[Music] Hello and welcome to the Hammer. It is December 22nd and you are listening to us alive on 93.3 CFMU or you could be finding us on iTunes or at our website thehammermma.com. Thank you for tuning in. We are the Hammer. I am your host Dave. Join us always for my co-hosts. Greg, I'm back. How's it going guys? And Steve. Hey. So Greg, how was your two-week vacation? It was fabulous. It was wonderful. I worked during that two-week vacation. There was the end of WBC. Yeah, I know. GSP and the end of WAC. I missed them both. And I saw the show. You didn't get to talk about two of your paper things. I know. It's terrible. We'll talk about them today. At least we'll talk about WAC today. We won't talk with GSP. Well maybe we will in the news. But first WAC. So we're going to start obviously with what needs to be talked about. This was the last WAC show. This was the last one ever. And this was important because the champions of this are retiring their belts. The champion of the Bantamweight belt is picking up the UFC Bantamweight well and becoming the first ever UFC champion. The champion of the lightweight belt is going to take on the winner of the January fight between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. So the WAC lightweight title has a stay of execution. That's right. And before it becomes united with the UFC. Yep. I'm excited. So we're going to talk about the lightweight's first. This was our main event. Ben Henderson took on Anthony Pettis. Both of these guys were coming off of hot years. Both had fought three times before fighting each other in 2010. Very prolific guys. This fight was extremely evenly matched. Ben Henderson won the first round. Entering Anthony Pettis. No on the next two. The fourth was very, very close. I had to go into Pettis but a lot of people had to go into Henderson. And then the last round again very even trading back and forth. A lot of going to different positions and whatnot. Finally, Ben Henderson's backing up. Pettis ran at him. Jumped onto the cage. Triangle jumped off of the cage. Roundhouse kicked Ben Henderson in the head. Knocks him down. Jumped on top and began pounding him. Yet despite being Roundhouse kicked in the head with a flying roundhouse, Ben Henderson went to the single and held on to take it to a unanimous decision victory for Anthony Pettis. 48, 47, 96, 49, 46, and 48, 47. What can possibly be said about this kick that hasn't already been said. It was like the first time I heard the Beatles when I saw this kick. The last time I saw that move, Chen Lee did it in Street Fighter II. They both do it. They both jump off the wall. It was insane. This became a highlight moment. It was all over TV. People at work would come up and ask me, "Yo, I just saw this on TV." People who just have YouTube video. I've never watched MMA before. I'm just like, "Why did you see that?" I'm like, "Did you see the kick?" And it was actually called the kick now. This kick was this was literally the best move I've seen this year. Maybe the best move I've ever seen. It is an conversation for the best move I've ever seen. It was fantastic. I can't say enough about it. It is. It's not even in the conversation for me. Afterwards, Ben Henderson, "Have you ever seen a move like this before?" He said, "I saw it once in Mortal Kombat." Afterwards, he asked Anthony Pettis, "Did you just make this move up or did you actually train for it?" He's like, "No, man. We trained for it. I practiced it move like 10 times a day." He said he has 10 other kicks like that that no one's ever seen. Yeah. Well, the guy's totally the innovator of offense. I can't wait to see what he pulls out next. And not to disrespect Ben Henderson. The fight was incredible. A lot of people, like that fight going into the fifth round was very, very close. The judges could have went other way. I do think Pettis had at least three, if not four of those rounds, but what a fight to be the final WBC fight. Super competitive. It was incredible. I had it 2-2. And I legitimately had it 2-2. So it was all up for grabs in the fifth round. And I mean, yeah, we were all in the edge of our seats watching this thing. And then after that kick, everyone in the room just jumped up. We all swore. I jumped up. Steve's cat ran away because it was all scared of the noise through my hat across the room. It was unbelievable. It was incredible. A great way to finish up the WBC. And so now Pettis has a shot at the winner of Edgar and Maynard sometime in the spring in the UFC. And Ben Henderson gets a shot at the midcard. He will have to reprove himself because he's not going with that belt. Let's see what it's like. But, uh, smooth. Bendo is definitely one of the top competitors. I think he can hold the zone against almost anyone in the UFC in the lightweight division. I can't wait to see him try. So we'll look forward to seeing Smooth again because this guy is exciting. He puts on good shows. He's tough as nails. And he's a great finisher. Now, I can't say enough about the kick. Pettis's kick was phenomenal. But what I will say is this. Ben Henderson took the kick on the chin with his hands down and was not knocked out. He fought back from that. These are two of the best in the world. It was fantastic. And his face, he looked like he had the mumps at the end of the end of the fight. I mean, you could see he took an incredible amount of punishment. Incredible amount of punishment. And he was able to withstand it and return almost as much. I mean, this fight was close, you know, and just the ground work, and it was like the Sato Lowe's on fight mixed with Mortal Kombat. It was just incredible. And to see two guys competing in this technical of a competition for five rounds and have it be this close, but they were both going into the fifth round, not looking at coast, looking to finish, looking to go out with a show and with a bang. It was very, very impressive. I can't say enough about it. My hat is off to smooth and show time. Yeah. Bendo, you've you've outdone yourself. I'm a huge fan. Pettis, I have to say, for lightweight contenders. Wow. Yeah. It's fitting that we're talking about this match on the same episode that we're going to do our best of 2010, because it is one of the best fights I've ever seen. Fantastic. Yeah. And so what else was on the card? So we have Dominic Cruz versus Scott Jorgensen. Jorgensen is like a rock. He can take almost anything. Cruz, he showed off his innovative style. He himself is a fantastic striker to watch. He comes at you and he does so many faints and he's so elusive and lands from such weird angles. And he gets takedowns, the knee top takedowns from such close range. Well, he's another guy that's like a video game character. He comes in at crazy angles, moving in and out over the place like it's almost inhuman. It's it's amazing to watch him fight. Not he has a divisive style. Some people find him not exciting, but I love to watch him go. Yeah. He picks people apart like like a faster version of GSP. You know, this is this is like GSP versus cost check, except faster with more takedowns and like for he he shot car. He thought he shot Jorgensen. No, he wanted to name his decision 50 44. I'm sorry, 50 45. Jorgensen, as good as he is, didn't look at any point in this fight. He had no control. Anything now on crews. Just another guy who can't figure out. Couldn't couldn't hit him, couldn't let shots, couldn't let him low kicks. Meanwhile, Cruz is dancing around him, hitting with everything at will, taking him down at will. Cruz is phenomenal. Now, when they did the show on versus they had a riot Faber on talking about the history of the WBC. And they asked him about Cruz, who's previously beaten. Arise one of the most laid back guys in the in the in the division. When they asked him about Cruz's boxing, he said, I don't find Cruz's boxing very impressive. Yeah, there's some bad blood there. He was subtly burying him, maybe even not all that subtly, but just little jabs and little bitter little things here and there. That has to be the first you have seen Ben and weight title fight. Oh, and Cruz called him out. Cruz afterwards, they said Cruz was next for you. He said, bring on a riot. Yeah. So, you know, Cruz is beaten, Benavides and bowls two of Arise training partners. Ariah wants them. Cruz wants Ariah. This is gonna be the first band and white belt. And how, yeah, how great was it to see him get a UFC title belt put around his waist at the WBC. Well, I'm having the two belts, the two belts at the end. Awesome. So that should be hopefully happening in the spring. Him and Faber can't wait. I think it'll even be before that. I think it'll be before, you know, February, March, because they're gonna want to move fast with that. Arise ready to go. Domino, I don't think the domino took that much damage from Jorgensen. I think, you know, test him back in the camp and bring him out. Hope it's in there. Yeah. So we go forward. Donald Seroni took on Chris Horadecki. This was a bit of a mismatch. Horadecki actually looked pretty good in the first round, surprisingly so. Seroni was not having it, took the fight to the ground in the second and locked in the triangle choke. Tapping, you can try capping Horadecki out at two minutes and 43 seconds into round two. There's no surprise at all with this match. There's no surprise here. Seroni, look good. Yeah. Kamal Shalaris picked up a split decision victory over Bart Palashescu. He looked very good in the first two rounds. The third one, he looks like he was starting in gas and Palashescu started to get it together. I was worried why this was a split decision. Shalaris pretty clearly had the first two. I agree. I was annoyed. Well, I mean, I'm a huge Shalaris fan and he definitely, he definitely did show his age as the fight got later. He's 38 years old. You can't expect him to be an energizer bunny, but he just, I mean, he dominated that fight. There were a couple of little moments where Palashescu looked like he might have gotten to him, but there was no way this was a split decision. I can't believe it. Cool. So then we go forward. We had a couple of prelim card fights that were worth noting. Zang Tikwan, the first Chinese fighter to enter the lightweight division. There was big hopes for him being able to crack open that market in much the way that, you know, Bizping has opened the British market for them. Unfortunately, he was defeated by Danny Downs. The... Well, there goes that. Pail, Pail, gentleman who put on such a terrible performance against Grisburg, Jasky, beforehand. And then Jamie Voner versus Shane Roller, this fight was remarkable in that it was a prelim fight. Yeah, I know. Because he's a two with the standouts in the lightweight division. Yeah, as far as WC is concerned, these guys are stars. Oh, yeah, as far as I'm, I'm a big Shane Roller fan too. So as far as I'm concerned, Roller is a star. I'm glad he won. So Roller picks up a submission. Uh, we're gonna make a choke three minutes and 55 seconds in the round one. Voner has not looked good in his last couple of outings. Roller, he lost his last one to Pettis, but he was one on the win streak before that. Looks like he's kind of back into it. Look for Roller to make waves on the lightweight division in USC because he's one of the top wrestlers and he can submit and he can pound. So now that the WC's closed its doors, any last words about our favorite promotion? Um, I, I, I should, I shut enough tears for it already. I'm just, I'm happy that I really hope a lot of these guys get their shot. And I want to see a lot of these guys on UFC cards and on TV. I miss probably two. And the, the lack of WC will be made up for the fact that every UFC card is going to be that much better. Oh, yeah, you guys on it. I'm just going to increase them too far down the card, but when these guys start making a name from the talent, we'll see the talent we'll show sooner later. So we go forward, uh, and we promise you that we're going to pick our best moments and our best and our worst moments for the mix martial arts. I wanted to have worst submissions and worst KOs. Unfortunately, I was overruled. So we're going to start with the best KO of the year in our opinion. And we're going to start with Steve. What was your best? Okay, this one happened very, very recently. This actually happened at Strike Four St. Louis last month. I just went Paul Daley, KO, Scott Smith, and he did that face first face plant right into the mat. I loved it. It was so gross looking. Yeah, this is impressive one. Daley may have to generate this one walking backwards, which is always a good sign of another reason why I like to just get Scott Smith is considered a guy who can take a punch doesn't win all his fights, but his guy who can take a punch. Yeah, he took that one right in the face. It was awesome. Yeah, I, this was on my short list, but I, I just can't give Daley any credit. I don't like him. So what else we got? Anyway, so for me, I picked, I actually picked a TKO for this one. And this is kind of, you know, my, my heart's speaking more than my head, but I got to pick bones on Vera because he just shattered the man. Literally, literally shattered his orbital bone. I love his elbows. His elbows are fantastic, and he just used them to perfection. Vera still wants him to back since then. Yeah, he hasn't fought yet. I mean, bones damn near retired the guy. So I got to pick bones, Vera. Bones is definitely a crushing one. I actually was, I had almost a co-winner here, but I had to go with my heart as well. For me, it was Shogun rule versus Leota Machita. I was pretty good. Now, Leota, he was the invincible dragon that no one could beat. Yeah. Shogun slayed him with one right across the face, that crossed Leota and sent him onto, onto a losing streak. I had, I had a certain amount of love for BJ Penn versus Matt Hughes, but in the end, the Shogun rule coming back after, you know, his trouble of injuries and winning a lightweight or lightweight championship, one of the most competitive divisions of all time against a guy who's as good as Leota Machita is and winning it that dominantly. After the robbery of the year before, I had to go with Shogun. The only thing they could have made that better is if it happened in the first fight, because it would have been more of a surprise. But there's something about a good payback punch, which is good as well. This was a payback punch. Shogun rule got robbed in the first fight. He came out the second round, second time not looking. He wasn't going to leave this one to the judges. Yeah, I think from a storyline and emotional perspective, I really liked that one. And that would be one of my choices as well. But just from how the guy got hit fell, I'm still sticking with mine. Cool. So we're going to talk about submissions. And this time we're going to start with Greg, what was your submission of the year? My submission of the year was a pretty recent one. And this is going with my heart again. I love the fishermen. So I'm picking Cody McKenzie's not even guillotine, but jaw crush on Wilkinson, where he didn't even have the guillotine synced in all the way. It was on his chin. And he still manages to submit the guy when everybody knows the book is out on the fishermen. They know that he's his guillotine is to watch out for every single fight with it. It's unbelievable. So I have to pick I got to pick McKenzie for that one. That's a really good one. That was actually on sort of on my short list. It didn't make the top few. But in the end, I had to go with Stevie Dalloway. He did that rolling guillotine on Joe Dorkson, where he rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and he finally sank it in. I loved it. It was one of the few high points on that mirror versus crow cop card. Awesome. I love that submission. Yeah, that was fantastic. And again, I'm going to be the guy here because there was two names. Last year, when I picked submission of the year, everyone thought it was crazy because I picked Tyrone Woodley. I said that his arm trap triangle was going to be a starting a trend. Since then, we've seen Phil Davis and Paul McGee try it. Brock Lesnar and Randy Coater have both done it successfully to win fights. So I just want to fill that out there. I think this year, the move that is that move is Phil Davis is Kamura. This is a rest of who got on top position, yanked the guy's arm from out behind underneath him and twisted it, forcing the tap out over Tim Bosch, who's a tough, tough guy. So to me, Phil Davis, I like the guy. I think he's a top prospect. Again, four fights. This was submission of the night. The move is now named after him. So I mean, I got to give love to Phil Davis. I'm surprised no one picked the verdume triangle. The Phil Davis fight is on my short list and also that the verdume fador triangle was nothing really special about the verdume fador triangle other than the fact that it was on fador. That's why I didn't pick it. That's why I disqualified it as well. And the Davis one, I can't give it points because I think everyone's going to be doing it because I just think it's too wacky, but it was definitely on my list because it was awesome. That was on my short list too, for sure. Well, the thing is, I think that, you know, in terms of top of top top competition that you get a submission over, you got to give some love to verdume. Oh, that's the one that being said. I think that Phil Davis, I've always said, I love wrestlers, but if you want to impress me, you got to show me you can finish. You got to show me if you can get the guy on the ground, you can finish him either by pounding him or by submitting him. Davis is turning into a submission machine. Yeah, he picked up a submission tonight with a rolling antona con to choke earlier in the year. And he picked up a move named out for him. Yeah. So I mean, I think he's the, he's the guy with the best submissions over the year. But for an individual one, I'm still going with CBD. Okay, fair enough. So overall, what was your best fight of the year, Steve? Oh, actually, I think you should start doing it. All right. So I'll go with my best for the year. For me, I had to go back and rewatch because I had a lot of things I loved. I love Nam fan versus Garcia, I love Garcia versus Chang Sunjung. But to me, I had to rewatch him just to make sure that it wasn't the thing that was freshest in my memory is picking. Yeah, to me, I had to pick Ben Henderson versus Anthony Showtime Pettis from last week was with so much going into it for a title for five rounds, for as competitive as it was, and both guys being completely technical and not just winging wild punches at each other, like Garcia and and Zeng Zeng Jung were this to me. This is what this is the fight. Yeah, if you ever watch, if you're going to watch one fight to represent 2010, this is the fight. Ben Henderson versus Anthony Pettis, for me, no question. Greg, I got to agree. There's there's really nothing that can I mean, I have an honorable mention, which I'll say in a minute, but Ben, no Pettis, for all the reasons that Dave said, you can't pick a fight that was better than this. Until that fight, I was actually going to pick Cub Swanson and Mackin Simmers year. Excellent. Because not only because it was a fantastic fight, I think it was a better fight than the zombie Garcia fight, and also because Cub Swanson had come off that real like laying of an egg against Chad Mendez, the only not bad we saw EC fight us all year. So for him to bounce back with that with a five star against Simmers year, that was my honorable mention. But Ben, no Pettis is my pick, for sure. And excellent pick. It's on my short list. I did also disqualify both Leonard Garcia fights, because as exciting as they were, they were just very sloppy. Very wild sloppy fights, both controversial decisions. I would have given to you, Shabuan and Mark Hominek, if it wasn't so short, love that fight. But in the end, I had to go for Anderson Silva and Shail Sonnen. Yeah. And I'm going on this, not just not really even on the technical aspect, like I would consider giving the Henderson fight to, but just from a pure emotional aspect, this fight was super exciting. It was sold so well. It was built up so well. And it was the fight that at work, at parties for the month afterwards, it's the one where people walk up to me, knowing that I do an MMA radio show. And they would ask me, is this fixed? Yeah. Because it was such a storyline ending. It was just so intense and exciting that it almost felt fixed. It did. I thought it was fixed. And to me, it was something there was something special about that fight. Yeah, there really was. It was definitely an amazing fight. I mean, I give Anderson Craig Silva all the credit in the world for me, and she can come up with that comeback. Shail Sonnen, I give him all the credit in the world for his doctors. The best in the industry. I didn't give this on the cleanest fight. I gave it on my favorite fight. And it was. So we go from the best fight of the year to the worst fight of the year, the fight that disappointed us most. Steve, what have you got? It's got to be Nick Lenz, an underwinner. This fight was on a spike prelim, and it was super boring. And it started off Nick Lenz as the guy that the UFC wants to eliminate because he just mucks up their cards because of being so boring. To the point they wanted to hit on him with Tyson Griffin. Yeah. It was a horrible fight. There's nothing redeeming about it at all. I have other ones on my short list. There's nothing redeeming at all about that fight. The worst fight that I think I've ever seen this year, and the most disappointing, not only because it was bad, but because it was a main event, it was Mir and Crocob. Horrible. That was just the most horrendous fight. And I mean, it wasn't like I was expecting a barn burner, but this was just the poster fight for boring heavyweight division. Like it was just horrendous. I can't say enough bad things about it. The only reason that was my second, the second on my list, it had a KO finish. And in the end, I couldn't quite put it above, but man did that fight stock. The fact that it had a KO finish and I didn't care made it even worse because I didn't care. I was like, oh well, I guess the fight's over. Can you break this this tighter? I can break it, but unfortunately, I've got a completely different pick from both of you. For worst fight of the year, I had to go to strike force challengers on November 19th. I knew someone was going to pick this one. Marius, the raging demon, Zoramp's goose, against Wachim's spirit wolf. I see this fight. I watch a lot of challengers, but you have got the raging demon trying to come back after his little bit of a losing run against spirit wolf. The guy with the most interesting name in MMA. This fight went six seconds before Zoramp's case, drove his thumb into spirit wolf's eye, ending the fight in a no contest, six seconds in, so much for the dream champion getting back on his winning ways. Yeah, it's a testament to how much of a train wreck strike forces. This is a Komein event. This one, this landed in six seconds with a thumb to the eye. And what makes this the crowning achievement of ineptitude for this was Marl Winaldo and Pat Milletich. The contempt that Pat Milletich had for Marl Winaldo in the commentary they were doing as the ref was was counting with this fight, including that run all appeared to have the conception that this was a knockout. This wasn't a knockout. This was a no contest. How do you clown? And I just want to point this out. This fool has a job, a very high paying job. Now let me put this in context for you. In the states, the economy is so bad that Detroit has said for 20% of the city, they're not going to do garbage collection, fire department, or cops. They're conceding control of a fifth of the city to gangs and warlords. They've said that they're not even going to fund the heroes of 9/11's health recovery. Yet this fool, this damn rod, has a high paying job. So whenever you think of a 9/11 first responder who is dying of like respiratory illness, just remember Marl Winaldo took the money that could be funding that guy or robocop in the new Delta city over old Detroit, this, he just stole him so much. It was such a bad fight and such a bad promotion so poorly called after so much hype about Marius, the raging demons of Rosky's versus watching him spare wolf. Terrible. Terrible. Get out of here. So. Oh wow. So for my next fighter of the year, Steve. All right, on a more positive note. Shouldn't we leave fighter of the year at the end? I think we should go prospect. All right, we'll go. I was going to say prospect for the end. Yeah, let's do a hot prospect for the end. Okay, so fighter of the year. Okay, so I'm going to go for my favorite fighter. I was, I had a long list of guys I was trying to debate, different champions, different guys on streaks, but no champion defended more than a couple of times this year. It was a last minute pick with a little help from Dave. I've got to go Anthony Pettis. He fought four times this year, four wins. He won the WC lightweight title. He's now the never what contender for the UFC title and I was a YouTube sensation. This guy did it all. Best fighter of the year and amazing. Yeah, it's damn near impossible to argue with that. I've got to agree and I've got to say Pettis as well. Yeah, as I said, it's a four fight for wins. If any UFC champion defended his title three times as opposed to two, I mean, GSP came to ask guys like this. They could easily have won this. If they fought more, if they fought more. Well, I love Pettis and he was on my short list, but I actually had to go with Kane Vlasquez. This guy had so much promise for so long and I was so supportive and so much of a fan of Kane Vlasquez. This year he realized his promise. He knocked out, knock out of the night over Minotaur on a girl, knock out of the night and knock out of the year, according to UFC over Brock Lesnar to win the heavyweight championship. You know, Pettis, Frankie Edgar, they both had breakout years. But to me, I have to say, when the man of destiny realizes this does his destiny and becomes the heavyweight championship, to me, Kane Vlasquez, this is the year that he became the heavyweight champion of the world. So that's my opinion. That's hard to argue as well. I think only reason I didn't pick him was because with two fights, anything else could have happened, but it's a good two fights because the layoffs and whatnot. But you know, the two fights he had against Minotaur on a girl in Brock Lesnar. These are some serious, serious guys. This is no fights against Barnes or anything like that. This is some tough guys and two knockouts in the night. So although Pettis had two submissions of the night and knock out of the night. Okay, that guy has a pretty big bonus wallet. So for worst fighter of the year, the fighter who most annoyed you either because of his in-ring poor performances or his out-of-the-ring douchebaggery. Greg, who's your pick for worst fighter of the year? Rusemo Palharis. That guy. I mean, from holding on to the heel hook too long to whining about the the the Marquardt thing. I mean, he gets two strikes right there. He just bothered me. He really bothered me because he's such a talented guy. Just be quiet. Don't complain about Greece. Don't complain. Don't hold us a heel hook submission for too long and nearly end a guy's career. It's just he bothered me this year. I forgot about him. He really sucks. For worst fighter, I definitely feel like we're coming for Palharis and I also had a certain disliking for Falcao. However, for me, I had to pick Cheat Congo, the Cheat himself. Every time I see this guy, he's either needing someone to the groin or holding their shorts. You know, for one of the most athletic guys in the heavyweight division, for such a huge guy, who's so talented at striking and so athletic, to resort to fighting so cheap against even low ranked competitors, I'm tired of Cheat Congo. He's an easy go. Steve, who's your pick? No one else is going to pick this, but I had to go with Loloihimahi because he fought Levar Johnson on Strike Force Challenger 7 and you guys didn't watch it with me. I'm the only one who watched it. I had to sit here and watch a horrible card with a terrible main event. Mahi came in 50 pounds. Like he cut 50 pounds for that fight was the most sluggish heavyweight I can ever remember seeing. The fight was terrible. I was questioning if I still wanted to even do an MMA radio show after this sit through this fight by myself. It was awful. You can go back to our old chosen iTunes archive and hear me bitch about this fight. I hated it and he's a lot to blame because you can't have a terrible fight without two fighters, but at least Levar Johnson won all his fights that year. This past year, Loloihimahi lost everything. See, I was smart enough not to see that fight because I saw the previous fight with Loloihimahi and I was like, okay, this guy is the main event when Sarah Kaufman is defending her championship belt or a non title fight under cart. The best fight of the night was Frost over his take, but still it was a rough card. I was smarter than both of you because I was smarter than both of you because I saw neither of you. Okay, I definitely see where we're coming from for Loloihim. So while we're on this negative zone here, what was the robbery of the year for you guys? For me, the robbery of the year, I've got to pick Mack Danzing versus Matt Wyman. Now here's why. Matt Wyman took him down, got a guillotine choke in. It wasn't locked in. It wasn't around his neck. Turned to Eve Levine and said he's out and Eve Levine at 49 seconds around and one was like, okay, submission. He didn't hop. He wasn't out. He was still fighting the choke. And afterwards he's like, why did you call me out? And Eve Levine was like, Wyman told me you were out. Well, especially for a guy like Danzing who really needed to win at that point. I mean, he got it back over Joe Stevenson. But man, this is a robbery, bad referee. And Eve Levine, I'm disappointed and you expected better from a fellow Canadian. Greg Nam and Garcia. What can be said? Everybody who's listening to this right now knows why it was Nam and Garcia had machita and Shogun 1 happen this year. I would have picked that. Oh, that's easy. However, it was last year. So I'm going to Nam and Garcia. I considered the Nam and Garcia fight. I also considered the zombie fight with Garcia. But in the end, I figured that those two were just kind of sloppy wars that really could I can almost see them going either way, even though I do think that the losers were robbed. I had to go for Evan Dunham and Shirk because at that point Dunham was, I mean, I guess he still is. Undefeated rising star. Undefeated rising star. And again, he's not going to be really punished for that loss because even Dan admits that it was a robbery. But he was a guy who was beating a former champion a lot on the line. The judges obviously didn't see it. That can't help him. It's a loss on his record. We didn't need it. It was a lot on the line. Those guys brawling on the undercard. That doesn't really bother me as much because they're guys fighting for the same spots. Dunham with an impressive win over there over Shirk. He could have been the title contender almost right away. That really really bothers me because I guarantee you won that fight. Yeah. So we're going to end it with the positive note. So this is what's the best of last year was. Now, who are we going to look forward to seeing next year? Who is your top prospect overall? Greg? My top prospect overall will be the winner of the Jones and Bader fight. Because I can't pick one. I just can't. Jones or Bader? Whoever wins. I can't pick either of these guys. I mean, they're both on such upward trajectories. I would have said bones earlier, but Bader just was a meteor this year. So I've been racking my brain all day trying to figure this out. But now it's one of the two and I can't pick one. I had to go for Carlos Condit. I've been a guy since he came into the UFC. He got it. It was a tough loss to Martin Kamen in his first split decision in his first fight in. And since then, even when he's getting beaten down against McDonald, he still just he finds a way to come back. The guy's a fighter. And I'm sure he'll get himself a title fight. And GSP will take advantage of the fact that Condit has no wrestling. Yeah. But there's just something about Condit just seems like a guy who's just too dumb to quit. He won't be broken like GSP breaks everybody else. He may not win, but he's going to make it interesting. Yeah. And hey, I was Condit with the title in 2011. I love to see it. And Condit Hardy was actually on my short list for KO. Oh, yeah. KOing Hardy also impressed. I can't believe I did mention that. I almost was going to pick the scary rookie trio of Bones, Bader, and Phil Davis, particularly Phil Davis because he had the four wins in the submission of the night. But for me, my top prospect has got to be Anthony Pettis. I didn't give him a fight in the year. I'm going to give him a top prospect because I'll tell you, I don't think a lot of people saw his stuff in the WC, including we didn't even see all four of his fights because a lot of them were not on the made card. Yeah. This is the year. I think he's going to break it wide open. I think he stacks up well against Gray Maynard or against Frank Yedker. And I think he's so innovative and so good that if he beats either of those guys, he's going to go on a run and we're going to be talking about Anthony Pettis as being pound for pound and getting a serious, serious ranking in that lightweight division. So to me, the guy I'm looking for this in this year, it's got to be Showtime Pettis. Well, this is tough to argue because he's going to be made of venting or cool man to inventing a UFC show in a very near future game. I think he's going to go from being unranked to being almost the top very, very quickly. If he knocks off the three guys, he's going to have to knock off. I think Pettis, after winning four fights in a year and looking great and all four of them, I'm thinking he's ready to burst it open and he's ready to show what show times will amount. I'm just going to change the subject for a minute. I have to throw this in because we haven't said his name and it's a best-of-show. Jose Aldo. There we go. If he had thought one more time, absolutely, he'll be fighting in the spring. His name just needs to be on a best-of-show somewhere. It hadn't been mentioned, so I had to say Jose Aldo. Awesome. And there you go. Thank you for tuning in at 93.3CPMU and also for watching us on iTunes and on the internet at TheHammerMMA.com. Have a good week. Later.
