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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.
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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
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