We’re back for another round of head-to-head showdowns between those who can fight and those who can write about those that can fight. Last week saw UFC strawweight Sam Hughes take it to Gumby Vreeland (yes, yours truly) and give the fighters the first lead of the year.
Here’s how each week has gone so far:
Joe McDonagh def. Randy Costa (3-2) – Fight Island 7
Doug Murray def. Bryan Barberena (2-1) – Fight Island 8
Shawn Bitter DRAW Mike Rodriguez (1-1) – UFC 257
Dalton Rosta def. Jay Anderson (7-2) – UFC Vegas 18
Austin Arnett def. Heath Harshman (2-1) – UFC 258
Sam Hughes def. Gumby Vreeland (3-0) – UFC Vegas 19
After six events, the fighters lead 3-2 with one fight going to draw.
Here’s how it works: both writer and fighter must pick the winner of the main event, co-main event, and featured main card bout. A correct pick will earn one point. Both must then pick a “lock” — the fighter they are most sure will win their fight — from the entire card. That’s two points. The “dog” comes next, and a correct underdog pick earns three points.
It’s that simple. Five picks: Main, co-main, and featured fight winners, lock, and underdog. To the winner go the spoils. Not actual spoils, but bragging rights anyway.
This week, the writers had to dig deep to find someone to dig them out of the trenches and turn around their luck, which has seen them drop three straight. So why not turn to their founder, Mike McClory, to try to take out UFC welterweight, Orion Cosce? Here’s how the two picked.
There was quite a bit of agreement between the two this week. Despite the short notice nature of the fight, both of them locked in on Angela Hill in her rematch with Ashley Yoder. They feel like she can repeat the magic from their first contest. They also agreed on our featured fight of the night, which sees another rematch, this one between Jimmie Rivera and Pedro Munhoz. They both see that one going differently than the first, with Munhoz coming back and evening the score.
The score between Mike and Orion won’t be even in the main and co-main events though. McClory has gone with the underdog Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the main event, whereas Cosce is playing it safer with Cyril Gane. They flip-flop for the co-main though, were Cosce has the big underdog in Nikita Krylov and McClory has the big favorite in Magomed Ankalaev.
But the winner might come down to the underdog, which is where the real points are earned. Cosce is going with Kevin Croom, who won as underdog in his debut and will look to repeat the magic against Alex Caceres. McClory meanwhile is riding with Alexis Davis as she looks to stop the rise of prospect Sabina Mazo.
May the best writer/fighter win! We’ll have the results up after the event!
Results: Right off the bat, both writer and fighter lost their lock, as Angela Hill’s bout with Ashley Yoder was removed from the card. Luckily, both had chosen Hill, so that was a wash. What it came down to was the underdog pick. Alexis Davis came through, while Kevin Croom did not. Mike also chose correctly in the featured fight and co-main event, giving him a total of 5 points. Orion did get the featured bout right as well, plus the main event, for a total of 2 points.
