Mendoza, that guy is something else. Oh, and the coach, Kurt Signetti.

Yeah. He's just a bar maker. I win, Google me. But you're not truly broken up because you've seen them win twice back to back. Yeah, but you know, when the season ends, you're still like... No, I guess. Especially on, like, Old Miss hit a game-winning field goal to win. You're still just like, damn, there it goes.

It's over. You think Olayne is calling the shots behind the scenes? No, no, no, no. Honestly, I'm cool with any of the teams winning the national. Maddie. The most recent was Miami in 2001. Love Oregon, love IU. Ole Miss, revenge for Lane, and then

the U-being back, all of them are good options. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, if you're a American football fan, you love it. Unreal slate. Unreal Slate. Big Forrest. We'll be raw tonight at Barclays, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we will not be there. Big Forrest, West Ham matchup

coming, the Nuno Cup coming this week, so sure that. And Nick's Pist and Son. Anyway, what else, Frank? what else up lads gc where's the new calendar at oh yeah it's actually uh right here look at you testing me wow it is it goes up tomorrow thank you very much those brock sent it to you yeah shout out well you send it to me because i oh you bought it paid him u.s. oh okay sent him money uh who's january is Alex Pereira and then um Alex Pereira and john jones oh that's a little side is it usually two pictures sometimes it is okay sometimes it is

Surprised the son of Alex Pereer and Tracy Cortez. Yeah, I was going to say. What else, Frank? What else? Chat, we are so back. Yeah, chat. People like to say that a lot, huh? Chat.

Yeah. Made a popular. He didn't know what that was for a while. Yeah. Who had Jack Della's first comments being to neon on their bingo card? It's a, it's a mad world we live in. The old 2026 bingo card. What else, Frank?

What else? Well, this one says, hello team, happy new year. Could you guys consider doing a lot. a best of 2025, combine the three shows, best interviews, most heated moments, and funniest moments of one episode, three parts.

Thank you so much for the suggestion. Wow, do you want our firstborns as well? Frank is on it. Should we invite this person to all the producer meetings? You know, we used to do this back in the day. I think Rick would put it all together, right?

He's going to do it again this year. Unfortunately, to our... To our good friend, Sammy, I'm not going to be doing that because that's... No, no. And what I was going to say is, like we live in an age where like, you know, there's YouTube and VOD, and you can just kind of click around, and I kind of feel like you could just do that. You know, like, the best of

in the linear TV days where there wasn't VOD made sense because you could sit back and be like, okay, what are they going to show us? But like, you can literally pick whatever you want. So, I don't know. Piece of piss. Yeah. What else, Frank? What is MMA's biggest cringe moment of the year? Wow. Oh, we just like couldn't watch. I know what mine is. What is it? The Epstein Files without the Sacks? Oh, yeah, that's a no brain. No brainer, most cringe thing I've heard.

I thought you were going to say Pachaska watching G.C. Oh, no, no, wow. But that makes me feel bad for my friend. That's not like... What? I don't know what you guys are laughing at. Didn't we have like a rough stretch that week? Like a bunch of stuff happened?

I don't know. Where people called us out. Feeling bad for me. And then Frankie on New Year's Eve, after he'd had a couple cocktails, He's like, did you watch the Jamal Hill stuff? I'm like, no, man, I really don't care about it. On New Year's Eve? On New Year's Eve, he's bringing this up.

I was like, no, man, I didn't watch it. I really don't care about it. He's just like, well, you know, he did the second one. I was like, yeah, dude, I didn't watch that one either. I really don't care. And he's like, yeah, man, it's just like, my heart just like breaks for you, man. It was just like really. What the fuck?

He's coming after you? Yeah, I'm just like, what about, man? Now I'm going to have to watch you. I don't give a fuck. I was like, I don't care, dude. I don't care, man. He's like, yeah, yeah, but it's just like, the thing is, it's just like, my friend, like my heart just like, it just breaks for you, man. I was like, fuck out of my house, Frank.

Connor, I was being disingenuous. Frank's got a hard time here, man. You go out in Ireland, you can set yourself on four piss on your mate's mother, and they never just bring it up. They go, you all right last night ago, you don't think so. I'm bringing up 5% of what Frankie did on New York. Oh, my God. The best guy left for 2020. I love it.

What else, Frank? What else? Missed the big, oh, excuse me, missed this big time. You guys brighten our days more than you know. Happy New Year and big things to come. Well, thank you. We appreciate that. We missed you too.

And we're excited not only for our New Year, but your New Year as well. It's going to be a great one. I feel it. But I got a lot of that over the break, and I do appreciate that. What else, Frankie? What else? And then lastly, Benjamin Turk wants to know, how did you guys choose what drops

to put on the trophy? Also, will you be sending them to the winners? Miss all the game. Why don't you take the first line there, Mr. G.C.? Yeah, it was kind of back and forth the designer Sarp. And, yeah, it was just kind of a creative decision between all of us.

You know, the big man had the final say. It was a very collaborative effort, I thought. Yeah, I thought so too. I think we got Who Me, number one unbiased awards. Peace and love. Peace and love. Who's the check?

BITB. And then you get the BITB and the crown. The shamrock. Is it a shamrock or is it a clover? P.T. That's for Pee. I think Pizzi. That's a clover, four leaves on a shamrock.

Hmm. So that'll be a clover. Yeah. That's the type of intel that we love from PZ. Nice little signature here at 13. I mean, it's beautiful. We can do these every year. As far as the second part of the question, so this is so prestigious one of one.

We did show all the awards there. But we say this is the, the real one and in this digital age, we, you know, like when you give someone like a digital president, you say, ah, here's a cado for you. That's sort of like what it is. Do you know what I mean? Here's a digital gift card and you email them the like 200 bucks or whatever. That's what we do with these. You won. What are you doing? In conjunction with block asset. Yes. Perhaps we could get a gorilla eating a strawberry holding this. That would be. Darren Till as well. The back is so cool. He'd be all over it. Darren's going to be on the phone later. I hear what you say in the show.

Let's do it. By the way, that's an incredible. It's not a bad damn, don't it? That's an incredible version. So, yes, we are working on all of this, and I feel like we've leveled up. I feel like we've leveled up. Look at this trophy. Look at this part right here, the, see how it goes up, the microphone.

Frank actually weighed in a lot on the microphone because we wanted it to be authentic, right? Yep. I was happy to consult. Anyway, tomorrow, my friends, tomorrow will be the. second annual Ariel and Adelaide Boxing Awards and there's a whole

you know from fighter and knockout it's different it's different it's a little bit different but it's my friend Adelaideo and I

pointed to myself it's been a long day he'll be joining us from London I might bring out the tucks again because truth be told I only have one

and I'm not going to wear a suit that would be weird but then on the back end of that if you go to ariahawani substack.com We have the post up already for On the Nose. And, you know, I was reflecting, I was reflecting about the year that was, we ended very strong, you know, had that live show in Miami and all the great interactions.

The gang wasn't all here on the Monday after, so I feel like now we're fully back. And it was just such a great time. Thank you to DoorDash once again. Thank you to Hard Rock Cafe. It really, really was a great year. And this kind of feels like, all right, this week, we put a little bit of 2020. to bed we look ahead on Wednesday and then we're back in earnest same old deal beginning Monday and the beginning of this year is going to be really interesting for us because you know

the UFC starts late and then in early February I'll be away but don't worry the train will roll along you'll get all the content all the same good stuff but it's going to be a fun little little change up in February and then I really think like mid year is going to be really interesting with you know the stuff that's brewing as far as April May is concerned and then the White House stuff. It's going to be a fascinating year. I'm very, very, very excited about everything that we're doing. Shout it to the boys over at uncrown.com. Over the break, really, you know, carried the torch, so to speak. They did a whole bunch of awards in MMA, boxing, and pro wrestling, Shaheen, leading the way, leading the charge. So if you missed any of that, go check it out.

And we'll try to do it even better throughout the course of the year. We appreciate everyone who stopped by today. We appreciate everyone who continues to support us. please if you can spread the love thumbs up follow subscribe comment all that stuff and more and I feel like we can put the 2025 Hawaii Knows Awards to bet I'm looking at the the graphics

I'm looking at all the great you know decorations that you see does such a great job doing the graphics I mean it's really you know I was looking at some of our old clips and like it's just Rick and I nothing's different like we're wearing regular clothes to see how far it's come

is really really special So thank you very much to everyone. I've thanked you all. You know who you are. Thank you for all the hard work. Thank you to all of you. And most important, congratulations to all the fighters, all the winners. Everyone who had such a great 2025, looking forward to doing this in exactly one year's time.

Please, I don't take any day for granted, but hopefully we can, and that is certainly the plan. All right, thank you very much. You can hear my music, Frankie. I thought this is something we left behind. No, that's one of those things that we are going to carry into. By the way, PT, who is the new Gaffer for Man United? At the moment, it's Darren Fletcher, legendary midfieler. He has two of his sons play on the first team, too,

just newly put into the first team. The word in the street is we're not going to get a full-time replacement in until the summer, which is what Ruben Amarin wanted. You'll, of course, remember when he came in 14 months ago or whatever. it was tough fell time for united it feels like we're doing it all over again but who i don't need to tell you this you know obviously going through certain things boris but the dark day again i'd have to say no you'll be all right you'll be all right darn fletcher of course a legendary montreal expose catcher back in the 90s so i'm sure he's that's him i'm sure he's up for the job

uh but i do wish uh united well and uh certainly wish crystal palace well one of my new clubs of course now that uh our old friend uh brand and i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm Although I am rooting him on. I am splitting him on. You should absolutely do it. I every year. It's dramatically changed. I am not going to.

What? Love crystal out. Sellhurst Park. Are you kidding me? That legendary grounds? No, it's forest till we die. Lean days, but I am very happy for Brennan and we'll support him. And I'm happy that he left that sad sack club known as Tottenham Hotspurs.

I mean, uh... Yeah, John. Yeah. You know, he got the win in Beel Bowell against Band United, but let's be honest. Nothing else. fucking game for them. He did. He scored more goals than anyone on that team last year and they're getting rid of him. Yep. It's a crazy, crazy world. Thank you so much for watching the 2025 Hellwani Nose Awards. Back tomorrow. Save time and place.

Until I say peace. I'm out here.