Okamoto’s 2024 UFC Awards Picks Were Personal
ESPN reporter Brett Okamoto joined Jim Norton and Matt Serra on their year-end podcast to make their own picks for 2024. The episode covered categories including newcomer, breakthrough fighter and event of the year, along with favorite fights, stoppages and standout moments. It was a discussion by the hosts and guest, rather than an official awards ceremony, as the official episode listing makes clear.
Opinion Picks, Not Official Honors
The episode’s awards reflect the participants’ opinions about the year. They are separate from the promotion’s President’s Choice awards, for which Dana White announced the 2024 winners in the official awards video.
The episode was released on December 31, 2024, and runs approximately fifty minutes. Its year-end format combines a review of completed performances with predictions about the season ahead.
What the Episode Covers
The published episode description opens with Norton reflecting on his fight-picking record, with Serra pointing out that he had finished the year strongly. Okamoto then joins the discussion, and each participant contributes his own views across the award categories. That shared format gives the show a conversational structure rather than a single presenter announcing a fixed list of winners.
The discussion also looks forward. Before closing, Norton and Serra each select a fighter who was not a champion at the time and predict that he or she will win a title in 2025. Those selections belong to the episode’s forward-looking segment, while the awards discussion reviews performances from the completed 2024 calendar.
For listeners, the distinction helps set expectations. A newcomer category concerns a fighter’s arrival, a breakthrough category considers a major step forward, and an event category looks at a card as a whole. The hosts’ choices invite comparison across those different questions, with the full episode providing the reasoning behind their preferences.
Episode details: December 31 podcast listing and description.
