MMA Fighting - No Bets Barred: Can Umar Nurmagomedov Reclaim His Aura Against Son Yadong At UFC Shanghai?

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Umar Nurmagomedov is still in the bantamweight mix, but it feels like he’s lost some of his luster. On Saturday, Nurmagomedov looks to make it three in a row since losing his bantamweight title shot to Merab Dvalishvili, taking on Song Yadong in the main event of UFC Shanghai. It’s an opportunity for Nurmagomedov to earn a title shot and perhaps reclaim some of the aura that seems to have disappeared over the past year, but will he make a statement, or will Nurmagomedov continue to underwhelm? On the latest episode of No Bets Barred, host Jed Meshew flies solo as he dives into the full UFC Shanghai card. Topics discussed include whether or not Nurmagomedov will get his groove back, if Denise Gomes can keep her upset streak rolling, Kai Asakura’s move to bantamweight, a pair of parlays, the latest on The Climb, and more. Tune in for episode 163 of No Bets Barred. Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to MMA Fighting⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our full video catalog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Like MMA Fighting on Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get your tickets now for the dog stars. It's no surprise how fast civilization can disappear. Go! Out there, just kill or be killed. Jacob Allorty. There are people out there? They need her help. Josh Berlin.

Shoot first and inquire afterwards. Margaret Kwali. Okay, tough guy. And Guy Pearce. Arm up! The Dog Stars, directed by Ridley Scott. In The Theater's Friday. Get tickets now.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What is that? We are back with another edition. No Betts Bard coming at you a little later this week than I had hoped. But as always, things happened in my life. But I did want to do a show because I kind of like this weekend's card. You have seen Shanghai going down Saturday morning for us East Coasters. Consider wherever you are.

Pop off that. I think it's 3 a.m. start time for us because we are going with the local. as Umar and Magamatov takes on song yadong in the main event um quick update on where we stand Sacramento was not kind to your boy uh missed every bet i made except for chris taco badia uh very slight underdog but we are hemorrhaging money this uh month august has been we started at even at the start of this month and we are down uh almost nine full units this month. It is,

Augusta just kicked us right in the teeth. But what hasn't kicked us in the teeth? The climb, ladies and gentlemen. We are 13 steps up the mountain. As both Carly Judeece and Chris Cyborg got it done for us over the weekend. Could be 14 steps if we

had bet on RDR as well. But Alexander Cayley, my climb consultant, suggest that I do that. If you don't know what the climb is, we will talk about it in just a little bit here as I go through my bets for the week. But without further ado, let us jump into UFC Shanghai. Questionable card, but the main, the top of the end of the card is quite good. The last four fights are fights I am some level of interested in. And there's still some stuff on the prelims, the undercard.

13 fights, you know, it is what it is. A lot of people that maybe shouldn't be here. lot of road to you see competitors, etc. But last week, we started bottom and went to the top. And I got plenty of very positive feedback from y'all. So thank you saying that they liked that format better than starting at the top and ending with a whimper. And especially this week, the bottom is just not really bringing anything to play

that I'm super excited about. Quite frankly, I don't have that many bets this week. I have five, five piece of action this week. A couple of those are parlayes. that are just sort of soup thrown together to have a good time. But let's dive right into it. We will start with where we will start on Saturday morning in the well-to-weight division as Ding Meng takes on Cameron Nelson.

Also, before I go any further, I apologize if I screw up some of these names. Obviously, this is a card taking place in China, in Shanghai. There are several Chinese fighters on this card, and so I will probably screw up a few. of these, my sincere apologies if you're listening, and I butcher your name, it is not intentional. But Ding Meng takes on Cameron Nelson in a well-to-weight contest, Meng.

Mine is 145, the favorite Cam Nelson plus 120 as the dog. Ding Meng coming in off a split decision lost to Jose Souza in May. Close fight, I think, probably could or should have won that fight.

But, you know, it's Jose Susa Nelson making his UFC debut I honestly don't have much to say on this fight my notes say that Cam Nelson's tapology photo looks like that dude clavicular and then you take a dive down his socials you Google him you can see some fight footage nothing jumps out of the page of me is super exciting I think that it makes sense that Ding Meng is the betting favorite here

he honestly like a lot of experience a ton of KOs in his record. Based on kind of the small footage I saw of Cam Nelson, sort of feels like this might be a firefight, but, you know, I say this a lot. Gambling should be fun. So if you can have fun with this, then have fun with this,

I will not have fun at 3 a.m. watching two dudes. I barely know anything or have seen very few fights from. So I will be passing. This one will get the stayaway badge from me. We move to the Women's Struthers. Straw weight division next, a significantly better fight, as Zhang Ying Yang takes on Julia Pallastry. Zhang Yingang, a former one champion, made the move over to the UFC earlier this year, lost her debut to Angela Hill by unanimous decision back in May.

Pallastry, two and three over our last five, is not the best run of form coming off a unanimous decision lost to Tolita Alencar back in April. Plastery is your betting favorite. Mine is 2.50. Jingyang plus 195. I had hoped that Jung Yingang might bring some breath of life, something exciting or interesting to this weight class that is in desperate need of help right now. I mean, all the women's weight classes need as many interesting people as they can get at this stage.

But, you know, a long time one champion coming over. I'd hoped that Angela Hill was enough of the softball that she should. She could get the win and maybe make some kind of noise. That was not to be. She didn't really even look very competitive with Angela Hill, honestly. She's 38 years old. I didn't. Nobody thought she was going to make a real run,

but I'm not even sure she's going to make noise at this stage. Pylastry's pace pressure, probably simply too much for Zhongyingang at this stage. Out of being said, two and three fighter, I'm not super stoked on you know, laying two and a half to one juice on her. And this could just sort of be kind of sloppy kickboxing with very narrow margins to determine the winner. So back-to-back passes for your boy. We head to the Bannamweight Division next as Lawrence Liu takes on Hector Santiago. And this fight will have my first bet of the evening, folks, as Lou, a minus 300 betting favorite Santiago.

coming in around plus 2.30. Lou made his U.S.A. debut with a split decision win over Sulong Rangbo in his debut in January. That I don't know who, looking at all the footstuff you can find in line, it seemed like everybody thought Lou won. Santiago making his U.C. debut. He is out of Hanato Mokano's money, M.MA promotion, I think, was his last fight. Lou is a much more well-rounded fighter. Lou also, more importantly for our purposes, a road to UFC winner. And that is really the significant here, because on this card, where there will be a road to UFC is happening, I think the finals is happening, maybe as I record this, honestly.

But either way, the Shanghai shows tend to coincide with the Road to UFC culminations, three Road to UFC winners on this card. Lou, one of two favorites, there is an underdog winner. And you know, I love me a gimmick. I love a gimmick parlay. So give me the road to UFC winner parlay. Lawrence Liu will be the first leg of that. Again, you know, from what I've seen of Santiago, seems like you maybe make this competitive. But it just feels like Lou's going to have a little more volume, just a little more well-rounded,

picking him to get the W. We moved to the featherweight division as Jack Jank. takes on Sean Woodson. Pretty closely lined fight. Woodson minus 155. Jenkins plus 125 is your dog. Woodson 4 and 1 over his last 5. Coming off a TKO loss to Dan Ege in April of 2025.

Jenkins, meanwhile, 3 and 2 over his last 5. Unanims win over Ramon Tavaris in September. So nearly a full year layoff for Jenkins. But 16 months for Woodson. No injury. he spoke with, I believe it was an MMA junkie and told him he had intended to take six months off to let his body recuperate.

He had fought at a very high pace before that, so it took six months off. And then when he was like, all right, I'm ready to get back in it, it just took him this long to get him a fight, apparently. You never like a super long layoff, certainly. But the optics of this are going to be cartoonish. It's just going to be stone ludicrous. Sean Woodson is so much taller than him

that it is hard to really I'll give you the numbers but it's just I just need to see a photo of the next two. Sean Woodson's 6-2 Jack Jenkins 5'7 you know like he's seven inches taller Jack Jenkins is I mean he he will wrestle and I think that's probably the way

to mitigate the size as much as he can we've got to cover a night mayor of ground to get in on that size. And Sean Woodson has historically been pretty decent as a defensive wrestler. He's got long-range weapons. He's got the knees. I think that this is just when this fight starts, maybe right or wrong, maybe you lose or whatever.

I know that I want my money on Sean Woodson as they're staring at each other across the cage. And that's where I got it. And minus 155, I think that's a perfectly serviceable price to pay for that. moving on we go to the bannamweight division as zhao long takes on francesco nozzi uh jow long minus 180 nutsi plus 145 jow long is one and three in the oc lost by decision to cody garbrand his last time out but if you remember that was the one where it's a valid loss because the point should have been deducted but cody garbrent would have lost the fight but jow continued to to cheat.

And so we had two points deducted and it swapped the scores for him. Nutsi making his debut. He has fought in PFL and Cage Warriors. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why he's gotten signed. And so disrespect to him, he actually looks like he's not like the worst fighter and some of the stuff that you can see out there of him. But like, let me just, he's won one and one over his last three. That other one being a no contest, his most recent bout. went to a no context because the fight was stopped after illegal groin kicks.

Like, this doesn't scream to me, man, who needs to be in the UFC. I believe this fight was put together on semi-short notice. Not that he's a replacement, but that the fight itself was just put together on short notice. And to me, this reads as Jalong is a guy that they'd like to get a win. Here's a dude who is available. We'll get him a win. I think Jalong is going to win. I am not going to bet it because I just gives me the icks.

Don't want to be involved here. We move up but down. So we move up the card, but down in weight class. We go to the flyweight division, a pair of flyweight fights to close out the prelims. The first of which is Ray Saruya taking on Kevin Borjas. Siruya, big, big betting favorite, minus 8.50. They come back on Kevin Borjas plus $500.

Suria, 2 and 1 in the UFC. Rear-Naked choke. win over Luis Garouli in May is most recent outing. Borjas, two and four in the UFC. He named a decision win over Andre Lima, who we will talk about very soon is his most recent outing. That being said, he did miss weight, so something to at least consider for that fight.

Saruya is a great prospect. His one loss in the UFC came to Josh Van, that has aged immeasurably well. And while he lost, like, very cleanly, he just did not have the tools at that stage to compete. Saruya, a terrific wrestler, great athlete, looks like a really, like a future big-time player in this weight class. Borjas is a good defensive wrestler,

but I don't think he's going to be able to stop Suria getting the takedowns that he wants. Mostly, to me, this fight is I want to see if Ray Saruya has continued to add tools to his game because that's where he's out right now is. It's not just about winning fights. I want to see him continuing to develop as a serious prospect in this weight class. Kevin Borjas is a good, good test for prospects, asked Andre Lima. So, you know, we'll see if he makes weight this time,

but Suria should rock in this one. He also important to note a road to UFC champion. So he is leg two of the road to UFC champion parlay, him, Lawrence Liu, and the third person we'll talk about in just a moment. But before I get there, if you are looking to go the other way, there's also a Peru parlay available as Borjas' parley. Peruvian fighter, one more Peruvian fighter on this card. So you could put that together if you're feeling a little friscier.

But let's talk about the last leg of the Road to the UFC champion parley. Because it is in the final prelim fight as Namzrai Bajar takes on Andre Lima. Bambayar plus 200, Lima minus 260. Lima's 4-1 in the UFC. His loss, the aforementioned one to Kevin Borjas's last time out in June. the, you know, Boros Blue Weight loses that one. But Bayar, making his UCDB one season four of Road to UFC. So we are priced into it.

He is going to round out the Road to UFC champion parlay. It pays out a plus 360 on my book, so I'm just throwing a $25 bill on it, you know, not a full unit, just a quarter unit splash because it pays out at a very high price. And we can have some fun. Also, I have been very high on Andre Lima. coming off contender series. I rated him as a very, very good prospect. And his resume in the UFC has borne this out, right?

You know, like could be 5 and O, depending on the Borjas missed weight situation. But he has plateaued. I will say that. I anticipated him to just be a significantly better fighter than he has really showed. Obviously, his first fight, his first win, the UFC is the one that's probably the most famous at this point. the as Igor Severino bit him and then he got the tattoo but you know like he's fought some okay

names mitroposo uh Felipe dos Santos stereo barres and uh I think he even got a performance bonus for the bars but Lima has missed weight you know he's coming heavy Felipe dos not like he hasn't shown as much as I basically just hoped for him um now how old is he let me actually look this up because off the top of my head I don't know Now, he's still just 27. So he still has time to shine to develop, to look good. But I just, I want to see. I mean, he beat the pants out of Daniel Barras, but that's a setup fight to do so.

He really struggled with the Felipe de Santos. And Mitch Raposo, you know, that fight was nip-tuck. And even the Igor Severino fight, like, he was probably going to win that fight, I think, anyway, until the biting. But he just hasn't, he hasn't really had a. signature, oh, he's for real performance yet. Maybe he gets it against Bup Bairr, but I think there is some potential for Bop Bairar to to pull off this shock upset, right? Like he, coming off road to UFC, he's got decent movement and striking.

And Lima, again, he's not going to pull away, it doesn't seem like. So Bupyer can keep this on the feet, keep cutting angles, move around. He can make this fun. he'll fight for your road to UFC parley money. Plus, because he's the danger leg of the parlay, once we get to the end, either you could live bet, if you're so inclined to kind of balance out your parlay,

or you just let it ride and have some fun because the two legs have already cashed, and then you are locked in for the buyer, Andre Lima, pre-lim main event. We move to the main card now, and we stick in the flyweight division. That's why this card's fun, a lot of flyweight fights. as Bala Hassan takes on Nilsson Rojas, the other Peruvian fighter previously mentioned on this card.

Both men making their debut, Hassan making his debut off Contender Series, where he won like two weeks ago on Contenders Series turning around very quickly. Rojas, meanwhile, making his debut after, I don't remember where he fought before this, and I don't have it in my notes somehow. I don't have it in my notes because it doesn't matter is Balaasan's going to win. He's actually a super good prospect. Rojas is also undefeated, so he's got that going for him. And can maybe be dangerous from some of the stuff I've seen.

But Asan is very technical. He is very physical. Like, he's like a legitimate, really, really top-tier prospect entering the sport. That's partly why the UFC matchmakers are so quick to turn him around. Obviously, he's Indonesian. The Indo Ninja, by the way, best nickname on the cart. I've been thinking about doing this in general and for some future projects,

but best nickname on the card for sure, the Indo Ninja, so I'd be betting on him anyway just because of that. But, you know, in his nine fights, all of them or almost all of them have been finishes. He blew through like a 9-0 guy on Contender Series, so another 9-0 guy here. CFFC champ beating like real people,

not like the best people but real people Bala Sahn, 25 years old and looks to be like a legitimately really, really good prospect. Nilsson Raw is not quite that. So what we've done is we've taken Balaasan and we've put him in the Bourdain for this week. The Bourdain being

all the leftover stuff. You get into the back of the fridge. You don't want to go shopping. What do you have? You pull it all out and you throw it into a pot and you make a stew out of it. And that's what we've got with B'L Hassan in our stew this week. From there, we finally leave the flyweight division as we move up to the light heavyweight

division. The optics here. Breakneck, twist and turns. As Luce takes on Levi Rodriguez Jr., Luce minus 210 Rodriguez, plus 165, Luce making his debut, whereas Rodriguez lost his debut to Felipe Franco via TKO after getting mounted his first time out. Lou is a K-1 cruiserweight champion. He was originally said this fight was supposed to be Junior Tafa.

Tafa withdrew in steps of Rodriguez. Yeah, Lou is being set up to succeed here. Mine is 210 betting favorite, though, for a guy with very minimal professional MMA fights. He should win. Rodriguez doesn't shoot takedowns. Like, this is a set-up fight. If you wanted to bet Luce, it would be fine for me.

I just didn't feel like it. I don't need to have that stress in my life. Maybe I'm missing out on money, but I don't need it. You know, but like Levi's not going to shoot. He hasn't shot in his contender series fight or his UFC fight, so Luce should win. That being said, I also just want to raise the question of why Rodriguez is even signed. He won on the contender series, but then he popped for Nandrolone and they still signed him. And it's just like, I don't know, you could let him go somewhere else.

You don't have to sign him so quickly. Alas, here we are, here we are. And now we get to the thick of things, to the high quality action all the way through as Sumadairji takes on Alex Perez in a flyweight rematch. Sumedairg minus 225 Perez plus 180. Perez 2 and 2 with one no contest over his last five. Sumedairji 3 and 1 with one no contest over his last five. And both of their no contests are the same because back in May they were fighting. And that fight ended up in a no contest after a groin kick to Alex Perez left him heaving into a bucket in the cage.

It looked quite bad. The fight did not continue. That being said, an important thing to know about this fight, the odds have flipped. Perez was a little bit less, I think he was like a minus 180, but he was a favorite, a clear favorite over Sumederji. and won two rounds on the judges, like won the first round on two of the judges' score cards. But he got hurt.

It looked like Sumadairji was taking over before the groin kick. And so given that, the odds have flipped, and the fan base thinks that Sumadairji should be installed as a betting favor. I understand that logic, and that logic might even be correct. But I also think that it is possible we are reading too much into, oh, he was winning the fight when,

it ended. Yeah, but then Alex Perez could come back. These things are cyclical. There's a reason Perez was the favorite, their first time out. And I don't think that the odds should have flipped two to one in favor of the other way. If this wanted to be much close to pick them,

that would make much more sense to me. But it's not like Sumida-Degi was cooking Prez. Their first fight was competitive. Let me actually pull up the just the numbers, just to show up. Their first fight was competitive. And again, Perez won

on two of the judge's scorecards Sumadere G had started to pile up some damage and he scored a knockdown the knockdown being the biggest thing but that first round was nip-tuck it was basically dead even Summadaergy in the second scores the knockdown

pulls ahead but again it's not like he was running away with this fight and so I think you're getting some value on Alex Perez here at plus 180 and so I took a shot half a unit on it you know

we'll see if it's not quite 2 to 1 it might even move that way. I think the line's probably done sticking, but I like to believe, I'm believing in the priors. And the prior said that Alex Perez a little bit more versatile of a fighter and should be able to find ways.

And now maybe coming in off the groin kick, he's feeling even more compelled to put on a show. From there, we go to the Bannamweight Division. So we went flyweight, flyweight, flyweight, light, light, flight, fly weight. Sick. Sick, sick, sick. Love that so much for us. But now we are to the Banimweight division as Erichi Lang takes on Kai Asakura in a Bannamweight contest, 135 pounds. Eriji Lang plus 325, big time underargans, Kaisakura minus 475. Aririch Lang is 2-2 and 1 or 2 and 2 with a no contest over his last 5. Meanwhile, Cody Haddon, or I'm sorry, he lost to Cody

hadn't in May. Macau. As a core, meanwhile, he won at Macau, knocking out Cameron Smotherman to pick up his first UFC win, also his first UFC Bannamweight fight. He moved up to 135 and showed out against Cameron Smotherman. Kai is

2-0 in China, and Orichie Lang has lost nine times in China, including one to Kai, Cara-France, in case that kind of floats your boat. To me, this does just feel like the move to Bannamweight is going to serve Asakura well.

He's can be more, he's just much more dangerous. His athleticism translated, his size, mostly translates. Erici Lang can be a dangerous fighter when he gets to

have the fights he wants, basically. But I think Asa Kuro is the more dynamic, offensive threat here. And that should give him an advantage as he can make this kind of a little messier and pick up a lot of ground as

they just sort of go, oops, we're chucking them. I think we might be in store for a finish here, and then Kyoskore is going to get it done. And Kaiusikour is the second part of the Bordane soup that we have put together here coming in his minus 475 number. We continue heading up, and we had to the Women's Strawweight Division. This fight card is one light heavyweight, and then Bannonweight, Bannow, Flyweight, Flyweight,

women's strawweight, Bannumweight, flyweight. Pretty sick. Great card. Like, that's how you know you're going to have good. time but the co-main event yan janaan former former title challenger versus the nisi goms a 115 pound contest and yanjaunan a slight betting favorite minus 160 gomes plus 130 as the dog yon is three and two over the last five hasn't fought in over a year coming off the unim decision lost due verna jezsche roba in april of 2025

Gumbs, meanwhile, four-fight winning streak picked up a UD over Tisha Pennington back in November. One thing I do want to note here, this is the first one of these has been significantly relevant. I like to look at the trends, as some of you know, how fighters do as, you know, in a gambling perspective. Yon, 6-1 is a betting favorite, so a very strong favorite, right? If you're clocking that high, you know, over that,

that's enough of a sample size to say 6-1. she is mostly returning your investment as a favorite. Gohams, three in one as a dog. That's a much, it's a smaller sample size, four fights, but that's still a very productive underdog sample size for her. And as she comes in as a dog here, an opportunity to be four and one as an underdog in the UFC. My concerns for Gohombs are that she is small in this white class.

She is small. And Jan Shadon is going to be significantly bigger. But Gomes mixes things up. She pressures really well. She's always small. She knows how to fight people that are bigger than her. Jan, meanwhile, is 37. Been off for a long time.

I'm not sure what to make of her, right? Because Janjanon was a fighter that I didn't believe in at all. And then suddenly she blew up Jessica Androge. Like, oh, I guess we have to believe in her. Like, she beat McKinsey Dern. Obviously, it's the current. champion. But that was even a fight where that looked more like Darn lost it than she won it. Right? She hung tough in credit to her. But Dern at various points look like she was running away

with it and then she McKinsey Derned. The Jessica and Drodsch ride was just like, okay, that came out nowhere for her to knock out Jessica and Drog's lost a lot of money on that fight by the way. And you're like, guess you got to respect her. And then she gets mostly blanked by Zhang Wai Lee, which I think we all knew. Beats Tabitha Ritchie. Don't know what to make of that. And she lose de Verna Gingiroba. She's obviously a good fighter. I don't know if she's a great fighter. I'm not willing to say

Deniseie Goams is a great fighter, but she's 26 years old, and she's clearly, clearly on the up and up. Angela Hill, her last loss, that was three-ish years ago, and since then has looked quite good. Now, the one other thing

to sort of note in that run for Denisey Goams is part of the Angela Hill loss was she's really small. She's given up a lot of sides. Now, Angela Hill is taller than most people in this weight class, quite frankly. But, uh, because Angela Hill's, what is she? Like 5'5? Um, I'm not sure. But, you know, I, Janjan,an is going to be bigger. She can put a range striking game together. I mostly just think these odds are correct. I think Janjan,an probably should be the slight favorite, but she's getting a little older, so she shouldn't be a huge favorite. Maybe Gohams can make something

happen. What I do think I really like about this fight is the goes-to-decision prop here. I got it at minus 275. Gomes, five of her eight, UFC fights have gone to decision. 11 of Yons 14 have gone

to decision. And there's always the potential, I guess, that some out of nowhere the Jessica and Drogh Kho happens. I think this is going to the cards and putting two units down on it so we can get close to getting a one-unit return. on this to try and chip away at some of the losses I have sustained.

And then, ladies and gentlemen, that takes us to the main event, Bantamweight Division. Umar, Nirmagumadav takes on Song Yadong. Umar, big betting favorite, minus 600. Come back on song plus 425. Umar 4 and won over his last five. Two-fight win streak since his lost Dupiorian for the Bantamweight title picked up a unanimous decision win over Davidson Figurato in January. 324.

Song, meanwhile, three and two over his last five, submitted Figgie Smalls in May. So in the head-to-head, he more definitively beat Davids and Figuero, tapping him with a guillotine back in May.

Looking at the betting trends, Umar A-N-1 is a favorite. He's a favorite every fight. He lost the Marab one. Song has not cashed as a dog much, two and three as an underdog. I'm going to talk about this fight a lot on a preview show,

and in general, this is the highlight of the thing. my basic feeling on this is that Umar is going to win and should win, but there are major concerns with how he's looked lately. On his rise up the ban and weight rankings, he was the preordained, he's the next thing coming. He beats Corey Sandhagen in a really fun fight, and Corey Sanagan is obviously very good.

He was one round away from beating Rob, you know, and you can take what you will about the broken hand or whatever, like you can ascribe problems to that or not. But he was one round away from being the Bannamweight champion of the world. And he fell short against a guy who was knocking on the door of all-time great status and still could get there, you know? So, but Mario Batista, tough dude to fight, like tough dude to look good against Mario Batista, just really, really good. At no point danger really of losing these fights. but his lack of dynamic offense has really, really, really shown through lately.

And it has become very, very concerning about his prospects in this weight class. You know, you can, you can Mavovovov things, but it's tough and you'd like to see him be a little more dynamic. Song Yadong feels like a guy he should be set up to have some success there because Song Yadong is all dynamism and basically nothing else. Like, I, Uri Fabor got very angry at me one time for saying song, you know, should probably change gyms. And that's a take that I still sort of stand by. I, it's possible that's not a critique of Team Alpha Male, but it is just a, I think that he has plateaued his growth from there.

I don't think it will change much for him at this point. He is athletic, powerful, fast, but he doesn't have, like. like that many tools or ideas. He mostly throws real hard punches, can sprawl real hard because he's athletic and powerful. And, you know, he's team alpha-mo guy. So he has his guillotine choke. And that can go a very long way against Sumer and Ameri Madov,

who I think just should have more tools, even if he's not as dynamic. It mostly works for, like, fights out of a camp that will be very, very well-suited to work around the limited number of options. Song-e-dong brings and presents. I think that that should set him up for success. But I got to see it. I really got to see it.

This was, and now we'll get to the bet here, because this was going to be the climb this week. I'd ever intention of this being the climb because I do think Kumar will win. Might not be that exciting or interesting, but I do think he'll win. But by the time I was doing my research and the time I went to put in the bets,

the line moved. He was previously minus 500. Now, in my book, he's minus six, and that's a little too far out of bounds. I could technically play him as the climb. I've got a little bit of equity built up through these 13 steps. We're over projection right now. But if he drops back down, we may reconsider. But I decided after last week when I last week, the climb.

So, by the way, if you don't know what the climb is, I'm trying to string together the 30 consecutive bets. I make a climb bet, we roll it over, you get them to minus 500 or better. If you do that enough, you end up getting, you can turn, you know, 50 bucks into $10,000. That's the goal. We are 13 steps up the mountain, so not even quite halfway, but it's a great run that we're on. And last week, I had a moment of terror when I'd already put Chris Cyborg in as to climb, and then whoopsie daisies, Kellanviera weighs seven pounds overweight.

And I'm like, man, if that's how the climb ends, it's really poor. And early on, that fight was competitive. So I am trying to hold my climb bets until post way in. So I know that, all right, I know the lay of the land. I know the ground we walk on. So we're going to hold anyway. And we'll see. And maybe if the number comes down between then, okay.

But for now, probably just going to skip a climb this week is what's looking like. And so instead, we're going to take Umar, throw him in the remainder of that soup we were cooking. The three of those together, that pays you out around minus 167. So not a bad. bet. And that's it, ladies and gentlemen. That is U.S.C. Shanghai. Now, important to remember, this is early morning M.M. M.A. early morning East Coast. 3 a.m. East Coast. 6 a.m. Main card, East Coast time. So be aware of that. All your coverage of M.A. Fighting this week, we'll have some fun. And then, man, we're on the road to Paris, baby. I love the

Paris shows. This card has some really, some, like, genuinely good things happening on it. Pretty excited with the Paris Clark next weekend. So we will be back for that. Thank you for tuning in. Love y'all. The Vox Media Podcast Network.