In 2022, UFC’s lead color commentator, Joe Rogan, came under fire after a social media account stitched together a multitude of instances where Rogan used a very ugly racial epithet into a video clip that ended up going viral. Several outlets picked up the story, including mainstream news media. Joe issued a public apology—which also got picked up by nu…

Sean Strickland certainly has tongues wagging this week after his latest social media video clip. His video confessional, a staple on his social feeds, comes from inside his car, where he tells fans how he doesn’t feel mentally stable, and that he told his girlfriend he just wanted to burn everything down but that he felt really connected to his fans. This level of “honesty” always seems to grab fan attention, creating the impression that Sean is using these sessions as a trauma dump rather than actually seeking therapy.

MMA Draw Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We also have an update from the Haru Basho, the second grand Sumo tournament of the year. Tim Bissell stops in to provide details an all the important matches, with the latest on some of our favorite characters like the Angry Hamster, Double Boob, the Flying Monkey, Machine Gun Arm and the Peach Prince. It’s an episode you won’t want to miss and it’s completely free today!

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC coverage. The MMA Draw is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current MMA news and opinions.

Thank you for reading MMA Draw Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it.

UFC 299 was a great card in practice and according to the promotion’s brass, the event garnered a sellout gate that topped $13M—their fourth best live gate. The headliner, Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera, was a title bout for bantamweight gold and it featured a fantastic supporting card with everything fight fans could possibly want—name value, action-pac…

UFC Vegas 87 is an ugly card, full stop. Despite the fact that the alternative stats look decent (ranked fights, fighters, etc.), the matchups don’t do much in the way of getting us amped to watch the card. If anything, it’s a deterrent to it. Let’s face it, no matter what they do, the Apex cards always seem like leftovers, even when they’re not.

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

And with two last minute replacements, we even get an athlete who is scheduled to fight for another promotion next weekend. It just always feels like we’re being cheated out of good cards for one reason or another, be it due to a lack of name value (big issue on this event) or a lack of ranked athletes and fights.

We get a smattering of everything on this show, but there’s nothing too egregious when we stack up our normal factoids. It’s when we peel back the layers of the records that we start to see where the seams are coming apart. Take Eryk Anders, for starters. In his last six fights, he’s only managed to win two of them.

To make matters worse, Anders’ opponent, Jamie Pickett, is on a four-fight losing skid. This is supposed to be the top promotion on the planet with the very best fighters in the world. Why are we getting this level slop if that’s the case? I know we’ve beaten this poor old pony to death, but when the product never changes, it’s hard to not feel frustrated and even a little cheated.

We realize fighters need to make their debuts, get back on track from losses, etc. but it generally seems like they lump all those elements exclusively into the Apex cards. As mentioned above, the alternative stats or “fun factoids” aren’t awful for this event, but it still has absolutely zero curb appeal to speak of. Let’s look at the fights we predicted:

UFC Vegas 87

* Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev 265 lbs

* Alex Perez vs. Muhammad Mokaev 125 lbs

* Matt Schnell vs. Steve Erceg 125 lbs

* Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios 140 lbs

* Javid Basharat vs. Aiemann Zahabi 135 lbs

Did you talk about anything besides UFC Vegas 87?

We did! We actually started the episode with our headlines this week and due to time constraints, we gave you the episode for FREE. Here’s the hot sheet list:

* Israel Adesanya interview about UFC 300

* Fight trailer for Ngannou-Joshua

* Nate Diaz wants on UFC 306 card

* Ryan Garcia calling out Sean O’Malley

* Henry Cejudo’s non-retirement

You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC coverage. Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site. Please subscribe to our podcast Substack, as well. We’re constantly refining to try and provide our readers and listeners with the best, most current MMA news and opinions.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Thank you for listening to the Level Change Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Sean Strickland had a very eventful week in the leadup to Super Bowl Sunday. It started off right after the Republican caucus in Las Vegas, Nevada where former POTUS Donald Trump was making a speech. Just a few minutes into it, Trump gave Sean an extended shoutout and following the event, stopped in with the former UFC middleweight champion for photo op…

The first was the unexpected merger of WWE with the UFC. The historic deal saw the two companies combined under one roof with the combined entity branded as TKO Holdings. Vince McMahon would end up with a new title—executive chairman—a ton of shares, and the perk of being able to choose five of the board’s 11 seats.

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport…

UFC 297 was not the best card. As a matter of fact, if I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a 4. On paper, going into the event, we were quick to notice how there were no ranked fighters on the undercard and eight of those fighters were coming off losses. All four of the opening fights were loser vs. loser. The main card wasn’t much better, …