This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Are you thirsty for another watered down, subpar Apex card? Well good, because the UFC has got one for you. If you thought last week’s show looked abysmal, you may want to reset your excitement barometer because UFC Vegas 89 is even more paltry, with a pretty lackluster headliner supported by a very forgettable supporting bout lineup. To its credit, the…...
Mar 21, 2024•1 hr 17 min
Sean Strickland certainly has tongues wagging this week after his latest social media video clip. His video confessional, a staple on his social feeds, comes from inside his car, where he tells fans how he doesn’t feel mentally stable, and that he told his girlfriend he just wanted to burn everything down but that he felt really connected to his fans. This level of “honesty” always seems to grab fan attention, creating the impression that Sean is using these sessions as a trauma dump rather than...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com It’s been almost two weeks since the sale of Bloody Elbow went public and GRV Media took over the various properties they acquired. Staff was warned the week of the sale that the new owners wouldn’t be keeping them and that’s been the case in actuality. They did put out a call that they were looking for experienced writers for producing content on the h…...
Mar 19, 2024•14 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Vegas 88 is officially in the books and with it, the hope for Tai Tuivasa to turn around his fortunes. After coming out swinging for the fences, “Bam Bam” was quickly figured out by Marcin Tybura, who got the fight to the ground, capitalized on the subpar grappling of the Aussie, then promptly submitted him with a rear-naked choke, and he did it all…...
Mar 17, 2024•1 hr 6 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC 299 is a hard act to follow but the matchmaking brass seems to have put in the bare minimum effort with their 88th Vegas-themed card. As always, the event is set to go down at the Apex, so you already know it’s going to be threadbare. If you thought the main card was shallow, the prelims certainly do their best to give it competition. It’s downright…...
Mar 15, 2024•1 hr 16 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com The UFC is back with another Apex card and it isn’t very good. Once again, a dearth of ranked fighters, fights (where both opponents in a fight carry a Top 15 ranking) and name value permeate this event. There are a couple contests that have our interest, but overall, this card is a dud, and feels like they pulled out all their “filler” athletes—the one…...
Mar 14, 2024•1 hr 24 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC 299 was a great card in practice and according to the promotion’s brass, the event garnered a sellout gate that topped $13M—their fourth best live gate. The headliner, Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera, was a title bout for bantamweight gold and it featured a fantastic supporting card with everything fight fans could possibly want—name value, action-pac…...
Mar 13, 2024•34 min
UFC 299 just wrapped a long night of combat in Miami, and following a hellishly long boxing card in Knockout Chaos: Joshua vs. Ngannou so closely, we’re welcoming a Sunday respite from face punching. But first, we’re going to get into the action from the event, both the highs and the lows. The main event put Sean O’Malley’s remarkable striking on display, showcasing crisp, accurate boxing, excellent footwork and last, but certainly not least, durability. It took a ridiculous amount of time befor...
Mar 10, 2024•1 hr 18 min
The prelims for UFC 299 stand in stark contrast to the main card in that it gives all the appearance of a fight night event rather than the high-priced PPV offering that it is. The good news is that most of those fights would undoubtedly be outside the Apex, proper “on the road” fights. We even have ranked fights and fighters on this portion of the show. The featured prelim, a heavyweight showdown between Curtis Blaydes and Jailton Almeida, is a ranked, high-value bout, and one that looks intrig...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 24 min
Francis Ngannou got away and we’re so very happy he did. Going from a $600K payday in the UFC—all because of the UFC’s hard-nosed tactics at the negotiation table—to a 10-figure purse in your second boxing match is unheard of unless your name is Conor McGregor. Ngannou may be giving the Irish superstar a run for the money in that regard very soon, and might even wind up on the coveted Forbes List this year. But how did he get there? The long and the short of it is that he bet on himself and wait...
Mar 08, 2024•36 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC 299 is a really good looking card when weighed and measured as a whole. The main event is a rematch that’s been nearly four years in the making, and as the event draws closer to fight night, the smack talk between the two has ramped up. They’re even direct messaging each other with insults. It will be interesting to see if the same Marlon Vera shows…...
Mar 07, 2024•1 hr 38 min
TKO Group Holdings, the conglomerate that went public last fall after the merger of the UFC with the WWE, released its full 2023 financial results last week. Having reported on their SEC and investor reports for the first and second quarter of last year, I am once again only going to focus on what we learn about the UFC’s finances from their 8-K , 10-K and earnings call . The MMA Draw is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becoming a paid ...
Mar 06, 2024•26 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Vegas 87 prelims aren’t the worst fights, by any means. They’re not the best either, but what are you going to do? It doesn’t look like change will be on the horizon any time soon, especially with the UFC experiencing yet another banner year for revenue. As long as they can put the bare minimum effort into these Apex cards, the more warehouse-style …...
Mar 01, 2024•1 hr 7 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Vegas 87 is the antithesis of last week’s Fight Night card. There are reasons to celebrate (albeit few), and there are reasons to be annoyed, of which there are plenty. Jairzinho Rozenstruik , a ranked heavyweight with an extensive UFC resume, is taking on Shamil Gaziev , an athlete signed to the largest promotion in the world who doesn’t even have a …...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 26 min
UFC Vegas 87 is an ugly card, full stop. Despite the fact that the alternative stats look decent (ranked fights, fighters, etc.), the matchups don’t do much in the way of getting us amped to watch the card. If anything, it’s a deterrent to it. Let’s face it, no matter what they do, the Apex cards always seem like leftovers, even when they’re not. Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. And with...
Feb 28, 2024•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Ryan Garcia has once again called out UFC’s bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley. Boxing’s babyfaced superstar engaged in a back-and-forth on X (formerly Twitter) with the UFC bantamweight champion, prompting many to wonder if Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions would be able to co-promote a fight with the UFC between the two sluggers. O’Malley has …...
Feb 27, 2024•25 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Mexico just wrapped and overall, it was a solid card with plenty of highlights, some good, some not. Some of the night’s more interesting situations include: a fight cancellation, a rolled ankle during the announcements, questionable judging and a few upsets (shoutout to Raoni Barcelos). Let’s get into the fights that really caught our eye. Bloody El…...
Feb 25, 2024•54 min
UFC Mexico City is a solid card overall, even if the prelims are a hodgepodge of who’s-whos hoping to separate themselves from the pack. The opening fight aka the curtain-jerker, would be more fitting in the featured prelim spot as Naimov is looking like a real deal prospect with a fairly high ceiling. Alas, we get Cristian Quiñonez vs. Raoni Barcelos, which is fine, I guess, but Barcelos has been looking pretty shopworn lately, so we’re giving this one a partial side eye. Bloody Elbow is fighti...
Feb 23, 2024•58 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Mexico City is almost here! Just a couple more days until the Battle of the Brandons as the promotion heads back to Mexico City for the first time since 2019 when Yair Rodriguez and Jeremy Stephens headlined UFC Fight Night 159. The bout would end in a no contest just 15 seconds in due to an accidental eye poke. They would run it back less than a mo…...
Feb 22, 2024•1 hr 19 min
Ian Garry barely eked out a win over the ultra tough Geoff Neal this past Saturday night, but after all the trash he talked combined with that performance, we’re left wondering if the Irish lightning rod can turn his plight around. The crowd, the fans watching around the world and his fellow fighters spent a fair amount of time roasting him on social media in the aftermath of the contest, and even into the week as the Irishman did the podcast rounds. Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the f...
Feb 21, 2024•1 hr 34 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com 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 Volkan…...
Feb 18, 2024•1 hr 7 min
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. Bloody Elbow is...
Feb 16, 2024•50 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC 298 is just a couple days away and with it comes a very stiff test for our featherweight champion. Alexander Volkanovski is coming off another loss to Islam Makhachev, a rushed bout where Volk let the UFC pressure him into replacing an injured Charles Oliveira on short notice. Now, Ilia Topuria looms ahead of him, a stout fireplug of a man with exce…...
Feb 15, 2024•1 hr 17 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Sean Strickland had a very eventful week in the leadup to Super Bowl Sunday. It started off right after the Republican caucus in Las Vegas, Nevada where former POTUS Donald Trump was making a speech. Just a few minutes into it, Trump gave Sean an extended shoutout and following the event, stopped in with the former UFC middleweight champion for photo op…...
Feb 14, 2024•31 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com 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. Bloody Elbow is fighting for th…...
Feb 11, 2024•1 hr 7 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Vegas 86 is the most Apex card that ever was…until the next one. 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 at…...
Feb 09, 2024•1 hr 17 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com 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 many already know, simply by looking at the name of the event. These days, having “Vegas” in the title is a signal that the matchmakers did their level…...
Feb 08, 2024•1 hr 40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com 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 the last several months for WWE. Bloody Elbow is fighting …...
Feb 07, 2024•45 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com 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 included a former UFC superstar engaged in sex trafficking and/or sexual assault and the suit came with evidence. McMahon resigned from all his positions at WWE and TKO Holdings within hours and the evidence from …...
Feb 06, 2024•18 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com 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 Khizri…...
Feb 04, 2024•1 hr 9 min
