Simon says…
The UFC 289 prelims have a pretty solid featured fight for ESPN between Nassourdine Imavov and Chris Curtis. In fact, it's solid enough that it's kind of a shame that it's not on PPV. Otherwise, much like the main card, the quality drop-off here is steep. The stakes are low, the prospects are minimal, hopefully the quality of the action will make up for what it lacks in curbside appeal. ~ Zane Simon
The PPV that is not qualified to be a PPV
Z: Wow. Yeah. This is NOT a pay-per-view card.
C: It's dog shit.
Z: Yeah this is NOT a pay-per-view card. (Worthy of repeating).
C: Yep. It's bad.
Z: It umm, Nunes-Aldana? I'm glad we're not just getting Nunes-Peña 3.
C: Phil was clamoring for Nunes-Peña 3 and I was like, "listen, there's such a thing as a set up and a punchline." And we got it. The story of that fight is done. The extremely basic question Nunes failed to answer the first time around, was successfully answered in the rematch. Let's do something else.
That being said, I am sympathetic to people who complain this isn't particularly interesting because that's the case with most of Nunes' title fights. But okay. Another one I guess.
Z: Yeah, I mean it's the unfortunate thing too. If I imagine Nunes getting the fight she would love to have here, I imagine a ten-foot away, one-shot-at-a-time, kickboxing match.
C: Yeah.
Z: I imagine something along the lines of like, Shevchenko against uhhh...
C: You don't have to search to far for that, cause we saw it was exactly that fight.
Z: I think Aldana will probably let her have that fight. Much more so than Peña would. So there's that downside.
C: Yep. At least Peña would have enforced some kind of mess on her, ya know?
Z: Yeah, Peña ya know, she has a pathological need, to create a wild fight. That both led to her absolutely mauling Amanda Nunes one time, and getting mauled the second time. No matter whether succeeding or failing she can't take her foot off the gas.
C: Yeah. So. And then there's the rest of the card...
Z: There's maybe a few fights???
C: Yeah, one really good fight. A couple of interesting ones. And that's it.
Z: Yeah, realistically what we would have here is the standard UFC Fight Night, with just Oliveira vs. Dariush headlining.
C: Yeah.
Z: But we have that plus a title fight on top of it, so...
C: But like, how are they doing this?
Z: What do you mean?
~ Zane Simon & Connor Ruebusch
"It's the UFC! They have MOST of the good fighters! How do they manage to put together a PPV... like we still have to assume most of the time we see these dog shit Fight Night cards, "ah, you know, at least they're gonna stack the PPV's".
What? You're gonna follow last week's card, which, sure there were some fun fights, but as a line-up, it was merely "fine". You're gonna follow that, with THIS as the PPV? Where are the good fighters?! What is going on in the modern UFC that we have gotten... like 2023 has been 75% THIS so far. What is happening?!!"
~ Connor Ruebusch
Z: I think a large part of it is, they are chained to a lack of flexibility more than ever, and with that being the case, fighters are also being more picky than ever.
If you become a top-shelf talent in the UFC. If you become somebody who is making even just like, a hundred-thousand dollars, or 75K, a reasonably talented... your Ilia Kopuria's, your Dominic Cruz's of the world, a top-shelf talent... then it behooves you more than ever to hold out for just the perfect spot, because that's all the leverage you have.
Like, "oh, no I wanna fight on this date, against one of these two or three people, and if I can get that fight, then I'll wait. Because I know if I do just take whatever the UFC throws at me, then I put myself in more jeopardy, than would be worth the chance of sitting and waiting it out for a better opportunity." We're seeing that more and more with our talented fighters.
"So why do they water these cards down with regional level talent? Because it’s cheap. Fighters are frequently drafted over from the Contender Series on $10K show/win purses. This strategy provides economically-friendly talent to fill all the events they need to satisfy their contract with broadcast partner ESPN." (For the full article from Stephie Haynes, visit here.)
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UFC 289 PRELIMS Fight Card | Sat. June 10
Here’s a look at the UFC 289: 'Nunes vs. Aldana' Prelims card, as it stood at the time of recording:
6. Nassourdine Imavov (12-4) Vs. Chris Curtis (30-10) - Middleweight
5. Jasmine Jasudavicius (8-2) vs. Miranda Maverick (11-4) - Flyweight (W)
4. Aiemann Zahabi (9-2) vs. Aoriqileng (24-9) - Bantamweight
3. Blake Bilder (8-0) vs. Kyle Nelson (13-5-1) - Featherweight
2. David Dvořák (20-5) vs. Steve Erceg (9-1) - Flyweight
1. Diana Belbitã (20-5) vs. Maria Oliveira (13-6) - Strawweight
For the MMA Vivisection Prelims Card
Check back here same Bat time, same Bat channel tomorrow, Friday morning, 6/9/2023. For more info on our all new Bloody Elbow Podcast Network Broadcast Schedule changes, check this out
Picks Stats
For those of you following the Vivi picks made on the show, we started tracking the stats for them in early 2020. Current event picks for the guys are now located in the last table of the current sheet in the attached file. So far, here are the overall standings:
UFC Vegas 74: Kara-France vs. Albazi — Zane’s Picks 9/13, Connor’s Picks 4/13, Zane Picks Percentage 69.23%, Connor’s Picks Percentage 30.77%
Early 2020 — UFC Vegas 74, June 2023 — Zane’s Picks 933/1475, Connor’s Picks 891/1475, Zane’s Picks Percentage 63.25%, Connor’s Picks Percentage 60.41%
2023 Overall Stats — Zane’s Picks 121/222, Connor’s Picks 114/222, Zane’s Picks Percentage 54.5%, Connor’s Picks Percentage 51.4%
2022 Overall Stats — Zane’s Picks 331/505, Connor’s Picks 312/505, Zane’s Picks Percentage 66%, Connor’s Picks Percentage 62%
2021 Overall Stats — Zane’s Picks 305/493, Connor’s Picks, Connor’s Picks 295/493 62%, Connor’s Picks Percentage 60%
2020 Incomplete Stats — Zane’s Picks 176/255, Connor’s Picks 170/255, Zane’s Picks Percentage 69%, Connor’s Picks Percentage 67%
* We will be filling in our missing event stats for 2020 this Summer
Reference Vivi Picks Stats Spreadsheets
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Our Talented MMA Vivi Sponsor
The UFC Vegas 74 Fight Night: Kai Kara-France vs. Amir Albazi edition of The MMA Vivisection is brought to you by ‘The Fine Art of Violence’, a collection of art and essays recapping the year in MMA by our Bloody Elbow Art Director: Chris Rini, featuring the most talented artists and writers in Mixed Martial Arts. The book is available in both hard copy and digital formats at chrisrini.com.
Join Us For Our Next Event
The next event after UFC 289: Nunes vs Aldana, will be UFC Vegas 75 Fight Night: Vettori vs. Cannonier, which is broadcasting from the APEX Facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.
UFC 289 Prelim Card Picks, Odds, & Analysis | MMA Vivisection