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.
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.
