Tonight's UFC Card Is Legitimately One Of The Best In Company History

Originally blogged yesterday, March 1, 2019 – bumped as a reminder for y’all to get these fights tonight!

Fairly often, somebody in the office will call over to me, and say, “Hey Robbie…should I buy the fights this weekend?”

I hate it when they do that. It puts a lot of pressure on me. Fights aren’t cheap, and if I’m the sole reason one of my coworkers lost out on $65-$75 bucks because matchups that were good on paper didn’t pan out, I feel like an asshole who just flushed their money down the toilet while they stood there and watched. I still feel bad about Feits and KFC buying UFC 220 for Stipe Miocic vs Francis Ngannou over a year ago.

THAT BEING SAID, I can say without hesitation, that you SHOULD buy the fights tonight, which at this point is the highest of compliments I could give.

UFC 235 is so stacked it’s almost a joke, and as of this writing, each and every fighter on the card has hit their mark on the scale, meaning the MMA Gods stripped us of ZERO scheduled fights for this one – an absolute MIRACLE for a Jon Jones-headlined event. Take a look at this lineup…

We’ve got UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, tha GOAT*, defending his title in the main event where he is a -750 favorite – highly suggesting a finish, and a brutal one at that – against +700 underdog and friend of the program Anthony “Lionheart” Smith, who plans on making history by becoming the first to defeat Jones in the cage for real (“Bones” has one loss on his record but it’s a DQ), and in the words of Smith: I’m gonna beat Jon Jones with him tonight…

…so yeah, if he we actually shock the world later on, I expect many a congratulations.

Note: If Anthony Smith actually does defeat Jon Jones tonight, it’ll likely be the biggest upset in UFC history.

In the co-main event, Tyron Woodley takes on the first challenger he’s had that may actually be able to neutralize his superb wrestling ability, Kamaru “The Nigerian Nightmare” Usman, for the UFC Welterweight Championship – so that’s TWO title fights, already a rarity for a pay-per-view.

In the fight I’m probably the most excited for, Ben Askren makes his UFC debut, FINALLY, after nearly a decade of fans yearning for him to sign, against an absolute fucking mauler: former UFC Welterweight Champion “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler.

Ben is probably the best mixed martial artist outside of Fedor Emelianenko to never compete in the octagon, and we’ll finally get to see how he fares when top level opposition is put in front of him, one of the biggest “unknowns” the sport has to offer. Will he grapplefuck Robbie to death? Will Robbie starch him and shut down the hype train instantly?! I have no idea! I’ve written about Askren’s journey to the UFC and how this matchup came to be here, here, here, here, and here, if you’re interested in reading more about the guy. He’s a legend.

Then, there’s phenomenal matchups rounding out the rest of the pay-per-view AND prelims, such as Tecia Torres vs Weili Zhang in the Women’s Strawweight Division, former UFC Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt vs Pedro Munhoz, Jeremy “Who Da Fook Is Dat Guy” Stephens vs Zabit Magomedsharipov (absolute fucking banger of a fight – DO NOT MISS THIS ONE)…even that weird fuck Johnny Walker made a quick turnaround to be on this card!

UFC 235 is an absolute CAN’T MISS card if you’re a mixed martial arts fan, or somebody looking to become one. I can’t wait, and will obviously have coverage goin’ all night on the blog. Hope to have you following along!

P.S. – For those requesting I start putting out picks again – I’m not good at betting on fights. I’ve always stunk at it. Favorites hit less in mixed martial arts than in any other major sport, and it’s fucking difficult to predict when they will and won’t, because it ain’t boxing – there’s just too many ways to lose a fight.

When I started blogging here, I used to throw out my predictions, and it was genuinely nothing but a headache, being I went 85-60-3 in 2017 and 50-31-0 in 2018, but only heard about said picks when they didn’t hit, despite me making it clear that they weren’t meant for you degenerates to gamble on. So I stopped doing that, and wouldn’t you know it, people started enjoying my writings and takes on the world wide web vastly more than they did before! Who woulda thought!

Now, all I recommend betting on is the overs in women’s fights. They hit at an alarming rate.

Listen to Barstool Breakfast’s full interviews with Smith and Kamaru Usman ahead of UFC 235 here.