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Jake Paul is now a strong favorite over Anderson Silva for their boxing bout on Saturday evening. 

The time has come for a YouTube star turned prizefighter to box one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time in Anderson Silva. But before both men hit the ring, let’s see what the betting odds have to say.

When the betting lines first dropped for this somewhat unexpected booking, Paul opened up as a -180 favorite, while the odds on Silva started at a slight underdog tag of +150. Since then, a boat load of coin has come in for Jake, which has noticeably shifted the lines.

Paul is now posted up with a sizable favored position of -245, and throwing a $ 100 his way stands to earn a total profit of $ 40.82. As for Silva, his line has puffed up to the +180 mark, with a $ 100 gamble on the UFC’s former middleweight king potentially paying out $ 280 altogether.

The over/under here is a coin flip that has been set at 6.5 rounds. The “Over 6.5” selection is slightly favored at -125, with a -105 comeback on the “Under 6.5” option.

For the prop bets surrounding the fight outcome are as follows:

The bet “Jake Paul by KO, TKO or DQ” has been labeled as most likely result with a plus line of +160. Right behind that is the “Jake Paul by Decision or Technical Decision” proposition, which is available with a little bit more value at +175.

The same two exotics for ‘The Spider’ include “Anderson Silva by KO, TKO or DQ” at +290, followed by “Anderson Silva by Decision or Technical Decision” living much further into underdog territory at +800.

If you’re team chaos and looking for that draw line, well you’ll find those odds residing at a peculiar moneyline of +1400. Now that might seem like a large underdog position, but is it really? Not when you realize that the draw prop for Calvin Kattar vs. Arnold Allen is much, much higher at +5000. Different sport you say? Well then go and look at the draw odds for Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Jamaine Ortiz. There you’ll see that those odds of +3800 are still floating far away from the Paul/Silva draw line. Hmmm…

Check out the betting odds for Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva, courtesy of DraftKings:

Be sure to subscribe to our Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube channel to stay up to date with all of our podcast content. Stay glued to Bloody Elbow for all of your event coverage including play-by-play, results, highlights, and more! Happy hunting!

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The former champion and generational great returns from a time away defending his country in this weekend’s boxing headliner.

Ukrainian great Vasyl Lomachenko returns from nearly a year out this weekend, taking on rising opponent Jamaine Ortiz in what he hopes will be a prelude before another run at the title scene after his shock loss to Teofimo Lopez two years ago. He’s got several things to prove, both with that loss and to prove that age, injuries and time out haven’t slowed him too much. Lomachenko in that kind of mood tends to want to put on a show, so hopefully we’ll be in for a treat.

The main card can be watched starting at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+, ESPN and ESPN Deportes. ring walks for main event expected at around 10 p.m. ET.

Preview

As a Ukranian, Lomachenko has had a year in which… well, boxing wasn’t really on his mind for much of it. Like his team-mate and friend, Oleksandr Usyk, he joined a territorial defence battalion when Russia invaded in February, and spent most of the year back home. Also like Usyk, he appears to have been persuaded he’s better placed being a symbol for Ukraine doing what he does best, and is now returning to the boxing ring after 11 months out.
Unlike Usyk, who returned with a rematch against Anthony Joshua, Lomachenko is taking it a bit easier here. That’s understandable to an extent, since while younger, Loma has dealt with injury problems Usyk has not- and add to that, the top fighters in the division are probably a tougher out than Anthony Joshua, so a bit of a tune-up isn’t unreasonable.

His opponent, Ortiz, is 16-0-1 and has never so much as fought a 12-round fight, let alone for a world title. He did, however, put himself into position for this fight with a solid win over Jamal Herring, and he’s a fighter on the rise with a few tricks in his pocket. So while we can be clear from the outset that Lomachenko should win this if he’s anywhere near his best, there might be a few wrinkles for him to work out.

Prediction

Lomachenko is, of course, long-established at this stage- if you’ve watched him before, you know what he’s bringing. He’ll use that magical close-quarters footwork to try to step and pivot around Ortiz into positions where he can work for maximum damage with minimum return fire, and layered combinations to break down the defence. One of his defining characteristics is that he essentially uses a set of usually mid-range skills at very close range, which makes him a nightmare to deal with as his punches come from angles opponents haven’t trained to deal with and his movement is very hard to follow and cut off. That has come with some weaknesses in the past, that may also have fed into his injury problems- in particular, because he likes to slip, move and throw combinations at what is usually clinching range, when an opponent has clinched he has been known to wrench himself free rather unsubtly rather than commit to normal clinch tactics. He showed refinements to that aspect of his game against Commey, though, so we’ll probably see that more controlled response to potential clinches again.

Ortiz is harder to nail down, both because he’s not well known but also because he’s a still-developing fighter who does a lot and has, maybe, not yet quite decided what he’s best at. Probably the most notable feature initially watching his last couple of fights has been his own in-and-out footwork, of a very different style to Loma. Essentially, he’ll do much of his angular movement at range, then close distance with big explosive movements bringinging his punches in with his feet, then drop back out and reset. When combined with a style that is sometimes very, very hands-down he sometimes gives the impression that he’s trying to emulate former Middleweight star Sergio Martinez (side note: if you’ve not watched Martinez before, I recommend it).

He’s also an incorrigible stance switcher, which can be helpful but has also served to get him in trouble, because he doesn’t always make sure he’s in a safe position before he does and occasionally he just gets his feet badly crossed.

The thing is though, he opens that way these days, but as the fights have gone on, he’s shown a different side- in the later stages against Herring, he dropped that in and out movement for a much more directly aggressive style, bringing his hands up more and coming forward with extended combinations. He makes technical errors there too – most notably, leaning too far over his front foot as he approaches- but the ability to push back his opponents when he needs to is a good second string to have to his bow.

If he’s going to have any chance at all here, he’ll need to apply both those styles consistently with smart variation. In honesty, it’s not that likely- even his best performances to date can be characterised more as doing a lot of things to see what sticks than picking out a strategy specifically for what his opponent is bringing. That’s a difficult style to make work against someone as good as Lomachenko, who’ll be probing incessantly to see where he can draw Ortiz into mistakes. He wouldn’t be the first opponent to seriously raise his game for a fight like this, but although we may see some moments early on where the Ukrainan has to take his time to consider all the probabilities, he’ll probably get there in the end. The biggest issue is likely to be those raw technical errors- if Loma can draw Ortiz into ill-timed stance switches he should be able to dance around the side and have a lot of time to work while he resets. Likewise, if he gets more aggressive, Ortiz had better have been working on getting his balance right because if he leans over as heavy as he has been he’ll be met with either an uppercut or, again, Lomachenko stepping around the side of his lead foot and having all sorts of freedom to work while his opponent sorts his balance out.

So, it’s a tune-up, but an opponent with enough to his game that it should be entertaining. Whether Lomachenko gets the KO is difficult to say, because we haven’t really seen Ortiz under extreme duress before and Loma, undersized for this division, tends to take more care and back off more easily than he would have done at lighter weights.

What’s on the undercard?

The Olympics is something of a theme for this one. Aside from Lomachenko, with two golds, three other medalists at various games feature. The main attraction and chief feature will be Robeisy Ramirez. His amateur career was almost as decorated as Lomachenko’s, with two Olympic golds of his own, but his pro career didn’t quite start as sharply, with a massively unexpected loss on his debut. Since then though he’s reworked his game for the pros, becoming a crafty and sometimes frankly disrespectful pressure-counterpuncher, the kind of fighter who can stand in front of an opponent without seeming to move much and see their shots slide past him. He’s fun to watch and will be hoping to move up to the top of a busy featherweight division next year, so he’s worth tuning in for.

Beyond that, we’ll also see Duke Ragan (featherweight, silver medal in Tokyo) and Richard Torres Jr. (heavyweight, also won a silver) making their next professional steps, as well as Troy Isley (not a medalist, but also an Olympian) and a spate of other prospects.

Weigh-ins

Lightweight: Vasyl Lomachenko vs Jamaine Ortiz

Featherweight: Robeisy Ramirez vs. Jose Matias Romero

Featherweight: Duke Ragan vs. Luis Lebron

Middleweight: Troy Isley vs. Quincy LaVallais

Heavyweight: Richard Torrez vs. Ahmed Hefny

Lightweight: Abdullah Mason vs. Angel Barrera

Middleweight: Nico Ali Walsh vs. Billy Wagner

Super-featherweight: Haven Brady Jr vs. Eric Mondragon

Welterweight: Delante Johnson vs. Esteban Garcia

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Jake Paul and Anderson Silva shook on a bet that could potentially change everything.

On Saturday night, YouTube star turned prizefighter Jake Paul will box UFC legend Anderson Silva. At the press conference for this matchup, the two agreed to a huge bet that if actually done right, could completely change the way the UFC operates with their fighters.

Paul initiated the wager by opening with, “If you win, I’ll give you something that you probably want.” To which Silva instantly interrupted, “Okay, you start again. No tattoos. No tattoos.”

Paul followed up by stating, “No if you win, I will fight you in an MMA fight.” The UFC’s former middleweight champ responded with, “Whoa! You’re so smart because I don’t fight MMA anymore. You’re so smart.”

Paul then fired back with a contingency plan, “Kickboxing. Kickboxing.” To that Silva agreed, “Kickboxing. Alright kickboxing.”

In what could completely revolutionize the way the UFC deals with its fighters, Jake proposed “If I win, me and you come to gather to create a united fighters association to help UFC fighters get better pay, and better healthcare. You become the interim president, and we unite to help these fighters once and for all.”

Without hesitation, the MMA legend said, “Deal,” followed by a handshake to make it official.

For what it’s worth, both fighters can actually help UFC fighters regardless of who wins this fight, if they really wanted to.

In an interview with us back in June of this year, UFC legend Georges St-Pierre called for someone who ‘doesn’t care about the money’ to unify fighters. Silva is MMA royalty and has the respect of most fighters. Paul has access to deep pockets, and clearly has it out for UFC president Dana White. Could we actually see those two together, and have exactly what GSP was asking for?

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The fight will push through.

The Arizona Boxing Commission decided to hold a “special meeting” and “executive session” about sanctioning Anderson Silva for his upcoming bout with Jake Paul, stemming from his recent statements. Silva, who has english as his second language, previously said that a sparring partner “knocked me out two times” during training camp.

Silva eventually walked it back, and saying he “misspoke” and “exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action” from a sparring session from back in September, but the commission took it seriously and the bout was put in jeopardy days before the contest.

During the special meeting, Silva was said to have provided a “pristine” MRI, along with a letter and written statement from the fighter and his trainer. The Arizona Boxing Commission then deemed that they’re “completely comfortable” allowing Silva to compete.

“Given all the work we’ve done on concussion protocol and emphasis we’ve been placing on fighter safety, it just left me really concerned,” Commissioner Ara J. Feinstein, a trauma surgeon and ringside doctor said. “However, once I had further information, the letter from Silva, the written statement from his trainer, and more importantly, the results of the medical examinations and the approval of the physician reading the report, I became much more comfortable, and I have no objections to Mr. Silva participating in the event this Saturday.”

Silva stated that the intention of his statements were originally just to elevate his training partners. Paul also got in a similar situation with the Georgia Athletic Commission before his fight with Ben Askren, when he claimed that he had “early signs of CTE,” after just training for a couple of years.

Interestingly enough, since all this controversy started about Silva’s health, betting lines have shifted with Paul now a bigger favorite. Since those statements were made, the money poured in on Paul with the average odds going from -149 to -219 in a couple of days. Silva, who was a -160 favorite early in September, now sits as a +193 underdog.

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With so many top flight heavyweights training together at American Top Team, Marcos Rogerio de Lima isn’t terribly surprised he’s found himself facing teammate Andrei Arlovski.

Heavyweight Marcos Rogerio de Lima will have to face a training partner in his next outing, but is trying to keep his perspective purely professional. Paired up against fellow American Top Team athlete and veteran Andrei Arlovski at UFC Vegas 63, ‘Pezao’ believes that facing a teammate was all but inevitable given the size of ATT’s roster.

In an interview with Combate, Lima explained what it was like to share the gym with the former heavyweight champion. Although they’ve both there at the same times in the same rooms, the Brazilian says they have been able to maintain a safe distance from each other without having to hinder their camps.

“Every Monday he does wrestling practice. The only things I didn’t do with him were the specifics,” Lima explained. “I did those with Ailton Barbosa and Conan Silveira. I didn’t train with him. I did receive help from King Mo Lawal, but on those Monday sessions, he (Andrei) was on one side of the mat and I was on the other.

“A friend of mine and another partner told me they didn’t want this fight to happen, but unfortunately it will. They were pretty upset about it. We’re in the biggest MMA promotion in the world and the biggest team, though. Things like this happen. Heavyweights alone, we’ve got Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Augusto Sakai, Rodrigo Nascimento. Sooner or later, we’ll have to fight each other. If everyone’s walking towards the same goal, we will end up running into each other at some point.”

When it comes to the fight itself, Pezao believes his aggressive style will benefit him against the more careful version of Arlovski that exists today. Although he can’t be sure if he will be able to finish ‘Pitbull’, Lima guarantees he will be looking for the knockout the whole time.

“I’ll be looking for the knockout from the first fraction of a second until the last,” Lima revealed. “Let’s see what happens. I’ll be aggressive the whole time. I can’t predict anything. All I know is it’s going to be a brawl all the time. As long as I’m breathing, I’ll be hitting hard, looking to fight. I’m a really aggressive guy. I like a brawl. It’s going to be cool.

“He likes to walk backwards and I like to impose myself, so I think this will benefit me. I’ll be able to land kicks, punches and takedowns. I think that’s the part which favors me the most. I just need to be careful with the distance, because he’s attacks very well.”

In his last outing, Lima (19-8-1) dropped a unanimous decision to Blagoy Ivanov, back in May 2022. The defeat snapped a two-fight winning streak for the 37-year-old, who had scored wins over Ben Rothwell and Maurice Greene, respectively in November and May 2021.

Lima is expected to take on Arlovski at UFC Vegas 63, on October 29, at the UFC Apex. The card is scheduled to be headlined by a featherweight bout between contenders Calvin Kattar and Arnold Allen.

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The MMA Legend’s recent training camp stories have cast doubt over his scheduled celebrity boxing match against Jake Paul this weekend.

New developments could affect Anderson Silva’s boxing bout with social media superstar Jake Paul scheduled for this Saturday, October 29. Following the release of an interview recorded with Silva back in September, the Arizona Boxing Commission is putting statements made by Silva regarding his health under review.

During the interview with MMA Weekly, Silva described being knocked out twice by training partners while sparing during his camp. “I’m training hard for win—I’m training with the good boxers, high-level, and five guys come to help me,” Silva enthused. “And the last sparring with [my sparring partner], he is knocked me out two times, and when I finish my training, I talked to my coach and even said, ‘Coach, let me tell you something, why the guys knock me out two times?’ And the coach said, ‘You need to prepare for war, and you prepare for war.’”

Despite this statement, Silva’s longtime coach Luiz Carlos Dorea quickly denied the event in an interview with MMA Fighting.

“What I can say is that didn’t happen,” Dorea said. “Thank God we follow all the steps in training and Anderson did excellent sparring [sessions]. He’s 100 percent for the fight.”

The following saw Silva, 47, publicly walk back his story with a prepared statement published by MMA Fighting yesterday.

“After seeing the reports and concern for me, I’d like to clarify two important things,” Silva wrote. “One, I was NEVER knocked out in sparring. I misspoke in that interview as I sometimes do when interviewing in English and exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action that occurs in sparring. Second, this sparring session I referenced was in early September. The interview with MMA Weekly was done on Sept. 13 and, for some reason, just released this week. So, it wasn’t recent.”

Unfortunately this did not calm the commission’s concerns, which called for an emergency meeting scheduled this evening, October 27. According to MMA Fighting, the commission will meet for, “the review of additional documentation submitted by (Silva) to determine his eligibility to compete in an upcoming bout on October 29, 2022.”

A copy of the meeting schedule is featured below.

Currently, the fight is still scheduled for 9 pm, EST at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz.

This story is developing, and Bloody Elbow will publish updates when available.

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The final press conference before the biggest (and most bizarre) fight of the weekend.

This weekend Jake Paul is set to take on a legitimate combat sports legend in the form of former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. The fight happens live on Showtime PPV in the US and Fite.TV for much of the rest of the world.

It’s been positively cordial between Paul and Silva thus far, with both man doing nothing to assuage the feeling that either sees this as a simple business opportunity. There’s been no bad blood or tattoo-bets for this one, just genuine shared excitement to perform and get paid. It’s kinda refreshing.

This is of course a lot different from Paul’s previous opponents. The influencer turned boxer had fiery exchanges with past opponents Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley. And there’s also been plenty said between him and Tommy Fury, who has been matched up against Paul twice only to fall out of the fight.

The final press conference between these two goes live at 5 pm ET today. You can watch the entire thing here. Maybe there will be some shots fired. But most likely it will just be another change to see happy Anderson Silva beam about the freedom he has to pursue fights like this.

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Following another controversial loss inside the Octagon, one of the UFC’s best bantamweight talents may be thinking about taking his skills to another MMA promotion.

Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges. It’s a phrase that’s been repeated so often as to become cliche in the MMA world. In a sport with few rules and many, many options for generating offense, traditional scoring methods have a way of feeling even more subjective than they do in other combat sports. Even what seem to be clear decision wins have a way of getting confused and becoming split decision losses.

The latest point of controversy to darken the UFC’s Octagon came last Saturday, October 22nd in Abu Dhabi, when top-ranked bantamweight contender Petr Yan took on rising star Sean O’Malley. Both men traded serious blows over three close rounds, with many feeling that Petr Yan’s wrestling and control were enough to sway the cards in his favor. Only, when the scores were read, judges didn’t see it that way. Sean O’Malley walked out with the biggest win of his career to date, and the Russian was left with yet another controversial disappointment.

After the bout, Yan took to Twitter to air his frustrations with officials, the message couldn’t have been more simple: “F-ck the judges.” It turns out, however, that Yan’s displeasure may run deeper than a single social media outburst. In a recent episode of his DC & RC show for ESPN, former UFC champion and current commentary member Daniel Cormier revealed some inside info that he’s been privy to.

“A little ‘inside baseball’,” Cormier said, prefacing the rumor he’d heard. “Petr Yan is so disappointed in this decision—Petr Yan is so disappointed in the decision against Aljo, that I’m hearing word that this guy may want to look at something different down the line in terms of his career. Because he just does not feel like, maybe, the organization doesn’t have his back. It’s crazy.”

How exactly Yan might go about exiting the UFC remains to be seen. Back in January, following his decision win over Cory Sandhagen to capture the interim bantamweight title, Yan revealed that he had just signed a new six-fight contract extension with the world’s largest MMA organization. Since making that deal, Yan has competed twice, losing his title unification bid against Aljamain Sterling before this latest setback against O’Malley.

That’s not to say the UFC absolutely wouldn’t let Yan go, they’ve come to deals before with the likes of Kyoji Horiguchi, Nikita Krylov, and their infamous trade of Demetrious Johnson for Ben Askren. But it seems like a long shot that the Endeavor-owned company would be all that willing to part with a talent of Yan’s caliber in the prime of his career.

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The former UFC middleweight champion had to do some clarifying over worrying comments he made earlier this week.

Anderson Silva has had to address some concerning comments he made about his final sparring session for his upcoming fight against Jake Paul.

In an interview with MMA Weekly, the ‘Spider’ seemingly revealed that he had been knocked out twice by a sparring partner.

“I’m training hard for win,” said Silva. “I’m training with the good boxers, high-level, and five guys come to help me. And the last sparring with Eliezer [Silva], he’s my partner, he knocked me out two times. When I finished the training, I talked to my coach and even said, ‘Coach, let me tell you something, why the guys knock me out two times?’ And the coach said, ‘You need to prepare for war, and you prepare for war.’”

The comments caught the attention of the Arizona Department of Gaming, which regulates and oversees boxing, kickboxing and MMA events. In a brief statement to Steven Marrocco of MMA Fighting, the ADG said it would be ‘looking into the matter’.

In the meantime, Silva and his team have released a statement on the matter, saying he simply ‘misspoke’ in the interview.

“After seeing the reports and concern for me, I’d like to clarify two important things,” said Silva (H/T TMZ Sports). “One, I was NEVER knocked out in sparring. I misspoke in that interview as I sometimes do when interviewing in English and exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action that occurs in sparring.

“Second, this sparring session I referenced was in early September,” continued Silva. “The interview with MMA Weekly was done on Sept. 13 and, for some reason, just released this week. So, it wasn’t recent.”

The outlet has since backed up Silva’s story that the interview was conducted during a pre-fight press conference held on Sept. 13.

With the clarification, Silva said he is more than prepared for his fight against Paul, and it is one that he intends to win in devastating fashion.

“More importantly, my training camp has been great. I am fit and ready to fight and the only knockout people should be worried about is the one I’m about to deliver to Jake Paul on Saturday night.”

Since returning to boxing, Silva has gone 2-0. The former UFC middleweight champion earned a split decision over Julio César Chávez Jr. and finished Tito Ortiz by first-round KO.

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There should be no controversy in the result of O’Malley vs. Yan, according to ‘Sugar’. 

Sean O’Malley says he ‘def won’ against Petr Yan at UFC 280 this past Saturday.

In a ‘Fight of the Night’ awarded appearance, O’Malley defeated Yan by controversial split decision. The initial consensus was that ‘No Mercy’ should have gotten the nod over ’Sugar,’ and many fans and fighters cried foul when the judges’ scorecards were read.

When he addressed the controversy for the first time, O’Malley defended himself from his detractors, telling them to aim their frustrations at those they want to hold accountable, not him.

“It’s not my f—king fault,” said O’Malley on his official YouTube channel. “You guys wanna go tell the refs, the judges that I lost? You guys wanna go tell [UFC president] Dana [White], you guys wanna go tell whoever, don’t tell me. Save it, boys, because that’s not what my record says.”

Now that he has re-watched the fight against Yan, ‘O’Malley has doubled down on his belief that he was rightfully declared the winner.

“Just rewatched the fight, def won,” wrote O’Malley on Twitter.

Days removed from his win, O’Malley has skyrocketed to the No. 1 contender in the bantamweight division. That could put him in a prime position to challenge reigning champion Aljamain Sterling, who recently dispatched T.J. Dillashaw by second-round TKO for his second consecutive defense.

Prior to them sharing the Octagon, UFC president Dana White suggested that the winner of Yan vs. O’Malley would be next for Sterling. And with the champion on board for either of them, it appears as though Sterling vs. O’Malley could happen in the near future.

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