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In 2022, UFC’s lead color commentator, Joe Rogan, came under fire after a social media account stitched together a multitude of instances where Rogan used a very ugly racial epithet into a video clip that ended up going viral. Several outlets picked up the story, including mainstream news media. Joe issued a public apology—which also got picked up by nu…
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Sean Strickland certainly has tongues wagging this week after his latest social media video clip. His video confessional, a staple on his social feeds, comes from inside his car, where he tells fans how he doesn’t feel mentally stable, and that he told his girlfriend he just wanted to burn everything down but that he felt really connected to his fans. This level of “honesty” always seems to grab fan attention, creating the impression that Sean is using these sessions as a trauma dump rather than actually seeking therapy.
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We also have an update from the Haru Basho, the second grand Sumo tournament of the year. Tim Bissell stops in to provide details an all the important matches, with the latest on some of our favorite characters like the Angry Hamster, Double Boob, the Flying Monkey, Machine Gun Arm and the Peach Prince. It’s an episode you won’t want to miss and it’s completely free today!
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UFC 299 was a great card in practice and according to the promotion’s brass, the event garnered a sellout gate that topped $13M—their fourth best live gate. The headliner, Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera, was a title bout for bantamweight gold and it featured a fantastic supporting card with everything fight fans could possibly want—name value, action-pac…
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UFC Vegas 87 is an ugly card, full stop. Despite the fact that the alternative stats look decent (ranked fights, fighters, etc.), the matchups don’t do much in the way of getting us amped to watch the card. If anything, it’s a deterrent to it. Let’s face it, no matter what they do, the Apex cards always seem like leftovers, even when they’re not.
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And with two last minute replacements, we even get an athlete who is scheduled to fight for another promotion next weekend. It just always feels like we’re being cheated out of good cards for one reason or another, be it due to a lack of name value (big issue on this event) or a lack of ranked athletes and fights.
We get a smattering of everything on this show, but there’s nothing too egregious when we stack up our normal factoids. It’s when we peel back the layers of the records that we start to see where the seams are coming apart. Take Eryk Anders, for starters. In his last six fights, he’s only managed to win two of them.
To make matters worse, Anders’ opponent, Jamie Pickett, is on a four-fight losing skid. This is supposed to be the top promotion on the planet with the very best fighters in the world. Why are we getting this level slop if that’s the case? I know we’ve beaten this poor old pony to death, but when the product never changes, it’s hard to not feel frustrated and even a little cheated.
We realize fighters need to make their debuts, get back on track from losses, etc. but it generally seems like they lump all those elements exclusively into the Apex cards. As mentioned above, the alternative stats or “fun factoids” aren’t awful for this event, but it still has absolutely zero curb appeal to speak of. Let’s look at the fights we predicted:
UFC Vegas 87
* Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev 265 lbs
* Alex Perez vs. Muhammad Mokaev 125 lbs
* Matt Schnell vs. Steve Erceg 125 lbs
* Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios 140 lbs
* Javid Basharat vs. Aiemann Zahabi 135 lbs
Did you talk about anything besides UFC Vegas 87?
We did! We actually started the episode with our headlines this week and due to time constraints, we gave you the episode for FREE. Here’s the hot sheet list:
* Israel Adesanya interview about UFC 300
* Fight trailer for Ngannou-Joshua
* Nate Diaz wants on UFC 306 card
* Ryan Garcia calling out Sean O’Malley
* Henry Cejudo’s non-retirement
You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC coverage. Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current MMA news and opinions.
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Ian Garry barely eked out a win over the ultra tough Geoff Neal this past Saturday night, but after all the trash he talked combined with that performance, we’re left wondering if the Irish lightning rod can turn his plight around. The crowd, the fans watching around the world and his fellow fighters spent a fair amount of time roasting him on social media in the aftermath of the contest, and even into the week as the Irishman did the podcast rounds.
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One of the biggest problems we see with Garry is his inability to figure out whether he wants to be a face or a heel. The turmoil of this dilemma is almost palpable too. He spoke to Ariel Helwani about his ritual crying session he has before each fight, trying to illustrate the passion and respect he has for the sport, yet his comments and even his actions in the leadup to fight day painted the picture of a man playing the heel role—or trying to.
It was particularly notable when he talked about how he was going to finish Neal on his Instagram account yet didn’t come anywhere near his prediction. It was certainly a far cry from the man that insisted on dapping before each round. (H/T MMA Junkie for the transcription)
“What am I going to finish him with? I am going to make him quit,” Garry said in an Instagram post. “He’ll choose when he’s done. I’d like to kick him to the body and have him do that, when the dog’s sh—tting – the look when the dogs look at you, like, when they’re pooing, for protection. That’s what they do, right? Look at their owners when they’re pooing because that’s when they’re vulnerable for attack?”
In an interview with Megan Olivi, he told her that if Geoff Neal tried to shoot for a takedown, he would “either break a limb or take his soul.”
When discussing the contest during the post-fight press conference, he talked about how hard Geoff Neal hits and how “if you were in front of him, you’d run too.” I wouldn’t normally have a problem with this if he would just figure out what he wants to be, good guy Ian Garry or bad guy Ian Garry. This wishy-washy stuff leaves a sour taste in the mouth. And I must reiterate, this has nothing to do with his wife. It is 100% rooted in him.
Ian talked all that smack, yet didn’t seem like he was willing to believe in himself enough to throw down and go for it. Then you look at Ilia Topuria, also poised to become a superstar (definitely the man most likely to actually achieve it) and how he fought like a man possessed. The two performances are night and day, and to hear Ian tell it, one would think he’s poised for greatness the likes of which the world has never seen. From where I’m sitting, he’s got a lot of work to do to turn this frown upside down.
That said, I’m still on the Ian Garry stan-wagon, as I’ve been since he made his debut. I can’t tell you how many times I argued with my co-hosts over several shows about his talent and potential for greatness. I want to see him do well because I think his evolution has been amazing to watch. That said, Saturday night’s performance was merely a whimper, not the roar we were promised. It’s up to you to turn it around.
Get the UFC to make a fight in Ireland with you headlining, and hopefully, it will be against Colby Covington. Put on a Fight of the Year performance. Gain the adulation and support of your country. Gain the fanbase you envision for yourself. And for Heaven’s sake, go heel or go face—there is no in between.
What else did you talk about besides Ian Garry?
We broke down five fights from this weekend’s upcoming UFC Mexico card and Victor secured a sensational interview with Josie Reisman, the unauthorized biographer of Vince McMahon. The best part is today is FREE episode day, so the entire show is on us. You’re welcome. Here’s the fights we predicted:
UFC Mexico
* Brandon Moreno vs. Brandon Royval 125 lbs
* Yair Rodriguez vs. Brian Ortega 145 lbs
* Daniel Zellhuber vs. Francisco Prado 155 lbs
* Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios 135 lbs
* Yazmin Jauregui vs. Sam Hughes 115 lbs
You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC coverage. Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current MMA news and opinions.
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Sean Strickland had a very eventful week in the leadup to Super Bowl Sunday. It started off right after the Republican caucus in Las Vegas, Nevada where former POTUS Donald Trump was making a speech. Just a few minutes into it, Trump gave Sean an extended shoutout and following the event, stopped in with the former UFC middleweight champion for photo op…
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The first was the unexpected merger of WWE with the UFC. The historic deal saw the two companies combined under one roof with the combined entity branded as TKO Holdings. Vince McMahon would end up with a new title—executive chairman—a ton of shares, and the perk of being able to choose five of the board’s 11 seats.
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UFC 297 was not the best card. As a matter of fact, if I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a 4. On paper, going into the event, we were quick to notice how there were no ranked fighters on the undercard and eight of those fighters were coming off losses. All four of the opening fights were loser vs. loser. The main card wasn’t much better, …
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He’s back! Well, at least for this episode. Who? The one and only Mookie Alexander guest hosted today’s episode so we could make our yearly champions predictions, break down seven select fights from UFC 297, look back at UFC Vegas 84 and discuss how Saudi Arabia is not going to accept just any old slop the UFC tosses their way.
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The UFC is back after a long winter’s nap and what do they give their loyal fans? More Apex slop. One might think they’d want to kick off the new year with a firecracker of an event but instead, we get one that even if it does go off like a house afire, who’s gonna care? And more importantly, who’s gonna give that crowd pop that great fights deserve? Th…
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The holidays are always good for fun videos and photos, lively quips and interviews and lots of social media posts by combat sports athletes, but none have been quite as mesmerizing as the ones Conor McGregor puts out. Over the last two weeks of the holiday season, the Irish former champ-champ kept jaws wagging with some over the top antics.
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We start off with his appearance at the Joshua-Wallin / Wilder-Parker fight card where he was instantly memed following video footage of him seemingly jabbering Cristiano Ronaldo’s ear off, all while the soccer star looked like he’d rather be anywhere but the seat he was in. Conor delighted in his captive audience, regaling them with talks of a possible fight with Manny Pacquiao and the size of the ring the boxers would be in.
From there we discuss his interview with Gareth Davies where “The Notorious” said the UFC was gravely mistreating him. He even went so far as to say that no other fighter in history had been as mistreated as he had (the entire roster would like a word). He lamented how a fight with Pacquiao was being brought to him and UFC was doing nothing.
Then we got to his New Year’s announcement of the next appointment on his fight schedule. Yesterday, he announced that his next contest would indeed be against Michael Chandler. McGregor stated that the fight would go down at International Fight Week and most surprisingly, it would be at the middleweight limit of 185lbs.
We also have a stellar interview with EZ PR’s Ed Zitron who weighed in on crypto and AI and all the pitfalls associated with it. It was an enlightening conversation that you won’t want to miss and to start off this 2024 year with a bang, we’re giving it away to you for FREE, so make sure you check it out and hit the subscribe button if you haven’t already done it.
Thank you for reading this post and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.
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UFC 296 is a card done right and proof that when the UFC wants to, they can absolutely put on great events. With the stranglehold they have over the sport, all their cards could look a lot better and they certainly need to get the majority of them out of that stinkin’ Apex facility, but I digress. We need to stay on track here.
Bloody Elbow is fighting f…
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It’s been another busy week, especially regarding the UFC antitrust case. With the mountains of discovery now available, there’s a veritable treasure trove of documents that include contract information, text messages, e-mails…just about everything but the kitchen sink.
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Well, after a week off from UFC weekend content, we’re back to the grind. We’ve got a very nice event this weekend in UFC Austin, so we selected a quartet of contests that we feel are the most important ones. Here’s the bouts we predicted:
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FREE EPISODE ALERT!! FREE EPISODE ALERT!! FREE EPISODE ALERT!!
A lot has happened since our last episode so we tried to cram it all in a neat package. First, we went over the absolutely phenomenal cards that were Bellator 301 and UFC Vegas 82. Bellator saw two new champions crowned but never let on that the PFL purchase revelation was just two days away. They kept their secret in the most impenetrable vault.
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UFC Vegas 82 was also a great card. Top to bottom, the event delivered all manner of submissions and some gnarly knockouts, as well. In practice, it performed so much better than it did on paper. One thing is clear, and that is Paul Craig’s ceiling.
We also discussed the latest developments in the UFC antitrust case. Zuffa, UFC, et al are not fairing well with their motions. The honorable Judge Boulware indicated that he was going to deny their motion for summary judgement. He also denied their motion to reopen discovery and then he did something nobody was expecting—he put injunctive relief back on the table for the plaintiffs if they win.
Finally, in our bonus section (which is FREE today), we welcomed back Bloody Elbow’s Tim Bissell for a Sumo Stomp update of the Kyushu basho, which is in the last days now. Find out how those ozeki jitters affected some of the wrestlers and what’s going on with the ‘Angry Hamster’. If you’re a budding Sumo fan, this is a can’t-miss episode.
Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.
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You read that headline right, folks. Conor McGregor, who was expected to headline UFC 300 (never official, though) is no longer on the card according to his longtime coach John Kavanagh. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Kavanagh revealed the UFC was the decider in this latest delay of McGregor’s return to action.
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We’ve got a special episode today, a preview of the last Grand Sumo tournament of the year, the Kyushu basho, with Bloody Elbow’s Tim Bissell. We go through quite a few topics, which I’ll list below, but if you require more in-depth analysis, Tim has a great feature that you can check out here.
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Now, let’s get cracking on that listicle.
* General terminology
* Why Mongolia is so important in Sumo
* How to attend one of these tournament matches
* What NOT to do when you’re a Sumo wrestler
* Will a new yokozuna be crowned
* Who is the ‘angry hamster’?
* Ozeki jitters
* All about Atamifuji
* All about Hokutofuji
* What’s up with Wakatakakage?
Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.
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Last week, big news hit combat sports media circles. Well, actually two things happened:
* The UFC’s appeal to the antitrust case was denied by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
* The release of every UFC athlete payout from 2011-2016
That release of the athlete payouts gave John Nash and Anton Tabuena plenty of fodder to go through, and the long and the shor…
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We had a special guest drop in this week, TUF 30 winner Juliana Miller gave us 20 minutes of her time to discuss the surgery that’s taking her out competition until sometime next Spring, the external sponsors she’s managed to acquire, training at Sikjitsu and more. I had toyed with the idea of making this our bonus content, and in the episode, that is what you’ll hear, but in practice, I am making the entire episode free so everyone can have access to the interview.
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We also weighed in on Francis Ngannou’s big weekend and the impact it’s had on combat sports and what we’d like to see next from “The Predator.” Finally, we made our picks on four fights from the main card. Spoiler alert: This is not a bad card! There are plenty of potential bangers on UFC Sao Paulo. Rejoice! Let’s take a look at the fights we selected to preview:
UFC Sao Paulo
* Jailton Almeida vs. Derrick Lewis
* Caio Borralho vs. Abus Magomedov
* Rodolfo Vieira vs. Armen Petrosyan
* Ismael Bonfim vs. Vinc Pichel
HEADS UP! IT’S FREE EPISODE WEEK!! THIS ONE IS ON THE HOUSE!!
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A few weeks back, we told you all a rumor that Showtime Sports would be closing its doors for good by the time 2024 rolled around. Unfortunately, that rumor proved to be true, with confirmation hitting the community today. All 38 employees, including Stephen Espinoza, will have their positions terminated. Dan Rafael reports that contractors and freelancers (including Luke Thomas and Shakiel Mahjoury) will not be affected by the regular staff cuts.
We take a look at Tim Elliot’s extreme haterism, just how well the Misfts promotion is doing, and how Dillon Danis manages to keep failing upward. We also spent some time looking back on UFC Vegas 81, as well as providing a mini preview of the UFC 294 card via the four fights we chose for our picks and predictions. Let’s have a look at those:
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UFC 294
* Islam Makhachev vs. A. Volkanovski 155 lbs
* Kamaru Usman vs. Khamzat Chimaev 185 lbs
* Magomed Ankalaev vs. Johnny Walker 205 lbs
* Tim Elliott vs. Muhammad Mokaev 125 lbs
HEADS UP! IT’S FREE EPISODE WEEK!! THIS ONE IS ON THE HOUSE!!
Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.
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