It’s time for another round of Writer vs Fighter. The only segment where we put professional fighters up against our staff of writers in a (virtual) showdown. Each UFC fight card, we bust out the picks and see who has better predicting prowess. This time up, The Monkey King joins us for UFC Vegas 23!
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
Mike McClory def. Orion Cosce (5-2) – UFC Vegas 20
Josh Evanoff def. Cortney Casey (2-1) – UFC 259
Aiemann Zahabi def. Alex Behunin (5-0) – UFC Vegas 21
Sergio Pineiro def. Kai Kamaka III (7-0) – UFC Vegas 22
Gabriel Gonzalez def. Vince Morales (7-4) – UFC 260
And with the victory last week, the writers have built themselves a little cushion. They now lead 6-4 with 1 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.
On this week’s showdown, Jordan Leavitt joins us to drop his picks in. He’ll be looking to metaphorically bounce another head off the canvas. Trying to stop him with be staff writer and UFC rankings panel member, Rodney James Edgar. Let’s take a look at what they’ve thrown down this week.
No ground is going to be picked up with our top 3 fights, as both men agree across the board – they like all three favorites. In the main event, they’re taking the chalk with Marvin Vettori. Same with the co-main event, where Sodiq Yusuff is a much closer favorite. And they both think D-Rod will hang on to take our the always exciting Mike Perry.
However, it’s after those top fights that things get interesting. In a ‘Writer vs Fighter’ first, both men have picked underdogs as their locks. Leavitt will be riding with Mackenzie Dern, who enters her bout with Nina Nunes as a slight dog. Edgar, meanwhile, has Hunter Azure – who is an underdog in his bout with Jack Shore.
They, of course, bust out a second underdog for us in the final section (as it is mandatory). There, Leavitt will be taking Jim Miller, who looks to hold off the young up and comer Joe Solecki in what should be a fun grappling showdown. Edgar is taking fan favorite Sam Alvey as he looks to right his ship against Julien Marquez.
May the best writer/fighter win! We’ll have the results up after the event!
Results: The lock won this for The Money King, as Leavitt takes it 4-2!
