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UFC 298 just wrapped up a great night of fights in sunny southern California. The Honda Center saw all manner of action from the athletes, but there were a couple stinkers that didn’t quite pass muster (looking at you Ian Machado Garry). We’ll get to Ian’s fight in a second but first, let’s bask in the glory that was Ilia Topuria putting Old Man Volkanovski right to bed. Tucked him in and sang him a lullaby, he did. But we’re actually kind of sad to see “The Great” get handled like that. He was a good champion, always ready to take on the toughest and gave 100% in all his fights, win or lose. His legacy is more than secure.

All the action from their contest was packed in less than two full rounds—eight minutes and 32 seconds, to be exact. Topuria, it would appear, understands the value of backing up any smack talked during the buildup to his fights. Ian Machado Garry would do well to commit that performance to memory before he starts in with the “I’m too big for Ireland” talk.

Ilia’s multi-faceted skillset is exactly what the doctor ordered to supplant the long-reigning Volkanovski. It would be his crispy, crunchy boxing that would set the tone and his shot selection was a certified chef’s kiss. The way he’d dig hard shots to the ribs in the clinch when Volk was trying to work knees or headhunt was brilliant. It was a masterful performance that deserves every bit of the praise it has gotten and will get this week.

Other UFC 298 moments

The co-main event was a mess in the best way possible, and that is mainly due to Paulo Costa once again starting strong and completely abandoning any semblance of a game plan by the time round two was midway in. He won the first minute of the fight, took the next 3.5 minutes off, then landed a head kick that put Whittaker on roller skates. Fortunately, he was saved from any further punishment by the horn.

The beginning of the second round saw Paulo come out hot, but once again, he devolved into slugging and not bothering to check the brutal low kicks Rob was landing, nor did he attempt to change stances. Whittaker turned that very mortal moment around and pretty much destroyed Costa with volume for the rest of the contest. It was really funny when Costa pointed to the center of the octagon, non-verbally telling Rob to bring it in the last minutes of round three and to leave it all in the cage, except Costa wasn’t willing to do that himself. High comedy!

Ian Machado Garry disappointed in a way that can only be described as “bored me to tears.” For all that mess he was talking this week, he certainly didn’t deliver on his promises. And for someone that thinks he’s too big to headline an entire Irish card, he certainly didn’t make any new fans tonight and it’s very likely he lost some of the ones he had going in. You’ve got two choices, Ian, either stop talking, or actually go for it in the cage.

Have we finally seen the last of Henry Cejudo? He claimed that if he lost this bout, he would retire for good and he did lose this bout, and he lost it definitively. It pains me to ever agree with Dana White on anything, but Henry did waste three of his remaining prime years in “retirement.” While in his self-imposed exile from the sport, he started a family and it wouldn’t be too long after that before he started clucking about coming back. Now he’s lost two back-to-back. Time waits for no man, not even you, Henry Cejudo.

There were some real jewels on UFC 298 aside from these fights, as well. Lemos-Dern was a certified banger with lots of action. Kopylov-Hernandez was fantastic for as long as it lasted. Even the heavyweight fight delivered some action albeit completely one way traffic for MRDL. Let’s take a look at the official results:

UFC 298 Results

• Ilia Topuria def. Alexander Volkanovski by KO at 3:32 of round 2: Featherweight Title
• Robert Whittaker def. Paulo Costa by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x2): Middleweight
• Ian Machado Garry vs. Geoff Neal by split decision (30-27 x2, 28-29): Welterweight
• Merab Dvalishvili def. Henry Cejudo by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Bantamweight
• Anthony Hernandez def. Roman Kopylov by submission (RNC) at 3:23 of round 2: Middleweight
• Amanda Lemos def. Mackenzie Dern by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Strawweight
• Marcos Rogério de Lima def. Justin Tafa by TKO (Leg kicks) at 1:14 of round 2: Heavyweight
• Rinya Nakamura def. Carlos Vera by unanimous decision (30-27 x3): Bantamweight
• Mingyang Zhang def. Brendson Ribeiro by KO at 1:41 of round 1: Light Heavyweight
• Danny Barlow def. Josh Quinlan by TKO at 1:18 of round 3: Welterweight
• Oban Elliott def. Val Woodburn by unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28): Welterweight
• Miranda Maverick def. Andrea Lee by unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28): (W) Flyweight

UFC 298 Bonuses

• Fight of the Night: Amanda Lemos vs. Mackenzie Dern
• Performance of the Night: Zhang Mingyang, Ilia Topuria and Anthony Hernandez

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section where the boys give their patented, five-star review of all the fights. You can’t get this anywhere…or can you? We like to think you can’t, so we’ll stick with that. Just be sure to listen!

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Listen to the FULL episode on our podcast Substack

What comes after UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria?

The next event after UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria will be UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs. Royval 2 on February 24th. That card is taking place at the Arena CDMX Mexico City, Mexico and the main event will enjoy a rematch between Top-5 flyweights Brandon Moreno and Brandon Royval. The co-main event has an even better rematch than that when elite featherweights Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega run it back.

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Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

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The undercard of UFC 298 is kind of a mixed bag. As Connor Ruebusch put it, “There are a couple gems sprinkled in there but the rest are typical prelims.” We have come to expect “typical prelims” to equate to low-tier, regional level fights, and that is certainly what we’ve got with this event. Fortunately, the matchmaking brass did the rare excellent job stacking the main card with really good fights, so we can sort of excuse the haphazard way they threw together these contests.

The featured prelim seems like whichever way the wind blows would be an expected outcome. Amanda Lemos is dynamite in the standup, especially in the proverbial phone booth, but she’s pretty easy to out-wrestle, out-grapple, what have you. Mackenzie Dern thinks she can strike, but truth be told, her striking has barely improved after several years with the promotion. If this goes her way, we’ll know why. If it goes Lemos’ way, ditto. A two-true outcome fight if ever there was one.

Rinya Nakamura is another fighter we’ve been keeping our collective eyes on, but he is unfortunately stuck with a late replacement opponent that will do nothing for his advancement. Carlos Vera is coming off a loss to Brad Katona from his days on The Ultimate Fighter, so a win over him doesn’t do a whole lot for Rinya, but a loss would absolutely disrupt what he’s accomplished so far.

We also have Miranda Maverick set to take on Andrea Lee in the curtain-jerker. Lee has to be in a must-win situation since she’s on a three-fight losing skid. It seems like maybe Miranda Maverick will be gearing up to give Lee her walking papers with a win over the long-time vet. At the very least, she should supplant Lee’s Number 15 ranking.

That also brings us to the stats portion you’re looking for. These stats will serve the entire card, not just the prelims.

UFC 298 Factoids

• Ranked fights: 5
• Ranked fighters: 13
• Fighters coming off a loss: 10
• Fighters coming directly from Contender Series: 3
• Contender Series alumni in total: 6
• Fighters coming directly from TUF: 1
• Fighters coming directly from Road to UFC: 1
• Road to UFC alumni in total: 2

UFC 298 Prelims

• Amanda Lemos  vs.  Mackenzie Dern
• Marcos Rogério de Lima  vs.  Justin Tafa
• Rinya Nakamura  vs.  Carlos Vera
• Mingyang Zhang  vs.  Brendson Ribeiro
• Josh Quinlan  vs.  Danny Barlow
• Val Woodburn  vs.  Oban Elliott
• Andrea Lee  vs.  Miranda Maverick

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section for a great review of the UFC Vegas 86 preliminary card. Make sure to tune in immediately after this weekend’s fights for breakdowns and analysis on our 6th Round Post-Fight Show.

Check out the FREE preview

Checkk out the FULL episode on our podcast Substack

What comes after UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria?

The next event after UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria will be UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs. Royval 2 on February 24th. That card is taking place at the Arena CDMX Mexico City, Mexico and the main event will enjoy a rematch between Top-5 flyweights Brandon Moreno and Brandon Royval. The co-main event has an even better rematch than that when elite featherweights Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega run it back.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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Sean Strickland had a very eventful week in the leadup to Super Bowl Sunday. It started off right after the Republican caucus in Las Vegas, Nevada where former POTUS Donald Trump was making a speech. Just a few minutes into it, Trump gave Sean an extended shoutout and following the event, stopped in with the former UFC middleweight champion for photo ops and a mock staredown complete with a tiny bit of bobbing and weaving.

Sean Strickland beats up Sneako

The next day, Strickland would host an open sparring session with influencer Sneako. According to multiple reports, the two had worked out some rules before the sparring took place. The session was to be for one 4-minute round and Sean wouldn’t engage until the fourth minute. We got to see Sneako working around Strickland, throwing all manner of “punches,” none of which did anything at all to the UFC star.

Then, the fourth minute rolled around and Strickland and all his pent-up rage showed up at the party. He savaged Sneako to the point his corner threw multiple towels, all to no avail. By now, the influencer was bleeding from the nose and trying to run from Sean, who had to be all but tackled to bring a halt to the beating.

Sean would say the following about the incident via X (formerly Twitter):

“Lmao they act like I murdered a man… So a man wanted to fight and got beat up… so fucking what… that’s how you become a fucking man… Don’t be little him .. He took his ass beating like a man and will be better for it. Good job. I was impressed.”

Sean Strickland doesn’t like how MGK looked at him

Following that, Sean ended up at a Power Slap event where he would meet Machine Gun Kelly for the first time. When Strickland was introduced, the first thing he did was call MGK “weird” and then a “f—cking weirdo,” apparently very distressed that the musician dressed “like a f—cking vampire.” Let’s let Sean’s own words via his Youtube channel tell the story. (Transcript via MMA Fighting)

“I go and I meet the vampire, [Luke Trembath] introduces me to the vampire and I make fun of him. I’m like, ‘Dude, what are you f—cking wearing. Like, what the f—ck is going on here? How are you doing this?’ He looked at me and he didn’t laugh and he didn’t giggle, but he looked at me like, ‘Why is this guy with no respect talking to me like this?’ He looked at me like I was less than human.”

He would continue on, clearly becoming agitated over some perceived disrespect due to MGK remaining silent during the fighter’s tirade.

“I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to f—cking humble you right now,’” Strickland said. “Then my girl got in the way and was like, ‘Chill the f—ck out,’ and then I was escorted out.”

“You guys don’t understand, these people at these slap fights, they’re not people. They’re influencers. I interact with hundreds of people. I go snowboarding. No fan ever has anything bad to say about me because I love you guys, but these people are not you guys. I can’t explain it until you interact with these people and you’re around them. It’s like they have a weird god complex, and when I’m around them, I just want to hurt them all to remind them you are just a human being, shut the f—ck up.”

UFC CEO Dana White was asked what his take on the altercation was and his reply was short and to the point. He almost seemed exasperated as he said,

“You can’t bring Sean Strickland around any other human beings. It has nothing to do with Machine Gun Kelly, it’s about humans.”

Did you talk about anything else besides Sean Strickland?

We also broke down six fights from this weekend’s UFC 298 card. While it’s not super stacked, the main card is very top heavy with excellent fights. The undercard is pretty underwhelming with just the featured prelim and Nakamura’s fights being the bright spots amid an ocean of regional-level talent. Here’s the fights we chose to make our predictions on:

UFC 298

• Alexander Volkanovski  vs.  Ilia Topuria
• Robert Whittaker  vs.  Paulo Costa
• Geoff Neal  vs.  Ian Machado Garry
• Merab Dvalishvili  vs.  Henry Cejudo
• Anthony Hernandez  vs.  Roman Kopylov
• Amanda Lemos  vs.  Mackenzie Dern

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Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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UFC Vegas 86 is in the books and with it, we put the middleweights back on the shelf for a while….but wait, we’re not quite done with them just yet. Next week, UFC 297 will feature two contests at the 185lb limit, but fortunately for us, they’re both good fights. But let’s get back to the business of this particular event.

Joe Pyfer looked good in the first stanza, but started ceding ground a little in the second, despite winning the round. His own corner told him after round three that he’d allowed Hermansson to get too comfortable. There was a moment in that round where Pyfer had one of Jack’s legs in a single and the Swede threw a jumping knee with the other leg. The fourth round saw Pyfer looking to control Hermansson up against the cage more, but the veteran was able to get free and started finding a home for his excellent jab. Pyfer’s face was a bloody mess reflecting how much he was being thrown off his game.

The fifth started with Pyfer working a stiff jab early and finding a home for it, but Hermansson kept coming forward, working low kicks and even got the takedown where he controlled from the top, raining punches down and keeping Pyfer on the defensive as the clock ran out. It was a classic display of veteran savvy winning the contest.

The co-main event was short and violent. Andre Fili got clipped pretty good twice before Ige planted him with a bomb, then followed up with a single, crushing hammer that bounced Fili’s head off the canvas like a basketball. Ige said going in that despite their friendship, this was just business. He had no problem driving that point home.

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Before that, we got an absolute stinker of a fight between Ihor Potieria and Robert Bryczech that featured two extended timeouts thanks to an eye poke and the rare groin punch (that was inadvertent). It was an absolute slop-fest that deserves to be stricken from the record. Thank you, next!

Robocop Rodrigues savaged Brad Tavares, forcing the ref to intervene, and Rodolfo Vieira took Armen Petrosyan to Tapville. Michael Johnson swept Darrius Flowers all three rounds and newcomer Carlos Prates put Trevin Giles on the canvas where he stayed with the ref hovering over him. Let’s take a look at some of the finishes and the official results:

UFC Vegas 86 Results

• – Jack Hermansson def. Joe Pyfer by unanimous decision (48-47 x3): Middleweight
• – Dan Ige def. Andre Fili by KO at 2:43 of round 1: Featherweight
• – Ihor Potieria def. Robert Bryczek by unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28): Middleweight
• – Gregory Rodrigues def. Brad Tavares by standing TKO at :55 of round 3: Middleweight
• – Michael Johnson def. Darrius Flowers by unanimous decision (30-27 x3): Lightweight
• – Rodolfo Vieira def. Armen Petrosyan by submission (Arm Triangle) at 4:48 of round 1: Middleweight
• – Carlos Prates def. Trevin Giles by KO at 4:03 of round 2: Welterweight
• – Bolaji Oki def. Timothy Cuamba by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29): Lightweight
• – Loma Lookboonmee def. Bruna Brasil by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Strawweight
• – Marcin Prachnio def. Devin Clark by unanimous decision (30-27 x3): Light Heavyweight
• – Max Griffin def. Jeremiah Wells by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29): Welterweight
• – Bogdan Guskov def. Zac Pauga by KO at 3:38 of round 1: Light Heavyweight
• – Hyder Amil def. Fernie Garcia by TKO at 2:12 of round 2: Featherweight
• – Aoriqileng vs. Daniel Marcos is a no contest at 3:28 of round 2: Bantamweight

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section where the boys give their patented, five-star review of all the fights. You can’t get this anywhere…or can you? We like to think you can’t, so we’ll stick with that. Just be sure to listen!

What comes after UFC Vegas 86?

The next event after UFC Vegas 86 will be UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria on February 17th. That card is taking place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and will enjoy a featherweight title fight in the main event between the champ, Alexander Volkanovski, and his undefeated challenger, Ilia Topuria. The co-main event is slated for a middleweight collision between former champ, Robert Whittaker, and the wild card Paulo Costa.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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UFC Vegas 86 is the most Apex card that ever was…until the next one arrives. They’re all starting to look the same to us. This week’s card is packed with 185-pounders, as if we needed yet another middleweight-led show. And just in case you missed our main card episode, here’s a few facts for you to get started:

UFC Vegas 86 Factoids

• Ranked fights (meaning both athletes are ranked): 0
• Ranked athletes: 2
• Fighters coming off a loss: 13
• Number of MW bouts on this card: 4
• Number of fighters debuting: 5

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at the glaring elephant in the room—the absolute dearth of name value. The featured prelim is Trevin Giles vs. Carlos Prates, and neither Giles nor the debuting Prates have enough juice to move the needle even a little. It’s not even the most interesting bout on the undercard. That honor goes to the curtain-jerker, Daniel Marcos vs. Aoriqileng.

It is absolutely mind-boggling that the matchmakers would put one of the best fights on the card this far down. Michael Johnson’s fight with Darius Flowers should be the featured prelim. You get the veteran name value in the proper place and the Marcos-Aoriqileng can move up to the main card. Do we really have to do your jobs for you, Mr. Shelby and Mr. Maynard?

As for the rest of the contests on the UFC Vegas bout sheet, you are probably trying to figure out if you recognize most of the names featured on the prelims. If you don’t regularly watch Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, you might very well be in the dark. It’s just another in a long line of Apex events that get the bare minimum of everything, be it the matchmaking or the actual promoting of the event.

And that’s not to say there won’t be great fights to emerge from cards like this, because there undoubtedly will be. But you need a hook to lure in new fans and keep the old ones from finding something better to watch. If ESPN ends up staying the UFC’s primary broadcast partner, hopefully they put something in the contract language that will force them to limit the amount of events held in the Apex.

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UFC Vegas 86 Prelims

• Trevin Giles  vs.  Carlos Prates 170 lbs
• Timothy Cuamba  vs.  Bolaji Oki 155 lbs
• Loma Lookboonmee  vs.  Bruna Brasil 115 lbs
• Devin Clark  vs.  Marcin Prachnio 205 lbs
• Jeremiah Wells  vs.  Max Griffin 170 lbs
• Zac Pauga  vs.  Bogdan Guskov 205 lbs
• Hyder Amil  vs.  Fernie Garcia 145 lbs
• Daniel Marcos  vs.  Aoriqileng 135 lbs

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section for a great review of the UFC Vegas 86 preliminary card. Make sure to tune in immediately after this weekend’s fights for breakdowns and analysis on our 6th Round Post-Fight Show. Follow us as @BloodyElbow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

What comes after UFC Vegas 86?

The next event after UFC Fight Night: Hermansson vs. Pyfer will be UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria on February 17th. That card is taking place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and will enjoy a featherweight title fight in the main event between the champ, Alexander Volkanovski, and his undefeated challenger, Ilia Topuria. The co-main event is slated for a middleweight collision between former champ, Robert Whittaker, and the wild card Paulo Costa.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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Did you know that since 2020, more than 50% of all UFC cards have been held at the Apex? And we all know that every time an event is held there, an angel loses its wings. UFC Vegas 86 is no different, as evidenced by looking at the name of the event. These days, having “Vegas” in the title is a signal that the matchmakers did their level best to fill the bout sheet with unranked fighters who have little to no name value to possibly draw in new viewers.

UFC Vegas 86 isn’t devoid of name value, but it comes close. Andre Fili and Dan Ige are veterans that fit the bill, as is Jack Hermansson, but Joe Pyfer is still in prospect mode, and definitely doesn’t have a name that casuals might recognize—yet. With a win over No. 11 ranked Hermansson, he would almost certainly enter the inner sanctuary of the Top 15. But first, he has to win.

Did I mention that this event is the third straight event headlined by middleweights. UFC Vegas 86 features four bouts at the 185lb limit. It’s almost as if the big brains at UFC headquarters (which I envision as the building where Mr. Burns concocts his evil plots) are trying to push this paper-thin middleweight division on us, as if it’s the best they have to offer. It’s an affront.

And why wouldn’t the matchmaking brain trust at UFC HQ let Andre Fili and Dan Ige lead the show? This is almost a guaranteed banger and has the most name value of all 14 fights on this bloated card. But maybe they’re busy coming up with the main event for UFC 300, because that one is getting closer and closer. Before I get way off track, though, let’s have a gander at the fights on this weekend’s main portion.

UFC Vegas 86 Main Card

• Jack Hermansson  vs.  Joe Pyfer 185 lbs
• Dan Ige  vs.  Andre Fili 145 lbs
• Ihor Potieria  vs.  Robert Bryczek 185 lbs
• Brad Tavares  vs.  Gregory Rodrigues 185 lbs
• Michael Johnson  vs.  Darrius Flowers 155 lbs
• Rodolfo Vieira  vs.  Armen Petrosyan 185 lbs

A few more facts about UFC Vegas 86

What’s that? You want to know how many ranked fights there are? Well, you might be shocked to find out, but there are no ranked fights on this card. Wait, you want to know how many ranked athletes are on the card? Of the 28 fighters competing Saturday night, only two of them are ranked. What? You want to know how many are coming off losses? That number would be a nice, round 13—just a hair under 50%. Honestly, I didn’t mean to make you frown. Apologies.

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section for a great review of the UFC Vegas 85 main card. Make sure to tune in immediately after this weekend’s fights for breakdowns and analysis on our 6th Round Post-Fight Show.

Listen to the FREE preview

Listen to the FULL Vivisection episode on our podcast Substack

What comes after UFC Vegas 86?

The next event after UFC Fight Night: Hermansson vs. Pyfer will be UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria on February 17th. That card is taking place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and will enjoy a featherweight title fight in the main event between the champ, Alexander Volkanovski, and his undefeated challenger, Ilia Topuria. The co-main event is slated for a middleweight collision between former champ, Robert Whittaker, and the wild card Paulo Costa.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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For the last two weeks, the sports and entertainment communities have been reeling from the details revealed in Janel Grant’s lawsuit against the WWE, Vince McMahon and other executives and superstars under its umbrella. But before the lawsuit came to see the light of day, two big events occurred over the last several months for WWE.

The first was the unexpected merger of WWE with the UFC. The historic deal saw the two companies combined under one roof with the new entity branded as TKO Holdings. Vince McMahon would end up with a new title—executive chairman—a ton of shares, and the perk of being able to choose five of the board’s 11 seats.

A recent SEC filing would shed some extra light on how the deal came into existence, providing a surprising twist—that Endeavor (under the direction of Ari Emanuel) set Vince McMahon as Executive Chair until death, resignation, or incapacity, as a condition of giving WWE a 49/51 increased ownership. You read that right, it was a condition of the deal.

The second important event to happen was WWE striking a massive deal with streaming giant Netflix. The terms are set for ten years with each year worth $500M, or $5B in total. Netflix has an option to extend the deal if they want. This deal was announced literally 48 hours before the news of Janel Grant’s lawsuit hit the media.

So many details have been speculated on by fans and pundits around the globe, so we decided to have one of the most plugged-in media personalities in the pro-wrestling space come to our neck of the woods for a Q & A about the current goings on at WWE and in the pro-wrestling world in general. Sean Ross Sapp fielded a barrage of questions from a broad list of topics:

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Lawsuit against WWE, McMahon, et al

• Explaining the lawsuit and who it targets
• Who is Johnny Ace aka John Laurinaitis
• Who is Bruce Prichard
• Paul Levesque’s possible knowledge
• Fan reaction to the lawsuit
• Netflix deal
• Dwayne Johnson

General WWE topics

• Would Ronda Rousey come back?
• Ladies division and Rhea Ripley being the new “it girl”
• Cody Rhodes, The Rock, Roman Reigns triangle
• The pecking order of the promotions
• What’s up with Stardom
• Iron Claw review
• Pawcade

Sumo Stompin’ with Tim Bissell

We also had Sumo Stomp’s Tim Bissell join us for the final update on the first Sumo tournament of the year, the Hatsu Basho. We learn if our reigning Yokozuna kept his crown and who gave him the toughest challenge. We also get the final reports on how all our favorite characters did in their respective divisions.

• Peach Prince (aka Pink Boy)
• Double Boob
• Cocaine Bear
• Flying Monkey
• Miyagino stable update

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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The WWE is in hot water thanks to a lawsuit filed by former employee Janel Grant. The lawsuit alleges Vince McMahon, other officials and even a former UFC superstar engaged in sex trafficking and/or sexual assault and the suit came with a substantial amount of evidence. McMahon resigned from all his positions at WWE and TKO Holdings within hours and the evidence from court documents has been appalling, to say the least.

The news came just 48 hours after the announcement that WWE had signed an incredibly lucrative deal with streaming giant Netflix worth a staggering $5B over 10 years. With the promotion having Ari Emanuel sitting at the head of the table for TKO Holdings, the newly-formed parent company of both WWE and UFC, the potential blowback from this scandal could be serious.

In our latest episode, John Nash fielded questions about the lawsuit and how it could possibly impact the UFC, including possible lawsuits by TKO Holdings shareholders. Let’s take a look at the areas we covered:

WWE lawsuit impact

TKO Holdings

• How much culpability do you think TKO Holdings and/or Ari Emanuel have in this whole Vince McMahon WWE scandal?
• Since Janel Grant isn’t looking for a settlement (according to her attorney), and wants to change the toxic culture at WWE, do you think there could be some sort of blowback onto UFC (perhaps a full overhaul of how all TKO Holdings’ properties are operated)?
• Do you think lawsuits will eventually be filed by TKO shareholders?
• What is Dwayne Johnson’s new role and what does it mean?

UFC Antitrust Case

• With the WWE scandal being a brand new problem for TKO Holdings, is there a greater chance for a settlement now?
• Is there a higher potential for a UFC sale?
• How much weight do the text messages that have been revealed in discovery actually carry?
• Some analysts (TD Cowen and Wolfe Research) have reported that the upcoming trial could impact the UFC’s business model. Do you think this is true?

Saudi Arabia

• Since Saudi Arabia is pretty invested in WWE, could there be blowback from them (as in cancelling deals etc)?
• It seems that Turki Alalshikh is making more and more media appearances as the mouthpiece of the prince. Has Saudi Arabia done enough sports washing to be able to integrate with the mainstream now?
• Is Saudi still only interested in HW boxing or are they looking at the lighter weight classes now?

Another WWE jaw-dropper

Just hours after we recorded the episode, a new report came out based off an SEC filing that detailed how TKO Holdings came to be. One particular point of interest was how Vince McMahon came to hold such an incredible position of power within the freshly-minted company. The details of which seem almost ludicrous.

Apparently, Endeavor originally wanted a 57% ownership stake in the company, but WWE balked and negotiations continued. WWE came back to the table with an offer of a 51/49 split. Endeavor would come back just two days later with a proposal of having Vince as Executive Chair until death, resignation, or incapacity, as a condition of giving WWE a 49/51 increased ownership. Vince would also get to pick 5 of 11 Board seats. The board was later increased to 13 members with seven of the seats going to Endeavor.

Nash says that with this new wrinkle, it implies that Ari Emanuel and other Endeavor executives orchestrated the return and continued control of the WWE under Vince McMahon, even as various allegations and scandals swirled around him over the last few years. We’ll continue monitoring the case as it unfolds.

Listen to the FREE preview

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Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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UFC Vegas 85 is officially in the books and much like it was on paper, in practice, it was a mixed bag. We ended up with just five finishes out of 13 fights. We had a no contest, a majority decision and six unanimous decisions. The main event was a grueling battle that got to be quite tedious with all the wall and stall that was happening and the Khizriev-Muradov fight was over almost before it started. Fun fact: That fight is now tied for the shortest no contest result in UFC history.

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UFC Vegas 85 key moments

Roman Dolidze was the sizable betting favorite going into this pairing but he looked outclassed almost from the jump. Every time Imavov would get some rhythm going, Dolidze would revert to stall tactics against the cage, forcing Herb Dean to intervene over and over. The big action occurred when Imavov thought Dolidze’s hand was cleared from the canvas and thus launched a huge kick that ended up causing a big ruckus.

It was thought that one of Imavov’s toes may have caught Dolidze in the eye, but either way, it was an illegal knee by current rules. If you thought that was the end of it, you’d be wrong. Chris Curtis happened to be part of Dolidze’s corner and started shouting something at Imavov. Next thing you know, Imavov is charging out of the cage trying to fight Chris Curtis.

Herb Dean had to almost tackle Imavov to keep him from starting a fight with Team Dolidze, all while shouting “I’ll disqualify you, don’t do it!” Dean would take a point from Imavov, as the kick was pretty egregious, and despite being obviously stunned. Dolidze opted to continue. When the decision was read and Imavov was being interviewed, he thanked Dolidze for being a warrior and soldiering through, not like Chris Curtis “who would never do that.”

The co-main event was a pretty solid fight with lots of action. Moicano would take the unanimous decision and of course, his mic time was memorable, as has become his standard. This time, though, he started strong, with a reference to his 62-year-old father having just fathered a child that was born yesterday and that he was going home to knock up his wife to keep the tradition alive.

Then, his speech began to come apart at the seams. While were basking in the glory of another verbal masterpiece from the Brazilian, he abruptly began talking about wanting to become a police officer after his UFC career so he could “kill bad guys” and then admonished everyone saying they needed to “go to church and respect the law” and that America was becoming a third world country.

Molly McCann’s move down a weight class seems to be just what the doctor ordered if we are to judge off this one contest where she was given about as soft a touch as there is in any of the women’s divisions. It was nice to see her get her first UFC submission and her post-fight interview was great. Her “talk less, do more” statement is something I wish more fighters would embrace.

And of course Natalia Silva looked great against a very tough gal in Viviane Araujo. Silva’s speedy, accurate kicks were the biggest key to victory and hopefully, she gets another fight asap. It’s a treat to watch her compete and she’s got such a bubbly, vivacious personality. She seems to have quite a high ceiling if she gets her striking a little more refined.

UFC Vegas 85 Quick Results

• – Nassourdine Imavov def. Roman Dolidze by majority decision (49-44, 48-46, 47-47): Middleweight
• – Renato Moicano def. Drew Dober by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Lightweight
• – Randy Brown def. Muslim Salikhov by KO at 3:17 of round 1: Welterweight
• – Natália Silva def. Viviane Araujo by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): (W) Flyweight
• – Makhmud Muradov vs. Aliaskhab Khizriev is a no contest due to eye poke at :11 of round 1: Middleweight
• – Charles Radtke def. Gilbert Urbina by TKO at 4:47 of round 1: Welterweight
• – Molly McCann def. Diana Belbiţă by submission (Armbar) at 4:59 of round 1: Strawweight
• – Charles Johnson def. Azat Maksum by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Flyweight
• – Themba Gorimbo def. Pete Rodriguez by TKO at :32 of round 1: Welterweight
• – Jeong Yeong Lee def. Blake Bilder by unanimous decision (30-27 x3): Featherweight
• – Luana Carolina def. Julija Stoliarenko by TKO at 4:52 of round 3: (W) Flyweight
• – Marquel Mederos def. Landon Quiñones by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Lightweight
• – Jamal Pogues def. Thomas Petersen by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x2): Heavyweight

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section where the boys give their patented, five-star review of all the fights from UFC Vegas 85. You can’t get this anywhere…or can you? We like to think you can’t, so we’ll stick with that. Just be sure to listen!

What comes after UFC Vegas 85?

The next event after UFC Vegas 85 will be UFC Fight Night: Hermansson vs. Pyfer on February 10th. That card is also taking place at the ol’ APEX facility in Las Vegas, and will also enjoy a middleweight main event when the 23-8 veteran, Jack Hermansson, dances with the surging 12-2, Joe Pyfer. The co-main will involve an explosive featherweight scrap between Dan Ige and Andre Fili.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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UFC Vegas 85 is kind of a mixed bag. The main card is solid—not great, but solid. However, the prelims are a whole other story. From the ultra softball match the promotion is giving Molly McCann to the lack of any name value aside from Molly’s, this undercard is a stinker.

But, that’s what we’ve come to expect from these absolutely liquid cards. There’s more water in these prelims than my mother’s backyard pool. And it’s not just us crybabies at Bloody Elbow complaining about it. Even the athletes know that being on an Apex Fight Night card carries about as much weight as a puff of smoke does in a tornado.

And even if there are great fights to come from this portion of the card, who’s going to remember anything about them by Monday? Who’s going to recommend one of these bouts to a friend interested in learning about MMA? Perhaps the mother of one of these fighters will tell her yoga class and really get the ball rolling. Yes, we know that some of you enjoy the small cage and lack of an audience, but a lot of us are ready to move on from the sterile confines of the Apex.

Listen to the Full episode via our podcast Substack

UFC Vegas 85 prelims pull a Bellator(ish) move

As mentioned above, Molly McCann is fighting on this card against Diana Belbita. Zane Simon noted that the UFC did a very “Bellator thing” in that Julia Stoliarenko defeated McCann last July, but instead of being featured in a higher spot on the card, she got buried near the bottom while Molly got one of, if not THE softest touch in the division and it’s the featured prelim. Doesn’t quite seem fair from where we’re sitting.

Charles Johnson is also fighting at UFC Vegas 85, but he’s got a few points of contention with the Apex, as well. In an interview with Jamie Theo, Johnson lamented that the UFC wouldn’t give him a ticket for his wife to watch him compete, citing that tickets are too expensive at $1600/each. He also noted that there is a regular heckler in the audience who shouts and heckles from cageside because he happens to have enough money to keep buying the tickets.

All of that said, there is something about the undercard that we should be rejoicing over. There is a single heavyweight fight on the bout sheet for this event. Finally, we get to see the big chungus guys where they belong, on the prelims. This one happens to be the curtain-jerker. We couldn’t be happier. If it’s not the Top six or eight, keep it to the prelims. This is the way.

UFC Vegas 85 Prelims

• Molly McCann  vs.  Diana Belbiţă 115 lbs
• Charles Johnson  vs.  Azat Maksum 125 lbs
• Themba Gorimbo  vs.  Pete Rodriguez 170 lbs
• Blake Bilder  vs.  Jeong Yeong Lee 145 lbs
• J. Stoliarenko  vs.  Luana Carolina 125 lbs
• Marquel Mederos  vs.  Landon Quiñones 155 lbs
• Thomas Petersen  vs.  Jamal Pogues 265 lbs

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section for a great review of the UFC 297 preliminary card. Make sure to tune in immediately after this weekend’s fights for breakdowns and analysis on our 6th Round Post-Fight Show.

Other pertinent information about UFC Vegas 85

UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs. Imavov (UFC Vegas 85) takes place on January 20th, at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card starts at 7 p.m. ET. The prelims begin at 4 p.m. ET. If you just so happen to be out in Nevada and want to witness UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs. Imavov live, you can purchase tickets by clicking here. UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs. Imavov can be live streamed on ESPN+ in the United States and Canada. For full streaming details, and compatible devices go here.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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UFC 300 is right around the corner and the brass has yet to name its main event. With time running out, the matchmakers and executives really need to put together something pretty darned quick because the window for a proper training camp is also closing. Yes, I’m sure the key players that the UFC is likely trying to negotiate with are in fighting shape or already engaged in a preparatory camp, but there are other particulars that require consideration. Marketing, special sponsors, promotional materials—basically all the necessities that most people don’t even think about need careful consideration for an event of this magnitude.

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Why do we need McGregor in the UFC 300 main event?

This year, UFC 300 is pretty important. It can be used as a tool to show the UFC’s considerable pay-per-view drawing power in negotiations with prospective broadcast partners, especially since this is the final year of their partnership with ESPN. And since TKO Holdings recently struck a massive $5B deal with Netflix, the potential for another deal with the streaming giant is a very real possibility.

Prospective deals could also be struck with Amazon (already in the combat sports space with PBC and ONE Championship) and even Apple could find themselves in the running. But with the cloud of the impending antitrust trial hanging over them and the appalling details of Vince McMahon’s sexual assault and sex trafficking case creating the worst possible attention they could garner, the UFC needs a major hit and UFC 300 could be the golden goose if they do what’s required.

And yes, I do believe that Conor McGregor is 50% of the UFC 300 main event solution. The company, in their haste to put brand over athlete, are running out of stars. Conor McGregor helped propel them to untold wealth and undoubtedly could put the event well over the 1M buys mark. I’d eat my beloved black and white Air Force 1’s if he didn’t do 1.5M buys. Do it with Michael Chandler. Do it with Nate Diaz. Just make it happen. The money you’ll pay Conor will pale in comparison to the money he’ll make you at UFC 300. Just do it.

What else did you discuss besides UFC 300

We also discussed Jake Paul’s latest opponent, a 17-2 boxer who has an incredible limbo game by the looks of one of his two losses. You can check a clip of that out below. And finally, we predicted four fights from this weekend’s surprisingly good Apex card. Those fights are as follows:

UFC Vegas 85 Predictions

• Roman Dolidze  vs.  Nassourdine Imavov
• Renato Moicano  vs.  Drew Dober
• Randy Brown  vs.  Muslim Salikhov
• Viviane Araujo  vs.  Natália Silva

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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In what seems to be the most serendipitous timing in history, TKO Holdings was able to close a monumental deal with Netflix worth $5B to run WWE content over the next ten years. As a matter of fact, the press release announcing the broadcast partnership came just two days ahead of the bombshell exposé the Wall Street Journal did on former WWE head and TKO executive board member Vince McMahon. Very serendipitous, indeed.

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Netflix is paying $5B for WWE content

The horrific details were gathered from a lawsuit filed the morning of January 25th by a former WWE employee. The Wall Street Journal had been notified in advance and the story was ready to go as soon as the lawsuit was filed. The damning article unsurprisingly went viral, eliciting a universal response of disgust across the sports and entertainment community, even carried as the lead news story on some mainstream networks. The following day, the disgraced McMahon resigned from his roles at WWE and TKO Holdings.

The WWE continued onward with their weekend Royal Rumble event, and in the leadup to the festivities, Paul Levesque (aka Triple H) would dodge questions about his father-in-law, stating that he’d “rather focus on the positive,” indicating the conversation needed to keep moving. That exchange can be seen here:

It’s not hard to imagine Netflix’s horror now that their landmark deal has been marred by McMahon’s alleged misdeeds which include sexual assault and sex trafficking. With the UFC’s broadcast partnership with ESPN coming to a close at year’s end, their insatiable need for bigger deals could be realized with one of the streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon or even Apple.

Could the UFC be facing a more arduous battle in convincing their next broadcast partner (be it a renewed deal with ESPN or a new one with someone else) to pony up a king’s ransom for their content now that McMahon and other WWE officials (and even a heavyweight superstar) have been named in the lawsuit and the focal point of the WSJ post? Our trio of analysts examined all the particulars and even discussed how Dwayne “Rock” Johnson’s new role as a TKO Holdings board member was ushered in with the Netflix deal.

What else did you cover besides WWE’s Netflix deal?

But that’s not all. The guys also gave us an update on the UFC antitrust case with the new, official date for the trial and how long it’s expected to proceed. There was also plenty of lively discussion on how cleverly the defendants delayed the case, and what losing could look like for them.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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UFC 297 is officially in the books, the first PPV of the year and it brought us two brand new champions. The card, as a whole, wasn’t very strong on paper, and in practice, it was a bit underwhelming. The early prelims were great and saw serious action from the jump. But as the event wore on, the fights began slowing down. It was almost as if we were in a sort of intermission phase.

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UFC 297 started strong then began to fizzle

Charles Jourdain vs. Sean Woodson was a good enough scrap, but is it one that would still be on your mind next week? The most noteworthy thing about that fight was the mixup with the announcement of the winner. Actually, there was something else to this contest and that is it should have never been a split decision. The judging there was horrendous.

Brad Katona vs. Garrett Armfield wasn’t exactly a banger either, but here again, it wasn’t awful. Movsar Evloev vs. Arnold Allen was a good fight that showcased the talent of both men, but it was mired in controversy over some knees that may not have actually been illegal. It was a sour end to what was shaping up to be a tremendous sequence, possibly a fight-ender.

Chris Curtis being called “Action Man” is kind of funny. When you wait until the third round to actually get the action going, perhaps you might want to rethink your nickname. It’s not suited to your style, which seems content to point fight until forced into getting down to brute force. Round three was great, but why wait till then to let your fists go?

Mike Mallott was doing so well for two entire rounds against Neil Magny, and as the fight wore on, the more comfortable he became. So comfortable, in fact, that an over-eager mistake cost him the fight. He was winning it by a country mile, too. Then he got overzealous, losing a scramble in the third and eating a ferocious flurry from Magny that forced the ref to intervene with just 15 seconds left on the clock. Brutal!

UFC 297 crowns two new champions

The co-main event saw a fresh Mayra Bueno Silva take the first round of the fight but by the time the second round rolled around, Raquel Pennington had made her adjustments and dominated the rest of the fight. Bueno Silva was completely gassed by the time round three rolled around and remained that way, taking a nasty beating from the new champ in the process. Was it exciting? It had a few moments, but overall, it was an ugly, grindy fight.

The first two rounds of the main event had moments where it felt like we were watching a sparring session, then, in the blink of an eye, a fight would break out. By round three, we were starting to see the momentum pick up and from there, it was an action-packed battle. Both men ended up battered, bruised and bloody, but it would be Du Plessis taking the split decision and the belt from Strickland amid cries of “robbery” on the social media streets. It was the end of the Strickland era.

UFC 297 Quick Results

Main card

• – Dricus Du Plessis def. Sean Strickland via unanimous decision (48-47×2,47-48)
• – Raquel Pennington def. Mayra Bueno Silva via unanimous decision (49-46×2, 49-45)
• – Neil Magny def. Mike Malott by TKO at 4:45 of round 3: Welterweight
• – Chris Curtis def. Marc-André Barriault by split decision (30-27 x2, 28-29 ): Middleweight
• – Movsar Evloev def. Arnold Allen by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Featherweight

Prelims

• – Garrett Armfield def. Brad Katona by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Bantamweight
• – Sean Woodson def. Charles Jourdain by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29): Featherweight
• – Ramon Taveras def. Serhiy Sidey by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29): Bantamweight
• – Gillian Robertson def. Polyana Viana by TKO at 3:12 of round 2: Strawweight
• – Sam Patterson def. Yohan Lainesse by submission (RNC) at 2:03 of round 1: Welterweight
• – Jasmine Jasudavicius def. Priscila Cachoeira by submission (D’arce) at 4:21 of round 3: (W) Flyweight
• – Jimmy Flick def. Malcolm Gordon by submission (Arm Triangle) at 1:17 of round 2: Flyweight

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section where the boys give their patented, five-star review of all the fights and UFC 297 as a complete event. You can’t get this anywhere…or can you? We like to think you can’t, so we’ll stick with that. Just be sure to listen!

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

Jump to

We were pretty happy with the main card of UFC 297, but the preliminary portion leaves a lot to be desired. We can’t figure out how this undercard was paired with the five fights that will come after it. From the lack of ranked fighters to the dearth of name value, we think it’s kind of a stinker.

UFC 297, what are you doing with this undercard?!

So what exactly are we working with here? Well, we have some names that casuals wouldn’t recognize—most hardcores might struggle with a few of them too—and the ones we are familiar with aren’t that good and don’t really seem to provide much in the way of upward movement into or through the rankings.

Considering the regional level fodder the Apex typically gets, one would hope that the PPV cards would get better treatment, but judging by the looks of these contests, we almost feel like we’re actually looking at an Apex card, and that doesn’t sit well with us, especially for the first PPV of the year.

As a matter of fact, not a single fighter on the undercard is ranked. Not one. It’s pretty bad when every single athlete involved in the first four fights—all eight of them—are coming off losses. It’s pretty easy to see why the Saudis put their foot down when the UFC offered Apex level slop like this to them for an event they paid a $20M site fee for.

When ESPN became the broadcast partner of UFC after the FOX deal expired, the community got a big shock with the quality of events and it’s steadily gone downhill since. When the company is guaranteed money no matter what, why bother putting in more than the minimal amount of effort.

Their system works, though, because they keep having banner year after banner year revenue-wise, but one has to wonder when fans will finally grow weary of watered down cards and start seeking other avenues to get their fight fix, be it another promotion or another sport altogether.

UFC 297 Prelims

• Brad Katona  vs.  Garrett Armfield 135 lbs
• Charles Jourdain  vs.  Sean Woodson 145 lbs
• Serhiy Sidey  vs.  Ramon Taveras 135 lbs
• Gillian Robertson  vs.  Polyana Viana 115 lbs
• Yohan Lainesse  vs.  Sam Patterson 170 lbs
• J. Jasudavicius  vs.  P. Cachoeira 125 lbs
• Malcolm Gordon  vs.  Jimmy Flick 125 lbs

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section for a great review of the UFC Vegas 84 preliminary card. Make sure to tune in immediately after this weekend’s fights for breakdowns and analysis on our 6th Round Post-Fight Show.

Listen to the MMA Vivisection undercard analysis on UFC 297 via our podcast Substack

Start date and time

UFC 297: Strickland vs. Du Plessis takes place on January 20th, at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The main card starts at 10 p.m. ET. The early preliminary card begins at 6:30 p.m. ET, with the regular prelims kicking off at 8 p.m. ET.

Tickets

If you just so happen to be out in Nevada and want to witness UFC 297: Strickland vs. Du Plessis live, you can purchase tickets by clicking here.

PPV price and Live streams

UFC 297: Strickland vs. Du Plessis is available on ESPN+ PPV for $79.99 for current subscribers. New subscribers can pay $124.98 for the UFC 291 pay-per-view and an ESPN+ annual subscription. The event is scheduled to start live at 10:00am ET, 7:00am PT, with the prelims on the ESPN+ streaming platform in the US, as well as Fight Pass. The PPV main card is to kick off at 2:00pm ET, 11:00am PT. For full streaming details, and compatible devices go here.

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, Karim Zidan and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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In case you’ve not caught up on your MMA news and gossip, word on the street is that the UFC had to move their March card from Riyadh to the Apex because the Saudis didn’t like the regional level card they were offered up, despite UFC charging them a $20M site fee for the event. Listen, if I were in their shoes, I would’ve declined that card too.

Listen to the free preview

Check out the full episode on our podcast substack

UFC can’t send the Saudis Apex leftovers

The news broke Sunday when Ariel Helwani reported that the UFC has been forced to re-schedule their planned debut in Riyadh, “because the powers that be in Saudi Arabia want… a more entertaining fight card. They want a deeper fight card with bigger names on it.” We’ll give you the list of proposed fights, but sit with this thought for just a moment, the Saudis could bring about the tides of change before the antitrust suit even gets its opportunity.

With Riyadh quickly becoming the new destination for heavyweight boxing, along with their infusion of cash to PFL, things are going to get interesting pretty quickly. Just yesterday, PFL announced their massive Bellator vs. PFL event—also taking place in Riyadh—so there’s no doubt about the seriousness of their interest in combat sports. Is it sportswashing? You bet your hiney it is. Our good friend Karim Zidan called this outcome just a couple weeks ago on this very show.

Now, lets take a look at those proposed fights for the card they offered Saudi Arabia:

• Mohammad Mokaev vs. Alex Perez
• Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev
• Eryk Anders vs. Jamie Pickett
• Joel Alvarez vs. Ludovit Klein
• Javid Basharat vs. Aiemann Zahabi
• Yanis Ghemmouri vs. Vinicius Oliveira
• Brendon Marotte vs. Mohammad Yahya
• Abdul-Kerim Al-Selwady vs. Loik Radzhabov

UFC 297 bout selection for predictions

The one and only Mookie Alexander guest hosted today’s episode so we could make our yearly champions predictions, break down seven select fights from UFC 297, and took a look back at UFC Vegas 84. Mookie absolutely smoked Victor and I in our Level Change predictions in 2023, so we’re hoping to put a stop to his winning ways this year. Here’s the bouts we chose for our predictions this week:

• Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis
• Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva
• Chris Curtis vs. M. Barriault
• Arnold Allen vs. Movsar Evloev
• Brad Katona vs. Garrett Armfield
• Gillian Robertson vs. Polyana Viana

Thank you for reading this post and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash and Karim Zidan. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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Andrei Arlovski keeps on keeping on

UFC is back, baby! And by “back,” we mean back at the Apex. But, all is not lost, as the prelims are actually kind of good. That said, don’t let the featured prelim fool you, because that fight is very likely going to be bad. It’s a heavyweight fight, after all, and we know how those go when the top of the division isn’t fighting.

We can’t hate on Andrei Arlovski, though. The man is 44 years old and is commanding six-figure purses to fight whomever they put in front of him, although lately, it’s been the likes of Cortes-Acosta, Chase Sherman, Jake Collier, Jared Vanderaa, and most recently, Marcos Rogerio de Lima and Don’Tale Mayes, both of whom defeated the Belarussian former champion.

Cortes-Acosta has been fighting similar caliber opponents, so it’s not exactly out of the realm of possibility for Arlovski to get a win, but honestly, it’s starting to look like the “Pitbull” might finally be ready for the fat lady to sing. We’ll have to see how it all pans out on Saturday. Let’s take a look at the rest of the undercard to see what we’re working with:

UFC Vegas 84 Prelim card

• Andrei Arlovski  vs.  W. Cortes-Acosta 265 lbs
• M. Semelsberger  vs.  Preston Parsons 170 lbs
• Marcus McGhee  vs.  Gaston Bolaños 135 lbs
• Farid Basharat  vs.  Taylor Lapilus 135 lbs
• Westin Wilson  vs.  Jean Silva 145 lbs
• Tom Nolan  vs.  Nikolas Motta 155 lbs
• Felipe Bunes  vs.  Joshua Van 125 lbs

In case you haven’t noticed, there are some fresh faces dotting the prelims. Of those gentlemen, we think Tom Nolan and Jean Silva might be worth paying attention to. This is do or die time for Nikolas Motta who hasn’t had a very impressive run in the UFC. His opponent, Tom Nolan, is a very aggressive striker with KO power. Motta will have to dig deep if he wants to ensure his roster spot doesn’t end up in another up-and-comers hands.

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section for a great review of the UFC 296 preliminary card. Make sure to tune in immediately after this weekend’s fights for breakdowns and analysis on our 6th Round Post-Fight Show.

Subscribe to the Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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UFC Johnny Walker vs. Magomed Ankalaev 2 preview

After an entire month away, the UFC is back to the old grindstone, and trust me, the Apex is the old grindstone these days. And what do we get for all these long nights we waited for your return? A rematch nobody ever asked for that a whole bunch of people seem to not care much about.

If we go back in our memory palaces, we will recall that the first contest between Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker didn’t go quite the way anybody had hoped. It was back at UFC 294 this past October when Ankalaev threw an illegal knee and after the ringside physician was called in to assess Walker, he determined that the Brazilian contender wouldn’t be able to continue.

At the time, Johnny, along with a lot of fans and media, felt the stoppage wasn’t warranted but who knew that the rematch would end up being the first main event of 2024. The fight is between two ranked opponents. It’s important in the pantheon of light heavyweight fights, at least.

But nobody was clamoring to see this bout. The UFC could have moseyed on along and never bothered and it’s doubtful anyone would be the wiser.

UFC Vegas 84 main card

There are other worthwhile fights on the UFC Vegas 84 card, and there are six ranked fighters, so perhaps we’re being a little harsh. Let’s take a look at the main card:

• Magomed Ankalaev  vs.  Johnny Walker 205 lbs
• Matheus Nicolau  vs.  Manel Kape 125 lbs
• Jim Miller  vs.  Gabriel Benítez 155 lbs
• Ricky Simón  vs.  Mario Bautista 135 lbs
• Phil Hawes  vs.  Brunno Ferreira 185 lbs

Matheus Nicolau and Manel Kape is also a rematch, although a much more welcome one. Their first fight ended in a split decision and plenty of time has gone by for both men to have gained a wealth of experience. With the excitement factor both bring to the table, it’s hard to imagine this fight being anything other than exciting.

And at the age of 40, New Jersey native Jim Miller is still winning after 42 fights inside the UFC octagon. He holds the record for most fights and most wins inside the promotion. He’s the grizzled veteran that they send the fresh talent to, and more often than not, they get sorted out with 4oz of leather.

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section for a great review of the UFC 296 main card. Make sure to tune in immediately after this weekend’s fights for breakdowns and analysis on our 6th Round Post-Fight Show.

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash and Karim Zidan. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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Over the course of the last few weeks, several boxing stories have dropped. We watched Showtime air its last event after nearly 38 years of broadcasting the sport. From there, PBC, who had been calling Showtime their broadcasting home, ended up signing a huge deal with Amazon, so we’ve got one major promotion secured and accounted for. But what about the others?

Listen to the free preview

Is UFC in the market for a ready-made boxing promotion?

That brings us to Top Rank. Bob Arum, Top Rank’s founder and CEO, has been talking about selling the company for years. It would be a costly expenditure for whomever decided to take the plunge—Nash estimates the asking price to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200M-$300M.

The combat sports grapevine has had recent rumors swirling around that Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC, could be interested in snapping up the promotion with one of, if not the most extensive library in the sport. The roster that Arum has amassed is hefty, as well and probably more important than the roster are the many connections and unofficial partners Arum has cultivated.

His willingness to work with other promotions and fighters outside his stable has made news frequently, so potential buyers would likely be getting their money’s worth. The counter argument to the rumored purchase is how hard it is to make money—or should I say the kind of money that the lopsided split Endeavor/UFC has with the athletes currently under their roster affords them— when the Ali Act prevents them from operating the way they do within the confines of their MMA business.

Nash weighs all the pros of why Endeavor would be interested and the cons of why they wouldn’t. We even discuss why Golden Boy Promotions would likely never be in the running for a purchase.

Francis Ngannou has secured another bag

And of course we discussed Francis Ngannou’s big news of a boxing match with Anthony Joshua. The two former champs are set to clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this Spring (tentative date is March 8, 2024). Nash looked at how much Ngannou could be making and noted that there’s a very good chance that Francis could out-earn Conor McGregor this year and might be on track to make the Forbes list of highest paid athletes.

After seeing Ngannou’s coach, Eric Nicksick, take to social media to discuss the life-changing money he was paid for his services in preparing Francis for Tyson Fury, one has to wonder just how big the bag he got for that fight truly was. By our estimation, it must’ve been really big. Nash figures this upcoming bout with Joshua will easily dwarf the first and will likely be double or more than what that fight paid out.

Finally, we discussed the flood of Saudi money coming into both MMA and boxing that has allowed for mega events in the sport like when Francis Ngannou fought Tyson Fury. From pricey site fees to broadcast partners and what weight divisions they are laser-focused on, we tried to hit all the topics we could think of. Check out the FULL episode on our podcast Substack.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com. 

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Thank you for reading this article. Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current combat sports news and opinions.

Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash, and Connor Ruebusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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Listen to The MMA Depressed-Us now!

2023 was a pretty wild year. The very first day saw UFC president Dana White slap his wife on camera and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the year. One thing that never changes is the sport’s ability to provide some of the greatest fights, and alternately, some of the worst. That’s why we’re here, to provide you with an unbiased (or maybe completely biased) look at the worst, to bring you soul-crushing, joy-stealing fights. These are the ones you wish you’d made your beer run during.

Cody Garbrandt featured in our most depressing fight of the year

So, which MMA fights did our terrific trio decide to depress us with this week? The boys went excavating the Fight Pass library and came up with a pair of UFC bouts, and the third is a ONE contest that despite it’s exciting nature, was pretty much a slopfest that somehow managed to still draw the performance of the night award for one of the fighters. Let’s take a look at the three match-ups the boys chose:

1. Cody Garbrandt vs. Trevin Jones (available on Fight Pass)
2. Anthony Smith vs. Johnny Walker (available on Fight Pass)
3. Reug Reug vs. Marcos ‘Buchecha’ Almeida (via Youtube link below)

Cody Garbrandt’s bout with Trevin Jones was his return to bantamweight after a 15-month hiatus following a disastrous debut at flyweight. That fight ended with Kai Kara-France scoring the TKO victory, so it’s understandable Cody’s style change dramatically on his return versus Jones.

Anthony Smith vs. Johnny Walker was an absolute stinker, full stop. One would never know that these two men have 53 finishes between them. Smith looked like he was fighting underwater and Walker looked like he didn’t really want to engage. It’s easy to see how this one ended up on the list.

Reug-Reug vs. Buchecha was a wild brawl that saw both men go for broke. The moment the decision was read, Reug Reug collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Comments like “That was the best ‘worst’ fight ever” dotted social media and our team agrees, it was so bad it might just have ended up being good. You judge for yourself:

Subscribe to The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Thank you for listening to the MMA Depressed-Us

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Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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The holidays are always good for fun videos and photos, lively quips and interviews and lots of social media posts by combat sports athletes, but none have been quite as mesmerizing as the ones Conor McGregor puts out. Over the last two weeks of the holiday season, the Irish former champ-champ kept jaws wagging with some over the top antics.

Conor McGregor had a lively holiday

We start off with his appearance at the Joshua-Wallin / Wilder-Parker fight card where he was instantly memed following video footage of him seemingly jabbering Cristiano Ronaldo’s ear off, all while the soccer star looked like he’d rather be anywhere but the seat he was in. Conor delighted in his captive audience, regaling them with talks of a possible fight with Manny Pacquiao and the size of the ring the boxers would be in.

From there we discuss his interview with Gareth Davies where “The Notorious” said the UFC was gravely mistreating him. He even went so far as to say that no other fighter in history had been as mistreated as he had (the entire roster would like a word). He lamented how a fight with Pacquiao was being brought to him and UFC was doing nothing.

Then we got to his New Year’s announcement of the next appointment on his fight schedule. Yesterday, he announced that his next contest would indeed be against Michael Chandler. McGregor stated that the fight would go down at International Fight Week and most surprisingly, it would be at the middleweight limit of 185lbs.

Interview with Ed Zitron of EZ PR

We also have a stellar interview with EZ PR’s Ed Zitron who weighed in on crypto and AI and all the pitfalls associated with it. It was an enlightening conversation that you won’t want to miss and to start off this 2024 year with a bang, we’re giving it away to you for FREE, so make sure you check it out and hit the subscribe button if you haven’t already done it.

Subscribe to The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack

Thank you for reading this post and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

For free previews of our shows, follow us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PodBean, Pocket Casts or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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Mojave Diamonds features ‘UFC superstars’

Mojave Diamonds won’t be taking the awards season by storm, but it is an unintentional comedic gem. The acting is awful, the dialogue is ridiculous, the action is brawlic and the vibe is as cringe as one would imagine when met with a cast that features Chael Sonnen, Donald Cerrone and Quinton Jackson aka “Rampage”.

All three men have featured in other action films but only Rampage has starred in a true, big budget production. Back in 2010, he starred as B.A. Baracus in the film remake of 80’s TV staple The A Team alongside Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper. These days, he’s limited to low budget movies like these.

Donald Cerrone has been in a few “so bad they’re good” films, but none stood out quite as much as the 2022 western drama the hall-of-famer starred in with Gina Carano, Terror on the Prairie, produced by the Daily Wire. The movie earned a whopping $13,115 in theaters across the U.S., Russia and the UAE.

Sonnen has been in a few films before this one (Here Comes the Boom and Grudge Match), but none with as prominent a role, and has made multiple TV appearances. Between the three retired stars, there is a wealth of cinematic experience—at least being in front of a camera.

Even the IMDB description seems a little phoned in:

“A former MMA fighter and his brothers must rescue their kidnapped family from a dangerous crime syndicate after $50M of illegal diamonds gets stolen.”

I have some questions about these Mojave Diamonds!

1. How did the brothers’ family end up in a situation to be kidnapped?
2. Who is this dangerous crime syndicate and why did they target this family?
3. Why are the diamonds ‘illegal’?

If you, like me, are wanting answers to these questions, you can watch along with the boys as the movie is available in its entirety on Youtube. For USA listeners, start the movie at the 30 second mark. For international listeners, start the movie at the 43 second mark.

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Thank you for reading this article. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack and the Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash and Karim Zidan. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.

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Zach Arnold discusses how Power Slap got sanctioned in California

While our fearless leader battles malware demons and other wicked foes, I sneaked back into his bunker for another chat with longtime investigative journalist Zach Arnold. I don’t know where Nate hid the shotgun (even though I said it was by the door), and I’m pretty sure that the mongrel outside the gates isn’t his mighty hound, but I did pull the shades and I looked under the lampshades for listening devices.

Zach has an incredible pair of articles up on our regular Substack that chronicle the events leading to the surprising decision by California to sanction Power Slap. If you’d like to read them and/or follow along, you can find them here and here. We get a point by point examination of the key players, events leading to the hush-hush meeting and potential outcomes. Suffice to say that now that California has fallen, the rest of the dominoes will, as well. Let’s take a look at our main bullet points of the conversation:

1. Why was the meeting to sanction Power Slap held on a Saturday?
2. How does Mark Hunt’s lawsuit figure in?
3. Proving/disproving drug test results explainer
4. Did Endeavor know in advance that Power Slap was getting sanctioned?
5. Why was there no written legal analysis?
6. What is a waiver asserting jurisdiction?
7. Why was this decision rushed out?
8. Why did they lump Bare Knuckle and Power Slap together at this meeting?
9. Defining the Zuffa myth 
10. Explain the gold standard
11. Where were the doctors?
12. “Trained athletes”
13. How Ronda Rousey’s mother is involved
14. How influential was Hunter Campbell at this meeting?
15. Athlete transport to hospitals and how that figures in
16. Establishing a trend
17. Using UFC image to prop up illusion of safety
18. First mover status + reg. capture
19. Market for Power Slap
20. Medical community response
21. Why Cali is Holy Grail

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Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

For free previews of our shows, follow us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PodBean, Pocket Casts or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

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Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua made his name in PRIDE and cemented it in the UFC with a style that was crowd-pleasing in both promotions. Fights with Rampage Jackson and Dan Henderson are what fans immediately call up to memory, but you could really go through his record and see a veritable cornucopia of names going as far back as 2003 when he faced Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos aka Cris Cyborg’s ex-husband.

That wasn’t Shogun’s first fight, though. It was still early on in his career, being just his third professional contest. From there he would take on names like Renato “Babalu” Sobral (his first loss), Akihiro Gono, Alistair Overeem, the aforementioned Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and a laundry list of other notable names, taking just two losses in 18 fights before arriving to the UFC.

The Depressed-Us lineup

He’d fight 24 times in the UFC but could only count 11 wins among them. 12 of them were losses and one was a draw. Today, the terrific trio is going to dive into three terrible performances of one Shogun Rua. Your hosts have chosen the following fights:

• Shogun vs. Griffin
• Shogun vs. Gustafsson
• Shogun vs. OSP 2

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch now available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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Karim Zidan discusses sportswashing in MMA

Of all the many voices in combat sports, Karim Zidan’s is one of the most important. Considering the direction the media has taken in the space, Karim still isn’t afraid to report on the uglier side of it all. With sportswashing becoming more and more common, we wanted to get an educated opinion on it and where combat sports could be headed in the next few years.

Karim was generous with his time, so we were able to get in lots of questions. We’ve also tapped him to come back on a more regular basis and he has graciously agreed to try and join us every few weeks. Today’s questions were focused around Saudi Arabia pouring money into combat sports (and sports in general).

We discussed the connection of PFL receiving a $100M investment and signing Francis Ngannou just a few weeks later, the rivalry between Saudia Arabia and the UAE, if ONE has any shot at gaining some of the Saudi money that seems to be just begging for investment, as well as what the landscape could look like in just a few years. Hint: we might be seeing a lot more events in Riyadh.

There was much more to the episode, but we were happiest with being able to shine a light on Karim’s latest undertaking, getting his late grandmother’s art the recognition it deserves. It’s an episode you won’t want to miss and….. it’s free!

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Thank you for reading this post and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

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And subscribe to Sports Politika too!

To read more work from Karim Zidan, subscribe to Sports Politika on Substack today!

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Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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Listen to the UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington 6th Round Post-Fight Show now!

UFC 296 just wrapped and we’re still trying to figure out what happened to Colby Covington. The king of volume certainly had very little of it tonight. Leon Edwards basically had his way with him 26 different ways from Sunday in one of the most boring fights of the year. Perhaps now the UFC will make way for more deserving title challengers.

Paddy Pimblett bests Tony Ferguson, Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis brawl

Alexandre Pantoja was able to defend his title as well, but it wasn’t an easy task. Once Royval got his timing down—or more accurately, once Pantoja got tired—he was able to start getting in some good work but Pantoja would change levels every time Royval started getting somewhere with his striking. It was a great fight at the start that devolved into straight survival mode by the champ.

Paddy Pimblett looked good in those first two rounds but by the time the third rolled around, he was spent and Ferguson was able to mount a bit more offense than in the previous two rounds. It wasn’t enough, though, and Paddy won a comfortable decision against a truly shopworn Ferguson in a fight that depressed everyone.

Sandwiched in between fights was a brawl that broke out in the crowd. It was between middleweight champion Sean Strickland and his next opponent, Dricus DuPlessis. The two have been hot under the collar since Thursday when Dricus managed to get under Sean’s skin with some comments about his father.

Fast forward to tonight when the UFC in their divine wisdom, sat these two literally a single row apart from each other. They jawed back and forth constantly until Sean decided he’d had enough and after making sure Gilbert Burns’ kids were out of the way, he leapt over the chairs and started wailing on Dricus.

The commentary team would bemoan the violence and say how bad it looked, yet at the end of the broadcast, they talked it up and aired it on TV. Then, official UFC accounts on social media began promoting it. Gross.

There were some great moments throughout, but we have to save something for the episode, so here’s a look at the quick results:

UFC 296 Results

Main Card

• – Leon Edwards def. Colby Covington via unanimous decision (49-46×3): Welterweight Title
• – Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval: Flyweight Title
• – Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson: Welterweight
• – Paddy Pimblett def. Tony Ferguson by unanimous decision (30-27 x3): Lightweight
• – Josh Emmett def. Bryce Mitchell via KO at 1:57 of round 1: Featherweight

Prelims

• – Irene Aldana def. Karol Rosa by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): (W) Bantamweight
• – Cody Garbrandt def. Brian Kelleher by KO at 3:42 of round 1: Bantamweight
• – Ariane Lipski def. Casey O’Neill by submission (Armbar) at 1:18 of round 2: (W) Flyweight
• – Alonzo Menifield def. Dustin Jacoby via unanimous decision (29-28×3): Light Heavyweight
• – Tagir Ulanbekov def. Cody Durden by submission (RNC) at 4:25 of round 2: Flyweight
• – Andre Fili def. Lucas Almeida by TKO at 3:32 of round 1: Featherweight
• – Shamil Gaziev def. Martin Buday by TKO at :56 of round 2: Heavyweight

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section where the boys give their patented, five-star review of all the fights. You can’t get this anywhere…or can you? We like to think you can’t, so we’ll stick with that. Just be sure to listen!

Subscribe to The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack

Thank you for reading this post and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

For free previews of our shows, follow us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PodBean, Pocket Casts or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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Listen to the MMA Vivisection now!

UFC 296: Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington preview

UFC 296 is how you end a tumultuous year that has seen some of the biggest news in years. From Francis Ngannou making the biggest free agency move the sport has ever seen to the antitrust lawsuit updates, 2023 was jam-packed with headlines, and most were not encouraging.

One of the things fight fans and pundits noticed most was how many cards seemed slapped together by an artificial intelligence program, devoid of any rhyme or reason. That isn’t the case with UFC 296. Both the main and the preliminary cards are chock full of bouts that will please even the most finicky fan.

We’re here to look at the main card which features two title bouts and a myriad of important match-ups that could determine top contender status and one that could see the winner challenge for the welterweight strap. Let’s take a look at what we’re working with:

UFC 296 Main Card

• – Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington 170 lbs
• – Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval 125 lbs
• – Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson 170 lbs
• – Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett 155 lbs
• – Vicente Luque vs. Ian Machado Garry 170 lbs

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section for a great review of the UFC Vegas 83 main card. Make sure to tune in immediately after this weekend’s fights for breakdowns and analysis on our 6th Round Post-Fight Show.

Subscribe to The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

For free previews of our shows, follow us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PodBean, Pocket Casts or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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Listen to Show Money Ep. 56 now!

This week, our tremendous trio returns with a new episode. The big topics on deck are details around PFL’s buyout of Bellator and all the latest antitrust updates. The antitrust case has been the gift that keeps on giving as that tree continually produces fruit. This time, the guys take a look at the latest requests from the defendants.

What’s the latest on PFL’s buyout of Bellator and the UFC’s antitrust case?

The defendants (Zuffa, UFC, et. al) have made several requests, among them a motion to reopen discovery, but it was denied. They appealed the class certification with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals but that was also denied. They have a motion for summary judgement and one to exclude the plaintiffs’ expert witness active at the moment.

Our team of experts (John Nash, Jason Cruz and Paul Gift) break down what these motions mean and the particulars that are included with the requests. They also give a thorough accounting of the Bellator buyout, if it can be profitable and the state of MMA competition. You won’t want to miss this jam-packed episode!

Subscribe to The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

For free previews of our shows, follow us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PodBean, Pocket Casts or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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Listen to the Level Change as we talk UFC 296 Now!

UFC 296 is a card done right and proof that when the UFC wants to, they can absolutely put on great events. With the stranglehold they have over the sport, all their cards could look a lot better and they certainly need to get the majority of them out of that stinkin’ Apex facility, but I digress. We need to stay on track here.

Two title fights sit atop a bout sheet that is loaded with important bouts primed for movement up the contender’s ladder. Even those dreaded heavyweight fights aren’t so bad. Pairing an 11-0 athlete with a 13-1 athlete is a much better idea than constantly dragging out aging guys on the tail end of their careers.

Top to bottom, it’s one of the best cards of the year on paper. A proper end to a wild year filled with news that showcased the UFC’s wealth and power to an extent that shocked fans and media alike. This is the kind of event you reward your diehard fans with., even if we’re no longer your focus.

For a card of this magnitude, we had to get Mookie Alexander back on the show to break it down from the opening bout all the way to the headliner. We skipped no fights—every last one is predicted. You’re welcome. Here’s the card in its entirety:

UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington Full fight card

Main card

• – Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington: Welterweight Title
• – Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval: Flyweight Title
• – Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson: Welterweight
• – Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett: Lightweight
• – Ian Machado Garry vs. Vicente Luque: Welterweight

Prelims

• – Josh Emmettn vs. Bryce Mitchell: Featherweight
• – Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa: (W) Bantamweight
• – Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher: Bantamweight
• – Casey O’Neill vs. Ariane Lipski: (W) Flyweight
• – Dustin Jacoby vs. Alonzo Menifield: Light Heavyweight
• – Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Cody Durden: Flyweight
• – Andre Fili vs. Lucas Almeida: Featherweight
• – Shamil Gaziev vs. Martin Buday: Heavyweight
• – Randy Brown vs. Muslim Salikhov: Welterweight

Bonus Section: Jake Paul out-Googled UFC, boxing in 2023

In our bonus section, we take a look at some of the headlines of the week. The Google report that showed Jake Paul’s antics still have him drawing better in Google searches than Conor McGregor, the UFC and boxing as a whole. We also discussed California’s boneheaded move to sanction Power Slap.

Thank you for reading this post and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC and MMA coverage. Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site.

Join the new Bloody Elbow

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Listen to the MMA Bunker now!

Kid Nate talks behind-the-scenes at Bloody Elbow

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a Bunker episode, so we decided to do something a little different. Nate pulled the blinds, put the shotgun by the door and the attack dog patrolled the perimeter as he welcomed me into his hallowed grounds for a bit of a role reversal. This week, I put Nate in the hot seat to provide a detailed update on what’s going on with Bloody Elbow.

He discussed how Bloody Elbow came to be independent, what the future looks like, what he hopes for 2024 and more. It’s a very honest accounting and even includes why you may be seeing malicious adware on the site and the steps we’re taking to fix it. But that’s not all.

Zach Arnold stops by to talk UFC/WWE Biz

We also have a Q&A with Zach Arnold who has a stellar long form article up on our Substack. The article breaks down the UBS conference call Mark Shapiro was a part of, so we decided Zach needed to come back to the Bunker to do a companion explainer that our listeners can check out if they don’t have time to take in the long form piece. Here’s the topics we discussed:

• Who is Mark Shapiro?
• What was the reason/purpose of the call?
• Rights fees and WWE RAW
• Sponsorship from 5x to 25x growth expectancy / $1B the magic number
• Why PFL/Bellator merger + ESPN broadcast deal is potentially good for TKO
• Is TKO recession-proof ?
• What about the antitrust case? Shouldn’t they be worried?
• Raytheon/Pfizer govt. Contractor model explainer
• Bundling events
• Power Slap’s politicking
• Endeavor AI
• WWE Deplorables

Subscribe to The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

For free previews of our shows, follow us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PodBean, Pocket Casts or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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Listen to UFC Vegas 83: Song vs. Gutierrez 6th Round Post-Fight Show now!

UFC Vegas 83 was a great looking card on paper but unfortunately, the main event kind of stunk up the joint. With several finishes and some damned good battles, we were definitely on track to be the recipients of a warm winter’s gift. What we got was a far cry from it and what WAS that judging on the Park-Muniz fight?

Song Yadong dominates Chris Gutierrez

Song Yadong was pretty dominant over Chris Gutierrez, using superior wrestling to mitigate any offense Chris might have mounted. Although, by round 4, it seemed that Gutierrez was just content in keeping himself out of harm’s way. Song stayed heavy and was conscientious about staying active from the top, raining down all manner of punches and elbows. It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective enough to pick up a shutout win.

Anthony Smith took his third loss in four fights, forcing everyone to wonder when will we be spared of having to watch him get beaten up. It’s kind of hard to overlook that Johnny Walker managed to decision him. The other two fights he lost were finishes.

Tim Elliott was signed to a fresh contract again, as he came back as a late replacement for Allan Nascimento. It didn’t even take him a full round to put Su Mudaerji to sleep. There were some great moments peppered throughout the card, and for that, we are happy. Let’s take a look at the quick results:

UFC Vegas 83 Results

• – Talita Alencar def. Rayanne Amanda by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29): Strawweight
• – Luana Santos def. Stephanie Egger by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x2): (W) Bantamweight
• – Tatsuro Taira def. Carlos Hernandez by TKO at :55 of round 2: Flyweight
• – Steve Garcia def. Melquizael Costa by TKO at 1:01 of round 2: Featherweight
• – Kevin Jousset def. Kenan Song by unanimous decision (30-27 x3): Welterweight
• – Hyun Sung Park def. Shannon Ross by TKO at 3:59 of round 2: Flyweight
• – André Muniz def. Jun Yong Park by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29): Middleweight
• – Tim Elliot def. Sumudaerji by technical submission (Arm Triangle) at 4:02 of round 1: Flyweight
• – Nasrat Haqparast def. Jamie Mullarkey by TKO at 1:44 of round 1: Lightweight
• – Khalil Rountree Jr. def. Anthony Smith by TKO at :56 of round 3: Light Heavyweight
• – Yadong Song def. Chris Gutierrez by unanimous decision (50-44, 50-45 x2): Bantamweight

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section where the boys give their patented, five-star review of all the fights. You can’t get this anywhere…or can you? We like to think you can’t, so we’ll stick with that. Just be sure to listen!

Subscribe to The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack

Thank you for reading this post and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the The Bloody Elbow Podcast Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

For free previews of our shows, follow us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PodBean, Pocket Casts or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.