Author: MMA Insider

I'm a blogger of the highest order ...don't you know #Bamma #ufc #bellator #invicta

MMA Insider’s – Our UFC 211 Big Betting Selections. Get Rich. Get Out

‘If it don’t make business sense…it don’t make no fucking sense at all’

I remember watching an Interview with one of Floyd Mayweather’s business managers years ago just before he was scheduled to fight Ricky Hatton. At the time there was an exciting Mexican Fighter, his name escapes me, who many believed would have been a much better opponent than Hatton. The interviewer said

‘ Wouldn’t it make more sense to fight that guy – it would make for a great and better fight’

to which the esteemed Mayweather manager replied

‘If it don’t make business sense…it don’t make no fucking sense at all’

Ricky Hatton brought his UK following and about 800,000 UK pay per view buys to that fight. Money that went straight in Floyd’s pockets.

If your placing a bet on the upcoming UFC211 fight you would do well to remember the above piece of advice. Does the Bet make sense!.  Remember everytime you make a bet there is a bookmaker or a punter on a betting exchange on the other side of that bet saying

‘ Your wrong you fucking Dummy’

Joannaodds

My number one advice in making a bet selection  –  look outside of the main bet for Value. Let me give you an example.

The Lovely Joanna Jedrzejczyk fights Jessica Andrade as Co-main event on the 211 card. The current odds with Paddypower.com stand at

Jedrzejczyk                                                      8/13     (- 162.5)

Andrade                                                           5/4       ( + 125.0)

For me there isn’t much value in either bet here.  Joanna’s odds are prohibitive and the bookmakers are not giving much value on Andrade. In my opinion Andrade should be priced at 6/4 or 7/4 here. So because of this I must take the business managers advice and walk away from the bet..Because it doesn’t make fucking business sense.

However there are a number of other way’s of betting on this fight and that is where i hope to find some value (and hopefully you will too). Here is where our MMA knowledge can be put to good use.

I happen to think Joanna will win this fight. Probably via points as her last three fight were via decision. I also had planned to place 30 euro on this fight. At the current odds of 8/13 if my selection wins i would get

30 (my original stake) + 18.46 (my winnings) = 48.46 Total Returns

However if you deep dive into the more precise bets for this fight you will see that paddypower.com are offering the following for Joanna Jedrzejczyk

Joanna Jedrzejczyk by KO                                    9/2

Joanna Jedrzejczyk on Points                              6/5

Joanna Jedrzejczyk by Submission                    14/1

Now Joanna has had her last 3 wins in row come via decision so it’s obvious this could happen in this fight. However I’m liking the Joanna for KO/TKO at 9/2. Why. She is 4 inches taller than her opponent and i think her striking is superior to Andrade. Joanna’s two previous fight to that were TKO’s. I think she is on as co-main event and she’ll be looking for the finish.

I think the value bet here is Joanna by TKO at 9/2 or 5/1. Shop around the exchanges and get the best Prices you can. At those kind of odds i feel I am getting value for my money and require much less of an investment of capital than the straight win/lose bet. But the key is getting value for your money.

Now that’s my Free bet for you guys. For more drop me a mail at mmainsider1973@gmail.com

 

 

Advertisements

UFC Nashville – Women’s Match-ups in Pictures!

Yo MMA-Insiders

UFC Nashville has two great WMMA fights on the Card. See our collage of Pics of the 4 Fighters!

Jessica Penne vs Danielle Taylor – Straw-Weight Contest

Alexis Davis vs Cindy Dandois – Bantam-Weight Contest

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Daniel Strauss Video – #BELLATOR178

Hi MMA Insiders

I’m looking forward to tonight’s main event with Daniel Strauss on Bellator178. He is defending his Featherweight belt against Patricio Freire. It is the 4th Installment of this rivalry!!!

Daniel is chatting here about how tough the last year has been

Winners and Losers – UFC Kansas

Daniel Cormier on if Rose Namajunas earned a title fight tonight:

“We said that in order for her to earn a title fight with just a one-win streak, you have to look phenomenal, and she did tonight. She earned the title shot.”

First of all I have to say that I really enjoyed UFC Kansas City. I thought the outdoor weigh-ins were a great feature and in fact made the viewer feel as if there was a really massive event ahead. And for once there was.

Biggest winner on the night for me was Rose Namajunas. She just looked awesome against the previously impressive Michelle Waterson. She proved in this fight she has a an all round game. Striking, Killer leg kicks and a great ground game.

Rose is an interesting character and i’m working on getting an in-depth interview with her in the not too distant future. She has,  an at times,  conflicted conscience about what she does for a living and trying to mesh it with her humanitarian work outside the Octagon.

rose2

 

Demetrious ‘Might Mouse’ Johnson was obviously a big winner on the night but to be honest his brilliance is almost becoming routine at this stage. I hope people aren’t taking him for granted and for me he is the best pound for pound No 1 fighter in the UFC at the moment.

The Other Massive winner on the night was Robert Whittaker. He had a shocking  and fairly stunning victory over Jacare Souza. A head kick followed by Punches put an end to Jacare’s hype machine in the second round. I can’t help but wonder was Souza ever so slightly distracted by the late , late announcement that he had just signed an 8 fight deal with the UFC shortly before the fight. I am as always open to her your own thoughts on the Fight…Comment below on the blog…..

whit

No.1 Ranked Middleweight Jessica Kruger – How taking a kickboxing class changed her life…

In the midst of all the high jinks surrounding Daniel Cormier’s iffy weigh-in in the run up to UFC210, I was going through my twitter feed when I happened upon a couple of striking photographs of Jessica Kruger. 

‘ Now that’s what a MMA fighter should look like’  I thought to myself.

A few clicks later I find that not only is Kruger a supremely sculpted Mixed Martial artist but that she is also the top ranked amateur middleweight in the world.
Jessica kindly agreed to a phone interview and when I spoke to her she was heading into the final week of training camp before her next fight on April 21st.

Jessica Kruger came to MMA a mere 3 and a bit years ago. She decided to take a kicking boxing class after the birth of her son Bear.

Originally I did it to lose weight after the birth of my second baby

The near 6 ft blonde’s immediate talent was quickly noticed and she was approached about switching to MMA. Within 4 months of this first kickboxing class Jessica was standing over her opponent, the proud owner of a 36 second knockout in her debut bout. Jessica Kruger was on her way.

The main issue with fighting at Middleweight is the lack of numbers. Indeed Jessica has also fought at welterweight and has won the Steelfist fight company’s welterweight title. She is comfortable fighting at both weights and probably will do so into the future. In managing differing weight classes she says

My nutrition is huge and a key component, we Krugers are just bigger humans

To this end she is grateful for the support of greenlifelabs.com and Fit4Her is the protein she uses in all her training. I think you’ll agree from looking at the photographs the results are stunning.

Jessica comes from a large family and you’d be forgiven for thinking

‘ Oh she’s probably the sporty one’

Well she is but the whole family are Athletic gold. 

She has 3 brothers who have played in the NFL (two current) and indeed older brother Paul has won the Superbowl with the Baltimore Ravens. Another younger brother Mark is playing college ball with the University of Utah and will probably also graduate to the NFL. Oh yeah her sister Erica, the youngest, is a marathon runner. I haven’t met or spoken to Mom and Pop but in terms of Atheltic gene production, their meeting must have been akin to Superman meeting Wonder Woman.
Jessica is a huge Ronda Rousey fan and recognises the impact Ronda has made in popularising WMMA. Jessica is currently a single mom of Olivia 6 and Bear 4 and divides her time rearing a family with her training requirements. She is also studying in Utah Valley University for her nursing degree. Jessica admits it’s a juggling act to get everything right but as when chatting with other athletes chasing their dreams , she sounds exhilarated talking about her life.

Jessica trains with Scott Vincent for her Jiu-Jitsu and Casey Wilkinson for MuayThai. Jessica is very thankful for the support of Mike Hermisillo the supremo at Hidden Valley MMA where she trains. Obviously with a 36 second KO on her resume she likes the striking/boxing area of her skill-set

I love the whole boxing / striking element, I initially didn’t understand how addictive it is

Kruger fights for the FitCon promotion on April 21st and when asked if she wants to turn pro she replied

Yes for sure, I was approached informally by Bellator about a year ago, but I wanted more training under my belt

Her goal for her next fight is to up her aggression levels and look for that 1st round knockout. Indeed she feels she is now ready for that step into the professional ranks. Her last fight was a 5 rounder, which was fight of the night and shown widely on TV and the internet

On her Jitsu she says 

It’s a definite goal to get to blue belt

In fact if that fight on April 21st were to come via submission she would be delighted and would move her up a couple of notches on her Jiujitsu grading.

She has a great love for MuayThai as she finds her height and reach give her a natural advantage over her normally smaller opponents

What you find talking to Jessica is an upbeat, grounded and hardworking woman. She has an obvious and close relationship with her family who support her journey totally.

It’s been a fun journey..they come to all my fights and are excited for me

Finally I asked how her Mom feels about her daughter fighting in MMA

She laughed and said

She is really supportive but she can kind of hide behind her hands at my fights!

Normal protective instinct I’m sure although even with 4 standout football playing brothers Jessica Kruger doesn’t need anyone to fight her corner.

Buffalo UFC 210 Towel-gate, Boob-gate, Knee-gate and finally a Record Gate!!

Wow! – Buffalo knows how to throw a fucking weekend of events that’s for sure!. Fight week was meandering along at a nice gentle pace until the weigh-in’s on Friday and then all hell broke loose.

After just coming in under her weight it emerged that Pearl Gonzalez has had breast enhancement surgery. This kicked off a wave of social media hysteria (including myself!) about whether she was eligible to fight due to a boxing rule that goes as follows:

“Due to the concern over rupture, boxers who have breast implants are not eligible to box in New York.

“Women who have had breast reduction surgery are, however, eligible to compete.”

Finally Dana White weigh-in on the storm and basically said

‘ Pipe down you stupid motherfuckers MMA has a different set of rules’

It does raise a valid point though especially for MMA and I’m sure that this rule is going to be examined and critiqued closely into the future

In the midst of all this Daniel Cormier decided to weigh-in – Literally.  So up he hop’s on the weighing scales and comes in at the rather fabulous 206.2 lbs. And i have to say he looked every ounce of it.

DC2

No Problem though. 2 minutes later he hopped up again with his favorite towel covering his modesty (and his feet) and hey Presto he was exactly the 205.00.

In arrives Rumble and he hops on the scales at the magic number of 203.8. I’ll leave it to the mathematicians and conspiracy theorists among you to come to your own conclusions. Despite all the weigh-in histrionics Cormier was seriously impressive dispatching Rumble Johnson and indeed Johnson announced his retirement immediately after the fight

In an unsubstantiated rumor Khabib Nurmagomedov has insisted the same scales and towels be used for all his future fights and during weigh ins, he will in future, be chomping down on a bucket of chicken once he finds a suitable fried chicken sponsor

Chris Weidman can consider himself decidedly unlucky the way the fight ended but two things to note here.

  1. It was a legal knee to the midriff
  2. he was in serious trouble and the fight was maybe 30 seconds from the end

 

Nonetheless the referee made an absolute hatchet job of the whole situation and as Dana White put it,  he felt it was like being back in 2001 when the UFC was still in it’s infancy. I supposed for the New York Commission it is still new territory,  as we are still under a year out from the ban being lifted in that state.

Dana announced a record gate and attendance for the venue with the Gate coming in at over $2 million US and an attendance of over 17,000. Considering some of the underwhelming previous nights in 2017,  UFC Buffalo will go down as a considerable success.

 

 

 

 

Meet Richard Kiely – ‘ I Punch like a Guy 2 Weight Divisions Heavier….’

‘ I Can’t wait to run through the welterweight division I almost feel sorry for whoever has to fight me’

Richard Kiely BAMMA Welterweight

I was flicking through Twitter at the weekend and i came across the above quote in a BAMMA poster announcing the signing of Irish Welterweight Richard Kiely.  I thought to myself that’s a fairly bold fucking statement. Second thought. Let’s see if we can get an Interview with this guy!. Sounds Interesting. Anyway a couple of social media interactions later we were on the phone and chatting away.

Richard Kiely fights out of SBG Ireland and is coached by none other than John Kavanagh. Richard himself coaches out of SBG in Tallaght , Co. Dublin and it is clear that he is immersed in all things MMA and the pro fight game. At the moment he is preparing and looking forward to his first fight on the multi-fight deal with the BAMMA Promotion. That first fight isn’t set in stone as of yet but he’s is fairly confident he’ll be on the BAMMA 30 event card in the 3 arena in July.

Although he only has one professional fight under his belt he announced himself to the paid ranks in some style at BAMMA 27. His knee finish of Keith McCabe was brutal, explosive and devastatingly quick.

One of my first questions to him was what do you see as your strengths or your style and his reply was immediate and certain.

‘ I punch like a guy two weight divisions heavier and i move like guy two weight divisions lighter’

Indeed i watched back the footage of his last fight against McCabe and his footwork is extremely impressive, constantly on his toes and his movement IS lightening quick as a consequence.

While Kiely’s striking and movement are instantly noticeable he considers himself an all-rounder. It is easy to see from his cage presence that he was a former Irish Champion kick boxer and works hugely with John Kavanagh, Graham Henry and Dave Roche on his Jiu-jitsu. He is just beautifully light on his feet and his take-down defence against McCabe looked in rag good order.

In fact when describing this on the phone he somewhat under-statedly described it thus

‘McCabe tried to take me down but i was able to walk through him like he wasn’t there’

‘It was a fairly decent knock-out alright’ 

For me it was finish of the night. Look it up on Youtube – it took McCabe a serious amount time to get off the canvas.  It is amazing to think that Kiely had ruptured ankle ligaments shortly before this fight but as he said himself he had just too much work put into training for the fight – nothing was going to stop him from entering the ring on the night.

This  is spoken in a matter of fact fashion and i think with out any disrespect meant at all.

In his previous life Richard worked as an Insurance Operations Manager but i guess he knew that his talent deserved and  required a full-time investment of his energies and the 5 fight deal he has negotiated with BAMMA is the first of what he hopes will be many rewards from this commitment to his craft.

Richard is highly complimentary and grateful for the talented group of MMA technicians that he can call team-mates and these include Dylan Tuke, Gunnar Nelson and even Conor Mcgregor. The respect for Head Coach John Kavanagh is immediate and obvious which will come as no surprise to anyone in Irish MMA. In any interview I’ve seen of Kavanagh he is grounded and his confidence is based on solid ground – namely a savage work ethic, honesty and a desire every day to get better. As Richard said to me

‘ John wouldn’t put me in there unless i was ready and I am’

Inevitable the BAMMA contract has drawn some media attention and maybe some of the welterweights in his division are not over the moon about a fighter with 1 professional fight getting it. Richard address this in his simple and uncompromising style

‘ A lot of the Welterweights are moaning. I Don’t care. Most of them move so slowly it’s like a scene from the Matrix ‘

This includes two top ranked guys Terry Brazier and Walter Gahadza who face off at BAMMA 29 next month. He wants the winner of that fight after he fights on the BAMMA 30 card. It is clear that he is gearing up to that welterweight title shot as quickly as is feasibly possible.

Richard is back to full fighting fitness after that ankle injury and is training mode for that expected fight in July. His walking around weight is in the 180-185 region and he likes to keep in easy range of that 170 number. In fact he was very specific in saying that he’s expecting to be at 178 in a couple of weeks.

Outside of his training,  life revolves around his partner Jade and their little boy and given his busy twice daily training regime he doesn’t have the time for too many outside distractions. Sunday is recovery day and the SBG ethos place huge emphasis on fight specific training and being conscious of the body’s need to recover.

Other than that his Mum is a huge support and when i asked him do people call him ‘Richard’ or ‘ Richie’ he said only his Mam  calls him Richard and laughingly said

‘ Well my Mam ….she’s tougher than any MMA fighter i know’

I don’t know about that but the MMA son is off to a great start as professional!