Zane Simon & Connor Ruebusch are back to break down this week’s UFC PPV event at the O2 Arena in London, England. With picks and odds for every fight on the card. From Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman 3 in the main event down to Veronica Hardy vs. Juliana Miller in the opening prelim.
After the recent UFC 285 PPV extravaganza, UFC 286 looks just a little tiny bit shabbier by comparison. The main event between Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards is great, as is the co-main between Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev. After that, it’s a fine event of solid bookings, just lacking that tiny bit of extra edge, perhaps. Still, expectations should be high that fans will get a great night of fights.
For fans looking to support our podcasting work as Bloody Elbow leaves VOX network of sites, we now officially have a Vivisection/6th Round Patreon. Both shows will continue to be posted, for free on BE, SoundCloud, YouTube and other podcasting apps going forward. However, the Patreon will give fans exclusive access to the MMA Depressed-us from here on out.
For those looking to dive deeper into a card that feels as though it’s all just undercard, check out the Prelims Vivi below.
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June M. Williams
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 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.
Here’s a look at the UFC 286 fight card, as it stood at the time of recording:
ESPN+ PPV CARD | SAT. MAR. 18 — 5/2PM ETPT
Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman — Picks, Both: Usman | At 03:55, Odds 26:01
Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev — Picks, Both: Fiziev | At 26:23, Odds 50:28
Gunnar Nelson vs. Bryan Barberena — Picks, Both: Nelson | At 51:59, Odds 57:10
Jennifer Maia vs. Casey O’Neill — Picks, Both: Maia | At 57:21, Odds 1:07:28
Marvin Vettori vs. Roman Dolidze — Picks, Both: Vettori | At 1:08:25, Odds 1:15:02
ESPN2/ESPN+ FEATURED PRELIMS | 3/12PM ETPT
Jack Shore vs. Makwan Amirkhani — Picks, Both: Shore | At 00:48, Odds 13:02
Chris Duncan vs. Omar Morales — Picks, Both: Morales | At 14:15, Odds 26:04
Sam Patterson vs. Yanal Ashmoz — Picks, Both: Ashmoz | At 26:31, Odds – Skipped?
Muhammad Mokaev vs. Jafel Filho — Picks, Both: Mokaev | At 35:28, Odds 45:59
UFC FIGHTPASS EARLY PRELIMS | 1PM/10AM ETPT (0 CARES)
Lerone Murphy vs. Gabriel Santos — Picks, Both: Murphy | At 47:43, Odds 58:20
Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Duško Todorovi? — Picks, Both: Duncan | At 59:39, Odds 1:09:37
Jake Hadley vs. Malcolm Gordon — Picks, Both: Hadley | At 1:10:33, Odds 1:15:55
Joanne Wood vs. Luana Carolina — Picks, Zane: Wood, Connor: Carolina | At 1:16:10, Odds 1:26:48
Jai Herbert vs. L’udovit Klein — Picks, Both: Klein | At 1:27:00, Odds 1:36:35
Veronica Macedo vs. Juliana Miller — Picks, Both: Miller | At 1:37:00, Odds 1:43:38
For those of you following the picks made on the show, we started tracking them with the July 13th, 2020 Vivisection shows for UFC Fight Island 1: ‘Kattar vs. Ige’. So far, here are the overall standings:
For our last event, UFC Vegas 71: ‘Yan vs. Dvalishvili’:
Zane picked 7/13 for 54% and Connor picked 6/13 for 46%
Overall stats from UFC Fight Island 1 in July, 2020, through UFC Vegas 71 in Mar., 2023:
Zane went 861/1342 for 64% and Connor went 821/1342 for 61%
2023 Stats:
Zane is 61/100 for 61% and Connor is 57/100 for 57%
2022 Stats:
Zane went 331/505 for 66% and Connor went 312/505 for 62%
2021 Stats:
Zane went 305/493 for 62% and Connor went 295/493 for 60%
July-Dec 2020 Stats:
Zane went 164/244 for 67% and Connor went 157/244 for 64%
Stats Reference Spreadsheets: Vivi Picks Stats_3.16.23.pdf
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Check out the MMA Vivi Facebook Page, and be sure to “Like”, Follow, Share — At: https://www.facebook.com/TheMMAVivi.
Loyal Vivi Follower Call to Action: We need a loyal Vivi listener to volunteer your time for us…
The task we need accomplished, is for someone to go to the Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube Channel Vivisection Playlist, scroll down to UFC 251 Main Card show & UFC 251 Prelims Show (from July, 2020) and listen to each show every few minutes before the odds were timestamped (timestamps are listed in the show descriptions); you will be carefully listening for the guys’ picks for each bout. Make a log of Zane’s picks and Connor’s picks for each bout they discussed on the Main Card show and the Prelims show, noting the name of the event as you go along.
Then do the same for all of the following events from the beginning of 2020: UFC 251, UFC Vegas 4: Poirier vs Hooker, UFC on ESPN: Blaydes vs Volkov, UFC Apex 1: Eye vs Calvillo, UFC 250, UFC on ESPN: Woodley vs Burns, UFC FN: Overeem vs. Harris, UFC FN: Smith vs Teixeira, UFC 249, UFC Brasilia (UFC on ESPN+ 28): Lee vs Oliveira, UFC 248, UFC Norfolk (aka UFC on ESPN+ 27): Benavidez vs Figueiredo, UFC Auckland (aka UFC on ESPN+ 26): Felder vs Hooker, UFC Rio Rancho (aka UFC on ESPN+ 25): Anderson vs Blachowicz 2, UFC 247, UFC Raleigh (aka UFC on ESPN+ 24): Blaydes vs Dos Santos, & UFC 246. (These are the events in 2020 we did not track picks on, which makes our stats tracking incomplete for that year, and all years since then.)
Please send your completed log to our BE Production Manager: June M. Williams at [email protected] and she will input your data into the ‘Vivi Stats Spreadsheets’ for us.
This project requires someone with integrity who will log the picks honestly and accurately, without bias towards either Zane or Connor. You will be credited by name for your hard work in the first post which contains the updated spreadsheet files.
If you are interested in volunteering for this project, please email June with any questions and let her know you are undertaking the task for her. Thanks for your consideration!