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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC Mexico City is in the books and that means it’s back to the APEX as UFC Vegas 87 goes down this Saturday, headlined by a heavyweight matchup between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Shamil Gaziev.

Conner Burks and Jed Meshew kick things off with a recap of UFC Mexico City and PFL vs. Bellator before turning their attention back to the APEX. Can all five undefeated prospects on the card stay that way? Is Eryk Anders being a massive betting favorite a huge trap? Will Alex Perez and/or Matt Schnell pull out before Saturday? Plus, some fun facts about Suriname! All this and more are discussed on this week’s episode.

Tune in for episode 80 of No Bets Barred.

New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.

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Watching on from fighter row in the Middle East over the course of last weekend, former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou took in a stunning performance from Brazilian powerhouse, Renan Ferreira as the veteran toppled Ryan Bader inside just 21 seconds in Riyadh. And expected to fight the 34-year-old in his PFL debut, Ngannou has opened as a significant betting favorite to beat the Brazilian if they share the SmartCage.

Ngannou, a former undisputed heavyweight titleholder under the UFC banner, has been sidelined from professional mixed martial arts competition since the start of 2022. On that occasion, Francis Ngannou would hand then-interim champion, Ciryl Gane his first professional blemish in the form of a title unification loss in a decision success.

And slated to make his sophomore outing in the squared circle next weekend in Saudi Arabia, Batié knockout artist, Ngannou takes on former two-time world champion, Anthony Joshua in his second professional boxing match.

Francis Ngannou opens as betting favorite against Renan Ferreira

Expected to draw Brazilian veteran, Ferreira in his first outing under the Peter Murray-led PFL banner before the close of the year, however, Ngannou has landed stunning -750 betting favorite odds to beat the former if they fight – who is a current +525 betting underdog.

With the promotion set to host a card in ‘Sin City’ prior to April’s blockbuster UFC 300 card, fans and punters will not only get the chance to bet on Francis Ngannou’s prospective debut against Renan Ferreira in the PFL, but with www.sweepstakescasino.com – fans can also avail of all their favorite casino games and slots ahead of what promises to be one of the most memorable periods in combat sports antiquity. 

Making his professional boxing debut back in August of last year, Cameroonian heavyweight, Francis Ngannou almost turned in one of the greatest upset wins in the history of sports altogether, landing a stunning knockdown on unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury en route to a controversial split decision loss in the Middle East. 

And confirmed as the next opponent for the victor of the above-mentioned superfight-billed meeting of former UFC contender, Bader, and Ferreira, Ngannou is all but set to fight the Brazilian before the close of the year – regardless of the outcome of his boxing match with Watford native, Joshua next weekend in his return to Riyadh. 

Likely flying under the radar to a slew of mixed martial arts fans, 19-fight professional veteran, Ferreira has notably shared the PFL SmartCage with former undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, Fabricio Werdum back in 2021 in an eventual official ‘No Contest’ after initially landing a TKO win over his compatriot. 

During his final string of fights under the scrutiny of the Dana White-led, Francis Ngannou would turn in a stunning rematch win over former two-time heavyweight champion, Stipe Miocic to win the divisional crown with a brutal KO, adding to a run of victories against the likes of Curtis Blaydes, Junior dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, and incoming headliner, Jairzinho Rozenstruik before his unceremonious departure from the Octagon. 

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Claressa Shields is certainly open to a boxing match with current Bellator featherweight champion Cris Cyborg, because she’s had in-ring experience with her in the past.

Fresh off her a split decision win over Kelsey DeSantis this past Saturday at PFL vs. Bellator, Shields gone back-and-forth with Cyborg on social media about a potential boxing match. Should it be booked, Shields feels quite confident that she’d make things look easy.

“Look, I’ll be honest with you, when I sparred against Cris Cyborg in 2018, I took it easy on her,” Shields said Wednesday on The MMA Hour. “I let her and her team doctor up a video to make it look close, but the first and second round, I beat the s*** out of Cris Cyborg. She cannot box, OK? And then we were supposed to work together more, but after I beat her in sparring, she didn’t want to spar no more.

“But I told her, ‘If you ever need me in your camp for boxing, let me know, because I’ll still come and help you. We don’t [have to] spar.’ She never called me. So for her to be saying she’ll knock me out at 147 [pounds], and power this and power that — Cris Cyborg has power in MMA because you have all those different arts you can use. In boxing, Cris Cyborg can’t mess with me on a day that I’m sick with the flu.”

Boxing’s undisputed light middleweight champion, Shields is 14-0 in her professional career, and now 2-1 as a pro MMA fighter. Why things have transitioned from a friendship to a rivalry with Cyborg is a bit unknown to Shields, especially since she claims she tried to set up a boxing match between the two where Cyborg would make a lot of money.

“I don’t know how all of a sudden these girls start beefing with me,” Shields said. “The beef with Cris Cyborg is probably the most shocking and surprising than any other beef that I have.

“It’s because a guy had some money for me and Cris Cyborg to fight — he was speaking of a fight as big as Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou. I said I got the perfect person, I said Cris Cyborg, Amanda Nunes. So I thought about Cris and she was my friend. I hit her up, ‘I got money for us.’ I’m like, ‘Let’s make it happen,’ she’s all like, ‘Oh, thanks for hitting me up, of course I’ll get back with you.’

“All of a sudden — the money is right, everything is good — she’s crying about the weight class. I already told [her] what weight class the fight was gonna be at, 154 [pounds]. Why are you trying to get me to come to 147? Then after that, she talking about she had knocked me out at 147. She was doing this [and that].”

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For the first time in his 12-year career, Alexander Volkanovski suffered back-to-back losses.  Not only has he lost consecutive fights, “The Great” was knocked out in both losses.  

Volkanovski stepped in on 10-days notice to face lightweight champion Islam Makhachev in a rematch at UFC 294 last October after former champion Charles Oliveira was forced out of the title bout due to a cut.  Four months later, at UFC 298, Volkanovski was knocked out by Topuria.  Many questioned whether Volkanovski returned too soon.

Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker believes the loss to Makhachev definitely affected Volkanovski in the fight with Topuria.  

“I don’t want to come off as I’m downplaying Ilia.  I think he is phenomenal,” Whittaker said on the MMArcade podcast.  “I know personally, without a shadow of a doubt, that fight and loss to Makhachev does affect you.  It did affect him moving forward because coming off a loss affects your next fight whether you like it or not.”

“Going into this fight with [Paulo] Costa the last loss affected me,” Whittaker continued.  “I think I could have performed better against Costa if I didn’t. have the nerves of losing the fight before and wanting to change everything up.  You can’t expect Volk to get in there and not be thinking, ‘Okay, I don’t want to get knocked out.  Okay, I can’t let this happen.  I can’t let a loss happen.  I need to change what happened last fight.’  You can try to convince yourself but it’s there.  I say this only from my personal experience… That Makhachev fight impacted the Topuria fight without a shadow of a doubt, in my opinion.”   

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The Mixed Martial Arts Hour is back in your life! Below is a rundown of Wednesday’s show, which begins at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT / 6 p.m. UK time.

1 p.m. ET: We kick off the show.

1:15 p.m.: Jorge Masvidal joins us to talk about this weekend’s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA card featuring Junior dos Santos vs. Alan Belcher

1:45 p.m.: Claressa Shields discusses her big win at PFL vs. Bellator and what comes next.

2:05.: Matt Riddle stops by in studio to discuss his WWE and UFC careers and what he’s up to now.

3:00 p.m.: All your questions answered in the latest edition of On The Nose.

3:40 p.m.: BKFC President Dave Feldman joins to discuss the latest news for his promotion.

4:15 p.m.: The Parlay Boys talk best bets for UFC Vegas 87 and more.

For the latest episodes of The MMA Hour, subscribe on Spotify or iTunes.

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