The MMA Vivisection Shows: 'Main Card Preview' & 'Prelims Card Preview'

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Hooray! It’s not an Apex card! It’s not PPV quality either, but it’s befitting of what a London card should be—loads of fun matches with recognizable names interspersed with rising prospects. The undercard delivers on that front and with a very important women’s bantamweight bout appearing here, it gives o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC London is a pretty fun card, but of course it would be since it’s not being held at the Apex. They seem to put in a little more effort when a show is on the road—a far cry from the Fight Night fodder we’ve been getting. That said, we don’t want to gild the proverbial lily here. The Bloody Elbow Podcast...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Vegas 77, as a whole, is an objectively bad card. There’s very little in the way of impactful fights, name value or the promise of entertainment. It’s like Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard put names in a hat and threw together whomever they drew out. There is one blessing on the prelims, though, and his na...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Ho hum, back to the Apex for one of the worst booked cards of the year, possibly ever. Aside from the main event, there are no other ranked fights. As a matter of fact, only 3 fighters in total are ranked and of 17 athletes are coming off losses. Watered down, dud of a card, typical of these Apex shows. Th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Praise the fight gods! We finally have a really good card. UFC 290 is stacked to the heavens and well matched in most cases—Jack Della Maddalena and Bo Nickal excluded. We’re being treated to two title bouts, a likely title eliminator, and more. Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard, you have done well. Thank you f...

It’s been so long since we’ve been treated to a truly worthwhile card, we’re just bubbling over. The main card is loaded with a pair of title fights and a title eliminator. The prelims are equally praiseworthy with the retirement fight of Robbie Lawler after a 22-year career filled with amazing knockouts and bloody battles. Thank you for listening to this Bloody Elbow Podcast. Our posts are public...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Guess what? We have another stinker of a fight night card. Once again, the UFC is selling us a bill of goods. The Apex shows have become a watered down pool of Contender Series talent that more often than not, ends up being equivalent to the regional level. Thank you for listening to Bloody Elbow Podcasts....

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com As the headline states, Kevin Lee is returning to the UFC’s warm embrace. They weren’t shy about giving him a tough opponent either. Lee will be facing Rinat Fakhretdinov, a lethal finisher with 11 knockouts and six submission wins to his credit. While Kevin has knockouts and subs of his own, he hasn’t loo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com It’s Tatsuro Taira fight week! As a matter of fact, UFC on ABC 5 has a few up-and-coming names worth keeping on your radar. Tatsuro Taira and Trevor Meek have wowed fans in their debuts and put their considerable talent on display. Taira has had two fights since his debut, and remains undefeated in his pro...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC on ABC 5 is a much better card than its doomed predecessor, UFC on ABC 4, which was ravaged by fight cancellations and rescheduled bouts. This event has more ranked talent, and some of the brightest stars on the rise. Names like Tatsuro Taira and Trevor Meek will be lighting up the prelims. The co-main...

UFC Vegas 75 is not loaded with ranked fights (just one) or even ranked fighters (just three), but it does have some redeeming qualities. A solid main event in Marvin Vettori and Jared Cannonier and a spate of flyweight and bantamweight fights. It would be nice if all those fights weren’t restricted to the confines of the prelims, but hey, we’re still getting flyweight fights, and for that, we sho...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Vegas 75 is not loaded with ranked fights (just one) or even ranked fighters (just three), but it does have some redeeming qualities. A solid main event in Marvin Vettori and Jared Cannonier and a spate of flyweight fights. It would be nice if all the flyweight fights weren’t restricted to the confines...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Simon Says… The UFC 289 prelims have a pretty solid featured fight for ESPN between Nassourdine Imavov and Chris Curtis. In fact, it's solid enough that it's kind of a shame that it's not on PPV. Otherwise, much like the main card, the quality drop-off here is steep. The stakes are low, the prospects are m...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com The PPV that is not qualified to be a PPV Z: Wow. Yeah. This is NOT a pay-per-view card. C: It's dog shit. Z: Yeah this is NOT a pay-per-view card. (Worthy of repeating). C: Yep. It's bad. Z: It umm, Nunes-Aldana? I'm glad we're not just getting Nunes-Peña 3. C: Phil was clamoring for Nunes-Peña 3 and I wa...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Much like the main card, the prelims for UFC Vegas 74 are solid if not exactly laden with thrills for the causal fan. Will Abubakar Nurmagomedov live up to his namesake? Will Muin Gafurov make a big splashy debut? Will Andrei Arlovski keep squeaking out narrow decisions over mediocre mid-tier heavyweights?...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Amir Albazi is Headlining He has that "sweet 16 in 16 deal". That is the money he is making as of his last disclosed pay 10 months ago.  That just goes to show that we aren't the only ones shitting on the athletes by shitting on these cards. How could we be so cruel to the athletes? That's clearly what we...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com This week's UFC Vegas 73: Dern vs. Hill prelims offering has a couple strong bookings. Maheshate vs. Borshchev looks like a slugfest from start to finish, and Vanessa Demopoulos has looked strong in her recent winning run. Chase Hooper will be worth watching up in his new division, and Natalia Silva has th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com It may not be a headliner that draws many eyes, but UFC Vegas 73: Dern vs. Hill is a surprisingly alright offering from the UFC this week. The main event features two top ranked strawweights looking to reassert their claim to a spot among the division's elite, and it should make for an interesting style cl...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com It almost makes it worse that the UFC was probably really trying to put together a decent card for this week’s ABC airing. They’re on a big network (in a bad timeslot) away from the Apex, in front of a live crowd. They’ve got lots of recognizable names on the docket, and a couple hot prospects. What they d...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Since the biggest thing this week’s UFC on ABC: Rozenstruik vs. Almeida card lacks is a quality main event, it makes sense that the prelims aren’t too shabby. Matt Brown vs. Court McGee is a battle of road-dog vets who should have already met before. Karl Williams looks like something special, and Cody Sta...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com If the UFC 288 main card might be missing just that little hint of star power to push it into successful territory, the prelims look exactly like PPV prelims should. The featured slot goes to a banger of a fight between Drew Dober and Matt Frevola. Add action fight mainstays like Khaos Williams and Marina...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC 288 is saddled with the unfortunate reality that it’s just a ‘pretty good’ fight card. In an era where we’ve become accustomed to feast or famine when it comes to UFC event quality, and with PPV prices continually rising, offering a good fight between two men without a lot of public interest like Henry...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com Much like the main card, the UFC Vegas 72 prelims are all about struggle. Unlike the main card, the undercard doesn’t have a fight like Song Yadong vs. Ricky Simon to hold it down. Sure Cody Durden vs. Charles Johnson is alright, but that’s a poor consolation. The rest of it just feels like they rounded up...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com UFC Fight Week returns with another dose of killer filler. UFC Vegas 72 has a great co-main event—I mean, who hates bantamweight fights?—but nothing else to show for it. Song Yadong vs. Ricky Simon should be an absolute barn burner. The rest of it? A tire fire. Fortunately we’ve got a PPV next week that ha...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit themmadrawpodcast.substack.com The UFC is in a rough spot this week with a fight card that lacks much in the way of punch. UFC Vegas 71 goes down this Saturday, April 22nd headlined by a heavyweight fight between Sergei Pavlovich & Curtis Blaydes. The co-main features Brad Tavares against Bruno Silva and, other than an appearance from B...