Category: UFC San Antonio: Vera vs. Sandhagen

‘We need the FBI’ – Gilbert Burns wants UFC San Antonio judge investigated for fight fixing

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA News, UFC News, UFC San Antonio: Vera vs. Sandhagen

By the conclusion of the fifth round of the main event of UFC San Antonio last Saturday night, one thing was clear: Cory Sandhagen had defeated Marlon Vera. The Elevation Fight Team talent had out-struck, out-wrestled, and out-grappled his foe for the majority of five rounds on his way to what must surly be a unanimous decision victory.

Then the scorecards were read.

Sandhagen still got his hand raised in the end—the only thing that really matters—but local judge Joel Ojeda turned in a mind-bending 48-47 Marlon Vera card to make it a split decision in a fight where the vast majority of fans and media had the fight sitting at a clear 50-45 or 49-46 for the victor. MMA is no stranger to wild decisions. In a sport with only a few rounds and a somewhat antiquated 10-point must-system refitted from boxing, small discrepancies in judgement from round-to round can create major shifts in the end result. But, even by that standard, this felt like a wild aberration.

So much so that at least one longtime UFC veteran is calling for an investigation. Welterweight top contender Gilbert Burns sat down with TMZ in the days following the event. When asked about the controversial scoring, ‘Durinho’ had a strong solution: Call in the FBI.

“I think this judge needs to be investigated,” Burns said of Ojeda (transcript via MMA Mania). “We need the FBI on this judge. Because those judges may be working with the betting company, getting a third person to bet. I just think it’s not real, I think those guys are being dirty and maybe try to get money out of this. Chito’s my guy and I want him to win, but there’s no way he won that fight. It’s clear to anyone. What’s wrong with that judge? It’s not the first time. What bothers me is that it doesn’t stop. We have to do something or I dunno, nothing changes.”

While commissions will regularly debrief officials after events and sometimes go over controversial scorecards or officiating decisions, those kinds of conversations are rarely ever made public. Commissions have also generally proven disinterested in taking on disputes over things like adjudication—perhaps unsurprising considering the number of fighters every week who might feel hard done by any number of decisions.

However, that leaves athletes, coaches, and managers in the unfortunate place of feeling practically powerless when it comes to filing any kind of official complaint. Ojeda’s scorecard was definitely bad, and seems like it would be hard to defend, but it also seems very unlikely that he’ll ever have to do so in any kind of public forum—even if Burns does get the FBI on the horn.

Two fights cancelled hours before UFC San Antonio: Sandhagen vs. Vera

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News, UFC San Antonio: Vera vs. Sandhagen

If the COVID pandemic cemented one long-term change for the UFC it’s the expectation that, come the week of a card, fights are going to get cancelled. The world’s largest MMA promotion went from putting together 12-13 bouts per-event on the regular to going for 13-15 every week, just hoping that they still had at least 10 bookings by the time Bruce Buffer stepped into the Octagon.

That kind of forward thinking has paid off once again this week in San Antonio, where the UFC hit Texas on Monday with 13 bouts, and will see just 22 fighters make it to the cage on Saturday (provided, of course, that we don’t see any more late cancellations). This news comes via promotion officials who notified the media that a lightweight bout between Manuel Torres and Trey Ogden had been pulled from the event due to “medical issues” in the Torres camp.

Carlos Contreras Legaspi of ESPN Deportes reports that the fighter was hospitalized after suffering from severe stomach pain during his weight cut.

The latest cancellation arrives on the heels of reports that Tamires Vidal had been forced from her fight against Hailey Cowan as well, in the prelim opener—under the similarly nebulous cause of “undisclosed medical issues.”

As a result of these scratches, the UFC has pushed their start time for the Sandhagen vs. Vera Fight Night event back 30 minutes. Prelims will now begin at 4:30 pm Eastern/1:30 pm Pacific on ESPN & ESPN+. A flyweight booking between Victor Altamirano and Vinicius Salvador will now serve as the card’s opening fight.

The MMA Vivisection – UFC San Antonio: Vera vs. Sandhagen picks, odds, & analysis

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Podcasts, UFC Gambling, UFC San Antonio: Vera vs. Sandhagen

The UFC is back in Texas this week with a Fight Night card that’s really thriving on it’s main event. Cory Sandhagen vs. Marlon Vera should be an absolute thriller. The rest of the card may not have so much sparkle, but Nate Landwehr vs. Austin Lingo will be fun and Andrea Lee vs. Maycee Barber is a solid flyweight scrap. Should make for some fun finishes if nothing else.

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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Your Official & Honorary MMA Vivisection Fight Analysts

June M. Williams | Anton Tabuena

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 San Antonio fight card, as it stood at the time of recording:

ESPN/ESPN+ MAIN CARD | SAT. MAR. 25 — 7/4PM ETPT

Marlon Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen — Picks, Both: Sandhagen | At 05:00, Odds 19:11
Holly Holm vs. Yana Santos — Picks, Both: Holm | At 20:05, Odds 27:45
Nate Landwehr vs. Austin Lingo — Picks, Both: Landwehr | At 28:55, Odds 35:19
Andrea Lee vs. Maycee Barber — Picks, Both: Barber | At 36:23, Odds 46:35
Alex Perez vs. Manel Kape — Picks, Both: Kape | At 47:38, Odds 57:03
Chidi Njokuani vs. Albert Duraev — Picks, Both: Njokuani | At 59:50, Odds 1:08:14

ESPN/ESPN+ PRELIMS | 4/1PM ETPT

Daniel Pineda vs. Tucker Lutz — Picks, Both: Lutz | At 1:54, Odds 11:18
Steven Peterson vs. Lucas Alexander — Picks, Both: Peterson | At 13:36, Odds 22:27
Trevin Giles vs. Preston Parsons — Picks, Both: Parsons | At 23:00, Odds 36:19
CJ Vergara vs. Daniel da Silva — Picks, Both: Vergara | At 37:25, Odds 42:05
Manuel Torres vs. Trey Ogden — Picks, Both: Torres | At 42:55, Odds 47:07
Vinicius Salvador vs. Victor Altamirano — Picks, Both: Salvador | At 50:04, Odds 54:37
Tamires Vidal vs. Hailey Cowan — Picks, Zane: Vidal, Connor: Cowan | At 55:09, Odds 1:01:28For every event on your MMA calendar, be sure to check in over at DRAFTKINGS SPORTSBOOK for all of your up-to-date odds, stats and betting whims.

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 286: ‘Edwards vs. Usman 3’:

Zane picked 10/15 for 67% and Connor picked 9/15 for 60%

Overall stats from UFC Fight Island 1 in July, 2020, through UFC 286 in Mar., 2023:

Zane went 871/1357 for 64% and Connor went 830/1357 for 61%

2023 Stats:

Zane is 71/115 for 61.7% and Connor is 66/115 for 57.4%

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_3.23.2023.pdf

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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, as well as 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 orijunels@gmail.com 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 ready to undertake the task for us. Thanks for your consideration!