Adams Unloads on Clueless Joe

Just when I thought you couldn’t be any dumber you do something like this... and totally redeem yourself.

Jamal Adams situation with the Jets is nothing short of a disaster, but after his shoot interview with Manish Mehta yesterday, the safety has me rooting for him again. Adams described Joe Douglas as the bumbling fool that he is. Too bad Adams wasn’t an offensive lineman since the GMs wet dream of having a 53 man roster of only lineman is close to coming true.

In the interview Adams shares his thoughts on Douglas “If they would have just simply said, ‘You know what, Jamal — we’re not going to look to pay you this year, we want to keep adding players — I would have respected that more, I would say, ‘You know what? I respect it. As a man, I get it. I understand it’s a business.’.” He continues “And Why would Joe come out and say, ‘We want to make Jamal a Jet for life?’ Why would you say that and then not even give me an offer?... Don’t B.S. me. I’m a straightforward guy. You don’t have to B.S. me, because I’m going to keep it honest.”

As well as Adam Gase “I don’t feel like he’s the right leader for this organization to reach the Promised Land,” Adams said. “As a leader, what really bothers me is that he doesn’t have a relationship with everybody in the building. At the end of the day, he doesn’t address the team,” Adams added, “If there’s a problem in the locker room, he lets another coach address the team. If we’re playing sh---y and we’re losing, he doesn’t address the entire team as a group at halftime. He’ll walk out of the locker room and let another coach handle it.”

The Jets roster had a lot of holes going into the offseason and Douglas buried his head up his ass and just concentrated on using all our assets to fix the o-line. He alienated the franchise’s second most important piece aside from Sam and I think showed the rest of the team he can’t be trusted. I already was on the fence about Douglas when he didn’t show any effort to bring back Robby Anderson earlier in free agency in spite of his great chemistry with Darnold.

Regardless of where you fall in this situation, these are the facts of where both sides are as of today. Jamal Adams is under contract for 2 more years with the Jets. He can get franchised for two more years after that and still not makes as much as he’s looking for since Safety isn’t a premium position in the NFL. If he doesn’t want to play for the Jets he can sit out and continue to lose money. After his comments in the media it would be awkward if he just shows up to camp next week like nothing happened.

The Jets and Joe Douglas are also in a no win position also. Instead of handling things behind closed doors, the GM will eat his words saying he wanted Adams to be “a Jet for life” giving the expectation that the contract extension was imminent. If we had no intention of signing Adams then we should have traded him before the draft. Now teams around the league know the Jets will need to get rid of him and will be lowballing offers. Also, you’d have to think Jamal’s continued outbursts may also make teams wary of bringing him onboard.

While I sort of respect Adams going full Costanza, maybe using Namath’s jersey as a napkin at B Dubs or dragging the Lombardi Trophy down Route 3, until this situation is resolved it will be a huge distraction for the rest of the team. Douglas needs to act swiftly and take a stand before camp begins next week or this cancer can kill the 2020 season before it begins.

Pick 5 Challenge (18-22 -$416)

Tonight's card is the fourth and final scheduled card during this first run at Fight Island. All things considered it has been an enormous success for the UFC, as Dana and company expect to revisit Yas Island again in the near future. The main event is for a possible title shot against the winner of Adesanya and Costa at UFC 253 in September. Bobby Knuckles should win tonight if he's there mentally. Till is coming off a spilt decision win against Kelvin Gastelum, breaking a two fight skid. Whittaker is looking to get his belt back after Adesanya broke his eight fight winning streak at middleweight.

Not much can be said about Shogun and Lil Nog's trilogy that started 15 years ago in Pride. We are even 5 years removed from the rematch at UFC 190, and nothing makes me think that Minotouro can get his first win against Rua here. This can be the last fight in their careers for both of these legends. Meanwhile, Alexander Gustafsson has returned from a Francesa like retirement to move up to heavyweight to battle former champ Fabricio Werdum. La Cavalo looked sluggish at UFC 249 in May following a two year PED suspension, but the Swede may be overmatched here by the BJJ blackbelt. I'll take the +260 with Werdum as a great value.

Robert Whittaker -135
Shogun Rua -195
Fabricio Werdum +260
Carla Esparza +145
Paul Craig -135
(5-0 +$705)

Fight Island is Real and it’s Spectacular

Dana White continues to show people like that stupid idiot Fauci, who wants everything fun to be cancelled, to stop doubting the UFC. People thought White had gone mad when he brought up Fight Island in April, but tonight we get our tiki torches and our Jimmy Buffet playlist ready as UFC 251 kicks off a string of 4 shows this month from Yas Island. Granted Abu Dhabi isn’t some tropical location like people had in mind, but we have to give the UFC some creative license. It sounds like the organization is planning on alternating between Vegas and Fight Island for the foreseeable future.

UFC 251 took a step back before taking two huge steps forward last week. The scheduled main event of Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns was cancelled last Friday when the challenger tested positive for COVID. Instead, Dana resurrected Street Jesus and Jorge Masvidal is looking to baptize Marty Fakenewsman.

Kamaru Usman is the superior wrestler, but I think the 35-year old Masvidal is on a magical run. His violent stoppages of Darren Till, Ben Askren, and Nate Diaz last year remind me of the career resurgeance Michael Bisping had before his upset of Luke Rockhold to get gold for the first time in 2016. Masvidal has the advantage that every round has to start with both men standing and I think one of Gamebred's shots will turn Usman's lights out.

The co-main event is a rematch of UFC 245's Featherweight Title between Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway. December feels like 5 years ago at this point. Volkanovski used leg kicks to chop down and keep the Hawaiian at bay ending his 14 fight win-streak at 145 pounds. I think Max is just too good of a fighter to not make the necessary adjustments to win tonight. At just 28, Blessed is still in the prime of his career and he'll regain his crown.

The feature fight is also for a strap, as Petr Yan and Jose Aldo battle for the vacant Bantamweight title that Henry Cejudo gave up when he retired. Despite a strong showing in his debut in the weight class, Aldo lost a split decision to Marlon Moraes, but was gifted a title shot at UFC 250, originally scheduled for his native Brazil. After corona shook everything up, Dana still felt like the owed the veteran a title shot.

Petr Yan is 6-0 in the UFC after making quick work of Urijah Faber at UFC 245. While Aldo will be his toughest task to date, Yan has been a buzzsaw and is a complete MMA fighter. Bantamweight is the most exciting division in the sport with the likes of Aljo Sterling, Sean O'Malley, Cody Gardbrandt and the soon to be debuting Frankie Edgar (still disappointed UFC didn't find a replacement for his fight on Wednesday)

The women's division is the star of the first two fights on the PPV. Rose Namjunas and Jessica Andrade are rematching from their title fight in May of last year. Rose was picking Andrade apart when she was in the wrong position on a slam that knocked her out. Andrade then lost the title to Weili Zhang in her first defense. From what I've heard in pre-fight interviews Rose is focused and looking to avenge the loss. A win should put her back in title contention. Paige Van Zant is on the last fight of her contract and rumored to be on her way out of the UFC and beginning a career in Belator where her husband fights. UFC feels like this can be a chance at a star making performance for Amanda Ribas against the bigger name, and Vegas agrees.

Pick 5 Challenge (18-22 -$416) Updated 7/25

My luck is turning back around after a shaky start going 4-1 in the last card. I'll update this page with the rest of my picks for the Fight Night cards after doing some more research. Not going to lie, there are some donks on those cards.

UFC 251 (3-2 +$104)

Jorge Masvidal +195

Max Holloway +175

Petr Yan by KO/Submission +104

Rose Namajunas -210

Marcin Tybura -115

UFC Fight Night 7/15 (1-4 -$420)

Ricardo Ramos -165

Andreas Michalidis +145

Molly McCann -155

Tim Elliott -140

Cody Stamman +115

UFC Fight Night 7/18 (2-3 -$125)

Joe Benavidez +175

Kelvin Gastelum -130

Mark Diakiese -160

Arianne Lipski -125

Askar Askarov +165

Showcase Showoff part 1

This blog is a changeup from the usual fight and sports talk. Since there aren't any other sports aside UFC to comment on, I'm going to start a series of blogs showcasing my sports card collection. I picked the hobby back up, like many, during quarantine, and wanted to share what I've amassed here. In part one, I'll be showcasing my favorite Yankee and Jet cards.

Pick 5 Challenge (8-12 -$295)

I hit the last three fights at UFC 250 to bring us a $20 profit. Hope to keep chipping away (wassat) at that tonight's ESPN card. I think Volkov can fight smart tonight and try testing Blaydes' gas tank in the 5 round main event. The odds were too good to pass up.

Lauren Murphy -110

Gillian Robertson -125

Belal Muhammed -130

Josh Emmet +120

Alexander Volkov +310

UFC 250 and Fighters Rally Against Dana

In what should have been a milestone event, UFC 250 seems to have flown under the radar. I don't blame the causal fan for not caring much about the card, but as a sports-starved MMA fan, I think there's enough to get excited about to fork over my $60 to  Dana and Co,

The female GOAT returns in the main event to defend her Featherweight Title against 8-1 Felicia Spencer. Spencer's lone loss came again Cris Cyborg at UFC 240 last July. Nunes quite frankly shouldn't see much of a struggle in this contest.

In the co-main event, former Bantamweight Champ Cody Garbrandt has the most to lose on this card. After defeating Dominick Cruz at UFC 207, Cody was geared for superstardom, However, consecutive TKO losses to TJ Dillashaw and another KO loss to Pedro Munhoz at UFC 235 leaves No Love staring down the barrel. Another knockout loss would be devastating for Cody and may even be his last appearance in the Octagon. His opponent, Raphael Assuncao has only four knockout in his professional career and is riding a two fight skid himself. I think the time off should help Garbrandt and I see him picking up the win.

In addition to the co-main event, this is a night for the Bantamweights to shine. Top contenders Aljimain Sterling and Cory Sandhagen do battle as well as hot prospect Sugar Sean O'Malley fighting in the PPV opener against veteran Eddie Wineland. After Henry Cejudo retired and dropped the belt in his postfight interview following a win against Cruz at UFC 249, an impressive performance tonight can mean a shot at gold for one of these fighters. The rumored plan is for Petr Yan to face Jose Aldo for the title, but that's never guaranteed in the MMA world.

Pick 5 Challenge (5-9 -$315)

A few weeks ago I had some of the worst luck I've ever had gambling on MMA. My first four bets all went to split decision, and my pick lost all four. Getting back on the horse this weekend for UFC 250.

UFC 250 (3-3 +$20)
Jussier Formiga +108
Brian Kelleher +205
Gerald Meerschaert +105
Neil Magny -145
Aljimain Sterling -120
BONUS: Pointsbet Odds Booster - Nunes/Garbrandt +120

Overshadowing the action in the cage Saturday was the war of words between Jonny Bones Jones and Dana White. To make a long story short, Jones tweeted that the UFC wanted him to move up heavyweight for a dream fight against the scary motherfucker Francis Ngannou. During a press conference last weekend, Dana White said Jones was looking for a raise six times his normal purse for the fight and wanted for $30 million.  This led to a lot of back and forth and at one point Dana took aim at Jones' outside the cage issues "In one of his tweets, he said I tarnished his name. I tarnished you? You've done a very good job of tarnishing you."

After all the dust settled Sunday, Jone tweeted out the following:

Reyes vs Jan For the UFC light heavyweight championship of the world. As of right now, I got nothing to really gain fighting either of them. Let me know if you guys want to set up a day in 2021 for that Izzy fight. Hopefully you guys will be willing to pay by then. Bones out, when you see me in the streets just call me JJ. To the light heavyweight title Veni, vidi, vici

Neither man has a great track record when it comes to telling the truth, so I'm sure the truth falls somewhere in the middle. However, that dustup was followed today by one of UFC's other top stars, Jorge Masvidal, sending out a series of tweets to the UFC brass about his pay regarding a future title shot againt Kamaru Usman.

Shouldn’t be this hard to get a deal done #fuckery

History lesson for all the new fans that might have just started following my beautiful sport: 16 yr been at this. Never once turned down a fight. Asked to go fight #3 at the time in his hometown across the pond after a year off. Ko of the year nominee. Asked to fight #5 At the time and lets be real didn’t have to fight him. Fastest Ko in the history of ufc. Msg I am asked to fight 3 different guys and I said yes to all three. I fought in backyards and those dudes never disrespected me the way I’m being now 
@espn

It's not unusual for fighters to threaten walking out of the UFC as a negotiating ploy, but this time it's two of White's biggest stars teaming up against him. Without a gate for possibly the remainder of 2020, UFC can potentially lose out on $100 million. Despite that, reports in The Athletic say that UFC fighter pay of 18% revenue is much lower than any other professional sport.

I don't see how UFC and ESPN will sustain $60 monthly PPVs without their biggest stars until fans can fill the arenas again. Dana's already said he can't afford to let McGregor to fight on UFC Island without a crowd and now Jones and Masvidal are speaking out. This will be a potentially huge story to watch unfold over the next several months.

Back in Business

Eight weeks without a UFC event feels like an eternity in the era where you have an event at least three times a month. Tonight, we can finally rejoice, and we will "Face the Pain" together as UFC 249 is on in Jacksonville. Dana White, that bald beautiful bastard, held true to his word, and UFC will hopefully pave the way for other sports leagues to continue.

I survived a near heart attack last night, when news came out that Jacare Souza tested positive for corona, but luckily Dana and the Florida Athletic Commission had plans in place in case that happened. I think it needs to be understood in the UFC, and in all attempts for sports to continue, an athlete can possibly, and more likely than not, catch the virus. That shouldn't have to put a halt to the sport completely, the way it did when Rudy Goebert tested positive back in March. Every athlete that has gotten sick has been fine, and you need to chalk it up as the cost of doing business. As long as there are proper testing and other safety measures in place, like UFC had, it will  just be a new normal for now.

Now, onto the fun stuff. Tonight's three main events will pave the way for the direction of UFC in the rest of 2020. The rest of the card should also live up to the hype, with a lot of fan favorites and fighters who generally put on entertaining fights.

The main event of Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje almost guarantees fireworks, as you count the amount of bad fights these guys have had combined on one hand. In a way, the card being postponed from April 18th is a positive, since with time, the sting of losing Khabib-Tony for the fifth time has healed.  Ferguson is riding a twelve fight winning streak over the best of the lightweight division, while Gaethje is riding three consecutive first round knockouts over Vick, Barboza, and Cerrone. It's so hard to pick against Tony, since he has been a stylistic nightmare for everyone, and I expect his streak to continue tonight. The winner of this fight will hopefully have a date in the fall with Khabib. I'm hoping Endeavor's financial issues don't force the company's hand and give the title shot to Conor just yet.

The co-main event features Olympic gold medalist and champ-champ Henry Cejudo defending his bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz. The two-time former champion, Cruz, has had horrible injury luck in his career and is fighting for the first time since losing his title to Cody Garbrandt in December 2016. Cejudo won the flyweight title against Mighty Mouse in 2018 (himself and Cruz are the only two UFC fighters who were able to defeat DJ) and defeated Marlon Moraes in 2019 to get TJ Dillashaw's vacant bantamweight title and become a two division champ. My heart really wants to see Dominick Cruz beat the odds and complete one of the greatest comeback stories in sports. However, I think a four-year layoff and being thrown right into the fire against Cejudo is going to be too much to overcome.

The other co-main event is a battle between the two best knockout artists in the heavyweight division, Francis Ngannou and Jair Rozenstruick. After losing to Stipe Miocic and a lackluster performance against the Black Beast, Francis has won his last three fights in two minutes and 26 seconds. Jair is coming in with a 10-0 record, winning on a last second knockout against The Reem in December. Unfortunately, the heavyweight title is in limbo, with Stipe Miocic first out with an eye injury and now working his part time job as a firefighter in Cleveland. Daniel Cormier wants to complete his trilogy with Miocic over the summer, but is also eyeing retirement. An impressive performance by Jair or Francis can throw those plans aside. I'm picking Rozenstruick to get the upset, since I think he learned a lot being taken into deep waters by Overeem last time out.

UFC is also holding a rare weekday fight card on Wednesday headlined by Glover Teixeira v Anthony Smith and Ben Rothwell v Ovince St Preux and another show next Saturday headlined by Alistair Overeem v Walt Harris and Claudia Gadelha v Angela Hill. Hopefully all goes well this week, and we're back to seeing events every week again. Dana is still hyping up Fight Island for international fighters in June.

Pick 5 Challenge

I'm going to start holding myself accountable for these picks. To keep the math easy, I'm betting $100 on underdogs and the minus number on favorites to win $100.

(Updated 5/13 9 AM)

UFC 248 (2-3, -$70)

Tony Ferguson -210

Henry Cejudo -200

Jair Rozenstruick +215

Donald Cerrone +120

Aleksei Oleinik +240

5/13 (2-2 -$38)
Michael Johnson -110
Drew Dober -115
Marvin Vettori -180
Ovince St Preux -160
Glover Teixeira +132

5/16
Mara Romero Borella +124
Eryk Anders +112
Edson Barboza -135
Angela Hill +175
Alistair Overeem +128

Money in the Bank is on Sunday, and it will be closing a pretty bland post Mania month for WWE. Even with nothing else to do, I've felt like Raw and Smackdown have been a chore to get through lately. That being said, I'm excited to see what WWE can pull off here.

Both the men's and women's MITB are taking place at the same time, and will be pre-recorded and edited in a cinematic style. The 6 men and 6 women will start at the ground floor of Titan Towers, and fight their way to the roof where there is a ring and scaffolding where the briefcases are being hung.  The concept has me more intrigued, and with a small card, I expect the match to be close to an hour. It will be fun to see a tour inside of the WWE's offices while they partially destroy it. On Raw Monday, they were teasing that someone will be thrown off the roof and murdered (that's not PG). I'll go with Asuka and AJ Styles to grab their respective briefcases.

In addition to the MITB matches, Braun Strowman defends his title against Bray Wyatt, in a battle of former Wyatt Family members. I'd be shocked to see Braun lose in his first title defense in what should be a long feud until Roman Reigns can return. Also, I think the fact we're seeing Bray and not The Fiend is a clue that he won't be winning.

On the Raw side, Seth Rollins challenges for Drew McIntyre's newly won belt. This feud hasn't moved the needle for me and I can't really get behind either character. I'll go with Drew to retain his first title defense also.

UFC Top 15: Part One

Instead of being excited for a huge UFC event this weekend, the California Governor and Disney pussyfooted around, and unfortunately forced Dana White's hand. UFC 249 became just the fourth pay-per view event in company history to be canceled. It joins the infamous list below.

UFC 233 - The planned January 26, 2019 event was cancelled after it's planned main event of Henry Cejudo and TJ Dillashaw was earmarked instead for the promotion's debut on ESPN+ that same month. In lieu of a replacement main event, the show was scrapped.

UFC 176 - The show, scheduled for August 2, 2014 was cancelled after Jose Aldo suffered an injury less than a month before the show.

UFC 151 - This show set the precedent of pay-per view events being cancelled due to a suitable main event. Scheduled for September 2, 2012 with a main event of Jon Jones and Dan Henderson was cancelled on August 23rd. After getting injured, Hendo had to pull out of the title match, and Jon Jones refused to fight Chael Sonnen on short notice. The Sonnen fight eventually happened at UFC 159.

But don't you dare be sour, since it gave me time to reflect on my almost eleven year fandom of the sport of mixed martial arts. As we head into a freshly announced May 9th card that may or may not be the milestone UFC 250, I'm going to look back at the top 15 UFC events from UFC 100-248. This three week countdown will hopefully lead us into the May 9th supershow.

My list favors events of the past five years of the sport. The rise of Women's MMA has allowed the UFC to stack shows with multiple title fights, which was almost unheard of in the early 2010s. Going through some events, I was even surprised to see how many Pay Per Views went off without a title on the line.

15) UFC 229 -October 6th, 2018

UFC 229 was the culmination of one of the ugliest feuds in UFC history. Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov hatred for each other bubbled over after the now infamous UFC 223 press conference in Brooklyn, where Conor threw a dolly through a bus window to go after Khabib and his team. In McGregor's first fight back in the Octagon after almost two years, the Irishman looked rusty and was handily beaten by Khabib, eventually submitting in 3:03 of the fourth round. The fight itself took an immediate backseat to the post fight brawl, similar to Strikeforce Nashville incident, when Khabib attacked McGregor's teammate Dillon Danis. This caused all hell to break loose, and is still one of the most unforgettable moments in UFC history.

In the co-main event of this show, Tony Ferguson defeated Anthony Pettis due to a corner stoppage after the second round. That set up another potential for the Khabib-Tony superfight that had to get cancelled once again this month. On the undercard, the Black Beast won on a last second knockout and dropped the famous "My balls was hot" line during a post-fight interview with Rogan. Future light heavyweight challenger Dominick Reyes defeated OSP as well.

14) UFC 167 - November 16, 2013

UFC 167 will be remembered as the night the GOAT almost lost his welterweight crown. GSP was in the midst of his legendary 10 consecutive title defenses, and won a controversial decision over up and comer Johny Hendricks. In the shocking post-fight press conference, St Pierre gave his intentions that he would be walking away from the sport, and officially relinquished the belt on December 13th. Georges has only fought once since this event, defeating Michael Bisping for the middleweight title at UFC 217.

Johny Hendricks went on to defeat Robbie Lawler at UFC 171 to win the title in another controversial decision, and lost the immediate rematch at UFC 181. Hendricks would go on to lose five of his next seven fights and be cut by the UFC.

In the undercard, Rashad Evans knocked out Chael Sonnen in the first round. Robbie Lawler defeated Rory MacDonald by decision which eventually set up the war they'd have in the rematch. Future welterweight champ, Tyron Woodley, had his 3rd fight in the UFC knocking out Josh Koscheck.

13) UFC 202 - August 20, 2016

After suffering his first lost in the UFC to Nate Diaz at UFC 196, McGregor and Diaz had an insane brawl that is remembered as one of the best fights in the sports' history. Both warriors landed over 150 strikes over the course of five rounds, in which every judge gave Conor rounds 1, 2, and 4. The third round saw Diaz come close to finishing McGregor after getting him up against the cage and landing blow after blow. I hope we see a completion of this trilogy.

Personally, this was a memorable night for me. After seeing NXT Takeover in Brooklyn, I got back to Manhattan in time for the main event. Watching McGregor fight in an Irish bar a few blocks away from MSG was an awesome experience.

Fireworks were going off on the undercard, with every fight ending in a stoppage. Rumble Johnson defeated Glover Teixeira in :13 seconds in the co-main event. Donald Cerrone, Mike Perry, and Tim Means all won by TKO in this event.

12) UFC 165 - September 21, 2013

In his 6th light heavyweight title defense, Jon Jones and Alexander Gustaffson had one of the most exciting title fights in UFC history. The two men traded 244 significant strikes, which broke the record for a title fight. Jones' mettle was tested as the Swede became one of the first fighters to stand and trade with Bones, and even win two of the first three rounds. A spinning elbow in the fourth round sparked enough momentum in the championship rounds for Jones to retain the belt.

In the co-main event, Rena Barao knocked out Eddie Wineland with a vicious spinning head kick :35 into the second round to retain the interim bantamweight title. The card also featured future champ Khabib's fifth fight in the UFC defeating Pat Healy.

11) UFC 232 - December 29, 2018

In a card that was shrouded in controversy, after having to move from Vegas to Inglewood, CA on less than week's notice. Jon Jones tested for a minor amount of turinabol is his system, the Nevada State Athletic Commission wouldn't sanction his fight, so instead of cancelling his main event, Dana and the UFC just moved it.

In the rematch of UFC 165, Jones defeated Gustaffson in 2:02 of the third round landing a takedown and finishing Gustaffson with strikes from the top position. Unlike their first fight, Jone kept his distance from the Swede, and was much more calculating.

The co-main event featured Amanda Nunes stopping Cris Cyborg's twenty-fight (and 13 year) win streak in just :51. This fight cemented Nunes' female GOAT status, knocking off Cyborg, Ronda Rousey, and Valentina Shevchenko in a 24 month period.

On Tuesday night, Dana White gave MMA fans hope again, announcing a May 9th return to action. I'm cautiously optimistic about this, since I doubt the Baldfather would want to eat his shorts again after having to cancel the April 18th show. Crossing my fingers that we'll be getting fights at least once a week for the near future, since the UFC needs to fulfill 42 events this events this year. WWE opened the door for the UFC to hold events in Florida, with Governor Ron DeSantis announcing sporting events as essential business.

According to ESPN, the planned full fight card includes:

Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje -- Interim lightweight championship
Henry Cejudo (c) vs. Dominick Cruz -- Bantamweight championship
Amanda Nunes (c) vs. Felecia Spencer -- Women's featherweight championship
Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Jeremy Stephens vs. Calvin Kattar

Donald Cerrone vs. Anthony Pettis
Greg Hardy vs. Yorgan De Castro
Alexei Oleinik vs. Fabricio Werdum
Carla Esparza vs. Michelle Waterson
Ronaldo Souza vs. Uriah Hall
Vicente Luque vs. Niko Price

In addition to that good news, WWE Money in the Bank is confirmed to be on May 10th. The MITB Ladder matches will be taking a different turn this year, as Superstars have to climb the "Corporate Ladder" fighting from the ground floor to the roof of WWE HQ in Connecticut. The positive reaction of the Boneyard and Firefly Funhouse Wrestlemania matches opened the door for more cinematic wrestling. AEW also confirmed the Double or Nothing PPV will go on as scheduled as an empty arena event on May 23rd. Hopefully team sports won't be too far behind.

Cuncel da UFC and Wrestlemania Review

After weeks of speculation, the plug was pulled on UFC 249 by Mickey fucking Mouse. Dana White held up his end of the bet,  putting an amazing fight card together and was ready to go next Saturday from Tachi Palace, a Native American casino in California. News broke Thursday night that executives at Disney, which own ESPN, forced the organization’s hand in postponing all events. The New York Times reported that the California Governor, Gavin Newsom, pleaded with Disney to get the show canceled.

This just flat out sucks. Caving to outside pressure so easily, I wish we can go back to the old days before the UFC got in bed with these big corporations, when MMA truly didn’t give a fuck. The virus that has only left us professional wrestling seems to be improving and even my guy  President Trump wants sports to lead the country’s push into coming back. Dana White’s brash attitude that I love, made him and the UFC an easy target by the mainstream media. Hopefully he learned that sometimes it’s better to fly under the radar like Vince McMahon and Tony Khan have done during this time. 

It’s hard to even speculate about anything at this time. Dana says that UFC Fight Island is still under construction and without any government intervention I can see ESPN being fine with letting events run there. In an interview with Bret Okamoto, White said he still wants to be the first sport to return to a normal schedule, and expects his island to be ready in a month. White also said the UFC will fulfill its contracted 42 events with ESPN this year. I’m sure there will be a lot more to this story to come. 

The next event on the sports calendar that looks to be a go is the NFL Draft. However, I’m already anticipating Joe Douglas is going to continue to ignore our biggest hole and not get Sam Darnold his number one receiver.  Why would we want to get CeeDee Lamb or Jerry Jeudy to replace Robby Anderson when we can be cheap and get Breshad Perriman and Josh Doctson instead. I pull my hair out thinking how we haven't drafted a first round receiver since Keyshawn and are always surprised our offense sucks. Much like Larry David’s friend Carl, after the last 24 hours I can’t take any more disappointment. 

The unprecedented circumstances around Wrestlemania 36 forced WWE to think outside the box and helped deliver a unique experience. The men and women behind the show did a great job of bringing some normalcy back and worked their asses off in a tough situation. Mania should be graded on a curve as I think history should look back fondly on this event.

Night One

This was my favorite of the two shows by a pretty wide margin. The show started slow with Alexa and Nikki winning the tag belts and Baron Corbin losing to Elias. Business picked up with a physical match between Becky Lynch and Shayna Baszler. The finish was anticlimactic after Lynch rolled through the kirifuda clutch to pin Shayna. Becky had a similar fluke finish against Rousey last year at Mania, so I think there is more to come with this story.

Sammy Zayn retained the Intercontinental Title over Daniel Bryan in a fun match that saw interference from Drew Gulak, Nakamura, and Cesaro. The 3 Man ladder match between John Morrison, Jey Uso, and Kofi was my favorite of the whole weekend. The match was edited together well as they took some creative liberty on some spots to take advantage of the show being pretaped.  Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens was good also, but would’ve been better if it was No DQ to begin with and didn’t have to restart it. KO got his Wrestlemania moment jumping off the giant Wrestlemania pirate flag sign and splashing through Rollins on a table for the win.

Braun Strowman got his first heavyweight title with a win against Goldberg. I’m sort of getting tired of the spamming your finish match and it especially didn’t work in an empty arena. The Boneyard match was a great main event. The Undertaker and AJ Styles shot a movie action sequence in a graveyard that saw the return of the American Badass, with new Metallica entrance music (was Fred Durst too busy?). I don’t need to see Taker in a squared circle again, but this should become his new Wrestlemania tradition.

Night Two

The second night opened with Charlotte winning the NXT Women’s title over Rhea Ripley. The match was technically sound, but I don’t think a regular match should be going over 15 minutes in an empty arena. I still don’t understand why Aleister Black and Bobby Lashley got added to the main card except to just have 8 matches on each night. Otis finally got the girl after beating Dolph Ziggler. This has been one of the more entertaining storylines in the company and Mandy and Otis finally kissing would have gotten a huge pop.

I’m torn on the Last Man Standing match between Edge and Orton. It was the best match of night two, but it seems to drag on a little too much as they brawled all over the Performance Center. WWE has a crutch with these matches where you do a big spot and wait 9 seconds for the guy to get back up. After 36 minutes Edge won with some poetic justice hitting Orton with a con-chair-to. The Street Profits and Bayley retained their respective belts in pretty forgettable matches.

Forgettable is not a way I’d describe the Firefly Funhouse Match with John Cena and Bray Wyatt. Doing some research and watching it a second time, I understood the concept a little better and what they were trying to achieve. Check this out if you’re looking to see a more in depth explanation.    This was a journey through John Cena's subconscious.  The match is never really a match, instead scenes that tell the story of Cena's career. From his debut against Kurt Angle to Thuganomics, to Vince’s desire to make him another Hulk Hogan babyface. However, in this story when Cena beat Wyatt at Wrestlemania 30 he turned heel like when Hogan joined the NWO. That’s when The Fiend appears and wins with the mandible claw. When Cena cut his promo on Smackdown saying he’s putting an end to "the most overrated, overhyped superstar in WWE history", he was talking about himself and not Wyatt. I wouldn’t say this was “such good shit” like the Vince puppet but it was different and made you think.

The main event saw Drew McIntyre go over Brock in the usual Brock match. Having Paul Heyman at ringside adds so much to this style match and Brock’s selling is great when he’s putting someone over. I’m still not convinced McIntyre is the guy but it’ll be interesting to see some change in the main event picture.

WWE is taping another marathon session this weekend, starting with Friday’s Smackdown. It’s unknown if this will cover all TV leading to Money in the Bank on May 10th. The Raw after Wrestlemania was pretty weak, but I give them a pass since it was the last thing they taped several weeks ago. Hopefully the time off and the reaction to the more cinematic matches got Vince’s wheels turning and we get some good stuff in the coming weeks. It was also confirmed AEW has plenty of stuff in the can to keep churning out Dynamite through the end of May. It’s still unclear if they’re planning to have Double or Nothing continue as an empty arena PPV. In a world where all other sports are cancelled even bad pro wrestling is better than nothing.