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After Holly Holm's emphatic victory over Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, I didn't think for 13 seconds this would be emulated so soon. Oh how wrong I was! Many picked Jose Aldo to win, and many picked Conor McGregor to win in a closely contested battle, but no-one could've predicted a 13 second knockout for the Irishman. Stunning performance by McGregor, and one that has forced me to tip my hat and eat some humble pie!
With Conor McGregor grabbing all the attention, it's easy to forget the performance of Luke Rockhold, who looked outstanding defeating Chris Weidman to become the new UFC Middleweight Champion. Speaking of easy to forget, Yoel Romero vs. Jacare Souza certainly fits! Still scratching my head thinking how Romero ended up winning that fight, any answers to this feel free to email me.
All in all, a great night of fighting.
Semi-Final results for the MMATorch World Cup are also in, so check out if you've made in through or not.
CONFIDENCE GAME FIGHT PREDICTIONS
30 people submitted an entry for this card. Here’s a combined breakdown of how many confidence points you placed on each fighter (Winner in bold):
Conor McGregor - 34 Jose Aldo - 79
Luke Rockhold - 63 Chris Weidman - 62
Yoel Romero - 144 Roaldo Souza - 9
Demian Maia - 20 Gunnar Nelson - 69
Max Holloway - 231 Jeremy Stephens - 1
Urijah Faber - 295 Frankie Saenz - 0
Tecia Torries - 231 Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger -0
Warlley Alves - 61 Colby Covington -32
Leonardo Santos - 0 Kevin Lee - 229
Magomed Mustafaev - 186 Joe Proctor - 8
Yancy Medeiros - 91 John Makdessi -23
Court McGee - 146 Marcio Alexandre Jr -15
CONFIDENCE GAME RESULTS
Lisa Smith (51 points) beats Ben Heather(44 points) to remain the MMATorch Confidence Picks Champion.
Lisa is on a roll at the moment, and will take some stopping in this current form. With nothing between the pair going into the main event, it was Lisa's 7 points placed on Conor McGregor that sealed victory for her; despite Ben's confidence in a McGregor win, he didn't back this sure talk up, as he placed his points on an Aldo win! Well done on another victory Lisa!
Next up for Lisa will be be Sam Martin who scored a very impressive 65 points. Sam wasn't messing about, putting his full confidence in McGregor and Rockhold at 12 and 11 points, respectively; with victories for both fighters Sam was the clear winning on the night, beating his nearest rival by nine points to top the pool.
Here are the results of the Confidence Picks pool:
65- Sam Martin
56- David Little
55- Richard Race
55- Dave Hughes
55- Mac Kinder
55- Alex Potapoff
54- Neal Hollic
54- Sean Simpson
53- Brian Foe
51- David Lindahn
51- Lisa Smith
50- Chris Houten
49- Chris Wood
48- Dan Moore
47- Tommy Strong
47- Mark Sacchetti
47- Scott Piper
46- Charles Mickael
44- Ben Heather
44- Malcolm Piper
43- John Lewish
34- Michael Douglas
42- Jeff Barbone
40- James Brown
36- Joel 2/8 Wielenga
35- Anthony Sinnott
•0- John Moterson
• John Moterson opted to play the betting game only.
Note: Should either champion, or challenger fail to submit picks for UFC 195 (Lawler vs. Condit) David Little would step up as a challenger and so on. Everyone else will be fighting for the No 1 contender slot on the night, and the right to face off against eitherLisa or Sam at UFC 196.
BETTING GAME RESULTS
Joel 2/8 Wielenga ($430) draws with Ben Heather($430) and narrowly holds on to the MMATorch Betting Title.
For the first time since taking over this game we have a draw between the champion and challenger. Joel and Ben returned just one bet each, and it happened to be on the same fighter with the same amount of money placed.
Joel 2/8 Wielenga: $430
$200 on Rockhold for $430
Ben Heather: $430
$200 on Rockhold for $430
As this was a draw, Joel will keep the title going into UFC 195; he'll rematch Ben Heather, but will have a second challenger in the winner of tonight's betting game which was...... drum roll please........ Neal Hollic who returned a slightly modest $1904.54, snatching the win from Lisa Smith ($1899.80) by only $4.74! This was a tough night for everyone betting, and I didn't expect huge returns from many players and this proved to be the case.
It's taken Neal a while, but finally he will earn a shot at Joel's title alongside Ben at UFC 195, great work Neal.
Here (in no particular order) are the results from the Betting Picks pool:
Neal Hollic: $1904.54
$500 on Rockhold for $1075
$300 on Romero for $675
$50 on Holloway for $59.09
$50 on McGregor for $95.45
Lisa Smith: $1899.80
$200 on McGregor for $381.82
$200 on Rockhold for $430
$200 on Holloway for $236.36
$200 on Torres for $264.52
$200 Parlay on McGregor, Faber and Torres for $1862.84
David Lindahn: $1525.25
$500 on Torres for $661.29
$150 on Rockhold for $322.50
$200 Parlay on Torres, Mustafeav and McGee for $538.46
Alex Potapoff: $1405.65
$500 on Rockhold for $1075
$200 on Torres for $330.65
Richard Race: $1375.55
$500 on McGregor for $954.54
$200 on Rockhold for $430
Sean Simpson: $1245
$300 on Alves for $600
$300 on Rockhold for $645
Dan Moore: $1225
$500 on Romero for $1125
$50 on Alves for $100
John Moterson: $1085
$400 on Martinez for $860
$100 on Romero for $225
Sam Martin: $1110.23
$300 on McGregor for $572.73
$250 on Rockhold for $537.50
Chris Wood: $1135
$200 on Medeiros for $490
$300 on Rockhold for $645
Dave Hughes: $1086.34
$200 on Rockhold for $430
$200 on Alves for $400
$200 on Mustafeav for $256.34
David Little: $920
$200 on Rockhold for $430
$200 on Medeiros for $490
Mac Kinder: $712.50
$250 on Medeiros: $612.50
$50 on Alves for $100
Scott Pipher: $675
$200 on Rockhold for $430
$100 on Medeiros for $245
Mark Sacchetti: $645
$300 on Rockhold for $645
Brian Foe: $430
$200 on Rockhold for $430
Malcolm Piper: $317.65
$200 on McGee for $317.65
Charles Mickael: $0
Tommy Strong: $0
Michael Douglas: $0
Anthony Sinnott: $0
James Brown: $0
Jeff Barbone: $0
Chris Houten: $0
John Lewish: $0
Note: Should either champion, or challenger fail to submit picks for UFC 195 (Lawler vs. Condit) Lisa Smith would step up as a challenger, and so on. Everyone else will be fighting for the No 1 contender slot on the night, and the right to face off against either Joel, Ben or Neal at UFC 196.
Semi-Final World Cup Results:
Mark Sacchetti (47)def. Ben Heather (44)
Chris Houten (50) def. Tommy Strong (57)
Mark and Chris will meet in the final at UFC 195, good luck guys!
Performer of the Night: No-one stood out like McGregor or Rockhold last night, it was more of a Yoel Romero performance, but Sam Martin takes it for topping the confidence pool and by some margin. Well done Sam.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
