UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Ige Best Bets - Top UFC Picks

Last week's predictions were pretty successful and well received so here I am making another round. I will hurry to get this out as fast as possible before the lines change too much, since they already have so excuse the typos etc.
This card will most likely be a really fun one, even more so than the previous, but a bit trickier for predictions. Just tune in and enjoy the show, don't go hard on bets since there are too many fights that can go either way.
Prelims

Christos Giagos vs Carlton Minus
I was looking forward Minus vs Glen but that fell through so we get this instead, sadly. Giagos is a strong wrestler that tends to tire out in the 3rd. Carlton might be the better striker, but I believe he does not have ufc level ground game. This is something that could have changed but I doubt it, we can't make that guess. Giagos will most likely be able to easily take him down and control or even find a submission, as I said "ufc level" ground game is the thing that quite a few newcomers *might* lack and if you dont have it you will be a fish out of water. You can always have Minus in the 3rd due to Giagos tiring out and getting lit up especially after a short notice fight, but I wouldnt bet on it, neither I would bet on Minus having good enough wrestling to stuff his takedowns and win. Giagos most likely takes this one.

Jimmy Flick vs Cody Durden
Fight that was rebooked, we have Flick an incredibly slick submission artist, with decent wrestling and meh striking. Durden a strong wrestler with powerful striking. If you look at it like this Durden has the wrestling to stuff the takedowns of Flick and KO him or get a decision, however he has not shown the best fight IQ and I believe Flick might need a single well timed trip or a td to get the fight to the mat and submit Durden, that being a likely outcome Durden is a risky bet. However, considering he is the underdog I believe the risk might be worth it. Flick by Sub is barely +150 and Durden by TKO/Decision is +550/+500 so you can decide which one to pick when the chances of them happing are 55/45. Durden is a solid dog that very well might get subbed.

Tafon Nchukwi vs Jamie Pickett
Nchukwi is a huge favourite here, although he is only 4-0. He seems to have really good striking fundamentals and he is trying to be pushed as the next big thing, being a Muai Thai specialist. Pickett is used as his stepping stone to be knocked out in the first round and the odds reflect that. I don't think there's a lock here but Nchukwi didnt look as good striking as he was supposed to look, however Pickett looked even worse with wild haymakers at times that might get him sniped and to slow to get out of the pocket when exiting. Nchukwi is going down a weight class so that is one thing that might play a factor here, and Pickett has pretty decent double leg entries. Everyone is betting Nchukwi by KO at -150 , and although that is very likely I don't think it's worth the price. Expect a possible upset happening here which is either a Pickett win utilizing his wrestling and challenging Tafon's gas tank or Nchukwi not being able to finished Pickett and getting a decision at +650. Another fight that unless you are looking for fun upsets that have value, I would stay away from.

Gillian Robertson vs Taila Santos
Gillian is an incredibly strong grappler but her striking is quite bad. Taila on the other hand has decent grappling and striking both. The only thing that worries me, which would otherwise make her a good bet is that she stood on her back for a full round in her UFC debut without advancing the position, if you do that against Gillian you will most likely lose. I am not sure if that was a one off thing but it keeps me from betting her with any certainty. The odds being even here I believe the value is on Taila but dont cash out on it.

Deron Winn vs Antonio Arroyo
Deron will be utilizing his very strong wrestling and his Tysonesque boxing in order to get the win. Arroyo has looked very willing to stay in someone's guard which is once again worrying, considering Deron is a really strong wrestler that can keep you there, which could be a one way to ticket to Deron by Decision. However, if we are willing to accept that risk I believe there's a lot of value on Arroyo in this match up. He will be the MUCH bigger man, he will have rangier kicking/punching combos + knees that can give Deron a lot of trouble because of how short he is. He should have the better gas tank and he should also have the better BJJ, although his wrestling isn't. The wrestling part might be neutralized due to the size difference but not sure if I am willing to count on that. I believe there's a ton of value on Arroyo at +550 by Decision or even Finish, +600 KO/TKO
Sijara Eubanks vs Pannie Kianzad
I don't have any strong positions on this fight at all and I would skip it if I were you.

Anthony Pettis vs Alex Morono
I am really looking forward this fight, you will have aging Pettis, who just hit the 10 year anniversary of his Showtime kick which became the poster child for MMA around the world fighting a gritty veteran in Morono. If this was years ago I would say Pettis hands down easily. He is the better striker, he doesn't have the better wrestling but he has the more dangerous BJJ, he can knockout, submit or just outstrike Morono to a decision. But the Pettis of today is a bit gun shy, he gets pressured easily and taken down pretty much at will. Anthony is a huge favourite in this fight, and I am not sure he should be. He is expected to win by decision which is fair since it would be hard to put away Morono. Depending on the gameplan Morono utilizes I believe there's some value there. He can just outvolume Pettis with his striking style and win a close decision if Pettis is once again gun shy or he can utilize his wrestling and get a comfortable decision while risking Pettis catching him in something and submitting him. If you are going to pick the big upset in Morono winning, which as I said is not too unlikely, pick Morono by decision at +350, unless an accident happens it's very unlikely he wins in any other way. Pettis has been incredibly inconsistent and although I favour him to win here I think there's value on his current moneyline besides the Submission prop.

Marcin Tybura vs Greg Hardy
We have yet another fight that the line reflects really well, Hardy being a slight favourite and Tybura being a slight underdog. Striker vs grappler type of fight. Hardy found a way to combine his natural gifts with his developing skillset while lasting the full 3 rounds so that can give him a lot of confidence before this match up. However, this will be the first time he meets a "ufc level" ground game opponent and that is something to look forward to. Assuming both fighters perform up to their potential, Hardy is game so he probably will, Tybura not so sure, and if Hardy wins that means he will be ready for the big boys in top 15. Tybura had a stretch of 4 fights where he was knocked out in 3 from people not as hard hitting as Hardy, so if you are wondering whether Hardy KOing him is possible, it very much is. So I will be putting my money on Hardy? Ehm, no, he has been too inconsistent and we have never seen him face a UFC level ground game fighter yet and this will be his make it or break it moment. Tybura on the other hand has faced all types of fighters with different levels of success. If I were him I would start slow avoiding the big shots and look for takedowns in the second half of the round. If I had to look for value in this match up I would definitely go for the underdog in Tybura, he has the better wrestling and way better BJJ. Hardy could have improved and get an easy win in both of those areas but the thing about betting is we have no way of knowing that before we see it. Not sure if i would be betting this fight but Tybura winning is a bet that holds some value. A decision is possible but weirdly enough the submission prop is valued at +700.

Marlon Moraes vs Rob Font
Another good fight on this card that has the potential of being a banger. Moraes is the all around better fighter, however he has had gas tank issues in the past which made him a bit gun shy, and that is the first of our worries here. That will also most likely stop him from wrestling since it would tire him out quicker, although he has the clear advantage on the ground. What we are left with is a striking affair in this case. Moraes is always in either his kicking or punching range, he lands powerful kicks and strong hooks. Think of a smaller Barboza version with better boxing. Font on the other hand has one of the sharpest boxing combination in the division. The question here is, how did Moraes get affected by being KOd couple of months back, is he all there mentally is he even more gun shy, which is a recipe for losing a decision, or is his head back in the right place or will he get rocked the first time a clean punch lands. Font is also coming out of a bad injury and 1 year lay off, he fought once in 2 years, is ring rust going to affect him. I believe Font's plan here will be pressuring Moraes to avoid being in the kicking range with him, while tagging him with clean combinations and gassing him out due to the pressure and Moraes never finding his rhythm. Many people are high on Font in this match up, and I would have been too if Moraes hadn't fought too many fighters like Font that tried the exact same thing and most failed. If we get the old Marlon that's an easy win, if we don't it gets interesting. I would bet on Font hoping that the other fighter doesn't show up, so although that can happen I will go with Moraes in this one.

Michel Pereira vs Kalinn Williams
That is the type of fight that everyone is high on betting. I need to stop you right there, when you start betting you need to distinguish between fun fights to watch and good fights to bet on. This one here is the former. Kalinn has fight ending power, he has knocked out both of his last 2 , extremely solid opponents, in 30seconds or so. That tells you, considering both of those opponents are more higher level than Pereira, that the outcome can be the same here. However, Pereira has the thing that can nullify that which is incredibly good movement, good chin and size. Having said that, there might be some value on Pereira, him being -110 + him most likely having a wider arsenal to work with, including submission, wrestling etc. However, he does not fight well when pressured and from the past 2 fights we have seen Williams is willing to 1. pressure 2. throw one to eat one, and if you eat one from Williams it's most likely good night. I would just sit back and enjoy this fight, really looking forward to it. Kalinn is a big unknown so we do not have enough information to bet on him, and for Pereira, well there might be some good value, but the big unknown knocked out too really good fighters in less than a minute combined in his first 2 ufc fights, so keep that in mind.

José Aldo vs Marlon Vera
Marlon has been doing incredibly well lately with 6 finishes in 7 fights, and he is the new exciting tough as nails, heart of a lion up-and-comer. I guess that's why so many people are wishing to bet him, my advice is - don't. He won't be able to take Aldo down, he doesn't have crisp powerful boxing to hurt him. Some fights are 50/50, this one isnt. If something accidentals happens, bad weight cuts, injuries, brain damage, which Aldo might have taken since he got beat up badly for a round versus Yan because the referee just didn't like him apparently then Vera *might* win. Do we know if Aldo has his head clear from the last beating he took inside the 5th, no we dont, But that's why we get good money for him and he did show incredibly good skill for the first 3 rounds of the fight versus a total killer in Yan, domination portions of it making it competitive. This is only a 3 round fight too, versus a person who utilizes mostly kicks, something Aldo is famous for, no crisp powerful boxing, no good takedowns. Aldo wins this fight.

Stephen Thompson vs Geoff Neal
Yet another pick 'em fight, and that's for a reason. Let's just list all the x factors down since that is a fight that is made of those.
Wonderboy

37 years old, dropped in quite a few of his fights, Luque was able to pressure and hurt him
2 broken hands since his last fight, 1 year lay off, he might break them again early, what then?
smaller cage, unable to utilize good movement, easier to be pressured
fighting against a more diverse, just as powerful, faster, younger version of Prime Woodley

Neal

Fighting a way more experienced striker, who is arguably the hardest style to prepare for in the UFC
Experiencing severe health problems, by his words, which might have affected him
Coached by a specialist that will surely have a plan in place if they picked Wonderboy fight

You see why this is a pick 'em fight. Neal is extremely diverse striker, has lots of power, good chin, great speed, if Woodley ,not being this, hurt Wonderboy twice in a bigger cage that favours Wonderboy's movement, what would younger Neal do to older Wonderboy? That is why this line is dead even. However, Wonderboy is one of the best strikers in the ufc, he embarrassed Whittaker, Masvidal, Luque and in my opinion + the opinion of the person who created the judging rules he also beat Till. We have possibly one of the best strikers in the UFC, that has made a career of stuffing takedowns, training with his brother in law - Chris Weidman who used to be one of the best wrestlers in the UFC. Wonderboy won't be held down for a long time on the ground, so this will be a striking battle and he is by far the more technical striker. Wonderboy here is fighting a battle against his *possibly* fading reflexes, chin and a smaller cage. I really fucking hope he knows what he is doing if he does that's a win for him. But you did see the reasons why Neal might take this, and that's why it's a pick 'em. I believe the line on Wonderboy by decision is waaaay too wide at +350, that's insane. But other than that I would avoid betting on this fight, there are no clear picks here and it will most likely be a fight that once it ends we will have our answers, but we have no way of knowing them before it starts.

Fight God Picks for UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs. Neal

UFC Fight Night 167 Odds & Value

Hey people! Allow me to talk you through some fights of Fight Night 167 and some stuff to keep an eye on.
Light Heavyweight Anderson (-214/1.47) vs Blachowicz (+174/2.74) After derailing Walker’s hype train, Anderson is back on stage to fight Jan Blachowicz after Jan’s performance versus Souza which can only be described as being absolutely horrendous for any spectator. Anderson, having been an underdog in his last three fights has to show the world what he can do as a favorite, which hasn’t happened since he fought OSP. Main takeaway from the OSP fight is noticing how Anderson opens up his body first and later in the fight his head for massive overhands/high kicks when throwing. (Interesting note is the success of the right arm faint at the 4:26 mark in the first round of the OSP fight) However, Anderson’s power in wrestling shouldn’t be understated, being able to throw OSP to the ground 2 times in rapid succession. His cage pressure should also not be overlooked, with him being able to tire a fighter out and work from the cage.
The blueprint versus Anderson seems to be sharp bodykicks, establishing the jab early and opening him up for the knockout blow. Now the question is; “Does Jan possess these tools to win against Anderson?” The best way to answer this question is to look at the Rockhold fight, with Rockhold being a fighter who likes to drop his hands, has great power and likes to pressure relentlessly. For one, Jan did very well against Rockhold in his clinch/cage work, throwing short elbows and more importantly; standing up he was able to throw a couple of overhands without getting caught in return by Rockhold. The low kicks he threw out once in a blue moon did seem to impact Rockhold’s movement greatly, and being able to kick the body while on the move is a huge plus for any fighter.
To summarize; While Anderson is a great pressure fighter, I feel like Jan should be able to incorporate a game plan suitable to exploit Anderson’s weaknesses. However, Anderson’s power should not be understated and getting clipped by a powerful right overhand is always possible. Therefore, I still think Anderson is most likely to win the fight, as he will be the aggressor, but the odds are skewed due to Jan’s lackluster Souza fight and Corey’s great Walker fight.
I’d say the odds should be 65% in favor of Anderson or 1.54/-186 and 35% Blachowicz or 2.86/+186
I would not recommend betting on this fight.
Welterweight Pereira (-164/1.61) vs Sanchez (+136/2.36) The circus is back in town! With the new flashy and natty challenger in the UFC - Michel Pereira, known for doing crazy flips in the middle of the fight will be taking on Diego Sanchez, known for doing crazy shit outside of the octagon. Sanchez - formerly one of the best - is now being used for little more than a stepping stone in the big league, and got absolutely dominated by Michael “Don’t talk about my mom” Chiesa in 3 rounds. In my opinion, if Pereira goes about this fight in a well thought out, controlled manner there should not be no reason for him to lose this fight. Luckily for us, he most likely won’t.
Let’s start of with Pereira’s biggest strength, his first round. What makes Pereira so exciting is the explosive all in style of fighting. Arms low, moving around a lot and switching stances every two seconds. He will pour out everything out he has in the first round, his fights either end in the first round or go to the end. His right overhand is his most devastating weapon, in combination with wild kicks or flurries to follow them up, he’s an first round K.O. artist.
Connelly, initially thought to be little more than a can, and a +375 underdog versus Pereira was able to win out a decision. Why? Let us take a closer look at the fight. To start off, Pereira looks absolutely massive in comparison to Connelly, and in the first 25 seconds, he spent more energy than an average welterweight does in the first round. It’s almost laughable how easily he can shake off Connelly’s takedown attempt, like a kid wrestling his dad (Shoutout to Forrest Griffin). However, immediately after this, Pereira is seen taking a big breath - 47(!!) seconds into the first round. Also note Connelly’s short left hand connecting right after the clinch, when Pereira misjudges the distance. Pereira’s weapons seem to be a front push kick, flying knees and if all that fails, wild haymakers.
Sanchez has been in the game for long, in my opinion too long but that’s a discussion for another time. What I’m trying to say, Sanchez has been in almost every scenario one can be in. If he can survive the onslaught (a big if), in the first 2:30 minutes, he should be fine. Problem being of course, getting K.O.’d by Raging Al in the first round in 2017. If you’ve seen the Connelly fight, you’ve seen the below average ground game of Pereira, where Sanchez should thrive.
Conclusion; While Pereira has the personality of a coked up rabbit, he seems to be a good dude who just loves doing crazy shit (for better or for worse). Whichever way this fight goes, it will be entertaining and I will not be bothered by the result. That being said, I believe the odds are quite close to reality.
I’m giving this fight 55% in favor of Pereira or 1.82/-122 and 45% Sanchez or 2.22/+122
I will bet on Sanchez.
Light Heavyweight Clark (-294/1.34) vs Townsend (+238/3.38) If I had to name an obvious example of a corner being absolutely clueless, it has to be Dequan Townsend’s. Little to no technical advice ever gets discussed, no adjustments are made during fights. I’d like to imagine that if the corner had been a little more helpful, he would not be facing possible elimination from the UFC, and losing 8 decisions throughout his career. Being tough as nails though, Townsend returns to the octagon not more than 3 weeks after getting put against the cage and getting outstruck for three rounds straight by a one legged Bevon Lewis.
Clark on the other hand is trying to keep his streak of winning and losing alive, after losing to Rakic on a hot streak and Spann, who has been on a massive streak. His cage pressure will be the path to victory against Dequan, as he was able to do against Rakic in the first minute. I didn’t get a lot of analysis from that fight, as I kept getting mesmerized by his thighs. Even though the powershots kept landing for Clark (both legal and illegal ones) it’s too bad he couldn’t convert those into a win.
Anyways,it’s a sad state of affairs for Townsend and while I hope he can retain his place in the UFC, I think it’s likely we will see his last match on Saturday night.
I have this fight as 80% in favor of Clark or 1.25/-400 and 20% Townsend or 5.0/+400
I will not be betting on this fight, but betting on Clark will give you the most value.
Women Flyweight De la Rosa (-171/1.58) vs Borella (+142/2.42) A fun matchup between these two women, seeing how they lost to Lee and Murphy respectively, who faced off at 247. With about 66% of all female MMA fights going the distance, both De la Rosa and Borella are doing their best in keeping that average down, with De la Rosa having the armbar as weapon of choice.
In my opinion De la Rosa’s record is a bit deceiving, as she does not shy away from the standup, and isn’t randomly shooting for a takedown 24/7. Her recipe is simple - pressure until the opponent hits the cage, take her down and win the round with good groundwork or wait until you get the armbaRNC. This worked amazingly in the Kassem fight, but was stifled by Lee thanks to Lee’s counter-fighting and utilization of low kicks. This fight also highlights the ‘not shying away’ part I mentioned earlier, as she wanted to trade with Lee for the first two minutes. The numerous takedown attempts by Rosa got more desperate later on in the fight, but were likewise not able of giving Lee too much trouble.
I’d almost call Borella’s stand up nervous, moving around a lot and fainting a large amount of strikes, while not throwing much. The way she moves her head and positions herself away from the center line seems to get nullified by her tendency to stand and bang at the wrong time. That being said, if it comes to standing and fighting, Borella should come out on top. I’m kind of hoping she has learned in the last couple of months to better utilise her ground game and converting her positions. As we’ve seen at 247, it’s important to look early what the judges are scoring the event on.
Anyways, the odds should be: 56.5% favoring De la Rosa or -130/1.77 and 43.5% Borella or +130/2.30
I suggest skipping this fight unless you’re really sure about the outcome. I’m picking Borella.
Lightweight Weaver vs Vargas This fight is a tad weird as both fighters have a long history, but neither one of them has a resume you can call ‘impressive’. The only fighter I recognized immediately was on Brok’s record - a win versus Crazy Horse, who is currently on an 11 fight losing streak. (Interesting note, this split decision loss was his “best” result in those 11 fights)
P.S. Check out the ring girl in that fight
What does Weaver bring to the ring? Brok is a striker but not one who goes in for the kill, he’d much rather sit back and throw his jab a couple of times. In his fight against Smyth, he was caught off guard by a couple of unexpected strikes; Strikes Smyth threw after the clinch and a cool looking (but ineffective) spinning elbow. While Smyth didn’t throw anything in the third round, Weaver gave us a fantastic body/head combination after he put Smyth on the fence. Also Brok’s takedown defense is pretty good.
The best strike Vargas threw in his da Silva fight came in the first couple of seconds, with two high left kicks getting blocked early on. (And got dominated on the ground right after for the entire round) Vargas did have some strikes which almost landed, but was unable to hurt da Silva in any way. The moment Vargas got taken down, the round was over.
In my opinion Weaver has been on the right side of a couple lucky decisions, and this fight shouldn’t be tallied more than a small advantage for Weaver. With both fighter’s enjoying striking on the feet, we could get a cool knockout out of this fight. Is Weaver the better striker? Yeah probably. Does the better striker always win? Nope.
60% Weaver -150/1.67 and 40% Vargas +150/2.50
I like the odds of Vargas on this one.
TL;DR winners and their chance of winning: Anderson 65% Pereira 55% Clark 80% De la Rosa 56.5% Weaver 60%
Good luck! - Chris

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Sept. 13, 1999

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUS YEARS ARCHIVE: 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998


1-4-1999	1-11-1999	1-18-1999	1-25-1999
2-1-1999	2-8-1999	2-15-1999	2-22-1999
3-1-1999	3-8-1999	3-15-1999	3-22-1999
3-29-1999	4-5-1999	4-12-1999	4-19-1999
4-26-1999	5-3-1999	5-10-1999	5-17-1999
5-24-1999	5-31-1999	6-7-1999	6-14-1999
6-21-1999	6-28-1999	7-5-1999	7-12-1999
7-19-1999	7-26-1999	8-2-1999	8-9-1999
8-16-1999	8-23-1999	8-30-1999	9-6-1999

As the year 2000 approaches, publications all over the world keep putting out their "Best of the century" lists for different things so hey, why not wrestling? Of course, that's problematic because as times change, so does the business. Basketball in 1999 is fundamentally the same as it was in 1949, but there's still been a lot of changes, so it's not really fair to compare Michael Jordan to Bob Cousy or whatever because things are just so different. Wrestling has re-invented itself even more throughout the years. So comparing Steve Austin to Strangler Lewis is basically impossible to do fairly. It's not even comparing apples to oranges. It's like comparing apples to pizza or oranges to Ford trucks. So anyway, Dave decides the only fair way to do it would be to pick the best performer for each decade. So that's what he does, giving each wrestler a paragraph to explain why he picked them. Also, Dave notes that this article isn't just for the Observer, he wrote it for Gannett News Service, which is a company that publishes major newspapers around the country and so you can find this story in newspapers throughout the country this week. Anyway, TL;DR...

1900s - Frank Gotch
1910s - Frank Gotch again. Even though he retired by 1913 and died a few years later, no one else for the remainder of the decade even came close to matching his drawing power and star-power that he still had during the first 3 years of the decade.
1920s - Ed "Strangler" Lewis
1930s - Jim Londos
1940s - Dave doesn't seem to have a pick here, saying the 40s were one of the weakest decades ever for the business. Lou Thesz is in the discussion, along with Bronko Nagurski, French Angel, and Bert Assirati but Dave doesn't really settle on any of them. But he seems to be leaning towards Thesz.
1950s - Lou Thesz gets this decade again, but Dave also notes that this was the biggest decade ever for El Santo as well.
1960s - Bruno Sammartino was the biggest star in America. Giant Baba was the biggest in Japan. Ray Stevens was the best in-ring performer. Gene Kiniski is in the discussion also.
1970s - Andre The Giant was the biggest drawing star of the era. Sammartino ruled again in America. Inoki becomes a huge name in Japan.
1980s - This obviously comes down to 2 people: Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. As far as overall star power and being a top draw, Hogan is the obvious choice. As far as best in-ring performer, it's Flair no question. Basically, the answer here simply depends on what your criteria is.
1990s - Mitsuharu Misawa was by far the best in-ring performer of the decade. Shawn Michaels was the best in America. Steve Austin became the biggest star in the world but that only happened within the last 2 years. Prior to 1998, he was just another guy. But his 2 years on top have been the most successful of basically anyone ever, so it's hard to argue against Austin.

Brian Hildebrand's battle with stomach cancer has become nearly fatal. He suffered 2 stomach blockages last week and the surgeon has ruled the condition inoperable. He remains hospitalized at press time. Hildebrand was referenced on both Nitro and Raw this week. On Nitro, Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan both talked about him using his referee stage name "Mark Curtis" and wished him well and talked about how they hoped to have him return to Nitro as a referee soon. On Raw, Mick Foley talked about "Brian" without mentioning that he's a WCW referee and told him to keep fighting and that everyone in WWF is praying for him. Following a house show on Sunday in New York, Foley caught an overnight flight to Tennessee where Hildebrand lives to visit him the next morning, before flying back to Hartford that night for Raw. Shane Douglas also visited Hildebrand this week. Foley, Douglas, and Hildebrand all broke into the business together, training at Dominic DeNucci's wrestling school and are longtime friends.
In a follow-up to the story about Dr. Joel Hackett who is under investigation for illegally distributing drugs to wrestlers, it has been confirmed that the Somas that Louie Spicolli died from were prescribed by Hackett. Hackett also provided drugs to Brian Pillman. When Pillman was found dead in 1997, police found 8 different prescription bottles in his possession, though his death was not ruled an overdose. Pillman heavily used HGH (prescribed by a different doctor) but quit taking it when he could no longer afford it. There's also a 3rd dead wrestler who reportedly received drugs from Hackett, though it's still unknown who that was. At the scene of Spicolli's death, they found Somas as well as steroids prescribed by Hackett.
While WWF has publicly talked about how they banned Dr. Hackett from their shows and warned wrestlers to stay away from him, the fact remains that the company still indirectly encourages this sort of thing and the culture that causes these issues still exists. To continue being pushed and to make money, wrestlers are expected to look a certain way, often unattainable through natural means, and they're encouraged to work through minor and often not-so-minor injuries, which inevitably leads to pain pill use. In Pillman's case, he should have never been allowed back in the ring to begin with after his ankle injury. And Spicolli was repeatedly told in the WWF that he wasn't big enough and didn't have the right physique to be a top star. Spicolli had been often used as a paid-per-appearance jobber, but then he started heavily using steroids and added a ton of extra muscle mass and immediately after, WWF signed him to a full contract. At the time, Spicolli was specifically told that he got the job because he had improved his physique. But at the time, WWF was stringently testing for steroids (McMahon had just recently been acquitted and they were still feeling the heat) and naturally, Spicolli was unable to maintain his physique without steroids after he signed and got out of shape again. His serious pain pill addiction began around this same time, because he was afraid to take time off to rest his numerous injuries for fear of losing his spot. Anyway, Dave says just a quick glance at the TV will show you that in both WWF and WCW, steroid usage is back up to probably the same level it was before Dr. Zahorian in 1991. Neither company tests anymore and the bodybuilding drugs have quietly made a comeback.
This week's episode of WWF Smackdown saw the ratings drop half a point from last week's debut. It's interesting because Raw is always the #1 rated show every week on cable. But on network TV, Smackdown was ranked 73 out of 122 shows in prime time. It goes to show that despite the surging popularity, among the masses, wrestling is still somewhat of a fringe thing for casual viewers but it's also worth noting that UPN isn't on the same level as NBC, ABC, FOX or CBS so there's that too. WWF had planned to keep Steve Austin off TV until after the next PPV but the ratings drop was enough of a concern that they brought him back for the 3rd Smackdown taping and heavily advertised his appearance on Raw which Dave thinks was a bit of an overreaction to a relatively minor ratings drop. They still destroyed WCW Thunder, which set an all-time record low rating. On the flip side, the 2nd episode of ECW on TNN did a slightly higher rating than the debut which is good but still only half of what TNN was expecting it to do, so not anything to celebrate yet. Heyman is aware that the ratings can't stay this low, but says he expects them to slowly rise over the next few months. And hey, for what it's worth, even though the ratings are lower than what TNN wants, having 700,000 people watching ECW on TV is far more viewers than they've ever had before in company history.
Things aren't looking good for Jerry Lawler's mayoral campaign. A poll conducted by the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper showed Lawler in a distant 3rd place out of 15 candidates, with only 6% of the likely votes. Incumbent mayor Willie Herenton is in the lead (he won). For what it's worth, leading up to his election, Jesse Ventura was also trailing in the polls and made a big come from behind win. But Ventura was usually in the 15-20% range and slowly closed the gap. That doesn't appear to be the case for Lawler, as most Memphians don't appear to be taking him seriously as a candidate. The Rock came to Memphis to campaign for him, first at a lunch fundraiser, which went fine, and later at an appearance at the University of Memphis, which didn't go so well. At the U of M speech, Rock talked about the newspaper's poll putting Lawler in 3rd and decided to cut a promo about it, saying, "You can take the newspaper, the Sunday edition, and roll it up. Keep rolling it, turn it sideways, put some of that famous Memphis barbecue sauce on top and stick it straight up their candy asses!" Many of the students who saw it loved it, but others who are involved in politics and aren't wrestling fans found it silly and crass and criticized him for it. Rock also had this to say about Lawler: "If it weren't for Jerry Lawler and the USWA that he ran, that really gave me my start, I wouldn't be where I am today. If he runs this city like he ran his company, he'll do a pretty damn good job." Dave finds that line absolutely hilarious, considering, well, USWA is dead and even when it was alive and thriving, the business side was handled by Jerry Jarrett because Lawler is notoriously a terrible businessman. There's also been a lot of criticism over the demise of USWA, in regards to Larry Burton (the guy who basically defrauded everyone and killed USWA, who was a well-known snake with a history of defrauding people) and saying that even if Lawler was innocent in all that, if he's foolish enough to get tangled up with guys like that, why should he be mayor?
There's a section in every issue where Dave lists results for all the random indie shows in the world. I mean, every show. Every little podunk, no name indie company that holds a show at a VFW hall in front of 30 people usually has their results listed. Anyway, on Sept. 1, 1999 in Du Quoin, IL there was a wrestling show at the local fairgrounds. The opening bout saw Haystacks Ross win a handicapped match by defeating Adrian Lynch and some kid who goes by the name CM Punk.
Dave reviews the recent Great Muta vs. Great Nita (Atsushi Onita) exploding ring barbed wire match from NJPW and calls it unbelievably bad, a strong candidate for worst match of the year, and up there with Hogan vs. Warrior from last year. Negative 2 stars! This was linked in the last issue, but here it is again.

WATCH: Great Muta vs. Great Nita - exploding barbed wire match

Dave got to see some tapes of Ohio Valley Wrestling, the WWF developmental promotion that Jim Cornette is now running in Louisville. It's every bit a Jim Cornette show, full of early-80s southern angles and structure, but using a bunch of young wrestlers who have probably never seen any of that stuff. The promotion's top star is a guy named Flash Flanagan, who's a really good worker. His gimmick is that he's pissed off because he knows he's good but he hasn't gotten a contract offer from WWF or WCW. Dave says the guy may have a point because he's light years better than a lot of the people signed to both companies but he doesn't have a good look which is likely why he's still slumming it in OVW. The top babyface is a guy named The Damaja (later became one of the Basham Brothers in WWE). Nick Dinsmore (later Eugene) is also there. Cornette does commentary and is great at it. Cornette has also brought in some of the old Smoky Mountain guys like Rock & Roll Express and Buddy Landel to work shows. It's really similar to Cornette's old SMW promotion.
The future of UFC looks bleaker than ever due to even more financial cutbacks and no signs that PPV providers are going to take them back any time soon. UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz seems more focused on his new internet radio startup (eyada.com) than he does on UFC these days. There are people who are interested in buying the company and even the WWF has made inquiries about it, but nothing even remotely serious. WCW has shown interest in MMA in the past, with Bischoff attempting to co-promote K-1 and PRIDE events from Japan without success. Dave recaps how bad, often unfair publicity has crippled UFC.
ECW's upcoming Anarchy Rulz PPV will likely end up being the first ever $200,000 gate the company has ever drawn. As of press time, over 5,000 tickets have already been sold which is also a company record.
WCW recently released several wrestlers and Paul Heyman is said to be interested in a few of them, especially Super Calo. He's also willing to use Mikey Whipwreck again on a part-time basis but said he doesn't want to bring him back as a main star again because he doesn't want to send a message that people can just leave ECW, go to WCW or WWF, flop, and then come crawling back and have a guaranteed spot. Sandman is also interested in coming back to ECW but Heyman has flat out said he doesn't want him back because he was upset that Sandman basically quit ECW without notice and didn't even have the courtesy to give Heyman a phone call to let him know he was gone. They also had some legal issues over money after Sandman left so there's some bad blood there. Heyman says he has to set a precedent that you can't just walk out on ECW and then come back like nothing happened (spoiler: Sandman returns very soon). Heyman also said he was done with Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch. Candido is no longer under contract anyway, but Sytch still is, though Heyman said he would gladly release her if she can get a job anywhere else and he doesn't intend to stop her from working elsewhere.
Next week's ECW show on TNN will air footage of a match from Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn that happened last week. The TNN people were upset about it because the match wasn't filmed with the TNN crew and doesn't have the production values that they want from ECW. But Heyman argued with them that the match should air and TNN finally relented and let him have his way. Many people who saw it live are saying it's one of the best matches in company history.

WATCH: RVD vs. Jerry Lynn - ECW on TNN 1999

Shane Douglas recently claimed that ECW owes him $140,000. Heyman says that's exaggerated and says the real number is actually less than $40,000 and that ECW is making payments to Douglas on a payment schedule that both sides agreed to. He said Douglas claiming $140,000 is false and slanderous.
Despite being the new tag team champions, neither Raven or Tommy Dreamer are in any shape to be wrestling right now and are mostly just doing quick spots with DDT finishes at house shows. Dreamer still has back issues but decided against surgery and Raven, during the late 90s, was pretty much always just one big walking injury.
ECW and AJPW are still negotiating on working together. Heyman is trying to bring in Mike Awesome and Maunukea Mossman. He's also interested in bringing in Kenta Kobashi, but AJPW said they couldn't do it in the next month or so because Kobashi's schedule is so busy but it still may happen in the future (never did).
Raven's 1-year contract with ECW is for $150,000 which is about half of what he made in WCW. But there are upsides because the contract also gives him full medical coverage and cuts of other revenue like merch sales. Plus he's only booked to work 12 shows per month, so it's less demanding than the WCW schedule.
WWF is planning to send developmental signee Vic Grimes to ECW for more experience and Heyman thinks Grimes can probably do well in ECW. But on the same hand, now that ECW has their own national TV show, he's hesitant to make deals like this with WWF, for fear of being portrayed as just another developmental promotion of WWF.
Notes from WCW Nitro: the show only drew 3,818 paid fans, which shows you just how far and how quickly this company has fallen. There were another 4,600+ fans who got free tickets. Add it up and it's a little over 8,000 fans, but it was an arena that holds more than 16,000. Sooooo....not good. It was also the 4th anniversary episode of Nitro and it was one of the worst episodes ever, and Dave says watching it felt like 4 years. They did a cage match with Hogan/Sting/Goldberg vs. Sid/DDP/Steiner. Late in the week before the show, they had decided to make this a War Games match, given away for free on Nitro. But they had already sold tickets for the show based on a one-ring setup and deciding to do a War Games match just isn't something you can do at the last minute because the arena has to be configured for it and available tickets have to be planned accordingly. "Some day this company will get someone in charge who can plan things out in advance," Dave says. In the lone good spot of the show, Goldberg came out to his old music again. You see, for some reason, for the last 3 or 4 weeks, someone in WCW decided Goldberg should have new, very bad music and it killed him. So he finally got his old music back and the crowd popped huge for it. And that's the only good thing Dave has to say, and I'm leaving out a lot of the bad stuff. Because he rips this episode of Nitro apart.
Scott Putski, 4x4, Swoll, Chase Tatum, Damian, Ciclope, Mikey Whipwreck and Super Calo were all released by WCW this week.
Jimmy Hart is now in charge of running WCW Saturday Night and is hoping to make it more of a Memphis-wrestling style show. He has a lot of changes in mind, but given how all this stuff is filmed weeks in advance and because WCW has no long-term planning, and titles change constantly, it's going to be hard to make any real changes. Hart is hoping to make the show its own separate thing, apart from Nitro or Thunder and possibly even with its own titles, with all the young guys who aren't being used on the main shows (basically the WCW version of NXT. Never worked out of course).
WCW is still planning to do a PPV on New Year's Eve co-promoting it as a full KISS concert. WCW already has a PPV 11 days before that, and Dave thinks this is the dumbest idea ever. A few years ago, Howard Stern hosted a PPV on New Year's Eve that did a big buyrate, but it also got months of hype and tons of mainstream publicity. WCW isn't going to get that, nor is KISS, neither of which are exactly lighting the world on fire these days.
Rey Mysterio Jr. missed Nitro because something happened backstage leading to him accidentally getting poked in the eye.
On Thunder, Sid Vicious lost a match to Perry Saturn by DQ. When Eric Bischoff found out (he wasn't there and didn't book the show), he blew a gasket, because they've been doing the whole Sid Vicious undefeated streak angle and someone apparently didn't get the memo. Mike Graham ended up taking the blame, since he was basically the agent for the show and came up with the finish. Dave says even by WCW standards, this was jaw-droppingly stupid. Anyway, on Nitro the following week, they just didn't acknowledge it and are pretending that Sid is still undefeated (which, as previously reported, is already total bullshit anyway but whatever).
Now that he's in WCW, Shane Douglas is pushing for he and Ric Flair to finally have a match. Douglas also said he'd be willing to bet his entire yearly salary that if he and Flair were both given interview time to build up to a match against each other on Nitro, their match would beat Raw in the ratings. Dave hopes nobody takes that bet for Shane's sake.
ICP member Violent J is no longer doing a moonsault after being confronted by Hugh Morrus about using his move (I think Violent J wrote about this in his book. Said he came backstage after doing it and Hugh Morrus was throwing a fit, kicking over trashcans and stuff, and Bischoff came up to them and said "don't do the moonsault anymore, Hugh Morrus is the only big guy that does moonsaults.")
Notes from Raw: Tori vs. Ivory in the first women's hardcore match was basically just an excuse to get the two women soaking wet in their underwear. Dave doesn't mention it, but that match has a great moment with Ivory burning Tori on the back with an iron. The match with Jeff Jarrett against Jacqueline was brutal because Jarrett was extremely stiff with her. The two go back a long ways to their Memphis years and she probably wanted him to lay it in on her and there's no doubt she can take it, but if you're not into men beating up women, it might be hard to watch. The Dudleys were recognized as former 8-time tag team champions. Dave says if WWF had been willing to recognize what happened in other companies back in 1991, they could have made a lot more money with Hogan and Flair. In reviewing other parts of the show, Dave says the WWF writers clearly faced a lot of female rejection growing up and are trying to get back at the whole gender. Yeah, that pretty much sounds like Russo's writing. Triple H is working hard but just isn't over as a top star like they want him to be. And Lillian Garcia is still the worst ring announcer ever.
Undertaker's pulled groin injury is so bad that he's having trouble walking and even putting clothes on, so he was given the weekend off house shows.
Bulldog is scheduled to re-debut in WWF at the October UK PPV. Still no word on whether or not WWF will air the footage of the interview they filmed after re-hiring him. There's been concern over the stuff he said in the interview due to the ongoing Hart lawsuit (I've seen a few people say that they eventually aired some of the footage from this on a 2003 episode of Confidential but it never aired at the time in 1999. I'm sure the full footage is still sitting in the WWE vault somewhere).
X-Pac is being sued for $500,000 by a man in Wisconsin who claimed he was attacked by X-Pac for asking for an autograph.
WWF tried to get Shawn Michaels to renegotiate his contract with them but it didn't work. Michaels is still collecting his $750,000 per year guarantee, despite not wrestling in a year and a half and only appearing on TV periodically since then. But Michaels feeling is that he was injured in their ring, thus he didn't feel he should have to renegotiate new terms, so he refused and WWF is stuck paying him (to be fair, he was injured in mid-air, technically outside of the ring).
Follow up to the prank Al Snow pulled on Val Venis a couple weeks ago, where he put Venis' number on the missing dog posters that were shown on TV. As you can imagine, Venis got a billion prank calls and has since had to change his phone number.
Really funny letter written by comedy writer Desmond Devlin that I'm just going to copy and paste in full:

I must turn to you for answers.
They say that if you made 10,000 monkeys type at 10,000 typewriters for 10,000 years, one of them would eventually come up with "Hamlet." If WCW let 10,000 wrestlers compete in 10,000 matches on 10,000 Nitros, would one of them eventually end with a clean pinfall?
How can Hulk Hogan be considered the wrestler of the century when he didn't get started until at least 1930?
Is it true that Hogan went back to the yellow trunks because he's getting to that age where embarrassing yellow stains sometimes pop up?
If 56-year old Harley Race changed his last name to Davidson, would Eric Bischoff get all giggly and give him a big push?
In order to be eliminated from the WWF Royal Rumble, you have to have both feet touch the floor. So looking back, how was Kerry Von Erich ever eliminated?
Would you agree that Marc Mero is having a BAAAAD career?
What terrifying image haunted your nightmares the longest, seeing Vince McMahon's teddy bear on fire, the ghostly image of Warrior in Hogan's mirror, or hearing Madusa with a live mic?
When Mean Gene is in bed with his wife, does she have to press 4 for other options?
Do you think the coast is clear for David Flair to stop watching over his shoulder for Chuck Zito?
Has Goldberg read the FDA's medical report on inhaling second hand pyro smoke?
Is it true that the members of KISS met the Nitro Girls and said, "Whoa, that's a lot of makeup?"
Considering all the guest singers on Mondays and WWF Week on MTV, wouldn't it be a good idea for the following rock-and-wrestling connections to happen? David Flair and White Zombie. Ken Shamrock and Primal Scream. Jerry Lawler and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Blink 182 and any Sid interview. The Nitro Girls and the Barenaked Ladies. Pat Patterson and Boyz II Men. Whoever keeps track of WCW's storylines and Erasure. Spike Dudley and Too $hort. Scott Steiner's diction coach and Chumbawamba. Dusty Rhodes and Cake.
Were you surprised last week when Hurricane Bret didn't swing North to viciously attack San Antonio?
Isn't is risky for DJ Ran to instruct Nitro crowds to "throw their hands in the air and wave 'em like they don't care," when in fact, most of the fans really don't care?
Now that pro wrestling's on The Nashville Network, do you think it'll turn out that it was George Jones who drove the hummer?
Do you remember way, way back when bookers would actually let a character appear on television more than one time before "shocking the fans" by "turning them heel?"
You now he's out there somewhere. The same people who film him are the ones who hate and fear him most. His personality hovers over everything, but they never let you see him. The Flair Witch Project?
Since Rey Misterio Jr. stole X-Pac's bronco buster, do you think Hunter Hearst Helmsley should retaliate by using Chris Benoit's snot blowing spot? And if HHH does empty his nose on an opponent, do you think that wrestler might drown?
If Mr. Bob Backlund was locked in a bare room with Jim Hellwig, and they started having an excogitative conversation imbued with contemplative apperception, cogency of percipience, and lambent sagacity, who do you think would reach for the gun first?
Hulk Hogan currently owns the WCW belt. But to be the man, you've got to beat the man. So doesn't this mean Jay Leno (1-0 record) is the true uncrowned heavyweight champion?
Now that WWF stock is available to purchase, does that mean "selling short" won't mean tapping out to Taz?
Isn't it nice that Hulk Hogan tells fans to "say prayers" before starting his matches? After all, the audience should always pray just before falling asleep.
Scientists have used a supercollider to develop a subatomic neutrino that exists for just 0.000143 seconds before disappearing forever. Do you think they should name this discovery a "Malenko push?"
Desmond Devlin
Northwest Dudleyville

WEDNESDAY: Eric Bischoff fired, major changes in the works for WCW, Brian Hildebrand passes away, Fall Brawl fallout, Taz heading to WWF, and more...

UFC 2020 early predicktions

UFC 214 - Fighter Previews and Predictions

The most anticipated card of 2017 is 3 days away and the fight fan in me is salivating at these match ups. I wanted to be equally excited for all the fights so I watched some tape on the unknowns down the card and figured I'd provide some background information on them (Kattar, Albu, Brooks). I've posted the text below but you can see a cleaned up version at Tomorrow's Fights along with some other analysis to get you through to the weekend.

UFC 214 Cormier vs. Jones 2 airs live Saturday 6:30 PM EST on Fight Pass, 8:00 PM EST on FXX (not FS1) and 10:00 PM EST on PPV.

MAIN CARD - 10 PM - PPV
Light Heavyweight Daniel Cormier © +195 vs. Jon Jones -250
Daniel Cormier is 38 years old and 19-1 in his Career. He holds an 8-1 record in his UFC run with the lone loss coming from the challenger Jon Jones. DC is well known for his Olympic Freestyle Wrestling credentials where he failed to medal, something he talks about often in his pre-fight interviews. Cormier started his career as an undersized heavyweight, electing not to cut any weight due to past kidney issues. He blew up the regional circuit capturing the XMMA and KOTC heavyweight belts before joining Strikeforce and running through their Heavyweight Grand Prix. Cormier uses a good fundamental boxing game to set up his wrestling. From there he will use a pressure top game until he can get to the back and finish.
LAST FIGHT W - Submission RNC Anthony Johnson
Jon Jones is 30 years old 22-1 in his career, 16-1 in the UFC. With an incredible frame for the 205 division, Jones uses his unpredictable striking game to out point opponents and then overwhelm them with his strong wrestling and top game. Jones had one of the most impressive runs through the light heavyweight divisions, winning the belt in 2011 by obliterating Mauricio Shogun Rua, then going on to defend it a record 8 times before being stripped.
LAST FIGHT W - Dec Ovince Saint Preux
VERDICT: I was less excited than most when the initial rematch was announced at UFC 197. Since their first fight however, Jones has only fought 1 time, winning a tepid decision over Ovince Saint Preux. Cormier on the other hand, has fought 4 times since then. I did not think the first fight was competitive past round 3 due to Cormier gassing and that was two years ago. Cormier's success came in the clinch in the first fight, but he also took the most damage there eating body knees. His team is going to have to come up with a new gameplan this time around, but unfortunately I just don't trust a 38 year old Daniel Cormier to execute it for 25 mintues. Even if the Jon Jones that fought Ovince Saint Preux shows up, I think that's enough to take 3 rounds off Daniel Cormier. I only hope we get to see Jones on his back this time. Jon Jones via Decision.

Welterweight Tyron Woodley © -210 vs. Demian Maia +170
Tyron Woodley is 35 years old with a 17-3-1 record and 7-2-1 in his UFC career. Gaining notoriety as a boring wrestler coming up, he amassed 10-0 record in Strikeforce before succumbing to a Nate Marquardt Tekken Combo. Woodley broke that stereotype in his first UFC fight blasting a hole through Jay Hieron's head, and has ever since utilized a powerful boxing game to score stoppage wins over Josh Koshcheck, Carlos Condit, Dong Hyun Kim, and Robbie Lawler to capture the title.
LAST FIGHT W - Dec Stephen Thompson
Demian Maia is 39 years old and 25-6 in his career with an impressive 19-6 UFC record. Maia is a legit 4th Degree Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under Fabio Gurgel and he shows it in the cage. Joining the UFC in 2007 he submitted his first 5 opponents including a triangle win of Chael Sonnen after a beautiful lateral drop off the side of the cage. Maia went through a rough period where he put too much faith in his kickboxing, perhaps feeling too pressured to become more well rounded, before reverting to his jiu jitsu roots. Now he works to supplement his superior grappling with a powerful wrestling game designed to transition from a single leg straight to the back.
LAST FIGHT W - Dec Jorge Masvidal
VERDICT: I’m having a tough time shaking the vision of Woodley possibly melting Maia as he comes into wrestle. It’s totally possible this is a first round knockout for Woodley. Giving me pause on that outcome is Woodley’s tendency to get caught with his back on the cage. That's exactly where Maia likes to get his takedowns, driving in on a single leg almost never expecting to finish it. Once on the cage, Maia looks to crawl onto your back, placing his first hook in. Everyone knows it's going to happen, yet no one can stop it. If Woodley gives Maia this opportunity over and over, there is a chance we can see a submission here, but if it goes into the 4th and 5th round I can’t see Maia's cardio lasting that long, especially with a shortened camp. It pains me to say it, but the most likely outcome here is Woodley by KO.

Women's Featherweight Cristiane Justino -1000 vs. Tonya Evinger +650
Cris “Cyborg” Justino is 32 years old, 17-1-1 in her career and 2-0 in her UFC career. Cyborg has fought her career between 140 and 150 lbs, bursting onto the scene with her knockout of Gina Carano in 2009, ending Carano's interest in MMA. Cyborg is a physical specimen, easily overpowering every woman she has fought in mixed martial arts. She is a bully in the clinch and looks to end fights early with powerful boxing that has become more technical over the years. She is a brown belt in Brazilian jui jitsu and has experienced success in submission grappling competition, though it has never made an appearance in the cage.
LAST FIGHT W - TKO Lina Lansberg
Tonya Evinger is 35 years old, 19-5-1 in her career and making her UFC debut, filling in for Megan Anderson. Evinger is the 135 lb invicta champ moving up in weight to fight Cyborg. She's has a well rounded game with basic kickboxing and great top game grappling. She started of her career with a paltry 9-5, losing to Carano, Alexis Davis twice, and Sara McMann before going on a 10 fight win streak to capture Invicta gold.
LAST FIGHT W - Submission RNC Yana Kunitskaya
VERDICT: Cyborg is too big, too strong, and too effective of a striker for anyone at 135 to contend with. However, Evinger is tough as nails and has a better wrestling and top game than most of the recent challenges for Cyborg. This won’t be competitive but it will be nice to see Cyborg have a tougher test than her last two opponents. I think Evinger is tough enough to make it to the 2nd round but that's where it ends. Cyborg by TKO.

Welterweight Robbie Lawler -160 vs. Donald Cerrone +130
Robbie Lawler is 35 years old, 27-11-1 in his career and 11-5 in his UFC run (initial and return). Lawler came out of the Militich fight camp in 2002 and was billed as a super prospect with great wrestling and heavy hands. He was famously knocked out by Nick Diaz in 2004, then submitted by the Late Evan Tanner in his subsequent fight before exiting the UFC at 8-3. For the next 8 years Lawler fought for a myriad of promotions at weights as high as 195. He found success in Elite XC but turned into sort of a journeymen fighter in Strikeforce, falling asleep in press conferences, fighting above his natural weight class, and turning in lackluster performances for a paycheck. When Strikeforce was absorbed by the UFC Lawler immediately dropped to 170 and took fighting seriously again, rattling off 3 straight victories before fighting for the title in a close loss to Johnny Hendricks. Lawler has developed into a modern sprawl and brawler with a tight combination boxing game and effect leg kicks. His defensive wrestling is some of the best at Welterweight.
LAST FIGHT L - KO Tyron Woodley
Donald Cerrone is 34 years old, 32-8-1 in his career and 25-8-1 in the WEC/UFC. Cerrone has a background in Kickboxing and Tae Kwon Do, and amassed a 28-0 kickboxing record before turning to MMA. Cerrone has always looked to employ his rangy kickboxing game in fights, but somewhere along the way he developed a slick ground game as well. To be a successful striker in MMA you either need excellent takedown defense or a threatening ground game. Cerrone chooses the latter.
LAST FIGHT L - TKO Jorge Masvidal
VERDICT: This is going to be an excellent tactical striking match up. Lawler has an issue with volume, so it's possible Cerrone can put points on the board throughout 3 rounds to come up with a Decision. I don't think that happens here though. Cerrone has struggled with pressure boxers like Rafael Dos Anjos and Nate Diaz, and I would argue he hasn't looked good since his Rick Story fight a year ago. I’m taking Lawler, assuming the time off has healed any injuries. He is going to have significant size on Cerrone, and although he doesn't exactly fit the mold of the pressure boxers Cerrone struggles with, he should be able to impose a similar game. Wildcard - does Cerrone try to wrestle here? I don't think so. Lawler by Dec.

Light Heavyweight Jimi Manuwa -205 vs. Volkan Oezdemir +165
Jimi Manuwa is 37 years old and 17-2 in his career, 6-2 in the UFC. A British prospect that came up through the London regional circuit via UCMMA, Manuwa was offered a UFC contract in 2010 but famously turned it down to get more experience. Like many successful fighters from England, Manuwa’s bread and butter is his striking. He employs a powerful rangy boxing game. He’s shown to be lacking in the wrestling department with subpar takedown defense and a mediocre jiu jitsu game. Wikipedia says he's a purple belt but I haven't seen much evidence in the cage to suggest even that's true.
LAST FIGHT W - KO Corey Anderson
Volkan Oezdemir is 27 years old and 14-1 in his Career, 2-0 in the UFC. He comes from a kickboxing background having a 5-0 record from fights in Switzerland. Oezdemir likes to overwhelm his opponents with a powerful striking game and has 10 KO/TKO wins. His lone loss came in Bellator to Kelly Anundson.
LAST FIGHT W - KO Misha Cirkunov
Fun fact, Oezdemir fought 3 times at heavyweight, and fought 3 times in 1 night in 2013, at a tournament in Denmark.
VERDICT: Oezdemir wont look to take Manuwa down here, and even if he does he has shown nothing to expect he has a competitive enough wrestling game to get past even Manuwas poor takedown defense. Look for this fight to take place on the feet, with Manuwa getting the better of the exchanges en route to a KO. Manuwa by KO.

PRELIMS 8 PM FXX
Featherweight Ricardo Lamas -135 vs. Jason Knight +105
Ricardo Lamas is 35 years old, 17-5 in his career, 12-5 in the WEC/UFC career. Lamas is a tough top game grappler boasted by his NCAA D3 wrestling credentials and a legit Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black belt. Lamas has developed a basic but effective muay thai game to supplement his brutal top game, but he still wants the fight on the ground. He works some of the best elbows from the top since Jon Jones turned hammels face into ground beef. His TKO win against Erik Koch was savage. Go watch it.
LAST FIGHT W - Sub Guillotine Charles Oliviera
Jason Knight, 25 years old with a 20-2 record, 4-1 in the UFC. Fights out of the Alan Belcher MMA club, he has a brown belt in brazilian jiu jitsu and likes to employ the rubber guard/mission control position. He is a tough, durable fighter who has never been stopped. Knight got by on aggression and active jiu jitsu in his early career before debuting in the UFC against Tatsuya Kawajiri. He lost that fight due to his comfortability on his back which is an issue for a lot traditional jiu jitsu fighters. Kawajiri took him down whenever he wanted, and Knight could not submit him (though he had a few good triangle attempts). Knight has fixed a few of his flaws and the best evidence of that is his Chas Skelly fight, which you should go watch right now if you haven't seen it. Knight was not content to fight from his back, pushing the action with his awkward striking, and using his wrestling and jiu jitsu to stay on top, or sweep from the bottom to get back on top and score.
LAST FIGHT W - TKO Chas Skelly
VERDICT: Knight is 10 years younger with a ton of momentum behind him. You can bet it's better for the UFC if he gets a win here, as Lamas is trending towards the end of his career. On one hand, its easy to say that Lamas can do the same things Kawajiri can to win this fight. On the other, Knight has improved since that loss and fights with a different sense of urgency. This is a great test for Knight, and the question here is do we get the Skelly fight, or the Kawajiri fight? I’m going with the former and taking Knight by a semi-surprising TKO. Knight via TKO.

Catchweight (140 lbs) Aljamain Sterling -135 vs. Renan Barão +105
Aljamain Sterling, 27 years old, 13-2 in his career, 5-2 in the UFC. Another great nickname, The Funk Master Flex. He has a background in wrestling and was a Two Time NCCA D3 all American. Sterling looks to get you down and get to your back.
LAST FIGHT W - Dec Augusto Mendes
Renan Barao is 30 years old with a 34-4-1 record in his career and 11-3 in the WEC/UFC. 39 fights and only 30 years old, the guy has MILES on his body. Barao came up through the Brazilian regional circuit which is known for padding fighters a bit like the American boxing scene. His first 23 opponents don't have a Wikipedia page sans Rony Jason. Barao was deemed as the best P4P fighter by Dana White after clearing out the bantamweight division. With sharp muay thai and slick jiu jitsu it was tough to see what Barao's weakness was. Enter TJ Dillashaw - a young, fast, athletic striker with power and good enough defensive wrestling to avoid Barao's lethal jiu jitsu. Barao appears to be moving out of his prime quicker than most fighters due to the miles on his body. He struggles with strong fast power punchers as we see in his loses to Dillawshaw and Stephens.
LAST FIGHT W - Dec Phillipe Nover
VERDICT. Aljamain Sterling is not TJ Dillashow or Jeremy Stephens. He doesn’t have the power striking to threaten Barao and unless Barao's jiu jitsu is far out of practice he should be in control of this fight. Also to note, this fight is being contested at catchweight of 140 lbs which should favor the Brazilian. Barao by Decision.

Featherweight Brian Ortega +110 vs. Renato Moicano -140
Brian Ortega (T-City) is 26 years old, 11-0 in his career, 3-0-1 in the UFC, a brazilian jiu jitsu black belt training under Rorion Gracie with Ryron, Rener, and Ralek. Love watching this guy’s ground game. The way he slapped on the triangle on Diego Brandao and isnta tapped him was a thing of beauty. He’s got an awkward striking style but its effective. His two knockout wins in the UFC come from him hurling elbows at a broken Thiago Taveres and winging knees at Clay Guidas face. He’s got a weird Yoel Romero tendency by finishing most of his fights in the 3rd round. He also has issues imposing his game. He was losing those Guida and Brandao fights until the finish which is concerning. One of these days he isn't going to be so fortunate to snatch that 3rd round finish and he’s going to lose a decision, which I assume is why the odds makers favor Moicano.
LAST FIGHT W - KO Clay Guida
Renato Moicano, 28 years old, 11-0 in his career, 3-0 in the UFC. Tall and long for the division, rangy striker with a solid submission game. Has his flaws as a fighter but one thing is for sure, he is a winner. He fought a tactical range kickboxing fight against Jeremy Stephens to get the win as a big underdog. He will definitely be looking to do the same here as he isn't going to want to contest Ortega on the ground.
LAST FIGHT W - Dec Jeremy Stephens
VERDICT: This might be a bit of a heart pick, but i’m going Ortega by submission. I trust his team to come up with a way to get this fight to the ground and stop Moicano from point fighting him to a decision like the Stephens fight. However, if Ortega is content to give away rounds on the feet like the Guida and Brandao fight this could easily result in a boring decision against him. Ortega by Submission.

Featherweight Andre Fili -335 vs. Calvin Kattar +255
Andre File is 27, 16-4 in his career, 4-3 in the UFC. Fights out of team alpha male and has an effective game as wrestle boxer. Fili strikes a little more than your average Alpha Male team member. Points for an awesome nickname - Andre “touchy” Fili.
LAST FIGHT - W Dec Hacran Dias
Calvin Kattar is 29 years old and 16-2 in his career, debuting in the UFC as a late replacement for Doo Hoo Choi. He's made a career out of being a decent striker with good boxing fundamentals. Most of his fights go to decision. Fun fact he has only fought twice since 2013.
LAST FIGHT - W Dec Chris Foster
VERDICT: Calvin looks to be a decent prospect with a good record, but there is a reason he is still not in the UFC at 16-2. Not exciting, nothing special, and two loses to mediocre talent. I'm also not impressed with his takedown defense, as he lets himself get backed up against the fence. Andre Fili has had some mental laspses in the UFC with his up and down record but he is still improving and has more than enough in the tank to beat someone like Calvin. Andre Fili by TKO after Kattar slowly realizes fili is better at everything he does well. Fili by TKO.

PRELIMS - FIGHT PASS - 6:30 PM EST
Women's Strawweight Kailin Curran +120 vs. Alexandra Albu -150
Aleksandra Albu is 27 years old, 2-0 in her career and 1-0 in the UFC. Has not fought since April of 2015! She was nursing injuries and is in her last year of university writing her thesis. Her background is in Karate (black belt) and Judo. She claims she has 4 fights in Thailand that are unofficial because they were in sketchy tournaments that were unrecorded. Totally Possible. She is an incredible athlete who bullies her opponents with a strong aggressive boxing game. She has no problem planting her feet and swinging away.
LAST FIGHT - W Sub Guillotine Izabela Badurek
Fun fact: UFC lists her at 6-0 but doesn't show her mysterious 4 Thailand fights on their website
Kailin Curran is 26 years old and 4-4 in her career but only 1-4 in her UFC run. She has a background in kickboxing and wrestling and is billed as a good athlete. She's an average all around fighter with less than stellar grappling. Half of her losses come by way of submission.
LAST FIGHT - L Dec Jamie Moyle
VERDICT: Albu hasn't fought in two years but shes still better everywhere than Kailin Curran, aside from maybe the clinch. She's a better athlete and more powerful striker. Albu by submission which probably gives curran her pink slip. Will be curious to see if Albu looks physically the same as she did in the Badurek win. Albu via Submission.

Flyweight Eric Shelton +135 vs. Jarred Brooks -165
Brooks is 24, 12-0, this is his first UFC fight. He has an awesome nickname - the monkey god. Brooks fights like a mini poor mans Chad Mendes. Short, stocky, winging punches and ends some combinations with a double leg. He is very aggressive. It will be interesting to see if he is as reckless in his UFC debut. Most beserker type fighters on the regional circuit come into the UFC a little more cautious and sometimes it hurts their style. Also worth noting Brooks is pretty tiny, at 5'3" and has fought at 115 before.
LAST FIGHT W - KO Jun Nakamura
Eric Shelton is 26, 10-3, 0-1 in the UFC but went 2-1 on TUF losing a majority decision to future winner Tim Elliot. Coached by Pete Spratt, very creative striker, good scrambler (as are most 125ers). Great Athlete.
LAST FIGHT L - Split Dec Alexandre Pantoja
VERDICT: This is a fight Eric Shelton should win on Paper. He's fought much MUCH better competition than Jared Brooks and has decent wrestling chops himself. However, Shelton has a problem exposing his back in fights, and also has an issue sitting back and waiting too long to counter, giving long periods of rounds away. Brook is a total unknown, but all his submission wins come by way of rear naked choke (with the exception of an arm triangle) which is a bad sign for Shelton who leaves his back open too much for my liking. Even if Brooks can’t get the finish, i’ll take him to win on points due to his volume and aggression. Brooks by Decision.

Lightweight Josh Burkman +230 vs. Drew Dober -300
Burkman is 37 years old, 28-15-1, but only 1-5-1 in his most recent UFC stint after going on an 8-1 tear on the regional circuit and famously choking out Jon Fitch in WSOF. Wants to be on top working his wrestling and top game grappling. Wrestled in highschool, 2nd place in state championships at 171 lbs. Lots of choke wins, favors guillotines.
LAST FIGHT L - Dec Michel Prazeres
Drew Dober 29 years old 17-8-1 in his career going 3-4-1 in his UFC run. He wants the fight on the feet due to his Muay Thai background (two time amateur world champion). Wrestled in highschool and has a purple belt in BJJ, though grappling is his weakness. He trains at team elevate with Matt Brown.
LAST FIGHT L- Submission RNC by Olivier Aubin-Mercier
VERDICT - I'll bet this fight resembles the Burkman vs Paul Felder fight. Burkman comes out strong and wins the first round, but gets tired. He wont be able to take Dober down in rounds 2 and 3 and I see him getting picked apart and losing striking exchanges. Dober did get choked out in his last fight but I don't think Burkman has quite the prowess on the ground as Mercier does. Dober wins a fairly uneventful 3 round decision. Dober by Decision.

Statistician here - would there be any interest in a paid MMA statistical betting model? Free picks for this weekend.

UFC 224 My Picks and Analysis

I have watched film on all of the fights and plays with explanations. I do not love the main card but do think there is real value in the fight pass prelims and regular prelims.
Alberto Mina +170 to beat Ramazan Emeev- Emeev is a Dagestani, he has 1 fight in the UFC which was at 185 against Sam Alvey who is a tough, slow, counter puncher with no offenisve wrestling or ability to attack from his back with Ju Jitsu. In that fight he looked strong and won a decision but his striking and movement were not particularly impressive and while he did take Alvey down a few times he didnt dominate him on the ground. That being said Alvey is tough and big and this guys shots were definitely bothering him. In this fight Emeev will fight at 170 for the first time. That 15 pounds is a hell of a lot and we will see how smart this Dagestani was about nutrition and gauging the cut and how much of his power and stamina he retains after putting his body through it. Again this is not a veteran, he has 1 fight in the UFC and is part of this Dagestani invasion. They are not known for utilizing nutritionists and the best possible weight cutting methods. Even at 185 his gas tank didnt seem great, he was visibly gassed in the third against, Alvey just couldnt take advantage as he was also gassed.
Mina is 13-0 and is fighting at his natural weight of 170. He is Brazilian and hasnt fought in 2 years in the UFC. Even when he was in the UFC and more active he was only fighting once a year so I dont think ring rust or the lay off really matters as this is a guy who has been taking long lay offs since 2010 or so and come back looking good in every fight. He has good striking/kicks and won his last fight with a flying knee knockout. He has a good Brazilian Jutisu game as well and has shown a good gas tank. He is older at 36 but with his fight pacing he has a lot less wear on his body than most 36 year old UFC fighters.
I see no reason for Mina to be a dog in this fight. Emeev was not impressive in his first fight in the UFC and is now dropping 15 pounds that he has never dropped before. His gas tank wasnt impressive, he didnt have a kick game, his punches were hard but he wasnt throwing combos or fighting behind his jab/moving like a high level striker. After round 1 he just pushed Alvey against the cage and got a couple take downs but didnt do anything with them. In Mina I think you get the better technical striker, better gas tank, better JuJitzu practitioner. He has worse wrestling but with his Jujitsu he could catch Emeev as he is untested against UFC level Jujitsu. Mina is undefeated and fighting at home where he has fought well. I used him as my dog in my parlays.
Jack Hermansson -150 over Thales Leites- This fight is at 185, Hermansson is 29 and Leites is 36, but an old 36 as he has a ton of fights in the UFC and a 27-8 record. Leites is tough, has high level Jut Jitsu, pretty good stand up and good wrestling. He has lost 4 of his last 6 going back to 2015 when drug testing started(all the Brazilians were juicing), granted his losses were all to pretty good competition. He is relatively slow and not that big for the 185 weight class. He is tough as fuck. He definitely wants this fight on the matt.
Hermansson is a Nordic fighter with unorthodox movement and striking. His base is wrestling and his wrestling is quite good. His top game is also good, I cant find any info on his Jujitsu, he did lose Cezar Fereirra by arm triangle choke in the 3rd round in 2016. He has a very good gas tank and will almost surely be the faster man in the cage. His losses have been to fighters that can really overpower him and Leites is not that guy at this point in his career. I think Leties is going to have a very hard time getting him down and even if he does get him down I dont think he will be ale to keep him there. On the feet I think Hermansson has the better technical striking and is the quicker fighter with the better gas tank which should result in a W. Hermansson is a a similiar fighter to Jotko who Leites lost to in Nov, 2016
Warley Alves -220 over Sultan Aliev- You gotta feel great about something to lay 220 and I legit feel great about this one. Alves is the far better striker, has the better gas tank and better submission game. His specialty is the Guillotine choke(3 UFC submission wins with it in his career) and Sultan, an old Russian wrestler with a shit gas tank and unimpressive striking leaves himself open for it in a real way. Sultan is 1-1 in the UFC and the victory was a split decision that was not the least bit impressive. Warlley has fought and beat some high level guys at 170(Covington,Joubain, Taleb) and his skills are superior in Sultans in just about every area. I think Alves has a real shot of knocking Sultan out and if he doesnt I think the odds he hits the Guillotine choke are very high. If neither of those happen Alves definitely has the better gas tank and more technical striking for the second and third round. Aliev probably doesnt belong in the UFC and is gonna get a whooping.
Junior Albini -125 over Aleksei Olneysik Heavyweight fight- Another Brazilian vs a Russian and I again got the Brazilian. Aleksei "the Boa Constrictor" Oleynik wants to brawl and try to choke you out. His footwork is some of the worst in the UFC, he just plants his feet and bends from the waist to try to avoid punches. His wrestling at heavyweight is not good as he basically always has the strength disadvantage and while he does have some power his shit footwork makes his striking far below average. Albini has a baby face and doesnt have great upper body strength but some thunderous legs. He is surprisingly agile and athletic for his weight and has good footwork. His kick and punch game are far superior to Aleksei's. He is also going to be the quicker man and better athlete. I just dont see Aleksei being able to effectively take him down and on the feet Aleksei will lose. Aleksei is a dinosaur on the way out, Albini is a solid up and coming fighter who should be able to knock Aleksei out.
Karl Roberson -155 over Cezar Fereirra- My favorite fight of the night. Roberson is going to be so much faster than Cezar in this fight. In Cezar's last fight he had a noticable speed disadvantage to Nate Marquardt, a 39 year old beefy guy with a wrestling background. Roberson is the more powerful fighter, he is the faster fighter by far, he is the better athlete, the more technical striker and the youngefresher fighter. Cezar is 12-6, pretty strong, good ground game, but pretty slow and he gases. Roberson's speed and power are going to overwhelm cezar. Roberson is a burgeoning star that nobody is talking about and I plan on riding his road to the top to my benefit. He has 2 UFC fights, both first round finishes, one from an amazingly placed and powerful short elbow to the jaw while the guy was trying to take him down. In his other fight the guy tried to take him down, he reversed it and threw the guy, took his back and choked him out. Robersons base is kick boxing but he has shown good wrestling and clearly trains Ju Jitsu.
E Zaleski -130 over Sean Strickland- Brazilian vs American. Strickland stands straight up and down and doesnt sit down on his punches to give them real power. He is a striker base and will have the disadvantage on the ground in this fight. Zaleski is powerful and on a 4 fight win streak in the UFC. Stricklands only loss in his last 5 was to a guy who is now a title contender and beast(Usman). Zaleski has very interesting kicks with a Capoiera base and I think in this fight will be the more powerful striker, the quicker man and if it goes to the ground the more dangerous of the 2. Stricklands offensive wrestling is poor, he has a good jab but he doesnt fight behind it effectively and his technique and power are not there. He can definitely win this fight but I think Zaleski has the better ground game, better kicks, more powerful strikes and will be the faster man. This is my least confident pick.
I max bet Roberson, Albini, Alves, Hermansson and then put smaller bets on Mina and Zaleski and also used all 5 in a variey of parlays, mostly using the Mina +170 to make the parlays attractive. I killed the Kevin Lee and Khabib cards and dhad a bad Porier card if you want to know my recent streak.
I wont bet the other fights unless Im slaying it, if I do here is who Ill take Ramos Kelleher Gastelum Pennington(I really dont think she will win but +400 is probably too much by like 100 points)

Top Ten MMA Fighters You Should Build A Shrine To

Disclaimer : This isn't an orignal work. It was lifted entirely from a Middleeasy article. I just put it in text format because, if you click the link, you'll realise that it's completely messed up. The headliners & the text following them are a mismatch. Also, some links are broken. Just wanted to make it easier for the readers.

Somewhere deep within an ashram in Tibet, a corner of a room has been sectioned off to pay homage to a handful of truly unique MMA fighters. We’re not talking about the obvious here. Guys like Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre and Fedor already have their respective cult following. They no longer need our spiritual guidance. This section of the room in this undisclosed ashram is dedicated to a group of guys (and girls) that took the MMA world by the scrotum, gave it a firm yank and then raided our fridge as we all rolled around our living room floor in excruciating pain.
Only a select few deserve their own effigy constructed out of spare plywood, leftover Christmas decorations and half-empty cans of spray paint. I present to you ‘The Top Ten MMA Fighters You Should Build A Shrine To’ only at MiddleEasy.com – Because MMA is everything.
Michelle Waterson
Whatever you do, try not to let your girlfriend know Michelle Waterson exists. If you have bikini photos of her, don’t hide them in a folder on your desktop called ‘Work’. If you do have a potpourri of Michelle Waterson pics under a folder on your desktop called ‘Work’, don’t hand over your laptop to your girlfriend and disclose your Windows login password. If your girlfriend finds these photos, she will threaten to smash your laptop against a hampster cage and kick you out of her apartment. You will then have to hop on the nearest train and book a hotel for the rest of the night (everything about that story is true).
We can all agree that Michelle Waterson is beyond hot. That’s already an established fact humanity has come to accept like…the Lakers are the most dominate team in the NBA history or Kimbo Slice is already a UFC champion. It’s not even debatable. The only thing the world needs to see is more of Michelle ‘The Karate Hottie (that’s her real nickname)’ Waterson. She holds a record of 6-3 and she trains out of Greg Jackson’s camp, the same guy responsible for the equally hot Julie Kedzie (yum) and Georges St. Pierre (hot only if you’re a chick…or a Mets fan). Her last fight, she chalked up an ‘L’ to Elena Reid last April which inevitably turned out to be the hottest fight in MMA history. Before that, Waterson grabbed a ‘W’ against Tyra Parker (she’s cute too, they’re all cute).
I woke up in a frenzy this morning thinking about Michelle Waterson. If aliens landed on the White House lawn right now it still wouldn’t be as exciting as knowing that Michelle Waterson mounts other chicks in the cage…with hot pants on. If you’re still not convinced that you should raid your local Home Depot to build a shrine to Waterson, just Google her and make sure your girlfriend isn’t standing over your shoulder (double check just to make sure, trust me).
Here’s a little blueprint to get your shrine started. No, that wasn’t some sexual innuendo.

Beau Taylor
Ah man, the story of OMA. If you were alive on July 21st 2009, you probably remember waking up to the news that Kimo Leopaldo died of a heart attack in Costa Rica. TMZ picked up on the report and the New York Post quickly followed. Within a couple of hours, the entire MMA world gave their condolences to the Leopaldo family in a variety of blog posts, news articles and guys that still proclaim if Royce Gracie fought Kimo again, Royce would lose. It took Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports several tries to eventually get a hold of Kimo Leopaldo on the phone in which he replied with:

‘I knew I wasn’t dead, so when I was reading this I wondered if I was jinxed or something was going to happen
‘It was really strange. I was surprised at how nasty it was. I guess it wasn’t a good thing. I’ve always had strange things written about me but nothing this bizarre. I couldn’t believe it when I searched for my name and I wrote in ‘Kimo Leopoldo’ and it added the word ‘death.’’

His publicist press released a statement that Kimo was in fact not dead, but just sleeping. The next day, dude even held his very own ‘Look people, I’m alive’ press conference.
And the guy behind it? Undefeated mixed martial artist Beau ‘One Man Army ™’ Taylor. Hold up, it gets even more bizarre.
Shortly after the incident happened, Beau Taylor spoke with TheSmokingGun.com about how he duped the entire MMA world. Everyone needs to read this TSG report in its entirety because it will be the funniest thing you will read today (regardless of current time or location).

JULY 22–The fabricated claim yesterday about the purported death of a former Ultimate Fighting Championship star was the handiwork of a self-described “Internet troll” with a “weird mind.” Beau Taylor, a 31-year-old Oklahoma man, created a thread on a popular mixed martial arts (MMA) web site reporting that Kimo Leopoldo had died in Costa Rica of a heart attack. Taylor told TSG that he selected Leopoldo as the subject of the hoax in light of the fighter’s arrest earlier this year on drug charges. “I thought it would be a good fit,” said Taylor. The fabricated account of Leopoldo’s death leapt beyond MMA web sites and bulletin boards when TMZ.com reported yesterday afternoon that it had “confirmed” the 41-year-old athlete’s demise (this confirmation was presumably delivered by one of the gossip site’s paid sources). The erroneous story was later yanked from the site, which is now batting .500 on recent death exclusives. For his part, Taylor’s eventful week has also included a public intoxication arrest. He was busted early Sunday morning after security officers at a shopping center found him passed out in his car with the engine running, with “an open container of beer in the center console,” according to a Tulsa Police Department report. Cops noted that Taylor reeked of alcohol and had difficulty standing. “Taylor said that he had left his house intoxicated in order to buy cigarettes,” noted cops, who reported that Taylor said he had consumed three glasses of wine and six beers. Asked about his beaming mug shot, seen below, Taylor spoke of trying to strike the right booking photo balance: “You know, I didn’t want to look like Nick Nolte,” he said. “Or that I was too happy to be arrested.”

For his antics, Beau Taylor was banned from The UG (the forum in which he created the hoax) but his account was later reinstated just for the sheer rawesomeness of his trolling ability. OMA even created a parody of Kimo Leopaldo’s press conference where he claimed Kimo was still deceased and the previous Kimo press conference was just a hoax. Besides becoming an internet legend over night, OMA also claims he is the World Champion of the American Southwest (dude does have a belt) and is currently recovering from an injury that has sidelined him for much of 2009. You can find Oma/Beau Taylor still doing his thing on The UG to this day. Have fun with that.

Din Thomas
Raise your hand if you’ve operated an unsanctioned, underground fight club entirely in your gym in Palm Springs, Florida. If your name isn’t Din Thomas then you should slap yourself in the face and give me everything in your kitchen (including that six-pack you bought for this weekend). Din Thomas is the friggin man. I know that expression is used more than ‘Machida is elusive’, but it’s true. Din Thomas is the friggin man. Who else has a DVD where they teach you 1,001 submissions in a 52 volume set. I bet you didn’t even know the human body was capable of 1,001 submissions (it’s cool, I didn’t either). When Chris Brown was accused of assaulting Rhianna earlier this year, Din Thomas got on the mic after his win over Gabe Lemey and called out Chris Brown. Dude announced in front of an audience of drunk fans that it was wrong to beat chicks and if Rhianna ever needed his assistance, he would readily be available. See, I told you Din Thomas is truly the friggin man.
We ran into Din when we covered The Ultimate Chaos, we even took pictures of him in his undies. His opponent was supposed to be Javier Vasquez but due to some incompetent confusion, he wasn’t allowed to fight (matter of fact, no one really knows exactly what happened). But let’s get back to the underground fight club Din Thomas operated in his gym in Florida…
Din Thomas constructed a full size UFC octagon at his American Top Team gym and charged admission to a crowd of over 150 heads. Din Thomas was later arrested and managed to post a $10,000 bail to be released from prison.
Shine Fights has signed Din Thomas to an exclusive contract along with the former WBC and WBA welterweight champion, Ricardo Mayorga. When Din got word of Mayorga’s signing he issued the following statement:

”Ricardo Mayorga just signed to fight in Shine. I think he is afraid of me. If he does accept the fight I will put him into retirement and send him back to his fruit stand in Nicaragua. He will be wearing a straw hat, smoking cigarettes, and selling bananas once and for all. This is MMA and I will beat him standing or on the ground. I will let him pick how he wants to lose his first MMA fight.”

Dude got his wish. Shine Fights has slated Ricardo Mayorga’s first MMA bout to be against the same guy who defeated Clay Guida, Matt Serra, Rich Clementi and Jens Pulver. Good luck Ricardo.

Koji Oishi
Out of the many people that have crossed Nick Diaz’s path (in or out of a hospital in Las Vegas), Koji Oishi definitely gets the award for being the most desperately inventive. Dude had a plan unlike any MMA fighter out there. He was a visionary. Koji Oishi was ahead of his time. If we went back 300 million years, Koji Oishi would be that one fish who tried to walk on the beach but failed miserably and died of suffocation. Charles Darwin would have been proud of Koji Oishi. To avoid getting punched in the face, most MMA fighters would either dodge or block with their forearms. Not Koji Oishi. In fact, if Oishi got a hold of your gameplan he would urinate on it and right hook it into the ground.
Koji Oishi gave the saying ‘a good defense is a strong offensive’ an entirely new meaning. On June 4th 2005, Oishi’s trainer convinced him to execute the most awkward and impossible defense in UFC history. Instead of blocking and dodging strikes, Koji Oishi was instructed to intercept Nick Diaz’s fist with his own. Koji Oishi believed that if he were to punch Nick Diaz’s fist as Diaz threw a strike at him, he would create enough force to break Diaz’s hand. We’re serious.

Bobby Green
On January 24th 2009, the world was introduced to a guy from Riverside Submission Camacho MMA team that had an impressive record of 7-1 (with all eight fights occurring in 2008). On two weeks notice he made his PPV debut on one the biggest cards of 2009: ‘Affliction: Day of Reckoning” (RIP). While you were contracting a staph infection from training your Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Bobby Green was busy thwarting gang turf wars with his fighting style. The fact that Bobby Green’s fighting style is categorized as: “Hood” should be enough for you to sacrifice a few goats in his honor.
Just before Bobby Green walked out to the ring, dude was so preoccupied with jumping in the stands and dancing amongst the crowd that he missed his walk-out cue. Affliction ended up announcing his name before his intro video was shown on the monitors at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Bobby hopped down from the stands, ran back-stage to redo his entrance but it was too late. Everyone was going nuts and Bobby Green had already premature ejaculated his entrance. It’s ok, we’ve all done it before.
Once Bobby Green’s bout with Dan Lauzon ensued, we all realized what fighting style: ‘Hood’ entailed. Essentially it meant kicking a guy in the testicles three times in the first round. Big John wasn’t officiating the fight but he said the first groin shot didn’t even land but the other two were fair game. After the first testicle punt, Bobby Green rested on the ropes, looked at the crowd and the camera caught Green saying ‘Oh sh__ it’s Oscar De La Hoya…and Donald Trump’.
Unfortunately ‘Hood’ couldn’t keep Bobby from being submitted by Joe Lauzon’s brother. With five seconds left in the first round, Bobby was caught with a rear-naked-choke that forced him to tapout. Bummer. Dude still pocketed a cool $4,000 which he probably used to further improve his ‘hood technique’ (compared to Andrei Arlovski who made $1,500,000 for not listening to Freddie Roach’s gameplan).

Charles 'Krazy Horse' Bennett
Krazy Horse is better than your favorite MMA fighter. Alright, maybe not better but astronomically more entertaining. If the entire MMA world were condensed to Marvel comic cliches, dude would undoubtedly be Deadpool. Damn, that was pretty friggin nerdy. I hope that chick I met at [insert name of Gentleman’s club I was too drunk too remember] didn’t just read that. If a place is called a ‘Gentleman’s Club’, it really just means that you’re going to be searched at the door and charged $15 for a Bud Light. Watching Krazy Horse’s old Pride Bushido fights is stuff of legends. Dude plays to the camera, loves his audience and is known to never train prior to any MMA match. 21 of his 40 fights have occurred at King of the Cage so it’s safe to say he’s like a demigod over there. His knockout of KJ Noons (and subsequent freakishly high back-flip) at EliteXC earned him a spot on CagePotato’s Eight Most Insane Victory Celebrations of All Time. In an interview with MMAJunkie (via Fightlinker), Krazy Horse says that he had to change his name to ‘Kid Khaos’ in order to calm his image and be a role model.

Long known as one of the more unusual – and, at times, skilled – fighters in MMA, Bennett is looking to reinvent his character. He’s a father now, he says, so he needs to be a role model.
He’s training, committing himself to the sport, cleaning up his image and hopefully heading into the best part of his career….That includes a move from Krazy Horse (and all that character entails) to Kid Khaos, who, despite the name, is meant to be calmer and more controlled than his former incarnation.

Yeah, we didn’t think it made sense either which, of course, makes it exponentially better. If Krazy Horse isn’t one of your favorite fighters, then you’re just lying to yourself.
Looking up Krazy Horse’s arrest record is like opening up one of those little Russian Matryoshka dolls. Every account of Krazy Horse being arrested usually has ‘again’ in the title. As of June 27th 2007, Krazy Horse has amassed a collection of twenty separate mugshots. We’re not sure whether Krazy Horse immediately stopped doing illegal activity in 2007 or perhaps he just stopped getting caught. Maybe this Kid Khaos transformation is working after all. But before you start building your shrine to Krazy Horse, you need to check out this video of him rushing Cristiano Marcello, a member of the Chutebox Academy, after an entire evening of ragging on Wanderlei Silva. Dude gets some good blows in but Marcello eventually triangle chokes Krazy Horse into the next dimension.

Harold Howard
Harold Howard lived in a different time. If this were the 1400s, dude would be pillaging villages and sloppily drinking wine from the skulls of lions. The general population just couldn’t fully understand Harold Howard. He was too raw for his own good. On December 22th 2009, Harold Howard intentionally drove his flatbed truck directly through the entrance of the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Canada. Police have now charged Harold with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a weapon, attempted break and enter, fail to remain, flight from police, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, mischief and two counts of breach of recognizance. Dude racked up 11 charges in one nutty vehicular escapade (luckily nobody was severely injured or killed).
People shouldn’t be surprised at this behavior. Back in 1994, Harold Howard issued a general warning to anyone that dare venture in his vicinity: ‘If you’re coming on, then come on!‘ (but be sure to take off your sunglasses before you do).
But let’s get to the meat of exactly why Harold Howard is ranked number four on our Top Ten MMA Fighters You Should Build A Shrine To. It’s not his 2-3 career MMA record and it’s not the fact that he was ‘technically’ the first person to beat Royce Gracie. It’s because of the friggin scissor kick that refuses to go away after over 15 years of endlessly being replayed. In the UFC 3 finals, a fresh Steve Jennum replaced the worn and highly discouraged Ken Shamrock. Apparently Ken wanted to avenge his UFC 1 loss to Royce but upon hearing the news that Royce’s corner actually threw in the towel at the beginning of his Harold Howard bout (due to exhaustion from fighting Kimo Leopaldo), Ken Shamrock decided to drop out of the UFC 3 tournament.
To open up his final UFC 3 match against Scott Jennum, Harold decided to do something that has still puzzled virtually everyone who has ever watched the footage. In short, Harold does a scissor kick that completely misses his opponent. Realistically, if he would have landed the kick, the damage would have been minimal and left Howard vulnerable on his back. Maybe he was just in the moment or just ecstatic that he made it so far in the tournament. Whatever inspired Harold to execute this infamous scissor kick has inspired a new generation to basically bite and perfect Harold’s style.
And of course Tom Lawlor’s UFC Fight Night 20 weigh-in entrance where he pulled off the scissor kick garbed in authentic Harold Howard regalia.

Lee Murray
Jason Statham is like a substitute teacher version of Lightning Lee Murray. In 2006, dude kidnapped a bank manager and forced his way into what was supposed to be a high-security bank. Not like Bank of America or Well’s Fargo…we’re talking about the ones that have red lasers everywhere and can only be penetrated by Catherine Zeta Jones doing backflips in tight spandex. This bank was like one of those you would see in a cartoon with a 600lb diamond guarded by Elmer Fudd. Apparently, they hired Warner Bros security because Murray, along with a few of his buds robbed the bank of $96,000,000.00. $96,000,000.00! The dude must have been drinking whatever Bernard Madoff had that morning. It was the biggest bank heist in history. After knocking off the bank, the dude fled to Morocco and claimed citizenship because his father was born there. Authorities couldn’t do a single thing about it. Dude just masterminded and got away with just about enough money to satisfy my ex-girlfriend. He was enjoying a ballerish lifestyle until the police arrested him for having bricks of cocaine in his pad which (probably) broke local laws. Note to anyone stealing $96,000,000.00…try not to give a reason for the police to arrest you and take your loot. Don’t trespass, look both ways when you cross the street and try not to litter. The cops recovered all but $50,000,000.00 of his bank heist profits (which is practically like not recovering any) and threw him in jail. Lee Murray was somehow was released from prison on the claims that he was ‘a citizen of Morrocco’. What? That makes about as much sense as Clay Guida pretending to be human. We’re assuming the dude threw some cash their way and, as you read this, he’s sipping dirty martinis on a bear skin rug in his villa. War Lee Murary.
Now the director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain and The Wrestler is slated to direct a movie based on Lee Murray’s life. Besides the above mentioned rawesomeness, Murrary also had open heart surgery that took seven hours to complete. Dude had no heart for seven hours. Of course this was due to a knife puncturing his left lung, coming out the other side and lodging right into his heart. Oh, and on top of all that…he was knifed twice in the head on a separate incident and survived. Breaking news, the role of Lee Murray is going to be played by Shia Labeouf. Just kidding, let’s not let ‘suck’ enter this movie.

Walid Ismail
You can’t call yourself a true MMA fan if you’re not familiar with Wallid Ismail and his beef with Ryan Gracie which has perhaps given the MMA world the greatest sound bite ever. In a time when the Gracies were running things in the jiu-jitsu game, Wallid Ismail stepped up and defeated Royce Gracie, Ralph Gracie and Renzo Gracie. Then in 1999, the feud began. In November of 1999, Ryan Gracie agreed to fight Wallid Ismail in WEC on Janurary 2000 so he moved to New York to train with Renzo Gracie. Wallid Ismail had to pull out of the fight because he was on the verge of signing off on another fight with Pride FC sometime early in 2000. The Pride FC contract fell through and Wallid signed on to the WEC fight with only six weeks notice but Ryan Gracie suddenly dropped out of their bout. In December of 1999, both fighters unexpectedly met at PePe beach and nearly scrapped on the sand and a few days later Ryan came to Wallid Ismail’s gym to confront him. Dude constantly reached into his fanny pack (yeah, 10 years ago people still rocked fanny packs) and threatened to pull a gun on Wallid (later it was discovered dude didn’t have a gun in his fanny pack). Wallid Ismail backed down and Ryan Gracie eventually left the gym.
On October 2000, Wallid Ismail and Ryan Gracie crossed paths at the after party for the Bad Boy fashion show in Brazil. The reports are a little cloudy, but the general consensus is that Ryan Gracie and a few dudes snuck up on Wallid Ismail and caught him off guard. Wallid’s boys eventually jumped in and the fight ended with Wallid Ismail guillotine choking Ryan Gracie.
The next year, Wallid Ismail and Ryan Gracie agreed to fight on a WEC card that was planned for April 2001. Everything was good until Ryan Gracie was arrested after stabbing a man in a bar fight in February, needless to say…he dropped out again from the Wallid Ismail fight. Unfortunately, Ryan Gracie died in a jail cell in Brazil from an apparent overdose so the MMA world will never get to see an official Wallid Ismail vs. Ryan Gracie showdown (one that didn’t happen in a bar at least).
However, we are blessed with two of the greatest interviews of all time…both of which belong to Wallid Ismail. If you’re drinking milk, be warned that it will immediately eject out of your nose after listening to these interviews.
If your neck hasn’t exploded in laughter at the previous interview, check out Stephen Quadros bringing up the one name that is guaranteed to get Ismail heated. Got to love it.

Genki Sudo
However cool you think you are, Genki Sudo has exceeded everything you’ve ever accomplished in your life and he did it with a synchronized team of Japanese dancers riding shotgun. Genki Sudo is the living embodiment of everything you’ve ever wanted to accomplish in your life manifested in the body of a 16-4-1 fighter. Genki has only been stopped once in his career and it was by the stand-up of Kid Yamamoto. That was back when Kid was pound for pound the best in MMA, since he left his wife…dude can’t get a win.
Genki Sudo retired at the age of twenty-seven solely because he wanted to transition to the 4th dimension. Genki said that he was finished fighting in the 3rd dimension and his next ‘fight’ would take place on a mental/spiritual plane in the 4th dimension. However, Genki stated that he would have to reside in the 3.5th dimension in order to effectively get his message across. His message is simply: We are all one.
It’s actually not as simple as you may think. In his documentary, Genki Sudo breaks down his message and says that we all exist in exactly the same moment. The perception of past and future is merely an illusion. If one makes too many plans in the future, a portion of their present ‘self’ is lost in an unobtainable moment. Of course, if one chooses to focus on their past ‘self’, their present ‘self’ will never be fully realized. Genki stresses living in the moment and to rely as little as possible on material objects. In fact, the physical world prevents Genki Sudo from fully transitioning into the 4th dimension.
Genki has said his greatest accomplishment in MMA was his K-1 – Premium Dynamite!! submission of Butterbean back in 2003. Despite being outweighed by 260lbs, Genki managed to dive in Butterbean’s general direction and grab a heel hook only forty-one seconds in the second round.
Call him the ‘Neo-Samurai’ or the the ‘Transforming Trickster’, Genki Sudo is by far the most shrine worthy person who has ever graced the MMA world. He’s the author of eight philosophy books and even manages his own amateur baseball league for players over thirty. Genki Sudo also has a role in the pseudo sci-fi film entitled ‘The R246 Story‘ and that is why you should raid your garage for spare materials to construct a shrine for Genki Sudo.
Check out the first part of Genki Sudo’s documentary just because I love all of you so much. We are truly one.

Antonio Inoki Career Retrospective (April 13, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

It's time to do some memory exercises.
Over the past 15-20 years, think of all the wrestler who have had elaborate retirement matches and ceremonies.
Bruno Sammartino, Verne Gagne, Terry Funk, Chigusa Nagayo, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, Lioness Asuka, Devil Masami, Jaguar Yokota, Dump Matsumoto, Atsushi Onita, Ricky Steamboat, Riki Choshu, Fritz Von Erich, Jacques Rougeau Jr., Bison Kimura, Akira Hokuto, Dynamite Kid, Konnan, Satoru Sayama, Blue Demon, Bill Watts, Rayo de Jalisco, Animal Hamaguchi and Hiroshi Hase all come to mind. Even Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart teased it.
I'll bet you know where this is going. How many of these wrestlers actually never wrestled again after having major retirement matches? The answer is two--Dump Matsumoto and Riki Choshu, and being that Choshu just retired in January, it's probably too soon to put the plant the rubber stamp for keeping his word on his forehead.
The truth of the matter is, old wrestling superstars have emotional ceremonies to major fanfare for retirements like the superstars in real sports. They may have those farewells, but they always come back, either living off their fading names until they disappear to no fanfare long after all but their most loyal fans wouldn't care any longer. Or many years after their big retirement, they have their final match in an unknown town to little fanfare and just do a slow fade from the scene and are never heard about again. Or they become like Arn Anderson or Paul Orndorff, where they suffer injuries so severe that they simply can't come back.
Some of the aforementioned wrestlers were actually sincere in their original retirements, but got talked out of it for business reasons, some probably wishing they hadn't been. Some were retired by their companies for political reasons, and when politics changed, they came back. But for most, the retirements were another wrestling con designed to draw money for their companies, and in some cases, attention to themselves, with plans already on the table for how to bring them back while counting on wrestling fans' short-term memories. Some, like Gagne, came back so many times that it was considered a bad joke. Others, like Dynamite Kid, were so badly banged up from wrestling wars that they retired at a young age, and whatever comebacks there were due to injuries were so sad that most fans have erased them from their memories. Perhaps Roddy Piper really believed he was walking away on top to go into the movies and would never need to return, only to return 1,000 times. Others probably retired specifically to set up eventual coming out of retirement angles. With every name there is probably a different story and a different reason. But it does say something that of out of 26 names listed above, only two, and one is too soon to say anything for any certainty, actually never came back.
Which brings us to the biggest retirement party of all-time, on 4/4 at the Tokyo Dome for Antonio Inoki. With the possible exception of Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, Inoki was arguably the biggest wrestling star of the generation, maybe bigger if only because he spanned many different generations. Without question he was the most influential wrestler of the modem era. His career as an active wrestler theoretically came to an end before a crowd that was announced as an all-time record for any event in the Tokyo Dome of 70,000 fans paying approximately $7 million and approximately $2.6 million in merchandise (including sales of 30,000 programs at $20; which may have also set another all-time pro wrestling record of $37.14 per head in merchandise) and combined with the television rights would put the one day figure well in excess of $10 million. The 70,000 figure has to be taken with a grain of salt because you simply can't put that many people in that building, but it was a legitimate sellout. The show broke the Japanese records set for the Keiji Muto vs. Nobuhiko Takada Tokyo Dome match on October 9, 1995 of 67,000 tickets and all-time pro wrestling records of a $6.1 million live gate and $2 million in merchandise.
Or his career may have come to an end. Or just shot its biggest one-day angle in an event that received worldwide publicity enroute to Inoki moving to the United States and coming back as the spiritual leader of a new promotion called UFO (Ultimate Fighting Arts Organization).
That was largely due to the presence of one man. Muhammad Ali. The world's most famous athlete during his time and perhaps of all time. The man who 22 years earlier had a horrible, yet legitimate match against Inoki, that as memories have faded, has been romanticized into being legendary and in hindsight was of incredible historical importance. Ali, on the stage at the ring entrance, lit a symbolic torch and handed it to Inoki, as he ran to the ring, symbolizing the Ali Olympic torch ceremony for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, for his "final" match of his 38 year-career against former UFC star Don "The Predator" Frye. Just 4:09 later, in a filling end for Inoki's career, Frye lost to the cobra twist. It was the same move that a generation of Japanese who grew up in the 60s, many of whom returned as pro wrestling fans just for this night and packed the Dome and likely a huge audience on television two nights later, had witnessed Inoki using to beat the baddest pro wrestlers of that era and so many other eras that all put together it seemed like an eternity. In doing so, he achieved a level of popularity that few athletes in the world on any level have ever achieved, and even fewer having never actually legitimately won at a high level of competitive sports.
Ali was the biggest name invited to "The Inoki final" and the one that got the event in USA Today and on CNN. Among others introduced at the show, most of whom were involved in the ceremony after the main event which included a ten bell salute to Inoki's career, were Michiaki Yoshimura, Inoki's tag learn partner in the late 60s as All Asian tag team champions; Kokichi Endo, one of the pioneers of Japanese wrestling who was Rikidozan's lag learn partner in 1956 when they won a version of the World tag learn titles from the Sharpe Brothers; Killer Khan, a huge former sumo wrestler named Masashi Ozawa who was billed as a Mongolian giant in pro wrestling and best known for a feud in the early 80s in both the United States and Japan with Andre the Giant; Bob Backlund, the three-time WWF champion who had famous matches bolh learning with and facing Inoki; Jeff Blatnick, the 1984 Olympic gold medal winning super-heavyweight Greco-roman wrestler best known by pro wrestling fans now as the announcer for the UFC; Eric Bischoff; Willem Ruska, the two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo who was the first world champion from another fighting art to put Inoki over; along with Japanese wrestling superstars Animal Hamaguchi, Genichiro Tenryu, Akira Maeda, Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu and Seiji Sakaguchi.
A book can be written about the life and career of Inoki. Many already have. He was born February 20, 1943 in Yokohama as Kanji Inoki, the tenth of 11 children born to Saijiro and Fumiko Inoki. After his father died when he was young, his mother, grandfather and three brothers migrated to Brazil when he was 13 years old where he became a schoolboy track star. After the word got out about a Japanese native who captured the Brazilian national high school championships in both the shol put and discus in 1959, his name came to the attention of Rikidozan (Milsuhiro Momola), who was not only Japan's first but to this day the country's biggest pro wrestling superhero. And behind the scenes, Rikidozan maintained his position because he was also the man running the company's only major wrestling office, the NWA affiliated Japanese Wrestling Association. Rikidozan brought Inoki back to Japan in early 1960, where he was trained, alongside a 6-foot-9 Japanese league baseball pitcher named Shohei Baba, to perhaps a decade down the line be the new wrestling heroes when it was time for him to step down. And as legend has it, Inoki, after leaving Brazil, never saw his mother again.
Rikidozan died three years later in a gangland style murder which left the wrestling industry in that country not only shattered by the shocking death of its biggest star, but a fan base shattered even more when the death revealed the strong mob lie-ins to the wrestling industry. Most of the major arenas would no longer even book pro wrestling due to its unsavory image. A few years later, built around Giant Baba, the JWA began its recovery. Inoki, known at the time by his real name of Kanji Inoki, the better athlete and wrestler of the two, became frustrated with his position. Inoki, along with Hisashi Shinma and Toyonobori, the perennial No. 2 Japanese star in IWA backing up first Rikidozan and later Baba, in late 1966 formed the first major rival group to JW A called Tokyo Pro Wrestling. The younger Inoki became its top star after winning a version of the United States heavyweight title from Johnny Valentine at Osaka Baseball Stadium. The group lasted less than one year, and after folding, Inoki went back to JWA, this time as a top star. On his first night back in JWA, on May 26, 1967, he teamed with Yoshimura to win the vacant All-Asian tag team titles in an elimination match from Fritz Von Erich & Ike Eakins. But the All-Asian belts, which he held for most of his JWA stay, were really just small potatoes in comparison to his legendary tag team with Baba.
The 1967-71 period was considered one of the all-time peaks of the Japanese wrestling business with almost nightly sellouts and network prime time telecasts every Friday and Monday night, usually with Baba & Inoki working on top as a tag team beating the biggest names from North America such as Gene Kiniski & Valentine, Fritz & Waldo Von Erich, Crusher & Dick the Bruiser, The Funks, Wilbur Snyder & Danny Hodge and Bruno Sammartino & Ray Stevens. While they maintained a lock on the International tag team titles, it was Baba who was the main singles star, holding the International heavyweight title and beating the top foreigners in the big singles match every tour. Inoki's reputation as a wrestler grew with one of the legendary matches in Japan mat history on December 2, 1969 in Osaka as be went to a (J():OO draw in challenging Dory Funk Jr. for the NWA world heavyweight title. A second title match against Funk on August 2, 1970 in Fukuoka also ended in a 60:00 draw. But as always seems to happen in wrestling when business gets too good, things start unravelling.
lnoki, unhappy about being second banana to Baba, got himself his own singles championship belt as the JW A created the United National championship title, which, to give it credibility, was actually set up in the Los Angeles promotion in late 1970, and pushed for about five months until Inoki came to the famed Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 26, 1971 and won the title from John Tolos, and then brought it back to Japan so he could defend his own singles title in main events against the top foreigners. At the same time, Inoki wanted to work a singles program against Baba, but the JW A promoters were traditionalists and the main events at that time were always Japanese vs. Foreigner and thus his idea was turned down. At the same time, Inoki & Baba got together to attempt to rally all the wrestlers to take over the promotion from President Junzo Hasegawa (who had taken over the company after the death of Rikidozan). This coup initially failed. At the same time, lnoki had his first of three marriages, to a famous Japanese actress named Mitsuko Baisbo, in an almost lady Di wedding of the sports star and famed actress, which Inoki claimed the company had agreed to pay for. While this was going on, Inoki and Shinma were also secretly talking about starting up their own group. Perhaps as punishment since the promotion knew the situation with Inoki was shaky, Baba & Inoki suddenly dropped their International tag team titles to the Funk Brothers on December 7, 1971, a strange result given that Dory was still world champion. A few days later was the scheduled third Dory vs. Inoki world title match at the old Osaka Prefectural Gym, the same site as their legendary match two years earlier. At 5 p.m. that day, the word reached the dressing room that Inoki wasn't going to be there. Inoki had already picked up a reputation for coming up with reasons to no-show matches that he was scheduled to lose and bad avoided doing jobs to drop titles with a frequency unmatched in pro wrestling until Shawn Michaels. What was exactly the real story, or if it was a combination of stories, Inoki was fired with allusions being made it was for crimes against the promotion, believed to have been the fallout of the coup and the company sending a strong message but at the same time protecting Baba, its top star. This left Inoki with a massive wedding bill, leaving him heavily in debt. Six weeks later, Inoki and Shinma held a press conference to announce the formation of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
As it turned out, Baba also quit JWA the next year, forming All Japan Pro Wrestling, and with the help of Dory Funk Sr., got the NWA recognition from JWA which meant connections to almost a monopoly of the top foreign talent and Baba secured a television contract with Nippon TV, a relationship that continues to this day. The WWWF had quietly rejoined the NWA in 1971, while Gagne's AWA, the other major American federation at the time, already bad a business arrangement with a smaller Japanese promotion called the IWE, basically freezing New Japan out of most of the top name American talent. Inoki and Shinma formed New Japan in early 1972, short on both money and talent, but succeeded because they were long on promotional creativity.
They brought In Karl Gotch, a renegade pro wrestler who had a reputation as being the legitimately toughest man in the business. Gotch, who was a good enough amateur that be wrestled in the Olympic games, and then learned submissions in England to where he was by reputation perhaps the most feared man In the world, was kicked out of territory after territory in the United States for being uncooperative with promoters, and also because he was never able to translate his shooting ability into being much of a drawing card. He worked Japan a lot in the early (J()s for JWA, and was involved with training the younger wrestlers, including Inoki, but always played second fiddle in fans' eyes to Lou Thesz, similar to Inoki years later to Baba, as the foreign scientific master and as later nicknamed in Japan, status as the "God of pro wrestling." Gotch came in, billed as the Real World heavyweight champion with a belt originally owned by Thesz that supposedly was the actual title held by Frank Gotch (who was no relation as Karl Gotch's real name was Karl Istaz and be took the Gotch name because of Frank Gotch). On the first card of New Japan Pro Wrestling on March 6, 1972, the company went against the established grain by having Gotch pin Inoki, by this time known as Antonio Inoki, clean to retain his title. This set up a rematch on October 4, 1972 with Thesz as referee, where Inoki won the title via count out, which more importantly than the result, drew such a large television rating that it resulted in World Pro Wrestling becoming a weekly network prime time Friday night television show on NET.
As it turned out, that title was quickly forgotten. In its place came the title Inoki dominated for most of the rest of the decade--the National Wrestling Federation world heavyweight championship. The NWF was the regional office running in the Cleveland/Buffalo area headed by Pedro Martinez, which was one of the rare offices at the time not affiliated with the NW A and thus had its own world heavyweight champion. New Japan and Inoki bought the company, for dual purposes. The main one was to give Inoki a foreign world heavyweight title belt that the fans wouldn't see as something simply created for him to hold, which be won from the area's local top babyface, Johnny Powers, and that would be defended regularly in the U.S. for credibility purpose of it being more than a Japanese title. It gave New Japan promotional ties to a second American territory (they bad in 1973 established a business relationship with the Mike LeBelle Los Angeles promotion; and began a relationship with Vince McMahon Sr. by 1975 which resulted in Andre the Giant becoming a regular as a top heel and eventually by the late 70s to a full blown talent exchange deal with WWWF). They made their own group of foreign stars from wrestlers from that area, including Powers, Killer Karl Krupp (who had gained some fame years earlier as a tag team partner of Fritz Von Erich for JWA), and the biggest of them all, Tiger Jeet Singh. And it gave Inoki the chance to become a superstar in the United States. The latter didn't work then and never worked later, even in the wake of all the publicity after the Ali match. Shortly after buying the company, Inoki wasn't able to draw as world champion in Cleveland and Buffalo and the NWF itself folded, leaving behind its title belt as the main title in New Japan... As the 70s went on and Inoki and New Japan were established as a major force in the industry because of the Ali signing, New Japan was accepted into the NW A in 1976 with the proviso that the NWF title could no longer be referred to as a world heavyweight title.
Over the next 26 years, New Japan bad its peaks and valleys, ranging from being the strongest promotion in the world during a number of different periods, to periods where it nearly folded, and a war with All Japan that was at one time even more bitter than today's WWF vs. WCW politics. But its lasting contributions on a worldwide basis have to be not necessarily the invention, but the establishment of how to do a number of promotional concepts:
1) The interpromotional dream match gimmick. In 1974, New Japan lured Sbozo "Strong" Kobayashi, the International heavyweight champion top star of the IWE promotion to New Japan without dropping his title. After the announcement of the dream match, which was also the first Japanese vs. Japanese championship main event since the early 50s, it became clear that Kobayashi had actually jumped and be was stripped of the title by IWE before the match itself actually took place on March 19th with Inoki winning in another legendary encounter.
2) The shoot angle. On October 5, 1973, Inoki was standing in front of a department store in Tokyo when he was viciously assaulted by Tiger Jeet Singh, at the time an unknown in Japan. While this was an angle, it was so unusual that it was covered as if it were actually a shoot. It wasn't until June 26, 1974 when the two actually had a match, which resulted in Inoki's "breaking" Singh's arm with an armbar, thereby establishing the move as the "real" submission move in Japan.
3) The mixed martial arts match angle. This actually bad a predecessor in Japanese mat history, a famous December 22, 1954 match where Rikidozan beat world judo champion Masahiko Kimura (who held an interesting distinction of being one of only two men ever to beat Helio Gracie, father of Rickson and Royce, in NHB competition in Brazil) in one of the most famous double-crosses in Japan mat history (it was supposed to have been a worked draw, but suddenly, perhaps in response to an errant low blow, Rikidozan began attacking a stunned Kimura furiously with the stiffest chops and kicks you'd ever see and basically beat the hell out of him before he had a chance to recover). But the most famous encounter was actually one of the biggest catastrophes in wrestling history but should have been the shining moment for the business that possibly could have changed the very face of the business world wide. Shinma and Inoki reached a deal to get Ali, the reigning heavyweight boxing champion and biggest sports star in the world, to work a world boxing champion vs. world wrestling champion match for what was billed as the world martial arts championship on June 25, 1976 in Tokyo. They got Ali through a $6 million offer, which at the time was more money than Ali had ever received for any of his previous fights, and because it was supposed to be a worked match, minimizing the chance for serious damage for Ali. As a tune-up for the gimmick and to give Inoki and pro wrestling credibility against what people at the time saw as the most feared man and certainly the most famous athlete on the planet, on February 6, 1976, Inoki "knocked out" Willem Ruska, a two-time Olympic judo gold medalist who was at the time considered the top judo player in the world after three back suplexes in a worked match. Inoki beating the judo champion was supposed to give him athletic credibility in the United States media, but since the American media at the time figured Inoki must have been a sumo wrestler since he was Japanese, and had no understanding of judo or Ruska, while clips aired on news programs and wrestling shows around the country, the Ruska match really didn't mean anything outside of Japan. The subsequent Ali match was closed-circuited around the world, similar to a major heavyweight boxing championship match in those days going on the notion it would draw both the boxing and the wrestling audiences. Ali and Inoki had toured the United States doing press conferences in most major markets, with Ali, always accompanied by Fred Blassie, assuming the heel role to wrestling fans, and nicknaming Inoki "The Pelican" because of his huge jaw (Inoki's business nickname for years was simply "The Chin"). The match was one of the biggest sporting events of the time in Japan, where it drew a Super Bowl like rating--a 46.0 rating for the entire card billed as the Martial Arts Olympics which included matches broadcast from Budokan Hall, Shea Stadium in New York and the Olympic Auditorium; and a 54.6 rating for the actual Ali vs. Inoki match, numbers that are even more impressive than they sound on the surface because the match was broadcast in the early afternoon. Not only that but a replay of the match airing later that same evening drew a 26.3 rating. The sellout crowd of 14,000 fans at Budokan Hall paid what was then an all-time record gate of $2.5 million, an amazing figure when considering up to that point in time, there had never been a live gate for pro wrestling in North America topping $150,000. Without question more people witnessed this match live than any match up to that point in time, quite possibly even to this day, in the history of pro wrestling. Ali was supposed to lose via pinfall to the enzuigiri, but with a finish that would protect him in the U.S. He would bloody up Inoki with punches, and being the sportsman that he is, want the match stopped on blood. This hesitation would allow Inoki the moment to catch his breath and hit the enzuigiri. Without question, Inoki would have been made for life world wide as the biggest star in the history of pro wrestling for beating Ali. But a few days before the event, Ali got cold feet about doing the job. After furious negotiations, which nearly resulted in the match not taking place, the two went into the ring to do a shoot, with rules modified to protect Ali including no kicks above the shoulders, no throat strikes, no suplexes and no submissions. Inoki's lone viable strategy appeared to be to take Ali down, maneuver him into the center of the ring (Ali could get a re-start with a rope break), tum him to his back and attempt to pin him for three seconds. The 15-round draw consisted mainly of Inoki laying on his back, refusing to stand with Ali, and throwing kicks to the back of Ali's legs, hoping to soften him up to where he'd lose his legs and fall to the mat, where Inoki could finish him. Inoki rarely stood up, and Ali ended up throwing only six punches in total. The few times Inoki's sweeping kicks knocked Ali off his feet, before he could even begin to try and control him, turn him and pin him, Ali was always able to scamper to the ropes. Ali took so much punishment from the low leg kicks that he had numerous broken blood vessels in his legs, and many of those close to Ali have credited that punishment to the legs for hastening the end of Ali's career as a lop-flight heavyweight. Nevertheless, virtually all fans saw it as being no action at all, and blamed Inoki for laying on his back and not standing up and fighting "like a man." The biggest match in modem history became the biggest disaster in modem history, with riots not only in Tokyo, but in numerous closed-circuit spots around the United States. It was a financial disaster in many ways as Ali only ended up receiving $1.8 million and ended up suing New Japan (which was settled out of court). New Japan never received the money it expected from the U.S. wrestling promoters who controlled the closed-circuit, which did spotty business (some places, such as the Northeast, did tremendous, but that was largely due to Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen and Andre the Giant vs. heavyweight boxing contender Chuck Wepner (a worked match that Andre won via count out) matches live which drew 32,000 fans to Shea Stadium for the closed circuit; the Omni in Atlanta sold out and other major arenas did well, but most sites didn't do well). This nearly killed both Inoki as a star and took a huge bite out of the entire wrestling business in Japan. A few months later at the annual NWA convention, Oregon promoter Don Owen apparently suggested the Alliance buy Inoki a golden sword so he could commit suicide after what he'd done to the business with his performance in the match. Privately and publicly numerous American wrestlers fumed at Inoki and dreamed what they would have been able to do had they been given such a golden opportunity. As the years went by, Shinma managed to begin to erase the bad memories and cover up the stench left by the rotten match by booking Inoki to win against martial arts superstars like Karate world champion Monster Man Eddy Everett, a rematch with Ruska, Olympic judo bronze medalist Allan Coage (later to become pro wrestler Badnews Allen), Wepner and numerous others. And as time went on, memories faded, and Japanese fans realized that the tactics Inoki used in the fight were actually viable fighting tactics, the Ali match became legendary as well.
3) The promotion vs. promotion angle. With the folding of the IWE in August of 1981, its wrestlers joined New Japan starting on November 5, 1981 with IWE's world champion, Rusher Kimura, facing Inoki along with Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi. This drew such good business that New Japan created another feud which became the forerunner of WCW vs. NWO, with Riki Choshu turning on Fujinami in 1982 and forming Ishingun, billed as a rival promotion working within New Japan against New Japan. New Japan's legendary Ishingun vs. Seikigun feud resulted in another hot period of Japanese wrestling with 90 percent sellouts in 1983, until the promotion imploded from within. As with the JWA in 1971 when it was selling out every show and as a lesson to WCW today, the same thing happened with the undercard wrestlers unhappy about their pay and their position, particularly when Inoki was stricken with diabetes and had to take three months off, but the buildings continued to sell-out with Inoki not being there. In addition, Inoki had squandered much of the New Japan's huge profits on bad business investments. The fallout resulted in Inoki losing control of the company, but also with Shinma taking an even bigger fall and being expelled from the company he was there with from the start. Riki Choshu and Akira Maeda became almost a new generation Baba and Inoki, with Choshu and his guys leaving for All Japan, pulling that company on fire, and Maeda quitting New Japan and setting the stage for worked shootfighting which begin in the old UWF in 1984 evolved into today's actual shooting matches in RINGS and Pancrase. The historical ironies are many when studying the generations. It was Inoki in 1967 and 1971 feeling as if he was being held back from being the top guy and from trying new promotional concepts that the establishment wasn't ready for and leaving. No different from Choshu, Satoru Sayama and Maeda a generation later, only this time it was Inoki who was the establishment. And today, it is Choshu who is the establishment, and Maeda, who made himself a national superstar on October 9, 1986 beating world kickboxing champion Don Nakaya Neilsen in a worked match on the same show where Inoki had a flop of a match against a braindead Leon Spinks, decried a past-his- prime Inoki as a phony shooter, who now today at the tail end of his own career who is in the same position. Sayarna, the man who came forward in 1983 and exposed the Inoki embezzlement scandal and that pro wrestling was worked to the media and after quilling pro wrestling became the founder and creator of the sport of Shooto, the first truly legitimate shooting organization in Japan, is now Inoki's right hand man and training partner in the business of working matches to appear to be shoots. And there they all were, in the same building all tied up together in the same neat little package honoring the man they all rebelled against.
4) The correct way to establish a junior heavyweight division, which numerous companies have attempted but none have really succeeded in doing.
5) The marketing of a wrestler as a national superhero. Both Vince McMahon Jr. and Hulk Hogan spent formative years in wrestling watching how Inoki had succeeded with New Japan. Much of McMahon's ideas as far as going national, merchandising toward young children (which New Japan had done so well with Sayama as the star of its junior heavyweight division) and even ring entrance music (which, while popularized in the United States by Michael Hayes and Leroy Brown, had actually been a staple of Japanese wrestling much earlier) and Hulk Hogan the superhero were all concepts originated in New Japan, just as Eric Bischoff’s biggest angle was. Hogan's ability to play on a bigger stage than just the pro wrestling stage came from watching Inoki.
New Japan rebounded from nearly folding in the wake of the 1983-84 embezzlement scandal, caused by Inoki diverting the New Japan profits to subsidize a failing business venture in Brazil, with fans gradually warming back up to the idea of Inoki as being a great fighter, but not necessarily a great business man. By the late 80s, Inoki's body began breaking down even more by the demands of working a full-time wrestling schedule and it was long-time understudy, Tatsumi Fujinamj, who by this time may have been the best worker in the business with the exception of Ric Flair, who felt he had waited in the background long enough. Fujinami demanded the top spot and Inoki, strategically, let him have it and pulled out of wrestling, allowing Fujinami the chance to sink or swim on top on his own. Fujinami wasn't a success as a draw although he had some great matches as world champion. But after doing some of the best work of his career, Fujinami suffered a serious back injury that sidelined him for more than one year and although he returned, he never was the same. This enabled Choshu to slide into power, and Inoki, recognizing his days as a full-time wrestler were over, put Choshu over twice in singles matches and slid into politics.
As the iron curtain was breaking down due to the beginnings of the collapse of the Soviet economy, Inoki was the first sports promoter, before the NHL or anyone else, to sign former Russian amateur wrestling greats into pro wrestling for the first ever Tokyo Dome show on April 24, 1989, including losing his World martial arts title after 11 years to a Russian judo champion named Shota Chochyashivili, which drew a thenIapanese record of 53,800 fans and broke the Ali-Inoki gate record with $2,781,000. In establishing a business tie-in with the Soviet Union, Inoki the global statesman was born, an act strong enough that on July 24, 1989, Inoki barely squeaked into the Japanese Diet for a six-year term. On October 24, 1989, while making a political speech, he was the victim of an assassination attempt and was stabbed. Since it was Inoki, nobody ever truly knew whether or not that was his most elaborate publicity angle, although at the time it was covered world wide as a major news story and there has never been any evidence that it was an angle. He became the first elected official from a democratic country to meet with Fidel Castro in Cuba, and later negotiated unsuccessfully to do a World Wrestling Peace Festival show in 1997 from that country. He negotiated a release of several Japanese hostages in Iraq by promising the country a major sports festival which included New Japan Pro Wrestling. Within his senate, he was seen as a glory-hound who created situations to get himself over at the expense of the team, no different than in his days in pro wrestling. At one point he was a serious candidate for Mayor of Tokyo. Realistically be bad no chance to win the election but would have garnered a sizeable enough percentage of the vote to swing it. Once he inserted himself into the race, he had to come up with a way out of it without doing the job. Luckily, an opinion poll came out, sampling only males in their early 20s on who they would vote for in the Mayoral elections, and since that was the perfect demographic for him, as so many grew up with Inoki as their national sports hero every Saturday night beating foreigners from different sports, Inoki won in that small age group. Right after the results of the poll were released, Inoki pulled out of the race as a symbolic winner, claiming that while Mayor of Tokyo would be an important office, that he felt he could serve society much better in a position with more worldwide importance as his senate seat.
But his political career was destroyed by yet another scandal. Both Shinma, his long-time business manager, and Inoki's personal secretary, came forward with allegations of all sorts of financial and governmental improprieties, serious enough that they not only nearly wound up in Inoki being impeached, but his image was sullied enough that TV-Asahi for several years thereafter refused to even broadcast Inoki's big wrestling matches on television. He weathered that storm by denying all, but it did result in Inoki being trounced when it came to his 1995 re-election attempt. Eventually the scandal pub wore off and TV-Asahi began broadcasting his matches once again. Just before leaving office, he had completed negotiations with the North Korean government for two New Japan pro wrestling shows as part of another peace festival that wound up drawing a total of 320,000 fans to May Day Stadium in Pyongyang.
In recent years, Inoki has tried to re-establish himself as the father of all shooters, as true shooting, from UFC, Vale Tudo, Pancrase and other groups became popularized in the United States and Japan, the Japanese side of which can be traced back to Inoki's worked mixed martial arts matches of the late 70s and early 80s, to Maeda popularizing UWF in the 80s, to Nobuhiko Takada's UWFI selling out in the early. 90s, to Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki in Pancrase bringing pro wrestling even close to reality, to hardcore reality with UFC, Shooto and Vale Tudo. Inoki would get photo ops talking with Marco Ruas, training with Dan Severn, fighting with Oleg Taktarov, beating the likes of Gerard Gordeau, Ruska (in a 1994 match with both men in their 50s) and after 16 years, finally getting his win over an aged Willie Williams. And finally, in supposedly his final match in the ring, beating Ultimate Ultimate champion Frye, all setting up his next move, heading up his own Martial Arts Federation. In reality, Inoki may have had only two or three true shooting matches during his entire career, none of which were supposed to be that way ahead of time. There was the Ali match, a December 12, 1976 match against Akrum Pehelewan of Pakistan, and a situation that got out of control in Europe a few years later against Roland Bock. The Pehelewan match in a large stadium in his home country was likely a work gone awry with the hometown hero going against the script, which ended with Inoki breaking the national hero Pehelewan’s arm with an armbar legtimatelly before 40,000 fans. It was probably the scariest moment of Inoki's life because a riot was about to break out and as legend has it, guns were being cocked and aimed in his direction. But in his traditional post-match wave to the fans in Pakistan, the fans saw it as a symbolic gesture that he was thanking Allah for the win, and thus the fans saw that his win was okay, although Pehelewan, shamed by the showing, actually committed suicide shortly thereafter. Inoki had always claimed he was most proud of the Ali and Pehelewan matches as opposed to some of his most famous classic worked matches against the likes of Fujinami, Funk, Robinson and Brisco. The Bock matchh was probably under similar circumstances, a worked match gone awry, with Bock, a legitimate shooter also wrestling in his home country. not selling for Inoki and basically throwing him around like a rag doll until a disqualification was called.
But no mater, reality has absolutely nothing to do with this or most other equations. Inoki manipulated his reputation in Japan to not only be one of the greatest wrestlers who ever wrestled in that country, but one of the all-time legendary shooters as well. And after the show was over, Inoki was talking about his next plans. Moving to the United States to set up his "new" UFO promotion with himself and Ali as the spiritual leaders presiding over a company that will include Naoya Ogawa, Yoji Anjoh and Satoru Sayama.
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ufc fight night 150 best bets video

Best Bets for UFC Fight Night 150 in Fort Lauderdale. We’ve analyzed the UFC Fight Night 150 main card to bring your our best bets, tips and picks for this event. View them all below. You can also read our Ronaldo Souza vs. Jack Hermansson betting guide here. UFC Fight Night 150 – Best Bets; Bet: Best Odds : Site: Greg Hardy to win-325: Mybookie: Alex Oliveira to win-163: BetOnline: Glover The top UFC sportsbooks have Kattar as a significant favorite to get the job done, but today, I’ll be showing you a way to get some better odds on this fight. I have four of the UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Ige best bets waiting for you, so let’s start with the main event and a prediction that I believe has a great chance of coming true. UFC Fight Night Best Bets, Picks & Predictions: Claudia Gadelha vs. Xiaonan Yan, Darren Elkins vs. Eduardo Garagorri (Saturday, Nov. 7) MMA. Credit: Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images. Pictured: Claudia Gadelha. Reed Wallach. Nov 07, 2020, 06:20 PM EST. Download App. Need a one-stop shop for all your UFC bets? We've combined Sean Zeriilo’s UFC Models and our favorite bets for tonight's The UFC has seemed to be just lining up fighters for slaughter to Hardy. I don’t see that changing here and at -134, Hardy by KO is a pretty good bet. Glover Teixeira ML +175. Lastly, a best bets is not complete without an underdog pick. For this, give me Glover Teixeira at +175. This fight between two great fighters in Glover and Thiago Get a detailed breakdown of the betting lines for UFC Fight Night 150, which is set to hit BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., this weekend (Sat., April 27, 2019), including best bets, underdogs UFC Fight Night best bets: Thompson-Neal By Lou Finocchiaro (VSiN.com) Fourteen fights featuring athletes from eight countries equipped with varying combinations of mixed martial arts expertise will give fight fans a fertile arena from which to profit one more time this year.

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UFC Fight Night Waterson vs Hill - Picks and Best Bets ...

UFC Fight Night WOODLEY/BURNSFacebook/John Augustyn IG/[email protected]. Box 3300 Melvindale Mi 48122 The UFC continues to roll on at the UFC Apex Performance Center with UFC Fight Night Waterson vs Hill. Check out the odds and a full breakdown of the main ca... http://fightnetwork.com/ - Gabe Morency gives his best bets for this Saturday's UFC doubleheader with UFC Fight Night Sao Paulo and UFC Fight Night Belfast L... http://sprawlandcall.com Thank you for viewing and this is my BETTING THOUGHTS ONLY, I'm not here to sugar coat. Please comment down below and lets make some... The UFC remains at the UFC Apex Performance Center with UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs Neal. Check out the odds and a full breakdown of the main card:https://w... Gabe Morency joins Gregg Sussman once again to give his favorite bets for this weekend's UFC Fight Night.*****Watch us on:PLUTO Ch. 517XUMO Ch. 719 STIRR Ch.... These are my best picks and bets for the upcoming UFC card in Vegas, headlined by Blaydes and Volkov! The UFC continues to roll on at Fight Island with UFC Fight: Moraes vs Sandhagen. Check out the odds and a full breakdown of the main card: https://www.oddss... It’s rare these days that the UFC presents a fight night on a Wednesday. But after a successful event amidst the COVID-19 pandemic last Saturday, all things ... MMA Betting Picks Best Bets/05/30/20 WOODLEY/BURNS