MMA Fighting - No Bets Barred: Changing Of The Guard At UFC Vegas 96, And A Major Announcement

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

UFC Vegas 96 takes place this Saturday at the world’s most famous APEX, headlined by a middleweight matchup between Jared Cannonier and Caio Borralho, and Jed Meshew is here to break it down, plus b...reak some news about the pod. With Conner Burks moving on from MMA Fighting, Jed takes the reins to talk about this week’s card. Can Jared Cannonier fight off Father Time and Caio Borralho? What about Angela Hill and Tabatha Ricci? And does Neil Magny have one more veteran lesson to teach Michael Morales? Plus, Jed explains what’s next for No Bets Barred (hint: we’re not going anywhere!). All that and more on this week’s episode. Tune in for episode 99 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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:49 Okay, a bit TMI, but we're here for it. So download the app today and get zero delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacard, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast network. What is up y'all? Welcome to another edition of No Betts Bard. And as you can probably tell, I am not Connor Birx. That's right. It's your boy, Jedmishu, and we find a Congress website.
Starting point is 00:01:27 And some things have happened. If you are listening to this, many of you have probably already read about her, about seeing the news. My esteemed colleague and collaborator, Connor Burks, is no longer with Vox Media. His time ended this past, weekend with our UFC 305 watch party. It's obviously something I knew a little bit about. Connor and I've talked about it and I'll kind of update you guys about where No Betts Bard goes from here on this show. But first of all, we love Connor.
Starting point is 00:01:58 Connor also at the time of this recording, Connor had recently announced his next move. It's over to Yahoo Sports, obviously going with Ariel Halwani into their new venture and we certainly wish them all the best of luck. I talked to Connor about coming on this episode sort of as a fair one. well to everybody, kind of talk through his stuff, but he obviously has a lot going on right now and said, hey, I can't really do this at this point in time, but I want to be clear, we're
Starting point is 00:02:24 definitely going to get Connor back on at some point in the future, just as, you know, a guest to come around, come through, but no bets, Bard will continue without him. Now, what's that going to look like? Well, it'll be a little bit different. We'll talk about that at the end. So if you're, you've been wondering, just stick around or skip forward. But otherwise, we still got bets. We still got a previous weekend, UFC 305 to cover, and we've got UFC Vegas 96. Now, because of all the things going on, don't have a co-host today. It's me riding solo. This is not, I don't believe, how we're going to be doing No Bet Spardin moving forward.
Starting point is 00:02:59 But for this one, I wanted to make sure we could address what happened and still talk about the Betts the action this week, do a little breakdown. So it'll probably be a fairly short episode, just me talking through the fights very quickly and then giving you the update at the end. but before we get into any of that, we've got to talk about UFC 305. I have been fortunate enough to talk a lot about my feelings and thoughts on this card, but let's talk about, you know, how we did on the card,
Starting point is 00:03:24 because it ended up being a pretty decent week for me, guys, up four units, Dan Hooker coming through and big-time clutch cash in a plus 275, Drickus 2 Plus C, my boy. All of my people did their things. You know, a couple of losses in there, but we're talking about a really fun fight card, and it was particularly fun for me to get to experience it, watch it with CB, or I guess G.C. as he is more colloquially known,
Starting point is 00:03:51 in my place for the final time. We shared a bevy afterwards, chatted for a little bit. Obviously, still a good friend of mine. We'll stay in contact. And like I said, we'll have him back here. He had a slight winning week as well. If Izzy had won in the main event, I think he would have had a monster week, but still did okay.
Starting point is 00:04:09 and you know gc boy's going to be turning a profit by the end of the year 100%. But on we press and so that means we have got an event this weekend. It is, is fight night card. UFC Vegas 96. We are quickly approaching Apex 100 territory. Maybe Connor will come back for that one so we can really celebrate the biggest event of the year. But Jared cannoneer taking on Kyle. Baralio in the main event this Saturday at the UFC Apex.
Starting point is 00:04:45 The rest of the card, we're obviously get into it. It is not what I would call particularly captivating. This main event, though, it's not captivating, but it is certainly interesting here, right? What we are talking about with this is a bit of a changing of the guard matchup, and we got a few of those this week. But Canoneer, you know, former title challenger, longtime veteran, taking on Kyle Baralio, who is 6 and O in the UFC undefeated, has looked very good.
Starting point is 00:05:11 Currently ranked in the back end of the top 15, the UFC's middleweight rankings, but getting an opportunity to kind of insert himself with this sort of new crop of rising middleweights. And so looking at the odds of this matchup, unsurprisingly, Brailleo is a fairly
Starting point is 00:05:27 considerable favorite minus 230. Come back on Kennedy or plus 190. I got this bet in a little bit earlier. Odds are a little worse now, but I still thing is totally fine. I am on Kyle Boralio. For all the reasons that you're going to guess, and you're going to hear me repeat this refrain for the next few fights because there are a lot of similarities here,
Starting point is 00:05:48 Canaaneroneers just old, man. He's 40 years old. Barallio is young, extremely talented. And at the minute, like, I think Barallio can compete on the feet, but I think he has a very clear path to just score a bunch of takedowns. Kennedy has never been a great defensive wrestler. and as he's gotten older, I think that that is the thing that's going to go away even worse for him against a young physical specimen
Starting point is 00:06:12 like this in Borrello. I think he can score takedowns. You know, Canaaner has never been submitted. Let me actually check that. I'm like 99% yet. Never been submitted. So maybe Barrio can't get it done, though five rounds is a lot. At the minimum, I think Cabarillo can obviously come in here
Starting point is 00:06:31 and grind out a decision. And keep fighting nerds going. This is a camp that is undefeated this year with just a, like, we saw it last week, Carlos Prattis coming in his third straight win, just a monster performance against Li Jingling. Gene Silva, my boy, 3-0, Barallio, like fighting nerds is doing big things. And so I think you're getting a decent price here, and I'm on Kyle Barallio. That takes us to the co-main event of the evening. Angela Hill taking on Tabitha Ritchie in a women's straw weight contest. Now, this is functionally a pick-um, depending on where you go.
Starting point is 00:07:13 You may be able to get plus money on either end of the action here, but again, we are looking at a little bit less so in this regard, but a little bit of a old school versus new school. Tabitha Ritchie, been around for a little bit now, signed with the UFC like three or four years ago, but Angela Hill's been here for almost a decade, maybe even more than decade. Just a perennial top 15 kind of gatekeeper to the stars role. And again, we are getting a emerging talent, a talent who still has more left in the career
Starting point is 00:07:47 than she's already gone through against someone who is almost 40. I believe she turns 40 in January. Has still looked very game, though. That's the thing about Angela Hill. Every time out, she is competing. She is not really getting run over by anybody. She's on a two-fight win streak back in May. She picked up the first submission of her career, actually, against Luana Pinero with a gilly.
Starting point is 00:08:12 And, you know, just trying to stay relevant in this weight class versus Ricci, who only has a couple of losses. Those losses are to very good opponents. So, Lupi Godinez, everybody's been super high on Lupi. And Manofior, who is, you know, the next women's flyweight title challenger, ostensible. So back, you know, the question here is kind of which end of this do you back? And again, I'm going to support the youth movement. I think at the minimum, Ritchie, it may be grimy, right? She's been in a, had a couple of splities, even her most recent win over Tisha Pinnington,
Starting point is 00:08:51 no longer Tisha Torres. You know, many people didn't think she got it. It was really competitive, right? You can get there. but I think at the worst she can pull off something like that. She certainly has the grappling chops, the wrestling to get in there and win close rounds with a timely take down a little bit of top control, some positional grappling, maybe some ground and pound. So again, we are backing the youth movement.
Starting point is 00:09:16 And then that will bring us to, well, I would say a pair of fights, but we actually don't know what the second fight is, and odds are not out at the time we're recording this. But this event is also the event where the ultimate fight. It's functionally the ultimate fighter finale. So we are getting the matchups for the tough 32 middleweight tournament final and the whatever the other weight class is. But the other weight class is not there yet. But before we talk about that, take a really brief break for some commercials and then we'll
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Starting point is 00:10:52 Like I said, they are competing in the middleweight finale of the Ultimate Fighter. and I won't lie to you guys. Why would I lie to anybody here? I haven't watched a single second of this season of Tough. The only episode of Tough I've watched in the last five years probably was one episode last year, which we did for Tough Hang. When I was filling in from a boy CB, when he could no longer do that for, he was busy with a wedding or something that week. And I got to tell you, I don't feel any regret about not watching this. I did, however, go back and kind of try and look at these two fellas pre-tuff,
Starting point is 00:11:31 see how their kind of careers were unfolding before their. Loader is an NCAA All-American one time several years back for Northern Illinois, sorry. Obviously, a very good wrestler could have been an All-American a couple of the times, just missed out. He is sort of a prototypical, you know, American wrestleboxer in that field. fashion. Valentine, kind of a bit all over the place. Dude can do a little bit of everything, a little bit rugged in there. And so given sort of the context here, I reached out to our friend, Alexander K. Lee,
Starting point is 00:12:08 friend of the program, friend of the pod, been on the pod a few times before. We taught A.K., how to gamble. And I asked him, hey, Kay, you've watched every episode of Tough. You are the Tough Master. What are we doing here? And he says, you know, competitive fight. that obviously valentine has looked better he is apparently shown out in the tough house which is why he is your current betting favorite i would imagine valentine uh is at a minus 170 with loader at plus
Starting point is 00:12:36 142 but he said you know loader has has looked decent he has looked exactly like what he is he is a wrestling first kind of grappler and if if you can stop his takedowns it'll be trouble based on what i saw in the regional scene though i am not all that confident in valentine doing that maybe he has progressed a lot. Maybe he's made some big strides. But this is a dude who has a lot of scrap to him, but can also get behind in a fight and against a guy like Loder who just needs two.
Starting point is 00:13:06 Two takedowns can be enough to get it. So at underdog odds, I got him at plus 150, and I just kind of wanted to do it. You know, we still don't know who is going to be in the remaining tough finale fight. And so functionally, I'm just not going to have a bet on that, but stick around atmapen.com. AK has done a recap of every episode this season.
Starting point is 00:13:34 And, you know, you can hop on to one of our shows later in the week, a preview show, BTL, and ask, hey, who's going to get this one? And then we can kind of have a more educated talk about that. Let's keep it rolling right into yet another changing of the guard fight. Maybe. Maybe not. this is just because of who's involved. I'm talking, of course, about a welterweight contest between Neil Magne and Michael Morales.
Starting point is 00:14:01 So the odds here have Neil Magne as a massive underdog plus 600 comeback or Morales at minus 900. And those odds would suggest that this is, let's say, changing of the guard, then the guard has already changed and that Magny is left out in the cold. But I'm not quite sure about that, right? like Magni is certainly a little bit younger than people like Angela Hill and Jared Kennedy here. He's 37 does have a lot of mileage on him. But talking about a dude who like that that was the line against Mike Malat.
Starting point is 00:14:33 And for a lot of the Mike Malat fight, I mean, it was true. But Magny is still sort of a perfect gatekeeper to the stars in that he can turn the corner at the very last minute of a fight. was well on his way to losing, just gritting it out and having more temerity than the other dude to cross from him. And it's Michael Morales. This is a 25-year-old kid who I like a lot. I'm very high on his ability, but still 25 years old.
Starting point is 00:15:04 It hasn't really had to face a lot of adversity in the cage. This is classic textbook matchmaking. This is a fight that I am honestly a really big fan of because even at this late stage in his career, this is not the best version of Neil Magni at this point, I think we can all agree. It win here is still really meaningful and it gets, frankly, it gets Morales into the, into the conversation. Walter Wade has been having some up-and-coming prospects rise to your Shavkat Rachmanovs, your Jack Delis, your I'm Achado Garry's.
Starting point is 00:15:37 Michael Morales, a little under the radar, has not been sort of at the forefront of that initiative because he has been taking his time a little more. They got kind of fast-tracked. Instead, he has picked up very, very competent wins here, Trevin Giles, Max Griffin, Jake Matthews. He has climbed the ladder, and now he is getting this opportunity. And Magny has made a career out of sort of denying these kind of guys. That being said, I don't think he's going to.
Starting point is 00:16:03 I do really like Morales' chances to win this fight. Morales is very long. Like one of the few dudes who has a comparable reach with Magny 80 inches in this weight class can compete at range with him, can go to the grappling advantage that I believe he has. Magny's always been a bit weak to wrestling, and Morales can't do that. You can also just kind of counterbox with them as needed. Maybe Magny can make some hay in the clinch. He's always been an underrated clinch fighter, but we're talking to a guy who I think just has
Starting point is 00:16:34 too many tools in the tool belt to get this to kind of think that Magin can get this done. That being said, minus 900 is a big number. particularly against a guy who has a penchant for pulling off upsets like this. So as much as I understand and I think that there will be a ton of reflexive parlays built
Starting point is 00:16:57 with Morales in them, and maybe that'll be a perfectly fine leg. It won't be an issue. I think that this is exactly one of those where the line is right because Vegas is telling you, don't bet on this dude, and I agree, you shouldn't bet on this dude. If you got a feeling about
Starting point is 00:17:13 Magny, take your shot, Not where I want to be either, though. So this is the first bout of the evening that I'm just a stone pass on. So let's keep it rolling. And we can move on to a middleweight contest, another middleweight contest. This one featuring Edmund Shabasian taking on Gerald Mearschart. Shabazian coming in is a considerable favorite minus 298 to come back on Mearsart at plus 240. And honestly, one of the very first things I thought when I started looking into this,
Starting point is 00:17:45 And I think about it a lot. Every time he fights, it's insane how young Shabasian. He's still only 26 years old. Like, that is impressively not a lot of years, despite being around what feels like forever. Theoretically, Shabasian could just be coming into his own. But I'm not really sure that's the case here. That being said, he is facing Gerald Mershart, who... Mearsart is a finished product.
Starting point is 00:18:15 know who Gerald Mearshardt is as a fighter. He is not going to come out and surprise us with something new. If he can find a way to lock in a submission, then you are probably in trouble, and he's probably going to win. Ten of his 11 UFC wins are by submission. He is one TKO. When the man is victorious, it's not because the judges helped him get there. He is locking up fighting submissions.
Starting point is 00:18:38 And when he's not, he's either getting knocked out or he's losing a decision because he's tough enough to kind of hang in there. But Shabazian has never been submitted. You know, not a ton of opportunities there, but this is fairly decent at avoiding the ground. Certainly the more athletic fighter, the more explosive fighter in here. On paper, I would say it seems extremely likely
Starting point is 00:19:00 that Shabazian is just going to come out here, kind of keep this on the feet, tag MereShard up a bunch, and eventually find a knockout, get back to the form that people forget at this point because it's pretty easy to, given he had a really tough losing streak in there. This dude was a very, very, very, highly, highly viewed and respected prospect coming in
Starting point is 00:19:23 with, you know, into the UFC and immediately picked up four or five wins in a row off the contender series. They thought this could be the dude. And then Derek Brunson kind of showed us all what's up. So the issue for me here is that Shabazian should win this fight. He only really loses to good fighters. If you look at the dudes who have beaten him, they are all top. top 10, top 15 talents.
Starting point is 00:19:45 Mearshaart is not a top 10, top 15 talent. Shabazen's probably going to win. But can you trust him? Can you trust him basically minus 300? I don't know, man. That's a tall order. It's certainly not something I would like to be doing entrusting with my money.
Starting point is 00:19:58 But what I can entrust my money with is the under two and a half. Like I said, Mirchart, all of his wins or rise submission. 15 of his 20 UFC fights have ended under two and a half. Eight of 10 for Shabazian. and these are two due to very rarely go the distance.
Starting point is 00:20:15 And I think that when you match them up, it is just extremely likely that we're going to get a finish here. So I have taken a bet on the under two and a half. It's a bit pricey. I get it a minus 240. It's still hovering around there in places. So you're not getting like a major amount of payoff here, but I do think the value is good because this is a get-or-get-got matchup functionally.
Starting point is 00:20:36 So that's where I'm at. And then we can keep it rolling to Dennis Buzer. Zookja versus Danny Silva. This is a fight that is very near and dear to my heart because Danny Silva is a fighter that's very near, dear to my heart in a featherweight contest. Odds are fairly, fairly healthily in favor of Mr. Silva at minus 230. But that's not going to scare me off.
Starting point is 00:21:02 Danny Silva is one of my boys. If you've been following the pod for a long time, you know that the last episode, last season of Contender series, I did a full scouting report breakdown, basically, of all my favorite prospects. Danny Silva was one of the dudes who made it into the big paws on a puppy bucket, which is basically my first round talents. These are the guys who I think are the best of this crop of prospects. Danny Silva was one of those great boxing, super athletic, super fast,
Starting point is 00:21:30 and I think this is a really good opportunity for him to show out. Dennis Bajukja is just kind of behind the ball in every area that counts here. And on top of that, the man's name is Dennis Bazook, Jen. He doesn't go by The Bazooka. Like, what are we even doing here, my guy? Like, you don't want people to be fans of you if you're not just leaning into the things that makes sense. The great, just a, not a great nickname. Not a great nickname, bud.
Starting point is 00:21:56 So obviously I'm on Danny Silva. Big Pauls and a puppy are 13 and 1, the one loss from that group being Carly Judee's who lost a split decision that CB and I both thought she won. so that group has been showing out. I expect Danny Silva to continue to do so. Next on the prelims, Slava Claus, aka Vashislav Borchachev, takes on James Lontop in a lightweight contest. And Slava Claus is your betting favorite at this point in time.
Starting point is 00:22:32 Mine is 230. Come back on Lontop at plus 190. I don't have a ton to say about this fight from a betting perspective beyond the fact that this is a damn good matchmaking, right? Like, this is what you want to do. Laun Top, also a contingenture series dude from last year, suffered a loss in his debut, not one of my preferred prospects, but a guy who I thought could be fun because he's, he's hard to kind of pin down. He is very big crafty's got a little bit of skill, but he's very passive.
Starting point is 00:23:03 and that kind of makes me question sort of what his ceiling can be in this sport. It also makes me question how he's going to do against Slava Claus in here. Though best part about this, though, these are two dudes coming to banging out. Like, nobody's going to be shooting takedowns in here. That has historically been the way to, frankly, beat either of them, certainly to beat Slavoclaus. Not going to happen. They're just going to come in here and get after it. So it's good matchmaking for the fact that we will get a fun stand-up scrap.
Starting point is 00:23:30 I guess gun to my head, I might pick lawn top. I don't know, honestly. And truth be told, this is just a very easy stay away. Slava Clause, you just can't trust the duty is so deficient in some spots, even if he's very fun. And at the same time, I'm not trusting lawn top either. So just an easy kind of, no thanks. I'm good here.
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Starting point is 00:24:19 Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. slash Black Friday. IKEA. Bring home to life. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. Our next fight, a middleweight contest, Jose Medina,
Starting point is 00:24:51 funky, cold Medina taking on Zach Rees. Reese, another contender series, dude, a guy who I liked a little bit, except for the fact that he doesn't really have defense. I put him in a special category called defense is optional with a couple of other dudes because he didn't. He was just all offense, all agro all the time. Big dude, great kicks though. So kind of intriguing, like if he can add some tools to his belt, we'll see how it goes. Medina, you know, has a path here.
Starting point is 00:25:23 The path would be to use that grappling score, takedowns, get on top, and kind of follow that playbook that is out there. but Reese pretty big and I just I'm not sold on Medina but the odds here are huge because Zach Rees is minus 550 Medina plus 410 again another a lot of bouts in this this is a very interesting week of fights overall where you've got a lot of changing the guard fights and you got a lot of fights that are you can't bet them because the odds are just prohibitive or like sure Zach Rees should be a favorite over Jose Funky Gold Medina funky gold is not his name on putting it out there. But should he be a minus 500 favorite against anybody?
Starting point is 00:26:04 Like, has he earned that at this point of his career? I don't think so. I am staying away. So let's keep it rolling a women's bantam weight contest. Jacqueline Cavalcanti versus Hosian Nunes. Nunes is an underdog in this matchup. Cavalcante minus 192. The comeback on Nunes at plus 160.
Starting point is 00:26:29 this is a strange one for me, folks, because this is going to be a striking affair. Josea Nunez is, that's what she does. She's got big power, very small for the weight class. Even at Bannamweight, at Featherweight, she was tiny. Even at Bannum weight, she's not a particularly large, certainly not a very tall woman, but she has big, big power that has been her calling card.
Starting point is 00:26:51 That's how she works. She's got good enough technique to land the bombs, and she's got a sort of unnatural power for women's Banner. quantum weight women's featherweight. Kevacomte is almost exactly the opposite. Like they couldn't have two more opposite women who both want to at least compete in the same stage of the game. Kevaconti is functionally a large volume kickboxer who's not really ever trying to hurt
Starting point is 00:27:15 you. You know, she's going to work a very high rate. She doesn't sit down her to punches too much. She does not have a great amount of finishing ability. What she does have is good physical attributes and, you know, straightforward technique, and she is going to put a pace on you. That pace could give Nunes a lot of problems.
Starting point is 00:27:35 I mean, that's probably why Cabo Conti is the favorite here. She is going to outland her. The question is whether Nunes can overcome the volume deficiency with the big fight changing shots. And I'm going to bet that she can in this one. In fights like this, I always tend to favor someone with finishing ability over someone without it because it's so hard to fight. 15 minutes perfectly and not get, not slip up, not get caught.
Starting point is 00:28:02 And if you don't have the ability to suddenly change things in your favor, that's just a huge advantage you're giving to the other side. Obviously, Kevokonte has plenty of her own advantages here, but Nunes has kind of proven to be crafty. I think she just has earned more respect than she is getting from odds makers at this point with her performances. And I got her at plus 170. Andy, it's a, it's not like the best bet that's ever been made, but it's a bet that I'm
Starting point is 00:28:31 comfortable enough with. And it's actually my last bet on the card. But we will very briefly talk about the opening bout of the evening, the final bout for us to discuss Wang Kong taking on Victoria Leonardo in a women's flyweight contest. This is functionally a set-up bout for, for Kong. She is a, I don't know how highly touted of a prospect she is, but she has, she got a little bit of juice to her, a road to UFC competitor, undefeated mixed martialist. She was a Sanda world champion that is a form of kickboxing, like a multiple time world champion. I think multiple, at least one.
Starting point is 00:29:12 And just coming in with, okay, look, like this could be a future star for Chinese MMA, Chinese women's MMA, somebody to get really behind. because she has been fairly impressive. She has a very impressive kickboxing career in Sanda, and they are throwing her just a free dub here. And that is a little bit disrespectful to Victoria Leonardo. So hand up, my apologies. But, you know, Leonardo is one in three in the UFC coming off the contendous series several years ago.
Starting point is 00:29:48 Her lone win is Mandy Baum, who I don't actually know if Mandy Baum is still employed by the UFC. Sure, she had a couple of tough fights in there. She lost the Manaa. She lost the Nati Ice, Natia Silva, but there's just, she's just not to caliber from what we've seen this far. Now, granted, don't know if Kong Wang, uh, Kong Wang is to par. Like, this is sort of a test there, but the odds here are astronomical minus 1100 for Kong, for Kong Wong, uh, Kong Wang, wow, I don't, I'm sure I'm bushing that and I'm so sorry. but minus 1100 versus a plus 700 on Leonardo. It's honestly maybe not even like a totally ridiculous idea,
Starting point is 00:30:31 just to throw a little splash on the plus 700, just to see how the UFC debutante functionally manages here, but not for me. I can't do it, so I have passed on this one. And that's the end of USC Vegas 90. Now we also have some PFL action on Friday, and I got to tell you, PFL nine, sort of the remaining playoff stuff,
Starting point is 00:30:51 you're getting your feather weights, You're getting your welter weights. These are very good fights that are deeply uninteresting in a lot of ways. Brennan, obviously, Kai Kamaka 3. That is a very fun fight. Brennan, a substantial betting favorite in that one. Mine is 400. Magamette Um, Megamette Um, Taken on Neiman Gracie in one of the welterweight ones.
Starting point is 00:31:15 Umulotov, huge betting favorite. Gabriel Braga, Timur Kizriev, and the other featherweight contest, Kids who have undefeated 16-0. Again, a massive favorite. And then Shemil Musayev versus Murdov-Hramazanov in the other welterweight contest. That one at least a little closer to home, but still a fairly sizable betting favorite there for Musayev minus 250 or so. Not a ton of other intrigue on this card, frankly. I did throw together a little favorites parlay, just to have something.
Starting point is 00:31:51 to cheer for on Friday. Nothing, you know, too terribly exciting. But I put Loughmane, I put Umulotov, and I put Kizriev all into one. And it pays out like minus 171. Like I said, not terrific, but it'll give us something to do on Friday when we're up watching these fights and nothing else is going on. Because while I, again, I think these are competitive matchups. I mean, Kizry of 16 and 0, Gabriel, Braga, 14, and 1.
Starting point is 00:32:18 You know, these are guys who have been around the block, good wins, good, good, solid professionals and veterans, but come on, man. Like, are you that pumped about a Timarkizia fight? Do you know who Timor Kizierv is? If you're listening to this, maybe you do. But that's all we got for this week, which brings us to where do we go from here? And it's a great question. I already got some questions online about this, sort of with G.C. announcing that he was
Starting point is 00:32:43 moving on to other pastures, greener pastures. And here's where we're going. No Bet's Bart is staying around. It is going to change a little bit, though. So this, I wanted to get this episode out so we can kind of talk about it, make sure you guys are aware. We do have a week off next week. There is no UFC event, so no-bets barred wouldn't have been there this week. And I felt that if we didn't do this one, then it would have just been so up in the air, and that wouldn't be reasonable.
Starting point is 00:33:11 No event, no-no-bats barred next week. The next event, September 7th, is USC Apex 97. That's the Burns-Bradie apex event. barn burner, barn burner through and through. Actually, it is better than this one, but I still would not say it's great. We will likely not have a no-bets barred for that.
Starting point is 00:33:31 There is some chance that I return with the podcast that week. I get a guest, and we just do it just to chop it up and do it. But because we're going to do a little bit of restructuring, because there's going to be a new look, a new vibe to no-bets-barred moving forward, we want to take a little bit more time to make sure we get it right, drilled down in a couple of things
Starting point is 00:33:50 get a little creative and sort of figure a few things out and so no bets board will 100% return for UFC 306 the sphere UFC Noce presented by Read or whatever we will definitely be back for that with the sort of era
Starting point is 00:34:07 2.0 unfortunately this is I believe our 99th episode so me and GC almost made it to 100 but so it goes man and this is not a sad occasion because he's going to be doing big things we're very very happy for
Starting point is 00:34:22 and very proud of gc and all he has done uh so if you're not already following on twitter and they're like make sure you hop on and do you so you can keep up with him and make sure you stay with us because i still love you and no bets barred is still going to be here to provide you the worst bets you've ever heard your entire life it'll just be gone for a couple of weeks and then we'll be back baby the sphere sean o'malley marad valer shivili elix lexara valentino shivchenko 3. Brian Ortega, Diego Lopez, theoretically, unless Ortega pulls out again on Fight Week for reasons
Starting point is 00:34:54 unknown. All of this and more coming to you soon. Thank you so much for being along for the ride. Love y'all.

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