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The Top Ten Worst UFC Rankings Panelists

(Darren Uyenoyama was released by the UFC after going 0-2 last year. At the time of this writing, three different UFC ranking panelists still have him listed as a top 10 flyweight. Read on for more disturbing facts! / Photo via Getty)

By Cody Severtson

“These panelists may have a direct effect on how much fighters get paid.”

I kept telling myself that as I filtered through each UFC panelist’s ranking data, shaking my head in total disbelief.

For quite some time, MMA media, fighters and fans alike campaigned for better fighter pay. With the UFC announcing a six-year sponsorship deal with Reebok this past Tuesday (totaling an estimated $70 million), we were told that every penny would go into the fighters’ pockets. After all, the UFC’s primary reason for making this deal was to add a layer of professionalism to their organization, one which would make them in a way, similar to other major sports organizations.

So say goodbye to the fight banners, the sponsor-covered shorts, and the walkout shirts! For the next six years, it’s Reebok only, baby! Any sponsors that the fighters and their managers have already secured will be banned from being visible inside the Octagon. Depending on the loyalty of sponsors, we could end up seeing a lot more of this. Conversely, if the UFC does overhaul the ranking system and a fair pay structure is implemented, sponsor loyalty won’t be an issue. A new ranking system should provide an unbiased/accurate/educated selection of each division’s top 15 — a system that will award the UFC’s athletes with the fair and adequate sponsorship money they deserve.

As of right now, a fighter’s sponsorship cut will be tied directly to where they sit in the UFC rankings. That’s right… the same rankings done by the always reliable UFC-approved voting panelists. According to DFW, the current panelist voting system will soon be updated; White aims to narrow down the current field of panelists to a select few “legitimate, credible and ethical guys” in order to gain better results. Unfortunately for White, every “legitimate, credible, and ethical guy” in MMA media has already recognized the blatant conflict of interest this system presents and has refused to participate in the ranking system.

With that said, I have put together a list of the 10 worst panelists currently contributing to the UFC’s divisional rankings. Let’s get started.

10. Bruno Massami (GazetaEsportiva.net) – Sergio Pettis came into the UFC with a lot of hype, he was undefeated, the former RFA flyweight champion, and Anthony Pettis’s younger brother. Sergio won his bantamweight debut against short notice opponent and former #9 flyweight Will Campuzano. However, he followed his debut with a submission loss to the unranked Alex Caceres, before bouncing back with a forgettable decision victory over unranked Yaotzin Meza. Massami, like many panelists, may have personal favorites in the UFC, but rankings must be unbiased, objective, and logical. None of those criteria apply when Massami placed Sergio as the #10 bantamweight.

9. Steve Juon (Wrestling Observer) – From my analysis the bantamweight division appeared to give most panelists problems. The division itself had 101 records of questionable rankings. The closest division to having as many problems was middleweight with 28 recorded rankings issues. Now when I analyzed my data it wasn’t just a matter of pointing out who had Tim Kennedy at #7 when I think he should be #8. No, I noted every instance of downright BAD ranking. Steve Juon apparently missed the last few years of the bantamweight division as this is how he has the top names in the division seeded…

By Cody Severtson

“These panelists may have a direct effect on how much fighters get paid.”

I kept telling myself that as I filtered through each UFC panelist’s ranking data, shaking my head in total disbelief.

With that said, I have put together a list of the 10 worst panelists currently contributing to the UFC’s divisional rankings. Let’s get started.

Urijah Faber #1

Dominick Cruz #2

Renan Barao #3

Don’t get me wrong, I love the California Kid, and Cruz’s destruction of Takeya Mizugaki should bring him back in the top 3 of the division without a doubt. However, having Faber ranked above the two guys that defeated him is downright ridiculous.

8. Jorge Correa (UOL Brazil) – Besides ranking Brad Pickett and Scott Jorgensen in the wrong division — eight other panelists ranked these two in the wrong weight class as well — Correa had Eddie Wineland ranked as the #7 bantamweight in the world, which at first doesn’t seem like a big deal, however the guy that recently knocked him out wasn’t even ranked. The shocking part is Correa wasn’t the only panelist to do this. Of the 21 panelists that did rank Eddie Wineland, 11 ranked him higher than Johnny Eduardo, while the remaining 10 didn’t have Eduardo ranked AT ALL.

On top of his baffling bantamweight decisions, Correa also ranked Stephen Thompson as the #9 welterweight, Patrick Cummins the #9 light-heavyweight and Soa Palelei as the #7 heavyweight in the world. Are they top 30 fighters? Absolutely! Are they top 10? I’m not convinced.

7. Joe Ferraro (Sportsnet) – The man they call “Showdown Joe” has been a fixture of Canadian MMA news for a long time, working his way up from colour commentary at local promotions, to hosting his own radio show before making it big and working for Rogers Sportsnet, hosting the station’s first MMA dedicated sports program. Now, Ferraro is a trained martial artist, an experienced broadcaster, and was awarded the Journalist of the Year award by Fighters Only Magazine in 2009, so one could only assume that his rankings would be free of any bias.

Besides being one of the eight panelists to rank Brad Pickett in the wrong weight class, Ferraro also ranked Brad Pickett in the RIGHT weight class! Ranking Brad as both the #7 bantamweight and the #10 flyweight; a prestigious honor for Pickett despite his current two-fight losing streak at flyweight.

Finally, ‘Showdown Joe’ is a proud Canadian, and I applaud him for giving credit to developing Canadian talent! However, Yves Jabouin being ranked as the #10 bantamweight is…confusing. In the past two years, Jabouin has beat Jeff Hougland, Dustin Pague and Mike Easton, none of whom still work for the UFC. Between those victories is a pair of knockout losses to Brad Pickett and Eddie Wineland. Again, Jabouin isn’t a BAD fighter; he’s even shown sparks of brilliance. However, based on his last two years in the UFC, one simply cannot justify him being ranked as the #10 guy.

6. Marcelo Russio (Canal Combate) – There are two things that make Marcelo Russio stand out from all other panelists in terms of being terrible. The first is, like Steve Juon before him, Russio has apparently not watched a bantamweight fight once this year. Besides ranking Renan Barao (former champion) below Raphael Assuncao, Russio ranked George Roop and Erik Perez the #8 and #10 bantamweights, respectively.

After a disappointing return to the UFC in the featherweight division, Roop decided to go full skeletor and drop to bantamweight where he picked up wins against Reuben Duran and former champion Brian Bowles. However, his time at bantamweight has turned ugly as he’s lost two of his last three fights by brutal knockout, with the most recent one against debuting fighter Rob “IMPACT” Font. Yes, I’m trying to get that nickname started. Try and stop me…

Erik Perez has victories over Edwin Figueroa, Byron Bloodworth, Ken Stone, and John Albert (all cut from the UFC since) with losses coming against top 10 competition in Bryan Caraway and Takeya Mizugaki. However, just because you FACE top 10 competition, doesn’t mean you’ve earned a spot IN the top 10.

The second thing that separated Russio from all 51 other panelists was that he had ranked the most fighters to not appear on anyone else’s list. Russio ranked Fabio Maldonado #10 in the light-heavyweight division, Ryan LaFlare the #10 at welterweight, and the aforementioned George Roop as the #8 bantamweight.

Wait, it gets worse — much worse. Continue to the next page for the five most dangerously confused UFC ranking panelists…

Dethrone Founder Writes Open Letter About the UFC/Reebok Uniform Deal, And What It Was Really Like to Sponsor UFC Fighters

(“The org in the long run will only be as strong as the fighters it develops and makes the audience care about.” Photo by Cody Pickens/Fortune)

Although the UFC and Reebok officially revealed their uniform partnership on Tuesday morning, many observers were tipped off to the impending announcement by a Monday night tweet from Dethrone Royalty, an apparel brand that has served as a longtime sponsor of UFC fighters including Cain Velasquez and Gilbert Melendez. “Heard uniform announcement coming tomorrow,” the tweet read. “We were never about all looking the same. We’ll stay that way, thanks. #goodluckreebok”

Late Wednesday night, Dethrone/Zappos co-founder Nick Swinmurn posted an open letter on the UG, laying out his feelings about the ongoing changes in the UFC sponsorship landscape — of which the Reebok deal is only the latest step. It’s very insightful, and if you’re interested in hearing how this deal will affect the companies that have been putting money into UFC fighters’ pockets through sponsorships, it’s required reading. Give it a look below…

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No idea why posting this other than temporary boredom, but getting ripped to pieces after might be entertaining enough.

1) We knew this was coming. We weren’t “investing in a UFC future” when we paid the sponsor tax each quarter, we were just paying for the right to be able to pay guys to wear our stuff on UFC broadcasts for the next 90 days. In some cases trying to support a good guy, sometimes trying to align ourselves with a fighter we hoped would move the needle for us, sometimes just trying to get some air time on a good card, and sometimes even we couldn’t figure out why we did it.

2) We have nothing negative or positive to say about the UFC. We don’t really know anyone who works at the UFC and have never had any real interactions with anyone from the UFC other than an annual email from Mike Mersch (legal) with renewal form for sponsor tax. It’s a platform. I just watched Sons of Anarchy but doesn’t mean I feel a personal connection with FX. On the few occasions we’ve interacted with Mike on tax related questions he’s been nice and to the point. We sat at a table with Lorenzo once for five minutes and he was nice. Dana was at the table as well but too many texts for him to look up so can’t technically say we’ve ever met him.

3) We’ve developed a lot of personal relationships with UFC fighters and their managers over the past five years and will always be rooting for those guys in and out of the cage no matter what uniform they wear. We consider a lot of them to be friends.

(“The org in the long run will only be as strong as the fighters it develops and makes the audience care about.” Photo by Cody Pickens/Fortune)

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No idea why posting this other than temporary boredom, but getting ripped to pieces after might be entertaining enough.

4) The good managers always get the short end of the stick. They provide a valuable service to their fighters but unfortunately its in an ecosystem that would prefer they didn’t exist which makes their job difficult and seems to be forgotten that this is their livelihood too. There are also dipshit managers who give everyone else a bad name.

5) The fighters should always be the stars and focus. In the long run they always will be, it’s an individual sport. The org in the long run will only be as strong as the fighters it develops and makes the audience care about. Watching two people fight isn’t about the icon on the mat or corner of screen, it’s about watching two people fight and the more you know about either or both of them as characters, the more likely you are to be interested. Once a fighter signs with an org he’s generally stuck there like it or not (any org). Which org leads the pack over the coming years will depend on where the next generation of talent decides to sign from the start of their careers. It can be expedited by where stars in their prime decide to sign their next contract. They have choices, the money and audience will follow the best fighters over time. It can’t happen overnight.

6) Saying “if they don’t like it go fight somewhere else” is annoying to read. They can rarely (never without a hassle or being forced to sit out a good chunk of their short career window) get their release (from any org).

7) We had anticipated the uniform happening and understood (even though we didn’t agree with the execution) the logic of getting rid of the clutter and brands that might in some eyes be negative for image as top tier league.

If the house is messy and I have guests coming over, I don’t just throw away all my wife’s stuff and tell her sorry, house was messy, didn’t want to take the time to clean it up in a way that makes sense for both of us, easier to just throw all your valuables away and get you a new outfit, hope g-string and pasties works for you, your crap was probably worthless anyway. She would wonder if her opinion mattered and leave me when she had the chance, or at least she’d think about it.

Why not allow approved non-competing sponsor logos of fighters choice on 1-3 areas of the uniform and restrict to white logos only with no background fill. that way you get clean, consistent look and fighter maintains some ability to decide what he/she is worth $ wise at the pinnacle of their career exposure. at minimum when you eventually decide to slap a red bull logo on each fighters reebok uniform let them at least opt out of wearing that ad (and forfeiting any red bull related pay) if they have a competing energy drink deal outside the octagon.

9) The only way to take control of your career in current ecosystem is to fight out your contract and then test the waters. Gilbert wrote the script, would be crazy for everyone not to follow it. He was the only one with the balls because he’d spent most of his career in different orgs and probably realized fuck, fighting in UFC is cool, but not cool enough to limit how much i get paid. what’s the point of reaching the “big leagues” if it’s not the highest paying league? it’s not his job to fulfill fan’s wishes for him to fight certain guys. it’s his job to make as much money fighting as he can while fulfilling his dreams. if the UFC wouldn’t have matched he’d be making the same money as he now does in UFC but as Bellator champ instead, living the same life with his family, getting the same amount of eyeballs on his fights (and able to charge whatever he wants from sponsors). [This is just our opinion, we didn’t talk to Gilbert about any of this obviously].

10) When we sent the Reebok tweet to be honest we’d heard so many people casually talking about it as a done deal for months we were surprised the reaction was we’d broke some news. What’s crazy is the comments we got saying “what a dick, why would you ruin the UFC announcement?” WTF? The UFC would be the first to say we aren’t “partners”, Dana would say that what we pay in tax is less than a hand of blackjack and that we’re meaningless to them and the fighters. The only reason we were in the UFC was because of the fighters and the only reason the UFC tolerated having to deal with brands like us is because of the fighters. It’s our job to maximize our exposure and get people talking about us, not to keep a secret that we’re being eliminated.

11) This doesn’t mean we’re going to go and pay Bellator guys double what we would have paid them yesterday. We’d certainly like to align ourselves with a new batch of fighters in others orgs, but we can only offer them what makes sense for our business and they can only agree to deals that make sense for them. That’s how it should be. There will still be times when they say fuck dethrone they only offered me X and there will be times when we say what the fuck, how can he ask us for Y? Neither of us are forced to accept each others demands, that’s the point.

12) We’ll still continue to have paid relationships with UFC fighters. The only good news about a single brand being on every single fighter is that it becomes somewhat invisible because everyone has it. We just need to continue to find ways to capture attention.

Been typing so damn long might as well hit send. Will try and answer any questions in the morning if there are any.

– Dethrone

Jerry Maguire moment checked off todo list

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I Ate Thanksgiving Dinner at Golden Corral

(Video courtesy of the official Golden Corral YouTube channel. Are you one of its 784 subscribers?)

If you watched UFC Fight Night 57 last Saturday, you might have been surprised and horrified to see FOX Sports 1 running commercials for Golden Corral’s $12.99 Thanksgiving Day Buffet. MMA twitter’s reaction to these ads was uniformly negative. I mean, who would eat there on Thanksgiving, of all days? How sad is that? Well, it turns out that our friend Tori ate there. This is her story.

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By Tori Eberle

Thanksgiving is a celebration of togetherness, in which we use copious amounts of food and drink to smother unsettled familial feelings and America’s unsettling relationship with its past. Many people travel far and wide to be close to their loved ones for the holidays, and I’m no exception. I’ve lived in New York for about two years now, and I use every single one of my corporate allotted vacation days to make it home to my family in Virginia for the major fall/winter holidays.

With a family as used to being uprooted as mine (I’ve moved 18 times since my birth), our few holiday-specific traditions have been treated pretty seriously. Then, my baby brother received a full ride scholarship to Florida State for football, and new traditions had to be made for the sake of food and football and family — AKA, the Eberle family trinity second to the Almighty.

Essentially, if you don’t read this entire article, what you need to know is that I, my dad, my mom, and my sister went on an 11-hour car trip adventure to Tallahassee, Florida, stopped at a Golden Corral for Thanksgiving Dinner…and it was AWESOME.

I feel that I need to be upfront about something before we get into the actual review of my $12.99 Golden Corral Thanksgiving meal: I. Love. Shitty. Food. Diner food. Cafeteria food. Fast food. Little league baseball game food. $1 pizza. Bring me your salty, fattening heart attacks in a soggy paper dish.

(Video courtesy of the official Golden Corral YouTube channel. Are you one of its 784 subscribers?)

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By Tori Eberle

Blame my upbringing of growing up in the pub & grille/sports bar restaurant business and being on the road a lot for moving and visiting extended family in Texas, but I have always had a strong relationship with lowbrow food and the establishments that pander such goods. Truly, I just love food in general. More than most people love other people, probably. And it should come as no surprise that Thanksgiving-related food falls under that umbrella of food love.

Alright, let’s get to the actual review of Golden Corral. When my family was planning the trip to Tallahassee for Thanksgiving weekend, Golden Corral was pretty much always on the table. We knew the drive would be long, and to find great tasting and simultaneously quick options would be scarce on a holiday. Plus, we wanted to find something kind of semi-relatable to the amazing food that my mom has made every year since we’ve been able to fully appreciate a mashed potato (Sorry, mom).

Thus, Golden Corral — a tried and true Eberle road trip favorite — was our top choice for a mid-trip Thanksgiving dinner. And by Eberle favorite I mean my father, myself, and my sister were overjoyed to experience GC in all of its joy and wonder. My mother was not too pleased. Even as we were waiting in line to pay and venture into buffet wonderland at the Brunswick, Georgia, Golden Corral location, she groaned and tried to telepathically communicate with us just how displeased she was to be in our current situation. But it was too late, we had already crossed the threshold. We paid $12.99 each for four people, and found our table in a sea of y’alls and “shankshgivings.” Please read below for a breakdown of every aspect of my GC Thanksgiving experience.

The staff:
Overall, the staff was amazingly friendly and accommodating. My family was pretty shocked at the amount of people who were ay Golden Corral for Thanksgiving dinner. Every table was full once we were sat by a flustered server named Annie. Servers in matching black aprons fluttered around tables, refilling drinks and yelling around tables, refilling drinks and yelling to the cashiers when a table opened up. Their movements were frantic yet methodical. It was weirdly beautiful, like a greasy grandfather clock made of cornbread.

The people:
There were SO MANY PEOPLE at this Golden Corral. So many. So many different kinds. So many different shades of weird and strange. The man sitting alone at the table next to ours looked just like Benjamin Franklin reincarnated. When my dad, sister, and I took the first stab at navigating the various food stations, we left my mom alone at the table. Benjamin Franklin took this opportunity to tell my mom that she would most likely keep getting ditched by us so she should probably just run away with him.

Another fine example of the Golden Corral population was when my mom observed a brunette woman in her 40s and her ailing, aging mother. The daughter was a skilled negotiator/manipulator, spooning sweet potatoes onto her mother’s plate while also trying to scam her for some non-specific amount of money. She insisted continually that some mythical creature named Ronnie was “good for the money” in about a week as long as the ailing mother would “kindly lend the first $5k.” The mother’s jaws seemed glued shut with marshmallows so it was hard to know how she felt about Ronnie and the loan for who knows what. She was clearly unable to respond.

Combine these fine specimens with the woman who was either crying or vomiting or having diarrhea (or all three at once!) in the restroom and the experience of the patrons of Golden Corral was a vibrant and passionate group of food-motivated individuals.

And now the most important part, the food:
The chocolate fondue fountain was in full effect during the Thanksgiving meal today. It was three or maybe four levels, with rice crispy treat squares on sticks for patrons to plunge into the fudgy falls.

Golden Corral had two different stations for carving, and two separate stations for already cut turkey soaking in gravy. These stations were in the midst of the regular Golden Corral meatloaf section and the creamed corn and mashed potato station on the other side. I made the mistake of taking a wing at first pass, which was honestly too horror show to actually eat. I went for the gravy soaked already cut pieces and I don’t regret my decision at all.

The salad bar was standard for Golden Corral with the three different types of lettuce and diced fruit. The creamed corn was a little less creamy and a little more just liquidy. But the green beans were pretty good and the corn bread was mushy in a way that only Golden Corral can make palatable.

The best part of the Golden Corral Thanksgiving feast was the dessert. Aside from the chocolate fondue, banana pudding and bread pudding were available. A few different pies (obviously pumpkin) and the classic GC chocolate cake were also available. All three parties that experienced the banana pudding were impressed. My mom is on a gluten free diet so she could really only eat the salad and some of the meat foods.

In summary:

Golden Corral Thanksgiving is the best option if you
1) Have no other option and have a spare $12.99
2) Are traveling and haven’t researched the local dining establishments
3) Don’t have any gluten allergies
4) Get pumped about chocolate fountains
5) Like rolls. A lot.

I don’t regret my decision at all. And I think it’s safe to say that the Eberle family has a new family Thanksgiving tradition now that my brother is in college. And if you really wanted to know, Thanksgiving night we started a new tradition of having night time dinner at Hooter’s. But that’s a story for another day…

Frankie Edgar vs. Cub Swanson: Legit Full-Fight Video Highlights

Did you not feel like staying up until 1 a.m. to watch Frankie Edgar fight Cub Swanson at UFC Fight Night 57?

There’s good news for you: There exists legitimate (and, most importantly, LEGAL) footage of the fight’s best parts.

Edgar beat Swanson to the punch throughout their five-round affair last night. He also beat him to the takedown, too, dragging Swanson to the mat and smashing him with ground and pound (as much as a 145-pound man can smash someone, at least). In the fifth round, Edgar managed to submit Swanson via rear naked choke with only four seconds remaining. This was arguably Edgar’s finest performance to date — a fight so one-sided the word “fight” really isn’t appropriate. Use “ass-kicking” or, if you’re a language-sensitive baby, “shellacking” instead.

Get the card’s full results after the jump.

Did you not feel like staying up until 1 a.m. to watch Frankie Edgar fight Cub Swanson at UFC Fight Night 57?

There’s good news for you: There exists legitimate (and, most importantly, LEGAL) footage of the fight’s best parts.

Edgar wants a title shot off the back of such an amazing performance, which is hard to disagree with since he really did look that good. Though, with the way the UFC works, we’re sure Conor McGregor will get one when he finished trouncing Denis Siver at UFC fight Night 59 in January.

There were some other fights last night featuring the likes of Joseph Benavidez, Edson Barboza, Isaac Vallie-Flagg, and Yves Edwards — though our favorite fight was BY FAR Oleksiy Oliynyk vs. Jared Rosholt (Ruslan Magomedov vs. Josh Copeland was pretty good, too). See how they all fared below:

Main Card
Frankie Edgar def. Cub Swanson via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:56 of R5
Edson Barboza def. Bobby Green via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Brad Pickett def. Chico Camus via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
Oleksiy Oliynyk def. Jared Rosholt via KO (punches) at 3:21 of R1
Joseph Benavidez def. Dustin Ortiz via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Matt Wiman def. Isaac Vallie-Flagg via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Preliminary Card
Ruslan Magomedov def. Josh Copeland via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Roger Narvaez def. Luke Barnatt via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
James Vick def. Nick Hein via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Akbarh Arreola def. Yves Edwards via submission (armbar) at 1:52 of R1
Paige VanZant def. Kailin Curran via TKO (punches) at 2:54 of R3
Doo Ho Choi def. Juan Manuel Puig via TKO (punches) at :18 of R1

Why the UFC’s Support of Sports Betting May Actually Keep MMA Honest

(Owning a sports promotion *and* a gambling conglomerate seems like a conflict of interest. But in reality, legal sports gambling actually makes suspicious behavior easier to spot. / Photo via Getty)

The UFC’s public support of expanding regulated sports betting in the United States should come as a surprise to no one. UFC co-owners Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III are heirs to the Station Casinos empire — with Frank currently serving as Station Casinos’ Chairman & CEO — and UFC President Dana White has a famous gambling habit that occasionally affects the promotion’s business relationships. UFC broadcasts feature gambling lines during fighter introductions, and the pre-fight panel show often features a Vegas bookmaker discussing lines.

The UFC revealed its stance on sports betting to ESPN on Thursday, who framed the story within the legal situation ongoing in New Jersey. On October 17th, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed legislation repealing the state’s ban on sports gambling. One week later, federal judge Michael Shipp issued a restraining order preventing local racetracks and casinos from taking bets on sports. The restraining order comes by request of the four major sports organizations in the U.S., who have a pending lawsuit to permanently prevent the state from allowing sports betting.

Shipp said the leagues demonstrated they would suffer “irreparable harm” if New Jersey allowed race tracks and casinos to accept wagers, adding: “More legal gambling leads to more total gambling, which in turns leads to an increased incentive to fix plaintiffs’ matches.”

This is horseshit.

The sports betting industry will thrive whether it’s legal in brick-and-mortar casinos outside of Nevada or not. Joe Sports Fan can find someone to book his action, whether it’s an offshore, online book or his kinda-shady buddy at work. And as long as there’s some financial incentive riding on a game (and this includes a league’s own incentives), there’s some risk for match fixing. Increasing the legal availability of sports betting doesn’t change that risk.

It does, however, affect the ability to police it.

This is horseshit.

It does, however, affect the ability to police it. While Shipp buys into the match fixing fallacy, regulated sports betting makes it easier to detect suspicious activity. The UFC understands this. UFC Executive Vice President and COO Lawrence Epstein told ESPN, “Sports wagering done in a way, like Nevada, that is properly regulated will give more confidence to fans that games and fights aren’t fixed.”

We’ve already seen this scenario play out in professional tennis. Tennis and MMA may seem to have little in common on a base level, but they are very comparable for our purposes. Both sports feature two individuals (ignoring doubles in tennis and two-on-two MMA), there’s a market for wagering (this Sports on Earth article notes that tennis is the third-most popular sport to gamble on in Europe, Asia, and Australia), and a meritocratic pay model which rewards the top athletes with the lion’s share of the prize money.

Tennis has seen a rash of match-fixing scandals over the last few years, including the most recent scandal featuring Italian players Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace. While Bracciali and Starace were done in by intercepted Internet communications, analyzing betting patterns can detect abnormalities in play.

A study of over 6,200 first-round matches on both the men and women’s tours suggested an average of 23 matches are fixed each year. The study looked for betting market prices that varied widely from the study’s two predictive models. The study found 20 cases that deviated from the models by 16 to 29 percent, which could have resulted from wagers amounting to as little as $100,000 on lower-ranked players.

Betfair, the world’s largest internet betting exchange,* closed wagering and refused to settle bets in a 2007 match between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello. At one point during the match, Arguello, then-ranked 87^th in the ATP rankings, was still an 11-8 favorite after losing the first set 6-2 to Davydenko, ranked 4^th in the ATP and the tournament’s top seed. Davydenko retired from the match in the third set. An ATP investigation cleared Davydenko and Arguello, though “investigators were unable to review phone records that were first withheld and then destroyed.” However, the overwhelming wagering evidence seems to indicate something was up.

* An exchange differs from a traditional sportsbook. Bettors set their own odds and the exchange matches up gamblers who take opposing sides.

A similar, if more damning case, took place this past August in a match between Boy Westerhof and Antal van der Duim. Early betting on the match favored van der Duim as a 75.7% favorite, and the match drew more than eight times as much money wagered than other matches in the tournament. After losing the first set, the odds on van der Duim dropped to 71.9%. From the article: “In other words, losing the first set has made no difference to his chance of winning the match.” This shady betting pattern continued throughout the match until van der Duim – surprise! – won 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

If you’re still unconvinced that betting markets can help snuff out match fixing, the Guardian’s article on Davydenko and Arguello notes that the ATP has an information exchange agreement with Betfair and other UK and European books.

It shouldn’t take much prodding to see how the UFC could be vulnerable to fight fixing. One need only look at the purse numbers for prelim fighters. Considering their connections in the gaming world, it’s likely the UFC has access to wagering information as well, if not an official information exchange. And the integrity of the sport is important given its association to both boxing and professional wrestling.

Of course, the company probably also recognizes that betting on a fight can make even Darren Elkins vs. Lucas Martins a must-see affair.

Fitness for the CagePotato: Nate Moore’s Five Tips for Getting Into Fighting Shape

(Photo via CombatCircuit.com)

If you’re like us, you spend each morning staring at your lovehandles in the mirror and crying. But life doesn’t have to be this way. We recently got in touch with Nate Moore — the Strikeforce veteran and founder of the Combat Circuit conditioning system — and begged him for some fitness advice. Nate gave us a fantastic overview of his MMA-inspired fitness philosophy, which you can read below. Follow Nate on Twitter and YouTube, learn more about Combat Circuit program here, and stay tuned for more good advice from Nate in the near future…

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1. Start slow for safety, good technique, and maximum results.

Here’s what you think: I’ll never be Cain Velasquez if I don’t train my nuts off every day, twice a day, balls to the wall, punching through pain and gaining mental toughness and grit. Cain never takes a day off, and he never once threw a punch at half intensity. I have a lot of catching up to do, so I need to be at full intensity, all the time.

Here’s reality: You’ll never be Cain, but if you go balls to the wall right off the bat, you’ll learn bad technique, develop imbalances, and your overworked areas will eventually experience burnout and injury. It’s easy to mess up your body and your MMA technique when you go too fast and too hard. The biggest mistake people make when learning a new technique is that they try to do it as fast as they can before they learn how the movement is performed and before they know how it should feel. They continue to practice crappy technique, thinking they need to do it harder and faster to make it work.

What to do: Try to be calm and relaxed when you train, especially when you begin a new movement. Start every exercise, new technique, workout, and training camp slowly. Gradually ramp up your intensity and effort, until you find a good balance between relaxation and activation. Try to enjoy the slower, less intense pace, without trying too hard or flexing too hard or losing control, so you can learn what correct technique feels like.

(Photo via CombatCircuit.com)

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1. Start slow for safety, good technique, and maximum results.

Here is why it works: Just like a golf swing, less is more, and that’s because calming yourself down, taking it slowly, and relaxing your muscles allows your core to move and rotate freely. Refining any kind of technique takes time and effort, and gradual progression yields the best results. No one gets in shape or learns proper technique without starting from ground zero, moving up one level at a time. You can’t skip to Cain Velasquez’s physical ability or skill, without putting in the same amount of work he did to get there. Conservative progression means you’ll enjoy yourself, learn correct technique, and you’ll actually make bigger gains in the long run.

Example: Punches — Start throwing your punches very slowly, but relaxed. Imagine that you’re trying to use as little of your muscles as possible. Relaxation is impossible if you’re trying too hard to throw fast, hard punches. Slowly and gradually amp up the speed of your strikes, making sure that your technique is still correct, and that you’re not using more muscle than you need.

2. Move your core. Concentrating on core mobility and fluid motion is the key to moving with efficiency.

Here’s what you think: The bigger and harder my muscles can get, and the more forcefully they can squeeze and contract, the more powerful I’ll be in a fight. If I practice flexing my muscles by lifting heavy weights, then my MMA techniques will be more powerful and potent.

In reality: The more that you practice flexion and contraction, the more stiff and immobilized your core will become, and the worse your technique will get. Your ability to move will be diminished as you become bigger, tighter, and harder. Learning how to make your core move is more important than learning how to immobilize it.

Strength training should be done with curvilinear, smooth movements, meaning that the weight you’re moving should always be changing direction. The weight should not pause or stop moving, and it shouldn’t be held in place. Your opponent will never apply consistent pressure in a single direction, so the pressure you should apply to your opponent should be able to change directions. The stop and go movements you see in traditional weight lifting breed stiff, robotic motions, that are anything but smooth and efficient.

Here’s why it works: Moving your core means that you’re involving every muscle, every body part, every limb. By moving all of that heavy mass in your core, you’re producing a lot of motion and momentum, and that energy gets transferred through your arms and legs when the core makes big movements

Here’s what to do: Every exercise you perform should encourage maximal movement of the core. You should perform exercises that create motion of the core in multiple directions, from multiple positions. Lie on your back and work on elevating your core up and down. Stand on your feet and practice sprawling or twisting your core while punching.

Example: Strength training/deadlifts — If you’re lifting weights and your core isn’t moving, twisting, or shifting, then you’re practicing and learning immobility. The deadlift is a perfect example of adding muscular bulk and tensile strength, but the motor patterns you’re practicing, and the muscle you’re gaining, actually makes you slower and less powerful.

3. Concentrate on continuation — moving with momentum and perpetuating motion — instead of fighting gravity by performing slow, intense lifts or exploding forcefully without control or finesse.

Here’s what you think: The more weight that I can move and control, the stronger and more powerful I’ll be. If I can push this weight away from my body, or if I can pull 300 pounds off of the ground, then I’ll be able to push through my opponent, or lift him off the ground. So, I’ll plant my feet into the ground, and I’ll practice moving massive weights up and down.

In reality: Functional strength and finesse allows a person build upon momentum and move with, instead of against. To accelerate something and put something in motion is one thing, but to keep it in motion requires more control and awareness of strength, than it does to push or explode through something.

Pushing, pulling, and holding heavy weights against gravity, is absolutely nothing like fighting or other sports. Learning how to generate large amounts of force in one direction, learning how to resist and control a huge amount of mass, is way different than moving a live, moving person. In any sport, you’ll never push against something as predictable as gravity, and you’ll never use the stop and go motor patterns you develop in weight lifting.

Here’s what to do: Keep your movements natural and truly functional, by moving weight and the body in smooth, curvilinear arcs. Twist, rotate, and move the core around, to swing, slam, and throw with your whole body. Stay grounded and shift your core weight as much as possible. Take a weight, like a medicine ball or sandbell, and put it in motion. Slam the ball continuously, and don’t let it slow down or stop for 90 seconds.

Here’s why it works: MMA techniques are based on being dynamic and fluid, using smooth, continuous motion to execute efficient, effective motion. By moving a lighter weight with more speed in different directions, with smooth, total body motion, you’ll mimic the movements made in MMA way better than you will when grabbing the handle of a weight and picking it up and down.

Example: Most types of presses, pulls, and squats or anything else that makes you hold a lot of weight. This might teach your muscles how to contract, but only to resist and hold. These movements lack sophistication and complexity, making it harder for you to learn complex motor patterns.